[Breitbart] A migrant detention facility of historic proportions is scheduled to open on Sunday in El Paso, Texas.
The facility, located at Fort Bliss, can house 1,000 migrants but may be expanded to hold nearly 5,000, WCVB reported Sunday.
President Donald Trump’s administration said when it is finished the facility will be “the largest federal detention center in history,” the news coming as Trump has been working to find and detain illegal aliens across the nation.
[Breitbart] South African National Defense Force Chief General Rudzani Maphwanya inspected an Iranian special forces unit last week, despite efforts by the South African government to minimize the importance of his visit.
As Breitbart News has reported, the South African government has been at pains to claim that Maphwanya went rogue, visiting Iran and making statements against the United States and Israel while in Iran.
The danger to South Africa is that it could be kicked out of the list of countries that benefit from the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), or that the U.S. could end negotiations on reducing a 30% tariff.
The problem for South Africa’s effort to do damage control is that Iran reported extensively on Maphwanya’s visit, casting doubt on the idea that it was somehow an individual initiative of the general on his own devices.
The Tehran Times reported:
Drawing direct parallels to South Africa’s history, Maphwanya condemned the Israeli regime’s actions in Gaza: “Having endured apartheid, we recognize Israel’s atrocities as a new form of apartheid. In defending the world’s oppressed, we stand alongside you.” He further commended Iran’s armed forces for their “admirable and peace-seeking humanitarian efforts” [sic].
Brigadier General Karim Cheshk, Deputy Commander of the Iranian Army’s Ground Forces, reciprocated the solidarity during the visit.
He highlighted Iran’s cross-border disaster relief operations as examples of “humanitarian conduct beyond national boundaries” and stated: “The Islamic Republic sincerely welcomes military cooperation with friendly nations under international frameworks to advance global peace and stability.”
Far from “humanitarian” efforts, the Iranian military supports global terrorism, has committed atrocities in regional conflicts, and includes elite units that are regarded by the U.S. as terrorist organizations.
South Afrian commentator William Saunderson-Meyer observed:
General Rudzani Maphwanya, Chief of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), met in Tehran with an array of Iran’s top military leadership, including its defence minister, in a calculated affront to Washington. The departments of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) and Defence (DoD) are now scrambling to disclaim his anti-US rhetoric, even as he publicly committed South Africa to joint military ventures with a pariah state. Such denials should be taken with a generous pinch of salt.
It is simply inconceivable that Maphwanya acted without the blessing of both departments and of the Presidency itself. A visit of this sensitivity and provocation could only proceed with political clearance from the Presidency, procedural sign-off from DIRCO, and clear operational parameters from the DoD. That it went ahead, just as President Cyril Ramaphosa is trying to coax Donald Trump into softening tariffs and ‘resetting’ relations with the US, makes it not just reckless but an act of defiance.
…
Maphwanya’s actions are extraordinary for the head of a military in a democracy. If the trip was unsanctioned and Maphwanya’s statements were not pre-approved, the implications are grave. As Chief of the SANDF, such unilateral actions would amount to a direct military intrusion into civilian affairs of near-treasonous proportions. Immediate dismissal and possible cashiering from the SANDF would be justified.
There has been no move yet by the South African president to fire the general, whose rhetoric in Iran actually mirrors statements and policies the South African government has repeated often at home in recent days.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
08/18/2025 01:47 ||
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DR Congo: A Qatari official said a draft peace agreement between the government and M23 rebels has been shared, ahead of the August 18 deadline for a deal.
[X] A long thread with much more — click on the headline and scroll down.
🚨🕌 U.S. Nonprofit Once Tied to Hamas ... Back in Operation? 🕌🚨
I'm making a separate post to explain why this is so serious:
Today, the arrival of Palestinian refugees in the United States made social media rounds, and it was discovered to be the efforts of an organization… pic.twitter.com/8DSha6POS1
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 16, 2025
of an organization called Heal Palestine.
