[FoxNews] 'Defendants’ conduct — physically harming protestors and journalists without prior dispersal warnings — is objectively chilling,' U.S. District Judge Michael Simon said in a preliminary injunction
🇳🇬🤝🇧🇯 NIGERIA, BENIN JOIN FORCES TO COMBAT CROSS-BORDER TERRORISM
Military officials from Nigeria and Benin have finalized plans for a joint security operation along their shared border, targeting jihadist groups spreading from the Sahel into coastal West Africa.… pic.twitter.com/8GSwIDvojg
— PATRIOTIC SOJA ($TSIR-MUNCHAN) (@Pressman2040) March 9, 2026
Text:
NIGERIA, BENIN JOIN FORCES TO COMBAT CROSS-BORDER TERRORISM
Military officials from Nigeria and Benin have finalized plans for a joint security operation along their shared border, targeting jihadist groups spreading from the Sahel into coastal West Africa.
High-ranking counterterrorism officials met in Cotonou on February 27 to draft a military memorandum. The agreement includes coordinated border patrols, joint operations, intelligence sharing, and the critical "right of pursuit" allowing forces to track terrorists across the border.
[BB] Sheinbaum was responding to a series of comments made by Trump during his announcement of the Shield of the Americas Summit, a multinational approach aimed at stopping the cartel threat. As Breitbart Texas’s Bob Price reported, during his announcement of the summit, Trump said that Mexico is the epicenter of cartel violence and most of the drugs flow through that country. During his speech, Trump mocked Sheinbaum, claiming that when he had offered to use the U.S. military to eliminate cartels, she had whined: “No, no, no, Mr. President.”
Sheinbaum claimed that Mexico has been working with the United States to share intelligence, but will not allow foreign forces to operate within her country.
During her morning news conference, Sheinbaum said that if they really wanted to help, the United States government should be concerned about stopping the flow of illegal guns headed south into Mexico. She claimed that 75 percent of the weapons used by cartels come from the United States and that they have done little to stop the flow.
“If they stop the trafficking of arms, then these criminal organizations won’t have the weapons to do their criminal activities,” she claimed. In her previous statements on the matter, Sheinbaum has failed to mention that Mexico has a federal agency tasked with controlling the ports of entry into her country that could be stopping the flow of guns.
The Mexican president further blamed the problem on the U.S. consumer of drugs, claiming that if there was no demand, there would be no cartels.
No demand anywhere — the cartels supply Britain and Europe as well as America.
#4
So, what you're saying is you can't stop a product from being imported into your country.
Hmm.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/10/2026 11:07 Comments ||
Top||
#5
The real truth is, as long as Americans love their drugs, there will be smuggling. Even if legal as it will have the shit taxed out of it.
The real trick is to make it so painful and dangerous for smugglers, cartel members and dealers/gangs to traffic the stuff it won't be worth it or the people that do it are removed from the board quickly.
[IsraelTimes] Australians ‘moved by plights of these brave women,’ PM says after being berated by US president, whose administration was still deporting Iranians during regime’s crackdown on protests
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/10/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1825 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] It came as a French-led carrier strike group containing ships from four EU member states steams east through the Mediterranean to help defend Cyprus, following a plea for help from Mr Christodoulides.
At the same time, HMS Dragon, which has been ordered to deploy to the region, remains in Portsmouth taking on ammunition.
Additionally, No10 signalled today that despite reports over the weekend suggesting the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales was being readied to follow, it will not be going to the warzone.
In a further blow to British naval prestige, he also announced France will send warships to the Red Sea to guard ships traversing the Straits of Hormuz off the south coast of Iran.
At the same time, Sir Keir made a low-key visit to a community centre in London discussing the cost of living, amid fears that the US-led conflict with Iran could send fuel prices soaring.
Experts warned that petrol could hit £2 a litre for the first time, amid a staggering spike in global oil costs.
The AA and RAC have advised drivers to cut non-essential journeys and avoid harsh acceleration and braking to conserve fuel.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
03/10/2026 00:27 ||
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Link ||
[1773 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Having lots of militaries defend on Cyprus seems like a bad idea.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/10/2026 6:12 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Lots of militaries that have a history of fighting over it too Super Hose.
