[DESMOINESREGISTER] Sanitation contractor for Sioux City pork plant fined for using child labor
For the second time in less than a year, a sanitation contractor for Seaboard Triumph Foods LLC in Sioux City was found to employ children doing dangerous work at the pork processing plant.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa approved a consent order and judgment Nov. 27 with Qvest LLC. Under terms of the agreement, Qvest must pay $171,919 in child labor civil money penalties, hire a third-party to review and implement company policies to prevent the employment of children and establish a process for reporting concerns about the illegal employment of children.
In an emailed statement, Seaboard Triumph Foods (STF) said that none of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) filings included their company. It said it has not contracted with Qvest, "who had express contractual requirements to follow all labor laws," for more than a year.
"STF did not employ any of the alleged individuals and has no evidence that any underage individuals accessed the plant," the statement said.
The statement, which quotes former head of DOL's Wage and Hour Division and current Seaboard counsel Paul DeCamp, also pointed out that employers across the country are struggling with the problem of people, including minors, being able to obtain jobs through fraudulent identification documents sophisticated enough to fool even the federal government's E-Verify system.
"Businesses are victimized by this fraud," DeCamp said in the statement.
"Safety, ethical practices and compliance with regulations and industry standards are of paramount importance to STF. We expect the same from our vendors and partners, and we will not tolerate any vendor's use of underage labor within our facility, and will also take measures to prevent fraud against our company," the statement said.
Qvest did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Federal law forbids children under age 18 from being employed in dangerous jobs common in meat and poultry slaughtering, processing, rendering and packing operations.
A DOL investigation determined that 11 children had been employed during the night shift and were using corrosive cleaners to clean head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers and other equipment within the facility. The DOL did not provide ages of the child workers.
Earlier this year, the federal court levied nearly $650,000 in penalties against Fayette Janitorial Services of Somerville, Tennessee, after hiring 24 children, some as young as 13, to clean dangerous equipment at Seaboard Triumph.
Seaboard Triumph announced in February it was cancelling its contracts with Fayette after the DOL investigation found the children working in the plant and sought a court injunction to stop it. Fayette had taken over the sanitation duties from Qvest in September 2023 and rehired some of the children that Qvest previously employed, according to a DOL new release.
Seaboard Triumph contracted with Qvest for cleaning services from 2019 until September 2023, when it hired Fayette.
JBS USA announced in April 2023 that it would start its own sanitation service at its meatpacking facilities including Marshalltown, cutting ties with Packers Sanitation Services, Inc., (PSSI) after it admitted employing approximately 100 children at several JBS plants throughout the Midwest and was fined $1.5 million.
PSSI admitted having workers ages 13 to 17 clean 13 slaughterhouses, although none were in Iowa.
“The U.S. Department of Labor is determined to end the illegal employment of children in our nation’s workplaces,” DOL regional solicitor Christine Z. Heri said in a news release. “We are committed to using all strategies to stop and prevent unlawful child labor and holding all employers legally responsible for their actions. Children should never be hired to perform dangerous and prohibited tasks.”
In fiscal year 2024, the DOL concluded 736 investigations uncovering child labor violations that affected 4,030 children, and assessed employers more than $15.1 million in penalties for violating federal child labor laws, an 89 percent increase since 2023.
[IsraelTimes] Report shows letter sent to tech giant’s executives raised concerns Project Nimbus deal with Israeli government could lead to ‘the facilitation of human rights violations’
Officials at Google are reportedly worried that the company’s contract with Israel, which includes services for the Defense Ministry and Shin Bet, could potentially enable Israeli human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... violations of Paleostinians, and damage the reputation of the company.
According to a Tuesday report in The New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... , officials at the US tech giant addressed concerns in documents sent to executives that the deal with the Israeli government could cause damage to the company.
The Times quoted one document as saying that officials warned executives that "Google Cloud services could be used for, or linked to, the facilitation of human rights violations, including Israeli activity in the West Bank."
The officials also warned of reputational harm that could come with association with the Israeli government.
In 2021, the tech giant unveiled Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion deal between itself, the Israeli government, and Amazon to provide AI and cloud services that are also used by the IDF.
The project enables Israeli cabinet ministries and other entities to transfer servers and services into cloud data centers provided locally.
The government contract with Google and Amazon for the services is for an initial seven years, with an option to extend it for a total of 23 years. After the first seven years, Israel will be able to add other suppliers or halt work with the current ones.
In May, hundreds of current and former Google employees staged a protest at the tech company’s annual developer conference in Mountain View, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, calling for ties with Israel to be severed 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... The protesters chained themselves together near the entrance to the conference, forcing attendees to be redirected to a different entrance, and carried a large banner reading, "Google stop fueling genocide."
"What you will not be hearing from today’s speakers is that right now, as I stand here before you, the state of Israel is using Google technology to execute history’s first AI-powered genocide," one of the protesters was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
The protesters contended that the system is being lethally deployed in the Gaza war — an allegation Google refutes and which the protesters have provided no evidence for.
In April, Google announced that it had fired 28 employees for staging "disruptive" sit-in protests at the company’s offices in New York and California to demonstrate against Project Nimbus.
Tuesday’s report in the Times showed that concerns within Google over Project Nimbus are not limited to the rank and file, and that higher-ups and executives are worried about the reputational damage of working directly with the Israeli government, as well as fears that their cloud systems could be used in the "facilitation of human rights violations."
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Olesya Orlenko
[REGNUM] The latest news from Africa once again proves that France is rapidly losing its position on the continent. This process is expressed both in the reduction of the deployment points and capabilities of the French army, and in the diplomatic relations of Paris with the former colonies. One of the most important roles in these issues is played by questions of historical memory. How do its participants assess this process and how do they see its further development?
The defense cooperation agreements with France, which the Chadian government recently announced it would end, were signed in 1976. They were amended in 2019 to include a statement about Chad’s right to review its strategic partnership policy.
