Tag: iran

U.S. Bars China, Russia, Iran From Undersea Cable Supply Chains

The U.S. government is overhauling undersea cable rules for the first time since 2001, tightening restrictions to keep companies linked to adversaries such as China, Russia, and Iran out of the supply chain, according to Nikkei Asia.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved proposed rules that bar adversary-based firms from working on U.S.-owned undersea cables or supplying related equipment. Approved companies will need cybersecurity plans and must certify their supply chains are free of such entities.

To encourage investment, the FCC will streamline approvals for U.S. firms and partners from Japan and Europe, cutting the typical two-year process. Reapproval will be required every 25 years instead of every three, as originally proposed.

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Taxpayers On Hook For $3.5 Billion To Replenish Munitions US Used Defending Israel

Taxpayers are yet again on the hook for America’s supposed “closest Middle East ally” as the Pentagon is planning to allocate at least $3.5 billion to restock weapons used in defense of Israel.

A Bloomberg report issued this week has reviewed Department of Defense budget documents prepared through mid-May. Emergency expenditures are highlighted which include US combat operations “executed at the request of or in coordination with Israel for the defense of Israeli territory, personnel or assets during attacks by Iran” or its proxies.

The largest single portion of the funding is $1 billion that is earmarked for replenishing Standard Missile interceptors, specifically the SM-3 IB Threat Upgrade models made by Raytheon and deployed by US Navy ships to intercept ballistic missiles.

Each of these big missiles are estimated to be between $9 million and $12 million, and these were used in the initial April 2024 flare-up and brief round of fighting between Israel and Iran.

The US assisted Israel following the Netanyahu government’s airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus – which was the first such deliberate attack by a sovereign government on a foreign embassy in history (the lone precedent being the Chinese embassy strike in Belgrade in 1999, which the US apologized for as an ‘accident’).

The second-largest funding request in the documents is $204 million to restock THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) interceptors, produced by Lockheed Martin at a price tag of about $13 million each.

All of this will be pushed through despite recent polls showing public support for Israel being at a recent all-time low. The American public is also generally war-weary, given the now years-long conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and the fact that Washington has sunk billions into supporting one side of each war.

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Intelligence Reports: Hezbollah Helping ‘Transnational Cocaine Trafficking’ in Latin America

Intelligence reports revealed an international criminal network linking Iran and its proxy Hezbollah with the Venezuelan regime’s Cartel of the Suns and Colombia’s FARC and ELN Marxist terrorist groups, Colombian outlets reported this week.

According to the Colombian magazine Semana, Middle Eastern intelligence agencies provided the information to the Colombian Armed Forces in a report. Semana and the Bogotá-based Blu Radio both claimed to be in possession of a copy of the report, which reportedly details that Iran, through Hezbollah, provided “financial, logistical, and doctrinal support, especially in the context of transnational cocaine trafficking.”

Iran’s support, the report detailed, allowed the criminal alliance linking Hezbollah, the Venezuelan regime and the Cartel of the Suns, the Marxist National Liberation Army (ELN), and FARC’s Second Marquetalia group to establish “drug trafficking corridors, safe havens, illicit military operations, and extractive activities” along the Colombian-Venezuelan border.

Blu Radio detailed that the collapse of Venezuela’s governance structures allowed criminal networks such as ELN to infiltrate state structures and consolidate its presence in the Venezuelan states of Apure, Táchira, and Zulia, all of which neighbor Colombia.

The report then explained that the Cartel of the Suns, run by dictator Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking members of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela and the nation’s military, has “evolved” into a more complex structure that interacts with Colombian armed groups. The Maduro regime’s repressive DGCIM Military Counterintelligence Directorate reportedly “acts as a protector of this network, guaranteeing impunity and eliminating dissent.” High-ranking generals from the DGCIM, the Venezuelan National Army, and the National Guard, the radio station said, are presumably involved in the criminal network.

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What the CIA’s Covert Websites Were Hiding

The C.I.A. didn’t just infiltrate governments; it infiltrated the internet itself. For over a decade, Langley operated a sprawling network of covert websites that served as global spy terminals disguised as harmless blogs, news hubs, and fan pages.

