The Hypocrisy of Twitter

No, Twitter Did Not Suspend Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader

Twitter suspended @khamenei_site, but that wasn’t the authoritarian leader’s real account

On Friday, reports surfaced that Twitter had appeared to suspend an account belonging to Iran’s vehemently anti-Israel supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Screenshot of the image tweeted by an account associated with Iran’s Supreme LeaderCredit: @khamenei_site Twitter account

But @khamenei_site wasn’t the authoritarian leader’s real account.

The reason for the suspension was that the account had tweeted a photo calling for “revenge” against former President Donald Trump. Along with a photo showing Trump golfing beneath the shadow of a military airplane, the tweet read “Revenge is inevitable. Soleimani’s killer and the man who gave the orders must face vengeance.”

As president, Trump ordered the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the senior Iranian general who commanded a force that had supported terrorist groups across the Middle East.

But Twitter said it suspended the account because it was fake, Reuters reported. Khamenei’s main account, with more than 880,000 followers, was still active.

Twitter told The Associated Press that it had suspended the fake account for violating the platform’s “abusive behavior policy” as well as its “manipulation and spam policy.”

Officials in Israel and the United States have drawn attention to Khamenei’s active account as debates over moderation on Twitter have escalated, and particularly as the platform has restricted and then suspended Trump’s account for inciting violence.

At a hearing last year in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, an Israeli activist asked why a Khamenei tweet calling for Israel’s elimination was allowed, given that a label had been appended to tweets by Trump. A Twitter official responded that “foreign policy saber-rattling on military and economic issues are generally not in violation of Twitter rules.”

Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s press secretary, said the statement spoke to Twitter’s “overwhelming, blinding bias against conservatives and against this president.”

Twitter Finally Shuts Down Khamenei’s Account

Twitter bans Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei after Trump threat

AP

 

Twitter said on Friday it had permanently banned what it called a “fake” account thought to be connected to the office of Iran’s supreme leader, shortly after a posting that seemed to threaten former President Donald Trump.

In the image posted late Thursday by the account linked to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mr. Trump is shown playing golf in the shadow of a giant drone, with the caption “Revenge is certain” written in Farsi.

In response to a request for comment from The Associated Press, a Twitter spokesman said that the tweet had violated the company’s “abusive behaviour policy,” and that the account had violated its “manipulation and spam policy.” In a later statement, he said Twitter had determined the account was “fake,” without elaborating how it came to the conclusion.

The suspended account, @khamenei_site, linked Khamenei’s own website and frequently posted excerpts from his speeches and other official content.

Other accounts thought to be tied to Khamenei’s office that did not tweet the golf-drone photo, including his main English language account, remained active.

The photo had also featured prominently on the supreme leader’s website.

Earlier this month, Facebook and Twitter cut off Mr. Trump from their platforms for allegedly inciting the assault on the U.S. Capitol, an unprecedented step that underscored the immense power of tech giants in regulating speech on their platforms.

Activists soon urged the companies to apply their policies equally to political figures worldwide in order to combat hate speech and content that encourages violence.

The warning in the caption referenced Khamenei’s remarks last month ahead of the first anniversary of the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.

In his speech, Khamenei did not call out Mr. Trump by name, but reiterated a vow for vengeance against those who ordered and executed the attack on Soleimani.

“Revenge will certainly happen at the right time,” Khamenei had declared.

Iran blocks social media websites like Facebook and Twitter, and censors others. While top officials have unfettered access to social media, Iran’s youth and tech-savvy citizens use proxy servers or other workarounds to bypass the controls.

Soon after Trump’s ban from Twitter ignited calls to target tweets from other political leaders, the company took down a post by a different Khamenei-linked account that pushed a COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theory.

Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran, had claimed that virus vaccines imported from the U.S. or Britain were “completely untrustworthy.”

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The Division of Babylon the Great: Revelation 18

President Donald Trump is the only U.S. president to be impeached twice.

CNHI file photo

Historian says U.S. division needs to be addressed, not ‘papered over’

APRILE RICKERT | CNHI News Indiana Jan 14, 2021

Carl Kramer

Southern Indiana historian and author Carl Kramer said the unprecedented second impeachment of President Donald Trump this week — the third Kramer has witnessed in his adult life of a sitting president — is something he never thought he’d see.

But Kramer, who taught at IU Southeast before his retirement, said he believes the events leading up to the historic House vote Wednesday demand the president be convicted in the Senate and said it will take more than a general call for unity to address the division in the nation — one that’s been repeated in history.

“It’s something that is necessary and tragic that we have a president whose actions, and in some cases inactions, have necessitated a second impeachment,” he said.

The vote to impeach for the second time came less than a week after pro-Trump protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol the day Congress was set to confirm the Electoral College votes for President-Elect Joe Biden, after months of claims by Trump that the election was unfairly stolen by Democrats.

As he listened to the House debate Wednesday with his wife, Kramer said he honed in on two very different themes coming from the two parties represented in the House.

Democrats, he said, spoke of the Jan. 6 invasion, the “clear and present danger” of the potential for Trump to incite more violence and the need for accountability.

He heard some Republicans speak against impeachment, in the name of restoring national unity.

“Looking back at the history, I have to say unity is essential but not at the cost of papering over very severe division,” said Kramer, who is a Democrat, adding “If you don’t deal with the problem today, it will come back to bite you.”

He looked back to the post-Civil War reconstruction era, when leaders sought to rebuild after the years of bloodshed and dissent of the domestic conflict.

Andrew Johnson, who became president after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, had butted heads with Congress on how to lead the post-war rebuilding. Kramer said Johnson had sought to keep the Southern status quo by pardoning and reinstating the Confederate lawmakers who had been in office during the war, a position that northern lawmakers did not agree with.

