The Curse of Walt - first strike of 2026! FAFO!

In "Walt's predictions for 2026" (WWW 31/12/25), I wrote, "Venezuelan President Maduros will be out of office by this time next year." And, as surely as the day followeth the night...

The military forces of the United States of America have captured Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and his wife and launched a "large-scale" strike against the country. 

US Attorney General Pam Bondi says the leftist dictator has been indicted in New York on drugs and weapons charges and will "face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts," 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is said to anticipate no further action against Venezuela. However, Venezuela has declared a national emergency, denouncing "military aggression". 

This is a breaking story. Dare we hope that Cuba will be next?! Follow Walt for more winning! Lifetime pct 989.

Search for MH370 on again, still looking in the wrong place

Today, the second-last day of 2025, a private company called Ocean Infinity is renewing its search for the remains of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which vanished from air-traffic radar 39 minutes after departing Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. 

The pilot's last radio call to Kuala Lumpur – "Good night, Malaysian Three Seven Zero" – was the last communication before the aircraft crossed into Vietnamese airspace and failed to check in with controllers there. Minutes later, the plane's transponder, which broadcasts its location, shut down. Military radar showed the jet turn back over the Andaman Sea, and satellite data suggested it continued flying for hours, possibly until it ran out of fuel, before crashing into a remote section of the southern Indian Ocean.

More than a decade of searching has so far turned up almost nothing, except a few small fragments washed ashore along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean. No bodies or large pieces of wreckage have ever been recovered. 

The lack of information and facts has spawned theories ranging from a hijacking to cabin depressurisation or power failure. There was no distress call, ransom demand, evidence of technical failure or severe weather. Malaysian investigators in 2018 cleared the passengers and crew, but did not rule out "unlawful interference". 

Authorities have said someone deliberately severed communications and diverted the plane, but can't say anything about who the "someone" may have been. Walt has followed this story from the beginning, and has his own theory about the "unlawful interference". To see all of our posts, enter "MH370" in the search window. We'll come back to one of those posts in a moment.

The search for the remains of MH370 has already become the most expensive in aviation history, but after more than a decade, very little information has surfaced. [Careful! Ed.] Previous investigations have been conducted in a blaze of publicity, but little has been said about the latest expedition.

A spokesthingy for Ocean Infinity said only, "With the support of the Malaysian government, we are resuming the search for the missing aircraft MH370. Due to the important and sensitive nature of this search, formal communications will come through the Malaysian government." They did, however, release this map, showing the new area to be searched.

The latest search team will have to deal with not only the lack of clarity about where the aircraft went down, but also the rugged ocean floor. According to Simon Maskell, professor of autonomous systems [Wut dat? Ed.] at Liverpool University and a former scientific adviser to Ocean Infinity "The ocean floor is a very complicated environment to navigate around. It’s not just flat. You’ve got huge mountains, ridges and chasms – and you’ve got to look everywhere." He added, "You can have the greatest technology in the world, but if you look in the wrong place, it's not going to help you."

Indeed! The new search area appears to be 1000s of miles away from places where debris has been found, such as the southeastern coast of Madagascar, where a debris hunter named Blaine Gibson found five (5) pieces back in 2016. See "Investigators not interested in picking up more MH370 debris", WWW 12/9/16.

Two of the fragments appeared to show burn marks, which, if confirmed as such, would be the first time such marks have been found. The presence of burn marks would suggest that a disastrous fire would be the proximate cause of the plane's fall into the Indian Ocean. 

Another small piece was found in the same area. Two more turned up on the northeastern beaches of Antsiraka and Riake. Pictures of all five fragments have the "honeycomb" material found in other MH370 debris.

Time for another look at Walt's diagram of the currents prevalent in the Indian Ocean, posted on 31/7/15 in "Current thinking on MH370".

We're putting this up for the third time to underscore Walt's theory that the Australian and other "experts" who have allegedly been searching for the remains of the ill-fated flight have been looking in the wrong place! You'll see Madagascar sandwiched in between the Aquinas and Moçambique currents, at the western edge of the Indian Ocean. The "authorities" have insisted that the plane went down in the previous search area off the western coast of Australia.

Why would they do that? Let me suggest (again) that it's deliberate misdirection, to keep us from asking questions about the involvement of the US millitary, which maintains a huge base on the British island of Diego Garcia, For more, see "MH370: 5 pieces now, all in 'the wrong place'", WWW 12/5/16.

If they really wanted to get at the truth, you'd think the Australians and/or Malaysians would hie themselves off to Réunion, Madagascar, Moçambique and South Africa, where bits and pieces of the missing aircraft have been located. But noooo. Mr Gibson -- a lawyer from Seattle -- was the only one who went there to investigate.

What information do the Malaysian authorities and/or Ocean Infinity have (we'd like to know) that leads them to have another look in the "new" area not that far to the west of their first search site, but quite far from where the only physical clues so far recovered were found? And now that the Republicans are in charge of the War Department, has anyone asked them to shed some light on the greatest aviation mystery since the disappearance of Amelia Earhart? Well???

We are nearing the end of a natural political cycle

Walt spent a large part of the weekend watching the parade. Vas you dere, Charlie? 

I don't think you need me to tell you what the event was about really, and why it was inevitable. Words like "fascist" and "nazi" and (of course) "dictatorship" were being shouted at us repeatedly by the the lickspittle media all weekend... before, during and after the parade itself. Like this.

