Published: June 4, 2019

SOURCE: WASHINGTON'S BLOG
Theodore A. Postol is one of the nation’s top scientists. He is a professor emeritus of science, technology, and national security policy at MIT.

Postol’s main expertise is in ballistic missiles. He has a substantial background in air dispersal, including how toxic plumes move in the air, and has taught courses on weapons of mass destruction – including chemical and biological threats – at MIT.

Postol sent Washington’s Blog his brand new analysis of the Syrian chemical weapons attack in Douma. He sent the following “cover letter” email to me, summarizing his new findings:

As the European Union moves towards building a common military, the US has reportedly threatened to leave its allies in a lurch if Brussels continues to insist on cutting US weapons makers out of the bargain.

US citizens are weary of endless wars, Virginia State Senator Richard Black believes. He warned President Donald Trump against dragging the country into another one with Iran, and blamed John Bolton for being the top warmonger.

As tensions between Tehran and Washington continue to soar, Senator Black has addressed the US president in a letter, warning against going into an all-out war with Iran. He squarely put the blame for the ongoing standoff on National Security Advisor John Bolton, and urged Trump to prevent the official from “usurping” his own role.

Second World War veterans from the US have returned to the Normandy D-Day beaches 75 years on to pay tribute to their fallen comrades who sacrificed their lives.

Gathering on Omaha Beach in France, the former-soldiers saluted the friends who died during the landings and war that stretched from 1939 to 1945.

This week, we commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landings, the largest seaborne invasion in history.

It was the crucial turning point in the war with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, one that began the liberation of German-occupied France and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front.

Later this month the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division will officially convert to an armored BCT, one of the many moves the Army is making to bring heavier firepower to bear in any potential near-peer fight.

The shift was announced last year by Army Secretary Mark Esper. Then-Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson laid out details of the plan for Army Times.

The reflagging ceremony is scheduled for June 20. The change involves bringing in new soldiers, refurbishing and refitting equipment and infrastructure at Fort Bliss, Texas, home of the 1st Armored Division.

Remember Shakespeare’s line “he jests at scars that never felt a wound?” That epithet could have been written with National Security Advisor John Bolton in mind. Bolton was notoriously a draft dodger during the Vietnam War, like his current boss, not due to any scruples regarding what was occurring, but out of concern for his own sorry ass. He is now credibly believed to be the driving force behind the punishment being meted out to Venezuela and, far more dangerously, of the creeping escalation that is taking place in the Middle East that is seeking to draw Iran into a misstep that would lead to war. Bolton, who has received the “Defender of Israel” award, has long been an outspoken advocate for attacking Iran and now he has the power to do just that.

SOURCE: ZEROHEDGE

A couple of new bombshell leaked NSA documents from the Snowden archive published days ago by The Intercept confirms the extremely close level of cooperation between American and Israeli intelligence services, especially as part of the so-called "global war on terror" since 9/11. The documents reveal the NSA even assisted in an aggressive targeted assassination campaign waged by Israel inside Lebanon, especially during the 2006 Lebanon War.

According to The Intercept's report — aptly titled "Israel Hated American Ban on Sharing Intel for Assassinations, so US Made New Rules" —the newly unearthed NSA memos reveal attempts to find a legal loophole of sorts on the part of the US intelligence officials which would allow unprecedented information sharing related to a deeply controversial targeted assassination campaign by Israel.

The Western alliance has come under increasing strain in recent years amid President Trump's insistence that NATO's European members commit more to defence spending, and reports that the president has repeatedly raised the issue of withdrawing Washington from the bloc.

The Trump administration has presented America's European allies with an "ultimatum" demanding that the countries make changes to their defence policy to ensure that Europe remains closely linked to US defence manufacturers in the creation of new arms, El Pais has reported, citing documents from a meeting in Washington, DC on 22 May between US officials and members of the EU's Political & Security Committee.

According to the Spanish newspaper, US officials warned their EU counterparts that they may be left alone in the face of threats, supposedly including Russia, if Brussels rejected the US defence companies' participation in the creation of new weapons systems.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has urged progress on a code of conduct for the contested South China Sea, which, he warned, was becoming a “flashpoint.”

Speaking at an economic forum in Tokyo on Friday, Duterte veered off script with remarks about the resource-rich sea, over most of which China claims sovereignty, despite competing claims from the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and Vietnam, AFP said.

SOURCE: ALJAZEERA.COM
The Afghan Taliban is unlikely to call a ceasefire any time soon, the group's leader has indicated, even though the "doors of dialogue" with the United States to end the 18-year-long war in the country remain open.

In his annual message on Saturday, ahead of next week's Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, Mullah Haibatullah Akhunzada pledged to continue fighting until the group's objectives were reached.

"No one should expect us to pour cold water on the heated battlefronts of Jihad or forget our 40-year sacrifices before reaching our objectives," he said in the message, adding that the Taliban aimed for "an end to the occupation and establishment of an Islamic system".

His statement comes days after a Taliban official said that "decent progress" had been made during talks with a group of senior Afghan politicians in Moscow.