This set off the late 1800s passage of the Military Reconstruction Act, which called for regional generals to oversee several Southern military districts and aid in drafting new constitutions.

Still the president and Congress disagreed, with Johnson wanting to appoint generals who had a more “conservative [and] white supremacist bent,” Kramer said, while Congress wanted generals who were more attuned to making sure Black Americans had voting rights — and protecting those rights.

Johnson later became the first president to be impeached after violating the Tenure of Office Act by firing the Secretary of War — a man appointed by Lincoln who agreed with the Congressional ideals — although Kramer said historians debate whether Johnson did in fact violate the act.

Kramer said with many fixed on reunification, what was swept under the rug were the fights for the rights of many Black Americans, which had been the core of the war itself.

“My concern is similar things can happen if we don’t deal with white supremacy, racism and growing influence of white radicals [such as those who] invaded the Capitol last Wednesday,” he said, adding that he feels it’s important for Trump to be convicted in this impeachment “to make a step toward reducing his influence on Republicans in politics.”

But, Kramer said, he believes control should not be fully with one party, but be balanced with American values as the foundation.

“This country needs a strong competition between a center left party and a center right party, both of which adhere to common value of the rule of law, equal access to justice, the recognition of the rights and privileges of all citizens, regardless of race creed or color, gender…,” he said.

“We need to be able to debate policy whether it’s immigration or tariff or taxes without condemning people for who they are.”

The Hypocrisy of Babylon the Great

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: Just fine with Iran’s tweets about eliminating Israel, killing Jews?

The coldly logical British fictional detective Sherlock Holmes once famously solved a murder mystery because “the dog didn’t bark” — i.e., a highly trained guard dog didn’t bark at the time of a murder because the dog was well acquainted with the perpetrator.

Applying this same logic, the question is, why isn’t Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey  barking — i.e., self-righteously and with great publicity removing  Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from Twitter, who has repeatedly promised he will eliminate Israel and kill all its Jewish inhabitants, all in violation of Twitter rules?  After all, Dorsey barked loudly in a series of oh, so sensitive agonizing tweets, tying himself into easily undone knots, indicating how much he cares, really cares about freedom of speech but also worries oh, so much about setting a dangerous precedent in deplatforming Donald J. Trump (R).  Monica Showalter rightly called this out as gaslighting.  But  Dorsey isn’t even quietly growling about Khamenei’s violent rhetoric displayed in multiple tweets.

Nearly six months ago, Twitter deliberately decided not only to remain silent, but to excuse its silence when Israeli government officials asked Twitter to restrict Khamenei and remove him from Twitter.  According to this New York Post report, when asked about Iran’s numerous tweeted threats to destroy Israel:

Twitter’s Vice President of Public Policy Sinéad McSweeney said the hateful screed did not violate their policies.

“World leaders use Twitter to engage in discourse with each other, as well as their constituents,” McSweeney wrote in the June 15 letter obtained by the Post.

“Presently, our policies with regards to world leaders state that direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on current affairs, or strident statements of foreign policy on economic or military issues are generally not in violation of the Twitter Rules,” she continued.

“Our assessment is that tweets you have cited are not in violation of our policies at this time, and they fall into the category of foreign policy saber-rattling on economic or military issues of our approach to world leaders,” McSweeney wrote.

Khamenei  denies that the Shoah (Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were slaughtered) occurred; has actively engaged troops in Syria, which is on Israel’s border; and tweets about Iran’s nuclear advances, to cite a few statements, but McSweeney, vice president of Twitter’s public policy, dismisses all this as “strident statements of foreign policy” and “foreign policy saber-rattling.”

Oh.

Here is McSweeney’s full doublethink letter on this that only a Twitter executive could issue.

And Dorsey’s future plots have been just revealed by Project Veritas’s James O’Keefe.

Edit"The Hypocrisy of Babylon the Great"

Babylon the Great Denies the First Amendment

Israelis Wonder Why Twitter Silenced Trump But Not Khamenei

Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

The decision by tech giants Twitter, Facebook, Apple and Google to silence US President Donald Trump and some of his followers has Israelis agitated.

Not because of what the move portends for far-right voices in Israel, though that is also an issue that Israel Today columnist Tsvi Sadan touched on in “Capitol Riots Strike Fears and Hopes in Israel.”

What’s got Israelis all across the political spectrum frustrated is the fact that the Jewish state has for years been pressing Facebook and Twitter to ban incitement to violence against Israel from the likes of Iran, Palestinian terror groups and others. But the response has always been that freedom of speech must be protected.

During a Knesset hearing in July 2020, a Twitter representative told Israeli lawmakers that tweets by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei calling for the elimination of the “Zionist regime” were legitimate “comments on political issues of the day.”

So why is Trump different?

Comparatively speaking, even if Trump’s tweets can be directly linked to the Capitol riots and other acts of violence, he never explicitly called for such, unlike Iran and the Palestinian terror groups. Also by way of comparison, the acts of violence in the US have resulted in far fewer casualties than have the acts of violence against Israel incited by Khamenei, the Muslim Brotherhood and Fatah.

An Internet survey taken by Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv suggested that most Israelis see Twitter’s move as entirely political. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said that cutting off Trump was an unjustified effort to silence a political voice. Forty-three percent said they support Twitter’s decision to block the president’s “problematic rhetoric.”

