[BBC] The chief of US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has announced that he is resigning, telling Fox News that his departure is effective immediately.
Michael Banks had been in the role since US President Donald Trump's return to the White House last year.
His departure is the latest shakeup for the Trump administration's immigration policy team, after the president fired his secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem earlier this year, and outspoken CBP commander Greg Bovino quit before that.
Michael Banks’ decision, announced in a Fox News interview and later confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security, is the latest leadership shake-up of officials implementing President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... ’s immigration crackdown and comes as the Republican administration appears to be recalibrating its approach to its centerpiece policy of mass deportations.
"It’s just time," Banks was quoted as saying in a report on the Fox News website, which said the resignation was effective immediately. "I feel like I got the ship back on course," he said, referring to what he described as previous chaos at the southern border. Banks said it was "time to enjoy the family and life."
Many on President Trump’s team, like Elon Musk and the DOGE group, volunteered — and took a significant pay cut, in many cases — to lend their skills for the short term to turn around the executive branch rather than the next step of a government career. In Mr. Banks case, after ten years in the Navy’s military police, he spent 23 years in the US Border Patrol, resigning in disgust because of the Biden-Harris Politburo’s border policies, upon which Governor Abbot snatched him up to be Texas Border Czar for the next two years. But last month the Washington Examiner reported that half a dozen current and former BP agents accused him of taking s3x vacations in Columbia and Thailand, where such things are legal. While several investigations went nowhere, Mr. Banks is now stepping down, so who knows?
In a statement, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, Rodney Scott, thanked Banks for his service "during one of the most challenging periods for border security."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It was not clear who will replace Banks. He led an agency at the forefront of Trump’s high-profile immigration enforcement efforts but kept a lower profile than some other officials such as Gregory Bovino, a now-retired commander who became a public face of the immigration crackdown.
BORDER PATROL PARTICIPATED IN IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT OPERATION IN U.S. CITIES
CBP is one of the federal agencies that participated since last year in a series of immigration enforcement operations, carried out primarily in cities governed by Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... — an effort that triggered a spike in arrests and led to the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis this year at the hands of federal immigration officers.
Banks’ resignation takes place two months after Markwayne Mullin, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma, became homeland security secretary. DHS oversees CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly known as ICE.
Banks is stepping down at the same time that ICE is also going through a leadership transition. Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, is leaving later this month and will be replaced by David Venturella, who worked for years for private contractors before returning to government service.
CBP was established in 2003 and handles customs, immigration, and agricultural regulations to secure U.S. borders. It has a workforce of over 20,000 agents assigned to patrol the more than 6,000 miles of land borders, and an operating budget of $1.4 billion, according to information from its website.
As head of CBP, Banks became a pivotal figure in the Trump administration’s hardline policy to reconfigure immigration law enforcement in the United States. He oversaw the expansion of prosecutions for illegal border crossings, intensified coordination between the Border Patrol and ICE, and supervised the implementation of broader internal enforcement operations within the country’s borders.
Trump Bukele'd him. Trump did to Maduro what the deep state wanted to do to him!
[Yahoo-DPA] Former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who is jailed in the United States, has to share a prison cell with 18 other inmates, according to his son.
Nicolás Maduro Guerra, Maduro's only son, told German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview published on Wednesday that US rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine had also briefly been held in the shared cell after violating probation conditions.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arrested by US forces in Caracas in early January and flown to New York. They face charges including narco-terrorism, linked to allegations that Maduro used his office to facilitate the smuggling of large quantities of cocaine into the US. Maduro has denied the allegations.
His 35-year-old son, known as "Nicolasito," also rejected the accusations, describing the case as politically motivated and denying that his family had any links to drugs or terrorism.
Maduro Guerra said the US military operation came as a surprise to his family and the Venezuelan government, despite growing tensions with President Donald Trump's administration ahead of the attack on January 3.
He said Venezuela had overestimated its own strength and had not done enough to protect his father.
Maduro's son also rejected Trump's claim that the US had effectively taken over government affairs in Venezuela after Maduro's capture.
Queerly enough, Breitbart reported in March that a Spanish newspaper reported Mr, Maduro was in solitary confinement. They can’t both be right:
A report publishedby the Spanish newspaper ABC on Thursday claimed that Venezuela
...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south... ’s deposed socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro spends his nights in prison yelling "I am the president" and claiming that he was "kidnapped" by the U.S.
Maduro, long wanted by U.S. authorities on multiple narco-terrorism charges, led the Venezuelan socialist regime from March 2013 to January 3, 2026, the day the United States executed a law enforcement operation in Caracas to arrest him and his wife, Cilia Flores. The now-deposed dictator clung to power after the end of his first term in 2019 by holding sham presidential elections in 2018 and 2024.
Following their arrest in Caracas, the pair has remained detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn and are expected to appear before the court for a hearing on March 26. Maduro pleaded "not guilty" on January 5 and insists that he is the "president" of Venezuela, demanding that the Venezuelan state pay for his legal representation fees.
At press time, no official from the MDC has publicly disclosed information on the conditions of Maduro’s detainment at the Brooklyn prison. ABC, citing several unnamed sources with knowledge of the deposed dictator’s situation, claimed on Thursday that Maduro is presently detained at the MDC’s Special Housing Unit (SHU), a wing where, CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... reported in January, inmates are kept in "solitary confinement under destructive conditions."
"Officially, it serves several purposes: disciplinary isolation, suicide prevention, and protection of high-profile or at-risk inmates," ABC’s report read. "In practice, it involves almost permanent confinement under an isolation regime."
ABC detailed that many "famous" inmates first pass through the SHU under suicide prevention protocols, where they stay between 72 hours and a week. The sources claimed to ABC that, in Maduro’s case, his isolation is due to "prolonged security reasons," as he is "probably the most high-profile inmate in the history of the facility" and, as such, the authorities "cannot afford an incident."
One of the sources, which ABC identified as the lawyer of a Venezuelan inmate in a nearby cell block, relayed to the newspaper on behalf of their client that Maduro spends entire nights yelling in Spanish from his cell, which ABC reported as "three meters long by two meters wide, with a metal bed, a toilet, a sink, and a narrow window that barely lets in any natural light."
According to the source, Maduro repeatedly yells that he was "kidnapped" and requests that messages are relayed to his family and other Venezuelan inmates in the prison. ABC detailed that the scene presents a "radical inversion" of Maduro’s public figure.
"I am the president of Venezuela! Tell my country that I have been kidnapped, that we are being mistreated here," Maduro has reportedly yelled from inside his prison cell.
"The man of mandatory television broadcasts, of the balconies of the Miraflores Palace, of mass rallies, reduced to a voice banging on a metal door in Brooklyn," ABC wrote. "The same man who until recently danced on television and defied Washington."
Maduro is presently being represented in the ongoing drug trafficking case against him and Cilia Flores by American lawyer Barry Pollack, who represented Wikileaks founder Julian Assange
... Australian journalist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks made the Big Time in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by then Bradley, since Chelsea Manning. After the 2010 leaks, the United States government launched a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks and asked allied nations for assistance. U.S. officials are seeking to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act, blaming him for directingpublication of a huge trove of secret documents that disclosed the names of people who provided confidential information to American and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.... in the past. The deposed dictator stands accused of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices charges.
In late February, Pollack wrote to District Judge Alvin Hellerstein claiming that the administration of President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... is allegedly not allowing the Venezuelan state to pay for the dictator’s legal fees, and argued, "under Venezuelan law and custom, the government of Venezuela pays the expenses of the President and First Lady."
