Israel’s Mossad continued its campaign of sabotage through the Arab world with a bombing at one of Sudan’s national weapons factories in the national capital, Kharthoum. Though Sudan said only two workers were killed in the explosion and several wounded, given the stories told by eyewitnesses on the ground of live ammunition sailing through the air into homes neighboring the factory, I’m guessing the death count is higher.
The Mossad had ascertained that the facility was manufacturing armaments that were smuggled into Gaza via the Sinai and tunnels. Though local residents heard the sounds of airplane engines just as the explosions rang out and rained shrapnel and live ammunition into their homes, the attack came not from the air but from within. The Israeli intelligence agency had either recruited a worker from the factory or a local agent to set off the explosion from within the factory. The diversion caused by the drones allowed the saboteurs to escape the country, according to my highly-placed Israeli source. Israeli drones had overflown the scene to create the impression that an air raid caused the damage.
UPDATE: Sudanese officials are claiming that not only did Israeli aircraft attack the factory, but that they have “undetonated” Israeli missiles. My source tells me the missiles displayed on TV are not Israeli, but rather rockets manufactured in the factory itself, possibly for Hamas. If there are Israeli markings on these missiles I’d like to see them. Any missile-geeks out there can examine this image and tell us what you see. Also, the video footage may yield some evidence of whether the factory exploded from within or was hit by rockets from without. It should be noted that it would be much more embarrassing to Sudan if a local saboteur destroyed the factory, rather than Israeli aircraft.
Though this attack was an inside job, Israel has engaged in similar attacks before within Sudan. It has used drones to attack Iranian weapons convoys making their way from the sea to Gaza via Sudan and the Sinai.
Ehud Barak, doing his best Cheshire Cat imitation, had no comment all the while gloating to the hilt, when asked about Israel’s role (Hebrew) in the explosion:
“I will do my best not to express the emotions I’m feeling.”
While it’s true that local residents were angry at the government for placing a weapons factory in their midst, someone should be equally angry that the Mossad thought it appropriate to destroy an ammunition depot surrounded by a densely built civilian neighborhood. There is no possible excuse for putting innocent civilians in harm’s way. The answer from the Israeli side will simply be–when we had a chance to sabotage our enemy (Hamas and Sudan) we took it. It was far more important to destroy their ability to harm us than it was to protect Arabs, even if they were civilians. Israel has shown time and again that it simply does not value Arab lives. Certainly not the lives of its Arab enemies, but not even those of civilians.
Today’s NY Times contains the most complete depiction yet of the likely Iranian cyber-attack on Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil company internal computer system. Those computer security experts who’ve studied the attack believe it was an inside job, that an employee gave the Iranians access. On a day when the hackers knew all the company’s employees would be celebrating a Muslim holiday, they struck, disabling 30,000 computers and paralyzing the internal communications system of the company. Weeks later, the company’s e-mail system is still not working and all of the equipment compromised was junked and replaced.
Though no oil facility was compromised and the physical operations of the company were not affected, the attack was massive and shows a great leap forward in Iranian capabilities regarding cyber-attacks.
I deliberately wanted to juxtapose these two attacks in order to make the point that any act of aggression by Israel against its Arab enemies will be returned in kind. If the U.S. and Israel launch Stuxnet on the world and sabotage Iran’s uranium enrichment program, if they levy sanctions on Iran that threaten to bring ruin on the country’s economy–all of these acts do not happen in a vacuum. They are not unilateral. They are not the sound of one-hand clapping. The true measure of things is that Israel’s enemies are capable of harming Israel’s interests. America’s enemies are capable of harming the interests of American allies like Saudi Arabia:
…[There is] growing concern in the United States among government officials and private industry that other countries have the technology and skill to initiate attacks. “The Iranians were faster in developing an attack capability and bolder in using it than we had expected,” said James A. Lewis, a former diplomat and cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Both sides are going through a dance to figure out how much they want to turn this into a fight.”
