The Decline of ISIS but Lingering Threats

ISIS is a shadow of its former self, with reports estimating only 1,700 to 1,900 fighters remaining. The group is taking heavy hits from Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Syria and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Meanwhile, in Iraq, Counter-Terrorism Services, alongside American special forces, have significantly weakened their operations. Recruitment efforts have collapsed, leaving the group scrambling to survive.

However, this decline doesn’t mean the threat has disappeared. With diminished power abroad, extremist groups may refocus their efforts to target vulnerabilities in nations like the United States. Desperation often breeds unpredictability, making them dangerous despite their dwindling numbers.

Iran’s Weakened Influence

Iran has also suffered significant blows. Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have eliminated key figures like Hanan Esta of Lebanon and Sinir of Hamas. Iran’s presence in Syria has been pushed back, further straining its resources. With reduced influence in the region, Iran may be playing a different game, potentially funneling efforts into sleeper cells and covert operations.

The combination of ISIS’s desperation and Iran’s need to reassert power paints a troubling picture. Both may seek to cause disruption or fear through coordinated attacks.

The Role of Border Vulnerabilities

Congressman Mills highlights concerns about national security, particularly regarding open borders. Over the past four years, millions have crossed into the United States. Among them, there’s the risk of sleeper cells entering unnoticed. While most individuals seek better opportunities, some could be waiting for activation orders from global terror networks.

This vulnerability underscores why securing borders remains a priority for many. It’s not just about immigration—it’s about preventing potential threats from taking root.

The New Year’s Eve Attack: A Clear Act of Terror?

A recent attack on New Year’s Eve has brought these fears to the forefront. Witnesses describe a horrifying scene where a truck, seemingly driven with intent, plowed through crowds, killing at least 15 people. The driver, identified as Bin Jabar, has raised national security concerns.

Authorities initially hesitated to classify the attack as terrorism. The FBI later reversed their statement, raising questions about how threats are assessed and communicated to the public. Congressman Mills criticized the FBI’s premature declaration, stating, “This was absolutely a terrorist attack.”

What’s more notable is the context. The truck, previously spotted near Eagle Pass—a known border crossing—suggests possible international coordination. Symbolism also appears to play a role, with the attack occurring near Trump Tower and involving a Tesla vehicle, a potential message towards former President Trump.

Radicalization and Known Risks

Radicalization doesn’t happen overnight. It’s often a gradual process, fueled by specific triggers or online extremist content. In this case, Bin Jabar’s path was particularly chilling. Once an honorable Army veteran, his descent into radical ideology serves as a grim reminder of how quickly allegiances can shift.

The question remains: was this individual acting alone? Congressman Mills doesn’t think so. Investigators are exploring connections between Jabar’s recent trip to Mexico and possible terrorist factions operating in the region. Coordination across borders could point to more sophisticated networks that don’t act in isolation.

Eyewitness Accounts: The Human Toll

Few things capture the impact of such attacks like witness accounts. An 18-year-old young man, visibly shaken, recounted the tragedy. He described bodies “all up and down the street” and losing a close friend in the chaos. It’s a stark reminder of the human cost and why prevention must always be the priority.

The Bigger Picture for National Security

This isn’t just about isolated incidents. It’s about understanding the broader landscape of terrorism risks in the U.S. Congressman Mills highlights key contributors, including sleeper cell activity, open borders, and connections between extremist groups like ISIS, Iran, and others.

National security experts are warning against complacency. They stress the need to address external threats from countries like China, Russia, and North Korea while also focusing on internal vulnerabilities. Open borders and weak domestic policies create room for these risks to escalate.

Conclusion

The chilling reminder of recent attacks, combined with growing evidence of sleeper cell activity, shines a spotlight on the fragility of national security. Groups like ISIS and destabilized regimes like Iran are evolving their tactics, leaving America exposed to potential threats.

Securing borders, strengthening surveillance, and uncovering networks of radicalized individuals are essential next steps. With mounting evidence of coordinated threats, the question isn’t if, but when, they’ll attempt another strike. Policymakers and citizens alike must remain vigilant, ensuring that safety and security are prioritized in an increasingly unpredictable world.

Article generated with assistance from AI.

Both US and Israeli leaders are now mulling the possibility of striking Iran’s nuclear program, amid several reports in recent weeks saying the Islamic Republic is expanding its program and enriching more nuclear-grade material. Tehran is now much more on the defensive, and could be more desperate to achieve nuclear weapons.

A significant Friday report in The Wall Street Journal says that “President-elect Donald Trump is weighing options for stopping Iran from being able to build a nuclear weapon, including the possibility of preventive airstrikes, a move that would break with the longstanding policy of containing Tehran with diplomacy and sanctions.”

“Trump has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent calls that he is concerned about an Iranian nuclear breakout on his watch, two people familiar with their conversations said, signaling he is looking for proposals to prevent that outcome,” the report continues.

“The president-elect wants plans that stop short of igniting a new war, particularly one that could pull in the U.S. military, as strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities have the potential put the U.S. and Iran on a collision course.”

Currently the United States still has some 1,000 troops occupying northeast Syria, and they have come under internecine attacks by Iran-backed militias over the recent years. In any broader US-Iran war, these troops would be sitting ducks for attack via Tehran’s proxies in the region.

Trump in his first administration tried but failed to bring the troops home, but deeper entanglement in striking Iran could surely draw these troops into a broader conflict. The Pentagon would in that case likely expand its deployed forces in the region as well.