"Tanks, flypasts, missiles: what to expect at Trump’s ‘dictator chic’ military parade Washington will host a celebration of US army’s 250th anniversary, which also coincides with president’s birthday" The Grauniad [Readers of Private Eye will understand this. Ed.] 13/5/25. 

"America Is Finally Getting A Fascist Dictator Parade, Courtesy Of Donald Trump Trump has long admired autocrats like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping, and now he is getting an autocrat's parade" Huffpost (surprised?) 14/5/25. 

"Trump presides over army parade: Celebration or ‘dictator behaviour’? Tanks roll through US capital to mark army’s 250th anniversary, prompting cheers and condemnation" Al-Jazeera, 15/6/25

I didn't bother to read any of these very predictable anti-Trump tirades. Reading what follows such loony left headlines is like following a lit fuse in search of an explosion; you won't have long to wait.

Nor was I suprised by the anti-ICE and "No kings!" mostly peaceful demonstrations (TM), fomented by TDS-afflicted Dimocrats and agitators paid by the usual suspects.

I'm not worried by what's happening in and to the United States of America these days. I care, but I'm not worried. Why not? Let me quote from Left Luggage by C. Northcote Parkinson (referred to on Saturday and highly recommended), at page 114: The common though not invariable pattern [of political development] has been for democracy to turn into socialism, for socialism to end in chaos, and for a dictatorship to restore some sort of order.

The cleansing of America will be painful, but it has to happen before America can be made great again. Those who do not believe this had best get out of the way!

Further reading: "MSNBC Shocked Army’s 250th Birthday Lacked 'Tense' or 'Dark, Malevolent Energy'", Townhall, 15/6/25.

What does "the end of woke" look like?

Yes, seriously. This is the reality of the new Golden Age of America. What?! You do not believe?! Consider this...

A memo from defense secretary Pete Hegseth, filed in court yestereday, says that  the US military will no longer allow trannies transgender individuals to join the armed forces and will stop performing or facilitating :procedures associated with gender transition" for service members.

The memo comes after President Trump signed an executive order in January that took aim at transgender troops in a personal way, saying that a man identifying as a woman was "not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member."

In his memo, Secretary Hegseth cited the President's EO, thus: "As the president clearly stated, expressing a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service."

Therefore, "All unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for service members are paused.... 

"The department must ensure it is building 'one force' without subgroups defined by anything other than ability or mission adherence. Efforts to split our troops along lines of identity weaken our force and make us vulnerable. Such efforts must not be tolerated or accommodated."

Everything liberals tell you is a lie

 

Thanks to our good friends at Blazing Cat Fur for posting this. You should check out BCF every day... after you've visited Walt, of course!

Afghanistan - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Taliban soldiers, in American uniforms, holding American assault rifles, pose in front of a "decommissioned" American helicopter at Kabul airport. Today. August 31st. Right on schedule. The helicopter looks pretty well trashed, but I expect Chinese or Pakistani technicians will be able to make it airworthy in jigtime.

The US military and State Department are now boasting that the Great Skedaddle  was a great success, since it cost less than a billion dollars in matériel left behind, and the lives of 13 American servicemen and women whose bodies were successfully repatriated on the weekend. Mission accomplished!

 As for the 1000s of Americans left behind, The CIA (yes, really!) is already in talks with the Taliban to "procure" their release.  So everything's OK then!

But still... How could the nation with the biggest, mightiest, most advanced military in the world get run out of a shithole country by a ragtag gang of goat fuckers herders? There are a lot of questions to be answered. I imagine the Congress will begin an investigation, just as soon as they finish investigating the "insurrection" of January 6th. Stay tuned.

Further reading: "Biden Deploys Military Back To Afghanistan After Realizing They Left Behind Millions Of Masks", Babylon Bee, 30/8/21.

UPDATED: Coming home soon...

Further reading: "Harris says she had key role in Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal decision", Politico, 25/4/21. The lede: The vice president confirmed she was the last person in the room before Biden made the decision to move forward with withdrawing US troops.

Actual photo (from Reuters) of US chopper over Kabul, today.

Also reported by Reuters today: "Afghan Pres Ghani leaves for Tajikistan". I love modern times, when you can watch the rats desert the sinking ship, in real time!

And from Breitbart News: "Biden's Vietnam: Historic Humiliation Unfolds", 15/8/21.

And don't forget who told ya so. "Biden reveals Afghanistan exit strategy", WWW 17/5/21.

UPDATE ADDED 15/8/21 at 1250: AP reports from Washington DC that Sleepy Joe, having ordered 3000 American soldiers (on top of the initial 1000) to go to Afghanistan right sharpish to cover the retreat, has decided 4000 won't be enough, and is sending another 1000 today. Errr... isn't that how the US of A got mixed up in that shithole in the first place? We have to wonder how many of the 5000 (and counting) will come home again.

Biden reveals Afghanistan exit strategy

Readers with longer memories than those of the lickspittle media may recall that when President Trump announced his plan to bring American forces home from Afghanistan by May 2021, the fiercest critics of his plan were two presidential wannabes: Sleepy Joe Biden and Hellery Clinton. Both of them were strong supporters of the US invasion of that country following 9/11, for which followers of the Prophet Mohammed were blamed.

