Archive for Yemen

Game over in Syria or a new crisis around the corner?

LMS has extensively covered the conflict in Syria where we have witnessed the great game of global elites jockeying for control.  This relatively small patch of land has been victimized by proxy war, state-sponsored terrorism, false-flag chemical attacks, and even brought the US the closest it has been to nuclear war with Russia since the Cuban Missile Crisis, yet few Americans have cared to pay even the slightest attention.  After all, didn’t we “defeat” ISIS and all is well?  The truth is this may be the calm before the storm and a new far bigger conflict is right around the corner.    Read more

Is the Middle East about to Break Out in a Major Saudi-Iranian War?

The last week has witnessed some unprecedented changes across the Middle East.  These events have moved the entire region closer to a major Sunni-Shia conflict.  As such, it is important to review what has occurred and assess if this will lead to a major war.  If so, it will have major strategic implications for the US so are you prepared? Read more

Trump Declares Holy War during Speech in Saudi Arabia

I must admit, Trump’s trip to the Middle East and his planned speech were not on my list of highly recommended things for Trump to undertake.  The trip was high risk with a low potential for any pay off.  Nonetheless, even the mainstream media networks were grudgingly admitting that he appears to have pulled it off.  This may indeed be true, but this is not reason to celebrate.  Just because the propagandists and the poorly informed think President Trump’s unapologetic speech was a success, you may want to ask the other half of the Muslim world.  In fact, every Shia Muslim listening to Trump’s speech heard his message loud and clear.  The United States has joined forces with Sunni Arabs in a holy war against Shia Islam.  Congratulations President Trump, you just signed the US up for an Islamic holy war and it will cost our country dearly. Read more

North Korea to use Chemical and Biological Weapons Against the US

Too many Americans are completely detached from the horrors of war as the US has enjoyed an unprecedented period of peace within its continental borders.  The ability to not know war has been a precious luxury enjoyed for a generation in the US, but is now taken completely for granted.  For most, war is just another form of entertainment like sports games and movies.  In fact, to the average person, there is literally no distinction between the Hollywood war movies and reality.  Why would there be when roughly only four tenths of a percent of the US population is serving in the military and far less have actually fought its wars?  This makes it highly likely most Americans don’t even know a vet.  There are many problems with this disassociation.  However, the most detrimental has been that our nation has become so insulated from war they feel that we can kill with impunity around the globe.  Symptomatic of this condition is the apathy Americans demonstrate to our military intervention overseas.  We now allow our nation to blindly blunder into global conflict without even a debate.  Americans have forgotten the actual human costs and the horrors of what a war is like if it comes to our own shores.  This always ends badly and if a war with North Korea begins, we may very soon learn what it is like to see war again on American soil.

Currently, the Trump Administration has overtly entered or continued US involvement in wars in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq without any debate, votes, or justification.  Literally, President Trump has picked a new fight every month he has been in office.  My fear is that President Trump is now setting the stage for an unavoidable conflict with North Korea making him five for five.  Let me be clear, I do not believe President Trump has many options left with North Korea.  However, I fear that he will not chose the best courses of action and it will cost the US an incredibly high price.  I don’t say this lightly.  Conflicts in Syria and Iraq have the potential to spread and end in a disaster for the US in large part because they will financially bankrupt our nation and lead to the wholesale slaughter of millions of innocent people.  However, the US has not fought a war since WWII where the adversary had the ability to attack the US mainland.  Am I suggesting North Korea has the ability to physically invade the US and pelt of with missiles?  No.  In fact, North Korea does not have that ability at all.  However, North Korea has the ability to asymmetrically attack the US with some of the most horrendous weapons known to man and you need to be prepared.

War with North Korea is looking more and more inevitable.  Neither side is willing to back down.  If there is to be war, even the best case is still horrible.  The best case would be a surprise US nuclear strike against the North Korean regime and its military installations ending the war quickly and with minimal US and allied casualties.  A far uglier picture emerges if the Trump Administration opted for, even if just initially, a conventional option.  Using conventional weapons would allow North Korea time to deploy not just its conventional weapons, but its chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.  This would almost guarantee Seoul would be reduced to rubble and tens of thousands of American and South Korean casualties would be incurred within the first 24-48 hours of the conflict.  If the US and South Korean troops had to conventionally fight the entire war, we would be looking at close to a million casualties and our nation utterly bankrupted by the conflict.  Further, this is assuming China doesn’t enter the war, which would truly make it a WWIII endgame scenario and this isn’t at all unlikely.