Following Maduro’s arrest, the Venezuelan socialist regime is being led by "acting President" Delcy Rodríguez, who concurrently served as the deposed dictator’s vice president and oil minister at the time of his arrest. Over the past months, Rodríguez has openly collaborated with the United States and has reached several agreements with the U.S. government, including oil, gas, and critical minerals.
A spokesperson from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) declined to offer details to ABC on Maduro’s current situation and reportedly stated, "For security and privacy reasons, the BOP does not disclose the conditions of confinement of any person in its custody."
"That is, for now, Nicolás Maduro’s situation in Brooklyn. Not that of a head of state surrounded by ministers, bodyguards, and cameras, but that of a defendant in pretrial detention, subjected to solitary confinement and the strict routine of a federal facility, awaiting a trial that could take months or even years to take place," ABC concluded.
Most images are no longer available at the link, for some reason.
[TWZ] The move comes after the UAE has been hit by thousands of Iranian missiles and drones that have heavily damaged parts of its oil and gas infrastructure.
Forced to defend against thousands of Iranian drone and missile attacks before and after the ceasefire in the now-paused U.S.-Israel war on Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) appears to have taken a play from Russia and its war with Ukraine in an attempt to secure some of its energy facilities with massive metal ‘cope cages.’
An image posted on X by Israel’s I24 News outlet shows what it claims is caging around oil tanks near Dubai International Airport. In the far-right section of the photo, what appears to be a more complete metal enclosure of some of the fuel tanks can be seen, while in the foreground, construction looks to be taking place on caging for additional tanks.
This seems to be the first sighting of these structures in the UAE and across the Gulf Arab nations. It is unclear when construction on the structures began or how many of these barriers the UAE is building or plans to build. We have reached out to the UAE Embassy in Washington for more details.
As we have reported in the past, the idea behind these kinds of metal structures is to mitigate the damage caused by incoming munitions by creating a barrier between the point of weapon impact and the target. The caging depicted is not designed to protect against Iranian ballistic missiles, and even cruise missiles could be a challenge. These kinds of structures are made to help defend against one-way attack munitions, such as the Shahed-136, many of which Iran has launched against the UAE. They can also protect from near-field small suicide drone attacks, although these have not been a major issue in the UAE during this conflict.
As noted earlier, while these structures may be new to the UAE, it is not the first time metal caging and even mesh nets have been used to protect critical energy infrastructure. Russia has employed these measures on its oil storage facilities in attempts to protect them from repeated Ukrainian drone attacks for a number of years now.
It is no surprise that the UAE would resort to such measures. Since the conflict broke out on Feb. 28, the Emirates have been particularly hard hit by Iranian attacks, especially on its energy infrastructure.
The UAE Defense Ministry says its air defenses “have engaged a total of 551 ballistic missiles, 29 cruise missiles, and 2,265 UAVs” fired by Iran.
Two of the UAE’s major energy infrastructure sites – the oil storage facilities at the UAE Port of Fujairah and the Habshan natural gas processing facility – have been damaged by Iranian missiles and drones. You can see video of some of the Iranian attacks on the UAE below.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics
[ColonelCassad] An Analysis of Pentagon PSYOP Tactics: "Fewer Bots, More Advertising: The Evolution of the Pentagon's Online PSYOP."
The story begins with the Trans-Regional Web Initiative (TRWI), a US Special Operations Command program launched in 2008. TRWI created the first generation of foreign-language websites targeting external audiences. These early sites openly acknowledged their support from the US military. Congress formally defunded the program in 2014. After funding ceased, Al-shorfa became Al-Mashareq. Mawtani became Diyaruna. Central Asia Online split into regional publications: Caravanserai, Salaam Times, and Pakistan Forward. These second-generation sites continued to acknowledge CENTCOM sponsorship, but the mention became less prominent.
In April 2026, Biddle reported on Al-Fassel and Pishtaz News, Arabic- and Persian-language outlets that published a new standard notification of US government funding, identifying the sites as "a product of an international media organization funded by the United States government"—without mentioning CENTCOM . This network appears to represent the third generation of semi-open, TRWI-style propaganda sites, or the "gc_ generation." The most significant change from the 2022 operation is how the websites interact with people. Earlier projects relied on fake accounts and insincere social media behavior—and in most cases failed to attract a real audience. The average engagement rate was negligible. The fake accounts often talked to themselves or almost no one (hence the title of the report).
The market labor of living bots will eventually be almost completely replaced by learning neural networks that imitate human communication. Also continuing the topic. Existing military structures often lack robust operational mechanisms to detect or counter continuous cognitive campaigns. Although information operations are integrated into tactical and operational planning, they are often viewed as episodic actions with specific results, rather than as continuous defensive and offensive measures.
Strategists often separate cyber, psychological operations, and public relations. This separation creates friction that malicious actors can easily exploit. To address this operational asymmetry, the entire PSYOP framework must be adapted to include preventive measures against cognitive threats. This modernization could include several key elements:
1. Clarified definition of the cognitive sphere (doctrine): Doctrine requires revision to recognize the cognitive domain as an independent domain of warfare, parallel to land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace. Integrating cognitive security as a stable Phase 0 operation limits the adversary's ability to shape the operational environment.
2. Permanent Organizational Structures (Organization and Personnel): The transition from temporary information groups to permanent, specialized organizational structures can open new opportunities for monitoring and countering hostile cognitive campaigns. Such organizations, in addition to traditional cybersecurity, psychological operations, and public affairs specialists, can include data analysts, cognitive psychologists, and cultural analysts.
3. Technologically Advanced Materiel Solutions: Countering AI-enabled cognitive attacks requires the acquisition and implementation of advanced detection tools. Software suites must be capable of identifying synthetic media, algorithmic manipulation, and coordinated inauthentic behavior in real time.
4. Development of training and leadership models (Training and Leadership): Preparing troops for confrontation in the cognitive sphere will require updating training to include realistic simulations of targeted cognitive attacks. Developing cognitive resilience in commanders and soldiers is crucial to ensuring objective decision-making under constant psychological pressure.
De Cluzel's ideas are gradually being integrated into the information and psychological warfare structures of NATO countries.They correctly point out the threat of streaming information content produced using neural networks with the need to detect it online.
Having suffered a series of setbacks, particularly in the Middle East, where the US lost the information war, the Pentagon and its affiliates will naturally draw conclusions and adapt their information-psychological and cognitive operations systems, actively implementing new technologies related to neural networks and de Cluzel's concept of cognitive warfare, which has long been funded by NATO leadership. We had something similar under Ilnitsky with his concept of "mental warfare," but after the change in leadership at the Ministry of Defense, nothing has been heard on this topic.
[PJMedia] Speaking of terrorist networks that engage in underhanded tactics, the Iranian regime has extensive operations in Australia, which was the scene of the 2025 ISIS-linked Bondi Beach massacre, the bloodiest anti-Jewish terrorist attack outside of Israel since Oct. 7. On Thursday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry shared a report from The Australian Daily Telegraph and emphasized:
The Iranian regime is outsourcing terror to Australian soil. 🇦🇺
It uses Telegram to recruit local criminals to spy on the Jewish community and gather intelligence.
From the 2024 firebombings of a Melbourne synagogue and a Sydney deli to the Iranian state-sponsored spy rings…
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) May 14, 2026
Too many Westerners want to pretend that the Iranian regime is only a problem in the Middle East. This could not be further from the truth. Iranian proxies have been attacking Americans, Australians, Europeans, and others around the world for many years.