Heal Palestine is led by Steve Sosebee, the same individual who previously partnered with the now-dismantled Holy Land Foundation (HLF), a U.S.-based charity founded by the Muslim Brotherhood shut down after being convicted of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas.
Sosebee was part of HLF’s fundraising operation.
His role: transport injured Palestinian children to the U.S. for care -- explicitly picked to elicit sympathy.
HLF’s role: handle donor outreach, press, and scheduling.
The arrangement: HLF took 60% of the donations; Sosebee took 40%.
This was a coordinated financial pipeline to Hamas, a partnership between a U.S. nonprofit and the Muslim Brotherhood’s American fundraising arm.
That was approximately twenty years ago and Sosebee somehow avoided DoJ scrutiny in the Holy Land Foundation case. And now the optics of these Palestinian refugees arriving in the USA are identical.
So, to whom is that 60% going to this time?
There are multiple sources. The Internet remembers that you paraded injured kids so you can collect money for Hamas, Steve Sosebee. pic.twitter.com/0BiI9YVcVe
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 16, 2025
..full of technocrats ... but perhaps most telling is that there is a Mohanned Awad on the board who is publicly declared as bringing "UAE connections to HEAL’s Board."
Steve Sosebee, the founder of Heal Palestine, also founded the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF). They too got an enormous cash influx boost starting in 2023.
Steven Sosebee is a far-left Democrat donor with repeated campaign contributions to Jihad Squadist Rashida Tlaib, as well as other far left extremist Democrats and Veto Beto O'Rourke. His wife is an antisemitic Jew hater. Sosebee has a long history of using charitable… pic.twitter.com/ksKUg8zSnA
[SUDANTRIBUNE] A United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... aid convoy has reached the cut-off Al Malha area in 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... 's North Darfur state, a regional official said on Saturday, bringing desperately needed food through the only army-controlled border crossing from Chad.
''Eighteen trucks carrying 440 metric tons of aid— have arrived in Al Malha after a long period of suffering,'' Abdel-Baqi Mohammed Hamed, the Darfur region's humanitarian affairs coordinator, said in a statement.
He confirmed that the aid was provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) and entered via the Tine crossing, the sole corridor into the vast, war-torn Darfur region, which is controlled by the Sudanese army and its allies.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2025 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] The US-led coalition against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) will end its presence in the Iraqi capital and at the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq by the end of September 2025, a senior advisor to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-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... i confirmed on Sunday. The full conclusion of the coalition’s mission is scheduled for September 2026.
Hussein Allawi, advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani told the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA) that coalition forces will withdraw from "their headquarters in the capital Baghdad and the Ain al-Asad base in [western Iraq’s Anbar province]" by September.
He added that the move underlines Baghdad’s commitment to "building the [capabilities of the] armed forces and ending the international coalition's mission."
The US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS was formed in 2014 under President Barack Obama They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them... to degrade and ultimately defeat the group. Its military operations in Iraq began in October 2014 with Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s and later expanded to include advising and training Iraqi security forces.
The coalition consists of over 60 countries and international organizations, including key members such as the US, United Kingdom, La Belle France, Germany, Canada, Australia, and several Middle Eastern nations. Member states contribute through military personnel, equipment, training, and financial support. As of mid-2025, the US maintains around 2,500 troops in Iraq.
However,
there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... the coalition forces presence in Iraq became a contentious issue after the US strike that killed Iran’s Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy chief of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), near Baghdad International Airport in January 2020. Days later, 168 members of Iraq’s 329-member parliament voted to expel foreign forces from the country.
Ain al-Asad airbase, one of the largest military installations housing US troops, was then-targeted by Iranian missiles in what Tehran said was its response for the killings.
For his part, Allawi said the coalition’s withdrawal follows a December 2021 agreement between Baghdad and Washington to transition the coalition’s role from combat to training and assisting Iraqi forces.
He emphasized that the mission will conclude within the agreed timeframe - with the first phase ending in 2025 and the final phase in 2026 - paving the way for a "new phase of security cooperation" between Iraq and coalition member-states, in which Iraq aims to develop "sustainable" and "stable bilateral defense relations," grounded not only in military coordination but also in "political, economic, and cultural ties."
