Argentina’s AI and the Rise of Pre-Crime Digital Surveillance
By Ken Macon | Reclaim The Net | August 5, 2024
Argentina’s new initiative to launch the Applied Artificial Intelligence for Security Unit (UIAAS) represents a concerning step toward a surveillance-heavy approach to tackling crime. Under the guise of innovation, this unit, embedded within the Ministry of Security, integrates artificial intelligence to not only sift through vast amounts of historical crime data but also to monitor social media activities ostensibly to predict and preempt criminal behavior.
This approach raises significant ethical questions, especially regarding privacy and civil liberties. The idea that AI can predict future crimes based on patterns might sound efficient, but it harbors risks of overreach, profiling, and potentially unjustified surveillance. The emphasis on monitoring social media activities and detecting “potential threats” could easily slide into invasive scrutiny of everyday citizens’ lives under a loosely defined mandate.
Critics have voiced many concerns. Their skepticism highlights a broader apprehension about the trade-offs between using AI in law enforcement and the erosion of personal freedoms. The capacity for AI to be misused under the pretext of security could set a dangerous precedent, potentially leading to a dystopian reality where personal spaces and freedoms are heavily compromised by state surveillance.
Argentina’s pioneering step, therefore, should be viewed critically, demanding rigorous scrutiny and debate to ensure that the pursuit of security does not trample the very liberties it aims to protect. The line between safeguarding citizens and surveilling them must be navigated with caution to prevent an unsettling shift towards an AI-driven surveillance state.
EU pressured Georgia to send mercenaries to Ukraine – MP
RT | August 6, 2024
Western officials, together with representatives of Georgia’s main opposition party, the National Movement, tried to pressure Tbilisi into adopting sanctions on Russia and sending mercenaries to fight for Kiev, Georgian parliamentary speaker Shalva Papuashvili has said.
The South Caucasus country has maintained a neutral stance on the Ukraine conflict since its outbreak in 2022 and refused to impose sanctions on Moscow, arguing that such a move would harm its national interests. At the same time, Georgia has said it will not allow itself to be used to circumvent Western restrictions placed on Russia.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Papuashvili claimed the National Movement had repeatedly urged the ruling Georgian Dream party to sign up to sanctions on Russia. However, the government refused “because it would have been tantamount to being drawn into a war.”
“Together with the National Movement, foreigners also told us that we should have introduced sanctions, sent mercenaries [to Ukraine], and so on. The Europeans also told us the same,” Papuashvili said.
Back in May, the speaker made similar comments, stating that “certain friends and foes,” as well as non-governmental organizations, had been pestering Tbilisi with demands to “send fighters to Ukraine,” which he said would have risked a direct war with Russia.
While Georgia has officially only provided political and humanitarian support to Ukraine, a large number of Georgian mercenaries have been spotted fighting on Kiev’s side. The Russian Defense Ministry estimated back in March that some 1,042 Georgian fighters had taken part in the conflict, compared to 1,113 fighters from the US and 2,960 from Poland. At least 561 Georgian nationals serving within the Ukrainian military have been killed over the course of the conflict, according to Moscow.
Relations between Tbilisi and the West have deteriorated over the past year, particularly since Georgia passed a controversial ‘foreign agents law’ in May. The rule requires NGOs, media outlets and individuals that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as entities “promoting the interests of foreign powers.”
Washington has labeled the law an attack on democracy and threatened Georgia with sanctions, while suspending more than $92 million in aid. The EU has suspended talks on Tbilisi’s accession to the bloc, and froze $32.5 million in payments to the Georgian Defense Ministry.
Political and Media Elites ‘Turned UK Into Tinderbox’
Sputnik – 06.08.2024
Britain’s cities have been engulfed in riots triggered by a deadly stabbing attack which killed three children and injured ten others in the seaside town of Southport, England. British political analyst and former MEP Nick Griffin told Sputnik what role government policy, and the US Deep State, played in setting the stage for the explosion.
Hundreds of people have been arrested and dozens injured in the ongoing riots across England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the wake of the July 29 stabbing rampage in Southport.
British authorities and media have cast the riots as a misinformation-fueled act of far-right subversion and violence. But while high profile right-wing figures “confrontational” social media posts and messaging have certainly played a role in sparking the disorder, its cause is related to decades of ignoring the will and wishes of ordinary Britons by the country’s political and media class, former MEP Nick Griffin told Sputnik.
“The British people have been extremely patient with successive governments which have imposed a swamping tide of mass immigration on the country, without the slightest democratic mandate or any good or properly explained reason,” Griffin said.
“17.4 million people – the largest democratic mandate in UK electoral history – voted for Brexit, which was a very clear instruction to the political elite to get a grip on our borders and to halt the uninvited transformation of the country into a foreign place,” Griffin said.
