[GEO.TV] Israeli authorities said on Saturday that 153 Paleostinians who turned up unexpectedly in South Africa, triggering questions from its president, had received entry approval from an unnamed third country.
Shimi Zuaretz, a front man for COGAT, the Israeli body that runs civil affairs in the Paleostinian territories, told AFP they had only been allowed to leave 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... "after COGAT received approval from a third country to receive them". He did not name the country.
After landing in Johannesburg on Thursday, the Gazooks were kept aboard their plane for 12 hours because they did not have departure stamps from Israel in their passports, South African border police said.
The home affairs ministry finally allowed the passengers to disembark when an NGO said it would provide them with accommodation.
The NGO, Gift of the Givers, told South African media it did not know who had chartered the flight or a previous one that brought 176 Gazooks on October 28.
An Israeli official who did not wish to be identified told AFP that the organization, which coordinated the transfer, had submitted third-country visas to COGAT for all the evacuated residents.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told journalists on Friday that it seemed "like they were being flushed out". "These are people from Gaza who somehow mysteriously were put on a plane that passed by Nairobi and came here," he said.
The Kiffness has called out the Gift of the Givers founder, Imtiaz Sooliman, as a “radical Islamist”. This comes as the philanthropist has defended a chartered plane carrying 154 Palestinian refugees from Gaza who have illegally landed in South Africa.
The plane arrived at OR Tambo on Thursday, 13 November, after fleeing Gaza, via Israel, and stopping over in Kenya a day earlier.
The passengers have since disembarked, and the humanitarian organisation has provided them with medical care, food, and housing. It remains unclear who chartered the plane to South Africa.
[IsraelTimes] Israel does not object to the United States supplying Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... with F-35 stealth fighter jets but insists that any transfer of such advanced aircraft be conditioned on the normalization of relations between Riyadh and Jerusalem, Channel 12 and Axios report.
The report, by journalist Barak Ravid, cites two Israeli sources involved in the matter who state that Jerusalem views Saudi Arabia obtaining the jets differently than it does with countries such as The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... member, but not the most reliable... , which has sought them to make up ground on regional rivals such as Israel.
"We told the Trump administration that the supply of F-35s to Saudi Arabia needs to be subject to Saudi normalization with Israel," Axios quotes an Israeli official stating, insisting that not conditioning the sale on diplomatic progress between the two nations would be "counterproductive."
"Unlike the supply of F-35s to Turkey that we strongly oppose, we are less concerned about such a weapons system in Saudi Arabia if it’s part of a regional security cooperation as part of the Abraham Accords, like we have with the United Arab Emirates," Axios quotes a second official as saying.
Israel has expressed concern in the past over the potential sale of the advanced F-35 fighter jets to nearby countries, as it is anxious to preserve its qualitative military edge in the region. Today, Israel is the only country in the Middle East with F-35s in its arsenal, currently operating 45 of the aircraft with another 30 units on order.
"It takes minutes for an F-35 to fly from Saudi Arabia to Israel," one of the officials tells Axios, insisting that Israel requires that any Saudi F-35s not be stationed in the west of the country.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... said that he was considering agreeing to a deal to supply Saudi Arabia with the jets, several days ahead of a planned trip by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists... . They are expected to sign economic and defense agreements.
Trump repeated that he hopes Saudi Arabia will soon join the Abraham Accords, which have normalized relations between Israel and Moslem-majority nations. Riyadh has resisted such a step absence of an agreement on a roadmap to Paleostinian statehood.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/16/2025 2025-11-16 00:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1757 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
LAWFARE: Obama Judge Boasberg blocked Trump admin CDL restrictions meant to prevent tragedies like the Florida crash where an illegal migrant trucker killed three people. His ruling keeps 190,000 noncitizen CDL holders on US roads. Another Obama judge undermines safety. pic.twitter.com/3PczUmyda7
#2
Administrative Procedures Act violations are fairly common and the reasoning that DOT used didn't make an airtight case that illegal truckers have a worse safety record (because the data base has a lot of holes in it because some States don't do such a great job). Dot needs to go thru it again unfortunately.