On November 28, 2024, Chad's government spokesman and foreign minister Abderaman Koulamalla announced that, due to this circumstance, the country was asking for the end of the French military presence on its territory. Now, about 1,000 French troops serving in Chad must go home, and the military bases will be closed.
The French media do not hide the fact that this news took France by surprise. After all, it was made a few hours after the departure of Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot from Chad. The head of the French Foreign Ministry met with Minister Koulamalla, as well as with President Mahamat Idriss Déby.
Neither said a word about their plans, although Chad called the decision "carefully thought out." The French side was apparently so stunned that it could not decide on an official response for a long time. And later it only announced that Chad's decision was "taken into account."
The French military presence in Chad was one of the most solid and extensive. It was there that the forces involved in military actions on the continent were concentrated, in particular in Operation Barkhane. After the loss of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, Chad was the last stronghold of France in the Sahel.
But the severity of the blow does not end there.
Almost at the same time, bad news for France came from Senegal. On November 28, Le Monde published an interview with President Bassir Diomai Fay, in which he also stated that the French military presence in his country was inappropriate.
"What country can have foreign troops on its territory and still claim independence? France does not allow this for itself, so it should not impose this on other countries," said the head of Senegal. According to him, the state has the right to choose its partners and build mutually beneficial relations based on the principles of respect.
Respect is a major theme in Faye's interview on the 80th anniversary of the tragic event that took place in Senegal due to France's fault.
During the Battle of France in May–June 1940, conscripts from Senegal—the so-called riflemen—and people from other African colonies served in the French army. They, along with all the other soldiers, were captured by the Germans after the defeat of the French army. The black soldiers were then separated from the whites and placed in frontstalags located in France. They remained there for the entire period of Nazi occupation. Moreover, since 1943, the camps were guarded by the French themselves.
After the release of former prisoners of war from Africa, it was decided to send them back to their homeland. After several years of imprisonment, former prisoners, as a rule, had no means of subsistence. Therefore, the new French government provided the released prisoners with a certain amount as a relocation allowance. However, it was not paid to blacks. And the conditions in the barracks, where they were kept before further transit to Africa, were often no less harsh than in the camps.
Even in continental France, the Senegalese protested by refusing to leave until they were paid the amount owed. The authorities recognized their right to these payments and promised to resolve the issue.
The problem arose again in Senegal, in the Thiarois camp, where soldiers released from Nazi captivity were taken. The former prisoners of war did not want to leave the camp without receiving what they had been promised.
The French officers decided to teach the recalcitrants a lesson. At dawn on December 1, 1944, the military surrounded the camp territory, announced an emergency wake-up call and assembly on the central square, and ordered an immediate evacuation. And upon hearing indignant cries, they opened fire on those gathered with machine guns.
Modern researchers believe that about 400 people died at the hands of the French. France, which was still fighting Nazi Germany at the time, did everything to conceal what happened. Many documents related to the case were falsified. 35 black participants in those events were tried in March 1945 for "rebellion."
Until the late 1990s, the French authorities did not remember this event and also did everything they could to prevent the dissemination of this information in absolutely all spheres, including culture. Rethinking the role of black soldiers in the First and Second World Wars began only after 2000.
However, the fact of the murder of the Senegalese shooters by the French was officially acknowledged only by President François Hollande in a speech given during the events at the Thiarois cemetery in 2012. On November 28, 2024, in a letter from Emmanuel Macron dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the tragedy, France's responsibility for the "murder" was mentioned. An important step, according to the President of Senegal, but insufficient for reconciliation on the basis of conflicts related to historical memory.
Faye expressed hope that France's subsequent actions would be a logical continuation of the statements made.
Meanwhile, at a ceremony on December 1, he announced the construction of a memorial complex on the territory of the Tjarua camp, as well as the inclusion of the study of the tragedy that occurred there in the school curriculum.
Recent events have become another reason for French journalists and experts to note the extremely low level of analysis and knowledge about Africa in the public space and among specialists. The reluctance to evaluate the changes that have occurred in French-speaking African countries, the inability to create an attractive image for young people lead to their ever greater distance from the former metropolis.
Meanwhile, the strategic value of the continent is becoming increasingly clear.
Of course, we are talking about Russia. Propaganda media talk about Africa as a "front of a new war" between the West and the Russians. More reasonable experts note that in the strategic, economic and cultural spheres, different countries compete on the Black Continent, including European ones: the USA, China, Turkey, Hungary and others.
Africa is currently diversifying its partnerships and pursuing a policy of maximum openness. Of course, the domestic agenda in each country also plays an important role. For example, Chad's decision can be explained, among other things, by the presidential elections scheduled for December 29, 2024. The decision to withdraw foreign troops was enthusiastically received by the population.
French experts warn that more and more African countries will demand that France stop interfering in their internal affairs and respect their sovereignty.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] The group that carried out attacks on synagogues and Orthodox churches in Derbent and Makhachkala included 11 people, some of whom deny their guilt, claiming that they gave their initial testimony under torture.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot", on June 23, on the Day of the Holy Trinity, which is one of the main Christian holidays, militants attacked synagogues and Orthodox churches in Derbent and Makhachkala. As a result, at least 22 people were killed and 46 were injured.
According to Kavkaz Uzel, they did this for ISIS.
Investigators believe that the group whose members carried out the attacks was created by the son of the head of the Sergokalinsky District, Magomed Omarov. "Kavkazsky Uzel" has prepared reports "The Main Thing About the Participants in the Attacks in Makhachkala and Derbent" and "Attacks on Churches, Synagogues, and Security Forces in Dagestan."
According to investigators, the organized group that carried out attacks on synagogues and Orthodox churches in Dagestan included 11 people. They planned to attack synagogues in Makhachkala and Derbent simultaneously in two groups of three people.
3+3=6. What were the other five doing?
Magomed Kagirov was supposed to join the militants, but then he did not participate in the terrorist attacks. After the militants were eliminated, Kagirov was arrested, Kommersant reported on December 1, citing the Investigative Committee.