However, irrespective of the financial cost and the massive loss of life associated with a war in North Korea, Americans, have in their comforts, become totally ignorant of the fact that North Korea has planned for and put in place numerous asymmetric means to attack the US.  To be blunt, North Korea is prepared to attack the US homeland in horrific ways should war break out.  In particular, over the course of time, North Korea is rumored to have smuggled via diplomatic pouches numerous biological and chemical weapons into the US through its United Nations mission in New York.  Disturbingly, once the technology to produce these types of weapons is achieved, and North Korea has achieved it, these weapons are relatively easy to smuggle and very difficult to track.  Adding to the problem is that a very small amount of these weapons can inflict large number of casualties.  If true, literally every city in the US could be simultaneously attacked with a full range of biological and chemical weapons.  In particular, North Korea is already believed to have smuggled VX nerve agent into a foreign country and used it to assassinate a political rival.  In larger quantities, VX could be dispersed over crowded areas to inflict large numbers of casualties and to create massive panic in cities like New York and Washington, DC.  If not bad enough, a far scarier threat exists.  North Korea is believed to have been mass producing anthrax and has likely mass produced other biological weapons such as smallpox, francisella tularensis, and hemorrhagic fever virus.  Any one of these agents could be released in densely populated areas and cause a massive number of deaths.  Finally, North Korea may have the ability to detonate a space based nuclear weapon over the US releasing an EMP capable of blacking out a large portion of the North American grid.  I consider this scenario less likely due to North Korea’s technological challenges and US countermeasures; however, if China becomes involved, the probability of this scenario is 100%.  Should that event occur, the US will effectively be destroyed.  Before the grid could be rebuilt, some congressional studies estimate that two-thirds of the US population or approximately 200,000,000 people would die.  Not even our grandchildren will live to see the US recover from this type of attack.  Let that sink in for a moment.  The war that President Trump is about to start has the potential to destroy the US.

If what I have just written didn’t scare the hell out of you, you are completely disassociated with reality and need professional help.  I am not trying to create panic and I do not subscribe to fear mongering.  Unfortunately, reality isn’t always pretty and as much as we would like to deny the uncomfortable, it is critical we recognize threats and dangers.  North Korea is a very big threat and far more dangerous than Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan combined.  Remember, President Bush believed Afghanistan was going to be a quick war against some illiterate savages, but over a decade and a half later, we are still mired in his war we have already strategically lost.  Iraq proved to be another example of Washington’s hubris and overly optimistic military predictions.  In fact, the history of warfare demonstrates that in nearly every case, wars prove to be much longer, tougher, and more costly than predicted.  Why would anyone think North Korea will be a war any less costly when all indicators say the exact opposite?  I am curious because as I type, no fewer than three American aircraft carrier battle groups are steaming towards the Korean Peninsula prepared for a military showdown and nearly no one aside from Ron Paul is urging restraint.  I think the answer is that Americans are living in ignorance and have no concept of the hell this war will most likely bring to our lives.  Again, war with North Korea may be unavoidable, but we need to have a national discussion and the homeland must be prepared for the consequences.

As with all articles, I don’t just point out the problems.  I offer solutions.  In this case, the truth is you and I aren’t going to change a damn thing.  All we can control is our actions and to a limited degree help those around us.  Ideally, now may be a good time to literally leave the US for an extended vacation that lasts until either the war is over or North Korea backs down.  I don’t make this recommendation lightly.  However, for those that can’t leave or opt to stay, you need to prep your chem/bio response kits.  Everyone in your group now should be at minimum carrying a protective mask with new filter in day bags.  If you have antidote kits for nerve agents and decon kits for blister agents, those should also be packed and make sure you know how to use them.  You should also have antibiotics ready for a biological attack involving a bacterial agent like anthrax.  However, if the bio weapon is viral, we are looking at an untreatable megadeath situation and the only real option is to completely isolate your group from all other people until the virus has burned itself out.  Wherever you plan to stay, make sure you have an area prepped with provisions and the ability to seal it from the outside with plastic and duct tape at minimum.  You also should have enough chem/bio suits prepared for everyone in your group to at least bug out from the hot zone.  If you are driving to work, you should have at least one complete suit in your vehicle and a contingency link up plan for everyone else in your group.  Listen to me; you need to do this immediately.  A war with North Korea is hopefully avoidable, but literally could be launched at any moment in the coming days to weeks.