Also, Boasberg is the chief of the DC district so it will undoubtedly go thru him again.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/16/2025 9:58 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Accountability for Congressmen if he is not impeached by Christmas. Accountability for Senators if he is not found guilty. There is accountability, if we are willing to vote for it.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/16/2025 10:29 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Super, forget it. It takes a 2/3 majority vote in the Senate to remove someone from office after they've been impeached. As we've just seen from the Schumer Shutdown, the republicans don't have 60 votes, let alone 67.
#5
Impeach him anyway. It's not like congress is doing anything else anyway. Let the process be the punishment.
Posted by: Regular joe ||
11/16/2025 11:09 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Impeach him. Make him recuse all future lawfare cases
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/16/2025 11:46 Comments ||
Top||
#7
It would only take simple majority votes in the Congress to ABOLISH the DC Federal court and reconstitute it without Boasberg and any or all other Boasberg wannabees. Congress did just that in 1863, and it was no big deal (except for the judge who lost his DC position). Impeachment not necessary. A new version of Congress is, however,necessary for this to happen. 352 days until the next federal elections.
#11
You think that would stop him Crusader? He didn't during the Trump NY trial and his daughter had a paid advisor position to keep Trump off the ballot in Colorado.
[IsraelTimes] The UN Security Council calls for an end to cross-border and maritime attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels and urges member states to beef up efforts to implement an arms embargo against them.
In a resolution renewing sanctions against the group, the Council condemned the attacks and demanded an end to all such actions, “including those against infrastructure and civilian targets.”
The text was adopted in a 13-0 vote, with permanent members China and Russia abstaining.
Targeted sanctions were extended until November 14, 2026, including a freezing of assets and travel bans currently in place against about 10 people, most of them high-ranking Houthi officials and the group as a whole.
The text says that sanctions could now affect those who launch cross-border attacks from Yemeni territory using ballistic and cruise missile technology, or attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.
Member states were asked to “increase efforts to combat the smuggling of weapons and components via land and sea routes, to ensure implementation of the targeted arms embargo.”
The Houthis have controlled large swathes of the country, including the capital Sanaa, for more than a decade, and have signaled they’ve stopped their attacks against Israel and shipping in the Red Sea as a shaky ceasefire holds in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis — whose slogan calls for “Death to America, Death to Israel, [and] a Curse on the Jews” — began attacking Israel and maritime traffic in November 2023, a month after the October 7 Hamas massacre, which sparked the war against Hamas in Gaza.
[IsraelTimes] Thousands of people march through the streets of Belem to press for action from negotiators holding tough talks at the UN’s COP30 climate conference in the Amazonian city.
Under a baking sun, Indigenous people mixed with activists gather in a festive atmosphere, blasting music from speakers, carrying a giant beach ball of Earth, and holding a flag of Brazil emblazoned with the words “Protected Amazon.”
It is the first major protest outside the annual climate talks since COP26 four years ago in Glasgow, as the last three gatherings were held in locations with little tolerance for demonstrations — Egypt, Dubai, and Azerbaijan.
Branded the “Great People’s March” by organizers, the Belem rally comes at the halfway point of contentious negotiations and follows two Indigenous-led protests that disrupted proceedings earlier in the week.
“Today we are witnessing a massacre as our forest is being destroyed,” Benedito Huni Kuin, a 50-year-old member of the Huni Kuin Indigenous group from western Brazil, tells AFP.
“We want to make our voices heard from the Amazon and demand results,” he says. “We need more Indigenous representatives at COP to defend our rights.”
Tyrone Scott, a 31-year-old Briton from the anti-poverty group War on Want, says it was an “Indigenous-led, movement-led, people-powered march.”
“It’s just really exciting and a little bit of a nice antidote to the staleness and sterileness of the inside of the COP,” Scott tells AFP.
Their demands include “reparations” for damage caused by corporations and governments, especially to marginalized communities. "Give us money!"
Some also hold a giant Palestinian flag and a “free Palestine” banner. One protester on stilts dressed as Uncle Sam denounces “imperialism.”