“If the political class had listened to that warning and accepted the verdict of the people, the killings in Southport either would not have happened at all (because the killer and his family would have been sent back to now entirely peaceful and safe Rwanda) or would have been seen as a terrible crime which the police and courts alone should deal with,” the ex-lawmaker believes.
“But the political and media elite refused to accept the vote, failed to deliver the secured borders and only increased the contempt they showed for ordinary Brits – especially the white working class. It is this, together with an endless litany of two-tier policing and criminal justice, which make indigenous Brits, and especially the English, feel like second-class citizens in their own country. Frustration and anger over this had turned large parts of the country into a tinderbox, just waiting for a spark,” Griffin said.
The observer, who is the former leader and MEP lawmaker from the right-wing British National Party, says he doesn’t rule out the presence of foreign money and influence in the unrest overwhelming the UK, recalling how in 2008, he was approached by a man “with very good connections in the UK broadcasting media and press” who offered the party “limitless support” if it attacked Islam but dropped its opposition to neocon warmongering overseas, and the BNP’s “hostile position to the international banking cartel.”
“The money offer was repeated a few years ago, with literally a blank check available if the Christian nationalist social media network with which I became involved after leaving the BNP dropped any criticism of Zionism and Israel, stopped criticizing the banking cartel, abortion and the LGBTQ agenda, and concentrated on condemning Muslims and Islam,” Griffin said, emphasizing that that both offers were refused.
The observer believes the offers came from “very wealthy members of the pro-Likud Zionist lobby in America,” and estimates “that the US Deep State finds the highly motivated Zionist lobby to be very useful front for moves which fit its own agenda.”
“It’s similar,” Griffin said, “to the way that George Soros for so long funded all sorts of radical [liberal] leftist causes, leading many critics to focus on his far-left sympathies and even his Jewish heritage. This provided camouflage for the fact that his Open Society Foundation worked extremely closely with the National Endowment for Democracy, which is of course a CIA front. People have been so busy (rightly) condemning Soros that they missed the Deep State involvement altogether.”
In the wake of the mass migration crisis affecting many European countries, Griffin believes the US Deep State may have deliberately helped to create the crisis, “and is now stoking it,” to destabilize its “supposed allies,” just as the US sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline network ostensibly targeted Russia, but really struck the German economy and the euro, damage to which set back the looming end to the dollar’s hegemony.
“Likewise, destabilizing Britain and EU states with artificially imported and provoked racial conflict is a typical US Deep State trick. It’s using the same CIA playbook as was applied to destroy the former Yugoslavia. As with their coups and other interference, they never care about how many innocent people get hurt,” Griffin summed up.
The European Union wants to break Hungary’s will
By Dénes Albert | Remix News | August 5, 2024
Let us not delude ourselves for a moment, because the European Commission’s failure to stand by our country in blocking the transit of Russian oil through Ukraine is just one of the “pieces” of a plan to overthrow the legitimately elected Hungarian government.
The other retaliatory measures taken by Brussels against our country have the same purpose. This is not a new EU idea, supported by Washington.
Charles Gati, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, and not least a member of the advisory board of Action for Democracy, has spoken about this before. It was this organization that was suspected of attempting to interfere in the 2022 Hungarian elections, which Hungarian intelligence services deemed a national security risk. More than a decade ago, Gati said that “there are ways to move the government, democratically if possible, and otherwise if not.” Add to this that Gati is a confidant of the Soros empire.
Gati, in another statement to the Hungarian press, has already fleshed out the idea in five points, including that “in the absence of IMF and EU loans, the economy will continue to deteriorate while hundreds of thousands of people protest in the streets.” Then comes a discussion of the options, which reach the conclusion of civil war.
The plan has not worked. It could be said that those who masterminded the overthrow of the government have completely failed, since a dozen years were not enough to remove the right-wing conservative government in Hungary. However, they are doggedly sticking to the original idea.
The retaliatory measures that Brussels is taking against our country are out of all proportion. Most recently, for example, it imposed a fine of €200 million on us for not letting in illegal migrants.
Despite our country’s arguments that the EU sanctions on Russia do not apply to oil entering the bloc by pipeline, we have finally reached the point where the EC has abandoned the possibility of negotiation. It did not stand by Hungary and Slovakia, both of which protested Ukraine’s decision to unilaterally turn off the tap.
So, the oil transit issue is a tool for the EU, and of course for Ukraine, to use blackmail to force Hungary to change its policy towards the war.
