[IsraelTimes] IDF says it fired at gathering ‘adjacent’ to troops in Strip’s center, injuries ‘under investigation,’ in latest in string of mass-casualty incidents
Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... ’s civil defense agency reported 44 people killed by the Israel Defense Forces while waiting for aid in separate incidents in southern and central 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... early Tuesday.
Responding to the reported deaths, the IDF later said that a gathering overnight had been identified in an area "adjacent" to its troops in the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, where the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid group is known to hand out food. Reports of individuals injured by military fire in the area were "under review," the IDF said.
It is unclear when precisely the reported shooting near the aid sites took place. Earlier this month, the IDF warned Paleostinians not to approach routes leading to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time, describing those roads as closed military zones. However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... the GHF has indicated it may be open during those hours.
In central Gaza, three witnesses told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the army opened fire as people advanced east toward aid trucks south of Wadi Gaza.
"It was a massacre," said Ahmed Halawa. He said tanks and drones fired at people, "even as we were fleeing. Many people were either martyred or maimed." "I died...twice. I got better"
Hossam Abu Shahada said drones were flying over the area, watching the crowds, then there was gunfire from tanks and drones as people were moving eastward. He described a "chaotic and bloody" scene as people tried to escape.
He said he saw at least three people lying motionless and many others maimed.
The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, which received the victims, confirmed 25 deaths and said 146 others were maimed. It said 62 were at death's door and transferred to other hospitals.
In the central town of Deir al-Balah, the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said it received the bodies of six people from the same incident.
In the southernmost city of Rafah, witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire as crowds tried to reach another food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
At least 19 were killed and 50 others maimed, according to Nasser hospital and Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Two witnesses said Israeli troops started firing as thousands of Paleostinians massed at the Shakoush area, several hundred meters (yards) from the distribution site.
Footage from an AFP journalist from the scene of the gunfire in central Gaza showed maimed residents being carried to a nearby hospital, with some appearing to be unconscious and pale.
"How long will this situation go on? How long will people have to endure this? We want a solution for these victims who are dying," Rabhi al-Qassas, an eyewitness, told AFP.
According to figures issued on Saturday by the Hamas health ministry, at least 450 people have been killed and nearly 3,500 injured by Israeli fire while seeking aid since late May. Many of the incidents have occurred near sites operated by the GHF, according to rescuers.
The US- and Israeli-backed organization, which was established to circumvent Hamas in the distribution of aid, issued a complaint Tuesday to the Israeli military over "possible harassment by Israeli soldiers directed at our convoys" heading to the Wadi Gaza site.
The GHF opened three sites Tuesday — two in southern Gaza, and the Wadi Gaza site in the central Strip — and distributed 34,500 boxes of food, which contain enough food for 5.5 people for 3.5 days according to the organization’s own figures.
The organization has said the contents — consisting of dry food products — need to be prepared elsewhere in war-ravaged Gaza, where community kitchens and cooking supplies are limited.
Israel, which said that 79 humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip Monday via the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, has acknowledged firing warning shots at suspicious people near distribution sites, but denies targeting civilians or using starvation as a weapon of war, and has accused Hamas of hijacking aid deliveries and embedding itself among civilians.
INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION
Part of this section snipped, because it’s become boring.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees also hit out at the GHF system.
“The newly created so-called aid mechanism is an abomination that humiliates and degrades desperate people,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said at a press conference in Berlin. “It is a death trap costing more lives than it saves.”
“The humanitarian community, including UNRWA, has the expertise and must be allowed to do their job and provide assistance with respect and dignity,” said Lazzarini. “There is no other alternative to address the challenges of spreading hunger in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel has accused UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas terrorists and, earlier this year, banned the agency from operating on Israeli soil or contacting officials.
The UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns that it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
The GHF began operating in Gaza after a nearly three-month blockade Israel placed on the Strip following the collapse of the last ceasefire-hostage deal with Hamas in early March.
Israel resumed aid deliveries to Gaza on May 19, after a pause since March 2. Since then, 2,033 trucks have entered the Strip.
Israel has accused Hamas of hoarding aid and selling it at exorbitant rates amid the war sparked on October 7, 2023, when the terror group stormed southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
[IsraelTimes] Israeli diplomat says it will be ‘almost’ impossible for Iran to build weapons from whatever nuclear infrastructure and material may have survived; others are less optimistic
Israel’s tally of the war damage it wrought on Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... includes the assassinations of at least 14 scientists, an unprecedented attack on the brains behind Iran’s nuclear program that outside experts say can only set it back, not stop it.
In an interview with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, Israel’s ambassador to La Belle France said the killings will make it "almost" impossible for Iran to build weapons from whatever nuclear infrastructure and material may have survived nearly two weeks of Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s and massive bunker-busting bombs dropped by US stealth bombers.
"The fact that the whole group disappeared is basically throwing back the program by a number of years, by quite a number of years," Ambassador Joshua Zarka said.
But nuclear analysts say Iran has other scientists who can take their place. European governments say that military force alone cannot eradicate Iran’s nuclear know-how, which is why they want a negotiated solution to put concerns about the Iranian program to rest.
"Strikes cannot destroy the knowledge Iran has acquired over several decades, nor any regime ambition to deploy that knowledge to build a nuclear weapon," UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told politicians in the House of Commons.
Here’s a closer look at the killings:
CHEMISTS, PHYSICISTS, ENGINEERS AMONG THOSE KILLED
Zarka told AP that Israeli strikes killed at least 14 physicists and nuclear engineers, top Iranian scientific leaders who "basically had everything in their mind."
They were killed "not because of the fact that they knew physics, but because of the fight that they were personally involved in, the creation and the fabrication and the production of [a] nuclear weapon," he said.
Nine of them were killed in Israel’s opening wave of attacks on June 13, the Israeli military said. It said they "possessed decades of accumulated experience in the development of nuclear weapons" and included specialists in chemistry, materials and explosives as well as physicists.
Zarka spoke Monday to AP. On Tuesday, Iran’s state TV reported the death of another Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohammad Reza Sedighi Saber, in an Israeli strike, after he’d survived an earlier attack that killed his 17-year-old son on June 13. The US State Department described Sedighi Saber, who was killed at his father-in-law’s residence, as the head of a group that works on explosives-related projects, adding that he was "linked to projects including research and testing applicable to the development of nuclear bombs."
TARGETED KILLINGS MEANT TO DISCOURAGE WOULD-BE SUCCESSORS
Experts say that decades of Iranian work on nuclear energy — and, Western powers allege, nuclear weapons — has given the country reserves of know-how and scientists who could continue any work toward building warheads to fit on Iran’s ballistic missiles.
"Blueprints will be around and, you know, the next generation of PhD students will be able to figure it out," said Mark Fitzpatrick, who specialized in nuclear non-proliferation as a former US diplomat. Bombing nuclear facilities "or killing the people will set it back some period of time. Doing both will set it back further, but it will be reconstituted."
Fitzpatrick, now an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London think tank, added, "They have substitutes in maybe the next league down, and they’re not as highly qualified, but they will get the job done eventually."
How quickly nuclear work could resume will, in part, depend on whether Israeli and US strikes destroyed Iran’s stock of enriched uranium and equipment needed to make it sufficiently potent for possible weapons use.
"The key element is the material. So once you have the material, then the rest is reasonably well-known," said Pavel Podvig, a Geneva-based analyst who specializes in Russia’s nuclear arsenal. Killing scientists may have been intended "to scare people so they don’t go work on these programs," he said.
"Then the questions are, ’Where do you stop?’ I mean you start killing, like, students who study physics?" he asked. "This is a very slippery slope."
The Israeli ambassador said, "I do think that people who will be asked to be part of a future nuclear weapon program in Iran will think twice about it."
PREVIOUS ATTACKS ON SCIENTISTS
Israel has long been suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists, but previously didn’t claim responsibility as it did this time.
In 2020, Iran blamed Israel for killing its top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, with a remote-controlled machine gun.
"It delayed the program but they still have a program. So it doesn’t work," said Gay Paree-based analyst Lova Rinel, with the Foundation for Strategic Research think tank. "It’s more symbolic than strategic."
Without saying that Israel killed Fakhrizadeh, the Israeli ambassador said, "Iran would have had a bomb a long time ago" were it not for repeated setbacks to its nuclear program — some of which Iran attributed to Israeli sabotage.
"They have not reached the bomb yet," Zarka said. "Every one of these accidents has postponed a little bit the program."
A LEGALLY GRAY AREA
International humanitarian law bans the intentional killing of civilians and non-combatants. But legal scholars say those restrictions might not apply to nuclear scientists if they were part of the Iranian armed forces or directly participating in hostilities.
"My own take: These scientists were working for a rogue regime that has consistently called for the elimination of Israel, helping it to develop weapons that will allow that threat to take place. As such, they are legitimate targets," said Steven R. David, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University.
He said Nazi German and Japanese leaders who fought Allied nations during World War II "would not have hesitated to kill the scientists working on the Manhattan Project" that fathered the world’s first atomic weapons.
Laurie Blank, a specialist in humanitarian law at Emory Law School, said it’s too early to say whether Israel’s decapitation campaign was legal.
"As external observers, we don’t have all the relevant facts about the nature of the scientists’ role and activities or the intelligence that Israel has," she said by email to AP. "As a result, it is not possible to make any definitive conclusions."
Zarka, the ambassador, distinguished between civilian nuclear research and the scientists targeted by Israel.
"It’s one thing to learn physics and to know exactly how a nucleus of an atom works and what uranium is," he said.
But turning uranium into warheads that fit onto missiles is "not that simple," he said. "These people had the know-how of doing it, and were developing the know-how of doing it further. And this is why they were eliminated."
#1
The point is not to eliminate nuclear "scientists". The point is to replace them with Mossad agents. Ask yourself "Why some nuclear "scientists", IRGC and Army commanders, were eliminated - while others survived?".
[IsraelTimes] 550 missiles, 1,000 drones fired; 31 impacts in populated areas; 28 killed, over 3,000 wounded in Israel; IDF says Iran’s capabilities degraded, nuclear program set back years
With a shaky ceasefire between Israel and Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... taking effect on Tuesday morning, the full scope of the 12 days of fighting, which started with a surprise Israeli operation against Tehran’s nuclear program, began to emerge.
Two hours into the ceasefire declared by US President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... , Iran launched two more ballistic missiles at Israel, setting off sirens in northern Israel. Both projectiles were intercepted, and the Israel Defense Forces in response struck an Iranian radar north of Tehran, seemingly ending the conflict.
THE CIVILIAN TOLL
Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on Israel during the 12 days of war claimed the lives of 28 people — all but one of them civilians — and maimed over 3,000 people.
Israel’s Health Ministry said a total of 3,238 people were hospitalized, including 23 who were seriously injured, 111 moderately, 2,933 lightly, 138 who suffered from acute anxiety, and another 30 whose conditions have not been determined.
The vast majority of the casualties were civilians, with the IDF reporting just seven soldiers hurt in one missile impact in central Israel and an off-duty soldier killed in Beersheba.
Israeli authorities have said more than 9,000 people have been displaced from their homes, dozens of which were damaged or destroyed by the Iranian attacks.
MISSILES AND DRONES
Iran launched between some 550 ballistic missiles and around 1,000 drones at Israel during the war, according to the IDF.
Most of the missiles were intercepted by Israeli and American air defenses at an interception rate of around 90 percent, similar to the rate in Iran’s April and October 2024 attacks on Israel.
Also, quietly,Jordanian defenses, as we were recently informed.
At least 31 ballistic missile impacts were reported in populated areas or critical infrastructure sites, including a power station in southern Israel,
…though Grom reported the power was back on line in only thee hours…
an oil refinery in Haifa, and a university in central Israel. Dozens of other missiles struck open areas, without causing significant damage.
The vast majority of the 1,000 drones, which are slower-moving but harder to track, failed to even make it to Israel’s borders.
A few crashed in Iraq, to their annoyance.
Nearly 99% of the drones that had posed a threat to Israel — around 500 — were intercepted by the Israeli Air Force with fighter jets, helicopters, and ground-based air defense systems; the Israeli Navy with missile boats; and the 5114th Spectrum Battalion with electronic warfare means, according to the military.
Just one drone hit a populated area, a home in the northern town of Beit She’an, causing heavy damage but no injuries.
The IDF Home Front Command said it issued over 21,000 alerts to civilians amid the war.
IRAN’S REMAINING CAPABILITIES
Iran at the start of the war was estimated to have some 2,500 ballistic missiles and many thousands of drones, according to the IDF.
The military has estimated that some two-thirds of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers, around 250, were destroyed in strikes, along with around 1,000 of the missiles.
This leaves Iran with around 1,000 to 1,500 ballistic missiles, and only around 100 or so launchers, according to IDF estimates.
In terms of Iran’s defenses, the IDF said it achieved aerial superiority over western Iran and Tehran amid the fighting, with over 80 Iranian air defense batteries destroyed.
Iran was unable to shoot down any Israeli fighter jets during the war, despite claims made by Iranian media. However,
a woman is only as old as she admits... two Israeli drones were intercepted, the military has confirmed.
