It’s charity, not a loan. Loans get repaid out of positive cash flow.
[IsraelTimes] The International Monetary Fund says it has reached a deal with Egyptian authorities allowing the country access to about $1.2 billion.
The funding access is subject to executive board approval.
“The Egyptian authorities have continued to implement key policies to preserve macroeconomic stability, despite ongoing regional tensions that are causing a sharp decline in Suez Canal receipts,” says Ivanna Vladkova Hollar, who led the IMF mission involved in discussions with Egyptian authorities.
She adds that “continued implementation of fiscal consolidation efforts will be necessary to preserve debt sustainability, and reduce large interest costs and gross domestic financing requirements.”
The deal comes as both sides reached staff-level agreement on the fourth review under the Extended Fund Facility arrangement, the fund says.
"Over the past three decades, Washington has provided Egypt with over $40 billion in military assistance, a program that today accounts for 80 percent of the country's total annual military procurement budget. "
[Garowe] A group of Kenya Special Forces were critically injured on Sunday during a patrol in the northeastern province just near Kotulo area, officials said, moments after they were informed of al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... activities in the area.
According to police reports, the officers were maimed while activating their operations. They were on board two vehicles including an MRAP and a DCD vehicle.
The DCD ran over an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that had been planted on the road by the bully boys. The vehicle was left badly damaged after the earth-shattering kaboom, with at least eight coppers left injured.
The other vehicle that was trailing it stopped and helped to evacuate the injured to the hospital. The incident happened at night and the al-Shabaab forces of Evil are said to have been monitoring the team before the earth-shattering kaboom.
The injured were rushed to hospital at death's door, police said. This is the first time the forces of Evil have staged a serious attack in the northeastern region after months of relative calmness due to robust security operations within the region.
Kenya has established more Forward Operating Bases along the Kenya-Somalia border in anticipation of the transition within Somalia, which would see more soldiers drifting to the border where they are expected to improve surveillance.
The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) has been conducting multi-agency operations along the region and recently, President William Ruto elevated the Wajir Airbase by making it fully operational in anticipation of sophisticated operations.
[IsraelTimes] The IDF says an aircraft struck a Hamas operative in the humanitarian zone of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip a short time ago, based on exact intelligence.
It says that before the strike, it took various steps to minimize the risk to civilians, including aerial surveillance and the use of precision weaponry.
[ShabelleMedia] Somalia accused Æthiopian forces of a deadly attack on its troops in a border region on Monday, just days after the two countries signed an accord aimed at resolving months of tension.
The Somali foreign ministry said in a statement that Æthiopian troops had attacked its forces stationed at an airstrip in the border town of Doolow in Somalia’s Jubaland state around 10:00 am.
It said the attack targeted three bases manned by the army, police and National Intelligence and Security Agency, and had caused fatalities, without giving a precise number.
But Jubaland state officials said the Æthiopian troops, who are also based at the airstrip as part of its mission against Islamist turbans, had intervened to protect a group of local politicians.
Somalia’s federal government has been clashing in recent weeks with forces of the semi-autonomous Jubaland over control of key areas in the state.
"The incident started this morning after the (federal) forces who were stationed here were given instructions to shoot an aircraft carrying a Jubaland state delegation... including state politicians, cabinet members and the governor," Jubaland security minister Yusuf Hussein Osman said at a presser in Doolow.
He said a firefight ensued in the town until Somali federal forces were "disarmed and some of them maimed".
"The pro-Jubaland forces and the Somali government security forces clashed and the Æthiopian forces who are stationed within the airstrip area intervened in support of the pro-Jubaland forces," a local resident, Mohammed Hassan, told AFP by phone.
"The pro-Somali government forces were later overpowered after the fighting spread in other areas inside town," he added.
Somalia is a federation of semi-autonomous member states — Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... , Jubaland, Galmudug ...a semiautonomous region in central Somalia, bordering Puntland on the north. Galmudug is not trying to obtain international recognition as a separate nation, but rather considers itself autonomous within the larger Somali federalism, for what that's worth... , Hirshabelle and South West — that have often clashed with the central government in Mogadishu.
DEAL THREATENED
The incident threatens to upend a deal brokered by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... member, but not the most reliable... less than two weeks ago to end a nearly year-long dispute between Somalia and Æthiopia.
That dispute began in January when Æthiopia signed an agreement with another breakaway region of Somalia — Somaliland ...Republic of Somaliland is an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as a de jure part of Somalia. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. Under the Siad Barre regime, Somaliadestroyed ninety percent of Hargeisa Per international law, once you're in, you gotta stay in, no matter how bad it smells.... — to lease a stretch of coastline for a port and military base in exchange for recognition, although this was never confirmed by Addis Ababa.
Somalia viewed this as a breach of its illusory sovereignty, sparking a fierce diplomatic and military row.
That appeared to be resolved when Æthiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met in Ankara on December 12 and signed a deal that is expected to offer land-locked Æthiopia an alternative sea access in Somalia.
However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... Somalia’s foreign ministry said the agreement was undermined by Monday’s incident in Doolow.
"Regrettably, these actions by Æthiopia constitute a blatant violation of the Ankara Declaration," it said in the statement.
"The Somali Federal Government warns that it will not remain silent in the face of such clear violations of Somalia’s illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity."
[IsraelTimes] The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen take responsibility for the overnight ballistic missile attack on Israel.
The Houthis say they launched the missile at a “military target” in the Tel Aviv area, claiming that “the operation has successfully achieved its objectives.”
The Israeli military said the missile was successfully intercepted by air defenses.
The Iran-backed terror group in recent days has ramped up ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel, in what it says is support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing war there.
[IsraelTimes] Israel still has not received from Hamas a list of living and dead hostages to be released in the first phase of a potential ceasefire-hostage deal, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
The outlet additionally says that Hamas is resisting pressure from mediators.
Meanwhile, the Israel Hayom daily says that the terror group is backtracking after initially appearing to soften its position.
“Hamas is effectively backing down from the softening that led to the renewal of the talks, and is once again demanding an Israeli commitment to end the war at the end of the comprehensive deal as a condition for implementing its first phase,” an unnamed senior official tells the newspaper.
The reports come as a mid-level Israeli negotiating team that has been in Qatar for several days working on a potential hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas, returned to Israel for “internal deliberations in Israel regarding the continuation of negotiations.”
The proposed ceasefire is reported to envision a three-phase implementation. The first stage would see Hamas release “humanitarian” captives — female hostages, children, older captives and the sick.
[IsraelTimes] Ahmed al-Sharaa says no weapons to be allowed in Syria outside of state control, including among Kurdish groups in north; US said encouraging Israel to develop ties with new leaders
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa reached an agreement on Tuesday with former rebel faction chiefs to dissolve all groups and consolidate them under the defense ministry, according to a statement from the new administration.
Photos published by the state-run SANA news agency showed Sharaa, also known by nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, surrounded by the heads of several armed factions — but not representatives of the Kurdish-led forces in Syria’s northeast.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir had said last week that the ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... ’s army.
Sharaa will face the daunting task of trying to avoid festivities between the myriad groups.
On Sunday, Sharaa had said the new authorities would "absolutely not allow there to be weapons in the country outside state control."
That also applied to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, he said.
The military chief of the Islamist 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) that led the insurgency told AFP last week that Kurdish-held areas would be integrated under the new leadership, and that "Syria will not be divided."
The country’s new rulers appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency that toppled Assad, as defense minister in the interim government.
Syria’s historic ethnic and religious minorities include Moslem Kurds and Shiites — who feared during the civil war that any future Sunni Islamist rule would imperil their way of life — as well as Syriac, Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christians, and the Druze community.
Sharaa has told Western officials visiting him that HTS, which he heads, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, will neither seek Dire Revenge against the former regime nor repress any religious minority.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on December 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
[IsraelTimes] UN and US officials say gang violence has spiraled out of control, crippling supply lines on which most of Gaza’s 2.1 million civilians rely for survival.
In October, $9.5 million worth of food and other goods – nearly a quarter of all the humanitarian aid sent to Gaza that month – was lost because of attacks and looting, according to a previously unreported tally of incidents compiled by UN relief agencies with charity organizations.
The assessment of looting in November is still underway, but preliminary data shows that it was far worse, two people familiar with the matter said.
In mid-November, a 109-truck convoy chartered by UN agencies came under attack minutes after it was ordered by the IDF to leave a border crossing in southern Gaza during the night, several hours ahead of the agreed-upon schedule, according to five people familiar with the incident, including two who were present.
Stationed nearby, the IDF did not intervene, the five people said. The IDF spokesperson declined to comment on the incident.
Georgios Petropoulos, a coordinator at the UN’s emergency-response arm, OCHA, said that aid agencies were unable to resolve the problem of lawlessness there by themselves.
“It’s just gotten too big for humanitarians to solve,” he told reporters upon returning from Gaza on Thursday.
The US Department of State declined to comment on Israel’s October commitment but said that looting remained the primary obstacle to aid delivery.
“We continue to press Israel on the need for bolstered security to ensure convoys with critical humanitarian assistance reach Palestinian civilians throughout Gaza,” a spokesperson said.
HUMANITARIAN NADIR
Fourteen months into Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group, the international relief machine is in disarray: UN agencies and charities say the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached one of its worst points because they cannot deliver and distribute enough food and medical supplies to Gaza’s population.
A new round of ceasefire talks this month has rekindled hope that Hamas would release Israeli hostages it has held captive since its October 7 attack on Israel last year in which Hamas terrorists stormed across the border, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 captives, and that solutions can be found to boost humanitarian aid.
For now, however, relief operations are hobbled by a disagreement between Israel and much of the international community over who is responsible for feeding civilians in Gaza and maintaining order in the territory.
The UN and the United States have repeatedly called on Israel to comply with international humanitarian laws and provide security and assistance to Gaza civilians. But Israeli authorities say their only duty is to facilitate the transfer of food and medical supplies, and that they regularly do much more out of goodwill.
The stalemate has made organizing and coordinating relief operations immensely difficult, said Jamie McGoldrick, who was the UN Humanitarian chief for the Palestinian territory from December to April.
To gauge the depth of the situation, US officials said they watch the percentage of Gaza’s population to whom UN relief agencies could provide food assistance each month.
In November, it was 29%, up from 24% in October, but a sharp fall from a wartime peak of more than 70% in April, according to UN data.
Mohammad Abdel-Dayem, owner of the Zadna 2 bakery in central Gaza, said he and his 60 employees have been out of business for a month, unable to provide bread to the 50,000 people they normally serve.
“We’re not receiving any flour because of looting,” he told Reuters by phone last week.
The IDF spokesperson challenged the claim that some bakeries are not receiving flour, but a daily World Food Program review of bakery operations seen by Reuters showed that 15 of the 19 bread factories the UN agency supports in Gaza were out of operation as of December 21 and that Zadna 2 has been closed since November 23 due to a lack of flour.
#2
With the UN out of Gaza, there’s no one to control Hamas. Of course they’re out of control.
Posted by: Difar Dave ||
12/25/2024 17:09
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#3
Before the Gaza gangs were being violent, it was Hamas and smaller jihadi groups who were violent. The UN was subordinate to Hamas via the many Hamasniks embedded at all levels of the UN organizations in the Strip.
Wishing you and yours all the joys of the season! Last Christmas European Conservative gifted us his boyhood choir performance — an experience worth repeating,
#1
Oh my, you remember...
Merry Christmas to all Rantburgers!
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/25/2024 12:00
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#2
A translation of this Austrian Christmas song:
It's getting dark, night is falling,
so I'm coming to you, my savior, on the watch.
I want to sing a song to the lamb, the sweetest,
you don't sleep, I just hear you crying.
Sleep sweetly, dear child!
Forget now, oh child, your sorrows, your troubles,
that you have to suffer there in the stable on the hay.
The angels are decorating your bed,
it couldn't be more beautiful, even in a king's house.
Home, home, home! Sweet dreams, dear child!
Yes, my child, you are so beautiful in the crib,
it suits me, I can't bear to leave you.
I wish you from my heart the sweetest rest,
the angels of heaven cover you.
Here, here, here! Sleep sweetly, you beautiful child!
Close your eyes in peace and quiet
and give me your blessing as I go.
Then my sleep will be carefree too,
and I can rest easy when I lie down.
Here, here, here! Sleep sweetly, my dear child!
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/25/2024 19:09
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#3
All this is part of the "Christmas Story" of Carl Orff (the composer of Carmina Burana) which I'm proud of playing a little part in. Orff gave music lessons in our school in the 1960s.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/25/2024 19:13
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[IsraelTimes] No known concrete dangers for American Jews during Hanukkah, but calls for attacks by extremist groups raise concerns.
US Jewish community security officials warned of threats during the holiday season, including lone-wolf attackers inspired by terror groups, disruptive anti-Israel protests and cybercrime.