SOURCE: ZEROHEDGE

Israel has admitted responsibility in a significant overnight attack on Syria which reportedly killed up to ten pro-Assad forces, including possibly seven of what the Israeli media is claiming were Iranian and Hezbollah "foreign fighters".

The predawn raid took place south of Damascus in Quneitra province and unlike prior Israeli attacks appeared to included a multi-pronged sustained offensive of warplanes and helicopters on artillery and intelligence facilities. Syrian state media confirmed the attack, saying its anti-air defenses were active and successful over Quneitra and over the capital of Damascus, but put its early casualties as three killed and seven among the wounded.

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford has revealed that it was he who was driving recent US military deployments into the Middle East, saying he recommended them based on intelligence with respect to Iran.

Dunford claimed that “malign activity and threats to our forces by the Iranians were not new,” but that what he saw was a synchronized series of efforts that looked more like a formal campaign against the US.

Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan confirmed that Dunford told him of an “anomaly” in Iranian behavior. At the same time, Shanahan says that President Trump has made clear he does not seek a war over the matter.

The Israeli military said it attacked a Syrian anti-aircraft position after an Israeli warplane came under fire. Syrian TV earlier stated that Israel had carried out a missile strike in Syria’s Quneitra province.
According to SANA, one officer was killed and two others were injured in the attack on a military site east of Khan Arnabeh in the Quneitra countryside. It added that the Syrian Air Defense attacked an unmanned aerial vehicle that entered Syrian airspace near the southern suburb.

Israeli Defense Forces claimed that it was their jet making a routine flight in northern Israel that came under fire. The Syrian anti-aircraft missile missed the warplane and it was able to complete its mission successfully.

From a distance the gathering of some 130 wealthy and influential people in Montreux, Switzerland, starting tomorrow looks benign enough. The website of the Bilderberg Group says it’s just “an annual forum for informal discussions, designed to foster dialogue between Europe and North America.… It’s a forum for informal discussions about major issues.… There is no detailed agenda, no resolutions are proposed, no votes are taken, and no policy statements are issued.

The group even posts its agenda items, which include “informal discussions” about Brexit, climate “change,” and the future of capitalism. All designed to put any seeker of the truth to sleep.

Bloomberg reports that Russia's President Putin has rejected a controversial Iranian request to buy S-400 missile defense systems on the basis of current soaring tensions between Tehran and Washington following accusations of "sabotage" attacks on oil tankers and a pipeline in the gulf region.

The breaking report cites a senior Russian official and other unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter:

The request was rebuffed by President Vladimir Putin, the people said on condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to discuss the matter. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited Moscow May 7.

While the details of NATO’s new military strategy are still unknown, the chances are that the alliance is simply aligned with recent updates of US doctrine and seeking to overcome all potential opponents, a military expert said.

Citing a supposed new security situation as well as challenges in the east and south, and a nuclear threat from Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced last week that the alliance has adopted a new military strategy. Details of the document are not yet public.

“The surprising thing is not that NATO updated its military strategy, but that it took so long to do so,” Mikhail Khodarenok, a retired Russian Aerospace Forces colonel, told RT.

From my distant vantage point in New England, tracking the daily fluctuations of the ongoing Iran war scare poses a challenge. It’s that old problem of distinguishing between signals and noise. These days there is noise aplenty emanating from Washington. That the prospect of yet another Gulf war competes for bandwidth with intensifying efforts to impeach President Trump makes it more difficult still to know what exactly is going on.

More than three years into its efforts to recruit and assign women to every combat military occupational specialty, more than 1,000 women have joined the infantry, armor and field artillery branches, according to a May 21 release from the Army.

They are currently spread over brigades at five of the Army’s biggest posts, and later this year, Army G-1 Lt. Gen. Thomas Seamands said in the release, five more are due to open this year: Fort Riley, Kansas’s 1st Infantry Division; Fort Stewart, Georgia’s 3rd Infantry Division; Fort Drum, New York, and Fort Polk, Louisiana’s 10th Mountain Division; and Vicenza, Italy’s 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.

“As part of a multi-year effort to open other assignments to female soldiers, as many as 500 women currently serve in every active brigade combat team in the Army down to the company level," Seamands said.

The commencement address Trump's VP, Mike Pence, gave to West Point graduates recently goes down in history for all the wrong reasons.

It was an address littered with war talk that was so extreme it was more compatible with a speech you would expect to hear from a character in a Hollywood spoof than from a leading politician and government official.

This was no spoof, though, be assured, and as such the world needs to wake up to the fact that this administration is staffed with enough cranks and crackpots to fill an entire ward.

One of the last living World War II Navajo Code talkers and a long-serving New Mexico state senator died Friday at age 94.

John Pinto, a marine, reportedly had been battling several different illnesses throughout the past years. Pinto was born in Lupton, Ariz., on Dec. 15, 1924. After serving as a Code Talker in World War II, Pinto graduated from the University of New Mexico’s College of Education at age 39.

In 1976 Pinto was elected to serve in the New Mexico state Senate, where he served for over 40 years. He also was one of the Code Talkers who received a Congressional Silver Medal in 2001.

