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Europe
Lebanese man convicted in slaying of Israeli diplomat to be freed from French prison
2025-07-18
[IsraelTimes] Georges Ibrahim Abdallah was sentenced to life in 1987 for his role in the 1982 murders of Israeli envoy Yacov Barsimantov and US military attache Charles Robert

A French appeals court on Thursday ordered the release of pro-Paleostinian Lebanese terrorist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been imprisoned for 40 years for the 1982 killings of two foreign diplomats, including an Israeli envoy.

Abdallah, 74, is one of the longest-serving prisoners in La Belle France, where most convicts serving life sentences are freed after less than 30 years.

He has been up for release for 25 years, but the United States — a civil party to the case — has consistently opposed his leaving prison.

Abdallah was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his involvement in the murders of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.

He has always insisted that he was a "fighter" who battled for the rights of Paleostinians and not a "criminal."

The Gay Paree Appeals Court ordered that he be freed from a prison in the south of La Belle France next week, on Friday, July 25, on the condition that he leave French territory and never return.

Several sources before the hearing said that it was planned for him to be flown to Gay Paree and then to Beirut.

Wounded in 1978 during Israel’s invasion of Leb
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
, he joined the Marxist-Leninist PFLP, which carried out a string of plane hijackings in the 1960s and 1970s. It is banned as a terror group by the US and EU.

Then, in the late 1970s, Abdallah, a Christian, founded his terror group, the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF). It made contact with other extreme-left outfits, including Italia’s Red Brigades and the German Red Army Faction (RAF).

Abdallah was captured in 1984. A French court sentenced him in 1987 to life in prison for "complicity in the liquidations" in 1982 of Charles R. Ray, a US military attaché serving in Gay Paree, and Yacov Bar-Simantov, a second counselor at the Israeli embassy in Gay Paree.

Bar-Simantov’s killer, a woman wearing a white beret, fled into the Gay Paree subway after shooting him in the head in front of his wife and children at their apartment building. The diplomat was the second secretary for political affairs at the embassy.

Abdallah shot Ray, an assistant military attache, outside Ray’s apartment building the same year.

In 1984, the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions grabbed credit for the attempted liquidation of US Robert O. Homme in Strasbourg. A gunman shot him five times, though Homme survived the attack.

Lebanese authorities have repeatedly said Abdallah should be freed from jail, and had written to the appeals court to say they would arrange his return home.

The detainee’s brother, Robert Abdallah, in Lebanon, told AFP he was overjoyed.

"We’re delighted. I didn’t expect the French judiciary to make such a decision nor for him to ever be freed, especially after so many failed requests for release," he said. "For once, the French authorities have freed themselves from Israeli and US pressures."

Prosecutors can file an appeal with La Belle France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, but it is not expected to be processed fast enough to halt his release next week.

’POLITICAL SCANDAL’
Abdallah’s lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset also welcomed the decision.

"It’s both a judicial victory and a political scandal that he was not released earlier," he said.

In November last year, a French court ordered his release conditional on Abdallah leaving La Belle France. But La Belle France’s anti-terror prosecutors, arguing that he had not changed his political views, appealed the decision, which was consequently suspended.

A verdict was supposed to have been delivered in February, but the Gay Paree appeals court postponed, saying it was unclear whether Abdallah had proof that he had paid compensation to the plaintiffs, something he has consistently refused to do.

The court re-examined the latest request for his release last month.

During the closed-door hearing, Abdallah’s lawyer told the judges that 16,000 euros had been placed in the prisoner’s bank account and was at the disposal of civil parties in the case, including the United States.

The Gay Paree court has described his behavior in prison as irreproachable and said in November that he posed "no serious risk in terms of committing new terrorism acts."

However,
you can observe a lot just by watching...
the US Department of Justice has asserted that his release would pose a threat to the safety of US diplomats.

Washington has also used Abdallah’s previous comments that he would return to his hometown Qobayyat on the Lebanese-Syrian border as a reason not to release him, given the recent conflict between Israel and Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah in a spillover from the 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...
war.

Abdallah still enjoys some support from several public figures in La Belle France, including left-wing members of parliament and Nobel prize-winning author Annie Ernaux. There have been protest demonstrations for his release.

In 2013, the French town of Bagnolet, east of Gay Paree, voted to make Abdallah an honorary resident, calling him a "communist activist" and "political prisoner" who "belongs to the resistance movement of Lebanon, his country," French media reported at the time.
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-Great Cultural Revolution
Prominent hospitals across America are halting gender surgeries and hormone treatments for minors
2025-07-18
[FoxNews] Medical centers in multiple cities respond to executive order protecting children from 'chemical and surgical mutilation’

More hospitals are pulling back on providing "gender-affirming care" for youth patients, in accordance with a recent executive order against these practices.

Rush Medical Center in Chicago is the latest large health system to announce that it is stopping these gender-related treatments.

