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Greece is aiding Netanyahu regime’s genocidal project: Former Greek Finance Minister Varoufakis

MEMO | September 25, 2025

Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has accused Athens of “violating International Law to aid and abet the Netanyahu government’s genocidal project” after a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla was attacked by drones off southern Crete, Anadolu reports.

Varoufakis, a prominent author, opposition politician, and commentator, said on X that he had spoken to the crew of the Family, the main vessel of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was struck on the night of Sept. 23 by “a swarm of drones with explosives and CS (tear) gas.”

The flotilla, he said, had requested urgent help from the Greek Coast Guard to repair damage and provide protection while sailing through Greece’s Search and Rescue area.

“Remarkably, nauseatingly to be precise, the Greek Coastguard turned both requests down!” he said.

“Such is the determination of the Greek government to aid and abet Israel’s genocide in Gaza and, more generally, its ethnic cleansing of Palestine, that the Greek authorities took the step of refusing assistance that the Law of the Sea obliges them to provide.”

According to Varoufakis, the refusal highlights how “readily, in a bid to satisfy (Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu, the Greek government has forfeited not only its responsibilities but also its sovereignty.”

Under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, he added, “a long process by which Greece has become a satellite of the last Apartheid State is now complete,” referring to Israel’s policies of discriminating against and oppressing Palestinians.

He also pointed to wider evidence of complicity. On the night of the flotilla attack, Varoufakis claimed, a Beechcraft King Air 350 spy plane took off from the US Air Force base at Souda in northwestern Crete and flew south.

The aircraft, he said, belongs to the US leasing company Metrea Special Aerospace ISR and had previously been used to monitor Gaza from a British base in the Greek Cypriot Administration.

“One thing is clear from all of the above,” Varoufakis added.

“Through a mixture of omission and commission, the Greek government is violating International Law to aid and abet the Netanyahu government. Our party, MeRA25, will fight this government on the streets, in the workplaces, across a country – Greece – which refuses to be counted as complicit with Israel’s genocide.”

Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave all but uninhabitable and led to starvation and the spread of diseases.

September 25, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Shooting down Russian plane would mean war – ambassador

RT | September 25, 2025

Any NATO member state that shoots down a Russian warplane would trigger a “war” with Russia, Moscow’s envoy to Paris, Aleksey Meshkov, has warned.

Last Friday, Estonia claimed that Russian military aircraft had briefly violated its airspace, due to which Tallinn requested urgent consultations with fellow NATO members. Earlier this month, Poland alleged that multiple Russian decoy drones entered its territory.

Moscow has denied both sets of allegations.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte did not rule out shooting down Russian warplanes should they violate the bloc’s airspace, emphasizing, however, that such decisions are made strictly on a case-by-case basis.

When asked how Russia would react if one of its warplanes was shot down by NATO, Meshkov told France’s RTL radio station on Thursday “that would mean war.”

According to the Russian diplomat, “quite a lot of [NATO military] planes accidentally or not accidentally violate our airspace. And no one shoots them down.”

He also insisted that NATO member states have failed to produce “material” evidence to back up their accusations.

On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov similarly dismissed claims over the supposed incursion by Russian warplanes into Estonian airspace as “hysteria” that is “absolutely baseless and unfounded.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that three MiG-31s were conducting a routine flight from Karelia Region, east of Finland, to an airfield in Kaliningrad Region, a Russian exclave bordering Poland and Lithuania, and that they strictly flew over neutral waters of the Baltic Sea.

Addressing an emergency UN Security Council on Monday, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski vowed that his country would destroy any Russian aircraft or missile that crossed into its airspace.

Last week, Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene similarly urged NATO to be firm in the face of supposed Russian attempts to “test” its resolve.

September 25, 2025 Posted by | Militarism, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment

German industrial giant poised for major job cuts – media

RT | September 25, 2025

Leading German automotive supplier Bosch is set to slash a “five-digit number” of jobs as part of a major cost-cutting exercise, Handelsblatt reported on Thursday, citing anonymous industry sources.

Germany and other EU members have seen their industries lose ground globally after switching from inexpensive Russian oil and gas imports to costlier alternatives following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

Earlier this month, Bosch HR director Stefan Grosch revealed that the company’s mobility division, which produces fuel injectors and driver-assistance software among other items, was staring at an annual shortfall of approximately €2.5 billion ($2.95 billion).

