Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

ABDUL RAKIB ALIAS SUMON	Abdul Rakib alias Sumon	JMB			20090703
	Abdul Rakib alias Sumon	Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh			20090619
ABDUL RAKIB HASAN	Abdul Rakib Hasan	Lashkar-e-Taiba	Down Under		20070305	Link
	Abdul Rakib Hasan	al-Qaeda			20100215
	Abdul Rakib Hasan	Takfir-wal-Hijra			20080530
ABDUL SAKIB	Abdul Sakib	Lashkar-e-Taiba	India-Pakistan		20071021	Link
KIBLEY DA COSTA	Kibley Da Costa	al-Qaeda in Britain	Britain		20071217	Link
	Kibley da Costa	al-Qaeda in Britain	Britain	At Large	20080226	Link
MOHAMAD RAKIB HASAN RUSELL	Mohammad Rakib Hasan Russell	Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh	Bangladesh		20070331	Link
MOHAMED SAKIB	Mohammed Sakib	Indian Mujaheddin			20080924
RAKIB HASAN RUSEL ALIAS HAFIZ MAHMUD	Rakib Hasan Russel alias Hafez Mahmud	Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh	Bangladesh	In Jug	20080216	Link

Britain

Man, 26, arrested on suspicion of murder after Ann Widdecombe found dead at home - BBC News

2026-07-11

[BB] A 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder following the death of Ann Widdecombe, police say

Devon and Cornwall Police say a white British male is in jug after the 78-year-old was found at her home on Thursday with serious injuries

The incident is not being treated as terrorism and there is "no information" to suggest it was politically motivated, they add

Police say it is too early to comment on whether the suspect was known to Widdecombe

PM Keir Starmer says the murder investigation is "shocking news", while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch says she is "stunned" over the "horrific" incident

Widdecombe, a former Conservative minister turned Reform UK spokeswoman, served as the MP for Maidstone in Kent for 23 years.

The Times of Israel adds:

Widdecombe found fame after leaving Parliament as a contestant on the Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother reality television shows. She later joined the Brexit Party and became a spokeswoman for the anti-immigration Reform UK party.

She served in the House of Commons as an MP from 1987 to 2010 and was known for socially conservative views opposing ~~child sacrifice~~ abortion rights and expansion of LGBTQ rights.

She was also a supporter of Israel, belonging to the Conservative Friends of Israel group for many years and speaking at B’nai Brith events, according to a report in the Jewish Chronicle.

Additionally, Widdecombe wrote a novel set during the Holocaust; the story focused on the tension between a German officer’s patriotism and his opposition to the Nazi regime.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson

...pro-Brexit British prime minister, succeeding no-Brexit Theresa May. BoJo is noted as much for his sparkling personality and his hair as for his Conservative policies....>
called Widdecombe a "heroic Brexiteer and a great speaker who could move Tory audiences to such ecstasy that she was a very hard act to follow."

The management company that represented her after she left politics said her life and career were driven by strong Christian values and a commitment to public service.

"She loved the cut and thrust of political debate and, 16 years after leaving Parliament, was still actively campaigning for Reform UK and offering forthright views on the hot topics of the day," Cloud9 Management said.

"As Ann once said...’we get one go this side of eternity, one go. Life is not a dress rehearsal, you take opportunities that you like and you go for it, that’s my philosophy’."

The Daily Mail has the usual photos, and perhaps there will be an update if the killer is identified.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Texas ICE raid arrests 41 illegal immigrants at Dallas strip club Chicas Bonitas Cabaret

2025-10-03

[NYPOST] Federal agents peeled back the curtain at a Dallas strip club, arresting dozens of suspected illegal im~~migrants~~ colonists and seizing tens of thousands of dollars in US cash

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Dallas, with assistance from federal, state and local law enforcement, executed a criminal search warrant at Chicas Bonitas Cabaret Friday for suspected human trafficking and unlawful employment, according to a news release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Officials said 41 illegal im~~migrants~~ colonists, including 29 people suspected of illegally working at the club, were taken into custody by the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Dallas Field Office for administrative immigration violations.

