[FoxNews] More contractors died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars than U.S. military troops
Contractors who take jobs in combat zones don't have nearly as many resources as soldiers who come home, but the Association of War Zone Contractors (AOWC) aims to change that.
Soldiers who return home from combat zones have veterans' support groups, a plethora of charities and an entire government agency intended to see to their needs for illness and injuries. But contractors who take jobs in those same areas have had no such institutional support – until now.
These workers face the same mental traumas associated with combat deployment, and thousands who have been exposed to burn pits face the same cancers that have claimed the lives of American service members. But before the Association of War Zone Contractors (AOWC) formed this week, they did not have any of the same support groups that take care of veterans, according to the group's organizers.
"We’re looking to make sure contractors are seen, heard and counted, because those things haven’t been happening for a long time," Scott Dillard, co-founder of the new nonprofit, told Fox News Digital.
The American public often forgets that contractors make up much of the workforce on overseas bases. An estimated half of those employed in U.S. positions during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were civilian contractors, not military members.
"Some contractors go outside the wire, but many of them are just changing light bulbs, slinging mashed potatoes, cleaning toilets, whatever the case may be. But they’re on these bases, they’re in a hostile environment that gets attacked," Dillard said.
Known as "hidden casualties" during the Iraq War, many were convoy drivers who carted supplies across dangerous terrain. More than 8,000 contractors died over two decades in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as did an additional 7,000 U.S. service members, according to a Brown University count. The U.S. government does not thoroughly report contractor deaths, and their families often struggle to receive any compensation.
"A contractor's function is kind of an invisible army, and we don't want that," said Cory Archibald, another co-founder and former contractor. "The public deserves to know, policymakers need to know in order to make the right decisions, how integrated contractors are in everything that the military does, fully integrated in military operations, and that needs to be understood and acted on."
Like the veterans’ groups that for decades have advocated for better post-mission care for U.S. troops, AOWC hopes to educate contractors who return home with mental and physical injuries and illnesses associated with their work on the resources currently available to them, and to advocate for U.S. policymakers to streamline the arduous process that comes with filing a claim.
Thanks to the PACT Act, the VA recognizes an automatic link between 23 different conditions and burn pits. But civilians, whose claims are managed by the U.S. Department of Labor, have to prove a connection between the same medical conditions and deployment.
Through the Defense Base Act, contracting companies’ insurers are required to cover care for work-related injuries, like the cancers arising in many of those who served on bases in Iraq and Afghanistan in close proximity to burn pits.
"It’s an adversarial process for contractors," said Dillard. "The insurer is almost certainly going to deny the claim."
For claims that are successful, contractors wait years to see any form of payment.
For unsuccessful claims, contractors have to retain a lawyer and wait for the litigation process to play out in court.
The research behind the PACT Act, which found a direct link to certain medical conditions and the pits used to burn medical waste, arms materials and other things near military bases, focused on service members whose deployments last between a few months and a year and a half. Little research has been done on the effects those pits had on contractors, who in many cases took work on overseas bases for years at a time.
[Garowe] The final deployment of soldiers to serve in the AU Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) shall be concluded in due course, defense ministers from the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... said, noting the essence of maintaining peace in the Horn of Africa nation.
The new peacekeeping mission — AUSSOM started its work in January 2025 but the final number of soldiers, police, and civilians expected to engage directly in the mission was determined this week. A total of 11,900 personnel shall serve in the new mission.
The ministerial-level conference of the Somalia Operations Coordination Committee (SOCC), which ended on Wednesday, resolved to convene a technical experts’ meeting to finalize the deployment plan for troops joining the new African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM).
"Guided by the decisions of the troop- and police-contributing countries, the SOCC endorsed Somalia’s force deployment plan as the primary framework for AUSSOM’s deployment, recognizing it as key to the mission’s operational success," the ministers of defense said in a statement issued on Wednesday evening.