The Israeli Air Force carried out over 1,000 sorties during the fighting, with over 600 aerial refueling operations, according to the IDF. Thousands of munitions were dropped on hundreds of targets by IAF fighter jets and drones.
NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Israel said its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program was necessary to prevent the Islamic Theocratic Republic from realizing its plan to destroy the Jewish state.
Iran, which avowedly seeks Israel’s destruction, has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However,
a woman is only as old as she admits... it has enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, has obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.
The military said its Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s caused "significant damage" to Iran’s Natanz and Isfahan nuclear enrichment facilities. The US also struck the underground Fordo site with heavy "bunker buster" munitions.
Additionally, dozens of other sites relating to the nuclear program were struck by Israel, including the inactive Arak heavy water reactor, the "headquarters of the SPND nuclear project," a site where Iran kept its "nuclear archive," and several centrifuge production sites.
The exact scope of the damage to the nuclear program remains unclear, but IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Tuesday that "we have set Iran’s nuclear project back by years."
At least 15 top Iranian nuclear scientists, who Israel said were working on a bomb, were also eliminated in strikes.
IRAN’S MILITARY LEADERSHIP
Israel’s opening strikes on Iran on June 13 eliminated some 30 senior Iranian military commanders, according to the IDF. Others were killed over the following days.
The dead included the Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri; Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) chief Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami; Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters (emergency command) chief, Maj. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, along with his replacement Maj. Gen. Ali Shadmani.
Within the IRGC, Israeli strikes eliminated the commander of the Guards’ air force, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh; along with the IRGC air force drone unit commander Mohammad-Bagher Taherpour and his replacement Aminpour Joudaki; and IRGC air force air defense unit commander Davoud Shaykhian.
In the IRGC Quds Force, the IDF killed Saeed Izadi, head of the Paleostine Corps, and Behnam Shahriyari, head of the Unit 190 smuggling body.
Hundreds more IRGC soldiers, including numerous members of the Basij internal security body, were killed in Israeli strikes, according to IDF assessments.
Israeli strikes also killed at least 610 civilians in Iran, according to the country’s health ministry.
[IsraelTimes] Experts say it will take years for Tehran to replenish its missile supplies, but it can still terrorize Israel and others with cluster warheads and short-range rockets.
[IsraelTimes] Saraya Ansar al-Sunna — possibly an offshoot of Syrian president’s old rebel group HTS — says it ‘blew up the Saint Elias church,’ killing 25, over unspecified ‘provocation’
A little-known Sunni Moslem bad boy group grabbed credit on Tuesday for a weekend suicide kaboom against a church in Damascus, while the Syrian government insisted they were part of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group.
Sunday’s attack killed 25 people and maimed dozens, striking terror into Syria’s Christian community and other minorities.
A statement from Saraya Ansar al-Sunna said an operative "blew up the Saint Elias church in the Dwelaa neighborhood of Damascus," adding that it came after an unspecified "provocation."
Syria’s Islamist authorities, who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... in December, had quickly blamed the attack on the Islamic State group and announced several arrests on Monday in a security operation against ISIS-affiliated cells.
ISIS did not claim responsibility for the attack.
The Saraya Ansar al-Sunna statement, on the messaging app Telegram, said the government’s version of events was "untrue, fabricated."
The front man for the interior ministry, Nureddine al-Baba, said during a presser on Tuesday that the cell behind the attack "officially follows ISIS," adding that Saraya Ansar al-Sunna was "not independent... as it follows ISIS," using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Baba also said that the church attacker was not Syrian, without specifying his nationality, and came to Damascus with another jacket wallah from the al-Hol camp in the northeast for displaced people and relatives of ISIS members.
Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a Syria-based analyst and researcher, said Saraya Ansar al-Sunna could be "a pro-[ISIS] splinter originating primarily from defectors from HTS... and other factions but currently operating independently of [ISIS]."
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) is the Islamist group headed by Syria’s now-President Ahmed al-Sharaa that led the overthrow of Assad.
Baba said it could be just a "front group" for ISIS.
Citing a source within the group, Tamimi said a disillusioned former HTS functionary headed Saraya.
He added that its leadership included a former member of Hurras al-Din, an al-Qaeda affiliate that announced in January it was dissolving on the orders of the new government.
’FIRST MASSACRE OF ITS KIND IN SYRIA SINCE 1860’
At the funeral of some of those killed in Damascus’s Holy Cross Church, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East John X called the attack an "unacceptable incident."
Addressing Sharaa, the patriarch said, "The heinous crime that took place at Mar Elias Church is the first massacre of its kind in Syria since 1860," referring to the mass killings of Christians in Damascus under the Ottoman Empire.
"We refuse for these events to take place during the revolution and during your honorable era."
Sharaa had called the patriarchate’s adviser to send his condolences, an act John X called "insufficient."
To ululations and tears, nine white coffins were carried into the church, amid a heavy security presence in the area.
"These events are fleeting and have no value in history," teacher Raji Rizkallah, 50, told AFP.
"Christianity is a deeply rooted and permanent part of this land, and holy warriors are heretics."
Assad’s government portrayed itself as a protector of minorities, who were subject to numerous attacks claimed by jihadist groups during the 14-year civil war.
The new authorities have repeatedly pledged to protect minorities, despite the eruption of sectarian violence on multiple occasions in recent months.
The suicide kaboom followed massacres of members of the Alawite sect to which Assad belongs and festivities with Druze fighters.
The bloodshed has raised concerns about the government’s ability to control radical fighters who took part in Assad’s overthrow.
HTS was once affiliated with al-Qaeda before breaking ties in 2016.
Good idea. It’s time to clear out the Iranian and Hezbollah sleeper cells
[IsraelTimes] FBI said to reassign agents to monitor for threats from Islamic Republic, which has previously targeted senior American politicians and a prominent dissident
The US Department of Homeland Security has warned of a "heightened threat environment" following American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and the deputy FBI director said the bureau’s "assets are fully engaged" to prevent retaliatory violence, while local law enforcement agencies in major US cities like New York said they were on high alert.
No credible threats to the domestic US have surfaced publicly in the days since the stealth American attack. It’s also unclear what bearing a ceasefire announced Monday by the US between Israel and Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... might have on potential threats. The ceasefire appeared to hold late into Tuesday.
But the potential for reprisal is no idle concern given the steps Iran is accused of having taken in recent years to target political figures on US soil. Iranian-backed hackers have also launched cyberattacks against US targets in recent years.
On Tuesday, NBC News reported that over the weekend, the FBI had reassigned a number of agents who were working on immigration cases to instead focus on national security due to potential threats from Iran.
The US has alleged that Iran’s most common tactic over the past decade, rather than planning mass violence, has been murder-for-hire plots in which government officials recruit operatives — including reputed Russian mobsters and other non-Iranians — to kill public officials and dissidents. The plots, which Tehran has repeatedly denied engineering, have been consistently stymied and exposed by the FBI and the US Justice Department.
"You run into this problem that it’s not like there’s this one sleeper cell that’s connected directly to command central in Iran. There’s a lot of cut-outs and middlemen," said Ilan Berman, a senior vice president of the Washington-based American Foreign Policy Council. "The competence erodes three layers down."
Whether Iran intends to resort to that familiar method or has the capacity or ambition to successfully carry off a large-scale attack is unclear, but the government may feel a need to demonstrate to its people that it has not surrendered, said Jon Alterman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"The capability to execute successfully is different from the capability to try," he said. "Showing you’re not afraid to do this may be 90% part of the goal."
Hours after the US attack on Iran Sunday morning, FBI and DHS officials convened a call with local law enforcement to update them on the threat landscape, said Michael Masters, who participated in it as director of the Secure Community Network, which coordinates security for US Jewish institutions and tracks Iranian threats.
The DHS bulletin released over the weekend warned that several foreign terror organizations have called for violence against US assets and personnel in the Middle East. It also warned of an increased likelihood that a "supporter of the Iranian regime is inspired to commit an act of violence in the Homeland."
"The amount of material that we’re tracking online is at such a fever pitch at the moment," Masters said.
A PLOT AGAINST US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
The Justice Department in November disclosed that it had disrupted a plot to kill Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... before the 2024 election, a reflection of the regime’s long-running outrage over a 2020 strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani .
The scheme was revealed to law enforcement by an accused Iranian government asset who spent time in American prisons for robbery and who is alleged to maintain a network of criminal associates enlisted by Tehran for surveillance and murder-for-hire plots.
The man, Farhad Shakeri, told the FBI that a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him last September to set aside other work he was doing and assemble a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, authorities have said.
He said the official told him if he could not put together a plan within that timeframe, then the plot would be paused until after the election because the official assumed Trump would lose and that it would be easier to kill him then, according to a criminal complaint.
Shakeri disclosed some of the details of the alleged plots in a series of recorded telephone interviews with FBI agents while in Iran, the complaint said. The stated reason for his cooperation, he told Sherlocks, was to try to get a reduced prison sentence for an associate behind bars in the US. Shakeri is on the lam and has not been apprehended.
A PLOT AGAINST JOHN BOLTON
John Bolton was ousted from his position as Trump’s national security adviser months before the Soleimani strike, but he nonetheless found himself targeted in a plot that US officials say was orchestrated by a member of the Revolutionary Guard and involved a $300,000 offer for an liquidation.
Unbeknownst to the operative behind the plot, the man he thought he was hiring to carry out the killing was actually a confidential informant who was secretly working with the FBI.
The US Justice Department filed criminal charges in August 2022 even as the operative, Shahram Poursafi, remained on the lam.
A PLOT AGAINST MASIH ALINEJAD
Sometimes the intended target is not a US government official but rather a dissident or critic of the Iranian government.
That was the case with Masih Alinejad, a prominent Iranian American journalist and activist in New York who was targeted by Iran for her online campaigns encouraging women there to record videos of themselves exposing their hair in violation of edicts requiring them to cover it in public.
Two purported crime bosses in the Russian mob were convicted in March of plotting to assassinate her at her home in New York City in a murder-for-hire scheme that prosecutors said was financed by Iran’s government.
Prosecutors said Iranian intelligence officials first plotted in 2020 and 2021 to kidnap her in the US and move her to Iran to silence her criticism.
When that failed, Iran offered $500,000 for Alinejad to be killed in July 2022 after efforts to harass, smear and intimidate her failed, prosecutors said.
A PLOT AGAINST A SAUDI AMBASSADOR
Underscoring the longstanding nature of the threat, federal prosecutors in 2011 accused two suspected Iranian agents of trying to murder the Saudi ambassador to the United States.
The planned kaboom was to be carried out while envoy Adel al-Jubeir dined at his favorite restaurant in Washington.
And as is common in such plots, the person approached for the job was not an Iranian but rather someone who was thought to be an associate of a Mexican drug trafficking cartel who was actually an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
"The 18th Street gang has around 30,000 to 50,000 members, with its main source of income being distribution of cocaine and marijuana. Members also commit assault, auto theft, carjacking and robbery, among other crimes. "
The job is not yet done, and Iran breaking the hudna means Israel can go to town when they are ready.
[IsraelTimes] Preliminary assessment says uranium stocks not destroyed, some centrifuges still intact; former UN inspector warns Tehran still has ‘ability to break out and produce weapon-grade uranium’
A US official who read the assessment noted that it contained a number of caveats and “ifs” and said a more refined report was expected in the coming days and weeks.
A preliminary US intelligence assessment has determined that US strikes over the weekend on Iranian nuclear facilities have set back Tehran’s program by only a matter of months, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Rooters.
The initial report was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s main intelligence arm and one of 18 US intelligence agencies, said two of the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss classified matters.
The classified assessment is at odds with the statements of President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... and high-ranking US officials — including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. They have said the weekend strikes, which used a combination of bunker-busting bombs and more conventional weapons, essentially eliminated Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel’s own early assessment is also more optimistic, gauging that the twelve-day war with Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... — which seemed to conclude on Tuesday with a fragile US-brokered ceasefire agreement — set back Tehran’s ability to produce a nuclear bomb by years, not months — though Jerusalem does not believe it has wiped out the program entirely either.
Asked for comment, the White House pointed to a statement by spokesperson Karoline Leavitt to CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... , which first reported the assessment, that the "alleged" conclusion was "flat-out wrong."
"Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration," she said.
A US official who read the assessment noted that it contained a number of caveats and "ifs" and said a more refined report was expected in the coming days and weeks.
Analysts said that, if the assessment was based on satellite imagery, the extent of damage to the deeply buried Fordow uranium enrichment facility would not necessarily be revealed.
Trump has said the attacks were necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Iran denies it is seeking such a weapon and says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Hegseth on Sunday said that the strikes had "obliterated" Iran’s nuclear ambitions, while Trump said Iran’s crucial nuclear sites had been "completely and fully obliterated."
Assessing the damage at the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites is expected to be a difficult task, and the DIA is not the only agency tasked with the job. One source said the assessment was not universally accepted and had generated significant disagreement.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered... , said the US did not know the extent of the damage yet.