The Eurocrats in Brussels “elegantly” overlooked the fact that it had already been made clear it was technically impossible to build an alternative oil supply for Hungary and Slovakia. “I don’t think the commission would be keen to help Hungary,” said a diplomat, who of course requested anonymity.
London police chief attacks journalist’s equipment
RT | August 5, 2024
Britain’s top law enforcement official ripped out a reporter’s microphone after being asked a question about double standards in policing the immigration-related riots across the UK.
Sir Mark Rowley of the Metropolitan Police Service had just left a government meeting in Westminster about handling the unrest when journalists approached him on Monday.
“Are we going to end two-tier policing sir?” a Sky News reporter asked. Rowley responded by destroying his recording equipment and continuing to walk to his car. He took no questions from the press.
Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt described Rowley’s actions as a “petulant, childish even” response to a “perfectly legitimate” question.
“It was a storm in a teacup, but perception is everything,” Brunt said, adding that Rowley’s explanation that he had been in a hurry was “mitigation, not a defense.”
Though the Sky reporter could have pressed charges for assault, criminal damage, or misconduct in public office, he reportedly chose to give Rowley a pass.
Dozens of British towns and cities have seen protests and riots since last Monday, when a British teenager of Rwandan descent killed three children and injured ten others in a mass stabbing in Southport, near Liverpool. While the initial outrage was sparked by a rumor misidentifying the perpetrator as Muslim, demonstrations have since grown into a wider backlash against mass immigration, Islam, and the perception that UK authorities are more concerned with suppressing domestic dissent than tackling immigrant crime.
More than 150 people were arrested on Saturday for rioting in Liverpool, Manchester, Stoke, Leeds and other cities. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed that the rioters will “face the full force of the law.”
Whitehall’s crackdown has prompted Reform Party leader Nigel Farage to suggest that there was “the impression of two-tier policing,” in comparison to the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots related to the death of George Floyd in the US.
“There is no two-tier policing. There is policing without fear or favor, exactly as it should be,” Starmer responded. “So that is a non-issue.”
According to Starmer, a “standing army of specialist officers” will be deployed to deal with the riots. “This is not protest – it is pure violence and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities,” he added.
The British government has also said it would “hold to account” social media companies that do not remove “disinformation.”
Israeli occupation forces demolish 3 Palestinian-owned homes in Jenin, Bethlehem
Palestinian Information Center – August 5, 2024
WEST BANK – Israeli occupation forces (IOF) demolished three Palestinian homes in the Jenin and Bethlehem governorates in the West Bank on Monday.
Local sources reported that the IOF demolished a one-story home in Beit Jala town, west of Bethlehem, belonging to the Lahham family.
The Lahham family was prevented from removing some belongings from inside the house prior to its demolition.
Along the same line, the Israeli forces demolished two houses in Al-Jalameh town, northeast of Jenin.
Meanwhile, the Israeli authorities issued new demolition orders against 17 homes in the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood in Occupied Jerusalem.
The notified residential facilities house nearly 70 people.
Since the beginning of the Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation has escalated its demolition policy in the so-called area C, which constitutes about 60% of the West Bank.
In July, the Israeli authorities carried out 98 demolition operations against 135 Palestinian-owned facilities, including 62 inhabited homes, 14 uninhabited homes, and 12 agricultural facilities. 16 other facilities were also notified of demolition in the West Bank governorates.
Palestinian activist succumbs to injuries after release from Israeli detention
This file photo shows female Palestinian activist Wafa Jarrar
Press TV – August 5, 2024
A female Palestinian activist has succumbed to injuries she sustained during an Israeli raid on her home back in May.
Wafa Jarrar died on Monday from injuries she had sustained when Israeli forces detained her on May 21.
Jarrar suffered severe injuries, and as a result underwent above-knee amputations.
The Israeli authorities reportedly released her shortly after her legs were amputated to avoid responsibility for her treatment.
The Israeli army claimed that Jarrar was injured in a blast while inside the military vehicle, where she was kept detained for four hours.
Despite its claim, the regime issued an administrative detention order against Jarrar before releasing and handing her over to the Palestinian Liaison Office, while she was in a critical condition.
Last month, the Euro-med human rights monitor said the Israeli army bears full responsibility for the life and safety of Wafa Jarrar.
“This is a clear effort by Israel’s army to avoid taking responsibility for the serious injuries Jarrar sustained during her detention, which resulted in the amputation of her legs above the knees as well as damage to her spine and lungs, and to avoid its legal obligation to provide the necessary medical treatment,” the Euro-med human rights monitor said on July 1.
“What Jarrar, age 49, was subjected to from the first moment of her arrest until her release reflects the repeated and systematic violations faced by Palestinians during their detention by Israeli forces, including arbitrary arrests, abuse, use as human shields, torture, and denial of medical care,” it added.
