[Reuters] The U.S. Air Force secretary extended the life of the A-10 "Warthog" attack plane until 2030, sparing the aging but beloved close air support aircraft that has played an important role in Iran from an earlier retirement deadline of 2026.
"We will EXTEND the A-10 'Warthog' platform to 2030," Air Force Secretary Troy Meink posted on social media, adding the move "preserves combat power as the Defense Industrial Base works to increase combat aircraft production."
The decision is the latest chapter in a long-running battle over the fate of the plane, which first flew in 1976 and has been on the Pentagon's chopping block for more than two decades. The A-10 has been used in the current conflict with Iran, according to U.S. Central Command. Its powerful nose-mounted guns have been used against Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz, according to reports.
Some in the Air Force have long argued that the Warthog is too old, too slow and too expensive to maintain, and that retiring it would free up money for modernization priorities like development of hypersonic weapons. Critics have warned that cutting the fleet without a suitable replacement would leave ground troops without adequate air support.
But the A-10 has proven almost impossible to kill, in large part because of its political staying power. The largest concentration of the fleet is based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, contributing to the local economy. The Air Force ranks among the region's top employers. Arizona is a battleground state that has become increasingly influential in deciding U.S. presidential races.
In 2021, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly successfully pushed back against a Biden administration proposal to retire dozens of the planes, securing language in defense legislation that blocked any retirements. Kelly argued the planes should not be cut without a suitable replacement to carry out the close air support mission.
Air Force officials have also warned that keeping the full fleet strains the supply of mechanics needed to service newer aircraft.
The latest extension suggests those concerns have, for now, again taken a back seat to preserving combat capacity.
#2
Agreed, how many of these could we have for what 1 F-35 cost?
Posted by: chris ||
04/21/2026 1:08 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Nice to have an anniversary year with some wise decisions thrown in!!
Posted by: Oregon Dave ||
04/21/2026 1:19 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Ask an infantryman what he thinks of the A-10. I can still hear those young kids cheering and clapping in the SCIF as they watched live UAV feeds of A-10's hitting the bad guys in AFG and Iraq.
#5
And there was much butthurt in the D-ring offices of the Air Force.
I like 'em, but you have to remember, they're like tanks. You gotta have air superiority or they're toast.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/21/2026 8:16 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Unfortunately the A-10 only is effective in a secured airspace.
I can carry stand-off weapons, however.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/21/2026 8:35 Comments ||
Top||
#7
When was the last time the US ever didn't have air supremacy? Korea? MiG alley?
Sabers going over the border into China to strafe chicom airbases?
#9
If it was up to the Air Farce*, the planes would be in the boneyard in AZ already. I strongly suspect that the Sec of War had a chat with either the Sec of Air Farce or senior Air Farce leadership and told them the A-10 was not going to be retired.
*I respect the rank & file in the branch, but senior leadership needs a wake up call
🇸🇩 SUDAN: Reports of growing Islamist influence in military continue to raise serious concerns.
Sudanese army chief of staff Yasser Al-Atta is reportedly considering integrating the U.S.-designated terrorist Al-Baraa Ibn Malik Brigade into the armed forces.
Reports of growing Islamist influence in military continue to raise serious concerns.
Sudanese army chief of staff Yasser Al-Atta is reportedly considering integrating the U.S.-designated terrorist Al-Baraa Ibn Malik Brigade into the armed forces.
No concrete steps yet—but Al-Atta has praised the group, raising concerns of deepening Islamist influence.
The brigade, linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, was designated by the U.S. in Sept 2025 and is accused of Iran IRGC-backed support and mass executions of civilians.
Posted by: badanov ||
04/21/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1753 views]
Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
🚨 NIGERIA: BOKO HARAM ISSUES 72-HOUR ULTIMATUM (See top key detail👇)
A Boko Haram faction has reportedly threatened to execute 416 captives, mostly women and children, abducted from the Christian Ngoshe community in Borno State.
🚨 NIGERIA: BOKO HARAM ISSUES 72-HOUR ULTIMATUM (See top key detail👇)
We knew they were evil. but they didn’t need to prove it.
A Boko Haram faction has reportedly threatened to execute 416 captives, mostly women and children, abducted from the Christian Ngoshe community in Borno State.
Key details:
• They are not a statue of Jesus in Lebanon, and therefore, will not garner global outrage.
