By John Burtis ——Bio and Archives--October 19, 2023
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Two ongoing conflicts, the Hamas/Hezbollah attacks on Israel and the Ukraine/Russia conflict, have shown that today's battles, in an increasing number of cases, are drone driven.
Unmanned aerial drones have become an integral part of every friend's and foe's military. They can spot and destroy vehicles, troop and training complexes, logistic dumps and convoys, platoons of infantry, with the munitions they can carry, and suicide drones, carrying shaped charges, can kill enemy armored fighting vehicles and personnel carriers.
Iran both uses and exports two primary models: the Shahad 136 and the Mohajer 6.
Artur Rehi, a former Estonian soldier in his daily youtube broadcast, has offered us videos and his serious concerns about the operation of these two drones from one of our most implacable foes, Iran and its autocratic expansionist religious government. As we are all aware, both Hamas and Hezbollah are Iranian proxies and their weekend attack against Israel, our primary democratic ally in the Middle East and its indomitable leader Benjamin Netanyahu, resulted in the savage murder of more than a thousand Israeli citizens who simply happened to live near the border of the Gaza Strip. Hamas "fighters", operating exactly like the Nazis did during the Holocaust, filmed themselves shooting children and beheading infants.
Russia, in its invasion and occupation of some 28% of Ukraine, are ongoing customers of Iran and purchase both the Shahad 136 and the Mohajer 6 and both figure large in their attacks on the civilian infrastructure, apartment houses and homes, citizen gatherings and in the destruction of oil and gas storage facilities to increase the wintertime burdens on Ukrainian citizens. The Kremlin has released videos of multiple launchers of the Shahad 136 while Mohadjer 6 drones are often seen hovering over Ukrainian troops and their fortifications electronically scanning them for targeting.
With Iran supposedly suffering due to US sanctions and the cries from the UN appeasing international murderers, despite its ongoing defense by John F. Kerry combined with the shipping of billions of dollars to the mystic mullahs by Barack Obama and Joe Biden, there are a few issues which need to be explained. These two drone models cannot operate without Western electronics, circuit boards and cameras. Captured drones have been throughly dissected by Ukrainian experts and they have found the following:
The Iranian drones rely on French optical systems.
The US companies, somehow supplying Iran with technological components, are listed here. Analog Devices from Massachusetts, provides microchips and circuit board components. Hemisphere GNSS, of Arizona, provides GPS components used for targeting. Onsemi, again from Arizona, provides the Mullahs with circuit boards. NXP USA Inc., of Texas, enables the flight of the drones with microprocessors and circuit board components. Lastly, Texas Instruments from Texas, from whom I purchased a programmable calculator for business school, offers micro-controllers, voltage regulators and digital signal controllers.
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It appears, at least on the surface, that US companies are assisting Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and Vladimir Putin with their murderous, genocidal and imperialist goals.
Perhaps the US Department of Justice, under that great leveller and jokester, Merrick Garland, could cajole a few FBI operatives from the dry hole of the hated Donald Trump and investigate just how in hell US electronic components show up in downed Iranian drones.
The dead and those under the constant assault by these malicious machines of war cry out for a smattering of investigative clout now only reserved for those caught up in the great 1/6 Capitol fizzle, engineered we now know by Nancy Pelosi and federal law enforcement, and any Republican solon or citizen who happens to fly the Betsy Ross flag, anyone who dares question the nefarious activities which dogged the 2020 election for US president and those who freely operate cook tops and air-conditioning.
In those immortal words of the frightfully honest Boston journalist and prescient soothsayer Howie Carr, "How many more, Mistah Speakah, how many more must die?"
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John Burtis is a former Broome County, NY firefighter, a retired Santa Monica, CA, police officer. He obtained his BA in European History at Boston University and is fluent in German. He resides in NH with his wife, Betsy.