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Three (or Four) New Reads – January

Philip Roddis

The Roaring Twenties began with a bang. Whatever else the decade may bring, chronologers will look back on its opening fortnight as momentous. The tone was set by the January 3 hit on General Quassem Suleimani, followed five days later on January 8 by Iran’s (token?) retaliatory strikes on US bases in Iraq.

That same day, Ukraine Flight 752 crashed shortly after take off from Tehran, killing all of its 176 passengers and crew. Two days later, on January 10, Western sources were opining that it may have been shot down unintentionally by an Iranian SAM. Having at first rejected the possibility, Tehran was admitting a tragic error within twenty-four hours, in a statement of culpability and abject apology which – along with its angry reception on the streets (82 of the 176 were Iranian) – inevitably dominated the world’s headlines of January 11.

Less well reported – also inevitably, since all conspiracy theories challenging US narratives are a priori ridiculous – is possible US involvement. Here’s former CIA officer Philip Giraldi:

The SA-15 Tor defense system used by Iran has one major vulnerability. It can be hacked or “spoofed,” permitting an intruder to impersonate a legitimate user and take control. The United States Navy and Air Force reportedly have developed technologies “that can fool enemy radar systems with false and deceptively moving targets.” Fooling the system also means fooling the operator. The Guardian has also reported independently how the United States military has long been developing systems that can from a distance alter the electronics and targeting of Iran’s available missiles.

The term, ‘conspiracy theorist’ is itself, in its current blanket and reactionary usage, absurd. Can there be any doubt that some conspiracy theories are accurate?

Can there be any doubt that US and satellite politicians have for decades lied to us on matters of the gravest import – on what Nuremburg ruled the supreme international crime of waging aggressive war?

Do bear these two questions in mind as I turn to the first of my four reads this month.

All of which, let me say upfront, start with the murder of General Qassem Suleimani.

*

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson Calls Out Trump’s Lies on Iran (783 words)

Pence’s words are laughable … Soleimani was helping us in Afghanistan in 2001, early 2002, to fight the Taliban. We got indispensable help from Iran in that regard …

We are going to lie, cheat and steal, as Pompeo is doing right now, as Trump, Esper, Lindsey Graham [and] Tom Cotton [are] doing right now … to continue this war complex.” Wilkerson said. “That’s the truth of it. And that’s the agony of it.

Shortest and easiest of my reads, this Amy Goodman/Dennis Moynihan piece of January 9 does not mention Flight 752 (a day after the crash, few suspected other than tragic coincidence) but does show, through the words of Colonel Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, why only the terminally credulous could dismiss out of hand the possibility of US dark ops.

*

Battle of the Ages to stop Eurasian integration (1,649 words)

For this my second read it’s helpful to have an atlas or map of large enough scale to show ports and major cities on a westwards reach from Shanghai on China’s eastern seaboard, through to Iran and the Persian Gulf, Syria and the Eastern Med. Such a map will also include Central Asia and the vast sweep of Russia.

All are essential for grasping the significance of an Escobar piece that takes in Russia’s Greater Eurasia and China’s Belt and Road projects.

And the centrality of Iran to both.

Plus a few things besides – like Modi’s perilous balancing act on Iran. Is India’s ruling class best served by deeper immersion in a bloc of BRICs? Or by keeping Washington sweet? To see why, long term, it can’t have it both ways on Tehran, the map should show the subcontinent too.

(I know you have such a map, serious follower of international affairs that you are. But on the off chance I’m wrong, may I recommend this laminated political map of the world, 1900mm by 1200 and a snip at £40 on Amazon. Clear a well lit stretch of wall where you work/relax/munch your cornflakes, and stick it up. You’re welcome.)

Though he can be excitable of tone – with its more serious risk of hyperbole of content – I’m a fan of Pepe Escobar. He’s always looking to the bigger picture, always well informed and, in this case, prepared to get away from his keyboard for a spot of old fashioned investigation:

… my travels these past two years, from West Asia to Central Asia, and my conversations these past two months with analysts in Nur-Sultan, Moscow and Italy, have allowed me to get deeper into the intricacies of what sharp minds define as the Double Helix. We are all aware of the immense challenges ahead

I confess I’ve no idea – lacking, perhaps, the requisite sharpness of mind – what Pepe’s getting at with a double helix concept lifted from the structure of nucleic acids, most famously DNA. But it sounds good. And who am I to carp and cavil at so bravura, lucid and closely reasoned a take on the geopolitical circumstances in which this month’s seismic events are unfolding?

*

America’s Monetary Imperialism (3,562 words)

The mainstream media are carefully sidestepping the method behind America’s seeming madness in assassinating Islamic Revolutionary Guard General Qassim Suleimani … The logic was a long-standing application of U.S. global policy, not just a personality quirk of Trump … The assassination was to escalate America’s presence in Iraq to keep control of the region’s oil reserves, and back Saudi Arabia’s Wahabi troops (Isis, Al Quaeda in Iraq, Al Nusra and other divisions of what are actually America’s foreign legion) to support U.S. control of Near Eastern oil as a buttress of the U.S. dollar.

How can the author of those words, Professor Michael Hudson, be so sure?

I sat in on discussions of this policy nearly fifty years ago when I worked at the Hudson Institute and attended meetings at the White House, met with armed forces think tanks and diplomats at the UN. I was a balance-of-payments economist having specialized for a decade at Chase Manhattan, Arthur Andersen and oil companies.

Like others, I rate Hudson highly and have followed him for years – see my 2016 post, Perilous Days (its start point a piece by Pepe Escobar). Now Professor of Economics at Missouri-Kansas, he is described by Paul Craig Roberts, a Reagan Treasury appointee long scathing of US foreign policy from Clinton through Bush and Obama to Trump, as the finest economist of our age.

I almost didn’t include the piece. Unsurprisingly – he is an octogenarian bringing a great deal of knowledge and understanding to the in-depth contextualising of a shock event just three days earlier – it shows signs of being written in haste.

But it’s too good to be excluded on grounds of a typo here, a non-parsing sentence there. Even those passages which, despite several re-reads, still go over my head can be overlooked.[1]

Keep your eye on the big picture is my advice, and don’t fret if some of the detail passes you by. Focus on the two drivers, both informed by Vietnam, of America’s trail of misery and ruin, jihadi terror and genocidal mayhem in the middle east. One is Nixon’s 1971 decoupling of dollar from gold and, soon after, this fiat currency becoming the basis for oil transactions the world over.

