From cwfresidence@gmail.com Wed Sep 30 05:18:25 2026 Return-Path: X-Original-To: salon@mlm2.listserve.net Delivered-To: salon@mlm2.listserve.net Received: from mlm0.listserve.net (mlm0.listserve.net [161.35.233.68]) by mlm2.listserve.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8335AB0851 for ; Wed, 30 Sep 2026 05:18:25 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Filter: OpenDKIM Filter v2.11.0 mlm2.listserve.net 8335AB0851 Authentication-Results: mlm2.listserve.net; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=gmail.com header.i=@gmail.com header.b="RTevgMX9" Received: by mlm0.listserve.net (Postfix) id 679AABD060; Wed, 30 Sep 2026 05:18:25 -0700 (PDT) Delivered-To: salon@listserve.com Received: from mail-dl2-f33.google.com (mail-dl2-f33.google.com [74.125.229.161]) by mlm0.listserve.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 6516ABD05F for ; Wed, 30 Sep 2026 05:18:25 -0700 (PDT) Received: by mail-dl2-f33.google.com with SMTP id a92af1059eb24-1438e88300cso5166236c88.0 for ; Wed, 30 Sep 2026 05:18:25 -0700 (PDT) ARC-Seal: i=1; a=rsa-sha256; t=1790770705; cv=none; d=google.com; s=arc-20260327; b=EhlH00aYcJKsBPGUqxQhlZ2zfNxKtCRCV5h9zCVMsWSboL2aWKRg2DuVqPcOYR3uaf 8sSzm/pdfFyDpO4RVj/zeMrQ9GCmnF+toqC6EVGw13gC93dE/dBQPXxUSd1rZcKOIaXE tRXNdCIxZ3cnqZ1ErUhSxm7w4OPQwXhCC0MVjQFLjkimlV885XWiYjzOqrg0pNWWvzYy +ROwmd7qC0CfzGGwqxWtAZG2i6Xs2ukbNUOmMlruE+W0QZMWU+Nqhm/aC7r4qD/+pBr2 rqplS/k8ncyLx/Y64uha9+Zlqi18uCsBsReyEkPTxaFKRwMbyy8JIWVcggStYTSFjXkb +FcQ== ARC-Message-Signature: i=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=google.com; s=arc-20260327; h=to:subject:message-id:date:from:in-reply-to:references:mime-version :dkim-signature; bh=2VXL6cTKl2jnIRHOZHdDkvvz8RVGMgKAad6OQbQ7WOM=; fh=wPGf20UGQxVPQrvS2v8tjKowEPMRawCAkzSjcxz5/HM=; b=FPYtve3s+ONKBs2TGAdIDstilTYZ/hEKmROhmlE8iWETueJmJgWDFcX56jKil3cB5p lGkHk+ZhVWZeG2+zwJ8nM/csJSReB3T+ne11w1lnnRGpLLILN4E1xP8yRFXlHefh4rtf iA4pQ4syPMISeTdXOnOUmXufQORqW/VX0x73i3GMdVN1ulHxXYRtm+MQm88O4VEaKW25 Hd31OcLdKS/ZPjL9DZcwqsiKVE2/Sl2ELOijH0IoET07jnFS70odqXrtRfnbUb3R6bPI Xi23lhPgWe4WMZgtF2jTed/yR5uLD/bK0aUkLe/EntohWQM3cOJiDykYf+dxnlAf71lv z5dQ==; darn=listserve.com ARC-Authentication-Results: i=1; mx.google.com; arc=none DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20251104; t=1790770705; x=1791375505; darn=listserve.com; h=content-type:to:subject:message-id:date:from:in-reply-to:references :mime-version:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id:reply-to :content-type; bh=2VXL6cTKl2jnIRHOZHdDkvvz8RVGMgKAad6OQbQ7WOM=; b=RTevgMX9EBd6Uk+CwJdZLdX8hr+MD47ihTLOVIaOT5CW/HRIMxqJgCcDRWtxL2jisz Pl+Rpf4DZMZBa9E/ljpLM1A6ChAwPpafmMvVKKsStctUe8ATr06L7sb3VHdrLmGmmI0g 3QpfHzFWQDCW3mT22XiqAAcNHeSOhuZARWb/RLjEjyAobO+mRDPko/6D+byk49meHWYj fcEeiSPS2aK0Y4W85HB/QySC4e8uClF+ItTgUVaiiS3ym+wtuRp+qnTskfM/iiE2glJD 5uRVMGgSHeS3GvpzO/oJX+yXxd8hYDpcMU7QC5gsz+tCPGGDrhkuaTvDlRt65wQ0jLL4 jlFA== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20260707; t=1790770705; x=1791375505; h=content-type:to:subject:message-id:date:from:in-reply-to:references :mime-version:x-gm-gg:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc:subject:date :message-id:reply-to:content-type; bh=2VXL6cTKl2jnIRHOZHdDkvvz8RVGMgKAad6OQbQ7WOM=; b=zKuXvkH8nbRvHXgyuhyViyFU0fQOITJzjh7l0AcuXQ5ol6bGFXD2iuXGyphveXV9jZ cQKwjVDmVCsf7sM9ru/8ukxg4IUqVBopQ6zxLK0GeJgaeiEJpeHdIRrT90OOk3Cg2Nfq BWOFOCA51D31YS4aV34aVfPwwSXYB/IkaWXpkcN1cg51ObeT2zlobkxwItoT8e3ZBDPa aF7k13oK5z2x8ygvIhr0ZGvwVFkgzJpnvlgDzWYfbNTOVZ62m9tz1Q4XdJB1Or+w6oAy 8akowa6ETXp4d47RqyK8412uRmAwBxbfQjlqlSlHNPIwgnow5bENLUSlMSu8l6HInIbS 8oFA== X-Gm-Message-State: AFuF++nEGhggw8tTGUgE3nppZFhCMLgv1/gRFswyQoPWnPVCHvmHY8vP 7uRnI0SOSWwc8V3guBZEURYOTeQKnxCU5XgvE/97dmrr0LZ3gSqsU8bEe/4XcjgsVdNoDGiywH1 Rm8PHAwxP0auqMnP7c92WdGP4pWcOs/TODTmI X-Gm-Gg: AYBFou092fC6v+55NWFFpr8qD4R9koY91CC/N4EW1V7OjmyXxZtTb4hffGaKkLLGZIG CWdiZQOgDK2SA5LNyaDQhnwzJEU6EnozjaFoL851LxCOiHvJz6Gt6FSrDQ7VRmuglrSGIicD6t2 MuJSK55WJiCaeNQhohlekgf1/etBLQqItgCFKv8A0CBMG4K85UBq4hrNptVY4JnPAmiZtrb5bCy +SrAtBnxplaOfk7W+nyqCHBBNQSBcDaS94RfJA0jjw5JO4MMiLQ16/G7GNEqM5rHyPpi3Ar/9pk FdPI1rs0sp1r4tWPnnhMyyWI5p++2Zt2S6HAzAr2fHcmjlYu+OIqMb+oZE9EovTfob7G9rgkzcQ qG/um0OSwGe61j97Gkbi35emAeQ1aH1CW490XWm3DkWgzBnkmKzn33izBD0sN3VCu5YL4UcVeVp 4a0qrNr+piCywMiWKAtki6dSQXlxR1OAqZONNdeUOjMK5ARjFr1vzbzHHdEUPjDtBEOeWOB9UTK uVw0UBaAIWImW2Nc0qi5wdyczo6YbDJMYQR8cyi+isbC7Vg60AzxVNYpEa4fbPnPuXOYo5+XTdl HxejdPWhDqxAV+tIqe+drL0jgcpUqQ== X-Received: by 2002:a05:701b:21d3:20b0:143:3c9f:109e with SMTP id a92af1059eb24-14d3566e0e6mr1092108c88.41.1790770704654; Wed, 30 Sep 2026 05:18:24 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <6D17476E-C0F1-42BD-BA0C-2FCAFAA3E6F3@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <6D17476E-C0F1-42BD-BA0C-2FCAFAA3E6F3@gmail.com> From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 08:18:08 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK8yY80mCsjacC5HJnk30KwwPSCa-ohuyiveJ2yn6zlTAY4L_FqJFxA2vuI Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000b9a6ec065cb24b6c" Subject: [Salon] Indians can't enter these cafes in their own country because Israelis have banned them. X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 12:18:25 -0000 --000000000000b9a6ec065cb24b6c Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Indians can't enter these cafes in their own country because Israelis have banned them. https://x.com/ajplus/status/2104918973385167136?s=20 --000000000000b9a6ec065cb24b6c Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Indians can't enter t= hese cafes in their own country because Israelis have banned them.
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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 06:23:33 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:23:16 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK_rIJS7dSpPQCd8WbPNXf6mHrRZ2CgyujAb8Tp1f8le6UvyEH5scB139nI Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000b684a9065cb33475" Subject: [Salon] Bennett warns Israeli army faces risk of collapse over recruitment crisis X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 13:23:34 -0000 --000000000000b684a9065cb33475 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable *https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260930-bennett-warns-israeli-army-face= s-risk-of-collapse-over-recruitment-crisis/ * *9/30/26* *Bennett warns Israeli army faces risk of collapse over recruitment crisis* [image: Ex-Israel PM Naftali Bennett. [MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images]= ] *Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned on Tuesday that the Israeli army faces a =E2=80=9Crisk of collapse=E2=80=9D because of a severe= shortage of soldiers, blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu=E2=80=99s government fo= r the ongoing recruitment crisis, particularly amid growing tensions over the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews.* *Bennett, leader of the opposition Together alliance, told Israel=E2=80=99s= Channel 12 that he was issuing a =E2=80=9Cserious strategic security warning=E2=80= =9D, saying the army does not have enough soldiers to deal with all the threats cited by the government.* *READ: Former Israeli diplomat warns country could face apartheid-era South Africa-style isolation * *He said prolonged rounds of fighting were exhausting soldiers and damaging their operational readiness, adding that the shortage of troops sometimes forces the army to withdraw from positions it had previously taken because it cannot provide enough soldiers to hold them.* *Bennett criticised what he described as the government=E2=80=99s support f= or =E2=80=9Cavoiding military service=E2=80=9D, saying anyone who votes for th= e coalition backing this approach was =E2=80=9Cdirectly voting against Israeli army sol= diers=E2=80=9D.* * =E2=80=9CNetanyahu is now warning that Israel=E2=80=99s enemies are plann= ing to attack, but as long as he continues to encourage mass evasion of military service and contributes to the collapse of the Israeli army, who exactly will fight them?=E2=80=9D he said.* *READ: Israeli opposition party leader says state=E2=80=99s global standing= at all-time low, warns of economic collapse * --000000000000b684a9065cb33475 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260930-bennett-war= ns-israeli-army-faces-risk-of-collapse-over-recruitment-crisis/

9/30/26<= /div>

Bennett warns Israeli army faces r= isk of collapse over recruitment crisis

3D"Ex-Israel

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned on Tuesday that = the Israeli army faces a =E2=80=9Crisk of collapse=E2=80=9D because of a se= vere shortage of soldiers, blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu=E2=80= =99s government for the ongoing recruitment crisis, particularly amid growi= ng tensions over the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Bennett, leader of the opposition Together alliance, = told Israel=E2=80=99s=C2=A0= Channel 12=C2=A0that he was issuing a =E2=80=9Cserious strategic= security warning=E2=80=9D, saying the army does not have enough soldiers t= o deal with all the threats cited by the government.

READ:=C2=A0Former Israeli diplomat warns count= ry could face apartheid-era South Africa-style isolation

He said prolonged rounds of fighting were exhausti= ng soldiers and damaging their operational readiness, adding that the short= age of troops sometimes forces the army to withdraw from positions it had p= reviously taken because it cannot provide enough soldiers to hold them.=

Bennett criticised what he described = as the government=E2=80=99s support for =E2=80=9Cavoiding military service= =E2=80=9D, saying anyone who votes for the coalition backing this approach = was =E2=80=9Cdirectly voting against Israeli army soldiers=E2=80=9D.

=C2=A0=E2=80=9CNetanyahu is now warning = that Israel=E2=80=99s enemies are planning to attack, but as long as he con= tinues to encourage mass evasion of military service and contributes to the= collapse of the Israeli army, who exactly will fight them?=E2=80=9D he sai= d.

READ:=C2=A0I= sraeli opposition party leader says state=E2=80=99s global standing at all-= time low, warns of economic collapse

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Then its finances collapsed. X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 13:28:14 -0000 --00000000000060e8e8065cb34556 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable The Kennedy Center was solvent when Trump took over. Then its finances collapsed. The Post examined 15 years of the institution=E2=80=99s financial records t= o see why it went south after the president took over. https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/09/30/kennedy-center-was-solvent-= when-trump-took-over-then-its-finances-collapsed/?linkNumber=3D1&utm_conten= t=3D&utm_term=3D $500 million Includes $257 million from Congress for building renovation Government grants Includes $25 million from federal stimulus package $250m Gifts, grants Ticket sales, other revenue 0 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023 2025 Income by source Note: Excludes investment income and other revenue such as parking and restaurants. Showing fiscal years ending in late September. Source: 990 forms via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (2011-2024) and the Kennedy Center (2025) By Federica Cocco and Naema Ahmed In the 19 months since President Donald Trump took over the Kennedy Center, the institution has borrowed everything its bank would lend it, dipped into money donors had given on the condition it never be spent and written off pledges from supporters who stopped paying, according to confidential board documents and tax filings reviewed by The Washington Post. Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI. Trump said the center was =E2=80=9Closing hundreds of millions of dollars= =E2=80=9D when he took over, and his board has warned of =E2=80=9Cbankruptcy.=E2=80=9D It is true that when Trump took over, the center was in worse shape than it was in 2021, when it was flush with pandemic relief funds. But the old leadership handed over an institution that was better off financially than in most years before covid-19. Cash and =E2=80=9Crainy day fund=E2=80=9D dwindle Sustainability funds $21m 59m 53m Cash $41m 29m 11m 25m 24m 21m 19m 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Note: Cash is money in the bank at the end of each fiscal year, excluding $9 million held as collateral for a loan. The sustainability funds are a reserve the board can spend at its discretion. Fiscal years end in late September. Source: Kennedy Center audited financial statements, FY21 to FY24 =E2=80=9CThis was a pretty stable =E2=80=94 large, complicated, but stable = =E2=80=94 organization,=E2=80=9D said Karen Gahl-Mills, an expert in arts management and director of the Indiana University arts administration program. =E2=80=9CIt had a hard time= during the pandemic, lots of people did. And it was pretty stable at September 30, 2024.=E2=80=9D Ticket income never covered costs at the center, and the gap was filled by donors. Federal appropriations, about $45 million a year, were =E2=80=9Crea= lly just to fund the maintenance of the memorial, which is the building itself,=E2= =80=9D said Andrew Taylor, who directs the arts management program at American University. =E2=80=9CNonprofit performing arts centers do not make positive revenue on = earned income. That=E2=80=99s why they=E2=80=99re nonprofits,=E2=80=9D Taylor said= . What sets the Kennedy Center apart is the building: =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s a= memorial, and it=E2=80=99s a federal building, but it also behaves like a nonprofit.=E2= =80=9D Cash in the bank at the end of the year $58.9m $52.9m $50 million Extra cash from pandemic relief and fewer events held $40.5m $28.7m $25.2m $25m $21.1m $20.7m $17.5m $12.6m $9.5m 0 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 Note: Showing fiscal years ending in late September Source: Kennedy Center tax audits via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer How the dam burst After the takeover, both donors and audiences walked away. Ticket income fell by 15 percent in the financial year that ended in September 2025, and gifts dropped by nearly a quarter. The center expects ticket income to fall by more than two-thirds this year, and gifts in the first four months of 2026 were down about 40 percent on the previous quarter, according to an internal report from June. Tickets and gifts were =E2=80=9Cthe beating heart of the institution,=E2=80= =9D Taylor said. =E2=80=9CMost of the fuel that made that organization work stopped flowing = starting in about February =E2=80=9925.=E2=80=9D Ticket sales and gifts decline Credit line drawn Credit line drawn: 0 April $15m June $21m Credit line drawn: 0 Gifts, grants excl. federal $127m Tickets, program income $105m 98m 89m 64m 28m Operating deficit =E2=80=93$1m 2024 =E2=80=9316m 2025 2026 =E2=80=9323m Note: Showing fiscal years ending in late September, credit line figures are from April 2026 and June 2026 Source: Confidential Kennedy Center board documents, 990 forms via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (2011-2024) and the Kennedy Center (2025) He blamed the new leadership=E2=80=99s decisions for the loss of donors and audiences: =E2=80=9CThe burst happened up the pipe. The water stopped flowi= ng into the organization because of the choices the administration was making.=E2= =80=9D Most of the people whose job it was to bring money in have left the center. Richard Grenell, then the center=E2=80=99s president, told the board in Mar= ch that the development staff had been cut from 94 to 16. The center has also written off $48 million, according to its latest tax filing, and most of it appears related to pledges it no longer expects to collect. Gahl-Mills said the figures, taken together, were =E2=80=9Ca sign of someth= ing going wrong.=E2=80=9D The center was =E2=80=9Cless stable at September 30, = 2025, and it seems that it is in free fall now,=E2=80=9D she said. =E2=80=9CThis is unus= ual, that this organization has gone this far south, this fast. It=E2=80=99s not the thing= we typically see. It is an organization clearly in distress.=E2=80=9D Scraping for cash The center had long kept a $10 million line of credit that it sometimes dipped into during the year and paid back by year end, according to its audits. In September 2025 it doubled the line to $21 million and has since borrowed against all of it, according to an internal June report. =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s really hard to slow down expenses. You have to pay th= em. In order to pay your payroll, we have to start borrowing,=E2=80=9D Taylor said. With th= e government covering the building but not the shows, =E2=80=9Cthey need to k= eep borrowing and keep firing people.=E2=80=9D The center has also been draining its debt reserve, which fell from $18 million last September to $13 million in June and was projected to hit $9 million by this week, the end of the fiscal year. About $9 million of the reserve is collateral for the loan on the Reach =E2=80=94 the center=E2=80= =99s expansion that opened in 2019 =E2=80=94 so the money it can actually spend is nearly = gone. It also dipped into the endowment for the Washington National Opera, a pot of donated money that is usually meant to go untouched. Charities generally only use the returns from its investment. In normal years the Kennedy Center took a payout equal to about 5 percent of its endowment=E2=80=99s value, but by June this year, it had taken $10 m= illion out of a $10.3 million endowment fund, describing it as an extra payout to cover opera bills. On its part, the center counts the $10 million against the roughly $71 million it says the opera owes it. Conversely, the opera says the center owes it $19 million. The opera has since left, and the two sides are fighting over who owes whom. By this month, the center =E2=80=9Cwas only able to pay its bills thanks to= 17 million dollars raised by President Trump,=E2=80=9D the Justice Department = told an appeals court on Monday, and that money =E2=80=9Cis fast being expended.=E2= =80=9D The figure appears to refer to the Trump Kennedy Center Foundation, a charity rebranded after the takeover: internal documents put the foundation=E2=80=99s takings at $17.5 million but don=E2=80=99t disclose th= e donors. The documents don=E2=80=99t show the fullest possible picture of the center= =E2=80=99s finances; that comes from its audited financial reports. The center has not published 2025 audited accounts, which would have usually come by around March. Gahl-Mills said the trustees have a duty to oversee both the audit and the tax filings. =E2=80=9CWhere is the board?=E2=80=9D Gahl-Mills asked, adding that the cen= ter was established as America=E2=80=99s National Cultural Center . =E2=80=9CThis is a place that belongs to all of us, not a place that belong= s to one person.=E2=80=9D The Kennedy Center declined to answer questions about the figures in this article. *Jonathan Edwards contributed to this report.* ------------------------------ What readers are saying The comments overwhelmingly criticize Donald Trump, accusing him of mismanagement and destruction of the Kennedy Center, likening it to his past business failures. Many commenters express frustration over his involvement, suggesting that his leadership led to financial collapse... Sh= ow more This summary is AI-generated. AI can make mistakes and this summary is not a replacement for reading the comments. --00000000000060e8e8065cb34556 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

The Kennedy Center was solve= nt when Trump took over. Then its finances collapsed.

The Post examined 15 years of the institution=E2=80=99s financial = records to see why it went south after the president took over.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/09/30/kennedy-cente= r-was-solvent-when-trump-took-over-then-its-finances-collapsed/?linkNumber= =3D1&utm_content=3D&utm_term=3D

3D""

$500 million

Includes $257 million from

Congress for building renovation

Government

grants

<= div id=3D"gmail-g-ai2-4" class=3D"gmail-g-content gmail-g-aiAbs gmail-g-aiP= ointText" style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;width:180px">

Includes $25 million from

federal stimulus package

$250m

Gifts, grants

=

Ticket sales,<= /p>

other

revenue

0

2011

2013

2015

2017

= 2019

2021

2023

2025

Income by source

Note: Excludes inves= tment income and other revenue such as parking and restaurants. Showing fis= cal years ending in late September.

Source:= 990 forms via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (2011-2024) and the Kennedy Ce= nter (2025)

=
=
By Federica Cocco
and=C2=A0

In the 19 months since President Donald Trump took over = the Kennedy Center, the institution has borrowed everything its bank would = lend it, dipped into money donors had given on the condition it never be sp= ent and written off pledges from supporters who stopped paying, according t= o confidential board documents and tax filings reviewed by The Washington P= ost.

3D""Get concise answers to your questions. Try = Ask The Post AI.
=

Trump said t= he center was =E2=80=9Closing hundreds of millions of dollars=E2=80=9D when= he took over, and his board has warned of =E2=80=9Cbankruptcy.=E2=80=9D

It is true that w= hen Trump took over, the center was in worse shape than it was in 2021, whe= n it was flush with pandemic relief funds. But the old leadership handed ov= er an institution that was better off financially than in most years before= covid-19.

3D""

Cash a= nd =E2=80=9Crainy day fund=E2=80=9D dwindle

Sustainability<= /p>

funds

$21m

59m

53m

<= div id=3D"gmail-g-ai2-5" class=3D"gmail-g-content gmail-g-aiAbs gmail-g-aiP= ointText" style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;width:63px">

Cash

29m

1= 1m

25= m

24= m

21= m

19= m

2020

2021

20= 22

2023

2024

Note: Cash is money in the bank at the end of each fiscal year, = excluding $9 million held as collateral for a loan. The sustainability fund= s are a reserve the board can spend at its discretion. Fiscal years end in = late September.

Source: Kennedy Center audited financial statements, FY21 to F= Y24

=E2=80=9CThis = was a pretty stable =E2=80=94 large, complicated, but stable =E2=80=94 orga= nization,=E2=80=9D said Karen Gahl-Mills, an expert in arts management and = director of the Indiana University arts administration program. =E2=80=9CIt= had a hard time during the pandemic, lots of people did. And it was pretty= stable at September 30, 2024.=E2=80=9D

Ticket income never = covered costs at the center, and the gap was filled by donors. Federal appr= opriations, about $45 million a year, were =E2=80=9Creally just to fund the= maintenance of the memorial, which is the building itself,=E2=80=9D said A= ndrew Taylor, who directs the arts management program at American Universit= y.

=E2=80=9CNonprofit performing arts centers do not make= positive revenue on earned income. That=E2=80=99s why they=E2=80=99re nonp= rofits,=E2=80=9D Taylor said.

What sets the Kennedy Center apart is the building: =E2=80= =9CIt=E2=80=99s a memorial, and it=E2=80=99s a federal building, but it als= o behaves like a nonprofit.=E2=80=9D

3D""

Cash in the bank at the end of the year

$58.9m

$52.9m

$50 million

Extra cash from pandemic relief

and fewer events held

$40.5m

$28.7m

$25.2m

$21.1m

$20.7m

$17= .5m

$12.6m

$9.5m

0

2016

2018

2020

= 2022

2024

Note: Showing fiscal years ending in late September<= /p>

So= urce: Kennedy Center tax audits via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer

=

How the dam burst

<= p class=3D"gmail-wpds-c-heFNVF gmail-wpds-c-heFNVF-iPJLV-css gmail-override= Styles gmail-font-copy" dir=3D"null" style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin:= 0px;font-family:georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;padding-bottom:24= px;line-height:1.6;font-size:1.25rem">After the takeover, both donors and a= udiences walked away. Ticket income fell by 15 percent in the financial yea= r that ended in September 2025, and gifts dropped by nearly a quarter. The = center expects ticket income to fall by more than two-thirds this year, and= gifts in the first four months of 2026 were down about 40 percent on the p= revious quarter, according to an internal report from June.

Tickets and gifts were =E2=80=9Cthe beating heart of th= e institution,=E2=80=9D Taylor said. =E2=80=9CMost of the fuel that made th= at organization work stopped flowing starting in about February =E2=80=9925= .=E2=80=9D

3D""

Ticket sales and gifts decline

Credit line dr= awn

Credit line drawn: <= p class=3D"gmail-g-pstyle2" style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;font-= family:Franklin,FranklinITCStdLight,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:= 20px;opacity:1;letter-spacing:0em;font-size:16px;color:rgb(166,166,166);pad= ding-bottom:0px;padding-top:0px;mix-blend-mode:normal;height:20px;white-spa= ce:nowrap">April

$15m

June

$21m

Credit line drawn:= 0

Gifts, grants=

excl. federal

$127m

Tickets,

program inc= ome

$105m

98m

89m

64m

28m

Operating deficit

=E2=80=93$1m

2024

=E2=80=9316m

2025

2026

=E2=80=9323m

=

Note: Showing fiscal years ending in late Se= ptember, credit line figures are from April 2026 and June 2026

Source: Confidential Kennedy Center board documents, 9= 90 forms via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (2011-2024) and the Kennedy Cent= er (2025)

He blamed the new leadership=E2=80=99s= decisions for the loss of donors and audiences: =E2=80=9CThe burst happene= d up the pipe. The water stopped flowing into the organization because of t= he choices the administration was making.=E2=80=9D

Most of the people whose job it was to = bring money in have left the center. Richard Grenell, then the center=E2=80= =99s president, told the board in March that the development staff had been= cut from 94 to 16. The center has also written off $48 million, according = to its latest tax filing, and most of it appears related to pledges it no l= onger expects to collect.

Gahl-Mills said the figures, ta= ken together, were =E2=80=9Ca sign of something going wrong.=E2=80=9D The c= enter was =E2=80=9Cless stable at September 30, 2025, and it seems that it = is in free fall now,=E2=80=9D she said. =E2=80=9CThis is unusual, that this= organization has gone this far south, this fast. It=E2=80=99s not the thin= g we typically see. It is an organization clearly in distress.=E2=80=9D

=

Sc= raping for cash

=E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s really= hard to slow down expenses. You have to pay them. In order to pay your pay= roll, we have to start borrowing,=E2=80=9D Taylor said. With the government= covering the building but not the shows, =E2=80=9Cthey need to keep borrow= ing and keep firing people.=E2=80=9D

<= p class=3D"gmail-wpds-c-heFNVF gmail-wpds-c-heFNVF-iPJLV-css gmail-override= Styles gmail-font-copy" dir=3D"null" style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin:= 0px;font-family:georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;padding-bottom:24= px;line-height:1.6;font-size:1.25rem">The center has also been draining its= debt reserve, which fell from $18 million last September to $13 million in= June and was projected to hit $9 million by this week, the end of the fisc= al year. About $9 million of the reserve is collateral for the loan on the = Reach =E2=80=94 the center=E2=80=99s expansion that opened in 2019 =E2=80= =94 so the money it can actually spend is nearly gone.

It also dipped in= to the endowment for the Washington National Opera, a pot of donated money = that is usually meant to go untouched. Charities generally only use the ret= urns from its investment.

In normal years the Kennedy Center took a payout equal to about = 5 percent of its endowment=E2=80=99s value, but by June this year, it had t= aken $10 million out of a $10.3 million endowment fund, describing it as an= extra payout to cover opera bills.

On its pa= rt, the center counts the $10 million against the roughly $71 million it sa= ys the opera owes it. Conversely, the opera says the center owes it $19 mil= lion. The opera has since left, and the two sides are fighting over who owe= s whom.

= By this month, the center =E2=80=9Cwas only able to pay its bills thanks to= 17 million dollars raised by President Trump,=E2=80=9D the Justice Departm= ent told an appeals court on Monday, and that money =E2=80=9Cis fast being = expended.=E2=80=9D

=

The figure appears to re= fer to the Trump Kennedy Center Foundation, a charity rebranded after the t= akeover: internal documents put the foundation=E2=80=99s takings at $17.5 m= illion but don=E2=80=99t disclose the donors.

The documents don=E2=80=99t show the fullest= possible picture of the center=E2=80=99s finances; that comes from its aud= ited financial reports. The center has not published 2025 audited accounts,= which would have usually come by around March. Gahl-Mills said the trustee= s have a duty to oversee both the audit and the tax filings.

=E2=80=9CWhere is the board?= =E2=80=9D Gahl-Mills asked, adding that the center was established as Ameri= ca=E2=80=99s National Cultural Center. =E2= =80=9CThis is a place that belongs to all of us, not a place that belongs t= o one person.=E2=80=9D

The Kennedy Center declined to answer questions about the figures i= n this article.

Jonathan Edwards contributed to this re= port.

What readers are= saying

The comments overwhelmingly criticize Donald Trump, accusing him of misma= nagement and destruction of the Kennedy Center, likening it to his past bus= iness failures. Many commenters express frustration over his involvement, s= uggesting that his leadership led to financial collapse... Show more<= /div>This summary is AI-generated. AI= can make mistakes and this summary is not a replacement for reading the co= mments.
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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 06:33:56 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:33:39 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK_d4PNRMnuvbZ0PR-w-qbl7BNnmAJbv2xHbihHjuGk2qnHpvBEhoLJlSVk Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000d90242065cb359d7" Subject: [Salon] The Outer Space Treaty and the Race for Space Control X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 13:33:57 -0000 --000000000000d90242065cb359d7 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable [image: Geopolitical Futures] September 30, 2026 View On Website Open as PDF The Outer Space Treaty and the Race for Space Control The rules governing space were not designed for an age when satellites have become military targets themselves.By: Andrew Davidson In September, the United States publicly acknowledged for the first time that it operates weapons in orbit. The announcement confirmed how far the military competition in space had already progressed. Beijing and Moscow criticized the U.S. announcement, but both are developing systems that can threaten an opponent=E2=80=99s satellites while protecting their own access= to space. China has demonstrated close approaches and robotic servicing, while Russia has jammed satellite signals and tested ground-based anti-satellite weapons. Possessing these capabilities does not necessarily violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bars weapons of mass destruction from orbit but does not broadly prohibit conventional counterspace systems. However, much has changed in the past six decades, especially the depth of military reliance on satellites. Satellites now support communications, navigation, targeting and command in conventional war while remaining part of missile-warning and nuclear-communications systems. An attack intended to disrupt conventional satellite operations could reduce warning times or be interpreted as the opening of a disarming nuclear strike. This dependence is accelerating a race to disrupt rival space services while keeping one=E2=80=99s own operat= ing. The treaty could remain intact even as competition weakens strategic stability. *The Treaty=E2=80=99s Original Logic* The Outer Space Treaty did not demilitarize space. When it entered into force, the United States and the Soviet Union already used satellites for reconnaissance and communications, and space-based warning systems were under development. The treaty kept space open to all states, barred national claims of sovereignty, and prohibited nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in orbit. It did not expressly prohibit conventional weapons, military satellites or most counterspace capabilities. This arrangement served both powers. Satellites could pass over rival territory without violating national airspace, making military forces and preparations harder to conceal. That visibility reduced the risk of surprise and helped Washington and Moscow verify arms control agreements. The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the subsequent Strategic Arms Reduction treaties added a specific protection. Each side could use national technical means, including satellites, to monitor compliance. The agreements prohibited either side from interfering with those systems. These rules covered treaty verification, not military satellites generally, and were separate from the Outer Space Treaty. New START expired in February 2026 without a replacement, ending that treaty=E2=80=99s explicit noninterference rule. China was never part of that U.S.-Russian arrangement= . The treaty preserved access to space and satellite overflight, which supported observation, warning and arms control verification. It is less suited to an era in which satellites enable conventional warfare and have become military targets themselves. *Dependence, Vulnerability and Nuclear Entanglement* The greatest strategic danger concerns satellites used for missile warning and nuclear command. Infrared satellites can provide the first indication of a missile launch by detecting the heat from a missile=E2=80=99s engines.= Ground radars then help confirm the attack and refine its trajectory. Protected satellite communications also connect leaders with nuclear forces. Some satellites, ground stations and communications networks support both conventional and nuclear missions. This overlap makes an attack difficult to interpret. In a conflict over Taiwan, China might disrupt U.S. missile warning satellites to reduce warning of its conventional missile strikes. But Washington could interpret the same attack as an attempt to weaken its nuclear warning before a nuclear strike. During the Cold War, space-based early warning gave American and Soviet leaders more time to identify the source and scale of an attack and issue orders. Survivable nuclear forces gave each side a second-strike capability, enabling them to retaliate after absorbing a first strike. Early warning did not create that capability, but it helped leaders direct surviving forces. The consequences of an attack also depend on where a satellite operates and how easily it can be replaced. A geostationary satellite orbits above the equator at the same rate the Earth rotates, enabling it to remain over the same region and provide continuous coverage. That fixed position makes its location predictable. Military warning satellites in geostationary orbit are relatively few, expensive and difficult to replace quickly. Satellites in low Earth orbit move rapidly over the surface, so continuous coverage requires large constellations and an extensive ground network. If a satellite were forced into repeated evasive maneuvers =E2=80=93 to avoid an incoming attack, for example =E2=80=93 it would consume its limited supply = of propellant needed for station-keeping and shorten its operational life. And missiles are not the only physical threat; for example, spacecraft designed to inspect, repair or refuel another satellite could use the same technology to interfere with an enemy=E2=80=99s satellites. A kinetic attack can also create debris that threatens the attacker=E2=80= =99s own systems. Repeated destruction in crowded low Earth orbit could contribute to the Kessler effect, a cascade of collisions producing more debris. This risk favors nonkinetic counterspace weapons, including jamming, cyberattacks and sensor dazzling, which can disrupt services without creating debris. The important point is that counterspace weapons do not need to destroy an opponent=E2=80=99s nuclear forces to affect the strategic balance. By reduc= ing decision time and disrupting the orders needed to use surviving forces, attacks on warning and command systems can increase the risk of miscalculation and escalation. *Competing Approaches to Space Control* The U.S., China and Russia face the same need to protect, disrupt and restore space services, but they have different resources to do so. The U.S. has built much of its way of war around space support, giving it a strong incentive to develop the necessary capabilities to defend its satellites and quickly recover from attacks. It is distributing warning, communications and tracking functions across larger constellations, fielding on-orbit weapons and drawing on commercial launch and satellite production. SpaceX demonstrated its launch cadence in September 2026, when Falcon 9 rockets carried three classified Space Force missions from Vandenberg Space Force Base within 16 days. Commercial networks provide additional communications and imagery, while allied sensors and ground stations expand tracking and geographic coverage. Much of this capacity remains concentrated in a limited number of companies, launch vehicles and launch sites. Launch capacity matters only if replacement spacecraft and payloads are ready before they are needed. In addition to protecting its own growing dependence on satellites, China must prepare to disrupt U.S. space support in the event of a regional war. It is expanding its reconnaissance, communications and warning constellations while demonstrating close approaches, coordinated maneuvers, robotic servicing and the relocation of another spacecraft. The U.S. assesses that China likely conducted an on-orbit refueling demonstration in 2025, which could allow satellites to maneuver more often and remain useful longer. Beijing is also expanding a state-directed commercial launch industry to increase production and launch frequency. China lacks the global network of commercial providers and allies available to the U.S., but its industrial base gives it the ability to narrow that gap. Russia faces stronger industrial constraints. Its smaller commercial and production base makes competing constellation for constellation more difficult. Moscow instead emphasizes jamming, spoofing, cyberattacks, direct-ascent anti-satellite weapons and spacecraft that can shadow foreign satellites. Russian jamming of satellite signals in Ukraine has shown how services can be disrupted without destroying spacecraft. The same limitations leave Russia less able to replace its own losses during a prolonged conflict. *Strategic Implications and Forecast* The Outer Space Treaty will probably survive because it still serves the major powers without seriously restricting the conventional systems they want. Withdrawal from the treaty would carry diplomatic costs while providing little military benefit. Additionally, the U.S. assesses that Russia is developing an orbital nuclear anti-satellite weapon. Deploying a nuclear weapon in orbit would violate the treaty=E2=80=99s central prohibit= ion. Most competition will intensify below the treaty=E2=80=99s limits. States w= ill favor temporary or reversible interference over physical destruction. They will also distribute critical functions across larger constellations, protect sensitive spacecraft and prepare to restore lost services. Each effort to improve resilience will encourage opponents to expand their ability to disrupt it. Concern over attacks on nuclear warning and command systems could push states toward limited agreements but probably not a new treaty. Such agreements could require notification before close approaches, agreed minimum distances from sensitive spacecraft or noninterference with missile warning and nuclear command systems. Broader protections will remain difficult because many of these systems also support commercial and conventional missions. The clearest signs that the competition is deepening would be formal warnings that attacks on certain satellites could trigger retaliation, dedicated escort satellites and exercises demonstrating the replacement of lost warning capabilities. A confirmed attack that physically damaged another state=E2=80=99s satellite would mark a more serious escalation. Competition within the treaty=E2=80=99s limits will place growing pressure = on the strategic stability that satellite warning and observation helped create. --000000000000d90242065cb359d7 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
3D"G=

September 30, 2026

View On Website
Open as PDF

=C2=A0

T= he Outer Space Treaty and the Race for Space Control

The rules governing space were not designed for an age when = satellites have become military targets themselves.

By: Andrew Dav= idson

In September, the United States publicly acknowledged for the first = time that it operates weapons in orbit. The announcement confirmed how far = the military competition in space had already progressed. Beijing and Mosco= w criticized the U.S. announcement, but both are developing systems that ca= n threaten an opponent=E2=80=99s satellites while protecting their own acce= ss to space. China has demonstrated close approaches and robotic servicing,= while Russia has jammed satellite signals and tested ground-based anti-sat= ellite weapons.

Possessing = these capabilities does not necessarily violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty= , which bars weapons of mass destruction from orbit but does not broadly pr= ohibit conventional counterspace systems. However, much has changed in the = past six decades, especially the depth of military reliance on satellites. = Satellites now support communications, navigation, targeting and command in= conventional war while remaining part of missile-warning and nuclear-commu= nications systems. An attack intended to disrupt conventional satellite ope= rations could reduce warning times or be interpreted as the opening of a di= sarming nuclear strike. This dependence is accelerating a race to disrupt r= ival space services while keeping one=E2=80=99s own operating. The treaty c= ould remain intact even as competition weakens strategic stability.

The Treaty=E2=80=99s Origi= nal Logic

The Oute= r Space Treaty did not demilitarize space. When it entered into force, the = United States and the Soviet Union already used satellites for reconnaissan= ce and communications, and space-based warning systems were under developme= nt. The treaty kept space open to all states, barred national claims of sov= ereignty, and prohibited nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in o= rbit. It did not expressly prohibit conventional weapons, military satellit= es or most counterspace capabilities.

This arrangement served both powers. Satellites could pass over = rival territory without violating national airspace, making military forces= and preparations harder to conceal. That visibility reduced the risk of su= rprise and helped Washington and Moscow verify arms control agreements. The= Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the subsequent Strategic Arms Reductio= n treaties added a specific protection. Each side could use national techni= cal means, including satellites, to monitor compliance. The agreements proh= ibited either side from interfering with those systems. These rules covered= treaty verification, not military satellites generally, and were separate = from the Outer Space Treaty. New START expired in February 2026 without a r= eplacement, ending that treaty=E2=80=99s explicit noninterference rule. Chi= na was never part of that U.S.-Russian arrangement.

The treaty preserved access to space and satellite= overflight, which supported observation, warning and arms control verifica= tion. It is less suited to an era in which satellites enable conventional w= arfare and have become military targets themselves.

Dependence, Vulnerability and Nuclear Enta= nglement

The great= est strategic danger concerns satellites used for missile warning and nucle= ar command. Infrared satellites can provide the first indication of a missi= le launch by detecting the heat from a missile=E2=80=99s engines. Ground ra= dars then help confirm the attack and refine its trajectory. Protected sate= llite communications also connect leaders with nuclear forces. Some satelli= tes, ground stations and communications networks support both conventional = and nuclear missions.

This = overlap makes an attack difficult to interpret. In a conflict over Taiwan, = China might disrupt U.S. missile warning satellites to reduce warning of it= s conventional missile strikes. But Washington could interpret the same att= ack as an attempt to weaken its nuclear warning before a nuclear strike. Du= ring the Cold War, space-based early warning gave American and Soviet leade= rs more time to identify the source and scale of an attack and issue orders= . Survivable nuclear forces gave each side a second-strike capability, enab= ling them to retaliate after absorbing a first strike. Early warning did no= t create that capability, but it helped leaders direct surviving forces.

The consequences of an attack= also depend on where a satellite operates and how easily it can be replace= d. A geostationary satellite orbits above the equator at the same rate the = Earth rotates, enabling it to remain over the same region and provide conti= nuous coverage. That fixed position makes its location predictable. Militar= y warning satellites in geostationary orbit are relatively few, expensive a= nd difficult to replace quickly. Satellites in low Earth orbit move rapidly= over the surface, so continuous coverage requires large constellations and= an extensive ground network. If a satellite were forced into repeated evas= ive maneuvers =E2=80=93 to avoid an incoming attack, for example =E2=80=93 = it would consume its limited supply of propellant needed for station-keepin= g and shorten its operational life. And missiles are not the only physical = threat; for example, spacecraft designed to inspect, repair or refuel anoth= er satellite could use the same technology to interfere with an enemy=E2=80= =99s satellites.

A kinetic = attack can also create debris that threatens the attacker=E2=80=99s own sys= tems. Repeated destruction in crowded low Earth orbit could contribute to t= he Kessler effect, a cascade of collisions producing more debris. This risk= favors nonkinetic counterspace weapons, including jamming, cyberattacks an= d sensor dazzling, which can disrupt services without creating debris.

<= p style=3D"line-height:24px;margin:1em 0px">The important point is that cou= nterspace weapons do not need to destroy an opponent=E2=80=99s nuclear forc= es to affect the strategic balance. By reducing decision time and disruptin= g the orders needed to use surviving forces, attacks on warning and command= systems can increase the risk of miscalculation and escalation.

Competing Approaches to Space= Control

The U.S.,= China and Russia face the same need to protect, disrupt and restore space = services, but they have different resources to do so.

The U.S. has built much of its way of war around= space support, giving it a strong incentive to develop the necessary capab= ilities to defend its satellites and quickly recover from attacks. It is di= stributing warning, communications and tracking functions across larger con= stellations, fielding on-orbit weapons and drawing on commercial launch and= satellite production. SpaceX demonstrated its launch cadence in September = 2026, when Falcon 9 rockets carried three classified Space Force missions f= rom Vandenberg Space Force Base within 16 days. Commercial networks provide= additional communications and imagery, while allied sensors and ground sta= tions expand tracking and geographic coverage. Much of this capacity remain= s concentrated in a limited number of companies, launch vehicles and launch= sites. Launch capacity matters only if replacement spacecraft and payloads= are ready before they are needed.

