Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances... Rantburg
AHMED ABU DIAB Ahmad Abu Diab Hamas Israel-Palestine-Jordan 20061214  
CHEKHU DIAKHABI Chekhou Diakhabi al-Qaeda in Iraq Iraq-Jordan 20050205  
HISHAM DIAB Hisham Diab al-Qaeda Home Front: WoT 20041223  
ISTIDIA OEMAR SOVIE Istidia Oemar Sovie Jemaah Islamiyah Southeast Asia 20061130  
KAMARA BIRAHIMA DIADIE Kamara Birahima Diadie al-Qaeda in Europe Europe 20041024  
KOBIE DIALO WILIAMS Kobie Diallo Williams Taliban Home Front: WoT 20061129  
NADIA ELASHI Nadia Elashi Hamas Home Front: WoT At Large 20050414 Link
NUREDIN BUDIAFI Nureddin Boudiafi Islamic Armed Group Africa: North 20050115 Link
NURREDINE BUDIAFI Nourredine Boudiafi Armed Islamic Group Africa: North 20050103 Link
  Nourredine Boudiafi Islamic Armed Group Africa: North 20050104 Link
SAADIA OMAR Saadia Omar a-Qaeda   20091127  
SIAD A FATAH IBRAHIM ABU JIDIAN Siad A-Fatah Ibrahim Abu Jidian Islamic Jihad Israel-Palestine 20041103  

-Lurid Crime Tales-
'Greedy Rat, Come Out, Let's Talk!' Why Women Hire Killers
2025-07-03
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Elena Kuleshova

[REGNUM] At the trial, she asked not to arrest her - she needed to prepare her daughter for the new school year, put her affairs in order, and sort out her debt obligations (she pays a mortgage).

The 42-year-old resident of Yekaterinburg, an English tutor who ordered the murder of her husband, spoke as if it were a matter of punishment for jaywalking.

The investigation claims that in order to kill her husband, Natalya Isaeva hired a hitman - an industrial climber, who, however, had never killed anyone in his life and had never even held a weapon in his hands (although he did have some criminal experience). As often happens, the hitman first took money from the client, and then tried to extort money from the would-be victim.

The outcome was partly predictable: Natalia is in jail, her husband is alive and well. Their child, apparently, will now live with his father.

BROKEN COUPLE
Natalia Isaeva's ex-husband stated in court that his wife cannot be released under house arrest. Otherwise, she might order it again, out of revenge.

"I fear for my life and the lives of my loved ones," Oleg Doroshenko said. However, in an interview he said that he wanted "the mildest punishment with all the concessions."

Natalia's friend Alina said that Natalia and Oleg did not register their marriage, although they had a daughter together, as well as Natalia's son from her first marriage. After some time, the relationship fell apart, and Natalia left Oleg.

He couldn't stand this attitude: he broke into the apartment of his ex-wife's parents, even started a fight with her father. According to his friend, he called Natalia and shouted into the phone: "Who needs you with two children?!"

— Open the door! — Oleg Doroshenko demands on the video intercom. — Listen, animal? Hello! Greedy creature, why won’t you give me our child? Do you want money? Greedy creature. Are you writing this down, perhaps? Write it down. Write down that you’re a rat, a selfish creature. Come out, let’s talk! Give me the child already, okay? (swears, spits copiously) Rat, animal…

Since the beginning of 2024, Natalya Isaeva has written: five statements to law enforcement agencies, three to the prosecutor's office, and one to a deputy, asking to protect her from her husband.

But, according to her lawyer Evgeniya Krotova, there was no help. For the IA Regnum, the lawyer explained the reason for Natalia and Oleg's separation:

— We broke up because of systematic beatings. He hit her on the body and face — our daughter was only three months old at the time.

For some time after the breakup, Doroshenko did not bother her, but in 2020, the stalking began. He came to Natalia's house, rang the intercom many times - at any time of the day. Then he went to her parents - also rang. He waited for Natalia in the yard, grabbed her hands, swung them, provoking her to answer, shouted. He tried to snatch his daughter by force. The same thing happened near the school - and all demonstratively, for show.

Having despaired of reaching an agreement with her husband peacefully, as Evgeniya Krotova told IA Regnum, Natalya wanted to file a petition to deprive Oleg of parental rights. But he got ahead of her, going to court with a request to establish a schedule of visits with his daughter.

Evgeniya Krotova writes in her Telegram channel:

— Her [Natalia's] persecution by her former cohabitant, the father of their daughter, was unprecedented. After the aggressive behavior of her ex, when she turned to the police for help, Natalia Isaeva hoped for help and a resolution to the situation, but she was met with indifferent indifference and inaction. Natalia did not receive help [in a timely manner] and became bait for scoundrels and deceivers, who perhaps convinced her that no one would help her except them.

Now the defense is collecting characterizing material on Natalia. And at the same time - on Oleg, and there is already a video in which he does not look at his best. However, an attempt on someone else's life must be punished, regardless of what influenced this decision.

Unfortunately, Oleg Nikolaevich is out of reach: both phones are switched off, he does not appear on social networks. Therefore, we will not know his truth. What has changed for Doroshenko over these nine years, why did his ex-wife turn into a "rat" in his eyes and how did it happen that, despite the father's passionate desire to raise his daughter, the child has now been taken by Natalia's parents.

THERAPIST VS. PEDIATRICIAN
And there are many similar cases. When ordering the murder of a husband or lover, some women want to put an end to addiction, some are encroaching on the inheritance, and some do it out of jealousy.

Shakespearean passions unfolded in the village of Kudryashovsky in the Novosibirsk region: pensioner Svetlana Zhironkina, with the help of a family friend, Yashar Isaev, hired a killer for 100,000 rubles.
About US$1,270.
The reason for the murder was her husband's drunkenness and infidelity.

They prepared solidly: Svetlana herself destroyed the servers of the surveillance cameras in the cottage, Yashar told about the daily routine of the victim. Those who ordered the murder received 13 years, the direct perpetrator - 12 years in prison.

Another elderly lady, a 69-year-old Muscovite, also made an attempt on her husband. The husband announced his desire to get a divorce, and the real estate in Dubai literally slipped away from under the pensioner's nose. The Muscovite acted more subtly than the Siberian: she chose poison as the murder weapon and assigned a detective to her husband to find out as much as possible about his movements and contacts. But she made a fatal mistake: she asked the detective to find the killer.

The detective immediately reported the criminal proposal to the authorities. From that moment on, the potential poisoner was under the control of the investigation. On February 10 of this year, the fake killer sent a photo of the "corpse" and asked for a fee - the customer was arrested at the moment of transferring the money.

A resident of the Chelyabinsk region had a similar motive in 2020: she did not want to divide property during a divorce. The 55-year-old woman tried to hire a killer to get rid of her husband, and found nothing better than to turn to an acquaintance. He initially agreed, but then changed his mind and turned the customer over to investigators.

A resident of Smolensk did the same when a friend offered him a job as a killer: her relationship with her husband had not worked out so well that she was ready to give her last - 50 thousand rubles - to break this relationship forever. As in the Chelyabinsk case, fear of inevitable punishment brought the would-be killers to their senses.

In the Moscow region, a 50-year-old therapist from Pushkino ordered the murder of her ex-husband, a pediatrician at the Shchyolkovskaya City Hospital. Oksana Gorlova and her husband moved to Pushkino from Lugansk in 2020, and divorced in 2022. But here's the problem: under the regional quota, they were allocated a two-room apartment, which did not want to be divided into two one-room apartments. And then Oksana decided that it would be easier to eliminate her ex-husband. Having found the perpetrator for 400 thousand rubles,
…about US$5,080…
she did not suspect that at that moment she was already being followed by the police, and the killer was a setup. Now the therapist faces imprisonment for up to 20 years.

