Tag: perpetual war

Iran claims without evidence that it took Israeli nuclear files

Iran’s intelligence minister claimed without offering evidence Sunday that Tehran seized an “important treasury” of information regarding Israel’s nuclear program, ahead of a week in which the Islamic Republic likely will face new diplomatic pressure over its own program.

The remarks by Esmail Khatib follow Iranian state television claiming Saturday that Iranian intelligence officials seized documents, again without any evidence. Israel, whose undeclared atomic weapons program makes it the only country in the Mideast with nuclear bombs, has not acknowledged any such Iranian operation targeting it — though there have been arrests of Israelis allegedly spying for Tehran amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Iran, meanwhile, will likely face censure this week from the Board of Governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency over longstanding questions about its program. Iran has also signaled it will reject a proposal from the United States after five rounds of negotiations over its nuclear program — setting the stage for that long-running crisis to potentially spike as well.

‘Treasury’ of secrets claim comes without evidence

Responding to questions from an Iranian state TV reporter Sunday after a Cabinet meeting, Khatib said members of the Intelligence Ministry “achieved an important treasury of strategic, operational and scientific intelligence of the Zionist regime and it was transferred into the country with God’s help.”

He claimed thousands of pages of documents had been obtained and insisted they would be made public soon. Among them were documents related to the U.S., Europe and other countries, he claimed, obtained through “infiltration” and “access to the sources.”

He did not elaborate on the methods used. However, Khatib, a Shiite cleric, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2022 over directing “cyber espionage and ransomware attacks in support of Iran’s political goals.”

For Iran, the claim may be designed to show the public that the theocracy was able to respond to a 2018 Israeli operation that spirited out what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “half ton” of documents related to Iran’s program. That Israeli announcement came just before President Donald Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew America from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which greatly limited its program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

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Top U.S. General in Africa Paints Grim Picture of U.S. Military Failures in Africa

President George W. Bush created a new command to oversee all military operations in Africa 18 years ago. U.S. Africa Command was meant to help “bring peace and security to the people of Africa.”

The Trump administration now has AFRICOM on the chopping block as part of its sweeping reorganization of the military. According to the general leading the command, its mission is far from accomplished.

Gen. Michael Langley, the head of AFRICOM, offered a grim assessment of security on the African continent during a recent press conference. The West African Sahel, he said last Friday, was now the “epicenter of terrorism” and the gravest terrorist threats to the U.S. homeland were “unfortunately right here on the African continent.”

The embattled four-star general — who noted his days were numbered as AFRICOM’s chief — was speaking from a conference of African defense chiefs in Kenya, where he had been imploring ministers and heads of state to help save his faltering command. “I said: ‘OK, if we’re that important to [you], you need to communicate that,’” he explained, asking them to have their U.S. ambassadors make entreaties on behalf of AFRICOM.

Current and former defense officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide candid assessments, were divided on whether Langley deserves a measure of blame for the dire straits the command finds itself in.

One former defense official spoke highly of Langley, calling him “an effective and transformational leader” who “rapidly grew into the job and developed strong, fruitful relationships with members of Congress.”

A current official, however, said almost the opposite, calling the four-star general a “marble mouth” who did a poor job of making a case for his command, “fumbled” relations with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and diminished AFRICOM’s standing with legislators. Asked by messaging app if the latter assessment was accurate, a former Africa Command official sent a laughing emoji and replied “no comment” followed by “but yes.” (The official said he could be quoted as such.)

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Ukraine Not Reclaiming Bodies for Fear of Admitting Losses, Paying Widows – Medvedev

Kiev refuses to accept the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers because it does not want to admit the losses and is unwilling to pay compensations to their families, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday.

“The Kiev bastards don’t want to take the bodies of their dead soldiers. There are two reasons: it’s scary to admit that there are 6,000 of them and they don’t want to pay widows,” Medvedev wrote on X.

