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Pentagon trying to hide latest hypersonic test failure, says results ‘unclear’

By Drago Bosnic | July 31, 2024

The Pentagon just tested a hypersonic weapon, but refuses to disclose whether it was successful or not. It doesn’t even want to specify which system was involved or if there was an actual launch, as the US military often runs ground tests and presents them as “successful weapon launches”. In a previous test, the US Army’s “Dark Eagle”, a ground-based hypersonic weapon, failed miserably, forcing the Pentagon to go back to the drawing board. The initial plan was to have the weapon ready in the next two months, a year later than originally planned. The US Army and Navy are running a joint Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) program which aims to save costs by using the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB). However, the US military simply cannot master the technologies needed to make an operational weapon. Apart from dozens of failures, there are also regular cancelations of tests (just last year, there were three scrubbed test launches).

Last month, the Pentagon announced it supposedly conducted a “successful test” of the C-HGB designed for both the US Army’s “Dark Eagle” and the US Navy’s IRCPS (Intermediate Range Conventional Prompt Strike). However, it released no data about the launch, prompting many to question the validity of its claims. US military sources report that “there has been no known full end-to-end test of the missile involving a production-representative launch system”. The latest test of the unknown hypersonic weapon leaves much to be desired, with a US defense official telling The War Zone that “this test was an essential benchmark in the development of operational hypersonic technology” and that “vital data on the performance of the hardware and software was collected that will inform the continued progress toward fielding hypersonic weapons”. The source refused to provide any specifics, including the exact date, which is speculated to be July 25.

Combined with public warning notices and using online flight tracking software, observers concluded that the weapon was launched from Cape Canaveral precisely on July 25. The presence of several US Navy and NASA aircraft tracking the test on that day also supports this hypothesis. Observers and military experts mostly agree that the weapon in question was indeed the LRHW equipped with the C-HGB. Although this is yet to be explicitly confirmed by the US military, the previous aborted “Dark Eagle” tests were supposed to take place at Cape Canaveral. The concept of the missile is essentially a copy of Russia’s “Avangard” HGV (hypersonic glide vehicle), only on a much smaller scale and range. However, unlike Moscow, the US is incapable of producing an operational weapon. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) repeatedly criticized the Pentagon for its incompetence and warned about numerous delays and cost overruns.

The US military is regularly getting ahead of itself and failing to induct new weapon systems. Back in 2021, the US Army reactivated missile units that have been dormant since the (First) Cold War and deployed “Dark Eagle” launchers without missiles, expecting the weapon to be ready in months. However, it’s been three years since then and all data indicates that the missile won’t be ready before 2026 (in the best-case scenario). As a result, the US now lags not only behind China, but even North Korea and Iran. Some experts say that this could partially be because various US companies refuse to cooperate and share data. As for the US inferiority to Russian hypersonic weapons, it’s now measured in decades, a fact that not even Western experts deny. Still, the mainstream propaganda machine regularly talks about the US military’s plans to “dominate hypersonic weapons” with missiles such as the “Dark Eagle”, even though the Pentagon is yet to conduct a verifiable successful launch.

The US Army insists that the weapon will reach speeds of at least Mach 17 and a range of around 2,800 km. This falls within the previously banned intermediate-range missiles that the US is now deploying in Germany, sparking another Cold War-style missile crisis in Europe. However, apart from regular systems such as the “Typhon”, the US is unable to field advanced 21st-century hypersonic weapons, in part because it’s using outdated techniques, as reported by some analysts. Both the US Army and Navy are now uncertain about when (or whether) the LRHW or IRCPS could enter operational service. The previous three test failures were blamed on the launcher rather than the missile itself. However, as previously mentioned, this is a common practice, as the US military is now regularly reporting about either “successful booster tests” (which is not a hypersonic weapon), or simply lying about a “successful launch” which is then followed by several consecutive failures.

The mainstream propaganda machine is trying its best to hide the embarrassment with pompous articles about “Putin fearing US weapons”. The latest such text was published just days before the failed launch of July 25. Earlier this year, US media talked about “unprecedented launches”, only for these chest-thumping titles to be replaced by complete silence to avoid having to give humiliating explanations as to what went wrong. In the meantime, Russian hypersonic weapons keep obliterating illegally deployed NATO personnel across Ukraine. The US military has been having issues with fielding advanced weapons for decades, particularly when it comes to missiles. The long-running problems with its Military Industrial Complex have resulted in its inability to design even basic ICBMs. Approximately half a decade ago, I argued that the Pentagon is approximately 15-20 years behind Moscow in hypersonic technologies and that it won’t field a weapon before 2030.

Although many thought such a prognosis was too far-fetched at the time, it seems this scenario is likelier than ever before. In the last two years alone, there have been at least half a dozen failures, including those reported in GAO’s latest reviews. There are claims of a “successful test” in June, but footage shows that none of the planned ground or sea-based launchers were used, once again prompting the informed public to question the validity of such claims. All this is only reinforcing the fact that the US has fallen decades behind its geopolitical adversaries. The miserable failure of its pompously announced “Super Duper” missile shows just how widespread these troubles are in various US hypersonic programs. After the cancelation of the AGM-183A (better known as the ARRW), the US Air Force stated it would be shifting away from it to “focus its efforts on the development of an air-breathing Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM)”, which is a joint effort with several Australian companies.

