Crooked Bough News Round-up

— It Is Not Okay For Grown Adults To Believe Infantile Fairy Tales About Iran

 

at 3/7/26 6:20pm

It’s not okay for grown adults to believe the United States wages wars to promote humanitarian interests and bring freedom and democracy to oppressed populations. It’s not okay for grown adults to believe that US soldiers fight and die to protect their country and its citizens. It’s not okay for grown adults to believe US military interventionism in the middle east has anything to do with women’s rights or making life better for women. It’s not okay for grown adults to believe good things come from the US military attacking middle eastern nations and toppling their governments. It’s not okay for grown adults to believe the US government tells the truth about its wars and the reasons it wages them. It’s not okay for grown adults to believe the US are the Good Guys who are fighting evil Bad Guys like the heroes in a children’s cartoon show. It’s not okay for grown adults to believe the US government is less murderous and tyrannical than the Iranian government. It’s not okay for grown adults to swallow obvious atrocity propaganda about horrific actions allegedly perpetrated by a US-targeted government. It’s not okay for grown adults to consume western news media about a war without extreme skepticism about all the information they’re being fed. It’s not okay for grown adults to believe the US fights wars for self-defense. It’s not okay for grown adults to believe the government that allows its own citizens to die of poverty and disease cares deeply about the plight of the Iranian people. It’s not okay for grown adults to support this war because of some shit that was written in the Bible. It’s not okay for grown adults to believe the life of an Iranian matters less than the life of an American. It’s not okay for grown adults to believe the US military is used to make the world a better place. It’s not okay for grown adults to believe this war will make Iran more free and democratic. It’s not okay for grown adults to believe this war will benefit anyone besides Israel and western oligarchs. Reading by Tim Foley: https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/it-is-not-okaa-for-grown-adults-to The post It Is Not Okay For Grown Adults To Believe Infantile Fairy Tales About Iran appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: SOCIAL/CULTURAL, Iran, propaganda, USA]

— How Iran Is Ending American Hegemony

 

at 3/7/26 6:11am

An interview discussing the rapidly escalating Middle East conflict and the evolving dynamics of the Iran–U.S.–Israel confrontation. The conversation explores Iran’s “decentralized mosaic” military strategy, rapid missile responses, and the broader regional impact, including attacks on U.S. bases and pressure on Gulf states. It also examines the risk of prolonged war, potential global economic disruption, shifts in oil markets, and the growing geopolitical role of Russia and China as the balance of power in West Asia begins to change. The post How Iran Is Ending American Hegemony appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: interview, Multimedia, WORLD, airstrike, hegemony, Iran, Israel, Middle East, USA]

— The US Soldiers Killed In This War Were Not Heroes, And Other Notes

 

at 3/6/26 6:49pm

The US soldiers who are getting killed in the war with Iran were not heroes. They did not die defending their country. They did not die fighting to protect Americans. They died advancing the geostrategic agendas of oligarchs and empire managers which benefit ordinary Americans in no way. It’s important not to valorize these people for two reasons. Firstly, it assists US military recruitment by falsely portraying these imperial stormtrooper careers as noble and heroic. Secondly, it falsely frames the war they died in as a righteous cause which is making the world a better place, rather than as a war of aggression against a nation that posed literally zero threat to their homeland. These are not harmless little white lies. They are extremely destructive propaganda narratives which facilitate acts of mass military slaughter on real human beings. Don’t assist the warmongers in circulating these lies. Don’t pretend they are true to help people feel nice feelings about the dead soldiers. People should not be feeling nice feelings about the dead soldiers. People should be angry and upset, and they should be demanding that this horrific war end immediately. Those soldiers did not die for any noble reason. They died for money, for power, and for Israel. They wasted their lives, and they died for stupid, unworthy reasons. Don’t let anyone claim otherwise. ❖ On February 28, President Trump told Axios that the war on Iran could end “in two or three days”. On March 1, Trump released a video message saying the war would “take four weeks or less.” On March 2, Trump said from the White House that the war is “projected four to five weeks”, adding the US military has the “capability to go far longer than that”. On March 4, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told the press, “you can say four weeks, but it could be six, it could be eight.” On March 6, Politico reported that the Pentagon is planning for the war to run through September. I wonder what they’ll be saying after September? ❖ Proportionate? Irans not trying to be proportionate. Proportionate would be for Iran to kill Trump. Kill his entire cabinet. Kill his opposition. Bomb the shit out of New York and Los Angeles. Bomb a school full of American kids. Bomb some hospitals. That would be proportionate. https://t.co/3VzLZBrKJQ pic.twitter.com/6SqD2FlXNc — Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) March 2, 2026 ❖ The left’s resistance to the Iran war has been relatively muted and inadequate up to this point. One reason for this is because a lot of pro-regime change voices inserted themselves into the pro-Palestine movement and have been promoting their view for three years. I used to follow a few pro-Palestine accounts on TikTok and Instagram who sound great when they’re talking about Gaza but suddenly transform into Lindsey Graham whenever they’re talking about Iran. I mean I’m exaggerating slightly — they dress it up in leftist-sounding language etc — but functionally their position hasn’t been much different from that of Marco Rubio. I don’t have time to get into a big flame war with minor internet personalities so I’m not going to call anyone out or cite specific examples, but the long and short of it is they wanted regime change and promoted the idea that we should all “center Iranian voices,” ie the voices of warmongering Iranian diaspora. That’s been happening throughout the pro-Palestine movement, both online and off, and it’s put a wobble on people’s confidence when it comes to resisting Trump’s latest mass atrocity. This idea that we need to defer to Iranian diaspora about the morality of this war is bat shit insane, and does not deserve to be taken seriously. Too many leftists have let warmongers of Iranian descent bully them into silence on this front, in exactly the same way they let western Jews bully them into silence about Palestine for decades. Their wholesome leftist sensibilities get exploited by cynical manipulators because they want to be receptive to what they perceive as a marginalized group, and it leads them to espouse the exact same foreign policy positions as the CIA and the US State Department. This is stupid, and it needs to stop. Your instincts about the horrific nature of this war are correct. Anyone who told you not to oppose this is an asshole. Don’t let anyone shout you down and shut you up, regardless of where their family happens to come from. Shout right back at them. Tell them to shut up. You are right, and they are wrong. Get out there and start resisting this thing. ❖ Blumenthal: I am more fearful than ever after this briefing, that we may be putting boots on the ground pic.twitter.com/LYyNzE5yiH — Acyn (@Acyn) March 3, 2026 I don’t understand people who fret about sending American boots on the ground in a war of aggression that’s already slaughtering hundreds of civilians every day. These people are like space aliens to me. I cannot for the life of me imagine what it would be like to inhabit a mind that sees bombing civilians as fine, and only becomes “fearful” of a horrific military conflict if it will kill a lot of soldiers from the same country as you. ❖ CNN has a write-up titled “One Tehran resident was hoping for war, but the death of a friend in a bombing raid ‘destroyed’ him”, which reports the following: “A resident of Tehran who spoke with CNN on Friday said that he had been hoping for a war that would topple Iran’s ruling government, but the death of his friend in a bombing raid ‘destroyed’ him. “‘I was waiting for war, I was begging for it,’ he told CNN. ‘I knew that there will be sadness and pain, but I didn’t expect to get involved so quick.’” I’m sorry to be insensitive but what the fuck did pro-war Iranians think “please bomb our country” was asking for? What did they think that would look like in practice? This is why you need to be dismissive of EVERYONE who supports this war. Even Iranian diaspora, and even Iranians in Iran. Nobody who wants the US and Israel to bomb the place where their family lives truly understands what it is they’re asking for. They’re not interfacing with reality in their worldview; they’ve bought into the war propaganda and ingested a fantasy, just like all the shitbrained warmongering westerners. Nobody with a truth-based relationship with reality would ever ask for this. Now they’ve got what they asked for, and they’re probably going to watch their country get bombed to rubble and then plunged into chaos and instability for the foreseeable future as the US and Israel try to create a gigantic Libya in west Asia. Sometimes you need to tell people to shut the fuck up and stop demanding crazy acts of war, regardless of what country their family happens to be from. Reading by Tim Foley: https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-us-soldiers-killed-in-this-war The post The US Soldiers Killed In This War Were Not Heroes, And Other Notes appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: WORLD, airstrike, Iran, NFTE, USA]

