Thomas Small

Two related news items about academics with links to Qatar 1️⃣ I was previously publicly attacked by Andreas Krieg, who accused me of being an extended arm of the United Arab Emirates in Sweden. The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) and the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency were also drawn into these unfounded allegations on the website Politics Today (published by SETA, which is affiliated with Erdoğan’s think tank). (Krieg has been linked to academic institutes in Qatar.) I reported this to King’s College London for defamation—and I was upheld in the internal process. The outcome was that Andreas Krieg published a public apology addressed to me on X. I later wrote about this in Swedish daily Expressen:  expressen.se/debatt/tro-och…  Andreas Krieg’s apology can be found here. x.com/MagnusRanstorp…  Now, the same Andreas Krieg has once again come under scrutiny. In legal proceedings in Northern Ireland, he lost a defamation case against a well-known journalist, further raising questions about his credibility and judgment. irishlegal.com/articles/paul-…  ⸻ 2️⃣ In the next step, activists turned to Farid Hafez, editor of the European Islamophobia Report and affiliated with the Georgetown University Bridge Initiative. The Bridge Initiative subsequently published a so-called “factsheet” targeting me, Lorenzo Vidino, the Danish professor Thomas Hoffmann, and researcher Sameh Egyptson. The purpose was obvious: to discredit us for our scrutiny of the Muslim Brotherhood. Article in Danish about ”Bridge Initiative and Factsheets” weekendavisen.dk/samfund/broder…  This activity has now been noted at the highest political level in the United States. A report from the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce on antisemitism at American universities specifically identifies the Bridge Initiative. The report states that the organization presents itself as researching Islamophobia, but in practice engages in casting suspicion on critics of political Islam. Particularly noteworthy is that the report—based on previously undisclosed documents from Georgetown—shows that the Bridge Initiative received $630,000 from Qatar in May 2024. The report can be read here. edworkforce.house.gov/news/documents…  The overall picture is clear: when academia, activism, and state interests converge, research risks becoming a tool for political influence—rather than a source of independent knowledge.

Penser que la radicalité du régime iranien - ou des jihadistes en général- est synonyme d’inculture ou de stupidité, s’étonner des capacités intellectuelles de Larijani & faire de Kant un argument en sa faveur, constituent le sommet du racisme, du dédain et surtout de l’ignorance

A French Jesuit in Peking, Joachim Bouvet (d. 1730), came to believe that the “I Ching” was not only China’s oldest text — but humankind’s. Older, even, than the “Book of Genesis”. Bouvet’s theory led G. W. Leibniz to perfect his binomial notation of mathematics (0-1) — which led, several centuries on, to digital computing, cybernetics & AI. #future #humanities

Somewhere the Emperor Heraclius is smiling…….

He can start a podcast with Rob Malley

An observation from watching more than three years of Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, oil export terminals and pipeline nodes. They burn spectacularly and cinematically. But Russia — under sanctions and without access to Western spare parts and technologies — has more or less managed to mitigate the impact and repair most of the damage. Gulf states, with all their resources, can fix things infinitely faster.

Starting to think the Iranians are pulling a Mullah Omar with Mojtaba as SL

Because it's often getting lost in the discussion here, this is a partial list of Iran's attacks on energy *before* the Israeli strike on South Pars: - Ras Laffan LNG complex in Qatar - Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi - hundreds of drone attacks on Saudi oil fields - Ruwais refinery in Abu Dhabi - Shah gas field in Abu Dhabi - port of Fujairah - Bapco oil refinery in Bahrain The list goes on. Point is that, yes, South Pars was an escalation in American/Israeli targeting, but it comes after weeks of Iranian attacks on GCC energy infrastructure.

is there a betting market for "Peter Thiel establishes rival papacy in Avignon"?

Israeli MK Meirav Cohen delivered a powerful speech in the Knesset on settler terrorism in the West Bank: “This is terror, and it is Jewish terror..... It’s not ‘just a few bad apples.’... The politicians excusing this violence are complicit.”

🔴 Détroit d'Ormuz : "J'ai parlé au président français. De 0 à 10, je lui donnerais 8/10. Ce n'est pas parfait... Mais je pense que le président Macron va nous aider" 🗣️ Donald Trump réagit en direct de la Maison Blanche au rôle de la France pour débloquer le détroit d'Ormuz

With all the talk about warships escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz: I was aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln when it sailed through the Strait in 2012 as a show of force. What stood out was how close the ship got to the Iranian coast. We could easily see both the Iranian and UAE shorelines and little merchant boats crossed the carrier‘s path constantly. The crew had to secure all the aircraft because take off‘s and landings are impossible in the narrow waterway. Any ships, even warships going through there would seem to be pretty vulnerable. Report from 2012 attached: cnn.com/videos/world/2… @CNN

