We know what y’all are —thanks for reminding us who you are.
[IsraelTimes] Over a hundred top figures from the world of entertainment sign an open letter in support of UN Palestinian territories rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who faces calls to resign over anti-Israel comments.
France and Germany have called for Albanese, who has been repeatedly accused of antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric, to step down over remarks last weekend in which she referred to a “common enemy of humanity” after criticizing “most of the world” and the media for enabling Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics and Israel have accused the UN special rapporteur of referring to Israel as a “common enemy,” while Albanese has denounced this as a “manipulation” and “completely false.” Israel has denied all accusations of genocide.
In a letter organized by the Artists for Palestine group and shared with AFP, over a 100 cultural figures back Albanese, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem, Nobel-winning author Annie Ernaux, and British musician Annie Lennox.
The signatories “offer our full support to Francesca Albanese, a defender of human rights and therefore also of the Palestinian people’s right to exist,” the letter says.
“There are infinitely more of us, in every corner of the Earth, who want force no longer to be the law. Who know what the word ‘law’ truly means,” it concludes.
Other celebrities to offer support for Albanese include actresses Rosa Salazar and Asia Argento, Oscar-nominated film directors Yorgos Lanthimos and Kaouther Ben Hania and Latin music star Residente.
Albanese has a long history of making statements accused of being antisemitic, anti-Israel and pro-Hamas.
On October 11, 2023, four days after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, Albanese said she doubted reports of rape and sexual violence. Instead, she said the US and Israel were spreading these claims to escalate tensions. She said Israel had no right to self-defense immediately after the Hamas invasion of Israel; said Israelis should be “considered suspect” and investigated when they are abroad; said other countries should halt pharmaceutical exports to Israel; characterized Israel as a “genocidal society”; and positioned the Jewish state as an impediment to global justice.
She told a Harvard University gathering that when Hamas refers to killing Jews (Yahudi), they do not actually mean Jews.
She has called accusations that UNRWA employees participated in the October 7 massacre “fallacious allegations,” though there has been clear evidence supporting it.
Last November, she posted a cartoon denouncing Israel, depicting what appeared to be a global spiderweb, its strands draped with cash and weapons, in an image that experts said echoed age-old antisemitic tropes.
She was sanctioned by the US government last year for her “unabashed antisemitism.”
[FoxNews] Plan includes eight mega-centers capable of housing up to 10,000 detainees each, according to an internal agency memo
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning to boost migrant detention capacity to 92,600 beds as part of a nationwide deportation push, according to an internal agency memo.
The memo, dated Feb. 13, 2026, lays out a sweeping overhaul designed to support what ICE describes as the ability to "effectuate mass deportations," including eight mega-centers capable of housing up to 10,000 detainees each and slated to be fully operational by Nov. 30, 2026. The memo states that the initiative will be funded through congressional allocations under the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."
Beyond the mega-centers, the plan calls for 16 regional processing sites built to hold between 1,000 and 1,500 detainees for short stays of three to seven days and the acquisition of 10 existing "turnkey" centers where ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations already operates. How about semi-automatic trebuchets along the Messican border?
The new model aims to consolidate existing contracts while centralizing detention operations nationwide.
Proposed warehouse purchases in six other cities fell through after sellers declined to move forward under pressure from activists, according to the report. Additional deals, including in New York, are reportedly nearing completion.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said this week there are about 1.6 million illegal aliens in the U.S. with final deportation orders, roughly half of whom have criminal convictions.
During testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday, Lyons said, "What we're tracking right now is about 1.6 million final [deportation] orders in the United States, with approximately 800,000 of those having criminal convictions."
Lyons clarified that those deportation orders were issued "through an immigration judge with the Department of Justice separate from Immigration Customs Enforcement," not by ICE or the Department of Homeland Security.
He added that there are "16,840 final orders at large in the state of Minnesota," a state that has become a flash point for resistance to immigration enforcement.
Border czar Tom Homan announced a temporary drawdown of enforcement resources this week, citing the need to recalibrate operations as ICE scales arrests and detention capacity nationwide.
…50 landlords and over 60 addresses in Maricopa County alone. I would love to praise the work of
@MCAssessor
and
@AssessorEddie
for building a very user-friendly website that makes it easy to find property ownership information.
The information was sent to the fraud team of the State Department on 02/09/2026.
[IsraelTimes] Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan says his country cannot commit funds for the reconstruction of Gaza until it has more clarity regarding the yet-to-be-implemented withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Strip and the disarmament of Hamas.
Asked at the Munich Security Conference whether Riyadh will fund Gaza’s reconstruction and on what terms, Prince Faisal responds that his country is “fully supportive” of the Board of Peace and US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan.
However, he stresses that, “We need to see a real end to the conflict.”
“That means we need to have clarity on when Israel is going to withdraw, when Hamas is going to disarm, when everyone is going to comply with all 20 points of the 20-point plan,” Prince Faisal says, indicating that each side has failed to implement their part.
“The US is working on that. There’s a meeting on the 19th that will give us a lot more clarity,” he notes, referring to the Board of Peace fundraising meeting set for next Thursday.
The US is hoping to announce $1.25 billion donations from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait, a US official and two Arab diplomats told The Times of Israel earlier this week. The New York Times reported that the US is also planning on making a similar donation.