In an email statement to the press, Bosch said it would be “cutting costs across the board – from materials and logistics to capital spending and jobs.”

In its report on Thursday, Handelsblatt noted the German company had already axed 4,500 jobs last year in its largest division at home.

In late July, BMW reported a 29%-year-on-year-drop in first-half profits. The German auto giant attributed the poor showing to the import duties on cars and vehicle parts imposed by US President Donald Trump in April as well as intense “competitive pressure,” particularly from China.

Fellow German automaker Volkswagen saw its after-tax earnings slump by 36% in the second quarter of the year, with Mercedes posting yet worse results.

In June, the German Press Agency (dpa) estimated that Germany’s industrial sector had lost more than 100,000 jobs over the past year.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz last month acknowledged that the country was “not just in a period of economic weakness, we are in a structural crisis of our economy,” caused by a loss of competitiveness.

Commenting on the economic woes witnessed across multiple EU member states, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described it in April as “the true cost of the EU’s anti-Russian agenda.”

Last February, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the German government was “destroying their auto industry.”

September 25, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment

China signs $2.5bn seawater contract to sustain Iraq’s oil output

The Cradle | September 23, 2025

China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering (CPPE) has secured a $2.5 billion contract to design and build a massive seawater distribution system across southern Iraq, Iraq Business News (IBN) announced on 23 September.

The agreement with Iraq’s Basra Oil Company covers a 950-kilometer network that will deliver treated seawater to multiple fields, with Australian consultancy ILF tasked with supervising the works.

The project centers on a treatment plant built to handle five million barrels of treated seawater each day, with future phases allowing the volume to increase to seven to eight million.

The treated seawater will be pumped into the reservoirs of Rumaila, Zubair, West Qurna 1 and 2, Majnoon, and other fields in Maysan and Dhi Qar to keep underground pressure high, which allows the crude oil to be more easily extracted.

The pipeline will also help protect freshwater sources that are currently being diverted from rivers and aquifers, which will instead remain available for use in agriculture and households.

The scheme forms a central pillar of Iraq’s Common Seawater Supply Project, first outlined as part of wider efforts to stabilize crude output.

It also links with other ventures such as TotalEnergies’ expansion at the Artawi (Ratawi) field, where output is targeted to rise to 210,000 barrels per day (bpd).

China National Petroleum Corporation had disclosed in August that its subsidiary, CPPE, was the winning bidder, with the contract awaiting final signature. The company stated that execution would commence after the contract was signed, with a duration of 54 months.

China has steadily deepened its position in Iraq’s energy sector.

Senior executives from four Chinese oil firms told Reuters in August that their collective production in Iraq is set to double by 2030, reaching half a million bpd.

Baghdad has also invited Beijing to anchor other strategic initiatives. In 2023, Iraq’s transport minister said China was expected to play a major role in the $17 billion Development Road linking West Asia to Europe.

In July, PowerChina was awarded a $4 billion contract for Iraq’s first major seawater desalination facility in Basra, reinforcing Beijing’s growing weight in Iraq’s reconstruction and resource management.

September 25, 2025 Posted by | Economics | , | Leave a comment

Syria, Ukraine restore diplomatic ties at UN General Assembly

The Cradle | September 25, 2025

Damascus and Kiev have restored diplomatic ties following a meeting between self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

“We are pleased with this important step and are ready to support the Syrian people on their path to stability,” Zelensky said in a statement on 24 September. “During our negotiations with President Sharaa, we discussed in detail the promising areas for developing cooperation, the security threats facing both countries, and the importance of addressing them. We agreed to build our relations on the basis of mutual respect and trust,” he added.

“His Excellency the President of the Republic, Mr. Ahmad al-Sharaa, met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Mr. Volodymyr Zelensky, in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Mr. Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, and his accompanying delegation, on the sidelines of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry said.

Syria’s foreign minister and his Ukrainian counterpart signed a joint declaration on the restoration of ties in the presence of Sharaa and Zelensky.

Sharaa was the former deputy to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, before becoming the head of the official Al-Qaeda branch in Syria, the Nusra Front. The Nusra Front was eventually rebranded into Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which took control of Syria in December 2024.