In addition to protecting its own growing dependence on satellites,= China must prepare to disrupt U.S. space support in the event of a regiona= l war. It is expanding its reconnaissance, communications and warning const= ellations while demonstrating close approaches, coordinated maneuvers, robo= tic servicing and the relocation of another spacecraft. The U.S. assesses t= hat China likely conducted an on-orbit refueling demonstration in 2025, whi= ch could allow satellites to maneuver more often and remain useful longer. = Beijing is also expanding a state-directed commercial launch industry to in= crease production and launch frequency. China lacks the global network of c= ommercial providers and allies available to the U.S., but its industrial ba= se gives it the ability to narrow that gap.

Russia faces stronger industrial constraints. Its smaller = commercial and production base makes competing constellation for constellat= ion more difficult. Moscow instead emphasizes jamming, spoofing, cyberattac= ks, direct-ascent anti-satellite weapons and spacecraft that can shadow for= eign satellites. Russian jamming of satellite signals in Ukraine has shown = how services can be disrupted without destroying spacecraft. The same limit= ations leave Russia less able to replace its own losses during a prolonged = conflict.

Strategic= Implications and Forecast

The Outer Space Treaty will probably survive because it still serv= es the major powers without seriously restricting the conventional systems = they want. Withdrawal from the treaty would carry diplomatic costs while pr= oviding little military benefit. Additionally, the U.S. assesses that Russi= a is developing an orbital nuclear anti-satellite weapon. Deploying a nucle= ar weapon in orbit would violate the treaty=E2=80=99s central prohibition.<= /p>

Most competition will inten= sify below the treaty=E2=80=99s limits. States will favor temporary or reve= rsible interference over physical destruction. They will also distribute cr= itical functions across larger constellations, protect sensitive spacecraft= and prepare to restore lost services. Each effort to improve resilience wi= ll encourage opponents to expand their ability to disrupt it.

Concern over attacks on nuclear warnin= g and command systems could push states toward limited agreements but proba= bly not a new treaty. Such agreements could require notification before clo= se approaches, agreed minimum distances from sensitive spacecraft or nonint= erference with missile warning and nuclear command systems. Broader protect= ions will remain difficult because many of these systems also support comme= rcial and conventional missions.

The clearest signs that the competition is deepening would be formal = warnings that attacks on certain satellites could trigger retaliation, dedi= cated escort satellites and exercises demonstrating the replacement of lost= warning capabilities. A confirmed attack that physically damaged another s= tate=E2=80=99s satellite would mark a more serious escalation.

Competition within the treaty=E2=80=99= s limits will place growing pressure on the strategic stability that satell= ite warning and observation helped create.

=
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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 06:45:35 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:45:17 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK-ZtEvIQrnhFQhzHSVDqq34iMXxXtZXlUgvzQkex0JFyU4OYzmPste9xuE Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000815e93065cb3830b" Subject: [Salon] =?utf-8?q?Reporting_of_the_RAF_Fairford_arrests_blows_th?= =?utf-8?q?e_idea_of_a_=E2=80=98free_press=E2=80=99_out_of_the_wate?= =?utf-8?q?r?= X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 13:45:36 -0000 --000000000000815e93065cb3830b Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable *https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/reporting-of-the-raf-fairford-arrests?= utm_source=3Dpost-email-title&publication_id=3D476450&post_id=3D218026176&u= tm_campaign=3Demail-post-title&isFreemail=3Dfalse&r=3D210kv&triedRedirect= =3Dtrue&utm_medium=3Demail * *Reporting of the RAF Fairford arrests blows the idea of a =E2=80=98free pr= ess=E2=80=99 out of the water*When the establishment media deals with issues in which the West=E2=80=99s war industries are most heavily invested, it happily jettiso= ns even the semblance of critical distance from the state *Jonathan Cook *9/30/26 *It=E2=80=99s easy to forget that the western media =E2=80=93 the so-called= =E2=80=9Cfree press=E2=80=9D =E2=80=93 likes to distinguish itself from media in authoritarian regimes on the basis that, unlike them, it asks critical questions of the powerful, reports facts objectively, and formulates its analyses dispassionately. * *They do propaganda, we do news =E2=80=93 or so the western media argues. * *The feverish coverage since five men were arrested in the early hours of Sunday morning close to RAF Fairford in the UK is blowing that claim all too obviously out of the water.* *Here are the known facts so far. * *Three white vans, bearing the logo of a genuine fuel transit company, were spotted by a local farmer on the road outside her property as she returned from a party. Police arrived promptly and arrested the men, who were all British nationals in their twenties. * *On Tuesday, it emerged that one of the arrested men actually called the police earlier =E2=80=93 seemingly the reason police were on the scene so q= uickly.* *Although the men were initially arrested on explosives charges, no =E2=80=9Cviable=E2=80=9D explosives were found. Although they were arrested= on terrorism charges, which allow for 14 days of detention, they were released on bail under normal criminal laws in less than two days. * *UK police can hold terrorism suspects for 14 days without charge. Had police any grounds to believe the men arrested outside RAF Fairford had even the slightest terrorism connection, they would not have been released. They'd still be behind bars.But watch the BBC's Daniel Sandford, like every other establishment journalist, desperately t=E2=80=A6* *It has also emerged that the men had several empty =E2=80=9Cbarrels=E2=80=9D in their vans, plus one= that contained what police described disturbingly as an =E2=80=9Caccelerant=E2=80=9D. * *Actually, that was simply a reference to petrol. The stuff that goes into vehicles to make them accelerate.* *I'm sure the BBC's Daniel Sandford is scornful of social media users for speculating that the men arrested close to a farm near RAF Fairford were there to steal fuel. Sandford, meanwhile, is still busy helping the security services spin this as an Iran terrorism story =E2=80=93 by specula= ting that an "accelerant" found in the men's vans =E2=80=93 that i=E2=80=A6* *British prime minister Andy Burnham held a rare national emergency Cobra meeting over the incident. * *Meanwhile, the Trump administration got involved because RAF Fairford, despite its name, is in reality a US air base from which American planes are waging an illegal war of aggression against Iran, with the UK=E2=80=99s blessing. * *US Secretary of state Marco Rubio has said the incident =E2=80=9Cclear= ly involves the hands of a foreign actor=E2=80=9D. When asked whether Iran was= that actor, Trump replied : =E2=80=9CIt might be.=E2=80=9D He added: =E2=80=9CI know the answer... I ca= n be very specific, but I'd rather not say.=E2=80=9D* *According to a report in the New York Times, =E2=80=9CAmerican and British intelligence services worked with Israel and = Western countries to discover the threats against US bases, including ones in Germany.=E2=80=9D [my emphasis]* *Despite these sparse facts, the British media have uniformly rushed to a single conclusion: that this was almost certainly part of an Iranian terror plot to target the US airbase and its planes. The only room for debate allowed is whether the five men were witting or unwitting actors in that plot. * *As the Guardian reported in its Wednesday edition, referring to this as a =E2=80=9Ccomplex investigatio= n=E2=80=9D: =E2=80=9CAn Iranian link to the bizarre events in the Gloucestershire countryside over the weekend is seen as increasingly likely.=E2=80=9D* *As a preface, let us note the following: that British and US officials have every interest in trying to hype this incident as an Iranian =E2=80=9C= terror plot=E2=80=9D, whatever the actual evidence suggests. * *Why? Because the US is waging an illegal war on Iran, and the UK is allowing it to do so from British soil. Under the rules of war, Iran has every right to attack RAF Fairford. * *If the British state and billionaire-owned media were actually serving as a truly =E2=80=9Cfree press=E2=80=9D, they would be offering the context th= at RAF Fairford is a legitimate military target and that any attack on it by Iran would not constitute terrorism. * *Of course, none have done so. * *Instead, they have loyally regurgitated the British and US security services spin of a =E2=80=9Cterror plot=E2=80=9D =E2=80=93 based on no tang= ible evidence at all =E2=80=93 that paints Britain and the US as the victims of sinister and unwarranted Iranian aggression.* *But context aside, an objective, sceptical media =E2=80=93 a =E2=80=9Cfree= press=E2=80=9D =E2=80=93 would be reserving judgment on what had happened. It would be asking difficult questions. It would be offering plausible counter-narratives. * *Again, none of this is happening. In the British media, there has been a lemming-like rush towards accepting uncritically the very conclusions that best serve British and US state interests. * *The constant highlighting of a terrorism connection to the arrested men = =E2=80=93 for which there is no apparent evidence =E2=80=93 is precisely the kind of = coverage you would expect from state media in an authoritarian regime. This is about whipping up a public mood of fear, not about transparent fact-finding. * *Notably, unlike the British media, the New York Times report does allow for another possibility, even if it instantly ignores it and then joins the British media in treating what evidence there is as proof of an Iranian terror plot. * *The Times opens with a question : =E2=80=9CThe p= otential ambiguities =E2=80=93 were the men Iranian operatives, petty gas thieves, o= r both? =E2=80=93 added to the confusion surrounding the arrests that the authoriti= es have yet to fully explain.=E2=80=9D* *=E2=80=9CPetty gas thieves=E2=80=9D! Men in vans with empty barrels close = to a farm in the middle of the night. Is it possible they could simply be criminals? * *In fact, this conjecture has been all over social media since the first reports of the men being arrested surfaced. As new details have emerged, those suspicions have only grown. * *And yet Britain=E2=80=99s =E2=80=9Cfree press=E2=80=9D has uniformly ignor= ed this counter-theory in favour of the US and British security services=E2=80=99 narrative. * *Doubtless, British journalists covering this incident would call the idea that this was simply a criminal group caught in the act unhelpful =E2=80=9Cspeculation=E2=80=9D. * *But how is their no-more-plausible, and possibly less plausible, theory that this was an Iranian terror plot not equally speculation =E2=80=93 if i= n their case, speculation that happens to be extremely helpful to the British and US security establishments?* *There are other theories we could posit too, given the known facts. Israel, which pushed for the original illegal and disastrous war on Iran, has been looking for a way to persuade the Trump administration to return to a full-scale bombing campaign. * *An attack on RAF Fairford =E2=80=93 or the appearance of one =E2=80=93 wou= ld be an ideal way to pile on the pressure for renewed strikes on Iran. It=E2=80=99s not, = after all, as if there are no examples of Israel carrying out false flags . * *If the =E2=80=9Cforeign actor=E2=80=9D of Iran can recruit a gang of petty= criminals to unwittingly spark a major security incident outside RAF Fairford, why can the =E2=80=9Cforeign actor=E2=80=9D of Israel not do exactly the same? * *I don=E2=80=99t know what happened outside the airbase. I=E2=80=99m not cl= aiming to. I am keeping an open, critical mind while what facts there are emerge. If only our =E2=80=9Cfree press'=E2=80=9C were doing the same.* *There may be those reading this who find the claim that the media in our =E2=80=9Cdemocratic=E2=80=9D societies is not confrontational to, or at lea= st distant from, the state hard to believe. Such an idea may be new to them. * *That should not be surprising. After all, how did each of us form our foundational view of the world =E2=80=93 of who are the good guys, and who = the bad =E2=80=93 if not from spending a lifetime reading and watching media owned = by billionaire-led corporations and the state? * *Since quitting the establishment media myself a quarter of a century ago (I worked for the Guardian), I have dedicated much of my time to identifying some of the most egregious examples of skewed journalism =E2=80= =93 reporting that consistently presents events in ways that serve not their audiences=E2=80=99 interests but those of the powerful: the corporations themselves; western security establishments; and Israel, the lynchpin of the West=E2=80=99s war industries. * *In such cases, the establishment media readily abandons even the pretence of neutral, fair or dispassionate reporting. It serves as little more than a propaganda factory. (You can read my detailed explanation of how the Propaganda Model works here .)* *This has been all too visible in the coverage of Israel=E2=80=99s mass-sla= ughter in Gaza, a genocide that could not be named as such. * *It was visible in the coverage of Russia=E2=80=99s =E2=80=9Cunprovoked=E2= =80=9D invasion of Ukraine that had, in fact, been provoked by Nato for decades, as it expanded across Europe with a clear intention: either to corner Moscow militarily or drive it into a retaliatory attack on Ukraine that would provide an opportunity for the West to bleed Russia on a proxy battlefield.* *It was visible in the sustained media campaign of antisemitism smears against Jeremy Corbyn, that rarest, and most dangerous, of things: a leader of a major party who promoted socialist policies for the benefit of the public, not billionaires, and was a vehement critic of Israel long before it showed its genocidal hand. * *It was visible too in the media pile-on against Julian Assange, whose Wikileaks whistleblower platform exposed British and US war crimes while also threatening to destroy the media=E2=80=99s top-dow= n model. Having ridiculed him for claiming asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy for fear Washington would seek to extradite him for exposing its crimes, the media then treated his seizure by British police and incarceration for years in a high-security London prison, while the US sought his extradition for exposing its crimes, as entirely unremarkable, as barely worth reporting. * *I could go on and on. There is consistent pattern when the establishment media deals with the most important issues, the very ones in which our national security states are most invested. Then the media jettisons even the semblance of critical distance from the state. * *RAF Fairford is just the latest example of how, in such critical moments, the media serves as nothing more than the security state=E2=80=99s loudspea= ker. * --000000000000815e93065cb3830b Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/reporting= -of-the-raf-fairford-arrests?utm_source=3Dpost-email-title&publication_= id=3D476450&post_id=3D218026176&utm_campaign=3Demail-post-title&= ;isFreemail=3Dfalse&r=3D210kv&triedRedirect=3Dtrue&utm_medium= =3Demail

= Reporting of the RAF Fairford arrests blows the idea of a =E2=80=98free pre= ss=E2=80=99 out of the water

= When the establishment media deals with issues in which the West=E2=80=99s = war industries are most heavily invested, it happily jettisons even the sem= blance of critical distance from the state

3D""

It=E2=80= =99s easy to forget that the western media =E2=80=93 the so-called =E2=80= =9Cfree press=E2=80=9D =E2=80=93 likes to distinguish itself from media in = authoritarian regimes on the basis that, unlike them, it asks critical ques= tions of the powerful, reports facts objectively, and formulates its analys= es dispassionately.=C2=A0

They do propaganda, we do news = =E2=80=93 or so the western media argues.=C2=A0

The feveris= h coverage since five men were arrested in the early hours of Sunday mornin= g close to RAF Fairford in the UK is blowing that claim all too obviously o= ut of the water.

Here are the known facts so far.=C2=A0=

= Three white vans, bearing the logo of a genuine fuel transit company, were = spotted by a local farmer on the road outside her property as she returned = from a party. Police arrived promptly and arrested the men, who were all Br= itish nationals in their twenties.=C2=A0

On Tuesday, it emerged that one of the arrested men actually=C2=A0called=C2=A0the police earlier =E2=80=93 = seemingly the reason police were on the scene so quickly.

Althoug= h the men were initially arrested on explosives charges, no =E2=80=9Cviable= =E2=80=9D explosives were found. Although they were arrested on terrorism c= harges, which allow for 14 days of detention, they were released on bail un= der normal criminal laws in less than two days.=C2=A0

<= div style=3D"max-width:100%;color:rgb(27,27,27);font-family:Georgia">
It has also=C2=A0emerged=C2= =A0that the men had several empty =E2=80=9Cbarrels=E2=80=9D in their= vans, plus one that contained what police described disturbingly as an =E2= =80=9Caccelerant=E2=80=9D.=C2=A0

Actually, that was = simply a reference to petrol. The stuff that goes into vehicles to make the= m accelerate.

British = prime minister Andy Burnham held a rare national emergency Cobra meeting ov= er the incident.=C2=A0

Meanwhile, the Trump administration = got involved because RAF Fairford, despite its name, is in reality a US air= base from which American planes are waging an illegal war of aggression ag= ainst Iran, with the UK=E2=80=99s blessing.=C2=A0

US Secretary of state Marco Rubio has=C2=A0said=C2=A0the inciden= t =E2=80=9Cclearly involves the hands of a foreign actor=E2=80=9D. When ask= ed whether Iran was that actor, Trump=C2=A0replied: =E2=80=9CIt might be.=E2=80=9D He added: =E2=80=9CI k= now the answer... I can be very specific, but I'd rather not say.=E2=80= =9D

According to a=C2=A0report=C2=A0in the New York Times, =E2=80=9C= American and British intelligence services worked with=C2=A0Israel=C2=A0and Western countries to discover the threats again= st US bases, including ones in Germany.=E2=80=9D [my emphasis]

De= spite these sparse facts, the British media have uniformly rushed to a sing= le conclusion: that this was almost certainly part of an Iranian terror plo= t to target the US airbase and its planes. The only room for debate allowed= is whether the five men were witting or unwitting actors in that plot.=C2=A0

As the Guardian=C2= =A0reported=C2=A0in its Wednesday edition, referrin= g to this as a =E2=80=9Ccomplex investigation=E2=80=9D: =E2=80=9CAn Iranian= link to the bizarre events in the Gloucestershire countryside over the wee= kend is seen as increasingly likely.=E2=80=9D

As a preface, let u= s note the following: that British and US officials have every interest in = trying to hype this incident as an Iranian =E2=80=9Cterror plot=E2=80=9D, w= hatever the actual evidence suggests.=C2=A0

Why? Because th= e US is waging an illegal war on Iran, and the UK is allowing it to do so f= rom British soil. Under the rules of war, Iran has every right to attack RA= F Fairford.=C2=A0

3D""

= If the British state and billionaire-owned media were actually serving as a= truly =E2=80=9Cfree press=E2=80=9D, they would be offering the context tha= t RAF Fairford is a legitimate military target and that any attack on it by= Iran would not constitute terrorism.=C2=A0

Of course, none= have done so.=C2=A0

Instead, they have loyally regurgitate= d the British and US security services spin of a =E2=80=9Cterror plot=E2=80= =9D =E2=80=93 based on no tangible evidence at all =E2=80=93 that paints Br= itain and the US as the victims of sinister and unwarranted Iranian aggress= ion.

But context aside, an objective, sceptical media =E2=80=93 a =E2=80= =9Cfree press=E2=80=9D =E2=80=93 would be reserving judgment on what had ha= ppened. It would be asking difficult questions. It would be offering plausi= ble counter-narratives.=C2=A0

Again, none of this is happen= ing. In the British media, there has been a lemming-like rush towards accep= ting uncritically the very conclusions that best serve British and US state= interests.=C2=A0

The constant highlighting of a terrorism = connection to the arrested men =E2=80=93 for which there is no apparent evi= dence =E2=80=93 is precisely the kind of coverage you would expect from sta= te media in an authoritarian regime. This is about whipping up a public moo= d of fear, not about transparent fact-finding.=C2=A0

Notabl= y, unlike the British media, the New York Times report does allow for anoth= er possibility, even if it instantly ignores it and then joins the British = media in treating what evidence there is as proof of an Iranian terror plot= .=C2=A0

The Times=C2= =A0opens with= a question: =E2=80=9CThe potential ambi= guities =E2=80=93 were the men Iranian operatives, petty gas thieves, or bo= th? =E2=80=93 added to the confusion surrounding the arrests that the autho= rities have yet to fully explain.=E2=80=9D

=E2=80=9CPetty gas thi= eves=E2=80=9D! Men in vans with empty barrels close to a farm in the middle= of the night. Is it possible they could simply be criminals?=C2=A0

In fact, this conjecture has been all over social media since the = first reports of the men being arrested surfaced. As new details have emerg= ed, those suspicions have only grown.=C2=A0

And yet Britain= =E2=80=99s =E2=80=9Cfree press=E2=80=9D has uniformly ignored this counter-= theory in favour of the US and British security services=E2=80=99 narrative= .=C2=A0

Doubtless, British journalists covering this incide= nt would call the idea that this was simply a criminal group caught in the = act unhelpful =E2=80=9Cspeculation=E2=80=9D.=C2=A0

But how = is their no-more-plausible, and possibly less plausible, theory that this w= as an Iranian terror plot not equally speculation =E2=80=93 if in their cas= e, speculation that happens to be extremely helpful to the British and US s= ecurity establishments?

There are other theories we could posit too, giv= en the known facts. Israel, which pushed for the original illegal and disas= trous war on Iran, has been looking for a way to persuade the Trump adminis= tration to return to a full-scale bombing campaign.=C2=A0<= /p>

<= span style=3D"max-width:100%">An attack on RAF Fairford =E2=80=93 or the ap= pearance of one =E2=80=93 would be an ideal way to pile on the pressure for= renewed strikes on Iran. It=E2=80=99s not, after all, as if there are no=C2=A0examples=C2= =A0of Israel carrying out=C2=A0false flags.=C2=A0

If the =E2=80=9Cforeign = actor=E2=80=9D of Iran can recruit a gang of petty criminals to unwittingly= spark a major security incident outside RAF Fairford, why can the =E2=80= =9Cforeign actor=E2=80=9D of Israel not do exactly the same?=C2=A0

I don=E2=80=99t know what happened outside the airbase. I=E2=80=99m= not claiming to. I am keeping an open, critical mind while what facts ther= e are emerge. If only our =E2=80=9Cfree press'=E2=80=9C were doing the = same.

There may be those reading this who find the claim that the media = in our =E2=80=9Cdemocratic=E2=80=9D societies is not confrontational to, or= at least distant from, the state hard to believe. Such an idea may be new = to them.=C2=A0

That should not be surprising. After all, ho= w did each of us form our foundational view of the world =E2=80=93 of who a= re the good guys, and who the bad =E2=80=93 if not from spending a lifetime= reading and watching media owned by billionaire-led corporations and the s= tate?=C2=A0

Since quitting the establishment media myself a= quarter of a century ago (I worked for the Guardian), I have dedicated muc= h of my time to identifying some of the most egregious examples of skewed j= ournalism =E2=80=93 reporting that consistently presents events in ways tha= t serve not their audiences=E2=80=99 interests but those of the powerful: t= he corporations themselves; western security establishments; and Israel, th= e lynchpin of the West=E2=80=99s war industries.=C2=A0

=

In such cases, the establishment media r= eadily abandons even the pretence of neutral, fair or dispassionate reporti= ng. It serves as little more than a propaganda factory. (You can read my de= tailed explanation of how the Propaganda Model works=C2=A0here.)

This has b= een all too visible in the coverage of Israel=E2=80=99s mass-slaughter in G= aza, a genocide that could not be named as such.=C2=A0

=

It was visible in the coverage of Russia=E2=80= =99s =E2=80=9Cunprovoked=E2=80=9D invasion of Ukraine that had, in fact, be= en=C2=A0provoked=C2=A0by Nato for decades, as it expanded = across Europe with a clear intention: either to corner Moscow militarily or= drive it into a retaliatory attack on Ukraine that would provide an opport= unity for the West to bleed Russia on a proxy battlefield.

It was visible in the sustained=C2=A0= media camp= aign=C2=A0of=C2=A0antisemitism smears=C2=A0against Jeremy Corbyn, that r= arest, and most dangerous, of things: a leader of a major party who promote= d socialist policies for the benefit of the public, not billionaires, and w= as a vehement critic of Israel long before it showed its genocidal hand.=C2=A0

It was visible to= o in the=C2=A0media pile-on=C2=A0against Julian Assange, whose = Wikileaks whistleblower platform exposed British and US war crimes while al= so threatening to destroy the media=E2=80=99s top-down model. Having ridicu= led him for claiming asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy for fear Washington w= ould seek to extradite him for exposing its crimes, the media then treated = his seizure by British police and incarceration for years in a high-securit= y London prison, while the US sought his extradition for exposing its crime= s, as entirely unremarkable, as barely worth reporting.=C2=A0<= /span>

I could go on and on. There is consistent pattern when the establ= ishment media deals with the most important issues, the very ones in which = our national security states are most invested. Then the media jettisons ev= en the semblance of critical distance from the state.=C2=A0

RAF Fairford is just the latest example of how, in such critical moments, = the media serves as nothing more than the security state=E2=80=99s loudspea= ker.=C2=A0

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 06:54:23 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:54:06 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK_78UYiOJ4wnD66-0AbVESklXIXH0LY19pJg-th6DWI5jYSXjWNsBDjO4k Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000fc0a54065cb3a28c" Subject: [Salon] =?utf-8?q?Bono_compares_Ben-Gvir=E2=80=99s_Gaza_rhetoric?= =?utf-8?q?_to_Nazi_official_Heinrich_Himmler_=2E_=2E_=2E_Ben-Gvir?= =?utf-8?q?=E2=80=99s_rhetoric_undermined_Judaism=E2=80=99s_moral_s?= =?utf-8?q?tanding_=289/30/26=29?= X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 13:54:24 -0000 --000000000000fc0a54065cb3a28c Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable *https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/bono-compares-ben= -gvirs-gaza-rhetoric-nazi-official-heinrich-himmler?topic=3DWar%2520on%2520= Iran&nid=3D448087&fid=3D558553 * *Bono compares Ben-Gvir=E2=80=99s Gaza rhetoric to Nazi official Heinrich H= immler* *Bono has compared Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir=E2=80= =99s statements about Palestinians in Gaza to those of Nazi official Heinrich Himmler.* *Speaking to Rolling Stone, the U2 frontman criticised Benjamin Netanyahu for keeping the far-right minister in government and said Ben-Gvir=E2=80=99= s rhetoric undermined Judaism=E2=80=99s moral standing.* *He also urged Israel to confront the Nakba=E2=80=99s legacy which led to t= he ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their home and accept compromises to secure justice for Palestinians. Bono made the remarks while discussing U2=E2=80=99s new song, "The Tears of Things", whic= h explores Jewish history and the events preceding the Gaza genocide.* *Ben-Gvir responded on X by telling the singer: "If you truly care about the residents of Gaza, help them leave for Ireland.".* --000000000000fc0a54065cb3a28c Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/bo= no-compares-ben-gvirs-gaza-rhetoric-nazi-official-heinrich-himmler?topic=3D= War%2520on%2520Iran&nid=3D448087&fid=3D558553

<= /b>

Bono compares Ben-Gvir=E2=80= =99s Gaza rhetoric to Nazi official Heinrich Himmler

Bono has compared Israeli Na= tional Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir=E2=80=99s statements about Palesti= nians in Gaza to those of Nazi official Heinrich Himmler.

Speaking to = Rolling Stone, the U2 frontman criticised Benjamin Netanyahu for keeping th= e far-right minister in government and said Ben-Gvir=E2=80=99s rhetoric und= ermined Judaism=E2=80=99s moral standing.

He also urged Israel to confro= nt the Nakba=E2=80=99s legacy which led to the ethnic cleansing of more tha= n 750,000 Palestinians from their home and accept compromises to secure jus= tice for Palestinians. Bono made the remarks while discussing U2=E2=80=99s = new song, "The Tears of Things", which explores Jewish history an= d the events preceding the Gaza genocide.

Ben-Gvir responded on X by tel= ling the singer: "If you truly care about the residents of Gaza, help = them leave for Ireland.".

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 07:02:16 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <148c483e-33fb-45bf-b324-a020267f6057@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <148c483e-33fb-45bf-b324-a020267f6057@gmail.com> From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:01:57 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK-ySKMZKd6Ft2gHy9vicNwtfMb6yxaXWPi_12hxW1wkdtMqmFo9lnjh45I Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0000000000002724d8065cb3bfe7" Subject: [Salon] No Bombs Found in U.K. Case, but Officials Say Threat to Bases Is Reall (NYT) X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 14:02:17 -0000 --0000000000002724d8065cb3bfe7 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable FM: John Whitbeck While most articles that I circulate are ones which I believe have merit, on rare occasions I circulate articles of "interest" -- as in the case of the NEW YORK TIMES article transmitted below, a stunning example of war propaganda and bad journalism. It should have been obvious since the moment that the five young Brits with gasoline but no explosives in their vans who had been arrested "near a British air base that hosts U.S. bombers" were rapidly released that they were up to, at most, minor mischief but had neither the means nor any incentive to do, in President Trump's words, "big damage" at the base and would not have been rapidly released had British law enforcement agencies perceived the slightest possibility that they were "Iranian operatives" involved in a "possible terrorist plot" -- in effect, that this was a non-event which was initially and embarrassingly blown wildly out of proportion by the British and American governments. Early in this article, "potential ambiguities" are cited -- "were the men Iranian operatives, petty gas thieves, or both?" *Both?!* It is overwhelmingly likely that the men were, at most, petty gas thieves. Yet the rest of the article explores the possibility that they were, even without their realizing it, Iranian operatives, even asserting that it is "unclear what steps British and American officials were taking to identify the people in charge of the plot," thereby explicitly assuming, contrary to all known evidence, that there *was* a plot. It is understandable that the British and American governments -- particularly after Trump's delusionally saying of the five men that "we had them under view for a long time and we got them" -- would seek to save face by not immediately admitting reality. It is not clear why the NEW YORK TIMES would choose to play along with this deception. *NOTE*: I must also take exception to the characterization of a possible Iranian retaliatory attack on one of the bases from which the aggressor in a criminal war of aggression has been launching attacks on Iran would constitute an act of "terrorism". Such a retaliatory attack would be entirely legitimate, whether the base was in the UAE or the UK, and the British government's claim that it has only allowed the U.S. to conduct "defensive strikes against Iran" from its UK bases is legally and logically laughable. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/world/europe/britain-air-base-iran-threa= t.html No Bombs Found in U.K. Case, but Officials Say Threat to Bases Is Real The prospect of an attack on an air base used by U.S. forces prompted stepped-up protections across Europe, but confusion shrouds the case, in which the suspects were released on bail. By Eric Schmitt, Michael D. Shear ,Adam Goldman and Christopher F. Schuetze Sept. 29, 2026 Two days after arresting five men on suspicion of a possible terrorist plot near a British air base that hosts U.S. bombers, the police in Britain At the same time, American officials and their allies portrayed the episode as a serious threat. President Trump has said the men had intended to do =E2=80=9Cbig damage.=E2=80=9D And privately, senior U.S. and Western offici= als said they picked up intelligence in recent days about a threat from Iran, and stepped up security at military installations across Europe in response, including at R.A.F. Fairford, the British base. The potential ambiguities =E2=80=94 were the men Iranian operatives, petty = gas thieves, or both? =E2=80=94 added to the confusion surrounding the arrests = that the authorities have yet to fully explain. The men were freed on bail on Monday, suggesting another possibility that the officials pointed to: that they were low-level, perhaps unwitting operatives connected to broader Iranian plans involving possible attacks against American military bases across Europe. Iranian operations routinely employ such crews. British law enforcement agencies have not publicly linked the events near the base to a foreign government. The officials who described the Iranian threat spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive intelligence matters during an ongoing investigation. A major Iranian attack against a high-profile American target inside Britain would be a dramatic escalation in apparent retaliation for the seven-month American and Israeli war against Iran. In July, Iran threatened an attack against R.A.F. Fairford, where the British government has given the United States permission to conduct so-called defensive strikes against Iran using long-range aircraft. The Iranian Embassy in Britain dismissed any suggestion that its government was involved in any possible attack on the British base. =E2=80=9CThe Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London categoricall= y rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations published by some British individuals and media outlets attempting to link Iran to arrest of five suspects in the vicinity of R.A.F. Fairford base,=E2=80=9D it said Monday in a statement on X. Many questions about the developments at R.A.F. Fairford remain unanswered. Officials have not released the names of the arrested men, in line with British policing practice. It was unclear what steps British and American officials were taking to identify the people in charge of the plot. And the officials briefed on the recent threats said they had yet to determine what the men, who were initially detained on suspicion of explosives violations and planning a terrorist act, were trying to accomplish. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday night that the matter at the air base was a =E2=80=9Cvery serious situation=E2=80=9D that =E2=80=9Cclear= ly involves the hands of a foreign actor=E2=80=9D but declined to say whether Iran was responsible. = He added, in a television interview, that =E2=80=9Cwe are dealing with element= s in the world and in the case of Iran, for example, who have openly threatened to attack American interests globally. We=E2=80=99re going to always take that= very seriously.=E2=80=9D Officials said that American and British intelligence services worked with Israel and Western countries to discover the threats against U.S. bases, including ones in Germany. Local residents who live near the British base have said they noticed dramatically increased security at its entrances in recent days. Mr. Trump=E2=80=99s comments added even more uncertainty about what had hap= pened. On Sunday, he said of the five men that =E2=80=9Cwe had them under view for= a long time and we got them.=E2=80=9D But the police response suggested that the m= en had not been under lengthy surveillance. Typically, officers would make arrests well before any surveillance targets potentially armed with explosives approached a high-security target like a military base. In Tuesday=E2=80=99s statement, Laurence Taylor, who leads Britain=E2=80=99= s counterterrorism police, responded to questions about why they had released the men, saying it was an =E2=80=9Cinvestigative decision, and one which is grounded in experience and careful consideration of policing powers.=E2=80= =9D He also said that investigators had searched properties in London, where the five men, all British nationals in their early 20s, were from. The police said the men would be closely monitored while free on bail. =E2=80=9COften this threat becomes visible to us as criminal activity, ofte= n at a small scale and committed by individuals whose primary aim is not terrorism but a quick financial gain,=E2=80=9D Mr. Taylor told reporters on Monday. Counterterrorism experts said the unfolding events raise the possibility of a number of scenarios. For example, the Iranians could be attempting to create a diversion. They might also be testing the base=E2=80=99s security, said Carlos T. Fern= andez, a former top counterterrorism agent in the F.B.I.=E2=80=99s New York office. = Though Britain owns the base, about 90 miles west of London, the United States has used it for decades to deploy heavy bombers from its long runways. Britain has repeatedly called out the Iranian threat to the country and pinned attacks there on Iran. The powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has long targeted critics of the government but its efforts took a more violent turn after the start of the war. An Iranian proxy called the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, or Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya, targeted Jewish communities, journalists and Israeli interests in Britain and across Europe from March to May. It claimed responsibility for seven attacks in Britain. In May, U.S. federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged a commander of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia that is a proxy for the Revolutionary Guards, with leading the attacks in Europe and taking part in an Iranian campaign of retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli assault. Britain has criticized Iran in connection with those attacks and taken steps to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. --0000000000002724d8065cb3bfe7 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
FM: John Whitbeck

While most articles that I circulate are ones which I believe have merit, on rare occasions I circulate articles of "interest" -- as in the case of the NEW YORK TIMES article transmitted below, a stunning example of war propaganda and bad journalism.=C2=A0

It should have been obvious since the moment that the five young Brits with gasoline but no explosives in their vans=C2=A0= who had been arrested "near a British air base= that hosts U.S. bombers" were rapidly released that they were u= p to, at most, minor mischief but had neither the means nor any incentive to do, in President Trump's words, "big damage" at the base and would not have been rapidly releas= ed had British law enforcement agencies perceived the slightest possibility that they were "Iranian operatives" invol= ved in a "possible terrorist plot" -- in effect, that this w= as a non-event which was initially and embarrassingly blown wildly out of proportion by the British and American governments.

Early in this article, "potential ambiguities" are ci= ted -- "were the men Iranian operatives, petty gas thieves, or both?" Both?! It is overwhelmingly likely that the men were, at most, petty gas thieves. Yet the rest of the article explores the possibility that they were, even without their realizing it, Iranian operatives, even asserting that it is "unclear what steps British and American officials were taking to identify the people in charge of the plot," thereby explicitly assuming, contrary to all known evidence, that there was a plot.

It is understandable that the British and American governments -- particularly after Trump's delusionally saying of the five men that "we had them under view for a long time and we got them" -- would seek to save face by n= ot immediately admitting reality. It is not clear why the NEW YORK TIMES would choose to play along with this deception.

NOTE: I must also take exception to the characterization of a possible Iranian retaliatory attack on one of the bases from which the aggressor in a criminal war of aggression has been launching attacks on Iran would constitute an act of "terrorism". Such a retaliatory = attack would be entirely legitimate, whether the base was in the UAE or the UK, and the British government's claim that it has only allowed the U.S. to conduct "defensive strikes against Iran" from its UK bases is legally and logically laughable.

https://www.nytimes.com/20= 26/09/29/world/europe/britain-air-base-iran-threat.html =20

No Bombs Found i= n U.K. Case, but Officials Say Threat to Bases Is Real

The prospect of an attack on an air base used by U.S. forces prompted stepped-up protections across Europe, but confusion shrouds the case, in which the suspects were released on bail.

Sept. 29, 2026
=20
=20
=20

Two days after arresting five men on suspicion of a possible terrorist plot near a British air base that hosts U.S. bombers, the police in Britain

At the same time, American officials and their allies portrayed the episode as a serious threat. President Trump has said the men had intended to do =E2=80=9Cbig damage.=E2=80=9D And privately, senior U.S. and Western officials said they picked up intelligence in recent days about a threat from Iran, and stepped up security at military installations across Europe in response, including at R.A.F. Fairford, the British base.

The potential ambiguities =E2=80=94 were the men Iranian operatives, petty gas thieves, or both? =E2=80=94 added= to the confusion surrounding the arrests that the authorities have yet to fully explain.

The men were freed on bail on Monday, suggesting another possibility that the officials pointed to: that they were low-level, perhaps unwitting operatives connected to broader Iranian plans involving possible attacks against American military bases across Europe. Iranian operations routinely employ such crews.

British law enforcement agencies have not publicly linked the events near the base to a foreign government. The officials who described the Iranian threat spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive intelligence matters during an ongoing investigation.

A major Iranian attack against a high-profile American target inside Britain would be a dramatic escalation in apparent retaliation for the seven-month American and Israeli war against Iran. In July, Iran threatened an attack against R.A.F. Fairford, where the British government has given the United States permission to conduct so-called defensive strikes against Iran using long-range aircraft.

The Iranian Embassy in Britain dismissed any suggestion that its government was involved in any possible attack on the British base.

=E2=80=9CThe Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations published by some British individuals and media outlets attempting to link Iran to arrest of five suspects in the vicinity of R.A.F. Fairford base,=E2=80= =9D it said Monday in a statement on X.

Many questions about the developments at R.A.F. Fairford remain unanswered.

Officials have not released the names of the arrested men, in line with British policing practice. It was unclear what steps British and American officials were taking to identify the people in charge of the plot. And the officials briefed on the recent threats said they had yet to determine what the men, who were initially detained on suspicion of explosives violations and planning a terrorist act, were trying to accomplish.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday night that the matter at the air base was a =E2=80=9Cvery serious situation=E2=80=9D that =E2=80=9Cclearly involves the h= ands of a foreign actor=E2=80=9D but declined to say whether Iran= was responsible. He added, in a television interview, that =E2=80=9Cwe are dealing with elements in the world= and in the case of Iran, for example, who have openly threatened to attack American interests globally. We=E2=80=99re going to always take that very seriously.= =E2=80=9D

Officials said that American and British intelligence services worked with Israel and Western countries to discover the threats against U.S. bases, including ones in Germany. Local residents who live near the British base have said they noticed dramatically increased security at its entrances in recent days.

Mr. Trump=E2=80=99s comments added even more uncertainty ab= out what had happened.

On Sunday, he said of the five men that =E2=80=9Cwe had th= em under view for a long time and we got them.=E2=80=9D Bu= t the police response suggested that the men had not been under lengthy surveillance. Typically, officers would make arrests well before any surveillance targets potentially armed with explosives approached a high-security target like a military base.

In Tuesday=E2=80=99s statement, Laurence Taylor, who leads Britain=E2=80=99s counterterrorism police, responded to questions about why they had released the men, saying it was an =E2=80=9Cinvestigative decision, and o= ne which is grounded in experience and careful consideration of policing powers.=E2=80=9D He also said= that investigators had searched properties in London, where the five men, all British nationals in their early 20s, were from.

The police said the men would be closely monitored while free on bail. =E2=80=9COften this threat becomes visibl= e to us as criminal activity, often at a small scale and committed by individuals whose primary aim is not terrorism but a quick financial gain,=E2=80=9D Mr. Tayl= or told reporters on Monday.

Counterterrorism experts said the unfolding events raise the possibility of a number of scenarios. For example, the Iranians could be attempting to create a diversion.

They might also be testing the base=E2=80=99s security, said Carlos T. Fernandez, a former top counterterrorism agent in the F.B.I.=E2=80=99s New York office. Though Britain owns the base, about 90 miles west of London, the United States has used it for decades to deploy heavy bombers from its long runways.

Britain has repeatedly called out the Iranian threat to the country and pinned attacks there on Iran. The powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has long targeted critics of the government but its efforts took a more violent turn after the start of the war.

An Iranian proxy called the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, or Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya, targeted Jewish communities, journalists and Israeli interests in Britain and across Europe from March to May. It claimed responsibility for seven attacks in Britain.

In May, U.S. federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged a commander of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia that is a proxy for the Revolutionary Guards, with leading the attacks in Europe and taking part in an Iranian campaign of retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli assault.