While ICE is continuing to process those arrested during the operation, authorities said at least five suspects have been convicted of criminal offenses after illegally entering the US.

They include Julios Cesar Martinez, 47, of Mexico, who has been convicted three times of assault causing bodily injury and driving under the influence; Victor Manuel Manzano-Ramirez, 47, of Mexico, who illegally entered the US twice and has been convicted of driving under the influence; Gustavo Rojas-Garda, 44, of Mexico, who has been convicted of driving under the influence; and Genaro Diaz-Perez, 44, of Mexico, who has been convicted of prostitution.

Link

Southeast Asia

MAP UPDATE: The situation in Myanmar as of 01/10/2025

2025-10-03

Myanmar 🇲🇲 MAP UPDATE: The situation in Myanmar as of 01/10/2025. This past month heavy fighting continued over a number of fronts as both sides tried to advance.

-Junta forces managed to recapture Kyaukme, open the roads to Myawaddy and Hpruso and extend their control in Bhamo… pic.twitter.com/6fZkR8t6iP
— Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) October 1, 2025

…control in Bhamo

-Resistance forces captured the town of Banmauk, and held off a junta push from Magway towards Rakhine.
By way of (partial) explanation, if you're not familiar with Burma:

The Arakan Army (dark blue) is the Moslem bunch we've been seeing that caused the Rohingyas (Moslem Burmese) to get expelled. Basically their intent is to tear off the west coast of the country for their own Islamic Paradise.

The New Mon State Party: The Mon are related to the Khmers (Cambodians) and don't want to be ruled by a bunch of Burmans, since the Burmans aren't very good at ruling anybody.

The Kachins are a plurality in the Northernmost state of Burma, bordering China. Kachin troops formerly formed a significant part of the Burmese army. With the unilateral abrogation of the Union of Burma constitution by the Ne Win regime in 1962, Kachin forces withdrew and formed the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) under the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO). The Kachin were promised independence in 1947, and took the promise seriously.

The Shan (green and yellow) are a Tai-speaking people, related to the Thai and the Lao. They would just as soon have their own state or accede to Thailand. They can figure that once they shut of the Burmans, a traditional enemy.

The Chin are Christian hillbillies living in Chin staling the border with India and Bangladesh. They speak often mutually unintelligible Kuki-Chin-Mizo languages, in the Sino-Tibetan group.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Ukrainian, 19, 'is caught disguised as a granny while attempting to assassinate Russian defence official'

2025-09-19

Russia has detained a male Ukrainian 'agent', 19, who allegedly posed as a 'granny' in a bid to assassinate a top defence plant official.

The 'boom-mobileer' collected an bomb stashed in a cemetery in St Petersburg, according to the FSB security service.

The man then changed into the clothes of an 'elderly woman' to plant the bomb on the boss of a Russian arms plant.

The car had been monitored by two women members of the alleged spy ring - one a hairdresser, the other a groomer, said the FSB.

When the saboteur 'dressed as a babushka [granny]' attached the bomb to the underside of the victim's car, he was apprehended by intelligence officers.

The two women were detained on the way to the airport.

In video footage shared by the FSB, officers are seen arresting a person in a long skirt and headscarf.

Investigators said the detainees acted 'on the instructions of a supervisor associated with the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.'

Link

Science & Technology

Speed up B-21 Raider stealth bombers to counter China

2025-09-18

The second B-21 Raider stealth bomber fittingly flew on Sept. 11, from its factory in the high desert of Palmdale, California, to adjacent Edwards Air Force Base.

The B-21 Raider is the most sophisticated bomber in the world, and America’s first "sixth-generation" stealth warplane. Two more sixth-gen planes, the Air Force’s F-47 fighter, and a secret carrier-based fighter for the Navy, are also in the works.

However, with the flight of Spartan coming on top of continued flight tests of the first B-21 "Cerberus," the Air Force bomber is making astonishing progress.

