[Aish] A Yale-trained anthropologist, Adam Louis-Klein emerged from the Amazon to find his academic world celebrating a hate movement. He is using his background in anthropology to fight antizionism.
Adam Louis-Klein was a left-wing Yale philosophy grad, conducting fieldwork among indigenous Amazonians for his PhD in anthropology. Completely cut off from the world, he finally got online, and the horrors of October 7th hit him like a freight train -- and what he saw in his own academic circles shook him even more. Today he runs one of the most effective anti-antizionism organizations in the Jewish world. This is how he got there.
Adam was born in London and grew up in Seattle. He had a Bar Mitzvah, visited Israel, and was involved in Jewish life at Yale, but after college he drifted away from Judaism entirely.
The entire antizionist narrative, he saw, rested on a single claim: that Jews are foreign colonizers in the Land of Israel.
"I joined a far-left group called Socialist Alternative," he says. "I was very into communism." His undergraduate degree was in philosophy, and he became obsessed with Alain Badiou, a French Maoist philosopher. After Yale, he pursued a Master''s in philosophy, then another in anthropology. Along the way, he discovered The Amazonian Cosmos by anthropologist Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, a dense, metaphysical account of an ancient indigenous cosmology. He was hooked.
When Adam began his Ph.D. at McGill University in Montreal, he decided to dedicate his dissertation to the Desano people described in Reichel-Dolmatoff''s book. Through American Christian missionaries active in the region, he found his way to a small Desano village deep in the Amazon.
Life there was stark. "I drank rainwater out of a huge bucket. I bathed in the river every single day." He stayed in a ramshackle health post meant for visiting medical professionals, with windows that wouldn''t close and bats in the rafters. He was an outsider in every sense. "It was probably the loneliest experience of my life," he says. "I was seen as a completely alien being." Every day, he walked to the village pavilion and listened to the elders tell the stories of their people.
The Desano, it turned out, consider themselves a chosen people with a special affinity for Jews. Some indigenous tribes even claim descent from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. "When I told the Chief I was Jewish, that was how we connected," Adam says.
Spending time with the Desano gave Adam a new lens on indigeneity itself. The Desano trace their origins to a sacred homeland where they once lived under a single chief. Eventually there was conflict, dispersal, diaspora — and they even displaced another tribe in the process. "There''s immigration, war, displacement," Adam says, "but no one''s going to call the Desano settler colonists because immigration, displacement, and war are just history."
What defines an indigenous people, he came to understand, isn''t that they never moved. It''s that a sacred territory anchors their identity, history, and culture. That insight would soon become central to everything.
RETURN TO CIVILIZATION
On October 9th, 2023, Adam connected to the internet for the first time in months. "The first thing I saw was the news of the massacre," he says. "And the second thing was how people in my left-wing academic environments were reacting. What I saw was so shocking and so immoral. I saw that this was a hate movement. It was unlike anything I''d ever witnessed in my life."
He was watching it from the inside of academia. Shortly after October 7th, his anthropology department began organizing a series of talks about genocide 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... , seemingly before Israel had even mounted a significant military response.
There was no seemingly about it. There I was, in the middle of a massage even as Hamas was rampaging through the kibbutzes, and my gentle, sweet massage therapist of a decade — who’d long since become the kind personal friend with whom I discussed comparative religion and history, and who worried about my mother — was fretting about those poor Palestinians who were going to suffer unfairly when the Israelis eventually took vengeance… without the slightest concern about the Jewish babies who were at that moment being cooked on the stove while their sisters were roped so hard their pelvises broke before they died. She was completely flabbergasted that I became so upset that I walked out and haven’t been back. Here at Rantburg we discovered that the pro-Palestinian student groups were ordered to prepare for action shortly before 10/7
Outside academia, no one was using that word yet. "Little by little, this eventually made its way to the New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... ," Adam says.
His training as an anthropologist gave him an immediate clarity that others lacked. The entire antizionist narrative, he saw, rested on a single claim: that Jews are foreign colonizers in the Land of Israel. "It's not a fringe belief," he says. "It's the foundational element of antizionist ideology."
And to someone who had spent months studying indigenous peoples, that claim made no sense. "The settler colonial reading was erasing Jewish indigeneity. Jews have migrated around the world, but Israel is their homeland — the sacred site through which Jews have defined their identity throughout history. Jews are an ethno-religious people, not simply a faith disconnected from peoplehood."
TAKING A STAND
Even though his social circles dismissed anything that challenged their ideology, Adam decided to speak out. "I thought it was important to use the critical skills I had learned in the academy — post-colonialism, anthropology, indigeneity — to speak back against this hate movement."
He approached antizionism the way he would any cultural system: as a trained anthropologist analyzing an ideology. That's how he began identifying what he calls the foundational erasures and inversions on which antizionism is built.