Britain has criticized Iran in connection with those attacks and taken steps to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 07:15:26 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <20260930123002.3.50b0f030c07c7421@mg-d1.substack.com> In-Reply-To: <20260930123002.3.50b0f030c07c7421@mg-d1.substack.com> From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:15:08 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK8-qzxGAbdRjkSYWN1WJbTmx9E2-1fNqaMdGzjJ4SOG2goqrwypzbpQX7A Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0000000000003cc325065cb3eebd" Subject: [Salon] Massacre at Minab: The School That Became a Grave X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 14:15:28 -0000 --0000000000003cc325065cb3eebd Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable The bombing of an Iranian school, killing 120 children, is one of the worst U.S. war crimes since Vietnam. Drop Site spoke to survivors, first responders, parents, and witnesses. This is their story. =CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD= =CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD= =CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD= =CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 = =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F = =E2=80=87 =C2=AD=CD=8F =E2=80=87 =C2=AD Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Massacre at Minab: The School That Became a Grave The bombing of an Iranian school, killing 120 children, is one of the worst U.S. war crimes since Vietnam. Drop Site spoke to survivors, first responders, parents, and witnesses. This is their story. Jeremy Scahill , Murtaza Hussain , and Reza Sayah Sep 30 READ IN APP Illustration: Images drawn by Fatemeh Zahra Bahrami, a child who survived the school bombing at Minab, provided to Drop Site. In the background, the cemetery where the victims are buried. Upgrade to paid On the morning of Saturday, February 28, people across Iran began their day like any other. It was one week into the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, and people were preparing for their work and school week. Parents hustled their children out the door for school as the notorious morning traffic jams filled the streets of Tehran and other cities. In the southern Iranian city of Minab, preschool teacher Hossniyeh Salem was getting ready to leave the house. =E2=80=9CLike any other day, I got my= child ready at 7 o=E2=80=99clock=E2=80=94because my son is in fifth grade and att= ended the same school,=E2=80=9D she recalled. =E2=80=9CI got Yassin ready and headed to sc= hool. Yassin went to the boys=E2=80=99 school and I stayed at preschool, in my own class= .=E2=80=9D It was Salem=E2=80=99s seventh year as a teacher at Shajareh Tayyebeh, a well-respected, private school. =E2=80=9CThe upper floor was for girls and = the downstairs was for boys. One section was for preschool. You can say there were three schools there. The preschool was in the same building,=E2=80=9D = she said. =E2=80=9CThere were students there from all walks of life=E2=80=94chi= ldren from working class families, educators. We had all kinds of students there.=E2= =80=9D Among the students at the school was 6-year-old Fatemeh Yazdanpanah from the fishing village of Gurzang, about eight miles from Minab. The village is well known for its daily fish market=E2=80=94a bustling, strategic hub w= here fishermen trade their catches from both the Minab River and the Persian Gulf. There is a girls=E2=80=99 school in Gurzang, but Fatemeh=E2=80=99s fa= ther, Yaghoub Yazdanpanah, saw gifts for poetry in his daughter and he wanted to secure for her the best education he could find. Left: Fatemeh Yazdanpanah, a 6 year old student at the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab. Right: Fatemeh with her father, Yaghoub. Photos courtesy of the Yazdanpanah family. =E2=80=9CFatemeh=E2=80=99s mother and I had noticed Fatemeh=E2=80=99s overf= lowing intelligence. I am a poet myself. When I would write poetry, edit poetry, I would repeat the poem. After hearing the poem once or twice, Fatemeh would immediately memorize it. When we would tell her a story, she would never forget the story and she would recite the story moment by moment, word for word,=E2=80= =9D recalled Yaghoub, who teaches Persian literature. =E2=80=9CI wanted to find= a school that would address Fatemeh=E2=80=99s needs and her active mind. I vi= sited several schools myself. Certainly, you would do the same thing. Any parent would take their child to a good school for a brighter future,=E2=80=9D he = said. =E2=80=9CThank God,=E2=80=9D he recalled thinking, =E2=80=9CI found Shajare= h Tayyebeh School.=E2=80=9D That morning, Yaghoub kissed Fatemeh goodbye before walking to the local school in Gurzang where he taught. Iranians had gone to bed the night before with the news that negotiations between government officials and the Trump administration aimed at averting war were proceeding smoothly and a new round of technical talks would soon be held in Vienna. The foreign minister of Oman=E2=80=94the longtime mediat= or in the U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations=E2=80=94was in Washington, where, after = meeting with Vice President JD Vance, he announced that recent negotiations between the two sides had =E2=80=9Cyielded substantial, momentous, and unparalleled progress=E2=80=9D that could pave the way for =E2=80=9Can honorable agreeme= nt=E2=80=9D to halt the U.S. drive to war. =E2=80=9CWe were very optimistic about the negotiations that were taking pl= ace,=E2=80=9D said Pouria Askari, a prominent Iranian international law expert, who recalled being stuck in his car that morning on his commute to the university where he lectures. =E2=80=9CWe were not expecting the beginning = of the war.=E2=80=9D At Shajareh Tayyebeh in Minab, the little girls gathered that morning in the prayer hall in observance of the day when Shia Muslims across the world commemorate the passing of Umm al-Banin, the wife of Imam Ali and the mother of four martyrs who died at the battle of Karbala in the year 680. After the prayers, Salem laid out for her students a breakfast *sofreh, *a traditional Iranian fabric placed on the floor to serve meals. The small girls of the preschool had not yet reached the age of fasting during Ramadan. They did some lessons and then went out to the playground for recess. It was around 9:30 a.m. when Salem received word that the U.S. and Israel had begun attacking Iran. Hossniyeh Salem, right, a teacher at Minab=E2=80=99s Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls School, = with her niece. Image courtesy of Helyeh Doutaghi / Khana House/ Still, Minab . Local authorities issued a directive instructing schools to send students home. Salem and other teachers immediately messaged parents to come and get their children. Iranians had experienced a similar situation the previous June, when the U.S. and Israel carried out what became known as the 12-Day War. Salem said there was no strong sense of panic. =E2=80=9CThey said thes= e are war conditions and it=E2=80=99s better if the children go home early. We di= dn=E2=80=99t have a single thought or didn=E2=80=99t imagine that they might want to hit= our school,=E2=80=9D Salem said. =E2=80=9CIn complete calm and relaxation, we w= ere calling families and telling them to come and take their children.=E2=80=9D When Salem and other teachers stood in the school yard handing off students to their parents, a massive explosion struck not far from the school campus. =E2=80=9CAs they were coming to get the kids=E2=80=94a number of th= e children had left and some were still at the school=E2=80=94I first heard the sound of a= n explosion,=E2=80=9D she recalled. Salem and her son Yassin raced back into = the school where some of the preschool kids were still waiting for their parents to arrive. The blast had shattered the windows and shards of glass sprinkled the carpeted floor. =E2=80=9CThe children were five years old and all they did was yell, =E2=80= =98Miss! Miss!=E2=80=99 and were crying. I ran to the children. I just said, =E2=80=98Get under the table!,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D Salem remembered. =E2=80=9CI didn=E2=80=99t think= they were going to strike the school. I just thought that some place had been hit. I said, =E2=80=98Don= =E2=80=99t be afraid, sit down.=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D Other teachers began grabbing students and hurrying them back toward the building and into a prayer room for cover. As Salem and her students huddled together under desks, she heard the sound of missiles hitting the building. =E2=80=9CTwo simultaneous sounds. They=E2= =80=99re still in my ear. My son even describes them=E2=80=94=E2=80=98Wooosh, boom! Woosh,= boom!=E2=80=99=E2=80=94and then the explosion very close by,=E2=80=9D Salem said. =E2=80=9CPlaster was fall= ing, the ground was shaking, and at that moment I just looked at my preschool girls and my son, and I said to myself, =E2=80=98It=E2=80=99s over. Now is the time when= we go under the rubble, it=E2=80=99s going to fall now,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D she continued. = =E2=80=9CThen there were no more sounds. The class was full of smoke and dust. I told my son, =E2=80=98Yassi= n, run and open the door. Let=E2=80=99s get out!=E2=80=99 My preschool kids didn= =E2=80=99t have shoes on since our classroom was carpeted. I took the children in my arms, one by one, and brought them outside.=E2=80=9D Chaos had broken out throughout the campus. Frantic teachers and parents. Children screaming. The building was engulfed in smoke and dust, concrete was collapsing, windows were breaking. Salem couldn=E2=80=99t pause to take= stock of any of the details. It was just apocalyptic. =E2=80=9CWe exited from the preschool yard gate until we reached the first street. I looked behind me and I saw smoke and fire coming from the school office. All I said to the preschool children was, =E2=80=98Kids, just look in front of you. Don=E2=80= =99t look back,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D Salem said. As rescue workers began to arrive, some encountered Salem with her students outside the gates. =E2=80=9CRun to the school=E2=80=94they hit the school!= =E2=80=9D she yelled. =E2=80=9CThe children are under the ruins. Go save them!=E2=80=9D Word that the war had begun spread quickly through Iran. The residence of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had been bombed, and military sites across the country were being struck by U.S. and Israeli missiles. In Gurzang, Yaghoub was teaching his class when a colleague told him of the developments. As he gathered his things to leave, a friend from the fish market called and told him that there were reports a school had been struck in Minab in the Mahdi neighborhood. =E2=80=9CMy heart told me the school th= ey were talking about was Shajareh Tayyebeh. I lost it,=E2=80=9D he said, thinking = of his daughter Fatemeh. =E2=80=9CI left my classroom, ran home, took my car, and = sped to Minab. When I arrived, I said, =E2=80=98Oh no!=E2=80=99 The unimaginable ha= d happened.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CThere was no school left. Two-thirds of the school, maybe more, ha= d been destroyed. Smoke was rising from all over the school. It had turned into rubble. For a moment, I thought I was asleep and having a nightmare,=E2=80= =9D Yaghoub said. The building of the destroyed Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school is pictured surrounded by rubble in Minab in Iran's Hormozgan province on August 10, 2026. Photo by Atta Kenare / AFP via Getty Images. What happened that day will go down in history as one of the single worst massacres committed by the U.S. government since the Vietnam War. Multiple direct air strikes, including with Tomahawk cruise missiles, hit a school packed with children and teachers. The attacks killed at least 156 people; 120 of the victims were children and 26 were teachers=E2=80=94all women, in= cluding one who was pregnant. Among the dead were also parents who had come to pick up their children. =E2=80=9CThe killing of pupils in a place dedicated to learning constitutes= a grave violation of the protection afforded to schools under international humanitarian law,=E2=80=9D the United Nations Educational, Scientific and C= ultural Organization said in a statement a day after the bombing. =E2=80=9CI was absolutely horrified,=E2=80=9D recalled Hala Rharrit, a care= er U.S. Foreign Service officer who spent 17 years at the State Department, primarily focused on the Middle East, before she resigned in 2024. =E2=80=9CKnowing t= he capabilities of our military, knowing how careful the review is for targets, I was horrified. How, how could this have happened? How could this have happened on Day One of the war?=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CI Saw Doomsday=E2=80=9D According to the Iranian government, from 10:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., a total of nine missiles hit the school and the surrounding area. Witnesses described multiple distinct strikes within a short period of time. An additional four missiles struck the area between 1-2 p.m., hitting a medical clinic, as well as a nearby car wash and other small businesses in a small commercial district close to the campus. =E2=80=9CThese were not do= uble-tap attacks. It was more than that. They were triple-taps,=E2=80=9D said Iran= =E2=80=99s Justice Minister Amin Hossein Rahimi, in an interview with Drop Site. =E2=80=9CThe = type of attack was the most serious type of war crime, which indicates a direct and heinous criminal intent.=E2=80=9D Dr. Mohadeseh Darvishi=E2=80=94a psychologist specializing in trauma=E2=80= =94lives an hour away in Bandar Abbas but is originally from Minab. Soon after the war began that morning, she began receiving calls from friends and colleagues. =E2=80= =9CThis incident was such a catastrophe and so big and it was heard everywhere. It wasn=E2=80=99t like one specific person told us. It was a crisis,=E2=80=9D = she recalled. =E2=80=9CMy colleagues from Minab and surrounding provinces were calling me= , both psychologists and different aid workers because of my specialization in this area, most of the calls were people wanting to find out what had happened in Minab. =E2=80=98Is it true that America had attacked a school?= =E2=80=99 It was puzzling to everyone why something like this had happened. Why a school?=E2= =80=9D As Darvishi made her way to the scene, rescue teams from the Iranian Red Crescent Society and the Minab Fire Department arrived at the campus. Parts of the school were on fire, while others were already reduced to rubble and collapsed concrete under massive clouds of dust. First responders described a cataclysmic scene of screaming and running, bloodied faces and bodies, with parents frantically searching for their children. Screams can be heard as parents and others arrive at the scene of the Minab school, soon after the U.S. struck it with Tomahawk cruise missiles, via Tasnim News Agency. =E2=80=9CWhen I arrived, I saw there in the area of the school yard, it was completely covered in body parts of the children=E2=80=94students who had o= nly their hands left, their legs, their heads, their fingers,=E2=80=9D recalled= Majid Dadania of the Red Crescent Emergency Response team. =E2=80=9CI was frozen.= I couldn=E2=80=99t start working. Even though I was part of the rescue crew, = my arms and legs went numb until I snapped out of it and started collecting the body parts of the martyrs=E2=80=94the children who were in pieces.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CDuring the initial moments, we were wearing masks and gloves for s= afety but after one or two hours we couldn=E2=80=99t even use any masks or gloves= because the lives of these dear children were so important to us that gloves and masks no longer mattered,=E2=80=9D said Mehran Zakeri, chief of the Minab f= ire department. =E2=80=9CWhen we removed the remains of the martyrs, we had pie= ces of these dear martyred students=E2=80=99 brains under our fingernails=E2=80=94= we had to remove their brains from under our fingernails,=E2=80=9D he recalled. =E2=80=9CThe= next day when I went to take a shower, I had to cut my fingernails because the brain matter couldn=E2=80=99t easily be removed. Our clothes were all ripped to shreds a= nd pieces of the students=E2=80=99 and teachers=E2=80=99 remains were stuck to= our clothes.=E2=80=9D That morning, Ehsan Mohseni, Minab coordinator of the Red Crescent Society, was in his office, less than a kilometer from the school. He was scanning the latest breaking news reports detailing the opening attacks of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran when he heard a strong blast in the distance. =E2=80=9CWe were very, very close to this school. I had moved from my room = to go downstairs to see what happened when there was a second strike and a few seconds later, a third strike. In the span of about 53 or 54 seconds, we had three strikes,=E2=80=9D he remembered. =E2=80=9CI realized that what wa= s attacked was the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab. When I got there, the school was destroyed and engulfed in fire and smoke. We saw extremely terrible scenes.= =E2=80=9D Mohseni described seeing children=E2=80=99s bodies flung into trees, pulver= ized against concrete=E2=80=94small, severed limbs of children strewn around. = =E2=80=9CI saw the most painful scene. Look, I=E2=80=99ve seen many things. I=E2=80=99ve worke= d 15 years as a rescue worker and member of the Red Crescent Society,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2= =80=9CMy colleague approached me and he was carrying the head of a young student.=E2= =80=9D =E2=80=9CI saw doomsday,=E2=80=9D he added. As the rescue teams worked to evacuate survivors from the building and search the rubble, more parents had arrived. =E2=80=9CMothers came to me an= d said, =E2=80=98My daughter is in the classroom,=E2=80=99 =E2=80=98My son is in th= e classroom. In God=E2=80=99s name please bring me my son,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D Mohseni said. =E2=80=9CWe di= dn=E2=80=99t know how to answer these families. Each body part that was brought out from the building and taken to the ambulances, the families ran, looking to see who it was.=E2=80= =9D Among the parents at the scene was Yaghoub, searching for Fatemeh. =E2=80= =9CPeople kept coming and coming to help, to remove the children from under the ruins. All of us were there waiting. I=E2=80=94a 32-year-old father=E2=80= =94was waiting for them to bring my daughter from under the ruins,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80=9C= Imagine the depth of this catastrophe and how hard it was for us.=E2=80=9D For more than three days, Iranian search and rescue teams, parents, and local residents worked together around the clock to recover the bodies. It was Ramadan, so they did so on empty stomachs. Each small person or body part they recovered had its own story. The boy who was identified only by his socks embroidered with an image of the cartoon character Sponge Bob. The girls with their backpacks still strapped to their lifeless bodies. =E2=80=9CThere was a father with us who was searching for his two children = until it was four or five o=E2=80=99clock at night when his fingers no longer worked= . His fingers were covered in blood. He had lost his fingernails. In that same condition, he fell asleep,=E2=80=9D recalled the Red Crescent=E2=80=99s Dad= ania. =E2=80=9CThere was also a father=E2=80=94we had nothing to give him. The only thing that remai= ned [of his child] was a school bag and shoes. The father sat and was talking to the school bag and shoes. Nothing from his child has been recovered.=E2=80= =9D A father who sat talking to his child=E2=80=99s backpack, in the aftermath of= the U.S. missile strike on the Minab school, after failing to find them in the rubble, on February 28, 2026. Photo courtesy Majid Dadania of the Red Crescent Emergency Response team. Most of the children who sought shelter with their teachers inside the prayer hall after the first cruise missile hit the area were killed in the subsequent strike. Firefighter Mohammad Yazdanpanah said that large excavation equipment was required to retrieve some of the bodies or search for survivors. He recalled a moment when an excavator was moving large slabs of concrete to clear the space for rescue workers. =E2=80=9CThe moment the excavator=E2=80= =99s bucket hit the concrete, a four or five-year-old girl=E2=80=94I don=E2=80=99t know if = she was in preschool=E2=80=94was inside the bucket and from up where she was, the back= of her brain and her skull completely fell in front of me. I was down on the ground and she was up high,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80=9CThat really impacted= me. I couldn=E2=80=99t control my tears. I sat and kneeled down. I couldn=E2=80=99t go and remove = her. One of my colleagues went and picked up the little girl in his arms, brought her down. We placed her in a body bag. I was carrying the body bag while I cried until I placed it in the ambulance that was there, and they took her.= =E2=80=9D Dr. Darvishi eventually arrived at the school and began coordinating the emergency mental-health response. =E2=80=9CWe can never accept that this wa= s an accident. An accident can=E2=80=99t happen like this,=E2=80=9D she said. = =E2=80=9CWe have the notion of martyrdom, but many mothers got to say goodbye to their martyred children when they sent them to the frontline to fight [in war]. Their minds were prepared for what was to happen. But in the therapy room, a mother [of a Minab victim] described to me that she had prepared her child=E2=80=99s snack and placed it in her backpack, kissed her face, and s= ent her to school. What was returned to her was her child=E2=80=99s backpack with a= n uneaten sandwich.=E2=80=9D A Policy of Maximum Lethality In the aftermath of the Minab strikes, the Trump administration unleashed a flurry of contradictory statements and justifications. =E2=80=9CThe Departm= ent of War would be investigating that if that was our strike,=E2=80=9D Secretary = of State Marco Rubio said on March 2. =E2=80=9CThe United States would not deliberat= ely target a school.=E2=80=9D Israel=E2=80=99s UN ambassador Danny Danon sugges= ted that Iran itself had bombed the school. =E2=80=9CSome reports show that it was actual= ly IRGC attack that targeted this school,=E2=80=9D he said . The talking point was swiftly adopted by President Donald Trump. =E2=80=9CIn my opinion, based on what I=E2=80=99ve seen, that was done by I= ran,=E2=80=9D Trump said on March 7. =E2=80=9CWe think it was done by Iran, because they=E2=80=99re = very inaccurate with their munitions, they have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran.=E2=80=9D Trump offered no evidence for his claim. Drop Site obtained a set of high-resolution photos of the missile fragments and components taken by Iranian investigators at the scene of the strike. =E2=80=9CThese all appear to be remnants of Tomahawk missiles,=E2=80=9D sai= d Trevor Ball, a weapons technical analyst at Armament Research Services, who reviewed the images. The CAGE code=E2=80=94a five-character identifier used by the U.S. government to identify companies and organizations that do business with the Department of Defense=E2=80=94is that of Raytheon, the primary contract= or for the Tomahawk missile, Ball observed. =E2=80=9CThe images show at least two different turbofan engines, which would indicate remnants of at least two Tomahawk missiles,=E2=80=9D Ball added. =E2=80=9CThe proximity between all = the struck buildings makes it very likely that remnants from different strikes could be intermixed, depending on where the remnants were specifically found. Any remnants found buried under the rubble of the school would be from the munition that hit the school.=E2=80=9D Missile fragments that Iranian investigators recovered from the site of U.S. missile strikes in Minab. The cruise missile components indicate they were manufactured by Raytheon Corporation. =E2=80=9CTomahawks have a loiter capability, and the capability to be redir= ected in flight,=E2=80=9D Ball said, referring to the possibility that the inbuilt c= amera feeds in the missile should have allowed an operator the possibility to change course if they saw a school being targeted. =E2=80=9CTomahawk missil= es can take and send photos, but unless they were already programmed to loiter after taking the photo, there wouldn=E2=80=99t have been time to select a d= ifferent target.=E2=80=9D When video and photographic evidence first emerged indicating that a U.S. Tomahawk missile was employed in the strike, Trump claimed =E2=80=9Ca Tomah= awk is very generic. It=E2=80=99s sold to other countries,=E2=80=9D falsely assert= ing that =E2=80=9CIran also has some Tomahawks. They wish they had more.=E2=80=9D In fact, only fi= ve countries possess Tomahawk missiles: the U.S., UK, Australia, Japan, and the Netherlands. Rubio and other U.S. officials deflected questions about Trump=E2=80=99s cl= aims and reiterated that the U.S. would never deliberately target civilians. War Secretary Pete Hegseth, however, continued to suggest Iran was ultimately responsible for the school bombing. =E2=80=9CThe mullahs are des= perate and scrambling,=E2=80=9D he told a news briefing on March 10. =E2=80=9CLike= the terrorist cowards they are, they fire missiles from schools and hospitals, deliberately targeting innocents.=E2=80=9D No evidence has ever been produced indicating a single munition was fired from the vicinity of the Minab school. =E2=80=9CThis level of propaganda and misinformation, disinformation that= =E2=80=99s put out, we=E2=80=99ve never seen in the U.S.=E2=80=94even with the previous co= rrupt administrations we=E2=80=99ve had since the time of our inception, just not= hing to that level,=E2=80=9D said Wes Bryant, a former senior targeting advisor at = the Pentagon who previously served as a special operations tactical air controller in the elite special warfare branch of the U.S. Air Force. =E2=80=9CThese are things that you would expect someone [from] the Iranian = regime to do and say. And, sadly, we see almost in some ways more truth being put out by the [Iranian] regime than being put out by Trump himself when it comes to these incidents.=E2=80=9D War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speak during a press conference on U.S. military action in Iran, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on March 2, 2026. Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images. On March 12, the New York Times reported that an =E2=80=9Congoing military investigation has determined that the Uni= ted States is responsible for a deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school.=E2=80=9D Citing sources briefed on preliminary findings,= the Times wrote: =E2=80=9CThe =E2=80=98target coding=E2=80=99 provided by the D= efense Intelligence Agency, the military intelligence agency that helps develop targets, labeled the school building as a military target when it was passed to Central Command, the military headquarters overseeing the war.=E2=80=9D The next day, Hegseth announced that U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) had launched an internal investigation. =E2=80=9CThere=E2=80=99s only one entit= y in this conflict, between us and Iran, that never targets civilians, literally never targets civilians,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80=9CWe will investigate. We= =E2=80=99ll get to the truth and we=E2=80=99ll share it when we have it.=E2=80=9D CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper told Congress in May, =E2=80=9CThe sc= hool itself is located on an active IRGC cruise missile base. It=E2=80=99s more = complex than the average strike.=E2=80=9D Bryant said he has not seen any indication the school was housed on an active missile facility or base. =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s pretty disturbing to= hear that kind of excuse from someone like Cooper who should know better, because it doesn=E2=80=99t matter if a school is on the base and not even closed off, = it=E2=80=99s still a protected entity,=E2=80=9D said Bryant, whose last position at the = Pentagon in 2024 was the chief of civilian harm assessment for the Department of Defense. =E2=80=9CThose children, all those civilians, are still non-combat= ants and protected, so it=E2=80=99s really disgusting to hear that. This wasn=E2=80= =99t even fragmentation that hit a school next to another target. This was deliberately targeted very, very clearly and obviously. So at the very least, [it was a] complete mischaracterization of the target.=E2=80=9D At the G7 summit in France on June 17, a reporter asked Trump if anyone would be held accountable for the Minab strike. =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s a str= ange question to be asked at this state=E2=80=94we=E2=80=99re talking about a long time ago,= =E2=80=9D Trump quipped. =E2=80=9CNobody did that on purpose. I guess you=E2=80=99d have to say abou= t [Iran], =E2=80=98What about the thousands of soldiers that they blew up when they opened their car door? What about the thousands of people that were killed by Iran?=E2= =80=99 No, mistakes are made. War is nasty.=E2=80=9D He cited the ongoing internal investigation and claimed, =E2=80=9CI could have a report for you tomorrow.= =E2=80=9D No such report has been produced. According to Bloomberg News , which spoke to more than two dozen U.S. officials and sources familiar with the internal Pentagon probe, the school was placed on a list of targets to strike in the opening hours of the war because it had been categorized as part of an IRGC naval facility. Sources told Bloomberg that the =E2=80=9Cki= ll chain=E2=80=9D that led to the attack included input from the Maven artific= ial intelligence system operated by Palantir. Maven did not flag that the site was now a school, the report claimed, nor did any personnel tasked with reviewing the AI target data. =E2=80=9CIn past conflicts, preparing lists o= f proposed targets=E2=80=94work that includes assessing how they align with a= n operation=E2=80=99s objectives=E2=80=94had taken hours for staffers to comp= lete,=E2=80=9D the report said. =E2=80=9CAhead of the U.S. attack on Iran, much of that work w= as condensed into several minutes via Maven.=E2=80=9D Harrison Mann, a former U.S. Army major and intelligence analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), said that it is likely that the standard vetting that should have happened before launching strikes was not implemented, in part due to the pressure put on analysts to produce a sweeping bank of targets to hit following the political decision to launch the war. =E2=80=9CLets say there are 20,000 possible targets in Iran, you have a lim= ited amount of analysts who have to check all these, and in normal times they are not necessarily going to be going through all of these 20,000 points to make sure they are updated,=E2=80=9D said Mann, who worked at the Middle East/Africa center at DIA. =E2=80=9CWe do not know at what point the DOD or intelligence community was told that they needed to formally prepare for this operation. Even if everyone who was supposed to began going through and re-vetting these targets, they may not have had enough time to go back through all of them and make sure this one wasn=E2=80=99t a school that you= could find on Google Maps.=E2=80=9D President Donald Trump sits at a table monitoring military operations against Iran, in Washington D.C. on March 02, 2026. Trump initially claimed that Iran had bombed the Minab school. Photo by The White House / Anadolu via Getty Images. Trump has boasted that U.S. surveillance capabilities are so advanced its satellites can read name badges on Iranian employees entering nuclear facilities. =E2=80=9CWe can read the name of a person. If his name is Moham= mad something=E2=80=94and most of =E2=80=98em are Mohammad, you can guess about= 50% right=E2=80=94we can read his name right on his tag from space,=E2=80=9D Trump boasted to Fo= x News in May. =E2=80=9CThis president of the United States=E2=80=94look at his interviews= . He says we have tools, we have cameras that can read car license plates in Tehran. He even mentioned the name of Mohammad,=E2=80=9D said Rahimi, the justice mini= ster. =E2=80=9CHow is it possible for a country that is so well equipped=E2=80=94= and we accept that the United States has advanced capabilities and equipment=E2=80=94how = could he not have known that there was a school here? For more than ten years, this has been a school.=E2=80=9D Rharrit, the former U.S. diplomat who served under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Trump, and Joe Biden, said the narrative being shaped about the strike is that the school was collateral damage in a legitimate military operation aimed at eliminating a key IRGC missile facility. This explanation, she said, deserves intense scrutiny. =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s not complicated. The way strikes are approved=E2=80= =94especially strikes of this caliber, of this significance, on Day One of a war=E2=80=94and the cha= in of command that it goes through, not just up and down, but side to side in terms of interagency, there are so many layers. It=E2=80=99s immense,=E2=80= =9D she said. =E2=80=9CThere is a clear structure to how targets are done and an investig= ation is not complicated as long as there=E2=80=99s the political will. But there=E2= =80=99s clearly no political will to actually have an investigation. There=E2=80=99s politi= cal will for a cover-up.=E2=80=9D Bryant, who helped lead U.S. targeting operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, said he has not seen evidence that the U.S. knowingly bombed an active school. =E2=80=9CI would be very, very surprised=E2=80=94but I guess= even more horrified and angered=E2=80=94to ever find out that a targeting team, that = Central Command actually knew this was a school full of children and teachers and made a decision to target,=E2=80=9D he said, even if they thought bombing t= he school would achieve a military objective. =E2=80=9CThat=E2=80=99s an IDF, = that=E2=80=99s an Israeli type of proportionality call.=E2=80=9D Based on Bryant=E2=80=99s knowledge of the targeting procedures and his understanding of changes made under Hegseth at the Pentagon, he believes that the military likely bypassed standard vetting of the target, relied on outdated maps, and ignored or eliminated basic reviews aimed at assessing potential civilian impact of bombing specific targets. President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth step off Air Force in Dover, Delaware, on March 18, 2026. Photo by Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images. Early in his tenure as War Secretary in 2025, Hegseth dissolved the Civilian Protection Center at the Pentagon=E2=80=94where Bryant worked=E2= =80=94and announced a policy of =E2=80=9Cmaximum lethality, not tepid legality.=E2=80=9D The Tr= ump administration has staked out a public and internal posture that has dramatically loosened restrictions on the killing of civilians, and Trump has repeatedly stated U.S. intent to bomb civilian sites. =E2=80=9CI think = these are all sinking together. And then, of course, the rhetoric from not just Hegseth, but especially Trump himself about destroying an entire civilization, all of that filters into the culture,=E2=80=9D said Bryant. T= hese factors, he charged, combined with the drive to strike an unprecedented number of sites in Iran in a short amount of time=E2=80=94the Pentagon boas= ted of hitting more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours of the Iran war=E2=80=94created the conditions for the Minab strike. =E2=80=9CThe U.S. meant to target that facility, that school, but per their= own negligence and recklessness, did not know at the time what it was. And there=E2=80=99s no excuse. This is not fog of war stuff. This is very 101. = We had plenty of time to prepare these targets,=E2=80=9D Bryant said. =E2=80=9CIt= =E2=80=99s incredible to me that they took all this data that was over 10 years old, and none of it was re-vetted and re-validated. It wouldn=E2=80=99t have taken very long to= do that,=E2=80=9D he added. =E2=80=9CEvery time I look at it, it is just incre= dibly, incredibly mind boggling. I=E2=80=99ve never seen anything like that in all= my 20-plus years of doing targeting myself. But I think it speaks to the culture change that Hegseth has instituted.=E2=80=9D *=E2=80=9CThere=E2=80=99s no way to say that this was some type of error. Y= ou=E2=80=99re either saying that our U.S. Military is completely incompetent, that despite the multiple layers of review, everybody messed up=E2=80=94or there was somethi= ng very, very sinister about this strike.=E2=80=9D* A UN fact-finding mission concluded that =E2=80=9Cthe building of the schoo= l was the intended point of impact and that the damage did not result from an errant strike or collateral damage from the attack on the adjacent IRGC compound,=E2=80=9D adding, =E2=80=9CNo information indicates that the schoo= l was used for military purposes.=E2=80=9D Rharrit said the strike haunts her and she struggles to understand how such a catastrophic mistake could happen. Pointing to the extensive surveillance capabilities the U.S. employs before airstrikes and the fact that the schoolyard was packed with children, teachers, and parents at the time of the attack, she said she has gnawing questions about intent. =E2=80=9CThere=E2=80=99s no way to say that this was some type of error,=E2= =80=9D Rharrit said. =E2=80=9CYou=E2=80=99re either saying that our U.S. Military is completely = incompetent, that despite the multiple layers of review, everybody messed up=E2=80=94or = there was something very, very sinister about this strike.=E2=80=9D Bryant, however, said it is possible that the military was not persistently monitoring the Minab site in real time ahead of the strike, because the U.S. had not yet established =E2=80=9Cair superiority=E2=80=9D to fly drone= s or other surveillance craft above each target in the early stages of the war. The volume of strikes in the opening hours of the bombing meant that many attacks were effectively launched on auto-pilot. Nonetheless, Bryant said, the military should have pulled the most recent satellite and intelligence on any targets it intended to hit prior to the launch of the war. Satellite imagery captured in late 2025=E2=80=94two mont= hs before the strike=E2=80=94showed children standing in the school yard and o= n a soccer field. CENTCOM also had an obligation to review each target and follow established oversight procedures before giving a green light, Bryant said. =E2=80=9CYou can conduct [strikes] without eyes overhead, but you sti= ll have the obligation to meet all those criteria that we have in our targeting doctrine and policy. One of those is actual characterization of, and vetting of, each and every target and then=E2=80=94as near real-time as possible=E2=80=94risk assessment. That means characterization of the civili= an environment and pattern of life, collateral damage assessment,=E2=80=9D he = said. =E2=80=9CNone of those were accomplished. And there=E2=80=99s other ways to= accomplish that. Another way is a five second Google search of that area.=E2=80=9D Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi, a scholar of international law and political economy at Tehran University, said the reported Pentagon explanation for the strike serves a mission aimed at =E2=80=9Cobscuring the nature of the attack by re= ducing it to outdated maps, AI failures, or bureaucratic and budgetary shortcomings.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CHuman error may explain an isolated mistake; it cannot adequately = explain a repeated strike on the same area several hours after the initial attack,= =E2=80=9D Doutaghi said. =E2=80=9CWhat is particularly troubling about this framing is that it asks = us to consider the incident in isolation, detached from the longer history of warfare in which schools, hospitals, religious sites, journalists, and other civilian spaces have repeatedly become targets. Historical memory matters here,=E2=80=9D she added. =E2=80=9CWe remember statements from U.S.= officials warning Iranians that those who wished to remain alive should leave. And we have witnessed, of course, in Gaza, the normalization of attacks on civilian infrastructure on a scale that has profoundly altered the level of public tolerance for violations of international humanitarian law.=E2=80=9D *=E2=80=9CThe administration and Hegseth have made it quite clear that they= don=E2=80=99t really care about civilian casualties. That may also have been true of previous bombing campaigns that predate the Trump administration, but it is even more the case than in the past and they have made it clear that troops do not need to be concerned about consequences.=E2=80=9D* If the U.S. ultimately claims that the Minab strike was a =E2=80=9Cmistake= =E2=80=9D caused by outdated intelligence and human error, international law experts say, this would still not absolve the U.S. from liability for committing a war crime. =E2=80=9CThe Geneva Conventions require those who plan an attack to do =E2= =80=98everything feasible=E2=80=99 to verify that the objectives to be attacked are neither civilians nor civilian objects; to take all feasible precautions in the choice of means and methods of attack; and to refrain from attacks expected to cause excessive civilian casualties. This obligation requires, at minimum, that target data be reasonably current,=E2=80=9D said human rights attorney and international war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody. =E2=80=9CThe U= nited States plainly failed to do everything feasible to verify that the attacked building was a military objective rather than a protected school,=E2=80=9D = Brody added. =E2=80=9CThis was the result of a systematic failure by the U.S. gov= ernment, which launched an unlawful war of choice without proper planning or adequate legal oversight. It reflects a broader pattern of degrading civilian-casualty review mechanisms that should have flagged this strike as unlawful before it was executed.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CThe administration and Hegseth have made it quite clear that they = don=E2=80=99t really care about civilian casualties. That may also have been true of previous bombing campaigns that predate the Trump administration, but it is even more the case than in the past and they have made it clear that troops do not need to be concerned about consequences,=E2=80=9D said Mann. =E2=80= =9CThere is no mystery about what coordinates those missiles hit and that question would have been answerable on the day of the strikes. The only way that CENTCOM would not know is that they are choosing to be willfully ignorant.=E2=80=9D A view from inside a classroom at the destroyed Shajareh Tayebeh primary school in Minab. Photo by Atta Kenare / AFP via Getty Images. Many people in Iran believe the Minab school bombing was intentional, a deliberate strike aimed at inspiring terror and sending a message that the =E2=80=9Cregime=E2=80=9D cannot protect the people and that no target was o= ff limits as long as it remained in power. =E2=80=9CFrom the very first hours, the attacks were characterized by an extraordinary level of shock=E2=80=94and not just Minab: the decapitation o= f the political leadership, including the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei and members of his family and staff, followed by the mass killing of children in Minab, as well as targeting a medical clinic in the same city all in one day. The political significance of this sequence lies in its capacity to produce a profound crisis of collective morale,=E2=80=9D said Doutaghi, who traveled to Minab after the bombing and conducted extensive interviews with survivors and families. =E2=80=9CThis is where the logic of shock and = awe, I think, becomes at play. The objective of such a strategy is not confined to destroying military or governmental targets. It seeks to communicate to an entire society that no space is safe, that the state is incapable of protecting its population, and that resistance itself is futile,=E2=80=9D s= he added. =E2=80=9CThe killing of children is particularly devastating within = this logic because it attacks the emotional and symbolic foundations through which a society reproduces itself. The child is not just a victim of war, but a political symbol of the state=E2=80=99s supposed failure to protect i= ts future.=E2=80=9D Salem, the preschool teacher, is not a law expert or a government official, but her questions echo those being asked by such people. =E2=80=9CThey said= it was a missile base. If you wanted to attack it, you could=E2=80=99ve attacked a= t night. Why did you attack at a time when children were in school?=E2=80=9D she ask= ed. =E2=80=9CWhat did you see at the school? What were you afraid of? You were = afraid of the children? What does a school have other than school bags, books, and notebooks? Our children=E2=80=99s missiles were made out of paper.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9COur Children are Broken=E2=80=9D The city of Minab in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan lies in a strategic location. Sitting just above the narrowest chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz, directly across from Oman=E2=80=99s Musandam Peninsula, i= t has long served as both a significant trade hub as well as home to Iranian military forces tasked with monitoring and securing the vital waterway. =E2=80=9CMinab is one of the most historical and oldest cities of Hormozgan province. If you study Marco Polo=E2=80=99s travelogue, he mentions the por= t connected to Minab. He passed through the Persian Gulf using this route,=E2= =80=9D said Dr. Mohammad Movarekh, director of Hazrat Abolfazl Hospital, the primary medical facility in the area. =E2=80=9CThe people here are mostly f= armers. It=E2=80=99s also a coastal region. If you meet the people, many do work re= lated to fishing. They are very gentle, simple, and very good people.=E2=80=9D More than a decade ago, the campus that would eventually house the Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls=E2=80=99 School was part of a compound that included barrack= s for the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). But in 2014, the area was redeveloped and designated for civilian use, with the IRGC retaining one section for an administrative building. =E2=80=9CIt was decided that th= e compound of this military site should be allocated to civilian activities and vacated by the military,=E2=80=9D said the office of the governor of Ho= rmozgan in a statement to Drop Site News. The only remaining IRGC presence in the general vicinity was the administrative headquarters of its Naval Force, the statement said. =E2=80=9CThis process began in various sections of the = large compound in 2014 with the establishment of a school and a clinic, and portions of the former military site were reassigned to these civilian uses. The school and clinic thereafter commenced operations as entirely separate entities.=E2=80=9D The school, the statement added, =E2=80=9Cobtai= ned its establishment license in 2015 and has operated officially and publicly since that year.=E2=80=9D The Hormozgan authorities provided Drop Site with= two internal administrative documents formalizing the registration of the boys and girls schools at the site. Large walls were erected separating the school from any other buildings, and it featured its own gated entrances and exits in a broader area that included shops and small businesses. The IRGC administrative facility was the first target hit the morning of February 28, several hundred meters away from the school. The IRGC had vacated those offices in 2025, following the Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran known as the 12-Day War, and no personnel were present when the Minab strikes occurred, the governor=E2=80= =99s office said. The IRGC did have an active, publicly identified facility more than a mile away from the school, but that site was not targeted in the early hours of the war. When the U.S. bombed the school and other buildings, there were no secondary explosions that would have occurred if the missiles had hit a weapons depot. =E2=80=9CNo missile-related or military activities of the ki= nd falsely reported in the media took place at that location,=E2=80=9D said th= e governor=E2=80=99s office. A drawing done by Mohammad Sharafi, a survivor of the Minab school bombing. His hands were burned in the attack and his sister and aunt were killed. While the school offered priority enrollment to the children of military personnel, its student body was made up of Iranian families from diverse backgrounds, including low income families from Minab as well as ethnic minorities. Its motto was: =E2=80=9CToday I learn; tomorrow we build.=E2=80= =9D The school was a beloved institution in Minab and the region and maintained an active online presence with images regularly posted on its website depicting school plays and classroom activities. Videos showed students=E2= =80=99 paintings and drawings on the walls, children signing tributes to their mothers, teachers distributing sweets and drinks. A wall-to-wall mural stretched across the school=E2=80=99s entrance showing a girl reading a boo= k in a field of flowers, surrounded by fluttering butterflies. =E2=80=9CWhen you s= ee the school environment, the playground, the classrooms, all the evidence and signs that show that this is a school were clearly there beforehand. The location of the school, the neighborhood, and even in social media, all of this is clear,=E2=80=9D said Pirhossein Kolivand, the director of the Irani= an Red Crescent Society. =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s been close to 13 or 14 years that there is no militar= y base there. Maybe it was there in the past but it=E2=80=99s been more than 13 or 14 yea= rs that this has been a school where elementary school students were studying,=E2= =80=9D said Zakeri, the chief of the Minab fire department. =E2=80=9CThere was a c= linic, a business district, there was a school, there was a car wash.=E2=80=9D On the day of the bombing, rescue teams created a system to organize the bodies and other victims=E2=80=99 remains and transfer them to the Minab ho= spital. =E2=80=9CAlmost an hour after the incident, the city and the hospital were = in complete chaos. Everyone from the city had gathered in the hospital. Everybody was worried about their children and what had happened. In this incident, three of our hospital personnel had their children martyred there,=E2=80=9D recalled Dr. Movarekh. =E2=80=9COur own personnel were look= ing for their children, to see if they could find them among the martyrs and victims who were being brought to us. It was unimaginable.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CIn times of war, you expect the wounded to be military forces, but= on the day of the incident, in the beginning, we only saw victims who were school children,=E2=80=9D Movarekh added. As the hospital staff scrambled to create makeshift triage facilities in its overwhelmed halls, word came sometime after 1 p.m. that another Tomahawk strike had hit the area by the school, including the Shahid Absalan Medical Clinic near the campus, where some of the victims were being treated. =E2=80=9CWe were doing work, we were removing the martyrs, removing the chi= ldren. It was packed with crowds there when the second [wave of] strikes hit,=E2= =80=9D recalled the Red Crescent Society=E2=80=99s Dadania, who estimated the late= r missile attacks struck 50-80 meters from the school building. =E2=80=9CIt h= it the clinic and the co-op company there, and there was a car wash next door. It hit these three. It wasn=E2=80=99t far away. The blast wave came towards us= . The shrapnel hit the nearby wall but it didn=E2=80=99t hit the crowds or the pe= ople,=E2=80=9D he added. =E2=80=9CThe crowds were really big. If that strike were to hit t= he school or the school yard, it would=E2=80=99ve been a huge human catastroph= e=E2=80=94more than one thousand people would=E2=80=99ve been martyred.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CIt was close to the school,=E2=80=9D said Yaghoub, who was continu= ing to search for his daughter at the time. =E2=80=9CYou heard a sound and then immediate= ly an explosion. They were no more than a few seconds apart. Within one-hundredth of a second, the missiles hit these three locations one after another. We were worried about our children there. It was a horrifying scene.=E2=80=9D A drawing by a Fatemeh Zahra Bahrami, a survivor of the Minab bombing, depicting children in the school yard as a tomahawk missile hits their school. By the time the clinic was hit, global media organizations had already reported the strike on the school and that large numbers of students had been killed. The clinic strike immediately spurred rumors that the main hospital could be hit next. =E2=80=9CWhen this happened, many of the ordinary people who were inside th= e hospital ran away. But I saw myself how both the doctors and nurses stayed, until the last moment,=E2=80=9D Movarekh said. =E2=80=9CWe were ready to di= e. It would=E2=80=99ve been better in those circumstances. It didn=E2=80=99t make a difference.=E2= =80=9D By that time, the hospital was overflowing with victims and body parts. =E2=80=9CMinab Hospital is a general hospital with all the specialized fiel= ds, but this general hospital has a limited capacity,=E2=80=9D Movarekh explained. = =E2=80=9CThe number of our morgue drawers where we keep individuals who have passed away is six. Even during normal times, these drawers are rarely full. These drawers are empty. For incidents like this, no such capacity exists.=E2=80= =9D The hospital staff had to place some bodies and fragments inside the cooling facilities in the hospital cafeteria and kitchen, which quickly filled up. =E2=80=9CWe called people who were fish and shrimp distributors,= because this is a coastal area. We asked for their help and for their freezers. They came here so we could handle the martyrs being brought here,=E2=80=9D = Movarekh said. =E2=80=9CWe had to use freezer trucks for transporting fish.=E2=80=9D That night, with families crowding both the hospital and the site of the bombing, the hospital organized an ad hoc system to help families identify their loved ones. =E2=80=9CMost of the martyrs were either burned, unfortun= ately, or were crushed under debris that had fallen on them and were in pieces. On the night of the incident, we took all the martyrs into a morgue and took their pictures,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80=9CWe brought these pictures to the= hospital mosque around 9:30 or 10 at night. We showed them to the families using a video projector.=E2=80=9D In the evening, Yaghoub and other family members had split up to wait for word of Fatemeh=E2=80=94some remained at the bombing site and Yaghoub went = to the hospital. He said that in his heart he knew she was gone. Searching for her, he had entered the bombed school that day and saw the scale of the destruction in the area that once housed her classroom. =E2=80=9CAfter two = or three hours had passed, everyone knew. If you were there too, you would know no one could=E2=80=99ve made it out of there alive,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80= =9CWe knew our children had been martyred, we knew our children were no longer with us.=E2=80=9D Every time an ambulance or vehicle would arrive at the hospital entrance, desperate families would surround it, hoping for any sign of their loved ones. =E2=80=9CInside and outside the hospital, in front of the hospital wh= ere there is a major street, it was completely blocked because so many people had come looking for their children,=E2=80=9D Movarekh recalled. Shortly after 11 p.m., Yaghoub=E2=80=99s suspicions proved true when an amb= ulance sped to the entrance of the hospital. =E2=80=9CI knew,=E2=80=9D he said. = =E2=80=9CIf I describe the scene, it would break anyone=E2=80=99s heart. When they brought Fatemeh, sh= e was in one piece because she had been in her teacher=E2=80=99s arms [when she died= ]. When they brought Asra, her cousin=E2=80=94they were found together=E2=80=94she = too was in their teacher=E2=80=99s arms. Their backpacks were there too,=E2=80=9D he added. = =E2=80=9CThey said when they opened her notebook and read, =E2=80=98Fatemeh Yazdanpanah,=E2=80=99 t= hat=E2=80=99s when it was clear who she was.=E2=80=9D Yaghoub said that rescue workers told him i= t appeared the teacher had been trying to shield the girls from the impact of the missiles when they died. =E2=80=9CThe teacher=E2=80=99s family say she = had numerous injuries in various parts of her body,=E2=80=9D he said. Mourners hold a portrait of Fatemeh Yazdanpanah and her cousin Asra during a funeral ceremony for children killed in the U.S. strike on Minab, on March 03, 2026. Thousands of people, including families and officials, attended the ceremony. Photo by Stringer / Anadolu via Getty Images. The next day, families who had not yet found their children were permitted to enter the morgue facilities. =E2=80=9CBy going to the morgue in person a= nd seeing their children or mostly their clothes, their school bags, for example, their socks or shoes, they were able to identify them. The incident was so bad that many of the bodies were dismembered. They found a hand, a leg, half of a body. This is how some of the remains were identified,=E2=80=9D said Mokaveh. =E2=80=9CI don=E2=80=99t know how you can describe this. What happened that= day is indescribable. You had to be there to experience what we did,=E2=80=9D Mova= rekh said. =E2=80=9CThis is the first time I=E2=80=99ve been able to talk about = what happened. People asked me, but I couldn=E2=80=99t. I avoided it. Even with all these = months that have passed, I still can=E2=80=99t describe this incident the way I sa= w it.=E2=80=9D When Salem, the preschool teacher, and her son, Yassin, got into her husband=E2=80=99s car, she was hysterical. =E2=80=9CI cried so much and I w= as hitting myself. My husband said, =E2=80=98What happened to your head? Your head is bleeding.=E2=80=99 I said, =E2=80=98Forget about my head,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D= she remembered. =E2=80=9CNow, I had time to look at my son=E2=80=99s leg which was cut by glass and his leg was bleeding. He said, =E2=80=98Just don=E2=80=99t take me to the hospital. Mam= a, they=E2=80=99re going to hit the hospital and blow it up. If we stay in Minab, they will blow up Minab too.=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D Dr. Darvishi became the lead psychologist treating the families of the victims as well as the 283 children who survived that day. =E2=80=9CThere w= ere child survivors who were being helped to leave the school, bloody clothes, dirt and debris=E2=80=94they had come out of the school and were either loo= king for their friends or they were looking for a car that could take them away from there. Everyone there was looking for the remains of their own loved ones,= =E2=80=9D she said. Drawing by student Fatemeh Zahra Bahrami, a survivor of the school bombing, depicting Trump, a missile emblazoned with the Israeli flag, and a serpent. =E2=80=9CA seven-year-old girl who was at the school described to me that w= hen the school was hit, her teacher helped them and took them into the school=E2=80= =99s prayer room and then the school was hit again. She saw the death, the martyrdom of her friends. She saw the death of her teacher,=E2=80=9D Darvis= hi said. =E2=80=9CWe have several survivors who lost their sisters and brothers at t= he school. They are suffering both from PTSD=E2=80=94they have suffered blast = waves to their brains=E2=80=94and they=E2=80=99re grieving for their sisters and bro= thers. And they have various painful thoughts such as, =E2=80=98Why am I alive? Why couldn= =E2=80=99t I help my brother? Why couldn=E2=80=99t I help my sister? Why was my teacher hurt = for trying to help me?=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CWhat has happened to these children and their parents is that scho= ol is no longer a safe place for them=E2=80=94not just for those 280 children who we= re at that school, but for all the children of Minab,=E2=80=9D Darvishi said. Salem said Yassin is trapped in a mental prison of the events of the bombing, struggling with the guilt and shame of surviving while his classmates died. =E2=80=9CI was a witness and saw this. For me, it=E2=80=99= s hard, mentally. I am 30 years old but then you have a child who is just 10 years old,=E2=80=9D Salem said. =E2=80=9CRight now, my son says, =E2=80=98I won= =E2=80=99t forgive you.=E2=80=99 To me, his mother. =E2=80=98I won=E2=80=99t forgive my mother.=E2=80=99 Why won=E2= =80=99t you forgive your mother? =E2=80=98Because my mother came too early [and rescued me]. If she hadn=E2= =80=99t come after me quickly, I would=E2=80=99ve been martyred, I would=E2=80=99ve had = a gravestone at the Flowerbed of Martyrs Cemetery, I would be in heaven with my friends and teachers.=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9COur children are broken,=E2=80=9D Salem laments. =E2=80=9CMy son= =E2=80=94I told his father that he=E2=80=99ll never be a child again. His spirit is broken.=E2=80=9D Hossniyeh Salem, a teacher at the Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls=E2=80=99 School, and her so= n Yassin at the site of the U.S. bombing in Minab, Iran. Screenshot via Reuters Connect / CGTV News. Dr. Darvishi said the layers of trauma created by the school massacre have touched every household in Minab. =E2=80=9CThe 16 psychologists and experts= who were from Minab, all of them said that we cannot provide mental health services because our own loved ones were at the school,=E2=80=9D she said. = =E2=80=9CMinab is a city where many are related to one another or there was a neighbor who someone lost, or someone from our own family, and our own thoughts are filled with grief and stress from this issue.=E2=80=9D The children who survived that day are haunted by guilt and shame, as are many parents of the victims. =E2=80=9CIn grief, there are several stages. T= he first stage is denial, the next stage is self-criticism, anger, and depression until the acceptance stage happens. Many parents are at the self-criticism stage, and the feeling of guilt,=E2=80=9D Darvishi said. =E2=80=9CI had a t= alk with a mother who told me that she was to blame for her child=E2=80=99s martyrdom,= because =E2=80=98My son told me that morning that he had a stomach ache and didn=E2= =80=99t want to go to school. I killed my son. I was the one who caused my son=E2=80=99s de= ath.=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D Salem said the night of the bombing she was calling as many of the parents of her students as she could, as well as those of her former students. She recalled how the parent of one of her students confronted her. =E2=80=9CDid= n=E2=80=99t you say my child was your child? You saved Yassin. You couldn=E2=80=99t save my= child?=E2=80=9D Salem remembered. =E2=80=9CI said, =E2=80=98I swear he wasn=E2=80=99t with = me.=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D She paused to regain her composure. =E2=80=9CIt is very hard.=E2=80=9D The surviving children of Minab have recurring nightmares and many wake up screaming. =E2=80=9CSome of them say, =E2=80=98We hear our friend=E2=80=99s= voice calling me for help, and I couldn=E2=80=99t help him. No matter how much I searched, I cou= ldn=E2=80=99t help my friend. I couldn=E2=80=99t find him,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D said Darvish= i. =E2=80=9CTheir dreams are mostly explosions, terrible noises, the body parts they saw, the voices of their teachers. They dream that they=E2=80=99re at school and it=E2=80=99s = quiet and then there=E2=80=99s an explosion. They dream about what they experienced.=E2=80= =9D Many surviving children lost their appetites, their ability to concentrate or comprehend the time or day. Some believe their friends or teachers may still be alive and ask if they can look for them in the rubble of the school. A drawing by Asra, a child who survived the Minab school bombing. The psychologist treating her said Asra saw the severed hand of a classmate. =E2=80=9CI=E2=80=99ve heard that at the Flowerbed of Martyrs Cemetery, a ch= ild came and took matches, took a lighter to burn their own hand and leg to see how the ones who burned felt, what their pain felt like,=E2=80=9D said Salem. =E2=80=9CImagine a six-year-old child speaking about this, saying, =E2=80= =98I saw a hand. I think it was Ali=E2=80=99s hand. I saw a leg. I think it was him.=E2=80=99 = And they have this feeling that maybe they=E2=80=99re not a good person. Children don=E2= =80=99t have the ability to analyze. Oftentimes, they think maybe they weren=E2=80=99t good = and that=E2=80=99s why they couldn=E2=80=99t save their friends,=E2=80=9D Darvi= shi said. =E2=80=9CThey have severe guilt, a severe guilty conscience.=E2=80=9D Salem said that her 8-year-old niece, who was also a student at the school and survived the bombing, believes the U.S. and Israel are still hunting the surviving students. =E2=80=9CShe said, =E2=80=98I swear, they=E2=80=99r= e looking for the children of Shajareh Tayyebeh School. They want to martyr all of us and that=E2=80=99s when the war will end.=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CA Phenomenon of Sinister Injustice=E2=80=9D On the morning of April 8, 1970, Israeli warplanes crossed into Egyptian airspace and conducted a direct strike on Bahr el-Baqar primary school south of Port Said. It was 9:20 a.m., and there were more than 100 students in the school at the time. The U.S.-manufactured F-4 Phantom II jets dropped five bombs and fired two missiles at the school and unloaded machine gun rounds into the building. The structure was completely flattened, killing at least 34 children and wounding more than four dozen others. It became known in Bahr el-Baqar as =E2=80=9CThe Black Day.=E2=80= =9D The Israeli attack occurred during a period known as the =E2=80=9Cwar of at= trition=E2=80=9D that followed the end of the 1967 war. Tel Aviv subsequently claimed that its intelligence had mistakenly determined the school was a military target, but in the immediate aftermath of the strike, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan defended the attack. =E2=80=9CWe have checked and re-checked an= d there was no mistake this time,=E2=80=9D he told Israeli radio, saying that he was =E2=80=9Cconvinced beyond any doubt=E2=80= =9D that the Israeli planes hit a military base and if Israel had bombed a school, it was inside the base. More than a half a century after the Bahr el-Baqar school bombing by Israel, the U.S. has followed a similar narrative trajectory. It is a familiar one: When the U.S. and its allies kill civilians, it is assumed to be unintended, =E2=80=9Ccollateral damage,=E2=80=9D or the fault of their a= dversaries who use children as human shields. In April, a group of more than 100 prominent international law experts=E2=80=94including former U.S. military judges advocate general=E2=80=94published an open letter asserting that the Minab strike =E2=80=9Clikely violates international huma= nitarian law, and if evidence is found that those responsible were reckless, it could also be a war crime. The strike is among the deadliest single attacks by the U.S. military on civilians in recent decades.=E2=80=9D Women hold up schoolbooks and a backpack of children killed in the U.S. strike in Minab, on March 3, 2026. Photo by Morteza Akhondi. In September, a UN fact-finding mission concluded that the U.S. had committed a war crime in its attack on the school, charging, =E2=80=9Cwhen targeting the school building, the U.S. act= ed willfully, that is with the requisite mental element of recklessness.=E2=80= =9D The mission=E2=80=99s report cited =E2=80=9Cdeprioritization of civilian harm m= itigation=E2=80=9D measures by top U.S. officials and open disregard for international humanitarian law principles. It cited the use of outdated maps as well as publicly available data clearly showing the school was a civilian site prior to the onset of the war. =E2=80=9CThe U.S.=E2=80=99s failure to updat= e information in relation to the school in its targeting databases and to verify that the building was a military objective before launching the attack went beyond mere negligence,=E2=80=9D the mission determined. =E2=80=9CRather, the U.S.= directed the strikes at the building of the school while being aware of a substantial risk of striking a civilian object and acting recklessly as regards the possibility that this would happen.=E2=80=9D The mission concluded there ar= e =E2=80=9Creasonable grounds to believe the United States committed the war = crime of launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in the loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects.=E2=80=9D Iran is weighing its legal options. =E2=80=9CWe will pursue this. This prin= ciple still exists that aggressors shall not go unpunished,=E2=80=9D said Rahimi,= Iran=E2=80=99s Justice Minister. In Iran itself, prosecutors and criminal investigators have gathered an enormous volume of forensic materials and eyewitness testimony. They recovered the shrapnel and remnants of the U.S. Tomahawk missiles and guidance systems. Rahimi described the publicly available evidence that this was a direct hit on a clearly identified school as overwhelming and indisputable. The official figure reported by the Ministry of Justice remains 168 people killed in the attacks, but to date only 156 bodies have been identified. =E2=80=9CThe fear and terror they created=E2=80=94they did this deliberatel= y,=E2=80=9D Rahimi said. =E2=80=9CThey wanted to create this fear and panic.=E2=80=9D He said that I= ran is gathering evidence indicating the strike was intentional, though he declined to offer details. The Shajareh Tayyebeh School after the U.S. strike. Photo by Hassan Ghaedi /Anadolu via Getty Images. =E2=80=9CThe wall paintings that are at the school here make it completely = visible that it is a school. The U.S. has used missiles that are equipped with cameras, and some operator directs this missile,=E2=80=9D he said, referrin= g to the Tomahawks. =E2=80=9CThis missile, with its camera that=E2=80=99s seeing its= target, if it becomes aware that this is not the target it wants, it can circle around that target for two hours if it wants to, and not hit it, and change its course.=E2=80=9D The domestic case has been transferred from Minab to the Tehran prosecutor and a criminal prosecution will be conducted. =E2=80=9CAt the school in Min= ab, because a civilian location was hit, in fact, we say that it is a war crime,=E2=80=9D Rahimi said. After a domestic ruling is issued, Rahimi said= , Iran will request that other nations enforce the decision. The Iranian parliament is also in the process of preparing legislation, he said, that would create a framework for Iran to assert international jurisdiction, allowing it to issue arrest warrants. =E2=80=9CIn the end, this is a phenom= enon of sinister injustice that must be atoned for in this world,=E2=80=9D Rahimi s= aid. =E2=80=9CIt has become the law of the jungle. How many children were martyred in Gaza?= =E2=80=9D Rahimi also said Iran will ask countries that have universal jurisdiction laws, which allow nations to prosecute grave crimes even if they did not occur within their boundaries or have any connection to their citizens, to issue indictments. Perhaps the most famous case of a nation using universal jurisdiction happened in 1998, when Spanish judge Baltasar Garz=C3=B3n issu= ed an international arrest warrant for former U.S.-backed Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The UK respected the indictment and arrested Pinochet who was receiving medical treatment in London at the time. When Pinochet tried to fight extradition, the House of Lords issued a landmark ruling that a former head of state does not have immunity for crimes such as torture. While many nations do have universal jurisdiction laws on the books that would allow for the issuance of indictments, such an action would be seen as an extraordinary confrontation with the U.S. government. =E2=80=9CThis p= ath depends mostly on political will,=E2=80=9D said Brody, the veteran war crim= es prosecutor. =E2=80=9CA European or other government must be willing to expe= nd diplomatic capital, face U.S. pressure, and commit resources to a prosecution that has no direct connection to its own territory.=E2=80=9D Askari, the Iranian international law expert, said that while Iran is rightly seeking all avenues for justice, the chances of success through universal jurisdiction are slim. =E2=80=9CWe have to again be realistic and= know that we are talking about the high ranking officials of the U.S. administration,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80=9CI do not know a country in the w= orld at the moment that has a good diplomatic relationship with the Americans who dares to go for universal jurisdiction implementation.=E2=80=9D During the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq, the U.S. attacked a bomb shelter in the Baghdad neighborhood of Al Amariyah. An F-117 stealth bomber hit the underground shelter with a laser-guided 2,000 bomb that ripped through the concrete. Moments later a second missile was launched directly into the opening, killing more than 400 people inside the shelter, including 261 women and 52 children. The U.S. claimed it was a =E2=80=9Cmilitary communic= ations center=E2=80=9D and accused Saddam Hussein of deliberately placing civilian= s inside. A subsequent lawsuit, seeking to charge President George H.W. Bush and other U.S. officials, was filed in Belgium by family members of some of the victims. Under intense diplomatic pressure and threats, Brussels changed its universal jurisdiction law and threw out the war crimes case. Rahimi said the proper venue for prosecuting the Minab school massacre would be the International Criminal Court (ICC). Neither Iran nor the U.S. have formally recognized the court=E2=80=99s jurisdiction. =E2=80=9CSince w= e are not actually members of the ICC, we cannot file this complaint ourselves,=E2=80= =9D he said, adding that Iran was encouraging other states and non-governmental organizations to submit requests to the court. =E2=80=9CPerhaps we can say = that the most important authority that can confront these aggressors=E2=80=94which i= s necessary=E2=80=94is the ICC.=E2=80=9D Brody said the rules of the ICC would technically allow Iran to accept its jurisdiction by lodging a declaration with the ICC=E2=80=99s registrar, but= it could not do so only in the interest of seeking an indictment against U.S. officials responsible for the Minab strikes. It would require that Iran accept the court=E2=80=99s jurisdiction over Iranian officials as well, a m= ove Tehran is unlikely to pursue, particularly given the U.S. hostility toward the ICC. Since his first term as president, Trump has waged war against the international court, sanctioning its personnel and openly defying the arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, who frequently visit the U.S. and, in Netanyahu=E2=80=99s case, the White House. Trump is not the first U.S. president to attack the court. In 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law a bipartisan bill, subsequently known in the human rights community as the =E2=80=9CHague Invasion Act,=E2= =80=9D permitting the use of military force to free any U.S. or allied personnel charged with war crimes by the court. Mourners gather at a funeral for those who died in the U.S. strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab. March 3, 2026. Photo by Morteza Akhondi. The cold reality of the post-World War II order is that international courts are intended to prosecute the =E2=80=9Cbad guys,=E2=80=9D the advers= aries of the West, African dictators, and the political and military leaders in the former Yugoslavia. The Nuremberg Principles were never intended to apply to the U.S. and its friends. =E2=80=9CWe have to be a little bit realistic,=E2=80=9D said Askari. =E2=80= =9CWe have the superpower against international law and of course the superpower and those who are in hegemonic power at the moment, they will do whatever they can to make sure that the legal instruments and the legal bodies, they cannot work against them.=E2=80=9D In late September, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration was preparing to intensify its campaign to abolish the ICC, including through sweeping sanctions. The administration, according to the Journal, wants to =E2=80=9Ccripple the court by prohibitin= g it from conducting transactions in U.S. dollars, cutting it off from much of the global financial system.=E2=80=9D While there are other venues, such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to pursue war crimes claims, there are numerous jurisdictional reasons why this path is not feasible. The U.S. withdrew its acceptance of ICJ jurisdiction in 1985, after Nicaragua successfully obtained a ruling that the U.S. violated international law by arming the Contra death squads and mining the Nicaraguan harbors. The U.S. announced a boycott of the court and denounced it as illegitimate. Israel joined the U.S. in withdrawing its own acceptance of ICJ jurisdiction. While Iran itself has accepted ICJ jurisdiction, it has done so only under the condition of reciprocity, meaning it cannot simply sue the U.S. there. In the case of the ICJ genocide case against Israel, South Africa relied on treaties to which Israel is a party to establish jurisdiction, namely the Genocide Convention. Brody said that to bring such a claim, Iran would need to identify a treaty that both it and the U.S. are parties to, which formed a clear legal basis for a proceeding. For decades, Iran was able to file claims against the U.S. at the ICJ by utilizing the 1957 Amity Treaty, which dates back to the rule of the Shah. Since the 1990s, Iran has filed several cases and won some rulings, including a 2016 case against the U.S. for illicitly seizing Iranian assets in violation of the bilateral Amity agreement and ordered the U.S. to pay compensation. In 2018, after the ICJ ordered the U.S. to ease some of its economic sanctions against Iran, the Trump administration denounced the court and withdrew from the Amity Treaty, a decision then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said was =E2=80=9Cfrankly, 39 years overdue.=E2=80=9D Bro= dy said he was not aware of an existing treaty between Iran and the U.S. that would clearly form the basis for a case against the U.S. at the ICJ related to the Minab strikes. While the most direct routes to pursuing international justice for the Minab victims appear limited for Iran, these challenges do not eliminate Iran=E2=80=99s options. =E2=80=9CThe absence of a court with compulsory jur= isdiction does not mean that the United States has no legal responsibility,=E2=80=9D Brody= said. =E2=80=9CIt means that there may be no judicial forum in which Iran can com= pel the United States to answer for that responsibility.=E2=80=9D Brody said that Iran and other nations could pursue the establishment of a special tribunal on the crime of aggression against the U.S. =E2=80=9CThe m= ost significant aspect of this conflict was not any individual strike, but the decision to wage war itself. President Trump authorized an armed attack against Iran in manifest violation of the UN charter=E2=80=94without approv= al from the United Nations Security Council, and in the absence of an imminent attack from Iran,=E2=80=9D he charged. =E2=80=9CAt Nuremberg [after World W= ar II], aggression=E2=80=94the crime of waging an unlawful war of choice=E2=80=94wa= s treated as =E2=80=98the supreme international crime=E2=80=99 because, as the Tribunal = held, it contains within itself the evil of all the others. The crimes that flow from that unlawful war=E2=80=94including civilian casualties from airstrike= s=E2=80=94are downstream consequences of the initial crime of aggression.=E2=80=9D But, Brody adds, =E2=80=9CFor the past 80 years, no one has been prosecuted= for such acts of aggression because the major powers have made sure they weren=E2=80=99t.=E2=80=9D In 2025, however, three dozen states=E2=80=94mostly European=E2=80=94establ= ished a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine. Operating in the Hague, the tribunal has a mandate to conduct trials in absentia against Russian officials. =E2=80=9CThere is no conceptual legal reason why states could not seek to c= reate a comparable tribunal to investigate the political leaders who attacked Iran. The legal principle is identical: to launch a large-scale armed attack on another state without Security Council authorization, and in the absence of an actual or imminent armed attack, is a violation of the U.N. Charter,=E2= =80=9D Brody said. =E2=80=9CWe can=E2=80=99t disregard this principle simply becau= se the perpetrators are Israel and the United States.=E2=80=9D Should Iran and other nations succeed in establishing such a tribunal and win a favorable ruling, enforcing the judgement is almost an unfathomable mission given the multi-decade U.S. track record of hostility toward international justice and law. =E2=80=9CThe Minab school strike is not an i= solated tragedy. It is a symptom of a broader failure to comply with the law of armed conflict and to provide meaningful accountability when violations occur,=E2=80=9D said Brody. =E2=80=9CAddressing that failure is not optiona= l. It is a legal and moral imperative.=E2=80=9D A bombed out classroom at the Shajareh Tayyebeh School. Photo by Hamid Vakili / Anadolu via Getty Images. Doutaghi, the international law scholar, said that while these legal pursuits are worthy, she does not have any faith that justice for the victims will emerge from these systems. =E2=80=9CDocumentation can establis= h a historical record; legal proceedings can establish responsibility; but neither changes the balance of power that enables aggression in the first place,=E2=80=9D she said. =E2=80=9CFor that reason, I believe Iran=E2=80=99= s most realistic path toward meaningful justice involves re-establishing deterrence and changing the balance of power. That means imposing political and material costs on aggression and making clear that attacks on Iranian civilians cannot be carried out without material consequences.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CIf the killing of Iranian children is followed only by documentati= on, condemnation, and memorialization, while the structures that permitted their killing remain untouched, then we have preserved the memory of the crime without addressing its material cause,=E2=80=9D Doutaghi added. =E2= =80=9CJustice must therefore mean both accountability for what happened and the transformation of the conditions that allowed it to happen.=E2=80=9D Salem, the Minab preschool teacher, said the families of the victims and the community will not find peace until there is retribution. =E2=80=9CEver= ywhere you hear, =E2=80=98We want revenge. Take revenge for our children,=E2=80=99= =E2=80=9D she explained. =E2=80=9CWhen you don=E2=80=99t take revenge, these crimes will be repeated= .=E2=80=9D Minab Will Never Be the Same No single episode in recent Iranian history has impacted its broader society more deeply than the Minab school massacre. Every Iranian interviewed for this story broke down at some point during our interviews. After Dr. Movarekh, the director of the Minab hospital, finished sharing his memories from that day=E2=80=94which he had done for the first time sin= ce the attack=E2=80=94he turned to a colleague and confessed that he had hurt his = hand because he was pushing his pen into his own skin in an effort to distract from the emotional pain he felt recounting that day. =E2=80=9CIf you read famous Iranian novels or poems, you cannot easily find= a tragedy like what happened in real time, real life in the Minab incident,= =E2=80=9D said Askari, the international law expert. =E2=80=9CIf you are a novelist, = you are a poet, you imagine and you write=E2=80=94you try to make it as dark as pos= sible to make sure that the reader is feeling profoundly sad,=E2=80=9D he added. =E2= =80=9CBut I can tell you it is not comparable.=E2=80=9D Dr. Darvishi, the psychologist, is from an old Minab family. For her, the surviving children, parents, firefighters, teachers, and others directly impacted by the bombing are not just patients, but her community. =E2=80=9C= The city of Minab has experienced a tragedy and an incident that makes it impossible to return to the way things were before this,=E2=80=9D she said. =E2=80=9CW= hat happened in Minab is not something we can recover from with psychotherapy, humanitarian aid, and medication. The history of Minab has been transformed with this incident.=E2=80=9D Yaghoub Yazdanpanah and Masoumeh Farahi Zadeh, parents of Fatemeh, who was killed by the U.S. missile strike on her school, at their home in Gurzang, Iran. Photo by Zohreh Saberi. Yaghoub, the father of Fatemeh, said he has depended on his Islamic faith to confront the killing of his daughter and his desire for justice. =E2=80= =9CThe entire world should be terrified of this incident. What danger did the innocent children of Minab pose to the world that they had to attack a girls=E2=80=99 school? They had to massacre six-year-old children? What kin= d of thinking is behind doing this to innocent children, children who don=E2=80= =99t know what war is, children who don=E2=80=99t know what bleeding is, who don=E2= =80=99t know what enmity is?=E2=80=9D he asked. =E2=80=9CGod willing, one day, somewhere, tho= se responsible for this incident will be afflicted by this scandal. God was a witness to this and I am sure God=E2=80=99s hand will enter this story and he will giv= e them their just punishment.=E2=80=9D As Iranian students return to school this month, Darvishi and her colleagues are working to help families prepare in the aftermath of the horrors. =E2=80=9CHow can we ask these children to return to school? Becaus= e schools are no longer a safe place for those children. In our province, even throughout the entire country, families are worried about sending their children to school,=E2=80=9D she said. =E2=80=9CIn order for them to = feel safe, we explain that we are in the process of negotiating and that we have very strong soldiers in the area of diplomacy and politics, and soldiers who are in the battlefield and they are defending us,=E2=80=9D Darvishi said. =E2= =80=9CWe are explaining and telling them this will not happen again, although we are not sure.=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CAs a mother, I don=E2=80=99t have the heart. I don=E2=80=99t have = the heart to go school shopping because I am still mourning. I am mourning the children who are resting at the Flowerbed of Martyrs Cemetery,=E2=80=9D Salem said. =E2=80= =9CAll of them are my children. They were my students. My colleagues=E2=80=94in one day, one m= oment, one hour, I lost 26 of my colleagues. Is there a crime worse than this?=E2= =80=9D Salem mentioned that students in the U.S. have been going back to school after their summer holidays. =E2=80=9CMaybe people in America=E2=80=94many = people around the world=E2=80=94have sympathized with the people of Minab, empathized wit= h us. We are very grateful for them,=E2=80=9D she said. =E2=80=9DThose who want to g= o shopping for their children for the start of the school year, maybe they will be reminded, maybe their hearts will ache again.=E2=80=9D *Jawa Ahmad contributed to this report.* Leave a comment Share *Become a Drop Site News Paid Subscriber * Drop Site News is reader-supported. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber today. 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The bombing of an Ir= anian school, killing 120 children, is one of the worst U.S. war crimes sin= ce Vietnam. Drop Site spoke to survivors, first responders, parents, and wi= tnesses. This is their story.
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<= tbody>
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<= a href=3D"https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=3D2510348&p= ost_id=3D217126203&utm_source=3Dpost-email-title&utm_campaign=3Dema= il-post-title&isFreemail=3Dtrue&r=3D1eogb&token=3DeyJ1c2VyX2lkI= joyMzY0NDkxLCJwb3N0X2lkIjoyMTcxMjYyMDMsImlhdCI6MTc5MDc3MTU1MywiZXhwIjoxNzkz= MzYzNTUzLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjUxMDM0OCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.NInh7FSg= VHd7icz6PxX6fwMzsejgqiwpUknHbM6kVN4" style=3D"color:rgb(54,55,55);text-deco= ration:none" target=3D"_blank">Massacre at Minab: The School That Became a = Grave

