The strange death of James V. Forrestal, the first US Secretary of Defense
Did Israel start its serial assassination campaigns of its American opponents much earlier than we assume?
By Hua Bin | July 19, 2026
I have always enjoyed reading a wide variety of books on somewhat arcane subjects. Many are triggered by references from other books, and they form a sort of chain reaction.
Around 10 years ago, I read Webster Griffin Tarpley’s book 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA, my first exposure to alternative 9/11 theories of what truly happened in 2001.
Tarpley’s book led me to David Ray Griffin’s The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11.
I subsequently read perhaps 30 books on the subject such as Kevin Ryan’s Another Nineteen: Investigating Legitimate 9/11 Suspects, Chris Bollyn’s Solving 9/11: The Deception That Changed the World, Jim Fetzer’s The 9/11 Conspiracy – the Scamming of America, and more.
Griffin’s New Pearl Harbor further led me to Peter Dale Scott’s The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War as well as his books on the drug trade, particularly his 2010 book American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and the Road to Afghanistan and the 2003 book Drugs, Oil, and Wars: the US in Afghanistan, Columbia, and Indochina.
Peter Dale Scott’s books motivated me to explore the subjects of JFK assassination and drug trade, which included many books such as James Douglass’s JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, Alfred McCoy’s The Politics of Heroine: CIA Complicity in Global Drug Trade, and Gary Webb’s Dark Alliance: the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.
Two books were particularly intriguing among the many on the subjects: Michael Collins Piper’s 1994 book Final Judgement: The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy and Salvador Astucia’s Opium Lords – Israel, Golden Triangle, and the Kennedy Assassination.
Piper was among the first to connect the JFK assassination to Mossad as Kennedy was adamantly opposed to the Israeli nuclear weapons project and therefore became a threat to Israel to be eliminated.
This theory has been further supported by French historian Laurent Guyenot in his books JFK to 9/11: 50 Years of Deep State and The Unspoken Kennedy Truth.
Salvador Astucia, in turn, developed the thesis that Israel used drug-related interest to carry out the assassination, fingering the hitmen as French-Corsican heroin traffickers and associates of Meyer Lansky, the head of Jewish mafia in the US.
One obscure reference by Astucia in his book led me to a book written by David Martin in 2019 The Assassination of James Forrestal, subject of this article.
(By the way, I am planning to write on the US state-sponsored narco trade at some point with the information learned from the reading list. It is the height of iron that the US is the original and ultimuate Narco State while it labels Venezuela under Maduro as such.)
Who was James Forrestal and how he died
James Vincent Forrestal (1892–1949) was a highly influential American politician who served as the last cabinet-level US Secretary of the Navy and the very first United States Secretary of Defense.
He played a pivotal role in shaping America’s military structure and foreign policy during World War II and the early stages of the Cold War.
According to his official biography, Forrestal died on May 22, 1949, after falling from a 16th-floor kitchen window at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he allegedly was being treated for severe depression and exhaustion.
His death was widely accepted as a suicide, but the official Navy investigation never actually used the word “suicide” in its final ruling.
The official Willcutts Report, the official US Navy board of inquiry report into his death, concluded only that Forrestal died from the fall, that his behavior indicated severe mental depression, and that no naval personnel were negligent or to blame.
Investigators found a leather-bound book, An Anthology of World Poetry, open on a radiator next to his bed. The book was bookmarked to a dark, mournful passage from the ancient Greek tragedy Ajax by Sophocles.
On a sheet of hospital memorandum paper, Forrestal had been hand-copying the text. His transcription of the poem stopped abruptly in the middle of a word.
He had written “Woe, woe! will be the cry…” and stopped after writing the letters “Night—” while attempting to copy the word “nightingale”.
In the play, the Greek hero Ajax descends into madness out of grief and political betrayal, ultimately committing suicide.
The press and historians heavily focused on this, noting that Forrestal likely identified with Ajax’s tragic downfall.
David Martin concludes assassination after studying declassified details of Forrestal’s alleged suicide
The Navy kept the official investigation secret for 55 years and finally released it via Freedom of Information Act in 2004.
Researchers immediately found several inconsistencies that have fuelled decades of assassination theories:
- Bathrobe cord: When Forrestal’s body was found on the 3rd-floor roof, the sash/cord of his dressing gown was tightly knotted and wrapped around his neck. This led to speculation that he may have tried to hang himself from the radiator before falling, or that he was strangled.
- Handwriting discrepancies: Independent researchers who analyzed the handwritten poem alongside Forrestal’s known personal letters argued that the handwriting in the poem did not match his.
- Guard’s testimony: Early press reports claimed a guard saw Forrestal writing the poem right before the jump, but the official Willcutts Report showed the guard on duty testified that Forrestal appeared to be asleep with the lights off when he checked in.
David Martin’s book further highlighted major anomalies omitted from initial public reports. These include unexplained broken glass in Forrestal’s room and dynamic scratch marks on the outside windowsill.
Evidence suggested a struggle in the room, with broken glass photographed on his bed.
Contrary to reports of a mental breakdown, several doctors had previously indicated that 4 out of 5 doctors felt Forrestal was not suffering from severe mental illness, with some suggesting he was misdiagnosed.
Martin believes this is evidence that stories of Forrestal’s “sudden breakdown” prompting hospitalization were likely false.
David Martin concluded the strange death of James Forrestal was in fact an assassination that was covered up as a suicide. His view is widely shared by other researchers.
Martin frames the assassination as one of the earliest operations of the post-WWII American “Deep State” and foreign intelligence, namely Mossad.