When Adam shared his writing on social media, he was bombarded with hate mail. "Some people told me they didn't want to speak to me anymore. Some harassed me and screamed at me. Some of my mentors and intellectual heroes publicly humiliated me. Little by little, I was purged by my whole community. I don't speak to anyone in the academy anymore."
What kept him going was knowing exactly how the narrative had been constructed. "It wasn't the way the war progressed that made it inevitable that people would conclude genocide was happening. The narrative was already there. Academia granted it authority, and mainstream media picked it up and exploited it."
[GaroweOnline] Somalia's presidency signed a year-long contract with a U.S. lobbying firm to strengthen relations with Washington and promote President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's policies in the United States, according to documents filed with the U.S. government.
The agreement registered under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) shows that Arsenal Government and Public Affairs Group (AGPAG) was contracted by Villa Somalia on Sept. 10, 2025.
Under the contract, AGPAG agreed to help facilitate meetings between Somali officials and members of the U.S. administration or officials linked to the State Department, while also seeking media opportunities to promote Mohamud's policies and improve Somalia's image in the United States.
The documents state that the firm's work included developing media engagement aimed at highlighting Somalia's priorities during the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... The filing also identifies political consultant Roger Stone Jr. as an adviser working with the Somali government on outreach efforts in the United States.
According to the contract, AGPAG is to receive a monthly retainer of $44,000 for 12 months, paid in advance quarterly. Reasonable work-related expenses are to be reimbursed separately.
The documents also state that the firm's work included arranging a television interview for Mohamud that aired on Newsmax on Oct. 15, 2025, focusing on security cooperation between Somalia and the United States.
The Somali government did not immediately comment on the filing. Lobbying by foreign governments in Washington is legal but requires public disclosure under FARA.
#1
Can anyone tell me why we should have any ties with these POS SPOOKs for any reason?
Posted by: Chris ||
07/05/2026 4:29 Comments ||
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#2
Under the contract, AGPAG agreed to help facilitate meetings between Somali officials and members of the U.S. administration or officials linked to the State Department, while also seeking media opportunities to promote Mohamud's policies and improve Somalia's image in the United States.
#8
FARA-registered agents are legal, like it or not. The problem would be if they were NOT registered under FARA.
Posted by: Jack Guelph2611 ||
07/05/2026 11:04 Comments ||
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#9
Any politician or public office holder that works with these firms need to declare being a foreign agent and removed from government. If not, arrest them and hang them for treason.
#11
They need lobbyists because President Trump is cutting off their funding — or at least the American portion of their funding — at the end of calendar 2026.
[GaroweOnline] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... plans to use its planned space launch facility in Somalia to test domestically developed hypersonic missiles capable of striking targets up to 2,000 kilometres away, French newspaper Le Monde reported.
According to the report, Ankara sees Somalia's Indian Ocean coastline as an ideal location for missile and space launch activities, expanding the strategic role of the facility beyond its publicly announced purpose as a satellite launch centre.
The newspaper said the spaceport, initially presented as a civilian project for launching satellites, would also serve as a testing ground for long-range missile systems, including hypersonic weapons under development by Turkey.
The report added that Israel views the project as a potential threat to its national security and is closely monitoring developments, amid growing regional concerns over Turkey's expanding military footprint in the Horn of Africa.
Le Monde also said that Somaliland ...Republic of Somaliland is an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as a de jure part of Somalia. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. Under the Siad Barre regime, Somaliadestroyed ninety percent of Hargeisa Per international law, once you're in, you gotta stay in, no matter how bad it smells.... , which it described as receiving military support from Israel, lies within the operational range of missiles that could be tested from the planned facility in Somalia.
Neither the Ottoman Turkish nor the Somali governments have publicly confirmed that the spaceport will be used for missile testing, and Israel has not officially commented on the specific claims reported by Le Monde.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/05/2026 2026-07-05 03:13 ||
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[2010 views]
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#1
"Somalia Spaceport" seems like a contradiction of terms
[ShabelleMedia] Somalia’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ali Balcad, has strongly rejected a new report by the International Crisis Group warning that al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... has regained territory in 2025.
In a post on X, Balcad said Somalia is often portrayed in international policy and research circles as a failed state unable to secure itself, rebuild institutions, or govern effectively.
"This is an incomplete and unfair picture," he said.
He added that the federal government, led by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, has in the past four years simultaneously pursued three major national priorities: the fight against al-Shabaab, rebuilding national security forces, and advancing constitutional review aimed at strengthening state-building and preparing for elections.
"It is difficult to succeed in even one of these tasks in a country emerging from conflict. Somalia is attempting all three at once while still in active war and with declining international financial support," he said.
The International Crisis Group report warned that internal political tensions and reduced international assistance have increased pressure on Somalia’s government, raising questions over its capacity to withstand future security challenges.
It said al-Shabaab had made significant military gains in 2025, retaking much of the territory seized by government forces during offensives in 2022—2023 in central Somalia.
The report added that Somali security forces have consolidated positions around Mogadishu, but large parts of central regions remain under the group’s control, creating a protracted stalemate in the conflict.
