Tag: iran

Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director’s personal email, publish excerpts online

Iran-linked hackers on Friday claimed they had accessed ​FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email inbox, publishing photographs of the ‌director and other documents to the internet.

On their website, the hacker group Handala Hack Team said Patel “will now find his name among the list of ​successfully hacked victims.” The hackers published a series of personal photographs ​of Patel sniffing and smoking cigars, riding in an antique ⁠convertible, and making a face while taking a picture of ​himself in the mirror with a large bottle of rum.

A Justice Department ​official confirmed that Patel’s email had been breached and said the material published online appeared authentic. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for ​comment. The hackers did not immediately respond to messages.

Handala, which ​calls itself a group of pro-Palestinian vigilante hackers, is considered by Western researchers to ‌be ⁠one of several personas used by Iranian government cyberintelligence units. Handala recently claimed the hack of Michigan-based medical devices and services provider Stryker (SYK.N), opens new tab on March 11, claiming to have deleted a massive trove of ​company data.

Reuters was ​not able to ⁠independently authenticate the Patel emails, but the personal Gmail address that Handala claims to have broken into ​matches the address linked to Patel in previous ​data breaches ⁠preserved by the dark web intelligence firm District 4 Labs. Alphabet-owned Google, which runs Gmail, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A ⁠sample ​of the material uploaded by the hackers ​and reviewed by Reuters appears to show a mix of personal and work correspondence ​dating between 2010 and 2019.

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BlackRock CEO does U-turn on Iran war optimism

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has warned of an impending global recession if the US-Israeli war on Iran drags on and oil prices remain above $100 a barrel. The stark prediction comes just weeks after Fink framed the conflict as a good long-term investment opportunity.

In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC this week, Fink said oil prices could stay above $100 per barrel for years if Iran “remains a threat,” potentially hitting $150 and sparking “a probably stark and steep recession.”

He described two scenarios for the conflict – one in which Iran is “accepted again by the international community,” allowing oil to fall below pre-war levels, and another in which tensions persist, leading to sustained high energy costs with “profound implications” for the global economy.

However, earlier this month, Fink, whose company holds significant stakes in major US defense contractors, struck a markedly different tone. During an appearance on Fox News, he dismissed the notion of a prolonged war, predicting that oil would “revert back to where it was and maybe even lower” once the conflict ends.

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U.S. Postal Service seeks 8% fuel surcharge for package deliveries as Iran war raises oil prices

The U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday said it is seeking to impose a temporary 8% fuel surcharge for package and express mail deliveries to deal with rising transportation costs, which include higher oil prices as a result of the Iran war.

If approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, the surcharge would take effect April 26 and remain in place until Jan. 17, 2027, the Postal Service said in a notice on its website.

The 8% surcharge would apply to postage on Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, and Parcel Select products. First-class stamps and other mail services would not be affected.

Oil prices have jumped more than 40% since Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel attacked Iran.

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ABHORRENT: Terrorist Sympathizers in Philadelphia Celebrate Fallen U.S. Soldiers, Back Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran While Torch­ing American Flags — “For Every U.S. soldier Who Returns Home in a Casket, We Cheer!”

A mob of masked terrorist sympathizers descended on City Hall Wednesday evening for a so-called “Hands Off Iran” rally and proceeded to cheer the deaths of U.S. soldiers, openly praise Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, and set American flags on fire while waving Palestinian and Iranian flags.

This wasn’t some fringe gathering hidden in the shadows. This was brazen, in-your-face anti-American extremism happening in broad daylight in a major U.S. city.

Video footage captured by independent journalist Frank Scales of Surge Philly shows the crowd erupting in cheers as a speaker in a bright red hoodie said:

“Until we have done everything in our power to bring the United States to its knees, let us not lose sight of the enemy. For every U.S. military base that crumbles, and for every U.S. soldier who returns home in a casket, we cheer!”

The speaker didn’t stop there. He went full-throated in support of America’s deadliest enemies:

“Hamas, Hezbollah, Ansar Allah [the Houthis], and all the resistance forces – we celebrate these popular forces on the ground. They spend every waking moment in direct confrontation with Zionism, and they rely on a strong Iranian state to maintain their fighting capacity. Do you hate America? May a Hamas rocket blow up your family’s home.”

