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On September 19th, the WSJ reported that the Pentagon, and specifically US Central Commander (CENTCOM) Chief Gen. Kenneth Mackenzie requested the deployment of 3 more Patriot batteries to Saudi Arabia, in addition to additional F-22 Raptor fighter jets.
Because the present Patriot missile batteries are doing a marvelous job.
The deployment also includes possible additional surveillance capabilities in the region.
On its part, Fox News reported largely the same news, further citing an anonymous source who claimed that if any more personnel was deployed it would only be “in the hundreds,” since the Middle East already hosts approximately 70,000 US soldiers, anyway.
A Saudi Ministry of Defense reported showed the coverage of the Patriot batteries and where the strikes hit. The images are rather humorous.
The report also shows that the only missiles that didn’t cause any damage to infrastructure were only the misfired ones.
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Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned from his visit to Saudi Arabia and appeared to present a softer rhetoric towards Iran.
That is, this time the claims of the alleged attack on the Aramco oil infrastructure was an “act of war” and the hawkish claims were replaced by simply repeated claims of organizing an anti-Iran coalition.
The US has, for a while, attempted to form such a coalition, with very limited success.
The tone changed after meeting Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Asked about the comments Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif gave earlier in the day, Pompeo sought to play down the situation.
“I was here in an act of diplomacy. While the foreign minister of Iran is threatening all-out war and to fight to the last American, we’re here to build out a coalition aimed at achieving peace and a peaceful resolution to this,” the secretary of state said. “That’s my mission set, what President Trump certainly wants me to work to achieve, and I hope that the Islamic Republic of Iran sees it the same way. There’s no evidence of that from his statement, but I hope that that’s the case.”
“The president’s direction to us, to continue to prevent them having the capacity to underwrite Hizbullah, Shia militias in Iraq, their own missile program, all the things that they have done to pose a threat to the world, that’s the mission set with our economic sanctions,” he said.
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammed Javad Zarif, told CNN on Thursday that the Islamic Republic “won’t blink” if it has to defend itself against any U.S. or Saudi military strike, which he said would lead to “all-out war”.
“I make a very serious statement about defending our country. I am making a very serious statement that we don’t want to engage in a military confrontation,” Zarif told CNN. “But we won’t blink to defend our territory.”
On September 20th, Zarif called Kuwait’s foreign minister Sheikh Sabah al Khalid Al Sabah where the two discussed measures to de-escalate tensions in the region, state news agency KUNA reported.
"Act of war"or AGITATION for WAR?
Remnants of #B_Team (+ambitious allies) try to deceive @realdonaldtrump into war.
For their own sake, they should pray that they won't get what they seek.
They're still paying for much smaller #Yemen war they were too arrogant to end 4yrs ago.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 19, 2019
Saudi Arabia is continuing its harsh rhetoric, to possible no significant outcome, but to show some sort of pride, since it is likely quite clear that a war with Iran is one that it couldn’t win, similarly to the one in Yemen. Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs Adel al-Jubeir said that the “Iranian regime’s hostile and outlawed behavior” is unacceptable.
Complacency with the Iranian regime will only encourage it to commit more acts of terrorism and sabotage in our region and around the world.
— Adel Aljubeir عادل الجبير (@AdelAljubeir) September 19, 2019
But it does appear as if the initial US rhetoric of an instant strike on whoever was responsible for attacking an “ally” rather pushed the Kingdom into a harsher rhetoric and gave it false courage.
Since now, even the Pentagon is saying that its goal is “to deter conflict and get back on the diplomatic path” and didn’t specifically blame Tehran for the attacks. Even though they’re “trustworthy” ally presented “evidence” of Iran allegedly being behind the attack.
The “lying” Houthis may end up having said the truth.
“As of this time all indications are that Iran is in some way responsible,” spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said, before adding: “We’re not going to get ahead of the Saudi investigation in their assessment of this.”
Essentially, the current state of the “conflict” is that the Trump administration maintains that it would support the Kingdom in any response, but the lead needs to be taken by Riyadh. Meanwhile, the Kingdom continues its accusations, but says that it doesn’t wish a full-scale conflict.
In line with Pompeo’s claims, the US immediately “ramped up” pressure on the Iran-allied Hezbollah. A Hezbollah one-man cell was discovered in New Jersey and the individual was arrested and charged with providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, among other charges.