The lucrative poppy cultivation and drug business has been one of the major concerns of the US and CIA in Afghanistan, so much so that they managed to establish a long-lasting foothold in the country under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

On May 28, Kosovo Police’s Regional Operational Support Unit (ROSU) carried out mass raids in areas of compact settlement of ethnic Serbs in the northwestern part of the breakaway region. ROSU units, reportedly supported by over 70 vehicles, detained more than a dozen ethnic Serbs, mostly persons influential in the local community. Besides this, the ROSU briefly detained and beat a Russian member of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo.

The targeted area is 90 percent populated by Serbs, who refuse to be part of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo.

ROSU actions faced resistance from the local population. According to the Kosovo side, at least two police officers were injured. Several media outlets also reported gunfire, but no details of the supposed live fire usage have appeared so far.

New mapping technology that is expected to transform training and simulation exercises for America's warfighters was unveiled at the IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo (ITEC) 2019 conference on May 15 in Stockholm, Sweden, reported National Defense Magazine.

Jason Knowles, director of geospatial science and technology at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, an Army affiliated research center, spoke at ITEC about the new terrain capture and reconstruction software that recreates complex environments including cities for simulation exercises and war planning. The institute is part of a cross-functional team working on the mapping software (called One World Terrain (OWT) project).

Knowles described the new software as "Google Earth on steroid."

Turkey has launched a cross-border operation into neighboring Iraq against Kurdish militants in a mountainous northern region of the country.

The Turkish defense ministry confirmed its military unleashed a barrage of artillery fire and air strikes on Monday afternoon before ground forces entered northern Iraq to “demolish the caves and shelters that are being used by terrorist groups and to eliminate terrorists” — a reference to the outlawed PKK.

The Israeli military said it attacked a Syrian anti-aircraft position after an Israeli warplane came under fire. Syrian TV earlier stated that Israel had carried out a missile strike in Syria’s Quneitra province.
According to SANA, one officer was killed and two others were injured in the attack on a military site east of Khan Arnabeh in the Quneitra countryside. It added that the Syrian Air Defense attacked an unmanned aerial vehicle that entered Syrian airspace near the southern suburb.

Israeli Defense Forces claimed that it was their jet making a routine flight in northern Israel that came under fire. The Syrian anti-aircraft missile missed the warplane and it was able to complete its mission successfully.

Earliest this week, Army leaders approved a detailed plan to get high-powered microwave and laser weapons into the hands of soldiers, advancing rapidly in parallel to development of hypersonic missiles, Lt. Gen. Neil Thurgood said here. But, he warned the AUSA conference here, directed energy is “not the panacea of all things.”

“Clearly, we can accelerate directed energy into our formations,” said Thurgood, who as head of the service’s recently reorganized and beefed-up Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO, manages the service’s most high-tech, high-priority programs: directed energy, space, and hypersonics. (More on hypersonics below). The Army’s especially interested in taking out incoming rockets, artillery, mortar rounds, and small drones with electrically-powered weapons that cost pennies per shot instead of expensive one-use interceptors. But lasers and microwaves have real limits.

Japan plans to buy 105 US-made stealth warplanes, Donald Trump said on Monday, which the US President said would give Tokyo the largest F35 fleet of any US ally.

Trump, in Tokyo for a state visit, said Japan "has just announced its intent to purchase 105 brand new F35 stealth aircraft. Stealth, because, the fact is you can't see them."

"This purchase would give Japan the largest F35 fleet of any US ally," added the president.

Trump appeared to be referencing a deal first announced by the F35's manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, in December.

Japan's government announced in its latest defence budget in December plans to buy 105 units of the F35A, which performs conventional take-off and landings.

The Army is changing the way it buys software and has started entering into new agreements with industry to acquire the intellectual property rights of software.

Generally, contractors that develop systems for the Army own the actual code they write. This means if an update needs to be made quickly, the Army has to go back to the contractor and often pay for updates because they don’t own the rights to the programming.

“It used to be the way we looked at intellectual property rights is we kind of saw it as a binary decision. The government either bought it or we didn’t. Most times we didn’t because it was very expensive,” Maj. Gen. Randy Taylor, commander of Communications and Electronics Command (CECOM), told C4ISRNET in a May 20 interview. “The reason it was so expensive is because what company would want to compromise that?”

The Army wants to develop a force that can compete with adversaries such as China and Russia in every domain by 2028. To do so, service leaders say they will need to deliver incremental updates to the tactical network every two years beginning in 2021.

“We’re going to have a network of ‘21, a network of ‘23, ‘25 and ‘27 with our goal for the network of ‘27 to be the network that implements the 2028 vision,” Maj. Gen. Dave Bassett, program executive officer of Command, Control, Communications-Tactical, said at a February industry forum in San Diego, California.

This approach to incrementally improve capability is a departure from previous efforts, where the Army was locked into one vendor and one technology set. Now, the service is more cognizant that technology could force service leaders to change their vision.

Afghan politicians are set to attend a two-day meeting with the Taliban in Moscow this week, officials confirmed Monday, as fighting continues to rage in Afghanistan amid troubled peace talks between the US and the militants.

