Is that what's happening here? I can't say for sure, but I wouldn't put it past the corrupt hangers-on at the FBI to "protect the shield" in such a way. They certainly don't want Patel coming in and providing real reform and accountability. They've still got more pro-lifers to raid at gunpoint and Catholics to treat as domestic terrorists. For now, though, we'll call the above theory a hypothesis.

We'll see if the communications reportedly taken are leaked. I would assume they will be, and if they are, Republican senators should pretend they don't exist and confirm anyway, no matter what they contain. There is zero reason to trust anything at this point that would benefit the FBI.

Out of all the nominees that one might call "controversial," Patel getting through is the most important. The only way to stop the weaponization of federal law enforcement is to bring sweeping changes to the FBI, and that's only because there's no realistic way to shut it down. Patel is the right man for that job, and these last-minute games, whatever they amount to, should not stop his nomination. //

Deplorable Extraordinarius
32 minutes ago
Sounds like the FBI has wised up to how anything labeled Russia Russia Russia is no longer seen as credible. So some genius has just swapped in Iran, Iran, Iran. The Deep State is busy doing its black ops in pursuit of its survival. //

anon-rda0
27 minutes ago
I hope Patel kept absolutely quiet during the “briefing”. There’s a dang good chance the purpose of the briefing was to trap him in a lie.

anon-isiz anon-rda0
23 minutes ago
No one should receive an FBI briefing without an attorney present. //

EMCM(SS)
4 minutes ago
Everyone knows this is all hogwash, so why are they doing it?
Cover!
This is all cover for Collins, Murkowski, Thune and the rest of Mitch’s tufthunters to scuttle the nomination. Same as the lies about Hegseth. Not even the Democrats believe this stuff. It’s just a fig leaf for the coming failure theater.

Iran thundered in apocalyptic prose: Israel will be destroyed! Death to America! Destroy the infidels! Kill the Jews! The future is ours!

General Ali Fadavi, the deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, smugly told the media, “Iran’s response to the Zionist aggression is definite. We are capable of destroying all that the Zionists possess with one operation.”

At least, Fadavi felt that way on October 31, when he issued that statement. Since then, America had a pretty big presidential election. (You might’ve heard about it.) But if you haven’t, here’s the highlight: The crazy, scary Orange Man is back in the saddle.

And suddenly, Iran’s singing a dramatically different tune.

It was released on Thanksgiving Day, so most people probably didn’t see it, but The New York Times released a fascinating story yesterday: “With Trump Returning and Hezbollah Weakened, Iran Strikes a Conciliatory Tone.”

The sub-header: “As Iran faces domestic and foreign challenges, its bellicose rhetoric on the United States and Israel has given way to signs that it wants less confrontation.”

The contrast is striking: Just weeks earlier, Iran was vowing to utterly eviscerate its enemies. No compromises, no exceptions! And remarkably, the world was largely falling into line: Biden even pressured America’s allies to “respond in proportion” to Iranian missile attacks on civilian targets.

But after Election Day? Even The New York Times noted the Iranian sea change:

In mid-November, Iran dispatched a top official to Beirut to urge Hezbollah to accept a cease-fire with Israel. Around the same time, Iran’s U.N. ambassador met with Elon Musk, as overture to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inner circle. And on Friday, it will hold talks in Geneva with European countries on a range of issues, including its nuclear program.

Get ready for the money quote:

Five Iranian officials, one of them a Revolutionary Guards member, and two former officials said the decision to recalibrate was prompted by Mr. Trump winning the Nov. 5 election, with concerns about an unpredictable leader who, in his first term, pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran. [emphasis added]

During the Nixon years, we called it the madman theory: When foreign adversaries cannot predict the actions of a “mad” U.S. president, they’re suddenly risk-adverse. It’s a very old idea: Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in 1517 that sometimes, it’s “a very wise thing to simulate madness.”

But there’s nothing “mad” about it.

All nations make risk-reward calculations. //

Flawed worldviews lead to flawed results.

Iran isn’t motivated by insecurity; Iran is motivated by self-interest. When you’re not a superpower, your actions aren’t driven by utopian ideals, but risk-reward calculations: How much can we get away with before the cost is too great?

During the Obama-Biden-Harris years, they read the numbers one way. With Trump, it’s an entirely different calculation.

It’s not just morning again in America: It’s morning again in the Middle East, too.

The Israeli attack on Iran in late October destroyed an active top secret nuclear weapons research facility in Parchin, according to three U.S. officials, one current Israeli official and one former Israeli official.