ICG also noted that al-Shabaab has adjusted its governance approach in areas under its control, seeking to improve relations with local communities and reduce overt coercion, a shift it said has helped the group strengthen its influence.
The think tank urged Somalia to reform military training, improve recruitment and retention of soldiers, and deepen coordination with federal member states in counterinsurgency planning.
It also called for strengthening state-level forces to hold recaptured territory and said non-military measures, including increased humanitarian assistance in al-Shabaab-held areas, could form part of a longer-term solution.
The report concluded that a political settlement remains the best path to ending Somalia’s long-running conflict, urging continued exploration of dialogue options while noting the war remains in a stalemate marked by alternating government advances and Death Eater counterattacks.
[IsraelTimes] Egypt expects to receive €1.5 billion ($1.72 billion) from the European Union in the coming days, the first of two remaining tranches of a €5 billion macro-financial assistance package, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty says.
Speaking at a press conference in Egypt’s new administrative capital alongside European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica, Abdelatty says the outstanding €3 billion will be disbursed in two equal tranches of €1.5 billion each.
He says Cairo hopes the last payment will be transferred by the start of the autumn.
The EU has so far disbursed €2 billion of the package, having transferred an initial €1 billion tranche in January 2025 and a second €1 billion earlier this year.
The macro-financial assistance forms part of a broader €7.4 billion funding deal the EU announced in 2024, which also includes €5 billion in concessional loans.
[IsraelTimes] Hind Rajab Foundation, which has filed dozens of complaints against IDF soldiers abroad, claims visiting combat engineer’s posts show ‘public endorsement’ of demolition operations
The Hind Rajab Foundation
…another Hezbollah front project, launched in 2024 in Belgium by one Dyab Abou Jahjah. It’s a lawfare boiler room generating endless lawsuits and demands for arrests against Israelis daring to travel outside their country on the pretext that as Israeli soldiers they must have committed war crimes. This is why one mustn’t post travel information on social media until back home…
said Friday that it filed a complaint in Rome accusing an Israeli man of war crimes 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... The man is believed to be in Italia, the pro-Paleostinian, anti-Israel group said, calling on Italian authorities to invoke their "universal jurisdiction over international crimes."
The Brussels-based legal group, which is named for a 6-year-old Gazook girl killed in January 2024, has over the past two years filed dozens of criminal complaints against Israeli soldiers and officials who are visiting or stationed abroad.
In a statement Friday, the group claimed social media posts by the Israeli man, who was said to have served in the Combat Engineer Corps’ 749th Battalion, proved his complicity in alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide.
The foundation said the posts feature "videos of demolitions and photographs of him handling detonation cables. These materials demonstrate not only his direct involvement in the demolition operations, but also his public endorsement of them."
The statement did not say if Italian authorities were acting on the complaint, nor did any Italian media report on such action.
It was the fourth time the foundation has filed a war crimes complaint against an IDF soldier in Italia, according to the Walla news site.
Israel vehemently denies it has committed war crimes or genocide during the war that followed the Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... -led onslaught of October 7, 2023. The IDF says it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities, stressing that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields.
The Hind Rajab Foundation, which regularly uses social media posts by Israeli troops to file complaints about them abroad, has sparked alarm within Israel, prompting the IDF to create new privacy rules.
The group has spurred European authorities to detain a number of IDF soldiers, and forced a soldier visiting Brazil to flee back to Israel fearing arrest. However,
there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... it has been unsuccessful in court, and no soldier targeted by the group has been prosecuted for war crimes or any other alleged offenses committed in Gaza.
[JustTheNews] Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he plans to formally designate more than 90 organizations as foreign terrorist organizations in a sweeping antiterrorism measure.
After signing HB 1471 into law, DeSantis says he has greater statutory authority to identify, designate, and combat terrorist organizations operating in Florida.
The groups he plans to designate as FTOs include the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Brotherhood, Antifa and more than 90 groups, including Mexican cartels. His actions follow Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who began making FTO designations four years ago.
On your mark… Get set… Go git ‘em!!
HB 1471 follows an executive order DeSantis issued last December directing state agencies “to eliminate the influence of radical terrorist ideologies and organizations operating in Florida.” He previously designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as FTOs via executive order and directed state agencies to deny taxpayer funding, contracts, employment, and other public support associated with the groups.
Quietly doing the right things right. The man is an inspiration.
DeSantis’ announcement came three months after a federal judge struck down his executive order and after Abbott designated CAIR as an FTO. CAIR sued DeSantis and Abbott.
In the Florida case, the parties didn’t engage in discovery, no hearings were held and CAIR filed a motion for preliminary injunction, which the judge granted. The judge said CAIR had shown a substantial likelihood of succeeding in its case based on the merits, The Center Square reported.
That’s because the judge doesn’t read Rantburg. If he did, he’d know better.
In the Texas case, the parties are involved in discovery and in May, a federal judge handed Abbott a win, The Center Square reported.