— Yes.. They don’t understand Iranian war lingo

 

at 3/6/26 3:17pm

What startling steps were disclosed in the first six days of the aggression that will decide the war? They truly lack understanding of Iran, including Israelis, Americans, and some Arab leaders who have refused to condemn the war against it. As a result, the attack has entered its sixth day without overthrowing the regime or sending the new interim leadership racing to the nearest negotiation table to sign a capitulation letter. To understand the war’s trajectory, the combat operations in the field, and the initial outlines of future results, we must pause to consider these significant changes on the battlefields: • The first: For the first time, Iranian missiles were downed by a more modern and advanced American fighter jet, the “F-15,” in the western part of the country, implying that the Iranian military leadership may have developed new missiles capable of achieving this feat, obtained them from their Chinese and Russian allies, or both, particularly the Russian missile in its “S-400” and “S-500” variants. • The second: the return of Hezbollah’s ballistic missiles to the field and their first targeting of Israeli depths in Tel Aviv and Haifa after a 15-month hiatus, as well as the restoration of their military equipment, which was devastated during the Israeli onslaught. This means that there will be no haven in the Zionist entity. • The third: Sheikh Naim Qassem, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, delivered a fiery speech yesterday that included strong phrases in an unprecedented tone, the most notable of which was his statement, “We will not surrender and will defend our land no matter the sacrifices, despite the imbalance of capabilities, and we will not surrender.” • Fourth, the Iranian Air Force receives its fastest “kamikaze” drone, the “Hadeed 110,” which has a top speed of 517 km/h. According to estimates from Western military experts, it is more efficient than its sister drone, “Shahed,” which performed well in deep Israeli territory and cost only $35,000 to construct, whereas shooting it down costs $4 million. • Fifth, each day of resistance by the Iranian army and people costs the occupying state nearly a billion dollars. In contrast, America’s costs reached approximately 160 billion dollars in the first six days. These are preliminary estimates that are sure to escalate, particularly following the bombing of aircraft carriers and the damage to warships; the increase in the number of casualties and injuries; the cost of the largest military mobilisation since the Iraq War; and the rise in oil prices. • Sixth, the pledge to close the Strait of Hormuz will deal two lethal blows: the first to the Western economy, as oil and gas prices could reach record highs, and the second to Arab countries allied with America that host its military facilities. Closing the Strait would mean their oil and gas exports would not reach global markets, resulting in greater losses and lower oil and gas income, depending on the length and severity of the battle. The Iranians have sought it since the beginning: an open-ended regional war of attrition that contradicts the new American military philosophy for wars, which is to be short, rapid, and clean (with no American losses). They are committed to bombing anyone who supports the assault in the region, particularly the Arab nations. Sheikh Naim Qassem aptly conveyed this new Iranian thinking when he urged the Israeli army to prepare for several days of war with all available resources. Defeat, capitulation, and raising white flags have no place in the Iranian military and political language, either individually or collectively. In six days, the Iranian army unleashed 500 hypersonic missiles, multiple warhead cluster munitions, and over 2,000 drones, forcing over 7 million settlers into shelters and tunnels and destroying huge areas of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The 47-year-long starvation siege, three Israeli-American aggressions in a few years, the incitement of popular protests and the infiltration of spies among the protesters, the mobilisation of aircraft carriers and cruisers, inflation, and the collapse of the national currency all failed to defeat the mighty and steadfast Iranian will or to overthrow or change the regime. Our evidence shows that they perplexed the Americans in negotiations lasting over two years in Vienna and other Arab and European capitals, consistently rejecting all American conditions— from stopping enrichment and handing over 460 kilograms of highly enriched uranium to including the Iranian missile industry or severing ties with resistance factions at the negotiation table. Yes, they were misled by arrogance, conceit, and haughtiness, and sadly, some Arabs collaborated in refusing to recognise Iran. The most visible consequence of their actions will be the destruction of all Israeli gas infrastructure in the Mediterranean, water and electricity facilities, and the separation of settlers and the military. Following the tragedy at a children’s school in southern Iran, many things changed, including a shift in public sentiment and increased tensions in the region. The days are passing us by. Yes.. They dont understand Iranian war lingo The post Yes.. They dont understand Iranian war lingo appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: WORLD, airstrike, Hezbollah, Iran, USA]

— Israel Brings ‘Gaza Doctrine’ to Lebanon: Rania Khalek Reports From Beirut

 

at 3/6/26 2:19pm

From Beirut, Rania Khalek reports on the chaos as Israel orders hundreds of thousands from the southern suburbs to evacuate, saying, Israel is trying to empty out huge portions of Lebanon like never before. As Israel intensifies its war on Iran, Lebanon faces escalating bombings, mass displacement, and the looming threat of invasion. “Israel is applying its ‘Gaza Doctrine’ to Iran, South Lebanon – they are totally unleashed with no red lines,” says Rania. @RaniaKhalek reports from Beirut amid relentless bombing, mass displacement and the terrifying reality on the ground The post Israel Brings ‘Gaza Doctrine’ to Lebanon: Rania Khalek Reports From Beirut appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: interview, Multimedia, WORLD, airstrike, Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon, war]

— $200 Oil Coming FAST? Saudi Arabia Just Lied to Iran… AGAIN | Ep. 166

 

at 3/6/26 11:57am

Live coverage of the war on Iran. Updates, analysis, and the latest developments as the conflict escalates across the region. The post $200 Oil Coming FAST? Saudi Arabia Just Lied to Iran… AGAIN | Ep. 166 appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: Economy, interview, Multimedia, airstrike, Iran, oil, Saudi Arabia, USA]

— Chen Weihua: “The US military bases in the region are legitimate targets for Iran.” | Ep. 12

 

at 3/6/26 9:49am

Chen Weihua is a veteran journalist and columnist. Former China Daily EU bureau chief and Washington and New York reporter. Knight Fellow at Stanford, WPI, Macalester, and the Freedom Forum at UH. Fudan alumnus. The post Chen Weihua: The US military bases in the region are legitimate targets for Iran. | Ep. 12 appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: interview, Multimedia, WORLD, airstrike, China, Iran, Middle East, USA]

— This Is Even Dumber And Crazier Than The Iraq War

 

at 3/5/26 5:04pm

Young people keep asking me if this was what the Iraq invasion was like. I’ve been telling them “Sort of, but this is way dumber and crazier.” There were fairly intelligent people who bought into the Iraq war propaganda. Many anti-war folk assumed Saddam probably did have weapons of mass destruction — they just didn’t buy into the narrative that war was the answer. There really were interventionists who sincerely believed the war could do good things for the Iraqi people. This is nothing like that. Only the most shitbrained of morons sincerely believe the narratives supporting the Trumpanyahu administration’s attack on Iran. Mostly it’s just liars and manipulators cynically pretending to believe the stories about nuclear weapons and massacred protesters and bringing freedom and democracy to the Iranian people, because they want Iran to be bombed. This time they’re not even pretending to care about the will of the American people. They’re not even pretending to care about humanitarian interests or the future of the people they are bombing. They’re just spouting extremely obvious lies that get fact-checked and debunked by the mainstream media in real time, and then murdering people and bragging about it. I’ve spent years, decades, obsessing over the Bush Administration’s Iraq WMD lies, writing about them, debunking them. I can think of no lie about Iraq WMDs told by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al that comes even close to the enormity and absurdity of this lie from Donald Trump. https://t.co/fVR5sZT5ri — Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) March 5, 2026 The Iraq invasion was an unforgivable mass atrocity of unfathomable evil, but looking back on it you can understand how a person acting in good faith could have been taken in by the post-9/11 hysteria and the uniform war propaganda of the mass media. There was an argument put forward that Saddam Hussein would be replaced with a government that serves the interests of the Iraqi people, and then the US coalition really did stay in the country and build up a new regime to run things. Compared to what we’re seeing now, it’s almost quaint. This is just open savagery. The US and Israel are pursuing the Libya model with Iran: smashing and decapitating the nation and then leaving the people to pick up the pieces and deal with all the chaos, lawlessness and sectarian conflict that ensues. They intend to plunge a nation of 90 million people into mass-scale strife and potential state collapse or balkanization, and then casually stroll away from the wreckage in cool indifference to the suffering they just unleashed upon the world. They make no claim to be replacing the Iranian government with a better one. They make no claim to be bringing freedom and democracy to an oppressed people. They’re selling WMD lies and atrocity propaganda, but only in the most half-assed and low-energy of ways, with no interest in whether anyone actually believes them. Mostly they’re just destroying an ancient nation because they can, and looking at the world saying “Yeah we’re thugs. What are you gonna do about it?” This is the new George W Bush. Trump is what Bush metamorphoses into when it emerges from its red cocoon. The crazier the US empire gets, the more insane its managers are becoming. Reading by Tim Foley: https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/this-is-even-dumber-and-crazier-than The post This Is Even Dumber And Crazier Than The Iraq War appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: WORLD, 2003 Iraq war, George W. Bush, Iran, Trump, USA]

