[IsraelTimes] IDF troops captured several Syrian tanks during operations in southern Syria in recent days, the military says.
Four IDF brigade-level task forces under the 210th Bashan Regional Division are currently operating inside Syria, in the buffer zone between the countries and some cases slightly east of it.
The 474th Golan Regional Brigade captured the tanks during their scans of the buffer zone area. According to the IDF, the tanks were not in recent use.
Meanwhile, the IDF says the 810th “Mountains” Regional Brigade completed an operation on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, during which the troops located and seized a cache of weapons at a former Syrian army post.
The final two brigades, the Paratroopers and Commando are carrying out defensive operations in the buffer zone area, the military adds.
[IsraelTimes] Arab mediators tell the Wall Street Journal that Hamas has yielded a key demand for a potential hostage-ceasefire deal and will allow Israeli troops to remain in Gaza during the truce on what the outlet says would be a temporary basis.
Hamas for months has insisted that it would not agree to another deal unless it includes a permanent end to the war in Gaza and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
An Arab diplomat told the Times of Israel yesterday that there appears to be “indications” that the sides are willing to show flexibility regarding the terms of the IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza, particularly from the Philadelphi and Netzarim Corridors that border and bisect the Gaza Strip respectively.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the two sides are considering a 60-day ceasefire in which up to 30 hostages — including US citizens — would be released. Israel would in return release Palestinian prisoners and allow larger amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the report says.
The mediators tell the outlet that on Sunday the terror group submitted a list of hostages including US nationals, women, older hostages and those with medical conditions. The names of five dead hostages were also on the list, the report says.
It was the first time a list of hostages has been handed over since the temporary ceasefire last November, the Journal says.
The report says hostages would be set free soon after the deal comes into effect, and Hamas would then begin to establish the whereabouts of the remaining hostages and their conditions.
The report says Israeli negotiators are pushing for more hostages to be released in the initial phase of the ceasefire, but have agreed to a gradual withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor. The outlet says that Israel told mediators it will reposition troops in parts of Gaza, but rejected a proposal to restrict its presence in areas including the north of the Strip.
[IsraelTimes] The Israel Defense Forces confirms that a drone launched from Yemen was intercepted over the Red Sea, near Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat.
The drone did not enter Israeli airspace, the military adds.
Separately, the IDF says suspected drone infiltration sirens in southern Israel this morning were apparently false alarms.
According to the military, the alerts were activated based on the projected path of a suspected drone. But the military adds that it may have been a “false identification,” meaning not a threat.
There are no reports of injuries or damage in the incident, which the IDF says is over.
Earlier today, another drone from Yemen was shot down over southern Israel, near the border with Egypt.
[IsraelTimes] Syrian fighters received about 150 drones as well as other covert support from Ukrainian intelligence operatives last month, weeks ahead of the rebels’ advance that toppled Bashar al-Assad over the weekend, according to the Washington Post.
Citing unnamed sources familiar with Ukrainian military activities, the Post says Ukrainian intelligence sent about 20 drone operators and about 150 first-person-view drones about four to five weeks ago to aid Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Russia’s foreign ministry had earlier said, without providing evidence, that the rebels had received drones from Ukraine and training in how to operate them, an accusation that Ukraine’s foreign ministry at the time said it “categorically” rejected.
Russia, which is locked in its own conflict with Ukraine after invading the country in February 2022, is a key ally of Assad and stepped in to provide him military support in the country’s civil war in 2015.
Assad and his family fled to Russia following the fall of his regime.
[IsraelTimes] The UN’s Human Rights Office issues a statement condemning the Paleostinian Authority after its security forces rubbed out a 19-year-old in the northern West Bank’s Jenin Refugee Camp earlier this week.
The PA says it has been operating against terror groups in Jenin for the past week and initially sought to distance itself from the incident before footage of the shooting was posted on social media, showing PA troops opening fire at the apparently unarmed Rebhi Shalabi, killing him and injuring his 15-year-old cousin.
The incident sparked renewed protests against the PA in Jenin.
The Paleostinian branch of the UN’s Human Rights Office issues a statement calling on the PA to investigate the conduct of its security forces and hold those responsible for rights violations accountable.
The UN office says the PA’s ongoing operations in the Jenin camp have "disrupted access to education and healthcare," highlighting the security forces’ takeover of a hospital in the northern West Bank city.
The UN statement makes no mention of the activity in the northern West Bank by various terror groups that the PA has been trying to combat at Israel’s behest in order to restore security and stability to the area.
[IsraelTimes] Recruits are initially tasked with carrying out innocuous tasks for money; later missions to assassinate high-profile figures have so far been foiled by security services
Israel’s recent arrests of almost 30 mostly Jewish citizens who allegedly spied for Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... in nine covert cells has caused alarm in the country and points to Tehran’s biggest effort in decades to infiltrate its arch-foe, four Israeli security sources said.
The unusual decision to provide detailed public accounts of the alleged plots was a move by Israel’s security services to signal both to Iran and potential saboteurs inside Israel that they would be caught, Ben Hanan said.
Among the unfulfilled goals of the alleged cells was the liquidation of an Israeli nuclear scientist and former military officials, while one group gathered information on military bases and air defenses, the Shin Bet security service has said. Last week, the agency and Israel’s police said a father and son team from a northern Druze village had passed on details of Israeli force movements including in the Golan Heights where they lived.
The arrests follow repeated efforts by Iranian intelligence operatives over the past two years to recruit ordinary Israelis to gather intelligence and carry out attacks in exchange for money, the four serving and former military and security officials said.
The sources asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
"There is a large phenomenon here," said Shalom Ben Hanan, a former top Shin Bet official, referring to what he called the surprising number of Jewish citizens who knowingly agreed to work for Iran against the state with intelligence gathering or planning sabotage and attacks.
Shin Bet and the police did not respond to requests for comment. Iran’s foreign ministry did not respond to questions.
In a statement sent to media after the wave of arrests, Iran’s UN mission did not confirm or deny seeking to recruit Israelis and said that "from a logical standpoint" any such efforts by Iranian intelligence services would focus on non-Iranian and non-Moslem individuals to lessen suspicion.
At least two suspects were from the ultra-Orthodox community, police and the Shin Bet have said.
Unlike Iranian espionage operations in previous decades that recruited a high-profile businessman and a former cabinet minister, the new alleged spies were largely people on the fringes of Israeli society, including recent immigrants colonists, an army deserter, and a convicted sex offender, conversations with the sources, court records, and official statements show.
Much of their activity was limited to spraying anti-Netanyahu or anti-government graffiti on walls and damaging cars, Shin Bet has said.
Nonetheless, the scale of the arrests and involvement of so many Jewish Israelis, in addition to Arab citizens, has caused concern in Israel at a time when it remains at war with Iran-backed Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... 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... and when a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah remains fragile.
The Shin Bet on October 21 said the espionage activities were "among the most severe the state of Israel has known."
The arrests also follow a wave of attempted hits and kidnappings linked to Tehran in Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and the United States.
The unusual decision to provide detailed public accounts of the alleged plots was a move by Israel’s security services to signal both to Iran and potential saboteurs inside Israel that they would be caught, Ben Hanan said.
"You want to alert the public. And you also want to make an example of people that may also have intentions or plans to cooperate with the enemy," he said.
Israel has achieved major intelligence successes over the past few years in a shadow war with its regional foe, including allegedly killing a top nuclear scientist. With the recent arrests Israel has "so far" thwarted Tehran’s efforts to respond, one active military official said.
Israel has been in direct conflict with Iran’s proxies since war erupted last year when Hamas-led hard boyz rampaged across southern communities on October 7, 2023, slaughtering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.
Iran has been weakened after Hezbollah initiated a conflict with Israel following Hamas’s October 7 massacre, leading to the elimination of most of the terror group’s leadership and military infrastructure, and after the related fall of Tehran’s ally, former president Bashir al-Assad in Syria.
Iran has launched two ballistic missile attacks against the Jewish state since last April, after the second of which Israel carried out a wave of Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s that crippled the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s air defense systems.
SOCIAL MEDIA RECRUITS
Iranian intelligence agencies often find potential recruits on social media platforms, Israel Police said in a video released in November warning of ongoing infiltration attempts.
The recruiting efforts are at times direct. One message sent to an Israeli civilian and seen by Rooters promised $15,000 in exchange for information, with an email and number to call.
Iran has also approached expatriate networks of Jews from Caucasus countries living in Canada and the United States, said one of the sources, a former bigwig who worked on Israel’s counter-espionage efforts until 2007.
Israeli authorities have said publicly some of the Jewish suspects were originally from Caucasus countries.
Recruited individuals are first assigned innocuous-seeming tasks in return for money, before handlers gradually demand specific intelligence on targets, including about individuals and sensitive military infrastructure, backed by the threat of blackmail, said the former official.
One suspect, Vladislav Viktorson, 30, was arrested on October 14 along with his 18-year-old girlfriend in the city of Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. He had been placed in durance vile anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not in 2015 for sex with minors as young as 14, according to a court indictment from that time.
An acquaintance of Viktorson told Rooters he had told her he had spoken to Iranians using the Telegram messaging app. She said that Viktorson had lied to his handlers about his military experience. The acquaintance declined to be named, citing safety fears.
Igal Dotan, Viktorson’s lawyer, told Rooters he was representing the suspect, adding that the legal process would take time and that his client was being held in tough conditions. Dotan said he could only respond to the current case and had not defended Victorsson in earlier trials.
Shin Bet and police said Viktorson knew he was working for Iranian intelligence, carrying out tasks including spraying graffiti, hiding money, posting flyers, and burning cars in the Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv for which he received over $5,000.
According to the investigation made public by the security services, he was found to have subsequently agreed to carry out an liquidation of an Israeli personality, throw a grenade into a house, and also look to obtain a sniper rifle, pistols, and fragmentation grenades.
He recruited his girlfriend, who was tasked with recruiting homeless people to photograph demonstrations, the security services said.
[IsraelTimes] Prosecutor says Asif Rahman — whose actions posed a ‘danger to human life’ — was motivated by ideology, and had a to-do list with categories labeled ‘contingencies’ and ‘run’
A CIA analyst charged with leaking top secret details ahead of a planned Israeli attack on Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... earlier this year will remain incarcerated Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! pending trial, a judge ordered Wednesday.
Good.
The ruling by US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles overrules a magistrate who said last week that Asif Rahman, 34, of Vienna, Virginia,
…a really nice community in northern Virginia, full of big houses containing federal bureaucrats …
could be free on restrictions while he awaits trial on charges of disclosing national defense information.
The fight over Rahman’s detention revealed additional details about the government’s investigation of the leak and the analyst who allegedly disclosed the classified documents in October on the Telegram messaging app.
At Wednesday’s detention hearing, prosecutor Troy Edwards said Rahman was motivated by ideology, though he did not discuss what that ideology might be.
In fact, he said the conclusion that Rahman’s motive was ideological was essentially process of elimination, noting that Rahman comes from a wealthy family and has access to a multimillion-dollar family trust, and therefore wouldn’t have a financial incentive.
It could be that he wanted to earn his own, instead of taking parental hand-outs…
Edwards also highlighted eight pages of notes found on Rahman when he was arrested last month in Cambodia, where he worked at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh. Those notes included two separate "to-do" lists, one of which was largely blocks of apparently encrypted text along with an unencrypted sentence pertaining to US missile capabilities. Edwards said Sherlocks have not yet been able to decipher the encryption.
A separate, unencrypted to-do list included categories labeled "contingencies" and "run," Edwards said.
Official court documents are vague about what was leaked, but details discussed in open court make clear that it references an October disclosure of documents from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency noting that Israel was moving military assets into place to conduct a military strike on Iran after Iran launched its own missile attack on Israel on October 1, firing 200 ballistic missiles at the country.
Israel ended up carrying out an attack targeting Iran’s air defense systems and missile manufacturing facilities in late October.
In court papers, the government said the leak caused Israel to delay its attack plans. Edwards said the volatile nature of the Middle East made the leak exceptionally dangerous.
"It is hard to overstate what other circumstances present graver risks of danger to human life than unilaterally deciding to transmitting information related to plans for kinetic military action between two countries," prosecutors wrote in court papers.
Rahman’s attorney, Amy Jeffress, cited anonymous sources in news articles who have downplayed the leak’s significance.
Jeffress said the to-do list included the word "run" because Rahman is an avid jogger. She also said it’s rare for defendants facing similar charges to be detained pending trial. She needs to be punched in the mouth just for that stupidity
Rahman was born in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, and moved with his family when he was a child to Cincinnati, where he was a high school valedictorian, according to court papers submitted by his lawyer. He went to Yale University and graduated in three years. He and his wife now live in the DC metro area, along with his parents.
His father, Muhit Rahman, who was prepared to serve as his son’s custodian pretrial if he had been released, attended Wednesday’s hearing along with numerous family members and friends in support.
Rahman made his initial court appearance last month in Guam.
Jeffress said after Wednesday’s hearing that she intends to appeal the detention order.
#4
The Blob leaks upcoming "Scoops" to this week's favored "Scoop" outlet with the knowledge that it, The Blob, shall recall the favor from the selected "Scoop" outlet at a later date.
I'm thinking a DEI-enabled analyst did something stupid and got caught.
[IsraelTimes] Lebanese army says it’s deploying in town in coordination with UNIFIL following Israeli exit; 5 reported killed in Israeli drone strikes in country’s south
The IDF on Wednesday confirmed that it had withdrawn its troops from the town of Khiam in southern Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. 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. 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? It is the 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. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... in accordance with the ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said it still remains deployed in other areas of southern Lebanon, and will continue to operate against any threats.
The Lebanese army said earlier in the day that it began to deploy troops to Khiam following the IDF withdrawal, in coordination with UNIFIL. It also warned Lebanese civilians not to approach the area as it conducts scans of the town for unwent kaboom! ordnances.
The IDF has until late January to withdraw from all areas of southern Lebanon under the ceasefire deal.
The ceasefire deal came into effect on November 27. Both sides have accused the other of repeated violations. Under the terms of the agreement, the Lebanese army is to deploy in the south alongside UN peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdraws over a period of 60 days.
Hezbollah is required to withdraw its forces north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle its military infrastructure in the south.
The Lebanese army said "units deployed in five positions around the town of Khiam" in coordination with UN peacekeepers and "within the framework of the first phase of deployment in the area, at the same time as the Israeli enemy withdrawal."
"The deployment will be completed in the next phase, while specialized units" will survey the town to "remove unwent kaboom! ordnance," it added.
US Central Command, known by its initials CENTCOM, later announced that the top American military officer in the Middle East visited Beirut on Wednesday to monitor the withdrawal.
Army General Michael Kurilla, CENTCOM’s commander, visited the monitoring headquarters in Beirut for the ceasefire and met with the commander of Lebanon’s armed forces, General Joseph Aoun, CENTCOM said in a post on X.
Kurilla was there to monitor "the ongoing first Israeli Defense Forces withdrawal and Lebanese Armed Forces replacement in Al Khiam, Lebanon, as part of the agreement," CENTCOM said.
"This is an important first step in the implementation of a lasting cessation of hostilities and lays the foundation for continued progress," Kurilla said.
Earlier Wednesday, UN peacekeepers entered Khiam "to inspect the road and verify the Israeli enemy army’s withdrawal," Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said.
The NNA said the peacekeepers found the body of a man "in the vicinity of his house" in the border town.
The news agency reported that ambassadors from the United States, La Belle France, Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat Frational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... , Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... and Egypt held a meeting Wednesday with parliament speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
...perennial Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... , a Hezbollah ally who has scheduled a parliament session in January for politicians to elect a president.
Crisis-hit Lebanon has been without a head of state for more than two years amid deadlock between pro- and anti-Hezbollah blocs in parliament.
Envoys from the five countries who met with Berri have been working for months to facilitate the process.
Meanwhile,
...back at the cheese factory, there was only one thought in the mouse's mind: I can do this! I can do this! Then the trap sprung... Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed five people in the south on Wednesday. There was no comment from the IDF, which has said it will respond forcefully to any Hezbollah violations of the truce.
"An Israeli enemy dronezap on the town of Ainata killed one person and maimed another," the health ministry said. An "Israeli strike on the town of Bint Jbeil killed three people," while a third "on Beit Lif killed one person," it added.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati visited Madrid on Wednesday, meeting with his Spanish counterpart and discussing the terms of the ceasefire deal.
The priority is for this agreement to become a "permanent ceasefire" and "pave the way for the full application" of United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Security Council Resolution 1701, which stipulates that southern Lebanon must be free of arms that do not belong to the Lebanese state, a Spanish government statement read.
Adopted in August 2006, the resolution was key to ending the month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 and paving the way for long-term stability along the border.
"We confirm Lebanon’s commitment" to this resolution, Mikati wrote on social network X, stressing the need for Israel to "respect the ceasefire decision and withdraw from the cities of southern Lebanon."
[IsraelTimes] Nearby Jerusalem hospital declares death of 10-year-old after he’s critically hurt in attack; other 3 victims treated for moderate and light wounds; IDF scouring area for gunman
A young boy was fatally shot and several people maimed in a terror attack targeting a Jerusalem-bound bus in the West Bank late Wednesday night.
The 10-year-old child was brought at death's door to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in nearby Jerusalem, where doctors declared his death early Thursday following intensive efforts to save him. He was later named as Yehoshua Aharon Tuvia Simha of the Beitar Illit settlement — where the bus had departed from.
Three others were hurt in the shooting: a woman who suffered moderate wounds and two other people who were lightly hurt.
The bus was shot up by the gunman at a junction by the Paleostinian town of al-Khader, the Israel Defense Forces said, before proceeding with the maimed to the Tunnels Checkpoint.
The terrorist remains on the lam. The IDF announced troops were setting up roadblocks while encircling Bethlehem as part of the manhunt.
A video clip filmed shortly after the shooting showed passengers fleeing the bus after it arrived at the checkpoint, as security forces there rushed toward the vehicle amid the sound of gunfire. It was not clear from the footage where all the shots emanated from.
The attack came after three Israelis were lightly injured by gunfire the previous night while visiting Joseph’s Tomb in the Paleostinian city of Nablus without coordinating with the military, and also followed a car-ramming attack in the southern West Bank over the weekend in which a soldier was seriously maimed.
Violence has risen sharply in the West Bank since 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... war started on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... -led Death Eaters stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Since then, 42 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces were killed in festivities with operatives in the West Bank amid a major counterterrorism offensive that has been accompanied by sharp restrictions on Paleostinian movement.
Israeli troops have arrested some 5,250 wanted Paleostinians across the West Bank as part of the post-October 7 military operations, including more than 2,050 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Paleostinian Authority health ministry, some 800 West Bank Paleostinians have been killed in the same span of time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were button men killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or Death Eaters carrying out attacks.
[IsraelTimes] Pentagon welcomes remarks by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader, but stresses ‘actions have to meet words as well’; US defense chief urges ‘close consultation’ with Israel on Syria
Syrian rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, told Rooters Wednesday that the jihadist group he leads, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS), is working with international organizations to secure possible sites where chemical weapons
...have not been used since WWI except for in Iraq, by the late, unlamented Saddam Hussein and in Syria, but really, honest, not by the Syrian government. And in Germany in WWII, but that was against civilians. Lots of them, just one of many reasons Hitler's also late and unlamented... may be located.
Whatever’s left after the IDF finally finishes ongoing bombing runs, anyway
HTS, which is rooted in al-Qaeda’s Syria branch but has in recent years sought to moderate its image, had already said that it will not use those weapons under any circumstances.
Shaara said in a written statement shared exclusively with Rooters by his office that the group is now working to "dissolve the security forces of the previous regime and close the notorious prison," where the government of toppled dictator Bashir al-Assad is estimated to have held tens of thousands of detainees.
He reiterated that he will form a government of technocrats. The current transitional government is set to rule until March 2025, according to a statement by his group.
The Pentagon, in response, said the US welcomes his comments about securing potential chemical weapons sites, but cautioned that "actions have to meet words as well."
Golani’s comments came as Israel has carried out massive strikes targeting the Assad regime’s military assets, including chemical weapons sites, amid fears that former Syrian army weaponry could fall into the hands of hostile forces in the country, as well as the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. 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. 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? It is the 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. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... A monitor of the Syrian civil war reported fresh Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on Wednesday that targeted Assad-linked sites in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus.
"Israeli warplanes launched air strikes" targeting "military sites" including "the Latakia port" as well as warehouses in neighboring Tartus province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that "Israeli warplanes continue to destroy what remains of Syria’s military arsenal for the fourth consecutive day since the fall of the former regime."
Good job, Israel!
Meanwhile,
...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck slipped the habañero into the roasted jalapeño... US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Israeli counterpart Israel Katz during a phone call Wednesday that it was important for the United States and Israel to be in close consultation over events unfolding in Syria, the Pentagon said.
Uh huh. Sure.
Austin told Katz that Washington was monitoring developments in Syria and that it backed a peaceful, inclusive political transition, according to the Pentagon. He added that the US would continue its mission to prevent 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.... murderous Moslem group from reestablishing a safe haven in Syria.
"Secretary Austin emphasized the importance of close consultation between the United States and Israel on events in Syria," the Pentagon said.