Still, the initial assessment indicated the strikes may not have been nearly as successful as the Trump administration has claimed. The US on Tuesday told the UN Security Council that the strikes "degraded" Iran’s nuclear program, short of Trump’s earlier assertion that the facilities had been "obliterated."
HEGSETH REITERATES STANCE
The sources said that the report found that the US attack had caved in facility entrances and destroyed or damaged infrastructure. However,
there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... one added, the strike did not collapse underground buildings.
Restarting operations would basically depend on "how long it takes them to dig out and build or repair" power and water supply facilities, said the second source.
The Washington Post, citing a person familiar the report, said some centrifuges for enriching uranium were intact.
The Pentagon disputed the notion that the damage to Iran’s nuclear program was minor, though it did not dispute that the DIA assessment exists.
"Based on everything we have seen — and I’ve seen it all — our bombing campaign obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons," Hegseth said in a statement provided to Rooters.
"Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target—and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission."
One source, however, said Iran’s enriched uranium stocks had not been eliminated.
David Albright, a former UN nuclear inspector, said that based on post-strike commercial satellite imagery, he believed the US attack effectively destroyed Iran’s uranium enrichment program for now, but failed to eliminate the longer-term threat.
"Iran retains an ability to break out and produce weapon-grade uranium," said Albright, the head of the Institute for Science and International Security, in a post on X.
He noted that Iran’s stock of near-weapons grade highly enriched uranium — enough for about nine warheads — is unaccounted for as are advanced centrifuges for a new enrichment facility that Iran this month told the IAEA it was preparing.
Initial military assessments can change as more information comes to light and it is not uncommon for opinions to vary across different US intelligence agencies.
Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... have previously said Trump’s claims that the weekend strikes eliminated or seriously set back Iran’s nuclear program were not yet backed by evidence.
"There’s zero evidence that I’ve seen that the nuclear program was completely and totally obliterated as Donald Trump has claimed," House of Representatives Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Monday.
Classified briefings on the matter for members of the House of Representatives and Senate were canceled on Tuesday. Senators are now set to be briefed on Thursday, according to the New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... . It was not immediately clear when representatives from the House will be briefed.
ISRAEL ASSESSES IRAN SET BACK ’SEVERAL YEARS,’ OFFICIAL SAYS
Israeli intelligence, meanwhile, has preliminarily assessed that US and Instrikes set back Iran’s nuclear program by "several years," but did not completely destroy it, a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
The Israeli intelligence assessment is constantly being updated and refined, and a more concrete understanding of the status of Iran’s nuclear program will be available in the coming weeks, the senior Israeli official said.
The Israeli official argued that the military strikes were still worthwhile because the negotiations that the US had previously been pursuing with Iran would not have been able to achieve such results.
Moreover, the strikes on the nuclear program along with other military targets in Iran will serve as a deterrent against the Islamic Theocratic Republic again trying to enrich uranium, the official said.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir also said Tuesday, "We have set Iran’s nuclear project back by years, and the same goes for its missile program."
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told news hounds, "I think it’s still early to assess all the strikes. We know we were able to push back the [nuclear] program. We were able to remove the imminent threat that we had."
#4
...The loons who are insisting that we don't 'know' that Fordow has been destroyed are utterly, utterly clueless about how this sh!t works. At best, the physical plant itself is unusable even if it's more or less intact. The centrifuges require EXTREMELY delicate handling, and you don't just turn them off and haul 'em out the door by calling Two Jihadis And A Truck.
Could they have saved the enriched uranium they had? It would have been remarkably stupid even for the Iranians if they hadn't tried. Could they still build a bomb? Yep. The difference now is that they might get 3-4 bombs out of that, then that's all she wrote. They are going to be big, unwieldy beasts that are unlikely to be aircraft deliverable (IF they had any aircraft left) and they may not have any missiles left that are big enough to haul them from point a to point b. And if they did, then they have an interesting dilemma: they'll have to launch all of them in one go to even have a shot at getting past the Israeli BMD....and we already know they're very, very good.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that Israel sent agents to Iran’s Fordo nuclear site after US struck it earlier this week, insisting the attack was a success and warning that he was willing to strike again if Iran tried to revive its enrichment program.
“You know they have guys that go in there after the hit, and they said it was total obliteration,” Trump told reporters at the NATO summit in The Hague, speaking about the bombing of Fordo.
“Israel is doing a report on it now, I understand, and I was told that they said it was total obliteration. I believe it was total obliteration, and I believe they didn’t have a chance to get anything out because we acted fast.”
Israeli officials told the Kan public broadcaster Wednesday, responding to Trump’s comments, that they were unaware of any Israeli operation at the Fordo nuclear facility after the strike.
Asked by a reporter Sunday if the US would carry out more attacks if Tehran were to rebuild its uranium enrichment facilities, Trump said: “Sure.”
#6
It's become an article of faith for the Democrats that the attack failed.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/25/2025 9:59
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#7
^ and prayer
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/25/2025 10:25
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#8
I'm no structural engineer, but I would be apprehensive, to put it mildly, about working in a tunnel complex that had just had several tons of high explosives dropped on it.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/25/2025 10:40
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#11
Consider the tunnels were designed for a certain quality of rock, but probably not shattered rock. I think it fell in, in many places, but if not, I'd be real cautious about going back in there.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/25/2025 10:54
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#12
The overpressure from the blasts alone should have made most areas unoccupiable
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/25/2025 10:59
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#13
^Well, they can import Gazans to dig new tunnels.
#14
The classified assessment is at odds with the statements of President Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
and high-ranking US officials — including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. They have said the weekend strikes, which used a combination of bunker-busting bombs and more conventional weapons, essentially eliminated Iran’s nuclear program.
OK, wait a minute. If it's a classified assessment, how is it that we're hearing about it and why are the sources, who requested anonymity discussing the matter with the media? Is this leak authorized or unauthorized or is it total bullshit?
David Muir on ABC led with this story last night as if to say the US airstrike was totally ineffective and Donald Trump lied. But then, we all know how David Muir feels about Donald Trump.
At any rate, the ayatolla now knows that we can hit him with impunity and, if need be, we'll hit him again and again. And that's a damn sight better than sending him cargo planes loaded with cash.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/25/2025 11:11
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#15
/\ And that's a damn sight better than sending him cargo planes loaded with cash.
[NY Post] Outspoken progressive Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) dropped her bid Tuesday to become the top Democrat on the powerful House Oversight Committee after it became clear she lacked the votes.
“It was clear by the numbers that my style of leadership is not exactly what they were looking for, and so I didn’t think that it was fair for me to then push forward and try to rebuke that,” the lefty pol told reporters.
Democrats later anointed Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) to become their ranking member on the Oversight panel, replacing late Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who died last month. Garcia's not much better, he's stoopid and commie too, but he doesn't have the ghetto-speak down
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/25/2025
09:38 ||
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[33 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
[MilitaryHistoryFandom] The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was a war between the Republic of Korea (South Korea), supported by the United Nations, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), at one time supported by the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union.
It was primarily the result of the political division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II.
The Korean Peninsula was ruled by the Empire of Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II. Following the surrender of the Empire of Japan in September 1945, American administrators divided the peninsula along the 38th parallel, with U.S. military forces occupying the southern half and Soviet military forces occupying the northern half.
[Townhall] NYC gets what they asked for, good and hard
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/25/2025
04:40 ||
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[58 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] FBI Director Kash Patel has dug up evidence the agency shut down an investigation that shows the former director buried proof China interfered in the 2020 presidential election.
The Daily Mail can exclusively report that Patel plans to hand over to Congress on Wednesday proof that former FBI Director Christopher Wray lied to Congress.
Specifically, he will detail how headquarters 'recalled' a report solely because it contradicted Wray's claims under oath to Congress that China was not conducting a foreign influence campaign in U.S. elections.
The FBI field office in Albany, New York produced an Internal Intelligence Report (IRR) that was published and then pulled back without justification, Patel reveals.
FBI bosses at the time shut down this legitimate investigation into the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to shield Wray from fallout, sources tell the Daily Mail.
The FBI was investigating at the time the existence of CCP-produced drivers licenses to obtain paper ballots and the Albany office published an IRR on the claims.
They were then told by headquarters to pull the report and pretend it didn't exist, Patel will reveal.
The current Director will tell Congress on Wednesday that the reason the IRR on this investigation was never released was because they admitted that 'the reporting will contradict Director Wray's testimony.'
An current FBI official tells the Daily Mail that the current FBI found the IRR when looking through actions of leadership within the former FBI and discovered that they pulled the report.
During a hearing before the Senate in September 2020, then-Director Wray was asked by Republican Sen. Gary Peters whether voting by mail is secure.
'We take all election threats seriously,' Wray said at the time.
'And our role is to investigate the threat accuracy,' he added before insisting: 'Now, we have not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it's by mail or otherwise.'
But Patel's new bombshell information claims that this was not true and that Wray lied to Congress while under oath.
Patel vows that there will be accountability for those who tried to bury the report and continue pushing claims that there was no legitimate evidence that the CCP was conducting a foreign influence campaign on the 2020 presidential election.
'Based on our continued review and production of FBI documents related to the CCP's plot to interfere in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, previous FBI leadership chose to play politics and withhold key information from the American people – exposing the weaponization of law enforcement for political purposes during the height of the 2020 election season,' Patel said in a statement with Deputy Director Dan Bongino.
They added: 'This FBI leadership team will continue keeping our promise of aggressive transparency and working around the clock to fix the underlying problems to restore the FBI to the trusted institution the American people deserve.'
Patel will tell Congress that the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) did not approve reissuance of the IRR after it was pulled and then further confirmed by investigators.
'We have found no information to indicate that FITF-China properly investigated the reported information or followed logical investigative leads, despite corroborating intergovernmental reporting,' Patel will reveal on Wednesday.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Ukrainian Armed Forces are holding back Russian attacks in the east and south of Ukraine.
A third of all enemy attacks were recorded in the Pokrovsk area. There, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are fighting in the areas of 13 settlements.
Since the beginning of the day, 77 combat clashes have occurred on the front in 10 directions. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in an operational report as of 16:00 on Tuesday, June 24.
Thus, in the Yuzhno-Slobodskoy direction, the Russians stormed near Vovchansk and Kamenskoye five times. The enemy attacks were repelled.
In the Kupyansk direction, the enemy attempted to advance three times near Stepova Novoselovka, Kruglyakovka and towards Peschanoye.
In the Liman direction, the invading army attacked 10 times, near the settlements of Kolodyagi, Torskoye and in the direction of Zelenaya Dolina, Shandrigolovogo, Grekovka, Druzhelyubovka. Three clashes continue.
In the Seversky direction, our defenders repelled two enemy attacks in the Grigoryevka area.
In the Kramatorsk direction, the Ukrainian Armed Forces stopped four attacks by enemy units, our soldiers repelled them in the areas of Chasovy Yar, Stupochki and in the direction of Belaya Gora. Another clash continues.
In the Toretsk direction, the enemy attacked eight times, near Toretsk, Nelipovka, in the directions of Rusiny Yar and Yablunovka. Currently, one combat clash is underway.
In the Pokrovsk direction, the Russians carried out 26 assaults in the areas of the settlements of Malinovka, Mirnoye, Mirolyubovka, Lisovka, Udachnoye, Chuguev, Sergeyevka, Novomikolaevka, Kotlyarovka, Alekseyevka, Dachnoye and in the direction of the settlements of Poltavka and Vladimirivka. The defense forces repelled 24 attacks. Two clashes are still ongoing.
In the Novopavlovsk direction, the aggressors attacked nine times near the settlements of Vesyoloye, Novosyolka, Shevchenko, Volnoye Pole - in the direction of Novopol, Zaporozhye, Komar. Five battles are still ongoing.
In the Orekhov direction, the Russians, with air support, were advancing in the Kamenskoye area. One combat clash occurred.
In the Dnieper direction the enemy attacked unsuccessfully three times.
Let us recall that on June 23, 165 combat clashes took place on the front, of which the largest number were in the Pokrovsk direction - 54. And in the Severo-Slobodskoye (Sumy region - ed.) and Kursk directions, over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian soldiers repelled 10 attacks by invaders.
Text taken from the Facebook page of Tulsa Police Department
Foto of the miscreant at the link. On June 24, 2025, the Tulsa Police Department arrested 19-year-old Timetrious Moore for 2nd Degree Murder related to a tragic shooting that occurred during the Juneteenth celebration.
At approximately 10:50 PM on June 21st, a shooting took place near 300 N. Greenwood Avenue, resulting in the death of 22-year-old Isaiah Knight.
The Tulsa Police Department has been actively investigating this incident, utilizing multiple resources to locate the shooter. Through video surveillance, Detectives found footage showing the suspect shoot the victim. However, we still needed a name.
On June 24, 2025, after interviewing an associate of the suspect identified in the video, investigators confirmed that the suspect was Timetrious Moore.
Later that day, Moore was arrested at his residence and brought to the Tulsa Police Department Detective Division. During questioning, he admitted to firing his weapon one or two times into the crowded intersection, as shown on the video.
The investigation into the circumstances surrounding this senseless act of violence is ongoing. We are also searching for a second suspect responsible for shooting and injuring several other people at Juneteenth.