…The attack, intelligence officials say, was a wake-up call. “It proved you don’t have to be sophisticated to do a lot of damage,” said Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism official at the National Security Council. “There are lots of targets in the U.S. where they could do the same thing. The attacks were intended to say: ‘If you mess with us, you can expect retaliation.’ ”
Tamir Pardo is sitting smug and pretty right about now in his office crowing about the damage done to Hamas’ weapons capability. But Hamas will figure out a way to replace what it has lost. It will either find a new factory, or a new ally, or a new smuggling route. Israel cannot stop its enemies from trying to harm it. Only one thing can stop this circle of violence: compromise and negotiation. This holds as true with Hamas as it does with Iran.
No one–not Barack Obama, not Tamir Pardo, not Bibi Netanyahu are going to impose their will on their enemies. Until they learn this lesson the region will spin from calamity to calamity. Some of these disasters will directly harm Israel, Israelis, and Israel’s interests. It will not escape unscathed. And the price, which until now has been relatively low compared to the damage inflicted on the Palestinians and other Israeli enemies, will rise substantially. Next time Iran will cause an explosion in the oil field or some other tit-for-tat response. Or one of its agents will take out a high value Israeli target. Israeli will then scream bloody murder. They’ll shriek about the callous terrorist murderers. Leon Panetta will threaten retaliation for such an act of terror.
But Iran will merely point to the acts of terror which Israel and America’s agents have inflicted on the Islamic Republic. There will be a cruel, brutal symmetry in that.
Sudan “Arabs” – surely you meant Muslim or African, but certainly not Arab!
Isn’t it better to bomb a weapons factory with minimal casualties (their source not Israeli!) than to wait till it gets to Gaza and then bomb civilians?
It’s better to solve the entire national dispute & stop all the killing.
There are certainly Arabs in Sudan.
What gives Israel the right to do this? Crossing into another country’s sovereign space and bombing a building because some weapons might get to Gaza is a lunatic act. Such lunatic acts do not need to take place if the siege on Gaza is lifted and the occupation of Palestine ends. What on earth does it take to get Israel to understand this basic concept?
300,000 people were killed in Sudan in the last decade .
but Israel killed 2 yesterday — so it’s time to yell – peace for Sudan . Death to Israel .
It will only take a single Israeli nuclear weapon to kill far more than 300,000. So pardon me for continuing to harbor deep misgivings about Israeli policies.
This was a deliberate act of a criminal state, a state that is accustomed to getting away with it. We know the horrors of civil strife in Sudan, but we also know this one. Israel says it doesn’t target civilians which means, of course, that this is who they target, increasingly this is the case. 100,1000, a million, whatever it takes — this is the Israeli motto. Funny joke doesn’t get the punchline.
“It’s better to solve the entire national dispute & stop all the killing.”
Yeah. Israel dissolves into the State of Palestine were equality reigns and Jewish immigration ceases altogether.
Than we all hold hands and sing the old Cola-Cola jingle.
And you know this will be the outcome why? Because you’re such an expert, have an advanced degree, have a direct line to the Future? Or what? Going by your rightist gut? Well sorry but that’s not a credible source here.
Sorry, but there are Sudanese Arabs and the country’s language is Arabic. Besides Egypt is in Africa and is Arab so why not Sudan. There are also other Arab countries in Africa.
Of course, Sudan is Arab. The north at least, South Sudan, now independent, is a total different story.
“Arab” is a linguistic denominator, and Arabs come in all shapes and colors. Arabs are indigenous populations who were arabized and mostly islamized.
So the Zionist mantra of Palestinians just being invaders from Arabia is pure BS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_people
“History of the Arab Peoples” (with a plural ‘s’) by Oxford-historian Albert Hourani is probably the best introduction to the Arabs.
Deir Yassin — pretty dense reading, though.
The wikipedia-page or Hourani ? 😉
Ilan Pappe wrote his doctoral thesis under the direction of Hourani, a deliberate choice of an Arab professor, he wanted another input, he stated somewhere,
Sudan should act back against Israel by sending thousands of African refuges to enter Israel and settle there
Your title is so irresponsible. Do you have proof of your claim… other than assumptions? If you want to say “Israel is the lead suspect…” or ” Israel is suspected of…”, fine. Yet you go out and make a claim that Israel did something NOT PROVEN… thus in a sense, you’re spreading a lie. Your whole first part of this post makes an assumption based on what facts sir? You even go as far as to claim Israel did other attacks also NOT proven or claimed by Israel.