As for preparations beyond immediate survival, you need to get as much cash on hand as you can withdraw from the banks.  If you have the ability to move money to overseas bank accounts, do it now.  If you are invested in stocks, you should consider taking profits now and holding them until this crisis passes.  Once the market crashes, feel free to re-enter the market and buy up the cheap stocks.  This will lead to a market shock and crash if a war breaks out.  However, some stocks will likely sky rocket in value.  I am personally seeking out companies that specialize in radiological decontamination and chem/bio defenses to invest in.  Call it Machiavellian, but a crisis always presents opportunities for those with the foresight to position themselves to seize it.  Make sure that person is you.  In the interim, please take some basic precautions.  I pray for the best, but will be preparing for the worst.  We will be very blessed indeed if we can get through this crisis with the homeland unscathed.

By Guiles Hendrik

April 17, 2017

Update: Middle East on Brink of Major War after Saudi Warship Attacked

Again, the news cycle is moving so quickly, no one is able to completely keep up.  However, with all of the focus on executive orders on immigration some major events are slipping by unnoticed.  The take away is that the Middle East is again moving rapidly toward all-out war.  The immigration issue is serious and important, but the war that could potential break out in the Middle East could be staggering.  Here are the most recent highlights with comment:

Yemen in particular has become a flashpoint.  Starting from the top, a unit from SEAL Team Six got mauled badly and lost an operator while conducting a direct action raid on a suspected al-Qaeda facility.  Further, their MV-22 Osprey crashed and was destroyed on the ground.  The base model of a single Osprey costs over $73,000,000 dollars and this was a special operations variant, which comes in closer to one hundred million dollars.  This was in exchange for killing 14 alleged terrorists of at best, medium value, and collecting some information to better identify their network.  This shows that President Trump is less risk averse when it comes to launching our soldiers into combat.  If this becomes a trend, it means much more kinetic warfare and far greater US casualties.  Previous to this raid, attacks in Yemen were almost exclusively being carried out by airstrikes.

If not bad enough, a Saudi Arabian Frigate, which is a warship, was attacked according to the US government, by a small boat laden with explosives.  However, video evidence supports the assessment that believes the ship was hit by a missile supplied by Iran.  Anti-ship missiles have been fired at US Warships in the same area over the last six months.  Further, one man can be heard speaking in an Iranian accent chanting death to America.  If it was indeed a missile that hit the boat, the fact is being downplayed and covered up to prevent outrage in Saudi Arabia that would demand revenge and initiate a war with Iran.  This is not unprecedented in the region.  An advanced ship from the UAE was also recently hit by an Iranian supplied anti-ship missile launched from Yemen and damaged so badly it had to be decommissioned.  However, the UAE never officially acknowledge the attack.

Irrespective of how the attack occurred, the blast appears to have struck the upper portion of the stern of the Saudi ship inflicting serious damage and killing at least two Saudi sailors.  This is a major act of war and is believed to have been launched by the Houthi rebels in Yemen.  One may say this is the cost of starting an unnecessary war and invading Yemen.  I would agree that it was stupid for Saudi Arabia to intervene militarily in Yemen.  However, the Saudis tonight are not discussing whether or not their war was smart.  What they are discussing his how to retaliate.  If it in fact was an attack launched by the Houthis, the missile was undoubtedly supplied by Iran.  Everyone knows this, but the question is if the Kingdom will hold the Houthis and/or the Iranians responsible.  I assess the possibility of Saudi Arabia expanding their war in Yemen as high.  I also see a medium likelihood of Saudi Arabia expanding it to Iran to include indicting any Iranian flagged ship near Yemen.  This will undoubtedly provoke another cycle of violence.  Worst case is Saudi Arabia decides to retaliate directly against Iran, but I assess this as unlikely.  The fact that Saudi Arabia has not said anything about the ban in immigration from seven predominately Muslim countries factors into this situation.  It is highly likely the Saudis will try to lean heavily on the US to take out Iran for them, which brings me to my next point.