I bet the first inter-NATO shots won't come from Greenland, but this speck of land in the Mediterranean.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] President Trump ordered more than two dozen new B2 bombers and said the US military has already struck 5,000 targets in a conflict that has now stretched into its second week.
The president delivered a sweeping update on the Iran war from his Doral, Florida, golf resort.
'We could call it a tremendous success right now … or we could go further, and we’re going to go further,' he said. 'We will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated.'
The president did not indicate how long the war could continue, remaining ambiguous about future US military operations in the region.
Iran's Revolutionary guard simply stated: 'We are the ones who will determine the end of the war.'
Trump's comments were made just moments after he said the war was 'very complete,' while claiming US forces were 'very far ahead of schedule.'
'I think the war is very complete, pretty much,' Trump told CBS News. 'They have no navy, no communications, they've got no Air Force ... Wrapping up is all in my mind.'
Posted by: Skidmark ||
03/10/2026 00:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1771 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
As long as the Iranians don't concede and continue at least daily deliberately directed actions, the US needs to keep units on station to defend allies. If the US elects to sail away whilst the Iranians keep up a steady barrage, the optics suggest that Iran has driven US forces away.
Unexpectedly, just like all the times they have before.
[ABCnews] The encrypted transmission was intercepted by the U.S.
The U.S. has intercepted encrypted communications believed to have originated in Iran that may serve as "an operational trigger" for "sleeper assets" outside the country, according to a federal government alert sent to law enforcement agencies.
The alert, reviewed by ABC News, cites "preliminary signals analysis" of a transmission "likely of Iranian origin" that was relayed across multiple countries shortly after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, was killed in a U.S.-Israeli attack on Feb. 28.
The intercepted transmission was encoded and appeared to be destined for "clandestine recipients" who possess the encryption key, the kind of message intended to impart instructions to "covert operatives or sleeper assets" without the use of the internet or cellular networks.
It's possible the transmissions could "be intended to activate or provide instructions to prepositioned sleeper assets operating outside the originating country," the alert said.
"While the exact contents of these transmissions cannot currently be determined, the sudden appearance of a new station with international rebroadcast characteristics warrants heightened situational awareness," the alert said.
While the alert is careful to say there is "no operational threat tied to a specific location," it does instruct law enforcement agencies to increase their monitoring of suspicious radio-frequency activity.
If the contents of the alert prove true, it would confirm the fears expressed by law enforcement officials after the U.S. and Israel struck Iran that sleeper cells deployed around the West could be used for retaliation.
Posted by: NoMoreBS ||
03/10/2026 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[1821 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
It seems like that would have been triggered on Day 1 or even in the run up. I’m starting to think that their sleeper cells drank too much NyQuil.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/10/2026 6:20 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"Drink more Ovaltine"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/10/2026 6:22 Comments ||
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#3
FWIW, Iran's new 'numbers station' was active at least a week ago.
Short wave listeners reported strange transmissions, but it sounds like those are being hacked as we speak.
Its pretty easy to set up a sleeper cell but keeping it active and 'ready to go' year after year is an issue. The cell may ask for money from the country that set up the sleeper cell and when they don't get it, it degrades the cell. Also people in the cell have mood swings and it is hard to manage. Lots of similar issues.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
03/10/2026 9:24 Comments ||
Top||
#6
-encrypted communications believed to have originated in Iran
-that may serve as
-"preliminary signals analysis" of a transmission
-appeared to be destined for
-the kind of message intended to impart instructions
-It's possible the transmissions could
-the exact contents of these transmissions cannot currently be determined
[Rudaw] A convoy carrying hundreds of displaced families from Afrin in northwest Syria is set to depart from northeastern Hasaka province on Monday morning as part of arrangements under the January 29 agreement between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), according to Syrian state media.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that a presidential delegation tasked with implementing the agreement met Sunday with Hasaka governor Nour al-Din Ahmad to discuss mechanisms for facilitating the return of Afrin residents to their towns.
The meeting brought together officials from Aleppo province and Afrin district director Khairu Daoud, who reviewed the executive steps needed to organize the return process.
It was agreed that "the first convoy, consisting of around 400 families originally from Afrin, will depart at 7 am local time on Monday from the Panorama Roundabout south of Hasaka city."
Citing authorities, the agency said the convoy "will travel under strict security measures to ensure the safety of the returning families."