Of course you’ll claim something like ” oh come on… it’s obvious they did it, yada yada yada”. Either verify your claim with facts, or change how you “report” it. You’d expect nothing less from others.
Click on the links in the post; this isn’t something he made up.
I don’t think you read any of the links in this report, did you? Do yrself a favor–don’t start yammering until you’ve done that. It will save you & us embarrassment.
My oh my, in order to “prove” Israel did something Israel has to admit it did. If it doesn’t then it didn’t. Got that? Clear to me. Only Israel’s record or prevarication doesn’t augur well for deserving respect on such matters. You’ll have to forgive us for exercising our own sense of caution toward anything Israel does or doesn’t say. Such caution is more than warranted.
Oh & btw, did you even bother to read Barak’s non-admission admission that Israel was involved? Or can you explain that away too?
I’m not wanting to get into a long drawn out argument with you on this subject. I’ll allow one further comment from you in reply then you’re shut down in this thread. Respect this directive from me.
Simple… just show us the source and I have no claim.
What are you talking about… the fact that an explosion took place etc. is certainly not disputed… he didn’t make that up. BUT… he has made an unproven claim, he outrightly accuses Israel of doing something NOT PROVEN to be done by them.
ALL the other, responsible, reports say “suspected” or the like. But this blogger is making an assumption already cold hard fact. Simply irresponsible and in a sense slanderous reporting.
IF it is proven, then he can claim it all he wants, with big letters and colors for all I care. But until that time, he shouldn’t report it as such.
The claim isn’t unproven because the same source who reported numerous subsequently authenticated stories has reported this story. My source’s record is far superior to yours. So when you get your own source & establish a track record, then you can talk. Till then–not so much.
Don’t get yr knickers in a twist there fella. I’ll report what I want when I want. As I’ve written here when I need your editorial advice I’ll ask. I don’t. So go take a few Ativan & get a good night’s sleep. We’ll wake you when we need you.
Is this a news source or some magic genie you have. Why do you think NO credible news source has made the claim you make… ’cause their ain’t no poof buddy.
As far as sources go… you have NO idea what sources I have so you can’t comment on that. And, hey, I’m not making the unsubstantiated claims… YOU are. So I don’t have to prove anything… YOU do. So till then… YOUR credibility suffers, not mine, bucko.
So go ahead and keep “reporting ” your assumptions in your mind, all day long and all night long…. if they are not proven, it just shows how credible you really are.
It certainly isn’t editorial advice… you do fine editorials all by yourself… just don’t claim your opinions a fact. You told me on another thread to let you know when you’ve reported something false… That’s what I’m doing… seems now you want to wiggle out of that.
Perhaps it is you who needs the good night’s sleep to see reality from assumptions.
Israel has not responded to the Sudanese government’s statements on this incident. Two years ago a fleet of trucks was bombed allegedly by Israel for the same stated reason – weapons supposedly destined for Gaza. Israel didn’t deny it then, either.
When Israeli bomb detritus turns up at the scene, it speaks for itself. It also speaks volumes, that four Israeli warplanes were spotted in the area just prior to the attack.
Can we get on with the discussion now?
If you are going to defend Israeli actions why not pick something that has some ambiguity, some real grey, and then let loose your defense. Here it’s just hot air.
After all, what party do you think is responsible for the attack?
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israeli-official-sudan-dangerous-terrorist-state?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29
“”Sudan is a dangerous terrorist state. To know exactly what happened [there], it will take some time to understand,” Amos Gilad told Israel’s army radio.
Asked directly whether Israel was involved in the attack, Gilad, who serves as director of policy and political-military affairs at the defense ministry, refused to reply directly.
The Israeli air force, he noted, was “one of the most prestigious in the world, a fact which had been proved many times in the past.”
“Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is regarded a war criminal. Sudan has also served as the operational base for [the late Al-Qaeda chief Osama] bin Laden,” Gilad pointed out.
“The regime is supported by Iran and it serves as a route for the transfer, via Egyptian territory, of Iranian weapons to Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists,” he told the radio.
Khartoum has said it found evidence of Israeli involvement among the remnants of the explosives at the blast site.”
