Ahead of another Iran strike? Report: CENTCOM chief briefs Trump at the White House

Ahead of another Iran strike? Report: CENTCOM chief briefs Trump at the White House

Elad Benari

US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Admiral Brad Cooper met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday to discuss military options involving Iran, as Washington considers resuming major combat operations against the Islamic Republic, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The meeting, described as an unusual in-person briefing by the top American commander in the Middle East, was attended by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, according to US officials and other individuals familiar with the discussions.

Additional Cabinet members participated in the meeting, which also addressed other matters, including the continuing American blockade of Iran.

The high-level discussions followed a separate meeting Wednesday at the White House involving Cooper, other senior military officials, and Vice President JD Vance.

Cooper rarely briefs Trump in person, raising the possibility that the administration is moving closer to authorizing significant military action.

The admiral previously met with Trump in July, when he joined Hegseth and Caine for discussions aboard Air Force One in Delaware.

Neither the Pentagon nor CENTCOM responded substantively to the report, with spokespersons for both declining to comment.

Thursday's meeting comes amid growing indications that the United States is preparing for another potential confrontation with Iran following the November 3 midterm elections.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Washington had warned several Gulf Arab countries to prepare for a possible short but intensive American military campaign against Iran after the elections.

The report also indicated that the US military was strengthening regional air defenses and relocating personnel from bases considered vulnerable to Iranian retaliation.

Trump, who has been campaigning for Republican candidates ahead of the midterms, has repeatedly declined to confirm whether he intends to order additional strikes.

Despite the military preparations, the administration has continued exploring diplomatic possibilities.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported Wednesday that Vance had established contactwith Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and a former longtime commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

According to the report, Vance sent Rezaei a letter intended to explore the possibility of restarting negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

One person familiar with the outreach said the communication had been initiated at Trump's direction and that the President was aware of the effort.

Top US commander briefs Trump on Iran military options as 10 US military transport planes land in Israel

Top US commander briefs Trump on Iran military options as 10 US military transport planes land in Israel

Reuters

Emanuel Fabian

The US military’s top commander overseeing the Middle East met President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday to present military options concerning Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials and others with direct knowledge of the meeting.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine also joined the meeting, at which US Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper presented the options, according to the report.

Reuters said it could not immediately independently verify the Wall Street Journal report.

The meeting came as Washington and Jerusalem were reported last week to be considering a “short but intensive operation” of renewed strikes on Iran after the November 3 US midterm elections.

Military drills ramped up, targeting Iranian energy sites, nuclear facilities and arsenals of missiles and drones. The report said Trump could still decide against military action.

More than 10 US military transport aircraft landed at Israeli airbases in southern Israel over the past week, according to analysts monitoring open-source flight-tracking data.

Most of the recent cargo flights took off from Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas, and were bound for the Israeli Air Force’s Nevatim and Ovda airbases in southern Israel, according to the data.

A number of other US military cargo flights also traveled to American bases elsewhere in the Middle East in recent days, including in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.

The contents of the transport planes were unknown, but were thought to be connected to US efforts to bolster its air defenses in the region ahead of a possible new round of fighting with Iran.

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US military was sending a Patriot battery from Texas to strengthen its air defenses in the region.

Iran sought to interfere in Israel’s election and planned to attempt to disrupt the US midterm elections the following week, Britain’s Telegraph reported Thursday, citing several Iranian officials.

“We have been looking into ways to recruit agents in both the American and Israeli regimes’ election processes,” one of the officials told the newspaper, without elaborating on what efforts had been made to interfere in Israel’s election.

Regarding the US vote, the official said: “Powerful cyber groups have also been established to hack their election systems.”

Another Iranian official portrayed the campaign as part of Tehran’s response to the war, which Iran believed had been forced upon it by Israel and the United States.

“War does not just mean missiles and guns when we are under their blockade,” the official said. “It also means we are prepared to disrupt their elections, their banking, their travel and all their ordinary systems.”

“We are not in favor of any candidate anywhere, but we would like to see a divided America and a divided Israel,” the official added.

The report came amid an Israeli investigation into suspected foreign efforts to influence Tuesday’s election. Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg asked the Shin Bet on Thursday to examine intelligence concerning suspected foreign funding and possible electoral interference, while stressing that the suspicions had not been substantiated. The Shin Bet said the information originated from its own intelligence concerning foreign influence.

