Skip to main content

Author: Author1

Israel shifts focus to Tehran’s sea bridge, strikes Guards ship in the Red Sea

Written on . Posted in PT Middle East.

Debkafile: A US official told The New York Times that Israel had informed Washington of an attack by its forces on the IRGC-flagged Saviz in the Red Sea on Tuesday, April 6, in reprisal for Iranian strikes against its merchant vessels. The target was a floating IRGC intelligence base stationed between Eritrea and Yemen.

“I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. Ezekiel 38:21 NIV

No comment has come from Israel to this report. The official said the ship had been hit below the water line. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said that the large ship was hit by limpet mines; the IRGC blamed Israel on social media. Located at a strategic Red Sea choke point, the ship which has been stationary for two years can provide a constant flow of real-time intelligence on maritime traffic and military vessels. Uniformed men have been seen onboard the ship, and on the deck are small launch boats that are commonly used by the IRGC.

What are limpet mines? Iran's sabotage of an Israeli ship has echoes of Fujairah attacks | The National

The incident highlights five points, noted here by DEBKAfile’s analysts:

  1. The Saviz was in position for gathering intelligence relevant to any planned Iranian sea or land Red Sea region aggression, including Israeli or Saudi coastal targets.
  2. The Biden administration jumped the gun in publicizing Israel’s role in the attack for its own ends. It coincided with the opening of the first indirect talks between the US and Iran, brokered by the EU in Vienna and through back channels to revive the 2025 nuclear deal, to which Israel strongly objects. US officials released the story as a warning to Israel not to spoil the diplomatic track.
  3. Iran, normally cagy or slow to acknowledge Israeli military strikes, got in fast with a cursory report by Tanzim.
  4. All this indicates a tidal shift in the tactics used in the Israel-Iranian conflict. Most significantly, the focus has moved from Israel’s campaign to wipe out Iran’s land bridge through Syria to a drive to disrupt its oceanic bridge through the Red Sea.
  5. The Saviz attack substantially notched up the intensity of the conflict.  Most of the sea attacks until now involved civilian shipping. Israel reportedly struck a row of Iranian Syria-bound oil tankers in the Mediterranean in 2019 and last month. This year, Iran hit two Israeli merchant vessels in the Mediterranean and Gulf of Oman. But this time, the target was military, a ship called in a US report a “covert IRGC forward base. Read More

The Woke Chauvinists Want Chauvin’s Head, but Their Prosecution Is Collapsing

Written on . Posted in PT World Order.

The New American: It’s what can happen when media agitation helps formulate criminal charges: A lawbreaker dies of an overdose in police custody, and the officer who restrained him is overcharged and then acquitted.

“Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely.” Proverbs 28:5 ESV

Then the rabble, convinced by race hustlers and propagandists that a murder was committed and the cop’s head would be on a platter, riot, burn, and destroy. Some of this has already happened in the case of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and the late George Floyd. The rest very well may happen. As commentator Andrea Widburg reports:

The trial of Derek Chauvin grinds on. Currently, the prosecution is still putting on its case, but it may want to stop doing so before the court is forced to dismiss the case altogether. As Andrew Branca, at Legal Insurrection, explained after the eighth day of the trial, “once again, the defense weaponizes prosecution ‘expert’ witness against the prosecution case.”

… A brief rundown here to orient you:

George Floyd, a convicted violent felon, passed a fake $20 bill. When the police arrived, Floyd was clearly under the influence and complaining that he couldn’t breathe. The police tried to get him into the back of their car, at which point he went wild.

Over 300 Arrested In Third Day Of Explosive George Floyd Protests In NYC - Gothamist

Concluding that Floyd was suffering from excited delirium (i.e., a probably drug overdose), Derek Chauvin restrained Floyd in textbook fashion, by placing him on his stomach with Chauvin’s knee across Floyd’s shoulder. The police also called 911 for a paramedic. While all this was going on a crowd gathered, filming what was happening and hurling angry, threatening imprecations at the police.