Why it matters: The strike — which targeted a site previously reported to be inactive — significantly damaged Iran's effort over the past year to resume nuclear weapons research, Israeli and U.S. officials said.

   One former Israeli official briefed on the strike said it destroyed sophisticated equipment used to design the plastic explosives that surround uranium in a nuclear device and are needed to detonate it.
   Iran has denied it is pursuing nuclear weapons. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement last week that "Iran is not after nuclear weapons, period."
   The Iranian mission to the UN declined to comment for this story.
   The incoming Trump administration will include several key national security and foreign policy officials who are hawkish on Iran, which could lead to increased U.S. pressure on the Islamic Republic.

Some added flavor here:

Flashback: Last June, the White House officials privately warned the Iranians in direct conversations about the suspicious research activities, Axios reported.

   The U.S. hoped the warning would make the Iranians stop their nuclear activity, but they continued, the officials said.

A U.S. official said that in the months before the Israeli attack "there was concern across the board" about the Iranian activity at the Taleghan 2 facility.

   The Iranian nuclear weapons research even led the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to change its assessment about the Iranian nuclear program.

You don't say?

The news comes on the heels of the arrest of a former CIA official for leaking classified documents regarding Israel's plans ahead of the strike. //

Cafeblue32 Musicman an hour ago edited

Just make us a net exporter of fuels again instead of an importer, and Trump can drop the price of oil by dumping more in the market. He did that in 2020, in April taking it down to 20 bucks a barrel. He told the bad actors that are oil nations that he would drop it down to 1o bucks if they kept it up. That's why we didn't have war. A strong military deterrent is smart. But using business to make it to they couldn't afford war is how we had no wars last time without firing a shot.

Trump knows what Democrats will never admit: whoever controls the oil controls the world. He proved it last time.

What is it Roosevelt said? "Speak softly, but carry a big stick"? With Trump we have the double whammy- a great business strategy to drive the baddies broke, backed by the most terrifyingly badass military ever seen on earth. Under Hegseth, I expect we'll see that.

A criminal complaint against an Iranian agent and two U.S. citizens charged with plotting to assassinate Donald Trump and other enemies of the Iranian regime was unsealed Friday. //

jester6
a day ago edited
Just skimmed the indictment. The alleged illegal activities go back over a year. The alleged conspirators have been in communication with FBI informants, have been surveilled and maybe even searched using sneak and peak warrants for most of 2024.

There have been rumors about foreign assassin teams for a few months, but pundits in the MSM have been dismissing them as "unsubstantiated" and "without evidence."

So for those keeping score, the DOJ (via Jack Smith) can drop a boatload of unsubstantiated material detrimental to Trump shortly before the election. But the same DOJ needs to keep an indictment of potential assassins under until a few days after the election. //

DonttreaDonme
a day ago
Is it interesting that the secret serviceleft gaping holes in protection of Trump while knowing these threats existed? It seems interesting.

Based on recent IAEA reports, one nuclear watchdog group concludes that Iran has completed all the steps needed for full nuclear weapons breakout and — whenever it makes the decision to go nuclear — could produce up to nine nuclear warheads in a month, and 15 in five months. Moreover, it was discovered last year that Iran has built a new nuclear facility under a mountain near Natanz that is so deep underground that it might be beyond the reach of conventional weapons. With this facility, it will be able to make nuclear warheads even faster.

Whatever the scope of Iran’s secret nuclear activities, it almost certainly has not been producing nuclear weapons. Rather, what Iran has been trying to do in secret is get ready to produce nuclear weapons. In order to engage in serial production of nuclear weapons, Iran will need the far-flung facilities that it has developed under the guise of a civilian program. All it has to do is to stop cooperating with the IAEA and withdraw from the NPT (whether formally or de facto) so that it can pull a veil of secrecy over the entire program.

From that point forward, we will have to assume that Iran is a nuclear weapon state. North Korea didn’t conduct its first test of a nuclear device until 2006, but by then the U.S. had long since been forced to accept the high probability that it was a nuclear weapons state.

