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March 25, 2025

Was This 'Leak' Accidental Or Is It Pro-War Psyops?

There are several curious aspects of this 'leak' of internal communication of high ranking members of the Trump administration:

Top national security officials for President Donald Trump, including his defense secretary, texted war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, the magazine reported in a story posted online Monday. The National Security Council said the text chain “appears to be authentic.”
...
The material in the text chain “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi-rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing,” editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported.

The Atlantic is the worst magazine in America. Its editor in chief, ..

.. Jeffrey Goldberg, dropped out of an Ivy League University to volunteer to be an IDF prison guard during the first Palestinian Intifada. In his memoirs, Goldberg revealed that he helped cover up serious prisoner abuse.

Goldberg is a neo-conservative who has yet to see a U.S. instigated war he dislikes. To trust his reporting is dangerous.

Here is how he tells the story:

Cont. reading: Was This 'Leak' Accidental Or Is It Pro-War Psyops?

Posted by b at 13:54 UTC | Comments (165)

March 24, 2025

English Outsider: Russia-U.S. Talks - A Change In The Picture

by English Outsider
lifted from comments

An interview with [former British diplomat] Ian Proud changes the picture.

I had thought, as did most, that the Russians had given up on the West and were just stolidly ploughing on with their 2022 objectives. Proud asserts that this is not the case and that the Russians are genuinely interested in rapprochement with the United States.

Whether Trump himself can offer that is still perhaps an open question. He faces flat opposition from the Europeans, who still wish the war to continue. The head of the BND said recently that it would be in Europe’s interest if the war lasted another five years and we see from the reactions of various European politicians that the only "peace settlement" they could support would be one that was not consistent with the Russian war aims. For some of them RF delenda est is the only end to this war that would leave them happy.

More importantly, Trump faces significant internal opposition. His attempts at administrative reform are bitterly contested. His ideological stance and that of his supporters is a throwback to earlier days of moderate American conservatism and is quite at odds with the stance that prevailed in the Biden era – it takes little insight to see there's trouble brewing there. His view of the war in Ukraine is also at odds with the view hitherto prevailing in the American political establishment. And the midterms are looming, elections that he must do well in if he is to keep a fractious Congress with him as he attempts to push through those administrative reforms.

The last thing Trump wants, as he seeks to push through his programme in the maelstrom that is American domestic politics, is the reproach that he "lost Ukraine". That the West was always engaged in an unwinnable war there, and that Trump is now recognising that reality, will be obscured by accusations that he is a "Russian patsy" or an "appeaser". We're already seeing that accusation openly levelled against him by the Europeans and by his own domestic opposition.

Cont. reading: English Outsider: Russia-U.S. Talks - A Change In The Picture

Posted by b at 16:34 UTC | Comments (279)

March 23, 2025

Palestine Open Thread 2025-061

News & views related to the war in Palestine ...

Posted by b at 14:38 UTC | Comments (267)

Ukraine Open Thread 2025-060

News & views related to the war in Ukraine ...

Posted by b at 14:37 UTC | Comments (219)

The MoA Week In Review - OT 2025-059

Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

---
Other issues:

Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review - OT 2025-059

Posted by b at 14:35 UTC | Comments (165)

March 22, 2025

How Zelenski Is Trying To Sabotage Trump's Negotiations With Russia

Ukraine's (former) President Zelenski is trying to impede further talks between the U.S. and Russia. For this purpose he is avoiding to implement a temporary ceasefire an energy related targets as agreed on between President Trump and President Putin.

Zelenski does not like that deal. He continues to talk of a future ceasefire of all attacks on general infrastructure that may or may not happen in future while his army continues to attack Russian energy installations.

The Russian readout of the 150 minute phone call between the presidents includes this reference to an 'energy ceasefire':

During the conversation, Donald Trump put forward a proposal for the parties to mutually refrain from strikes on energy infrastructure for 30 days. Vladimir Putin responded favourably to the proposal and immediately gave the relevant order to the Russian troops.

The U.S. readout is less clear on the issue. It says:

This conflict should never have started and should have been ended long ago with sincere and good faith peace efforts. The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace. These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.

General infrastructure is a much wider field than energy infrastructure as it involves roads, bridges, public buildings etc. The much shorter U.S. readout is also not at all clear when the energy ceasefire should start even as Russia said that it already had started.

Trump then had a call with President Zelenski. The White House readout from that call says:

The two leaders also agreed on a partial ceasefire against energy. Technical teams will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss broadening the ceasefire to the Black Sea on the way to a full ceasefire.

