US Counterterrorism Director Joe Kent Resigns Over Iran War
On March 18th, Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned from his position in protest over the Trump administration’s offensives against Iran, marking the highest profile condemnation of the war from within the President’s Cabinet. In his resignation letter, Kent blames Israel lobbyists and elite members of American media for duping and dragging the US into yet another war in the Middle East: “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.“
Prior to his 8-month stint as the Counterterrorism chief, Kent was an Iraq war veteran and CIA paramilitary officer who ran for Congress twice as a white nationalist, Trump-endorsed candidate. He has long been a vocal critic of Israel on the right, spreading conspiracies such as Israel’s involvement in the attempted assassination of Trump in 2024 and murder of Charlie Kirk in 2025. Before Tuesday, the FBI had already launched an investigation into Kent for allegedly leaking sensitive intelligence. His resignation reflects a growing anti-Israel (though hardly anti-Zionist) sentiment in the America-first Right, exposing widening political fractures in the government and the weakness of imperialist propaganda.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/us/politics/fbi-joe-kent-intelligence-leak.html
Judge Denies Asylum & Orders Deportation of Liam Conejo Ramos’ Family
5 year old Liam Conejo Ramos, along with his 13 year old brother and parents have been denied their asylum claim and ordered to be deported by an immigration judge.
The family of 4 from Ecuador “legally” entered the US at an official crossing point in 2024 during the Biden administration, via the CBP One app that Trump revoked on day one of his second term.
The legal team representing the family has requested to appeal the decision to deport them—a process that can take months to years—emphasizing that they did everything the “right way,” and that Mr. Arias isn’t the criminal the government is portraying him as.
After being kidnapped by ICE in their driveway while returning from preschool, Liam and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, found themselves far from their home in Minnesota, at the Dilley detention center in Texas.
Photos of Liam being ushered into an ICE vehicle in his blue bunny hat caused nationwide outrage in January. Just a few days later, they returned home when the media attention resulted in politicians stepping in to free them.
Sources:
https://people.com/judge-orders-deportation-of-minneapolis-boy-liam-ramos-11929772?
The US Empire Panics as Iran Strikes Saudi Oil Fields
On Tuesday, March 17th, Iran launched a massive drone attack on Saudi Arabia. The attack involved nearly 100 drones, and was targeted against Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, which is home to the largest oil production, refining, and distribution facilities in the world. According to the Saudi armed forces, all of the drones were intercepted, but the point of Iranian drone strikes (in general) is threefold – to deplete the very expensive and scarce interceptor munitions used to shoot down drones and missiles, to probe the target’s defenses, and to prove that the target is vulnerable to attack.
This attack represents two main qualitative shifts in Iranian strategy: first, the attack was significantly larger than previous waves, which were typically made up of around 25 Shahed drones, and was targeted against a single region, rather than being distributed across the Persian Gulf. Second, Iran has shifted from throttling oil exports from the region, by restricting traffic through the strait of Hormuz, to directly attacking the oil production capacity of US allies in the Middle East. Oil markets are extremely sensitive – oil prices have already increased by 50% since the start of the war, and with Iran escalating attacks on the oil facilities of US allies – which are retaliation for US-Israeli attacks on Iranian oil facilities – oil prices are likely to further destabilize, and potentially plunge the planet into a global recession. It’s not even necessary for Iran to actually hit a targeted oil facility – even the risk of an attack, the possibility of the flow of oil drying up, is enough to cause price shocks. Given that the US is heavily reliant on oil exports and finance, this would be crippling to the US economy.
The US ruling class is so worried that they’ve even gone so far as to remove sanctions on Iranian oil – a desperate attempt to shore up the global oil supply and avoid further price increases. But this is a temporary measure, and it won’t work at all if Saudi Arabia’s oil fields are destroyed – Iran doesn’t produce enough oil to meet global demand on its own. Further, neither the US, nor its regional minions, have much military recourse to stop the attacks. The interceptor missiles needed to shoot down Iranian drones are expensive and scarce, while Shahed drones are cheap, plentiful, and are produced in and launched from decentralized locations which are difficult for the US and Israel to find, let alone destroy. It’s very possible that it may be necessary for the US to offer concessions to Iran to end the war – possibly including US withdrawal from the region.
For decades Iran has been a thorn in the side of the US empire. This is why the US and Israel launched this insane, criminal war, why they have slaughtered nearly 1,500 Iranians, mostly civilians, many children. But the US appears to have grossly miscalculated; prior to the war, Iran was a nuisance, but now it’s proven itself more than capable of kicking the United States’ ass.
Sources:
https://houseofsaud.com/iran-hundred-drone-day-saudi-oil-infrastructure-eastern-province/
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/us/politics/iran-oil-sanctions.html
https://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-chart
ICE Agents Working Airport Security
Starting Monday, March 23, ICE agents will replace TSA agents in major airports across the country. As government funding for TSA remains in limbo due to the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, Donald Trump and border czar Tom Homan have decided that the best way to handle the long lines and travel delays is by sending in the same ICE pigs that are on a rampage murdering unarmed civilians and tearing families apart.
“We’re simply there to help TSA do their jobs in areas that don’t need their specialized expertise,” Homan said Sunday on CNN. He also confirmed that ICE would be carrying out immigration enforcement at the airports. In addition to continued long wait times, as these brainless thugs will undoubtedly not help anything move along smoothly, travelers should expect to have to politely take directions from an armed murder squad that shoot first and points fingers second. The deployment of ICE agents to airports serves the dual purpose of laundering ICE’s image and usefulness for anything other than killing and kidnapping, and of doubling down on intimidation and the threat of deportation.
Sources:
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/03/22/ice-agents-will-be-deployed-to-us-airports-on-monday-homan.html
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/tsa-wait-times-government-shutdown-03-22-26
Behind Enemy Lines 