Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances... Rantburg
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah Hizbullah Syria-Lebanon-Iran 20051029 Link

Britain
UK police charged Jewish man with racial harassment for holding anti-Hezbollah sign
2025-05-25
[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."
Link


Britain
Member of Irish band Kneecap faces terror charge for flying Hezbollah flag at concert
2025-05-22
[IsraelTimes] UK police says use of flag arouses ‘reasonable suspicion’ he supports terror group; band management offers no comment after earlier denying members support Hamas or Hezbollah

A member of the Irish rap band Kneecap was charged with a terrorism offense for displaying a flag in support of the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah, British police said on Wednesday.

Liam O’Hanna, whose stage name is Mo Chara, showed the flag during one of the band’s shows in London in November, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

It said O’Hanna, 27, displayed the flag "in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a supporter of a proscribed organization," in this case identified as Hezbollah, in contravention of the 2000 Terrorism Act.

Kneecap’s management team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

O’Hanna is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on June 18.

Nearly 40 other groups and artists, among them Pulp, Paul Weller, and Primal Scream, have rallied around the band amid an escalating row about political messaging at its concerts.

Kneecap on Monday apologized to the families of murdered British politicians and denied supporting Hezbollah or Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
 terrorists, after UK police said it was examining footage from a Kneecap concert in London last year that appeared to show a band member shouting "Up Hamas, up Hezbollah."
Not only do they lie, but they are so arrogant they can’t be bothered to lie well.
UK police have also said it was examining a video clip of the Belfast rap trio at a 2023 gig, appearing to show one member saying: "The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP."

In February, the band posted a photo on social media of a balaclava-wearing individual, also apparently a group member, reading a book of statements by slain Hezbollah leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
The Belfast trio has been praised for invigorating the Irish-language cultural scene in Northern Ireland, where the status of the language remains a contested political issue in a society still split between British unionist and Irish nationalist communities. It has also been criticized for lyrics laden with expletives and drug references and for political statements.

Kneecap was not well known outside Northern Ireland before the release of a raucous feature film loosely based on the band’s origins and fueled by a heavy mix of drugs, sex, violence, politics and humor. The group’s members played themselves in "Kneecap," which won an audience award when it was screened at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. It was shortlisted for best foreign-language picture and best original song at this year’s Academy Awards, though it didn’t make the final cut.
Related:
Kneecap 05/07/2025 Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Israeli singer Dudu Tassa on cancellation of UK gigs: ‘Censorship and silencing’
Kneecap 05/02/2025 British police probing Irish band Kneecap over videos praising Hamas, Hezbollah

Kneecap 05/01/2025 At World Court hearing, US backs Israel’s right to ban UNRWA from Gaza

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas chiefs’ correspondence shows how Israel misjudged results of May 2021 clash - and the anti-Bibi protesters still do
2025-04-29
[IsraelTimes] Report reveals Haniyeh’s praise of ‘glorious victory,’ while Sinwar wrote he was close to destroying Israel; senior Hamas officials said tunnel network ‘not damaged at all’

Newly released Hamas
..always the voice of sweet reason...
 documents found 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...
 show that Israel seriously misunderstood the impact of its 2021 operation in Gaza, which the terror group viewed as a victory that encouraged it to launch the October 7 massacre over two years later, Hebrew media reported.

At the time, Operation Guardian of the Walls was painted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an "extraordinary success," and he vowed to implement a much tougher stance against the terror group’s rocket fire.

But Channel 12 news on Saturday revealed letters exchanged by Hamas’s then-Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar and the terror group’s leader at the time, Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continued as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintained a separate PM in the West Bank. Zapped during the 2023-24 war, to eveyone's satisfaction...
, showing that the two men considered the 11-day conflict a defeat for Israel.

Sinwar advocated the strategy of proposing a long-term ceasefire, or hudna, with Israel, as a way of either isolating it from the international community or creating division within Israeli society.

Both leaders have since been killed — Haniyeh in a covert operation in 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
in July 2024, and Sinwar by IDF troops in Gaza later that year.

"It is likely that this move, which would be acceptable to most countries in the world, would not be acceptable to the occupation [Israel] and would therefore increase their isolation and disconnection from them. If the occupation decides to go in this direction [of a hudna], it would tear it apart from within and lead to internal division and civil war," the letter by Sinwar reportedly said.

Haniyeh, in response, congratulated Sinwar on his "clear victory" in the fighting.

"The flag of the Al Qassam movement is waved all over the world, and millions cheer to the dear chief of staff of the resistance, Muhammad Deif, who won a divine and glorious victory," Haniyeh wrote, referencing the Hamas military wing chief, who was also killed by Israel in July 2024.

Sinwar responded on May 30, 2021: "Praise be to God who granted us victory, humiliated the enemy’s leadership. We are close to destroying their country."

Throughout those 11 days in May 2021, Hamas and Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
 fired over 4,000 rockets and mortar shells at Israel. A dozen non-combatants were killed in Israel during the fighting, along with one soldier. Over 250 Paleostinians were killed, roughly half of whom the IDF claimed were combatants.

It has previously been reported that from that point until October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a years-long campaign of deception to convince Israel it was not really interested in war.

Additionally, while Netanyahu claimed in the wake of the 11-day operation that the Israel Defense Forces had destroyed "a considerable portion" of Hamas’s internal tunnel routes — its "metro" — senior Hamas officials said otherwise in a meeting with then-Hezbollah leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
 and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Commander Esmail Qaani, Channel 12 reported.

"’The ’metro’ was not damaged at all, and only the offensive tunnel network was slightly damaged and will be repaired soon," the Hamas officials said during the meeting in Beirut on July 26, 2021, according to the report.

Months after the war began, senior defense officials told The New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
 that Hamas’s tunnel network was far more extensive than they had initially believed.

Israel believed Hamas had been deterred from starting a war until October 7, 2023, when Lions of Islam burst across the Gaza border, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to the Strip.

Israel then launched a massive air and ground operation in Gaza, vowing to bring home all the hostages and dismantle Hamas’s rule over Gaza.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Geagea says Hezbollah must disarm first for Israel to withdraw — Naharnet
2025-04-24
[NAHARNET] Lebanese Forces
A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb...
 leader Samir Geagea
....Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005....
 criticized Wednesday Hezbollah's officials for stating that the group will not hand over its arms as long as Israeli troops are in South Leb
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
Hezbollah's chief Sheikh Naim Qassem
... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies...
 -- and other Hezbollah officials -- had said that Israel must completely withdraw first and stop its violations, otherwise Hezbollah "will not let anyone disarm" it.