— The mosaic of death by a thousand cuts

 

at 3/5/26 4:21pm

This is a Structured War of Attrition. And the screenplay has been written in Tehran. Iran’s Decentralized Mosaic Defense – the official denomination – keeps being tweaked 24/7: that’s the IRGC’s long-term strategy of a death by a thousand cuts designed to bleed the Empire of Chaos dry. Let’s wade through the interconnected canals permeating the unconstitutional, unwinnable, strategically catastrophic Empire of Chaos-built swamp. Iran’s mosaic resilience and long-term strategy; the temptation for that ghastly death cult in West Asia to go nuclear; the approaching, inexorable Interceptor Hell; China’s relentless drive to ditch the old order (hoarding gold, dumping dollars); the BRICS’s progress in creating a parallel financial system; the collapse of American vassals, in several latitudes: all that is accelerating a radical system reset. And then, there’s Vladimir Putin, just casually, almost like an afterthought, annoncing there may not be any Russian gas to be sold to the EU after all: “Maybe it would make more sense for us to stop supplying gas to the EU ourselves and move to those new markets, and establish ourselves there (…) Again, I want to stress: there’s no political motive here. But if they’re going to close the market to us in a month or two anyway, maybe it’s better to leave now and focus on countries that are reliable partners. That said, this isn’t a decision. I’m just thinking out loud. I’ll ask the government to look into it together with our companies.” The pitiful Bratwurst Chancellor asked permission from neo-Caligula for Germany to buy Russian oil. He got it. But there may be nothing to buy. This is an energy war, and the EU once again does not even qualify as a homeless beggar. No Qatar gas, no Russian oil and gas. Now go back to your NATO-obsessed Forever War. The bombing of the GCC-petrodollar pipeline Immediately after the decapitation strike last Saturday on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Kahamenei, Iran switched to decentralised command and control and cells with a 4-level deep succession plan, launching relentless volleys of older, slower missiles and sacrificial drones to consume Patriot batteries and THAAD systems in industrial scale. With that move, Iran changed the rules of the game alread on Day One of the war. Anyone with and IQ over room temperature knows that to use 3 Patriots – $9.6 million combined cost – to defend against a single Iranian sacrificial ballistic missile is completely unsustainable. So it’s no wonder that it took only 4 days of the war of the Epstein Syndicate on Iran for the global financial system to go completely bonkers. $3.2 trillion evaporated in a matter of 4 days – and counting. The Strait of Hormuz for all practical purposes is closed – except for Russian and Chinese vessels. At least 20% of global oil needs are not moving anywhere. Qatar’s entire LNG production is off line – with no resumption in sight. Iraq’s 2nd larget oil field has been shut down. And still, volatile neo-Caligula vociferates that his war that was supposed to last only a weekend may drag for five weeks, and other industrial-military Pentagon clowns are talking about all the way to September. By lasering on US interests across the GCC as legitimate targets – and not only military bases – Iran set a time bomb. This is a direct attack on the petrodollar (to the silent delight of Beijing). Tehran certainly gamed that the chain reaction would be instantaneous – all the way to panic as preamble to a new, generalized Great Depression. No oil, plus no meaningful GCC defense against Iran’s missiles/drones means no more torrents of Wall Street fake money. The AI bubble, after all, is being financed by GCC “investments”. The new Pipeineistan bombing is not of the Nord Stream kind: it’s the bombing of the GCC-petrodollar pipeline. All that is happening in record time as Iran’s decentralized mosaic is fine-tuned. For instance, an array of deadly anti-ship missiles – which have not been used yet – are coordinated by the IRGC, the navy, the army, and aerospace forces. Same for drones. Even if ballistic missile attacks are not keeping up with the initial, breakneck pace, they are more than enough to keep steadily hammering US military bases (whose air defenses are already largely depleted); plunge the death cult in West Asia and the GCC in total economic hell; and scare to death every nook and cranny of “global markets”. And for all the chest-thumping in Washington by the oily, clownish Secretary of Forever Wars, dozens of Iranian underground military fortresses loaded with tens of thousands of missiles and equipment remain invisible – and untouchable. Bankrupting the Empire of Chaos business model  This is a desperate war to save the petrodollar. An energy powerhouse like Iran trading outside the petrodollar is the ultimate anathema, especially because the process is coupled with the BRICS drive towards setting up independent payment systems. The immense structural fragility of the GCC – Iran’s neighbors – makes them an ideal prey. After all, their entire business model is built on the petrodollar in exchange for a Mafioso US “protection”, which has vanished in the sand in the first four days of the war. Cue to Iran’s Asymmetric Warfare Machine bankrupting the Empire of Chaos business model in real time. The definitive exhibit is the implosion of the Dubai bling bling dream – much more than the devastation imposed on US 5th Fleet-related interests in Bahrain and even a ballistic missile destroying the $1.1 billion AN/FPS-132 phased array radar at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. A coordinated, in progress GCC crack up, already inevitable, eventually means the end of petrodollar recycling, opening the game to the petroyuan or energy trade in a basket of BRICS currencies. “Checkmate” comes from the Persian “Shah Mat”, meaning “the king is helpless”. Well, Emperor neo-Caligula may not know he’s naked, because he’s incapable of playing chess. But he’s scared enough to start desperately looking for a way out. The Astrakhan-Tehran air corridor Now for the role of Russia. The focus should be on the Astrakhan-Tehran air corridor, crammed with secret cargo flights. The Chkalovsk military airfield near Astrakhan is the key logistical hub of the corridor: cargoes such as the Il-76MD, the An-124 and the Tu-0204-300C are shuttling back and forth covered with special material that reduces radar visibility and hides them from civilian tracking sytems. Their cargo arrives in Mehrabad airport in Tehran (no wonder it was bombed by Israel), Pyam and Shahid Behesthi in Isfahan. Multimodal logistics also apply, as some cargo is delivered via the Caspian. Everything is coordinated by the 988th Military Logistics Brigade from Astrakhan. Cargo contents include components for air defense systems; radar guidance modules; hydraulic systems for missile launchers; long-range detection radar modules. On top of it, under a secret protocol, Russia is supplying Iran with state of the art electronic warfare, including an export version of the Krasukha-4IR, capable of jamming the radar systems of US drones. Add to it that Iran will soon deploy full-fledged S-400 batteries – which will allow it to control as much as 70% of Iranian airspace. How the economic-political stress will become unbearable And now for the role of Turkiye. Only two months ago the MIT – Turkish intel – directly warned the IRGC that Kurdish fighters were trying to cross from Iraq into Iran. Let that sink in: a full NATO member passing time-sensitive operational intelligence to the IRGC just as the Epstein Syndicate was getting ready for war. There are at least 15 million Kurds living inside Iran. The last thing Ankara wants is empowered Kurds in Iran. For all of Sultan Erdogan’s insatiable hedging, he knows he can’t frontally antagonize Tehran. He needs to balance a cornucopia of interests mixing NATO; the energy corridor with Russia – but also the energy corridor to the West via the BTC pipeleine; and the role of western anchor to the Middle Corridor to China. That’s why that alleged Iranian ballistic missile allegedly pointing to Turkiye and shot by NATO was not a big deal: Foreign Ministers Fidan (Turkiye) and Aragchi (Iran) discussed it like adults. There’s impenetrable fog of war about it: the missile might have been sent to cripple the BTC oil terminal and subsequent drones launched on Georgia designed to cripple the weakest spot of the BTC. None of that is confirmed – and will be impossible to confirm. That might as well have been a false flag – even though Tehran may be quite interested to cut off 30% of Israel’s oil supply. The BTC will continue to be in play, as it weaves across Georgia carrying Azeri crude across the Caucasus to the Turkish Mediterranean coast. Bombing the BTC would fit the Iranian strategy of severing every energy corridor feeding the Epstein Syndicate and its acollites across the Gulf, the Caucasus and all the way to the Mediterranean. Along the BTC, other logical Iranian moves would be to attack the Saudi East-West pipeline (it bypasses Hormuz); Iraq’s offshore loading platforms in Iranian territorial waters that handle 3.5 million barrels a day; and the Abqaiq processing hub that handles the majority of Saudi crude before it reaches export terminals. If Iran under extreme stress is forced to hit all of the above, there’s no strategic petroleum reserve on the planet capable of  covering the gap. In this hellish interconnection of energy corridors, shipping lanes, global supply chains, maritime security and the oil price going out of control, only Pentagon clowns can possibly want to prolong the war until September. Asia, Europe, and every energy importer across the chessboard will be applying maximum pressure for any measure of de-escalation. Iran’s asymmetric strategy though remains immovable: expand the war horizontally, and stretch the timeline to the max to make the economic-political stress unbearable. Translation: this is not a quick regime change stunt by a bunch of psychos. This is a Structured War of Attrition. And the screenplay has been written in Tehran. The mosaic of death by a thousand cuts The post The mosaic of death by a thousand cuts appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: WORLD, airstrike, BRICS, Iran, Middle East, oil, USA]

