[Breitbart] President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel, on Wednesday, touted the FBI’s crackdown on violent crime since the start of the administration, and Trump called for his top law enforcement officials to zone in on San Francisco.
Trump, Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche held a press conference in the Oval Office to update the public on the administration’s successes in combating crime.
According to a graphic shared by the FBI, it has arrested 28,859 criminals in 2025, on pace to more than double the 15,388 violent criminal arrests in 2024, the final full year of the Biden administration.
“The FBI has also destroyed or severely disrupted more than 170 organized criminal enterprises and gangs, 1,600 of the most violent gangs, and confiscated over 6,000 illegal firearms, and they’ve tracked down and arrested four fugitives on the most wanted list,” Trump said, noting two of them were at the top of the most wanted list.
Trump also touted the results of “Operation Summer Heat,” a national crime crackdown conducted in every state from June 24, 2025, to September 20, 2025.
“We were in many cities that people didn’t know about. We kept it a little quiet, and it had a big impact,” he said.
“But over the past few months, FBI offices in all 50 states made crushing violent crime a top enforcement priority; that’s what they did, rounding up and arresting thousands of the most violent and dangerous criminals,” he added.
Operation Summer Heat led to 8,629 violent crime arrests, the seizures of 2,281 firearms, 421 kilograms of fentanyl, 44,569 kilograms of cocaine, and the identification of 557 children, according to the FBI. The fentanyl alone, Patel said, was enough to kill 55 million Americans. Operation Summer Heat also produced 2.081 indictments.
“Mr. President, that in and of itself would be historic for a four-year presidency,” Patel said after highlighting the indictments. “You did that in seven months because you let good cops be cops, and you partnered us with the right people in the Department of Justice to put the handcuffs on and bring them to court and put them in prison.”
Trump also noted that he is setting his eyes on San Francisco, stating he has received requests for federal help from “government officials.”
“I’m going to be strongly recommending at the request of government officials, which is always nice, that you start looking at San Francisco,” he told Patel, Bondi, and Blanche.
“One of our great cities 10 years ago, 15 years ago,” he added. “Now, it’s a mess, and we have great support in San Francisco. So I’d like to recommend that for inclusion, maybe in your next group. You’ll get great support.”
Trump also said there would be a federal “surge” in Chicago after Patel and the Bureau laid groundwork there.
“Five months ago, they went into Chicago, and they started doing a lot of work in Chicago, and we brought the numbers down a little bit, but that really was just preparatory work for what we’re going to do with the surge,” he stated.
As President Trump secures peace in the Middle East, Democrats continue to keep the government shut down while our law enforcement partners remain hard at work.
In Washington, DC a total of 4,358 arrests have been made and 413 illegal guns seized.
[TennesseeConservativeNews] 20% Of Arrests Made By Memphis Task Force Are Immigration-Related
Approximately 1/5 of the arrests made by the Memphis Safe Task Force that was ordered by President Donald Trump are immigration related. Earlier this week, Governor Bill Lee said that the progress made so far has been “encouraging.”
Known as the “Memphis surge,” the task force utilizes several law enforcement agencies working in tandem. The more than 30 agencies, including the FBI, DEA, ICE, Memphis Police Department, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol are led by the U.S. Marshals Service.
The operation is responsible for 850 arrests, with 175 firearms being confiscated. Additionally, 44 children have been found that were reported missing.
In a news conference with Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch, and Memphis Mayor Paul Young, Lee stated that immigration enforcement was not the top priority as the task force was mainly focused on violent crime.
The U.S. Marshals Service has said that of the 850 arrests made so far, 168 were “administrative” in nature, which means they were Title 8 immigration detainees. In addition, 6 were homicide charges, 87 for narcotics, 98 for illegal possession of firearms, 36 on sex offenses, and 320 were outstanding warrants.
According to the Trump administration, Memphis had the highest violent crime rate in the United States last year, the highest property crime rate, and also the third-highest murder rate.
Lee and Young both welcomed the Trump administration’s actions. Memphis has 10,000 felony warrants that are active.
Local reports suggest that illegal immigrants are running scared since the surge began.
Immigrant Pantry, an outreach begun as an offshoot of Indivisible Memphis since July, says demand for boxes of groceries has increased sharply since the task force hit the streets of the city two weeks ago. The organization is now delivering approximately eight boxes a week to families who are afraid to leave their homes.
As part of the surge, ICE officers are accompanying local law enforcement of routine traffic stops and taking immigrants without permanent legal status into custody.
Lee said that the traffic stops are justified considering that the streets of Memphis have dealt with reckless drivers, both unlicensed or uninsured, illegal street racing, and stolen vehicles, among other issues for a long time.
Lee expressed hope that the collaboration between the multiple agencies will continue on an ongoing basis “forever.”
#1
I beg to differ and quote Elie Wiesel (Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor):
“... know that no human being is illegal. That is a contradiction in terms. Human beings can be beautiful or more beautiful, they can be fat or skinny, they can be right or wrong, but illegal? How can a human being be illegal?”