Wafa is the wife of Hamas leader Abdul Jabbar Jarrar who has been held in Israeli jails since February 2022 under administrative detention.
There are reportedly more than 8,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, with hundreds of the inmates incarcerated under the so-called practice of administrative detention.
Human rights organizations say Israel violates all the rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the Fourth Geneva Convention, noting administrative detention violates their right to due process since the evidence is withheld from prisoners while they are held for lengthy periods without being charged, tried, or convicted.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express outrage at their detention. Israeli jail authorities keep Palestinian prisoners under deplorable conditions without proper hygienic standards. Palestinian inmates have also been subject to systematic torture, harassment, and repression.
Since the outbreak of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza last October, the regime has also intensified arrest campaigns in the West Bank and al-Quds.
In a report issued over the weekend, the Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-detainees’ Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners Society, the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association said Israeli forces had arrested about 9,920 people, including 345 women, 690 children and 93 journalists, since October 7.
More than 7,500 administrative detention orders have been issued since October 7, including new orders and renewals, according to the report.
The Israeli arrest campaigns, the groups said, were also accompanied by physical assaults, threats against detainees and their families, destruction of the detainees’ houses, and seizure of their properties.
The Israeli forces also carried out field executions against detainees and their family members, the report added.
“Since October 7, at least 20 detainees were martyred in Israeli prisons and their identities have been revealed,” the report said, adding that dozens of detainees from Gaza also lost their lives in Israeli prisons and detention centers, but the Israeli authorities refrained from declaring their names or the causes of the their death.
“The bodies of 18 detainees who were martyred after October 7 are still withheld” by the Israeli regime, the report said.
US ‘guarantees’ Israel can resume Gaza war after captive swap: Report
The Cradle | August 5, 2024
The US has agreed to guarantee that Israel will be able to resume the war against the Palestinian resistance in Gaza after the first phase of an exchange deal, according to Hebrew media.
According to Yedioth Ahronoth and Haaretz, Washington has not yet given a written commitment, but has agreed in principle to the idea of Israel resuming the war once captives are exchanged.
Netanyahu is “still waiting for a letter of commitment from the Americans. This is a letter regarding the possibility of continuing the war between the first and second stages of the exchange deal,” Yedioth Ahronoth’s Ynet news site reported on 5 August, citing “prominent” sources.
“Netanyahu intends to demand, among other things, the disarmament of Hamas and the removal of its leadership, as a condition for the second part of the deal … they are not expected to go up well [in the security establishment],” it added.
The idea of the US committing to Israel’s right to continue the war was raised during the meeting between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden in Washington recently, according to the report.
“The US had already agreed to give this letter, in one form or another, and there are already drafts.”
The US commitment is “about giving a guarantee to Israel that it has no obligation to stop the fire forever, under any conditions.”
The report also highlights the complete “lack of trust” of the security establishment in Netanyahu.
Efforts to reach an agreement have been severely hindered by the Israeli assassination of Hamas’ political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran on 31 July. Haniyeh was among those leading the negotiations.
Israel has consistently obstructed a deal from being reached by insisting on the right to continue fighting Hamas once captives were exchanged in the first phase of any agreement.
Hamas has stuck to its terms for a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, including from the Rafah crossing and Philadelphi Corridor on the strip’s border with Egypt.
Netanyahu’s recent insistence on a “mechanism” to inspect displaced Gazans returning to the northern strip as part of a deal has also hindered the talks.
The Israeli negotiating team visited Cairo over the weekend for talks with mediators, yet no progress was made.
Netanyahu had announced on Friday that he approved the delegation’s continued participation in the negotiations. A Hamas official told Reuters that Netanyahu’s announcement was full of “empty statements” and that he does not wish to end the war or reach a deal.
“This was a trip solely for reasons of protocol, playing for time. Netanyahu’s current positions will not yield real progress,” Hebrew news outlet Channel 12 cited a senior official as saying on 3 August.
WSJ admits no proof of UNRWA staff collaborating with Hamas
Al Mayadeen | August 5, 2024
The chief editor of The Wall Street Journal Elena Cherney has admitted to not having evidence to back up its January claims that numerous UNRWA employees in Gaza were involved in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Semafor news reported.
The Wall Street Journal stated in January, citing Israeli intelligence, that at least 12 UNRWA employees were personally involved in the events of October 7.
“The fact that the Israeli claims haven’t been backed up by solid evidence doesn’t mean our reporting was inaccurate or misleading, that we have walked it back or that there is a correctable error here,” Cherney said at the time.
Sources told Semafor that since the WSJ article was published, its writers have attempted to validate the information several times but have failed at doing so.
