[Breitbart] The Iranian terror state’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, attended an event to mark the would-be 100th birthday of dead communist mass murderer Fidel Castro in that country, Iranian state media revealed on Tuesday, using it as an opportunity to promote Iran’s war against the United States and demand diplomatic and economic support.
Fidel Castro was born the son of a wealthy white landowner in Santiago de Cuba on August 13, 1926. His family’s dynasty, which is in its 67th year of tyrannical control of the island nation, marked the occasion with a variety of events in Cuba and around the world to keep Castro’s legacy of mass firing-squad murders, racism, homophobia, religious persecution, imprisonment and torture of political dissidents, imperialist invasions of African countries, and rampant global espionage to promote Marxist ideology. In addition to marking 100 years since his birth, 2026 will soon mark the first decade since Fidel Castro’s long-anticipated death in November 2016.
Iran and Cuba have long maintained a close diplomatic alliance, supporting each other’s regimes and amplifying each other’s propaganda against their main geopolitical enemy, the United States. As part of this alliance, Pasandideh, the Iranian envoy in Mexico, spoke to honor Castro at an event in Puebla, Mexico, recently hosted by the radical organization “Torchbearers Movement.”
“Pasandideh paid tribute to Castro’s historical legacy, describing him as a symbol of the will of a people that chose to determine its own destiny independently and freely,” according to Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). The envoy also used the opportunity to defend Iran, the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism, as an independent and courageous regime resisting imperialist oppression.
“The Iranian nation has resisted the pressures and sanctions of the system of domination over the past 47 years and has also stood firm against foreign aggression in recent months,” he said, according to IRNA, adding in a message to Cuban communists: “You are not alone, and the free and freedom-loving nations of the world stand alongside the Cuban people and in defense of peace, justice, human dignity, the independence of nations and a world free of sanctions and coercion.”
The diplomat also referred to Fidel Castro personally as “a symbol of a nation’s determination to freely and independently shape its own destiny.”
“He said Castro’s legacy was not limited to Cuban history but remained an inspiration for nations fighting for independence, national sovereignty and social justice,” IRNA concluded.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
08/21/2026 00:00 ||
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[214 views]
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Viktor Lavrinenko
Norway's official terrorism threat level—3 out of 5—conceals a worrying trend: Islamist networks in the country are consolidating, increasing their activity, and increasingly targeting minors.
The radicalization of migrant youth is accelerated by digital platforms where brutal violence is presented as normal.
200 YOUNG RADICALS
"We are seeing a negative development in the area of Islamist extremism: the formation of networks is increasing, and they are becoming increasingly closely connected," said Ane Mannsåker Roald, head of the counter-terrorism department of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), recently.
According to her, young people living in Norway are becoming radicalized much faster than before. "This also applies to right-wing extremists—many minors are being exposed to this ideology as well," Roald worries.
PST emphasizes that they are currently concerned not so much with old, well-known criminal groups, such as Foxtrot, which originated in Sweden, but with new networks that are emerging primarily online.
The members of these groups have little contact with previously known networks. They communicate via encrypted messaging apps, infecting each other with extremist ideologies and drawing inspiration from terrorist attacks carried out by like-minded individuals in other countries.
Often, the interest in violence itself comes first, and the ideological framework is chosen later. "It used to be that people were first introduced to ideology and only then gradually began to embrace violence. But now it's often the other way around," complains Norwegian police.
The most alarming aspect of the new wave of potential extremism is the active involvement of children and adolescents. According to PST, the majority of new adherents to Islamic extremism in Norway are teenagers aged 15 to 17, but children as young as 12 and 13 are also present.
Most of them are boys from immigrant families, born and raised in Norway. They have fallen out of social life, struggle at school, and frequently skip classes. These children are easy prey for recruiters: criminal or extremist networks offer these teenagers a purpose in life and the temptation of status.
In May 2026, the PST reported that they were monitoring nearly 200 radicalized adolescents, the youngest of whom was 13 years old. Over the past three years, the PST has prevented several terrorist attacks, including those involving minors.
One of these was reported on July 15, 2025, without further details. Another terrorist attack was thwarted in the fall of 2025, when a recruiter was neutralized. The plan was to blow up various targets connected to the Jewish community and the Israeli embassy. PST employee Eirik Weim reported that the terrorists hired a professional from one of the networks. He specialized in recruiting minors, turning them into "biodrones" to carry out assassinations.
Norwegian Justice Minister Astri Aas-Hansen calls TikTok a "highway to radicalization." The Minister of Justice claims that it, along with gaming platforms, has become the channels through which shocking content is infiltrated onto migrant youth, leading them to dream of performing similar "heroic acts."
At the same time, the algorithms produce increasingly harsh materials, and then its young consumers begin to gather in chats, where they come into contact with other fans of this “hobby.”
PST emphasizes that loved ones, schools, and social institutions should play a key role in preventing the radicalization of adolescents—but they often fail to fulfill this function.
THEY ARE ADOPTING EXPERIENCE
The threat posed by young ideological radicals is great, but fortunately they have not yet managed to cause irreparable harm – although this is apparently only a matter of time.
But the "commercial" exploitation of teenagers by criminal networks is already a common reality in Norway. According to Kripos, the police unit that combats organized crime, several dozen contract attacks involving children were prevented in various regions of the country in 2025 alone.
The recruitment network is expanding. While such cases were previously concentrated in large cities, now children from smaller towns are also being drawn into this vortex. "The process is spreading alarmingly quickly," said Ketil Haukaas, deputy head of Kripos.
Recruiters post "job" ads on youth-focused internet platforms: someone needs to be killed, something needs to be blown up, etc. If someone takes the bait, communication moves to closed channels. Separate chats are created, where each participant learns only as much as they need to complete their part of the assignment.
The police are proposing to combat this through bans. Kripos employee Elin Silte Eikrem insists: "There's no reason why your 13-year-old should have an encrypted app installed on their phone."
Teenagers are recruited not only with money, material goods, and status. They also require compromising evidence against the perpetrator. Recruiters require the teenager to film themselves holding their passport and then film themselves performing the task.
