Iran target of massive US military buildup, with Jon Elmer

All right, so you are watching and listening to the electronic intifada. I am John Elmer. This is the resistance report for day 874 of Israel's genocide in Gaza. Today we are going to look at the US military buildup in the area that it calls Central Command um aimed at Iran. It's gunboat diplomacy uh old-school gunboat diplomacy aimed at Iran. Um I'm reporting this on Thursday the 26th of February. Of course, things are moving very quickly. Um but let's start with the maps to give you um you know, this is what the old story of any country that the Americans uh attack uh the the country happens to be surrounded by US military bases um which you can see on this map running all through uh the area. Dozens of bases part of the 800 uh US permanent bases all around the world. They also have shared uh airfields that don't count as permanent bases that are being used for this preparation, but see the airbases are the darker uh green and the more fixed bases are the and naval bases are the lighter green on here and you can see that they have uh shown the USS uh Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier is off the coast of Oman and as of today uh the USS Ford is pushing towards the Eastern Mediterranean. It just left dock in Greece. Um So, today also in Geneva was the third round of talks um and this these talks are again, they're led by Kushner and Whitcoff. They're not um they don't have a bunch of experts in tow um and the Iranians are experts on this file. They've been negotiating on this file for decades um and they send serious negotiators to meet with Kushner and Whitcoff who are real estate guys who have nothing don't have any background history um on this issue. They're not surrounded by people who do. Um and so we saw today in Geneva them Kushner and Witcoff leave the negotiations to go and do their um Ukraine negotiations. And you that's the same thing as the Board of Peace. When they're at the Board of Peace, Kushner and Witcoff um they they came out and did interviews about the attack on Iran. So they've got these balls in the air uh juggling them and have no expertise to do this. So that's the first map. Let's take a look at the second map which will show you how these um the military build-up is taking place largely from continental United States uh over the Atlantic Ocean into bases in uh in Europe in in Western Europe, in the UK, and Germany, Spain, Italy, and then further over to uh uh Greece and Cyprus there you can see. And then numerous major bases in uh in the Middle East closer to Iran that we saw on the previous map. There's more than 40,000 US troops permanently stationed in the CENTCOM area. And every uh the entire area of the US Central Command is under missile range of the Iranian um of the IRGC missile program. So that is something just important to put on the table cuz we're going to focus mostly on the American build-up here. Um and um the main focus of the nuclear talks is that the US has a maximalist position. A position that even if they took the most minimum of the US position, um it's greater than the maximum position that Iran is willing to uh accept. So um essentially the US is looking for surrender from the Iranian, surrender of sovereignty, surrender of their military capacity, uh surrender of their foreign policy. Um and so these talks um don't seem to have the road to uh avoid war built into them. Um so we'll have to follow them closely. And of course, Trump is just so erratic that um there's nothing like um even saying that there's negotiations happening right now under normal circumstance would mean that the war will not start. But we know from the last negotiation last round of negotiations um that Israel struck Iran before the um major meeting that was set with the Americans. We know um the Israelis struck Qatar when uh as soon as the Hamas delegation in Qatar was given the ceasefire proposal. Um there was an assassination attempt on them during those times. So um these negotiations, I don't think it's worth tons of our time um delving into the negotiations because Trump doesn't follow that kind of playbook. It's not linear for him. He can decide at any given moment. And he seems to have enough people in the US military um going along with this, although we know that there's um dissenting voices as well because the possibility of this kind of a war uh spiraling out of control is real. And what we've seen from the Iranians, um there's been three operations by the Iranians responding to attacks on them. True Promise one was in April 2024. True Promise number two was October 2024. And those were seen as uh demonstrations. They were uh an attempt to show the capacity um that the Iranians have to strike without sparking a war. Um True Promise three was the 12-day war. Um and in that time, in those 12 days, um Iran struck Israel in downtown Israel in downtown Tel Aviv. It struck military bases uh all over the country. And again, they call that demonstrative. And this week Ayatollah Ali Khamenei um he basically called the Americans bluff when he addressed Trump's what Trump called his big beautiful armada. Um Khamenei said the Americans constantly say that they've sent a warship toward Iran. Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware. However, more dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea. Um Iran wrote to the United Nations um that if the US aggression if US aggression happens, all bases, facilities, and assets of the aggressor in the region will be considered legitimate targets uh under self-defense of Article 51 of the UN charter. And for their part, the Iranians are also carrying out um military exercises in the islands around the Strait of Hormuz, through which um about 20% of the world's oil and natural gas flow. Um so many options on the table for the Iranians to respond. Um and we're going to see that build up happen here. If this next um if we look at number three here, this is flight tracker data. Um and you're going to see at the bottom the time scale. So we're watching this go day by day over the course of the last week. Um and you can see this uh graphic that we're looking at on the screen shows US military uh deckled planes um flying all over um from well, flying across the world, really, the way that we're looking at it. Um and the way that it is is that their transponders go off when they're in the middle of the ocean. So it looks a little bit um broken up here, but you can imagine that each of those flights are continuing across the Atlantic. Um they just go dark for long periods of time. It's also tanker traffic for the most part that's being watched and uh strategic lift. Um the fighter jets fly dark, but when there's tankers flying, you know that they're flying with a squadron of fighter jets as well. So this is just a really remarkable way that uh Flightradar24 showed us that this week. We can look at the next one. It shows just a single day um and this is the movement of more than um more than 150 fighter aircraft. We're now over 200. These numbers are going up every day because it's been a 6-week build-up. The build-up has intensified over the last week or 10 days um and the numbers have been increased pretty drastically. Um and you can see just the amount of activity again the Atlantic Ocean. These flights are continuing over the Atlantic Ocean, which would um make for a better visual, but uh it's they're limited by the transponder access over the ocean and the fact that these planes fly uh in ghost mode. We can look at the next map. It will show us a 3D version of what that what these maps look like. Um number five here. Um you can see again just the lines and we talk in uh metaphors a lot like an an air bridge. We talked about that uh in throughout the war in Gaza where there was an air bridge to Israel to from the United States to support uh the genocide in Gaza. Um but when you look at the the way that this is graphed, you can see those purple and pink lines flying across the ocean setting up going into Europe um where they refuel and then they go from those bases down into the bases in the Middle East, which you can see perfectly there across the screen um as a literal uh air bridge um and that is how these military assets are being put into place. The largest military build-up that we have seen since before um the the war in Iraq in 2023 in 2003. So, uh we've also never seen this level of build-up before without there being a war. We've also never had Trump before, so that might not hold, but um in any other time if you see this much military build-up, you can expect uh a war to follow. If we look on the next screen, we can see what happens here when these planes land. This is uh Muwaffaq Al-Salti uh base in Jordan. This has become a key strategic hub for the war. It's also uh in central Jordan um right basically acts as a shield for Israel. Uh Muwaffaq Al-Salti was a Jordanian pilot who was killed in battle against the Israelis in 1966. To see this airfield being used today by the Americans uh and the Israelis to prepare for this war um has a bit of history to it. Um we're looking here on the um from satellite images. These came from Reuters and the New York Times um showing 66 plus war planes three times the number uh that are normally stationed at this base. And over the last uh over a 5-day period last week, there was 68 uh heavy lift like the largest uh cargo planes on Earth um taking supplies into this base um and so we've seen that this is uh a satellite image. We can see the next one. We can see it up closer the next couple. And you can see the F-35s there on the base uh in Jordan. This base has now been overflowing with uh assets, and so the Americans uh are moving to other bases in Jordan, multiple other bases in Jordan. There again, you see the F-35s, and these are only the ones that are out on the runway. There's also hardened shelters uh in these airbases that would conceal other planes. Presumably Jordanian planes, but there's many hardened covers that would cover up more planes. So we're we don't have the full picture of the like the Americans don't admit to these numbers. These are open-source satellite imagery and flight tracking data that is putting all of this putting all of this together. And one more you can see here number eight. Yeah, these are the MQ-9 Reaper drones. These are the drones that the Yemenis dropped out of the sky by the dozens in their battle in the Red Sea. Um there's also positioned in Jordan here at that same airbase. And if we look at the next slide, this is an interesting one. This is Ben Gurion Airport hosting here um American Air Force re-tanker refueling tanker planes. There was also C-17s parked at Ben Gurion. So the Israelis using a civilian airport for military purposes, which is of course something that they always do, but are the first to accuse others of doing. We know that Israel's deeply involved in this attack plan. There was a report yesterday from the State Department leaks saying that they want the Israelis to attack first. That's what happened in the 12-day war and then Trump can join the war because the war is not popular in the United States. So he's kind of juggling a few things that might make sense for the Israelis to carry out this the early stages of this battle. In any case, the point is it is a United States and Israeli operation through and through. We saw over the last couple days US F-22s fly from the UK to Ovda airbase in the Negev, which is being set up as a as a US hub inside Israel. The F-22 stealth fighter jets were reported. They were actually reported through CENTCOM in Israeli media. They made it around the sensor, they say on Kan, the state broadcaster. A source in the central US Central Command confirmed to us this evening that 12 F-22 fighter jets landed this afternoon at one of the airbases in the south of the country as part of the US regional deployment in the Middle East. These are the most advanced fighter jets in the world, which only the Americans have and among other things are supposed to penetrate enemy territory and open up air