#8
Poor Penelope'd nothing on Joi
Who was known, whe annoyed by a boy,
To become merry cross,
Give her horsetail a toss,
And, if causing a loss, haw haw haw.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The charges brought upon those involved included sex trafficking, drug trafficking, selling firearms, human smuggling and identity theft, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
A Texas madam who ran an elaborate brothel network and employed her own daughters as prostitutes will spend the rest of her life behind bars in federal prison.
Maria Angelica 'Patty' Moreno-Reyna, 59, was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences on October 9 for managing a gang-run sex trafficking ring out of Houston, which was finally busted in 2017.
Moreno-Reyna was one of the 22 Southwest Cholos street gang members and associates who were indicted on charges related to the violent and illicit scheme.
Those arrested included Moreno-Reyna's husband, her five sons, and several of her relatives.
While Moreno-Reyna and her co-conspirators were charged in 2017, she did not plead guilty until December 2023.
She admitted to two of the 27 charges against her - sex trafficking by means of force, threats, fraud or coercion and a related conspiracy count - the Houston Chronicle reported.
As part of her plea deal, she also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as they continued their investigation.
Moreno-Reyna confessed to managing a brothel run out of the Carriage Way Apartments and Inglewood Village Apartments, both in Houston, as well as stash houses by the southwest border dividing Texas and Mexico.
She also smuggled at least four women from Latin America to Houston to work as prostitutes from 2010 to 2016.
Prosecutors said the sex trafficker charged victims and their families to help them travel over the border illegally.
Moreno-Reyna told the women that they could pay off their debts by working in a restaurant. But once they arrived in Texas, there was no restaurant job lined up for them. Instead, they were forced into prostitution.
Law enforcement agencies found dozens of women who were illegally brought into the country and subjected to abuse.
While the exact number of people trafficked by Moreno-Reyna remains unclear, authorities said that some of the victims were as young as 14 years old.
Moreno-Reyna even had her two daughters wrapped up in the illegal activities, having them both work as prostitutes.
Many of the women who were roped into the brothel complex were forced to undergo cosmetic surgeries or get tattoos that would make them more 'profitable,' according to prosecutors.
And if a prostitute managed to escape - even making their way back to Mexico - they were often tracked down and threatened by the vicious Southwest Cholos members.
Carriage Way Apartments, which Moreno-Reyna ran and served as the brothel complex's hub, was one of the gang's most lucrative spots.
For 14 hours each day, 10 of the building's 70 units were used by prostitutes seeing clients.
The FBI also said Carriage Way Apartments was a hotspot for drug and gun dealing.
While recruiting her daughters as sex workers, Moreno-Reyna had her five sons handling enforcement and security for the brothel.
Her husband and brother were tasked with transporting women over the border, prosecutors said.
Overall, authorities seized 10 properties that Moreno-Reyna owned across Harris County.
Of those indicted, 10, including Moreno-Reyna, have already been sentenced.
Another eight criminals involved in the case have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
According to the Houston Chronicle, one of the defendants has had all charges against him dropped, although it is unclear why.
Four people who were indicted by the federal grand jury in 2017 were never tracked down and remain on the run from authorities.
More than a dozen suspected members of a ruthless Houston street gang accused of tattooing their sex trafficking victims are behind bars, charged by federal authorities with everything from smuggling immigrants to illegal firearms sales and drug trafficking.
The violent Southwest Cholos crew, which boasts members with street names like "Pantera" and "Troubles", preyed on undocumented immigrants who were forced to work in brothels around Houston and in Mexico, prosecutors say.
The gang ran a transnational criminal network stretching from a Houston apartment complex, to towns along the Texas-Mexico border to the Mexican resort of Cancun, according to 37-count criminal indictment unsealed late Wednesday.
.
The gang members enticed undocumented immigrants with promises of passage to the U.S. and restaurant jobs to pay off smuggling debts. But instead, the unwitting victims were forced to work as prostitutes in gang brothels, including one at the Carriage Way Apartments in southwest Houston. Prosecutors allege the complex was the gang's base of operations for methamphetamine and heroin peddling, gun trafficking and human smuggling.
When the women refused to work as prostitutes, the gang members allegedly threatened violence against their families.
Raids conducted Tuesday by agents across the city resulted in a string of arrests, as well as the rescue of seven trafficking victims. Previously, they'd already identified another six woman forced into the sex trade, including a 14-year-old girl.
