Seth Abramson Profile picture
Mar 5 20 tweets 4 min read Read on X
There's no reason for Iran to attack NATO nation Turkey—but a drone did. Iran denies sending it.

There's no reason for Iran to attack a UK base in Cyprus—but a drone did. Iran denies sending it.

Now Azerbaijan has been attacked. Iran denies involvement.

I think this is Israel.
I say this for a reason. Right after the illegal invasion, US media reported that America and Israel had reverse-engineered the Shahed drone and had essentially identical copies of it. Evidence suggests these suspicious strikes are coming from Lebanon—where the IDF is positioned.
The Iranian defense strategy isn't opaque—it's transparent. It's firing at Israel and nations that host *American* bases. What's wholly inconsistent with that is the idea that it would attempt to bring the full force of NATO against it by firing on Turkey and a UK base in Cyprus.
Keep in mind we already know the US-IDF alliance is committing war crimes, lying about casualties, lying about imminent threats, lying about timelines. And keep in mind the UK confirms the Cyprus strike came from Lebanon—not Iran. Hezbollah has even *less* reason to anger the UK.
Hegseth has admitted that America has *no interest* in "fighting fair." And what it did to that warship near India was an obvious war crime; even the Nazis rescued drowning sailors. So one would have to be naive to say the US-IDF alliance "wouldn't" issue strategic drone strikes.
And look at how the UK reacted. That strike was against British property in Cyprus and should have been treated as an act of war. Same with the attack on Turkey. In fact, Article 5 should have been invoked. But what happened? Nothing. Because no one believes the strikes are real.
When you understand that what is *motivating* Donald Trump to be involved in this war is protecting his property—his golf courses in the UAE, his coming golf course in Saudi Arabia, his planned Trump Gaza Hotel— suddenly a fake attack on Azerbaijan makes a lot more sense as well.
Trump has a big property in Azerbaijan, in Baku. You will notice that the attack on Azerbaijan *wasn't* on his property—which you might think Iran would have been interested in—but simply on the country itself. Why? Because that's *enough* to light an additional fire under Trump.
This supposition is a *conservative* one. Netanyahu's an indicted war criminal who also faces public corruption felonies in Israel—using one-off drone strikes not intended to kill to draw other nations into the war against Iran would be about the most *mild* thing he's ever done.
But don't accept my explanations—use elementary-school logic. If Iran had fired these drones with intention, it'd be counter to that intention to subsequently deny doing it. It'd be *proud* to say it did it.

And there'd be evidence the drones were fired *from Iran*. There isn't.
One of the few things we know for sure about this war is that the Americans and Israelis don't have boots on the ground—they can't launch drone strikes from Iranian soil. But the IDF was *suspiciously quick* to push deep into Lebanon—and the weird drone strikes come from *there*.
All this comes in the context of the US/IDF trying to get other nations to join their efforts—and seeing that the only thing moving the needle on that is having such nations' own assets be put under threat.

Meanwhile, Iran gains nil from these strikes. They're devastating to it.
Some may ask, "Why develop a theory on this?" The answer: because we must. And urgently. Unsolved mysteries in a hot war *require* a "theory of the case" to determine what to do next. If we let default (improbable) suppositions reign, NATO could enter this war on false pretenses.
In literature, we call this the "unmarked case": that is, if we fail to comment on a situation and note what makes it distinct, we let *whatever the existing presumptions are* govern. Right now the presumption is that Iran is at war with the world. But I rather suspect Israel is.
It's not for those of us saying the facts of this war don't support the theory of Iranian strikes on Turkey, the UK and Azerbaijan to prove our case. It's on those who claim Iran is behind these strikes to explain their *extraordinary* claim that Iran *wants* NATO to attack it.
All this is easy to research, including the US retrieving an intact Shahed in recent years and making drones based on Iran's design. They're among the armaments the US has provided to Israel, which can now easily launch from the Iran-proxy position—Lebanon—these drones came from. Image
I am more than happy to indulge alternative theories of the case: e.g., Azerbaijan (via Turkey) and Kazakhstan (via Russia) supply around 70% of Israel's crude oil, and Cyprus a small amount of refined. But that would not explain these being denied one-offs *not* fired from Iran.
Keep in mind, 90%+ of those saying "Israel [or America] wouldn't do this" are the same folks who've *never* accepted the hundreds of *proven* atrocities both nations have committed—while accepting 100% of Iran's (equally proven) atrocities. That's not objectivity—it's radicalism.
CYPRUS UPDATE:

* "Shahed-type" drone, not "Shahed"
* Confirmed fired from Lebanon, not Iran
* Hit secret US storage space Hezbollah almost certainly wouldn't know about, but allies would
* Hit location where chance of casualties was near zero
* "Looped" around to hit benign area
CYPRUS UPDATE II:

* US won't comment on attack on closest ally
* UK caught off-guard by how drone acted, and will not say why
* Only UK explanation is guess: maybe a pro-Iran militia in Lebanon/Iraq (locals who know where secret US spy planes are kept on a UK base in Cyprus? No)

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More from @SethAbramson

Feb 28
You'll see a lot of bad analysis claiming Trump's third illegal attack on Iran is merely an attempt to distract from scandals at home.