Iran’s withdrawal from the NPT will result in a cascade of disastrous consequences. Saudi Arabia has said that if Iran gets the bomb, it will get one, too. Turkey and Egypt are then likely to join the club. And consider how desperate Israel’s position will become. It will have to assume not just that any ballistic or cruise missile launched from Iran could be nuclear-tipped, justifying the use of its own nuclear deterrent, but that Iran could smuggle a nuclear device into Tel Aviv with plausible deniability that it had done so. //

As practiced by Iran and its proxies, on the other hand, missile terrorism is an entirely different kind of threat, as the July War itself had shown. The 100+ rockets that Hezbollah fired at northern Israel every day for a month caused few casualties. But they scared a third of Israel’s population into bomb shelters for weeks. Many Israelis started leaving for the United States, in many cases indefinitely.

Hence, missile terrorism poses a threat to the existence of Israel that is far beyond the potential casualty figures: A state that cannot make its people feel safe going about their daily lives, that can’t even keep its airports open because of terrorism, is in danger of failing. Whereas Palestinian terrorism targets Jews for the sheer satisfaction of murdering them, Iranian terrorism targets Israelis’ faith in the state of Israel. Iran has realized what too many Israeli leaders have not: that missile terrorism is an existential threat. Missile defenses such as Iron Dome have lulled too many Israelis into thinking that the threat is manageable. It isn’t.

So here is the question. After holding back from helping Hamas in its confrontations with Israel for nearly 20 years, why did Iran decide to join the fight this time? Perhaps Iran sensed a unique opportunity to combine the missile terrorism of all its proxies and the mayhem that antisemites and wannabe terrorists could cause in Western cities and universities to deliver a fatal blow to the morale of Israel.

Maybe. But alas, Iran’s decision to fight Israel now was likely part of a much more dangerous plan. //

The NPT allows states to withdraw with 90 days’ notice. When North Korea withdrew from the NPT in 1993, it waited to see what America’s reaction would be. When it seemed that Clinton might be prepared to use force, North Korea went down to the wire and “suspended” its withdrawal from the NPT a few days before the 90 days were up. North Korea then bluffed its way to nuclear weapons by threatening to unleash war on the Korean peninsula, a real bluff considering North Korea’s dictatorship could not have survived three days of such a war.

We should expect similar gamesmanship from Iran. We are at “the River” in Texas Hold’em. All the community cards have been revealed. Iran has a weaker hand than its enemies but is willing to risk far more. Israel is keeping its cards close to the vest, American surveillance and leaks notwithstanding, but its one ace — nuclear weapons — is worthless now. America has by far the strongest hand in the round, but it has become risk-averse to the point of torpor: its increasingly besotted national security establishment equates deterrence with provocation, which is the strategic equivalent of unilateral disarmament. Iran likes its chances.

Obama Undermined the Diplomatic Option to Stop Iran’s Nuclear Program.

When Iran’s nuclear program was first discovered in 2003, the U.S. could have nipped it in the bud with a single airstrike. The argument against that move at the time (and against military action since) was that Iran would quickly reconstitute the program.

If that was the right answer, it was the wrong question. The military option on Iran’s nuclear program has to be assessed in terms of what Thomas Schelling would call a “tacit negotiation” between the U.S. and Iran: Properly conceived, the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program would be an important but incidental benefit of military force; the right goal — as with sanctions — would be to convince Iran to abandon the program.

And for that strategic objective, the target list is much broader and includes everything the regime needs to survive in the short term. That means oil refineries, power plants, ports, and military command-and-control, up to and including Iran’s Ministry of Defense and the offices of the Atomic Organization of Iran. Targeting any of those early on could have fatally undermined the internal influence of Iran’s nuclear hawks.

Solving problems before they become crises is always a good idea. In international relations, the time to stop a dangerous deterioration in the status quo is at the start, before it has run its course. That is the single most important lesson of the chain of events that led to World War II, and it is particularly true in the case of a rogue nuclear program. It would have been much easier to convince Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions when it had just one pilot facility that it half-expected somebody to bomb at any moment.

Now the nuclear weapons program is the crown jewel of the Islamic Revolution, to which the mullahs have subordinated all other priorities. As Henry Kissinger wrote, in order to avoid the use of force, it is sometimes necessary to threaten its use. Because we have not done that, we are now playing defense at the one-yard line and may have no other option.

Though its chances of success were never very high, there was a diplomatic option for dealing with Iran’s nuclear program — until President Barack Obama cashiered it in his Joint Comprehensive Plan Action (JCPOA), one of the most consequential examples of aiding and abetting terrorism in world history.

During the administration of George W. Bush, the U.S. was able to orchestrate a powerful Iran sanctions regime, backed by the U.N. Security Council with the support of Russia and China. That was a remarkable feat considering that Iran is an important client of Russia and China is more dependent on Iranian oil than any other major economy. Obama, to his credit, built on those sanctions, which soon brought Iran’s economy to the brink of collapse. In 2014, Iran’s currency lost more than half its value.