The hospital’s spokesperson, Tobin Klinger, confirmed to local outlets that it has "paused" hormonal therapies for new patients under 18.

Rush has not provided gender-related surgery for minors since 2023, according to Klinger.

(Adults will continue to be eligible for treatments, as will minors who were already receiving care.)

These changes follow President Donald Trump’s executive order, titled "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation," which was issued on January 28, 2025.

The order states that the administration will not "fund, sponsor, promote, assist or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another," and that it will "rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures."

For patients age 19 and under, "chemical and surgical mutilation" includes the use of puberty blockers, sex hormones and surgical procedures, according to the order on The White House’s website.

On July 9, the Department of Justice announced that it has issued more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics involved in performing "transgender medical procedures" on children.

"Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement on the DOJ’s website.

Other hospitals appear to have followed actions similar to Rush Medical Center.

NewYork-Presbyterian appears to have removed and changed online verbiage for its COMPASS Program, which was previously described as a "a safe space for youth navigating their gender experience" offering "puberty suppression and gender-affirming hormone treatment."

The website now describes the program as "a supportive space for youth and gender," and references to gender-affirming care have been removed.

A spokesperson for NewYork-Presbyterian provided the below statement to Fox News Digital.

"We continue to work through this evolving situation to comply with applicable state and federal laws and regulations. As always, our priority is to serve all our patients in a compassionate and responsible way."

Stanford Medicine has also reportedly halted "gender-affirming surgeries," according to a statement provided to the San Francisco Chronicle.

"After careful review of the latest actions and directives from the federal government and following consultations with clinical leadership, including our multidisciplinary LGBTQ+ program and its providers, Stanford Medicine paused providing gender-related surgical procedures as part of our comprehensive range of medical services for LGBTQ+ patients under the age of 19, effective June 2, 2025," the statement said.

It was also reported that shortly after Trump’s executive order, NYU Langone canceled some appointments for hormone treatments and gender surgeries, with parents claiming they were told the hospital no longer offers those services to new patients under 19.

Cleveland Clinic also responded to Fox News Digital’s inquiry, confirming that the clinic "does not provide gender-affirming treatments for patients under the age of 19."

Previous studies have suggested that "gender-affirming surgeries" can be harmful to young people’s mental health.

Researchers determined that rates of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and substance-use disorders were "significantly higher" among those with gender dysphoria who underwent surgery.

Link


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Former VOA employee indicted over threats to Congresswoman Greene
2025-07-18
[NBCnews] WASHINGTON DC — A man has been arrested in the nation's capital and accused of threatening Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and members of her family.

Seth Jason, of Maryland, was arrested in Washington after being indicted on four charges, according to court records released Thursday... The Justice Department said in a statement that an investigation revealed the calls to Greene were "made from various phone lines connected to studios and control rooms" at Voice of America headquarters...The alleged actions took place before Trump took office. The Voice of America, a broadcast outlet funded by the U.S. government but editorially independent, has been nearly dismantled since Trump returned to office, with hundreds of staff members terminated.
Related:
Marjorie Taylor Greene 07/10/2025 Dem Rep. Gomez: ICE ''Going After Anybody That Is Brown, That Looks Like Me''
Marjorie Taylor Greene 07/02/2025  OMB Director Russ Vaught Breaks Down Major Value of Big Beautiful Bill and Likelihood of Passage
Marjorie Taylor Greene 06/05/2025 Jasmine Crockett Says Scrutiny of Biden's $2B Grant to Stacey Abrams-Linked Nonprofit Meant To ‘Keep a Strong Black Woman Down'

Link


Home Front: Politix
First Judge Nominated by Trump in Second Term Confirmed by Senate
2025-07-18
Senator Mitch McConnell showed the way, but the Republicans can do it without his leadership now.
[Townhall] The Senate on Monday confirmed the first judicial nominee of President Trump’s second term.

Whitney Hermandorfer will now be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit, the Cincinnati-based bench that hears appeals from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee

Hermandorfer, of Tennessee, was confirmed by a 46-42 vote along party lines. She will replace an Obama pick, Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch.

Twelve senators did not vote.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) called the confirmation of Hermandorfer "a boon to the federal judiciary."

"As the Director of the Strategic Litigation Unit in Tennessee, she’s led major cases on civil rights and the separation of powers and is widely praised for her legal mind, impeccable qualifications, collegial nature and constitutionalist philosophy. I was proud to lead Ms. Hermandorfer’s nomination through the Senate Judiciary Committee and am confident she will be an excellent federal judge," Grassley said.

According to the White House, when nominated earlier this year, Hermandorfer was the director of the Strategic Litigation Unit in the Office of the Tennessee Attorney General. She had previously served as an associate at Williams & Connolly, LLP in Washington, D.C., and clerked for Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett of the Supreme Court, now-Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh when he was on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Richard J. Leon of the D.C. District Court.