But the story of Severodvinsk resident Tamilla Akhmedova is completely different. She ordered the murder of her husband, and the killer even tried to carry out the order, but the victim survived. The Akhmedovs lived together for 24 years. According to Tamilla herself, her husband began to harass her eldest daughter from her first marriage: he wrote obscene messages, pestered her - and this continued for many years. But he cooled towards his wife: he brutally beat her, did not hesitate to talk about his infidelities, and drank.

Tamilla was sentenced to eight years in prison. The son does not communicate with his mother. She repeatedly asked her ex-husband for forgiveness - and even received it. But the husband himself does not ask for forgiveness and was not punished for domestic terrorism: there is no evidence.

AN EXPLANATION IS NOT AN EXCUSE
In Russia as a whole, if you count the decisions of the courts of first instance, over the past five years about 1,500 husbands and cohabitants have died at the hands of their wives. Some break the law, citing the unacceptable behavior of men.

— Women who find themselves in a difficult life situation should critically evaluate their actions in choosing a way to protect their lives and health, — retired judge Tatyana Pirozhkova told IA Regnum. — The criminal law provides for criminal liability not only for murder, but also for attempted and prepared murder. I advise seeking help from law enforcement agencies and psychological services in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, in Russia in 2024, a bill “On combating intrusive stalking” was submitted for consideration and rejected.

It specifies the types of harassment: surveillance, waiting in places most likely to appear, persistent attempts to contact, including by phone calls, SMS, Internet messages. According to legislators, violating the restraining order should be punished, but it is unclear how: the draft states briefly - "at the discretion of the court."

For now, a restraining order in Russia can be imposed if there is a danger to a person’s life, health or freedom, or if there is a danger of a crime being committed.

In a number of countries, stalkers are punished quite severely. In the US, about 90% of requests for protective orders are granted, and a third of the orders are violated. Violations can be punished, at the discretion of the court, up to a real prison term.

In Germany, a Schutzanordnung is issued by a family court to prevent the abuser from coming within a certain distance of the victim or being under the same roof with them at the same time. The measure is valid for a period of 6 to 12 months. In the UK, the order can be issued by the police for up to 48 hours to allow the parties to cool off, or by the court for 28 days or more.

In Serbia there is no warrant, but there is a court order prohibiting the offender from approaching the victim at a certain distance and for a certain time. In total, 120 countries in the world similarly protect people who suffer from excessive attention and aggressive behavior of others.

Until we have a restraining order, lawyers advise victims of violence to film the beatings and write statements so that there is an evidence base in court. Notify the local police officer, seek help from a lawyer, enlist the support of colleagues, friends and relatives. Record phone calls and save messages, even if they hurt you very much.

The main thing is to stay within the law and not cross the line.

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
After Trump intervenes again, critics accuse Netanyahu of trading Gaza deal for end of trial
2025-06-30
[IsraelTimes] Opposition politicians accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of selling out Israel’s national security for his own personal interests, after US President Donald Trump
...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election. Then he beat Kamala while dodging bullets...
demanded for the second time the cancellation of the premier’s ongoing criminal trial.

Democrats
...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
MK Naama Lazimi argues that by "trading his indictment in exchange for a political settlement and an end to the war," Netanyahu demonstrated his unfitness for office, alleging that he is "conditioning the future of Israel and our children on his trial."

"Those behind President Trump’s tweet are Netanyahu and his corrupt gang," agrees fellow Democrats politician Gilad Kariv, condemning Netanyahu and his circle’s "willingness to ’play’ with the national security of the State of Israel and the issue of the hostages in order to save Netanyahu from conviction in court."

Netanyahu is "acting against the Israeli public interest" by linking his legal troubles with the issue of the hostages and regional normalization agreements, tweets Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar, charging that Trump’s post had conditioned US aid on the prime minister’s trial.

In a late night post on his Truth Social platform, Trump stated that the United States was "not going to stand" for the continued prosecution of Netanyahu, whom he described as a "war hero" targeted by "out-of-control prosecutors."

Trump argued that "this travesty of ’justice’ will interfere with both Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
negotiations."

"The United States of America spends billions of dollar(s) a year, far more than on any other nation, protecting and supporting Israel," noted Trump in what some in Israel took as an implicit threat.

"MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!" he added in a second post on Saturday night.

In a lengthy Truth Social post on Thursday evening, Trump professed to be shocked that Israel was "continuing its ridiculous Witch Hunt against their Great War Time Prime Minister," declaring that his trial "should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State."
Link


Africa Subsaharan
Another IED blast kills four, injures 10 in Borno
2025-06-27
[GUARDIAN.NG] Four persons have been killed while 10 others sustained injuries when an Isuzu vehicle conveying passengers from Damboa to Maiduguri, Borno State rammed into an improvised bomb (IED) suspected to have been planted by Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
terrorists.

The incident, which occurred around 3:30pm, involved a Suzuki pick-up truck that ran over an improvised bomb.

Confirming the attack, Borno State Police Command's spokesperson, ASP Nahum Daso, said the injured victims had been rushed to the state Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri for treatment.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
American strikes only set Iran’s nuclear program back by months to years, depending who you ask
2025-06-25
The job is not yet done, and Iran breaking the hudna means Israel can go to town when they are ready.
[IsraelTimes] Preliminary assessment says uranium stocks not destroyed, some centrifuges still intact; former UN inspector warns Tehran still has ‘ability to break out and produce weapon-grade uranium’

A US official who read the assessment noted that it contained a number of caveats and “ifs” and said a more refined report was expected in the coming days and weeks.
A preliminary US intelligence assessment has determined that US strikes over the weekend on Iranian nuclear facilities have set back Tehran’s program by only a matter of months, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Rooters.

The initial report was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s main intelligence arm and one of 18 US intelligence agencies, said two of the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss classified matters.

The classified assessment is at odds with the statements of President Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
and high-ranking US officials — including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. They have said the weekend strikes, which used a combination of bunker-busting bombs and more conventional weapons, essentially eliminated Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel’s own early assessment is also more optimistic, gauging that the twelve-day war with Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
— which seemed to conclude on Tuesday with a fragile US-brokered ceasefire agreement — set back Tehran’s ability to produce a nuclear bomb by years, not months — though Jerusalem does not believe it has wiped out the program entirely either.

Asked for comment, the White House pointed to a statement by spokesperson Karoline Leavitt to CNN
...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for...
, which first reported the assessment, that the "alleged" conclusion was "flat-out wrong."

"Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration," she said.

A US official who read the assessment noted that it contained a number of caveats and "ifs" and said a more refined report was expected in the coming days and weeks.

Analysts said that, if the assessment was based on satellite imagery, the extent of damage to the deeply buried Fordow uranium enrichment facility would not necessarily be revealed.

Trump has said the attacks were necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Iran denies it is seeking such a weapon and says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Hegseth on Sunday said that the strikes had "obliterated" Iran’s nuclear ambitions, while Trump said Iran’s crucial nuclear sites had been "completely and fully obliterated."

Assessing the damage at the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites is expected to be a difficult task, and the DIA is not the only agency tasked with the job. One source said the assessment was not universally accepted and had generated significant disagreement.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
, said the US did not know the extent of the damage yet.

Still, the initial assessment indicated the strikes may not have been nearly as successful as the Trump administration has claimed. The US on Tuesday told the UN Security Council that the strikes "degraded" Iran’s nuclear program, short of Trump’s earlier assertion that the facilities had been "obliterated."

HEGSETH REITERATES STANCE
The sources said that the report found that the US attack had caved in facility entrances and destroyed or damaged infrastructure. However,
there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened...
one added, the strike did not collapse underground buildings.