Personally, I don’t need a grand piano to fall on my head; I get the picture.
Strangely, my comments are not posted.
Anyway, as a missile/tanks geek, I’m happy to inform you that your source regarding the missile picture was correct.
This (anti-tank) missile is the Toophan. an Iranian copy of the US made TOW.
It’s not the first time Israelis have bombed Sudanese interest and blamed Sudan being “smuggler den” for light arms to Gaza. How funny though, while Israel itself receives $3 billion arms charity from American taxpayers – it fears a few thousands worth of arms Hamas can affort to buy from outside. Maybe the situation change after US-Israel buddy Qatari ruler just promised to give $400 million aid to Hamas for distancing itself from that anti-Semite Bashar al-Assad.
Sudan has been on Zionist radar long before Israel was created in 1948.
But both Egypt and Sudan shares Nile River which can play a major source of water supply to every-thirsty Zionist entity. The leaders of the World Zionist movement were aware of the necessity of an abundunt supply of potable water in order to fulfil their dream of ‘Greater Israel’ in the Middle East. According to Muriel Mirak-Weissbach of the Schiller Institute, most of Israeli invasion of its Arab neighbors (Lebanon, Egypt and Syria) had been to occupy and exploit their water sources.
http://rehmat1.com/2011/02/25/sudans-break-up-bringing-nile-water-to-israel/
You wrote:
“Sudan has been on Zionist radar long before Israel was created in 1948.”
What does that mean?
Yeah, it’s not about arms. I think it’s about the continuous effort of Israel to be viewed as valuable by the US, to make itself appear important to US grand strategy. I believe this is the real focus of policy. But, maybe it’s about water. Certainly, Israel steals water at every opportunity, even creates those opportunities, can you believe?
If you look for geostrategic explanations here is a possible one (albeit I believe the real motive is just a preventive act against a source of arms that would be directed against Israel). Israel constantly needs to look for friends in the region – that`s clear. Some come and go, as Turkey, and some develop behind the screen, as with Kurds. With some there are already long term contacts as Druze (part of them) and given the present common Iran enemy some tacit understandings have developing with Sunni Gulf countries. Now, in that context – the new South-Sudan country is a potential Israel friend and I think ties are already in a developmental stage.
As usual, Israel swats a fly with a sledgehammer and doesn’t understand why its reputation is so lousy and no one wants to be its friend. It “constantly needs to look for friends” because it is a loose cannon – it will send its Mossad into a friendly country and commit an extrajudicial assassination, prompting the friendly country to boot the Israeli ambassador out of the country and perhaps to cancel any pending trade agreements. Kurds have no country so a friendship with the Kurds is of little use diplomatically, economically or strategically. Maybe Azerbaijan likes Israel, but they’ll change their minds when Israel steps on the government’s toes, which always seems to happen.
None of the “Sunni Gulf countries” (whoever they are – I assume you mean Saudi Arabia and possibly some of the UAE, excluding Dubai) will ever forge ties with Israel until its ends its occupation of Palestine. And if South Sudan becomes an “Israel friend” it could be jeopardizing its potential alliances with other countries in the region. There is talk of war between Sudan and South Sudan, which is probably why South Sudan is looking for potential sources for weapons and it already has the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” schtick down pat.
In fact I do not disagree with you about the byzantine and fluid nature of “alliances” and “quarrels” in this region with its rich ethnic mosaic & tribal allegiances with multiple links and remembered past traumas. The Jews are relatively newcomers and still in a learning process but comparing with only half a century ago it is clear that they made some advances. What I completely disagree is your conditioning it all on the “Palestinian issue” – I actually think it is the opposite. Showing weakness there and shrinking Israel to an even smaller area than its present already miniaturist one is exactly when all will be instantly lost. My vision is diametrically different here – in both the physical and psychological dimensions.
If this info is true I find it amazing that Israel is capable of stretching its operation to such extent. That requires intelligence and capabilities. It seems there is almost no limit to what Israel, in its desire to survive in highly complex conditions, is able to do. I think it is this “can do” attitude in the face of the biggest obstacles one can think of is what bought it the admiration of large segments in the US (and now also Canada) – and their deeply committed support has in turn become its present main insurance policies. An epic in the making.