"I am pleased to announce the nomination of Whitney Hermandorfer to serve as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit," Trump wrote in May when he nominated her. "Whitney has been serving the Great People of Tennessee, in the Attorney General’s Office, where she has strongly litigated in Court to protect Citizens from Federal Government Overreach. A former Co-Captain of the Princeton University Women’s Basketball Team, Whitney is a staunch defender of Girls’ and Women’s Sports. She has a long history of working for Judges and Justices who respect the RULE OF LAW, and protect our Constitution, including Justice Samuel Alito and two fine Supreme Court Justices I appointed in my First Term. Whitney is a Fighter who will inspire confidence in our Legal System. Thank you Whitney!"

During her confirmation hearings, Hermandorfer said in reference to judicial power that "[I]t is an extraordinary power, the Article III power, to decide cases...With that power, again, comes great responsibility and humility to understand the proper role of a judge is to interpret the law and not make the law or bend the law to whatever policy preferences the judge might have individually."
Related:
Judicial nominee: 2024-12-19 ''Buy a Spine'': Sen. Kennedy Gets NCAA Prez to Bend Knee on Key Point in Heated Exchange on Trans Athletes
Judicial nominee: 2024-11-23 'Conveyor belt of radicals': GOP slammed over Senate absences that helped Biden score more judges in lame duck
Judicial nominee: 2024-10-27 Fetterman calls Trump's support in Pennsylvania ‘astonishing: ‘You can see the intensity'

Link


Terror Networks
'Those who believe have migrated.' Emigration as the Basis of Islam
2025-07-18
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Sergey Adamov
The only way to conclude that Islam is a kind and gentle faith is to ignore the history of Mohammed’s conquests including the Battle of Khaybar, and the next several generations of rapid expansion by the sword — compared to that, ISIS and Al Qaeda are truly kinder and gentler Islam.
[REGNUM] Even those who are not very familiar with the dogma and cultural traditions of Islam most likely know that the Muslim calendar differs from the Christian one. Thus, July 16, 2025 from the Nativity of Christ corresponds to the 21st day of the first month (the month of Muharram) of 1447 Hijri. Christians count the years from the coming of the Savior into the world - which they consider the main event not only of sacred, but also of world history. But Muslims count the dates not from the birth of Muhammad, but from a moment more significant for their religion.

The Hijra (literally translated as “migration,” and in modern interpretation as “emigration”) of the Prophet is what changed the character of his religion and still influences the culture, politics, and social psychology of the ummah, the global community of the faithful.

On one of the last days of July 622 AD, Muhammad secretly left his hometown of Mecca, where he had received revelations, began preaching monotheism and created the first community. The reason for the resettlement, or in fact, a hasty escape, was a threat to the life of the prophet.

Most of Muhammad's relatives from the Quraysh tribe that inhabited Mecca remained pagans. For a time, they tolerated the denunciations of idolatry. But when Muhammad said that the ancestors of those who did not believe in Allah were imprisoned in Jahannam - the fiery Gehenna (and thus openly broke with the tradition of honoring the forefathers), the leaders of the Quraysh decided to deal with the preacher.

Hiding from his fellow tribesmen, Muhammad stayed in the house of one of those he could trust - Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, his father-in-law and future successor (after the death of the prophet, Abu Bakr would become the first caliph). But it was dangerous to live there too.

Muhammad and Abu Bakr fled at night into the desert near Mecca, where they hid for three more days. Only when the Quraysh lost track of the troublemaker did the prophet and his father-in-law leave for the city of Yathrib (340 kilometers as the crow flies). Yathrib, from the moment of Muhammad's arrival there, received a new name - Medina, or more precisely Al-Madina an-Nabawiyya, the City of the Prophet.

"THOSE WHO GAVE SHELTER"
Muhammad, forced to leave his homeland in a hurry, did not come to an "empty place". In Yathrib, where the preaching of Islam was more successful than in Mecca, by the time of the Hijra there already existed a community of Ansars - local residents who had accepted the new faith. Even before the Prophet's resettlement, many Meccans had immigrated to this city, hiding from the pagans - they were called muhajdirs, that is, literally migrants, from the Arabic "hajar" - "to migrate".

It should also be noted that the motive of migration has accompanied the history of Islam from its earliest years. Already in the fourth year of Muhammad's preaching in Mecca, in 614 CE, due to problems with the top of the Quraysh, the prophet suggested that part of the faithful move across the Red Sea and take refuge in the Christian Kingdom of Aksum (the territory of present-day Ethiopia). The first group of emigrants headed by Usman ibn Affan, the son-in-law of the prophet and the future third caliph, left for Aksum. Another group of muhajirs moved across the sea in the fifth year of preaching, in 615.

Thus, even when the Prophet of Allah lived in his hometown, Islam began to expand territorially, without reference to any “historical homelands.”

By the time of the Hijra, the Islamic community had existed for almost ten years, and the Prophet had written the first Meccan suras (chapters) of the Koran. However, in the Muslim tradition, the time up until the migration from Mecca to Medina is called the era of jahiliyyah - pagan ignorance, and the era of Islam is only counted from the Hijra. Therefore, the day of Muhammad's "immigration" became the first day of the new chronology.