Separately, three tankers exploded and caught fire after striking sea mines while attempting to cross an unauthorized route south of the Strait of Hormuz over the previous 24 hours, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement carried by state media.

The Guard said the vessels had switched off their radar and navigation systems and ignored warnings from its naval forces. The tankers were subsequently abandoned on the southern shores of the strait, according to the statement.

U.S. Intelligence Warns China and Russia Developing Weapons to Destroy American Satellites, Threatening GPS and Military Communications

U.S. Intelligence Warns China and Russia Developing Weapons to Destroy American Satellites, Threatening GPS and Military Communications

Emmitt Barry

U.S. intelligence officials are warning that China and Russia are developing increasingly sophisticated weapons capable of disabling or destroying American satellites, potentially disrupting GPS navigation, military communications, missile-defense systems, and critical infrastructure during a future conflict.

A new Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment, released October 26, details how America’s two principal strategic competitors are expanding their ability to wage warfare in space through satellite-jamming technology, powerful lasers, anti-satellite missiles, and orbital weapons.

The report, Challenges to Security in Space, warns that China is developing space-based weapons capable of threatening American satellites, while Russia is pursuing a particularly dangerous capability: a satellite designed to carry a nuclear weapon.

According to the DIA, China’s military already possesses ground-based laser systems capable of disrupting or damaging satellite sensors and is developing more powerful directed-energy weapons that could threaten satellites in higher orbits by the end of the decade.

Beijing is also expanding electronic warfare systems capable of interfering with satellite communications, military reconnaissance, and GPS signals.

U.S. intelligence assesses that China intends to deploy additional anti-satellite missiles capable of destroying spacecraft across multiple orbital altitudes, potentially undermining America’s military advantage during a confrontation over Taiwan or elsewhere in the Pacific.

Russia presents another serious threat, with intelligence officials warning that Moscow is developing a satellite intended to carry a nuclear anti-satellite weapon.

Such a detonation could disable thousands of satellites, potentially causing widespread disruptions to military operations, global communications, navigation, and commercial services.

The DIA also warns that radiation generated by a nuclear explosion in orbit could persist for years, damaging satellites that survive the initial blast.

Russia has already demonstrated sophisticated orbital maneuvering capabilities, including positioning spacecraft near American government satellites, raising concerns about their potential use in future attacks.

American military operations depend heavily on satellites for precision-guided weapons, intelligence gathering, battlefield communications, missile-launch detection, and navigation.

Disrupting these systems could complicate military operations before conventional fighting even begins.

The threat extends beyond the Pentagon. Civilian aviation, shipping, financial networks, emergency services, and telecommunications also depend on satellite-enabled navigation, timing, or communications.

The latest assessment underscores a growing concern among U.S. defense officials: the opening stages of a future major war could unfold in orbit, with America’s adversaries attempting to blind and disrupt U.S. forces before attacking on land, sea, or air.

The intelligence findings describe developing and existing capabilities, not evidence that China or Russia has launched a new destructive attack against American satellites.

The Gulf Holds a Security Meeting and Washington Wasn’t Invited

The Gulf Holds a Security Meeting and Washington Wasn’t Invited

Larry C. Johnson

On Monday, while Donald Trump was publicly pondering whether to “make a deal” with Iran or “finish them off,” something happened in Tehran that should have set off alarms in every office of the State Department, assuming anyone is still left there to hear them.

Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, the brother of the Crown Prince, flew to Tehran. With him came Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir and Turkey’s intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin. They sat down with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and senior security official Rezaei, who hosted the talks, for about two hours. The agenda: the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, the Strait of Hormuz, the American blockade of Iran’s ports and a regional non-aggression framework.

Read that list again. Those are the four biggest security problems in the Persian Gulf. The countries that actually live there just met to discuss them. The United States, which has two carrier strike groups, an amphibious ready group and a blockade in the neighborhood, was not in the room. Nobody seems to have missed it.

The three visitors are the signatories of the Makkah Agreement, the mutual-defense treaty that Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed on August 7. Article 2 says an attack on one is an attack on all. It was sold, at least in Washington’s imagination, as a Sunni shield for the Kingdom against Iran and its friends in Yemen.