“Iran has enough highly enriched uranium alone to build four nuclear bombs, making it the only nonnuclear-weapon country to be producing 60% near-weapons-grade fissile material,” WSJ has noted further. “It would take just a few days to convert that stockpile into weapons-grade nuclear fuel.”

Iran has long maintained it develops only peaceful nuclear energy, and there’s little doubt that after the dramatic events unfolding in Syria, and with Hezbollah top leadership largely decimated, Tehran finds itself on a back foot.

Some Israeli and Western officials believe that all of this will make Iranian leaders more desperate to ensure they have a final and ultimate defense against any threats (as in rapidly developing a nuke).

But if Trump were to authorize strikes on Iranian facilities, this would also obviously violate his frequent vows to his voters to not start new wars in the Middle East. The reality is that even ‘limited’ strikes still constitute an act of war. The potential for runaway escalation involving the US, Iran, and Israel would be a much bigger likelihood

(End of the American Dream)—In recent months, quite a few pundits have been openly warning us that World War III has begun.  Sadly, those pundits are quite correct.  Right now, a historic global struggle is being waged by two very powerful alliances.  The “western alliance” made up of the United States, Europe, Israel and their allies is engaged in a battle for supremacy with the “eastern alliance” made up of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Syria and their allies.

Over the past week, this battle for supremacy has erupted on a couple of new fronts, but most Americans have no idea what is really going on.

Just look at what is happening in Syria.  Most Americans have no idea that radical Sunni Muslims backed by the western alliance just conducted a highly successful offensive on Syria’s second largest city and are threatening to overthrow the Assad regime once and for all…

The Syrian military and its ally Russia conducted deadly joint air raids Monday on areas that Islamist-led rebels seized control of over the weekend. The strikes were a response to a lightning offensive by the rebels that saw them wrest control of swathes of northwest Syria from government forces.

The conflict that started more than a decade ago took a significant turn several days ago, catching many — including, it seems, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and his Russian backers — by surprise. On Saturday, rebels, including many with the U.S.-designated Islamic terrorist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), took control of the major city of Aleppo in northern Syria.

The rebels seized Aleppo’s airport and started pushing into towns and villages in the countryside around the city on Sunday after leaving piles of dead government soldiers in the streets. Observers said the rebel forces were often met with little to no resistance by regime forces, but by Monday the pace of the surprise offensive appeared to have slowed, with Assad and his Russian backers ramping-up their response.

While she served as Secretary of State during the Obama administration, Hillary Clinton was instrumental in starting the civil war in Syria.  That civil war caused a massive refugee crisis that western Europe is still wrestling with to this day.

Now the civil war in Syria has freshly erupted, and if Assad gets toppled that will be a major victory for the western alliance.

Of course the eastern alliance does not plan to go down without a fight.  Over the weekend, Iraqi militia groups that are backed by Iran “have been pouring across the border into eastern Syria”…

Widespread reports, including observers on the ground, have indicated that Iran-backed Iraqi militias have been pouring across the border into eastern Syria to assist Damascus in repelling the Islamist militant advance after Al Qaeda splinter group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham took over Aleppo this weekend.

A Syrian army officer has told Reuters that Iraqi militia forces crossing the border are “fresh reinforcements being sent to aid our comrades on the frontlines in the north.”

Many of the fighters have been identified as belonging to the Kataib Hezbollah and Fatemiyoun groups. The US has long been in an internecine conflict with Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, with over the years periodic rocket fire even targeting the US Embassy in Baghdad, as well as various bases which host remaining American troops.

And it appears that Iranian military forces could be on the verge of intervening directly in the conflict…

Boroujerdi told a news conference in Damascus that Iran was ready to render military assistance to Syria. “Iran’s military aid will be provided as soon as Tehran receives a request from the Syrian government. We are going to announce it immediately,” the Iranian deputy said.

Boroujerdi, who is heading an Iranian delegation, arrived in Damascus on Wednesday for talks with Syrian Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is expected to meet Boroujerdi on Thursday.

The Iranian deputy stressed the importance of the four-sided coordination of efforts by Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria in fighting terrorism.

Iran normally prefers to fight their wars using proxy forces.

But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Meanwhile, Israel’s ceasefire with Hezbollah seems to be breaking down already…

The ceasefire in Lebanon, barely five days old, is near collapse as of Monday after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel, following the Biden-Harris administration’s erroneous claim that Israeli surveillance drones violated the agreement.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported Monday that two Hezbollah rockets had been fired at Har (Mount) Dov, a strategic mountain that Breitbart News visited last Thursday and which Hezbollah claims, wrongly, is Lebanese.

If Hezbollah is forced to keep their forces in Lebanon in order to contend with the IDF, they won’t be able to intervene in the conflict in Syria. Ultimately, so many of these conflicts are interrelated.

Ukraine is hoping that at least some Russian forces get diverted to Syria to help the Assad regime, because last month the Ukrainians lost a great deal of territory…

Ukraine has endured a tough three months in which Russian forces made gains across the front, which are likely continue over winter, a military analyst has said.

“The trend is very worrying, and there’s no reason to expect the situation to calm down in December either,” Emil Kastehelmi, from the Finnish-based Black Bird Group, told Newsweek.

In an X, formerly Twitter, thread, the OSINT analyst said that, in the three months to December, Moscow’s troops had captured around 617 square miles in Ukraine and 190 in Russia’s Kursk oblast, where Ukrainian forces had staged an incursion but where they have lost the western flank, as well as positions in the Donbas region.

Ukraine is the one place where the western alliance is losing badly, and western politicians are extremely determined to turn things around.