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] On Monday, November 17, the UN Security Council will vote on a US-drafted resolution supporting US President Donald Trump's peace plan for the Gaza Strip. This was announced by the Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone to the UN.
"The vote on the US draft resolution will take place on Monday at 17:00 (Tuesday, 01:00 Moscow time – Ed.)," the diplomatic mission told reporters.
On September 29, the US administration released a 20-point plan to end the war in the Gaza Strip. According to the plan, Israel must withdraw its forces from Palestinian territories and completely cease military operations, and Hamas must release the hostages.
At the same time, Hamas and other groups must renounce any direct or indirect involvement in governing Gaza. It was proposed that interim governance be entrusted to a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee overseen by an international body headed by Trump.
On November 15, Russia prepared a draft UN Security Council resolution on achieving sustainable peace in the Gaza Strip. Its purpose is to enable the Security Council to develop a unified approach to achieving a lasting cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip. The document, however, does not contradict a similar US resolution.
It seems a bad idea. Why would Hamas disarm if it is no longer required of them?
[IsraelTimes] Israeli TV says Trump team pushing ‘interim solutions, unacceptable to Israel’; ahead of imminent UN vote, Israel said readying for deployment of foreign troops; PM speaks to Putin
The Trump administration is looking to forgo the stage in its peace plan calling for the deployment of a stabilization force to Gazoo to disarm Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... , so that it can move ahead with starting to rebuild the enclave, according to an Israeli television report Saturday.
The current ceasefire, which has been in place since early October, is still only in its first phase, as talks on further steps have stalled over the details of Hamas’s demilitarization and the future governance of the Gaza Strip.
However,
nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... the potential change in the White House’s direction is causing talks with Israel on Gaza’s future to "deadlock," a source told Channel 13 news.
An Israeli security source said that since the White House is having trouble getting commitments from third-party countries to participate in disarming Hamas, it has since begun pursuing "interim solutions, which are currently unacceptable to Israel."
"This interim situation is the worst there is," a senior Israeli source told the outlet. "Hamas has been strengthening in recent weeks since the end of the war."
"There can be no rehabilitation before demilitarization. It is contrary to Trump’s plan. Gaza must be demilitarized," a security official said.
The US, which has acted as the guarantor of the agreement, is pushing a resolution to a vote at the UN Security Council on Monday, a draft of which was obtained and verified by The Times of Israel last week. The draft included the entirety of US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... ’s 20-point plan, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also endorsed in a joint presser with the president in September.
The draft authorized member states to "establish a temporary International Stabilization Force," and indicated the mandate would run through 2027. Countries that expressed willingness to contribute troops have said they would need a UN resolution enshrining the force.
According to a report published Saturday by the Kan public broadcaster, Israel in recent days has begun initial preparations for the influx of thousands of foreign soldiers into Gaza, anticipating that the UN Security Council will pass the resolution.
Israel is looking for the foreign forces to be given broad powers to disarm Hamas, the report said, though most countries that have expressed interest in participating in the ISF have said they would not be willing to enforce the disarmament of terror groups in the Strip, and would only act as a peacekeeping force.
In a joint statement arranged by the US on Friday, multiple countries working toward an end to the Gaza conflict voiced backing for Washington’s UN Security Council resolution.
The statement, supported by Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... , Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... , Indonesia, Pakistain, Jordan and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... , noted that the process "offers a pathway to Paleostinian self-determination and statehood."
Meanwhile,
...back at the abandoned silver mine, a triangular dorsal fin appeared in the water. Then another... Russia — a veto-wielding member of the Security Council — circulated a competing draft resolution to council members that does not authorize the creation of a board of peace or the immediate deployment of an international force in Gaza, according to the text seen Friday by AFP.
The Russian version welcomes "the initiative that led to the ceasefire," but does not name Trump. It also only calls on the UN secretary-general to submit a report that addresses the possibilities of deploying an international stabilization force in war-ravaged Gaza.
Ahead of the vote, 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... and Netanyahu held a phone call Saturday evening, the Kremlin said, adding that the two discussed the situation in the Middle East, including developments in Gaza, Iran’s nuclear program, and Syria.