‘Mulla Sadrā was in fact to declare that the esotericist feels a great deal closer to the naive believer than to the rationalist theologian.’ (Henri Corbin)

NEW | Special Report: The war in Iran is currently in a phase in which the military trajectory is relatively positive: the United States is steadily destroying Iran’s ability to use its most essential tool in the war — drone and missile attacks — which in turn underpin the entire Iranian strategy. Iran has still done some damage to US forces, and it is still firing drones and missiles, though the overall attack rate is slowly decreasing. These attacks still pale in comparison to the major attacks Iran sought to conduct in an existential war and have caused neither operationally significant damage nor widespread casualties. The US-Israeli combined force will need time to achieve its military objectives and prevent Iran from inflicting further political and economic pain upon the United States and its allies in the region, but the campaign remains incomplete, and it is too soon to forecast its outcome. Declaring it an operational failure is unquestionably premature.

Real subtle my guy.. Also, Sayf al-Adl, the leader of al-Qaeda, is based in Iran and has been for years

Saudi Aramco is loading simultaneously 5 crude oil tankers in Yanbu and Al Mujjaiz terminals on the Red Sea coast. I don’t think that’s happened ever before.

الجميع يتحدث عن استهداف جزيرة "خرج" الإيرانية من منظور اقتصادي، ويتناسى المنظور العسكري، وهو الأساس خلال هذه الفترة. نعم، الجزيرة مهمه للاقتصاد الايراني، وهي داعم للمجهود الحربي. لكن، لماذا تم استهدافها من منظور العمليات العسكرية؟ يتواجد في جزيرة "خرج" وحدات من الحرس الثوري الإيراني، ورادارات مراقبة بحرية، ومنظومات دفاع جوي لحماية الجزيرة. ولموقعها المهم في الجزء الشمالي من الخليج العربي، تعتبر نقطة مراقبة مهمه لحركة الملاحة في شمال الخليج. كما ان الجزيرة مركز ثقل مهم لايران، لأنها تجمع بين ثلاثة عوامل، الاقتصاد (الطاقة)، والخطوط البحرية اللوجستية، اضافة إلى المراقبة العسكرية والقدرة على التأثير. وتشير بعض المصادر إلى تواجد منظومات صواريخ ساحلية من طراز "نور" والتي تعتبر النسخة الإيرانية للصواريخ الصينية C-802، والتي يصل مداها بناءً على بعض المراجع إلى 150 كلم تقريباً. وصواريخ "قادر" (قدير) وهي تطوير لصواريخ "نور" حيث يصل مداها إلى 250 كلم حسب بعض المصادر.

Yes, the launch numbers are down significantly from the first days of the war, and to some extent that reflects a degradation of Iran's capabilities (causal link is probably clearer with missiles than drones) But as long as the number is non-zero, Iran can continue to impose economic costs. It doesn't take 500+ drones a day to disrupt shipping or air travel or oil production

Senior Iranian official Mohsen Rezaee: The end of the war is in our hands. We will consider ending the war only when, first, we receive full compensation for all our damages from the United States, and second, we obtain a 100% guarantee for the future, which is not possible without the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Persian Gulf. Therefore, the second condition is the U.S. withdrawal from the Persian Gulf.

Since 2018, Tehran has heavily depended on a foreign-owned & foreign-flagged tanker fleet (coined by @UANI the "Ghost Armada" aka "Dark Fleet") to export its U.S.-sanctioned oil that United Against Nuclear Iran tracks closely - & Kharg Island is no.1 pickup point. 9 in 10 barrels end up in China. In 2018, the Ghost Armada comprised 70 vessels. Today, it’s nearly 600. (This trade is of course the regime’s primary economic lifeline, by far [Iran has exported ~ $180 billion worth of oil in the past 5 years].) After loading from Kharg terminals, the tankers use ship-to-ship transfers/oil rebranding/flag-hopping/AIS disabling etc to hide their routes and confer a veneer of legitimacy. Although UANI has managed to deprive the regime of in excess of $1.5 billion dollars in lost oil revenue through campaigns targeting the flaggers, insurers and classification societies of these vessels (the "middlemen"), the Ghost Fleet has in reality continued to operate with virtual impunity - because enforcement of existing U.S. sanctions has been sorely deficient. Today, the U.S. has reportedly obliterated the military installations at Kharg, leaving the oil facilities intact... yet threatening to destroy them if the IRI does not play ball. This - and the fact this is the first time Trump has approved a strike on an oil(-associated) location - must surely give pause for thought to every GA tanker captain intending to load and export from Kharg, orders notwithstanding. Seizures of U.S.-sanctioned Iranian oil in the Persian Gulf are surely not off the table.