As Trump ‘Makes Nice’ With Moscow, the CIA Has Other Ideas

As Trump ‘Makes Nice’ With Moscow, the CIA Has Other Ideas

Alastair Crooke

The Atlantic on October 23 published a profile of CIA chief John Ratcliffe. Its subheadline contains the most significant “tell” from the piece—“CIA Director John Ratcliffe leads an agency that’s at war with Russia, even as Trump makes nice with Putin.”

The Atlantic article makes no bones about its ulterior purpose. It is to present Ratcliffe as an even-handed professional who has mastered the intricacies of the Ukraine War and tells it “like it is” to the president, leaving the latter to decide his options.

This panegyric to Ratcliffe, however, hides substantive issues about the probity of CIA intelligence analyses, their impact on policy, and the extent to which the pure excitement of militarized covert action inevitably hobbles intelligence agencies and analytic reporting.

Intelligence is never wholly objective. And its professionalism largely hangs on service culture, which can—and does—change.

As one example, a former head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence research and analysis division, General Itai Brun, warned that Israel’s inability to recognize what Hamas was planning for October 7 resulted, not from a lack of information, but from a failure of culture and approach. Per the Times of Israel’s report of his comments:

Even after the massacre, intelligence didn’t internalize that Hamas believed it could succeed…. The whole military intelligence network “was not listening, because it was convinced it knew…. It could not accept the possibility that it was wrong.

So, when it comes to “culture,” in this sense, two points in the Atlantic piece stand out: First, the article hints that Ratcliffe is seen by his staff to be “clear-eyed about the threat Russia poses not just to Ukraine—but to the United States and its allies.” This suggests that Radcliffe sees Russia as an eternal enemy of the West, or at least a current enemy with nefarious intentions. Secondly, the article emphasises that the CIA is in “the lead” on Ukraine and that its paramilitary wing—Covert Action—is thrilled at being so busy. As Larry Johnson, a former CIA official, outlines:

The CIA helps Ukraine knock out Russian refining capacity. Diesel prices soar. Then… in the middle of peace talks in Miami… President [Trump] announces a deal for Russia to sell its diesel on the world market…. So the United States is simultaneously paying to destroy Russian diesel production and begging Russia to sell it more diesel. You could not design a more incoherent policy if you tried.

The Atlantic piece lends credence to what has long been supposed—that Trump’s attempts to secure a “deal” with Russia (most recently by importing Russian diesel into America to bring the price down for the midterm elections) is a deceit intended to coax Moscow towards making a deal (unfavorable, in the Kremlin optic) with Trump.

It would be a deceit because the CIA pursues its own (militarised) covert action war on Russia. The Atlantic, citing a CIA officer, reports:

Armed with information that the U.S. provides, Ukraine’s military has launched strikes deep inside Russia. And U.S. spy satellites provide early warning about incoming missiles and drones. Among U.S. personnel on the ground, “the CIA is in the lead,” a retired senior officer who travels frequently to Ukraine told me.

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Food wars heating up: Six more European countries report grocery store cooling systems hacked, food destroyed

Food wars heating up: Six more European countries report grocery store cooling systems hacked, food destroyed

Leo Hohmann

The food wars continue to rage as hackers struck a second time in less than a month against grocery store cooling systems in Europe on Monday.

On October 11, an unknown entity hacked into the refrigeration controllers at up to 700 French supermarkets and set them to defrost mode overnight, causing their refrigerators to overheat. The cold chain disruption forced supermarkets to discard thousands of pounds of spoiled goods, resulting in losses estimated to total tens of millions of euros.

But on Monday, November 2, the attack was more widespread as cyber attackers made sure six countries felt the pain.

The incidents caused temperature spikes and spoiled food in the refrigeration and freezer sections at stores in Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Estonia, according to a report by NBC News.

Below is an excerpt from the article:

In the incident in France, police said hackers seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, raising temperatures as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit and causing fires and food losses.

Authorities have not indicated who could have been behind the incidents. There were no claims of responsibility.

The issues come as the continent confronts broader security fears stemming from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The new cyberattack highlights how digital threats can increasingly affect citizens’ everyday lives, the European Commission said Monday.

The Ahold Delhaize supermarket chain in the Netherlands told NBC News on Monday that it was aware of an “IT incident” affecting the refrigeration systems in a number of its stores. “Our teams are working hard to fully assess the situation,” the company said in an email.

Stephan Moelans, the CEO of Belgian refrigeration company Sabcobel, which operates Delhaize’s systems, told the Belga news agency that the incident was a cyberattack, in which the units’ evaporators were switched to defrost mode.

