Here's my response.
The end of the world as we know it.
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Here's my response.
The end of the world as we know it.
Best of the Web: Goad, threaten, backtrack: Trump & Bolton's Iran policy is confusing, dangerous & achieves NOTHING
© Getty Images/Sean Gallup
National Security Advisor John Bolton's Tuesday claim that US diplomats are "surging" across the Middle East in search of a "path to peace" only to encounter "deafening silence" from Tehran might have ordinarily seemed merely mendacious.
But considering the extraordinarily rich array of pronouncements and actions from the White House in the past week, most are no longer sure if Bolton is playing the diplomat, gaslighting us or actually believes his words. If - surely, like many of the world's foreign ministers - you are struggling to keep up, here is the timeline since Thursday, when Iran admitted shooting down an American drone:
Best of the Web: American Pravda: NY Times admits it sends stories to US government for approval before publication
© Getty Images North America / Ramin Talaie
The New York Times has publicly acknowledged that it sends some of its stories to the US government for approval from "national security officials" before publication.
This confirms what veteran New York Times correspondents like James Risen have said: The American newspaper of record regularly collaborates with the US government, suppressing reporting that top officials don't want made public.
Iran's economy is already floundering due to the steadily mounting sanctions that the Trump administration has been heaping upon it since its withdrawal from the JCPOA last year. Crucial goods are four times the price they used to be, sick Iranians are having difficulty obtaining life-saving medicine, and life in general has been getting much more difficult for the poorest and frailest Iranian civilians.
For this reason, it is a very safe bet that there have been Iranians who have died because of the sanctions. Being unable to obtain enough life-saving medicine will inevitably increase mortality rates, as will inadequate nutrition and care for those whose health is at risk. There's not really any way around that, and it's only going to get worse.
Comment: See also:
- Art of the Iranian Deal: Iran Goes for Maximum Counter-Pressure Against US, Calls Trump's Bluff
- Pepe Escobar: The Pentagon's obsession with China, and Putin's strategy
- "Crimes against humanity": Former UN rapporteur says US sanctions on Venezuela like a "medieval siege"
- Netanyahu "pleased" as Trump announces "crippling" new sanctions on Iran
© AFP PhotoRussia has troops on the ground around Idlib province in northwest Syria.
But one statement that I haven't really addressed (until now) is "Why doesn't Russia liberate all of Idlib in one fell swoop?". Many "geniuses" like to say that Putin is in bed with the "Ottoman butcher" Erdogan and has thus "betrayed Syria", similar to how shaking hands with Netanyahu means that Putin is a Zionist and has "betrayed Syria", or even that a visit of the Saudi King to Moscow means that Putin has the blood of Yemen on his hands.
Comment: See also:
- Did the West really 'lose' in Syria?
- Syria, Then and Now: Liberated of Western-backed Terrorism
- Terrorists continue to stage attacks in Idlib, Syria, 'this cannot go on forever' - Lavrov
Brazilian Judge Sergio Moro gestures as he leaves the house of Brazilian President-elect Jair
It was a leak, not a hack. Yes: Brazilgate, unleashed by a series of game-changing bombshells published by The Intercept, may be turning into a tropical Russiagate.
The Intercept's Deep Throat - an anonymous source - has finally revealed in detail what anyone with half a brain in Brazil already knew: that the judicial/lawfare machinery of the one-sided Car Wash anti-corruption investigation was in fact a massive farce and criminal racket bent on accomplishing four objectives.
State news agency IRNA quoted the Guard's news website, Sepah News, as saying that the Islamic country's military force targeted the RQ-4 Global Hawk drone when it entered Iran's airspace "near the Kouhmobarak district in the south."
General Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, said the incident sent "a clear message" to the US, adding that Iran does "not have any intention for war with any country, but we are ready for war."
Responding swiftly to the Iranian claim, the US military said it had not violated Iranian airspace on Wednesday.
Comment: Further updates from RT:
A US Central Command (CENTCOM) statement acknowledged that one of its naval surveillance UAV's was indeed hit on Wednesday night. Tehran said that the device had been spying over southern Iran at the time of the interception, but CENTCOM said this was "false."
[...]
Earlier, the head of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the Iranian action had sent a "clear message" to Washington about its military posturing in the region. Iran also warned the US against crossing "a red line" and vowed to take all necessary steps to protect the country.
According to the IRGC, the drone was flying with its tracking equipment switched off at the time, violating international aviation regulations.
"The drone took off from a US base in the southern Persian Gulf," according to a statement by the elite unit. While in the air, the US allegedly attempted to make the drone appear invisible to radar.Trump's response is lame. And John Bolton is on his way to Israel to learn what he should do next:
It had turned off all its identifying equipment in violation of aviation rules and was moving in full secrecy.
