(source)
While the US Empire has been preparing to go to war with Iran for years now, desperately increasing pressure to initiate this scenario over the past year in particular, it seems they are now escalating tensions in the region even further as a part of their their warmongering shenanigans in order to finally bring their long-planned goal to fruition - that is to "take out" Iran. Make no mistake, they've been planning this for decades: 9/11 was the catalyst, Iraq was the beginning, and Iran has always been the final target of this now 19-year ongoing falsely so-called 'war on terror': General Wesley Clark leaked the contents of the DOD memo in 2007 that laid it all out and brought this dark truth into the light of day.
The contents of the DOD memo written in October of 2001, just one month after the 9/11 (false flag) attacks were carried out, "describes how we're going to take out 7 countries in 5 years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finishing off, Iran." The successful popular resistance by Syria against the Israeli-backed, US imperial regime change efforts and war of terror against her by US/UK/Israeli-backed al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorists has set the US empire back by quite a few years; so while delayed, the plan continues to move forward.
And while no common man likes the prospect of a third world war, the likelihood of WW3 breaking out if and when America does finally succeed in starting a war with Iran is quite high, and the greedy psychopaths who profit from war seem as though they could care less about the very real and extremely dangerous potential ramifications of such reckless behavior.
The warmongering psychopaths engineering this plan and their puppets like President Trump have already brought us to brink of world war with their false flags and unprovoked attacks in Syria over the past couple years, and it is likely that Iran will be 'the straw that breaks the camel's back' so to speak. So as we delve into the recent events which are setting the stage for potential imminent war on Iran, keep this in mind, that America can only "play with fire" (as Russia has continually warned us against continuing to do in the Middle East) for so long, before we inevitably eventually kick off another world war. But I digress.
Apparently starving the very same people (civilians) we supposedly seek to save from what has been quite possibly falsely described as brutal religious oppression, isn't enough; we still need to crack down further on this big bad boogeyman in order to successfully force regime change in Iran - the openly stated goal of the imperial Zionist psychopaths. After all, It's been over 8 months since Rudy Giuliani admitted that "the sanctions are working" to starve the Iranian civilians into submission to the US empire; and still those pesky Iranians aren't yet readily submitting to our regime change efforts, which John Bolton also promised would be achieved by the beginning of 2019. Oops, I guess the timeline of the empire's plan has been pushed back yet again... This can surely be chalked up to the tireless efforts of independent media voices around the world continuing to shatter the web of lies weaved by the Zionist and western powers that be, combined with the continuing efforts of the 'axis of resistance' in Syria and Palestine (SAA, IRGC, Hezbollah, and Palestinian resistance movements).
Currently leading the charge pushing for war on Iran here in America are Zionist psychopaths Secretary Mike Pompeo and Ambassador John Bolton. John Bolton's lies and hypocrisy have been thoroughly exposed in the past; just see the short video compilation above put together by 
“Now I want to make the case for secrecy in government when it comes to the conduct of national security affairs, and possibly for deception where that’s appropriate,” Bolton said
...
“If I had to say something I knew was false to protect American national security, I would do it,” Bolton answered (when asked by Napolitano if he would lie "to protect the truth"). (source)
The rest of this post will focus mainly on the recent events setting the stage for war on Iran and on Secretary Pompeo, and will demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is but a habitual liar, not to mention an admitted liar and thief at that, who is continually selling lies to foment unnecessary war, in order to achieve the final goals of a decades-old plan put into motion with the events of 9/11/01.
With that being said, let's take a look at what appears to be the long-anticipated and warned about (by independent media) 'Persian Gulf of Tonkin' incident. It has been suspected for months that the US and/or its imperial allies (like Israel or the UK) would soon stage a false flag attack (whether real or fake) in or around the Straight of Hormuz off the coast of Iran in order to blame Tehran and create the pretext to invade or attack Iran in some way, with the goal of provoking Iran into a full-blown war.