"The holidays are a time when our adversaries generally have historically called for increased targeting and attacks," said Michael Masters, the head of the Secure Community Network, which coordinates security for US Jewish groups. "That is playing out again this year."
Jewish security officials urged Jewish communities to celebrate the holidays, but to practice vigilance and employ security measures. There are no known specific, concrete threats.
This year, Hanukkah coincides with Christmas and New Year’s. Large public gatherings related to the holidays present targets to attackers, SCN said in a security bulletin distributed to its staff and partner groups earlier this month. That threat was made evident by a ramming attack against a holiday market in Germany this week.
The gatherings, both Jewish and Christian, could become targets due to tensions surrounding the Israel-Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... war, the bulletin said. Terror groups including ISIS have encouraged attacks during the holidays in messages that could inspire lone-wolf assailants.
"When people are calling for violence, such as ISIS and al-Qaeda, all it takes is one individual to listen," Masters told The Times of Israel in a Monday interview.
Last month, media affiliated with ISIS published a graphic showing a Christmas tree adorned with an ornament resembling a hand grenade and the words "Make it miserable." Last week, the FBI arrested an ISIS and Hamas supporter for plotting an attack on the Israeli consulate in New York City, and in September, a suspect was arrested in Canada while attempting to enter the US to attack a Jewish site in Brooklyn in support of ISIS.
Hanukkah events have been targeted in the past — in 2019, a man attacked a Hanukkah gathering in Monsey, New York, stabbing five people and causing one fatality.
"We’ve seen a whole history of holiday-type events being attacked, more so in Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
than the US, although we have had a few plots," said Mitch Silber, the head of the Community Security Initiative, a Jewish security group in the New York region. Those plots often target New York due to the city’s high profile, he said.
"When there’s a terrorist, or a wannabe terrorist, invariably the target is here in New York, Jewish or otherwise," Silber said.
Silber’s group has concerns about the holidays, but did not find it necessary to put out a bulletin because the community’s alert level is high already and there were no outstanding threats.
"When you’re at a nine out of 10 of security readiness it’s tough to justify going up even further," Silber said. "We’ve all become normalized to this higher threat environment that we live in every day."
The NYPD will secure public Jewish events in and around New York City during the holidays, as is standard, said Silber, a former head of NYPD intelligence.
Anti-Israel protesters have also released plans for the holidays. The activist group US Campaign for Paleostinian Rights published a "Holiday Season Boycott Action Kit" urging protests against companies it says are affiliated with Israel, and demonstrations at malls, public markets, at stores and online. Anti-Israel protesters have also targeted Jewish holiday events and are expected to continue to do so during the holiday season, SCN said.
Last year, anti-Israel protesters disrupted holiday events, including by brandishing a swastika at the Rockefeller Christmas tree lighting in Manhattan.
Cybercriminals will also likely target Jews and the general public during the holiday season amid increased online shopping, travel and donations to charity, SCN said in a bulletin released on Monday.
Some of those threats originate in Iran, Masters said, highlighting a reported campaign targeting Israeli officials with fake event invitations in New York last month.
"It appears that the Iranians are very interested in gathering as much information as they can about Jewish individuals and organizations, how our community functions and is structured," Masters said.
SCN urged Jewish community members to be wary online by avoiding public wi-fi, updating software on personal devices, and checking emails for markers of "malicious intent" such as suspicious email addresses and requests for donations or unusual financial transactions.
Dov Ben-Shimon, the head of the Community Security Service, a group that trains Jewish volunteers in security, urged the community to "refresh and recommit to their security protocols" for the Hanukkah holiday.
"Hanukkah is a very public celebration of Jewish life and it’s important for our rabbis and Jewish leaders to be mindful of security," Ben-Shimon told The Times of Israel. He stressed the importance of Jewish community coordination with law enforcement partners for the holiday.
American Jews have become more focused on protecting themselves since the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel and the subsequent surge in antisemitism in the US, said Ben-Shimon, who took the reins of CSS last month.
[IsraelTimes] Multi-billon shekel deal is to provide more of the interceptors that have proven successful at knocking down incoming ballistic missiles amid spike in attacks from Yemen.
Israel’s air defense array, which is comprised of the short-range Iron Dome, medium-range David’s Sling, and long-range Arrow, is entirely home-produced though was developed with the US that also helped finance the projects.
[IsraelTimes] Col. Ayub Kayuf taken to hospital for treatment after device detonated against his vehicle; army says it conducted drone strike on gunmen; Ramallah says 2 women among the dead
The IDF said Tuesday night that the commander of the West Bank regional brigade in charge of the Tulkarem area was lightly injured after a bomb went kaboom! beside his vehicle during a military operation in the city.
The Paleostinian health ministry reported that the ongoing raid by Israeli forces in the city had resulted in eight fatalities, including two women. The military said it had targeted button men in a dronezap amid the operation, had "eliminated a terrorist," and arrested 18 terror suspects.
Menashe Brigade Commander Col. Ayub Kayuf was taken to a hospital for treatment. He was initially listed in moderate condition following the earth-shattering kaboom, but the army later said his injury was mild. No others were hurt by the blast.
Ramallah said two women — Khawla Ali Abdullah Abdo, 53, and Bara Khalid Hussein, 30 — were among those killed in Tulkarem. Eighteen-year-old Fathi Said Awda Ubaid was also among those killed there, it said, adding he was fatally shot in the chest and abdomen.
Residents of the Tulkarem camp reported that the raid, which began in the early hours of Tuesday, involved bulldozers destroying roads. The IDF sometimes demolishes roads amid operations to tackle bombs planted along them.
Violence in the West Bank has intensified since the war 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... broke out last year following Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... ’s deadly October 7 attack on Israel.
The Israeli operation came amid an unprecedented crackdown by Paleostinian Authority security forces on terrorism in the West Bank, in which two Paleostinian officers were killed and several more maimed in Jenin on Monday.
On Monday, Maharan Kadous, a Paleostinian police officer, was killed clashing with button men in Jenin. Kadous was the second Paleostinian security officer to be killed within 24 hours, amid an operation that began about a week ago in response to an incident earlier this month in which terror operatives stole two Paleostinian Authority vehicles and paraded them through Jenin.
The PA has a relatively strong presence in the southern and central West Bank, where it can maintain order. But in the northern part of the territory, especially the refugee camps in the Jenin, Nablus, and Tulkarem, it has struggled to exercise authority against terror groups.
The Ramallah-based government’s recent operations against terror groups are also seen as an attempt to demonstrate its capacity to govern the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been battling the Hamas terror group.
On Sunday, it was announced that Sahar Farouk Rahil, a PA security officer who served on the PA’s elite "presidential guard," was killed by button men in the Jenin refugee camp.
In a statement following Rahil’s death, PA Security Services front man Col. Anwar Rajab said, "This crime only strengthens the services’ determination to pursue lawbreakers, to enforce the rule of law, and to ensure the security of the Paleostinian people."
On Monday, the Jenin Battalion of the Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... terror group published — then took down and denied ever having published — a video of four operatives wearing boom jackets warning Paleostinian security officers that if they entered the refugee camp the operatives were "ready to blow ourselves up."
Separately, images circulated online Monday that appeared to show Paleostinian security officers holding RPGs, a weapon not supposed to exist in the services’ arsenal.
According to preliminary reports, the PA forces are believed to have seized the RPGs from Islamic Jihad operatives during the operation, and are not known to have used them, according to Channel 12.
Last week, Paleostinian security services arrested some 110 terror operatives, seized 100 explosives, and neutralized eight boom-mobiles, according to reports. Meanwhile,
...back at the revival hall, the SWAT team had finally arrived... some 32 button men have been maimed so far, and two killed, Channel 12 reported.
Sheikh Mohammad Salah, head mufti of the Paleostinian Security Services, said of the deaths, "We don’t want a second Gaza in Jenin. Better that thousands of us die, as long as they don’t destroy Jenin and Paleostine."
[IsraelTimes] The Palestinian Authority health ministry reports three dead and six wounded in the IDF drone strike in the West Bank city of Tulkarem earlier today.
The military said it had targeted a group of Palestinian gunmen.
[IsraelTimes] Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew calls assessment by USAID unit ‘irresponsible’ for relying on ‘inaccurate data’ to inflate affected population; IDF kills gunmen in Gaza hospital
In a rare critique, US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew issued a statement Tuesday rejecting a US government agency’s food security report asserting that a famine continues to unfold in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip.
It came as the IDF said it killed five button men in a Gaza hospital and destroyed a rocket launcher positioned next to a UN building.
"The report issued today on Gaza by FEWS NET relies on data that is outdated and inaccurate," Lew said of the US-created Famine Early Warning System Network publication.
Lew took particular issue with the report’s apparent reliance on mid-November figures from 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... Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to inflate the number of civilians still in north Gaza.
"We have worked closely with the government of Israel and the UN to provide greater access to the North Governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000-75,000 which is the basis of this report," the US envoy stated.
"[Israel’s] COGAT estimates the population in this area is between 5,000 and 9,000. UNRWA estimates the population is between 10,000 and 15,000," he continued referring to the IDF body responsible for humanitarian coordination in Gaza and the UN Paleostinian refugee agency, respectively.
"At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this. We work day and night with the UN and our Israeli partners to meet humanitarian needs — which are great — and relying on inaccurate data is irresponsible," Lew added.
FEWS NET, which is a unit of the US Agency for International Development, also mentioned in its report that more recent estimates from UNRWA on December 22 put the population in the affected area at 10,000-15,000.
Nonetheless, it wrote that "it is highly likely that the food consumption and acute malnutrition thresholds for Famine (IPC Phase 5) have now been surpassed in North Gaza Governorate."
Throughout the war, the US has rejected conclusions from aid agencies and rights groups that Israel is perpetrating a genocide in Gaza but critiques of specific figures used by these organizations have been more rare.
According to its website, FEWS NET has analysts in field offices who work with "US government science agencies, national government ministries, international agencies and NGOs to produce forward-looking reports" on the world’s most food-insecure countries.
The war began with the Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... -led onslaught of October 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians. Terrorists also kidnapped 251 people who were taken as hostages to Gaza.
Experts, aid groups and UN agencies have for months sounded warnings of imminent famine in northern Gaza, which Israel has almost completely sealed off since launching a major military operation there in early October against Hamas operatives attempting to regroup.
The US, which has provided crucial military aid to Israel and shielded it from international criticism, has repeatedly appealed to Israel to facilitate more aid, with limited results.
On Monday, the United Nations aid chief, Tom Fletcher, said Israeli forces had hampered efforts to deliver much-needed aid in northern Gaza.
"North Gaza has been under a near-total siege for more than two months, raising the specter of famine," he said. "South Gaza is extremely overcrowded, creating horrific living conditions and even greater humanitarian needs as winter sets in."
Israel blames the lack of humanitarian aid on United Nations agencies, accusing them of not delivering hundreds of truckloads of aid that have been allowed in. The UN says it is often too dangerous to retrieve and deliver the aid. It blames Israel as the occupying power for a breakdown of law and order — which has enabled gangs to steal aid convoys — while also accusing it of heavily restricting movement within the territory.
Israel says members of Hamas, the Paleostinian terror group that rules the Strip, have stolen much of the aid sent in for civilians.
GUNMEN KILLED IN HOSPITAL
Also Tuesday, the IDF said it wrapped up a "limited operation" against Hamas at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, during which at least five button men were killed and several operatives were detained.
According to the military, in the past month, several attacks against troops, including anti-tank fire, were launched from the hospital. In the area surrounding the hospital, the military said Hamas operatives also planted numerous bombs.
Overnight, the Givati Brigade launched a raid against the hospital area, following intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Directorate and Shin Bet security agency, which indicated "the presence of forces of Evil and terror infrastructures in the area of the hospital," the IDF said.
The IDF said five button men were killed and several were detained, including a terrorist who participated in the October 7 onslaught.
To mitigate civilian harm, the IDF said it "enabled and facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, medical personnel, and patients from the area both before and during the operation."
"We emphasize that the operation was conducted after multiple warnings were issued to the Gazook health ministry regarding terrorist activity being conducted inside the hospital," the military said.
"The troops operated while mitigating harm to uninvolved civilians and enabling the activities of the hospital to continue as much as possible," the IDF added.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Israeli troops forced the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital, sending many patients, some of them on foot, to another hospital miles away in Gaza City.
Munir al-Bursh, director of the Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip, said the Israeli army had ordered hospital officials to evacuate it on Monday, before storming it in the early hours of Tuesday and forcing those inside to leave.
Israel says it has been facilitating the delivery of medical supplies, fuel and the transfer of patients from medical centers in the area to other hospitals in Gaza during the military offensive in collaboration with international agencies such as the World Health Organization.
Later Tuesday, the IDF said fighter jets struck a Hamas rocket launcher positioned next to a United Nations building in Gaza City’s Shati. The military said the strike was carried out after calling on civilians in the area to evacuate. Footage released by the IDF showed a rocket flying out of the site following the strike.
