“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

My journey into early American history keeps circling back to global wars. This time exploring areas claimed and settled by Virginian residents.

Surprise - George Washington fired the first shots leading to the French-American war and the global 7 year war.

Thomas Lee, Stratford Hall and the Ohio Company (1:24:50)(starts at 55 to subject ends 58:44 min) 2022

The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European great powers and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the Carnatic Wars (1744–1763), and the Anglo-Spanish War (1762–1763). The opposing alliances were led by Great Britain and France, respectively, both seeking to establish global pre-eminence at the expense of the other.
Wikipedia Oct 2023

Middle East Theater

The geopolitics of Al-Aqsa Flood The Cradle by Pepe Escobar Oct 03, 2023

Hamas’ Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was meticulously planned. The launch date was conditioned by two triggering factors.

First was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flaunting his 'New Middle East' map at the UN General Assembly in September, in which he completely erased Palestine and made a mockery of every single UN resolution on the subject.

Second are the serial provocations at the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, including the straw that broke the camel’s back: two days before Al-Aqsa Flood, on 5 October, at least 800 Israeli settlers launched an assault around the mosque, beating pilgrims, destroying Palestinian shops, all under the observation of Israeli security forces.
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Egyptian intel claims it warned Tel Aviv about an imminent attack from Hamas. The Israelis chose to ignore it, as they did the Hamas training drills they observed in the weeks prior, smug in their superior knowledge that Palestinians would never have the audacity to launch a liberation operation.

The war has started The Cradle Oct 9, 2023
Hamas did not coordinate its military operation with any of its Resistance Axis allies. It also did not plan to achieve the stunning results that were soon to follow. The Qassam Brigades' immediate goal was only to destroy Israeli army positions around the Gaza Strip and capture as many soldiers as possible, which they could later exchange for the thousands of Palestinian captives in Israeli prisons.

But the Palestinian resistance forces were taken by surprise at the laxity of the occupation army. Contrary to expectations, they stumbled upon security vacuums and poorly guarded military sites in which a large number of enemy soldiers and officers were fast asleep. It was this unexpected opportunity that prodded the Palestinian fighters to reach for bigger gains.

Hamas' military leadership planned to carry out this operation in complete secrecy. Just weeks earlier, their fighters had conducted military maneuvers/exercises that were observed by the Israelis. But Tel Aviv's rather complacent intelligence assessment had been that "Hamas is training for what it does not dare to do." The Israelis, in short, thought that Hamas was merely flexing in order to gain financial concessions for Gaza. No actual operation was ever expected by Israel's military brass.

Whatever happens next, Al-Aqsa Flood has already, irretrievably, shattered the hefty pop mythology around the invincibility of Tsahal, Mossad, Shin Bet, Merkava tank, Iron Dome, and the Israel Defense Forces.
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The Israelis can merrily engage in collective punishment because, with three guaranteed UNSC vetoes in their back pocket, they know they can get away with it.
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Elsewhere in the region, the Atlanticist drive of opening strategic corridors across the Five Seas - the Caspian, the Black Sea, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Eastern Mediterranean - is floundering badly.
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Al-Aqsa Flood has also just buried the recently-announced and much-ballyhooed EU-Israel-Saudi Arabia-India transportation corridor.
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China is keenly aware of all this incandescence taking place only a week before its 3rd Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. At stake are the BRI connectivity corridors that matter – across the Heartland, across Russia, plus the Maritime Silk Road and the Arctic Silk Road.

This did not take long to be discredited.
Source of dubious ‘beheaded babies’ claim is Israeli settler leader who incited riots to ‘wipe out’ Palestinian village The Grayzone Oct 11, 2011

The Grayzone has now identified a key source of the claim that Palestinian militants beheaded Israeli babies. He is David Ben Zion, a Deputy Commander of Unit 71 of the Israeli army who also happens to be an extremist settler leader who incited violent riots against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank earlier this year.

Economic Theater

China
US Grants TSMC Waiver Extension to Import Chipmaking Equipment Into China Sputnik Global Oct 13, 2023

One of the biggest chipmakers in the world, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), has been granted an extended waiver from US trade sanctions targeting China. This development ensures TSMC's unhindered procurement of ultramodern chip production equipment for its operations in China, says a high-ranking official in Taiwan.

Israel
Israel’s intel failure is 'bad for business' The Cradle Oct 13, 2023

The sheer scale and intensity of the Palestinian resistance's Operation Al-Aqsa Flood took Israel and the world by surprise last week. Even seasoned western intelligence agency veterans, who possess intimate knowledge of Israel's surveillance capabilities, struggled to provide any plausible explanation for the glaring security gaps.
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Yet, despite this apparently formidable fifth column and Tel Aviv's construction of “a high-security barrier around Hamas’ stronghold in hemmed-in Gaza - buttressed by motion sensors and extending deep under the ground” - hundreds of Palestinian fighters were able to breach those defenses without difficulty.

This they did from multiple fronts, using boats, tunnels, motorbikes, and paragliders, infiltrating ten occupation army bases, and killing hundreds of sleeping Israeli troops.

Al-Aqsa Flood involved arranging multiple rocket launch systems, ground forces, vehicles, and other equipment in sensitive positions in advance of its execution, leaving resistance fighters and their equipment exposed to surveillance from assorted angles, yet they were neither detected nor intercepted.
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Last year, the Times of Israel reported that in 2021, the country’s overall cybersecurity exports were estimated at $11 billion.

In addition, 33 percent of cyber unicorn companies operate from Israel, and a whopping 40 percent of global private cyber investments have been funneled into the country, according to the Israeli government.
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In recent years, revelations of foreign governments and security agencies being implicated in scandals due to their covert use of Pegasus have become disturbingly routine. This invasive tool was developed by the NSO Group, founded by a former Mossad operative.

