Day: February 2, 2024

“We Don’t Want A Wider War”

That was the statement made by the National Security Council head….as the Biden gang decides how to react to the attack in Syria that killed 3 American troopers.

Since October, the United States has bombed Iraq and Syria dozens of times, launched five rounds of airstrikes in Yemen, supplied the Israeli government with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment for its devastating assault on the Gaza Strip, and opposed international efforts to secure a cease-fire in the Palestinian enclave.

Yet Biden administration officials continue to insist that the U.S. is not at war in the Middle East, and is not seeking a broader military conflict in the region.

On Monday, amid reports that the U.S. is weighing how to respond to a deadly drone attack on American servicemembers just inside Jordan’s border with Syria—an attack the White House blamed on Iran-backed militia groups—National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in an appearance on NBC‘s “Today Show” that “we don’t want a wider war with Iran.”

“We don’t want a wider war in the region,” said Kirby, “but we gotta do what we have to do.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-middle-east-war

Biden and the gang made up their minds on the answer to the killings by Iranian back bad guys…..

The US has approved a series of strikes in response to the drone attack that killed three service members in Jordan last weekend, CBS News reports, citing US officials—but the plan is to hit Iran-linked facilities in Iraq and Syria, not targets in Iran itself. The officials say the timing of the strikes will depend on the weather because the military wants to have good visibility as a safeguard against inadvertently hitting civilians. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that while the US wants to avoid a “wider conflict” in the Middle East, “we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our interests and our people, and we will respond when we choose, where we choose, and how we choose.”

The Jordan strike, the latest in a series of attacks from Iran-backed militias in the region, also injured dozens of US personnel. Hawks in Congress have called for a strike inside Iran, something Tehran reportedly sees as a “red line.” Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi warned Friday that the US could face a “strong response,” Al Jazeera reports. “We will not start any war but if anyone wants to bully us they will receive a strong response,” Raisi said.

Iran has denied responsibility for the drone attack, which was claimed by a coalition of Iran-backed groups called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. Kataib Hezbollah, one of the groups in the coalition, said Wednesday that it was suspending attacks on US forces. Sources tell Reuters that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have started pulling senior officers from Syria following the deaths of several commanders in Israel strikes.

Bloodthirsty Repubs like Sen. Cotton and idiots like John Bolton keeps pushing for direct attack on Iran (basically to placate the Israelis)….but there is no actionable intel that says Iran did this……

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Thursday admitted the US does not know if Iran was operationally involved in the drone attack in Jordan that killed three American soldiers. On the same day, US officials told CBS News that plans have been approved for strikes against Iranian personnel and facilities in Iraq and Syria.

When asked by a reporter how much Iran knew about the Jordan drone attack or if it was operationally involved, Austin said, “You know, we believe that this was done by an element of what is known as the Axis of Resistance, and these are Iranian proxy groups. And how much Iran knew or didn’t know, we — we don’t know, but it really doesn’t matter because Iran sponsors these groups.”

The US has said it believes the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iraqi militias, was responsible for the attack. Kataib Hezbollah announced Tuesday it was suspending attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria, which was the result of pressure from the Iraqi government and Iran, making it clear Tehran does not seek more escalations in the region.

(antiwar.com)

You do not want a wider war and yet you widen it almost daily…..I love War Department doublespeak…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden’s New Court

We seem to have as many ‘courts’ as we have individual these days…..there is a new one operating within the Biden admin structure…..the Data Protection Review Court….

At an undetermined date, in an undisclosed location, the Biden administration began operating a secretive new court to protect Europeans’ privacy rights under U.S. law.

Officially known as the Data Protection Review Court, it was authorized in an October 2022 executive order to fix a collision of European and American law that had been blocking the lucrative flow of consumer data between American and European companies for three years.

The court’s eight judges were named last November, including former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Its existence has allowed companies to resume the lucrative transatlantic data trade with the blessing of EU officials.

The details get blurry after that.

The court’s location is a secret, and the Department of Justice will not say if it has taken a case yet, or when it will. Though the court has a clear mandate — ensuring Europeans their privacy rights under U.S. law — its decisions will also be kept a secret, from both the EU residents petitioning the court and the federal agencies tasked with following the law. Plaintiffs are not allowed to appear in person and are represented by a special advocate, appointed by the U.S. attorney general.

And critics worry it will tie the hands of U.S. intelligence agencies with an unusual power: It can make binding decisions on surveillance practices with federal agencies, which won’t be able to challenge those decisions.

“Until there’s some clarity on how that’s going to operate, I think you could expect the intelligence community to be nervous about what it might mean, especially since it’s not even clear what its caseload is going to look like,” said Matthew Waxman, a State Department and National Security Council veteran and chair of the national security law program at Columbia University.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/17/inside-bidens-secret-surveillance-court-00136175

We already have a plethora of ‘secret’ courts….do we really need another?

Just wondering.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”