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Pentagon Weighs Sending Another 10,000 Ground Troops To Middle East, Suggests Seizing Iran-Controlled Islands

Just hours after President Trump said he was pausing strikes on Iran’s energy sector for 10 more days, to April 6, so peace negotiations can take place, the WSJ reported that the Pentagon is looking at sending up to 10,000 additional ground troops to the Middle East to give the US President more military options even as he weighs peace talks with Tehran, according to unnamed Department of War officials. 

The force, which would likely include infantry and armored vehicles, would be added to the roughly 5,000 Marines and the thousands of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division who have already been ordered to the region.  The will join well over 50,000 servicemembers already deployed to air and army bases, as well as on naval ships, across the Middle East in the lead up and since the start of Operation Epic Fury.

It is unclear where precisely forces will go in the Middle East, but they will likely be within striking distance of Iran and Kharg Island, a crucial oil export hub off Iran’s coast.

Trump has repeatedly said he will open the Strait of Hormuz, with or without the help of U.S. allies, and it is increasingly looking like 

“All announcements regarding troop deployments will come from the Department of War. As we have said, President Trump always has all military options at his disposal,” said Anna Kelly, the deputy White House press secretary. A spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for U.S. forces in the Middle East, declined to comment.

Pentagon suggests seizing Iran-controlled islands in Persian Gulf

The Pentagon has suggested seizing the Iran-controlled Islands of Larak or Abu Musa, located in the eastern Persian Gulf near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, roughly 40 miles from both Iran and the United Arab Emirates, sources tell Axios. In interviews with Axios, officials and sources familiar with the internal discussions describe four major “final blow” options Trump could choose from:

  • Invading or blockading Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub.
  • Invading Larak, an island that helps Iran solidify its control of the Strait of Hormuz. The strategic outpost hosts Iranian bunkers, attack craft that can blow up cargo ships and radars that monitor movements in the strait.
  • Seizing the strategic island of Abu Musa and two smaller islands, which lie near the western entrance to the strait and are controlled by Iran but also claimed by the UAE.
  • Blocking or seizing ships that are exporting Iranian oil on the eastern side of the Hormuz Strait.

The U.S. military has also prepared plans for ground operations deep inside the interior of Iran to secure the highly enriched uranium buried within nuclear facilities. Instead of conducting such a complicated and risky operation, the U.S. could instead carry out large-scale air strikes on the facilities to try to prevent Iran from ever accessing the material.

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Days Before Iran Strikes, DOJ Charged Silicon Valley Engineers in Case Involving Tech Secrets Sent to Tehran

With the United States forces engaged in destroying the Iranian military, it’s easy for Americans to think the enemy is on the other side of the world.

But a Department of Justice operation that resulted in the arrests of three Iranian-born computer engineers on the virtual eve of Operation Epic Fury has a different kind of message:

The danger can be much, much closer to home.

As the New York Post reported Monday, two sisters and the husband of one of the women were arrested in mid-February, 10 days before military operations against Iran began, and charged with stealing trade secrets from Google and other Silicon Valley powerhouses.

A Department of Justice news release from Feb. 19 identified the trio as Soroor Ghandali, 32; Samaneh Ghandali, 41; and Samaneh Ghandali’s husband, Mohammadjavad Khosravi, 40.

The Ghandali sisters are former Google engineers who went on to work at another unidentified tech company; Khosravi worked at a third tech company, the release said.

And they apparently operated like trained professionals.

“As part of the alleged scheme to commit trade secret theft, the defendants used their employment to obtain access to confidential and sensitive information,” according to the DOJ release.

“The defendants then exfiltrated confidential and sensitive documents, including trade secrets related to processor security and cryptography and other technologies, from Google and other technology companies to unauthorized third-party and personal locations, including to work devices associated with each other’s employers, and to Iran.”

In official terms, the three are charged with “conspiring to commit trade secret theft from Google and other leading technology companies, theft and attempted theft of trade secrets, and obstruction of justice,” according to the news release.

But as the U.K.’s Daily Mail noted, “trade secrets” in this case sounds more like a euphemism for technology that can pose a direct danger to American troops, and the country itself.