They also divulged that WSJ journalists covering the war on Gaza have frequently expressed worry about the newspaper’s biased coverage of “Israel”.
In March, Reuters reported that following weeks of a nonstop Israeli-targeted campaign against the UN agency, UNRWA said in an unpublished report that some of its staffers were coerced into falsely stating that they had ties with the Palestinian Resistance movement – Hamas and that they took part in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7
The occupation entity alleged in January that 12 of the 12,000 UNRWA members in Gaza participated in the October operation.
According to the news agency, UNRWA’s report dated February said that its workers were subjected “to threats and coercion” by the Israeli authorities “while in detention and pressured to make false statements against the Agency,” including that it has affiliations with Hamas and that “UNRWA staff members took part” in the Resistance operation in October 2023.
The Israeli allegations prompted over 15 countries, including the United States, to suspend almost half a billion dollars in UNRWA funding. The agency warned of the catastrophic repercussions of this decision on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, already in shatters due to “Israel’s” ongoing genocide and starvation policy.
Since then, several countries resumed their funding as none of the Israeli allegations were corroborated.
‘Israel’ passes bill in first reading to label UNRWA ‘terrorist org.’
Last month, the Israeli parliament granted initial approval to a bill that aims to label UNRWA as a “terrorist organization” and suggests severing ties with the humanitarian agency.
The bill received approval during its first reading in the Knesset. It was set to be sent back to the Israeli “Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee” for additional review and discussion before the final decision is made.
Commenting on the Knesset’s measure, UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma warned that this is “another attempt in a wider campaign to dismantle the agency,” adding that “such steps are unheard of in the history of the United Nations.”
The Palestinian Resistance group Hamas condemned the approval of the bill, saying that the bill seeks “to end the Palestinian cause, foremost the refugee issue.”
Hamas called on the international community and the United Nations to “take firm stances against Israel” and protect UNRWA from the occupation’s attempts to “eliminate it.”
Similarly, the Palestinian al-Mujahideen Movement condemned the bill, describing it as a “Zionist attempt to eliminate one of the legal witnesses to our people’s tragedy and their displacement in 1948,” asserting that the decision is a “precursor to a new policy of starvation and siege” against the Palestinian people.
Resistance Axis: a calculated, simultaneous strike on Israel
Hezbollah source: Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen will launch simultaneous retaliatory strikes against Israel, to overwhelm the Iron Dome.
By Ali Rizk | The Cradle | August 5, 2024
West Asia stands on a knife’s edge as the region’s Axis of Resistance prepares to retaliate against a series of recent Israeli assassinations and aggressions.
Iran, Hezbollah, and Yemen’s Ansarallah-aligned armed forces have vowed to make the occupation state pay a heavy price following the targeted killing of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr in southern Beirut.
Additionally, Israel bombed the Hodeidah port in Yemen following Sanaa’s successful ‘Yafa’ drone operation in Tel Aviv on 19 July.
An official from the Lebanese resistance has informed The Cradle that “The response will come at once from Iran, Hezbollah, and Yemen,” adding that the goal was to “inflict a painful blow to Israel which may not be achieved should separate retaliations be pursued.”
Executing the ‘Unity of Fronts’
Retaliation is all but certain and could happen within hours, according to senior US officials. A report yesterday by Axios claims that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed his G7 counterparts that the response could begin as early as within the next 24 hours.
Just yesterday, Ali al-Qahoum, a member of the political bureau of Ansarallah, emphasized that the response to Israel will not just come from Tehran:
We affirm our commitment to the battle, steadfastness, awareness, honor, and pride in standing with Palestine, the cause of the nation.
The critical question now is the scope and severity of the retaliation. Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has promised a painful yet calculated blow to Tel Aviv. During Shukr’s funeral procession, Nasrallah warned that Israel had crossed the line, promising “a real and well-calculated response” – distinct from the cross-border operations Hezbollah has conducted against Israel since 8 October.
Flattening the Iron Dome
Other well-informed sources agree that the response could be coordinated, suggesting that retaliation from multiple fronts simultaneously is likely. They tell The Cradle that such an approach could take Israel’s primary air defense system, the Iron Dome, out of commission by preventing it from rapidly rearming. They believe this is achievable given Hezbollah’s capacity to launch a significant barrage of missiles and given Lebanon’s geographical proximity to potential Israeli targets.
These assessments appear to be consistent with those made by US officials who have warned that the Iron Dome could be overwhelmed by Hezbollah’s missile and drone arsenal should a full-scale war erupt.
Senior US military officials, meanwhile, have gone on the record cautioning that Washington would probably be unable to provide Tel Aviv with sufficient protection even in a single front, full-scale war with Hezbollah. US Joint Chief of Staff Charles Brown said as much in his remarks to the press in late June.