He outlines the primary geopolitical motives for Forrestal’s removal as his opposition to the creation of Israel.
Forrestal was the most prominent cabinet official arguing against US support for the partition of Palestine. He believed it would permanently destabilize the Middle East and jeopardize Western access to oil.
Forrestal argued that the American military machine and civilian industrial expansion relied heavily on Middle Eastern petroleum.
He strongly believed that backing a Zionist state would deeply alienate Arab nations. This alienation, he warned, would jeopardize US access to oil pipelines and vital Persian Gulf supplies.
As a fierce anti-communist, Forrestal feared that Middle Eastern instability would open the door for the Soviet Union to expand its influence in the region.
He believed a war between Arabs and Jews would destabilize the area and leave it vulnerable to Soviet intervention.
Forrestal famously told White House advisors to “look at the numbers,” pointing out that there were roughly 30 million Arabs compared to 600,000 Jews.
He believed the Arab forces would eventually overwhelm a Jewish state, potentially forcing the U.S. to deploy its own military forces to defend it.
This was a commitment he felt the post-WWII, heavily demobilized US military could not afford.
According to his published diaries, Forrestal was deeply critical of how both the Democratic and Republican parties handled the issue.
He complained that President Harry Truman’s administration was basing crucial national security decisions on capturing the domestic “Jewish vote” and securing campaign contributions in key states like New York.
He unsuccessfully attempted to build a bipartisan agreement to completely remove the Palestine issue from American domestic politics.
Martin concluded that Forrestal’s resistance to the establishment of Israel earned him the ire of the Zionists and the Jewish community within the US and Israel, who decided to remove him once and for all.
Parallels can be found with other suspicious deaths of prominent anti-Zionist figures in this period, including T.E. Lawrence “of Arabia”. They may have been assassinations by the same perpetrators.
The Zionists themselves have documented Forrestal’s opposition to the establishment of Israel in their own records.
An article titled “The Wise Men” Oppose U.S. Recognition of Israel, published on Temple Beth Sholom, described Forrestal and George Marshall’s opposition to Israel. https://tbshamden.com/odds-a-ends/list-of-restricted-funds/
Marshall was the US Army Chief of Staff in WW2, the Secretary of State when Israel was established, and the architect of the Marshall Plan. He shared Forrestal’s negative view on the formation of the Jewish state.
Why is it important and relevant today?
The strange death of James Forrestal is a reminder how far Israel has been willing to go to eliminate its perceived threats.
It vindicates researchers like Michael Collins Piper who concludes that Israel murdered President Kennedy to protect its nuclear program.
Many senior US officials opposed Israel’s establishment as they believed it would create regional chaos, which proved prescient.
Israel, from its inception, has been an outlaw and a terrorist state capable of doing anything with the help of US Zionists. This includes the 9/11 false flag attack that triggered US “forever wars” in the Middle East for the benefit of Israel.
Similarly, the strange assassination of Charlie Kirk seems to have Israel’s hand all over it. Is Trump also under Israeli threats to launch the insane war on Iran despite his campaign promises?
As we move into another phase of US’s war on Iran for Israel, it is worth bearing in mind what kind of rogue actor the world is dealing with.
The Sordid History of the CIA – Part 4
Tales of the American Empire | July 16, 2026
Tales of the American Empire produces short historical videos about the American empire, like “The Sordid History of the CIA” series that are linked in the description. Most viewers are interested in the American CIA, so this is another episode about videos detailing the evils of the CIA. Some CIA officers work with murderous dictators and criminal organizations involved in the drug trade, arms dealing, and government contract fraud. These evil deeds are sometimes uncovered by the media but receive little attention.
There are great documentaries that provide insight into covert CIA operations. This is far too much material to condense into a short video. Here is a quick review of more great stories about the sordid CIA with a link to them in the description. If the link no longer works, the content has been removed. Two videos from the first part of this series have since disappeared from YouTube. They may be found on smaller hosting websites like Rumble, Bitchute, or Odyssey.
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“Your Favorite Movies Are CIA Propaganda”; Moon; April 13, 2026; 
• Your Favorite Movies Are CIA Propaganda
“The American Colony of Thailand”; September 1, 2022; • The American Colony of Thailand
“Operation Gladio – 1992 documentary”; BBC; 1992; (this has been scrubbed from the BBC website but can be watched here); • Operation Gladio – Full 1992 documentary BBC
“The Destruction of Laos”; October 14, 2021; • The Destruction of Laos
“Exposing The 9/11 Cover-Up | TMZ Investigates: The Fifth Plane”; TMZ; June 3, 2025; • Exposing The 9/11 Cover-Up | TMZ Investiga…
“The CIA in Ethiopia”; September 14, 2023; • The CIA in Ethiopia
“Ex-CIA Agent on the Most Successful Propaganda Campaigns the US Engaged In”; Tucker Carlson; February 18, 2026; • Ex-CIA Agent on the Most Successful Propag…
“The Fake War on Terror in the Philippines”; January 7, 2021; • The Fake War on Terror in the Philippines
“Some Ugly History of the CIA”; Bio-weapons; Phaedrus; April 27, 2024; https://odysee.com/@Learntoswim:1/Tru…
“Did the US Military Withdraw from Afghanistan because of Fentanyl?”; May 22, 2025; • Did the US Military Withdraw from Afghanis…
Tales’ playlist: “The CIA”; • The CIA
US violations of MoU prove American president’s signature ‘worthless’: Khamenei
Iran Has No Reason To Trust The United States In Future Negotiations
By Justin K.P. | The Dissident | July 18, 2026
Yesterday, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, issued a statement saying , “The signature of the U.S. President is utterly worthless and devoid of credibility”.