The Saudi foreign minister says that Riyadh will be in a better position to determine “where we can best contribute toward — not just reconstruction, but also that the people of Gaza and Palestine can have a better future.”
[HotAir] There are many confused and angry people in England this morning, after reading one of the headline stories in today's Telegraph.
They have been repeatedly told that the naval assets of one's sovereign country cannot be used to impede the progress of migrant-stuffed rubber dinghies.
Well-informed and oft-chastised Brits who heard endless remonstrations on the subject from Dominic Cummings, the former chief advisor to Prime Minister Starmer, are now suffering a bad case of 'Wait, WHUT?'
This is very puzzling. I've watched at least 4 videos now from Dominic Cummings who states, quite clearly, that we cannot use the Navy to stop the boats without falling foul of the ECHR.
So how can Italy? Something isn't right with one of these scenarios.
It especially hurts that it's the Italians boldly forging ahead.
So, where rubber rafts set out from France, and the only thing that ever stops them is the occasional bad weather flare-ups in the Channel or British tourists with knives the night before they leave, ventilating the rubber, it's a little different in Italy, even technically hamstrung as they are by sworn fealty to the European Union's (EU) diktats.
Yesterday, the European Parliament overwhelmingly passed what is considered to be a 'right-wing' victory. They eased the rules for the transfer of 'migrants' to third countries and strengthened asylum and immigration laws. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's head must have been exploding.
The European Parliament has approved new regulations to tighten EU migration and asylum policy, including the “safe third country” concept, with 396 MEPs in favor of the changes and 226 against.
The rules will allow EU member states to deem asylum applications inadmissible if the applicant transited through a country deemed “safe” where they could have sought protection. They also facilitate the transfer of asylum seekers to third countries (outside the EU), even if the applicant has no direct connection to that country, provided a transit connection or similar link exists.
At long last, this measure also gives individual countries the authority to make decisions about the migrant situation within their own borders, something that had previously been beyond their control. It's gobsmacking what a supposedly 'sovereign state' EU member has been forbidden to do.
...Moreover, “asylum tourism” will be stopped, and appealing a decision will no longer automatically halt deportation.
“No more years of living free at taxpayer expense while left-wing lawyers drag out the proceedings,” she argues.
In addition, member states will gain the right to conclude their own agreements with third countries on returning migrants. “Brussels can no longer block our negotiations; we just need to inform them before the agreement comes into force,” Zajączkowska-Hernik wrote.
States will also be able to impose restrictions on freedom and detention to prevent migrants from disappearing before deportation.
Meloni, who was an instigator in pushing to get this legislation past EU hurdles, already had her own teed up and ready to go in the Italian Parliament once the 'done' signal went up.
Having been previously frustrated by Von der Leyen's intransigence and the EU's European Human Rights Commission (EHRC) regulations on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating with refugees and migrants afloat in the Mediterranean, Meloni was leaving nothing to chance if the new measures passed.
Italy’s government has proposed using a “naval blockade” to block migrant boats from reaching its shores.
The bill to tighten migration rules, agreed by Giorgia Meloni’s ministers on Wednesday, provides for a temporary ban “on crossing the limit of territorial waters in cases of serious threat to public order or national security”, according to the document.
Such a threat could include “exceptional migratory pressure that could compromise the secure management of borders”, a “concrete risk” of terrorist acts or infiltration in Italy, global health emergencies and high-level international events.
Italy’s new migration package – which also includes stricter surveillance at borders and cooperation with European agencies – comes a day after the approval of the new EU pact on migration and asylum, which Rome plans to implement swiftly.
The temporary ban, which would have to be issued by the cabinet on the advice of the interior ministry, could last from an initial 30 days to a maximum of six months and would enable Italian authorities to impose a naval blockade on migrant ships trying to enter Italy’s territorial waters, under the specific conditions.
This is also going to facilitate turning the controversial Albanian migrant centers Meloni developed to use for processing and return facilities into what the Telegraph is calling 'holding prisons.'
Italian courts have blocked the Albanian plan from its inception, and now Meloni sees an opportunity to use the new legislation as an end run around them. The plans had been to process up to 3000 migrants a month for return to their home countries after being scooped up at sea, and assuming the vast majority of asylum requests were rejected. The Italian court had ruled that these refugees could only be sent back if the country was considered 'safe' for their return. Frustratingly, the same courts had determined that the countries most of the refugees originated from were not safe to return to.
As the courts are forcing Italy to keep these people while appeals go through, Italy will be keeping the migrants in Albania once those appeals are denied.
...The conservative coalition led by Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister, is now looking at changing the purpose of the centres in Albania in order to circumvent the objections of the Italian courts.
Under the new plan, migrants who are in Italy and who have had their asylum requests turned down after a process that can take many months, would be transferred to the centres in Albania and from there repatriated.
...“The centres have to work. The fight against illegal migration must come with a clear message – illegal migrants cannot enter Italy,” said Raffaele Nevi, from Forza Italia, one of the three parties that makes up the Meloni coalition. “The government is doing everything it can to block them.” He accused the Left-wing opposition of “wanting to welcome anybody”.
The new proposed Italian regulations are also going to put a crimp in the style of the NGOs operating offshore in the narrow waters between the Italian peninsula and the coast of North Africa, one of the most popular places to launch migrant boats for Europe.
NGOs are a modern plague.
...Her government has signed accords with North African countries to limit departures, while restricting the activities of the charities that operate rescue boats in the Central Mediterranean.
