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Home Front: Politix

Dem Rep. Gomez: ICE ''Going After Anybody That Is Brown, That Looks Like Me''

2025-07-10

[BREITBART] Tuesday on CNN
...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for...
's ''News Central,'' Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were ''going after anybody that is brown.''
Looks like ICE agents are on to something.
Discussing ICE agents and National Guard troops at Los Angeles's MacArthur Park on Monday, Gomez said, ''They did scare people in the park, and they tried to intimidate folks. So, that's what we're concerned about, that this is not serving any real purpose. They haven't gone after MS-13 gang members like they said they were, or criminal cartels. They're actually taking people off of those cases and having them go after hard working im~~migrants~~ colonists, people that work at car washes, at restaurants at day laborer sites.''

He added, ''When I saw troops everywhere in foreign countries, I was intimidated, I was scared of people with big guns. I never thought that that would happen in the United States, would have an active military on our streets and that's what you have. There is this deep fear that's building and building and building because here's the thing, they are not going after criminals, they're going after anybody that is brown, that looks like me, that can't pass as what they say, as a ''typical American.'' That's why you're getting people who are not undocumented actually arrested. That's the fear that exists, that anybody, doesn't matter if you're a citizen or not, could be arrested and held in detainment for for a number of days.''

Link

Home Front: Politix

Nobody's Leaving: How Much Money Will the Pentagon Spend in Europe Next Year

2025-07-07

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by German Polysalov

[REGNUM] On June 26, the new administration's defense budget proposal for fiscal year 2026, which begins on October 1, was published on the US Department of Defense website.

The list of published documents is missing one of the key Pentagon programs, which for ten years has demonstrated the consistency and continuity of American foreign policy in “ensuring security” on the European continent.

We are talking about the "European Deterrence Initiative", also known as the European Deterrence Initiative.

The goal of this defense program, launched three months after Crimea was returned to Russia, was to expand Washington's military presence in Europe to reduce NATO members' concerns about "Russian aggression."

Under this defense initiative, Washington has been expanding the presence of rotational forces, strengthening active units, modernizing infrastructure, conducting joint exercises, and strengthening the armed forces of allies.

In total, over $40 billion was allocated for the listed purposes in the period from 2015 to 2025 fiscal year. And the record level of investment in strengthening American military potential in Europe, to the surprise of many, occurred during Donald Trump’s first term.

This was despite the fact that political and military leaders on both sides of the Atlantic continued to hear anti-NATO rhetoric, the main example of which was the American leader’s comments about sharing the financial burden among NATO members.

Trump's return to the White House is also accompanied by the usual statements. The only difference is that the draft defense budget, prepared before the NATO summit in The Hague, immediately cast doubt on the continuation of American spending on European security, since no funds were allocated for the European Deterrence Initiative program.

But are the Americans really cutting funding for their military presence in Europe?

An analysis of budget documents from the US Army, Air Force and Navy shows that funding for the Pentagon's European projects will continue. Even without the "deterrence initiative" in the budget proposal, funds for the development of US military infrastructure in Europe are included.

Moreover, the funding will cover new states, which can be interpreted as strengthening American positions and increasing the possibilities of using US military power in the European theater of military operations.

The total amount of "infrastructure improvements" in Europe proposed for FY2026, for the Air Force alone, will be more than $430 million.

The funding is proposed for defense projects in Greenland, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The emphasis is on expanding U.S. air operations in the Arctic, patrolling the North and Norwegian Seas, quickly restoring airfields after combat, expanding casualty evacuation capabilities, and the possible return of nuclear weapons.

Greenland. $32 million The U.S. Department of Defense is investing in the Pituffik space base, which will install an instrument landing system for aircraft approaching from the east (from Norway, Sweden, and Finland) or flying along Russia's Arctic coast.

That is, the future commissioning of the system is intended to expand US air operations in the Arctic zone, support NATO military maneuvers in the Arctic and strengthen control over the air corridor used by Russian military aircraft, including long-range strategic aviation.

Norway. The Rygge air base is planned to have four aircraft shelters, an additional fighter parking area, a pair of taxiways and associated infrastructure to accommodate personnel.

According to the construction project justifications, these improvements will be carried out in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve, a well-known initiative to “strengthen the security and defence capabilities” of NATO member countries.