Earlier in the day, Vladimir Medinsky, a Russian presidential aide and head of the Russian delegation to the talks with Ukraine, said that Russia had started the process of repatriating over 6,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers as well as the exchange of prisoners of war, as agreed at the negotiations in Istanbul on June 2. Medinsky had to comment on the situation, because the Ukrainian side did not arrive at the exchange site, although the date had been declared in advance.

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US and Israel turn “aid” centers into slaughter zones

Israeli forces massacred more than 400 Palestinians and injured more than 2,000 in airstrikes, tank shellings, drone attacks and with sniper fire between 29 May and 4 June.

Attacks continued against hospitals, medical clinics, residential buildings, schools turned into shelters and inside humiliating death traps engineered by US mercenaries and Israeli soldiers under the guise of distributing meager amounts of snacks to millions of starving people – while real international aid remains in trucks, stuck behind the crossings, for more than three consecutive months.

Nearly 100 Palestinians were killed and 440 injured between 3 and 4 June alone, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.

On Monday, 2 June, Israeli airstrikes flattened a home in Gaza City, pinning a baby and his 5-year-old brother beneath the rubble. This clip, filmed by Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif, shows the moment the two children were rescued by Palestinian first responders and civil defense workers.

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Trump’s Pentagon keeps sending destroyers that fought in the Red Sea to the US southern border — a fourth one is on its way

A fourth US Navy destroyer that participated in the Red Sea conflict is on its way to support President Donald Trump’s southern border mission, bringing a range of advanced naval combat capabilities to a very different operating environment.

The Navy announced Friday that the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Cole had left its homeport in Florida to support US Northern Command’s “border security objectives.”

The Trump administration has made cracking down on maritime-related criminal activity, including weapons smuggling, drug trafficking, and illegal immigration, a top priority, and the Defense Department has sent military assets to the US-Mexico border. Among these assets are five destroyers and a littoral combat ship on staggered deployments.

Cole, like the other warships, is set to be accompanied by a US Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment. They specialize in military operations at sea, such as counterterrorism, counterpiracy, and anti-immigration missions.

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers like the Cole are advanced naval surface ships with robust communications and sensor suites and are suited for long-endurance missions. These vessels can be armed with surface-to-air and land-attack missiles. Other armaments include the ship’s five-inch deck gun, machine guns, and a Phalanx Close-In Weapons System.

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Why Ukrainian Regime Doesn’t Want to Accept Dead Soldiers and Wounded POWs

Ukraine has disrupted prisoner exchange and handover of 6,000 Ukrainian fallen soldiers’ bodies. What’s the reason?

Total Disregard for Human Life

“Kiev’s disregard for their own fighters has been evident throughout the special military operation,” Russian military analyst Viktor Litovkin tells Sputnik.

“They don’t retrieve the dead from the battlefield. They don’t evacuate the wounded.”

Total Lack of Negotiating Capacity

It also shows Ukraine’s complete inability to negotiate, according to the pundit.

“It wants to show that it doesn’t care about any agreements. You simply can’t make deals with them.”

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Russian MASSIVE ‘Retaliation’ Air Raid Campaign Continues Unabated for a Second Night – Trump Says Ukraine ‘Gave Putin a Reason To Go In and Bomb the Hell Out of Them’

For a second night in a row, Russian Federation forces pounded military targets in Kiev, Kharkov and many other Ukrainian cities, in what many see as retaliation for the Ukrainian terrorist attacks on civilian trains in Bryansk and Kursk, and – of course – for the drone raid on Russian strategic airfields.

Russia has struck and destroyed the Kiev plant “Bolshevik”

According to sources, there was a fortified bunker under the territory of the plant,used to store munitions.

It has also been destroyed pic.twitter.com/f7u6C8YL2s

— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) June 7, 2025

The Kiev regime hides weapons in civilian populated areas and risks a greater loss of lives.

Zelensky and his generals are responsible for any casualties. Russia is done playing nice. pic.twitter.com/UV0MmI90WZ

— Spetsnaℤ 007 (@Alex_Oloyede2) June 6, 2025

Russian military Telegram channel Military Chronicle has put forward a thought-provoking theory that the ‘retaliation’ will take the form of a prolonged series of missile and drone raids over the next days.

