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Gavel

Best of the Web: Pakistani ex-PM Khan, wife, sentenced to 14 years in prison for 'corruption'


Comment: This is completely outrageous. He's really being locked up because Pakistan has elections next week and Khan keeps talking about how the CIA ousted him - a wildly popular and democratically-elected prime minister - from power...


Imran Khan and his wife
© AFPFormer Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra (left), arrive at a court in Lahore in May 2023.
A Pakistani court has sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan to ten years behind bars. He has been charged with leaking state secrets, according to the spokesman for the politician's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI).

On Tuesday, Zulfiqar Bukhari said, as quoted by AP, that the verdict was announced at a prison in the northern city of Rawalpindi, not far from the capital, Islamabad. The same sentence was also imposed on former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

The charges relate to the so-called cipher, a classified cable sent to Islamabad by the Pakistani ambassador to Washington in 2022, shortly after the start of the Ukraine conflict. The document allegedly suggested that the US wanted to remove Khan over his neutrality regarding the hostilities.

The ex-Pakistani PM called the cipher case on Tuesday "false," adding that it "is being completed in violation of constitutional requirements and legal regulations.""This is not a trial but a fixed match outcome of which was predetermined," he added.

Comment: This is exactly what they'd love to do to Trump. Khan thought he could stave off the CIA's maneuvering to oust him by exposing a cable documenting their efforts. Then, at the outset of the Russian SMO in Ukraine, Khan flew to Moscow in a show of support for Putin and to secure major energy deals because Khan figured, correctly, that energy markets were about to go haywire as the West imposed sanctions on Russia. At that point, Washington's stooges within Pakistani military-intelligence pounced, contriving first a 'vote of no- confidence', then criminal charges, finally his arrest, and now his incarceration.

All because he wanted to finally make Pakistan a real country and not some 'wild frontier outpost' for the Anglo-American empire.

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Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Karaganov: An Age of Wars?

aurora
© NASA/JSC
"And black, earth's blood

Promises us, inflating the veins,

Destroying all borders,

Unprecedented changes,

Unprecedented riots..."[1]

Alexander Blok "Retribution", 1911.

I begin this article with the words of my best-loved Russian poet Alexander Blok, who is comparable in his gift of clairvoyance to the greatest Russian genius Fyodor Dostoevsky. I have long been watching the world inexorably moving towards a wave of military conflicts threatening to develop into a third world thermonuclear war that can in all likelihood destroy human civilization. This prognosis was one of the main reasons why I published a series of articles about why it is necessary to restore the credibility of nuclear deterrence, which kept the world safe for more than fifty years.

Sherlock

Best of the Web: Fire tears through huge egg farm in Texas

food plant fire
A massive fire broke out at Feather Crest Farms in Bryan, Texas at about 5pm Monday
Huge column of black smoke rises over burning chicken farm in Texas as officials warn the inferno will take days to extinguish - with locals told to stop pulling over to take photos

A massive fire is tearing through a chicken farm in Texas sending a huge plume of smoke into the sky.

The blaze has since been contained between two buildings and tanks but officials have warned that it could take days to put the fire out.

It is unclear how the fire started and how many chickens were injured, but no injuries have been reported as the farm is located in a rural area with few homes nearby.

Comment: By this point, it's clear that there is a concerted attack on supply chains with a focus on food plants and processors, as well as energy suppliers and infrastructure; and it's global in scope.

Just last week: Explosion & major fires at food plant in Italy, shopping centre in Serbia, gas supplier in Mongolia, factory in Kazakhstan

See also: Predatory Sparrow: The terrorist attacks of an Israel-linked hacker group


Binoculars

Best of the Web: Tower 22: Smoke & mirrors

Al-Tanf Base
© weaponsnews.com
The "Attack on the Tower"

The attack on US forces in Syria and Jordan is getting a lot of attention. Biden has vowed a response which many assume means war with the Iran.

We will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner our choosing. Genocide Joe

That is, US response is likely to be asymmetric to avoid a larger war - at this time anyway.

Moon of Alabama notes:
At least 6 U.S. Air Force KC-135 Aerial-Refueling Tankers, most from March Air Reserve Base in Southern California, are heading Northeast across the United States and preparing to Transit the Atlantic towards the U.K. and Europe.
He thinks that these tankers are intended for the Middle East to protect the US airbases by keeping fighter jets in the air!

Ummm ...this would require air assets to be airborne 24/ 7.

Each tanker can refuel only a few jets at a time and there a lot more airbases in the Middle East than these six tankers! In addition, tankers are big, slow, and vulnerable - rather easy targets — should push come to strike.
US airbases in the Middle East
© 21stcenturywire.com
No matter, these tankers' stated destination is the UK and Europe.