Therefore, we can talk about the imminent increase in the military presence of the American Air Force in Norway and the intensification of joint exercises with allies. Including exercises on patrolling the North and Norwegian Seas not only by fighter aircraft, but also by patrol anti-submarine aircraft, AWACS aircraft and radio reconnaissance aircraft.

The proposed investment will expand the US ability to project forces and assets to the Norwegian air base. The Pentagon estimates the project will cost $72 million.

UK. The Pentagon plans to build RADR depots at Feltwell Air Base to help restore another military facility, Lakenheath Air Base, 5 miles away, to full operational status as quickly as possible.

The Americans are insuring against damage to the second base as a result of combat operations and are investing $20 million to ensure the survivability of the aviation infrastructure and maintaining the tempo of operations in the event of direct attacks on the air base.

It is at Lakenheath that the US Air Force is systematically investing hundreds of millions of dollars each year for a potential return to the “nuclear mission” of deploying US weapons of mass destruction in the UK. The draft budget for fiscal year 2026 allocates more than $253 million for this purpose.

Germany. Ramstein Air Base is set to build a $44 million indoor shooting range and an Aeromedical Evacuation Compound (AEC). It will be used to manage aeromedical evacuation, including transporting wounded from the battlefield to hospitals.

Apparently, the US European Command is considering a scenario in which the arrival of large numbers of aeromedical teams during a major operation in Europe would paralyze the entire medical system. To prevent such an outcome, the Pentagon plans to spend $29 million.

***

Thus, the absence of the European Deterrence Initiative program budget documents in the draft does not change anything in fact. Investments in European defense infrastructure will only grow compared to last year. This will affect both absolute figures and the geography of work.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Police say they nabbed three terror cell members planning imminent attack

2025-07-06

[IsraelTimes] Security forces arrested this morning three wanted members of a terrorist cell who had been plotting an imminent attack, police say.

After receiving intelligence about their whereabouts from the Shin Bet, officers in the police’s Yamam counter-terror unit and Shin Bet agents arrested two suspects within Israeli territory in Barta’a, an Arab village bisected by the Green Line.

Later that day, IDF soldiers disguised as civilians raided the home of another member of the cell in the northern West Bank, arresting him.

The three detained suspects are to be questioned by Shin Bet officials.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Security forces nab 3 terror cell members they say were planning imminent attack

2025-07-06

[IsraelTimes] 2 suspects arrested inside Israel, one detained in northern West Bank; operation carried out by elite police counterterror unit, Shin Bet agents and IDF soldiers

Security forces on Saturday morning arrested three wanted members of a terror cell who had been plotting an imminent attack, according to a joint statement released Saturday afternoon by Israel Police, the Shin Bet and the IDF.

The forces received the initial intelligence about the suspects’ whereabouts from the Shin Bet, the statement said, which led to a major joint operation carried out on Saturday morning.

According to the statement, officers in the police’s Yamam counter-terror unit and Shin Bet agents arrested two suspects within Israeli territory in Barta’a, an Arab village bisected by the Green Line.

Later that day, IDF soldiers disguised as civilians raided the home of another member of the cell in the northern West Bank, arresting him, the statement said.

The three detained suspects are to be questioned by Shin Bet officials, according to the statement.

Last week, the Shin Bet said they arrested over 60 Hamas
Hamas

..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
operatives over the past few months as part of one of the largest crackdowns on a West Bank terror network in recent years.

A senior Shin Bet official called the operation the "largest and most complex investigation by the Shin Bet in the Judea and Samaria area in the past decade," the Biblical term for the West Bank.

Indictments were filed against those suspects, accusing them of severe crimes, including heading a terror organization, and the equivalent of attempted murder and attempted conspiracy to commit murder.

Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a devastating invasion of southern Israel from the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip that triggered the ongoing war in the enclave, troops have arrested some 6,000 Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.

According to the Paleostinian Authority health ministry, more than 950 West Bank Paleostinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were button men killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or snuffies carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 51 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in festivities with terror operatives in the West Bank.

Link

Home Front: Politix

OMB Director Russ Vaught Breaks Down Major Value of Big Beautiful Bill and Likelihood of Passage

2025-07-02

Video at the link.

[ConservativeTreehouse] Another facet not discussed in the BBB background is data released by the US Office of Personnel Management showing a reduction of approximately 23,000 federal employees since the Trump administration took office. [LINK HERE] OPM adds that hundreds of thousands will drop from payroll in October 2025. [link]

Office of Management and Budget Director Russel Vought appears on CNBC to discuss the non-pretending facts within the Big Beautiful Bill as it passed through the Senate. The House now needs to reconcile, support the bill and send it to President Trump’s desk by July 4th.