The bom= bing of an Iranian school, killing 120 children, is one of the worst U.S. w= ar crimes since Vietnam. Drop Site spoke to survivors, first responders, pa= rents, and witnesses. This is their story.

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3D""Illustration: Images drawn= by Fatemeh Zahra Bahrami, a child who survived the school bombing at Minab= , provided to Drop Site. In the background, the cemetery where the victims = are buried.

On the morning of Saturday, February 28, people acro= ss Iran began their day like any other. It was one week into the Islamic ho= ly month of Ramadan, and people were preparing for their work and school we= ek. Parents hustled their children out the door for school as the notorious= morning traffic jams filled the streets of Tehran and other cities.

In the southern Iranian city of Minab, preschoo= l teacher Hossniyeh Salem was getting ready to leave the house. =E2=80=9CLi= ke any other day, I got my child ready at 7 o=E2=80=99clock=E2=80=94because= my son is in fifth grade and attended the same school,=E2=80=9D she recall= ed. =E2=80=9CI got Yassin ready and headed to school. Yassin went to the bo= ys=E2=80=99 school and I stayed at preschool, in my own class.=E2=80=9D

=

It was Salem=E2=80=99s seventh year as a tea= cher at Shajareh Tayyebeh, a well-respected, private school. =E2=80=9CThe u= pper floor was for girls and the downstairs was for boys. One section was f= or preschool. You can say there were three schools there. The preschool was= in the same building,=E2=80=9D she said. =E2=80=9CThere were students ther= e from all walks of life=E2=80=94children from working class families, educ= ators. We had all kinds of students there.=E2=80=9D

Among the students at the school was 6-year-old Fatemeh Yazdanpa= nah from the fishing village of Gurzang, about eight miles from Minab. The = village is well known for its daily fish market=E2=80=94a bustling, strateg= ic hub where fishermen trade their catches from both the Minab River and th= e Persian Gulf. There is a girls=E2=80=99 school in Gurzang, but Fatemeh=E2= =80=99s father, Yaghoub Yazdanpanah, saw gifts for poetry in his daughter a= nd he wanted to secure for her the best education he could find.

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Left: Fatemeh Yazdanpanah, a 6 year= old student at the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab. Right: Fatemeh with = her father, Yaghoub. Photos courtesy of the Yazdanpanah family.

=E2=80=9CFatemeh=E2=80=99s mother and I had notic= ed Fatemeh=E2=80=99s overflowing intelligence. I am a poet myself. When I w= ould write poetry, edit poetry, I would repeat the poem. After hearing the = poem once or twice, Fatemeh would immediately memorize it. When we would te= ll her a story, she would never forget the story and she would recite the s= tory moment by moment, word for word,=E2=80=9D recalled Yaghoub, who teache= s Persian literature. =E2=80=9CI wanted to find a school that would address= Fatemeh=E2=80=99s needs and her active mind. I visited several schools mys= elf. Certainly, you would do the same thing. Any parent would take their ch= ild to a good school for a brighter future,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80=9CThan= k God,=E2=80=9D he recalled thinking, =E2=80=9CI found Shajareh Tayyebeh Sc= hool.=E2=80=9D

That morning, Yaghoub kiss= ed Fatemeh goodbye before walking to the local school in Gurzang where he t= aught.

Iranians had gone to bed the night= before with the news that negotiations between government officials and th= e Trump administration aimed at averting war were proceeding smoothly and a= new round of technical talks would soon be held in Vienna. The foreign min= ister of Oman=E2=80=94the longtime mediator in the U.S.-Iran nuclear negoti= ations=E2=80=94was in Washington, where, after meeting with Vice President = JD Vance, he announced that recent negotiations between the two sides had = =E2=80=9Cyielded substantial, momentous, and unparalleled progress=E2=80=9D= that could pave the way for =E2=80=9Can honorable agreement=E2=80=9D to ha= lt the U.S. drive to war.

=E2=80=9CWe wer= e very optimistic about the negotiations that were taking place,=E2=80=9D s= aid Pouria Askari, a prominent Iranian international law expert, who recall= ed being stuck in his car that morning on his commute to the university whe= re he lectures. =E2=80=9CWe were not expecting the beginning of the war.=E2= =80=9D

At Shajareh Tayyebeh in Minab, the= little girls gathered that morning in the prayer hall in observance of the= day when Shia Muslims across the world commemorate the passing of Umm al-B= anin, the wife of Imam Ali and the mother of four martyrs who died at the b= attle of Karbala in the year 680.

A= fter the prayers, Salem laid out for her students a breakfast so= freh, a traditional Iranian fabric placed on the floor to serve = meals. The small girls of the preschool had not yet reached the age of fast= ing during Ramadan. They did some lessons and then went out to the playgrou= nd for recess. It was around 9:30 a.m. when Salem received word that the U.= S. and Israel had begun attacking Iran.

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Hossniyeh Salem, right, a teacher at Minab=E2=80= =99s Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls School, with her niece. Image courtesy of Hely= eh Doutaghi / Khana House/ Still, Minab.

Local authorities issued a directive instructing schools to send students = home. Salem and other teachers immediately messaged parents to come and get= their children. Iranians had experienced a similar situation the previous = June, when the U.S. and Israel carried out what became known as the 12-Day = War. Salem said there was no strong sense of panic. =E2=80=9CThey said thes= e are war conditions and it=E2=80=99s better if the children go home early.= We didn=E2=80=99t have a single thought or didn=E2=80=99t imagine that the= y might want to hit our school,=E2=80=9D Salem said. =E2=80=9CIn complete c= alm and relaxation, we were calling families and telling them to come and t= ake their children.=E2=80=9D

When Salem a= nd other teachers stood in the school yard handing off students to their pa= rents, a massive explosion struck not far from the school campus. =E2=80=9C= As they were coming to get the kids=E2=80=94a number of the children had le= ft and some were still at the school=E2=80=94I first heard the sound of an = explosion,=E2=80=9D she recalled. Salem and her son Yassin raced back into = the school where some of the preschool kids were still waiting for their pa= rents to arrive. The blast had shattered the windows and shards of glass sp= rinkled the carpeted floor.

=E2=80=9CThe = children were five years old and all they did was yell, =E2=80=98Miss! Miss= !=E2=80=99 and were crying. I ran to the children. I just said, =E2=80=98Ge= t under the table!,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D Salem remembered. =E2=80=9CI didn=E2= =80=99t think they were going to strike the school. I just thought that som= e place had been hit. I said, =E2=80=98Don=E2=80=99t be afraid, sit down.= =E2=80=99=E2=80=9D

Other teachers began g= rabbing students and hurrying them back toward the building and into a pray= er room for cover.

As Salem and her stude= nts huddled together under desks, she heard the sound of missiles hitting t= he building. =E2=80=9CTwo simultaneous sounds. They=E2=80=99re still in my = ear. My son even describes them=E2=80=94=E2=80=98Wooosh, boom! Woosh, boom!= =E2=80=99=E2=80=94and then the explosion very close by,=E2=80=9D Salem said= . =E2=80=9CPlaster was falling, the ground was shaking, and at that moment = I just looked at my preschool girls and my son, and I said to myself, =E2= =80=98It=E2=80=99s over. Now is the time when we go under the rubble, it=E2= =80=99s going to fall now,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D she continued. =E2=80=9CThen t= here were no more sounds. The class was full of smoke and dust. I told my s= on, =E2=80=98Yassin, run and open the door. Let=E2=80=99s get out!=E2=80=99= My preschool kids didn=E2=80=99t have shoes on since our classroom was car= peted. I took the children in my arms, one by one, and brought them outside= .=E2=80=9D

Chaos had broken out throughou= t the campus. Frantic teachers and parents. Children screaming. The buildin= g was engulfed in smoke and dust, concrete was collapsing, windows were bre= aking. Salem couldn=E2=80=99t pause to take stock of any of the details. It= was just apocalyptic. =E2=80=9CWe exited from the preschool yard gate unti= l we reached the first street. I looked behind me and I saw smoke and fire = coming from the school office. All I said to the preschool children was, = =E2=80=98Kids, just look in front of you. Don=E2=80=99t look back,=E2=80=99= =E2=80=9D Salem said.

As rescue workers b= egan to arrive, some encountered Salem with her students outside the gates.= =E2=80=9CRun to the school=E2=80=94they hit the school!=E2=80=9D she yelle= d. =E2=80=9CThe children are under the ruins. Go save them!=E2=80=9D

Word that the war had begun spread quickly thro= ugh Iran. The residence of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had been bombed, and= military sites across the country were being struck by U.S. and Israeli mi= ssiles.

In Gurzang, Yaghoub was teaching = his class when a colleague told him of the developments. As he gathered his= things to leave, a friend from the fish market called and told him that th= ere were reports a school had been struck in Minab in the Mahdi neighborhoo= d. =E2=80=9CMy heart told me the school they were talking about was Shajare= h Tayyebeh. I lost it,=E2=80=9D he said, thinking of his daughter Fatemeh. = =E2=80=9CI left my classroom, ran home, took my car, and sped to Minab. Whe= n I arrived, I said, =E2=80=98Oh no!=E2=80=99 The unimaginable had happened= .=E2=80=9D

=E2=80=9CThere was no school l= eft. Two-thirds of the school, maybe more, had been destroyed. Smoke was ri= sing from all over the school. It had turned into rubble. For a moment, I t= hought I was asleep and having a nightmare,=E2=80=9D Yaghoub said.

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The building of the destroyed Shaja= reh Tayyebeh primary school is pictured surrounded by rubble in Minab in Ir= an's Hormozgan province on August 10, 2026. Photo by Atta Kenare / AFP = via Getty Images.

What happened that da= y will go down in history as one of the single worst massacres committed by= the U.S. government since the Vietnam War. Multiple direct air strikes, in= cluding with Tomahawk cruise missiles, hit a school packed with children an= d teachers. The attacks killed at least 156 people; 120 of the victims were= children and 26 were teachers=E2=80=94all women, including one who was pre= gnant. Among the dead were also parents who had come to pick up their child= ren.

=E2=80=9CThe killing of pupils in a= place dedicated to learning constitutes a grave violation of the protectio= n afforded to schools under international humanitarian law,=E2=80=9D the Un= ited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said in a st= atement a day after the bombing.

=E2=80= =9CI was absolutely horrified,=E2=80=9D recalled Hala Rharrit, a career U.S= . Foreign Service officer who spent 17 years at the State Department, prima= rily focused on the Middle East, before she resigned in 2024. =E2=80=9CKnow= ing the capabilities of our military, knowing how careful the review is for= targets, I was horrified. How, how could this have happened? How could thi= s have happened on Day One of the war?=E2=80=9D

=E2= =80=9CI Saw Doomsday=E2=80=9D

According = to the Iranian government, from 10:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., a total of nine m= issiles hit the school and the surrounding area. Witnesses described multip= le distinct strikes within a short period of time. An additional four missi= les struck the area between 1-2 p.m., hitting a medical clinic, as well as = a nearby car wash and other small businesses in a small commercial district= close to the campus. =E2=80=9CThese were not double-tap attacks. It was mo= re than that. They were triple-taps,=E2=80=9D said Iran=E2=80=99s Justice M= inister Amin Hossein Rahimi, in an interview with Drop Site. =E2=80=9CThe t= ype of attack was the most serious type of war crime, which indicates a dir= ect and heinous criminal intent.=E2=80=9D

Dr. Mohadeseh Darvishi=E2=80=94a psychologist specializing in trauma=E2=80= =94lives an hour away in Bandar Abbas but is originally from Minab. Soon af= ter the war began that morning, she began receiving calls from friends and = colleagues. =E2=80=9CThis incident was such a catastrophe and so big and it= was heard everywhere. It wasn=E2=80=99t like one specific person told us. = It was a crisis,=E2=80=9D she recalled. =E2=80=9CMy colleagues from Minab a= nd surrounding provinces were calling me, both psychologists and different = aid workers because of my specialization in this area, most of the calls we= re people wanting to find out what had happened in Minab. =E2=80=98Is it tr= ue that America had attacked a school?=E2=80=99 It was puzzling to everyone= why something like this had happened. Why a school?=E2=80=9D

As Darvishi made her way to the scene, rescue teams = from the Iranian Red Crescent Society and the Minab Fire Department arrived= at the campus. Parts of the school were on fire, while others were already= reduced to rubble and collapsed concrete under massive clouds of dust. Fir= st responders described a cataclysmic scene of screaming and running, blood= ied faces and bodies, with parents frantically searching for their children= .

3D""
Screams can be heard as parents and others arrive at the scene of the = Minab school, soon after the U.S. struck it with Tomahawk cruise missiles, = via Tasnim News Agency.

=E2=80=9CWhen I arrived, I saw there in the area of the = school yard, it was completely covered in body parts of the children=E2=80= =94students who had only their hands left, their legs, their heads, their f= ingers,=E2=80=9D recalled Majid Dadania of the Red Crescent Emergency Respo= nse team. =E2=80=9CI was frozen. I couldn=E2=80=99t start working. Even tho= ugh I was part of the rescue crew, my arms and legs went numb until I snapp= ed out of it and started collecting the body parts of the martyrs=E2=80=94t= he children who were in pieces.=E2=80=9D

= =E2=80=9CDuring the initial moments, we were wearing masks and gloves for s= afety but after one or two hours we couldn=E2=80=99t even use any masks or = gloves because the lives of these dear children were so important to us tha= t gloves and masks no longer mattered,=E2=80=9D said Mehran Zakeri, chief o= f the Minab fire department. =E2=80=9CWhen we removed the remains of the ma= rtyrs, we had pieces of these dear martyred students=E2=80=99 brains under = our fingernails=E2=80=94we had to remove their brains from under our finger= nails,=E2=80=9D he recalled. =E2=80=9CThe next day when I went to take a sh= ower, I had to cut my fingernails because the brain matter couldn=E2=80=99t= easily be removed. Our clothes were all ripped to shreds and pieces of the= students=E2=80=99 and teachers=E2=80=99 remains were stuck to our clothes.= =E2=80=9D

That morning, Ehsan Mohseni, Mi= nab coordinator of the Red Crescent Society, was in his office, less than a= kilometer from the school. He was scanning the latest breaking news report= s detailing the opening attacks of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran when h= e heard a strong blast in the distance. =E2=80=9CWe were very, very close t= o this school. I had moved from my room to go downstairs to see what happen= ed when there was a second strike and a few seconds later, a third strike. = In the span of about 53 or 54 seconds, we had three strikes,=E2=80=9D he re= membered. =E2=80=9CI realized that what was attacked was the Shajareh Tayye= beh school in Minab. When I got there, the school was destroyed and engulfe= d in fire and smoke. We saw extremely terrible scenes.=E2=80=9D

Mohseni described seeing children=E2=80=99s bodies f= lung into trees, pulverized against concrete=E2=80=94small, severed limbs o= f children strewn around. =E2=80=9CI saw the most painful scene. Look, I=E2= =80=99ve seen many things. I=E2=80=99ve worked 15 years as a rescue worker = and member of the Red Crescent Society,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80=9CMy colle= ague approached me and he was carrying the head of a young student.=E2=80= =9D

=E2=80=9CI saw doomsday,=E2=80=9D he = added.