Restarting operations would basically depend on "how long it takes them to dig out and build or repair" power and water supply facilities, said the second source.

The Washington Post, citing a person familiar the report, said some centrifuges for enriching uranium were intact.

The Pentagon disputed the notion that the damage to Iran’s nuclear program was minor, though it did not dispute that the DIA assessment exists.

"Based on everything we have seen — and I’ve seen it all — our bombing campaign obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons," Hegseth said in a statement provided to Rooters.

"Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target—and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission."

One source, however, said Iran’s enriched uranium stocks had not been eliminated.

David Albright, a former UN nuclear inspector, said that based on post-strike commercial satellite imagery, he believed the US attack effectively destroyed Iran’s uranium enrichment program for now, but failed to eliminate the longer-term threat.

"Iran retains an ability to break out and produce weapon-grade uranium," said Albright, the head of the Institute for Science and International Security, in a post on X.

He noted that Iran’s stock of near-weapons grade highly enriched uranium — enough for about nine warheads — is unaccounted for as are advanced centrifuges for a new enrichment facility that Iran this month told the IAEA it was preparing.

Initial military assessments can change as more information comes to light and it is not uncommon for opinions to vary across different US intelligence agencies.

Democrats
...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
have previously said Trump’s claims that the weekend strikes eliminated or seriously set back Iran’s nuclear program were not yet backed by evidence.

"There’s zero evidence that I’ve seen that the nuclear program was completely and totally obliterated as Donald Trump has claimed," House of Representatives Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Monday.

Classified briefings on the matter for members of the House of Representatives and Senate were canceled on Tuesday. Senators are now set to be briefed on Thursday, according to the New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...

. It was not immediately clear when representatives from the House will be briefed.

ISRAEL ASSESSES IRAN SET BACK ’SEVERAL YEARS,’ OFFICIAL SAYS
Israeli intelligence, meanwhile, has preliminarily assessed that US and Instrikes set back Iran’s nuclear program by "several years," but did not completely destroy it, a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.

The Israeli intelligence assessment is constantly being updated and refined, and a more concrete understanding of the status of Iran’s nuclear program will be available in the coming weeks, the senior Israeli official said.

The Israeli official argued that the military strikes were still worthwhile because the negotiations that the US had previously been pursuing with Iran would not have been able to achieve such results.

Moreover, the strikes on the nuclear program along with other military targets in Iran will serve as a deterrent against the Islamic Theocratic Republic again trying to enrich uranium, the official said.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir also said Tuesday, "We have set Iran’s nuclear project back by years, and the same goes for its missile program."

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told news hounds, "I think it’s still early to assess all the strikes. We know we were able to push back the [nuclear] program. We were able to remove the imminent threat that we had."

Related: Pooh-Poohing the Iran Bombing


For your amusement, dear Reader:
[YouTube]
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Pause to Disguise: West Prepares for Main Task in Iran
2025-06-25
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Kirill Semenov

[REGNUM] The temporary pause in mutual attacks between Israel, the US and Iran so far leaves more questions than it answers.

Given that neither side has achieved its objectives,
…Iran has not erased Israel, but Israel has severely damaged Iran’s nuclear program, killed or wounded many of its civilian and military leaders, and made a severe dent in Iran’s war matériel, hindering both their ability to wage war and rule the country. Also, there’s that little thing about Israel wiping out most of the leadership, funding, and war matériel of Hamas and Hezbollah, and the ports used by the Houthis, severely reducing the ability of Iran’s catspaws to attack Israel at home, though they are thus far mostly untouched in Europe and the Americas…
a new escalation can be expected soon. Although it is also likely that Iran's opponents will move to a new stage and focus their efforts on subversion within the country in order to bring about a change of power and the dismantling of the Islamic Republic.

NEW METHODS OF OVERTHROW
In the event of a long-term truce, Washington and Tel Aviv are counting on the Yugoslav scenario being launched in Iran. Then, strikes on the country caused significant damage and, although not immediately, paved the way for a “color revolution” and a change of power.

Trump has most likely generally accepted Israel's view on the need to dismantle the political system of the Islamic Republic. At the same time, the range of possible actions to achieve this goal is very wide, including the assassination of Iran's supreme leader, which could trigger revolutionary events.

Therefore, what is happening is a serious challenge for Russia as well. Iran is being used to develop elements of future subversive activities against both us and China, Donald Trump's main adversary.

First of all, the creation and launch of not only effective terrorist and sabotage networks, but also cells engaged in subversive activities through the dissemination of narratives favorable to the United States and Israel and organizing protests in Iranian society is being tested.

Perhaps the previous principles and methods of "color revolutions" that worked against weak political regimes, such as those in Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, etc., have already been revised. They have proven ineffective against countries such as Russia or Iran.

It is also worth recalling that the subversive actions of the US and Israel in Iran occurred immediately after Operation Spider Web, when strategic aviation bases were attacked by sabotage terrorist groups using drones from Russian territory. And earlier, there were explosions of transport infrastructure, murders of Russian generals and public figures.

Both operations—the actions of cells in both Iran and Russia—followed similar algorithms, so they most likely had a single foreign coordination and decision-making center.

If we consider the geopolitical consequences, then, by continuing their subversive activities against the Islamic Republic, the United States and Israel also intend to destroy the “One Belt, One Road” and “North-South” transport corridor systems that are being built.

Therefore, the actions of the American-Israeli bloc are a common threat, and it would be good if it led to strengthening cooperation in the Moscow-Tehran-Beijing triangle with the possible involvement of Pakistan to the extent that it does not cost the break in the strategic partnership with India.

A LIBERAL SHOWCASE WITH RADICAL CONTENT
Naturally, if the enemies of the Islamic Republic aim to change power in the country, then they must prepare a leader who will personify a new Iran “without mullahs, hijabs and Sharia.”

The most acceptable candidate was chosen to be the shahzade, that is, the prince, the son of the last shah, Muhammad Pahlavi, who, like his grandfather, the founder of the dynasty, bears the name Reza.

As early as February 2025, Pahlavi was chosen by various fringe factions of the Iranian opposition as their leader and head of a future transitional government “until the formation of the first national assembly and the beginning of democratic rule through free elections.”

In reality, however, his supporters do not wield any real influence within the country. Reza, like his father, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was never a popular leader.

Reza Pahlavi, the grandfather, the first shah of the dynasty, essentially usurped power after a military coup and declared himself the new monarch in 1925, rather than establish a republic in Iran. In this sense, both shahs resemble the father and son of the Assad family in Syria, who led the country to collapse and revolution.

Therefore, the legitimacy of the Pahlavis themselves is very conditional - they came to power through a coup and, by historical standards, soon lost power through a revolution. It is not possible to compare them with the Romanovs in Russia or other dynasties - overthrown, but having deep foundations for legitimacy.

At the same time, there are more serious opposition forces in Iran, which, unlike the freak monarchists, have their own networks of influence and can really lay claim to power in the event of a hypothetical collapse.

This includes, for example, the Organization of the Mujahideen of the Iranian People (OMIN), a revolutionary leftist-Islamist organization that waged armed struggle against the Islamic Republic for a long time while in Saddam Hussein's camp. The ideology of this organization is a mixture of Marxist, Leninist and Islamist positions.

The MEK participated in the Islamic Revolution in Iran, but then lost the struggle for power to the "Khomeinists" and its supporters were subjected to repression. The mujahideen responded to this with a wave of terror and mass murder of supporters of the new authorities.

The MEK had its own National Army of Liberation of Iran (NAL), based in Iraq and numbering 7,000 fighters. In 1988, six days after Ayatollah Khomeini announced his acceptance of a UN-brokered ceasefire, the NLA advanced under heavy Iraqi air cover, crossed the border, and captured the city of Islamabad-e-Gharb. But it was then driven back with heavy losses.

