[HumAngleMedia] A year-long investigation by HumAngle has uncovered the cost of negligence and faulty intelligence in the military’s combat drone operations and the government’s lack of accountability.
Ibrahim Adeyemi
17 Aug 2026
* This investigation was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Centre’s AI Accountability Network.
First, white smoke cut through the night. Then the sky tore wide open.
John Solomon says fire rained from above when a military drone hovered over the rustic Tudun Biri village in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria. As the deputy youth leader in the satellite community, John was in a meeting with his local security volunteers on Dec. 3, 2023, to draw up night-watch rosters for the village’s annual Maulud celebration, an Islamic festival marking the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. Outside the community central mosque, scores of children, women, and men had gathered. They had travelled from surrounding hamlets, drawn out of their dark, unelectrified homes by a rare sight of a disc jockey’s sound system and a bright electric floodlight powered by a petrol generator. At exactly 10:00 p.m., when the children were basking and jumping around the mosque, the first military drone strike hit the centre of the crowd and incinerated everyone within the close-range radius.
“In our village, to see a single electric light bulb is an extraordinary thing for our children,” John quips. “When the generator started, and the mosque area lit up, the children left their family compounds and gathered around the light. We could not stop them.”
Skipping down to the next section:
THE ALGORITHM BEHIND A BOMBING TECHNOLOGY
In recent years, Nigeria has transformed its approach to counterterrorism campaigns, attempting to replace its ground troops with an arsenal of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) controlled by air combat operators sitting at computers miles away. The fundamental transformation reached its full force when the military began to patronise the booming global market of UAVs, amid the deepening unpopularity of ground troops losing heavily to shadowy terrorists. The air force, which fronts air wars against terrorists in Nigeria, embraced tech-driven warfare by acquiring different fleets of UAVs, including the Chinese-made CASC Rainbow CH-3 and CH-4 and Wing Loong UAV combat drones.
However, the UAV deployed for the Kaduna airstrike was different. The Nigerian army, which took responsibility for the attack, is known to operate the Bayraktar TB2, a Turkish-made drone. The journey to acquire the semi-autonomous drones began on August 31, 2021, when a Turkish ambassador visited the army headquartersin Abuja to pitch the hardware directly to the army leadership. Later in September 2022, photos of a fleet of Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones painted in the colours of the Nigerian flag surfaced online. This was followed by reports that the army had acquired six TB2 drones and that its officers were already receiving training in combat drone operations.
The current conflicts around the world show the use of AI & remote controlled weapons are a threat to any nation's or community's security.
Add to it, CCP has already developed 3/4 scale Human Cyborgs and other AI weapons. PLUS a CCP AI with mind tuned to a Communism agenda.
The frequent reports of AI's fighting each other, AI's inter-discussions on handling the Human issue.
1000's of community level AI Data-Centers being setup. That can track/monitor all electronic activities (blogging, E-purchases and etc).
132,600+ Flock Cameras able to track our every move, where we shop and who we meet. ☺ BTW: The Central Canadian Border is still and escape route.☺
All of the above would seem to warrant a greater focus on developing and installing AI fail safe controls, AI Human safety law and constitutional protections.
[IsraelTimes] The US Defense Department is considering pulling back troops from the Persian Gulf following damage to its presence there during the ongoing war with Iran, the Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing eight sources.
The war has prompted a "once-in-a-generation chance" for the US to consider whether to maintain its bases in the Gulf, the report said, adding that the Pentagon is even considering not rebuilding its damaged bases as they were before the fighting broke out in late February.
While the move was being positioned as a chance for a review of US policy, such a shift would most likely be seen as a major achievement by Iran, which has long chafed at the large American presence in the region and has called for a US withdrawal. It could also leave Gulf countries that have long hosted the US bases vulnerable to further attack by Iran.
One option, according to the report, is for the US to move its troops and bases further west in the region and away from Iran, into an area that includes Jordan and Israel. American refueler jets have been stationed in Israel throughout the war, and Jordan houses several US bases.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not ordered a formal review of the question, but it is being explored by the Pentagon’s policy office and the US Central Command, according to the report.
"Decisions are going to have to be made on some of this stuff," a Pentagon brasshat told the US newspaper.