“Can do attitude”? I’m laughing so hard I might fall out of my chair.
You find it “amazing” that Israel commits acts of war against other countries?
What truly boggles the mind is that you have deluded yourself into believing that anyone “admires” Israel for attacking countries outside its borders. Or for any other reason.
lol
your funny.
There are those like you who admire Satan’s “can do” attitude as well.
But you are certainly entertaining here.
I think you are right: Israel puts on shows to demonstrate its value to the West so that subsidies will continue indefinitely. Of course, I don’t admire this hucksterism one bit.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/10/25/2344970/israeli-operations-in-sudan-aimed.html
““It would be in Israel’s interest to hit a factory that was a major source of weapons for the Gaza Strip, no?” said one official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to discuss Israel’s operations in Sudan. “Sudan has long been a playground for militants, and for Israel it would be important to send the message that they cannot use Sudan as a way station for their arms and training camps.””
This is the kind of nonsense Israel engages in – legally and ethically questionable “operations” outside its borders to prevent the alleged smuggling of small arms into Gaza.
It is not about arms in any case. Not even the Iranophobia is really about nukes.
The blockade of Gaza is very obviously not about arms no matter what Israel says.
Don’t you judt love it when Israeli Jews tell us who is & who isn’t an Arab. Wikipedia’s article on Sudan contradicts you.
I assume “judt” was a typo and not an oblique or unconscious reference to the late Tony Judt.
If Sudan were really targeted for water, and specifically the Nile, then why not Ethiopia, or Uganda? The Nile’s waters are gathered from a really long way away!
Or is it really about Lebensraum? Sudan surely has a lot of that! Zionism’s ambitions do seem to stretch a long way beyond the possibilities, never mind the wishes and requirements, of the world’s entire Jewish population.
Sudan is an Arab-ruled-and-dominated country, but it is still not exclusively Arab, despite some pretty ruthless genocidal efforts. This had been going on for centuries and British rule provided only a temporary interruption while they attempted to wipe out the British army instead of Nubians for a while. Strictly speaking, the rulers and most North Sudanese are indeed ethnic Arabs, but no-one would mistake a Sudanese Arab for a Saudi or a Qatari.
If you look back two or three centuries, you see the equivalent of modern militant Islam in Sudan when it simply wasn’t present in what most think of as “the Arab World”. It is not intrinsic to being Sudanese, but I do think it’s a lot more deeply ingrained and even if extremism were to vanish from other Arab countries (through fashion as much as through American attempts to combat it) I’d expect it to continue in Sudan indefinitely, and it would take more military resources than American can muster to wipe it out. The chances of Israel doing so are nil.
The wider world, in the 21st and 22nd centuries, is going to have to live with a glowering and frequently hostile Sudan in precisely the way that the 17th and 18th century world did. Even the eye-watering expenditure of life and munitions effected by the British Army in the late 19th Century had zero lasting impact. The wind blew the cordite fumes into the desert, the sand absorbed the blood and nothing changed.
There will be progress in Afghanistan before there’s any in the Sudan or Mali.
[comment deleted for borderline anti-Semitic rhetoric]
Currently, Mia Farrow is leading UN Watch campaign against Khartoum’s bid for a seat at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in election to be held on November 12, 2012.
In January 2012 – Sudanese General Mustafa Dabi, head of the Arab League (AL) monitoring group in Syria, kicked Zionist bucket by exposing their lies against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regime.
The Geneva-based UN Watch is an Israeli pressure group established by the American Jewish Committee. Its aim is to mould United Nations member countries opinion in favor of Israel. UN Watch was established in 1993 by Morris Abram, former permanent US Representative to the UN in Geneva and honorary president of the American Jewish Committee with the generous assistance of Canadian-American liquor and entertainment tycoon, Jewish billionaire Edgar Bronfman, President of the World Jewish Congress. On January 1, 2001 the American Jewish Committee assumed full control of the organization through an agreement with with the World Jewish Congress.
“Electing Sudan to the international community’s highest human body is like putting Jack the Ripper in charge of a women’s shelter,” the Geneva-based UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said. I wonder if Jew Neuer knew that Tel Aviv is home to 280 Jewish brothels and not Khartoum.