“The Department of Justice today announced that Alexei Saab, 42, of Morristown, New Jersey, also known as Ali Hassan Saab, Alex Saab, or Rachid, was charged today in a nine-count indictment for offenses related to his support for Hizballah and separate marriage-fraud offenses. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe,” the Department of Justice announced.
“According to the allegations, while living in the United States, Saab served as an operative of Hizballah and conducted surveillance of possible target locations in order to help the foreign terrorist organization prepare for potential future attacks against the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. “Such covert activities conducted on U.S. soil are a clear threat to our national security and I applaud the agents, analysts, and prosecutors who are responsible for this investigation and prosecution.”
“As a member of the Hizballah component that coordinates external terrorist attack planning, Alexei Saab allegedly used his training to scout possible targets throughout the U.S,” said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman. “Even though Saab was a naturalized American citizen, his true allegiance was to Hizballah, the terrorist organization responsible for decades of terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds, including U.S. citizens and military personnel. Thankfully, Saab is now in federal custody, and faces significant prison time for his alleged crimes.”
It is unlikely that he was just suddenly discovered, he was just being kept as a sort of proof of US commitment to pressure, to be used at the right moment.
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US has been fleecing the corrupt and inept Sunni Arab regimes by selling them inflated priced lemon weapons systems. Now they are using Iran as another bogeyman to peddle more wars, death and destruction. US and Israel are the main instigators of endless wars.
Because if 100 batteries didn’t do a darn thing then 103 will protect the Saudis…. :’)
It is just a scam to rip off the corrupt Saudis. Trump openly said that the Saudis will have to pay more for US protection. This is typical American thug stand-over tactic.
The Saudis should throw the process guarantee against the US in a court of contract.
What court? the fucking Jew parasites have penetrated every orifice of Americunt corrupt government. The only court cases that can be filed in the US shithole are holohoax scams, that even the Swiss are being bilked for supposed German crimes.
The idiocy of Saudi-Zionistwahabi-scum just broke the ceiling, utterly disgusting.
The word EPIC FAILURE comes to mind! The dumbass lardass Ameriucunts are milking the cowardly Saudi shitheads and Emirati pimps for everything. The fact is that the Americunt JUNK weapons are worse than their rickety cars, in plain English not worth pissing on.
Patriots main role is ballistic missiles, air planes, cruise missiles, low flying stealth drones nope
Ballistic missiles not, only planes. The track record of defending against ballistic missiles in Iraq gives it away.
i didn’t say it was good @ it :)
Given that Pompeo is a liar and most of our ‘terror arrests’ are sting operations on mentally ill people I am skeptical of the Hezbollah claim. However, it is possible that they do have agents here just in case of war. Not falling off my chair, as if our Centcomm doesn’t have targeting info in Lebanon and Iran already prepared? I’m not thrilled about it but I’m not going to act offended. Hezbollah obviously does not have any active operations ongoing, we’d know about it.
The Hezb doesn’t do what DC does and that’s “lie, cheat and steal”…according to the Pompass jew traitor of the US
another 911 on the horizon….
The Saudi`s are plain stupid……they might as well buy their gear at Walmart.
The Saudis are ignorant of history or strategic equations and don’t have a grasp of strategic US miscalculations and the fact that Iran is now more prepared for war than any other regional or extra-regional state. For the canny Persians whose Empire and satraps have ruled the world from India to Africa, the guiding principle of foreign policy in the past three decades, since the end of the Iran-Iraq War, has been to balance the requirement of capacity-building with sustaining revolutionary ideology.
In practice, Iran has translated its inherent strength into developing a vast network of influence and alliances in the Muslim world by partnering with deeply entrenched and disaffected local groups and communities, stretching from Lebanon to Yemen, while avoiding inter-state conflict. Iran today has gravitas and respect in the wider Muslim world which is totally hostile to US and Zionist hostile agenda of fanning sectarian terrorism and plundering resources.
Agree.
How convenient that they ‘came up’ with a “one-man Hizbullah cell” . What a crock of a shit load of blatant lies. It’s to scare the dumbass American public because they haven’t the fucking courage or wisdom to out smart the Hezb or point the finger at the real ISRAELI/AMERICAN TERRORISTS. THE REAL TERRORIST MULTI MEN/WOMEN CELL IN DC. May a Houthi drone destroy DC…VIVA HEZBOLLAH!
https://i0.wp.com/platosguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Drone.jpg?w=654&ssl=1
Shared link from platosguns.com https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/06/20/iran-goes-for-maximum-counter-pressure/ Pepe Escobar
[“Sooner or later the US “maximum pressure” on Iran would inevitably be met by “maximum counter-pressure”. Sparks are ominously bound to fly.
