[IsraelTimes] Law enforcement dropped charges, but only after after 8-month ordeal; interrogator asked suspect if he thought placard would offend pro-Hezbollah protesters
British police arrested and charged a Jewish man in London in September with racial harassment for holding a poster satirizing Hezbollah — with officers at one stage expressing concern that supporters of the terror group would be offended — only dropping the charges earlier this month, the Telegraph reported Friday.
The placard mocked His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> by showing the Hezbollah leader with a pager and the words "beep, beep, beep," a reference to the Israeli operation in September that saw pagers and walkie-talkies explode and kill 42 people.
The man, who was a counter-protester on September 20 at an anti-Israel demonstration near the home of Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely in Swiss Cottage, north-west London, held the placard for less than three minutes; he chose to remain anonymous out of fear for his safety.
On September 27, an Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... killed Nasrallah in Beirut. That same day, the man returned to Swiss Cottage for another counter-protest and was arrested.
Before being kept overnight at a local cop shoppe, police searched his home for the poster, which they could not find, despite the man telling them it was not his.
"Two police vans and six officers turned up at our house to search for ’offensive material’, which was quite invasive. It was a horrible experience," he told the Telegraph.
"They put me in the lounge and asked my partner to go with them around the house. They weren’t very pleasant to her and even went through her knicker drawer. It was totally ridiculous."
Video from the man’s interrogation obtained by the Telegraph shows a policewoman repeatedly asking him about the poster: "Do you think that showing this image to persons protesting who are clearly pro-Hezbollah and anti-Israel that by doing so would stir up racial hatred further than it is already?"
The man’s attorney, Carl Wolf, replied: "Are you saying that there were pro-Hezbollah people there? Because it is a proscribed terrorist organization." The officer said she was "aware of that" and continued her line of questioning.
Despite denying that he intended to incite racial hatred or insult supporters of Hezbollah, which is recognized as a terrorist organization in the UK, police charged him for "causing racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress by words or writing," the Telegraph reported.
The charges were dropped on May 10 after the Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.
"The Met Police are still completely out of their depth when it comes to policing the anti-Israel hate marches we’ve seen on our streets week in, week out since the October 7 attacks," the man told the Telegraph.
"It beggars belief that police could think that this placard may be offensive to supporters of Hezbollah. If there are Hezbollah supporters at these marches, then why weren’t charges brought against them for terrorist offenses, rather than me being charged for holding a sign that can only be construed as political satire?
"I didn’t realize how relieved I was until I heard I wasn’t going to court."
London police told the Telegraph that the officer "clearly misspoke when she described those in the protest as pro-Hezbollah instead of pro-Paleostinian," adding that the man "was charged following a careful consideration of the evidence."
John Woodcock, the UK’s former extremism tsar, told The Telegraph: "We all understand the police have a difficult job preventing protests escalating into disorder, but the idea that officers intervened on the side of supporters of a proscribed terrorist organization is grotesque."
He added that "it’s an implausible explanation from the police that this officer simply misspoke. She was reading from a list of pre-prepared questions. They should just own their mistake and use this opportunity to ensure lessons are learnt."
Chris Philip, the UK shadow home secretary, told the Telegraph: "In recent times, the police have failed to act when confronted with protesters calling for jihad and intifada in London. Yet this man was apparently arrested because he might have offended supporters of a banned terrorist organization.
"This is two-tier policing in action. The law is rightly clear that supporting banned terrorist groups, inciting violence, inciting racial hatred or harassing people is illegal. Beyond that, free speech applies to everyone. The police sometimes turn a blind eye when applying the law might be difficult, yet over-police at other times. The law should be applied equally to all, robustly and without fear or favor. That is not what happened here."
Ian Austin, a man who was investigated by UK police for calling the terror group Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... "Islamists" on social media, told the Telegraph: "It beggars belief that someone would be arrested, put in the cells and then charged for holding this sign because it might upset supporters of Islamist holy warriors and a proscribed organization, rather than take action against the terror supporters.
"There is clearly a systemic problem when it comes to dealing with the hate marches and, instead of telling us they disagree with individual decisions, ministers need to get a grip and sort it out."
A front man for the police told the Telegraph that 28 arrests have been made since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught under the UK Terrorism Act "for offenses at protests, including wearing clothing or displaying symbols that indicated support for such groups, including Hezbollah. This is in addition to the hundreds of arrests made for other offenses."
🚨🇬🇧BREAKING: Today, in over 76 towns and cities across Britain, thousands of protesters called on Keir Starmer to resign immediately. pic.twitter.com/nYfZ7wEBAB
[HotAir] The first rule in any investigation: Follow the money.