The Tulsa Police Department remains committed to ensuring justice and safety in our community. We appreciate the public’s patience and cooperation during this investigation.
images/prisonstories.jpg [Rudaw] Iran transferred inmates away from notorious Evin prison in Tehran after an Israeli strike targeted the facility, the Iranian judiciary announced on Tuesday.
“Immediately after the Zionist regime's criminal action, in order to protect the rights of prisoners and provide space for relief forces, convicts who were serving their sentences in Evin Prison were transferred to other prisons in Tehran,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online said, citing prison staff.
On Monday, an Israeli airstrike targeted the Evin prison in Tehran, with the judiciary asserting that the situation at the facility is under control.
Iranian state TV said that the inmates were transferred early on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, media affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that the Israeli airstrikes on the facility incurred casualties.
“As well as members of the prisoners' families and the prisoners themselves, were injured, and we had martyrs in this regard,” Fars news agency said, citing the judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir.
He added that “part of the Evin administrative building was destroyed” in the Israeli strikes.
Evin prison has served as Iran’s main detention center for political dissidents and foreign nationals since the 1970s, making it a powerful symbol of state repression and a tool for diplomatic leverage.
Located in northwestern Tehran, the facility is known for holding political prisoners, dual nationals, and foreign detainees. It has gained international attention due to the high-profile cases of inmates.
Following news that Iran executed a man accused of spying for Israel, reported by Mizan on Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the attack on Evin prison was carried out to stop Iran.
“We warned Iran time and again: stop targeting civilians! They continued, including this morning,” Sa’ar said in a post on X.
On Saturday, the head of Iran’s judiciary said that suspects accused of collaborating with Israel in its war on Iran will face expedited trials and be given no leniency.
Iran has released several confessions of people accused of cooperating with or spying for Israel. Such confessions are widely believed to be coerced, often obtained through threats, psychological pressure, and, in some cases, physical torture.
How soon until New York City become nearly Judenfrei?
[IsraelTimes] Former New York State governor Andrew Cuomo appears to concede to State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic party primary, in a stunning defeat for a veteran politician who had leaned into the Jewish vote and his pro-Israel bona fides during his campaign against his anti-Zionist opponent.
With 91% of votes counted, Mamdani leads Cuomo by more than 7 points.
“Tonight was not our night. Tonight was Assemblyman Mamdani’s night,” Cuomo tells supporters.
“I want to applaud the assemblyman for a really smart and good and impactful campaign. Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won,” Cuomo says.
Mamdani has not officially won the race. In the city’s ranked-choice voting system, voters can select up to five candidates. If no candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes, the candidates with the least votes are eliminated in successive rounds of counting and their next selection is reapportioned, until one of the candidates wins a majority.
The early vote count measures voters’ first-choice selection. Since no candidate won a majority, that counting will now take place, and the final results are expected next week.
Despite the ranked-choice counting, Cuomo appears to have acknowledged his loss. He says he called Mamdani to congratulate him.
The third-place candidate is New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Jewish progressive who cross-endorsed Mamdani, so it’s unlikely that Cuomo has a path to winning in the ranked-choice count.
The primary typically determines the winner of the general election in the mostly Democratic city. Cuomo has registered to run as an independent in the general election in November.
A spokesperson for Cuomo says he is looking at the numbers and considering his options for November.
[IsraelTimes] New York City Council member Shahana Hanif, a far-left, harsh critic of Israel, defeats her Jewish opponent, Maya Kornberg, to hold onto her seat in Brooklyn.
Hanif represents the city’s District 39 in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Park Slope, Windsor Terrace and Kensington.
Hanif has a history of anti-Israel activism, such as sharing social media calls for an intifada and voting against a city council measure opposing antisemitism.
Kornberg, a progressive, challenged Hanif for her seat because she believed Hanif was too focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to the detriment of local concerns.
Kornberg concedes, saying on X, “While the result was not what we hoped for, I’m immensely proud of the positive, issues-oriented campaign we ran.”
Mandani polls poorly with minority and working class voters
And voters over 50
He underperforms among women
They aren't enough white hipsters in New York to give him the numbers he's supposedly getting especially in places like the Bronx
There's something very wrong here
— Daniel Greenfield - "Hang Together or Separately" (@Sultanknish) June 25, 2025
[Garowe] The federal government of Somalia has been delisted from countries that are notorious for the recruitment of child soldiers, an act which is prohibited by the United Nations (UN) through various legal frameworks, charters, and commitments.
Several countries have been slammed for engagement in the recruitment of child soldiers in armed conflicts, but Somalia has managed to effectively denounce this habit, which is rampant in several parts of Africa.
The decision, made public by the United Nations on June 17, follows years of collaboration between the Federal Government of Somalia and international partners, including UNICEF and the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNTMIS).
For years, the country has struggled to implement the Somalia National Action Plan on the Protection of Children in Armed Conflict, an idea which has successfully been adopted into the transitional constitution, which is yet to be fully adopted.
“This is a historic achievement for the Somali people and security forces,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. “It reflects our strong commitment to protect vulnerable children and build a professional, accountable national army.”
Previously, the Somali National Army had been accused of the recruitment of children during conflicts, but the latest actions by the United Nations are an indication that the habit is slowly fading as constitutionalism and order take precedent in the country.
As chair of the National Committee on the Protection of Children in Armed Conflict, the Ministry praised the role of committee members and UN agencies in strengthening child protection mechanisms and enforcing safeguards in military recruitment and training.
Recently, the Al-Shabaab militants were accused of recruiting children following a viral video of child soldiers during the Eid al-Adha celebrations. The militants paraded several children who were reportedly recruits on various frontlines.
[IsraelTimes] By targeting top military figures, Israel delivered a symbolic and strategic blow, though experts warn that regime may now ‘move in a much more hard-line direction’ under the Guards
Hours before the sun rose on June 13, nearly 200 Israeli fighter jets roared into Iranian airspace, while Mosssd ...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end... operatives on the ground released attack drones from secret bases.
The surprise Israeli strikes hit key Iranian nuclear sites as well as ballistic missile stores, which represented twin threats that Israel saw as existential. But its highly coordinated, precise attack didn’t only focus on Iran’s hardware.
Israel also spent years tracking the key figures at the top of the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s command structure and in the opening hours of the campaign, it assassinated many of them — some in their apartments, others reportedly lured to an underground command center.
Those killed on day one included the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, and the commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the military’s central headquarters, the IRGC Aerospace Force and the IRGC air defenses.
It was a brutal blow to Iran’s ability to conduct its nuclear, ballistic missile, and proxy efforts, but for the Islamic Theocratic Republic, these leaders fulfilled a role beyond their military responsibilities. They also made up a veteran core of the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s leadership, a tight cadre of dedicated believers aroun Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> who forged their ties in the Iran-Iraq War.
Israeli strikes in the subsequent days took out IRGC intelligence chiefs and other top military commanders. "These architects of terrorism are officially done terrorizing the world," the IDF declared six days into the campaign, sharing a video naming 11 military officials it had taken out.
Though a US-brokered ceasefire may mean that the dust is settling on the 12-day conflict, Iran now faces critical decisions about not only the future of its nuclear and missile programs, but also about its leadership, with far-reaching implications for the regime and the wider region.
‘PRAETORIAN GUARD’
Before rising to the top of the Islamic Republic, the men Israel assassinated fought in its first war.
Most of the regime’s senior leader, including those killed by Israel, emerged from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, which broke out after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and shaped Iran’s security doctrine.
“Almost everybody who is anybody in the Islamic Republic’s political or military apparatus today cut their teeth in the Iran-Iraq war,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
During the brutal eight-year conflict, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Iran to seize disputed territory and defeat the nascent Islamic Republic. The war devolved into trench warfare, missile strikes on civilians, and large-scale chemical weapon attacks, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and immense economic devastation in Iran.
That experience instilled a doctrine of “over-obsessive deterrence” against foreign adversaries, said Ben Taleblu, which over time formed into the five pillars of “the Iranian threat” — ballistic missiles, drones, nuclear development, maritime aggression and transnational terrorism.
Iran overtly ties its military ambitions to the legacy of the Iran–Iraq War. At a military parade in Tehran in September 2023 marking the conflict’s anniversary, Iran unveiled what it claimed was “the longest-range drone in the world,” alongside banners threatening Israel. The display came just weeks before Iran-backed Hamas launched its unprecedented October 7, 2023, assault on Israel from Gaza.
Now, just as it has been, the direction and implementation of post-revolution Iran’s security doctrine will in all likelihood remain the domain of the IRGC.
When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took control of Iran in 1979, he needed protection. Not just physically, but protection of the Islamist ideology in whose name he led the revolution.
With up to 190,000 active troops and nearly 600,000 volunteer paramilitary forces, the IRGC “has long been the Praetorian Guard to protect the supreme leader and the theocratic system,” said Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute.
In 2019, the US designated the IRGC, which controls Iran’s missile program, nuclear ambitions and network of proxy forces, a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the first time the label was applied to an entire wing of another government.
While the regular Iranian army is tasked with territorial defense, “the IRGC is about defense of the ideology,” targeting enemies both foreign and domestic, according to Rubin, which is “why America and Europe’s well-meaning belief in Iranian reformers was always so naïve.”
Over time, the IRGC’s reach, particularly its influence over the civilian economy, grew vast enough to rival even Khamenei’s direct authority. While experts debate whether the IRGC exercises its extensive power through or against the regime system, its stranglehold on policy is nearly undisputed.
Under Khamenei, the IRGC evolved into a “state within a state,” said Ali Alfoneh of the Arab Gulf States Institute, acquiring massive influence over national security decisions in exchange for shielding the regime. Its economic empire—including privatized state assets and megaprojects—provided both power and insulation from civilian oversight.
For decades, the IRGC, guided by its revolutionary doctrine, steered Iran to a dominant position in the region. It nurtured an obsessive focus on the Islamic Republic’s sworn enemy, Israel. Iran built up dangerous terror proxies on Israel’s borders, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, while enabling more distant regional allies, Shiite militias in Iraq and Houthis in Yemen, to fully secure its reach.
After Hamas’s October 2023 attack, during which Palestinian terrorists massacred some 1,200 people and abducted 251 in the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Israel abandoned its decades-long strategy of containment and began targeting the axis led by the IRGC head-on.
Beginning with Israel’s direct strikes on Iran last year and reaching a climax on June 13, “Israel had a clear shot to reset the nature of its strategic competition with the Islamic Republic, and to really deal a crippling blow to the sources of the Islamic Republic’s deterrent power,” Ben Taleblu said.
Iran’s decentralized military structure enabled the IRGC to survive Israeli decapitation strikes, Alfoneh said, but the results are still unclear amid the chaos.
“The same logic that governs Israel’s assassination of terror leaders applies to the targeting of IRGC leadership,” said Rubin. “Their elimination sows panic and paranoia within the upper ranks.”
While some commanders were valued more for ideological purity and others for military skill, two figures—Iran’s chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri and IRGC Air Force chief Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh—stood out as irreplaceable because of a unique blend of both loyalty and competence, Ben Taleblu added.
Hajizadeh, for instance, was the driving force behind the development of Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Additionally, the regime had spent years legitimizing its rule by promising citizens protection from oppressive foreign powers, making every blow by Israel a direct challenge to this social contract.
Nonetheless, the regime’s survival isn’t necessarily in danger, neither by the military loss nor public sentiment. “Zombie regimes can persist long beyond what wishful thinking in the West might suppose,” Rubin noted.
With the regime’s ability to violently suppress dissent, combined with public fear and years of infiltrating opposition groups, keeps the prospect of internal collapse uncertain. Such suppression efforts have often been carried out by the Basij paramilitary force, linked to the IRGC and targeted by Israel throughout the campaign, including in the hours before the ceasefire took effect.
“Ultimately, what matters is the willingness of those in the IRGC to fire on crowds in the street,” Rubin said.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
Perhaps counterintuitively, Israel’s decapitation of the military and the IRGC may well result in the latter further consolidating its power. Though many mid-level replacements are less competent than their predecessors, institutionally, the Guards will remain dominant.
When considering how Iran will reconstitute its power structure after Israel’s devastating campaign, “one probably can’t pick out personalities, but you can certainly say that the X factor is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” said Ben Taleblu. “Looking ahead, the most important institution in Iran remains the IRGC, even though its leadership has been decimated.”
Effective command and communication within the regime may now be slower, Ben Taleblu added. “If Khamenei is in some bunker somewhere, it’s going to take time for an order to cascade.”
Now that a ceasefire has been declared, that may change.
Israel’s operation has also revived urgent discussions about succession. A clerical committee reportedly accelerated its work last week, focusing on two figures: Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, a hardliner, and Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the regime’s founder. The leadership crisis may push Khamenei to rely more on his son.
“The only real difference between the hardliners and pragmatists is questions of tactics, not ideology,” said Rubin, predicting “a purge among the hardliners as the regime seeks to root out the spies and infiltrators that may or may not exist.”
“Even though the Islamic Revolution rejected hereditary rule, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it make a comeback as Khamenei leans more upon his son, who is perhaps the only person he can any longer trust,” Rubin continued.