But the truth is that unless NATO gets directly involved, Ukraine will definitely lose.

As the war drags on, Ukrainian soldiers are deserting from their posts in staggering numbers…

More than twice as many Ukrainian soldiers have been charged with desertion this year than in 2022 and 2023 combined, the Financial Times has reported. The spike in desertions has hampered Kiev’s ability to replenish its thinned-out ranks.

Ukrainian prosecutors opened 60,000 cases against deserters between January and October of this year, the British newspaper reported on Saturday, noting that those convicted face prison terms of up to 12 years.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have already died on the killing fields of eastern Ukraine.

Let us hope for an agreement that will bring the endless slaughter to an end.

Before I conclude this article, I want to mention one more nation where the great battle between east and west has suddenly erupted.

In Georgia, angry protesters that are being backed by the western alliance have been clashing violently with the police for days.  Just like we witnessed in Ukraine in 2014, it appears that this could be an attempt to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Georgia…

Days of protests have rocked Georgia following the government’s controversial decision to delay the former Soviet country’s bid to join the European Union.

Tensions have been brewing for months in the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million people, where critics accuse the ruling Georgian Dream party of following increasingly authoritarian, pro-Russia policies in a turn away from the West that has tempered hopes for Georgia’s long-promised path to EU membership.

The protests have been met with a violent police crackdown as the ruling party and thousands of protesters become locked in a deepening battle over the country’s future and whether Georgia should forge closer ties with Russia or Europe.

The U.S. and Europe would love to see a “color revolution” that removes the Georgian Dream party from power.

Of course the Russians and other eastern alliance nations would very much like to avert such an outcome.

I just wish that every country would be allowed to do what they want without outside interference.

But that isn’t going to happen, is it?

Sadly, the great struggle between east and west that we are witnessing is just going to continue to intensify, and at this stage it should be obvious to everyone that it is not going to have a happy ending.

We live in such perilous times, and if you have not been paying much attention to what is going on around the world now would be a great time to start.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

These plants only started buying Iranian crude this year after receiving guidance from the US State Department that sanctions wouldn’t be enforced by the Biden administration, according to a note from the industry consultant, which didn’t name the refiners. If confirmed that would be the latest foreign policy scandal by the captured and corrupt Biden admin, which has made a mockery of sanctions enforcement, especially if the alternative is sharply higher oil and gas prices.

In any case, with the imminent arrival of Trump, the Chinese refining sector will be under significant pressure to consolidate and the government might be “willing to sacrifice the teapots to score some easy points against Trump by clamping down Iranian imports.”

Limiting access would raise the cost of feedstock and slash margins for teapots and help Beijing to trim capacity.

Activity by independent refiners has picked up in the spot market, with a number of plants securing barrels from the Middle East in recent trades, on top of WAF grades purchased two weeks ago. These were all unsold, discounted barrels from the previous cycles.

With Iranian oil set to become extremely scarce, China’s independent refiners have snapped up barrels from across the Middle East and Africa as offers of Iranian oil remain scarcer and more expensive than usual, in part due to broadening US sanctions.

In a separate Bloomberg report, we learn that a large Chinese processor bought about 10 million barrels of grades from Abu Dhabi and Qatar, according to traders who asked not to be identified. The cargoes are for loading in December and January, and helped to clear an overhang of unsold crude from previous trading cycles, they added.

China’s independent refiners, known as teapots, typically favor cheaper Iranian crude and take around 90% of the OPEC producer’s exports, but a slowdown in the amount of oil available to purchase has forced a change in buying habits. The incoming Trump administration has also led to some large processors backing away from Tehran’s crude due to their exposure to US banking, according to Energy Aspects.

Traders and shippers put the scarcity of Iranian supply down to the broadening of US sanctions in October to include more dark fleet tankers plying the Iran-China trade. That move has crimped the number of vessels available for ship-to-ship transfers, tightening supply and driving prices higher (see “Satellite Analysis Shows Enormity Of Secretive Oil Shipping Hub Funneling Iranian Crude To China“).

Flows of Iranian oil to China have dipped more than 10% this month compared with October, according to Kpler. Meanwhile, the volume of West African crude is at the highest on a monthly basis in at least two years, partly driven by the spike in Iranian oil prices, Sentosa Shipbrokers wrote in a report.

Beijing’s move to issue more import quotas to teapots has also spurred buying activity, traders said. Refiners were asked to submit requests to purchase more crude a few months ago and were provided verbal approvals this week, but some started buying ahead of the confirmation, they added.

Refiners in Shandong province collectively sought an allocation of about 3.8 million tons, or 28.5 million barrels, which will be valid until the end of the year, according to traders.

The initial build-up of Middle Eastern oil was spurred by bumper trading activity in contracts linked to the Dubai market in recent months. That led to the delivery of cargoes that ultimately went unconsumed and had to find buyers at a later date, traders said.

President-elect Donald Trump has already rattled the market with the threat of tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico, and investors are closely watching to see how his administration will approach Iran. Sanctions on the OPEC producer are expected to tighten, according to Energy Aspects.

Key concerns include the possibility dark fleet tankers will be sanctioned en-route to their destination, a move that would spook the ports waiting to receive the vessels and lead to cargoes being stranded at sea.

We previously discussed how ship-to-ship transfers off Malaysia are also set to face more scrutiny, a process used to mask the origin of Iranian cargoes by re-labeling them as Malaysian oil.

— WATCH: harbingers.tv

In a Thursday meeting with family members of Major Sajjad Mansouri – who was reportedly killed during the Oct. 26 Israeli strikes – Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Army Major General Seyyed Abdolrahim Mousavi promised a “crushing” blow to Israel.