The Pentagon also said that Austin discussed with Katz attempts to secure Israeli hostages 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... and urged Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in the Paleostinian enclave where Israel’s military is fighting against Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... , whose terror attack on October 7, 2023, sparked the ongoing war.
[KhaamaPress] General Amir Gholam-Aliyan, the ground commander of Iran’s southeastern forces, announced that the completion of a 35-kilometer section of the border wall along Iran’s eastern border with Afghanistan has led to a 50% reduction in Afghan citizens’ border crossings.
Walls work??? Who knew!
Iranian media reported on Tuesday, December 10, that the project has significantly reduced traffic at the Afghanistan border.
The Iranian commander emphasized that the project is not just a physical barrier but also incorporates advanced domestic technologies, including security walls, border sensors, watchtowers, and fiber-optic systems for border monitoring.
He added that with the completion of this project, long-term security and stability will be established along Iran’s eastern border with Afghanistan.
In addition to the ongoing construction, Iranian officials have stated that an engineering team is fully engaged in the execution of the project. This initiative is part of broader efforts to enhance border security and manage regional migration issues effectively.
Previously, Iran’s Interior Minister, Eskandar Momeni, mentioned that the construction of the border wall between Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistain is expected to be completed by the middle of next year. The project aims to further control cross-border movements and ensure the region’s security.
[IsraelTimes] Two missiles intercepted, rest fall in open areas; IDF issues evacuation orders for launch site areas; Hamas authorities say dozens killed in Israeli strikes
Four rockets were fired from 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 at Israel on Wednesday, causing no damage and prompting the military to issue evacuation orders to Gazooks in the area from which they were launched.
Pairs of rockets from Gaza were fired in two volleys, the first pair hitting open areas and the second intercepted by air defense systems, the Israel Defense Forces said.
After 14 months of war that began when Paleostinian terror group Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... led a massive attack on southern Israel — which included a barrage of thousands of rockets at many other areas of the country — rocket fire from Gaza has become a rarity. Airstrikes and IDF troops, operating on the ground in Gaza, have greatly depleted Hamas’s arsenal. The last rocket fired from the coastal enclave was over a week ago on December 2.
Following the rocket attack, the IDF issued evacuation orders for specific areas in the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza. The IDF’s Arabic language account on social media platform X published details and a list of blocks to be evacuated.
It urged residents to head toward a humanitarian-designated zone near the Mediterranean coast.
"Terrorist organizations are once again firing rockets from your area," the post read. "This particular area has been warned several times before. For your own safety, you must evacuate this area immediately and move to the humanitarian zone."
The IDF has laid out a safe zone for non-combatants to stay in during the fighting.
Evacuation orders usually come before Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on the areas.
Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again... Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip overnight and during the day killed at least 33 Paleostinians, most of them in an airstrike on a house in Beit Lahiya in the north of the enclave, according to medics in the Hamas-controlled Strip.
The Beit Lahiya strike killed at least 22 people, including women and kiddies, Hamas-run health officials said, without differentiating between fighters and non-combatants. Relatives listed the names of the dead on social media.
More than 30 people were living in the multi-story building before it was struck, and several family members remained missing as rescue operations continued through the morning, the Paleostinian WAFA news agency said.
The military said it was checking the report.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
In nearby Beit Hanoun, where the IDF has operated since October, medics said an Israeli airstrike killed and maimed several people, without giving an exact toll. Rescue workers said several people were trapped under rubble.
Earlier on Wednesday, at least seven Paleostinians were killed and several others maimed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, medics told Rooters.
The Paleostinian Civil Emergency Service and medics said four other people were killed in separate Israeli airstrikes on two houses in Gaza City.
Israeli forces have been operating in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and the nearby Jabalia refugee camp since October 5, fighting Hamas members waging attacks from those areas and preventing them from regrouping the Israeli military says.
Earlier this week, three Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hamas attack in Jabalia. The next day the IDF said an airstrike killed 10 Hamas members involved in the attack.
Paleostinian officials and residents accuse Israel of depopulating the areas on the northern edge of the enclave to create a buffer zone, something Israel denies.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a devastating cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The thousands of forces of Evil who burst into the country also kidnapped 251 people who were taken as hostages.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Wednesday that at least 44,805 people have been killed in the fighting, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Some 1.9 million Paleostinians of the 2.3 million Gazook population are residing in the Israeli-designated "humanitarian zone," according to IDF assessments in July.
The zone is located in the al-Mawasi area on the southern Strip’s coast, western neighborhoods of Khan Younis, and central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.
The size of the zone has changed multiple times, amid evolving IDF operations against the Hamas terror group. As of late August, the zone is just over 46 square kilometers (17.7 square miles), or nearly 13% of the total size of the Gaza Strip.
[IsraelTimes] Ordinary citizens wander through home of ousted president, loot luxury goods; Syrian refugees stream back home through Turkish border, hope for better life
The tomb of ousted Syrian president Bashir al-Assad’s father Hafez was torched in his hometown of Qardaha, AFP footage taken Wednesday showed, with rebel fighters in fatigues and young men watching it burn.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor told AFP the rebels had set fire to the mausoleum, located in the Latakia heartland of Assad’s Alawite community.
AFP footage showed parts of the mausoleum ablaze and damaged, with the tomb of Hafez torched and destroyed.
The vast elevated structure atop a hill has an intricate architectural design with several arches, its exterior embellished with ornamentation etched in stone.
It also houses the tombs of other Assad family members, including Bashar’s brother Bassel, who was being groomed to inherit power before he was killed in a road accident in 1994.
Hafez al-Assad, then-defense minister, seized power in Syria on November 13, 1970, in a bloodless coup. He was elected president in a vote asking citizens to either approve or reject his candidacy months later.
He consolidated power by bringing into key positions members of his Alawite sect, a minority in Sunni-majority Syria, and established a Soviet-style single-party police state with the help of omnipresent intelligence officers — the feared Mukhabarat.
Assad was particularly hated for a vicious crackdown on an armed uprising by the Moslem Brüderbund in the city of Hama in February 1982. Between 10,000 and 40,000 people died at the hands of the Syrian army.
On Sunday, a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels seized key cities before reaching Damascus and forcing his son Bashar to flee, ending more than 50 years of his family’s rule.
The end of Assad’s reign came 13 years after his crackdown on anti-government protests ignited Syria’s civil war, which has drawn in foreign powers, and jihadists and claimed more than half a million lives.
SYRIANS WONDER AROUND ASSAD’S HOME
Roaming the opulent Damascus home of the ousted Syrian president, Abu Omar said he felt a sense of giddy defiance being in the residence of the man he felt had long oppressed him.
"I am taking pictures because I am so happy to be here in the middle of his house," said the 44-year-old, showing photographs he took on his mobile phone.
He was among the dozens an AFP correspondent saw Sunday entering Assad’s home after Assad fled the country.
"I came for Dire Revenge. They oppressed us in incredible ways," Abu Omar added from the compound of three six-story buildings in the upscale al-Maliki neighborhood.
Jubilant men, women and kiddies wandered the home and its sprawling garden in a daze, the rooms stripped bare except for some furniture and a portrait of Assad discarded on the floor.
Residents in the Syrian capital were seen cheering in the streets, as the rebel factions heralded the departure of "tyrant" Assad.
’SALE! SALE!’
On Sunday, video circulating online showed crowds peeking into the bedrooms in the Assad residence, which was previously off-limits to ordinary citizens.
They could be seen snatching clothes, plates and whatever belongings they could find including a Louis Vuitton cardboard shopping bag.
In one video, a man could be heard yelling that everything was on "Sale! Sale!"
Umm Nader, 35, came with her husband from a nearby district to tour the residence that once inspired fear and awe, and which one visitor now described as a "museum."
"I came to see this place that we were banned from, because they wanted us to live in poverty and deprivation," she told AFP.
Nader said the former inhabitants of the residence had left without cutting off the heating and electricity, "meanwhile our children are getting sick from the cold."
Daily power outages that last for hours have been a fact of life in Syria, reeling from successive economic crises after more than a decade of war and Western sanctions.
Most of the population has been pushed into poverty, according to the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... An AFP correspondent also saw a charred reception hall at the Damascus presidential palace a couple of kilometers away.
As he moved from room to room, Abu Omar said he felt overjoyed.
"I no longer feel afraid. My only concern is that we unite (as Syrians) and build this country together," he said, full of emotion.
Syrians stream back home through Ottoman Turkish border
Syrians continued to flow back into the country after the longtime dictator had fled, speaking of their expectations for a better life following what was for many a decade of hardship in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... "We have no one here. We are going back to Latakia, where we have family," said Mustafa as he prepared to enter Syria with his wife and three sons at the Cilvegozu border gate in southern Turkey. Dozens more Syrians were waiting to cross.
Mustafa fled Syria in 2012, a year after the conflict there began, to escape conscription into Assad’s army. For years he did unregistered jobs in Turkey earning less than the minimum wage, he said.
"Now there’s a better Syria. God willing, we will have a better life there," he said, expressing confidence in the new leadership in Syria as he watched over the family’s belongings, clothes packed into sacks and a television set.
Turkey, which hosts three million Syrians, has extended the opening hours of the Cilvegozu border gate near the Syrian city of Aleppo seized by rebels at the end of November.
A second border gate was opened at nearby Yayladagi in Hatay on Tuesday.
Around 350-400 Syrians a day were already crossing back to rebel-held areas of Syria this year before the opposition rebellion began two weeks ago. The numbers have almost doubled since, Ankara says, anticipating a surge now Assad has gone.
Turkey has backed Syrian opposition forces for years but has said it had no involvement in the rebel offensive which succeeded at the weekend in unseating Assad.
Around 100 trucks were waiting to cross the border, carrying goods including dozens of used cars. Security forces helped manage the flow of people, while aid groups offered snacks to children and tea and soup to adults.
’OUR OWN PEOPLE’ ARE NOW IN CHARGE
Haya was waiting to enter Syria with her husband and three children. They have lived in a nearby container camp since devastating earthquakes in February 2023 killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
"We had good neighbors and good relations, but a container is not a home," Haya said as she comforted her six-month-old baby and her daughter translated her comments from Arabic.
"We are going back to Aleppo. Iman has a school here, but we have nothing else. We are going back home, to our family," Haya said, adding that her brother had been released after years in prison following Assad’s ouster.
Syria’s new interim prime minister has said he aimed to bring back millions of Syrian refugees, protect all citizens and provide basic services but acknowledged it would be difficult because the country, long under sanctions, lacks foreign currency.
Mustafa voiced confidence in the new leadership after Assad was ousted by rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... , a former al Qaeda affiliate that has since downplayed its jihadist roots.
"Those who have taken power are no strangers. They didn’t come from the United States or Russia. They are our own people. We know them," he said.
[IsraelTimes] Hasna A. traveled to Syria in 2015 and married Islamic State fighter, made Yazidi woman do household chores and take care of son, was arrested upon repatriation in 2022
A Dutch court Wednesday sentenced a woman to 10 years in prison for keeping a woman from the Yazidi minority as a slave after joining 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.... group in Syria.
The court in The Hague convicted the 33-year-old from Hengelo in eastern Netherlands, identified as Hasna A, for "enslavement, membership of a terrorist organization, promoting terrorist crimes, and endangering her young son."
She traveled to Syria in 2015 with her son, aged four at the time, the court said. She married an IS fighter and had children with him.
Between May to October 2015, she lived with another IS fighter, who kept a Yazidi woman as a slave.
Hasna A. made the Yazidi woman do household chores for her and look after her son, the court ruled.
In 2014, Islamic State swept across swathes of Iraq, carrying out horrific violence against the Kurdish-speaking Yazidis, whose non-Moslem faith the holy warriors considered heretical. The jihadists massacred thousands of men and kidnapped thousands of women and girls as sex slaves.
Hasna A enslaved the Yazidi woman knowing that her actions contributed to the "widespread and systematic attack on the Yazidi community," the court said.
"The court holds this against the suspect very seriously. Crimes against humanity such as these are among the most serious international crimes there are," judges said.
According to public broadcaster NOS, Hasna A was repatriated in November 2022 to the Netherlands from a Syrian prison camp with 11 other Dutch women and their 28 children.
The women were arrested upon arrival in the Netherlands.
[IsraelTimes] Change enters effect Wednesday evening, with most restrictions already gone, as the truce with Hezbollah broadly holding; IDF statement does not mention developments in Syria
The IDF Home Front Command lifted restrictions in the northern Golan Heights Wednesday evening, following a security assessment.
The permitted activity level in the area was increased from partial to full.
The decision — which came into effect at 6 p.m. — came several weeks into a shaky ceasefire with the Hezbollah terror group in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. 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. 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? It is the 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. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , and was a relatively minor change, with most activity already permitted.
Restrictions in the area were first eased following the start of the ceasefire, which came into effect in late November.
The truce has broadly held, though Israel has targeted some Hezbollah operatives and sites, asserting its right to respond to violations by the terror group.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel one day after Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... ’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel, in support of its fellow Iran-backed terror group, drawing Israeli reprisals and leading to the displacement of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel.
Fighting intensified in late September, with Israel killing much of Hezbollah’s leadership and launching a limited ground incursion on October 1.
According to the ceasefire, Israeli forces are set to withdraw from southern Lebanon, granting control to the Lebanese military, with American oversight, as Hezbollah leaves southern Lebanon as well.
The adjustment of guidelines Wednesday also came amid ongoing Israeli military operations in neighboring Syria, following the sudden fall of the Bashir al-Assad regime there on Sunday, but the announcement did not make mention of those developments.
Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s have destroyed most of the deposed regime’s strategic assets, Israel said, and troops have seized temporary control of a buffer zone along the countries’ border.
[IsraelTimes] Katz tells Austin there’s a real chance for a deal that frees all hostages, but Arab mediator tells ToI optimism out of Jerusalem exaggerated with main dispute not yet solved
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was slated to depart on Wednesday for Israel to make what could be the Biden administration’s final push for a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... Securing a long-elusive 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... ceasefire deal will be at the top of Sullivan’s agenda when he meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders on Thursday before traveling to Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... and Egypt — the two Arab countries mediating between Israel and Hamas along with the US, National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett told The Times of Israel.
Sullivan will arrive in Israel as optimism about the chances for a deal after over a year of impasses began picking up. Defense Minister Israel Katz told his American counterpart Lloyd Austin in a call earlier Wednesday that Israel has identified a real possibility to secure a deal that would release all remaining 100 hostages, including seven ones who hold American citizenship, according to an Israeli readout.
Hamas for months has insisted that it would not agree to another deal unless it includes a permanent end to the war in Gaza and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. But Netanyahu reiterated at a Monday presser that he wasn’t prepared to accept those conditions, arguing that they would allow Hamas to reconstitute.
Instead, he has pushed for a complete surrender of the terror group, aiming to dismantle its governing capabilities after the IDF has successfully destroyed much of Hamas’s military infrastructure to the point where it can no longer carry out another attack like the one it launched on October 7 during which it killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostage.
But dismantling Hamas’s governing capabilities has proven a much harder task, with Israel claiming the terror group still profits and restocks from much of the humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
The US and other regional stakeholders have argued that Netanyahu has made replacing the vacuum temporarily created by the IDF’s military operations against Hamas all but impossible by refusing to allow a viable alternative to the group’s rule.
They view the Paleostinian Authority as the only realistic option available and Arab allies have offered to assist in the rehabilitation of Gaza if Israel allows for the PA to play a role. But Netanyahu has to date refused, likening Ramallah to Hamas, as he remains beholden to far-right coalition partners who back collapsing the PA and re-establishing settlements in Gaza.
Netanyahu declared in September that he had directed the Israel Defense Forces to come up with a plan to strip Hamas of its control over humanitarian aid. Asked for an update on the effort during his Monday presser, the premier said Israel was still working on the matter, without providing additional details.
A senior Arab diplomat familiar with the hostage negotiations told The Times of Israel on Wednesday that the optimistic rhetoric coming out of Israel seemed exaggerated, given that the sides have yet to compromise on the main issue that has prevented a second deal since the first week-long pause in late November 2023 — whether the ceasefire will be temporary or permanent.
The Arab diplomat acknowledged that there appears to be "indications" that the sides are willing to show flexibility regarding the terms of the IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza, particularly from the Philadelphi and Netzarim Corridors that border and bisect the Gaza Strip respectively. Netanyahu added new conditions in July demanding that Israel remain on those routes indefinitely, in what the diplomat said significantly hampered talks that were then on the verge of a breakthrough.
Netanyahu reiterated on Monday that Israel would remain in the Philadelphi Corridor bordering Gaza and Egypt indefinitely in order to prevent weapon smuggling.
Contrary to claims by Netanyahu’s aides last week, the deal being discussed is in line with the three-phase framework that Israel proposed in May, and not one-phase temporary ceasefire that would only see some of the hostages released, the Arab diplomat said.
A US official said the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration are collaborating closely on the issue. In recent days, Biden aides have argued that the dramatic weakening of Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and its proxies in recent weeks has left Hamas ever isolated and likely more willing to make concessions necessary for an agreement. Washington has also maintained that the group has been the main obstacle to a deal — an allegation rejected by the other mediating countries.
The White House said the developments in Syria will also be on Sullivan’s agenda during his meetings in Israel.
That issue will be the priority of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm... ’s trip to Jordan and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... , as he overlaps with Sullivan in the region, the State Department said.
The US has thus far defended the IDF’s military takeover of the Syrian side of the Golan Heights following last weekend’s rapid collapse of the Assad regime, saying Israel is justified in wanting to ensure that terror groups don’t fill the vacuum created along its border after Syrian troops fled the area.
But international criticism of the IDF takeover has mounted, and the State Department said on Tuesday that it planned to discuss the issue privately with Israeli counterparts.
On Tuesday, Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi traveled to Cairo where they met with senior Egyptian officials. Talks focused on bilateral security issues but the hostage deal effort also came up, an Israeli official said.
US President-elect Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... has warned that there would be "hell to pay" if the hostages are not released by the time he enters office on January 20.
On Wednesday, he told a former hostage visiting him at his Florida golf course, "We’re working very hard to get the hostages back and as you know Jan. 20 is a very big day."
Last week, two sources familiar with the matter revealed to The Times of Israel that Trump’s aides asked Qatar to bring Hamas leaders back to Doha after the terror leaders were ousted at the end of October amid frustration over the extended impasse in the talks.
While Qatar has come under fire for its ties to Hamas, with critics arguing that Doha should be putting more pressure on the terror group, the Trump aides determined that the Gulf country’s mediation efforts are critical for success in the negotiations, the sources said.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told news hounds on Tuesday that the sides are not on the brink of a deal, but said the US believes one is possible before the end of Biden’s term.
Sullivan met with the families of the American hostages at the White House on Wednesday for the fifteenth time since the start of the war, in the latest demonstration of the Biden administration’s prioritization of the issue.
🚨BREAKING: ‘ The Person of the Year’ President Trump has told Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet he plans to cancel the $1 trillion F-35 contract because China is winning the fighter race while Lockheed sends executives to DEI camps. - NY Post pic.twitter.com/sSnTzZ3C7S
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2024
2024-12-12 00:49 ||
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[11155 views]
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#1
This needs about 4 tons of salt. There are almost a thousand more F-35s ordered and China is NOT winning as their jets are about as stealthy as my fucking Honda. The F-35 has dominated war games and Israel has proven it is a game changer in air campaigns.
#3
If the issue is DEI, then Lockheed can start by shutting that program down. Once corporate culture is reset, discussions around the thing itself can begin.
#4
As a kid, I thought hockey camp sucked. DEI camp would suck the suck out of sucking.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/12/2024 8:45
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#5
The USA has already accepted delivery of over 1000 of these. The current plan is, I think, to acquire about another 2000.
The F-35 comes in different models. Current price is about $80 to 120M per depending on the model and the additional modifications. The cost will likely increase as even more modifications, including better and heavier weapons, are entrained into the F-35.
The total number needed depends a lot on how many are to go to NATO allies and how many we will sell to other countries.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/12/2024 9:16
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#6
The maintenance required to keep these birds operational sets fresh limits. How many of the 1,000 delivered are good to go on any particular morning? My best guess would be 350 with another 350 sporting multiple DMIs and the last 300 needing serious TLC
There was a GAO report on this a few months ago. At the time, about 50% of the F-35 fleet was fully operational. It was taking about $6M/year in maintenance per plane to get it at that level. There was an estimate that about $8M/yr could get it to 65% but, here is the extra depressing part, it was doubtful that enough qualified personnel could be found to do that much maintenance given all the other aircraft that need maintenance.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/12/2024 12:09
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#8
On of the reasons for the low readiness early in deployment was a lack of facilities to do maintenance in and people weren't trained yet. Now they have mostly fixed that and the F-35 actually has a better readiness level than the F-15.
… That's one expensive storage unit - each bag weighing 30-50 pounds of pure profit that never made it to market.
Source: Police Frequency
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2024
2024-12-12 00:38 ||
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[11182 views]
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#1
Now what? The police put the goods up for sale?
Posted by: Albert Pelosi3459 ||
12/12/2024 6:32
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#2
First California legalized selling weed and then made the rules and regulations so difficult to adhere to that it does not pay to to even attempt to comply.