Kenya, Uganda, Æthiopia, Djibouti, and Egypt have settled with Somalia on the exact number of troops to be involved in the mission but Burundi is yet to strike a deal with authorities in Mogadishu. The Central African nation wants its numbers to be doubled.
Also in the meeting this week were chiefs of defense and police who focused on the liquidation and closure of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), AUSSOM’s predecessor, and the operationalization of AUSSOM.
AU commissioner for political affairs, peace and security Bankole Adeoye, lauded the troop- and police-contributing countries for their steadfast dedication to Somalia’s stability through their service under ATMIS.
Abdulkadir Mohammed Nur, Somali minister of defense, highlighted the country’s progress and ongoing challenges while reaffirming Somalia’s commitment to regional cooperation for lasting peace and stability, state media reports.
The Somali National Army is expected to assume full security responsibilities once the foreign troops withdraw from the country but their mission readiness has always been questioned. The country is actively involved in the fight against al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... and ISIS holy warriors.
[ShabelleMedia] To enforce the arms embargo on Somalia, the Security Council decided today to reauthorize maritime interdiction of illicit weapons imports and charcoal exports, reiterating its determination that al-Shabaab ... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia attempting to metastasize into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and similar places, all ofwhich have enough problems without them... ’s attempts to undermine peace and security in the region — including through acts of terrorism — constitute a threat to international peace and security.
Unanimously adopting resolution 2775 (2025) (to be issued as document S/RES/2775(2025)), the 15-member Council — acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter — decided to renew the provisions set out in paragraphs 15 and 17 of resolution 2182 (2014), and expanded by paragraph 5 of resolution 2607 (2021), as most recently renewed by paragraph 1 of resolution 2762 (2024), until 3 March 2025.
It authorized Member States to inspect vessels in Somali territorial waters and on the high seas extending to and including the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf, which they had "reasonable grounds" to believe were carrying charcoal or weapons or military equipment, including improvised bombs components.
Further, it authorized Member States to seize and dispose of any items identified in inspections pursuant to paragraph 15 of resolution 2182 (2014), the delivery, import or export of which is prohibited by the arms embargo on Somalia or the charcoal ban.
It decided that charcoal seized in accordance with this paragraph may be disposed of through resale, which shall be monitored by the Somalia and Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... Monitoring Group.
[GEO.TV] Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said on Sunday that Egypt's 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... reconstruction plan, which ensures Paleostinians remain in their land, is ready and will be presented at an emergency Arab summit in Cairo on Tuesday.
Arab states, which were swift to reject President Donald Trump ...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party... 's plan for the US to take control of Gaza and resettle Paleostinians, are scrambling to agree on a diplomatic offensive to counter the idea.
Abdelatty said Egypt would seek international backing and funding for the plan and emphasised Europe's crucial role, particularly in the financing of Gaza's reconstruction.
"We will hold intensive talks with major donor countries once the plan is adopted at the upcoming Arab Summit," he said in a presser with the EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Suica.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11180 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
"...Egypt would seek international backing and funding for the plan and emphasised Europe's crucial role, particularly in the financing of Gaza's reconstruction."
Europe to finance the graft, Egypt to take it.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
03/03/2025 8:51 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Even in the ME, the Middleman has to wet his beak
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/03/2025 10:01 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Why does Europe have to pay for it? Why don't all the oil rich Muslim countries pay? They should think of it payment for keeping Palestinians out of their countries.
#7
Come, come. Europe will write the checks as long as they are spent on European products (money laundering government support of pet industries) AND somebody else actually PAYS for it ...like American taxpayers.
American universities are part of the fashionable Jew-hate trend.
[DW] A new report demands more preventative policy measures to protect Jewish students from rising antisemitism at universities since the Israel-Hamas war began.
Lahav Shapira
…30, vocal supporter of Israel and grandson of the Israeli team coach murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympics…
was beaten on a Berlin street in early February 2024 in what is thought to have been an antisemitic attack.