Despite its recent setbacks, experts said the regime seems like it will survive the US-Israeli campaign and will likely further sideline pragmatic voices.
“I would say that if the Islamic Republic survives this conflict…they will move in a much more hard-line direction,” said Ben Taleblu, noting that this would constitute “accelerating a trend which was already underway.”
Alfoneh echoed that view, predicting the regime will continue transforming into a military dictatorship, akin to Pakistan, saying he expects a future where “the IRGC distributes the national wealth – or increasingly, poverty – and takes the strategic decisions. The elected civilian leadership will be blamed for all the regime’s shortcomings.”
Though Khamenei remains in hiding, he has survived the fight. With a ceasefire now in place, the Islamic Republic has emerged battered but intact — and seemingly on a road to a more insular, militarized, and uncompromising future.
Iran's Security Council Declares Victory Over Israel
[Regnum] Iran won and forced Israel to stop attacks on its territory. This was reported on June 24 by the Al Jazeera TV channel, citing the Security Council of the Islamic Republic. Hooooboy — that’s funny!
"We forced the enemy to repent, admit defeat and stop aggression unilaterally. Our armed forces are ready to respond decisively and painfully to any hostile actions of the enemy," the statement said.
In addition, the Security Council clarified that Iran's armed forces remain on alert, and the country's leadership does not trust the enemy's statements.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on the evening of June 23, US President Donald Trump announced that Tehran and Tel Aviv had agreed to maintain a ceasefire. According to him, Iran was to stop the strikes first, and Israel 12 hours later.
Then Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said no such agreement had been reached. Israel's N12 TV channel also reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked ministers not to comment on the ceasefire deal with Iran.
The following day, Netanyahu's office issued a statement that Tel Aviv had eliminated Tehran's nuclear and missile threats and had achieved all military objectives against the Islamic Republic. In addition, Israel, in full coordination with the head of the White House, had accepted the initiative for a bilateral ceasefire.
However, on the night of June 24, Iran fired missiles that hit a seven-story building in the Israeli city of Be'er Sheva. Several explosions had previously occurred in different parts of Israel. The country's Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the IDF to respond decisively to Iran's violation of the ceasefire.
They have a little list…
More from regnum.ru Israel says military operation against Iran has achieved its goals
The Israeli authorities have eliminated threats in the nuclear and missile spheres of Iran and thus were able to achieve all the goals of the military operation against the Islamic Republic. This statement was made on June 24 by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security cabinet meeting with the Defense Minister, the Chief of the General Staff and the head of Mossad to announce that Israel not only achieved all the goals of Operation People Like a Lion, but exceeded them," the statement said.
Israel is said to have managed to eliminate the alleged dual threat posed by Iran in the nuclear and ballistic missile fields.
The office noted that in connection with this, the Israeli side, in full coordination with US President Donald Trump, accepted his initiative for a bilateral ceasefire.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on the morning of June 24, at least nine people were killed as a result of Israeli army strikes on the northern Iranian province of Gilan. In addition, four residential buildings were destroyed in Israeli attacks.
Trump announced on the evening of June 23 that Iran and Israel had agreed to a ceasefire. Later, the American president announced that it had entered into force and asked the parties to the conflict not to violate the ceasefire.
On June 24, Reuters reported that Iran, with Qatar's mediation, accepted the US proposal for a ceasefire with Israel.
Even more from regnum.ru Nine killed in Israeli air strike on Iran's Gilan province
At least nine people were killed as a result of Israeli military strikes on the province of Gilan, located in northern Iran. This was reported on June 24 by the Iranian agency Tasnim.
"Nine citizens were killed and 33 were injured. Of the total number of victims, five were hospitalized, and 28 are being treated as outpatients," the agency's Telegram channel said.
Four residential buildings were also destroyed in the Israeli strike.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, earlier on June 24, the Israeli state broadcaster Kan reported that the death toll from Iran's strike on the city of Be'er Sheva in Israel had risen to four. At night, Iranian missiles hit a seven-story building in the city.
US President Donald Trump announced on the evening of June 23 that Iran and Israel had agreed to a ceasefire. According to the American leader, Tehran would stop the strikes first, and Tel Aviv would stop 12 hours later. Trump also promised that after 24 hours and a complete ceasefire, the world would see a complete end to the 12-day war between Iran and Israel.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later said that no such agreement had been reached. At the same time, he indicated Tehran's readiness not to strike if the Israeli side ceases attacks no later than 04:00 local time. Israeli TV channel N12 reported earlier that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the Jewish state's ministers not to comment on reports of a ceasefire agreement with Iran.
More from regnum.ru Israel General Staff: Campaign Against Iran Not Over, Focus Shifts to Gaza
Israel's military campaign against Iran is not over, it will have a new phase, but at the moment the attention of the Israeli military is shifting to actions in the Gaza Strip. This statement was made by the Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir following an operational meeting on June 24.
"We have completed an important stage, but the campaign against Iran is not over. We are entering a new stage, building on the achievements of the current one," the IDF Spokesperson's Office quotes him as saying.
According to the Israeli Chief of Staff, the military operation against Iran has "set back by years" the republic's alleged nuclear program and missile project. He added that "despite this phenomenal achievement," the IDF must remain focused.
"Now the focus is turning back to Gaza - to bringing the hostages home and destroying the Hamas regime," Zamir concluded.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on June 23, US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Iran had reached an agreement on a complete ceasefire. According to him, after the 24-hour ceasefire, it will mark the complete end of the 12-day war. At the same time, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that there is no such agreement.
Shortly before this, the military of the Islamic Republic launched a missile attack on the American Al-Udeid base in Qatar. The Iranian Armed Forces emphasized that this was a response to aggression from Washington, which attacked Iranian facilities on the night of June 22.
On June 24, Trump said he would have to calm Israel down after the ceasefire with Iran was violated. The head of the White House expressed dissatisfaction with both sides of the conflict, noting that Tel Aviv's actions in this regard are of particular concern to him.
On the same day, adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Dmitry Gendelman announced the decision to stop strikes on Iran following telephone conversations between the Prime Minister of the Jewish state and the American leader.
“Idris Ali, Azad Shojai and Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul, who attempted to import equipment into the country to carry out assassinations, were arrested and tried for… cooperation favoring the Zionist regime,” the judiciary says, referring to Israel.
“The sentence was carried out this morning… and they were hanged.”
The executions took place in Urmia, a northwestern city near the border with Turkey, the judiciary says, sharing photos of the three men in blue prison uniforms.
Tehran regularly announces the arrest and execution of agents suspected of working for foreign intelligence services, particularly Israel.
After the Iran-Israel war erupted on June 13, Tehran vowed swift trials for people arrested on suspicion of collaborating with its arch-foe.
It carried out executions of men accused of being Mossad agents on both Sunday and Monday.
Iran is the world’s second-most prolific executioner after China, according to human rights groups, including Amnesty International.
In the hour before the ceasefire started, Iran fired 6 salvos at Israel, 20 missiles total, killing 4
[IsraelTimes] In the hour before the ceasefire was set to take effect, Iran fired six separate salvos at Israel, totaling some 20 missiles. The use of successive small barrages aimed at different parts of the country, which had also been employed a day earlier, marked a stark shift from the early days of the war, when Iran would seek to overwhelm Israel’s missile defenses with large-scale volleys of up to 60 missiles at a time.
According to some experts, the apparent change in strategy was a reflection of Iran’s attempts to squeeze what it could out of an increasingly depleted missile stockpile. In Tuesday morning’s case, the attack destroyed an apartment building in Beersheba and killing four people who had been sheltering in safe rooms.
Posted by: badanov ||
06/25/2025
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#1
All your surviving nuclear "scientists" are Mossad agents. It's easy to verify: anyone who masters differentiation (invented by Itzhak Newton) must be a Mossad agent!!!
Iran was badly mauled in symmetrical war but this ceasefire could play to their strength: asymmetrical war.
Their proxy regimes and terrorists could attack Western interests while Iran proper is protected by the US guaranteed ceasefire, as Iran will deny any involvement.
This has been their successful way of war for decades, now made increasingly effective by none other than the US.
UNLESS such attacks by proxy regimes and terrorists were proscribed by the ceasefire. Are they?
#7
^ Doesn't matter, Elmer. We can whack 'em whenever we damn well please...and they better chill out or else we will.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/25/2025 10:47
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#8
^How long does it take to educate and mature a 'rocket scientist'? Unlike the easily replaced cannon fodder these are hard to replace personnel. It is one theory why the IDF went for larger warheads on their Sidewinder missile clones: Arab fighter pilots are much, much harder to replace than jet aircraft.
#9
@7 The capability has been demonstrated. I'm in doubt about the intent.
Will the Trump administration ignore asymmetrical aggression to preserve the ceasefire and placate the woke right? I don't know and I hope not.
This is basically a scenario akin to a horror movie trope.
The Terminator has just been blown up, Reece survived largely unscathed and the audience wonders when the Terminator torso will emerge from the rubble crawling towards our heroes with the intent to kill.
Will they push the button and terminate the m*****f*****, effecting Terminator regime collapse?
[Axios] Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo conceded to state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday night.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, is on course for an earthquake victory after running an extraordinary grassroots campaign focused on affordability in America's largest city.
Mamdani was leading 10 other Democrats; including his top opponent, scandal-ridden Cuomo; in the first round of the ranked-choice election as of late Tuesday night.
Mamdani's policy proposals include rent freezes, free buses, and city-run grocery stores, all funded by $10 billion in new taxes on corporations and the wealthy {also a defund the police guy and as a bonus he supports Hamas}
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
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#1
Mamdani's policy proposals include rent freezes, free buses, and city-run grocery stores, all funded by $10 billion in new taxes on corporations and the wealthy
#2
The Democrats among them, anyway. The current mayor is running as an independent, and someone is running for the Republicans, but I can’t recall who. No doubt those who pay attention to politics will be able to tell us — but there’s plenty of time, as the general election will be held as usual in November.
#6
There used to be, either Yankees or Damn Yankees.
Now there are, Socialist Damn Yankees.
So, given the growing collection and locations of these Liberal DNC run manure pile Metros. Are they tuning up for a mass rebellion for the 2027-28 pre-election season?
#12
Mamdani and his ilk are the future of the Democratic party. This is a national trend, not just an NYC blip.
Posted by: Ed ||
06/25/2025 9:58
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#2 I know one family member that will. It's great too because she insists she's a Republican - just never gets around to voting like one. The cognitive disconnect is total.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/25/2025 10:04
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#14
^ replying to Grom, akshually
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/25/2025 10:06
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#15
Yes, two corners of the same mouth bringing bad tidings.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] In Mozambique, a crocodile attacked a 19-year-old footballer during training and ate him. This was reported on June 24 by the Daily Sun.
It is specified that the footballer of the second division club of Mozambique "Atletico Mineiro de Tete" was jogging on the football field located on the bank of the Zambezi River when he was attacked by a five-meter crocodile. His teammates did not have time to help the young man. "Red Card!"
Crocodile attacks in the Zambezi region are a regular occurrence. Policeman Leonel Mucina confirmed the incident, stressing that the footballer's body has not yet been found.
In May last year, police officers in Clear Lake City, Texas, were searching for a missing woman and found her body in the jaws of an alligator on the riverbank. The police officer shot the alligator to prevent it from doing more damage to the remains.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The number of victims in the cities of Dnepr and Samara is constantly increasing. Currently, there are already more than 100 people.
As a result of the Russian missile attack in the Dnipropetrovsk region, 11 people were killed and 95 were injured. This was reported by the head of the OVA Serhiy Lysak on Tuesday, June 24.
"There are already 8 dead in Dnepr (a little later it became known about another victim - ed.). Condolences to the relatives... 84 people were injured. 62 were hospitalized. Of these, seven are in serious condition. The number of wounded in Samara has also increased. According to current information, there are 11 of them. Eight were hospitalized, half are in "serious" condition. In total, there are 10 dead in Dnepr and Samara (already 11 - ed.)," he said.
According to Lysak, the number of victims is constantly increasing and now there are more than 100.
He also reported that traffic on the railway had been restored and trains were running as normal.
Let us recall that on June 24, Russians attacked the Dnipropetrovsk region with ballistic missiles . Explosions were heard in the cities of Dnipro and Samara.
Earlier it was reported that seven people were killed and 70 were injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
As a result of the impact, train #52 Odessa-Zaporozhye was damaged . There are casualties among the passengers.
[THEHILL] The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly torpedoed an effort by Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) to impeach President Trump over the U.S. strikes on Iran, underscoring how little appetite Democrats have to try and oust the president despite their frustration with the weekend attack. The Pomade Pimp™ should open his eyes
The chamber voted 344-79 to table Green's resolution, which charges Trump with abuse of power. One hundred-twenty eight Democrats — including the caucus's top three leaders — voted with Republicans to table the measure, while 79 Democrats voted against the effort, pushing for the chamber to hold a vote on the resolution.
Green for months has sought to trigger a vote on impeaching Trump, slamming his handling of both foreign and domestic policy issues.