Eleven weeks later, the entire shield showed up in Tehran to talk about cooperation. Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan says Tehran will “study” the agreement, “and if it is good, we will support it.” The treaty conveniently includes an accession clause allowing new members to join by consensus. My sources tell me the three formally invited Iran to join once the U.S.-Israeli war ends, and that Tehran accepted on that basis. No official readout confirms that yet. But the official readouts did agree to keep talking “among the four,” and Iran has a phrase for what it wants: “endogenous security.” Translation: security for the Gulf, by the Gulf, without the 5th Fleet.

According to my sources, Field Marshal Munir told Prince Khalid that Riyadh needed to reach an accommodation with Ansar Allah, and reportedlyPrince Khalid arrived in Tehran with a $1 billion down payment to help buy one. An anonymous report in the Israeli paper Israel Hayom says the same, including that the money flew in on the prince’s plane. Riyadh hasn’t confirmed it, and officially insists on the return of seized territory first. I personally doubt this story because it is a piddling amount that the Houthis will view as a meaningless gesture. But consider the picture if it is true: the Saudis would be paying Iran to get the Houthis to stop shooting at them. Washington spent a decade and billions of dollars in arms sales so that Saudi Arabia would not need Tehran’s help. That worked out well.

Araghchi had offered on October 11 to broker Saudi-Houthi talks. Two weeks later the Saudi defense minister was in his capital. Iran has gained more leverage in a month of diplomacy than in a year of American “maximum pressure.”

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Black Swan & Perfect Storm

Black Swan & Perfect Storm

Via Money Circus

News comes at us fast, like the pitcher’s ball. We take them one by one, defence and deflection. We’re not looking to knock them out of the park. Survival is the game.

Crises in food and fertiliser, transportation and fuel, jobs and AI, internet and cyber attacks, lack of chemicals bringing industries to a halt. What’s going on?

A Great Shutdown is underway and it was already a much bigger deal than Covid when I wrote about it in 2023. From energy prices that shutter industry, to brands that “go woke and go broke” — why burn it down unless that’s not where your wealth lies.

The continuation of war despite the mounting loss of energy, the impact on food and essential inputs for industry, from pipes to metals, confirms my analysis.

The gas and oil spigot is being turned off.

I called out the Great Shutdown back in 2023 when it was not fit for polite conversation. Like the Great Replacement is still not fit today.

At a certain time, late in the day, everyone will agree that they knew all along.

So let us examine this criss.

The announcer over the speaker system tells us, during half time, that there will be a fly past.

We look up, and see black swans incoming.

CASCADING CRISES

We find, in no particular order, a growing number of crises affecting industry and society.

Jobs are layoffs accelerate. Microsoft is offering redundancy to more than one quarter of its workforce, offering buyouts to 60,000 staff. Barclays bank is cutting five per cent of its staff, mainly in support functions. Groupon is going from human “digital native” to “AI native”, cutting a quarter of its jobs. It’s a broad trend, across many industries.

Internet insecurity is no longer a bug, it’s a feature. We see a global equivalent of Stuxnet (the virus that was used to break Iran’s nuclear centrifuges in 2010) and this time the target is whole-of-society. Cyber attacks and Internet outages shuttered banks last week. AI agents probed companies’ code. French supermarkets saw their fridge freezers hacked, temperatures cranked up to spoil food. If their SMART fridges then why not yours, or any device that’s hooked up, like the SMART meter that controls your electricity?

This was the scenario of the Obama-produced “Leave the World Behind” (2023) in which a broad and rolling cyber attack exposes the fragility of its middle class characters.

Western newspapers are reporting on the vulnerability of Internet cables that pass under the Strait of Hormuz. Recall how the same politicians and media lamented Europe’s reliance on Russian gas shortly before the detonation of the North Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea.

Food prices rise. Don’t believe the official inflation numbers which are manipulated. Watch your shopping bill and the hidden shrink-flation of smaller packet sizes and cheaper ingredients.

U.S. wheat production is down 23 per cent on the year, to its lowest level since 1970. The reduction is caused partly by drought, El Niño and tired soils affecting yields, but also by a shift to higher-subsidised crops like corn and soybean. The rising cost of fertiliser and diesel is another burden. Disruption to Ukraine exports through the Black Sea also pushed up grain prices.

The Quaker Oats factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, suffered an explosion and fire, five floors up in an area where the product moves, rather than where people work. No one was hurt but the the building and its machinery were put out of action. It is the worlds largest oat milling facility that processes over 2 million pounds of oats daily.

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