On top of the brutal threats to harm their families, the alleged gangsters further terrorized their victims by tattooing them with nicknames to mark them as property and exert their control.The brothels, in Houston and elsewhere, operated from 2009 to 2017, according to federal charges.
But since April of this year, at least nine of the defendants also became involved in a related human smuggling scheme, prosecutors say. Together they smuggled immigrants from China, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Central American into the U.S. using gang-controlled stash houses in the Rio Grande Valley.
The smuggling victims forked over as much as $40,000 apiece to be transported into the U.S and overland to Houston by the gang. During this week's arrests, authorities discovered 16 immigrants hidden away at the secret stash houses.
The gang was largely a family operation headed by Freddy "King Mono" Montes, his mother Maria Angelica "Patty" Moreno-Reyna, 51,
…the same lady in today’s story, I believe…
and Giovani Alexander "Whiteboy" Alecio, 26, all of Houston.
The government alleged that other leaders of the gang were Patty's husband, Erik Ivan "Casa Grande" Alvarez-Chavez, 39, and her four other sons - William Alberto "Payaso" Lopez, 27, Walter Lopez, 26, Eddie Alejandro "Monterrey" Torres, 38, and Jose Luis "Lucky" Moreno, 23, all of Houston.
The federal charges include multiple conspiracy counts ranging from sex trafficking of a minor and possession of methamphetamine to importation of aliens for immoral purposes, immigration law violations and making false statements.
One by one on Wednesday, the judge told them the possible sentences they faced on the allegations, and many learned they were facing life sentences on the sex trafficking conspiracy. Some of the alleged gang members also face a 10-year minimum sentence on the drug trafficking counts. The human smuggling charges could bring a maximum 20-year sentence, and the firearms trafficking could add another five years.
#3
Can you be a prostitute from Mexico, or anywhere for that matter, and not be considered sex trafficked?
The logistics: You can be a whore in MX and make $20 a John, or be a whore in America and make $100 a John. I would bet most MX whores would rather be whores in America. I was talking a TJ Whore once and she was telling me how much more profitable it was to whore in the USA where the "girlfriend experience" earned her close to a $1000/night. She also said American were cleaner than Mexicans.
I just point this out b/c she was not trafficked to the US, it was her own business decision to go to the US.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/24/2025 14:50 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Madam and brothel are quaint terms, making a person think Bunnyfarm or Moulan Rouge, not this entire industry, but I guess the UK being the UK, Daily Mail is understanding of it all.
[ARABNEWS] KANO, Nigeria: Nigeria's military said on Thursday it had killed 50 militants using drones to carry out multiple attacks on army bases in the volatile northeast.
The authorities in Africa's most populous country and one of its powerhouses, have been fighting the Boko Haram militant group and its Daesh West Africa Province (Daesh-WAP) splinter for 16 years.
The groups are seeking to establish a caliphate in the northeast.
In the early hours of Thursday, troops aided by fighter jets engaged insurgents who had launched coordinated attacks on bases in the towns of Dikwa, Mafa and Gajibo in Borno state as well as in Katarko in neighboring Yobe state, a military spokesman said in a statement.
The military did not say which faction was behind the attacks, but intelligence sources told AFP that Daesh-WAP militants were responsible.
''The combined ground and air efforts resulted in the neutralization of over 50 terrorists across all the locations,'' Lt. Col. Sani Uba, a military spokesman in the northwest said in the statement.
He said several soldiers were wounded in the fighting, without giving numbers.
''Some vehicles and buildings were also gutted by fire from the terrorists' armed drones and RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) fire during the battle, especially in Mafa and Dikwa, where a part of the defenses were momentarily breached,'' he said.
Armed insurgents are increasingly using drones, often commercial models modified to drop bombs or grenades.
A resident in Mafa showed AFP videos and pictures from the area showing the charred carcasses of several trucks and said the militants had set them ablaze during the attack.
Mafa locals said the trucks were mostly laden with cement heading to Chad whose drivers had parked for the night for fear of militant attacks on the highway.
The conflict has killed more than 40,000 and displaced around two million in northeastern Nigeria.