Normally, about 40,000 US troops are stationed across the Middle East, according to the Post, at some 20 bases scattered throughout the region. Many of these bases, as well as other US military sites, have come under heavy Iranian missile and drone fire since the US and Israel launched the war in late February, killing 18 US service members and injuring hundreds more.
The biggest American bases are in the Gulf, notably the US Navy Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, and the US significantly increased its presence in the region during the 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... war.
The US has especially bolstered its naval forces in the CENTCOM area of responsibility, with dozens of warships and aircraft carriers stationed in the region, carrying thousands of sailors, many of whom have been deployed for hundreds of days more than planned.
"The war really did highlight the vulnerability" of American forces in the region, former US diplomat Michael Ratney told the Post.
The former envoy to Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... said that while moving troops further west and away from much of Iran’s missile range could revive some pressure, there is no "perfect solution to this problem."
The report cited sources familiar with the Pentagon’s thinking as saying that the issue would "likely" intensify an inter-administration debate over US military intervention in the Middle East, a question that has been central to the second term of US President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... as the hawkish and isolationist wings of his government vie for influence on the president.
Either way, the Post noted that any significant changes to US forces in the region were "distant" and would only take place if approved by the White House.
#1
There's no changing these people. Wrestling with pigs is futile. The intelligent solution is to permit them to default to warring among themselves. Periodic bashing may be necessary to contain the threat to the civilized world. Otherwise, stay out of it.
#2
I wish we could. If we did I think the Chinese & Russians or possibly Iran would gain control of the region. While the US is capable of relying on domestic sources, many of our allies are not and the economic impact of a disruption in the oil supplies would affect the US and much of the rest the world and not in a good way.
[USNI] The following is the Aug. 18, 2026, Congressional Research Service report, Venezuela’s Post-Maduro Political Transition and U.S. Policy.
FROM THE REPORT
Some Members of Congress have closely followed the political and economic situation in Venezuela following the January 3, 2026, U.S. capture and arrest of President Nicolás Maduro (2013-2026) and his wife, Cilia Flores, on narco-terrorism and other charges. Following Maduro’s removal, Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president and oil minister of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), took power as acting president. Apparent 2024 election winner Edmundo González Urrutia and opposition leader María Corina Machado have remained in exile. Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined a three-phase plan for Venezuela involving (1) stabilization, (2) economic recovery and political reconciliation, and (3) political transition. On June 24, 2026, two massive earthquakes struck Venezuela, killing more than 6,100 and potentially setting back U.S.-supported efforts to stabilize the country.
On June 3, 2026, Secretary Rubio testified before Congress that significant progress had occurred in Venezuela since January, but that “in order to truly transition, they [Venezuela] have to have multi-party, free and fair elections.” To date, U.S. pressure on the acting government apparently has secured U.S. control of Venezuela’s oil sales and proceeds; the enactment of an amnesty law and release of some political prisoners; a rollback of Venezuela’s ties to Cuba and Iran; and security cooperation on a U.S.-led operation that killed a leader of Tren de Aragua, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. It remains to be seen whether the earthquakes will delay or spur progress toward a political transition.
Some analysts predicted that negotiations between the acting government and the opposition on advancing a democratic transition would be led by María Corina Machado; the Trump Administration has backed a different dialogue process. Machado and some opposition leaders met in Panama in May and then called for negotiations under her leadership. The Trump Administration did not comment on the Panama statement but has backed talks led by National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez of the PSUV (the brother of the acting president) and Dinorah Figuera, head of the democratically elected 2015 National Assembly. Machado and González Urrutia are not participating. The State Department welcomed the first round of talks that began on August 6, 2026, and are aimed at strengthening earthquake response efforts and expanding political freedoms.
[Breitbart] China’s state-run Global Times on Tuesday boasted of “soaring demand” for the “Ice Silk Road” trade route China has established through the Arctic — and castigated Western media for expressing “sour grapes” concerns about the environment, Chinese territorial aggression, and weaponized supply chains.
The Global Times was rather quick to declare the Ice Silk Road a roaring success, since it only just began regular service from China’s eastern city of Ningbo to ports in the U.K., Netherlands, Germany, and Poland, running by way of Russia’s Northern Sea Route through the Arctic.