The police report said the two had argued, then the younger student slapped him repeatedly until he fell to the ground. Mr. Shapira claims the student recognized him in a bar, followed him and his girlfriend and without a word or provocation punched him in the face, a very different scenario.
The Jewish student had expressed his opinion at his university on the Middle East conflict. The trial of the alleged perpetrator, a 23-year-old former fellow student of the victim,
… more specifically, a pro-Palestinian Arab etc…
is due to begin at Tiergarten District Court on April 8.
It took a full year to get started. Given the police found him at home shortly after the attack, what took so long?
It was among the most dramatic antisemitic incidents Germany has seen since the October 7, 2023 Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... attack on Israel, after which the country invaded the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip. Since the Israel-Hamas war began, Jewish students have reported a climate of fear at German universities, where they worry about intimidation and attacks.
On Thursday, the German Union of Jewish Students (JSUD) and the American Jewish Committee Berlin (AJC) presented a "Situation Report on Antisemitism at German Universities." Outgoing JSUD president Hanna Veiler, 27, spoke of a "tsunami of antisemitism" in the university environment, outlining a chronology of incidents including the brutal attack on Shapira, along with numerous university occupations and "so-called pro-Paleostinian protest camps" where people have called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
LITTLE RESEARCH ON THE ISSUE
The new report is important because a "really central challenge" for the JSUD has been that there is little research on antisemitism at universities, she said. As Osuch, the 26-page report does not contain any newly collected figures. The authors used statistics from the Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS). According to the report, the number of antisemitic incidents involving universities rose from 16 in 2021 and 23 in 2022, to 151 in 2023.
Veiler said that the report is an important resource for Jewish students, who must deal with the issue whether they want to or not. "Jewish students have had to become experts on antisemitism at universities over the past 17 months," she said. For some, the fear of entering university buildings and feeling abandoned has impacted the course of their studies, and possibly their financial support as students.
AJC Berlin director Remko Leemhuis spoke of an "explosion" of antisemitic incidents at German universities since October 7, 2023, saying that many Jewish students had been avoiding campuses altogether for some time now.
The report makes clear that while there have been incidents, antisemitic statements or intimidation at universities nationwide, Berlin is a hotspot. The German capital has seen several university buildings occupied by protesters, often with anti-Israeli graffiti found inside afterwards.
The report called for a number of preventative policy changes in response, including the consistent prosecution of antisemitic crimes, compulsory training on modern forms of antisemitism at universities, and clearly named points of contact for Jewish students. In addition, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's controversial working definition of antisemitism should be included in university constitutions, it said.
UNIVERSITY NEGLIGENCE?
According to Veiler, there is still a lack of backbone and support from university management. Taking action is "not a foregone conclusion," she said.
The attack on Lahav Shapira sparked another legal proceeding: A lawsuit by a student at the Free University of Berlin that has been pending at the Administrative Court since June 2024. Last summer, German broadcaster ZDF's investigative show "frontal" quoted from the indictment. It states that the university had "not taken adequate measures" to prevent or structurally eliminate the antisemitic discrimination against the plaintiff and other Jewish students, and that the FU had allowed "antisemitic language to materialize into actions." This would violate the requirements of Berlin's Higher Education Act.
Oral proceedings are expected to take place this summer and could attract great interest, a court spokeswoman confirmed to DW on Thursday. It is hoped the case will bring more clarity on the question of what university representatives have done in the fight against antisemitism.
This Sunday, the JSUD will elect its next president. Veiler will not be running again and plans to travel abroad for a while. "The main thing is that I need distance from Germany," she told German Jewish daily Judische Allgemeine, adding that over the past two years, she has become estranged from this country.
[IsraelTimes] Sharon Sharabi says US president decided to invite former hostages after being sent interview in which bereaved Be’eri father describes torture in captivity.
[PJMedia] In a sane political environment, this would have passed as a decidedly unremarkable, albeit not quite one-hundred-percent accurate, observation. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, recently warned that “radical Islamist terrorism” is the biggest national security threat the nation faces today.