“Russia’s missile strike on the night of June 5-6, 2025, according to the latest information, was not a separate action, but the start of a series. The structure of the attack, the depth of damage, and the choice of targets indicate a transition to a phase of fire impact stretched over several cycles. If the pace continues, strikes can be expected in the coming days on the remaining critical nodes: the Kiev Hydroelectric Power Station (as well as energy facilities that were refrained from), the Dnepr Hydroelectric Power Station, and individual 750 kV substations linking the central and eastern energy systems of Ukraine.

The form of the strikes, apparently, will remain the same: combined waves of Geraniums, medium- and long-range missiles, with reconnaissance based on the traces of previous damage and repeating the cycle. The key difference is not so much in the means, but in the rhythm. If earlier the Ukrainian air defense in the center of the country could cope with isolated raids, now, with a high level of saturation and alternation of weapons, it is no longer possible to do this in full. Especially against the background of losses of equipment that is difficult to replace, such as the Patriot air defense system.”

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Shadow Diplomacy and Sanctions Sabotage: The Constitutional Crisis Brewing in Ukraine

In May and June 2025, a bipartisan delegation including Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Kyiv, Ukraine, where they publicly advocated for escalating sanctions against Russia, China, and India. Their visit and messaging directly contradict President Trump’s ongoing diplomatic approach, which emphasizes restraint, strategic de-escalation, and renewed peace negotiations. This white paper explores the constitutional and national security implications of such rogue diplomacy, warns of the precedent it sets, and offers recommendations to restore executive primacy in foreign affairs.

I. Background and Context

The United States Constitution places the authority over foreign policy firmly within the Executive Branch. Article II, Section 2 vests the President with the power to conduct diplomacy, command the armed forces, and negotiate treaties. While Congress holds sanctioning power and oversight responsibilities, no individual member or coalition has the authority to represent U.S. foreign policy abroad without Executive coordination.

“A lot of countries still buy Russian oil and gas but less. Some European countries still have relationships with Russia, but they’ve been very helpful to Ukraine. So I want to carve them out,” Graham told reporters Wednesday.

“I tell China, if you don’t want to have a 500 percent tariff, help Ukraine.” Lyndsey Graham

In May 2025, Senator Graham led a delegation to Ukraine alongside Senator Blumenthal and Mike Pompeo. During the visit:

  • The group praised Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russian airfields.
  • They announced a bipartisan push for a “Sanctioning Russia Act” targeting any country trading with Russia.
  • Graham and Pompeo gave statements suggesting bipartisan U.S. commitment to military and economic escalation.

These actions were taken without President Trump’s authorization and occurred while his administration was pursuing diplomatic de-escalation and ceasefire negotiations through backchannels.

“There’s some of our allies who’ve really helped Ukraine but would be affected by the bill, they’ve earned their way to get a carveout. Those who have helped Ukraine, meaningfully, will get a carveout. In other words you’ll incentivize people to help Ukraine.” Lyndsey Graham

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To Outrun the Complacent Class

“The emails showed the world’s leading climatologists busily working to organize a research cartel. Peer review was a legitimate source of authority when the process supported their positions. It was compromised, if not malicious, when it offered critics of the orthodoxy a platform. The wish to crush dissenting views, in their minds, had become indistinguishable from the pursuit of truth.”  

– Martin Gurri

Over the last two decades, exafloods of Internet content have educated and entertained beyond imagination. Exponentially-growing communications bandwidth and data transparency empowered regular people, elevated previously unknown geniuses, and helped expose deep dysfunction among many existing “experts.” A tsunami of social media also generated psychedelic confusion, not least among the experts themselves, leading to, in Martin Gurri’s words, a “crisis of authority.”

Now, artificial intelligence is about to amplify this infowarp a million-fold, for good and ill, producing both unprecedented knowledge and wealth and new epistemic challenges. 

If you thought the battles over social media “misinformation” were intense, just wait for the A.I. era. 