It has spilt over into neighboring countries, prompting the creation of a regional military coalition to combat the Islamist groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2025 00:00 ||
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[APNEWS] ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's military killed more than 50 Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... bully boyz in response to drone attacks on military bases in the country's northeast, the army said Thursday.
Army spokesperson Sani Uba said in a statement that bully boyz launched simultaneous attacks on military bases in Borno and Yobe states early Thursday. It added that a combination of ground and air assaults enabled the military to defeat the bully boyz who launched their attacks from northern Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... and Katarko, a village located in Yobe State.
The spokesperson said that ground troops, backed by the Air Component, are still pursuing more than 70 maimedbully boyz ''in close coordination.''
Last month, Boko Haram bully boyz killed at least 60 people in a nighttime attack on Darul Jamal, a village in northeastern Nigeria.
Boko Haram, Nigeria's homegrown jihadis, took up arms in 2009 to fight Western education and impose their radical version of Islamic law or Sharia.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2025 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Anti-Israel activists seek the dismissal of economics professor Michael Ben-Gad, who says they called him a ‘war criminal’ and ‘Nazi’
Masked demonstrators stormed the classroom of an Israeli-born economics professor at City University of LondonWednesday.
The professor, Michael Ben-Gad, said they threatened to behead him and shouting accusations that he was a "war criminal" and a "Nazi."
"They came right up to me and screamed in my face," Ben-Gad told Sky News. "One of them made a threat about having my head chopped off."
Video footage shared on social media showed masked protesters taking over the classroom and yelling that Ben-Gad "is part of the genocide in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... The video shows a handful of enraged masked students charging that Ben-Gad served in the "IOF" — an acronym for Israeli Occupation Forces, a term used by some anti-Israel activists to refer to the IDF — and chanting pro-Paleostine slogans as security personnel attempted to guide them out of the room.
Ben-Gad, who served in the IDF in the 1980s and has ties to Israeli universities and the Bank of Israel, said he has been targeted by an anti-Israel group called City Action for Paleostine demanding his dismissal.
A week earlier, the group had distributed flyers around campus branding Ben-Gad a "terrorist" and calling for his dismissal because his compulsory army service, from 1982 to 1985, coincided with the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War.
Pro-Palestine students disrupt the lecture of Michael Ben-Gad, an ex-Israeli soldier and current lecturer at City University in London.
Ben-Gad responded that his “only crime” was being a Jew who has lived in the Middle East.
“If the objective of the demonstration was to frighten or intimidate me, frankly they will have to try a lot harder than printing up a flyer, launching an Instagram campaign or a small demonstration,” Ben-Gad told the Daily Mail.
“I lectured this week as usual while all this was beginning, and plan to do so next week as well,” he said. “I am indeed, as they claim, an IDF veteran, and I plan to act like one — these modern brownshirts are not going to send me into hiding.”
Following the incident, the university said that Ben-Gad, who has worked at City University of London since 2008 and served as the head of the economics department for three years, has the full support of the university and its senior management team.
“City St George’s fully supports and upholds freedom of expression within the law and is willing to engage in lawful discussion and debate across the full range of topics,” a spokesperson said. “However, unlawful and repugnant attempts to obstruct and interfere with our academic operations are another thing entirely, and the University will not tolerate the harassment of its staff and students.
“We reject the unlawful actions of this small group of individuals that is neither affiliated with the University nor its Students’ Union,” the statement continued. “We will continue to support and protect our staff and students, including Michael, who has the full support of the University and its senior management team, as well as colleagues of all faiths and backgrounds.”
Incredible watching Professor Michael Ben-Gad keep his sense of humour in all this. What a hero ❤️ pic.twitter.com/1qMuw9PoIG
More than a thousand UK academics signed a petition standing against the attacks on Ben-Gad.
“Regardless of diverse views on the recent Gaza war and the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we deplore any campaign that seeks to intimidate and drive out lecturers because they are Israeli, Jewish, or members of any other group,” the petition read. “We are immensely grateful to hear of the strong support given by the President and Senior Leadership Team to the Professor in question, and we wish to register our equal support.”
Antisemitism has soared in the UK since the start of the conflict. More than 1,500 antisemitic incidents were recorded across the country in the first half of 2025, the second-highest total ever, the Community Security Trust, which provides security to Jewish organizations across the country, said in August.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] An asylum seeker was captured on video carrying out sex attacks on multiple women while cycling through the town where he was staying - and has now been spared jail after claiming he was 'unfamiliar with UK laws'.
Qais Al-Aswad, 26, who is originally from Syria, sexually assaulted three women as he passed them on the same cycle lane in Horley, Surrey in May and June this year.
Al-Aswad, who was staying at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel at the time, was seen on CCTV footage reaching out with his hand and sexually assaulting his victims as he cycled past.
The assaults all took place while Al-Aswad was travelling to and from the hotel to work at a car wash in London Bridge.
He approached the first woman after she had left the pub with her mother, 'slapping her bottom from behind' at around 9pm on May 23.
Al-Aswad 'grabbed hold and squeezed' the bottom of a second woman at around 9pm on June 4.
Eight days later on June 12, Al-Aswad passed a third woman on his bike and 'grabbed her crotch and vaginal area' at around 10.45am.
Following the 26-year-old's conviction in August, around 200 anti-immigration protesters gathered outside the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Horley, where he had lived.
He was sentenced at Staines Magistrates' Court on Wednesday to six months in custody, suspended for two years.
The court heard that after initially denying it was him who had committed the assaults, Al-Aswad told an interview with probation that he was 'unfamiliar with UK laws regarding physical contact'.
The judge said Al-Aswad 'attempted to minimise his behaviour' in the interview and also claimed he had only touched the women to move them out of his path to avoid a collision, as the brakes on his bike were faulty.
Two of his victims, who sat in the public gallery to watch the sentencing, shook their heads when they heard this claim repeated by the judge.
District Judge Cooper added: 'You showed no remorse at the time of these offences, putting your finger up to one woman and blowing a kiss to another.'
Reading a victim impact statement to the court, one of his victims, who had been shopping in the town when he grabbed her, said: 'What upsets me the most about this whole incident is how an individual who himself claims to be seeking safety and happiness, feels he has the right to remove those same things from myself and other women.'
The court heard that when the victim swore at the defendant after he assaulted her, he blew a kiss at her.
At trial Al-Aswad, wearing HMP Wandsworth-issued grey sweat pants and grey T-shirt, told the court via an Arabic interpreter: 'I left my country. I left my wife and kids in the camp and seek safety.
'I want to know what you are going to do with me today. I want to know that if I am found guilty, how am I going to see my wife?'
The court heard Al-Aswad, who was flanked by a security guard in the dock, fled Syria in 2018 after his home had been bombed. He arrived in the UK from Turkey in 2024.
As well as the suspended prison sentence, Al-Aswad must complete 40 days of rehabilitation activity and 200 hours of unpaid work, and was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order whereby he has to wear a monitoring tag at all times. He has been banned from using any bicycle or scooter in a public place, including parks, unless it has the ability to GPS track his location and route at all times.
[GEO.TV] The federal cabinet has greenlighted a ban on Tehrik-e-Labbaik Pakistain (TLP) under the Anti-Terrorism Act following a request from the Punjab ...1. Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2. A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3. A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots
.... government, citing violent mostly peaceful protests in the province that left several dead and many injured.
The move follows a series of fierce demonstrations by the TLP that erupted earlier this month after police dismantled a protest camp in Muridke, leading to confrontations that resulted in the death of a cop shoppe house officer (SHO) and three others, including a passerby.
In today's session, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the federal cabinet unanimously approved declaring the TLP a proscribed organization under the Anti-Terrorism Act, according to the declaration.
[IsraelTimes] Residents tell ToI of a pattern of sometimes deadly militia-style activity by Hamas, and some tacitly back aspects of it: ‘They’re on the ground, naturally they’ll rule’
As Iyad Abu Ramadan, head of the Chamber of Commerce 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... City, arrived at his office on Monday morning, he saw a group of masked, gunnies in civilian clothing standing at an intersection outside.
He is sure they were Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... operatives, he said in a phone interview with The Times of Israel. "There is no other armed force that could be there," he said. "The de facto authority is Hamas."
Mohammad, who lives in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, also reported seeing button men deployed at junctions in recent days. "You can see two or three at the [various] crossroads, masked," he told The Times of Israel by phone.
At night, he said, things turn violent mostly peaceful.
Mohammad, whose name has been changed for his safety, said he was aware of several recent killings of civilians by Hamas. Residents learn each morning about what has happened overnight via local Telegram channels or word of mouth in the camp, he said.
Hamas does not announce these actions on its official social media accounts. But every few days since the ceasefire began and the Israel Defense Forces partially withdrew, Telegram channels linked to Hamas have been publishing footage showing violence against Gaza residents — people being shot in the legs or hit with stone blocks in ostensible punishment for alleged crimes including stealing aid, using drugs and collaborating with Israel.
"The situation is frightening," Mohammad said. "From the moment the ceasefire began [on October 10], we started seeing random killings. It sows fear among Gaza residents, and sadly it’s still going on. There are button men who will kill you for alleged collaboration, or for reasons you don’t even know."
On Saturday, the al-Saftawi family announced that Hisham al-Saftawi had been rubbed out in his home in Nuseirat by Hamas button men. Mohammad confirmed the account and said the shooting occurred at 5 a.m., and that al-Saftawi was killed in front of his children. "They didn’t give an excuse," he said, referring to Hamas.
He described al-Saftawi as a well-known figure in the camp. The family said it would not set up a mourning tent until it had avenged his death at Hamas’s hands.
Officially, Hamas police announced they would investigate the incident, but media outlets aligned with the terror group cited alleged unspecified criminal activity and said al-Saftawi had served in the Paleostinian Authority security services when the Paleostinian Authority, or rather the Fatah faction headed by its 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....> , ruled the Strip between 2005 and the violent mostly peaceful Hamas takeover in 2007.
The family’s public denunciation of Hamas was unusual; other families that have encountered Hamas violence and murder are generally far too terrified to speak out.
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib’s brother lives in southern Gaza. On Sunday, this brother told the US-based Alkhatib that he was driving home when he found himself surrounded by masked Hamas button men who brandished weapons, checked his car and his ID, and only allowed him to continue after a thorough search.
Alkhatib, who has lived in the US for the past two decades and is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said his brother is afraid to speak to the press himself, but he relayed his brother’s account. "He said to me, ’These guys are acting like a militia. Why would masked button men in civilian clothes surround my car, pull out their guns, and go through the whole car? Why do they have AK-47s? This is not exactly civil’."
That account reflects the nature of Hamas’s activity in the Strip these days: operating as a deadly militia against those it perceives as threats, while avoiding overt full governance.
BESIEGED BY HAMAS GUNMEN ’WITH MORTARS AND RPGS’
At least two public incidents of multiple executions were filmed on October 13 and subsequently acknowledged by Hamas-affiliated media. The footage provoked an uproar online and increasing anger from US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... , who is adamant that Hamas must and will disarm. It was also followed by a warning from the US State Department that Hamas was planning further attacks against the people of Gaza, and that these attacks would constitute "a direct and grave violation of the ceasefire agreement."
Gazook residents interviewed by The Times of Israel said those cases of multiple executions were largely confined to Gaza City, and have not been repeated in recent days.
Some locals partially justified Hamas’s actions. Omar, a Gaza City resident who asked not to be identified by his real name, said: "The (Hamas) police are deployed so that no one can steal aid; they are securing the aid. The executions were of people who worked with (anti-Hamas militias), people who stole and sold the aid. And some of them were collaborators with the occupation (referring to Israel)."
Salah (also a pseudonym), who lives in central Gaza, said he does not support Hamas but added: "Hamas arrests people who are wanted for all sorts of things. The killing phenomenon has stopped," he claimed. "They settled scores with some families that did bad things to people — that set up checkpoints to steal, confiscate weapons and generally intimidate," he said. Those people "did many bad things. These are criminals; they need to be eliminated. That is my personal opinion."
"Hamas operatives are on the ground and naturally they’ll rule," said Salah. He claimed most Gazooks don’t want Hamas rule, "but feel there is a vacuum; there is no one to enter and replace them."
The US-based Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, who is in daily contact with his extended family in Gaza, explained that there is indeed "a vacuum" in Gaza, "in the sense that there isn’t a ready alternative to Hamas. The only ones that were really potentially willing to fill that gap are people with guns. Who has guns in Gaza? It’s either the clans (the big families in the Strip), or the militias that worked with Israel." Now, with the IDF having withdrawn to an area that covers barely half of Gaza, Hamas has been settling scores with those rivals.
Before the ceasefire, three main militias were operating in Gaza — led by Ashraf al-Mansi in the north, Hossam al-Astal in Khan Younis, and Yasser Abu Shabaab in eastern Rafah.
The latter two have acknowledged receiving military and logistical support from Israel; the al-Mansi militia has not, but a senior figure in the Abu Shabaab militia told The Times of Israel that al-Mansi’s group operates in similar fashion.
Since the ceasefire began, Gaza media has reported multiple Hamas festivities with al-Mansi’s militia and other clans in Gaza City. The two other groups are based in areas that are either still under IDF control or very close to IDF deployments.
"In the 50% or so that Hamas controls, the terror group has taken every opportunity it has had to go after anybody with weapons. It has also ’mixed’ the two separate files — of crime and lawlessness, on the one hand, with, on the other, accusations, fake or exaggerated or real, of collaboration with Israel," Alkhatib explained.
That mixing, Alkhatib said, makes it easier for Hamas to legitimize its punitive actions.
The names of those who have been killed, including in the public executions, have not been published officially, but Gaza media reports say many were from the large Dormoush family in Gaza City. Previously during the war, Israel reportedly offered members of the family a deal to cooperate against Hamas, which they refused.
One family elder, Nizal Dogmoush, told the Saudi al-Arabiya TV channel in a phone interview on Saturday that Hamas button men had killed 33 members of his family. He said the area in Gaza City where his family lives was besieged by a large number of Hamas operatives "with mortars and RPGs."
He denied allegations of collaboration with Israel, but also said that if some family members did collaborate with Israel, they should be handed over to legal authorities — effectively recognizing the legitimacy of pursuing and punishing collaborators, though not the capital punishments.
’A DEATH CULT ENGAGED IN A MASSIVE HUMAN SACRIFICE’
Those speaking publicly in recent days about Hamas’s actions tend to be influential local figures, established families and elders. As Mohammad acknowledged, there is tremendous fear among Gazooks about speaking out against Hamas since the ceasefire began.
"Many people started to reduce (their online presence) and don’t want to speak because of fear of the repercussions. This situation, of Hamas, militias and gangs, is not stable at all," Mohammad said.
Alkhatib said he senses the change even in private calls with family and friends: people felt more comfortable talking about Hamas during the war than now, during the ceasefire. "Because Hamas was underground, there was less of a chance of them coming after people." Today, by contrast, even saying, ’That’s what I saw, that’s what I encountered,’ it’s a risk right now. Everybody’s lowering" their profile.
The big question, of course, is how current events in Gaza, and especially the reemergence of Hamas, will shape the Strip’s future. Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza requires the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of the Strip. Hamas officials have indicated they will not give up their weapons. The hostage-ceasefire agreement signed by Israel and Hamas on October 9 does not cover the issue of postwar governance, which has yet to be negotiated.
Gazooks interviewed by The Times of Israel offered divergent forecasts: some expect Hamas to resume its rule, others foresee Arab or international forces arriving in the coming months and displacing it.
Chamber of Commerce head Abu Ramadan said his primary fear is Israel, which he said views all Gaza residents as the enemy. "Israel demands security and peace but no one is demanding peace and security for us. Israel is still an occupying force in the Strip, and most of Israeli society thinks Gaza is the enemy and all its residents are enemies, and it would be better if Gaza disappeared."
Nonetheless, he said that if Hamas retains power, "there will be no rehabilitation of Gaza, and that’s a very difficult issue for Gaza residents. And there will be no possibility to achieve peace."
Alkhatib offered a bleak near-term forecast for Gaza under a militia-style Hamas presence: "It is going to be very grim. It will take three to five years, at minimum, to just stabilize things.
"I think it’s going to take a biblical miracle to try to really, truly transform that place," he went on. "Not because it cannot be done, but because you have a [Hamas] death cult that is engaged in a massive human sacrifice and is holding two million people hostage. We got 20 Israeli living hostages out. Wonderful. But now we have two million Paleostinian hostages."
[IsraelTimes] The Syrian interior ministry says it seized about 12 million Captagon stimulant pills in a raid on a drug smuggling network operating near Damascus.
The seizure marks one of the largest drug busts since the transitional authority assumed power in late 2024.
Following “precise monitoring and tracking of a smuggling network attempting to traffic large quantities of narcotics abroad,” security forces seized “around 12 million Captagon pills in the Al-Dumayr area,” Brigadier General Khaled Eid, director of the Anti-Narcotics Department, says in a ministry statement.
The leader of the network was arrested during the operation, according to Eid. The confiscated drugs will be destroyed.
The operation reflects the department’s “determined approach to combating smuggling, cutting off its sources, and prosecuting” those involved in drug trafficking.
Captagon, which is similar to an amphetamine, became Syria’s largest export during the civil war that erupted in 2011, with its trade serving as a key funding source for the government of ousted president Bashar al-Assad. Since Assad’s fall, the new authorities have reported numerous major seizures across the country. However, neighboring countries continue to report the interception of large shipments.
[IsraelTimes] Four people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in eastern and southern Lebanon, the country’s health ministry says.
The ministry reported that strikes in mountainous areas in the east resulted in an initial death toll of two people.
It later stated that two others were killed in a separate strike in the south around Nabatieh, with the official National News Agency (NNA) reporting an elderly woman was one of the dead.
The NNA had earlier said that “Israeli warplanes launched a series of violent strikes on the eastern mountain range” in the Beqaa region near the border with Syria.
It also reported that two Israeli strikes targeted the Hermel range in the country’s northeast.
The IDF had confirmed carrying out an airstrike in Nabatieh, saying it was targeting a Hezbollah weapons depot. It also said it carried out airstrikes in Lebanon’s eastern Beqaa Valley, saying it targeted a Hezbollah training camp where operatives were gathered and a precision missile manufacturing site, among other targets.
According to the military, the training camp was used by Hezbollah to plan attacks against Israel. The missile manufacturing site in the Beqaa Valley has been struck by the IDF numerous times before. The IDF says it also struck a Hezbollah military site in northern Lebanon.
The IDF confirms carrying out an airstrike in the Nabaitieh area of southern Lebanon this evening, saying it targeted a Hezbollah weapons depot.
The military says the depot, in the town of Arabsalim, was used by Hezbollah to advance attacks on Israel, and that the terror group was continuing efforts to rebuild its infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
“The presence of the terror infrastructure constitutes a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the army says.
In total, five fighter jets hit 16 Hezbollah targets during the strikes in the Beqaa Valley and in the north of the country, according to the military.
“The storage of weapons, the presence of terror infrastructure, and the conduct of military training against the State of Israel by Hezbollah terrorists constitute a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and a threat to the State of Israel,” the military adds.
[X]
مراسل «الأخبار»: غارات إسرائيلية عنيفة على جرود بلدة شمسطار وجرود النبي شيت في السلسلة الشرقية pic.twitter.com/B4RtT9m8vm
[IsraelTimes] Troops seize handgun, assault rifles and magazines, detain suspects; operation marks second foiled smuggling plot from Syria to Lebanon within a week
Israeli troops foiled an attempt to smuggle weapons from Syria into Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... , arresting several suspects atop Mount Hermon, the IDF announced Thursday.
It marked the second time within a week that the IDF busted a plot to spirit weapons from Syria into Lebanon in the Hermon area, as the army maintains its presence in parts of southern Syria.
On Wednesday night, soldiers of the 595th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit, who operate surveillance cameras, spotted suspicious movement in the area and dispatched troops to the scene, the army said.
Troops belonging to the 810th "Mountains" Regional Brigade and field interrogators of the Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 detained several suspects near the peak of Mount Hermon, the military said.
According to the IDF, the suspects were trying to smuggle several firearms into Lebanon. The suspects were taken for further questioning.
A photo of the confiscated weapons shared by the IDF showed a handgun, three assault rifles and nine magazines.
The IDF has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria since the fall of the Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... regime in December 2024, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries. Two posts are on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.
Troops have been operating in areas up to around 15 kilometers (nine miles) deep into Syria, aiming to capture weapons that Israel says could pose a threat to the country if they fall into the hands of "hostile forces," including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
On Saturday last week, the IDF confiscated grenades, handguns, RPGs, and ammunition that traffickers tried to smuggle into Lebanon. The suspects were taken for questioning.
ISIS, HTS government affiliates, or Turkmen irregular Ottoman proxies? Or possibly someone who just got up on the wrong side of the bed and decided to take it out on the nearest Other?
[Rudaw] A cycle of violence rigged with explosives detonated on Monday in northeast Syria's (Rojava) eastern Hasaka province, killing one of its perpetrators and injuring the other, the Kurdish-led internal security forces (Asayish) reported.
In a statement, the Asayish said "a cycle of violence rigged for explosion detonated on Monday morning at the al-Hadadiya bridge in the al-Arisha area," located in the northern part of al-Shaddadi district in southern Hasaka.
"The explosion resulted in the death of one of the riders and the injury of the other, who was subsequently transported to a hospital for treatment," the statement read.
The Asayish further noted that "preliminary investigations revealed that the cycle of violence had been booby-trapped with TNT, concealed under the engine cover on the right side. It also contained pieces of metal and a flammable phosphorescent material."
The phosphorescent substance reportedly ignited unexpectedly, causing the bomb to detonate prematurely - before the intended target could be reached.
The Kurdish-led internal security forces said they swiftly "cordoned off the blast site and collected evidence, while investigations are underway to identify those behind the attempted bombing and determine the operation’s objective."
Importantly, the attack comes only days after a similar assault saw an unidentified gunman open fire at members of the Asayish in north-central Syria’s Raqqa province on Wednesday, the Asayish reported, noting that the attacker and two non-combatants were killed in the incident.
Importantly, the attack comes just days after a similar assault in which an unidentified gunman opened fire on members of the Asayish in Syria’s north-central Raqqa province, the Kurdish-led internal security forces reported Wednesday, noting that the attacker and two non-combatants were killed in the incident.
"A person riding a cycle of violence targeted one of our forces' checkpoints in the town of al-Karama, east of Raqqa, randomly firing a Kalashnikov rifle. Our forces immediately responded to the source of gunfire, neutralizing the attacker on the spot. The attack resulted in the martyrdom of two civilians, with no casualties among our members," the Asayish then relayed.
While no group has grabbed credit for either attack, such incidents are often attributed to remnants of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS), which has been escalating its operations in eastern Syria.
These areas are largely under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the Asayish is a security affiliate.
Since its territorial defeat in Syria in 2019, ISIS has been trying to regain its strength, particularly after a coalition of opposition groups - led by the now-dissolved Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) - in early December toppled the regime of longtime Syrian dictator Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia...
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/24/2025 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Internal Security Forces (Asayish) in northeast Syria (Rojava) has announced that they have captured two Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) operatives in eastern Syria, in an operation supported by the US-led global coalition against ISIS.
In a statement released Wednesday evening, the Asayish said that their special forces (also known as HAT), supported by the Global Coalition, "arrested two individuals belonging to an ISIS sleeper cell" in the northern part of Deir ez-Zor province.
The operation was carried out after "precise monitoring and tracking of the terrorist cell's movements and activities," the statement noted. The forces raided the suspects’ location and detained them "without any casualties."
A cache of weapons, ammunition, communication devices, and documents "proving the detainees’ involvement in terrorist activities targeting the security and stability of the region" was also seized during the operation.
The Asayish added that "preliminary investigations with the detainees are still ongoing, in preparation for their referral to the judiciary to receive fair punishment in accordance with the law." The force reaffirmed its commitment to "monitor and dismantle the terrorist organization’s cells and prevent any attempts to destabilize security and spread chaos," emphasizing that such efforts continue "with the support of the global coalition."
The move comes only days after the Asayish’s affiliates from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday captured a "dangerous" ISIS commander in north-central Syria, responsible for overseeing the distribution of weapons and coordinating activity among the group’s sleeper cells.
In a statement, the SDF reported that its Military Operations Teams (TOL), with support from the US-led global coalition, "carried out a precise and comprehensive security operation in Tabqa city," located southeast of Raqqa, to "arrest a dangerous commander of ISIS terrorist cells."
The TOL units specialize in counterterrorism raids and special operations.
The suspected ISIS operative - Ahmad Abd al-Qader al-Moussa - was accused of "overseeing the receipt and delivery of weapons and military equipment and their distribution to [ISIS] terrorist cells," and had been monitoring the Kurdish forces’ outposts. During the operation, a cache of weapons and hand grenades was also seized.
Although ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Syria in 2019, it has recently sought to regain ground in Syria amid the instability that followed the fall of longtime dictator Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... ’s regime in December.
Both the SDF and the Asayish remain actively engaged in counterterrorism operations to prevent the reemergence of ISIS.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/24/2025 00:00 ||
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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 British writer and model..jpg)
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
...1. Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