Then Floyd died.

June 1 coverage of nationwide unrest and ongoing protests

This led to hundreds of violent riots and civilization-rending cultural changes, such as new policies and laws, the renaming of schools and other institutions, and legally mandated discrimination rebranded as “equity” six ways to Sunday. What’s more, Floyd’s family got $27 million from the city of Minneapolis to ease their grief. Read More

State Witness In Floyd Trial: Bystanders’ Threats Would ‘Raise Alarm’ Enough To Detain Suspect

Written on . Posted in PT World Order.

Daily Wire: A witness called by the prosecution in the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin said this week that bystanders’ threats would “raise alarm” for an arresting officer, leading him to continue the detainment of a suspect, which in this case was 46-year-old George Floyd.

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8 ESV

The cross-examination testimony of Lt. Johnny Mercil, who was in charge of use-of-force training at the time of Floyd’s arrest, caused a number of problems for the prosecution this week, including when defense attorney Eric Nelson showed Mercil images of bystanders and quoted their language toward Chauvin during the arrest.

After Mercil notably confirmed that Chauvin did not have Floyd in a “neck restraint” while he was detaining him, Nelson asked the use-of-force expert if an officer’s environment would affect how long he restrains a suspect. Mercil answered “yes.”

If bystanders were “cheering” on the officer, Nelson outlined, that’d be one thing. But “if they were saying, I’d slap the f*** out of you, or, you’re a p****, or, you’re a chump, would that reasonably tend to raise alarm to the police officer?”

“Yes, sir,” Mercil responded.

Biden Reportedly Planning to Choose Hardcore Anti-gun Lobbyist as Head of ATF

Written on . Posted in PT World Order.

The New American: Sources familiar with the workings of the Biden White House say he will pick gun-control advocate David Chipman (shown) to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

“When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.” Proverbs 29:2 ESV

Chipman is a senior policy advisor at Giffords, a group led by former Arizona Representative Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) that advocates for stricter gun laws. Giffords’s husband is recently elected U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).

Prior to this role, Chipman was a special agent for the ATF.

“David has spent his career serving the public, combating violent crime, and striving to make our nation and our communities safer. As a responsible gun owner, decorated law enforcement professional, and gun safety expert, David is the perfect choice for ATF director,” Giffords said of Chipman.

If by that she means “perfect” for eroding Americans’ constitutional liberties, she’s right. Read More

ISRAEL BRACING FOR IRAN TO POSSIBLY STRIKE FROM THEIR OWN TERRITORY

Written on . Posted in PT Middle East.

Israel 365: In response to their recent exchange of naval attacks, which reached its height on Tuesday with a strike on an Iranian spy ship in the Red Sea, Israel is readying for a potential assault on its own assets inside Israel from Iran’s territory reports Israel Hayom.

When you take the field against your enemies, and see horses and chariots—forces larger than yours—have no fear of them, for Hashem your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt, is with you. Deuteronomy 20:1 (The Israel BibleTM)

The Saviz ship which featured an Iranian flag was hit with water mines attached to its hull on Wednesday. Israel did not claim responsibility for the attack, however, foreign media outlets are reporting that the IDF’s Shayetet 13 naval commandos executed the hit, which was the most recent in a slew of operations against Iran’s targets that the amphibious unit has executed the past two years.

It seems that, unlike previous incidents, whereby Israel Intercepted illicit oil or weapons smuggling, this time the operation’s objective was to let the Iranians realize that their recent attacks on ships that are owned by private Israeli businessmen are off-limits. Read More

‘Pro-Crypto’ Peter Thiel Warns Bitcoin “Could Be A Chinese Financial Weapon Against The US”

Written on . Posted in PT Global Economy.

Zero Hedge: In early 2018, controversial conservative billionaire and PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel said “Crypto is libertarian, AI is communist.”

He was specifically talking about decentralization and centralization.