#1
Too many Westerners want to pretend that the Iranian regime is only a problem in the Middle East. This could not be further from the truth. Iranian proxies have been attacking Americans, Australians, Europeans, and others around the world for many years.
[IsraelTimes] After Jewish state left out of ‘Eurofan Cafe’ list, MQ Kantine steps in and opens its doors to Israeli fans, offering falafel, kosher wine and security for those feeling shunned
Vienna’s famed coffeehouses have embraced the Eurovision Song Contest. They have also been touched by tensions over objections to Israel’s inclusion in the sequin-drenched pop music competition.
When officials announced a list of "Eurofan Cafes" — Vienna coffee shops offering food and music from competing countries — Israel was initially left out.
MQ Kantine, a modern café in the city’s arty museums quarter, offered to step in. Now it has falafel, bagels with lox, and kosher wine on the menu, a string of small Israeli flags hanging from the ceiling — and a police officer outside the door.
Security is tight across Vienna during the international music contest, whose "United by Music" slogan rings slightly hollow this year. Five countries have boycotted the contest because Israel is taking part. Pro-Paleostinian activists are planning a protest concert — one of several Eurovision alternatives across Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... — and an anti-Israel march before Saturday’s grand final.
At MQ Kantine, volunteers take turns to monitor for potential trouble. But so far the mood has been supportive, said Daniel Kapp, a PR consultant and pro-Israel campaigner.
"It’s beautiful," he said, as people drank coffee and beer on the café terrace in the spring sunshine, although he noted that the police officer on duty was a sign that all is "not entirely normal."
"My feeling is that Austria, to a certain degree, has learned from its history," Kapp said, referring to the deadly antisemitism under the Nazis before and during World War II. "Which is why the support for Israel is a lot more normal than it is in other countries."
Israel has competed in Eurovision for more than 50 years, winning four times. But its participation has been contested since the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... began with Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... ’s terror onslaught of October 7, 2023.
The 2024 Eurovision contest in Malmö, Sweden, and last year’s event in Basel, Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... , saw pro-Paleostinian protests that called for Israel to be expelled. Five countries — Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain — pulled out of the 2026 contest after organizers allowed Israel to compete.
PARTYING AMID TIGHT SECURITY
The tensions have produced a Eurovision of two halves. An upbeat party atmosphere prevails inside the Wiener Stadthalle arena and in the separate Eurovision Village fan zone. But getting in means passing through a ring of steel, with searches, scanners and a ban on all bags inside the arena. Armed police are a very visible presence on the streets.
Awareness of risk from terror plots is high in the city after a 21-year-old Austrian man accused of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group pleaded guilty to plotting to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in 2024.
Israeli singer Noam Bettan told The Times of Israel last month that, like last year’s Israeli competitor Yuval Raphael, he practiced performing while being booed. There were scattered shouts amid the cheers when he performed in the first Eurovision semifinal on Tuesday. He secured a spot in Saturday’s final by being one of the top 10 finishers in voting by viewers and national juries.
Organizers said four people were removed from the 10,000-strong audience for disruptive behavior.
Austrian Eurovision fan Ivo Herzl, who attended the semifinal, said: "The vibe was incredibly positive." He is showing support for Israel by making and selling Mazel Lov T-shirts — a play on "mazel tov," a Hebrew and Yiddish phrase of congratulations.
"Vienna has always been a city of tolerance," Herzl said. "It’s the city of music and we’ll always do everything possible for everyone to enjoy a musical event."
Some Israeli fans said they were reassured by the tight security. Oz Yona, attending his first Eurovision, said he had experienced "no hate" and felt Austria took antisemitism seriously.
He came with friends to cheer for Israel, though he was not optimistic about Bettan’s chances, for musical rather than political reasons.
"I don’t think he will win," Yona said. "Finland is better this year. Greece is better this year. We have a good song, but not a winning song."
Birgitta Peterson and Kristina Nilsson, who wear matching pink bomber jackets and call themselves The Swedish Ladies, love to explore new cities and meet up each year with their "Eurovision family" of fellow fans. They plan to wave Israeli flags at Saturday’s final, after Swedish contestant Felicia said earlier this year that she didn’t think Israel should be in the contest.
They say tensions over Israel have divided a fan community long known for its friendliness and embrace of diversity.
"The wounds are very deep at the moment," Nilsson said.
"This event should really be about ’united by music’ and happiness," she added. "That’s what Eurovision is all about."
#3
Israel has competed since 1973, because their public broadcaster is a member of the European public broadcasting group that puts on the thing. So are many Middle East/North Africa countries, though except for Morocco — which competed the single year Israel missed it — they have thus far refused to show up if the icky jooooooos participate, and in fact have a tradition of going to commercials or simply silencing that portion of the broadcast for their audiences when the Israeli group is performing.
Now that the Abraham Accords are a thing and Arab countries have fought against Iran with Israel, it will be very interesting to see if this particular snub continues.
Israel has won and placed a number of times, and hosted three times as well. Various countries have boycotted the contest over the years because various other countries have participated, so that nonsense is not just about Israel.
[FoxNews] A global network of anti-Israel activist groups is mobilizing coordinated "Nakba 78" protests across the United States and around the world today, with organizers using the anniversary of Israel’s founding to challenge the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Molon labe, assholes.
A Fox News Digital investigation found that about 425 organizations — including communist groups, Muslim advocacy organizations and anti-Israel activist coalitions attributed with blatant antisemitism — are working together in a coordinated transnational protest network with a combined funding footprint of about $1 billion in annual revenues.
The groups have organized an estimated 736 events across 39 countries this weekend in locations including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London and Sydney, according to an analysis of protests listed at a website organizing actions against Israel. Organizers describe the demonstrations as marking the "Nakba," an Arabic word for "catastrophe" used by Palestinians to describe the founding of Israel on May 14, 1948, the displacement of Palestinians and their historical grievance.
The disaster being that the local Arabs pulled out to give the five British-trained and -equipped (and in some cases -officered) armies room to kill all the Jews, only it turned out that the Jews won, so the Arabs could not return to triumphantly pillage, plunder, and rape as planned. This, of course, is the fault of the Jews, even though the Arabs who stayed in place are doing just fine, despite a complete lack of PP&R then or since.
In New York City yesterday, the People’s Forum, a pro-communist activist hub and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, funded by a Marxist tech mogul, Neville Roy Singham, made signs at an "art build" for a protest today against the "ongoing Nakba." Their Marxist comrades within the Party for Socialism and Liberation are fanning out across the country to rail against Israel’s existence.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a member of the Senate Judiciary and Finance Committees, told Fox News Digital that she is very concerned about the Chinese Communist Party and its sympathizers using the U.S. nonprofit industry to create an infrastructure to pull people together to undermine the United States.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Over almost a decade, Singham has funneled $278 million into a network of nonprofits, including the People’s Forum, CodePink and BreakThrough BT Media, which have organized a steady wave of anti-Israel protests in the United States, particularly after the brutal Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israelis by Hamas militants, and they are now supporting this year’s "Nakba 78" protests.
A Fox News Digital investigation identified the flow of Singham’s money into nonprofits promoting the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party, and U.S. Treasury, Justice, State Department officials are investigating their funding structures and operations in the U.S. Lawmakers in the House Judiciary, Oversight and Ways and Means committees are also investigating the Singham network and the nonprofits it supports for possibly violating laws that require agents of foreign interests to register with the Justice Department, as well as other possible improprieties.
A Fox News Digital investigation of mobilization materials, social media posts, event graphics, coalition lists and public announcements found that the "Nakba 78" campaign isn’t about a ceasefire to conflicts or a two-state solution, but the dismantling of the state of Israel itself.