• Mass abduction occurred during coordinated attacks in early March
• Insurgents demand ₦5 billion (~£2.7M) ransom
• Video released showing captives with execution threat
• Nigerian officials urging urgent federal intervention
• Local groups calling on government and private actors to act before deadline
Nigeria maintains a policy against ransom payments, complicating response efforts.
The situation remains fluid as the deadline approaches.
[IsraelTimes] Kuwait has declared force majeure on shipments of crude oil and refined products after a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz prevented some vessels from entering the Persian Gulf, hindering its ability to meet certain customer commitments, Bloomberg News reports.
State-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp. notified customers on Friday that it was invoking a contract clause allowing it to withhold scheduled deliveries, the report said.
It added that the decision is not expected to result in a complete halt in supply.
[JewishNews] In a scathing judgment, a case brought by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians was dismissed as 'an abuse of the process of the court'
An attempt by Paleostinian legal campaigners to bring a private prosecution against a British-Israeli dual citizen who returned to Israel on 8 October 2023 to rejoin his former IDF unit as a reservist has been thrown out by Westminster Magistrates’ Court, with the judge describing the attempt as "legally flawed, evidentially deficient, and procedurally defective".
In a case heard in private at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 12 March, an attempt by the International Centre of Justice for Paleostinians to issue a summons against the individual in question was dismissed by a judge, who scathingly described the attempt as "an abuse of the process of the court, driven by an improper motive and facilitated by serious breaches of the duty of candour".
In further comments from Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring, the ICPJ’s "dominant motive" was described as "the advancement of a political and ideological agenda, not the pursuit of justice for a specific criminal act." The ICJP’s "use of the criminal courts as a platform for political posturing" was further described as "an abuse of process."
As well as ruling that the ICJP has misinterpreted the law they were trying to invoke in support of their argument, the court also identified that despite being fully aware of statements from multiple governments and prosecution guidance from the CPS which might contradict the ICJP’s attempt to bring a private prosecution, the organization had not informed the court of these. Such omissions were separately described as "a serious and inexcusable omission" and that there was "no credible explanation for this failure".
Other behaviours that the court took issue with included the fact that "the applicant [ICJP] failed to disclose the deep connections between itself and Bindmans LLP" and that "the supposed expert witness...is part of an ICJP whatsapp group. This connection was not disclosed in her expert declaration or in the application."
Describing how "an expert witness must be independent", the court went on to say that the individual in question’s "involvement in an ICJP whatsapp group, combined with her public statements and social media activity, reveals her to be a campaigner and activist committed to the political agenda pursued by this prosecution, rather than an independent expert." The evidence given by the "expert" in question was subsequently described as "partisan and misleading...more akin to propaganda than independent analysis."
Following publication of the court’s decision, a spokesperson for UK Lawyers for Israel said: "This judgment provides important reassurance for British-Israeli nationals who serve in the IDF, particularly reservists who return to duty in times of crisis. The Court has made clear that such individuals are not to be treated as having unlawfully enlisted in the armed forces of a foreign state.
It also sends a strong message that misuse of the criminal law to advance a political agenda will not be countenanced by English courts."
An ICJP spokesperson stated:
"This case was brought to test whether existing UK law can be used to ensure accountability where individuals participate in foreign military activity in circumstances that raise serious legal and ethical concerns.
"While the Court has taken a narrow view of the legislation and the role of the courts in this area, the underlying issue remains unresolved: whether there is, in practice, any meaningful legal mechanism to scrutinise such conduct.
"ICJP will continue to pursue accountability through lawful and appropriate means."
The Telegraph is withholding the exact figure for security reasons. However, several SAS sources have described the recent losses as “significant” and a “threat to national security”.
At least two squadrons, D and G, are believed to have been affected, with insiders saying outrage over recent war crime probes into Afghanistan and Syria, which have been branded “witch hunts”, are believed to be the main driving forces.
Among those understood to have resigned include several senior warrant officers, who are the backbone of the special forces and among the most experienced troops in the regiment. A number are understood to have applied for release “on principle” just before Christmas.
“Morale is s--t at the moment,” one insider with knowledge of the recent losses told me, while another said there was “considerable disquiet” in the regiment as a result.
