[FoxNews] U.S. authorities have captured the MS-13 top leader for the U.S. East Coast, the FBI announced on Thursday.
Officials captured the 24-year-old suspect in Woodbridge, Virginia, just south of Washington, D.C. Authorities have yet to release the suspect's name, but they say he is one of the top three leaders of the MS-13 gang in the U.S.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel watched the arrest unfold from a nearby tactical operations center. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and senior DOJ official Emil Bove were also present.
"They executed a clean, safe operation and the bad guys in custody. And thanks to the FBI, we got one of the worst of the worst of the MS-13 off the streets this morning. Virginia and the country is a lot safer today," Bondi told Fox News following the arrest.
More from the Daily Mail about the El Salvadoran illegal picked up in upscale Dale City in Prince William County.
[IsraelTimes] Report says Rachel Zegler’s tweet in 2024 led Israeli star to receive death threats; film’s Jewish producer purportedly flew to meet ‘Snow White’ actress, but her tweet stayed up
When Rachel Zegler tweeted "free palestine" last year after sharing the trailer for her latest movie, the live-action "Snow White," millions of people saw it — more than 9 million, as of this week.
But until Tuesday, few knew the extent to which Zegler’s one-line tweet caused a firestorm for Disney as well as her co-star, Israeli actress Gal Gadot.
According to an article in Variety, the tweet caused the movie’s Jewish producer, Marc Platt, to fly to New York to meet with Zegler face-to-face.
It was far from Platt’s first encounter with the issue. His wife is Julie Platt, the chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, which has raised hundreds of millions for Israel following Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... ’s October 7, 2023 massacre, which killed some 1,200 people and took another 251 hostages, launching the war in 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 content of their conversation is unknown, but the tweet stayed up — and caused more fallout: Zegler’s Israeli costar Gal Gadot received death threats, which led Disney to hire additional security for her, according to Variety.
Months later, after last year’s election, Zegler posted "F— Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... " and wished that his supporters "never know peace." That triggered another conversation with Platt; Disney hired a social media adviser who would approve her posts until the movie’s premiere this month.
The controversies surrounding Zegler may be one reason "Snow White" opened last weekend to a box office of just $43 million domestically, which fell far short of expectations. The film had a production budget of $270 million and a marketing budget of $100 million.
#1
Not to drop a Weinstein joke, but Zegler is the cream of hollywood grooming.
Making a mere some $2million this week so far and with Minecraft coming out in a week, this show is so cooked there is a pool on how long before Zegler blames Gadot directly for its failure.
[ShabelleMedia] ISIS fighters have reportedly attacked a Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... military base, signaling a shift in guerrilla tactics after losing direct battles.
The Lions of Islam raided the military base in the Xabley Mountains, Dhaban Xoogle, Bari region, sparking an exchange of gunfire followed by mortar shelling.
Puntland officials confirmed their forces repelled the attack, killing several turbans.
Reports suggest both sides suffered casualties, with the fighting lasting for hours.
The situation is stable, with Puntland forces in control of the battlegrounds. They have pushed ISIS out of several areas, including Cali Miskaad.
Puntland forces took key positions, including caves used by ISIS fighters as hideouts. Officials vow to remove ISIS from the region, including Cali Miskaad.
Since December, Puntland has been fighting Lions of Islam in the rugged highlands, where they had major bases and caves to hide.
ISIS remains much smaller in number compared to the al-Qaeda-linked group, al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... , which controls large parts of Somalia.
The group’s fighters are estimated to be 1,500, mostly scattered in the al-Maskad region, according to security experts
UPDATE: Al Shabab claims to have seized Masjid Ali Gadud town in Middle Shabelle region, killing 11 soldiers, capturing five, and seizing weapons. The group intensified pre-dawn attacks despite President @HassanSMohamud's recent visits to frontline areas in the region. pic.twitter.com/4PV6MXK7ZQ
[ShabelleMedia] Al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... gunnies have reportedly reinforced their presence in several areas of the Middle Shabelle region, advancing towards the key towns of Jowhar and Balcad.