The key notation from Vought comes at 06:07 of the video below as he explains the BBB is just one facet of a larger cost-cutting initiative (tariff revenue, recission cuts, discretionary spending reductions etc.). WATCH:

Senate passes Trump’s sweeping ‘big beautiful’ agenda bill, sending it to the House for high-stakes showdown

As I understand it, should the thing get through the next round and to President Trump’s desk for his signature, his maximum spending will be defined. However, he need not spend all the funds Congress allocates, so he can act on the post-Elon Musk DOGE team’s additional discoveries to come. And he can get on with refurbishing the military, which is desperately needed.

[NYPost] Senate Republicans narrowly passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Tuesday, sending it to the House for final approval following a 27-hour blitz of amendments.

The 51-50 vote — with Vice President JD Vance breaking the deadlock — puts Republicans on track to have the bill on President Trump’s desk by the self-imposed Fourth of July deadline, if enough House politicians stay on board.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina joined all 47 Democrats

...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
in voting "nay."

The megabill, which clocks in at nearly 900 pages in length, extends most of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts; reduces taxes on tips and overtime pay; and increases spending on defense, border security, and energy exploration while slashing entitlement outlays.

The legislative bundle had inched through Congress, overcoming criticism from all parts of the Republican Party.

After more than a month of deliberation, the Senate modified the House version of the legislation to extend business tax reductions, deepen cuts to Medicaid, increase the debt limit by $5 trillion, and eliminate a moratorium on state restrictions against artificial intelligence.

Sen. Lisa Daddy, can I be a senator? Murkowski
... representing K Street ...
(R-Alaska) emerged as the key swing vote, with GOP leadership leaning on her aggressively — and even trying to exempt The Last Frontier from some spending cuts to woo her, but those amendments were blocked by Democrats.

"I had to look on balance," Murkowski told news hounds. "We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination."

"My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet."

Before the vote, fiscal hawks like Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) grumbled over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s impact on the deficit, even threatening to derail its passage.

Eventually, leadership agreed to deepen cuts to Medicaid from the version that passed the lower chamber last month, assuaging Johnson’s concerns.

"I’m convinced they’re committed to returning to reasonable pre-pandemic spending, and I’ll be highly involved in a process to achieve and maintain it," Johnson told "Fox & Friends" Monday morning.

Leadership was also forced to grapple with moderate Republicans who were uneasy over reforms to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, aka food stamps).

"We can’t be cutting health care for working people and for poor people in order to constantly give special tax treatment to corporations and other entities," Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told NBC News last week.

But ultimately, Hawley backed the bill, and GOP leadership was able to keep enough moderates on board.

Another dilemma had been a 10-year moratorium against state regulation of artificial intelligence, which had been nestled in the House version.

That had seemingly been a dealbreaker for Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and drew opposition from House Republicans such as far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who discovered that provision after it passed the lower chamber.

Link

Fifth Column

Asra Nomani: How Socialist Muslims pulled off a 20-year takeover of the Democratic Party

2025-06-30

Long, information dense, lots of names to remember and correlate. Here’s a taste:

[FoxNews] The rise of Zohran Mamdani is the product of a strategy partly funded by the House of Soros, uniting socialism (red), political Islam (green), and the Democratic Party (blue)

Many people are wondering how Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old socialist Muslim who wants to defund the police, globalize the intifada, and destroy capitalism, has emerged as the Democratic Party's nominee for New York City mayor, with leaders like former President Bill Clinton fawning over him.

To understand Mamdani’s political ascent, you have to trace the red-green-blue spider’s web that brought him here. This isn’t a complete map — I've written a book, "Woke Army: The Red-Green Alliance That Is Undermining America’s Freedom," to document that story — but it is a snapshot of key turning points over two decades of strategy, narrative manipulation, and activist training.

A critical moment traces back to a Friday night in 2008, according to investigative reporting I’ve done at the Pearl Project, a nonprofit journalism initiative. It reveals how socialists (red) and Muslims (green) seized the Democratic Party (blue) over a long 20-year campaign. At 9:28 p.m. on Dec. 12, 2008, former ACLU civil rights lawyer Ann Beeson sent an email to former Clinton administration senior advisor John Podesta.

Beeson was executive director of U.S. Programs at George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, where she said she oversaw $150 million in annual grants to "promote human rights, social justice and accountability nationwide."