Acts people commit can be illegal, not the person.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/16/2025 5:25 Comments ||
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#2
There are "legal aliens" and there are "illegal aliens." Both are terms of reference describing alien persons IAW with current law.
Think of it in terms of weapons. A Suhl manufactured Merkel shotgun is a legal weapon. A Merkel shotgun with barrel shortened to 15 inches is an illegal weapon. Still a weapon, but an illegal weapon, in accordance with current law.
#3
Even if the term exists in current U.S. law, it's wrong. A person can't be "illegal", only his/her actions.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/16/2025 6:11 Comments ||
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#4
Technically speaking, a weapon itself can't be "illegal". It's production, possession and use can be. The term "illegal weapon" is ethically less problematic though as a weapon is an object, not a human being.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/16/2025 6:17 Comments ||
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#5
The difference revolves around responsibility. By claiming the weapon is illegal in and of itself, the weapon also is assumed by many at least to be culpable.
In our classic jurisprudence the weapon is an inanimate object and can have no intention, thus neither legality nor illegality.
Or as the James Earl Jones said to Conan, 'What is the sword to the hand that holds it?'.
#8
With all due respect to Elie, if you're a criminal, you're illegal.
With respect to "illegal" guns, they're only illegal because someone passed a law in contravention of the US Constitution. (Rest of the world... you're on your own)
#9
If you have engaged in behavior that violates the laws of the United States, you are a CRIMINAL. "Illegal alien" is a cop-out from calling the person that has entered illegally (against the law) a criminal. With all the laws on the books today, we've all broken one or more. Some are just more deserving of being pursued than others.
There are NO "illegal weapons". There are weapons held illegally by people who shouldn't have them. The PERSON is the criminal, not the weapon. We're destroying the meaning of our language to assuage the guilt of idiots.
On a personal note, I hold that ALL "gun laws" limiting the possession of any type of WEAPON, up to but excluding nuclear weapons (too hard to maintain, too dangerous to hold) to be unconstitutional and a violation of the Second Amendment. Nothing in that amendment allows the government to limit what weapons we the people may possess.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/16/2025 11:52 Comments ||
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#10
There's a difference between a "criminal person" and an "illegal person". May sound like nitpicking but isn't.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/16/2025 12:16 Comments ||
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#11
The illegal action that makes an alien "illegal" is that he broke into our country and is here illegally.
Compare to someone who broke into your home. They may still be a person but they are in your home ilegally.
Thus the term illegal alien.
Posted by: Difar Dave ||
10/16/2025 12:16 Comments ||
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#12
Fine, give them an option....they can be illegal aliens or foreign invaders, subject to summary execution as spies and saboteurs. I'm fine with choice #2
[IsraelTimes] British universities must take stronger action to protect Jewish students, the British government says, after a deadly attack on a synagogue in northern England and amid concerns over antisemitism on campuses in Britain and the United States.
Young people must be equipped to spot and challenge misinformation online, the government says, urging universities to use every tool available to confront hate and division.
“One instance of antisemitic abuse is one too many,” UK Education Minister Bridget Phillipson said in a statement.
“So I’m clear: the buck stops with universities when it comes to ridding their campuses of hate – and they have my full backing to use their powers to do so.”
On October 2, a British man of Syrian descent drove a car into pedestrians and then began stabbing several people on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, outside Manchester’s Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue. Two men were killed in the attack.
In the aftermath, Phillipson wrote to university vice-chancellors urging “practical and proportionate steps” to ensure campuses remain safe spaces. New rules introduced in August require institutions to have clear policies and reporting mechanisms to address harassment of all kinds.
Last year, Britain reported its second-worst year in modern times for antisemitism, with more than 3,500 incidents recorded, the Community Security Trust, which provides security to Jewish organizations across the country, said earlier this year.
Data from Britain’s interior ministry on Thursday showed Jews suffered the highest rate of religious hate crimes in England and Wales in the year ending in March.
There has also been a surge in antisemitic incidents reported on US college campuses amid tensions over the Israel-Gaza war.
The Trump administration has frozen and threatened to cut federal funds to universities over campus pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests. It says universities allowed displays of antisemitism.
[IsraelTimes] An anti-Israel protester who chanted “put the Zios in the ground” during a protest in London on October 11 has been identified as Oxford University student, Samuel Williams.
London’s Metropolitan Police says it is investigating the chant.
“Gaza, Gaza, make us proud, put the Zios in the ground,” he chants, as others in the crowd join in.
Williams is studying politics, philosophy and economics at the prestigious university, according to the Daily Mail. He has previously been pictured in photos shared by the Oxford Students Palestine Society.
“Zio” is a slur popularized by KKK leader David Duke and is generally directed at Jewish people.
Investigative journalist David Collier located Williams’ Instagram account, which is now private.
A spokesperson for Oxford University tells the UK Jewish News that the school “condemns, in the strongest possible terms, any language urging violence against groups of people or expressing any form of racial hatred. The University’s support for freedom of speech does not extend to any statements including such language.”