Local sources say that heavily armed fighters from the group have entered the region, patrolling roads and establishing new checkpoints. The areas affected include the stretch between Jowhar and Balcad, as well as the zone between Qalimoow and Balcad, and Qalimoow and Jowhar.
The gunnies are also said to have expanded their control into the western part of the Middle Shabelle region, particularly near the town of Afgooye in Lower Shabelle, an area that had previously been cleared of al-Shabaab fighters.
Despite some territories being under the group’s control in recent months, reports indicate that al-Shabaab has extended its influence, regaining areas previously freed by Somali forces.
In response, the Somali government has deployed additional military units to the region, with troops from various branches of the armed forces now stationed in the area. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has reportedly set up a command post in the town of Cadakke to oversee operations against the bad boys.
Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the space pirate fleet to attack Zemblonia... Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s by Somali military aircraft have intensified in recent days, targeting al-Shabaab strongholds in a bid to weaken their grip on the region.
The situation in Middle Shabelle remains volatile, with frequent festivities between Somali security forces and al-Shabaab bad boys. The government is reportedly ramping up its efforts to push the gunnies out of the region once and for all.
[HodhodYemenNews] US aggression forces resumed airstrikes on Wednesday, striking the Sahar district in Yemen’s Saada governorate.
Security sources in the governorate reported that US warplanes conducted two airstrikes on the eastern part of the city, followed by three more strikes on the Al-Salem district.
Meanwhile, sources in Amran governorate confirmed that US aircraft targeted the Harf Safyan district with two airstrikes. Additionally, five airstrikes hit the outskirts of Saada city.
A local source stated that a total of 17 US airstrikes struck Saada governorate overnight.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Shiite movement Ansar Allah (Houthis) attacked several American warships in the Red Sea and struck military targets in the area of Israeli Tel Aviv. This was stated by the movement's representative Yahya Saria.
They did say so, yes. Both were, however, once again the usual Houthi wish casting rather than reality.
According to him, the operation lasted several hours.
The Houthis attacked warships led by the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman with missiles, drones and naval forces.
Drones also struck Israeli military targets in the occupied Jaffa area.
The goal of the operation was successfully achieved, Saria assured.
The goal was shooting off the various things. Everything thereafter was in Allah’s hands. Unfortunately, Allah likes Israel and America better.
As reported by Regnum news agency, fighters from the Yemeni rebel movement Ansar Allah launched a missile attack on Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. They used a Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missile for the attack.
On March 22, a US air strike on Hodeidah International Airport in western Yemen wounded Houthi naval commander Mansour al-Saadi. It was reported that at least seven other members of the movement were also injured.
On March 20, the US Air Force carried out a series of airstrikes on Ansar Allah targets in the province of Al-Hodeidah in western Yemen. It was specified that at least four strikes were carried out.
The rather grandiose Houthi statement can be read here— provided by Hodhod Yemen News in English translation.
[FoxNews] Human smugglers were openly flaunting their illegal excursions on TikTok, using the hashtag #CartelTok
The popular social media platform TikTok has removed a hashtag from its search engine after cartel members were caught using it to highlight their crimes and recruit human smugglers.
A TikTok spokesperson told Fox News Digital that in addition to removing "#CartelTok," from its search engine, the platform also removed "known leaders of cartels or gangs" that violated the organization's policy.
Many of the videos in question showed cartels flashing piles of money, jewelry and luxury items that were used to entice teens in America and Mexico to smuggle illegal immigrants across the U.S. border.
The videos proved that the cartel members were not afraid to boast about their illegal operations, often flaunting their cash on TikTok and other apps, bragging about the ease at which they can evade authorities.
"Carteltok is WILDDD," read a caption from a TikTok video posted on X.
"On TikTok there's currently a trend called 'carteltok', where Mexican cartels hire drug mules who are then paid in crypto. It almost seems as if the cartels are striking back at the Trump administration," another X user wrote, sharing another video of cartels at work from another social media site.