Lots of failed experts are engaged in a tactical retreat, regrouping for the coming battles. They passively admit “mistakes were made” but dodge specific accountability and refuse to acknowledge those who got the big questions right. 

At the same time, they are busy establishing new gatekeepers, taboos, and approved voices. The very people who got so many giant questions so very wrong over the last two decades are attempting to build a new information fortress for the next 20 years.

Journalist Douglas Murray, who once backed free speech but also celebrated America’s forever-war disasters, is threatening misbehavers with excommunication. After a dismal recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, the prolific podcast guest warned against listening to the wrong podcasts. 

What the standards are in the new media — especially on podcasts — is still being worked out.

But there must be some.

Otherwise the new media will lead people into errors and evils far greater than the old media could ever dream of.

What a turn of events. In recent years, on varied topics from Covid to Ukraine, the highly imperfect and diverse new media demolished the lockstep old media. Years from now, we might conclude the new media helped save Western civilization. Murray himself owes much of his impressive influence to new media. But now, suddenly, if Joe Rogan and alternative outlets don’t bow to Murray and his friends, they might be more “evil” than the people who lied about Joe Biden’s health, the origin of the virus, Iraqi WMD, Russia collusion, climate apocalypse, and so much more.

But doesn’t Murray have a point? Don’t standards matter? 

Of course, standards matter. Credibility matters. Expertise, editorial judgment, and curation are all important – perhaps more so in an era of information overload. No single person can navigate the infowarp alone. We need trusted sources and guides. 

When Murray balks at defining any standards, however, his tsk-tsk-ing is exposed as an arbitrary threat. If you don’t toe the party line, he and his friends will smear you out of polite society. 

The question is not whether we value standards and expertise. Obviously we do. The question is: at what layers of the stack are these judgments made? 

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US Refuses Air Cover For European ‘Reassurance Force’ In Postwar Ukraine

The British and French-led effort to establish a ‘coalition of the willing’ to stand up to Russia and defend Ukraine just hit another major roadblock, as Bloomberg is reporting Wednesday the US has effectively vetoed a plan to provide American air defenses to back a “reassurance force” for postwar Ukraine.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been insisting that US-backed air defenses are key to any future permanent settlement plans for ending the war. Western proposals for ending the war have all featured foreign-backed and monitored security guarantees for Ukraine.

On this, Starmer had said back in February that “There must be a US backstop” and that the “US security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again.”

After Western billions already sunk into keeping Ukraine’s military and civic infrastructure afloat, the UK and France are also seeking from President Trump pledges of future air power, and border surveillance and intelligence.

The Europeans also envision a strong, permanent security bulwark backed by the United States along NATO’s eastern flank.

Yet, President Trump has repeatedly warned allies that if NATO countries don’t pay their fair share they won’t be protected. This despite European leaders as well as some US politicians expressing recent concern that the Atlantic alliance is becoming weaker than ever, and that Article 5 collective defense is in peril.

Trump has lashed out at NATO countries for not even meeting their current two percent spending goal while the unfair burden has long fallen United States.

“We appreciate the work that the allies, particularly France and the United Kingdom together with Germany and others have undertaken to develop the coalition of the willing,” US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said at a press breifing Brussels on Wednesday. “We are counting on all our European allies to continue taking the leadership position in contributing military resources and providing the political capital to make security guarantees a reality.”

All of this comes as it was only on Tuesday that Dutch slapped down a proposal to increase defense spending to 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), key to NATO’s capability targets, in a non-binding motion.

While it doesn’t have legal force at this point, this makes clear parliament’s opinion, unleashing deeper tensions among NATO allies, and as the Trump White House exerts pressure to rapidly raise collective defense.

Also, Bloomberg reported separately Tuesday, “NATO is asking European member states to expand ground-based air-defense capabilities fivefold as the alliance races to fill a key gap in response to the threat of Russian aggression, people familiar with the matter said.” 

All indicators are that the Trump administration no longer envisions the United States as heading up NATO, especially when other countries can’t step up and pay their fair share.

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