BlackMask Breaking News

The warning appeared online last week in Arabic beneath pictures of U.S. warplanes: “Do not take up arms against the United States or its partners,” it said, noting that America “will protect its partners in the face of threats from the Iranian regime and its proxies.”

And to underscore the message: Central Command is “fully prepared” and ready to employ F-16 and A-10 aircraft “currently in the region.” As fears grow of a wider conflict between Iran and its proxies, and Israel and its backers, the warning — apparently aimed at young disaffected men in the Middle East — may not have been that surprising.

What raised eyebrows was the platform: Tinder.

The ad on the U.S.-based dating app, which gave the world the phrases “swipe right” (to approve a match) and “swipe left” (to reject), has raised fresh questions about the U.S. military’s online information operations, which are aimed at influencing the views of overseas audiences and countering what the government perceives as misleading narratives from foreign adversaries.

Part of a broader campaign in what is commonly called psychological operations or military information support operations, the ad belonged to Centcom, according to one U.S. official familiar with the matter, who like several others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. It was an explicit threat that the Pentagon would take action if Iran or its proxies threatened the United States or its ally Israel, an extraordinary warning — one that some experts saw as ham-fisted — and a reminder that American forces helped bring down scores of Iranian drones and missiles in an April attack.

Central Command declined to comment, saying it generally does not discuss information operations. The Pentagon had no comment on the specific post. Tinder removed the ad after The Post inquired about it on Thursday. Philip Fry, a company spokesperson, said that it “violated our policies” on violent and political messaging. Séamus Malekafzali, a freelance journalist based in Lebanon, encountered the advertisement when he opened Tinder last Thursday, he said. Swiping right redirected him to a Central Command post on X, he told The Post, with a similar message written in Arabic describing the presence of attack aircraft in the region. As for the advertisement appearing on Tinder, another U.S. official quipped: “That’s called ‘meeting people where they are.’” The message itself could be effective, said Gittipong “Eddie” Paruchabutr, a retired Army psyops officer who worked on information operations policy, if “it’s part of a long-term campaign supporting a continuous policy, and not a one-off ad buy.”

NN see BlackMask Market News and  Commentary Titled: Swipe Left

(Bloomberg) — Libya’s eastern government said it will shut down all oil production and exports, after its Tripoli-based rival moved to replace the leadership of the central bank. The “force majeure” applies to all fields, terminals and oil facilities, the eastern authorities said Monday in a statement on Facebook. Brent crude prices jumped as much as 2.2% to above $80 a barrel. A row over who leads the central bank, the manager of billions of dollars of energy revenue, has been brewing for over a week now, deepening political divisions and threatening a UN-brokered peace deal. The internationally acknowledged government in the country’s west has been seeking to replace the governor Sadiq Al-Kabir, who has refused to step down. A government delegation entered the regulator’s offices today to take over, according to local media. The country produced a total of about 1.15 million barrels a day of oil last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Since then, the biggest oil field called Sharara, which was pumping nearly 270,000 barrels daily, has halted. The east is home to the Sirte basin where most of Libya’s oil reserves and four of the country’s oil export terminals are located. A drop in exports may push Brent crude prices temporarily to the mid-$80s a barrel, analyst at Citigroup Inc. said in a note earlier on Monday. Deep-seated political divisions in Libya’s east and west, despite a 2020 United Nations-backed cease-fire deal aimed at ending their fighting, have often resulted in battles and blockades that target the country’s most valuable resource. The nation sits atop Africa’s biggest known crude reserves, but production has suffered after a decade of political strife. The frequent shutdowns — including at the biggest field called Sharara that’s been halted since early August — have partly hit global oil markets. The central bank has become the latest institution for control of the North African nation, which has been wracked by unrest since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against long-time ruler Moammar Al Qaddafi and is split between dueling governments in the east and west.

NN BlackMask Blog

Hillaries east west devide

 

Crude oil prices started trade this week with a gain, after posting another week of losses, as an increase in violence in the Middle East prompted worry about supply while in the U.S. the Fed signaled it may start cutting interest rates next month. Crude oil prices saw a 2% increase in trading on Monday due to ongoing uncertainty surrounding the stability of its supply, stemming from the potential expansion of the conflict in the Middle East. Over the weekend, Israel and Hezbollah exchanged a barrage of missiles. Hezbollah FAILED retaliated against the assassination of Fuad Shukr, a high-ranking commander in Beirut, by launching hundreds of rockets and drones towards Israel that did no damage. Beforehand, Israeli jets also targeted the militia’s locations in Lebanon. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for October deliveries rose by $1.73 to sell at $75.73 per barrel at 7:11 am ET. Brent for October settlements added 42.00 going for $91.02 a barrel. A contributing factor for the latest moves in oil prices may also have been global supply, which has declined to a two-year low, with OECD stocks in particular much lower than the ten-year seasonal average, at minus 120 million barrels or 4%. U.S. oil inventories have been on the decline for several weeks in a row.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the presence of two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Middle East, the Pentagon said on Sunday, strengthening the US military presence amid soaring regional tensions. The announcement, made in a summary of a call between Austin and his Israeli counterpart, represents a shift. The Pentagon had initially deployed the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group into the region with a plan to replace the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group. NN: I do not think they are touring the religious sights. You think the savages of Islam have  figured it out yet? 

Aug. 25 (UPI) — The Israeli Defense Forces “proactively and broadly” struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah preparations to fire missiles and rockets toward the nation Sunday. Immediately afterward, Hezbollah said it launched 320 rockets and several drones. IDF said approximately 200 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward Israel with no reports of injuries so far. Israeli military told CNN that “very little damage was sustained” and that it was unaware of any impacts on military bases or targets in central Israel.