The smugglers not only targeted TikTok for their recruitment, they used other social media sites, including Snapchat and Instagram, among others. They then use encrypted messaging apps, usually WhatsApp, to communicate anonymously with cartel members, getting audio or text messages instructing them where to pick up their human payloads, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Chris Olivarez previously told Fox News Digital.
Representatives for Snapchat, TikTok and Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, told Fox News Digital that they have policies in place to crack down on such content and remove such content when it does appear on their platforms.
In August, 22 people were indicted in Arizona for allegedly recruiting truck drivers using Snapchat posts of cash glamorizing illegal migrant smuggling. Many of the posts claimed drivers can make hefty sums of money without the risk of being arrested.
In September, an Arizona man was sentenced to 71 months in prison for transporting hundreds of illegal immigrants, and investigators found Snapchat posts in which he gloated about cramming people into overcrowded vehicles in unsafe conditions. He also used minors to facilitate certain smuggling operations.
A conviction for conspiring to transport illegal aliens for profit carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Arizona.
[IsraelTimes] Department of Homeland Security accuses Rumeysa Ozturk of ‘engaging in activities in support of Hamas’ after piece in school paper called for divesting from Israeli firms amid war
US immigration authorities late Tuesday detained a Ottoman Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University near Boston who voiced support for divesting from Israel amid the war with Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... in 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... and have revoked her visa.
Rumeysa Ozturk’s supporters say her detention is the first known immigration arrest of a Boston-area student engaged in such activism to be carried out by President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... ’s administration, which has detained or sought to detain several foreign-born students who are legally in the US and have been involved in pro-Paleostinian protests.
The actions have been condemned as an assault on free speech, though the Trump administration argues that certain protests are antisemitic and can undermine US foreign policy.
The 30-year-old Ottoman Turkish national was taken into custody near her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Tuesday evening while she was heading to meet with friends to break her Ramadan fast, according to her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai.
US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in a post on X said authorities determined Ozturk "engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans."
"A visa is a privilege not a right," McLaughlin said.
Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk was detained by ICE.
A video shared with GBH News shows a man in a hoodie approach her, then grab her wrists. Ozturk screams, then asks “Can I call the police?” before being told “We’re the police.”https://t.co/6dwvEmqjVr@sweetadelinevt @GBHNews pic.twitter.com/NAAgGVpp9G
— Tori Bedford (@Tori_Bedford) March 26, 2025
She did not specify what activities. But her arrest came a year after Ozturk co-authored an opinion piece in the school’s student paper, the Tufts Daily, that criticized the university’s response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.”
“Based on patterns we are seeing across the country, her exercising her free speech rights appear to have played a role in her detention,” Khanbabai said.
Following Ozturk’s arrest, Khanbabai filed a lawsuit late Tuesday arguing she was unlawfully detained, prompting US District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston that night to order US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to not move Ozturk out of Massachusetts without at least 48 hours notice.
Despite the judge’s order, by Wednesday afternoon, Khanbabai in a motion said she had been unable to locate her client in New England and had just been informed by a US senator’s office that Ozturk was transferred to Louisiana.
Clearly Louisiana is the place for them.
She sought a court order requiring ICE to permit access to Ozturk.
The student’s detention was condemned by Democratic lawmakers, including US Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who said the “arrest is the latest in an alarming pattern to stifle civil liberties.” A rally in her support was expected later Wednesday in Somerville.
The Trump administration has targeted international students as it seeks to crack down on immigration, including ramping up immigration arrests and sharply restricting border crossings.
Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio in particular have pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters, accusing them of supporting Hamas terrorists, posing hurdles for US foreign policy, and of being antisemitic.
Protesters, including some Jewish groups,
…that’s “Jewish” groups, funded by Progressive dark money groups like Arabella Advisors, the Soros’ Open Society Foundations, and in some cases founded and led by Hezbollah members…
say the administration wrongly conflates their criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights with antisemitism and support for Hamas.
Ozturk is a Fulbright Scholar and student in Tufts’ doctoral program for Child Study and Human Development, according to her LinkedIn profile, and had previously studied at Columbia University in New York.