President Joseph Aoun said last week he hopes to restrict arms to the state in 2025 through "dialogue" with Hezbollah. "Does anyone expect us to discuss a national defense strategy as warplanes fly over our heads and there is occupation in south Lebanon," Qassem responded in a televised speech. "These are not discussions, this is surrender," he said.

Geagea considered that Hezbollah's statements would affect Lebanon's credibility and "damage its image" as Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south under a November ceasefire truce.

But under that truce, Israel was also meant to withdraw all of its forces from south Lebanon. Despite the deal, its troops remained at five south Lebanon positions that they deem "strategic", as several experts said Israel's ongoing troop presence along the border played into Hezbollah's hands. Israel has also continued to carry out near-daily strikes against Lebanon, saying it is targeting members of Hezbollah who are breaching the truce agreement.

According to Geagea, Hezbollah should first abide by the ceasefire agreement, and after that Israel would withdraw and stop its strikes and Lebanon would be able to "rebuild the state."

"We cannot accept that Lebanon's credibility and image be further damaged by reneging on the ceasefire agreement," Geagea said, calling on the new government and administration to remind Hezbollah's officials of their previous commitments.

Hezbollah was left badly weakened by more than a year of hostilities with Israel, beginning with the group's campaign of rocket fire at its arch-foe in support of ally Hamas
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
, and culminating in a major Israeli bombing campaign that killed many Hezbollah commanders including the group's longtime leader Sayyed
...Arabic term meaning your/his lordship. Groveling in His Exalted Presence is encouraged...
 His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
.

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
WSJ: Israel Hit Hamas Where It Hurts Most
2025-04-18
[HOTAIR] 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...
? Tunnels? Tehran? Yes, the IDF hit Hamas
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
 in all of those places, including in Iran's capital when Israel took out its top leader Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continued as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintained a separate PM in the West Bank. Zapped during the 2023-24 war, to eveyone's satisfaction...
.

However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat...
 the Wall Street Journal reports that the IDF and Israeli intelligence have struck hardest at the heart of Hamas -- its wallet:

Israel last month cut off supplies of humanitarian goods to the enclave, some of which Hamas had been seizing and selling to raise funds, according to Arab, Israeli and Western officials. Its renewed offensive has targeted and killed Hamas officials who played important roles in distributing cash to cadres and sent others into hiding, Arab intelligence officials said.

In recent weeks, the Israeli military has said it killed a money changer who was key to what it called terrorist financing for Hamas as well as a number of top political officials in rapid succession.

The result for Hamas has been a debilitating squeeze.

Salary payments to many Gaza babus government employees have ceased, while many senior Hamas fighters and political staff began receiving only about half of their pay midway through last month's Ramadan holy period, the intelligence officials said. Rank-and-file Hamas fighters' pay had been averaging around $200 to $300 a month, they said.

When the Israelis cut off aid transports after the end of the cease-fire, Western nations howled their objections. However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat...
 Israel is under no obligation to feed a population that launched a war against it, at least not unless that population capitulates. More importantly, the cutoff of that aid also eliminated a large amount of the leverage Hamas has over that population and in controlling the forces in Gaza.

This isn't a police action; it's a war, one triggered by Hamas with the most monstrous atrocities seen in scope and particulars in decades, if not centuries. Israel warned after the October 7 massacres that the time had come to settle all accounts in the Middle East, especially with Hamas. Unless they surrender and leave Gaza, Israel intends to utterly destroy them rather than return to a frozen conflict that allows Hamas to rebuild again. This time, the Israelis are taking aim at their ability to survive, not just to get them to sign a meaningless cease-fire.

If this sounds familiar, it should. The Israelis used the same strategy against Hezbollah when Iran's other proxy insisted on joining the war. After Operation Grim Beeper took out most of Hezbollah's command structure, they eliminated His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
 too, who had been the linchpin of Iran's proxy strategy for destroying Israel and controlling the region.

But the Israelis also went after Hezbollah's finances too, targeting their bank al-Qard al-Hasan (AQAH) both figuratively and literally. The IDF destroyed several AQAH locations around Beirut last fall. That stripped Hezbollah of funds at a moment when 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
had difficulty in transferring enough operational cash to their proxy in Leb
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
. As a result of the comprehensive Israeli attack on Hezbollah, they could no longer function as a security force for Iranian toady Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
, who had to flee when his forces collapsed soon after Hezbollah got neutered.
Link


Terror Networks
Iran-backed terror chiefs taunt Israel, remain defiant ahead of Quds Day
2025-03-27
I guess the IDF has more work to do to get them to accept defeat, or destroy enough that their defiance is immaterial.
[IsraelTimes] Hamas official says war has not broken Palestinians’ will; Houthi chief vows attacks to continue, while Hezbollah leader insists ‘no room for normalization’

Leaders from the Iran-backed axis of resistance sworn to the destruction of Israel struck a defiant tone on Wednesday ahead of an annual Tehran-sponsored pro-Paleostinian commemoration later this week, Hezbollah’s al-Manar television reported.

Quds (Jerusalem) Day commemorations, when 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and its allies organize marches in support of the Paleostinians and call for Israel’s annihilation, were launched in 1979 by Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

They are traditionally held on the last Friday of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan, which this year is expected to finish at the end of March.

Paleostinian terror group Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
’s Khalil al-Hayya said in a statement broadcast on al-Manar that Israel had been "unable to break the will of our people and our resistance," despite more than a year "of killing, terrorism, and destruction, and despite the full assistance and support of the United States."

The ongoing Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel, when Hamas-led bully boyz massacred some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.

The leader of Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
 rebels, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said his group would continue to support the Paleostinian people "without retreat," al-Manar reported.

The Houthis have launched scores of drone and missile attacks at Israel, as well as ships passing Yemen in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden during the war — vessels with no known Israeli connections — saying they are acting out of solidarity with the Paleostinians.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem
... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies...
 said, "We will not accept the continued [Israeli] occupation," referring to the ongoing presence of Israeli troops in south Leb
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
 after a recent war.

The Lebanese terror group initiated cross-border fire with the Israeli military in support of Hamas on October 8, 2023.

Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah dramatically spiraled into all-out conflict last September, and the terror group remains a target of Israeli Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s as it continues to operate in southern Lebanon in violation of a November 27 ceasefire.

Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah was obligated to pull its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south, while the Lebanese army deploys to control the area.