Chinese shipping company Sea Legend only announced regular service through the Arctic route last week. The first container ship to use the express transit route departed from Ningbo on Saturday evening.
“According to media reports, demand for bookings this year has exceeded expectations: the first two voyages were fully loaded, while orders for subsequent sailings have continued to pour in,” the Global Times gushed.
The Chinese Communist paper sought to refute “sour grapes” complaints with a lengthy tirade about how China is merely exercising its “freedom of navigation” and Western companies are looking at Arctic shipping too, especially as “global logistics routes are becoming increasingly vulnerable.”
“Global maritime trade currently depends heavily on a small number of strategic chokepoints, including the Suez Canal and the Strait of Malacca,” the Global Times noted. “Any disruption to these routes could have a major impact on global trade. China’s Arctic shipping route provides a new option for Asia-Europe trade, helping diversify risks and improve efficiency.”
Posted by: Skidmark ||
08/19/2026 03:25 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[164 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Only going to be open about 2-4 months a year; the 4 month figure if they use ice strengthened vessels.
I don't understand China's fascination with this.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
08/19/2026 9:44 Comments ||
Top||
Working through the system, setting precedents as they go.
[Breitbart] A federal judge has blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from reviewing state databases of truck drivers as it seeks to remove illegal migrants from the trucking industry.
U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga
…senior judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia as well as the Presiding Judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court…
issued an administrative stay preventing DHS from accessing the records of 17 million commercial truck drivers from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.
Judge Trenga’s order came after a lawsuit was filed by 21 Democrat-controlled states claiming that the government has no right to the information and would need individual subpoenas for each and every record, according to Freight Waves.
DHS argues that they need the records to ensure safety on America’s roads and want to use the records to weed out illegal migrants who have been granted commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) by blue states. The feds hope to cancel the licenses and get these dangerous drivers off America’s roadways.
But the George W. Bush-appointed judge issued an administrative stay to prevent the administration from obtaining the records.
Judge Trenga also ordered DHS to return any records it has gotten and not to inspect the records.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has pledged not to compromise safety on America’s roadways.
“We won’t compromise on road safety. Liberal states are suing @USDOT to stop us from making sure our roads are safe,” he wrote on X. “They are prioritizing illegal immigrant truckers over American citizens.”
#1
Judge Trenga's rulings seem to cover the political map.
Eg. his Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (The Tranny wiki leaker).
Or his 2019 ruling on the US gov's watchlist for “known or suspected terrorists” saying it violated the Terrorists constitutional rights to be listed.
#3
It seems the DOT could ban Interstate travel for these State CDLs if they won't comply. That along with the recent court ruling making the hiring companies liable oughtta put a stop to this shit
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/19/2026 11:25 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Time to put a stop to these piece of shit judges also.
Posted by: chris ||
08/19/2026 14:09 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Rubio slams ‘fatally politicized supranational court,’ which says the move ‘undermines the rule of law’; PM thanks US ‘for making clear the corrupt officials who lead the ICC will face consequences’
The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on the president of the International Criminal Court and one of its top prosecutors as it continues a campaign to dismantle the tribunal, which it accuses of trying to unfairly prosecute US and Israeli soldiers for alleged crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and 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 State Department said Tuesday it had hit ICC president Tomoko Akane, a Japanese national, and ICC senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, who is from Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... , with sanctions that freeze any assets they have in US jurisdictions or come into contact with the US financial system.
"The Trump administration has been clear: the International Criminal Court is a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate," Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... said in a statement. "We will not tolerate its assault on state illusory sovereignty."
The move is the latest by the administration against the ICC, which it says has exceeded its mandate by investigating or trying soldiers, commanders and political officials from countries, such as Israel and the United States, that are not members of the court.
The ICC was quick to respond, as it has done when faced with previous US actions, saying that the sanctions "undermine the rule of law."
"When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk," it said.
Seye is a senior trial lawyer on the prosecution team that sought an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and has been nominated for election as an ICC judge.
"The ICC has become a kangaroo court that cloaks its abuse of power in the language of international law while undermining the very principles of justice," Netanyahu wrote on X in response to the US announcement, hailing Rubio’s "determined efforts against the ICC’s illegitimate overreach, and for making clear that the corrupt officials who lead the ICC will face consequences."
