CovertAction Bulletin

Eyewitness Cuba: Solidarity, Not Blockades

Cuba is set to receive oil for the first time in 2026, following the March 31st arrival at Matanzas Bay of the Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin with over 730,000 barrels, or 100,000 tons, of crude oil. The tanker and its owner, the state-owned company Sovcomflot, have had sanctions on it since 2024. Late last year, the Trump administration announced severe tariffs on any country selling oil to Cuba and, after the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores, prevented Venezuelan ships from reaching the island. All of this on top of decades of sanctions put the island into a severe fuel shortage, an attempt to strangle and starve the population. The delivery of the Russian tanker is a much-needed event and pokes a hole in the U.S. blockade of Cuba, but much more remains to be done.

Also in March, the Nuesta America convoy to Cuba brought people from around the hemisphere and the world to Cuba in solidarity, bringing with them aid including solar generators and solar panels to help Cuba advance its renewable energy infrastructure in the face of the blockade. Our guest today was part of the Youth Brigade of dozens of organizers who went to Cuba, where he met, exchanged and stood together with Cuban youth, building bonds of solidarity. We’ll now welcome Phill Campbell, an organizer and member of Artists Against Apartheid to the show.

Deception, Oppression & Cover-Ups: Mueller Was No Hero

Former FBI Director Robert Muller died on March 20th. He entered into that position on September 4th, 2001. Within eight weeks of the 9/11 attacks, the FBI had arrested over 1,200 people - mostly Muslim men in the United States. None of them were shown to have any connection to Al Qaeda, but that didn’t deter the FBI and its partners in local law enforcement agencies like the NYPD from heightening their surveillance of Muslim communities, even sending informants into mosques.

All of this was done under the presidencies of George W. Bush and then Barack Obama, who convinced the Senate to allow Mueller to serve an extra two years on top of the 10-year term for FBI directors. It was also under the shadow of the War on Terror, powered by the PATRIOT Act to destroy lives and curtail rights abroad and at home.

But Mueller underwent an image transformation about a decade ago. Rather than rightly being decried as an enemy of the people and of civil liberties, he led the charge on the so-called Russiagate hoax, kicking off years of delusional frenzy among liberals that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to get Donald Trump elected.

Pentagon, AI Giants Aim for Increased Lethality

Swarm Forge. Ender’s Foundry. Project Grant. Open Arsenal. These are the names of just some of the “Pace-Setting Projects” that Pete Hegseth identified in a January memorandum on the “Artificial Intelligence Strategy for the Department of War.” Their names are as hard to take seriously as “Operation Epic Fury,” but like the war, the Pentagon’s AI initiatives are already having a significant impact on the world. AI systems were reportedly used to select targets for more than 1,000 attacks in the first days of the war on Iran. It’s investing heavily in targeting systems, data collection and analysis, and even autonomous weapons that can take instructions and then independently engage in missions, destroying and killing without immediate human feedback.

Private companies won’t be left out of it, either - the Pentagon plans to “leverage the hundreds of billions in private sector capital investment being made in America’s AI sector through our growing array of creative partnerships with America’s world-leading companies.” From Palantir and Anduril to xAI, OpenAI and Google billions of dollars continue to be spent every year on using AI to “increase lethality” - to make the U.S. military even more of a threat around the world.

Even Soldiers Don't Want War

The 82nd Airborne Division has canceled a training exercise to keep the Division ready to deploy with just 18 hours of notification for what it calls “forcible entry parachute assaults.” Parts of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, are being moved from South Korea to the Middle East. As we are recording on Tuesday, March 10th, Pete Hegseth said it would be “yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran - the most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes” with the Pentagon claiming more than 5,000 targets have been hit inside the country - including what we now know was a double-tap strike on a girl’s school in Minab last week.

