Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

U.S. Breaks Its Deal with Iran… Again

By Ted Snider | The Libertarian Institute | October 18, 2023

Building on its reputation as an unreliable diplomatic partner, the United States announced on October 12 that it was pulling out of the deal that would have granted Iran access to $6 billion of its money in exchange for the release of five American prisoners. This rare diplomatic success between the U.S. and Iran took months to work out, only to see the U.S. break its word again and renege on the deal.

In 2018, the United States granted a waiver for South Korea to continue purchasing Iranian oil despite American sanctions on Iran. Instead of being deposited in Iran, the money for the oil would be placed in South Korean accounts that could be accessed by Iran for humanitarian goods in South Korea that were not sanctioned. However, entanglements in the web of the sanctions regime made it impossible for Iran to withdraw money from its account. Meanwhile, five Americans were being held prisoner in Iran.

Under the deal worked out between the two countries, the South Korean accounts would be transferred to Qatar where they would remain out of reach of Iran except for the purchase of humanitarian items like medicine, medical supplies, and food. The money would go, not to the Iranian government, but directly to the vendors who provided the goods. In exchange, Iran would release the five prisoners.

On September 18, Iran kept its word and released the five prisoners. A month later, the United States broke its word and denied Iran access to its $6 billion. Though it is not known if the refreeze is permanent, U.S. officials say that “case-by-case applications to spend [the funds] under the current arrangement will be denied for the foreseeable future.”

This is not the first time the U.S. has broken an agreement with what must be a frustrated and furious Iran. On May 8, 2018 the U.S. unilaterally and illegally pulled out of the JCPOA nuclear agreement with Iran that was successfully limiting Iran’s civilian nuclear program.

As with the current hostage deal, Iran kept its word and was in full compliance with the JCPOA nuclear deal when the U.S. broke its word. Eleven consecutive International Atomic Energy Agency reports verified that Iran was completely and consistently in compliance with their commitments under the agreement.

The solidifying American reputation cannot help but be a significant impediment to future important negotiations with Iran. It will also likely tarnish U.S. credibility as a diplomatic partner or broker in other parts of the world. Much of the non-NATO world—that is, the global majority—is already reeling from the realization of how the United States’ broken promise on NATO non-expansion east to the borders of Russia contributed to the current crisis in Ukraine.

This broken deal is not only not the first broken deal with Iran, but it is also not the first time the United States has reneged on a deal that freed American prisoners. In 1963, Fidel Castro freed American prisoners after receiving hints that their release could lead to a process of reconciliation, only to see the U.S. disappoint on its commitments.

Iran, on the other hand, has, in the past, kept its word on freeing American prisoners. When Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani promised to exert Iran’s regional influence and intervene to help win the release of American hostages being held in Lebanon, U.S. President George H.W. Bush promised that Iran’s help would “be long remembered” and that, in return, Iran would get something because “goodwill begets goodwill.” Iran successfully intervened to secure the release of the Americans being held hostage; the United States sent word that Iran should expect no American reciprocation.

Biden promised a quick return to diplomacy with Iran over the JCPOA nuclear agreement and then neglected that promise. He then broke another deal with Iran after Iran had already fulfilled its obligation. The American prisoners had flown from Iran to Qatar to the United States to be, as Biden said, “reunited with their loved ones.” His administration is reinforcing the reputation started by earlier presidencies that America cannot be trusted to keep its promises. That reputation could harm U.S. credibility in future diplomatic engagements.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Timeless or most popular | , , | Leave a comment

Russian jets armed with Kinzhal missiles to patrol Black Sea – Putin

RT | October 18, 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin told journalists on Wednesday that he has ordered warplanes to conduct regular patrols of the neutral airspace over the Black Sea.

“Our MiG-31 planes are armed with Kinzhal missile systems. It is known that they have a range of over 1,000 km and a Mach-9 speed,” he said at a press conference in Beijing.

The announcement was not meant as a threat, Putin stressed, but rather a reaction to escalating instability, particularly in the Middle East. He mentioned the US’ deployment of two aircraft carrier strike groups to the Mediterranean Sea in support of Israel as a factor.

As stipulated by Putin, the range of the hypersonic weapons potentially puts the eastern part of the sea within striking distance of Russian patrols.

Putin reported the development after commenting on the confirmation by the US that it had supplied several ATACMS ground-launched ballistic missiles to Ukraine, providing a new military capability for Kiev’s forces fighting Russia. The president called it a mistake for several reasons, such as dragging the US deeper into the conflict.

“Let no one say they have nothing to do with it. We believe they do,” he stressed.

He also described as “laughable” the notion that Russia has “already lost” in Ukraine. US President Joe Biden voiced it on several occasions during the conflict in the sense that Moscow supposedly wanted to conquer the entire country and failed to do that. The Russian government denied ever having such aspirations.

“If Russia has lost the war, why supply ATACMS? Let him take back the ATACMS and the rest of the weapons, get some pancakes, and come to us for a tea party,” Putin mused.