defense systems and neutralize radars. It is possible that the American choice to deploy F-22 squadron in Israel stems from the fact that Israel's prepared to deal with the missile attacks based on past experience in the last campaign. And also for Netanyahu's part, he's never seen a war that he doesn't want the US to fight on Israel's behalf. A week ago Sunday he spoke on his terms for the war. Netanyahu is eager for the United States, this is from the Washington Post. Netanyahu is eager for the United States to launch a major attack on Iran. In a speech on Sunday he put forward his own conditions for any US agreement with Tehran. Any deal must ban all enrichment of uranium and dismantle the equipment and infrastructure that allows you to enrich it in the first place. Netanyahu told the annual confidence conference of the presidents of major American Jewish organizations. It should also require that all enriched uranium leave Iran and restrict its ballistic missile program and impose sustained inspections on the civilian nuclear program. This has obviously been a dream of Netanyahu's for the last 25 years and as I said, he's never met a war in the Middle East that he does not want the United States to fight for Israel. But just as a note of reminder from the 12-day war, um that war rocked Israel and the United States used a significant portion of its air defense systems, um particularly the terminal high altitude aerial defense interceptors. They used 1/4 of their entire inventory uh in that 12-day war. Um the Israelis in the first days after the war, the tax authority talked about multiple billions of dollars in damage um that happened in that 12 12-day period, sustained damage that uh the highest ever recorded in Israeli history in a period of time like that. Um the tax authority director said that these challenges are a magnitude we've never faced in the history of Israel. So, that was only for the 12-day war and uh Wall Street Journal reports upwards in some days of $200 million in air defense um assets used during that battle. So, a prolonged war between Iran and Israel and the United States puts all of the United States assets in the region in uh range um and it puts Israel in the place that we saw it um last summer during that 12-day war um where they didn't want that war to continue at all. And Israeli newspapers are talking about hysteria within Israel of uh traumatized people from that war. Um we've taken a look at the next slide because those were uh aerial assets brought over, but of course we also have the naval assets and this is the USS Abraham Lincoln. It is off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea. It's about 700 km off the coast to get it out of range of anti-ship um ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles. We saw that with the Yemen war um as well. So, these uh the aircraft carrier itself and holds about 90 aircraft, F-18s, F-35s, bunch of helicopters, and a bunch of electronic warfare uh planes. It's got a crew of 5,600 uh on the ship and in the air crew. So, they're bringing over on these ships uh numbers that are similar to the numbers of planes that are being brought from uh continental US and from Europe. And at this point now, it's over 200 fighter jets that we know of that have been deployed to the region and more than 300 cargo uh loads of cargo plane um cargo plane loads have landed as well. And then on top of that, you have the entire uh Israeli Air Force as well, which virtually doubles this um this military build-up. But, you can see the ex- escort ships that go uh alongside the Lincoln. Those are guided missile destroyers. So, those are also air defense. They um are air defense for the carrier, but they also integrate into Israel's, which is also America's um missile defense array. So, these ships are all a part of that as well. Um we can look at the next one is the USS Ford. Uh USS Ford was just in Venezuela. They were part of the operation to to kidnap Maduro from Venezuela and to uh oversee the attacking of random boats >> [snorts] >> that are called drug boats, but we have no evidence of any of that given so far. Um this ship, the Ford, um it it was in the it was in Europe for its deployment. The Trump administration called it back from Europe to carry out the Venezuela operation which extended its time and when it was in Venezuela off the coast of Venezuela, it was their time at sea was extended again had them sail back across the Atlantic and we saw it pass through the Strait of Gibraltar and this into the Mediterranean Sea on Friday and again, this is a $13 billion aircraft carrier 4,500 Sailors. It's been at sea since the 24th of June 2025 far beyond the normal 6-month deployment. And it carries as well F-18s, F-35s, electronic warfare planes as well and it has five escort ships that you see here. So significant Naval Force as well and just a note on the USS Ford. It has had serious problems with its toilet systems that have been overflowing and that has been a consistent something consistent with this carrier since at least March of last year. So the sailors themselves are talking to American media about being you know, stretched to their limits wanting to quit being in the Navy because of these assignments and trying to get their toilets fixed. So they have a a bit of a side a side story going on with the USS Ford. Ford pushed off from Greece today heading to further east to the Mediterranean which will put these ships well within range of Hezbollah's anti-ship missiles should this war become a regional war. We can see in these next few slides how the how we knew that the aircraft carrier which flies dark it flies in what's called ghost mode sails in ghost But you have here, this is a a bird photographer on the Strait of Gibraltar who saw the um USS Ford enter in and pass through the Straits of Gibraltar, which you're seeing there. You can see Cueta and Morocco in the background there and the helicopter flying over it. That's a photograph by David Parody. Um we can see another one as well here, again with the background. Um