You would have thought that once the Taliban was (supposedly) defeated, its leader killed, and democracy restored, there would have been no need for the US of A to continue to occupy that shithole, wasting 1000s of American lives and billions of US dollars on... may we be frank... a mission which was none of America's business in the first place. That argument was put forward by such voices of reason as Dr Ron Paul and (ahem) yr obdt servant. To no avail. 

Osama Bin Laden was killed ten years and a fortnight ago, not in Afghanistan but in Abbotabad, in neighbouring Pakistan. The Prez was the Commander-in-Chief at the time, Sleepy Joe was the 2IC and Mrs Bill Clinton was Secretary of State. We can all remember the photo of Hellery and the Prez and assorted hangers-on watching the report on the Clinton News Network.

Some folks thought the end of the adventure nigh. So it was, but not for American troops, only Canadians who wrapped up their combat role in 2011, and withdrew the last of their "training personnel" in 2014.

You might think that when the Canucks -- not known for suicidal tendencies -- pulled out, the Americans would see the handwriting on the wall and start packing. But noooooo... In 2014 the Prez still had another two years in office, and the well-known brave warrior John Kerry was Secretary of State. They saw fit to stay the course, lest the flickering candle of democracy be snuffed out again. It wasn't until President Trump got elected (in the last free and fair presidential election) that talk of a "drawdown" even began.

On the campaign trail in 2020, Sleepy Joe opposed President Trump's plans for withdrawal, saying that to bring our brave boys (and girls and in-betweens) home in May was to risk letting the Taliban retake control, yada yada yada. 

But everything would be different four months later, see? So President Biteme's plan, announced a few days ago, is to complete the withdrawal by September 11th. Geddit? The 20th anniversary of 9/11? Geddit now? 

You would expect that Hellery Clinton, having by now gotten over the humiliation of not being chosen by the Democrats for the task of defenestrating Trump, would be supportive of the alleged President's new plan, and all his other plans. You would be wrong. 

Apparently the Taliban, not content with finally forcing the Americans to leave Afghanistan, have taken to attacking other Afghans,just as they did before the US invasion. Mrs Clinton told her network, "This is what we call a wicked problem. There are consequences both foreseen and unintended of staying and of leaving."

Asked about Sleepy Joe's decision, Mrs Clinton said, "Our government has to focus on two huge consequences", notably the resumption of activities by extremist groups and a subsequent outpouring of refugees from Afghanistan. She said the potential collapse of the Afghan government and a possible takeover by the Taliban could result in a new Muslim civil war. (OK, she didn't include the word "Muslim", but we know who's fighting who, right?)

 Mrs Bill also said it was important to protect the "many thousands of Afghans" who had worked with the US and NATO during the "conflict". She advocates the creation of a large visa programme to provide for any refugees who get out of the shithole alive, provided they are allowed to settle no closer than 1000 miles to Chappaqua NY.

So, campers, circle the date on your calendars. 9/11/21.  (Non-American readers please substitute 11/9/21.) It's the first real date President Biteme has given for the achievement of any of his many plans. Let's see if the withdrawal from Afghanistan really happens... Hellery Clinton notwithstanding.

Al-Baghdadi: no longer wanted, much longer dead

So, farewell then, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. You were killed this weekend in a US special forces operation in the Syrian province of Idlib. Of you, President Trump said, "He was a sick and depraved man, and now he is gone."

"Last night, the United States brought the world's number one terrorist leader to justice," said POTUS. "Al-Baghdadi is dead. He reached the end of the tunnel as our dogs chased him down." Mr Trump added. When he was cornered, al-Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest laden with explosives, killing himself and three of his children. These and other gruesome details of how the ISIS leader "died like a dog" were revealed by the President in a nearly 50-minute live press conference in which he described the operation and answered journalists' questions about the raid and his strategy in Syria.

US special forces raided the compound where al-Baghdadi was hiding (apparently being sheltered by al-Qaeda, sometime competitors of ISIS) under order to take the terrorist chief alive. To prevent being taken alive, al-Baghdadi blew himself into little terrorist bits. Some of the pieces were large enough to enable able identification by conducting an onsite DNA test. This was crucial given that al-Baghdadi had been declared dead several times in the past.

Although one of the dogs was hurt, there were no human American casualties during the operation. POTUS said US soldiers were able to capture critical material about Islamic State, including information about its origins and future plans. US intelligence knew about al-Baghdadi's whereabouts for a couple of weeks, he said. "He spent his last moments in utter fear, in panic and dread, terrified of American forces coming down on him."

The death of the ISIS "caliph" has been called a crippling blow to the once-influential Islamic terrorist group. And it is a clear and stunning victory for the American military and its Commander-in-Chief. And yet, predictably, the lefties and never-Trumpers are saying otherwise. The Dumbocrats are complaining that POTUS didn't notify them of the impending raid, and invite Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to join him in the White House to watch the event unfold.

The usual "experts" are being quoted by the lamestream media, predicting the death of the "austere religious scholar" (as WaPo called al-Baghdadi -- you couldn't make it up!) could unleash retaliatory attacks in both the Middle East and North America. Several Canadian "Middle East researchers" have said al-Baghdadi's death could prompt blowback from sleeper cell ISIS members hiding in other countries. "Every time that a terrorist group suffers an important defeat like this, whether it's the death of its leader or something else, you have to expect the possibility that this will motivate them for revenge," said Thomas Juneau, a Middle East "expert" at the University of Ottawa.