Earlier, Tehran said its air defenses had shot down a US RQ-4 Global Hawk reconnaissance drone overnight, after it illegally entered Iranian airspace over southern Iran.
Amid disputes over the authenticity of reports that Iran shot down a US drone, US President Donald Trump tweeted early Thursday with a clear message: "Iran made a very big mistake!"
Washington claims that the surveillance drone was in international airspace at the time that it was brought down, while Tehran says it was spying on southern Iran.
An unnamed US official told Reuters that the debris field from the US military drone was located in the international waters area of the Strait of Hormuz. They also confirmed that US Navy vessels are en route to investigate.
"US drone intrusion into Iranian airspace is in clear violation of the UN Charter and national sovereignty of the country," Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, said Thursday, while urging his government to file a formal complaint with the UN.
Falahatpisheh accused the US of breaching Chapter seven of the UN Charter and that its drone operations constituted a hostile move against the national security and sovereignty of Iran.
US President Donald Trump has not ruled out an air strike against Iran in retaliation for the shooting down of a US Navy drone. The US military insists the drone was over international waters, but Iran says this is false.Video footage of the shoot-down published by the Iranian military:
Asked if the US was considering a retaliatory strike, Trump told reporters at the White House, "You'll soon find out."
"I have a feeling... that it was a mistake made by somebody who shouldn't have been doing what they did," Trump said about the incident, speaking after a meeting with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.
If he was referring to someone within the US then he'd be right.
"I find it hard to believe that it was intentional," he added. "It could have been somebody who was loose and stupid."
John Bolton, Trump's hawkish national security adviser who has pushed for a hard-line policy on Iran, is on his way to Israel to discuss "regional security" with US allies in the Middle East, the White House said.
John Bolton, Trump's hawkish national security adviser who has pushed for a hard-line policy on Iran, is on his way to Israel to discuss "regional security" with US allies in the Middle East, the White House said.
Trump denied that members of his administration were pushing him towards war, saying that he wanted to end "endless wars" like Afghanistan and not get into new ones, just like he said during the 2016 campaign - but Iran shooting down the US drone is "a new wrinkle... a new fly in the ointment."
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has accused the US of waging "economic terrorism" and covert action against his country, and now encroaching on its territory.
"We don't seek war, but will zealously defend our skies, land & waters."
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have been rising for the past several months, with the US sending additional troops to the region and blaming Tehran for attacks on several oil tankers in international waters. Iran has rejected the accusations.
Trump has climbed down from months of fighting talk in the most ridiculous way possible:
"It's hard to believe it was intentional, if you want to know the truth," he added. He suggested it could have been carried out by someone who was acting "loose and stupid" and characterized the incident as "a new wrinkle...a new fly in the ointment."Major-General Hossein Salami of the IRGC called this Iran's "clear message" to the U.S. of their readiness to react to any aggression on the part of the Americans:
"The downing of the American drone was a clear message for [the United States of America] ... our borders are the red line of Iran and we will react strongly against any aggression," Fars news agency quotes Salami as saying.The Pentagon released its version of the flight path, claiming the drone never entered Iranian airspace:
At the same time, Salami said his country "is not seeking war" against other nations, but is ready to defend itself.
It differs from the Iranian version only near the end of the flight path:
In the US photo, the drone retraced its easterly flight on a return trip, but in the Iranian version, the drone cuts much closer to the Iranian coast over the Gulf of Oman, during which time it would have been in Iranian territory.Iran's ambassador to the UN sent it a letter restating that the drone conducted its flight "in full stealth mode as it had turned off its identification equipment and engaged in a clear spying operation."
"When the [US] aircraft was returning towards the western parts of the region near the Strait of Hormuz, despite repeated radio warnings, it entered into the Iranian airspace where the air defense system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, acting under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, targeted the intruding aircraft at 04:05 hours local time on the same date at the coordinates N255943 and E570225 near the Kouh-e Mobarak region in the central district of Jask in the Islamic Republic of Iran", Ravanchi said in the letter.Several ranking US senators are calling for a 'response':
"The international community is called upon to demand the United States to put an end to its continued unlawful and destabilizing measures in the already volatile region of the Persian Gulf", Ravanchi stressed.
"This is not the first provocative act by the United States against Iran's territorial integrity. It is reminded that in all such cases, the Islamic Republic of Iran has officially protested to the U.S. through its interests section in the Embassy of Switzerland in Tehran", the ambassador said.
"Iran directly attacked a United States asset over international waters. This provocation comes a week after they attacked and destroyed two commercial tankers in international waters. There must be a measured response to these actions", McCarthy and Representatives Michael McCaul, Mac Thornberry and Devin Nunes said in a joint statement.This tweet sums it all up beautifully:
Updates 21 June
In reaction to the drone being shot down, the FAA has prohibited all American operators from flying over Iranian airspace - the suggestion being Iran could shoot down an airliner next.