“We will determine the time and manner of our response. There will be no hesitation when the time comes, and our reply will surely be crushing,” he said according to Tehran-based news outlet Iran Front Page News, echoing threats issued by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this month when he said Tehran would issue a “crushing response.”

Similarly, Deputy Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Ali Fadavi on Thursday said, “The entire world will bear witness as the complete downfall of the Zionist regime fulfills the triumph of righteousness over falsehood.”

Of course Israel has already promised that it will respond to any attack by hitting Iran even harder than it did last time.

In fact, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is suggesting that Iran’s oil fields could be a target…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted that the IDF would hit Iranian oil fields should Tehran make good on its threat to launch another ballistic missile attack on Israel.

“Another attack on Israel would simply cripple Iran’s economy,” Netanyahu said in an unusual English-language message he directed at the Iranian people.

Can you imagine what that would do to the price of oil?

Israel’s defense minister wants to go a step further.  He is publicly suggesting that now is the time to wipe out Iran’s nuclear facilities…

Grossi’s comments came during a news conference Thursday and just three days after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday said that Iran was “more exposed than ever [for] strikes on its nuclear facilities.”

“We have the opportunity to achieve our most important goal – to thwart and eliminate the existential threat to the State of Israel,” he added.

If Israel goes after those nuclear facilities, there will be no turning back.

Both nations would start pummeling one another until only one side is left standing.

Meanwhile, the IDF is now bombing Syria on a daily basis…

Israeli attacks on Syria have become daily, and now the United States is ramping up its own attacks in the northeast of the country as well.

On Thursday Israeli warplanes launched attacks on two residential buildings in the Damascus suburbs – one in Mazzeh and the other in Qudsaya, which lies west of the capital. Regional reports said that many people were killed, and Syrian state SANA posted photos of bombed-out apartments.

Israeli Army Radio in a rare acknowledgement appeared to confirm the Israeli attack while claiming the fresh attacks targeted the Syrian headquarters the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group, which is fighting alongside Hamas in Gaza, and has held Israeli citizens captive since Oct.7, 2023.

We really are on the brink of an uncontrollable regional war in the Middle East, and it should deeply alarm all of us that Turkey has decided to officially cut off all relations with Israel…

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey has officially severed relations with Israel, according to reports in Turkish media.

News outlet Medya Ege reported Erdogan to have said, “We, as the State and Government of the Republic of Turkey, have cut off relations with Israel. We do not have any relationship with Israel at this point. Period.”

This is such a dangerous time.

Donald Trump will not take office for more than two months, and nobody in the Middle East really cares what the lame duck Biden administration has to say at this point. I have a feeling that things will soon get really, really crazy in the region.

In Ukraine, Russian forces just launched a very large missile attack against the capital city of Kyiv…

As world diplomacy is working overtime in this transitional period in America, the Russian Federation forces continue in their overwhelming campaign against Ukraine.

After almost four months of ‘saving missiles’, this early morning (13), explosions rocked Kiev as Russia launched its first missile attack on the Ukrainian capital since August.

Kiev citizens have been expecting a missile attack for a while now, worrying that it could deal a new blow to the hobbled energy system and cause blackouts during the winter.

The Ukrainians are extremely concerned about what will happen once Trump gets into the White House, and it is being suggested that Ukraine could actually build “hundreds of nuclear warheads for rudimentary bombs” if U.S. financial support for the war is pulled…

Ukraine has enough plutonium to construct hundreds of nuclear warheads for rudimentary bombs akin to the first atomic weapons dropped on Japan by the US in 1945, a new report has revealed.

A briefing paper prepared for Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said Kyiv could develop small dirty bombs within months if Donald Trump pulls US military aid.

Despite giving up its nuclear arsenal in 1996, Kyiv is still in control of nine operational reactors and has significant expertise on how to build the weapons.

The Ukrainians are losing the war, and I think that they have become so desperate that they would actually use such weapons.

Of course the moment that the Ukrainians use a dirty bomb, the Russians will nuke them into oblivion.

Speaking of the Russians, it is being reported that 12,000 North Korean troops are now assisting the Russian Army as it attempts to retake the Kursk region…

It was revealed last month that 12,000 North Korean troops had been sent to Ukraine to fight on behalf of Russia. Now, they are reported to have been deployed to Kursk as part of the Russian counter-offensive, while Pyongyang this week ratified a landmark new defence pact with Moscow.

The North Koreans also just tested a nuclear missile that has enough range to reach the continental United States, and they continue to threaten to invade South Korea.

We will want to watch North Korea very carefully in the months ahead.

We will also want to watch the situation in Taiwan.  Apparently, the Taiwanese government is interested in a “massive $15 billion military weapons deal” once Trump’s term begins…

Taiwan has told the incoming Trump administration it is interested in securing a massive $15 billion military weapons deal with the United States, the Financial Times reported exclusively on Tuesday (November 12).

Taiwanese defense has been brought to the forefront of the world stage amid heightened tensions with China, whose government denies Taiwan’s independence and wants to annex the island nation through war if necessary.

Citing anonymous Taiwanese official sources, the FT said Taipei’s inquiries about a defense deal include interest in procuring the Aegis destroyer, and possibly 60 F-35s, four Advanced Hawkeyes, 10 retired vessels and 400 Patriot missiles.

Needless to say, the Chinese would be absolutely furious if such a deal actually happens.