The meeting -- set to run the 28th and 29th of May -- will mark the 100th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and Afghanistan.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said a 14-member delegation was heading to Moscow, led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group's top political leader.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban's chief negotiator and former deputy minister of foreign affairs, will also attend, Mujahid said in a statement.

From the Afghan political establishment, former president Hamid Karzai is set to make an appearance, with his spokesman Yousof Saha suggesting the Afghan and Taliban delegations might meet on the sidelines for informal talks, but he noted nothing was guaranteed.

Donald Trump is currently visiting Japan, whose prime minister is said to be considering serving as a mediator in possible peace talks between Iran and the United States.

The United States is not looking to overthrow Iran's government, President Donald Trump said on Monday, as tensions between the two countries flared with Washington deploying troops to the region.

"I know so many people from Iran, these are great people. It [Iran] has a chance to be a great country, with the same leadership. We are not looking for regime change, I just wanna make that clear," Trump said at a press conference in Tokyo, adding that he thinks "we'll make a deal" with Tehran.

In 1915 a business associate of J P Morgan told American businessman that entering WW I would be great for America because it would bankrupt our Allies in England, France and Russia. Jacob Schiff gave Trotsky $20 million in gold so he and 400 Jewish Communists could leave Brooklyn for Russia. They set up a Jewish Communist government which eventually killed more than 60 million Gentiles. Half or 30 million were killed because they were guilty of being Christians. Arthur Balfour wrote to Lord Rothschild promising the Jews Israel as a British colony.

Americans lost 130,000 men. And 8,000 were blinded. And WW I created the need for WW II.

SOURCE: ACTIVIST POST

By Carey Wedler

Every Memorial Day, Americans pay their respects to soldiers who have died while fighting for the US military. Though the good intentions and courage of those who enlist in the armed forces are admirable, the best way to honor those individuals on this holiday—and every day—is to stop sending them to war.

This pro-peace sentiment is often conflated with disrespect for the troops: If you don’t support the government’s wars, you must not support the soldiers fighting in them. However, considering the great cost to human life inflicted by military conflicts—the immense suffering soldiers, their families, and civilians in battleground countries endure—scaling back the size and scope of military programs is not only the best way to respect the troops but also a necessary measure to preserve liberty and freedom.

MILITARISM

"It is a virtual certainty that you will fight on a battlefield for America at some point in your life. You will lead soldiers in combat. It will happen," Vice President Mike Pence told the most diverse graduating class of West Point on Saturday, "Some of you will join the fight against radical Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq." This speech comes just a day after the Pentagon confirmed 1,500 more American troops will be deployed to the Middle East.

Just when you thought Democrats could not go any lower, they pathetically surprise you.

The latest occurred on Tuesday when HUD Secretary Ben Carson took heat from their minions at a House Financial Services Committee hearing over his plan to deny public housing to illegal aliens.

When there are over 35,000 U.S. military veterans who sleep on the street every night, housing even one person who broke the law and now is a burden to this nation is a shameful thing — and a slap in the face to every one of those veterans.

The official Twitter of the US Army conducted a survey to find out how the service impacted the lives of its military.

Today, more than 9,000 people have already shared their views. While they find that Army service physically and emotionally strengthens people, gives meaning to their lives, and opens up career prospects, there are many other comments with skeptical and critical statements about the US Army’s influence in the world, the country and its personal life.

“How have you served me? IT RUINED MY LIFE. Not because of what I saw. Not because of the nightmares. Not because of the daily pain. Not because of the Breathing issues. Not because of the Anxiety and Depression. Because when I returned home you tossed me to the curb,” said one former soldier.

After posting a video of a young recruit talking to the camera about how service allows him to better himself “as a man and a warrior”, the US Army tweeted, “How has serving impacted you?”

As of this writing, the post has over 5,300 responses. Most of them are heartbreaking.

“My daughter was raped while in the army,” said one responder. “They took her to the hospital where an all male staff tried to convince her to give the guy a break because it would ruin his life. She persisted. Wouldn’t back down. Did a tour in Iraq. Now suffers from PTSD.”

“I’ve had the same nightmare almost every night for the past 15 years,” said another.

SOURCE: KURTNIMMO.BLOG

This isn’t exactly what Mike Pence told the graduating class of West Point on Saturday. He said it’s “a virtual certainty that you will fight on a battlefield for America at some point in your life,” which means, of course, people will die, not simply soldiers but countless innocent others.

Pence tells West Point graduates it's "a virtual certainty" they will go to combat as Iran tensions escalate https://t.co/7V80F7KLZ9 pic.twitter.com/gWEtnuUcHS

— The Hill (@thehill) May 26, 2019

Pence’s “battlefield for America” is a brazen lie. America has but one reason to wage wars in the Middle East—and that reason is Israel.

The trillion dollar wars past, present, and future in the Middle East—in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran—do not in any way benefit the US, and instead have made America an international outlaw.

SOURCE: KURT NIMMO

Over at Reddit, somebody posted an Infowars video where a host sitting in for Alex Jones claims the corporate media in the US is making up “fake news” about Israel.