The B-21 Raider is the most sophisticated bomber in the world, and America’s first "sixth-generation" stealth warplane. (U.S. Air Force)

Nicknames from the men and women of the production line and flight test teams tell you how special these mammoth bombers are. Infused with AI, and revolutionary aerodynamics, they are almost like sentient beings.

"With the arrival of the second B-21 Raider, our flight test campaign gains substantial momentum," Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said in a massive understatement.

The B-21 Raider is the replacement for the fleet of just 19 B-2 Spirit stealth bombers that blew up Iran’s nuclear facilities in June.

Within the enormous, drab beige hangar of Plant 42 in Palmdale there are at least five and maybe as many as 10 more B-21s in various stages of final assembly on the production line. Components like the Pratt and Whitney high-bypass turbofan engines come from aerospace suppliers all over the country.

Thanks to Spartan, also known as Tail 2, you can see a lot more about how the B-21 Raider will function. First, she’s grey, several shades lighter than the all-black B-2. The B-21 is curved and shaped of carbon graphite composite materials, not sheet metal. Notice the B-21 has no tail or tube-like fuselage. The B-21 is a pure flying wing, with engines nestled inside along with the fuel tanks and bomb bay.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

15-year-old NYC boy with long rap sheet charged with murder as violent Bronx summer reaches tipping point: cops, sources

2025-08-31

Here's a gun control suggestion for any pols reading this: No bail for any gun-related offenses, five-year mandatory sentence just for having the gun, apart from any sentencing for the crime itself.
[NYPOST] A 15-year-old boy with a rap sheet was arrested — while still wearing an ankle monitor — for a deadly shooting this week during a kaboom of violence in The Bronx, police and sources said Friday.

The teenager, identified by law-enforcement sources as Daniel Martinez, was charged with murder for the shooting death of Kelvin Mosquea, 34, outside NYCHA's Sack Wern Houses Tuesday, authorities said.

The broad daylight shooting is believed to have been the result of a robbery gone wrong, sources said — and added to a weeklong wave of gun violence for the Boogie Down, which saw seven shootings since Saturday, leading four dead out of a dozen injured, officials said.

Stopping the bloodshed will be the primary goal of 1,000-cop deployment Mayor Eric Adams

...Hizonner da Mare of Noo Yawk. As a Manchurian candidate, Hizonner was all in favor of law and order and that kind of stuff. Once in office, a bunch of his friends found cushy jobs with the city, the windows kept getting broken, and Soros-funded DA Alvin Bragg remained right where he was. Most people comfort themselves with the thought that he's not Bill di Blasio but that's pretty small comfort with kids who actually go to school getting bumped off while standing in front of them. But he's a Dem, so the rubes will vote for him next election too, so he's what they deserve...
said soon would swarm ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful hotspots in the Bronx on foot, although he played coy Friday as to where.

''If we tell you where they're located, then the bad guys would know where they're located,'' he said during an event with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

The shooting allegedly by the baby-faced Martinez unfolded as he walked up to Mosquea in front of the public housing building on Croes Avenue near Seward Avenue and accused him of stabbing his friend, sources said.

Martinez, joined by a second person — who remained on the loose Friday — then allegedly shot Mosquea in the chest as they attempted to rob him, cops and sources said.

Mosquea was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center, where he died from his injuries.

The NYPD's gang database showed Mosquea had links to the Black Stone Gorilla Gang, according to sources. Martinez does not appear in the database but the shooting is being eyed as possibly gang-related.

The other possibly gang-related Bronx shooting in the past week was a shootout during a basketball tournament in Haffen Park on August 23.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

General Dubbed 'Hero Of Russia' Critically Wounded In Border Region

2025-08-21

[ZeroHedge] A Russian general has been seriously injured near the Ukrainian border, officials in Russia's republic of Dagestan - which is where he's from - have said, which is consistent with earlier reports sourced to Ukrainian intelligence.

Dagestan’s leader, Sergei Melikov, announced on Telegram that Gen. Esedulla Abachev was critically wounded several days ago in a border region. Regional media says he holds the honorary government-awarded title of 'Hero of Russia'.