Then the drugs and violence brought in by narco gangs aided and abetted by Communist China must be the second biggest.
Well, of course. The top terror groups worldwide are all Islamic. On Sept. 11, 2001, Islamic jihadis carried out the largest-ever terror attack on American soil. Numerous other Islamic jihad attacks have taken place in the U.S., at Fort Hood, the Boston Marathon, San Bernardino, New Orleans, and numerous other places. The Biden regime caught numerous people on the terror watch list crossing into the U.S. from Mexico and released at least 99 of them into the country. Gabbard was therefore making an entirely reasonable assessment.
Gabbard said: “We look at the past four years of open borders, where we had tens of millions of people coming across our borders, many of whom we don’t know who they are or what their intentions are, very specifically the threat of radical Islamist terrorism here within our country is higher than it’s ever been before, not only because of Biden’s open borders, but because of his and his administration’s fear of being called Islamophobes.”
For Gabbard to speak of “radical Islamist terrorism” was not quite accurate, as there is nothing “radical” about Islamic jihad violence. It is mainstream and deeply rooted in the Qur’an and Sunnah. And “Islamist” is a phony word that corresponds to nothing in Islamic theology. It is just an attempt to distance Islam from the crimes done in its name and in accord with its teachings.
Nevertheless, her statement was a tremendous improvement over the Biden regime. FBI director Christopher Wray testified before members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in March 2021, saying: “The top threat we face from [domestic violent extremists] continues to be those we identify as Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVEs), specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race.”
Old Joe Biden then said it during his speech to a Joint Session of Congress in April 2021: “We won’t ignore what our own intelligence agencies have determined – the most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today is from white supremacist terrorism.”
The following month, a revealing piece in Yahoo News by “journalist” Alexander Nazaryan stated that Biden’s desperately corrupt and partisan Attorney General Merrick Garland “told Congress on Wednesday that violence incited by white supremacists poses ‘the most dangerous threat to our democracy.’ That assertion reflects near-universal consensus among national security experts, including those who worked for the Trump administration.”
In June 2021, Biden doubled down: “As I said in my address to the joint session of Congress: According to the intelligence community, terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today. Not ISIS, not al Qaeda — white supremacists. That’s not me; that’s the intelligence community under both Trump and under my administration.”
#3
A fair written read on the Steps from:
initial migration,
to setting up communities,
Growth in Numbers,
Political Power,
demands for their OWN LAWS,
Ruling/controls,
Rebellious acts,
to cleaning out non-Islamics.
#6
the Cologne mass rape and abuse of 15/16 for days
We watched that from here, Elmerert Hupens2660 — very upsetting, and such an obvious lie.
Do you think that the 40 year old German citizen really is a mentally ill Moslem colonist who filed (or whose parents filed) the paperwork? I just moved the article to Page 3, but I can move it back if you think it right.
#7
@6 I have seen a picture purportedly showing the perp, he has a beard but it isn't cut in one of the typical Islamic styles. Also there are reports he attempted to shoot himself, which would be atypical for jihadists.
My point is that the authorities can't be trusted.
If he wasn't motivated by Islam, which is possible, they will report the truth, if he was motivated by Islam they will at least attempt a cover up.
[GEO.TV] Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Sunday met Afghan Consul General Hafiz Mohibullah Shakir with both sides stressing the need for reopening of the Torkham border, which has been closed for the past eight days, in view of Ramadan and upcoming Eid ul Fitr.
"The border needs to be opened soon...Afghan embassy should play its role in reopening the border," the provincial chief executive said during his meeting with the Afghan diplomat in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire... The closure, triggered by tensions over the construction of a bunker by Afghan forces near Zero-Point, has severely impacted cross-border movement, suspending all trade and travel between Pakistain and Afghanistan.
According to security sources, Afghan forces attempted to build a bunker in a disputed area near the border, prompting Pakistain's Frontier Corps ...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and a..the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia...anti-smuggling operations.... (FC) to respond, according to The News.
