Fatigue is setting in as a U.S. aircraft carrier nears its ninth month waging the most intense running sea battle since World War II
A US aircraft carrier and its crew have fought Houthi attacks for months. How long can it last?
Category: Middle East
World Spending On Nukes Explodes To More Than $90 Billion
World Spending On Nukes Explodes To More Than $90 Billion
Honeywell International, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics topped the list of companies profiting from nuclear weapons expenditures.
That flood of public funds to private contractors was coupled by significant spending by these companies on efforts to shape the debate around government spending. The companies spent $118 million lobbying governments in the U.S. and France in 2023 and donated more than $6 million to think tanks researching and writing about nuclear weapons.
Lockheed Martin contributed to the most think tanks, including: Atlantic Council, Brookings Institution, Chatham House, Center for a New American Security, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Hudson Institute, and Observer Research Foundation.
Reuters Exposes Washington’s Global Disinformation Campaign: The Rest of the Story
In a recent article, Reuters confirms what many knew for years, that the United States government and its various departments and agencies have been conducting global disinformation campaigns targeting nations it seeks to undermine, and whose governments it seeks to overthrow.
Reuters Exposes Washington’s Global Disinformation Campaign: The Rest of the Story
Previously:
Philippines: Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic
Dalai Lama: Excerpt from ‘Tibet or not Tibet’
Pine Gap’s secret expansion
Pine Gap’s secret expansion (archived)
The expansion of Pine Gap’s capabilities to assist a US strike on China amplifies the risk of such a nuclear war as China and the US manoeuvre in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and adjacent areas.
…
At Declassified Australia I reported that Pine Gap was providing intelligence to the US for use by the Israel Defense Forces, most likely focusing on the “remote launch signals for Hamas rockets, as well as any threatened missile launches from Lebanon or Iran”. The new enhanced Pine Gap radomes add to this intelligence with rapid detection and tracking of the thermal signature of launches of rockets and missiles.
However, while Pine Gap base presently has a heightened attention to Ukraine and Gaza, these limited wars are not the main aim of the huge US investment in the Australian-sited base.
The development of the three new satellite antennas at Pine Gap is the subject of a new study by Professor Tanter. He says they indicate “a greater Australian involvement with US nuclear war fighting planning and operations”. The primary purpose of the new antennas is believed to be to hunt and target Chinese nuclear missile silos.
…
With the US retaining this policy option to respond to a serious military threat with nuclear weapons, a pre-emptive nuclear war with China is not impossible. If this happened, Australia would be on the nuclear frontline.
…
If China believes a war will turn nuclear, it may believe its only chance of survival is to shoot first and cripple the US to such an extent its retaliation is muted. De-escalation would be impossible.
The expansion of Pine Gap’s capabilities to assist a US strike on China amplifies the risk of such a nuclear war as China and the US manoeuvre in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and adjacent areas.
…
Professor Paul Dibb, an academic at the Australian National University and former director of Australia’s Joint Intelligence Organisation, in a policy paper in 2022 confirmed Pine Gap was definitely a target if a conflict between the nuclear powers arose in the Indo-Pacific.
Philippines: Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus.
Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic
“Time to stop singularizing Trump as uniquely evil”
As practically everyone on planet Earth must now know, Donald Trump has become the first former US president to be convicted of felonies after leaving office. The response to the outcome of the trial from Democrats and Republicans has been predictably binary. Democrats have been reveling in the outcome and seem to think that the trial’s conclusion has delivered a final blow to Trump’s credibility and, in turn, his chances of winning the upcoming election. Trump’s supporters, on the other hand, are largely condemning the trial as politically motivated “lawfare” waged by the “radical left” in order to derail Trump’s chances of winning the upcoming election, which might end up galvanizing his base.
I can’t stand Trump, but this is why I don’t post about the criminal charges against him. I’d rather see him, and the rest of them, charged for war crimes! Furthermore, I can understand why his supporters, and even foreigners, see it as lawfare.
Why Biden’s New Bill is So Terrifying
$320 million US pier collapses in Gaza, drifts to Ashdod (Video)
Strong waves have swept away a section of the American floating pier off the coast of the Gaza Strip, heading towards the shores of Ashdod, as per Israeli media.
$320 million US pier collapses in Gaza, drifts to Ashdod (Video)
Related:
U.S. ‘Floating Pier’ for Gaza Damaged by Choppy Seas
Four boats stabilizing the $320 million structure detached, U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for military operations in the Middle East, said Saturday. Two of them floated northward, eventually landing on the beach in Ashdod, Israel, it said. Two others are now anchored on the beach near the pier, the military said, adding that the dock is still operational despite the damage. It said that no U.S. military personnel would enter Gaza.
…
The damage to the dock is only the latest setback in the U.S.’s attempt to deliver aid via the sea for the first time since the war began in October. Shipments at the floating pier began this month and are expected to scale up. Roughly 820 tons of aid were delivered through the floating dock in its first week, the U.S. government’s official international development arm USAID said, a number that is about 20% below the Pentagon’s initial target.
Separately, three U.S. troops were injured on the pier this week in accidents, the Pentagon said, including one seriously. No U.S. troops were injured during Saturday’s incident, the U.S. military said.
With Al-Qassam and Al-Quds Brigades, four other armed Palestinian factions are fighting Israel in Gaza
To support Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and despite any ideological or political differences, thousands of fighters from four other Palestinian factions have been fighting against the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza since last October.
…
“Currently, we are all facing the same catastrophe(…) The Israeli enemy does not differentiate between a Palestinian who follows Fatah and another who belongs to Hamas. For him, everyone is a target. The Israelis want to eradicate the Palestinian people, without exception,” the officials said.
…
“Although the Al-Qassam Brigades and the Al-Quds Brigades are the strongest on the ground, fighters from other factions joining the fight has created a balance not only on the field but also politically, especially since Israel has always bragged since the beginning of its war that it is only fighting Hamas, which it described as similar to ISIS, to justify its crimes against all the Palestinian people,” Wasef Erekat, a Ramallah-based Palestinian military expert, told TNA.
“The presence of diversity in the fighters’ ideological and political backgrounds and tactics in confronting the Israeli occupation prevents Israel from being able to commit even more crimes against the Palestinians and debunks their claim that they are only fighting ‘extremists’ and Hamas,” Erekat said.
…
“Israel and the United States have long tried to stamp out Palestinian armed resistance and hold Hamas fully responsible for the 7 October attack. They ignored the violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza for decades and considered the 7 October attack a ‘crime against humanity’ and mobilised international and, unfortunately, some of the Arab opinion against Hamas,” remarked Iyad al-Qarra, a Gaza-based Palestinian analyst.
Related:
Not Only Hamas: Eight Factions at War With Israel in Gaza
Regarding the ‘Belligerents’ in the Israel–Hamas war and Hamas in Syria
The Palestinians’ inalienable right to resist
Why doesn’t Amnesty recognize Palestinians’ right to resist?
China tells ICJ: Palestinians have the right to use ‘armed force’ against Israel
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
You must be logged in to post a comment.