Author: Kyle Anzalone

The Biden Administration is pressing the idea that Russia will invade Ukraine within the next two months, with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan asserting that an attack could now come “any day.” The statement came shortly after the State Department announced that US intelligence believes Russia is preparing a video of a fake attack to create a pretext for war.

The Washington Postamplified the White House’s warning, citing several unnamed sources who said the US military and intelligence community believes Russia has 70% of its troops in place for President Vladimir Putin to exercise his maximum option. Should Moscow opt for a full-scale invasion, the assessment says, it will result in 50,000 civilian casualties, up to 25,000 military casualties, and 5 million refugees.

The assault is expected to come “after the ground freezes” sometime in mid-February and the window will remain open until late-March, sources told the Post.

Continue reading “US Warns of Invasion ‘Any Day,’ Europeans Grow Skeptical”

In recent weeks, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed he was uniquely positioned to negotiate a reduction in tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Turkey is a NATO member state that purchased advanced Russian weapons, and has been at decisive odds with the Western foreign policy in Syria. Earlier this week, Turkey announced Erdogan would travel to Ukraine “to be the intermediary in this conflict.”

However, the Turkish president had other plans. The Wall Street Journal reports that Erdogan changed his peace trip into a weapons sale and inked an agreement that allows Ukraine to manufacture armed Turkish drones. Turkey has already sold Ukraine dozens of its armed Bayraktar TB2 drones, which Kiev soon deployed against separatist forces in the Donbas.

Along with the plans to build Turkish drones, Ukraine is adding to its domestic weapons manufacturing with a new missile program, pursuing multiple missile variants including a cruise missile that could be used to target Russian ships, and a second design that would put Moscow within its range.

Continue reading “Turkey’s Diplomatic Mission Turns Into an Arms Sale”

On COI #140, Kyle and Will return to the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer last year. New reporting and court filings show that the FBI used no less than 12 undercover agents and confidential informants to infiltrate the plot, most paid substantial sums of money. Some also played key roles in organizing the scheme, covering various expenses and helping to transport other members to group meetings. Several defendants now say they were entrapped.

On COI #109, Libertarian Institute writer Connor Freeman returns to the show to break down this week’s events in Palestine.

Days of heated protests over looming evictions of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem prompted harsh police crackdowns, including around Al Aqsa mosque, among the holiest sites in Islam. The clampdown prompted flurries of Hamas rocket fire into Israeli cities, followed by hundreds of IDF strikes that hammered the blockaded Gaza Strip, leaving more than 100 Palestinians dead by Thursday night. At least six Israelis have also perished in the flare-up. 

Connor, Kyle and Will give background on Israel’s decades-long military occupation of Palestinian land in the West Bank, where illegal settlements continue to expand onto Arab-owned property with full support of Tel Aviv’s advanced, US-funded military.

On YouTube or audio.

What happened?

On January 3rd, the US used drone strikes to assassinate the leader of Iran’s Quds Force, General Qasem Soleimani, at Baghdad Airport. The airstrike also killed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) deputy Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and several other individuals.

Who were Soleimani and Muhandis?

Soleimani was the head of the Iranian Quds Force. The Quds Force is the branch of the Iranian military that implements its ‘forward defense’ strategy. Soleimani got his military start during the Iran/Iraq War in the 80s. In recent years, Soleimani and the Quds Force fought the Islamic State and other Sunni terror groups in Iraq and Syria. Soleimani put together militias of local Iraqi and Syrian Shia to fight against the Islamic State in their countries. While Trump and the US often get credit in Western media for the defeat of IS, in the Middle East, the people see Soleimani as the hero of the war.

Muhandis was a member of the Iraqi parliament before the rise of IS. After the IS started to threaten the Shia areas in Iraq, the country’s Shia leadership called for the formation of Shia militias to fight against IS, as the Iraqi Army had lot a lot of territory to IS. Along with Soliemani, Muhandis was key to forming the Shia militias in Iraq that fought against IS. After the defeat of the IS the Iraqi government dictated that the Shia militias – including PMFs – were now a part of the Iraqi Defense Department and under the direction of the Iraqi prime minister.

Continue reading “The Central Details of the Soleimani Assassination”