In another incident on October 24, a Quaker Oats facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that was world’s largest cereal milling center, processing over 2 million pounds of oats daily, spontaneously exploded.

BOTTOM LINE: These types of incidents are totally preventable. If you’re a private company in the grocery business, stop using internet-connected computerized cooling systems. It’s just that simple. But they won’t do that because businesses are addicted to the ease of efficiency offered by such technology. Instead they will spend millions of dollars trying to find another stop gap “patch” to plug a cyber hole in the system, while the hackers have already moved on to finding the next hole.

This should also be a lesson for homeowners: refrain from buying “smart” appliances, which are easily tracked and hacked. Sometimes, less is better when it comes to technology. And analogue is ALWAYS safer and more secure than digital.

Christian Westbrook, an independent food industry analyst and author of the Substack outlet Unshadowed, wrote in a post:

The Internet of things (IoT) was always a bad idea—now realize they want embedded devices in our BODIES. This is Schwab’s “the 4th Industrial Revolution changes YOU!”

And Kennedy (RFK Jr.) is pushing this from HHS…

As WEF/(Yuval) Harrari said: they want humanity to be “hackable animals.”

When they said you will “own nothing,” they meant it. You will not own anything that you allow into your home, your car, your personal space, your devices, or even your body, when it is connected to the internet. Even if you possess the title or a bill of sale, it can still be controlled from an outside source if it includes a chip allowing connectivity.

Cyberattacks Are Now Destroying Europe’s Food Supply Without Firing a Shot

Korybko: Germany's Attempted Takeover Of Poland By Proxy Is To Prepare Europe For War With Russia

Korybko: Germany's Attempted Takeover Of Poland By Proxy Is To Prepare Europe For War With Russia

Andrew Korybko

Just like Nazi Germany seized Czechoslovakia's gold and its robust military-industrial complex in the run-up to World War II, so too is today's Germany plotting to seize Poland's gold and subordinate European NATO's largest army to Berlin ahead of a possibly upcoming war with Russia by 2030.

Polish conservative firebrand Dominik Tarczyński recently explained liberal Prime Minister Donald Tusk's attempted judicial coup as being driven by him then wanting to seize control of the Central Bank, introduce the euro, and then finally transfer Poland's gold to the European Central Bank (ECB) in Germany. As it turns out, Poland has the world's 10th-largest gold reserves, and its 550 tonnes as of 2026 are more than the ECB's 506.5. The ECB would therefore more than double its reserves in that scenario.

That's a significant motivation for what was assessed here to be Germany's attempted takeover of Poland by proxy through Tusk's armed seizure of the Constitutional Tribunal with all that could follow. It could also at least temporarily rejuvenate the euro amidst the rapid militarization that most of its members, the vast majority of whom use the euro, are engaging in to prepare for war with Russia by 2030. The bloc's de facto German leader is far ahead of everyone with a planned €800 billion program.

Poland commands European NATO's (E-NATO) largest military, and conservative President Karol Nawrocki is opposed to the EU's "Security Action For Europe" (SAFE) loans that would also obligate that most of the equipment be purchased from the bloc's members, not Poland's American and Korean partners. He accordingly proposed the "Polish SAFE 0%" program for 185 billion zloty (~$46 billion), the equivalent of the loan that the EU is extending, which Tusk's government agreed to despite Nawrocki's disapproval.

If the ongoing attempted German takeover of Poland by proxy succeeds, and Poland joins the euro prior to more than doubling the ECB's reserves by transferring all of its gold there, then Germany could much more easily advance its plot of federalizing the EU with itself as the most dominant force therein.

Coupled with the rapid militarization of the EU as a whole, with the largest army in E-NATO then subordinated to Germany, the 1941-like threat that Dmitry Medvedev warned about would materialize.

The seizure of the Poland's gold reserves is central to this scenario, ergo why Tusk is expected to support that through the introduction of the euro if his judicial coup succeeds, and there's an historical precedent for his suspected German patron to pursue this policy that's actually against Russia. Hitler seized Czechoslovakia's gold reserves and its robust military-industrial complex in the immediate run-up to World War II, both of which were considered by historians to be indispensable to his war effort.

Likewise, in the run-up to the EU's possible clash with Russia by 2030, today's Germany is attempting to seize Poland's gold reserves and subordinate the largest army in E-NATO to Berlin in dual moves that would be indispensable in the aforesaid scenario. Unlike back then when Germany led the invasion of the USSR from the front, it might instead task its Polish subordinate with sending Poles to die in Ukraine for perpetuating the NATO-Russian proxy war there or starting another one after the latest conflict ends.