The congressman on Tuesday reupped that effort, filing and forcing a vote on a resolution accusing Trump of failing to seek authorization from Congress before striking three sites in Iran over the weekend, which Democrats have taken issue with.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2025
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#1
Just another Liberal Democrat's piss poor attempt to deflect attention away from their failing agenda.
Side note to Liberals, Socialists and New Age Demo-Rats. America has spoken, it wants and needs to Make America Great again. The new Voter ID laws, voter roll clean-up and vote counting practices has put the New Liberal Socialist leaning DNC back at least 2 national elections.
Or, until they find a way for AI to rig the voting for them.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] At the British Wildwood Devon Zoo, two brown bears escaped from their enclosure and ate all the honey in the food warehouse. This was stated in a statement by the institution's press service on June 24 on Facebook (owned by Meta, a company recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation).
"We would like to thank everyone for their messages of support following the recent incident involving our European brown bears Mish and Lucy. We can confirm that this was the result of an operational error which allowed the bears to briefly enter a staff-only food storage area," the statement read.
The zoo noted that both bears fell asleep immediately after the "crime" was committed. The park was also closed for the duration of the escape, and the police later arrived to investigate the circumstances of the incident.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on June 23 in the American state of Utah, a black bear climbed into the house of a man sleeping on a cot and bit him on the arm. The man tried to pretend to be dead, but the animal did not believe him. The victim was then taken to the hospital and given first aid. The bear was shot.
[NY Post] An accused co-conspirator in last month’s terror attack at a Palm Springs, California, fertility clinic has died in federal custody, authorities confirmed.
Daniel Park, 32, had been facing conspiracy charges for allegedly shipping explosive materials to Guy Edward Bartkus,
…age 25 when he blew himself up, the member of a anti-natalist cult had driven from his home in Twentynine Palm for the occasion in his 2010 Ford Fusion sedan to kill people who wanted to have a baby because he resented having been forced to be born.. He failed to livestream his explosion on social media, but there was a manifesto…
who detonated a car bomb at the American Reproductive Centers clinic in the SoCal desert oasis.
"Daniel Park was found unresponsive at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Los Angeles, California. Responding employees initiated life-saving measures. ... Mr. Park was transported by EMS to a local hospital and subsequently pronounced deceased," the Federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement.
The Bureau did not share further details about the nature of Park’s death.
Park had been arrested in Poland, where he had traveled shortly after the attack, and was swiftly turned over to U.S. authorities.
Authorities accused Park of supplying Bartkus with 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate, which Bartkus apparently used to fashion an explosive device in his home bomb lab in the town of Twentynine Palms, less than an hour’s drive from Palm Springs.
Earlier this month, FBI director Akil Davis said the agency discovered that Park shipped six packages of ammonium nitrate - a chemical compound found in bombs - from Washington State to Bartkus in California.
Park was also 'in possession of a similar recipe' that was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Davis said.
The suspect was nabbed by the FBI and Port Authority Police at New York's airport after he was deported back to the US from Warsaw, Poland.
He was a US citizen, though it is unclear if he has any connections to Poland, US District Attorney Bilal A Essayli said.
Davis described both Park and Bartkus as members of the anti-natalist movement, a group that 'don't believe people should exist' and people should not continue to procreate.
The FBI believes the two were conducting experiments in a garage in Twentynine Palms - a large US Marine Corps base that Bartkus lived in.
At least five others were injured in the incident, which authorities called an 'intentional act of terrorism.'
The bomb recipe that Park was in possession of was similar to that of the Oklahoma City bombing - where Timothy McVeigh, a former Army soldier and security guard, set off a powerful bomb inside a rented truck in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. A total of 168 people were killed, including 19 children. Several hundred more injured.
In his writings, IVF clinic bomber Bartkus allegedly said he was 'pro-mortalist', something he described as someone who intends to bring on their own death as soon as possible 'to prevent your future suffering, and, more importantly, the suffering your existence will cause to all the other sentient beings.'
He also recorded a 30-minute-long audio clip explaining why he 'decided to bomb an IVF building, or clinic.'
'I figured I would just make a recording explaining why I’ve decided to bomb an IVF building, or clinic. Basically, it just comes down to I’m angry that I exist and that, you know, nobody got my consent to bring me here,' he said.
Bartkus also said he was 'angry' that IVF clinics exist, adding: 'These are people who are having kids after they’ve sat there and thought about it. How much more stupid can it get?'
'These are people who are having kids after they’ve sat there and thought about it. How much more stupid can it get?'
He is suspected of setting off a large vehicle-borne improvised explosive device outside of the clinic, which performs IVF treatments, egg collections and other procedures, according to his website.
Authorities found an AK-47 and an AR-Style rifle, as well as ammunition next to the burnt vehicle, the LA Times reported.
He allegedly tried to film the terror attack by setting up a tripod with a camera beforehand, but the file failed to upload to his website, according to BNO News.
#3
As I often say, people who feel there are too many humans should lead by example and commit suicide. Take as many of their fellow travelers with them. Leave the rest of us alone.
[ShabelleMedia] Stability is gradually returning to the Sabiid and Caanoole areas in Somalia’s Shabeelaha Hoose region, following their recent recapture by the Somali National Army (SNA).
Residents who fled amid fighting are reportedly beginning to return to their homes, despite significant damage to local infrastructure.
The bridge linking Sabiid and Caanoole remains destroyed after al-Shabaab ... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia attempting to metastasize into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and similar places, all ofwhich have enough problems without them... gunnies detonated explosives while retreating from the area. However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... locals say the damaged bridge has not deterred their return, as they make their way back to their communities peacefully.
Security in the area remains calm, with a strong presence of government forces seen patrolling the towns’ centers. Soldiers are urging residents to remain calm and continue living peacefully in their homes.
Military officials have assured civilians that the Somali National Army will maintain a permanent presence in Sabiid and Caanoole to ensure lasting security.
General Sahal Abdullahi Omar, commander of the Somali Army’s ground forces in the region, praised the troops’ successes in the fight against al-Shabaab. He said efforts are underway to reclaim all territories previously lost to bully boys, including several areas in Sabiid and Caanoole.
"Many areas that were evacuated have now been retaken, marking significant progress in our campaign against al-Shabaab in Shabeelaha Hoose," General Sahal said.
Despite the bully boys’ destruction of the vital bridge, government forces have fully reestablished control over both communities after months of bully boy occupation.
The Somali National Army’s commitment to stabilizing Shabeelaha Hoose appears strong, with ongoing efforts to restore normality and facilitate the safe return of displaced residents.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
[ColonelCassad] 1. It is worth noting right away that the Middle East war has not stopped. The genocide in the Gaza Strip, as well as the war of Israel against Hamas, continues. The Houthis' war against Israel also continues. Today, the Houthis have promised to continue to strike Israel as long as the genocide in the Gaza Strip continues. So talk of peace in the Middle East is extremely far from reality. The main problem for peace in the region is the Nazi regime in Israel.
2. The approach to negotiations was carried out through demonstrative strikes of dubious effectiveness. The United States struck Iran's nuclear facilities with bunker busters and cruise missiles, although there is no reliable evidence of their being disabled.
The Iranians directly state that they have not received critical damage and will continue to develop their nuclear program. Iran, in turn, attacked the Al-Udeid base in Qatar with ballistic missiles. However, there is also no reliable evidence of critical damage to the base. Both sides knew in advance about the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and about Iran's strikes on Al-Udeid. Both sides removed valuable assets from the attacked facilities in advance. Both sides declared successful strikes and unsuccessful strikes by their opponents.
3. Nevertheless, such a scheme allowed both sides to declare their victory and agree to a truce. This was evidence that all participants in the war are not ready to go all the way and wage a total war of destruction, which is a consequence of the heavy damage that Iran and Israel inflicted on each other, with the full understanding that there will only be more hits from both sides due to the weakening of air defense. Therefore, Qatar, as in 2020, was used as a mediator, only now it had to come to terms with the shelling of its territory, which it demonstratively but falsely took offense at.
The rest of the Arab League countries basically limited themselves to the same routine condemnations of Iran, as they had previously routinely condemned Israel and the United States. In fact, Iran has survived this war thanks to its missile arsenals and the internal stability of its society.
Without nuclear weapons. And without a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The role of Russia, China and Pakistan, as well as the hypothetical assistance that could have been provided to Iran, remained behind the scenes. It is still unknown what Chinese military transport planes were carrying to Iran and what agreements the Iranians had with Pakistan. Russia has traditionally publicly taken the position of a peacemaker, providing Iran with active diplomatic support.
4. If we consider the situation from the point of view of results, then on the one hand it is obvious that Iran held out (especially against the background of hysterical cries at the beginning of the war about the imminent collapse of Iran), was able to restore the chain of command, establish some working air defense (which began to swing just before the ceasefire) and ensure the ability to painfully pound Israel until the last minutes of the war.
At the same time, the plans of the USA and Israel to overthrow the ayatollahs in Tehran collapsed (at least for now). Instead of overthrowing the regime, Iran's opponents got the Iranians to rally around the flag, which ultimately strengthened the Iranian authorities, at least in the short term. The Iranians clearly do not need the Shah's son in a kippah.
Rude!
At the same time, Iran suffered significant losses in air defense systems and radars, in the personnel of the army and the IRGC, lost a number of important leaders of the security forces, a number of important scientists, a number of industrial facilities, including nuclear ones.
The material damage to Iran is significant and it will take more than one year to eliminate all the consequences. Iran's main failure in this war is the complete failure of the Iranian special services, which resulted in problems with ensuring the protection of the leadership and valuable personnel, as well as the operability of the unified air defense system. Well, it is worth noting the naivety of Iranian diplomats who fell for Trump's manipulations, which led to a misunderstanding of the timing of the start of the war.
5. On the other hand, Israel also suffered serious material damage, which is clearly visible even in the footage that leaked through censorship. By the end of the war, Israel's air defense was working with reduced efficiency and Iran, launching fewer missiles, achieved a greater number of hits. Modern ballistics and hypersonics have proven themselves to be no less formidable weapons than American precision.
Israel also lost several expensive air defense systems, several important scientific facilities, and suffered serious damage to military, industrial and civilian infrastructure. The total economic damage is also very significant. At the same time, it was not possible to achieve regime change in Iran. It was not possible to guarantee that Iran will not have nuclear weapons. It was not possible to start a "new stage of development of the Middle East" with redrawing borders.
The Israeli lion jumped on the victim and tried to bite its neck, but the victim dodged and started poking the lion in the belly with a rocket knife. As a result, the situation from a blitzkrieg began to turn into a war of attrition, which threatened Israel with uncontrollable scenarios, so the owner of the Western zoo simulated a "crushing blow" and then rolled back the aggression against Iran.
6. This is certainly not the end. This is a pause.
We expected a hudna. We got a hudna. The depth of the Mullahs’ regrets over this decision remain to be seen — not whether they will regret it deeply, but just the exact dimension of their deep regret…though this assumes they will still be living at the end of their little adventure. So many of them already are ex-alive, after all.
This war has not eliminated any of the fundamental contradictions in the Middle East. The existential nature of the conflict has not gone away.
From the wheels of this war, they will immediately begin preparing for the next one. Israel will draw conclusions from the failures of its air defense, and also restore the thinned out agents in Iran for future operations to change the regime in Tehran and then break it up. Iran, in turn, in addition to the general restoration, will restore its air defense system (there will be attempts to buy air defense systems and radars from China and Russia), reform the special services and approaches to security, and churn out even more drones and missiles. Well, in the long term, the topic of Iran's nuclear program will not disappear anywhere. The Iranians have drawn conclusions from this attack and the role of the IAEA.
7. Of course, both Iran and Israel will face considerable internal problems after the war.
Actually, Bibi’s stock has risen so much that he is thinking about calling a snap election. Not being in imminent danger of fiery, radioactive death is awfully clarifying, donchaknow. And the reverse on the Iranian side, of course.
Iran will have many questions about the failures of the security forces and the preparation for war. Israel will have even more questions about Netanyahu, who promised victory over Iran, but ultimately led to the fact that local branches of Gaza were opened in a number of Israeli cities.
8. Questions hang in the air - How many launchers and missiles did Iran have left at the end of the war to strike Israel?
They were down 50% on launchers the other day. It may be only a third left now, which makes shooting off missiles more than little challenging. On the other hand, Israel destroyed missile caches and missile and drone factories, too, which does make replacing the things difficult…
How many anti-missiles and working air defense systems did Israel have left?
Iran has been going after Israeli residences and such — the terror factor, as the Prophet Mohammed commanded. So Israel’s manufacturing base is doing fine, as far as I am aware.
What and where did the Iranians take from their nuclear facilities? What is the real situation at the facilities in Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow? What losses did Israel suffer during those strikes that were not captured on photo/video?
None whatsoever.
What are the real losses of Iran and Israel among the military? In general, there are more questions than answers so far. So a more detailed analysis will come later, when the fog of war and military propaganda clears.