From our perspective, based on where our forces are, the short-range between Lebanon and Israel, it’s harder for us to be able to support them [Israel] in the same way we did in April [with Operation Truthful Promise].
Unwilling US support for Tel Aviv
Although much has been said about the US and its allies successfully thwarting Iran’s response to the Israeli attack on its consulate last April, it is noteworthy that all targeted Israeli military bases were hit during the Iranian retaliatory strikes. Operation Truthful Promise was intended more as a message, indicating that Tehran would no longer tolerate Israeli aggression against its interests.
US military reinforcements in the region may help intercept missiles and drones coming from Lebanon, while vassal state Jordan could also play a part as it did during Iran’s retaliatory strikes. However, this also makes US military assets and those of its partners legitimate targets for the Resistance Axis.
As former Pentagon analyst Michael Maloof explains to The Cradle:
Hezbollah would likely target US warships in the region that would take part in intercepting missiles directed at Israeli targets.
“As in 2006, I envision US involvement focused more on evacuating many of the 86,000 Americans now in Lebanon who would want to leave,” adds Maloof.
Washington’s top military officials also appear firmly opposed to being drawn into an active offensive role should a wider war erupt with Hezbollah, let alone a dreaded multi-front war. This stance is supported by statements from US Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Brown, indicating the Pentagon’s limited willingness to protect the occupation state.
Note that Washington’s pledges to defend Israel have made no mention of potential offensive action, reflecting an American desire to avoid a wider war. Experts doubt the US will become heavily involved in any full-scale war, supported by public statements underscoring the importance of avoiding regional escalation – and voiced more privately, the desire to keep US military targets safe from retaliatory strikes.
Military risk and political calculations
As Brown said at the time, Washington’s main message is:
To think about the second order of effect of any type of operation into Lebanon, and how that might play out and how it impacts not just the region, but how it impacts our forces in regions as well.
The general – the most senior ranking US military official and the senior military advisor to the White House – was delivering a message that carries special significance amidst the recent developments.
By stating that an Israeli-initiated war on Lebanon put US troops at risk, Brown was essentially saying that a wider regional war was not seen as helping US interests by the Pentagon’s top brass.
Given these statements, it remains possible – though far from guaranteed – that the outgoing Biden administration may rein in Israel regardless of how painful a blow is delivered to it by the Axis of Resistance.
The upcoming US election in November is another factor that may prevent a regional conflagration. “The US getting more militarily involved with Israel,” warns Maloof, “would lead to riots in the streets of Chicago at the Democratic Convention later this month.”
These realities suggest a scenario where Washington might force Tel Aviv to absorb the Axis of Resistance’s retaliation, however severe it may be.
What arsenal will Iran use to punish Israel over Haniyeh’s assassination?
By Ivan Kesic | Press TV | August 5, 2024
The stage is set for the retaliatory military operation against the Israeli regime following the assassination of Hamas political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday.
A series of statements by the Iranian leadership, including Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, President Masoud Pezeshkian and the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) indicate that the regime must brace up for a severe and unprecedented punishment.
Haniyeh was assassinated along with his bodyguard in a terrorist attack in the Iranian capital early on Wednesday. He was in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of President Pezeshkian.
The attack came barely hours after Israel killed top Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in an airstrike on a residential area in the southern suburb of Beirut, in which an Iranian military advisor and some civilians were also martyred.
Following the attack on Haniyeh, Iran called upon the UN Security Council to take immediate and decisive action, describing the attack as a “serious infringement on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran” and a “blatant violation of the basic norms and principles of international law.”
In a letter to the world body, Amir-Saeed Iravani, Iran’s permanent ambassador to the UN, emphasized the country’s right to self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.
“This rogue and terrorist regime and its accomplices bear responsibility. The Islamic Republic of Iran will not hesitate to exercise its inherent right to self-defense, as enshrined in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter to respond decisively and promptly,” he said.
In a statement on Sunday, IRGC said the attack was carried out with a “short-range projectile” with a warhead of approximately 7 kg fired from outside the residence of Haniyeh in north Tehran.
How will retaliation unfold?
There is an intense and animated debate in military and policy circles about the nature of Iran’s response to the terrorist attack against Haniyeh and the kind of weapons that could be used.
Iran possesses a massive arsenal of long-range precision strike weapons, which it has demonstrated in recent years against regional terrorist strongholds and with direct strikes on the Zionist entity in April.
The country has a massive arsenal of ballistic, quasi-ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles, by far the largest in the region and one of the four largest in the world, as well as some of the most advanced models of loitering munitions, also in colossal quantities.