— Mohammad Marandi: “There is NO CHANCE that the United States will defeat Iran” | Ep. 11

 

at 3/5/26 2:37pm

Dr. Mohammad Marandi is an Iranian academic, intellectual and political analyst, and professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran. The post Mohammad Marandi: There is NO CHANCE that the United States will defeat Iran | Ep. 11 appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: interview, Multimedia, WORLD, airstrike, Iran, Israel, USA]

— Trump’s temper tantrum: I demand to pick Iran’s next Supreme Leader! | Ep. 165

 

at 3/5/26 12:58pm

Trumps temper tantrum: I demand to pick Irans next Supreme Leader! | Ep. 165 The post Trumps temper tantrum: I demand to pick Irans next Supreme Leader! | Ep. 165 appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: interview, Multimedia, WORLD, airstrike, Iran, Trump, USA]

— Will reality ever dawn?

 

at 3/5/26 6:40am

Will Russia and China, along with Iran, be destroyed by the inability of their leaders to recognize reality? It seems that Netanyahu is the only effective leader in the world, and that he is leading the world to Armageddon. Clearly, the Zionist goal of greater Israel is the dominant force in world foreign policy today and has been for sometime. The Zionist’s goal is, of course, aided and abetted by the delusions of the rest of the leaders and their fear to say anything negative about Israel. Why, for example, did the Chinese government sit on its insouciant butt and allow a war to start that cuts China off from 50% of its oil, when all China had to do was to form a mutual defense agreement with Iran, extend the Chinese nuclear umbrella to the protection of Iran, and provide a couple of squadron of Chinese fighter aircraft on Iranian airfields. Putin could have done the same thing and, thereby, avoid the risks to the Russian Federation of an Iranian defeat.  But Russia also was incapable of looking after its own interest.  It appears that Putin’s delusional belief in his “special relationship with Donald Trump” has made Putin blind to reality. The only person who has a special relationship with Donald Trump is Netanyahu. It is the relationship of a servant to his Zionist master. The outcome of the war depends heavily on which side first runs out of missiles.  Washington is already showing concern.  Weapons industry executives have been asked what they can do to provide sufficient missiles for Washington to be able to continue the conflict, and missiles in the hands of Washington’s Japanese and South Korean allies have been recalled for use against Iran.  Another sign that Washington is less confident of the outcome than is President Trump is Washington’s effort to bribe the Kurds to send its soldiers to fight for Israel by invading Iran.  Perhaps the ballistic middle reportedly fired at Turkey from Iran, is further evidence of Washington’s attempt to cover a bad bet. I suspect the missile, if there was one, was fired by Israel or the US and that its purpose is to drag Turkey and thereby the European countries that comprise NATO into the conflict with Iran. Clearly, neither the Russian nor the Chinese nor the Indian leaderships are doing anything to contain the developing catastrophe. Allowed to succeed in Iran, Trump will regard Russia and China as paper tigers.  As Alexander Dugan says, “Today Iran, Tomorrow Russia.” Conversation with Alexander Dugin on the Sputnik TV program Escalation. Host: Dear friends, today we are addressing a large and serious topic. Everyone is talking about it right now, and understandably so, because a historic event is unfolding. Let me remind our listeners: on February 28, 2026, a joint operation was launched by the armed forces of the United States of America and Israel. Strikes were carried out against Iran, as a result of which Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed. In addition, many other high-ranking figures were eliminated in the attack. Iran has begun responding with strikes against both Israel and American bases, and as we speak, military clashes are taking place. There are many questions about what the consequences will be, who will suffer most from these developments, and whether Iran will be able to withstand the pressure. But the first thing one wants to understand is: where is all of this leading? Alexander Dugin: This is indeed an extremely important event. It is entirely possible that it could become the beginning of the Third World War, because forces of enormous scale are now involved. The actions of the Americans—Trump together with Netanyahu—directed against the political leadership of Iran were extraordinarily abrupt. This is already the second such case. First, the United States abducted Maduro, establishing direct control over Venezuela and effectively occupying that country. Now they have destroyed the entire military-political and religious leadership of Iran. In significance, this is comparable to destroying the Pope or an Orthodox Patriarch, because the spiritual leader of the Shiites—the Rahbar, Ayatollah Khamenei—was revered not only in Iran. He was effectively the head of the entire Shiite world, which includes hundreds of millions of people across the globe. Before this, Israel eliminated the leadership of Hamas—a more limited case—and then the leadership of Hezbollah, which was already more serious. Now the leadership of Iran has been directly and openly destroyed. This means that there are no longer any international norms, no rules, and the United Nations effectively no longer exists. That organization now belongs to the past, like a phantom limb from a vanished world. Trump himself essentially said as much: there is no international law; whatever he does is moral. This changes everything. The previous world order has collapsed. We had been gradually moving in this direction, but now the point of no return has been crossed. If a country can destroy the military-political and religious leadership of a sovereign state without any grounds whatsoever, then we are living in a completely different world—a world where everything is permitted, where law is replaced by force, where the principle operates: “If I can do it, I will.”  [Or as Lenin put it, “neither more nor less than unlimited power, resting directly on force, not limited by anything, not restricted by any laws, nor any absolute rules. Nothing else, but that.”] Trump’s behavior is particularly striking. All of this happened during negotiations involving Kushner and Witkoff, and according to available information Iran had agreed to almost all American demands—literally to almost everything. Despite this, such a strike followed directly against the leadership of the country. First of all, we must understand that in this situation we [Russia] are next. Venezuela, Iran, and before that Syria and Hezbollah—these are all regimes or political systems currently targeted by the United States, and they are our allies. In effect, if such actions can be taken against our allies, if all of this goes unpunished, if Trump succeeds in everything he attempts, then at the next stage—perhaps even during negotiations between Kirill Dmitriev and Kushner and Witkoff—a similar operation aimed at regime change in our country could occur. And what protects us from such a scenario? Nuclear weapons? Even here the question remains whether we would actually use them. In an extreme situation, the West has serious doubts that we would be prepared to take that step—we issue threats too often and fail to follow through. [ in other words, the Russian government does not sufficiently believe in Russian national sovereignty to defend the country.]  At the same time, efforts are underway to surround and isolate our president. Our president, beyond any doubt, is the figure upon whom everything rests. In our country, and perhaps even in the world, everything depends on him. He is the one who restrains—the Katechon, as our Orthodox tradition describes it. Today this is simply a fact of geopolitics, a fact of the global order. But if the Americans—Trump himself—become convinced that other Russian leaders who might, God forbid, replace our president would be more accommodating towards the West—and this was precisely the calculation in Iran, when the sovereign leaders of that country were physically eliminated because they pursued policies that did not align with American interests—then what would prevent Washington from attempting to implement the same scenario here? [Dugin forgets that Washington already has attempted regime change in Russia when Washington tried to assassinate Russian President Putin in his home.] Trump is conducting a completely consistent neoconservative geopolitical strategy of attack. The states that were targeted by globalists under Biden, under Obama, and under Clinton are exactly the same states being targeted now. Nothing fundamentally new has appeared. Despite the scandals and disputes with European NATO allies, in the end those allies align themselves behind the United States and adopt the same position. For us, therefore, this is extremely serious. It is the final warning. PCR comment resumes: But both Putin, and Xi have totally failed to fulfill their assigned role as constraints on Zionist American world aggression. Both Putin and Xi have turned a blind eye to the threats to themselves that Trump and Netanyahu represent.  When the only possible restraining powers are immune to reality, what hope is there? Putin seems to be completely lost to reality. Last Wednesday Putin dismissed a Ukrainian attack on a Russian tanker in the Mediterranean sea as a “terrorist act,” not an act of war. https://www.rt.com/russia/633810-russian-lng-tanker-attack-ukraine/  Putin also accused Ukraine of preparing with the support of Western intelligence services [Putin means but is too scared to say the US and UK] to sabotage the Blue Stream and TurkStream gas pipelines running under the Back Sea.  But this too will just be a “terrorist act,” like Washington’s attack on the Russian strategic bombing fleet, and Washington’s effort to assassinate Putin in his own home–merely terrorists acts.  In Putin, the Russians have a leader who seems incapable of comprehending that Russia is at war. This, of course, was Iran’s problem. The country’s leadership, despite the unavoidable evidence that Iran was about to be attacked, simply sat there lost in its insouciance while it was wiped out. Gilbert Doctorow, judging by discussions on the main Russian news shows, has concluded that at least in some influential Russian circles’ patience with Putin is running out.   https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/struggle-for-power-in-the-kremlin Yesterday, a Russian journalist told me that Russians expect to be attacked by the US military and that this week Russian cities all across Russia tested their air alert alarm systems.  Unless you are completely stupid, you can clearly see the possible catastrophe that the White House Fool has permitted the Satanist Netanyahu to prepare for the world. Will reality ever dawn? The post Will reality ever dawn? appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: WORLD, China, Iran, Israel, Russia, USA]

