There is this morning a chink of light to avoid yet more devastation in the Middle East. Iran’s missile strikes last night were calibrated to satisfy honour while avoiding damage that would trigger automatically the next round. The missiles appear to have been fitted out with very light warhead payloads indeed – their purpose was to look good in the dark going up into the night sky. There is every reason to believe the apparent lack of US casualties was deliberate.
Even more important was the Iraqi statement that “proportionate measures” had been “taken and concluded” and they did not seek “further escalation”.
I agree their response was proportionate and I would say that I regard the Iranian action so far, unlike the assassination of Soleimani by the US, legal in international law.
The entire world should congratulate Iran for its maturity in handling the illegal assassination of its General, who was on a peace mission, travelling as a civilian on a commercial flight, carrying a mediation message the US had been instrumental in instigating. If as seems possible the US actively manipulated the diplomatic process to assassinate someone on a diplomatic mission and traveling on a diplomatic passport, that is a dreadful outrage which will come back to haunt them. Life insurance rates for US diplomats no doubt just went up.
It is also worth noting the 2.8% rise in the Lockheed share price in the 24 hours immediately before the Soleimani assassination, outperforming the Dow about three times. That would bear investigation. Arms manufacturers and oil stocks have soared this last few days – and remember that nowadays the vast bulk of financial transactions are bets on the margins of movement, so vast fortunes will have been made out of all this.
The UK has been, as ever, complicit in US crimes. Our laughingly so-called “defence” industry – when were its products last used in self-defence and not colonial adventure? – is tied in to and dependent on the US military machine. The current build-up of US troops and hardware in the Gulf has Mildenhall as a major staging post. We do not have to do this. Whether officially or on a pretext, French airspace was closed to the US military build-up and the Americans have had to fly from the UK, skirting France, around the Atlantic.
In a huge Boris Johnson slap in the face to international law, extra US bombers to attack Iran have been flown into Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Islands. You will recall that is where the UK committed genocide against the population in the 1970s to clear the way for the US military base. Last year, the UK lost a hearing before the International Court of Justice and was subsequently instructed by the UN to decolonise the islands and give them back to Mauritius by last November. The UK simply persisted in its illegal occupation and now is threatening the use of the islands as the base for yet another illegal and destabilising war.
That the UK is a permanent member of the UN security council is a disgrace which surely cannot endure much longer. What the current crisis has shown us is that under Johnson the UK has no future except as a still more compliant servant of whoever occupies the White House.
Wars are easy to start but hard to stop. Trump appears to have calmed, but we cannot rule out a stupid “last word” attack by the USA. It is to be hoped that Iran now concentrates on using the immense political leverage it has gained to get western troops out of Iraq, which would be a tremendous result for all of us after 17 years. But we cannot rule out hotter heads in the Iranian government insisting on further attacks, or attacks from regional forces whose Tehran authorisation is uncertain. On either side this could yet blow up badly.
I am a sucker for hope, and the best outcome would be for the US and Iran to start talking directly again, and a deal to be made from this break in the logjam that is wider than, and Trump can portray as better than, “Obama’s” nuclear deal and would enable the lifting of sanctions. I am sure Trump will be tempted by the chance to go for this kind of diplomatic coup under the political cover provided him by Soleimani’s assassination. But the US is now so tied in to Saudi Arabia and Israel, and thus tied in to irrational hostility to Iran, that this must be extremely unlikely.
For those of us in Scotland, this is still more reason why Independence must be early. We cannot be tied in to a rogue state. As we march for Independence on Saturday, the potential for war in Iran gives the sharpest reminder why we must leave the UK and form our own, peaceful, law-abiding state.
——————————————
Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.
Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
Alternatively:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address Natwest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Subscriptions are still preferred to donations as I can’t run the blog without some certainty of future income, but I understand why some people prefer not to commit to that.
been
Israel have killed multiple iraqis past night, I guess they see their chance to murder as many people as they can now while the focus is on Iran.
Israel Accused of Striking Pro-Iran Militia’s Depots in Syria – Reports
https://sptnkne.ws/AXnK
Technical failure or missile the only two plausible scenarios.
If it’s technical failure then its timing and subsequent shit storm are living proof that the devil really does look after his own, who in the meantime fabricate a wealth of lies and innuendo – the very shit storm – ranted as fact, fomenting hatred and drums of war whilst simultaneously propping up the Boeing share price and damning safety and lives across the globe as their planes continue to fly with impunity despite their awful recent safety history.
If its a missile then
a) either the Iranians shot down a perfectly identifiable and identified aircraft at extremely low altitude which when viewed by the naked eye could be clearly seen for what it was and coming from the airport. One plane amongst a string of takeoffs at the busiest flight time rush hour.
b) this visible plane next to the airport was brought down by a shoulder launched device by an axis of evil operative or proxy operative who without question currently flood the entire ME including Iran and are doubtless responsible for much of that country’s inner unrest. Again resulting in current shit storm.
Next step, grounding of civil airline flights probably and almost total isolation of Iran.
Take your choice, technical failure, accident or pure evil. And if it transpires to be tech, then what we currently see in the media is still pure evil. The fact is, like us, they don’t know, the difference being, they don’t care either. They are 100% complicit in the orchestrations of hatred, war and death by illegal sanction. If you work for a mainstream media outlet these days then you’d better be prepared to wash your hands in the blood of innocents.
I like how our msm had already decided it’s the Iranians….I suspect anyone questioning this narrative will be cast as traitors…BoJo essentially did that with corbyn earlier at PMQs. You cannot even be skeptical nowadays
The working class Churchill knows working class patriots are 100 per cent loyal. Whatever your country does is okay by them. Questioning it is treason. It’s one of the ways he seduced them away from Labour.
No mate it was the constant onslaught of torrent of negative narrative on Corbyn by the echo chamber media is wot done it.
The memes of get “brexit done” was the added fat on the fire of hatred of Corbyn. The emotional vote of the poor to be poorer and sick to be sicker was the pay-off of the millions of pounds spent on rubbishing Corbyn that included buying up the insiders like Watson et al and the episode of Henry Jackson Boys resigning every hour!
Bojo did bugger all other than hide inside the fridge and pose as the milkman delivering the early morning milk!
Yeah, he’s a media creation, over some years, maintained with lucrative media work, and from an elite servitor family.
BoJo too.
Have you suggested to her that an enemy may have cybered the Iranian air defences so as to provoke friendly fire? If that’s what happened then Iran is not responsible even if an Iranian missile brought down the plane. I fear that is far too difficult a notion for about 95% of people in the “advanced West” to get their heads around. Most of my moronic neighbours would interpret it as a case of being too soft on foreigners, especially given how politicians and journalists are saying basically “Come on, Iran, what are you hiding and why have you got that look on your face?”
I am perfectly willing to entertain the idea that a country attacks its own resources claiming that it was the enemy that did it, but there seems to be no reason whatsoever to consider that that’s what might have occurred here. The only reason that might happen is to assist with a war effort, or for one faction to put the sh*ts up another, and neither of those seems to be what’s going on at all.
