[Zagazola] One of the suspects being prosecuted by the Department of State Services (DSS) alongside Khalid Al-Barnawi and three others for being behind the August 26, 2011, bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja, has told a Federal High Court in Abuja how he joined the Boko Haram terror organisation.
At the resumed trial of Al'Barnawi and four others on Wednesday, the second defendant, Mohammed Bashir Saleh, in a video recording played before the court, said he joined Al'Barnawi in Bauchi shortly before the attack on the UN building, and that from that moment, their relationship blossomed resulting in his joining Boko Haram.
Al- Barnawi was arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) in April 2016 in Lokoja, Kogi State, five years after the attack on the Abuja UN building, the first of such attack on an international agency's property in the country, which left over 20 individuals dead and over 70 others injured.
Insurgents have gained ground with more mobile tactics against an increasingly complacent military
After several years of relative calm brought about by foreign military support, northern Mozambique faced a renewed Islamist insurgency in 2025.
Data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) reveals not only a sharp rise in insurgent attacks but also a significant shift in strategy. In 2025, Islamic State Mozambique (ISM) expanded its reach into more districts, striking remote and vulnerable communities with swift, mobile units.
Meanwhile, clashes involving the Mozambican Defense and Armed Forces (FADM) and their Rwandan allies (RDF) remained at the same low level as the previous year, leaving gaps for insurgents to exploit
[FoxNews] A 2024 filing shows the group awarded just $158,811 in grants that year while Armstrong brought in a salary of $215,726
Far-left agitator Nekima Levy Armstrong,
….professional “strong, Black woman”, civil rights lawyer, activist…
who was one of the organizers of the storming of a Minnesota church to protest ICE on Sunday, raked in over $1 million during six years leading a Minneapolis civil rights nonprofit that addresses anti-poverty issues.
Armstrong, whose website identifies her as a civil rights lawyer and "scholar-activist," helped to organize the storming of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday.
In a Facebook post, she claimed that one of the church’s pastors is a leader at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The demonstration is one of many throughout the Twin Cities in protest of the federal government’s surge of immigration enforcement officials to crack down on widespread fraud taking place in the state.
Armstrong, who is currently the founder and CEO of a cannabis company called Dope Roots, led the nonprofit as executive director for at least six years, from 2019 through 2024, according to tax filings by the Wayfinder Foundation.
The 2024 tax filing shows that despite the foundation being dedicated to giving grants to anti-poverty community initiatives, it awarded just $158,811 that year, while Armstrong brought in a salary of $215,726. She also took an additional $40,548 in health benefits, benefit plan contributions and deferred compensation, according to the 2024 filing.
In 2023, the year that the nonprofit awarded $133,698 in grants, Armstrong brought in a salary of $170,726, plus $44,300 in other "compensation from the organization and related organizations," according to that year’s filing.
The year before reflects the same pattern, with Armstrong bringing in $175,000 in compensation, plus an estimated $33,126 in other compensation, while the organization gave just $161,325 in grants, per the 2022 filing.
According to filings ranging from 2019 to 2024, in six years Armstrong made $936,395 as executive director of the Wayfinder Foundation, plus an additional $201,313 in health benefits and other compensation. Meanwhile, during her time in leadership, the Wayfinder Foundation disbursed approximately $700,052 in grants.
In the same time span, the foundation reported $5,246,387 in revenue. The group has counted Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation as a donor. According to a 2023 Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation tax filing, the group donated $20,000 to Wayfinder "to conduct activities to educate and support Black communities."
The Walton Family Foundation, which makes charitable donations on behalf of the family behind Walmart’s founding, is also a major donor. According to 2018-2024 tax filings by the Walton Family Foundation, it donated $2,340,000 to the Wayfinder Foundation during that time period.
While the nonprofit's website is now defunct, Fox News Digital reviewed some of its archived pages, and it reveals that in its "signature Community Activist Fellowship (CAF) program, we intentionally invest in Black women and Latina activists, organizers, and change agents who are using their social, political, and financial capital to challenge the status quo and to disrupt business-as-usual within systems that perpetuate oppression."
"Where others see deficiencies, lack, and want, Wayfinder sees opportunity for little revolutions that place demands on power and change systems for the better," Armstrong says in a message to potential donors on the defunct website of the Wayfinder Foundation. "We get there by investing directly in the most basic unit of change in a child’s life, their mother."