This is neocon and Likudnik propaganda. It is well-known by neutral observers that The New York Times, The Washington Post, and their ilk have consistently defended, glossed over, or ignored the manifest crimes of the Israeli state. The apartheid state of Israel excels in murdering women and children—and medics, journalists, and activists (Rachel Corrie comes to mind)—and because it is Israel, it gets a free pass.

The Infowars host, the kid talking to the camera, is a know-nothing. He is trapped in a vicious circle of hatred for Democrats and “leftists,” in response to their hatred of Republicans and “conservatives.”

Meanwhile, the crimes continue, more brazen than ever. Donald Trump has served as an over-the-top booster for Zionism.

SOURCE: BEN NORTON, GRAYZONE PROJECT

WHILE TRUMP THREATENS IRAN AND VENEZUELA WITH NEW WARS, 400 CONGRESS MEMBERS, INCLUDING LEADERS FROM BOTH PARTIES, WANT TO INTENSIFY THE EIGHT-YEAR WAR ON SYRIA, TO WEAKEN IRAN, RUSSIA, AND HEZBOLLAH.
While the Donald Trump administration is threatening two new wars on Iran and Venezuela, a substantial majority of the US Congress is clamoring for more immediate action.

Nearly 400 Congress members from both chambers — roughly 75 percent of all federal US lawmakers — have signed an open letter calling on President Trump to escalate the war in Syria, in the name of countering Iran, Russia, and Lebanese Hezbollah.

Top Democratic Party leaders have joined hawkish Republicans in a bipartisan demand that the far-right president “address threats in Syria” and “demonstrate American leadership in resolving the prolonged conflict.”

The Russian engineering company Tecmash and the state hi-tech corporation Rostec are considering replacing 30mm guns with 57mm weapons in Russian armored vehicles’ munitions systems. Russia’s Defense Ministry is also studying this possibility, Tecmash Deputy CEO Alexander Kochkin told TASS on Tuesday.

While addressing the CIA on Saturday, President Donald Trump took a break from lambasting the media to remind everyone that he thinks the U.S. should have stolen Iraq’s oil. He also suggested that the U.S. might get another chance to violate international law.

“Now I said it for economic reasons,” Trump said while introducing Representative Mike Pompeo, his pick to lead the agency. “But if you think about it, Mike, if we kept the oil, you probably wouldn’t have ISIS because that’s where they made their money in the first place, so we should have kept the oil. But, okay, maybe we’ll have another chance.”

The US Army probably expected an influx of patriotic replies when it asked for testimonies about people’s service. Instead, Twitter offered disturbing stories of debilitating injuries, mental health problems and suicide.
It all began with a a video of a soldier who told the camera he joined to serve "something greater than myself." The army, the featured soldier said, had given him the opportunity to "give to others" and better himself "as a man and a lawyer."

The Army then made the mistake of asking Twitter at large for their thoughts.

That was where the patriotism ended. The account was quickly inundated with responses from former service members and their families — and they make for some seriously disturbing reading.

From damaged mental health and suicide, friends lost to war, post-traumatic stress (PTSD), nightmares and life-changing injuries, almost none of the responses were positive.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Terrorists in the Idlib de-escalation zone are preparing up to four vehicles filled with explosives to help them break through Syrian army defensive positions, the commander of the Russian centre for Syrian reconciliation said on Friday.

According to Maj. Gen. Viktor Kupchishin, more than 800 militants, at least seven tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 15 pickup trucks with heavy machine guns have already arrived in the southwest of the Idlib de-escalation zone. Illegal armed groups are bringing in reinforcements, weapons and military equipment to ??the town of Kafr Nabudah in Hama province.

We might chalk it up to stating the obvious, but by and large the media has moved on from Venezuela, however, the coup plotters in Washington have not. Apparently the Kremlin also wishes to remind the world of this, given its ongoing support to Maduro and his army, and given that the Russian foreign ministry has remained vocal on the issue, announcing this week that "US-backed attempts to stage a coup in Venezuela will continue."

Yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo assured his interviewers on Fox News that the threat from Iran is totally "real" and "credible" - though he once again refused to get into specifics. But whatever the threat might be, American troops in the region will soon be able to sleep a little easier, because the White House and Pentagon have reportedly agreed to send "roughly 2,000" additional troops to the Middle East...to help protect American forces in the region.

Other reports put the number at closer to 1,500. Trump met with Pentagon leaders Thursday evening where they decided to move ahead with the troop deployment to CENTCOM, which oversees all American troops in the Middle East.

Not long after he reportedly agreed to send another 1,500-2,000 troops to the Middle East in yet another show of strength to combat an increasingly belligerent Iran, President Trump steamrolled Congress on Friday to approve $8 billion in arms sales to the UAE and Saudi Arabia and expedite delivery, WSJ reports.

The administration invoked a rarely used provision of American arms control laws to bypass Congress and approve the weapons sales, citing the escalating tensions with Iran as justification. WSJ's sources said the $8 billion figure encapsulates a package of 22 separate deals.

In addition to the militarization of Eastern Europe, NATO partakes in active intelligence operations – be it by land, sea and air.