A monster called Babylon the Great: Revelation 18

Analysis: This was no ‘third world country’ crisis. This was a uniquely American monster

Sure there are superficial similarities in the videos of rioters storming the US Capitol and, say, the moment that Shiite protesters stormed Iraq’s parliament back in 2016. In Iraq then, the protesters were up in arms over parliament’s deadlock over the formation of a government and were demanding a reshuffle of a proposed cabinet. They were largely supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — egged on and incited to protest by him.

There has been a brief glimpse of the fear and violence that grip other countries’ populations who are fighting and dying in the name of democracy and freedom. A glimpse of how quickly what one takes for granted can be destroyed, how frail the fabric of society really is, of how a fringe and violent minority can overtake the narrative.

America used to have a moral standing, or at least the facade of one. It’s one that has been eroded over the years, even before the Trump era, with its more recent history of the invasion of Iraq under fabricated pretenses, the locking-up of alleged terrorists in Guantanamo Bay without due process, the continued support of dictators, monarchies, and autocrats when it’s in America’s interests.

The Trump era ripped back the veil, to reveal the ugliness within the US itself, one that America can no longer ignore, but has always existed. The truth is embodied in the killings of black Americans, in police brutality and the systemic racism; it’s shown in the reaction to the Black Lives Matter movement, MeToo, the rise of white supremacy. And those who oppose that ugliness are fighting for what they believe is the very soul of their nation.

The concepts on which we have built our societies are fragile, more so than many of us want to accept.

Let’s not look down any longer on nations whose people are fighting and striving for democracy with a moral superiority, but instead with understanding and empathy.

The New Space Wars: Revelation 16

NATO to set up new space center amid China, Russia concerns

By LORNE COOK – 10/22/20 5:57 PM

KESTER, Belgium — To a few of the locals, the top-secret, fenced-off installation on the hill is known as “the radar station.” Some folks claim to have seen mysterious Russians in the area. Over the years, rumors have swirled that it might be a base for U.S. nuclear warheads.

It’s easy to see how the rumors start. The site is visually striking. Four huge white Kevlar balls sit like giant spherical spacecraft in a compound in the middle of open farm country 25 kilometers (16 miles) west of Belgium’s capital, Brussels.

But the Kester Satellite Ground Station is both safer and more sophisticated than local lore might suggest. It’s central to space communications at NATO — the biggest and most modern of four such stations the military alliance runs.

Around 2,000 satellites orbit the earth, over half operated by NATO countries, ensuring everything from mobile phone and banking services to weather forecasts. NATO commanders in places like Afghanistan or Kosovo rely on some of them to navigate, communicate, share intelligence and detect missile launches.

This week, the site at Kester is set to fall under a new orbit, when NATO announces that it is creating a space center to help manage satellite communications and key parts of its military operations around the world.

In December, NATO leaders declared space to be the alliance’s “fifth domain” of operations, after land, sea, air and cyberspace. Over two days of talks starting Thursday, NATO defense ministers will greenlight a new space center at the alliance’s Air Command in Ramstein, Germany.

“This will be a focal point for ensuring space support to NATO operations, sharing information and coordinating our activities,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said before the meeting.

It’s part of the alliance’s efforts to keep ahead in a fast moving and hi-tech sector, particularly amid concern about what member countries say is increasingly aggressive behavior in space by China and Russia.

Around 80 countries have satellites and private companies are moving in too. In the 1980s, just a fraction of NATO’s communications was via satellite. Today, it’s at least 40%. During the Cold War, NATO had more than 20 stations, but new technologies mean the world’s biggest security organization can double its coverage with a fifth of that number.

At Kester, behind a double security fence, massive steel gates and bulletproof glass in a facility that can withstand a terror attack or any attempt to jam communications, four satellite dishes ensconced in Kevlar domes connect NATO’s civilian and military headquarters in Belgium to their operations around the world.

From their elevated position, the dishes — two of them 16 meters (52 feet) in diameter — beam information and imagery down across Europe and over Africa into space above the equator where satellites owned by allies like the United States, Britain, France and Italy orbit. NATO itself doesn’t own any satellites.

Around the globe, commanders in ships, aircraft and mobile or static headquarters decrypt the data to gather orders, pictures and intelligence, prepare missions, or move troops and military equipment. From Kester, new lines of communication can be set up for NATO within a half-hour.

Much of the facility is encased in thick steel plates, including the ducts where cables run, to withstand any attack by electromagnetic pulses — high bursts of energy that can knock out electrical power grids or destroy electronic circuit boards and components.

But NATO allies are increasingly concerned about other kinds of attacks using anti-satellite weapons miles above the earth which could wreak havoc below and leave dangerous debris adrift in space.

“Some nations – including Russia and China – are developing anti-satellite systems which could blind, disable or shoot down satellites and create dangerous debris in orbit. We must increase our understanding of the challenges in space and our ability to address them,” Stoltenberg said.

For the moment, the military alliance insists that its “approach will remain defensive and fully in line with international law.” And despite the strides being made in the “fifth domain,” Stoltenberg has repeatedly said over the last year that “NATO has no intention to put weapons in space.”

The growing threat of nuclear war under Trump: Revelation 16

Threat from nuclear weapons and missiles has grown since Trump entered office

Paul Sonne

This image made from video broadcast by North Korea’s KRT shows what appears to be a new intercontinental ballistic missile during a parade in Pyongyang on Oct. 10. (AP)

North Korea’s new road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile, paraded through the streets of Pyongyang this past weekend, has underscored a worrying reality: The global threat from nuclear weapons and menacing missiles has grown since President Trump entered office, despite his administration’s fitful efforts to control them.

The unveiling of the untested weapon — which appeared to be a larger version of a North Korean missile that can reach the United States — came less than a week after Russia test launched an anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile on President Vladimir Putin’s birthday and a month and a half after China test fired its “carrier killer” and “Guam killer” ballistic missiles into the disputed South China Sea.