Iran test launched a ballistic missile this week in violation of pretty much everything the international community has told Iran it could not do.  Iran became a serial violator of any international dictates since the Obama Administration was in office.  Their transgressions included seizing US Navy vessels and their crews in international waters, providing weapons to attack and kill Americans, holding Americans hostage, developing long range missile technology, and feigning attacks on our warships.  Following precedent, Iran conducted a launch of another ballistic missile and has yet to be “reprimanded” by the new Administration.  Perhaps, Iran thinks it has gotten away with it and President Trump will be a push over.  If so, I believe they have badly miscalculated the new American President.  President Trump in a short amount of time will respond.  How, is the only question.  Trumps retaliatory options range from lodging a diplomatic protest and re-invoking sanctions to launching a nuclear strike.

Yes, I do think President Trump is serious enough he may indeed use nuclear weapons during his time in office to prevent a bloody and costly deployment of ground troops against a country like North Korea or Iran.  Nonetheless, I assess the Administration will come out with a clear warning to Iran, but will stop short of a military strike.  Iran will get one warning, but no more.  However, there is a perfect coalescing of Saudi and US interests with regards to annihilating Iran.  Iran should take this seriously because Saudi Arabia may be on the phone right now with Washington discussing military options for the attack on their ship.  If Trump greenlights retaliation, we could have a major outbreak of war in days.  However, I reiterate, I think right now we will have some clear red lines drawn and preparations made, but the war won’t begin just yet.

In summary, things are getting hotter in the Middle East.  All that is needed is a slight nudge and the entire region could erupt.  I do not see anything getting calmer anytime soon.  In fact, I think we are about to see a major escalation of war in the Middle East.

 

By Guiles Hendrik

January 30, 2017

News You Need to Get: April 7, 2016

I am not a huge fan of the major news consolidators because they tend to mask important content with frivolous content of dubious accuracy and reliability.  Further, you tend to get a lot of repetitive reporting of the same “news.”  However, having a list of targeted news articles of substance is very valuable.  As such, on a semi-regular basis, I will continue putting together a list of important links to articles and information that went under reported in the American media.  They will cover a range of topics, but will all deal with critical issues that are going to shape events in each of our lives.

 

http://www.dailymails.xyz/wires/afp/article-3396210/Israel-gets-fifth-German-submarine.html

Israel on Tuesday took delivery of its fifth German-built submarine, an advanced Dolphin-class vessel said to be capable of remaining submerged for up to a week.

Speaking at an official welcome ceremony at the northern port city of Haifa, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the undersea fleet allows Israel “to deter enemies who seek to destroy us.”

“They should know that Israel can strike very hard indeed at anyone who tries to harm it,” he said.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-how-to-hack-an-election/

On the question of whether the U.S. presidential campaign is being tampered with, he is unequivocal. “I’m 100 percent sure it is,” he says.

 

http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Confessions-Economic-Hit/dp/1626566747
“Mr. Perkins’s core message is that American corporations and government agencies employ two types of operatives: ‘economic hit men,’ who bribe emerging economies, and ‘jackals,’ who may be used to overthrow or even murder heads of state in Latin America and the Middle East to serve the greater cause of American empire. . . . [This} book seems to have tapped into a larger vein of discontent and mistrust that Americans feel toward the ties that bind together corporations, large lending institutions and the government — a nexus that Mr. Perkins and others call the ‘corporatocracy.’”
—The New York Times

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/science/scientists-ponder-the-prospect-of-contagious-cancer.html?em_pos=small&nl_art=6&te=1&_r=0

While there is no sign of an imminent threat, several recent papers suggest that the eventual emergence of a contagious human cancer is in the realm of medical possibility. This would not be a disease, like cervical cancer, that is set off by the spread of viruses, but rather one in which cancer cells actually travel from one person to another and thrive in their new location.

 

https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/

The Intercept has obtained a cache of secret documents detailing the inner workings of the U.S. military’s assassination program in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. The documents, provided by a whistleblower, offer an unprecedented glimpse into Obama’s drone wars.