In 2003, the MEK and NAO, still based in Iraq, fought on Saddam's side against the US and its allies who had attacked Iraq, but a ceasefire was then agreed upon.

However, since 2009, the new Iraqi government, close to the Islamic Republic, has demanded that MEK leave Iraq. Then, pro-Iranian Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced that the group would be banned from basing itself on Iraqi territory. He backed up his statements with repression and arrests of its members.

After that, the US began to remove the organization's fighters from Iraq. At the same time, OMIN was removed from the terrorist lists, and the US was able to convince Albania to accept the remaining 2,700 NAO members who were brought to Tirana between 2014 and 2016. It is obvious that the CIA, by showing such patronage over OMIN, expected to use its resources in the future.

A 2008 report by the U.S. Army Intelligence Center said the MEK operates a large network of supporters in Iran, sparking debate among intelligence experts about whether Western powers should use the opportunity to better build their own intelligence picture of the Iranian regime’s goals and intentions.

Iran has also carried out operations to expose MEK networks, for example, in 2010 and 2011, Ali Saremi, Mohammad Ali Hajj Aghaei and Jafar Kazemi were executed for collaborating with the organization .

Donald Trump, even during his first presidency, wanted to use MEK against the Islamic Republic. In January 2018, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called French President Emmanuel Macron and asked him to order the expulsion of MEK from its French base in Auvers-sur-Oise, claiming that the organization had provoked the Iranian protests of 2017–2018.

The main base of the OMIN, however, remained Albania, where more than 4,000 of its members were located. There, during the Free Iran 2019 conference, former New York City Mayor and Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani described the group as a “government in exile,” saying it was a ready-made alternative to lead the country if the Iranian government fell.

Moreover, the Trump administration then stated that it did not rule out the MEK as a viable replacement for the current Iranian regime.

In turn, OMIN networks in Albania were subjected to cyber attacks in 2022, which the Albanian authorities blamed on Iran, leading to a rupture in diplomatic relations between the countries.

Thus, if the Shah is a kind of “face” of the pro-Western opposition, then in reality the change of power in the Islamic Republic will be carried out by networks of radical organizations such as OMIN.

Of course, it now positions itself as a respectable structure that shares Western values, but in reality this group has hardly moved far from its previous principles.

Therefore, even if we assume that the West will succeed in dismantling the current state system in Iran, this does not mean that they will succeed in bringing to power their own supporters, who are not an organized force.

GUARDIANS OF THE REVOLUTION
At the same time, there are serious obstacles to such plans for a change of power in Iran. Thus, despite the split in Iranian society, its pro-government part has united around the supreme leader.

It is a foundation that can withstand any pressure, even from the majority of Iranians themselves, who are unable to crack it until it cracks itself. However, its foundation still appears monolithic, despite attempts to drive wedges through military actions by the US and Israel.

At the core of this foundation is the very ideology of the Islamic Republic, the guardians and cement of which are the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Unlike the CPSU and the Komsomol of the late USSR, the IRGC is not just a party of supporters of the Islamic regime or special services, which are also there. The IRGC is a multi-million army, an armed force of supporters of the Islamic Republic and the ideas of the Islamic revolution, whose tentacles are present in all spheres of society, holding it back from disintegration.

And the opposition, even one as organized as OMIN, has nothing to counter this “monster” with.

It is pointless to look for complete analogues of the IRGC: this is a purely Iranian specificity. The formation of the Corps took place without looking back at any Western examples. And what it has now become - with its own industry, aviation, navy and special services - was clearly not envisaged at the time of its creation.

The IRGC emerged primarily as a military structure, a kind of guard during the war with Iraq. At that time, assault battalions were created from the most zealous Muslim supporters of the Islamic Revolution, which were then united into the divisions of "Prophet Mohammad", "Imam Hussein", "Ashura" and "Najaf", which became some of the most combat-ready during the Iran-Iraq war.

Initially these were formations designed to fight Iraq on the battlefield, but were recruited from motivated volunteers who later found wider use.

Thus, the IRGC rather reflects the Middle Eastern, Islamic specificity, and the most similar to it is probably the National Guard of Saudi Arabia. It arose from the religious militia of zealous Wahhabis, the "Ikhwan" (not to be confused with other "Ikhwan", the "Muslim Brotherhood").

The Saudi Ikhwan might have also secured for themselves powers as broad as those of the IRGC in Iran, if not for their conflict with the king, the unsuccessful uprising in 1929, and the transformation of those of them who remained loyal to the monarch despite their own understanding of religion into the National Guard. Instead of guardians of religion, they became guardians of the oil fields and borders of the House of Saud.

That is, both the Saudi Ikhwan and the IRGC are, first and foremost, defenders, guardians of religion and a state based on religious principles. And they must protect religion from enemies, both external and internal.

This is the main difference between the IRGC and the Iranian army. If the army must protect the state as a territory, then the IRGC stands guard over the Islamic revolution, its goals and ideals. Therefore, they are called upon to act both inside the country and far beyond Iran. That is why the range of tasks of the IRGC is much wider.

For example, for the "export of the Islamic revolution" there is the Al-Quds command - an organization with its own structure. It is intended for foreign operations, support of allied movements and countries.

That is, if we imagine the IRGC as a matryoshka doll, as a state within a state, then Al-Quds is also a state, a matryoshka doll, but already within the “IRGC state”. With its own separate intelligence structures, special forces, ground forces. And it seems that it will be difficult to find a suitable analogue for this.

The IRGC has its own intelligence and counterintelligence, but so does the Quds Force command. At the same time, the Islamic Republic itself as a state also has its own intelligence and counterintelligence, not connected to the IRGC.

But functions similar to those of, for example, our Federal Security Service are concentrated in the IRGC. The Ansar al-Mahdi unit operates to protect senior officials and religious centers, and the Supreme Leader himself is protected by the Wali-e Amr unit.

The IRGC also has rapid reaction forces and special operations forces that duplicate the army special forces, including the Saberin Takavor Brigade, the 110th Salman Farsi Special Operations Brigade, the 33rd Al-Mahdi Airborne Brigade and separate battalions in provincial corps. While in the Army, the Special Forces are represented by the 55th and 65th Brigades.

The IRGC's ground forces are organized into 32 infantry territorial corps, which were deployed from regular divisions from the Iran-Iraq War, combined with regular battalions and militias from the Basij command.

Unlike the army divisions, the IRGC divisions are mostly infantry. Although they do have tank units, they are significantly fewer than the army. There are probably 8 IRGC "operational" divisions deployed at all times in peacetime, but in wartime there may be more than 40.

The core of the land component in the provinces is the "Hussein Battalions", which are part of the Basij and serve as the basis for the reserve infantry divisions in wartime that will be deployed from the militias. These battalions can also be used as expeditionary forces. They have, for example, participated in the fighting in Syria.

Therefore, the Basij is not only the militia and reserve of the IRGC, but also the regular units. This includes the first-priority reserve and the so-called “army of 20 million” - a broader, mass militia that can be called up to suppress internal threats.

If the Hussein Battalions are the backbone of the IRGC ground forces, the equivalent of a territorial army in the provinces, then the Ali Battalions of the Basij Command are the equivalent of a gendarmerie aimed at suppressing unrest and counter-revolutionary rebellions. They work closely with the police and security forces.

The IRGC has created a multi-layered presence in Iranian society and has engaged in its activities in one form or another millions of people who are ready to stand up for the Islamic revolution at the first order. At least, this is what is expected of them.