From that moment on, the child finds himself trapped: there's video evidence of his involvement in the crime, and now the recruiters can blackmail him. "And if they don't want to take on new assignments, they receive threats—both against themselves and their families," says Eikrem.
Norway's first case of online criminal "contractors" was reported on October 24, 2023, in the town of Drøbak, and became a typical example. An improvised explosive device exploded near a house occupied by six people (a family with children and two residents of the ground floor).
Luckily, no one was injured, but the building suffered significant damage. The criminals were seeking revenge on a 21-year-old resident who, a week earlier, had participated in a failed robbery of a drug warehouse in Oslo. The mastermind, based abroad and acting through intermediaries, hired two 20-year-old Swedish citizens, who, having obtained all the necessary information and materials for the bomb, planted it near the building.
The two bombers were caught red-handed, convicted, and imprisoned in Norway. In March 2026, they were extradited to Sweden due to newly discovered circumstances: it turned out that on September 27, 2023, these same individuals had tracked down and killed 18-year-old rapper Adouli in Stockholm: first, they hit him with a car, then shot him in the head.
The moment of the murder was captured on video and subsequently circulated on social media. Both crimes—the murder of the rapper and the bombing in Drøbak—were carried out on behalf of the Swedish network Foxtrot.
However, according to Kripos, criminals in Norway are now copying the methods of their Swedish counterparts. "We warned you. The phenomenon of selling violence is now materializing in Norway," said Kripos CEO Kristin Quigne.
The problem has ceased to be exclusively "imported" and has become entrenched in Norway itself. However, even if the clients are Norwegian citizens, they are often located abroad. Therefore, catching them is significantly more difficult.
A BLEAK FUTURE
On September 23, 2025, at around 8:45 PM, a powerful explosion rocked central Oslo. Luckily, there were no injuries. Immediately after the explosion, police discovered a second hand grenade lying on the road. Bomb disposal experts carried out a controlled detonation. Police soon arrested the perpetrators—two 13-year-old boys.
One of them admitted he was promised 30,000 Norwegian kroner (about 250,000 rubles). The order was posted on social media, where the teenager responded to the offer and then persuaded a friend to help.
The bombers' target was a beauty salon whose owner had fallen out with the Foxtrot gang. A week before the explosion, the gang had kidnapped his 24-year-old relative in downtown Oslo.
The stunned young man was informed that his loved one owed the gang €1.5 million, and that failure to pay would result in dire consequences. To motivate the businessman to pay, he was sent a photo of the kidnapped young man with scissors in his mouth.
He never paid—either he didn't want to, or he didn't have the money. Fortunately for the kidnapped man, he was released. He was so frightened that he refused to testify.
The bombing of the beauty salon was the second attempt to persuade its owner to part with his money. The bombers were never convicted—they were under the age of criminal responsibility—and the case was dismissed in February 2026. The salon owner, realizing the police wouldn't protect him, quickly liquidated the business and fled.
An even more high-profile case occurred this year, when PST officers detained a 17-year-old boy in Rogaland province. According to the prosecution, he was planning to blow up a NATO base in the Jotto district of Stavanger. He also planned to attack a soldier with a knife.
According to PST, the boy was recruited by the Islamic State* group. One day, he showed up at school with its flag, attracting attention. He was required to participate in preventive measures.
They had no effect, and the young man began planning the attack. But he was arrested in the very early stages of preparation, when he received bomb-making instructions from Iraq and was already toiling away at its construction. The detainee's lawyer stated that his 17-year-old client's detention was a "difficult ordeal."
A few months later, he was released on parole, but the case is still ongoing. The Islamic community where the aspiring terrorist belonged described him as a "completely normal teenager" who showed no noticeable signs of abnormal behavior.
The chairman of the Islamic Council of Rogaland Province, which unites approximately eight mosques with 13,000 members, expressed concern about the radicalization of local Muslim youth and lamented that the community lacks resources to prevent extremist sentiments.
#5
"The chairman of the Islamic Council of Rogaland Province..., expressed concern about the radicalization of local Muslim youth and lamented that the community lacks resources to prevent extremist sentiments."
Yeah. Just give us a lot of money. That'll solve the problem.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
08/21/2026 14:42 Comments ||
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[Rudaw] Turkey’s defense ministry on Thursday denied that its forces were present at a northwestern Syrian air base when it was targeted by Israeli airstrikes earlier this week, condemning the attack as an attempt to undermine Syria’s stability and infrastructure.
“We state that no Turkish military delegation was present at the base prior to or during Israel's attack on the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Syria,” Turkish Defense Ministry spokesperson Admiral Zeki Akturk said during a press briefing.
His remarks came after Israeli airstrikes targeted the Abu al-Duhur air base in Idlib province on Tuesday, drawing condemnation from Damascus, Washington and several regional states.
Syria’s foreign ministry described the strikes as an "unjustified act of aggression" and urged the international community and the UN Security Council to "clearly condemn this aggression and take a firm position against Israel's repeated violations of Syrian sovereignty," while affirming it will "continue to defend its rights and national interests through legitimate means."
Akturk told reporters on Thursday that "attacks violating Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity are unacceptable,” adding that “for the peace and stability of both Syria and the region, it is imperative that Israel halts such reckless attacks and abides by the requirements of international law.”
[FOX] What started as a regularly scheduled town hall in Dearborn, Michigan, erupted into a flashpoint over the influence of Muslim culture in American civic life Tuesday as the pastor of a local church accused the town of operating under Sharia law.
"America, we have lost this city. This is a city that is no longer up under American laws; we are up under Sharia law. We will not have it anymore," Lorenzo Sewell, the pastor of 180 Church, said.
"Enough is enough."
The outburst, which came amid a series of other anti-Islam protests in Dearborn, vocalizes fears that Muslim populations in Michigan are working to bring their communities more in line with their religious worldview, views Sewell believes are at odds with the vast majority of the country.
[IsraelTimes] PA leader enlists Turkey’s Erdogan to appeal to ‘good friend’ Trump on his behalf; UN official to ToI: We hope US will honor host country obligation to let in General Assembly speakers
For the second year in a row, US President Donald Trump ...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!... ’s administration plans to prevent Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> from traveling to New York next month to speak before the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... General Assembly, a US official told The Times of Israel.