[URL removed per comment rules–your comments will be deleted unless you stop adding links to the body.]
LATEST NEWS: Satellite images suggest Sudan arms factory was bombed
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=532306
Hi Richard
I am baffled reading your article about the bombing of the “weapon factory” in Sudan. If you check well the satellite pictures of the location before and after the bombing, (Sentinel Satellite Project) you can easily realize that there is no factory weapon facility there. It is a container depot, with about 20-30 containers, some hidden under the trees, waiting for the trucks to ferry to destination. No building or warehouse on site, no entrance to an underground facility. The picture after the bombing shows two craters, no buildings debris, no entrance to an underground facility. I don’t know what your source is telling you, but pictures don’t lie or tell stories.
I reckon there are 3 possibilities for this source:
1. He has no idea what he is talking about and his guess is as good as yours.
2. He knows what’s going there, but deliberately gives you some disinformation to disseminate.
3. You don’t have any source and it is the fruit of your imagination.
I don’t know which one is the correct assumption; personally I think the third one, but I am not sure.
Going back to the pictures- there is no doubt that the containers contained big amount of explosives, judging by the size of the two craters, as well as the damage (not serious) done to some of the buildings in the vicinity from the explosion of the containers and flying projectiles.
I believe that it is the result of an air raid, probably of Israeli air-force, as Israel is the most interested party in destroying these containers. I believe that weapon supplied by Iran and also bought in Libya was ready to be shipped to Gaza and Sinai to be used against Israel which reacted in the most civilized (yes civilized) way against a terrorist state, who is well known for its genocide policy in Darfour and its president, a criminal sought by the International Court of Justice for crimes against humanity. Sudan serves as a transport hub for weapon originating from another terrorist state- Iran and to weapon bought by Iran in Libya and delivered to the hub on its way to Gaza to be deployed against Israeli targets. Any responsible state would have react in the same way and I commend Israel for reacting in that way to protect its citizens. I am sure you will disagree with me, but I am used to read your comments and you are fully entitled to have your opinion as well as I am.
Kind regards
Alan Smith
The Sentinel photos show before & after images. THere are clearly many buildings & containers in the Before picture. The After picture shows no buildings. I have no idea what you’re talking about related to underground facilities as neither I nor my source said anything about that. What I don’t understand about people like you is what you think you’re doing. Either you haven’t seen the pictures you claim to have seen; you only saw the After pictures & not the Before; or you’ve seen the pictures & just don’t care or can’t understand what’s in them.
There was a factory there, now there isn’t. What was in the factory we can argue about. But it’s highly doubtful the Mossad would take out such a facility without having a reasonable idea of what was there. We can argue about a lot of things. But arguing based on yr premises is ridiculous.
Your goal isn’t to really make any credible point about Sudan but rather to discredit me & my source at which you’ve failed, rather miserably. But do keep trying. Eventually you may hit paydirt…after a couple of decades.
As for spouting bullshit about terrorist states as you’ve done, you might want to start with the acts of terror by your own intelligence services like murdering representatives of foreign governments and scientific insitutions on their own soil.
Hi Richard
Sorry. My mistake. After checking again, there was a 60 meters long shed style building and 40 containers. http://www.satsentinel.org/report/sitrep-explosions-khartoumnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp. The subject of the explosion was not the building, which was more a workshop then a factory, but the 40 containers.
About the underground buildings- some newspapers clips (not your blog) mentioned that there was an underground factory, hence my reference to an underground facility.
The existence of the shed style building doesn’t change my argument about the duty and responsibility of a sovereign state to defend itself from terrorist attacks and your argument “murdering representatives of foreign governments and scientific insitutions on their own soil” is shallow and insignificant. The fact is that any sovereign country is allowed to defend itself from any terrorist organization threatening to harm its own citizens, and this is recognized in the international law as well.
It is not recognized as a right that any country can perform acts of sabotage or murder within another country’s borders. This is traditionally an act of war.
Would Israel recognize another country’s “right” to cross into the country and blow up the Dimona facility, do you think? It’s definitely a threat to the peace in the region.
You are being absurd. Germany’s attack on Poland in ’39 could then be the “right to defend its citizens…etc.” Transparently ridiculous.