The new law could further hamper the operations of the non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which only rescue a small percentage of people who arrive in Italy, with most rescued by the coastguard or navy.
The proposed bill would also expand the list of convictions for which a foreigner can be expelled from Italy.
This year, the number of migrants landing in Italy is half of what it was at the same time last year - 2000 vice 4400. Should these reforms pass, that number stands to improve vastly, and those in the country should start looking at an exit.
As far as England?
Well, Channel crossers there are still coming, dumping their identification in the water as they do.
And trying a new 'modern slavery' tack in court to try to keep the boats coming.
Labour's 'one in, one out' migrant deal with France is facing a new legal challenge.
The policy which came into operation last summer face legal action in the High Court from 16 migrants on Wednesday.
Their challenge is understood to claim the deal breaches modern slavery laws and an international treaty which sets out how governments should deal with claims of human trafficking.
The invaders do have a good thing going under Starmer and Labour.
...A further 322 migrants reached the UK on Monday, pushing the total to have come under Labour past 66,000.
Earlier this week it emerged that more migrants have arrived during Sir Keir's time in Downing Street than under any other prime minister, overtaking the previous high of 65,811 under Boris Johnson.
Naturally, they don't want anything or anyone messing that up.
[IsraelTimes] On sidelines of global security conference, crowds wave imperial flags and chant ‘long live the shah,’ urging regime change a month after brutal protest crackdown
About 250,000 people joined a demonstration against the Iranian government in Munich on Saturday, police said, as world leaders gathered nearby for a security conference.
The protesters rallied on Munich’s Theresienwiese fairgrounds, denouncing the leadership of Iran’s Islamic Theocratic Republic following the deadly repression of nationwide protests in January.
The demonstration was held as the exiled son of the former shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, spoke nearby at the Munich Security Conference and called on US President Donald Trump ...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!... to "help" the Iranian people.
Pahlavi, who has lived in exile since his father was tossed in the 1979 revolution, urged an outside "humanitarian intervention to prevent more innocent lives being killed" in Iran.
Banging drums and chanting for regime change, the large and boisterous demonstration in Munich was part of what Pahlavi described as a "global day of action" to support Iranians in the wake of deadly nationwide protests. Pahlavi also called for rallies in Los Angeles and Toronto. German police said in a post on X that the number of protesters in Munich reached some 250,000, more than the organizers had expected.
"Change, change, regime change" chanted the crowd, as well as "Javid shah" (long live the shah)" while waving green-white-and-red flags with lion and sun emblems. 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... used that flag before its 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Pahlavi dynasty.
Some demonstrators sported "Make Iran Great Again" red caps, mimicking the MAGA caps worn by Trump’s supporters. Many waved placards showing Pahlavi, some that called him a king. The son of Iran’s deposed shah has been in exile for nearly 50 years but is trying to position himself as a player in Iran’s future.
"We have huge hopes and [are] looking forward that the regime is going to change hopefully," said Daniyal Mohtashamian, a demonstrator.
The crowd chanted "Pahlavi for Iran" and "democracy for Iran" as drums and cymbals sounded.
Mohtashamian said he traveled from Zurich, in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... , to speak up for protesters inside Iran who faced repression.
"There is an internet blackout and their voices are not going outside of Iran," he said.
Iranian leaders are already under intense pressure, facing renewed threats of US military action. Trump wants Iran to further scale back its nuclear program. He suggested Friday that regime change in Iran "would be the best thing that could happen."
Iran was also the focus of protests in Munich on Friday, the opening day of the annual security conference in the city gathering European leaders and global security figures. Supporters of the Iranian opposition group People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, demonstrated against Iran’s deadly crackdown on protesters last month.
"The Iranian regime is a dead regime," a 62-year-old protester originally from Iran who gave his name only as Said told AFP on Saturday. "It must be game over."
At a news conference in Munich, Pahlavi warned of the likelihood of more deaths in Iran if "democracies stand by and watch."
"We gather at an hour of profound peril to ask: Will the world stand with the people of Iran?" he asked.
He added that the Iranian government’s continued survival "sends a clear signal to every bully: kill enough people and you stay in power."
"To President Trump... The Iranian people heard you say help is on the way, and they have faith in you. Help them," Pahlavi continued. "It is time to end the Islamic Theocratic Republic. This is the demand echoing from the bloodshed of my compatriots who are not asking us to fix the regime but to help them bury it."
According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, at least 7,005 people were killed in the crackdown, mostly protesters, though rights groups warn the toll is likely far higher. More than 53,000 people have been arrested, the group added.
Iran’s government offered its only corpse count on January 21, saying 3,117 people were killed. Iran’s theocracy in the past has undercounted or not reported fatalities from past unrest.
The News Agency that Dare Not be Named has been unable to independently assess the corpse count, given that authorities have disrupted internet access and international calls in Iran.
#1
Time for the Christians, Jews and yes even Liberals to wake and address the Islamic Regime and its global goals. Because it is obvious the EU Elite and Leadership isn't.
It would do well for all sides to remember, what we each call freedom and rights, are banned and often resulting in a beheading.
Notable mosques, anyway. It would be interesting to see which of them are in the Rantburg archives, connected to jihadis or political troublemakers. For instance, where do Ilhan Omar and Keith Ellison worship?
Silk Railroad?