In her email, publicly discussed here for the first time, Beeson wrote, "I’m writing to follow up on one topic we discussed — what the incoming Administration could do to address domestic national security policies and practices that unfairly target Muslim, South Asian, and Arab communities in America."

She attached a memo from Farhana Khera, then executive director of Muslim Advocates, a group based in San Francisco, and Aziz Huq, then the director of the "liberty and national security project" at the William J. Brennan Center for Justice, both Open Society "grantees."

As a former Wall Street Journal reporter who has investigated the convergence of radical leftist politics and Muslim political activism for decades, I have followed a paper trail of tax returns, grant lists and confidential memos, and this email represented the culmination of a decades-long ideological drive that began with Muslim international students arriving in the U.S. in the 1960s, not just to study, as my father did at Rutgers University, but to lay the institutional groundwork for political Islam, or Islamism, in the United States. By the 1980s, they had established a strategic base at 500 Grove Street in Herndon, Va., later investigated by the FBI for alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both groups seeking to destroy Israel and America and build a global caliphate.

The transformation accelerated after December 2005, when Muslim governments convened at an "Extraordinary Islamic Summit" of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. There, they launched a campaign to weaponize the term "Islamophobia" to silence critics of extremist Islam. American Muslim leaders seized the moment to re-engineer the national security narrative, using American philanthropic networks, like the House of Soros, as a Trojan horse to racialize Islam, frame Muslims as the "oppressed" and embed illiberal ideologies within America’s liberal institutions, including the Democratic Party.

By January 2008, with Soros pumping money into Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, his philanthropy staff launched a "National Security and Human Rights Campaign" with D.C.-based Atlantic Philanthropies, committing at least $20 million to "dismantle" Bush-era counterterrorism policies. One grantee, the Proteus Fund, based in Waltham, Mass., ballooned in revenue from $9.5 million in 2008 to $73 million in 2023. Soros dollars flowed to groups including Muslim Advocates, the Brennan Center, the ACLU and many others who set their sights on targets, including the New York Police Department. Today, Mamdani says he wants to "defund the police."

A Pearl Project analysis of 38 documents detailing the operations and funding of the National Security and Human Rights Campaign revealed the coordinated efforts of progressive and Islamist activists to reframe post-9/11 narratives. The aim: clear the path for red-green candidates like Mamdani.

Muslim Advocates grew nearly 10-fold, from $76,331.03 in annual revenues in 2005 to $992,892 in 2023. The Brennan Center’s revenue exploded from $6.6 million to $57.9 million during the same period.

Soros soon funded a new "Security and Rights Collaborative" at Proteus Fund to "restore civil liberties and human rights lost in the name of the ‘war on terror.’" Headquartered in a one‑story building off Research Drive in Amherst, Mass., the new "collaborative" was run by Shireen Zaman, a Muslim activist previously at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Washington, D.C., group tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. Their focus: America’s "Muslim, Arab and South Asian community," called "MASA." Zaman now works at the Ford Foundation.

Their strategy went beyond policy to narrative warfare.

Starting in late 2008, Soros pumped some $20 million into a "fieldwide communications hub" to arm Muslim groups and leftist media allies with messaging tools. The recipient: ReThink Media, a nonprofit in Berkeley, Calif., co-founded by "progressive" political operatives Peter Ferenbach and Lynn Fahselt, then a consultant to Democratic donors, including Open Society, Proteus Fund, Ploughshares Fund, Carnegie Corporation, Piper Fund, Atlantic Philanthropies, and others "progressive" donors that have since pumped money into ReThink Media.

ReThink Media became the loudspeaker for the red and the green. Last year, Proteus Fund paid ReThink Media $643,000 as a "communications consultant." Soros also backed Media Matters, run by ex-conservative-turned-Democrat David Brock, to shape media narratives about Muslims attacked by Republicans.

Over the years, ReThink Media has hired and trained alumni of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, including staffers Zainab Chaudary and Corey Saylor, to promote an "echo chamber" for liberal groups. One narrative: Muslims were under attack in the West, and the Democratic Party would defend Muslims.

This storyline took hold in the post-Obama political landscape.

In late 2010, Open Society staffers in Beeson’s U.S. Programs division distributed an internal memo, "Extreme Polarization and Breakdown in Civic Discourse," announcing they were giving Podesta’s Center for American Progress $200,000 for a new "Examining Anti-Muslim Bigotry Project" that would "document structures underlying the Islamophobia movement."