"He is currently receiving care at one of the country’s top military hospitals," Melikov wrote, nothing that the general's condition is serious but stable.

Ukraine’s military intelligence had previously claimed that 57-year-old Abachev lost both an arm and a leg after his convoy was attacked overnight in Russia’s Kursk region.

He was rushed to a hospital in the Moscow area, the reports said, where military doctors carried out the emergency amputations.

According to background via Reuters:

At least a dozen Russian generals have been killed in the war that started with Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Abachev graduated from the Higher Tank Command School in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991. He received the Gold Star of the Hero of Russia for his role in combat missions during the current war.

Dagestani leader Melikov said he was the pride of the region, describing him as "a combat general and a wise commander who always tries to protect his personnel, sometimes neglecting his own safety".

Ukrainian sources say that Abachev was serving as deputy commander of Russia’s “Sever” (North) group of forces at the time of the attack - although the Russian defense ministry has not confirmed such details.

Video allededly shows "The result of the Ukrainian strike on a Russian military column in the Kursk region where it is likely that this is where Russian Lieutenant General Abachev was seriously injured."

Link

Down Under

Migrant allegedly attacked baby after visa application rejection

2025-08-18

[NYPOST] China is being urged to take action against a Chinese national who allegedly threw hot coffee on a nine-month-old baby despite the man being protected from extradition under Chinese law.

Baby Luka was with his mom in Hanlon Park on August 27, 2024 when a man, not known to the family, dumped a Thermos of hot coffee on him before fleeing the scene in a random attack which sparked public outcry.

Vile.

The infant sustained burns to 60 percent of his body, including his face and upper body, and was forced to undergo multiple surgeries.

The man was captured on CCTV footage fleeing the scene but authorities were unable to track him down.

Just days after, the suspect — who was identified as a 33-year-old Chinese national — drove to New South Wales and flew out of Sydney on August 31. It is believed he returned to China via New Zealand.

Almost a year on from the incident, authorities are pushing for China to take action against the alleged offender, The Australian reports.

Under Chinese law, citizens cannot be extradited for prosecution to foreign countries.

It is understood that evidence from Queensland Police against the suspect has been provided to Chinese authorities. However,
ars longa, vita brevis...
authorities have refused to confirm the move, the publication reports.

''There are ongoing conversations between Australia and China in relation to this matter,'' an unnamed source told the publication, adding ''it's been made clear that they don't extradite their own''.

Queensland Police last year put an arrest warrant out for the man for intending to cause grievous bodily harm, which carries a maximum life sentence.

In June, Acting Commissioner Shane Chelepy told radio station 4BC investigations into the ''horrible incident'' were ongoing almost one year on.

''This isn't something we've parked in a corner; this was a very serious offence, and we're working hard on it,'' he said.

''What I can say is we're still working with our international partners to progress this matter and to get a resolution here.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Salam says ''no turning back'' in plans to monopolize arms, Hezbollah will ‘’go far’’ on issue - no donor reconstruction until complete

2025-05-17

[NAHARNET] Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has said that Lebanon ''has managed to pave the way for a promising new start, despite all the difficulties that the project of rebuilding confidence and the course of reform are facing.''

''There will be no turning back in the project of consolidating the monopoly of arms in the hands of the Lebanese state alone, which should be in charge of the war and peace decisions and of defending its land and sons -- all its sons -- with the means allowed by international laws and norms,'' Salam added, in an interview with the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

''The entire Lebanese state is seeking full Israeli withdrawal from its land and to prevent all forms of violations. The government is also working on rallying efforts to launch the reconstruction process,'' Salam went on to say.

Hezbollah will ''go far'' in the issue of arms handover

[NAHARNET] Hezbollah will ''go far'' in the issue of the handover of its weapons to the Lebanese state and it will ''embarrass'' everyone, a source close to Hezbollah said.