Any news on what those Swedes were doing in Tehran yet? Were they intermediating? If so, between Iran and US or between Ukraine and Russia? Or were they flogging weapons for Bofors?
There isn’t a dividing line between “missile” and “technical failure”.
What probably happened is that an enemy made it clear to Iran that “all your cyber control systems of your air defences are belong to us”.
Surely there is a UN agency that a member state can call in when it believes there is a strong likelihood that it has been the victim of a major war crime (the murder of more than 100 civilians of various nationalities) committed by an enemy state covertly?
Let us not forget this kicked off our New Year one week ago with the assassination of the General.
This shouls and still could lead to a Fatwah against named senior politicians/Generals/institutions – ask Rushdie how that felt? And he only wrote a story.
So the narrative is completely refocussed on the Airliner crash.
There are a couple of facts:
It was a delayed departure – reportedly because the pilot ordered the removal of ‘stuff’ because the aircraft was over weight !
Secondly, the aircraft made a 180 degree turn was heading back to the airport – fully laden with fuel and apparently NO contact between the pilot and airtraffic control!
This being some hours after the Iranian mussile attack on the Iraq IS base.
I bet had that Ukrainian Airlines Boeing crashed instead on the airport it would have made quite a bigger mess of Tehran International!
——–
Meanwhile the Bell End Scat is spread throughout our daily channels and stinks as usual. Anyone posting links to any of that ought to be ostracised !
The latest coordinated bs is that SPACE FORCE has secret satellites that watch the Earth looking for exactly the type of missile launches – and they have been since 2011!
Lol that’s a lot of missile launches they havent picked up MH17, strikes against Syria … lets be having that data then!
——–
There were TWO generals assassinated a week ago – The narrative can not be controlled enough to know that revenge will be mighty and long time in coming like a fatwah that lasts years. Pence, Pompeo and the Generals ain’t traveling far or openly even in their home towns from now on.
I suppose that would be one way that Trump could get a new name on his ticket for November…
You seem to have a good grasp of the situation there. I liked the Bell End Cat moniker for the SIS shopfront and unashamedly shall nick it at once.
However, there is news coming that attributes the attacks of last night on a base of Popular Mobilisation Front to Israelis. This seems to be inaccurate and sources on the ground maintain it has been US that has bombed the base of the PMF, so the incensed PMF have wowed to get even very soon.
Similar with somebody in the run-up to general election who described the guff coming from Alistair Campbell as Campbellendian.
i’m not sure the underwear salesman is a “shop front” for SIS; more like a plausibly deniable clearinghouse for shit too dodgy for them to seed to their usual stooges in the print media
as for reliable sources:
I ask for your opinion about this source
https://twitter.com/BabakTaghvaee
If, of course, this does not violate the rules of the site, otherwise I apologize and ask the moderators to remove it.
On the one hand, there is a lot of technical information in the updates and he mentioned once that information is from a source in the Pentagon.
On the other hand, on the night of the attack, I was on twitter and news sites, and returned to it several times, but for some reason considered it not too reliable.
He is talking out of his hat, he is one of those bring back Monarchy bunch out of touch diaspora population living circa 1976 somehow in 2020. As his retweets indicate.
“Future of Iran by Reza Pahlavi” this is the Heir to the throne that was! Convention is being held in of them all places; Hudson institute, yet another pentagon shopfront. This is reminiscent of the: “Former king Mohammed Zahir Shah arrived back on Afghan soil today after 29 years in exile.”
All tosh and bunkum.
Agree with Fedup T.
But here is a strange story at Veterans Today which features a photo of two naked ladies on a bed at the end – with no explanation!
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/01/10/pompeo-we-had-no-evidence-of-a-soleimani-attack-trump-made-it-all-up/
Wtf???
——–
Three other stories which are being ignored are Putins travels; Iraqs deals with China; Ukraines peace with it’s ‘enemies’.
Russia is head of SCO for half a year yet and Putins ambitious intentions seem to be on track.
The Empire is dead – Long live the Empire!
Enjoyed the naked ladies, never mind any explanations. :)))))
Have you read this in the comments section?
“A Haaretz journalist post a tweet revealing that 224 american soldiers transported in a aircraft from Iraq they was entered at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and immediately upon that tweet, Tweeter suspended his account”
This ties in with the question asked here
If that is the case we are in a whole new controlled echo system, the notions of it make 1984 look passé
well, people get prepared for WW III
https://pikabu.ru/story/podgotovilsya_k_lyubomu_razvitiyu_sobyitiy_7151355
Would be better to have .avi for the last 3 in the list. I know that Chinese language has a complex system of intonations which may change the meaning of the words. So it might be dangerous to pronounce wrong tone while you think you’re ‘asking for a mercy in Chinese”. hope it helps 🙂
Sorry to say that this has been a fear and discussion topic on this side of the pond since the assassination.
I can’t imagine things going well between our Prime Minister and the U.S. President now, either.
Last night police were called to two vigils in Toronto, where there was some pushing and shoving between mourners and protestors.There had been a fight at a previous vigil for the general.
https://globalnews.ca/news/6391384/iran-plane-crash-vigil-north-york-civic-centre/
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-candlelight-vigil-held-in-toronto-for-iranian-general-killed-by-us-2/
Tatyan, what please is the gist of your link that leads to your hopefully gloomy comment.
@Ingwe, it’s dangerous times, the expectation of war hangs in the air. People predict possible outcomes from the situation, in this form too.
My comment is about being even more prepared and careful, to have more chances of saving life.
Please take into account that not every chuckle is caused by joy.
@Q
Russian author re-wrote a joke from 9gag, btw.
Obviously its a reference to kompromat.
But is it THE kompromat?
Manalia unavailable for comment
I think the picture is a goof on Melania.
The caption says “Melania unavailable for comment.”
Node you are right. My post copied and pasted from the website, it must have been a corrected error.
Western media collectively salivating at the missile strike idea, as if disappointed by the lack of military escalation. The intense media focus on the downed Boeing 737-800 airliner does look coordinated. The drip, drip of new footage & information – including cameras pointing at the sky, at just the right moment – who does that considering the plane took off at 6.12am Tehran time and went down a few minutes later.
It’s obviously a tragedy for the families, and whether it was technical problems or a missile strike, it does make you wonder why all international air traffic wasn’t grounded that night? It’s understandable either way: accident or accidental defensive missile strike too, that Iran doesn’t want to hand over the flight data recorder to the west. For were it purely mechanical failure or an or a bomb, in the current political climate they’d never give Iran the all clear.
“including cameras pointing at the sky, at just the right moment ”
Strange enough that there is little camera work of the fireworks show on alasad base on the internet. Are the clips being sanitised soon as they hit the net? Curios to see none at all other a very few clips from really far far far away.
Does seem a bit odd that someone filmed that particular plane, in that particular portion of the sky and followed an alleged missile’s trajectory, at around 6.15am local time. Not impossible mind, but just seems convenient to the narrative.
If Iraq do not demand that US withdraw Trump will come out very strong out of the current mess.
