Black Hawk Down [2001)

While “Al-Qaeda” (the CIA, elements of the CIA-infiltrated Pentagon, and Mossad) were putting the finishing touches on the false-flag, stand-down of September 11, 2001, Ridley Scott was filming his propagandistic masterpiece Black Hawk Down so that it would be ready for a December 2001/January 2002 release–just in time to tug at the heartstrings of young Americans who were vulnerable enough to the massive 9/11 PSYOP to rush to their local U.S. military recruiting station to go fight the “War on Terror”.

Interesting timing.

To clarify, real events from 1993 (the botched Delta Force/Army Rangers raid on Mogadishu, Somalia) were given the Hollywood treatment and were in the can…ready to be screened a mere 3-4 months after 9/11/01.

What a coincidence!

What do you know about helicopter crashes?

Feb. 6, 2024:  former Chilean President Sebastián Piñera was killed in a helicopter which he himself crash-landed.  All three passengers survived.

Apr. 21, 2024.  two Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopters crash (believed to have collided with one another).  One dead, eight missing.

Apr. 23, 2024:  two Malaysian Naval helicopters collide killing all ten collectively aboard the two craft.

When do we realize there is a new technology?

Israel has Gaza surrounded.

Iran has Israel surrounded.

To the west is HAMAS (Gaza).

To the north is Hezbollah (Lebanon).

To the east is the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.

To the south are the Houthis (Yemen).

As Israel continues to pummel Gaza, these four entities continue to militarily engage with Israel.

The only one of the four entities which is not engaging Israel directly is Yemen (northern Yemen AKA the Houthis).

[the Houthis are conducting a legitimate goal of conventional warfare–attempting to cut off the supply lines of Israel (by way of hitting Israel-bound ships in the Red Sea)]

Of course, Israel is still being supplied via land routes.

And Israel, in turn, is besieging Gaza (withholding supplies to collectively punish the Palestinians there).

It bears mentioning that, for the 1,143 Israelis which HAMAS killed on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has killed about 35,000 [sic] people in Gaza.

An eye for an eye.

ONLY one eye for each eye taken.

[Leviticus 24:19-21]

NOT 35 eyes for every eye!!!

And now the President of Iran has died in a helicopter crash.

Let me be clear:  it is very sad that 1,143 Israelis were murdered on Oct. 7, 2023.

If those men, women, and children had been your relatives, you would be sick with grief.

And likewise for the 35,000 people killed (murdered?) by Israel in Gaza so far.

Of the 1,143 Israelis killed on Oct. 7, 36 were children.

Of the 35,000 people killed in Gaza so far (since Oct. 7), it is estimated that 17,500 of them were under the age of 14 (which is to say, children).

But let’s get back to helicopters.

There were three helicopters in a convoy.

Only President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter crashed.

In 1981, the President of Iran Mohammad-Ali Rajai, was assassinated by a briefcase bomb.

Was Raisi the favorite to run Iran in the event of Ayatollah Khamenei’s death?

Remember, it was just five weeks ago that Iran launched the Operation True Promise missile attack on Israel.

[which was a response to the Israeli assassination (via six missiles from Israeli F-35 warplanes fired at the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria 12 days before that) of Iranian Brigadier Generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi]

Of course, Israel responded to Operation True Promise six days later with an attack on an air defense radar site near Isfahan.

But one must ask, “Was Raisi killed by Israel?”

Perhaps the April 19 Israeli attack on Iran was not seen as a strong enough measure in Israel.

So what happens now?

Israel, by the way, has slowed up the pace considerably of its genocide in Gaza.

Are they waiting for TikTok to go dark before pounding the shit outta Rafah?

TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, has stated recently that it would rather be shut down than sold to American interests.

Whether or not that theory is sound, about 800,000 people have evacuated Rafah in the past few weeks.

Which means, these Palestinians have gone north…back to central Gaza and and elsewhere within the Gaza Strip.

But the biggest nightmare on the horizon might be the U.S. military’s floating pier off the coast of Gaza.

Remember, the episode under consideration (Mogadishu in 1993) involved U.S. Marines who were in Somalia to try and prevent further GENOCIDE BY STARVATION (300,000 Somalis had died by the time the Marines went in).

[sound familiar?]

So WHAT IF the USA is drawn into the conflict in Gaza?

Whom would that help?

Whom would that hurt?

Obviously, China (the true owner of TikTok) doesn’t give a fuck about Palestinians.

The only thing China cares about is DIVIDING the USA by any means necessary.

[just look at the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang (NW China)…still think China truly cares about the Muslims of Palestine???]

Don’t fire unless fired upon.

What are the rules of engagement for U.S. troops facilitating the offloading of humanitarian aid from the American dock floating off the coast of Gaza???

Where was Raisi coming from?

Azerbaijan.

What is the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) program?

Who has Azerbaijan been fighting recently?

Armenia.

But last month marked a step forward in the Armenia-Azerbaijan border crisis.

Azerbaijan is in the PfP program.

NATO Jr.

So is Armenia.

But, unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan is not in the Russia-centric CSTO (Russia’s post-communist answer to NATO).

Azerbaijan is in an even-lesser-known organization called GUAM.

The other members of GUAM?

Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.

So one might guess that there is a big American presence (think “influence operations”) in Azerbaijan.

Raisi’s last official duty as President of Iran was his diplomatic trip to Azerbaijan.

How long was he there?

Where did he stay?

More importantly, where was his helicopter?

Were all three of the helicopters in the convoy the same?