#3
They legalized it because they want the tax revenue because they are greedy bastards. If you don't pay they tax they will bust you. It's all about graft.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/12/2024 13:06
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#3
How much of this shit can the Germans take and what will they do when they've had enough? Sooner or later they will react and I'm betting it will be bad.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/12/2024 12:55
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#4
I would also argue that it would be better if the government took some positive steps in the right direction now instead of waiting until it becomes another holocaust.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/12/2024 12:56
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#5
Can I join in on the chant? I'm a foreigner
Posted by: Regular joe ||
12/12/2024 13:27
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#6
a mostly foreign crowd chants, 'F*ck you, Germany.'
Well, if that's the attitude, there must be some surplus North Sea Ferries which could be remote piloted and assist them to New Syria.
Clash Report EXCLUSIVE in Syria: Russian forces attempted to destroy the Rastan Bridge to halt revolutionary advances, but failed.
This failure proved costly for the Assad regime, as revolutionaries used the bridge to press forward, ultimately toppling the regime. pic.twitter.com/VGCctAn1be
It’ll definitely add to the peacetime ambiance when the local rats, followed rapidly by the local cats, are running around unstoppably on speed…
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2024
2024-12-12 00:11 ||
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[11177 views]
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#1
the local rats, followed rapidly by the local cats, are running around unstoppably on speed…
We've seen this movie. It starts with the rats and quickly spreads its way up the food chain. First the cats, then the Haitians. That's when the cannibalism starts.
The Russian Security Services has announced that they have taken down three scam call centers in Moscow, which had defrauded people in more than 20 countries out of tens of millions of dollars. pic.twitter.com/WC4e8oqGBJ
On December 9, the FSB Public Relations Center reported that law enforcement officers had stopped the activities of a large international network of call centers in Russia. Eleven managers and employees of the criminals' Russian offices were detained, including the head of one of the branches, Yakov Keselman. Some of the criminals were put on the wanted list.
Under the guise of investment deals, the criminals were engaged in telephone fraud on an international scale. Victims were found in the EU, Great Britain, Canada, Brazil, India, Japan and other countries. In total, more than 100 thousand people suffered, the income of the call centers was about one million dollars per day.
And already on the morning of December 11, the FSB Public Relations Center announced that three more call center offices had been identified in Moscow that had deceived tens of thousands of citizens from more than 20 countries. By gaining the trust of the victims, the criminals stole money sent for investment in cryptocurrency and trading platforms.
The criminals operated on a large scale: the call centers had about 500 workstations, their own recruiting agency for recruiting and training employees, as well as a security service guarding the staff and the premises. The fraudulent organization's turnover amounted to tens of millions of dollars.
Once again, the criminals operated on a large scale: the call centers had about 500 workstations, their own recruiting agency for recruiting and training employees, as well as a security service guarding the staff and the premises. The fraudulent organization's turnover amounted to tens of millions of dollars.
According to law enforcement officials, the money stolen by the three call centers was used, in particular, to finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
At those numbers, do they really need foreign funding?
The criminal organizations were part of an international network of fraudsters controlled by the wanted leader of the Khimprom organized crime group, Yegor Burkin.
UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE SBU
The Khimprom group was organized back in 2014, its inspirer and leader was a native of Russia, Yegor Burkin. In 2016, he moved to Ukraine, received a passport there in the name of Yegor Levchenko and developed active criminal activity. Khimprom distributes synthetic drugs via the Internet, and also maintains an extensive network of call centers.
Ukraine has long been one of the world's main drug "hubs", but many crimes there are not actually prosecuted, since the dealers in death and other criminals are under the protection of the Security Service of Ukraine. In exchange for patronage, both drug dealers and telephone scammers pay the Ukrainian security forces their share.
Yakov Keselman, who was detained in Moscow, admitted the day before that the criminals paid SBU representative Artem Shila for protection. For money, the Ukrainian authorities and security forces are ready to turn a blind eye to many things, and if we are talking about anti-Russian actions, they are also ready to encourage them in every possible way.
The FSB reported that in 2022, Keselman and his accomplices, on instructions from the SBU, spread false reports about terrorist attacks being prepared in Russia.
The investigation will have to find out how many people and for what amounts the criminals managed to deceive. At the same time, the general statistics of "IT fraud" in Russia are terrifying: 80% of money thefts in Russia occur remotely, and from January to November 2024, cyber fraudsters stole about 158 billion rubles from Russians.
FRAUD AS UKRAINIAN STATE POLICY
The problem of telephone fraud, whose roots go back to Ukraine, has noticeably worsened recently.
On December 9, the Russian FSB drew attention to the fact that the Ukrainian special services are not only extorting money from Russians, but are also increasingly involving them in illegal activities through blackmail, bribery, and deception.
On December 10, President Vladimir Putin noted that the actions of telephone scammers have become one of the lines of Ukrainian attacks on the Russian population. According to the country's leader, it is reliably known that the criminals are operating from the territory of Ukraine.
In addition, the head of state pointed out that the barrage of fraudulent calls to Russian numbers is under the control of Ukrainian government agencies and bodies.
“This has been elevated to the rank of state policy,” Putin emphasized.
Back in June, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sberbank Stanislav Kuznetsov reported that 350-400 fraudulent call centers were working against Russians in Ukraine, with about 40% of their “income” going to finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).
HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS
Telephone scammers can be divided into two categories: ordinary criminals acting for profit, and those who are guided by political motives, said Artur Shlykov, Chairman of the All-Russian public movement "Civil Committee of Russia", in an interview with IA Regnum. At the same time, the punishment for "political" ones should be very harsh, because we are talking about more than just the financial well-being of citizens.
“Their goal is not personal enrichment, but sponsoring the enemy army, which is a completely different story,” says Shlykov.
He advised Russians not to use various kinds of Western Internet platforms, which have become “an instrument of influence for foreign intelligence services and are not subject to our legislation,” and to switch to domestic analogues.
“There is an immediate opportunity to respond to any prohibited, destructive, dangerous, criminal content or other activity that violates the rights of Russians,” the expert explains.
In addition, Shlykov emphasizes, it is necessary to create a competent and extensive system of educational work with the population of all ages in terms of safe use of the Internet.
“People simply may not become victims of crimes on the Internet because they are properly warned about the situation,” noted the source of IA Regnum.
"THREE BASIC RULES"
In order to avoid becoming a victim of Internet fraudsters, it is enough to follow three simple rules, cybersecurity specialist Alexander Dvoryansky noted in a conversation with IA Regnum.
First of all, remember that a real bank will never call a citizen via messenger.
"As a rule, they don't call from mobile phones either. But if they do call from a bank, which is extremely unlikely, it will be a landline, which can be easily checked on the bank's website or on the back of your card," says the expert.
Secondly, you should not tell anyone the access codes to resources and services, because, as Dvoryansky reminds us, “no employee will ever ask you for the authorization codes that he allegedly sent.”
Thirdly, today there are a large number of paid and free number identifiers that "highlight" the origin of the call - they should be used. The application will tell you that the call is from a fraudster or is spam. But here, the expert advises, you should not relax and lose vigilance, because criminals can resort to number substitution.
FSB shows footage of Moscow arrest of fraudsters from call center network
The footage shows security forces in special uniforms detaining several people near a car parked next to some administrative building and at the doors of the building itself. Also in the video are several dozen call center employees lined up in one of the work areas. Among them are both men and women. The center itself is equipped with tables with computers, headphones and equipment for making calls.
In one of the shots, you can see an action plan for employees drawn on a whiteboard, including identifying the client's needs, presentation, handling objections, and closing the deal. It also describes the search for new employees and the points for their selection.
In one of the offices, they found stacks of SIM cards with numbers from different countries and some ratings with the amount of cash revenue.
As reported by Regnum on December 11, three call centers were found in Moscow that deceived tens of thousands of citizens from England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France and other countries. The damage caused amounted to tens of millions of US dollars. About 500 workstations were equipped in the call centers. The stolen money was used, among other things, to finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Separately, nine suspects in fraud against Serbian citizens were taken into custody as part of a criminal case under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The victims lost about 30 million rubles.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2024
2024-12-12 00:08 ||
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#1
Would it be silly of me to wonder if any of that money would be going home?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/12/2024 8:57
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[NYPOST] Five weeks after Election Day, The New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... just came out with a useful explainer on one of the voters’ top concerns: the Biden illegal-immigration surge.
All the news that’s fit to print . . . once it doesn’t matter for Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... ?
David Leonhardt, the Gray Lady’s crack numbers guy, lays out key info (all of which has already been reported in The Post): "The immigration surge of the past few years has been the largest in US history," and, "Total net migration during the Biden administration is likely to exceed eight million people" — "a faster pace of arrivals than during any other period on record, including the peak years of Ellis Island traffic."
The result: "the share of the US population born in another country" hit "a new high," 15.2%, topping the 1890 figure of 14.8%.
And even: "the Biden administration’s policy appears to have been the biggest factor" in the surge. Really?
Leonhardt even names some "downsides, including the pressure on social services and increased competition for jobs," and how the surge will reduce "wage growth for Americans who did not attend college" — which is a win for higher-income folks who thus pay less for services.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2024
2024-12-12 00:07 ||
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[11143 views]
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#2
It’s like the push pollsters herding towards the true result in the two weeks before an election. The Feds and Media are scrambling to herd to the truth that will surely be outed come January.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/12/2024 9:09
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[Stars and Stripes] ATLANTA — A foundation suing to have a Confederate officer’s name reinstated to the Army’s Ranger Hall of Fame and memorial at Fort Moore, Ga., will get the chance to make their case to a federal judge on Thursday.
The hearing in Columbus, which is just outside of the Army base, will examine the merits of the National Ranger Memorial Foundation’s lawsuit, which seeks to reinstate the name of Col. John S. Mosby on the installation’s Ranger Memorial and as a member of the Ranger Hall of Fame. The foundation argues in the suit, which was initially filed in September 2023, that Fort Moore officials overreached in removing Mosby’s name from the memorial last year as part of a sweeping, yearslong effort to strip Defense Department assets of names linked to the Confederacy. Barry Todd, the foundation’s president, said base leaders overstepped their authority in removing Mosby’s name.
The Ranger Hall of Fame and the Ranger Memorial, he said Tuesday, are managed and overseen by private entities, including his group, which built and maintains them through private donations. "The memorial was built and paid for by the Ranger community, all through donations," Todd said. "The Army ... in 1992 and 1993 said they would accept it as a conditional gift, on the condition that they don’t have to pay for [it]. So, there’s no taxpayer money at all toward the Ranger memorial." He said the overarching view in the Ranger community is Mosby’s name should remain.
[RT] US President-elect Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... has mocked his predecessor's economic agenda, using a meme involving funding for Ukraine and the recently pardoned Hunter Biden.
Earlier this month, President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. You're a lyin' dog-faced pony soldier... gave his son Hunter, a convicted felon who lied about his addiction to crack cocaine while applying for a gun license, a blanket pardon for anything he may have done between January 2014 and December 2024. Before pulling out of the US presidential race, Biden had insisted on multiple occasions that he would not pardon his son.
Trump's campaign slammed the decision as an example of how the current government has weaponized the justice system.
On Tuesday evening, Trump shared a meme on his Truth Social platform, describing how 'Bidenomics' works in practice. It showed Biden standing beside a whiteboard with a list of items.
''You pay taxes,'' the list begins. ''I send it to Ukraine. They send it back to Hunter. Hunter gives it to me. Pardon Hunter.''
Hunter Biden was paid millions of dollars to sit on the board of a Ukrainian gas company while his father was vice president of the US and lead on Washington's relations with Kiev. According to the contents of a laptop the younger Biden forgot at a Delaware repair shop, 10% of all international contracts went to ''the Big Guy,'' widely assumed to be a reference to his father.
READ MORE: US pays $20 billion into Ukraine loan fund
Biden officially defeated Trump in 2020 and embarked on an ambitious plan to reinvent the US economy after the Covid-19 pandemic that his advisers dubbed 'Bidenomics'. Vice President Kamala Harris It is time for us to do what we have been doing. And that time is every day , whom the Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... put forth as their candidate this year, spent the campaign insisting that the economy was in great shape and that 'Bidenomics' was working.
American voters apparently disagreed, handing Trump victories in the electoral college, popular vote, and all seven swing states.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2024
13:51 ||
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#1
'Bidenomics' has been basically looting the public treasury and indenturing the American people for the monetary aggrandizement of basically the Democratic elite and their patrons.
[RT] With each passing day since October 7, 2023, the contours of the regional processes unfolding in the Middle East become increasingly clear. That day — a watershed moment for the entire region — left behind a multitude of questions that remain unanswered.
One of the most formidable intelligence agencies in the world, Israel's Mossad, failed to foresee or prevent the attack by Paleostinian groups, sparking widespread astonishment.
However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... beneath this shocking event lies a series of deeper processes, steadily propelling the region toward profound transformations. Mechanisms that once seemed hidden are now becoming more apparent, revealing a deliberate design to reshape those nations that long resisted Western influence and expansion.
On the morning of December 8, the region was shaken by news that, until recently, seemed unimaginable: Damascus had fallen to the forces of opposition and terrorist groups. The Ba'ath Party's rule under President Bashir al-Assad has been effectively destroyed. Assad's disappearance and the silence from official sources only amplified the sense of irreversible change.
Following a prolonged war with Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... and the near-total defeat of Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. 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. 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? It is the 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. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... 's Hezbollah, international and regional actors shifted their focus to Syria, a key player in the 'Axis of Resistance®' against Israel. Syria, which had long served as a cornerstone of Iranian policy in the region, became the latest link in a chain of nations succumbing to mounting internal and external pressures.
These events appear to be part of a broader scenario aimed at fundamentally altering the political and social landscape of the Middle East. With the weakening of key participants in the Axis of Resistance® — from Paleostinian groups to Syria and Lebanon — a crucial question arises: Who will be the next target of this rapidly unfolding plan? The fate of the region, as well as answers to pressing questions about the role of external forces in these developments, remains uncertain. But one thing is clear: The Middle East will never be the same again.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2024
13:45 ||
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#1
The Middle East will never be the same again.
They'll still be at each others throats. Players change but the game doesn't. Being sat upon by the Ottomans or the Europeans only gave them a false sense of tranquility.
Prime Minister Netayahu's Message to the Iranian People: "Your oppressors spent over 30 billion dollars supporting Assad in Syria. After only 11 days of fighting, his regime collapsed into dust." pic.twitter.com/njhjXyHmmF
[RT] A senior US diplomat has rejected 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... n President Nicolás Maduro ...Commie el presidente para la vida of Venezuela, successor to Hugo Chavez. Nick is his country's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy, except that even though his country's sitting on an enormous puddle of oil, he can't manage to get it out of the ground. Unlike Qadaffy and Hugo Chavez, he's not dead yet... 's claim of victory in the July election and urged him to resign and allow a power transition, while threatening further sanctions if he fails to do so.
Francisco Palmieri, who leads the Venezuelan Affairs Unit at the US embassy in Colombia — as Washington has no diplomatic presence in Caracas — made the remarks on Wednesday in an interview with Venezuela's El Nacional newspaper.
Palmieri argued that Maduro, who has led Venezuela since 2013, should recognise his rival Edmundo Gonzalez as the actual winner of the election before January 10, when the presidential inauguration ceremony is due to take place.
According to Venezuelan electoral authorities, Maduro defeated Gonzales in the July 28 presidential ballot. However,
you can observe a lot just by watching... the opposition — along with most Western countries — have claimed the vote was rigged.
''Is it the deadline for Maduro. If he stays, things will only get worse for Venezuela,'' Palmieri told the paper.
''If he does not respect the will of Venezuelans, there will only be further deepening of the economic crisis, less international legitimacy, and the Venezuelan people will be increasingly frustrated in the face of a situation where the country will not be able to improve,'' the US diplomat added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2024
13:41 ||
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[11152 views]
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#1
I don't see how that is an ultimatum.
The USA didn't say they were going to do something, they just said things would get worse.
Of course this is RT and tows the Putin line, whatever that is on the day they publish.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/12/2024 18:50
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[Breitbart] Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry boasted to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the strength of U.S.-trained forces in Afghanistan and their ability to resist the Taliban, Netanyahu testified in court on Tuesday.
Netanyahu was taking the stand in his own defense in a criminal trial that critics have called politically motivated.
He defended his actions in seeking to diversify the Israeli media — and entertained the court with political anecdotes.
Among them, he said, was the story of Kerry’s invitation to visit Afghanistan to see how well the U.S. was training its Afghan allies. Kerry’s purpose was to persuade Netanyahu to allow the U.S. to train and arm Palestinian police forces, as the Obama administration pressured Israel to leave Judea and Samaria (otherwise known as the West Bank).
Netanyahu was skeptical, he said. The Times of Israel reported on his testimony:
“John Kerry also offered that I go on a secret visit to Afghanistan to see how the Americans are doing the same thing for local Afghan forces,” the prime minister continued.
But Netanyahu said he told Kerry that the whole scheme was a bad idea.
“I said, John, I want to tell you something — the moment you leave Afghanistan, the forces you are training will collapse under the [pressure] of the Islamists,” Netanyahu told the court.
Netanyahu noted that he had received negative coverage in the Israeli media for refusing to agree to Kerry’s plans or to President Barack Obama’s “appeasement.”
[FoxNews] NATO chief says Putin is trying to 'crush our freedom and way of life'
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte painted a grim picture of the world and called on Europe and Canada to ramp up their defense spending Thursday.
Rutte made the comments during an address to member countries at a Carnegie Europe conference in Brussels. He issued stark warnings about Russia's alleged ambitions beyond Ukraine as well as China's own growing aggression.
"I'll be honest, the security situation does not look good," Rutte began, calling it the worst in his lifetime. "From Brussels, it takes one day to drive to Ukraine. That's how close the Russian bombs are falling. It's how close the Iranian drones are flying, and not much further, the North Korean soldiers are fighting."
Rutte went on to argue that Putin poses a wider threat to Europe beyond Ukraine, saying he "wants to crush our freedom and way of life."
"This all points in one clear direction: Russia is preparing for long-term confrontation – with Ukraine and with us," Rutte said. "It is time to shift to a wartime mindset."
Rutte's remarks come just weeks before President-elect Trump enters office after campaigning on an anti-war platform. Trump has, however, likewise urged NATO's other members to pay their fair share of the organization's defense budget.
Trump has also said he does not plan to abandon Ukraine. He said he will advocate for a peace agreement with Russia, but has not elaborated on what that would entail.
NATO members agreed to work toward spending 2% of their annual GDP on defense, following Russia's annexation of Crimea a decade ago.
Only six member nations met the 2% goal in 2021, but this year, NATO expects a record 23 of 32 member nations to hit the Western military alliance's spending goals, according to data released over the summer.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NATO leaders have emphasized that the 2% target should be considered a minimum.
Poland and Estonia both led the United States this year in the percentage of their GDP they spend on defense, according to NATO. The U.S. is estimated to spend 3.38% of its GDP on defense.
Rutte, who stepped into the NATO role on Oct. 1, was the Dutch prime minister during Trump's first term and had a reputation as a "Trump whisperer," Politico reported.
[FoxWeather] The National Weather Service office in Buffalo said heavy lake-effect snow would bring multiple feet of snow east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario through Friday morning, and strong winds could lead to near-whiteout conditions. That, forecasters warned, would bring “major impacts to travel and society where the heaviest snow is expected."
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on X that she had declared a state of emergency in several counties, including Jefferson and Erie counties, due to the expected feet of additional snowfall expected through the rest of the week.
In addition, a tandem and empty tractor-trailer ban has been implemented in both directions on the New York State Thruway (Interstate 90) from Exit 53 west to the Pennsylvania state line, as well as for portions of Route 5, U.S. 219, N.Y. Route 400 and Interstate 86.
The snow has been falling fast and furious across portions of Pennsylvania and New York, with several communities already picking up more than 2 feet of snow.
Both Eden and Orchard Park have picked up 30 inches of snow or more, with Hamburg getting close at 28.6 inches.
Orchard Park has also issued a local state of emergency and implemented a driving ban that will be in effect until further notice.
Impacts to travel have also been reported across portions of Pennsylvania, including some commercial travel bans on I-86 between I-90 and the New York state line, as well as the entire length of I-90 from the Ohio state line to the New York state line.
Speed restrictions are also in effect for portions of interstates 80 and 81.
MORE SNOW IS ON THE WAY
The National Weather Service office in Buffalo said heavy lake-effect snow would bring multiple feet of snow east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario through Friday morning, and strong winds could lead to near-whiteout conditions.
The FOX Forecast Center said cold air from Canada is expected to pour over the still-warm Great Lakes, helping to enhance snowfall for communities along the eastern and southern shores of the lakes through Friday.
The combination of gusty winds and blowing snow is expected to lead to near-blizzard conditions, especially Thursday when winds peak at 25-45 mph.
[FoxBusinessNews] The Iowa Republican and Senate 'DOGE' chair aims to 'drain the swamp' through legislation
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is going to be introducing legislation to relocate federal workers from Washington, D.C., to other areas across the U.S. as part of her efforts to fix what she says is a broken government bureaucracy.