[TurkiyeToday] Transport ministers from across the Islamic world gathered in Istanbul this weekend for the first time in nearly four decades, laying the groundwork for an ambitious network of rail and highway corridors stretching from the Persian Gulf to Europe and across the African continent.
The second Conference of Transport and Communications Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, chaired by Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu, brought together officials from OIC member states for two days of talks on regional connectivity, supply chain resilience and humanitarian logistics. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed the gathering by video message.
The conference came 38 years after the OIC's inaugural transport ministers' meeting, also held in Istanbul, in Sept. 1987.
SYRIA, SAUDI ARABIA AND TÜRKIYE EXPLORE FOUR-NATION RAIL LINK
On the sidelines of the conference, Syrian Transport Minister Yarub Badr held separate bilateral meetings with his Saudi and Turkish counterparts, advancing plans for a proposed railway connecting Türkiye, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
In his talks with Saudi Transport Minister Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser, Badr discussed strengthening cooperation in land transport and prospects for integrating railway and highway networks to facilitate the movement of goods between Europe and the Gulf. The two sides agreed to hold a technical meeting of Saudi transport officials next month to continue the discussions. Al-Jasser also welcomed Syria's decision to reopen its airspace to Saudi aircraft, calling it a positive step toward stronger bilateral ties.
During his meeting with Uraloglu, Badr discussed regional transport coordination, with both sides emphasizing the need for a clear roadmap that sets out technical standards, timelines and implementation mechanisms for the proposed four-nation rail link.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
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[Rudaw] More than 4,000 inmates have been transferred out of Baghdad’s Karkh prison to facilities in Babil and Nasiriyah in Dhi Qar province to make room for thousands of 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) detainees being moved from northeastern Syria (Rojava) to Iraq, Iraqi officials and politicians said.
Convoys of ISIS detainees have been arriving in Iraq in stages from Rojava. According to Iraqi security data obtained by Rudaw, about 6,000 detainees were transferred in 34 convoys.
Shakir Tamimi, a member of the Iraqi Parliament, warned of the risks posed by holding such a large group inside Iraq’s prison system. "It would have been better if the international coalition had transferred them to another country, especially since the number of Iraqis among them is not that high," Tamimi told Rudaw on Thursday, adding that the Iraqi government "has no information about them. Those entering the prisons may also influence other inmates; this is a major problem."
Lawmaker Safa Jabri told Rudaw on Thursday those accused of crimes in Iraq would face prosecution. "As far as the transfer, protection, and investigation of the detainees are concerned, if they have committed crimes against Iraqis or were involved in such acts, they will be referred to Iraqi courts for full legal proceedings," Jabri said, adding that he would support the measures.
The detainees transferred to Iraq include nationals from more than 50 countries, a fact that has fueled political concern in Baghdad.
They include 3,245 Syrians, 271 Iraqis, and 610 nationals from other Arab countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and 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... , in addition to more than 900 foreigners from Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Among them are 27 Germans - the largest European group - along with 10 from the Netherlands, nine from the United Kingdom, 13 Australians, four Swedes, three Frenchies, more than 130 Russians, and 160 Ottoman Turkish suspects.
Responsibility for the detainees has been handed to the Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq, which will oversee investigations and trials.
Officials say foreign ISIS members who committed crimes on Iraqi soil will be tried under Iraqi law, while those whose home countries request repatriation may be handed over provided they did not commit offenses in Iraq.
Justice Minister Khaled Shwani said Wednesday Iraq will take in all ISIS prisoners from Syria and hold them in high-security facilities as they await charges or repatriation. He described the detainees as "extremely dangerous" senior ISIS leaders.
Ali Dhia, assistant head of Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation - an affiliate of the Supreme Judicial Council - said earlier this week that the group includes perpetrators of some of ISIS’s worst crimes.
Among the 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners being transferred are "individuals who committed crimes against our Yazidi people, as well as those involved in crimes involving the use of chemical weapons
...have not been used since WWI except for in Iraq, by the late, unlamented Saddam Hussein and in Syria, but really, honest, not by the Syrian government. And in Germany in WWII, but that was against civilians. Lots of them, just one of many reasons Hitler's also late and unlamented... in Iraq during the period of ISIS control," he said.
Dhia added that preliminary investigations show "a number of them are considered highly dangerous, are leaders within ISIS terrorist gangs, and are perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity and Iraqi components."
The transfers follow a security shake-up in northeastern Syria. The US military said it began moving roughly 7,000 ISIS suspects from prisons run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last month after prison breaks and fighting raised fears of a wider security crisis.
In mid-January, the Syrian Arab Army and allied groups advanced into several cities formerly under SDF control.
After weeks of festivities, the SDF and Damascus announced on January 29 an internationally brokered agreement to end hostilities and integrate Rojava’s civil and military institutions, including Kurdish-led forces, into state structures.
[Rudaw] More than 4,000 inmates have been transferred out of Baghdad’s Karkh prison to facilities in Babil and Nasiriyah in Dhi Qar province to make room for thousands of 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) detainees being moved from northeastern Syria (Rojava) to Iraq, Iraqi officials and politicians said.
Convoys of ISIS detainees have been arriving in Iraq in stages from Rojava. According to Iraqi security data obtained by Rudaw, about 6,000 detainees were transferred in 34 convoys.