She has been in the country on an F-1 visa, which allows living in the United States while studying, according to the lawsuit.
Tufts President Sunil Kumar in a statement said the school had no advance knowledge of the arrest, which he recognized would be “distressing to some members of our community, particularly the members of our international community.”
Later Wednesday, hundreds of people demonstrated in a Somerville park, with speaker after speaker demanding her release and accusing both major political parties of failing to protect immigrants and stand up for Palestinians.
“Free Rumeysa Ozturk now,” the crowd chanted, along with traditional protest slogans such as “Free, free Palestine.” Many held Palestinian flags and homemade signs supporting her and opposing ICE.
Ozturk was taken into custody less than three weeks after Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and lawful permanent resident, was similarly arrested. He is challenging his detention after Trump accused him of supporting Hamas, which Khalil denies.
Federal immigration officials are also seeking to detain South Korean-born Columbia University student Yunseo Chung, who is a legal permanent US resident and has participated in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel, a move blocked by the courts for now.
Both Khalil and Chung took part in a protest at Barnard College earlier this month during which activists handed out pamphlets from the “Hamas media office.”
The Trump administration has also targeted students at Cornell University in New York and Georgetown University in Washington.
[Rudaw] Iraqi security forces on Wednesday arrested seven suspected Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) bully boyz in operations across several provinces, state media reported, as the country continues tightening the noose on jihadist remnants.
Military intelligence forces carried out separate operations "through well-planned ambushes and raids on terrorist locations" that "resulted in the arrest of seven gunnies wanted by the Iraqi judiciary under the provisions of Article 4 of the Counter-Terrorism Law in the provinces of Anbar, Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... and Nineveh," state media said.
The article says that anyone found guilty of committing a terror offense is given a death sentence ...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead... , with life imprisonment given to those who assist or hide those convicted of terrorism.
"The gunnies were operating and belonging to ISIS terrorist gangs in various ranks, and had also participated in several terrorist attacks against Iraqi security forces in the past," the statement added.
Iraqi security forces have intensified their operations against ISIS cells in recent months, particularly in areas disputed between Baghdad and Erbil, which stretch across the Kirkuk, Salahaddin, Nineveh, and Diyala provinces.
Iraq’s air force also frequently carries out Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s against ISIS hideouts in the disputed territories.
In late February, the head of Iraq’s Security Media Cell told Rudaw that Iraqi security forces have largely eradicated ISIS from the country, with only a few hundred bully boyz remaining in remote areas.
Sure, but the numbers can be quickly replenished from the tens of thousands still locked up in Syrian prison camps guarded by the Kurds, like Al Hol camp, or from those repatriated from Syria by the Iraqi government.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/27/2025 2025-03-27 05:21 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Israeli security forces arrested 20 wanted suspects overnight in counterterrorism operations across the West Bank, according to an IDF statement.
The IDF says troops seized two firearms, a grenade, and other weapons during the raids.
In a targeted operation in the village of Tayasir in the northern West Bank, IDF forces arrived by helicopter to apprehend a suspect as part of increased coordination between the IDF’s West Bank division and the Israeli Air Force, according to the statement.
Troops of the 636th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit had been waiting in an ambush when soldiers monitoring surveillance cameras spotted a masked Palestinian holding a rock in his hand approaching the highway at the so-called Huwara bypass section.
The troops opened fire on the suspect, killing him, the army says.
The attacks included planting bombs, throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks at vehicles and more.
“One of the serious incidents occurred on January 21, 2024, when the three attacked an Israeli bus carrying about 30 civilians,” a statement says. “The suspects threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the bus, and as a result of the attack, the bus driver was injured in the chest. By sheer luck, the driver managed to stop the vehicle just before it rolled down into a valley.”
In another incident in August 2024, the suspects combined an improvised explosive device with a gas balloon and detonated it near an Israeli settlement, though no one was hurt.
The three have confessed to the charges and have been indicted, the statement says.
Another day, another excuse for a leftywing anti-government protest.