The planned convoy comes after years of displacement for many Afrin residents, thousands of whom have been living in cities, towns, and rural areas across Hasaka province, as well as in temporary shelter centers.
The return initiative follows a January 29 ceasefire agreement between Damascus and the SDF after weeks of fighting. The deal outlined a framework for integrating SDF-affiliated military and administrative institutions into Syrian state structures and allowed Syrian government security forces to enter key areas including the centers of Hasaka and Qamishli.
It also provided for the Syrian state to assume control of civil institutions, border crossings, and official entry points.
The return of displaced people, particularly those from Afrin, was one of the agreement’s key provisions.
However,
there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... the process had faced obstacles. Kurdish officials said last month that many displaced residents have been unable to return to their homes because they are currently occupied by Arab families who were relocated to Afrin during the years of conflict.
In late February, a senior member of the Kurdish National Council (KNC/ENKS), speaking to Rudaw on condition of anonymity, said that "Arab [settlers] who had been brought from Deir ez-Zor have settled in Kurdish homes in Afrin and refuse to leave," adding that they have "occupied hundreds of large houses and expensive villas, and they will not vacate them without government pressure."
Local officials say the issue remains a major barrier to broader returns. Azad Osman, a member of the Afrin local council affiliated with the ENKS, told Rudaw last month that "a convoy of 400 families was scheduled to return to Afrin," but their return was delayed "because the settlers refused to vacate the homes."
Afrin has been under the control of Ottoman Turkish forces and allied Syrian opposition groups since early 2018, when Ottoman Turkish troops and affiliated factions captured the northern Syrian region during a military offensive.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/10/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1823 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria/HTS
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Ten days after the death of Iran's Supreme Leader (Rahbar), Ali Khamenei, the period of "interregnum" officially ended. The Council of Experts, comprised of 88 authoritative theologians of the Islamic Republic, declared 57-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei —the late leader's son and one of the power brokers of regional politics— as Rahbar.
The appointment was a bombshell. Partly because Mojtaba's lifestyle means Tehran's opponents have almost no information about him. This means they have no idea where Khamenei Jr. will lead the country.
A SPEAKING NICKNAME
For a long time, the name Mojtaba, the second son of Iran's supreme leader, was not widely known outside the country. A young cleric (by the standards of others close to him) and a professor at the Qom seminary, he rarely participated in public ceremonies and gave no interviews to foreign media.
During his father's business trips around the country, Mojtaba always kept his distance, avoiding cameras and obligingly letting more media-friendly and, as it then seemed, influential courtiers go first.
Western intelligence agencies observing the rise of Khamenei's regime saw no leadership potential in him and lamented that he was only a "pale shadow" of his older brother, Mostafa, a zealous cleric and supporter of "tightening the screws" who died under mysterious circumstances two years before Khamenei's father ascended to the top post.
Ah hah! I wondered what had happened to him. Mysterious, eh? Will it remain mysterious if young Mojtaba really takes the reins, or will he choose to reveal all?
However, in practice, Mojtaba proved to be a much more energetic courtier than those around him believed. For over two decades, he influenced the country's domestic and foreign policy, while remaining a low-profile figure.
Among Iranian politicians, he earned the telling nickname "Agha" ("Master"), who, despite his youth, was able to influence political affairs independently, without hiding behind the authority of his father and other high-ranking officials.
The apogee of the "young master's" influence is considered to be the mid-2000s, when Mojtaba twice helped bring to power the ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who chose a course of maximum escalation with the West and advocated the creation of nuclear weapons.
Then the fame of Khamenei Jr. spread far beyond the country's borders, and in the United States they began talking about the formation of a "fundamentally new threat" in the Middle East in the Islamic Republic.
However, the alliance didn't last long. In 2013, at the end of his second presidential term, Ahmadinejad attempted to accuse his patron of embezzlement, and their alliance collapsed. A year later, Khamenei Jr. was briefly arrested on charges of plotting, along with a group of intelligence officers, an assassination attempt on his father.
Although both cases fell apart during the preliminary investigation, Mojtaba learned his lesson well. Once the furor died down, he retreated into the shadows for more than a decade, while remaining a key decision-maker within Iran's state system.
UNEXPECTED TRIUMPH
His name returned to the headlines in June 2025, when the Supreme Leader, concerned about Israeli attacks, decided to draw up a list of potential successors, which presumably included Mojtaba.