There are numerous reports of various intelligence (spy) aircraft going and even entering Russian airspace, and the Russian Aerospace Forces intercepting them.

Officially, NATO has 14 Boeing E-3A Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS) aircraft with their radar domes, stationed at NATO Air Base (NAB) Geilenkirchen, Germany.

The fleet is involved in the reassurance measures following the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and in the tailored assurance measures for Turkey against the background of the Syrian crisis.

Under normal circumstances, the aircraft operates for about eight hours, at 30,000 feet (9,150 meters) and covers a surveillance area of more than 120,000 square miles (310,798 square kilometers).

Global Research Editor’s Note

The following text by Arash Norouzi first published by the Mossadegh Project and Global Research in January 2007 confirms that the alleged “Wiped Off the Map” statement by Iran’s president was never made.

In the light of recent US threats directed Iran, we are reposting this important article.

Iran does not constitute a threat to Israel.

The rumor was fabricated by the American media with a view to discrediting Iran’s head of state and providing a justification for waging an all out war on Iran. the article provides of media manipulation and “propaganda in action”.

Iran is blamed for refusing to abide by the “reasonable demands” of “the international community”.

In recent developments, Iran is persistently described as threatening the security of Israel. And Israel is described as instrumental in determining US foreign policy.

My friend Andrew Rubin is an amputee. He’s lost his right hand, lower arm, right foot, and lower leg.

He used to be an avid runner and cyclist. He can’t do much of that anymore, although his walking is getting much better. Soon he might be able to run with his artificial leg.

Andrew is incredibly lucky.

The medical catastrophe that left his hand and foot so terribly damaged didn’t kill him. But when his limbs never healed even after a decade, he decided to undergo the amputations. It was his choice, and it was made much easier because he knew what lay ahead: the most advanced artificial limbs ever imagined. The kids call him Bionic Man now.

Andrew is lucky for another reason: He doesn’t live in Gaza.

According to the United Nations, 1,700 young Gazans are facing amputation, mainly of their legs, in the next two years. They’re among the 7,000 unarmed Palestinians in Gaza shot by Israeli snipers over the last year.

As the U.S. war drums beat ever louder with respect to Iran, it’s worth remembering the Maine, the Arizona, and the Maddox. They were three U.S. vessels that played instrumental rolls in enabling U.S. officials to embroil the United States into foreign wars.

Adem Duygu, a military analyst from Turkey, posted commercial satellite imagery of Russia's new combat stealth drone on a flight line around the date President Vladimir Putin inspected the country's latest warplanes at the 929th Chkalov State Flight-Test Center in Russia's Astrakhan region.

Commenting on the latest satellite imagery, The National Interest said the new drone, dubbed the Sukhoi Okhotnik-B, or Hunter-B, a stealth heavy unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) being developed by Sukhoi as a sixth-generation aircraft, was first spotted by land-based cameras earlier this year at an airfield in Novosibirsk in southern Russia.

Under President Barack Obama’s administration and, now, President Donald Trump’s, the United States has put its military might behind the Saudi-led coalition, waging a war without congressional authorization. That war has devastated Yemen’s infrastructure, destroyed or damaged more than half of Yemen’s health facilities, killed more than 8,350 civilians, injured another 9,500 civilians, displaced 3.3 million people, and created a humanitarian disaster that threatens the lives of millions as cholera and famine spread through the country.

The Director of the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), Renata Dwan, warned that all states with nuclear weapons are pushing for weapon modernization programs, while arms control regulations are changing or fading.

The Director of the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), Renata Dwan, warned that all states with nuclear weapons are pushing for weapon modernization programs, while arms control regulations are changing or fading.

This restructure of nuclear agreements is partly due to strategic competition between China and the U.S, and a new “arms race” between the North American nation and Russia. With disarmament talks stalemated for the past two decades, 122 countries have signed a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, expect states with the weaponized material.

As a result, since 2018, the Doomsday Clock marks two-minutes till midnight, something not seen since 1947.

War with Iran remains a deeply unpopular prospect among the American people, but a new opinion poll conducted by Reuters and polling organization Ipsos found there's not much optimism concerning the likelihood of getting entangled in a future conflict. The poll released Tuesday found that half of all Americans see the US and Iran being at war "within the next few years".

As of early this week it appeared the White House as well as Pentagon were firmly signaling the US has climbed down the escalation ladder, with statements claiming the US military build-up near the Persian Gulf of the past two weeks had forced Iran to put its planned actions against US troops "on hold" in order to "recalculate".

The CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) sanctions concept of economically punishing countries that continue to purchase Russian and Chinese arms is about to become much more effective after the forthcoming global application of the “European Recapitalisation Incentive Programme”, which will see the US sanctioning states that don’t progressively transition away from their current multipolar suppliers to American ones instead.

Adding a carrot of sorts to the traditional sanctions stick, the US will help countries fund their new American purchases, which will supposedly incentivize them into complying with Washington’s demands. This new policy represents a much more muscular approach to “military diplomacy” than before and shows that the US properly understands the challenge that Russia and China’s own application of the same poses to its global interests.