Both sides have reinforced their positions and Pak authorities relocated customs, immigration and police officials from Torkham Bazaar to Landikotal as a precautionary measure. Both sides have taken defensive positions, heightening fears of armed clash.
On February 25, Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry Senior Vice President Zia ul Haq
Sarhadi stated that the shutdown had not only halted trade between the two neighbouring countries but has also left thousands of people in distress on both sides of the border.
He pointed out that approximately 2,500 goods-laden trucks were stranded on the Pak side, waiting for clearance, with a similar number of vehicles stuck across the border. Local traders and daily wage earners have been particularly affected.
During the meeting today, matters related to bilateral trade and issues faced by Afghan citizens living in the province came under consideration.
Speaking on the occasion, CM Gandapur stressed that regional peace was in the interest of both Pakistain and Afghanistan.
[GEO.TV] UN chief Antonio Guterres called on Sunday for Israel to end its suspension of humanitarian aid to Gaza "immediately." "NO"
"The Secretary-General urges all parties to make every effort to prevent a return to hostilities in Gaza. He calls for humanitarian aid to flow back into Gaza immediately and for the release of all hostages," said a statement from the UN posted on X.
#2
A sensible plan and easy to implement. The only obstacles I see are that one side is determined to exterminate the other no matter the cost, and that the Hamasses need the bargaining power hostages provide. Other than that...
He’s a technician, not a politician or statesman. Both or either may be the right answer, but this is not his area of expertise, and we’ve seen him draw the wrong conclusions based on faulty assumptions and shallow thinking before.
[NYPOST] Tech baron Elon Musk backed calls for the US to withdraw from NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... and the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... after months of badmouthing the two international organizations.
''I agree,'' Musk, 53, wrote on X in reply late Saturday to MAGA influencer Gunther Eagleman's suggestion that ''It's time to leave NATO and the UN.''
Musk did not elaborate on the specifics of why he wants the US to pull out of NATO and the UN, but the suggestion came after several social media users pointed to Sen. Mike Lee's (R-Utah) call to pull out of both.
Last month, Lee, 53, who has drawn frequent reposts and interactions from Musk on X, introduced legislation alongside other politicians to pull out of the UN and decried it as ''a platform for tyrants and a venue to attack America and her allies.''
On Saturday, Lee publicly suggested that the US pull out of NATO, pointing to Norwegian fuel supplier Haltbakk Bunkers' announcement that it would stop helping the US Navy refuel in protest of President Trump's confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday.
Fortunately, the Norwegian government today overruled the Norwegian fuel supplier, so that won’t be an issue after all.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11132 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That's, IMO, something that should be on the table. Maybe, the threat will get to the (totally insane, IMO) Globalists ruling EUrope/Britain.
[PUBLISH.TWITTER] Responding to this story from yesterday. Nobody seems to be commenting publicly about Hama’s threat to harm more hostages, for some reason.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "decision to suspend humanitarian aid is cheap blackmail, a war crime and a blatant coup against the (ceasefire) agreement", the group said in a statement.
One wonders if these and similar NGOs were clients of USAID or similar. Something for the Netanyahu government to look into…
The Gisha human rights organization and four other NGOs file a motion to the High Court of Justice calling for an interim order banning the government from cutting of the supply of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, saying the step endangers the lives of Palestinian civilians in the territory and therefore violates Israel’s obligations under international law.
Gisha argues that halting the provision of aid is illegal “even if [Israel] claims that the existing aid is sufficient,” and says that recent media reports that six babies in Gaza died of hypothermia in February proved the claim to be false anyway.
No. That proves that the Hamas government has no problem with its Gaza subjects suffering when they have the means to alleviate it stuffed into bursting warehouses.
“According to humanitarian law, there is an obligation to protect the civilian population and allow the free passage of humanitarian aid to such a population,” writes Gisha in its petition.