 

http://kurdishdailynews.org/2016/02/18/kurds-warn-turkey-of-big-war-with-russia-if-troops-enter-syria/

Russia has promised to protect Kurdish fighters in Syria in case of a ground offensive by Turkey, a move that would lead to a “big war,” the Syrian group’s envoy to Moscow said in an interview on Wednesday.

“We take this threat very seriously because the ruling party in Turkey is a party of war,” Rodi Osman, head of the Syrian Kurds’ newly-opened representative office said in Kurdish via a Russian interpreter. “Russia will respond if there is an invasion. This isn’t only about the Kurds, they will defend the territorial sovereignty of Syria.”

 

http://m.ibtimes.com/russia-conducts-military-exercises-armenia-base-latest-combat-readiness-drill-1997545

“We are concerned by the size, sale and frequency of Russia’s snap exercises,” a NATO official told CNN in May. “Three of them have included over 80,000 troops. Some of them have been used to deploy troops to annex Crimea, mass forces on Ukraine’s border and support the [pro-Moscow rebels in Ukraine].”

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/imf-predicts-greek-default-will-coincide-with-eu-referendum-claims-wikileaks-a6964676.html

The International Monetary Fund anticipates a possible Greek default on its bailout will coincide with the UK’s referendum on Europe, according to a leaked transcript.

 

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/japan/2016/japan-160403-presstv01.htm

A Japanese submarine, along with two guided-missile destroyers, has docked at a Philippine port near the South China Sea, where there is a territorial dispute with China.

 

https://www.rt.com/news/338831-montreal-police-brutality-protest/

A demonstration against police brutality in Montreal, Canada, led to cars being set alight in the streets and a police station being attacked. The protest was sparked by the death of a black man who was killed by a police rubber bullet last month.

 

https://www.rt.com/news/338833-chemical-gas-aleppo-shelling/

A neighborhood in the Syrian city of Aleppo, which is held by Kurdish YPG militias, has been shelled with chemical agents from territory held by Islamist and FSA factions, a local journalist on the ground has told to RT.

“The attack was carried out between 11.30 and 12.00 local time. The gas that was used in this attack, caused choking and malaise among those affected. This indicates that the poisoning substances were used in the attack,” journalist Nawrouz Uthman reports.

Uthman adds that 23 people were killed and over 100 injured in Thursday’s attack.

 

 

Russia sets chessboard for major Middle East war and transition to global dominance with one apocalyptic move

The United States has enjoyed the preeminent position globally as well as the Middle East for the last half a century. Like all empires, the sun has risen and now may be setting on the American century.  This is due in no small part to atrocious leadership and imbecilic foreign policy controlled by ideologues and special interests.  In particular, the US has lost significant influence in the Middle East over the last decade by turning allies into enemies and sovereign nations into hostile failed states.  In the process, the US created leadership vacuums that it was unable or unwilling to fill.  In those voids reentered old actors with Russia leading the way.  With Russia now firmly retrenched in the Middle East, the US can no longer afford to continue with business as usual.  The US must reevaluate its entire foreign policy positions and design a new grand strategy recognizing Russia is no longer a spoiler, but the kingmaker in the Middle East.  Russia has set the chessboard in the Middle East to achieve global dominance in one apocalyptic move.  As such, if there is to be war or peace, analysts should be looking toward Russia. Read more

Another step closer to major war in the Middle East today: Saudi Arabia drops bombs beside Iranian Embassy in Yemen

In what has become a rapidly escalating situation in the proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia just raised the stakes significantly. Based on open source reporting, it is clear that Saudi Arabia bombed Yemen and hit the area directly adjacent to the Iranian Embassy.  Although the Iranian Embassy wasn’t directly hit, many believe it was a target.  Either way, whether or not Saudi Arabia intended to hit the Iranian Embassy, the message is crystal clear in Tehran at this hour.

