[Reuters] White House official Stephen Miller told a gathering of Latin American military leaders on Thursday that drug cartels can only be defeated with military force.
The comments make explicit a shift in U.S. policy under President Donald Trump, whose administration has blown up suspected drug boats, seized the president of Venezuela in January and aided Mexico last month in its operation to capture that country's most wanted cartel boss.
"We have learned after decades of effort that there is not a criminal justice solution to the cartel problem," Miller, the White House homeland security adviser, told Latin American defense leaders gathered at the U.S. Southern Command headquarters.
"The reason why this is a conference with military leadership and not a conference of lawyers is because these organizations can only be defeated with military power."
Legal experts and Democrats have questioned the legality of the U.S. strategy, disputing the Trump administration's policy that equates drug traffickers with members of terrorist organizations like al Qaeda and Islamic State.
As usual, they’re wrong.
'JUST AS BRUTALLY'
Miller said there was no difference, adding that drug cartels "should be treated just as brutally and just as ruthlessly as we treat those organizations."
The U.S. policy has unnerved some traditional U.S. military partners in Latin America, including Colombia, which did not send a delegation to the gathering. Brazil and Mexico also did not send delegations.
Thus demonstrating that they prefer to keep the current arrangement with their narco cartels.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he wanted the conference to focus on operations that lead to closer cooperation against drug trafficking.
He drew applause for promising to make available resources to Southern Command, which oversees U.S. forces in Latin America and for years has complained about being short on resources. It will now need to compete for U.S. troops, warships and aircraft as the U.S. war against Iran unfolds.
Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the goal was to gather like-minded, pro-Washington governments to provide more structure to new kinds of cooperation in the region.
That includes this week's announcement that U.S. military forces are assisting Ecuador combat drug trafficking.
"The very recent example of Ecuador will serve as the model for other countries attending the conference," Berg said.
Berg said the conference would also set the stage for an Americas summit hosted by Trump in Miami this weekend where the U.S. is expected to advance a counter-China agenda.
CHINA'S INFLUENCE
Many Latin American nations now see China, not the United States, as their top trading partner, and Trump has taken aim at Chinese ties there. That includes Panama, home to a strategic canal that Trump has threatened to take back by force, if necessary.
Trump's national security strategy, published in December, argued that the U.S. should revive the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine declaring the Western Hemisphere as Washington's zone of influence. Hegseth joked this could be called the 'Donroe Doctrine,' to laughter in the crowd.
Critics say the rhetoric represents modern-day imperialism and that U.S. military actions in Venezuela and the Caribbean have added to fears in a region where Washington has a troubled history of military interventions.
Addressing a region with many religions and ethnicities, Hegseth said it remained to be seen whether Latin American nations will remain Western and Christian.
"We face an essential test whether our nations will be and remain Western nations with distinct characteristics, Christian nations under God," Hegseth said.
[Yahoo Finance] Oops! Virtue signalled your company into the hole
(Bloomberg) -- Anthropic PBC vowed to legally contest a Pentagon decision to declare the company a threat to the US supply chain under an authority normally reserved for foreign adversaries, escalating a showdown with the Trump administration over artificial intelligence safeguards.
"We do not believe this action is legally sound, and we see no choice but to challenge it in court," Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei said in a blog post Thursday, hours after Bloomberg News reported on the Pentagon finding.
Defense officials had notified the company on Wednesday of the supply-chain designation, Amodei said in his post. The move puts at risk the firm’s $200 million contract to provide the Pentagon with classified AI tools, and could bar Anthropic from partnering with other companies on their defense work.
The Pentagon has formally notified Anthropic PBC that it has determined the company and its products pose a risk to the US supply chain.
The decision culminated weeks of increasingly tense negotiations between Amodei and government officials over the US military’s access to Anthropic’s technology. Talks broke down last week after the company demanded assurances that its AI wouldn’t be used for mass surveillance of Americans or autonomous weapons deployment, prompting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to threaten the company with the supply-chain risk designation.