The way to do that is for the IDF to break into the warehouses and pass out the contents to the residents, preferably in front of cameras. Why don’t they?
“These obligations cannot be made conditional on political considerations, and humanitarian aid cannot be used as a tool of war or a way of exerting pressure,” the human rights groups contends.
Israel cut off the aid supply to Gaza this morning, with the Prime Minister’s Office stating that “Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages.” Hebrew media reported that Israel currently believes enough aid has entered the enclave in recent weeks to last Gaza for several months.
Report: Next potential steps to pressure Hamas include cutting electricity to Gaza, resuming war
[IsraelTimes] Israel is planning to incrementally pile on pressure on Hamas to accept a new proposal extending the ceasefire deal’s first phase and securing the release of all the hostages the terror group is holding, in addition to Sunday’s halt to aid entering the Gaza Strip, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
The report says the next stages of Israel’s “maximum pressure” plan, said to have been drafted over the past few weeks, is to again move the Gazan population from northern Gaza to the territory’s south — as had been the case for most of the war — and later, if needed, cutting all electricity to the Strip.
The final planned measure is reportedly a full return to the war, this time with the heavy bombs withheld by the previous US administration as well as the billions worth of arms and military equipment the new administration is sending Israel.
Possibly, yes, though Israel has a few more things to try first.
[GEO.TV] A Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... front man said that there were currently no negotiations regarding the second phase of the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ceasefire, Al Jazeera reported.
''He blamed Israel for failing to start those talks, adding that the Israeli military is trying to recover its captives without agreeing to the end of the war to retain the possibility of resuming the aggression on the Gaza Strip,'' it added.
The spokesperson concluded by stating that the current position of Israel to extend the first phase of the truce is not acceptable at all for Hamas.
"Potentially, we might see a surge in military activity starting tomorrow as there are no obligations any more to sustain the ceasefire,'' the publication said.
''That's been left up in the air as the mediators try to contain this crisis and prevent a return to fighting that will bring nothing but further devastation to the people of Gaza,'' it added.
#3
Given the simple fact, Hamas STILL holds hostages in Palestine and is STILL launching attacks from there, on Israel. Indicates that they should remember their own teachings before opening their pie holes.
In case they need reminding.
What they call Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful own teachings are clearly being applied.
Because as good little Islamics, surely they were taught "Al-Jazā min Jins al-ʿAmal" ("You reap what you sow.") and that is what they are experiencing.
Only total imbeciles would think, allowing an Iranian funded Terrorist group to govern setup bases for terrorist attacks and operations, would end well.
[IsraelTimes] In further remarks by IDF chief Herzi Halevi on the IDF’s October 7 failures, broadcast tonight on Channel 12, he addresses the fact that the first IDF troops did not reach Kibbutz Nir Oz, where a quarter of residents were killed or kidnapped, until the last terrorists had gone.
Speaking to local council chiefs in southern Israel, Halevi says a lot has been said in the media about too many troops going to Sderot, the Gaza border town that was among the many communities attacked. Two sets of forces were dispatched to Nir Oz, he says, but they got caught up in other battles en route and did not reach the kibbutz. “The results were terrible. As someone from Nir Oz told me, the first soldier arrived after the last terrorist had left. That’s the worst thing that we could hear.”
Halevi says that the absent intelligence material “in this war was a big part of the failure. We would have wanted advance warning, we would have wanted to know [what was about to happen]. That could have changed the reality. We didn’t get it…”
He then discusses the indications of Hamas planning something that were received in the hours before the invasion. “The central question here is: could we have understood what was received that night differently, and obviously then to have made different decisions.”
He notes the fact that Hamas terrorists turned on Israeli SIM cards on Friday evening, October 6, and that this was reported by IDF intelligence. But, he says, this had happened “in the previous year… 10-12 times.” It was checked, he says.
He says the movements of senior Hamas figures were also checked.
