The Police State And War On The People

A Head for an Eye: The Government’s War on the American People

John W. Whitehead

We have been ambushed.

We should be talking about the dangerous, destabilizing things being done to this country.

We should be talking about the data centers spreading across the landscape, draining electricity and water, straining local infrastructure and expanding the technological machinery needed to track, profile and control the population.

We should be talking about the government’s growing network of detention centers and its family-separation policies, which have resulted in an estimated 145,000 American children experiencing the detention of at least one parent—including more than 22,000 U.S.-citizen children whose entire household of co-resident parents has been detained.

We should be talking about license-plate readers, facial recognition, government databases and artificial intelligence capable of turning our movements and associations into a digital dossier on every person in America.

We should be talking about masked government agents, endless war, disappearing constitutional safeguards and an imperial presidency accountable to no one.

Instead, we are trapped in a vicious loop of nonsense, mania, political demagoguery and manufactured spectacle while the country goes to hell in a handbasket.

Every day—sometimes every hour—brings another outrage, another threat, another vulgar display of power, another self-glorifying meme, another political provocation and another distraction demanding our attention.

Before we can fully comprehend one assault on the Republic, another takes its place.

That is not merely the chaos surrounding this government.

It is one of the ways this government maintains power.

Keep the public angry, exhausted, frightened and distracted. Force everyone to chase the latest outrage. Crowd out serious scrutiny with political theater. Then push past another constitutional boundary while no one is able to keep track of what has already been lost.

This is how every crisis appears fleeting and every constitutional violation merely the latest controversy in an endless political spectacle.

Taken together, however, these are not isolated events.

They are tests.

Meanwhile, as the administration tests how much damage it can inflict and how many boundaries it can cross without consequences, the public is being overwhelmed by a relentless barrage of noise, spectacle and manufactured outrage.

And the costs of the government’s recklessness continue to mount.

The war with Iran continues to consume lives, military resources and tens of billions of taxpayer dollars.

Critical munitions are reportedly running low. Military commanders are being forced to make difficult decisions about which weapons must be preserved. American service members have been killed and hundreds more injured. Disruptions to global oil supplies threaten higher prices, shortages and further economic instability.

America needs to be made free again.

Free from a government that tracks everywhere we go, treats dissent as dangerous, wages war without accountability, polices communities like occupied territory and insists that constitutional rights must yield whenever those in power invoke national security.

The question is no longer whether the Constitution is welcome in America. The question is whether the government still considers the Constitution binding at all.

The government no longer needs to assign an officer to follow you.

Your phone, your car, your face, your purchases and your digital associations do the reporting for it. License-plate readers, facial recognition, geofence searches, social-media monitoring and artificial intelligence can assemble detailed profiles of people never suspected of a crime.

The danger is no longer simply that the government can watch everyone. It is that an administration demanding personal loyalty possesses the machinery to identify, track, intimidate and retaliate against those who refuse to submit.

Speech does not have to be formally outlawed when people can be frightened into silence.

U.S.-Iran War Widens as Saudi Arabia Joins American Strikes on Iran-Backed Militias in Iraq

U.S.-Iran War Widens as Saudi Arabia Joins American Strikes on Iran-Backed Militias in Iraq

Emmitt Barry

 The widening war between the United States and Iran entered a dangerous new phase Wednesday as American and Saudi forces carried out coordinated strikes against Iran-backed militias across Iraq, marking the first publicly acknowledged joint combat operation of its kind between Washington and Riyadh.

U.S. Central Command said the precision strikes targeted Iran-aligned groups directed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to attack American personnel and Saudi energy installations. The operation followed more than 30 reported drone attacks or attempted attacks against U.S. forces and Saudi targets over several days.

Saudi Arabia confirmed that its armed forces participated in the July 29 operation “in coordination with the United States,” saying the targeted militias had repeatedly used Iraqi territory to launch attacks against the kingdom. Saudi officials said the strikes were intended to halt continuing threats against the nation’s security and critical infrastructure.

The Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces said at least 20 of its members were killed and 32 others wounded as strikes hit militia positions across several Iraqi provinces. The organization, known in Arabic as the Hashd al-Shaabi, is formally incorporated into Iraq’s security establishment, although several of its most powerful factions retain deep operational and ideological ties to Tehran.

Saudi officials said the military response followed drone attacks launched from Iraq against oil facilities in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. Saudi air defenses reportedly intercepted the drones, but Riyadh warned Baghdad that Iraqi territory could not be allowed to serve as a staging ground for attacks against Saudi cities and energy installations.