According to the investigation, six members of the group were actively preparing for attacks from May to the first half of June. They were trained in shooting, made bottles with Molotov cocktails, stored weapons, ammunition and explosive devices. Five accomplices - Magomedovs with the same last name, who were not related to each other
“This is my brother, Daryl. And this is my other brother, Daryl.”
- in the apartment of one of them in Makhachkala, security forces found an anti-tank grenade launcher, a Kalashnikov assault rifle with cartridges, three grenades, a detonator and explosives.
Another defendant, Magomed Magomedov, was found in the village of Sergokala with a grenade, 42 rounds of ammunition, and a homemade bomb. His fellow villager Khalid Magomedov had a Makarov pistol, a grenade, 24 rounds of ammunition for a pistol, and 13 rounds of ammunition for a machine gun. Makhachkala resident Zaur was found with a traumatic pistol, more than 250 rounds of ammunition for various types of weapons, a grenade, an optical sight, two silencers, and six magazines for machine guns.
On July 2, all three were arrested. They were charged with preparing a terrorist attack, illegal trafficking of weapons, ammunition and explosives. According to the source, none of them admits guilt, all three claim that the weapons, ammunition and explosives were planted on them.
Khalid Magomedov stated that he was in fact detained not in early July in Makhachkala, but on June 26 in Vidnoye, Moscow Region, when he and his colleagues were returning from work to a dormitory in Khimki. Magomedov said that the FSB officers told him the names of the militants, and he told them that he knew them all, since the Kagirovs were his second cousins, and the rest were fellow villagers. Magomedov complained that the security forces initially filed a report on him for hooliganism and promised to let him go, but two days later they took him to Dagestan, and that they forced him to testify by beating him.
He was also allegedly forced to make a video recording of his oath of allegiance to Osman Omarov, and then dropped off on a road in Makhachkala. Magomedov said he knew nothing about the preparation of terrorist attacks.
According to the case materials, Zaur Magomedov has two higher educations and previously worked as the CEO of a construction company in Makhachkala. Khalid Magomedov has one higher education and worked as an asphalt paver at JSC CDS Filial SU 450. Magomed Magomedov said that he is disabled and therefore does not work. The investigation demanded that the arrest period of all defendants be extended, and the court extended their detention until March 2, 2025.
Zaur Magomedov's lawyer Magomed Musayev stated that his client had lived in the Moscow region for three years before his arrest, that he had his own construction company and that he had never been to Dagestan. "I don't know how he could have planned anything in Makhachkala," the lawyer said.
Khalid Magomedov's lawyer Igor Dyukin emphasized that his client also worked in Moscow for three years and that he had not traveled to his native village since April 30.
Recall that veterans of the special services interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" earlier stated that the militant attacks could have been prevented if the security forces had guarded religious sites more carefully and paid more attention to preventive work, but the security of religious sites in the republic was strengthened only the day after the militant attacks.
The attacks occurred because of government miscalculations that did not pay enough attention to countering terrorism, Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov said in July.
On June 24, the head of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, announced that Magomed Omarov, whose two sons and nephew participated in the militant attack, had been dismissed from his post as head of the Sergokalinsky District. On June 25, Melikov announced an investigation into the personal files of officials and deputies.
The attacks in Derbent and Makhachkala were the first armed incidents in the republic in more than a year. At the same time, a number of incidents related to attacks on religious figures and religious buildings had occurred in Dagestan earlier.
[KavkazUzel] The first hearing on the Makhachkala riots case took place in the Kochubeevsky District Court of Stavropol Krai. Four defendants are accused of participating in mass riots and violating transport safety regulations.
As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, there are 27 criminal cases in the courts of Kuban and Stavropol regarding the riots in Makhachkala against 129 defendants, the Prosecutor General's Office reported in October. On November 29, the Industrial Court of Stavropol began to consider the case against three residents of Dagestan.
The first court hearing was held in the Kochubeevsky District Court of the Stavropol Territory regarding four residents of the Republic of Dagestan who were charged in a criminal case regarding the riots at the Makhachkala airport, the Telegram channel "Pearl of the South" reported today.
As indicated in the case file on the court's website, Radzhab Mutayev, Magomed Magomedbekov, Shamil Mugutdinov, Murtazali Murtazaliev are accused of participating in mass riots (Part 2 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), violating transport safety requirements (Part 3 of Article 263.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The case was submitted to the court on September 24, but the hearings were postponed three times due to the failure to deliver the defendant.
As reported by the " Caucasian Knot ", 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, said the lawyers and relatives of the convicted. The defense appealed the sentence, but the appellate court upheld it on November 25. The defense intends to appeal the sentence in the cassation court. The decision of the appellate court showed that the remaining sentences will also be harsh, said the head of the Public Monitoring Commission of Dagestan Shamil Khadulaev.
140 people are in custody in criminal cases related to the riots at Uytash airport, 1,200 people have been brought to administrative responsibility, Dagestan Interior Minister Abdurashid Magomedov said on July 9.
Goodness. The authorities seem to be suggesting extreme displeasure with the wannabe pogrammists.
The accused claim that they were at the airport but did not take part in the riots, Dagestan POC Chairman Shamil Khadulaev said on June 13. On February 17, relatives of the participants in the riots at Makhachkala airport appealed to Putin with a request for leniency
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".
Let us recall that from October 26 to 29, 2023, mass anti-Semitic actions took place in three republics of the North Caucasus. In Cherkessk, the protesters demanded that visitors from Israel not be allowed in, and in Nalchik, a cultural center was set on fire.
[Jpost] A few days prior to the EJAC report that revealed date on 2,061 anti-Jewish incidents since October 7 2023, the Australian parliament held an inquiry on campus antisemitism.
Anti-Jewish incidents in Australia rose by 316% since October 7 compared to the previous 12-month period, according to an Executive Council of Australian Jewry report.