But just in the nick of time, Obama came to the mullahs’ rescue with the JCPOA, which dismantled the sanctions regime and provided Iran with a massive infusion of cash, just to secure Iran’s forbearance to go nuclear for a few more years. Needless to say, Iran took the money and ran.

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. moved quickly to abandon the JCPOA. But alas, its benefits for Iran had already largely accrued. Obama’s cash infusion (which his dunce Secretary of State John Kerry had promised would not be used for terrorism) allowed Iran to lavishly fund the IRGC and Hezbollah. Even worse, the international sanctions regime could not be resurrected. The U.S. imposed “maximum pressure” through sanctions of its own, but while those exacted a heavy price, the reality was that Obama had fatally undermined the diplomatic option for stopping Iran’s nuclear program.

In the supposed interest of peace and stability, the U.S. has waited until its most virulent enemy is in a position to turn the world upside down. The moment that the mullahs have been waiting so patiently for, suffering through decades of sanctions and privations, is finally here. They have a nuclear weapon within their grasp. They need but seize it, knowing that the odds of America’s folding are in their favor, and overwhelmingly so, as long as Joe Biden or Kamala Harris is in power.

All Iran needs to do now is withdraw from the NPT, and it will be a brave new world.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced this week that it is moving military assets to the Middle East to deter continued Iranian aggression against the U.S. and Israel after Iran vowed this week to hit Israel following last week’s strikes in Iran.

The Pentagon ordered the deployment of “additional ballistic missile defense destroyers, fighter squadron and tanker aircraft, and several U.S. Air Force B-52 long-range strike bombers to the region.”

The forces will arrive in the region in the coming months as the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group prepares to leave the region.

The move of B-52s and missile defense is interesting. The B-52, it should be noted, is strictly an offensive platform, and its use presumes U.S. air superiority where the BUFFs are deployed, thus perhaps the movement of fighters. //

“These deployments build on the recent decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system to Israel as well as DoD’s sustained Amphibious Ready Group Marine Expeditionary Unit (ARG/MEU) posture in the Eastern Mediterranean,” a statement said. //

anon-nn7q
11 hours ago
Is this a decision made by our senile president Biden? If not, then by whom?

This decision is a very big deal, irrespective of whether one thinks we should or should not intervene. Harris, as VP, does not have the Constitutional authority to give such an order. Biden doesn't have the mental capacity to do anything other than what someone tells him to do.

Is this Doctor Jill's decision? //

anon-x8p1
12 hours ago
JOE BIDEN is the sole commander-in chief. He gives the orders.
Let that sink in. Harris does not care. let that sink in too.

The Obama game plan is to leave a huge stinking pile of garbage on your successors lap, before you get booted out the door.

Obama's plan is still working perfectly. Obama made sure all the biggest Obamacare costs and impact kicked in only after he left office. Then Trump gets blamed for raising the public debt.

You cannot hate Democrats enough.

Tabatabai's move to a role where she won't have access to classified information about special programs, the current location of U.S. special forces, intelligence assessments, and much more, is considered by some observers as essentially a demotion and a tacit admission that she was, in fact, the leaker, and they are working to contain the damage while the investigation continues. //

According to counterterrorism analysts who spoke to RedState in October 2023, Tabatabai's been a subversive force at the Pentagon since she arrived from the State Department in 2022:

"[C]ounterterrorism analysts speaking to RedState on condition of anonymity, whose reports would have crossed Tabatabai's desk, say that for at least the past year their product has been watered down, misquoted, or outright quashed. Tabatabai had the opportunity to shape the intelligence to meet her needs, the analysts say, and they say it's likely that the overt intel collected during that period went to Iran."

Tabatabai's position at State was as a policy adviser to disgraced Iran envoy Robert Malley, who's accused of mishandling classified information himself. As the Washington Free Beacon reported, Tabatabai has been a frequent guest at the White House courtesy of Phil Gordon, who's Kamala Harris' national security advisor and who's collaborated with Tabatabai on multiple opinion pieces "argu[ing] against sanctions on the Iranian regime": //

Anyone who would be appointed as DoD's chief learning officer at this point is undoubtedly woke and likely not extremely helpful in terms of readiness and quality training, but having Tabatabai there is an insult. She should be nowhere near the Pentagon due to her relationship with the Iranian regime, but this is a very slight move in the right direction.