Ukraine played a role in the 11-day offensive that resulted in the collapse of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Two months before Assad’s government fell, Russian media reported that hundreds of Ukrainian experts were training HTS in the use and manufacture of drones.

According to the Washington Post, the Ukrainian government provided HTS with “about 150 first-person-view drones” and at least 20 experienced drone operators in the lead-up to the offensive.

In 2022, Assad recognized the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic as independent and sovereign states, prompting Zelensky to fully cut diplomatic ties with Syria.

September 25, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

Marine Le Pen pressures Macron as calls for French election grow

Al Mayadeen | September 25, 2025

Marine Le Pen is intensifying her offensive against French President Emmanuel Macron, seeking to exploit his political vulnerability as his fifth prime minister in two years, Sebastien Lecornu, struggles to form a stable government.

The National Rally leader is pushing for a snap French election, aiming to increase pressure on Macron and his allies. By framing the president and his centrist camp as the source of France’s political dysfunction, Le Pen is attempting to present her party as the only credible alternative.

“The people on the ground are fed up with them,” National Rally Vice President Louis Aliot told Bloomberg, confirming that the far-right party will not back Lecornu’s government.

Lecornu’s immediate challenge is passing a budget in the National Assembly. He has been reaching out to moderate-left lawmakers to secure votes, but their demands are unlikely to align with Macron’s agenda.

The difficulty is compounded by recent political upheaval. Francois Bayrou’s government collapsed after lawmakers across the spectrum blocked a €44 billion package of tax increases and spending cuts. Now, Lecornu faces a similar risk of defeat.

National rally pushes for snap French election

Le Pen has shifted her strategy, adopting a harder line against Macron after months of balancing disruption and restraint. Her party helped bring down Bayrou’s administration and is now demanding concessions from Lecornu that he is unlikely to make.

By doing so, the National Rally hopes to fracture Macron’s centrist bloc or portray its rivals as complicit in France’s political paralysis. Le Pen has made clear she could support ousting Lecornu if his budget proposals fail.

Public frustration appears to be on Le Pen’s side. A recent poll found that 61% of respondents favor dissolving parliament. The National Rally, already the largest party in the National Assembly, believes a snap vote could bring it closer to a majority.

In last summer’s snap election, the party finished first in more than half of constituencies but was blocked from power after centrist and leftist parties united in the second round. Party officials argue momentum is now shifting in their favor.

Legal challenges add personal stakes for Le Pen

For Le Pen, the stakes are both political and personal. She is appealing a conviction tied to the misuse of European Parliament funds that currently bars her from running for office for five years. She has described the ruling as politically motivated.

A decision on her appeal is expected before summer 2026. Some National Rally figures have floated the idea of passing an amnesty law to clear her path to the 2027 presidential race if the party secures a parliamentary majority.

Le Pen has derided Lecornu’s appointment as the “final cartridge of Macronism” and hinted at further escalation if the deadlock continues. She has even suggested broader constitutional options, including a referendum or the resignation of the president.

“If dissolution is not sufficient, there is the potential resignation of the president of the republic, and the possibility of holding a referendum,” she told Europe 1 radio last week.

By linking Macron’s presidency to political paralysis, Marine Le Pen is betting that her National Rally can transform mounting voter frustration into a decisive advantage in France’s shifting political landscape.

September 25, 2025 Posted by | Economics | | Leave a comment

Only 36 countries back Ukraine in key UN vote

RT | September 24, 2025

A joint statement by Ukraine and the EU condemning Russia has received the backing of only 36 out of the 193 UN member states. The US notably abstained.

Presented by EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga at the UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, the document describes Russia’s actions vis-a-vis Ukraine as a “blatant violation of the UN Charter.” It also calls on the global community to “maximize pressure” on Moscow, and to support Ukraine’s “territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.”

The joint statement was endorsed by the 26 EU member states, with the exception of Hungary, and also endorsed by Albania, Andorra, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK.

Back in February, the UN Security Council rejected a resolution drafted by Kiev and its European backers that contained similar anti-Russian rhetoric. A competing resolution promoted by the US was eventually adopted, with Washington, Moscow, and eight other members voting in favor and five European nations abstaining. That version avoided branding Russia as an aggressor and called for a “swift end” to the Ukraine conflict.

Moscow’s deputy envoy to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, at the time described the outcome as a victory for common sense, claiming that “more and more people realize the true colors of the Zelensky regime.”