However, this program is also running into numerous challenges and is unlikely to be ready any time soon. To ease the humiliation at least a bit, the US has been trying to justify Russia’s advantage in these systems by using rather pathetic excuses, such as the laughable claim that Moscow “stole” non-existent American hypersonic technologies. However, President Vladimir Putin announced that the Kremlin was developing hypersonic weapons back in 2004, when such statements were met with ridicule in the political West. Despite these ludicrous public displays of false “superiority”, the US secretly kept sending spies to steal Russian hypersonic secrets. For years, American intelligence has also been trying to get Russian scientists to sell their secrets or even recruit them to help the struggling US programs. Such attempts have been futile for the most part, but Washington DC doesn’t have much of a choice. In the meantime, all it can do is lie about “shooting down” Russian hypersonic weapons.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.

July 31, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | | Leave a comment

A majority of Americans now officially meet the definition of “anti-vaxxer”

By Aaron Siri | Injecting Freedom | July 29, 2024

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an “anti-vaxxer” as “a person who opposes the use of some or all vaccines, regulations mandating vaccination, or usually both”:

So, to be an “anti-vaxxer,” per the dictionary, a person needs to only oppose receiving some vaccines. Meaning, a person that opposes receiving a COVID-19 vaccine or an influenza vaccine is an anti-vaxxer. And guess what? The majority of Americans now oppose receiving both of these vaccines.

In fact, according to the CDC, despite spending billions of dollars wildly promoting these products, less than half of Americans received an influenza vaccine, RSV vaccine, and the updated COVID-19 vaccine. In fact, less than 23% of the adult population in the U.S. has received an updated COVID-19 vaccine despite a relentless multi-billion-dollar national promotion campaign.

Not only do a majority of Americans oppose receiving these vaccines, an even greater percentage of Americans no doubt (including some that receive these vaccines) oppose mandating one or more of these products.

The irony is that deciding against being injected with a product after reviewing its clinical trials, post-licensure safety record, lack of liability, etc., is an informed, thoughtful decision. Yet those that mindlessly get every vaccine are the ones painted as making informed, thoughtful decisions?!  Hats off to Big Pharma/CDC for convincing so many that up is down and down is up.

The next time someone calls you an “anti-vaxxer” because you have made an informed decision to not receive a medical intervention, let them know that, yes, you did make an informed, independent medical decision. And wish them luck doing the opposite!

You can also let them know that since “anti-vaxxers” are now the majority, you understand their insecurity and hostility. But they shouldn’t worry: the anti-vax majority is not interested in taking away the rights of the pro-vax minority. They can feel free to get (or not get) as many vaccines as they want. We in the majority just ask that they respect our right to do the same.

July 30, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , | Leave a comment

Shocking testimony regarding Remdesivir

Health Advisory & Recovery Team | July 30, 2024

Some rather shocking testimony has emerged from the USA.

An American doctor working in Everett, Washington (just north of Seattle) called James Miller, recently published an attestation which can be downloaded from here.

This was written to be filed as evidence with some attorneys who are petitioning state Attorney Generals to investigate hospital administrations and others responsible for what some regard as homicides. More about that can be read here.

The whole statement is worth reading, but in our view the following in particular stands:

From just that small extract, the following can be surmised:

  • treatment was entirely protocol-driven — this person was well enough to be in a car and her “covid-19” was incidental; there were, however, recommendations in place that notwithstanding that, she should receive remdesivir just because a protocol said so
  • usually these protocols were followed, regardless of clinical need, but just because a person had a positive test
  • the protocols, however, could be flexibly applied and in this case a doctor decided that a valid criterion for making a decision was how “nice” the patient was
  • a treatment was actively avoided here “because she was nice” — indicating that the doctors knew that per-protocol they ought to be giving treatments which they themselves knew to be harmful

The core departure from medical norms on display here from which this fortunate patient escaped — the rigid application of “protocols” by compliant unquestioning doctors resulting in harmful treatment being given — is an extremely disturbing phenomenon. It would be naive to think this only happened in the USA, and was seen only in association with the particular treatment — remdesivir — mentioned here.

It’s worth noting that the tenacious Jessica Hockett has written this article in which she suggests a series of further questions she’d like to ask Dr Miller.

July 30, 2024 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science, War Crimes | , | Leave a comment

Iran Rejects US Intelligence Words on Tehran’s Alleged Interference in Elections – Reports

Sputnik – 30.07.2024

TEHRAN – Iran’s mission to the United Nations has rejected US intelligence statements regarding Tehran’s alleged interference in the upcoming elections in the United States, the IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

On Monday, media reported that the office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States had unsubstantiated claims that Russia, China and Iran allegedly use marketing, communications and other means to influence US voters and the outcome of the upcoming presidential election.