A 2021 Carnegie Endowment investigation revealed that 56 different states had procured this technology, as well as other spyware and "digital forensics" innovations from Israeli competitors like Candiru, Cellebrite, and Cytrox.
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Mere days before Operation al-Aqsa Flood commenced, Israeli media reported on a “record-breaking spike” in countries buying Israeli cyber warfare and intelligence systems from 67 to 83 over 2022, and marketing licenses for these wares granted to 126 countries.
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Ironically, one of the most intriguing explanations proposed thus far is that Palestinians utilized Huawei smartphones for their digital communications. The much-maligned Chinese company has faced sanctions from the US and its international allies, ostensibly for being associated with the Communist Party.

Yet it may be due to their refusal to insert backdoors into their technology and devices at the behest of western intelligence agencies.

It has been suggested that the satellite communication function of Huawei Mate 60 Pro, for instance, “allows the phone to make calls and transmit data without a network connection, thus avoiding the surveillance of Pegasus spyware.”

Gaza
This project will likely be frozen again.
How a Gaza Marine Deal Could Benefit Palestinians, Israelis and the Region United States Institute of Peace August 3, 2023

Amid today’s dismal Israeli-Palestinian context, positive developments have been in short supply. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s June announcement of preliminary approval for the development of the Gaza Marine gas fields provided a rare glimpse of a potential win-win opportunity. For the Palestinians, it could provide a much-needed boost to their lagging economy and the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA). On the Israeli side, it allows the Netanyahu government to claim it is assisting in improving living conditions in Gaza and could lead to less U.S. pressure on issues like settlement expansion.
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It was 1999 when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak first allowed exploration of the area, and the PA granted British Gas (BG) exploration rights. BG discovered the Marine 1 and Marine 2 gas fields about 22 miles off the coast of Gaza in 2000. The project has been on hold since then, yet another victim to the dynamics of the ongoing conflict and occupation. After Shell acquired BG in 2016, the Consolidated Contractors Company and the Palestinian Investment Fund acquired Shell's interest in the fields, with each party owning 50%.

Negotiations were revived several times over the years. However, the project came back to the forefront following the Russian war on Ukraine and the ensuing global energy crisis. The recent effort is also inspired by the Israel-Lebanon maritime agreement and is encouraged by the establishment of the EastMed Gas Forum in which Egypt, Israel and Palestine are members, as well as the MOU to export natural gas from Israel to Europe via Egypt that was signed by Egypt, Israel and the European Union, who are still looking for alternatives to Russian gas.
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Notably, the only official announcement regarding Gaza Marine was the one issued by Israel. This reflects the cautious approach of all the other parties, their recognition of the volatility of the situation, and the challenges that any constructive step will have to face. The question remains whether this effort will proceed and succeed, particularly in light of the extremist nature of the current Israeli coalition, and its uncompromising stance toward the Palestinians.

A little new info on another domestic conspiracy theory. Did the FBI secretly steal Civil War gold find as the treasure hunters claim? Associated Press has been keeping the CT story alive.

New witnesses share what they saw in the woods during a secretive FBI hunt for Civil War gold Associated Press News Oct 7, 2023

The FBI’s highly unusual search for buried Civil War-era treasure more than five years ago set in motion a dispute over what, if anything, the agency unearthed and an https://apnews.com/article/politics-war-and-unrest-pennsylvania-clearfie... over key records. There’s so much intrigue that even a federal judge felt compelled to note in a ruling last week: “The FBI may have found the gold — or maybe not.”

Now, two witnesses have come forward to share with The Associated Press what they heard and saw in the woods that late-winter morning, raising questions about the FBI’s timeline and adding plot twists to a saga that blends elements of legend, fact and science – and a heavy dose of government secrecy.

The FBI insists nothing came of the https://apnews.com/article/b8b4d27254814894b3a79aa3083fb356 in Dents Run, a remote wooded valley about 110 miles (177 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh. But a treasure hunter who led FBI agents to the hillside where an 1863 gold shipment might have been buried is challenging the government’s denials. How could the dig have come up empty, he asks, when the FBI’s own scans showed the likelihood of a buried metal mass equaling hundreds of millions of dollars in gold?

McCarthy, a 45-year-old elk guide, had never met treasure hunter Dennis Parada. But he watched from afar as Parada took the FBI to court and told his story in the media. McCarthy recently decided to share his own story because he thought Parada, who spent years looking for the gold before approaching the FBI with his findings, has been treated unfairly.

“I just felt like I needed to say what I saw, you know?” McCarthy explained. “I have no ties to anybody here. It’s just I felt like they were wronged.”
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The interviewer Godfrey Bloom was elected to British Parliament for his region as a member of the conservative UK Independence Party. Eventually controversial actions and speech lost him the whip position in his party. British patriarchal arrogance is one way of explaining his outlook of life. Fresh look at history of conflict area and do not often see verbal sparring at this level of competency.

Russia Ukraine War UPDATE: Russian Victory & The End Game - With Colonel Douglas Macgregor (46:33 min)

Why did Hamas attack Israelis? w/ Phil Giraldi fmr CIA (23:17 min) Oct 13, 2023

How Israel will affect Ukraine - Intel Round Table w/Larry Johnson & Ray McGovern (23:38 min) Oct 13, 2023

The livestream videos this week by Judge Napolitano channel ongoing discussions regarding current events in Israel/Hamas/Gaza and secondary subject Ukraine/Russia conflict. The interviews are generally posted on Monday through Friday if would like to view them in a more timely manner. The link opens in the LIVE column, occasionally an interview only appears in VIDEOS section.

What is on your mind today?