Israel, in parallel, was obligated to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, though it retains the right to respond to immediate threats.

Following an initial postponement, with US and Lebanese approval, of the deadline to withdraw, Israel pulled all its troops out of Lebanon in February, except five strategic posts along the border.

"The prisoners must be released," Qassem said, referring to those captured by Israel during the war, adding: "There is no room for normalization or surrender in Lebanon."

The 2023-2024 conflict severely weakened Hezbollah, which saw a slew of senior commanders killed, including its longtime chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
. In agreeing to the November ceasefire, the terror group gave up on its initial promise to only end its attacks once Israel’s operation in Gaza came to an end.

Esmail Qaani, commander of the Islamic Revolutioanry Guard Corps’ expeditionary Quds Force, said that "the Islamic republic has always stood and continues to stand alongside the Paleostinian people in defense of the holy al-Quds [Jerusalem]," in his speech, also aired by Iranian state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?"God willing, this steadfastness will continue until the final victory of liberation and the reaching to al-Quds," he added.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards reveal major underground missile complex
2025-03-27
[HodhodYemenNews] The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unveiled on Tuesday an underground “missile city” containing tunnels filled with thousands of precision-guided missiles of various types, including the ‘Khaybarshegan’, ‘Sejjil’, ‘Emad,’ and ‘Haj Qasem.’

Iranian media reported that the new city was unveiled in the presence of Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri and Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

During the event, Major General Bagheri emphasized the rapid development of Iran’s missile capabilities, noting the continued strengthening of defenses and progress beyond the operation known as “True Promise II,” with a significant portion of the planned implementation completed.
The Times of Israel expands:
[X]

Iran’s military chief claims capabilities are now 10 times stronger than thoseused in October missile attack on Israel; several Iranian-made missiles identified in footage

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps revealed one of its underground "missile cities" to Iranian media outlets Wednesday, as tensions with the West boiled over its nuclear program.

An Israeli flag could be seen placed on the ground in the footage at the unveiling — a practice common in the Islamic Theocratic Republic that allows people to trample the flag as an offense against the Jewish state.

Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, Mohammad Bagheri, and the commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, were present in the footage, touring around on vehicles and speaking to personnel at the undisclosed location.

Bagheri told personnel during the tour of the base that "Iran’s iron fist is far stronger than before," and claimed that Tehran was developing its defensive capabilities faster than its rivals, as quoted by Press TV.

"The enemy will definitely fall behind in this balance of power," he said.

"All the [defensive] dimensions that are required for generating a [military] capability that is 10 times [greater than] the one deployed during Operation True Promise II, has been created," Bagheri added, mentioning Iran’s name for its second missile attack on Israel in October.

Iranian media outlets identified several domestically produced missiles in the footage, including the "Emad," a missile with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles); "Sejil" with 1,500-2,500 kilometers (930 to 1,550 miles); "Qadr H" with 1,700 kilometers (1,056 miles); "Kheibar Shekan," with 1,450 kilometers (900 miles) and "Haj Qassem," with 1,400 kilometers (870 miles).

Iranian media outlets said the base was new, but such a claim could not be verified.

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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel in April 2024, firing some 300 attack drones and missiles in response to the killing of several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members in an Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
 near Tehran’s consulate in Damascus.

Months later, in October, Iran launched some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in retaliation for the killings of His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
 and Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continued as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintained a separate PM in the West Bank. Zapped during the 2023-24 war, to eveyone's satisfaction...
, the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
, respectively.

In both instances, the Iranian assaults were largely thwarted by Israel’s air defenses in cooperation with the US and its regional allies. Israel twice bombed Iran in response, the second time destroying much of its air defense systems as well as some rocket and drone manufacturing sites.

Amid growing concern in the West over Iran’s continued nuclear enrichment, US President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
 sent the Islamic republic’s leadership a letter offering talks for a new nuclear deal earlier this month while restoring a sanctions campaign and threatening military action if diplomacy is unsuccessful.

The letter was delivered to Tehran on March 12 by UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said Monday the door was open for "indirect negotiation" on the matter but dismissed the prospect of direct talks "until there is a change in the other side’s approach toward the Islamic republic."

The top Iranian diplomat said Tehran would not engage in direct talks with Washington under threats so long as Trump maintains his "maximum pressure" policy of economic sanctions.

Iran, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, denies seeking a nuclear weapon, but it has ramped up its enrichment of uranium up to 60 percent purity, the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so, and has obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities.
Link


Home Front: WoT
Brown professor and kidney transplant doctor Rasha Alawieh has been deported back to Lebanon over her Hezbollah affiliation.
2025-03-18
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

The Times of Israel lays it all out:
US customs officials expel Lebanese doctor before hearing, against court order
Officers deport Rasha Alawieh after reportedly finding ‘sympathetic photos and videos’ of Hezbollah figures on her phone, say they were unaware of court order barring her expulsion
Foreigner who supports a listed terror group is here on a temporary visa? Send her home — there are plenty of foreigners with her skills who don’t feel the need to carry Nasrallah videos on their phone so they’re always available.
A doctor from Leb
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
 who arrived at the Boston airport was deported over the weekend without explanation, despite having a US visa and a job teaching at Brown University.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh had been granted a visa on March 11 and flew into Boston on Thursday, according to a complaint filed on her behalf by a cousin, Yara Chehab, in federal court.

Upon landing, Customs and Border Protection officers detained her at the airport for at least 36 hours, through Friday, and planned to send her back to Lebanon.

Three days later, Justice Department lawyers claimed that officers deported Alawieh after finding "sympathetic photos and videos" of prominent Hezbollah figures in the deleted items folder of her cellphone, Politico reported Monday.

"CBP questioned Dr. Alawieh and determined that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined," Assistant US Attorney Michael Sady wrote in the court filing.

US District Judge Leo Sorokin issued an earlier order on Friday that an in-person hearing was scheduled for 10 a.m. on Monday, with Alawieh brought to court. The order barred Alawieh’s removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice to the judges.

But on Saturday, the cousin filed a motion claiming customs officials "willfully" disobeyed the judge by putting Alawieh on a plane headed for Gay Paree, where she was then set to board a flight for Lebanon.

Sorokin seemed to concur with the cousin’s claim, writing that there was reason to believe customs officials had knowingly flouted his previous order, the New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
 reported.

However he apparently walked this back just as the hearing was set to begin Monday morning, according to CNN
...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for...
, after reportedly receiving testimony that customs officials had only been made aware of his order following Alawieh’s departure from the US.