Our relations with China have been going downhill for quite a while now, and it appears that the incoming administration will have “China hawks” in quite a few key positions…

President-elect Donald Trump has apparently decided to appoint China hawks Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz to the positions of secretary of state and national security adviser respectively.

In addition, Fox News host Pete Hegseth – who once said “China is building an army to defeat America” to the post of defence secretary, while John Ratcliffe is set to be CIA chief. Ratcliffe has called China the top threat to American interests.

This could offer the clearest indication yet of Trump’s intent when it comes to China and Taiwan. While the presidential election winner has called out Taiwan for what he sees as stealing US jobs in the past, chances are he knows the US will have to come to the island democracy’s defence should Beijing invade or blockade.

For a very long time, I have been relentlessly warning my readers about an apocalyptic war with Russia, an apocalyptic war with China, and an apocalyptic war in the Middle East.

Two of those wars have already started, and I believe that it won’t be too long before the third one erupts. Ultimately, historians will probably regard all of these wars as part of one gigantic global war.

We are the World War III generation, and most people out there won’t even realize what is happening until it is too late to do anything about it.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

When that agenda failed (lockdowns blocked, mask mandates ignored, vaccine passports defeated and the CDC caught inflating vaccination numbers), the WEF and Klaus Schwab conveniently disappeared from the media radar.

When globalists tried to permanently establish ESG as a way of life for corporations, they introduced the Council For Inclusive Capitalism, run by Lynn de Rothschild and partnered with the Vatican. When ESG was exposed for what it really is (a bridge to full bore communism in which corporations enforce far left social engineering), the CIC vanished from the limelight as quickly as they appeared.

That said, there is one globalist group that has consistently been in the background during most of these operations – The Atlantic Council. Whenever there’s a propaganda push in play to misdirect the western public, whenever there’s a policy initiative to take away your freedoms, whenever there’s a regional war that might explode into a world war, I always end up finding the fingerprints of the Atlantic Council.

The council was deeply involved in covid propaganda from 2020 onward and they also have their hands in climate change propaganda, but their bread and butter is regional proxy wars.

In my recent article ‘Globalists Are Trying To Escalate The Ukraine War Into WWIII Before The US Election’, I outlined how the council is deeply interwoven into the escalation of the Ukraine war through their Eurasia Center and their Scowcroft Center. They have been stoking conflict in the region for at least a decade with the intention of drawing NATO forces into a direct confrontation with Russia.

In a report published by the Atlantic Council in 2014 titled ‘A Roadmap for Ukraine: Delivering on the Promise of the Maidan’, the group notes:

“Last fall, as Ukrainians massed on the Maidan to demand a better government and closer ties to Europe, the Atlantic Council began to mobilize on Ukraine. An Atlantic Council delegation visited Warsaw and Kyiv in March to map out our strategy, and during the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to the Council that same month, we launched a one hundred- day campaign to galvanize the transatlantic community behind Ukraine’s democratic future in Europe.

As the crisis worsened, we convened at the highest levels, making vital connections between Ukrainian, American, and European policymakers and thought leaders. We deployed our substantial expertise to launch “red team” exercises that anticipated Russia’s actions and outlined strategies to respond to likely scenarios. Our rapid response working groups (“tiger teams”) made recommendations on issues fundamental to Ukraine’s success. An Atlantic Council delegation delivered this report, which brings all of these findings together, to Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and other leaders in Kyiv the first week of July. The findings are also being shared with American and European policymakers…”

On Ukraine’s security policy, the Council advised both NATO and Ukraine officials.  The document goes on to outline how NATO could covertly and overtly engage with Ukraine to strengthen their chances of joining with the EU over time; a move which Vladimir Putin claims was one of the very reasons for his invasion of the Donbas.  Finally, the paper described how NATO could foster a proxy war against Russia through Ukraine without directly declaring war on Russia.  As the Council states:

“Russia’s aggression provides an opportunity of strategic clarity and urgency that should be used to expedite building a robust, modern, and capable Ukrainian defense and security establishment…”

I believe the Atlantic Council is a root instigator behind every globalist scheme to trigger a larger war between the East and the West. Their ideal scenario seems to be the creation of a proxy conflict that acts as a first domino in a chain that leads to world war, a bit like DARPA’s “Linchpin Theory” which I have written about in the past.

To be clear, the council is not only interested in Ukraine and Russia. They’re happy to embroil Americans in a larger war wherever they can.

This past week, the Atlantic Council has published another war scenario report dealing with Iran titled ‘The Future of US Strategy Toward Iran: A Bipartisan Roadmap For The Next Administration’. The goal of the report is to influence a new defense doctrine with a mission to insert the US directly in the middle of the burgeoning war between Iran and Israel.

As the report states:

“In simple terms, the goal was to develop a US policy toward Iran, not a Democratic or Republican one. We termed the effort the Iran Strategy Project (ISP). And when we began recruiting experts to join our advisory committee and working group, we did so with two overriding principles in mind. First, ideological diversity and bipartisanship could not just be talking points—they were requirements. The wild swings of US policy toward Iran over the last decade created significant policy gaps that Iran exploited to more rapidly advance its regional malign influence and nuclear program…”

The assumption in the notion of a “bipartisan” posture on Iran is that there is common ground to be harvested between conservatives and leftists when it comes to war in the region. To be sure, the Democrats and the Neo-Cons are in full agreement on most things.  But Neo-Cons are not conservatives and the political base on both sides of the aisle has little interest in another war in the Middle East.

The wild card here is Trump. The establishment media reports that Iran hacked the Trump campaign’s election strategies and gave them to the Harris camp. There are also rumors spread by US intelligence agencies that Iran was working to have Trump assassinated.  Are these claims true? There’s little public evidence available to prove it.