For the past few days, intelligence circles across Eurasia had been prodding Tehran to consider a quite straightforward scenario. There would be no need to shut down the Strait of Hormuz if Quds Force commander, General Qasem Soleimani, the ultimate Pentagon bête noire, explained in detail, on global media, that Washington simply does not have the military capacity to keep the Strait open.
As I previously reported, shutting down the Strait of Hormuz
would destroy the American economy by detonating the $1.2 quadrillion derivatives market; and that would collapse the world banking system, crushing the world’s $80 trillion GDP and causing an unprecedented depression.”]
Will they actually work? Failing that, will Saudi switch them on?
Yes, they will switch them on, as the Patriot failures can mask the Kingdoms incompetence, we’ll sort of, given the incompetence revealed by buying them in the first place. I posted above a parody that you might like
If it does not work then it does not work. Adding more out of date systems is like Syria buying more S-300’s lol. They simply cannot do the job thrown at them. Saudi Arabia should try Iran’s Bavar-373 system. Syria should try Iran’s Khordad-15 system.
You are becoming boring now, but go and have a wank dreaming of a failing S-300 system, do anything but please stop crying on here.
Spice 250? Hard to judge hole size. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7bad0ebf76ff46b4925bfb8666663bc615257ba8b3c761939a898378b54b493c.jpg
We never said they would work! CHA CHING!
US needs to stop provoking Iran with totally bogus claims and if it continues on the current suicidal trajectory, the US is poised to suffer its greatest defeat in living memory – a much harsher setback than Vietnam, both in strategic and psychological terms.
Iran has reached the point of no return in terms of displacing the US as the dominant regional power. To subvert the old warmongering Jew Kissinger’s maxim, the choice confronting US leaders and strategists is whether they want to keep up the pretense of a fake “superpower status” for a couple of decades longer, or risk getting an almighty bloody nose from Iran and its allies. Iran is more prepared and better armed to sustain a long term asymmetrical war in the region than any other state. Iranian allies like Hezbollah will certainly take the war to the Zionist regime and wreak total destruction of US military structure in the region.
Lol i am really starting to believe more abd more US military weapons are just pure shit
This whole Saudi thing is a fake – there was no attack from anybody, they did it themselves. That is why there is no radardata, not from 5 to 6 Patriots which where in range, not from the 2 Aegis Cruisers nor from the AWACS CNV72 Nimitz Class Carrier Abraham Lincoln – nada, nothing – it hasn’t happend…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKSdXtEt8wg
why houthis claimed responsibliity for it then?
Well why not – if there where Houthi drones startet -1000km away from the target- fying with a top speed of 150km/h, then they would have been 6-7 hours in the air before they where to reach their target. Plenty of time for the Saudis to make a small damage due to a only 15kg warhead much much bigger – Pearl Harbor bigger…
Any way if you are a drone operator for the Houthis and suddenly your 10 drones hit 18 targets – then you shut up and hope for a bonus payment. Also you don’t say it wasn’t us, because it is good for the war moral of the Houthis, and a good war moral can win wars.
Saudi Arabia is blessed with the addition of 3 additional Patriot Batteries. This move to purchase the US systems was based on in depth analysis to determine the incremental benefits of the additional systems – analysis was provided by Incompetence House Consulting and Consulate, headquartered in Istanbul.
Incompetence House Consulting core competency is incompetence with no equal, and the group is the crown jewel of Saudi Arabian efforts at diversification from oil and gas. With 100% of Incompetence House’s revenue coming from consulting for the House of Saud, paid for by oil and gas export revenues, clearly diversification is a smashing success, like the Patriot systems.
Calculate additional benefit:
Success rate of 1 Patriot Battery – 0.00%
Success rate if all Patriot Batteries aimed at single target – 0.00%
Success rate if all Patriot Batteries plus 3 additional Batteries aimed at single target – 0.00%
Raytheon executives pointed out that the additional systems could not possibly make things worse and therefore, they could not possibly lose by purchasing the systems. This logic was so compelling it overwhelmed the Incompetency team and they immediately advised MbS to purchase.
Then once the papers signed and deal done, an Incompetence House consultant confides in a Raytheon executive that he was worried they did something right, which would ruin their perfect track record of absolutely disastrous outcomes.
The Raytheon executive replied “I promise you that your track record will remain intact so you have nothing to worry about…”