The Iowa Republican will introduce the first of those bills, obtained exclusively by FOX Business, on Thursday.
The legislation, dubbed the "Returning SBA to 5 Main Street Act," would move nearly a third or more of the employees at the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Washington, D.C., headquarters (HQ), to duty stations outside the D.C. metro area.
The bill reduces SBA’s HQ office space and "100 percent telework" ability, by moving at least 30 percent of HQ employees into various regions across America and reducing HQ office space by an equal amount. It comes after the SBA stated that even if 100% of SBA employees came in-person to the Washington, D.C., HQ, only 67 percent of SBA’s HQ capacity would be used.
Ernst's new legislation also follows a September Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee hearing on the impact of telework to SBA services, during which a witness from Iowa detailed how they had an extremely difficult time getting in touch with anyone at the agency.
"Ask any small business owner — if your customers can’t reach you, your doors won’t be open very long," Ernst told FOX Business. "The SBA is supposed to serve Main Street, but there might as well be a ‘closed for business’ sign up at the agency because it is nearly impossible to reach anyone with all the bureaucrats permanently out of office."
She added, "I can think of no better way to help the SBA connect with the people it serves than to take some of the employees out of Washington and relocate them across the country."
Ernst is founder and chair of the Senate's "DOGE" caucus, which supports the efforts of the incoming Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency co-led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have vowed to force teleworking federal employees to return to the office. But the GOP lawmaker has been on the warpath against government workers "abusing" telework for years.
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Last week, Ernst released a report claiming the federal government has a "chronically absent workforce," and called for relocating federal workers out of D.C., implementing a "use it or lose it" approach to government real estate, and tracking individual workers' productivity and tying it to their privilege to telework.
#5
She trying to get some cred back? Throwing some chaff? What is this?
Good question. They say it is easiest to ride a horse in the direction it is going. Or perhaps we are entering some sort of Milton Friedman Twilight Zone where the wrong people are finding it politically profitable to do the right thing.
[FoxNews] President Biden has commuted jail sentences for nearly 1,500 people and granted 39 pardons, marking the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history, the White House announced Thursday morning.
Sentences were commuted for inmates placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who "have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities," according to the announcement. The 39 individuals pardoned were convicted of non-violent crimes, the White House said.
"The President has issued more sentence commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms," White House officials said in a statement.
Biden hinted that he plans to make more pardons and clemencies before he leaves office.
Biden vowed multiple times across several months that he would not intervene on his son's behalf, only to go back on his word on Dec. 1. While public figures have criticized the move, it was also widely unpopular with the American people. A Wednesday poll from The Associated Press found just 2 in 10 Americans approved of the pardon.
#1
The Powers of public office have been a Biden family economic engine for over 40 years. Now, with the aid of the Kalorama Central Committee the bidding looks to take on a truly industrial scale. Buried in the dust-storm towards the end will be the family and those who know too much to be left to the tender mercies of Kash Patel and Pam Bondi.
[American Greatness] Whether American presidents are successes or failures is measured by their major foreign and domestic actions. That has been the historical standard by which they are weighed and which defines their legacy. Some presidents are outstanding in every respect. Washington defined the American presidency. Lincoln saved the Union and kept foreign powers, most importantly Great Britain, from intervening to aid the South. Most presidents are heavily mixed; Buchanan employed the Army to suppress the Mormon Rebellion, but his monumental failure was that he did not act to stop the Civil War. Lyndon Johnson’s failure in Vietnam defined his presidency. Richard Nixon had many successes in foreign policy, but Watergate was his demise. Jimmy Carter failed abroad and at home.
With just over 40 days left, Americans are nearing the end of the Biden administration, and so it is fitting to provide an assessment of it and to place it in historical context. By any metric from American history and by any objective standard used to measure his predecessors in the White House, the Biden administration has been a catastrophic failure for the American people. Were that it was otherwise. An old man suffering from the horrors of dementia is a tragedy. Biden is not only a dementia patient but also President of the United States. It is clear that now he is more dementia victim than he is president. He cannot stay awake at international meetings and other fora, and he seems to willingly accept the deliberate snubs. Accordingly, as hard as it is to acknowledge, given that he is the President of the United States, world leaders, and Americans know that he has no business being in the nation’s highest office. This impacts all Americans and U.S. national security, and it is important to recognize facts that impact national security as they are, rather than as we would desire them to be.
In the years to come, the fiasco of the Biden administration will be explained by multiple factors. We may certainly anticipate that presidential historians will argue that his dementia was debilitating and precluded him from effective leadership, or that his presidency was just a Potemkin Village. Others may assess that Barack Hussein Obama was actually in control through his direct intervention and via surrogates like Susan Rice—who overreached in pushing a radical Marxist agenda. At this point, no matter the causes, it is essential to document the Biden administration’s failures and to learn from them as a cautionary tale about the disastrous impacts of the worst president in American history. Of course, we note that his greatest catastrophes may be yet to come.
In domestic policy, Biden destroyed the economy, inflation returned with a vengeance, and America’s borders were opened intentionally. This caused a flood of illegal immigration. Immigration took an unprecedented turn, even an unimaginable one; the U.S. government entered the business of importing people, some 12 to 15 million, and thereby funded the cartels and other criminals and criminal organizations. The true numbers will not be known until Trump comes into office and reveals how this happened and the true impact and parameters of the problem. Another domestic failure has been the massive increase in the federal deficit—one that impacts every American, as well as our national security posture. Likewise, energy security was compromised, and America’s energy independence was lost. These domestic disasters reveal the spirit of the American people was targeted deliberately—in order to usher in a new world order based on the tenets of collectivism and top-down control rather than the principles of individualism, freedom, and liberty.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The pristine waters off Cape Cod could become radioactive for as long as a month after a new study found that nuclear waste being dumped from the tony peninsula has a 'high probability' of lingering.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution conducted the study to find out how likely it would be that discharged wastewater from the Pilgrim Nuclear PowerStation in Plymouth, Massachusetts would spread into Cape Cod Bay, whose surrounding communities include multimillion-dollar mansions.
'Our numerical simulations suggest it is unlikely that the bulk of plume waters will leave the Bay in less than a month,' said the study's leader Irina Rypina.
The dumping comes as part of the power station's decommissioning, and the study found that its wastewaters could drift near the shores and coastal waters of Dennis, Wellfleet, and Provincetown.
'If the release were to happen in the spring and summer, a small portion of a plume might leave the bay in less than a month, passing north of Provincetown and then flowing southward along the outer Cape,' the study said.
'We found virtually no out-of-the-Bay transport in winter and fall and slightly larger, but still low, probability of some of the plume exiting the Bay in spring and summer,' Rypina said.
In response to the study, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, who chairs the Senate's Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, said that the findings confirm concerns expressed by the residents of the Cape.
According to Markey, residents have been questioning the wisdom of dumping plant wastewater into the Bay 'for years.'
#1
I'm thinking this is likely a bad idea. Put it someplace where it'll never be heard from again, like at the Boston Repub Party headquarters. Nobody ever goes there.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/12/2024 8:51
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#2
As sanity returns, there is a really good solution in Nevada already planned for this!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2024 18:32
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#5
We are talking about radioactive releases that are about 5 orders of magnitude less than after the Chernobyl event and 3 orders of magnitude less than after the Fukushima event.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/12/2024 18:57
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[Breitbart] A federal judge has halted President Joe Biden’s plans to open the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, to illegal aliens enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
In May, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced a final rule to open Obamacare rolls to some DACA illegal aliens enrolled in the program. Former President Barack Obama first created the DACA program via executive order, shielding more than a million illegal aliens from deportation through the years.
On Monday, District Judge Daniel Traynor granted a preliminary injunction and stay to ensure that Biden’s agencies cannot implement such plans while the issue makes its way through federal court.
Raytheon, an RTX business, has announced that U.S. Army air defense soldiers successfully utilized the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS) to guide Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) interceptors in defeating surrogate cruise and ballistic missile threats.
According to a press release, this test marks a significant milestone in the LTAMDS program, demonstrating its readiness for operational deployment.
“LTAMDS continues to successfully pass each hurdle of the U.S. Army’s rigorous testing program, demonstrating its readiness for initial fielding,” said Tom Laliberty, president of Land & Air Defense Systems at Raytheon. “In this latest test, U.S. soldiers operated LTAMDS to successfully detect, track, and support engagement of a complex set of threats.”
The live-fire event is part of the U.S. Army’s operational assessment required before the program advances to full-rate production. During the test, LTAMDS integrated with the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) to provide 360-degree radar coverage. The system passed tracked data to guide PAC-3 interceptors in engaging surrogate short-range ballistic and low-altitude cruise missile targets.
The U.S. Army has revealed that using LTAMDS, the Army detected, tracked, and classified surrogate ballistic and cruise missile threats while operating in a 360-degree surveillance mode.
Good evening. 9 Years of general overhaul. Lots of knowledge, experience, fun, anger, curses, emotions and joy. The only PL self-propelled gun ISU-122 running in Europe and the world and a WW2 Veteran. The official end of the ISU-122 Project in Warsaw. 1/2 #WW2#History#Tankspic.twitter.com/YrCJ7xXprT
Diane K. Boyd is a wildlife biologist who has devoted decades to studying wolves. She is the author of "A Woman Among Wolves: My Journey Through Forty Years of Wolf Recovery."
[BEE] U.S. — Fast-food chain McDonald's has officially surpassed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the number of shooters apprehended in 2024.
Despite having thousands of highly trained agents tasked with stopping violent mass shooters, the entirety of the FBI was bested by a single part-time McDonald's cashier.
"Not again," sighed Director Wray, handing over his resignation. "I don't know how McDonald's does it. How did they beat us at arresting shooters, all while making perfectly crispy fries, a solid breakfast, and surprisingly good coffee? We just can't compete with the golden arches."
In light of this development, Congress has announced all FBI agents will be required to do an apprenticeship at McDonald's to hone their craft. "If you can't beat them, join them," said Congressmen Rand Paul, explaining the new measure. "Every agent will spend time working the drive-through and cashier lines as we work to bring the FBI up to McDonald's level. They will learn how to catch bad guys and cook delicious nuggets. It's a no-brainer."
At publishing time, the DOGE had announced to save costs, it will simply replace all FBI agents with current McDonald's cashiers.
#1
The Bee is at it again, telling truthful stories will get your satire agenda taken away.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/12/2024 10:21
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#2
In light of this development, Congress has announced all FBI agents will be required to do an apprenticeship at McDonald's to hone their craft
Well, Trump did it, and look how that worked out.
#5
Ref 6 above
Precision in language is always essential in dealing with the government protestations of innocence.
"Notably, the OIG found no evidence that the FBI had deployed undercover agents within the crowds. We found no evidence in the materials we reviewed or the testimony we received showing or suggesting that the FBI had undercover employees in the various protest crowds, or at the Capitol, on January 6," it said."
Not that other agencies might have had agents, employees or paid contractors undercover,
An Instagram video was posted by BBC Earth with a text that read, "It’s Raja’s world, we’re just living in it."
The traditional road toll system has taken an unexpected turn in Sri Lanka, where vehicles traveling through a certain road have to pay a unique "food tax." The road tolls have gone wild when an elephant has taken the role of a self-appointed toll collector. Fondly known as Raja, the 40-year-old elephant operates on his own terms, bringing a touch of whimsy to the daily commute.
While standing along the Buttala-Kataragama road in Sri Lanka, he swiftly stops the vehicles coming towards him and asks for food. Once the vehicles stop, he uses his trunk to calmly and patiently ask for food from drivers and passengers. When the elephant is offered with the food, only then does he allow travelers to continue their journey. People believe that this tax collection began as a desperate search for food but has now evolved into a full-fledged tradition.
People aware of the ritual prepare for encounters with Raja by stocking up on fruits from roadside stalls. A major linkway, the Buttala-Kataragama road connects Sri Lanka’s west coast with the southeast coast that passes through wild animals/
A user commented on the post writing, "The only corruption that’s acceptable," while another added, "This is where and how l want my tax to be paid." A third one said, "Their area. Their rules!." "GST= Gajraj Service Tax,", another commented on the post.
[NYPOST] Per leftists, snarks National Review's Jim Geraghty, progressive prosecutors implementing ''no cash bail, dropping charges, charging the minimum crime and pursuing minimum sentences'' and ''declining to prosecute two-thirds of those arrested'' have no effect on crime rates.
Indeed, ''it's just terrible luck'' those policies keep on ''generating a spike in violent mostly peaceful and property crime!''
''The most famous and infamous'' such DAs is Manhattan's Alvin Bragg ...Soros-owned and operated Manhattan DA. Putting vicious and blood-thirsty criminals in jail only makes them unhappy, and they've led such hard lives after all... , whose ''Javert-like pursuit of Trump over old business filings while the city suffered from a post-pandemic crime surge added to the perception that the Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... obsessed over anything and everything Trump did while ignoring serious and worsening problems in the lives of the ordinary citizenry.''
Bragg ''won the biggest case of his career. And all it cost him was everything else.''
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2024
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] President-elect Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... 's border czar Tom Homan has revealed his plans for more than 1,400 acres of Texas land the Lonestar State gifted the federal government last month.
Speaking to Dr. Phil, the talk show host turned closed border advocate, Homan said he has been devising plans to use the 1,402-acre ranch in Starr County that Texas officials acquired in October to facilitate the construction of a border wall.
'I'm writing the plan as we speak. I was working on it last night as a matter of fact,' Homan, 63, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, told Dr. Phil on Merit TV.
He went on to praise Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ... governor of Texas. Abbott is a Republican. His 2014 Dem opponent, state senatrix Wendy Davis, thought the absolute, most pressing, most important issue facing the state was abortion. Abbott beat the pantyhose off her. His 2018 opponent, Lupe Valdez didn't dwell too heavily on abortion, but she lost too... 's administration for its efforts to secure the southern border with Mexico - and said he would use the land as a holding area for migrants colonists before they could be put on deportation flights.
'The 1,400 acres of land, that saves us from acquiring the land,' Homan said.
'The government never buys things fast and when we do, we overpay for it, so having this from the state of Texas is great.'
The state's Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham had suggested last month that the former ranch could be used for such deportation efforts as she announced that the state was giving the federal government ownership of the property.
'I was brainstorming with my team, and we figured, the Trump Administration probably needs some deportation facilities because we've got a lot of these violent mostly peaceful criminals that we need to round up and get the heck out of our country,' she explained to Fox News.
'We're happy to make this offer and hope they take us up on it,' she said of the land she said had been overrun with drug smuggling and human trafficking.
[Breitbart] Actor-comedian Bill Burr said he loves how health insurance CEOs are now fearing for their lives following the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Burr, never a man to color inside the lines of political opinions, issued his thoughts on the assassination of Brian Thompson when speaking on his Monday Morning Podcast this week.
“You know what’s annoying me about this kid who killed this CEO? None of these news programs are talking about the incredible lack of empathy from the general public about this because of how these insurance companies treat people when they at their most vulnerable, after we’ve all given them our money every fucking month, and now we finally need you and all you do is deny us; and then these pussies and all of these things are taking the pictures of their CEOs off their websites,” he said.
As Breitbart News reported, health insurance CEOs began removing photos and names from company website after left-leaning journalists like Taylor Lorenz began publicly posting them online.
Burr referred to health insurance CEOs as “selfish, greedy fucking pieces of shit” and celebrated them fearing for their lives.
“I gotta be honest with you, OK? I love that fucking CEOs are fucking afraid right now. You should be! By and large, you’re all a bunch of selfish greedy fucking pieces of shit; and a lot of you are mass murderers,” he said. “You just don’t pull the trigger. That’s why it looks clean. That’s why these people look — ‘Oh my god, he was just, you know walking into a hotel.’ It’s like, OK, well what was his job? What did he do? What was the results of it?”
#1
I have a lot of mixed feelings about the insurance CEO and his murder. First he is a criminal. He ran a program to take over health institutions by not paying them and then buying the clinics and offices before they went into bankruptcy. This is something the mafia does. Then he did the same to pharmacies. So he then controlled the entire medical network for millions of people that could not get care. He directed policies for 22% of all medicare/Medicaid patients. All the while with a 30% plus denial rate. The plan is people would die during the appeal process, or when legal action took place. No one in DOJ was listening as ten of thousands of people suffered at his profit making scheme. He was worse than Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde, or even Enron execs. He hurt the most vulnerable, the sick people who paid for insurance only to be cheated out of it causing pain and death. If our justice system cared, even a little bit, drastic actions would not be needed. The new CEO doubled down on this process and gave a "Full steam ahead" message to employees. Ya, the CEO did not deserve to be murdered, he deserved to be raped daily in prison.
The media is screaming, to include FOX of how terrible this was calling the shooter a coward etc... They do this because big pharma owns them all, Pharma is the #1 advertiser on all major networks.
While murder is definitely wrong I ask this. Mr Penny was found innocent for killing a man that was threatening to kill people, the shooter killed a man that was killing people. When our justice system refuses to act, people will take actions into their own hands.
This is a dilemma Plato would love to have discussed... The shooter could have screamed at the top of a mountain, no one was listening. Now we all know more about the fraud, greed, and systematic pain and suffering United did to Americans, whats next???
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/12/2024 2:08
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#2
I just heard the reward was denied for the McDonalds employee that turned the shooter in.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/12/2024 2:29
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#3
Ref #1: They do this because big pharma owns them all, Pharma is the #1 advertiser on all major networks.
#5
Big Pharm, Big Health. Just who ordered everyone to get mandatory health insurance*? The government. How's all that regulatory collusion working for the market? In a truly open market would you hang around a company with high levels of denial? The great thing about it for Obamanics is that the institutions get all the blame not the pols who assembled this concoction.
#6
What has me paying attention is the reaction by the proletariat. Most have no idea of Thompson's actions but they instantly recognized one of theirs "got him", where as they'd been deeply disappointed by two failed attempts to get Trump. This is only feeding their desire for more blood and they'll probably get it via copycats.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/12/2024 9:07
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#7
P2K, great comment... I hadn't thought about that...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/12/2024 10:20
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#8
Ya, the CEO did not deserve to be murdered, he deserved to be raped daily in prison.
I think we should be very careful about the type of society we think we'd like to have. This CEO was never charged with a crime.
#9
No one complains when a guy with a gun in school or the mall hats killed by a citizen. No one complains when a drug kingpin gets killed in a shootout, or a terrorist gets drone zapped. But a CEO that systematically denies people healthcare in the greatest nation on earth causing pain, suffering and death reminds me of action of the nazi regime. Our government has done nothing but five us to participate in this murderous sceme. Ya, there is a special place in prisons for men that hurt children and people than are in need. This man was spared his true justice.
#11
When Obamacare was developed, the health insurance companies provided much of the statutory language.
This was the deal. The govt knew that the only way to may healthcare affordable (or close to that) was to control costs. How to do that. The Govt did not want to be the 'bad guy' denying medicine, denying service, etc. So they got the insurance industry to do it by promising them a lot of leeway in insurance cost and a lot of leeway in supervising medical service.
and, btw, a number of health insurance companies are non profit and they deny claims sometime also
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/12/2024 12:53
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#12
This CEO was never charged with a crime.
Seems to be a lot of that going on recently.
Mine is doing its level best at hosing us; rumor has it our state's insurance commissioner is our insurance commissioner because that same carrier hosed her, too.
And the -unsubstantiated- rumors about certain carriers basically hinting to their clients to get the jab or be priced out.
It would be fun to get a survey of how many in Stewart's audience were for Obamacare.
#13
The purpose of Obamacare was never to reduce healthcare costs. It was to drive toward universal government healthcare — Medicare for all — and to make the intervening step as uncomfortable as possible to punish the deplorables for their temerity in objecting. And in fact, the introduction of the Obamacare option alongside private care and expanded Medicare to those classes previously uncovered by it drove up costs while driving doctors to retire because the annoyances became so much greater than they’d already become.
My endocrinologist is for the fourth time in the past two decades the last remaining doctor in his practice, meaning once again he is caring for all the patients of the practice by himself, a number of patients cared for by about ten doctors back when I started going to him. Thank goodness Nurse-Practitioners and such have become a thing, or my appointments with him would be 30 seconds long instead of ten minutes.
Well, thinking about it, isn't that pretty much everyone in the Beltway? And if so, is this not the time to step back when they promote wacking each other for 'sport' among their flock? Just saying.
#15
Sorry, I can't join this idea that executives of legal industries deserve extrajudicial killing. At what level of the organizational chart would the justifications end? Vice President? CFO? Receptionist at a local field office.
#16
When will we discover this is a 'Trump Effect'?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/12/2024 16:12
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#17
As soon as they realize that the other side to their panty wetting coin of those who can't be prosecuted should receive street justice venn could include Brandon's pardonpalooza.
A CEO is assassinated, and now “wanted” posters are appearing across the country, targeting others simply for being successful. Someone even put up a highway sign calling for more murders. This isn’t just outrage—it’s mob mentality, and it’s tearing at the fabric of who we are as… pic.twitter.com/bXP3PqOapm
[IsraelTimes] A month after shocking gang attack on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, 7 suspects — including Gazan man accused of attempted murder — appear in court, with 6 others to be tried separately
Prosecutors on Wednesday called for two years in jail for a man suspected of punching and kicking Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam during the first day of the trial over the night of violence that sparked accusations of antisemitism.