Israel has temporarily shifted the focus of its air campaign in Lebanon and Syria from plinking jihadists cowering in bunkers to wiping out Hezbollah's infrastructure. Israeli strike fighters hit eleven locations associated with Hezbollah's financial operation after giving people in the target areas 20 minutes' notice to evacuate. //

This has created a cash shortage for an organization that needs a large cash flow to pay fighters, benefits to the families of slain fighters, and to carry out the social work that propelled Hezbollah into prominence in Lebanese politics. Because Hezbollah doesn't have access to international banking channels, it requires large quantities of cash to operate. Recall that when the Israelis bounced a JDAM off Hasan Nasrallah's turban, over $500 million in cash and gold was also lost. //

“I’m hearing from Lebanese bankers, including Hezbollah financiers, that Lebanon’s wealthiest bankers who can afford to fly have fled to Europe and the Gulf, fearing they could be targeted next by Israel for helping Hezbollah,” Asher noted.

“I’ve heard from my Israeli counterparts that the Iranians are scared to send money to Lebanon right now because Israel is threatening to target flights into Beirut. The Israelis are warning they will target flights full of money, not just weapons,” he added.

Jennifer Van Laar
@jenvanlaar
·
Follow
🚨🚨 NEW: A US intelligence source tells RedState that the Top Secret documents leaked were leaked from the Pentagon's office of low intensity conflict/special operations - which is where suspected Iranian spy Ariane Tabatabai works with Christopher Maier https://wilsoncenter.org/person/ariane-tabatabai
11:04 PM · Oct 19, 2024

As Van Laar and Streiff have reported, numerous red flags have been raised regarding Tabatabai and Biden's special envoy for Iran, Rob Malley. //

Rep. Mike Waltz
@michaelgwaltz
·
Follow
It’s crystal clear: the Biden-Harris administration has been infiltrated by pro-Iranian apologists.
Jason Brodsky
@JasonMBrodsky
Very serious: CNN reports the documents that appeared on a pro #Iran regime Telegram channel are authentic and were marked top secret and have markings indicating they are to be seen only by the Five Eyes.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/19/politics/us-israel-iran-intelligence-documents/index.html
8:35 PM · Oct 19, 2024 //

Indeed. Biden's and Harris' silence on the matter thus far speaks volumes. //
StPHarper
an hour ago
In the mid-1970s, other soldiers and I were told that; because we were 'in the know,' as holders of TSSI clearances, if we ever simply commented on the validity or falseness of any published articles, we would be subject to punishment. Such punishment could include: loss of clearance, reduction in rank, court martial, and possibly time in Leavenworth. And now we can read this:

According to CNN, one person in the intelligence community confirmed the authenticity of the documents, thereby raising the level of seriousness of the breach.

We are not the same country for which others, and I, have served. This sh*t has got to stop.

soxfan4life StPHarper
37 minutes ago
Weird I was told for the rest of my natural life. These people spill the beans and face zero consequences. And then wonder why we hate them. //

bk
2 hours ago

Waltz: "It’s crystal clear: the Biden-Harris administration has been infiltrated by pro-Iranian apologists."

I wouldn't say "infiltrated", since that means they sneaked in for nefarious reasons opposed to what is intended.

As an Israeli retaliation for Iran's massive ballistic missile strike looms, the Biden White House has decided to deploy a six-launcher battery of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles to shore up Israel's air defenses, and at least 96 US soldiers will man the missile battery. //

THAAD was developed as part of the ballistic missile defense program and has proven itself effective against Iranian-designed missiles. THAAD can counter short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats and is the only U.S. system designed to intercept targets outside and inside the atmosphere. //

In previous Iranian attacks on Israel, US aircraft and warships have engaged Iranian cruise missiles and drones but only in international airspace. This deployment not only places American soldiers in Israel as the region slides, inexorably, in my view, toward a regional war that has the possibility of going nuclear; see Israel Hammering Iran's Proxy Armies Sends a Clear Message to Tehran That the Rules Have Changed – RedState, it marks the beginning of positive rather than incidental participation in the brewing war.

Purrl
10 hours ago
To me what this signals is Biden ignoring his pro-Iran advisors. As much as I despise the man, until he became a vegetable he was a pretty strong supporter of Israel (IIRC), and now that he's in full "screw you" mode I suspect he's reverting to type. Also, still in awe of the level of love for the mullahs displayed by the State Department; there's no good reason whatsoever to protect Iran's nuclear facilities.