“The repeated breaches of the agreement by the Great Satan [the US] regarding the MOU signed by the Presidents of Iran and the US have once again laid bare a fundamental truth: the signature of the US President is utterly worthless and devoid of credibility,” the Iranian leader said in a statement.
And who could possibly blame him for coming to this conclusion?
The United States has shown time and time again that they have no interest in negotiating with Iran in good faith.
Iran signed the JCPOA with the United States in 2015, which the U.S. soon unilaterally pulled out of in 2018 at the behest of the Israel lobby.
Benjamin Netanyahu was so opposed to the deal that he flew to the U.S. congress to give a speech denouncing the deal in hopes it would block it.
This did not work, but he soon used his massive influence over the United States to have it sabotaged.
Trump himself admitted in a speech in front of the Israeli Knesset that he “terminated the Iran nuclear deal” at the behest of his Zionist donors Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, boasting that they “were very responsible for so much” of his policy.
A released FBI interview with Charles C. Johnson, – a former close associate of Steve Bannon- said that Bannon who was then White House strategist, worked with “the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and Sheldon Adelson” to remove H.R. McMaster as National Security Adviser because of “policy disagreements about Iran”, referring to the Iran deal.
H.R. McMaster wrote in his memoir that in 2017 he “successfully lobbied the president to recertify the agreement over the next two 90-day deadlines as required under the 2015 Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act”.
After H.R. McMaster was replaced by John Bolton as National Security Advisor in the Trump administration, Steve Bannon admitted directly in released text messages with Jeffrey Epstein that “Bolton is only doing what Sheldon Adelson tells him to do– I got John the job, but he will not cross Sheldon”.
The Trump administration engaged in fake negotiations with Iran in June of last year to serve as a cover for a surprise U.S./Israeli bombing launched on the country.
Dennis Ross, who served as a senior official on Middle East issues during Democratic and Republican administrations, boasted to the Wall Street Journal, “There is no question that the Witkoff mission was a major contributor to the surprise, The Iranians would have assumed that Israel would not attack while the talks were under way and a meeting was about to take place”, which were soon followed by U.S. strikes.
The U.S. again pretended to engage in diplomacy with Iran prior to the full-scale war launched in February of this year.
The final straw for Iran ever having any trust in the U.S. again was the sabotage of the MoU by the United States, which was signed by the United States and Iran on June 18th.
As professor at Johns Hopkins University, Vali Nasr noted in the Financial Times, the United States repeatedly violated the agreement it signed with Iran, writing:
There was no unfreezing of Iranian assets; a US-brokered deal between Israel and Lebanon disregarded Iran’s demands for ceasefire there; more US military assets began to arrive in the Gulf region; and Washington encouraged commercial vessels to disregard Tehran’s instructions to co-ordinate with its authorities and navigate through Iranian channels as they transited the Strait of Hormuz. Some ships then passed through channels close to the Omani shoreline instead. Washington expected that this would weaken Iran’s claim of control of the strait and ability to enforce it.
Each of these on its own may not have been major violations of the MoU, but together they represented a concerted effort to erode the leverage Iran had gained during the war and reflected in the ceasefire agreement.
After Iran responded to the U.S. violations of the MoU in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. began bombing Iran again, escalating on Friday, dropping bombs on critical Iranian civilian infrastructure.
As analyst Trita Parsi noted, Trump “appears to have concluded that Tehran’s hard line in the negotiations stemmed from the United States not hitting Iran hard enough during the 38-day war. Seemingly indifferent to the costs for the GCC states, the global economy, inflation and the American cost of living—not to mention the risk to U.S. troops—he is gambling that a few more weeks of war will degrade Iran’s ability to close the Strait and force Tehran into a more accommodating negotiating position.”
But Iran will not back down to U.S. demands after repeated U.S. war crimes committed against Iranian civilian infrastructure. As Vali Nasr noted, “Iran will therefore seek to absorb U.S. military pressure and intensify its attacks on U.S. military targets and energy and civilian infrastructure across the Gulf. Its aim is to signal that the war will not remain at the level of Washington’s choosing. In the meantime, Tehran will accept the inevitable economic hardship that another US naval blockade will entail, believing that its own pressure on the global economy by closing the Strait of Hormuz — and potentially the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea — will force Trump to blink first”.
After Iran continues to hit U.S. military and economic assets in response to U.S. escalations, and after Oil and gas prices go up and inflation rises, the U.S. will no doubt attempt to negotiate with Iran again. The question is, why would Iran have even a skeptical level of trust left in the U.S. to negotiate in good faith?
Rahm Emmanuel’s Israel-Endorsed ‘Opposition’ to Israel
By Harrison Berger | The American Conservative | July 18, 2026
Hoping to transition from being “Chicago’s Most Connected Banker” to once again holding elected office, the two-term former Mayor of Chicago and former chief of staff to Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, did this month what all savvy political hopefuls do: He traveled to meet some of the largest power brokers in American politics at their homes in Tel Aviv.
In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama flew to Israel and declared his “unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security,” and in 2015, Hillary Clinton pledged to “immediately dispatch a delegation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to meet with senior Israeli commanders” and to “invite the Israeli prime minister to the White House” in her first month in office.
Emanuel, who as a civilian volunteer worked with the Israel Defense Forces in the early 1990s, and whose father was a member of the Jewish terrorist group Irgun, is widely suspected to be eyeing a run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028—one that will require winning over a base that has notably soured on Israel amid its genocide in Gaza and nonstop wars of aggression in the region.