The ECAJ Report on Anti-Jewish Incidents in Australia 2024, published on Sunday, reported that from October 1, 2023, until September 30, 2024, 2,062 anti-Jewish incidents were logged by community security groups, local Jewish organizations, and the ECAJ. In the preceding comparable 12-month period in 2023, there had been 495 anti-Jewish incidents, according to the group’s data.
Australia saw 65 anti-Jewish physical assaults in the year, according to ECAJ, including that of a 44-year-old Jewish man who was called a “Jew dog” and gang beaten by three men in a Sydney Park on October 28, 2023, leaving him hospitalized with two black eyes, a concussion, and four fractures to his spine.
In another incident, an identifiably Jewish boy was called a “dirty Jew” and slapped in the face by a group of teens in Perth in October 2023. In the previous 12-month period, there had only been anti-Jewish physical assaults in the country.
Thirty percent of the year’s incidents were of verbal abuse and harassment, many of which called for the death of the Jews as a people. Among these 622 incidents the November 6 2023 incident in which occupants of a vehicle shouted “kill the Jews” at a group of visibly Jewish people at a Melbourne pro-Israel rally.
In the same city, on December 7, 2023, an identifiably Jewish resident was approached by a man who yelled at him “F*** Jews. F*** you, Jew. We’re gonna get you all.” ECAJ recorded separately the 283 threatening messages and statements, such as an October 11 2023 bomb threat conveyed through Instagram direct messages warning a Melbourne synagogue “We will blow your building up and cut your heads off soon. Gas a Jew.”
ECAJ recorded 29 incidents of vandalism and 393 incidents of graffiti in 2024. The data classified all malicious damage and destruction to property as vandalism, with EJAC providing the March 22 example of a Melbourne synagogue window being smashed with rocks.
Graffiti recorded in the report often involved pen, paint, or engravings calling for violence against Jews or references to the Holocaust. The home of a New South Wales rabbi was graffitied on November 10, 2023, with the words “kill the Jews.”
The most common classification of anti-Jewish incidents included antisemitic materials and chants. There were 670 incidents involving posters, placards, stickers, and protest chants in Australia in 2024. Outside the Sydney Opera House on October 9, a mob reportedly chanted “F*** the Jews,” “Where’s the Jews,” and “Gas the Jews!”The Australian states most impacted by the rise of antisemitic violence, according to ECAJ’s data, were Victoria and New South Wales, with 905 and 795 anti-Jewish incidents respectively.
ECAJ did not include anti-Israel incidents in the data unless there was a clear element of Jewish people or sites being targeted for their identity, there were clear calls or acts of violence or used classic antisemitic tropes.
INQUIRY ON ANTISEMITISM
On Friday, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights held an inquiry on antisemitism at Australian universities. The purpose of the inquiry was to explore the prevalence of antisemitic activity at academic institutions and their policies and practices for addressing this problem. The committee followed an October Senate inquiry into the issue.
EJAC submitted their opinion to the inquiry, warning that before the senate inquiry, universities had failed to properly address antisemitism and the concerns of students, downplaying complaints, tolerating disruptions even if they included antisemitic rhetoric, and offering ineffective security and support. Since the initial Senate inquiry, EJAC said there had been “modest” improvements but they still were receiving reports of escalating violent rhetoric on campuses.
The Jewish organization called on Australian universities to take greater accountability for antisemitic conduct by publishing reports on incidents. EJAC asserted that part of the problem was that universities had no framework for identifying antisemitism and called for the widespread adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.
The EJAC submission laid out 10 recommendations, contending that there was a need for more expansive complaint systems, university training on antisemitism, the establishment of a racist incident database and hotline, and that there be a legal requirement for sources of funding to be disclosed by academic institutions.
University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor and President Prof. Mark Scott acknowledged to the committee that the institution didn’t “get everything right” the previous year, and noted that there were differing views on their response to events such as the campus encampment protest. Scott said the university had held an independent review of policies, and endorsed actions taken by the campus to create strict protest guidelines and update their complaints system.
“We have already made a significant number of changes to our policies, procedures, and practices,” Scott said in his opening statement. “Those changes have a particular focus on addressing antisemitism and the experiences of our Jewish students and staff and, in addressing cultural bias of every kind, we believe they benefit the whole university community.”
[IsraelTimes] Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation claims Col. Moshe Tetro implemented policy of starvation as head of COGAT in Gaza; IDF rejects allegations, says ‘Tetro is highly respected’
A pro-Paleostinian, anti-Israel group in Belgium reportedly filed a complaint to the Belgian government against Israel’s new military attaché in Brussels, accusing him of war crimes.
Belgium’s Phlegmish-language De Morgen newspaper reported on Tuesday that the Brussels-based Hind Rajab Foundation
…named after a six year old child who died in Gaza City, for which the organization blames the IDF. The foundation is a project launched in two months ago by the March 30 Movement, itself named in memory of the Palestinian general strike on that date in 1976 in the West Bank against the Israeli government, since referred to as Land Day. Both groups are lawfare boiler rooms generating endless laswsuits against Israelis and those who support Israel in Western Europe and elsewhere, and between times propagandizing against Israel using the currently fashionable far left shibboleths. The March 30 appear to be the work of lawyer Haroon Raza, and appeared on the scene at the end of 2023…
claimed that in his previous position, Col. Moshe Tetro was responsible for implementing a policy of starvation 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... Other foreign news outlets reported that the pro-Paleostinian organization also referred Tetro to the International Criminal Court, which filed arrest warrants for Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
Tetro previously served as head of COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration to Gaza, the IDF unit responsible for coordinating aid into the Strip.
"Here we are dealing with a key figure in the implementation of Israeli policy toward hospitals and the strategy of famine and thirst as a weapon of war," Dyab Abou Jahjah, chairman of the Hind Rajab Foundation, told De Morgen.
Israel denies accusations of limiting aid to Gaza and says shortages are due to the inability of international organizations to distribute aid and looting by Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... and armed gangs.