MIB

Best of the Web: Predatory Sparrow: The terrorist attacks of an Israel-linked hacker group

PREDATARORY SPARROW hackers
© ANJALI NAIR; GETTY IMAGES; PREDATARORY SPARROW VIA TELEGRAM
From repeatedly crippling thousands of gas stations to setting a steel mill on fire, Predatory Sparrow's offensive hacking has now targeted Iranians with some of history's most aggressive cyberattacks.

About eight minutes after 3 am on June 27, 2022, inside the Khouzestan steel mill near Iran's western coastline on the Persian Gulf, a massive lid lowered onto a vat of glowing, molten metal. Based on footage from a surveillance camera inside the plant, the giant vessel was several times taller than the two workers in gray uniforms and hardhats standing nearby, likely large enough to carry well over a hundred tons of liquid steel heated to several thousand degrees Fahrenheit.

In the video, the two workers walk out of frame. The clip jump-cuts forward 10 minutes. Then suddenly, the giant ladle is moving, swinging steadily toward the camera. A fraction of a second later, burning embers fly in all directions, fire and smoke fill the factory, and incandescent, liquid steel can be seen pouring freely out of the bottom of the vat onto the plant floor.

Comment: Notably, this escalation is also in line with the WEF's threat of a looming 'cyber pandemic', and it comes amidst an increasing number of serious cyberattacks:


Star of David

Best of the Web: Israel at the ICJ: Has International Law survived, or has the Western political class killed it?

international criminal court
© Remko de Waal / ANP / AFPICJ President Joan Donoghue speaks at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) prior to the verdict announcement in the genocide case against Israel, brought by South Africa.
In finding there is a plausible case against Israel, the International Court of Justice treated with contempt the argument from Israel that the case should be dismissed as it is exercising its right of self-defence. This argument took up over half of Israel's pleadings. Not only did the court find there is a plausible case of genocide, the court only mentioned self-defence once in its interim ruling - and that was merely to note that Israel had claimed it. Para 41:
international law criminal court israel genocide
© International Criminal Court
That the ICJ has not affirmed Israel's right to self-defence is perhaps the most important point in this interim order. It is the dog that did not bark. The argument which every western leader has been using is spurned by the ICJ.

Now the ICJ did not repeat that an occupying power has no right of self-defence. It did not need to. It simply ignored Israel's specious assertion.

Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Three US soldiers killed in drone attack near Syria-Jordan border

us jordan soldiers joint drill
© Raad Adayleh / APU.S. and Jordanian forces respond to scenarios in a joint drill on Thursday, April 26, 2018, in a training area near the town of Zarqa.
Three U.S. troops were killed in a drone attack in Jordan near the border of Syria, where Iran-backed militias have conducted more than 150 attacks on bases hosting U.S. troops in recent months, the military said Sunday.

A one-way attack drone crashed into the Jordanian base Saturday night, killing the three U.S. service members and injuring 25 more, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. One of the Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq carried out the attack, but the facts of the incident were still being assessed, the White House also said.

"Today, America's heart is heavy," President Joe Biden said in the statement.

Comment: Was it Tower 22 in Jordan, or was it the illegal At-Tanf outpost over the border in Syria?

Either way, it's another warning to the US that, with respect to its military footprint all over the Middle East, it must "sh*t or get off the pot."

The warhawks in Washington are of course calling for the US to "hit Iran hard."

But that would trigger Armageddon.

Is that what they want?


Russian Flag

Best of the Web: How Russia won the sanctions war with the West

St. Basils moscow christmas fair
© Tatyana Makeyeva/AFPPeople enjoy a chain swing ride during the Christmas and New Year market in front of St. Basils cathedral on Red Square in Moscow, on Dec. 30.
It is now abundantly clear that Russia has defeated the Western sanctions regime that was intended to cripple its economy and force its withdrawal from Ukraine. Instead of collapsing, the Russian economy is growing rapidly. Russia's GDP grew by an impressive 5.5 percent in the third quarter of 2023. Final figures for the year are not yet in, but Russian GDP growth for all of 2023 should exceed 3 percent. Ironically, the Russians are doing rather better than those who imposed sanctions on them. In 2023, the U.S. economy grew by 2.4 percent while the German economy shrank, and the EU as a whole grew by less than 1 percent. Instead of withdrawing from Ukraine, Russia has increased the size of its invasion force from 190,000 troops in February 2022 to more than 600,000 today.

Between February 2022 and February 2023, Western countries imposed on Russia the most extensive sanctions regime seen since World War II. In all, several thousand sanctions on Russian individuals, businesses, and government institutions caused only a mild recession in 2022 which the Russians quickly turned around. How did they do it? Very simply. The Russians have a lot of gold, grain, oil, and friends, all of which they used effectively to defeat the sanctions. Any realistic war game could have easily predicted all of this.