To court Democratic voters, the longtime pro-Israel Emanuel arrived in Israel with a markedly different message than the one past Democratic hopefuls have carried on the same pilgrimage. It was the latest attempt by the Democratic establishment to come to terms with its voters’ turn against Israel, whether through a serious reckoning or—as the evidence suggests and as the Democratic Party traditionally does—merely through deception and cooptation.
At Tel Aviv University, Emanuel opened by conceding ground to his Israeli hosts, naming a “corrupt Palestinian leadership” that has “never lived up to the Palestinian people’s legitimate aspirations for sovereignty and self-determination,” and reheating a stale narrative of rejected peace offers by Palestinian leaders.
But after the requisite throat clearing effectively blaming Palestinians for their own ethnic cleansing, Emanuel did put forward a harsh criticism of Israeli behavior and unconditional American backing for it, arguing it “has allowed [Israel] to deny food and medical relief to innocent Palestinians suffering in Gaza, leaving the world to conclude that Israelis not only want to kill the Palestinians but that they are completely indifferent to their death, destruction, and suffering.” He decried an emboldened “political coalition in the Knesset that learned it can burn Palestinian farmland in the West Bank and terrorize Palestinian families without consequence.” All this, Emanuel says, has turned Israel into a “territorial pariah.”
The line that drew the most attention and applause from progressives was Emanuel’s pledge that “every Israeli found attacking Palestinian civilians or their property in the future will be sanctioned,” a threat he extended to “every Israeli official who supports such violence” and “every construction company or bank building or financing illegal settlements.”
But the true PR purpose of his visit—and his function as a pressure release valve for the foreign government of Israel—was revealed soon afterward, when Emanuel’s speech was applauded by the Israel lobby and its main Democratic Party organ, the Democratic Majority for Israel, which praised it as “thoughtful, serious, and grounded in a sincere commitment to Israel’s future security and prosperity.” Indeed, a centerpiece of his speech, the Jerusalem Post noted, was the “23-state solution”—a proposal cooked up by the liberal Israel lobby group J Street.
Despite his criticisms of the Israeli cabinet and opposition to “taxpayer-funded support” for Israel’s military, Emanuel later confirmed to the Financial Times that he still wants the U.S. to sell arms to Israel. Pressed on whether he’d support anything resembling an arms embargo, he walked the idea back.
“[Israel] can buy [U.S.] weapons like any other ally, same price, same restrictions and same requirements of any ally for any weapon,” Emanuel told the FT.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself came to a similar conclusion in January, telling the Economist that he wanted to “taper off the military aid within the next 10 years.” Asked whether he meant reducing it to zero, the prime minister replied, “Yes. We’ve come of age and we’ve developed incredible capacities.” Recently deceased Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) responded within hours that he would accelerate the timeline. “Given what the Prime Minister said, we need not wait 10 years,” Graham wrote.
J Street founder Jeremy Ben-Ami, whose 23-state proposal Emanuel adopted wholesale, presented the same ruse in April, explaining that J Street’s call for Israel to pay for its own weapons echoed Netanyahu and Graham’s own. “A call to end American financial subsidies for Israel’s defense is not a call to end the U.S.-Israel security relationship,” Ben-Ami wrote. He added, “Arms sales—paid for by Israel and governed by U.S. law—should continue,” and that the U.S. and Israel should collaborate on “intelligence sharing, operational coordination, joint exercises, and cooperative development of defense technologies.”
The $3.3 billion in annual Foreign Military Financing that Ben-Ami proposes phasing out is the same $3.3 billion Rep. Thomas Massie moved to strike with a recent amendment; it is a line item members of Congress have the opportunity to vote on. But “cooperative development of defense technologies” is not.
Israel and its lobby, including J Street, understand this, which is why they have moved to pass Section 219 of the National Defense Authorization Act, which, rather than “tapering off” U.S. aid to Israel as the lobby suggests, expands it and conceals it by integrating the U.S. and Israeli military-industrial complexes, transferring the partnership to the Pentagon’s opaque procurement system and thereby removing democratic accountability. Should it pass—which seems likely—Congress can strike every dollar of Foreign Military Financing, and the Pentagon will still pay Israeli defense firms out of procurement accounts that carry no line item to strike.
As the journalist Max Blumenthal presciently predicted of J Street’s scheme when Ben-Ami unveiled it in April, we should “expect to hear these deceptive talking points from leading Democratic primary candidates, including Rahm Emanuel, desperate to mollify the party’s base without doing anything of substance to end U.S. military support for Israel.”
“Jeremy Ben-Ami and J Street somehow remain this really important factor within the Democratic Party,” Blumenthal told The American Conservative recently, “because the Democrats have to con their base.” Since the party is “fundamentally undemocratic and is facing an unprecedented crisis with less than 10 percent of young Democrats declaring their support for Israel, J Street has to come in.”
We will soon discover whether or not Democratic voters are gullible enough to be fooled.
Harrison Berger is a correspondent at The American Conservative. He has contributed to Drop Site News, The Nation, and Responsible Statecraft. Previously, he was a researcher and producer for System Update with Glenn Greenwald. His work focuses on civil liberties and U.S. foreign policy. He studied Political Science and Russian Studies at Union College (NY).
AIPAC blacklists dozens of US lawmakers that backed cutting military aid to Israel
The Cradle | July 18, 2026
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) cut off online donations to more than two dozen House Democrats on 17 July, only days after they voted against a $3.3 billion military aid package to Israel.
