Radio silence over imminent Iran attack

Over the past month there has been a pronounced radio silence especially by mainstream news media over the ongoing extensive preparations being made to prepare for war against Iran.

Apparently for the Trump administration their foreign policy is “War is Peace” so this is why in spite of a failure to actually keep the peace, and instigating new resource and trade wars with half of the world, Trump still believes he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

Since December 2025, he has instigated war and trade aggressions against Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, China, Nigeria, Greenland, Canada, and Iran. This list does not include add-ons in the failure to curb the Russia-Ukraine war, or new threats of regime change or war against hostile forces elsewhere.

Radio Silence, Media Lockdown

The news on the buildup is best covered in foreign or alternative news media because since even before taking office Trump and his bevy of lawyers have threatened suits against corporate news outlets. This is not counting his wife, Melania’s, libelous lawsuits against various media and online outlets, such as against the Daily Mail.

The intention appears to be a hush-up of “no news is good news” whether it is ABC, CBS, CNN, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or even local newspapers such as The Washington Post, which recently laid off over 300 of its foreign correspondents and local news reporters. It also includes cuts in funding for public news broadcasting such as for NPR and PBS and local community news stations alleging that these stations are too biased.

These suits of defamation and bias effectively muzzle the media and encourage media censorship and targeting of independent reporters. It is also a disservice to the public who are forced to obtain balanced world news coverage from overseas. But of course the billionaire technocratic class want to expand not reduce attempts at worldwide media control.

This is no longer about a hasbara media hijacking by one nation to outmatch the others. This is no longer about gatekeeping and academic hubris. Nor about cliquish-color-lines-programs fostering Asian “cancel culture” based upon college-based affiliations. Rather it is a hostile takeover by a reactionary technocratic elite eager to push AI-generated press releases. They don’t want anyone to learn or emulate investigative whistleblowing reporters and writers. They want the world to admire their zero-sum attitude and bony grasp on the reins of global power. They want college graduates ripe for becoming willing participants of a comprador class or fantasizing about joining the model intelligence state.

This is why now Trump and his lawyers are suing the BBC for $10 billion dollars. This Trump lawsuit filed against Panorama about documentary “Trump: A Second Chance?” alleges it “defamed Trump ‘intentionally, with actual malice’ by the edit of his speech…and violated a Florida trade practices law.” Even with an apology and withdrawal of the film from distribution and parting of its screenwriters, the Trump team has persisted. If successful, this kind of lawsuit will place curbs on freedom of speech and news reporting worldwide. The Trump team will then go after the variety of foreign-based television stations and popular leftist podcasters.

The astounding part is that Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) and their enterprises such as Truth Social have published a variety of offensive AI-generated media videos and cartoons. Most recently depicting the Obamas as apes, Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer wearing sombreros and moustaches, and most shamefully, Trump flying a fighter plane and “taking a dump” on left-wing podcaster Harry Sisson. There is also the obnoxious video clip showing Trump and Netanyahu relaxing in beach chairs at the new “Gaza Riviera” resort — planned for development once all the Gazans have been moved or “finished off.”

Apparently the notion of double standards does not apply to the technocratic elite, whether it is indulging (using publicly recovered funds) in expensive White House refurbishing projects, ignoring local environmental regulations, disregarding anti-trust laws regarding mergers and consolidations or letting “Democracy die in darkness.”

Over the past decade, mega-billionaire acquisitions have allowed tighter control on anything from social media to mass-media giants once the domain of family media-moguls.

Regarding these take-overs by the technocrats, whether it is The Washington Examiner, Washington Post, X, MSNow, Tiktok, CBS, Paramount—it is clear that the billionaire owners do not worry about a conflict of interests. Their editors and reporters must do the dirty work of filtering out “bad messages” about tax-evaders, conflicts-of-interest, workplace restructuring, street protests, and white-collar crime. This could be why the Washington Post front article after a huge “No Kings Day” protest centered around “clownishly” dressed protesters rather than core issues. It is why Mr. Bezos would rather spend $75 million on First Lady Melania Trump’s documentary than keep his paper going on what, for him, is a shoe-string budget of $150 million per year. As one observer notes, that is hardly a fraction of a percent of his estimated $240 billion dollars net worth.