The memo detailed plans to do "opposition research" on groups like the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Middle East Forum, which track Islamic extremism.

The project description noted that "progressives were caught off guard" earlier that year when New York City residents opposed the building of a "Ground Zero mosque" near the site of the former World Trade Center.

"Progressives" were in "urgent need of high-quality opposition research so that they can switch from playing defense to develop a proactive strategic plan to counter anti-Muslim xenophobia and to promote tolerance," protecting "progressive counter-terrorism policies," they wrote.

Related by Daniel Greenfield:

Only 5% of New Yorkers Voted for Mamdani

Who are those 5%? They aren’t New Yorkers because polls showed us Mamdani performing poorly with anyone over 50, with African-American, Latino and working class white voters. What’s left? White hipsters and Muslim immigrants.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Trump Should Name His Fed Chair Replacement Now, Not Later

2025-06-29

[American Liberty] Markets do not wait. Investors, lenders, and entrepreneurs thrive on clarity, not suspense. President Trump understands this better than any recent occupant of the Oval Office. When he senses uncertainty, he instinctively moves to resolve it. He did so with taxes, with regulation, and with foreign policy. The time has come for him to do it again, this time by naming Jerome Powell’s successor as Chairman of the Federal Reserve now, not eleven months from now. This is not a rupture of norms, but an embrace of responsibility. Naming the next Fed Chair is not simply an administrative matter, it is a macroeconomic signal, a moral declaration, and a political necessity.

Consider the context. The US economy is wobbling between resilience and recession. Inflation has cooled but not vanished. Consumers are cautious. Small businesses hesitate to expand. The yield curve remains inverted. And yet the Federal Reserve, under Powell’s sluggish stewardship, refuses to cut interest rates decisively. Their reasoning? Prudence, or perhaps cowardice, cloaked in the language of inflation targeting. But there is a more unsettling possibility, one that few in polite circles dare acknowledge: partisanship. Every single economist at the Federal Reserve is a registered Democrat. Not one has donated a dollar to a Republican candidate in over twenty-five years. That fact, standing alone, ought to give the public pause. Powell told the Senate this week, "If we make a mistake here, people will pay... the cost for a long time." But millions are already paying the price for the Fed’s mistake of raising rates too far, too fast, and keeping them high for too long, even as Europe cuts rates in response to similar economic conditions. The Fed’s refusal to follow suit cannot be attributed solely to monetary caution. It increasingly appears ideological, a quiet campaign of economic resistance against a president they loathe and a movement they fear.

Now enter the central philosophical question. Should the executive branch, led by a duly elected president with a national mandate, exercise some influence over the nation’s monetary trajectory, or should it leave such questions entirely to an unelected elite ensconced in an institution that prides itself on "independence"? That word, like many others in modern technocracy, conceals more than it reveals. Independence, in practice, often means unaccountability. The Federal Reserve is not a Platonic guardian class. It is a government agency, and its decisions, however "data driven," have massive distributive consequences. Rate policy determines who gets a mortgage, who hires, who invests, and who saves.

Historically, presidents have understood this reality and have acted accordingly. Lyndon Johnson infamously browbeat Fed Chair William McChesney Martin at his Texas ranch in 1965 for raising rates during the Vietnam buildup. Richard Nixon hounded Arthur Burns into keeping rates low ahead of the 1972 election. Ronald Reagan, while more tactful, made it abundantly clear what kind of monetary policy he expected from Paul Volcker, and later appointed Alan Greenspan to ensure continuity. These interventions, while criticized in retrospect, were hardly the undermining of constitutional order. They were expressions of democratic accountability.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Game Changer! The IRS Union Endorses Kamala Harris

2025-06-28

[Gateway] In what could be a massive game changer in the 2024 presidential election, the union representing workers from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has endorsed Kamala Harris.
News from 2024
In a press release this week, the National Treasury Employees Union which represents workers of the Internal Revenue Service confirmed that the decision had been taken "after extensive research into the candidates’ records regarding the federal workforce, and consultation with NTEU members and chapter leaders across the country."

"When it comes to treating federal employees with respect, valuing their service, and investing in their work, Kamala Harris is the clear choice," said NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald.