According to Gaza medics, 15 people were killed during the day by Israeli strikes. The figures could not be verified and do not distinguish between button men and non-combatants.
A new bid by mediators Egypt, 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 the United States to end the fighting and release Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza has gained momentum this month, though no breakthrough has been reported. The Prime Minister’s Office reported that an Israeli negotiating team will return from Qatar after a "significant" week of talks there.
[NY Post] 48 hr rule
A London driver was busted for attempted murder after he jumped a sidewalk and crashed into a crowd of people early Christmas morning, sending four to the hospital, according to police.
The 31-year-old man was driving on the wrong side of the road in Shaftesbury Avenue in the heart of London’s busy West End theater district around 12:45 a.m. when he smashed into the pedestrians, the BBC reported.
One of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries, according to the Metropolitan Police — who confirmed this was an isolated incident and not terror related. Would you even say it if an "Allahu Akhbar" was issued?
Police believe the suspect "was involved in an altercation at a nightclub prior to getting in his car and mounting the pavement," Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said.
Authorities cordoned off an area outside of the Sondheim Theater, where the popular musical Les Misérables is currently playing, according to Sky News.
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#1
West End
"In the Sondheim's diverse new Les Mis,
Pak detective in shalwar kameez
Runs his ramshackle car
Over penitent star
As old enmity crosses the seas."
[NY Post] A Kentucky dad who has racked up more than $100,000 in unpaid child support was arrested as he got off a cruise trip in Florida after several years on the lam, according to officials.
Dominic Weaver’s vacation ended with him in handcuffs after he was taken into custody by local cops exiting the cruise ship in Miami sometime last week and brought back to Bluegrass State, Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell told a local Louisville news station.
The 47-year-old owes somewhere between $114,000 and $120,000 in child support, according to O’Connell.
Weaver was previously sentenced to five years of probation for flagrant non-support in 2019, according to Law and Crime.
"I don’t know when he left, but he fled the jurisdiction, and from the date of his sentence until today, and even today, he’s not paid one cent of child support," the Kentucky county official told WDRB. Well that probation seems to have worked.
O’Connell said Weaver has four cases with the child support division.
"This is one of the most egregious events that brings something to light that I think I’ve ever seen," O’Connell told the news station.
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[NY Post] Lessons from the pics at the post: Sit in the back
An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people onboard crashed Wednesday near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau, leaving at least 32 survivors, according to officials. More than 30 people may be dead.
The plane was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus.
Kazakhstan’s Emergency Ministry said in a Telegram statement that those on board included five crew. A total of 29 survivors, including two children, have been hospitalized, the ministry told Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
Another Russian news agency, Interfax quoted medical workers as saying that four bodies have been recovered and emergency workers at the scene as saying that both pilots, according to a preliminary assessment, died in the crash.
The Embraer 190 aircraft made an emergency landing 3 km from the city, Azerbaijan Airlines said earlier.
Kazakhstan’s Emergency Ministry initially said 25 people survived the crash, later revising that number to 27, 28, and then 29 as the search and rescue operation continued at the site of the crash, bringing the supposed death toll down.
The Prosecutor General’s Office in Azerbaijan later reported that at least 32 people survived the crash, adding that the number wasn’t final. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that some of them were in critical condition.
The number of survivors could mean that over 30 people may be dead.
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#1
Last year it was Gaza. This year it’s Luigi. Before it was BLM. Next year, who knows? But every year, it’s the same hollering malcontents, using the same tactics, getting the same kid glove treatment in the press. https://t.co/6Sgti5wVUO
Article is from Southfront.press, formerly Souhtfront.org, which claims to be an independent,albeit pro-Russian news agency.
The US State department has Southfront.press under sanctions, claiming they are in the pay of Russian security services.
Disclosure: This writer has had articles published by Southfront.org.
Briefing by Deputy Chief of the Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops of the Russian Armed Forces Major General Aleksei Rtishchev:
The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation continues to analyse the military and biological activities of the United States of America in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world. We drew you attention to the relocation of unfinished Ukrainian projects on the territory of countries of the post-Soviet space and Southeast Asia.
Africa is now the zone of heightened interest. The U.S. Administration sees the region as an unlimited natural reservoir of dangerous infections’ agents and a test ground for experimental medications.
After analysing the acquired documents, we understood the structure of the system created by the U.S. Administration to mitigate biological risks on the territory of other countries. This system has been successfully tested in Ukraine and Georgia and now it actively works on the African continent. The efforts within the framework of this system are directed at acquiring pathogens in endemic areas and natural foci, controlling and managing the biological situation for their own benefit. One of the tasks is analysing the epidemic situations along the borders of the geopolitical rivals in the presumed deployment areas of military contingents.
[IsraelTimes] Israel says path cutting through urban areas is temporary, aimed at providing supplies and cutting area off from Gaza City terror operatives
The Washington Post published footage Tuesday showing progress on a road Israel has been carving out through urban parts of northern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ’s Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, dividing Gaza City from the cities to its north, in what the military has said is a temporary logistics and separation road.
The outlet cited a researcher who argued that the pattern of construction and the destruction of buildings near the new east-west road resemble the process of establishing the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza and the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border in the south.
It cited William Goodhind, an analyst at the Contested Ground military research project, as speculating that Israel may be establishing a third corridor that bisects Gaza from the Israeli border in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, as part of a plan to create a buffer zone in Gaza’s far north that will stay under Israeli military rule.
The road "effectively segments Gaza so that more systematic clearance operations can begin while a de facto border locks down movement to the south," he claimed.
Rejecting that notion, former IDF Gaza division deputy commander Brig. Gen. (Res.) Amir Avivi told the Post that the pathway is aimed at providing "logistics channels" and doesn’t represent a "long-term policy."
Similarly, the IDF said in early November that northern Gaza’s towns had been disconnected from Gaza City amid the ongoing operation, whose goal the army said was to prevent Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... operatives from escaping or, alternatively, from bringing in reinforcements from Gaza City, where thousands of terror operatives were thought to be.
The BBC has also previously reported on the road under construction.
The Post story also focused on testimonies of residents of northern Gaza who have been evacuated from the area amid the renewed operation, which has demolished most of the buildings there and prompted an outcry from international bodies and groups.
Israel says much of the destruction in Gaza is a result of Hamas using the Strip’s infrastructure for terror purposes, but the widespread destruction has fueled accusations of excessive force and collective punishment.
The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been staying in an Israel-designated humanitarian zone near the coast in southern Gaza. The IDF estimates that only thousands of people remain in the northern areas where it is currently operating. Israel denies the displacement is permanent or that it is planning to establish an open-ended military rule, though some in the far-right flank of the government have been calling for this.
On Monday, Channel 12 aired satellite footage from Hebrew University GIS specialist Adi Ben Nun that it said showed 100 percent of the 19,000 buildings in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia had been destroyed.
Similar footage from July — before the IDF launched its third counter-terrorism operation in the city since the start of the war — showed 54% of Jabalia’s buildings destroyed, the network said.
The satellite footage also indicated that the IDF has completed demolishing all 4,000 buildings in Gaza that were within one kilometer of the border with Israel. Channel 12 said the military believes it has completed its goal of creating a buffer zone in that border area.
#1
Tens of thousands of US military personnel today remain in Germany and in Japan for 80 years “after WWII ended.”
Turkey today controls much of northern and central Syria.
Russia controls much of Ukraine.
The UN occupies many places in the world — in many places today where they are not welcome.
If people of good will can live with the above, in particular thousands of US soldiers and sailors in Germany and Japan far, far, far away from the USA, for 80+ years, then people of good will certainly will support the maintenance of IDF safety measures in this troubled region of the world. Israelis would be unique-in-history-suicidal to do otherwise.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Russians launched a missile strike on Ukrainian territory, 12 airstrikes, dropping 29 guided aerial bombs. In addition, they used more than 640 kamikaze drones for destruction and carried out about four thousand attacks.
In total, 248 combat clashes have occurred since the beginning of this day. Ukrainian defenders continue to resolutely repel the enemy's attempts to advance deep into our territory, inflicting fire damage on them. This was noted in the General Staff's report on Tuesday, December 24.
In the Kharkov direction, the enemy has unsuccessfully stormed the positions of our units in the area of Vovchansk and Vysokaya Yaruga five times. Today, Ukrainian units have destroyed 45 occupiers in this direction and wounded another 46, and also neutralized 11 UAVs, three vehicles and three units of special means of the occupier.
In the Kupyansk direction, the aggressor carried out offensive actions near Petrovpavlovka, Kolesnikovka, Zagryzovoye and Lozovaya. Ukrainian defenders stopped 15 enemy attacks, eight more are still ongoing.
In the Liman direction, Russian invaders attacked the positions of the Defense Forces 25 times near Druzhelyubovka, Zeleny Gai, Novoegorovka, Makeyevka, Terny, Torskoye and in the direction of Grigorovka. Four clashes are still ongoing.
In the Seversky direction, our defenders repelled one assault by occupation forces near Belogorovka.
In the Kramatorsk direction, the enemy attacked our positions at Chasovy Yar and in the direction of Stupochki. The defense forces stopped seven attacks by the invaders, two clashes are ongoing.
In the Toretsk direction, the aggressor made 15 attempts to advance towards the positions of Ukrainian units near Toretsk, Druzhba and Dachnoye; a battle is currently underway.
In the Pokrovsk direction , since the beginning of this day, the enemy has attacked 54 times in the areas of Vozdvizhenka, Mirolyubovka, Promenya, Lisovka, Novy Trud, Dachenskoye, Shevchenko, Volkovoye and Novovasilovka. Our defenders have repelled 47 enemy assaults, and seven more clashes are ongoing. Today, according to preliminary data, 261 occupiers have been neutralized in this direction, 133 of them irretrievably. A vehicle and a communications antenna have also been destroyed.
In the Kurakhovsky direction, the enemy made 34 attempts to break through our defenses near the settlements of Petrovpavlovka, Shevchenko and in the Kurakhovo area. Twenty-four combat clashes have been completed, and ten more are still ongoing.
In the Vremivsky direction, the enemy attacked our units 33 times near Uspenovka, Yantarny, Konstantinopolsky, Konstantinopol, Razliv, Razdolny, Novy Komar, Novosyolka, Velyka Novosyolka and Storozhevy. Ukrainian soldiers repelled 22 assault actions of the enemy, the battles continue.
In the Dnieper direction, the invaders' troops twice unsuccessfully attempted to displace the Defense Forces units from their positions. They suffered losses and retreated.
The operation in Kursk region continues . At present, the Defense Forces have repelled 28 attacks by the invaders, the fighting continues.
While in other areas there are no significant changes.
Earlier on Tuesday, the monitoring project DeepState reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had escaped the cordon in the village of Makarovka in Donetsk Oblast. However, they had to leave the settlement. This information has not yet been officially confirmed.
It also became known today that the Russians have penetrated the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ defenses in the Vremivsk direction.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22.37 In Toretsk, the situation in the area of responsibility of the OTU Lugansk is the most difficult - since the beginning of this day, the Russian Federation has carried out 11 assaults, some of which are still ongoing. This was reported by the speaker of the OTU Lugansk Anastasia Bobovnikova, answering the question about the current operational situation in Toretsk, Ukrinform reported on Tuesday, December 24.
20.26 Ukrainian drones attacked the Novoshakhtinsk Oil Refinery in the Rostov Region of the Russian Federation on December 19. As a result of the attack, at least one fuel tank burned down. This is evidenced by the corresponding satellite images.
19:58 The media reported that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry is asking the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence to postpone the preparation of the bill on the demobilization of military personnel until March 18, 2025.
19.03 Nikopol region also suffered from Russian terror on December 24. Russian troops attacked the region 35 times, using artillery and drones. This was reported by the head of the Dnipropetrovsk OVA Serhiy Lysak on Tuesday, December 24.
17.32 Since the beginning of the current day, 179 combat clashes have occurred on the front. Russian aggressors are most actively attacking in the Pokrovsky direction, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported in a report as of 16:00.
16.57 As a result of a Russian missile strike on a residential building in Krivoy Rog, at least six people were injured. Three people were hospitalized in moderate condition - women aged 69 and 72 and a 78-year-old man.
16.49 A man died in Kherson due to a Russian drone attack. This was reported by the head of the Kherson OVA Oleksandr Prokudin on Tuesday, December 24.
16.17 Russian troops have launched a ballistic missile attack on Krivoy Rog. A 4-story residential building with 32 apartments has been destroyed. All relevant services are already being dispatched to the site.
15.59 The Ukrainian Legion in Poland has received over a thousand applications for membership, and recruitment for the second unit promises to be larger than the first. This was stated by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bodnar.
15.30 Russian occupiers have made an unsuccessful attempt to expand their bridgehead on the left bank of the Oskol River in the Kharkiv region in the Kupyansk direction. This was reported by the operational-strategic group of troops Khortitsa.