''Consensus between Hezbollah and the Lebanese president has become bigger than the issue of arms handover and dialogue between Presidenty Joseph Aoun and Hezbollah is ongoing, without specifying any deadlines or dates,'' the source added, in remarks to Al-Arabiya's Al-Hadath channel.

''The handover of weapons is possible, in return for gains for Hezbollah such as Israel's withdrawal and reconstruction,'' the source said, adding that ''Hezbollah's acceptance to hand over its weapons does not mean giving them up for nothing in return.''

''Hezbollah is convinced that the slogans it voiced in the past and which needed weapons are no longer existent and it is fully cooperating with Aoun and offering him solutions related to its heavy and strategic weapons,'' the source revealed.

''President Aoun knows Hezbollah's concerns as to the withdrawal of its arms and is working on resolving the difficulties, while Hezbollah knows well the magnitude of international pressure on the president for its disarmament,'' the source went on to say.

Report: No reconstruction funds before reforms and Hezbollah disarmament
[NAHARNET] Lebanese officials have sensed reluctance from major powers, particularly Arab countries, to provide reconstruction funds, the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Friday.

''Arab and donor countries have informed Leb
Leb

...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration....
that they will not to engage in the reconstruction project until the vision for Lebanon and the region becomes clear. According to their definition, reconstruction is linked to the state's ability to undertake necessary reforms, fully disarm Hezbollah and prevent it from rebuilding its military and financial capabilities,'' the daily said.

''These countries do not want to engage in such a project while the situation has not yet reached a peaceful path,'' the newspaper added.

All the Arab and European promises are ''awaiting serious action by the Lebanese state and signals from Washington,'' the daily said.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF joins forces with NGO to turn community security teams into lean fighting machines

2025-05-11

[IsraelTimes] After Oct. 7 failures led to the killing of 48 civilian first responders, a grassroots org launches Magen 48 to professionally train security volunteers from 66 Gaza border communities

It looked like something from the hit Israeli television show "Fauda."

In the blinding sun, a line of men wearing army fatigues, bulletproof vests, and ear protection were firing at targets in quick succession, two at a time.

"Most Israeli men are hard of hearing thanks to this kind of noise," said instructors Georgi and Rada, handing this news hound a set of earplugs.

They stood with stopwatches next to each man due to shoot. "Five seconds to shoot five bullets," they barked.

The range they were practicing on is located in the Israel Defense Forces’ 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...
Division headquarters near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel, but the 14 trainees were not professional sharpshooters. Rather, they were members of a civilian kibbutz security team on the first day of a new intensive tactical training course.

The course is aimed at ensuring that Gaza border communities can defend themselves against a repeat of the October 7, 2023, Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
-led massacre in southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were slaughtered during the full-scale invasion, and 251 were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.

Kibbutz Gvulot, just over 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the Gaza Strip, was not invaded on October 7. Lacking rifles, security team members who had pistols went to help fight forces of Evil in Kibbutz Holit, about a 15-minute drive away.

It is nevertheless one of 66 localities within the Gaza border area — including the city of Sderot — whose security teams are undergoing one day of training per month over the course of a year, for a total of 12 days. Eight of those sessions will count toward the participants’ military reserve duty and are being funded by the IDF, while the remaining four days are paid for by a private NGO, Magen Yehuda, and its program, Magen 48.

First-response security teams on Israel’s borders are the responsibility of the army, with each community required to have at least 24 members who are trained and armed by the IDF. These members, however, are volunteers, often fathers in their 30s and 40s who have completed compulsory military service and are willing to be on call to defend their villages and towns. One of them is appointed commander and may also serve as the civilian security coordinator, whose salary is paid by the army and the local authority.

The group from Kibbutz Gvulot, which hopes to double in size, represented the spectrum of Israeli society. Members included a farmer and a history teacher, and served in a range of combat units such as the Golani and Paratrooper infantry brigades as well as the elite Navy Seals. Many had chalked up hundreds of days of reserve duty in Gaza during the ongoing war against Hamas there.