Maybe Iran really wants to take Trump down. Or, maybe this is part of a plot to ensure that Trump backs a full blown war with Iran should he win the election.  Trump has said repeatedly that he intends to end the war in Ukraine upon his return to the White House. This would ruin over a decade of planning by the Atlantic Council. But what if they can sink the US into a different conflict with the same potential for a world war? That’s what Iran is – Another linchpin.

The council asserts that they will seek to tie the US inexorably to the fate of Israel by positioning a permanent American military force in the region:

“Deterring the threat posed by Iran and its proxies requires a multifaceted approach that includes maintaining an adequate military presence in the region and a willingness to respond with appropriate force to attacks on US interests and those of US allies; working with allies to enhance cooperation on regional security; collaborating with partners on ways to reduce conflicts and instability that create openings for Iran to exploit; and expanding security cooperation beyond traditional realms.”

They also want the US to create its own red line declaration; if Iran obtains nukes, then Iran must be destroyed (keep in mind, it is confirmed that Israel already has its own nuclear arsenal).

“The United States needs to maintain a declaratory policy, explicitly enunciated by the president, that it will not tolerate Iran getting a nuclear weapon and will use military force to prevent this development if all other measures fail. To support this policy, the United States should refrain from stressing that it does not seek conflict with Iran; announce that it will conduct yearly joint exercises with Israel, such as Juniper Oak.”

Juniper Oak was a joint live fire war exercise organized by US and Israeli defense forces in 2023 which is viewed as a theoretical trial run for an attack on Iran. War between Iran and the US has been a sought after outcome for globalists for a long time, but it seems to me that they are particularly interested in roping Trump into the agenda.  The following statement from the Atlantic Council report is highly suspicious:

“Because assassination plots against current or former US officials are a direct threat to US sovereignty, and in order to enhance deterrence, the United States needs to consider a standing policy of a kinetic military response against Iran in retaliation for a successful—or even close to successful—plot…”

This seems to be a direct reference or message to Trump concerning the rumors of Iran contracting his death. Given there have been at least two assassination attempts on Trump so far, I would not be surprised if after he wins the election new information is suddenly released linking Iran to at least one attack.  I would also expect a major terror attack in the US within the next year (real or false flag).

This is not to say that Trump wants war; I can’t make that claim one way or the other yet.  To his credit he was one of the few presidents that avoided the expansion of US conflicts during his first term. But as I warned back in 2016, he had a LOT of ghouls in his cabinet whispering in his ear. Keeping the Atlantic Council (among others) away from the Oval Office and Trump should be a priority in 2025.

The council appears to be positioning for a war under either administration – A war with Russia under Harris or a war with Iran under Trump.  I’m not a fan of Islamic fundamentalism, but a conflict between the US and Iran is exactly what the globalists want because it can easily metastasize like a cancer.

The council notes that there are already 40,000 US troops spread across the Middle East, and that this force could be reorganized into a contingent for rapid response to Iran, along with new troops added over time. Of course, they acknowledge that Iran’s situation has changed over the years, with far closer strategic associations with China and Russia:

“This requires recognition that Iran’s relationship with Russia and China has evolved in a manner that makes it difficult to convince either country to support new economic or military restrictions against Iran…”

In other words, the council understands that a war with Iran could escalate into a larger conflict with Russia and perhaps China.

The fight between Israel and multiple nations in the Middle East does not concern me. I have no stake in the success of either side. I’m an American and I care about America, but there are powerful people out there that WANT us to become invested in foreign wars. They want us to pick a side and they want us to cheer for American troops being sent to fight and die over these foreign conflagrations.

The greater concern here is that one day these proxy wars and regional wars will explode into something that lands on our doorstep. In the past Americans have been lured into apathy when it comes to foreign entanglements because we never have to deal with them in our daily lives. They’ve always been out of sight and out of mind. In the next war, we may not have that luxury.

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In other words, we are on the brink of the sort of all-out war between Israel and Iran that I specifically warned about in a chapter entitled “The 3 Wars Of The Apocalypse” that was featured in a book that I published last year.  I know that virtually everyone in the U.S. is really focused on the upcoming election at the moment, but what is going on in the Middle East right now is really big news.

We just witnessed the largest Israeli attack on Iran ever.  It is being reported that “dozens of fighter jets” were involved in a massive operation that struck targets all over Iran and Syria…

Dozens of fighter jets hit ballistic missile factories, air defence batteries and missile launchers. Israel launched a simultaneous attack on military targets in central and southern Syria. Among the pilots and navigators involved in the Iran strikes were a number of women, praised by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for their bravery.

It is thought the secret research base near Tehran was developing ‘kamikaze drone’ technology, designed to loiter over a target until instructed to attack.

According to Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari, the Israelis now have “broader aerial freedom of operation in Iran”, and this will make it easier for the IDF the next time it becomes necessary to strike the Iranians…

Israel’s first open attack on Iran targeted missile production facilities and air defense systems, the military said Saturday, tempering fears of a broader foray but giving Israeli aircraft the ability to operate more freely in Iranian skies as the region entered a new phase of escalation.

“Israel now has broader aerial freedom of operation in Iran,” an Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said in a statement after the attack concluded. The remarks signaled Israel’s willingness to strike Iran in the future, even as Israeli officials said the attacks were tailored to minimize casualties and allow Iran to deny major damage.