Putin initiated the phone conversation with Netanyahu, according to the Israeli readout.
The call was the latest in a series of recent conversations, according to Netanyahu’s office. The calls "dealt with regional issues," the PMO added, without elaborating.
[Rudaw] The Syrian presidency on Friday rejected reports that interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa cooperated with the United States-led global coalition against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) as early as 2016, according to state media.
"We confirm the inaccuracy of information that appeared in some press reports about the existence of cooperation between His Excellency President Ahmed al-Sharaa with the US-led coalition against ’ISIS’ and ’Al-Qaeda’ organizations since 2016," the media directorate of the Syrian Presidency said, according to state-run al-Ikhbariya TV.
The denial followed a New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... report published Wednesday claiming that Sharaa had "discreetly" cooperated with the coalition after taking control of territory in northwestern Syria in 2016. The newspaper attributed the claim to "Syrian officials and Western diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity."
The presidency’s media directorate firmly denied this, saying "The President did not coordinate or cooperate with any foreign party in this framework and no directives related to that were issued from him."
Decisions taken during that time were made through "independent internal decisions without any coordination or request from any external party," it added.
Sharaa, who was then known by his nom-de-guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, was sent to Syria by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to establish the al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front in 2011. He later broke with Baghdadi and pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, which he also later split from.
On Tuesday, Syria officially became the 90th member of the global coalition against ISIS after a landmark meeting in Washington between Sharaa and US President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... on Monday - the first visit by a Syrian leader to the United States in 80 years.
Two days ahead of the meeting, the Syrian Interior Ministry said they carried out a large-scale crackdown on ISIS across seven provinces, arresting 71 people, including suspected senior ISIS members.
The US announced on Friday that it was lifting sanctions on Sharaa and Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab, one day after the UN Security Council lifted sanctions on both officials. Sharaa, appointed interim president after Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... was ousted last December, had been sanctioned as the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate.
The country’s accession to the coalition against ISIS was welcomed by Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who described it as "a pivotal step towards enhancing collaborative efforts and bolstering the initiatives aimed at achieving the enduring defeat of ISIS."
The SDF has served as the coalition’s primary on-the-ground ally in Syria for the past decade.
Abdi and Sharaa signed a landmark agreement in March to integrate all civil and military institutions of northeast Syria (Rojava) into the Syrian state apparatus.
Syria’s minorities, however, have expressed concerns about some decisions made by Sharaa and his government, especially his consolidation of power. Kurds, Alawites, and Druze communities have called for a federal system. The transitional government initially rejected decentralization, but has since softened its position.
The country has also been shaken by two waves of violence targeting minority communities. In the Alawite-majority coastal areas in March, festivities involving factions affiliated with the interim government left more than 1,700 people - mostly Alawite civilians - dead. In southern Suwayda province, fighting between Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes escalated in mid-July with the involvement of Damascus forces, killing more than 1,600 people. Clashes continue in the area despite a ceasefire.
The UN said in August that the Alawite violence was "systematic" and likely amounted to "war crimes," carried out by factions linked to the former regime, "interim government force members," and private individuals. However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... it added that it "found no evidence of a governmental policy or plan to carry out such attacks."
Sharaa has been broadly welcomed on the world stage. Last week, he attended the UN COP30 climate conference in Brazil where he met Secretary-General António Guterres ...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years... and several world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron. In September, he became the first Syrian leader to address the UN General Assembly in nearly six decades.
[IsraelTimes] UNIFIL says Israeli construction has blocked access to over 4,000 square meters of Lebanese land; IDF denies accusation
Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... will file a complaint to the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... Security Council alleging that Israel is building walls in southern Lebanon, an accusation Israel has denied, the Lebanese presidency said Saturday.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Friday that the Israeli army had built walls on the Lebanese side of the UN-demarcated Blue Line, the de facto border.
When asked by AFP about the accusation, the Israeli military said, "The wall does not cross the Blue Line."
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office said he had instructed officials "to file an urgent complaint to the United Nations Security Council against Israel for constructing a concrete wall on Lebanon’s southern border exceeding the Blue Line."