The fog is pretty clear, actually. Al Jazeera was broadcasting the map coordinates where Iranian missiles hit…
Posted by: badanov ||
06/25/2025
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 21:24 Russian flags raised in liberated Dyleevka –MAP 21:18 Military signalmen of the 90th Guards Tank Division of the Center group of forces sharpen skills to ensure stable communications between units in the rear area of the SVO zone.
20:45 In the period from 16:10 Moscow time to 19:50 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty intercepted and destroyed 22 Ukrainian aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles:
13 UAVs over the territory of the Voronezh region,
Four UAVs over the territory of the Belgorod region,
Three UAVs over the territory of the Saratov region,
One UAV each over the territories of the Samara region and the Republic of Tatarstan.
20:25 Signalmen of the 49th Army of the Dnepr group of forces provide reliable control of troops in the Kherson region.
20:01 Special operation. Situation and main events on June 24.
The Russian Armed Forces have liberated the village of Dyleevka in the DPR, the Ministry of Defense reported.
Ombudsman Anna Soroka reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are remotely mining the frontline territories of the LPR.
The head of the Russian embassy in Bogota, Nikolai Tavdumadze, stated that Ukraine is recruiting mercenaries in Colombia.
Moskalkova reported that they managed to return 132 residents of the Kursk region who were held in Ukraine.
18:17 Assault aircraft of the 4th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 3rd combined Arms Army finished clearing the village of Dyleevka in the DPR.
With the support of artillery and UAV crews, fighters from the Southern Group of Forces continue their offensive deep into the enemy's defenses.
16:45 In the period from 13:00 Moscow time to 16:05 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty intercepted and destroyed 18 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the aircraft type:
Seven UAVs over the territory of the Voronezh region,
Five UAVs over the territory of the Ulyanovsk region,
Two UAVs over the territories of the Penza and Kursk regions,
One UAV over the territories of the Belgorod and Saratov regions.
15:53 UAV operators of the 44th Army Corps destroyed an anti-aircraft installation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Khar'kov direction.
UAV crews of the 51st Guards Army disabled enemy armored vehicles on the border of the DPR and Dnepropetrovsk region.
FPV drone operators of the Southern Group of Forces destroyed a Senator combat armored vehicle of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near the village of Konstantinovka.
The crew of the D-30 gun of the "West" group of forces hit a field warehouse of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with a precise shot.
Molniya-2 crews of the Center group of forces struck enemy fortifications in the Krasnoarmeysk direction.
15:05 Change of LBS in the Sumy direction, –MAP.
14:22 Calculation of the FPV drone "Antonov" of the naval infantry unit destroyed a dugout with Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel in the area of responsibility of the North group.
13:24 In the period from 8.05 Moscow time to 12.50 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty intercepted and destroyed 34 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the aircraft type:
22 UAVs over the territory of the Voronezh region,
Seven UAVs over the territory of the Belgorod region,
Three UAVs over the territory of the Saratov region,
Two UAVs over the territory of the Penza region.
12:22 Summary of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the progress of the special military operation as of June 24, 2025
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to conduct a special military operation.
Units of the North group of forces improved their position along the front line. They defeated the manpower and equipment of the mechanized and airborne assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the areas of the settlements of Yastrebinoye, Andreyevka and Sadki in the Sumy region.
In the Khar'kov direction, units of the mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and four territorial defense brigades were defeated in the areas of the settlements of Okop, Udy, Okhrimovka, Zelenoye and Volchansk in the Khar'kov region.
The enemy's losses amounted to 235 servicemen, two combat armored vehicles, six cars and seven field artillery pieces, including a US-made 155mm howitzer M-777. Two ammunition depots were destroyed.
Units of the "West" group of troops took up more advantageous lines and positions. They defeated formations of two mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a territorial defense brigade and a national guard brigade in the areas of the settlements of Shiykovka, Novosergeevka, Sobolevka, Novaya Kruglyakovka, Kupyansk in the Khar'kov region, Karpovka and Zelenaya Dolina in the Donetsk People's Republic.
The enemy lost over 220 servicemen, a US-made HMMWV armored combat vehicle, 11 vehicles and an artillery piece. Three electronic warfare stations and three ammunition depots were destroyed.
Units of the Southern Group of Forces, as a result of active and decisive actions, liberated the settlement of Dyleevka in the Donetsk People's Republic.
They inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of two mechanized and airmobile brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a territorial defense brigade in the areas of the settlements of Shcherbinovka, Serebryanka, Predtechino, Belaya Gora, Vyemka, Petrovka, Seversk, Vasyukovka, Tikhonovka, Zarya and Chasov Yar of the Donetsk People's Republic.
The enemy's losses amounted to more than 190 servicemen, a US-made M-113 armored personnel carrier, four vehicles and an electronic warfare station.
Units of the "Center" group of forces continued to advance deep into the enemy's defense. They defeated formations of four mechanized, airborne assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a naval infantry brigade and two national guard brigades in the areas of the settlements of Udachnoye, Alekseyevka, Dimitrov, Muravka, Petrovskoye, Krasnoarmeysk, Novosergeyevka, Dachnoye and Zeleny Kut of the Donetsk People's Republic.
The Ukrainian armed forces lost up to 230 servicemen, six armored combat vehicles, including an HMMWV armored car, a Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, and a US-made M-113 armored personnel carrier. Eight pickup trucks and three field artillery pieces were destroyed.
Units of the "East" group of forces occupied more advantageous lines and positions. They defeated the manpower and equipment of the mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and two territorial defense brigades in the areas of the settlements of Yalta, Zaporozhye, Fedorovka, Shevchenko of the Donetsk People's Republic, Maliyevka of the Dnipropetrovsk region and Gulyaipole of the Zaporozhye region.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 190 servicemen, a tank, two armored combat vehicles, two cars, three artillery pieces and an electronic warfare station.
Units of the Dnepr group of forces defeated formations of a mechanized brigade, two coastal defense brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a territorial defense brigade in the areas of the settlements of Malye Shcherbaky in the Zaporizhia region, Lviv, Antonovka, Kizomys, Novaya Kakhovka, Dneprovskoye in the Kherson region and the city of Kherson.
Up to 60 Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen, ten vehicles, five electronic warfare stations and two ammunition depots were destroyed.
Operational-tactical aviation, strike unmanned aerial vehicles, missile forces and artillery of the Russian Armed Forces groups have damaged Ukrainian port infrastructure facilities, assembly shops and warehouses for unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as temporary deployment points for Ukrainian Armed Forces units and foreign mercenaries in 142 districts.
Air defense systems shot down two US-made JDAM guided air bombs, a long-range Neptune guided missile, and 168 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, the following have been destroyed:
663 aircraft,
283 helicopters,
65,137 unmanned aerial vehicles,
611 anti-aircraft missile systems,
24,029 tanks and other armored combat vehicles,
1,572 combat vehicles of multiple launch rocket systems,
26,545 field artillery pieces and mortars,
37,225 units of special military vehicles.
11:05 The Russian Armed Forces liberated Novosergeevka, –MAP.
09:41 On frames: strikes by the Geranium kamikaze UAVs on the Ukrainian Armed Forces' air defense systems in the area of the settlement of Shakhovo and the Ukrainian Armed Forces' ammunition depot in the area of the settlement of Toretskoye; detonation of the ammunition was observed after the arrival.
08:57 Crew of the 152mm Giatsint-B gun of the West group of forces intercepted rotation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Krasnolimansk direction.
07:48 During the night of June 24, air defense systems on duty intercepted and destroyed 20 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the fixed-wing type:
14 over the territory of the Kursk region,
Two UAVs were shot down over the Moscow region,
One UAV was destroyed over the territory of the Belgorod region,
One UAV was destroyed over the territory of the Bryansk region,
One UAV was destroyed over the territory of the Oryol region,
One UAV was destroyed over the territory of the Smolensk region.
06:12 The 122mm BM-21 Grad MLRS crew of the 44th Army Corps of the North Forces Group, interacting with UAV operators, destroyed an accumulation of enemy manpower in the Khar'kov direction.
05:07 Calculation of the Lancet loitering munition of the 36th Combined Arms Army of the East group of forces destroyed nn armored vehicle "Mastiff" with Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel in the area of the settlement of Yalta in the DPR.
'Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely'
This quote was penned by Lord Acton, the strong 19th century advocate for individual liberty. It is a timeless observation as old as the scriptures. It underscores his conviction that unchecked power poses the greatest threat to human freedom. His work consistently underscored the significance of limiting government and concentrated authority in favor of individual rights and personal liberty.
Lord Acton is a hero of mine. As a business owner I understand that individual liberty is mother’s milk for the entrepreneur. Acton understood that great men are almost always bad men when you
"combine the certainty of corruption by authority."
My ancestors immigrated to America in the 1880’s. Out of necessity they became fruit peddlers. It was the most rudimentary of all businesses. One buys fruit at the market, transports it by foot to underserved areas of the city, and hopefully sells it for a profit. In 1886 there was no safety net. EBT cards and Medicaid were nonexistent. As always there was no protection from the God-awful Chicago winters. Competition was fierce and at times violent. Because of lack of language skills, and understanding of laws and their rights, immigrants were easily swindled and taken advantage of.
There was only one’s resourcefulness and determination to defend against the obstacles. Yet of all the hardships, the one that was the most feared, hated, and potentially the most damaging was concentrated governmental power and abusive corruption.
Family stories were passed down to me in the oral tradition that connected one generation to the next for ages and ages. My favorite stories were the ones that involved conflict, heroic undertakings, and cunning conclusions. I always envisioned these stories as our family’s ongoing Odessey.
As a child I was told of the cops, bureaucrats, and elected officials (the bad guys) who shook down my great grandfather and great uncles (the good guys). Push-carts, the most indispensable part of their livelihood, sometimes disappeared or were destroyed overnight. Like Sisyphus rolling the boulder up the hill, they had to start over. There were no other options.
In time though the fruit carts evolved into a produce shop at the South Water Market. My Grandfather would tell me of how his father and uncles would have to provide all the politicians with baskets of fruit and Christmas trees every year. The cops would help themselves to produce daily.
Years pass and the produce shop evolved into restaurants and a coffee distributorship in the following generation. Paying tribute continued to be a cost of doing business in Chicago only now there were now more bureaucrats, sales tax examiners, and inspectors. Most all of them conducted the city’s business with their hand in small businessman’s pocket. Relating the experience to me, my grandfather, normally docile if stock market wasn’t having a down day, would narrow his eyes, lean in, and call the grifters, "dirty bloodsucking sons of bitches."
Years later, my opening a business in the city meant hiring a facilitator to guide me through the complicated process of who to know and who to pay obtaining all the licenses and inspections. The most galling part of the corruption I experienced was the confident condescension, and arrogance of most officials I had to deal with. They knew they held all the cards, and they had the only table in the casino.
As I write this, Mike Madigan is being sentenced to 7.5 years for a lifetime of corruption. Madigan, the longest serving legislative leader in US history, rose to power manipulating zoning laws. In the weeks leading up to the sentencing, there are cries for mercy from fellow complicit politicians and friends. After the sentence there are all the phony self-righteous politicians saying they’re glad, he deserved it. Spare Me! As far as I’m concerned, Mike Madigan and all his yet unindicted buddies are nothing more than the "bloodsucking sons of bitches" my grandfather warned me about. For generations they enriched themselves at the expense of all the entrepreneurs who started businesses unable to sleep nights trying to navigate making payrolls and paying mortgages and mollifying greedy politicians always aware that they hold the power to end their businesses or at the very least make their lives a costly living nightmare.
Madigan is the embodiment of Lord Acton’s axiom. In this deeply blue state, he held absolute power. There were no checks and balances from a flaccid, complicit republican opposition. His daughter served as attorney general protecting him from legal prosecution. Madigan collected untold millions selling business licenses at the airports, rezoning whatever he needed to regardless of who’s life was upended or destroyed. Despite all his exploitation and fraud, Madigan is small potatoes compared to some of our national leaders.
Today only 15 percent of Americans view Congress as favorable. Most (80 percent) of us favor term limits on Congress, but it would be almost impossible to put into law. Why? Because Congress alone has the power to enact a law to that effect, and they would never willingly neuter themselves. They also have passed laws to protect themselves from sexual harassment, and liable and slander laws. Almost anything they say or do short of murder inside the Capital building is protected.
They have the power to vote themselves raises. Many times, they put their spouses and family members on their office payrolls, but it’s only a facade. Most outrageous of all of course is that they enrich themselves to an obscene amount through inside trading and influence pedaling. The most influential, Pelosi, McConnell, Schummer, Biden, Tillis, Warren just to name a few, in the hundreds of millions of dollars. An incumbent congress person has a 90 percent chance of reelection because of special interest and labor union money poured into their campaigns. Congress is no longer interested in solving our problems, but only in covering their asses, cashing in, and getting reelected. Absolute power corrupting again.
Illinois like California and other states are now essentially one-party rule. Once that happens the power of all elected officials, the servants of we citizens, become absolute. Corruption and their self-serving policy get shoved down our throats. Isn’t this cycle of tumbling into the abyss of absolute power emblematic of the mess we find ourselves in America today?