The first casualty of war is truth
"Oh what a wicked web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." - Sir Walter Scott
On Thursday morning a Japanese oil tanker sustained damage from explosions during a mysterious attack in the Gulf of Oman, along with a Norwegian tanker allegedly also sustaining damage in the area, "but it is not yet clear from the firm’s statement whether it was attacked," RT reported - with reports of this alleged second attack being carried out by torpedos. At this point nobody really knows just what happened. But this attack on a Japanese tanker did coincidentally occur while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, "an ally of President Donald Trump who maintains relations with Iranian leaders, visited Tehran in an effort to ease tensions," Bloomberg reported.
According to the Bloomberg report, "Senior administration officials said that at least one of the ships was attacked by mines." Despite that "the officials said they didn’t know for sure whether the mines were Iranian," the U.S. nonetheless "concluded that Iran was responsible for the attacks based on intelligence sources and the absence of any better explanation, the officials said." Unsurprisingly, "they declined to elaborate on the intelligence sources," probably either because there were none or John Bolton was the source (or Pompeo or some of his minions in the CIA).
Yes, "the absence of any better explanation" is now being used by US officials as 'evidence' to place blame for an attack on a foreign nation, regardless of the fact that this being a false flag attack carried out by factions within the US government would appear to be a much better explanation, as this post will demonstrate.
It does seem quite strange indeed that a Japanese oil tanker would be targeted by Iran at the very same time the Japanese Prime Minister is conducting a rare visit to the country, in an attempt to help de-escalate the rising tensions which have been on the increase for months, and which are causing economic ruin to Iran. Being that Japan is on good terms with both Trump and Iran, it would seem counterintuitive for Iran to jeopardize any sort of potential headway in getting Trump to ease the US economic war on Iran.
Further, Al Jazeera reported that, "Following the meeting [with Supreme leader Khamenei], which Iranian President Hassan Rouhani appeared to have also attended, Abe told reporters that Khamenei had told him that Iran "will not and should not make, hold or use nuclear weapons, and that it has no such intentions". But this is the alleged reason Trump pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal, which has hurt them economically, and also the stated reason all the new sanctions now starving Iranian civilians were put in place! (the real reason being Israel demanded it...)
So it is no wonder the Iranian leadership refuses to engage in any sort of talks or negotiations with Trump as a means to come to any meaningful solution, but will only talk to the US allies like Germany and Japan who still seek to honor the Nuclear Deal!
The supreme leader also reportedly said that he does not believe Trump's offer of honest negotiations and that he thinks the US president's promise not to seek regime change in Iran is a lie.
I wonder why he would think the US is lying about not seeking regime change in Iran, when it has been the stated goal of top Administration officials since Trump took office... And the US leaders then have the gall to say everything going on in the Middle East is "an escalation of tension by Iran"!
"It is the assessment of the US government that Iran is responsible for today's attacks in the Gulf of Oman," Mike Pompeo Tweeted shortly after the attacks, also calling them "an escalation of tension by Iran." I suppose 8 months of starving innocent Iranian civilians while at the same time continually threatening the Iranian government doesn't count as forms of "escalation"...
Here would be a great place to remind readers that this is the very same Mike Pompeo who in the past has openly admitted during a TV interview to being - as the former CIA director - nothing more than a liar, a cheat and a thief. The shockingly honest quote is below:
"When I was a cadet, what's the Cadet motto at West Point? You will not lie cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do. I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we steal - we stole. It was like we had entire training courses [laughter erupts from the audience]..."
So as Mike Pompeo pushes the same tired old war propaganda to drum up war with Iran, and apparently somehow expects us all to believe him as he blames Iran for this attack, it would behoove us to keep in mind that this same Pompeo is a self-proclaimed LIAR! Video covering this candid admission, further discussion on this Tweet, and coverage of the many responses on Twitter calling out this lying psychopath can be seen in the following video by Brian of HighImpactVlogs (formerly HighImpactFlix).
In response to this wild assertion not backed up by any evidence, journalist Max Blumenthal insinuated that this was just another false flag attack in a long line of false flag attacks used as pretexts to launch wars by the US, Tweeting the following: "Remember the Maine, Operation Northwoods, Gulf of Tonkin, Kuwaiti incubator babies, Saddam’s WMD’s, Qaddafi soldiers’ Viagra spree, Last Messages From Aleppo, Douma, burning aid on Colombia-Venezuela bridge, and now today’s attacks in the Gulf of Oman."