“When such language is reported, we will always want to speak to the student concerned, and consider the matter under our disciplinary procedures in line with University and college policies,” the spokesperson says.
“Oxford is unequivocal: there is no place for antisemitism, harassment, or discrimination within our community. We remain firmly committed to protecting the safety and dignity of all our students and staff,” the spokesperson adds.
[IsraelTimes] Defendants appear in London court accompanied by supporters, face up to six months in prison for holding signs, wearing t-shirts showing solidarity with banned anti-Israel group
About 30 people appeared in a London court on Wednesday, charged under anti-terrorism laws for supporting Paleostine Action, the latest such cases after the British government banned the group in July.
More than 2,000 people accused of showing support for the anti-Israel organization have been arrested at demonstrations since the ban, according to protest organizers.
The corridors of Westminster Magistrates’ Court were crowded Wednesday morning as some of the first defendants to be charged showed up for hearings, accompanied by supporters.
The latest prosecutions, which follow a first trio of defendants appearing in court last month, involve around 30 people, including a 59-year-old retired engineer and a 30-year-old baker.
They were among those arrested at the first July protests staged after the ban came into effect, and are all accused of holding signs or wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan "I support Paleostine Action."
Their trials are expected to take place after March 2026, the judge revealed Wednesday.
Under UK anti-terror laws that prohibit support for banned groups which have been labeled terrorist, they could face a sentence of up to six months in prison.
"Protesting against the abetting of genocide is not terrorism, it’s humanity," Anthony Harvey, the retired engineer, told the judge shortly after confirming his identity in the courtroom.
The UK government banned Paleostine Action following several acts of vandalism, including against two planes at a Royal Air Force base, which caused an estimated £7 million ($10 million) in damage.
Trudi Warner was among those who showed up Wednesday in support of those charged.
"All this is an appalling waste of public money," the retired social worker told AFP.
The 70-year-old, who was arrested at an August protest and is due to appear in court next month, branded the prosecutions "a gross overreaction" by the government and "a breach of our human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... Paleostine Action and its proponents, as well as others, including a UN Commission, have accused Israel of waging genocide in its 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... , sparked by the Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... -led October 7, 2023, massacre, which killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
The Israeli government has repeatedly denied the genocide accusation and insists it sought to minimize civilian fatalities throughout the course of the two-year war, which saw over 67,000 people killed in the Strip, an unverified figure provided by the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The Paleostine Action ban has prompted widespread criticism from rights advocates.
On Tuesday, the Council of Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... said it was alarmed by the "large numbers" of arrests.
In a letter to UK Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood, the Council’s human rights commissioner Michael O’Flaherty said London needed to conduct a "comprehensive review" of its policing of such protests.
[IsraelTimes] Four years after a borough of London removed antisemitism from an online list of forbidden hate crimes, mention of Jew-hatred has been restored to the controversial image, The Telegraph reports.
Since 2022, a poster for National Hate Crime Awareness Week in Tower Hamlets has been cropped to remove antisemitism from a list of prejudices that includes transphobia, Islamophobia, disablism, and other forms of prejudice.
Last week, after a councillor raised the issue, the image was altered to make the word antisemitism visible, The Telegraph says. Tower Hamlets admitted that the word had been cropped out, but denied it was intentional, the report says.
Uh huh. Suuuure.
The controversy follows a terror attack in Manchester two weeks ago, in which two Jewish men were killed outside a synagogue on the Yom Kippur holiday.
“In the wake of the murderous terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue, and frequent hate marches on the streets of London, it is doubly unforgivable that Tower Hamlets’s Jewish community has been treated in this way,” says MP James Cleverly, the shadow secretary for housing, communities, and local government.
Tower Hamlets is home to some of Great Britain’s oldest Jewish communities, such as Whitechapel and Spitalfields, The Telegraph notes.
Reading Web Discussions regarding how all these radical, racial, population control and perverted sexual agenda issues were so well organized and conveniently coincided with the COVID-19 release.
Kinda makes a person wonder about the bigger picture.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Donald Trump has threatened land strikes on Venezuela after confirming that the CIA is conducting covert operations in the Latin American country.
The president was asked about his 'next step' in dealing with in Venezuelan drug cartels as the Pentagon continues to blow up boats with suspected traffickers in the Caribbean.
'I don't want to tell you exactly but we are looking at land now, because we've got the sea very under control,' he said.
Trump said that the drone strikes on the ocean had been so successful that there have been days 'where there's not a boat to be found' and claimed every boat that they destroyed saved 25,000 lives.
Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president, called Trump's plan a 'coups d'etat orchestrated by the CIA.'
'No to war in the Caribbean...No to regime change...No to coups d'etat orchestrated by the CIA,' said Maduro, who the US does not recognize as legitimate.
The leftist leader had a committee set up after Washington deployed warships in the Caribbean for what it said was an anti-drug operation.
Trump declined to say whether the CIA has authority to take action against President Nicolás Maduro.