The U.S. is the No. 1 hub for events with 187 events, followed by the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Canada, Spain, France, Ireland and Australia, all countries with organized Muslim and Palestinian diaspora communities.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, University of California, Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian
…Hamas BDS activist, founder and head of Jewish Voice for Peace, a large chunk of whose funding comes from the Soros Open Society Foundations …
is slated to speak at a three-day "Islam, Memory and the Nakba" conference in Burlingame, Oakland and Los Gatos. In Brooklyn, activists with the Palestinian Youth Movement, Al-Awda and Within Our Lifetime are continuing a "Nakba Week of Action" that included violent protests directed at Jews at Manhattan's Park East Synagogue and Brooklyn's Young Israel of Midwood earlier this week.
In London, police are preparing for a major "Nakba 78" march amid warnings about hate speech and public disorder. In Sydney, activists are calling demonstrators to town hall for a protest declaring, "Stop the Genocide! Free Palestine!"
ANTI-ISRAEL RHETORIC
Fox News Digital used a large-language model to analyze scores of "Nakba 78" protest literature and found that 85% of the protest language repeatedly parrots the language of U.S. adversaries, framing the United States as a "fascist" and "imperialist" nation and Israel as a "genocidal settler state," a "Zionist entity," a "Zionist project" and part of a "grand settler-colonial design," erasing any use of the country’s name. The other 15% frame the protests as "solidarity with Palestine."
The organizers’ materials call for "Unity, Liberation, Return," an arms embargo and end to U.S. aid to Israel and the "right of return" for millions of Palestinian in the diaspora, in a demand Israel’s defenders argue would demographically end Israel as a Jewish state. The chants on social media are filled with the battle cry to destroy Israel "from the river to the sea," a phrase that critics argue denies Israel its existence.
Under a working definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, criticism of Israel isn’t antisemitic, but antisemitism may include "denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination," including by claiming that Israel’s existence is a "racist" endeavor, applying double standards to Israel or comparing contemporary Israeli policy to that of "the Nazis." The definition isn’t legally binding but widely used by governments, law enforcement and civil society groups as an educational and analytical tool.
"Nakba 78" protesters reject that charge, framing their activism as "anti-Zionist," "anti-colonial" and "anti-imperialist."
The network analysis found that the Palestinian Youth Movement, which works closely with the far-left activists at the People’s Forum in midtown Manhattan, is a central organizing node across many North American events, appearing with socialist, Muslim, student and local activist partners in city after city. The Party for Socialism and Liberation, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and Democratic Socialists of America chapters provide an "anti-imperialist" infrastructure, while groups such as American Muslims for Palestine, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim American Society and Students for Justice in Palestine broaden the campaign into Muslim spaces.
The result is a synchronized campaign running on three tracks: street protest, ideological education and "agitprop," a Soviet-era tactic used to describe "agitation propaganda" designed to foment discord in a society.
COORDINATED GLOBAL PROTESTS
In New York City, organizers have structured the demonstrations as a "Nakba Week of Action," following clashes outside synagogues earlier this week involving groups including the Palestinian Youth Movement New York City, Al-Awda New York/New Jersey and Within Our Lifetime.
They plan to gather today at 4:30 p.m. in Washington Square Park, with the rallying cry, "RESISTANCE SINCE 1948," and another protest is set for 2 p.m. on Saturday at 72nd St and 5th Avenue in Bay Ridge, in a neighborhood filled with Muslim halal meat grocery stores and local mosques.
Within Our Lifetime, co-founded by a local activist Nerdeen Kiswani, has long been one of New York’s most confrontational anti-Israel groups. The Anti-Defamation League says Kiswani has promoted "extreme anti-Zionist rhetoric," including calls for "Zionists" to be excluded from community spaces.
Brooke Goldstein, executive director of The Lawfare Project, a nonprofit that challenges antisemitism in the courts, told Fox News Digital that authorities should closely monitor conduct at the demonstrations, particularly near Jewish institutions and places of worship.
"When there is assault, vandalism, trespass, obstruction, targeted harassment, discriminatory denial of access, or coordinated conduct that creates a hostile environment in schools, workplaces, or federally-funded institutions, this is action. Not protected speech," Goldstein said.
Goldstein said Jewish communal spaces are increasingly being treated "as proxies for the Israeli government," adding that authorities should closely watch for obstruction, intimidation and violence targeting Jewish communities.
In Los Angeles, a May 16 protest is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Israeli Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard, but organizers are calling the location the "Zionist Consulate." Local partners include the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the ANSWER Coalition – another major Marxist group in the Singham network – and Nodutdol, a pro-communist Filipino group. The materials reviewed by Fox News Digital describe the conflict as part of a "grand settler-colonial design" targeting "sovereignty and freedom" across the Middle East.
In Boston, the Palestinian Youth Movement Boston and the Party for Socialism and Liberation teamed up on Wednesday with the National Iranian American Council, which supports the theological regime that runs the Islamic Republic of Iran, for a teach-in, "Arab Gulf States and U.S. Imperialism," at the Boston Liberation Center in Roxbury, followed by an action today at 4 p.m. at the "Zionist consulate" on Washington Mall.
In Detroit and nearby Dearborn, Mich., the campaign fuses foreign policy with domestic economic grievances. In promoting their protests, the organizers accuse the U.S. and Israel of threatening "genocidal attacks" from Palestine to Iran and Lebanon, while arguing that "illegal wars" are driving up fuel prices and making basic needs harder for working-class Americans to afford.
‘AXIS OF RESISTANCE’
In Chicago, organizers from local chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and American Muslims for Palestine, two groups that UC Berkeley lecturer Bazian established, are rallying to also support the Islamic Republic of Iran and its "Axis of Resistance" against Israel and the U.S.
"What we are seeing is the spread of jihadist radical Islamist racist ideologies married to extreme-left Marxism," said Goldstein. She noted these groups "don’t agree on anything other than destroying America and killing Jews."
Internationally, the mobilization is also escalating. London police said the Nakba Day protest will form up in Exhibition Road in Kensington before marching to Waterloo Place via Brompton Road and Piccadilly, with a rally at the endpoint.
In Sydney, the site of an assault on Jewish worshipers earlier this year by a pair of father-son Muslim extremists, organizers plan a nationwide "Nakba Day" protest today at 6 p.m. at Town Hall, according to event listings, alleging Palestinians are living through "another modern day Nakba."
Across the materials, the "Nakba 78" label functions as more than a historical commemoration. It links 1948 to the present day, presenting Israel’s founding, U.S. support for Israel, the war in Gaza, and regional conflicts involving Iran, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq as one continuous struggle. Fox News Digital’s review found the repeated use of "ongoing Nakba," "78 years of genocide," "apartheid," "settler-colonialism," "U.S. imperialism" and "resistance" as unifying slogans.
Ziada said the alliance between the far-left and Islamists intensified after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas militants, creating a "moral umbrella" for the movement and giving organizers "moral legitimacy to go on and accelerate the process of destroying the West."
Ziada said that "they all agree on one thing, which is destroying the United States or weakening the western world."
Protests, marches, vigils, and solidarity actions in support of the Global Sumud Flotilla and Palestine — organised by delegations and partner groups, and people of conscience around the world.
So a Muslim Brotherhood project in concert with the Antifa/Black Bloc anarcho-communist syndicate, not merely Hamas or the PLO.
