[FoxNews] “The Healey hotels were well known for having sex trafficking, domestic violence,' said Fetherston, 'Now, you've opened it up to all of the cities and towns'
As Democratic leaders in Massachusetts triple down on resistance against federal intervention to clamp down on crime, a migrant shelter whistleblower is sounding the alarm about an increase in crime in neighborhoods across the state and especially in Boston.
Jon Fetherston, who ran one of the state-funded migrant shelters in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and blew the whistle about rampant crime and sex abuse taking place in the hotel shelter system. He now says that since Democratic Gov. Maura Healey closed down the shelter system, there has been an uptick in domestic violence, sex trafficking, shoplifting and even auto accidents.
"The Healey hotels were well known for having sex trafficking, domestic violence. We've reported cases of rape, unfortunately, in there," Fetherston said. "Now, you've opened it up to all of the cities and towns in Massachusetts."
This comes as Healey has pushed back against the Trump administration’s federal crime crackdown in Washington, D.C., and preemptively criticized any intervention in Boston as "political theater."
"More political power grabs from Donald Trump," Healey wrote in a statement posted to X, adding, "We don’t need or want his interference here."
In response, Fetherston said, "How the governor just wants the public to believe that all of these things will not happen is extremely naive and extremely dangerous."
"Governor Healey wants you to think she just snaps her fingers and closes all of the hotels and then disperses people into the communities that the thousand incidents that were reported back in 2024, and the state has refused to release the data for 2025, she just thinks that those serious instances aren't going to happen in the communities that now she's forced people into."
Referencing the high-profile case of illegal immigrant Harjinder Singh allegedly causing an auto accident in Florida that killed three, Fetherston said, "you've seen the national stories of unlicensed or illegals with driver's licenses and CDLs. I haven't seen that, but I've seen a tremendous uptick in car accidents."
Fetherston said that Boston has been particularly impacted by the rise in crime.
"Your eyes tell you all you need to know. Crime is on an uptick in Boston. Things are not good in Boston," he said. "Boston was once a great city. It is no longer a great city. It is a city that with open drug use, the crime rates have spiked."
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, also a Democrat, has rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigrant crime or to send the National Guard to the city.
Wu has said, "In Boston, we comply and follow all of the laws, city, state and federal. And we will not back down from communities that have made us the safest major city in the country."
Wu has also commented, "This is a beautiful, diverse, incredible city, and I have said it now very directly, this administration needs to stop attacking cities to hide their own failures."
In response, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons has vowed to "flood" Boston with federal agents.
To Fetherston, an increased ICE presence would be welcome, while Wu’s resistance is indefensible.
"How any elected official could not put public safety as the biggest priority of any job that they do, it's disgusting to me and it's very concerning," he said, adding, "Mayor Wu wants to tell you that Boston is one of the safest cities. No, your eyes tell you that Boston has in great decline."
Regarding threats by the Trump administration and Homeland Security to intervene in Boston and Massachusetts, Fetherston said he believes that "anybody who lives in a crime-ridden area, which there are a lot in Massachusetts, will appreciate the effect of it."
"I've talked to business owners, I've talk to local law enforcement, anybody who wants to have a sensible conversation about fixing crime in their community, they support what the president's doing and wants to do," he explained. "Yeah, some people probably don't like the optics because maybe they don't understand it. And the media is doing, in my opinion, doing a bad job of describing it. Tanks are not rolling down people's streets. The National Guard's not walking with guns into your backyard and stuff like that. We're just there to protect and serve, and that's what your local police does."
"If you don't want that as an elected official, I don't want you as my elected official," he said.
#4
Healey turned our former town in Massachusetts into an alien infested crap hole. Police fire and the schools were all overwhelmed trying to handle the flood of illiterates who took everything they could get and committed crimes.
[NYPOST] The president and CEO of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum offered a tone-deaf defense of the nonprofit's extravagant executive salaries this week, as The Post's Page 1 expose stirred outrage that officials are exploiting the city's greatest disaster.
''Our executive compensation lags well behind that of peer institutions,'' Elizabeth Hillman said in an email sent to the foundation's trustees on Monday, adding that ''recent compensation studies have supported adjustments across the organization.''
But in the email, obtained by The Post, Hillman did not name any other institutions or cite specific compensation studies. Neither she nor the September 11 National Memorial & Museum returned queries last week.
But at least one insider confided to The Post they were disgusted by the eye-popping salaries.
''It leaves a sour taste in my mouth,'' the source said. ''Why are you guys making so much money off dead people?''
Last week, The Post revealed salaries at the non-profit have ballooned, even as it continues to run in the red and ignore the wishes of some families of first responders murdered on 9/11.
Hillman pocketed $856,216 in total compensation in 2024, according to IRS ...the Internal Revenue Service; that office of the United States government that collects taxes and persecutes the regime's political enemies... filings, a 63% raise in just two years. Greedy bastards. I'd do it for half that.
The next four highest-paid executives made $486,298, $458,652, $444,999 and $432,958 in 2024.