The US imposed targeted sanctions last year on several ICC officials, including prosecutors and judges, citing the ICC’s arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, as well as a past probe into US troops in Afghanistan.
The sanctions freeze any US assets the individuals may have and essentially cut them off from the US financial system, with which almost all internationally operating banks have close ties.
The US Treasury Department also issued a general license on Tuesday authorizing the wind-down of transactions involving Akane and Seye through September 17.
Akane warned in December that the US sanctions would "rapidly undermine the court’s operations in all situations and cases, and jeopardize its very existence."
Three ICC judges sued Trump and his administration in June over the sanctions, arguing the measures were unlawful. Advocacy groups, in two separate lawsuits, have said that the US campaign infringes on the constitutional rights of organizations working with the court to seek justice for atrocities around the world.
Rubio said last month that the administration would step up efforts to undermine the ICC, including a diplomatic campaign aimed at persuading other countries to quit the institution, a call that at least five countries have already heeded.
He accused the court of posing a threat to US personnel carrying out US President Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... ’s hardline immigration policies or strikes on boats accused of carrying drugs, as well as other US service members.
[Rudaw] The US-led coalition on Monday redeployed its Aerostat surveillance balloon over Erbil after keeping it grounded for more than 15 days, an unnamed security source told Rudaw, to monitor security near Erbil International Airport surrounding airspace.
The security source told Rudaw's Taha Mustafa on Monday that the balloon was relaunched at 3:30 pm (local time) on Monday, for security surveillance purposes. The source said it was not yet clear when the balloon would be brought down.
The balloon, which serves as a radar for the US Patriot anti-missile system, was first deployed over Erbil in early May and was brought down earlier this month during a surprise 72-hour defense system pullout when the United States swiftly relocated eight Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries to Jordan, while Britannia transferred its Rapid Sentry system to Cyprus. No reason was given at the time for lowering the balloon.
The redeployment of the surveillance system comes as security monitoring remains a key concern for Erbil International Airport and the surrounding airspace.
AERIAL SURVEILLANCE AND OBSERVATION CAPABILITIES
The Persistent Surveillance System - Tethered (PSS-T) aerostat is equipped with advanced day-and-night surveillance cameras capable of providing 360-degree coverage over a range of 50 kilometers which can detect aerial objects and short range projectiles, the source told Rudaw.
The balloon has previously been deployed at US military bases, including in Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base in Anbar province and K-1 base in Kirkuk province, the source said.
Regarding the PSS-T system, the source added that the balloons can raise electronic equipment several thousand feet above military bases, dispersed forces and convoys. The system is designed to provide early warning against aerial threats and enhance security surveillance without the deployment of ground forces.
NASC, the company responsible for the system, has supported the PSS-T for the US Department of Defense and other organizations since 2010. It has overseen the engineering, procurement, assembly, testing and deployment of 60 PSS-T balloon systems outside the US, supported by more than 400 personnel.
The company has overseen PSS-T operations since 2010, deployed 60 balloon systems and more than 400 personnel outside the US and trained more than 1,800 personnel. The system has also recorded more than one million hours of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations in the Kurdistan Region and helped identify more than 5,000 significant security incidents and activities, the source told Rudaw.
Operators continuously conduct tactical surveillance and provide military commanders with recommendations for developing the system. NASC’s technical teams also integrate advanced sensors with the balloons and provide upgrades and technical improvements.
It’s their very own idea, of course, not the words of their Iranian puppeteers.
[Rudaw] Iran-backed Iraqi gangKata'ib Hezbollah
…just because they train with Lebanese Hezbollah, occasionally exchange men with Lebanese Hezbollah, and both take direct orders from the IRGC does not mean that their shared name implies any connection whatsoever!!!
has set new conditions for handing over its weapons to the Iraqi state, including the withdrawal of Ottoman Turkish forces from the Kurdistan Region and the dissolution of the Region's Peshmerga forces.
Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, the group's security official, issued the demands in a statement on Tuesday outlining three prerequisites for engaging with the Iraqi government over its weapons.