Attention

Best of the Web: Davos, trust, and the end of "comfortable wolves"

wolf chain dog house
Last fall I poked the slumbering bear of the #ungovernble set by taking extreme umbrage with calling people "Sheeple." For the record I absolutely detest that word.

Instead I shot back with a very reflexive, "Bullshit!" There are very few things that trigger me more than consigning 90% of humanity to that of herbivores orders of magnitude more stupid than my goats.

In that frustration I coined the phrase, "comfortable wolves." Sometimes you just have what alcoholics call "a moment of clarity."


No Entry

Best of the Web: Houthis hit US warship off Yemen coast forcing convoy of Navy & cargo ships to retreat

houthi yemen Yahya Saree
© AFP/GettySpokesperson for the Houthi-supported Yemeni army, Brigadier Yahya Saree on 14 September 2019
Yemen's Houthi group yesterday announced that it had hit an American warship and forced two commercial ships to retreat in the Gulf of Aden and the Bab Al-Mandab Strait.

In a televised statement, Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said: "In support against the oppression of the Palestinian people, and as part of the response to the American-British aggression against our country, we clashed with a number of American destroyers and warships in the Gulf of Aden and the Bab Al-Mandab Strait."

"The clash took place while the ships were providing protection for two American commercial ships, and it lasted more than two hours," he added.


Comment: Some reports allege those ships were carrying US weaponry. That might explain why the US has been rather quiet about the incident; not only because they're embarrassed.


Comment: The X post below provides insight into what this may reveal about the state of the West's preparedness, and ability to maintain its destabilisation project:


CENTCOM admits that one of the Houthis' tactical ballistic missiles - undemanding targets as far as such things go - got through the Gravely's interceptors. What they neglected to mention was that it struck about a hundred meters from the Maersk Detroit, and that after the attack the convoy aborted the transit and retreated back into the Arabian Sea rather than press on into enemy fire.

[...]

Was this operational plan inadequate? Almost certainly - reading between the lines, it reeks of a complacent assumption that Houthi missile batteries had actually been suppressed by a few rounds of air raids and that a single AEGIS destroyer could handle anything the Houthis could throw at them with no need for additional contingency planning. In the event neither of these assumptions were correct - and because of it a convoy covered by one of the US Navy's premier warships retreated from a battle that was going badly.
The retreat is confirmed by legacy media outlet, The Guardian:
Houthi missile attack forces cargo ships with US navy escort to turn around

[...]
Maersk said in a statement: "En route, both ships reported seeing explosions close by and the US navy accompaniment also intercepted multiple projectiles. The crew, ship and cargo are safe and unharmed. The US navy has turned both ships around and is escorting them back to the Gulf of Aden."

Maersk said its US subsidiary was now suspending Red Sea transits. "The safety of our crews is of utmost importance. Following the escalation of risk, MLL [Maersk Line Limited] is suspending transits in the region until further notice" the spokesperson said.

Both commercial vessels carry cargo for the US government and are enrolled in programs run by the defence department to transport forces, supplies and equipment during times of war or national emergency, which is why they were escorted through the strait.

Centcom also reported that on Tuesday night it had launched two pre-emptive strikes designed to stop imminent Houthi attacks. Previous attacks last Friday underlined the current inability of the US and UK to neutralise the Houthis despite multiple attacks on their missile sites.

The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, told MPs that risks to global navigation continued, with shipping costs rising by as much as 300%.


Indeed this is in part due to the blockade - which only targets Israel, but now also US and UK ships - however, note that logistics in general was collapsing even before Israel escalated its genocide: Record number of British haulage businesses going bust


"Our military strikes did not cause any civilian casualties," Shapps said.


That remains to be seen, but analysis suggests that these strikes may be lacking in sufficient intelligence to be having much impact at all on Houthi operations.


The attacks on the Houthis were backed by the influential chair of the UK's foreign affairs select committee, Alicia Kearns, who said it was ahistorical to regard the Houthis as anti-colonial freedom fighters.


The Houthis defending their country against the years-long Saudi-US war demonstrates that they are indeed anti-colonial freedom fighters.


Houthi forces in Yemen have written to the UN demanding that all UK and US staff leave the country within a month on the basis that their governments are mounting assaults on Yemen. The warning also appeared to apply to NGOs working in the capital, Sana'a. In addition, it was reported that the Houthis had prevented a UN plane from landing in the strategically important town of Marib on Wednesday.

[...]

