[GISSinstitute] Since the outbreak of the Sudanese war on 15 April 2023, Saudi Arabia has presented itself as one of the region’s leading mediators seeking to end the conflict. Together with the United States, it hosted the Jeddah talks, which resulted in a declaration committing the parties to the protection of civilians and the facilitation of humanitarian assistance. Since then, Saudi Arabia’s official narrative has consistently emphasized the need for a ceasefire, a political settlement, and efforts to alleviate Sudan’s worsening humanitarian crisis.
However, the evidence documented in this investigation paints a markedly different picture of Saudi Arabia’s role. Beyond its publicly declared diplomatic efforts, the findings reveal an interconnected network of political, economic, logistical, and military activities that strengthened the position of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), expanded their operational capabilities, and consolidated their authority throughout the conflict. This evolution raises growing political and legal questions regarding Saudi Arabia’s responsibility for supporting one of the principal parties to the war, at a time when humanitarian violations continue and prospects for a sustainable political settlement continue to diminish.
Drawing on an extensive analysis of international trade records, maritime shipping documents, flight-tracking data, corporate records, re-export routes, and financial transactions, this investigation reconstructs the network of relationships linking Riyadh to the military command centre in Port Sudan. It reveals how a multi-layered support structure emerged, extending well beyond conventional diplomatic engagement to encompass an integrated system of political, logistical, military, and economic assistance.
The investigation finds that this role extended far beyond official meetings and diplomatic initiatives. It included repeated executive flights, maritime supply routes, procurement networks for weapons, ammunition, and explosives, financial channels, and political and economic partnerships that collectively strengthened the Sudanese Armed Forces’ capacity to sustain military operations during one of Africa’s deadliest conflicts.
The evidence further demonstrates that these activities were neither isolated incidents nor coincidental developments. Instead, they formed interconnected components of a coordinated support architecture. From the air bridge linking Riyadh and Port Sudan, to maritime shipments of weapons and sensitive materials, commercial networks connected to Sudan’s Defence Industries System, and the rapidly expanding political relationship with General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s administration, the evidence reveals a consistent pattern of activities that reinforced the military and logistical infrastructure upon which the Sudanese Armed Forces relied throughout the war.
More at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
07/16/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[119 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
[HSTODAY] Jihadist activity has surged in Nigeria’s North-West and North-Central Regions over the first half of 2026. Groups affiliated with the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and indigenous Nigerian jihadist groups have expanded their presence in these regions. The emergence of these groups in the North-West and North-Central regions poses a great challenge to the Nigerian military, which is already battling jihadist groups in the Lake Chad region. These developments also challenge governance and state-to-state cooperation, as much of the violence takes place in Nigeria’s borderlands.
JIHADIST ACTORS
Several jihadist organizations now operate in Nigeria’s North-West and North-Central regions. While these groups differ in affiliation and goals, they increasingly operate in the same geographic space, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish among actors.
More at the link
There’s a cute little map at the link that shows the AOs of JASDJ (Sadiku network), ISSP (IS Sahel Province), JNIM, and Mahmuda Group (Darul Salam) for the map lovers among us.
[SCMP] Defence scientists say the technology could threaten low Earth orbit satellite networks such as Starlink at an extremely low cost
China’s high-power microwave (HPM) weapons can deliver an output of up to 100 gigawatts (GW), according to defence scientists – a milestone that could transform the future of warfare and stimulate advancements in civilian research and industry.
In a paper published this month in the journal High Power Laser and Particle Beams, researchers from the National University of Defence Technology (NUDT) detailed a series of advanced pulsed-power devices built by China’s military in recent years.
This is a rare public disclosure by the Chinese military of its high-power microwave arsenal.
“In recent years, driven by sustained and significant national strategic demands, China’s pulsed-power technology has advanced rapidly. The breadth and depth of research in this field now rank among the world’s foremost,” wrote the researchers, led by Zhang Jun of NUDT’s College of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies.
“Pulsed-power drivers for HPM generation have transitioned from laboratory prototypes to practical applications, evolving progressively from ‘functional’ to ‘high-performance’ and ‘durable’ systems,” they wrote.
The paper could serve as a reference for other nations assessing the vulnerabilities of massive satellite constellations.
If deployed for anti-satellite purposes, these ultra-high-power microwave weapons could threaten expensive low Earth orbit satellite networks such as Starlink at an extremely low cost, particularly when such satellites take part in military activities.
It is generally acknowledged that high-power microwave pulses reaching 1 gigawatt (GW) can cause severe interference or even hardware damage to low Earth orbit satellites.
#2
Hang a large foil or some such (either a 'space blanket' or even an iron foil chromed on one side) and when the microwave hit it, it will reflect back toward the source and blow out the magnetrons.
We already have the know how and theologies to do this fairly cheaply.
Everybody knows what will happen if one put metal in a microwave.
#4
You have to wonder if Spacex isn’t being proactive about things like this, and has some novelties waiting to be stuffed in a Falcon 9 And launched if and when the need arises. Needn’t be super complex- close up and go crunch would do.
#6
Japan bought thousands of tons of US steel in the 1930's. People walked the RR tracks picking up discarded plates and spikes. Scrap iron sold very high. We were to see that iron again in the Pacific after Pearl Harbor.
Go ahead, buy that Chinese made junk. Support their economy, no problem.
#7
There were protests on the docks in San Francisco of scrap metal to Japan, but the usual suspects were making a fortune from human misery so they were ignored.
When Pearl Harbor happened out of the blue, their profits twenty-doubled. The protesters were Chinamen anyway, and who cared about them? They were just enemies as they always have been going back to the Boxer Rebellion when they tried to kill every American in China. Despite that we built factories and employed them. Built railroads, cities, zero thanks. Chinese are an inherently ungrateful and untrustworthy race.
#14
Russians are another inherently untrustworthy and sneaky race.
Stereotypes are real.
Nobody was even talking about Jews. Why'd someone feel attacked? There are a half million Jews in America, many Americans go their whole lives without meeting one, or knowing that they met one. When I was young we had two neighbors that were Jews. They had a menorah instead of a Christmas tree. That's all I knew.
#15
IIRC American attitudes towards China at the time were largely shaped by sympathy for the underdog and by the fact that some influential people, like Luce the owner of Time, were children of missionaries to China, and favorably disposed towards the Chinese.
Posted by: James the lesser ||
07/16/2026 12:58 Comments ||
Top||
#16
There are a half million Jews in America,
No dear, that’s France. There are 7.7 million Jews in America, according to the Internet, about 2% of our 350+ million population.
And many of us go out for Chinese food on Christmas, because we and they are the only ones not celebrating the holiday — that’s SteveS’s joke. Or they do in New York City, anyway — I didn’t grow up with that tradition.
#18
I think it would be far more accurate to say that communists are ungrateful and untrustworthy. I don't believe there is anything inherently wrong with the people, just their commie bosses.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/16/2026 15:51 Comments ||
Top||
#19
The Commie adherents are drawn to teh ideology (Daddy Issues™, Envy, Jealousy, Bitterness at their own failures). F*&k them too. Get help with installing your sickness on society. Perhaps confront your higher-education diploma-issuing sentence to poverty as well?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2026 18:26 Comments ||
Top||
#20
I've mentioned it many times here. It's MASER>
A maser is a device that produces coherent electromagnetic waves (microwaves), through amplification by stimulated emission.
Ironically it was invented before the first doped ruby LASER.
[FOX] Cartels have shifted north and US seized enough fentanyl to kill 17 million Americans in the past year
The longest international border in the world has a security problem, and Canada is not treating it with the urgency it deserves.
Recently, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin laid out a sobering picture of how people from 78 nations have been apprehended crossing the northern border. U.S. agents are now arresting a terrorist on the watch list nearly every week at the northern border, and over the past year alone, enough fentanyl to kill 17 million Americans has been seized coming through Canada. Cartels, squeezed by the intensified enforcement operations and physical infrastructure along our southern border, are pivoting north.
Federal prosecutors have unsealed a string of recent cases documenting organized smuggling networks operating directly through the northern border. They are the front edge of a corridor that cartels and transnational criminal organizations are actively developing.
Chad F. Wolf served as acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during President Trump’s first term.
[IsraelTimes] In Joe Rogan interview, VP claims some elements within Israeli ‘system’ are ‘beyond a shadow of a doubt manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely’
US Vice President JD Vance fumed on Wednesday at a reported Israeli government-funded influence campaign aimed at criticizing the efforts of President Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... ’s administration to negotiate an end to the Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... war.
"There was this Time article that came out yesterday... It lists a bunch of people who have been paid by a former Trump campaign person who was himself paid by certain elements within the Israeli government, and those people are attacking me viciously for trying to accomplish the negotiation objective that the president set for the country," Vance said during an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, calling it a "very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiations."
Time revealed on Tuesday that Trump’s former campaign manager has been leading a pro-Israel influence campaign directed and funded by the Israeli government, targeting young Americans within Trump’s MAGA base.
Brad Parscale and his company, Clock Tower X, were tapped last September by an ad agency to conduct an influence campaign on behalf of Israel. Time cited the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings in its report.
Officially, the influence campaign was aimed at tackling rising antisemitism online, though Time cited an Israeli Foreign Ministry official familiar with the campaign as saying its real goal was to "preventing young conservatives from turning against Israel."
While the official aim may have been antisemitism, the Trump administration reportedly identified posts published simultaneously by conservative influencers that criticized last month’s memorandum of understanding to end the Iran war, which Time suggested were part of Pascale’s campaign.
Parscale admitted that the goal of the campaign was to stop young Americans from turning against Israel, but pushed back on the idea that the effort extended to tarring the administration’s diplomacy with Iran.
Vance brought up the story unprovoked during his Rogan interview.
"It’s social media posts, it’s leaking to news hounds — they’re attacking me obsessively, saying that we should not be negotiating with Iran. We should just keep the military campaign going indefinitely," he claimed.
"People have come after me and said I’m influenced by Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... , that I’m influenced by foreign governments, that I take my marching orders from Tucker Carlson, and there’s just so much bullshit out there," he said.
"Foreign governments try to influence the United States all the time. Israel does it. Other countries do it... What bothers me is when American leadership allows that influence to affect their judgment and to affect what they are advocating for," Vance argued.
"When I open up the pages of Time magazine, and I see that there’s a foreign influence campaign being funded to tank the very deal that I was pursuing, and many of the people who were receiving that money were attacking me in completely dishonest ways, my response to that is, Go to hell. I’m going to do what I have to do for the American people. I represent Americans first," he asserted.
"There are some people within (the Israeli) system we know beyond a shadow of a doubt who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely," Vance added.
Asked whether the US would have launched the war against Iran earlier this year if it were not for Israeli influence, Vance pushed back on the idea.
"I think the president, completely separate from any influence from Israel, believes very strongly, and again I agree with this, that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon," he said.
A surprised Rogan pressed Vance on whether the US would have continued the war for as long as it did if not for Israeli influence, though the vice president maintained his position.
Vance has been one of the most outspoken members of the administration in criticizing Israel, particularly as he has come under fire for the MOU that he helped negotiate.
He made headlines last month when he called out far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government who had blasted the administration for the deal, telling them they needed to "wake up" and realize that Trump is the last world leader who still likes Israel.
CLAIMS TRAJECTORY OF IRAN TALKS STILL POSITIVE
Asked by Rogan about the status of Iran negotiations, Vance claimed that there was a divide in Iran’s leadership between pragmatists who want to make a deal with the US and hardliners who do not.
According to Vance, the hardliners "freaked out" after the MOU was reached because they saw how much oil the US was able to get out of the Strait of Hormuz and began targeting ships there as a result.
"They’ve basically said, ’We’re going to try to shut this thing down. We’re scared about losing our leverage.’ The pragmatists in their system are saying, ’This was a mistake. Let’s keep on talking,'" Vance said.
"Do I know how this is ultimately going to shake out? Of course I don’t. But what we’re doing is a delicate diplomatic dance where we’re using economic leverage points, we’re using carrots and sticks, we’re trying to talk to the pragmatists, and then of course when they commit acts of violence, we’re responding to it," Vance continued.
"All of those things are happening simultaneously to get us on a better trajectory. Yes, they’re shooting right now, but with all that said, is their nuclear program still destroyed? Yes. In the context of the broader negotiation... things are happening simultaneously to get us on a better trajectory," he claimed.
While the US has claimed Iran’s nuclear program has been destroyed, Tehran still has stockpiles of highly enriched uranium and other nuclear enrichment sites that have not been targeted by the US.
Vance went on to blast hawkish US conservatives whose only solution he claimed was to "bomb Iran into oblivion." The vice president said these conservatives want to try and topple the regime, though America’s experiences doing so elsewhere had not been positive and required a massive deployment of ground troops.
Asked if he would have launched the war against Iran if he was in Trump’s position, Vance acknowledged that he was "less enthusiastic" about the operation than others in the administration.
However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... he said his job was not to be a "public commentator" but to support the president, which he would continue to do as long as Trump’s decisions remain "legal and ethical," as they have been to date.
"The goal is certainly good, which is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon," Vance said.
PUSHES UNPROVEN CLAIM THAT EPSTEIN HAD MOSSAD TIES
The headline of the interview for most American media outlets was Vance’s response to a question about the Epstein Files. The vice president said the administration was "guilty" of mishandling the issue, while insisting that Trump was not implicated in any wrongdoing.
Vance then asserted that Jeffrey Want Some Candy, Little Girl? Epstein ...A high class pimp financier who was alleged to maintain a stable of underage whoressex slaves who were paid big bucks to entertain the rich and/or famous. He was really surprised when he commited suiciede in jail... had ties to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence, echoing unproven rumors regarding the late convicted pedophile’s ties with the Mosssd ...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end... "He clearly had connections to the highest levels of American intelligence. He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence," Vance said.
Apparently referencing Epstein’s documented ties to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, Vance said, "Epstein seemed to be connected to the elements of the Israeli deep state that were left of center. Like I’ve always found that fascinating."
"It wasn’t like he was super connected to the right of center of Israeli politics. America, he was connected across the board. Like he had Republican friends, he had Democratic friends," the vice president added.
Vice President JD Vance said that the Trump administration "mishandled" the release of the files related to the investigation into the crimes of disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The remarks were made during the "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast that was released on Wednesday.
"If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein release, guilty. We did mishandle it — especially the communications of it," Vance said, Axios reported.
The vice president also said that Epstein had connections to the upper levels of American and Israeli intelligence.
“As much as I know, you know, Prime Minister Netanyahu, not a particularly popular person in the United States of America right now, Epstein seemed to be connected to the elements of the Israeli deep state that were left of center,” Vance said, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Definitely a different take.
Vance also said that then-Attorney General Pam Bondi had exaggerated what the Trump administration did and did have on the case when she stated that there were binders of documents related to the investigation on her desk. He said investigators had 6 million documents, with about half of those having something to do with the Epstein estate.
#3
You sound like a spook Alfie! Trying to throw up a race card ! Or "anti" wtf ever. Just because someone doesn't suck your ass all the time does not make the "anti" anything! You've been on the internet to long as to were you think everyone gives a goddamn about your feelings.
Posted by: chris ||
07/16/2026 3:36 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I haven't seen any Biden people go to jail for their coordinated online campaign against the anti-vaxxers. All governments engage in information manipulation at home a abroad. As for the MOU, the Iranians have already smeared any legitimacy about it.
#5
*JD is sounding a bit paranoid and seems to be letting his ego get involved.
*Most of us believe the negotiations are useless as long as the IRGC remains in power. There does not appear to be a way to force regime change externally despite the effectiveness of the air strikes.
*Putting enough troops in Iran to force a regime change is not popular.
*The 2026 elections are getting closer and closer and I don't want to hand both houses of Congress back to the democrats just to get rid of the IRGC.
*I don't doubt there are elements in a lot of countries that would like to see both Iran & the US weakened by a long campaign.
#6
Thanks to Spats Whereck2759 we now have a brief additional report from Just The News, which suggests a bit of cherry picking by the Israel Times reporter from what is, no doubt, a long Joe Rogan interview. Perhaps someone can take a listen for us.
[TH] I don’t know what that blasphemous little imp’s secret is, but he’s got one. Don’t be fooled by that creepy smile on his creepy face; there’s something wrong with James Talarico. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I don’t ever want to see his browser history, and I’d sooner have somebody from The Lincoln Project babysit my kid. It’s just a vibe, but there are rumors out there, and unfortunately, no one has shared the specifics with me. I don’t know exactly what they are, but we have no moral obligation to default to a presumption of normality regarding Democrat Senate candidates this cycle. After all, we just lived through Der Platnerdämmerung.
Is it related to his gender ambiguity? He’s already famous for apologizing for his white male identity. Well, let’s just say we can be pretty confident that Talarico has never beaten up or assaulted one of the many ex-girlfriends he’s tried to convince us were his girlfriends. This is because, to the extent they actually ever were his girlfriends, they all look like they can kick his butt. And he looks like he might dig that.
Let’s call out the pink donkey in the room. There’s widespread speculation that the guy is in the closet, and anybody who’s lived a few years has known guys in the closet, and well, this dude gives off vibes like he’s in the closet. I don’t know if he’s in the closet. I do know that if he is in the closet, he should have come out and been honest about who he was. If he’s lying about that, what else is he lying about? But if he’s hiding his sexuality, it’s because he doesn’t respect the Texans he wants to vote for him. There are plenty of good reasons to dislike this guy that are going to alienate Texans long before a taste for dude does. After all, Scott Bessent and Ric Grenell are gay, and we hardcore conservatives would be thrilled to vote for either one for president. Lots of Republicans are gay—usually the well-dressed ones. Hell, Trump’s theme song is "YMCA." Sure, there are going to be some Republicans who just will not vote for anybody gay. That’s their right, but most voters don’t feel that way. If he came out, only a fool would have made that the centerpiece of the Republican campaign. As long as there was no gross weirdness—like seeing him dressed up in full Scott Wiener bondage regalia, smiling for the cameras at The Manhole Bathhouse—that could be totally overcome. And if that’s his secret, it’s pretty much the worst-kept secret ever, right up there with the revelation that Herr Platner was abusing women that we all knew was going to inevitably drop.
But the fact is that what we already know about Talarico is a disaster. The dude is a total train wreck as a Texas candidate. His public problems are no secret. Let’s review.
This is a guy who thinks it’s a great idea to run a meat-free campaign in Texas. Of course, Texas is famous for meat, both producing it and gobbling it up. Identifying with a philosophy that is so completely contrary to the culture that you seek to represent in the Senate is either deep stupidity or deep insanity. Like the gay thing, it’s not the thing itself that’s the problem. Texans would vote for a vegan if they didn’t think that his veganism was actually a stand-in for a set of cultural beliefs and mores that this little weirdo would want to impose upon them. The guy isn’t a vegan because his doctor told him to. He is a vegan because it’s a ritual sacrifice to Gaia in service of some weird secular religion that includes the climate hoax. The problem is that he’s not going to be satisfied skipping that rack of ribs; he’s only going to be satisfied making sure you skip that rack of ribs.
And then there are guns. The guy voted for a bunch of gun control bills as a legislator. Lots of them. He wants Texans disarmed. In fact, he hired as his staffer a young woman who was so into gun control that she oversaw some sort of sex-toy gun control protest on her college campus—yes, you read that right. OK, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that somebody who wants to take away ribeyes and rifles from Texans is probably going to have some problems at election time. But, of course, we are dealing with a party that thought a Nazi tattoo was no biggie.
He shills for illegal aliens, because like all Democrats, he does not believe that real Americans should get to decide who comes here. Oh, there’s the "I love trans kids" stuff. Yikes.
And then there’s religion, which is a very serious problem because this dude is flirting with eternal damnation. It is a sin to be a false prophet, and he is lying about the Christian faith. He is out there misleading people, and if you follow his heretical teachings, your soul is in peril. Those of us who actually believe in God and Jesus don’t find this to be merely a creepy affectation. This is blasphemy, and blasphemy is unacceptable. Don’t go telling me that God is non-binary. Don’t go telling me that Jesus loves abortion. Don’t go citing heretical texts to support your false interpretation of scripture. We take offense at that, like Democrats take offense at calling a man who is pretending to be a woman a "man," except when we do it, we’re not catering to mentally ill people or perverts.
Democrats think pinning on the label "Christian" is enough to buy our support. They don’t realize that all Christians don’t think exactly alike, and almost none of them think like this little demon. That’s a problem for Democrats—they’ve never actually met anyone who is Christian, and their understanding of the religion comes from watching John Lithgow fulminate in "Footloose." They don’t know Christians, and they don’t like Christians, but they think they can sucker Christians. I’ll tell you something about Christians. They don’t like to be treated like idiots. Much like that up-talking femboy Democrat consultant who picked out Platner because he thought that the right guy to beat Susan Collins was a Marxist bear, the Democrat consultant class picked out Talarico because he says "Jesus" a lot, and they figured that would intrigue the squares. That's not going to work out the way they hope.
And then there’s his problem with black people. Talarico is so white he makes Mitt Romney look ethnic. Pete Buttigieg, who looks like a taller Talarico, famously clocks in at about 0 percent of the black vote. Talarico is Buttigieg’s Lone Star analog, a puny pick-me paleface who looks like the kid who reminded the teacher at the end of the day on Friday that she had forgotten to assign homework for the weekend. Black folks see through this guy, and they’re especially not going to dig his blasphemy. But then add on top of that the fact that Jasmine Crockett is throwing gasoline on the fire by claiming that the primary race was rigged in favor of the smarmy little white boy. And she may have a point. The establishment is a bunch of snooty white leftists, and Talarico is one of their own. Crockett, who’s a loudmouth and a phony, was still an outsider, and she got frozen out. She’s right to be mad. And in November, black voters may just sit on their hands.
All this public stuff is bad enough for Talarico, but the more you look at the race and the candidate, the more you get the impression that there’s something else out there. If he’s this creepy in public, what’s behind the door? There’s more to come, and the fact that Ken Paxton is keeping a low profile right now and husbanding his resources to let loose down the road indicates that somebody’s got a thick file on this guy.
I don’t know what it is. I have not heard anything specific. But you compare him to Platner, you have to believe that you are seeing the iceberg effect. Sure, there’s a lot of stuff in plain view out of the water, but you’ve got to figure there’s a lot more underwater. There’s something wrong with this dude, and whatever it is is not going to be pretty.
But you can be sure of one thing. In the not-too-distant future, we’re going to hear all about it, and it might just wipe that creepy smile off his creepy face.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2026 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[210 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Talarico has all the signs of a false-flag op. The democrat commies - but I repeat myself - throw this weirdo out there knowing we'll pounce. Assuming this is correct...who benefits? If by some chicanery he does get elected, just a bonus for them. Maybe they'll look to replace him at the last minute and load Jazzy back in. What's the Texas drop dead date on getting someone on the ballot?
[BISI] SUMMARY
During the 2026 Iran war, United States (US) Central Command (CENTCOM) transformed its X account into a real-time counter-disinformation channel, rebutting Iranian claims through a recurring "CLAIM" / "TRUTH" format that functioned as both correction and combat messaging.
The approach blunted some viral Iranian falsehoods, yet its credibility was undercut when CENTCOM’s stance on the Minab school strike, an edited fighter jet post, and contested Strait of Hormuz claims were contradicted by The New York Times, BBC Verify and many other analysts.
Combatant-command fact-checking is likely to become a standard feature of future conflicts; however, this model remains structurally vulnerable to credibility collapse whenever a single denial is disproven, and the medium-term trajectory points towards greater reliance on independent verification rather than military self-attestation.
CONTEXT
CENTCOM launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran on 28 February 2026, opening a kinetic campaign. By 11 March 2026, CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper reported that US forces had struck more than 5,500 targets. From the first hours, the conflict generated the first Artificial Intelligence (AI)-native war, with AI-generated and recycled imagery flooding social media at an unprecedented scale. NewsGuard documented at least 120 false war-related claims since the start of the conflict. These included a viral claim that Iranian missiles had sunk the USS Abraham Lincoln, which reached 8 million views on X.
Against this backdrop, CENTCOM repurposed its X account as a rapid-rebuttal channel. Posts adopted a standardised "CLAIM" / "TRUTH" (and sometimes "LIE" / "FACT") format: a quoted Iranian assertion, a one-word verdict, and a corrective line. CENTCOM deployed this format to deny that 50 United States service members had been killed, that the Abraham Lincoln was hit, that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had struck a warship, and that the Strait of Hormuz was closed. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth amplified the messaging, reposting CENTCOM updates with "Great update. Media should take note."
The format matters because it positions a combatant command in the role normally occupied by independent fact-checkers such as BBC Verify. This came at a moment when the public's ability to verify wartime claims was collapsing. On 3 March 2026, X announced it would suspend creators from its revenue-sharing programme for 90 days for posting undisclosed AI war videos, a policy researchers found weakly enforced as fabricated visuals continued accumulating millions of views.
How to measure Iranian influence in Iraq - and whether it is declining
A growing body of commentary holds that Iranian influence in Iraq is in decline. The claim rests on visible changes in behaviour: fewer militia attacks, public distancing from Tehran, quiet acceptance of… pic.twitter.com/xuvlpCk7kd
How to measure Iranian influence in Iraq - and whether it is declining
A growing body of commentary holds that Iranian influence in Iraq is in decline. The claim rests on visible changes in behaviour: fewer militia attacks, public distancing from Tehran, quiet acceptance of American demands. The conclusion does not follow from the evidence. It rests on a measurement error, and the error is compounded by three factors: the character of Iranian statecraft, a category mistake about what Iraq is within Iran's regional system, and a wartime economic environment in which restraint is the rational instruction.
The measurement problem: Iranian statecraft was built under decades of sanctions and intelligence pressure, and it developed accordingly: strategic ambiguity, layered signalling, delayed response. Concealment and passive posture are standing instruments of how Tehran operates when it is being watched. An analyst who reads a quiet period as decline is treating a deliberate tool of Iranian statecraft as evidence against it. Any serious measurement of influence therefore has to separate what Iran and its partners can do from what they currently choose to display. Visible activity is an output that responds to pressure, incentives and instruction. The underlying stock of influence, meaning parliamentary weight, institutional integration, social base and public attitudes, has to be measured on its own terms.
Iraq is a state asset, and the comparison to Hezbollah misleads: Assessments of Iran's regional position routinely group Iraq with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. Those are non-state actors whose value to Iran lies in armed disruption. The main pro-Iran factions in Iraq sit inside the state itself: in parliament, in ministries, on the public payroll through the Popular Mobilisation structures. Their obligations, exposure and utility are of a different kind.
That difference defines what Iraq is worth to Tehran. Iraq's value lies in remaining unsanctioned, solvent and internationally connected. A sanctioned, broken Iraq offers Iran very little. In this war, Iran's binding constraint is economic survival, and a functioning neighbour that indirectly helps with trade and commercial depth which matters more to it than an additional source of hard power, which Iran already supplies for itself and which Iraqi factions could add little to. The contribution of the Iraqi factions runs through the economic and social arena, including manpower and mobilisation through their social base.
The wartime economy makes restraint the rational order: This is the context in which the current quiet has to be read. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has placed Iraq in an existential position: roughly 90 percent of state revenue comes from oil, and about 90 percent of that oil moved through Hormuz. The revenue base of the salary state has collapsed. On top of this, Washington holds a structural instrument dating to the post-invasion settlement: Iraq's oil revenue is held at the Federal Reserve, which gives the United States the capacity to strangle Iraqi state finance by administrative decision.
Under these conditions, restraint by the pro-Iran factions preserves the asset. Provoking sanctions or a financial cutoff would destroy the very thing that makes Iraq valuable to Iran. The observed quiet is what the protection of a strategic asset looks like under maximum coercion, and it is fully consistent with instructed discipline from Tehran.
The regional picture reinforces the logic on both sides. Iraq's western frontier is now exposed to a Sunni government in Damascus under Ahmad al-Sharaa. Turkey sits to the north and Saudi Arabia to the south. At the strategic level, Iran is the only ally Shia-led Iraq has left in the region, and Iraq is the last open flank Iran has left. Each side's dependence on the other has increased, and that mutual dependence raises the cost of any behaviour that would jeopardise Iraq's international standing and hence its own internal cohesion.
What the observable record actually shows: Once measurement shifts from visible activity to structural indicators, the record points in one direction.
The 2025 elections delivered the pro-Iran Shia coalition its strongest result since 2003. The Coordination Framework bloc won at least 170 of 329 seats, 52 percent of parliament, even with the Sadrist boycott. Candidates directly linked to Iran-aligned militias took over 80 seats across multiple lists, the highest figure on record, in an election where turnout rebounded by more than 10 points from the previous cycle.
More at the link
Posted by: badanov ||
07/16/2026 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies
A cute map of current and proposed oil pipelines can be seen at the link.