But whatever his reason for adding another layer of defense for Israel, I approve. //

streiff wildmlm
11 hours ago
we are all pretty sure that Iran has enough fissile material (they were 2-3 months from that point in 2015 according to the Obama administration. They probably have a nuke ready to test. We know they have the delivery system.

Black Magic streiff
9 hours ago
Yes, Streiff is probably totally correct, and if anything is possibly low in his estimate.

And the Iranians idea of a test, will likely be to launch the missile at Israel and see if it works.

May God bless and watch over the Israelis.

And I truly pray he is still willing to bless and watch over America after the evil of the last 4 years.

Purrl wildmlm
10 hours ago
For the most part, anything you can put a conventional warhead on you can put a nuke on.

streiff Purrl
10 hours ago
once you have the fissile material, the rest is an engineering problem that was first solved 70 years ago.

Iran had already been concerned for years that Mossad, an Israeli intelligence agency, had infiltrated Tehran’s ranks, the outlet reported. Following Nasrallah’s death, that concern has grown larger — and Iranian officials have become worried about Khamenei’s safety, officials and sources close to the matter told Reuters.

“The trust that held everything together has disappeared,” an Iranian official told Reuters.

“[Khamenei] no longer trusts anyone,” another source close to the Iranian regime told Reuters. //

Authorities have opened investigations to see whether some Iranian officials or members of Iran’s military are compromised, another Iranian official told Reuters. The investigations are particularly centered around officials who travel or have family outside the country.

Authorities are reportedly suspicious of Iranian military members who have recently been in Lebanon, one of the officials told Reuters. One of the military members had recently been asking about Nasrallah’s location, raising eyebrows among other officials. That individual was arrested, along with several others, the official told Reuters. //

Chillypod anon-ymous99 an hour ago

Mossad is freaking the Iran leaders out and it's probably by design. They will not trust their most trusted people right now and it's great. Think about them arresting their own close people, it's bound to make quite a few other ones very nervous. //

KJSpeed Chuck in TX 2 hours ago

It would be like Israel to plant incriminating evidence on anyone they want taken out. Let the Ayatollah be the means to his own end. //

veritaseequitas 2 hours ago

Mohammad nowhere to be found. No comfort, no peace, no absence of fear.
Islam is a cult, worshipping a man. //

DonH-Texas 2 hours ago edited

Isn't it odd that the ayatollahs are not so ready to be martyred as they are to send off their flunkies to die? They act a whole lot like godless politicians in secular states.

If you want to know what people really are, don't rely on what they say, look at what they do. //

Gabriel Noronha
@GLNoronha
·
Follow
The missiles hitting Israel right now are the same ones Biden and Harris worked to lift UN sanctions on the first month he took office.

They said it would help promote diplomacy with Iran.

12:54 PM · Oct 1, 2024 //

Brytek
36 minutes ago
Wars end when you annihilate the opposition or force an unconditional surrender, wars on end begin with proportional responses. Perhaps Israel has learned anyone pushing a proportional response is not their friend and is in fact the worst kind of enemy to have, as all it does is bleed both sides whilst the “allies” military industrial complex sell weapons to both sides, while draining their own populations of wealth to fund it.

PM tells world to choose peace and battle ’Iranian curse’; vows to keep hitting Hezbollah; says Hamas must go; denounces UN; promises Israel ’won’t go gently into that good night’ //

The full text of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly, September 27, 2024, as provided by the Prime Minister’s Office.

https://youtu.be/AkZREiWcrpQ

The Israel Air Force launched at least seven airstrikes against the Houthi port city of Hodeidah in retaliation to a ballistic missile fired at Tel Aviv. The strikes hit the port's tank farm and a power plant.

The Israel Defense Force's Chief of the General Staff, General Herzi Halevi, describes the action this way: “This is not a message, it is an action — an action that carries a message with it.”

Message indeed.

Last night, we saw another "action that carries a message with it." The Israel Defense Force crossed into southern Lebanon to eradicate the Hezbollah presence from where it has no right to be under UN Resolution 1701.

For decades, the Iranian regime has used Hezbollah and the Houthis as a shield to protect itself from its actions. The Houthis could be relied upon to close the Red Sea during a crisis and jack up shipping rates to pressure the civilized world to bow to Tehran. Hezbollah was Iran's ace-in-the-hole that made any decision by Israel to attack Iran's nuclear weapons infrastructure guaranteed to provoke an attack on Israeli cities by Hezbollah.