Before the Sunday service disruption, Armstrong caused controversy through her far-left views and activism. She has also been a key organizer of the boycotts against Target over its decision to scale back its diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
In a September 26 post, Armstrong had high praise for Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, who was convicted of the murder of State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1977. Armstrong called her "a brave, wise, powerful, and revolutionary Black woman."
Fox News Digital reached out to Armstrong and the Wayfinder Foundation for comment but did not immediately receive a response. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation and Walmart also did not respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
#3
"NEW: Multiple sources tell me & colleague
@davidspunt that the federal magistrate in Minnesota who refused to sign off on an arrest warrant for Don Lemon is Douglas L. Micko and that his wife works as an Assistant Attorney General in Minnesota AG Keith Ellison's office."
#5
^ "Is there anything dangerous or sharp I should be concerned about in your rolls folds of skin? I don't wanna get cut or infected while frisking you"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2026 18:21 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Ex-intelligence chief says he repeatedly alerted Abbas to cases of graft, but to no avail; accuses aides of ‘deliberately hiding the truth’ from 90-year-old PA president
A former Paleostinian Authority intelligence chief on Tuesday publicly accused the Paleostinian leadership of allowing systemic corruption to flourish within its institutions, in a rare appeal addressed directly to PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> In an open letter, Tawfik Tirawi, 77, said he repeatedly alerted Abbas to cases of graft, but to no avail.
As if Abu Mazen hasn’t been elbow deep in it since Yasser Arafat was fondling his special red binder.
"The corruption system now operates with confidence and immunity," wrote Tirawi, a senior member of the Fatah central committee led by Abbas, whose presidential mandate expired in 2009.
Tirawi alleged the involvement of businesses and individuals in the takeover of public and private lands and assets, describing what he called a "moral and ethical collapse" of Paleostinian institutions.
You can’t collapse when your starting point is well below sea level.
He also accused aides around Abbas, who is 90, of "deliberately hiding the truth" from him.
The man has been physically unwell for years...
Tirawi, an outspoken Abbas critic, said that after consulting with other Fatah figures, he decided to make the issue public, warning that if the situation persisted he would disclose details of specific cases to the media.
That could prove amusing…
"Did our people make all these sacrifices — deaders, prisoners and maimed — only for us to reach a stage where thieves and land brokers are left to spread corruption without deterrence or accountability?" he wrote.
Yasser Arafat had over $3 billion in the 1990s, though supposedly it was down to $1 billion when he died. He was skimming millions a month from the PLO’s finances, so it isn’t like there ever was a time when corruption was not the law of the land there. Mr. Tirawi’s shock seems a tad disingenuous.
Tirawi has in the past advocated for armed Paleostinian resistance against Israel, and praised his then-2-year-old son for expressing his desire to kill "Zionists" in a children’s song.
His remarks come at a particularly fraught moment for Paleostinian society, after more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... in 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, sparked by the terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, and escalating violence in the West Bank.
A fragile ceasefire came into force in Gaza in October as part of US President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... ’s peace initiative, setting in motion a complex Paleostinian political reform process and reigniting debate over governance.
Within the pockets of the West Bank that it administers, the PA is notorious for corruption.
Critics say the system lined the pockets of elites with tax proceeds and international aid, while funneling much of what was left to a massive security apparatus trained to crack down on dissent at the behest of its patrons.
Abbas has been in office for 20 years, and for nearly the entire time has failed to hold elections.
An accidental oversight, I’m sure.
Abbas rarely leaves his headquarters in the city of Ramallah, except to travel abroad. He limits decision-making to his tight inner circle, including Hussein al-Sheikh, a longtime confidant whom he named as his designated successor in April.
An October poll by the Ramallah-based Paleostinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 80 percent of Paleostinians in the West Bank and Gaza want Abbas to resign.
Abbas has made some gestures toward reform, and has promised legislative and presidential elections within a year after the war in Gaza ends.
In a high-profile move against corruption, the PA transport minister was removed in October and put under investigation on allegations of bribery, according to local media.
Paleostinians are skeptical about the changes. In the PCPSR poll, 60% of respondents said they doubted Abbas will hold elections.
It found that if a vote were held, the clear winner would be Marwan Barghouti, a senior military figure from Abbas’s Fatah faction serving life in Israeli prison since 2002 in connection with deadly terror attacks during the Second Intifada. Abbas would come a distant third behind any Hamas candidate.