“Iran has no purpose or activity aimed at influencing the US elections. Most of these accusations are being made as part of psychological actions to artificially revive election campaigns,” the Iranian mission to the UN said, as quoted by the news agency.

July 30, 2024 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , , | Leave a comment

Evidence indicates federal agencies must have been involved in Trump’s attempted assassination

By Uriel Araujo | July 30, 2024

It has been reported that Donald Trump’s would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was seen carrying a rangefinder (a device employed to measure distances to remote objects, often used by hunters and military) and was deemed a suspect over 90 minutes before shooting. This has been revealed by newly released text messages exchanged between members of the Beaver County Emergency Service Unit. The messages are clear enough: “he know you guys are up there”, “I did see him with a range finder”. Pictures of Crooks were also shared with Secret Service. Forbes has called this a “possible security lapse”, but in the overall context, such sounds almost like a euphemism. It is far from being the only “lapse” in an increasingly strange case.

One may remember that, as I wrote, according to the FBI, during the Trump rally the would-be assassin was spotted on the roof, holding a weapon, no less than 20 minutes before the shooting, with civilians in the crowd alerting the authorities – and bizarrely nothing was done. Moreover, CNN reported that “forensic analysis suggests that as many as three weapons were fired at the Trump rally.” Stephen Bryen, security expert and former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, also takes the possibility of there being at least a second shooter seriously and calls for a “solid FBI investigation with Congressional oversight” on the issue.

On top of all of that, let us consider the following points hyperlinked below – for the sake of brevity I shall not elaborate too much on each, but shall merely present them:

1. The Oversight Project (OP) employed mobile ad analysis in a geo-location investigation and claims to have thusly “tracked devices that regularly visited both Crooks’s home and place of work and followed them.” It leads straight to Washington DC – to a building that happens to house both the Gallery mall and offices of the FBI, of all places: “someone who regularly visited Crooks home and work also visited a building in Washington, DC located in Gallery Place. This is in the same vicinity of a FBI office on June 26, 2023.”

Of course, this is a busy downtown area in DC, and geolocation cannot pinpoint someone to the most precise address. But still, given the context, the coincidence is enough to raise eyebrows. It does not necessarily mean something more sinister: it could just mean that federal agents were monitoring Crooks before the incident – neither scenario looks good, though (the latter would only make the security breach look even stranger). The OP is a pro-“government transparency” initiative by the Heritage Foundation that uses Freedom of Information Act requests.

2. The FBI, after finally having broken into the shooter’s phone device, claims to have found no leads pertaining to motives. The Bureau also claimed that encrypted messaging applications are a “real challenge”. The espionage capabilities of the US federal agencies regarding telecommunications are well known, which makes this claim hard to swallow.

3. Crooks even flew a drone over the rally’s perimeter, on the day of the attempted assassination, and he might have used a ladder to climb the roof.

5. Before the shooter went up, two local officers inside a building overlooking the same roof left their posts, a short while before Crooks started firing.

6. The SS admitted having repeatedly denied requests for extra security at Trump rallies.

All of the above is very hard to explain in terms of a mere “security lapse”. In fact, such a hypothesis sounds even absurd. Had any of that taken place in any other country in the world, the whole international media would be asking questions about authorities being involved or a cover-up. In the US political culture, however, one usually cries “conspiracy theory” to shut down discussion. It remains to be seen whether this will work in this case, though.

If one looks at the timeline, a man (Crooks) was seen acting suspiciously within the Trump’s rally perimeter (60 minutes before the incident); was then spotted walking around with a rangefinder, a telescope-like device (40 minutes before); was later spotted by Secret Service on the roof (20 minutes before), and was even seen by civilians attending the rally who pointed and shouted “he’s on the roof, he’s got a gun” while Trump gave his speech (2 minutes before); and even pointed his rifle at an officer (30 seconds before). Then, of course he fired eight shots at Trump, hurting the former President’s ear (only because Trump tilted his head to read something on a screen) and hitting three civilians – one of them died. Crooks was finally killed by a SS counter-sniper. Before all of this, at no point was he questioned, asked to leave, detained or shot – having been shot down only after attacking the former President.

It is no wonder then the US Secret Service itself is being investigated by Homeland Security,  with a probe looking into all these security lapses; and it is no wonder SS Director Kimberly Cheatle finally resigned after appearing under subpoena in front of the House Oversight Committee. As I’ve written, the Secret Service is increasingly under suspicion, amid its several contradictions.

The hard truth is that, considering all of that, some Secret Service role in an attempted assassination is the most likely scenario so far. During a congressional hearing last week, the now-resigned SS Director was asked: “Was there a stand-down order, Ms. Cheatle? Was there a conspiracy to kill President?” It certainly seems so, considering all the above. The Director may have resigned, but the crisis remains – and this is not the only scandal haunting Washington before the upcoming elections.