The US refused to grant Abbas a visa to enter the US last year, claiming the PA had been taking steps that undermine prospects for peace.
Washington didn’t elaborate on its specific grievances with Ramallah at the time, and the move was seen as part of an effort to undermine a conference that La Belle France 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... were hosting ahead of the General Assembly’s high-level week last year that was aimed at promoting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict.
The Trump administration opposed the gathering, claiming that it was a reward to Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... and undermined efforts to end 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... No such conference is scheduled at the UN this year, but the US plans to maintain the precedent regarding Abbas that it set last year, the US official said.
Hoping to reverse the policy, Abbas asked Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... if he could speak to Trump about the visa ban, a Paleostinian official told The Times of Israel.
Erdogan heeded the request, which Abbas made during his visit to Ankara last week, the Paleostinian official said, touting the Ottoman Turkish leader’s assistance.
Erdogan held a phone call on Tuesday with Trump, who has repeatedly called the Ottoman Turkish president his "good friend."
But the US official’s insistence to The Times of Israel on Wednesday that Abbas would still be banned indicated that Erdogan did not manage to convince Trump to overrule the State Department decision.
Asked for comment on the matter, a UN official expressed hope to The Times of Israel that the US will honor its obligations as the body’s host country to allow the travel of delegation heads who intend to address the United Nations.
A State Department spokesperson meanwhile did not deny that the US was planning to bar Abbas from entering the country.
"We take seriously our obligations under the UN Headquarters Agreement. As host country to the UN, we have provided guidance to all UN Member States on recommended timelines for visa applications ahead of the start of the 81st UN General Assembly session," the State Department spokesperson said.
"As a general matter, we have no comment on Department actions with respect to specific cases due to visa record confidentiality," the spokesperson continued.
"The Foreign Missions Act authorizes the secretary of state to impose restrictions or conditions on the travel within the United States of foreign mission members," the spokesperson added.
The US defended the policy last year by noting that it still maintained the visas of the Paleostinian UN mission’s members.
Those handful of Paleostinian officials have been allowed to remain in New York, even as the Trump administration issued a travel ban on all PA passport holders last December.
In light of the ban, the UN General Assembly had to pass a special resolution allowing Abbas to address the body virtually. A similar decision will have to be adopted this year if the US maintains its ban.
Abbas is currently slated to address the UN General Assembly on Thursday morning, September 24.
The Trump administration has had a largely chilly relationship with the West Bank-based PA, even though it recruited its assistance — just two months after banning Abbas last year — to pass a UN Security Council resolution authorizing the Trump-controlled Board of Peace to oversee the postwar management of Gaza following a ceasefire there.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Ilya Maximov
[REGNUM] A standoff has unfolded in the US military, demonstrating a profound crisis in its approach to officer recruitment. At issue is the abolition of the minimum SAT score requirement for candidates seeking admission to the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program. ROTC is a college program, if they don’t have those basic skills, they shouldn’t be in college. Not to mention that the majority of colleges require SAT scores or the equivalent as part of the college application.
The exam includes testing basic reading and writing skills, as well as math problems. Its purpose is to confirm the candidate's ability to study to become an officer.
In early August 2026, then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Personnel Jules Hurst (now Under Secretary of the Treasury) signed an internal memorandum, which was to take effect in January 2027 and required all candidates to score at least 1,000 points—a solid C.
In his order, he argued this simply and clearly: "We must train intelligent and adaptable officers to create a combat-ready and prepared army capable of deterring the enemy, fighting, and winning our country's wars. The strength of our officer corps is the strength of our army."
However, a new memorandum from Deputy Secretary of Defense Michael Obadala has now rescinded this requirement, citing the need for "additional analysis and coordination." This decision has angered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who advocates for the new standards.
The situation for future officers is truly dire. A senior US Defense Department official told the New York Post: "I have friends who taught ROTC. They've dealt with cadets who can't form a coherent sentence or spell correctly. A 1000 on the SAT is nothing. If you can't score that, you probably shouldn't be an officer at all. We don't want stupid people leading our soldiers."
Military personnel and veterans are also criticizing the new decision, leaving comments on social media under posts about the abolition of the minimum score threshold for the exam. "We're on the verge of having a crowd of backward officers running around," wrote one.
However, this entire story is just one symptom of a much more serious illness plaguing the US Armed Forces. The personnel shortage facing the Army is forcing leadership to make unprecedented concessions and effectively lower the bar for personnel requirements.
For 40 years, until 2022, the number of recruits in the US had been steadily declining. This situation began to change in 2024, when the Pentagon overhauled its recruitment management system, increased the speed of issuing medical certificates, and began using a more sophisticated algorithm to find new recruits.
Although the 2026 recruitment plan was met ahead of schedule—over 61,500 contracts were signed—analysts believe it's premature to celebrate this success. The main problem lies in the quality of the recruits received and the fact that the majority of young people, traditionally the army's primary target, are simply unfit for service.
According to the Department of Defense, 77% of young Americans aged 17 to 24 do not meet the requirements for full-time service. The main reasons cited are obesity, lack of education, drug problems, and criminal records.
This situation is forcing the military to seek workarounds and expand the age limit: this year, the US Army officially raised the maximum age for conscription from 35 to 42. This decision is ostensibly intended to attract more mature and qualified professionals to the armed forces, but at the same time, it is direct evidence that the traditional source of recruitment—young people—is in short supply.
An even more alarming signal for Americans was the scandal involving the inflated test scores of recruits. In December 2025, a report by the Pentagon's Inspector General revealed that the US Army and Navy violated regulations to conceal the true state of recruits' intelligence levels.
Federal law limits the percentage of recruits with low scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFT)—the so-called Category IV—to 4% of the total. This test, like the SAT, is nothing fancy and tests the most basic knowledge and skills: vocabulary, reading comprehension, and high school math.
According to official Pentagon research, Category IV roughly corresponds to an IQ level in the range of 80 to 92, that is, “below average.”
Incidentally, people with genuine mental disabilities are classified as Category V, and they are not yet accepted into the US Army. Judging by the current situation, the operative word here is "yet."