HB 1471 creates “a permanent statutory framework to combat terrorism while protecting the constitutional rights of Floridians,” DeSantis said in a statement. It establishes a formal terrorist designation process through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement; prevents taxpayer-funded institutions from supporting or promoting FTOs;
…no more money for CAIR to run training seminars for government departments? Good. That was a mistake President George W. Bush made...
ensures foreign or religious legal codes cannot override the U.S. or Florida constitutions;
…ie. no deferring to Sharia law…
creates state enforcement mechanisms and criminal penalties for providing material support to FTOs and authorizes the governor and his cabinet to issue FTO designations.
DeSantis, like Abbott, has also taken action to eliminate foreign influence within public institutions. This includes prohibiting colleges and universities from entering into agreements with institutions affiliated with foreign countries of concern, restricting the use of taxpayer funds for programs benefiting foreign adversaries,
…no Qatari or Chinese money? Unthinkable!
and taking action to prevent extremist organizations from operating on public campuses.
… the pro-Palestine/antizionist protest groups. Whew!
DeSantis says he intends to formally designate CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood, Antifa, the Sinaloa, Gulf and del Noreste cartels, the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, among others, as FTOs.
It sounds like he’s looking at those we watch. The entire list will be interesting.
He is also asking for confirmation of his FTO designations from his cabinet. Once they provide confirmation, he said his FTO designations “will carry the full force of state law.”
“State and local governments will be prohibited from providing taxpayer funding, contracts, or other public support” to FTOs, he said. Public colleges, universities, school districts, and other publicly funded institutions will also be prohibited from using public resources to support or promote FTOs, he added.
FTOs may also be subject to dissolution and anyone who knowingly provides material support or resources to the groups he designates as FTOs will face criminal penalties, he said.
Several of the organizations on the list he mentioned have already been designated as FTOs by the Trump administration, including TdA, Mexican cartels and others.
Abbott designated TdA members as FTOs in Texas two years ago. He designated Mexican cartels as FTOs four years ago, The Center Square reported.
[IsraelTimes] Eurovision boss Martin Green rules out holding any future vote on Israel’s participation in the annual song contest and denies that the competition is facing financial difficulties due to an Israel-related boycott.
“That’s done. The membership spoke conclusively,” Green tells the Variety entertainment news site in an interview. “Almost 70 percent made their decision that they believe that public service broadcasters are not responsible for the actions of their government, and that [Israeli broadcaster] Kan should be allowed to participate.”
A number of anti-Israel public broadcasters forced a vote last year on Israel’s participation, and after a majority of members chose to keep Kan in the contest, five countries backed out in protest: Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain — which had been a member of the “Big Five” countries that contribute more financially.
The Eurovision director declined to comment on whether he expected any of the boycotters to return next year, and says he is unaware of any countries planning to join them.
Green also denies that Spain’s exit has strained the competition’s finances.
“It’s bollocks,” he says, using vulgar British slang. “Eurovision has a really robust model and it has over the 70 years weathered what the world tried to throw at it. So we’ll be around for many, many, many, many, many years to come.”
He also dismisses a New York Times report earlier this year asserting that Israel was manipulating the competition and its voting.
“I thought it was just a sort of rehash of lots of bits and pieces,” he says of the article. “We had a fully validated vote again this year. We saw no evidence of undue large-scale paid promotion, we saw no evidence of anything untoward in our voting at all. ”
After being cleared to compete, Israel sent Noam Bettan to this year’s competition in Vienna, where he finished in second place.
[WashingtonFreeBeacon] Several major media organizations with seats on the board are declining to comment.
The internal chaos roiling the Committee to Protect Journalists deepened late Wednesday, when the embattled advocacy group’s board of directors—under fire for the anti-Israel bias of several members, including the vice chair—voted to affirm that "organizations affiliated with turban groups" meet the criteria of a legitimate journalistic outlet "provided they are not engaging in combat or inciting violence in a manner likely to have imminent effect." "You have to actually change clothes, then it's OK"
The CPJ’s board voted 17 to 1 in favor of keeping this contentious definition, according to one person familiar with the situation, with Fox News’s representative casting the lone no vote. The CPJ’s influential list of "Journalist Casualties in the Israel-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," which has been used by news organizations to discredit Israel’s war effort, contains dozens of names of military operatives for Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... and other terror groups.
In recent weeks, a drumbeat of revelations—often from Hamas itself—that slain "journalists" on the list were active combatants, has thrown the New York-based CPJ into turmoil and infighting. This week the board expelled anti-Israel heiress Nika Soon-Shiong after a heated meeting centered on a Washington Free Beacon article on the group’s woes, according to Soon-Shiong’s public tweets.