"She shares our values and our commitment to making sure that the federal government works for all Americans. She has been a strong advocate for the issues that matter most to federal employees: fair pay, paid family leave, adequate agency funding and staffing, and robust collective bargaining rights."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF confirms probe into killings near Gaza aid site, denies troops ordered to shoot civilians; GHF gave out 25,000 boxes of food Friday

2025-06-28

[IsraelTimes] Haaretz report says military looking into possible war crimes, cites soldiers’ testimonies describing a ‘killing field,’ with troops routinely using heavy live fire for crowd control

The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged on Friday that it was probing allegations that troops are using deadly fire on hungry aid-seeking Gazooks, but vociferously denied that troops are being ordered by commanders to deliberately open fire on the Paleostinian civilians.

The statement was issued after the Haaretz daily reported that the military launched a probe this week into potential war crimes committed by its troops and quoted unidentified soldiers as saying that the area was a "killing field" and that they were ordered to treat the aid seekers like combatants and using heavy live fire for crowd control.

Haaretz prides itself on being the New York Times of Israel, and so they are. Not something I would be proud of, but I have standards…

The Haaretz report drew a first detailed response from the military regarding the near-daily deadly shootings around aid distribution sites. It also prompted a rare joint statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, accusing the left-wing newspaper of a "blood libel" against the IDF.

According to Haaretz, the mass-casualty incidents were discussed at a meeting earlier this week during which the Military Advocate General’s (MAG) Office directed the top-tier General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism to investigate suspected war crimes that have largely taken place near 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...
Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites.

The mechanism is an independent military body responsible for investigating unusual incidents amid the war.

During the meeting, officials in the MAG’s office expressed alarm over mounting global uproar over the killing of civilians en route to aid sites, Haaretz reported. Senior officers from the IDF’s Southern Command pushed back, claiming that the incidents have been isolated and that troops only fired at Paleostinians who posed a threat.

Representatives from the MAG’s office disagreed, insisting that the Southern Command’s account doesn’t line up with the facts on the ground, according to a source who attended the meeting.

"The claim that these are isolated cases doesn’t align with incidents in which grenades were dropped from the air and mortars and artillery were fired at civilians," a MAG representative is quoted as saying.

"This isn’t about a few people being killed — we’re talking about dozens of casualties every day," the MAG official added.

The Hamas
Hamas

..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
-run health ministry says 549 people have been killed and 4,000 have been maimed trying to pick up aid from GHF sites or while waiting for UN food trucks since May 27, when GHF launched.

The numbers have not been verified, but between May 27 and June 24, there were at least 19 IDF shooting incidents related to humanitarian aid

distribution, according to a review of reports out of Gaza conducted by The Times of Israel.

In most of these cases, the IDF has admitted to opening fire and striking Paleostinians, but characterized it as "warning shots" at those who got too close to soldiers or used site access routes when distribution sites were closed.

There has been widespread confusion about access to the aid, with the army imposing, for a time, a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on approach routes to GHF sites. But locals often have to set out well before dawn to have any chance of retrieving food.

According to the report, soldiers are receiving orders to fire at people who approach the distribution sites before they open or remain there after they have closed. The report added that many of the instances of fire occurred at nighttime, meaning the Paleostinians who were fired at possibly did not know they were in a forbidden area.

A KILLING FIELD
Israeli soldiers serving near the aid distribution sites described grim scenarios in interviews with Haaretz on condition of anonymity.

"It’s a killing field," one soldier said. "Where I was stationed there, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force — no crowd-control measures, no tear gas — just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire."

"We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred meters away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there’s no danger to the forces," the soldier continued. "I’m not aware of a single instance of return fire. There’s no enemy, no weapons."

He described the incidents as a deadly form of the children’s game "Red light, green light."

"Firing mortars to keep hungry people away is neither professional nor humane. I know there are Hamas operatives among them, but there are also people who simply want to receive aid," another soldier told Haaretz.

"It’s become a place with its own set of rules. The loss of human life means nothing. It’s not even an ’unfortunate incident,’ like [the IDF] used to say."

Another soldier told Haaretz: "This has become routine. You know it isn’t okay. You feel not okay with it, that the commanders are taking the law into their hands. But Gaza is a parallel universe, [we] move on very quickly. The truth is that most don’t even stop to think about it."

A BLOOD LIBEL
Following the Haaretz report, the military put out a statement confirming that the high-level General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism was probing the matter.

However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits...
it said that it strongly rejected the Haaretz report, adding that it is "operating to allow and facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid by the American Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and to secure the routes leading to the distribution centers, to allow the aid to reach the civilians rather than Hamas.