While the Pentagon is playing up its use of technology and in particular AI in war, the fighting by and large still requires people flying the plains, maintaining the equipment, and filling those often-referenced “boots on the ground.” According to the Center on Conscience and War, their phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from service members and families looking for options to refuse to fight Trump’s war.

We’re joined by Mike Prysner, the Executive Director of the Center on Conscience and War, which you can find online at https://centeronconscience.org.

The US Cannot Win a War Against Iran

The US/Israeli war on Iran could easily spark a greater regional conflict if it continues. Donald Trump at first said Tehran would be taken in 3-4 days, then a day later claimed the war would last no more than 4-5 weeks and threatened that the US has enough weapons to fight “forever.” Already, the bombing has killed 787 people, including 180 at a girls’ school in Minab on Saturday as Operation Epic Fury began. 

Iran is responding in self-defense with attacks on important regional bases and centers in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and Israel after the bombings killed the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. An Israeli strike on Tuesday then bombed the Council of Experts in the holy city of Qom as they began deliberations on appointing a new leader. The White House has outlined its goals for the war, including the complete elimination of the Iranian government - a regime change operation.

On the killing of Khamenei, Trump told ABC News “I got him before he got me,” suggesting a paranoia around supposed Iranian threats to him.

The US/Israeli attacks and the Trump administration’s frantic and sometimes contradictory messaging might seem out of the ordinary, but deeper analysis shows that this war is not uniquely Trump’s. It’s an unprovoked, imperialist war of aggression like so many others that the US has launched on the people of the Middle East and beyond in its quest for complete domination of the world. It’s the latest in a long series of US interventions in Iran, starting with the 1953 US/British coup that overthrew the secular, nationalist government of Mohammad Mosaddegh and continuing through this past summer and today.

This war is also not a war that the US can win. Will imperial hubris land the region in another deadly, expensive “forever war?”

Lessons From Iraq to Stop a War Against Iran

Is the U.S. government preparing to go to war with Iran? Leading up to talks set to happen towards the end of the week in Geneva, the Trump administration has also threatened Iran with war, saying the country has “10 to 15 days” as of February 20th to agree to a deal - putting Trump’s one-sided deadline somewhere in the first week of March.

In apparent preparation for military strikes, massive amounts of military equipment have been sent to the region, including dispatching the USS Gerald R Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, to the Arabian Sea near the Persian Gulf. At least 120 aircraft, including F-35 stealth strike fighters and F/A 18-E Super Hornets, have been sent to the region with the Ford, in addition to E-3 Sentry AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) used for command & control operations as well as surveillance. The Ford will be joining the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is already off the coast of Oman.

As we come up on the 23rd anniversary of the 2003 US war on Iraq as well as the 15th anniversary of the US-led NATO invasion of Libya, we’ll look back at what led up to them, the lessons learned from the anti-war movement of the period, and how we can stop the next war:

• Stand for self-determination and against imperialist aggression
• The primary responsibility of those in the US is to oppose their government’s actions
• Don’t fall into the trap of tailing the Democrats, the graveyard of social movements.

ICE Expands the Surveillance State

While border czar Tom Homan announced last week that the surge of federal agents in Minnesota could be winding down, he signaled that other cities could be next. “I’m hoping other sanctuary cities look at what happened,” he said, threatening cities that have various levels of protection for undocumented residents.

It’s unclear where ICE’s next moves might be, but they have also been ramping up their surveillance online. The Department of Homeland Security has sent hundreds of administrative subpoenas to social media companies like Discord, Reddit, Google and Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, trying to identify users who have posted about them over the last few months. The subpoenas request identifying information about users who may be using pseudonyms online - things like real names, phone numbers, email addresses and more. Because they are administrative and not judicial warrants, the companies aren’t generally required to blindly comply with the majority of these requests - but recent reporting shows that the social media giants seem to be more than happy to hand over data on their users who are engaging in protected free speech behavior.