He requested that the complaint "be accompanied by reports issued by the United Nations refuting the Israeli denial of the wall’s construction."
According to UNIFIL, last month, observers surveyed a concrete T-wall erected by the Israeli army southwest of Yaroun and found that it "crossed the Blue Line, rendering more than 4,000 square meters of Lebanese territory inaccessible to the Lebanese people."
A survey this month of additional construction showed "a section of wall southeast of Yaroun also crossed the Blue Line," the UNIFIL statement added, calling it a violation of Lebanon’s illusory sovereignty.
The observer force said it had informed the Israeli army of the October findings and requested that it move the wall.
A ceasefire in November last year sought to end more than a year of hostilities, including two months of all-out war between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.
Work on a border wall to replace Israel’s aging fence with Lebanon began in 2018 but has progressed slowly, mainly due to budget constraints.
In early 2023, the IDF ramped up construction of the wall, which then halted with the start of the war on October 7, 2023, with the Hezbollah terror group launching attacks on Israel. Since the November 2024 ceasefire, work has resumed on the border wall, along with the construction of dozens of new army posts on the Israeli side of the border.
"Since the start of the war, and as part of lessons learned from it, the (Israeli military) has been advancing a series of measures, including reinforcing the physical barrier along the northern border," the IDF said.
Under the truce, Israel was to withdraw its forces from south Lebanon, but it has kept them in five areas it deems strategic.
It has also kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, mainly saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites and operatives.
Friday’s UNIFIL accusation came a day after Israel struck a Hezbollah weapons depot and adjacent underground site in southern Lebanon, the latest in near-daily Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s against Hezbollah targets in the region, with Israel accusing the Iran-backed terror group of seeking to re-establish itself in violation of the ceasefire deal.
[REGNUM] The Austrian prosecutor's office recently brought charges against one of the high-ranking Syrian officers of the Assad era, Khaled al-Halabi.
The former head of the state security service in the city of Raqqa, who became famous for extrajudicial killings and secretly fled to Europe, turned out to be a "triple agent," combining service in the Syrian state security with work for the Israeli Mossad and European intelligence agencies.
However, when it came time to pay the bill, al-Halabi suddenly found himself face to face with justice.
EXCESSES IN PLACES
Al-Halabi's name became known far beyond Syria's borders back in 2014. At that time, several major Western newspapers, including the New York Times, published an investigation into the brutal treatment of protesters by Syrian security forces during the Arab Spring in 2011–2013.
As head of the security branch and governor of the local political prison, he launched a brutal campaign to suppress dissent in the city, including mass arrests, torture, and murder.
According to researchers, the "Butcher of Raqqa" (as al-Halabi was known to the Syrian opposition) claimed at least 21 victims, only four of whom belonged to movements banned at the time. Another three dozen were the victims of his closest aide, Musab Abu Rukba.
The Raqqa scandal became the starting point for increased pressure on Damascus from the West, and also partially led to the adoption of the American “Caesar Act” sanctions in 2019.
In reality, however, Damascus hardly approved of such displays of "official zeal" on the ground. Almost immediately after the international scandal, several government commissions were dispatched to Raqqa to investigate cases of abuse of power.
And given that at least two of them included high-ranking officials—then Defense Minister Fahed Jassim al-Frej and Head of State Security Rafiq Shahadah —the country's leadership was clearly in no mood to let the matter slide.
"DISAPPEARED"
However, al-Halabi never appeared before the Syrian judiciary. Just as the case was about to be handed over to prosecutors, he suddenly disappeared from the radar and remained missing for nearly ten years.
Much later, in 2025, it became known that the general had moved incognito to Austria, and from there to Hungary, where he lived the life of an inconspicuous pensioner. Moreover, he periodically visited other EU countries, including France and Germany.
Al-Halabi's trail was discovered completely by accident: the "disappeared" general posted a photo from a bridge in Budapest, accidentally forgetting to remove his geotag. There, enthusiasts discovered him and handed him over to Interpol.