"The IDF did not instruct the forces to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centers. To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians."

Nevertheless, the statement said that the IDF is trying to improve at minimizing "the potential friction" with civilians. "As part of this effort, IDF forces have recently taken steps to reorganize the area, including the installation of new fencing, signage, the opening of additional routes, and more."

"Any allegation of a deviation from the law or IDF directives will be thoroughly examined, and further action will be taken as necessary," the statement continued.

"The allegations of deliberate fire toward civilians presented in the article are not recognized in the field," the IDF asserted.

"These are vicious lies designed to discredit the IDF — the most moral army in the world," the statement said. "IDF soldiers receive clear orders to avoid harming innocent civilians, and they act accordingly."

Following the report, the GHF agency said it was "not aware of any of these incidents."

The GHF statement makes a point of asserting that the shootings have not taken place at or in the immediate vicinity of its distribution sites.

GHF notes in its statement that the "IDF is tasked with providing safe passage for aid-seekers to all humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, including GHF," its statement adds.

Israeli strike kills 18 picking up aid as IDF said to target Hamas-linked unit distributing it
[IsraelTimes] An Israeli strike hit a street in central Gaza on Thursday, where witnesses say a crowd of people was getting bags of flour from a Hamas-linked police unit that had confiscated the goods from gangs looting aid convoys. Hospital officials said 18 people were killed.

The strike in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Thursday appeared to target members of the Hamas-linked Sahm unit, a security group tasked with stopping looters and cracking down on merchants who sell stolen aid at high prices. The unit is part of Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry, but includes members of other factions.

Witnesses say the Sahm unit was distributing bags of flour and other goods confiscated from looters and corrupt merchants, drawing a crowd when the strike hit.

Video of the aftermath showed bodies, several torn, of multiple young men in the street with blood splattering on the pavement and walls of buildings. The dead included a child and at least seven Sahm members, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where casualties were taken.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has accused the Hamas terror group of stealing aid and using it to prop up its rule in the enclave. Israeli forces have repeatedly struck Gaza’s police, considering them a branch of Hamas.

GHF says it distributed 25K boxes of food at three Gaza sites on Friday
[IsraelTimes] The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says it distributed over 25,000 boxes of food at three sites on Friday, two in southern Gaza and one in the central Strip.

GHF says its boxes contain enough food for 5.5 people for 3.5 days.

The aid distributed by GHF amounts to 30 trucks, well below the hundreds that aid groups say are needed daily to properly address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The US- and Israeli-backed initiative says it also brought in a truckload of potatoes for the first time as a pilot.

GHF says that it will not be affected by Israeli restrictions on aid as Jerusalem investigates whether looting is taking place. Yesterday, UN staff were barred from picking up aid from a north Gaza crossing after footage emerged of armed gunmen on top of an aid convoy.

Link

-Land of the Free

Hegseth announces Navy oil tanker named after gay rights leader renamed after Medal of Honor recipient

2025-06-28

[FoxNews] Defense Secretary declares, 'We are taking the politics out of ship naming' as Pelosi condemns change

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a Navy oil tanker named after gay rights leader Harvey Milk will be renamed after Medal of Honor recipient Oscar V. Peterson.

"We are taking the politics out of ship naming," he wrote on X along with a video announcing the move.

Milk was California’s first openly gay politician, who was shot and killed inside San Francisco city hall by former San Francisco supervisor Dan White. The ship, a fleet replenishment oiler, was originally named after him in 2016 under President Barack Obama.

He served four years in the Navy in the Korean War but left due to his sexuality.

Peterson was awarded the Medal of Honor after his death, having died of his wounds during battle in World War II in an act of self-sacrifice that saved lives.

"People want to be proud of the ship they’re sailing in," Hegseth said of the change. "We're not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration."

Peterson, who spent 20 years in the Navy, was in charge of running the steam engine in the U.S.S. Neosho when it came under Japanese fire in the Philippines in 1942.

On May 7, 1942, the Neosho was severely damaged during the Battle of the Coral Sea. Peterson and other members of his repair party were badly injured, but Peterson managed to close four bulkhead steam valves. He sustained third-degree burns in the process, but the move kept the ship afloat. On May 11, the U.S.S. Henley rescued 123 survivors from the Neosho, and Peterson died two days later from his wounds.

The renaming comes amid a push from Hegseth to remove DEI and "woke" policies from the Department of Defense.