Israel has decided to break this strategic stalemate. //

Iran's main strategic partner, Russia, is mired in a war in Ukraine. It no longer has the weapons to send to Iran, and no sane person is in awe of Russia's military.

Hamas has totally collapsed, and its leadership is either dead or trying to find a clean pair of brown trousers in the bunker.

The failed April 13 Iranian missile and drone blitz of Israel reveals just how flimsy and inferior its offensive weaponry was when confronted by Israel's defenses. This further degraded Iran's ability to deter Israeli action.

The Hezbollah ally they have cultivated for a half-century has been decapitated like no other combatant in history. In the space of less than two weeks, the entire "middle management" of Hezbollah was gutted by a wave of exploding pagers and other electronic devices... //

Iran will now accelerate its move to nuclear breakout, but the air attack on Hodeidah, Yemen, and the removal of Hezbollah forces as a cohesive fighting unit sent another message.

The range circle depicts the distance from Tel Aviv to Hodeidah.

Iran's nuclear weapons project is within the range of Israeli air power, and they won't have to fly over Hezbollah-manned air defense sites in Lebanon to get to them.

Look at the tweet from former prime minister Naftali Bennett last night, using very strong language, saying: “This is the greatest opportunity in 50 years to change the face of the Middle East.” He was arguing that Israel should go after Iran’s nuclear facilities, in order to “fatally cripple this terrorist regime”.

Now he’s not prime minister (although he is widely tipped to be a future one, so he was making a point to show he is tough) but it does reflect a certain mood in the country.

I would not rule out attacks by Israel on anything at the moment – nuclear sites, petrochemical facilities, anything that could cause damage to the Iranian economy.

The scenario always was that Iran had a forward defence in the shape of Hezbollah in Lebanon, with a massive arsenal of sophisticated weapons, to be used, in theory, if Iran and its nuclear facilities were attacked.

But in the last couple of weeks, Israel has decapitated the Hezbollah organisation, destroyed half of its weapons, according to American and Israeli authorities; and invaded Lebanon.

The deterrent Iran had, you could argue, is not just gone – it’s smashed into a thousand pieces. So I think the Israelis are feeling more free to act. And Joe Biden is moving another carrier battle group to the Mediterranean, signalling to the Iranians that if you hit Israel, you hit the US too.

jPeter Moss | October 1, 2024 at 1:07 pm
This brought to you by weak horses – Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama and Joe Biden – who have done their level best to back the mullahs and their 7th century nonsense.

The blood is on their hands.

Prayers for the good people of Israel as they (finally) take care of family business.

akebizlaw in reply to Peter Moss. | October 1, 2024 at 1:28 pm
Iran lighting candles for Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday cake. 45 years of American pusillanimity and left wing cowardice.

oden in reply to Peter Moss. | October 1, 2024 at 1:49 pm
Carter lies at the root of the Iran menace. Way way back in the 1970s I attended a classified talk by Iranian expert. She was fluent in Farsi, and spent her career specializing in Iran. Iran was once a US ally and friendly towards Israel. We supplied high-end weapons to Iran. But Carter decided Iran had a human rights problem, and the Shah had to go. She went into details on how the Islamic revolution in Iran played out. The world, especially Israel is paying the price for Carter’s disastrous foreign policy. In my opinion, (and many others as well) Carter was our worst president in terms of the lasting damage he did. Others conclude he was not an honorable man. For example Robert Novak called him the biggest liar in Washington, which is saying a lot. Not being an insider, I have no idea if this is actually true. He would have a lot of competition.

We know from Genesis in the Torah that Abraham struck a deal with G_d. Sodom would be spared if he could find ten righteous men (down from 50). He couldn’t, so Sodom was destroyed. Well DC has about 1,000 times the population of ancient Sodom. Could we find 10,000 righteous men in today’s Washington? I don’t think so. I doubt we could even find ten.

UN Secretary General António Guterres:

António Guterres @antonioguterres
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I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation.

This must stop.

We absolutely need a ceasefire.
1:26 PM · Oct 1, 2024

Israel ישראל @Israel
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We condemn your inability to string together a tweet which holds Iran responsible for firing 181 ballistic missiles at 10 million Israeli civilians.

1:52 PM · Oct 1, 2024

Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט
@naftalibennett
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Follow
You’ve gotta be kidding.

You condemn”the broadening”?!

You just aren’t able to blurt the simple words “I condemn the Islamic Republic of Iran who just shot roughly 180 deadly ballistic missiles towards the citizens of Israel.”