The CPJ declined to comment on the board’s vote or provide any information on which members opposed altering the organization’s criteria, only telling the Free Beacon that it "cannot comment on board deliberations and [has] no further comment" beyond a Wednesday evening statement. None of the major media outlets that sit on the CPJ’s board—including the New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... , Fox News, Rooters, NBC News, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named, Condé Nast, Bloomberg, and the Financial Times—responded to Free Beacon questions about their position on the vote or whether they, too, consider "organizations affiliated with turban groups" to be legitimate journalistic actors.
The CPJ was founded in 1981 to defend press freedom worldwide, but in the last few years, it has evolved into a group focused narrowly on the war in Gaza, with many board members having evinced strong, anti-Israel or even antisemitic views and with its list being used as a key source for a hotly contested May Times article that made outlandish claims about Israeli soldiers raping Paleostinian journalists with a carrot and a dog.
Wednesday evening’s board vote marked a decisive win for a large cohort of CPJ board members who are vocal anti-Israel activists and who pressured the organization to stand firm against a torrent of criticism over its Gaza list, which has included dozens of confirmed military operatives for Hamas and other jihadist groups. Those who celebrated the decision included Soon-Shiong, daughter of the pharmaceutical billionaire and Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, and board vice chair Lydia Polgreen, the anti-Israel Times polemicist. But as major media outlets who sit on the CPJ’s board remain mum following the vote, it appears the ongoing controversy has fomented more chaos than the advocacy group is letting on publicly.
The internal feud first spilled into public view on Monday evening, when Soon-Shiong, the publisher of the far-left outlet Drop Site News, revealed that she was booted from the CPJ’s board in the wake of the Free Beacon report on her anti-Israel activism. A few days prior, the CPJ announced that it is conducting a "full review of its database" after Hamas and other terrorist groups publicly claimed many of the slain "journalists" as their own, though the status of that review remains unclear given the board’s Wednesday vote. The board’s public statement after the vote did not mention its previously announced "full review."
Though the CPJ has acknowledged deleting at least 20 names from its list following confirmation that those individuals were armed terrorist operatives, others remain. Mohammed Samir Washah, a correspondent for Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... -controlled Al Jazeera, is still touted as a working news hound on the CPJ’s website, even though he was killed in April by Israel for acting as "a key terrorist in Hamas' rocket and weapons production headquarters," according to the Israel Defense Forces. Washah’s brother, fellow Al Jazeera photojournalist Ahmed Samir Muhammad Washah, was killed late last month in a similar strike for planning "advanced sniper attack plans and additional terrorist activities against IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip."
The CPJ’s decision to stay the course earned a defiant statement from Polgreen, who declared Wednesday evening on X that the organization’s "mission and the work remain unchanged."
"There has been a great deal of false and speculative information about @pressfreedom in the past few days," Polgreen, an opinion columnist and former Times associate managing editor, wrote. "Today, the board voted to affirm our definition of who is a journalist. The mission and the work remain unchanged: protecting journalists everywhere." Associate managing editors, known as "masthead," are the most senior editorial officials at the Times.
Soon-Shiong also celebrated the decision online.
"This is fantastic news," she wrote on X. Soon-Shiong also retweeted a post from veteran anti-Israel activist and former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth, who claimed, "It is a dangerous business to exclude journalists because they work for a designated ’terrorist’ organization."
Couldn’t be plainer than that, I suppose.
The Wednesday evening statement posted on the CPJ’s website made clear that the board voted to "affirm the organization’s existing definition of who is a journalist and rejected claims it planned to change its definition to exclude particular groups."
The organization added: "CPJ’s longstanding policy has been to include journalists working for state-backed media and those working with media organizations affiliated with turban groups provided they are not engaging in combat or inciting violence in a manner likely to have imminent effect. This approach is anchored in international humanitarian law. CPJ has never included, and removes from its lists, anyone found to be engaging in combat or inciting imminent violence." Watchdog groups like HonestReporting, however, have cited dozens of examples in which the CPJ included confirmed forces of Evil on its list and, in some cases, quietly removed those names without contemporaneous acknowledgment.
CPJ board chair Jacob Weisberg, the husband of former Times style editor Deborah Needleman, said the organization never even considered altering its definition, though former board member Soon-Shiong suggested on Monday that this was the case in light of the Free Beacon’s previous reporting.
"It is not true that CPJ planned to change our definition of who is a journalist to exclude slain Paleostinian and Lebanese press killed in the Israel-Gaza war," Weisberg said in a statement. "Such unsubstantiated allegations undermine the rigorous documentation of our Middle East and North Africa program over many years, while endangering Paleostinian and Lebanese journalists documenting events on the ground today."
Weisberg added that the board "stands fully with the staff of CPJ, whose difficult daily work of documenting attacks on journalists is today more important than ever, and with all journalists wrongly smeared and maligned for doing their jobs." The CPJ would not explain when asked if this statement referred to the dozens of Gaza journalists who are now known to be active members of Hamas and other allied terrorist groups like Paleostinian 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... HonestReporting, a media watchdog group that has documented the CPJ’s inclusion of confirmed forces of Evil on its slain journalists list, said the organization is employing a definition "so broad as to include almost anyone."
