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Written by Julian Macfarlane, Tokyo based investigative journalist, writer, author, geopolitical and military analyst
A lot of things don’t add up when we read media reports about the Tower 22 attack—starting with whether there was really an attack on Tower 22 at all or whether the attack was actually on the Tanf base in Syria, as the Jordanians said.
To figure this out, you have to look at things that the media are not reporting.
Are the Jordanians lying? Or is it the Americans?
In this case, the Jordanians have much more reason to lie.
The majority of Jordan’s population is Palestinian – but the Jordanian government allows American bases on its territory which, while not directly tasked with supporting Israel, indirectly do so, giving the Israelis the go-ahead to do whatever nasty stuff they wish, knowing the Yanks will have their back.
Tower 22 supports the Tanf base in Syria—which is illegal, of course. Its role is to enable American theft of Syrian oil, which goes to Israel and therefore indirectly supports the Gazan genocide.
In addition, the US shares the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base with the Royal Jordanian Air Force. Where do those F-22’s over Syria come from? You guessed it.
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Everyone knows what cognitive dissonance is. This you might call “political dissonance”. My Jordanian sources are angry.
So, let’s assume there really was an attack on Tower 22.
Many analysts have wondered how a drone could cause such extensive damage, deaths and injuries.
Larry Johnson points out that only a very large drone like a Reaper would have this capability. But he’s thinking “single drone”. The larger degree of destruction implies either a single missile – which is possible since we know the Americans lie about such things—or more likely several drones.
Now the Americans say the drone penetrated Tower 22’s defenses by tailing an American drone returning from a mission. What does that mean?
It’s likely to be partly true. US bases are protected by C RAM (Counter Rocket Artillery Missile) systems.
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As you can see, these units have a Gatling gun and a radar detection unit and are largely automatic.
How do you stop it from shooting down your own drones? IFF is one way—although that’s an electronic system with its own problems. Another way is simply to shut it off when one of your drones is returning from a mission.
We know that the Tanf base also uses the Coyote Air Defense System made by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austen’s buddies at Raytheon. So, Tower 22 might have this too.
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Coyote is a short-range subsonic missile interceptor system good for all sorts of incoming stuff – not just drones, but ground attack aircraft, helicopters, drones, and birds. Each missile costs about $100,000— and the US plans to buy 6700. No doubt to deal with those pesky seagulls pooping on the White House—which was painted white for a reason.
Oh, Coyote has a range of 15 km and it includes a chain gun. Those seagulls….
What do the operators do in the truck? Drink beer and watch Pornhub I guess—this a UAS system. It’s unmanned—automatic— and relies upon RTX’s Ku-Band Radio Frequency System (KuRFS), a 360-degree radar originally built to help the Army during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. With enrollment numbers dropping, the US military is increasingly unmanned. Sorry: “un-personned”.
Human operation or not, the system must rely on IFF working properly, or be simply turned off when “friendly” air assets are in the vicinity. IFF is like Windows 11 —hitting the Off button is easier. Back to beer and pornhub.
It follows that it is likely that Tower 22’s detection systems weren’t operating when one of their own drones was on its way home.
It is perhaps possible that some clever teenager in an Axis of Resistance militia hacked the IFF signature—not actually that difficult—if you have access to an enemy drone’s electronics—to allow not one but several drones to enter Tower 22’s airspace on the tail of that first drone.
A more likely scenario has been put forward by John Helmer that the Russians provided advice on countermeasures, or even actual counter-countermeasures tech for Tower 22’s air defense systems. Russia is the world leader in ECW (Electronic Counter-Warfare) and has gained a lot of experience from the war in Ukraine, where the US has supplied Ukrainians with all sorts of anti-drone systems.
Russia has been keeping a relatively low profile in the Middle Eastern conflict and not actively contesting the US presence in Syria, assuming I think that in the long term, it the American’s illegal occupation does more harm to US interests than good – and in any case it’s up to the Syrians to defend their own country.
But Gaza, Yemen, Iraq, and Iran– plus political and demographic evolution in the Oil States, not to mention genocide. change a lot of things.
Recently, therefore, the Russians carried out talks with both the Houthis and the Iranians and Turks.