Personally, I'm not worried. The death of al-Baghdadi may not be the mortal blow that kills ISIS once and for all -- Islamic extremists will be amongst us and against us for a long time yet -- but it's a start. I'm happy to leave it to the Turks or the Kurds or the Russians or anyone else (even the Canucks) to carry on the fight against Islamic terrorism (a phrase strangely absent from most of the lamestream media reports) if they so choose. If they won't or can't contain and destroy ISIS, I'm confident America will do the job, when and if necessary.

Further reading: "Trump accused of 'war crimes' by liberal journos after his al-Baghdadi presser", Business & Politics, 27/10/19. I swear, if Trump walked on water, the lamestream media would say he couldn't swim!

Here we go again? US forces on way to Saudi Arabia

As reported on Al Jazeera (and every other news site) this afternoon...

The Pentagon said on Friday that the US will deploy additional troops and military equipment to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to beef up security, as President Donald Trump has at least for now decided against any immediate military strikes in response to attacks on the Saudi oil industry.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said this is a first step, and he is not ruling out additional moves down the road. He said it's a response to requests from the Saudis and the UAE to help improve their air and missile defences.

The article goes on to say that US troop deployment will involve a moderate number of forces -- hundreds, not 1000s -- and will be primarily defensive in nature. All the same, it looks to me as if we're headed for another in the continuing series of Gulf Wars. Walt's market tip: Buy oil stocks, including companies that operate pipelines.

VIDEO: Suspicions confirmed! Hamilton Gregory talks about "McNamara's Morons"

Whenever I watch Apocalypse Now -- and I've done so several times -- I am struck by the lack of intelligence, or even common sense, displayed by some of the "boys on the boat". I have the same thoughts when I read accounts of the behaviour of American troops during the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Think Abu Ghraib. The average IQ of 1000s of the men... and women... who were chosen to implement US foreign policy seems to have been a degree or two above room temperature.

Why was that? In McNamara's Morons, Vietnam vet Hamilton Gregory argues that people of low intelligence -- "intellectually challenged", if you will -- were deliberately chosen in preference to better abled draftees and volunteers. In this video (running time 36:28) the author discusses the reasons for the deployment of "McNamara's Morons" -- troops of limited mental ability -- and the consequences of this deliberate choice on the part of those commanding the United States military.



Is it any wonder that, for the first time since 1814, the Paranoid States of America lost a foreign war. Sadly, Vietnam wasn't to be the last loss. This week President Trump has ordered another 10,000 troops sent to the Middle East sandpit. How many of them, I wonder, will be smart enough to throw a grenade in a high arc, rather than straight ahead? (Mr Gregory mentions this in his talk.) 100s of them will die as the result of their own stupidity. As for winning a war (even though the Islamist enemies aren't all that bright or brave either), good luck with that!

Further reading: Don't take Walt's word for it. Check out "VP Pence tells West Point grads it's a 'virtual certainty' they will fight on a battlefield for America", Fox News, 26/5/19.

UPDATED: Iraq at Sweet (?) Sixteen - Why are we still there?

UPDATED ADDED 25/3/19 - This comes under the heading of "Further reading", but I just became aware of it this afternoon. Click here to read a transcript of Dr Ron Paul's speech to Congress opposing the authorization of military force against Iraq. If only they'd have listened!

Today is the 16th anniversary of the American-led invasion of Iraq, which resulted in the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and then... chaos. The Paranoid States of America and its "Coalition of the Willing" involved themselves in the endless Muslim civil war -- a four-cornered one featuring Sunni Muslims vs Shia Muslims vs ISIS vs Kurds -- and there we are, still... 16 years later, after the expenditure of trillions of dollars (literally) and the loss of 1000s of lives of American and other Westerns. 16 years...

Is there any sign of the conflict in Iraq ending? NO! POTUS and our top military people tell us ISIS is "just about" defeated, reduced to a few hundred jihadis encircled in a shithole somewhere in Syria. Once they surrender, we can declare victory... again... and go home. Errr, not the part about going home. There will be a drawdown of some of the US personnel, sometime, but there will be a US presence in Iraq for the foreseeable future. Why? Because there is still a power vacuum, with no united and effective national government in place. And because ISIS has not been vanquished, but is merely going to ground. They will resurface at opportune times, whether in Iraq or Syria... or the Netherlands... or the USA!

I said "American-led" in the first sentence to emphasize that the US is not alone! In 2003, America's gallant ally, Canada, decided to take a pass on Iraq. Apparently the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien asked itself what the point of the mission was, and decided discretion was the better part of valour. A couple of years later, to repair relations with their disgruntled neighbours, the Canucks joined in the invasion of Afghanistan. After 160 troops lost their lives, the Canadians pulled out, leaving the US holding the Afghan bag.

But that was OK (they said) because they'd changed their mind and would send a token force to Iraq instead, to help with training and, like, you know... anything that didn't involve more body bags being repatriated. No more motorcades along the "Highway of Heroes", please! And more than a decade later, the Canucks are still there, working with the American forces to bring peace, order and good government to the shithole that is Iraq. Isn't that wonderful?