This is the foundation, the basis on which the Iranian regime relies. And even if its supporters are in the minority, their unity and organization will most likely allow them to withstand the challenges and threats of internal destabilization.

Link


China-Japan-Koreas
China Prepares for What Comes Next
2025-06-21
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Text taken from the X account of William Ho.

China’s Photonic Chips
China just unveiled a chip that could end the era of the GPU. Over 100 channels of light. 2,560 TOPS. No heat. No bottlenecks. It makes NVIDIA look old by comparison. This could be the biggest shift since the microprocessor. A 50 GHz optical clock. Fits on a fingernail. Meanwhile, the US is still pretending that NVIDIA is a strategy.

China didn’t just build a faster chip. They broke through in a new field of physics. Optical computing uses light, not electrons. They don’t get hot. They operate at multiple wavelengths. They shatter the wall that silicon erected a decade ago. The US has nothing like this. Nothing.

Where is the US version? It doesn’t exist. No photonic chip foundries. No pilot lines. No industrial policy. No ecosystem. Just tenured physics professors and DARPA slides who never left defense contractors.

Every American “AI breakthrough” is just another GPU with more transistors and more power. Put water cooling on it and pretend it’s progress. NVIDIA is now an energy company with marketing.

China is already ramping up production of thin-film lithium niobate photonic devices. They have the physics, the materials, and the manufacturing. This is not a demo. It’s a roadmap. And it’s government-backed from start to finish.

America, on the other hand, is stuck in its own mythology. It still thinks it leads the world in innovation. In reality, it leads the world in lawsuits and export controls. That’s not leadership. That’s fear.

The US military-industrial complex is too big to change. Optical computing doesn’t make Raytheon rich. So it’s ignored. Meanwhile, the Pentagon keeps writing checks to Lockheed for useless things.

Optical chips won’t just power AI. They will destroy the current cloud model. They will destroy the GPU cartel. They will make American silicon look like steam engines. That’s why no one in Washington wants to talk about it.

China is playing to win. Not with press releases. With physics, fabrications, and government coordination. The US response? Sue everyone, sanction everyone, and pray Taiwan doesn’t reunify.

This isn’t just a story about chips. This is another story about how America is not the greatest country in the world. No vision. No leadership. Just a bloated tech sector struggling to keep the lights on using yesterday’s tools. Wake up.

On the China-US standoff and why China is helping Russia
The Western media pretends that China doesn’t know what BlackRock, Vanguard and NATO are doing in Europe. They don’t. Beijing sees the entire chessboard. No illusions, no noise. Just the moves. Whatever China does for Russia, it does it with clarity, not confusion.

The US outsourced European sovereignty to Wall Street. BlackRock is now presiding over the “reconstruction” of Ukraine. Defense contractors are financing Europe’s rearmament. The IMF and Brussels are imposing financial discipline on the ruins. This is not aid. This is terraforming.

China watched Iraq being plundered. Then Libya. Then Syria. It watched NATO gobble up Eastern Europe and place missile systems on Russia’s doorstep. It saw what 2014 was in Ukraine: a hostile merger backed by Anglo-Saxon capital. It knew what was coming next.

So no, China’s support for Russia is no accident. This is a deliberate counterweight to the Anglo-financial-military complex reshaping Eurasia. The same complex is now eyeing Taiwan and the South China Sea. Everything is connected.

Look at the data. China is not supplying tanks. It is supplying CNC machines, sensors, microelectronics – the same stuff the West was selling before sanctions. Now it is just going through a different channel. Quietly. Relentlessly.

Beijing does not pretend to be neutral. It does not join blocs of its own free will. Its diplomacy is slow, its countermeasures are targeted, and its weapons are economic. Russia is a buffer. A testing ground. A living textbook.

The West made a fatal mistake: it assumed that China would play by the same rules it wants to rewrite. Instead, China is creating parallel institutions, parallel logistics, and a parallel currency sphere. And it is doing this with partners who have nothing to lose.

China is not supporting Russia out of sentimentality. He is protecting the Eurasian continent from becoming another profit zone for JPMorgan and Raytheon. He is fighting the privatization of sovereignty.

And lastly, if you are still pretending that China is naive, you are not serious. It knows what the West is. It has seen what it has done. And it is preparing for what comes next.

On the tech competition in AI and hardware.
The West has hailed Jensen Huang and Sam Altman as visionaries. China sees them as two hucksters. One is selling obsolete chips wrapped in hype. The other is hyping the GPU shortage as if it were the next oil crisis. Both are backed by Wall Street. Here is the full story.

Start with CUDA. Nvidia's real moat. Not the hardware. A bloated compiler stack inherited from the gaming era. It was never designed for AI. It became dominant by inertia, not merit.

Every Western AI startup is tied to it. The H100 is not chosen for performance. They are chosen because everything depends on Nvidia’s proprietary stack. It’s vendor lock-in disguised as innovation.

China is unimpressed. It doesn’t want access to CUDA. It wants to get rid of the lock-in. So it built a new stack from scratch. Da Vinci cores. CANN compiler. Completely sovereign.

Then comes the interconnect. Nvidia keeps NVLink as a monopoly. No open access. No third-party innovation. Only a select few hyperscalers get the best. Everyone else waits their turn.

Huawei’s answer: CubeAI. A proprietary interconnect protocol. Then came CloudMatrix 384. A national AI cluster with 384 Ascend 910B processors. No CUDA. No NVLink. No asking.

CloudMatrix is ​​vertically integrated. The hardware, the compiler, the network, the orchestration — all built in-house. No Jensen. No TSMC waste. No US bottlenecks.

Meanwhile, in the West, startups spend their time rewriting cores to suit Nvidia’s quirks. They’re not building AI. They’re writing drivers for someone else’s hardware monopoly.

From China’s perspective, Jensen Huang is no genius. He’s a salesman in a leather jacket. Creating artificial shortages. Giving away chips. Recycling the same GPU every cycle.

Sam Altman is even worse. A PR golem hiding behind AGI buzzwords. His job is to cause a computing panic, attract government capital, and drive up prices. It’s a slow-motion exit strategy from Silicon Valley.

China refused. Not because it had to. But because it saw a trap. CUDA is a cage. NVLink is a leash. Jensen is a gatekeeper. CloudMatrix is ​​a prison break.

Huawei isn't playing catch-up. It's building a separate ecosystem. One where Nvidia and OpenAI don't matter. No need to install drivers. No need to please middlemen.

The West's AI boom is built on hype, subsidies, and shortages. China is building real infrastructure. Using local silicon, local software, and not looking at Nvidia's games.

Jensen and Sam are selling dreams. China is reading the fine print. The future belongs to those who can build outside the Wall Street casinos.
Link


Economy
Iconic tech company [INTEL] slashes 20 THOUSAND staff as job bloodbath spirals out of control
2025-06-20
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A faltering American tech icon is set to lay off as much as a fifth of its workers next month.

Intel — once the dominant chipmaker which powered most PCs — sent an email to employees on Saturday, warning that job cuts are coming to its factories.

'These are difficult actions but essential to meet our affordability challenges and current financial position of the company,' Naga Chandrasekaran, the tech giant's vice president of manufacturing, said in the memo seen by Oregon Live.

Chandrasekaran said the company is aiming to slash 15 to 20 percent of its factory workforce in July, a move that could push thousands of Americans into job searches.

With Intel employing 109,000 globally, that would mean 16,350 to 21,800 layoffs.

It is not clear how many work in US-based factories, and how many American jobs will go.

Recently, Intel reported employing more than 20,000 staffers at its plant in Hillsboro, Oregon.

The news comes a day after Microsoft said it was cutting thousands of jobs, and two days after Amazon's CEO also announced brutal workforce cuts. Both linked the cuts to AI.