“Indeed, those who believed and migrated and fought with their wealth and their lives in the way of Allah, and those who gave refuge to the emigrants and helped them, these are indeed helpers and friends of one another,” says the 72nd verse of the 8th surah of the Quran, Al-Anfal (The Spoils).

FOREIGN CITY, OTHER SURAS
Many founders of world religions have spoken of the fact that they essentially have no home in this world. The Gospel of Matthew quotes Jesus Christ as saying, “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). The Church Fathers interpreted these words of Christ as evidence that His Kingdom is not of this world.

In the case of Islam, a different context is important: when the prophet lost his home and city, this became the beginning of the ummah as a religious and at the same time political and military association (this is the difference between the Islamic community and the Church and the state in the Christian understanding), called upon to convert the world into dar-al-Islam, the territory of Islam, through peaceful and armed jihad.

If you strictly follow the text of the Koran, then this turning point is quite difficult to track. The holy book is not built chronologically, but from the most voluminous suras to the shortest. This is the appearance that the Koran took from the moment of its codification under the aforementioned third caliph Uthman ibn Affan.

But depending on the time of revelation, the chapters of the Quran are divided into two categories: “Meccan” and “Medina”, which also differ in their focus.

The bulk of the Koran (approximately two-thirds) consists of Meccan suras, revealed before the Hijra. They reveal the foundations of the doctrine, questions of ethics and morality, and arguments in favor of monotheism.

The 16th verse of the Meccan Surah An-Nahl (The Bees) states the following:

"Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good advice, and argue with them in the best way. Indeed, your Lord knows best who has strayed from His path, and knows best who is guided."

But after the resettlement, the tone of the text changes.

The Medinan suras are not so much about how to convert fellow Arabs to the true faith, but rather about how the new armed religious-political community should build relations with the outside world - the pagans and the Ahl al-Kitab, the “people of the book” (Christians and Jews).

The 29th verse of the Medinan Surah At-Tawbah (Repentance) states:

“Fight those of the People of the Book who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor do they hold unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, nor do they follow the true religion, until they pay the tribute with their own hands, and are humbled.”

This situation marked the moment when the Ummah, through migrations and military campaigns, had covered the Arabian Peninsula. By the time of Muhammad's death in 632 (10th year of the Hijra), the Islamic community had approached the borders of Zoroastrian Iran and the Christian Byzantine Empire.

"The writing of the Koran took place when Muslims lived among pagans, it is quite natural that Islam was spread through proselytism. The first to be converted were pagans, but also Christians and Zoroastrians. Here is an example - Muslim Iran, the entire nation was converted," noted Roman Silantyev, an Islamologist and deputy chairman of the expert council for conducting state religious studies examinations at the Ministry of Justice, in a commentary to Regnum News Agency.

"BE LIKE ME"
The spread of the Islamic religion within the framework of the Caliphate in the Middle East and Maghreb - North Africa was accompanied by the migration of Arab tribes. It is not surprising why now from Morocco to Iraq and from Syria to Sudan people speak different dialects of Arabic. Some of them are descendants of immigrants, some are descendants of Syrians, Egyptians, Berbers and other peoples who accepted the new faith and assimilated. And assimilated not always under duress.

Zoroastrianism gave way to Islam and "shrank" to a few communities because it was an ethnic religion, "the faith of the Persians." But Islam, from its inception, was not the faith of the Arabs, just as Christianity was not the faith of the Syrians, Greeks, and Romans.

Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism know a separate institution of missionaries (as a rule, the faith was preached by priests and monks). But in Islam there is no such institution of priesthood, and the conversion of non-believers to the faith of the prophet is the duty of every member of the ummah. The process of conversion - dawah also implies a reward from the Almighty for the Muslim who brought the newly converted to the community.

The concept of jihad (literally, "zeal"), as is known, is not equivalent to a holy war. The struggle for faith implies both self-improvement and preaching Islam in the non-Muslim world ("great jihad"), and the affirmation of faith in the fight against its opponents - "small jihad".

The Medina Surah Al-Imran states: “O People of the Book! Let us come to a common word between us and you, that we will not worship anyone except Allah, nor will we associate anything with Him, nor will we take one another as lords besides Allah.”

In other words, non-believers from among the people of the book are invited to reconsider their views and join the ranks of the faithful.

When political Islam – already in the form of the Caliphate – expanded beyond the Arabian Peninsula, the concept of “tribute” or “poll tax” (jizya) mentioned in Surah At-Tawba became fundamental for building relationships between the Caliphs and their subjects who did not convert to Islam.

The established order of things gently "nudged" people to change their faith: if you don't want to pay tribute, convert to a new faith; if you want to participate in political and economic activity, change your faith. So there were economic reasons for adopting the religion and way of life that the settlers brought with them.