That double whammy of fiat currency and petrodollars ties US military might, and weaponising of oil, to dollar hegemony. The corollary is that any threat to said hegemony – attempts, say, by a Gaddafi or Maduro to shift to gold or sell oil in another currency, or the inevitability of Eurasia rising – will be seen by Washington as existential.

See in this regard my recent short post, Talking WW3 Blues.

The other strand? That after Vietnam, waging wars of profit – i.e. waging wars, period – could no longer be done by sending large conscript armies off to foreign lands. This leaves the US ruling class with two complementary options for imposing its imperial will: aerial supremacy and, on the ground, proxy forces which absolutely include terrorism. Hence Hudson’s depiction of Isis, Al Quaeda, Al Nusra etc as “America’s Foreign Legion”.

There’s much more in this the longest of my January reads. One being an assessment of Saudi Arabia which views Israel’s regional aspirations as akin to Turkey’s, in the Washington scheme of things, rather than the driver of US policy some claim them to be. Another is the vulnerability of Saudi Arabia, hence US supremacy itself, to Iranian strikes on its oil fields should the clerics in Tehran be pushed into a corner so tight they may as well go down with all guns blazing …

… a prospect that strikes terror into the hearts of Europe’s lead players, who nonetheless see no realistic alternative to hanging on to the rogue state’s coat-tails …

But don’t lose sight of the fundamentals: (a) the link between oil, US military supremacy and a dollarised world; (b) armed jihad as America’s answer in the middle east – more arm’s length, to be sure, and more schizophrenic with it – to Britain’s Black and Tan thugs in Ireland.

*

Suleimani assassination, imperialist strategy and crisis of the Iranian regime (1,679 words)

Where this differs from the other three pieces is that, without losing sight of the demonstrable truth of the USA as arch-villain across the entire region, it puts an unflattering spotlight on the reactionary clerical regime in Tehran. This it does in two ways.

First, by showing internal power plays within the Iranian ruling class, a factor none of the other three refer to. It views the Suleimani murder as calculated not just to undo Revolutionary Guard advances in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, but also to exploit and deepen those faultlines. The aim being to install for the second time a US puppet regime – a Shah of Iran Mark II in all but name.

Second, it draws on history, most clearly the Ayatollahs’ aiding the US/UK coup of 1953 which overthrew a government democratically elected on a ticket of nationalising Anglo Persian Oil. (Though it misses the hijacking of the 1979 revolution by those same clerics, who then went on to cement their power grab with a reign of terror which liquidated the Tudeh Communist Party and other secular currents of opposition to the Shah’s police state.)

This matters when the wars on the middle east have seen the left in the West embracing one of two erroneous and mirror-image positions on the target states. The more inexcusable has been the way all of the liberal left, and a huge slice of the revolutionary left, have in effect sided with imperialism: damning Ba’athism in Iraq, Libya and Syria on the one hand, Iran’s theocrats on the other, more vociferously than they do Washington and its junior partners in crime.

The opposite fault is more forgivable but still wrong. Those who glorify leaders in Damascus or Tehran (and, posthumously, Tripoli or Baghdad) overlook the degree to which all have colluded at some point with imperialism.[2]

This piece makes neither mistake, but does make a couple of its own. One is a remark, plucked as far as I can tell from thin air, to the effect that rival factions in Iran may have conspired to put Suleimani in harm’s way. I can’t say that didn’t happen but we’re given zero evidence to back up the idea, and I was heartened to see eyebrows raised over it in several BTL comments.

The other, in my experience atypical for a WSWS piece, is a finale which pulls rabbit from hat in the way the rest of the far left has a tiresome habit of doing. With no credible answer as to what third force we can turn to – since Ba’thism/theocracy and imperialism are to be loathed in equal measure – this far left offers the jam-tomorrow rain cheque of that indefatiguably chimeric call for international solidarity with the Syrian/Iranian working class.

In the main WSWS, mouthpiece for a Socialist Equality Party itself the product of the implosion of Gerry Healy’s frightful WRP, doesn’t go in for ultraleftist silliness. And this piece has the merit of being the only one of the four to consider Iran’s class dynamics. So I’ll turn a magnanimously blind eye to its ending on a call few on the left would dispute in principle – but in practice looks about as imminent as the Second Coming:

Workers and youth in Iran must counterpose to the capitalist Islamic Republic a struggle for a Socialist Workers Republic that would fight to unite the masses throughout the Middle East, across all religious sectarian and ethnic lines, against imperialism and all the venal bourgeois regimes.

In North America, Europe and around the world, the watchword of the working class must be “Hands off Iran!” Opposition to all sanctions, intrigues, threats and war preparations against Iran is a vital element in the building of a global, working class-led movement against imperialist war and the crisis-ridden capitalist system that is its source.

NOTES:

[1] Should you find Hudson’s piece too dense, I recommend the follow up interview he gave four days later to the Saker.

[2] Such collusions with imperialism are a matter of historic record. Besides the Iranian clerics’ role in the 1953 coup – and an Iran/Contragate every bit as embarrassing to Khomeini as to Reagan – we have Hafez al-Assad’s 1976 invasion of Palestinian camps in Lebanon, at Kissinger’s request that Syria bail out the right-wing Maronite Christian militias facing defeat there. (These being the same Phalangist cut-throats Israel’s Ariel Sharon would, a few years later, unleash at Sabra and Shatila.)

But when socialists use such examples to excuse their failure to defend Ba’athist or theocratic states from imperial onslaught, they drag disingenuity to a new low. Are we to suppose America attacks Syria and Iran because of those collusions?

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BigB
BigB
Jan 27, 2020 12:34 PM

At the center of today’s global split are the last few centuries of Western social and democratic reform. Seeking to follow the classical Western development path by retaining a mixed public/private economy, China, Russia and other nations find it easier to create new institutions such as the AIIB than to reform the dollar standard IMF and World Bank. Their choice is between short-term gains by dependency leading to austerity, or long-term development with independence and ultimate prosperity.