Earlier this year, Major General Saad Maan, head of Iraq’s Security Media Cell, confirmed that the coalition’s mission will end in two phases with no extension.
"The missions of the global coalition forces in Iraq will end in two phases: the first will be this year, and the second in 2026. There will be no extension beyond that," Maan said.
He attributed the decision to Iraq’s improved security environment compared to 2014, when ISIS controlled vast territories in the country’s north and west. "Our security forces are now stronger and more capable, and we can rely on ourselves to safeguard the country's security," he added.
[Rudaw] Authorities in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province on Sunday launched the first phase of exhuming one of the largest mass graves 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.... ’s (ISIS) victims - the Khasfa pit.
The Khasfa pit, located some 20 kilometers south of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , was a natural sinkhole used by ISIS as an open mass grave. It is believed to contain the remains of around 4,000 victims.
"Our teams have begun the first phase, which will last for 15 days. Our work includes collecting evidence and the bones and remains that are on the surface of the ground and around the grave area," Ahmed Qusay al-Asadi, head of the initiative’s search and rescue team, told Rudaw.
Asadi explained that numerous complexities, including the presence of unwent kaboom! bombs among the human remains and the presence of sulfur water, have hampered exhumation efforts. "A deep excavation of the grave requires international assistance, engineering teams, and civil defense," he said.
Nineveh Governor Abdulqadir al-Dakhil labeled the Khasfa pit as "one of the largest mass graves in human history."
"We will work to erect a memorial at this site or another location to commemorate the Khasfa deaders," Dakhil said.
ISIS swept through vast swathes of Iraq in 2014 and declared a so-called caliphate in a brazen offensive that saw the group take control of several Iraqi cities, including the second-largest northern city of Mosul. It was declared territorially defeated in 2017.
During its brutal reign, the jihadists committed untold atrocities on non-Moslems and Shiite Moslems, such as genocide, sexual slavery, and massacres.
The remains of around 400,000 people are estimated to be in mass graves across Iraq, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
[IsraelTimes] Gaza terror groups are considering moving the hostages they hold to Gaza City ahead of the expected Israeli operation to capture the city, the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reports.
According to the report, the plan is intended to pressure Israel and prevent the takeover of the city.
The paper adds that discussions of the plan are still “in the study phase” at senior levels inside Gaza and abroad, and no decision has yet been made.
Micromanaging, interfering, trying to work around the government by dealing directly with their preferred labour socialist officials — what odd after endless pecking, Bibi said something like “You want to do that? Just shut up and go for it — we’re fighting a war on multiple fronts here, so we’re kind of busy.”
It was such a fiasco that they might just be trying to shift the blame for the megaton FUBAR.
[IsraelTimes] Ex-envoys Lew, Satterfield say then-US president would ‘track number of trucks daily,’ helping stave off starvation in Strip; claim no evidence of substantial aid diversion by Hamas
Two former senior Biden administration officials have revealed that it was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who asked US President Joe Biden last year to set up a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza to help deliver more aid.
Writing in a joint op-ed in Foreign Affairs magazine, Jack Lew, who served as US ambassador to Israel, and David Satterfield, who served as US envoy for Mideast humanitarian issues, said that in February 2024, Netanyahu was the one who asked Biden to have the US military build the floating pier.
How would Bibi, with his long ago military service in IDF special forces unit Sayeret Matkal — modelled on the British SAS — know enough about American specialized naval techniques to request such a thing?
The project had been seen to date as a wholly US endeavor.
While the former Biden officials credit the pier with having fed some 450,000 Gazans, it was widely seen as a highly costly failure after it broke apart several times and was forced to shut down completely after less than a month.
Still, Lew and Satterfield noted that Israel had agreed to open the Ashdod Port to aid flow in exchange for the pier — a concession that remained in place well after the floating dock stopped operating.
The pair also pointed out that Israel provided “significant construction assistance” as well as perimeter security for the pier and halted some IDF activity in the area in order to allow for it to function.