However, until recently, many considered Khamenei Jr.'s appointment to Iran's highest post unlikely. This was in part because Mojtaba, despite his status as a veteran of behind-the-scenes political games, held a modest clerical rank, at least three steps short of the top, making rapid career advancement virtually impossible.
In this respect, he was surpassed by many political and religious figures who were previously close to Khamenei.
Moreover, Western observers were confident that neither the theologians, offended by the former rahbar, nor the military elites, eager to redistribute spheres of influence, would allow the continuation of the “Khamenei dynasty.”
Both of them, in addition to “spiritual incompatibility,” could accuse the supporters of Mojtaba’s appointment of “shahish habits” and attempts to revive the principle of succession to the throne under the guise of continuity.
Such a formulation of the issue could well lead to a “purge of counter-revolutionary elements” in high Iranian offices, which would not add to Iran’s strength during a period of active conflict with Israel and the United States.
Therefore, in the informal ranking of successors, compiled on the basis of leaks from Tehran, he never rose above third place, behind not only the other “august heir,” the grandson of the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Hassan Khomeini, but also Alireza Arafi, a theologian and advisor to the former Rahbar, appointed “acting supreme leader” in early March.
The best Mojtaba could hope for under the current circumstances was the presidency. And even then, not until 2028.
However, the exact opposite happened: at the crucial moment, the candidacy of Khamenei Jr. was supported by all of Iran's elites. Not a single theologian or general dared to criticize the Council's decision.
The "Young Master" has become Iran's new supreme leader.
RELIANCE ON THE IRGC
Mojtaba's candidacy was supported not only by his relationship with the Supreme Leader, who ruled the country for nearly four decades, but also by his strong comradely relations with the country's military elite—the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), one of the pillars of official Tehran.
Among Mojtaba's close friends was Qasem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC's elite Quds Force and one of Iran's modern pantheons of martyred heroes.
Khamenei Jr. helped Soleimani diversify the financing of the rapidly strengthening system of proxy groups (the so-called Axis of Resistance) in the Middle East and adjacent regions, including by attracting for these purposes the “shell” companies he created in European countries, Canada, and the Arabian monarchies.
As a result, key pro-Iranian forces had a source of support even during the period when American financiers, as they themselves stated, “cut off the air” for Iranian capital in the Middle East.
At Mojtaba's request, Soleimani was also awarded the Order of Zulfikar, Iran's highest military decoration. The award was presented to the commander several months before his death in Iraq in a US airstrike in January 2020.
After the death of his comrade, Khamenei Jr. took on the unofficial care of the "students of Soleimani"—promising IRGC officers who were part of the Quds Force chief's inner circle—and helped them rise to key leadership positions within the structure, pushing aside less loyal military clans.
Moreover, according to some reports, it was Mojtaba who convinced his father not to launch a witch hunt and not to remove the IRGC military advisers in Iraq and Lebanon who had allowed the plot against Soleimani, thereby saving many promising commanders from being overthrown.
The decision, perceived at the court as a sign of weakness at the time, played into Tehran's hands just three years later, when IRGC advisers, grateful for the rescue, made every effort to paralyze Israel's actions in the region and weaken it before the strikes on Iran in June 2025.
Partly due to the combination played out between Mojtaba and Soleimani, a sign of equality was established, which determined the high loyalty of the IRGC generals to the new Rahbar.
THREATS FROM OPPONENTS
The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as Supreme Leader visibly disconcerted his opponents—they clearly had not expected the interregnum in the Islamic Republic to last so short a time, and so they had little time to take preemptive measures.
Over the past ten days, Israel and the United States have failed to eliminate a single theologian potentially aspiring to the post of Rahbar or disrupt the vote of the venerable elders. However, they did issue a "final warning" to the Council of Experts by storming the meeting hall on the eve of the next vote.
Ultimately, as the Pentagon venomously complains, the blows and threats had an asymmetrical effect: they dampened the ardor of the arguing theologians and helped Iran “exchange” the old Khamenei for the young one.
At the same time, the likelihood of Iran changing course under the new Rahbar remains questionable. Mojtaba's biography contains many blank spots, making his psychological and political profile unclear to his adversaries.