While trying to unmask anonymous online users, DHS is also now enabling agents to engage in what it calls “masked engagement” - creating fake accounts and identities and using sophisticated tools to keep them straight and prevent them from being caught up in spam or fraud filters. Beyond simply viewing what’s publicly available online, agents are now able to directly connect with users on platforms by friending or liking them, giving them access to information that might not be shared with the public.

We also discuss the upcoming Senate vote on the SAVE Act, a major threat to the basic right to vote in the United States.

U.S. Hands Off the Caribbean: Let Cuba Live!

The situation in Cuba is dire as the Trump administration ramps up its campaign to destabilize the country and destroy its revolution. The island has not been able to import a single drop of oil all year, according to President Miguel Díaz-Canel. Tanker ships headed to Cuba from Venezuela were intercepted and seized by the U.S. military, which has been significantly building up its naval presence in the region with a blockade of both countries.

A January executive order targets the countries that supply Cuba with the majority of its oil - including Russia, Mexico and Venezuela - with significant tariffs. This would be an expansion of the sanctions regime that has tried and failed to cut off the island from the rest of the world for decades.

Without the ability to receive oil for energy, Cuban infrastructure faces a massive crisis. It produces 40% of the energy it needs and imports the rest. Without the ability to import oil, services as basic as hospitals and even water sanitation could be threatened.

These moves by the U.S. are certainly part of the so-called Donroe Doctrine of Donald Trump, but are also an extension of over 60 years of attempted regime change against the socialist nation that’s been able to provide much for its people and the world while struggling against imperialism just 90 miles off the coast of Florida.

Sign the Call to Conscience open letter at LetCubaLive.info

Get your ticket for our webinar Cuba & Venezuela in Crisis on February 24th at CovertActionMagazine.com

Power, Accountability and Justice: From Minneapolis to Epstein

As we reported last week, well over 100,000 people shut down Minneapolis on January 23rd in response to the terror of ICE and CBP agents. The next Friday, in response to a call that originated with the Somali Student Association at the University of Minnesota, businesses across the country shut down and people went to the streets in hundreds of cities, continuing the protest movement nationwide. 

Even the Trump administration has been forced to make moves in response, replacing Greg Bovino with Tom Hohman on the ground in Minnesota and with Kristi Noem making the weak promise that DHS officers starting in Minneapolis and then nationwide will get bodycams when funding is available. After the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good were caught on multiple cameras, the suggestion that bodycams will solve ICE brutality isn’t fooling anyone. Half-measures and anything short of getting rid of ICE simply won’t cut it. On their website nationalshutdown.org, organizers promise that “this was just the beginning” and demand “ICE out of everywhere.”

And, we get into what the release of even more Epstein files really means. With so many rich, famous and influential figures named, what will it take to really get justice for their victims?

Minneapolis Shows the Way

Rachel was in Minneapolis last week where over 100,000 people took to the streets and reports on the mass action that happened Friday, shutting down businesses, schools and the city in response to the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE to Minneapolis and the brutal killing of Renee Nicole Good earlier this month. The next day, CBP agents killed Alex Pretti, a VA nurse, while he was pinned to the ground, firing 10 rounds in less than 5 seconds. Again the people of Minneapolis and beyond have risen up, with multiple mobilizations taking place over the weekend despite continued freezing cold temperatures. And a call for no business as usual on a national scale has come out of Minneapolis for this Friday, January 30th. High school students are preparing walkouts, and people all over the country are getting ready to shut it down for justice.

The ruling class is responding frantically to quell the mass sentiment. An open letter from dozens of Minnesota-based corporations like Target, 3M, Hormel and more calls for “an immediate deescalation of tensions.” The Trump administration has had calls they call productive with Democratic officials in Minneapolis and Minnesota governments. And Gregory Bovino, the “Commander-At-Large” of US Border Patrol, seems to be set to go back to California and slowly make his way to retirement. Even with rumored departures of some ICE and CBP forces from Minneapolis, these small changes and concessions are proving to not be enough for the masses of people.