The 22-year-old, identified as Sefa O, was one of five suspects appearing before an Amsterdam court on charges relating to the rampage following a November 7 match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Dutch capital.
Maccabi supporters suffered “hit-and-run” attacks in the city center following calls on social media to target them, prompting allegations from Dutch and Israeli politicians of antisemitic motives.
Israeli officials said 10 people were injured in the violence, while hundreds more Israelis huddled in their hotels for hours, fearing they could be attacked. Many said that Dutch security forces were nowhere to be found, as the Israeli tourists were ambushed by gangs of masked assailants who shouted pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel slogans while they hunted, beat and harassed them.
Some witnesses claimed that some police turned their backs on attacks taking place in front of them, joined in, or literally delivered the Israelis they “rescued” to Moslems nearby. But the rule had been announced for Dutch police some time previously: where Jews are involved, Dutch police officers are not required to enforce laws protecting them. It’s clearly only a small step from not protecting to actively harming.
Police said they were investigating at least 45 people over the violence. Some social media posts had included calls to “hunt Jews,” according to police. The attacks followed two days of skirmishes that also saw Maccabi fans chant anti-Arab songs, vandalize a taxi and burn a Palestinian flag.
All the soccer teams over there seem to have yobs among their fans. None of the other teams’ yobs get treated to their own personal pogrom.
The court saw images of a man alleged to be O kicking a person on the ground, chasing targets and punching people in the head and the body. The suspect played a “leading role” in the violence which “had little to do with football,” the prosecutor alleged.
It was an excuse of opportunity. If it hadn’t been that, it would have been something else.
However, the prosecutor averred: “In this case, there was no evidence of… a terrorist intent and the violence was not motivated by antisemitic sentiment.”
Lying or stupid?
“The violence was influenced by the situation in Gaza, not by antisemitism,” claimed the prosecutor.
How can that be, when the situation in Gaza, as he puts it, is precisely resulting from a hatred of Jews so severe as to demand the entire Gazan community rise up to massacre them?
O, who sat hunched and looking down at his hands during the trial, said he “very much regretted his presence” at the violence and that he wanted “to start a new life” with his family.
He very much wishes not to be punished by the native unbelievers for what he so gleefully and deliberately did.
“My wife is pregnant. For my family and my parents, I have decided from now on only to hang around with good people,” said O, who handed himself into police and has since been in detention.
Sucks to be you.
Prosecutors called for a second suspect, named as Lucas D., to receive a six-month jail sentence for throwing stones at police and illegal possession of fireworks. He also stands accused of being part of a Snapchat group that incited violence against the Israeli fans.
The five men, ranging in age from 19 to 32, are facing a three-judge bench at the Amsterdam District Court in staggered appearances. Two more suspects are to appear on Thursday as well as a third man whose case spilled over on Wednesday.
All seven have been charged with public violence.
The last man to appear on Wednesday, Abushabab M., 22, who is facing the most serious charge of attempted manslaughter, sat sobbing while his case was heard. Judges had to postpone his case to Thursday because there was no translator available for the Arabic-speaking suspect, who was born in the Gaza Strip. His lawyer, Anis Boumanjal, told judges that his client “is a young, vulnerable suspect with a life story that cuts to the bone,” because he had grown up in a war zone.
M. was “most likely suffering from a psychological disorder,” his lawyer said, adding it should be a mitigating circumstance in his sentencing.
In the Netherlands, one of the recommended treatments for psychological disorders is assisted suicide, right? Go for it.
A further six suspects are set to appear at a later stage. Three of these suspects are minors and their cases will be heard behind closed doors.
“Charges have also been laid against Maccabi fans, who displayed provocative behavior before the game,” the Dutch Public Prosecution Service said in a statement.
You’re going after misbehaving foreign fans of other soccer teams the same way, right? Or is it only the Israeli ones? To ask the question is to answer it.
The incident sparked a debate over polarization between Amsterdam’s various communities.
At the time, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said the city had been “deeply damaged” by “hateful antisemitic rioters” after a night of “unbearable” violence.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the violence at the time as a “premeditated antisemitic attack,” a description repeated by the Lawfare Project Jewish civil rights organization at court on Thursday.
“They [Maccabi fans] were attacked simply because they were Jewish,” the organization’s director of litigation Ziporah Reich told journalists.
The court is expected to give its verdict in the cases on December 24.
Russia: Former deputy mayor of Krasnoyarsk, Alexey Davydov (39), fell out of an 11th floor window of the Investigative Committee building during interrogation. He was detained 5 days ago on suspicion of bribery. pic.twitter.com/vckKumOcJ6
Krasnoyarsk is the second-largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk, with a population of over 1.1 million. It’s an important junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and a major aluminum producer. So why would a mere former assistant mayor be in need of interrogation with open windows?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2024
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#1
Well, given how hot and humid it is in Siberia this time of year, it's logical that the windows would be open...
[IsraelTimes] When asked by Catholic media, the church does not offer a reason for taking down display created by Palestinian artists and dedicated by pope.
[NYPOST] '''You must be wary of those seeking to use their influence and their expertise to wrongful ends.''
Those words were spoken at the George Washington Law School commencement ceremony two years ago by the recently defeated Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.).
This week, the words took on a new meaning after Wild was accused of leaking information from the House Ethics Committee ...think of a nudibranch pretending to be a vertebrate... Wild embodies a party that is in an ethical and political free fall.
Wild was fighting to release the report of the investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). When Gaetz decided to withdraw from Congress, the report was not released.
That is when details from the committee were leaked to the media, and the press reported that ''two sources said Wild ultimately acknowledged to the panel that she had leaked information.''
Keep in mind that this is the House Ethics Committee, and she is a member.
She is also a member of Congress who took an oath as part of the panel's rules that ''I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will not disclose, to any person or entity outside the Committee on Ethics, any information received in the course of my service with the Committee, except as authorized by the Committee or in accordance with its rules.''
If the reports are true, Wild knowingly violated an oath that she took not to release information from the Ethics Committee because she was unhappy with losing votes on the release of information.
Wild herself has not publicly confirmed or denied the alleged leaking of the information.
Text taken from the website of Elijah J. Magnier. The rest of the text is in Russian and behind a paywall.
[ColonelCassad] Rapid military developments in Syria, without resistance from the Syrian army, led to the fall of President Bashar al-Assad and his unopposed departure from Damascus. This transition was the result of high-level negotiations between key players, including Turkey, Russia and Iran. However, the surprises in the Middle East are far from over; they are only just beginning with this transition of power and the attempt to create a new state with very different standards.
One of the key reasons for the rapid fall of the Assad regime was the strategy employed by the advancing forces in the towns and villages they captured, especially in the countryside of Idlib, Aleppo and its surroundings (apart from isolated extremist actions), but also in Hama, Homs, Damascus and southern Syria.
The attackers deliberately distanced themselves from the brutal tactics that had united the world against the forces fighting the Syrian army since 2011.
This shift in approach allowed the regime to collapse like a snowball rolling down a mountain, with minimal resistance as one city after another surrendered. The orderly surrender occurred without significant bloodshed after protracted negotiations led by the main mediators: Turkey, Iran, and Russia.
Russia and Iran lost a staunch ally and a strong base in the Middle East, leaving Turkey as the dominant power. Istanbul provided military support to the advancing forces, coordinated their operations, and carefully directed their actions through a joint operations room. Under Turkish leadership, these forces achieved all of their objectives in areas previously controlled by the Syrian army. However, they did not extend their success to areas controlled by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in the northeast, where power extended to Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa.
Syria remains deeply divided, with the northeast under Kurdish control, Israel expanding its occupation of new Syrian territory in the south, and no unified factions that could form a cohesive ruling authority. Instead, Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi al-Jallali has been appointed to lead an interim administration running the country. What events have brought Syria to this point, and what does the future hold?
As head of the interim administration, Prime Minister al-Jallali will likely be responsible for the day-to-day functions of the state while preparing it for a longer-term transition. This includes maintaining basic governance, preventing a complete collapse of institutions, and overseeing negotiations to achieve a more permanent political settlement. Al-Jallali will have to navigate deep divisions as he works with opposition groups, external actors, and the remnants of the Assad-era bureaucracy. His ability to manage these relationships will determine whether Syria can move toward stability. His appointment signals to the international community that Syria is attempting to rebuild itself within a framework that combines continuity and change. However, it also raises questions about whether genuine reform is possible with a figure associated with the previous regime. Al-Jallali’s leadership during the transition will set the tone for Syria’s transition. Whether he can maintain stability and steer the country toward a new political structure will depend on his ability to build consensus among internal and external actors.
His tenure will likely determine whether Syria moves toward unity or remains divided and uncertain.
Many factions in Syria have united under the leadership of the Repel Aggression Coalition, forming a single alliance that includes groups such as Jaysh al-Izza, Jaysh al-Ahrar, Faylaq al-Sham, Al-Quwat al-Mushtaraka, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zinki, the Sultan Murad Brigade, Ansar al-Tawhid, Suqour al-Sham, Ahrar al-Sham, the Sulayman Shah Brigade, the Al-Hamza Division, and the Turkistan Islamic Party Brigades. Among them, Ahrar al-Sham and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham stand out as the largest and most influential.
A call has been announced for a “National Transitional Council” (NTC) to unite all elements of the revolution. This comes after Abu Muhammad al-Julani said that existing institutions would remain under the current prime minister in order to maintain stability following the unexpectedly rapid collapse of the Syrian government’s control over major cities.
However, the path forward remains uncertain. It is not yet clear how the state will be governed in the coming weeks or who will lead the effort to draft a new constitution and prepare for parliamentary elections. The main challenge will be creating a coherent governance structure and reconciling the diverse and often conflicting ideologies of the combined factions.
As these factions, with their different backgrounds and agendas, try to forge a unified vision for Syria’s future, questions remain about who will wield ultimate authority and how they will navigate the complexities of building a functioning state.
The success of this fragile alliance will likely determine whether Syria can move toward stability or remain divided and uncertain.
The creation of the National Transitional Council highlights the enormous challenges of uniting disparate factions into a coherent governing structure. While the Repel Aggression coalition suggests a temporary convergence of interests, the long-term sustainability of such an alliance remains questionable.
Factions within the NTC span a wide range of ideologies. Groups such as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and Ansar al-Tawhid advocate sharia-based governance of Syria. Their extremist vision risks alienating moderate factions and potential international supporters. Large groups such as HTS and Ahrar al-Sham may claim disproportionate influence, risking the marginalization of smaller factions and internal disunity. At the same time, Ahrar al-Sham and Faylaq al-Sham combine Islamic principles with nationalist aspirations, seeking a pluralistic model of governance that includes diverse Syrian groups.
On the other hand, factions such as the Sultan Murad Brigade and the Turkistan Islamic Party Brigades include foreign fighters and minorities, and they pursue unique goals, complicating the prospect of national unity. Smaller factions often support democratic or technocratic governance, which can conflict with the dominant Islamist forces in the coalition. These differences highlight the difficulty of creating a common vision of governance and policy.
Israel has formally abandoned the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria, declaring its intention to renegotiate the dynamics on the border. In a bold move, Israel captured Mount Hermon and several villages in Quneitra, declaring Syria an open battlefield and signaling its intention to advance further into Syrian territory with blatant disregard for international norms. The Israeli Air Force conducted a sustained campaign, systematically attacking and destroying more than 100 strategic targets, including Syrian air defense systems, ammunition depots in Damascus, and key installations at several airports across the country, further weakening Syria’s already depleted defenses.
On the other hand, Russian forces, deployed on the Syrian-Israeli border primarily for stabilization following the Syrian civil war, acted as a buffer between Israeli and Syrian forces, preventing escalation. They were stationed primarily in the Quneitra and Golan Heights areas and served as intermediaries, restraining both sides from aggressive actions that could lead to a wider conflict. However, their presence was also a symbol of Russia’s influence in the region and its role as a security guarantor for the Assad regime.
Recent events have forced Moscow to abandon these positions due to the security risks to its soldiers, creating a vacuum that has allowed Israel to expand its operations and consolidate its control in southern Syria.
No international power has stepped up to defend Syrian sovereignty or oppose Israel’s annexation of additional Syrian territory. For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the occupation of parts of Syria represents a major achievement in Israel’s strategic ambitions. Not only does the move strengthen his political position at home, it also reinforces Israel’s territorial and military dominance at a key moment in the evolution of the Middle East’s geopolitical situation.
Moscow, which has provided refuge to Bashar al-Assad and his family, has announced that it remains in touch with all parties involved in Syria, maintaining a pragmatic approach toward the new authorities. However, uncertainty hangs over Russia’s strategic presence in the region. The possible loss of the Khmeimim and Tartus military bases would be a significant loss, as these facilities provide the only access to the warm waters of the Mediterranean, a critical geopolitical asset for projecting influence in the region.
Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2012, Turkey under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken a firm stance against President Bashar al-Assad. Erdogan has repeatedly stated that his goal is to visit Damascus and pray at the Umayyad Mosque. Today, with the fall of Assad, this goal seems achievable, cementing Turkey’s status as the “godfather” of the new Syrian leadership.
Turkey has long-term goals in Syria: securing its borders, countering Kurdish autonomy, and strengthening its influence in northern Syria. To this end, Ankara has used military action, economic integration, and support for opposition groups and jihadists. However, achieving these goals depends on Turkey’s ability to balance domestic political objectives, regional rivalries, and international interests.
Turkey has established zones of influence in regions such as Afrin, Jarablus, and al-Bab, where it exerts significant administrative, economic, and military influence. Turkish currency and goods dominate local markets, and the establishment of schools and cultural institutions has helped spread the Turkish language and culture.
These actions also help Turkey address its domestic challenges. It hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees, and anti-refugee sentiment has become a significant political issue. By creating “safe zones” in northern Syria, Ankara aims to repatriate significant numbers of refugees, reducing domestic tensions and demonstrating its role as a stabilizing force in the region. However, such ambitions have drawn opposition from Russia and Iran, especially in light of Turkey’s resettlement of opposition-supporting Syrians in areas cleared of Kurdish forces. This process of demographic engineering is aimed at weakening Kurdish influence and strengthening Turkey’s position.
Turkey’s military campaigns and support for offensive forces are also aimed at undermining U.S.-backed Kurdish militias in northeastern Syria. Although the United States relies on Kurdish militias such as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to fight ISIS, Ankara views the alliance as a threat to its security. Turkey’s operations demonstrate to Washington that it will not tolerate a prolonged Kurdish presence on its borders, even if it means disrupting American plans to stabilize the region.
Despite the fall of the Assad regime, the fighting in Syria is far from over. Fighting continues in northeastern Aleppo between Turkish-backed forces and U.S.-backed Kurdish militias. Turkey views these Kurdish forces not as Syrian militias but as affiliates of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated a terrorist organization in Turkey and internationally. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan recently underscored this position, saying that these forces are “foreign fighters who have gathered in Syria and they must all be eliminated.” The Kurdish forces remain determined to defend their autonomy and continue to receive U.S. support, creating a protracted conflict that limits Ankara’s ability to achieve its goals.
The United States, however, takes a different stance. While Washington also considers Ahmed al-Shaar (Abu Muhammad al-Julani), the leader of the task force, a terrorist, it continues to support Kurdish groups, including militias linked to the PKK, which it also officially recognizes as terrorist organizations. Yet these same Kurdish forces play a key role in protecting the American presence in Syria. U.S. forces also provide them with air cover and prevent attacks on them, creating a paradoxical dynamic. The U.S. will only recognize new leaders in Syria if there is a smooth transition.
In recent days, Kurdish forces have advanced and taken control of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa, adding these territories to the already-held regions of Hasakah and Qamishli, which are critical to Syria’s economy and resources. The new Syrian leadership is unlikely to accept this development, as it exacerbates tensions in the northeastern region, which contains the country’s grain basket as well as oil and gas resources. This Kurdish control presents an ongoing dilemma and raises the question of federalization, especially given the different identities of the Kurds, Alawites, and Druze in Syria.
However, Turkey’s staunch opposition to Kurdish autonomy will make the creation of a Kurdish state similar to Iraqi Kurdistan much more difficult. Ankara is unlikely to tolerate even the hint of a Kurdish enclave in northeastern Syria, ensuring that the issue remains a contentious and unresolved point in the country’s fragmented landscape.
Commentary by Russian military journalist is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] In Syria over the past 75 years, not counting external wars:
1949 – three military coups, the supreme power changes as many as three times in one year
1951 – military coup
1954 – general rebellion and coup
1961 – military coup
1962 – as many as two military coups in one year
1963 – military coup, the Baath Party comes to power (one of the leaders is Assad Sr.)
1966 – military coup, where Assad Sr. is one of the main participants
1968-69 – riots in the main cities of the country, suppressed by the army
1970 – military coup, Assad Sr. comes to power
1976-82 – civil war between the Assad government and the Islamists. Mass killings in Aleppo. The city of Hama, mentioned more than once in December 2024, was completely destroyed during the fighting in 1982...
1984 - President Assad's younger brother unsuccessfully tries to overthrow his brother and seize power.
Since 1985, 20 years of relative stability begin under the harsh dictatorship of the Assad clan
2000 - Assad Sr. dies, power passes to his son
2005 - Vice President Khaddam, a close associate of his late father, unsuccessfully attempts to overthrow Assad Jr.
Since 2011 - as we all know, an ongoing war.
So 2024 and even 2025 will not be the last years of the eternal Syrian turmoil...
P.S. And what beauty was happening there throughout the 19th century! Emperor Nicholas I first thought about introducing Russian troops into Syria in 1840, when the "Egyptians" and "Turks" were once again fighting for Damascus and Aleppo during the civil strife within the Ottoman Empire.
Russian military intelligence began systematic work on the lands of modern Syria while Pushkin was still alive...
For five years, from 1834 to 1839, Russian officers worked continuously in Palestine and Syria. The first to survey the region for the possibility of military operations was Colonel of the General Staff Alexander Duhamel, who was listed as consul in Egypt. Then Lieutenant Colonel Pyotr Lvov worked in Syria. This native of the Tver province, a veteran of wars with the Turks and Polish rebels, compiled the first military map and topographic description of Syria in the style: "... here a road cut into the rock winds, and Beilan in a military sense would deserve special note."
Beilan is now the Turkish Belan in Hatay, where there are still more Arabs than Turks, and the line of the Syrian-Turkish border was recognized by Damascus only in 2011 and almost immediately "unrecognized" after Erdogan supported the internal Syrian rebellion.
But let's go back to the 19th century.
Emperor Nicholas I personally familiarized himself with the map of Syria and other documents of Lieutenant Colonel Lvov, leaving his own notes on them. As a result of this acquaintance, the lieutenant colonel became a colonel and received a lifelong pension of 2,000 rubles per year.
Following Pyotr Lvov in Syria and Palestine in 1838-39, Captain of the Life Guards Pavlovsky Regiment Joseph Dainese, assistant to the quartermaster general of the Active Army, worked. This Italian, who transferred to Russian service, compiled a "military survey map" and a detailed "Memoire sur la Syrie en 1838" (written in French, "Report on Syria in 1838").
Based on the work of Duhamel, Lvov and Dainese in St. Petersburg, the Department of the General Staff of the Ministry of War compiled the following summary in 1840: "The conquest of Syria, given the disposition of the inhabitants to the advancing army, is possible by acting from Anatolia during one 7- or 8-month campaign, but given the hostility of the steppe and mountain tribes, offensive actions, even from Anatolia, will be extremely difficult, will require a strong army and can be successful only with the slowest course of the war, special caution and inevitable sacrifices."
https://t.me/alter_vij/3365 - zinc
PS. Find Bashar al-Assad in the picture, who has recently become a Muscovite. Perhaps he will vote for Sobyanin in the elections. The Sobyanin reference refers to Sergey Sobyanin, current mayor of Moskva who is apparently running for reelection.
… Sept. 27 during a child sex trafficking operation, resulting in 6 additional arrests — some of whom were convicted child rapists.
Undercover detectives posed as 14 and 15 year old juveniles online and snatched the pedophile predators when they arranged to meet the detectives who they thought were minors.
Court documents show that a few of the suspects offered up to $300 for sex. At least one suspect offered drugs and was armed with a firearm.
Diaz Rios is the vice principal at TOPS, a K-8 alternative school in the Seattle Public School District. He previously served on the board at Portland Community College in Oregon.
Renton PD detective Meg Braun said at least 300 children are being sex trafficked in King County (Seattle) on any given day.
The agency is going after the predators.
Read the details: https://thepostmillennial.com/seattle-vice-principal-among-7-arrested-during-undercover-child-sex-trafficking-operation#google_vignette
#3
Given the 20+ years of knowing, these perverts seem to have congregated on the West Coast.
The Seattle school board must be dumb as 💩, or has some of their own, not to have not weeded out at hire or promotion these perverts.
Congrats, guys. Now fix your Moslem colonist/Jew hate/totalitarian culture problem, mkay?