AIPAC’s donation portal shows “pro-Israel” incumbents with contribution buttons, which were removed for Democrats who backed the amendment, while links stayed active for those who opposed the vote this week.
“AIPAC members are deeply appreciative of their representatives who stand on principle and are disappointed by those who don’t,” AIPAC spokesperson Deryn Sousa said in a statement.
On 15 July, Republican Representative Thomas Massie introduced the amendment to the National Security and Department of State Appropriations Act (NSDSA) 2027, aiming to cut about $3.3 billion annually in US military aid to Israel.
If approved, the measure would have eliminated Israel’s share of Foreign Military Financing (FMF), the program through which Washington funds foreign governments’ purchases of US weaponry, and would also have prohibited any funds in the fiscal 2027 State Department bill from being used to support Israel.
While the proposed amendment was defeated in a 314-to-104 vote, it marked a significant political shift, with nearly half of House Democrats voting in its favor.
Ties to the pro-Israel lobby have become an ideological litmus test for US voters.
Candidates critical of Israel have seen a sharp rise in support, with progressive challengers in New York defeating pro-Israel incumbents in congressional primaries in late June.
The defeats significantly impacted AIPAC, highlighting campaigns that focus on their opponents’ acceptance of lobby funds and their reluctance to label Israel’s assault on Gaza as genocide.
Accepting AIPAC funds has become “toxic” to a growing number of US voters, who increasingly weigh a candidate’s loyalty to the US against loyalty to a foreign lobby.
The financial pressure campaign runs parallel to broader Israeli efforts to shore up support among US citizens.
A recent investigation by TIME revealed that Israel has been paying President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager around $1.5 million per month to run an influence operation producing pro-Israel content aimed at Gen Z audiences across social media platforms.
The efforts have failed to stop the long-running reputational collapse, as one Pew Research Center poll released in April found 60 percent of US citizens view Israel unfavorably, while an older survey by Gallup showed more US citizens sympathizing with Palestinians than Israelis for the first time in US history.
Is the West looking for a new relationship with Israel?
By Martin Jay | Strategic Culture Foundation | July 18, 2026
Is Britain’s new prime minister about to stand up to the hugely powerful Israeli lobby? A recent glimpse of his views about Israel and its genocide carried out in Gaza might have been a clue for things to come. The interview itself was carried out not with a journalist but with a sports celebrity whom most Brits associate with a brand of potato chips – which is indicative of how Andy Burnham is going to deal with media: in other words, ignore it altogether.
Burnham has at least done the impossible and steered the debate and the narrative away from Keir Starmer’s all-out pro-Israel stance, and has at least started calling the war in Gaza what it really is – which is not a war at all but a genocide. His appointment as PM may well reduce the mad simmer of blind, dogmatic support for Israel and play into the hands of minority groups in the UK who feel politically lost over Downing Street’s Middle East policies, which have seen U.S. bombers leave the country’s military bases to bomb children in Gaza. Burnham’s interview with Gary Lineker – his first interview – before formally taking office gives a clue to where he wants to take the Labour party before the country goes to the polls in three years’ time.
Yet how long will it take before Israel’s cash and influence get to him? The real test of this new strategy is not the narrative but the endurance of it, especially given that there are so many Labour MPs around him who are on Israel’s payroll – which recently, we presume, extended to even Reform officials who recently returned from an all-expenses-paid trip to Gaza, magically converted to Zionists spouting IDF talking points.
Money is everywhere now in UK politics, as the country has succumbed to the American system. The scandals piling up against Nigel Farage have shocked a nation, although in reality most people in the UK are still very naïve about cash in politics. Indeed, Farage’s scandal is merely prompting a new debate as to even how much money is involved in luring conservative politicians to jump ship to Reform, with Liz Truss taking some media oxygen as many speculate that she’s about to make the leap – when the numbers make sense.
But Britain is only doing what the U.S. is doing, on all levels, even when it comes to Israel. Recently, three primaries were lost to Democratic candidates in the U.S. who had strong anti-Israel views, shocking many in the U.S. who believed until now that Israel’s cash always wins at the end of the day within the political system. In fact, over 100 Democrats recently voted in Congress to end Israel’s $3.3 billion USD military aid which U.S. taxpayers hand over each year, while most Americans can’t afford basic healthcare. Yet it’s hard to see if this is a political initiative as such by the Dems or whether this is people power at the ballot. Many Americans are very troubled by the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, and it took the recent Iran war for many of them to even educate themselves as to the extent of the relationship and how far Israel went to manipulate Trump. The post-February 28th campaign that Trump got tricked into going ahead with at least served one purpose, in that it threw a spotlight on this subject like never before. But this came at such a high price, which is what many Americans are waking up to – especially given that Israel as a country is doomed by its history and cursed by its present leaders, and that it can only drag the U.S. down with it.
“Israel is a highly traumatized country. It exists in a sociopsychological bubble built around victimhood, relying on a government system dominated by the military,” argue Dr Andreas Krieg recently. “In such a militarized society, there is no room for political strategy. It is a system built for perpetual war… Military leaders are terrible rulers and terrible at strategic decision-making outside the battlefield. This is why Israel has never strategically won a war – because it is still fighting 80 years on.”
And so any backlash from voters or renegade politicians on both sides of the Atlantic might be the beginning of a new way of thinking about Israel and the region, as Western leaders are realising that the closer they get to Israel, the more they suffer if not ultimately perish. The EU’s plans to block settlers’ land grabs in the West Bank is encouraging, but too little, too late to be taken seriously. The Norwegian national football team’s donation of its collective salaries to a Palestinian charity got more media coverage, although FIFA seems to be an organisation breaking all records on corruption, so perhaps it sent mixed messages. Trump’s war in Iran has confirmed wholesale that Israel owns him and the U.S. taxpayer, as Netanyahu’s ruse paid off big time. What can stop the madness?