Saudi Arabia made a major strategic miscalculation today with its near miss of the Iranian Embassy. Iran’s leader had already announced it was going to prosecute the people that burned the Saudi Embassy, which was as close to an official apology as Saudi Arabia was going to receive from Iran.  However, rather than recognizing the olive branch from Tehran for what it was and building on the positive dialogue, Saudi Arabia took the olive branch and slapped Iran in the face by dropping bombs beside the Iranian Embassy in Yemen.  Even though American news outlets seemed to have missed this; intelligence outlets such as Stratfor immediately picked up the bombing as a clear escalation of the situation.  In the Middle East however, this is big news.  The insult to Iran cannot go unpunished.  The only question is how Iran will respond.

If Saudi Arabia is trying to provoke a war, they are doing a good job. Iran will now have to respond in kind and there is a high likelihood someone will get hurt.  The most likely candidate for a reprisal will be the Saudi Embassy in Iraq, which is already being heavily pressured by Shia militias.  If not Iraq, then the Saudi Embassy in Lebanon is the next top candidate to get attacked.  In Iraq, the embassy is very vulnerable to rocket and mortar attacks.  However, in both areas, car bombs could target diplomatic motorcades or the embassy perimeters.  I can’t say which, if any, of the options will be approved, but you can guarantee Iran will retaliate.  When they do, Saudis are likely to die or be injured.  This can only lead to greater escalation and one step closer to a full blown war between the two regional powers.

By Guiles Hendrik

January 6, 2016

 

http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/860456

http://news.yahoo.com/large-explosions-rock-yemeni-capital-084934433.html#

One Step Closer to Major Middle Eastern War between Iran and Saudi Arabia

Readers of Last Minute Survival are well aware that I have been correctly predicting for years the progression of events in the Middle East toward a total regional conflagration. Speaking broadly of a few key events, I predicted the rise of ISIL, the spread of the “civil war in Syria” to Iraq, and the proxy war between Saudi Arabia (Sunni) and Iran (Shia) going hot.  The execution of a prominent dissident Shiite cleric in Saudi Arabia just took this conflict one notch closer to a total war, which the United States is not prepared.  The brewing war has triggered a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and it now appears averting a massive war will not be possible.  The only question is how to best mitigate the damage.

This escalation has not been fully appreciated in the US and in fact seems to have been discounted by the US Department of State, which will certainly be “surprised” when both countries begin to mobilize their militaries. Both nations are now moving toward a war footing, which has initiated a secret nuclear arms race in the Middle East.  Iran knows Saudi Arabia has a far more modern military and the backing of the United States, the Gulf Coast Countries, and possibly Israel, Turkey, and Pakistan.  Iran is also threatened by Saudi backed Sunni extremists fighting to overthrow its allies to the west in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon while being boxed in by another Saudi backed Sunni extremist group, the Taliban, to its east in Afghanistan.  Iran knows Pakistan has agreed to supply Saudi Arabia with nuclear weapons.  Iran’s generals are not stupid and assess that they must obtain nuclear weapons if they have any hope of successfully defending Iran.  They are also racing to improve their anti-access and missile technologies to thwart any type of amphibious invasion from the US while effectively being able to attack Saudi Arabia’s water and oil installations from afar.  Further, as I have warned, Iran has been racing to operationally deploy advanced, Russian, S-300 air defense systems, which will effectively deny Iranian airspace to all but 5th Generation fighter/attack aircraft.

As overwhelming as the odds may seem to Iran, Saudi Arabia is justifiably terrified of a powerful Iran. What Iran lacks in high tech military hardware, it has in willpower and individual fighting capability, which will prove far more potent than anything the Saudis can muster for a war.  Those of us that have worked with the Saudi military know that the Saudi military is a paper tiger.  The Saudis are lazy and incompetent as warriors, but they have a big checkbook that keeps the US military industrial complex in business.  This keeps Washington and the Pentagon from ever effectively addressing the issue, which will become brutally apparent when a direct conflict between the nations breaks out.  In a head to head fight, Iran’s fighters are better trained, better organized, and far more motivated than even the best Saudi units.  In fact, aside from perhaps Jordan, the Arab armies are a joke.  Most are probably more likely to shoot each other (intentionally or not) before ever fielding an effective force against an enemy.  Further, although Iran has proven its ability to project forces beyond its borders successfully, and would no doubt use Iraq as a staging area for a land invasion of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia has no such force projection capability.  Without the ability to actually invade and defeat Iran, Saudi Arabia could only at best win a partial victory over Iran.  As such, Saudi Arabia must rely on buying off Washington to intervene and fight its war with American troops and treasure.  The Pentagon at least gets this, but what isn’t well understood by either the generals or the White House is that the Saudi backup plan if Washington bulks is to have a credible nuclear weapons capability that they will use if Washington won’t act.  The US is totally unprepared for and to date has no policy to even remotely address.  Read more