Israeli Ambassador to Belgium Idit Rosenzweig-Abu told De Morgen that Israel rejects the accusations. "Israel acts according to international law," she said.
She also said Tetro is a decorated and respected officer and noted that Belgium had no problem accepting him as military attaché.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, an Israeli source said that the Hind Rajab Foundation is "obsessive" and has filed "dozens of complaints against officers in The Hague, Brussels, and other places around the world. The head of the organization, Diab Abu Gajjah, is Lebanese, and has previously justified the September 11 attacks."
The source added that Israel’s military attaché has diplomatic immunity in Belgium.
The IDF’s Spokesperson’s Unit said that "Colonel Moshe Tetro is a highly respected and distinguished officer," and that "as with every mission and assignment, the IDF takes all necessary steps to ensure the safety and security of its personnel and officers."
"The IDF strongly rejects allegations of war crimes and reiterates that the IDF’s activities are carried out in accordance with the instructions of the political echelon and in compliance with international law," the military added.
Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations that a policy of starvation is being implemented in Gaza, claiming it has allowed hundreds of thousands of tons of aid, including food, into the enclave.
That’s nice, gentlemen. But perhaps before you order the coffee and pastries you should check the Zeitgeist — the world is rapidly changing with the return of Donald Trump to the White House. Ideas enthusiastically supported by the [Harris-]Biden administration are anathema to the newcomers, who clearly do not hesitate to make their displeasure known. Not to mention the probability that French President Macron may no longer be in office by then. President Marine Le Pen is more likely to align with President Trump than with her predecessor.
[IsraelTimes] French President Emmanuel Macron announces that he and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will co-chair a conference on the establishment of a Palestinian state in June.
“We have decided to co-chair a conference for the two states in June next year,” Macron says, referring to Israel and a potential Palestinian state.
“In the coming months, together we will multiply and combine our diplomatic initiatives to bring everyone along this path,” he adds.
Responding to a question on whether France will recognize a Palestinian state, the French president says he will do so “at the right moment” and at a time “when it triggers reciprocal movements of recognition.”
“We want to involve several other partners and allies, both European and non-European, who are ready to move in this direction but who are waiting for France,” he adds.
Macron says the aim is to “trigger a movement of recognition in favor of Israel,” which he says could “provide answers in terms of security for Israel and convince people that the two-state solution is a solution that is relevant for Israel.”
Saudi Arabia appeared close to a deal to normalize relations with Israel as part of a package that would include security guarantees from the United States, prior to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack which has sparked nearly 14 months of war in Gaza and elsewhere.
Recognition by Saudi Arabia would be a landmark moment in the acceptance of Israel as the kingdom is the guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites. But it has conditioned the move on Israel agreeing to a pathway toward a Palestinian state — a nonstarter for the current hardline government.
[IsraelTimes] The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) says five ambulances donated by the United Arab Emirates to international aid organizations operating in Gaza entered the Strip last night.
“The ambulances were deployed to ensure the continued provision of medical care to residents of the Gaza Strip and to facilitate the transfer of patients to operational hospitals within the region,” COGAT says.
According to COGAT, since the start of the war, it has facilitated the entry of over 120 ambulances donated by various countries to Gaza.
[IsraelTimes] The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) says that some 780 aid trucks are awaiting collection on the Gazan side of the Karem Shalom crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, after just 43 were collected yesterday by international organizations.
On Sunday, the UN agency for Palestinians said it was pausing the delivery of aid through Kerem Shalom because of looting by armed gangs in Gaza.
According to COGAT, a total of 138 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza yesterday, carrying food, medical supplies, shelter equipment, water purification equipment, and flour for bakeries.
COGAT says 37 of the trucks entered via the Erez Crossing in the Strip’s north, 33 entered via Gate 96 in the center, and 43 were collected from Kerem Shalom in the south.
The Israeli military has said that attacking convoys and stealing aid is an ongoing problem in Gaza. COGAT has said convoys are attacked by Hamas terrorists and known crime families.
"It's springtime For Stroessner
And Paraguay..."
[IsraelTimes] Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña will fulfill a campaign promise next week and reopen the country’s embassy in Jerusalem, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana announces.
Peña will address the Knesset on Wednesday morning next week, followed by a special Knesset ceremony with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Ohana and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid.
The official opening of the embassy will take place the following Thursday in Har Hotzvim in the capital.
Most countries do not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and base their embassies in Tel Aviv, often opening smaller consulates in Jerusalem.
Currently, five countries — the US, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo and Papua New Guinea — have embassies in Jerusalem.
In 2018, Paraguay’s outgoing president Horacio Cartes announced that his country would open an embassy in Jerusalem, following similar moves by the US and Guatemala.
But the embassy was moved back to Tel Aviv after just five months by Cartes’s successor Abdo Benitez, who said he hadn’t been consulted in the original decision and indicated that it harmed efforts to maintain a more neutral approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Netanyahu fumed at the decision and moved to have Israel’s embassy in Asunción closed in retaliation.
In September, Israel reopened its embassy in Paraguay.
[IsraelTimes] At a special cabinet meeting in the northern coastal city of Nahariya, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanks US President-elect Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... for writing on social media that "there will be all hell to pay" if hostages held by forces of Evil 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... aren’t released by his inauguration on January 20.
"It is a very strong statement," says Netanyahu at the opening of the meeting, "which makes it clear that there is one party responsible for this situation — and that is Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... . Hamas must release the hostages."
Trump, continues Netanyahu, "put the emphasis in the right place — on Hamas, and not on the Israeli government, as is customary in some places."
Protesters and some hostage families blame Netanyahu for not doing enough to reach a deal with Hamas to get the hostages out of Gaza.
"We will continue to do everything to release them, and whoever harms them will be killed," he threatens.
On the fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah, Netanyahu repeats the warning that the war with Hezbollah is not over.