massive ship. And so this this research is all being done through various methods, through flight tracking, um through photographers who happen to see these ships. The footage that I showed you of the military assets at Ben Gurion Airport was taken out the window of a plane that someone saw. So putting together all of this information is remarkable and it's something that is only could have been done in recent years with the development of flight tracking and and whatnot. We got another one slide here of from up closer. You can see the helicopters and you can see it's bristled right out. That's all the fighter jets that are on the um on the deck there. There's like 75 odd that are ready to be deployed at any moment. So again, these ships are doubling what's already the doubling the carrier presence that was already there and that's a look at one of the escort ships, the guided missile destroyers. Um So interesting to to mix these two, the flight tracking radar and just humans taking pictures. Um [snorts] So let's take a look at number 16. You can see the the assets spread out here. These are the number of assets that have been deployed so far. Again, the numbers are increasing. Do you see the numbers of fighter jets more than 200. That shows the ships on the bottom there that you're seeing. Those are Tomahawk cruise missiles that will be used that were used in the 12-day war to attack um >> Iranian nuclear sites. But you could see what their loadout is on those destroyers, guided missile destroyers that carry these land attack cruise Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles. So really bristling with uh a war posture. No other way to describe that. We're going to listen to a clip here in a moment from the United States Air Force Central Command Chief of Weapons and Tactics Major Claire Randolph who talks about the complexity of maintaining operational security during Operation Midnight Hammer where she was weapons and tactics officer during that 12-day war. A few weeks ago she gave this presentation to the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies that had a panel of Americans that were involved in the Midnight Hammer operation in June of last year to target Iranian nuclear sites. And she talks about some of the challenges of of these build-ups and executing the war plan. Let's listen to that. Number 17. I think a couple of critical challenges specifically for this mission included the major engineering challenge which General Armacost already talked about. Then we had the force packaging challenge which is the job. So that's that wasn't an unforeseen challenge but it is really complex to do it over effectively a day and a half period. And that's simply the job. So it's a challenge but it's what we do. There are a couple of other challenges that sort of stuck up on us I think. The first one I want to mention is opsec. We talked just now in the last panel about blue AI capabilities but we didn't spend a lot of time talking about adversary AI capabilities or even civilian AI capabilities. I mean, you've got Twitter feeds of randos that are just studying where our airplanes go and publishing it consolidating it like if US analysts did some of that, we would consider it secret or maybe even top secret, but that stuff is just allowed on the open internet. So, operational security, especially when you're talking about a you know, transnational movement with hundreds of aircraft is really really difficult to conceal. So, opsec is a really big concern. So, again, operational security is a big concern because of what everything that I've shown you here on this show. So, she says that the the gist of what she says is that if military analysts did what we have presented on this show today, it would be considered top secret classified material. But as it is, there's people all over the world tracking this 24/7 tracking this material and putting it out there and that is what she considered uh a major concern to come out of midnight hammer. This presentation was weeks before the build-up in Iran. So, she definitely was prescient in what her challenges what the challenges are for the US military. And one more just the coup de grace here is um Witkoff at on the sidelines of the board of peace meeting that we showed you in the previous interview with with Mohammad Shahada that he left the board of peace, went over for this interview with Fox News with Lara Trump who just got a job on Fox News and she interviews Witkoff about Iran. So, let's listen to that. That's Stephen Witkoff you'll hear next. We have red lines here from the US. How about over with Iran? The president asked me that this morning and he's I don't want to use [clears throat] the word frustrated it's almost because he he understands he's got plenty of alternatives but it's curious is he's curious as to why they haven't I don't want to use the word capitulated but why they haven't capitulated why under this sort of pressure with the amount of sea power naval power that we have over there why they haven't come to us and said we profess that we don't want to be we don't want a weapon so here's what we're prepared to do and yet it's hard to sort of get them to that place. Well, there's that. So so that's the one of thing about not having a diplomat be a diplomat is he's not diplomatic he comes out straight out and says my boss Trump is frustrated that the Iranians don't look at our power and surrender and just give up that he doesn't understand resistance or sovereignty and I think that Whitcoff captured that really well Trump expected to send this big beautiful Armada surely the biggest Armada ever sends it over and expects everybody to just lie down and to give up their country their sovereignty and he's frustrated that that didn't happen and it's not happening and in fact the Iranians are speaking stronger than they have at any point previously when they have been threatened so we will obviously stay on top of this story but for this week this has been the resistance report for day 874 of Israel's genocide in Gaza.