The situation presents a broader challenge to the United States. The administration has heralded an era of “great power competition” with China and Russia, resulting in a competitive buildup that arms-control advocates warn is risking a full-blown arms race.

Russia is developing nuclear-armed underwater drones, nuclear-powered cruise missiles and other destabilizing weapons designed to penetrate U.S. missile defenses. China is ramping up its missile force and building out its nuclear capabilities with new nuclear submarines. And the United States is modernizing its own arsenal, while adding low-yield nuclear warheads to submarines and enhancing missile defenses. All the while, Iran and North Korea are advancing as threats.

The result is an escalatory cycle that experts say is threatening decades of progress controlling the world’s most dangerous weapons. A recent report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies warned that the decline of U.S. global influence and the rise of regional security tensions, coupled with the staying power of authoritarian leaders, will incentivize more nations to pursue nuclear weapons and limit Washington’s ability to respond.

The issue looms over the final days of the U.S. presidential campaign, as North Korea demonstrates that, despite Trump’s efforts, Kim Jong Un’s regime is busy enhancing its nuclear missile arsenal. Trump is also rushing to conclude a last-minute arms control deal with Russia, hoping to secure an agreement he can tout as a diplomatic win before the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Trump’s interest in arms control dates to at least the 1980s, when he sought unsuccessfully to engage in nuclear talks with the Soviets on behalf of the Reagan administration. On the campaign trail in 2016, Trump described nuclear weapons as the world’s biggest problem and has called the issue more important than climate change.

But after nearly four years in office, he hasn’t signed any significant new treaties to regulate the world’s most devastating weapons and has populated his administration at times with arms-control skeptics, such as John Bolton, the former national security adviser.

“You have the U.S. leaving arms agreements with the Russians, failing to open any kind of meaningful talks with the Chinese, really just succeeding in antagonizing the Iranians and the North Koreans and looking the other way while allies like the Saudis acquire some interesting capabilities,” said Jeffrey Lewis, an arms-control advocate who serves as director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, describing the situation as “bad.”

Trends were already moving in a worrisome direction before Trump took office, and any administration would struggle to strike substantive new arms control deals in the current environment, said Vipin Narang, associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But Trump has exacerbated the challenges, he argued.

China and Russia are becoming more aggressive in their own neighborhoods; nuclear-armed India and Pakistan are clashing over disputed territory; and the Trump administration is alienating allies in Europe, Narang said. The U.S. killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike in Iraq, he said, has only increased the rationale for Iran and North Korea to pursue nuclear programs to safeguard their regimes.

“It’s not just we are building and modernizing our nuclear weapons program; we are doing it at a time when states are seeking riskier behavior with each other also,” Narang said.

Trump’s administration has overseen an arms control rollback that has unnerved antinuclear advocates but cheered hawks who say Washington shouldn’t stay in problematic agreements just because prior presidents signed them. Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear accord that the Obama administration negotiated with Iran, citing flaws with the pact and malign activities by Tehran outside the agreement, and withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia and the Treaty on Open Skies, citing violations by Moscow.

Tim Morrison, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who served as the National Security Council’s senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense under Trump, said the increasing threat shouldn’t be blamed on the president.

“What I have trouble doing is saying that it’s Trump’s fault, that somehow the Obama administration or a Biden administration would do it better,” Morrison said. “I think the problem is this era that we’re in — it’s an incredibly complicated era.”

Trump’s critics, however, counter that his brash and undisciplined approach to foreign policy has squandered diplomatic opportunities, undermined work with allies and contributed to global instability.

“It’s not just that the U.S. is not playing a leadership role, which it’s definitely not, but it’s not providing any of the functions that it used to provide,” Lewis said. “Everyone is on their own, and there are no rules, and there is no predictability, so I do think things can get a little crazy.”

An array of new weapons

Perhaps Trump’s biggest achievement in the arms-control space has been to broker an informal agreement with Kim to pause North Korea’s tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads in exchange for a U.S. suspension of military exercises with South Korea. The moratorium reduced tension that flared between Washington and Pyongyang in 2017.

But Kim has continued to advance his nuclear weapons and missile programs in the meantime, according to a U.N. Panel of Experts report and U.S. officials, conducting a ballistic missile test from a submarine last year and more recently threatening to resume the long-range-missile and nuclear tests he agreed to halt.

On Saturday, North Korea underscored the advancing threat its nuclear program poses by unveiling an ICBM on an 11-axle truck. The missile, which hasn’t been tested, appeared to be the nation’s biggest and most powerful to date, according to analysts, some of whom described it as a larger derivative of the Hwasong-15 tested in late 2017. The larger size suggests North Korea is working on advancing its arsenal by affixing several warheads to one missile.

In the Middle East, Iran has ramped up production of enriched uranium since the Trump administration pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog. The country’s regional archrival, Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has been working with the Chinese to build production capacity for nuclear fuel, according to a report in the New York Times, and has moved to expand its missile capabilities, raising concerns about the kingdom’s nuclear ambitions.

In Russia, Putin unveiled new weapons in 2018 that are designed to penetrate American missile defenses, including the nuclear-armed Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle and the nuclear-armed undersea Poseidon drone. Development of a nuclear-powered cruise missile, known as the Burevestnik or Skyfall, led to an accident that killed five people last year in Russia’s far north, according to U.S. officials. Washington explored similar technology during the Cold War but deemed it too dangerous.