US Wants to Discuss Return to Strategic Partnership With Iraq Instead of Troop Withdrawal
https://sputniknews.com/us/202001101078002164-us-wants-to-discuss-return-to-strategic-partnership-instead-of-troop-withdrawal/
It is just now in our news – Iraqi prime-minister demanded from Pompeo to send representatives to develop mechanisms for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
On airplane crash:
Ali Abedzade, Iranian Civil Aeroviation Head: “We can confidently say that the rocket did not hit this plane. The plane burned for more than a minute and a half during the flight, the pilots decided to return. There may be many reasons why the pilots could not communicate. First of all, they must save the plane.”
—
I wish I were as confident as Mr. Abedzade… Nevertheless, he says an important info – the plane was ablaze during the flight for 1.5 minutes.
Another wonder, where are all those passengers and employees of Tehran airport? The flights were delayed almost immediately. The airport must be full of excited people ready to record everything. No videos on Internet, except for the one. I find it extremely strange.
aeroviation 🙂 I meant ‘aviation’, sorry
“If Iraq do not demand that US withdraw Trump will come out very strong out of the current mess.”
Personally, I think that’s wrong. The PM is weak and subject to browbeating by the US, therefore unlikely to stand up and demand immediate withdrawal. As I’ve said often enough, the strength of the Iraqi position lies in popular feeling against the US troops. This will only get stronger over time, but is slow. If the US wants to sign a new Status of Forces agreement, I think it will be voted down, whatever the PM Abd al-Mahdi may say. That’s what happened in Bush’s time, and I don’t see things being different today.
“The PM is weak and subject to browbeating by the US, therefore unlikely to stand up and demand immediate withdrawal.” – Bearing in mind what Tatyana has just said, of course. The US will not agree to leave, naturally.
“The US will not agree to leave, naturally.”
Course they will.
It’ll be drawn out to ensure previous storylines aren’t totally contradicted.
Then Iran will take over. This and much else in the Persian Gulf shall become their area of control;
They’ll have the Stans.
But they can’t have The Med coast as well.
That’s within Israel’s area of control.
There’s a piece of the pie for everyone.
I had HOPED that the Iranian air crash involving a Ukrainian aircraft would not be used by the Americans, that it would be simply accepted for what it was, a terrible tragedy. But now i see Sky News (literally the only news channel my TV will pick up) are allowing Bellingcat on their show to tell us all how is was the Iranians who sot down their own plane, killing their own people and are now covering that up because they have a video that “got posted” to their chat group. The fact this comes from them makes me disbelieve it if nothing else.
This was a scheduled flight coming from an International Airport, something those in the area who live in the flight path would be well used to, I don’t believe their are rogue militia groups or army operatives who would have made such a basic error, remember this is NOT a war zone.
The only conclusion I can draw from this is that if NOT an accident and this WAS a result of a missile, the only group who could somehow gain ANYTHING would be those outside Iran who want to provoke further reaction and gain a proper pretext for war by attacking a passenger flight. On the principle that you point the finger at your enemy for doing something when you yourself have done it, this makes me think that someone working for the US is ultimately responsible for downing the flight. That is, of course, if it was brought down deliberately. This could simply be the opportunistic use of a tragedy for their own purposes by US intelligence agencies. I’d heard a rumour yesterday that people were accusing Trump on this already. Just a rumour though.
The coincidence that this has happened in almost exactly the same way as to a flight over Ukraine a few years back and has happened to a UKRAINIAN flight, thus allowing the link to be made immediately in people’s minds, doesn’t have the feel of a coincidence. I’ve never doubted the ability of governments everywhere to carry out atrocities against innocent civilians when it suits their aims. You have only to ask ‘who benefits?’
Gary, as to me, you draw analogy with MH17 incorrectly. That flight was attended by a team of Ukrainian dispatchers over a potentially dangerous area. This time the flight was performed by the Ukrainian crew, again in a potentially dangerous zone. This is the only thing that I see common in both cases.
Of course, if you don’t start speculating about Ukrainian president, who suddenly interrupted his luxurious vacation in Bukovel and flew to Oman, while General Suleymani was killed. Oman borders with the UAE, from where the American planes were raised on the night of the attack. The Ritz-Carlton Al Bustan Palace stands on the very bank of the Strait of Hormuz, on the other side of which is Iran. What was he doing there?
It was not a war zone, otherwise all civilian flights would have been stopped, but it would have been on very high alert only four hours after Iran counterattacked the Great Satan. If it was an Iranian missile that brought down the plane then the launch happened only because Iranian air defences were cyberattacked by an enemy, i.e. the US or Israel.
This is where cyberwar meets psychological warfare and those who are so inclined can discuss whether or not those two fields can be considered as part of the same (fifth) domain of warfare or whether delineating the domains needs rethinking.
When the enemy suddenly brings home to you that you’ve no longer got control over your own air defences, you’re f*cked. At least probably. I dunno what kind of air defences involve no software, neither in the spotting nor the launch, nowadays. Doubtless many weapons are off network but that doesn’t mean you keep control of them.
every time there comes the time for the United States to withdraw troops, every damn time there is either a chemical attack, or the onset of ISIS, or some other important reason why the US cannot return home
Canada, Britain, Bellingcat, what does it remind me of? wait, wait, maybe Douma? Ah… Le Mesurer is dead, that’s why…
“Zelensky stated, revealing that he will discuss the investigation with the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later in the day”.
Is that the same Mike Pompeo who boasted, with a smug grin on his face, that when he was director of the CIA “We lied; we cheated; we stole”?
Good luck with that.
Yes the same person, who was about to visit Ukraine, just before all this kicked off but P. did not go to drive his wedge between the peoples of Ukraine and Russia on that pre-christmas visit, this will be his after-christmas visit.
Question, why does P. feel the need to have so many visits to Ukraine, perhaps he is concerned they cosy up to Putin?
Better for Pompeo to have said ‘We tortured, we maimed, we replaced diplomacy’.
Zelensky, his advisors, were pulling back from the US narrative. Important Ukrainian oligarchs are talking up the necessity of good relations with Russia.
Pompeo will no doubt be updating them on the FiveEyes agreed script, just announced today.
Worth watching to see what comes of that meeting.
Is Belarus uniting with Russia.
What’s the story there?
So, the plane is gone and the site is being picked clean by scavengers. Nothing to see. Move on.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51062369
You claim more than your link supports.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/10/serious-concerns-raised-over-integrity-of-iran-plane-crash-site
is closer to what you want. But bear in mind that it’s all part of the narrative that it’s all the fault of Iran, and that they’re hiding something. So what is happening there is being overworked to fit the narrative. If I know the Iranians, if they didn’t preserve things it’s because they’re confident that they’re no longer needed, and the debris is blocking an inhabited area.
Do observe in the above, folks, that the tweeted picture of the alleged CBS-contracted cameraman and talking head positions them where only bare earth and concrete rubble can be seen, proving nothing. And that the video, lower down the page is an edited (why?) version of the first video tweeted (see here), removing the first explosion just before the last, and long seconds of controlled flight before what is shown, while on fire.
Q
I think you will find a later tweet by @elizapalmer says that the wreckage has been moved to another site where Ukrainian investigators are looking at it.