The Biden administration is trying to play down the size and scope of the Israeli operation, and Joe Biden is desperately hoping that the Iranians will choose not to respond…

“It looks like they didn’t hit anything other than military targets,” President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Philadelphia, said of the Israeli strikes. “I hope that this is the end.”

We should all hope that this is the end of it. But it appears that the Iranians have already made their decision.

The Daily Mail is reporting that Iran has “vowed revenge” and that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is using the phrase “no limits” to describe what Iran might do…

Iran vowed revenge yesterday after Israel’s missile blitz on Tehran destroyed up to 20 key military sites, including a top-secret research facility.

Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran had ‘no limits’ in defending its interests and was obliged to take retaliatory action.

Those are very strong words.

And we are being told that Araghchi has already delivered a letter to the United Nations that declares that Iran has the right to respond to the Israeli attack…

Iran’s top diplomat has condemned Israel’s unprecedented attack on multiple military sites across the Islamic Republic and has asserted Tehran’s right to respond to the latest escalation amid a year-long Middle East conflict in a letter obtained by Newsweek.

The letter was attributed to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and sent Saturday to United Nations (U.N.) Secretary-General António Guterres and U.N. Security Council President Pascale Christine Baeriswyl via Iranian Permanent Representative to the U.N. Amir Saeid Iravani.

According to Araghchi, Iran “reserves its inherent right to legal and legitimate response to these criminal attacks at the appropriate time”.

To me, it sounds like the Iranians do not plan to respond immediately. But a response is definitely coming. And the Israelis have already warned that they will hit Iran again if the Iranians strike back.

So this is it. The big war between Israel and Iran is here.

Of course the big war between Israel and Hezbollah has already been raging. In recent days, fierce fighting in southern Lebanon has resulted in a substantial number of Israeli casualties…

Ten Israeli soldiers were killed and at least 28 more wounded to varying degrees amid heavy battles against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Israel Defense Forces announced Thursday and Friday.

The soldiers were killed in three separate incidents in just over 24 hours. Since the start of the ground offensive in Lebanon, 27 soldiers have fallen amid the heavy fighting.

In the most recent incident, five reservists serving in the 8th Hazaken Brigade’s 89th Battalion were killed, and 19 others were wounded, with four in serious condition, when a Hezbollah rocket struck a supply point at a building in a southern Lebanese village.

We aren’t hearing much about this from the big news networks in the United States, are we?

If they give too much attention to what is going on in the Middle East right now, that could make Kamala Harris and the Biden administration look bad, and so they are being pretty quiet about it.

The big news networks in the United States are also being pretty quiet about the stunning Russian advances that are happening in eastern Ukraine…

With Russia advancing at the fastest rate in eastern Ukraine since the first months of the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been pleading with the West to allow Kyiv to fire deep into Russia with Western missiles.

The Biden administration’s plan for the war in Ukraine has completely and utterly failed.

Billions and billions and billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars have been poured into that war, but the Russians are still winning. In fact, the Russians are gobbling up more territory with each passing day. And now the Middle East is on the verge of erupting in flames.

We were warned about these wars way in advance, but most people still aren’t paying much attention.

What will it take before most of the population finally starts waking up?

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

These sensitive documents, attributed to both the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, indicate that Israel has been mobilizing its military assets in preparation for a strike following Iran’s aggressive ballistic missile assault on October 1. Such information was sharable among the “Five Eyes,” which consists of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

Marked with top-secret classifications, these documents were disseminated via the Telegram messaging application last week and were first reported by CNN and Axios. On Sunday, The Associated Press broke news regarding this U.S. investigation into what is being described as an unauthorized release of critical intelligence information based on insights from three U.S. officials. A fourth official—who requested anonymity—suggested that these documents appear legitimate.

House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed this ongoing investigation during his appearance on CNN.

“The leak is very concerning. There’s some serious allegations being made; there’s an investigation underway, and I’ll get a briefing on that in a couple of hours,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson.

He further noted,

“There’s a classified level briefing and then another. But we’re following it closely,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson.

The inquiry also delves into how these sensitive documents were obtained—exploring whether they resulted from an intentional breach by someone within the U.S intelligence community or through alternative means such as hacking—and whether any additional intelligence has been compromised according to one official who spoke with AP News while remaining unnamed.

Officials are diligently working to ascertain who had access to these materials prior to their public dissemination online last Friday via Telegram channels claiming affiliation with individuals within America’s intelligence apparatus before later connecting them back to entities within the Defense Department itself; evidently based entirely upon satellite imagery analysis rather than human sources or informants.

Article generated from corporate media reports.

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is worried that World War III could break out in the next four months due to the policies of the Democrats leading the US government.

“I actually worry about the next three months. I really do. I worry about the next three and a half four months will end up in a world war because of this, the people that we have [in government],” he said at a rally in the state of California.

The Biden administration has been making colossal mistake after colossal mistake in the Middle East.

Now the time for talk is over and Israeli tanks have entered southern Lebanon…

Israeli tanks have burst through the gates of a United Nations peacekeeper base in southern Lebanon, the UN confirmed today.

It comes after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded the UNIFL withdraw from combat zones and Hezbollah strongholds — and accused the UN of inadvertently ‘providing terrorists with human shields’.

In a statement addressed to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Netanyahu said: ‘The time has come for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones.

Of course Hezbollah has been quite busy as well. On Saturday, Hezbollah fired missiles at four different Israeli military bases…

Hezbollah claimed it had destroyed four military bases in Israel today as it launched a blistering rocket attack across the southern border.

The Iranian-proxy group said it had hit bases in Al-Jarrah, Za’rit and bases in the Golan Heights after claiming to have pushed back advancing forces late Friday.