In an interview with CBS News last Sunday, Biden urged the audience to imagine a future in which “we, in fact, unite all of Europe and Putin is finally put down,” claiming it was achievable.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

C-SPAN Interview on An Encounter with Evil

By Jacob G. Hornberger | FFF | October 17, 2023

At Freedom Fest last July, I had the honor of being interviewed by C-SPAN’s Book TV about my most recent book An Encounter with Evil: The Abraham Zapruder Story. It’s about a 20-minute-long interview. The interview is another good sign that interest in the JFK assassination is increasing among the mainstream media, especially as we approach the 60th anniversary of the assassination. You can watch the interview here:

If you have not yet purchased and read my book, I highly recommend your doing so. What the CIA did with the Zapruder film on the very weekend of the assassination was kept secret for some 50 years. Don’t tell me that the CIA can’t keep secrets! In fact, if it had not been for a fortuitous disclosure by former CIA analyst Dino Brugionio, there is virtually no doubt that the CIA would have succeeded in covering its role with respect to the Zapruder film secret forever. 

The full details are contained in my book, but the following is the essence of what happened. 

The official narrative has always been that the original 8mm Zapruder film, which captured the assassination of President Kennedy, was sent to LIFE magazine on Saturday, November 22. 

Instead, what actually happened was that it was diverted to the CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) in Washington on that Saturday evening. 

How do we know that? Because Brugioni disclosed it during the late 2000s to assassination researchers Douglas Horne and Peter Janney. He told them that the film was brought to NPIC on that Saturday night, where he and his team made blow-ups of selected frames from the film to put on “briefing boards.”

He said that two men who represented themselves to be Secret Service agents then departed with the film. (As I explain in my book, it is a virtual certainty that the two men were actually CIA agents posing as Secret Service agents.)

On Sunday night, a 16mm copy of the Zapruder film was brought to NPIC by a man named “Bill Smith” who also represented himself to be a Secret Service agent (but who undoubtedly also was a CIA agent posing as a Secret Service agent). He told a CIA official at NPIC, Homer McMahon, that he had just brought the film from “Hawkeyeworks.”

How do we know this? Because McMahon told the Assassination Records Review Board in the 1990s that he and his NPIC team were the ones who received that 16mm copy from “Bill Smith” on that Sunday night. Their assignment was to make blow-ups from selected frames of the film and post them on “briefing boards” — in other words, the same thing that Brugioni and his team did with the 8mm original film on the previous Saturday night. 

What was Hawkeyeworks? It was a top-secret CIA film facility secretly located in Kodak’s research and development section of Kodak’s headquarters in Rochester, New York, where the CIA was able to do everything and anything with film that could be done in Hollywood. It was at Hawkeyeworks that the CIA made an altered, fraudulent copy of the film using a state-of-the-art “optical printer,” which “Bill Smith” then took back to NPIC on Sunday night, where, after it was converted to an 8mm film, it became the new “original” Zapruder film.

How do we know that the Sunday night film was a fraudulent, altered copy?

One reason is that the Saturday night film was an 8mm film. The Sunday night film was a 16mm film. It is impossible to convert an 8mm into a 16mm film. Thus, the 16mm film had to be a copy of the original 8mm film. 

Another reason is that when Horne and Janney showed Brugioni the extant film (that is, the film that purports to be the original), he told them that the film he saw on that Saturday might was different from the extant film they were showing him. It’s worth pointing out that Brugioni was perhaps the foremost photographic analyst in the world. (I detail his credentials in my book but you can read what Wikipedia states about him here.) 

Another reason is that there is no reason to have taken the film to Hawkeyworks except for the purpose of producing a fraudulent, altered copy of it. (Note: I should point out that there is no evidence Kodak participated in the CIA’s production of the fraudulent, altered copy of the film.)

Another reason is that there was no good reason for the Saturday and Sunday night events to be kept secretly compartmentalized — that is, the Saturday night team never knew about the Sunday night team, and vice versa. 

Another reason is that, as I detail in my book, Hollywood film experts who examined the extant film stated unequivocally their opinion that the extant film is an altered copy.

Another reason is that, as I detail more fully in my book, an extremely large number of witnesses stated they saw things prior to and during the assassination that that are not in the extant film.

It should also be pointed out that the fact that the CIA kept all of these shenanigans secret from everyone, including the Warren Commission, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, the ARRB, and the American people — and continues to do so — is itself incriminating. 

Again, all of this is more fully detailed in my book An Encounter with Evil: The Abraham Zapruder Story. 

Why is all this significant? Because it is this evidence that convicts the CIA of participating in the assassination of President Kennedy. There is no innocent explanation for the production of a fraudulent, altered copy of a film of the assassination, especially when the CIA kept what it did with the Zapruder film for some 50 years — and continues keeping the full operational details regarding the film secret. The CIA’s top-secret production of a fraudulent, altered copy of the Zapruder film automatically proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the CIA was, in fact, embroiled in the assassination of President Kennedy.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Book Review, Deception, Timeless or most popular, Video | , | Leave a comment

    Next Entries »