Moscow has consistently characterized the Ukraine conflict as a proxy war being waged against it by the West.

The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that the hostilities would end were Kiev to renounce its claims to the five regions that have joined Russia through referendums since 2014, reaffirm its neutral status, and guarantee the rights of the Russian-speaking population on its territory.

September 25, 2025 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Washington escalates pressure on Iraq to ‘detach from Iran’: Report

The Cradle | September 24, 2025

The US has escalated its pressure on Iraq to “disengage from Iran” in recent weeks, senior Iraqi officials were cited as saying by Al-Araby al-Jadeed on 24 September.

“These measures go beyond the issue of armed factions and their advanced weaponry, and include reforms to the judiciary and financial sectors to ensure greater independence from the influence of groups allied with Iran,” the sources said.

One official said Washington has also demanded legal action against leaders of Iraqi resistance groups.

No specific names were given, yet Washington has sanctions imposed on a number of resistance leaders, including Qais al-Khazali of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq movement.

The pressure includes “the banking sector, where public and private banks have been subjected to a US oversight mechanism aimed at preventing Iran from exploiting the Iraqi financial system.”

“The Iraqi financial sector, both public and private, is now under near-total oversight by the US Treasury to ensure that Iran or its affiliates do not benefit from the Iraqi financial system. All financial transfers from Iraq abroad pass through intermediary banks in Jordan and the UAE, as part of current US oversight measures,” an Iraqi diplomat told the outlet.

“Dissolving armed groups” or integrating them into the state’s army is also on the list of US demands.

The Coordination Framework (CF), a political coalition of Shia parties aligned with and including several Iran-backed resistance factions, views the pressure as a potential green light for Israel to strike targets inside Iraq, according to the report.

Last week, the US officially designated four resistance groups as terrorist organizations: Al-Nujaba Movement, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Ansar Allah al-Awfiya Movement, and Kataib al-Imam Ali.

The US State Department said it was part of Washington’s “maximum pressure on Iran.”

In recent months, the US has also been pressuring Baghdad on the issue of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) draft law.

The law was signed into legislation in 2016 and institutionalized the PMU, a coalition of armed factions, some of which previously fought ISIS and resisted the 2003 US invasion of the country. The law integrated the organization, formed in 2014, into Iraq’s military structure.

A new draft law was introduced earlier this year, aiming to replace the 2016 law and further institutionalize the PMU into the Iraqi state with comprehensive regulation, including a mandatory retirement age and clearer administrative structure.

The law would also transform the PMU into a fully independent security institution directly under the country’s prime minister.

Among the groups represented in the PMU are Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and the Al-Nujaba Movement – Iran-linked resistance factions involved in the attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria, which began after the start of the Gaza genocide and ended months later with the help of Iraqi government pressure.

The US has slammed the draft law, calling it the “institutionalization of Iranian influence” in Iraq.

Last year, the US launched heavy strikes on Kataib Hezbollah sites in Iraq in response to the killing of three soldiers in a drone strike on a US military base on the Syria–Jordan border.

Washington has reportedly threatened renewed attacks against Iraq if resistance factions linked to Iran are not disarmed.

September 24, 2025 Posted by | Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

How MI6 Fabricated Iran Nuke Fraud

By Kit Klarenberg | Global Delinquents | September 24, 2025

On September 19th, the UN Security Council voted to reimpose savage economic restrictions on Iran over its nuclear program. European leaders have in recent months repeatedly accused Tehran of refusing to abide by the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action’s terms. A core, repeated claim is the Islamic Republic has collated a uranium stock over 40 times the level permitted under that deal. No supporting evidence for the charge has been provided, and the source of this information isn’t clear.

It may nonetheless be highly significant London has taken the lead in calling for the restoration of sanctions, independently imposed punitive measures on Iranian individuals and commercial entities, and employed relentlessly bellicose rhetoric about the Islamic Republic’s purported breaches of its JCPOA commitments. In August, then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy declared Tehran had “consistently failed to provide credible assurances on the nature of its nuclear programme.” In the wake of the UNSC vote, British ambassador Barbara Woodward proclaimed, “we urge [Iran] to act now.”

