All the Writing on the Wall is in Farsi

By David Rovics

While in Massachusetts recently I had the pleasure of spending a very productive day in the studio. 

The result will be the album, Song for Tomorrow, which will drop on streaming platforms on July 15.

How Yorkshire (UK) contributes to the U.S. war with Iran

U.S. warfighting Fylingdales radar system in North Yorkshire

By Dr. Dave Webb

At time of writing, we do not yet know if there is a lasting agreement of any kind between the US and Iran to stop or even pause the war. However, we do know that Keir Starmer has allowed Donald Trump to use British bases to launch his illegal bombing attacks, on the grounds of self-defence but allowing US nuclear-capable bombers to fly from RAF Fairford [near Oxford] to back up an illegal first strike is difficult to justify. And there are other US bases in the UK that have had an important role in the Iran War that we don’t hear so much about, and both are in Yorkshire.

You may or may not have seen a report published in March by The Times that revealed how a UK radar is playing a critical role in helping the US detect Iranian missile launches. The radar involved is at RAF Fylingdales on the North Yorkshire Moors, a few miles from Whitby. Fylingdales has provided tracking data and ballistic missile warning for the US since 1963. In 2003 the US requested that Fylingdales be upgraded to be part of its National Missile Defense system and the upgrade was eventually completed in 2007. Fylingdales is now part of Trump’s Space Force and The Times reported that the radar has been actively involved in Operation Epic Fury from the start. 

The powerful radar beam at Fylingdales can be scanned to cover 360 degrees at an angle of elevation from 3 to 60 degrees - with a stated range of just over 5,500 kms - and so could detect and track mid-range ballistic missiles reaching altitudes of several hundred kms or more above Iran some 4,400 kms or so away. The missile tracking data can then be used to calculate the possible type of missile and their likely impact location. Any friendly troops in the area can then be notified and any possible interception methods maybe initiated.

Information from Fylingdales is transmitted to the Space Delta 2 (responsible for space domain awareness) and Space Delta 4 (missile awareness) wings of US Space Systems Command, an important part of Space Force’s Space Warfighting Architecture.

Fylingdales cannot detect actual missile launches and is notified of these by information supplied by US satellites. The US Space Based Infra-Red System (SBIRS) of satellites detect the heat flashes of rockets during their launch phase and passes on information quickly to other parts of the missile defence network (such as Fylingdales). 

If US Space Command cannot receive information from SBIRS satellites directly, because the satellites are positioned on the other side of the Earth, then communication links with ground-based stations are used to relay the information onward. In 1996 it was announced that Menwith Hill, the US spy base just outside Harrogate in North Yorkshire, had been designated as the European Ground Based Relay Station for SBIRS.

U.S. NSA spy base Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire - note the sheep. So English.

Menwith Hill also plays another role of course - its major function is to intercept electronic communications by mobile phones, emails, etc. for the National Security Agency of the US and to search for possible information that may lead to the targeting of installations, groups or individuals considered to be a threat. A very recent Guardian article published on 30 June reports that the US plans to spend $4 billion on its bases in the UK, $163 million of it will go to Menwith Hill. It did not elaborate on what this sum of money would be funding but the article made a point that Menwith Hill “can capture communications as far away as the Middle East”.

So, US military satellites detect the heat generated by missile launches, transmit the information (via Menwith Hill) to US Space Command and the Fylingdales radar accurately determines their trajectories, helping to determine likely impact zones and providing data for possible interception.

The Times also reported that, before the initial US strikes, space and cyber commands had already attacked and hampered Iran’s ability to communicate and respond. This has become standard in modern warfighting methodology. The report also refers to the growing importance of space-based warfare capabilities. Major General Paul Terence Tedman, until recently commander of UK Space Command, described space as the “central nervous system” of modern military operations, playing crucial roles in communications, targeting, and weapons guidance at rapid speeds. The US military refers to this integrated system as a “kill chain,” a concept being expanded through new initiatives such as a UK “digital targeting web.”

It is worth remembering that Iran’s first response to the US attack was to destroy key US missile defence radar installations at bases in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE. The attacks were mainly by one-way drone systems. Fylingdales and Menwith Hill were too far away to be attacked in this way this time. 

~ Dave Webb is a retired professor who has been active on space issues for many years. He lives in Leeds, England and Chairs the Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He also is the Chair of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. 