The conditions include "complete and actual withdrawal of the American enemy forces from Iraqi land and airspace" in addition to guarantees of an end to American influence over Iraqi decision-making processes, "expulsion of the occupying Ottoman Turkish forces from northern Iraq,"
…that’s actually a good idea…
and the "dissolution of the Peshmerga forces,"
…fuggedaboutit…
the latter of which it categorizes as "the most heavily armed militia and the most dangerous to the unity of Iraq," despite the group’s status as the official armed forces of the Kurdistan Region as recognized under Iraq's constitution.
Kata'ib Hezbollah's demands come as the Iraqi government has issued a mandate to bring all weapons and armed forces under state authority. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has set September 30 as a deadline for armed factions to disarm, coinciding with the scheduled departure of US forces from Iraq.
Kata'ib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba, both aligned with Iran, have been among the main factions refusing to hand over their weapons, citing the presence of US and other foreign military forces.
The statement comes a day after Iraqi security forces arrested a senior Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) commander affiliated with the Iran-backed Harakat al-Nujaba movement, one of the factions that has opposed government efforts to place all weapons under state control.
Aqeel Qaraghuli, head of the Security Committee in the Dhi Qar Provincial Council, told Rudaw on Monday that a special force from the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) arrested Abbas Hussein al-Yaqubi, the intelligence director of the PMF's Baghdad Belt Operations Command, at his home in the Fazliya sub-district of Dhi Qar province.
According to Qaraghuli, the CTS unit was dispatched from Baghdad and carried out the operation "without coordination with the security agencies of Dhi Qar Province." Yaqubi belongs to the PMF's 12th Brigade, which is affiliated with the Nujaba Movement led by Akram al-Kaabi. He also heads the movement's search and inspection unit.
The PMF later confirmed Yaqubi's transfer into its custody. PMF media director Muhannad al-Aqabi said: "By the grace of God Almighty, the head of intelligence for the Baghdad Belt, Mr. Abbas al-Yaqubi, has been handed over to the General Directorate of PMF Security to undergo legal proceedings with the judiciary."
Saad Maan, head of Iraq's Security Media Cell, said Saturday that the government was working to unify security decisions and ensure military forces are properly consolidated under state authority.
"The decision of war and peace is exclusively in the hands of the state," Maan told state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA). "It is not possible to accept multiple decisions or the creation of parallel forces to the official forces."
Both Kata'ib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba fall within the PMF, an umbrella network of mostly-Shiite paramilitary groups established in 2014 to fight 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.... (ISIS) following a decree from then Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.
The most recent attack on the group involved targeted strikes in late July against PMF bases, claiming the lives of at least 20 of its members and wounding 32 others, according to the group.
Maan on Saturday described the PMF as "a constitutional and legal institution" and said gangs operating outside that framework would be addressed through negotiations and constitutional and legal channels.
He also said the September 30 deadline was "not a source of concern," adding that dialogue and constitutional, legal and administrative channels remained open.
Maan said significant quantities of weapons had already been handed over by factions responding to government decisions, particularly weapons that were not registered with or under the authority of the PMF.
The government is also registering privately held firearms. Maan said an Interior Ministry committee was registering about 6,000 firearms each week, with approximately 580,000 weapons registered so far.
Concurrently, Zaidi on Sunday, in his capacity as the commander in chief of the armed forces, discussed "the plan to build and develop air defense capabilities and enhance its readiness" to ensure "the protection of Iraqi airspace and the achievement of illusory sovereignty," according to a press statement from the prime minister’s media office.
WARNING TO PRIME MINISTER ZAIDI
In the second part of his statement, Assaf criticized Zaidi, saying Kata'ib Hezbollah had "endured the empty bravado of the young Prime Minister-designate, Ali al-Zaidi, for more than a hundred days."
The group said it had expected Zaidi to understand Iraq's internal, regional and international circumstances and listen to veteran politicians, but accused him of worsening the situation.
"However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... we have seen no progress from him in comprehending the complex circumstances through which Iraq and the region are passing," Assaf said.
He also accused Zaidi of listening to those who "harbor animosity toward the Shiites of the Commander of the Faithful [Imam Ali]," as well as Tom Barrack, the US special presidential envoy for Iraq and Syria, whom the statement referred to as the head of the "Levant and Iraq Liberation" organization and a "pickpocket."