Shakir Tamimi, a member of the Iraqi Parliament, warned of the risks posed by holding such a large group inside Iraq’s prison system. "It would have been better if the international coalition had transferred them to another country, especially since the number of Iraqis among them is not that high," Tamimi told Rudaw on Thursday, adding that the Iraqi government "has no information about them. Those entering the prisons may also influence other inmates; this is a major problem."
Lawmaker Safa Jabri told Rudaw on Thursday those accused of crimes in Iraq would face prosecution. "As far as the transfer, protection, and investigation of the detainees are concerned, if they have committed crimes against Iraqis or were involved in such acts, they will be referred to Iraqi courts for full legal proceedings," Jabri said, adding that he would support the measures.
The detainees transferred to Iraq include nationals from more than 50 countries, a fact that has fueled political concern in Baghdad.
They include 3,245 Syrians, 271 Iraqis, and 610 nationals from other Arab countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and 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... , in addition to more than 900 foreigners from Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Among them are 27 Germans - the largest European group - along with 10 from the Netherlands, nine from the United Kingdom, 13 Australians, four Swedes, three Frenchies, more than 130 Russians, and 160 Ottoman Turkish suspects.
Responsibility for the detainees has been handed to the Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq, which will oversee investigations and trials.
Officials say foreign ISIS members who committed crimes on Iraqi soil will be tried under Iraqi law, while those whose home countries request repatriation may be handed over provided they did not commit offenses in Iraq.
Justice Minister Khaled Shwani said Wednesday Iraq will take in all ISIS prisoners from Syria and hold them in high-security facilities as they await charges or repatriation. He described the detainees as "extremely dangerous" senior ISIS leaders.
Ali Dhia, assistant head of Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation - an affiliate of the Supreme Judicial Council - said earlier this week that the group includes perpetrators of some of ISIS’s worst crimes.
Among the 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners being transferred are "individuals who committed crimes against our Yazidi people, as well as those involved in crimes involving the use of chemical weapons
...have not been used since WWI except for in Iraq, by the late, unlamented Saddam Hussein and in Syria, but really, honest, not by the Syrian government. And in Germany in WWII, but that was against civilians. Lots of them, just one of many reasons Hitler's also late and unlamented... in Iraq during the period of ISIS control," he said.
Dhia added that preliminary investigations show "a number of them are considered highly dangerous, are leaders within ISIS terrorist gangs, and are perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity and Iraqi components."
The transfers follow a security shake-up in northeastern Syria. The US military said it began moving roughly 7,000 ISIS suspects from prisons run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last month after prison breaks and fighting raised fears of a wider security crisis.
In mid-January, the Syrian Arab Army and allied groups advanced into several cities formerly under SDF control.
After weeks of festivities, the SDF and Damascus announced on January 29 an internationally brokered agreement to end hostilities and integrate Rojava’s civil and military institutions, including Kurdish-led forces, into state structures.
[Rudaw] The fate of more than 1,500 children from families affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) remains uncertain as they are held by Kurdish authorities in Roj camp in northeast Syria (Rojava). Many of the children have been radicalized.
A Rudaw team was granted rare access to the camp on Sunday. The radicalized children approached the team with suspicion, and some attempted to attack them.
Many of the children know little or nothing about their fathers or their roots, and some refused to reveal their names.
An 11-year-old said he is from Azerbaijan but added that he has never seen his father.
“Neither I nor you know,” another child said when asked about his father’s name.
Mohammed was the only child who shared his name with the team. He, too, said he does not know his father.
According to data from the administration of al-Roj camp in eastern al-Hasaka province, out of a total of 2,201 camp residents, more than 1,500 are children whose parents come from 53 countries around the world.
[IsraelTimes] Palestinians fear destruction and damage to mosques, churches and archaeological sites threatens to erase centuries of history; recovery efforts face obstacles under ceasefire.
Next time don’t start a war with Israel. When finally they fight, they keep going until they win, breaking as many things and as few people to get it done.
[IsraelTimes] Blocks on Iranian oil exports to China among options, US official tells Axios; Geneva to host next round of US-Iran talks, though second American official sees ‘zero chance’ of deal
US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to intensify the "maximum pressure policy" in order to force 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... to give up its nuclear program, including clamping down on the sale of Tehran’s oil to China, according to a Saturday report citing two US officials.
At the two leaders’ meeting at the White House earlier this week, "We agreed that we will go full force with maximum pressure against Iran, for example, regarding Iranian oil sales to China," a senior American official told Axios.
According to the report, some 80 percent of Iran’s oil exports go to China, leading the US and Israel to believe that clamping down on trade between the two countries would "significantly" increase economic pressure on Tehran.
Trump, under authority by an executive order he signed last week, could impose 25% tariffs on China for trading with Iran.
The pressure campaign will be implemented alongside the ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran, the report said.
Oman is set to mediate another round of talks next week, though they will be held this time in Geneva, the Swiss foreign ministry announced Wednesday. The ministry did not give an exact date for the talks.
The US believes that Iran will present its answer to Washington’s proposal during next week’s meeting, the report said, though a US official told Axios that there is "zero chance" of an agreement.
"We are sober and realistic about the Iranians. The ball is in their court. If it is not a real deal, we will not take it," a second US official said.
The report also quoted Wednesday’s meeting at the White House between Trump and Netanyahu, with the prime minister expressing skepticism that Tehran would honor an agreement with the US, even if one is reached.
It’s "impossible" to do a deal with Iran, Netanyahu reportedly said, arguing that even if Tehran signs a deal, they will not abide by it.