The strikes represent a major strategic shift for Saudi Arabia, which has previously sought to avoid becoming openly entangled in the direct military confrontation between Washington and Tehran. Riyadh’s public participation now signals that Iranian proxy attacks on Saudi infrastructure have crossed what the kingdom considers an unacceptable threshold.

The Iraqi government condemned the American-Saudi operation as a violation of national sovereignty, placing Baghdad in an increasingly difficult position. Iraq’s government depends politically and militarily on institutions that include Iran-linked factions, yet it also maintains vital security and economic relationships with Washington and neighboring Gulf states.

The escalation came as Iran renewed direct attacks against American forces, launching ballistic missiles toward a U.S. base in Jordan. President Donald Trump vowed powerful retaliation, and U.S. officials said the attempted strike demonstrated that Tehran and its proxies remained prepared to expand the battlefield beyond Iran’s borders.

The widening confrontation carries consequences far beyond Iraq. By drawing Saudi Arabia openly into combat against Iran’s regional network, Tehran’s use of proxy forces may be accelerating the very regional alignment it has long sought to prevent. Gulf nations that once attempted to balance between Iran and the United States are increasingly being forced to choose sides as attacks reach deeper into their territory.

For years, Iran has projected power throughout the Middle East through militias operating beyond its borders. 

But as those forces strike neighboring nations, the boundaries between proxy warfare and direct regional war are rapidly disappearing. What began as a confrontation centered on Iran now threatens to ignite overlapping fronts across Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Gulf.

Congo says the death toll in fastest-growing Ebola outbreak has passed 1,500

Congo says the death toll in fastest-growing Ebola outbreak has passed 1,500

PROSPER HERI NGORORA and MARK BANCHEREAU

The fastest-growing Ebola outbreak has killed more than 1,500 people in eastern Congo, official data released on Thursday showed, marking a 50% increase in around a week that shows the emergency continuing to outpace response efforts.

As of Tuesday, 3,442 cases had been recorded, with 1,521 deaths, according to the latest government update.

The outbreak, which was declared on May 15, has been linked to the Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments.

There are currently 797 patients in isolation or hospitalized, while a further 615 patients have recovered, the data showed. Contact tracing continues to lag, with only around 78% of known contacts monitored nationwide, well below the 95% target health officials say is needed to interrupt transmission.

Displacement from armed conflict and illegal mining in the region have made it difficult to trace thousands who have come in contact with infected individuals.

The outbreak is mostly concentrated in eastern Congo's remote Ituri province, which accounts for nearly 90% of cases, but there have been others confirmed in five provinces, including one of the country's largest cities, Kisangani.

The latest outbreak has killed more people at a quicker rate than any previous outbreak, including in 2014-2016 when 28,000 cases were reported, of which over 11,000 people died. That outbreak took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.

The World Health Organization says the global risk of spread remains low because Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids, not through the air, making it much harder to spread than respiratory viruses. Cases detected outside the affected region have so far been quickly identified and contained without leading to sustained transmission, the agency said.

In Congo, however, the risk of the spread remains “very high,” according to the WHO.

The speed of transmission in the current outbreak comes amid public concern that many communities in the affected provinces are either unreachable or have been abandoned by responders in recent days over safety concerns amid attacks from angry residents and rebels.

Misinformation asserting that the deadly virus isn’t real and the restriction of traditional funerals to limit the outbreak’s spread have angered some residents and led to attacks on health facilities.

International partners supporting the Ebola response in Ituri’s Nyakunde health zone temporarily relocated after a July 15 attack on a hospital and a treatment center, sparked by a patient’s death.

Officials say the relocation of aid groups, including Africa CDC and Mercy Corps, has disrupted surveillance, contact tracing and supplies.

Attacks such as the one in Nyakunde are causing anxiety among health workers and making it difficult for them to carry out their duties, said Pierre Akilimali, the Ebola response incident manager at the National Public Health Institute of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Saudi Arabia prepares sea and possible land offensive against Houthis

Saudi Arabia prepares sea and possible land offensive against Houthis

Patrick Wintour

Saudi Arabia is preparing for a major military offensive against the Houthis by sea and possibly by land in central Yemen, Yemeni sources believe, in a move to break the chokehold on its oil exports through the southern Red Sea.

Saudi forces have been seen withdrawing from the east of Yemen in what could be preparation for a land offensive. At the same time, Riyadh is trying to organise a naval coalition to protect shipping from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab strait.