With an incumbent President whose senility and mental decline has been covered up by the White House’s inner circle, it is even unclear who has been governing the country thus far – with some talking about a “ triumvirate” (referring to Biden’s close advisers Bruce Reed, Mike Donilon, and Steve Ricchetti). One can thereby forecast political instability and turmoil within the United States, including possibly espionage agencies infighting, with unclear and unpredictable consequences foreign policy-wise.

July 30, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception | , | Leave a comment

China responds to US election interference claim

RT | July 30, 2024

Beijing has never interfered in US elections and has no intention of doing so, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has stressed in response to accusations recently levied by US intelligence officials.

The ministry’s statement comes in response to a late July Election Security Update by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in which Russia, China and Iran were accused of supposedly using their influence to impact US politics and threaten the upcoming US presidential election, scheduled for November.

In the report, ODNI stated that while China “probably does not plan to influence the outcome of the US presidential election,” actors linked to Beijing are expected to “seek to denigrate down-ballot candidates” who are seen as a threat to China’s core interests. The agency suggested that similar actions were carried out by Chinese agents “in a handful of midterm races in 2022.”

ODNI also stated that it is aware that Beijing is using social media to sow “divisions in the US and portray democracies as chaotic.”

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian responded to the accusations by stating that “China has never interfered in and will not interfere in the US election.”

“We oppose the US spreading false information to smear China and oppose the US election using China as an excuse,” Lin stressed.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also categorically rejected ODNI’s allegations of election meddling, describing them as “absurd” and accusing the US intelligence community of succumbing to “fashionable trends in domestic politics” and “looking for enemies.”

“The Americans cannot think of a better enemy than Russia,” Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, adding that more similar accusations are likely to come out in the future as the US election approaches. He explained that Russia and its President Vladimir Putin continue to be major factors for US Republicans and Democrats to exploit amid their ongoing political struggle.

The Kremlin spokesman expressed regret that Moscow has to deal with this fact, noting that the American politicians’ baseless accusations only serve to further harm Russian-American relations.

July 30, 2024 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

UAE, Israel expand spy bases in Yemen’s Socotra under US-sponsorship: Report

The Cradle | July 29, 2024

The UAE has, since 7 October, stepped up work on joint Emirati-Israeli military and intelligence infrastructure on the Socotra Archipelago off the coast of Yemen, Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported on 29 July.

The UAE has sought to establish control over the strategic archipelago, and has, over the past few years, begun constructing – in coordination with Tel Aviv – military and intelligence sites on the islands of the Socotra Archipelago, including the Island of Socotra itself.

According to the Al-Akhbar report, other Gulf Arab countries are involved in Emirati-Israeli plans for the archipelago, which comes as part of “an alliance being established … under an American umbrella.”

“The archipelago, in addition to other Yemeni islands and ports, is a central point in [this alliance] … the formation of the aforementioned alliance has become more urgent for all its parties,” Al-Akhbar writes, adding that since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October, “they accelerated the construction of its features, led by an Emirati-Israeli military base being built on Abd al-Kuri Island.”

Abd al-Kuri Island is the second largest island in the Archipelago after Socotra.

The “ultimate goal” of the project is “to link the armies and security services of Israel and the concerned Arab countries under the umbrella of US Central Command.”

The report adds that in late December last year, a UAE-flagged landing ship – designed for the deployment of military personnel and equipment – arrived at Socotra Island, remaining there until early January.

It then headed west towards Abd al-Kuri and anchored until 11 January, heading back to Socotra two days later. It then returned to the UAE on 18 January.

“It concealed its signal while stationed off the island’s shores, and remained this way until it reappeared again on 25 December in the Arabian Sea heading north, which suggested that it was carrying out suspicious activity at the time. Information indicates that the ship’s trips were intended to transport military supplies and specialized personnel supervising the development of an Emirati base.”

Following 7 October, a new pier and a helicopter landing pad were constructed on Abd al-Kuri, as well as an airstrip, which was revealed in satellite imagery released in March this year.

“This expansion allows for the accommodation of larger American military cargo aircraft and strategic bombers, such as the American C-5M Super Galaxy and B-1 bombers that were recently used in retaliatory attacks in Syria and Iraq. New housing and buildings were also built,” according to the report.

This is not the first report indicating Washington’s involvement in the militarization of the Socotra Archipelago. Sky News Arabia reported in March that Washington is looking to establish a presence in Socotra in response to Ansarallah and the Yemeni Armed Forces’ pro-Palestine operations.

An in-depth investigation released by The Cradle in March 2023 details the Emirati–Israeli presence on the Socotra archipelago.

The Al-Akhbar report comes as the forces of Yemen’s Sanaa government – which are aligned with Ansarallah – have been vowing a response to the recent Israeli strikes on the western Yemeni port of Hodeidah, which was carried out in response to a deadly Yemeni drone attack on Tel Aviv.

