[YouTube] How The Ukraine War Will End & What If China Invades Taiwan? (Sir Alex Younger)
What is the real job of a spy? What is the role of the UK’s intelligence community in Trump’s new world order? How does the relationship between politicians and intelligence services work?
[X]
Secretary Marco Rubio
@SecRubio
May 2
Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise.
What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election—but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes.
Germany should reverse course.
GermanForeignOffice
@GermanyDiplo
May 2
This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law. It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped.
Christopher Landau
@ChrisLandauUSA
May 3
Replying to @GermanyDiplo @SecRubio
Speaking for myself, words can’t even begin to express the outrage and resentment I feel at having an official account of the GERMAN government purport to lecture the US Secretary of State on the need to spy on and censor the political opposition. And no, Germany, you can’t hide behind smug references to what you’ve learned from “your” history. As you may recall, it’s “our” history too, as we played a pretty important role in ending that particular chapter in your history. And it’s “my” history too, as my own father was forced to flee his native Vienna after the Anschluss (and became an American citizen and proudly fought in the US Army to liberate Europe). He didn’t flee as a result of TOO MUCH free speech; he fled because those who believed in spying on and censoring political opponents were in charge.
You may choose to brand your own citizens as “rightwing extremists” and silence or jail them because, for instance, they oppose open borders. But please spare us the moralizing.
May 3, 2025 · 1:17 AM UTC
#2
Trump need to troll them by asking why the hell should we be tied to them if they're just going to be no different than Putin? Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
[GatewayPundit] The war of words continues to escalate between the Trump administration and the parting left-Green German government over the secret police attack on the largest opposition party in Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Responding to an X post from the German foreign ministry, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau issued a scathing smack-down to the self-righteous finger-waggers in Berlin.
The slugfest began with an X post by SecState Marco Rubio — Landau’s boss and confidante — skewering the German government’s attack on the AfD (The Gateway Pundit reported), currently the most popular party in Germany in the polls:
"Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise. What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election—but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes."
The German Foreign Ministry, run until this week by departing Green disaster Annalena Baerbock and her left-hand woman, American former Greenpeace head Jennifer Morgan (World Economic Fund), clapped back with typical self-righteousness:
”This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law. It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped."
That was obviously too much for Deputy SecState Christopher Landau, who is Jewish and the son of a WW II veteran.
Landau posted:
"Speaking for myself, words can’t even begin to express the outrage and resentment I feel at having an official account of the GERMAN government purport to lecture the US Secretary of State on the need to spy on and censor the political opposition.
And no, Germany, you can’t hide behind smug references to what you’ve learned from "your" history.
As you may recall, it’s "our" history too, as we played a pretty important role in ending that particular chapter in your history.
And it’s "my" history too, as my own father was forced to flee his native Vienna after the Anschluss (and became an American citizen and proudly fought in the US Army to liberate Europe).
He didn’t flee as a result of TOO MUCH free speech; he fled because those who believed in spying on and censoring political opponents were in charge.
You may choose to brand your own citizens as "rightwing extremists" and silence or jail them because, for instance, they oppose open borders. But please spare us the moralizing."
Ouch!
"The German establishment elite are running scared because the German people are sick of their failed climate nonsense and Open Borders madness and are desperate for sensible politics," European Parliament foreign committee member Petr Bystron (AfD) told The Gateway Pundit. "They are turning to the Alternative for Germany despite years of persecution and character assassination, as I experienced myself first-hand. They thought they could pull the same stunts as usual, but now, we have a US government which is on to their tricks and will no longer stand for it. Thank you, Marco Rubio and Chris Landau."
[IsraelTimes] Vance, Rubio attack decision; German foreign ministry responds to US secretary of state: ‘We have learnt from our history that right-wing extremism needs to be stopped’
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] In recent days, Israel has thrown significant resources into fighting forest fires that have caused financial and reputational damage to the country and fueled spy mania that had died down.
Official Tel Aviv, sometimes with half-hints and sometimes quite directly, points to the presence of an “Iranian trace.” However, this tendency is also observed on the other side of the “front”: in Iran, there are also forces seeking to give local conflagrations a spy flair.
But the parties are in no hurry to blame each other.
THE FIREFIGHTERS COULDN'T COPE
The first fires were detected in mid-April, but the Israeli fire service was unable to quickly deal with them. Due to dry and windy weather, the flames spread rapidly, and new ones flared up in place of the fires that had already been extinguished.