State Department Offering Quarter-Million Dollar Grants to Groups in Lebanon that Promote US Image
By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | July 15, 2026
The US Embassy in Lebanon announced that the State Department is offering grants of up to $250,000 to groups that help promote American propaganda.
“The US Embassy in Beirut is opening a new Notice of Funding Opportunity for 2026,” a statement published on Tuesday explained. “We’re looking for partners to implement programs that strengthen ties between the US and Lebanon, with a focus on highlighting US-led peace and stabilization efforts, and advancing digital literacy to help people identify and push back on false, adversarial narratives.”
The State Department website says the program is expected to award $500,000 to at least two groups to promote US propaganda in Lebanon. It adds that the program’s goal is to “strengthen local public understanding of US-led peace and stabilization efforts, and its role as a partner committed to security, economic opportunity, and responsible regional leadership.”
Washington is attempting to broker a peace agreement between Tel Aviv and Beirut. However, Israel is at war with Hezbollah, a non-state military that operates outside of the control of the Lebanese government.
While Beirut and Tel Aviv inked a deal last month, Hezbollah rejected the agreement because it allowed the IDF to occupy Lebanon until the militia is dismantled.
The attempt to negotiate a peace agreement between Tel Aviv and Beirut is making it more difficult for President Donald Trump to end the war against Iran. Iran has linked any ceasefire and peace agreement with Israel ending its war against Lebanon.
IRGC: Missile strike on US airbase in Jordan destroyed aircraft
Press TV – July 18, 2026
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says it has carried out a coordinated missile and drone strike on a US military base in Jordan, destroying several American aircraft, urging Jordanians to confront US forces stationed in the country.
In its 29th official statement issued by the IRGC Public Relations Department on Saturday, the force said its Aerospace Force launched the 20th wave of “Nasr 2” operations in response to overnight US attacks against Iran.
According to the statement, the operation targeted aircraft shelters and a large aircraft parking ramp at the US military facility in Azraq, eastern Jordan.
The IRGC went on to say that the strike resulted in the destruction of at least two US fighter jets and three additional aircraft, while causing significant damage to several others.
The statement further said the United States is escalating the war by targeting civilian infrastructure inside Iran, including hospitals, bridges, railways, ports and airports, noting that Washington is attempting to conceal battlefield setbacks by attacking civilian sites.
Addressing the people and armed forces of Jordan, the statement called on them to play a greater role in confronting the US military presence in the country, warning that foreign troops operating in Muslim lands are legitimate targets under the religious opinion of Islamic scholars from different schools of thought.
The statement further urged Jordanians to use “every available means” against US military personnel and called for the removal of American forces from Jordan, stressing that the United States is responsible for the deaths of Muslims in several countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Lebanon and Palestine.
The IRGC’s statement comes as US forces continue to launch strikes against multiple targets in southern Iran.
On Friday, US military strikes targeted multiple locations in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan overnight, including areas in and around the port city of Bandar Abbas, as well as key transportation infrastructure.
The United States has perpetrated numerous violations against Iranian territory since April 7, when US President Donald Trump announced a unilateral ceasefire in the latest bout of wholesale American-Israeli aggression targeting the Islamic Republic.
The violations continued even after Washington and Tehran signed a Pakistan-mediated memorandum of understanding last month, whose first clause clearly mandates cessation of aggression on all fronts.
The US has also been trying to help vessels evade the maritime route designated by the Islamic Republic for safe and legal passage through the Strait of Hormuz by seeking to escort trespassing vessels through an illegal passageway.
Iran’s Armed Forces have staged uncompromising retaliation in the face of each instance of violation, including those in support of illegal vessel movement in the Strait of Hormuz.
US strikes on desalination plant disrupt water supply to 20 villages in southern Iran
Press TV – July 18, 2026
US strikes on a desalination plant have disrupted drinking water supply to 20 villages in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province, according to provincial authorities.
Abdolhamid Hamzehpour, CEO of the Hormozgan Water and Wastewater Company, told media on Saturday that the US strikes damaged water desalination pumps in the coastal Bunji village, in Iran’s Jask county, denouncing it as a “terrorist attack.”
Hamzehpour said the pumping plant for extracting seawater, in addition to an electrical power transformer station, were “completely destroyed.”
According to Hamzehpour, the desalination plant has a production capacity of 3,150 cubic meters per day, providing potable water to 20 villages in the region with a population of about 10,000 people.
Hamzepour added that following the attack, the people in these villages are facing a water shortage crisis, and emergency measures by maintenance operators have been initiated to manage the situation.
“The operational teams of the Hormozgan Water and Wastewater Company are working to provide emergency water supplies to residents while repairing the damaged facilities to restore drinking water service as quickly as possible,” he noted.
The US military has targeted drinking water facilities in multiple locations in southern Iran, cutting off water to a multitude of residents already grappling with water shortages as temperatures in the region hit around a scorching 50 degrees Celsius.
US strikes for the past seven nights have targeted civilian infrastructure across several Iranian provinces, including Hormozgan, Bushehr, Sistan and Baluchestan, and Khuzestan.
Iran’s Health Ministry said on Friday that at least 38 people were killed and more than 400 others injured in the attacks of the past week.
In response to the strikes, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian Army launched multiple waves of attacks against US military positions across the region.
