The Wire - August 26, 2024

this is the wire for 2200 Zulu August 26 2024 precedences routine information cut off is 2100 bottom line up front Israel conducts air strikes in Lebanon telegram founder arrested in France houthis continue to hone targeting tactics beginning with international events in the Middle East yesterday at approximately 0500 local time Israeli forces conducted substantial air strikes within Southern Lebanon reportedly targeting pre-staged Hezbollah Rockets immediately in retaliation to these strikes Hezbollah counterattacked by firing hundreds of rockets that Israeli forces did not successfully Target due to this latest escalation most commercial Aviation has been sporadically halted throughout the region and Israel has declared a state of emergency for the next 48 hours in France paval durov the founder of telegram was arrested by French authorities over the weekend the arrest was made in conjunction with alleged violations of the European Union mandates within the Digital Services act or DSA analyst this arrest was made under many of the same conditions and allegations that other social media platform owners have faced who do not abide by the European Union censorship mandates durov is being prosecuted under the same blanket of threats that the EU has issued to Elon Musk and other social media Giants consequently the founder of Rumble Chris pavlovski immediately departed Europe for his own safety due to the precedent that has now been set in the red seah Horn of Africa region houie targeting continues as before with some change in tactics details of the targeting of the merchant vessel Sunan have come to light namely that the targeting was possibly not carried out by a cruise missile or unmanned vessel but by explosive charges being affixed to the side of the vessel by houi militants and small craft this theory is supported by the vessel reporting being shadowed for some time by militants in small craft analyst comment though the use of improvised Limpet mines to Target vessels Is Not A New Concept if true this does Mark a change in houie tactics which over the past few months have become more Broad and technically skilled on the home front in Washington DC the Pentagon is moving forward with the latest round of Fleet reduction efforts and is reportedly planning to moth ball 17 more vessels this Fleet reduction is allegedly due to the dwindling numbers of merchant Mariners that are able to help crew and maintain various classes of support vessel most of the vessels marked for placement into extended maintenance are fast transport ships and a few replenishment vessels analyst comment of note two expeditionary seabase vessels the USS Lewis perer and the USS her Woody Williams are on the chopping block which signals the desperation of the fleet the puller is a brand new vessel being commissioned only in 2017 and has only seen 7 years of service before being mothballed the Woody Williams is even newer only being commissioned in 2020 and having seen only four years of service andalas commas for this wire at this juncture it would be safe to conclude that the Middle East peace talks have not been successful the strikes in Lebanon are probably the largest operation carried out by Israel in Lebanon in decades with well over 45 different sites or towns reportedly being struck in some way right now it is not clear as to if some sort of Israeli ground operation as planned though this potential appears to be unlikely for the time being consequently the potential for ground forces to become involved to some degree cannot be dismissed in the future as Israeli operations expand what's less clear at the moment is which party is to blame for this latest serious escalation if Israeli intelligence did indeed intercept the locations of dozens of pre-stage rockets sites the question remains regarding how Hezbollah was able to launch hundreds of rockets within just a few minutes of the first Israeli strikes so far all of these details could point to any number of plausible theories on the one hand the retaliatory rocket launches could confirm that Israeli intelligence was accurate and that the Israeli strikes may have been valid by Western standards on the other hand since so few actual rocket sites seem to have been successfully targeted and Hezbollah was able to launch hundreds of rockets after the first Israeli barrage this could also indicate that Israel didn't actually try to Target valid military equipment or installations the truth is probably a blend of these two extremes Israel probably wanted to kick The Hornet's Nest at first to draw out rocket launch locations Hezbollah likewise without question had and still have hundreds of rockets already in launch tubes pointed at Israel whether or not Hezbollah was planning to launch them first we'll never know due to Israel's allegedly preemptive strikes in any case these details are unlikely to matter much as the escalation continue this concludes the wire for 2200 Zulu August 26th 2024