In an interview with Larry Kudlow on WABC, Aaron Cohen, an Israeli security expert and former member of the Israeli Defense Forces, discussed the recent Israeli weaponization of pagers, cell phones, radios, and electronic devices. Obviously, the use of these types of weapons is not just to kill an enemy but to spread terror among the general enemy population.
One of the first truths of war, especially in Democracies, is that when a war drags on for too long, one side eventually uses the terror tactics that it decried at the beginning. Israel is using the terror that started the current war to end the war.
The United States, the only world power to use a weapon of mass nuclear destruction in war, went to war in Iraq over the claim that it had weapons of mass destruction (which turned out to be false). Such is the alchemist's stone that turns the bad actions of the home team's good guys into gold and the bad actions of the away team's bad guys into lead. There seems to be a universal self-delusion in the human condition when it comes to applying universal moral standards equally to violence in war.
Cohen makes some interesting claims that should be chilling for most Americans because the more the United States engages in proxy wars in Ukraine, Israel, and other less active hot spots, the more likely there will be a terrorist blowback in the American homeland. The cause and effect are obvious since few countries want to fight directly with the United States. The United States would rather wage war than declare it. Terror on an enemy's home front is cost-effective and can benefit from "implausible deniability." For example, who exactly did blow up the Nordstream pipeline?
As China challenges the Philippines and works to dominate Asia strategically, the implications of using tech for terror become more serious. The BRICS countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates, are moving away from the U.S. dollar and American hegemony. If our military-industrial-diplomatic elite continues to reject an America First foreign policy, one based solely on American self-interest, what are the risks here?
Aaron Cohen, who runs a private security firm that also does training for police departments in the United States, summed up the recent Israeli counter-attack. "These are operations that take years to be able to pull off. You have to target assets, and embed in companies. This is something Israel started decades ago throughout Europe to be able to set up these shell corporations, which is what Israel does. You know the days of running operations out of consulates - those days are over. This ain't the 60s and 70s, like the old James Bond movie. Today, these spies are setting up corporations to be able to recruit outfits. Ninety-eight percent of the people working for Israel have no idea they are working for Israel, Larry. The whole system has been flipped around. And it is really embedded in this deep infiltration. And what you saw play out with the pagers and with the attack on Ibrahim Aqil is the work of 20 years of intelligence gathering...and we will see more of this unfolding."
"What I am hearing is there are 5,000 devices where PETN, an intensive explosive that you only need tiny amounts of. We use it in Semtex and C4...that explosive was placed either at the manufacturing phase. And, that company is being investigated out of Hungary. She probably had no idea she was working for Israel...but I am also hearing from sources of mine it may have been placed in the holding stage..that may be where Israel got its little fingers in there. About 5,000 devices were tainted or infected with the explosives...So there is the psychological aspect of it, which you and I have talked about. It is very intense. It is like the idea of getting killed by Israel is almost worse than being killed by Israel. The mind is a dangerous tool, and Israel is a master of that psychology...they have been on those pagers for months, so they have incredible mapping of the Hezbollah network..."
Related: Mystery Surrounds Who Blew Up the Nordstream I and II Pipelines
Obviously, terror is the marriage of violence with psychological warfare. And if Israel has been able to weaponize foreign trade to attack its enemies through a worldwide business network, what is to stop foreign adversaries of the United States, like some in the BRICS nations, from doing the same to us? Chinese industrial spying is legendary, and how many of our electronics and phones originate there?
Given the American supply chain with its deep roots in countries that are not always friendly to us, how long before Americans may find that they, too, have a bomb in their pocket? International trade these days isn't just about profits. It is a new beachhead in global irregular warfare.
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