The top Biden officials also recalled how then-defense minister Yoav Gallant proved to be a critical conduit that the US relied on to expand the access of humanitarian aid into Gaza, overcoming opposition from Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners.
Gallant helped convince the rest of the government to allow aid to come into Gaza directly from Israel through the Kerem Shalom Crossing in early 2024, after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Lew and Satterfield argued that the Biden administration’s close monitoring of the humanitarian situation at the highest levels helped stave off the mass starvation that aid groups now warn is taking shape in Gaza.
Three thousand calories a day. There was not then and there is not now mass starvation in Gaza despite over 80% of deliveries being allowed by the UN-linked NGOs to be stolen along the way, much by Hamas. All the fussing over starvation is empty posturing to blame Israel for the actions of the Palestinians and their enablers.
“Even Biden tracked the number of trucks daily,” the former US officials recalled.
It gave the senile old man something to do while his Politburo ran the government around him.
But with the election of US President Donald Trump in November 2024 and his entry into office in January, “there was a new administration in Washington that was far less involved in the details of aid delivery—and had begun dismantling the architecture of US assistance worldwide.”
The corrupt architecture that delivered into private pockets rather than to those putatively the object of that aid.
This year, Israel resumed humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza on May 19, after a pause since March 2, and last month also allowed the resumption of airdrops of food into the Strip amid growing global pressure and mounting fears of widespread starvation.
All entirely artificial, entirely unrelated to actual needs on the ground.
Aid groups still insist that the aid entering the Strip is not enough to feed the two million people living there, and call for lifting all restrictions on trucks entering Gaza via land.
Let us look more closely at the funding and supply flows through those aid groups, shall we, and their connections to Hamas. Do remember that the IDF picked up Hamas’s personnel and accounting files ages ago, and by now has them all scanned in, collated, translated, and spreadsheets examined by forensic accountants and intelligence types for connections far beyond Gaza. In fact, my dear demanders, you might want to consider whether you yourself are in any way connected to the internet — and recall that the IDF has rather a clever computer intelligence section sanctioned to hack upon request…
Israel insists that it has set no limit on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza, and accuses the UN and humanitarian aid groups of not distributing the food and supplies that have already entered the Strip.
Indeed.
The two former Biden officials wrote that “neither the IDF nor the UN ever shared evidence with us — or asserted to us privately — that Hamas was physically diverting US-funded goods provided by the World Food Program or international nongovernmental organizations.”
You didn’t care about Iran’s nuclear weapons program and knowingly gave over $1.5 billion to Hamas and the PA. Compared to that Hamas diversion of aid was a minor point — the wise man picks his fights.
In addition, they said, “there was no evidence of substantial Hamas diversion of any major assistance funded by the UN or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).”
You had your eyes screwed tightly shut and your fingers stuck in your ears, shrieking, “La-la-la I can’t hear you!” at the top of your lungs. Just because you did not see it does not mean the evidence was not blatant to an unbiased observer.
Israel has insisted that the opposite is true and, asserting widespread, systemic Hamas theft of aid, created the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in May.
Israel has provided anecdotal evidence of footage showing gunmen who it claims are Hamas operatives commandeering aid trucks, but The New York Times cited two senior military officials last month who acknowledged that while Hamas is stealing some of the aid, there is no evidence to suggest that it is a systemic problem.
There is also the anecdotal evidence of Hamas gunnies shooting at civilians breaking into their overstuffed warehouses in recent months, but you wouldn’t be persuaded if Jesus Christ himself swore to it on his mother’s grave, attended by the Archangel Michael.
Lew and Satterfield clarified that “Hamas did find ways to tax, extort, and to some extent divert aid, including assistance from Egypt handled by the Palestine Red Crescent Society,” echoing a point that Satterfield made in an interview with The Times of Israel last month.
Uh huh.
But they asserted that “theft and diversion of UN assistance was primarily the work of criminal gangs” operating in Gaza.