The SAS resignations are a major blow to the famed special forces unit, which is the tip of the spear in any military operation and is deployed globally.
#13
^ Excellent point, although I can imagine how the left would respond if a Brit commander turned the Gurkhas loose on some poor bastards. Maximum pearl clutching, knickers terminally twisted..
Posted by: Matt ||
04/21/2026 16:01 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Years ago, the wicked minds of the extreme Soros penumbra discovered the "single-point-of-failure" in the U.S. law enforcement system, the elected District Attorney. That vulnerability in the core political strongholds of the demokrat party, the urban sumps they hold as permanent fiefdoms, has led to the outrageous DA examples in NYC, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis et cetera. It remains a core power-center tactic for progressive progress along the Alinsky, Cloward-Piven models.
Australia has just introduced the primer for the same point-of failure model to dismantle elite and even regular military forces. The parallel is the political leadership "loss of confidence" disaster that wrongly put Officer Derrick Chauvin in prison for the death of George Floyd and created the significant deterioration in LE aggressive policing nationwide.
Imagine a Democrat administration and Congress creating policies and laws that create retroactive prosecution for "war crimes" imagined when a previous Republican administration uses military force. Now imagine the hesitancy created for anyone in the next Republican-led DOW(DoD) when ordered to apply force. This is perilous to consider s we watch the Australian and potentially UK stories to play out!
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Nearly 500 alleged members of the powerful Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) went on trial collectively in El Salvador on Monday, accused of thousands of murders.
The country is conducting mass trials of thousands of suspected gang members, many of whom have spent years in prison without charge or visiting rights, as part of iron-fisted President Nayib Bukele's anti-gang crackdown.
The Attorney General's Office said 486 suspected MS-13 members were on trial for 47,000 crimes committed between 2012 and 2022, including 29,000 homicides.
The Attorney General's Office said 486 suspected MS-13 members were on trial for 47,000 crimes committed between 2012 and 2022, including 29,000 homicides.
El Salvador's court system said the trial included 'members of the national leadership, street-level leaders, program coordinators from across the country, and founders of' MS-13.
Salvadoran authorities accuse the group of a range of crimes, including the killing of 87 people in a single weekend in March 2022.
In the wake of those killings, Bukele, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, declared a 'war' on gangs, which he said controlled 80 per cent of Salvadoran territory.
MS-13 is charged with the crime of rebellion 'because they sought to... establish a parallel state,' the Attorney General's Office said.
'We are going to put them on trial, and we are going to settle a historic debt,' prosecutors said.
Bukele in 2022 imposed a state of emergency, which has been used to arrest more than 91,000 suspected gang members, including thousands of people who were later declared innocent.
The campaign, which made Bukele hugely popular, has resulted in a dramatic decrease in crime, turning El Salvador from one of Latin America's most dangerous countries to one of its safest.
Rights groups, however, have denounced gross human rights abuses, including a lack of due process for the detainees, reports of torture and more than 500 deaths in prison.
The fates of the detainees are now being decided in mass trials, with anonymous judges handing down one-size-fits-all punishments to large groups of defendants following the proceedings via video-link from prison.
MS-13 and the rival Barrio 18 gang operate drug trafficking rings and extortion rackets across Central America.
The Trump administration has declared the two groups - among others - as terrorist organisations, designations it has used in part to justify deadly military strikes on alleged drug-running boats.
The two gangs were born among Salvadoran youth on the streets of Los Angeles and then spread back to El Salvador, where they terrorised the population for more than three decades.
Bukele has accused them of murdering 200,000 people over three decades, including about 80,000 who disappeared without a trace.
State prosecutors said they had 'ample evidence to request the maximum sentences' against the defendants, without specifying whether that meant life imprisonment.
At the opening of the trial, the judge stated that armed groups had disturbed 'the peace of the Salvadoran population and the security of the state' for decades, and would be tried 'with the full force of the law.'
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and regional NGO Cristosal have criticised the mass trials, warning of the risk of innocent people being made to pay for the crimes of the guilty.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] Russia opposes renewed US-Israeli aggression against Iran and Lebanon and believes there is no justification for this potential aggression. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Ivanov stated this on April 20.
That’s nice. It’s good to have feelings, even if nobody else cares.
"The unjustified use of military force against civilian infrastructure is absolutely unjustifiable.
Goodness gracious — how wonderfully profound.