#1
"... describe the demonstrations as marking the "Nakba," an Arabic word for "catastrophe" used by Palestinians to describe the founding of Israel on May 14, 1948, the displacement of Palestinians and their historical grievance."
should add
and their aspirations for genocide of all Jews
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
05/15/2026 13:49 Comments ||
Top||
#2
and their historical grievance
Which has as much reality as US's "Black History", or "Herstory".
[IsraelTimes] Trump: US will get Iran’s uranium, but we need it ‘for public relations’; US House narrowly rejects bid to rein in Trump’s war powers; Netanyahu: ‘The regime of terror in Iran is weaker than ever’
US President Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election. Then he beat Kamala while dodging bullets... counted "the military decimation of Iran" among his administration’s accomplishments in a social media post on Thursday, adding, "to be continued!"
The phrase, included in a lengthy Truth Social post, suggested he may resume the war against 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... after he returns from his trip to China on Friday. A ceasefire took effect in the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Theocratic Republic in early April, though American-Iranian talks have yet to lead to an agreement.
"I am not going to be much more patient," Trump said in an interview aired on Thursday night on Fox News’ "Hannity" program. "They should make a deal."
But he also suggested that hunting down Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was primarily for political optics.
"I just feel better if I got it, actually, but it’s — I think, it’s more for public relations than it is for anything else," Trump said in the interview.
"The other thing we could do is bomb it again," he added. "But I, just, I would feel better getting it, and we will get it."
US Central Command head Admiral Brad Cooper said in testimony to a US Senate committee on Thursday that the war had significantly degraded Iran’s military capability but that it retained the ability to strike.
Tensions also remain high over the Strait of Hormuz, the key pathway for the global oil supply that Iran has blocked since the war began in late February. On Thursday, a ship anchored off the east coast of the United Arab Emirates was seized and was heading toward Iranian waters, the British military said, while India said a fat merchantman was sunk amid the battle over the strait.
Trump said earlier that Chinese President Xi Jinping had offered China’s help to open the strait, and pledged not to send military equipment to aid Iran in the war.
"He said he’s not going to give military equipment... he said that strongly," Trump told the "Hannity" show, after the two leaders met in Beijing. "He’d like to see the Hormuz Strait open, and said, ’If I can be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help.'"
After talks between Trump and Xi on Thursday, the White House said the leaders had agreed that the strait should be open and that Xi made clear China’s opposition to the militarization of the strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use.
He also expressed interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China’s future dependence on the strait, and the leaders agreed that Iran should never obtain nuclear weapons, the readout said.
Tehran denies seeking such weapons, but it has enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer affirmed on Friday that Chinese officials made clear that Beijing wants to see the strait reopen without restrictions or tolls and that Beijing will act pragmatically to limit military support for Iran.
"It’s really important for China to have the Strait of Hormuz open, no tolling, no military control, and that was clear from the meeting. So we welcome that," Greer told Bloomberg television in a live interview from Beijing.
"With respect to Chinese involvement with Iran, our view is the Chinese are being very pragmatic, and they don’t want to be on the wrong side of this," Greer added. "They want to see peace in that area. President Trump wants to see peace in that area. So we have a lot of confidence that they will do what they can to limit any kind of material support for Iran."
Trump is keen to elicit Chinese support to end a war that has become an electoral liability as it drags on towards key US midterm elections in November. But analysts doubt Xi will be willing to push Iran hard or end support for its military, given its value as a strategic counterweight to the US.
In an interview with CNBC from Beijing, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he believed China would "do what they can" to help open the strait, something "very much in their interest."
Before the war, about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies passed through the waterway. But diplomacy has been on hold since last week when Iran and the US each rejected the other’s most recent proposals.
US HOUSE REJECTS BID TO REIN IN TRUMP’S WAR POWERS
The Republican-led US House of Representatives narrowly defeated a Democratic-led resolution aiming to stop the war until hostilities are authorized by Congress, but the effort failed by the closest possible margin.
The House voted 212 to 212 on the war powers resolution, meaning it failed because it needed a majority to pass, despite more Republicans backing the effort than previously
Three of Trump’s fellow Republicans — Tom Barrett of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Thomas Massie of Kentucky — backed the resolution, and one Democrat — Jared Golden of Maine — opposed it.
It was the third House vote this year on an Iran war powers resolution, and the first since the conflict hit a 60-day deadline on May 1 for Trump to come to Congress about the war. Trump declared then that a ceasefire had "terminated" hostilities against Iran. There also have been seven failed votes in the US Senate.
The votes have been getting tighter, with Trump’s fellow Republicans holding just a slim majority in both chambers.
Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... have called on Trump to come to Congress for authorization to use military force in the Iran conflict, noting that the US Constitution says only the legislature, not the president, can declare war.
Republicans — and the White House — say Trump’s actions are legal and within his rights as commander-in-chief to protect the US by ordering limited military operations when the country faces an imminent threat.
NETANYAHU: ’THE REGIME OF TERROR IN IRAN IS WEAKER THAN EVER’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Israel’s military achievements against Iran and other foes in remarks at Ammunition Hill during the Jerusalem Day state ceremony on Thursday.
"The regime of terror in Iran is weaker than ever, and the State of Israel is stronger than ever," Netanyahu declared, adding, "We will continue to fight decisively against every threat of radical Islam."
Netanyahu repeated his assertion that if Israel had not launched military campaigns against Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs in June 2025 and earlier this year, "Iran would already possess a nuclear bomb today."
Netanyahu claimed successes in the recent conflicts against Iran and its terror proxies Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... and Hezbollah, saying, "The power we have projected on every front [and] the alliance — closer than ever — with President Trump’s administration in the United States, our determination to strike those who seek our destruction deep within their territory, far beyond our borders, the buffer zones we have created around us in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , Leb ...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , and Syria — all these have transformed the face of the Middle East."
[FoxNews] Former active-duty specialist allegedly defected in 2013 and provided classified national defense information to Tehran
The FBI announced Thursday it is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension and prosecution of Monica Witt, a former U.S. service member and counterintelligence agent who was indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia in February 2019 on charges of espionage, including transmitting national defense information to the Iranian government.
Witt, a former active-duty U.S. Air Force intelligence specialist and special agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, served in the military between 1997 and 2008, before working as a U.S. government contractor until 2010, according to a news release from the FBI Washington Field Office.
The 47-year-old's military service and contracting employment provided her access to secret and top secret information relating to foreign intelligence and counterintelligence, including the true names of U.S. Intelligence Community undercover personnel.
Officials allege that in 2013, Witt defected to Iran and provided information to the country's government, placing sensitive and classified U.S. national defense information and programs at risk, according to the indictment.
She allegedly intentionally provided information endangering U.S. personnel and their families stationed abroad, and conducted research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to target her former colleagues in the U.S. government.
The FBI said Witt’s defection to Iran has benefited the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has elements responsible for intelligence collection, unconventional warfare and providing direct support to multiple terrorist organizations targeting U.S. citizens and interests.
While Witt has been indicted for her alleged crimes, she remains at large. She is known to speak Farsi and reside in Iran, and may be using aliases, including Fatemah Zahra or Narges Witt.
The FBI said it is continuing to actively work to find Witt and bring her to justice.
"Monica Witt allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution more than a decade ago by defecting to Iran and providing the Iranian regime National Defense Information and likely continues to support their nefarious activities," said Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division.
"The FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iran’s history, there is someone who knows something about her whereabouts," Wierzbicki continued. "The FBI wants to hear from you so you can help us apprehend Witt and bring her to justice."
Anyone with information about Witt is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. Tips can also be shared with local FBI offices, the nearest American embassy or consulate, or submitted via tips.fbi.gov.