15.05 Newly elected US President Donald Trump wants to achieve a fair, sustainable and secure peace in Ukraine. This was stated yesterday on Fox Business by Keith Kellogg, candidate for the post of US Special Representative for Ukraine and Russia.
14:50 Information about the reduction of the mobilization age in Ukraine has spread online. Serhiy Lunich, named as the representative of the 17th Poltava Brigade of the National Guard, stated that "the draft law on reducing the conscription age to 18 is already on the table in the Verkhovna Rada and awaits its approval."
The Verkhovna Rada, the National Guard and the Center for Countering Disinformation about the National Security and Defense Council denied this information.
"There have been and are no bills to reduce the mobilization age from 25 to 18 years, either in the Verkhovna Rada or in the relevant Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence in particular. The information disseminated in the media today is untrue," said MP Oleksandr Zavitnevych.
13.36 Ukrainian military have escaped cordon in the village of Makarovka in Donetsk Oblast. This was reported by the monitoring project DeepState . In turn, the Southern Defense Forces announced stabilization measures in the Makarovka area.
12:37 Russian military attempted to storm Ukrainian positions in the Vremovsky direction north of Velyka Novosilka. The defenders destroyed a column of enemy armored vehicles. FPV drones were used to intercept the enemy armored vehicles. Thanks to the precision of the drone operators, both enemy equipment and personnel were destroyed.
12:15 Soldiers of the 77th separate airmobile Dnieper Brigade of the Airborne Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, together with related units, captured 11 servicemen of the Russian army, one of whom was a citizen of Belarus.
11:00 In the temporarily occupied Berdyansk of the Zaporizhia region, a car was blown up that could have belonged to the "chairman of the council" of the city, Vasyl Nechet. This was reported by the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andryushchenko.
The explosion occurred in the courtyard of a house on Evropeiskaya Street. A car exploded and burned to the ground. The person injured in the explosion was hospitalized.
"Previously, the chairman of the occupation council, Vasily Nechet, was traveling by car," Andryushchenko noted.
10:50 Over the past 24 hours, Russian aggressors attacked about six settlements in the Vremovsky direction. They managed to penetrate the defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the OSGV Khortytsia reported .
10:31 Yesterday afternoon and night on Tuesday, the aggressor country Russia attacked Ukraine with 60 drones. Almost all of them were shot down and location was lost, the Ukrainian Air Force reported .
10:17 The Security Service prevented attempts to illegally sell weapons and ammunition in different regions of Ukraine. In Zhitomir, Cherkasy and Kirovohrad regions, five people who wanted to organize underground sales of weapons were detained "red-handed".
8:55 At night and in the morning, Russian troops attacked the Dnipropetrovsk region with drones, fired artillery and Grad MLRS, as a result of which residential buildings, power lines and cars were damaged.
8:35 Over the past 24 hours, 252 combat clashes have been recorded at the front. The Russian invaders are making their main efforts in the Kurakhovsky, Pokrovsky and Vremovsky directions. The occupiers used aviation to try to advance near Kurakhovo.
7:56 Explosions were heard twice in the Khmelnytskyi region on the morning of December 24, before which the Air Force reported drones moving in the direction of Starokostiantyniv. The explosions occurred at about 6:45 a.m., and then at 7 a.m.
7:40 As of December 24, the total combat losses of Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine were approximately 777,720 people (+1,630 per day).
7:30 The authorities of several countries have informed Russia of their readiness to become a platform for a meeting between the ruler Vladimir Putin and the elected US President Donald Trump. This was reported by the Russian dictator's assistant Yuri Ushakov.
2024-12-18
[BenarNews] The families of Mohammed Nazir bin Lep and Mohammed Farik bin Amin celebrated news of their return home.
Two Malaysians who pleaded guilty for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings were in their government’s custody after the United States announced their repatriation from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, where they were locked up for 18 years.
The duo, Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep, were turned over to Malaysian authorities, according to a statement from the home ministry in Kuala Lumpur.
"The unity government has received from the United States government the two Malaysian nationals, Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep, who were in prison since 2006 at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp on the principle of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. and support for universal justice," the ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
However,
if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... it did not mention whether the two would be sent to a Malaysian prison upon being repatriated from the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
In January, a U.S. military judge at Guantanamo Bay sentenced bin Amin and bin Lep to five more years in prison after they pleaded guilty to five charges connected to their supporting roles in twin bombings that killed 202 people in October 2002 — Indonesia’s deadliest-ever terror attack.
Their repatriation this week was made in secret and information was released to their lawyers at the last minute.
Lawyer Brian Bouffard said his client, bin Lep, was a changed man and ready to be reunited with his family. Their repatriation this week was made in secret and information was released to their lawyers at the last minute.
"It is now more than two decades since Nazir was taken. He has grown in that time, and is today a man of peace who will live the remainder of his life in peace. We are grateful to everyone, in Malaysia and in the U.S., who understood that it was time to bring Nazir home," Bouffard said in a text message to BenarNews.
In its own statement, the U.S. Defense Department said both men had provided testimony before their departure against Indonesian Encep Nurjaman (Hambali ...real name Riduan Isamuddin, close personal friend of Osama bin Laden, one of the founders of Jemaah Islamiyah and the planner of the 2002 Bali bombings. He was captured with the help of a mid-Eastern intel service, shipped to Guantanamo to rot but he'll likely be released eventually because that was a long time ago and we were all so much younger then... ) the alleged criminal mastermind of "al-Qaeda-affiliated attacks on nightclubs in Bali, Indonesia, in 2002, and the attack on the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2003."
Hambali is expected to stand trial before a military court at Guantanamo Bay on similar charges against him. As part of their plea agreements, bin Amin and bin Lep could not return to the United States for any reason, making it necessary for them to testify before leaving, Bouffard said.
Arrested in Thailand in 2003, bin Amin and bin Lep were held at a CIA black site before being transferred to Cuba in 2006. They pleaded guilty in January to murder, conspiracy and three other charges linked to the Bali bombing that killed over 200 people.
Previously, a source who requested anonymity for privacy concerns, told BenarNews that both were likely to be sent home before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th and 47th President of the United States... ’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
"There has been concern following Trump’s victory in the U.S. election. But we leave it to the government and the authority to work on it. Our hope is for him to be released soon," the source said.
WE LOVE HIM
Relatives of bin Lep were elated that he is back in Malaysia.
Professing his love for his younger brother, Najib Lep, 60, said he had already made plans to reintegrate him back into the society.
"We love him. We will take care of him and his welfare when he returns to us," Najib told BenarNews.
"For now, we have yet to receive any information from the Malaysian authorities. What we’ve got so far is just details from the media. Nevertheless, we cannot be more happy and grateful to Allah."
A source, who requested anonymity to ensure the safety of bin Amin’s family, said they were ready to welcome him home.
"Mohammed Farik has expressed his desire to care for his ailing parents upon return. His siblings have prepared a place for him to stay and will provide other necessary assistance for him. It will take time to readjust as he has been away from home for more than 20 years.
"The family is not ready to speak to the press and is waiting for clearance to meet Mohammed Farik," the source told BenarNews.
Bin Amin’s parents, ages 82 and 88, had been made aware of his return.
Lawyer Christine Funk said she and other members of bin Amin’s legal team were overjoyed by the prospect of their client being back in Malaysia.
"Mr. bin Amin said it best at his sentencing, when he told the Commission, the prosecution, the victim family members, and the observers, ’Instead of trying to change the world, I can only change myself. And over the past 20 years, I have changed. I am not an angry young man anymore. I am a reformed man,’" Funk said in a statement to BenarNews, adding he planned to "go forward as a good and peaceful Moslem."
Funk said the other members are confident that bin Amin will succeed.
Malaysian National Police Chief Razarudin Husain said the pair were to be evaluated and rehabilitated before being reintegrated into society, adding "everyone deserves a second chance."
"Both individuals are in good and healthy condition and feel blessed that they are able to return home and finally reunite with their family," he said in a statement about bin Amin and bin Lep.
"Both showed a positive attitude and openness toward the evaluation process and rehabilitation and have expressed their high commitment to become progressive members of society."
CONGRESS NOTIFIED LAST MONTH
Leading up to their release, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin notified Congress on Nov. 14 "of his intent to repatriate" the Malaysians "and, in consultation with our partners in Malaysia, we completed the requirements for responsible transfer," the statement from the Pentagon said. A 30-day notice must be filed before such transfers can occur.
The Malaysians had been linked to Hambali until their cases were separated from his in 2023 ahead of their plea deal.
Court documents state that beginning at the end of 2001, "including the periods before, during, and after the October 12, 2002, Bali bombings," bin Lep and bin Amin helped Hambali "transfer money for operations, and obtain and store items such as fraudulent identification documents, weapons and instructions on how to make bombs."
With the transfer, the number of detainees at Guantanamo Bay has been reduced to 27, the Pentagon said.
#2
Still slightly surprised over the facts that the USA cancelled its $10 million bounty on the former HTS leader and got so little coverage on the MSM (aka Garbage Media).
#4
The far too strident braying of Allahuh Ackbar by devotees of the Religion of Peace has a counterpoint buried in history, but interestingly, quite imprinted (literally) on the incoming Secretary of Defense...Deus Vult!
Consider what you bargain for on this most Holy Day for the West and remember this other piece of ancient wisdon, Caveat Emptor!
[IsraelTimes] Prosecutors have said at least some of the violence against Israeli soccer fans was motivated by ‘the situation in Gaza,’ not antisemitism; 6 more suspects yet to appear at court
A Dutch court on Tuesday convicted five men for their part in last month’s violence against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam that shocked the world and sparked accusations of antisemitism.
The Amsterdam district court found them guilty of a range of crimes, from kicking fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the street to inciting violence in chat groups.
The heaviest sentence imposed was six months in prison, for a man identified as Sefa O. for public violence against several people.
Israeli officials said 10 people were maimed 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-Paleostinian and anti-Israel slogans while they hunted, beat and harassed them.
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 Paleostinian flag.
Images of the violence went around the world and sparked a furious reaction in Israel, including accusations of a "pogrom."
The most serious case under consideration Tuesday was that of O., who prosecutors said played a "leading role" in the violence.
The court saw images of a man identified as O. kicking a person on the ground, chasing targets, and punching people in the head and the body.
The prosecutor said the beatings had "little to do with soccer" but added that "in this case, there was no evidence of... a terrorist intent and the violence was not motivated by antisemitic sentiment."
"The violence was influenced by the situation 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... , not by antisemitism," claimed the prosecutor, referring to Israel’s war against Paleostinian terror group Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... , sparked by the latter’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in Israel in which attackers killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 251.
Another man identified as Umutcan A., 24, received a sentence of one month for assaulting fans and violent mostly peacefully ripping a Maccabi scarf from one of them.
A 22-year-old identified as Abushabab M., 22, faces a charge of attempted murder but his case has been postponed while he undergoes a psychiatric assessment.
He was born in the Gaza Strip and grew up in a war zone, his lawyer told the court, while M. sat sobbing as his case was being heard.
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.
At an emotionally charged news conference the morning after the riots, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said the city had been "deeply damaged" by "hateful antisemitic rioters."
However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... Halsema later said she regretted the parallel she had drawn between the violence and "memories of pogroms," arguing that this word had been used as propaganda.
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 during the court proceedings.
Sometimes I feel like I was the only reporter to look into the details of the Gaetz allegations. That's how I learned the accuser is in prison for making the same false sex-with-minors accusation against someone else. https://t.co/0oqOfDlBQb
Mollie you Know if they had Anything at all on him, they would have made it into 34 counts of horrendous tremendous BS and he would be in court and jail right now. Innocent until proven guilty. That's not ez in Bidens DOJ. They don't care about the Innocent part. We Know it too.
In addition to reliance on felons convicted of previously telling this very same type of fabrications, it is alleged that THE COMMITTEE flat out LIED about testimony they received. Attorneys for folks they deposed are demanding retractions. https://t.co/PPCN1nPHCC
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[Regnum] On the night of December 22, the US armed forces launched a combined strike on Yemeni territory controlled by the pro-Iranian movement Ansar Allah (Houthis). The operation, according to the Pentagon, was intended to reduce the military potential of the Shiite group and disrupt attacks on US Navy warships and merchant ships in the Red and Arabian Seas.
However, in practice, the Americans, without intending to, gave the Houthis a powerful propaganda trump card.
An American F/A-18 multirole carrier-based aircraft has been shot down, becoming the first confirmed loss of American aviation since the start of Operation Guardian of Prosperity. And it is quite difficult to believe that the blame for the loss of the aircraft lies solely with the Americans themselves.
THE TARGET IS THE CAPITAL
The targets of the current raid were Houthi military facilities in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen (under Houthi control since 2014). Weapons depots and the movement's command post, identified in the Attan area, were identified as priority targets.