The New York Post did just that with the man who slaughtered two Israeli embassy employees outside a Jewish museum this week. Isabel Vincent traces the path that Elias Rodriguez has taken over the last several years on his way to becoming a cowardly terrorist assassin, taking particular note of his allegiance to the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), as well as International ANSWER and other radical-leftist alliances. And the funding for PSL runs through one man, who also has a particular affinity for the regime in Beijing:
The suspected terrorist charged with gunning down two Israeli embassy workers in Washington Wednesday is associated with radical socialist groups funded by the far-left Chinese sympathizer, millionaire Neville Singham and his activist wife Jodie Evans.
Elias Rodriguez, 31, who allegedly confessed to killing the couple outside the Capital Jewish Museum and chanted "free, free Paleostine!" was part of that network through his association with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a Communist political organization that has fielded presidential candidates since 2008. ...
Both the PSL and ANSWER Coalition are connected to People’s Forum — a Manhattan-based non-profit which has ties to the Chinese Communist Party — through funding from Singham, 71.
The funding -- $20 million -- also got filtered through Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund (GSPF). If it seems strange that a capitalist financial institution is funding radical socialists like ANSWER and the PSL, it is, but it's hardly the only bastion of free markets to buy the rope by which the forces of Evil want to lynch them. The Ford Foundation comes to mind, as does the Tides Foundation, founded on the RJ Reynolds tobacco fortune, among others. Arabella Advisors, a shadowy coalition of the world's wealthiest industrialists, also pours a tsunami of money into radical-left causes.
And in case you wonder, that's the same Jodie Evans that co-founded Code Pink ... a U.S. anti-war group. The group describes itself as a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities. It was founded in 2002 by Jodie Evans, Medea Benjamin and of the other usual antiwar suspects. Its website lists hysterical allegations of US war crimes, and states that thousands of civilians were killed in Fallujah in 2004. Maybe it was millions. Benjamin was a 2000 candidate for the U.S. Senate on the Green Party ticket. She lost... with Medea Benjamin to protest the Iraq War. Apparently Evans only cares about some violence, and has completely flipped on China after marrying Singham. That impression comes from another affiliation with the Singhams that Vincent points out to her readers:
Another group, the Bronx Antiwar Coalition is also connected to groups in Singham’s orbit. The Bronx group applauded the murders of the Israeli diplomats on X Thursday.
"What Elias Rodriguez did is the highest expression of anti-Zionism," a tweet from the group proclaimed.
So Rodriguez has connections to both PSL and ANSWER, and an endorsement from the Bronx Antiwar Coalition, all of which have ties to Singham and Evans. What about China? In a book written by Evans, Vincent reports that she and her husband fund something called the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. According to a May 2024 report from the Network Contagion Research Institute linked by Vincent, this entity as well as the People's Forum get support from the Chinese Communist Party as part of an effort to wreak political havoc in the US:
Evans is set to release a book in January 2025 titled "China is Not Our Enemy," which she co-authored with a researcher employed by the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research and Dongsheng News.17 Both the Tricontinental Institute and Dongsheng News have ties to the CCP and have received funding from Singham, with the Tricontinental Institute also receiving partial funding from Code Pink.
Are Singham and Evans the only source of that funding? Not according to NCRI, which also suspects that the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund is operating as a dark-money clearinghouse for overseas funding:
Between 2017 and 2022, the People’s Forum received over $20 million in grants from the GSPF, with $12 million transferred in 2019 alone. As previous reporting has detailed, GSPF appears to function as a dark money clearinghouse, obscuring the identity of donors while facilitating the transfer of substantial sums to American non-profits.
In November 2023, a Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint was filed with the IRS ...the Internal Revenue Service; that office of the United States government that collects taxes and persecutes the regime's political enemies... against The People’s Forum, alleging that: "De Los Santos and the People’s Forum Inc. have been advocating in support of the U.S. designated foreign terror organization Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... in its war on Israel and Jews and also advocates for the overthrow of the United States."
How does Singham make his money? The NCRI report is equally interested in that question:
According to an investigation conducted by the New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... (NYT), Singham’s "ties to the propaganda machine date back at least to 2019, when, corporate documents show, he started a consulting business with Chinese partners. Those partners are active in the propaganda apparatus." According to a report in Newlines Magazine, Singham is invested in at least two other major Chinese companies, underscoring the depth of his business interests in mainland China. In July 2023, Singham was photographed at a strategic communications workshop hosted by the CCP in Shanghai.14 As recent as November 2023, India’s Enforcement Directorate summoned Singham for questioning regarding his Delhi-based news portal NewsClick, which was raided in 2021 for suspected acceptance of illegal funds from China to promote CCP propaganda deemed a threat to India’s national security.