As the rescue teams worked to evac= uate survivors from the building and search the rubble, more parents had ar= rived. =E2=80=9CMothers came to me and said, =E2=80=98My daughter is in the= classroom,=E2=80=99 =E2=80=98My son is in the classroom. In God=E2=80=99s = name please bring me my son,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D Mohseni said. =E2=80=9CWe di= dn=E2=80=99t know how to answer these families. Each body part that was bro= ught out from the building and taken to the ambulances, the families ran, l= ooking to see who it was.=E2=80=9D

Among = the parents at the scene was Yaghoub, searching for Fatemeh. =E2=80=9CPeopl= e kept coming and coming to help, to remove the children from under the rui= ns. All of us were there waiting. I=E2=80=94a 32-year-old father=E2=80=94wa= s waiting for them to bring my daughter from under the ruins,=E2=80=9D he s= aid. =E2=80=9CImagine the depth of this catastrophe and how hard it was for= us.=E2=80=9D

For more than three days, I= ranian search and rescue teams, parents, and local residents worked togethe= r around the clock to recover the bodies. It was Ramadan, so they did so on= empty stomachs. Each small person or body part they recovered had its own = story. The boy who was identified only by his socks embroidered with an ima= ge of the cartoon character Sponge Bob. The girls with their backpacks stil= l strapped to their lifeless bodies. =E2=80=9CThere was a father with us wh= o was searching for his two children until it was four or five o=E2=80=99cl= ock at night when his fingers no longer worked. His fingers were covered in= blood. He had lost his fingernails. In that same condition, he fell asleep= ,=E2=80=9D recalled the Red Crescent=E2=80=99s Dadania. =E2=80=9CThere was = also a father=E2=80=94we had nothing to give him. The only thing that remai= ned [of his child] was a school bag and shoes. The father sat and was talki= ng to the school bag and shoes. Nothing from his child has been recovered.= =E2=80=9D

3D""A father who sat tal= king to his child=E2=80=99s backpack, in the aftermath of the U.S. missile = strike on the Minab school, after failing to find them in the rubble, on Fe= bruary 28, 2026. Photo courtesy Majid Dadania of the Red Crescent Emergency= Response team.

Most of the children wh= o sought shelter with their teachers inside the prayer hall after the first= cruise missile hit the area were killed in the subsequent strike.

Firefighter Mohammad Yazdanpanah said that large = excavation equipment was required to retrieve some of the bodies or search = for survivors. He recalled a moment when an excavator was moving large slab= s of concrete to clear the space for rescue workers. =E2=80=9CThe moment th= e excavator=E2=80=99s bucket hit the concrete, a four or five-year-old girl= =E2=80=94I don=E2=80=99t know if she was in preschool=E2=80=94was inside th= e bucket and from up where she was, the back of her brain and her skull com= pletely fell in front of me. I was down on the ground and she was up high,= =E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80=9CThat really impacted me. I couldn=E2=80=99t con= trol my tears. I sat and kneeled down. I couldn=E2=80=99t go and remove her= . One of my colleagues went and picked up the little girl in his arms, brou= ght her down. We placed her in a body bag. I was carrying the body bag whil= e I cried until I placed it in the ambulance that was there, and they took = her.=E2=80=9D

Dr. Darvishi eventually arr= ived at the school and began coordinating the emergency mental-health respo= nse. =E2=80=9CWe can never accept that this was an accident. An accident ca= n=E2=80=99t happen like this,=E2=80=9D she said. =E2=80=9CWe have the notio= n of martyrdom, but many mothers got to say goodbye to their martyred child= ren when they sent them to the frontline to fight [in war]. Their minds wer= e prepared for what was to happen. But in the therapy room, a mother [of a = Minab victim] described to me that she had prepared her child=E2=80=99s sna= ck and placed it in her backpack, kissed her face, and sent her to school. = What was returned to her was her child=E2=80=99s backpack with an uneaten s= andwich.=E2=80=9D

A Policy of Maximum Lethality

=

In the aftermath of the Minab strikes,= the Trump administration unleashed a flurry of contradictory statements an= d justifications. =E2=80=9CThe Department of War would be investigating tha= t if that was our strike,=E2=80=9D Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on M= arch 2. =E2=80=9CThe United States would not deliberately target a school.= =E2=80=9D Israel=E2=80=99s UN ambassador Danny Danon suggested that Iran it= self had bombed the school. =E2=80=9CSome reports show that it was actually= IRGC attack that targeted this school,=E2=80=9D he said. The talking poin= t was swiftly adopted by President Donald Trump.

=E2=80=9CIn my opinion, based on what I=E2=80=99ve seen, tha= t was done by Iran,=E2=80=9D Trump said on March 7. =E2=80=9CWe think it wa= s done by Iran, because they=E2=80=99re very inaccurate with their munition= s, they have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran.=E2=80=9D Trump of= fered no evidence for his claim.

Drop Sit= e obtained a set of high-resolution photos of the missile fragments and com= ponents taken by Iranian investigators at the scene of the strike. =E2=80= =9CThese all appear to be remnants of Tomahawk missiles,=E2=80=9D said Trev= or Ball, a weapons technical analyst at Armament Research Services, who rev= iewed the images. The CAGE code=E2=80=94a five-character identifier used by= the U.S. government to identify companies and organizations that do busine= ss with the Department of Defense=E2=80=94is that of Raytheon, the primary = contractor for the Tomahawk missile, Ball observed. =E2=80=9CThe images sho= w at least two different turbofan engines, which would indicate remnants of= at least two Tomahawk missiles,=E2=80=9D Ball added. =E2=80=9CThe proximit= y between all the struck buildings makes it very likely that remnants from = different strikes could be intermixed, depending on where the remnants were= specifically found. Any remnants found buried under the rubble of the scho= ol would be from the munition that hit the school.=E2=80=9D

=3D""
Missile= fragments that Iranian investigators recovered from the site of U.S. missi= le strikes in Minab. The cruise missile components indicate they were manuf= actured by Raytheon Corporation.

= =E2=80=9CTomahawks have a loiter capability, and the capability to be redir= ected in flight,=E2=80=9D Ball said, referring to the possibility that the = inbuilt camera feeds in the missile should have allowed an operator the pos= sibility to change course if they saw a school being targeted. =E2=80=9CTom= ahawk missiles can take and send photos, but unless they were already progr= ammed to loiter after taking the photo, there wouldn=E2=80=99t have been ti= me to select a different target.=E2=80=9D

When video and photographic evidence first emerged indicating that a U.S. = Tomahawk missile was employed in the strike, Trump claimed =E2=80=9Ca Tomah= awk is very generic. It=E2=80=99s sold to other countries,=E2=80=9D falsely= asserting that =E2=80=9CIran also has some Tomahawks. They wish they had m= ore.=E2=80=9D In fact, only five countries possess Tomahawk missiles: the U= .S., UK, Australia, Japan, and the Netherlands.

Rubio and other U.S. officials deflected questions about Trump=E2=80= =99s claims and reiterated that the U.S. would never deliberately target ci= vilians.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth, howe= ver, continued to suggest Iran was ultimately responsible for the school bo= mbing. =E2=80=9CThe mullahs are desperate and scrambling,=E2=80=9D he told = a news briefing on March 10. =E2=80=9CLike the terrorist cowards they are, = they fire missiles from schools and hospitals, deliberately targeting innoc= ents.=E2=80=9D

No evidence has ever been = produced indicating a single munition was fired from the vicinity of the Mi= nab school.

=E2=80=9CThis level of propag= anda and misinformation, disinformation that=E2=80=99s put out, we=E2=80=99= ve never seen in the U.S.=E2=80=94even with the previous corrupt administra= tions we=E2=80=99ve had since the time of our inception, just nothing to th= at level,=E2=80=9D said Wes Bryant, a former senior targeting advisor at th= e Pentagon who previously served as a special operations tactical air contr= oller in the elite special warfare branch of the U.S. Air Force. =E2=80=9CT= hese are things that you would expect someone [from] the Iranian regime to = do and say. And, sadly, we see almost in some ways more truth being put out= by the [Iranian] regime than being put out by Trump himself when it comes = to these incidents.=E2=80=9D

War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chi= efs of Staff, speak during a press conference on U.S. military action in Ir= an, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on March 2, 2026. Photo by Brendan S= mialowski / AFP via Getty Images.

On March 12, the New York Times reported that an =E2=80=9Congoing militar= y investigation has determined that the United States is responsible for a = deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school.=E2=80=9D Ci= ting sources briefed on preliminary findings, the Times wrote: =E2=80=9CThe= =E2=80=98target coding=E2=80=99 provided by the Defense Intelligence Agenc= y, the military intelligence agency that helps develop targets, labeled the= school building as a military target when it was passed to Central Command= , the military headquarters overseeing the war.=E2=80=9D

The next day, Hegseth announced that U.S. Central Co= mmand (CENTCOM) had launched an internal investigation. =E2=80=9CThere=E2= =80=99s only one entity in this conflict, between us and Iran, that never t= argets civilians, literally never targets civilians,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2= =80=9CWe will investigate. We=E2=80=99ll get to the truth and we=E2=80=99ll= share it when we have it.=E2=80=9D

CENTC= OM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper told Congress in May, =E2=80=9CThe school = itself is located on an active IRGC cruise missile base. It=E2=80=99s more = complex than the average strike.=E2=80=9D

Bryant said he has not seen any indication the school was housed on an act= ive missile facility or base. =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s pretty disturbing to he= ar that kind of excuse from someone like Cooper who should know better, bec= ause it doesn=E2=80=99t matter if a school is on the base and not even clos= ed off, it=E2=80=99s still a protected entity,=E2=80=9D said Bryant, whose = last position at the Pentagon in 2024 was the chief of civilian harm assess= ment for the Department of Defense. =E2=80=9CThose children, all those civi= lians, are still non-combatants and protected, so it=E2=80=99s really disgu= sting to hear that. This wasn=E2=80=99t even fragmentation that hit a schoo= l next to another target. This was deliberately targeted very, very clearly= and obviously. So at the very least, [it was a] complete mischaracterizati= on of the target.=E2=80=9D

At the G7 summ= it in France on June 17, a reporter asked Trump if anyone would be held acc= ountable for the Minab strike. =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s a strange question to = be asked at this state=E2=80=94we=E2=80=99re talking about a long time ago,= =E2=80=9D Trump quipped. =E2=80=9CNobody did that on purpose. I guess you= =E2=80=99d have to say about [Iran], =E2=80=98What about the thousands of s= oldiers that they blew up when they opened their car door? What about the t= housands of people that were killed by Iran?=E2=80=99 No, mistakes are made= . War is nasty.=E2=80=9D He cited the ongoing internal investigation and cl= aimed, =E2=80=9CI could have a report for you tomorrow.=E2=80=9D No such re= port has been produced.

According t= o Bloombe= rg News, which spoke to more than two dozen U.S. officials and so= urces familiar with the internal Pentagon probe, the school was placed on a= list of targets to strike in the opening hours of the war because it had b= een categorized as part of an IRGC naval facility. Sources told Bloomberg t= hat the =E2=80=9Ckill chain=E2=80=9D that led to the attack included input = from the Maven artificial intelligence system operated by Palantir. Maven d= id not flag that the site was now a school, the report claimed, nor did any= personnel tasked with reviewing the AI target data. =E2=80=9CIn past confl= icts, preparing lists of proposed targets=E2=80=94work that includes assess= ing how they align with an operation=E2=80=99s objectives=E2=80=94had taken= hours for staffers to complete,=E2=80=9D the report said. =E2=80=9CAhead o= f the U.S. attack on Iran, much of that work was condensed into several min= utes via Maven.=E2=80=9D

Harrison = Mann, a former U.S. Army major and intelligence analyst for the Defense Int= elligence Agency (DIA), said that it is likely that the standard vetting th= at should have happened before launching strikes was not implemented, in pa= rt due to the pressure put on analysts to produce a sweeping bank of target= s to hit following the political decision to launch the war.

=E2=80=9CLets say there are 20,000 possible targets in = Iran, you have a limited amount of analysts who have to check all these, an= d in normal times they are not necessarily going to be going through all of= these 20,000 points to make sure they are updated,=E2=80=9D said Mann, who= worked at the Middle East/Africa center at DIA. =E2=80=9CWe do not know at= what point the DOD or intelligence community was told that they needed to = formally prepare for this operation. Even if everyone who was supposed to b= egan going through and re-vetting these targets, they may not have had enou= gh time to go back through all of them and make sure this one wasn=E2=80=99= t a school that you could find on Google Maps.=E2=80=9D

3D""
3D""
President Donald Trump sits at a table monito= ring military operations against Iran, in Washington D.C. on March 02, 2026= . Trump initially claimed that Iran had bombed the Minab school. Photo by T= he White House / Anadolu via Getty Images.

Trump has boasted that U.S. surveillance capabilities are so advanced i= ts satellites can read name badges on Iranian employees entering nuclear fa= cilities. =E2=80=9CWe can read the name of a person. If his name is Mohamma= d something=E2=80=94and most of =E2=80=98em are Mohammad, you can guess abo= ut 50% right=E2=80=94we can read his name right on his tag from space,=E2= =80=9D Trump boasted to Fox News in May.

= =E2=80=9CThis president of the United States=E2=80=94look at his interviews= . He says we have tools, we have cameras that can read car license plates i= n Tehran. He even mentioned the name of Mohammad,=E2=80=9D said Rahimi, the= justice minister. =E2=80=9CHow is it possible for a country that is so wel= l equipped=E2=80=94and we accept that the United States has advanced capabi= lities and equipment=E2=80=94how could he not have known that there was a s= chool here? For more than ten years, this has been a school.=E2=80=9D

Rharrit, the former U.S. diplomat who served u= nder Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Trump, and Joe Biden, said th= e narrative being shaped about the strike is that the school was collateral= damage in a legitimate military operation aimed at eliminating a key IRGC = missile facility. This explanation, she said, deserves intense scrutiny.

=E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s not complicated. The = way strikes are approved=E2=80=94especially strikes of this caliber, of thi= s significance, on Day One of a war=E2=80=94and the chain of command that i= t goes through, not just up and down, but side to side in terms of interage= ncy, there are so many layers. It=E2=80=99s immense,=E2=80=9D she said. =E2= =80=9CThere is a clear structure to how targets are done and an investigati= on is not complicated as long as there=E2=80=99s the political will. But th= ere=E2=80=99s clearly no political will to actually have an investigation. = There=E2=80=99s political will for a cover-up.=E2=80=9D

Bryant, who helped lead U.S. targeting operations against IS= IS in Iraq and Syria, said he has not seen evidence that the U.S. knowingly= bombed an active school. =E2=80=9CI would be very, very surprised=E2=80=94= but I guess even more horrified and angered=E2=80=94to ever find out that a= targeting team, that Central Command actually knew this was a school full = of children and teachers and made a decision to target,=E2=80=9D he said, e= ven if they thought bombing the school would achieve a military objective. = =E2=80=9CThat=E2=80=99s an IDF, that=E2=80=99s an Israeli type of proportio= nality call.=E2=80=9D

Based on Bryant=E2= =80=99s knowledge of the targeting procedures and his understanding of chan= ges made under Hegseth at the Pentagon, he believes that the military likel= y bypassed standard vetting of the target, relied on outdated maps, and ign= ored or eliminated basic reviews aimed at assessing potential civilian impa= ct of bombing specific targets.

President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth step off Air= Force in Dover, Delaware, on March 18, 2026. Photo by Jim Watson / AFP vi= a Getty Images.

Early in his tenu= re as War Secretary in 2025, Hegseth dissolved the Civilian Protection Cent= er at the Pentagon=E2=80=94where Bryant worked=E2=80=94and announced a p= olicy of =E2=80=9Cmaximum lethality, not tepid legality.=E2=80=9D The Trump= administration has staked out a public and internal posture that has drama= tically loosened restrictions on the killing of civilians, and Trump has re= peatedly stated U.S. intent to bomb civilian sites. =E2=80=9CI think these = are all sinking together. And then, of course, the rhetoric from not just H= egseth, but especially Trump himself about destroying an entire civilizatio= n, all of that filters into the culture,=E2=80=9D said Bryant. These factor= s, he charged, combined with the drive to strike an unprecedented number of= sites in Iran in a short amount of time=E2=80=94the Pentagon boasted of hi= tting more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours of the Iran war=E2=80= =94created the conditions for the Minab strike.

=E2=80=9CThe U.S. meant to target that facility, that school,= but per their own negligence and recklessness, did not know at the time wh= at it was. And there=E2=80=99s no excuse. This is not fog of war stuff. Thi= s is very 101. We had plenty of time to prepare these targets,=E2=80=9D Bry= ant said. =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s incredible to me that they took all this da= ta that was over 10 years old, and none of it was re-vetted and re-validate= d. It wouldn=E2=80=99t have taken very long to do that,=E2=80=9D he added. = =E2=80=9CEvery time I look at it, it is just incredibly, incredibly mind bo= ggling. I=E2=80=99ve never seen anything like that in all my 20-plus years = of doing targeting myself. But I think it speaks to the culture change that= Hegseth has instituted.=E2=80=9D

=E2=80=9CThere=E2=80=99s no way to say that this was som= e type of error. You=E2=80=99re either saying that our U.S. Military is com= pletely incompetent, that despite the multiple layers of review, everybody = messed up=E2=80=94or there was something very, very sinister about this str= ike.=E2=80=9D

A UN = fact-finding mission concluded that =E2=80=9Cthe building of the school was= the intended point of impact and that the damage did not result from an er= rant strike or collateral damage from the attack on the adjacent IRGC compo= und,=E2=80=9D adding, =E2=80=9CNo information indicates that the school was= used for military purposes.=E2=80=9D

Rha= rrit said the strike haunts her and she struggles to understand how such a = catastrophic mistake could happen. Pointing to the extensive surveillance c= apabilities the U.S. employs before airstrikes and the fact that the school= yard was packed with children, teachers, and parents at the time of the att= ack, she said she has gnawing questions about intent.

=E2=80=9CThere=E2=80=99s no way to say that this was some type= of error,=E2=80=9D Rharrit said. =E2=80=9CYou=E2=80=99re either saying tha= t our U.S. Military is completely incompetent, that despite the multiple la= yers of review, everybody messed up=E2=80=94or there was something very, ve= ry sinister about this strike.=E2=80=9D

B= ryant, however, said it is possible that the military was not persistently = monitoring the Minab site in real time ahead of the strike, because the U.S= . had not yet established =E2=80=9Cair superiority=E2=80=9D to fly drones o= r other surveillance craft above each target in the early stages of the war= . The volume of strikes in the opening hours of the bombing meant that many= attacks were effectively launched on auto-pilot.

Nonetheless, Bryant said, the military should have pulled the most= recent satellite and intelligence on any targets it intended to hit prior = to the launch of the war. Satellite imagery captured in late 2025=E2=80=94t= wo months before the strike=E2=80=94showed children standing in the school = yard and on a soccer field. CENTCOM also had an obligation to review each t= arget and follow established oversight procedures before giving a green lig= ht, Bryant said. =E2=80=9CYou can conduct [strikes] without eyes overhead, = but you still have the obligation to meet all those criteria that we have i= n our targeting doctrine and policy. One of those is actual characterizatio= n of, and vetting of, each and every target and then=E2=80=94as near real-t= ime as possible=E2=80=94risk assessment. That means characterization of the= civilian environment and pattern of life, collateral damage assessment,=E2= =80=9D he said. =E2=80=9CNone of those were accomplished. And there=E2=80= =99s other ways to accomplish that. Another way is a five second Google sea= rch of that area.=E2=80=9D

Dr. Helyeh Dou= taghi, a scholar of international law and political economy at Tehran Unive= rsity, said the reported Pentagon explanation for the strike serves a missi= on aimed at =E2=80=9Cobscuring the nature of the attack by reducing it to o= utdated maps, AI failures, or bureaucratic and budgetary shortcomings.=E2= =80=9D

=E2=80=9CHuman error may explain a= n isolated mistake; it cannot adequately explain a repeated strike on the s= ame area several hours after the initial attack,=E2=80=9D Doutaghi said.

=E2=80=9CWhat is particularly troubling abo= ut this framing is that it asks us to consider the incident in isolation, d= etached from the longer history of warfare in which schools, hospitals, rel= igious sites, journalists, and other civilian spaces have repeatedly become= targets. Historical memory matters here,=E2=80=9D she added. =E2=80=9CWe r= emember statements from U.S. officials warning Iranians that those who wish= ed to remain alive should leave. And we have witnessed, of course, in Gaza,= the normalization of attacks on civilian infrastructure on a scale that ha= s profoundly altered the level of public tolerance for violations of intern= ational humanitarian law.=E2=80=9D

=E2=80=9CThe administration and Hegseth have made it qu= ite clear that they don=E2=80=99t really care about civilian casualties. Th= at may also have been true of previous bombing campaigns that predate the T= rump administration, but it is even more the case than in the past and they= have made it clear that troops do not need to be concerned about consequen= ces.=E2=80=9D

If th= e U.S. ultimately claims that the Minab strike was a =E2=80=9Cmistake=E2=80= =9D caused by outdated intelligence and human error, international law expe= rts say, this would still not absolve the U.S. from liability for committin= g a war crime.

=E2=80=9CThe Geneva Conven= tions require those who plan an attack to do =E2=80=98everything feasible= =E2=80=99 to verify that the objectives to be attacked are neither civilian= s nor civilian objects; to take all feasible precautions in the choice of m= eans and methods of attack; and to refrain from attacks expected to cause e= xcessive civilian casualties. This obligation requires, at minimum, that ta= rget data be reasonably current,=E2=80=9D said human rights attorney and in= ternational war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody. =E2=80=9CThe United States pl= ainly failed to do everything feasible to verify that the attacked building= was a military objective rather than a protected school,=E2=80=9D Brody ad= ded. =E2=80=9CThis was the result of a systematic failure by the U.S. gover= nment, which launched an unlawful war of choice without proper planning or = adequate legal oversight. It reflects a broader pattern of degrading civili= an-casualty review mechanisms that should have flagged this strike as unlaw= ful before it was executed.=E2=80=9D

=E2= =80=9CThe administration and Hegseth have made it quite clear that they don= =E2=80=99t really care about civilian casualties. That may also have been t= rue of previous bombing campaigns that predate the Trump administration, bu= t it is even more the case than in the past and they have made it clear tha= t troops do not need to be concerned about consequences,=E2=80=9D said Mann= . =E2=80=9CThere is no mystery about what coordinates those missiles hit an= d that question would have been answerable on the day of the strikes. The o= nly way that CENTCOM would not know is that they are choosing to be willful= ly ignorant.=E2=80=9D

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A vie= w from inside a classroom at the destroyed Shajareh Tayebeh primary school = in Minab. Photo by Atta Kenare / AFP via Getty Images.

Many people in Iran believe the Minab school bombing was in= tentional, a deliberate strike aimed at inspiring terror and sending a mess= age that the =E2=80=9Cregime=E2=80=9D cannot protect the people and that no= target was off limits as long as it remained in power.

=E2=80=9CFrom the very first hours, the attacks were c= haracterized by an extraordinary level of shock=E2=80=94and not just Minab:= the decapitation of the political leadership, including the assassination = of Ayatollah Khamenei and members of his family and staff, followed by the = mass killing of children in Minab, as well as targeting a medical clinic in= the same city all in one day. The political significance of this sequence = lies in its capacity to produce a profound crisis of collective morale,=E2= =80=9D said Doutaghi, who traveled to Minab after the bombing and conducted= extensiv= e interviews with survivors and families. =E2=80=9CThis is where = the logic of shock and awe, I think, becomes at play. The objective of such= a strategy is not confined to destroying military or governmental targets.= It seeks to communicate to an entire society that no space is safe, that t= he state is incapable of protecting its population, and that resistance its= elf is futile,=E2=80=9D she added. =E2=80=9CThe killing of children is part= icularly devastating within this logic because it attacks the emotional and= symbolic foundations through which a society reproduces itself. The child = is not just a victim of war, but a political symbol of the state=E2=80=99s = supposed failure to protect its future.=E2=80=9D

Salem, the preschool teacher, is not a law expert or a gover= nment official, but her questions echo those being asked by such people. = =E2=80=9CThey said it was a missile base. If you wanted to attack it, you c= ould=E2=80=99ve attacked at night. Why did you attack at a time when childr= en were in school?=E2=80=9D she asked. =E2=80=9CWhat did you see at the sch= ool? What were you afraid of? You were afraid of the children? What does a = school have other than school bags, books, and notebooks? Our children=E2= =80=99s missiles were made out of paper.=E2=80=9D

= =E2=80=9COur Children are Broken=E2=80=9D

The city of Minab in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan lies in a= strategic location. Sitting just above the narrowest chokepoint of the Str= ait of Hormuz, directly across from Oman=E2=80=99s Musandam Peninsula, it h= as long served as both a significant trade hub as well as home to Iranian m= ilitary forces tasked with monitoring and securing the vital waterway.

<= p style=3D"margin:0 0 20px 0;color:rgb(54,55,55);line-height:26px;font-size= :16px;unicode-bidi:plaintext">=E2=80=9CMinab is one of the most historical = and oldest cities of Hormozgan province. If you study Marco Polo=E2=80=99s = travelogue, he mentions the port connected to Minab. He passed through the = Persian Gulf using this route,=E2=80=9D said Dr. Mohammad Movarekh, directo= r of Hazrat Abolfazl Hospital, the primary medical facility in the area. = =E2=80=9CThe people here are mostly farmers. It=E2=80=99s also a coastal re= gion. If you meet the people, many do work related to fishing. They are ver= y gentle, simple, and very good people.=E2=80=9D

More than a decade ago, the campus that would eventually house the = Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls=E2=80=99 School was part of a compound that include= d barracks for the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). But in 2= 014, the area was redeveloped and designated for civilian use, with the IRG= C retaining one section for an administrative building. =E2=80=9CIt was dec= ided that the compound of this military site should be allocated to civilia= n activities and vacated by the military,=E2=80=9D said the office of the g= overnor of Hormozgan in a statement to Drop Site News. The only remaining I= RGC presence in the general vicinity was the administrative headquarters of= its Naval Force, the statement said. =E2=80=9CThis process began in variou= s sections of the large compound in 2014 with the establishment of a school= and a clinic, and portions of the former military site were reassigned to = these civilian uses. The school and clinic thereafter commenced operations = as entirely separate entities.=E2=80=9D The school, the statement added, = =E2=80=9Cobtained its establishment license in 2015 and has operated offici= ally and publicly since that year.=E2=80=9D The Hormozgan authorities provi= ded Drop Site with two internal administrative documents formalizing the re= gistration of the boys and girls schools at the site.

Large walls were erected separating the school from any other = buildings, and it featured its own gated entrances and exits in a broader a= rea that included shops and small businesses. The IRGC administrative facil= ity was the first target hit the morning of February 28, several hundred me= ters away from the school. The IRGC had vacated those offices in 2025, foll= owing the Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran known as the 12-Day War, and no = personnel were present when the Minab strikes occurred, the governor=E2=80= =99s office said. The IRGC did have an active, publicly identified facility= more than a mile away from the school, but that site was not targeted in t= he early hours of the war.

When the U.S. = bombed the school and other buildings, there were no secondary explosions t= hat would have occurred if the missiles had hit a weapons depot. =E2=80=9CN= o missile-related or military activities of the kind falsely reported in th= e media took place at that location,=E2=80=9D said the governor=E2=80=99s o= ffice.

<= table width=3D"100%" border=3D"0" cellspacing=3D"0" cellpadding=3D"0">A drawing done by Moh= ammad Sharafi, a survivor of the Minab school bombing. His hands were burne= d in the attack and his sister and aunt were killed.

While the school offered priority enrollment to the children = of military personnel, its student body was made up of Iranian families fro= m diverse backgrounds, including low income families from Minab as well as = ethnic minorities. Its motto was: =E2=80=9CToday I learn; tomorrow we build= .=E2=80=9D

The school was a beloved insti= tution in Minab and the region and maintained an active online presence wit= h images regularly posted on its website depicting school plays and classro= om activities. Videos showed students=E2=80=99 paintings and drawings on th= e walls, children signing tributes to their mothers, teachers distributing = sweets and drinks. A wall-to-wall mural stretched across the school=E2=80= =99s entrance showing a girl reading a book in a field of flowers, surround= ed by fluttering butterflies. =E2=80=9CWhen you see the school environment,= the playground, the classrooms, all the evidence and signs that show that = this is a school were clearly there beforehand. The location of the school,= the neighborhood, and even in social media, all of this is clear,=E2=80=9D= said Pirhossein Kolivand, the director of the Iranian Red Crescent Society= .

=E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s been close to 13 = or 14 years that there is no military base there. Maybe it was there in the= past but it=E2=80=99s been more than 13 or 14 years that this has been a s= chool where elementary school students were studying,=E2=80=9D said Zakeri,= the chief of the Minab fire department. =E2=80=9CThere was a clinic, a bus= iness district, there was a school, there was a car wash.=E2=80=9D

On the day of the bombing, rescue teams created a= system to organize the bodies and other victims=E2=80=99 remains and trans= fer them to the Minab hospital. =E2=80=9CAlmost an hour after the incident,= the city and the hospital were in complete chaos. Everyone from the city h= ad gathered in the hospital. Everybody was worried about their children and= what had happened. In this incident, three of our hospital personnel had t= heir children martyred there,=E2=80=9D recalled Dr. Movarekh. =E2=80=9COur = own personnel were looking for their children, to see if they could find th= em among the martyrs and victims who were being brought to us. It was unima= ginable.=E2=80=9D

=E2=80=9CIn times of wa= r, you expect the wounded to be military forces, but on the day of the inci= dent, in the beginning, we only saw victims who were school children,=E2=80= =9D Movarekh added.

As the hospital staff= scrambled to create makeshift triage facilities in its overwhelmed halls, = word came sometime after 1 p.m. that another Tomahawk strike had hit the ar= ea by the school, including the Shahid Absalan Medical Clinic near the camp= us, where some of the victims were being treated.

=E2=80=9CWe were doing work, we were removing the martyrs, removin= g the children. It was packed with crowds there when the second [wave of] s= trikes hit,=E2=80=9D recalled the Red Crescent Society=E2=80=99s Dadania, w= ho estimated the later missile attacks struck 50-80 meters from the school = building. =E2=80=9CIt hit the clinic and the co-op company there, and there= was a car wash next door. It hit these three. It wasn=E2=80=99t far away. = The blast wave came towards us. The shrapnel hit the nearby wall but it did= n=E2=80=99t hit the crowds or the people,=E2=80=9D he added. =E2=80=9CThe c= rowds were really big. If that strike were to hit the school or the school = yard, it would=E2=80=99ve been a huge human catastrophe=E2=80=94more than o= ne thousand people would=E2=80=99ve been martyred.=E2=80=9D

=E2=80=9CIt was close to the school,=E2=80=9D said Yagho= ub, who was continuing to search for his daughter at the time. =E2=80=9CYou= heard a sound and then immediately an explosion. They were no more than a = few seconds apart. Within one-hundredth of a second, the missiles hit these= three locations one after another. We were worried about our children ther= e. It was a horrifying scene.=E2=80=9D

=
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A drawing by a Fatemeh Zahra Bahrami, a survivor of the Minab bom= bing, depicting children in the school yard as a tomahawk missile hits thei= r school.

By the time the clinic was hi= t, global media organizations had already reported the strike on the school= and that large numbers of students had been killed. The clinic strike imme= diately spurred rumors that the main hospital could be hit next.

=E2=80=9CWhen this happened, many of the ordinary = people who were inside the hospital ran away. But I saw myself how both the= doctors and nurses stayed, until the last moment,=E2=80=9D Movarekh said. = =E2=80=9CWe were ready to die. It would=E2=80=99ve been better in those cir= cumstances. It didn=E2=80=99t make a difference.=E2=80=9D

By that time, the hospital was overflowing with victims an= d body parts. =E2=80=9CMinab Hospital is a general hospital with all the sp= ecialized fields, but this general hospital has a limited capacity,=E2=80= =9D Movarekh explained. =E2=80=9CThe number of our morgue drawers where we = keep individuals who have passed away is six. Even during normal times, the= se drawers are rarely full. These drawers are empty. For incidents like thi= s, no such capacity exists.=E2=80=9D

The = hospital staff had to place some bodies and fragments inside the cooling fa= cilities in the hospital cafeteria and kitchen, which quickly filled up. = =E2=80=9CWe called people who were fish and shrimp distributors, because th= is is a coastal area. We asked for their help and for their freezers. They = came here so we could handle the martyrs being brought here,=E2=80=9D Movar= ekh said. =E2=80=9CWe had to use freezer trucks for transporting fish.=E2= =80=9D

That night, with families crowding= both the hospital and the site of the bombing, the hospital organized an a= d hoc system to help families identify their loved ones. =E2=80=9CMost of t= he martyrs were either burned, unfortunately, or were crushed under debris = that had fallen on them and were in pieces. On the night of the incident, w= e took all the martyrs into a morgue and took their pictures,=E2=80=9D he s= aid. =E2=80=9CWe brought these pictures to the hospital mosque around 9:30 = or 10 at night. We showed them to the families using a video projector.=E2= =80=9D

In the evening, Yaghoub and other = family members had split up to wait for word of Fatemeh=E2=80=94some remain= ed at the bombing site and Yaghoub went to the hospital. He said that in hi= s heart he knew she was gone. Searching for her, he had entered the bombed = school that day and saw the scale of the destruction in the area that once = housed her classroom. =E2=80=9CAfter two or three hours had passed, everyon= e knew. If you were there too, you would know no one could=E2=80=99ve made = it out of there alive,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80=9CWe knew our children had = been martyred, we knew our children were no longer with us.=E2=80=9D

Every time an ambulance or vehicle would arrive= at the hospital entrance, desperate families would surround it, hoping for= any sign of their loved ones. =E2=80=9CInside and outside the hospital, in= front of the hospital where there is a major street, it was completely blo= cked because so many people had come looking for their children,=E2=80=9D M= ovarekh recalled.

Shortly after 11 p.m., = Yaghoub=E2=80=99s suspicions proved true when an ambulance sped to the entr= ance of the hospital. =E2=80=9CI knew,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80=9CIf I desc= ribe the scene, it would break anyone=E2=80=99s heart. When they brought Fa= temeh, she was in one piece because she had been in her teacher=E2=80=99s a= rms [when she died]. When they brought Asra, her cousin=E2=80=94they were f= ound together=E2=80=94she too was in their teacher=E2=80=99s arms. Their ba= ckpacks were there too,=E2=80=9D he added. =E2=80=9CThey said when they ope= ned her notebook and read, =E2=80=98Fatemeh Yazdanpanah,=E2=80=99 that=E2= =80=99s when it was clear who she was.=E2=80=9D Yaghoub said that rescue wo= rkers told him it appeared the teacher had been trying to shield the girls = from the impact of the missiles when they died. =E2=80=9CThe teacher=E2=80= =99s family say she had numerous injuries in various parts of her body,=E2= =80=9D he said.

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Mourners hold a portrai= t of Fatemeh Yazdanpanah and her cousin Asra during a funeral ceremony for = children killed in the U.S. strike on Minab, on March 03, 2026. Thousands o= f people, including families and officials, attended the ceremony. Photo by= Stringer / Anadolu via Getty Images.

T= he next day, families who had not yet found their children were permitted t= o enter the morgue facilities. =E2=80=9CBy going to the morgue in person an= d seeing their children or mostly their clothes, their school bags, for exa= mple, their socks or shoes, they were able to identify them. The incident w= as so bad that many of the bodies were dismembered. They found a hand, a le= g, half of a body. This is how some of the remains were identified,=E2=80= =9D said Mokaveh.

=E2=80=9CI don=E2=80=99= t know how you can describe this. What happened that day is indescribable. = You had to be there to experience what we did,=E2=80=9D Movarekh said. =E2= =80=9CThis is the first time I=E2=80=99ve been able to talk about what happ= ened. People asked me, but I couldn=E2=80=99t. I avoided it. Even with all = these months that have passed, I still can=E2=80=99t describe this incident= the way I saw it.=E2=80=9D

When Salem, t= he preschool teacher, and her son, Yassin, got into her husband=E2=80=99s c= ar, she was hysterical. =E2=80=9CI cried so much and I was hitting myself. = My husband said, =E2=80=98What happened to your head? Your head is bleeding= .=E2=80=99 I said, =E2=80=98Forget about my head,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D she rem= embered. =E2=80=9CNow, I had time to look at my son=E2=80=99s leg which was= cut by glass and his leg was bleeding. He said, =E2=80=98Just don=E2=80=99= t take me to the hospital. Mama, they=E2=80=99re going to hit the hospital = and blow it up. If we stay in Minab, they will blow up Minab too.=E2=80=99= =E2=80=9D

Dr. Darvishi became the lead ps= ychologist treating the families of the victims as well as the 283 children= who survived that day. =E2=80=9CThere were child survivors who were being = helped to leave the school, bloody clothes, dirt and debris=E2=80=94they ha= d come out of the school and were either looking for their friends or they = were looking for a car that could take them away from there. Everyone there= was looking for the remains of their own loved ones,=E2=80=9D she said.

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Drawing by student Fatemeh Zahr= a Bahrami, a survivor of the school bombing, depicting Trump, a missile emb= lazoned with the Israeli flag, and a serpent.

=E2=80=9CA seven-year-old girl who was at the school described to me= that when the school was hit, her teacher helped them and took them into t= he school=E2=80=99s prayer room and then the school was hit again. She saw = the death, the martyrdom of her friends. She saw the death of her teacher,= =E2=80=9D Darvishi said. =E2=80=9CWe have several survivors who lost their = sisters and brothers at the school. They are suffering both from PTSD=E2=80= =94they have suffered blast waves to their brains=E2=80=94and they=E2=80=99= re grieving for their sisters and brothers. And they have various painful t= houghts such as, =E2=80=98Why am I alive? Why couldn=E2=80=99t I help my br= other? Why couldn=E2=80=99t I help my sister? Why was my teacher hurt for t= rying to help me?=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D

=E2= =80=9CWhat has happened to these children and their parents is that school = is no longer a safe place for them=E2=80=94not just for those 280 children = who were at that school, but for all the children of Minab,=E2=80=9D Darvis= hi said.

Salem said Yassin is trapped in = a mental prison of the events of the bombing, struggling with the guilt and= shame of surviving while his classmates died. =E2=80=9CI was a witness and= saw this. For me, it=E2=80=99s hard, mentally. I am 30 years old but then = you have a child who is just 10 years old,=E2=80=9D Salem said. =E2=80=9CRi= ght now, my son says, =E2=80=98I won=E2=80=99t forgive you.=E2=80=99 To me,= his mother. =E2=80=98I won=E2=80=99t forgive my mother.=E2=80=99 Why won= =E2=80=99t you forgive your mother? =E2=80=98Because my mother came too ear= ly [and rescued me]. If she hadn=E2=80=99t come after me quickly, I would= =E2=80=99ve been martyred, I would=E2=80=99ve had a gravestone at the Flowe= rbed of Martyrs Cemetery, I would be in heaven with my friends and teachers= .=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D

=E2=80=9COur children= are broken,=E2=80=9D Salem laments. =E2=80=9CMy son=E2=80=94I told his fat= her that he=E2=80=99ll never be a child again. His spirit is broken.=E2=80= =9D

<= tr>=3D""Hossniyeh Salem, a teac= her at the Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls=E2=80=99 School, and her son Yassin at t= he site of the U.S. bombing in Minab, Iran. Screenshot via Reuters Connect = / CGTV News.

Dr. Darvishi said the laye= rs of trauma created by the school massacre have touched every household in= Minab. =E2=80=9CThe 16 psychologists and experts who were from Minab, all = of them said that we cannot provide mental health services because our own = loved ones were at the school,=E2=80=9D she said. =E2=80=9CMinab is a city = where many are related to one another or there was a neighbor who someone l= ost, or someone from our own family, and our own thoughts are filled with g= rief and stress from this issue.=E2=80=9D

The children who survived that day are haunted by guilt and shame, as are = many parents of the victims. =E2=80=9CIn grief, there are several stages. T= he first stage is denial, the next stage is self-criticism, anger, and depr= ession until the acceptance stage happens. Many parents are at the self-cri= ticism stage, and the feeling of guilt,=E2=80=9D Darvishi said. =E2=80=9CI = had a talk with a mother who told me that she was to blame for her child=E2= =80=99s martyrdom, because =E2=80=98My son told me that morning that he had= a stomach ache and didn=E2=80=99t want to go to school. I killed my son. I= was the one who caused my son=E2=80=99s death.=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D

Salem said the night of the bombing she was callin= g as many of the parents of her students as she could, as well as those of = her former students. She recalled how the parent of one of her students con= fronted her. =E2=80=9CDidn=E2=80=99t you say my child was your child? You s= aved Yassin. You couldn=E2=80=99t save my child?=E2=80=9D Salem remembered.= =E2=80=9CI said, =E2=80=98I swear he wasn=E2=80=99t with me.=E2=80=99=E2= =80=9D She paused to regain her composure. =E2=80=9CIt is very hard.=E2=80= =9D

The surviving children of Minab have = recurring nightmares and many wake up screaming. =E2=80=9CSome of them say,= =E2=80=98We hear our friend=E2=80=99s voice calling me for help, and I cou= ldn=E2=80=99t help him. No matter how much I searched, I couldn=E2=80=99t h= elp my friend. I couldn=E2=80=99t find him,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D said Darvishi= . =E2=80=9CTheir dreams are mostly explosions, terrible noises, the body pa= rts they saw, the voices of their teachers. They dream that they=E2=80=99re= at school and it=E2=80=99s quiet and then there=E2=80=99s an explosion. Th= ey dream about what they experienced.=E2=80=9D Many surviving children lost= their appetites, their ability to concentrate or comprehend the time or da= y. Some believe their friends or teachers may still be alive and ask if the= y can look for them in the rubble of the school.

<= /tr>
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A drawing by Asra, a child who survived the Minab schoo= l bombing. The psychologist treating her said Asra saw the severed hand of = a classmate.

=E2=80=9CI=E2=80=99ve hear= d that at the Flowerbed of Martyrs Cemetery, a child came and took matches,= took a lighter to burn their own hand and leg to see how the ones who burn= ed felt, what their pain felt like,=E2=80=9D said Salem.

=E2=80=9CImagine a six-year-old child speaking about this, = saying, =E2=80=98I saw a hand. I think it was Ali=E2=80=99s hand. I saw a l= eg. I think it was him.=E2=80=99 And they have this feeling that maybe they= =E2=80=99re not a good person. Children don=E2=80=99t have the ability to a= nalyze. Oftentimes, they think maybe they weren=E2=80=99t good and that=E2= =80=99s why they couldn=E2=80=99t save their friends,=E2=80=9D Darvishi sai= d. =E2=80=9CThey have severe guilt, a severe guilty conscience.=E2=80=9D

Salem said that her 8-year-old niece, who w= as also a student at the school and survived the bombing, believes the U.S.= and Israel are still hunting the surviving students. =E2=80=9CShe said, = =E2=80=98I swear, they=E2=80=99re looking for the children of Shajareh Tayy= ebeh School. They want to martyr all of us and that=E2=80=99s when the war = will end.=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D

=E2=80=9CA Phenomenon of= Sinister Injustice=E2=80=9D

On the morn= ing of April 8, 1970, Israeli warplanes crossed into Egyptian airspace and = conducted a direct strike on Bahr el-Baqar primary school south of Port Sai= d. It was 9:20 a.m., and there were more than 100 students in the school at= the time. The U.S.-manufactured F-4 Phantom II jets dropped five bombs and= fired two missiles at the school and unloaded machine gun rounds into the = building. The structure was completely flattened, killing at least 34 child= ren and wounding more than four dozen others. It became known in Bahr el-Ba= qar as =E2=80=9CThe Black Day.=E2=80=9D

<= span>The Israeli attack occurred during a period known as the =E2=80=9Cwar = of attrition=E2=80=9D that followed the end of the 1967 war. Tel Aviv subse= quently claimed that its intelligence had mistakenly determined the school = was a military target, but in the immediate aftermath of the strike, Defens= e Minister Moshe Dayan defended the attack. =E2=80=9CWe have checked and re= -checked and there was no mistake this time,=E2=80=9D he told Israeli radi= o, saying that he was =E2=80=9Cconvinced beyond any doubt=E2=80=9D that the= Israeli planes hit a military base and if Israel had bombed a school, it w= as inside the base.