[IsraelTimes] Police confirm change to longstanding ban on non-Muslim prayer, which comes weeks after Ben Gvir confidant appointed as Jerusalem’s top officer; Jewish activists laud policy
Police allowed Jewish worshipers to ascend the Temple Mount with printed prayer sheets Wednesday, in a further challenge to regulations barring non-Moslem prayer at the flashpoint Old City of Jerusalem site.
Early Wednesday, students at the Temple Mount Yeshiva handed out liturgical material printed on flyers to Jewish visitors waiting to go up to the Temple Mount. The sheets included religious guidelines for visiting the holy site, a prayer to recite before ascending and the Amidah (standing) prayer, said thrice-daily in Jewish tradition.
Police said they acceded to a request from the Temple Mount Yeshiva — which encourages Jews to ascend and pray at the site — that visitors be allowed to carry "guidance sheets" with them to the complex.
"In order to maintain the existing order, it was determined that the use of these sheets would be limited solely to specific areas defined by the police," police added.
Non-Moslem prayer has until recently been forbidden forbidden atop the Temple Mount — known by Moslems as the al-Aqsa Compound — due to a string of agreements known as the status quo between Israel and Jordan, which administers the site through the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf.
The hotly disputed site, the holiest site in Judaism and third-holiest in Islam, was the location of both ancient Jewish temples and, since the 7th century, has housed the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine. Conflicts around the site have sparked several rounds of violence in the region.
While in the past, police would eject or detain Jewish visitors caught praying on the Temple Mount, this policy has largely fallen to the wayside over the past three years under National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has repeatedly demanded that police allow Jews to pray there.
In recent years, Jewish visitors have been permitted to pray and prostrate themselves in the eastern part of the complex, but were still barred from bringing prayer items, such as tefillin, prayer shawls and printed liturgy, to the site.
Police appeared to confirm their official sanction of non-Moslem prayer in a Wednesday statement that stressed that officers work to "enable freedom of worship and visitation at the Temple Mount for all religions and communities."
Leading activists for Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount downplayed the gravity of the new policy, insisting it was merely a recognition of the current reality.
"Jews have been bringing prayer pages and books onto the Temple Mount for a long time, even if the police didn’t always want to see it. What happened now is simply the police officially approving what is already happening on the ground," said Akiva Ariel, the CEO of Beyadenu, an organization dedicated to cementing a Jewish presence at the site.
"We are moving forward until prayer on the Temple Mount becomes a normal and routine reality," he vowed.
The group’s front man, meanwhile, stressed the significance of the shift, telling The Times of Israel that such printed material was "something that they [Israeli security] used to check for, to make sure you were not bringing" to the site.
Two weeks ago, Deputy Commissioner Avshalom Peled, a confidant of Ben Gvir, was appointed to the sensitive position of Jerusalem District commander, replacing Deputy Commissioner Amir Arzani who went on leave. Peled formerly served as deputy police chief.
Haaretz reported that Arzani departed under duress after he pushed back against the far-right minister’s attempts to further relax restrictions on the Temple Mount.
According to Beyadenu, police only allowed for the flyer printed by the Temple Mount Yeshiva to be brought into the site. This provision may change in the near future, the group’s front man noted.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] For several days now, Israel has been discussing the daring bandit act.
Several Bedouins, disguised as Israeli soldiers, robbed a Palestinian jeweler and attempted to escape with the loot. However, they were quickly caught.
At first glance, the story behind the gatehouse conceals something more than simple Bedouin ingenuity. It combines the long-standing miscalculations of army officers, the dissatisfaction of Israel's former partners, and the impunity of local criminals.
But something else is far more important: the raiders have already gained followers who are trying to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors, and the disguise technique has been adopted by enemy intelligence.
IN MILITARY STYLE
The main events unfolded on January 13 in Ad-Dahariyya, a small Palestinian settlement near the West Bank city of Hebron. Around two o'clock in the afternoon, an olive-colored jeep drove onto the main street, where there were shopping arcades.
Three armed men in IDF camouflage and body armor emerged from the vehicle. A loudspeaker announced that security operations were underway in the area and that residents should remain calm and be prepared for document checks.
After ensuring the onlookers remained calm, one of the soldiers entered a jewelry store, returning a few minutes later with a heavy bag. The other two had been combing the street the entire time. Throwing the bag into the trunk, the soldiers climbed into the jeep and drove away as quickly as they had arrived.
Only a few minutes later, the locals realized from the jeweler’s piercing screams that they had witnessed a robbery.
The robbers were apprehended that same day—they didn't even have time to leave the West Bank or change vehicles. In the trunk, they found not only a bag containing the stolen jewelry and cash, but also several firearms (pistols and rifles), ammunition, and a bundle of grenades.