In 2023, even the New York Times found Singham's cash flow to be highly suspicious:
In fact, a New York Times investigation found, it is part of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. At the center is a charismatic American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham, who is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes.
What is less known, and is hidden amid a tangle of nonprofit groups and shell companies, is that Mr. Singham works closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide.
From a think tank in Massachusetts to an event space in Manhattan, from a political party in South Africa to news organizations in India and Brazil, The Times tracked hundreds of millions of dollars to groups linked to Mr. Singham that mix progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points.
At the time, the NYT didn't report any connection specifically to Hamas or Paleostinian propaganda, but this was less than five months before Hamas' atrocities on October 7, too. People's Forum makes an appearance, as does the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund, although the NYT only refers to it as a charity:
Since 2017, about a quarter of Code Pink’s donations — more than $1.4 million — have come from two groups linked to Mr. Singham, nonprofit records show. The first was one of the UPS store nonprofits. The second was a charity that Goldman Sachs offers as a conduit for clients’ giving, and that Mr. Singham has used in the past.
Ms. Evans now stridently supports China. She casts it as a defender of the oppressed and a model for economic growth without slavery or war.
Vincent's reporting raises a lot of questions about the "globalize the intifada" movement in the US. Hamas may not be the only malefactor behind it, and it's time to start asking Goldman Sachs about their "charity" work -- as well as Singham and Evans about their cash flow, and whether they're redirecting Beijing's resources into violent mostly peaceful terrorism in the US.
Eric Rodriguez is a member of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the most radical left unions in the U.S. He made a video for SEIU the same day he was honored by Rep. Garcia, in which he referred to himself as an Iraq War veteran and Veterans Affairs employee.
“I’ve been with the VA for three years, and the reason why I’m in Washington, D.C., is because I’m concerned about what Donald Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE are doing to the VA system,” he said in the video.
Addressing the monumental problems at the VA is almost an exercise in futility. The agency that is supposed to care for our veterans is a bloated, inefficient mess.
The VA stated that the canceled contracts "were identified through a multi-level review" and "will not negatively affect Veteran care, benefits, or services," though this claim has been met with skepticism, reports NBC News.
Lischinsky was a Messianic Jew, that is, a Jewish person who believes in Jesus (or Yeshua, to use His Hebrew name.)
Messianic Judaism is a touchy subject in the larger Jewish community, but One for Israel has an excellent, extensive history that’s worth reading. My Jewish Learning drips with condescension when it characterizes Messianic Judaism as a movement that “has tried to straddle the line between Judaism and Christianity.” The headline of that explainer uses mock-quotes to ask, “Who Are Messianic ‘Jews’?”
In its profile of Lischinsky, the Jewish news site Forward explains:
Messianic Judaism is a religious movement made up of people who identify ethnically and culturally as Jewish and believe that Jesus — whom they call Yeshua — is the promised Messiah.
Most adherents consider themselves Jewish, a position rejected by the mainstream Jewish community but embraced by congregations like Melech Ha’Mlachim [where Lischinsky worshiped].
Forward adds that “most Messianic congregations in Israel are locally run and culturally Jewish, with Torah readings, Hebrew prayer and Jewish holiday observance.” Many, if not most, American Messianic synagogues do as well.
The controversy over Messianic Judaism isn’t lost on Forward:
Still, Lischinsky’s religious identity has stirred confusion in the wake of his death. Ronen Shoval, dean of the Argaman Institute in Jerusalem, where Lischinsky participated in a yearlong program, described him to The New York Times as “a devout Christian” who “tied his fate to the people of Israel.” Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, also referred to him as Christian in a tribute posted to social media.
But [Lischinsky’s friend David] Boskey pushed back on that framing. He said that Lischinsky, like others in their congregation, saw himself as a Jew who believed Jesus was the Messiah — and that this belief did not negate his Jewish identity.
[IsraelTimes] After initially condemning killing of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, Guy Christensen tells his over 3 million followers that shooter ‘isn’t a terrorist. He’s a resistance fighter’
A sweet-faced, vicious asshole.
Guy Christensen, a TikTok influencer with more than 3 million followers, came out in support of the shooting attack that killed two Israeli embassy employees.
"I do not condemn the elimination of the Zionist officials who worked at the Israeli embassy last night," Christensen, an American Gen-Z influencer who goes by YourFavoriteGuy on TikTok, said in a video posted Thursday.