Though Anthropic still plans to challenge the move, Amodei said that the statute invoked — section 3252 of the US law governing the armed forces — is narrowly tailored enough to keep it from affecting other Anthropic business that’s unrelated to specific Pentagon contracts.
That offers some reassurance for customers and investors who feared the company could lose the ability to do any business with companies that worked with the Pentagon. A Microsoft Corp. spokesperson said Thursday the company had concluded that it can continue to work with Anthropic on non-defense projects.
Even so, the designation means the company has to stop working with Palantir Technologies Inc., another military contractor. That includes Palantir’s use of Anthropic’s Claude in the digital mission control platform known as Maven Smart System, which has been deployed in the US military’s Iran campaign.
The Pentagon’s decision also threatens to slow broader efforts to accelerate adoption of AI across the US military. Until recently, Anthropic provided the only AI system that could operate in the Pentagon’s classified cloud, and its Claude Gov tool has become a favored option among defense personnel for its ease of use.
[AOL] Another pipsqueak partisan judge gets spanked
A Chicago federal appeals court on Thursday vacated a lower court’s injunction placing use-of-force restrictions on immigration agents during Operation Midway Blitz, calling it "constitutionally suspect" and questioning the manner in which the district judge dismissed the underlying suit.
The three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was split 2-1, with Chief Judge Michael Brennan and Judge Michael Scudder in the majority and Judge Frank Easterbrook dissenting.
The ending of the Trump administration’s appeal was a foregone conclusion after U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis in January granted a motion by the plaintiffs to dismiss the underlying lawsuit.
But the 7th Circuit went beyond a mere dismissal of the appeal and ordered what’s known as "vacatur," which essentially treats Ellis’ preliminary injunction ruling as though it never existed. In the 15-page majority opinion, the judges wrote that Ellis, "working on a highly compressed timeline ... granted an overbroad, constitutionally suspect injunction."
The majority was particularly critical of Ellis for dismissing the lawsuit "without prejudice" even though the parties didn’t ask for it, leaving the door open for plaintiffs to refile the case at some point down the road.
"Because the district court dismissed this case without prejudice — against the plaintiffs’ unopposed request for a dismissal with prejudice — any class members or the lead plaintiffs could refile these claims tomorrow," the majority opinion stated. "They could ask the district court to reinstate a near-identical preliminary injunction, adopting the facts and legal reasoning from the district court’s order."
The majority opinion said they "can help avoid that pitfall by vacating the order that depends on these conclusions."
In his three-page dissent, Easterbrook said he shared in some of the concerns of his colleagues about how the case played out, but that "dissatisfaction with the district court’s handling of a suit should not matter unless at least one of the parties is dissatisfied."
The ruling officially ends a case brought by the Chicago Headline Club and other media groups, leading to a sweeping preliminary injunction by Ellis in November limiting the use of tear gas and other chemical munitions against members of the media and protesters, and also requiring agents to wear body cameras and clear identification.
The case came to symbolize the havoc Midway Blitz caused in Chicago and shed light on how the operation was carried out, through sworn depositions by Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino and other leaders as well as the release of body-camera footage showing agents deploying tear gas, pointing guns from passing cars and tackling civilians on the street.
The plaintiffs moved to drop the suit in December following ominous signs from the 7th Circuit, which called Ellis’ order overbroad and a potential infringement on the separation of powers.
In the request, the plaintiffs claimed victory, saying Bovino and his surge of agents left town soon after Ellis’ injunction was entered on Nov. 8 and that there had been no reports of any unconstitutional behavior by agents in the weeks that followed.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/06/2026 05:36 ||
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[1811 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
[Reuters] U.S. President Donald Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday after months of controversy, including the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers in Minneapolis and lawmakers' questions over a $220 million advertising contract.
The Republican president will tap Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace her by the end of the month, he said on his Truth Social platform on Thursday. The appointment would require U.S. Senate confirmation.
Noem, a former governor of South Dakota, became one of Trump's most high-profile Cabinet secretaries with social media posts that portrayed immigrants in harsh terms, highlighted alleged criminal offences and used vitriolic language. She spoke accurately
Her departure, after emerging as the face of an aggressive immigration crackdown that had grown unpopular according to recent polling, could allow Trump to reset his approach on immigration policy, a centerpiece of his agenda. Sorry, Al-Rooters, not gonna happen
Shortly after Trump announced Noem's replacement, she posted on X: "We have made historic accomplishments at the Department of Homeland Security to make America safe again."
During congressional hearings this week, Democrats and some Republicans criticized Noem for her approach to immigration enforcement and management of her department, including concern over a $220 million advertising campaign that featured Noem heavily and had been awarded to two longtime Republican operatives without a standard bidding process.
Noem's personal life also came under scrutiny, with a Democratic lawmaker on Wednesday asking whether she had a sexual relationship with top aide Corey Lewandowski. Both are married.
Noem called the question from U.S. Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove "tabloid garbage." Lewandowski did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Trump told Reuters on Thursday that he did not sign off on the ad campaign, which prominently featured Noem and included a scene of her on horseback at Mount Rushmore, in her home state of South Dakota.
In one congressional hearing this week, Noem told Republican U.S. Senator John Kennedy that Trump had approved the ad campaign.
FIRST SENATE-CONFIRMED CABINET MEMBER FIRED IN TRUMP 2.0
Noem is the first Senate-confirmed member of Trump's Cabinet to be removed this term. In Trump's 2017-2021 term in office, 14 confirmed Cabinet appointees, who serve in the line of succession to the presidency, quit or were fired.
Noem faced criticism in January when she quickly accused two U.S. citizens fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis of "domestic terrorism." Videos that emerged after the deaths undercut the assertion by Noem and other Trump officials that the two deceased - Renee Good and Alex Pretti - were violent aggressors.
The public backlash over the deaths led the Trump administration to adopt a more targeted approach on immigration enforcement in Minnesota, after months of sweeps through U.S. cities that sparked violent clashes between federal agents and residents who opposed the crackdown.
Two Trump administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, said the fallout over the fatal shootings, the $220 million contract, the mismanagement of DHS and the allegations of the affair all contributed to her firing.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives moved to impeach Noem, and at least two Republicans in Congress called for her to lose her job after the shootings in Minnesota.
Trump said on Truth Social that Noem would be appointed envoy to a planned summit in Miami to reinforce his Western Hemisphere policies.
Within minutes of Trump's post about her replacement, Noem spoke at a law enforcement event in Tennessee for 40 minutes but did not mention her departure. Noem was aware she would be removed before she spoke at the event, one of the officials and another person familiar with the matter said, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.
They added that Lewandowski was also expected to leave the department. DHS and the White House did not immediately comment when asked about Lewandowski's future.
STRONG EMBRACE OF TRUMP'S HARDLINE IMMIGRATION APPROACH
Mullin, who spent a decade in the House of Representatives before becoming a senator in 2023, also supports Trump's hardline immigration agenda.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Mullin said he had not been expecting the call from Trump. He described Noem as a friend and said he had not had a chance to call her yet.
"She was tasked to do a very difficult job," Mullin told reporters.
Democrats in Congress have blocked funding for DHS since mid-February, saying federal immigration enforcement must be reformed.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Noem's firing would not be enough to break the stalemate.
"The problems at ICE transcend any one person," he told reporters. "The president has to end the violence and rein in ICE."
Trump's immigration approach lost popularity as agents detained U.S. citizens and tear-gassed streets in an attempt to drive up deportations, which last year fell short of the administration's goal of 1 million per year.
While Noem, 54, served as a prominent proponent of Trump's agenda, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a longtime Trump aide, controls Trump's immigration policy.
Noem was quickly confirmed to lead the 260,000-employee department in January 2025 after Trump took office. On social media, she referred to immigrants convicted of crimes as "scumbags" even as the number of non-criminals arrested by immigration authorities rose under Trump.
She joined immigration enforcement operations on the ground in New York City and visited a maximum-security prison in El Salvador where Venezuelan immigrants deported by the Trump administration were being held without charges or access to lawyers.
In her first official statement on X following her departure, Noem thanked Trump for her upcoming appointment.
"Secretary [Marco] Rubio and Secretary of War [Pete Hegseth] are incredible leaders and I look forward to working with them closely to dismantle cartels that have poured drugs into our nation and killed our children and grandchildren."
"The western hemisphere is absolutely critical for U.S. security. In this new role, I will be able to build on the partnerships and national security expertise, I forged over the last 13 months as Secretary of Homeland Security. We have made historic accomplishments at the Department of Homeland Security to make America safe again: we delivered the MOST secure border in American history, 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S., we have located 145,000 children, FEMA delivered disaster relief at a 100% faster rate, we ushered in the golden age of travel, saved the American taxpayer $13 billion and revitalized the U.S. Coast Guard," she added.
Trump said Mullin has done a "tremendous job" in Congress and cited his resume as a former undefeated MMA fighter.
"As the only Native American in the Senate, Markwayne is a fantastic advocate for our incredible Tribal Communities. Markwayne will work tirelessly to Keep our Border Secure, Stop Migrant Crime, Murderers, and other Criminals from illegally entering our Country, End the Scourge of Illegal Drugs and, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN," Trump said.
Mullin is the first Native American senator in decades, following Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado. He appeared just as caught off guard by the announcement as the rest of Washington.
#3
Trump always gets something in any deal. I'm thinking the rhino Thune agreed to a deal where they traded her for passage of the SAVE act. She was a problem and he is making lemonade out the lemons.
Just my $0.02...the budget impasse is a short term goal and President Trump plays the long game.
#6
About those dreadful polling numbers Reuters is claiming — PJ Media reports:
Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll, conducted February 25-26
Trump's overall approval sits at 46%, ticking upward across nearly every policy area. His strongest marks came on fighting crime in cities (51%), immigration (48%), and returning America to its values (48%). Even his weakest categories — responding to anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis (42%) and tariffs and trade policy (43%) — are areas where the administration still has room to maneuver.
Here's where it gets especially inconvenient for the Democrats. A full 52% of voters say the economy is better today than it was under Biden — up 5 points from January. 51% say the economy is strong right now, up 8 points since November 2025. And 36% say their personal financial situation has improved, up 4 points since November, with gains concentrated among Republicans, males, likely midterm voters, and urban voters aged 25-44.
Trump’s State of the Union address may have been a turning point. According to the poll, 47% of voters watched the State of the Union address. Of those who did, 60% had a favorable opinion of it.
That’s huge.
As for why, it’s simple. Every single one of the 11 new Trump policies announced that night drew majority support. The biggest winners: a congressional stock trading ban at 72%, federal retirement accounts for workers without pension plans at 70%, a ban on Wall Street firms buying single-family homes at 69%, and most-favored-nation drug pricing at 68%. In short, Trump is reading the room.
The generic ballot now sits at 50-50, and Republicans are up 4 points from January. After voters heard both parties' messaging, 51% said they were more likely to vote Republican for Congress — and among likely voters, the Republican lead stretched to 4 points.
Democrats tried leaning on anti-tariff messaging, and 61% found it believable. But it only delivered a net +2 boost. That's spending a lot of political capital for a difference within the poll’s margin of error. In the end, Republican messaging on curbed spending, closed borders, and reduced crime moved more voters than Democrats' entire playbook combined, and that’s a problem for the Democrats.
It gets better. A whopping 85% of voters say only U.S. citizens should vote — a strong majority across party lines. Seventy-one percent support the SAVE America Act, including half of Democrats. Specific provisions poll even higher: voter ID at 81%, removing non-citizens from rolls at 80%, and proof of citizenship at 75%.
Even on foreign policy, Trump and the GOP come out on top. The poll found that 73% back Trump's Gaza deal, and 71% support Israel over Hamas. Sixty-six percent want Trump to maintain weapons support and sanctions pressure on Russia over Ukraine, and 63% want U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine in any peace deal. Meanwhile, 67% want an aggressive American posture against hemisphere leaders backed by drug cartels.
Apparently so. Via Le Wiki: Mullin was born on July 26, 1977, in Tulsa, Oklahoma,[2] the youngest of the seven children of Jim Martin Mullin and Brenda Gayle Morris Mullin, of Westville, Oklahoma.
His first name is a tribute to two of his paternal uncles, Mark and Wayne; his mother put both names on his birth certificate, intending to later shorten his name to one of the two, but ultimately never did
There is a Chicken v. Egg debate over which affects a child's fortunes in life more: having a weird name or being raised by the sort of parents who give their kids weird names. Here, Mum never getting around to finish naming the kid suggests a certain lackadaisical approach to life. I kinda like him already.
#10
Markwayne Mullin has an undefeated MMA record of 3 wins and 0 losses, with all his fights ending in finishes within two rounds. He competed in the Xtreme Fighting League in 2006-2007.
He offered to fight Teamsters president Sean O'Brien during a congressional hearing. If you'd like to personally insult his name, I'd hope for your sake he's too busy
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/06/2026 18:48 Comments ||
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#11
^ This just keeps getting better!
My only question is, "Will we ever get back to our real timeline?"
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] The assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader (Rahbar) Ali Khamenei, orchestrated by Israel in the initial stages of the February campaign, left many shocked. Israeli intelligence agencies were able not only to reach one of the enemy's key figures, but to do so swiftly, in a single blow.
They don't hide the fact that they began preparations long ago and used many cutting-edge technical solutions. However, they couldn't do it entirely without assistance from the ground.
And here the evidence emerges: the "bloody trail" stretches to the very top, including to figures who previously would have been difficult to suspect of double dealing.
LONG PLANNING
The Israelis took their first steps back in late 2023, when, in response to the Palestinian Hamas invasion, indirectly supported by Iran, they developed a plan codenamed "Beheaded Snake." This multi-pronged plan envisioned the phased elimination of the leaders of all the "axis of resistance" forces, including Khamenei.
While Israel managed to carry out its first wave of decapitation strikes relatively quickly (half of the senior commanders of its main proxy groups were killed within the first year and a half), the issue with Iran was repeatedly delayed, in part due to the lack of guarantees of success.
Nevertheless, the Jewish state gradually prepared the ground for the attack: penetrating the video surveillance system in the Iranian capital, hacking into communications systems, including closed ones, used by operatives of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and high-ranking officials, and recruiting agents among the opposition.
Interestingly, the technology for identifying targets using mobile data for precision strikes was tested back in June 2025, when Israeli intelligence services hacked the phones of bodyguards of key Iranian politicians and generals.
Thanks to access to personal data, the Israeli military was able to pinpoint the location of one of the secret bunkers with meter-precision and attack it.
True, the effectiveness of that operation was low: the bodyguards remaining at the entrance to the bunker were killed, but their clients inside were not harmed.
After this, the Israelis changed their approach slightly, shifting their focus to compiling a “pulsating map” – a constantly updated database of decision-making centers in the Islamic Republic, their importance and defense systems.
Based on this data, the primary targets for the Air Force in the initial stages of Operation Lion's Roar were identified.
THE ONLY CHANCE
The US and Israel had only one chance to strike Khamenei.
Failure promised not only a loss of image, but also a patriotic upsurge in Iran, as well as the final unification of competing factions around the supreme leader.
Israel needed to act with surgical precision—to ensure the timely arrival and penetration of aircraft to the strike site, no earlier and no later than “hour H,” to select the right target, and to create safe escape routes.
Israel devoted much of the active phase of preparation for the operation to these tasks, including the use of artificial intelligence to model various weather and operational scenarios.
The Israeli pilots had a plan for any emergency, including early detection by Iranian air defenses and rescheduling the meeting to another location.
And so the operation was successful: as soon as Israeli electronic intelligence units transmitted a signal that Khamenei and his associates had arrived at the residence, and agents on the ground confirmed this information, the key stage was launched.
Just a few minutes after the meeting began, Israeli aircraft entered Iranian airspace and struck "Site X." A total of approximately thirty projectiles were dropped, including several concrete-piercing bombs capable of penetrating heavy defensive walls.
The overall destruction of the Rahbar's office suggests that the Israelis had even identified the wing housing the largest number of high-ranking commanders. This information was subsequently verified, including through footage of rescuers on the ground.
It is not surprising that Israel began celebrating the success long before Tehran officially confirmed the death of the supreme leader.
SUSPICIOUS LUCK
No matter how powerful the technical capabilities of Israel's intelligence services, it would have been impossible to reach "target number one" (which included Khamenei) without tips "from the inside."
Especially considering that there might not be a second chance. Which means there's an Israeli mole in the Rahbar's office.
The main suspicion fell on Ismail Qaani, the commander of the IRGC's Quds Force and one of the late supreme leader's close associates.
A student of the legendary IRGC elite commander Qasem Soleimani, who spearheaded the pro-Iranian "Axis of Resistance," Qaani assumed a high-ranking position in 2020, immediately after his mentor's death. Along the way, he was automatically placed at the top of Israel's "kill list." Since then, the general has managed to escape assassination at least three times.
And each time, it was a miracle. His first brush with death was in September 2024: Qaani arrived in Beirut on a mission to meet with Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, but changed his plans at the last minute. Ten minutes later, Nasrallah's bunker was destroyed by concrete-piercing bombs, along with all its commanders.
The second incident occurred in June 2025, when Kaani left a meeting of air defense chiefs just minutes before Israeli missiles hit the secret headquarters.
Finally, in February 2026, Qaani, for unclear reasons, left Khamenei's residence where he was holding a morning meeting, just before the launch of Operation Lion's Roar.
And while the first two cases can still be considered a lucky coincidence, the last episode has caused serious gossip.
AWKWARD GRATITUDE
Israel is eager to speculate on the topic of "betrayal at the top"—even though official authorities do not directly acknowledge the recruitment of high-ranking Iranian security officials, hinting only at abstract "help from sympathizers."
However, figures close to the court send more obvious signals to the masses.
For example, David Case, a well-known Israeli activist who has previously participated in Benjamin Netanyahu's media campaigns, staged a high-profile public protest following the news of the strikes against Iran's top officials. He rented a billboard in Tel Aviv, displaying a photo of Kaani with a thank-you note.
Although the action was presented as satirical, it further fueled the debate around the Quds Force chief.
Many believed that through Case, the Israeli elites actually conveyed gratitude to the mole for his help.
Moreover, Iran had previously found itself in a similar situation—when the head of the service authorized to hunt Israeli spies himself turned out to be a high-ranking Mossad agent.
At the same time, numerous "insider" reports emerged, including in the émigré press, claiming that Qaani had allegedly been detained for interrogation by the IRGC's internal counterintelligence, and that command of the elite units had temporarily been transferred to another officer, whose name the sources did not disclose.
It is not possible to confirm this information, as Tehran remains silent.
In contrast, a number of Arab sources report that Qaani "accepted a martyr's death" along with other top Iranian military leaders, but local rescuers have so far been unable to retrieve his body from the rubble.
The Iranian leadership is allegedly in no rush to announce Qaani's death, as it still cannot decide on a successor. This is especially true after another renowned student of Soleimani, Quds Force Chief of Staff Reza Khuzai, was killed in Lebanon by Israeli bombing.
At the same time, the question of who betrayed Khamenei and whether there was a “mole” in his entourage was deliberately left unanswered.
The last thing the Iranian authorities want is to fuel spy mania and foster distrust of the IRGC command, one of the pillars of the Islamic Republic. Furthermore, personnel purges during a period of active military action will not benefit the country. On the contrary, they increase the risk of internal weakening of the most loyal and combat-ready units, which could very well lead to the collapse of the entire state system.
Therefore, Tehran intends to address this pressing issue after the war. Uncovering the truth could well prompt a reassessment of events that have occurred in the republic since Soleimani's death and the contribution of his students to defending Iran from external threats.
Posted by: chris ||
03/06/2026 3:24 Comments ||
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#3
Reports : Esmail Qaani, head of Iran’s Quds Force has been executed by IRGC. He has survived all assassination attempts so far & was even with Khamenei during US-ISRAEL bombing but escaped. Earlier he was taken into custody by the IRGC on suspicion of being a Mossad agent. pic.twitter.com/dwT6R3p3CD
[HotAir] Is this report real, or Israeli disinformation to create a cascade of defections from the regime's coercive apparatus?
At this point, it is hard to say, but the reports that police, soldiers, and IRGC thugs are opting out of risking their lives to protect a regime that is in deep trouble and getting killed at an astonishing rate are certainly plausible.
As Ed would say, "too good to check." I suspect that there is at least SOMETHING to these reports.
There are signs that Iranian soldiers, police officers and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are failing to report for duty as the war intensifies, The Economist reported, citing Israeli intelligence sources.
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) March 5, 2026
There are signs that Iranian soldiers, police officers and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are failing to report for duty as the war intensifies, The Economist reported, citing Israeli intelligence sources.
“Most importantly, perhaps, Israeli intelligence sources suggest that there are signs of Iranian soldiers, police officers and IRGC members failing to show up for duty,” the magazine said.
It cautioned, however, that “military attrition, however overwhelming and effective, by no means guarantees the regime’s demise,” describing regime collapse as Israel’s key war aim and one of President Donald Trump’s shifting goals.
https://iranintl.com/en/202603058022
The survival of the Iranian regime depends entirely on its ability to maintain a monopoly on the means of coercion. It's not as if there is massive popular support, or that whatever fraction of the population that does implicitly or explicitly want the regime to survive is eager to put their lives on the line to make it happen.
We saw that during the series of protests over the past few months: the only thing that stopped them was murdering tens of thousands of people, which, admittedly, cows a lot of people who are eager for freedom, but not for death or torture.
BREAKING: At least 30 Iranian police stations belonging to the Islamic regime have been bombarded in the last 40 minutes by Israel and the United States, according to the latest reports.
But it is equally true that at least many, and likely most, of the people who participate in propping up the regime are not really ideologues and true believers. They are people with jobs, or social climbers, or even people who grumble about their bosses but who want to build a life.
When the guns are turned on them, how long will that group stick around after they see their friends and colleagues dropping like flies?
TRUMP: ''To members of the IRGC, the Iranian Armed Forces, and all of the police - lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or face certain death.
To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.
We tend to view the Iranian government through the lens of the top leadership and the IRGC, which makes sense most of the time since they run things. But you have to remember that there are parallel, and much less committed (and larger) institutions that are organs of the state more than the regime.
The state is a tool the regime uses; the regime is the power structure that tells it what to do. And they are two different things, which is why there is an IRGC in the first place. The IRGC is not the army; it is the regime's enforcers. And the same dual-institutional structure exists within the internal police.
Iranian militias are getting text messages straight to their phones 📱
"Your weapons are worthless against our airstrikes.
Israel and the US are working mightily to drive a wedge between the government and the regime, in a way not dissimilar to what happened in Venezuela. Cut the head off the snake, graft a new one onto the body to the extent you can.