Soon, the country's fire service was transferred to a special "Fire Strike" mode, which is introduced only in cases of a threat of losing control over the situation. Other agencies came to the aid of the firefighters.
In total, more than a hundred fire brigades and dozens of specialized aircraft, including those provided by other countries, participated in the firefighting effort. Army units were also deployed to extinguish the fire, especially in areas where military facilities were threatened.
The situation was brought under relative control only by May 1, and firefighters continued to eliminate the remaining fires using their own resources.
GREAT DAMAGE
The forest fires have become the most destructive and large-scale in recent decades. Authorities are still calculating the damage, but even preliminary figures are impressive: the fire has destroyed property and facilities worth tens of millions of dollars.
And taking into account the costs incurred due to the disruption of rail, road and (partially) air traffic, the amount increases several times. More than 2 thousand hectares of forest burned, including the unique nature reserve Ayanot Givaton.
In addition, the state of emergency has increased tensions between civilian and military structures. Some of the General Staff leadership expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the government has created an additional burden on the army at a time when it is involved in a large-scale campaign in Gaza.
The reputation of the emergency warning system also suffered. Emergency services were not prepared for the rampage of the elements and did not acquire a sufficient number of aircraft suitable for night-time firefighting. And this is despite the fire reform of 2018, which was supposed to eliminate the shortage of special equipment.
It is not surprising that the investigation into the causes of the disaster was placed under special control, and operatives from the General Security Service (Shabak) were involved in the investigation from the very first days.
GANG OF ARSONISTS
Barely had the danger passed when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to inform the public of the initial results of the investigation. He reported that the police and Shin Bet had detained 18 people, mostly citizens of Arab origin.
According to the prime minister, one of the suspects was even caught red-handed when he tried to start a fire in an open area in the southern part of the capital.
However, a little later, the security forces carefully adjusted the data provided by the prime minister: only three potential arsonists were taken into custody (one of whom was actually detained at the scene of the crime).
The other defendants were only engaged in incitement on social networks, approving of other people's arson and positioning it as a form of protest against the government's policies. Therefore, they got off with a stern warning.
Despite the fact that the official version of the causes of the disaster remains careless handling of fire, a significant part of society is convinced that the fires were man-made and that Iranian agents were involved in the matter.
Moreover, some of the large fires were located far from tourist trails (but relatively close to critical infrastructure facilities), and the vector of most of the fires was directed towards the capital.
The “spy” version is fueled by numerous “anonymous sources” in the police and intelligence services, who say that the operation to create a “fire shaft” was skillfully disguised as a natural fire.
The perpetrators allegedly had clear instructions and a common goal: to disrupt Israel's Independence Day celebrations and ensure that the torch-lighting ceremony, the holiday's main event, is cancelled.
Moreover, the symbolic fire was supposed to be lit by Mossad officers who distinguished themselves during the “pager attack” against Lebanese Hezbollah last year.
Ultimately, the goal was achieved: the ceremony was cancelled, and only footage from the dress rehearsal was shown.
STRANGE COINCIDENCES
However, it was not only Israel that suffered from the fire, but also Iran. Over the past week, fires broke out within a day of each other at a power plant in Karaj and at a motorcycle factory in Mashhad.
At the same time, new outbreaks periodically broke out throughout the week in the port of Shahid Rajaee, where a chemical explosion occurred on April 26.
The Iranian authorities call the incident a “series of accidents” and urge not to look for “spy trails,” especially since the objects are located in different parts of the country and are related to civilian infrastructure.
Moreover, unlike in Israel, in all cases the fires were quickly extinguished and the damage caused was minimal.
However, even with this formulation of the question, some Iranian "hawks" do not consider the fires an accident, although their arguments are not as loud as in Israel. In large part because the Iranian security forces do not yet have any significant evidence of external involvement - at least, publicly.
Observers have also linked the series of strange fires in Iran to the recent execution of Mohsen Langarneshin, a senior Mossad agent who worked in Iran.
It is known that Langarneshin, before his arrest, collected data on vulnerabilities in the protection of the country's energy facilities and factories, and with the sudden fires, Tel Aviv could well have hinted that the executed man was not the only Israeli figure in the Iranian rear, thereby provoking a "witch hunt."
One way or another, neither Tel Aviv nor Tehran are in a hurry to officially accuse their counterparts of deliberate arson, preferring to collect a more convincing evidence base.
However, it should not be ruled out that after some time, the “fiery terror” will be included in a louder and larger-scale spy story, as has already happened more than once in the Iranian-Israeli confrontation.
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.