Lawyers for the government explained in a court filing Monday that officers at the airport did not receive notice of the order until she "had already departed the United States," the judge noted. They asked that the petition be dismissed.

The judge put a hearing on her case on hold, to give Sorokin’s lawyers time to prepare.

Alawieh, a 34-year-old kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was to start work at Brown University as an assistant professor of medicine.

She had worked at Brown prior to the issuance of her H-1B visa, which is granted to skilled foreign nationals to work in the US, the complaint said.

She had held a visa to be in the United States since 2018, when she first came to complete a two-year fellowship at Ohio State University. Before that, she had completed a fellowship at the University of Washington and then moved to the Yale-Waterbury Internal Medicine Program, which she finished in June.

A spokesperson for Brown said Alawieh is an employee of Brown Medicine, with a clinical appointment to Brown.

Her expulsion is the latest move against a foreign-born person with a US visa in the past week, after an anti-Israel student activist at Columbia University was arrested and another student’s visa was revoked.

The Trump administration also transferred hundreds of immigrants colonists to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations.

"My colleagues and I are outraged over Dr Alawieh’s deportation. She is a valued colleague and we hope for justice and her return to Rhode Island," said George Bayliss, an associate professor of medicine at Brown University.

US Representative Gabe Amo of Rhode Island, a Democrat, said in a statement over the weekend that is "committed to getting answers from the Department of Homeland Security to provide Dr. Alawieh, her family, her colleagues, and our community the clarity we all deserve."

Brown University Tells International Students, Staff to Avoid Travel Abroad
[MSN-WSJ] Brown University is warning international students and staff members not to travel outside the country after one of its professors with a work visa was deported after a trip to Leb


In a campuswide email sent Sunday and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, Brown said that "out of an abundance of caution" it was asking those from outside the U.S.—including those with visas or green cards—to postpone or delay personal travel abroad.

Brown, whose campus is in Providence, R.I., said potential changes in travel bans and re-entry requirements "may affect travelers’ ability to return to the U.S. as planned." The Ivy League school said it was making the recommendations ahead of spring break, which is next week.

The email follows the detention and deportation of Dr. Rasha Alawieh, an assistant professor at Brown University and kidney-transplant specialist. Immigration officials held Alawieh, a holder of a Brown-sponsored H1B visa, at Logan International Airport when she was trying to re-enter the U.S. from a trip to Lebanon, her home country.

The H1B visa program, created by Congress in 1990, allows high-skilled foreign workers to come to the U.S. Visa holders can eventually apply for green cards and stay in the country indefinitely.

Homeland Security said Alawieh returned to Lebanon "to attend the funeral of His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
—a brutal terrorist who led Hezbollah, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade terror spree."

Federal prosecutors said Alawieh had pictures on her phone of Nasrallah and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
, the leader of Iran, and that she deleted the photos shortly before returning to the U.S.
A little more than just innocent photos. She showed awareness and intention.
Alawieh told immigration agents that she doesn’t support Hezbollah.
Then why did she go halfway around the world to attend that funeral?
She said she is a member of WhatsApp groups with families and friends who share such photos, according to a transcript of her interview with Customs and Border Protection, filed to the U.S. District Court in Boston.

Alawieh said that Nasrallah, a Shia Moslem, was highly regarded in the Shia community as "a religious figure," prosecutors wrote. Alawieh follows him for his religious and spiritual teachings but not his politics, prosecutors said.
In Islam the two are linked.
Earlier this month, other schools warned about travel ahead of spring break. Dartmouth College told international staff and students to be aware of possible travel bans.

Columbia University, meanwhile, told international students to "exercise caution" when traveling abroad. It also asked those from countries that were part of previous travel bans, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea
...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
, Pakistain, Somalia, Sudan
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
, Syria, Venezuela

...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south...
 and Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
, to "avoid non-essential travel outside of the U.S."
Link


Fifth Column
Protesters call for campus takeovers as Columbia activist threatened with deportation
2025-03-11
[IsraelTimes] Hundreds protest outside ICE center in New York for Mahmoud Khalil; legal experts say feds have grounds to deport; free speech group warns of chilling effect and calls for clarity

Anti-Israel demonstrators rallied in New York City on Monday and called for escalation across the US, part of a furious backlash after federal agents detained an anti-Israel protest leader at Columbia University over the weekend.

Hundreds of protesters filled Manhattan’s Foley Square outside an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office, to demand the release of the student organizer, Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate.

The demonstrators carried signs that said "Release Mahmoud Khalil," with the activist’s image, and chanted, "We want justice, you say how? ICE off our campus now."

"I believe that Paleostine will win," they chanted. Many in the crowd wore keffiyehs and held Paleostinian flags.

One sign said, "Stop Jewish fascism
fasces -- thin reeds, each flimsy in itself but unbreakable when bound into a bundle. Its distinguishing philosophical feature is the Corporate State. The word is nowadays thrown around by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about...
," and another showed US President Donald Trump
...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried....
 doing a "Sieg Heil" salute in front of a swastika.

"Trump thinks he can strip our rights, to attack our movement," a speaker told the crowd. "To that we say, ’You are wrong, we will not be silenced, we will continue to organize and we will continue to struggle until the complete liberation of Paleostine.’
You do that, dear heart, while the rest of us get on with life. We’ll touch base in thirty or forty years to see how you’re doing.
"They make figures like Hamas
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
 and ’terrorists’ into enemies," another speaker said.

"There are actual gunnies in the United States, but they are not Mahmoud Khalil," he said. "The terror comes from the capitalists and their pawns."

The protest drew a larger and more ideologically diverse crowd than recent anti-Israel protests, reflecting the widespread outrage over Khalil’s detention. Speakers and signs tied Khalil’s arrest to issues including affordable housing, immigration, and constitutional rights.

Khalil was a leading organizer for the Columbia protest movement. Columbia protesters held disruptive demonstrations on campus starting soon after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, that have continued into recent weeks. Protesters have openly endorsed violence and US-designated terror groups, and Jewish and Israeli students and faculty have said the activists created a hostile and discriminatory environment. A university task force reported "crushing" discrimination against Jews and Israelis on campus.

The Columbia protest coalition includes the campus branch of Students for Justice in Paleostine. The group’s parent organization, National Students for Justice in Paleostine (NSJP), called for mass unrest on campuses across the US in response to Khalil’s arrest.