Was the helicopter he rode home in chosen at random by the two Iranian colonels piloting it?

Probably not.

Did Raisi go all the way to Baku?

And if so, by helicopter?

Why not by plane?

https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2024/05/18/3087662/iran-azerbaijan-to-inaugurate-border-dam

Or did he merely go to and from the Khoda Afarin Dam (on the Iran-Azerbaijan border)?

Is it plausible that Raisi’s helicopter was sabotaged?

Most certainly.

It might be important to note that the crash happened within the borders of Iran.

This is important.

It means Iran will have complete control of the crash site.

If there is evidence to be found of sabotage, Iran will be the ones to find it.

It is then up to them whether to publicize that information to the world AND whether to OVERTLY retaliate against whomever is thought to be the culprit.

Total control over the crash site also leaves Iran room to CLAIM sabotage (even if there was none).

Could claiming such be used to Iran’s advantage?

How specifically?

It remains to be seen.

What is the truth of the matter?

And what will the event trigger (irregardless of the truth)?

-PD

Spies Like Us [1985)

Hulu lost me.

Hello Netflix.

Hulu is like an inept intelligence agency.

They had the goods.

The Criterion Collection.

But as that oeuvre was surreptitiously phased out, Hulu was unable to offer any value whatsoever to the thinking person.

And so perhaps it is ironic that my Netflix relationship (no chilling here) starts with a spy spoof of sorts, but make no mistake (as the woeful Barack Obama is wont to say):  this is a very intelligent film.

It was a childhood favorite of mine.

Perhaps I was a strange child.

[no doubt]

But we all want to be James Bond to a certain extent, right?

Details disappear.

Even Putin had his cinema heroes.

Consider the film Щит и меч from 1968.

iMDB seems to fill in where Wikipedia fails.

Because these details tell so much.

To know one’s opponent.

But Vladimir Putin is not our opponent.

As long as our election stands.

Perhaps the answer is Stanislav Lyubshin.

Or was it Oleg Yankovsky?

The real answer is comedy.

Even spies need a laugh.

Spies are humans too.

Spy lives matter.

And so we get the provenance of the Pentagon basement meme.

A favorite of mine.

And this film.

Integral to who I am.

I had a cousin who worked in the Pentagon.

I don’t think she worked in the basement 🙂

But God rest her soul.

She is no longer with us.

And she was the most kind lady perhaps I ever knew.

She served her country.

I believe she did something in the health care field for veterans.

But yes…I identify extensively with Austin Millbarge.

In my own way.

Dan Aykroyd is stellar here as Mr. Millbarge.

And then there’s Emmett Fitz-Hume.

Chevy Chase is at his best in this film as Mr. Fitz-Hume.

Frank Oz is classic in his role as a test monitor.

Yes, Yoda and Miss Piggy were the same person.

How’s that for a mind fuck?

For young know-nothings like myself, this was a likely first exposure to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

And it speaks volumes that the DIA “recently” fielded its own band of covert operatives (in direct competition with the CIA).

There is, it seems, a palpable mistrust between the CIA and the U.S. military.

Different cultures.  Actually, a class difference.

[Not to get all Marx here…]

But it’s real.

I can’t define the parameters other than those intuitive, nebulous sentiments just expressed.

It is (very) interesting to note that Dan Aykroyd’s wife Donna Dixon, who stars in this film, was born in Alexandria, Virginia…

Hmmm…

NoVA.

We get Pamir Mountains.

We get Tajikistan.

But before that, we get Pakistan…and Budweiser…and Old El Paso tortilla chips.

And the intel cutout Ace Tomato Co.

And while we’re on the subject of failed businesses (Hulu), we should note that we definitely shan’t be accepting Indra Nooyi’s invitation (“Why don’t you gentlemen have a Pepsi?”) any time soon.

No…we’d much prefer to look at B.B. King’s Jheri curl blowing in the Nevada breeze…or watch Bob Hope “play through” on the Road to Bali.

But let us get back to that old enigmatic chestnut of our youth:  the road to Dushanbe.

“It’s…’Soul Finger’…by…The Bar-Kays.”

“They must be having trouble getting gigs.”

God damn…best line ever!

“Doctor.  Doctor.  Doctor.  Doctor.  Aaaaand Doctor.  Did we miss anyone?”

So many lines in this film which hit just the right mark.

Rarely do I write about screenwriters (it’s the auteur theorist in me), but Dan Aykroyd and his cowriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo (!) Mandel deserve major credit for the quality of Spies Like Us.

And yet, the direction of John Landis is fabulous as well!

Landis is no slouch.

I’ve previously written about the timelessness of Trading Places.

And I am sticking with that assessment.

But let’s take a break here…

Is there anything more lovely than seeing Vanessa Angel emerge from that tent?

Well, at least we get the cultural edification of some Lithuanian dancing to a boombox blasting Stax/Volt goodness around a Stolichnaya campfire 🙂

Back to the essential stand-down aspect of the false flag/stand down.

And for this we will always be indebted to Dr. Steve Pieczenik (and to a far lesser extent Roberta Wohlstetter).

We again refer to the FBI’s 1989 raid of Rocky Flats and the heavily-armed DoE agents guarding that facility.

Perhaps some U.S. Army Rangers are in Michael Chertoff’s not-too-distant future (to name but one grand conspirator).

“Ohh…I’m sorry Paul Wolfowitz!  The correct answer is ‘The Girl Can’t Help It’!!!”

 

-PD