As this journalist has previously exposed, the JCPOA resulted from a long-running MI6 black propaganda campaign to falsely frame the Islamic Republic as possessing nuclear weapon ambitions, if not nukes outright. Under the Agreement’s terms, Tehran received sanctions relief in return for granting the International Atomic Energy Agency virtually unhindered access to its secret nuclear complexes. Despite the IAEA consistently certifying Iran’s compliance, the Trump administration shredded the Agreement in May 2018, and launched a “maximum pressure” campaign to cripple the country.

Information gathered by the IAEA under the Agreement appears to have assisted Israel’s criminal 12 Day War in June, raising the obvious question of whether the Agreement was always intended as an espionage operation, in preparation for future conflict with Tehran. This interpretation is amply reinforced by leaked documents, indicating the IAEA provided Zionist entity intelligence with names of Iranian nuclear scientists who were subsequently assassinated. Meanwhile, the papers show Agency chief Rafael Grossi enjoys an intimate, covert relationship with officials in Tel Aviv.

These disclosures understandably motivated Iranian lawmakers and President Masoud Pezeshkian to halt any and all cooperation with the Agency. The sanctions eased by the JCPOA being the product of an MI6 black propaganda effort, to falsely convince the West and its overseas proxies and puppets Tehran posed a global nuclear weapon threat, provides the Republic with even more urgent justification for ignoring the Agreement’s terms. Iran’s grounds for rejecting any accommodation with the same countries now seeking to sanction her are inarguable.

‘Supportive Relations’

At the centre of MI6’s black propaganda war on Iran was longtime British intelligence officer Nicholas Langman, a veteran dark arts specialist who has been repeatedly publicly exposed perpetrating the dirtiest imaginable deeds for London’s foreign spying agency the world over. He was for example intimately implicated in Britain’s contribution to the CIA’s global post-9/11 torture program. However, rather than being penalised or defenestrated for his actions and unmasking, he appears to have been richly rewarded, and consistently failed upwards.

A leaked CV shows 2006 – 2008, Langman led MI6’s Iran Department. Here, he oversaw a team seeking to “develop understanding” of Iran’s “nuclear program”. Then, 2010 – 2012, he led an “inter-agency” effort to infiltrate the IAEA, while “[building] highly effective and mutually supportive relations across government and with senior US, European, Middle and Far Eastern colleagues for strategy which enabled major diplomatic success [sic] of Iranian nuclear and sanctions agreement.”

Nicholas Langman’s leaked CV

It was during the latter period that public and governmental attitudes across the West – and in vassal states – towards the Islamic Republic became highly belligerent, and negative. One by one, governments and international bodies – including the EU and UN – imposed ravaging sanctions against Tehran, devastating its economy, influence, and standing. MI6 journeyman Langman triumphed in his mission to foment concerted global hostility against Iran, based on the bogus spectre of the country posing a nuclear threat.

The question of whether British ‘intelligence’ on Iran’s nuclear program was the product of torture is an open and obvious one. Langman moved straight to leading MI6’s Iran Department from running the agency’s station in Athens, Greece. There, in late 2005, he was exposed by local media as having overseen an operation to abduct and ferociously mistreat 28 Pakistani guestworkers, wrongfully suspected of having had contact with individuals accused of perpetrating the 7/7 bombings in London in July that year.

That Langman wasn’t reprimanded over the incident strongly suggests he enjoyed a high level of protection, and London approved of his vicious intelligence-gathering methods – known to invariably produce false testimony from detainees. MI6 was not only an enthusiastic collaborator in the CIA’s global extraordinary rendition program, but led its own operations. Markedly, in at least one case, the British sought to sideline the CIA and ensure exclusive access to “intelligence” from a detainee in which Langley also had an interest.

The Obama administration was during its first year in office formally committed to non-interference in the Islamic Republic’s affairs, to the extent State Department apparatchik Jared Cohen was almost fired for publicly demanding Twitter halt planned maintenance during June 2009 protests in Iran, to ensure demonstrators could continue posting. It’s therefore unknown whether Washington was in on MI6’s Iran nuke con. If not, it wouldn’t be the first time British intelligence has misled the international community, with catastrophic results.