U.S. planning to send troops into Lebanon

• Netanyahu on the upcoming elections: "Let me put it this way: I will do everything to win. We didn't leave Lebanon. We have effectively established this security belt—about 10 kilometers inside Lebanon—with the agreement of the Lebanese government. And of course Hezbollah is outraged. The same is true of Iran. 'Voluntary emigration' from Gaza remains on the table."
• Head of the Environmental Protection Organization at the 9th Asia-Pacific Environment and Sustainable Development Meeting: 'The silence of international bodies in the face of attacks on Minab school, Lamerd girls' sports club, oil facilities, water resources, and residential areas is unacceptable. These aggressions have not only targeted Iran, but have also threatened the environment and common heritage of humanity by damaging the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, and biodiversity.' 
• The Pentagon is reportedly preparing to deploy US ground troops to Lebanon to implement the recently signed and controversial US-brokered agreement between Lebanon and Israel, which calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah.
• So, JD Vance said the goal of the MoU is to refill some stocks [oil, weapons…] and then see where we’re going! It's fairly obvious where this is going. It’s going straight to blackmail to sign a nuclear agreement or we’ll bomb you again.!

• US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee: "We would finally and rightfully stand with Israel, where God placed its capital. It's not just that you made that decision. I would say God made that decision 3,800 years ago, and we finally got around to acknowledging what had been determined long before the USA came along. For those of you who don't realize it, 700,000 Americans represent an entire congressional district in the US. When members of Congress come, I always say, Welcome to Israel, the 436th congressional district of the US."

• Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Israel is ready to immediately build three Jewish settlements in northern Gaza if Netanyahu approves. He says Israel should "fully conquer" Gaza. 

• Swedish defense firm Saab has signed a deal to supply 16 Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine, worth around 24.6 billion Swedish crowns ($2.54 billion). Ukrainian President Zelensky said the agreement with Sweden includes aircraft purchases and technical support, with deliveries starting in 2027. However, Saab said the jets are scheduled for delivery in 2029–2030. 

• Ann Wright: As the Trump administration and the US Congress continues to ramp up rhetoric of “China is our enemy,” 2026 is the 30th year that the US has organized the largest naval war practice in the world, called Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC). For 37 days from June 24 through July 31, the RIMPAC war “games” will be held in the waters off the state of Hawaii. This year 31 countries have sent naval, air and land military forces to Hawaii for RIMPAC. 50% of the participating countries are members or “partners” of NATO. Invited from its wars in the Middle East, Israel, the US partner in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, the destruction of southern Lebanon and the war on Iran, will also have a presence in RIMPAC as it continues to weave itself into the fabric of the US military. Although RIMPAC has not specified what the role of the Israeli military delegation is, one can surmise that they will act as liaison officers, planners, observers, or staff officers participating in command-and-control and multinational planning activities and giving lessons-learned in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. 

• Germany urgently needs to lift the ban on Russian oil and gas imports to prop up its struggling economy, Alice Weidel, the co-chair of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has said. She also vowed to restore economic ties between the two countries if her party comes to power. “Cheap energy from Russia was the secret of the success of ‘Made in Germany’. We need it back,” Weidel said in an interview with Reuters. “The loss of this energy has set us back years. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost. It has made us dependent on the US, which sells us energy at far higher prices.” The AfD has steadily gained support in Germany amid record-low approval ratings for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s policies. Berlin has been actively pouring money into a military buildup, citing the supposed ‘Russian threat’, which Moscow has dismissed as “nonsense.” Merz has also blamed the country’s economic problems on the German people, urging them to “work more,” while announcing plans to slash social spending.
• Water samples show high levels of PFAS at the US Pituffik base in Greenland. Pituffik was the last of the Air Force’s bases around the world to have its environmentally harmful firefighting foam replaced. The US has long turned a blind eye and said, 'There’s a problem, but we don’t care'. It is only in recent times that attention has focused on the legacy left behind by the Americans at some 36 military installations they have operated in Greenland over the years. Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base, is the only one still in operation. There have long been major concerns about radioactivity, abandoned asbestos, and large quantities of American waste. The use of PFAS is a completely unexplored chapter.  