[IsraelTimes] Some opposition MKs join anti-overhaul protesters; rally organizers accuse government of ‘declaring war on the people’; bar association chief: ‘They won’t break democracy’
Thousands of people rallied outside the Knesset on Wednesday to protest against the government, continuing a recent wave of demonstrations, as inside the building politicians prepared for final votes on a controversial judicial bill that has further stoked outcry.
The bill, which will change the composition of the judicial selection committee, has drawn harsh criticism from opposition politicians, who say that it will significantly damage Israel’s democracy. It comes amid an already heated reaction to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to resume fighting in 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... and his moves to fire the head of the Shin Bet and attorney general.
Demonstrators marched through Jerusalem past the Supreme Court building to the Knesset. In the afternoon, some blocked Route 1 at the entrance to the capital, lighting flares on the road.
Demonstrations were also held in other parts of the country, including Tel Aviv.
Protest organizers said in a statement that the government "abandoned the hostages, is harming Israel’s security, and is passing aggressive and extreme legislation without batting an eyelid," a reference to those who were kidnapped during the devastating Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... -led invasion of southern Israel that opened the war.
The legislation debated in parliament would remove the two representatives of the Israel Bar Association currently on the nine-member Judicial Selection Committee, which makes all judicial appointments, and replace them with one lawyer to be directly chosen by the coalition and another chosen by the opposition.
Chair of the Israel Bar Association Amit Bahar spoke about the removal of the IBA seats on the judicial panel.
"They won’t break us, and they won’t break democracy," he told the rally. "We will petition against the law."
"This is a complete coup, which we warned of and against which we campaigned," Bahar said.
An opposition filibuster was expected to keep the Knesset session on the judicial bill going through the night and into Thursday.
Protesters outside the Knesset set up a mock "Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i embassy" featuring multiple people in white robes fanning themselves with money as Arabic music played in the background, in reference to the investigation into allegedly illicit ties between Doha and the Prime Minister’s Office. One demonstrator used ropes to control the arms of a person wearing a Netanyahu mask as if he were a marionette.
"Welcome to the Qatari embassy in Jerusalem," they announced on a microphone.
The display was organized by Brothers in Arms, a prominent anti-government protest group.
"Firing the head of the Shin Bet in the middle of a war, in the midst of a significant security probe, and the attempt to push out the attorney general that opposed the firings is crossing a red line," the group said in a statement.
"Instead of focusing on the hostages and the war with Hamas, the Israeli government is busy with getting rid of anyone who tries to probe the dangerous ties between those around the prime minister and those funding the enemy, said Oren Shvial a leader of the Brothers.
Hebrew media reported Tuesday that Netanyahu was warned at least twice before the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, that the terror group’s military chief Muhammad Deif was appropriating funds provided by Qatar to Gaza with the premier’s approval.
According to near-identical reports by Channel 12 and the Kan public broadcaster, Netanyahu was warned in 2019 by then-Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman and again in 2020 by the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate.
Under Netanyahu, Israel allowed millions in Qatari funds to be transferred to Gaza since 2018, with the aim tof maintaining a fragile ceasefire with enclave’s Hamas rulers.
Several of Netanyahu’s top aides are currently under investigation over alleged financial ties with Qatar, which is one of the mediators in the ceasefire and hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
There was a similar protest outside the Knesset on Tuesday.
The government fired Shin Bet head Ronen Bar last week with Netanyahu saying it was over his lack of trust in the security agency leader. Critics say the prime minister could now appoint a new spy chief who would close the probe into the Qatar ties.
The government is also moving to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara who has repeatedly opposed coalition legislative moves, including the judicial appointments committee bill which is part of a wider judicial overhaul she also opposes.
“Israel has been and will remain a democracy,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told opposition lawmakers at the Knesset on Wednesday, pushing back against allegations that his government is systematically undermining the rule of law.
Netanyahu also appeared to endorse a harder line on Gaza than previously taken by his government, threatening to take control over territory in the coastal enclave to pressure Hamas to release the remaining Israeli hostages.