— X Users Find Their Real Names Are Being Googled in Israel After Using X Verification Software “Au10tix”

 

at 3/5/26 3:02am

A wide range of anonymous X (Twitter) users have reported that their real names are suddenly being Googled in Israel shortly after they began criticizing the country for its actions in Palestine. Some connected the phenomenon to Au10tix, the software X requires users (even anonymous ones) to use in order to verify their real identities. Au10tix is an Israeli company founded and staffed by former Israeli spies from the elite Israeli military intelligence group Unit 8200. A wide range of anonymous X (Twitter) users have reported that their real names are suddenly being Googled in Israel shortly after they began criticizing the country for its actions in Palestine. Some connected the phenomenon to Au10tix, the software X requires users (even anonymous ones) to use in order to verify their real identities. Au10tix is an Israeli company founded and staffed by former Israeli spies from the elite Israeli military intelligence group Unit 8200. MintPress News investigates this disturbing phenomenon. “The Largest Honeypot Operation On the Planet” “I’m not even kidding when I say my full legal name, including my middle name, has been searched up in Israel 11 times in the past day,” wrote TransFemPOTUS, an anonymous X user who has been highly critical of Israel’s actions. This was not an isolated incident. “So apparently my full legal name got searched for in Israel the other day,” revealed TheAtlantean9, an anonymous far-left user with a Palestinian flag in their bio. Meanwhile, artist Bionico Bandito stated that “My full name got searched 100 times in Israel when I posted this,” referring to a cartoon depicting associates of Jeffrey Epstein being executed. Across the world, from conservative Japanese accounts to American conspiracy theorists, anonymous users are reporting that data from Google Trends shows their real names, not divulged anywhere online, are being mass searched in Israel. How could this be happening? Some laid the blame at Au10tix’s door. “Only Au10tix and X holds my data obtained from ID verification,” wrote one user in a viral post, adding, “The rumors are absolutely true.” “Israel is now 100% confirmed to be Googling anonymous users on X and their family members shortly after they speak out against the country,” wrote another, concluding that, “X is now the largest honeypot operation on the planet.” The theory centers around Israeli security company Au10tix, who, in 2023, was tasked with verifying users’ identities, a prerequisite for joining X’s premium service which allows users a far greater reach. The process requires individuals to upload a picture of their passport or other photo I.D., and allow Au10tix to scan their face via their device’s camera. Au10tix claims that it deletes users’ data within 72 hours of receiving it. However, the fact that the company was founded and is staffed by veterans of notorious Israeli spying group Unit 8200 – a group that has been behind many of the most outrageous hacking, infiltration, and cyberwarfare scandals of the past decade – has led many to be extremely suspicious. The idea that Au10tix itself, or the Israeli government could be using the data given to it by users in order to combat online criticism is far from outlandish. The Department of Homeland Security is already known to be doing the same, sending hundreds of subpoenas to Google, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Discord, and other large social media apps demanding they share the personal information and identities of anonymous users who have criticized the actions of Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE). Government officials confirmed to The New York Times that platforms have often complied with their requests. Au10tix: Authentically Israeli Au10tix was founded in 2002 by Ron Atzmon, a Unit 8200 veteran whose father was treasurer of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party. It got its start providing hi-tech security systems at airports and other venues, before branching out into the online sphere. Atzmon does not hide his strong political views. His professional LinkedIn profile is littered with posts supporting Israel, or condemning American students protesting Israel’s attack on Gaza, comparing them to the Ku Klux Klan, or reposting videos of far–right commentator Douglas Murray presenting the protestors as antisemitic supporters of terror. A significant number of Au10tix’s employees are also ex-Israeli spooks. Until 2016, Eliran Levi was a Unit 8200 agent. In 2022, the company hired him as a developer. Others, however, go straight from the intelligence services into Au10tix. Lior Emuna, for instance, left her job as an intelligence analyst at Unit 8200 to join Au10tix. She is now an analytics manager. And in 2019, Sara Benita left her position as a mobile communications systems operator at Unit 8200 to become an engineer for the company. Director of product management, Shay Rechter, meanwhile, was a senior Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) commander before joining the organization. Unit 8200 is the IDF’s most elite intelligence unit. Often described as “Israel’s Harvard,” it serves as the centerpiece of the country’s hi-tech spying and military apparatus. The unit is dedicated to surveillance, cyberwarfare, and online manipulation operations, and has been responsible for many of the most shocking acts of tech-based sabotage and terror in recent years. This includes the 2024 Lebanese pager attack, where agents smuggled thousands of booby-trapped electronic devices into the country, exploding them en masse, killing 42 people and wounding thousands more. The event was widely condemned, even by former director of the CIA, Leon Panetta, as an act of terrorism. Unit 8200 also created the notorious Pegasus software that was used to spy on more than 50,000 journalists, politicians, diplomats, business leaders and human rights defenders worldwide. Confirmed targets included President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan, and Iraqi president, Barham Salih. Known purchasers of Pegasus include the Central Intelligence Agency and the government of Saudi Arabia, who used it to spy on Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi before he was assassinated by Saudi agents in Türkiye. All sales of Pegasus had to be approved by the Israeli government, who reportedly had access to the data Pegasus’ foreign customers were accruing. Unit 8200 also reportedly produced malware that attacked Microsoft Windows operating systems, using loopholes it found to attack control systems, delete hard drives, and shut down key systems, such as the energy infrastructure of Iran. Surely their most deadly endeavor, however, is Project Lavender. The group developed the Lavender software, which uses A.I. and big data to develop a profile on every person in Gaza (including children), assigning them a score of 1-100, based on individuals’ perceived connections to Hamas. A wide range of characteristics, including sharing similar work schedules to or being in a WhatsApp group with a known Hamas member, would raise one’s score. If an individual’s number reached a certain level, they would automatically be put on a list. These A.I.-driven kill lists allowed the IDF to find a way around what they called “targeting bottlenecks,” with Lavender identifying over 37,000 Palestinians to be executed in the first few weeks of the attack alone. There was little-to-no human oversight on these systems. Peter Thiel: From Gaza AI War Criminal To White House Puppet Master Lavender is known to be distinctly hit-or-miss. Many professions with similar communication patterns to Hamas, including police and firefighters, or even people with the same name as a resistance fighter, were flagged for execution. IDF sources themselves suggest a 10% false positive rate. Unit 8200 was able to do this thanks to the massive surveillance apparatus it has built up over time. Palestinians’ every public move is watched over by facial recognition cameras. Their calls, texts, and emails are monitored. Dossiers on every Palestinian, including their medical history, sex lives and search histories, are compiled, so that this information can be used for extortion or blackmail later. If, for example, an individual is cheating on their spouse, desperately needs a medical operation, or is secretly homosexual, this can be used as leverage to turn civilians into informants and spies for Israel. One former Unit 8200 operative said that as part of his training, he was assigned to memorize different Arabic words for “gay” so that he could listen out for them in conversations. This is why X working with Au10tix, an organization established and run by agents of foreign power, compelling users to give it their most intimate personal details, is so controversial. Unit 8200 exists to carry out cyberwarfare and clandestine spying operations around the world, and it is an open question to what extent anyone ever truly retires from the business of espionage. While its reputation is highly controversial around the world, Unit 8200 is considered the most prestigious group within the Israeli military. In a country with mandatory national service, parents spend fortunes on science and math classes for their children, hoping they will make the highly-competitive selection process, knowing that it represents a fast track to a lucrative career in the country’s burgeoning hi-tech sector. Hundreds end up working at Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other big American tech platforms. Au10tix has insisted that it does not store users’ personal data, including their identities. But when a company is founded, headed and staffed by individuals from one of the most infamous spying organizations on the planet – one whose modus operandi has been to infiltrate, surveil, and blackmail both its allies and its opponents – the question arises: why would we trust them? X Users Find Their Real Names Are Being Googled in Israel After Using X Verification Software Au10tix The post X Users Find Their Real Names Are Being Googled in Israel After Using X Verification Software “Au10tix” appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: SOCIAL/CULTURAL, Israel, Palestine, social media, Twitter]