"What do professional journalists think of the notion that anyone who comments anywhere, on anything, in any medium, is a journalist? In CPJ’s estimation, someone who writes a terrorist manifesto on the back of a napkin and posts a picture to their 6 followers on social media is as much a journalist as someone who has spent 20 years honing their craft, breaking stories and informing their readers," HonestReporting said in a statement to the Free Beacon. "CPJ may believe that saying journalists and forces of Evil are one and the same will protect everyone, whether a legitimate civilian or a terrorist operative. In reality, it does the opposite. It takes a situation where only forces of Evil are in danger and places all journalists in harm’s way."
[IsraelTimes] An IDF reservist has been arrested on suspicion that he illegally sold and possessed weapons, the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police say in a joint statement.
The reservist was found to have a Kalashnikov rifle, a sniper rifle, and ammunition during a search of his Netivot home this week, according to the statement.
He is now in the custody of the IDF Military Police as the investigation continues.
Some for crime and some for jihad against Israel. Goody.
[IsraelTimes] The government is set to divert funds from the five-year development program for Arab society established under the Bennett-Lapid government to the Shin Bet to help tackle the causes behind the rampant crime in the Arab community, according to a Ynet report, following similar reports by Channel 12 and 13.
This would mark the first time the Shin Bet is tasked with tackling the issue, but it will focus on finding illegal weapons in the Arab community and combatting smuggling, since the agency is prohibited by law from actively dealing with crime in that sector.
There is some NIS 1.3 billion ($433.5 million) left from the five-year development plan, which Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs has reportedly said will be redirected to the Shin Bet.
[IsraelTimes] Israeli official says meet 'might take place week after' upcoming NATO summit; Netanyahu praises US as 'force of liberty' on its 250th birthday
[IsraelTimes] The Defense Ministry warns that Israel’s system for rehabilitating wounded soldiers could “collapse” under the weight of the growing number of casualties, urging the government to immediately implement the recommendations recently made by a public committee.
Marking 1,000 days since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, the ministry says approximately 26,200 wounded IDF soldiers and security personnel have sought treatment through its Rehabilitation Department since the war began, up from a tally of 25,000 just last month. Some 65 percent are receiving care for psychological conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and difficulties surrounding reintegration into civilian life.
The ministry says the total number of wounded from all of Israel’s wars under the department’s care is expected to surpass 90,000 in 2026, a more than 40% increase within three years, and reach around 100,000 by 2028. Roughly half are expected to be coping with psychological harm.
Defense Ministry Director General Amir Baram warns that failing to implement the public committee’s recommendations “is not an option,” saying the rehab system “could collapse under the burden” if additional resources are not allocated.
Among the committee’s proposals were increasing the Rehabilitation Department’s budget, assigning every wounded veteran a dedicated personal case manager, and expanding psychological treatment options.
According to the Defense Ministry, approximately 17,000 of those wounded since October 7 are coping with psychological injuries, including 7,700 who also sustained physical wounds, while around 9,000 are being treated solely for physical injuries.
🇦🇫 Afghanistan: Taliban, Afghan resistance delegation, Fatemiyoun delegation
🇦🇲 Armenia: PM
🇦🇿 Azerbaijan: Parliament speaker
🇧🇩 Bangladesh: Parliament speaker
🇧🇾 Belarus: Parliament speaker
🇧🇬 Bulgaria: Parliament/political representatives
🇧🇫 Burkina Faso: FM
🇧🇴 Bolivia: Cultural/Religious delegation
🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Religious leaders
🇨🇳 China: Vice-chair of the National People’s Congress
🇨🇩 DR Congo: FM
🇨🇺 Cuba: Higher-education minister/special representative
🇪🇬 Egypt: Senate speaker
🇪🇨 Ecuador: Cultural/Religious delegation
🇬🇪 Georgia: President + Muslim delegation
(🇩🇪) Germany: Shia community delegation
🇭🇺 Hungary: Religious leaders
🇮🇳 India: Special government envoy, Deputy foreign minister level + Hindu leaders
🇮🇶 Iraq: President + Parliament speaker + Several officials + Hashd al-Shaabi delegation + Kataib Hezbollah delegation
🇮🇩 Indonesia: no official delegation, Islamic delegation only
🇮🇶 Kurdistan Region president: President
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan: FM
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan: Parliament speaker
🇱🇧 Lebanon: Defense minister + Hezbollah high political delegation + Amal high delegation
🇲🇾 Malaysia: Agriculture minister
🇲🇲 Myanmar: Special envoy / minister
🇳🇦 Namibia: Cabinet minister
🇳🇮 Nicaragua: FM
🇴🇲 Oman: State Council / Council of State speaker + Omani delegation
🇵🇰 Pakistan: PM + Army Chief + Senate speaker + Shia leaders + Delegation
🇵🇸 Palestine: Hamas leadership + Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader + other scholars delegation
🇶🇦 Qatar: Parliament Speaker
🇷🇺 Russia: Special presidential representative/Dep Security Council chairman (Medvedev) + scholars + cleric delegation
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia: DepFM + MFA delegation
🇷🇸 Serbia: Communications minister + gov delegation
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka: Parliament speaker + delegation
🇪🇸 Spain: Cultural/Religious delegation
🇰🇷 South Korea: Delegation
🇰🇵 North Korea: Delegation
🇹🇯 Tajikistan: President
🇹🇿 Tanzania: Special gov representative
🇹🇭 Thailand: Deputy PM + Shia community delegation
🇹🇳 Tunisia: Gov representative + religious/scholarly representatives
🇹🇷 Türkiye: Vice president + party/political delegations
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan: National Leader/Chairman of People’s Council
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan: Parliament speaker
🇾🇪 Yemen: Vice president + AnsarAllah delegation
🌊 Persian Gulf countries: Various
Shia delegations from Persian Gulf countries
Authorities unveiled the casket containing Khamenei’s body in a glass case at the Grand Mosalla in Tehran, Iran’s capital. Mourners wept at the sight, with some chanting: “Our word is one! Revenge! Revenge!” and “We will kill, we will kill he who killed our Imam.”