Slamming his fist on the podium, Netanyahu condemned “bullying,” “incitement,” and “violence against elected officials” while members of the opposition yelled and jeered at him during a so-called 40-signatures debate — a plenum discussion that the opposition can call once a month and that the prime minister is legally obliged to attend.
While the debate was officially called to discuss the rising crime rate in the Arab sector, much of the discussion was focused on the government’s recent moves to fire top officials and gain greater control over the judiciary, which have been slammed by critics as anti-democratic.
“Democracy isn’t in danger; the rule of bureaucrats is in danger. The deep state is in danger,” Netanyahu insisted, railing against a “small coterie of officials” who he alleged are working against the elected government.
Netanyahu, who has been in power since 2009 except for an 18-month period, has in recent weeks stepped up accusations that there is a “deep state” running the country that is out to thwart him, echoing political rhetoric from the US.
“In a democracy the people are sovereign, and the people demand that its free vote in the polling booths be practically carried out in decisions, appointments, policies,” he declared — adding that while the government does not have “unlimited power,” it “cannot be that the government has zero power… There must be a balance between the branches of government.”
Netanyahu’s critics say he is working to undermine the democratic checks and balances on his power.
The legislation removes the two representatives of the Israel Bar Association currently on the nine-member Judicial Selection Committee, which makes all judicial appointments, and replaces them with one lawyer to be directly chosen by the coalition and another chosen by the opposition.
It also gives political representatives from the coalition, opposition and judiciary on the nine-member Judicial Selection Committee veto power over lower court appointments, as opposed to the current system where no side has a veto. And it removes any influence of the three judges on the committee over appointments to the Supreme Court while granting the coalition and opposition vetoes.
Critics say the bill, which will only take effect in the next Knesset, will politicize judicial appointments.
The debate on the bill ahead of the final votes in back-to-back second and third readings lasted through the night, due to the unprecedented 71,023 objections the opposition filed against the legislation.
The opposition boycotted the final votes on the bill, with MKs leaving the plenum as the coalition voted.
[IsraelTimes] Justices finds district court was wrong not to conclude that man who contacted defendant and asked for sensitive security information was an ‘enemy’ agent
An Israeli woman was convicted on Wednesday on a spying charge for 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 JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... after the Supreme Court overturned a previous 2023 ruling by a district court exonerating her.
A panel of three judges accepted an appeal by prosecutors that the woman, who cannot be named in media, should be convicted of passing information that could be useful to an enemy agent. However,
the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... the court did not alter her original sentence of two and a half months in prison for contact with a foreign agent, despite feeling it should be adjusted, because the appeal had not contested that part of the case.
In their ruling, Supreme Court Justices Judge Yosef Elron, Alex Stein, and Ruth Ronen focused on the aspect that information was passed to an "enemy" agent, rather than just a foreign actor, finding that the Jerusalem District Court should have reached the same conclusion.
The Shin Bet security service announced in January 2022 that it had arrested five Jewish Israelis accused of assisting an Iranian operative calling himself "Rambod Namdar," who often pretended to be a Jewish man, in gathering intelligence and making connections in Israel. The five suspects — four women and one man — were all Jewish immigrants colonists from Iran or descendants of Iranian immigrants colonists.
Four were eventually acquitted, or the charges were dropped, but the woman was charged with maintaining contact with an Iranian agent between 2014 and 2018 and providing him information, including photographing various sites in Israel. Namdar presented himself as an Iranian Moslem bachelor interested in Judaism, but prosecutors said the woman suspected that he was working for the regime in Tehran.
The Jerusalem District Court in 2023 convicted the woman of contact with a foreign agent, but cleared her of the charge of conveying information that may benefit the enemy.
Elron said there was enough evidence to show that Namdar was an "enemy" agent, rejecting the lower court’s conclusion that though he was apparently a foreign agent, it was not clear that he was working for an enemy.
"His obvious interest in the security of the State of Israel, its institutions, and its operations, while working tirelessly to collect sensitive information, indicates that this is someone who acted on behalf of the enemy," the justices wrote.