I pulled this paragraph from the Hudson piece to ask the ecologically imperative question: “What global split?” Having read this and the Escobar piece: I find it hard to believe that neither of the good gentleman knows where the AIIB goes for funds …or what currency denomination it chooses to raise them in? Not least: because it was splashed all over the media at the time. The answer being: the London Stock Exchange, priced in USD …$$$$ to you and me.

https://www.aiib.org/en/news-events/news/2019/20190509_001.html

Which rather clouds the simplistic binary “global split” narrative? Which I claim is an imaginary discourse based on imaginary geography. To which there is no simple counter-narrative – such as all BRI lending is in dollars …it’s not. But the complex narrative no one seems to want to make is that China’s market strategy is to service the lucrative consumer markets in the EU and America. Which makes the ‘New Developmentalism’ of East and West synchronous …despite the market rivalries. Which keeps the asynchronous development North to South in place. Which is globally dehumanising. And an ecological catastrophe that has been happening all my life …but no one wants to talk about. Even now.

I first read Susan George when God was a boy, and nothing has changed despite years of empty promises and ideology. Developmentalism – and the new Developmentalism led by China – is a great big neoliberal ideological complex of lies. One that condemns millions to death. That’s humans …no one gives an actual fuck about whole species extinctions. It’s not natural: put a country in debt and it stays that way. Which, ironically, is the theme of much of Hudson’s other excellent work.

The World System is much more integrated than Escobar, Vltchek, and in this piece at least, Hudson, want to acknowledge. Whilst hardly being a singularity, the global economy functions as a self-organised globally networked system …which no seasoned economist could really dispute. So why the obsession with an alternative system? It is nothing less than the indulgence of an actual fantasy that is increasingly self-obviously ecogenocidal.

I’m not accusing anyone of anything pre-meditated. What I am saying is that the old lies are becoming less easy to substantiate. Jason Hickel dispels any sort of delusion that the poor will become rich with any sort of patronising ideological Development Theory. Academics writing post-Wallerstein are simply being ignored to create that de facto neoliberal illusion. Effectively, the heterodox and ‘alternative’ narrative ideologues are extending the same propaganda ‘credit lines’ of the neoliberal narrative orthodoxy ideologues. In much the same way as Russia – and particularly China – are sub-imperial powers offering no alternative to: and actually and effectively being extenders of the Washington Consensus global neoliberal worldview.

http://www.cadtm.org/The-China-Factor

Beneath the surface of the disputes, trade wars, and even murders – neoliberal global capitalism is moving toward planetary integration and global marketisation at an accelerating pace. And pseudo-progressives are (hopefully unwittingly) creating their own screening discourse to character mask the creation of the largest global market in Eurasia – covering 70% of the world’s population, 75% of energy resources, and 70% of GDP. Such global market expansionism can only benefit humanity with “long-term development with independence and ultimate prosperity”? As it is drawn into a sovereigntist, ecological, and Platonic humanist harmonisation with nature …uniting the bourgeois consumer markets of the West with the fair trade productive power of the East. Into a City of London centred *Tianxia*: of a ecumenical religion of global consumerism that will raise all from poverty and liberate humanity from nature. Which is the ultimate prosperity and progress, right?

Whilst powerless to do anything rational about it: I have to say this is actually instantiated insanity. I am witnessing the false dichotomy of culture and nature being reified into a neoliberal millennium cult …the thousand year Reich of the market mechanism of ecological extractivism. Culture/Nature: that is the real “global split”. And the North/South ‘Divide’ which expanding in inverse proportion. As the rich and overdeveloped countries expand markets: the poor and underdeveloped countries get poorer and more maldeveloped. To which no counter-narrative critique can form …not by dint of the censorship of ‘them’ – but by the peer-policing of ‘us’.

I’m finding it all rather disturbing: the critical praise of the ‘Eastern’ market doxology (the “Gloria, in excelsis Deo” to the Easternised harmonious market) and the uncritical internalisation of the market mechanism of ecological extractivism …with literally no connection of how all this glorious market expansion and inclusive sovereign human developmentalism will impact nature.

Are we all uncritical neoliberal ‘green’ imperialists now? Because it seems we are singing in harmony with the self-identical doxological choir of the WEF. Which is exactly the same song sheet they gave us last week. In the new hymnal entitled “the Green New Deal For Nature” and humanity. Which will impact nature with catastrophic extinctionism?

I hope not. The word ‘catastrophe’ has a dual meaning …implying a change of view or an overturning of what is expected. To avoid such: we need to develop a global critique of capitalism from an ecological – not an unwitting market ecumenical – point of view. The planet cannot afford the Eurasian integration into an apex culture of planetary commodity consumerism and the financialisation of nature. Which condemns the majority of humanity to death to support it. It will not raise us up into some sort of everlasting technocratic commodity occultism of sustainable development. It will kill us by cannabalising the life-ground for some delusionary self-perfecting ‘unity under the Heavenly Mandated’ order of Capital …the One True God.

What planet one has to be on to believe or uncritically disseminate such I no longer know. Not this one.

[BTW: the double helix is Russia/China’s strategic partnership and integration. Imperialism: it’s in the capitalist DNA …what more can I say?]

Robbobbobin
Robbobbobin
Jan 29, 2020 6:37 AM
Reply to  BigB

I first read Susan George when God was a boy…

About 5 years ago, just before G-d’s Bat mitzvah (LGBTQIAPK, q.v.), TEDx Geneva made a 20 minute video of Susan George outlining how she transited from philosophy student to food activist to neoliberalism critic in 40 years, ending with a note about “tipping points” that may hearten some who are demotivated by wall to wall downers.

Still well worth a look and still on YouTube at https://youtu.be/JdnVFb1ju_8

Gezzah Potts
Gezzah Potts
Jan 27, 2020 2:25 AM

Excellent recommendations Philip, thanks.
There is much more I wanted to say, and have repeatedly tried to make a detailed comment today regards your article, particularly on your last two recommendations, only for it to go…. Klunk.
Last 4-5 days when I’ve tried to post a comment, or reply to another commenter, either a message comes up on my phone: ‘No Database Connection’ or I spend 10 plus mins watching the cursor thingy in the top right corner going back and forwards to the point I’ve nearly hypnotised myself.
Earlier today, twice I waited over 20 mins and my comment just wouldn’t post.
Very frustrating.
Have had to repeatedly retype my comments.
I assume we’re still under DDoS attack from the scumbag spooks who keep doing their little bit for ‘freedom of speech’ and democracy.
The World is only going to become more Orwellian and more a living nightmare.
Look at the obscene levels of wealth of a few juxtaposed with the dickensian poverty of the vast majority.
The Empire is thrashing about trying to maintain its power. Its like the monkey that puts its paw into the cookie jar, and can’t get it out. We are in very dangerous and nerve wracking times.