Posted by: NoMoreBS ||
05/15/2026 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[1837 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies
#1
Monica Witt After her 2012 conversion to Islam in Iran, Witt became increasingly focused on the religion and the region. Her master's degree capstone presentation lauded them both, and she was soon affiliated with Marzieh Hashemi, a suspected Iranian intelligence operative. With Hashemi's assistance, Witt defected to Iran in 2013 and provided the Islamic republic with assistance and intelligence stemming from her work for and with the US government.
#8
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met with Jonathan Pollard, who made aliyah after his release on parole. He flew on billionaire Sheldon Adelson's private jet and was met at the airport by Netanyahu.
#11
Mentioning Jonathan Pollard brings back a lot of memories for me. I spent 15 years in the Navy Reserve, spending several of my two week active duties at NISC (later NTIC) where Pollard worked for a while. I was probably there when he was.
Replace with lots more of the same, or choose something smaller/better/cheaper?
[AirForceTimes] The U.S. Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper fleet has fallen to roughly 135 aircraft as combat attrition from Operation Epic Fury cuts into the service’s most heavily used remotely piloted asset, the deputy chief of staff for plans and programs told senators Tuesday.
Lt. Gen. David Tabor told the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland that the fleet is “still able to fulfill our contract of 56 combat lines worldwide” despite the losses, and the service is seeking to backfill the inventory and field a cheaper, more expendable replacement. The 56 combat lines represent the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance orbits the Air Force maintains around the clock for combatant commanders worldwide.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., opened questioning at the Senate hearing by citing the long-standing 189-aircraft floor, leaving the current fleet roughly 54 aircraft short. He asked what the Air Force plans to do as the platform takes losses in the Middle East while remaining in heavy demand across other combatant commands.
Tabor did not address the 189 figure directly but noted that attrition has “really demonstrated the value of the MQ-9.”
“We are concerned about how they’ve attrited, and we’re looking at options to buy back as many of the MQ-9As as we possibly can right now,” Tabor said. The Air Force is working with the Department of Defense to fund the buyback this fiscal year, he said.
The longer-term work, Tabor said, falls to A5/7, the Air Force’s strategy, integration and requirements directorate. He turned the question over to Maj. Gen. Christopher Niemi, military deputy for Air Force Futures and the White House’s nominee to serve as the service’s first chief modernization officer.
Niemi confirmed that he signed off on a requirements document for the next-generation platform on May 11, framing the successor as a deliberate departure from the Reaper platform, designed from the outset for the kind of contested airspace that resulted in the Epic Fury losses.
“We believe what is possible is to take advantage of modern manufacturing technologies so that we could buy something that is more flexible, lends itself more to open architecture, is more easily [produced] in mass numbers,” Niemi said. ”And then ultimately you could use [it] in a more attritable way.”
The cost driver, Niemi said, is the Reaper’s sensor suite. A current MQ-9 with a full sensor package can run “up to $50 million a copy,” he said. A modular successor would allow the Air Force to strip out high-end packages for operation in high-threat environments, driving the price down to a point where losing one, or many, is operationally and financially feasible.
Lt. Gen. Luke Cropsey, military deputy for Air Force acquisition, said the service’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and special operations acquisition team issued a request for information about a month ago. More than 50 companies responded.
“There is a burgeoning interest across the broader defense industrial base on what comes next,” Cropsey said.
The April 14 solicitation, titled “Attritable ISR Aircraft,” seeks “low-cost, fast-to-field, fast-to-deploy, airborne ISR mass to increase mission flexibility and mission surging,” according to a copy of the document.
The service is looking for a threshold range of 200 km (objective: 1,500 km) from launch and recovery to the collection area, and a threshold loiter time of four hours (objective: 20).
Industry “production must be able to scale within months,” the RFI states.
Those specs suggest a smaller, simpler aircraft than the MQ-9, one that trades the Reaper’s exquisite sensor suite and long combat radius for cost, speed of fielding and what Niemi called “affordable mass” in his opening statement.
The math has shifted to match the threat.
The MQ-9 has been the Air Force’s workhorse drone for surveillance and strike missions in U.S. Central Command for nearly two decades, but the aircraft was built for the uncontested skies of the post-9/11 counterterrorism era.
Its losses during Operation Epic Fury have exposed the vulnerability Air Force planners have long understood but never been compelled to fix. The service shelved an earlier MQ-9 replacement effort, MQ-X, in 2012, and a 2020 request for information produced market research but no acquisition program.
The May 11 requirements document and the April 14 RFI together represent the furthest the Air Force has gone toward replacing the Reaper in more than five years.
The search for an MQ-9 successor is intended to follow the Collaborative Combat Aircraft acquisition model, Niemi said, which surveyed industry broadly, narrowed the field down to two companies that are now delivering flying prototypes for testing, and treated open architecture and autonomous operation as design requirements from the outset.
Cropsey said the industry’s response has been strong.
“We have enough interest to really get some, I think, interesting proposals back,” he said.
#3
The turbine is one of the most expensive component , so switching to a much cheaper engine would help. I thinking one of those APU turbines for a larger airliner might work out just fine.
[IsraelTimes] Over 50 vessels carrying 500 activists — including pair released earlier this week after being arrested on similar flotilla two weeks ago — head to Strip, with Israel readying for interception
Dozens of boats carrying activists and symbolic aid for Paleostinians
…and no doubt primarily more drugs and condoms, like the boat of the first half of this month’s flotilla…
set sail from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... ’s Mediterranean coast on Thursday in the latest attempt to break Israel’s naval blockade of 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... — just weeks after Israel intercepted a previous flotilla and detained two activists.
More than 50 vessels departed from the port in Marmaris in what the organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla described as the final leg of their journey to Gaza’s shores. Channel 12 said the flotilla is expected to arrive around Monday or Tuesday next week.
The Israeli Navy is set to intercept the boats, and in the past has done so well before the activists were able to get close to Gaza’s coast.
Israel has previously dismissed the flotillas as publicity stunts, after their organizers rejected calls to transfer the small amount of symbolic aid they had been carrying with them to Israel or international organizations to be taken into the Strip and distributed via official channels.
The Global Sumud Flotilla will be the third initiative in a year aiming at breaking an Israeli blockade on Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... -ruled Gaza, which has suffered severe shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel since the Paleostinian terror group invaded Israel in October 2023, sparking two years of war in the coastal enclave.
The flotilla is being led by Ottoman Turkish aid organization IHH,
…an organization of the Turkish branch of the Muslim Brotherhood…
which is designated in Israel as a terror organization and which organized the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla to Gaza.
The Navy is preparing for the possibility that the activists will be violent mostly peaceful and resist its efforts to intercept them should they continue on their course to Gaza, an Israeli security told news hounds.
In the Mavi Marmara incident, 10 Ottoman Turkish activists were killed in a violent mostly peaceful confrontation with Israeli naval commandos aboard a ship that aimed to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.
Israeli forces intercepted the second flotilla in international waters off Greece on April 30, expelling most of the 175 activists to Europe, but arrested two of them, who were held for 10 days.
Channel 12 said those two activists managed to make it back to Turkey in time after they were released by Israel on Sunday, and boarded the flotilla that departed on Thursday. Just like herpes, they're baaaack
Last month’s Israeli interception incident drew protests and condemnation from several countries and raised questions about what any nation can legally do to enforce a blockade in international waters. Israeli officials said they had to act early because of the high number of boats involved.