[NationalContext] On 16 June the US Embassy in Baghdad released a joint statement from Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and Special Presidential Envoy Tom Barrack, following their meeting in the capital the previous day. Two features stand out. First, the document fuses security and commerce in a single breath. It pairs Iraq’s commitment to the “complete disarmament and disbandment” of armed groups outside state control with a package of American projects: the Starlink operating licence, Chevron’s entry into West Qurna-2 and Nasiriyah, security guarantees for HKN, Western Zagros and Hunt to resume operations, an Excelerate Energy LNG terminal at Khor Zubair, and a memorandum of understanding with TI Capital to rehabilitate the Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline. Second, Trump will host al-Zaidi at the White House in mid-July.
The Syrian side unfolded over the same days. From 9 to 13 June, Syria’s energy minister, Mohammad al-Bashir, was in Washington meeting US energy companies. On 16 June, the Syrian Petroleum Company signed a development agreement with ConocoPhillips and Novaterra, the first of its kind between a major US oil company and the new Syrian government. President Ahmed al-Sharaa later received the companies’ executives at the presidential palace in Damascus. A day earlier, the deputy governor of Hasakah confirmed that HKN Energy had begun operating oilfields that the Syrian Kurdish forces had recently transferred, at least formally, to Damascus.
Taken together, the Iraqi and Syrian deals suggest that Washington is treating the two countries as parts of an increasingly connected commercial and energy space.
So did ISIS for a while…
Context: Barrack now holds three positions at once: US ambassador to Turkey, special presidential envoy for Syria, and, as of this visit, special presidential envoy for Iraq. That places Ankara, Baghdad and Damascus under a single senior channel rather than three separate desks. He opened his first tour covering both Syria and Iraq in Baghdad, then travelled to Erbil for talks with Kurdish leaders.
Skipping down to the final paragraph:
Calling it a post-Iranian order, however, would be premature. Iran survived the war, and the agreement that ended it may ultimately leave Tehran more confident rather than diminished. The architecture now taking shape is therefore better understood as an attempt to contain and bypass Iranian leverage, not evidence that Iran has already been displaced.
More at the link
"Massive new oil partnerships with Iraq."
That is how Trump teased what is coming out of today's meetings with Iraq's prime minister.
Behind the phrase: Chevron negotiating to take over oilfield assets previously run by Russia's Lukoil, HKN Energy targeting 140,000 barrels a… pic.twitter.com/YZlnGf230p
[IsraelAlma] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The multi-front war that has continued since October 2023 exposed Israel’s dependence on ammunition supplies from the United States in particular, and from additional countries more broadly, and pushed the defense establishment and the Israeli government into a multi-year effort to build an independent production infrastructure.
All those governments that decided to sanction Israel for defending itself after the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, while pronouncing “Never again.”
At the level of national policy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on December 24, 2025 a plan to invest approximately NIS 350 billion over the coming decade in the development of an independent arms industry.
Contract announcements have consistently illustrated the new policy. In the ground forces sphere, on March 30, 2026, the Ministry of Defense signed a deal worth over NIS 150 million with Elbit Systems to manufacture 155 mm artillery shells in Israel.
For the Air Force, two aerial munitions procurement deals were signed with Elbit — one worth approximately NIS 570 million on January 27, 2026, and the second worth approximately NIS 600 million on April 22, 2026.
In the air defense arena, on November 20, 2025, the Ministry of Defense signed a multi-year contract with Rafael to expand Iron Dome production, and alongside it, on April 6, 2026, an increase in the production rate of Arrow interceptors was announced with IAI.
In terms of diversifying procurement sources, Israel is advancing joint production in India and importing components from the Far East, while simultaneously seeking to reduce dependence on the United States with respect to armored vehicles and ground munitions.
At the same time, on June 5, 2026, Israel and the United States opened talks on a new security memorandum of understanding that emphasizes a reciprocal production partnership. The drive for independence in ground munitions aligns with the recommendations of the Nagel Committee, whose author, former National Security Advisor Prof. Brig. Gen. (res.) Jacob Nagel has said that Israel should not be dependent on the United States for armored vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles, even though it will continue to depend on it for fighter aircraft.
The guiding rationale is that local production lines for shells and armored fighting vehicles will prevent a situation in which a political decision by a future U.S. administration disables warfighting capability in the midst of a conflict.
GROUND FORCES MUNITIONS PRODUCTION More at the link
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.
...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end...