The Houthi foreign ministry letter to the UN stated: "The ministry ... would like to stress that you must inform officials and workers with US and British citizenships to prepare to leave the country within 30 days." It was sent to the UN's acting humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Peter Hawkins.

The letter also ordered foreign organisations not to hire American and British citizens for Yemen's operations.

The US embassy said in a statement that it was aware of reports about the letter but "cannot speak on behalf of the UN or humanitarian organisations in Yemen as to what they may have received from Houthi 'authorities'".

The British embassy said staff had not yet been told to leave and the mission was in close contact with the UN on the issue.

"The UN provide vital assistance to the Yemeni people ... via the very sea routes that the Houthis are jeopardising," the British mission in Yemen said in a statement.


This vital assistance failed to get to the Houthis when the West's war on the country created, what the UN itself called the 'world's worst humanitarian crisis', with hundreds of thousands of Yemenis suffering starvation.


The UK's Middle East minister called for the UN to be allowed to get on with the job.

Ahmed bin Mubarak, the foreign minister of the UN-recognised Aden-based government, also claimed Houthi militia had earlier in the week threatened to target a Sudanese civilian plane transporting stranded Yemenis from Port Sudan to Mokha airport.

He made the claim in a meeting with the UN's Yemen envoy, Hans Grundberg, to illustrate the impossibility of dealing with the Houthis, who resisted a concerted Saudi-led air campaign after capturing Sana'a and forcing the western-backed former president to flee in 2015.

In April 2022 a ceasefire between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition prompted a decline in violence, and fighting has largely remained in abeyance despite the official expiry of the truce in October.


Which demonstrates how, unlike the West and Israel, the Houthis keep to their word. Journalist Pepe Escobar recently reported that Saudi Arabia and the Houthis wished to further their commitment to peace, however the West blocked such an agreement.


Bin Mubarak stressed the need for the international community to reconsider dealing seriously with the Houthi militias, remarks indicating that the UN-backed government wants to see the internal peace process frozen because of the Houthis' behaviour.

Grundberg also met the Saudi and UAE ambassadors to Yemen, and the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the UN security council.

He stressed the need to maintain "a favourable environment for the continuation of dialogue in Yemen, and the importance of continuing concerted regional and international support for peace efforts".

Saudi Arabia is not an enthusiastic supporter of the western strikes on the Houthis because it fears they will destabilise peace talks.
And, today, ABC reports that the Houthis continue their blockade of the Red Sea, undeterred:
Yemen Houthi rebels fire a missile at a US warship

Yemen's Houthi rebels launched a missile Friday at a U.S. warship patrolling the Gulf of Aden, forcing it to shoot down the projectile, the U.S. military said Friday.

The attack on the destroyer USS Carney marks a further escalation in the biggest confrontation at sea the U.S. Navy has seen in the Middle East in decades. It represents the first time the Houthis directly targeted a U.S. warship since the rebels began their attacks on shipping in October, a U.S. official said on the condition of anonymity because no authorization had been given to discuss the incident.


As we read above, this is not the first time the Houthis have directly targeted a US warship.


That contradicted a statement by the U.S. military's Central Command, which said the Houthis fired "toward" the Carney. As it has in previous strikes, the Pentagon has said it was difficult to determine what exactly the Houthis were trying to hit.


Hilarious!


Ever since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, the U.S. has tried to temper its descriptions of the strikes targeting its bases and warships to try to prevent the conflict from becoming a wider regional war.

Acknowledging Friday's assault as a direct attack on a U.S. warship is important, said Brad Bowman, a senior director at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

"They're now finally calling a spade a spade, and saying that, yeah, they're trying to attack our forces, they're trying to kill us," Bowman said.

Tempering the language, while aimed at preventing a wider war, has had the opposite effect of further enabling the Houthis, he said.

In Friday's attack, an anti-ship ballistic missile came near the USS Carney, an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer that's been involved in American operations to try and stop the Houthi campaign since November, Central Command said.

"The missile was successfully shot down by USS Carney," Central Command said. "There were no injuries or damage reported."


It's now clear that the US is obscuring the damage, and deaths, it is is incurring: US Navy Seals 'missing' in Red Sea declared dead, Yemen's Ansarallah imply their strike against warship was responsible


Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree did not acknowledge the Carney attack, but claimed a missile attack on a commercial vessel that set it ablaze.

The U.S. Navy's top Mideast commander told the AP on Monday that the Houthi attacks were the worst since the so-called Tanker War of the 1980s. It culminated in a one-day naval battle between Washington and Tehran, and also saw the U.S. Navy accidentally shoot down an Iranian passenger jet, killing 290 people in 1988.
UPDATE: Jan 26th @ 20:29 GMT:


See also: