11-25-19 (Reuters) - Four months before a swarm of drones and missiles crippled the world’s biggest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia, Iranian security officials gathered at a heavily fortified compound in Tehran.In one of the final meetings held ahead of the Saudi oil attack, another Revolutionary Guards commander was already looking ahead, according to the official close to Iran’s decision-making who was briefed on that gathering….The main topic that day in May: how to punish the United States for pulling out of a landmark nuclear treaty and re-imposing economic sanctions on Iran, moves that have hit the Islamic Republic hard….
This account, described to Reuters by three officials familiar with the meetings and a fourth close to Iran’s decision making, is the first to describe the role of Iran’s leaders in plotting the Sept. 14 attack on Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-controlled oil company.
These people said Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved the operation but with strict conditions: Iranian forces must avoid hitting any civilians or Americans….
“Rest assured Allah almighty will be with us,” a Revolutionary Guards commander told senior security officials. “Start planning for the next one.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco-attacks-iran-special-rep/special-reporttime-to-take-out-our-swords-inside-irans-plot-to-attack-saudi-arabia-idUSKBN1XZ16H
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Although hypersonic missiles can in theory carry nuclear warheads, those being developed by the United States will only be equipped with small conventional explosives. With a length between just five and 10 feet, weighing about 500 pounds and encased in materials like ceramic and carbon fiber composites or nickel-chromium superalloys, the missiles function like nearly invisible power drills that smash holes in their targets, to catastrophic effect. After their launch — whether from the ground, from airplanes or from submarines — they are pulled by gravity as they descend from a powered ascent, or propelled by highly advanced engines. The missiles’ kinetic energy at the time of impact, at speeds of at least 1,150 miles per hour, makes them powerful enough to penetrate any building material or armored plating with the force of three to four tons of TNT….
Within the next decade these new weapons could undertake a task long imagined for nuclear arms: a first strike against another nation’s government or arsenals, interrupting key chains of communication and disabling some of its retaliatory forces, all without (or with) the radioactive fallout and special condemnation that might accompany the detonation of nuclear warheads….
One concept now being pursued by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency uses a conventional missile launched from air platforms to loft a smaller, hypersonic glider on its journey, even before the missile reaches its apex. The glider then flies unpowered toward its target. The deadly projectile might ricochet downward, nose tilted up, on layers of atmosphere — the mesosphere, then the stratosphere and troposphere — like an oblate stone on water, in smaller and shallower skips, or it might be directed to pass smoothly through these layers. In either instance, the friction of the lower atmosphere would finally slow it enough to allow a steering system to maneuver it precisely toward its target. The weapon, known as Tactical Boost Glide, is scheduled to be dropped from military planes during testing next year….
it’s not just Russia, China and the United States that are interested in fast-flying military power drills. France and India have active hypersonics development programs, and each is working in partnership with Russia, according to a 2017 report by the Rand Corp., a nonpartisan research organization. Australia, Japan and the European Union have either civilian or military hypersonics research underway, the report said….
Russia started its hypersonics program to ensure it could get around any American ballistic missile defenses….In January 2019 the Trump administration released an updated missile-defense strategy that explicitly calls for limiting mutual vulnerability by defeating enemy “offensive missiles prior to launch.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/magazine/hypersonic-missiles.html
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late March 2016 interview with a Baghdadi ex-wife:
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III, iii, 14. What does a mother say to her son upon his leaving for war? "Know how to defend thyself." Thus My warriors also must understand how to fight single-handed. -Leaves of Morya's Garden 1925
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434. Help each other, harken! Help in the small and in the great. Help is a rap upon the future. You know not which is the drop that filled the cup to the brim. I shall remind you of a tale of ancient India--King Rishiputra could no longer sleep. He summoned a sage to restore his sleep to him. The age said "King, examine thy couch." The royal couch was examined, and a stone was found in the folds of the sheets. The King rejoiced, believing that this was the cause of his affliction. But sleep did not return and the sage repeated his advice. Again the couch was examined, and a dead butterfly was found. Again the King was sure that the cause of his sleeplessness was discovered. But his sleep did not return. The sage said "There is no effect without cause. Thou thyself, King, examine thy couch; for nothing can take the place of one's own eye.” And the King found under his pillow a grain of gold small as a mustard seed. "This minute grain could not have harmed me," thought the King. But sleep immediately closed his eyes. In the morning the sage pointed out to the King "The downfall of the spirit is not measured by fourths. The treasures of war cannot outweigh a seed taken from a widow. Help, King, wherever help can reach.” -M: Hierarchy 1931
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42. When I advise the preservation of energy it means that the forces are arrayed for battle. Fire spreads over the entire world. I n comparison with the present the former war was nothing. To safeguard one's energy will be but a sign of fitness for action. Such caution is needed in everything when We ourselves approach with measures unprecedented for the present race. But it is impossible to forsake the world in its decomposition! Consider the time extremely serious! Thus strive toward Me!
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