Putin has said some of the new weapons Russia is developing would fall under the New START agreement if Washington and Moscow agree to prolong the 2010 pact, which expires in early February but includes a five-year extension option. In his platform, Democratic nominee Joe Biden has said that if elected president, he would extend the treaty; Putin has also expressed a willingness to do so.

But the Trump administration wants a broader treaty. According to U.S. officials, the administration is discussing a one- or two-year extension of New START with Russia, pending the negotiation of a new pact. The deal would also freeze both countries’ nuclear stockpiles in the meantime, a detail first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration previously has demanded Russia put all its nuclear weapons up for negotiation and include China in the framework for a follow-on treaty. If the talks falls apart, Washington and Moscow would have no substantive restraints on their arsenals for the first time since the Cold War. 

China, which has refused to take part in the talks, is pursuing a full nuclear triad that can launch nuclear warheads from air, land and sea — and is developing its own stealth strategic bomber. The Pentagon predicts that Beijing’s arsenal will double from about 200 to 400 warheads over the next decade. The United States and Russia each have more than 5,000, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

Still, the Chinese military’s advancements have raised questions about whether the nation, which has long said it will use a nuclear weapon only after being hit by one, is moving away from that “second strike” doctrine.

Beijing has also developed a formidable missile force that has checked U.S. power in Asia, including the nuclear-capable ­DF-26 ballistic missile, sometimes called the “Guam killer” because it can reach U.S. military facilities on the island, and the DF-21D, an intermediate-range ballistic missile that has been dubbed the “carrier killer” because it can threaten U.S. aircraft carriers. It is also developing hypersonic glide vehicles that can move more than five times the speed of sound.

U.S. modernization plans

The buildups by Moscow and Beijing come as the United States modernizes its nuclear arsenal, with the Pentagon planning to introduce a new nuclear bomber, submarine, intercontinental ballistic missile system and air-launch cruise missile in the coming years. The 30-year effort, when including the sustainment of the current nuclear force, is projected to cost more than $1 trillion.

The Trump administration earlier this year deployed a new low-yield nuclear warhead for Trident ballistic missiles on submarines and is starting work on a new nuclear cruise missile for submarines as well. It’s also in the early stages of developing a nuclear warhead known as the W93. The Pentagon is working on a range of hypersonic weapons to keep pace with China, though it says they are conventional rather than nuclear.

The developments have led to growing concerns about a nascent arms race. Trump’s recent comments to journalist Bob Woodward about a secret, unidentified nuclear weapons system heightened those fears.

The United States has continued investments in missile defense — which the Russians have said prompted their investments in exotic weapons.

Despite the tension, it’s important to put the current state of affairs in broader context, said Rose Gottemoeller, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, who served as deputy secretary general of NATO and one of the Obama administration’s top arms-control negotiators.

In the late 1960s, Gottemoeller said, the United States had more than 30,000 nuclear weapons, and the Soviet Union by some accounts had at least 40,000 — far more than today. She said that the Trump administration is right to sound the alarm about Russia’s new systems and China’s expanded nuclear and missile forces, but that people shouldn’t overreact.

“There is no need to panic,” Gottemoeller said.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty — a Cold War-era pact whereby nuclear nations pledged to reduce their arsenals in exchange for nonnuclear nations not pursuing nuclear weapons — could be strained if New START falls apart, Gottemoeller warned, and there is no follow-on agreement between the United States and Russia to limit strategic arms. But she said she expects Washington and Moscow to come to an agreement.

The other big issue that must be addressed, Gottemoeller said, is the rapid advance and proliferation of missile technology around the globe, which is giving more countries access to very fast and highly accurate missiles.

“At the end of the day, I think the likelihood of nuclear use has gone up since President Trump took office,” said James Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who said Trump has built up leverage on countries such as North Korea but hasn’t been able to use it. “I think the trend lines are bad and moving us further in that direction.”

World War 3 fears EXPLODE: Revelation 16

World War 3 fears EXPLODE – Pakistan warns India is planning attack with new fighter jets

PAKISTAN has said India is planning a military operation just a few weeks after New Delhi introduced new fighter jets into its Air Force.

By MANON DARK

Pakistan’s Air Force Marshal, Mujahid Anwar Khan, claimed India is planning an offensive in an attempt to spread conflict. He expressed his fears while speaking at the Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies in Pakistan.

Mr Khan said that Indian forces will come within 5 kilometres to prove their dominance in the air.

He added that India will attempt to inflect “conflict beyond Kashmir and at international border”.

The Air Marshal said: “I would imagine India offensive in 18-24 months.

“As it received a sizeable number meteor equipped Rafale from France.

India introduced the new Rafale jets into its Air Force earlier this month (Image: getty)

Mujahid Anwar Khan claimed India is planning an offensive (Image: getty)

“Only this time she will enter deeper than 5 kilometres and engage multiple targets to stamp its superiority in the aerospace domain.

“I imagine India’s willingness to spread the conflict in the air beyond Kashmir and possibly at the international border.”

Mr Khan’s statement comes just a few days after Indian Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria told a press conference about the induction of the new fighter jets.

India introduced the new Rafale jets into its Air Force earlier this month.

India said it was ready to handle a possible two-front war with China and Pakistan (Image: getty)

The Indian Air Chief Marshal said the country was ready to handle a possible two-front war with China and Pakistan.

He said: “The integration of Rafales brings in a platform which is way ahead and would give us an edge and capability to strike first and deep.

“Indian Air Force is ready for any possible conflict including a two-front war.”

He added: “Our position as a credible combat-ready force is vital, given the role Air Force will play towards ensuring victory in any future conflict.

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi (Image: getty)

“The emerging threat scenario in our neighbourhood and beyond mandates need to have a robust capability to fight across the entire spectrum of warfare.