Trump’s Nominee for CDC Director Calls mRNA Technology ‘Safe and Effective’
CDC Director Nominee shows a serious lack of scientific understanding
By Sharyl Attkisson | July 16, 2026
When asked at a Senate hearing whether she thinks mRNA vaccines are safe and effective, CDC Director-nominee Erica Schwartz replied, “I do believe that mRNA technology is safe and effective.”
Both the question and the answer show a serious lack of scientific understanding.
Here’s the scientifically accurate answer to the question: We don’t know the full safety profile of either of the two types of approved mRNA vaccines or the technology. First, It’s all too new. Second, we’re not even collecting the full data.
Read on for details.
According to FDA scientists and other experts in the field, comprehensive safety data isn’t known until a new drug (including vaccines) has been on the market and in widespread use for 7-12 years.
Even now, we aren’t getting full information on safety profiles because the data isn’t even being collected in the comprehensive manner required for accurate analysis.
The established scientific process requires that all illnesses after vaccination be meticulously recorded regardless of whether a patient or doctor thinks the illness is actually connected to the vaccine.
Most doctors are not following the process. Some misunderstand. Others are willfully ignoring. And no authority is ensuring they do their job.
Doctors typically aren’t even asking their ill patients whether they had an mRNA vaccine (for Covid or RSV), which one(s), and when. So they aren’t collecting that crucial data.
Most people, including physicians, don’t understand that patients being treated for any illness are supposed to be queried. This means, for example, someone who come to the ER with a retinal detachment should be asked if he had Covid vaccine, which, how many, and when, and then the data should be reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Same with someone who becomes sick with a rash, headaches, tendon rupture, stiff neck, depression, or chest congestion. Everything.
Even when patients do tell a physician they think an illness might be vaccine related, the physician frequently, improperly, determines on the front end that he doesn’t need to report the possible adverse event to the established database unless he thinks it’s connected to the vaccine. That’s not how the system works. No doctor is qualified to make that determination about a new medicine. All illnesses are supposed to be recorded so that previously unrecognized adverse events can be unearthed.
Additionally, many doctors and patients don’t understand— and aren’t being told— that adverse events from vaccines and other medicine can arise months or years after the medicine is taken.
Further, they don’t understand that an adverse event can be related to a drug even if the patient did not initially become ill after taking the vaccine or other medicine.
And the blanket question itself, “Are mRNA vaccines safe and effective,” shows a lack of scientific understanding on the part of the questioner. It begs counter-questions: are they safe for whom? Under what circumstances? Effective at what? It’s as ridiculous as asking, “Is medicine safe and effective?” Depends on whether or not you’re allergic to it. Depends on whether you have predispositions for things that make you more susceptible to the side effects. Depends on whether its particular mechanisms work in your individual biology. These are individual calculations.
Even in the general picture, there aren’t blanket answers. We know mRNA Covid vaccines failed woefully—proved ineffective—at a sliding scale of supposed goals: They don’t prevent infection. They don’t prevent spread. They don’t prevent illness. There’s a debate over whether they prevent serious illness, which most people don’t get from Covid, and children almost never get.
Until we stop pretending that the blanket questions make sense, and that the answers are connected in any way to science, we will continue to have leaders who misinform or mislead.
So, from diabetes drugs that can cause fatal genital tears to acne medicine that can cause sexual dysfunction that never goes away, here are some notable examples of unexpected adverse events that were eventually linked to vaccines or other medications.
- Sildenafil (Viagra) and blindness [non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION)/sudden vision loss].
Viagra treats erectile dysfunction by inhibiting PDE5 to increase blood flow. Early marketing focused on cardiovascular risks but not eye issues. Hundreds of post-approval reports eventually linked it to sudden vision loss from NAION. The adverse event was only recognized when enterprising physicians pressed the issue and published case reports, and I reported on them for CBS News. The FDA added warnings in 2005. Labels now advise stopping use and seeking care for sudden vision changes. Similar risks apply to the PDE5 inhibitor class. - Likewise, Viagra was eventually connected to hearing loss.
Reports emerged of sudden hearing decrease/loss (sometimes with tinnitus/dizziness) after use. Initially not linked, post-marketing data led to label updates advising immediate medical attention. Nobody initially guessed an erectile dysfunction drug could cause deafness and blindness! - Statins such as atorvastatin and simvastatin, and severe and potentially fatal muscle pain/weakness (myalgia, myopathy, rhabdomyolysis).
Statins are used to lower cholesterol to prevent heart disease/stroke. Early labels noted mild muscle issues, but the drugmakers initially denied severe cases (including rhabdomyolysis, which can cause kidney failure). Independent doctors, lawsuits, and my reporting for CBS News drew attention to this problem. Eventually, the drug makers added warnings, monitoring advice, and dose adjustments. - Statins and cognitive effects (memory loss, confusion).
Some users reported “brain fog” or confusion, initially dismissed as unrelated. I reported on this, too, for CBS News. Eventually, FDA added reversible cognitive side effects to labels in 2012 based on reports. - Troglitazone (Rezulin) and severe liver failure.
This thiazolidinedione treated type 2 diabetes. Only did post-1997 use among millions reveal dozens of acute liver failure cases (deaths/transplants), originally denied by the drugmaker. Reporting by the Los Angeles Times and then by me at CBS News forced the issue. Eventually, the drug was withdrawn in 2000 after FDA tied it to about 63 deaths. (Scientists say each recognized and reported death implies 1,000 to 100,000 more that are never reported.) - SGLT2 inhibitors such as canagliflozin/Invokana, dapagliflozin/Farxiga, empagliflozin and potentially fatal Fournier’s gangrene (necrotizing fasciitis of perineum/genitalia).