Some carried banners and red flags, a symbol of revenge in Shiite Islam, while billboards across the city bore Khamenei’s image. Crowds of men rhythmically beat their chests in mourning, a common practice at Shiite funerals.
“We have come not for the funeral but for revenge,” a eulogist at the event chanted. “We’re never going to give up your blood, which is the reddest line.”
“We must rise up and, God willing, avenge the blood of our leader,” said Hamidreza Shabani, an 18-year-old student.
“I am here to say goodbye to my beloved leader Ali Khamenei,” said a weeping Hananeh Mousavi, 27, who attended the funeral alongside her mother. “I never expected to see such a day. I wish I had died before this tragedy.”
An outdoor stage set up at the Grand Mosalla resembled the stage where Khamenei once gave his speeches at a husseiniyah, or Shiite congregation hall, at his compound in downtown Tehran.
That site was destroyed in the Israeli airstrike that killed Khamenei and some of his family at the start of the Iran war on February 28. The caskets of his dead family members sat beneath his, which had his black turban atop it, identifying him as a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.
Some mourners carried portraits of Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has succeeded his father but remained out of public sight.
Also seen among the crowds was the yellow flag of the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah, which has been battling Israeli forces in southern Lebanon since the regional war broke out. Hezbollah is part of the Iran-aligned “Axis of Resistance”, a network of terror proxies across the Middle East that is opposed to Israel and the United States.
Iran’s government expects to see millions flood the streets of the capital in scenes reminiscent of the burial of the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. Organizers sprayed water on the crowds and offered cold drinks to help those with the summertime heat.
“We attended the funeral to show that we are all committed to defending our country and religion,” said Ali Kazemi, who came from the northwestern city of Tabriz, some 530 kilometers (330 miles) away from Tehran.
A large turnout could provide a boost for Iran’s government, particularly as it tries to leverage its hold on the Strait of Hormuz in negotiations with the United States over a permanent end to the war, and as concern still lingers that Israel could attack yet again.
Khamenei, who was 86 at the time of his death, ruled Iran since 1989, and oversaw the expansion of its nuclear program and terrorist proxy network. Like other Iranian leaders, he was sworn to Israel’s destruction.
FUNERAL STARTS AS US MARKS ITS 250TH ANNIVERSARY
Iran chose July 4, the 250th anniversary of the creation of the US, to begin the funeral.
While authorities did not acknowledge the timing, crowds at the ceremony in Tehran chanted: “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” — reprising chants that have been common in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and US Embassy takeover and hostage crisis.
“We knocked the hell out of Iran,” US President Donald Trump said in a speech at the same time in South Dakota in front of Mount Rushmore. “They want to settle so badly. We gave them a week off for a funeral.”
The American president was not forgotten in Tehran. In the crowd in Grand Mosalla, several mourners held a large flag that read: “#KillTrump.”
As the ceremony went on, Iran’s chief negotiator Kazem Gharibabadi criticized a joint statement overnight from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, which suggested their militaries stood ready to patrol the Strait of Hormuz.
Control of the strait has been a major point of leverage for Iran, which has suggested it wants to charge vessels passing through it, upending decades of the world considering it an international waterway.
“The security of Hormuz lies with the coastal states — the crisis-makers will be held accountable for the consequences of their adventurism,” Gharibabadi wrote on X. “This is a serious warning.”
Khamenei’s body will be transported to cities in both Iran and neighboring Iraq. Authorities have shut down streets, airspace and daily life in Tehran for the mourning.
It remains unclear whether Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, will appear at his father’s funeral. The late supreme leader appeared in 1989 at Khomeini’s funeral, weeping visibly, as he began his journey to lead Iran for decades with an iron fist while confronting the West. Mojtaba Khamenei’s late wife was one of the dead on display at the Grand Mosalla.