“I can share with you with confidence that operationally, we are amongst the best.”

Mr Bhadauria also spoke about India’s ongoing standoff with China.

He said: “The talks towards disengagement, followed by de-escalation, are on. We hope that the talks will progress along the lines that are expected.”

Mr Bhadauria also insisted that the Indian Air Force is “well-positioned” for any conflict.

The largest militaries in the world (Image: Express.co.uk)

Last year, Pakistan said it shot down two Indian military jets in an attack over Kashmir.

The two sides both claim the whole of Kashmir as its territory but only control parts of it.

The aerial attacks across the border in Kashmir were the first since a war in 1971.

Last year, India formally divided the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two federally-administered territories.

It was part of a move to tighten India’s control over the part of Kashmir it controls.

The nuclear deal unravels: Revelation 16

October 2020

By Kingston Reif and Shannon Bugos

As the clock winds down on the last remaining U.S.-Russian arms control treaty, the United States and Russia remain locked in a stalemate with numerous obstacles blocking the path to prolonging the agreement. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration will only contemplate a short-term extension of the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) if Russia agrees to a framework for a new trilateral treaty that verifiably covers all nuclear warheads, includes those of China in the future, and makes changes to the painstakingly negotiated New START verification regime.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov arrives for nuclear talks with U.S. officials in Vienna on June 22. The discussions yielded little progress, and more recently he said “there are no grounds for any kind of deal in the form proposed.” (Photo: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images)

Moscow, which supports an unconditional five-year extension of the treaty, has called the U.S. proposal “absolutely unrealistic.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that “there are no grounds for any kind of deal in the form proposed” by Washington in a Sept. 21 interview with Kommersant. New START permits an extension of up to five years so long as the U.S. and Russian presidents agree.

The U.S. approach raises several questions, such as whether the Trump administration is actually interested in extending New START at all, what the United States would be willing to put on the negotiating table in exchange for concessions from Russia, and why the administration believes that withholding an extension of the treaty provides the United States leverage in negotiations.

With Russia showing little sign of agreeing to the framework, the Trump administration will soon face the choice of whether to extend the treaty as is or set it on a path to expiration in February, which could trigger a costly arms race.

The Trump administration has also suggested that, if Russia does not agree to framework prior to the U.S. presidential election in November, Washington will tack on additional conditions for New START extension. What those conditions would be are unknown.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said that if he is elected president in November and New START has not been extended, he will pursue the treaty’s extension and “use that as a foundation for new arms control arrangements,” according to his campaign website.

Marshall Billingslea, U.S. special envoy for arms control, told Kommersant on Sept. 21 that if Russia does not agree to the Trump administration’s framework, the United States will not extend New START. Billingslea also threatened that the United States would increase the deployed strategic arsenal “immediately after the expiration of the treaty in February.”

The U.S. insistence on the framework and refusal to extend New START without unilateral concessions by Moscow has prompted some skeptics to wonder whether the Trump administration is attempting to set Russia and China up to take the blame for an expiration of the treaty.

U.S. officials said that, with four months until New START expires on Feb. 5, 2021, sufficient time remains for Russia to agree to the U.S. offer before a decision must be made on an extension. Yet even if Russia were open to discussions with the United States on its demands, negotiating the specifics of a framework could take weeks if not months.

In addition, according to officials from the Russian Foreign Ministry, Moscow might need months to process a “technical extension” of the treaty.

Billingslea has claimed that the United States has significant leverage because Russia is desperate for an extension of the treaty. But Russia has said that it desires an extension of the treaty only as much as the United States and will not pursue an extension at any cost.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in July that, if the Trump administration does not agree to extend New START, “we will not insist.”

Extending the treaty for a period of less than five years, as the Trump administration is contemplating, also poses risks. Negotiations on arms control treaties are difficult and time consuming. A new agreement along the lines proposed by the Trump administration could take years.

Billingslea has declined to say how long an extension the administration has proposed, telling Kommersant that it “depends on how flexible the Russian leadership will be.”

Moreover, assuming Moscow would even agree to multiple short-term extensions totaling less than five years, preparing and posturing for such extensions could distract from the broader talks the administration says it seeks.

Although any framework agreement is likely to require mutual concessions from Washington and Moscow, the Trump administration refuses to detail what it would be willing to put on the negotiating table, besides a short-term extension of New START, in order to secure Russia’s agreement.

Russia has long said that it prioritizes the inclusion of U.S. allies France and the United Kingdom in arms control discussions. In addition, Moscow seeks to capture other factors it deems essential to maintaining strategic stability, such as missile defense, ground-based short- and intermediate-range missiles, space weapons, and hypersonic weapons.

Billingslea, however, has dismissed the idea of including limits on U.S. missile defenses, involving France and the UK in multilateral talks, and removing U.S. nuclear weapons deployed in Europe.

The Trump administration also has yet to describe what it would be willing to do in order to bring China to the table. Billingslea told CNN on Sept. 18 that Russia could persuade China to join talks, although Moscow has previously refused to do so.

“It’s [Russian President] Vladimir Putin,” he said. “He’s got all kinds of leverage. If they really wanted to help, they could.”

China has repeatedly declined to join trilateral arms control talks with the United States and Russia. The only way that Beijing would join, said Fu Cong, director-general of the Chinese Department of Arms Control and Disarmament, in July, was if the United States decreased its nuclear arsenal to the size of China’s. (See ACT, September 2020.) The United States has an estimated 6,000 nuclear weapons, including retired warheads; China’s arsenal numbers in the low 200s, according to a U.S. Defense Department report in September.