• A record 25.2 million young American adults under 35 have returned to the family nest as the cost of living has become prohibitive. One of the main reasons for Americans opting to live with their parents is the high price of home ownership. The median sales price for a single-family home in the US is about $434,300. Compare that to 1975 when the average price was under $40,000. That demonstrates how much the dollar has shrunk in terms of purchasing power. According to the National Association of Realtors the national median home price is about to hit $1 million by 2050 – at precisely the time when millennials reach the traditional retirement age, Fox Business reported.
• Simplicius: Trump is attempting to manifest his ‘Golden Age’ merely by shouting it from the rooftops. Instead of carrying out real policies of reconstruction and transformation, fixing jobs, inflation, and all the actual underpinnings of a healthy state, he instead chooses to erect presumptive monuments to hopes and wishes and would-be accomplishments. A culture becomes kitschified when it has lost its original vital force, the creative spark which once drove it forward, and has turned into a recursive parody of itself. (Cheap, plastic-looking veneers and distastefully gaudy symbolism.) 

• RT: A six-month-old baby has been killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow Region, Governor Andrey Vorobyov has said, adding that three other people were pulled from under the rubble of a residential building. Vorobyov said the drone came down in the town of Yegoryevsk, around 110 km southeast of Moscow. “At night, as a result of a drone crash in Yegoryevsk, a private house caught fire. People were trapped under the rubble." The surviving victims, two adults and one child, have been hospitalized and are receiving assistance. The infant died on the way to the hospital. [During the past year or so Ukraine has largely switched its strategy from taking on Russian troops to acts of terror aimed at the Russian civilian population throughout the country in hopes it would force regime change in Moscow.]
• ZeroHedge: Finland's parliament has moved to reverse its decades-long ban on nuclear weapons. The June 17 vote to lift the ban in effect legally authorizes the Nordic country to receive, transport, and facilitate the movement of nuclear weapons on its territory as part of NATO operations. The most significant source of NATO's nuclear-sharing program is the US. But lately France has expressed a desire to station some of its atomic arsenal in partner countries, and this could include in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and others. "The results of the vote represent unflattering victory of the blind Russophobia of the past few years over what we have always viewed as pragmatic sanity in Finland," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. “And let nobody doubt that [response] measures will be taken. In this light, the Finnish people need to think whether this decision made by their elites will actually enhance security in Finland itself,” she added. In response Russia has moved to shutter more rail crossings to NATO states, including Finland - which will severely impact trade.  

• Scheerpost: The lack of heavy machinery in Venezuela following the devastating earthquakes which struck at the weekend has condemned thousands of people to a slow, suffocating death. These deaths may not have come at the tip of an American missile, but they very much came at the bloody hands of sadistic empire. The absence of bulldozers, diggers and excavators is a direct consequence of nearly three decades of crushing American sanctions which have sought to impoverish, demoralize, weaken and ultimately collapse the country in the name of freedom. In this explanation, some might see an anti-imperialist talking point lazily seeking to blame the US for a natural disaster. But it’s just the reality. US sanctions on Venezuela prohibit Americans from having any contact with the Venezuelan government, any state-owned or other companies on the sanctions list (currently 154 entities), or individuals on that list. This amounts to a huge chunk of the Venezuelan economy. And even if a company is not technically sanctioned, they become de facto sanctioned because western banks won’t process Venezuela-related payments. 

July 4: Nothing to celebrate in the USA

 

There will not be much to 

cheer about
on July 4th.

Washington

still running multiple wars.
Civil liberties sinking fast.
Voting rights being erased.
ICE arresting immigrants
of color

and building warehouse 

prison camps.

Social spending being drained
to pay for more weapons production.

Medicare, Medicaid,

food stamps being cut.

800+ U.S. bases

spread around the world.

(Space Force declaring

we need bases 

on the moon too.)

People want the U.S. out,

Yankee go home!

Infrastructure falling apart
(water & sewar systems,

highways, bridges,
schools, hospitals closing).

Post office, Veterans Administration

and national park 

funding being drained,

toward eventual privatization.

Social Security also eyed

by those pushing neo-feudalism.

Zionists taking control 
of social media
to wipe clean those accounts
that criticize Israeli & Washington

genocide.

Even the Lincoln Memorial 
reflecting pool is 

an algae-plagued mess.

Data center building
on steroids,

in virtually every state,
hogging up water
and ensuring that
every thing citizens
say, write

and do will be
stored and used 

in a rigged courtroom.

Blackrock, Palantir

and AIPAC

run this nation!

So much for 
freedom, democracy,
and a fair society.

America has lost
its soul.

Iranian culture is
2,500 years strong.

The U.S. now,

250 years old.

I'd not bet on

this experiment lasting
another 50 years
the way things are going.

Bruce