Israel’s repeated threats to kill Mojtaba Khamenei drew a warning from Iran’s joint military command Thursday, which told Israel and the US “to avoid any miscalculation” over the coming days.
New IRGC Navy chief named
[IsraelTimes] The chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy is Rear Admiral Ali Ozmaei. Ozmaei appears to be the replacement for Alireza Tangsiri, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in March.
Posted by: Penguin of the Best Desert ||
07/05/2026 7:32 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Regarding the Hollywood Has-been's.
They need to stick to Acting and not Politics.
Because to me, every time one of these has-been's runs to a camera. They are only showing me, they are desperate for attention and their acting careers have passed them by.
[IsraelTimes] Syrian authorities said Friday that they had begun trying suspects over a wave of deadly violence that tore through the Druze-majority Sweida province last year.
The episode last July involved some of the worst internecine bloodshed the country had seen since the toppling of longtime ruler Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... in late 2024, and raised questions about the new government’s stated commitment to ensuring the safety of all of Syria’s multi-confessional communities.
The violence began with festivities between Druze factions and Bedouin fighters in the southern province, with security forces then intervening on the side of the Bedouins, along with other tribal groups. Israel intervened to protect the Druze.
In the end, more than 2,000 people were killed, including 789 Druze civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. A committee formed by the Syrian government said it had documented the killing of 1,760 people.
The head of the investigative committee said in a statement published by the justice ministry that a court in Damascus had begun examining cases "in public sessions as of July 1, with the defendants and their legal representatives present."
The statement added that the proceedings were meant to "establish the facts and hold accountable anyone proven responsible for any violations... regardless of their position or the side to which the acts are attributed." It added that other people were still under investigation.
Government forces and their allies were accused at the time of executing civilians and committing other abuses.
The committee announced in March that it had drawn up "a list of suspects from the (ministries of) defence and interior, Druze factions and civilians — including Bedouins and tribes — for serious crimes and violations."
The same month, UN Sherlocks said war crimes and crimes against humanity might have been committed in Sweida.
The United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... Commission of Inquiry on Syria (COI) has been probing international law violations there since the start of the long civil war that devastated the country from 2011 until the overthrow of Assad.
The COI said it had documented "widespread executions, torture, gender-based violence and the burning of homes" in Sweida.
Damascus’s intervention against the Druze in Sweida last year triggered Israeli strikes on Syrian government forces, with Israel saying the strikes were necessary to protect the Druze, about 150,000 of whom live in Israel and often serve in its military.
WATCH | The Strait of Hormuz is not simply back open and it is not showing a verified Iranian-route monopoly either.
The more important development is the emergence of a pressured dual-corridor regime. The southern Omani corridor remains active. The northern Iranian-controlled… pic.twitter.com/T2UsIONiGL
WATCH | The Strait of Hormuz is not simply back open and it is not showing a verified Iranian-route monopoly either.
The more important development is the emergence of a pressured dual-corridor regime.
The southern Omani corridor remains active. The northern Iranian-controlled route is still being used. That matters because both Washington and Tehran can now point to the same traffic picture and claim different victories.
For the US and its partners, the message is that Hormuz can still function without accepting Iranian control over transit.
Recent satellite imagery from late June 2026, of the Natanz Nuclear Complex and the nearby Pickaxe Mountain facility, Fordow, and Esfahan, were provided to the Institute by @vantortech.
At Natanz, little activity can be seen. The access points to the below ground enrichment… pic.twitter.com/on6isIGhNA
Possibly the negotiations will last long enough for the contract to be executed before local IRGC commanders bust out with another attack. But odds are the excitement is premature.
[IsraelTimes] Iran has begun talks with Japanese companies under a US sanctions waiver allowing it to resume oil sales, though prospective buyers are seeking a longer waiver and reassurances about ship safety, three Iranian and Western sources say.
The waiver, part of 60-day peace talks between Tehran and Washington, was issued on June 22 and expires August 21.
Japan’s foreign ministry and the US Treasury do not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Japan, South Korea, India and European countries stopped buying Iranian oil when US sanctions tightened following US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from Iran’s nuclear pact in 2018.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/05/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1798 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
I've got 7 5 days on the over/under
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/05/2026 2:35 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Take out that Island and they don't have to worry about negotiating any more.
Posted by: Chris ||
07/05/2026 4:31 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Given Japan's current economic situation, they could use the $$$$$.
But is 45+/- days of $$$$ enough to offset Japan's the image of helping a known terrorist nation that will profit and use the $$$$ to re-arm from the sales?
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.
...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
[GaroweOnline] 
...Republic of Somaliland is an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as a de jure part of Somalia. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. Under the Siad Barre regime, Somaliadestroyed ninety percent of Hargeisa Per international law, once you're in, you gotta stay in, no matter how bad it smells....
... the personification of Somali state failure...
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
