President Trump has apparently finished negotiations with Iran’s new regime. Tired of one month of decapitation strike, blowing up infrastructure, talking (directly and indirectly) with his whiny counterparts in Iran who were begging for a deal, he now has to move on. Cuba will be the next destination.
In two Truth Social posts this afternoon, he berates the ungrateful brats among his allies (no longer!),
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I have recently posted my review of Hooman Majd’s new book, Minister Without Portfolio, here on my blog.
I had read the book with rather mixed feelings. On the one hand there was some admiration for a person with a successful career in the music industry and as journalist, author and writer, living involuntarily in exile (in the United States and the United Kingdom) and who had hardly ever spent any significant amount of time in his actual home country. On the other, a certain relief that it clearly showed the impossibility of actually getting along with this special case of an Islamic Democracy when socialized in the West.
No, Iran has become an impossible place to live in, at least after the stolen election in 2009, the year when I myself visited it the last time, months before the election.
In January, when I actually read Minister Without Portfolio, again, hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets of Tehran and other big cities. This time, on 8th and 9th of January, the internet was closed down when probably tens of thousands (maybe 30,000 or even more) were killed by thugs of the regime, or executed.
There were hardly any reporters from the West in the country. The massacres took place without any witnesses. I have heard an Iranian exile this morning in a talkshow on TV stressing the point that such a massacre on just two days can only be compared with that in the Ukraine in September 1941 in Babyn Yar in the Ukraine. A horrendous misrepresentation.
Continue readingFew ships have passed the Strait of Hormuz in recent days. They used a waterway between Qeshm and Larak islands, probably closely monitored by Iranian forces. Ships moved out of the Persian Gulf, not in. It was reported that Iran charged up to $2M transit fee for free passage.
The majority of dots in the above short clip are ships which got stuck in the Gulf. It will take considerable time to get them out.
Continue readingAfter 9/11 2001, George W. Bush quickly shifted the focus from Afghanistan to Iraq. Throughout 2002, the Bush administration undertook a diplomatic effort to gain UN authorization for military action as they alleged that the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, developed weapons of mass destruction and aiding terrorist organisations.
It was a period characterized by intense pressure, debate, and eventual conflict over whether Iraq was in compliance with UN demands. On September 12, 2002, President Bush addressed the UN General Assembly, challenging the UN to enforce its own resolutions on Iraq’s disarmament, saying “action will be unavoidable” if the UN fails to act.
On October 11, 2002, US Congress overwhelmingly authorized President Bush to use military force against Iraq. On November 8, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1441, offering Iraq “a final opportunity” to disarm and warning of “serious consequences” if it fails to comply. However, the US failed to secure a second resolution explicitly authorizing force.
While Iraq claimed that it had no current WMD program, on February 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell made his infamous, detailed presentation to the UN Security Council, presenting evidence of Iraq’s alleged WMD program. However, he failed to persuade many Council members, who demanded more time for inspections. In hindsight, Powell’s presentation must be considered a major intelligence failure, to say the least.
So, Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched March 19, 2003 after UN weapons inspectors had left Iraq the day before. Despite Bushs claim, Mission Accomplished! on May 1st, 2023, the Iraq War went on for at least eight more years.
Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) has reported yesterday on a literal bombshell. The story was based
“…on 12 central sources at the top of the Danish government, the Armed Forces and central sources in our closest allied countries in Europe, whom DR has spoken to since Donald Trump’s statements about Greenland in December 2024.” (Translated by GoogleTranslate).
According to DR, the information was confirmed by at least two, but typically significantly more, independent sources. These sources assessed that the situation around Greenland remains so tense and sensitive that they can only speak anonymously. DR has also verified the information with other sources who have had insight into parts of the process.
After US President Donald Trump had threatened Denmark to take Greenland “the hard way” several times early in January 2026, this alerted not only the small Scandinavian country with its enormous icy colony in the north but also European allies. On January 15, Operation Arctic Endurance was launched, a Danish-led military exercise and presence operation in Greenland, officially a Nato mission. Initially, France, Germany and Sweden sent a limited number of soldiers but more Nato member states soon deployed personell as well. The operation is still underway.
What DR now reports is that Denmark prepared to sabotage runways in Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq by placing explosives. They also flew blood supply to Nuuk.
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