"We’ll see if it’s possible. Let’s give it a shot," Trump is said to have replied.
The report added that Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner told the US president that the Iranians are "saying all the right things" in the talks, and that they "will continue with the negotiations and take a tough line."
If Iran agrees to what the US is asking, then the two envoys will give Trump the option "so that he can decide if he wants to do it," a US official said, according to the report.
Axios also pointed to a recent report by an Iranian journalist, which claimed that Witkoff’s proposal included that Iran suspend its enrichment for "three to five years," after which, Iran would be allowed to enrich uranium to "very low levels."
The reported proposal also stipulated the "removal of 450 kilograms of highly enriched uranium" that Iran currently holds, and its relocation to a third country. Tehran rejected the proposal, according to the Iranian report.
Axios noted that a US official denied that Washington ever proposed such an offer.
RUBIO: TRUMP WOULD MEET KHAMENEI
Also on Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... said that Trump would meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> to solve disputes between the two countries, in an interview with Bloomberg while in Munich attending the city’s global security conference.
"I’m pretty confident in saying that if the ayatollah said tomorrow he wanted to meet with President Trump, the President would meet him, not because he agrees with the ayatollah but because he thinks that’s the way you solve problems in the world, and he doesn’t view meeting someone as a concession," Rubio said.
The top diplomat has said in the past that Trump is willing to meet with any world leader to resolve disputes.
"Number one is I think it’s pretty clear that Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, that that poses a threat not just to the United States, to Europe, to world security, and to the region. There’s no doubt about it," he said when asked if Washington is running out of patience with Tehran given that Trump is building up forces and sending another aircraft carrier to the region.
"The second is we obviously want to have forces in the region because Iran has shown the willingness and the capability to lash out and strike out at the United States presence in the region," Rubio said.
"We have bases because of our alliances in the region, and Iran has shown in the past that they are willing to attack us and/or threaten our bases. So we have to have sufficient firepower in the region to ensure that they don’t make a mistake and come after us and trigger something larger," he added, stressing that Trump prefers to resolve the dispute with a deal.
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[IsraelTimes] Ra’am party head hints that Qatar wanted PM in power over perceived dovishness on Hamas; Bennett reacts by claiming ‘Sinwar preferred Netanyahu because Netanyahu is good for Hamas’
Ra’am party
…the political party of the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Israel, the so-called Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement — the Northern Branch based in Umm al Fahm in the Galilee being the militant branch that Israel keeps throwing in jail for cause…
chairman Mansour Abbas said Saturday that foreign-linked actors — possibly related to 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... — had pressed him to continue coalition talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rather than join with opposition parties following the 2021 election, citing the premier’s perceived dovish approach to Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... Speaking in an interview with Channel 12 news, the Arab politician claimed that before the terror group’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, Netanyahu had sought a "long-term arrangement" with Hamas in order to keep the Paleostinian leadership fractured and divided between it and the West Bank-based Paleostinian Authority.
When asked if he "received signals from Qatar" as he sat in the room with Netanyahu during their since-scuttled coalition negotiations, Abbas responded, "not in the room."
He refused to confirm or deny whether he received messages from Qatari-linked actors, but divulged that he was contacted by "people from here [Israel] with links to countries abroad."
"These people encouraged me to continue and try to form a government with Benjamin Netanyahu and not with the other side," because "Netanyahu doesn’t do wars," Abbas said.
Of course. Israel tries to avoid war until war becomes necessary. Then they win. And they limit their winning, too: they could have taken the West Bank in 1948, but chose not to, and the same in 1956. In 1967 they moved so fast they hit the banks of the Jordan River and took the entire Sinai, but did not go farther into Syria than the Golan Heights, and in 1973 they did not take either Damascus or Cairo, though I understand they could have, despite, in all those wars, the enemy having more men and matériel.
"I understood that Benjamin Netanyahu had an interest in ensuring that the fragmentation on the Paleostinian side was preserved," he continued, adding that the premier sought to "advance a long-term arrangement with Hamas 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."
When asked whether Netanyahu made an explicit reference to this, Abbas said "there was a reference to this issue" in coalition talks.
"I understood from his words that he was in favor of an arrangement [with Hamas]," he continued, claiming that such an arrangement had stood to benefit both Netanyahu and the terror group.
Indeed. And Hamas let them try, but privately never wavered from their war of conquest, which they tried every few years since they threw the PA/PLO out of Gaza in 2005, each time leaving Gaza more and more battered until this time Israel bounced the rubble around their ears, killed tens of thousands of them, and commenced destroying the entire 500+ miles of tunnels Hamas has been digging since they took over the Strip.
Abbas was courted by Netanyahu to become part of his coalition in 2021, but he eventually partnered with Netanyahu’s rivals, making Ra’am the first Arab party in decades to be part of a ruling coalition, which was led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.
And everyone felt smug about it, until Ra’am dropped the pretense and dropped out of the government.
Abbas added that he wasn’t shocked by the Qatargate case that has since come to light, in which three of Netanyahu’s aides are suspected of doing paid PR work for the Gulf monarchy, and that he "connected the dots" after the scandal broke.
"People have a hard time today understanding what the Qatargate story is, but in those days, there was a shared interest, held both by Netanyahu and Qatar and Hamas, to preserve the existing situation," he said.