In standard practice, wreckage is removed from scene of an air crash after the investigative team has visited the location, taken photos and measurements, etc., not before. It is extremely uncommon in international practice for a crash scene of this magnitude, involving the interests of multiple countries, to be cleared so quickly. Maybe a team of Roombas will be dispatched later in the day to scoop up anything that’s left. Iran is clearly doing its own thing with this one, hardly a surprise.
Today’s headline: “Iran to Canada and allies: If you think we shot down Flight 752, prove it”.
Iran hardly has the chance to correspond to the international norms you insist upon, bearing in mind the isolation imposed on Iran by the US, and other western powers, to a lesser extent. I found that very noticeable when I was in Iran last spring.
i didn’t know any canadians worked for the integrity initiative. inclusive!
how common is it in international practice to assassinate the leaders of another country on a peace mission? heck, how common is it in canadian practice?
Selective morality, is no morality at all.
evidence selectively lied about is no evidence at all.
The U.S. made that decision unilaterally. Canada was not consulted or informed, and learned about it after the fact, as reported in the news.
Canadian citizens are collateral damage for the U.S., again. The U.S. has shown no regard for Canada. Do not blame Canada for Donald Trump. He has severely damaged relations with Canada, yet again. Not that he cares.
Suspicious…
was a “false flag MH17” done, this time on an Ukrainian plane, or simply an Iranian foul up?
They are sifting for bits of torn flesh not “clearing up the site”, this is an Islamic country and they are obligated to bury or retrieve for burial every bit of remains including the little bits of flesh mingled in with the wreckage.. This bullshit is designed to “embarrass” the Iranian government, portraying them as keystone kops running around and shooting at things moving or stationary.
A nice diversion from the facts on the ground;
“A Haaretz journalist post a tweet revealing that 224 american soldiers transported in a aircraft from Iraq they was entered at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and immediately upon that tweet, Tweeter suspended his account”
The above is old data since then the figure of dead and injured has risen to more than 400. The relevant ministries of the truth are running full tilt included Bell End Cat getting paraded on the echo chamber media, diverting attention of their “consumers”.
I’m rather at odds with the expanding narrative that Iran shot the plane down……
The current line is that a TOR air defence battery fired two missiles at the airliner, mistaking it for a US threat. The Ukrainian plane was on a pretty much bog standard straight climb as it left Tehran international, a busy, modern airport handling almost 9m passengers per year. The Russian made TOR is a mobile, short range, low to medium altitude system, usually operated as group of four TOR launch vehicles and a mobile command centre. It would most likely be deployed in the vicinity of the airport to guard against cruise missile, helicopters and low level aircraft. That said, like all air defence networks, they act like an onion skin and the TOR would be dependant on a ‘heads up’ from the wider defence network before being alerted and acquiring incoming targets . I simply can’t believe the operators took it upon themselves to shoot at an airliner on a steady rate of climb away from the airport on a familiar and very busy flight path.
As for the video, well there’s literally thousands of hours of mobile phone footage in circulation showing missiles being fired at stuff somewhere in the Middle East, nothing in it confirms the story. In addition some of the stills evidence is also dubious. Several news outlets carried photos of what actually is a TOR missile finned nose section, however, they claim it was found conveniently at the crash site. So either the video of the plane falling from the sky and covering a couple of km before it hit the ground is a lie or the TOR missile nose section photo is a lie – it can’t be both because the missile would have detonated some time before the plane went into the ground – BTW it’s a proximity warhead so won’t have embedded itself in the plane and went with it to the crash site.
My guess is that the US administration is protecting their business interest, namely the beleaguered Boeing Corporation, already in a financial mire over the Max debacle, they don’t want this crash linking to a spate of ‘uncontained engine failures’ the 737 has had that Boeing has done precious little about. The smoking gun will be if the plane was fitted with CFM engines.
Southwest Airlines 3472 catastrophic engine failure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpkLW460KDs
https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-737ng-engine-casing-southwest-accident-ntsb-2019-11?r=US&IR=T
Spencer Eagle
Excellent post Spencer, you have outlined some of the major faults of this missile story. I posted on another forum about the nosecone, and how TOR missiles actually work. They have proximity fuses, which means they detonate outside a target, so that nosecone would have been many kilometres away from the wreckage of the aircraft.
You are quite correct about the straight flightpath, because this is common at Imam Khomeini airport – arrivals use a carousel approach and departures a WNW straight flightpath.
We are told that the plane was on fire for 90 seconds before it crashed, and the crash happened only 3 minutes – 180 seconds after takeoff.
The 737 climbs at a rate of 1800 feet per minute, and I very much doubt that it continued to climb after being hit, so would have been at an altitude of around 3000 feet.
The aircraft would have been very visible to people on the ground, no mistaking it for a military aircraft.
If indeed a missile was the culprit, then I wouldn’t rule out a terrorist attack using a MANPAD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-portable_air-defense_system
Meanwhile Eddie Mair on LBC concentrates on the second royal deadcat story in a month!
No war. No assassins. No brexit. No bozo. Nothing. Just poor royals…
It is one of the main arms of the distraction campaign,
Yeah, there’s only a small % of the population are interested in what we might call macro-politics.
I mean, it’s even hard to get them interested in micro-politics that affect them and their local area directly.
Distracted by the fake lives of others, in media.
But it’s more than that.
It’s a distraction from the banalities and difficulties in one’s own not quite excellent life.
I’m thinking that being of and having a large family is perhaps an antidote to the problems of modern life.
It’s a controversial opinion, I know.
And it always works. I hear this buzzing vacancy all around my workplace and even at home. The royal soup mixes in effortlessly with the TV soap suds. Prehaps it’s an expression of despair? Perhaps everyone instinctively feels we are all doomed so you might as well just let your brains ooze out your ears. But I fear that that is a too optimistic view of general intelligence. The true situation is that everyone is so habituated to this shallow nothingness that they can see nothing else.
I think it’s a social phenomenon. Almost everyone, with a few rare exceptions, seeks to “fit in” with everyone else. That pulls the level of discourse down to a lowest common denominator.
I well remember, at school, university and in the workplace, raising eyebrows and causing incomprehension when I tried to talk about things that interested me: science, mathematics, cosmology, evolution, history, philosophy.
One or two managers even had me in for quiet conversations about how I should fit in better by joining the other employees to discuss soap operas and the contents of the nespapers. I replied that I would prefer to do my work, which – oddly enough – seemed to annoy them.
A video of the apparent missile strike now used by the main stream media was accredited to Bellingcat.
After a technical explanation of when and where the strike took place Bellingcat then went on to dispute that the nose cone of a missile found at an unspecified location could still have hit the plane and survived because the explosives on a Tor MI missile are apparently stashed else where than the nose cone.
This must be nonsense because the nose cone would hit the target and be destroyed in the explosion from the explosives held inside of it.