Robbobbobin
Robbobbobin
Jan 29, 2020 6:46 AM
Reply to  Gezzah Potts

There is much more I wanted to say, and have repeatedly tried to make a detailed comment today regards your article, particularly on your last two recommendations, only for it to go…. Klunk.

Cloudflare on steriods, with aggressive timeout.

  • Compose post
  • Copy post
  • Reload page
  • Relocate posting point
  • Hit “Reply” again
  • Paste post
  • Send post before another timeout
Robbobbobin
Robbobbobin
Jan 29, 2020 7:26 AM
Reply to  Robbobbobin

Alternatively, anticipate* Klunk:

  • Compose post in a text editor in a new/separate tab
  • Copy composition in text editor
  • Switch back to browser tab
  • *Reload page
  • Relocate intended posting point
  • Hit “Reply”
  • Paste post
  • Add any formatting (bold, italics,…
  • Send post before a timeout
  • You can switch between tabs while composing to reread original post or whatever.

    “Jota” (free version, green icon) is a good text editor for boring old farts. Google Playstore. If you like it, give him a few bucks: “Jota+” (blue icon).

Robbobbobin
Robbobbobin
Jan 29, 2020 8:31 AM
Reply to  Robbobbobin

Errata:

First method: if it’s an original post “Reply” is irrelevant. Use first text box under article.

Second method: for “tab” read “window”. Tabs are a browser thing, windows are a system thing. Open a new window for your text editor and compose. Cutting and pasting, rereading, etc, between windows and tabs is same. Do not invoke a new “instance” of the browser by opening another window for it, use the list of already loaded programs and select it from there. Provided you have not done anything with it since working in the text editor it should appear unchanged.

Was not paying sufficient attention.

Robbobbobin
Robbobbobin
Jan 29, 2020 9:12 AM
Reply to  Robbobbobin

Alternatively alternatively, you can use an online text editor and do it all in browser tabs. Google “online text editor”.

Gezzah Potts
Gezzah Potts
Jan 29, 2020 9:17 AM
Reply to  Robbobbobin

Hi Rob…. aggressive timeout is almost an understatement!
Obviously Cloudfare protection is a much needed protection otherwise Offguardian would be offline much of the time thanks to the bastard agencies (MI6, Mossad, take your pick) trying to silence our voices.
I appreciate your time and advice and suggestions in helping me, tho I need to point out: I’m actually a cross between Victor Meldrew and a Luddite….
The housing company I’m with is soon installing internet connection in my little flat, and once it’s on, I actually have a fairly new, albeit 2nd hand laptop in my cupboard that was a very generous Xmas present from a customer.
The laptop is all set up and ready to use, and will then be using it instead of my phone to make comments and other things at OffG and other sites.
God forbid I end up posting YouTube clips!
And yeah, I tried to use my phone as a modem with my laptop, but it didn’t work. Thanx, have a good day…

Tallis Marsh
Tallis Marsh
Jan 26, 2020 11:44 PM

Re: Coronavrus-5G link (comment below).

Has anyone seen this article (today’s date)? Apart from the fact that certain artificial EMF/RF/pulsed frequencies are bad for biological health including impairing human’s immune systems), could viruses themselves (including patented, man-made viruses) increase in ‘strength’ by artificial frequencies like 5G? Need to find some research into this subject.

Excerpt:

“Today, Huawei announced their support for Hubei Mobile and Hubei Unicom to launch 5G base stations in the Wuhan Vulcan Mountain Hospital. As you’ve probably heard by now, the Wuhan Vulcan Mountain Hospital is the building China is trying to build as quickly as possible to fight against the Coronavirus epidemic.

Huawei is Helping Fight Coronavirus with IT Support By Building an Ultra-High Speed 5G Network

Huawei‘ s representatives for the Hubei region urgently set up a Coronavirus outbreak protection project team on the 23rd; providing a work force of about 150 people. From receiving the notification from the Wuhan City Epidemic Prevention and Control Emergency Center to the commissioning of 5G base stations, the entire construction from network planning, survey, design and construction to fiber laying, erecting base stations and commissioning was completed in just 3 days.

At present, the three major operators in Hubei have already established and opened a 5G network near the hospital. 5G will help the Vulcan Mountain Hospital achieve ultra-high-speed network connectivity. Ensuring high-speed data access, data collection, remote consultation, remote monitoring and other services.
…”

https://www.gizchina.com/2020/01/26/huawei-coronavirus-5g-base-stations/

Tallis Marsh
Tallis Marsh
Jan 26, 2020 8:51 PM

Apologies, Admin, I didn’t know this website could pin people’s comments at the top; never seen it before (and I need to “go to specsavers” because I didn’t see the green pins in the corners and have never seen/noticed them before until you just pointed them out to me)! I’m still fairly new to this forum so finding my way around… Anyway, apologies!

Dungroanin
Dungroanin
Jan 26, 2020 8:07 PM

A fine selection as we head off our on home made cliff.

May I add:
https://dissentingchronicler.wordpress.com/2020/01/23/whoselieisitanyway

‘sometimes it’s tricky to spot the liar and fake news, and perhaps the best way to pick them out is to follow the story and spot the inconsistencies. There is then perhaps no greater line that embodies the rank hypocrisy, deception and duplicitous nature of those responsible for the Syrian debacle than the three witches in MacBeth who utter “Fair is foul, foul is fair”. May Karma get the better of them.’

Tallis Marsh
Tallis Marsh
Jan 26, 2020 6:30 PM

TEST! Hi OffG,

Your system seems to have a new bug – when ‘newest’ is clicked, the newest comments do not appear at the top? I’ve just posted on your last article “Coronavirus Update: Following the money” but my new comment (see below) appears as the 4th newest behind comments that were posted this morning.