Counterterrorism 101: How to quickly mitigate 85% of the Islamic terrorist threat in the US

In spite of the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on defense and intelligence, our nation has once again failed to prevent an Islamic inspired terrorist attack on our soil.  Nonetheless, we are told that we must accept massive domestic spying and surveillance or we will not be safe even though these unconstitutional, Orwellian programs have never prevented a single attack.  Considering the amount of manpower, money, and technology dedicated to counterterrorism operations that still fail, one could easily conclude that rooting out Islamic extremists is just too difficult.  However, nothing could be further from the truth.  Terrorism is not a new phenomenon.  There are plenty of effective strategies to combat terrorism.  Some are more palatable than others, but agree or not, these strategies have been proven effective.  The problem is that our government not only refuses to acknowledge these viable options, but will brutally attack and smear anyone that tries to sensibly address these shortcomings of our “War on Terror” and domestic counterterrorism efforts.  Today, I am going to talk about the easiest and by far the most effective counterterrorism measure, which the government refuses to employ at our expense.  However, it is up to you whether or not you are now willing to take decisive action against the growing war with fundamentalist Islam or incur the risk and wait till it gets worse.  Either way, I promise you that decisive action, no matter how unpalatable, will ultimately be forced on you and the longer you wait, the more painful it will be for everyone.

The government would make you believe that without the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), etc. all spying on you, it is impossible to insure your security.  This is bogus logic.  There is strong evidence to support that domestic surveillance is actually counterproductive to preventing terrorism because it creates a huge amount of distracting data.  Further, if there really are terrorists all over the country ready to attack us and these programs work, then we should be intercepting them planning the attacks routinely.  Let me pose some simple questions to you and allow you to use some basic logic.  Do you ever wonder how the government knows there are terrorists all over?  If the government can know these enemies are here, then why don’t they arrest them or do something about it?  Further, if we already know so much about these extremists and their plans, why do we need to continue to spy on our own people when even the government admits the programs don’t work?  The truth is we don’t and the fearmongering is used to grab more power and control the people.  It doesn’t take a whole lot of money or technology to weed out your extremists and you certainly do not need to violate the Constitution.  However, it may require you to offend some people and not be politically correct.  It is amazing that today we will race to undermine our Constitution and destroy our civil liberties, but fight doggedly against any notion of hurting the feelings of someone that wants to kill us and destroy our civilization.  I am treading dangerously close to sounding like a suddenly well informed Donald Trump here, but we really do need to get our priorities straight.  Until we fix this, the evils of political correctness and tolerance will walk us right into a disaster as a nation.

So here it is…the grand plan for security the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on spying, surveillance, analysts, and bombs could never bring you.  To root these terrorists out Read more

America is fed up with Obama’s lies: America puts boots on ground in Syria as predicted by LMS

It should come as no shock to our readers that the Third Iraq War President Obama initiated has already faltered.  As predicted, the strategy (or lack thereof see: http://www.blackboxwire.com/2014/10/11/islamic-extremism-and-what-lies-ahead-part-ii-the-war-on-isis-and-syria/) did not achieve the desired results so now the Department of Defense (DoD), no doubt testing the waters for the White House, is requesting boots on the ground.  As we warned, mission creep is a dangerous thing and would plague this operation.  What started with just a handful of “advisors,” grew into airstrikes in Iraq and then Syria, then over a thousand troops “on the ground,” and now US troop levels in Iraq will soon reach 3,000.  When this new batch of advisors fails to stop the growth of ISIL, expect Obama to retract another “promise” and have “no choice,” but to commit US combat personnel to the fight in Iraq.  Soon, just like in Vietnam, Obama will be steadily sucked into another full blown war in Iraq that the US will neither win nor be able to afford.