The long ballistic missiles tailor-made for retaliation against the Zionist regime include Shahab-3, Ghadr-110, Fajr-3, Ashura, Sajjil, Emad, Qiam-1, Rezvan, Khorramshahr and Kheibar, while relatively smaller ballistic missiles include Dezful, Kheibar Shekan and Haj Qasem.
The first group of ballistic missiles has a range of 1,000 to 2,500 km and a warhead of 700 to 1,500 kg, while the second group has a range of 1,000 to 1,500 km and mostly carries a half-ton warhead.
Some of them can also carry several warheads, each capable of aiming different targets and some are fitted with submunitions dispensers for striking wide areas like air bases.
This means that Iran is capable of hitting Zionist targets from every ballistic base or site across the country, and the large payload is equivalent to the most powerful bunker busters and can penetrate hardened targets protected by several meters of concrete.
Novelties in Iran’s missile arsenal are the precision-guided Fattah hypersonic missiles with a terminal speed of Mach 13 to 15, and the new Fattah-2 glider version, both untouchable for existing air defense systems.
Furthermore, the last stages of these models also have hypersonic speeds, from Mach 5 to 12, so they are also difficult to intercept by enemy systems, as proved by the operation ‘True Promise’ in April.
Iranian long-range cruise missiles include Soumar, Meshkat, Ya-Ali, Hoveyzeh, Abu Mahdi, Paveh, Talaiyeh and Qadr-474, while long-range loitering munition (kamikaze drones) include Ababil, Arash, Shahed-131, Shahed-136 and Shahed-238.
Iran also has a large fleet of warplanes and drones capable of carrying various bombs and air-to-ground missiles, but previous experience shows that the above-mentioned expendable weaponry is favored for retaliatory operations of this type.
In the April operation against Israel, Iran did not use the most capable ballistic missiles or loitering munition, but still managed to successfully hit Israeli air bases with Kheibar Shekan missiles and engaged numerous Israeli, American, British and French aircraft in the interception of Shahed-136 kamikaze drones.
In that operation, the main purpose of small, cheap and slow kamikaze drones with 50 kg warheads was not to cause damage but to load radar systems in a simultaneous attack with more powerful missiles.
A flight hour of modern jets and their air-to-air missiles, or air defense missiles, cost several times more than kamikaze drones, hence the successful shooting down of swarms represents a cost-efficiency loss.
Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Division, said that in the operation “True Promise” only 20 percent of the originally planned weapons were used, but the enemies had to mobilize everything at their disposal to counter them.
This time, for the announced new strike on the Zionist entity, it is possible to see newer models of missiles and kamikaze drones or those relatively older models in larger quantities.
This time, the targets could be new, since the Ramon and Nevatim air bases were targeted in April as warplanes that took part in the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus had taken off from there.
Since the latest terrorist attack in Tehran was most likely carried out by Zionist intelligence operatives, the headquarters of Israeli spy organizations are potential targets.
These headquarters, unlike the two mentioned air bases, are not in uninhabited desert regions but in the densely populated metropolitan Tel Aviv, where half of the population of the Zionist entity lives.
Other likely targets are military bases, vital industrial infrastructure, ports or regime buildings, also in the areas of Tel Aviv, Haifa and other major cities in the occupied territories.
Due to the high sophistication and precision of Iranian missiles, the only danger for ordinary settlers in the occupied territories is the debris of their own interceptor missiles, either in the case of successful or unsuccessful shooting down.
Warnings from Iran
On Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei had warned the Israeli regime of a “harsh response” for the assassination of a “dear guest” – the leader of the Hamas resistance movement.
“The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime martyred our dear guest in our homeland and left us bereaved, but it also set the ground for a harsh punishment for itself,” the Leader said.
“He was not afraid of embracing martyrdom in the way of God and saving God’s servants, but we consider it our duty to avenge his blood in this bitter and horrific incident that took place in the Islamic Republic’s territory,” he asserted.
President Pezeshkian, in a meeting with Jordanian top diplomat Ayman Safadi on Sunday, described the assassination of Haniyeh as a “great crime” that he said “will not go unanswered.”
The IRGC said in a statement that the terrorist attack was “planned and executed” by Israel with the support of the US government, warning that the Zionist regime would receive “a severe punishment at the appropriate time, place and manner.”
The top commander of IRGC, Major General Hossein Salami, strongly warned the Israeli regime of the consequences of the recent assassinations in Tehran and Beirut.
The perpetrators, he said, “should await sacred fury, harsh revenge, and vengeance on the part of the devoted, resolute, and determined mujahedeen of the various fronts of the regional resistance.”
On Friday, Ali Baqeri Kani, acting Foreign Minister, said Iran will certainly exercise its inherent and legitimate right to punish the “criminal Zionist gang” for its terrorist attack.