Sanaa has imposed a blockade on all shipping heading to Israeli ports in support of the people and resistance in Gaza, and has vowed not to stop until the genocidal war against Palestinians in the strip comes to an end.

It has also targeted the Israeli port city of Eilat with dozens of drones and missiles since the start of the war.

The Yemeni army has also been attacking US and UK warships in response to the violent bombing campaign that Washington and London began against Yemen in January. US-UK airstrikes have since failed to deter Yemen’s operations.

July 29, 2024 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

TikTok to Ban Some Criticisms of Zionism Following Pressure from NGO Backed by Former Israeli Intelligence Officials

Meta’s global head of policy development, Dina Hussein (Left), and TikTok’s head of trust & safety partnerships, Valiant Richey (Right), moments after CyberWell founder Tal-Or Cohen spoke on the same panel as part of the September 2023 Eradicate Hate Global Summit.
By Lee Fang and Jack Poulson | July 28, 2024

The popular social media platform TikTok has agreed “off-the-record” to enacting the same ban on many criticisms of the Israeli government as was adopted by Meta on July 9, according to a statement from the head of the Israeli pressure group CyberWell published on Sunday. As uncovered by the authors through two reports earlier this month, CyberWell is an offshoot of the Israeli government intelligence collection effort known as Keshet David (“David’s Bow”), which was itself spun out of a larger government propaganda effort now known as Voices of Israel.

CyberWell is one of many nonprofit advocacy groups that has leveraged its role as a trusted ‘counter-disinformation’ and ‘anti-hate’ partner to press for its public policy aims. As we previously reported, CyberWell’s campaigns have included attempts to ban the popular slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” as well as criticisms of the Israeli government’s wartime propaganda, including demonstrably false claims from government officials surrounding the killing of “dozens” of babies on October 7th. CyberWell has also pressed for a ban on discussions of the Israeli government’s enactment of the so-called ‘Hannibal Directive’ preference of killing its own citizens rather than allowing them to be taken hostage.

Meta’s recent policy change, which was championed by CyberWell, bans many critical uses of the term ‘Zionist’ – a reference to those who call for an independent state in the Middle East which privileges Jews over other ethnic groups. Meta’s decision recognized that ‘Zionist’ can be used “as shorthand to refer to governments, soldiers, or other specific groups” and therefore punted on the question of whether to ban the critique that “Zionists are war criminals.”

Listen to the audio here:

Roughly seventeen minutes into an interview with Canadian political consultant Warren Kinsella published on Sunday, CyberWell chief executive Tal-Or Cohen responded to a question on whether other social media platforms would be following Meta’s ban on many criticisms of Zionism by stating:

“We’re also a trusted partner of TikTok. And we have been assured by TikTok off-the-record, I’ll say off-the-record, that their policy is the same. Meaning they would be treating Zionism in the same way, okay. So I expect that off-the-record you’re going to actually be seeing statements about that in the coming days. On the record, I can tell you that we’ve been reassured by TikTok that they’re looking at this statement by Meta and that they intend to provide clarification to the public on it soon, okay.”

Ms. Cohen continued that CyberWell plans to fight for the same policies at X and Google: “We all need to look at X and at Google and kind of say … this decision has been widely supported by all of the major Jewish organizations, by a coalition known as the IHRA Coalition,” referencing a pressure campaign for social media platforms to adopt the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) re-definition of antisemitism, for which CyberWell has served as the data provider.

Cohen further stated that: “The next clear move is to call on all social media platforms to actually recognize what is true, which is that ‘Zionist’ is being used as a codeword to spread antisemitism to speak about Jews in hostile and violent ways, and we expect the digital policies that are in place to be applied equally to this form of hate too.”

The host of the interview, Daisy Consulting Group’s Warren Kinsella, was exposed in 2019 for running a smear campaign known as ‘Project Cactus’ to ‘seek and destroy’ the populist People’s Party of Canada and its leader, Maxime Bernier. A source with knowledge of the campaign asserted that Kinsella’s client was the Conservative Party of Canada.

In addition to its ‘trusted partner’ status with Meta and TikTok, CyberWell has also enjoyed close access to U.S. security officials. Ms. Cohen spoke alongside Meta’s global head of policy development, Dina Hussein, and TikTok’s head of trust & safety partnerships, Valiant Richey, during a panel at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in late September. Beyond participation from multiple FBI agents and an official from the U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center, which has come under criticism for its expansive methods of opposing online disinformation, the summit’s keynote speakers included U.S. homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and former Israeli interior minister Natan Sharansky.

CyberWell’s leadership includes several former high-level Israeli security officials, such as Amos Yadlin, the former head of Israel’s military intelligence directorate, Aman.

Sharansky was influential in the creation of the IHRA redefinition of antisemitism, which he has described as a reaction to a United Nations-backed criticism of the Israeli government as an apartheid state through the 2001 Durban declaration, as well as the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Along with celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Sharansky authored the introduction to a 2019 report from Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs – which originally created Voices of Israel – entitled “Behind the Mask: The Antisemitic Nature of BDS Exposed.”