The current US attack on Houthi targets has become one of the largest in the past year and a half.
It was only slightly inferior in the number of targets attacked to Operation Guardian of Prosperity, which began the confrontation between Ansar Allah and the American contingent in the Middle East.
The exact number of US forces involved is not disclosed, and objective monitoring also gives conflicting views on the number of strike assets involved.
At the same time, the Pentagon does not hide the fact that the December US operation was the most intensive combat use of the American navy since World War II.
PROMPT RESPONSE
Although attacks on Houthi ground infrastructure are usually a one-sided game and the movement “responds” to them asymmetrically – with strikes on American allies’ facilities in the Middle East (mainly Israel) or attacks on military and civilian vessels, this time the reaction to the American strikes was almost immediate.
After the first wave of strikes, the Houthis launched several kamikaze UAVs and an anti-ship cruise missile in the direction of the American aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, but all strike weapons were quickly shot down by the ship's air defense systems.
The US fleet suffered no damage. However, one of the carrier-based aircraft was missing.
Air defenses from the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg mistakenly shot down an F/A-18 multirole aircraft (assigned to a squadron of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman) that was taking part in strikes on Houthi-controlled Sanaa.
Although the crew of the plane survived, the loss of the F/A-18 greatly reduced the media impact of the strikes on the Houthis and gave rise to numerous rumors about the presence of some “new military technologies” in Ansar Allah.
Of course, the Houthis have managed to “ground” enemy aircraft before.
Thus, during the conflict in Yemen, they shot down American-made F-15 fighters at least three times, but all of them were assigned to the army of the "Arabian Coalition" led by the Saudis and were piloted by Arab crews. But until recently, they had not managed to reach the US Air Force.
Unsurprisingly, the Houthis quickly took credit for their opponents' blunder.
The movement's spokesman, Yahya Saria, later claimed that Yemeni revolutionaries had shot down the plane. According to him, it took eight cruise missiles and 17 drones to "trap" one of the planes. Saria also hinted that the damage to the US Navy was not limited to just one carrier-based aircraft.
HACKERS, LASERS AND MILITARY ADVISERS
Naturally, such an unexpected outcome of the night operation almost immediately gave rise to a wave of rumors and hypotheses about the real picture of the battle. Thus, the version that the "friendly fire" of the American cruiser was skillfully provoked by the enemy gained great popularity.
Allegedly, Ansar Allah units used advanced electronic warfare technologies against US naval forces and “substituted” the target, as a result of which the USS Gettysburg crew mistook their own aircraft for an enemy missile.
There was also quite a lot of talk about special "laser systems" implanted in Houthi UAVs and missiles. The latest guidance technologies allegedly made it possible to overcome the dense barrage of naval air defenses and destroy one of the planes that bombed Sanaa.
In support of this hypothesis, the facts were cited that Houthi missiles, unlike Iraqi and Lebanese ones, regularly and easily penetrate the famous Israeli Iron Dome system. After Saria's briefing, this version became one of the main ones in the Arabic-language segment of the Internet.
However, in practice, such rumors were spread mainly by bloggers close to Ansar Allah and were not supported by any evidence.
The Western blogosphere assessed the situation somewhat differently, and was quick to recall not only Iranian but also Russian military advisers, whose hypothetical participation Western tabloids had periodically written about throughout the year.
According to Western media, Moscow shared with Sana some "advanced developments" (including a simplified analogue of laser emitters), which were tested against the US in combat conditions. However, this version contains a large number of assumptions and distortions, and therefore also does not stand up to criticism.
Overall, the most likely and realistic version of events remains a technical error on the part of the American cruiser's crew.
However, even in this scenario, the Pentagon will have to approach the planning of future combined operations against the Houthis more carefully - so that they cannot exploit the identified vulnerability and do not begin to “drive” American aircraft under fire from their own naval air defenses.
[Jpost] Whatever path forward is chosen, the Houthis will need to suffer more serious blows because, currently, they feel emboldened.
The Iranian-backed Houthis launched another ballistic missile at Israel early on Tuesday, marking the fourth such attack in two weeks – the others coming on Saturday, Thursday, and last Monday. The Houthis are increasing their attacks and showing they are not deterred by Israel’s strikes or rhetoric.
Defense Minister Israel Katz visited the Arrow air defense battery that intercepted the missile. He said, “We will not accept the fact that the Houthis continue to fire at the State of Israel. We will deal with the heads of the Houthis in Sana’a and everywhere in Yemen.”
Katz made similar comments on Monday when he vowed that Israel would severely weaken the Houthis. He compared Israel’s actions on this front with the way Israel had fought Hamas and Hezbollah. He noted that Israel had eliminated Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Katz was clear on his vow regarding the road ahead.
“We defeated Hamas, we defeated Hezbollah, we blinded the defense systems in Iran and damaged their production systems, we toppled the Assad regime in Syria, we severely wounded the axis of evil, and we will also severely strike the Houthi terrorist organization in Yemen who are the last ones standing."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also vowed to increase retaliation against the Houthis. He said Israel would act with force, determination, and sophistication, in comments on Sunday.
HOUTHIS REMAIN UNDETERRED
The Houthis have not been deterred by these words. Not only are they not deterred, but the more Israeli officials make bold statements, the more the Houthis will launch missiles to show it has no effect on them.
The Houthis understand the strategic and tactical picture. They have been attacking ships for a year and received only a very modest response from the US naval forces, which have been deployed as part of an operation designed to protect shipping.
It’s important to understand that what the Houthis are doing is relatively new in the region. They are not a state seeking to blockade a waterway but are a terrorist group acting as if they are a state.
They have succeeded in cutting down the ability of many firms to ship via the Red Sea. They have also continued attacking Israel with relative impunity. Israel has carried out three rounds of airstrikes against the Houthis, one in the summer, one in the fall, and one recently in December.
However, the strikes have not deterred the Houthis. This is because they steeled themselves in war against Saudi Arabia for years after Riyadh intervened in Yemen in 2015. Saudi Arabia had many of the latest warplanes and technology thanks to close ties with the US, yet Riyadh could not defeat the Houthis.
The Houthis have dug in on the high ground of the mountains of Yemen. They have had Iranian backing and advice for years about constructing tunnels to hide missiles and how to deploy rockets quickly. The Houthis have developed a more sophisticated missile and drone program than Hamas and Hezbollah.
Hamas hides underneath civilians to launch rockets and attacks, but it has to exist in a relatively small area of Gaza. Hezbollah carpeted southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley with weapons and missiles, but it was not able to hide its long-range missiles and is so close to Israel that it’s easily within striking distance for the IDF. The Houthis are 2,000 km. away from Israel, requiring complex planning to strike them.
There is another fact in this war, which is not one that most of those making statements want to acknowledge. Precision airstrikes usually do not win wars. Precision firepower on warplanes is not a magic wand, and it often deceives militaries into thinking they can accomplish things that cannot be achieved solely with warplanes.
This is most clear from the failure of the US-led coalition against Saddam Hussein to stop the Scud attacks on Israel during the Gulf War. That was called the “great Scud hunt,” and it wasn’t so great, nor did it achieve the intended results. Saddam’s regime was deploying Scuds in the Anbar province, specifically in the desert, making it hard for the US and its allies to find them.
The Houthis are rolling missiles out of tunnels in the mountains, and it is incredibly difficult to preempt or predict. Finding the stockpiles and eliminating the Houthi leadership may be even harder.
This does not mean it is impossible to defeat the Houthis. However, Israel would do well to be careful about learning the wrong lessons from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran.
Israel’s war in Gaza has gone on for a year and two months, and Hamas is not yet defeated. Hamas controls most of Gaza, holds 100 hostages, and continues to dictate terms in the hostage talks.
Even in northern Gaza, where the IDF’s 162nd Division has been unleashed for two months to hunt down terrorists in Jabalya, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanun, the terror threat continues. On Monday, the IDF said three soldiers were killed by an explosion in Beit Hanun. There are still terrorists in Beit Hanun – near the border with Israel – despite a year of operations.
LESSONS FROM OTHER FRONTS MAY NOT BE APPLICABLE IN YEMEN
In Lebanon, Hezbollah has been weakened, but it still exists. It may have lost leaders and weapons, but it would be foolish to think it has vanished. Is Hezbollah weaker today than in 2006? It may regrow itself.
Similarly, Israeli officials have taken credit for the fall of Bashar al-Assad, but the reality is that Assad fell because of his own hollow regime and the ability of the opposition to mobilize and take advantage of the weakening of Hezbollah.
Lastly, the lessons of Israel’s strikes on Iran are not yet clear.
[Jpost] Here are two names that will go down in ignominy in Israel: Nahum Manbar and Gonen Segev.
Why? Because they worked for the Iranians against their own people.
In the 1990s, Manbar – a kibbutznik with a checkered past – set up shop in Europe and started selling arms to Iran, including the ingredients, equipment, and expertise to make chemical weapons.
In 1998, he was sentenced to 16 years for collaboration and providing information to an enemy. He served 14.5 years of his sentence.
Segev, a former minister in Yitzhak Rabin’s cabinet turned drug smuggler (he was arrested for trying to smuggle thousands of ecstasy tablets into Israel from Amsterdam), was recruited abroad by Iranian intelligence in 2012.
In 2019, Segev – whose vote was critical in the passage of the 1995 Oslo II accords in the Knesset – pleaded guilty to charges of espionage and supplying the enemy with information and was sentenced to an 11-year prison term, which he is currently serving.
Both these cases made huge headlines in Israel: Israeli Jews working for the enemy. The Wikipedia entry on Manbar includes this telling sentence: “Manbar’s activities, some of which were conducted in Britain, drew the attention of MI6, which could not believe that an Israeli could be working so closely with Iran and concluded that Manbar was a Mossad agent trying to penetrate Iran’s defense establishment.”
In other words, Britain’s vaunted intelligence service believed it so far-fetched that an Israeli would be working so closely with the Iranians that they thought it must be a ruse; that Manbar must be a double-agent.
These cases were once startling exceptions that dominated the headlines, painting espionage as an aberration. No more.
The last year has seen the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) arrest dozens of Israelis working for – and getting paid by – Iran or Hezbollah with the express purpose of spying on or sowing discord in Israel.
SPYING FOR THE ENEMY
The instances of spying for the enemy that come to light are now so frequent that Sunday’s announcement that the Shin Bet arrested two east Jerusalem Arabs for passing information to Hezbollah barely cracked the chock-full news cycle.
True, the two arrested were not Jews – but Arabs – but this, too, would have garnered much more attention in years past. Now, cases of Israelis – Jews or Arabs – indicted for espionage or assisting the enemy during war are so common that they barely elicit outrage.
Why? What has changed? Why are there currently so many more cases of Israelis spying for the enemy?
The Shin Bet has uncovered about a dozen separate espionage cases involving dozens of Israelis over the last year. The large number of these cases indicates Iran is increasing its intelligence efforts and shifting its methods and targets.
Consider the following: On December 17, it was revealed that Erdler Amoyal, a 23-year-old Jewish Jerusalemite, was arrested on suspicion of espionage on Iran’s behalf and allegedly proposed setting fire to a police station and causing a power outage on Jerusalem’s light rail.
On December 9, the Shin Bet announces that Artyom Zolotarev, a 33-year-old from Nof HaGalil, was arrested after being recruited by Iran to carry out a number of disruptive actions inside Israel aimed at fostering internal divisions, including spraying anti-government graffiti and burning vehicles.
In October alone, some 20 people were arrested for everything from surveillance of military installations to attempted assassinations, and they included a Bnei Brak resident, recent immigrants from Azerbaijan, and east Jerusalem Arabs.
ISRAELIS WORKING FOR IRAN
Several reasons have been given for this upsurge in Israelis working for Iran.
The first has to do with Iran significantly ramping up its espionage and disruptive efforts inside Israel.
This stems from operational considerations – remember, Iran attacked Israel directly on two occasions this year, and photographs of military installations reportedly assisted them in aiming for their targets – and also an increased motivation to penetrate Israel following the July assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a secure location in Tehran.
The escalation of the conflict and readiness of Iran to hit Israel directly has led to an increase in Iran’s efforts to gather intelligence.
Second, the Islamic Republic has spread a wide net, targeting individuals across the Israeli spectrum. While the popular perception might be that Israeli Arabs are the most likely to spy for Iran due to an ideological affinity with the regime’s goals, this is not the case.
Rather, they are targeting haredim, new immigrants, people with a criminal background, and ordinary citizens, often going after those with financial difficulties motivated by the prospect of making some quick money. Iran has been offering significant amounts of money for tasks such as painting graffiti or taking pictures.
The targeting of new immigrants – a number of those arrested have been from the former Soviet Union – also may have an unfortunate ripple effect beyond a threat to Israeli security: fostering suspicion and stigmatizing specific demographics among the public.