And don't forget the USS Liberty, attacked by our own 'allies' Israel in an attempt to provoke us to attack Egypt during the 6-days war.
As we will see, a false flag scenario actually does make far more sense than the story the US is weaving together which is full of so many holes it becomes absurd on its face. In the Ron Paul Liberty Report, Dr. Paul asks the question so many others outside the MSM are also wisely asking: Cui Bono - Who Benefits from this attack? - and the answer is most certainly not Iran, but rather the US and her allies, namely Israel, Saudi Arabia, as well as the UK.
Pompeo again blamed Iran without one shred of evidence in a press conference on Thursday following the incident.
"This assessment is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high-degree of sophistication," said Pompeo, who did not provide any details on the intelligence he cited.
After asserting Iran was also behind a litany of attacks prior to Thursday's tanker incident—once again without presenting any evidence—Pompeo said that, "Taken as a whole, these unprovoked attacks present a clear threat to international peace and security." - Common Dreams
I suppose neither the US (which had ships in the area), Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK, or any other US allies "has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high-degree of sophistication," to use Pompeo's exact words, but Iran and only Iran does! What nonsense. Certainly Israel, Saudi Arabia, or the UAE would even have been able to act without US knowledge, for it is in the interest of all three of those regimes to provoke the US into a war with Iran, but we could never consider such possibilities, 'because it can only be Iran'.
Iran immediately claimed responsibility for rescuing the people from the damaged Kokuka Courageous; but seeing that the US couldn't allow Iran to come across as the good guys in any manor whatsoever, they immediately denied that Iran had been present at the ship at any point following the explosion. However, apparently Iran not being the good guys didn't go far enough, and so in order to make Iran out to be the bad guys, and in order to introduce some form of 'evidence' to prove this, the US would later claim that Iran actually did show up at the ship - to remove an undetonated mine which they had allegedly previously planted. Of course this proves the US is lying one way or another, as Iran couldn't both have not been present after the explosion, and also then been present!
Further, Iranian forces removing an undetonated mine after the explosion is still not proof they placed the mines in the first place, and besides, the 'smoking gun' video footage released by the US navy is of such poor quality that it serves as evidence of absolutely nothing except that there was indeed a smaller boat with some sailors which sailed up to the damaged ship at some point after the explosion. It is not clear whether the boat is in fact Iranian, it is not clear what the sailors are doing, it is not clear whether there is any mine on the ship, and it is certainly not clear whether or not any object is being removed from the ship.
Below is a screenshot from that video to illustrate just how poor quality this so-called "evidence" really is, followed by a short video clip from Yahoo! Finance demonstrating as just one example how the MSM blindly took this extremely grainy and poor quality video and ran with it as definitive proof of the insanely flimsy government narrative.
One would think that with a $2+ billion PER DAY military budget, that maybe the US Navy would be able to capture some slightly better quality footage; and if not, maybe the '#1 military in the world' would be wise to invest in higher quality surveillance equipment with that kind of money. Or maybe the footage itself is simply fake, the poor quality being intentionally used in order to hide this fact. One can only hypothesise at this point, but regardless, nothing is adding up here.
Interestingly, at least the Washington Post initially reported that the Iranian forces who allegedly removed the mine from the oil tanker, did so before the explosion, soon changing their headline to match the official government story; once again showing that the mass media in this country does not engage in any form of true journalism, but rather blindly repeats the government propaganda fed to them. No retraction, apology or explanation was ever issued, leaving most readers oblivious to this major change and the red flags such knowledge would of course raise.
Not surprisingly, Iran firmly denied the US accusations from the get go. “Suspicious doesn’t begin to describe what likely transpired this morning,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
As the day progressed, he hit back at the US accusations, saying Washington is trying to set up a false-flag attack in order to “sabotage diplomacy” and cover up their own “economic terrorism” against Tehran. - RT
It is now beginning to look like we know exactly why Iran denied the accusations, because they couldn't be guilty of planting any mines if mines weren't even used in the attack! And sure enough, on Friday the owner/operator of the damaged ship flat out denied the US version of events which claims that it was a mine which caused the explosions on the japanese tanker. On Friday Yutaka Katada said he doesn't believe the US narrative, citing sailors aboard the Courageous who saw "flying objects" just before the ship was hit, suggesting the vessel wasn't damaged by mines, but by objects that could have been fired from a distance - such as torpedoes or missiles I would imagine.