A subsequent report in early 2021, published jointly by the ministries of strategic and diaspora affairs, “The Hate Factor,” laid out the Israeli government’s strategy for pressuring social media companies to adopt the IHRA redefinition of antisemitism. CyberWell is arguably the embodiment of that strategy.

TikTok and CyberWell did not immediately respond to requests for comment. This article will be amended if comments are received after publication.

July 28, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment

The U.S. pressures Armenia to buy gas from Azerbaijan instead of Russia

By Steven Sahiounie | Strategic Culture Foundation | July 28, 2024

Ambassador Samantha Power, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, and now director of USAID, an office of the U.S. State Department, traveled to Armenia on July 10 to strong-arm Prime MInister Nikol Pashinyan into buying gas from Azerbaijan, instead of Russia.

Armenia currently imports almost all of its hydrocarbons from Russia and Iran via gas pipeline.

The President Joe Biden administration supports the war in Ukraine by providing billions of dollars of weapons to Ukraine to fight Russia.

Prior to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline being destroyed, Biden had made a speech promising that the U.S. would prevent Russia from selling gas to Germany and Europe. It is an economic war waged on Russia, as well as militarily on the battlefields.

On February 28, 2023, the American Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Seymour Hersh, published an article exposing how the Biden administration had blown up the Nord Stream 2 underwater pipeline designed to deliver gas to Germany and Europe.

The Nord Stream 2 had been sanctioned by Germany, and Biden was afraid that Germany would lift the sanctions because of a bad winter.

According to Hersh, Biden was obsessed with reelection in 2024, and wanted to win the war in Ukraine. Biden’s advisors in the Oval Office feared that Germany and Western Europe might stop weapons support to Ukraine, and the German chancellor could turn the pipeline on.

Biden placed winning the war in Ukraine above the warmth and health of the German people, even though winning a war in Ukraine is improbable, according to military experts.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), has criticized Power’s trip to Armenia because USAID hasn’t provided financial support to Armenians who left Karabakh and returned to their homeland Armenia as displaced persons, and victims of ethnic cleansing.

Despite previous visits and flowery speeches, Power has not initiated any funding programs for the Karabakh Armenians who lost their homes, possessions, lands and livelihoods.

In September 2023, almost 200,000 ethnic Armenians fled the battles, and eventual defeat in Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan’s victory ending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatist rule there.

Protesters on the streets of Yerevan blamed the policies of Pashinyan for the defeat.

Power arrived in Yerevan on September 25 and said, “The United States is deeply concerned about reports on the humanitarian conditions in Nagorno-Karabakh and calls for unimpeded access for international humanitarian organizations and commercial traffic.”

The ANCA say the needy are still waiting for help from Power and the Biden administration.

During Azerbaijan’s attacks on the Armenian people living in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the U.S. supported the Azerbaijan government. There is no reason for the government of Armenia to view the U.S. as a friend, or supporter.

By contrast, the Russian peace-keeping troops tried to perform their job in the Nagorno-Karabakh armed conflict, but in the end, Armenia was defeated.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have made peace; the armed conflict is over, but the pain of hundreds of Armenian deaths at the hands of the Azerbaijanis remains fresh in the minds and hearts of Armenians.

Now, Ambassador Power is asking Yerevan to buy their gas from a former enemy, instead of a loyal friend.

On July 15, just days after Power visited, joint military drills with the U.S. began, and reflects the pressure Power and the Biden administration are putting on Armenia to forge closer ties with the U.S.

Russia had been Armenia’s main economic partner and Armenia hosts a Russian military base. Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.

American military help was completely absent in the struggle for Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Has she no shame?” asked Sossy Saroyan in Latakia, Syria while referring to Power.

After the attack and massacre in Kessab, carried out by the U.S. supported Free Syrian Army (FSA) and their allied Al Qaeda terrorists, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, was asked to comment on what happened in Kessab.

Power said, “The U.S. is very concerned about what happened in Kessab, but unfortunately the armed groups there are not ones we have leverage on.”

Power had lied. The FSA was the armed wing of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), based in Istanbul, Turkey and headed by its President, Ahmed Jarba. Both the FSA and SNC received their support, funds, training and weapons from the U.S. government through Congressional funding, and through the CIA program, “Sycamore Timber”.

To prove the U.S. connection to the attack, destruction, occupation, massacre and kidnapping in Kessab in March 2014, Jarba visited the FSA stationed in occupied Kessab on April 11, 2014.

On May 23, 2014, Jarba was sitting in the Oval Office with U.S. President Barak Obama and Susan Rice. On Jarba’s visit he met with Secretary of State John Kerry and received the use of two offices in Washington to be used as a U.S. base of operation for the SNC and FSA.

On the same day that Jarba was in Kessab, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Francis J. Riccardone, Jr. visited the 26 very elderly kidnap victims from Kessab who had been taken at gunpoint to Vikifly, Turkey as captives of the FSA.