Anything lower the upper fins of the missile would be the fuel necessary to get it to mach + over twelve or so km.
cris, the nose cone wouldn’t hit the target, surface to air missiles detonate on proximity with the aircraft. The section behind the nose/front fin section of the TOR missile contains the warhead – high explosive surrounded by short metal rods or ‘butterfly’ shaped pieces of metal stacked together. When the missile detonates this shrapnel is propelled away in a perpendicular direction outwards from the center axis of the missile, thus creating a shotgun like spread. Because of this directed blast it is perfectly normal to find the nose section relatively intact on the ground – however, it would be nigh impossible to find the missile nose cone with the aircraft wreckage, especially an aircraft that has continued to stay airborne for some while after the missile strike.
Pilot put his hand out and grabbed it and wrote on it with his bleeding finger : “have courage mum in English” adding “PS get this war head to Bell End Cat he will know what to do with it” and as he came to crash he threw it out of the window.
This episode of the Trump and his lackeys saga, remind me of the time my mate who had stayed out all night and when he was going back to his home, rang me pleading; “if my wife asked you tell her I fell sleep on your settee and you didn’t have the heart to wake me up”. Post this he had been in touch with others and informed them they were all in the party in my house too, and saw him asleep on the settee.
Trump rings bojo and trudeau, ….. boys you best tell the reporters that you have secret intelligence too.
ps Spencer Eagle you have excelled with your analysis of the missile theory, I enjoyed reading your take.
in the story you’ve shared, so common a story around the world! I’m only interested in one fact – did you agree to support his lie, or not?
But of how could I be the cause of break of his marriage? Just like bojo et al who are lining up to support the trump lies
I know people line up to support the side which they think of smth. like “well, this is our guy, solidarity and all that” .
But, if in the same context the question is slightly changed, for example, “did you support HER lie?”, then those people no longer believe that the lie should be supported, they think it is ebtirely different case, is not it?
And of course, no one believes that the question “Well, how did you like that you were lied to?” might be ever questioned of them. People generally don’t understand what is the point, seriously, they simply don’t imagine how it would be possible to find themselves in the place of the deceived side.
But the question “Was it easy for you to lie?” – they immediately understand this question, although they never answer honestly.
Observing abstractly from aside, the funniest thing about all these is that the original liar doesn’t give a damn about all these intellectual reflections. He sees the world very simply and rationally: I ask you to lie – you are sharing my lie – I’m damn cunning and you’re my friend. Sort of.
“…as he came to crash he threw it out of the window”.
Along with the perpetrators’ passports.
The disinformation campaign is now full throttle in order to divert from the original issue of the state terrorism practiced by the USG.
Fake videos and photos now abound to show that the plane was shot by a missile. The other one is that the site of the crash has been bulldozed. Of course it does not really matter what the truth is in the end as happened with the propaganda blitz following the Skripal incident and gas attacks in Syria.
Here is an example
https://twitter.com/HeshmatAlavi/status/1215517753353916417?s=20
And it turns out that this Heshmat Alavi may be a fictitious character and a front for MEK as this expose from AlJazeera shows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsNp3Tw0BE4
So please do not jump into any conclusions, it is too early and there is a massive disinformation campaign to wrong foot Iran.
Except of course the conclusion that Iran is entirely innocent and being stitched up.
No, it is too early to make any conclusions but the rush to speculate is what suggests disinformation. Remember Iran was not the initiator of the aggression.
What do we expect? NATO powers in the 21st century cannot visibly invade, plunder and murder any more. There are just too many conscientious objectors. (Though I suspect, given the brainwashing that happens in schools and the ass-licking of queen and country that still goes on here, two thirds would enjoy the show, and that alone makes me weep). They have to be constantly be inventing and manufacturing extremism and terrorism. We now live in a country where being a gardener and asking children to care about the environment makes one a safeguarding risk and indeed an extremist. This kind of totalitarianism, aided by mercenary journalists and teachers and officials, will continue to grow, unless movements like XR and CAAT are allowed to do their thing without harassment and threat, and without that extremist program called Prevent.
‘Wars are easy to start but hard to stop.’
Like a lost limb that continues to ache there is no stop. The post-war bonus for USA was the end of British, and most European, imperialism and colonialism. Nuclear power, as demonstrated, trumped everything making permanent war and strategic destabilisation the norm. Masters of the global economy and International institutions, albeit fragile and token, cast long shadows millions live under. This is the era of permanent war which feeds on destablisation, regime change, narrative makers, entertainers, fear and turmoil. All shook up uh-hu-hu.
It’s Game Over now. There will be no serious war…just a gradual wind down from complete insanity, back to a state of normalcy, so that we can travel all over the world like we normally do. They can’t shutdown Iranian Air Space. It is one of the most important traffic air-routes in the World.
The Americans and The Israelis are completely shocked…
But us British, who have worked with Iranians, are not the slightest bit surprised, that they know how to shoot and hit the target….even going round bends.
So It is Peace, all the rest is crap, bullshit, lies and hot air.
Tony
I think a big part of this de-escalation is the lack of support for both Trump and another war in the US itself. The US hawks + Israel and KSA may want the US to go to war(?) but without public and political support at home, it’s simply not possible. Ground invasion was never an option (Iran is too big and too united), plus there is no staging country nor many allies, beyond the UK (Johnson clearly not fussed about becoming hated like Blair). A long protracted,’shock and awe’ dumb aerial bombing campaign of Iranian cities would be seen as morally indefensible & result in huge protests, not just in the Shia world which stretches all the way to the Med, but around the globe and in the US. Trump’s support base would likely abandon him as a major ME war is precisely what he campaigned to avoid.
Congress wouldn’t fund a war without a plan or endgame either, continuous bombing and hoping the regime cracks, certainly isn’t a plan. And most Democrats are hugely skeptical not just of Trump’s psychological condition to be commander in chief, but his whole administration. They are furious about not being consulted about the assassination of QS.
What’s the point in a war when you’ve already achieved your objective.
The death of the architect of Iranian outreach across the region, and upon Israel’s borders.
I’d be looking to see if there’s Iranian pullback from the Med.
And Hezbollah statements and realities should be interesting.
Was he all that influential though?
Respected, a hero in Iran, no doubt, irreplaceable? Probably not.
The US and UK media have a habit of hyping individuals up in importance, mastermind this, mastermind that it’s a way of simplifying things. And the politicians get swept up in that hype as it justifies doing horrible deeds. And assassination by drone is a horrible thing.
“Was he all that influential though?”
Oh yes.
He answered only to the Supreme Leader.
We could say that he was one of Iran’s greatest military leaders, and revered as such throughout the region.
And the author of their expansion in the region, as US control declined.
He was a pious man. A warrior to that end.
Very much respected.
Could have won the presidency of Iran easily.
But.
He submits to the will of the great Imam.
A martyr.
Craig Murray wrote:
> We cannot be tied in to a rogue state.
It looks like some warmongering senators — among other murderous gangsters… I mean “advisers” — have just definitively lost the Middle East for the United States.
A few excerpts from The Wall Street Journal:
> The group, including new Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and new national security adviser Robert O’Brien, along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, backed the president’s decision to kill the top Iranian military commander and moved swiftly to carry it out.
