Rich Abott 🖖🏽

A truer map has never been made twitter.com/Duran__Wolf/st…

So interesting how stuff the defense press has been reporting on in great detail for years, some of us outright and repeatedly warning about glaring gas and issues for a decade or more, are packaged into posts for big outlets years later once the problem has totally metastasized. I think stories on these issues are great to do by all, even the MSM hitting it much later, it's just weird because it is the farthest thing from new, but usually these stories are written as if the writers broke a big story. It's wild to see how the whole process has become inverted, with the big guys being last, not first. (This is not directly about Gregg's story here, just an example of new story from a larger outlet on one of these issues)

Araghchi trying to explain nuclear fuel production to Witkoff and Kushner at talks in Oman in February, because the US negotiators did not bring technical experts: Amwaj report: amwaj.media/en/article/ins… “Informed Iranian political sources familiar with the talks additionally highlighted that the lack of nuclear expertise on the part of Kushner and Witkoff, in addition to the absence of a technical team, caused consternation in the negotiations. According to the senior source, “Araghchi on several occasions explained the stages of nuclear fuel production and the difference between an enrichment facility and a reactor to Witkoff, yet the US negotiator still believed that the Tehran Research Reactor was an enrichment facility producing radio-medicines.”

"Nearly five years." Investigative journalism takes years and years. The investment is immense, and always worth it, and, in the era of "hot takes" and ephemeral "content," rigorously reported journalistic work is needed more than ever. We must keep supporting investigative journalism. From @mannyNYT, lead reporter of the blockbuster piece on Cesar Chavez ⤵️

Nice to see someone resign in protest over a misguided foreign policy adventure, but it being Joe Kent going out in a blaze of anti-semitic conspiracy theories is a real sign of our times.

The CIA is an amazing place staffed with very talented people, but “don’t over think a single poor-quality video” is like OSINT 101. Hard lessons.

"Both sides appear to have miscalculated how the other would behave, triggering an ever-expanding conflict with few clear ways out in the foreseeable future."

During the "tanker war" in the 1980s, America escorted an average of one convoy through the Strait of Hormuz each week. "At that pace it would take two and a half years to get all 320 or so vessels currently stranded in the Gulf out of there. Even resuming three-quarters of Hormuz sailings would still prevent nearly 4m b/d of oil from getting to global markets." "Jeff Currie of Carlyle, a private-equity firm, says the cost of a single escort would exceed the value of the cargo it is meant to protect." economist.com/finance-and-ec…

There's already a growing sentiment in the Gulf that Israel is trying to drag them into the war via media leaks, and now you've got one of the president's closest allies explicitly threatening Saudi Arabia Not really a great way to keep your partners on side

Ok this is legit funny

"One sociologist in Tehran, who is critical of the regime and the war, said there was anecdotal evidence of a growing “sense of nationalism emerging from the war” as happened during Israel’s 12-day conflict against Iran last year, when people rallied around the flag." “The fear of Iran’s destruction is increasingly uniting people as they fear the consequences of such a large-scale conflict,” the sociologist said, asking not to be named." @FT ft.com/content/4e048e…

Two Israeli officials told The Washington Post that this specific targeting was not cross-checked or discussed with the Israel Defense Forces before it took place. Whole team effort w/ @sgreports @AlexHortonTX @mmkelly22 @smekhennet @DanLamothe @liorsoroka @nakashimae @iduncan @osviz_jarrett @samueloakford @lizzadwoskin

(thread) The attack has raised questions about whether the military's use of AI to identify and process thousands of targets had a role

From the video and satellite images, the damage looks most like "(2) misidentification" to me, but an investigation is necessary.

There is basically zero chance the @iaeaorg goes commando, as it were. (10x the IAEA-UNCSOM tension in post-1991 Iraq. Disaster.) More likely is an Iraq Survey Group-like arrangement, which maybe includes some friendly former IAEA inspectors and consultants.

The secretary here uses a cliche that generals and politicians have been using for the entire 18 years I've been covering the military. It's usually followed by another one: "The enemy gets a vote," meaning an overmatched adversary will still sometimes impose fatal costs.

This post, with nearly a million views, is in no way based in fact. The "Doomsday" plane has an eye-grabbing name, but does not carry heavy ordnance. It carries the secretary of defense. Wading through X these days is an insanely dense minefield.

Career diplos stunned by the response. Jeff Feltman, the US ambo during the massive Lebanon evac in 2006, said the State Dept should have begun to “build a tempo of warnings” to Americans weeks ago. "I find it absolutely irresponsible that Trump was talking about the possibility of war for the past several weeks without publicly starting to raise concerns about the number of US citizens who could end up being trapped in the region."

This is a bullshit explanation because ⦿ Israel would not have attacked without a green light from Trump ⦿ Trump ordered the massive American build-up weeks ago, preparing for war Trump wants to take credit if the regime falls in Tehran, and put the blame on Israel otherwise

FLASHBACK — CHARLIE KIRK: “We are just gonna take out the ayatollah? Oh really? What comes next?”

A minority of Americans want a regime change war in Iran, but 100% of CBS's top-billed experts do.