Furthermore, Iran has been able to cast a wider net largely thanks to social media, which they leverage to recruit people. The digital approach to recruitment allows Iran to reach segments of the population that they would not have been able to access before the advent of platforms like Telegram.
As Iran spreads a wider net, more actively trying to recruit spies and reaching out to broader demographics, the likelihood of detection by the Shin Bet also increases. The more you engage in this type of activity, the greater is the risk of being found out.
Indeed, Iran’s increased activity has triggered an escalation in Israeli counterintelligence efforts.
The Shin Bet has invested heavily in technology and surveillance tools to detect espionage networks, leading to a higher rate of arrests and dismantling of operations but also straining the organization’s resources. And as Iran’s efforts multiply, the challenges of detection will become more complex.
The upsurge in these cases is a product of the clash between Iran’s intensifying ambitions and Israel’s determination to protect itself. The cases of Manbar and Segev were once shocking outliers; today, they are part of a larger pattern.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] A criminal case has been opened following the sinking of the Russian dry cargo ship Ursa Major in the Mediterranean Sea. This was reported on December 24 by the press service of the Western Interregional Investigative Department for Transport of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.
A criminal case was opened under Part 3 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of safety rules for the movement and operation of water transport, resulting through negligence in the death of more than two people”).
According to investigators, Ursa Major sank on December 23 in the Mediterranean Sea. The crew left the cargo ship in a lifeboat.
“The fate of two crew members who were at the epicenter of the incident is currently being determined,” the Russian Investigative Committee reported.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, the Russian dry cargo ship, which left St. Petersburg 12 days ago and was heading to Vladivostok, sank between Spain and Algeria. The Spanish publication Español reported that an explosion occurred in the ship's engine room.
On November 24, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that 14 crew members of the sunken dry cargo ship had been rescued. Two more people were listed as missing. According to the rescued sailors, the cargo on board included empty containers in the hold and two cranes on the deck.
The Spanish Maritime Search and Rescue Agency later said that a Russian warship had assumed responsibility for rescue operations at the Ursa Major wreck site after consultation with Spanish authorities.
More from regnum.ru Russian warship takes on rescue operations after Ursa Major sinking
[Regnum] A Russian warship has assumed responsibility for rescue operations at the site of the wreck of the Russian cargo ship Ursa Major in agreement with the Spanish authorities. This was reported on December 24 by the Spanish Maritime Search and Rescue Agency.
They noted that the day before, when the distress signal was sent, the ship was approximately 57 miles (approximately 91 km) from the coast of Almeria.
“Having contacted a nearby vessel, it reported bad weather conditions and a lifeboat in the water, ” Izvestia quoted the agency’s statement as saying.
Rescuers found 14 people in the boat and took them to Cartagena. People reported that the ship had empty containers in the hold and two cranes on the deck as cargo.
It is noted that the Ursa Major dry cargo ship sank at night. The Spanish Maritime Service continues to work in the area of the wreck, removing floating objects that are dangerous to navigation and checking the waters for pollution.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on December 24 it became known about the wreck of the Russian vessel Ursa Major in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea between Spain and Algeria. The Spanish publication Español indicated that the cause of the incident was an explosion in the engine room. The vessel, under the Russian flag, left the port of St. Petersburg 12 days ago and was heading to Vladivostok, where it was supposed to arrive on January 22.
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed information about 14 rescued crew members. Two more are missing. The duty shifts of the Department of the Situation and Crisis Center of the Foreign Ministry, the situation center of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and Russian foreign institutions are monitoring this situation.
Related from regnum.ru Tankers sunk in Black Sea violated seasonal navigation restrictions
During an inspection, Rostransnadzor found that the tankers that sank in the Kerch Strait violated seasonal restrictions on navigation in the water area. This was reported by the Russian Ministry of Transport on December 24.
“Several tankers belonging to Volgatransneft CJSC are not included in the license for the transportation of dangerous goods by inland water and sea transport,” the ministry’s Telegram channel stated.
It is noted that the Ministry of Transport continues to monitor the situation in the waters of the Kerch Strait.
According to the latest data, more than 170 square kilometers of water area have been surveyed. Vessels of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Morresluzhba" subordinate to Rosmorrechflot have cleared over 24.3 thousand square meters of fuel oil. 2705 kg of neutralizing sorbent have been used to eliminate oil products. 19 vessels are participating in the work.
Specialists also cleared 4.8 thousand square meters of beaches and coastal areas, collecting about 14.5 tons of oil-containing waste. 200 meters of boom barriers were placed in river mouths and estuaries.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on December 15, two tankers carrying fuel oil sank in the Kerch Strait during a storm. As a result of the emergency, a partial leak of oil products occurred. Due to the current situation, a high alert regime was introduced in four settlements of the region. At the same time, the head of the Krasnodar Territory, Veniamin Kondratyev, emphasized that there is no threat to the environmental situation in the region.
On December 24, the Russian Emergencies Ministry reported that rescuers and volunteers had collected more than 21,000 tons of oil-contaminated soil on the coast of Kuban and Crimea. More than 9,500 people and 437 units of equipment are working on the ground.
The owner of one of the tankers has already committed to lifting it and disposing of it. Confirmation from the second is expected soon. The elimination of fuel oil from coastal areas is ongoing from morning until late at night. The main work is being carried out in two areas - from Blagoveshchenskaya to Vityazevo and from Vityazevo to the central beach of Anapa, the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources noted.
A unified headquarters of volunteers who are helping to clean up the shore has opened in Anapa. Among those involved in the cleanup are volunteers from the "We Are Together" campaign, members of the "Movement of the First", "Young Guard of United Russia" and "People's Front".
Text taken from the Telegram channel of kramnikcat
Not sure about the terminology used here, so I will replace the most obscure ones with my interpretations, Can't be helped.
[ColonelCassad] The US problem with the Ticonderogas modernization can be divided into 3 parts.
1. The state of the industry. Naval ship repair in the US has generally degraded to the level we are used to here against the backdrop of the post-Soviet Achtung: delays in deadlines (sometimes several times), fires on units under repair, low quality of repairs as such, sometimes with the impossibility of sending a repaired steamer to the BS, a shortage of personnel and other delights greatly complicate the maintenance of combat readiness of the fleet.
2. The state of the ships themselves. Before the Ticonderogas, the US only once solved the problem of returning non-aircraft-carrying combat surface ships to service at the age of ~40 years: these were the Iowa-class battleships under Reagan. They met the modernization of the 1980s with a much less exhausted resource (mostly since the mid-1950s they were mothballed) and at a completely different level of industry. At the same time, the modernization of the Iowas was not simple and the forty-year-old steamships did not show miracles of reliability.
3. The most important thing. The same line is ahead for the "Burkes", which were introduced in the successful years in the 1990s and early 2000s at 3-4 units per year.
Neither Flight III "Burkes" nor, especially, DDG (X) will be built at this rate, while no ship can be in more than one place at a time. Will the volume of DDG (X) in combination with FFG-62 be enough? Let's see. Ship repair in the States does not show any trends for improvement yet. Drones in the framework of Distributed Lethality will not help much: if the current war proves anything, it is the fact that a drone lives until serious electronic warfare.
#1
....Part of the problem is that we knowingly destroyed the US shipbuilding industry decades ago.
My dad worked for the old American Ship Building company in Lorain, OH (they had a second smaller yard in Toledo). In 1983, they had three drydocks, all big enough to handle anything that could get through the St Lawrence Seaway.
They also had a berserk union demanding more money for far less work (their last demand was a 20% raise and a 4-day week). They did NOT have USN contracts, because the Navy wouldn't give them to yards that didn't have 4 year contracts with their unions - the union said anything past 3 years was completely off the table.
And so AmShip went under, and they weren't alone. The only major building yards left are the ones with nonstop USN contracts, and they're overwhelmed by needed maintenance, much less any new construction. The surviving yards know they have the USN by the shorts, and they have zero incentive to fix it.
Time well past when 30% of the union pension funds must be made up of the company they are employed by. You sink the company, you sink your pension fund.
#4
34 years I spent in a shipyard we had up and down years but mostly up building Navy supply ships and commercial oil tankers. good mix plus repair on Navy ships, and had an effective trainee program for
maintaining labor needs.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] The Islamic Eight (D8) summit, an international organization that brings together Turkey, Iran, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, was held in Cairo recently. The current meeting took place amid unprecedented tensions in the Middle East and growing escalation between Iran and Israel.
Over the past year and a half, Tehran has firmly established its reputation as a “regional bully” and one of the architects of the Middle East crisis. It is not surprising that the Iranian authorities have tried to use the D8 platform to strengthen their regional positions and eliminate past tactical miscalculations.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's speeches on the sidelines of the D8 were expectedly focused on the topic of maintaining stability in the Middle East. Pezeshkian repeatedly emphasized that Tehran is not a "regional bully" and advocates maintaining good-neighborly relations with the Middle Eastern powers.
True, Israel was expectedly deleted from the list of “candidates for good neighborliness” – the Iranian president blamed it not only for the destabilization of individual countries in the Middle East, but also for the worsening economic situation in the Islamic world.
Pezeschkian's speech was generally well received, with the D8 leaders thanking Iran for "taking responsibility for its actions" and reaffirming their commitment to stabilizing the situation in the region.
However, Pezeshkian was unable to completely take over the anti-Israeli agenda.
The Turks were the first to call for the "immediate international isolation" of Tel Aviv from the D8 rostrum. However, they were very disingenuous: despite criticism of Israeli operations in Gaza and Lebanon, Ankara still remains one of Israel's key trading partners, including providing for the needs of the IDF.
AS THE OWNER
The Cairo summit was significant in many ways because it was the first time in a decade that an Iranian president had traveled to Egypt in person, a clear sign of improved dialogue between Tehran and Cairo. Pezeshkian also met with Egyptian leader Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, discussing the current contours of the conflict in the Middle East.
On the other hand, despite the face-to-face meeting, the conversation took place in the most neutral tones possible - the leaders of the two countries did not touch on the issues of combating terrorism, and spoke about key regional conflicts with restraint and almost without judgment.
The issue of shipping safety in the Mediterranean and Red Seas was also ignored – this is a sore subject for Cairo, since the country suffered more than others from attacks by the pro-Iranian Houthis; Egypt’s total losses from the naval blockade in the Red Sea amounted to tens of billions of dollars.
Cairo and Tehran continue to keep an eye on each other, including because in the current conflict in the Middle East they are de facto on opposite sides of the barricades.
Egypt, although it seeks to play the role of mediator on Gaza, remains a strategic partner of the United States and Israel, and one of the opponents of Iranian interference in Arab affairs.
For the same reason, the interlocutors avoided the topic of establishing contacts with the “new Syria” — largely because both had previously “bet” on Bashar al-Assad’s regime in the conflict. However, Cairo still has an additional trump card up its sleeve — support for the “new Syria” at the level of the League of Arab States, but the Egyptian authorities do not plan to share it with the Iranians.
The D8 summit only confirmed that suspicions between the two powers remain and that a major breakthrough in dialogue between them should not be expected in the near future.
At the Islamic Eight platform, Iran attempted to simultaneously resolve the ambiguities in the Syrian direction.
During a meeting with Turkish President Recep Erdogan, the issue of post-war reconstruction of Syria became one of the main ones. Despite the fact that the meeting was rather short, the Turkish leader hinted to his Iranian counterpart about the existence of some “loopholes” in the dialogue with the “new Damascus”, noting that the restoration of Syria is a “collective matter”.
In addition, Ankara and Tehran criticized the illegal Israeli presence on Syrian territory, as well as the “extended occupation” of the Golan Heights.
KEYS TO SYRIA
Erdogan's public position on Syria does not oblige his protégés in Damascus to anything.
Representatives of the "Syrian Salvation Government" (SSG) continue to criticize "destructive Iranian influence" and demand the "cleansing" of Iranian creatures from all state institutions.
Considering that nothing changed in the rhetoric of the PSS either during the summit or after its completion, Tehran, apparently, failed to reach the new Syrian authorities through Turkey.
Another important result of the Cairo D8 summit was the expansion of the participants: Azerbaijan joined the G8 (not without the support of the Iranian authorities). For Tehran, Baku's participation in the D8 opens up significant prospects for further deepening of contacts. Moreover, both sides are interested in developing joint infrastructure projects, in particular the Southern Cargo Terminal.
There are, however, more specific tasks.
It is important for Tehran to prevent Azerbaijan from being drawn into the "anti-Iranian club" at all costs. Especially since the activity of Israeli special services in the Transcaucasus has increased significantly over the past two years, and official Tel Aviv is increasingly positioning Baku as its strategic partner, which causes some concern among the Iranians.
Also, due to its political proximity to Turkey, Azerbaijan is considered by Ankara as one of the economic donors of the “new Syria”, and Tehran hopes to reach out to the new Syrian government, including through them.
Overall, the Cairo summit brought certain dividends to Tehran.