Ambassador Riccardone had brought his wife with him, as she was a language specialist, and they also had a translator with them.

Ambassador Riccardone had just one question to ask of the captives who all but one was over the age of 80. His question posed to the group of captives was, “Are any of you American citizens?”

Kessab, Syria does have a number of dual citizens, Syrians by birth, who have obtained U.S. citizenship after living, working and paying incomes taxes in the U.S. in the past. In fact, at least four American citizens had lost their homes, farms and businesses when the U.S. sponsored terrorists attacked Kessab.

However, the group collectively answered, “No, we are just Syrians.”

At that point, Ambassador Riccardone and his entourage got up to leave. He was there for one purpose only, to free any U.S. captive, but none were U.S. citizens so he left them.

The very elderly Syrian Christian Armenian kidnap victims were captives of an armed group whose stated goal was to establish an Islamic government in Damascus, and to remove the existing secular government which had protected the rights of all Christians in Syria. The victims begged Ambassador Riccardone to please not leave them in captivity in Turkey, which had massacred 1.6 million Armenians in the 1916 Armenian Genocide, but to transport them to Latakia, Syria where all the residents of Kessab were sheltering at the Armenian Church.

The dozens of elderly, infirm, and immobile Armenians of Kessab were forced by Ambassador Riccardone to remain captives in a foreign country historical known for its genocidal hatred of Armenians, for three months, until they were transported by the Turkish government, allied with Obama, to Beirut, Lebanon and from there they were bused to Latakia, Syria.

Kessab has never recovered, and is a partial ghost-town because of the Obama-Biden administration.

The Armenians of Syria could teach the Armenian government a hard lesson learned from bitter experience: don’t expect help from the U.S., because they do not have friends, they only have interests.

Biden wanted to win the Ukraine war, and secure a ceasefire in Gaza to ensure reelection. Instead he has failed at both, and has lost the election.

July 28, 2024 Posted by | Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

US Navy Drops Details on Pricey Missiles and Bombs It’s Using Against Yemen’s Warriors

By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 27.07.2024

The US and Britain have been bombing Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen since January, killing and maiming scores of civilians and targeting hundreds of militia sites but failing to “degrade” the Houthis missile and drone capabilities, or to stop their months-long partial blockade of the Red Sea in support of Palestine.

The US Navy has revealed new details about the weapons systems it has been using in the ongoing US-UK bombing campaign against the Houthis.

According to information shared with the Navy Times, F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which left the Middle East and steamed home last month after a nine-month long deployment in the Red Sea area, used the AIM-9X infrared-guided heat-seeking missile to target Houthi kamikaze drones.

The AIM-9X is a variant of Raytheon’s widely used AIM-9 Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missile. The weapon has a per unit price of between $430,800 and $472,000, making it between 215 and 236 times the cost of the estimated $2,000-each price of a Houthi attack drone.

The Navy also confirmed the deployment of its Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile, or AARGM, also launched from Super Hornets aircraft, against Houthi air defenses. Produced by Northrup Grumman, these ground attack weapons have a per missile price of $874,000.

The Navy did not provide any details on the Houthi systems targeted by these weapons, The militia’s arsenal is thought to consist mostly of older Soviet-era SAMs and anti-aircraft guns, similarly dated radars, and Yemeni-built copies of Iranian missile and MANPADS designs.

Another weapon used by the Super Hornets in their campaign is the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon – a glide bomb possessed by the US Navy and Air Force and by the air forces of more than half a dozen of Washington’s allies. The Navy said the Raytheon-made missiles being used against the Houthis are the latest, AGM-154C variant, which cost roughly $719,000 each. The Navy did not specify what kinds of targets the munition was used to attack, but the inertial and GPS-guided, terminal infrared homing-equipped weapons are designed for use against both stationary ground targets and moving targets at sea.

Apart from their machinegun-armed speedboats, the Houthis don’t have a navy to speak of, and their naval drones aren’t the fancy, $250,000 apiece, custom-built unmanned vehicles possessed by NATO countries. Instead, the militia has improvised by fitting ordinary speedboats with remote controls, packing them with explosives and launching them toward their enemies, with the total cost of such weapons not exceeding $30,000 (or about 24 times less than the US munitions deployed to dispatch them).

The imbalance in pricing between the Houthis’ guerilla warfare-purposed weapons and the US’s sleek, arms expo showroom-class air-launched missiles and bombs parallels the chasm between the surface-to-air missiles the US Navy has been using and the Yemeni militia’s drones.

In explosive testimony by US air and missile defense officials to Congress in May, Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Angus King lambasted the state of affairs in which the US military has been forced to use $4.3 million SM-6 interceptor missiles to take down $20,000 Houthi UAVs.

“In the Red Sea, the Houthis are sending $20,000 drones and we’re shooting them down with missiles that cost $4.3 million. The math doesn’t work on that, gentlemen. It just doesn’t work. What are we thinking?” King asked. The lawmaker urged the Pentagon to urgently ramp up the development of directed energy weapons instead.