They did not resist arrest.
A GANG OF FORMER MILITIAMEN
Despite Israeli security officials' efforts to keep the perpetrators' identities under wraps, including redacting their names from all press releases (while insisting that all the attackers were residents of the Bedouin village of Daha in Israel's Southern District), Arab social media users quickly identified the "heroes." And, along the way, they corrected the fragmentary biographies broadcast in official sources.
Two of the detained Bedouins belonged to the Tarabin tribe and, just six months ago, had fought in the ranks of pro-Israeli militias in the Gaza Strip, including participating in “cleansing” of neighborhoods where IDF personnel were afraid to enter.
One of the former fighters even managed to obtain Israeli citizenship—although law enforcement officials doubt the authenticity of the documents.
After the fighting in Gaza ceased, they, having lost the support of their tribe and fearing revenge from Hamas, moved to the Southern District, where they made ends meet with odd jobs.
The third suspect turned out to be a resident of the Negev and had connections in local criminal circles. Apparently, he offered the militiamen a way to make easy money with minimal risk.
A fourth suspect was also reported—a Bedouin from the Southern District who acted as the driver. However, he was not in the car at the time of the arrest and was detained later than his accomplices.
Where do the props for the masquerade come from?
It quickly became clear where the enterprising raiders had obtained the uniforms.
The uniforms belonged to the IDF's 252nd Sinai Division, whose warehouses were robbed by Bedouins back in 2018, with property worth 300,000 shekels (about $100,000) stolen.
The division's command then preferred to hush up the incident and retroactively write off the stolen equipment, apparently believing that the Bedouins would strip it of its individual components and it would soon become unusable. However, several sets of uniforms survived and, nearly ten years later, fell into the hands of the perpetrators.
The weapons were even simpler: they were obtained through connections in criminal circles and among former pro-Israeli militia fighters. Moreover, some of the caches created in case of a protracted war with Hamas had still not been seized by the Israeli army.
The operation's calculations were simple: the Israelis had been conducting counterterrorism operations in the West Bank (including near Hebron) for several months, and the appearance of IDF patrols no longer surprised the locals. This gave the attackers a significant head start.
For the same reason, it was decided to rob a jewelry store—the Israelis (in agreement with Ramallah) had the right to carry out operations and arrests on charges of money laundering without first obtaining a warrant, and the army's surprise visit to the elderly jeweler looked exactly like such an operation.
Former pro-Israeli militia fighters wanted to get back at their former employer, who had left them alone to face Hamas.
The robbery of a Palestinian jeweler by IDF fighters was intended to provoke tensions and damage the image of the Israeli army, while simultaneously complicating operations in these areas.
And if the bandits had been forced to open fire, the matter could well have ended in a Palestinian riot.
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE CONCERNS
The story of the botched robbery of a Palestinian jeweler could well have been a one-off if the local criminal underworld had not seen great potential in it and tried to "correct its mistakes."
For example, a few days ago, police, together with the Israeli secret service Shin Bet, detained two Arabs who were preparing to rob a supermarket using the same scheme as the previously detained Bedouins.
In addition, in Sakhin (Northern District of Israel), seven illegal immigrants of Arab origin were detained while traveling around the city in an armored vehicle.
An M16 rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition were found on them.
Attempts to steal uniforms from IDF warehouses have also increased: the Internal Security Service reported at least three such incidents in the past week.
However, the real threat lies elsewhere.
Under the guise of IDF soldiers and officers, forces hostile to Israel could infiltrate deep into the country and strike deep behind enemy lines, thereby causing far greater damage than in the initial stages of the October 7 War.
Israeli counterintelligence is convinced that since the Bedouin raiders' trick is so easily replicated by ordinary gangs, it would be easy for the enemy to do the same thing using trained Hamas or Hezbollah strike forces.
There is also a high risk that Iran will adopt the “disguise” tactic and begin sending saboteurs into Israel disguised as Israeli soldiers and officers.
The spy thesis is fueled, among other things, by news from the “invisible front”: Tehran has stepped up the recruitment of rank-and-file IDF personnel.
Moreover, military agents detained by counterintelligence are increasingly reporting strange assignments from their handlers. These handlers, for example, ask them to describe in detail how their fellow soldiers adjust their uniforms, or to obtain a couple of Madei Alef uniforms, which they wear outside of military facilities.
Israel's leadership sees growing risks and is trying to develop a response model. However, Tel Aviv apparently has no idea how to filter its own military personnel.