[IsraelTimes] Interim Syrian president expected to ask Moscow to extradite Putin ally Assad, who sought refuge in Moscow after ouster; also said to seek Russian backing against Israeli demands
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa told Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... on Wednesday that he would honor all past deals struck between his country and Moscow, a pledge suggesting Moscow’s two main military bases in Syria are safe.
Retaining the bases is a priority for Putin. According to a Syrian government official, Sharaa was also due to ask Putin to hand over Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... , Syria’s longtime former dictator and a close ally of the Kremlin, who fled to Moscow after Sharaa’s forces toppled him in December 2024.
Sharaa was also expected to press for Moscow’s backing to resist Israeli demands for a wider demilitarized zone in southern Syria. He may also raise the issue of redeploying Russian military police as a guarantor against further Israeli encroachments, a Syrian source told Rooters.
Following Assad’s ouster, Israel deployed troops to southern Syria, mostly in a UN-patrolled buffer zone, in what it described as a temporary and defensive measure.
The two countries have since held talks. Conflict also flared over the summer when Israel bombed Syrian forces in the Druze-majority city of Sweida, and struck the Defense Ministry in Damascus, in response to accusations of Syrian attacks against the Druze.
"We are trying to restore and redefine in a new way the nature of these relations so there is independence for Syria, sovereign Syria, and also its territorial unity and integrity and its security stability," Sharaa said ahead of the meeting, his first visit to Russia since taking power.
In front of the television cameras, Putin greeted Sharaa warmly at the Kremlin, but behind closed doors, the Syrian leader was expected to push for Assad’s extradition. Putin told him that Moscow was ready to do all it could to act on what he called "many interesting and useful beginnings" that had already been discussed between the two sides when it came to renewing relations.
The Kremlin chief also congratulated Sharaa on the fact that parliamentary elections were held earlier this month in Syria.
"I believe that this is a great success for you, because it leads to the consolidation of society, and despite the fact that Syria is currently going through difficult times, it will nevertheless strengthen ties and cooperation between all political forces in Syria," said Putin.
The meeting underlines Moscow’s desire to establish working ties with Syria’s new leadership and secure Russia’s military foothold in the country.
Assad was an ally of Russia, and Moscow’s scorched-earth intervention in support of him a decade ago turned the tide of Syria’s civil war, keeping Assad in his seat until his swift removal in December.
Syria’s state news agency SANA said Wednesday’s visit concerned "bilateral relations between the two countries and regional and international developments of common interest."
A Syrian government official had told AFP on Tuesday that Sharaa and Putin would also discuss "economic issues related to investment, the status of Russian bases in Syria, and the issue of rearming the new Syrian military."
According to the Kremlin, the two leaders were due to "discuss the current condition and prospects for the development of Russian-Syrian ties in the trade and economic and humanitarian spheres, as well as the latest developments in the Middle East."
Russia, which has focused on the fighting in Ukraine since its invasion of that country in 2022 and kept only a small military contingent in Syria, didn’t try to counter Sharaa’s 2024 rebel offensive but offered asylum to Assad after he fled the country.
In a recent interview with the CBS News show "60 Minutes," Sharaa said the current Syrian authorities "will use all available legal means" to demand the trial of Assad.
Speaking to news hounds on Monday, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized that Moscow granted asylum to Assad on humanitarian grounds as "he and his family faced physical extermination."
Lavrov rejected recent speculation that the former Syrian president had recently been treated for poisoning, saying that he "had no problems in living in our capital and there have been no poisonings."
Despite having been on opposite sides of the battle lines during the civil war, the new rulers in Damascus have taken a pragmatic approach to relations with Moscow. Russia has retained a presence at its air and naval bases on the Syrian coast and the Kremlin has voiced hope for negotiating a deal to keep the outposts. Moscow has also reportedly sent oil shipments to Syria.
The Kremlin said before the talks that the fate of Russia’s two main bases in Syria — the Hmeimim air base in Syria’s Latakia province, and its naval facility at Tartous on the coast — would be discussed.
Russia, which has economic and energy-related interests in Syria that it also wants to secure, also has a military presence at Qamishli airport in the northeast near the borders of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... and Iraq.
Lavrov said Monday that Moscow believed Damascus wanted the military bases to stay and spoke about an idea of also using them as logistics hubs to get aid to Africa by sea and air.
Syrian officials are seeking guarantees that Russia will not help rearm remnants of Assad’s forces, a Syrian source said before the talks. Sharaa is hoping that Russia might also help rebuild the Syrian army, the same source said.
A Russian delegation visited Damascus in January, and Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani visited Moscow in July.
In the CBS interview, Sharaa noted that "Russia has close and long-standing relations with Syria, which relate to the basic structure of the state and to energy and food, for which Syria depends partly on Russian supplies, as well as some old strategic interests."
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Viktor Lavrinenko
[REGNUM] Swedish authorities increasingly perceive migrants from third-world countries as a source of danger and are experimenting with various methods to reduce their numbers. For example, the Swedish government is trying to push immigrants back to their home countries by promising them money. Another method is also being tested: disposal in Ukraine.