The Washington Post Guild recently shared on X:
“In just the last three years, The Post’s workforce has shrunk by roughly 400 people. Continuing to eliminate workers only stands to weaken the newspaper, drive away readers and undercut The Post‘s mission: to hold power to account without fear or favor and provide critical information for communities across the region, country and world.”

The rewind and dilution of newsrooms cuts far deeper than just society and culture; it also systematically (possibly from a hidden Project 2025 memo) reshapes national organizations. Take for instance the takeover of National Geographic by amusement park giant Walt Disney or the replacement of the Board at Trump-Kennedy Center and at the Smithsonian Institute. Presidents and politicians issuing statements over social media including threats and orders and insults without careful vetting endangers public safety. Instead of advancing civilization, America appears to be reversing the gains made by government agencies such as the Department of Education in fostering quality public and special education programs, and awarding grant monies for foundations.

Instead, according to a Wikipedia entry under “Larry Ellison,” the founder of Oracle luxuriates in lavish living, buying media corporations, and spending big on Israel and the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), rather than providing assistance for poor Americans who are homeless or creating employment for people with special needs :

“In August 2025, Ellison provided funding through his family trust for the merger of Paramount Global with his son David’s Skydance Media. The trust remains the largest owner of the new company’s shares while David retains operational control. On September 10, 2025, Ellison was briefly the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $393 billion.”

As Truthout reporter Derek Seidman reveals in “From AI to TikTok to TV, This Pro-Israel Billionaire Is Expanding Power in US”:

“Like the robber barons of the late 19th-century U.S., Ellison is consolidating his control over a vast corporate empire that dominates major sectors, from cloud storage and AI data centers, to iconic movie studios, mass news channels, and social media.”

As the first or second richest man in the world, how much undue influence does a guy like Larry Ellison have with Trump as a “shadow president” or staunch Zionist? According to Seidman, Ellison not only has made hefty donations to Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, he is also good friends with the ICC-indicted criminal Prime Minister Netanyahu. Of course he not only backs the Trump Board of Peace but Tony Blair as an Executive Member. (Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was in cahoots with George W. Bush for pushing for the 2003 War in Iraq based on “weapons of mass destruction.”) In fact Ellison and Blair’s relationship also goes back decades, which is disconcerting when considering Ellison’s long-time connections to the CIA.

Commonwealth citizen-journalist May Bulman created an expose published at Double Down News (Youtube) called “Exposed: Tony Blair & Israel’s Favorite Billionaire” in December 2025. Like Elon Musk or JD Vance or a variety of high-ranking American politicians and power-brokers, many of these people are practically Israeli cut-outs. How they were compromised, whether lobbyist funding, government contracts, Epstein parties, or affiliation to compromisable person, the pattern is clear.

Prioritize and foster alignment between American and Israeli interests such that conflicts of interest are made invisible. When American white-collar criminals and pedophiles move to the West Bank to hide-out, nobody can dream of making an extrajudicial arrest. Vote “yes” for every pro-Israel defense-funding bill and a Congressperson will be assured of good press and commendations by pro-Zionist lobby financiers; otherwise expect that the next election cycle will be rough. Agree to employ dual citizen nationals capable of installing backdoors into “secure” national surveillance networks and data collection centers, and be rewarded with lucrative contracts in Tel Aviv.