Also important is the approach that can be called “ be like me,” notes Silantyev. “Roughly speaking, you are friends with Muslims, you live in their environment, you accept their customs,” explains the religious scholar.

This method of “great jihad” – appeal through soft power, through communication and example – was effective not only during the time of the first caliphs. And not only when Islam was spreading in a non-Arab, foreign-cultural environment – in Persia, Khorezm, the Indus Valley, the Volga region, Bengal or the island of Java.

Similarly, “preaching through communication and interaction” works in our time, when Islamic communities exist all over the world and spread the faith beyond the “ethnic Muslim” environment.

"There are recent examples in our society, for example, the actor Sergei Romanovich, he converted to Islam under the influence of friends, and then left this religion. A classic of the genre. Or the MMA wrestler Alexander Emelianenko trained with Muslims, and also converted. The environment plays a key role," notes Silantyev.

The global task of such an action is to constantly expand and agitate so that the ummah expands. In practice, the mechanics of conversion can be built on different models, for example, through marriage. In the modern world, Muslims can find partners online, create relationships, and then set a mandatory condition for marriage - a change of faith. Moreover, the target "audience" of preachers is, as a rule, women or children.

The "Great Jihad" is facilitated by economic processes that stimulate the migration of Muslims from the countries of "Dar-al-Islam" to places historically inhabited by non-believers. In the modern world, these non-believers often turn out to be unbelievers, i.e., unconverted. We are talking, we note, about the struggle for faith through preaching, communication and personal example - as the immigrant muhajirs from Mecca preached faith among the Arabian pagans.

EXTREMELY HIGH PERCENTAGE OF RADICALS AMONG NEOPHYTES
But if we are not talking about traditional Islam, but about its radical distortions (for example, about modern Salafism or Wahhabism), then here the “struggle for faith” in a non-Islamic environment is understood differently. Extremists, who proclaim the goal of restoring the state-ummah of the first caliphs (this is what the ISIS* “caliphate” was supposed to be), see the outside world as an object of aggression, and Muslim migrants as a potential vanguard of the armies of Islam. The historical caliphate of the 7th century expanded not only by “fire and sword,” but the Salafis of the 21st century see the situation differently.

And here the methods of proselytism – preaching, involvement in the community – can be dangerous. “Radicals often recruited women online, often, excuse me, ugly ones. They say: even if you are not a beauty, come to us in the Islamic State*, in Iraq, Syria, we guarantee you family happiness. A quarter of the widows of ISIS members are neophytes, it is a well-known fact,” notes Roman Silantyev.

There are known cases of "honey traps" when lonely men are approached through social networks and dating sites. However, the motives of men who fall for the hook of radicals may differ. Extremist preaching of the supposedly "correct" understanding of religion and jihad is carried out not only among migrants from "traditionally Islamic" ethnic groups, but also among "infidels" from the indigenous population.

"We have an extremely high percentage of radicals among neophytes. The most active preaching is done by Wahhabis, on the Internet, in Wahhabi mosques, prayer houses, many go to them. Some people are attracted by radical political motives - I hate the government, the police - I will go to ISIS*, I will kill, blow things up," Silantyev notes.

Such "proselytism" also threatens traditional Islam. As an example, we can cite the story of the newly converted Alla Saprykina, who received the name Aminat after accepting Islam. Having been recruited by radicals, the woman committed a terrorist act, killing a representative of the Muslim clergy of Dagestan, Sheikh Said Chirkeysky, who defended the dogmas of traditional Islam against extremists. Another example is one of the leaders of the terrorist underground in the North Caucasus, Said Buryatsky ( Alexander Tikhomirov ).

Therefore, the attitude towards neophytes in the Islamic environment itself is often wary, despite the fact that Islam historically arose as a religion based on migrations and preaching among neophytes. Thus, active proselytism, which can be skillfully manipulated by radicals, often plays a destructive role in society, despite the fact that it was initially dictated exclusively by good intentions.

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran seizes foreign tanker for smuggling 2 million liters of fuel, crew arrested
2025-07-17
[IsraelTimes] Chief justice says ship stopped in Gulf of Oman lacked legal documents about its cargo, 17 crew members taken into custody; no details given on name of vessel or flag it was flying

A foreign tanker was seized by 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...
in the Gulf of Oman for smuggling 2 million liters of fuel, the chief justice of Hormozgan province said on Wednesday, according to Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency.

"During the continuous process of monitoring and surveilling suspicious fuel smuggling movements in the Gulf of Oman, officers inspected a foreign tanker due to its lack of legal documents regarding its cargo and seized it on charges of carrying 2 million liters of smuggled fuel," Hormozgan Chief Justice Mojtaba Ghahremani said, according to the report.

The judiciary official added that 17 crew members were arrested and that a judicial case was opened at the Jask county prosecutor’s office.

There was no additional information regarding the name of the tanker or the flag to which it is registered.

Iran, which has some of the world’s lowest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in the value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighboring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states.