> The new team was cohesive and less inclined than its predecessors to push back against the president’s wishes, according to administration officials and others consulted by the White House. They also were less likely to consult in advance with other administration, Pentagon or State Department officials, congressional leaders or foreign allies, some of these officials said. . . .
> Mr. Esper is a West Point classmate of Mr. Pompeo’s and is in lockstep with him on his push to roll back Iranian power in the region. . . .
> Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had challenged some of Mr. Trump’s policy inclinations, including withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord. . . .
> Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), a Trump confidant who played golf with him when he was considering the strike, said the new advisers “understand the president. They have chemistry among themselves.” Gen. Milley, he said, “is the biggest surprise. He is much more willing to take a risk to achieve a goal.” . . .
> Mr. Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate, associates said. . . .
> “The operation was planned very quickly,” said another U.S. official.
> The planners didn’t follow the same consultation process used in previous strikes, according to officials. . . .
> In the strike on Gen. Soleimani, some high-ranking officials who ordinarily would be consulted in advance—and leaned on to later explain it publicly—said they learned of the action from news reports.
Trump’s New National Security Team Made Fast Work of Iran Strike — The Wall Street Journal — Jan 9, 2020
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-new-national-security-team-made-fast-work-of-iran-strike-11578619195
– Michael Corleone: “My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.”
– Kay Adams: “Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don’t have men killed!”
– Michael Corleone: “Oh. Who’s being naive, Kay?”
(The Godfather)
It’s interesting that Mark Esper is an Arab on his father’s side. The father was Maronite Lebanese. It doesn’t stop him slaughtering Arabs left, right, and centre, as a Trumpy, in order to advance his career.
Of course it has to be said that Maronites hate other Arabs, and claim to be Phoenicians. But they’re Arabs by language and culture, much as Palestinians are.
Maybe his father was a Christian Maronite, but he is just working for the MIC war profiteers, the real US government:
> Mark Esper . . . is the current and 27th United States Secretary of Defense. . . .
> Before joining the Department of Defense, Esper was vice president of government relations at Raytheon, a major U.S. defense contractor. During his time at Raytheon, Esper was recognized as a top corporate lobbyist by The Hill in 2015 and 2016.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Esper
ahem, Ukraine has Naem Mustafa, born in Kabul, Afganistan, native language is Dari, Ukrainian parliamentary and !!! deputy general director of Ukrainian Defence Industry !!! Stanford university graduate, that’s why, I think.
Your Mark Esper, did he attend Stanford as well?
Esper is creepy as fuck, as ALL those behind Trump these days; Pompeo, Pence and THAT sinister old general.
You bet, the people of the area are sick of the US. Iraqis have been 17 years, bombed, tortured, and killed, their lives made a misery with lack of electricity, water, health care, education and jobs and any future. US is no longer welcome they are occupiers and people are no longer afraid of the kinetic force multipliers. Simply put the jig is up for the yanks, and we have just witnessed the Suez Canal moment of US empire.
So, the Cavalry shall be along shortly.
That’ll be the Iranians.
Your new and welcome masters.
You see, the way the Sea Powers ran the great land masses was to keep them divided.
But now that the great land power is reasserting itself, it must unwind those divisions that were created under the previous management.
That’s kinda what’s goin on.
US is not willing to withdraw troops from Iraq, says Pompeo.
Any future discussions with Baghdad will be purely confined to the future structure of its forces in the country, the US State Department has said.
They talk about Iran causing ‘mischief’… in their own region?
The claim Qasem Soleimani was personally responsible for the death of troops via IEDs also seems highly questionable. Makeshift workshops all over Iraq and Afghanistan have for years been churning out the feared shaped charges capable of penetrating armored vehicles, causing death and serious injuries. The idea Iran taught these militias how to resist occupiers is absurd.
And even if some IEDs are ‘made in Iran’ , I’m sure there are quite a few Yemenis seeing ‘made in the USA’ and ‘made in the UK’ on even more devastating weapons.
Our leaders’ hypocrisy is without equal.
“US is not willing to withdraw troops from Iraq, says Pompeo.”
No great surprise. A withdrawal would collapse the US position in Syria/Iraq. But it’s not necessarily what’s going to happen. Iraqi resentment of the presence of US troops is increasing; I doubt that the US is willing to modify its behaviour. So there’s going to be another crisis, perhaps not too far away.
Sistani called today for independence for Iraq, neither Iranians nor Americans. That call will appeal. The main effect will be on the Americans. Sniping on US convoys, isolation in their camps, difficulty to keep things going. Of course, they can always fly in supplies by helicopter.
Getting rid of the Iranians is more difficult, as they’re embedded in the militias.
More and more politicians in the US are challenging the previously uncontested idea of ‘our interests’. Who decides ‘our interests’ and using what criteria exactly?
They know the unparalleled number of overseas military bases are costing the US a fortune, money, that many believe could be better spent at home on crumbling infrastructure. Take Afghanistan or Iraq to name but two countries, what are they achieving? The idea Russia or China would rush to fill the vacuum were the US to leave, with their own bases, seems fanciful as they wouldn’t want to impose themselves nor spend that kind of money either.
“Who decides ‘our interests’ and using what criteria exactly?”
Those would be the interests of the billionaires and corporations that own the US government.
Whose interests are directly opposed, not only to the interests of those foreign countries it pillages for them, but to the interests of 99% of US citizens.
The USA is just as much an occupied country as Iraq or Afghanistan.
keep you updated on events from russian-speaking sources.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Vadim Pristayko said that, during the last communication of the Boeing 737-800 pilots with the flight controllers of Tehran’s airport, the flight went on normally.
The Foreign Minister stressed that Kiev knows the exact moment of the last conversation between pilots and dispatchers.
“We got full access to the records of talks with our pilots, both from the black boxes that are stored on the plane, and also to the full record of the dispatchers of the Iranian control tower. Until the last talks, the situation on board was standard, which the pilot informed the tower about.” told Priestayko at a briefing.
He also confirmed media reports that the plane had changed course before the crash.
https://ria.ru/20200110/1563273283.html
Could the plane have been hijacked? Perhaps the pilot were threatened to told everything was fine? Maybe far fetched. Just an idea.
I read that Iran along with the countries involved in the crash, will tommorow give the first briefing of what they believe happend.
About the plane crash, everything is possible.
There are several similar videos taken from different positions, all showing the plane on fire while still flying for a while until the crash and very bright explosion.
This and the crash location seem to confirm what the Iranians say, excepting we don’t yet know what caused the sudden flames:
> Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation (CAOI) chief Ali Abedzadeh said: “The plane, which was initially headed west to leave the airport zone, turned right following a problem and was headed back to the airport at the moment of the crash.”
> Mr Abedzadeh added that witnesses saw the plane “on fire” before the crash, and that pilots hadn’t made any distress calls before trying to return to Imam Khomeini airport.