It's clear that continuing this conflict would have complex negative consequences for both the Middle East and the world as a whole," the diplomat noted at the 3rd All-Russian Municipal Forum "Small Homeland – Russia's Strength."
Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed hope that negotiations on the Middle East would continue and that the situation around Iran would not return to a violent scenario.
On April 8, US President Donald Trump stated his willingness to consider Iran's proposals for resolving the conflict and announced a two-week ceasefire. On April 11, the first round of talks between the two sides took place in Islamabad. According to the White House, Washington and Tehran had agreed on most issues but had not reached an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, which the US is demanding be closed.
On April 12, the United States imposed a naval blockade of the Iranian coast. On April 18, US Central Command reported that 23 vessels departing from ports in the Islamic Republic had been intercepted over the past week.
Posted by: badanov ||
04/21/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1765 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
veta a la mierda
Posted by: chris ||
04/21/2026 1:09 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Butthurt.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/21/2026 4:24 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Is Iran entering its Gorbachev moment?
The idea of an “Iranian Gorbachev” has surfaced before in the Islamic Republic, but this time the conditions may be different.
SPAIN: Pakistani migrants are rushing to the consulate in Barcelona for their paperwork, as the government plans to regularize 500,000 illegals.
Notice they are all military-aged men, no women or children. They will soon be able to move freely across Europe. This won’t end well. pic.twitter.com/tSepsIqY55
.@SecDuffy: 53% of Commercial Driver's Licenses issued to foreigners in New York were issued illegally.
We gave them FOUR MONTHS to comply with the law. They refused, so we had no choice but to pull funding — and if they still refuse, we can pull their ability to issue CDLs. pic.twitter.com/Y34iGN0U2Z
Year of our Lord 2026: Democrat US Senator openly rooting for Iran to defeat the US in battle. Every Dem on the Hill ought to be hounded today by every reporter to answer for this lunatic. pic.twitter.com/8ixSVsGFRo
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/21/2026 10:16 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1793 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
He's planning on a '28 POTUS run. Idiot. Traitor.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/21/2026 10:38 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Clarity, and another opportunity to waste large sums of Democrat donor money that will then flow through the economy while being unavailable for more likely to win candidates.
I vote for more Democrats throwing their hats in the ring.
#7
In which army or civil society is iconoclasm a legally punishable crime?
In any civilized society in which the icons they damage are not their personal property. Breaking someone else’s stuff is a species of thievery. Not to mention that Hillel’s negative version of the Golden Rule, a century or more older than Jesus Christ’s positive variant, says Do not do unto others as you would not have others do unto you.
So if you don’t want others to feel free to take your precious thing and destroy it…
#8
Also, Israel wants the Christian Lebanese to support them again, so acting diplomatically instead of like a bunch of drunken frat boys is advisable.
#9
Sigh, he is my junior Senator. I'm sure he thinks he is going to be the nominee in 2028, but I doubt it, he is mostly a lightweight. I don't see him as one of the important members of the Senate.
The senior senator almost got himself killed by a train because he thought the yellow line did not apply to him hen he was doing a presentation. It's on Youtube.
#13
re#11 I meant whore in case that confused you.
Posted by: chris ||
04/21/2026 18:44 Comments ||
Top||
#14
I dunno. Something about this sledgehammer business smells. Color me skeptical.
I remember you panicking like a whole
As for Grom, I always considered him as a "more than the sum of his parts" kind of guy. It is possible he was referring to Gephids Wheasing9964.
[Just The News] Months before the 2020 presidential election, U.S. intelligence issued a secret but stark warning that foreign adversaries had the capability to "compromise" America's voting infrastructure and raised specific concerns about the vulnerability of voter registration databases that later would be penetrated by China and Iran, a newly declassified memo obtained by Just the News shows.
The National Intelligence Council's (NIC) concerns were so extensive that officials personally briefed President Donald Trump at the White House in February 2020, according to photos obtained by Just the News showing top CIA, FBI and Homeland Security officials joining with NIC analysts to inform the president.
But the American public was never fully alerted, even after evidence emerged that China had gained access to voter registration data in multiple states and had even sent fake driver's licenses to the United States in a bid to help Joe Biden win the election, officials said.
"We judge that US adversaries, including, at a minimum, Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, as well as non-state groups, have the capability to compromise US election infrastructure for the 2020 presidential election," the NIC wrote in the memo dated Jan. 15, 2020.
"Adversaries gaining access to US election-related systems could disrupt the voting process, steal sensitive data, or undermine confidence in the election results, but we do not know whether any of them have specific plans to manipulate election-related systems," the memo added.
The document was recently declassified by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who continues to expose examples of the intelligence community suppressing or misusing intelligence.
Though officials say that an ongoing second Trump administration investigation has found no evidence yet that vote-counting machines were directly compromised in the 2020 election, the memo shows how such machines could be vulnerable to intrusions in the future and made clear that the voter registration databases that were breached by China were easy targets.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
04/21/2026 02:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1797 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Reuters] Pakistan has put a $1.5 billion deal to supply weapons and jets to Sudan on hold after Saudi Arabia asked for the agreement to be terminated and said it would not finance the purchase, two Pakistani security sources and a diplomatic source said.
The conflict between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has stoked the world's worst humanitarian crisis for around three years, turning into a flashpoint for competing foreign interests and threatening to break up the Red Sea country, a major gold producer.
Reuters first reported a deal was in the final stages in January and had been brokered by Saudi Arabia, but no financing from Riyadh was disclosed at the time. The deal was among several defence sales being negotiated by the Pakistani military after its jets and weapons systems gained prominence following skirmishes with India in May last year.
Saudi Arabia is one of Pakistan's closest allies and has been a source of critical loans and financing for Islamabad's ailing economy.
That’s not an ally. That’s a patron or a sugar daddy.
Their relationship has deepened since the signing last year of a mutual defence pact treating aggression against either as an attack on both.
"Saudi Arabia has signaled that Pakistan should terminate the deal after it dropped the idea of financing it," one of the security sources said.
That’s not a signal, that’s a shot across the bow, a warning that the next one will be below the water line.
The Saudi government media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sudan's armed forces also did not immediately respond.
The Pakistani military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military and air force had not previously confirmed that a deal was in the pipeline.
The source added that some Western countries had advised Riyadh to stay away from proxy wars in Africa.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have backed opposing sides in conflict-ridden countries across the region, including in Sudan. While both sides say they back a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, Saudi Arabia has put its weight behind Sudan's army, while the UAE has been accused of providing logistical support to the RSF, a charge it officially denies.
The source said a March meeting between Sudan army leaders and Saudi authorities in Riyadh resulted in the termination of Saudi financing for the deal.
Another $4 billion deal with the Libyan National Army, reported by Reuters in December, was also in jeopardy because the Saudis are "revisiting their strategy" in both countries, the second security source said.
They’ve got a war with Iran to pay for. Toys for Pakistani boys can wait.
[Times of Israel] US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has been called to return to Washington for urgent discussions on the situation with Iran, Channel 12 reports.
The report comes as US President Donald Trump announces an extension of the temporary ceasefire with Iran until Tehran submits a unified proposal for an agreement.
Posted by: DooDahMan ||
04/21/2026 18:27 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1750 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
This POS Huckabee. How dare he invite scumbag Jonathan Pollard to the US Embassy last year. Disgusting.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] High-profile reshuffles continue in Israel's top offices. Ido Norden, an experienced bureaucrat and economist, took over as chief of staff in Benjamin Netanyahu's office in April. He effectively became the prime minister's right-hand man, seizing control from the disgraced Ziv Agmon, who was dismissed after making racist remarks.
However, before Norden had even had time to settle into his position, scandal after scandal began to rain down on him. Unlike his predecessor, he was clearly unprepared for these scandals.
THE CRISIS OF THE OFFICE
By April 2026, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office was not in the best shape.
One after another, the most experienced political strategists and managers left. Some did so on their own initiative due to transfers to other positions, while others were suspended by court order. Others managed to quarrel with their boss and leave under pressure. As a result, by early spring, every other position in the chancery was vacant.
This has hampered the executive body's operational work and has also hit Netanyahu's personal ratings.
Recent polls conducted by the newspaper Maariv have revealed that a question has taken root in the public consciousness: if a politician is incapable of reining in even his own staff, how can he be trusted to govern the country?
The gossip intensified especially after the scandal involving the prime minister's former confidant, PR man and chief of staff Ziv Agmon, whose careless statements exacerbated relations between the country's religious communities.