PROOF will shortly publish a book-length report establishing that the current war with Iran is not disconnected from the Trump-Epstein Scandal.
Fully unpacking this will take the coming PROOF report, but as a preview I will say that planning for the current war—and a switch to focusing on destroying Iranian ballistic missiles and ending its government—began at the same time Trump and Kushner set their plan to *own* Gaza.
I published a bestseller in 2019 informing America that Trump and Kushner would be taking America to war with Iran. It's simply taken slightly longer than expected. But what the interim has enabled is an understanding of how Epstein is relevant to these plans Trump had all along.
Read 10 tweets
Feb 27
Trump is withholding tens of millions in disaster relief because he had Noem institute a reg at DHS that says she must approve major expenditures. And right now all she's approving is massive weapons purchases and a fuck plane for her and Corey. Where do YOU think this is headed?
When I say we're witnessing evil, I'm comfortable writing that as a journalist. Trump and his minions are letting U.S. citizens die so they can stockpile weapons in preparation for martial law while buying themselves toys to facilitate their adulteries.

What would YOU call that?
So let me say something else I know every journalist believes. If a Democratic president were doing even 33% of what Donald Trump is doing, this nation would be in the midst of a civil war. Not a cold civil war—a hot one.

Gunfire in the streets.

But Democrats are not like that.
Read 10 tweets
Feb 21
This isn't a teaser—it's just an acknowledgment that the next PROOF report is taking a while and there's a good reason. The Epstein Scandal isn't primarily a sex scandal. You don't understand how powerful and well-connected this man was.

This is a global scandal and it is scary.
I was in the Epstein-killed-himself camp. I am no longer. Moreover, I feel like—as a former federal criminal investigator—I have a good sense of who had him killed. They are still in power. People must prepare themselves for a sea change in how we think about the Epstein Scandal.
To be clear, I do think the evidence Trump has raped kids increasing by the day. So when I say his primary reason for wanting/needing to hide the truth of the Epstein Files—of which we're now confirmed to have seen only 2%— is geopolitical, that should tell you how scary this is.
Read 8 tweets
Feb 19
Here's a list of all the places Trump is building concentration camps to brutalize non-white men, women, and kids—including many in the US legally and some who are citizens.

Most will be sent to die in places they've never been to or to be tortured by Trump pals.

# = Prisoners. Image
Image
As this data from the NYT shows, Donald Trump can already kidnap 31,000 adults and kids *at a time* and hold them in WWII-era concentration camp conditions before dumping them homeless and penniless in a foreign country where they do not speak the language and do not know anyone.
And those are the lucky prisoners. Many of the inmates—and remember, publicly released data shows that about 90% of these folks have *no violence in their history whatsoever*—will be sent to countries run by Trump's friends, where they will be caged and tortured purely for sport.
Read 11 tweets
Feb 17
I understand MAGAs have no interest in how laws work until they affect them, but the rest of us do: we need to know if ICE engaged in a pursuit, and if so whether this man was wanted for a status offense or serious crime.

If the former, ICE caused this.
nytimes.com/2026/02/16/us/…
ICE has regs on vehicular pursuit for this very reason: because a nonviolent person with little criminal justice interaction is likely to be so terrified if chased they'll endanger the community by accident.

If ICE knew this was a status offense, there should have been no chase.
What MAGAs say—but only if it doesn't affect them—is we should put ourselves in the shoes of ICE officers.

No—not how a civil society works.

If you have a license to kill, you have to be trained and abide by your training.

ICE officers *aren't* situated the same as you and me.
Read 10 tweets
Feb 13
BREAKING: We now have a good idea of why Trump rushed to contact PBPD—one of the first to do so—when he learned Epstein was under investigation in 2007.

It was a CYA. Per his friend Lutnick, it was believed Epstein had blackmail on men he'd hung out with. usatoday.com/story/news/pol…
Trump knew Epstein was angry over the 2003 money-laundering deal Trump did with a Putin agent—stealing the property from Epstein—and knew Trump then dimed him out anonymously in 2003.

Trump figured if he got to PBPD fast, they'd think any videos of him Epstein offered were fake.
This maneuver by Trump is so old and so obvious that it's literally the focal point of perhaps the most famous scene in the most famous movie ever made.

The best part?

Trump flubbed his lines, telling PBPD that "everyone" knew what Epstein was doing.
Read 9 tweets

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