Quit.
2:10 PM · Oct 1, 2024

The Post Millennial @TPostMillennial
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Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon: "Let me be very clear: we will defend our people. We will act. Iran will soon feel the consequences of their actions. The response will be painful."
4:44 PM · Oct 1, 2024

If you’re an anti-Israel terrorist these days, it must be hard getting to sleep. There’s a good chance you won’t wake up.

Now, the Islamic Republic’s former president is admitting that the Israelis even managed to penetrate Iranian security services that were… wait for it… tasked with targeting the Jewish state’s intelligence service, Mossad. I’m sorry, but it’s hard not to laugh.

The head of an Iranian secret service unit set up to target Mossad agents working in the Islamic Republic turned out to be an Israeli agent himself, according to former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Speaking to CNN Turk, Ahmadinejad claimed Monday that a further 20 agents in the Iranian intelligence team tasked with monitoring Israeli spying activities also turned against Tehran.

The alleged double agents provided Israel with sensitive information on the Iranian nuclear program, according to his comments in the interview, which were widely picked up by international media. //

Michael Elgort @just_whatever
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You would think it is a joke, but it isn’t

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an interview with @cnnturk said that Iran’s secret services had created a special unit to combat Mossad operating in Iran. However, turns out the head of this unit was himself a Mossad agent, along with 20 other agents, who were responsible for multiple intelligence operations in Iran including stealing nuclear docs and assassinating several Iranian nuclear scientists before allegedly fleeing to Israel

I can’t stop laughing, that’s too bad*** even for you. [Laughing emojis]
9:07 AM · Sep 30, 2024
https://x.com/just_whatever/status/1840740215738060952
//

The head of the counterintelligence unit was revealed as a double agent in 2021 but he and all of the other alleged Mossad moles were able to flee the country and are now living in Israel...

Brian | September 29, 2024 at 11:28 am
[QUOTE] Israel now finds itself with the threat from Gaza mostly neutralized and the opportunity to neutralize Hezbollah in the north. It’s unfortunate how we got here but maybe there can be a silver lining in the end. [/QUOTE]

Yes, I view the two, Hamas and Hezbollah, as the Iranian equivalent of a “fleet in being.”

A “fleet in being” is a naval force that extends a controlling influence without ever leaving port. Were the fleet to leave port and face the enemy, it might lose in battle and no longer influence the enemy’s actions, but while it remains safely in port, the enemy is forced to continually deploy forces to guard against it.” (Wikipedia)

Iran has lost the influence of it’s “fleet in being” as a force that could deter Israel.

So Iran is now isolated – naked as a Jaybird, one might say, to he whims or plans of Israel.

Brian in reply to Brian. | September 29, 2024 at 11:51 am
I might also suggest that under the Biden/Harris administration, the US removed sanctions from Iran and paid several billion $$ to them in ransom for a few Iranian/US hostages, and has consistently urged Israel to restrain itself and substitute negotiations and a ceasefire for definitive kinetic military operations.

If that wasn’t enough (!) to convince Israel that the US was an Iranian asset, Kamala’s snubbing of Netanyahu when he was in the US in favor of her addressing as sorority was proof beyond doubt that the US was not going to protect Israel from Iran.

So Israel (wisely) decided to abandon the US strategy of urging caution and negotiations rather than military operations.

And thus, behind the degradation of Hamas and now Hezbollah, did the final check on Israel’s restraint – US influence on Israel – collapse.

“And now, over the past six weeks or so, Israel has eliminated as many terrorists on the US list of wanted terrorists as the US has done in the last 20 years.” //

Former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, had some wise words yesterday about Israel.

Israel has to finish the job. Now. She cannot stop.

People have responded, “I don’t agree with you politically at all, but this is true!”

Kushner wrote:

September 27th is the most important day in the Middle East since the Abraham Accords breakthrough.

I have spent countless hours studying Hezbollah and there is not an expert on earth who thought that what Israel has done to decapitate and degrade them was possible.

This is significant because Iran is now fully exposed. The reason why their nuclear facilities have not been destroyed, despite weak air defense systems, is because Hezbollah has been a loaded gun pointed at Israel. Iran spent the last forty years building this capability as its deterrent. //

But today, with the confirmed killing of Nasrallah and at least 16 top commanders eliminated in just nine days, was the first day I started thinking about a Middle East without Iran’s fully loaded arsenal aimed at Israel. So many more positive outcomes are possible.