More than a ha= lf a century after the Bahr el-Baqar school bombing by Israel, the U.S. has= followed a similar narrative trajectory. It is a familiar one: When the U.= S. and its allies kill civilians, it is assumed to be unintended, =E2=80=9C= collateral damage,=E2=80=9D or the fault of their adversaries who use child= ren as human shields.

In April, a g= roup of more than 100 prominent international law experts=E2=80=94including= former U.S. military judges advocate general=E2=80=94published an <= a href=3D"https://substack.com/redirect/221478cf-ee52-4e64-8ffd-b5f946bdf8e= e?j=3DeyJ1IjoiMWVvZ2IifQ.JilZISJaTbu7B2wLCo3fGMYZ8454lcFEiXYqlZtxvOc" style= =3D"color:#00056f;text-decoration:none" target=3D"_blank">open letter asserting that the Minab strike =E2=80=9Clikely violates international= humanitarian law, and if evidence is found that those responsible were rec= kless, it could also be a war crime. The strike is among the deadliest sing= le attacks by the U.S. military on civilians in recent decades.=E2=80=9D

= =3D""Women hold up schoolbooks and a= backpack of children killed in the U.S. strike in Minab, on March 3, 2026.= Photo by Morteza Akhondi.

In Sep= tember, a UN fact-finding mission concluded that the U.S. had committed a = war crime in its attack on the school, charging, =E2=80=9Cwhen targeting th= e school building, the U.S. acted willfully, that is with the requisite men= tal element of recklessness.=E2=80=9D The mission=E2=80=99s report cited = =E2=80=9Cdeprioritization of civilian harm mitigation=E2=80=9D measures by = top U.S. officials and open disregard for international humanitarian law pr= inciples. It cited the use of outdated maps as well as publicly available d= ata clearly showing the school was a civilian site prior to the onset of th= e war. =E2=80=9CThe U.S.=E2=80=99s failure to update information in relatio= n to the school in its targeting databases and to verify that the building = was a military objective before launching the attack went beyond mere negli= gence,=E2=80=9D the mission determined. =E2=80=9CRather, the U.S. directed = the strikes at the building of the school while being aware of a substantia= l risk of striking a civilian object and acting recklessly as regards the p= ossibility that this would happen.=E2=80=9D The mission concluded there are= =E2=80=9Creasonable grounds to believe the United States committed the war= crime of launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in the loss of life or= injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects.=E2=80=9D

Iran is weighing its legal options. =E2=80=9CWe = will pursue this. This principle still exists that aggressors shall not go = unpunished,=E2=80=9D said Rahimi, Iran=E2=80=99s Justice Minister. In Iran = itself, prosecutors and criminal investigators have gathered an enormous vo= lume of forensic materials and eyewitness testimony. They recovered the shr= apnel and remnants of the U.S. Tomahawk missiles and guidance systems. Rahi= mi described the publicly available evidence that this was a direct hit on = a clearly identified school as overwhelming and indisputable. The official = figure reported by the Ministry of Justice remains 168 people killed in the= attacks, but to date only 156 bodies have been identified.

=E2=80=9CThe fear and terror they created=E2=80=94they = did this deliberately,=E2=80=9D Rahimi said. =E2=80=9CThey wanted to create= this fear and panic.=E2=80=9D He said that Iran is gathering evidence indi= cating the strike was intentional, though he declined to offer details.

=
3D""
The Shajareh Tayyebeh School = after the U.S. strike. Photo by Hassan Ghaedi /Anadolu via Getty Images.

=E2=80=9CThe wall paintings that are at t= he school here make it completely visible that it is a school. The U.S. has= used missiles that are equipped with cameras, and some operator directs th= is missile,=E2=80=9D he said, referring to the Tomahawks. =E2=80=9CThis mis= sile, with its camera that=E2=80=99s seeing its target, if it becomes aware= that this is not the target it wants, it can circle around that target for= two hours if it wants to, and not hit it, and change its course.=E2=80=9D<= /p>

The domestic case has been transferred fr= om Minab to the Tehran prosecutor and a criminal prosecution will be conduc= ted. =E2=80=9CAt the school in Minab, because a civilian location was hit, = in fact, we say that it is a war crime,=E2=80=9D Rahimi said. After a domes= tic ruling is issued, Rahimi said, Iran will request that other nations enf= orce the decision. The Iranian parliament is also in the process of prepari= ng legislation, he said, that would create a framework for Iran to assert i= nternational jurisdiction, allowing it to issue arrest warrants. =E2=80=9CI= n the end, this is a phenomenon of sinister injustice that must be atoned f= or in this world,=E2=80=9D Rahimi said. =E2=80=9CIt has become the law of t= he jungle. How many children were martyred in Gaza?=E2=80=9D

Rahimi also said Iran will ask countries that have univ= ersal jurisdiction laws, which allow nations to prosecute grave crimes even= if they did not occur within their boundaries or have any connection to th= eir citizens, to issue indictments. Perhaps the most famous case of a natio= n using universal jurisdiction happened in 1998, when Spanish judge Baltasa= r Garz=C3=B3n issued an international arrest warrant for former U.S.-backed= Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The UK respected the indictment and arr= ested Pinochet who was receiving medical treatment in London at the time. W= hen Pinochet tried to fight extradition, the House of Lords issued a landma= rk ruling that a former head of state does not have immunity for crimes suc= h as torture.

While many nations do have = universal jurisdiction laws on the books that would allow for the issuance = of indictments, such an action would be seen as an extraordinary confrontat= ion with the U.S. government. =E2=80=9CThis path depends mostly on politica= l will,=E2=80=9D said Brody, the veteran war crimes prosecutor. =E2=80=9CA = European or other government must be willing to expend diplomatic capital, = face U.S. pressure, and commit resources to a prosecution that has no direc= t connection to its own territory.=E2=80=9D

Askari, the Iranian international law expert, said that while Iran is ri= ghtly seeking all avenues for justice, the chances of success through unive= rsal jurisdiction are slim. =E2=80=9CWe have to again be realistic and know= that we are talking about the high ranking officials of the U.S. administr= ation,=E2=80=9D he said. =E2=80=9CI do not know a country in the world at t= he moment that has a good diplomatic relationship with the Americans who da= res to go for universal jurisdiction implementation.=E2=80=9D

During the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq, the U.S. atta= cked a bomb shelter in the Baghdad neighborhood of Al Amariyah. An F-117 st= ealth bomber hit the underground shelter with a laser-guided 2,000 bomb tha= t ripped through the concrete. Moments later a second missile was launched = directly into the opening, killing more than 400 people inside the shelter,= including 261 women and 52 children. The U.S. claimed it was a =E2=80=9Cmi= litary communications center=E2=80=9D and accused Saddam Hussein of deliber= ately placing civilians inside. A subsequent lawsuit, seeking to charge Pre= sident George H.W. Bush and other U.S. officials, was filed in Belgium by f= amily members of some of the victims. Under intense diplomatic pressure and= threats, Brussels changed its universal jurisdiction law and threw out the= war crimes case.

Rahimi said the proper = venue for prosecuting the Minab school massacre would be the International = Criminal Court (ICC). Neither Iran nor the U.S. have formally recognized th= e court=E2=80=99s jurisdiction. =E2=80=9CSince we are not actually members = of the ICC, we cannot file this complaint ourselves,=E2=80=9D he said, addi= ng that Iran was encouraging other states and non-governmental organization= s to submit requests to the court. =E2=80=9CPerhaps we can say that the mos= t important authority that can confront these aggressors=E2=80=94which is n= ecessary=E2=80=94is the ICC.=E2=80=9D

Bro= dy said the rules of the ICC would technically allow Iran to accept its jur= isdiction by lodging a declaration with the ICC=E2=80=99s registrar, but it= could not do so only in the interest of seeking an indictment against U.S.= officials responsible for the Minab strikes. It would require that Iran ac= cept the court=E2=80=99s jurisdiction over Iranian officials as well, a mov= e Tehran is unlikely to pursue, particularly given the U.S. hostility towar= d the ICC.

Since his first term as presid= ent, Trump has waged war against the international court, sanctioning its p= ersonnel and openly defying the arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minis= ter Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, who freque= ntly visit the U.S. and, in Netanyahu=E2=80=99s case, the White House.

<= p style=3D"margin:0 0 20px 0;color:rgb(54,55,55);line-height:26px;font-size= :16px;unicode-bidi:plaintext">Trump is not the first U.S. president to atta= ck the court. In 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law a bipartisa= n bill, subsequently known in the human rights community as the =E2=80=9CHa= gue Invasion Act,=E2=80=9D permitting the use of military force to free any= U.S. or allied personnel charged with war crimes by the court.

3D""
Mourners gather at a funeral for those who died = in the U.S. strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab. March 3, 2026.= Photo by Morteza Akhondi.

The cold re= ality of the post-World War II order is that international courts are inten= ded to prosecute the =E2=80=9Cbad guys,=E2=80=9D the adversaries of the Wes= t, African dictators, and the political and military leaders in the former = Yugoslavia. The Nuremberg Principles were never intended to apply to the U.= S. and its friends.

=E2=80=9CWe have to = be a little bit realistic,=E2=80=9D said Askari. =E2=80=9CWe have the super= power against international law and of course the superpower and those who = are in hegemonic power at the moment, they will do whatever they can to mak= e sure that the legal instruments and the legal bodies, they cannot work ag= ainst them.=E2=80=9D

In late Septem= ber, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration was pr= eparing to intensify its campaign to abolish the ICC, including through swe= eping sanctions. The administration, according to the Journal, wants to =E2= =80=9Ccripple the court by prohibiting it from conducting transactions in U= .S. dollars, cutting it off from much of the global financial system.=E2=80= =9D

While there are other venues, = such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to pursue war crimes clai= ms, there are numerous jurisdictional reasons why this path is not feasible= . The U.S. withdrew its acceptance of ICJ jurisdiction in 1985, after Nicar= agua successfully obtained a ruling that the U.S. violated international la= w by arming the Contra death squads and mining the Nicaraguan harbors. The = U.S. announced a boycott of the court and denounced it as illegitimate. Isr= ael joined the U.S. in withdrawing its own acceptance of ICJ jurisdiction. = While Iran itself has accepted ICJ jurisdiction, it has done so only under = the condition of reciprocity, meaning it cannot simply sue the U.S. there.<= /p>

In the case of the ICJ genocide case agai= nst Israel, South Africa relied on treaties to which Israel is a party to e= stablish jurisdiction, namely the Genocide Convention. Brody said that to b= ring such a claim, Iran would need to identify a treaty that both it and th= e U.S. are parties to, which formed a clear legal basis for a proceeding.

For decades, Iran was able to file claims = against the U.S. at the ICJ by utilizing the 1957 Amity Treaty, which dates= back to the rule of the Shah. Since the 1990s, Iran has filed several case= s and won some rulings, including a 2016 case against the U.S. for illicitl= y seizing Iranian assets in violation of the bilateral Amity agreement and = ordered the U.S. to pay compensation. In 2018, after the ICJ ordered the U.= S. to ease some of its economic sanctions against Iran, the Trump administr= ation denounced the court and withdrew from the Amity Treaty, a decision th= en-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said was =E2=80=9Cfrankly, 39 years overd= ue.=E2=80=9D Brody said he was not aware of an existing treaty between Iran= and the U.S. that would clearly form the basis for a case against the U.S.= at the ICJ related to the Minab strikes.

While the most direct routes to pursuing international justice for the Min= ab victims appear limited for Iran, these challenges do not eliminate Iran= =E2=80=99s options. =E2=80=9CThe absence of a court with compulsory jurisdi= ction does not mean that the United States has no legal responsibility,=E2= =80=9D Brody said. =E2=80=9CIt means that there may be no judicial forum in= which Iran can compel the United States to answer for that responsibility.= =E2=80=9D

Brody said that Iran and other = nations could pursue the establishment of a special tribunal on the crime o= f aggression against the U.S. =E2=80=9CThe most significant aspect of this = conflict was not any individual strike, but the decision to wage war itself= . President Trump authorized an armed attack against Iran in manifest viola= tion of the UN charter=E2=80=94without approval from the United Nations Sec= urity Council, and in the absence of an imminent attack from Iran,=E2=80=9D= he charged. =E2=80=9CAt Nuremberg [after World War II], aggression=E2=80= =94the crime of waging an unlawful war of choice=E2=80=94was treated as =E2= =80=98the supreme international crime=E2=80=99 because, as the Tribunal hel= d, it contains within itself the evil of all the others. The crimes that fl= ow from that unlawful war=E2=80=94including civilian casualties from airstr= ikes=E2=80=94are downstream consequences of the initial crime of aggression= .=E2=80=9D

But, Brody adds, =E2=80=9CFor = the past 80 years, no one has been prosecuted for such acts of aggression b= ecause the major powers have made sure they weren=E2=80=99t.=E2=80=9D

In 2025, however, three dozen states=E2=80=94m= ostly European=E2=80=94established a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggr= ession against Ukraine. Operating in the Hague, the tribunal has a mandate = to conduct trials in absentia against Russian officials.

=E2=80=9CThere is no conceptual legal reason why states cou= ld not seek to create a comparable tribunal to investigate the political le= aders who attacked Iran. The legal principle is identical: to launch a larg= e-scale armed attack on another state without Security Council authorizatio= n, and in the absence of an actual or imminent armed attack, is a violation= of the U.N. Charter,=E2=80=9D Brody said. =E2=80=9CWe can=E2=80=99t disreg= ard this principle simply because the perpetrators are Israel and the Unite= d States.=E2=80=9D

Should Iran and other = nations succeed in establishing such a tribunal and win a favorable ruling,= enforcing the judgement is almost an unfathomable mission given the multi-= decade U.S. track record of hostility toward international justice and law.= =E2=80=9CThe Minab school strike is not an isolated tragedy. It is a sympt= om of a broader failure to comply with the law of armed conflict and to pro= vide meaningful accountability when violations occur,=E2=80=9D said Brody. = =E2=80=9CAddressing that failure is not optional. It is a legal and moral i= mperative.=E2=80=9D

3D""
A bombe= d out classroom at the Shajareh Tayyebeh School. Photo by Hamid Vakili / An= adolu via Getty Images.

Doutaghi, the i= nternational law scholar, said that while these legal pursuits are worthy, = she does not have any faith that justice for the victims will emerge from t= hese systems. =E2=80=9CDocumentation can establish a historical record; leg= al proceedings can establish responsibility; but neither changes the balanc= e of power that enables aggression in the first place,=E2=80=9D she said. = =E2=80=9CFor that reason, I believe Iran=E2=80=99s most realistic path towa= rd meaningful justice involves re-establishing deterrence and changing the = balance of power. That means imposing political and material costs on aggre= ssion and making clear that attacks on Iranian civilians cannot be carried = out without material consequences.=E2=80=9D

=E2=80=9CIf the killing of Iranian children is followed only by document= ation, condemnation, and memorialization, while the structures that permitt= ed their killing remain untouched, then we have preserved the memory of the= crime without addressing its material cause,=E2=80=9D Doutaghi added. =E2= =80=9CJustice must therefore mean both accountability for what happened and= the transformation of the conditions that allowed it to happen.=E2=80=9D

Salem, the Minab preschool teacher, said t= he families of the victims and the community will not find peace until ther= e is retribution. =E2=80=9CEverywhere you hear, =E2=80=98We want revenge. T= ake revenge for our children,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D she explained. =E2=80=9CWhe= n you don=E2=80=99t take revenge, these crimes will be repeated.=E2=80=9D

Minab Will Never Be the Same

No single episode in recent Iranian history has impacted its bro= ader society more deeply than the Minab school massacre. Every Iranian inte= rviewed for this story broke down at some point during our interviews. Afte= r Dr. Movarekh, the director of the Minab hospital, finished sharing his me= mories from that day=E2=80=94which he had done for the first time since the= attack=E2=80=94he turned to a colleague and confessed that he had hurt his= hand because he was pushing his pen into his own skin in an effort to dist= ract from the emotional pain he felt recounting that day.

=E2=80=9CIf you read famous Iranian novels or poems, you c= annot easily find a tragedy like what happened in real time, real life in t= he Minab incident,=E2=80=9D said Askari, the international law expert. =E2= =80=9CIf you are a novelist, you are a poet, you imagine and you write=E2= =80=94you try to make it as dark as possible to make sure that the reader i= s feeling profoundly sad,=E2=80=9D he added. =E2=80=9CBut I can tell you it= is not comparable.=E2=80=9D

Dr. Darvishi= , the psychologist, is from an old Minab family. For her, the surviving chi= ldren, parents, firefighters, teachers, and others directly impacted by the= bombing are not just patients, but her community. =E2=80=9CThe city of Min= ab has experienced a tragedy and an incident that makes it impossible to re= turn to the way things were before this,=E2=80=9D she said. =E2=80=9CWhat h= appened in Minab is not something we can recover from with psychotherapy, h= umanitarian aid, and medication. The history of Minab has been transformed = with this incident.=E2=80=9D

3D""
Yaghoub Yazdanpanah and Masoumeh Farahi Zadeh, parents of Fat= emeh, who was killed by the U.S. missile strike on her school, at their hom= e in Gurzang, Iran. Photo by Zohreh Saberi.

Yaghoub, the father of Fatemeh, said he has depended on his Islamic fa= ith to confront the killing of his daughter and his desire for justice. =E2= =80=9CThe entire world should be terrified of this incident. What danger di= d the innocent children of Minab pose to the world that they had to attack = a girls=E2=80=99 school? They had to massacre six-year-old children? What k= ind of thinking is behind doing this to innocent children, children who don= =E2=80=99t know what war is, children who don=E2=80=99t know what bleeding = is, who don=E2=80=99t know what enmity is?=E2=80=9D he asked. =E2=80=9CGod = willing, one day, somewhere, those responsible for this incident will be af= flicted by this scandal. God was a witness to this and I am sure God=E2=80= =99s hand will enter this story and he will give them their just punishment= .=E2=80=9D

As Iranian students return to = school this month, Darvishi and her colleagues are working to help families= prepare in the aftermath of the horrors. =E2=80=9CHow can we ask these chi= ldren to return to school? Because schools are no longer a safe place for t= hose children. In our province, even throughout the entire country, familie= s are worried about sending their children to school,=E2=80=9D she said. = =E2=80=9CIn order for them to feel safe, we explain that we are in the proc= ess of negotiating and that we have very strong soldiers in the area of dip= lomacy and politics, and soldiers who are in the battlefield and they are d= efending us,=E2=80=9D Darvishi said. =E2=80=9CWe are explaining and telling= them this will not happen again, although we are not sure.=E2=80=9D

=E2=80=9CAs a mother, I don=E2=80=99t have the = heart. I don=E2=80=99t have the heart to go school shopping because I am st= ill mourning. I am mourning the children who are resting at the Flowerbed o= f Martyrs Cemetery,=E2=80=9D Salem said. =E2=80=9CAll of them are my childr= en. They were my students. My colleagues=E2=80=94in one day, one moment, on= e hour, I lost 26 of my colleagues. Is there a crime worse than this?=E2=80= =9D

Salem mentioned that students in the = U.S. have been going back to school after their summer holidays. =E2=80=9CM= aybe people in America=E2=80=94many people around the world=E2=80=94have sy= mpathized with the people of Minab, empathized with us. We are very gratefu= l for them,=E2=80=9D she said. =E2=80=9DThose who want to go shopping for t= heir children for the start of the school year, maybe they will be reminded= , maybe their hearts will ache again.=E2=80=9D

Jawa Ahmad contributed to this report.

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 07:17:06 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:16:48 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK8UOKwFTzYhRt5F5otXW-R2pRUDzyonATmi58sxVpjWt7vmz56KwlAcoKU Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="00000000000033bd14065cb3f473" Subject: [Salon] =?utf-8?q?Qatari_PM_calls_Netanyahu_a_=E2=80=98war_crimi?= =?utf-8?q?nal=2C=E2=80=99_says_no_justification_for_Israel?= =?utf-8?q?=E2=80=99s_response_in_Gaza?= X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 14:17:07 -0000 --00000000000033bd14065cb3f473 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable *https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260930-qatari-pm-calls-netanyahu-a-war= -criminal-says-no-justification-for-israels-response-in-gaza/ * 0/30/26 *Qatari PM calls Netanyahu a =E2=80=98war criminal,=E2=80=99 says no justif= ication for Israel=E2=80=99s response in Gaza* [image: Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani hold a press conference in Doha, the capital of Qatar on February 02, 2025. [Arda K=C3=BC=C3=A7=C3=BCkkaya - Anadolu Agency]] *Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said he considers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a =E2= =80=9Cwar criminal=E2=80=9D and sees no justification for Israel=E2=80=99s military r= esponse in the Gaza Strip following the 7THOctober 2023 attack.* *Speaking in an interview with British broadcaster Piers Morgan, Al Thani described the 7thOctober attack as a =E2=80=9Cmassacre=E2=80=9D and said h= e condemned it, but argued that this did not justify Israel=E2=80=99s subsequent actions in= Gaza.* *Asked directly whether he considered Netanyahu a =E2=80=9Cwar criminal,=E2= =80=9D Al Thani answered in the affirmative.* *The Qatari prime minister said he regarded actions committed in Gaza as war crimes and argued that those responsible should be held accountable.* *His remarks come amid continued tensions between Qatar and the Israeli government over the war in Gaza and Doha=E2=80=99s role as a mediator betwe= en Israel and Hamas.* *In previous interviews, Al Thani has accused Israel of obstructing efforts to implement a ceasefire plan in Gaza.* *Qatar has also rejected Israeli accusations that it provided support to Hamas=E2=80=99s military wing.* --00000000000033bd14065cb3f473 Content-Type: text/html; 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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 16:17:34 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 19:17:20 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK8tT4_zsnLCMr0STi4uNsUUALPPhFLdJHzmV526m3QOczXLhX44zf-MVrg Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0000000000000e2138065cbb81e5" Subject: [Salon] Iraq is Not Yet Sovereign." [military, economy, politics] X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 23:17:35 -0000 --0000000000000e2138065cbb81e5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable *https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/09/iraq-is-not-yet-sovereign.html#comme= nts * 9/30/26 *Iraq is Not Yet Sovereign =E2=80=93 Moon of Alabama* *After more than 20 years of messing up the country U.S. troops have finally left Iraq :* *The last U.S. troops left an air base in northern Iraq under a deal between Baghdad and Washington.=E2=80=A6Baghdad touted the end of the U.S. = mission as a sign of the country=E2=80=99s increasing strength and sovereignty.* *The withdrawal was also celebrated by Iran-backed groups but raised concerns among some other Iraqis, particularly in the Kurdish region, where many fear a resurgence of IS as well as more attacks by Iran-linked groups, possibly emboldened by the departure of U.S. forces.* *Meanwhile, questions loom around the future of the Iraqi militias, which the Baghdad government has sought to disarm, with little success so far.* *The move is little more than symbolic. Iraq=E2=80=99s sovereignty is still= in doubt.* *There still are Turkish forces in the Kurdish areas, allegedly to hunt down Kurdish resistance forces hiding in the north of Iraq.* *Militia aligned with Iran are still armed. Some of them are actively helping Iran in its war. This is in Iraq=E2=80=99s interest but makes them = a target for U.S., Saudi and Israeli war planes.* *Iraq has no air defenses. It is not yet capable to defend its own borders.= * *Most importantly though is its lack of control o= ver its own financial resources:* *Through Iraq=E2=80=99s U.S.-based bank account for oil payments, Washingto= n controls the physical shipment of dollars Iraq earns and has shown itself willing to use that power after temporarily halting the flow this year.* *Iraq needs a plan to solve those issues. Companies pumping or buying oil in Iraq should be forced to pay directly to Baghdad. If they are unwilling of so, because of U.S. pressure, Chinese companies should be invited to take their place.* *Iraq will have to further rebuild its military before it can become a regular state.* --0000000000000e2138065cbb81e5 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
https://www.moonofa= labama.org/2026/09/iraq-is-not-yet-sovereign.html#comments

9/30/26

I= raq is Not Yet Sovereign =E2=80=93 Moon of Alabama

After more t= han 20 years of messing up the country U.S. troops have=C2=A0<= a href=3D"https://apnews.com/article/iraq-us-withdrawal-militias-disarmamen= t-kurds-a097a39f3d1a3515adc2ba3298a6816f" style=3D"text-decoration:none;col= or:rgb(65,110,210);max-width:100%" target=3D"_blank">finally left Iraq:=

<= font color=3D"#000000">The last U.S. troops left an air base in northern= Iraq under a deal between Baghdad and Washington.
=E2=80=A6
Baghdad touted the end of the U.S= . mission as a sign of the country=E2=80=99s increasing strength and sovere= ignty.

The withdrawal was also celebrated by Iran-backed groups but raised concer= ns among some other Iraqis, particularly in the Kurdish region, where many = fear a resurgence of IS as well as more attacks by Iran-linked groups, poss= ibly emboldened by the departure of U.S. forces.

Meanwhile, questions loom around= the future of the Iraqi militias, which the Baghdad government has sought = to disarm, with little success so far.

The move= is little more than symbolic. Iraq=E2=80=99s sovereignty is still in doubt= .

There still are Turkish forces in the Kurdish areas, allege= dly to hunt down Kurdish resistance forces hiding in the north of Iraq.=

Militia aligned with Iran are still armed. Some of them are acti= vely helping Iran in its war. This is in Iraq=E2=80=99s interest but makes = them a target for U.S., Saudi and Israeli war planes.

Iraq ha= s no air defenses. It is not yet capable to defend its own borders.

Most importantly though is its=C2=A0lack of control=C2=A0over its own financial resources:

Through Iraq=E2=80=99s U.S.-based bank account for oil payments, Wa= shington controls the physical shipment of dollars Iraq earns and has shown= itself willing to use that power after temporarily halting the flow this y= ear.

Iraq needs a plan to solve those issues. Co= mpanies pumping or buying oil in Iraq should be forced to pay directly to B= aghdad. If they are unwilling of so, because of U.S. pressure, Chinese comp= anies should be invited to take their place.

Iraq will have t= o further rebuild its military before it can become a regular state.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20= 260930-qatari-pm-calls-netanyahu-a-war-criminal-says-no-justification-for-i= sraels-response-in-gaza/

0/30/26

Qatari PM calls Netanyahu a =E2=80= =98war criminal,=E2=80=99 says no justification for Israel=E2=80=99s respon= se in Gaza

<= img src=3D"https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2= 025/02/AA-20250202-36934568-36934562-TURKISH_FOREIGN_MINISTER_FIDAN_IN_QATA= R.jpg?fit=3D920%2C613&ssl=3D1" alt=3D"Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign= Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani hold a press confere= nce in Doha, the capital of Qatar on February 02, 2025. [Arda K=C3=BC=C3=A7= =C3=BCkkaya - Anadolu Agency]" style=3D"margin:auto 0px auto auto;display:b= lock;clear:both" width=3D"412" height=3D"275">

Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrah= man Al Thani said he considers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a = =E2=80=9Cwar criminal=E2=80=9D and sees no justification for Israel=E2=80= =99s military response in the Gaza Strip following the 7THOctober 2023 at= tack.

Speaking in an interview wit= h British broadcaster Piers Morgan, Al Thani described the 7thOctober=C2= =A0 attack as a =E2=80=9Cmassacre=E2=80=9D and said he condemned it, but ar= gued that this did not justify Israel=E2=80=99s subsequent actions in Gaza.=

Asked directly whether he conside= red Netanyahu a =E2=80=9Cwar criminal,=E2=80=9D Al Thani answered in the af= firmative.

The Qatari prime minist= er said he regarded actions committed in Gaza as war crimes and argued that= those responsible should be held accountable.

His remarks come amid continued tensions between Qatar and the= Israeli government over the war in Gaza and Doha=E2=80=99s role as a media= tor between Israel and Hamas.

In p= revious interviews, Al Thani has accused Israel of obstructing efforts to i= mplement a ceasefire plan in Gaza.

Qatar has also rejected Israeli accusations that it provided support to Ha= mas=E2=80=99s military wing.


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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 16:10:27 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 19:10:14 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK-j1uLSUkiQXN1ojLBkVt9xyOtviYtEMsxFgUeKCvstkhonv85dSf8NJYU Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0000000000009cbb87065cbb6756" Subject: [Salon] Vietnamese Press: US Military Withdrawal from Iraq a victory for Tehran X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 23:10:28 -0000 --0000000000009cbb87065cbb6756 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable *https://www.juancole.com/2026/09/vietnamese-military-withdrawal.html * *Vietnamese Press: US Military Withdrawal from Iraq a victory for Tehran* *Juan Cole 09/30/2026* *Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) =E2=80=93 I was a little surprised to see tha= t the Vietnamese internet news agency Vietnam.vn has an Arabic service. It carried an article yesterday from the newspaper B=C3=A1o Ti=E1=BB=81n Phong on the complete US military withdrawal from Iraq. The ironies are many. I am in my 70s now, so I well remember the disastrous final US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975 during the presidency of Gerald Ford, our only unelected president. The war was really over with in 1973, or maybe even in 1971, but Richard Milhous Nixon and Henry Kissinger were afraid to bring home 500,000 men suddenly, thinking that it could lead to public disorder. So they ended the war in dribs and drabs over several years. The soldiers they sent to die in a southeast Asian jungle for nothing were of so little value to them that they preferred to see them go on being in danger of their lives than to risk that they might, on their return, join a *gasp* protest. So much for the First Amendment.* *In spring 1975 town after town fell to the advancing Vietcong, and it became increasingly clear that many officers in the South Vietnamese armed forces, whom the US had thought their friends and allies, had secretly gone over to the Communists. The Communists had all along been an expression of Vietnamese nationalism, which made them ultimately the more attractive political force. There had been a silly Washington phobia that if South Vietnam fell to the Communists that then so would Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and perhaps Japan and South Korea. They called it the =E2=80=9Cdomino effect.=E2=80=9D It was a falsehood for which tens of thous= ands of Americans died, and who knows, three to five million Vietnamese. Finally, the last US helicopters fled the US embassy in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, with frantic Vietnamese allies of the US hanging off their landing skids.* *Today=E2=80=99s US military withdrawal from Iraq is not nearly as dramatic= . It may not even be what we used to call front page news, when there were front pages.* *Trump is the main reason for this withdrawal. His murder of Qasem Soleimani and a prominent Iraqi militia commander in January 2020 angered Iraqi Shiites. The Shiite militias that had grown powerful during the fight against the radical Salafi ISIL terrorist organization began bombarding US bases. In a move that foretold the future, Iran bombarded bases where US troops were stationed with precision missiles, carefully avoiding killing any of them, though dozens suffered from concussions. Trump dismissed the concussions as minor. They weren=E2=80=99t.* *The Iraqi parliament immediately met and demanded that the Iraqi prime minister arrange for an expeditious US withdrawal from Iraq. Trump and Biden resisted this demand for a while. Although the pretext for the US military presence in Iraq was the fight against ISIL, it had been decisively defeated in 2017-2018. The continued US presence was in part a hedge against Iranian influence in Iraq and a marker of continued American dominance.* *The Iraqi prime ministers, under pressure from parliament, worked slowly to convince the Americans to leave. Biden signed off on it in 2024, eager finally to put George W. Bush=E2=80=99s =E2=80=9CWar on Terror=E2=80=9D in = the rearview mirror, but also because the US troops were in constant danger from the Shiite militias=E2=80=99 mortar and drone fire. After Trump whacked Soleimani, US = soldiers simply were no longer welcome.* *File photo of Iraqi PM Ali al-Zaidi and Donald Trump. Public Domain. Via Wikimedia Commons * *The brain-dead Netanyahu-Trump war on Iran was the nail in the coffin. Depending on how you define a base, there were about 20 US military bases in the Middle East before Ben-and-Don murdered Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Iranian military forces responded with a =E2=80=9Cdebasing=E2=80=9D strateg= y, targeting these US installations. The Iranians rendered the US naval base in Manama, Bahrain, HQ of the Fifth Fleet, =E2=80=9Cinoperable.=E2=80=9D Bases in Kuwa= it, Qatar and the UAE were attacked. Because of the Trump administration=E2=80=99s news b= lackout on its humiliating losses, it is hard to know how many, if any, US bases are still functioning. All appear to have been at least damaged, and others besides Manama may have been destroyed. Not only did Iran attack US military installations, but so too did its allies among the Shiite militias in Iraq.* *Just one brigade of US troops was left in Iraq. They have been withdrawn and sent to Jordan. US bases in Jordan were targeted by Iran on several occasions.* *This American withdrawal from Iraq is an ignominious end to Bush=E2=80=99s= Iraq War, which I blogged almost daily for many years. While the defeat was not as dramatic as in Vietnam, it too was a major defeat for the US. Bush brought a pro-Iran Shiite majority to power in Iraq. While Baghdad is not the sort of open enemy to Washington that Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party had been, powerful forces in parliament and on the street among the majority Iraqi Shiite population despise the United States after it attacked Iran. Moreover, the Netanyahu-Trump war has deeply harmed the Iraqi economy by interfering in oil exports. We have come full circle. I think then VP Dick Cheney plumped for a war on Iran to do regime change and so get sanctions lifted on Iraqi oil exports, allowing US companies to profit. Now, Iraqi tankers are again having difficulty exiting the Strait of Hormuz, not because of Congressional sanctions but because of the fallout of Ben-and-Don=E2=80=99s catastrophic campaign against Iran.* *The Vietnamese newspaper appropriately gets the last word. It notes that the US departure will give Iran greater freedom of action in Iraq.* --0000000000009cbb87065cbb6756 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
https://www.juancole.com/202= 6/09/vietnamese-military-withdrawal.html
<= br>

Vietnamese Press: US Milit= ary Withdrawal from Iraq a victory for Tehran

Juan Cole=C2=A009/30/2026

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) =E2=80=93 I was = a little surprised to see that the Vietnamese internet news agency Vietnam.= vn has an Arabic service. It carried an article yesterday from the newspape= r=C2=A0B=C3=A1o Ti=E1=BB=81n Phong=C2=A0on the co= mplete US military withdrawal from Iraq. The ironies are many. I am in my 7= 0s now, so I well remember the disastrous final US withdrawal from Vietnam = in 1975 during the presidency of Gerald Ford, our only unelected president.= The war was really over with in 1973, or maybe even in 1971, but Richard M= ilhous Nixon and Henry Kissinger were afraid to bring home 500,000 men sudd= enly, thinking that it could lead to public disorder. So they ended the war= in dribs and drabs over several years. The soldiers they sent to die in a = southeast Asian jungle for nothing were of so little value to them that the= y preferred to see them go on being in danger of their lives than to risk t= hat they might, on their return, join a *gasp* protest. So much for the Fir= st Amendment.

In spring 1975 town after town fell to the advancing Vietc= ong, and it became increasingly clear that many officers in the South Vietn= amese armed forces, whom the US had thought their friends and allies, had s= ecretly gone over to the Communists. The Communists had all along been an e= xpression of Vietnamese nationalism, which made them ultimately the more at= tractive political force. There had been a silly Washington phobia that if = South Vietnam fell to the Communists that then so would Indonesia, the Phil= ippines, Thailand and perhaps Japan and South Korea. They called it the =E2= =80=9Cdomino effect.=E2=80=9D It was a falsehood for which tens of thousand= s of Americans died, and who knows, three to five million Vietnamese. Final= ly, the last US helicopters fled the US embassy in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh = City, with frantic Vietnamese allies of the US hanging off their landing sk= ids.

Today=E2=80=99s US military withdrawal from Iraq is not nearly as d= ramatic. It may not even be what we used to call front page news, when ther= e were front pages.

Trump is the main reason for this withdrawal. His mu= rder of Qasem Soleimani and a prominent Iraqi militia commander in January = 2020 angered Iraqi Shiites. The Shiite militias that had grown powerful dur= ing the fight against the radical Salafi ISIL terrorist organization began = bombarding US bases. In a move that foretold the future, Iran bombarded bas= es where US troops were stationed with precision missiles, carefully avoidi= ng killing any of them, though dozens suffered from concussions. Trump dism= issed the concussions as minor. They weren=E2=80=99t.

The Iraqi parliame= nt immediately met and demanded that the Iraqi prime minister arrange for a= n expeditious US withdrawal from Iraq. Trump and Biden resisted this demand= for a while. Although the pretext for the US military presence in Iraq was= the fight against ISIL, it had been decisively defeated in 2017-2018. The = continued US presence was in part a hedge against Iranian influence in Iraq= and a marker of continued American dominance.

The Iraqi prime ministers= , under pressure from parliament, worked slowly to convince the Americans t= o leave. Biden signed off on it in 2024, eager finally to put George W. Bus= h=E2=80=99s =E2=80=9CWar on Terror=E2=80=9D in the rearview mirror, but als= o because the US troops were in constant danger from the Shiite militias=E2= =80=99 mortar and drone fire. After Trump whacked Soleimani, US soldiers si= mply were no longer welcome.

3D""File photo of Iraqi PM Ali al-Zaidi and Donald Trump. Public= Domain. Via=C2=A0Wikimedia Commons=C2=A0

The bra= in-dead Netanyahu-Trump war on Iran was the nail in the coffin. Depending o= n how you define a base, there were about 20 US military bases in the Middl= e East before Ben-and-Don murdered Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Iranian mili= tary forces responded with a =E2=80=9Cdebasing=E2=80=9D strategy, targeting= these US installations. The Iranians rendered the US naval base in Manama,= Bahrain, HQ of the Fifth Fleet, =E2=80=9Cinoperable.=E2=80=9D Bases in Kuw= ait, Qatar and the UAE were attacked. Because of the Trump administration= =E2=80=99s news blackout on its humiliating losses, it is hard to know how = many, if any, US bases are still functioning. All appear to have been at le= ast damaged, and others besides Manama may have been destroyed. Not only di= d Iran attack US military installations, but so too did its allies among th= e Shiite militias in Iraq.

Just one brigade of US troops was left in Ira= q. They have been withdrawn and sent to Jordan. US bases in Jordan were tar= geted by Iran on several occasions.

This American withdrawal from Iraq i= s an ignominious end to Bush=E2=80=99s Iraq War, which I blogged almost dai= ly for many years. While the defeat was not as dramatic as in Vietnam, it t= oo was a major defeat for the US. Bush brought a pro-Iran Shiite majority t= o power in Iraq. While Baghdad is not the sort of open enemy to Washington = that Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party had been, powerful forces in parlia= ment and on the street among the majority Iraqi Shiite population despise t= he United States after it attacked Iran. Moreover, the Netanyahu-Trump war = has deeply harmed the Iraqi economy by interfering in oil exports. We have = come full circle. I think then VP Dick Cheney plumped for a war on Iran to = do regime change and so get sanctions lifted on Iraqi oil exports, allowing= US companies to profit. Now, Iraqi tankers are again having difficulty exi= ting the Strait of Hormuz, not because of Congressional sanctions but becau= se of the fallout of Ben-and-Don=E2=80=99s catastrophic campaign against Ir= an.

The Vietnamese newspaper appropriately gets the last word. It notes = that the US departure will give Iran greater freedom of action in Iraq.=

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 16:51:12 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <9829C5D9-85CA-4E45-960B-8B39C0FCACED@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <9829C5D9-85CA-4E45-960B-8B39C0FCACED@gmail.com> From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 19:51:00 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK_OV9H3TmZEVrHKfiuvVvgDXJVx-uYJum1xSGf4hmRrDfUNVFlx_MQBQcI Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000627557065cbbf90f" Subject: [Salon] The middle power moment arrives in South-east Asia - but not for Asean X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 23:51:14 -0000 --000000000000627557065cbbf90f Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable https://search.app/VVexM8bJZ55nHpMWA The Middle Power Moment Arrives in Southeast Asia, But Not for ASEAN By Leon Hadar For much of the past three decades, Washington's foreign policy establishment has viewed Southeast Asia as a chessboard. First it was a venue for post-Cold War "engagement," then a front line in the "pivot to Asia," and more recently a contested zone in the grand strategic rivalry between the United States and China. In each case the ten, now eleven, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were treated as pieces to be moved, courted, or pressured, not as players with their own interests and agendas. That view was always somewhat misleading. It is now becoming obsolete. As the unipolar moment fades and the global system drifts toward something resembling multipolarity, the question is no longer which superpower Southeast Asia will "choose." The question is whether some of its members can join the ranks of the middle powers, the Indias, Turkeys, Saudi Arabias, and Brazils, that are learning to play the great powers off against one another for their own benefit. The answer, I would suggest, is yes for some ASEAN states, and probably no for ASEAN itself. Indonesia: the obvious candidate Start with the most plausible contender. Indonesia has the population, nearly 280 million, the economic weight, and the geographic position astride the sea lanes linking the Indian and Pacific oceans to make it a natural middle power. It also has a foreign policy tradition, the bebas-aktif ("free and active") doctrine dating back to the Sukarno era and the Bandung Conference, that is essentially a recipe for strategic autonomy= . Jakarta's decision to join BRICS in early 2025, while continuing to pursue membership in the OECD and maintaining defense ties with Washington, was dismissed by some American commentators as a tilt toward Beijing. It was nothing of the sort. It was the kind of multi-alignment that India has practiced for years with little complaint from Washington, which likes to call New Delhi a "partner" even as it buys Russian oil and sits in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Indonesia is simply doing what middle powers do: accumulating options. Vietnam and the others Vietnam is a more interesting case. Here is a communist state that fought wars against the United States, France, and China, and has emerged from that history with an acute sense of how dangerous it is to depend on any single patron. Hanoi's "bamboo diplomacy," bending with the wind while remaining rooted, has allowed it to upgrade relations with Washington, Beijing, Moscow, Tokyo, and New Delhi simultaneously. With a manufacturing sector that has benefited enormously from the diversion of supply chains out of China, Vietnam is on track to become a significant regional power, even if its ambitions are more modest than Indonesia's. Singapore, meanwhile, is too small to be a middle power in the conventional sense, but it has long operated as what might be called a "middle power of ideas," punching well above its weight through diplomatic skill, financial clout, and a sober reading of the balance of power. Malaysia and Thailand have the economic foundations but remain hampered by domestic political turbulence. The Philippines, bound by treaty to the United States and locked in a confrontation with China over the South China Sea, has chosen, at least for now, the path of alignment rather than autonomy. Why ASEAN is not a middle power The temptation, especially among liberal internationalists, is to add up the numbers, a combined population approaching 700 million and a GDP that would rank among the world's five largest, and conclude that ASEAN as a bloc could become a major geopolitical actor, a kind of Southeast Asian European Union. That is wishful thinking. ASEAN was never designed to be a power. It was designed to keep its members from fighting one another and to keep the great powers from dominating the region, and on both counts it has been reasonably successful. But its consensus-based decision-making, its principle of non-interference, and the vast differences among its members, from democratic Indonesia to authoritarian Vietnam, from wealthy Singapore to impoverished Laos and newly admitted Timor-Leste, make coherent collective action nearly impossible. The record speaks for itself. ASEAN has failed to resolve the crisis in Myanmar since the 2021 coup. It could not prevent armed clashes between Thailand and Cambodia along their disputed border. And on the South China Sea, the one issue that most directly tests the organization's cohesion, Cambodia and Laos have repeatedly blocked joint statements critical of Beijing. An organization that cannot agree on a communiqu=C3=A9 is not goin= g to act as a unified pole in a multipolar world. A feature, not a bug Yet it would be a mistake to see this as a failure. ASEAN's weakness as a bloc is precisely what allows its members to pursue their own hedging strategies. A more integrated ASEAN would inevitably be pressured to take sides in the U.S.-China rivalry, and it would likely split in the process. A loose ASEAN, by contrast, provides a diplomatic umbrella, the "ASEAN centrality" that the great powers ritually endorse at summit after summit, under which Indonesia, Vietnam, and others can maneuver individually. In that sense, the region is following a pattern familiar to students of European history. The smaller and medium-sized states of 19th-century Europe survived not by forming a unified bloc but by exploiting the rivalries among Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Southeast Asia's version of that game is being played between Washington and Beijing, with Tokyo, New Delhi, Canberra, and the Gulf states increasingly joining in. What Washington should take from this For American policymakers, the lesson ought to be straightforward, even if it is not likely to be learned. The rise of Southeast Asian middle powers is not a threat to U.S. interests. Countries that are determined to preserve their independence are the best possible guarantee against Chinese hegemony in the region, far better than a network of reluctant client states pressured into choosing sides. The problem is that Washington, under both parties, has found it difficult to accept partners that will not be followers. The tariff threats aimed at Southeast Asian exporters over the past two years, and the recurring demands that the region "stand with" the United States against China, reflect a mindset shaped by the Cold War and the unipolar era. Neither is a useful guide to a world in which Jakarta and Hanoi have more options than ever before. Southeast Asia is not going to produce a new great power. But it is producing a cluster of self-confident middle powers that intend to set their own course. The sooner Washington recognizes that, the better its position in Asia will be. --000000000000627557065cbbf90f Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
https://search.app/VVexM8bJZ55nHpMWA



The Middle Power Moment Arrives in Southeast Asia, But Not for ASEAN

By Leon Hadar

For much of the past three decades, Washington's foreign policy establi= shment has viewed Southeast Asia as a chessboard. First it was a venue for = post-Cold War "engagement," then a front line in the "pivot = to Asia," and more recently a contested zone in the grand strategic ri= valry between the United States and China. In each case the ten, now eleven= , members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were treated as pie= ces to be moved, courted, or pressured, not as players with their own inter= ests and agendas.