#1
Sorry, I have a soft spot for old-fashioned jewel thieves. I loved the Louvre heist. Prison escapes are another one. Sure, they're evil men but anyone who can get out of a prison has my respect. My favorite of all is the one-man crime wave. It's always a great story. But this time is coming to an end. In our surveillance society where everyone has a microphone and GPS locator in their pockets crime will nearly be impossible. Just wait until they start chipping us like pets. They'll say, look at how convenient everything is! No more cash, no more pennies, no more low battery on your phone, just be in range of the NFC device and you pay. No more self-checkout kiosks, walk out of a store like you're a BLM looter except you pay for it. Then they start disabling people's access to the system like Canada did to those truckers.
[AnNahar] Recent conflict between Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria has again brought to the world's attention the detention facilities where 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.... group members are held and camps where mostly women and kiddies have been locked up for years.
During the battles that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces fought against the Islamic State group over the past decade, thousands of IS fighters of different nationalities were captured and have been held in some dozen jails in northeast Syria.
The U.S.-backed Syrian forces also captured tens of thousands of mostly women and kiddies linked to IS and most of them have been held in the sprawling al-Hol Camp in Syria's northeast close to the border with Iraq. A smaller group is held in the Roj camp close to where the borders of Syria, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... and Iraq meet.
In recent days, Syrian government forces have captured wide areas that had been controlled by the SDF for years in an offensive that took everyone by surprise. Forces loyal to Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa now are edging closer to detention centers and the Roj camp. They appear to be in control of al-Hol camp as of Tuesday afternoon.
And Iraq had such good intentions to take the last of the families home from there, too.
State media reported that dozens of IS detainees managed to flee the Shaddadeh Prison in the town of Shaddadeh near the Iraqi border amid the fighting and blamed SDF fighters for releasing them. Most of those who fled were captured, state media said. There has been tensions also around al-Aqtan prison in Raqqa province.
Apart from the Shaddadeh incident, no IS suspects have managed to flee from other facilities.
The Syrian government that in late 2025 joined the U.S.-led international coalition fighting against IS has said over the past days that authorities are ready to take over and manage the camps and prisons vowing they are committed to fighting krazed killers.
THE DANGERS OF IS DETAINEES FLEEING
When IS declared a caliphate in large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, they attracted forces of Evil from around the world. From their caliphate, the forces of Evil plotted attacks around the world that left hundreds dead from Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... to Asia to Arab countries.
The group also carried out brutalities in Syria and Iraq, including the enslavement of thousands of Yazidi women and girls who were taken when the murderous Moslems overran northern Iraq in their violent mostly peaceful 2014 campaign.
IS krazed killer boasted of their exploits with videos they released at the time including beheading people or cutting of their hands over charges of theft. Women who were accused of adultery were stoned to death while gays were thrown from high-rises.
The possible escape of detainees raises concerns that they could join the group's sleeper cells that still carry out and claim deadly attacks in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.
Or they’ll sign up with the HTS auxiliaries or the Turkic paramilitaries on Turkey’s payroll, both of which pay better, are loads safer for the turbans involved, and are just as much nasty fun.
Muaz Al Abdullah, Middle East research manager at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, said the recurrence of security breakdowns in the vicinity of prisons holding IS fighters similar to what happened in Shaddadeh and Raqqa "carry serious ramifications and consequences for the security of Syria and the region as a whole."
"Some of these facilities contain nearly 5,000 ISIS fighters, which pose a significant threat amid the current security vacuum in northeastern Syria," he said using an acronym for IS.
THE MAIN DETENTION FACILITIES IN SYRIA FOR IS SUSPECTS
There are several prisons in Syria where IS suspects are held and they are spread out over northern and northeastern Syria.
According to a U.S. State Department report on terrorism, an estimated 9,000 IS fighters, including 1,600 Iraqis and 1,800 fighters from countries outside Syria and Iraq remained in detention facilities controlled by the SDF.
The largest detention facility is the Gweiran Prison, now called Panorama, and has held about 4,500 IS-linked detainees for years. The prison is in the city of Hassakeh that is still under full control of the SDF.
Another facility is the Shaddadeh Prison that witnessed festivities and now is under the control of government forces. Syrian authorities said 120 IS detainees managed to flee during the fighting and 81 of them were recaptured later. Search operations are ongoing for the rest.