NSJP issued a statement on Sunday calling on activists to walk out of class, "take over central spaces on campus, and assert our mass power." The protest activities were scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. The statement was cosponsored by several other leading anti-Israel activist groups.

"The popular movement against Zionism, imperialism, and fascism will not shy away in the face of federal threats," the statement said.

An array of politicians and Red Guards liberal groups lined up behind Khalil, including the New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations
... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ...
. More than 1.3 million people signed a letter calling for his release. New York State Attorney General Letitia James said she was "extremely concerned" and in touch with Khalil’s lawyer.

DEBATES OVER FREE SPEECH
Khalil is the first confirmed case of a detention for possible deportation after Trump’s vow to crack down on student protesters. Authorities have not announced charges against Khalil, who had a green card, according to his lawyer.

The Department of Homeland Security said, "Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization." 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 on X, "We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported."

Trump said Khalil’s arrest was "the first arrest of many to come."

"We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump administration will not tolerate it," Trump said. "Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again."

ICE’s online database said Khalil was born in Syria and is being held in jug in Louisiana.

A federal judge in New York City ordered Monday that Khalil not be deported while the court considered a legal challenge brought by his lawyers. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Disputes over Khalil’s detention hinge on free speech protections and immigration law.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy group, issued a letter to the administration seeking more information about Khalil’s arrest.

"The statements the government has released suggest its decision may be based on his constitutionally protected speech. This lack of clarity is chilling protected expression," said FIRE, which has said that Columbia protests have included both protected speech and illegal conduct.

Will Creeley, FIRE’s legal director, said that if there are allegations about material support for terrorism, "you really need to see those."

"Simple, independent advocacy on behalf of a terrorist organization, however reprehensible some, many, or even all Americans might find it, is still protected by the First Amendment," Creeley told The Times of Israel.

Support for Hamas would become illegal if it was coordinated with the terrorist group, Creeley said. Free speech also does not cover targeted threats, discriminatory harassment, and incitement to imminent violence.

"It’s very much a stretch to think that activities ’aligned’ with Hamas are enough to justify this kind of action," Creeley stated. "Folks who would find pro-Hamas advocacy abhorrent should understand that the First Amendment protects your rights just as well, and to defend the rights of those who disagree with you is the best guarantor of your own rights."

GROUNDS FOR DEPORTATION
Two legal experts said authorities have grounds for deporting Khalil.

Federal laws say aliens are inadmissible to the US, or "deportable," if they engage in terrorist activities, including anyone who "endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization." Green card holders are considered aliens.

Last week, at a protest Khalil attended at Columbia affiliate Barnard College, demonstrators passed out pamphlets from the "Hamas media office," and photos of the late Hezbollah terror chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
, according to students at the scene. Hamas and Hezbollah are US-designated terrorist groups.

Federal authorities appeared to take notice of last week’s protest. A Trump administration antisemitism task force warned the university it would cut its public funding shortly before the protest, then announced the cancellation of $400 million in federal funding for the university shortly afterward, saying that "chaos and antisemitic harassment have continued on and near campus" since the warning.

Distributing Hamas pamphlets could be grounds for deportation, said Ted Frank, senior attorney at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, which has filed litigation against anti-Israel groups that have blocked traffic at US protests.

"The pamphleting, at least under congressional law, says, ’Yeah, deport for that,’ and the Biden administration could have done that, but they weren’t enforcing that law, so the Trump administration is enforcing that law," Frank said. "Under the law, even just espousing support for Hamas is enough for deportation."

Frank added that voicing support for terrorist activities, and not a specific terror group, is grounds for deportation, according to the law’s wording, and there is also no difference under the law between having a green card or a student visa.

Americans’ speech in support of Hamas is protected by the First Amendment, but different rules apply for immigration and deportation, Frank said.

Michael Wildes, an immigration attorney and professor at New York’s Cardozo School of Law, said that if the government launched an investigation and found evidence that Khalil supported Hamas before he received a green card, they could revoke his status.

"Immigration laws are clear — that if he lied on his green card application about his support of Hamas, they could rescind his green card," Wildes said.

If the government found evidence Khalil supported Hamas after receiving a green card, prosecutors could make a case for his deportation in criminal or immigration court, Wildes said. Wildes is a Jewish Democrat, the mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, and Melania Trump’s immigration lawyer.

"Until you’re an American citizen, you can be deported from the United States," he said.

Creeley disagreed that Khalil could be deported, saying, "That read of the law is overly expansive and gives the government power it does not have."
Related:
Mahmoud Khalil 03/10/2025 ICE arrests Palestinian leader of Columbia''s anti-Israel protests: lawyer
Mahmoud Khalil 09/08/2024 Hamas on campus round-up: Hitting the ground running 9/2-9/7
Mahmoud Khalil 08/16/2024 US colleges revise rules to stop resurgence of anti-Israel protests this school year

Link


Home Front: WoT
ICE arrests Palestinian leader of Columbia''s anti-Israel protests: lawyer
2025-03-10
[NYPOST] President Trump is giving this anti-Israel campus rabble-rouser a ticket to study abroad — for good.

A Paleostinian activist who led a coalition of twisted forces of Evil seeking the ''total eradication of Western Civilization'' responsible for riotous protests at Columbia University and Barnard College has been arrested by ICE agents, according to his lawyer.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest leader Mahmoud Khalil, who completed his graduate studies at Ivy League Columbia in December, also potentially faces having his visa revoked and his green card canceled following President Trump's crackdown on unrest at colleges, attorney Amy Greer said Sunday.
He also has an American wife who is eight months pregnant. It will be interesting to see if she follows him into exile after he is expelled from the country. It will also be interesting to see where his connections lead — internationally to Iran, Hamas, and/or Communist China, domestically beyond the protest organization he leads at Columbia to Muslim Brotherhood and other jihadi organizations, to Antifa/Black Bloc groups, and of course to the Progressive NGO financing network. And his wife’s connections — is she also an “activist” or is she a dupe married just for the green card that marriage provides?
He was inside his university-owned apartment a few blocks from campus Saturday night when ICE agents entered the residence and took him into custody, Greer said.

Despite graduating months ago, Khalil, who earned his undergraduate degree in Beirut, still lived in school-provided housing due to a policy allowing students to remain on campus after graduating, a source told The Post.

He has remained active in recent disruptive protests, including last week's takeover of the Milstein Library at Barnard College. Videos and photographs posted on X depict him holding a bullhorn near the library entrance and engaged in discussion with school administrators.