LOCKED OUT, UNDER-EQUIPPED, AND POORLY COORDINATED
Until the October 7 massacre, the IDF provided men like these with two yearly sessions of limited training, usually at a shooting range.

When Hamas invaded and the army was initially overwhelmed, defense fell largely on the shoulders of these first response teams, 46 of whose members were murdered in the line of duty.

Along the Gaza border, none of the teams had been trained in pistol use. Some lacked assault rifles or were unable to access locked armories. According to a series of IDF post-October 7 probes, training of these teams was not standardized and coordination between them, the army, and other organizations was often poor.

In August 2022, following a series of break-ins and gun thefts, the army instructed all Gaza border security teams to return their assault rifles. It conditioned their return on the installation of safe storage places, either at home or in local armories. The decision left many unable to defend themselves against the massive waves of well-armed invading terrorists.

Because these were not installed in Sderot by October 7, for example, the security team there was not prepared to help defend the city. In all, 53 people were killed in Sderot that day, including 37 civilians, 11 coppers, two firefighters, and three IDF soldiers.

In Be’eri, the two security members with keys to the armory were killed before they could open it, and in Nahal Oz, the armory remained locked when power went out and the only man with a key for manual use was killed.

THE SECRET OF KIBBUTZ EREZ
Immediately after October 7, Ra’anana-based Australian immigrant Ari Briggs teamed up with his long-time friend Elan Isaacson to understand what had happened so that he could brief Jewish communities overseas.

Briggs is a business consultant and former director of the international department at the right-wing Regavim organization. Isaacson, who moved with his family from South Africa to Israel as a child, spent decades growing flowers on an agricultural cooperative near the Gaza border. After the last major flare-up with Hamas in 2014, Isaacson traded chrysanthemum cultivation for the job of security chief at the Eshkol Regional Council.

Traveling between farming communities with Isaacson, Briggs discovered that the security team at Kibbutz Erez had fared better than elsewhere, managing to prevent the forces of Evil from entering the community and avoiding civilian casualties.

One member of the security team, Amir Naim, was killed during the fighting. The team gathered at the highest point in the kibbutz, from which they could see two pickup trucks full of forces of Evil heading their way, Ben Sadan, another member of the squad, told Ynet. They opened fire on them and a ferocious shootout ensued, with "grenades, RPGs, insane gunfire," he said. Naim was critically maimed and died in battle.

During his visit to Kibbutz Erez, Briggs asked the team how they survived, and they said, "’Ehud Dribben’s training.’ So I chased Ehud down," he said.

Dribben, a counterterrorism instructor who has worked with the IDF and police forces and militaries around the world, established the NGO Magen Yehuda (Shield of Judah) in 2004 as a vehicle through which to voluntarily train 64 first-response teams, many of them in the West Bank.

He trained the Kibbutz Erez team before October 7, having been contacted by a mutual friend of one of the team members.

"We had had one to two days of practice each year, mainly at shooting ranges," recalled Danny Epstein, a member of Kibbutz Erez’s security team who helped fight Hamas forces of Evil on the kibbutz fence for three hours on October 7, sustaining a gunshot to his throat.

"We felt the difference as soon as Ehud came in. He told us what the aim was, his security perspective, and what he expected from us as a security team, from working as individuals to members of small cells to a group."

Dribben had them operating under scenarios of live fire, explosions, smoke, and more, and in simulations with maimed people and hostages.

"We carried out exercises that were relatively complex within the kibbutz," Epstein said. "It created a better bond between us. We know how to work better together now."

NO STANDARDIZED TRAINING
Briggs and Dribben conceived of Magen 48 this past August. The name was based on the understanding that 48 security team members had fallen on October 7. Confusingly, the IDF’s Gaza Division, with which Dribben worked on the details of the program, decided to call its project to improve civilian-military relations Magen 46, as two of the fallen were not from the Gaza border area.

An IDF spokeswoman said the army had taken inspiration from the NGO’s name, adding, "These are two separate programs with the same name, with the same aim, and wherever we can, we will help."