This marks the second round of layoffs for the legendary tech company in a year. Last December, Intel slashed 15 percent of its workforce after its stock price dropped by more than 60 percent.

The two sets of layoffs are a response to rising pressure from upstart competitors, compounding financial losses, and a declining stock price.

For years, Intel had been a dominant force in tech, manufacturing components for computers such as chips and microprocessors.

But in recent years, its competitors have made major technological strides. Chipmakers AMD, IBM, TSMC, and NVIDIA have surged past Intel by investing heavily in processors built for artificial intelligence.

AI chip deployment has been a weak spot for Intel. Investors have punished the company for its apparent flat-footedness.

Intel traded above $68 a share in 2021, but it’s currently trading just north of $21.

The company reported an $821 million loss in the first quarter of this year.

It is also receiving billions of dollars in federal support through the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to bring militarily critical tech manufacturing back to the US.

The company is awaiting the arrival of $6.9 billion in federal grants to support factory builds and growth in Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, and Ohio.

Intel has delayed construction of its Ohio factory until 2030.

JOBS JETTISONED
Some of America's biggest companies have announced sweeping job cuts this year.

In May, Walmart — America's largest employer — announced it was cutting 1,500 jobs from its tech operations and e-commerce teams.

Procter & Gamble, the owner of Tide detergent and Gillette shaving products, is also undergoing significant cuts. The company said it would eliminate 7,000 positions.

Job losses have been even more pronounced in the tech sector, as firms increasingly replace human employees with hyper-intelligent machines. The AI-driven job bloodbath marks a major shift for American workers. For years, mass layoffs were concentrated in US manufacturing plants. Now, they're impacting college-educated, high-to-middle-class earners.

Microsoft — one of the leading firms investing in AI — is expected to lay off thousands of employees next month as it shifts resources toward deeper investments.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently said the quiet part out loud: the technology will uproot thousands of Americans from their jobs.

'​​As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done,' he wrote to his employees in a memo.

'It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce.'

So far, the cuts haven't had a statistically significant impact on overall job numbers in the US. Last month, employers continued to add jobs. But job creation is starting to slow.
Link


-Lurid Crime Tales-
COVID cover-up probes focus on early military intel that virus was man-made, escaped Wuhan lab
2025-06-10
[JustTheNews] The FBI and intelligence watchdogs are interviewing whistleblowers after explosive revelations emerge.

An elite unit of scientists working for the Defense Intelligence Agency concluded three months after the pandemic began that COVID-19 likely was genetically manufactured and escaped a Chinese lab rather than evolving in nature as Dr. Anthony Fauci claimed, a bombshell revelation now at the heart of ongoing investigations into a possible U.S. intelligence cover-up.

“SARS-CoV-2 Spike Appears to be a Chimera,” a slide from the DIA National Center for Medical Intelligence's June 25, 2020 presentation declared, using the scientific terms for the COVID-19 virus and the “chimera’ term for a genetically engineered pathogen that is a combination of pieces from two separate viruses.

The study – using complex genome analysis – also traced the process used for creating the new virus to an earlier manuscript that the Wuhan Institute of Virology published a decade prior. "Break points align with those identified by WIV Scientists in 2008,” the presentation said.

"The molecular biology capabilities of WIV and the genome assessment are consistent with the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 was a lab-engineered virus that was part of a bank of chimeric viruses … at WIV that escaped from containment," the study concluded.

You can read the full presentation here.

REPORT SUPPRESSED FOR YEARS
The long-hidden study was only recently released under the Freedom of Information Act by U.S. intelligence agencies, a bombshell now at the center of ongoing investigations.

At least four whistleblowers have been interviewed in recent months by the Intelligence Community Inspector General’s office, the DIA’s internal watchdog and the FBI about the early findings from DIA’s National Center for Medical Intelligence and whether there was an effort to keep those genetic sleuths from communicating their evidence to other intelligence agencies, government officials told Just the News.

One area of focus is whether intelligence agencies sought to suppress the DIA research from a highly public release by President Joe Biden’s Director of National Intelligence Office in 2021 that assessed that COVID was “equally likely” to have come from nature or a lab accident, the officials said. That analysis – dubbed the 90-day sprint – made no overt reference to the detailed analysis DIA had offered a year earlier.

Efforts by the DIA scientists to insert their data into the 90-day document were snubbed and their edits were deleted, officials told Just the News.

Sen. Roger “Doc” Marshall, R-Kan., recently provided the intelligence community's inspector general with detailed accounts from the whistleblowers alleging the DIA research was intentionally suppressed from ODNI’s review.

“The ODNI assessment remains flawed. Witnesses claim that during the ODNI-led investigation, conflicted individuals may have censored the laboratory-origin-related intelligence and, if true, this signals an alarming breach of integrity in the investigative process,” the senator wrote in a November letter to the IG reviewed by Just the News.

You can read that letter here.

FBI PROBING COVID COVER-UPS, FAUCI'S PHONES
The intelligence community watchdog responded with a letter in January confirming receipt of the whistleblower complaints. Since then, some of the whistleblowers and other witnesses have been interviewed by the IC and DIA watchdog offices, officials said.

Separately, Just the News reported the FBI has a sprawling criminal investigation into COVID cover-ups, including one based in Cleveland that is focused on the virus' origins. Some witnesses familiar with the DIA assessment have already been in contact with agents in the case.

FBI Director Kash Patel dropped another bombshell over the weekend, confirming his agents had obtained the long-sought cellphones belonging to Fauci during the pandemic.

The emergence of the DIA research is a jarring twist in a long-running drama inside Washington as to why U.S. intelligence agencies – except for the FBI and Energy Department – were so slow to embrace evidence showing a possible lab accident/leak from dangerous gain-of-function research inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology had unleashed the deadly pandemic. The CIA only recently changed its assessment that COVID-19 had likely emanated from a lab leak.

A central piece of evidence to come into clearer public view is the presentation authored by John Hardham, a PhD microbiologist assisting the DIA’s National Center for Medical Intelligence and a Captain in the Navy Reserve. Hardham previously served in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Defense Programs.

Hardham’s presentation concluded the spike protein in SARS-CoV-2 — more commonly known as COVID-19 — “appears to be a chimera” that showed possible signs of laboratory manipulation.

A chimera is defined as a “new hybrid microorganism created by joining nucleic acid fragments from two or more different microorganisms in which each of at least two of the fragments contain essential genes necessary for replication,” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

DETAILS POINTED TO WUHAN LAB ALMOST FROM BEGINNING
Hardham and fellow researchers noted the techniques required to construct a key segment of the COVID-19 virus matched closely with prior research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) — the facility long suspected as a possible source of a lab leak.

The presentation, which was first delivered to military intelligence in June 2020, showed that WIV possessed the capabilities required to insert the Receptor Binding Domain of the important “spike protein” that enables the virus to gain entry into human cells, citing its vast database of bat coronaviruses and a record of Gain of Function research on the SARS virus.

The scientist also concluded that the WIV had developed a specific “Reverse Genetics System” that could have been employed by the lab to construct clones of infectious coronaviruses by inserting gene segments for the spike protein without leaving a signature in a process that has been referred to as “No See-Em."

Specifically, the “break points” in the COVID-19 genetic code for the spike protein align with those that were identified in a 2008 study associated with WIV. That study, cited by the scientists, as Ren, et. al was produced by researchers affiliated with the Wuhan laboratory used by WIV.

On March 8, 2021 Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote a letter to Avril Haines, Biden's Director of National Intelligence, and other officials requesting all information the agencies possessed regarding nine specific areas around the COVID-19 origin. The request should have resulted in the intelligence agency providing the DIA NCMI origin assessment. However, no such information was sent to Grassley.