After Agmon's departure, Netanyahu had to rebuild his own apparatus almost manually, and Ido Norden became one of the people tasked with breathing new life into the paralyzed structure.
EQUIDISTANT PLAYER
Unlike his predecessor, who rose to the highest ranks almost by accident, Norden's tenure in the Prime Minister's Office marks his second stint. Prior to that, from 2006 to 2008, he served in Ehud Olmert's administration, where he served as senior adviser to the Chief of Staff.
Moreover, during his career, he managed to work at the Central Bank and the innovation sector, change several ministries and agencies, including the Supreme Command Headquarters, and also work in public affairs. However, in all these cases, he tended to maintain a relatively low profile, never publicly aspiring to either ministerial portfolios or senior public positions.
At the same time, he had every opportunity to confidently ascend, not least due to his authority in religious circles. Norden is the son-in-law of Rabbi Yosef Kalner, the spiritual authority of the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) movement and one of the most respected religious figures in the Jewish community.
It was Kellner who introduced his new relative to leading Jewish intellectuals and conservative politicians, gently introducing him to the hawkish community. Later, at one of their receptions, Norden met Prime Minister Netanyahu. The latter, however, did not see much potential in his interlocutor at the time.
Beyond his family connections, Norden also had considerable personal political capital: during his years of public service, he developed contacts among both hawks and moderate politicians. And during Israel's difficult times, he managed, unlike many others, to maintain a relative balance between the Haredi and secular circles.
While other Israeli religious intellectuals rushed to the barricades, Norden preferred to bridge the gap between the opposing sides, remaining largely in the shadows. And thanks to this, he was able to remain "welcome" to both sides.
In many ways, it was Norden's equidistance from the main centers of power that prompted Netanyahu to choose him when approving candidates for the post of Chief of Staff, a key position within the Prime Minister's Office. Here, the Prime Minister was forced to make a compromise with himself and sideline his aide, Nevo Katz —a more manageable but less stable figure.
With this unconventional reshuffle, Netanyahu apparently hoped to at least temporarily calm passions within the chancellery—including buying time to appoint a permanent press secretary (for now, this task remains in Norden’s portfolio).
NETWORK CLONES
However, Netanyahu's hopes for a calm transfer period were dashed. Just days after Norden's appointment to the top post, the chancery was rocked by scandal—and the newly appointed head found himself at the center of it.
On one social network, numerous clones of Norden's official account and Israeli spiritual authorities suddenly became active, vying with each other to praise the new chief of staff and predicting a "new golden era" of development and growth for the Jewish state.
Some of them even resorted to seditious behavior—criticizing Prime Minister Netanyahu's stance, calling him a "weak leader" who "doesn't listen to religious authorities." In contrast, Norden received only positive ratings from the bots and was positioned as practically the savior of the fatherland.
Although most of these accounts were created in the early 2020s, they remained undetected for a long time. Now, in light of their sharp increase in activity, journalists have conducted an investigation.
It was established that the network helped promote publications related to the new Chancellery chief, with leads leading either to Norden himself or to individuals close to him. Norden, of course, denies any connection to the bots, calling the incident an "image attack" staged by Netanyahu's opponents on the eve of the elections.
However, the clone scandal has become more of an excuse for the public to recall Norden's previous escapades. For example, to study his book, "Invisible Rulers," published in 2024, in which the official veers into outright conspiracy theories and blames the "deep state" for all the recent failures and setbacks of the ruling apparatus, elevating its "subversive activities" to the level of an existential threat to Israel.
Norden also happily plays into criticism of the Jewish state's security agencies. He compares the Shin Bet counterintelligence agency to Iran's IRGC (hinting, among other things, at its "pronounced repressive nature"), and the scandal surrounding the Qatari lobby (the so-called "Qatargate"), which cost the careers of some of Netanyahu's associates, to being "artificially inflated" to salvage the army's reputation after its failures in the war with Hamas.
It's no surprise that the very next day after the first reports about the "Norden Grid" appeared, Israeli social media was flooded with previously forgotten, controversial quotes from "Invisible Rulers." Opinions began to circulate that the "equidistant administrator" wasn't so equidistant after all, and that Haredi lobbyists had secretly infiltrated the highest echelons of power.