Iran plane crash: Airliner ‘was trying to return to airport’ — BBC News — 9 January 2020
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51044996
Some Twitter threads include the mentioned videos showing the plane flying in flames for almost one minute at least, and also a different one allegedly showing a missile hitting that plane, which disappears a few seconds after the hit:
https://twitter.com/MFaramehr/status/1215339784392126465
See details here:
https://twitter.com/alihashem_tv/status/1215669785071099904
One of the Ukrainian plane crash videos, quite clear:
https://twitter.com/MFaramehr/status/1215431136312221699
Pompeo’s 12 demands on Iran don’t read like anybody’s idea of peace negotiations. They read like demands drawn up precisely so that they would be rejected.
“Iran must..”?!
That was the stupiest thing I ever seen, Not even G.W Bush was this stupid.
These people have no contact with reality or how one do diplomacy
Just waiting for Iran to produce the same kind of demands that “US must” which of course must be atleast 10 times longer.
Yes its made up to be rejected, I doubt Iran even take note of this nonsense.
That was before the missiles hit the alasad base, now the equations are changed. 12 Demands were in October it is now January, heck of lot longer than a week*
These demands were short of Iran will roll over and play dead and do tricks as we instruct it too!
* a week in politics is a long time!
Lysias wrote:
> Pompeo’s 12 demands on Iran don’t read like anybody’s idea of peace negotiations. They read like demands drawn up precisely so that they would be rejected.
What Iran said about those demands was truly impressive, including for example the many aggressions they have suffered from the United States since the 1953 US coup d’état that overthrew democracy in Iran, and explicit details on what America should be doing instead for a better future. It’s long but a must-read:
Iran’s Zarif Responds to Pompeo’s ‘Baseless’ Demands — Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif — Tasnim News Agency — June 21, 2018
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2018/06/21/1754774/iran-s-zarif-responds-to-pompeo-s-baseless-demands
Pompeo’s 12 demands on Iran were poorly addressed. No doubt Iran will refuse them, and US sanctions will continue, and be increased, but that won’t change anything.
The real US problem lies in Iraq. 5000 US troops scattered over the country, and the US occupation of the Syrian oil-fields to support. The US troops have already withdrawn onto defendable bases. How long will that last? They can’t do their function like that. But I don’t see that Iraqi acceptance is going to be restored, even if the PM may theoretically agree.
There’s only one demand really.
Ditch your proxies around Israel’s borders.
Their architect is gone.
So.
Whither goest Hezbollah.
Unwinding, you see.
“Ditch your proxies around Israel’s borders.
Their architect is gone.”
Empowering nations to fend for themselves and organize to defend themselves from the malicious colonial mercenaries planted in the area, is not a proxy army. It is only an expression of the independence of the nations involved.
“Whither goest Hezbollah.”
Teach a man fishing he will never go hungry!
It’s a bad idea to teach fishing to someone who lives in the forest 🙂 Skilled fishermen think that fishing is the highest sacred knowledge, but here comes the hunter …
Ironically, it seems that fishermen were about the only “hunter-gatherers” who survived the gradual onset of farmers both in Europe and the Americas.
The wheat and beer producing farmers advanced, very slowly by our standards, from the Near East and the region of Ukraine towards the Atlantic coast. Wherever they settled, hunter-gatherers disappeared – just as happened in North America thousands of years later.
The only isolated parts of hunter-gatherer society that survived were those in Scandinavia and North-West USA/Canada. The common factor was that those people brought in enough fish and seafood to sustain a relatively big population, which could prevent the farmers from overrunning it.
See, for example, Richard Manning’s book “Against the Grain”.
“Empowering nations to fend for themselves and organize to defend themselves from the malicious colonial mercenaries planted in the area, is not a proxy army. It is only an expression of the independence of the nations involved.”
I’m sorry. I was doing macro-politics there.
Of course humanity is key.
Was just wondering if Iran would maybe have less focus on the Med.
Ongoing, like.
Liked your take though
Here is a newslink from the other side of the information war which lists 6 other fatal accidents involving 737-800 aircraft and shows possibly an engine fire on this type of aircraft. I say possibly as Im not sure if this is just some kind of temporary burn off.
World War Three is the Information War where reality perceptions are manipulated with brainwashing by repeated propoganda.
As with all wars the first casuality is the truth……whatever that is ?
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/01/10/2179011/video-appears-to-show-another-boeing-737-800-engine-on-fire
oh, I met this today
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-737max-factbox/factbox-in-boeing-internal-messages-employees-distrust-the-737-max-and-mock-regulators-idUSKBN1Z90NP
Boeing Co … employees disparaging the plane, the company and aviation regulators…
… message exchange between two unnamed employees, one said: “this airplane is designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys” following references to issues with the plane’s flight management computer.
… an employee asks another: “Would you put your family on a MAX simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn’t”.
The second employee responds: “No”.
Boeing looking for a new CEO now….
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/boeings-muilenburg-get-no-bonus-or-severance
Lead story in the Independent :
UK is nearly ready to launch force to hit hostile countries with cyberattacks
The specialist unit will be dedicated solely to offensive action to combat security threats, extremism, hackers, disinformation and election interference
This seems bad on so many levels, among them:
i. attribution for hacks is notoriously difficult.
ii. What will be the tit-for-tat retaliatory consequences for the UK of such offensive actions?
iii. proportionality?
iv. What is disinformation?
Seems like an attempt to ban conjecture or speculation that many investigative journalists, like Craig sometimes engage in. It’s stated disinformation is false information spread deliberately to deceive, how do they evaluate intent? Take the classic example of the case of journalist Arkady Babchenko and his ‘Russian ordered assassination’ in Ukraine,… only it was staged. Was Boris Johnson spreading disinformation? Or were the people saying it was BS guilty of spreading disinformation?
This is a whole new control ecosystem; 1984 is so passe
How did we get here?
I don’t know?
But you wonder what parliament is doing( eg. ISC) to limit and rein in such plans? Military orders to conduct cyber attacks should be discussed / debated in parliament, as it’s close to a declaration of war – and if attribution errors are made, the consequences could be grave.
For example, anyone who says they can distinguish between state and non-state actors in order to attribute blame to a state for a cyber attack, that’s a big step and conclusion to arrive at.
And one person’s disinformation is another’s conjecture without access to the full facts. I doubt Ben Wallace has thought all this through. They even raise Salisbury(Skripal incident) as an example of the disinformation. There are enough unanswered questions for any UK journalist to doubt the official story.
Hey we have been getting this stuff in Scotland for a long long time now from the Britnats.
https://www.military.com/off-duty/iran-may-have-fleet-communist-killer-dolphins.html
This is a genuine article published on a western military website. Whether the dolphins had read Marx’s classic ‘ Das Capital ‘ before enlisting as communist dolphins is not disclosed.
Old news. Western shipping is safe.
There are rumors the States have trained zoophile divers division to counter the dolphins. But you know, it’s top secret, Greenpeace must stay unaware about it.
This is another brain fart of the geniuses that brought you the exploding dogs, as per second world war: dogs were trained to carry explosives to the tanks and detonate them, trouble is the dogs then headed for any tank and it was normally the friendly tanks due to the smell they had been used to, and blew them up. Talk about friendly fire!