Further evidence showed that DIA scientists were skeptical of early conclusions that COVID-19 had a zoonotic origin—that is spread naturally from animal hosts to infect humans. The House Select Subcommittee on the COVID-19 Pandemic found that two military intelligence agency scientists from the DIA’s National Center for Medical Intelligence authored a working paper that was highly critical of the main zoonotic origin thesis published earlier that year by a NIH-funded scientist named Kristian Andersen in Nature magazine — and used as the primary piece of evidence for the media and other government agencies to discount lab leak theories.

Andersen has been a focus of congressional inquiries because he quickly claimed COVID-19 was man-made and then flipped to the natural evolution theory.

While not disproving Andersen et al.’s conclusions, the DIA scientists found that the evidence presented in that Nature article “does not prove that the virus arose naturally,” and in fact rested on several assumptions, like assuming the motivations of Chinese researchers and trusting in Chinese research transparency about prior work.

You can read that DIA presentation here.

Supporters of Dr. Fauci, who ran the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease during the pandemic and for decades before it, argued the most likely origin of the virus was a wet-market where dangerous animals were sold for food near Wuhan around November 2019.

But government officials told Just the News the intelligence community had vast amounts of classified evidence for years that disputed the natural origins theory and pointed toward a lab leak of a man-made pathogen prior to December 2019, including:

  • The first COVID-19-like death reported in China occurred in September 2019, well before the alleged wet market episode. That detail was recently made public in the state of Missouri’s successful $24 billion lawsuit against China for hiding details of the pandemic;

  • U.S. agencies had signal intelligence indicating activity at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in October 2019 suggesting a biological hazard cleanup occurred, just a few weeks after the first death was reported. That type of cleanup is consistent with a lab leak;

  • Some scientists associated with WIV came down with COVID-19 in fall 2019 and were treated in the Wuhan area.

  • Several U.S. military athletes were sickened with COVID at the World Military Games held in Wuhan in October and November 2019;

  • Some WIV scientists were identified as working at the Wuhan military games as hygienists, raising suspicions among intelligence agencies; and

  • China tried to report to the United States government in December the genetic data sequence for the COVID-19 virus, but it was deleted by NIH scientists.

Sen. Marshall also relayed another important revelation to the intelligence community inspector general: American spies had obtained classified evidence in 2021 that China planned two years earlier to develop a man-made coronavirus nearly identical to COVID-19, also known in the scientific community as SARS2.

“U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) had classified access in July 2021 to a proposed research plan that, if completed, could have produced a synthetic coronavirus in 2019 with the same unique construction as SARS-CoV-2 (SARS2),” Marshall’s letter stated.

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IDF rejects ‘exaggerated’ Hamas claims of people killed by troops near Gaza aid site
2025-06-04
See the Washington Post’s apology here.
[IsraelTimes] Spokesman says army probing 3rd incident in as many days, acknowledges troops fired warning shots but insists they ‘didn’t hit that many people as far as we understand’

The Israel Defense Forces’ Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin on Tuesday accused Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
of making "exaggerated" claims about deadly incidents over the past three days near US- and Israel-backed aid distribution sites in southern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
The IDF front man’s televised presser also featured the presentation of a map of military positions in the Strip and new details on the deaths of three troops Monday.

"This week, it was claimed that the IDF fired on civilians at the aid distribution site. This is a totally false report, it echoes Hamas propaganda," said Defrin at his presser, referring to reports of 31 people killed near a site in Rafah early Sunday.

"This did not happen," he said of those reports.

"Hamas disseminates false information, which is unfortunately taken by some international media without verification," said Defrin, even as The News Agency that Dare Not be Named released a statement standing by its coverage of Sunday’s incident.

The IDF has acknowledged firing warning shots at Paleostinians about a kilometer (0.6 miles) from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation site before it opened for distribution on Sunday. However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
it denied that any gunfire took place "within" the aid site during opening hours, and GHF said the aid distribution went on without incident.

On Tuesday morning, Hamas again reported dozens of people killed and injured at the aid site in Rafah, but GHF denied the reports. Asked about those reports, Defrin reiterated the military’s response that troops had fired warning shots, but said troops "didn’t hit that many people as far as we understand [and] we will continue to investigate."

"The numbers given by Hamas were the same. It reported 29 on Sunday and today — exaggerated. We are investigating," he said.

"We fired warning shots toward a group of people who posed a threat to our forces, far from where they were supposed to be. Warning shots were fired, not to hit anyone," said Defrin, referring to Tuesday’s reports. "According to the claims, people were hit, so we are investigating, but it will take time."

Defrin added that he was aware of criticism that the IDF takes too long to investigate such claims. "We will not report information or details that are not true," he said. "Reliability is critical, even if it takes time."

He said, "Hamas is losing control of the population" in Gaza because GHF prevented the terror group from controlling humanitarian aid in the Strip.

"Alongside the continuous military pressure against Hamas, its rule is cracking and is being undermined," said Defrin. "Each day, tens of thousands of food packages are handed out, directly to residents."

During the presser, Defrin said three troops who were killed in action on Monday in northern Gaza’s Jabalia were hit by roadside kabooms planted by button men who had set out from a tunnel hidden inside a partially demolished building.

"The holy warriors set out from a tunnel shaft in a building and planted the bombs. This is an active tunnel that is used for terror," he said.

"The entrance to the tunnel is located inside a destroyed building, close to a route. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that this building is a military target, like tens of thousands of other buildings in Gaza that are used for terror," Defrin said.

"Nearly every other building is booby-trapped and contains a tunnel entrance. We are demolishing these homes, not for the sake of destruction. Every building that is destroyed poses an operational threat and could harm our forces," he said.

The IDF has accused Hamas of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure, including schools, mosques and hospitals, throughout the war sparked on October 7, 2023, when the terror group invaded Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.

Defrin also presented for the first time a map showing troop deployment in the IDF’s renewed ground offensive in Gaza, which the military said last month would seek to seize 75 percent of the Strip.

According to the map, the Gaza Division is operating in the Rafah area, the 36th and 98th divisions are pushing into Khan Younis from the south and east, the 252nd is operating in Gaza City and the Netzarim Corridor area, and the 162nd is fighting Hamas in the Strip’s north.

AP STANDS BY REPORTING AS ISRAEL, US SLAM MEDIA GAZA COVERAGE
…unlike the Washington Post, which shows relative level of professional ethics.
In an online briefing for international media, a government front man reiterated the military’s response to Gaza casualties reported Tuesday, saying troops had "diligently" fired warning shots at suspects who approached them roughly half a kilometer (0.3 miles) away from the Rafah aid site.

"Let’s be clear: Israel is not preventing Gazooks from accessing humanitarian aid, and the IDF did not fire at civilians in or near aid distribution zones," said David Mencer. "The IDF is doing everything in its power to allow Gazooks to get to the humanitarian aid."

Referring to the casualties reported on Sunday, Mencer said, "The IDF’s initial investigation confirms that serious accusations made on Sunday in so much of the media... were based on Hamas propaganda."

He said the IDF had already "put out materials proving them to be false and baseless."

In fact, the IDF has not issued any materials from the incident in Rafah to prove its account of what happened there. The IDF did release a video from an unrelated event later Sunday, which the military explicitly said was from Khan Younis and not Rafah.

Mencer said it was "clear that Hamas is trying their hardest to keep its own people, Gazooks, away from the GHF distribution sites."

"We urge the media — do not amplify Hamas disinformation. Verify before reporting," Mercer said. "It’s a battle of the narrative, and too many global newsrooms have become foot soldiers for Hamas."

The statement came after US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Monday accused foreign outlets of fomenting antisemitism with their coverage, leading to an attack on pro-Israel protesters in Boulder, Colorado, on Monday, and the killing of two Israeli embassy workers in Washington last month.