And although Netanyahu's supporters insist that Norden the writer and Norden the manager are two completely different figures, and that "personal views on individual issues" will not affect his effectiveness as head of the chancery, the flywheel of the scandal continues to spin.
Moreover, both secular liberals and security forces are digging into the politician with equal zeal. The new head of the chancery's name is barely mentioned in the debates, but the attacks directed at him are easily read between the lines.
It's noteworthy that the prime minister has yet to officially comment on the scandal surrounding his new aide. Netanyahu doesn't want to draw further attention to the issue, and he's clearly hoping to brush it under the rug—to avoid having to look for another chancery chief. This is already the third one in the past year.
Top leaders in Iran have begun transferring their families to underground tunnels in anticipation of renewed attacks from Israel and the United States as the ceasefire nears expiration.
Trucks carrying essential household items, including washing machines, microwaves, and large… pic.twitter.com/x5JdBtnXyy
… microwaves, and large quantities of food supplies, have been observed moving through mountainous regions of Iran, heading toward heavily fortified bunkers.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) stated that these movements are precautionary, aimed at ensuring the safety of families amid rising tensions and the threat of potential strikes.
Meanwhile, Israel is reportedly preparing up to 150 fighter jets as part of a possible large-scale operation targeting Iran in the coming days, should the ceasefire collapse.
Sources suggest that Israel may act unilaterally, potentially launching strikes on Tehran without prior coordination with Donald Trump.
Reports also indicate that while IRGC personnel remain sheltered underground, civilians including women and children are being mobilized on the surface for protests, raising concerns over their safety as tensions escalate.🇮🇷
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/21/2026 11:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1757 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[IsraelTimes] The European Commission has proposed a full resumption of its 1978 cooperation agreement with Syria, deepening its engagement ahead of formal talks with Syria’s authorities in May.
Syria, which had most Western sanctions lifted at the end of last year, is seeking broader integration into the international community under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who headed an alliance of Islamist rebel factions to oust former leader Bashar al-Assad at the end of 2024 after a 14-year war.
It is also emerging as a critical transit point, particularly amid the energy crisis triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran war.
The proposal will need to be formally adopted by the European Council.
[IsraelTimes] US President Donald Trump says Iranian uranium enrichment and storage sites were completely destroyed in an operation in June, and that digging out the nuclear material will be difficult.
“Operation Midnight Hammer was a complete and total obliteration of the Nuclear Dust sites in Iran. Therefore, digging it out will be a long and difficult process. Fake News CNN, and other corrupt Media Networks and Platforms, fail to give our great aviators the credit they deserve — Always trying to demean and belittle — LOSERS!!!” he writes on Truth Social.
Trump has previously claimed that the June operation during the 12-day war with Iran successfully destroyed Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities, and has recently claimed Tehran has agreed to allow the material to be shipped out of the country.
However, Iranian officials have insisted on their “nuclear rights” and have not agreed to such a term.
Update at noon EDT:
It’s believed Iran has enough highly enriched uranium to make at least 10 nuclear bombs. What would it take for the U.S. to secure it? Sunday, 60 Minutes reports on a past covert mission code-named Project Sapphire that could be a blueprint for a similar operation in Iran.… pic.twitter.com/9qYUCnlXQJ
After weeks of Operation Epic Fury, and the Left doing its best to undermine the U.S. effort to disarm Iran of nuclear weapons, 60 Minutes just made an amazing admission. They reported that Iran had, in fact, enriched enough uranium to make ten nuclear bombs.
Project Sapphire was a 1994 joint operation between the U.S. and Kazakhstan to reduce nuclear proliferation. A warehouse at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant near Ust-Kamenogorsk had more than 1,300 pounds of enriched uranium used to fuel Alfa-class submarines. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the uranium was poorly secured and documented, putting it at risk for being sold and used in nuclear weapons.
After months of planning, 31 agents formed the Nuclear Emergency Recovery Team and President Bill Clinton signed a classified directive approving an airlift. From October 14 to November 11, 1994, that team spent 12-hour days packing uranium in secrecy. It was loaded on planes and flown back to Delaware.
#4
Exactly how much fissile material the IRI has and the exact location of such is by far the most significant "known unknown" in this war. The IRI has had 46 years to dig deep and often. "Long and difficult" is an understatement.
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.