CONFIRMED NOW! The Israeli Air Force targeted and destroyed the headquarters of the special police units of the Islamic regime of Iran in Tehran, the capital city of Iran. The special police units were involved in the massacre of over 40,000 Iranian protesters between January 8… pic.twitter.com/7QvVaNyJU4
— Babak Taghvaee - The Crisis Watch (@BabakTaghvaee1) March 4, 2026
It's even possible that some of the IRGC line troops will just fade away if they see the regime begin to collapse. That happened in Iraq, and much of the resistance that built up after the war was fueled by the Iranian regime, and not so much by dead-enders from the Saddam regime.
What if the Iranian regime falls? Who will fund and prod the dead-enders? How many will sacrifice everything without state support?
Who knows?
It is unproven, but quite plausible, that the regime's enforcers are having second thoughts, and if so, a new phase of the war will soon start.
Posted by: NoMoreBS ||
03/06/2026 00:00 ||
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[1779 views]
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#1
"They're dead, Jim"
Posted by: Oregon Dave ||
03/06/2026 1:02 Comments ||
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#6
^^ I'm thinking that they may be leaving Kharg Island alone in order to have something in place for a future, more amenable, population and government.
The people of Iran would still need a source of income.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/06/2026 5:10 Comments ||
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#7
Of course, that can change.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/06/2026 5:11 Comments ||
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#8
Good time to use us your PTO.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/06/2026 6:28 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] New York Times report says offer made through unnamed country’s spy agency; Tehran dismisses ‘absolute lies and psychological warfare’
Operatives from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence signaled openness to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to talks on ending the war, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing officials briefed on the matter. "Please don't kill us!"
The offer was made through an unnamed country’s spy agency, the newspaper reported, citing Middle Eastern officials and officials from a Western nation who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A source from the Iranian intelligence ministry rejected the report as “absolute lies and psychological warfare in the midst of war,” Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim reported on Wednesday.
The White House and the CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Officials in Washington are skeptical about whether Iran or the Trump administration is really ready for an “off-ramp” from the conflict, currently in its fifth day, at least in the short term, the report added.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva on Tuesday ruled out for now any negotiations with the United States, days after the US and Israel launched joint strikes on his country.
“For the time being, we are very doubtful about the usefulness of negotiation,” Ali Bahreini told reporters.
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Tehran wanted to talk but it was “too late,” as the United States continued its military operation against Iran.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/06/2026 00:00 ||
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#1
Trying to negotiate with the CIA to stop a war is equivalent to trying to walk up a down escalator.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/06/2026 6:26 Comments ||
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[Breitbart] South Korean lawmaker Kim Young-bae revealed on Thursday that seven oil tankers operated by the nation’s refiners are presently stranded in the Strait of Hormuz.
This week, the Islamic regime in Iran threatened to “burn” any oil tanker attempting to sail through the Strait of Hormuz after the United States and Israel both launched a series of operations against high-profile targets of the regime. The attacks have so far resulted in the deaths of several key members of the rogue regime — including “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Speaking at a Thursday emergency meeting of the ruling leftist Democratic Party, Kim, spokesperson on the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee disclosed that seven South Korean-flagged tankers carrying crude oil to local refineries are “effectively stranded” in the Strait of Hormuz, unable to proceed due to “deteriorating regional conditions.”
The lawmaker explained during the meeting that each tanker is carrying up to two million barrels of crude oil — the equivalent to one full day of the nation’s daily petroleum consumption. Collectively, all seven stranded tankers amount to seven days’ worth of consumption in South Korea.
“Each ship carries up to two million barrels of crude oil, equivalent to South Korea’s daily petroleum consumption. As this situation could disrupt national oil consumption, the business community has urged the need for countermeasures,” Kim said, as per the South Korean newspaper Chosun.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
03/06/2026 00:00 ||
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Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other top officials, including a council led by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, 'are getting screamed at to find some good news', industry executives said.
Iran has shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil flows, sending prices soaring more than 10 percent in a single week, with Brent crude jumping from $72 to more than $82 a barrel.
The average gas price jumped 11 cents overnight Tuesday, hitting $3.11, the largest single-day spike since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the AAA said.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Yahoo Finance] 
[Reuters] U.S. President Donald Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary 