These diabetes drugs lower blood sugar via urinary glucose excretion. Believe it own ot, they can cause life-threatening flesh-eating infections in the genital/perineal area. FDA issued a warning in 2018. The labels now carry strong alerts. - mRNA Covid-19 vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna) and myocarditis/pericarditis heart issues.
As you know, these vaccines were found to cause heart inflammation, mostly in young men after second dose. This was initially unexpected. - Covid-19 vaccines and menstrual irregularities.
Many women reported changes such as heavier bleeding and cycle shifts, but were largely called conspiracy theorists. This adverse event like so many others linked to Covid vaccines, weren’t identified—at least they weren’t reported— after initial studies. - Covid-19 vaccines and eye issues. Even without persistent data gathering, there have been enough reports of eye inflammation and retinal problems to raise concern over a possible link.
- Thalidomide and severe birth defects.
Once marketed as a sedative and morning sickness aid in the 1950s–60s, it turned out to cause more than 10,000 cases of babies born with shortened or absent limbs and other defects. - Isotretinoin (Accutane) for acne and persistent sexual dysfunction.
Recent FDA updates added erectile dysfunction, decreased libido, vaginal dryness, and lubrication issues that may persist even when people stop taking the drug. - A similar effect was initially denied by later found with SSRI antidepressants, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors. They can cause persistent sexual dysfunction.
- Cisapride (Propulsid) for indigestion and cardiac arrhythmias/QT prolongation. It was withdrawn after heart rhythm deaths. I reported for CBS News on the coverup of a baby death in a fraudulent Propulsid study.
- Rofecoxib (Vioxx) and cardiovascular events. Nobody guessed a pain medicine and arthritis drug would cause heart attacks and strokes. All concerned initially denied the signals but the medicine was eventually removed from the market for this reason.
- Fenfluramine/phentermine (Fen-Phen) weight loss drug and heart damage. This is another drug that caused unpredicted heart problems and was eventually taken off the market after the FDA had approved it as “safe and effective.”
- Certain fluoroquinolones and tendon rupture/peripheral neuropathy. Who would have guessed antibiotics could cause a tendon rupture or nerve damage? Eventually, all agreed that fluoroquinolones can do this, and a serious “black box” warning was added to the label.
- Antipsychotics and tardive dyskinesia. Drugs meant to control psychotic tendencies can actually cause serious movement disorders, which nobody anticipated initially.
- What about when a cancer treatment causes cancer? Tamoxifen for breast cancer can cause and uterine cancer. Nobody predicted that. The warning was later added to the labels.
- Ketamine for pain and anesthesia and bladder damage. This side effect only emerged when there was greatly expanded psychiatric use of the medicine.
- Lots of medicines cause unexpected bone loss, including medicine that’s prescribed to protect bones! They include bisphosphonates like Fosamax or alendronate, Actonel, Boniva, and Reclast. They are commonly prescribed to treat and prevent osteoporosis by slowing bone breakdown. However, after lots of use, scientists learned they can actually cause serious bone problems, including thigh bone fractures, osteonecrosis of the jaw (dead jawbone), and delayed bone healing. FDA eventually added warnings and updated the labels. Other drugs eventually linked to bone loss and fracture risk include: corticosteroids like prednisone for inflammation, asthma, autoimmune diseases, and allergies; acid reflux drugs like omeprazole/Prilosec or esomeprazole/Nexium); aromatase inhibitors (like anastrozole/Arimidex) for breast cancer; and the injectable birth control shot Depo-Provera.
Judge rules US violated Palestinian American’s rights in phone search
The Cradle | July 17, 2026
A federal judge has ruled that the US government violated the constitutional rights of Palestinian American Osama Abu Irshaid after customs officials seized and searched his cellphone during two separate encounters at a US international airport in 2024.
In a ruling filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, US District Judge Michael Nachmanoff determined that the phone searches violated Irshaid’s Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable government searches and seizures.
CAIR welcomes the court’s decision
Irshaid serves as the executive director of American Muslims for Palestine and is a US citizen of Palestinian descent.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which filed the lawsuit on Irshaid’s behalf two years ago, welcomed the court’s decision on Thursday.
The Muslim civil rights organization said in its lawsuit that the federal government had placed Irshaid on a watch list that was discriminatory and racist.
CBP agents conducted advanced phone searches
According to CAIR, US Customs and Border Protection agents twice seized Irshaid’s cellphone and carried out “advanced” searches when he returned to the United States from international travel in 2024.
At the time, the government denied adding individuals to any such watch list based on race, religion, or protected speech activities.
Rights groups have raised growing concerns in recent years over increased scrutiny of Americans with Middle Eastern, Arab, and Palestinian backgrounds, particularly over their political views, following Israeli genocide in Gaza, which started in October 2023.
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How Ukraine Tortured and Slaughtered Donbass
By Kit Klarenberg | Al Mayadeen | July 11, 2024
Almost immediately after the proxy war erupted, ISIS-tier footage of the torture and murder of Russians in Ukrainian custody emerged.
On July 6th, the New York Times published an astonishing investigation: In Ukraine, Killings of Surrendering Russians Divide an American-Led Unit. The article documents in grim detail how Chosen Company, an international volunteer battalion for Kiev, routinely executes Russian prisoners of war. It is the very first mainstream admission that this practice – a brazen breach of the Geneva Conventions, and a grave war crime – is widespread among Ukraine’s fighters, both foreign and homegrown. … continue
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