"The actions of fuel smugglers who, in coordination with foreigners, attempt to plunder national wealth will not remain hidden from the judiciary and punishment of perpetrators, if their crimes are proven, will be without leniency," Ghahremani said, according to the report.

Authorities are conducting laboratory tests and reviewing documents to verify the cargo’s contents and legality, the report said.

The seizure comes months after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intercepted two Tanzanian-flagged tankers allegedly transporting 1.5 million liters of diesel in the Gulf.

Those vessels were later transferred to the port of Bushehr for legal proceedings.

The vessels, the Sea Ranger and Salama, had 25 foreign crew members, according to Iranian media.
Link


Government Corruption
Maurene Comey, daughter of ex-FBI Director James, fired from top US Attorney's Office job after working Diddy, Epstein cases
2025-07-17
[NY Post] Maurene Comey,
…U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. Her father used that position as a springboard to greater things, but it looks like dear Maurene will not have the same opportunities despite her resumé…
the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, was fired Wednesday from the powerful Manhattan US Attorney’s Office — where she prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, sources told The Post.

The reason for Comey’s firing, which law enforcement and Department of Justice sources confirmed, was not immediately clear.
According to the US Constitution, the president is the chief executive officer, which means he can hire and fire — with or without cause.
President Trump has a long history of conflicts with the elder Comey and fired him as FBI director in 2017 during his first term.

Maurene Comey, who served as an assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York since 2015, worked on the prosecutions of the disgraced financier pedophile Epstein and Maxwell, who was found guilty of multiple sex crimes at trial and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The nearly month-long trial ended in a jury acquitting the disgraced hip-hop mogul of the most serious charges against him — racketeering and sex trafficking — that could have landed him life in prison.
If she couldn’t make that stick…
Related:
Maurene Comey 11/29/2021 Lines gather outside NYC courthouse two hours before Ghislaine Maxwell's sex-trafficking trial kicks off today: Her brother claims she is paying 'blood price' because Epstein dodged justice UPDATE: prosecutor is Comey’s daughter
Maurene Comey 07/08/2019 Guess whose daughter is reportedly a prosecutor in SDNY Epstein case

Link


Government Corruption
Federal housing official submitted Schiff criminal referral to DOJ over mortgage documents
2025-07-17
[FoxNews] Sen Adam Schiff caught in yearslong mortgage scheme that deceived lenders, federal housing chief says

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has been referred to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution regarding mortgage documents.

The director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in May citing alleged misconduct by Schiff, who owns homes in California and Maryland.

"Based on media reports, Mr. Adam B. Schiff has, in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property," FHFA Director William Pulte wrote in the letter, which Fox News obtained on Wednesday. "As regulator of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks, we take very seriously allegations of mortgage fraud or other criminal activity. Such misconduct jeopardizes the safety and soundness of FHFA’s regulated entities and the security and stability of the U.S. mortgage market."

On Monday, Pulte received a memo from the Fannie Mae financial crimes investigations concluding that Schiff allegedly engaged in "a sustained pattern of possible occupancy misrepresentation" on five Fannie Mae loans, Fox News has learned.

It is unclear if the Justice Department is pursing action against Schiff at this time, but earlier this week, President Donald Trump did demand his longtime foe be brought to justice for the alleged mortgage fraud scheme.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Justice Department for more information, but they did not immediately respond.

Schiff and his wife purchased a home in Potomac, Maryland, in 2003 for $870,000, according to the letter. They entered into a Fannie Mae-backed mortgage agreement for $610,000 at a rate of 5.625% over a term of 30 years, asserting the property would be their primary and principal residence.

The letter said they reaffirmed that the Maryland home was their primary residence in mortgage refinancing filings in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013, despite Schiff being an elected official representing the state of California at the same time.

Fox News obtained a copy of the 2011 affidavit showing Schiff signed certifying that the Maryland house is his primary residence.

Pulte said Schiff and his wife did not list the Maryland home as their secondary residence until 2020.

Over the same time frame, Schiff took a homeowner’s tax exemption on a condo that he owns in Burbank, California, also claiming that home as his primary residence for a $7,000 reduction off of the 1% property tax, Pulte wrote, citing media reports.

In 2023, the letter notes, a spokesperson for Schiff asserted that "Adam’s primary residence is Burbank, California, and will remain so when he wins the Senate seat."

"Primary residence mortgages receive more favorable loan terms, including lower interest rates, than secondary residence mortgages," the letter said. "Lenders view secondary residence mortgages as significantly riskier, as a borrower is more likely to continue paying off a primary residence mortgage during any financial hardship. Interest rates on secondary residence mortgages are typically between 0.25-0.50% higher than their primary residence counterparts; however, this gap can widen depending on the lender."

The federal housing official wrote that he believes Schiff's alleged misconduct could be violations of federal criminal codes banning wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud and false statements to financial institutions.