"A mine doesn’t damage a ship above sea level," said Yutaka Katada, president of Kokuka Sangyo, the owner and operator of the vessel. "We aren’t sure exactly what hit, but it was something flying towards the ship," he said. - ZeroHedge
Keep in mind that Japan is a US ally, and I can think of no reason as to why the owner of this Japanese oil tanker would lie on behalf of Iran; whereas the reasons the US has to lie about Iran are quite obvious, and the US has a long track record of intentionally lying itself into war; from Afghanistan to Iraq, and from Syria to Venezuela. Two of the main spokespeople pushing this narrative are proven liars Bolton and Pompeo. Israeli PM Netanyahu has for months also been pushing us towards war with Iran every chance he gets, and this is the same Netanyahu who blatantly lied about WMDs to push us into war with Iraq 17 years ago.
Below is The Last American Vagabond show from Friday covering most all of what I have discussed and more for further references and discussion:
The latest news on Iran from this morning seems to be Mike Pompeo vowing the US will take military action in the region, but at the same time insisting the Administration is not looking for war with Iran. Go figure.
Pompeo also said Sunday on Fox that "President Trump has done everything he can to avoid war -- we don't want a war," adding, "We've done what we can to deter this. The Iranians should understand very clearly that we will continue to take actions that deter Iran from engaging in this kind of behavior," CNN reported.
So basically Trump does not want war, but since he's done everything he can to avoid war and 'Iran keeps escalating tensions' with these attacks, we're going to do what's necessary to stop them from continuing attacking tankers, and "of course" a military response is on the table Pompeo said. So, sounds to me like war it will be. And this whole 'we don't want war' nonsense is just being used as the ruse to make it seem like, if and when Trump wages the war, that he only did it as a 'last resort' - after doing "everything he can to avoid war". Sure...
This reminds me of Nikki Haley and John Bolton several months back insisting the US wasn't seeking regime change in Iran, when it has been their stated goal for years and while their actions at the very same time demonstrate the complete opposite. No wonder Iranian Parliament speaker earlier on Sunday mocked previous remarks by Pompeo, who had urged Iran to "meet diplomacy with diplomacy."
"Is it diplomacy to start a face-off with a revolutionary nation with acts of economic terrorism, [economic sanctions] which they themselves call the toughest ever?" Larijani said. "Is it diplomacy, Mr. Pompeo, to renege on one's promises in the nuclear agreement?"
Good points, indeed. These neocon Zionist warmongers are psychopaths who value money and power more than human life. They are professional liars. They are admitted liars. And false flags surrounded by waves of deception have preceded nearly every war and military intervention the US has ever waged.
This is no secret. This is no conspiracy. This is simply the truth, a matter of historical record, and it has been admitted time and time again by some of the same talking heads who help get us into war after war after war.
Just one glaring example comes from a 2012 luncheon on “How to Build US-Israeli Coordination on Preventing an Iranian Nuclear Breakout,” a forum for the Washington Institute Of Near East Policy; in which the director Patrick Clawson explained how all US wars were preceded by false flags, and suggested that someone should fabricate the small provocation necessary to push us into a war with Iran, saying "it would be best if someone else started the war". There are those even within the establishment who speak openly about how the US does business, and while the MSM simply won't be covering their candid confessions and calls for provoking war on Iran, you can still listen to the madness yourself.
For anyone who is not blind, it isn't hard to see what's going on here. Mike Pompeo is lying to you. The government is lying to you. And the Media is lying to you. All in an attempt to manufacture consent, consent for a war planned decades ago that will enrich the few at the expense of the many, waged by the US on behalf of Israel, international bankers and greedy corporations. Don't buy the lies. And don't give them your consent. War is not the answer, the government does not care about you, and mass murderous psychopaths should never be trusted.