Israel took the two activists — Spanish-Swedish citizen of Paleostinian origin Saif Abukeshek and Brazilian citizen Thiago Ávila — back to Israel where they were interrogated and detained for several days. Brazil and Spain condemned Israel for "kidnapping" their citizens.
Organizers said the latest efforts involve a regrouped fleet following Israel’s interception, joined by additional boats. Nearly 500 activists from 45 countries are said to be taking part.
Last year, Israeli authorities blocked a similar attempt involving about 50 vessels and some 500 activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta "Pippi" Thunberg ...an autistic sixteen year old Swedish expert on climate change, though I guess she's older now... , Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela and several European politicians.
Israel arrested, detained and later deported the participants, who claimed Israeli authorities abused them. Israeli authorities denied the accusations.
Previous efforts to breach the blockade have also failed. The last time an activist boat succeeded in reaching the strip was in 2008.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Shamil Kerashev
[REGNUM] The situation in the Middle East, which remains far from stable, has been exacerbated by an unexpected scandal in Iraq. The country's parliament summoned the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Internal Affairs, and the heads of the intelligence agencies, suspected of concealing critical information, to emergency hearings.
The investigation was sparked by an article in the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, which reported that a secret base had been built in the deserted southwestern Iraqi province of Najaf to serve the Israeli Air Force.
It was allegedly deployed several months ago, when the Americans and Israelis were actively preparing for an operation against Iran. The result was not just some primitive airfield with a couple of runways, but a fully-fledged hub with satellite terminals, electronic warfare systems, command posts, and secure communications for drone operators.
If this is indeed the case, the base allowed the Israelis not only to significantly reduce the time it took to approach the Iranian border, but also to coordinate strikes while in the "blind spot" of Iranian air defense forces.
What about the Iraqi authorities? Was anyone in the republic's leadership aware that fighters from the Jewish state, officially designated as hostile by Baghdad, had established themselves on the outskirts of a remote governorate?
"This is a serious violation of our sovereignty, which for some reason was allowed by someone," says Iraqi MP Raed al-Maliki.
He also points out that the general public should have learned about the base not in mid-May, but much earlier—in early March. That's when a shepherd from Najaf reported unusual military activity to the police. He claimed to have witnessed several helicopters—clearly not local—rising "straight out of the sand" right before his eyes.
To be fair, there was certainly a reaction at that stage. A small group of Iraqi special forces was sent out to reconnoiter. However, none of them were able to approach the suspicious area: a series of airstrikes prevented them. Moreover, as a result of this attack, one soldier was fatally wounded.
"It appears that before the strikes, there were some troops in that area with air support. They proved too much for our units," stated Lieutenant General Qais al-Muhammadavi of the Iraqi Armed Forces' Joint Command.
However, there was no talk yet of an Israeli connection. Al-Muhammadavi himself was transparently hinting at the involvement of the United States, whose military facilities are present in the region on a legal or semi-legal basis. Washington responded with a dry, laconic denial—and that seemed to be the end of the story.
This new development, which poses a number of uncomfortable questions for Baghdad, is all the more intriguing. Chief among them: how did the Israelis manage to deliver military equipment to Najaf in the first place, given that they don't share a border with Iraq?
Middle East analysts are putting forward several hypotheses. The first, the most dubious, involves the delivery of the equipment through the airspace of Jordan, which, while formally at odds with its Western neighbor, has long been firmly integrated into the American-Israeli regional security system.
However, this objective fact never implied Jordanian open siding with the Jewish state. Therefore, direct—even passive—assistance to Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet would have been too risky for the kingdom.
The second theory shifts the focus northward to Iraqi Kurdistan. The elites of the autonomous federal region are largely independent from Baghdad, and their security forces are known to maintain trusting relationships with their Israeli counterparts. Theoretically, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) cargo planes could have easily traveled along the Syrian border to Erbil or Sulaymaniyah, and from there, the components for the base were presumably sent onward under the supervision of the Kurds themselves.
However, this assumption also has a critical flaw. For the radars and satellite receivers to reach Najaf from Kurdistan, they would have to be transported literally across Iraq from north to south. This lengthy route would inevitably pass by dozens of government checkpoints, Sunni enclaves, and, most importantly, patrol areas of the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi militia. They would hardly have turned a blind eye to an entire caravan of trucks escorted by Kurdish militias.
This is precisely why experts lean toward a third, far more realistic interpretation of events, according to which the approval for the deployment of the base was given by certain forces within Iraq itself. It's worth remembering here that a deep, systemic conflict has been simmering for years in the republic between the Ministry of Defense and the National Security Agency. The latter, formed with the direct participation of the CIA, traditionally works closely with foreign advisers and very rarely reports on its actions to the army's top brass.
Consequently, nothing would have prevented the security forces, playing their own game, from approving the construction of the notorious airbase—especially if the foreign customer had covered up their intentions with some kind of legend like “strengthening the fight against terrorists.”
Another issue is that now that the secret has been revealed, classic Middle Eastern conspiracy theories are coming to the forefront. The very ones that build on rumors of the total infiltration of Arab intelligence agencies by Mossad agents.
"We have no doubt that this foreign outpost on our soil continues to function in one way or another, and we are eager to understand what factors allowed the Israelis to expand so freely," said Shaker Abu Turab al-Tamimi, a representative of the Badr Organization political party.
Will public expressions of discontent be effective? It's no secret that modern Iraq's sovereignty is highly relative. The country is essentially a patchwork quilt, with a significant portion of territory outside the control of official state institutions, and real power dispersed among external actors and paramilitary movements whose interests often conflict.
But for the sake of completeness, it would be a good idea to understand why and on whose initiative the existence of the base in Najaf was declassified by The Wall Street Journal.
As is well known, this publication is considered one of the main mouthpieces of the American conservative establishment, close to the current Donald Trump administration. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that someone in the US president's team gave the go-ahead for the leak. This sent a signal to Israeli partners, who sometimes too conspicuously neglect to coordinate their actions with Washington.
[IsraelTimes] 3-day confab climaxes with vote for 18-member committee expected to play key role in post-Abbas era; PA president pans Israeli withholding of Ramallah’s funds in opening remarks
Paleostinian Authority 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....> ’s Fatah party on Thursday began a three-day conference to elect its highest leadership body for the first time in 10 years, as it faces existential challenges in the wake of 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... war.
In an address opening the conference in Ramallah, Abbas pledged to press ahead with reforms within the PA, saying he was prepared to hold long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections.
"We renew our full commitment to continuing work on implementing all the reform measures we pledged... We are ready to hold presidential and legislative elections," Abbas said in an address to the congress, though he did not provide a timeline for the vote.
"The Paleostinian people are the only people in the world living under occupation. Holding our conference today on our homeland’s soil confirms our determination to continue on the democratic path and open the way for youth and women," the 90-year-old veteran leader said.
Abbas and the Paleostinian Authority are under mounting pressure from the United States, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and Arab states to implement reforms and hold elections, amid widespread accusations of corruption, political stagnation, and the body’s declining legitimacy among Paleostinians.
The international community also wants the PA to play a key role in eventually running the Gaza Strip again after it was devastated in the war sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... invasion of southern Israel. Israel, however, bitterly opposes the involvement of the PA.
The conference is being attended by approximately 2,580 Fatah members, the majority of them in Ramallah, though several hundred are also spread across Gaza, Cairo and Beirut.
They are expected to elect 18 representatives to the Fatah Central Committee and 80 to the party’s parliament, known as the Fatah Revolutionary Council.
The Fatah Central Committee is expected to play a key role in the post-Abbas era, with many observers wondering whether he might finally step down after more than two decades at the helm, despite the lack of a clear successor.