Another angle to explore (if people haven’t already):

— Are the global establishment trying to set in motion their plan of a completely digital centralised world ‘economy’/system but first they need a ‘plausible’reason to make the system transfer happen? Yes, the very top policy-makers in the West and the so- called ‘BRICS’ working together; many people seem to deny this – it is extremely possible: remember history & patterns show thet tptb are mostly narcissists/socio/psychopaths who like conspiring when it comes to power and like using the ‘Hegelian Dialectic’! This Coronavirus could be the ‘false flag; their ‘psychological operation’ to totally phase out paper money/cash and bring-in their digital system? There have been several MSM articles on how paper money allegedly transfers bacteria/viruses/diseases.

Many indicators could show this could be the case? Example: Over the last few years, many different economic forecasters have kept pointing out that complete, major global economic reform is needed to stabilise our current (purposely made) ‘fragile global economy’. Along with the fact that now too many of the general public — who are getting relatively poorer and are not self-sufficient — are close to finding out the truth about how and who is running the world and why they are doing it, and are starting to fight back against globalism/technocracy. Hand-in-hand with the observations made by others here already that last November Bill Gates’ happened to do a simulation of the (patented) Coronavirus – could many of these things and similar help us make some connections? This virus or another one (along with the timing of the 5G rollout worldwide; which apparently cumulatively weakens immune systems) could have been planned far in advance – to be used as the excuse to lead us to their ultimate goal of a one-world, centralised, technocratic. global, completely digital world? It is not out of the bounds of possibility if you have seen the globalists’ modus operandi.

Make no mistake the global establishment want to implement their global Smart Grid/IoT very soon – for them it’s make or break; they wouldn’t spend billions & billions of money and colossal amounts of resources on it for it to be left by the wayside?

Note: Maybe this current virus (and other future planned viruses) do not create pandemics in our modern sociey and are only the official excuse to cover up the truth. The truth that the world-populations’ ill health and the real culprit of the deteriorating health may actually be due to the damaging 5G system itself? Remember we are all electrical beings; the universe is essentially electrical. The natural frequencies of the Earth keeps everything including people healthy; on the other hand, artificial man-made frequencies cause harm & disease, and disrupt natural processes like bees’ navigation systems.

As I said, just some different things to explore…

Tallis Marsh
Tallis Marsh
Jan 26, 2020 6:32 PM
Reply to  Tallis Marsh

Well, this test’s result (here) shows that the bug happened only on the last article? Strange…

Tallis Marsh
Tallis Marsh
Jan 26, 2020 6:39 PM
Reply to  Tallis Marsh

Okay, I’ve just tested a few other articles and the bug seems to only occur on that article: “Coronavirus Update: Following the money”.

Tallis Marsh
Tallis Marsh
Jan 26, 2020 6:52 PM
Reply to  Tallis Marsh

No idea why someone would down-vote a commenter doing a test of a bug!

Tallis Marsh
Tallis Marsh
Jan 26, 2020 6:59 PM
Reply to  Tallis Marsh

Now, the down-votes have disappeared! Admin down-voted before realising there was, indeed, a bug?

Sophie - Admin1
Admin
Sophie - Admin1
Jan 26, 2020 8:41 PM
Reply to  Tallis Marsh

I’m having a hard time understanding what you think the problem is. If newest comments aren’t showing right at the top on a particular thread it’s likely because there’s a pinned comment on that thread.

Likes and dislikes are showing as normal. We didn’t down vote you.

This is a long thread for a fairly minor issue. I’m going to close it now. If you have more issues you’re welcome to email us, but try not to overrun the BTL section with ‘tests’. It’s probably a sense of irritation from someone that got you the down votes

Matt
Matt
Jan 26, 2020 5:52 PM

The SA-15 Tor defense system used by Iran has one major vulnerability. It can be hacked or “spoofed,” permitting an intruder to impersonate a legitimate user and take control. The United States Navy and Air Force reportedly have developed technologies “that can fool enemy radar systems with false and deceptively moving targets.” Fooling the system also means fooling the operator. The Guardian has also reported independently how the United States military has long been developing systems that can from a distance alter the electronics and targeting of Iran’s available missiles.

Just because something is possible, does not mean that it is actually what happened. There is no evidence so far indicating that the U.S. did any sort of spoofing or electronic warfare on the Tor systems.

Are there any other, more reasonable, theories that can could explain why this happened? Giraldi claims that the Tor operator could not have made such a mistake. That assumes the operator knew what he was doing. This article and this article have more information on how the operator could have made such a mistake. They both extensively quote academics who study these sorts of things. Here is an edited summary of both:

A properly functioning SA-15 battery would have had multiple means of identifying PS 752 as a civilian aircraft. The radar should have shown that the Boeing was on a commonly used flight path heading northwest from the airport.

The Boeing was transmitting a unique transponder identification code. If the equipment on the SA-15 that picks that up, called an IFF interrogator, was malfunctioning, battery operators would typically look at the schedule of airline traffic through their area and see if the target matched with a scheduled flight.

The SA-15 operators also would have considered the path and speed of the plane on radar. Is it operating at low altitude, at high speed, headed toward a sensitive area? Flight PS 752 was rising toward 8,000 feet at a relatively sedate speed of 275 knots when flight tracking data from its transponder cut out, a normal profile for an airliner.

If the unit didn’t rush, they should have had sufficient time to make a considered decision as to whether to launch an interceptor. If the SA-15 unit in question was operating independently, the operators’ visibility would have been constrained to its relatively short radar range of 11 to 13.5 miles. Its missiles have a maximum range of 7.5 miles. Given the slow speed of the 737, if the plane grazed the edge of the battery’s missile range, the operators would have had a decision window of 1 minute and 53 seconds. If it directly overflew the launcher, the soldiers would have had 3 minutes and 39 seconds.

Given the multiple means of detection and the distinctive flight profile of an airliner, there’s no excuse for the deadly mistake. The only credible explanation is incompetence.

Iranian air defense forces haven’t been seriously tested since the Iran-Iraq War and their level of training is a question mark.

In 2007 and 2008, Iranian air defense units mistakenly fired on two airliners amid fears that Israel was planning to attack its nuclear weapons development facilities, according to a classified Pentagon report obtained by the New York Times. Iranian air defense forces believed enemy aircraft might mimic the flight profile of an airliner, the report said.