Billingslea claims that the verification regime put into place by New START suffers from significant loopholes and deficiencies, such as the absence of sufficient exchanges of missile telemetry and the limited frequency of on-site inspection.

The U.S. military, however, places great value on the treaty’s inspections and has not indicated that such flaws exist. Vice Adm. David Kriete, deputy commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said in July 2019 that “those verification procedures that the U.S. gets to execute all the time provide great insight into Russia’s capabilities, numbers, and all kinds of things associated with their nuclear weapons.” If those procedures disappeared, he said, then “we would have to go look for other ways to fill in the gaps.”

Rose Gottemoeller, chief U.S. negotiator for New START, also emphasized the importance of New START’s verification setup, saying that it used what worked in previous treaties and discarded those elements that previously encountered issues with implementation. “In the end,” she said in May, “the United States got what it wanted in the New START verification regime: streamlined inspection procedures at a sufficient level of detail to be effectively implemented.”

Although the Trump administration has expressed its willingness to let New START expire, members of Congress continue their calls for the treaty’s five-year extension.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine) sent a Sept. 8 letter to Trump calling for the United States to extend New START.

According to an internal State Department report for Congress obtained by Foreign Policy in September, U.S. allies are “concerned about the potential repercussions to the international security environment should New START expire before its full term.”

Meanwhile, the United States and Russia have continued a pause on inspections under New START and a postponement of the Bilateral Consultative Commission (BCC), which oversees implementation of the treaty.

“The United States is studying how and when to resume inspections and the BCC while mitigating the risk of COVID-19 to all U.S. and Russian personnel,” a State Department spokesperson told Arms Control Today. “The United States continues to implement and abide by” New START.

New START caps the U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals at 1,550 deployed warheads and 700 deployed missiles and heavy bombers each.

Nuclear War Will End Civilization (Revelation 15)

US, Russia Accidental Nuclear War Could End Civilization, Says Expert

BY ATHENA YENKO ON EMAIL @MORNINGNEWSUSA
PUBLISHED: 6:10 PM, DEC 9, 2015 UPDATED: 6:10 PM, DEC 9, 2015

Nuclear technology expert Dr. Theodore Postol floated frightening insights about a possible
accidental nuclear war between Russia and the U.S.Nuclear Explosion from Pixabay
The highlights of his points were: U.S. and Russia both have nuclear weapons more powerful than the ones detonated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Moscow, however, has more advanced weapons than America. These arsenals could end human life on Earth; hence, nobody wins a nuclear war.
Postol is the former advisor to the U.S. chief of Naval Operations and a professor at MIT. He does not believe that the U.S. and Russia are readying their nuclear weapons against each other. But since both of the nations have been spending money in their respective nuclear arsenal, Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama are risking an accidental nuclear war.

“I believe, from what I’ve seen on both sides, that the concern about the potential for the complete destruction of each country and the world is still very high. The problem is that as long as forces are on alert, at a high level, there’s always the possibility of a series of unexpected accidents that could lead to nuclear exchange, and I think, that’s the real danger,” Postol told RT.

Postol noted that both Mr. Putin and Mr. Obama have nuclear weapons under their command that are more than 100 times powerful that the ones detonated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In painting the picture, Postol said that a typical warhead from a Russian missile can carry up to 10 warheads. It can destroy all of Manhattan, most of Staten Island, and large parts of New Jersey to the west. Damage could extend to the borough of Brooklyn, most of Queens and the Bronx. On the other end of the equation, a similar warhead from the U.S. could destroy most of Russia’s capital city up to 150 square kilometers of the city. Postol was just talking about detonating one nuclear bomb.
Postol, however, noted one unsettling fact about U.S. nuclear arsenals: “modernization does not take place when it should.” There has been neglect from the side of Pentagon he hinted, saying that “maintaining the current forces at a proper level has not been as high as it should’ve been.” Russia had recently announced successful tests of its doomsday plane.

Indeed, Secretary of State John Kerry announced in October the government’s plans to develop new nuclear warheads to replace the old warhead types. Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin a contract amounting to $49 million last week. The contract involves outfitting 5 more warships with the Aegis system. The Defense Department also announced mid-year its plans of advancing its nuclear stockpile, eyeing threats from Russia and China.

One thing significant from Postol’s insights was how massive America’s influence as to whether one country should and should not have nuclear stockpile. “If I were Japanese I would not want to have nuclear weapons. The reason is, I’m under the protection of the U.S., and if I get nuclear weapons, it will cause to be a target of the Chinese, it will cause the South Koreans to become extremely concerned, to the point that they might react in a bad way, and my overall security situation would be worse,” Postol explained. On the other hand, “if I’m alone, if I’m Russia, and the Americans have a nuclear monopoly – I would want nuclear weapons, because I’m not dependant on another nuclear power to offset the American threat,” He said.

But the most noteworthy insight from Postol that all world leaders should take note of is that “it’s not possible to win a nuclear war.” The massive use of nuclear weapons would end civilization and might actually end human life on the planet, he warned.

Antichrist’s Protests Grow In Iraq (Rev 13:18)

 
ANTI-CORRUPTION PROTESTS GROW IN IRAQ

NRT

BAGHDAD – Tens of thousands of demonstrators protested in Baghdad and Iraq’s southern provinces on Friday, calling for real reforms and an end to political corruption.

Thousands more rallied in Najaf, Basra and other cities across the Shia southern heartland following a call from powerful Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in what a senior security official called the biggest protest of the summer.

The capital and many southern cities have witnessed demonstrations in recent weeks calling for provision of basic services, the trial of corrupt politicians, and the shake-up of a system riddled with graft and incompetence.