Iran's president has told a group of clerics that he is seeking expanded, wartime executive powers to better deal with an "economic war" triggered by the Trump administration's pullout from the nuclear deal and escalating US sanctions.

The state IRNA news agency reported late Monday that President Hassan Rouhani cited the 1980s war with Iraq, when a wartime supreme council was able to bypass other branches to make decisions regarding the economy and the war.

The report didn't say what the new powers would entail but quoted Rouhani as saying that "today, we need such powers".

China told the world’s main disarmament forum on Wednesday that U.S. foreign policy was destabilising, baffling and redolent of Don Quixote, the Spanish fictional hero whose misplaced determination leads him on a series of doomed endeavours.

“The Cold War mentality has come back to drive the security strategy and policy of a major power,” China’s disarmament ambassador Li Song told the Conference on Disarmament, a long-stalemated arena for arms talks at the United Nations in Geneva.

“In particular the U.S. keeps saying other countries make it feel unsafe – this is truly baffling,” he said.

Pentagon says new limits actually "increase transparency".

Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan has issued a new memo imposing major new restrictions on the methods through which the Pentagon and defense officials are allowed to share information with Congressional offices or committees.

The policy imposes serious limits, telling officials to only give Congress official summaries instead of actual plans, and sets officials within the Pentagon who decide whether a Congressional request can be proven to be legitimate.

This is clearly intended to further limit information sharing at a time when many in Congress are complaining they’re already not being kept sufficiently informed. Reps. Adam Smith (D-WA) and Mac Thornberry (R-TX) warned that the new policy is overstepping the Pentagon’s authority, by “presuming to determine what warrants legislative oversight.”

Congress never authorized a US war in Iran. Under the US Constitution, Congress has sole authority to do that, so that’s seemingly an important deal. With the US engaged in other unauthorized wars, however, it has been little more than a side note, and the Trump Administration has considered Congressional involvement in the process to be optional, at best.

Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Tom Udall (D-NM) led an effort on Wednesday to try to reassert Congressional authority, by trying to preemptively de-fund any US war against Iran unless Congress authorized it ahead of time.

This proposal was brought forward at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and immediately failed, 13-9. Murphy said this vote would remind the administration that they don’t have authorization for the war.

Citing ongoing US-Iran tensions and the secret intelligence on Iranian “threats” officials keep mentioning, CENTCOM is requesting that the Pentagon approve substantial numbers of additional US ground troops to be deployed somewhere in the Middle East.

Though initial reports claimed that CENTCOM was only requesting “about 5,000” ground troops, subsequent reports said that the Pentagon are preparing a plan to present to President Trump seeking 10,000 troops.

It’s not clear where these troops could be stationed, though officials emphasized they would be purely defensive. It is unlikely Iraq would welcome a large influx of US troops, however, especially when it is presented as being directed against neighboring Iran.

SOURCE: DEEP STATE BLOG

The growth of intelligence agencies in the 21st century has been powered by the development of new technologies, created by start-ups, which are powered by intelligence agencies. This unvirtuous circle of money and espionage is a new and daunting challenge for civil liberties and human rights groups.

The U.S intelligence community has a venture capital organization, Inqtel, founded by the CIA in 1999. Israel’s Mossad has Libertad Ventures, founded in June 2017.

As The Times of Israel reports:

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved an amendment to the annual defense spending bill that would end the authorization for the use of military force (AUMF), as lawmakers grow increasingly concerned over the possibility of war with Iran.

The committee voted along party lines, 30-22, for Rep. Barbara Lee's (D-Calif.) amendment to sunset the AUMF, which has been used as legal justification for military operations against terrorist groups.

Passed days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it has been cited as a justification for conflict 41 times in 18 countries.

“In the last 18 years, it really has become increasingly clear that the AUMF has essentially provided the president, and that’s any president, the authority to wage war anywhere in the world at any time,” said Lee, who was the only member of Congress to vote against the AUMF when it was passed.

On May 16, 2008, near the town of Baiji in Iraq, 1st Lieutenant Michael Behenna, US Army, murdered a prisoner. That was the verdict of the jury in his 2009 court martial, anyway. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, but paroled in less than five. On May 6, 2019, US president Donald Trump pardoned Behenna.

As I write this, news reports indicate that Trump intends to celebrate Memorial Day by pardoning several other Americans convicted of (or accused of and not yet tried for) war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s a horrible idea for several reasons.

One reason is that it’s morally repugnant to excuse the commission of crimes, especially violent crimes, for no other reason than that the criminal is a government employee.

A second reason is that it is detrimental to the good order and and discipline of the US armed forces to excuse violations of law by American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines.