In particular, we are talking about the fugitive terrorists from Chechnya, whom the Swedes at one time enthusiastically welcomed as “freedom fighters,” but now they themselves do not know how to get rid of such a “treasure.”
UNDESIRABLE PERSONS
When the efforts of gangs created by aliens turned Sweden into one of the most unsafe countries in the EU, the authorities finally saw migrants from other cultures as a threat.
Attempts to pay migrants to agree to return to their home countries appear to have little effect. As a result, authorities have resorted to far more extreme methods against them than before.
Allegations have emerged that some of the migrants were pressured by the Swedish Security Police (Säpo) to go fight in Ukraine. These individuals are radical Islamists and have been deemed a threat to Sweden.
In particular, journalists discussed this topic with Lom-Ali Artsuyev, a native of Chechnya who was previously included in Säro's register of individuals posing a threat to national security.
Swedish intelligence agencies concluded that Artsuyev might be involved in terrorist activities and therefore deemed him undesirable for residence in Sweden.
Artsuyev is currently required to report to a police station in Stockholm seven times a week and is only permitted in certain areas of the city. At the same time, Swedish authorities have no intention of deporting him to Russia, where he faces criminal prosecution for previous crimes.
After all, Artsuyev once served in the "presidential guard" of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov. It was as a "freedom fighter" that he received political asylum in Sweden, where he lived for over ten years. Until the Swedes finally saw through his wolf in sheep's clothing.
But if he can't be extradited to Russia, how can he escape such "happiness"? And so, Artsuyev claims that Säpo has repeatedly insistently offered him the chance to join a battalion of Chechen mercenaries and go fight in Ukraine.
CYNICAL DECEPTION
Artsuyev flatly refused such a "tempting" offer. "I said I don't want to be there. I'm not a Ukrainian citizen. Why would I want to fight there?" the fugitive separatist asks.
However, another Chechen who settled in Sweden, Viktor Gaziyev, a radical Islamist who has been in Ukraine since June 2023, couldn't refuse the "tempting offer." Journalists managed to contact him, and he revealed that six years ago, he too was designated a "threat to Sweden's security."
The fate of this character is worth dwelling on in more detail.
Gaziyev fled to Sweden in 2009 and received permanent residency two years later. It all followed a typical pattern: while in Russia he was wanted for attempted murder, extortion, and illegal weapons possession, in Sweden he was recognized as a "freedom fighter" who had suffered under the "totalitarian regime."
Then, everything followed the same pattern: somehow, it turned out that the "freedom fighter" was a common criminal. In Sweden, Viktor Gaziyev was convicted of several crimes.
Specifically, in March 2019, he was found guilty of several counts of stealing clothing from sporting goods stores in Dalarna Province. He committed these thefts together with several other individuals from Chechnya.
Gaziyev was then sentenced to eight months in prison. The prosecutor requested his deportation, but the district court rejected the petition on the grounds that he was wanted in Russia. Shortly after the verdict, he was released from custody altogether.
That same year, 2019, Säpo added Gaziyev to its list of six radical Islamists (imams) deemed a "threat to national security." Swedish authorities, however, continued to refuse to deport Gaziyev, citing the alleged "risk of persecution" in his home country.
At first, the security police limited themselves to placing him under strict surveillance: he was required to report daily to the Gävle police station. Later, the Swedish "security officers" imposed harsh demands on the Islamist. He claims that Säpo pressured him to go to Ukraine and join the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In exchange, they promised to help his ex-wife obtain a Swedish passport.
After some deliberation, Gaziyev agreed. He claims that an agent from the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Service (MUST) helped him book plane tickets to Poland, cross the Polish-Ukrainian border, and purchase military equipment.
As a result, Viktor Gaziyev has been fighting in the Ukrainian Armed Forces for over two years as a combat drone operator. His ex-wife, however, was denied Swedish citizenship—one might say, cynically "cheated."
These days, Gaziyev bitterly complains that he would never have joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces without pressure from the Swedish authorities: he took the promise about his wife seriously, but now he feels betrayed. However, in Ukraine, he was awarded a medal and even once met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in person.
Säpo's head of operations, Fredrik Hallström, however, denies this story, saying it has nothing to do with reality. As for Must, they declined to comment at all.
Meanwhile, SVT investigators publish testimony from Ukrainian military personnel claiming that Gaziyev was handed over to them by "Swedes and Poles." The channel's journalists also cite evidence that Swedish intelligence agencies are actively "persuading" other individuals listed as "threats to Sweden" to go fight in Ukraine.
BETTER TO GO TO SYRIA
Lawyer Thomas Fried, representing the interests of Lom-Ali Artsuyev, claims that several of his other Chechen clients have received similar offers to go fight in Ukraine.
"People are called in one by one and told that here in Sweden, they have no prospects. But if they do this and that, then everything will work out for them and their families. I know that for sure," he says.