Tracing the suspect's subsequent travel routes was easy, and within a couple of days, al-Halabi was in custody in Hungary. From there, the general was expeditiously extradited to Austria, where several cases had already been opened against him.
FRIEND OF ISRAEL
Upon landing in the hands of European justice, al-Halabi almost immediately declared himself not a criminal. Moreover, he was under the protection of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, for which he allegedly worked from the very beginning of the Arab Spring.
As a "mole," the general passed on a large amount of confidential information to the Israelis, including information about the state of Syria's security systems, the mood among the generals, as well as the level of support for Bashar al-Assad's government and the level of contacts between Damascus and Moscow and Tehran.
In addition, al-Halabi allegedly agreed to play the role of scapegoat in the scandal involving torture and murder in the political prison in Raqqa.
In gratitude for this, Israeli operatives helped him safely reach the borders of the European Union, and also provided him with money and general protection for the first time.
In addition, at al-Halabi's request, his confidant Rukba was also evacuated, and he subsequently lived for several years under an assumed name in an Austrian refugee camp.
However, official Tel Aviv refused to comment on the participation of its security forces in the secret evacuation of al-Halabi.
David Barnea, the current head of the Mossad, doesn't need such scandals. He's already teetering on the brink of resignation, and new scandals, especially such high-profile ones, could completely ruin his career if he admits to recruiting the "Butcher of Raqqa."
It's even more inappropriate to hold Tamir Pardo, the intelligence chief at the time al-Halabi was allegedly targeted, accountable. After resigning in 2016, the former Mossad chief created an ecosystem of private companies specializing in cybersecurity and digital intelligence. Some of them are involved in Israeli hybrid operations.
Decapitating such a sensitive area would be tantamount to losing an advantage in the conflict with Iran, something Tel Aviv does not want.
EUROPEAN ASSISTANTS
However, as it turned out a little later, al-Halabi's collaboration with the Mossad wasn't limited to just that. Fearing that the Israelis would exploit him unknowingly, he established connections with European intelligence officers. The general had known some of them casually even before the civil war.
And this gamble indeed paid off: the Israelis only got their "mole" as far as the EU borders, but didn't try to send him across, apparently for fear of being caught in a controversial situation.
The Austrians came to the rescue. Agents of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (BVT), who used Raqqa as a staging post for operations in Syria, had at one time enjoyed the general protection of al-Halabi.
They also used it to extract their agents from the dungeons of the Syrian security agency, shifting the blame for espionage to those involved in other cases.
In 2015, when al-Halabi became the target of attention from the authorities, several BVT employees conspired to help their former ally enter the EU. Officially, this was done on their own initiative.
However, in reality, it was most likely a coordinated operation, since before the general fled Raqqa, an archive containing information on European operations in Syria "disappeared." Furthermore, Vienna was likely unaware of Israeli involvement in al-Halabi's evacuation from Syria.
THE ENDS ARE IN THE WATER
The Austrian Directorate for State Security and Intelligence (DSN), established in 2021, inherited the al-Halabi case from the BVT and also took it into its own hands, including to determine whether he maintains ties to former colleagues in the state security service.
To motivate the Syrian fugitive to cooperate, DSN allegedly promised him the status of a freelance expert on Syria, which would guarantee complete protection from prosecution.
This was expectedly done without widespread publicity, as the general was still wanted, including in Austria. However, this contact failed to materialize—the "Butcher of Raqqa" fell under Interpol's radar.
The scandal surrounding al-Halabi's sudden exposure dealt a severe blow to the reputation of the DSN, which was already teetering on the brink of closure and restructuring.
Despite the fact that the service dismissed several of its veterans, former BVT officers, for "arbitrariness," this did not help ease tensions: Vienna and Brussels are demanding that the service's leadership conduct an open and independent investigation.
For this reason, Austrian security officials are rushing to cut off as many ties as possible, so that cooperation with al-Halabi truly appears to be the initiative of individual employees.
As for the arrested general, he will likely be held fully accountable for his actions—both those proven and those previously unnoticed by law enforcement. The once-influential patrons he relied on are unlikely to come to his aid. Their reputations, as expected, are more important to them.
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 kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...
...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration....