SOURCE: THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

The more steps that we take toward a war with Iran, the more likely it becomes that somebody will do something really stupid that will actually trigger one. By cutting off Iran’s oil exports, we are threatening to completely wreck their economy, and at this point they feel backed into a corner. And the Iranians have already watched the U.S. invade two countries that they share a border with (Afghanistan and Iraq), and so it is understandable that they are a bit paranoid that it could happen to them too. President Trump keeps saying that he doesn’t want a war with Iran, but the Iranians do not believe a single word any U.S. politician says. Instead, they watch what we actually do very, very closely, and the fact that the Pentagon wants to deploy thousands of new troops to the Middle East is definitely going to freak them out. The following comes from Fox News…

Last week, the New York Times reported that the president was thinking seriously about pardoning military officers and one contractor who had been convicted of, or were facing charges for, committing war crimes, in time for announcement on Memorial Day. It seemed a grossly inappropriate way to celebrate a national holiday devoted to those who died for our country, not those who lived but slaughtered innocents. But then again, Trump does seem to conflate patriotism with jingoism, parades, and intimidating foreigners with threats of lethal violence.

It’s unclear what will happen on Memorial Day, but the Los Angeles Times is now reporting that a backlash has developed among current and former military leaders who consider the idea, well, kind of dishonorable:

At this point Trump is fighting a war with everyone not named Israel and Saudi Arabia. Even allies are not to be spared Trump’s wrath for all of their slights against his beloved United States.

In the greatest television series of the 1990’s, Babylon 5, one of the main characters, Londo, a weak and venal man, makes a deal with the devil and unleashes his dying empire’s worst impulses, to restore it to its former glory.

An American-led war on Iran is still a possibility, despite the fact that US President Donald Trump has openly expressed his lack of enthusiasm for it now, in contrast to his National Security Advisor John Bolton. Israel comes to mind in this instance, despite the unlikely possibility of Israel participating directly in a military confrontation, especially after Washington explicitly asked Israel not to interfere in the event of a war. This is similar to the position during the second Gulf War in 1991.

A focus on land warfare may seem out of place in a region dominated by the Pacific Ocean, but what rocky shores do rise from the waves would offer important survivability options for U.S. troops and their equipment.

Ground forces are in a perfect place to capture those benefits were a war to break out in the Indo-Pacific theater, the commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific said Tuesday.

“There are those that are building anti-access, area denial bubbles,” through the use of long-range precision fires and long-range standoff weapons, Gen. Robert B. Brown said at the opening of the Association of the United States Army’s 2019 Land Forces of the Pacific Symposium. “They believe they have all our militaries figured out. That they know exactly how we fight in a very linear manner, not utilizing all the domains."

The U.S. Army is equipping ground troops with a new handheld drone it claims will eliminate dead space on the battlefield, allowing soldiers to see beyond their line of sight. The Black Hornet drone, set to deploy with infantry platoons and other units, will also allow troops to thoroughly reconnoiter an objective, gathering information about enemy forces, while staying hidden and preserving the element of surprise.

Originally developed by Prox Dynamics of Norway, the Black Hornet drone is designed to be a very small, practically birdlike handheld drone that can do quick local surveillance missions over the battlefield. Prox Dynamics was purchased by U.S.-based FLIR Systems, which then outfitted the tiny drone with infrared night vision. The resulting drone can see day or night, recording video or still images, and has a flight time of 25 minutes. Here’s a FLIR Systems video on the latest version, Black Hornet 3.

The head of naval aviation has directed the creation of a new process for approving and reviewing pilots' call signs after two African-American aviators at an F/A-18 Hornet training squadron in Virginia filed complaints alleging racial bias in the unit, from which they said they were unfairly dismissed.

In a formal endorsement letter signed May 13, Vice Adm. DeWolfe Miller, commander of Naval Air Forces, said he found the two aviators, a Navy lieutenant and a Marine Corps captain, were correctly removed from Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106 out of Naval Air Station Oceana due to "substandard performance," despite errors and inconsistencies discovered in the grading and ranking process.

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Iraqi leaders that if they are not going to stand with the US against Iran, then they should stand aside, AP reported.

Pompeo’s message came last week as he met with Iraqi leaders to discuss the mounting tension between Washington and Tehran.

The news agency said the message was relayed to it by two Iraqi officials who refused to be named, pointing out that Pompeo’s visit to Baghdad came as intelligence had received information about Iranian threats to US interests in the Middle East.

“There are fears that Baghdad will get caught again in the conflict between Washington and Tehran after recovering from the effects of its war on the Islamic State,” the news site reported, in reference to Daesh.

The aircraft, known as the MAGMA unmanned aerial vehicle, is capable of maneuvering without the traditional wing flaps found on aircraft through the use of air that's blown from its engine through special slots in its wings at supersonic speeds.

The prototype drone, developed by researchers from Manchester University with assistance from engineers at BAE Systems, was test-flown out of the Llanbedr Airport in northwest Wales.

Authored by Janine Jackson via Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting,

The Washington Post editorial’s headline (5/14/19) had the US “drifting” toward war with Iran—another example, as analyst Nima Shirazi quipped, of the “world’s superpower somehow having no agency over its own imperialism.”
If we can still call things “surreal,” that would describe watching corporate media do the same things they did in the run-up to the Iraq War, things they later disavowed: the credulous repetition of administration claims about the supposed threat; the reliance, for interpretation of “intelligence,” on officials with well known records for manipulating intelligence; the stenographic reporting of ‘troubling’ actions by the enemy state, that later have to be walked back.