"We are committed to a ceasefire, but we will also not tolerate violations of the ceasefire by the other side," he says, a day after Hezbollah fired mortar shells at northern Israel and the IDF struck over 20 sites in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... "I also say here in the clearest terms: We will not return to the situation that was on October 6, [2023]," he promises, referring to the day before the current multifront war began with Hamas’s onslaught on southern Israel.
"The north will be calm, the north will prosper, the north will flourish, and the north will be safe," says Netanyahu.
[IsraelTimes] The US is concerned by a New York Times report saying that the IDF has significantly bolstered its presence in Gaza, constructing several dozen new military bases in and around the Netzarim Corridor in the Strip’s center in recent months.
State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel says during a press briefing that if the reporting is accurate, the IDF’s actions “certainly would be inconsistent” with US policy regarding the “day after” in Gaza, which opposes any reduction to Gaza’s territory, the continued military control of the Strip by Israel and the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes.
Patel notes that the reporting has not been corroborated by Israel and he says he’ll leave it to Jerusalem to comment further on the matter.
[IsraelTimes] The US is “outraged” by the reported IDF killing of a Save the Children aid worker in Gaza’s Khan Younis and is seeking more information from Israel on the incident that took place over the weekend, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel says.
“Humanitarian workers must be protected so they can safely deliver aid… The IDF needs to provide additional information about this incident,” Patel says when asked about the incident during a press briefing.
He declines to draw any conclusions regarding what happened until more information is gathered. “But broadly, we urge Israel to thoroughly and transparently investigate actions like these, and take appropriate action in their system, including ensuring accountability for any violations within their system.”
Save the Children said its staffer, Ahmad Faisal Isleem Al-Qadi, was killed in an IDF airstrike on Saturday.
#2
Noting the headline.
[Harris-]Biden administration is outraged and concerned" It kinda indicates the Puppet Master(s) are running the WH, not the "elected" installed President and VP.
The fact the Puppet Master(s) are likely very upset gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
It is clear the US National Socialist / Democrat party sees Israel is longer playing, nor seeking, the facade of a temporary peace with groups of Terrorists funded by IRAN.
A Terrorist group that basically just adopts a new name every few years and uses Gaza as base of operations, to rain death down on Israel. Always killing 10xx more non-combatants (women and children) than military.
A Terrorist group sworn to DEATH TO (anyone not of Islam) and that has NEVER honored 1 peace agreement.
To the IDF
Your job is not done until the threat to peace is addressed at its very roots.
[IsraelTimes] Proposal calls for nonpartisan panel to administer Strip, and for all crossings into territory to return to pre-October 2023 operations
Paleostinian terror group Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... and the Paleostinian Authority’s Fatah party have agreed to create a committee to jointly administer postwar 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... , negotiators from both sides said Tuesday.
Under the plan, which needs the approval of PA 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....> , the committee would be composed of 10-15 nonpartisan figures with authority on matters related to the economy, education, health, humanitarian aid, and reconstruction, according to a draft of the proposal seen by AFP.
It is unclear if Israel would agree to the deal being formulated.
Not really unclear, no.
Israel rejects any role for Hamas in Gaza after the war the terror group started last year, and has also said it does not trust Abbas’s PA to run the enclave.
Actually, crystal clear would be a better description.
Following talks in Cairo brokered by Egypt, the two rival factions agreed the committee would administer the Paleostinian side of the Rafah checkpoint on the border with Egypt — the territory’s only crossing not shared with Israel.
That’s nice, boys. Maybe you should try mumblety-peg instead
The Rafah Crossing, a major conduit for humanitarian aid into Gaza, has been closed since Israel captured it in May, with Egyptian authorities refusing to cooperate with Israeli forces on keeping the gateway open.
That’s because Egypt doesn’t want any of those icky Gazans polluting their pristine environs, while Israel doesn’t want more weapons smuggled across the border to Hamas, even if President al-Sisi’s nephew has been making bank on the project.
Fatah’s delegation, led by central party committee member Azzam al-Ahmad, was to return to Ramallah on Tuesday to seek Abbas’s final approval, negotiators from both sides told AFP.
The Hamas delegation was headed by politburo member Khalil al-Hayya.
The London-based pan-Arab news site al-Araby al-Jadeed also said it had seen a copy of the document and reported the agreement lays out plans to establish a committee to administer the Strip, "reporting to the Paleostinian government" based in the West Bank.
The document has six sections, the first of which stresses preserving "the unity" of Paleostinian territories according to the pre-1967 borders, the report said. The second deals with strengthening "communication between the Paleostinian government in the West Bank and the committee in Gaza."
Other sections deal with determining that the committee would act according to the Paleostinian political system and would not bring about a separation between the Gaza Strip and other Paleostinian territories. The committee is to continue its work until "the reasons that led to its formation are eliminated," general elections are held, "or another formula agreed upon nationally is adopted."
The committee will only begin its work after border crossings into Gaza return to operating as before October 2023 and the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt is reopened according to a 2005 agreement that put its operation in the hands of Egypt and the Paleostinian Authority, under the supervision of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , the report said.
A final formula for the plan also requires ratification by all Paleostinian factions at a meeting that would again be held in Cairo, al-Arabiya reported.
On Monday, Egypt’s foreign minister said that Fatah and Hamas representatives were in Cairo for talks seeking to bring postwar Gaza under the full control of the Fatah-dominated PA.
#2
per the article, ", the committee would be composed of 10-15 nonpartisan figures with authority on matters related to the economy, education, health, humanitarian aid, and reconstruction...."
what about security - that's the most important matter, if you don't have security you can't do any of these things -- if Hamas provides security, it is just a disaster, if Fatah provides security it is a disaster of a different kind
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/04/2024 9:54 Comments ||
Top||
#3
OK. Let them have their little committee. But Bibi should assign one of his generals to be Governor of Gaza and the committee must answer to the governor. The occupation should continue indefinitely. No more tunnels. No more Iranian weapons. No more hate speech in the mosques or on TV.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/04/2024 12:33 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] The Lebanese army is looking for more recruits as it beefs up its presence in southern Lebanon after the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire went into effect last week.