Security camera footage published by the New York Times on Tuesday shows the flight of two interceptor missiles from launch to detonation, which provides a basis to estimate where the air defense battery was located: 12.9 kilometers (8 miles) away from where the first missile intercepted the plane, likely parked at the southern end of the Bidganeh missile base.

That’s beyond the 12-km maximum range of SA-15 missiles listed by the manufacturer, Almaz-Antey. Even assuming actual performance is better, the distance and the geometry of targeting a hostile aircraft on the flight path the airliner was on made launching missiles at that point a “hail Mary shot”, and one that training manuals for Soviet-pedigree systems using the same guidance system discourage taking.

The 737 was flying on a commonly used departure path from Tehran’s Iman Khomeini airport, climbing to 8,000 feet at a relatively sedate airspeed of 315 mph. Cruise missiles usually fly close to the ground at altitudes under 250 feet, and at speeds of 550 mph and up.

The SA-15 is also equipped with a telescope system that was added to Soviet SAM batteries to allow operators to take aim visually if their guidance radar is jammed. Essentially a TV camera with a large telephoto lens, if one of the soldiers had used it, he would have been able to see the tell-tale blinking navigation lights of the 737.

Another discordant note is that the air defense unit is said to have determined that the object they were tracking was a cruise missile when it was 19 km away. Given the small size of a cruise missile, the SA-15’s search radar isn’t able to produce a stable targeting track to shoot at from so far away. Only a large object like the 737 would.

When the IRGC leadership say the operators thought it was a cruise missile, it says to an expert that the operators did not understand the limitations of their equipment.

Given that the SA-15’s role is generally limited to short-range protection around military targets and the limited resources of the Iranian military with the Iranian economy in crisis, it’s possible that the crew hadn’t received much training on dealing with civilian aircraft. Priority for in-depth training on airspace deconfliction with air traffic control might have been directed to other units operating longer-range air defense systems, like the S-200 and S-300.

Iranian air defense forces likely were operating under looser rules of engagement in anticipation of a potential counterstrike to a barrage of missiles Iran had launched hours before against U.S. bases in Iraq. The SA-15 crew also may have been fatigued after being on alert for the five days since Solemaini’s death and were under heavy psychological pressure, knowing that they could well be targeted by the U.S. Air Force, which is given to commencing campaigns by wiping out enemy air defenses like their unit to allow its warplanes to operate with greater freedom.

The SA-15 Gauntlet is a system developed toward the end of the Soviet Union, and its controls reflect the makeup of the air defense troops in the country’s conscript army, which provided a pool of university students pursuing science and engineering degrees and others with a good basic level of education.

As opposed to the all-volunteer U.S. military, which can design weapons systems with deceptively simple user interfaces that contain a complicated range of options that it heavily invests in training soldiers on, Soviet air defense systems have a load of buttons and switches on the consoles, but most do one thing only.

The aim was to allow them to train a large number of technically competent people en masse to an adequate level of proficiency.

They require more training to get a basic level of operator competence on, but once you have that operator competence, they’re quite straightforward systems. If you haven’t learned the manual, it’s going to be bewildering.

Another, more obvious point is that Iran has had ample time to check whether the operator was “tricked” due to electronics warfare, or if it was his own incompetence. Given that revealing such information would reduce Iran’s embarrassment and allow them to blame the U.S., and considering they have not made such accusations yet, it’s clear that they found no evidence of spoofing/electronic warfare.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Jan 26, 2020 9:46 PM
Reply to  Matt

One would expect an Integrity Initiative troll to be well-acquainted with ALL US capabilities, which must be huge given the two trillion a year spent on creating them, and supportive of them. But it remains the fact that these people would be alive and millions of others throughout the region as well, if ‘Matt’s’ friends in the US Reich had not spent seventy odd years malevolently interfering in the region.

Matt
Matt
Jan 27, 2020 12:28 AM

One would expect an Integrity Initiative troll

All you do is follow me around and troll by calling me an “Integrity Initiative troll”. You never have anything useful to contribute to the discussion. Your only purpose is to troll the comments section here, attacking those who disagree with the article.

I can’t believe that the moderators here have never reprimanded you or stopped you. It’s just stunning. You’ve made dozens upon dozens of posts, in which all you do is post ad hominem. Out of all the people I’ve spoken to here, you are by far the most persistent and trolling.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Jan 27, 2020 2:35 AM
Reply to  Matt

Bollocks, ‘Matt’. You’ re a troll to your very marrow, but I will follow your sage advice and ignore you, save for your most blatant lies.

Antonym
Antonym
Jan 27, 2020 2:44 AM

Uber troll trolls about trolling: loll!

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Jan 27, 2020 7:02 AM
Reply to  Antonym

Ubu troll, trolling about supposed troll, trolling, supposedly, about trolling.

Matt
Matt
Jan 27, 2020 11:54 AM
Reply to  Antonym

I know, right? The troll’s been following me around over the past week, replying to all of my comments with cheap ad hominem attacks and paranoid accusations of me being a shill. Yet, the troll has the audacity to call me a troll! Couldn’t get any more trollish than that, I suppose.

The troll’s lucky though, that the admins of this website tolerate the behaviour of him and his ilk. If someone critical of the article, like myself, made even 1/10th of the insulting posts he made, the “Admin” would certainly reprimand me with a comment. But him? He’s special. He gets to say whatever he wants as many times as he wants. Because he’s harassing the “right” people.

Thanks for the help, “Admin”!

Matt
Matt
Jan 27, 2020 11:47 AM

Strange definition of “troll” you’ve got. A “troll” isn’t someone you just happen to disagree with. It’s someone who excessively posts, follows people around, attacks them, and tries to derail normal discussion and debate. Someone like… you.

Considering I’ve only posted a few comments over the past weeks, all on topic, and you’ve been following people around, insulting them and and accusing them of being paid trolls, it’s fairly clear that you’re the only troll here, “Richard Le Sarc”.