[Breitbart] The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has joined an elite tier of allies Tuesday by successfully firing a Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missile for the first time in a test off the American West Coast.
Australia is only the third nation to fire the long range cruise missile after the United States and the United Kingdom.
HMAS Brisbane (DDG-41), the second of three Hobart-class air warfare destroyers in the RAN, fired the Tomahawk missile during its ongoing ‘interchangeability deployment’ to the U.S..
Throughout the deployment Brisbane has operated out of Naval Base San Diego where the ship also completed a four-week maintenance availability with the support of the U.S. Navy.
Australia’s government said in a statement the Tomahawk missile test was a resounding success.
“The Royal Australian Navy has achieved a major milestone in realising an enhanced and lethal surface combatant fleet,” it said.
With an extended range of up to 1,550 miles, the Tomahawk allows maritime platforms to perform long-range precision strikes against land targets.
The missile “significantly” enhances the Australian military’s ability to deter against any potential threat, Canberra noted in the announcement.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said enhancing Australia’s defense capabilities and working with partners would “change the calculus for any potential aggressor.”
The Tomahawk missile test-firing is in line with Australia’s plan, announced earlier this year, to spend $7 billion to expand the navy to 26 major surface combatant ships — up from 11 today.
The naval expansion plan comes as China and other powers in the Asia-Pacific and beyond build up their firepower.
Australia plans to buy more than 200 Tomahawk missiles to arm some of its warships.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Khalil Haqqani, the Minister of Refugees in the Taliban-led government of Afghanistan (the organization is under UN sanctions for terrorist activities), was killed in an explosion in the building of the department he heads in Kabul. This was reported on December 12 by the Afghan news portal Tolo news, citing sources. How exciting! Who dunnit?
“Sources close to the Taliban have confirmed the killing of the Minister of Refugees, Khalil Haqqani,” the portal’s Telegram channel says.
It is noted that several more people died as a result of the explosion.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, in April 2023, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that the Afghan authorities are pursuing a policy that helps strengthen security not only in the country but also in the region. According to him, there are no threats to Central Asian countries from Afghanistan.
What about from the jihadi groups they eagerly host, like Al Qaeda and Taliban Tehrik-i Pakistan (TTP)?
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on November 28 that Russia expects to develop relations with Afghanistan and the current Afghan leadership. The head of state added that complex processes are currently taking place in that country.
Russia has been saying so since shortly after the American-led Coalition pulled out. They haven’t yet done so, though, for some reason.
Local questions:
[KhaamaPress] Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani’s assassination occurred in one of his most secure locations, with trusted Zadran tribesmen guarding him.
The attack raises suspicions of possible internal involvement or security breaches within his circle.
However, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Taliban government, stated in a message that Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban Refugees Minister, was killed in an attack by “Khawarij” (referred to ISIS).
Khawarij (Kharijites) is an ancient Arabic Moslem term for heretics, often used to describe Wahhabis and hence Al Qaeda and ISIS-linked jihadis.
The ISIS-Khorasan branch, as an active terrorist group in Afghanistan, has repeatedly claimed responsibility for attacks against high-ranking Taliban figures. The assassination of Mullah Dawood Muzammil, the Taliban governor of Balkh, and the killing of Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi, the Taliban deputy governor of Badakhshan, are examples of such actions.
Regarding Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani, although it is said that the Haqqani network maintains good relations with ISIS members, it is not unlikely that ISIS could have carried out this attack.
Mujahid, referring to the U.S. offer of a $5 million reward for Haqqani’s capture, mentioned that Haqqani was a prominent member of a large jihadist family, and the enemies of Islam had placed a bounty on his head.
He further remarked, “Today, he was martyred by the Khawarij, who claim to be Muslims while declaring other Muslims as apostates.”
The Taliban spokesperson emphasized that such cowardly acts would not weaken the resolve of Muslims nor help the conspirators achieve their evil goals against their Islamic system. Instead, he argued, such actions only darken the faces of the enemies of Islam and expose their malicious intentions.
At present, no group has claimed responsibility for Haqqani’s assassination, although the Taliban often refers to the terrorist group ISIS as the “Khawarij.”
However, it can be speculated that the assassination of Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani took place in one of the most secure locations under his supervision. His security detail consisted of trusted Zadran tribesmen, including all of his personal guards.
The high security measures at the ministry suggest that the attack was likely carried out by someone from his inner circle or with their cooperation, as breaching such security would be difficult otherwise.
This attack underscores the ongoing violence and instability in Afghanistan, despite the Taliban’s claims of controlling the country. The continued targeting of key figures within the Taliban government reflects the ongoing internal and external challenges the regime faces, particularly from extremist factions that reject its authority.
Back in the good old days, I read Lester Grau's narrative on the Battle of Grozny from the website of the US Army's Office of Foreign Military Studies. You can find one of his works published in 1996 here. Not the same as the article I read, but it is engaging if interested in this period of Russian military history.
Like me, Grau is a student of Russian military history, and has a number of books published on the matter. by Andrey Zvorykin
[REGNUM] "Our war began on the morning of December 11, 1994... And we don't have our own Victory Day," these words of Andrei Palachev, a veteran of the first Chechen war and participant in the battles in Grozny, are perhaps typical for memoirs about the events of thirty years ago. In any case, the expression "a war without a Victory Day" is often found in the testimonies of veterans who, in the mid-nineties, were on average about twenty years old, like the Primorsky OMON fighter Palachev.
"As the poet said: "You can't make drums out of our skin - it's thin. Napoleonic plans are often pulled out of thin air," - these are already lines from the memoirs of General Gennady Troshev, who during the years of the first Chechen campaign was the commander of the Joint Group of Forces of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The war began with the failed December assault on Grozny, cost the lives of 5 to 14 thousand “federals,” as the Russian press called Russian soldiers at the time, and ended with the Khasavyurt Peace Treaty in August 1996, which effectively handed victory to the Islamists and separatists of “Ichkeria”*.
"DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES"
"Any war is started and ended by politicians. Can the political decision to send troops in December 1994 be considered an adventure? To some extent, yes," admitted General Troshev, for whom Grozny was no stranger - he spent his childhood there. "To some extent" - because by the end of 1994 there were clearly no other ways, except military ones, to liquidate the criminal-terrorist regime that had seized power in Chechnya. But seized it at least with the connivance of the federal center.
In June 1991, even before the GKChP putsch, the leader of the All-National Congress of the Chechen People (ANCP), former Soviet Air Force Colonel General Dzhokhar Dudayev took control of part of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR. In July of the same year, Dudayev announced the secession of the "Chechen Republic of Nokhchi-cho" from the RSFSR and the USSR.
The federal leadership of the time — President Boris Yeltsin, Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi, and Supreme Council Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov — clearly had other things on their minds. On the eve of the collapse of the USSR, for example, the redistribution of Union property seemed more important. Radicals from the “general democratic forces of Chechnya” were seen as allies in the fight against the “reactionary party bureaucrats.”
When on September 6, 1991, Dudayev’s “guard” stormed the building of the Supreme Council of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, the television center and the radio house (during these events, the first blood of this conflict was shed, the head of the Grozny city council, Vitaly Kutsenko, was thrown out of a window), Khasbulatov sent a telegram to his small homeland:
“A favorable political situation has finally arisen, in which the democratic processes taking place in the republic are being freed from overt and covert shackles…”
In November 1991, the federal government tried to solve the Dudayev problem with a cavalry charge. Yeltsin declared a state of emergency in Chechnya, and to pacify the separatists, not even the notorious "two parachute regiments" were sent, but one "transport plane" with special forces of the Airborne Forces. At the Grozny airport, Dudayev's men blocked the plane and "offered" the fighters to return in a friendly manner.
THE KINGDOM OF THE "COCKROACH MUSTACHE"
While the rest of Russia was experiencing the shock of Gaidar’s reforms and was drawn into the confrontation between Yeltsin and the same Khasbulatov and Rutskoi, in Chechnya the process of the semi-disintegration of the state (which was also evident in Tatarstan, the Urals, and other parts of the weakened country) had gone too far.
By June 1992, de jure, the Russian Armed Forces had left the region, leaving the militants with a huge amount of military equipment and ammunition depots. According to the agreement signed with Dudayev by Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, the "Ichkerians" were to receive half of the arsenal - but in reality, our officers could only take their service weapons.
This is how the separatists got their army.
At the same time, the federal center continued to financially support Chechnya, which had not signed the federal treaty. Thus, in 1993, the republic was allocated 11.5 billion rubles for social payments. The money did not reach the recipients, but ended up in the pockets of the leadership of "Ichkeria", including the military leaders of the separatists.
Dudayev "stopped paying pensions to old people, teachers' salaries... Schools closed. It was enough of a primary education for us, if only they could count money," recalled a builder from Grozny, Gunki Khukiev. Only criminal elements could count money in the "independent state." The center "did not notice" the notorious Chechen avisos - the execution of a fake transaction with the subsequent "disappearance" of the swindlers. According to experts, more than 4 trillion rubles of the then rubles were received from these avisos.
They also failed to notice the displacement of the non-Chechen population - essentially, ethnic cleansing. If according to the 1989 census, 294 thousand Russians lived in the Chechen-Ingush ASSR (with a total population of 1 million 270 thousand), and 270 thousand Russians out of a population of 397 thousand lived in Grozny, then in the 21st century, about 1.9% of ethnic Russians live in the Chechen Republic, about 24 thousand people. About 250 thousand people left the republic even before the start of the first campaign.
Already in the first half of the 1990s, the rampant banditry (including armed banditry) sobered up many residents of the "sovereign state", especially city dwellers. "My brother... got nothing from the revolutionary pie, now he called his idol Dudayev nothing other than "ts1eza mekhash" (cockroach mustache). There were tens of thousands of such repentants," Khukiev recalled.
But the leaders of Ichkeria already felt strong enough to suppress any discontent. On June 4, 1993, field commander Shamil Basayev made his presence known for the first time - his fighters stormed the headquarters of the anti-Dudayev opposition, which was headed by the mayor of Grozny Bislan Gantamirov (who had previously had a falling out with Dudayev over the income from the oil business).
The Ichkerians were making plans to "export the revolution." It was not for nothing that Dudayev gave shelter to the ousted former President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia and simultaneously supported the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus, whose militias had recently fought against the Georgians in Abkhazia.
PROLOGUE TO THE WAR. THE "GANTAMIROV" ASSAULT
The federal center, having “blown away” Chechen separatism, decided to play its own subtle game, overthrowing Dudayev with the hands of the opposition, which became a more or less organized force after the “president of Ichkeria” dissolved the Chechen parliament.
The opposition was supported by the urban population (which was gathered under the wing of Dudayev's personal enemy, Gantamirov) and some clan leaders who did not fit into Dudayev's system. An example is the former head of Dudayev's security, Ruslan Labazanov, who spoke out against Dudayev's men on the side of the Russian Armed Forces, but was not much different from them in essence.
In the summer of 1994, a civil war broke out in Chechnya between the "president of Ichkeria" and the militants loyal to him (led by Basayev and Ruslan Gelayev ) on one side and the Provisional Council of the Chechen Republic on the other. Several "federal" tank crews appeared at the disposal of the opposition. Gantamirov and Labazanov's militia took control of the cities of Urus-Martan and Argun and on November 26, 1994, they moved on Grozny.
After the first shelling from Dudayev's men, the opposition infantry scattered, the tank crews, left without cover and not knowing the terrain, found themselves in a hopeless situation, 28 of them were taken prisoner, about 18 (data based on lists of names) were killed.
This event had a decisive impact on Yeltsin's decision to send in troops. On December 9, he signed a decree "On measures to suppress the activities of illegal armed formations on the territory of the Chechen Republic and in the Ossetian-Ingush conflict zone." A few days before, on December 1, a Russian air raid completely destroyed the planes that had been captured and bought by the separatists.
“THEY DIDN’T EVEN HAVE TIME TO COME UP WITH A NAME”
Finally, on December 11, 1994, units of the Russian Armed Forces, in accordance with Yeltsin’s decree, entered the Russian region of Chechnya.
The troops advanced in three groups. The first, under the command of Lieutenant General Vladimir Chilindin, advanced from the northwest, from the Mozdok region of North Ossetia. The second, from Vladikavkaz, under the command of Lieutenant General Alexander Chindarov, moved from the northwest through Ingushetia. The third, from Kizlyar, under the command of Lieutenant General Lev Rokhlin, headed from the northeast from the territory of Dagestan.
The overall command of the operation to restore constitutional order was entrusted to Defense Minister Grachev. "Pavel Grachev brought the army to a terrible state," Rokhlin later lamented. This concerned supplies, weapons, and the level of training of conscripts. However, it is unlikely that the problem was solely Grachev's, since he did not possess such outstanding abilities to destroy the mighty army organism to its foundations in just a few years. Structural problems in the armed forces arose much earlier.
An important point: it was difficult to talk about broad public support for the military operation. The media, controlled by media oligarchs Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky, broadcast if not a pro-Dudaev, then a "neutral" position. Not only liberals, but also the left opposition, including the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, criticized the operation.
Meanwhile, our group's problems began almost immediately: only the Mozdok group achieved relative success, reaching the village of Dolinskoye (10 kilometers from Grozny) the next day. The Vladikavkaz and Kizlyar groups were soon blocked and forced to either break through with a fight or bypass enemy-controlled settlements along a longer route.
Finally, 16 days after the start of the march (according to the plan, 3 days were given for the advance), all groups reached Grozny, blockading it from three sides. General Troshev later noted :
"According to some generals, the initiative for the "festive" New Year's assault on Grozny belonged to people from Pavel Grachev's inner circle, in order to coincide the capture of the city with the birthday of the Russian Minister of Defense (January 1). I don't know how serious this is. Another thing is that the operation was prepared hastily, without a real assessment of the enemy, his forces and resources, without careful preparation. This is a fact. They didn't even have time to come up with a name for this operation!"
"GOD, HELP ME BREAK FREE..."
The southern outskirts of Grozny remained unblocked. It was assumed that civilians would be evacuated this way, but in fact the militants were receiving supplies from here throughout the assault. On December 19, the first bombing attack was carried out on the city center, and on the 31st, the bloodiest battle of the war began - the storming of Grozny.
According to General Troshev, "many commanders with big stars, federal-level chiefs, believed that it was enough to go to Grozny, fire a couple of times in the air, and that would be the end of it." The military leader believed that it was precisely this method of intimidation that was the basis for the hastily approved plan to take Grozny, and, Troshev believed, it was approved "at the very top."
About 250 units of equipment entered the city with infantry cover, but the fallacy of this plan soon became apparent. The number of militants, their wide variety of anti-tank weapons, and their completely fanatical resistance were unexpected.
The units of the northern group were the most unlucky.
The fighters of the 131st Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade (better known as the Maikop brigade) received an order from the commander of the "North" group, Konstantin Pulikovsky : together with the motorized riflemen and tankers of the 81st Motorized Rifle Regiment (who had 10 tanks at their disposal), reach the city center and fortify themselves in the railway station building.
The combined group of "Maikopts" and fighters of the 81st regiment carried out the order, but by 19:00 the station they had occupied was surrounded by superior forces of militants. When reinforcements broke through here on the evening of January 1, no more than a third of the defenders remained alive. The commander of the 131st brigade, Colonel Ivan Savin, was also killed in the battle.
Captain Vyacheslav Mironov, a participant in subsequent battles in Grozny, testifies in his book I Was In This War: “As we approached the railway station, we began to come across burnt, mutilated equipment and many corpses. Our corpses, our Slavic brothers, were all that remained of the Maikop Brigade, the one that was burned and shot by the “spirits” on New Year’s Eve from 1994 to 1995. God, help us escape…”
HARD VICTORIES AND STRANGE DEFEATS
War plans had to be changed on the fly and "in the field," Troshev noted. The troops held up in other directions changed their tactics by January 7, focusing on maneuverable groups, which gradually yielded results. On January 9, the Grozny Oil Institute and airport were occupied with heavy fighting, and on the 19th, the city center and the presidential palace. The militants retreated behind the Sunzha River.
It was only on February 3 that the decision was made to close off the southern direction and completely blockade Grozny. The city was surrounded only by February 9. The Chechen capital was completely occupied by March 6, when Shamil Basayev's fighters retreated from Chernorechye, the last district in the hands of forces loyal to Dudayev.
With the fall of Grozny, the actions of the Ichkerians finally acquired a partisan character - and our army was not ready for this.
Although the entire flat part of Chechnya and most of the mountainous regions were occupied over the following months, the army was unable to actually ensure control over the territory. On the one hand, ambushes and raids by militants became frequent occurrences, and on the other, our troops repeatedly occupied the same "inhabitants", which were again captured by the separatists after the redeployment of the "federals".
"One of the peculiarities of this strange war, which literally drove us crazy, is that we passed through and cleared the same villages several times. In the end, I studied the area so well that I could fight there blindfolded," the publication "Chelyabinsk Segodnya" cited the testimony of Alexander Berezovsky, who during the first Chechen war was the head of the reconnaissance group of the 17th detachment of the special forces of the internal troops "Edelweiss".
A NEW TYPE OF ENEMY
Thus, simultaneously with the exhaustion – moral and physical – of the Russian troops, the actions of the militants became ever bolder. Beginning in March 1996, raids on Grozny became an everyday reality. In addition to guerrilla warfare, the enemy used a method of warfare for which we were even less prepared – terror.
On June 14, 1995, about two hundred of Basayev's militants broke through the border of Chechnya and Stavropol Krai and seized a hospital in Budyonnovsk. About 1,200 city residents were taken hostage, herded into the hospital buildings. After negotiations, Basayev's men were allowed to leave. At that time, 143 Russian fighters were killed (including 46 special forces), 415 were wounded, with enemy losses of 19 killed and 20 wounded.
In January 1996, Salman Raduyev's group attacked the Dagestani city of Kizlyar. At the captured helicopter base, the bandits destroyed several units of equipment and took hostages. While security forces were approaching the city, the militants captured a hospital and a maternity hospital, driving about 3 thousand more residents there. During negotiations, the terrorists, along with some of the hostages, were released from the encirclement. Retreating, Raduyev's men also captured the village of Pervomayskoye. As a result, the terrorists were released.
Also, in parallel with the military actions, the Ichkerians captured airplanes, buses, and attacked railways.
In response, Russia took the first – and sometimes successful – steps in the fight against terrorism.
Thus, on April 21, 1996, our special services managed to track the mobile communication channels of the "Generalissimo of Ichkeria" Dudayev. During a conversation with the State Duma deputy, liberal Konstantin Borovoy, two Su-24s struck the location of the separatist leader.
Dudayev's successors as "presidents of Ichkeria" - Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev and Aslan Maskhadov - could no longer effectively control the "brigadier generals" and other field commanders. This defect in the system, however, would come back to haunt him in 1999, when the gangs of Basayev and Khattab attacked Dagestan without Maskhadov's knowledge.
THE SECOND "OBSCENE WORLD"
On August 6, 1996, the militants "turned the tide" of military operations: another attack on Grozny allowed them to take control of the city. At the same time, the separatists captured the large cities of Gudermes and Argun. The loss of three key centers, ongoing terrorist attacks, the shadow of Budyonnovsk and Kizlyar - all this demoralized the army.
Yeltsin (who had recently narrowly escaped defeat in the elections) was threatened by the political consequences of continuing the conflict. Everything was pushing the federal center of that time to conclude peace on terms unfavorable for Russia.
On August 31, in the Dagestani city of Khasavyurt, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Lieutenant General Alexander Lebed, and the "Chairman of the Government of Ichkeria" Aslan Maskhadov signed a ceasefire agreement. Russia was obliged to withdraw its troops from Chechen territory, and the decision on its political status was postponed until 2001.
Later, the Khasavyurt agreements were compared with another “shameful peace” – the Brest peace.
The Chechen people suffered first and foremost from the “peace”.
The "Ichkeria" of 1996-1999 plunged into chaos and became not only a "hub" for drug trafficking and a sanctuary for criminals, but also a springboard for international terrorism. Instead of national separatists like the "Minister of Culture and Brigadier General" Akhmed Zakayev or the "Chechen Goebbels" Movladi Udugov, the leading role was played by supporters of Sharia rule and a worldwide caliphate.
Maskhadov, elected president in 1997, not only failed to control his "prime minister" - the convinced Wahhabi Basayev, but also increasingly fell under the influence of foreign emissaries such as Khattab, Abu al-Walid and Abu Hafs al-Urdani. The transformation of the "Republic of Ichkeria" into the "Caucasus Emirate"*, which eventually swore allegiance to the "Islamic State"*,
…first Al Qaeda then later ISIS, but do go on…
was entirely expected. Just as the "export of jihad" was a matter of time, resulting in the attack on Dagestan in August 1999.
THREE BOGATYRS SQUARE
To correct political mistakes (which had been accumulating since the early 1990s and, in fact, led to the war) and miscalculations of the military command, whose Napoleonic plans did not always correspond to their capabilities, the Second Chechen Campaign was needed, no less difficult, but ended in success.