The group also warned that its patience was running out over what it described as government raids on the homes of the families of its "deaders," maimed members, fighters and sheikhs under direct US supervision.
"Our patience is beginning to run out regarding the provocative and irresponsible actions of the youth al-Zaidi," Assaf said, threatening that "We may begin to act on the principle: ’An eye for an eye, and the initiator of the wrong is the more unjust.’"
Addressing Zaidi directly, Assaf said: "You were busy with trade, enjoying security and luxury, and filling your treasuries with billions, while our blood was being shed to protect the country's illusory sovereignty and preserve the state and the sanctities," actions the group attributed as necessary to "ensure stability, preserve dignity, and avoid being dragged into what pleases the enemies."
"Do not forget yourself; you are standing before men who, for the sake of God, do not fear the blame of any critic," he added.
Nah. They’re just being sidelined because they’re feckless and hopeless.
[IsraelTimes] Concern expressed to ToI after Kushner meets with Hamas chief and Netanyahu, while ignoring Ramallah; Trump aide says PA should focus on reforms, which the official accuses Jerusalem of hobbling
A senior Paleostinian Authority official expressed "concern" on Tuesday that the United States was "replicating" what he said has been Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy of bolstering Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... at the expense of the PA.
The remarks to The Times of Israel came two days after US envoy Jared Kushner held a rare in-person meeting with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt, before proceeding to Jerusalem for a sit-down with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Kushner did not stop in Ramallah to see anyone from the PA, which the Trump administration has largely sidelined.
"The PA can play a critical role in stabilizing the situation 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... and the West Bank and should not be ignored," the Paleostinian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
No, they can’t because Israel will not accept their return to Gaza, from which Hamas drove them out in 2006.
The official recalled how successive Netanyahu governments authorized 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... i payments to Hamas, which allowed for the bolstering of the terror group, even as Jerusalem gradually disengaged from the more moderate PA, which supports a two-state solution, and took steps to delegitimize it.
The official was careful not to explicitly criticize the Trump administration, with Ramallah apparently recognizing it has limited leverage at the moment.
Hopeless and feckless gets you nothing with the Trump administration.
Kushner was asked in a portion of a Fox News interview that aired on Tuesday about the possibility of the US recognizing a Paleostinian state and dismissed the idea for the time being, while knocking the PA.
"Before we can even talk about the political nature of a state, what we want to see is that the Paleostinians can govern themselves. With the PA, they fall very, very short on the standard we need for somebody who can qualify for a state," he said. "They have a lot of reforms they need to do, which the Saudis, the French and everyone agrees with us on. Governments are working on what the right set of reforms are."
"Whether they’ll actually do it is another question. They’ve been threatening to reform for a decade now," Kushner added in reference to the PA.
He recalled how the US established a technocratic panel to govern postwar Gaza in place of Hamas, adding that "maybe we can talk about a political horizon later on in the future" if the new committee demonstrates that it can effectively manage the coastal enclave.
The US plan for the Gaza Strip envisions that body, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, handing over control of the territory to the PA once the latter completes a series of reforms.
The Paleostinian official insisted that Ramallah was working on implementing these steps, but was significantly hobbled by a growing list of punitive measures taken by Netanyahu’s government that have brought the West Bank economy to the brink of collapse.
For example, the official said the PA reformed its textbooks amid accusations from Israel that they have long included incitement against Jews.
The official said the curriculum was updated online but that the PA education ministry does not currently have the funds to print the textbooks en masse, as Israel continues to withhold billions of dollars in funds.
KUSHNER BULLISH ON ABRAHAM ACCORDS EXPANSION AFTER ISRAELI ELECTION
Kushner was also asked during the Fox interview whether he thinks the normalization agreements between Israel and Arab and Moslem countries known as the Abraham Accords could still be expanded during the remainder of Trump’s second term in office.
"We have a lot of very good, active conversations going with countries — some obvious, some not obvious," responded Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law.
"Once we get this Gaza situation moving forward, that will hopefully deescalate the tensions here," Kushner said, referring to his efforts to advance the US-controlled Board of Peace’s disarmament plan, which has been approved by Hamas but rejected by Israel.