This introductory paragraph could have been snatched from today’s headlines detailing how President Obama walked back his repeated promises not to put American “boots on the ground” in Iraq. However, it is a verbatim cut and paste from an article I wrote just over a year ago predicting EXACTLY what is occurring.  See: http://www.lastminutesurvival.com/2014/11/18/update-on-the-third-iraq-war-against-isilisisisaqsyriaetc/#more-768  Not so ironically, you didn’t hear the radio and talk show hosts and other “enlightened” pundits detailing this foreseeable reality a year ago because they are hacks.  However, today the airwaves have been alive with people taking notice.  Savage, Hannity, Beck, Wilkow, O’Reilly, etc. all have been detailing how the President lied and how the strategy they supported to bomb ISIL has not worked.  I say better late than never to the party, but American’s need to wake up now. Read more

ISIL Takes Ramadi: World One Step Closer to World War

Perhaps if the Iraqi soldiers used ammunition in their M240 machine gun they would have better results against ISIL.  I loved poorly staged propaganda photos.

Perhaps if the Iraqi soldiers used ammunition in their M240 machine gun they would have better results against ISIL. I loved poorly staged propaganda photos.

This week’s news that ISIL inflicted a heavy defeat upon Iraqi government forces is no surprise.  Whether or not ISIL can hold the ground is yet to be seen, but it sends a strong signal Washington’s strategy in Iraq is failing contrary to the claims of Obama’s paid propagandists.  Further, and more ominous for the world, it moves the Middle East one notch closer to an all-out regional war between Iran and Saudi Arabia.  As I have predicted for years, this coming conflagration is now a near certainty.  At this stage of the on-going proxy war there are simply no peaceful off ramps and it will be a winner takes all struggle.  Either radical Sunni extremists aligned under Saudi Arabia or radical Shia extremists aligned under Iran will prevail, which in either case will trigger a global war that involves the US and Israel.  For those of you saying, “Good, let them kill each other,” a lesson on the global economic implications of a sudden shut down of oil from the Middle East is in order.  In short, outright chaos will ensue.

Those of you that read my work regularly are well aware that I predicted the failure of US efforts to curb ISIL and the fall of Ramadi well over a year ago and the growing regional conflict in the Middle East “years” ago.  In fact, even my recent my global updates from April 20, 2015 speak specifically to Ramadi and ISIL, http://www.lastminutesurvival.com/2015/04/20/global-updates/.  In the brief, I specifically called out the Obama Administration as misleading the US on our “success” against ISIL in Tikrit and said that ISIL had simply shifted its forces south to “Ramadi” where I expected it to achieve success.  Below is the exact exert from my forecast. Read more

Who benefits when the world attacks Yemen? Al Qaeda and the Elite.

Who benefits when the world attacks Yemen?  This is a question that policies makers should have asked before allowing the president to start another foreign war.  In fact, it was asked and the answer was Al Qaeda.  Being that Al Qaeda would be the ultimate winner, one must wonder what kind of treason allowed this war to proceed.  In spite of this knowledge, the United States still backed an Arab coalition in a completely unjustified offensive war against Yemen.  The purported purpose was to bring back the ousted president, but anyone with half a brain would immediately know this was preposterous.  Yemenis are not going to ever accept a president that used a foreign militaries to kill its citizens to regain power.  Thus, knowing that the US was aware that by weakening the Houthi rebels they would by default strengthen Al Qaeda and still not achieve their stated goal, one must look deeper to reveal very disturbing consistencies in US Foreign Policy.

To recap, since the ouster of Yemen’s president widely seen as a US puppet, Saudi Arabia has overtly and the US clandestinely bombed Yemen.  The Houthis still retain power and the population is even more aligned against the ousted president than before the war against Yemen was unleashed.  Further, AQ broke into a prison and released 300 terrorist prisoners.  Al Qaeda has also made significant territorial gains and seized military bases containing weapons stockpiles.  In the meantime, a humanitarian disaster has ensued with thousands of civilians being killed in the bombing raids and fighting while many Yemenis are starving to death.  This operation by any bar has been a total failure and is becoming a humanitarian disaster.  However, no one in the media or Congress is calling out President Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, for starting an unconstitutional war, losing it, and killing thousands of innocent people all while aiding our enemy.  Why? Read more