"I want to urge you first to support Elias’ actions," he added later, referencing the alleged shooter. "He is not a terrorist. He’s a resistance fighter, and the fact is that the fight against Israel’s war machine, against their genocide machine, against their criminality, includes their foreign diplomats in this country."
The video represented a reversal for Christensen, who had earlier posted a video condemning the murders. The video supporting the attack later disappeared from TikTok and Instagram. He appeared to suggest that the platform had removed it: "also tiktok banned my vid LOL," he wrote on a subsequent post.
With the video, Christensen joined a growing collection of voices openly supporting the attack. He may be the one with the largest audience.
For nearly all of the time since Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... ’s October 7, 2023, attack and the war it launched 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... , Christensen has been a constant, vocal pro-Paleostinian activist. In a November 2023 essay, penned when he was still in high school, he wrote that his support began when he discovered "more than what the media was telling me."
Since then, videos condemning Israel and voicing support for Paleostinians have populated his feed, and helped him rack up followers in the process. In the video supporting the murders, Christensen — as in many of his videos — was decked out in pro-Paleostinian paraphernalia. He wore a keffiyeh as well as a shirt that appeared to say "Jesus was a Paleostinian." A Paleostinian flag hung behind him.
In his initial denunciation of the attack — which killed Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young couple who were attending an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee — Christensen said, "I don’t support the slaughter of civilians. That’s not the way to go about it and bring justice."
In the earlier video, he made clear that he still condemned the victims’ activities and affiliations — just not their murders. "These people deserve to be tried and punished and sentenced to jail for their facilitation of this genocide," he said.
He spent much of the video predicting that the attack would lead to a government crackdown on pro-Paleostinian activists, which he compared to Kristallnacht, the mass Nazi pogrom that is considered by many to be the beginning of the Holocaust.
Some of Christensen’s followers said they agreed with that stance. But others rejected it. Many made the case that they believed that the attack had been a "false flag" operation perpetrated by supporters of Israel to galvanize opposition to pro-Paleostinian activism.
Similar comments were unfolding across the internet on Thursday. Pro-Paleostinian activists and groups that denounced the shooting drew a flurry of rebuttals: "Condemn yourselves," one popular account responded to Jewish Voice for Peace’s post decrying the attack on X.
News stories related to the shooting, meanwhile, saw fights play out in their comments section. When the news site Block Club reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... reported on a search of the alleged gunman’s apartment, for example, several responses included requests for Rodriguez’s legal defense fund. The progressive radio show "Democracy Now" elicited comments likening Rodriguez to Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in December — reflecting a trend peeking out across the internet.
Amid this context, by Thursday night, about a day after the murders, Christensen reversed course.
"Israel has livestreamed a genocide to the entire world the last two years," he said regarding the war that began 19 months ago with Hamas’ invasion. "And you cannot expect to do such a thing in this world without the people standing up to fight, to stop you in any way they can, to resist against you, and that is exactly what happened."
Like some who have praised the attack, Christensen denied that it was antisemitic by citing Lischinsky’s self-identification as a Christian. (Lischinsky had posted that he was Christian, and appears to have affiliated as a Messianic Jew, a movement that couples Jewish practices with belief in Jesus as the messiah — an idea considered incompatible with Judaism by all Jewish denominations.)
"Do not let yourself be fooled by the media, by the Zionists in this country who are telling you that this was an antisemitic terrorist attack," he said. "It was not. First of all, the man who was assassinated was a Christian Zionist, proclaiming it so on his social media. He spent his days working at the Israeli Embassy fighting to maintain Israel’s genocide and support for that genocide in this country."
Christensen continued, "He is a war criminal, and the same is true for the woman. This was not because they were Jewish, it was because they were Zionists."
(On Friday afternoon, he posted a "disclaimer" video where he said the following: "Since Zionists on Twitter are going rabid over what I just posted, I just want to disclaim that I’m not suicidal, I would never make a threat that would jeopardize my position to influence and educate people about the atrocity and evils that Zionism is currently bringing down upon the Paleostinian people, especially in Gaza. I hate Nazis and I hate Zionists, so I don’t have a problem with you much if you’re not one of those things.")
He spent much of his video supporting the attack reading the entirety of a manifesto that appears to have been posted by the gunman, titled "Escalate For Gaza, Bring The War Home." In a subsequent video, he expressed fear that pro-Israel activists would spur a federal investigation of him.
After reading the document, Christensen reiterated the reversal of his condemnation of the attack, comparing himself to Luke Skywalker, the protagonist of the Star Wars franchise.
Condemning the attack, he said, would be like "condemning Luke Skywalker for attacking the Death Star because the Empire might crack down on the resistance."
