New in SpyWeek: More Terror Alerts

Also: Putin ramps up sabotage, a CIA sex assault case ends, DoD stands by its covert disinfo op against China, more HPSCI havoc and Trump on JFK files

Blinking Red: In the four years before 9/11, CIA Director George Tenet testified publicly 10 times about the threat al Qaeda posed to the United States. In eight appearances before Congress in recent months, FBI Director Christopher Wray has been sounding similar warnings.

Bruits de guerre et logique géopolitique

Le monde est confronté au danger d’une grande guerre. Pour comprendre l’ampleur de cette menace, il faut aller au-delà des nouvelles en provenance d’Ukraine. Il faut aussi, d’une part, essayer d’apprécier de manière équilibrée le facteur variable de la volonté humaine dans la gestion des crises internationales et, d’autre part, les facteurs immuables de la réalité géographique.

‘I warned the CIA about Afghanistan’s collapse — and was ignored’ Biden only enflamed the situation

On 26 August 2021, shortly after the Taliban conquered Kabul, Abdur Rahman Logari detonated his suicide vest near the Abbey Gate in the city’s airport, killing 170 men, women and children who were trying to flee the country. Two days later, a US drone strike killed an entire Afghan family in the mistaken belief that the target was Logari. Joe Biden would later describe the Abbey Gate attack — Isis’s most successful operation in Afghanistan — as “the hardest of the hard days” of his presidency. Harder days, however, were soon to come.

Israeli regime preparing for all-out war with Hezbollah in Lebanon

A drastic escalation of tensions between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon over the past week has brought the prospect of an expansion of war across the Middle East ever closer. Following Israel’s assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander and a retaliatory rocket barrage fired on northern Israel, The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) released a statement Tuesday declaring that operational plans for a war in Lebanon have been approved.

EXCLUSIVE: First Translation of Khameini’s New Book on the Destruction of America, Israel

As Jonathan Tobin writes at Commentary:

The Khamenei Palestine book is important not in and of itself but because the regime’s obsession with Israel is a key to its foreign policy. Iran constitutes a grave threat to Neighboring Arab countries that are at least as angry about the president’s embrace of Tehran as the Israelis since their nuclear status would undermine their security. But as much as Iran is focused on regional hegemony in which Sunni states would be brought to heel, as Khamenei’s Palestine illustrates, it is the fixation on Israel and Zionism that really animates their expansionism and aid for terror groups.

VSA : La surveillance bâtit son empire

Les Jeux olympiques vont nous laisser la surveillance de masse en héritage. En instrumentalisant cet évènement, le gouvernement a autorisé l’utilisation de la vidéosurveillance algorithmique (VSA) jusqu’en 2025 pour des situations qui dépassent largement le cadre cette compétition sportive. Ces logiciels, qui analysent les images de vidéosurveillance et envoient automatiquement des alertes à la police, sont déployés depuis des années en France en toute illégalité, sans que jamais les responsables n’aient été inquiétés. L’hypocrisie est donc totale. En légalisant quelques usages de VSA, l’État souhaite légitimer un état de fait et amorcer un projet de surveillance bien plus large de l’espace public.

The Death of Petrodollar

The Deep State should have been alert five years ago when Candidate Joe Biden announced that he, if elected as president, was determined to make the Saudi rulers “pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are.”

Demographic Winter Chills: East Asian Military Might: China, Japan, South Korea Face Recruitment Hurdles – OpEd

Falling birthrates in East Asia are causing concerns over whether the region’s military forces will be able to maintain their troop levels in future. As a result, China, Japan, and South Korea are changing their recruitment standards even though they have invested heavily in programmes to boost birthrates. However, some experts believe that advancements in technology will help offset the impact of declining populations.