How appropriate, then, that Canuck Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan (a Sikh person) and Diplomat of the Year (2018 -- look it up) Chrystia Freeland (the one not wearing a turban) picked yesterday to announce that Canadian armed forces, almost 200 strong (!), will stay in Iraq for another two years... like it or not. That should come as a great relief to the US military. What would the "Coalition of the Willing" be without Canadians?! What do Canadian voters think of this exercise in peacekeeping and nation-building, and other initiatives of Just In Trudeau's Gliberal government? We'll see in October.

Further reading: The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq, by George Packer. Farrar Strauss & Giroux, New York, 2005. Mr Packer's thesis is that President Bush II and his advisers (Hello! Messrs Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz) had no idea what they were getting into when they pressed ahead with the invasion of Iraq even though Saddam posed no threat to the USA or even his Gulf neighbours, and no plan whatever for stabilizing and rebuilding the shithole once the invasion was over. And remember, he wrote this book in 2005. Things only got worse after that. Where and when will it all end?!

Indonesian fisherman says he saw MH370 crash

Regular readers of WWW will know of my abiding interest in the flight of MH370, the Malaysian Airlines B-777 which vanished from the face of the earth on 8 March 2014. The Malaysian and Australian governments have been working, off and on, to find more than a few fragments of the plane, but admitted last fall that they still don't know what happened to it, or where. For a recap of the more recent developments, see "More pieces of MH370 (?) spark calls for renewed search", WWW 30/11/18.

Theories, including conspiracy theories, abound. My own, as posted several times in the years between then and now, is that the plane crashed into the northern part of the Indian Ocean, somewhere east of the island of Diego Garcia, which is home to a huge US military base. I believe the Pentagon, which has kept shtum on the matter, knows what happened and who is responsible, if only through a regrettable accident. Of course I could be wrong, but... lifetime pct .988.

Still, the mystery remains unsolved a new clues continue to surface. [Was that pun intended? Ed.] Today Yahoo News UK reports that an Indonesian fisherman claims he knows exactly where the missing aircraft went down. He is seen here pointing to the location, in the Strait of Malacca, a busy shipping lane wast of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Rusli Khusmin, a 42-year-old fisherman, says he saw the plane go down in a plume of thick black smoke. "I saw the plane moving from left to right like a broken kite," he told the meeja. "There was no noise, just black smoke as a result of fires before it crashed into the water." He added that there was a strong smell of acidic fumes in the air before the plane crashed. As he watched he recorded his co-ordinates on a GPS, which has now been handed over to investigators.

Mr Khusmin did not say why he waited nearly five years to come forward, but swore an oath of truth on the Koran. His evidence will be sent to Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. Stay tuned.

VIDEO: Ron Paul looks at the year that was and the year to come

It's been some time since we've reposted a video featuring Dr Ron Paul. Thanks to President Trump's surprise announcement of an imminent pull-out from the Middle East, there seems to be... at last... the prospect of disengagement from the Muslim civil war. See "Getting out of the Muslim civil wars - about time!", WWW 21/12/18.

In this review, Dr Paul and Daniel McAdams discuss what the Ron Paul Institute has accomplished in 2018 and what they have planned 2019. Spoiler alert! There's a new book coming out -- The Individual versus the Collective -- and they tell you how to get an advance copy, FREE! And you'll learn how you can help spread the message of peace and prosperity. Running time: 10:27.



Naysayers (including some Republicans!) are calling on the President to reverse his decision to remove all US troops from Syria and several thousand from Afghanistan. The neocons, lametream media, and even some progressives suddenly find themselves defending the endless and pointless Gulf wars. A strong voice for the principles of disengagement and non-intervention in foreign affairs is needed now more than ever. Ron Paul is that voice, and Walt urges you, dear reader, to give him your support.

"Allahu akbar!" in Afghanistan - ISIS kills scores as Americans stand by

It's "EMISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" for the American-led coalition in Afghanistan, as that wretched, so-called country plans to hold democratic elections in October. Between now and then -- i.e. for the next six months -- Armpitistan's so-called security forces will continue to struggle to prevent attacks by the country's ISIS affiliate as well as the more firmly established Taliban. Both groups are for some reason opposed to democratic elections, and regularly launch attacks, with the Taliban usually targeting the government and security forces, and ISIS targeting the country's Shia minority.

Reports coming over the mojo wire say that an ISIS suicide bomber struck a voter registration centre in the Afghan capital, Kabul, this morning, killing at least 57 people (and counting). A spokesthingy for the Public Health Ministry said another 112 people were wounded in today's attack. The Kabul police chief, General Daud "Idi" Amin, said the suicide bomber targeted civilians who had gathered to receive national identification cards. In a statement carried by its Aamaq news service, ISIS said it had targeted Shia "apostates".

If you live in Afraghanistsan and value your life, the last thing you want to do is go and register to vote. Last week, three cops responsible for guarding voter registration centres in two Afghan provinces were killed by Islamic militants. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, at least five people were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Baghlan province. A spokesthingy for the provincial police chief said four other people were wounded in the blast.

That was just today... so far! Yesterday, in Balkh province, a district police chief died of his wounds after being shot during a gunbattle with insurgents. A spokesthingy for the provincial police chief said around a dozen insurgents were also killed in the battle, which is still underway. The "insurgents" are reportedly members of the Taliban, who routinely attack police stations and plant roadside bombs (IEDs) targetting anyone who happens to be using the roads.