Both the IDF and Magen 48 denied that the army has effectively outsourced part of its training to the private sector.

"It’s a trial that the Gaza Division Commander has approved to upgrade the civilian first response teams," said Isaacson. "The army is taking responsibility, and we are supplementing it."

Key to the project are tailored defense plans, 23 of which have been produced so far. These are made after a reserve lieutenant colonel has toured the community with the local security liaison to understand the layout, where attacks are likely to come from, and how it should be defended. Exercises based on the defense plans are conducted twice in conjunction with the IDF. According to Briggs, seeing that the IDF is involved in such a professional initiative is key to rebuilding confidence in the military that was shattered on October 7.

"People said it’s [a job] for the bigger organizations, the government to deal with," Briggs quipped. "But I’m the crazy Australian, and I know that the government comes in once a program is successful."

The standards for the training are the same in all communities, Dribben said, although the trainings are shaped to suit the location that’s being defended.

The course includes tactical skills, communication, various forms of target training, drone reconnaissance, emergency medical strategies, and team leadership training focused on real-time decision-making. Security teams, to which women had also signed up, required the same level of rifle competency as homefront combat soldiers and combat support personnel.

"Every exercise, in every scenario, is timed, measured, and given marks," Dribben said. "The whole system must be rebuilt in a long-term and professional way."

Briggs has been visiting US Jewish communities, urging them to twin with the security teams of different Gaza border settlements to finance four of the 12 training sessions.

It costs $26,000 for one year, 20% less for the second year, and half that sum for the third, as the teams become more experienced. So far, he has raised support for 18 communities.

Isaacson, a keen supporter of the new training scheme, said, "You can have the best schools, the best of everything, but if you don’t have the basics — security — it will be hard to bring the communities back and keep them there."

"It’s 100% the army’s job to defend us," he went on. "But that’s not enough after October 7. Wherever you live in Israel, you need to take responsibility for your family and community."

Briggs added, "You don’t have to be Rambo to defend your community."

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Blue-haired NYC perv with long rap sheet busted for groping women

2025-05-01

[NYPOST] A deranged blue-haired brute went on a sick crime spree in Manhattan this week, groping four women — one of them blind — and lighting another unsuspecting victim's hair on fire, police and prosecutors said.

Edwin Page — a 28-year-old from Harlem with at least 10 prior arrests and more than a dozen mental health outbursts, according to sources — is now charged with sex abuse, forcible touching and assault as a hate crime in the rash of broad-daylight attacks across Chelsea and Midtown South.

''He stands before the court charged with five separate incidents involving five different strangers,'' Assistant District Attorney Shara Safer said in Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday, adding the incidents were captured on surveillance video.

Link

Fifth Column

Activist at Michigan Gaza fundraiser calls for end of America

2025-04-30

[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] The Middle East Media Research Institute shared a video of a man in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, talking about how the United States must be destroyed. The bearded man, wearing a keffiyeh, walks along the street with a white woman, also keffiyeh clad, who looks on dumbly as he calls for the death of the nation.

"The message for the people of Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
," he said, heavily accenting Gaza but otherwise speaking in a clear American accent, "is going to be more of the message that should be sent to the people here, in that they have achieved victory. We haven't done anywhere near enough. And the people here—I promise you—we do feel ashamed. We do feel like we're not doing enough. We do feel like change needs to come, because change must come."

"And in the form that it must come is that this empire, the American empire, that's been hurting our people since the beginning, the imperial western powers that have been hurting our people since the beginning, they must fall."

"And inshallah, inshallah, they will fall. And my message to people of Gaza and oppressed people across the world is that there are people here, both young and old, who are going to be willing to fight and are willing to put their lives and everything they can on the line to bring these empires down. Because they must come down."

The video was taken at a Dearborn Heights Fundraiser for the Middle East Children's Alliance on March 19, 2025. The fundraiser was for the "Gaza Emergency." The group writes "During 18 months of brutal attacks on Gaza, MECA team and partners are providing emergency assistance to children and families to help them survive."

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