Considering what's at stake, namely the materialization of another 1941-like threat to Russia brought about by the German-dominated European Federation that could follow Berlin's attempted takeover of Poland by proxy through Tusk's judicial coup, Poland's political crisis is of global significance. Its outcome could mean the difference between war and peace, without any exaggeration, since it'll shape the post-war European order for years to come.

Second Wave Of Cyberattacks Paralyze Supermarket Fridges Across EU, Weeks After Gov'ts Urged Food Stockpiling

Second Wave Of Cyberattacks Paralyze Supermarket Fridges Across EU, Weeks After Gov'ts Urged Food Stockpiling

TYLER DURDEN

Cyberattacks disrupted supermarket refrigeration systems across Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland and Estonia on Monday morning, forcing retailers to discard spoiled food and exposing the last mile of the food supply chain to major disruptions. The cyberattacks came just weeks after governments urged households to maintain emergency food supplies.

Reuters reports that supermarket chains Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt reported cyberattacks affecting critical refrigeration systems in Belgium and Luxembourg. Carrefour said 15 Belgian stores were impacted, while Irish wholesaler Musgrave said refrigeration systems at 13 SuperValu locations were affected.

"There has been a cyberattack and all our freezers reached 50 degrees (Celsius)," Engla Ingwall, sales manager at an ICA franchise store in Stockholm, told the outlet. Ingwall said the attack occurred around 0200 local time.

Stephan Moelans, chief executive of Belgian refrigeration company Sabcobel, which operates Delhaize's systems, told the news outlet Belga that attackers switched refrigeration evaporators into defrost mode.

The cyber incidents follow an attack in France last month, when hackers seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, causing high food losses. The similarities suggest that the earlier attack was a pilot run for broader chaos.

Let's not forget the cyber incidents came weeks after governments in Europe, the US, and Australia urged folks to stockpile food. Those advisories did not identify a specific imminent threat.

Targeting refrigeration systems at supermarkets can quickly destroy perishable foods and disrupt food availability. The pattern here is that saboteurs have an objective of causing mass chaos, but not through kinetic means; rather, by attacking the food supply chain. This builds on weeks of a communist revolution in France that has spread to surrounding countries. 

Iran Rejects Latest Draft Proposal To End War:

Iran Rejects Latest Draft Proposal To End War: US 'Must Act On 7 Conditions' To Reopen Hormuz

TYLER DURDEN

As expected, a quick denial to the earlier headlines from Tehran... Top-ranking national security official Mohsen Rezaee states Tuesday:

America's response to Iran's rights and demands was not convincing, and they must fully and explicitly address Iran's seven conditions and act upon them; only in this case will the Strait of Hormuz be reopened.

Rezaee further reitarted that Iran will not compromise on its seven conditions, which also appears a rejection of earlier Gulf-sourced reporting which had signaled some level of a break through in direct talks.\

Iran has said that three more tankers exploded and are on fire Tuesday after hitting naval mines while transiting through Strait of Hormuz without permission. 

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) described that the ships had turned off their geolocation tracking systems as they crossed the southern part of the Strait. No casualties have yet to be reported. Also on Tuesday the IRGC claimed to have shot down two US Lucas drones over the coastal area of Bandar Khamir.

"We have repeatedly stated; the seven conditions announced by Iran must be fulfilled. If the conditions are met, the path of diplomacy will be open," Rezaee wrote on X (machine translated. "In response, if any action is taken against the country, in accordance with the Supreme Leader's directive today to the armed forces, we will deliver devastating blows to the aggressor using new weaponry." On the headline...

US-Iran headlines are once again swinging between mediator proposals and Tehran declaring it is "now in a state of war" after the Qeshm strike - which is a sadly all too familiar pattern from this past summer. The latest from regional sources are seeing oil prices drop lower:

• "Washington has approved the draft memorandum of understanding that the Qatari delegation presented to Iran yesterday", Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports citing sources close to the mediation team.
• "Washington and Tehran have made concessions regarding the Iranian nuclear program and frozen funds", Al Araby Al Jadeed reports citing sources.

Iran has said that three more tankers exploded and are on fire Tuesday after hitting naval mines while transiting through Strait of Hormuz without permission. 

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) described that the ships had turned off their geolocation tracking systems as they crossed the southern part of the Strait. No casualties have yet to be reported. Also on Tuesday the IRGC claimed to have shot down two US Lucas drones over the coastal area of Bandar Khamir.

This comes atter the US reportedly struck Iran’s Qeshm Island late Monday, amid broader revelations that the Pentagon has been waging 'limited' strikes along Iran's southern coast for the past weeks.

American officials have called the overnight Monday assault on Qeshm 'defensive' and aimed at preventing Tehran from threatening vessels navigating the Strait of Hormuz.

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