In the headline, I said "Americans [are standing] stand by". And so they are. About 15,000 US troops are in Armpitistan even as we speak. But wait (I hear you say), didn't President 0 bring our boys (and girls) home in 2014? Errr, no. He started "drawing down" US forces in 2014 but, as with so many other things, never quite got the job done. When President Trump took over 15 months ago, some 10,000 Yankee imperialists remained in country. In "The Forever War", Newsweek reported in November that 15,000 US troops were still in Afghanistan. And the Washington Post said in January that more would likely be sent this spring.

The problem is [Wapo, again] that no-one seems quite sure what they're doing there! Sending in the Marines is one thing, deploying them effectively quite another. Marine Brig. Gen. Roger Turner's forces in Helmand province saw indirect enemy fire about 20 times over the last few months. None of them earned the Combat Action Ribbon, a culturally important award in the service that recognizes those "who have actively participated in ground or surface combat", including facing firefights and roadside bomb explosions.

Keeping 15,000 American boys (and girls) in that shithole country is costing American taxpayers millions of dollars every day. If they're not doing anything, why not bring them home? All of them! That's Walt's innocent question of the day. Ask it of your Congressman (or Congresswoman) next time you see him (or her). Let me know if you get a sensible answer.

New search for MH370 - Walt's advice on how to get answers

Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, a Boeing B-777, vanished into thin air -- or deep water -- on 8 March 2014, on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. 227 pas and 12 crew members were on board, and are presumed dead after a 22-month search of a large chunk of the Indian Ocean failed to find the lost plane or any trace of it.

I followed the story closely, from its beginning -- see "MH370: Three guesses from Walt", WWW 14/3/14 -- until the search was ended in December 2016: "'Experts' admit looking in the wrong place for MH370", WWW 20/12/16. And I was among the first to put forward the suggestions that (a) the plane went down far from where the "experts" theorized, and (b) its disappearance was not unrelated to activities at the US military base on Diego Garcia. See "MH370: 1 + 3 = ??? Walt puts two possibilities together", WWW 19/3/14.

Conspiracy theory? You damn betcha! Just because it's a theory doesn't mean there was no conspiracy. All it means is that there's no proof!

But proof may yet be found. Today, Malaysia's government announced that it has approved a new attempt to find the wreckage of MH370. Earlier this week, an American company called Ocean Infinity sent a search vessel to have another look for debris in the southern Indian Ocean. Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said the company, which is working on a "no find, no fee" basis, "are willing to search the area of 25,000 square kilometers (9,653 square miles) pointed out by the expert group near the Australian waters." He did not offer further details.

The company itself said in a statement that the search vessel Seabed Constructor left the South African port of Durban -- take note of that -- on Tuesday, and was taking advantage of favourable weather to move toward "the vicinity of the possible search zone". But where is that, exactly? The first search, from the surface of the Indian Ocean, covered an area of several million square miles west of Australia. The subsequent underwater search mapped 710,000 square kilometers (274,000 square miles) of seabed at depths of up to 6,000 meters, slightly to the west of the initial search area. As Walt predicted, nothing was found. (Lifetime pct .988.)

However... this is where it gets interesting... some debris was found, on Réunion Island and off the coast of Moçambique and South Africa, 1000s of miles away from where the "experts" were looking, on the other side of the Indian Ocean. Here is a nice neat map showing the locations from which debris has been recovered.

How did the bits and pieces, identified specifically on the map, get so far from where the "experts" thought the plane had gone down after (they hypothesized) running out of fuel? Let's look once again at Walt's not-so-nice-and-neat diagram of the ocean currents which likely carried the debris to the south-western shores of the Indian Ocean.

This is the fourth time I've published this map. The first time was in "Current thinking on MH370", on 31 July 2015! (I used it again in "Piece of MH370 engine cover washes up on South African shore", WWW 23/3/16 and "Wreckage on shores of WESTERN Indian Ocean IS from MH370", WWW 24/3/16.)

I've drawn in the location of three major ocean currents -- the Moçambique, Aquinas and South Equatorial currents -- as well as the location of Diego Garcia, a small island leased by the USA from the British and the site of a huge American military establishment. There is some evidence of a sighting of a large airplane with red and blue stripes low in the sky near the Maldives -- due north of Diego Garcia, in the path of the South Equatorial current. See "MH370 - Just fancy that!", WWW 18/12/14. Now then...

My theory is that MH370 was shot down or brought down by some other type of weapon -- a laser beam or interference with the plane's onboard computer -- by persons or forces unknown (not necessarily American, you understand), for reasons only they know, somewhere in the vicinity of Diego Garcia. The wreckage then drifted west and south with the ocean currents named above, with bits of it washing ashore at the points shown on the nice map.

The logical place to search -- as I've been saying for well over three years -- would be around Diego Garcia. Since that's still a pretty large area to cover, especially nearly four years after the fact, I have an even better suggestion. Since the disappearance of MH370, the US of A has had a change of administration. Some of the "mistakes" of the Prez and his Secretary of State Hellery Clinton -- like the Libya debacle -- are coming to light. I suggest that the Malaysian authorities ask President Trump to order an investigation into what the US military knows about the disappearance of MH370. My guess is that if they didn't do it, they know who did!