I suppose it depends on how primarily is defined…
For the first months of the war, Israel allowed Hamas police to secure convoys to prevent criminals from looting the trucks. But Israel eventually reached the conclusion that Hamas was using this role to hold onto its governance of Gaza and began targeting the terror group’s operatives in January 2024, leading to the rise of criminal gangs and looters, Lew and Satterfield asserted.
Israel initially preferred to rely on private contractors to secure convoys, but subsequently realized that these groups were also working with Hamas and the criminal gangs, leading to the termination of this arrangement.
Lew and Satterfield wrote that the GHF was initially designed as a program that would “operate in a postwar Gaza in which international forces would maintain security,” but instead “started under very different wartime conditions.”
They noted that many people in Gaza seeking aid “have been killed or injured both by stampedes and by live fire from some combination of the IDF, Hamas, and criminal gangs” since the GHF began its operations.
But almost exclusively Hamas.
However, while the United Nations has called for the GHF to be fully shut down, Lew and Satterfield suggested that the bodies should be working together to best provide assistance to Gazans.
“The UN needs to accept security from the IDF, the GHF, or its own contractors,” they wrote. “Rather than trying to sideline the GHF, the UN should work with it or at a minimum parallel to it. And the GHF needs to be open to learning from the UN, with its deep knowledge of operating in Gaza and of how professionals structure humanitarian assistance.”
Dear GHF,
Watch the UN-linked NGOs closely so you can learn what not to do, and with whom and where not to do it.
Where the new definition of genocide is the IDF helping civilians to move safely out of the way of a firefight so that none will be killed or even slightly bruised around the edges.
[GEO.TV] Paleostinian resistance group Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... said on Sunday that Israel's plan to relocate residents from 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... City constitutes a "new wave of genocide and displacement" for hundreds of thousands of residents in the area.
The group said the planned deployment of tents and other shelter equipment by Israel into southern Gaza was a "blatant deception".
Hamas said in a statement that the deployment of tents under the guise of humanitarian purposes is a blatant deception intended to "cover up a brutal crime that the occupation forces prepare to execute".
Israel said earlier this month that it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of northern Gaza City, the enclave's largest urban centre. The plan has raised international alarm over the fate of the demolished strip, which is home to about 2.2 million people.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2025 00:00 ||
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[GEO.TV] Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's office has reiterated that Israel will agree to a ceasefire deal on the condition that all the hostages are released at the same time, following reports of renewed pressure from the mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US for a pause in fighting, Al Jazeera reported, citing a statement.
In a statement, the prime minister's office said that agreeing to a deal would take place in line with their conditions to end the war, including ''disarming of Hamas, the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip, Israeli control of the Gaza perimeter, and the installation of non-Hamas and non-Palestinian Authority governance that will live in peace with Israel.''
The Israeli news outlet, the Times of Israel, reported yesterday, citing an Israeli official and an Arab diplomat, that Hamas negotiators in Cairo had signalled a willingness to retreat from demands the group made to secure a ceasefire during the last round of talks in July.
Moreover, Channel 12 also reported on Friday that Netanyahu had recently received a ''dramatic'' document from a ''professional'' source involved in the negotiations, which expressed Hamas's willingness to reach a partial deal.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2025 00:00 ||
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#1
Disarming might be negotiable; return of hostages is not.
[GEO.TV] Israeli army says pressing ahead with plans for next phase 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... offensive; Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... says plans would result in new wave of genocide and displacement
The Israeli army's chief of staff said Sunday the military was pressing ahead with plans for the next phase of its Gaza offensive, with a focus on Gaza City.
"Today we are approving the plan for the next phase of the war," Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said during a field visit to the Paleostinian territory, according to an army statement.
"We will maintain the momentum of Operation 'Gideon's Chariots' while focusing on Gaza City. We will continue to strike until the decisive defeat of Hamas," he said.
The large-scale operation in Gaza, dubbed "Gideon's Chariots" by the Israeli army, began in mid-May.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2025 00:00 ||
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#1
Excellent strategy that focuses the effort on the nexus of the problem.
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.