About 100 of Israel’s fighter jets initially “struck and destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels” across dozens of launch sites, IDF said. Then there were further strikes.

“We are removing threats against the Israeli home front,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at a press briefing. “Dozens of jets are currently striking targets in various locations in southern Lebanon. We are continuing to remove threats, and to intensively strike against the Hezbollah terrorist organization.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who convened a meeting with cabinet members Sunday morning, said preemptive strike was not “the end of the story.” “Hezbollah tried to attack the State of Israel with rockets and drones,” the prime minister said. “We instructed the IDF to carry out a powerful, preemptive strike to eliminate the threat. “The IDF destroyed thousands of short-range rockets, and all of them were aimed at harming our citizens and our forces in the Galilee. In addition, the IDF intercepted all the drones that Hezbollah launched at strategic targets in the center of the country.” The Hezbollah terror group said two of its members were killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for operatives slain in Israeli strikes. Their deaths bring the terror group’s toll since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip in October to at least 430. “Israel is hitting Hezbollah with surprising, crushing blows. Three weeks ago we eliminated its chief of staff [Shukr],” Netanyahu said. “Today we foiled its attack plan. [Hezbollah’s Hassan] Nasrallah in Beirut and [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei in Tehran should know that this is another step on the path to changing the situation in the north and returning our residents safely to their homes.”

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said in a televised speech Sunday night said the latet attack has been completed, but further strikes could be carried out in the future.

He said Israel’s airstrikes were “aggression, not preemptive action.” The United States helped Israel track incoming Hezbollah attacks, according to a US defense official. The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group has joined the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Middle East.

The cumulative  Hamas toll since Oct. 7 is now at least 40,405 killed and 93,468 injured, according to the health ministry.

The death toll among Israeli troops since the start of the unprovoked Hamas Gaza ground invasion on Oct. 27 now stands at 337, and at 700 on all fronts since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, according to official military data.

NN: We are talking about the Hamas War they started. Again obviously they  are getting their Islamic asses kicked… A kill ratio of 70 to 1. They want to be martyred for the cause…. No problem…….

 

Boeing Co. first announced the Starliner space capsule back in 2010. Its development was beset by delays, caused by issues from engineering problems and bad parts to supplier lags. Both Boeing and SpaceX were commissioned by NASA in 2014 to deliver means of transport to and from the International Space Station (ISS). While SpaceX’s Crew Dragon had its first manned test flight in 2020 and has successfully carried out 11 other flights since then, Boeing continually postponed the completion of the Starliner. Its first uncrewed orbital test in December 2019 failed due to a software error. Further software and hardware issues pushed the second uncrewed test back from 2020 to 2022, and it was successfully completed in May 2022 despite failing thrusters and a navigation outage. Starliner’s first manned test launch was initially tentatively planned for July 2023 before suffering another technical setback. Another launch was set for May 6, 2024 and canceled just hours before liftoff, while a June 1 attempt was aborted less than four minutes before liftoff. Finally, Boeing’s first crewed test flight happened on June 5, carrying astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the ISS. It docked some 26 hours later, with the two astronauts scheduled to stay on the ISS until June 14. However, some of the Starliner’s thrusters malfunctioned near the end of the flight and a helium leak was detected, so NASA and Boeing decided to keep the astronauts in space for longer to gain a better understanding of the issues. NASA said that “there is no rush to bring the crew home” and that additional tests are “providing mission managers data to make the best, safest decision on how and when to return crew home.” Although the agency added that the Starliner remains the preferred option for the astronauts’ return, it is also considering bringing them back on SpaceX’s Dragon early next year, leaving Starliner to come back uncrewed. The decision on the matter is set to be made later today. No project of this magnitude is expected to run smoothly from start to finish. But even before this latest blow, Boeing’s space adventure looked pretty rocky compared to SpaceX, considering the sheer number of technical difficulties and delays. And now, Boeing’s rival finishing the job Starliner was unable to do seems like a rather humiliating ending to the company’s first test flight. Boeing’s shares have dropped over 33% this year. While the slump is mostly due to Boeing’s aircraft troubles, the Starliner saga must also contribute to an overall lack of confidence in its future endeavors.  NN: Flying pile of shit. Boeing keeps getting these cost plus contracts. They have lost their the way.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said during a rally in Arizona that he believes most hostages held by Hamas are “largely gone” and not alive anymore. Trump insisted that Hamas is refusing to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage deal because most of the hostages are “not around anymore.” The former president claimed Hamas has “no respect” for his successor, Joe Biden, and Democratic presidential nominee, current Vice President Kamala Harris and insisted that if the Palestinian group “feared” Biden and Harris it wouldn’t have attacked Israel and taken and killed hostages.

Biden asked Netanyahu to pull troops from Gaza-Egypt border

 

United States President Joe Biden is said to have urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow strip of land between Gaza and Egypt, people familiar with the matter told Axios on Friday. According to the sources, the US president asked Netanyahu to remove the military from the area close to the Rafah coast and next to the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, which is currently being used as a shelter by displaced Palestinians. Biden allegedly told the Israeli PM that such a move would help advance the deadlocked negotiations toward reaching an agreement on the release of hostages and establishing a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave. It was reported earlier today that Egypt has agreed to forward Israel’s latest proposal regarding the Philadephi Corridor to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

NN BlackMask Pod Cast

If Israel Is Forced To Surrender For Peace Their Will Be No Peace and No State Of Israel