Lebanon’s army kept to the sidelines during the nearly 14-month conflict.
During an initial 60-day truce, thousands of Lebanese troops are supposed to deploy in southern Lebanon, where UN peacekeepers also have a presence. Hezbollah forces are to pull back from areas near the border as Israel withdraws its ground forces.
The army says those interested in joining up have a one-month period to apply, starting Tuesday.
The Lebanese army has about 80,000 troops, with around 5,000 of them deployed in the south.
[WashingtonFreeBeacon] President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant.... and his senior aides are hailing a ceasefire they brokered in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... last week as a potential breakthrough for Middle East peace. But Israeli leaders see the truce as a way to get through the final days of Biden's presidency so Israel can finish the war with its genocidal enemies.
In the Rose Garden on Tuesday, Biden announced the 60-day ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. He said the deal, which went into effect early Wednesday and has so far held, "heralds a new start for Lebanon" and "brings us closer to realizing the affirmative agenda that I’ve been pushing forward during my entire presidency: a vision for the future of the Middle East where it’s at peace and prosperous and integrated across borders."
"I believe this agenda remains possible," Biden continued, vowing to use the final 54 days of his presidency to try to end Israel’s 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... , normalize Israel-Saudi relations, and secure a "credible pathway for a Paleostinian state."
According to current and former Israeli officials, however, Israel's government agreed to the ceasefire largely to appease and move on from the Biden administration. President-elect Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th and 47th President of the United States... will be back in the White House when the 60-day deadline for troop withdrawals comes around, and they expect he will support a strong response to any violation of the deal as well as Israeli action against 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 Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... , a Hezbollah ally and fellow Iran-backed terrorist group.
"It’s not for no reason that we insisted on 60 days," Ohad Tal, a member of Israel’s parliamentary defense committee from the governing Religious Zionism party, told the Washington Free Beacon.
The ceasefire agreement provides "zero" security benefits to Israel in Lebanon, Tal said, noting that the Lebanese Army and international peacekeepers have abjectly failed to enforce Resolution 1701 for the past 18 years. He said pressure from the Biden administration was the "main reason" Israeli leaders nonetheless got behind the deal.
"It’s a bad deal," Tal said. "But it’s a bad deal that we had to sign under the circumstances, and that had everything to do with the current administration in America."
Hours before Biden trumpeted the ceasefire agreement at the White House, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the deal as something like a tactical pause in Israel’s nearly 14-month war with the Iranian axis, which seeks Israel's destruction. He said the deal would allow the military to rest, rearm, and "focus on the Iranian threat" and "our sacred mission" to bring home the 101 hostages still held hostage in Gaza. He emphasized that his government would not hesitate to "renew the war," as it did following the ceasefire with Hamas last November.
"The length of the ceasefire depends on what happens in Lebanon. If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack," Netanyahu said. "Believe in our determination, believe in our path, in our commitment to victory."
Netanyahu also suggested that the Biden administration had put pressure on Israel to agree to the ceasefire by withholding weapons shipments.
"I say it openly, it is no secret that there have been big delays in weapons and munitions deliveries," he said, echoing explicit criticisms he made of the administration in a speech to politicians last month. "These delays will be resolved soon. We will receive supplies of advanced weaponry that will keep our soldiers safe and give us more strike force to complete our mission."
Two current and three former Israeli officials confirmed to the Free Beacon Hebrew media reports that the Biden administration has slowed wartime weapons deliveries to Israel, including a recent hold up of 139 armored bulldozers on which soldiers rely to clear explosives and terrorist hideouts in Lebanon and Gaza.
After the start of the ceasefire on Wednesday, the Biden administration leaked that it was advancing a $680 million weapons package to Israel. U.S. officials anonymously said the development was unconnected to the Israeli government's cooperation with the truce. The administration has long denied withholding weapons from Israel, aside from one shipment of 2,000 pound bombs that Biden has publicly suspended since March.
Yes, but we know they lie. See, for instance, Hunter Biden.
Another a factor in Israeli leaders' approval of the ceasefire agreement were concerns that the Biden administration would otherwise facilitate a U.N. Security Council resolution harmful to Israel, according to the current and former officials. Tal said the Israeli government learned "that the State Department was already working to arrange a resolution against Israel in the Security Council."
Israel’s Channel 14 news reported late last month that Netanyahu privately told critics of the then-emerging ceasefire agreement that it was better to "postpone the end" of the war by two months as part of the deal than to have the Security Council force an end to the fighting, which he said was a "real danger."
Amir Avivi, a former senior Israeli military official who has advised Netanyahu during the war, told the Free Beacon that the prime minister feared a repeat of the final weeks of Barack Obama’s presidency, which saw the United States abstain from a U.N. National Security Council resolution that rejected any Israeli presence in the "occupied Palestinian territory" of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
"I heard Netanyahu speak many times about how traumatic and complicated it was to deal with Obama’s decision," Avivi said. "I think one of Netanyahu’s top priorities right now is to make sure the current U.S. administration ends without that kind of drama. So Netanyahu negotiated this temporary ceasefire, and if it works, OK, and if not, then there will be a change of administration, and Israel will be in a position to decide what to do."
Senior Israeli and U.S. officials told reporters in separate briefings last week that the Biden administration did not explicitly threaten to sanction Israel in relation to the ceasefire talks. A State Department spokeswoman dodged the Free Beacon's questions about the subject by email, saying only: "Our goal was to reach an enduring diplomatic resolution that will enable civilians to safely return to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line. We achieved that with the close (and ongoing) communication of our Israeli and Lebanese counterparts."
The Prime Minister's Office and the White House declined to comment.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Israeli troops have 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon, where they have been carrying out operations for two months to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure near the border. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Army, with U.S. and French support, must move into the area to enforce U.N. Resolution 1701, which bars Hezbollah from keeping arms and terrorist infrastructure south of the Litani River. The Biden administration separately guaranteed Israel's right to respond to violations of the deal.