“‘The NHS [National Health Service] in the UK has an incredible amount of population data, but it’s fragmented, it’s not easily accessible by these AI models. We have to take all of this data we have in our country and move it into a single, if you will, unified data platform,’ [stated Larry Ellison]. NHS data is a unique thing, a set of data that’s been around for many, many decades, and there’s not really anything like it. People like Larry Ellison see this trove of data as a kind of treasure chest because it’s incredibly potentially monetarily valuable for someone like him…There’s a risk that with TBI [Tony Blair Institute] in the ear of the UK government and Larry Ellison in the ear of the TBI, that the very valuable thing that we’ve got in the UK right now is going to be co-opted. That means we’re not going to benefit from that; instead, this US billionaire is going to be the one who benefits. It also hands over all our personal data, and that should concern all of us.” — May Bulman, Double Down News

This is why Bulman and other watchdog journalists are rightly worried about technocratic American CEOs working in direct or indirect cooperation with genocidal Zionists. They will knowingly or unknowingly be transmitting to Unit 8200 operatives access to another nation’s citizens’ private data without care or concern that those citizens are endangered due to race, religion, or political leanings. Using AI centralization and tracking of data, won’t they become more easily be tagged and placed on blacklists or even “kill lists” such as has already taken place inside Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, or Iran?

U.S. Command Buildup in the Persian Gulf

Whether or not it is reported by corporate broadcasting, this critical story about an imminent war against Iran is making front and center news coverage for a variety of Middle East news channels, U.S. alternative media, retired experts, and defense news podcasters. (The USA is definitely in the pocket of the billionaire class if the main breaking story for the past two weeks in USA news channels is the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, the mom of morning show host Savannah Guthrie.)

Meanwhile Hal Turner Radio Show (HTRS), while leaning conservative, is vehemently opposed to new wars for oil in the Middle East. The former foreign intelligence analyst has been following the buildup closely since December 2025 and dismisses the idea that this is a war that will soon be over. Experts and the Iranian foreign minister himself warn that this will not go down as simply as did the capture of Venezuela’s President Maduro.

As of February 3, 2026, HTRS noted there is “a lot of fire power for negotiations with Iran” including:

Arabian Sea: USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier; three Arleigh-Burke class destroyers (USS Petersen, USS Spruance, USS Murphy)
Persian Gulf: USS McFaul, USS Mitscher (two Arleigh-Burke class destroyers)
Red Sea: USS Black (Arleigh-Burke class destroyer)
Mediterranean Sea or Unknown: USS Roosevelt, USS Georgia (Ohio-class nuclear powered submarine capable of launching 150 Tomahawk cruise-missiles)

Numerous airlift operations indicating strengthening air-defense and anti-missile defense systems at key U.S. bases/installations in the region such as for Al Udeid (Qatar); Prince Sultan (Saudi Arabia); Ali al Salem (Kuwait); Isa Air Base (AB)(Bahrain); Muwaffaq Air Base (Jordan)

Airforce operations include numerous C-17 and C-130J flights transporting troops and equipment into the region. (They are also using commercial aircraft to fly ground troops in from the U.S. thru Europe and continuing on towards Kuwait.) Refueling jet craft, important for limited reach of strike groups from Israel, are being sent to Al Udeid AB, and Diego Garcia (in the Indian Ocean). Airborne signal and communications intelligence aircraft such as RC-135 and E-11A are being sent to bases in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Numerous additional fighter jets and warplanes are being deployed to Middle Eastern airbases.

As of February 9, 2026, the United States war conglomerate has “parked over $10 billion in warships, stealth fighters, and Tomahawk-loaded submarines on Iran’s doorstep—including a nuclear supercarrier, 12+ warships, 35 Strike Eagles, and 50,000 troops.”

In fact, Axios posted a map tabulating the number of troops and contractors already stationed in the Middle East as of October 2023 (Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan, Syria, Turkiye, Israel) at a total 45,400. This is not including allies with aircraft and forces in Cyprus, Egypt, and Afghanistan, adding to the buildup in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, and the Arabian Sea.