Islamic suicide bomber disguised in burqa kills NATO soldier

Walt has warned before about the ease with which a man intent on no good can cover himself with the extreme Muslim outerwear known as a burqa, under which not even the wearer's eyes can be seen, to perpetrate whatever evil deeds he has in mind. See "A good reason to ban the burqa", WWW 4/11/13, which dealth with just such a case in Not-so-great Britain. In spite of that case and a number of Islamic terrorist attacks -- most recently the Manchester massacre -- the UK government has yet to ban the wearing of Islamic costumes.

Islamic dress is, of course, de rigueur, in Abu Dhabi, one of the statelets that make up the United Arab Emirates. There, last June, a Pakistani dressed in a burqa lured an 11-year-old boy from a mosque in before raping and murdering him. According to Abu Dhabi Police Department Major General Mohammed Al-Knacker, the criminal cross-dressed as a woman since he knew that the little boy would not go with a man without permission from his parents.

Surveillance footage shows the suspect with a purse getting into an elevator with the young victim, whom he brutally raped and strangled the 11-year-old to death soon after they reached the roof of the apartment block. A report in the Conservative Daily Post says that air-conditioning technicians found the victim on the roof of his residence, half-naked and with a Quran in his hands.

To be clear, the clothing shown in the police mug shots looks to me like niqab, not a burqa. If, like the writer of the article, you're not clear on the difference, see "Hijab, niqab, burqa -- what's the difference?", WWW 28/7/10, which has a fine picture of three ladies (???) dressed in burqas.

We come now to the headline story, from Afghanistan, where (believe it or not), NATO troops are still carrying on the US-led mission to defeat the Taliban/ISIS/Al-Qaeda/whoever and bring peace, prosperity and the benefits of American democracy to the people of that benighted country. No matter what the government says, we are losing that battle.

Yesterday, in northern Takhar province near Qarabagh, barely 18 miles north of Kabul, a Taliban suicide bomber struck a NATO patrol in Afghanistan, killing a "service member" and two civilians. Six service members, including an Afghan translator, were wounded. A spokesthingy for the US military confirmed that a service member was killed but did not reveal the soldier's nationality. A district governor said the jihadi concealed his explosives beneath the all-enveloping women's garment known as a burqa.

The attack was the second suicide bombing in as many days that targeted NATO. On Wednesday, a suicide attacker hit a convoy on the edge of the southern city of Kandahar, killing two American soldiers and wounding another four. Both attacks were claimed by the Taliban. Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesthingy told AP over the phone on Friday that one of its fighters from Takhar province carried out yesterday's attack. He claimed 11 Americans were killed, but the insurgents routinely exaggerate their claims. So that's OK then.

Still more news from Armpitistan... Today, in southern Helmand province, the Taliban stormed a market in the Gareshk district and fired at a nearby police station. As Friday is the Muslim sabbath, the market was closed, so no casualties were reported. The day before, yet another suicide bomber rammed a car full of explosives into a police outpost in the same town, killing two cops and wounding another two. Gareshk is obviously not a good place to live, or even visit. Last month, the Pentagon confirmed that an errant US bomb destroyed a police outpost there, killing 12 officers and wounding another 11.

Walt hasn't written much lately about Armpitistan and the endless Muslim civil wars of the Middle East. I'm sick of all that, and truly sick, sore and tired of seeing the waste of western lives and treasure in affairs which are none of our business. And there's the ancillary problem of refugees and asylum-seekers. All the trouble in the world emanates from the heart of Islam. Can the final solution be anything other than the Armageddon?

Yet another piece of MH370 found. Guess where?

Is nobody interested any more in what happened to Malaysian Airlines flight MH370? The Boeing 777 vanished on 8 March 2014, on a flight from Koala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, with 239 pax and crew. Ed. tracks the number of "hits" for the stories we post. He tells me that so far this week the stories about Hellery's health (or lack thereof) are running well ahead of "Investigators not interested in picking up more MH370 debris".

Today we have news of the finding of yet another piece of debris -- a wing flap that washed ashore Pemba Island, just off the coast of Tanzania, at the western edge of the Indian Ocean. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau confirmed today that an analysis had confirmed the part was indeed from the missing aircraft.

The finding of more wreckage from the doomed airliner, 1000s of miles from where the "authorities" say it was supposed to be lends further credence to my theory (and that of many others) that the plane came down somewhere in the north central part of the Indian Ocean, in the vicinity of the US base at Diego Garcia. Of course that doesn't mean the Americans know anything about it. And if you believe that, I have some land in Wyoming that's ripe for development....

Further reading: "Current thinking on MH370", WWW 31/7/15. Includes a map of the Indian Ocean on which I've drawn on prevailing currents. Pemba Island is just to the left of the first "A" in "Aquinas"!

MH370: 5 pieces now, all in "the wrong place"

Speaking of airplanes -- see yesterday's post (with video!) about the amazing An-225 Mriya -- you may be wondering what's become of the search for the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which went down somewhere in the Indian Ocean in March of 2014. When last we checked (WWW 24/3/16), two more pieces of debris had been found on the western fringes of the Indian Ocean, 1000s of miles from the search zone in the southeastern quadrant of said ocean.

Walt and others have suggested all along that the "authorities" are looking for the wreck in the wrong place. Whether they're doing so as a result of lack of information or deliberate disinformation is part of the Mystery of MH370. But more evidence that the search has somehow been misdirected surfaced (if you'll forgive the pun) yesterday, when the Malaysian government confirmed that two more pieces of debris have been found, making the total number recovered five. Can you guess where the two new pieces were discovered? Yes, in the same general area -- the coast of South Africa and Rodrigues Island, just to the east of Mauritius. Check out this map.