Amir-Abdollahian represented Ansar Allah,
Lavrov and Amir-Abdollahian resolutely denounced the massive strikes carried out on Yemen by a group of countries led by the United States and the United Kingdom. The two top diplomats called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and advocated for unhindered humanitarian access to the enclave in order to provide prompt assistance to affected Palestinians. Tass
Besides Putin’s well-known revulsion at the Gazan genocide, Yemeni actions in the Red Sea are of huge benefit to the Russian economy and the development of the Northern Sea Route.
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Russia has beefed up its support for Iran’s defense systems and signaled a more proactive policy in Syria as well—with air patrols along the Bravo line—not that the Israelis pay much attention.
The Americans are linear or convergent thinkers, who focus on one thing at a time. It’s something you learned in high school.
Putin, by contrast, is a “lateral” multi-focus, multidimensional thinker using both imagination and logic creatively. He learned that on the streets. Asymmetric symmetry.
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If you like, Putin is a Fibonacci thinker.
As you know. The Fibonacci Sequence or Golden ratio is found throughout nature. Mathematically, it’s a series of numbers beginning with zero or one, with each number after that increasing, equal to the sum of the preceding numbers.
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In a Fibonacci universe, everything is connected. Which means everything is part of a pattern.
Tower 22 is connected to the Gazan genocide, to American hegemony, to the new multipolar world order, to Syria and Iraq and Iran and Russia and Ukraine and China to new technologies to new cool social concepts, religion – the tree grows exponentially. It takes imagination to figure it out.
Joseph Biden is just adding 1 + 1 and getting 1.
“As we announce the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces – in order to prevent embarrassment of the Iraqi government – we will continue to defend our people in Gaza in other ways,” Kataib Hezbollah Secretary-General Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi said in a statement.
That makes it harder for Biden to do anything escalatory without looking, well, escalatory.
At the same time, the Chinese are in the process of recognizing the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Russia will soon follow and Afghanistan will join the Shanghai cooperation organization and probably BRICS.
Why does that matter? It does not matter in and of itself and makes a big difference in terms of the complex pattern of events in in Asia, including the Middle East.
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Afghanistan has an estimated $1 trillion in untapped resources. It is naturally hostile to the US and not too fond of Pakistan which has a large Pashtun population, and which supported US military efforts against the Taliban.
Right now, Pakistan has an unstable, antidemocratic military government which most people believe came to power as a result of CIA machinations. But it’s fragile.
Afghanistan joining the SCO will change the balance of power in central Asia in favor of the Russians and Chinese and against the US.
One nation at a time, Asian nations turning against the US hegemony which simply has nothing to offer anymore.
Tower 22 is just a small base – insignificant – but it is also symbolic. The attack on it sends a message – the US can no longer act with impunity.
The article was first published on Substack on February 1, 2024. To read more articles please click here to follow the author on Substack .
“russia has beefed up its support for iran’s defense systems and signaled a more proactive policy in syria as well—with air patrols along the bravo line—not that the israelis pay much attention” the joke ! russia protects israel and the proof is that it allows syria to be bombed at will and even withdraws its s300 which were never used but just for decoration! wake up
first, why doesn’t the author mention the option that the attack on us soldiers (where is even proof that it happened as described by usa) might be an inside job? another thing is that there is no proof that china is anti-usa. recognizing the taliban would even prove it, as the taliban have announced today that they would welcome, if usa reopens its embassy in afghanistan.
uk has being parasiting the usa and using their military for policing purpose the whole 20th centery. now uk has switched to china, its all normal it now pushes the usa out of middle east and replace it by china. similar thing is happening in africa where french have been displaced.
‘are the jordanians lying? or is it the americans?’
using ‘cui-bono’, occam’s razor and the congenital tendency of all murikan politicos to “fib, fib and fib again”, what other outcome can one reasonably expect?
ps: how much more pro-us prpgnda on this incident will sf be paid to publish,?
we could think all world powers from xxi century will be in the xxii century because after wwii (world powers of xx century still are acting worldwide today). the world powers will change order usa wont be anymore the number 1 and supreme hegemon, the power is shifting from western world to the east, maybe china will be number 1, usa #2, india #3, russia #4 and so on, so on.