The Saudi defence ministry said on Thursday that 14 states including Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan and Djibouti had issued a joint statement supporting a multinational maritime defence coalition.

The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, and much of its Red Sea coastline, announced on 20 July that they were implementing a blockade against Saudi ships, but they have denied they are planning to impose tolls on all ships.

The group says it will lift the blockade once Saudi Arabia lifts its blockade on Yemen, positioning the dispute as over the future of Yemen and not directly about Iran. Saudi Arabia intervened in the Yemeni civil war in 2015 in support of the country’s UN-recognised government against the Houthi rebels.

Riyadh has also asked the US and a group of European countries including Germany, France, the UK and Italy to join a Red Sea coalition.

The EU already has a naval protection mission, Aspides, operating in the Red Sea and it remains unclear if the Houthis are mounting a general blockade or one directed solely at Saudi Arabia.

Houthi forces said on 25 July they had hit “sensitive” oil transport sites inside Saudi Arabia linking eastern province oilfields to a Red Sea export hub.

If the Red Sea route is closed to Saudi shipping in addition to the strait of Hormuz blockade on the other side of the Arabian peninsula, the kingdom’s oil export will be severely constrained.

Up to 80% of Saudi crude exports were shipped through the strait of Hormuz before the Iran war began. The Red Sea has therefore grown in importance, with more than half of Saudi oil now transported overland to loading terminals at the port city of Yanbu.

Saudi strikes in Iraq on Wednesday killed at least 20 people as it hit back at Iraqi militia for striking its oil facilities. Donald Trump said the joint US-Saudi attacks had been mounted with the agreement of the Iraqi government, a claim that Baghdad did not confirm.

The Saudi defence minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, held an urgent meeting with Trump and JD Vance on Wednesday to discuss the next steps. The Saudis are keen to show they will defend themselves and their industry, but are not willing to escalate the war against Iran, arguing that the disagreements between the US and Iran can still be settled by diplomacy.

The troop movements inside Yemen involve concentrating forces for what could be an attack on al-Bayda, a governorate in central southern Yemen captured by the Houthis in 2020-21, the sources said.

Fighting between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia has erupted in the past fortnight with the Houthis mounting attacks against Saudi Aramco facilities. The strikes inside Saudi Arabia came hours after Saudi airstrikes targeted Houthi-controlled sites in the port of Hodeidah and a third Saudi commercial vessel was attacked in the Red Sea.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthis have been vying for control of Yemen for more than a decade and an uneasy status quo has unravelled over the past month.

The tensions inside Yemen would be reduced if the Gulf states and Iran could reach an agreement for the reopening of the strait of Hormuz. Talks between Oman and Iran are continuing, with Iran demanding that all shipping enter the strait through a northern route close to Iran’s coast.

Houthis attack Saudi Arabia from Iraq

Houthis attack Saudi Arabia from Iraq in coordination with Iran-aligned Iraqi militia groups

i24NEWS

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia this week from Iraqi territory in coordination with Iraqi armed groups. According to an exclusive report from Reuters, which spoke to two officials in the region, this union reflects a growing coordination among Iran-aligned militias. It also indicates that members of Iran's so-called Axis of Resistance have deepened their ties despite years of US and Israeli strikes on the network.

The attacks from Iraq, which the Houthis have taken responsibility for, included strikes on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia's eastern province, the kingdom's main crude hub. Officials said the operations were coordinated under the supervision of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Saudi Arabia has not sat quietly, however. The Kingdom carried out joint airstrikes with the United States on Iraqi sites on Wednesday. Additionally, on Thursday, an explosion was reported in Sanaa, Yemen, yet details on the cause, location, and any casualties were not immediately available.

"There is now direct training and coordination between members of the Axis of Resistance themselves, not just between them and Iran," said Farea al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the Chatham House think tank's Middle East and North Africa program, according to Reuters.

---

Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi addressed the escalation in a speech Thursday, saying his forces had moved to impose a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in what he called a "blockade-for-blockade" equation. 

He accused Riyadh of capping Yemen's gas wealth to keep the country in economic and political crisis, saying Saudi Arabia had set a ceiling on extraction "that absolutely prevents the people from achieving a decent standard of living." 

Al-Houthi also alleged Saudi measures blocked oil extraction in Yemen's Jawf and Mahra governorates, accusing the kingdom of coveting resources in both provinces.