He then signed off.
"We must meet with escalation and stronger resistance," he said. "I hope my retracted condemnation does not allow our government to condemn me to a cell. But I don’t know. Follow my page for more. Thank you and free Paleostine."
A waste of time, but at least it gets the information into the historical record.
[Rudaw] A French-Syrian group has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing Syria’s interim president of being responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, according to a media report.
The Franco-Alawite Collective, which is composed of Alawites, Druze, Kurds, Christians, and Sunnis, filed the complaint against interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, La Belle Franceinfo reported on Friday. They accuse him of orchestrating massacres in March and May that left between 1,700 and 2,000 people dead.
In March, violence erupted like lava from a volcano in Alawite-majority areas after gangs, many loyal to ousted president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... , launched attacks on forces allied with the government, prompting Damascus to respond with force. Around 1,500 people, mainly Alawite civilians, were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said most of the casualties were caused by government or government-affiliated forces. Amnesty International said the mass killings must be investigated as a "war crime."
In April and May, deadly festivities broke out between government forces and Druze fighters.
The collective claims the deaths qualify as genocide or crimes against humanity and say they have video evidence to support their accusations.
"This complaint is in the name of the Syrian people," said Lina Peron, a member of the collective’s legal committee, La Belle Franceinfo reported.
The complaint was submitted to the ICC prosecutor’s office, which will decide whether to open a formal investigation.
Facing international criticism, Sharaa, who led the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) militia that spearheaded the offensive to topple dictator Bashir al-Assad, ordered an investigation into violence against minorities.
Sharaa’s interim government has faced repeated criticism for its treatment of minority groups, with many Syrians and foreign powers fearing it will impose strict religious rule, posing a threat to Kurds, Druze, Christians, and Alawites. The violence heightened concerns over the future of these populations.
[IsraelTimes] Apparent spam calls use voice of Yosef-Haim Ohana from Hamas video released earlier this month; Hostages Forum say its members also received calls, stresses it is not behind them
Israelis reported receiving recorded voice messages overnight Friday and Saturday of hostages pleading to be released and sounds of explosions in the background, with the National Cyber Directorate saying that the calls were an apparent attempt to create panic among the public.
The calls, which came from unidentified numbers, used recordings taken from a propaganda video released by Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... in May of hostages Yosef-Haim Ohana and Elkana Bohbot.
In the video, Ohana is seen sitting up next to Bohbot, who is lying down on a mattress. "What will happen when I soon won’t be able to be near him and he will remain alone?" Ohana says in the recording.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum released a statement saying that its members had also received the voice messages and that the forum was not behind the recordings.
The National Cyber Directorate said the messages were "an attempt to create panic among the public."
The directorate added that receiving such a call does not harm the phone, but the call should not be answered, and the number should be blocked.
The directorate said the calls were received from the following numbers: 079-9444000; 074-7375311; 072-2604986.
Since taking 251 hostages on October 7, 2023, Hamas has often published videos of the captives as a form of propaganda and psychological warfare.
Bohbot and Ohana were both kidnapped by forces of Evil at the Supernova festival while trying to help injured people.
Terror groups in 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 are holding 58 hostages, including 57 of the 251 kidnapped by Hamas-led forces of Evil on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF, and 20 are believed to be alive. There are grave concerns for the well-being of three others, Israeli officials have said.
Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March, and one additional hostage, a dual American-Israeli citizen, in May as a "gesture" to the United States. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 tossed in the slammer anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not Paleostinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazook terror suspects detained during the war.
A number have already been rearrested for misbehaving, and another number have gotten themselves killed, likewise. It’s likely in the end all will achieve one or the other stqte, in boring repetition.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas and is counted among the 58 hostages.
[IsraelNationalNews] Hamas captivity survivor Agam Berger tells France's Foreign Minister that "diplomatic solutions" are futile against Hamas, stating, "it's us or them."
One third? Ridiculous! You can’t run a country that way — which is why, in the end, they didn’t.
[IsraelTimes] Syria’s Interior Ministry front man Noureddine al-Baba says that more than eight million people were wanted by the intelligence and security services of longtime ruler Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... , who was ousted in December.
Baba tells a presser in Damascus that "the number of people wanted by the former regime for political reasons exceeds eight million," adding that "we are talking about around a third of the Syrian people who had records and were wanted by the repressive intelligence and security agencies of the former regime."
[AnNahar] 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... has multiple major sites associated with its rapidly advancing nuclear program, now the subject of several rounds of negotiations with the United States.