— Why Hasn’t Iranian Regime Fallen After Khamenei’s Death? | US Iran War | Firstpost PoV | N18G

 

at 3/4/26 4:53pm

Donald Trump was hoping that the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would crumble the Iranian regime and lead to a change in leadership. But despite the sustained attacks, Iran has fired back relentlessly at Israeli cities and Persian Gulf states. How long can Iran keep this up? War correspondent and political analyst Elijah J. Magnier answers in conversation with Firstposts Prathik S Vinod.   The post Why Hasnt Iranian Regime Fallen After Khameneis Death? | US Iran War | Firstpost PoV | N18G appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: interview, Multimedia, WORLD, assassination, Iran, Israel, Khamenei, Middle East, regime change, USA]

— Ten Epstein Revelations You Might Have Missed

 

at 3/4/26 1:26pm

Many of the DOJ files have been heavily redacted in order to protect Epstein’s powerful clients. Still, they have exposed a massive elite nexus revolving around the New York billionaire, implicating presidents, diplomats, and plutocrats in his crimes, and imply that Epstein was significantly more powerful than first thought, shaping modern politics in ways never previously understood. With shocking new details emerging on a near-hourly basis, here are ten Epstein-related stories that have flown relatively under the radar. On January 30, the Department of Justice released its latest tranche of 3.5 million documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein. Years of emails, texts, and images were suddenly in the public domain. Epstein, a serial rapist, masterminded a global human trafficking and sexual abuse network, and could count princes, professors, and politicians among his closest friends and accomplices. MintPress News has been at the forefront of covering the Epstein saga, revealing his extremely close links to American and Israeli intelligence groups – a discovery that perhaps sheds light on why it took so long for the world’s most notorious pedophile to face accountability for his crimes. Many of the DOJ files have been heavily redacted in order to protect Epstein’s powerful clients. Still, they have exposed a massive elite nexus revolving around the New York billionaire, implicating presidents, diplomats, and plutocrats in his crimes, and imply that Epstein was significantly more powerful than first thought, shaping modern politics in ways never previously understood. With shocking new details emerging on a near-hourly basis, here are ten Epstein-related stories that have flown relatively under the radar. The Israeli Government Installed Surveillance Cameras at Epstein’s New York Apartment The Israeli government installed and maintained a hi-tech surveillance system at Epstein’s Manhattan apartment complex, including a network of alarms and cameras, emails show. Starting in 2016, the director of protective service at the Israeli mission to the United Nations controlled guests’ access to the Manhattan residence, and even performed background checks on prospective cleaners and other Epstein employees. Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak admitted visiting the apartment up to 100 times, and stayed there for long periods of time. While Barak’s security may have been a concern, Epstein is known to have housed underage girls at the apartment, and many of his worst sexual crimes and most sordid parties were held there, raising questions as to what sort of images and data the Israeli government had access to Epstein Plotted War With Iran Ehud Barak became one of Epstein’s closest associates, staying for extended periods of time at the billionaire’s residences. The pair would email, text, call, and meet constantly. A search for “Ehud Barak” elicits more than 3500 results in the latest file dump alone. The pair would talk politics, and shared a vision of the United States attacking Iran. In 2013, with negotiations between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran stalling, Epstein emailed Barak stating, in typically poor spelling and grammar: “hopefully somone suggests getting authorization now for Iran. the congress would do it.” Epstein would get his wish in 2025, when his close associate Donald Trump began bombing the country. Noam Chomsky Considered Epstein His “Best Friend” Epstein arranged a meeting between Barak and renowned leftist academic (and vehement critic of the U.S. and Israel) Noam Chomsky. An unlikely friendship between the notorious pedophile and star professor blossomed, with the pair regularly meeting up at each other’s houses for dinner. Chomsky flew on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” jet to attend a dinner with Woody Allen in New York. He also expressed his desire to visit Little St. James Island, Epstein’s notorious Caribbean hideaway, and the center of his trafficking operation. Chomsky !considered Epstein his “best friend” according to an email sent by his wife, Valeria. The usually curt and matter-of-fact academic signed off his emails to Epstein with unexpectedly flowery language, such as “Like real friendship, deep and sincere and everlasting from both of us, Noam and Valeria.” Chomsky strongly supported Epstein until his dying day in a Manhattan prison cell, taking it upon himself to act as his unofficial crisis manager, describing his accusers as “publicity seekers or cranks of all sorts,” and denouncing the media as a “culture of gossip-mongers” destroying his stellar character. “Ive watched the horrible way you are being treated in the press and public,” he wrote, advising Epstein on tactics to fight the supposed smears against him. For a full rundown of the Chomsky-Epstein relationship, see the MintPress News investigation: “The Chomsky-Epstein Files: Unravelling a Web of Connections Between a Star Leftist Academic and a Notorious Pedophile.” The Chomsky-Epstein Files: Unravelling a Web of Connections Between a Star Leftist Academic & a Notorious Pedophile Steve Bannon Developed a Plan to Help Epstein “Crush the Pedo Narrative” A second public figure running defense for Epstein was Steve Bannon. In public, the far-right strategist claimed that he was working on a documentary exposing Epstein. In private messaging, however, Bannon, like Chomsky, was advising Epstein on how best to repair his image. Just weeks before Epstein’s arrest and subsequent death, Bannon was messaging him, devising a complex media strategy to clear his name. “First we need to push back on the lies; then crush the pedo/trafficking narrative; then rebuild your image as philanthropist,” he wrote. While Epstein publicly aligned himself more with the Clintonite wing of the Democratic Party, he was also deeply drawn toward much of the philosophy of the modern alt-right, led by Bannon. Epstein and Maxwell’s Influence on Internet Culture and the Modern Alt-Right Indeed, there is significant circumstantial evidence to suggest that Jeffrey Epstein had far more of an effect on modern far-right politics than previously thought. In fact, he could have been among its creators. In 2011, Epstein met with Christopher “Moot” Poole, the founder of infamous internet message board, 4chan. At the time of his meeting with Poole, Epstein and Bill Gates advisor Boris Nikolic were sharing articles and discussing via email how 4chan could be used to alter public opinion and whip up the masses into hysteria. “This article describes why I find moot