SVT representatives also spoke with a former Stockholm resident and former fighter for an Islamist group in Syria. After engaging in criminal activity in Sweden and being detained by police, he was offered the opportunity to go to Ukraine while in custody. However, he flatly refused, preferring deportation to Syria rather than Ukraine.
The refusal of these migrants to go fight in Ukraine is explained in the most natural way: they do not want to become “cannon fodder” and perish in someone else’s conflict, to which they have no connection.
And the risk of death is quite high—Sweden periodically receives news of the deaths of mercenaries from that country who joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Previously, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially confirmed the deaths of eight Swedish citizens in Ukraine between February 2022 and August 2024, and the number has since increased.
Skepticism is further fueled by stories from Swedes who have visited Ukraine themselves and are now sharing their experiences with their fellow countrymen. For example, in July of this year, Swedish mercenary Christopher Forschbäck told SvD: "More Swedes are dying in Ukraine now than before. Most of them are new and inexperienced. "
Forshbeck said he had seen many of his compatriots who had gone to Ukraine immediately after serving in the Swedish army, but who were completely unprepared for real combat.
The publication repeatedly contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to inquire about the total number of Swedes killed in Ukraine, but received no answer. Meanwhile, reports from the front are frightening others who want to take up arms; it turns out that real war isn't a leisurely safari where you can shoot peacefully and return home with honors.
So the Security Police and other special services are trying to maintain the intensity of the flow of mercenaries with their own means.
The Swedish authorities are trying to kill two birds with one stone.
Firstly, they try to rid their state of the most dangerous individuals who are only capable of crime, but not of creative work.
Secondly, Säpo and Must believe that the terrorists being expelled must at least be of some “useful” nature – this is precisely why they are being forced into Ukraine, where, as Stockholm hopes, they will have time to inflict at least some damage on Russia.
It's safe to assume that Gaziyev is far from the only one the Swedes persuaded to join the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, the number of such "unwilling mercenaries" remains anyone's guess: intelligence agencies are extremely reluctant to part with their secrets.
[IsraelTimes] The fourth body returned by Hamas to Israel last night belongs to a West Bank Palestinian man who had reportedly been used by the Israeli military as a human shield in the Gaza Strip.
Officially, Israel has said that the body returned to Israel did not belong to any hostage.
A source cited by Al Jazeera claimed that Hamas had returned the body of an ostensible Israeli soldier who was captured in northern Gaza’s Jabalia in May 2024.
At the time, the military swiftly denied Hamas’s claim that it had captured a soldier in Jabalia, saying: “The IDF clarifies that there is no incident of a soldier’s kidnapping.”
The terror group had aired a video showing a bloodied person being dragged along the ground in a tunnel, and published images of military gear and submachine guns, which are not commonly used by the Israeli military. Hamas later also published a picture of the man’s face, without naming him.
Palestinian media at the time identified the man as Khalil Dawas, a Palestinian from the West Bank’s Aqabat Jabr camp, near Jericho. The reports said Dawas had been detained by Israel in the past.
The Kan public broadcaster reports, without citing any sources, that the man whose body was returned “operated alongside security forces in searches of underground tunnels” and was “killed by Hamas terrorists a year and a half ago.”
Amid the war, there has been a commonplace — but officially prohibited — practice of soldiers sending detained Palestinians to search buildings and tunnels before troops enter, endangering their lives.
The IDF says it strictly prohibits using civilians as shields, and has opened investigations into several such cases.
[IsraelTimes] Top Trump aides say only Hamas-free areas will be rebuilt, reveal countries offering to join postwar security force, stress Gazans won’t be forced to leave Strip during reconstruction
The United States denied on Wednesday that Hamas is violating the ceasefire deal with Israel, insisting that a dragged-out process to return the bodies of hostages held in Gaza was expected, given the difficult conditions on the ground.
“We’ve heard a lot of people saying, ‘Hamas violated the deal, because not all the bodies have been returned.’ The understanding we had with them was we get all the live hostages out, which they honor[ed],” said a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump during a briefing with reporters.
The top Trump aide was joined by a second senior Trump adviser for a briefing that covered a range of topics concerning the implementation of the remaining parts of Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war.
In addition to effectively defending Hamas’s efforts to retrieve the remaining bodies still held in Gaza, the Trump advisers revealed that the US is working with Israel to set up a safe zone inside the areas of Gaza still controlled by the IDF to which Palestinian civilians fearing Hamas retribution can flee.
They acknowledged that the demilitarization of the Strip will be complex, but expressed hope that limiting the redevelopment of Gaza to areas that are Hamas-free will help advance the effort.
The Trump advisers said many countries have offered to contribute to the International Stabilization Force that is slated to secure Gaza in place of Israel during the transitional postwar period, per Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the conflict.
The Trump advisers stressed that Gazans will not be forced to leave the Strip while it is being rebuilt, in a notable about-face from the administration’s initial stance upon Trump’s return to office, when they insisted that Gaza was uninhabitable and that Palestinians should therefore leave while the US takes it over and turns the enclave into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
The pair concluded the briefing by detailing efforts to recruit Palestinians to take part in the transitional technocratic government that will administer postwar Gaza, knocking the existing Palestinian Authority as they made the case for relying on Palestinian living abroad.