The Iranian authorities have demonstrated their willingness to continue cooperation with all D8 countries regardless of disagreements “on the ground,” and have also partly absolved themselves of responsibility for further escalation.
On the other hand, the Iranians have still not been able to solve the main regional task at the moment – to establish a dialogue with the “new Syria” through other players (both regional and external).
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… UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) has launched a surprise offensive in the southern Taiz region. Heavy clashes have been reported in al-Janad, southwestern Yemen, intensifying the already volatile situation in the country.
[PJMedia] Voters and politicians alike this year are increasingly turning to the Trumpian Republican Party. The governor-elect of American Samoa and the governor of the Northern Mariana Islands are both planning to join the GOP.
After Donald Trump and the Republicans’ sweeping victory in the 2024 election, Governor-elect Pulaalii Nikolao Pula of American Samoa and Governor Arnold Palacios of the Northern Mariana Islands revealed their decisions to become Republicans. Pula cited GOP “values of respect for God, Country and Family,” while Palacios praised “President Trump and the Republican Party’s message of freedom, opportunity, and strength.” Both governors cited Trump in their statements.
Last night, two people were stabbed (one dead), and a third person assaulted on a southbound 7-train in Queens, NY. Police arrested 3 suspects. All illegal aliens.
This comes just hours after the NYPD apprehended the illegal who set the woman on fire on the F train in Brooklyn. pic.twitter.com/zbR3gLY8hN
I guess when you are minor, murder is like a Video Game and maybe seen as a process to get taken care, instead of having to work for a living, for the rest of your life.
Or, until another senile Democrat President pardons you.
[BenarNews] Macabre killings, casual torture, misdirection and snooping were part of "the anatomy of enforced disappearances" linked to deposed Bangladesh Prime Minister the loathesomeSheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and now exiled former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She was President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia showed such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums. That is probably because Khaleda's late husband was the Pak tool who had Mujib assassinated... , an inquiry commission said in its first report.
The five-member commission learned about how forced disappearances were carried out based on accounts from surviving victims of such incidents — that is, those who resurfaced.
The commission, led by a retired Supreme Court judge, presented its report last weekend to Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate who became Bangladesh’s interim leader days after Hasina fled to India on Aug. 5.
Officers from the military and various security forces including the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were interviewed by commission members. The United States, which sanctioned RAB in December 2021, accused it of more than 600 forced disappearances over 12 years.
The commission has recommended RAB be disbanded.
A longtime human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... activist, Jyotirmoy Barua, said any claims by Hasina or her supporters that the commission’s members were politically motivated would not hold water.
"The members of the commission are not directly or visibly politically connected — none have a political background," he told BenarNews.
A Bangladeshi human rights lawyer, Sara Hossain, concurred.
The commission head was known for his impartiality, and the other four members had long investigated human rights violations under governments led by both major political parties, she told BenarNews.
Here are 10 shocking revelations from the commission’s report, which is based on its scrutiny of 758 forced disappearance cases:
1. The number of forced disappearance cases likely exceeds 3,500, the commission said. It received 1,678 registered complaints. Of the 758 people’s cases it has scrutinized so far, 204 people, or 27% of alleged victims, are still missing. "[T]he massive scale at which it was unleashed on the population during Sheikh Hasina’s regime is a novel phenomenon," its report said.
2. Forced disappearances were not carried out by a few bad apples, the commission reported. The finesse with which each of the steps involved in a disappearance were carried out and the responsibilities divided across agencies — all over a span of 15 years — did not happen by accident, the report said. "[T]hese systems reflect a deliberate design orchestrated by a central command structure," the report added.
3. With so many involved, how did the network remain undetected for a decade-and-a-half? That, too, was no accident, the commission found. "[S]security forces would ... falsely attribute their actions to other agencies. ... The forces would also exchange victims amongst themselves, with one force abducting, another incarcerating, the third one killing or releasing the victims," the commission learned.
4. Even as they stayed undetected, the perpetrators could be brazen. The report said one victim of forced disappearance who was returned was even told that Hasina was giving him "a second chance," but with conditions. "You must refrain from politics, leave the country, and return only when the situation improves," he was told, the commission’s report said.
5. Abducting people without anyone around them noticing — known as "silent pick-ups" — was a vital part of forced disappearance operatives staying undetected. That was entirely impossible without electronic surveillance, which was widespread, according to the commission’s interviews with RAB and military officers.
6. Victims were detained for varying periods, ranging from 48-60 hours to several weeks or months, and in some cases, up to eight years, the report said. Some of the kidnapped were mixed in with legal detainees and some were stashed in secret cells. The commission said it had identified more than eight secret detention facilities where victims were held across the country. Many other such centers had been destroyed, it said.
7. The remarkable consistency in forced disappearance practices across the country included congruence in torture rituals, which were also "profoundly brutal and disturbingly methodical," the commission report said. One victim described RAB sewing his lips shut without anesthetic — "akin to stitching cowhide." Another recounted, RAB again, electrocuting his ears and genitals.
8. A forced disappearance case ended in one of two ways, the commission learned. The victim was killed or turned loose into the criminal justice system. For those the operatives decided to kill, they wanted to ensure the body would be difficult to identify. But RAB and other forces couldn’t resist making a sport of it. One survivor said a police officer pushed him onto a highway in front of a vehicle, which swerved away from him. The officer didn’t try again.
9. A victim who was let go may have had his or her life spared, but the perpetrators made sure they, perversely, destroyed that life. The captors would file a slew of cases against the victim in an attempt to justify the forced disappearance. This perpetuates "the sufferings of victims, who are forced to navigate a deeply flawed and punitive legal system for years afterwards," the commission report said.
10. India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has since 2014, when it came to power, been Hasina’s steadfast supporter. Before that, India’s Congress government too favored a Hasina administration. Did this closeness also involve prisoner exchanges, including of Bangladeshi forced disappearance victims? The commission said it did, basing its assessment on two cases and interviews with soldiers deputed to RAB Intelligence.
[FoxNews] A second SM-2 missile was fired from USS Gettysburg, Navy official confirms.
On the same night a U.S. Navy fighter jet was shot down over the Red Sea, a second jet nearly suffered the same fate. An F/A-18 Super Hornet – flying a few miles behind the Hornet that was shot down – was forced to take evasive maneuvers after a second surface-to-air missile was fired from the cruiser USS Gettysburg, narrowly missing the second jet by 100 feet while it prepared to land aboard the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, a source with knowledge of the incident tells Fox News.
A Navy official confirmed that a second SM-2 missile was fired from USS Gettysburg, adding that the Navy is investigating whether that missile was targeting the second jet.
The Navy is also looking into whether the USS Gettysburg switched off the guidance system on the second missile. The near shoot-down of a second U.S. Navy jet has not been previously reported.
U.S. Central Command, responsible for leading airstrikes in the Middle East, including the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, said in a statement about the "friendly fire" incident earlier this week: "The guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64), which is part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18, which was flying off the USS Harry S. Truman."
The source said that is not correct. The F/A-18 Super Hornet was attempting to land aboard Truman when it was shot down after performing a midair refueling mission for jets carrying out airstrikes over Yemen, the source said.
"It was a tanker crew returning to land on the carrier about 10 miles out. They recognized the missile was guiding and punched out about three seconds before the missile hit the jet," the source said.
The pilot and weapons systems officer ejected and were picked up by a rescue helicopter and returned to the carrier. One suffered "minor injuries," according to a Centcom statement.
Neither U.S. Central Command nor the Pentagon has disclosed a second American fighter jet was fired upon by the cruiser and narrowly avoided getting shot down as well.
"The cruiser almost shot down two friendly jets," the source said.
On the night of the "friendly fire" incident, U.S. Central Command said in a statement on X its "forces conducted precision airstrikes against a missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility operated by Iran-backed Houthis within Houthi-controlled territory in Sana'a, Yemen, on Dec. 21 Yemen time."
There have not been any more strikes against the Houthis from Truman since the friendly fire incident.
Navy pilots are angry about the incident and question the training aboard the USS Gettysburg, the source said, calling it "insufficient."
The "friendly fire" incident took place days after the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier strike group arrived in the Red Sea. The Dec. 21 strikes against the Houthis were the first for the strike group since arriving off the coast of Yemen.
On the night Truman launched airstrikes against the Houthis, the American warships came under fire, which may have contributed to the "friendly fire" incident.
In the statement announcing the strikes, Centcom said, "During the [Dec. 21] operation, CENTCOM forces also shot down multiple Houthi one way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and an anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) over the Red Sea."
[IsraelTimes] Arizona suspect made hundreds of calls, including death threats, to Settenbrino family amid online campaign sparked by clips from war.
US federal prosecutors have indicted a suspect for sending death threats to a Jewish family in New York after their son, an IDF soldier, posted videos from Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... that sparked anti-Israel protests against the family’s hotel.
The owner of the Historic Blue Moon Hotel, Randy Settenbrino, said the family had received hundreds of threats and been targeted by street protests and online harassment.
"They’ve done untold damage with bad reviews and with tying up our front desk, frightening our staff," Settenbrino told The Times of Israel in a Tuesday interview.
The hotel is a family-owned business in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a neighborhood with a long Jewish history, and has 22 rooms. The family has been operating the hotel since 2006 and painstakingly restored the building, which was constructed in 1879. The hotel leans into the area’s Jewish heritage, and has a kosher Italian cafe on the ground floor called the Sweet Dreams Cafe that features art by Settenbrino, including a colorful mural that depicts historical Jewish tragedies.
Donovan Hall, 34, sent hundreds of threats to the family and hotel, including antisemitic statements and threats of violence, according to the indictment filed in the federal Southern District of New York last week.
Hall, from Arizona, was charged with two counts of threatening interstate communications, and one count of cyberstalking, both felonies. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
"Donovan Hall allegedly unleashed a campaign of terror against several Jewish New Yorkers, allegedly sending scores of hateful, violent mostly peaceful and antisemitic death threats," Acting US Attorney Edward Y. Kim said in a statement. "No individual deserves to be at the receiving end of these types of threats or to be targeted because of their religion."
Hall was arrested after an investigation by the FBI and NYPD.
Hall began making dozens of threatening, antisemitic phone calls to the family over the summer, when videos posted by Settenbrino’s son, Bram, drew attention from anti-Israel activists online and in international media. One of the clips showed a first-person view of a soldier firing a light machine gun at a group of distant buildings, and the second showed a building exploding. An account called Stop Arab Hate posted the videos, accusing the soldier of "indiscriminately shooting a gun," and shared contact information for the hotel in a post that was viewed millions of times.
Settenbrino said his son served as a lone soldier in the Combat Engineering corps and had been in a firefight in the footage.
The criminal complaint references the videos and does not name the family, but Settenbrino confirmed his family and the hotel employees were the targets.
On August 8-9, Hall made 54 calls to the victims, the complaint said. In one of the calls, he told a hotel employee that he was going to travel to the hotel on his cycle of violence and shoot the victim in the head. In another, he stated the victim’s home address and said he was going to shoot him and his family, calling the victim a "fucking Jew bag," a "child-murdering Jew" and making other explicit and violent mostly peaceful threats.
Between early August and late November, Hall called the victims at least 971 times, the complaint said.
In October, Hall allegedly started sending photographs of deadly weapons and threats to the victims. In one message, he sent a photo of a gun with the text, "I’ve got something for you and your inbred children." In another, he sent an image of a knife and wrote, "This knife is for child molesters such as your son." Another showed a hand on a pistol overlaid with the text, "For the Zionist cowards."
Law enforcement recovered the two firearms from the photos during a search of Hall’s residence at the time of his arrest. Neither weapon was registered in his name; one was loaded.
The threats were part of a larger campaign of death threats Hall sent to people around the US, often targeting Jews, prosecutors said. Hall also allegedly sent two voicemails to an organization that supports IDF troops, threatening the groups and telling them to leave the US.
Settenbrino said the calls were part of a harassment campaign aimed at the family and its hotel after their son posted the videos on social media. In addition to harassing the front desk with calls and posting negative reviews online, street protests prompted some guests to cancel their stays at the hotel and activists repeatedly attempted to hack into the hotel’s email system, Settenbrino said.
An anti-Israel group called Unity of Fields that encourages vandalizing targets it deems supportive of Israel posted photos in September of graffiti on the hotel. The graffiti said "Baby killer" and included inverted red triangles, a symbol the Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... terror group uses to mark its targets in propaganda videos that has been adopted by anti-Israel activists in the US. Settenbrino said police had been unable to locate the vandals.
Hall was arrested last month but the case was initially sealed. Prosecutors announced the arrest last week.
The hotel has received plaudits from media including National Geographic and New York Magazine, but was struggling before the activist campaign. It was forced to close during the pandemic, leading to debts and a bankruptcy filing. Settenbrino said the business had started to recover before taking another hit from the anti-Israel activists.
The street protests have dwindled but the online harassment continues, he said.