A facility that also witnessed tensions is the al-Aqtan Prison near the northern city of Raqqa, that was once the de facto capital of IS. On Tuesday, the SDF accused "Damascus-affiliated factions" of cutting off water supplies to the al-Aqtan prison calling the move a "blatant violation of humanitarian standards."
Negotiations were underway to reach a deal that would put the al-Aqtan prison under government control.
Other detention facilities include the Cherkin Prison in the northern city of Qamishli and Derik prison near the border with Iraq and Turkey.
IS has vowed over the years that it will work to release IS detainees from prisons as well as women and kiddies from al-Hol and Roj.
AL-HOL AND ROJ CAMPS
After the defeat of IS in Syria in March 2019, tens of thousands of women, many of them wives and widows of IS fighters, and children were taken by the SDF to the al-Hol camp on the edge of the northeastern town of al-Hol.
There have been concerns over the years that the camp — which has witnessed crimes by IS sleeper cells against women who were distancing themselves from the group — is a breading place for future fighters where some of the children are fed extreme ideology by their mothers.
On Tuesday, Syria's interior ministry accused the SDF of allowing the release of a number of people from the camp. It was not clear if IS members managed to flee amid the chaos.
Later in the day, state news agency SANA posted photos of government button men guarding the al-Hol camp saying that they are now in charge.
At its peak in 2019, some 73,000 people were living at the al-Hol camp but the numbers have since dropped with some countries repatriating their citizens.
Sheikhmous Ahmad, a Kurdish official overseeing camps for displaced in northeastern Syria, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that al-Hol currently has a population of about 24,000, of which Syrians make the largest group with about 14,500 followed by Iraqis who are nearly 3,000.
Ahmad added that about 6,500 women and kiddies from other nationalities are held in the highly secured section of the camp known as the annex as they are the most die-hard IS supporters who came from around the world to join the krazed killer group.
At Roj camp, which has a more relaxed atmosphere than al-Hol, with some women not even covering their hair, there are about 2,500 people. One of the most known women held at Roj camp is Shamima Begum, who traveled from Britannia as a teenager to join the group almost 11 years ago.
Along with her two best friends from school (Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana) — in east London’s Bethnal Green — she fell in love with the romantic idea of being a jihadi wife and brood mare for the new Muslim nation, seduced by messages from early adopter Pak-Scot Aqsa Mahmood. Before running off to Syria they recruited among their English schoolmates for the ISIS cause. Umm Three-Dead-Babies thrived in her chosen environment, marrying a Dutch convert and being promoted to enforcer in the women’s branch of the ISIS morality police before it all fell apart. She did her taqiyya best to seduce the Brits into bringing her back home for round two, but was definitively shut down in 2024. It will be interesting to see what happens to her now....
Like Hamas, the Mullahs don’t care that the common people suffer.
[AnNahar] Iranians have been struggling for nearly two weeks with the longest, most comprehensive internet shutdown in the history of the Islamic Theocratic Republic — one that has not only restricted their access to information and the outside world, but is also throttling many businesses that rely on online advertising.
Authorities shut down internet access on Jan. 8 as nationwide protests led to a brutal crackdown that activists say has killed over 4,000 people, with more feared dead. Since then, there has been minimal access to the outside world, with connectivity in recent days restored only for some domestic websites. Google also began partially functioning as a search engine, with most search results inaccessible.
Officials have offered no firm timeline for the internet to return, leading to fears by businesses across the country about their future.
One pet shop owner in Tehran, who spoke on the condition of anonymity like others for fear of reprisals, said his business had fallen by 90% since the protests. "Before that, I mainly worked on Instagram and Telegram which I don't have access to anymore. The government has proposed two domestic alternatives. The point is our customers are not there — they don't use it."
INTERNET OUTAGES ARE THE LATEST SQUEEZE ON BUSINESSES
The internet outage compounds economic pain already suffered by Iranians. The protests, which appear to have halted under a bloody suppression by authorities, began Dec. 28 over Iran's rial currency falling to over 1.4 million to $1. Ten years ago, the rial traded at 32,000 to $1. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, it traded at 70 to $1.
The currency's downward spiral pushed up inflation, increasing the cost of food and other daily necessities. The pressure on Iranians' pockets was compounded by changes to gasoline prices that were also introduced in December, further fueling anger.
Iran's state-run news agency ...and if you can't trust the state-run news agency who can you believe?... IRNA quoted a deputy minister of communications and information technology, Ehsan Chitsaz, as saying the cut to the internet cost Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... between $2.8 to $4.3 million each day.