[IsraelTimes] Popular beach to be open to public from Thursday during daylight hours, following major renovations; 17 civilians and 1 soldier were killed there during Hamas attack 2 years ago
Zikim Beach near the northern border with 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, the site of one of Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... terrorists’ mass killings two years ago, is to reopen to the general public on Thursday for the first time since the October 7, 2023, invasion, authorities announced on Wednesday.
Following a fresh assessment, the military said IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir approved a recommendation by the Southern Command to reopen Zikim Beach, in coordination with the regional council, and to lift the closed military zone status imposed on the area since the start of the war.
On the morning of October 7 two years ago, 38 Hamas holy warriors in seven speedboats set out from the Gaza Strip. Some of the holy warriors reached the beach area, where they killed 17 civilians and one soldier, according to a military probe.
When it reopens on Thursday, the beach will initially be accessible between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. with a lifeguard there from 9 a.m., said a joint statement from the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council and the Tekuma Directorate, a government body tasked with rehabilitating the Gaza border communities overrun by Hamas terrorists.
A formal opening ceremony will be held next Tuesday at 3 p.m., the statement added.
While surfing will be permitted, other water sports and diving will not be allowed for the time being.
The regional council said it had worked with the Tekuma Directorate and the interior and tourism ministries to repair the damage done by the holy warriors during the attack and to upgrade the facilities.
The redevelopment of the beach cost some NIS 20 million ($6 million), with NIS 6.5 million of the total coming from the Tekuma Directorate, the regional council said.
The IDF said the move was made possible "following significant operational activities" in the northern Gaza Strip area and preparations by the Southern Command and Navy.
[IsraelTimes] Defense minister threatens Israel will resume fighting if Hamas doesn’t comply with ceasefire deal; Trump advisers vow no hostage will be ‘left behind,’ caution process will take time
Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... transferred two caskets containing the apparent remains of two dead hostages on Wednesday night, as it claimed to have recovered the bodies of all the dear departed captives "that it was able to reach."
The caskets were collected by the Red Thingy from Hamas in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... City, then transferred to IDF troops who brought them out of the Gaza Strip.
Once in Israel, the caskets were inspected by the army, then draped in Israeli flags and honored in a brief ceremony led by a military rabbi.
Police proceeded to escort them to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv to identify and determine the cause of death, a process which officials said may take up to two days.
Hamas did not identity the remains, similar to a day earlier, when one of the four bodies purported to be of dead hostages that it handed over was determined to be of a Paleostinian.
If the two bodies are confirmed to be hostages, Hamas would still be holding the remains of 19 dead hostages in Gaza.
As the remains were transferred out of Gaza, Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened Wednesday to resume fighting if Hamas does not honor the truce deal, saying he ordered the military to ready a "plan to crush" the Paleostinian terrorist group in the event of renewed combat.
"If Hamas refuses to comply with the agreement, Israel, in coordination with the United States, will resume fighting and act to achieve a total defeat of Hamas, to change the reality in Gaza and achieve all the objectives of the war," a statement from Katz’s office said.
But Hamas’s military wing claimed in the lead-up to the handover that it met its obligations under the US-backed ceasefire deal by returning all living hostages to Israel, and the bodies of all the dead captives "that it was able to reach."
"What remains of the bodies of hostages [that were not returned] — requires great effort and special equipment to search for, and we are making great efforts to resolve this issue," it said.
’NOBODY IS GETTING LEFT BEHIND’
Speaking to news hounds shortly after the bodies returned to Israeli territory, US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... claimed that Hamas is looking for the remaining deceased hostages held in Gaza.
"It’s a gruesome process... They’re digging and they’re finding a lot of bodies. Then they have to separate the bodies," he told news hounds in the Oval Office.
"Some of those bodies have been in there a long time, and some of them are under rubble. They have to remove rubble," he continued. "Some are in tunnels... that are way down under the earth."
Mediators have warned that it may take weeks for Hamas to locate the bodies of all the hostages, due to the level of destruction across Gaza, an assessment echoed by a pair of senior Trump advisers during a briefing with news hounds on Wednesday.
"We’ve heard a lot of people saying, ’Hamas violated the deal, because not all the bodies have been returned.’ The understanding we had with them was we get all the live hostages out, which they did honor that," said one of the advisers.
"Right now, we have a mechanism in place where we’re working closely with mediators... to do our best to get as many bodies out as possible," the senior aide added on condition of anonymity. "We continue to give [the mediators] the intelligence that the Israelis have [on where bodies may be located] and we keep working in good faith until we are able to exhaust that mechanism."
The second top Trump adviser, also speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered... , said, "Hamas did the right thing when they gave all of the 20 live hostages up at the same time. That was a big moment."