The checks indicated that what was going on was “routine” and that there were “good alternative explanations” for what was happening in Gaza.
For instance, he says, Hamas, in the weeks ahead of its invasion and massacre, “was mainly discussing directing attacks from Gaza to be carried out in the West Bank.”
This had been raised with the political leadership, he says, and had prompted talk about carrying out “targeted strikes [on key Hamas figures] in Gaza.”
“A lot of what we saw [in the hours before the invasion], we attributed to their knowledge that the cabinet on Sunday might approve a further targeted strike,” Halevi says.
Halevi says the IDF’s top brass were updated on the worrying indications from Gaza at about 3 a.m. on October 7 and that this was unduly late: “The General Staff, me included, entered the picture at about 3 a.m. I think that was too late. The first signs came at 9 to 9:30 on the [previous] evening… But they were insufficient…”
He says it is not the case that officers were wary of waking up the chief of staff. Rather, “everyone who was looking [at the information] believed [what they were seeing in Gaza] was not about to happen now or tomorrow. [They thought]: There is something. It’s not clear. It’s not [something to justify an urgent] alert.”
Summing up the “main failures,” Halevi says: “The level of alert was not raised.” And that, despite the fact that “too many things [that were unfolding in Gaza] were unclear…” The IDF needed to be “sharper, and we erred.”
During the IDF’s subsequent probe of that night, he said, a chart had been drawn up that shows, “This is what we knew that night, and this is what we should have known that night.”
When you look at those two sets of data, says Halevi, “and especially at the differences between them, you say, If [only] there had been a single person who had seen that whole chart on that night.”
[IsraelTimes] Incoming IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir is planning a major overhaul of the top command of the military, believing it necessary to restore public trust in the army, after the failures of October 7, 2023, Channel 12 reports.
According to the network, Zamir plans to remove many top generals who were in key posts during the October 7 attacks. The report says among those Zamir is considering removing are Head of the Operations Directorate Maj. Gen. Oded Basyuk, Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, Home Front Command Head Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, and Intelligence Directorate Head Maj. Gen Shlomi Binder (Binder assumed the role in mid-2024, having served as head of the Operations Division on October 7. The head of intelligence during the attack, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, has already stepped down).
#2
The Israeli establishment has loathed Bibi for years as a traitor to his class. He is no labour socialist, having picked up the American diseases of capitalism and a preference for an open economy that rewards entrepreneurs when he grew up and went to university over here. It’s very frustrating for them that every time they finally succeed in driving him out of office, he ends up putting together a governing coalition in the next election.
#3
^ Interesting, tw. I had assumed the hatred was the usual lefty Daddy issues thing combined with the fact he cares more about Israel than globalist concerns.
[IsraelTimes] In interviews, Zeinab and Mohammed Jawad Nasrallah speak of how Israeli strikes damaged Hezbollah morale, say father was noticeably ‘no longer with us’
Hezbollah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> became depressed and was emotionally changed by Israel’s exploding pager attack on his operatives as well as by strikes that decimated the group’s leadership, his family told Lebanese media.
His son said Nasrallah was noticeably no longer the same man, and his daughter revealed that he cried after the beeper attack.
Nasrallah’s son, daughter, and three grandchildren spoke to al-Manar television for interviews that were broadcast on Friday.
On September 17, 2024, thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah across Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... suddenly went kaboom!, killing dozens of operatives and maiming thousands, marking the beginning of Israel’s escalation against the terror group after almost a year of persistent Hezbollah rocket fire that displaced some 60,000 residents of the north, and was met with Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s.
The pagers, laced with explosives, were detonated via an encrypted message that required users to hold the devices with both hands, maximizing the likelihood of the subsequent blast causing debilitating injuries.
Over the next several weeks, Israeli airstrikes pounded Hezbollah, wiping out almost all of its leaders — including Nasrallah himself — and depleting the Iran-backed terror group’s fighting abilities. A ceasefire was eventually reached at the end of November.