That protest featured violent mostly peaceful propaganda flyers that purportedly came directly from the ''Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
 Media Office,'' including one pamphlet titled ''Our Narrative— Operation al-Aqsa Flood,'' which justified the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people — and in which women were repeatedly raped, whole families were executed and 251 hostages were taken to 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.

Others at the Barnard library takeover passed around trading card-like photos of notorious Hezbollah leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
, who was killed by an Israeli Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
 in 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....
 last September.

Ari Shrage, head of Columbia's Jewish Alumni Association, told The Post he was dismayed and concerned to see the literature that was being distributed.

''These protesters were handing out materials from terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah. Every American citizen should be concerned when students are encouraging terrorist activities on US soil regardless of their nationality.''
MSN -Newsweek adds:
Khalil is being held in ICE custody, with some reports saying he is at the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility in New Jersey, although his location is not confirmed.

"We have not been able to get any more details about why he is being detained," Greer told the AP. "This is a clear escalation. The administration is following through on its threats."

WHO IS MAHMOUD KHALIL?
Khalil finished his graduate studies at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in December 2024. Prior to attending Columbia, he received a Bachelor of Science in computer science from the Lebanese American University, according to the Society for International Development (SID).

A profile of him on SID states that he has worked for the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut and Jusoor, a Syrian American educational nonprofit.

Prior to his arrest, the Palestinian activist told AP last week, "I have around 13 allegations against me, most of them are social media posts that I had nothing to do with."

The allegations are from the university's newly created Office of Institutional Equity, which has sent dozens of notices to students who have participated in a range of activities in support of Palestinians, according to the AP. Khalil has been accused of organizing an event that glorified Hamas' October 7 attack. The U.S. recognizes Hamas as a terror organization.
More from MSN-Forbes:
Khalil is now being held at a detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Greer told the AP, which reports federal agents have refused to tell the activist’s pregnant wife whether Khalil has been charged with a crime.

Khalil was born in Syria, according to the record of his detention on ICE’s website, and served as a key negotiator between students and university officials regarding the end of protesters’ tent encampment on Columbia’s campus last year, with the AP noting he was one of only a few students involved with the protests who publicly shared their name and identity.
Courtesy of Skidmark, Fox News adds:
Greer said the firm filed a habeas corpus petition overnight on "Mahmoud’s behalf challenging the validity of his arrest and detention."

"Currently, we do not know Mahmoud’s precise whereabouts. Initially, we were informed this morning that he had been transferred to an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey," Greer added.

"However, when his wife – a U.S. citizen who is eight months’ pregnant and was threatened with arrest as well by the ICE agents last night – tried to visit him there today, she was told he is not detained there."

Greer added that the firm has received reports that Khalil may be transferred as far away as Louisiana.
Related:
Columbia University: 2025-03-09 The University Jew hate-Antifa nexus 3/2 - 3/9: Trump attention starts to yield results
Columbia University: 2025-03-08 Trump administration cancels $400M in grants and contracts with Columbia University
Columbia University: 2025-03-06 Barnard College bomb threat prompts evacuation as anti-Israel protesters occupy campus building
Related:
Mahmoud Khalil 09/08/2024 Hamas on campus round-up: Hitting the ground running 9/2-9/7
Mahmoud Khalil 08/16/2024 US colleges revise rules to stop resurgence of anti-Israel protests this school year
Mahmoud Khalil 03/31/2024 IDF, Shin Bet say several senior Hamas terrorists killed as Shifa op continues

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russian missile experts flew to Iran around the time of Tehran’s attacks on Israel
2025-03-05
[IsraelTimes] Senior Russian officers have visited Iranian missile sites throughout the past year as military ties developed; unclear if they have specific expertise in nuclear weapons

Several senior Russian missile specialists have visited 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
over the past year as the Islamic Theocratic Republic has deepened its defense cooperation with Moscow, a Rooters review of travel records and employment data indicates.

The seven weapons experts were booked to travel from Moscow to Tehran aboard two flights on April 24 and September 17 last year, according to documents detailing the two group bookings as well as the passenger manifest for the second flight. The flights came 10 days after Iran’s first-ever direct attack on Israel, and two weeks before the second and most recent attack, respectively.

The booking records include the men’s passport numbers, with six of the seven having the prefix "20." That denotes a passport used for official state business, issued to government officials on foreign work trips and military personnel stationed abroad, according to an edict published by the Russian government and a document on the Russian foreign ministry’s website.

Rooters was unable to determine what the seven were doing in Iran.

A senior Iranian defense ministry official said Russian missile experts had made multiple visits to Iranian missile production sites last year, including two underground facilities, with some of the visits taking place in September. The official, who requested anonymity to discuss security matters, didn’t identify the sites.

A Western defense official, who monitors Iran’s defense cooperation with Russia and also requested anonymity, said an unspecified number of Russian missile experts visited an Iranian missile base about 15 kilometers (9 miles) west of the port of Amirabad on Iran’s Caspian Sea coast in September.

Rooters couldn’t establish if the visitors referred to by the officials included the Russians on the two flights.

The seven Russians identified by Rooters all have senior military backgrounds, with two ranked colonel and two lieutenant colonel, according to a review of Russian databases containing information about citizens’ jobs or places of work, including tax, phone, and vehicle records.

Two are experts in air-defense missile systems, three specialize in artillery and rocketry, while one has a background in advanced weapons development and another has worked at a missile-testing range, the records showed. Rooters was unable to establish whether all are still working in those roles as the employment data ranged from 2021 to 2024.

It was unclear if any had specific expertise on nuclear weapons. Iran, whose leaders are sworn to destroy Israel, has said it opposes nuclear weapons, but has since December increased by about a half its already sizable stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium, according to a report by the UN nuclear watchdog last week. The enrichment rate is far beyond what is necessary for a civilian nuclear program and a short step away from developing nuclear warheads.

The Russian experts’ flights to Tehran came at a precarious time for Iran, whose proxies — including 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...
’s Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
, 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....
’s Hezbollah and Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
s — have launched attacks on Israel since October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led Lions of Islam stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.

Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel in April 2024, firing some 300 attack drones and missiles in response to the killing of several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members in an Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
 near Tehran’s consulate in Damascus.

Months later, in October, Iran launched some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in retaliation for the killings of His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
 and Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continued as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintained a separate PM in the West Bank. Zapped during the 2023-24 war, to eveyone's satisfaction...
, the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, respectively.