Beginning in 2004, the C.I.A. established a vast network of at least 885 websites, ranging from Johnny Carson and Star Wars fan pages to online message boards about Rastafari. Spanning 29 languages and targeting at least 36 countries directly, these websites were aimed not only at adversaries such as China, Venezuela, and Russia, but also at allied nations, including France, Italy, and Spain, showing that the United States treats its friends much like its foes.

Soccer Blogs & Cracked Passwords

Gholamreza Hosseini is a former C.I.A. informant. In 2007, the Tehran-based industrial engineer contacted the agency and offered to pass them information about Iran’s nuclear energy program. His C.I.A. handlers showed him how to use IranianGoals.com to communicate with them.

Iranian Goals was a Farsi-language website that appeared to be dedicated to local soccer news. However, what appeared to be a search bar at the bottom of the home page was actually a password field. Typing the correct word into it would trigger a login process, revealing a secret messaging interface. Each informant had their own webpage, designed specifically for them, to insulate them from others in the network.

It seemed like an ingenious idea. However, Hosseini and the other spies were soon detected, thanks to some sloppy mistakes in Washington, D.C. An Iranian double agent revealed to the authorities their unique website, and some basic detective work led to the uncovering of the entire network.

The C.I.A. purchased the hosting space for dozens, perhaps hundreds, of these websites in bulk, often from the same internet providers, or the same server space. That meant that the IP addresses of these websites were consecutive, akin to housing each informant in adjacent properties on the same street.

Thus, if you looked at neighboring IP addresses, you would see similarly designed websites and could easily put two and two together. Even with some relatively basic online searches, Iranian authorities were able to identify dozens of C.I.A.-run websites. From there, they simply waited to see who would access them.

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Human Rights Watch says Israeli airstrike on Iranian prison was an ‘apparent war crime’

Human Rights Watch alleged Thursday that an Israeli airstrike on a notorious Iranian prison was “an apparent war crime”, while also accusing Tehran of harming and disappearing prisoners after the attack.

Israel struck Evin Prison in Tehran, one of Iran’s most notorious detention facilities for political activists and dissidents, on June 23, during its 12-day war with the Islamic Republic.

The strikes during visiting hours hit Evin Prison’s main southern entrance, another northern entrance and other areas of the complex, destroying buildings that had medical facilities and prison wards.

The Iranian authorities initially said at least 71 people were killed during the airstrike, among them civilians including inmates, visiting relatives, and prison staff. Iranian media later raised that number to 80. It was unclear why Israel targeted the prison.

Human Rights Watch said the attack was “unlawfully indiscriminate” and that there was no evidence of an advance warning or a military target before striking the prison complex, which it estimates holds over 1,500 prisoners.

“To make matters worse, Israeli forces put at grave risk prisoners who were already victims of Iranian authorities’ brutal repression,” said Michael Page, the rights group’s deputy Middle East director.

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Over 20,000 Arrested In Iran On Suspicion Of Espionage During War With Israel

Iranian police arrested around 21,000 people on various charges during the 12-day war with Israel, Iran’s national police force reported on Tuesday. According to local media, more than 7,850 public tips were received during the fighting, leading to the arrests. 

The spokesperson of the Iranian police, Saed Montazer al-Mahdi, noted that the Iranian Cyber Police (FATA) handled 5,700 cybercrime cases, including internet fraud, unauthorized withdrawals, and a cyber attack on the Nobitex exchange.

He said 2,774 “illegal citizens” were detained, with 261 people arrested on suspicion of espionage and 172 detained for unauthorized filming – some for filming “sensitive centers” around the country. Examinations of the suspects’ mobile phones led to the opening of 30 special security cases.

Speaking on the Evin Prison incident, Mahdi stated that police arrested 127 “security and political” inmates during an escape attempt, including two of whom were dressed in firefighter uniforms.

Fars News Agency reported on July 25 that more than 700 people had been detained over the previous 12 days on charges of “security cooperation with Israel.”

Separately, judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said on 22 July that 75 prisoners escaped during an Israeli missile strike on Evin Prison.