That is not forgetting the DuPont “gay bomb” a chemical weapon that was to be dropped on the enemy soldiers and get them horny enough to engage in homosexual activities and make love and not war, whilst the friendly chaps went on slaughtering them in assumed position. Probably this weapon is not covered by the CWC anymore because it could be interpreted as a homophobic move.
The stupidity of the 20th century mind set somehow does not extend to envisage the drone technology and the uses thereof. Or the Hoot super cavitation torpedoes reaching their target at very high speeds to destroy it.
Hillary has been very quiet on Iran. She’d LOVE a war but is content to let Trump shit on his re-election chances.
She’s a stone cold psycho who could charm the birds out of the trees.
Not really she is quite an emotional blood thirsty psycho Her cackle along with an expressive distorted face is telling of her near orgasm experience.
The crash site in relation to the airport and the first couple of minutes of flight
https://ibb.co/wrwFJ1k
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/ps752#23732569
https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/ukrainian-flight-ps752-crashes-shortly-after-take-off-from-tehran/
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/01/10/15/23239360-7872337-image-a-52_1578668880092.jpg
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/35.565239,51.1046607/35.5646107,51.1049611/@35.5602992,51.1069567,1269m/data=!3m1!1e3
Craig
I am genuinely sorry that the rally at Glasgow Green tomorrow has been cancelled as I was interested to hear what you would have said about the current anti democratic stance being taken by the Britnats over Indyref2.
Anyway still going for the independence march looking out my golf waterproof gear right now. ?
“What next!?”
Good question. The EU is still going to take the blame for a while, but will slowly vanish off the headlines at some point after Brexit actually ‘starts up’ and the UK regains ‘full control’ of its borders and ‘sovereignty’. Labour is pretty irrelevant right now with a lot of inner work to do, after its biggest defeat in ages. Scotland might leave for greener pastures under the European Union. Harry and Meghan are ALREADY leaving.
‘They’ have won everything from the Brexit referendum to the GE and Johnson is on for a free ride but yet, as a foreigner, I can´t help but sense an enormous surplus of hate in Britain. Don´t ask me why but they are just not happy, and the foreseeable vacuum of ‘hate recipients’ makes you wonder, indeed, who is next?
Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif has said that the preliminary conclusion of an army investigation is that Iran shot down the plane as a result of human error.
So all the speculation can end. Very sad for those who died and their families and friends.
Never forgetting that the US illegally assassinated the Iranian general.
US never apologised for the downing of the Iranian jet.
The US was so unapologetic, tt awarded the Captain of the air craft carrier a medal. I am prepared to bet that the Iranians won’t behave with such grossly offensive arrogance.
Tomorrow’s headlines “Iran Admits to Mass Murder”
Iran apologises for the downing of the Ukranian jet by mistake.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1215864063172972544.html
The admission by Iran is welcome for the sake of the victims families but Iran repeatedly insisted to the world that no missile had been fired and the US was (plausibly) engaging in psyops.
The problem will now be if the missile was fired by the IRGC, which are deemed a terrorist organisation by the US, and what price the US-led West will demand for atonement.
If only the Ukraine itself would have been as quickly honest about their hand in the MH17 plane downing.
Them super fast publishing tapes putting the blame on Russia fitted in the CIA setup to split Ukraine from Russia and destroy the vast industrial interwoveness that was. Those tapes were doctored and show a suspicious level of premonition.
The official Dutch led enquiry ascribed the shot down Malaysian plane to have been hit by a Russian made missile fired from Russian backed rebel held territory in the Ukraine. I have no doubt this did not change the views of many people here that the Ukrainian government was responsible.
No more than the OPCW verdict that Assad had used chemical weapons at Douma. If the USA wants a particular outcome, the USA gets it. See the Olympics committee decision to ban kneeling and raising a fist on the podium.
As usual, the best lies contain as much truth as possible.
The BUK missile that shot down MH17 was made in Russia (like all BUK missiles) but it was immediately shipped to Ukraine as part of its local defences in the Soviet period.
On the whole, you will find that the USA has been responsible (directly or indirectly) for more shot-down civil airliners than any other nation.
If one compares the recent tragedy with the shooting down of Iran Air 655, all the important differences are in favour of Iran. For a start, both atrocities occurred in or very close to Iran – 8000 miles away from the USA. So if the USA minded its own business and refrained from travelling to the other side of the world to stir up trouble and commit “malign acts”, neither plane would have been harmed.
Moreover, Iran Air 655 was shot down by USS Vincennes after the latter’s captain disobeyed his orders and entered Iranian territorial waters in search of a fight. UAI 752 was apparently shot down by jumpy Iranian air defence soldiers (or possibly by buggy software or some other technical fault). They were very tense because of massive US air activity on the borders of Iran, not to mention all the boasting about “invisible” aircraft such as the F-35 SuperPig. Last and most important, they were defending their own country and the helpless citizens of tehran, a huge and vulnerable city, against the threat of ruthless American bombardment. We have all seen the ruins of cities such as Belgrade, Tripoli, Fallujah, Mosul, Raqqa, etc. etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655
I am amazed, how quickly, it turns out, the case is solved if nobody hides anything. it takes only two days – and the truth is established. Very very very sorry for the dead people.
And one more news, the Sultan of Oman died today.
And his last foreign visitor was Zelensky.
Kaboos was instrumental in the brokering of the Iran deal and it must have been very disappointing for him to see this turn of events.
Readers may be interested in a video depicting the Iranian attack on Ayn al-Asad, referenced by commenter Katherine on the Moon of Alabama blog.
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1215717366488879104/pu/vid/224×400/h0-l97POZFa9iEvL.mp4?tag=10
The US troops were not under cover (the warning was not sent onto them?), and it was one hell of a bang. So there were no casualties, were there? At least the Iranians are more honest.
sorry, could be fake, and I can’t be bothered to find out.
It is a fake.
This kind of disinformation is designed to cast doubt on the real footage that will eventually surface on the internet.
Do you remember “Web fairy” ? The professor of sociology and her cohorts that were filling the various boards with absolute bunkum and outlandish theories on 9/11?
The continuation of the same tactics; cobble up two hits from different clips and the sound track, then make it available to discredit the sites or people who pick it up.
Ah – well done President Trump.
Assassinate an Iranian general after he disembarks a civilian plane in a third party country airport. Thereafter put the fear of god into Iran by telling them, and the world that he has prepared the worlds biggest and most beautiful military to strike them – destroying not just military sites, but their world heritage sites too.
Then on the highest alert possible in anticipation of attack an Iranian defence battery accidentally shoots down a civilian plane thinking it was an enemy attack.
Well done Trump. No wonder you were gloating before Iran admitted the horrendous mistake. Box em up, eh Donald, some beautiful deaths that you can lay at the Iranian door. Just beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. God bless America.
As I opined before what goes around comes around. No one suggests that international relations are easy. Sadly however it’s the innocent sheeple that get slaughtered when the industrial military complex seeks to assert itself. Cynical yes, but deadly accurate.
The electorate however, wouldn’t have it any other way. Dulce et decorum est in pro patria mori.
Thanks, Willie. I completely agree with everything you say, but I couldn’t have put it so clearly and succinctly.