I will follow your sage advice and ignore you

Thanks! I just hope you don’t have a relapse.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Jan 27, 2020 10:17 PM
Reply to  Matt

Disagreement, honest dispute, is fine, so long as one side is not brain-dead and pig ignorant. Then the hackles rise, given that it is so often in regard to conditions of great human suffering. Your positions are, in my opinion, purely propagandistic from the point of view of our globalist Masters, and therefore, in my opinion, either lies, or the product of lifelong brainwashing. Like a little Bellingcat looking for a profitable niche. Sorry for the relapse, but I’m incorrigible.

Matt
Matt
Jan 27, 2020 10:50 PM

Disagreement, honest dispute, is fine, so long as one side is not brain-dead and pig ignorant.

OK. So explain why my original comment was ‘braindead” and “pig-ignorant”. You conveniently skipped that part when you originally replied to me.

Iran’s Civil Aviation Agency said that it had found no evidence of jamming or hacking. This directly contradicts claims that the U.S. was responsible. All I did was elaborate further on how the IRGC member could have accidentally shot down the plane. That is a perfectly reasonable thing to say.

If you’re going to call other people “braindead”, at least make sure you’re in the right. In this case, you’re simply not. Case closed.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Jan 28, 2020 7:49 AM
Reply to  Matt

You say that the ICAA has denied jamming or hacking. Could you provide a source for that, because I could not find it by Googling?And your ‘edited summary’, created by you one assumes, was, in my opinion, pure agit-prop, so I take you to be either a troll working for Western propaganda, or a well brainwashed ‘ Good German’. If I’m wrong, I’ll be surprised.

paul
paul
Jan 26, 2020 10:36 PM
Reply to  Matt

These sort of friendly fire incidents are inevitable in war.
They always have been and always will be, though that offers little consolation to the victims.
People who are under stress have to make on the spot decisions with people’s lives and the future of their country on the line.
You have to keep an open mind, but until such time as evidence emerges of missiles being hacked into in a deliberate plot to bring about this tragedy, then Occam’s Razor probably applies.

Matt
Matt
Jan 27, 2020 1:13 AM
Reply to  paul

Well said!

Matt
Matt
Jan 26, 2020 5:51 PM

The SA-15 Tor defense system used by Iran has one major vulnerability. It can be hacked or “spoofed,” permitting an intruder to impersonate a legitimate user and take control. The United States Navy and Air Force reportedly have developed technologies “that can fool enemy radar systems with false and deceptively moving targets.” Fooling the system also means fooling the operator. The Guardian has also reported independently how the United States military has long been developing systems that can from a distance alter the electronics and targeting of Iran’s available missiles.

Just because something is possible, does not mean that it is actually what happened. There is no evidence so far indicating that the U.S. did any sort of spoofing or electronic warfare on the Tor systems.

Are there any other, more reasonable, theories that can could explain why this happened? Giraldi claims that the Tor operator could not have made such a mistake. That assumes the operator knew what he was doing. This article and this article have more information on how the operator could have made such a mistake. They both extensively quote academics who study these sorts of things. Here is an edited summary of both:

A properly functioning SA-15 battery would have had multiple means of identifying PS 752 as a civilian aircraft. The radar should have shown that the Boeing was on a commonly used flight path heading northwest from the airport.

The Boeing was transmitting a unique transponder identification code. If the equipment on the SA-15 that picks that up, called an IFF interrogator, was malfunctioning, battery operators would typically look at the schedule of airline traffic through their area and see if the target matched with a scheduled flight.

The SA-15 operators also would have considered the path and speed of the plane on radar. Is it operating at low altitude, at high speed, headed toward a sensitive area? Flight PS 752 was rising toward 8,000 feet at a relatively sedate speed of 275 knots when flight tracking data from its transponder cut out, a normal profile for an airliner.

If the unit didn’t rush, they should have had sufficient time to make a considered decision as to whether to launch an interceptor. If the SA-15 unit in question was operating independently, the operators’ visibility would have been constrained to its relatively short radar range of 11 to 13.5 miles. Its missiles have a maximum range of 7.5 miles. Given the slow speed of the 737, if the plane grazed the edge of the battery’s missile range, the operators would have had a decision window of 1 minute and 53 seconds. If it directly overflew the launcher, the soldiers would have had 3 minutes and 39 seconds.

Given the multiple means of detection and the distinctive flight profile of an airliner, there’s no excuse for the deadly mistake. The only credible explanation is incompetence.

Iranian air defense forces haven’t been seriously tested since the Iran-Iraq War and their level of training is a question mark.

In 2007 and 2008, Iranian air defense units mistakenly fired on two airliners amid fears that Israel was planning to attack its nuclear weapons development facilities, according to a classified Pentagon report obtained by the New York Times. Iranian air defense forces believed enemy aircraft might mimic the flight profile of an airliner, the report said.

Security camera footage published by the New York Times on Tuesday shows the flight of two interceptor missiles from launch to detonation, which provides a basis to estimate where the air defense battery was located: 12.9 kilometers (8 miles) away from where the first missile intercepted the plane, likely parked at the southern end of the Bidganeh missile base.

That’s beyond the 12-km maximum range of SA-15 missiles listed by the manufacturer, Almaz-Antey. Even assuming actual performance is better, the distance and the geometry of targeting a hostile aircraft on the flight path the airliner was on made launching missiles at that point a “hail Mary shot”, and one that training manuals for Soviet-pedigree systems using the same guidance system discourage taking.

The 737 was flying on a commonly used departure path from Tehran’s Iman Khomeini airport, climbing to 8,000 feet at a relatively sedate airspeed of 315 mph. Cruise missiles usually fly close to the ground at altitudes under 250 feet, and at speeds of 550 mph and up.

The SA-15 is also equipped with a telescope system that was added to Soviet SAM batteries to allow operators to take aim visually if their guidance radar is jammed. Essentially a TV camera with a large telephoto lens, if one of the soldiers had used it, he would have been able to see the tell-tale blinking navigation lights of the 737.

Another discordant note is that the air defense unit is said to have determined that the object they were tracking was a cruise missile when it was 19 km away. Given the small size of a cruise missile, the SA-15’s search radar isn’t able to produce a stable targeting track to shoot at from so far away. Only a large object like the 737 would.

When the IRGC leadership say the operators thought it was a cruise missile, it says to an expert that the operators did not understand the limitations of their equipment.