Nasrallah’s daughter Zeinab Nasrallah told al-Manar that she called her mother the day after the beeper explosions to find out how her father had reacted.
"She told me that he cried," Zeinab Nasrallah said, according to an English translation of her comments on the site.
Son Mohammed Jawad Nasrallah said that his father sank into a serious depression after a July airstrike killed Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in his Beirut apartment, and then the beeper attacks.
Everyone who met him said "he is no longer with us," Jawad Nasrallah recalled.
In addition, Israel’s relentless bombing campaign, once the conflict escalated into open war, had a profound effect on the Hezbollah leader, and directly impacted the terror group’s morale, Nasrallah said.
He also said that his father was aware of the danger he faced, but apparently had dropped his guard and become less cautious than he had in the past about evading a possible Israeli strike against him.
Ten days after the beeper attack, Israel killed Nasrallah in a massive bombing of his Beirut underground bunker. He had led the terror group for three decades.
Last December, two former Mosssd ...... agents spoke to CBS’s 60 Minutes about the beeper operation, with one of them asserting that the veteran Hezbollah leader saw pagers exploding and injuring people who were right next to him in his bunker.
"Nasrallah — when we operated the beeper operation — just next to him in the bunker several people had a beeper receiving the message. And in his own eyes, he saw them collapsing."
Asked how he knew that, the agent said, "It’s a strong rumor."
Two days after the attack, Nasrallah gave a speech.
"If you look at his eyes, he was defeated," the agent said in accented English. "He already lose the war. And his soldier look at him during that speech. And they saw a broken leader."
Last week, Mossad chief David Barnea described the beeper operation as a "turning point" in the fight in Lebanon.
Nasrallah was buried last week in a Beirut funeral ceremony. As the funeral began at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, Lebanon’s biggest sports arena, Israeli warplanes flew at low altitude over Beirut.
The beeper attacks, swiftly attributed to Israel, came as Israel began to step up a counteroffensive against Hezbollah, which began striking Israel the day after the allied Paleostinian terror group Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... ’s October 7, 2023, attack.
#1
I'm sorry but we've been down this road before and I'm not buying it. It's not genuine grief if he didn't throw his hat on the floor like Edgar Kennedy.
#2
Nasrallah — when we operated the beeper operation — just next to him in the bunker several people had a beeper receiving the message. And in his own eyes, he saw them collapsing.
Did they put dedicated paging network repeaters into the bunkers or were these bunkers much less deep and robust than the public believed?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/03/2025 21:16 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Dilemma: "Have rather less gold
In a mammoth hole, drafty and cold...
Our be snug as a bug
In an old Persian rug
With more... Roll it and wrap it! I'm sold!"
[GEO.TV] Iran's parliament sacked the country's finance minister on Sunday after impeaching him over soaring inflation and a plunging currency, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.
Economy and Finance Minister Abdolnaser Hemmati lost a vote of confidence, with 182 of 273 parliamentarians present backing his removal.
On the black market on Sunday, the Iranian rial was trading at more than 920,000 to the US dollar, compared with less than 600,000 in mid-2024.
Earlier, President Masoud Pezeshkian defended Hemmati, a former central bank governor, telling politicians: "We are in a full-scale (economic) war with the enemy... we must take a war formation".
"The economic problems of today's society are not related to one person and we cannot blame it all on one person."
Lawmakers took turns angrily censuring Hemmati, blaming him for Iran's economic woes.
"People cannot tolerate the new wave of inflation; the rise in the price of foreign currency and other goods must be controlled," said one parliamentarian, Ruhollah Motefakker-Azad.
"People cannot afford to buy medicine and medical equipment," said another, Fatemeh Mohammadbeigi.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Maybe, if you haven't spent so much money on Hamas, Hezbollah, Asad ...
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[IsraelTimes] In interviews, Zeinab and Mohammed Jawad Nasrallah speak of how Israeli strikes damaged Hezbollah morale, say father was noticeably ‘no longer with us’
......