That view was always somewhat misleading. It is now becoming obsolete. As t= he unipolar moment fades and the global system drifts toward something rese= mbling multipolarity, the question is no longer which superpower Southeast = Asia will "choose." The question is whether some of its members c= an join the ranks of the middle powers, the Indias, Turkeys, Saudi Arabias,= and Brazils, that are learning to play the great powers off against one an= other for their own benefit.

The answer, I would suggest, is yes for some ASEAN states, and probably no = for ASEAN itself.

Indonesia: the obvious candidate

Start with the most plausible contender. Indonesia has the population, near= ly 280 million, the economic weight, and the geographic position astride th= e sea lanes linking the Indian and Pacific oceans to make it a natural midd= le power. It also has a foreign policy tradition, the bebas-aktif ("fr= ee and active") doctrine dating back to the Sukarno era and the Bandun= g Conference, that is essentially a recipe for strategic autonomy.

Jakarta's decision to join BRICS in early 2025, while continuing to pur= sue membership in the OECD and maintaining defense ties with Washington, wa= s dismissed by some American commentators as a tilt toward Beijing. It was = nothing of the sort. It was the kind of multi-alignment that India has prac= ticed for years with little complaint from Washington, which likes to call = New Delhi a "partner" even as it buys Russian oil and sits in the= Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Indonesia is simply doing what middle p= owers do: accumulating options.

Vietnam and the others

Vietnam is a more interesting case. Here is a communist state that fought w= ars against the United States, France, and China, and has emerged from that= history with an acute sense of how dangerous it is to depend on any single= patron. Hanoi's "bamboo diplomacy," bending with the wind wh= ile remaining rooted, has allowed it to upgrade relations with Washington, = Beijing, Moscow, Tokyo, and New Delhi simultaneously. With a manufacturing = sector that has benefited enormously from the diversion of supply chains ou= t of China, Vietnam is on track to become a significant regional power, eve= n if its ambitions are more modest than Indonesia's.

Singapore, meanwhile, is too small to be a middle power in the conventional= sense, but it has long operated as what might be called a "middle pow= er of ideas," punching well above its weight through diplomatic skill,= financial clout, and a sober reading of the balance of power. Malaysia and= Thailand have the economic foundations but remain hampered by domestic pol= itical turbulence. The Philippines, bound by treaty to the United States an= d locked in a confrontation with China over the South China Sea, has chosen= , at least for now, the path of alignment rather than autonomy.

Why ASEAN is not a middle power

The temptation, especially among liberal internationalists, is to add up th= e numbers, a combined population approaching 700 million and a GDP that wou= ld rank among the world's five largest, and conclude that ASEAN as a bl= oc could become a major geopolitical actor, a kind of Southeast Asian Europ= ean Union.

That is wishful thinking. ASEAN was never designed to be a power. It was de= signed to keep its members from fighting one another and to keep the great = powers from dominating the region, and on both counts it has been reasonabl= y successful. But its consensus-based decision-making, its principle of non= -interference, and the vast differences among its members, from democratic = Indonesia to authoritarian Vietnam, from wealthy Singapore to impoverished = Laos and newly admitted Timor-Leste, make coherent collective action nearly= impossible.

The record speaks for itself. ASEAN has failed to resolve the crisis in Mya= nmar since the 2021 coup. It could not prevent armed clashes between Thaila= nd and Cambodia along their disputed border. And on the South China Sea, th= e one issue that most directly tests the organization's cohesion, Cambo= dia and Laos have repeatedly blocked joint statements critical of Beijing. = An organization that cannot agree on a communiqu=C3=A9 is not going to act = as a unified pole in a multipolar world.

A feature, not a bug

Yet it would be a mistake to see this as a failure. ASEAN's weakness as= a bloc is precisely what allows its members to pursue their own hedging st= rategies. A more integrated ASEAN would inevitably be pressured to take sid= es in the U.S.-China rivalry, and it would likely split in the process. A l= oose ASEAN, by contrast, provides a diplomatic umbrella, the "ASEAN ce= ntrality" that the great powers ritually endorse at summit after summi= t, under which Indonesia, Vietnam, and others can maneuver individually.
In that sense, the region is following a pattern familiar to students of Eu= ropean history. The smaller and medium-sized states of 19th-century Europe = survived not by forming a unified bloc but by exploiting the rivalries amon= g Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Southeast Asia's versi= on of that game is being played between Washington and Beijing, with Tokyo,= New Delhi, Canberra, and the Gulf states increasingly joining in.

What Washington should take from this

For American policymakers, the lesson ought to be straightforward, even if = it is not likely to be learned. The rise of Southeast Asian middle powers i= s not a threat to U.S. interests. Countries that are determined to preserve= their independence are the best possible guarantee against Chinese hegemon= y in the region, far better than a network of reluctant client states press= ured into choosing sides.

The problem is that Washington, under both parties, has found it difficult = to accept partners that will not be followers. The tariff threats aimed at = Southeast Asian exporters over the past two years, and the recurring demand= s that the region "stand with" the United States against China, r= eflect a mindset shaped by the Cold War and the unipolar era. Neither is a = useful guide to a world in which Jakarta and Hanoi have more options than e= ver before.

Southeast Asia is not going to produce a new great power. But it is produci= ng a cluster of self-confident middle powers that intend to set their own c= ourse. The sooner Washington recognizes that, the better its position in As= ia will be.

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:15:13 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 21:15:01 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK8-5OdQt5VxgUgvGuFXNUncWqWGO0iSB7QaIZkihUyye-gFiWsQbPfeyAI Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000d20bba065cbd25ee" Subject: [Salon] =?utf-8?q?Bond_markets_aren=E2=80=99t_buying_the_inflati?= =?utf-8?q?on-is-tamed_fairy_tale?= X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 01:15:15 -0000 --000000000000d20bba065cbd25ee Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable *https://asiatimes.com/2026/09/bond-markets-arent-buying-the-inflation-is-t= amed-fairy-tale/ * *Bond markets aren=E2=80=99t buying the inflation-is-tamed fairy tale*Rout = in inflation-protected Treasuries suggests a repricing of global debt that could be swifter and harsher than markets expect *by William Pesek September 30, 2026* *Bond traders are dumping US Treasuries as inflation expectations come unhinged. Image: YouTube Screengrab* *TOKYO =E2=80=94 Anyone betting that inflation risks are fading should look= at the US Treasury market.* *The sharp selloff in Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) suggests the world=E2=80=99s biggest bond market is growing less convinced = that price pressures are contained. Investors are rethinking the inflation outlook, with implications for Federal Reserve policy, real rates and stock valuations. The upward creep in conventional Treasury yields looks set to continue, and could accelerate.* *Demand is already softening. Last week, the Treasury Department saw tepid interest in its $70 billion auction of 5-year notes , which sold at a yield of 5.033%, the highest for a 5-year auction since June 2006. Thirty-year yields are testing 24-year highs, and 10-year yields are near two-decade highs , as the Iran war =E2=80=98s inflation shock shakes up the global economy.* *Oil is the swing factor. =E2=80=9CThe =E2=80=98Yes, No, Maybe So=E2=80=99 = jawboning over the Strait of Hormuz reopening is keeping investors on edge,=E2=80=9D says Crai= g Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Sandler. Ian Lyngen, rates strategist at BMO Capital Markets, notes that the =E2=80=9Chistorically str= ong correlation between oil and yields will leave the market particularly focused on the durability of the latest diplomatic efforts in the Middle East.=E2=80=9D* *Yet markets still don=E2=80=99t seem prepared for what may come. =E2=80=9C= It=E2=80=99s striking how many market participants have been surprised by the recent surge in US yields,=E2=80=9D says Allianz economist Mohamed El-Erian. * *=E2=80=9CThe fundamental drivers have been evident for some time. What=E2= =80=99s playing a far larger role than it should is psychological anchoring: the collective mindset shaped by more than a decade of artificially low, repressed yields following the 2008 global financial crisis,=E2=80=9D he says. * *That complacency means the adjustment for global debt markets could be more sudden and disorienting than many investors admit.* *The strain is already showing up in households. Thirty-year Treasury yields reached their highest level since 2002 on the same day the Conference Board reported that US consumer confidence had fallen to a 12-year low. * *The two data points reflect the same problem: persistent inflation is fueling an affordability crisis. Gasoline above $4 a gallon, soaring diesel costs and surging heating oil prices are taking a heavy toll on consumer sentiment.* *As Conference Board economist Dana Peterson puts it: =E2=80=9CConsumers=E2= =80=99 write-in responses regarding factors affecting the economy were mostly pessimistic in September. References to prices, the high cost of goods and services, and oil and gas prices in particular, rose to new heights.=E2=80=9D* *All this suggests that market action in the $2.153 trillion TIPS market is not irrational or an aberration. Rising real yields indicate that the market expects the US economy to remain resilient =E2=80=94 at least in= pockets thanks to AI =E2=80=94 while inflation pressures intensify.* *This trajectory speaks to the magnitude of the Federal Reserve=E2=80=99s p= olicy dilemma. On Sept. 16, the Federal Open Market Committee hiked rates 25 basis points to a range of 3.75% to 4% in a unanimous vote. Even Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, chosen by US President Donald Trump to lower rates, supported the tightening move.* *This is kicking up a uniquely animated debate about whether the Fed has lost the plot. Count Moody=E2=80=99s economist Mark Zandi among those worri= ed the Fed is making a mess of things by tightening into both internal and external shocks.* *=E2=80=9CThe odds of a serious Fed policy mistake are uncomfortably high a= nd rising,=E2=80=9D Zandi noted, adding that =E2=80=9Cthe economy is already g= rowing near potential (2% real GDP growth) and operating at full employment.=E2=80=9D* *Zandi notes that the artificial intelligence boom is driving economic growth while non-AI sectors are losing momentum. The Fed=E2=80=99s choice is to actively slow AI investment= that=E2=80=99s keeping both the economy and the stock market aloft, or to defend against slowing consumer confidence. =E2=80=9CNeither is a good outcome,=E2=80=9D Z= andi says. =E2=80=9COf course, it doesn=E2=80=99t have to choose either. It can wait.=E2=80=9D* *The conventional wisdom is that the Fed will continue tightening =E2=80=94= perhaps two more times by year-end. Some measures of market pricing suggest the Fed could be hiking rates in early 2027, too.* *James Lord, global head of FX at Morgan Stanley, says the bank =E2=80=9Cno= w forecasts US dollar strength through year-end and into 2027.=E2=80=9D He ad= ds that =E2=80=9Celevated energy prices, robust US data, and a hawkish =E2=80=8Crea= ction function have generated not just a rate hike but likely further hikes to come.=E2=80= =9D* *Perusing recent Fed comments, it=E2=80=99s hard to find policymakers who t= hink the most powerful central bank is done tightening.* *As Fed Governor Michael Barr puts it: =E2=80=9CEconomic growth is strong a= nd the labor market is solid, but inflation is above our 2% target and not clearly trending toward target in a timely way. Moreover, risks to achieving our inflation target have increased, while risks to the labor market have receded. We needed to recalibrate monetary policy to reflect the balance of risks to our mandate goals.=E2=80=9D* *Barr explains that the =E2=80=9CFOMC took important action to that end las= t week by increasing the policy rate, which I supported. In my view, given changes to the economy, we were out of position, and we made an adjustment in the right direction. In my base case, further policy adjustments are likely to be needed to ensure inflation comes down to target in a timely fashion. We want to support sustainable, durable growth in support of maximum employment, and price stability is crucial to that.=E2=80=9D* *The Fed=E2=80=99s dilemma is exacerbated by the US national debt topping $= 40 trillion around the same time as Warsh=E2=80=99s tightening cycle . Emre Tiftik, economist at the Institute of International Finance, notes that =E2=80=9Cas benchmark rates rise, interest expense is set to surge, wh= ile structural pressures from healthcare and public pension spending remain largely unaddressed.=E2=80=9D* *At the same time, mature-market governments now spend more on interest expense than the world invests in either AI , defense, or clean energy.* *=E2=80=9CThe key question is what could trigger an inflection point in dol= lar demand,=E2=80=9D Tiftik adds. =E2=80=9CEpisodes over the past year have tes= ted the =E2=80=98debasement trade,=E2=80=99 yet US securities remained well bid des= pite heightened volatility and speculation, partly because alternative markets lack comparable depth and liquidity. However, as structural pressures=E2=80=94in= cluding heavy debt-service burdens=E2=80=94become more visible and binding, such ep= isodes may become more frequent, and market reactions could be sharper and more abrupt.=E2=80=9D* *The TIPS selloff speaks to fears that heavy government borrowing and massive corporate debt issuance won=E2=80=99t just fuel inflation but will = compete for the same pool of capital, reducing raw demand for government paper.* *Federico Cesarini, head of FX at Amundi Investment Institute, adds that =E2=80=9Ca genuine tightening cycle is the key risk to our view. Our struct= ural concerns about the USD lie in the interaction between US fiscal sustainability, the price of capital and the opportunity set outside US assets.=E2=80=9D* *The plot thickens when the IIF=E2=80=99s recent data are considered. At th= e end of June, global debt surpassed $365 trillion, surging more than $10 trillion in just six months. Washington-based IIF points to the US, Japan, France and the UK, which face =E2=80=9Cpersistently large deficits and rising inte= rest expenses =E2=80=94 challenges long associated with debt-distressed emerging market sovereigns.=E2=80=9D* *Debt, Tiftik notes, has become a political issue, =E2=80=9Ccreating a vici= ous cycle between elections and short-term quick fixes, and a long-term vulnerability as the marginal utility of higher debt diminishes.=E2=80=9D H= e adds that as =E2=80=9Cbenchmark rates rise, interest expense is set to surge, wh= ile structural pressures from healthcare and public pension spending remain largely unaddressed.=E2=80=9D* *Last week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said rising bond yields underscored the need to =E2=80=9Ccontain and reallocate government spending, improve public sector efficiency and strengthen revenues.=E2=80=9D The OECD warns that governments must urgently put public finances on a sustainable long-term path and ensure they can respond to future economic and market shocks.* *International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva warns against =E2=80=9Cpushing debt levels up like a staircase not to heaven.=E2= =80=9D She tells the BBC that =E2=80=9Cthere are these two things that must be done: bring d= ebt levels down, put fiscal consolidation as a priority, and make sure that the central banks deliver on their mandate for price stability.=E2=80=9D* *Georgieva concludes that =E2=80=9Cit=E2=80=99s impossible to stress strong= ly enough how critical it is to get the courage to take the steps that are necessary. These are politically tough steps to take, but necessary steps to take.=E2= =80=9D* *It=E2=80=99s early to lose perspective. As economist David Rosenberg, pres= ident of Rosenberg Research, points out, the last time many market interest rates were at today=E2=80=99s level, back in 2007, the level of world debt was $1= 42 trillion and less than a 270% share of the global economy.* *=E2=80=9CThe risks are far more acute today from a refinancing-risk perspe= ctive,=E2=80=9D he notes, adding that Treasury yields and crude oil prices have =E2=80=9Con= ce again shifted from tailwind to headwind =E2=80=94 a reminder that equities right = now are highly sensitive to swings in bonds and oil.=E2=80=9D* *Perhaps the most surprising part of last week=E2=80=99s summit between Tru= mp and Chinese leader Xi Jinping is the lack of agreement on even the most basic of economic logistics. If Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is so worried about foreign central banks selling US government debt, why not forge a swap arrangement between the US and Chinese finance ministries that heads off such sales?* *One could wonder, of course, whether Beijing would entertain such an idea, given that it=E2=80=99s already stuck with $618 billion in US Treasuries. N= ow that even Treasuries that aim to protect investors from inflation are on the ropes, getting the globe to bet on Washington=E2=80=99s fiscal credibility = might be harder than ever.* *Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek * --000000000000d20bba065cbd25ee Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
https:= //asiatimes.com/2026/09/bond-markets-arent-buying-the-inflation-is-tamed-fa= iry-tale/

Bond markets aren=E2=80=99t buying the inflation-is-tamed fairy tale

Rout in inflation-protecte= d Treasuries suggests a repricing of global debt that could be swifter and = harsher than markets expect

by=C2=A0William Pesek=C2=A0September 30, 2026
3D""B= ond traders are dumping US Treasuries as inflation expectations come unhing= ed. Image: YouTube Screengrab

TOKYO =E2=80=94 Anyone betting that inf= lation risks are fading should look at the US Treasury market.

The sharp= selloff in Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) suggests the wor= ld=E2=80=99s biggest bond market is growing less convinced that price press= ures are contained. Investors are rethinking the inflation outlook, with im= plications for Federal Reserve policy, real rates and stock valuations. The= upward creep in conventional Treasury yields looks set to continue, and co= uld accelerate.

Demand is already softening. Last week, the Treasury Dep= artment saw tepid interest in its=C2=A0$70 billion auction of 5-year notes, which sol= d at a yield of 5.033%, the highest for a 5-year auction since June 2006. T= hirty-year yields are testing 24-year highs, and 10-year yields are near=C2=A0two-decade highs, a= s the=C2=A0Iran wa= r=E2=80=98s inflation shock shakes up the global economy.

Oil is the= swing factor. =E2=80=9CThe =E2=80=98Yes, No, Maybe So=E2=80=99 jawboning o= ver the Strait of Hormuz reopening is keeping investors on edge,=E2=80=9D s= ays Craig Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Sandler. Ian Lyngen, ra= tes strategist at BMO Capital Markets, notes that the =E2=80=9Chistorically= strong correlation between oil and yields will leave the market particular= ly focused on the durability of the latest diplomatic efforts in the Middle= East.=E2=80=9D

Yet markets still don=E2=80=99t seem prepared for what m= ay come. =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s striking how many market participants have b= een surprised by the recent surge in US yields,=E2=80=9D says Allianz econo= mist Mohamed El-Erian.=C2=A0

=E2=80=9CThe fundamental drive= rs have been evident for some time. What=E2=80=99s playing a far larger rol= e than it should is psychological anchoring: the collective mindset shaped = by more than a decade of artificially low, repressed yields following the 2= 008 global financial crisis,=E2=80=9D he says.=C2=A0

That c= omplacency means the adjustment for=C2=A0global debt markets=C2=A0could be more su= dden and disorienting than many investors admit.

The strain is already s= howing up in households. Thirty-year Treasury yields reached their highest = level since 2002 on the same day the Conference Board reported that US cons= umer confidence had fallen to a 12-year low.=C2=A0

The two = data points reflect the same problem: persistent inflation is fueling an af= fordability crisis. Gasoline above $4 a gallon, soaring diesel costs and su= rging heating oil prices are taking a heavy toll on consumer sentiment.=

= As Conference Board economist Dana Peterson puts it: =E2=80=9CConsumers=E2= =80=99 write-in responses regarding factors affecting the economy were most= ly pessimistic in September. References to prices, the high cost of goods a= nd services, and oil and gas prices in particular, rose to new heights.=E2= =80=9D

All this suggests that market action in the=C2=A0$2.153 trillion<= /a>=C2=A0TIPS market is not irrational or an aberration. Risin= g real yields indicate that the market expects the US economy to remain res= ilient =E2=80=94 at least in pockets thanks to AI =E2=80=94 while inflation= pressures intensify.

This trajectory speaks to the magnitude of the Fed= eral Reserve=E2=80=99s policy dilemma. On Sept. 16, the Federal Open Market= Committee=C2=A0hiked rates=C2=A025 basis points to a range of 3.75% to 4% in a unanimous vote= . Even Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, chosen by US President Donald Trump to low= er rates, supported the tightening move.

This is kicking up a uniquely a= nimated debate about whether the Fed has lost the plot. Count Moody=E2=80= =99s economist Mark Zandi among those worried the Fed is making a mess of t= hings by tightening into both internal and external shocks.

=E2=80=9CThe= odds of a serious Fed policy mistake are uncomfortably high and rising,=E2= =80=9D Zandi noted, adding that =E2=80=9Cthe economy is already growing nea= r potential (2% real GDP growth) and operating at full employment.=E2=80=9D=

Zandi notes that the artificial intelligence boom is driving economic g= rowth while=C2=A0non-AI= sectors=C2=A0are losing momentum. The Fed=E2=80=99s choic= e is to actively slow AI investment that=E2=80=99s keeping both the economy= and the stock market aloft, or to defend against slowing consumer confiden= ce. =E2=80=9CNeither is a good outcome,=E2=80=9D Zandi says. =E2=80=9COf co= urse, it doesn=E2=80=99t have to choose either. It can wait.=E2=80=9D

Th= e conventional wisdom is that the Fed will continue tightening =E2=80=94 pe= rhaps two more times by year-end. Some measures of market pricing suggest t= he Fed could be hiking rates in early 2027, too.

James Lord, global head= of FX at Morgan Stanley, says the bank =E2=80=9Cnow forecasts US dollar st= rength through year-end and into 2027.=E2=80=9D He adds that =E2=80=9Celeva= ted energy prices, robust US data, and a=C2=A0hawkish =E2=80=8Creaction=C2=A0function = have generated not just a rate hike but likely further hikes to come.=E2=80= =9D

Perusing recent Fed comments, it=E2=80=99s hard to find policymakers= who think the most powerful central bank is done tightening.

As Fed Gov= ernor Michael Barr puts it: =E2=80=9CEconomic growth is strong and the labo= r market is solid, but=C2=A0inflation=C2=A0is above our 2% targe= t and not clearly trending toward target in a timely way. Moreover, risks t= o achieving our inflation target have increased, while risks to the labor m= arket have receded. We needed to recalibrate monetary policy to reflect the= balance of risks to our mandate goals.=E2=80=9D

Barr explains that the = =E2=80=9CFOMC took important action to that end last week by increasing the= policy rate, which I supported. In my view, given changes to the economy, = we were out of position, and we made an adjustment in the right direction. = In my base case, further policy adjustments are likely to be needed to ensu= re inflation comes down to target in a timely fashion. We want to support s= ustainable, durable growth in support of maximum employment, and price stab= ility is crucial to that.=E2=80=9D

The Fed=E2=80=99s dilemma is exacerba= ted by the US national debt topping $40 trillion around the same time as Wa= rsh=E2=80=99s=C2=A0= tightening cycle. Emre Tiftik, economist at the Institute of Internatio= nal Finance, notes that =E2=80=9Cas benchmark rates rise, interest expense = is set to surge, while structural pressures from healthcare and public pens= ion spending remain largely unaddressed.=E2=80=9D

At the same time, matu= re-market governments now spend more on interest expense than the world inv= ests in either=C2=A0AI, def= ense, or clean energy.

=E2=80=9CThe key question is what could trigger a= n inflection point in dollar demand,=E2=80=9D Tiftik adds. =E2=80=9CEpisode= s over the past year have tested the =E2=80=98debasement trade,=E2=80=99 ye= t US securities remained well bid despite heightened volatility and specula= tion, partly because alternative markets lack comparable depth and liquidit= y. However, as structural pressures=E2=80=94including heavy debt-service bu= rdens=E2=80=94become more visible and binding, such episodes may become mor= e frequent, and market reactions could be sharper and more abrupt.=E2=80=9D=

The TIPS selloff speaks to fears that heavy government borrowing and ma= ssive corporate debt issuance won=E2=80=99t just fuel inflation but will co= mpete for the same pool of capital, reducing raw demand for government pape= r.

Federico Cesarini, head of FX at Amundi Investment Institute, adds th= at =E2=80=9Ca=C2=A0genuine t= ightening cycle is the key risk to our view. Our structural concerns about = the USD lie in the interaction between US fiscal sustainability, the price = of capital and the opportunity set outside US assets.=E2=80=9D

The plot = thickens when the IIF=E2=80=99s recent data are considered. At the end of J= une, global debt surpassed $365 trillion, surging more than $10 trillion in= just six months. Washington-based IIF points to the US, Japan, France and = the UK, which face =E2=80=9Cpersistently large deficits and rising=C2= =A0interest expenses=C2=A0=E2=80=94 challenges long associated with debt-distressed eme= rging market sovereigns.=E2=80=9D

Debt, Tiftik notes, has become a polit= ical issue, =E2=80=9Ccreating a vicious cycle between elections and short-t= erm quick fixes, and a long-term vulnerability as the marginal utility of h= igher debt diminishes.=E2=80=9D He adds that as =E2=80=9Cbenchmark rates ri= se, interest expense is set to surge, while structural pressures from healt= hcare and public pension spending remain largely unaddressed.=E2=80=9D<= /p>

L= ast week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said ri= sing bond yields underscored the need to =E2=80=9Ccontain and reallocate go= vernment spending, improve public sector efficiency and strengthen revenues= .=E2=80=9D The OECD warns that governments must urgently put public finance= s on a sustainable long-term path and ensure they can respond to future eco= nomic and market shocks.

International Monetary Fund managing director K= ristalina Georgieva warns against =E2=80=9Cpushing debt levels up like a st= aircase not to heaven.=E2=80=9D She tells the BBC that =E2=80=9Cthere are t= hese two things that must be done: bring debt levels down, put fiscal conso= lidation as a priority, and make sure that the central banks deliver on the= ir mandate for price stability.=E2=80=9D

Georgieva concludes that =E2=80= =9Cit=E2=80=99s impossible to stress strongly enough how critical it is to = get the courage to take the steps that are necessary. These are politically= tough steps to take, but necessary steps to take.=E2=80=9D

It=E2=80=99s= early to lose perspective. As economist David Rosenberg, president of Rose= nberg Research, points out, the last time many market interest rates were a= t today=E2=80=99s level, back in 2007, the level of world debt was $142 tri= llion and less than a 270% share of the global economy.

=E2=80=9CThe ris= ks are far more acute today from a refinancing-risk perspective,=E2=80=9D h= e notes, adding that Treasury yields and crude oil prices have =E2=80=9Conc= e again shifted from tailwind to headwind =E2=80=94 a reminder that equitie= s right now are highly sensitive to swings in=C2=A0bonds=C2=A0and oil.=E2=80=9D<= /b>

= Perhaps the most surprising part of last week=E2=80=99s summit between T= rump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping is the lack of agreement on even the mos= t basic of economic logistics. If Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is so wo= rried about foreign central banks selling US government debt, why not forge= a swap arrangement between the US and Chinese finance ministries that head= s off such sales?

One could wonder, of course, whether Beijing would ent= ertain such an idea, given that it=E2=80=99s already stuck with $618 billio= n in US Treasuries. Now that even Treasuries that aim to protect investors = from inflation are on the ropes, getting the globe to bet on Washington=E2= =80=99s fiscal credibility might be harder than ever.

Follow William Pesek on X at=C2=A0@WilliamPesek

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:20:13 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 21:20:00 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK9vnyfUUx4wRv068yCZCthvRjaAXaY3vXN-uiAdI7D6atWQRI_Lm62gzDE Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000b1f09a065cbd37e2" Subject: [Salon] U.S. Senate Narrowly Rejects Bill Demanding Report on Israeli Rights Violations in West Bank X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 01:20:14 -0000 --000000000000b1f09a065cbd37e2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable *https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2026-09-29/ty-article/.premium/u-s-senate-= to-vote-on-bill-forcing-report-on-israel-west-bank-rights-violations/000001= a0-ee96-dfbb-afa4-ffd6e09a0000 * *U.S. Senate Narrowly Rejects Bill Demanding Report on Israeli Rights Violations in West Bank - U.S. News* *Sep 29, 2026* [image: U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), earlier this year.] *U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), earlier this year. Credit: Getty Images via AFP/Finn Gomez* *The U.S. Senate has narrowly rejected a resolution that would have demanded the delivery to Congress of information regarding the killing of American citizens by settlers and Israeli security forces in the West Bank, as well as an assessment of the human rights situation in the area.* *The resolution failed to advance by a vote of 47 to 51.* *The proposal, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) along with more than 20 other senators, was submitted under a section of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act, which states that failure to deliver the report within 30 days of the resolution's approval could lead to the cessation of part of the security assistance to Israel.* *According to the text of the proposal, nine American citizens have been killed in the West Bank since January 2022, and its sponsors argued that Israel and the U.S. have failed to bring anyone to justice in these cases. The proposal was rejected along mostly party lines, with Democratic Senator John Fetterman the only Democrat who voted against the proposal and Republican Senator Rand Paul supporting it.* *The US says our # 1 priority abroad is protecting Americans. But in the West Bank, 9 Americans have been killed by Israeli settlers or security forces with no justice. Meanwhile they attack Palestinians daily with total impunity. Today, I'll force a vote to demand* *Speaking during the debate, Van Hollen said that, "the U.S. Government =E2= =80=93 including this Administration =E2=80=93 has said time and again that our nu= mber one priority abroad is ensuring the safety and security of American citizens. And yet, as we've seen violence rise in the West Bank, nine American citizens have been killed in recent years, and they have received no justice and no accountability. Their families =E2=80=93 and the American pe= ople =E2=80=93 deserve answers on their deaths.* *"But today, Republicans denied them that," he added. "Meanwhile, the Palestinian people have also borne the toll of this violence day in and day out. They too deserve justice and accountability. But again, Republicans blocked that today. While I was pleased that so many of my Democratic colleagues joined this effort, it's clear the United States must do more. It is our responsibility to ensure recipients of U.S. taxpayer dollars act in line with our laws and our values =E2=80=93 this resolution was an oppor= tunity to shed light on a reality that flies in the face of that principle."* *The resolution called for an unclassified State Department report within 30 days covering the killings, including investigations into potential suspects; Palestinian American citizens being held in Israeli prisons; Palestinian children in military detention; and Washington's efforts to secure accountability. * *The resolution also sought an assessment of whether implicated Israeli units fall under the Leahy laws, which prohibit military assistance to foreign forces when there is credible information that they have committed gross violations of human rights.* *Under Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act, failure to deliver the report within the statutory deadline would prohibit the delivery of relevant security assistance until the report is supplied, subject to subsequent legal authorization. * *Senate adoption alone can trigger the reporting requirement, but adoption does not immediately suspend aid. After receiving the report, Congress could pursue separate legislation restricting assistance.* *Besides Van Hollen, among Senate Democrats to have co-sponsored the effort include former pro-Israel stalwarts and key committee ranking members like Chris Coons, Tim Kaine, Richard Blumenthal, Jeanne Shaheen, Jack Reed and Patty Murray. * *Kaine, Blumenthal, Shaheen, Reed and Murray notably voted to block a similar reporting effort in 2024, but now sponsor this one =E2=80=93 eviden= ce of broader Democratic support for oversight, even though the two resolutions address different circumstances.* --000000000000b1f09a065cbd37e2 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2026-09-29/= ty-article/.premium/u-s-senate-to-vote-on-bill-forcing-report-on-israel-wes= t-bank-rights-violations/000001a0-ee96-dfbb-afa4-ffd6e09a0000

U.S. Senate Narrowly Rejects Bill Demanding Repo= rt on Israeli Rights Violations in West Bank - U.S. News

Sep 29, 2026
3D"U.S.
U.S= . Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), earlier this year.=C2=A0Cred= it: Getty Images via AFP/Finn Gomez

The U.S. Se= nate has narrowly rejected a resolution that would have demanded the delive= ry to Congress of information regarding the killing of American citizens by= settlers and Israeli security forces in the West Bank, as well as an asses= sment of the human rights situation in the area.

T= he resolution failed to advance by a vote of 47 to 51.

The proposal, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) along wit= h more than 20 other senators, was submitted under a section of the U.S. Fo= reign Assistance Act, which states that failure to deliver the report withi= n 30 days of the resolution's approval could lead to the cessation of p= art of the security assistance to Israel.

Accordin= g to the text of the proposal, nine American citizens have been killed in t= he West Bank since January 2022, and its sponsors argued that Israel and th= e U.S. have failed to bring anyone to justice in these cases. The proposal = was rejected along mostly party lines, with Democratic Senator John Fetterm= an the only Democrat who voted against the proposal and Republican Senator = Rand Paul supporting it.

The US says our # 1 priority abroad is protecting America= ns. But in the West Bank, 9 Americans have been killed by Israeli settlers = or security forces with no justice. Meanwhile they attack Palestinians dail= y with total impunity. Today, I'll force a vote to demand

Speaking during the debate, Van Hollen said = that, "the U.S. Government =E2=80=93 including this Administration =E2= =80=93 has said time and again that our number one priority abroad is ensur= ing the safety and security of American citizens. And yet, as we've see= n violence rise in the West Bank, nine American citizens have been killed i= n recent years, and they have received no justice and no accountability. Th= eir families =E2=80=93 and the American people =E2=80=93 deserve answers on= their deaths.

"But today, Republicans denied= them that," he added. "Meanwhile, the Palestinian people have al= so borne the toll of this violence day in and day out. They too deserve jus= tice and accountability. But again, Republicans blocked that today. While I= was pleased that so many of my Democratic colleagues joined this effort, i= t's clear the United States must do more. It is our responsibility to e= nsure recipients of U.S. taxpayer dollars act in line with our laws and our= values =E2=80=93 this resolution was an opportunity to shed light on a rea= lity that flies in the face of that principle."

The resolution called for an unclassified State Department report within= 30 days covering the killings, including investigations into potential sus= pects; Palestinian American citizens being held in Israeli prisons; Palesti= nian children in military detention; and Washington's efforts to secure= accountability.=C2=A0

The resolution= also sought an assessment of whether implicated Israeli units fall under t= he Leahy laws, which prohibit military assistance to foreign forces when th= ere is credible information that they have committed gross violations of hu= man rights.

Under Section 502B(c) of the Foreign A= ssistance Act, failure to deliver the report within the statutory deadline = would prohibit the delivery of relevant security assistance until the repor= t is supplied, subject to subsequent legal authorization.=C2=A0

= Senate adoption alone can trigger the reporting = requirement, but adoption does not immediately suspend aid. After receiving= the report, Congress could pursue separate legislation restricting assista= nce.

Besides Van Holle= n, among Senate Democrats to have co-sponsored the effort include forme= r pro-Israel stalwarts and key committee ranking members like Chris Coons, = Tim Kaine, Richard Blumenthal, Jeanne Shaheen, Jack Reed and Patty Murray.<= span>=C2=A0

Kaine, Blumenthal, Shaheen, Ree= d and Murray notably voted to block a similar reporting effort in 2024, but= now sponsor this one =E2=80=93 evidence of broader Democratic support for = oversight, even though the two resolutions address different circumstances.=

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:24:05 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <930002279.1533036.1790800748000.ref@mail.yahoo.com> <930002279.1533036.1790800748000@mail.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <930002279.1533036.1790800748000@mail.yahoo.com> From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 21:23:51 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK_T5Y3y3Qv7lwJrscc5RQfzmeTVsVDW7QcmIt6OF50ARQ6dkHFwXs1jPeA Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000839854065cbd45df" Subject: [Salon] Brazil briefed French, German officials on alleged US, Russian election interference X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 01:24:06 -0000 --000000000000839854065cbd45df Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Brazil briefed French, German officials on alleged US, Russian election interference By Gabriel Stargardter September 30, 2026 [image: A combination image shows Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and senator Flavio Bolsonaro] A combination image shows Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (left) at a ceremony at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, August 8, 2026, and senator Flavio Bolsonaro (right), the Liberal Party (PL) candidate in Brazil's presidential election, during an event announcing Alfredo Gaspar as Bolsonaro's vice-presidential... PARIS, Sept 30 (Reuters) - A French and German delegation travelled this month to Brasilia, where intelligence officials briefed them on alleged US and Russian interference before Brazil's election, according to sources and documents seen by Reuters. Officials from Abin, Brazil's spy agency, "confirmed the existence =E2=80= =8Cof interference from the United States as well as Russia," according to a report of the meetings compiled by an attendee. The alleged US interference ranged "from lawfare to interference that is openly acknowledged," the Abin officials said, according to the report. They gave no details of the alleged Russian interference. The previously unreported visit underlines growing concern on both sides of the Atlantic over US President Donald Trump's efforts to support MAGA-aligned candidates. It also shows how potential targets of US meddling are now comparing notes. The first round of Brazil's election takes place on Sunday, with leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a tight contest =E2=81=A0against right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro whose father, former P= resident Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a prison term under house arrest for plotting a coup after the 2022 election. The spectre of US interference to support Flavio Bolsonaro has loomed over the vote, with Lula saying he had warned Trump not to meddle. The US State Department did not respond to a request for comment. It has previously denied seeking to interfere in Brazil's elections. Abin and Russia's embassy in Brazil also did not respond to requests for comment. Moscow has previously denied interfering in other countries' elections. TRUMP'S SUPPORT FOR RIGHT-WINGERS TESTS OLD NORMS The Trump administration's overt support for right-wing candidates around the world represents a break with longstanding US policies, and poses a challenge for incumbent governments over whether such support counts as foreign interference. Washington has openly supported ideologically aligned candidates across Europe and Latin America in recent months. The United States offered a bailout potentially worth $40 billion to boost Argentine President Javier Milei before his difficult midterm elections, while US Vice =E2=80=8CPresident JD= Vance =E2=81=A0travelled to Hungary to support former Prime Minister Viktor Orban in his failed reelection bid. video player is currently playing an ad. Officials in France, where far-right candidate Marine Le Pen leads in opinion polls, have been vocal about rejecting any US meddling in their domestic affairs. Privately, they say they view Brazil's election as a potential early warning sign for France's own presidential election next year. In Germany, where the far-right Alternative for Germany party came first in elections in two states last month, officials have regularly criticised the Trump administration's support for the AfD. EU DELEGATION The French and German officials visited Brazil =E2=81=A0from September 9 to= 11 as part of a European Union delegation to discuss implementation of the bloc's Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content. Washington has been critical of the DSA , which it says unfairly targets US tech giants. The delegation's aims in Brazil also included "preparing coordinated responses ahead of the 2026 elections," =E2=81=A0according to a document se= en by Reuters. The French officials came from Viginum, a foreign disinformation detection agency, and media and communications regulator Arcom. The German officials were from the Federal Network Agency, which regulates telecoms, energy, rail and postal services. Arcom confirmed one of its officials participated in the visit, as did Viginum. Germany's Federal Network Agency =E2=81=A0said "possible US meddli= ng in the elections in Germany was not discussed" at the meeting. A senior Brazilian cyber official who was present at the meeting, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the number of cyberattacks in Brazil had nearly doubled compared with 2025, while there had also been a sharp rise in hacks and phishing attempts of the president's office, which the official said was clearly "election-related." Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter, Editing by Richard Lough and Timothy Heritage --000000000000839854065cbd45df Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Brazil briefed French, German officials on alleg= ed US, Russian election interference
September 30, 2= 026
3D"A
A combination image shows Brazil's President Luiz In= acio Lula da Silva (left) at a ceremony at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia,= Brazil, August 8, 2026, and senator Flavio Bolsonaro (right), the Liberal = Party (PL) candidate in Brazil's presidential election, during an event= announcing Alfredo Gaspar as Bolsonaro's vice-presidential...=C2=A0
PARIS= , Sept 30 (Reuters) - A French and German delegation travelled this month t= o Brasilia, where intelligence officials briefed them on alleged US and Rus= sian interference before Brazil's election, according to sources and do= cuments seen by Reuters.
Officials from = Abin, Brazil's spy agency, "confirmed the existence =E2=80=8Cof in= terference from the United States as well as Russia," according to a r= eport of the meetings compiled by an attendee.
The alleged US interference ranged "from lawfare to interferenc= e that is openly acknowledged," the Abin officials said, according to = the report. They gave no details of the alleged Russian interference.
=
The previously unreported visit underlines gr= owing concern on both sides of the Atlantic over US President Donald Trump&= #39;s efforts to support MAGA-aligned candidates. It also shows how potenti= al targets of US meddling are now comparing notes.
The first round of Brazil's election takes place on Sunday, = with leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a tight contest =E2=81=A0against right-wing Senator Flavio Bo= lsonaro whose father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a prison = term under house arrest for plotting a coup after the 2022 election.
<= div style=3D"font-size:16px;line-height:24px;margin:0px 0px 12px;padding:0p= x;letter-spacing:0px;font-family:knowledge-regular,Arial,sans-serif;color:r= gb(64,64,64);max-width:100%">The spectre of US interference to support Flav= io Bolsonaro has loomed over the vote, with Lula saying he had warned Trump= not to meddle.
The US State Department = did not respond to a request for comment. It has previously denied seeking = to interfere in Brazil's elections. Abin and Russia's embassy in Br= azil also did not respond to requests for comment. Moscow has previously de= nied interfering in other countries' elections.

TRUMP'S SUPPORT FOR RIGHT-WINGERS TESTS OLD NORMS

The Trump administration's overt support fo= r right-wing candidates around the world represents a break with longstandi= ng US policies, and poses a challenge for incumbent governments over whethe= r such support counts as foreign interference.
Washington has openly supported ideologically aligned candidates acr= oss Europe and Latin America in recent months.
The United States offered a bailout potentially worth $40 billion to bo= ost Argentine President Javier Milei before his difficult midterm elections= , while US Vice =E2=80=8CPresident JD Vance =E2=81=A0travelled to Hunga= ry to support former Prime Minister Viktor Orban in his failed reelecti= on bid.=C2=A0video player is currently playing an ad.
Officials in France, where far-right candidate Marine Le Pen leads in opinion polls, have been vocal about = rejecting any US meddling in their domestic affairs. Privately, they sa= y they view Brazil's election as a potential early warning sign for Fra= nce's own presidential election next year.
In Germany, where the far-right Alternative for Germany party came f= irst in elections in two states last month, officials have regularly critic= ised the Trump administration's support for the AfD.