Sure. Until it wasn’t preserved. Hamas and Qatar hoped for conquest, while Israel prepared to win a war. We see now which was the more effective approach.
Abbas’s remarks about the premier drew fierce reactions Saturday from opposition politicians, including former prime minister Bennett, who asserted that "[since-slain Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar preferred Netanyahu because Netanyahu is good for Hamas, this is the truth."
Or not. Don’t forget taqqiya.
"Mr. Netanyahu, who for years led this horrible policy of strengthening Sinwar and funding Hamas in dollars, the policy of ’containment’ and in the end, on his watch, the October 7 massacre... must go home immediately," he continued.
Since they haven’t the political strength to drive Bibi out, they keep trying to guilt him into it. Again, hope is not a tactic.
Abbas did not rule out future talks with Likud, despite his recent comments accusing Netanyahu of abandoning Arabs in favor of the country’s ultranationalist right, which enjoys significant influence in the current ruling coalition.
The Muslim Brotherhood will do anything to advance its progress toward a new caliphate, including talking to the Yahood — until the next Khaybar is arranged.
He stressed that he would much prefer to sit in a government without Netanyahu, however, adding that his "first preference" is for a "’change government’ to be established in Israel."
Of course. Sadly, Allah does not seem to agree with his preferences, or he would not ensure Bibi keeps winning.
The "change government" was the name given to the previous Bennett-Lapid government that included Ra’am, and which collapsed after a year.
Neither Netanyahu nor Likud issued a reaction to Abbas’s interview on Saturday.
[DW] Devised to facilitate internet connectivity in the most remote regions of the world, Elon Musk’s Starlink has become a vital means of communication in crisis regions and war zones. There are downsides to this.
Lack of internet access is a major problem in many regions of the world today.
Starlink was initially developed by the American tech billionaire Elon Musk to solve this problem. It was designed as a way of quickly getting the internet into regions all over the world where this was either impossible to do by conventional methods, or so expensive that it wasn't worth attempting.
Since then Starlink's field of application has widened significantly. It's used as a means of communication in disaster zones, but also by armies or protest movements, for example in regions where the existing internet has been destroyed by enemy fire or shut down by authoritarian governments.
HOW DOES STARLINK WORK?
Starlink is a satellite-based system consisting of 10,000 small satellites located around the world. They transfer data packages via laser links and do not require a constant, direct visual link to a ground station.
Unlike other internet satellites, which orbit at around 36,000 kilometers above the Earth, Starlink satellites are only about 550 kilometers up. This means they can transmit internet signals much faster than the others.
All users need is a small receiver terminal with an electronically controlled antenna, which automatically steers toward the satellites as they pass overhead. The terminals receive signals from these satellites and transmit them to a nearby router, which supplies the broadband internet connection.
WHERE HAS STARLINK ALREADY BEEN DEPLOYED? Ukraine: Since the start of the Russia's full-scale war in February 2022, Starlink has become a vital instrument of communication in the war zone. The Ukrainian armed forces use Starlink to coordinate units, operate drones and control unmanned ground systems. In the civilian sector, the system is used by hospitals, emergency services, energy suppliers and the railway network.
The Russian army is also said to be accessing Starlink, using terminals smuggled in illegally via third countries. The Ukrainian defense ministry has said it is working closely with Starlink's operating company SpaceX to limit Russian usage as much as possible.
Sudan: In the Sudanese civil war, Starlink is used primarily by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group fighting against the internationally-recognized government. Hundreds of devices were smuggled into the country via the United Arab Emirates, and there is now a thriving black market for Starlink terminals in Sudan. The RSF use them to communicate and coordinate with their militias, while the Sudanese Armed Forces are trying to block both the import and use of the terminals.
Iran: In early January 2026, protests erupted all across the country against the regime in Tehran. The government's hardline response included a nationwide internet shutdown. Reportedly, thousands of Starlink terminals were smuggled into Iran and sold on the black market. This enabled the protest movement to go on coordinating demonstrations against the regime, using Starlink to circumvent state censorship of the internet.
Venezuela: Here too, Starlink has been used in the past to sidestep information blackouts and secure access to the internet. For a long time, the service was only available unofficially, by buying kits from local dealers. Following the US intervention in early January 2026, during which then-head of state, Nicolas Maduro, was taken prisoner, Musk offered the people of Venezuela a month's free broadband internet service via Starlink.
Gaza: Starlink has been used for humanitarian purposes in the devastated Gaza Strip since July 2024. Aid organizations and a field hospital use it to facilitate telemedical assistance and logistical coordination. Access for civilians remains limited because of Israeli security concerns.
WHY HAS STARLINK BEEN CRITICIZED?
Starlink is often the only way to access the internet in conflict zones. This gives Musk and his operating company SpaceX tremendous influence. Previously, for example, Musk refused to activate Starlink in Ukraine to enable an attack in Crimea. US President Donald Trump has also threatened to switch off the satellites in Ukraine, as a way of forcing Kyiv to make concessions in peace negotiations.
There has also been criticism from an ecological perspective. The Starlink satellites have a lifespan of less than five years. Every day, on average, one or two of them burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. This releases aluminum oxide, which could affect the ozone layer, contributing to global warming. In addition, all those thousands of satellites reflect the sunlight, making the night sky brighter, and this may also have repercussions for the world's animals.
ANY STARLINK ALTERNATIVES?