In both instances, the Iranian assaults were largely thwarted by Israel’s air defenses in cooperation with the US and its regional allies. Israel twice bombed Iran in response, the second time destroying much of its air defense systems as well as some rocket and drone manufacturing sites.

Rooters contacted all the experts by phone. Five of them denied they had been to Iran, denied they worked for the military, or both, while one declined to comment and one hung up.

Iran’s defense and foreign ministries declined to comment, as did the public relations office of the IRGC, an elite force that oversees Iran’s ballistic missile program.

The Russian defense ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Cooperation between the two countries, whose leaders signed a 20-year military pact in Moscow in January, has already influenced Russia’s war on Ukraine, with large numbers of Iranian-designed Shahed drones deployed on the battlefield.

ROCKETS AND ARTILLERY
The flight booking information for the seven travelers was shown to Rooters by Hooshyaran-e Vatan, a group of activist hackers opposed to the Iranian government. The hackers said the seven were traveling with VIP status.

Rooters corroborated the information with the Russian passenger manifest for the September flight, which was provided by a source with access to Russian state databases. The news agency was unable to access a manifest for the earlier flight, so it couldn’t verify that the five Russian specialists booked on it actually made the trip.

Denis Kalko, 48, and Vadim Malov, 46, were among the five Russian weapons experts whose seats were booked as a group on the April flight, the records showed.

Kalko worked at the defense ministry’s Academy for Military Anti-Aircraft Defence, tax records for 2021 show. Malov worked for a military unit that trains anti-aircraft missile forces, according to car ownership records for 2024.

Andrei Gusev, 45, Alexander Antonov, 43, and Marat Khusainov, 54, were also booked on the April flight. Gusev is a lieutenant colonel who works as deputy head of the faculty of General Purpose Rockets and Artillery Munitions at the Russian defense ministry’s Penza Artillery Engineering Institute, according to a 2021 news item on the institute’s website. Antonov has worked at the Main Rocket and Artillery Directorate of the defense ministry, according to car registration records from 2024, while bank data shows Khusainov, a colonel, has worked at the Kapustin Yar missile-testing range.

One of the two passengers onboard the second flight to Tehran in September was Sergei Yurchenko, 46, who has also worked at the Rocket and Artillery Directorate, according to undated mobile phone records. His passport number had the prefix "22"; Rooters was unable to determine what that signified, though, according to the government edict on passports, it isn’t used for private citizens or diplomats.

The other passenger on the September flight was 46-year-old Oleg Fedosov. Residence records give his address as the office of the Directorate of Advanced Inter-Service Research and Special Projects. That is a branch of the defense ministry tasked with developing weapons systems of the future.

Fedosov had previously flown from Tehran to Moscow in October 2023, according to Russian border crossing records viewed by Rooters. On that occasion, as he did for the September 2024 flight, Fedosov used his passport reserved for official state business, the records showed.
Link


Terror Networks
Doxxing soldiers, but failing to put them in dock: Hind Rajab group has some on edge
2025-02-26
[IsraelTimes] Organization run by Hezbollah backers has failed to realize its goal of having IDF troops arrested abroad, but may be making inroads in the court of public opinion

In countries around the world, former and current Israeli soldiers, from lowly grunts to top generals, are being hunted by a shadowy organization that claims to have thousands of volunteers around the world seeking justice for Gazooks.

Launched in September, the Hind Rajab Foundation has used social media posts by Israeli soldiers, officers, and reservists, in an attempt to have them arrested for alleged war crimes when they travel abroad.

Though the group has been largely unsuccessful in court, it has managed nonetheless to win widespread media exposure, allegedly caused a cabinet minister to rethink a trip abroad, and even prompted the Israeli military to create new rules to better protect troops’ privacy and keep them from being victims of doxxing — the practice of publishing someone’s personal information online to expose them.

"We have never before witnessed [an organized effort] on this scale or scope, and that has to do with the unprecedented scale of the war, the number of troops who were in Leb
...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
 and Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, the age of social media, the virality of things, and how things are all connected," a military source said. "It’s a new challenge, but we are handling it with the right seriousness."

The foundation was started by Lebanese-Belgian nationals Dyab Abou Jahjah and Karim Hassoun, a former Hezbollah member and supporter respectively, who say they are seeking justice for Paleostinians.

The Brussels-based pair claim to have thousands of volunteers around the world who scour social media posts uploaded by IDF soldiers, eyewitness testimonies, documentation by journalists, and reports by the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
 to support their claims of war crimes and other types of wrongdoing.

"We turn, you know, social media posts, basically, into legal cases," Abou Jahjah recently told the Democracy Now TV news program.

The organization is named after 6-year-old Paleostinian Hind Rajab, who was allegedly killed by the IDF in the Gaza City neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa, on January 29, 2024.

The IDF denies being behind an apparent strike on the Rajab family’s car, though reports about her death nonetheless helped catalyze already potent protests in North America and Europe.

Israeli troops fought in Gaza for over 15 months following the October 7, 2023 massacre, which saw thousands of Hamas
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
-led bandidos turbans rampage across southern Israel, slaughtering some 1,200 people, taking 251 hostages, and sparking a war that has completely devastated the Gaza Strip and left Israel shaken to its core. Fighting has been paused since mid-January, though it is unclear whether the truce will extend beyond its early March expiration date.

HRF uses social media both to find evidence of alleged crimes in cases where soldiers post content from inside Gaza or southern Lebanon, and to find out about soldiers who travel abroad and post about it online, allowing the group to file complaints in the relevant jurisdiction.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in January that it knew of 28 claims filed in eight different countries against Israelis linked to the war, with HRF thought to be behind many of them.

Separately, the group also filed complaints against 1,000 IDF soldiers, officers, and commanders at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Abou Jahjah said in October.

Allegations against the troops include the use of inhumane warfare tactics, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide against Paleostinians in the Gaza Strip since war erupted in October 2023.

In January, the organization boasted that a complaint against Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli for allegedly "making terrorist threats" had forced him to cancel a planned visit to the European Parliament in Brussels.

Belgian officials said Chikli’s planned travel was not a state visit and so he would not have diplomatic immunity, should groups seek a warrant for his arrest.

HRF also recently asked Italia to arrest Maj.-Gen. Ghassan Alian, who heads the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, the Defense Ministry unit that oversees aid shipments into Gaza, among other roles. Alian, who was in Italia on an official visit, maintained his original schedule for the trip, despite HRF’s attempt to pin him on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

Israeli officials say many of the organization’s claims of taking legal action against soldiers are overblown.