interesting. The potential for manipulation is huge,” Nikolic wrote Epstein. On the same day as the Epstein/Poole meeting, the latter created Politically Incorrect (/pol/), a political message board on 4chan that would serve as the birthplace and incubator for the modern alt-right, as well as a number of the most outlandish conspiracy theories, including QAnon and Pizzagate. Gaining prominence during Trump’s first term in office, Pizzagate was an elaborate conspiracy theory claiming that global elites partook in satanic rituals around trafficking, raping, killing and eating children in the basement of a Washington D.C. pizzeria. Given the timing of the meeting and the emails surrounding it, there is the very real possibility that Epstein himself influenced the creation of many outlandish theories about global pedophile rings, perhaps in order to discredit the notion in the first place. Epstein’s partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell, may have been, if anything, even more influential in shaping online culture. Maxwell is rumored to be Reddit power user MaxwellHill, moderator of a number of gigantic Subreddits, including, /r/WorldNews, /r/Technology, /r/Politics, /r/Science, /r/Travel, /r/Health, and /r/Environment. MaxwellHill was at one point the most popular Redditor on the platform, being the first to reach one million karma (akin to likes on other platforms). Believers point to the account’s use of British English, its admission that they were born in December (like Ghislaine), and the fact that it vanished from the platform forever at exactly the time she was arrested and imprisoned. If true, it would mean that Epstein and Maxwell were crucial in shaping online politics and internet culture more generally. Bill Gates’ Affairs and Sexually Transmitted Infection Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates contracted a sexually transmitted infection from sex with “Russian girls,” then asked Epstein to provide him with antibiotics to “surreptitiously” give to his wife, Melinda, so that she not find out about his infidelity. That is according to 2013 emails Epstein wrote, but did not send. Gates initially vehemently denied the claims. “Jeffrey wrote an email to himself, that email was never sent. That email is, you know, false” he said, adding, “It just reminds me, you know, every minute I spent with regret and I, you know, apologize that I did that.” Later, however, he admitted to having affairs with two Russian women. When Melinda was asked about the claims, however, she did not refute them, saying she felt “unbelievable sadness” being reminded of a “painful time” in her life. In 2021, she divorced Bill, citing his friendship with Epstein as among the factors in the breakdown of their marriage. Jeffrey Epstein Bankrolled the pro-Israel Lobby Documents reveal that Epstein was one of the Israel Lobby’s most generous funders, the billionaire donating to a wide range of pro-Israel groups, including the Hillel Foundation, The United Jewish Association of New York, and Yeshiva. In 2005 alone, Epstein donated $25,000 to the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, a group that purchases equipment for the Israeli military. That same year, he gave $15,000 to the Jewish National Fund, an organization that builds illegal Jewish settlements in occupied Palestine. Even years after his conviction for sex crimes, Harvard Hillel was soliciting donations from Epstein. Epstein was a vocal and committed Zionist, a 2012 email he sent insists that “Palestine has never historically existed.” MintPress News was at the forefront of uncovering the connections between Epstein and Israeli intelligence, publishing a series of !investigations into their links. The new tranche of documents also hints at this relationship. In 2018, Epstein sent Barack an email stating “you should make clear that I don’t work for Mossad,” followed by a smiley face. A Dalai Lama/Epstein Connection? The Dalai Lama is mentioned over 150 times in the new Epstein files, the emails showing that the billionaire was keen to associate himself with the Tibetan spiritual leader. If journalist Michael Wolff is to be believed, he got his wish. Wolff noted that he met the Dalai Lama at a soirée at Epstein’s infamous New York mansion. The Central Tibetan Administration has categorically denied Wolff’s assertion. Epstein did, however, meet with Tenzin Priyadarshi, a Tibetan monk and director of The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at M.I.T. in Boston. For more on this story, see the MintPress News investigation: “The Dalai Lama – Epstein Connection.” U.S. Ambassador May Have Raped, Impregnated 11-Year-Old Child One of the most explosive documents shows an FBI informant linking the U.S. Embassy to Epstein’s worldwide trafficking network. Kenneth Darrell Turner told the FBI that, in 2014, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Earl Anthony Wayne impregnated an 11-year-old Mexican child while at a U.S. Consulate-controlled building in Ciudad Juárez. The mother gave birth to a child and received a positive DNA match with Wayne. The allegations have been largely ignored in corporate press. One outlet covering the story, however, was The Eagle, a student newspaper at American University in Washington, D.C., where Wayne now teaches. The news led to protests on campus, with students calling for authorities to review the allegations. Wayne has categorically rejected the assertions against him, pointing out inconsistencies in Turner’s story. “The claims originate from a disjointed email chain that makes outlandish claims, including international conspiracies and other events that demonstrably never happened, as they would have been matters of public record or reported in the media at the time they occurred, and they were not,” he said. Trump “Authorized” Epstein Murder – Epstein’s Brother Jeffrey Epstein’s family do not believe that he killed himself in prison. “I have reason to believe he was killed because he was about to name names,” his brother, Mark, told the FBI in 2023, concluding that “I believe President Trump authorized his murder.” Epstein was found dead in his cell in July 2019. Although officially labeled a suicide, many have suspected foul play, given the billionaire’s extensive connections that could compromise the rich and powerful. The Trump administration has repeatedly denied any involvement in Epstein’s death. “The claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the Department of Justice wrote. The Epstein Files has shocked the world, leading to political scandals on both sides of the Atlantic. While a number of senior figures in Europe, including the former prime minister of Norway, have been arrested, the U.S. Department of Justice appears to be unwilling to do the same. And with their announcement that they do not intend to release any more of the Epstein Files still in their possession, it appears that the DOJ is attempting to kill the Epstein story itself. With so much interest in the story, however, it seems unlikely that they will be able to dampen public’s demands to know just how far this scandal goes. Ten Epstein Revelations You Might Have Missed The post Ten Epstein Revelations You Might Have Missed appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: SOCIAL/CULTURAL, Ghislaine Maxwell, Iran, Israel, Israel Lobby, Jeffrey Epstein, Steve Bannon, Trump, USA]

— The White House Fool

 