According to Shargh Media Group, Iranian Minister of Intelligence Ismail Khatib said, “The intelligence and security organizations have the resources [personnel, assets, and operational capabilities] to mobilize them both internally and within the regime itself. During the imposed 12-day war, we witnessed seven million public reports.”

He added, “We hope that as this unity has been the axis of destroying all influence, hostility, conspiracy, and sedition, we will all be able to protect this unity and cohesion.”

During the June war, Israel launched coordinated attacks inside Iran, killing senior military and intelligence officials, nuclear scientists, and striking key military sites and administrative infrastructure.

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Iran Deporting Millions Of Afghan Migrants After Capturing Alleged Israeli Spies

It would seem that mass deportations in the name of national security is not an issue limited to western countries.  Over the past few weeks Iran has drawn the attention of the UN and a number of humanitarian NGOs after initiated a nationwide program to remove all Afghan migrants without proper legal documentation from their borders, relocating them back to Afghanistan. 

Nearly 1 million migrants have been deported in the past month alone according to estimates by Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni.  That’s around half of the 2 million Afghans currently residing in the country.  Iran’s government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani stated at the beginning of the relocation effort:

“We’ve always striven to be good hosts, but national security is a priority.” 

The deportations are a response to detrimental intelligence leaks and acts of sabotage within Iran during recent conflict with Israel.  Iranian authorities report the capture of a number of Afghan refugees involved in the transportation and piloting of drones, the gathering of sensitive intelligence and the planting of bombs.  They assert that migrants are easier for the Israelis to bribe.

In a well-publicized case, Iranian authorities in the city of Rey arrested an Afghan university student accusing him of links to the Mossad and alleging he was caught in possession of sensitive material on bomb-making, drone mechanics and surveillance operations. 

State television aired reports of arrested Afghan citizens “confessing” to being Israeli agents.  In one such report, broadcast on June 26, showed the questioning of several suspects, mostly Afghans, being accused of plotting to bomb a power station in southeast Tehran.

It is possible that the mass deportations represent nothing more than an effort to divert blame for Iranian intelligence failures onto a convenient scapegoat.  However, migrant groups have historically been easy targets for manipulation and conversion by foreign enemies and Iran’s caution is a logical response.  Open borders have long been used by intelligence agencies as a means to plant “sleeper agents” within nations they plan to go to war with.

For example, several Iranians have been recently apprehended trying to sneak across the US border, some of them with national security ties.  

The Taliban government has urged Iran to stop the exodus, calling for a gradual process instead.  Taliban officials say the dignity of the migrants must be respected, though, it is likely that the Afghan economy could be crippled by a surge of a million or more refugees in such a short span of time and the Taliban have limited means of humanitarian support.

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America’s Opinion Pages Overwhelmingly Supported Trump’s Attack on Iran

In the four days of coverage after President Donald Trump ordered strikes on Iran (6/21–24/25), the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post responded with 36 opinion pieces and editorials. Almost half of these, 17, explicitly supported the illegal bombing, while only 7 (19%) took an overall critical view of the strikes—none of them in the Journal or the Post.

Of the critical pieces, only three (one in the Times and two in USA Today) opposed the idea on legal or moral grounds, challenging the idea that the United States has a right to attack a country that had not attacked it.

This opposition rate of less than a fifth is in stark contrast to US public opinion on the matter, which showed that 56% of Americans opposed Trump’s bombing. Why wasn’t this reflected in the range of opinions presented by America’s top press outlets? These numbers highlight just how poorly represented the views of the public are in elite media.

FAIR looked at all opinion pieces in the four papers that addressed Trump’s strikes on Iran, from June 21 through June 24. Forty-seven percent (17) explicitly praised Trump’s unauthorized act of war.

Many of these cheered the aggressive assertion of US power. The New York Times’ Bret Stephens (6/22/25) lauded “Trump’s Courageous and Correct Decision,” which “deserves respect, no matter how one feels about this president and the rest of his policies.” At the Washington Post, David Ignatius (6/22/25) offered similar praise under the headline, “Trump’s Iran Strike Was Clear and Bold,” and the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board (6/22/25) declared, “Trump Meets the Moment on Iran.”