Responding to Huckabee’s statement, The News Agency that Dare Not be Named said it stood by its reporting, which the news agency said included multiple eyewitness accounts, interviews with health and hospital officials and the Red Thingy, as well as statements from the IDF and GHF.

"The Israeli military later released a video of what it said were masked men firing at civilians trying to collect aid, which the AP included in its coverage. That video was shot in daylight from the city of Khan Younis, miles from the incident in Rafah that witnesses described," the AP statement said.

"The Rafah incident occurred in an Israeli military zone that international journalists have been barred from entering except on approved military embeds. AP and other news organizations have repeatedly called for international journalists to be allowed into Gaza to report on the war," the statement added.

Huckabee had cited "drone video and first-hand accounts" as showing that the reports by AP and other major outlets had been false.

It was unclear what drone footage and first-hand accounts Huckabee was referring to. A US embassy spokesperson cited IDF drone footage when pressed by The Times of Israel, but the footage released by the military was not shot at the time or place of the Rafah incident.
Link


Government Corruption
Deep Dive into FBI Scandal on Prohibited Files in Sentinel System
2025-06-02
[ConservativeTreehouse] Details Surface of FBI Record System Containing “Prohibited Access” Files, Exclusively Controlled by 7th Floor FBI Officials

As previously noted, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley released some of the FBI investigative files related to a congressional referral of Nellie Ohr for false testimony to congress. Within the Grassley release the declassified FBI investigative notes show that Trump-Russia files were compartmentalized, allowing control over access to them by the FBI Director and FBI Deputy Director.

The 7th floor level classification within the FBI’s Sentinel record-keeping system was previously unknown, and now people are starting to ask questions about what other information may be filed yet invisible due to the classification designation of “Prohibited Access.”

The Sentinel record-keeping system allows FBI officials and investigators to review and research the status of investigations both past and current. The Sentinel system is also the information system that is searched for responsive documents to legal cases and FOIA inquires. The Sentinel system contains all the information used by the FBI.

Within the Sentinel system there are “Restricted Access” files that are used to control who can view the file information. The FBI official can see the file but cannot access the information within it without a higher clearance level. However, now people are discovering there is a “Prohibited Access” designation that makes the file invisible to searches or queries and is controlled by the FBI Director and FBI Deputy Director.

Margot Cleveland is asking some good questions about how the use of the “Prohibited Access” designation may circumvent the FBI’s legal requirements (brady material) and FOIA searches. [SEE HERE] However, I would also note this approach hides information not only from congress and from the public, but also from the Executive branch itself. The DNI wouldn’t even know what information exists.

Additionally, we can expand the overall issue to highlight this same approach at work in various other governmental agencies. This is one of the reasons I refer to the agencies within government more aptly as information “silos.”

The same “secrecy filtering” system outlined in the FBI Sentinel system, “restricted access” (visible but needing a higher clearance) vs “prohibited access” (totally invisible) exists in other govt systems.

The NSA, DHS and CIA contain the same issue, information hidden and kept secret. This is the core reason I have historically called them “silos.”

The same ‘what the heck’ realization encountered with the FBI file keeping, as noted by the Grassley revelations, extends far beyond the FBI.

This is also why I have said the Intelligence Community has created a “caste system” within the surveillance and information space.

Now do you see why elements of the IC, and by extension their political enablers, were going bananas about DOGE access?

Simmer on it for a moment, because it gets worse.

Right now, like right now while you are reading this, the same framework is being applied to the DHS surveillance network, where “restricted access” and “prohibited access” (invisible) are being applied to PEOPLE.

Our government, via Palantir, is currently building the domestic identity surveillance system, where every identity will be stored. However, within the storage, and by extension the parameters of the surveillance search results, there will be people who are defined by placing their identity in the “prohibited access” category.

Great job realizing the secrecy ramifications of the issue within the FBI and their exploitation therein. Now extend that realization to the ramifications for us of other silos doing the same.

I was told in August 2020 that the FBI investigative file into James Wolfe leaking the Carter Page FISA application, is in the “prohibited access” tier of the FBI because it outlines Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Vice-Chairman Mark Warner participating and directing the leak. That was how/why SSCI Security Director James Wolfe was never charged with leaking a TSCI classified file.

Is the President of the United States really in charge of the executive branch, when the agencies can easily hide information from him?
Related:
Chuck Grassley 05/29/2025 Nellie Ohr, Justice Department official's wife, perjured herself with ‘demonstrably false' Trump-Russia testimony: bombshell FBI records
Chuck Grassley 04/02/2025 House GOP advance bill which will halt ''rogue'' judges from pausing Trump''s executive orders
Chuck Grassley 03/15/2025 Biden White House turned over Trump, Pence government cellphones to FBI as part of anti-Trump agent''s case

Related:
Nellie Ohr 05/31/2025 Recent release by Sen. @ChuckGrassley suggests systemic violations of Brady by FBI.
Nellie Ohr 05/29/2025 Nellie Ohr, Justice Department official's wife, perjured herself with ‘demonstrably false' Trump-Russia testimony: bombshell FBI records
Nellie Ohr 05/18/2023 Durham report: Ex-DOJ official and wife had bigger roles in Steele dossier than known

Related:
James Wolfe 12/12/2021 Federal watchdog: Customs and Border Protection anti-terror unit investigated journalists
James Wolfe 08/19/2020 Substantive Elements of The Big Story Behind The Mueller Special Counsel Purpose…
James Wolfe 02/24/2020 More sleeping with sources in the swamp: Trump-hating DIA analyst pleads guilty to leaks to honeytrap reporter

Link


Fifth Column
Just Another Anti-Trump
2025-05-30
[GatewayPundit] Anti-Trump Defense IT Specialist Arrested For Attempting to Provide Classified Information to Foreign Government Because He Did Not “Agree or Align with the Values of This Administration”

An anti-Trump IT specialist the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was arrested on Thursday for attempting to provide classified national defense information to a foreign government.

According to the DOJ, Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, of Alexandria, Virginia, was arrested on Thursday in northern Virginia, and will make his initial court appearance in the Eastern District of Virginia on Friday.

Per the Justice Department:

According to court documents, Laatsch became a civilian employee of the DIA in 2019, where he works with the Insider Threat Division and holds a Top Secret security clearance. In March 2025, the FBI commenced an operation after receiving a tip that an individual — now known to be Laatsch — offered to provide classified information to a friendly foreign government. In that email, the sender wrote that he did not “agree or align with the values of this administration” and was therefore “willing to share classified information” that he had access to, including “completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation.”

After receiving confirmation that the thumb drive had been received, on May 7, Laatsch allegedly sent a message to the FBI agent, which indicated Laatsch was seeking something from the foreign government in return for continuing to provide classified information. The next day, Laatsch specified that he was interested in “citizenship for your country” because he did not “expect[] things here to improve in the long term.” Although he said he was “not opposed to other compensation,” he was not in a position where he needed to seek “material compensation.”
Link


Fifth Column
FBI and the Justice Department announced the arrest of 28 year old Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) employee attempting to transmit classified information to a friendly foreign government
2025-05-30
[PUBLISH.TWITTER] But which friendly country? Germany recently suggested Harvard open a campus there, where they can DEI and Jew-hate as much as they like.
…said that he had “completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation” that he wanted to send. He said his reasoning for the decision was because he did not align with the current Trump administration’s policies.

The FBI was subsequently tipped off and made contact with Laatsch under the guise of the aforementioned foreign government. Laatsch would end up transcribing and smuggling out classified products on 2 occasions to who he thought was an official of the friendly foreign government, and was arrested today after the second exchange.
Link



Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More