He then noted a second factor holding up efforts to expand the Abraham Accords as he seemingly knocked Netanyahu’s government, whose hardline policies toward the Paleostinians have turned off countries from normalizing relations with the Jewish state in recent years.
"Israeli politics are complicated, and Israeli politics in election are even more complicated. Hopefully, when we get after the Israeli election, there will be some opportunities for expansion," Kushner said.
He did not explicitly call out Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition, which Arab diplomats have long maintained has become a primary obstacle in expanding the Abraham Accords.
Regardless, Kushner said Trump was committed to building on the initiative he launched during his first term, when he brokered normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
"Everyone always said we can’t have normalization (with Israel) until the Paleostinian issue is resolved. But what we showed through the first batch of the Abraham Accords (agreements), is that the Emiratis are actually the biggest donors to Gaza, and they’ve done a ton to help the Paleostinian people," he said, alluding to Abu Dhabi’s funding of over 40% of the humanitarian aid for the Strip during the recent war there.
"It’s only by having relations with Israel that they’re able to help the Paleostinians hopefully achieve a better outcome for themselves," Kushner argued.
[IsraelTimes] With Likud bleeding support, PM is hoping that bringing relative moderates to top of slate, rather than far-rightists preferred by party’s hardcore, can make the difference in October’s general election
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warmly welcomed the results of Monday’s Likud primary election, describing himself as “very satisfied” on Tuesday morning and insisting that the party list chosen by members would achieve a “big victory” in the October 27 election.
Netanyahu appeared to have legitimate reason to celebrate, with several hardliners whom he reportedly feared would harm the party’s popularity in the general election shunted toward the back of the Likud electoral slate.
With polls consistently showing the Likud party likely to win fewer than 25 Knesset seats, only those who finished in the top 17 of Monday’s primary are seen as having a realistic shot of making it back to the Knesset. The other eight spots are controlled by Netanyahu himself, whose position as party leader was not part of the primary vote.
#3
^
Gvir is a member of Otzma Yuhudit, not Likud.
the former is a coalition partner of Likud
given the Parliamentary system used in Israel, the 'inside' politics are incomprehensible to most non Israelis (nearly incomprehensible to a lot of Israelis also)
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
08/19/2026 17:50 Comments ||
Top||
#4
^ Which is why I don't comment on Israeli internal politix, and disregard our Israeli commenter's opinions on ours. You don't really understand unless you live here/there
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/19/2026 18:54 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Whereas i have no compunction about commenting on both, from time to time. And accepting explanations from all sides, because politics is one of the things I’m not good at.
🚨 BOARD OF PEACE WEIGHS NEW HAMAS DISARMAMENT FRAMEWORK
The Board of Peace is considering scrapping its phased Gaza disarmament approach amid Israeli pushback.
The new framework would require Hamas to surrender all weapons and dismantle tunnels across the entire area it controls at once. Only after verification would the IDF withdraw to the Gaza perimeter.
Netanyahu has insisted: “there will be no IDF redeployment from Gaza until Hamas is fully disarmed and all of Gaza is demilitarized — every weapon, light and heavy, and every tunnel.”
The shift could require Hamas’s approval, potentially delaying the process further.
[IsraelTimes] UN nuclear watchdog chief Grossi says ‘it could be put to bad use’ and will be placed under ‘international safeguards’; he also tours reactor site bombed by Israel in 2007, increasingly convinced site was nuclear facility
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said Tuesday that its inspectors had found several tons of nuclear material in Syria, at a site which the authorities said they reported to the agency last month.
Rafael Grossi, the head of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), praised Damascus’s "courageous decision" to report the undisclosed site, which dates to the Assad era, and said the material would be put under "international safeguards."
"We are talking about a few tons of nuclear material that could be put to bad use," he said.
Speaking at a joint presser with Grossi, however, Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani indicated that the material would be used toward a peaceful nuclear energy program.
"On July 17, we sent an official letter to the agency, in which we declared of our own free will the presence of nuclear materials at an undeclared site within the legacy left by the former regime," said Shaibani.
He said that "technical assessments" indicate that "these materials do not pose a risk," adding that they "will remain in Syrian national custody and subject to the agency’s safeguards system."