This is way more compatible with the Russian view. The temporary ceasefire is about energy infrastructure. It is already ongoing. Further talks are only about expanding it.

This also consistent with the history of previous negotiations and agreements about a moratorium of attacks against energy infrastructure as documented here.

Steven Witkoff, Trump's negotiator in talks with Putin, also confirmed that the temporary ceasefire is about 'energy infrastructure' during an interview with Tucker Carlson (@55min).

Zelenski did not seem to agree with that view when he talked about his phone call with Trump (machine translation):

Cont. reading: How Zelenski Is Trying To Sabotage Trump's Negotiations With Russia

Posted by b at 17:09 UTC | Comments (245)

March 20, 2025

Palestine Open Thread 2025-058

News & views related to the war in Palestine ...

Posted by b at 11:40 UTC | Comments (394)

Ukraine Open Thread 2025-057

News & views related to the war in Ukraine ...

Posted by b at 11:40 UTC | Comments (432)

Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2025-056

News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine ...

Posted by b at 11:39 UTC | Comments (332)

March 19, 2025

Trump Seeks Russian Support For War On Iran

The readouts from the U.S. and Russian side about yesterday's phone call between President Trump and President Putin has me concerned about the potential of another war in the Middle East.

The Russian readout has 674 words. It is quite specific about Ukraine issues. There is a two sentences paragraph about the Middle East:

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump also addressed some other international issues, including the situation in the Middle East and in the Red Sea region. Joint efforts will be made to stabilise the situation in the crisis spots and establish cooperation on nuclear non-proliferation and global security.

What those 'joint efforts' might be is not specified.

With just 227 words the U.S. readout is much shorter. There is much less on Ukraine. A whole one fourth of the readout is with concern to the Middle East:

The leaders spoke broadly about the Middle East as a region of potential cooperation to prevent future conflicts. They further discussed the need to stop proliferation of strategic weapons and will engage with others to ensure the broadest possible application. The two leaders shared the view that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel.

Iran, not mentioned by the Russian's, is mentioned in the context of nuclear ('strategic') weapons.

Iran seems to be the next item on Trump's international meddling list.

Recently leaked documents point to major U.S. planning for a war with Iran. The suddenly renewed U.S. bombing of Yemen, despite no recent attacks by Ansarallah on international shipping, seem to be a provocation towards that:

Tehran has begun circling the wagons as a new phase is beginning in Trump’s foreign policies, with tensions rising steadily over the nuclear issue. The October deadline is drawing closer by the day for invoking the snapback clause in the JCPOA (2015 Iran nuclear deal) to reinstate UN Security Council sanctions will expire, and Iran’s enrichment programme, on the other hand, has apparently reached a point where it already has a stockpile to make “several” nuclear bombs, per the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran however has Russian and Chinese backing:

On March 14, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi hosted a joint meeting in Beijing with the Russian and Iranian deputy foreign ministers where he proposed five points “on the proper settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue”, which, for all purposes endorsed Tehran’s stance. It was a resounding diplomatic victory for Iran.

Interestingly, the Beijing meeting was timed to coincide with the conclusion of a 6-day naval exercise at Iran’s Chabahar Port with the theme of Creating Peace and Security Together between the navies of Iran, Russia and China.
...
Moscow has lately waded into the Iran nuclear issue and is positioning itself for a mediatory role potentially. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently came out against attaching extraneous issues (eg., verifiable arrangements by Tehran to ensure the cessation of its support for resistance groups in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria) to the nuclear negotiations. Lavrov said frankly, “Such a thing is unlikely to yield results.”

Before the renewed bombing of Yemen Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Lavrov had their own phone call. The short U.S. readout said:

The Secretary informed Russia of U.S. military deterrence operations against the Iran-backed Houthis and emphasized that continued Houthi attacks on U.S. military and commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea will not be tolerated.

It did not mention that Russia spoke out against it:

The Russian Foreign Ministry, in a readout on Saturday, stated that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Lavrov and informed him about the US decision to attack the Houthis. It said Lavrov, in response, “emphasised the need for an immediate cessation of the use of force and the importance of all parties engaging in political dialogue to find a solution that prevents further bloodshed.” Well, the shoe is on the other foot now, isn’t it?

Trump seems to believe that he can gain Russia's support, or at least its neutrality, in a futile conflict with Iran, by offering to end the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine.

Russia however seems to completely reject such plans.

Posted by b at 14:58 UTC | Comments (230)