In an effort to break Starlink's monopoly, other companies, especially in Europe, are already working on alternatives. At present, the biggest private competitor to SpaceX is a company called Eutelsat. With a fleet of over 600 satellites, its OneWeb service is far smaller, focusing on business customers and maritime use.
But Eutelsat is also involved in the development of IRIS2 — an acronym for Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite, an ambitious EU project to establish a highly secure satellite network. The aim is to make Europe less dependent on Starlink, but IRIS2 won't be operational before 2029.
Elon Musk also has competition inside the US from another billionaire, Jeff Bezos, whose company Amazon is currently working on Amazon Leo, known until recently as Project Kuiper. This is establishing a network of more than 3,200 new low-Earth-orbit satellites. Amazon plans to roll out the service later this year in the US, Canada, France, Britain and Germany.
The sky is clearly getting crowded. China is also refining two satellite communications systems of its own. Guowang, a state project conceived primarily for national and military purposes, will consist of up to 13,000 satellites, while another project, Qianfan, with an estimated 12,000 satellites, is more commercially oriented and aims to provide services to newly industrialized and developing countries. The first mass starts for both of these projects are planned for this year.
[IsraelTimes] Asaad al-Shaibani clarifies negotiations are about IDF presence in border areas that Israeli troops entered after Assad regime’s overthrow, says control of Golan ‘is another issue’
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said on Saturday that negotiations on a security deal with Israel were focused on areas Israel has recently occupied and excluded the broader issue of the Golan Heights.
Got it in one. When Syria had the Golan Heights overlooking Israel, the Israeli communities below were bombed most days. Since Israel captured the heights, that stopped; but Israel did not return the favour, so communities on both sides of the border got to live undisturbed until after the 10/7/2023 invasion, when Hezbollah joined in, raining missiles and rockets down on the Israeli side of the border to the point that most of the residents moved away until the IDF put a stop to the nonsense.
Since the December 8, 2024, overthrow of Syria’s longtime ruler Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... , Israel has sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces.
Israel and Syria’s new authorities have held several rounds of direct talks in recent months, and after negotiations in January — and under US pressure — they agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism as they edged towards a security agreement.
When asked at the Munich Security Conference about the scope of the talks with Israel, Shaibani said discussions were on "the withdrawal of Israel" from Syrian territory occupied after Assad’s ousting, "not from the Golan Heights, and this is another issue."
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed it, a move that Syria and most countries don’t recognize.
They aren't good at accepting reality.
To reach a security deal, Israel should "respect the security of Syria and withdraw from these territories" recently entered, Shaibani said.
The HTS/Al Nusra government needs to prove it can be trusted first. Perhaps start by stopping your people from harassing Christian, Druze, Kurds, and Shiites…
"These negotiations will certainly not lead to forcing an acceptance of the fait accompli imposed by Israel in southern Syria," he said.
"The end of these negotiations will be the withdrawal of Israel from the areas where it advanced" since December 2024, and with Israel refraining from "interfering in Syria’s internal affairs" and illusory sovereignty, Shaibani added.
Israel, which has demanded a demilitarized zone in southern Syria, carried out waves of Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s against military installations in the immediate aftermath of the lightning offensive that took out the Assad regime, citing the danger of them falling into jihadists’ hands.
It also intervened last year during unrest in the Druze-majority area of Sweida, at the urging of Druze in Israel, and it has had small-scale confrontations with terror groups inside Syria amid operations to kill or capture operatives, or to seize weapons.
SYRIAN FM, KURDISH COMMANDER SHARE MEETING WITH RUBIO
Shaibani on Friday met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... in Munich and discussed a recent agreement between Damascus and the Kurds.
Mazloum Abdi, chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), was also in attendance.
Syria’s government and the Kurds last month signed an agreement to gradually integrate Kurdish forces and institutions into the state, after the SDF ceded territory to advancing government troops.
Shaibani told the Munich conference that the Rubio meeting involving Abdi "confirms the new mindset Syria is adopting today."
"We do not view our national partners as enemies," he said, adding that the country’s national identity is "completed by Syria’s diversity."
The US military said on Friday it had completed the transfer of thousands of 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 suspects, including many Syrians, to Iraq, after they were held in Kurdish-run prisons in northeast Syria for years.
Shaibani said Damascus was "prepared in the future to take back" Syrian detainees "to ease the burden on Iraq."
Here are the internal characteristics attributed to different nationalities within the terrorist organization Daesh:
Tunisia
Urban youth, educated. Often suicide bombers (disproportionately high number of suicide operations), and religious police. Idealistic, impulsive, stereotyped as “zealous”.
Chechens, Dagestanis
Warriors, experienced and radical. Military elite, bodyguards of al-Baghdadi. Fearless and disciplined.
Iraq
Moderately educated, experienced in insurgency. Loyal but pragmatic, motivated by anti-Shiite revenge.
Syria
Less “pure” ideologically, more pragmatic and driven by Sunni identity claims, many operational commanders and administrators.
Saudi Arabia
Symbols of Salafist purity, often educated/wealthy. Ideological leadership, financing, command; many preachers or emirs.
Morocco
Poor youth. Suicide bombers and front-line fighters. Fanatical, courageous, “zealous” like Tunisians.
Jordan
Bedouins, unemployed youth. Suicide bombers, front-line fighters and some local leadership. Determined, fanatical, seen as “reliable”.
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 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 
...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 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 
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...