Kobi Michael, a former senior Israeli military intelligence official, told the Free Beacon that Israeli leaders approved the ceasefire agreement with the expectation that it will never be fully implemented. He said "the working assumption" in Jerusalem is that Hezbollah will try to rearm, the Lebanese government will fail to prevent the terrorist group from doing so, and Trump will "agree with us that the ceasefire has been violated and we must be free to continue operating in Lebanon."
A senior U.S. official told reporters on Tuesday that Netanyahu initiated the successful final push for a ceasefire in Lebanon as a "gift" to Trump, confirming a report last month by the Washington Post. But the current and former Israeli officials downplayed claims that Netanyahu feels pressure to end the war before Trump takes office on Jan. 20. They agreed that the government’s approval of the truce is better understood as part of an Israeli effort to set the stage for an airstrike on Iran's nuclear weapons program, with U.S. backing or ideally participation.
According to Avivi, Israel has mostly disabled Iran's "proxies and air defenses" and has lately ramped up domestic weapons production and other preparations for such a strike.
"Israel’s challenge is to convince President Trump that we are handing him Iran on a silver platter," Avivi said, before directly addressing the incoming Trump administration. "All the hard work is done. Just bring the strategic bombers, and let’s get it over with. It’s one airstrike."
[IsraelTimes] US vows to keep targeting ‘shadow fleet’ facilitating petroleum trade; 500,000-750,000 metric tons of fuel oil diverted from Iraqi plants each month to benefit Iran, proxies
The Biden administration on Tuesday ramped up its sanctions on Iran, targeting 35 entities and vessels that it said transported illicit Iranian petroleum to foreign markets as part of what the US Treasury Department called Tehran’s "shadow fleet."
The sanctions build on those previously imposed on October 11 and came in response to Iran’s October 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel and to its announced nuclear escalations, the US Department of Treasury said in a statement.
"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... continues to funnel revenues from its petroleum trade toward the development of its nuclear program, proliferation of its ballistic missile and unmanned aerial vehicle technology, and sponsorship of its regional terrorist proxies, risking further destabilizing the region," Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith said in a statement.
"The United States remains committed to disrupting the shadow fleet of vessels and operators that facilitate these illicit activities, using the full range of our tools and authorities," Smith added.
Such sanctions target key sectors of Iran’s economy with the aim of denying the government funds to support its nuclear and missile programs. The move generally prohibits any US individuals or entities from conducting any business with the targets and freezes any US-held assets.
While the latest sanctions seek to further restrict the export of Iranian oil and fuel, five sources with knowledge of the matter told Rooters that a sophisticated fuel oil smuggling network that some experts believe generates at least $1 billion a year for Iran and its proxies has flourished in Iraq since Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... i took office in 2022.
The operation exploits a government policy under which Iraq allocates fuel oil to asphalt plants at heavily subsidized prices and involves a network of companies, groups and individuals in Iraq, Iran and Gulf states, according to the five people and three Western intelligence reports, two from August this year and one which was undated.
Under the scheme, anywhere from 500,000 to 750,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil (HFO), including high sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) — equivalent to 3.4 million to 5 million barrels of oil — is diverted from the plants each month and exported, mostly to Asia, two of the sources said.
The extent of the fuel oil smuggling since Sudani came to power and the involvement of multiple entities within Iraq in the illicit trade have not previously been reported.
Iranian and Iraqi officials did not respond to detailed requests for comment about the findings in the Rooters story.
Iran views its neighbor and ally Iraq as an economic lung and wields considerable military, political and economic influence there through the powerful Shiite militias and political parties it backs. It also sources hard currency from Iraq through exports and avoids US sanctions via its banking system, Iraqi and US officials say.
While Baghdad has been delicately balancing its role as an ally of both Washington and Tehran for years, with President-elect Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... expected to take a hard line on Iran’s attempts to skirt US sanctions, its activities in neighboring Iraq are expected to come under increasing scrutiny.
Of the two main routes the fuel oil takes out of Iraq, one involves blending it with similar product from Iran and passing it off as purely Iraqi, helping Tehran evade tough US sanctions on energy exports, said the five sources, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The other involves exporting the fuel oil that was originally meant for the subsidy program using forged documentation to mask its origins.
Iran benefits directly from the first route. Iranian fuel oil typically sells at a discount due to sanctions but it can sell it for a higher price if it is passed off as Iraqi. The second route, meanwhile, benefits the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq that control the smuggling scheme.
Three sources estimated how much both routes were bringing in based on assumptions about the volumes traded and relative prices. Their estimates ranged from $1 billion a year to over $3 billion.
The illicit trade potentially puts Iraqi institutions and officials at risk of US sanctions for helping Iran and some Iraqi officials are concerned a Trump administration could target them, the three sources said.
However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat... Iraqi leaders rely heavily on the support of influential Iranian-backed Shiite groups to stay in power, making it difficult for them to crack down on illicit activities, such as the fuel oil smuggling, the sources said.
Sudani’s office did not respond to requests for comment about the trade, the risk of sanctions or government attempts to curb the business.
ON WASHINGTON’S RADAR
The lucrative smuggling and its links to Iran and individuals under US sanctions are already on Washington’s radar. The subject came up in discussions between US officials and Sudani when the Iraqi prime minister visited the United States in September, one of the sources said.
Asked by Rooters whether smuggling had been raised, a State Department official said: "While we do not comment on specific discussions, we can affirm the Department has emphasized with our Iraqi counterparts the harms of illicit trade and our support for bringing oil transparently to market."
The US Treasury did not respond to questions about the fuel oil trade or whether Iraqi entities and officials were at risk of sanctions.
US sanctions on Iran are chiefly in response to its nuclear program and its support for groups across the Middle East that the US sees as terrorist organizations, including Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... 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... , Hezbollah in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... and the Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... .
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/04/2024 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11132 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
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.
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
It's springtime
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