US media is reporting today that the Pentagon 'almost' retaliated against Iran with airstrikes, but that Trump cancelled authorization at the last-minute when he learned Iranian casualties would like number around 150 people. That makes him look merciful, but it's more likely that they could not be sure Iran wouldn't escalate the situation further. Iran is NOT Syria...
Meanwhile, Iran's deputy foreign minister Seyyed Abbas Araqchi said in a phone call with the Swiss envoy, Markus Leitner, whose country represents the US interests in the Islamic Republic, that "there [is] indisputable evidence about the presence of this drone in Iran's airspace." In the phone call, Araqchi also urged Washington to respect Iran's borders, both aerial and maritime, telling Leitner "the Islamic Republic of Iran would not hesitate for a moment to decisively defend its territory against any aggression."
The commander of the Iranian Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Brigadier General Hajizadeh, claims that the downing of a US drone was a warning to an American military aircraft that was flying alongside its UAV and that Iran refrained from targeting the American plane with 35 on board.
On Friday afternoon, the Iranian military showcased the wreckage of the US drone:
Also, Iran has denied the US claim that they sent 'fair warning' ahead of 'nearly' bombing that country in retaliation...
See also:
- Why the United States will not attack Iran
- India deploys warships, jets to Persian Gulf to reassure own vessels amid rising Iran-US tension
© Eva Bartlett
Predictably, copy-paste Syrian reports emanate from Western governments and corporate media feign concern for civilians in Idlib while negating to mention that the Idlib governorate is an Al-Qaeda hotbed.
Back in Syria again, over the 'Eid holidays, I spoke with residents about life in Damascus now, and highlighted the peace which exists - having been absent for many years prior when terrorists' mortars rained down on the city.
But I was also interested in highlighting another issue: the evacuation of southeastern Syria's Rukban Camp which has been under way for months; civilians have been plucked from starvation and intolerable conditions, and delivered to safety with access to food and medical care.
The criticism came from Sergey Naryshkin, who heads Russia's foreign intelligence agency SVR. He said spies are constantly improving the tool used to dispose of governments that the West does not like.
"We are talking about creating a universal algorithm for conducting clandestine influence operations in a continuous manner and on a global scale," he said. According to the official, this clandestine work "never stops and targets not only enemies, but also friends and neutral powers in the times of peace, crisis and war."
Comment: "...but also friends and neutral powers..."
Indeed, right across NATO-stan, critical infrastructure is rigged with Stuxnet-like viruses, just in case any 'allies' start having second thoughts.
Comment: Venezuela is just one of the 'theaters' that are currently visible. What is taking place there now required decades of preparation - since Chavez's election in 1998.
They've been working on Iran - to varying degrees of intensity - since 1953. Russia got some respite in the 1990s, but otherwise it's subject to permanent hybrid warfare.
This includes what seems - at the time - innocuous activity: foreign funding of art that promotes 'ethnic sub-cultures', foreign NGOs working for 'women's health', international student exchanges for 'broadening cultural horizons', etc.
A couple of decades later, your efforts have 'loosened' the socio-cultural basis for national cohesion in your target country/region, and you're ready to 'cash in' with a Maidan-like crisis that only needs a few snipers to push things over the edge and cement regime change...
Each attack by this virus doesn't work, of course, but that doesn't mean it goes away. It just mutates and attacks another weakness in the target organism. The only antidote is a healthy society in which the public is generally aware of the existence of this virus...
Wuhan, in the Hubei province of central China, is home to 10 million people - many of whom live in these colourful houses away from the high-rise city centre and factories
Over the last decade, American wages have stagnated and U.S. productivity has consistently been outpaced by China's. The U.S. government has responded by engaging in a trade war and imposing stiff tariffs in order to penalize China for what the White House deems unfair trade practices. China's industries are said to be propped up by the state and to have significantly lower labor costs, allowing them to dump cheap products on the U.S. market, causing prices to fall and forcing U.S. companies out of business. The message to middle America is that Chinese labor costs are low because their workers are being exploited in slave-like conditions at poverty-level wages.
But if that's true, how is it that the great majority of Chinese families own homes? According to a March 2016 article in Forbes:
... 90% of families in the country own their home, giving China one of the highest home ownership rates in the world. What's more is that 80% of these homes are owned outright, without mortgages or any other liens. On top of this, north of 20% of urban households own more than one home.Due to their communist legacy, what Chinese buyers get for their money is not actually ownership in perpetuity but a long-term leasehold, and the quality of the construction may be poor. But the question posed here is, how can Chinese families afford the price tag for these homes, in a country where the average income is only one-seventh that in the United States?
Comment: Nice that the NYT decided to come clean about its relationship to the intelligence community. But the proof was there all along.
As the quote attributed to George Orwell goes: or propaganda . . . .