This is why the podcasters are earnestly discussing how this can’t just be a show of force and they expect action is imminent. In total there are already at least a hundred US-controlled bases and sites with US military presence in the neighboring countries surrounding Iran, including in Central Asia, and Afghanistan. While most intel commentators, such as with Daniel Davis Deep Dive discuss Iran’s vulnerability from the west and the Gulf, there are also threats from the north, as MahmoodOD.com recently discussed in “The Caucasus Deployment: US Closes in on Iran!”

Based on flight data and analysis by Al Jazeera and as reported by various Middle Eastern news sources, at least 35 military cargo flights have occurred since the January 30, 2026 with 20 cargo flights into Armenia and 15 cargo flights into Azerbaijan, originating from Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the largest US military base in Europe and a “major center for redistributing forces and equipment during escalatory times.”

Mahmood and other pundits posit that there can be several reasons for a buildup occurring in these neighboring countries to the north. One is that VP J.D. Vance recently visited these nations to discuss regional politics and the recently signed “Peace Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations.” Namely this involves the development of the Zanzegur corridor (renamed the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP)”) to traverse between the south bordering regions Azerbaijan and Armenia through Nakhchivan and into Turkiye. That this corridor is adjacent to the northern border with Iran also makes it sensitive from the standpoint of the U.S. which is responsible for security, development, and holds the 50-year lease.

Two, it is also possible that the U.S. is also transporting special operation units or combat forces to be used in addition to hardening up local airbases and conditioning them to the presence of US military control. In fact, the most recent buildup operations in the Gulf includes an order from the Pentagon to sail the USS Gerald R Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East. This will double the armada power from the present deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier.

Three, according to Mahmood, the neutrality of Azerbaijan is not guaranteed, since there is evidence that Mossad and the IDF use Azerbaijani airbases for staging some of their deadly special military operations. According to the Hudson Institute in “Iran’s Weak Spot,” Azerbaijan is an “Achilles heel” for Iran because there are many ethnic Azerbaijanis in Iran, including the President and possibly the Supreme Leader. As seen during the recent riots, a strong ethnic Azerbaijani presence can pose national tensions within Iran, something it does not need. The fact that Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev is a long-time friend to PM Netanyahu makes Mossad operations along the Iranian border possible. As in the case with Armenia, President Aliyev has argued that any significant presence of Azerbaijani ethnics justifies intervention for the liberation of Azerbaijanis.

“The Aras River serves as a border that has divided the Azerbaijani nation into two for the last two centuries: the Iranian Azerbaijani in the south and the independent Republic of Azerbaijan in the north. Since Azerbaijan’s independence in 1991, the northern side of the border has created new opportunities for the Jewish state. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev once acknowledged that nine-tenths of Israel-Azerbaijani cooperation is below the surface. And with Prime Minister Netanyahu in office, this strategic security partnership is expected to grow further.”

In any case, the increase in military buildup and logistical pressure points around Iran is stoking the military competitiveness of surrounding nations. According to the Middle East Eye, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, and Qatar have seen large increases in arms imports of 61%, 64%, 136%, and 361% respectively. Between the period of 2016-2020, arms imports grew by 25%. The Gulf region countries also train with the US military because otherwise they cannot coordinate targeting independently. While today, the latest fad is drones, missile defense systems, and hypersonic missiles, it is only an indication of how vulnerable humankind has become to all-out regional war and global instability. In fact, on the topic of Iran, both Russia and China have formally asserted that a nation’s sovereignty should be respected especially if it is popularly governed, meaning “let Iran alone!”

With the U.S. War Department budget amounting to over a trillion dollars a year, and Iran literally militarily surrounded and economically weakened by decades of punitive sanctions, and with recent peace talks leading to yet more sanctions against Iran for refusal to negotiate about its ballistic missiles program, what is to prevent the US-Israel from striking when the iron becomes “hot enough”? It’s an important discussion that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats want the public to engage in. But international observers soberly predict that based on the elaborate preparations and extent of the current buildup, and in comparison with the preparations made prior to the attack against Venezuela, they expect fighting to begin sometime this month, if only because every day these huge armadas cost the U.S. taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.

Article and op-ed by AGN