  • Cryptocurrencies are typically open-source, meaning that anyone with technical ability can contribute. On top of that, anyone disgruntled with a given cryptocurrency’s trajectory can “fork” it, creating a new coin (as we have seen in both bitcoin and ethereum). Cryptocurrencies are also famously designed to be extralegal – beyond the reach of the government – although of course the SEC and the IRS hope to quash that notion.
  • Meanwhile, artificial intelligence relies on the trend that came before it, big data, and big data is gathered by big entities. Historically, communist regimes like the Soviet Union and Maoist China sought to create highly centralized command economies, noted Thiel. A sufficiently powerful AI could realize the bureaucrat’s dream of accurately predicting peasant farmers’ potato yields months in advance from thousands of miles away.

No wonder, then, as the billionaire VC said at the time, “the Chinese Communist Party hates crypto and loves AI.”

Peter Thiel criticizes Google and Apple for being too close to China

Now, three years later, the Palantir co-founder and Facebook board member Peter Thiel joined former Secretary of State Mike Pomeo and former National Security Agency advisor Robert C. O’Brien in a virtual roundtable organized by the Richard Nixon Foundation, to discuss Big Tech’s problematic ties with China. Read More

Emperor Joe Declares ‘No Amendment to the Constitution Is Absolute’ in Gun Control Speech

Written on . Posted in PT World Order.

President Joe Biden declared Thursday that “no amendment is absolute” while unveiling a series of executive actions targeting American citizens’ Second Amendment rights.

“”When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe.” Luke 11:21 NIV

“Today, we’re taking steps to confront not just the gun crisis, but what is actually a public health crisis,” Biden announced in a speech at the White House’s Rose Garden, claiming: “Nothing, nothing I am about to recommend in any way impinges on the Second Amendment.”

“No amendment, no amendment to the Constitution is absolute,” the president continued. “You can’t yell ‘fire’ in a crowded movie theater — recall a freedom of speech. From the very beginning, you couldn’t own any weapon you wanted to own. From the very beginning that the Second Amendment existed, certain people weren’t allowed to have weapons.” Read More

“No amendment, no amendment to the Constitution is absolute,” the president continued. “You can’t yell ‘fire’ in a crowded movie theater — recall a freedom of speech. From the very beginning, you couldn’t own any weapon you wanted to own. From the very beginning that the Second Amendment existed, certain people weren’t allowed to have weapons.” Read More

‘Odds are increasing’ for Trump to become U.S. House speaker

Written on . Posted in PT World Order.

WND: Nearly every U.S. president has held political office before their Oval Office tenure.

Many have been members of the Senate, and more than a dozen were governors. A few have held posts such as secretary of the Navy and CIA director. And one even was on the Supreme Court after his presidency.

But now there’s a suggestion that Trump, who never held office before the presidency, in two years could be the next House speaker.

He said Trump could have a “major role in the upcoming 2022 congressional elections, with a potential payoff that would greatly impact the future of President Biden’s term in office.”

He pointed out that a GOP majority in the House following 2022 could elect Trump. Read More

 

US to send $150 million to UNRWA, formally restoring aid to the Palestinians

Written on . Posted in PT Middle East.

Times of Israel: The United States government announced on Wednesday afternoon that it was formally resuming $150 million in economic aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the UN body tasked with supporting Palestinian refugees, amidst a broader push to restore its aid to the Palestinians.

“Even though Edom has said,
“We have been impoverished,
But we will return and build the desolate places …” Malachi 1:4

“The United States is pleased to announce that, working with Congress, we plan to restart US economic, development and humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

Under the administration of previous US president Donald Trump, Washington largely ended funding for the Palestinian Authority and for UNRWA, which runs a network of educational and medical programs for Palestinian refugees around the Middle East.

In addition to resuming UNRWA funding, the planned aid package includes $75 million in economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza, $10 million for peacebuilding programs through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and $40 million in security assistance. Read More