’SERIOUS CHALLENGES’
The conference comes as the Paleostinian national movement faces some of its "most serious challenges in our struggle," Jibril Rajoub, the current secretary general of the Fatah Central Committee, told AFP ahead of the congress.
He expressed hope that the conference, repeatedly delayed, would contribute to "ensuring and protecting the establishment of a Paleostinian state on the world’s agenda and protecting the Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Paleostinian people."
Abbas, in his opening remarks, criticized Israel’s continued withholding of Paleostinian tax revenues that Jerusalem collects on the PA’s behalf. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has refused to sign off on the monthly transfers for over a year, preventing the PA from paying tens of thousands of employees, bringing the West Bank economy to the brink of collapse.
The amount of withheld funds — which are supposed to make up the majority of the PA’s budget — has climbed to over $5 billion.
"The continued holding of Paleostinian Authority funds by Israel is an unprecedented event that violates the agreements between the Paleostinian Authority and Israel, as well as international law," Abbas said in his Fatah conference address.
Abbas also criticized Israel over its actions in Gaza, saying: "What is happening in Gaza is an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe."
He also dismissed accusations of corruption against the Paleostinian Authority, saying they were vague and unsubstantiated. "No one should just say ’corruption’ and go to sleep. Give me the name of a specific person, and within five seconds, he will be under investigation," Abbas said.
One of the reforms most demanded by the international community was of the PA’s welfare system, which included payments to the families of snuffies and slain attackers.
Last year, Abbas signed a decree ending the policy, strictly conditioning welfare payments on the financial situation of the applicant, rather than their time served in prison.
A US State Department report from last month determined that the reform isn’t being properly implemented, though, the PA has rejected the findings, which relied on Israel and NGOs highly critical of Ramallah.
Fatah has historically been the main component of the PLO, which includes most Paleostinian factions but excludes terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... over their refusal to accept the group’s charter, which includes recognition of Israel and support for a two-state solution.
In recent decades, Fatah’s popularity and influence have dwindled amid internal divisions and growing public frustration over the stagnation of the Israeli-Paleostinian grinding of the peace processor.
The sense of disappointment led to a surge in support for rival Hamas, which made huge political gains in the West Bank in 2006 elections that it won handily, before going on to expel Fatah from the Gaza Strip almost entirely after a bout of factional fighting.
Hani al-Masri, director of the Paleostinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies (Masarat), told AFP that Fatah now merely uses the PLO to provide itself with legitimacy, "a legitimacy that is eroding in the absence of a unified national project, elections and national consensus."
Rajoub nonetheless declared that the conference was a first step towards "putting the Paleostinian house in order, to build a partner for establishing a [Paleostinian] state."
SUCCESSION
Fatah is the main party within the PA, which much of the international community views as a natural partner in rebuilding and running the Gaza Strip after the devastating war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack.
But Fatah remains marginalized in the territory, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed that it, the PA and Hamas will have no role in post-war governance.
Instead, a new government of Paleostinian technocrats has been established to replace Hamas in Gaza, though the panel’s entry into the Strip has been stalled by the terror group’s refusal to give up its weapons.
Despite repeated declarations from Fatah that it is working as a "united front," major figures are absent from Thursday’s conference, notably Nasser al-Kidwa, a key Paleostinian leader who is boycotting the gathering.
"This conference is illegitimate, and this leadership that has usurped power is illegitimate, and its time is up," said Kidwa, a nephew of late Paleostinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Key figures competing to replace Abbas include Rajoub and PA deputy Hussein al-Sheikh.
Meanwhile,
...back at the dirigible, the gondola was dangling by a single thread of rope.
Jack! Cynthia cried. I just realized I'm afraid of heights! I don't even like high heels!... the president’s eldest son, Yasser Abbas, is on the ballot to join the central committee, having risen in prominence over recent years after he was named the president’s special representative despite often residing outside of the West Bank.
Among others present on Thursday were Zakaria Zubeidi — the former head of Fatah’s military wing in Jenin who had been serving a life sentence in Israel for involvement in attacks in which Israelis were killed and was released in the October 2025 hostage deal — as well as Arab Israeli MK Ahmad Tibi.
[TWZ] Fresh off extensive combat operations against Iran, Israel is boosting the F-35I Adir’s endurance with external fuel tanks that will also reduce dependence on tanker aircraft.
[IsraelTimes] Top US military commander in Mideast tells Senate committee that Tehran’s defense industry set back by 90%, but IRGC remains major force running Iran
Iran’s ability to threaten its neighbors and US interests has been dramatically reduced by US bombings, and Tehran’s defense industry has been set back by 90%, a senior US admiral said on Thursday.
However,
a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... US Central Command head Admiral Brad Cooper conceded during testimony before the US Senate Armed Services Committee that 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... still maintains a "very moderate if not small capability to continue strikes" in the region and that Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is still a major force in running the country.
In response to questions from Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Cooper also said the US has the military power to permanently reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
However,
a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... when Slotkin pressed on why Cooper hasn’t done so, especially amid rising gas prices for Americans, Cooper deferred to policymakers amid ongoing peace negotiations.
In response to questions from Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, about who’s in charge in Iran, Cooper said the Revolutionary Guard is still "exercising significant authority."
However,
a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... Cooper deferred to diplomats and negotiators on whether the paramilitary force is part of the peace negotiations.
The CENTCOM head sought to underscore the tactical successes of the military campaign against Iran that he oversaw and said the war had dramatically reduced the danger posed by that country to the broader Middle East.
Cooper declined to directly address mounting news reports that Iran, which stockpiled arms in underground facilities, had retained significant missile and drone capabilities. Those reports cited US intelligence sources. Obama/Biden Deep State leakers
"Iran has a significantly degraded threat, and they no longer threaten regional partners, or the United States, in ways that they were able to do before, across every domain," Cooper told the US Senate committee.
Cooper also said Iran was no longer able to transfer arms and other resources to its main allies in the region: Hezbollah in Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... , the Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... and Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... . "Those transfer paths and methods have been cut off."
Last week, the Washington Post reported that the CIA recently told US President Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... ’s administration that Iran can withstand the ongoing US naval blockade for at least three to four months before severe economic hardship takes hold.
"The leadership has gotten more radical, determined and increasingly confident they can outlast US political will and sustain domestic repression to check any resistance" inside Iran, a US official told the Post. "Comparatively, you see similar regimes lasting years under sustained embargoes and airpower-only wars."
Iran also has managed to retain 75% of its mobile missile launchers and 70% of its missiles, according to a document cited in the report. Almost all of its underground storage facilities have reportedly been restored and reopened as well.
Relatedly, Cooper told the Senate committee on Thursday that American forces have stopped using high-end munitions to shoot down Iran’s drones, Cooper told the committee.
The nation’s limited stockpiles of expensive weapon systems, including advanced missile interceptors, have become a lightning rod during the Iran war. American forces were using them to defend against Iranian drones. But Cooper says the US military is now using lower-cost munitions.
The admiral said Iran only has 10% of its drones left. Despite a fragile month-long ceasefire, skirmishes have flared between Iranian and American forces.
Cooper also said that American forces have learned a lot from the Ukrainian military, which is battle-hardened from its war with Russia.
"We adopted a large number of tactics, techniques and procedures that the Ukrainians have passed us that have helped us defend Americans," Cooper said.
Ukraine has passed on expertise to the US, specifically regarding anti-drone warfare. Iran had launched swarms of drones against US and allied forces, killing some Americans.
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 tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
..always the voice of sweet reason...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