US Navy expenditures on their policing mission in the Middle East beginning after October 7 and the start of the Israel-Gaza war have surpassed $1 billion, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro told the Senate Appropriations Committee in April.

The US-led operation against the Houthis shows no sign of slowing down, but neither does the militia’s resolve against Washington and its allies. US Central Command announced on Friday that American forces had destroyed six Houthi aerial drones, and three uncrewed surface vessels, off the Yemeni coast. Also Friday, hundreds of thousands Yemenis gathered in the streets of Sanaa and other cities in solidarity with the Houthis’ operations against the US and Israel.

France’s Le Monde newspaper wrote in a piece Friday that Western powers had proven “powerless to halt Houthi attacks,” with Western warships’ presence in the Red Sea and strikes on the militia said to have “failed to deter the rebel militia.”

The glum attitude comes in the wake of reports in US business media last week that CENTCOM chief General Michael Erik Kurilla had written a letter to his boss, Lloyd Austin, and urged Washington to ramp up its economic, diplomatic and military pressure on the Houthis, admitting that the Western coalition’s operations to date had “failed” to stop the militia.

July 27, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

Harris claims support of Palestinian rights, sends IOF weapons: DFLP

Al Mayadeen | July 27, 2024

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine responded to the US Vice President’s statement regarding Palestinian rights, saying “There is nothing new about such statements, the lesson remains in implementation.”

Vice President Kamala Harris had previously discussed the Palestinian people’s rights to liberation, self-determination, and security, in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a statement, the DFLP compared Harris’ words to those of the US presidents that came before her.

“Barack Obama, in a visit to Cairo at the beginning of his term as president, claimed that Palestinian Statehood was part of US national security.

Before him was Bush Jr., who vowed to establish a Palestinian State until he concluded his presidency in 2008 with a brutal war on the Gaza Strip via Ehud Olmert’s Israeli government.

Biden also vowed to instate the two-state solution but rapidly backed down before Netanyahu’s fascist government, which rejected the establishment of a Palestinian State. Biden evaded the issue saying there is more than one model for a Palestinian state, hinting at self-administrative rule for our people,” which he considered to be an Israeli-American model of the so-called two-state solution.

The Democratic Front further blasted Harris, noting that while she speaks of Palestinian liberation and self-determination, the US military continues to supply the Israeli occupation forces with weapons to commit massacres against Palestinians and transform the entire Gaza Strip into a murder zone using Israeli-American war machines.

Amid theatrics about Gaza, Harris starts campaign with lies: Hamas

Izzat al-Risheq, a member of the political bureau of Hamas, considered Kamala Harris’ pretensions about her concerns and sorrow regarding the humanitarian situation and human suffering in Gaza to be yet another American lie.

He reiterated that the United States could have ended the war and blocked its military, security, political, and intelligence support to “Israel’ and its occupation forces if it wanted to.

Al-Risheq also affirmed that the presidential candidate and vice president kickstarted her presidential campaign with fabricated lies, reminding her that Gaza’s martyrs are not just “deaths”, but innocent civilians, elderly, women, children, and refugees, killed by the “Zionazi army” with American decisions, weapons, and political cover.

Harris “disregards the human rights she pretends to protect, and the Resistance’s right to confront an occupier protected by international law,” he said, adding that her vision was biased toward the Israeli occupation and opposed the people of Palestine in Gaza.

This comes after Harris convened with Netanyahu and emphasized her rock-solid support for “Israel”.

July 27, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Progressive Hypocrite | , , , | Leave a comment

‘Americans, Please, Go Home’ – German Politician on US Deploying Missiles in Germany

Sputnik – 27.07.2024

The Pentagon’s decision to begin rotating deployments of long-range missiles in Germany starting from 2026 has caused a stir in the media and in the public, prompting Germans to doubt the necessity of such a step and question US motives.

Chairman of the German Council for Constitution and Sovereignty Ralph Thomas Niemeyer has called for shutting down US military facilities in Germany, noting that Washington is using them to carry out its own conflicts.

“We saw the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Ukraine being fought from German territory,” Niemeyer told Sputnik. “From the Ramstein Air Base and from other places such as Wiesbaden, Grafenwöhr and Stuttgart [locations with US military sites]. It would be impossible if they were not present there. So I am all for saying, ‘Please go home’.”

The German politician believes that Donald Trump taking office for a second term would be a good opportunity for Germany to gain more independence from Washington, since Trump “does not want to spend too much on the troop deployment either.”

“Trump voiced all this during his last presidential term… He could have gone as far as shutting them [US military bases in Germany] down. That is what we are interested in. We would say: ‘Sure, Americans, please, go home. Be our friends, but do not occupy us anymore,” he emphasized.

Without its own constitution, the country cannot have a genuine sovereignty, Niemeyer also stated, indicating this need for Germany.

The German Council for Constitution and Sovereignty has advocated for replacing the 1949 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. This law was viewed as a temporary substitute for a full-fledged constitution, but is still in act.

July 27, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

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