But the true cost for the Iranian economy could be far higher. The internet monitoring organization NetBlocks estimates each day of an internet shutdown in Iran costs the country over $37 million.
The site says it estimates the economic impact of internet outages based on indicators from multiple sources including the World Bank and the International Telecommunication Union, which is the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... ' specialized agency for digital technology.
In 2021 alone, a government estimate suggested Iranian businesses made as much as $833 million a year in sales from social media sites, wrote Dara Conduit, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne in Australia, in an article published by the journal Democratization in June. She cited a separate estimate suggesting internet disruptions around the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests cost the Iranian economy $1.6 billion.
The 2022 internet disruptions' "far-reaching and blanket economic consequences risked further heightening tensions in Iran and spurring the mobilization of new anti-regime cohorts onto the streets at a time when the regime was already facing one of the most serious existential threats of its lifetime," Conduit wrote.
More than 500 people were reportedly killed during that crackdown and over 22,000 detained.
PROSECUTORS TARGET SOME BUSINESSES OVER PROTEST SUPPORT Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, the spittle had reached unprecedented levels... prosecutors have also begun targeting some businesses in the crackdown.
The judiciary's Mizan news agency reported Tuesday that prosecutors in Tehran filed paperwork to seize the assets of 60 cafes it alleged had a role in the protests. It also announced plans to seek the assets of athletes, cinema figures and others as well. Some cafes in Tehran and Shiraz have been shut down by authorities, other reports say.
INTERNET CUTS DRIVE MORE OUTRAGE
The financial damage also has some people openly discussing the internet blackout.
In the comments section of a story on the internet blackout carried by the semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, one reader wrote: "For heaven's sake, please do not let this internet cut become a regular thing. We need the net. Our business life is vanishing. Our business is being destroyed."
Another commentator questioned why the internet remained blocked after days with no reports of street protests.
It's not just the internet blackout that is hurting businesses. The violent mostly peaceful crackdown on the protests, and the wave of a reported 26,000 arrests that followed, also have dampened the mood of consumers.
In Iran's capital, many shops and restaurants are open, but many look empty as customers focus primarily on groceries and little else.
"Those who pass by our shops don't show any appetite for shopping," said the owner of an upscale tailor shop in Tehran. "We are just paying our regular expenses, electricity and staff ... but in return, we don't have anything."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/22/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1768 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Kamran Gasanov
Genocide of the Kurds has been President Erdogan’s objective ever since he realized his beloved Turks were breeding below replacement level, while the Kurds were well above, and therefore would eventually own the country.
[REGNUM] Since the beginning of the year, the world's attention has been captured by Venezuela, Iran, and Greenland, although, with the exception of the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro, nothing significant has happened there yet. But real change is happening in Syria.
For nearly 10 years, the entire northeast of the country was under Kurdish control. Defending themselves against ISIS* militants and supported by the US-led coalition, they held out and even took control of the Arab regions of the Euphrates basin.
The Kurdish YPG armed forces, later integrated into the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were a major concern for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
First, under the pretext of fighting ISIS*, and then without any pretext, he carried out three military operations against the YPG, driving them out of Al-Bab, Afrin, and parts of Hasakah and Raqqa.
But Erdogan could not celebrate a complete victory.
After all, the US continued to oversee the Kurds, maintaining military bases on their territory. Moreover, the pro-Turkish armed opposition was simultaneously fighting the army of Bashar al-Assad, who was supported by Russia and Iran.
Everything changed after the coup in Damascus in December 2024. The rise to power of Ahmed al-Sharaa, a pro-Ankara figure, united territories previously controlled by the opposition and the Assad regime. And the Kurds found themselves in the crosshairs.
The Turkish-backed Syrian army has been advancing against the YPG with varying success, and at times al-Sharaa has spoken with SDF commander Mazloum Abdi about integrating his army into the Syrian army.
But Damascus did not achieve final success. The agreement signed last March remained on paper.
Possibly because HTS never intended to succeed when conquest was a possibility. Their god is the Lord of Lies, after all…
And then, in mid-January 2026, the situation changed again.
The Damascus army launched an offensive and forced the Kurds to withdraw their forces beyond the Euphrates River. Al-Sharaa established control over the Arab provinces of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, home to key oil and gas fields (accounting for 70% of production) and prisons housing 10,000 ISIS* militants.
On January 16, al-Sharaa signed a decree granting Kurdish cultural autonomy: their language would become the official language, be allowed to be taught in schools, and they would be granted citizenship. Two days later, Damascus reached an agreement with the YPG and SDF on the full integration of the Kurdish population into the Syrian government and armed forces.