Its fighters were ‘targeting the explosives factory there with a salvo of… missiles’, the group said in a statement this morning.

Then on Sunday, a massive Hezbollah drone attack injured more than 60 people in northern Israel…

More than 60 people have been injured, several of them critically, in a drone attack in northern Israel, according to first responders.

There were no immediate official reports of deaths from the attack, but the high number of injuries reported makes the attack one of the bloodiest since the war started last October.

The news comes after Hezbollah said Sunday it had fired a swarm of attack drones on an Israeli “Golani” infantry training camp in Binyamina, south of Haifa. The Lebanon-based militant group said the attack was in response to Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Thursday that killed 22 people and injured 117, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Most Americans are not really paying much attention to this war yet.

And most Americans don’t seem to realize that we will be directly involved.

In fact, it is being reported that approximately 100 U.S. troops will be operating the THAAD air defense systems that are about to be sent to Israel…

On Saturday we were among the first outlets to report that the United States is preparing to deploy THAAD anti-ballistic missile systems in Israel, a major development which will put American troops directly in harm’s way (or… boots on the ground) amid the tense showdown with Iran.

The Pentagon in follow-up statements to the NY Times has confirmed the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) systems will be sent to Israel, and that about 100 American troops will operate them.

If Iran and Israel start lobbing thousands of missiles at one another, those troops will be very heavily involved in what is happening.

Israel has promised to respond to Iran’s recent missile attack, and that could unleash a chain of events that nobody will be able to control.

According to the Daily Mail, the Iranians are making some very alarming threats…

Iran has threatened to recalculate its nuclear weapons programme if Israel launches a revenge strike as Biden has insisted Tehran is not building nukes. Since Hamas’s October 7 attack last year on Israel triggered a wave of regional hostilities between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants, officials in Tehran have warned the Islamic republic could change its nuclear doctrine if it faced an existential threat. But they have been deliberately vague about what that might entail.

Pretty soon, both sides will be forced to reveal all of their cards. And once that happens, everything will change.

Meanwhile, the Russians continue to gobble up more territory in eastern Ukraine…

Russian forces have seized control of another eastern Ukrainian settlement, Moscow said on Sunday, in what would be the latest in a string of gains in the Donetsk region if confirmed.

The Kremlin said on Sunday that its Center group of forces had captured the Donetsk village of Mykhailivka.

Several settlements in Ukraine bear the same name, and Russia’s Defense Ministry statement is likely referring to the village immediately east of Selydove, southeast of the strategic Ukrainian-held hub of Pokrovsk where Moscow has been concentrating its efforts.

The Russians clearly have the upper hand at this stage.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky desperately wants NATO to give him permission to use western missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia, and he is also accusing the Russians of using North Korean troops against him…

Zelensky’s comments came days after visiting several European capitals to press his case for more military and financial help in the war against invading Russian forces.

“We see an increasing alliance between Russia and regimes like in North Korea,” Zelensky said in his evening address.

“It is no longer just about transferring weapons. It is actually about the transfer of people from North Korea to the occupier’s military forces.

“Obviously, in such circumstances, our relations with our partners need to be developed. The frontline needs more support,” he said.

Both sides just continue to escalate matters, and I am entirely convinced that it is just a matter of time before the U.S. and Russia are directly fighting one another.

If our leaders had any sense, they would sit down at the negotiating table before things ever have a chance to reach that point.

Before I end this article, there is one more thing that I wanted to mention.

According to the Wall Street Journal, fleets of unidentified drones have been flying over U.S. military bases on the east coast…

U.S. Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly wasn’t sure what to make of reports that a suspicious fleet of unidentified aircraft had been flying over Langley Air Force Base on Virginia’s shoreline.

Kelly, a decorated senior commander at the base, got on a squadron rooftop to see for himself. He joined a handful of other officers responsible for a clutch of the nation’s most advanced jet fighters, including F-22 Raptors.

For several nights, military personnel had reported a mysterious breach of restricted airspace over a stretch of land that has one of the largest concentrations of national-security facilities in the U.S. The show usually starts 45 minutes to an hour after sunset, another senior leader told Kelly.

The first drone arrived shortly. Kelly, a career fighter pilot, estimated it was roughly 20 feet long and flying at more than 100 miles an hour, at an altitude of roughly 3,000 to 4,000 feet. Other drones followed, one by one, sounding in the distance like a parade of lawn mowers.

I would very much encourage you to read that entire article, because it is absolutely stunning.

Our military has no idea where the drones are coming from, and they are not being allowed to shoot them down…

Officials didn’t know if the drone fleet, which numbered as many as a dozen or more over the following nights, belonged to clever hobbyists or hostile forces. Some suspected that Russia or China deployed them to test the response of American forces.

Federal law prohibits the military from shooting down drones near military bases in the U.S. unless they pose an imminent threat. Aerial snooping doesn’t qualify, though some lawmakers hope to give the military greater leeway.

If a fleet of unidentified aircraft is flying over highly sensitive military bases, you shoot them down.

I don’t even understand why there would be any debate.

My guess is that the drones are probably from either Russia or China. But if they are not from either Russia or China, that is probably an even more troubling scenario.

In any event, it has become clear that we are living at a time of wars and rumors of wars.

This war in the Middle East has escalated to an extremely dangerous level, the war in Ukraine is reaching a critical stage, and I believe that it won’t be too long before a conflict between the U.S. and China erupts.

World War I and World World War II both killed millions of people. World War III will kill billions of people, and it is right at the door.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.