Settenbrino said the family feels abandoned by local Jewish leaders, despite his longstanding community activism.
"We’ve had not one New York City Jewish politician otherwise come down and visit," despite the family’s appeals for support, he said.
Commentary by russian military journalist Boris Rozhin
Funny that Gospodin Rozhin would choose to comment on Ukrainian defensive preparations on the Dnipr River, when rumors are the Ukrainians are planning their very own Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein. using a large concentration of their troops near Sumy
[ColonelCassad] Following the advance of the Russian army south of Krasnoarmeysk, the enemy hastily stepped up the construction of fortifications in the Dnepropetrovsk region, which, according to Ukrainian sources, are completely inadequate.
Currently, the advanced positions of the Russian Armed Forces are located approximately 8.5 km from the borders of the Dnipropetrovsk region, on the territory of which full-fledged land combat operations have not been conducted before. The entry of the Russian army into the Dnipropetrovsk region will be an important symbolic event, the offensive of which the enemy is trying to delay.
If the war drags on, we will eventually see an offensive on Pavlograd.
[France24] The Flamanville 3 EPR nuclear reactor, France's most powerful to date, finally began providing electricity to French homes on Saturday after a plethora of technical setbacks led to a 12-year delay and a four-fold increase in the project's overall cost.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 21:21 Crew of the 152mm gun "Giatsint-B" of the Ussuri airborne artillerymen destroyed a group of Ukrainian Armed Forces infantry and an ammunition depot in the border area of the Kursk region. 20:22 Four villages were left without power as a result of shelling of Gorlovka in the DPR by Ukrainian troops, the city's mayor reported Ivan Prikhodko.
19:40 Russian troops have taken fire control of the Gulyaipole-Velyka Novosilka highway, along which supplies were being supplied to the Ukrainian Armed Forces group in the eastern part of the Zaporizhia region, said Vladimir Rogov, Chairman of the RF Public Chamber Commission on Sovereignty Issues and Co-Chairman of the Coordination Council for the Integration of New Regions.
18:42 Far Eastern warriors publish footage of the raising of the Russian flag on the northern outskirts of Storozhevy by fighters from the 60th Guards Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 5th Army of the Vostok group.
18:35 Ministry of Defense: Minus another Stryker
An FPV drone crew from the North group of forces destroyed a Stryker armored personnel carrier of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkiv region.
Objective control footage confirms the destruction of an armored personnel carrier of the Ukrainian Armed Forces militants.
18:20 RF Armed Forces attack in a new direction north of Khar'kov
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, our soldiers have already attacked the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Vysoka Yaruga area four times.
This village is located between Goptovka and the Travyanskoye Reservoir, on the other bank of which is Glubokoe (Liptsevskoye direction), which is already occupied by the Russian Armed Forces.
18:03 A captured Ukrainian serviceman told how he was deceived into being taken to the Kursk border region –Ministry of Defense.
Prisoner of war Bohdan Timoshov told how the Ukrainian Armed Forces command sent its soldiers to the Kursk border region instead of the promised Sumy region.
During interrogation, Timoshov said that he was mobilized into a brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces being created in the Nikolaev region, where the average age of recruits exceeded 47 years. According to Timoshov, he underwent training in Romania, and subsequently the Ukrainian Armed Forces command deceitfully sent his unit to the Kursk border region instead of the promised Sumy region.
By disobeying the commander's order and voluntarily surrendering, he saved his life.
18:02 Advance of the Russian Armed Forces near Novotroitskoye, Novoelizavetovka, Ukrainka –MAP.
17:46 Advance of the Russian Armed Forces near Dachenske, Mirnohrad, Novotroitske and Peschane –MAP
17:05 A ballistic missile of the Iskander OTRK was used to strike a Ukrainian Armed Forces facility in Krivoy Rog. This was reportedthey reportlocal publics, adding that “there is bad news.”
16:29 Group "Vostok" -reportage from Makarova (December 24, 2024).
16:23 A little advance of Group of Forces "East" west of the settlement of Dalnee.
16:05 Artillerymen worked on the next stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces
A crew of a 152mm howitzer "Msta-B" of the "Vostok" group of forces destroyed a stronghold of Ukrainian militants and also hit a camouflaged ammunition storage area with fire.
The Orlan-30 UAV crew carried out fire adjustment and target engagement control.
15:59 Advance of the Russian Armed Forces near Novotroitskoye and Vozdvizhenka –MAP
14:59 The situation in the Konstantinovsky direction is MAP.
14:52 Minus the Ukrainian Armed Forces' air defense in Donetsk region –SOURCE.
The OK footage shows an attack using a FAB-1500 aerial bomb on the deployment point of the 77th Separate Airborne Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of the settlement of Constantinople.
According to the source, the strike resulted in losses of up to 50 Ukrainian servicemen.
14:38 There are about three km left to the TO 406 highway in a straight line –SOURCE.
This route is one of the main roads through which it is possible to supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces both in Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) itself and in Chasov Yar.
14:28 Advance of the Russian Armed Forces in Dzerzhinsk (Toretsk), Krymsk and Shcherbinovka –MAP
14:26 Front along the line Shevchenko, Novotroitskoye, Pushkino, Zarya continues to bend under our pressure.
13:11 Zarya. Our troops have advanced in the area of the village. Five km² have been liberated –SOURCE.
13:06 Pokrovskoe direction. Novoolenovka is liberated –SOURCE.
Novoelizavetovka. Our troops entered the eastern part of the village, fighting is underway.
The Ukrainian woman has been released.
14.5 km² liberated.
12:59 Advance of the Russian Armed Forces near Chasy Yara and Stupochki –MAP
12:54 Russian electronic warfare defeats NATO missiles. This was discussed during a lecture stated Reisner Markus, an employee of the Austrian Institute for Officer Training at the Theresian Military Academy.
"I would like to dwell on electronic warfare, which was a surprise to all of us. Everyone thought that there was no need for electronic warfare anymore. Many of you served in Afghanistan and Iraq. The anti-Iraqi forces never used electronic warfare, but the Russians do. And not only on the front lines, but also in other areas that interest them. For example, in the Baltic countries," the officer said.
12:10 An enemy UAV was destroyed over the Bryansk region; there were no casualties or damage, Governor Bogomaz reported.
12:02 Rapid strikes by our attack aircraft forced the enemy to retreat
Servicemen of the "Center" group of troops who took part in liberation of Novopustynki DPR,told about the progress of the assault.
11:59 Advance of units of the Russian Armed Forces within the administrative boundaries of Grigorovka and Orekhovo-Vasilevka –MAP
10:20 Russian military installed tricolor on the radio tower in the village of Staritsa in the Volchansk direction (Kharkiv region)
10:00 Telegram channel «Vladimir Rogov":
The total number of attacks on Melitopol in the Zaporizhia region this night reached six.
Jet-type UAVs of the aircraft type were used to attack the city.
There were a total of six attacks using eight drones.
The overwhelming majority of drones were shot down on approach to Melitopol.
They were destroyed at a considerable distance from the residential sector.
The roof of the Central Market building was damaged by shrapnel from one of the UAVs.
9:10 In the Kursk region, units of the Russian Armed Forces continue to liberate Russian territory from the presence of Ukrainian formations.
Russian armored groups are significantly advanced along the road from Novoivanovka in the direction of Viktorovka and Malaya Loknya, taking control of another section of terrain near the forest area near Kruglenky.
Linked article is available only through a VPN.
[EngMilRu] The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
In Kharkov direction, units of the Sever Group of Forces defeated armed formations of one mechanised brigade of the AFU and one territorial defence brigade near Liptsy and Volchansk (Kharkov region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 40 troops, three motor vehicles, and four 122mm D-30 howitzers.
The Zapad Group of Forces' units improved the tactical situation and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of three mechanised brigades, one assault brigades of the AFU, and two territorial defence brigades close to Dvurechnaya, Zagryzovo, Kopanki, Ivanovka (Kharkov region), Novoyegorovka (Lugansk People's Republic), and Terny (Donetsk People's Republic). Three counter-attacks launched by AFU assault units were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 380 troops, three pickup trucks, one 152mm Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system, one 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, two 122mm D-30 howitzers, two U.S.-made 105mm M-119 guns, one Bukovel-AD and one Anklav-N electronic warfare stations.
The Yug Group of Forces' units improved the tactical situation along the front line and hit formations of three mechanised brigades, one assault brigade, and one airmobile brigade of the AFU near Serebryanka, Seversk, Druzhkovka, Konstantinovka, Chasov Yar, and Kurakhovo (Donetsk People's Republic). One counter-attack launched by an AFU assault unit was repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 250 troops, one armoured personnel carrier, two motor vehicles, and one 152mm D-20 howitzer.
The Tsentr Group of Forces' units continued advancing into the depth of the enemy's defences and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of three mechanised brigades, one motorised infantry brigade of the AFU, one naval infantry brigade, two territorial defence brigades, and one national guard brigade close to Krasnoarmeysk, Udachnoye, Zverevo, Andreyevka, Dzerzhinsk, Shcherbinovka, Shevchenko, and Novoolenovka (Donetsk People's Republic). Ten AFU counter-attacks were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 585 troops, one tank, one infantry fighting vehicle, two armoured personnel carriers, including one U.S.-made M113 armoured personnel carrier, one Kozak armoured fighting vehicle, four motor vehicles, and one 152mm Msta-B howitzer.
The Vostok Group's units captured more advantageous lines and positions. Losses were inflicted on formations of one motorised infantry brigade, one mechanised brigade of the AFU, and two territorial defence brigades near Vremevka, Konstantinopol, Neskuchnoye, Razliv (Donetsk People's Republic), and Temirovka (Zaporozhye region). One counter-attack launched by an AFU assault unit was repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 160 troops, two motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155mm Paladin self-propelled artillery system, one 152mm Msta-S howitzer, and one 152mm 2S3 Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system.
The Dnepr Group of Forces' units improved the tactical situation along the front line and defeated manpower and hardware of one mechanised brigade of the AFU and two territorial defence brigades close to Nikolskoye, Pridneprovskoye, and Yantarnoye (Kherson region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 65 troops, three motor vehicles, and one 122mm D-30 howitzer.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces struck infrastructure of military airfields, ammunition and UAV depots, as well as engaged clusters of the enemy's manpower and military hardware in 146 areas.
Air defence units shot down four U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectiles and 65 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 650 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 38,420 unmanned aerial vehicles, 590 anti-aircraft missile systems, 19,967 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,504 MLRS combat vehicles, 19,969 field artillery guns and mortars, and 29,469 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.
In the course of offensive operations, units of the Sever Group of Forces inflicted fire damage on formations of one heavy mechanised brigade, five mechanised brigades, three air assault brigades, one naval infantry brigade, and four territorial defence brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine close to Aleksandriya, Viktorovka, Zaoleshenka, Kubatkin, Lebedevka, Leonidovo, Martynovka, Nikolayevka, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Nikolsky, Novaya Sorochina, Sverdlikovo, and Cherkasskaya Konopelka. Four counter-attacks of enemy assault detachments were repelled.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery inflicted losses on AFU manpower and hardware close to Guyevo, Kositsa, Kruglenkoye, Kurilovka, Loknya, Malaya Loknya, Makhnovka, Russkoye Porechnoye, Staraya Sorochina as well as Basovka, Belovody, and Zhuravka in Sumy region.
The AFU losses were more than 200 troops, one armoured personnel carrier, one armoured fighting vehicle, one electronic warfare station, and five motor vehicles.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the AFU losses amounted to more than 43,510 troops, 253 tanks, 194 infantry fighting vehicles, 136 armoured personnel carriers, 1,316 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,179 motor vehicles, 324 artillery guns, 42 MLRS launchers, including 11 of HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the USA, 13 anti-aircraft missile launchers, seven transport-loading vehicles, 80 EW stations, 13 counter-battery warfare radars, four air defence radars, 28 units of engineering and other materiel, including 13 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, seven armoured recovery vehicles, and one command post vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
...Republic of Somaliland is an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as a de jure part of Somalia. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. Under the Siad Barre regime, Somaliadestroyed ninety percent of Hargeisa Per international law, once you're in, you gotta stay in, no matter how bad it smells....
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
[NY Post] A Kentucky dad who has racked up more than $100,000 in unpaid child support was arrested as he got off a cruise trip in Florida after several years on the lam, according to officials. 
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
...real name Riduan Isamuddin, close personal friend of Osama bin Laden, one of the founders of Jemaah Islamiyah and the planner of the 2002 Bali bombings. He was captured with the help of a mid-Eastern intel service, shipped to Guantanamo to rot but he'll likely be released eventually because that was a long time ago and we were all so much younger then...
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th and 47th President of the United States...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
[REGNUM] The Islamic Eight (D8) summit, an international organization that brings together Turkey, Iran, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, was held in Cairo recently. The current meeting took place amid unprecedented tensions in the Middle East and growing escalation between Iran and Israel.