Schiff "appears to have falsified records in order to receive favorable loan terms, and also appears to have been aware of the financial benefits of a primary residence mortgage when compared to a secondary residence mortgage," Pulte wrote.

According to the letter, a spokesperson for Schiff in 2023 told CNN that, "Adam’s California and Maryland addresses have been listed as primary residences for loan purposes because they are both occupied throughout the year and to distinguish them from a vacation property."
"Schiff is Schrodinger's Pencilneck Senator. He is here, and there, simultaneously"
Related:
Adam Schiff 06/19/2025 GOP says Dems admit ‘guilt' in Biden health cover-up by boycotting Senate hearing on ‘constitutional scandal'
Adam Schiff 05/05/2025 2,000 pack out LI town hall with Dem Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin: ''We are being governed by morons''
Adam Schiff 04/22/2025 US ambassador Mike Huckabee calls on Hamas to accept proposed ceasefire

Link


Home Front: Politix
Trump administration fires 17 immigration court judges across ten states
2025-07-16
[APNEWS] Seventeen immigration court judges have been fired in recent days, according to the union that represents them, as the Trump administration pushes forward with its mass deportations of immigrants colonists in the country.

The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents immigration court judges as well as other professionals, said in a news release that 15 judges were fired ''without cause'' on Friday and another two on Monday. The union said they were working in courts in 10 different states across the country — Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

''It's outrageous and against the public interest that at the same time Congress has authorized 800 immigration judges, we are firing large numbers of immigration judges without cause,'' said the union's President Matt Biggs. ''This is nonsensical. The answer is to stop firing and start hiring.''
The answer, always, is to fire somewhere between the bottom decile and the bottom quartile, and simultaneously hire replacements with better potential, thus improving the overall quality of the workforce — because people are not widgets. Also, 17 is only 2% of 800, an insignificant loss even if the remaining current staff would not be significantly more effective without having to work around the poorest performers.
Firings come with courts at the center of administration efforts

The firings come as the courts have been increasingly at the center of the Trump administration's hardline immigration enforcement efforts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arresting immigrants colonists as they appear at court for proceedings.

A spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which is the part of the Justice Department that oversees the courts, said in an email that the office would not comment on the firings.

The large-scale arrests began in May and have unleashed fear among asylum-seekers and immigrants colonists appearing in court. In what has become a familiar scene, a judge will grant a government lawyer's request to dismiss deportation proceedings against an immigrant. Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch cautiously raised his hat over the edge of the horse trough on the end of a stick......
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are waiting in the hallway to arrest the person and put them on a fast track to deportation as soon as he or she leaves the courtroom.
Link


Home Front: Politix
How the Epstein Debacle Has Overshadowed Historic Success at the DOJ
2025-07-16
[Declassified] The hollowing out of the 100,000+ workforce of the Department of Justice is drowned out by a cacophony of discord, demands, and empty promises over the "Epstein files."

As I reported on X on Sunday, it appears Attorney General Pamela Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino have agreed to a truce. Bongino was prepared to imminently resign over Bondi’s botched handling of the Jeffrey Want Some Candy, Little Girl? Epstein
...A high class pimp financier who was alleged to maintain a stable of underage whores sex slaves who were paid big bucks to entertain the rich and/or famous. He was really surprised when he commited suiciede in jail...
matter; President Trump told news hounds on Sunday he had spoken with Bongino and indicated his longtime friend was "in good shape" without any plans to depart soon.

, the development represents good news since the clash of wills pitted the White House against some of the president’s most loyal influencers, prompting one of the biggest political crises in the administration to date. Trump appears to have successfully calmed the waters both behind the scenes and online.

Unfortunately, not only did the Epstein matter create deep division in MAGAland, fixation on the topic sucked the oxygen out of the media sphere related to significant achievements within the Department of Justice. Bondi and her team continue to clean house at the systemically corrupt department as longtime employees are either fired or leave voluntarily amid "differences" with the president’s policies. The most recent purge includes members of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team, J6 prosecutors, and the spokeswoman at the most powerful U.S. Attorney’s office in the country.

But rather than take their well-deserved firings on the chin like grown ups, self-proclaimed "victims" of the personnel wrecking ball emote on social media or to slavish news hounds proving that DOJ employees are a partisan, sanctimonious, and downright annoying bunch of humans.

POOR POOR PITIFUL ME, PART 1,306
For example, Bondi last week fired Joseph Tirrell, head of the DOJ’s ethics office. (LOL). Tirrell, according to Bloomberg News, is "a career attorney who’d spent nearly 20 years at the department," meaning Bondi was stuck with him until the DOJ could find a reason to terminate. No details are available as to why Tirrell finally got the boot but he reportedly did, among other things, oversee Special Counsel Jack Smith’s operation.

Last February, Tirrell reviewed Smith’s last disclosure report, which revealed the special counsel had received $140,000 in pro bono legal advice after the 2024 election. (The president promised to investigate Smith, who handed down two criminal federal indictments against Trump in 2023.)