Meanwhile, the territory under SDF control has shrunk dramatically. Previously, they controlled the entire land northeast of the Euphrates River, but now they control only small pieces in the north (Ain al-Arab) and northeast (Qamishli).
In Turkey they are already rejoicing at the success.
Ten years later, Erdogan has all but put an end to any prospects for Kurdish separatism in Syria. For him, it's a matter of national security.
After all, if the Kurds were to gain statehood in Syria, having already established it de facto in Iraq, Turkey itself would be next in line. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is the twin brother of the Syrian PYD.
Last year, after 40 years of conflict, the Turkish authorities managed to persuade PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to disband the party. The party's fighters laid down their arms and were evacuated abroad.
In Iraq, Erdogan is friends with the government of Nechirvan Barzani and does not allow the PKK to raise its head.
There are fewer Kurds in Iran than in the other three countries, but the fall of the regime there could have given them an opportunity. This is why Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan expressed solidarity with Ali Khamenei, and MIT (Turkey's National Intelligence Organization) passed on information about Kurdish militants in Iran to the Tehran government.
Although al-Sharaa had enough of his own incentives to resolve the issue with the Kurds and integrate them into his government and army, Türkiye acted as the trigger for the process.
Indeed, immediately after the coup in Damascus, Fidan made it clear: if the new government did not disarm the YPG and SDF, the Turkish Armed Forces would do it for him. One of the decisive moments was the Turkish delegation's final visit to the Syrian capital in December 2025. Before leaving, Fidan threatened the Kurds that Ankara's patience was running out.
Immediately after the January events, which resulted in the SDF withdrawing from large areas, Erdogan contacted al-Sharaa and expressed support for Syria's territorial integrity.
Ankara is increasing its assistance to Damascus in the fight against terrorism and supports the January 18 agreement, but fears provocations. "It is clear that after the current stage, any provocations in Syria will be tantamount to suicide, " Erdoğan threatened.
Turkish pro-government media do not hide their pride.
Hürriyet columnist Hande Fırat writes that Kurdish autonomy has "effectively come to an end." She calls the events in Syria "a quiet victory for Ankara," achieved through its "invisible hand."
Firat notes that MIT played an active role in conflict zones, collecting intelligence and participating in diplomatic contacts. He concludes the text:
"President Erdogan was informed directly and gave instructions. The process was managed from Beştepe (Erdogan's residence in Ankara – Ed.), not from the ground."
Meanwhile, Erdogan's opponents from the Republican People's Party (CHP) are calling for an end to the bravado.
Former MP Mustafa Balbay, writing on Cumhuriyet, tries to explain that none of this would have happened without Washington's participation, as the Damascus-SDF agreement was signed "under the auspices of the United States."
And so it is. The mediators at the time were US Centcom Director Brad Cooper and US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barak. On January 17, Cooper secured a ceasefire from al-Sharaa in Aleppo and Tabqa.
Balbay calls on the government to "stop its triumphalist rhetoric and instead develop a peace-oriented regional strategy in which the US does not constantly interfere."
In his opinion, the White House is trying to reformat the region based on the Greater Middle East doctrine, the goal of which is to destabilize Iran:
"Could recent events in Syria be linked to a possible operation against Iran? Events in Syria show that the rules of the game are changing. Once Iran becomes a target, the challenge is to ensure that nothing else overshadows it."
Perhaps the author is hinting that US President Donald Trump has turned a blind eye to Turkey's work with the Kurds in Syria in order to concentrate his efforts on Iran. Or perhaps Trump will demand Turkey's loyalty in operations against the Islamic Republic in exchange?
In any case, it's too early to draw any final conclusions. Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi has already accused al-Sharaa of betrayal. The SDF is preparing for resistance.
Turkey benefits from a more peaceful integration of the Kurds. After all, full-scale fighting involving Turkish forces could sour Trump's mood. As happened in 2019, when, after the launch of Operation Peace Spring, Trump called on Erdogan "not to be a fool" and threatened to "destroy the Turkish economy."
Posted by: badanov ||
01/22/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1800 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
Who is Tom Barak:
Tom Barrack was arrested in 2021 for acting as an unregistered agent for the United Arab Emirates while using his access to the Trump administration to influence U.S. policy.
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.
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...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 
At Roj camp, which has a more relaxed atmosphere than al-Hol, with some women not even covering their hair, there are about 2,500 people. One of the most known women held at Roj camp is 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