‘Possible Manipulation’

In July 2004, the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a scathing report on “the US intelligence community’s prewar intelligence assessments on Iraq.” It reserved particular disdain for how the CIA et al had “[relied] too heavily on foreign government services and third party reporting, thereby increasing the potential for manipulation of U.S. policy by foreign interests [emphasis added].” This was a reference to MI6’s central role in gathering – or concocting – intelligence on Baghdad’s purported WMD capabilities:

“Due to the lack of unilateral sources on Iraq’s links to terrorist groups like al-Qaida [redacted], the [US] Intelligence Community (IC) relied too heavily on foreign government service reporting and sources to whom it did not have direct access to determine the relationship between Iraq and [redacted] terrorist groups… The IC left itself open to possible manipulation by foreign governments and other parties interested in influencing US policy.”

As far back as the late 1990s, Britain’s foreign spying agency took the lead on sourcing dud ‘intelligence’ to manufacture consent for the against Baghdad. Under the auspices of a psychological warfare effort dubbed Operation Mass Appeal, MI6 black propaganda specialists circulated false information to foreign editors and reporters on its payroll “to help shape public opinion about Iraq and the threat posed by WMD,” which was then recycled by Western leaders and news outlets to reinforce its credibility.

In September 2002, then-MI6 chief Richard Dearlove personally approached British Prime Minister Tony Blair, claiming his agency had cultivated a source inside Iraq with “phenomenal access”, who could provide the “key to unlock” Iraq’s purported WMD program. Their assorted claims subsequently formed the basis of a dossier, which made a number of wild charges about Baghdad’s chemical and biological weapon capabilities. A prominently reported allegation was that Iraq could deploy WMD against Western countries within just 45 minutes. Its source was an Iraqi taxi driver.

This claim was repeated in a radio address by George W. Bush that month. In January the next year, as the invasion of Iraq rapidly loomed, the President declared in his State of the Union address, “the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” That December, then-CIA chief George Tenet admitted this assertion was completely fallacious, and “these 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the President.”

The Zionist entity justified its unprovoked assault against Iran in June in large part on an intelligence dossier, which concluded the Islamic Republic had reached the “point of no return” in acquiring nukes. Its findings relied heavily on a May IAEA report that provided zero fresh information, but concluded Tehran supposedly maintained “undeclared nuclear material” until the early 2000s. While intended to trigger regime change, Tel Aviv’s broadside ended promptly in embarrassing failure, despite extensive foreign support, including US airstrikes.

Undeterred by the fiasco, Benjamin Netanyahu remains determined to crush the “Iranian axis”, while Trump has declared he would bomb Tehran “without a question” in response to indications the Islamic Republic has enriched uranium beyond agreed levels. We could be on the precipice of another war. As with the Iraq invasion, the perilous trail that brought us to this grave point could lead back to London. Yet again, MI6 may have taken the lead in concocting ‘intelligence’, justifying further US-Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic.

September 24, 2025 Posted by | Deception, Timeless or most popular, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

U.S. Threats to Venezeula Are Ramping Up, Not Down

By Ted Snider | The Libertarian Institute | September 23, 2025

Reporting has recently emerged that the United States is considering direct strikes on Venezuela that could increase volatility in the region and the risk of war.

Under the pretext of disrupting the flow of drugs into the United States by Venezuelan drug cartels, the U.S. has militarized the waters off the coast of Venezuela, flooding them with Aegis guided-missile destroyers, a nuclear-powered fast track submarine, P-8 spy planes and F-35 fighter jets. On September 2, American forces fired on a small speed boat that the U.S. claims was running drugs for a Venezuelan cartel.

The Donald Trump administration is yet to offer evidence for its claim. They have neither publicly identified who the eleven people who were killed on the boat were nor what drugs they were carrying. Congress has still not been briefed.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the boat was “probably headed to Trinidad or some other country in the Caribbean.” Trump says it was bound for the United States. Turns out, it was headed back to Venezuela.

U.S. officials familiar with the operation have now told The New York Times that, having “spotted the military aircraft stalking it,” the boat has already “altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the attack started.” The twenty-nine second video that Trump posted on social media spliced together several clips but edited out the boat turning around. Despite this lack of imminent threat, the aircraft, either an attack helicopter or an MQ-9 Reaper drone, “repeatedly hit the vessel before it sank.”

The Trump administration has claimed the right to supplant the National Guard and law enforcement with the military and lethal force on the grounds that the drug cartels are terrorist organizations who pose a threat to the national security of the United States because the drugs they bring into the country to kill Americans. The U.S. has invoked the right to self-defense, and Rubio has insisted that the speed boat was “an immediate threat to the United States.” Except that if it had turned around, it wasn’t.