The sites across the country, including one in the heart of Tehran, the capital, show the breadth and history of the program. One in particular, Iran's Natanz enrichment site, has been targeted several times in suspected sabotage attacks by Israel amid tensions between the two Mideast rivals.
Here's a look at some of those major Iranian sites and their importance in Tehran's program.
NATANZ ENRICHMENT FACILITY
Iran's nuclear facility at Natanz, located some 220 kilometers (135 miles) southeast of Tehran, is the country's main enrichment site. Part of the facility on Iran's Central Plateau is underground to defend against potential Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s. It operates multiple cascades, or groups of centrifuges working together to more quickly enrich uranium. Iran also is burrowing into the Kūh-e Kolang Gaz Lā, or "Pickaxe Mountain," which is just beyond Natanz's southern fencing. Natanz has been targeted by the Stuxnet virus, believed to be an Israeli and American creation, which destroyed Iranian centrifuges. Two separate sabotage attacks, attributed to Israel, also have struck the facility.
FORDO ENRICHMENT FACILITY
Iran's nuclear facility at Fordo is located some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Tehran. It also hosts centrifuge cascades, but isn't as big a facility as Natanz. Buried under a mountain and protected by anti-aircraft batteries, Fordo appears designed to withstand airstrikes. Its construction began at least in 2007, according to the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, although Iran only informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog about the facility in 2009 after the U.S. and allied Western intelligence agencies became aware of its existence.
BUSHEHR NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
Iran's only commercial nuclear power plant is in Bushehr on the Persian Gulf, some 750 kilometers (465 miles) south of Tehran. Construction on the plant began under Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the mid-1970s. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the plant was repeatedly targeted in the Iran-Iraq war. Russia later completed construction of the facility. Iran is building two other reactors like it at the site. Bushehr is fueled by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran, and is monitored by the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... ' ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency.
ARAK HEAVY WATER REACTOR
The Arak heavy water reactor is 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of Tehran. Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. That would provide Iran another path to the bomb beyond enriched uranium, should it choose to pursue the weapon. Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the facility to relieve proliferation concerns.
ISFAHAN NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY CENTER
The facility in Isfahan, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) southeast of Tehran, employs thousands of nuclear scientists. It also is home to three Chinese research reactors and laboratories associated with the country's atomic program.
TEHRAN RESEARCH REACTOR
The Tehran Research Reactor is at the headquarters of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the civilian body overseeing the country's atomic program. The U.S. actually provided Iran the reactor in 1967 as part of America's "Atoms for Peace" program during the Cold War. It initially required highly enriched uranium but was later retrofitted to use low-enriched uranium over proliferation concerns.
[IsraelTimes] Syrian authorities announced yesterday an interior ministry restructuring that includes fighting cross-border drug and people smuggling, as they seek to improve ties with Western nations that have lifted sanctions.
Keen to reboot and rebuild nearly 14 years after a devastating civil war broke out, the new authorities in Damascus have hailed Washington’s lifting of US sanctions.
The move was formalized Friday after being announced by President Donald Trump on a Gulf tour this month during which he shook hands with Syria’s jihadist-turned-interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Spokesman Noureddine al-Baba said the interior ministry restructure included reforms and creating “a modern civil security institution that adopts transparency and respects international human rights standards.”
It includes setting up a citizens’ complaints department and incorporating the police and General Security agency into an Internal Security command, he told a press conference.
A border security body for Syria’s land and sea frontiers will be tasked with “combating illegal activities, particularly drug and human smuggling networks,” Baba said.
The restructure includes “strengthening the role of the anti-drug department and further developing its importance within Syria and abroad” after the country became a major exporter of illicit stimulant captagon, he added.
[IsraelTimes] Sweeping economic relief doesn’t include removal of Sharaa’s HTS from terror blacklist; some US officials pushed for phased approach that would include normalizing ties with Israel
The Trump administration granted Syria sweeping exemptions from sanctions Friday in a big first step toward fulfilling the president’s pledge to lift a half-century of penalties on a country shattered by 13 years of civil war.
While broad, the administration’s actions could possibly be reversed. Syrians say they need permanent relief to secure the tens of billions of dollars in investment needed to rebuild after a conflict that fragmented the country, displaced or killed millions of people, and left behind thousands of imported muscle.
A measure by the State Department waived for six months a tough set of sanctions imposed by Congress in 2019.
A measure by the State Department waived for six months a tough set of sanctions imposed by Congress in 2019. A Treasury Department action suspended enforcement of sanctions against anyone doing business with a range of Syrian individuals and entities, including Syria’s central bank.
Trust but verify. And quietly watch where the money flows…
Syria is now led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former militia commander who helped drive longtime autocratic leader Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... from power late last year.
President Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... announced last week that the US would roll back the heavy financial penalties in a bid to give the interim government a better chance of survival. The Trump administration said businesses and investors are getting the protection against sanctions they need to come back to Syria, calling it "the opportunity for a fresh start."
"The only other option was Syria becoming a failed state and civil war," said Mouaz Moustafa, a Syrian American advocate who had campaigned for quick, broad relief. "Now there is hope for a future democratic Syria."
The congressional sanctions, known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, had aimed to isolate Syria’s previous rulers by effectively expelling those doing business with them from the global financial system. They specifically block postwar reconstruction, so while they can be waived for 180 days by executive order, investors are likely to be wary of reconstruction projects when sanctions could be reinstated after six months.
The Trump administration said Friday’s actions were "just one part of a broader US government effort to remove the full architecture of sanctions." Those penalties had been imposed on the Assad family for their support of Iranian-backed militias, their chemical weapons
...have not been used since WWI except for in Iraq, by the late, unlamented Saddam Hussein and in Syria, but really, honest, not by the Syrian government. And in Germany in WWII, but that was against civilians. Lots of them, just one of many reasons Hitler's also late and unlamented... program and abuses of civilians.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SAYS IT EXPECTS ACTION FROM SYRIA
US 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 Friday that in return for sanctions relief, Trump expects "prompt action by the Syrian government on important policy priorities."
Al-Sharaa’s own past has fueled doubts. The group that he led, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... , was originally affiliated with al-Qaeda, although it later renounced ties and took a more moderate tone. It is still listed by the US as a terrorist organization.
But if al-Sharaa’s government fails, the US and others fear renewed conflict in Syria and a power vacuum that could allow a resurgence of 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.... and other bad boy groups.
"If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we do not engage them, it was guaranteed not to work out," Rubio told politicians this week.
Trump met al-Sharaa last week in 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... , a day after announcing his intention to lift the sanctions: "We’re taking them all off. Good luck, Syria. Show us something special."
Rubio said sanctions relief must start quickly because Syria’s transition government could be weeks from "collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions."
But asked by politicians this week what sanctions relief should look like overall, Rubio gave a one-word explanation: "Incremental."
DEBATE WITHIN THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
While some sanctions can be quickly waived through executive actions like those taken Friday, Congress would have to permanently remove the penalties it imposed.
Some Trump administration officials have been pushing for relief as fast as possible without demanding tough conditions first. Others have proposed a phased approach, giving short-term waivers right away on some sanctions then tying extensions or a wider executive order to Syria meeting tough conditions.
Critics said that could slow or prevent longer-term relief, hindering the interim government’s ability to attract investment and rebuild.
Proposals circulated among administration officials, including one shared this week that broadly emphasized taking all action possible, as fast as possible, to help Syria rebuild, according to a US official familiar with the plan who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Another proposal — from State Department staff — that circulated last week suggested a three-phase road map, starting with short-term waivers and then laying out sweeping requirements for future phases of relief or a permanent lifting of sanctions, the official said.
Removing "Paleostinian terror groups" from Syria is first on the list of conditions to get to the second phase. Supporters of sanctions relief say that might be impossible, given the subjectivity of determining which groups meet that definition and at what point they can be declared removed.
Other conditions for moving to the second phase are for the new government to take custody of detention facilities housing Islamic State fighters and to move forward on absorbing a US-backed Kurdish force into the Syrian army.
To get to phase three, Syria would be required to join the Abraham Accords — normalized relations with Israel — and to prove that it had destroyed the previous government’s chemical weapons.
Israel has been suspicious of the new government, although Syrian officials have said publicly that they do not want a conflict with Israel. Since Assad fell, Israel has launched hundreds of Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s and seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone in Syria.
[IsraelTimes] Ahmed al-Sharaa meets Thomas Barrack in Turkey, is also hosted by Erdogan, amid reports he kicked Palestinian factions out of Syria as part of US conditions for lifting sanctions
US President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... ’s special envoy to Syria said Saturday he met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and commended the steps he has taken regarding imported muscle and relations with Israel.
Thomas Barrack, a special envoy to Syria and the current US ambassador to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... member, but not the most reliable... , said in a statement that the two met in Istanbul on Saturday, and that he commended Sharaa for "taking meaningful steps" on imported muscle as well as "relations with Israel."
The meeting came a day after a report that leaders of Iran-backed Paleostinian terror groups in Syria, who were close to former president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... , left the country under pressure from Sharaa, citing Paleostinian sources.