You can't see southern Africa on the map, but trust me, it's just to the west (left) of the area shown. To get from there to Mauritius, you fly more or less due east from Maputo (capital of Moçambique), over Madagascar, passing by Réunion (where the first piece of debris was found) and there you are. Keep going, and the next stop is Rodrigues.

Notice anything else? Ah yes... Make a left turn at Rodrigues, head northeast, and you'd wind up at... wait for it... Diego Garcia! Does that name sound familiar? It's the site of a gigantic US military base. And that, IMHO, is where the answer to the Mystery of MH370 is likeliest to be found.

Returning to yesterday's announcement, the "authorities" and "experts" seem to be stealthily backing away from their position that MH370 slipped into the sea somewhere off the west coast of Australia. Geoff Dell, a specialist in accident investigation at Central Queensland University in Australia, told AP that the latest discovery "shows they're looking in the right ocean — that's about it."

To make matters murkier, the five pieces of debris found so far don't offer much in terms of figuring out what happened to the Boeing 777. There don't appear to be any scorch or burn marks which would indicate an explosion and/or fire. Investigators are examining marine life attached to the debris to see if it could somehow help them narrow down where the plane entered the ocean, but haven't discovered anything useful yet.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading the investigation, says one of the pieces found recently is a panel from the main cabin, probably part of a door closet, identified by its decorative laminate. But even this interior piece is unlikely to prove very helpful, said Mr Dell.

It won't, for example, answer the question that some have raised about whether anyone was still at the controls of the plane at the end of its flight, or whether the plane spiraled uncontrollably into the water after running out of fuel. "I wouldn't hang your hat too much on what it says, other than it's got to come out of the airplane somehow and that suggests there was a structural failure in the fuselage that allowed it to get out," he said. "But how, exactly — who knows?"

Wreckage on shores of WESTERN Indian Ocean IS from MH370

This is the third time I've posted a map of the Indian Ocean, to which I've added arrows showing the direction of key ocean currents, and a red star showing the location of the US military base at Diego Garcia. Look at this as you read my list of the three pieces of aircraft wreckage which have washed up on the shores of Réunion, Mozambique and South Africa. Australian authorities have now confirmed that the second piece, recovered earlier this month, is "highly likely" to have come from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared just over two years ago.

To summarize... MH370 was carrying 239 pax and crew when it vanished shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia, just above centre right on the map) bound for Beijing on 8 March 2014. When last "observed" by radar, it was heading to the northwest, roughly in the direction of the West Equatorial current, which I've drawn on in black.

For reasons about which we can only speculate, the Australian authorities who took charge of the search thought that the plane then made a turn of roughly 180 degrees, flying on southeasterly course for as long as five hours before plunging into the ocean somewhere off the west coast of Australia, which is where they've been searching ever since.

Even though the search area has been doubled from 60,000 square kilometres (as shown) to 120,000 sq.km., they've found... wait for it... nil, nada, bupkis... nothing at all.

Meanwhile... in July of 2015 a piece of aircraft wreckage was found on the island of Réunion. You'll find it on the other side of the map, in the western part of the Indian Ocean, 1000 of kilometres from the search area. The wreckage turned out to be a flaperon, which French experts confirmed in September came from the ill-fated B-777.

Fast forward to the first week of this month, when a US adventurer who was carrying out his own independent search for MH370 found a white, metre-long chunk of metal off the coast of Mozambique. That's in the southeastern part of Africa, at the west end of the Indian Ocean. The Aquinas Current flows in a southerly direction between the island of Madagascar and the African mainland. Today, Reuters reports that a Malaysian government investigation team has found that "both pieces of debris" [sic] are consistent with panels from a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft.

Reuters quotes Australia's minister for infrastructure and transport, Darren Chester, as saying that "The analysis has concluded the debris is almost certainly from MH370. That such debris has been found on the east coast of Africa is consistent with drift modelling...and further affirms our search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean."

Excuse me for doubting, but it seems to me equally if not more plausible that the wreckage found along the paths of the Aquinas and Moçambique Currents -- see map!!! -- drifted south from from the site of a "water landing" somewhere in the northwest sector of the Indian Ocean. Let's say somewhere around, oh, Diego Garcia!

But wait (as Vince Offer would say), there's more! Just yesterday we learned that yet another piece of debris -- an inlet cowling from a Rolls Royce jet engine -- had been found. Guess where? Off the coast of Australia? Errr, no. See "Piece of MH370 engine cover washes up on South African shore". A Malaysian team is en route to Seff Africa to retrieve this latest find. Walt waits with bated breath to hear what Mr. Chester will say if this piece too turns out to belong to MH370.

What investigators really need to find is the main underwater wreckage, which would hold the plane's "black boxes" (flight data recorders). These should reveal details related to the plane's controls, including whether aircraft systems that might have helped track the plane were deliberately turned off, as some investigators believe. Walt suggests (once again) that the investigators ask the US military for a little help. They would surely lend a hand, wouldn't they... unless of course they had something to hide.

Further reading: Walt presented this map for the first time in "Current thinking on MH370", 31/7/15. I'll wait until the Americans fess up before saying I told you so.