To circumvent the restriction on recruiting less-savvy recruits, the Army and Navy created preparatory courses where candidates with low scores could improve their knowledge and retake the exam.
The military then used these improved post-course scores in its official reporting, rather than the initial scores with which recruits signed their contracts. If the initial scores had been taken into account, the percentage of Category IV recruits in the Navy would have been over 11%, almost three times the permissible limit of 4%.
To meet recruiting quotas, the Pentagon's inspector general said in a report that people are being admitted to the military who "frequently demonstrate below-average levels of learning and performance on the job."
The situation with the motivation of future military personnel is no better. According to statistics, 87% of young people don't even consider military service, and the remaining ones join not out of patriotism, but primarily for money.
At the same time, the proportion of white male recruits is declining and the number of women and minorities is growing, which is changing the social portrait of the army, but does not solve the main problem - the quality of training.
And recruiting is only half the battle. The second problem is training. Due to the colossal costs of the war with Iran and other expenses, the army is facing a sudden budget deficit of between 4 and 6 billion dollars.
This shortage is forcing military leadership to urgently cut training programs, which is seriously affecting combat readiness. Pilots are losing essential flight hours, and tank crews are not receiving enough fuel to practice operating combat vehicles.
Prestigious courses like the Army Sapper Course, which in Russian can be described as a training course for engineer troop commanders, are being cancelled. After all, a sapper, as we know, only makes one mistake, and good training is precisely what ensures they don't make a fatal mistake.
Leaders of the US Army's 70,000-soldier 3rd Armored Corps have warned that their aviation units will be deployed to missions at a "lower level of readiness" next year and that it will take a full year to restore their combat proficiency.
It's telling that while young recruits, many of whom are already not particularly talented, require more time to train, the army is forced to cut back on training due to a lack of resources. The result is a paradoxical situation: money is spent on recruitment, but then not enough to develop recruits into effective soldiers.
Amid all these turmoil, the development of strategy on Iran is particularly revealing. According to CNN sources, in August 2026, a senior intelligence officer at US Central Command emailed a wide range of military analysts asking for suggestions for "new, creative, and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran."
A mailing of this kind is, to put it mildly, extremely unusual. It demonstrates that the Pentagon has essentially exhausted its traditional options and is at a dead end, so it's willing to look online for clues about a war with Iran.
Thus, the American army, while formally increasing its numbers and exceeding recruitment plans, is faced with a deep-seated crisis that is being treated by alleviating symptoms rather than correcting the causes.
TLDR maybe but I’m so glad you brought this up! Here’s why we can’t have iconoclast generals in the U.S. anymore:
1947: Officer Personnel Act. We standardized “up-or-out.” Officers increasingly advanced through centralized boards and prescribed career timing instead of being… https://t.co/Og5M2Zk2jG
#3
Sounds to me like Obadala has his head up his ass.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/21/2026 3:40 Comments ||
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#4
ROTC is a college program, if they don’t have those basic skills, they shouldn’t be in college. Not to mention that the majority of colleges require SAT scores or the equivalent as part of the college application.
Suffering the harvest of entitlement are we? STEM-focused education a bit too prohibitive was it? All of this downward spiral began long before the popular term DEI, I can assure you.
Enrollment numbers were never going to be enough. Classroom success and graduation became the goal.
Nothing that cannot be repaired, but it will take a willingness and much time.
#5
Nothing new. We had required training in 'effective writing' in the 70s in the officer ranks. It wasn't like the late years of the Vietnam war was attracting the best and brightest in campus based ROTC. Given how the secondary school systems today are now below even those years standards of performance, the feeder system isn't delivering either.
#7
I'm not surprised at any of this, since we have high school GRADUATES that cannot read at sixth-grade level, and who cannot do math at fourth-grade level. A large percentage of these are admitted to college. Our education (or lack thereof) problem affects every aspect of our lives, as knowledge and skills are growing in complexity on a daily basis. Schools are not just not keeping up, they're regressing. It's called "progress" by the education "establishment" - commie to the core.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/21/2026 8:23 Comments ||
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#8
To be fair, one of the standard new hire training units when I was hired as a baby lab technician by P&G was a one day writing unit: How to Write the P&G One Page Memo. This is the thing that Harvard Business School has drooled over for decades, because the standardization — and required brevity — speeds information sharing immensely. It is hard to compress everything to fit into the standard format on one page without shrinking it to 5 point print, which also isn’t allowed.
I remember reading in the Horatio Hornblower books how he sweated writing after action reports and such. Is there a US Army Way of writing reports that would need to be trained, irrespective of previous writing ability?
#9
...unfortunately, the Army like all institutions suffers from periodic fits of babble and buzzwords. However, the small space for comments (on the old) efficiency reports forced the writer to be short and distinct in composition. Although I'll always treasure "God only knows how the poor creature ever got a commission" - Winfield Scot, Fort Niagara, 1814.
#11
Just have to say I had the best creative writing teacher in high school. Each week we had to turn in one paper. Each paper had 6 paragraphs, each paragraph had 4 sentences and each sentence had 12 words. You could write about any topic but the sentences had to be grammatically correct. If you can write 10 papers like that you can write anything!
[IsraelTimes] Military Advocate General also decides on criminal investigation of deaths of 15 rescue workers, while dismissing cases of killings of 4 Doctors Without Borders employees
The Israeli military on Wednesday said criminal investigations would be opened into two prominent incidents of suspected war crimes by forces during the fighting against Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... in 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... Strip in recent years, while three other high-profile cases would be closed.
The incidents being investigated by the Military Police included the killing of 6-year-old Hind Rajab along with six of her family members and two medics in Gaza City in January 2024; and the killing of 15 rescue workers in a convoy of ambulances and emergency vehicles in Rafah in March 2025.
Meanwhile,
...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily, his hand still stuck in the Ming vase... the cases being closed included a deadly strike on a group of aid workers with the World Central Kitchen organization in the central Gaza Strip in April 2024; a strike on a building used by aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Khan Younis that killed two members in February 2024; and the deaths of another two MSF employees who were driving in a convoy in Gaza City in November 2023.
The high-level General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism, an independent military body responsible for investigating unusual incidents amid the war, has so far completed around 150 probes and handed over their details to the Military Advocate General, the IDF’s top legal body, for review. The MAG Corps then decides whether to open a criminal investigation and later file charges.
"Recently, legal decisions were made regarding five incidents that received public attention," the military said in a statement. The MAG Corps dismissed three of these high-profile probes, but said the other should be investigated by the Military Police due to suspected criminal offenses.
APRIL 2024 ATTACK ON WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN CARS
On April 1, 2024, Israeli forces ordered a strike on a convoy of WCK vehicles that officers suspected carried a Hamas gunman, despite a low level of confidence in the assessment and against army regulations. The strike left seven humanitarian workers dead.
The forces did not identify the vehicles as belonging to WCK when the strike was ordered, according to the mechanism’s investigation.
The mechanism’s investigation found that WCK had hired an armed security force to accompany the convoy to protect it from looting, a move that had not been coordinated with the army.
During the incident, Israeli troops spotted an armed man on an aid truck that was part of the convoy and thought other vehicles surrounding the truck were Hamas operatives trying to take control of it, according to the probe.
After the convoy reached a warehouse to drop off the aid, several people were incorrectly identified by the Israeli forces as armed. Those people, aid workers who were not actually armed, entered vehicles and traveled south, and deviated from a route that WCK had coordinated in advance with the military.
The troops therefore believed Hamas had taken control of the convoy before it reached the warehouse, and that Hamas operatives were in the vehicles that drove away from it afterward. The cars were then targeted.
The investigation found that the army did try to contact WCK representatives to confirm that their members were not inside the cars that had driven away from the warehouse, but "these attempts, during the half-hour in which the convoy’s vehicles were monitored as being believed to contain Hamas operatives as stated, were unsuccessful."
Following the investigation at the time, then-IDF chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi ordered the removal of Col. (res.) Nochi Mendel — the chief of staff of the Nahal Infantry Brigade amid the war — and the brigade’s firepower coordination officer, who held the rank of major, over their involvement in ordering the strike.
Additionally, Halevi reprimanded the then-commander of Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, for his "overall responsibility for the incident," as well as the then-commander of the 162nd Division, Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, and the then-commander of the Nahal Brigade, Col. Yair Zukerman.
In its statement on Tuesday, the military said that "in light of prior professional acquaintance with one of those involved in the incident," Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Itai Ofir refrained from "personally making a decision in this case," and instead the decision was made by Chief Military Prosecutor Col. Eli Levertov.
"After examining all the findings of the factual assessment, it was decided that despite failures in the process of forming the assessment that Hamas operatives were traveling in the vehicles, it was found that the commanders’ decisions did not cross the criminal threshold, in light of the sequence of suspicious signs and the overall operational circumstances," the IDF said.
That being the case, Levertov ruled that "there was no reasonable suspicion of the committing of a criminal offense warranting the opening of an investigation or the taking of additional measures against any of those involved in the incident" beyond those taken by Halevi at the time.
JANUARY 2024 KILLING OF NINE PALESTINIANS, INCLUDING 6-YEAR-OLD HIND RAJAB
On January 29, 2024, Israeli forces reportedly struck a vehicle belonging to the Hamada family in Gaza City, killing five of the occupants, while two initially survived — Hind Rajab and her cousin Lian.
Hind Rajab spent hours on the phone with dispatchers pleading for help with the sound of shooting echoing around her. When a Paleostine Red Islamic Thingy Society ambulance arrived at the scene, a shell was fired at it, killing two paramedics, according to reports at the time.
Days later, the bodies of the seven members of the Hamada family were recovered, including Hind and Lian Rajab, along with the two paramedics.
The military said Wednesday that the mechanism’s investigation found that troops had fired at the Hamada family’s car as it approached forces, "traveling in the opposite direction to an evacuation route" that was published by the IDF to residents of the area.
"After examining the findings and in light of alleged failures concerning the coordination of the movement of the Red Islamic Thingy ambulance, it was decided to order further examination of the incident through a Military Police investigation," the IDF said.
MARCH 2025 KILLING OF 15 RESCUE WORKERS IN GAZA’S RAFAH
On March 23, 2025, the IDF began an operation to encircle Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood. As part of the offensive, soldiers of the Golani Brigade’s Reconnaissance Unit were stationed in an ambush on a road exiting Tel Sultan.
Over the course of several hours, the Golani soldiers fired on ambulances, emergency vehicles, and a United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... car driving through the area, in some cases suspecting them of being Hamas vehicles.
A total of 15 Paleostinians were killed in the incident, and the IDF posthumously identified six as Hamas operatives.
In the morning, the troops decided to gather the bodies all in one spot and cover them with an iron mesh, and crushed the vehicles while pushing them off the road.
At the time, the deputy commander of the Golani reconnaissance unit was removed from his role, and the commander of the 14th Reserve Armored Brigade — the unit leading the operation in Rafah when the killing of the medics took place — was formally censured.
"After examining the findings of the investigation, and upon finding that the conduct of the firing during the incident raised reasonable suspicion of the committing of an offense, it was decided to continue examining the matter through a Military Police investigation," the IDF said.
FEBRUARY 2024 KILLING OF TWO DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS MEMBERS
On February 20, 2024, the military struck a building in Khan Younis that was only afterward identified as belonging to aid group Doctors Without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF. The strike killed two women and injured seven people.
The mechanism’s investigation found that during an offensive in the area against Hamas, troops identified a building "located at a topographical point overlooking the route on which they were moving."
After assessing that the building posed a threat to the forces, a single shell was fired at one of its windows. The investigation noted that, unlike other structures in the area, the lights in the MSF building were off, and no movement was observed in or around it before the troops fired the shell.
At the time, the troops did not have "up-to-date information that the building was affiliated with Doctors Without Borders," and could not identify the MSF signage that was placed at the front of the building, as they were moving behind it, according to the IDF.
The MAG, after examining the findings of the mechanism’s investigation, "determined that the forces had fired for a military purpose, at a target that they assessed, due to its location under the circumstances described, constituted a military target.