Given that the SA-15’s role is generally limited to short-range protection around military targets and the limited resources of the Iranian military with the Iranian economy in crisis, it’s possible that the crew hadn’t received much training on dealing with civilian aircraft. Priority for in-depth training on airspace deconfliction with air traffic control might have been directed to other units operating longer-range air defense systems, like the S-200 and S-300.

Iranian air defense forces likely were operating under looser rules of engagement in anticipation of a potential counterstrike to a barrage of missiles Iran had launched hours before against U.S. bases in Iraq. The SA-15 crew also may have been fatigued after being on alert for the five days since Solemaini’s death and were under heavy psychological pressure, knowing that they could well be targeted by the U.S. Air Force, which is given to commencing campaigns by wiping out enemy air defenses like their unit to allow its warplanes to operate with greater freedom.

The SA-15 Gauntlet is a system developed toward the end of the Soviet Union, and its controls reflect the makeup of the air defense troops in the country’s conscript army, which provided a pool of university students pursuing science and engineering degrees and others with a good basic level of education.

As opposed to the all-volunteer U.S. military, which can design weapons systems with deceptively simple user interfaces that contain a complicated range of options that it heavily invests in training soldiers on, Soviet air defense systems have a load of buttons and switches on the consoles, but most do one thing only.

The aim was to allow them to train a large number of technically competent people en masse to an adequate level of proficiency.

They require more training to get a basic level of operator competence on, but once you have that operator competence, they’re quite straightforward systems. If you haven’t learned the manual, it’s going to be bewildering.

Another, more obvious point is that Iran has had ample time to check whether the operator was “tricked” due to electronics warfare, or if it was his own incompetence. Given that revealing such information would reduce Iran’s embarrassment and allow them to blame the U.S., and considering they have not made such accusations yet, it’s clear that they found no evidence of spoofing/electronic warfare.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Jan 26, 2020 9:50 PM
Reply to  Matt

You might rely on Jeremy Bogaisky of Forbes and the New York Times, both, shall we say, Zionist disinfo operations, but those not on the Integrity Initiative payrolls may choose not to.

Vivian J
Vivian J
Jan 27, 2020 7:35 PM
Reply to  Matt

Please don’t repeat your posts including long ‘cut and pasted’ quotes and at the same time complain about the behaviour of others on the forum.

Matt
Matt
Jan 29, 2020 2:55 AM
Reply to  Vivian J

Please don’t repeat your posts

That was obviously by accident. Hounding me for accidentally posting a duplicate comment and comparing it to the extremely rude behaviour of others is just not right.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Jan 30, 2020 6:49 AM
Reply to  Matt

‘Hounding’ you? Unnecessary old boy.

Francis Lee
Francis Lee
Jan 26, 2020 4:59 PM

”We are going to lie, cheat and steal, as Pompeo is doing right now, as Trump, Esper, Lindsey Graham [and] Tom Cotton [are] doing right now … to continue this war complex.” Wilkerson said. “That’s the truth of it. And that’s the agony of it.”

The unprespossessing Mr Graham is of course one of the uber-Hawks in Congress and serves as a loyal and useful retard to his Israeli masters. His rewards of course are not quite the blessings of his conscience, however, but somewhat more earthly and substantial. The Las Vegas gambling magnate, Sheldon Adelson, well-known mouthpiece of Zionist interests has invested millions of dollars in order to ban internet gambling. A seemingly innocent and seemingly laudable act. However, this was to protect his billion dollar Casino interests from competition. Into the picture comes Mr Graham who was to introduce a bill banning internet gambling. This in spite of the views of his southern Baptist constituents in South Carolina. Strange that Mr Graham had held Federal elective office 1995 and never felt any urge to introduce this legislation until 2014, precisely the time when Adelson began showering him with money. Funny that!

Additionally, Mr Graham during a meeting with Netanyahu – 27 December 2014 – made an act of fealty to his master. He is reported as saying that he would follow whatever policies the Israeli PM might propose* One wonders whether it is Israel or the US who is the client state in this arrangement.

* Fox News.

Richard Le Sarc
Richard Le Sarc
Jan 27, 2020 7:09 AM
Reply to  Francis Lee

Honestly, Frank-the Zionist Israel First Lobby controls US politics, completely (ie as much as they require)in a colonial arrangement without historical peer, I would say. Corrupt money politics at its most flagrant, yet universally denied.

Charlotte Russe
Charlotte Russe
Jan 26, 2020 3:37 PM

Hudson’s depiction of ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al Nusra etc… as an “America’s Foreign Legion” couldn’t be more perfect. Barbarians deployed as proxy militia to ensure perpetual chaos.

Another bit of info worth mentioning is that the term “conspiracy theory” emerged subsequent to JFK’s assassination. It dismissively eliminated theories contradicting the official narrative, but most importantly categorized all skeptics as loons.

Five decades later, this phrase ubiquitously denounces all information threatening mainstream media
news press releases. Corporate mainstream media news devolved into a distribution center for
harvested narratives manufactured by numerous security state/corporately controlled think tanks. So in effect, mainstream media news disseminates conspiratorial theories, while it simultaneously discredits journalists who dare report the truth.

Gall
Gall
Jan 26, 2020 9:30 PM

Funny how despite being called “conspiracy theory” that this information actually sneaks surreptitiously into mainstream publications. For instance a fascinating article in the LA Times on how Al Qaeda is bigger now than it was when it was UBL Inc.

Of course it was a “just the ‘facts’ ma’am article” and didn’t get into why this would be after almost two decades of the holy war of …er … I mean “on” terror. Same with nonchalantly reporting that opium production actually increased after the invasion of Afghanistan. Again no speculation on why this would be?

Same with a Ukrainian airliner that just happened to get shot down which according to the circus that ludicrously called itself an “impeachment” committee belonged to what they consider our “greatest ally” in the European theatre who is supposedly “fighting the Russians so ‘we’ don’t have to”.

Yes they actually said that and that is a direct quote. I mean who would have thought that the Death Star known as Washington DC would not only be meddling in the Middle East but is also fighting a proxy war against Russia using the Nazi Regime of Ukraine?

Of course anyone who would say so would immediately labeled as a “conspiracy theorist”.

Charlotte Ruse
Charlotte Ruse
Jan 26, 2020 9:57 PM
Reply to  Gall

Limited hangouts.