A change in political leadership, a clear national policy and a change in the quality of military planning played their role. During the second campaign, the Russian army proved its combat capability, which it has repeatedly confirmed subsequently - in the defense of South Ossetia, in peacekeeping operations - and is confirming now, in the SVO zone, where units from Chechnya are also proving themselves.
General Troshev died in 2008, having witnessed the beginning of the restoration of the republic under Akhmad-hadji and Ramzan Kadyrov — the military leader writes about the beginning of reconciliation in the finale of his memoirs. The afterword contains a vivid image. In one of the squares of Grozny in the 1970s, a monument was erected to three heroes of the Civil War: the Russian Odessan Nikolai Gikalo, the Chechen Aslanbek Sheripov and the Ingush Gapur Akhriev. "The people immediately nicknamed this place "the square of the three heroes," the general recalled.
Under Maskhadov, there was a slave market here, near the monument, and executions were carried out here according to Sharia law. “The war destroyed the monument to the representatives of three nations. But the pedestal remained. Maybe the monument will be restored, or maybe a new one will be erected?” Troshev wondered and added, “I believe that nothing will ever destroy the surviving foundation, not even the war, which left a deep mark on people’s souls.”
In 2008, Friendship of Nations Square was opened in Grozny after reconstruction, with a restored monument to the “three heroes”.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kamran Gasanov
[REGNUM] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan considers the change of power in Syria his political victory, although yesterday he was ready to shake hands with former President Bashar al-Assad. Erdogan's mood is so elevated that he decided to compliment his Russian colleague, saying that there are two real leaders left in the world - he and Vladimir Putin.
The success of the opposition combat groups and the Turkish-led Syrian National Army has actually caused surprise in Ankara. After all, at the very beginning of their offensive, Turkish diplomats behaved extremely restrainedly. They assured the world community that Turkey had nothing to do with the storming of Aleppo, and even allowed for dialogue between the opposition and Assad, that is, a peaceful solution to the issue.
When Hama and Homs were taken, Erdogan realized that Assad was finished. For the sake of appearances, he, of course, sent his Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to Doha for a forum on the Syrian settlement, so that he could meet with representatives of Russia and Iran. However, on December 6, he openly supported the offensive of the armed opposition. While Fidan was talking with Sergey Lavrov and Abbas Araghchi, Damascus fell.
Fortunately for Turkey, it did not have time to officially restore relations with Assad before he lost power, unlike the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Arab League countries.
As they say, everything is for sale in the east, but the new Syrian authorities are unlikely to ignore the fact that after the defeat of the armed opposition in Aleppo, Eastern Ghouta, Daraa and other provinces, all the former sponsors of the Free Syrian Army have remained on the sidelines, as if resigned to Assad's victory with the support of Iran and Russia.
Only Ankara continued to support the opposition and took it under its wing as part of its operations against ISIS* and the Kurdish YPG/PYD. And at the same time, Erdogan managed to maintain the threads of dialogue with its opponents from Moscow and Tehran: the two Sochi deals and the Moscow deal on Idlib are clear proof of this.
Although Turkey distanced itself from the attack on Aleppo, it is clear that it is also responsible for the subsequent collapse of the Assad regime. Inaction is also an action. There were Turkish military posts in the southern de-escalation zone that could have stopped the advancing troops.
Why didn't they do this? Why did Erdogan deliberately violate the agreements with Russia?
THE REJECTED HAND
Turkey has long tried to take control of all resistance to Assad. It formed the SNA, but lost the competition to Abu Muhammad al-Julani's group.
The group known as Hayat Tahrir al Shams, formerly Al Nusra. Why not just say it?
The money that came from Turkey to the SNA ended up in the hands of Julani. Yes, all economic support, infrastructure, electricity and internet in Idlib depended on Turkey, but he enjoyed broad autonomy from the Turkish authorities.
Disliking HTS (the organization, by the way, is on the terrorist list not only in Russia, but also in Turkey), Erdogan still did not take any decisive action to eliminate it. Political methods did not work. Therefore, Ankara decided to leave this "abscess" in its side, since it does not directly threaten Turkey.
Ankara did not want to start a war with them because of the risk of an influx of refugees, large losses, a worsening of the image among Syrian Islamists and Arabs in general. And, of course, in order not to help Assad. Moreover, the Turks were effectively covering HTS* from the government Syrian Arab Army with their backs, since an attack on Idlib would again lead to new crowds of refugees.
Turkey is already home to 3 million Syrians, who are having a negative impact on the country's social situation and budget, which is already melting away amid the lira crisis. At the same time, discontent with the terrible economic situation was growing among the population in Idlib itself.
The successful offensive of Idlib groups against Syrian government forces solved these problems at once.
Assad's intransigence also played a role.
In 2023–2024, Erdogan significantly softened his rhetoric towards Assad, and Turkish media abandoned the derogatory name Esad, but Ankara did not want to recognize him “just like that.” The Syrian ex-president was required to agree to the return of millions of refugees and progress in dialogue with the opposition within the framework of UN Security Council Resolution 2254.
Assad was constantly setting some conditions, demanding the withdrawal of Turkish troops, and Erdogan probably considered this behavior arrogant.
How dare a mere Arab stand up on his hind legs as if he were the equal of his natural masters, the Turks!
It was already difficult for the Turkish president to decide to declare the restoration of relations with the one whom he tried to overthrow in 2011 at the cost of a direct conflict with Russia.
But when Assad started to raise the stakes, Erdogan felt humiliated. It was like this: you are guilty, you ask for forgiveness, but it is not given. That is why in one of his recent statements, as if justifying his tacit consent to the armed opposition operation, Erdogan said that the regime in Damascus “did not realize the significance of Turkey’s outstretched hand.”
Fidan, however, stated that the Assad government needed to use the pause in military action to “reconcile” with its people, read: that same opposition.
Overall, Turkey is the winner all around. Against the backdrop of Iran's defeat and the uncertainty surrounding the fate of Russia's military bases in Tartus and Khmeimim, the Turks feel like they are in control. They retained their status as the main sponsor of the opposition that came to power. Of all the possible players in Syria, Turkey's position is currently stronger than anyone else's. Only their troops can move freely throughout Syrian territory, with the exception of the Kurdish Euphrates region.
TWO MAIN PROBLEMS
In Damascus, a government will be formed in the coming months. Turkey has its own trump card in the form of the FSA, but whether their representatives will be able to occupy key posts is a big question. After all, Julani plays the leading role in the victorious armed opposition. Having escaped from the "Idlib cage", they feel much more independent. Moreover, almost all the strong players, even Iran, want to establish relations with the new government in Damascus.
Julani needs to ensure economic growth and reduce Syria's dependence on Turkey, so he will try to get HTS* removed from the US terrorist list.
Money for the new Syria could come from Europe and the rich Gulf states. Turkish construction companies, whose shares have soared since December 8, are ready to take part in the reconstruction of Syria, and Julani will not refuse such support. But it is premature to say that Syria will turn into another vilayet of neo-Ottoman Turkey.
Ooooh — we’re not the only one using that?
Besides influencing the new Syrian authorities, Turkey is concerned with two other pressing issues.
Firstly, the refugees. On the day of the fall of the Assad regime, December 8, local publications paid attention first of all to Hakan Fidan’s phrase that “millions of Syrian refugees in Turkey will soon be able to return to their homeland.”
Later, Erdogan also spoke on this topic. Having stated the importance of guarantees for the territorial integrity of Syria and “brotherly relations with the Syrian people,” the Turkish president pointed to the “expectations” of the return of Syrians to their homeland.
The task is urgent for Ankara, but not easy.
Will Julani or anyone else be able to provide everything that millions of people need? Following Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and the EU countries will want to return refugees. Without significant financial injections, the task becomes impossible for Damascus.
Secondly, Turkey’s main task in the new Syria is to fight the Kurdish groups from the SDF and YPG. On December 10, Erdogan assured that they would be defeated “in the near future.” Even before the HTS* offensive on Aleppo began, the Turkish president warned that he was going to complete Operation Peace Spring, which was stopped in 2019, and clear the entire 600-kilometer border of Kurdish militants, pushing them back 30 km to the south.
After the HTS offensive began, the actions entered an active phase. The Turkish military together with the SNA have already taken Tel Rifaat and Manbij. There is an obvious attempt to use the "interregnum" to eliminate the Kurdish units.
And one of the versions of the non-intervention of Turkish troops during the attack on Aleppo suggests that Ankara used this operation to cover up its own actions against the YPG.
MASTER OF PR
Despite the difficult transition of power in Washington, the Pentagon is still resisting the Turkish plans. Recently, according to CENTCOM, the American military struck 70 ISIS targets. And it is possible that some were actually aimed at the SNA, which is storming Kurdish positions.
Oh? Interesting.
With Trump in power, the situation may worsen. The Republican administration has its share of Turkophobes and Kurdophiles – Tulsi Gabbard, Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz, and Pete Hesgeth.
Erdogan needs to hurry to confront Trump with the new reality. At the same time, some Turkish observers believe that Ankara, with its operations, is actually helping the new American president fulfill his promise to withdraw troops from Syria.
As for Russia, recalling the history of our relations in recent years, we can say that Syria made Turkey and Russia both enemies and friends overnight.
Under the pretext of various Syrian topics, Erdogan met with Putin constantly, second only to Lukashenko in their frequency. The two countries managed to find a common language and come to an agreement in the most difficult moments.
But the situation and circumstances have changed. If earlier Türkiye supervised the Syrian minority, and Russia the majority, now everything is exactly the opposite.
Turkish media outlets are proudly reporting that Russia allegedly asked their country to help safely evacuate Russian troops. Memes and videos exploiting the image of the Ottoman Sultan outplaying the Russian Tsar are multiplying on social media.
Now Turkey, as the de facto winner in the Syrian campaign, may be tempted to act condescendingly. And who knows, maybe the Turks are already dreaming of taking the place of Russian sailors and pilots in Latakia and Tartus? But it is still too early for them to celebrate: it is still unclear how relations between Turkey and the future authorities will develop. Will they be as “tame” as the SNA and other groups that Erdogan supervised?
For now, he is keeping his cool, as his latest statement about Putin shows. But the Turks are masters of PR and will never miss an opportunity to use their success to bolster their image.
Now Turkey has an extra trump card to offer mediation on Ukraine not just as a platform for negotiations, but as a great power and leader of the Middle East. And Erdogan will certainly use this trump card.
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#1
Great. Now what did you win?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/12/2024 8:46
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[NYPOST] Alvin Bragg ...Soros-owned and operated Manhattan DA. Putting vicious and blood-thirsty criminals in jail only makes them unhappy, and they've led such hard lives after all... refuses to end his insane crusade against Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... , even if it means creating yet more ''law'' to keep the cause alive.
In a Tuesday filing, he asks Judge Juan Merchan (another rabid partisan) to keep Trump's guilty verdict intact while simply never sentencing him — and so robbing the defendant of any chance to appeal.
That is, the DA who goes all out to protect violent mostly peaceful street thugs is happy to eviscerate the rights of his chosen targets, including the president-elect.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Victor Lavrinenko
[REGNUM] When news broke of the fall of Damascus and the flight of President Bashar al-Assad, many Syrians living in Europe were filled with joy. But their joy was premature.
Currently, EU countries are stopping accepting Syrians one after another. There is active talk about sending these refugees home - if not all at once, then at least some of them.
SWEDISH INITIATIVE
The situation surrounding Syrian refugees in the EU can be most easily illustrated using the example of a single state.
"You should see this as a great opportunity to return home," said influential Swedish politician Jimmy Åkesson (leader of the Sweden Democrats) in response to the joy of Syrians who had settled in the country over the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. When the news spread around the world, many of them poured out onto the streets waving the flags of their homeland. "It's like a dream!" an excited Syrian woman told Expressen journalists in central Stockholm on Sunday.
According to the latest figures, at least 197,000 residents of Sweden, a country of more than 10 million, were born in Syria, making it the largest migrant community in the country.
Åkesson, a well-known advocate of limiting migration from third world countries, did not fail to take advantage of the joy of Assad's overthrow to remind the Syrians that they had overstayed their welcome. After all, many migrants from Syria received Swedish residence permits because they presented themselves as " refugees from Assad's inhumane regime." And now Åkesson believes that it is worth starting to review the residence permits issued to Syrians.
It is not difficult to understand his motives: ethnic crime is rampant in Sweden, largely fueled by the efforts of those same Syrians.
The Kurds are also problematic, though presumably half of them are Syrian Kurds…
The government responded to the idea. They said that this was not a quick matter, but they did not express any fundamental objections.
And soon the news spread that Sweden was suspending asylum for Syrian citizens.
"It is simply impossible to assess the reasons for protecting Syrians at this time," said Carl Bexelius, head of the legal department at the Swedish Migration Agency. According to him, the situation in Syria is "very fragile" and recent events raise a number of legal issues that require careful analysis. And while this is being done, decisions on issuing a residence permit or denying asylum and deportation will not be made for now.
The current situation has played into the hands of the Swedish government, which has recently been developing measures to limit migration and does not rule out the repatriation of unassimilated migrants. Some measures in this direction are already being taken, albeit rather hesitantly. But one can expect that the authorities will now act much more boldly.
PARADE OF SUSPENSIONS
According to the UN, 6 million people have left Syria. This is perhaps the biggest humanitarian crisis of the decade. Many of them (at least 3 million) settled nearby, in Turkey. Not all Turks were happy with this: in 2021, Syrian pogroms swept through Ankara and a number of other Turkish cities. And now many Turks express hope that soon the Syrians, once the "tyrant is overthrown," will rush home.
The original impetus for the Turks to move into the border area with Syria was to have a place to park those Syrian refugees, once the resident Kurds were driven away — the other reason for the move.
1.5 million Syrians settled in Lebanon, but even there, given the growing problems of that state, they were not always welcomed with open arms.
The rest of the Syrian refugees ended up in Europe, where they joined the bizarre conglomerate of immigrants who had arrived on the continent from all sorts of countries in Asia and Africa.
It is no secret that the EU is unable to “digest” and integrate these outsiders – hence the rapid ghettoization of large cities in the European Union, the pressure created by millions of unemployed parasites on social funds, the criminalization of once quiet and prosperous states.
Unsurprisingly, Sweden was not alone in suspending the admission of Syrians. Its neighbors Finland, Denmark and Norway did the same.
The Danish Refugee Appeals Board, announcing that they are neither issuing residence permits to Syrians nor deporting those who have been rejected, said they would return to discuss the situation on January 16, 2025. The board said it considers the situation in the Middle Eastern country “unstable.” Denmark has experience deporting several hundred Syrians — this happened in 2021, when the local Social Democratic Party, which adheres to strict anti-immigration policies, came to power.
As for Norway, the migration authority there briefly announced that it had “decided to postpone the consideration of asylum applications for refugees from Syria until further notice.”
There are currently 974,000 holders of Syrian citizenship in Germany, not counting the Syrians who have already received German passports. In total, 1.2 million people from this country currently live there. Last year alone, Syrians filed 117,300 applications for refugee status. The peak was in 2015 – almost 900,000 applications.
On Sunday, several thousand migrants celebrated the seizure of power in Syria by the armed opposition in central Berlin. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz himself declared that “the end of the Assad regime is good news.” And on December 9, the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees announced that it would not accept asylum applications from Syrians for the time being. This suspension concerns 47,270 applications, of which about 46,000 are initial ones. “ Many refugees who have found protection in Germany have regained hope of returning to their homeland,” wrote German Interior Minister Nancy Feser on social media.
But it looks like things won't stop there.
Thus, Jens Spahn, a member of the Bundestag from the Christian Democratic Union, proposed a plan for further action to the government: for those who want to return to Syria, to organize charter flights and pay 1,000 euros in relocation benefits. And his colleague in the faction, Jürgen Hardt, reported: “Their life is there. And if we help them to rebuild it in Syria, then this will be a victory for its people and for us, for our social security funds.” Hardt assures that in the time since the capture of Damascus (that is, since Sunday), he has not seen a mass exodus from areas occupied by the armed opposition.
At least 100,000 people from Syria live in Austria. In 2024 alone, 12,500 Syrians applied for asylum in the country; several thousand applications are pending. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced that “all current asylum processes for Syrian citizens have been suspended.” As in previous cases, it was stated that the new situation in Syria must be assessed and no decisions on the fate of the refugees should be made for now. In turn, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said that he “has ordered the preparation of an orderly program for repatriation and deportation to Syria.”
The Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) also announced that it was suspending “asylum procedures and decisions for Syrian asylum seekers until the situation in Syria has been assessed.” The SEM, it said, is currently “unable to conduct a thorough assessment of whether there is a reason to grant asylum or to expel anyone.”
The Netherlands has also suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrian refugees.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION
In Britain, television showed Syrians celebrating Assad's overthrow in London and Manchester, and gave the floor to some of the celebrants, all of whom were choking with delight. And soon after, the Interior Ministry announced that the admission of new Syrians to the country had been suspended. British publications began publishing meaningful texts about how Syrians dreamed of returning as soon as possible to a country freed from tyrannical oppression.
Between 2011 and 2021, around 30,000 Syrians were granted asylum in the UK. Around a third of them crossed the Channel in inflatable boats, a process that continues today – but now the Syrians are being confronted with the fact that they are no longer welcome here.
Naturally, countries such as Italy and Greece could not ignore the general impulse.
These Mediterranean states are known to be in the “risk zone,” where most refugees end up first, before being distributed to the rest of the EU. In Greece alone, about 10,000 applications have been suspended. Athens will decide on Friday whether to make the measure permanent, a Greek official told Politico.
What next? It is hard to believe that EU countries will be able to organize a mass deportation of Syrians. Especially since, according to EU law, in order to cancel residence permits issued to political refugees, it is necessary that “the change (in the country from which the refugees arrived. — Author’s note) be significant and long-term.” Some EU officials say that the current situation in Syria does not encourage optimism.
Thus, the head of the Finnish Foreign Ministry, Elina Valtonen, said that she is still concerned about the rights of women and girls in Syria. She also called for monitoring the situation with various minorities in the Arab Republic. "There is a suspicion that this will be a difficult time," Valtonen notes.
It is more likely that the EU countries will try to separate the "sheep" from the "goats".
Thus, Andrea Lindholz, a member of the Bundestag from the Christian Social Union, proposes to approach the issue in a differentiated manner.
"If the situation in Syria becomes stable, and this is the main condition, then first those who have not integrated very well with us should return there. Those who have integrated well with us and who have the appropriate residence permit will not be affected," says Lindholz.
A number of other European politicians have made similar proposals.
It is clear that EU countries, for whom migrants have become a serious burden, are rushing to take advantage of the situation in order to quickly get rid of this “wealth” – at least partially. But it is not a fact that they will succeed in doing so.
The European Commission has already stated that perhaps the time has not yet come to send Syrians home.
"The current situation is one of great hope, but also great uncertainty. At this stage, it is better not to look too actively or too prematurely into the future," said EC spokesman Anouar El Anouny.
It is not at all impossible to rule out the possibility that a new giant wave of refugees will pour out of Syria. “Dictator Assad” more or less maintained stability in the country, which is no longer the case; a war of everyone against everyone is beginning. And if the Syrians flee as en masse as in 2015, it is unlikely that the EU countries will be able to fence themselves off from them with restrictive documents alone…
Since Monday, the processing of decisions on asylum claims for Syrian nationals were paused, or set to be paused, indefinitely in Belgium, Britain, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Finland, Switzerland, and Sweden, with all those countries saying there was not a sufficient basis for now to determine the conditions on the ground.
Austria’s caretaker government went a stop further. In addition to ordering a stop to the processing of asylum applications by Syrians on Monday, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner also told the ministry to prepare a program of “orderly repatriation and deportation to Syria.”
Denmark, by contrast, paused processing applications on Monday, but said Syrians whose applications had already been rejected, and who had been given a deadline to leave, would be allowed to remain longer due to the current uncertainty.
The Netherlands will withhold for six months decisions on applications it received less than 21 months ago, Asylum and Migration Minister Marjolein Faber said in a note on Monday.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] It is important for Russia to maintain the significance of the Russian language as a language of communication for all peoples of the country. This was stated on December 11 by Russian President Vladimir Putin during the plenary session of the international conference AI Journey 2024 “Journey into the World of Artificial Intelligence” in Moscow.
“Here it is very important for us... in this case, in our case... to support the importance of the Russian language as the state language, as the language of communication of all the peoples of the Russian Federation,” the head of state said.
Putin recalled that 190 ethnic groups live in Russia and therefore there are a large number of languages in the country.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on November 5, Putin ordered the preparation of a draft of the principles of state policy in the linguistic sphere. The Russian President emphasized that the law on the languages of the peoples of Russia, adopted in 1991, needs to be revised. Support for the Russian language and its popularization throughout the world is a primary role, he added.
The head of state also pointed out that the Russian Federation is currently strengthening its position in the world, and therefore interest in the Russian language is growing. He added that Russia is fighting on the front line to preserve its values and the Russian language.
#1
Gotta love Russian as a language to learn. No articles, no verb of being : Where restaurant? Not Where is the restaurant? Now if y'all would just do something about that funky alphabet...