Protesters’ demands, which initially aimed at improving power supply amid a sweltering heat-wave, have focused more on encouraging Abadi to accelerate reforms, put corrupt officials on trial and loosen the grip of powerful parties over the state.

“What Abadi has done so far is just casual reform. It’s not the real reforms that most of the Iraqis are looking for,” said Mazen al-Ushaiqer, a civil society leader at the Baghdad rally.

Partly in response to protests earlier this month, Abadi began pushing reforms to a system he says has deprived Iraqis of basic services and undermined the fight against Islamic State (IS) militants.
He announced several measures to combat corruption and mismanagement including scrapping layers of senior government posts, cutting security details and other perks for officials, and encouraging corruption investigations.

Likewise, huge protesters filled main streets of the Shia provinces of the south, demanding for real actions to put reforms into effect.

“People aren’t just protesting over services like water and electricity,” said Sabeeh Zuhair, an engineer from the southern oil hub city of Basra. “It is true that they are an important thing, but there are things that are more important than them.”

“They have come out today in their millions as requested by [the Prime Minister] Abadi to authorize him to change or amend the constitution,” Zuhair added.

On Friday, Abadi directed military commanders to ease civilian access to the Green Zone, the central Baghdad district which is home to many government buildings and several Western embassies.
Checkpoints and concrete barriers have blocked bridges and highways leading to the neighborhood for years, symbolizing the isolation of Iraq’s leadership from its people and wreaking havoc on traffic in the city of 7 million people.

Abadi also ordered the elimination of no-go zones set up by militias and political parties in Baghdad and other cities in response to more than a decade of car bombings.

Security at Friday’s protests was tight and helicopters circled overhead. At the Baghdad protest at least four people were wounded in clashes and security forces detained a handful of youths carrying weapons.

Abadi ordered on Friday the formation of a legal committee to review the ownership of state properties and return illegally gained assets to the state. Critics say some officials have abused their authority to appropriate state-owned properties for personal use.

Top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who wields authority few Iraqi politicians would openly challenge, has called on Abadi to “strike with an iron fist” against corruption.
On Friday, he cautioned protesters against letting personal goals distract from their demands while urging politicians to provide tangible results of reform measures.
(Reuters)

Antichrist Demands Change in Iraq (Revelation 13)

Protesters chant slogans in support of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as they carry a large national flag during a rally in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Aug. 28, 2015. Friday’s protesters were joined for the first time by followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical, anti-American Shiite cleric. The protesters have staged weekly rallies since last month to press demands for reforms, better services and an end to corruption. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Iraq’s top Shiite cleric says government must show nation it’s seeking genuine change
Aug 28, 2015

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s top Shiite cleric said on Friday the government must show it was seeking genuine change to combat corruption and improve services and not just introduce temporary measures to placate the embattled nation.

In a message delivered by a representative in a Friday sermon, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani also cautioned protesters who have staged weekly rallies to press demands for reform that they must guard against groups seeking to hijack their movement to further other interests.

Hours later, tens of thousands of Iraqis rallied in Baghdad and a string of cities south of the capital in support of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s reform drive and to press demands for the dissolution of parliament and an end to corruption. The Baghdad rally, in central Tahrir square, was the largest by far, attracting at least 20,000, many of them waving the national flag. It was held under tight security measures but ended peacefully shortly after nightfall.

Followers of a radical, anti-American Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, joined the Baghdad rally for the first time on Friday. The smaller rallies were held in cities south of Baghdad, including the holy Shiite city of Karbala, the southern port of Basra and Babil.

Al-Sistani’s comments, delivered in Karbala, challenged the government to show that it is “truthfully and seriously” responding to demands for change. “Citizens have experienced past promises that were never realized on the ground,” he cautioned.

“Officials must work differently this time around and win the trust of the citizens,” he said.

The weekly rallies, which began last month, have been pressing for better basic services like power, water and medical care, as well as an end to corruption and sectarian politics. The graft is widely believed to be rampant, involving hundreds of millions of dollars in the 12 years since Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled.

Al-Abadi has responded to the rallies with a package of reforms that reduced the size of his Cabinet, and eliminated the three vice presidencies and the three deputy prime minister posts. He has also ordered a revision of the government’s pay scale and the annulment of financial perks enjoyed by senior officials, lawmakers and consultants.

His actions raised questions about the legality of his reforms and whether they violate the constitution.

“I will not back down,” al-Abadi vowed in televised comments this week. “There is no going back on reforms. Our political system needs popular pressure to reform itself,” said the Shiite prime minister who has said he would seek a popular mandate to amend the constitution, which he described as “incomplete.”

Separately, an explosion on Friday ripped through the parking lot of a police station in southeast Baghdad when a police bomb squad tried to defuse a car bomb while colleagues looked on, killing six and wounding 10, according to security and hospital officials.

The six killed were three bomb squad members and three policemen.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Baghdad has for years seen near daily attacks targeting civilians and security forces by car bombs, suicide attacks and roadside explosions. The attacks are mostly blamed on Sunni militants.

The Difference Between Chess And Tic-Tac-Toe

 

Obama Tells Congress to Approve Deal, Khamenei Directs Rouhani to Pick It Apart

by Bridget Johnson
July 16, 2015 – 8:15 am


That’s the Supreme Leader’s letter to President Hassan Rouhani, as released on his Twitter account.
So while President Obama is urging Congress to quickly drop its opposition and approve the deal, Iran’s leader is urging his president and lawmakers to carefully pick it apart.

The White House dismisses tweets from Ayatollah Khamenei as fodder for domestic consumption.
In another slap in the face to the United States, Khamenei pardoned 930 convicts today for Eid al-Fitr. Americans Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati and Jason Rezaian were not among them.