Baqeri made these remarks during a phone call with Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, emphasizing that the Israeli regime’s terrorist act, in addition to violating Iran’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty, has endangered regional and international peace and stability.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf in remarks on Sunday said Iran’s “crushing and smart response” to the Israeli regime and the US will make them regret the assassination
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has announced the deployment of additional warplanes and warships to the Persian Gulf region, as well as an additional 4,000 Marines and sailors amid heightened tensions.
Shoigu Arrives in Iran to Discuss Global, Regional Security
Sputnik – 05.08.2024
TEHRAN – Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu has arrived in Iran for a planned working visit to discuss global and regional security issues, the Russian Security Council said on Monday.
Shoigu will hold talks with his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, and Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian armed forces Mohammad Bagheri. Shoigu will be received by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The agenda includes a wide range of issues of cooperation between Russia and Iran in Tehran, including security and economy.
Previously, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry revealed that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be meeting with Masoud Pezeshkian at the BRICS summit in Kazan in October. In July, the Iranian President-elect released a message underscoring that Russia is “a valued strategic ally and neighbor to Iran and my administration will remain committed to expanding and enhancing our cooperation.”
“I will continue to prioritize bilateral and multilateral cooperation with Russia, particularly within frameworks such as BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Eurasia Economic Union,” Pezeshkian stated.
Sergei Shoigu’s visit comes as Israel has been bracing for a potential attack from Iran and Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah in the wake of the assassination of Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr last week.
Featured Video
Seyed M. Marandi: US-Iran War Inevitable: Kuwait and Bahrain May Fall
or go to
Aletho News Archives – Video-Images
From the Archives
Oil and the Israel Lobby
Reknowned economist M. Shahid Alam offers this excellent critique of Noam Chomsky’s defective analysis of the relative influence of Oil versus the Israel lobby over US foreign policy: … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- ICC ignored ‘very well-documented’ NATO crimes – ex-Libyan minister
- SNSC secretary dismisses US response to Iran’s conditions as ‘inadequate’
- Sanaa says Taiz roads open, secure for residents, warns Saudi forces
- Iraqi resistance group urges Saudi leadership to admit defeat, lift Yemen siege
- Trump’s Retreat: How Al-Aqsa Flood Took Down the US Empire
- Israel’s Military Actions in Lebanon Grossly Violate International Law — Lavrov
- Seyed M. Marandi: US-Iran War Inevitable: Kuwait and Bahrain May Fall
- Leaders Condemn Ansarallah Attack on Saudi Arabia While Ignoring Illegal War Against Yemen
- Leaked: Britain’s Covert Iraqi Psyops Network
- Yemeni Armed Forces Warn Airlines Against Using Saudi Airports, Exempt Mecca and Medina
- If Americans Knew
- After Oct 7, IDF policy allowed civilian casualties for even the lowest-ranking targets
- Israel’s Destruction of Southern Lebanon Intensified After the Cease-Fire
- The Last-Minute Decision That Gave Israel Its Name
- The American Conservative: How Trump Made the World Go Nuclear
- Meet the US generals and admirals advancing Israeli policy
- Opinion: Why news organizations should boycott Israel
- The Israeli witch hunt of Sami Abu Shehadeh exposes the lie of the ‘Jewish and democratic’ state
- No state has a ‘right’ to exist – least of all Israel
- Testimonies about Gaza’s civilian death toll expose Israel’s atrocities – Daily Update
- How Israel Conquered the Latin American Right
- No Tricks Zone
- New Study Suggests Large Regions Of The Pacific Ocean Have Been Cooling For The Last 80 Years
- Germany’s Green Energy Debacle: High Energy Costs Force Kahla Porzellan to Close After 182 Years!
- New Study: 50 Years Of The Most Aggressive ‘Net Zero’ Policies Can Only Affect The Global Climate By 0.03°C
- US September “Heat” Was No Record…Many Records Set Decades Ago
- Latest European Green Energy Debacle; Portugal’s Largest Flagship Solar Park Insolvent!
- Green Energy Debacle: German Expert Professor Fritz Vahrenholt Warns Of Severe Economic And Social Consequences
- Two More Paleo Reconstructions Affirm Meters-Higher Sea Levels Across Ireland, Brazil 7000-6000 Years Ago
- New Study: Earth And Venus Surface Warmth Largely Explained By Convection And Lapse Rate, Not CO2 Or Radiation
- 2025 Nature Paper Claiming Worsening Global Drought Gets RETRACTED …Heavily Flawed
- New Study: ‘Global Drought Shows No Detectable Recent Acceleration Under Climate Warming’