The crackdown did not appear to affect the Syrian presence 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... -based Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... , which is also backed by Iran, nor that of Fatah, the secularist faction that dominates the West Bank-based Paleostinian Authority.
The White House had demanded that Sharaa crack down on Paleostinian terror groups as a condition for the removal of Washington’s sanctions on Damascus.
There have also been unconfirmed reports that Syria’s new regime has held indirect talks with Israel on potential normalization between the two countries, despite Israeli leaders’ deep suspicion of Sharaa due to his jihadi past.
Sharaa was in Istanbul this weekend for an unannounced meeting with Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... , according to the Anadolu state news agency.
The two leaders were seen greeting each other outside Erdogan’s office, ahead of a meeting that private Ottoman Turkish news channel NTV said lasted more than two and a half hours.
The Syrian delegation included its foreign and defense ministers and would "discuss a number of common issues" with the Ottoman Turkish side, the Syrian presidency said on Telegram.
Turkey’s foreign and defense ministers, its intelligence chief and the head of the state defense industry agency also took part, according to Anadolu.
Since Assad’s ouster, the new administration has been looking to build relations with the West and roll back sanctions, but some governments have expressed reluctance, pointing to the Islamist past of leading figures.
Ankara is a firm supporter of Syria’s new Islamist authorities and is seeking to roll back sanctions and rebuild the country’s infrastructure and economy after almost 14 years of civil war. Erdogan also hosted al-Sharaa in February.
It will be interesting to see whether the HTS government absorbs the ISIS fighters into their ranks or sees them as the undesirable other.
[Rudaw] The Syrian government will assume control of al-Hol and shift focus to rehabilitation of the thousands of suspected 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) sympathizers and family members being held in the camp in northeast Syria, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said on Saturday.
"Regarding the al-Hol camp issue, it is part of the agreement signed between the Presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic and the Syrian Democratic Forces, which stipulates that the Syrian Arab Republic will assume control over all areas in the Syrian Jazira region - namely, in Hasakah and Raqqa areas," Interior Ministry spokesperson Nouraldeen Albaba told Rudaw in a presser on Saturday.
The goal will be to ensure the camp is no longer a source of unrest and extremism. "Now, it will become a comprehensive societal rehabilitation dossier targeting the victims and families of individuals who joined ISIS," he said.
Al-Hol camp in Hasaka province is infamous for its squalid conditions and has been branded a breeding ground for terrorism. Iraqis and Syrians make up the majority of the 40,000 ISIS-linked people who have been held at the camp since the defeat of the group in 2019. There are also people in the camp from around the world who had traveled to join the so-called ISIS caliphate.
A delegation from the Syrian government visited al-Hol camp on Saturday, according to local media. The delegation consisted of 10 people and was the first visit to the camp by the interim government. They were also joined by representatives from the US-led global coalition against ISIS, Ronahi TV reported.
The purpose of the visit was to inspect conditions in the camp and explore returning Syrian nationals to their home regions, according to Ronahi, which is affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) in January announced that its doors are open to the "voluntary return" of Syrians in the camp to their hometowns. Iraq has been repatriating its nationals in groups, putting them through a rehabilitation program before they return to their original homes.
Rojava authorities also have thousands of ISIS fighters detained in jails.
United States President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... , when he met interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa last week, urged him to assume responsibility for ISIS detention centres in Rojava. The newly-appointed US envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack noted progress Damascus has taken on meeting Trump’s request when he met Sharaa in Istanbul on Saturday.
[IsraelTimes] Residents of southern Lebanon voted Saturday in the country’s municipal elections that will test support for Hezbollah in the predominantly Shiite areas, nearly six months after the ceasefire that ended Israel’s war with the Iran-backed terror group, whose leadership was decimated.
Hezbollah is running in an alliance with the Amal group of Lebanon’s powerful Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. Both are expected to win mayoral races and the majority of seats in municipal councils, and have already won many municipalities uncontested.
South Lebanon is the fourth and last district to vote in the elections since May 4. Among those who voted Saturday were Hezbollah members wounded on September 17, 2024, when Israel blew up thousands of booby-trapped pagers it had covertly sold to the terror group.
The attack, which Israel claimed in November, killed at least a dozen people, including at least two children, and wounded some 3,000 people, crippling Hezbollah’s fighting force ahead of an Israeli invasion some two weeks, which sought to end the terror group’s near-daily rocket fire.
“The will of life is stronger than death and the will of construction is stronger than destruction,” Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said during a tour of southern Lebanon on Saturday. He told reporters in his hometown of Aaishiyah that he voted for the first time in 40 years.
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 contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
like lava from a volcano
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
...
...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...
...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 