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Central Command Says Nearly 300 US Military Troops Injured in Iran War

Nearly 300 U.S. military service members have been injured since the start of the war in Iran, a military spokesperson said on Wednesday.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins told Fox News that “since the start of Operation Epic Fury, approximately 290 U.S. service members have been wounded,” referring to the military operation that was initiated on Feb. 28 and is ongoing.

“The vast majority of these injuries have been minor,” Hawkins  said, “and more than 255 troops have already returned to duty.”

Officials said earlier this week that more than 9,000 targets inside Iran have been struck by the U.S. military, and more than 9,000 flights have been conducted so far. Much of the country’s air force and navy have been destroyed in the strikes, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday.

Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, also on Wednesday released new video footage of its forces striking Iranian military infrastructure.

“U.S. forces are striking targets to degrade the Iranian regime’s military infrastructure and capabilities that have threatened American troops and regional partners for decades,” Central Command wrote in a post on X.

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Report Alleges Trump’s Daily Military Briefing Scrubs Out Iran War Setbacks

A fresh NBC report has alleged that President Trump is being presented with a very incomplete picture of how the Iran war is going, with the conflict now approaching its first month, and as Washington struggles to find an offramp amid global oil market disruptions.

The report says that his daily military briefing provided by the Pentagon features a roughly 2-minute long video update for President Trump that shows the biggest, most successful strikes on Iranian targets of the prior 48 hours. Negative developments frequently get omitted or glossed over.

Anonymous US officials have voiced fears that the video briefings, which the president tends to respond positively to, fail to represent the full scope of what’s going on. Also, Trump’s aides have reportedly voiced greater approval for the briefings, which feature Iranian military equipment and bases and sites getting blown up.

The NBC report, which has been rejected by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in essence suggests Trump is not getting properly briefed on major negative developments.

Or in other words, the fear is that briefers are simply favoring information that he wants to hear, and too afraid to deliver bad news. According to NBC:

They said the videos are also driving Trump’s increasing frustration with news coverage of the war. Trump has pointed to the success depicted in the daily videos to privately question why his administration can’t better influence the public narrative, asking aides why the news media doesn’t emphasize what he’s seeing, one of the current U.S. officials and the former U.S. official said.

Again, Leavitt has called all of this “an absolutely false assertion” from people who aren’t in the briefing room; however NBC does offer the following example which seems consistent with its reporting:

One example came this month when five U.S. Air Force refueling planes were hit in an Iranian strike at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, according to one of the current U.S. officials. Trump wasn’t briefed about the strikes, and he learned what had happened from media reports, the official said. When Trump inquired, he was told the planes weren’t badly damaged, the official said.

The official said Trump reacted angrily behind the scenes to the news coverage. Publicly he posted on Truth Social calling coverage of the strike misleading and accusing media organizations of wanting the U.S. “to lose the War.”

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$580 million in oil bets placed moments before Trump’s Iran post – FT 

Oil traders placed more than half a billion dollars in bets minutes before US President Donald Trump announced “productive” talks with Iran on Monday, the Financial Times has reported.

A burst of activity followed by a sharp price drop has raised questions about possible advance knowledge among market participants.

About 6,200 Brent and WTI futures contracts changed hands between 6:49 AM and 6:50 AM in New York – a one-minute flurry worth $580 million, based on FT calculations using Bloomberg data. Volumes in both benchmarks – Brent and US West Texas Intermediate – spiked simultaneously, about 27 seconds before 6:50 AM, while S&P 500 futures surged shortly after.

The trades came roughly 15 minutes before Trump said on Truth Social there had been “productive conversations” with Tehran to end the war in Iran.

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Pentagon Reportedly Preparing to Send 3,000 Airborne Troops to Middle East

The Pentagon is preparing to deploy about 3,000 troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, according to multiple reports.

Politico reported the deployment would add to thousands of Marines already heading to the region.

Two defense officials confirmed the planned troop deployment.

Pentagon officials said no decision had been made to send troops into Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The U.S. currently has about 50,000 troops in the area.

The troop increase follows ongoing U.S. military operations against Iran.

U.S. Central Command said strikes have destroyed thousands of military targets since Feb. 28, when President Donald Trump announced the beginning of Operation Epic Fury.

The New York Times previously reported the Pentagon was considering deploying the 82nd Airborne Division to the area.

Iran continued drone and missile attacks in the region Tuesday.

Trump said he delayed additional strikes due to conversations with Tehran toward a peace deal.

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