The second Trump adviser noted that it was only possible to begin retrieving bodies once the ceasefire came into place last week, given that Gaza had been an active war zone.
The amount of debris in Gaza dwarfs what was left after the World Trade Center was bombed on 9/11, the second Trump aide claimed. "On top of all that debris is a lot of unwent kaboom! ordinance, and presumably, under that... there are many bodies."
"It would have been almost impossible for Hamas — even if they knew where all the 28 bodies were — to mobilize and get them all," said the second Trump adviser.
"First we got three. Then we got four. Then we got another four," the aide continued, citing incorrect figures on the number of bodies Hamas returned. It transferred four bodies on both Monday and Tuesday, though one of those was later identified as a Paleostinian, while only two bodies — not four — were returned on Wednesday.
"We’re probably going to put together some program where we’re going to ask [Gazooks] to see if they can help us to locate bodies, and we’re going to pay rewards for that type of good behavior," the second Trump adviser revealed.
He added that the US has been in touch with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... , which is willing to send experts to help retrieve bodies, as they have experiences derived from earthquakes. It is not whether Israel would accept such assistance, given the bad blood between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... "The sentiment in Israel is always [that Hamas] can do more. What we basically say to the Israeli side... is, ’Give us whatever intelligence you’re hearing or seeing... If you think that there’s something [the mediators or Hamas] could be doing or should be doing that you don’t think they’re doing, then pass it over and we’ll convey it," the first Trump adviser said.
While recognizing the complexity of the matter, the second Trump adviser stressed that the US is committed to retrieving all remaining bodies of hostages.
"We’re not going to leave here until everybody comes home... Nobody is getting left behind," he said.
The briefing came as the Axios news site reported that Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a top adviser to Netanyahu, accused Hamas of "slow-walking" the returns while speaking with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Citing US officials, the report added that two senior Israeli officials apparently passed on intelligence to the US showing Hamas has access to more of the bodies than it claims.
"We don’t see Hamas making maximum effort regarding the bodies. We know they can do more and we don’t think anybody should give them any discounts," one of the officials said, as quoted in the report.
The US official told the news outlet that Washington believes Hamas will eventually return all the bodies, "but it is going to take time."
"We will continue working on it but we can’t allow the deal to collapse," the official stressed.
Citing two Israeli officials and one US official, the news outlet reports that Israel has told the US that Hamas is not doing enough to recover the bodies of the dead hostages, and that the Gaza deal cannot move into the next phase until that changes.
“We don’t see Hamas making maximum effort regarding the bodies,” it quotes an Israeli official as saying.
The US official tells Axios that Washington believes Hamas will eventually return all the bodies, “but it is going to take time.”
“We will continue working on it but we can’t allow the deal to collapse,” the official stresses.
[IsraelTimes] Cohen’s widow Nadia, responding to Saudi outlet’s report, says Mossad unaware of plans to return his body, which was buried in Damascus after his execution in 1965
The Saudi channel al-Hadath reported Sunday that the remains of Israeli spy Eli Cohen, who operated in Syria during the 1960s, are expected to soon be transferred to Israel.
The report was not verified and didn’t offer any further details.
Nadia Cohen, the spy’s widow, told Ynet: "The Mosssd ...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end... isn’t familiar with this story, and it isn’t known to them that he’s being returned."
She described an "internal storm. I have hope that what’s happening in Syria will allow for more flexibility. I am full of optimism all the time, and it’s on my mind and my heart all the time. I haven’t lost hope."
Cohen was captured and executed by the Syrian regime in 1965 and buried in Damascus. Over the years, Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... ’s regime rejected Jerusalem’s requests to receive his body or exchange it for Syrian prisoners held in Israel.
Sunday’s report came some five months after a covert Israeli operation in Syria recovered some 2,500 documents and personal items belonging to Cohen.
Cohen, born in Egypt to a Jewish family, joined the Mossad in the early 1960s and infiltrated the top echelons of Syria’s politicianship under the alias Kamel Amin Thaabet.
(On a visit to Damascus last month, Times of Israel editor David Horovitz suggested to a Syrian Foreign Ministry official that, were the new Syrian government to return Cohen’s remains, all of Israel would marvel that this was truly a different Syria. "You spoke from the heart, and I heard it with my heart," the official said at the end of his session with the visiting group.)
The Saudi report also came amid Israeli efforts to reach a security agreement with Syria, in the wake of Assad’s overthrow last December by Islamist-led forces helmed by now-interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The IDF has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria since December, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries.
Syrian officials have set a goal of reaching military and security agreements by the end of the year with Israel.
Last month, a bigwig in the Trump administration told The Times of Israel that an emerging Israel-Syria security agreement was "99%" complete, even saying that an announcement was expected within the next two weeks, though this did not pan out.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Donald Trump has threatened land strikes on Venezuela after confirming that the CIA is conducting covert operations in the Latin American country.
'No to war in the Caribbean...No to regime change...No to coups d'etat orchestrated by the CIA,' said Maduro, who the US does not recognize as legitimate. 
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end...