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Aleksandrovsky District Court of Stavropol Krai sentenced seven participants in the riots at the Makhachkala airport to terms ranging from eight to nine years in prison. This was reported on December 11 by the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation.
It was established that on October 29 of last year, Zhanmirza Aliyev, Ali Amirkhanov, Alimurat Babatov, Zapir Batyrbekov, Ramazan Karnayev, Ismail Salmakhanov, and Makhach Tuchuyev participated in mass riots at the Uytash airport out of hatred for Israelis and ignored the demands of law enforcement officers.
During the riots, airport property worth over 24 million rubles was destroyed and damaged, the blocking of the airport's operations led to flight delays and cancellations. 23 government officials were injured due to the actions of the demonstrators.
"They were found guilty under Part 2 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Participation in mass riots accompanied by violence, pogroms, destruction of property"), Part 3 of Article 263.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Failure to comply with requirements for maintaining transport safety at transport infrastructure facilities and vehicles by a group of persons by conspiracy"). One of them was also convicted under Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Use of violence against a government official")," the prosecutor's office website states.
The court, taking into account the nature and degree of public danger of the crimes, sentenced the defendants to imprisonment for terms ranging from 8 to 9 years in a general regime penal colony.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on October 30, 2023, that the riots at Makhachkala airport were organized by Western intelligence agents. The head of state added that they were organized through social networks, including from Ukraine.
Three more participants in the riots at the Makhachkala airport have been sentenced. This was reported on Wednesday, December 11, by the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office.
“During the examination of the case, it was established that on October 29, 2023, Temirlan Alyukov, Abdul Abdulayev, and Isa Iraziev at Uytash Airport, on the basis of national and religious hatred and enmity towards Israeli citizens, refusing to comply with the legal demands of law enforcement officers, took part in mass riots accompanied by violence and destruction of property,” the department said in a statement.
The defendants were sentenced to imprisonment for a term of eight years to eight years and two months in a general regime penal colony.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22:23 Russia plans to strike Ukraine with an Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile in the coming days, but the exact date of the possible attack is unknown. This was stated by Sabrina Singh, deputy spokesperson for the Pentagon.
21:46 Fierce fighting continues in the Pokrovsk direction. The enemy prevails in manpower there. This was stated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky.
20:37 Explosions were heard in the temporarily occupied Crimea on Wednesday evening, December 11. It was also reported that they "arrived" in the area of one of the bays.
18:39 The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has codified and cleared for operation the TOKKO unmanned aerial system of Ukrainian manufacture, which has two modifications of drones that differ in the weight of their combat load.
18:14 The ambassadors of the EU countries have agreed on the 15th package of sanctions in response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine. The new package adds even more individuals and entities to the existing sanctions list and targets organizations in Russia and third countries that indirectly contribute to Russia's military and technological advancement by circumventing export restrictions.
17.57 The Russian Defense Ministry stated that the attack on the Taganrog military airfield was carried out by six ATACMS missiles, noting that "this will not go unanswered."
Bloomberg, citing an American official, warns of a possible Oreshnik missile strike on Ukraine in the coming days.
17.45 Talk about the aggressive war waged by Russia cannot take place without Ukraine. This was stated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, commenting on the phone call between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
17.20 The issue of reducing the mobilization age in Ukraine was raised at the negotiations in the European Union. This was reported by the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration - Minister of Justice Olha Stefanishyna.
16:58 Since the beginning of the day, 140 combat clashes have occurred on the front, most of them in four directions. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on the latest events on the contact line.
16:12 Germany's total aid to Ukraine during the full-scale Russian invasion is 37 billion euros, which is the most among all European countries. This was announced by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during his visit to Berlin.
15:58 A Belarusian volunteer with the call sign Gaz died at the front in Ukraine.
15.30 A married couple died as a result of Russian shelling of the Sumy region border area. In the village of Belovody in the Khotyn community, on the territory of a private home, law enforcement officers found the bodies of a 55-year-old man and his 65-year-old wife in the ashes.
15.09 Russia has launched a large-scale hybrid offensive against Europe amid military aggression against Ukraine. Georgia, Moldova and Romania are the latest cases, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said .
14.05 Newly elected US President Donald Trump considers ending the war in Ukraine his top priority after taking office. He said this in an interview with the French magazine Paris Match.
13:30 Russian dictator Vladimir Putin held talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The main topic was the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin press service reported .
13:03 Russian invaders are suffering record losses at the front and losing military potential. This is the main goal for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, President Volodymyr Zelensky said after hearing the report of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrsky.
12:12 The Defense Forces received over 1.2 million unmanned aerial vehicles of various types, including reconnaissance, attack and FPV drones, over the 11 months of this year. The details were reported by the Ministry of Defense.
12:00 Russians tried to attack Dnipropetrovsk region. Air defense forces shot down two enemy missiles.
11:25 An aircraft repair plant was attacked in Taganrog, Rostov Region. This was reported by the Telegram channel Astra.
Journalists analyzed, geolocated and confirmed the authenticity of the video that had previously appeared on social networks. It turned out that the video was filmed near the parking lot of an aircraft repair plant on Tsiolkovsky Street. A boiler room on the same street was damaged as a result of the attack. The aircraft repair plant of JSC 325 ARZ is located at the site of the attack.
10:57 Russia reported a missile attack on Taganrog in the Rostov region on the night of December 11. Acting Governor Yuri Slyusar said that an industrial enterprise was damaged and 14 cars burned in a parking lot.
Taganrog Mayor Svetlana Kambulova said that a boiler room in the city was damaged. There is no heat supply in 27 apartment buildings.
10:35 The enemy attack on Zaporizhia on December 10 took the lives of seven people, and another 22 were injured. Today, a day of mourning for those killed in the attack has been declared in the Zaporizhia region.
10:20 On Wednesday night, the Ukrainian Defense Forces struck an oil depot of Russian occupiers in the Bryansk region of the Russian Federation. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. We are talking about the Druzhba oil pipeline loading point, the main function of which is the reception, storage, distribution and shipment of diesel fuel.
9:40 In the Russian city of Bryansk, two mainline diesel locomotives that provided for the logistics needs of the Russian army burned down. This was reported by the press service of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
"On December 5, a fire broke out at a railway depot in the city of Bryansk - two mainline diesel locomotives that provided logistical needs for the Russian occupation army burned down," the report says.
9:38 A column of Chinese Desertcross 1000-3 all-terrain vehicles was recorded moving along the M-4 highway in the direction of Kursk. This was reported by the Atesh partisan movement. The vehicles were seen between Rostov-on-Don and Voronezh. It is noted that the all-terrain vehicles are used for patrol and reconnaissance operations, raids, cargo transportation and evacuation of the wounded. The partisans admit that the accumulation of all-terrain vehicles may indicate that Russian troops are preparing for raid and sabotage operations in the Kursk region and other territories bordering Ukraine.
9:25 Hungary will continue its so-called "peacekeeping mission" to end the war in Ukraine this week, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.
"There will be at least two more events this week that will be part of the Hungarian peacekeeping mission, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," he said.
8:57 Over the past 24 hours, 208 combat clashes took place on the front. The hottest ones were in the Pokrovsk and Kurakhovsk directions. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Missile troops and artillery of the Defense Forces hit two command posts, three ammunition depots and one area of concentration of Russian invaders' personnel.
8:36 Over the past 24 hours, the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed 1,400 Russian occupiers. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The enemy's total combat losses from 24.02.22 to 11.12.24 were approximately 757,340 people.
7:23 As of the morning of December 11, there are no Russian ships in the Black and Azov Seas. This was reported by the Ukrainian Navy. There are currently six enemy ships in the Mediterranean Sea, four of which are carriers of Kalibr cruise missiles with a total salvo of up to 41 missiles.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[LB] Defense forces: the enemy is trying to break through the defenses of the city of Kurakhove.
The city remains under the control of the Defense Forces.
by Ivanna Kapustianska
The Russian army is trying to break through the defenses of the city of Kurakhove in the Donetsk region. At the same time, the city remains under the control of the Defense Forces.
This was announced on air by the spokesman for the Khortytsia Regional Administrative District, Nazar Voloshyn, Ukrinform writes.
The spokesman stressed that the activities of three Russian groups are concentrated in the Pokrovsky, Kurakhiv, and Vremovsky directions : "Center," "South," and "East." Their goal remains to reach the administrative borders and establish full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
"Over the past day, our defenders have repelled 45 enemy assaults in that direction. Of course, there is a concentration of enemy personnel reserves. Russian groups from the 90th Tank Division, the 20th Motorized Rifle Division, the 5th and 110th Separate Motorized Rifle brigades are operating against us there. The armament and tactics of combat operations are standard, assaults are supported by armored vehicles, alternating with the use of small assault groups using mobile vehicles," the spokesman informed.
Voloshyn also reported that the enemy is trying to break through to Kurakhovo and take control of the commanding heights and roads leading to it.
"The enemy army is shelling the city, using both aviation and artillery. However, the Defense Forces are restraining the enemy's offensive actions, inflicting losses on it in civilian life and equipment. Units of the Armed Forces control the city of Kurakhove, and enemy sabotage and reconnaissance groups that still manage to break through are being promptly destroyed," the spokesman said.
According to him, fighting continues in the Pokrovsky direction to restore lost Ukrainian positions.
"The enemy attacked our fortifications in the Pokrovsky direction, west of Vidrodzhennya, south of Novotroitsky, and as a result of prolonged clashes, two of our positions were destroyed and one was lost. Measures are currently being taken to restore the positions. Fighting is also ongoing on the southwestern outskirts of the Shevchenkove settlement. The enemy is trying to gain a foothold and infiltrate its DRGs. But the Defense Forces are restraining the enemy's offensive actions, inflicting losses on him in civilian life and equipment," Voloshyn noted.
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[EngMilRu] The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
In Kharkov direction, the units of the Sever Group of Forces have defeated formations of one AFU air assault brigade and one border detachment of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine close to Pervomayskoye and Alisovka (Kharkov region). The AFU losses were up to 25 troops and two 122mm D-30 howitzers.
The Zapad Group of Forces' units have improved the tactical situation and inflicted losses on military personnel and hardware of three mechanised brigades, one airmobile brigade, one assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, one territorial defence brigade, and two National Guard brigades close to Lozovaya, Zagryzovo, Kupyansk, Glushkovka (Kharkov region), Terny (Donetsk People's Republic), and Serebryansky forestry.
In addition, 11 counterattacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been repelled.
The AFU losses were up to 515 troops, three pickup trucks, one 122mm D-30 howitzer, and three U.S.-made 105mm M-119 guns. One ammunition depots and one Anklav-N electronic warfare station have been neutralised.
The Yug Group of Forces' units have taken more advantageous positions, defeated formations of five mechanised brigades, two airmobile brigades of the AFU close to Ulakly, Grigorovka, Seversk, Vasyukovka, Chasov Yar, Dachnoye, Kurakhovo, Annovka, and Uspenovka (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses were up to 285 troops, one Kozak armoured fighting vehicle, and one pickup truck. Two ammunition depots have been wiped out.
The units of the Tsentr Group of Forces continued advancing to the depths of enemy defences, inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of three mechanised brigades, two jaeger brigades, one motorised infantry brigade, one assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as well as one naval infantry brigade near Dzerzhinsk, Krasnoye, Zarya, Novopustynka, Ukrainsk, Shcherbinovka, and Pushkino (Donetsk People's Republic).
In addition, 10 AFU counter-attacks have been repelled. The AFU losses were up to 440 troops, one infantry fighting vehicle, one U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carrier, seven motor vehicles, three 152mm D-20 howitzers, two 152mm Msta-B howitzers, and one 122mm D-30 howitzers.
The units of the Vostok Group of Forces have improved the situation along the front line, defeated units of two territorial defence brigades, and one National Guard brigade close to Velikaya Novosyolka, Konstantinopol, Vremevka, and Storozhevoye (Donetsk People's Republic). One counter-attack of enemy assault detachment has been repelled.
The AFU losses were up to 150 troops, one U.S.-made HMMWV and MaxxPro armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, two 155mm Bogdana self-propelled artillery system, two 152mm 2S3 Akatsiya and one 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery systems.
The units of the Dnepr Group of Forces have delivered strikes at enemy manpower and hardware of one infantry brigade, one mechanised brigade, and two territorial defence brigades close to Orekhov, Novopokrovka (Zaporozhye region), Ponyatovka, and Antonovka (Kherson region).
The AFU losses were up to 40 troops, four motor vehicles, and one U.S.-made M777 howitzer.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have engaged AFU manpower and hardware clusters in 141 areas during the day
Air defence systems have shot down four U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectiles and 32 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 649 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 37,559 unmanned aerial vehicles, 586 anti-aircraft missile systems, 19,725 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,500 MLRS combat vehicles, 19,411 field artillery guns and mortars, and 29,138 units of support military vehicles have been neutralised.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the operation to neutralise an enemy group, which broke into the territory of Kursk region.
The units of the Sever Group of Forces inflicted losses on formations of three mechanised brigades, one heavy mechanised brigade, two tank brigades, two air assault brigades, one naval infantry brigade, and three territorial defence brigades of the AFU close to Guyevo, Lebedevka, Leonidovo, Malaya Loknya, Martynovka, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Nikolskoye, Novoivanovka, and Sverdlikovo.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware of the enemy near Aleksandriya, Kruglenkoye, Mirny, Nizhny Klin, Basovka, Belovody, Vodolagi, Vesyolovka, and Zhuravka in Sumy region.
Over the past 24 hours, the AFU losses were more than 200 troops, one tank, three U.S.-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, seven motor vehicles, and six mortars. One AFU serviceman surrendered.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the AFU losses amounted to more than 39,860 troops, 235 tanks, 174 infantry fighting vehicles, 123 armoured personnel carriers, 1,249 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,111 motor vehicles, 308 artillery guns, 40 MLRS launchers, including 11 of HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the USA, 13 anti-aircraft missile launchers, seven transport-loading vehicles, 72 EW stations, 13 counter-battery warfare radars, four air defence radars, 27 units of engineering and other materiel, including 13 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, six armoured recovery vehicles, and one command post vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 23:59 Official summary of the DPR Representative Office in the JCCC from 00:00 11.12.2024 to 00:00 12.12.2024.
A total of 18 cases of armed attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces were recorded by the DPR Representative Office in the JCCC over the past 24 hours.
There were no reports of civilian casualties.
DAMAGED:
Four civil infrastructure facilities.
A total of 18 artillery attacks in the Gorlovka direction.
A total of 57 units of various ammunition were fied.
21:20 Telegram channel "Colonelcassad":
In Sevastopol, the military defended attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, air defense is working.
According to preliminary information, two UAVs have already been shot down over the sea. Also, two more air targets were shot down in the area of Balaklava and Inkerman.
21:00 Telegram channel "Rybar":
Pokrovsk direction: fighting in Novotroitskoye
- Russian troopsare being fixedon the western outskirts of the settlement of Novy Trud (Vozrozhdenie). The enemy has probably been driven out of the forest area to the south near the railway, since without control over it an attack towards the village would have been impossible.
- With the liberation of Novy Trud, the Russian Armed Forces provide a bridgehead for encircling enemy positions in Zeleny and Dachenskoye from the west, while simultaneously attacking from the east from the direction of Lysovka.
- At the same time, the enemy made an unsuccessful attempt to attack in the village of Shevchenko. Two armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and a tank were blown up by minefields on the northern outskirts of the village.
- To the west, fighting continues in Novotroitskoye, on the eastern outskirts of which Ukrainian formations are trying from time to time to carry out fire raids under the cover of armored vehicles.
20:10 Telegram channel "Colonelcassad":
Soldiers of the 16th Separate Special Forces Brigade using an FPV drone on fiber optics in the Serebryanskoye forest area struck a pickup truck with four militants.
19:20 Russian Ministry of Defense:
Six ATACMS missiles released by Ukrainian Armed Forces militants in Taganrog last morning.
Two missiles were shot down by the combat crew of the Pantsir anti-aircraft missile and gun system, the rest were suppressed by electronic warfare systems.
As a result of the falling missile fragments, there were casualties among the personnel, but there was no destruction.
Two buildings in the technical area of ??the airfield, three military vehicles, and civilian cars in the parking lot were slightly damaged
. 17:56 Volchansk. Khar'kov region. The movement has intensified.
It is reported about clearing the area behind the high-rise buildings in Volchansk itself.
The Russian army uses precision weapons on enemy positions, and our special armored vehicles clear the way of enemy mines.
17:50 Russian Ministry of Defense:
Drone operators of the "West" group hit equipment and personnel of the armored group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Khar'kov region.
Ukrainian Armed Forces militants attempted to attack the positions of Russian servicemen with an armored group on a T-80 tank supported by a BMP-1U Shkval. The enemy tank and infantry fighting vehicle were stopped by a mine explosion. The enemy crews abandoned the armored vehicles, awaiting evacuation.
17:45 Ukrainian militants gave up and were captured after the storming of their positions.
The position of the Ukrainian occupation forces in the Kurakhiv direction was stormed, during which servicemen of the 102nd Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 150th division of the 8th Guards Army threw grenades at the Ukrainian dugout. Four Ukrainian soldiers decided to stop resisting and surrendered.
16:35 Russian fighters in the Pokrovsky direction released Novotroitskoye and Shevchenko.
In Toretsk, the Russian Armed Forces have taken complete control of the Central mine.
The liberation of Kurakhovo continues, new high-rises have been liberated. To the south of Kurakhovo, the Russian army entered the settlement of Vesely Gai
16:27 Russian attack aircraft blew up a bunker together with the garrison of the Ukrainian Armed Forces
- Near Kurakhovo, fighters from the 112th regiment of the 51st Guards Army of the Southern Military District carried out an operation, installing anti-tank mines with remote detonation on one of the bunkers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, inside which there were Ukrainian Armed Forces militants who refused to surrender.
13:20 Russian Ministry of Defense:
At about 12:50 Moscow time, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using an aircraft-type UAV against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted.
A Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle was destroyed over the territory of the Belgorod region by air defense systems on duty
. 12:13 Russian Ministry of Defense:
Su-34 crew struck a Ukrainian Armed Forces position along with personnel and armored vehicles in the border area of the Kursk region.
11:05 Russian attack aircraft broke through the fog to deliver cluster munitions to enemy positions at Chasy Yar
- Paratroopers in BMD-2 stormed a stronghold of Ukrainian militants. The crews of the combat vehicles managed to deliver the attack aircraft and cover our fighters.
- After our combat vehicle was hit by a kamikaze drone, the crew continued to carry out the combat mission, and then was able to safely take the BMD to the rear.
9:47 Telegram channel "WarGonzo":
Frontline summary as of the morning of 12/11/2024
- Zaporizhzhya Front. Here, mainly positional battles with the use of long-range weapons continue. No significant changes in the LBS have been observed over the past day.
- Donetsk Front. Fighting continues in the area of ??Velyka Novosilka. Russian troops continue to put pressure on the enemy's defense both south and north of this settlement. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are putting up serious resistance. There are further advances of our troops in Kurakhovo. There, as a result of successful assault actions, the Russian Armed Forces took control of the grain elevator, which is an important height.
Also, the offensive of Russian troops on the flanks continues to develop, with the goal of completely cutting off the Ukrainian garrison from supplies. There are advances in the Pokrovsk direction, where the Russian Armed Forces continue to develop the offensive in several areas. In Dzerzhinsk, urban battles continue, there are further tactical successes.
- Chasov Yar direction. Urban fighting continues in Chasov Yar. Russian troops, taking advantage of favorable weather conditions, were able to enter the territory of the fireproof plant.
9:10 Governor of Belgorod Region Vyacheslav Gladkov:
Information about strikes on Ukrainian Armed Forces on our region over the past 24 hours:
– In the Belgorod district, six rounds of ammunition were fired at the village of Malinovka and the village of Shchetinovka during one artillery attack and one drone was attacked. No casualties or damage.
– In the Borisovsky district, the Kazachye-Rudchenskoye farm was shelled with five artillery rounds. There were no consequences.
– An air defense system shot down a UAV over the Volokonovsky district. There was no damage.
– In the Grayvoronsky municipal district, 21 munitions were fired during five artillery attacks at the villages of Bezymeno, Dronovka, Kozinka and Spodaryushino. There were no casualties or destruction.
– In the Krasnoyarsk region, two artillery rounds were fired at the village of Staroselye. No damage.
– In the Shebekinsky municipal district, attacks were carried out using two drones in the city of Shebekino and the village of Mukhin. No consequences
. 8:15 Special forces of the Russian Guard destroyed Ukrainian Armed Forces pickup truck in Kursk region – video.
The Rosgvardia UAV operators discovered an enemy vehicle that was transporting infantry to the combat contact line. The driver and the Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel who were in the vehicle at the time of the strike were killed.
8:10 Direct fire: tankers of the "East" group of forces destroyed a firing position of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, –video.
To support the combat work of the motorized rifle units, the crew of the T-72B3M tank moved to the forward edge of the defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces unit and immediately launched a powerful fire strike, working according to the given coordinates.
8:01 Russian Ministry of Defense:
During the past night stopped an attempt by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to carry out a terrorist attack using an aircraft-type UAV against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation.
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