In their appeal, prosecutors pointed to the topics Namdar showed interest in when conversing with the Israeli women he contacted, the tasks he asked of the women, and the kind of information he asked them to obtain for him, which included attempts to identify family members in the security forces. He also asked for information about the location of military bases, Mosssd ...... and Shin Bet headquarters, security arrangements in public places, and sought personal details of security bigshots.
In addition, the woman herself told police during her investigation that she "99 percent" suspected that Namdar was an Iranian agent.
"Someone who appears to be an Iranian agent and behaves like an Iranian agent is an Iranian agent," Stein wrote.
Elron criticized the prosecution for only appealing against the acquittal and not the two-and-a-half-month jail sentence that the woman was given for her conviction, a punishment he described as "ridiculous."
However,
the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... because the appeal was not against the sentence, he said the court’s "hands are tied" in adjusting the prison time which he said should have been "a most significant period behind bars."
The prosecution responded to the ruling in a statement that the court’s decision "stresses the duty Israeli citizens have to take extra caution in ties with foreign entities and strengthen state security defense against intelligence threats."
Namdar was reportedly in contact with around 20 other Israelis, the majority of them women.
Over the past two years, Iranian intelligence operatives have ramped up their efforts to recruit ordinary Israelis as spies in exchange for money.
.
#1
While I am all against Iran, Terrorism and such violent funded groups.
My comment is not about her guilt or innocence. My issue with this is.
This Yes, No, Yes verdict, about a woman who cannot even be named in media. Has now, set the stage, to allow abusive prosecutors to continue to pursue charges, even having initially lost, and to hounding defendants beyond their physical or $$$$ ability to defend themselves.
[IsraelTimes] No injuries as rocket lands in Zimrat near southern border, IDF intercepts another projectile; Gazans protest against Hamas rule over the Strip for 2nd consecutive day
Two rockets were launched from the central 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... Strip at southern Israel, the military said on Wednesday, as the Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... terror group warned Israel that if it pushed ahead with military operations, the hostages would return to Israel in coffins.
The Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... grabbed credit for the rocket attack. One rocket was intercepted by air defenses and a second impacted outside Zimrat, causing no injuries.
The IDF issued an evacuation warning for Paleostinians in and around Gaza City, where the projectiles were fired from, before it carried out strikes in the area.
The IDF later said it struck a terror operative behind the rocket fire who was spotted at the launch site.
The IDF added that it also hit a building in the area used to set off the launches and two other nearby rocket launching sites.
It published footage of the strikes.
Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the entire 614th quadrant searched. The Green Lensman must be found!... Hamas threatened that the hostages would return "in coffins" should Israel continue air strikes and ground operations in the Strip.
"Every time the occupation attempts to retrieve its captives by force, it ends up bringing them back in coffins," it said in a statement.
The group claimed they are "doing everything possible to keep the occupation’s captives alive, but the random Zionist bombardment is endangering their lives."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to hit back at Hamas during a speech in the Knesset, warning that Israel would seize territory in Gaza if Hamas continued to refuse to release the remaining hostages.
"The more Hamas persists in its refusal to release our hostages, the stronger the pressure we will exert," Netanyahu said in the plenum. "This includes the seizure of territories, along with other measures I will not elaborate here."
Wednesday also saw dozens of Gaza City residents gathered in the Shejaiya neighborhood to protest Hamas rule in the Strip. They burned tires and chanted "Hamas out," calling for an end to the war.
The demonstrations, exceedingly rare in the past due to the terror group’s often violent mostly peaceful suppression of political dissent, marked the second consecutive day of anti-Hamas protests.
Similar protests against the terror group took place across the territory on Tuesday, in Beit Lahiya, the Jabalia refugee camp and Khan Younis.
Footage showed around 100 residents of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, holding a protest calling for an end to the war and an end to Hamas’s governance, with some demonstrators carrying signs reading "Stop war" and "Children in Paleostine want to live."
Israel resumed intense Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s across the Strip last week, followed by ground operations, shattering the relative calm of a January ceasefire with Hamas.