Meanwhile,
...back at the alley, Slats grabbed for his rosco... the museum managed to lose nearly $20 million in 2024 — which it blamed on ''depreciation'' — while charging a $36 adult admission fee and scoring at least $4.5 million in taxpayer funds.
Aside from the money issue, some families' long-running bitterness with museum leaders stems from the continued refusal to put the remains of 1,100 still-unidentified victims anywhere but in the museum's lowest level, ignoring the pleas of families to move them above ground where loved ones and the public can pay tribute.
Hillman's email contends ''a diverse array of victims' family members and other stakeholders advocated that the unidentified remains of those killed be returned to the World Trade Center site. Today, they lay in repose there, in a facility separate from the museum that is operated by the city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.''
Glenn Corbett, professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and an advisor to 9/11 firefighter families, said the only way to access the remains is through the museum, which charges admission to the public.
''The families were never asked where the remains were to be placed, they just did it,'' he said. ''Our own survey of members told us 94 percent opposed placing them in the museum.''
Corbett called Hillman's claim that the execs are underpaid compared to similar unnamed institutions ''pretty outrageous.''
''Do these people have no conscience at all?'' slammed Queens' Rob Johann, a FDNY lieutenant on 9/11, in a letter to the editor.
''The 9/11 Memorial and Museum is a sacred place that honors all the innocent people we lost that day. This is a total outrage, and these fat cats should be ashamed of themselves,'' he said.
''It is high time to have the purpose of a museum fulfilled without a certain few breaking the budget,'' wrote Rosemary Cain, whose firefighter son was killed on 9/11.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2025 00:00 ||
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#1
Ticks. Bloodsucking ticks. NGO's, all of them, should be banned.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/31/2025 6:07 Comments ||
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#2
We have lost all sense of shame.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/31/2025 7:29 Comments ||
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Some people need constant reason for hysteria, even if they have to make stuff up. Others find reality quite exciting enough.
[IsraelTimes] Alexis Wilkins, long-term partner of Kash Patel, is suing Kyle Seraphin for $5 million in damages over claims she is working on behalf of Mossad to manipulate the FBI director
Alexis Wilkins, the girlfriend of FBI director Kash Patel, filed a defamation lawsuit this week against podcaster Kyle Seraphin over his claims that Wilkins is an Israeli intelligence agent.
The lawsuit was first reported by the Reason legal news site, which published copies of the suit on Thursday.
Seraphin, himself a former FBI agent, claimed to his listeners that Wilkins, a 26-year-old Country singer, is operating a so-called honeypot scheme on behalf of Mosssd ...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end... to manipulate Patel in favor of Israel.
According to the lawsuit, Seraphin "has maliciously lied" about Wilkins, and is "using this fabricated story as self-enriching clickbait."
The suit centers around comments made on an August 22 episode of the "Kyle Seraphin Show," during which Seraphin said that Patel "has had his own little ’honeypot’ issue that’s been going on of late, so we’re just going to acknowledge it real publicly."
"He’s got a girlfriend that is half his age," he said, claiming that "she’s also a former Mossad agent."
"But I’m sure that’s totally because, like, she’s really looking for like a cross-eyed, you know, kind of thickish built, super cool bro who’s almost 50 years old who’s Indian in America," the podcaster quipped.
"Anyway, I’m sure that’s totally just, like, love," he said. "That’s what real love looks like."
You’d think an FBI Special Agent would know brains are sexy. What does it say about him that he doesn’t?
The podcast did not mention Wilkins by name, but the lawsuit says the comments were “obviously” about her.
The suit alleges that Seraphin claimed Wilkins is “an agent of a foreign government who began a relationship with another for purposes of manipulating and compromising them.”
“He is accusing Ms. Wilkins of being a spy for a foreign government, conducting espionage to undermine our national security and/or to manipulate federal law enforcement at the highest level, and even committing treason,” her lawyer said.
“Ms. Wilkins is not even Jewish, much less Israeli, and has never set foot in Israel,” the suit continued. “The notion that her relationship with Director Patel is part of some plot against her country is vile and ridiculous.
“The defendant cannot even claim ignorance or negligence, because he has personally met Ms. Wilkins with Mr. Patel at a conservative political event roughly two years ago, and was specifically aware from that encounter that Ms. Wilkins was in a relationship with Mr. Patel, who was not the FBI director at that time,” the suit added.
Wilkins is seeking a minimum $5 million in damages for Seraphin’s alleged defamation.
#3
I'd never heard of Alexis, but the auto search-assistant did:
Alexis Wilkins is a country music artist and political commentator known for her storytelling and patriotic themes. She has gained recognition for her music career and her involvement in conservative media, often speaking at events and supporting veteran causes.
Pretty deep cover?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/31/2025 16:12 Comments ||
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#4
#2 ....began a relationship with another for purposes of manipulating and compromising them.”
Hold your fire, and this needn't be a concern...
[Regnum] Israel faces dark days after members of the Yemeni government were killed in airstrikes on Sana'a. This was stated on August 30 by the head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat.