Setting aside the legitimacy of the terrorist justification, if the boat had already turned around, the immediate threat argument is also blown out of the water. “If someone is retreating, where’s the ‘imminent threat’ then?” Rear Admiral Donald J. Guter, a retired top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2000 to 2002, asked the Times. “Where’s the ‘self-defense’? They are gone if they ever existed—which I don’t think they did.” Rear Admiral James E. McPherson, the top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2004 to 2006, added, “If, in fact, you can fashion a legal argument that says these people were getting ready to attack the U.S. through the introduction of cocaine or whatever, if they turned back, then that threat has gone away.”

The Trump administration has made it clear that the attack was not a one-time anomaly. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said, “We smoked a drug boat, and there’s 11 narco terrorists at the bottom of the ocean, and when other people try to do that, they’re going to meet the same fate.” Since then, three more Venezuelan boats have met the same fate. Hegseth told U.S. troops on a ship in the waters off Puerto Rico that “What you’re doing right now—it’s not training.” He told them that they were on the “front lines” of a “real-world exercise.”

On a post on X (formerly Twitter), Hegseth told U.S. forces that, “It’s not if, it’s when. You’re on a mission…And the full power of the American military…will be used to ensure the American people are kept safe.”

Ken Klippenstein reports that, according to military sources, the Trump administration is considering further, and more significant, strikes on Venezuela. The strikes could take the form of either the shooting down of Venezuelan military aircraft or bombing Venezuelan military airfields. Such action could be taken in one of two situations: if Venezuela threatens the American forces off its coast or if Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro does not enhance his administration’s efforts against drug cartels.

The first situation is a dangerous possibility, depending on the interpretation of “threaten.” Venezuela has twice flown F-16 fighter jets over the USS Jason Dunham. Though Venezuelan aircraft are likely displaying a show of defense, as the United States would, at least, do if there were foreign attack vessels off their coast, Trump said that if Venezuelan jets fly over U.S. Navy vessels again, “they’re going to be in trouble.”

The second raises, once again, the question of what Venezuela is to do. “The Venezuelan government’s collaboration in the fight against drug trafficking was among the best in South America,” according to former Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Pino Arlacchi. And now, on top of that, Maduro has ordered the more than doubling of Venezuelan forces to monitor drug trafficking. In addition to the 10,000 troops already deployed, the Venezuelan military is ordering an additional 15,000 “to determine and verify the absence of illicit crops” and to “to block this area also of possible drug trafficking.”

Despite Venezuela’s stellar past record and the current enhancing of its efforts, the United States is still threatening military action if Maduro doesn’t enhance his administration’s efforts against drug growing and trafficking.

What makes the question of what Venezuela is supposed to do more difficult is that there is nothing Venezuela can do. The U.S. is demanding that Venezuela make a course correction to correct a problem that does not exist.

The 2025 UNODC World Drug Report assesses that Venezuela “has consolidated its status as a territory free from the cultivation of coca leaves, cannabis and similar crops.” The report says that “[o]nly 5% of Colombian drugs transit through Venezuela.” The European Union’s European Drug Report 2025 corroborates the United Nations report: it “does not mention Venezuela even once as a corridor for the international drug trade.”

The Trump administration has offered no evidence that the destroyed speed boat was carrying drugs or drug smugglers or that it was on its way to American shores. Even if it was, it posed no immediate threat because it had already turned around and headed back to port. The Maduro government has already addressed American demands and increased its efforts against the drug growing and trafficking that was never a problem in the first place. None-the-less, the United States is threatening further military strikes on Venezuela, raising the hard to answer question of what Venezuela is supposed to do.

September 24, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Italy redirects navy ship to assist Global Sumud Flotilla after drone attacks

The Cradle | September 24, 2025

Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said in a statement on 24 September that an Italian navy ship has been redirected towards the Global Sumud Flotilla to provide it with “possible assistance,” after it came under a series of Israeli attacks overnight.

The Italian defense minister strongly condemned the overnight drone attacks.

Activists on board several of the flotilla’s boats reported at least 10 explosions after witnessing drones launch several attacks early on Wednesday. The boats were situated off the coast of Greece.