Hamas, in 1st response to protests, claims they are against Israel, not itself
[IsraelTimes] Hamas issues its first official response to the demonstration against the organization, claiming they are actually against Israel and that “there are those who are trying to divert the spontaneous protests to serve the occupation’s agenda.”
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim tells the Qatari channel Al-Araby that “demonstrations are expected from people facing extermination, against war and destruction… People are calling to stop the aggression, but the enemy and other parties with political agendas are diverting the spontaneous protests to serve the occupation’s agenda and trying to portray it as if the demonstrators are against the resistance” — a reference to Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza.
This is Hamas’s first on-the-record response to the anti-Hamas and anti-war demonstrations in Gaza in the last few days.
“They made the residents into rabbits, and now they have broken free of the fear because they have nothing to lose,” a Gazan man named Sami Ubayed told Israel’s Ynet news outlet.
“Residents have no water or electricity. Hamas is destroying Gaza and making us into stones, they must be removed from power. We won’t stop demonstrating, Hamas needs to be flexible and release the hostages.”
Demonstrators carrying banners reading, “Hamas does not represent us,” were seen marching in Gaza City and the town of Beit Lahiya in the north of the territory.
In Beit Lahiya, where a similar but far smaller protest took place Tuesday, about 3,000 people demonstrated Wednesday, with many chanting, “The people want the fall of Hamas.” In the hard-hit Shejaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, dozens of men chanted, “Out, out out! Hamas get out!”
In some incidents, protesters at rallies urged Hamas to release hostages it is holding to expedite an end to the war that has devastated most areas of Gaza, making conditions harsh for residents.
[IsraelTimes] The IDF confirms carrying out a drone strike last night in the Tyre District of southern Lebanon, killing a senior Hezbollah commander.
According to the IDF, the strike in the village of Derdghaiya, adjacent to Maaroub, killed Ahmed Adnan Bajija, a battalion commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force.
The military says the commander was involved in directing numerous attacks on Israel and IDF troops during the war and that in recent months, amid the ceasefire, he “continued to engage in advancing terror attacks against the Israeli home front.”
[Rudaw] The Israeli military on Thursday launched fresh Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on Syria despite international condemnations, targeting the western coastal city of Latakia where injuries are currently unknown, state media reported.
"Israeli occupation planes launched several airstrikes in the vicinity of the port and the city of Latakia a short while ago," Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said, citing its correspondent.
A deadly Israeli airstrike on the southern province of Daraa on Tuesday drew international condemnation from regional and global powers such as Germany, Jordan, Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... , and Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... . The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it was targeting "several hard boyz who opened fire toward them" while Damascus said six were killed.
SANA added that authorities are "working to ensure that there are no injuries in the targeted place."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based war monitor, reported that Israel "fired at least six missiles" on ammunition depots in Latakia.
"The raid caused extensive material damage and destroyed the ammunition depot. The explosions continued for tens of minutes, and no reports of casualties have been reported so far," the Observatory said.
[Rudaw] Kurdish security forces (Asayish) in northeast Syria (Rojava) announced on Wednesday that they seized over 2.7 million Captagon pills in Qamishli.
"A huge quantity of 2,765,000 Captagon pills was seized, and two individuals considered key members of the drug trafficking network" in the area were arrested, Asayish said in a statement.
Captagon is an amphetamine-type stimulant that has been sweeping the Middle East for years.
The Asayish described the operation as "one of the biggest blows to drug pushers in the region" and said that the narcotics had been brought from a "neighboring country for the purpose of trafficking."
The suspected drug pushers were ambushed on Monday night when Asayish found "small bags" inside their vehicle in Qamishli, the statement added.
Syria, under fallen dictator Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... , was a major source for the Captagon trade. The drug was one of the power cards used by the Assad regime for political leverage, and his brother Maher is believed to have been largely behind the illegal business.
With the collapse of Assad’s rule, observers have urged the international community to make ending the Captagon trade among the prerequisites for providing relief to the new Syrian leadership.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
... the personification of Somali state failure...
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..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
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..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
Light of the Alawites...