Shaibani asserted Syria’s "sovereign and legal right" to pursue a peaceful nuclear program, and said Syria had the right to use nuclear energy "for civilian and peaceful purposes."
Grossi, meanwhile, said, "this material will be accounted for, will be put within the international safeguards system."
Syrian and IAEA experts will work together to safely store the materials, he said.
"We are starting to turn a page, and turning a page does not mean forgetting the past."
Grossi also visited a site in Deir Ezzor in the east, which has been shut for 18 years and which the IAEA had suspected contained a nuclear reactor. Israel bombed the site on September 6, 2007, in a mission known to much of the world as Operation Orchard.
The attack, which Israel refused to comment on until 2018, is believed to have ended the regime’s efforts to build a nuclear weapon.
"We were at the... site of Deir Ezzor, where a very comprehensive work of excavation and exploration is taking place now," Grossi said. "This is very important because, of course, this validates the longstanding evaluation of the IAEA that a nuclear facility was being built in secrecy."
The watchdog said last year that it discovered uranium particles at the site during an inspection in 2024.
Shaibani said Syria had granted the IAEA access to the Deir Ezzor site on its own initiative.
Grossi’s visit came after news outlet Axios last week reported US and Israeli officials as saying Washington and the IAEA reached an agreement to have the watchdog remove nuclear material stored at a clandestine site in Syria after having "reached understandings with Syria and Israel."
Axios said Israel was closely monitoring a location called "Site 99," where Israeli officials say the Assad government stored nuclear material that was part of the Deir Ezzor project, also known as al-Kibar, and that Israel threatened to bomb it.
The White House, IAEA, and Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on the report.
[Rudaw] There are no ongoing or scheduled negotiations between Washington and Tehran, US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th and 47th President of the United States... said Tuesday, adding that the naval blockade imposed by American forces on Iranian ports remains in effect. The remarks come as Iran's chief negotiator also said Tuesday that any progress on talks and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz remained contingent on Tehran's conditions being met.
"There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran," Trump said on his Truth Social platform, adding that the naval blockade "remains in full force and effect."
He further noted that the strategic Strait of Hormuz remains "open and operating" and that all water mines planted by Iranian forces "have been removed or detonated."
The Strait of Hormuz, through which around one-fifth of global oil supplies pass, has been a flashpoint between Washington and Tehran since the outbreak of the six-week war in late February, when the US and Israel launched a joint aerial campaign striking thousands of targets across Iran.
In response, Tehran carried out thousands of drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets - particularly in Gulf Arab states - while also launching retaliatory strikes against Israel.
The warring sides reached a preliminary ceasefire mediated by Pakistain in early April, followed by the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two sides in mid-June, establishing a ceasefire on all fronts.
Following the truce, however, the two sides engaged in several rounds of strikes and counterstrikes - the latest of which escalated on July 8 and ended later that same month. Washington also reinstated its naval blockade of Iranian ports in July.
Importantly, Trump's remarks on Tuesday came a day after the 60-day negotiating deadline set by the Islamabad MoU expired on Monday, and a day after his son-in-law and member of the US negotiating team Jared Kushner told Fox News that communications between Washington and Tehran are "more robust" than ever.
For his part, Iran's chief negotiator and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tuesday that normalizing shipping through the Strait of Hormuz would not happen "until the United States lifts its blockade, ends sanctions, and releases frozen assets of the Islamic Theocratic Republic," state-run Islamic Theocratic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
Ghalibaf also accused Trump of "backing down on the Pakistain-brokered MoU with Tehran," with IRNA citing him as saying that "US non-compliance" with the agreement represented a "massive diplomatic defeat for Washington."
Meanwhile,
...back at the barn, Bossy's udder had begun to ache... 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... and Oman have been engaged in separate negotiations to reopen the strait. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told news hounds Monday that "an understanding has been reached regarding the map of the transit route" with Muscat, pending an official statement once technical details are finalized.
However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... when asked about those negotiations by Fox News on Monday, Trump warned that "if Oman gets in the way," it too would be targeted, adding, "I don't think they behaved very well, but we'd handle them very easily, just like we do other things."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/19/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[196 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
[Breitbart] A federal judge has blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from reviewing state databases of truck drivers as it seeks to remove illegal migrants from the trucking industry.
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
...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 
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