EU DELEGATION

The French= and German officials visited Brazil =E2=81=A0from September 9 to 11 as par= t of a European Union delegation to discuss implementation of the bloc'= s Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online platforms to do more to= tackle illegal and harmful content. Washington has been critical= of the DSA, which it says unfairly targets US tech giants.
The delegation's aims in Brazil also included "prepar= ing coordinated responses ahead of the 2026 elections," =E2=81=A0accor= ding to a document seen by Reuters.
The French officials came from Viginum, a foreign disinformation detecti= on agency, and media and communications regulator Arcom.
The German officials were from the Federal Network Agency,= which regulates telecoms, energy, rail and postal services.
Arcom confirmed one of its officials participated in t= he visit, as did Viginum. Germany's Federal Network Agency =E2=81=A0sai= d "possible US meddling in the elections in Germany was not discussed&= quot; at the meeting.
A senior Brazilian cyber offi= cial who was present at the meeting, and who spoke on condition of anonymit= y, said the number of cyberattacks in Brazil had nearly doubled compared wi= th 2025, while there had also been a sharp rise in hacks and phishing attem= pts of the president's office, which the official said was clearly &quo= t;election-related."

Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter, Edi= ting by Richard Lough and Timothy Heritage

<= br>

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:27:49 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 21:27:37 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK9xRPGqhOs454RttJXCfEqnBGDJQRy0WWBtm02T0cw2Wm3alfeKUHGXrf4 Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000e17de5065cbd5272" Subject: [Salon] =?utf-8?q?Apparently=2C_it=E2=80=99s_mission_accomplishe?= =?utf-8?q?d=2C_finally=2E?= X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 01:27:50 -0000 --000000000000e17de5065cbd5272 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable *https://mishtalk.com/economics/us-to-exit-iraq-after-wasting-1-7-trillion-= over-23-years/ * *Apparently, it=E2=80=99s mission accomplished, finally.* *The Wall Street Journal reports U.S. Military Exits Iraq, Leaving Behind a Nation in Peril * *After spending more than 23 years and $1.7 trillion, America is winding down what critics have called its forever war in Iraq, closing the last major U.S. military base on Wednesday.* *=E2=80=9CWe don=E2=80=99t think we need the military there anymore,=E2=80= =9D President Trump said during a White House visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in July. =E2=80=9CWe have a fantastic champion, a new champion,=E2=80=9D the preside= nt said. =E2=80=9CHe=E2=80=99s young, and he=E2=80=99s handsome.=E2=80=9D* *Zaidi, a 41-year-old businessman, sat beside Trump during the visit and announced a deadline, also set for Wednesday, for Iranian-backed militias to hand over their weapons. =E2=80=9CThere is no justification for their ex= istence after the 30th of September,=E2=80=9D he said.* *Instead, America=E2=80=99s open-ended war with Iran is pushing Iraq deeper= into conflict, with the U.S. exit leaving behind a country where well-armed militias are only tightening their grip. Militants and Iranian forces launched more than 600 attacks on U.S. diplomatic and military facilities in Iraq in the first two months of the war, The Wall Street Journal reported.* *In a sign of Iraq=E2=80=99s instability, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad now s= ends frequent security warnings to individual Americans and others. About two a week regard kidnapping by militants. A team from the Journal abruptly left Baghdad this month after Iraqi, U.S. and European officials warned of a security threat that American officials later said was a kidnapping risk by a Shiite militia.* *Zaidi, who never held public office before becoming prime minister in May, has been embraced by the Trump administration as someone they can do business with. He owns a bank, an insurance company and media and construction firms. His bank was banned by the Treasury Department from dollar transactions in 2024 over suspicions it helped finance Iran and its proxies. Zaidi denied knowing about such transactions. Former U.S. officials said they didn=E2=80=99t believe he had any personal involvement.= * *The Trump administration is counting on Zaidi to disarm the militants, which number in the tens of thousands and include paramilitary groups that receive funding or weapons from Iran.* *Others scoffed at the idea. =E2=80=9CThese weapons are for our sovereignty= , our freedom,=E2=80=9D said Kazem al-Fartousi, a spokesman for Kata=E2=80=99ib S= ayyid Al-Shuhada, a paramilitary group the U.S. designated as a terrorist organization, funded and armed by Iran.* *A forced disarmament by the government =E2=80=9Cwill not happen,=E2=80=9D = he said in an interview in Baghdad. His group and other militias hold top positions in ministries, as well as dozens of seats in Iraq=E2=80=99s parliament where t= hey played a role in Zaidi=E2=80=99s selection in the negotiations that followe= d last year=E2=80=99s election.* *Ayatollah postcards* *In Baghdad, young professionals sipped iced coffee and typed on laptops in the exclusive Karrada neighborhood on a recent, seemingly peaceful day. Yet many said they plan to leave, worried that insecurity and economic pressures will build without a strong U.S. presence.* *=E2=80=9CIf the troops were to leave, why were they here in the first plac= e? They were here to accomplish a goal. Did they? No,=E2=80=9D said Mustafa Al-Zaid= i, a 22-year-old medical student who plans to eventually work abroad. =E2=80=9CW= ill we be like Afghanistan or like Yemen and Syria?=E2=80=9D* *Mission Accomplished, Not* *If we accomplished anything, someone tell me what. We wasted over a trillion for nothing. * *Now we can expect a civil war between Shiite and Suni factions.* *But leaving is always the right thing when we never should have been there in the first place.* *We should not be messing with Iran either.* --000000000000e17de5065cbd5272 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
https://= mishtalk.com/economics/us-to-exit-iraq-after-wasting-1-7-trillion-over-23-y= ears/

Apparently, it=E2=80=99s mission accomplish= ed, finally.

3D""

The Wall Street Journal reports=C2=A0U.S. Military Exits Iraq, Leaving Behind a Nation i= n Peril

After spending more than 23 years and $= 1.7 trillion, America is winding down what critics have called its forever = war in Iraq, closing the last major U.S. military base on Wednesday.

=E2=80=9CWe don=E2=80=99t think we need the= military there anymore,=E2=80=9D President Trump said during a White House= visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in July. =E2=80=9CWe have a fan= tastic champion, a new champion,=E2=80=9D the president said. =E2=80=9CHe= =E2=80=99s young, and he=E2=80=99s handsome.=E2=80=9D

Zaidi, a 41-year-old businessman, sat beside Trump during = the visit and announced a deadline, also set for Wednesday, for Iranian-bac= ked militias to hand over their weapons. =E2=80=9CThere is no justification= for their existence after the 30th of September,=E2=80=9D he said.

=

Instead, America=E2=80=99s open-ended war wi= th Iran is pushing Iraq deeper into conflict, with the U.S. exit leaving be= hind a country where well-armed militias are only tightening their grip. Mi= litants and Iranian forces launched more than 600 attacks on U.S. diplomati= c and military facilities in Iraq in the first two months of the war, The W= all Street Journal reported.

In a sig= n of Iraq=E2=80=99s instability, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad now sends freq= uent security warnings to individual Americans and others. About two a week= regard kidnapping by militants. A team from the Journal abruptly left Bagh= dad this month after Iraqi, U.S. and European officials warned of a securit= y threat that American officials later said was a kidnapping risk by a Shii= te militia.

Zaidi, who never held pub= lic office before becoming prime minister in May, has been embraced by the = Trump administration as someone they can do business with. He owns a bank, = an insurance company and media and construction firms. His bank was banned = by the Treasury Department from dollar transactions in 2024 over suspicions= it helped finance Iran and its proxies. Zaidi denied knowing about such tr= ansactions. Former U.S. officials said they didn=E2=80=99t believe he had a= ny personal involvement.

The Trump ad= ministration is counting on Zaidi to disarm the militants, which number in = the tens of thousands and include paramilitary groups that receive funding = or weapons from Iran.

Others scoffed = at the idea. =E2=80=9CThese weapons are for our sovereignty, our freedom,= =E2=80=9D said Kazem al-Fartousi, a spokesman for Kata=E2=80=99ib Sayyid Al= -Shuhada, a paramilitary group the U.S. designated as a terrorist organizat= ion, funded and armed by Iran.

A forc= ed disarmament by the government =E2=80=9Cwill not happen,=E2=80=9D he said= in an interview in Baghdad. His group and other militias hold top position= s in ministries, as well as dozens of seats in Iraq=E2=80=99s parliament wh= ere they played a role in Zaidi=E2=80=99s selection in the negotiations tha= t followed last year=E2=80=99s election.

Ayatollah postcards

In Baghdad, young professionals sipped iced coffee a= nd typed on laptops in the exclusive Karrada neighborhood on a recent, seem= ingly peaceful day. Yet many said they plan to leave, worried that insecuri= ty and economic pressures will build without a strong U.S. presence.

=E2=80=9CIf the troops were to leave, why were they here i= n the first place? They were here to accomplish a goal. Did they?=C2= =A0No,=E2=80=9D said Mustafa Al-Zaidi, a 22-year-old medical = student who plans to eventually work abroad. =E2=80=9CWill we be like Afgha= nistan or like Yemen and Syria?=E2=80=9D

Mission Accomplished, Not

If we accomplished an= ything, someone tell me what. We wasted over a trillion for nothing.= =C2=A0

Now we can expect a civil war between Shiite and Suni fact= ions.

But leaving is always the right thing when we never should have be= en there in the first place.

We should not be messing with Iran either.<= /b>

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The upcoming release will push the SPR past its lowest operational threshold amid soaring fuel prices and a growing diesel shortage X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 01:37:11 -0000 --00000000000054d60a065cbd74f7 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable *https://thecradle.co/articles/us-energy-dept-to-release-extra-40m-barrels-= of-crude-pushing-reserves-to-historic-low * US energy dept to release extra 40M barrels of crude, pushing reserves to historic lowThe upcoming release will push the SPR past its lowest operational threshold amid soaring fuel prices and a growing diesel shortag= e *News Desk * 9/29/26 *The US Department of Energy announced on 29 September that it will offer another 40 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as a =E2=80=9Cloan=E2=80= =9D to energy companies amid an ongoing fuel crisis caused by the war on Iran.* *=E2=80=9CWith today=E2=80=99s actions, the United States continues to lead= the coordinated efforts to stabilize oil markets for the benefit of Americans and people around the world,=E2=80=9D US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a st= atement.* *The upcoming release is the final tranche of the 172 million barrels Washington pledged earlier this year as part of an emergency release coordinated by the International Energy Agency (IEA).* *The US SPR fell to 286.6 million barrels at the end of August, its lowest level since 1982 and 445 million barrels below maximum capacity.* *Releasing the full 40 million barrels would push the SPR below the 252.4-million-barrel threshold, the operational minimum established under US federal law.* *According to US federal law, non-emergency drawdowns are restricted once SPR inventories fall below 252.4 million barrels.* *A 1981 Government Accountability Office report advised releasing less than 250 million barrels only during a =E2=80=9Cvery severe emergency.=E2=80=9D* *=E2=80=9CWhile the United States and Japan are delivering on their commitm= ents, several European member countries have released only a fraction of the crude oil and petroleum products they pledged. We urge every member country to fulfill its commitments. Thanks to President Trump, these exchanges will also ensure America=E2=80=99s Strategic Petroleum Reserve continues to be r= efilled, while saving taxpayers more than $3 billion,=E2=80=9D Wright added in his statement.* *Energy companies must submit bids for the upcoming SPR release by 6 October.* *Since the start of Washington's war of aggression against Iran, gas prices in the US have spiked by almost 50 percent to an average of $4 per gallon, while diesel has climbed 70 percent to over $6 per gallon.* *By early September, distillate inventories stood 14 percent below the five-year average, while gasoline inventories were 6 percent below typical seasonal levels.* *The SPR has been trending lower since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, followed by repeated OPEC+ refusals to increase production during former president Joe Biden=E2=80=99s term in office.* --00000000000054d60a065cbd74f7 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
https://thecradle.co/articles/us-energy-dept-to-release-= extra-40m-barrels-of-crude-pushing-reserves-to-historic-low

US energy = dept to release extra 40M barrels of crude, pushing reserves to historic lo= w

The upcoming release will push the SPR past its low= est operational threshold amid soaring fuel prices and a growing diesel sho= rtage

3D""

The US Department of Energy announced on 29 September that i= t will offer another=C2=A040 million barrels=C2=A0of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as a =E2=80=9Cloan=E2= =80=9D to energy companies amid an ongoing fuel crisis caused by the war on= Iran.

=E2=80=9CWith today=E2=80=99s actions, the United States continue= s to lead the coordinated efforts to stabilize oil markets for the benefit = of Americans and people around the world,=E2=80=9D US Secretary of Energy C= hris Wright said in a statement.

The upcoming release is the final tranc= he of the 172 million barrels Washington pledged earlier this year as part = of an emergency release coordinated by the International Energy Agency (IEA= ).

The US SPR fell to 286.6 million barrels at the end of August, its lo= west level since 1982 and 445 million barrels below maximum capacity.

Re= leasing the full 40 million barrels would push the SPR below the 252.4-mill= ion-barrel threshold, the operational minimum established under US federal = law.

<= b>According to US federal law, non-emergency drawdowns are restricted once = SPR inventories fall below 252.4 million barrels.

A 1981 Government Acco= untability Office report advised releasing less than 250 million barrels on= ly during a =E2=80=9Cvery severe emergency.=E2=80=9D

=E2=80=9CWhile the = United States and Japan are delivering on their commitments, several Europe= an member countries have released only a fraction of the crude oil and petr= oleum products they pledged. We urge every member country to fulfill its co= mmitments. Thanks to President Trump, these exchanges will also ensure Amer= ica=E2=80=99s Strategic Petroleum Reserve continues to be refilled, while s= aving taxpayers more than $3 billion,=E2=80=9D Wright added in his statemen= t.

Energy companies must submit bids for the upcoming SPR release by 6 O= ctober.

Since the start of Washington's war of aggression against Ir= an, gas prices in the US have spiked by almost 50 percent to an average of = $4 per gallon, while diesel has climbed 70 percent to over $6 per gallon.

<= b>By early September, distillate inventories stood 14 percent below the fiv= e-year average, while gasoline inventories were 6 percent below typical sea= sonal levels.

The SPR has been trending lower since Russia's 2022 in= vasion of Ukraine, followed by repeated OPEC+ refusals to increase producti= on during former president Joe Biden=E2=80=99s term in office.

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(9/30/26) X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 01:38:44 -0000 --000000000000e14904065cbd790f Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable *https://english.almayadeen.net/news/Economy/the-legacy-of-us-sanctions-war= -and-occupation-in-iraq * 9/30/26 *The legacy of US sanctions, war, and occupation in Iraq* *Iraq's government has declared September 30 the final date for ending the US-led coalition's military mission. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's office says October 1 will find the country "free of any foreign military presence," closing a deployment that once reached about 170,000 US troops. = * *But withdrawal leaves intact much of the damage inflicted by the invasion and the 13 years of sanctions that preceded it, along with the financial arrangements through which Washington continues to exert influence. * *The US left Iraq's productive economy devastated, its institutions dismantled and reshaped, and its workforce left increasingly dependent on a state funded by oil. Access to that income remains vulnerable to US pressure.* *The question after the troops leave is how much control Iraq will have over the economy they leave behind.* Thirteen years of sanctions *The erosion of Iraq's economy began long before March 2003. The UN Security Council imposed sweeping sanctions after Saddam Hussein's regime invaded Kuwait in 1990. Drawing on internal UN records, Joy Gordon's Invisible War describes one of the most comprehensive and devastating sanctions regimes ever imposed. * *The embargo quickly collapsed incomes. Reconstructed World Bank estimates showed GDP per capita collapsing to a third in a single year, going from about $3,527 in 1990 to $1,255 in 1991.* *Public employees who had earned $150 to $200 a month before sanctions were earning $3 to $5 by 1996, according to a 1997 assessment. By 2000, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported salaries as low as $2 a month and unemployment around 50 percent. * *Factories, power stations, and water plants could not recover without imported equipment and spare parts. Yet any member of the sanctions committee could hold an entire contract indefinitely, even over a single disputed item. Gordon documents Washington's use of the "dual-use" designation to restrict goods as basic as water pipes. By August 2002, the UN counted 2,058 contracts worth about $5.2 billion that had been placed on hold, including $745 million in oil industry equipment. * *The restrictions also placed Iraq's oil income beyond Baghdad's direct control. Under the Oil-for-Food program, buyers paid into a UN-administered escrow account. After deductions for compensation, administration, and weapons inspections, the proceeds could finance only approved purchases. Iraq exported roughly $65 billion in oil under the program but could not use that money as ordinary budget revenue for wages, maintenance, or local services. * *The collapse pushed skilled workers out of their professions. A UN humanitarian survey of 1,157 degree holders employed by aid organizations found 725 in general-service or menial jobs, including doctors, engineers, and scientists working as drivers, clerks, and guards.* *By the time US troops arrived, Iraq had endured years of falling wages, industrial decline, and lost expertise. The occupation's first decisions deepened that damage. * Dismantling the state, contracting out reconstruction *On May 16, 2003, the occupation authority issued Order 1, barring senior Baath Party members from public employment and requiring the screening of senior staff in ministries, hospitals, and universities. A week later, Order 2 dissolved the Defense Ministry, army, Republican Guard, and intelligence bodies. * *The International Center for Transitional Justice estimates that Order 2 alone left about 400,000 conscripts, officers, and officials without jobs. The World Bank counted more than 2 million unemployed Iraqis, nearly 30 percent of the labor force, around 2003=E2=80=932004. Meanwhile, Iraq's hea= lth minister estimated that roughly half the country's prewar doctors had fled as kidnapping and assassination made their work increasingly dangerous. * *The occupation then opened the weakened economy to foreign competition. Order 39 allowed wholly foreign-owned companies and guaranteed investors treatment no less favorable than Iraqi businesses, while excluding natural resource extraction. Other orders suspended tariffs, later replaced by a flat 5 percent levy, and capped income tax at 15 percent from 2004. The World Bank warned that rapid opening would cost jobs in a country whose private sector was too weak to employ displaced workers. * *Reconstruction brought billions of dollars, but much of the spending flowed through foreign contractors. The United States spent more than $60 billion over roughly a decade, according to the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR). More than $25 billion went to training and equipping security forces after the occupation had dissolved Iraq's existing military institutions. * *SIGIR found that reconstruction began without adequate security, consultation with Iraqi ministries, or planning for long-term maintenance. Its final report estimated waste at $3 billion to $5 billion from the main reconstruction fund and as much as $8 billion overall. The largest early infrastructure contracts went mainly to US firms. A $1.8 billion award to Bechtel in January 2004 was open only to American bidders. * *Iraq's own money followed a similar path. UN Security Council Resolution 1483 established the Development Fund for Iraq to receive oil revenue, with the occupation authority directing spending until June 2004. * *An Iraq Revenue Watch analysis of contracts paid from Iraqi funds found that US companies received 74 percent of their value. US and British companies together received 85 percent, while Iraqi firms received 2 percent. Audits found that 73 percent of the value of Development Fund contracts above $5 million had been awarded without competitive bidding. * *Oversight was inadequate even to establish how some of that money had been used. A 2010 SIGIR audit found that the Defense Department had failed to establish required accounting controls for about $8.7 billion of the $9.1 billion it received from the fund. It could not document spending of about $2.6 billion. * *The result was a reconstruction process that directed vast sums abroad while leaving Iraq with damaged services, limited productive capacity, and institutions struggling to rebuild.* An oil-funded system of patronage *With factories closed or looted and no private industry to replace them, the state became the place where Iraqis look for work. An assessment by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, using World Bank data, says public employment accounts for nearly all formal jobs and 40 percent of all jobs. Salaries and pensions took about 90 trillion dinars, roughly $69 billion, more than 40 percent of the 2024 budget, and the World Bank says another half a million government jobs were added during the spending expansion that preceded 2025.* *The private sector has not filled the gap. Estimates put imports at more than 90 percent of the goods in Iraqi shops, while manufacturing makes up only around 2 percent of GDP. The World Bank says nearly 29 percent of the population is aged 15 to 29, and that this large group is entering the labor market amid limited job creation, a preference for public-sector work, and a private sector too small to absorb them. Youth unemployment is about 32 percent, and only around 11 percent of women take part in the labor force.* *The IMF's 2025 assessment describes the same pattern, citing high unemployment, an excessive state footprint, corruption, a weak banking system, and an inefficient electricity sector, and it called the wage trajectory fiscally unsustainable. Analysts describe a cycle in which secure public wages raise the pay that educated workers expect, private firms struggle with unreliable power and weak finance, and young graduates keep turning to the state for jobs, which raises the demand for more public hiring.* *Oil pays for all of it. The World Bank estimates that oil supplied about 88 percent of government revenue and 91 percent of exports in 2025.* The financial levers Washington keeps *Iraq's oil income has passed through outside hands since 1996, first a UN escrow, then the occupation authority's fund, and now the New York Fed.* *The Development Fund's accounts were opened at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where Iraqi oil revenue still flows. Buyers pay dollars into a Ministry of Finance account, and the Central Bank of Iraq converts part of the income into dinars for government spending. US jurisdiction over dollar clearing, correspondent banking, and physical cash shipments gives Washington substantial influence over Iraq's access to its money. * *In January 2020, after Iraq's parliament called for foreign troops to leave, the Trump administration threatened to block access to the account. Iraqi officials said it then held about $35 billion and warned that losing access would disrupt salary payments and the exchange rate. * *US restrictions introduced in November 2022 forced banks seeking dollars for international transfers to disclose the final beneficiaries and purposes of transactions through an electronic platform, with requests screened by the New York Fed. US and Iraqi accounts linked the measures to concerns about transfers to sanctioned Iranian actors. * *Consequently, more than 80 percent of daily wire requests were initially blocked or returned. Transfers fell from $224.4 million on October 17, 2022, to $22.9 million on January 17, 2023. Demand shifted to the parallel market, where the dinar traded at about 1,588 to the dollar in February against a newly set official rate of 1,300. In a country dependent on imported food and consumer goods, restricted dollar access raised costs for ordinary households. * *In April 2026, Washington applied pressure through physical cash, halting a shipment of about $500 million and suspending parts of security cooperation. Iraqi officials said the halt affected banknotes used for travel, medical treatment, education, and retail exchange, while electronic transfers for imports continued. Some shipments resumed in July. On September 26, Baghdad announced that Washington had agreed to continue them. * *US sanctions have also reshaped access to Iraq's oil fields. Russia's Lukoil left West Qurna 2 after sanctions, and Chevron signed agreements to take over its development. During al-Zaidi's July visit to Washington, Iraq signed dozens of agreements with companies including ExxonMobil, KBR, Halliburton, and Shell. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright cited more than $60 billion in commercial agreements, while al-Zaidi told The Nationalthat US companies would receive top priority. According to the Atlantic Council, Donald Trump framed the deals as American oil companies taking the place of US forces. * *As US forces prepare to leave Iraq, they leave behind a trail of devastation. Decades of sanctions and occupation have weakened its productive economy, dismantled state institutions, and left livelihoods dependent on an oil-funded system of patronage. The consequences will endure long after the troops depart.* *Washington retains substantial power over Iraq through its influence over dollar access and the financial channels that sustain the state. The withdrawal ends a military mission, while leaving Baghdad to contend with both the damage of US intervention and the control Washington continues to exercise.* --000000000000e14904065cbd790f Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/Economy/the-legacy-of-us-sanctions-war= -and-occupation-in-iraq
=
9/30/26

The legacy of US sanctions, war, and= occupation in Iraq

Iraq's go= vernment has declared September 30 the final date for ending the US-led coa= lition's military mission. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's office say= s October 1 will find the country "free of any foreign military presen= ce," closing a deployment that once reached about 170,000 US troops.=C2=A0

But withdrawal l= eaves intact much of the damage inflicted by the invasion and the 13 years = of sanctions that preceded it, along with the financial arrangements throug= h which Washington continues to exert influence.=C2=A0

= The US left Iraq's productive economy= devastated, its institutions dismantled and reshaped, and its workforce le= ft increasingly dependent on a state funded by oil. Access to that income r= emains vulnerable to US pressure.

= The question after the troops leave is how much control Iraq will have over= the economy they leave behind.

Thirteen years of sanctions=C2=A0

The erosion of Iraq's economy began long = before March 2003. The UN Security Council imposed sweeping sanctions after= Saddam Hussein's regime invaded Kuwait in 1990. Drawing on internal UN= records, Joy Gordon's Invisible War describes one of the most comprehe= nsive and devastating sanctions regimes ever imposed.=C2=A0

The embargo quickly collapsed income= s. Reconstructed World Bank estimates showed GDP per capita collapsing to a= third in a single year,=C2=A0 going from about $3,527 in 1990 to $1,255 in= 1991.

Public employees who had earned $150 to $200 a month before sanc= tions were earning $3 to $5 by 1996, according to a 1997 assessment. By 200= 0, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported salaries as low as= $2 a month and unemployment around 50 percent.=C2=A0

<= span style=3D"max-width:100%">Factories, power stations, and water plant= s could not recover without imported equipment and spare parts. Yet any mem= ber of the sanctions committee could hold an entire contract indefinitely, = even over a single disputed item. Gordon documents Washington's use of = the "dual-use" designation to restrict goods as basic as water pi= pes. By August 2002, the UN counted 2,058 contracts worth about $5.2 billio= n that had been placed on hold, including $745 million in oil industry equi= pment.=C2=A0

The rest= rictions also placed Iraq's oil income beyond Baghdad's direct cont= rol. Under the Oil-for-Food program, buyers paid into a UN-administered esc= row account. After deductions for compensation, administration, and weapons= inspections, the proceeds could finance only approved purchases. Iraq expo= rted roughly $65 billion in oil under the program but could not use that mo= ney as ordinary budget revenue for wages, maintenance, or local services.=C2=A0

The collapse pus= hed skilled workers out of their professions. A UN humanitarian survey of 1= ,157 degree holders employed by aid organizations found 725 in general-serv= ice or menial jobs, including doctors, engineers, and scientists working as= drivers, clerks, and guards.

By t= he time US troops arrived, Iraq had endured years of falling wages, industr= ial decline, and lost expertise. The occupation's first decisions deepe= ned that damage.=C2=A0

Dismantling the state, contracting out reconstruction

On May 16, 2003, the occupation authority issue= d Order 1, barring senior Baath Party members from public employment and re= quiring the screening of senior staff in ministries, hospitals, and univers= ities. A week later, Order 2 dissolved the Defense Ministry, army, Republic= an Guard, and intelligence bodies.=C2=A0

The International Center for Transitional Justice estimates that Ord= er 2 alone left about 400,000 conscripts, officers, and officials without j= obs. The World Bank counted more than 2 million unemployed Iraqis, nearly 3= 0 percent of the labor force, around 2003=E2=80=932004.=C2=A0Meanwhile, Iraq's health minister estimated tha= t roughly half the country's prewar doctors had fled as kidnapping and = assassination made their work increasingly dangerous.=C2=A0

The occupation then opened the weake= ned economy to foreign competition. Order 39 allowed wholly foreign-owned c= ompanies and guaranteed investors treatment no less favorable than Iraqi bu= sinesses, while excluding natural resource extraction. Other orders suspend= ed tariffs, later replaced by a flat 5 percent levy, and capped income tax = at 15 percent from 2004. The World Bank warned that rapid opening would cos= t jobs in a country whose private sector was too weak to employ displaced w= orkers.=C2=A0

Reconstruction broug= ht billions of dollars, but much of the spending flowed through foreign con= tractors. The United States spent more than $60 billion over roughly a deca= de, according to the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIG= IR). More than $25 billion went to training and equipping security forces a= fter the occupation had dissolved Iraq's existing military institutions= .=C2=A0

SIGIR found t= hat reconstruction began without adequate security, consultation with Iraqi= ministries, or planning for long-term maintenance. Its final report estima= ted waste at $3 billion to $5 billion from the main reconstruction fund and= as much as $8 billion overall.=C2=A0The largest early infrastructure contracts went mainly to US f= irms. A $1.8 billion award to Bechtel in January 2004 was open only to Amer= ican bidders.=C2=A0

I= raq's own money followed a similar path. UN Security Council Resolution= 1483 established the Development Fund for Iraq to receive oil revenue, wit= h the occupation authority directing spending until June 2004.=C2=A0

An Iraq Revenue Watch analysis of contra= cts paid from Iraqi funds found that US companies received 74 percent of th= eir value. US and British companies together received 85 percent, while Ira= qi firms received 2 percent. Audits found that 73 percent of the value of D= evelopment Fund contracts above $5 million had been awarded without competi= tive bidding.=C2=A0

O= versight was inadequate even to establish how some of that money had been u= sed.=C2=A0A 2010 SIGIR a= udit found that the Defense Department had failed to establish required acc= ounting controls for about $8.7 billion of the $9.1 billion it received fro= m the fund. It could not document spending of about $2.6 billion.=C2= =A0

The result was a recons= truction process that directed vast sums abroad while leaving Iraq with dam= aged services, limited productive capacity, and institutions struggling to = rebuild.

An oil-fun= ded system of patronage=C2=A0

With factories clo= sed or looted and no private industry to replace them, the state became the= place where Iraqis look for work. An assessment by the International Fund = for Agricultural Development, using World Bank data, says public employment= accounts for nearly all formal jobs and 40 percent of all jobs. Salaries a= nd pensions took about 90 trillion dinars, roughly $69 billion, more than 4= 0 percent of the 2024 budget, and the World Bank says another half a millio= n government jobs were added during the spending expansion that preceded 20= 25.

The private sector has not filled the gap. Estimates put imports at = more than 90 percent of the goods in Iraqi shops, while manufacturing makes= up only around 2 percent of GDP. The World Bank says nearly 29 percent of = the population is aged 15 to 29, and that this large group is entering the = labor market amid limited job creation, a preference for public-sector work= , and a private sector too small to absorb them. Youth unemployment is abou= t 32 percent, and only around 11 percent of women take part in the labor fo= rce.

The IMF's 2025 assessment describes the same pattern, citing hi= gh unemployment, an excessive state footprint, corruption, a weak banking s= ystem, and an inefficient electricity sector, and it called the wage trajec= tory fiscally unsustainable. Analysts describe a cycle in which secure publ= ic wages raise the pay that educated workers expect, private firms struggle= with unreliable power and weak finance, and young graduates keep turning t= o the state for jobs, which raises the demand for more public hiring.

Oi= l pays for all of it. The World Bank estimates that oil supplied about 88 p= ercent of government revenue and 91 percent of exports in 2025.

The financial levers Washington keeps=

Iraq's oil income has pas= sed through outside hands since 1996, first a UN escrow, then the occupatio= n authority's fund, and now the New York Fed.

The Development Fund's accounts were opened at the Fede= ral Reserve Bank of New York, where Iraqi oil revenue still flows. Buyers p= ay dollars into a Ministry of Finance account, and the Central Bank of Iraq= converts part of the income into dinars for government spending. US jurisd= iction over dollar clearing, correspondent banking, and physical cash shipm= ents gives Washington substantial influence over Iraq's access to its m= oney.=C2=A0

In Januar= y 2020, after Iraq's parliament called for foreign troops to leave, the= Trump administration threatened to block access to the account. Iraqi offi= cials said it then held about $35 billion and warned that losing access wou= ld disrupt salary payments and the exchange rate.=C2=A0

US restrictions introduced in November 2= 022 forced banks seeking dollars for international transfers to disclose th= e final beneficiaries and purposes of transactions through an electronic pl= atform, with requests screened by the New York Fed. US and Iraqi accounts l= inked the measures to concerns about transfers to sanctioned Iranian actors= .=C2=A0

Consequently,= more than 80 percent of daily wire requests were initially blocked or retu= rned. Transfers fell from $224.4 million on October 17, 2022, to $22.9 mill= ion on January 17, 2023. Demand shifted to the parallel market, where the d= inar traded at about 1,588 to the dollar in February against a newly set of= ficial rate of 1,300. In a country dependent on imported food and consumer = goods, restricted dollar access raised costs for ordinary households.= =C2=A0

In April 2026, Washi= ngton applied pressure through physical cash, halting a shipment of about $= 500 million and suspending parts of security cooperation. Iraqi officials s= aid the halt affected banknotes used for travel, medical treatment, educati= on, and retail exchange, while electronic transfers for imports continued. = Some shipments resumed in July. On September 26, Baghdad announced that Was= hington had agreed to continue them.=C2=A0

US sanctions have also reshaped access to Iraq's= oil fields. Russia's Lukoil left West Qurna 2 after sanctions, and Che= vron signed agreements to take over its development. During al-Zaidi's = July visit to Washington, Iraq signed dozens of agreements with companies i= ncluding ExxonMobil, KBR, Halliburton, and Shell. US Energy Secretary Chris= Wright cited more than $60 billion in commercial agreements, while al-Zaid= i told=C2=A0The Nationalthat US companies= would receive top priority. According to the=C2=A0Atlantic Council, Donald Trump framed the deals as= American oil companies taking the place of US forces.=C2=A0

=

As U= S forces prepare to leave Iraq, they leave behind a trail of devastation. D= ecades of sanctions and occupation have weakened its productive economy, di= smantled state institutions, and left livelihoods dependent on an oil-funde= d system of patronage. The consequences will endure long after the troops d= epart.

Washington retains substantial power over Iraq through its influe= nce over dollar access and the financial channels that sustain the state. T= he withdrawal ends a military mission, while leaving Baghdad to contend wit= h both the damage of US intervention and the control Washington continues t= o exercise.

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Wed, 30 Sep 2026 19:14:21 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: From: Chas Freeman Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 22:14:09 -0400 X-Gm-Features: AclHuK-p4yunvnKQRV2kza2LeBl9WtTMyW9Eq_GjdkfjZZFD72VhS3Ji_xCDfCg Message-ID: To: "salon@listserve.com" Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="000000000000527fd3065cbdf9a9" Subject: [Salon] Let Gaza Be: Israel Must Abandon Its Fantasy of Destroying Hamas X-BeenThere: salon@listserve.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion List for the Committee For The Republic List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 02:14:23 -0000 --000000000000527fd3065cbdf9a9 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable *https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026-10-01/ty-article-opinion/.premium/let= -gaza-be-israel-must-abandon-its-fantasy-of-destroying-hamas/000001a0-f35b-= dbb2-a9f8-fbdb01bd0000 * *Let Gaza Be: Israel Must Abandon Its Fantasy of Destroying Hamas* *Gideon Levy =E2=80=A2 October 01 2026 * [image: Rubble near Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital, 2024.] *Rubble near Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital, 2024. Credit: AFP* *Some objectives are unattainable, even for the omnipotent Israel. Even if we put aside the moral considerations so disdained by Israelis, it should be clear that it's time to try a different path* *Reconstruction of Gaza has yet to begin; the world has still not recovered from the sights of the Strip, or exacted a price from Israel for its crimes despite a total and amazing global consensus about the gravity of those crimes =E2=80=93 but as far as Israel is concerned, not enough blood has be= en shed. * *A central theme in Benjamin Netanyahu's warmongering is a return to talk about wiping out Gaza. Defense Minister Israel Katz also misses no opportunity to utter threats. There is no point in wasting words on Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, as well as on Arab-hater Avigdor Lieberman.* *Joining them now, embarrassingly, is Gadi Eisenkot. Among his conditions for anyone wishing to join a coalition he may form is a sudden demand to recognize Hamas as a terror organization "that must be destroyed."* *Whether this is an exercise meant to block United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas or a principle, the circle is complete. All party leaders (excluding Yair Golan, for now) wish to return to war in Gaza. It's difficult to think of a more insane and nightmarish idea than that.* *Anyone now talking about destroying Hamas is, in effect, talking about destroying Gaza. After three years of bloodshed and devastation, from which Hamas emerged alive and kicking, it is clear that Hamas cannot be destroyed other than through the total annihilation of Gaza. * *It is imperative to recognize this fact. What was not achieved in three years of a genocidal war will not be achieved through another three such years.* *If life remains in Gaza, Hamas will manage it. If structures remain standing, Hamas will occupy them. If children remain, Hamas will raise them. Thus, anyone calling for a return to a war meant to annihilate Hamas is calling for an all-out war of annihilation meant to finish the job.* *This is a result of denying that a genocide took place there. Since this was denied across the board in Israel, with Israel never admitting the facts and daring to face what it did, one can call for another genocidal round. There are already those preparing the public for just that. They include the usual bunch of warmongering voices from the worlds of politics, the military and the media, along with, regrettably, some of the people living along the Gaza border.* *The army is force-feeding military correspondents with information about Hamas plots. Not a day goes by without reports of Hamas growing stronger or of a specific threat: Hamas will kidnap a soldier; Hamas will conquer territory; there are lathes in Gaza for producing weapons. All for the sake of legitimizing a continuation of the massacre.* [image: Mourners attend the funeral Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes during the war with Hamas, whose remains were recently recovered from the rubble, in Nuseirat, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026.] *Mourners attend the funeral Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes during the war with Hamas, whose remains were recently recovered from the rubble, in Nuseirat, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. Credit: Jehad Alshrafi/AP= * *It's not that Hamas has disappeared. But even at peak strength, it did not pose a real danger to an army that is prepared and well-deployed. Now Hamas has been substantially weakened. * *But after three years in which Israel killed and destroyed indiscriminately and mercilessly, after it has become the most reviled country in the world as a result of this, and since Hamas is far from being eliminated, it's time to accept the limits of force, even the terrifying force wielded by Israel.* *Some objectives are unattainable, even for the omnipotent Israel. Even if we put aside the moral considerations so disdained by Israelis, it should be clear that it's time to try a different path. * *Instead of continuing to prattle about vanquishing Hamas, it's time to learn how to live with an enfeebled Hamas and to try to talk to it. Nothing can be worse than another war. * *Not just for the miserable Gazans, but for Israel too. There are no magical moves or miraculous solutions in Gaza. But one thing is clear =E2= =80=93 another round will be the worst of all worlds, for everyone. * *Withdrawal and reconstruction do not guarantee a solution, but there is no other way. One would have expected Israel to have learned from its painful experience and realized that genocide is bad not just for its victims, but for its perpetrators. * *One would have expected that after Israel did what it did, it would understand that it no longer has the right to harm Gaza, even if it failed to reach its goals there.* *As long as there is no recognition of the genocide in Israel, this will not happen, which is why the battle for recognizing it is so important. Maybe after two or three more movies such as "NAZA," such recognition will start permeating people's consciousness. * *Until then, we must let Gaza be. For the sake of Gaza and for Israel as well.* --000000000000527fd3065cbdf9a9 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026-10-01/ty-artic= le-opinion/.premium/let-gaza-be-israel-must-abandon-its-fantasy-of-destroyi= ng-hamas/000001a0-f35b-dbb2-a9f8-fbdb01bd0000

L= et Gaza Be: Israel Must Abandon Its Fantasy of Destroying Hamas<= /h1>
= Gideon Levy=C2=A0=E2=80=A2 October 01 2026=C2=A0
3D"Rubble
Rubble near Gaza's Al-Shifa hos= pital, 2024.=C2=A0Credit: AFP

<= font color=3D"#000000">Some objectives are unattainable, even for the omnip= otent Israel. Even if we put aside the moral considerations so disdained by= Israelis, it should be clear that it's time to try a different path

Reconstr= uction of Gaza has yet to begin; the world has still not recovered from the= sights of the Strip, or exacted a price from Israel for its crimes despite= a total and amazing global consensus about the gravity of those crimes =E2= =80=93 but as far as Israel is concerned, not enough blood has been shed.=C2=A0

A central theme in Benjamin Netanyahu's warmongering is a = return to talk about wiping out Gaza. Defense Minister Israel Katz also mis= ses no opportunity to utter threats. There is no point in wasting words on = Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, as well as on Arab-hater Avigdor Lieb= erman.

Joining them now, embarrassingly, is Gadi Eisenkot. Among his conditions f= or anyone wishing to join a coalition he may form is a sudden=C2=A0demand to recognize Hamas as a terror orga= nization=C2=A0"that must be destroyed."

Whether this i= s an exercise meant to block=C2=A0= United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas=C2=A0or a principle,= the circle is complete. All party leaders (excluding Yair Golan, for now) = wish to return to war in Gaza. It's difficult to think of a more insane= and nightmarish idea than that.

Anyone = now talking about destroying Hamas is, in effect, talking about destroying = Gaza. After three years of bloodshed and devastation, from which Hamas emer= ged alive and kicking, it is clear that Hamas cannot be destroyed other tha= n through the total annihilation of Gaza.=C2=A0

It is i= mperative to recognize this fact. What was not achieved in three years of a= genocidal war will not be achieved through another three such years.

If life rem= ains in Gaza, Hamas will manage it. If structures remain standing, Hamas wi= ll occupy them. If children remain, Hamas will raise them. Thus, anyone cal= ling for a return to a war meant to annihilate Hamas is calling for an all-= out war of annihilation meant to finish the job.

This is a result of denying that= a genocide took place there. Since this was denied across the board in Isr= ael, with Israel never admitting the facts and daring to face what it did, = one can call for another genocidal round. There are already those preparing= the public for just that. They include the usual bunch of warmongering voi= ces from the worlds of politics, the military and the media, along with, re= grettably, some of the people living along the Gaza border.

<= p style=3D"max-width:100%">The army is force-fee= ding military correspondents with information about Hamas plots. Not a day = goes by without reports of Hamas growing stronger or of a specific threat: = Hamas will kidnap a soldier; Hamas will conquer territory; there are lathes= in Gaza for producing weapons. All for the sake of legitimizing a continua= tion of the massacre.

3D"Mourners
M= ourners attend the funeral Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes during th= e war with Hamas, whose remains were recently recovered from the rubble, in= Nuseirat, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026.=C2=A0Credit:= Jehad Alshrafi/AP

It's not that Hamas has disappeared. But even at peak s= trength, it did not pose a real danger to an army that is prepared and well= -deployed. Now Hamas has been substantially weakened.=C2=A0

But afte= r three years in which Israel killed and destroyed indiscriminately and mer= cilessly, after it has become the most reviled country in the world as a re= sult of this, and since Hamas is far from being eliminated, it's time t= o accept the limits of force, even the terrifying force wielded by Israel.<= /font>

Some o= bjectives are unattainable, even for the omnipotent Israel. Even if we put = aside the moral considerations so disdained by Israelis, it should be clear= that it's time to try a different path.=C2=A0<= /p>

Instead of contin= uing to prattle about vanquishing Hamas, it's time to learn how to live= with an enfeebled Hamas and to try to talk to it. Nothing can be worse tha= n another war.=C2=A0

Not just for the miserable Gazans, but for Isra= el too. There are no magical moves or miraculous solutions in Gaza. But one= thing is clear =E2=80=93 another round will be the worst of all worlds, fo= r everyone.=C2=A0

Withdrawal and reconstruction do not guarantee a s= olution, but there is no other way. One would have expected Israel to have = learned from its painful experience and realized that genocide is bad not j= ust for its victims, but for its perpetrators.=C2=A0

One would have = expected that after Israel did what it did, it would understand that it no = longer has the right to harm Gaza, even if it failed to reach its goals the= re.

As= long as there is no recognition of the genocide in Israel, this will not h= appen, which is why the battle for recognizing it is so important. Maybe af= ter two or three more movies such as=C2=A0"NAZA,"=C2=A0such recognition will start= permeating people's consciousness.=C2=A0

Until then, we must le= t Gaza be. For the sake of Gaza and for Israel as well.

--000000000000527fd3065cbdf9a9--