It’s unclear whether Tirrell approved that free legal work, flagged any excessive expenditures—the special counsel’s office spent roughly $50 million in a little over a year—or identified any conflict of interests within the office. But instead of simply updating his resume, Tirrell followed in the light-in-the-loafers footsteps of his former colleagues by penning a tale of woe on social media.

VOLUNTARY SELF DEPORTATION
Many DOJ employees are leaving voluntarily rather than anxiously refresh their email inbox for a message with the subject line, "Notice of Removal From Federal Service." Dozens of employees working at the DOJ unit responsible for defending the administration against a nonstop deluge of lawsuits have resigned, according to a Rooters analysis this month. Prosecutors complained of a heavy workload--boo hoo!--and ideological differences with the new boss.

"Many of these people came to work at Federal Programs to defend aspects of our constitutional system. How could they participate in the project of tearing it down?" one lawyer who recently quit told Rooters.

A similar exodus is underway at the DOJ’s civil rights division where nearly 70 percent of the division’s attorneys have headed for the exits rather than work for Harmeet Dhillon, the president’s pick to run the office. Apparently the totally nonpolitical lawyers object to doing things like keeping boys out of girls’ sports, protecting children from surgical mutilation, and combating religious bias—just a few of Dhillon’s stated objectives.

All of this comes on top of months of success in identifying and firing known partisans at both the DOJ and FBI, an historic purge with no signs of stopping. The moves are "creating rampant speculation and fear within the workforce over who might be terminated next," former staffers told the Washington Post.
Link


India-Pakistan
IHC orders govt to form commission to probe blasphemy cases
2025-07-16
[GEO.TV] The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday directed the federal government to constitute a commission within 30 days to investigate blasphemy
...the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. Some religions consider it to be a crime. In Pakistain you can commit blasphemy by looking cross-eyed at a Koran...
-related cases.

Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan issued the order while hearing petitions seeking the formation of an inquiry commission to examine how blasphemy laws are being implemented.

Accepting the petitions, the court instructed that the commission must complete its proceedings within four months of formation. The IHC further ruled that if the commission requires more time to complete its task, it may approach the court for an extension.

A report published by the government-run National Commission for Human Rights in October last year said there were 767 people, mostly young men, in jail awaiting trial over blasphemy allegations.

"This is a huge ray of hope and it's the first time that the families have felt heard," said lawyer Imaan Mazari, who represents the families of arrested men and women, of the court order.

"Youngsters have been falsely roped into cases of such a sensitive nature that the stigma will last forever even if they are acquitted," she added.

The Legal Commission on Blasphemy Pakistain (LCBP) is the most active of lawyers groups prosecuting young men in Pakistain.
Link


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Vance Boelter Indicted in Minnesota Political Murders
2025-07-16
[JusticeGov] MINNEAPOLIS; Vance Boelter, 57, has been indicted on six federal charges in connection with the stalking and murders of Minnesota House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman, the stalking and shooting of Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman, and the attempted shooting of their daughter Hope Hoffman, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson.

"Vance Boelter planned and carried out a night of terror that shook Minnesota to its core," said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson. "He carried out targeted political assassinations the likes of which have never been seen in Minnesota. We grieve with the Hortman family and continue to pray for the recovery of the Hoffmans. Today, a grand jury indicted Boelter with the most serious of federal charges for these heinous political assassinations. Let me be clear: Boelter will see justice."

According to court documents, after extensive research and planning, Boelter embarked on a murderous rampage targeting Minnesota's elected officials and their families. On June 14, 2025, the defendant disguised himself as a member of law enforcement and traveled to the homes of Democratic elected officials with the intent to intimidate and murder. Early that morning, the defendant traveled to the Hoffman's home in Champlin, Minnesota. By posing as a police officer, Boelter compelled the Hoffmans to answer their door. He then repeatedly shot Senator Hoffman and Yvette Hoffman and he attempted to shoot their daughter, Hope Hoffman.

Boelter then traveled to the homes of two other Minnesota elected officials, only to find that no one at those locations was home. He next drove to the home of Speaker Emerita and Representative Melissa Hortman. There, Boelter repeatedly shot, and killed, Representative Hortman and her husband, Mark. Following a two-day manhunt, law enforcement arrested the defendant near his family residence in Green Isle, Minnesota.

The defendant is charged with numerous counts, including the stalking and murders of Melissa and Mark Hortman, the stalking and shooting of John and Yvette Hoffman, and the attempted shooting of Hope Hoffman. The defendant faces charges which include maximum penalties of up to life in prison or death.
Related:
Vance Boelter 06/21/2025 Now We Know Why the Minnesota Assassin Story Disappeared Overnight
Vance Boelter 06/17/2025 Police Find 'WMDs' at Home of Heavily Armed PA Man Arrested at PA 'No Kings' Rally
Vance Boelter 06/18/2025 US police charge suspect in fatal shooting of Minnesota lawmaker and husband, published hit list appears odd​

Link



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