The IDF closely follows the activism of HRF and similar groups, but does not consider it a major threat, The Times of Israel has learned. The army has signaled that it believes most claims against individual soldiers have petered out before reaching prosecution, due to a lack sufficient or substantiated evidence. Nonetheless, steps have been taken to lower the risk of legal action against troops and reservists who travel abroad.

There is no explicit directive for troops not to travel abroad due to the threat posed by HRF. But the Israeli military recently announced that it would no longer allow soldiers to be identified by name in the media and the Foreign Ministry issued a public warning that social media posts could be used to bring legal action against them in other countries.

"Hind Rajab Foundation is very good at generating headlines," said Michael Freilich, a Belgian politician with the Phlegmish nationalist and conservative New Phlegmish Alliance party. "They try to make themselves bigger than they are. They are the darlings of the press, mainly because of their extreme rhetoric."

ANTI ASSIMILATION, PRO NASRALLAH
Abou Jahjah and Hassoun have been activists together since at least 2000, when they founded the Arab European League, a Belgium-based political organization resisting societal integration for Moslem immigrants colonists, which Abou Jahjah has described as "cultural rape."

The group, which also has a branch in The Netherlands, has been accused of stoking antisemitism and supporting terror.

In 2001, Abou Jahjah met His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
, the leader of the Lebanese Shiite terror group Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy group committed to Israel’s destruction.

"We spoke for only an hour, but his aura, smile, brilliance, and kindness are unforgettable. I am fortunate to have lived in his era and witnessed his leadership," Abou Jahjah recalled on X, after Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
 in September.

Abou Jahjah also took Hezbollah officials on tours in Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
to meet politicians for the Arab European League in 2009.

In a 2003 New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
 interview, Abou Jahjah proclaimed his Hezbollah membership and said "he was still very proud" of the military training he received from the terror group.

Hassoun is also on record supporting Hezbollah and Hamas, though he has kept a lower profile than Abou Jahjah.

Just days after the October 7 atrocities, Hassoun wrote on his X account, "I condemn Hamas for not having taken 500 or 1,000 hostages instead of just 200."

According to Freilich, modern Belgium’s first-ever Orthodox Jewish politician, Abou Jahjah and Hassoun are fringe figures in Belgium, even if they have the support of some pro-Paleostinian movements, as well as that of some extreme-left Israeli organizations.

"The majority of the people, including the Moslem population, do not support them," he said, noting that both had made unsuccessful forays into local politics.

"Abou Jahjah tried several times to be elected to office, but was unsuccessful. He was also fired from De Standaard, where he was a columnist, after he praised a car-ramming attack in Jerusalem where several Israeli soldiers were killed," Freilich continued.

In the Belgian city of Willebroek, the Iedereen 2830 party was forced to boot Hassoun last month, after the mayor said he would not form a coalition with Death Eaters.

Last month, Haroon Raza, an HRF attorney was dropped from a panel at the European Paleostinian Network Conference held in Copenhagen. HRF claimed in a statement on X that his participation was canceled after information was "disseminated in the Israeli press, falsely linking us to resistance movements in Lebanon and Paleostine" and that other invitees refused to participate in the same panel as Raza.

Nevertheless, HRF and its founders have still managed to tap into a wellspring of anti-Israel sentiment prevalent in Europe since the October 7 attack.

"The war has hardened public opposition to Israel’s treatment of the Paleostinians and even turned many supporters of Israel into critics," Khaled Diab, a Belgian-Egyptian journalist and author, told The Times of Israel. He described the conflict in Gaza as "the most unpopular war Israel has ever been involved in."

Diab said that even if unsuccessful in court, the work of HRF can act as a "deterrent" to troops who "know they can potentially be pursued."

Robert Neufeld, a post-doctoral fellow at the Minerva Center for the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions at the University of Haifa, told The Times of Israel that while no cases filed by HRF prove clear crimes of humanity or war crimes, the group "is a real threat and it should be dealt with as such. They are not something to dismiss."

Neufeld, who served in numerous positions in the Military Advocate General Corps and the office of the Military Ombudsman, stressed that winning on the battlefield in Gaza is not the end of the story, as every case that they file and make public helps to damage Israel.

"They are trying to achieve much more than the specific person that they are after. They are trying to hurt or damage the IDF in general and they want to stop people from serving as combatants. They want to portray Israel as a criminal state and the IDF as criminals," Neufeld said.

"We need to understand that wars are not only fought on the battlefield, but on social media, in the courts, and it affects Jewish communities abroad," he added.

Anne Hertzberg, a legal adviser with the Israel-based NGO Monitor who has tracked the group since it emerged in September, said that she believes the main purpose of HRF is not to file lawsuits against soldiers, but "to deter, and harass, Israelis and Jews across the globe. That’s their purpose."

"They are trying to disrupt Western security cooperation and cause trouble with Israel’s relationship with other countries. There are lots of things we don’t know about it, and we have to look into it. Every country where they are operating in, they need to be investigated," she said.

Though the foundation is registered with Belgian authorities, little is known about how its activities are being funded.

"We don’t know who they are working with, what kind of occupational support is behind them," said Hertzberg.

Both she and Freilich called on governments to examine who may secretly stand behind the effort. "This is not something they can do on their own, this isn’t cheap," Hertzberg added.

Israel, meanwhile, is attempting to fight back in the court of public opinion. Right now, when one googles the name of the organization, the first result is a sponsored link that takes users to an Israeli government page with a report claiming to "unmask" HRF’s terror-backing founders.

"Israel should make it clear that Abou Jahjah and Hassoun are linked to Hezbollah," Freilich said. "I hope that Europe will not stand for it, but it doesn’t seem to be a priority for the police or government at the moment. They don’t want to antagonize the largest Paleostinian community in Europe."

Neufeld cautioned that even if Israel manages to tear down Abou Jahjah and Hassoun, it would not solve the larger issue of groups seeking to prosecute Israelis abroad on war crimes allegations, trumped up or not.

"Tomorrow it will be someone else," he said.
Related:
Hind Rajab Foundation: 2025-02-20 Lawfare again: 2 IDF soldiers vacationing in Amsterdam rushed back to Israel amid arrest concerns
Hind Rajab Foundation: 2025-02-04 Belgium swerves to the right as Bart De Wever sworn in as prime minister
Hind Rajab Foundation: 2025-01-29 Lawfare: Hind Rajab Foundation says it filed criminal complaint against Chikli that forced him to cancel Belgium trip
Link



Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More