“Multiple drones, unidentified objects dropped, communications jammed, and explosions heard from a number of boats. We are witnessing these psychological operations firsthand, right now, but we will not be intimidated,” Global Sumud Flotilla said.

US activist Greg Stoker said a quadcopter “dropped a little popper on deck,” adding that “other boats experienced that as well.”

“Our VHF [very high frequency] radio was hijacked by adversarial comms, and they started playing ABBA,” he added. One boat was reportedly sprayed with chemicals as well.

Israel has not commented on the attacks targeting the Gaza-bound flotilla.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said the flotilla was “pursuing a violent course of action” that “highlights the insincerity of the flotilla members and their mission to serve Hamas, rather than the people in Gaza.”

The International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza (ICBSG) had warned on Sunday that unidentified drones were flying close to the vessels.

Workers across Italy launched a nationwide strike on 22 September to oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza, halting public transport, rail services, schools, public offices, and ports in more than 60 cities. Italian grassroots trade union, Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), called the strike to force Rome to “immediately break off relations with the terrorist state of Israel, which is the concrete way in which Italy can, and must, react to the genocide that is taking place.”

Rail freight was suspended on Sunday night, with ports including Ravenna, Livorno, Trieste, and Genoa joining the actions. In Genoa, dockworkers blocked a vessel scheduled for Israel, while in Livorno, access to the port was restricted by protesters.

The flotilla bombarded early on 24 September is the third to attempt to break the siege of Gaza in the last four months.

The Global Sumud Flotilla also came under two attacks earlier in September.

The vessels are carrying hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza, who are being starved and bombarded by the Israeli army. It has been described as the largest civilian flotilla in history.

In late July, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s Handala vessel was intercepted and seized by Israeli forces as it was trying to break the siege and deliver aid to the strip. Crewmembers were detained.

The month before, Israeli forces intercepted the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s Madleen vessel in international waters as it was approaching Gaza to break the siege, seizing the boat and detaining the 12 activists on board.

In May this year, an Israeli drone bombed a Freedom Flotilla aid vessel that was en route to Gaza, blowing a hole through the ship, causing a fire, and putting it at risk of sinking.

September 24, 2025 Posted by | Militarism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

New war power bill gives Trump sweeping authority to attack dozens of nations: Report

The Cradle | September 23, 2025

Legislation has been drafted that would give US President Donald Trump unchecked power to wage war against drug cartels as well as any nation he says has harbored or aided them, the New York Times (NYT) reported on 23 September, citing people familiar with the matter.

If passed, the legislation would allow the US president to deem as “terrorists” any groups that have trafficked in drugs or financed drug-related enterprises. The president would then have the authorization to use military force against such groups and any governments allegedly harboring them.

The US military carried out attacks this month on three boats that Trump claims were smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea. The strikes killed 17 people and were widely criticized as illegal. Human Rights Watch (HRW) called the strikes “unlawful extrajudicial killings.”

NYT notes that the draft legislation appears to be modeled on the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) that Congress granted former US president George W. Bush to launch the so-called “War on Terror” after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

While theoretically passed to allow the US to target Al-Qaeda and its hosts in Afghanistan, the broad nature of the AUMF allowed the Bush, Obama, and first Trump administrations to invade Iraq and to target Islamic militant groups in Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen many times over a period stretching decades.

Neither the AUMF nor the new draft legislation being considered names a specific enemy. The president is therefore empowered to attack any group, anywhere, in an open-ended war.

NYT stated that this raises the question of whether Congress was giving Trump the “authority to wage a regime change war in Venezuela.”

In addition to striking the three boats, Trump has ordered additional US warplanes and naval ships to the Caribbean, while also accusing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of leading a drug cartel.

In July, Trump signed a still-secret order directing the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American criminal gangs and drug cartels, NYT added.

The Institute for Responsible Statecraft stated that the legislation could be used to justify US military intervention in at least 60 countries.

In comments given to NYT, Harvard Professor Jack Goldsmith called the draft legislation “insanely broad,” essentially “an open-ended war authorization against an untold number of countries, organizations, and persons that the president could deem within its scope.”

Earlier this year, the White House added a long list of Latin American drug cartels to the national “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” (FTO) list, giving the US the pretext to launch military action against many groups in dozens of different countries if the draft legislation is passed.

September 24, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment