[FoxNews] Tom Homan, former acting ICE director, tapped to serve as 'border czar' under Trump
Morale appears to be surging among border authorities after the election of President-elect Donald Trump, who made border security one of the pillars of his campaign, after nearly four years of relaxed immigration policies that saw record numbers of migrants enter the United States.
In addition to strengthening the southern border, Trump has promised to order mass deportations of illegal immigrants. On Monday, he tapped Tom Homan, the former acting director of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE), to serve as "border czar" in his second administration.
During an appearance on "Fox & Friends," Homan, who is widely respected within the Border Patrol and ICE, said he plans to fix the border crisis caused by the Biden administration's policies.
"I’ve been on this network for years complaining about what this administration did to this border," he said. "I’ve been yelling and screaming about it and what they need to do to fix it. So when the president asked me, ‘Would you come back and fix it?’ Of course, I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t."
Illegal border crossings surged under President Biden with nearly 3 million in fiscal 2024, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s website. There have been more than 10.8 million illegal encounters since fiscal 2021.
Homan said he supports Trump's mass deportation plan, saying he would be prioritizing "public safety threats and national security threats." When asked during a recent interview on CBS's "60 Minutes" if mass deportations would result in family separations, Homan responded, "Families can be deported together."
U.S. Border Patrol agents and ICE officials told Fox News the change is like night and day.
"It’s a total 180. Troops are finally feeling like the sun is coming out after a very long storm," one Massachusetts ICE officer said. "People are fired up to have support. It’s amazing because we all became so numb. I don’t think we realized how bad until we finally have hope again. Everyone is so happy about Homan's return."
Another ICE officer in New York said morale was "super high, especially with the Homan news, too."
"Ecstatic to go to work! Morale is even higher than the first time he won," an Arizona Border Patrol agent said.
"The morale is through the roof," National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez said in an interview. "We’ve received hundreds of calls, texts, emails just saying how happy the agents are."
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Security forces and employees of the Uytash airport, in testimony read by the prosecutor at a hearing in the Aleksandrovsky Court of Stavropol, spoke of the impossibility of determining who exactly in the crowd threw stones. Four lawsuits have been filed against seven defendants, one of whom is accused of attacking a security officer.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot", on October 24, the Aleksandrovsky Court of the Stavropol Territory began hearing the case against seven residents of Dagestan who are accused of participating in the riots at the Makhachkala airport. In the dock are Zhanmirza Aliyev, Ali Amirkhanov, Alimurat Babatov, Zapir Batyrbekov, Ramazan Karnayev, Ismail Salmakhanov, Makhach Tuchuyev. Depending on the degree of participation, they are accused of participating in mass riots, failure to comply with safety requirements at transport infrastructure facilities and vehicles, as well as using violence against a government official, the Stavropol Territory prosecutor's office reported.
What happened at Uytash airport and how the investigation is proceeding is described in the "Caucasian Knot" report "The Case of the Pogrom at Makhachkala Airport."
Today, in the Aleksandrovsky District Court of the Stavropol Territory in the village of Aleksandrovskoye, a hearing was held on the case of seven Dagestanis accused under Articles 263 and 212 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for the events of October 29, 2023 at the Makhachkala airport; one of the defendants is also accused under Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
The defendants took part in the hearing via videoconference from the pretrial detention center in Makhachkala. They were represented in the courtroom by seven local appointed lawyers. They refused to talk to the press, but one of them told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that they had communicated with their clients via videoconference. In addition, some of the defendants, according to one of the defense lawyers, have lawyers by agreement, but they were not present at the hearing.
The hearing lasted from 9.30 to 16.30 with an hour-long lunch break. For almost six hours, the prosecutor's office representative read out written testimony from witnesses - more than 20 people, most of them Dagestan law enforcement officers who were at the airport that day, as well as several airport employees. As one of the defense attorneys clarified during one of the breaks, the defendants did not object to the reading out of the written testimony of these witnesses.
Neither the lawyers nor the prosecutor's office representative answered the question of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about why the name of one of the defendants, Zhanmirza Aliyev, was hidden on the court's website. Judge Natalya Neumyvakina, when asked whether there were any minors among the defendants, answered that there were none, without specifying why the name of Aliyev, who is the only defendant charged under the article on assault on a security officer, was hidden.
At the hearing, all the names were called: Amirkhanov, Babatov, Batyrbekov, Salmakhanov, Aliyev, Karnayev, Tuchuyev - the judge asked at the beginning of the first part of the hearing and at the beginning of the second, after lunch, whether the defendants were there (and they answered in turn, "Here").
The defendants simply sat in the room in front of the camera silently throughout the hearing. Only once did Judge Neumyvakina ask them if they had already received the claims, and they replied that they had not. As one of the lawyers later explained to the correspondent, four companies had filed claims for damages against these defendants. Whether these claims will be considered as part of this case or whether the judge will separate them into separate proceedings is not yet known, he said.
This lot are the kind that only learn by peeing on the electric fence — there’s a lot of expensive damage to be paid for, according to previous reports. Still, there is a large number of miscreants to divide the sum among, so it could be worse.
The monitor on which the video conference was broadcast was turned on at high volume - every movement of the defendants, every stir, every sigh was heard very loudly. At the same time, they walked around the room in which they were, and a loud hum, rustling, grinding constantly emanated from the monitor, while the prosecutor read the testimony quietly and some of the testimony in the courtroom, even three meters away from the state prosecutor, was poorly heard.
A number of witnesses said that some of the law enforcement officers received bodily injuries that day as a result of the protesters' actions. In general, the witnesses said what they did that day, where they were, how they ended up at the airport. They described the events in general. Among those interviewed were police officers and the Russian National Guard from Makhachkala and Kaspiysk, but also security forces from Buynaksk, Izberbash, Karabudakhkent, and Serkogaly. Thus, the head of the rear services of the OMVD of Russia for the Sergokalinsky District, Zaur Sultanov, said (according to the read protocol of his interrogation) that he took part in maintaining public order and suppressing mass riots on October 29, 2023.
That day, he was at home, but after a call from his superiors, he arrived at his place of duty, like his other colleagues, more than 30 people. In the same way, police officers from other districts also went to Makhachkala, according to these testimonies - in particular, about 60 employees of the OMVD for the Buinaksk district, according to the testimonies of another security officer.
They estimated the number of people at the airport differently - from 1,000-1,500 to 3,000 people. Many noted that they could not name the exact number, since they did not see the whole picture, but there were indeed a lot of people - at first much more than representatives of the airport security service and security forces, due to which it was not possible to contain the protesters.
Many of the interrogated security officers said that their colleagues had received injuries, including serious ones - in particular, from being hit by stones thrown by protesters, which hit them in the head, for example, at the same time, everyone noted that they would not be able to identify those who threw the stones, since the stones were flying from the crowd, plus many in this crowd had their faces covered.
According to the testimony of the deputy commander of the patrol and guard service regiment of the OMVD of Russia for Makhachkala Shamil Tagibov, despite the fact that only from his unit, in particular, there were almost 100 employees at the airport, it was not possible to cope with the protesters, since there were too many of them. "We could not stop them, since there was a significant imbalance of forces in favor of the protesters," the prosecutor quoted the written testimony of the witness.
At the same time, according to the testimony of the head of the airport's aviation security service, Rajab Karimov, no one from the airport's employees was injured that day. About 80 employees of the aviation security service were on duty at the airport that day, but they did not have an algorithm of actions and interaction with law enforcement agencies in the event of mass riots; it was not developed, since there were no such precedents in Russia before, he said.
According to written testimony read by the prosecutor, protesters broke through the cordon, broke down doors, ran along the runway - witnesses spoke about violations that they personally saw. The interrogation protocol of the airport's aviation security inspector, Kurban Betsaliev, says how some of the protesters surrounded the plane, thinking that there were people of Jewish nationality on it, and someone even climbed onto the wing of the plane to make sure that there were no passengers on the plane. "Our duties do not include maintaining public order, and therefore I was not obliged and had no right to take any action to prevent a violation of public order," he said.
”I was just following orders…but there were none given that night. What’s a man to do?”
The next hearing will take place on November 13 at 9.30, and it is planned to read out about 10 more written testimonies, the judge said at the end of the hearing. "We will also try to ensure the victim's appearance again tomorrow," she noted, and the hearing ended.
The cases of the riots at the Makhachkala airport are being heard in Kuban and Stavropol Krai. Earlier, the Armavir City Court sentenced the defendants in the case of the riots at the Makhachkala airport Anvarbek Atayev, Islam Ibragimov, Magomed Omaraskhabov, Rabadan Radzhabov and Salik Ramazanov to terms ranging from six years, four months to nine years. The court issued a harsh sentence without evidence of the defendants' guilt, the lawyers and relatives of the convicted stated. The defense appealed the sentence.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/13/2024 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11138 views]
Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists
#1
The Constitutional Right to Practice one's religion never has allowed or included, the harm, abuse and murder others.
Non-Citizen Radicals should have been barred from entry and deported after 9-11-01 when found in the USA. Those that swore an oath to become US Citizens, should have their day in court for subversion and their citizenship revoked
Allowing such immigrant extremists to stay runs counterproductive to the safety of all they are sworn to enslave and/or kill.
The mass immigration & Illegals, then FED's focusing their placement in community groups. Was, no less than, the equivalent of deliberately establishing an anti-Jewish/anti-Christian 5th column by the Democrat Obama/Biden/Harris regimes.
There, fixed it for you, Geert. ALL Islamists are "radical".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/13/2024 11:27 Comments ||
Top||
#4
What was your first clue, Geert?
He was a typical Dutch labour socialist — gay variant — steadily climbing the ranks of his party. Then he spent a long visit in Israel, and his eyes were opened. He still has a labour socialist outlook, as far as I am aware, except for this one thing and all that flows from it.
[Breitbart] Israelis in Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... have been warned to "categorically avoid" being visibly Jewish at cultural and sporting events for the next month in the wake of a "pogrom" in Amsterdam last week, yet finding an Israeli football match to watch is becoming increasingly difficult.
Since the October 7th terrorist attacks against Israel, a strange phenomenon has befallen Israeli sport. Home games aren’t played at home — the sport’s governing body, UEFA, says it is too dangerous for players to visit — and increasingly, away games aren’t played at their host nations either.
The possibility of having Israeli footballers and fans visit foreign states is now discussed in terms like "disproportionate risk", "security concerns", "politically sensitive", "high-risk", and "fear of disturbances". European football once had a real hooliganism problem, but sophisticated policing and social engineering through the game itself, which developed over many years, has all but removed the issue. Yet the security concerns today are not over thuggish fans but from the violent mostly peaceful rejection of having visiting citizens from the Jewish state grace European cities at all.
This went kaboom! onto the front pages last week with sprawling city-wide attacks on Israeli football fans by pro-Paleostine thugs in Amsterdam after a Maccabi Tel Aviv match against a local team. Allegedly organised through messaging apps and with the assistance of local taxi drivers — who drove many football fans to their hotels from the airport and consequently knew where to later direct violence, it is stated in Dutch media — gangs of youths on mopeds sought out victims.
The attacks have been compared to the "pogroms" against Jews of past times by Dutch political figures from the left and right alike.
While Israeli home games are now played in Hungary for the sake of not introducing players and tourists to a warzone, an increasing number of away games are now played there, too, as they simply aren’t welcome elsewhere. Israeli sport is verging towards exile in Budapest.
Less visible but just as insidious are the cities that refuse to allow Israeli football to visit their streets in the first place. While Israeli home games are now played in Hungary for the sake of not introducing players and tourists to a warzone, an increasing number of away games are now played there, too, as they simply aren’t welcome elsewhere. Israeli sport is verging towards exile in Budapest.
Belgium, the home of the institutions of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and one of the most multicultural cities on the continent — long notorious for its stubborn population of radical Islamists — outright refused to allow Israel’s footballers to play there for the UEFA championship this year. The Belgian authorities said at the time it would be "impossible to organize this very high-risk match" due to tensions over the Israel-Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... war.
The Brussels Signal publication reported in July that as Brussels sought to avoid exposing the city’s new multicultural population to visiting Israelis, several other Belgian cities also refused to host the games. Minister for Climate and Sports Benoît Hellings said there was a "disproportionate risk" from playing the game at home, and: "given the chance of riots, in the stadium itself, in the immediate vicinity and in the city center, we cannot take the risk of endangering the safety of our fellow citizens."
The publication cited French populist-right politician Damien Rieu, who said of the decision: "Outside of a war situation, this is the first time, to my knowledge, that a European country has officially recognized that it is no longer master of its territory, due to an overly pressing Arab-Moslem presence". Le Monde reported then that "the decision was made for security reasons, as all the cities in Belgium had refused to host such a fixture due to fear of disturbances", underlining the view the country is increasingly a de facto no go zone for Israelis where the state can’t guarantee their safety.
So why, of all European states, is Hungary the sole country shouldering the responsibility of hosting Israeli footballers and fans for their home, and many of their away games?
Hungary is the natural choice for Israeli football games for several reasons, all of which boil down to the Hungarian public repeatedly voting for erstwhile anti-communist campaigner Viktor Orbán as Prime Minister.
First, Hungary has a very small resident population of people likely to be aggressively pro-Paleostine, given the country has some of the lowest levels of immigration of any Western nation, a key Orbán policy of keeping ’Hungary for Hungarians’.
Then, Hungary is very friendly with Israel, with Orbán having a strong personal relationship with Prime Minsiter Benjamin Netanyahu and frequently promoting the country as the final remaining safe haven for Jews who wish to live in peace in Europe.
Finally, Hungary has—for a country of its size—excellent infrastructure for football itself, given Orbán is a lifelong superfan of the game, has directed the construction of modern stadia, and played himself well into middle age. Orbán loves football so much that the left-wing press has criticised him in the past for his dedication to the game.
Even after the global shock at the Amsterdam "pogrom" against visiting football fans, feelings on how to approach Israeli sport still appear to be split. More Israel away games are coming up, with one "high-risk" match against La Belle France this Thursday going ahead but with considerably toughened security.
It was reported in the French national media on Tuesday morning that the French state will show solidarity with Israel over the match. Both French President Emmanuel Macron and his new Prime Minister Michel Barnier plan to attend the match.
French government minister Benjamin Haddad said today: "Israeli footballers and fans are welcome in Gay Paree... sport must be a moment of friendship between peoples, of celebration and of gathering". He said the presence of the top politicians at the match is a "strong message of friendship and fraternity", and criticised for the hard left in the country calling for the match to be cancelled.
On the other end of the scale is The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... , which is not a European state but still participates in European football and is a member of the Western NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... defensive alliance. They announced their planned November 28th match against Israel would no longer be taking place in Istanbul but had been moved to — where else — Hungary.
Enhanced police presence or not, the Israeli government is apparently taking no chances with the safety of its citizens for the game against La Belle France this week, a country with well-developed problems with multiculturalism and Islamism of its own. Israel National Security Council published warnings for citizens abroad on Monday in strong terms, stating it was: "Alerting Those Abroad to Be Aware of Intentions of Pro-Paleostinian/Terrorism Supporters to Carry Out Violent Attacks against Israelis, under the Pretense of Demonstrations and Protests."
The body said it had concerns about "terrorism/lone wolf attackers" taking advantage of anti-Israel riots in European cities to carry out attacks. The advice was to "categorically avoid attending Israeli sports/cultural events abroad" and to "be extra careful about concealing anything that could identify you as Israeli/Jewish, including when booking taxis/cars through applications."
The La Belle France-Israel football match was specifically cited as a threat. Still, the National Security Council also stated that "preparations to harm Israelis have been identified in several European cities," including Brussels, "major cities in the UK", and Amsterdam.
While Israeli citizens have been clearly warned, hard experience shows that Israeli games are not the only pretext Islamists have used to kill visiting football fans in recent years. The Brussels October 2023 terror attack saw two Swedish supporters killed by an 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.... -inspired gunman who opened fire on people wearing that country’s colours after a football match.
Attacker Abdesalem Lassoued shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he struck and is said to have been angry that the Swedish state wasn’t sufficiently deferential to Moslems by so far refusing to institute blasphemy ...the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. Some religions consider it to be a crime. In Pakistain you can commit blasphemy by looking cross-eyed at a Koran... laws. He was later found by police in the frequently terror-linked Brussels neighbourhood of Schaarbeek and received a fatal gunshot wound in the process of being arrested.
[Algemeiner] The violence against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam last week was a premeditated and coordinated attack orchestrated with extremist networks linked to a former employee of the controversial United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), a group tracking online disinformation told The Algemeiner on Monday.
The Network Contagion Research Institute’s analysis of open-source intelligence and social media also “revealed that protests around the Maccabi Tel Aviv game in Amsterdam was not isolated but part of a broader, coordinated effort,” said the group’s co-founder, Joel Finkelstein.
Amsterdam resident Ayman Nejmeh, who identified himself on social media as a former UNRWA employee, “has emerged as a key organizer, coordinating protest actions against Jewish targets,” Finkelstein added.
Hundreds of Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans, who were visiting the Dutch capital for a game against the local Ajax team, were attacked by Arab and Muslim mobs on Thursday night, landing several in the hospital. It marked the largest mass-scale antisemitic incident in the Netherlands since the Holocaust, with attackers throwing firecrackers and stun grenades, calling for a “Jew hunt,” and forcing Israelis to say “Free Palestine” before beating them up.
Earlier, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were recorded chanting anti-Arab slogans and removing a Palestinian flag, prompting some news outlets to frame the ensuing violence as a response. But Israel had issued a warning to Dutch security services ahead of the game that violence was likely to unfold after Islamic groups appeared to be coordinating a multifront attack on social media.
According to Finkelstein, the phone number of the Syrian-born Nejmeh was listed as an admin for one WhatsApp group utilized by the Palestinian diaspora group, PGNL. Nejmeh took over the group from Palestinian-Dutch national Amin Abou Rashed, who was arrested last year on suspicion of funneling funds to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
PGNL had in the past hosted the late Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran earlier this year, in an online event. The group, whose name in Dutch stands for the “Palestinian Community in the Netherlands,” was also involved in organizing an anti-Israel protest in Dam Square on Sunday, defying a temporary ban imposed after Thursday night’s violence and resulting in dozens of arrests.
The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), whose research spans issues from social media bans to online antisemitism, has collaborated with legislative bodies, including the British government and US Congress, on content moderation and combating hate-based misinformation. The group said that its own findings aligned with that of the European Leadership Network, pointing to a transnational network that is actively stoking anti-Jewish sentiments.
The coordination behind these events reflects a well-honed strategy by radical groups to use public gatherings to incite and escalate violence, Finkelstein said, warning that organized hate was far outpacing authorities’ ability to respond.
“The ‘pogrom contagion’ spreading across Europe is no accident — terror-linked actors are deliberately weaponizing gatherings and social media to accelerate the spread of violence against Jewish communities,” Finkelstein told The Algemeiner. “This infrastructure of hate is evolving faster than democratic defenses and, left unchecked, these threats multiply across both borders and ethnicities.”
Nejmeh’s Facebook profile, which contained at least one post extolling a Hamas operative for the terrorist group’s Al Qassam military wing, was in recent days purged of any mention of his ties to UNRWA.
“If Nejmeh is scrubbing his social media of these past affiliations, it does raise significant questions about why,” Finkelstein said.
Last month, Israel’s parliament passed legislation banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and stopping Israeli authorities from cooperating with the organization, citing the UN agency’s ties to Hamas and what critics described as its “poisonous influence” in the Middle East.
Marcus Sheff, head of IMPACT-se, a research institute monitoring UNRWA, said the findings were further evidence of the refugee agency’s corruption.
“It’s shocking that the organizer of this brutal assault is yet another former UNRWA teacher, funded by American taxpayers for years,” Sheff told The Algemeiner.
The Israeli government and research organizations have publicized findings showing numerous UNRWA-employed teachers were directly involved in Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, while many others openly celebrated it.
The Algemeiner could not independently verify whether Nejmeh, who moved to the Netherlands from Syria in 2018, held a teaching role at UNRWA or served in another capacity.
“Time and again, we have seen UNRWA staff, including school principals, exposed as active terrorists. If there were any lingering doubts after Oct. 7, this serves as another stark proof of a deep-seated rot within UNRWA’s organizational culture,” Sheff added.
[IsraelTimes] The United States stresses at the United Nations that “there must be no forcible displacement, nor policy of starvation in Gaza” by Israel, warning that this would have grave implications under US and international law.
Why do they never chide Hamas, who are the ones stealing the aid and selling it at highly inflated prices to the locals that they at gunpoint prevent from leaving? The Rantburg archives remember that the hundreds of kilometers of tunnels criss-crossing the Gaza Strip were dug by children.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield says that “thanks to intervention by the United States, Israel has taken some important steps” toward addressing “the undisputed humanitarian crisis” in the Strip.
Every day I am more grateful that these people will be in charge for only a few weeks more.
“Still, Israel must ensure its actions are fully implemented — and its improvements sustained over time,” she tells the UN Security Council.
Soon they won’t have the power for such games, nor permission to play them, but in the meantime they’re milking it for all they’re worth.
[IsraelTimes] US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel appears to confirm a report that Joe Biden’s administration will not, for now, withhold weapons shipments to Israel, amid today’s deadline it put in place for Jerusalem to take a series of steps to improve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Patel acknowledges during a press briefing that Israel addressed some, but not all, of the measures demanded by the US in the letter, which gave Jerusalem 30 days to improve the humanitarian crisis or risk being deemed out of compliance with US law that bars offensive weapons from being transferred to countries that block aid from reaching civilians.
Nonetheless, he states that the US has not, at this time, “made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of US law.”
Patel points to steps taken by Israel over the past 30 days, including the reopening of the Erez Crossing into northern Gaza, the opening of the Kissufim Crossing into central Gaza, the waiving of certain customs requirements for aid organizations, the opening of new aid delivery routes within Gaza, the resumption of aid delivery to northern Gaza after a near-monthlong siege, the inland expansion of the coastal Mawasi humanitarian zone, and the institution of periodic humanitarian pauses.
The State Department spokesperson stresses that the US will continue monitoring Israel’s compliance with US law and will act accordingly if it deems that Jerusalem has failed to do so.
The US said it wanted to see 350 trucks enter Gaza every day. The average number of aid trucks that entered Gaza in October was 37, and Patel admits that only 404 trucks crossed into Gaza between November 1 and November 9.
More from the Times of Israel here, reporting how the Biden-Harris administration only didn’t go through with it because Donald Trump won, and listing the complaining charities:
The report was co-signed by Anera, Care, MedGlobal, Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Refugees International and Save the Children.
#2
IF Israel were truly committing "genocide", they would not allow ANY aid into Gaza. They would be indiscriminately leveling cities block by block. They would be putting people into concentration camps, and so on.
#1
With the cost of an Iran Drone at around $375K each. (60 x $375k = $22,500,000). It seems, with so many Iranians just scraping bye, the Ayatollah is more concerned with war and Death to Israel than making sure it's people are fed.
Note:
With the average monthly Iranian salary at $1,078.
$22.5M could have fed 20,872 Iranians for a month instead.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] The rift between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and influential members of the military continues to deepen. After a series of high-profile resignations in the ranks of the armed forces, Netanyahu continued to consolidate in his hands the instruments of pressure on the security forces.
The prime minister's entourage very opportunely recalled the special military intelligence unit "Ifcha Mistabra" (also known as "Devil's Advocates"), whose specialization is the critical analysis of proposals from the army and related institutions.
Now Netanyahu's supporters want to remove the "Advocates" from military intelligence and integrate them into the structure of the Prime Minister's Office, so that they can "reasonably challenge" the arguments of the army generals and intelligence services, as well as disperse the potential electorate of the "military opposition."
In practice, however, the plan to turn the Advocates into Netanyahu’s “personal intelligence service” is not as good as it seems at first glance. Moreover, it is capable of only worsening the Israeli prime minister’s already precarious position in the long run, making him a hostage to his own vision of the regional situation.
THE RETURN OF THE "ADVOCATES"
Although the Ifcha Mistabra unit has not formally ceased operations for a single day since its creation in 1973, its activities have long been overshadowed by its more publicized counterparts in the Shin Bet and Mossad.
However, recently, the "Advocates" once again made the front pages of most Israeli media. And all thanks to Likud Knesset member Amit Halevy, who submitted to the Ministerial Committee on Legislation a bill to reform this structure and transfer it from military intelligence to the structure of the Prime Minister's Office, reporting directly to the head of government.
It should be noted that the initiator of the controversial reform was not chosen by chance. In addition to belonging to the Likud party (the largest party in the government coalition, which is also headed by the current prime minister), Halevy is remembered for having acted as a "mouthpiece for Netanyahu" over the past year.
He has repeatedly criticized the army command and the leadership of the Israeli intelligence services for “systematic failures and silence.” He was also among the first to call on now former Defense Minister Yoav Galant to resign, even before the Israeli prime minister began to demand it.
Now, Halevy appears to be voicing Netanyahu’s idea in order to protect him from the reputational blow and present the reform as a parliamentary project, rather than the initiative of a specific person.
PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE
The transfer of Ifcha Mistabra to the Chancellery opens up new opportunities for the Israeli leadership. First of all, Netanyahu will be able to receive operational information and analysis of the regional situation “first-hand” and according to his own requests.
This will not only reduce the time it takes to obtain data, but also reduce the influence on decision-making of those political figures with whom the current prime minister is in a tough confrontation.
Secondly, in Netanyahu’s hands, the “Advocates” are turning into a convenient tool for pressuring unwanted representatives of the security bloc, since they are designed to criticize the proposals being made.
In addition to deconstructing reports submitted by the army and Shin Bet leadership, the spearhead of the “personal intelligence” work may well be directed against the parliamentary opposition, which is also headed by influential security officials (for example, former member of the “military cabinet” Benny Gantz ).
By building on the “Advocates” proposals, Netanyahu’s supporters can identify the weak points of their opponents and prevent them from strengthening their positions in parliament.
In addition, Netanyahu sees the creation of the new department as an opportunity to avoid responsibility for the “defensive failure” against Hamas in October 2023. Considering that the “Advocates” allegedly tried to warn the Israeli leadership about the impending attack from the Gaza Strip, but “were not heard by the army leadership,” the Israeli prime minister may well use their reports as confirmation of someone else’s “criminal negligence.”
REVERSE SIDE
While integrating the Ifcha Mistabra special forces unit into the Prime Minister's Office will provide the Israeli leadership with a constant source of quality intelligence, Netanyahu's office risks facing a number of problems if the reform is successfully implemented.
And the first is hidden in the specialization of the structure itself. The Israeli "Devil's Advocates" were created as a natural counterbalance within the "Research Department" of military intelligence and were focused not so much on criticizing the solutions proposed by military analysts (although they often did just that), but on working out unlikely scenarios. Removing the counterbalance will naturally lead to an imbalance in the work of the department.
Moreover, according to statements by military intelligence officers, the “Advocates” have proven themselves to be ineffective: their forecasts in most cases have not been confirmed in practice, and the only major success in recent years (the disclosure of the Hamas offensive development plan in the first days of Operation Storm Al-Aqsa in October 2023) is disputed by other relevant agencies.
Another obvious problem is the relatively weak protection of the Prime Minister’s Office from enemy subversion. After the high-profile leak of classified documents from Netanyahu’s office in the fall of 2024 (the “Feldstein affair”), the Prime Minister’s ability to ensure the safety of confidential data is increasingly in doubt.
Moreover, given the specific nature of relations between the Israeli intelligence services, any change in the balance of power opens up the possibility for intrigue. And the "Advocates" may well turn from an instrument of informing the Prime Minister into an instrument of discrediting the latter.
Moreover, the former head of military intelligence, Aharon Haliva, became the first victim of the army purges initiated by Netanyahu, and there are plenty of people in the department who want to get even with the prime minister. It is not worth excluding that such people will be found among the "Advocates" as well.
Finally, the personal factor plays a role. Netanyahu, who has a complex character and great charisma, is quite capable of “pushing through” the newly created department, imposing his own vision of both the domestic political and regional situation. And this, in turn, is fraught with the distortion of the data presented in the “personal intelligence” reports to please the customer.
[BankokPost] Israeli authorities have advised their nationals in Thailand to remain vigilant following reports that they might be targeted during the Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan this coming Friday, the Times of Israel reports.
The Mossad and the National Security Council issued the caution following a report that Thai police had warned in internal documents of fears of a plot to carry out a terror attack against Israelis in the country.
Specifically, the alert was said to focus on the famous monthly Full Moon Party, according to Ynet, the online outlet of the Hebrew-language newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
Koh Phangan, and its parties, are very popular with young Israelis.
According to Ynet, Thai police have been carrying out intensive operations in recent days over the alerts, which are based on concrete information.
In response to the report, the Mossad and National Security Council said: "Over recent months, Israeli security services in cooperation with Thai security have acted to thwart several incidents" in the country.
"Since Oct 7 and 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... ], Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and its proxies have intensified their efforts to harm Israeli and Jewish targets around the world."
The National Security Council said it had not changed its threat level in Thailand, the Times of Israel reported.
However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... it called on Israelis to remain alert; avoid outwardly displaying Israeli or Jewish identity; avoid large-scale events known to be associated with Israelis; avoid publishing their travel plans in advance on social media; and contact local security regarding any suspicions of hostile action targeting Israelis or Jews.
Three words: ground-penetrating radar. I believe that is check and mate, matey.
[IsraelTimes] Iran is building a “defensive tunnel” in the capital Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reports, following strikes by Israel on military targets in the country.
The tunnel, located near the city center, will link a station on the Tehran metro to the Imam Khomeini hospital, thus allowing direct underground access to the medical facility.
Ask your clients, Hezbollah and Hamas, how safe tunnels connected to hospitals can be.
“For the first time in the country, a tunnel with defensive applications is being built in Tehran,” the head of transport for Tehran City Council tells Tasnim.
Last month, Israel carried out its first officially recognized strikes in Iran, hitting missile factories, air defenses and other sites near Tehran and in the country’s west, as a response to Iran’s October 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel.
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[IsraelTimes] UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi appeals to Iran’s leadership to take steps to resolve longstanding issues with his agency a day before he arrives in the Iranian capital for crunch talks over its nuclear program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency head has for months sought progress with Iran on issues including a push for more monitoring cooperation at nuclear sites and an explanation of uranium traces found at undeclared sites.
But little has come from Grossi’s efforts and with the return of US President-elect Donald Trump, who is widely expected to restore a maximum-pressure policy on Iran, Grossi’s trip tomorrow should provide indications of how Iran wants to proceed in the coming months.
“I am far from being able to tell the international community…what is happening. I would be in a very difficult position. So it’s like they (Iran) have to help us, to help them to a certain extent,” Grossi tells Reuters on the sidelines of the COP29 climate summit in Baku.
Iran has stepped up nuclear activity since 2019, after Trump during his first term abandoned a 2015 deal Iran had reached with world powers under which it curbed enrichment and restored tough US sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Iran’s work on enrichment has been seen by the West as a disguised effort to develop nuclear weapons capability.
Tehran is now enriching uranium to up to 60 percent fissile purity, close to the roughly 90% required for a nuclear bomb. It has enough higher-enriched uranium to produce about four nuclear bombs if refined further, according to an IAEA yardstick.
Iran has long denied any nuclear bomb ambitions, saying it is enriching uranium for civilian energy uses only.
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 regional Iranian catspaw,...
...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 