"Although a discrepancy was identified in that the forces did not have up-to-date information that the building was a known site of Doctors Without Borders, it was determined that, under the operational circumstances described, there was no basis for further examination through a Military Police investigation," the military said.
However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes... in light of "certain failures identified in the attack process," the MAG ordered "an examination of the need to take command measures against any of those involved."
NOVEMBER 2023 KILLING OF TWO DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS MEMBERS
On November 18, 2023, Israeli forces fired at an MSF convoy in the Gaza Strip, leading to the deaths of two passengers. According to the mechanism’s probe, the five-car convoy carrying MSF personnel from Gaza City to the organization’s clinic in Khan Younis had been coordinated with the military the previous day.
However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes... the investigation found that the precise details of the convoy’s one-way route were only approved shortly before the vehicles set out, and before a force at an army checkpoint was aware of it. The convoy arrived at the IDF checkpoint in the afternoon, but the vehicles were ordered to wait until the matter was clarified.
"After some time, fearing that they would not reach their destination before nightfall, they decided, on their own initiative and without proper coordination, to turn back and return to the organization’s facilities in Gaza City," the mechanism’s investigation found, adding that "this was despite IDF personnel clarifying to the members of the convoy that the checkpoint’s operating hours had been extended, and that it was not possible to coordinate the convoy’s return to Gaza City at that time."
The troops asked the MSF convoy to wait near the checkpoint until the matter was clarified, so they could then continue south to Khan Younis, and additionally told them that they would not be able to return to Gaza City without coordination, as "such movement could endanger them."
The army says the MSF convoy ignored the instructions and began returning to Gaza City. IDF troops stationed along the route spotted the convoy approaching them while driving in the opposite direction to that approved by the military’s evacuation orders, and fired several warning shots.
The investigation found that the warning shots were not directed at the vehicles themselves, but only to prevent them from continuing to approach.
Despite this, the convoy continued driving and "came within a few hundred meters of the IDF troops, in a manner perceived by the force as a real threat," the investigation said, noting that the forces perceived the convoy as a threat due to "patterns of activity of terror organizations in the area."
The troops fired additional warning shots at the road at a distance of around 100 meters from where the first car in the convoy was located, in accordance with army protocols, the probe found.
"According to the findings of the investigation, it was found that there was a possibility that the unfortunate deaths of two of the convoy’s passengers were caused by fragments from the warning fire," the military said.
Because the probe did not find that the forces fired directly at the convoy at any point, the MAG ruled that in this case, "the incident did not raise reasonable suspicion of the committing of a criminal offense."
The aid group Doctors Without Borders says two people were killed when building housing staff in the Gaza Strip was struck during an Israeli operation in an area where Paleostinians have been told to seek shelter.
"While details are still emerging, ambulance crews have now reached the site, where at least two family members of our colleagues have been killed and six people maimed. We are horrified by what has taken place," the group says in a post on X.
The attack took place in Muwasi, a sandy, mostly undeveloped strip of land along the coast that has been transformed into a sprawling tent camp with little in the way of basic services.
Doctors Without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF, does not identify the source of the fire. The Israeli military says it is looking into the reports.
Netanyahu denies Israel has approved entry of international peacekeepers into Gaza; Turkey, Egypt and Qatar call on Board of Peace to pressure Jerusalem to halt airstrikes in Strip
Israel accused Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... on Thursday of using a southern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... hospital as a torture site for Paleostinians to stave off an "erosion of support" for the terror group in the Strip, as progress on the US-backed plan for its disarmament continued to stall.
The plan calls for Hamas to give up its weapons in exchange for Israel gradually withdrawing its troops from the enclave. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the plan until Hamas fully disarms, and denied on Thursday that he had approved the entry of international peacekeepers into Gaza.
Hamas has said it accepts the plan. But a joint IDF and Shin Bet statement on Thursday asserted that the terror group remains desperate to hold onto control in the Strip in light of its declining support there, and is increasing its intimidation of Paleostinians.
Hamas has been "increasing the activity of its security apparatuses and attempting to impose its rule through intimidation, interrogations and torture of residents," the Israel Defense Forces said.
The military and Shin Bet said they could now reveal intelligence information "showing that the Hamas terror organization exploits" the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where it "carries out torture and interrogations."
"According to the information in our possession, in the Yassin building, on the second floor of the hospital’s outpatient clinics, interrogations by Hamas’s internal security and military intelligence are taking place," the statement said. "Beyond this, Hamas exploits the hospital as a center of governance unrelated to its medical function, for the purposes of interrogations, torture, and collecting money."
The IDF also said Hamas was using a former hospital office building that was later converted to a house of worship as an interrogation center.
According to the statement, Nasser Hospital continues to serve Hamas as a "major military infrastructure" site, as "patients and hospital staff witness the permanent presence of Hamas operatives, some of them masked, in various areas of the hospital compound."
The IDF said "Hamas’s use of the hospital creates fear and harms patients, service providers and medical staff."
Israel has repeatedly offered evidence of medical facilities’ regular use by Paleostinian terror groups as bases of operations due to their protected status. Israeli hostages have also said they were held at Nasser Hospital.
Earlier this year, the aid group Doctors Without Borders said it has suspended noncritical medical activities at Nasser Hospital due to the presence of gunnies at the medical facility. And last year, a doctor who also serves as a spokesperson for Nasser Hospital hinted that he had been threatened by 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... due to his refusal to let the terror group’s operatives enter and use the hospital.
Israel has also faced international criticism for strikes and military activity at hospitals it says are used by Hamas and other terror groups. Thursday’s statement said such use was ongoing.
"The exploitation of civilian infrastructure for interrogations and torture is a widespread phenomenon within the Hamas terror organization. These actions by the Hamas terror organization constitute a violation of international law, which prohibits the military use of hospitals," the IDF and Shin Bet statement read.The IDF said it is warning Gazooks that Hamas "is afraid of losing control of the Strip, and therefore uses hospitals, schools and other civilian facilities for its needs."
NETANYAHU DENIES OKAYING DEPLOYMENT OF INTERNATIONAL TROOPS
Amid the US pressure to move ahead with the plan for Hamas’s disarmament and Israel’s withdrawal, Netanyahu’s office on Thursday stressed that Israel has not yet approved the deployment of the nascent International Stabilization Force to Gaza, following Hebrew media reports suggesting otherwise. The force is meant to take over responsibility for securing areas from which Israel has withdrawn and address other security and humanitarian needs.
"Contrary to media reports, the political echelon has not approved the entry of the international force to the Gaza Strip," the statement read, adding that "Israel has made it clear that there will not be any reconstruction in the Strip before Hamas is fully disarmed."
The statement appeared to refer to footage circulated by Hebrew media earlier this week showing foreign military officers touring the Rafah area alongside IDF personnel, which some outlets described as an initial deployment of ISF troops.
An official with knowledge of the matter told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that the footage came from a "pre-deployment site survey" by senior military officers from Burundi and Uganda — the latter of which announced earlier this month that it approved the deployment of troops to Gaza as part of the ISF — amid preliminary discussions with Israel about joining the force.
Israeli officials said last month that the Israeli security cabinet had voted to approve certain legal measures allowing the limited entry of the ISF under the US-backed plan for Gaza, which would include 200 troops from "friendly countries."
US envoy Jared Kushner visited Israel this week and sat down with Netanyahu and other officials from the US-backed Board of Peace — after they had met with Hamas figures in Egypt — in order to push for progress in the postwar plan. But Kushner exited the region without any apparent breakthrough.
Despite Israel’s rejection of the plan, the Board is nonetheless advancing progress on the ISF, with Trump’s administration recently telling Congress it is sending more than $206 million for the force.
Also Thursday, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... , Egypt and 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... — which have been trying to mediate an end to the Gaza conflict — condemned recent Israeli strikes in the Strip and urged Israel to meet its ceasefire obligations and avoid steps that could escalate tension.
"The intensification of Israeli attacks undermines regional and international efforts at a critical juncture, as intensive efforts are under way to implement the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict," they said.
The international community and Trump’s Board of Peace, which is overseeing the ceasefire, must take the necessary steps to ensure compliance and prevent further escalation, they added.
Israel has said it is targeting Hamas commanders who are actively planning attacks on Israeli troops deployed in Gaza, as justification for the strikes despite the ceasefire.
A Palestinian woman in Gaza admits everyone in Gaza is Hamas:
🇮🇱 ISRAEL RELOCATES APACHE SQUADRON TO THE NORTH 🚁🚁🚁
The Israel Air Force has moved its 190th Squadron and its AH-64A Apache helicopters from Ramon Airbase to Ramat David to strengthen northern border defense.
🇮🇱 ISRAEL RELOCATES APACHE SQUADRON TO THE NORTH 🚁🚁🚁
The Israel Air Force has moved its 190th Squadron and its AH-64A Apache helicopters from Ramon Airbase to Ramat David to strengthen northern border defense.
The IDF says the move follows lessons from October 7 and is intended to improve combat helicopter availability by dispersing squadrons across the north and south.
“The transfer of the squadron to Ramat David Airbase is intended to improve the availability of the combat helicopter fleet for defending the country’s borders by dispersing combat helicopter squadrons in the north and south.”
DUBAI/WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Iran said on Friday that its response to any new U.S. threats would be "devastating" after Washington pledged to impose the toughest financial penalties in history with the aim of toppling the Iranian leadership.
Washington prepared for sanctions that U.S. Treasury chief Scott Bessent said he would detail on Monday. President Donald Trump earlier warned of economic consequences against any country that provided "any type of lifeline to Iran."
The chief of staff of Iran's Armed Forces, Major General Ali Abdollahi, said the Islamic Republic's reaction would be broad and decisive.
"With preparedness across land, sea, air, air defence and cyberspace, Iran's armed forces will respond to the enemy's new threats with crushing, punishing and devastating responses," Abdollahi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the country's main negotiator in mediated talks with the United States, said Washington appeared to have concluded it could not prevail in its direct military confrontation.
"We must make plans to deal with the unjust sanctions so that we can overcome them," he said in neighbouring Iraq, accusing the U.S. and Israel of resorting to what he said was economic and "cognitive" warfare.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
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[IsraelTimes] When terror group chief Naim Qassem cited ‘Yedioth journalist Moshe Yair’ to prove a point in a speech last week, he joined others who have used fictitious Israeli writer to bolster group’s narrative
Addressing his followers via video this month, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem ... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies... delivered a forceful diatribe against months-long negotiations between Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... and Israel over a permanent agreement that would entail the disarmament of his Iran-backed terror group.
The August 14 speech, marking the 20th anniversary of Hezbollah’s 2006 war with Israel, saw Qassem sharply castigating the Lebanese government for, he said, failing to stand up for the country and caving to Israeli demands.
Even the Israelis think Beirut is rolling over, he said, quoting from one of Israel’s most widely circulated newspapers to drive his point home.
"Listen to this passage by a Jewish thinker named Moshe Yair in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper," Qassem told his tens of thousands of followers. "This passage is from after the second round [of negotiations]... ’Fortunately for us, [the Lebanese] sent a delegation that loves Israel and the United States.’"
There is just one problem: the journalist and thinker Moshe Yair does not appear to exist, neither at Yedioth nor any other Israeli publication.
The speech was far from the first time the phantom Israeli writer has been cited in Arabic or pro-Iranian discourse, though he more often purportedly goes by "Moshe Meir."
Supposed writings of "Moshe Yair/Meir" about Israelis fleeing the country by the millions or talking up the strength of Hezbollah have been cited repeatedly in the past year by anti-Israel commentators and news outlets, according to a report by the anti-Hezbollah Al Jadeed network and subsequent online research by The Times of Israel.
While the false attributions have pinged around certain corners of social media and the internet, Qassem’s speech appeared to be the most high-profile use of the contrivance yet.
His citation of a made-up quote in an official speech may not have been deliberate, but it likely reflects a broader willingness — and not only by Qassem — to use misleading or false information as a propaganda tool to reinforce narratives that serve his and other terrorist organizations.
A TOOL FOR CRITICIZING ISRAEL
Websites and social media accounts sympathetic to the Iran-led "Axis of Resistance®," which includes Hezbollah, have on several occasions attributed purported quotes to the Israeli journalist "Moshe Meir" in an apparent effort to lend Israeli credibility to their denunciations of the Jewish state.
On April 4, a quote from "strategic thinker" Moshe Meir appeared on an X account called al-Machhad al-Alami, which presents itself as an independent news outlet but regularly publishes anti-Israel and anti-American content supportive of 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... and the Axis of Resistance®. (The account appears to have no relation to the Dubai-based al-Mashhad media outlet.)
"People [Israelis] are fleeing by the millions because Netanyahu destroyed us. It was not Iran’s missiles or Hezbollah’s operations that destroyed us — he [Netanyahu] destroyed us," the purported quote read.
The post was used to bolster a narrative depicting Israel as being in a state of severe internal crisis.
Days earlier, al-Raed, an Arabic-language news site that carries content supportive of Iran and Hezbollah, published an article citing the same supposed Israeli figure. It carried a nearly identical message, again depicting Israel as a country whose population was fleeing en masse.
"Settlers are leaving by the millions — including [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s] wife and son — to the point that most cities and neighborhoods have become empty," the purported quote read. "Most have left the country never to return, and some have completely liquidated their assets... Some are heading to Argentina ...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita... so that they can have a ’promised state’ there."
[Rudaw] More than a dozen American service members have been killed since the outbreak of the Iran war in late February, a US defense department database showed Thursday, with more than 750 others wounded. This comes as US President Donald Trump on the same day vowed to launch “the most crushing economic operation ever” against Tehran.
The Department’s Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) showed that the combined death toll across its Operation Epic Fury and Overseas Operations categories reached 18, while the latest update added more than 50 newly recorded injuries, bringing the total wounded to 757 service members since the start of the conflict with Tehran.
The US launched Operation Epic Fury jointly with Israel in late February, striking thousands of targets over six weeks. Tehran responded with drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets - particularly in Gulf Arab states - while also hitting Israel.
[Rudaw] The US Department of the Treasury has imposed fresh sanctions on ten individuals it says are involved in a cash-smuggling network that helped the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... evade sanctions and access foreign currency outside formal financial systems.
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the ten individuals who "are part of a network responsible for transferring cash to Hizballah [Hezbollah]," the Department said in a statement on Thursday.
"The network utilizes couriers travelling on commercial airline flights between Lebanon, Turkiye, the [United Arab Emirates] UAE, and 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... to move up to hundreds of millions of dollars between jurisdictions, providing an avenue outside the formal financial system for Hizballah to obtain foreign currency and evade sanctions," the statement added.
The Treasury detailed that the network is led by a Ottoman Turkish national who oversees the smuggling operation through currency exchange houses, bank accounts, and front companies, assisted by a second Ottoman Turkish national who serves as both logistics coordinator and active courier, organizing operations while personally transporting cash.
Two additional Ottoman Turkish nationals reportedly handle ground operations as cash collectors, picking up funds from compromised exchange houses ahead of transport. Executing the lowest-tier role are six flight couriers - five Ottoman Turkish nationals and one Iranian national - who physically conceal cash aboard commercial flights across the region before delivering it into Lebanon.
"OFAC is also re-designating Hizballah for service to the Iranian regime under the command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force," the Treasury statement added.
Of note, the Quds Force serves as the elite external operations and foreign intelligence branch of Iran’s IRGC.
The new designation follows a mid-June US move to sanction Lebanese officials it said had "used their influence to obstruct Lebanon's grinding of the peace processor [with Israel] and delay the disarmament of Hizballah."
Among those designated was Christian Maronite politician and presidential candidate Sleiman Frangieh, leader of the Lebanese Marada Movement the personal militia of Suleiman Franjieh, president of Lebanon at the outbreak of the civil war, currently Syrian toadies, but you never know when that could change... , whom the Treasury accused of leveraging his alliance with the Iran-backed group to "benefit his own political ambitions."
Also designated was a group the Treasury said had operated as a transnational network using front companies to conceal illicit cash flows, including equipment supply contracts worth millions of dollars and bank transactions directed to Hezbollah projects, with activities coordinated across Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, and Syria.
Prior to that, in late May, the US sanctioned Iran’s ambassador to Beirut and eight Lebanese individuals, including Hezbollah politicians, whom the Treasury accused of "obstructing the grinding of the peace processor" between Lebanon and Israel and "impeding efforts" to disarm the Tehran-aligned group.
#1
Sanction Busting is big business. City of London is notorious for skirting sanctions. Most politicians that vote for sanctions have ties to orgs that go around the sanctions.
[IsraelAlma] On August 10, it was reported that the United States had reached understandings with Syria and Israel under which the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would oversee the removal of nuclear material from “Site 99” in Syria. According to the report, the site contained remnants of the Assad regime’s clandestine nuclear program, including uranium yellowcake. Israel had been monitoring the site and made clear that it would not tolerate the material remaining there.
On August 18, Syria and the IAEA issued an official joint statement presenting a different, and potentially contradictory, picture from the August 10 report: the nuclear material declared by Damascus would remain in Syrian custody and be placed under international safeguards. IAEA inspectors visited the Deir ez-Zor site, as well as another site associated with material that Syria declared only in July 2026.
At present, it is unclear whether the reports refer to the same material and the same site. The material at “Site 99” may still be intended for removal, while another stockpile will remain in Syria; it is also possible that the earlier understandings were revised.
The discrepancy between the reports has not been publicly explained and requires clarification.
According to reports, the nuclear material is linked to the Assad regime’s “Al-Kibar” program. At the center of the program was a clandestine nuclear reactor built in the Deir ez-Zor area with North Korean assistance and based on a design similar to the Yongbyon reactor, a nuclear reactor in North Korea that was used to produce plutonium for its nuclear weapons program. The reactor was reportedly intended to enable the production of plutonium that could eventually have been used in nuclear weapons. Israel destroyed it in September 2007, shortly before it became operational. Following the strike, the Assad regime demolished the remains of the structure, concealed information, and restricted the IAEA’s access for years to sites and individuals associated with the program.
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.
...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...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