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Will An Iran Cyber Attack Panic Usher In A New Patriot Act?

In a 2007 interview, retired General Wesley Clark revealed that the Pentagon had a plan to “take out seven countries in five years”—Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran. Over the following two decades, the first six were bombed, destabilized, or collapsed into civil war. Only Iran remains standing—resistant to Western central banking, culturally hostile to global usury, and guarding some of the world’s most ancient archeological sites.

Now, major media outlets such as Fox News and the Independent warn of a looming cyberwar, and we’re told to brace for a potential Iranian cyberattack on the US or its allies, aimed at critical infrastructure such as power and water systems. But rather than ask how to defend against it, we should ask something more: Is Iran really the culprit? Or is it the designated scapegoat for an event designed to advance elite control both abroad and at home?

Recent history provides a clear pattern: When crises erupt, state and corporate power rapidly consolidate. After 9/11, the US government ushered in the Patriot Act, warrantless surveillance, and indefinite detention, all in the name of security. The 2008 financial collapse delivered historic bank bailouts and accelerated economic consolidation. In 2020, the covid pandemic normalized lockdowns, QR-code health passes, and calls for digital identity systems tied to medical records. In the wake of the Capitol riot, proposals exploded for increased censorship, AI-powered surveillance, and policing of online speech. As the author Naomi Klein outlined in her seminal work, The Shock Doctrine, elites routinely exploit crises to fast-track policies that populations would otherwise reject.

The current cyber panic fits the mold. If a catastrophic digital event were to hit—disabling hospitals, banks, or energy systems—the solution being quietly preloaded into public discourse is the rollout of global “Digital ID” infrastructure. The World Economic Forum has explicitly highlighted how global digital IDs for people and objects are essential for trade digitization and establishing a global digital economy. In its Digital Identity Blueprint, the WEF outlines a framework linking online activity, financial services, travel permissions, and even behavioral data to a single identity. But what’s sold as “security” is, in fact, the foundation of a technocratic control grid.

If implemented, Digital ID would function as a master key to everything: your money, health records, online access, and even your ability to travel. In time, it could merge with carbon quotas and social credit scoring systems like those piloted in China. An algorithm, not a constitution, would govern your rights. One wrong opinion, and you risk being shut out of society, not by police, but by code. In a world where social media mobs enforce ideological purity, public humiliation becomes the new policing mechanism. You self-censor, you self-surveil, and eventually, you self-govern—on someone else’s terms.

But there’s a core problem with the “Iran did it” cyberattack narrative: Iran lacks the capability. Iran’s cyber warfare infrastructure is far less sophisticated than that of the US, Israel, Russia, or China. The Harvard Belfer Center’s National Cyber Power Index places Iran low in its global rankings. While Iran may be able to execute nuisance-level hacks, it is not in a position to disable critical US infrastructure. So if a major cyberattack does occur, blaming Iran may serve a political purpose—not reflect reality.

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Her Biggest Scandal Yet! Iran and China Are Circumventing Sanctions via Notorious Bank and Letitia James Is Implicated

The Standard Chartered Bank sanctions evasion case, now in court in the US Second Circuit, found at least $9.6 billion of illegal payments by the bank to Iranian and Hezbollah entities.

The case implicates NYAG Letitia James and the Federal Reserve for ignoring billions of these illicit payments and ignoring Treasury sanctions designations. Maximum Pressure is not being enforced because of the failures of the Fed and the NYAG.

Make sure this case continues.

** Call the Southern District of New York …. Office number: 212-637-2200

At least $9.6 billion of specifically identified illicit payments were made by SCB from its NYC branch to OFAC and known terrorist names. The $9.6 billion was found in internal trade reports turned over by bank whistleblowers and represents the first batch from SCB Dubai office that cleared through SCB NYC. There are estimated over $100 billion more of illegal payments that are more recent and from SCB China where it has 53 mainland branches that facilitate dollar trade payments for oil and war-making materials.

These payments were hidden by SCB from required disclosure in its ongoing Deferred Prosecution Agreement now under the jurisdiction of DCUSA Pirro and SDNY Clayton where both were briefed on SCB after their appointments. There are career blockers at each jurisdiction.

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