"Dark days await you. We will continue to respond to challenges with challenges, and you will never feel safe again," he said on Yemen's Al Masirah TV channel.
Al-Mashat also called on companies present in the territory of the occupying entity to leave the country.
The Prime Minister of the Yemeni government, created in the territories controlled by the Shiite military-political movement Ansar Allah (Houthis), Ahmed Ghaleb al-Rahawi, was killed on August 29 as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the city of Sana'a. Israeli fighters bombed a house in the Hadda area south of Sana'a. In addition to al-Rahawi, several of his associates were killed in the strike.
Earlier on August 24, the Israeli military launched a series of strikes on energy facilities in Sana'a. In particular, a fuel station of the Yemen Petroleum Company and the Khaziz power plant were attacked. As a result of the attack, four people were killed and more than 60 were injured.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] One of the visitors to the Crocus City Hall concert hall, who was there on the day of the terrorist attack in March 2024, told how her husband saved her at the cost of his own life. This was reported on August 30 by a participant in the trial taking place at a visiting session of the Second Western District Military Court.
“During questioning in court, the woman said that during the terrorist attack in Crocus, her husband fell on her, covering her with his body, and she only heard the shells falling on her and nearby, knowing that her husband was no longer there,” TASS quotes the source as saying.
According to a participant in the meeting, the recognized victim also said that she heard the voices of four terrorists passing by her, “who were speaking in the Turkic language.”
On July 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the Order of Courage posthumously to Vugar Guseinov, who saved people during the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall. On March 22, 2024, a married couple from Vnukovo, Vugar Guseinov and Lilit Israelyan, along with their friends Valentin and Svetlana Nikolaenkov, came to a concert of the Piknik group at Crocus City Hall. Before the performance began, terrorists burst into the hall, opened fire and set the building on fire.
When the militants entered the hall, Vugar and his family were at the cloakroom. He began to overturn tables, creating a barricade to shelter people. Later, Vugar shielded Lilit and his friend's wife, taking the bullets himself. He and Lilit died, and Svetlana survived - her children said that their mother's life was saved by the man's selflessness.
They’ll be much happier in the long run, even if they want to stamp their feet and have a temper tantrum now.
[IsraelTimes] Ministers split over ‘lenient’ move to curb Israeli access to EU program funding research; officials say step, which does not require unanimous support, could be initial signal to Israel
European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... foreign ministers were deeply split Saturday over 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... , with some calling for the EU to apply strong economic pressure on Israel while others made clear they were unwilling to go that far.
"We are divided about this issue," Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said as she arrived for a meeting with the ministers in the Danish capital Copenhagen.
"If you don’t have a unified voice... on this topic, we don’t have a voice on the global scene. So that’s definitely very problematic," she said.
Kallas said she was "not very optimistic" that ministers could agree on a proposal she described as lenient — as it is less severe than other options — to curb Israeli access to an EU research-funding program.
The war, launched in response to the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Paleostinian terror group Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... , has brought to the surface deeply rooted differences among the EU’s 27 countries on the Middle East.
Many EU governments have criticized Israel’s conduct of the war, particularly over the deaths of civilians and restrictions on humanitarian aid. But they have been unable to agree on impactful EU political or economic action.
Countries including Ireland, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands have called for the suspension of an EU free trade pact with Israel.
But traditional allies of Israel, such as Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic, have rejected such steps.
"If the EU does not act as a collective now and take sanctions against Israel, whenever will it? What more could it possibly take? Children are starving," said Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris.
ISRAEL’S LARGEST TRADING PARTNER
The European Union is Israel’s largest trading partner, with trade in goods between the two amounting to 42.6 billion euros ($50 billion) last year, according to the EU.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Berlin had made clear that Israel had to respect humanitarian principles in its war against Hamas and that Germany had suspended delivery of weapons that could be used in Gaza.
But he said Germany was "not very convinced" by the proposal to curb Israeli access to EU research funds, questioning how suspending such civilian cooperation that he described as sensible would be useful.
European Commission officials say they proposed the measure to send an initial signal to Israel, and because it does not need unanimity to pass.
Support from 15 countries would be enough if they represent 65% of the EU population.
Israel has rejected criticism of its conduct of the war and says its military action is necessary to defeat Hamas and secure the release of the hostages held by holy warriors in the Strip.
Last week, the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... ’ Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared a famine in parts of Gaza, blaming the "systematic obstruction" of humanitarian deliveries by Israel. Israel has dismissed the IPC report as "fabricated" and a "modern blood libel."
[GEO.TV] Israel is undermining a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis through its actions in Gaza, Denmark's foreign minister said on Saturday. Since they've pronounced the two state solution dead, I guess they are.
"Israel is right now undermining the two-state solution," Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Copenhagen.
Israel did its best, but the Palestinians in both West Bank and Gaza refused, over and over and over, to do their part of the work. In the end Israel accepted reality.
A two-state solution would see the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza that would co-exist alongside Israel. This is known to most of us as "fantasy."
