In today’s newsletter, the mystery surrounding an apparent terrorist plot against RAF Fairford deepens after British authorities release on bail the five men arrested near the air base. Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls the suspected plot a “very serious threat” involving a foreign actor. Meanwhile, Iran and the Trump Administration trade competing claims over the effectiveness of the U.S. blockade and the state of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. We also look at an argument that President Trump’s global strategy is increasingly constraining China at crucial maritime chokepoints. Finally, California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna calls on Israel to release imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences following convictions for five murders.
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UPDATE: The five men arrested in the UK in a suspected terrorist bomb plot against a military air base used by America for bombing missions over Iran have been released on bail. That tells us more about the current state of national security in the UK than we wanted to know. ** Secretary of State Marco Rubio said** that “a lot of people are disturbed” by that news. He also called the plot “a very serious threat” that “clearly involved the hands of a foreign actor; I won’t get into great detail about that yet.”
Meanwhile, the female farmer who spotted the suspicious men in balaclavas and reported them spoke out to the media. She said there was a large group, 8 to 10 men, and she’s concerned that more of them might still be at large. She said she happened to come home and startle them with her headlights by sheer luck and they all started to run.
She also said that when she called the police line that locals had been trained to call, it “rang and rang and rang” with no answer. She then called the 999 emergency line, and police arrived within 10 to 15 minutes. Defense Secretary Wes Streetling said that he was grateful to the caller, but “With respect, though, she does only have a partial picture.”
She replied that the only picture she had was of a large group of suspicious men with three extremely unusual vehicles, and no official has since been in touch with her or anyone in the village, “no follow-up at all.” She called it “a bit embarrassing.”
A spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps lashed out at President Trump, calling him a “big liar.” He said, “The enemy [US] knows that Iran is not after nuclear weapons. Their issue with Iran is not its nuclear program but rather its vastness, which they want to destroy.” He added, “The fact that the Americans might manage, at great expense, considerable trouble, and high risk to sneak a small vessel through the Strait of Hormuz under cover of darkness to export, say, 100 or 200 barrels of oil does not mean the Strait is open.”
As to who’s lying, Reuters said that oil transport through the Strait of Hormuz was down to about 10 million barrels per day earlier this month. But US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this week that the Strait is open, and even without the Iranian oil that the US is blocking, transit is “averaging now 15 to 22 million barrels a day; it was at about 20 pre-conflict.”
So we have a big liar calling Trump a big liar. Sounds like someone is auditioning for a job at MS NOW.
The speaker of Iran’s parliament warned that “both the Americans and other countries should know that, as we have said before, in a region where we do not sell oil, no one will sell oil, and if our security is not ensured, no infrastructure will be safe.” The threat against neighbors’ oil infrastructure did not go over well, with Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman saying, “With respect to infrastructure and institutions, any threat is a violation of international law and good neighborliness.”
While we’re sure Iran’s leaders wouldn’t want to be considered bad neighbors, we have a feeling that any attacks on neighboring countries’ oil facilities will be met with more than a stern letter to the Gulf HOA.
Despite Iran’s bluster, ** Instapundit has a thread** on how decisively they’re losing, including the news that Iran’s currency, the rial, just crashed to a record-low value of $0.0000004 US dollars.
Substack writer ** Don Surber** must have read his
But Trump does not have time for vengeance. He has a war with Red China to win and lo and behold, he has. He has shown Red China’s military equipment works about as well as communism does. Trump by force and by diplomacy has Red China by the chokepoints: Panama Canal, Strait of Malacca (Indonesian agreement), Strait of Gibraltar (Moroccan agreement) and of courser Greenland. The Danish politicians Xi bought are now as worthless to him as they are to everyone else.
Bottomline: He sees Donald Trump coming out ahead in the Trump - Xi summit at the White House.
** Dumbest Idea of the Day**! (But the day is young.) California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna called on Israel to release Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences in prison for attacks that killed Israelis. He was convicted in 2004 on five counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
But Khanna argues that he should be released because “Palestinians must choose their own leaders. Barghouti has a unique standing among all Palestinian factions...He’s seen as non-corrupt, a strong leader, and secular. Barghouti could deliver a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel.” So he’s “non-corrupt,” if you don’t count the five murder convictions.
Sorry to disagree, but we don’t see that having a Palestinian state run by a mass murderer would be much of a change from what we’ve already got now.