The White House still can't figure out whether the "young master" is a technocrat, a reactionary, or a supporter of the Islamic Republic's "special path." The West hasn't forgotten Khamenei Jr.'s alliance with Ahmadinejad and the radical statements about "nuclear retaliation against enemies" made in the early 2000s, but it's not certain that the new Supreme Leader hasn't "outgrown" these ideas.
Hence the emphatically negative position: the White House declares that they “a priori don’t like” Iran’s new leader, and Israel has habitually threatened Mojtaba with “the fate of his father.”
However, neither side has yet made any attempt to approach him, partly out of fear that the IRGC, whose position within Iran has strengthened exponentially over the past year, will avenge the new Rahbar no less zealously than the previous one.
#4
These SOB's are entrenched. It would appear this effort is going to take a bit more than an intensive bombing campaign. We must find a General
Dietrich von Choltitz among their ranks.
#6
Time for AI versions of him doing country line dancing or hugging a pot belly 🐷. Force them to produce him.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/10/2026 6:17 Comments ||
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#7
I shall name him Karmini Me.
Posted by: Difar Dave ||
03/10/2026 9:31 Comments ||
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#8
In case you're wondering, Mojtaba has two sons but they are in their teens so not likely to be the next supreme leader.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
03/10/2026 9:38 Comments ||
Top||
#9
I think it’s had two sons - at least one was killed when his wife was assassinated. Having lost a father, wife and child I don’t anticipate he is too eager to negotiate with the folks that killed them
Mockery is important and must not be neglected, but if I were me, I'd publish a series of 'official' photos showing young Mojito doing everyday ayatollah things like giving speeches, signing papers, sitting on a couch petting a dog, putting money in a parking meter, and standing in line at the bagel shop. Maybe even holding up a copy of today's Daily Mail. Everything is fine! And these obviously AI-generated images prove it.
Hezbollah has begun quiet feelers for a ceasefire, according to new reports.
Inside Israel, discussions are already underway about the next move:
• Launch a broad operation to dismantle Hezbollah
• Or force a strategic break between Iran and Hezbollah, which Tehran funds with roughly $1 billion per year
At the same time, the Israeli cabinet is expected to debate a ground operation to expand the security zone in Lebanon.
The message is clear: negotiations may be starting, but military pressure is increasing.
🚨 Inside Iran, one group the regime truly fears: the Kurds.
Kurdish affairs analyst Mutlo Sivaroglou says Kurdish groups are the only force in Iran that is politically, socially, and militarily organized.
And they’ve been fighting Tehran for decades.
They have? We don’t read much about them…
• 47% of political prisoners last year were Kurds
• Kurdish armed groups openly call the regime their enemy
• Fighters across Kurdistan say they are ready at any moment
“If something erupts from inside Iran,” he says,
the Kurds will be at the center of it.
This is their fight.
Posted by: badanov ||
03/10/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1812 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Only group in Iran to get US Funding are Kurds.
USAID never sponsored any proxies inside Iran.
Deep State probably never planned for this. MIC never planned for this either.
The whole Kurd front might be a facade, as they seem to me, to be DS or MIC proxies, not by choice, but because that is where the funding comes from. So it suggests to me the Kurds werent planning and ready for the govt of Iran to topple.
[StraitsTimes] On a tree-lined street in north London, known as "Billionaire's Row", a clutch of mostly empty mansions sit behind tall hedges and blacked-out gates. As school children wander by, private guards in dark SUVs patrol outside.
Behind the facades of these luxury homes on The Bishops Avenue lies a network stretching from Tehran to Dubai and Frankfurt. The ultimate ownership traces back, through layers of shell companies, to one of the most powerful men in the Middle East: Mr Mojtaba Khamenei, the second-eldest son of Iran's late Supreme Leader.
Whatever happened to the eldest son? Quite a slight to pass over him, if he didn’t die of something noble first…
The 56-year-old cleric, named successor to his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, oversees a sprawling investment empire, according to people familiar with the matter and the assessment of a leading Western intelligence agency. The people said that while the younger Khamenei refrains from putting assets in his own name, he has been directly involved in the deals, some of which stretch back at least as far as 2011.
His financial power has embraced everything from Persian Gulf shipping to Swiss bank accounts and British luxury property worth in excess of £100 million (S$171 million), say the people, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution or because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
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.