Such an outcome has become increasingly unlikely amid the devastation in Gaza caused by Israel's war against the Palestinian group Hamas as well as the encroachment of Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Each and every time the Paleostinians have done something stoopid, they've lost more territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2025 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told US President Donald Trump that Gazans are seeking new leadership and hope the enclave can become developed in the same way as the United Arab Emirates, London’s The Times says it understands.
Trump presided over a policy meeting Wednesday on the Gaza war, receiving input from Blair and former Trump Middle East envoy Jared Kushner. A White House official said they discussed all aspects of the Gaza issue, including escalating food aid deliveries, the hostage crisis, post-war plans and more.
According to The Times, Blair told Trump that it was still possible to advance a peace deal, with Palestinians united under a single government.
The report says Blair presented polling done by his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in May, which found that the nation Gazans most admire as a potential model for their future was the UAE with 27 percent, then Turkey with 15% and Singapore with 14%. No details were given in the report as to the methodology of the polling.
The polling reportedly showed that 35% of Gazans believe the Palestinian Authority should govern the Strip after the war, with 27% wishing for a transitional international coalition working with local authorities. The polling found 22% want a national unity government including both Hamas and Fatah, and just 4% believe Hamas should remain the sole power in the enclave.
The report says that Blair is not an advocate of the plan to Gazans relocating or being relocated, but that his institute would not comment on whether the former UK premier would advocate for them to move temporarily during a potential reconstruction period.
[IsraelTimes] The Hamas terror group confirms the death of its Gaza military chief Mohammed Sinwar, a few months after Israel said it killed him in a strike in May.
Hamas does not provide details on Sinwar’s death but publishes pictures of him along with other group leaders, describing them as “martyrs.”
Mohammad Sinwar was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the former leader of the terror group, who co-masterminded the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and whom Israel had killed in combat a year later.
He became the de facto leader of the terror group following Israel’s killing of Yahya last October.
Israel targeted him in a strike in May of this year, and assessed that he had been killed some weeks later.
[IsraelTimes] The Hamas terror group has published previously unseen footage of its former leaders, the architects of the October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel, all of whom have been killed in Israeli operations over the past 22 months.
The video, which is over three minutes in length, opens with a clip of the former head of Hamas’s military wing, Muhammad Deif, talking about Hamas’s fight against the “tyrants” of Israel, with mournful music playing in the background.
The music, a song titled “Master of Martyrs,” continues throughout, as clips of rocket fire on Israel, the October 7 invasion, military parades and various other snippets of Hamas propaganda footage play out on screen.
Among the clips is a brief snippet of what appears to be a meeting between several former Hamas leaders, including Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh; Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yayha Sinwar, and the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing, Marwan Issa.
The three men were all killed in IDF operations in 2024, as was Deif.
The video also features what appears to be at least one AI generated image.
[IsraelTimes] As IDF attacks Zeitoun for 7th time, officers in the tank unit say focus on destroying buildings and tunnels on edge of Hamas stronghold aims to leave enemy with nowhere to hide
For the past three weeks, the Israel Defense Forces’ 7th Armored Brigade combat team has been fighting on the outskirts of 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... City to defeat Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... ’s Zeitoun Battalion.
Many IDF brigades are operating in Gaza, but it’s hard to find one for which the fight is more personal. Six of the 48 hostages still in Gaza are in the 7th Armored Brigade. Two of them are still alive — Matan Angrest and Nimrod Cohen — and four have been killed — Omer Neutra, Daniel Perez, Itay Chen, and Oz Daniel.
If you wanted to be cynical, you could say that the troops should have an easy time carrying out this operation — after all, they’ve done this before. This is the seventh time Israeli forces have attacked the neighborhood since the Paleostinian terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.
Only weeks after the Hamas invasion, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office released footage of the 36th Division fighting "to defeat Hamas’s Zeitoun Battalion, one of the organization’s main battalions."
"The 50th Battalion of the Nahal Brigade defeated the Zeitoun Battalion in the heart of Gaza City," read (Hebrew link) a subsequent article in February 2024.
"There are gunnies here and even when we leave, there will be terrorists, but they will be few. Their ability to create command and control is very low," the IDF battalion commander said at the time.
If those previous efforts had been as successful as some claimed, Israeli troops wouldn’t need to keep coming back.
The very fact that the IDF has to keep returning to areas in which it has already operated underlines how complex the challenge is — and perhaps, how misguided the Israeli approach was in the earlier chapters of the country’s longest war.
Today, after enjoying almost 10 months without having to face a concerted IDF maneuver, the Zeitoun Battalion stands at over 400 fighters. It has developed considerable skill at planting explosives, using unwent kaboom! IDF munitions to build improvised bombs (IEDs) that can destroy Merkava tanks. The troops of the 7th Brigade found seven such massive IEDs on a road next to the compound in which Brigade Commander Colonel "Shin" — who per IDF regulations can be named only by his first Hebrew initial — set up his headquarters.
Israeli intelligence believes that the Hamas battalion is under the impression that, since it still exists in force, it has defeated the IDF in each of the six previous times Israeli forces operated in the dense neighborhood.
A NEW LOGIC
Officers in the brigade combat team assured The Times of Israel on Thursday that this time, the result would be different.
The main reason, they insist, is that they are fighting in a new manner.
"The logic of Operation Gideon’s Chariots is a more carefully supervised, systematic logic, which defines more precise goals that can be measured in the field," said "Shin."
A central element of the operation is the slow dismantling of neighborhoods in which Hamas operated.
"The focus on the tunnels underground, and on the booby-trapped buildings above ground, allows us to guarantee that at the end of the mission, it will be very hard for the enemy to return to this territory," Shin explained.
"We can’t guarantee 100 percent that the enemy who fled won’t return to a certain piece of territory, but without its combat infrastructure, we will be able to destroy them during their attempts to return."
Israel has come under withering criticism on many aspects of its fight against Hamas. The careful destruction of entire neighborhoods is in the spotlight now as international human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... organizations and the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... condemn the operation.
"As the occupying power, Israel must not destroy civilian property unless such destruction is rendered necessary by military operations," said the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in a statement on the Zeitoun operation. "The widespread destruction of residential buildings in eastern and southern Gaza City does not appear to be required by imperative military necessity nor rendered absolutely necessary by military operations."
Israeli officers told The Times of Israel that they were certain the tactic is legal and effective.
"Hamas decided to take all the homes in the Gaza Strip and turn them into terror infrastructure — there is no house where we didn’t find an explosive, Nukhba uniforms, weapons, RPG. There isn’t a house," stressed Lt. Col. "Gimel," commander of the 77th Armored Battalion. "The moment it decided to operate in that way, we had no choice but to destroy the infrastructure above ground in almost every place. In every place in Zeitoun, Hamas prepared for defense and attacks against our forces."
"It decided to turn everything into a military array," Gimel continued. "So we are destroying everything we need to in order to destroy Hamas."
He was not at all reticent about discussing what Israel is doing in Zeitoun.
His battalion, he said, "is destroying what is left of the Zeitoun Battalion, above ground, underground."
"They won’t have infrastructure, houses that dominate the roads, or tunnels from which they can emerge to attack our forces or border communities — that’s the reason we’re returning" to Zeitoun, he said. "When we leave for what I hope is the final time, the next gunnies that arrive won’t have anywhere to come back to. They’ll come back to open ground, from which they can’t threaten our forces."
Soldiers from the 7th Brigade, operating under the 99th Division, discovered and destroyed a roughly one-kilometer-long Hamas tunnel in Zeitoun equipped with living quarters and weapons this week.
Israel has also been accused by international critics of failing to protect Gazook civilians, even intentionally targeting them as part of an alleged genocide campaign.
Officers were unequivocal in their insistence that they are doing everything they can to get civilians away from the fighting.
"There are the preliminary activities that we do in order to evacuate the population to interior areas so they won’t be on the battlefield," said Cpt. "Lamed," a company commander in the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion, operating as part of the 7th Armored Brigade. "We are unequivocally operating in a way that is moral, ethical and appropriate."
IDF forces designate areas as "green" or "red" based on the presence of civilians. In red areas, rules of engagement are highly restricted.
The 7th Armored Brigade’s dismantling of Zeitoun, and of the Shejaiya neighborhood over the three months prior, are important in and of themselves, said the officers. Yet the announced impending takeover of Gaza City looms over discussions of the brigade’s operations.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir — who reportedly opposed the operation — said last week that the military is pushing ahead with its plans to capture Gaza City during a visit to Khan Younis.
"We are advancing with the efforts for action in Gaza City. We already have forces operating on the outskirts of the city, and additional forces will join them later," Zamir said to troops of the Kfir Infantry Brigade and 188th Armored Brigade, who repelled a Hamas attack on their encampment the day before.
"We are in the stages of an extended preparation ahead of the next operation," said Shin. "This mission has the same orientation. I can’t tell you exactly every arrow on a map that the chief of staff will approve, but our operations here are certainly part of this effort."
SIX STILL MISSING
Though their military operations are focused on defeating the Hamas threat in front of them, the soldiers of the 7th Armored Brigade said the 50 hostages still held by Hamas are never far from their minds.
"All of our efforts are in order to bring them home to their families," said Shin. "There is not a day and there is not a night that goes by, there is not a situation assessment, there is not an operational order in which this issue is not our compass."
At the same time, their actions might be endangering the very comrades they wish to rescue. Zamir reportedly said, "There is great danger to the lives of the hostages in taking over Gaza City." Hostage families have echoed that fear.
"We are taking all the necessary actions in order to ensure that they won’t be hurt," promised Shin.
"The issue of hostages is at the top of our priorities in all of our actions — in the tactical action, and in the ultimate goal for which we are operating."
[IsraelTimes] The IDF’s Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee criticizes Arab media for parroting widespread, apparently false rumors on social media that Israeli soldiers had been kidnapped, wounded, and killed in a Hamas ambush in Gaza.
In an Arabic-language post on X, Adraee accuses what he claims are Muslim Brotherhood-linked outlets of spreading “new false reports” aimed at boosting the morale of Hamas fighters and supporters who, he says, “know full well that their defeat is inevitable.”
Adraee says the propaganda depicts “prosperous Israel as defeated and destroyed Gaza as victorious,” describing it as an “illusion of victory” that Hamas is trying to sell, but insists that “in the end they will admit their defeat and apologize to all those whose minds they poisoned with lies.”
Military officials earlier said seven soldiers had been injured when an armored vehicle went over a bomb in northern Gaza. One soldier is in a moderate condition and the other 6 are lightly wounded.
[IsraelTimes] IDF and Shin Bet retrieved remains of Nova festival photographer, 28, killed by Hamas during Oct. 7 attack, alongside body of Kibbutz Be’eri security squad volunteer Ilan Weiss
The body of slain hostage Idan Shtivi was recently recovered from the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip by the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service, authorities announced on Saturday.
On Friday, the IDF announced it had recovered the bodies of slain hostage Ilan Weiss and of a second hostage, whom it did not identify at the time.
Shtivi, now confirmed as the second slain hostage whose body was recovered in the operation, was murdered at the Nova music festival during the Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel.
Shtivi, 28, was a nature lover and photography enthusiast who had been studying sustainability and government at Herzliya’s Reichman University.
His body was identified at the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine.
In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Shtivi "a man of great courage and heart."
"On October 7, 2023, he took part in the Nova music festival, and when the terrorist attack began, he acted to rescue and save many participants at the party," said Netanyahu.
He was seized by Hamas gunnies at the desert rave, where he had volunteered to photograph the event.
He joined the party at 6 a.m. — just half an hour before the attack started — and called his girlfriend at 7, telling her about the missiles overhead and that he was leaving.
Shtivi left in his car with two friends, but was blocked by the gunnies on the road heading north. He then turned the car around and started driving south, but was driven off the road, lost control of the vehicle and hit a tree.
He was last seen in that location, and the car was later found full of bullet holes and blood. His friends’ bodies were found at the scene.
Shtivi’s return was announced as thousands demonstrated across Israel, calling for a deal with Hamas to secure the return of all the hostages in exchange for a permanent end to the war, as the government prepares for a security cabinet meeting on Sunday at which it reportedly does not plan to discuss a deal on the table that Hamas said earlier this month it agreed to.
The deal, crafted by 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... and approved by Hamas on August 18, envisions the release of 10 hostages along with the bodies of 18 slain captives in five batches over a 60-day ceasefire, during which the sides will hold talks on the terms of the release of the remaining hostages and a permanent end to the war.
The government has yet to formally discuss the proposed deal, and despite it being nearly identical to an offer crafted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and approved by Jerusalem only last month, it has signaled that it has no interest in pursuing it, preferring instead to push forward with a plan to capture and control Gaza City.
Conditions change, and offers have time limits. Hamas screwed up — as always — by refusing what was offered, expecting that Israel would be forced to give them all instead.
Agreed. It only exists to feed the egos of Ms Thunberg and her cosplaying pals.
[GEO.TV] Aid flotillas like the one preparing to leave for 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... would not be necessary if governments upheld international law, rights activist Greta "Pippi" Thunberg ...an autistic sixteen year old Swedish expert on climate change, though I guess she's older now... told AFP Saturday.
"It should not have to be up to us," said the 22-year-old Swedish campaigner, who will join the flotilla when it sets off from Barcelona on Sunday.
"A mission like this should not have to exist," she added. "It is the responsibility of countries, of our governments and elected officials to act to try to uphold international law, to prevent war crimes, to prevent genocide," she said.
"That is their legal duty to do. And they are failing to do so. And thereby betraying Paleostinians but also all of humanity."
The latest aid expedition towards Gaza is organised by a group called the Global Sumud Flotilla, which describes itself as an "independent" organization. Sumud is the Arab word for perseverance.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/31/2025 00:00 ||
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#1
In fact, the entire "culture" that produced "Gaza aid flotilla" shouldn't exist.
[Rudaw] More than 450,000 Syrian refugees have returned home since the regime of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December, Turkey’s interior minister said on Friday.
“From the liberation of Syria on December 8, 2024, until today, the number of our Syrian brothers and sisters who have returned to their country voluntarily, safely, honorably, and regularly has reached 450,169,” Ali Yerlikaya said on X.
Ankara is a staunch supporter of the new authorities in Damascus, led by the former jihadist rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
“Turkey has always stood by our Syrian brothers and sisters who fled Assad’s oppression in 2011 and sought refuge in our country,” Yerlikaya said.
The interim government in Damascus has called on Syrians outside of the country to return, and several European nations have suspended processing of Syrian refugee claims.
Turkey has been home to the largest number of Syrian refugees in the world, hosting an estimated 2.5 million registered Syrians under temporary protection as of August, according to the interior ministry’s statistics.
A total of 1,190,000 Syrians who sought refuge in Turkey have returned home, according to Yerlikaya.
Ankara has been accused of resettling Syrian Arab families in northern Syria where its repeated military offensives have forced thousands of Kurdish families from their homes since 2016.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/31/2025 2025-08-31 04:50 ||
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[Rudaw] About 5,000 Iraqi nationals remain in al-Hol camp in northeast Syria (Rojava) that houses suspects linked to the Islamic State (ISIS), the Ministry of Migration and Displaced said on Saturday as Baghdad makes a global push to empty the camp.
“So far, approximately 18,000 Iraqi citizens have been repatriated from al-Hol camp and about 5,000 others remain in the camp,” Ali Abbas, spokesperson for the ministry, told Rudaw.
Al-Hol camp in Hasaka province is infamous for its squalid conditions and has been branded a breeding ground for terrorism. Iraqis and Syrians make up the majority of the nearly 28,000 ISIS-linked people who have been held at the camp since the territorial defeat of the jihadists in 2019. People from around the world who traveled to join ISIS are also held at the camp.
Baghdad is concerned about threats to its national security emanating from al-Hol and is planning to host an international conference about it in New York in September. It has invited all countries that have nationals in the camp to discuss mechanisms to empty and dismantle the facility.
Abbas said that the conference “came at Iraq’s request, and its aim is to present the camp’s dossier before the international community.”
Over 30 countries have confirmed their participation in the conference, according to Iraq’s charge d’affaires in Damascus.
Iraq has been repatriating its citizens from al-Hol and the smaller Roj camp in groups and putting them through a rehabilitation program, but many countries remain reluctant to take back their nationals over fears of extremist ideology spreading at home. On Saturday, Iraqi lawmaker Sherwan Dubardani told Rudaw that 233 families - comprising 854 individuals - were repatriated in the 29th and latest group of Iraqis to be returned from the camp.
Baghdad has set a goal of repatriating all Iraqi citizens from camps in Rojava by 2027.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/31/2025 2025-08-31 04:50 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Truckloads of guns, rockets and heavy weapons leave towns as government continues its efforts to disarm non-state groups
Paleostinian factions in several Beirut refugee camps surrendered their weapons to the Lebanese army on the weekend, an official said, as the government works to disarm non-state groups.
Ramez Dimashkieh, chairman of the official Lebanese-Paleostinian Dialogue Committee, told AFP Friday that "the Paleostine Liberation Organization handed over three truckloads of weapons to the Lebanese army," including rockets and heavy weapons.
One truckload came from the Mar Elias camp and Shatila camps, and two from the Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut and its suburbs, he said, adding that "this completes the process of handing over" PLO weapons from the Beirut camps.
At the entrance to the Burj al-Barajneh camp, AFP correspondents saw large wooden crates being moved to a nearby parking lot where soldiers inspected them before transporting them away, as troops deployed heavily to the area.
The official National News Agency had earlier reported the arrival of army vehicles in the camp "to receive a new batch of Paleostinian weapons."
During a visit to Beirut in May, 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....> and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun agreed that weapons in Leb ...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... ’s Paleostinian refugee camps would be handed over to the Lebanese authorities.
The implementation of the deal began last week as Abbas’s Fatah movement surrendered weapons in Burj al-Barajneh camp.
Abbas’s Fatah is the most prominent PLO faction. Paleostinian terror groups Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... and 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... , which are allied to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, are not part of the organization.
Dimashkieh said Friday that "there are still other factions that have not surrendered their weapons, but the process has started."
On Thursday, PLO factions handed over heavy weapons in south Lebanon’s Rashidieh, al-Bass and Burj al-Shemali camps, the Lebanese-Paleostinian dialogue committee said.
The move to collect the Paleostinian factions’ weapons comes as the Lebanese army draws up a plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year.
The plan, which is to be presented to the cabinet by the end of the month, was commissioned by the government under heavy US pressure and amid fears of expanded Israeli military action.
Hezbollah last year fought a bruising war with Israel that ended in a ceasefire in November. Hezbollah has been under domestic and international pressure since then to give up its remaining arsenal, which it has so far refused to do.
Implementation of the plan for the Paleostinian camps was delayed amid disagreements among and within the various Paleostinian factions operating in Lebanon over the mechanism for handing over the weapons.
Hamas and other armed factions were involved in firing at Israel from Lebanon with the start of the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... war and the ensuing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which a November ceasefire sought to end.
The ceasefire stipulated that only the Lebanese military would bear arms and that all forces would withdraw from the country’s south, with the exception of the army and UN peacekeepers.
Israel has continued to strike Lebanon in cases where it sees Hezbollah violating the ceasefire, and its troops still hold five positions in the south that it deems strategic for its defense.
Earlier this month, US envoy Tom Barrack said following Beirut’s commitment to disarm Hezbollah, it was Israel’s turn to make good on its side of the ceasefire, apparently referring to the retreat of troops back into Israel.
US network Axios reported that US officials had asked Israel to temporarily cut back on strikes in Lebanon deemed "non-urgent" and pull troops from one border point, as a show of good faith in support of the Lebanese effort.
Though officials doubt Beirut is strong enough to forcibly disarm Hezbollah, they hope Israel’s move will help give it the needed maneuverability to seize the terror group’s weapons.
The Iraqi Ministry of Defense has received direct communications from the Trump administration warning that a major military campaign targeting pro-Iranian groups inside Iraq is imminent.
According to U.S. officials, the objective of this operation is to give both Israel and the…
Though Iran’s officials avoided smartphones due to known security risks, NY Times reports rules for their guards and drivers were far more lax – which proved a fatal oversight
Israel was able to track and target senior Iranian political and military leaders and nuclear scientists during the June war between the countries by hacking and tracking the phones of their bodyguards and drivers, the New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported Saturday.
In its opening strikes on 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... in the early hours of June 13, Israel swiftly killed multiple top generals and nuclear scientists, among them Revolutionary Guards chief Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, Armed Forces chief Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, and missile chief Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, stunning and paralyzing Iran for long hours.
The Times report, which quoted several senior Iranian and Israeli military and intelligence officials, said that though top Iranian leaders were aware of the security threat posed by smartphones and avoided using them, this instruction did not extend to their security detail, enabling Israel to track and eliminate them.
"We know bigwigs and commanders did not carry phones, but their interlocutors, security guards and drivers had phones; they did not take precautions seriously and this is how most of them were traced," Sasan Karimi, a former deputy vice president for strategy in Iran’s government, told The Times.
The Times noted that Iran had been aware of Israel’s plan to kill brass hats and had boosted their security. In doing so, it unwittingly allowed Israel to track and target the bigwigs.
It further said that multiple guards were careless with their phone use prior to the war, posting updates about their doings on social media, further assisting Israel’s information-gathering efforts.
"Using so many bodyguards is a weakness that we imposed on them, and we were able to take advantage of that," one Israeli defense official said.
After that first devastating blow, bodyguards were ordered to carry only walkie-talkies while on the job.
However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... in at least one case, guards violated the orders allowing Israel to again target leaders, the report said, leading to a strike on a bunker during a secretive meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. President Masoud Pezeshkian was injured in the leg during that June 16 incident, but none of the brass hats were killed, though a number of guards were.
"The enemy gets the majority of its intelligence through technology, satellites and electronic data," the new head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said. "They can find people, get information, their voices, images and zoom in with precise satellites and find the locations."
Israel said after the 12-day conflict that it had killed dozens of security bigshots and at least 11 senior nuclear scientists during the campaign. It was considered the worst blow to the Islamic Theocratic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated to Israel’s strikes with barrages of missiles and drones that killed dozens. A ceasefire was reached on June 24 after Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs were severely damaged.
Since the war, Iran, shaken by the level of Israeli penetration of its ranks, has engaged in a sweeping arrest and interrogation campaign of suspected spies and has executed a number of people accused of doing so. Israel has not commented on such cases.
At the same time, The Times cited Vahidi as telling Iranian media that though Israel did use human intelligence, most of its data-gathering was through electronic means.
"The enemy gets the majority of its intelligence through technology, satellites and electronic data," Vahidi said. "They can find people, get information, their voices, images and zoom in with precise satellites and find the locations."
Israel said its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program was necessary to prevent the Islamic Theocratic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.
Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.
Current and former Israeli officials have said the offensive was the culmination of years of work by Mosssd ...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end... and Military Intelligence to build up intelligence capabilities to enable the elimination of targets with such precision.
Israel has warned it could resume its campaign should Iran attempt to rebuild its nuclear and missile programs.
International actors have sought since the ceasefire to reach an agreement with Tehran regarding the nuclear program, but have made little progress. On Thursday, Britannia, La Belle France and Germany, known as the E3, triggered the so-called snapback mechanism to reinstate UN sanctions on Tehran for failing to comply with commitments made in a 2015 deal over its nuclear program. Iran has threatened to retaliate.
Efforts to reach an agreement are ongoing.
Posted by: 3dc ||
08/31/2025 00:00 ||
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🚨 UPDATE from the Terrorist Convention in Detroit!
Mahmoud "ILLEGAL" Khalil's speech was filled with dangerous anti-Zionist (anti-Jew) and anti-American propaganda and thinly veiled threats. The Hamasniks went wild with applause.
In a video Hamxs put out tonight with some fresh shots of Muhammad Deif, the group casually slipped in that Muhammad Sinwar, Yahya Sinwar’s brother who appeared next to Deif, has been eliminated. https://t.co/ptWm9VA4T8
At the People’s Conference for Palestine, Aisha Nizar of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) laid out a militant strategy: don’t just attack weapons manufacturers like Elbit Systems, but target the logistics companies that move U.S. weapons… pic.twitter.com/pOn8K1NMNK
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.
[NYPOST] The president and CEO of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum offered a tone-deaf defense of the nonprofit's extravagant executive salaries this week, as The Post's Page 1 expose stirred outrage that officials are exploiting the city's greatest disaster.
...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
[GEO.TV] Israel is undermining a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis through its actions in Gaza, Denmark's foreign minister said on Saturday.
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
[GEO.TV] Aid flotillas like the one preparing to leave for 
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