When the move was first reported earlier this month, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the move a "shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream."

Of course she did.

"As the rest of us are celebrating the joy of Pride Month, it is my hope that the Navy will reconsider this egregious decision," Pelosi said in a statement.

Link

Europe

Danish general says he is not losing sleep over US plans for Greenland

2025-06-27

[Reuters] The head of Denmark's Arctic command said the prospect of a U.S. takeover of Greenland was not keeping him up at night after talks with a senior U.S. general last week but that more must be done to deter any Russian attack on the Arctic island.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested the United States might acquire Greenland, a vast semi-autonomous Danish territory on the shortest route between North America and Europe vital for the U.S. ballistic missile warning system.

Trump has not ruled out taking the territory by force and, at a congressional hearing this month, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth did not deny that such contingency plans exist.

Such a scenario "is absolutely not on my mind," Soren Andersen, head of Denmark's Joint Arctic Command, told Reuters in an interview, days after what he said was his first meeting with the general overseeing U.S. defence of the area.

"I sleep perfectly well at night," Anderson said. "Militarily, we work together, as we always have."

U.S. General Gregory Guillot visited the U.S. Pituffik Space Base in Greenland on June 19-20 for the first time since the U.S. moved Greenland oversight to the Northern command from its European command, the Northern Command said on Tuesday.

Andersen's interview with Reuters on Wednesday were his first detailed comments to media since his talks with Guillot, which coincided with Danish military exercises on Greenland involving one of its largest military presences since the Cold War.

Russian and Chinese state vessels have appeared unexpectedly around Greenland in the past and the Trump administration has accused Denmark of failing to keep it safe from potential incursions. Both countries have denied any such plans.
Andersen said the threat level to Greenland had not increased this year. "We don't see Russian or Chinese state ships up here," he said.

DOG SLED PATROLS
Denmark's permanent presence consists of four ageing inspection vessels, a small surveillance plane, and dog sled patrols tasked with monitoring an area four times the size of France.

Previously focused on demonstrating its presence and civilian tasks like search and rescue, and fishing inspection, the Joint Arctic Command is now shifting more towards territorial defence, Andersen said.

"In reality, Greenland is not that difficult to defend," he said. "Relatively few points need defending, and of course, we have a plan for that. NATO has a plan for that."

Link

Iraq

Iraq arrests pro-Iran commentator who claimed radar struck by drone aided Israel

2025-06-27

[IsraelTimes] Abbas al-Ardawi detained for ‘incitement intended to insult and defame the security institution’ after now-deleted post saying French radar ‘served’ Israel against Iran

Iraqi authorities said they arrested a political commentator on Wednesday over a post alleging that a military radar system struck by a drone had been used to help Israel in its war against Iran.

After a court issued a warrant, the Defense Ministry said that Iraqi forces arrested Abbas al-Ardawi for sharing content online that included “incitement intended to insult and defame the security institution.”

In a post on X, which was later deleted but has circulated on social media as a screenshot, Ardawi told his more than 90,000 followers that “a French radar in the Taji base served the Israeli aggression” and was eliminated.

Early Tuesday, hours before a ceasefire ended the 12-day Iran-Israel war, unidentified drones struck radar systems at two military bases in Taji, north of Baghdad, and in southern Iraq, officials have said.

The Taji base hosted US troops several years ago and was a frequent target of rocket attacks.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the latest drone attacks, which also struck radar systems at the Imam Ali airbase in Dhi Qar province.

A source close to Iran-backed groups in Iraq told AFP that the armed factions have nothing to do with the attacks.

Ardawi is seen as a supporter of Iran-aligned armed groups who had launched attacks on US forces in the region in the past, and of the pro-Tehran Coordination Framework, a powerful political coalition that holds a parliamentary majority in Iraq.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry said that Ardawi’s arrest was made on the instructions of the prime minister, who also serves as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, “not to show leniency toward anyone

who endangers the security and stability of the country.”

It added that while “the freedom of expression is a guaranteed right… it is restricted based on national security and the country’s top interests.”

Iran-backed groups have criticized US deployment in Iraq as part of an anti-jihadist coalition, saying the American forces allowed Israel to use Iraq’s airspace.

The US-led coalition also includes French troops, who have been training Iraqi forces. There is no known French deployment at the Taji base.

The Iran-Israel war had forced Baghdad to close its airspace, before reopening on Tuesday shortly after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire.

Link

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