at 3/4/26 10:57am

Just as the whore media told us for three years that Ukraine was winning and Russia’s defeat was imminent, we are now hearing that Iran’s defeat is imminent.  If so, why is Trump now speaking about sending in American troops? Why is the CIA offering large bribes to Kurd leaders to send Kurdish men to die for Israel in Iran?  Why are executives of American armament companies suddenly summoned to the Pentagon to see how quickly Washington’s depleted supply of missiles can be overcome? Why have Japan and South Korea been ordered to return to the United States the missiles supplied to them?  Who is really losing? To answer this question, it is necessary to move beyond the war propaganda.  It appears that not only did Trump allow Netanyahu, not the US Congress as the US Constitution requires, to take the United States to war for Israel, but Trump also allowed America to be taken to war without proper preparation and without a backup plan. It appears that Trump was convinced that the Iranian government was so weak that if a few bombs and missiles were dropped on Iran, the government would collapse and Trump and Netanyahu could appoint a puppet government.  It never occurred to Trump, despite warnings from the US military, what the situation facing him would be if Iran lasted longer than the limited supply of US and Israeli missiles.  That’s such a question could be overlooked totally discredits President Trump. Add to the situation these elements:  The United States has proved itself unable to protect the small Arab city states that are sites for American air and naval bases. Trump is faced with a midterm election and a population, the majority of which does not support his war of choice for Israel. Apparently, Iran is yet to use it’s hypersonic accurate missiles, apparently planning to use those to severely punish the US, Israel and the Arab oil city states once Washington and Israel are empty of missiles for air defense. The strait of Hormuz is effectively closed. In the US premium gasoline prices have already risen by $.70 per gallon. Trump says the US Navy will escort oil tankers in and out of the Persian Gulf, but this would expose the U.S. Navy to easy destruction by Iran. Possibly Iran, would not deliver Trump the humiliation of sinking a US aircraft carrier out of fear that Trump would reply with nukes.  However, if Iranians understand that they are  in a fight for their very existence, whether Iran goes out like Gaza or via nukes might not matter to the leadership.  If oil flows stop and oil revenues dry up, the petro-dollars from the region will cease to underwrite AI’s data centers in the US, possibly setting off a major stock market contraction. Americans, caught  between falling wealth and rising inflation, are likely to turn against Trump and the midterm election, leaving Trump with no protection from impeachment.  You really have to be reckless to bring so many possible risks down on your head all at the same time and all for Israel.  In no way does America benefit from Trump’s war in behalf of Israel’s agenda of Greater Israel. Trump will have to save face. What can he do? Send troops into such a large country as Iran with unfamiliar and difficult terrain? If troops are sent and are chewed up, what is Trump’s remaining option? To nuke Iran or will Israel do it? It is entirely possible that Trump’s mindless act in attacking Iran has opened the door to nuclear war. Russia and China have already lost credibility from failing to stand by their allies, first Syria, then Venezuela, and now Iran. This will encourage Trump’s belief that both countries are paper tigers. If Iran is defeated, it means the end of BRICS and China’s New Silk Road. Trump’s success, if such is the case, with Venezuela, Iran, and in the meantime, Cuba, Greenland and whomever else, will encourage him to restore American hegemony over Russia and China. At this point, Russia and China will no longer be able to continue their mindless policy of turning a blind eye to reality. Maybe the two countries leaderships will finally read the Wolfowitz Doctrine. As far as I can tell, not many people are aware of the catastrophe that can result from the American president allowing himself to be led to war by Netanyahu, and those few who are aware are considered unpatriotic. Trump’s ego will never allow him to admit that he has made a possibly catastrophic decision for all of humanity and cause Trump to withdraw and to act to restore the sovereignty and independence of American foreign policy from Israel’s control. Trump is simply too completely owned by the Zionists. Perhaps Putin and Xi will wake up, but there are no signs of it. Both seem more interested in trade deals than in national survival.  It is possible that events are now out of everyone’s hands and are on a course of their own. Humanity’s stupid and foolish leaders have betrayed humanity. Gilbert Doctorow wonders if Netanyahu has not only destabilized Trump but also Putin https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/judging-freedom-edition-of-4-march The White House Fool The post The White House Fool appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: WORLD]

— How European Countries Are Aiding The US & Israel in the War on Iran

 

at 3/4/26 12:40am

European nations including the UK and NATO allies are joining the US and Israel in their war on Iran. From providing economic and diplomatic support, to supplying military assistance to Washington, Europe is moving from a passive supporter to an active participant in the campaign to overthrow the Iranian government. European nations are joining the United States and Israel in their war on Iran. From providing economic and diplomatic support, to supplying military assistance to Washington, Europe is moving from a passive supporter to an active participant in the campaign to overthrow the Iranian government. Chief among these actors is the United Kingdom, who is allowing its military bases across the world to be used in the attack. These include sites in Cyprus and on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also revealed that British aircraft were “in the skies” over the Middle East, aiding its allies in their operation. Despite this, Starmer’s tepid rhetorical support for the bombing earned him official rebuke from both President Trump and his domestic adversaries. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, for instance, condemned Starmer for being “too scared” to stand against Iran, lest it anger the public. A recent poll found that only 28% of Britons support the U.S.’ military actions against Iran. Sensing massive public opposition, Nick Robinson, one of the BBC’s most influential political anchors, suggested that public protests against the Iran War should be preemptively banned. On Sunday, an Iranian drone hit a U.K. military base in British-occupied Cyprus, causing Britain to evacuate the families of service members stationed there. President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was vociferous in her support for the U.S./Israeli regime change project. “There is renewed hope for the long-suffering people of Iran. We strongly support their right to determine their own future,” she wrote, condemning Iran for its supposed aggression against its neighbors, while saying nothing about the attacks on Tehran and other cities. She also revealed that she had spoken to a number of Gulf state dictators, including the heads of state of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain. Describing them as “strategic partners”, she reiterated Europe’s full support for them. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also signed off on the U.S./Israel war. In a long statement that included a number of factual errors, he wrote that, “The Iranian people have the right to determine their own future. Germany is coordinating closely with the United States, Israel and partners in the region,” adding: “In recent weeks, the regime in Tehran has brutally suppressed the peaceful protests of courageous Iranian women and men…The United States has long sought a negotiated solution. Iran has not agreed to a reliable arrangement to end its military nuclear program, nor has it committed to scaling back its missile program or ceasing destabilizing activities.”  Merz ended by calling on Iran to cease its military attacks on Israel. It did not ask for the U.S. or Israel to do the same. “Israel is a victim of unjust war, like Ukraine,” he said. Later, Merz went even further, stating that, “This terrible regime in Tehran must go,” and even that Iran should not be protected by international law. Tellingly, Israel chose Germany as the safest location to store its presidential aircraft, Wing of Zion, during the war, sending it to Berlin last week. French president Emmanuel Macron echoed Merz’s words, condemning Iran for its belligerence, calling for regime change in Tehran, and offering no rebuke of U.S. or Israeli actions. He also noted that “France also stands ready to deploy the necessary resources to protect its closest partners, should they request it,” a statement that suggests Paris is ready to involve itself more deeply in the war at any moment. At the same time, Macron announced a major revamp of France’s atomic missiles program, predicting that “the next fifty years will be an era of nuclear weapons.” The president stated that France had agreed to a new “advanced deterrence” strategy that will see French nuclear weapons capability being expanded to cover eight other European countries: the U.K., Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark. The only major European Union country currently opposing the assault on Iran is Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calling it a “violation of international law” and an “unjustified and dangerous military intervention.” The government in Madrid refused to allow American troops stationed at military bases in his country to be used in the attack, insisting that they must  “operate within the framework of international law” if they wish to stay in Spain. Immediately, more than a dozen large U.S. aircraft left bases in southern Spain for Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, the headquarters of the United States Air Forces in Europe and Africa. The diplomatic reaction from Washington was equally swift. Trump announced that he would cripple Spain’s economy as a punishment. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain, we don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he said, thereby stating his intention to treat Madrid in the same fashion as the U.S. treats Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela. The European reaction to the war on Iran is part of a wider trend of increased vassalization of the continent. It did not react when U.S. forces blew up the Nordstream II pipeline between Russia and Germany, nor when Trump declared a huge trade war on the continent. And it immediately began negotiating when Trump stated his intention to annex Greenland from Denmark. Europe has long been helping Israel carry out its genocide in Gaza, blocking international efforts at the United Nations, sending weapons to the IDF, and sharing military intelligence. For years, British spy planes – based in the same bombed air base in Cyprus – have surveiled Gaza and likely passed that information on to Tel Aviv. At the same time, governments have vigorously suppressed pro-Palestine demonstrations, even as its population turns against Israel.  A recent continent-wide survey found that 20 times as many Italians hold “very unfavorable” (43%) views of Israel than “very favorable” ones (2%). Even in Germany, where popular support for Israel is highest, only 21% said they hold favorable opinions of the state (including only 4% highly favorable), with 65% displaying open opposition (including 32% who strongly dislike it). A massive plurality of Britons, meanwhile, agreed with the statement: “Israel treats the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews.” Germany, though, has initiated blanket bans on Palestine solidarity, including prohibiting the phrase, “From the River to the Sea.” German journalist Hüseyin Doğru has been sanctioned by the E.U. over his Gaza reporting, leaving him without any access to money. And in the United Kingdom, police have arrested nearly 2000 people under the Terrorism Act for their support of activist group, Palestine Action. Earlier this month, Avi Nir-Feldklein, Israel’s ambassador to the E.U., said that the continent was already “in a war with Iran.” He is right: Europe is a direct participant in the U.S./Israeli operation, the consequences of which could be extremely grave, and greater than anyone imagined. How European Countries Are Aiding The US Israel in the War on Iran The post How European Countries Are Aiding The US Israel in the War on Iran appeared first on TheAltWorld.

[Category: WORLD, airstrike, Europe, Iran, Israel, NATO, UK, USA]

As of 3/8/26 1:25am. Last new 3/8/26 1:25am.