Our visionary, sagacious founding fathers based our Constitution and Bill of Rights on individual freedom, checking the powers of those who govern. Thomas Paine expressed in "Common Sense" that government is at best a "necessary evil." In 1776, the founders were in a position much like we’re in today. The absolute all powerful British Crown, consuming as much power as it wished. The problem, then and now, is to formulate a system that gives government the power necessary to protect individual liberty and prevents those who govern from abusing that power.
In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish a government that becomes damaging of their natural rights and liberties. He saw this as a necessary instrument to control our leaders and prevent tyranny. He foresaw occasional rebellions to refresh the "tree of liberty."
So, there we have it. The solution is our sacred birthright. One popular definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results." Instead of believing Mike Madigan’s seven years sentence is going to solve the corrupt environment we find ourselves sinking into up to our necks. We need to follow Jefferson’s remedy. Of course, it’s not going to be a simple task but like the fruit peddler who repaired his broken cart, we need to push the boulder up the hill together and refresh the tree of liberty from all the "bloodsucking sons of bitches."
It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.
— Theodore Roosevelt
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/25/2025
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#1
It's not the power, it's the lack of accountability.
#3
Because Congress alone has the power to enact a law to that effect, and they would never willingly neuter themselves.
There is always the option of States Convention by the Constitution. Any amendments that the convention would delivery would still require 3/4ths of the states to ratify. It's long overdue.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kirill Semenov
[REGNUM] The temporary pause in mutual attacks between Israel, the US and Iran so far leaves more questions than it answers.
Given that neither side has achieved its objectives,
…Iran has not erased Israel, but Israel has severely damaged Iran’s nuclear program, killed or wounded many of its civilian and military leaders, and made a severe dent in Iran’s war matériel, hindering both their ability to wage war and rule the country. Also, there’s that little thing about Israel wiping out most of the leadership, funding, and war matériel of Hamas and Hezbollah, and the ports used by the Houthis, severely reducing the ability of Iran’s catspaws to attack Israel at home, though they are thus far mostly untouched in Europe and the Americas…
a new escalation can be expected soon. Although it is also likely that Iran's opponents will move to a new stage and focus their efforts on subversion within the country in order to bring about a change of power and the dismantling of the Islamic Republic.
NEW METHODS OF OVERTHROW
In the event of a long-term truce, Washington and Tel Aviv are counting on the Yugoslav scenario being launched in Iran. Then, strikes on the country caused significant damage and, although not immediately, paved the way for a “color revolution” and a change of power.
Trump has most likely generally accepted Israel's view on the need to dismantle the political system of the Islamic Republic. At the same time, the range of possible actions to achieve this goal is very wide, including the assassination of Iran's supreme leader, which could trigger revolutionary events.
Therefore, what is happening is a serious challenge for Russia as well. Iran is being used to develop elements of future subversive activities against both us and China, Donald Trump's main adversary.
First of all, the creation and launch of not only effective terrorist and sabotage networks, but also cells engaged in subversive activities through the dissemination of narratives favorable to the United States and Israel and organizing protests in Iranian society is being tested.
Perhaps the previous principles and methods of "color revolutions" that worked against weak political regimes, such as those in Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, etc., have already been revised. They have proven ineffective against countries such as Russia or Iran.
It is also worth recalling that the subversive actions of the US and Israel in Iran occurred immediately after Operation Spider Web, when strategic aviation bases were attacked by sabotage terrorist groups using drones from Russian territory. And earlier, there were explosions of transport infrastructure, murders of Russian generals and public figures.
Both operations—the actions of cells in both Iran and Russia—followed similar algorithms, so they most likely had a single foreign coordination and decision-making center.
If we consider the geopolitical consequences, then, by continuing their subversive activities against the Islamic Republic, the United States and Israel also intend to destroy the “One Belt, One Road” and “North-South” transport corridor systems that are being built.
Therefore, the actions of the American-Israeli bloc are a common threat, and it would be good if it led to strengthening cooperation in the Moscow-Tehran-Beijing triangle with the possible involvement of Pakistan to the extent that it does not cost the break in the strategic partnership with India.
A LIBERAL SHOWCASE WITH RADICAL CONTENT
Naturally, if the enemies of the Islamic Republic aim to change power in the country, then they must prepare a leader who will personify a new Iran “without mullahs, hijabs and Sharia.”
The most acceptable candidate was chosen to be the shahzade, that is, the prince, the son of the last shah, Muhammad Pahlavi, who, like his grandfather, the founder of the dynasty, bears the name Reza.
As early as February 2025, Pahlavi was chosen by various fringe factions of the Iranian opposition as their leader and head of a future transitional government “until the formation of the first national assembly and the beginning of democratic rule through free elections.”
In reality, however, his supporters do not wield any real influence within the country. Reza, like his father, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was never a popular leader.
Reza Pahlavi, the grandfather, the first shah of the dynasty, essentially usurped power after a military coup and declared himself the new monarch in 1925, rather than establish a republic in Iran. In this sense, both shahs resemble the father and son of the Assad family in Syria, who led the country to collapse and revolution.
Therefore, the legitimacy of the Pahlavis themselves is very conditional - they came to power through a coup and, by historical standards, soon lost power through a revolution. It is not possible to compare them with the Romanovs in Russia or other dynasties - overthrown, but having deep foundations for legitimacy.
At the same time, there are more serious opposition forces in Iran, which, unlike the freak monarchists, have their own networks of influence and can really lay claim to power in the event of a hypothetical collapse.
This includes, for example, the Organization of the Mujahideen of the Iranian People (OMIN), a revolutionary leftist-Islamist organization that waged armed struggle against the Islamic Republic for a long time while in Saddam Hussein's camp. The ideology of this organization is a mixture of Marxist, Leninist and Islamist positions.
The MEK participated in the Islamic Revolution in Iran, but then lost the struggle for power to the "Khomeinists" and its supporters were subjected to repression. The mujahideen responded to this with a wave of terror and mass murder of supporters of the new authorities.
The MEK had its own National Army of Liberation of Iran (NAL), based in Iraq and numbering 7,000 fighters. In 1988, six days after Ayatollah Khomeini announced his acceptance of a UN-brokered ceasefire, the NLA advanced under heavy Iraqi air cover, crossed the border, and captured the city of Islamabad-e-Gharb. But it was then driven back with heavy losses.
In 2003, the MEK and NAO, still based in Iraq, fought on Saddam's side against the US and its allies who had attacked Iraq, but a ceasefire was then agreed upon.
However, since 2009, the new Iraqi government, close to the Islamic Republic, has demanded that MEK leave Iraq. Then, pro-Iranian Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced that the group would be banned from basing itself on Iraqi territory. He backed up his statements with repression and arrests of its members.
After that, the US began to remove the organization's fighters from Iraq. At the same time, OMIN was removed from the terrorist lists, and the US was able to convince Albania to accept the remaining 2,700 NAO members who were brought to Tirana between 2014 and 2016. It is obvious that the CIA, by showing such patronage over OMIN, expected to use its resources in the future.
A 2008 report by the U.S. Army Intelligence Center said the MEK operates a large network of supporters in Iran, sparking debate among intelligence experts about whether Western powers should use the opportunity to better build their own intelligence picture of the Iranian regime’s goals and intentions.
Iran has also carried out operations to expose MEK networks, for example, in 2010 and 2011, Ali Saremi, Mohammad Ali Hajj Aghaei and Jafar Kazemi were executed for collaborating with the organization .
Donald Trump, even during his first presidency, wanted to use MEK against the Islamic Republic. In January 2018, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called French President Emmanuel Macron and asked him to order the expulsion of MEK from its French base in Auvers-sur-Oise, claiming that the organization had provoked the Iranian protests of 2017–2018.
The main base of the OMIN, however, remained Albania, where more than 4,000 of its members were located. There, during the Free Iran 2019 conference, former New York City Mayor and Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani described the group as a “government in exile,” saying it was a ready-made alternative to lead the country if the Iranian government fell.
Moreover, the Trump administration then stated that it did not rule out the MEK as a viable replacement for the current Iranian regime.
In turn, OMIN networks in Albania were subjected to cyber attacks in 2022, which the Albanian authorities blamed on Iran, leading to a rupture in diplomatic relations between the countries.
Thus, if the Shah is a kind of “face” of the pro-Western opposition, then in reality the change of power in the Islamic Republic will be carried out by networks of radical organizations such as OMIN.
Of course, it now positions itself as a respectable structure that shares Western values, but in reality this group has hardly moved far from its previous principles.
Therefore, even if we assume that the West will succeed in dismantling the current state system in Iran, this does not mean that they will succeed in bringing to power their own supporters, who are not an organized force.
GUARDIANS OF THE REVOLUTION
At the same time, there are serious obstacles to such plans for a change of power in Iran. Thus, despite the split in Iranian society, its pro-government part has united around the supreme leader.
It is a foundation that can withstand any pressure, even from the majority of Iranians themselves, who are unable to crack it until it cracks itself. However, its foundation still appears monolithic, despite attempts to drive wedges through military actions by the US and Israel.
At the core of this foundation is the very ideology of the Islamic Republic, the guardians and cement of which are the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Unlike the CPSU and the Komsomol of the late USSR, the IRGC is not just a party of supporters of the Islamic regime or special services, which are also there. The IRGC is a multi-million army, an armed force of supporters of the Islamic Republic and the ideas of the Islamic revolution, whose tentacles are present in all spheres of society, holding it back from disintegration.
And the opposition, even one as organized as OMIN, has nothing to counter this “monster” with.
It is pointless to look for complete analogues of the IRGC: this is a purely Iranian specificity. The formation of the Corps took place without looking back at any Western examples. And what it has now become - with its own industry, aviation, navy and special services - was clearly not envisaged at the time of its creation.
The IRGC emerged primarily as a military structure, a kind of guard during the war with Iraq. At that time, assault battalions were created from the most zealous Muslim supporters of the Islamic Revolution, which were then united into the divisions of "Prophet Mohammad", "Imam Hussein", "Ashura" and "Najaf", which became some of the most combat-ready during the Iran-Iraq war.
Initially these were formations designed to fight Iraq on the battlefield, but were recruited from motivated volunteers who later found wider use.
Thus, the IRGC rather reflects the Middle Eastern, Islamic specificity, and the most similar to it is probably the National Guard of Saudi Arabia. It arose from the religious militia of zealous Wahhabis, the "Ikhwan" (not to be confused with other "Ikhwan", the "Muslim Brotherhood").
The Saudi Ikhwan might have also secured for themselves powers as broad as those of the IRGC in Iran, if not for their conflict with the king, the unsuccessful uprising in 1929, and the transformation of those of them who remained loyal to the monarch despite their own understanding of religion into the National Guard. Instead of guardians of religion, they became guardians of the oil fields and borders of the House of Saud.
That is, both the Saudi Ikhwan and the IRGC are, first and foremost, defenders, guardians of religion and a state based on religious principles. And they must protect religion from enemies, both external and internal.
This is the main difference between the IRGC and the Iranian army. If the army must protect the state as a territory, then the IRGC stands guard over the Islamic revolution, its goals and ideals. Therefore, they are called upon to act both inside the country and far beyond Iran. That is why the range of tasks of the IRGC is much wider.
For example, for the "export of the Islamic revolution" there is the Al-Quds command - an organization with its own structure. It is intended for foreign operations, support of allied movements and countries.
That is, if we imagine the IRGC as a matryoshka doll, as a state within a state, then Al-Quds is also a state, a matryoshka doll, but already within the “IRGC state”. With its own separate intelligence structures, special forces, ground forces. And it seems that it will be difficult to find a suitable analogue for this.
The IRGC has its own intelligence and counterintelligence, but so does the Quds Force command. At the same time, the Islamic Republic itself as a state also has its own intelligence and counterintelligence, not connected to the IRGC.
But functions similar to those of, for example, our Federal Security Service are concentrated in the IRGC. The Ansar al-Mahdi unit operates to protect senior officials and religious centers, and the Supreme Leader himself is protected by the Wali-e Amr unit.
The IRGC also has rapid reaction forces and special operations forces that duplicate the army special forces, including the Saberin Takavor Brigade, the 110th Salman Farsi Special Operations Brigade, the 33rd Al-Mahdi Airborne Brigade and separate battalions in provincial corps. While in the Army, the Special Forces are represented by the 55th and 65th Brigades.
The IRGC's ground forces are organized into 32 infantry territorial corps, which were deployed from regular divisions from the Iran-Iraq War, combined with regular battalions and militias from the Basij command.
Unlike the army divisions, the IRGC divisions are mostly infantry. Although they do have tank units, they are significantly fewer than the army. There are probably 8 IRGC "operational" divisions deployed at all times in peacetime, but in wartime there may be more than 40.
The core of the land component in the provinces is the "Hussein Battalions", which are part of the Basij and serve as the basis for the reserve infantry divisions in wartime that will be deployed from the militias. These battalions can also be used as expeditionary forces. They have, for example, participated in the fighting in Syria.
Therefore, the Basij is not only the militia and reserve of the IRGC, but also the regular units. This includes the first-priority reserve and the so-called “army of 20 million” - a broader, mass militia that can be called up to suppress internal threats.
If the Hussein Battalions are the backbone of the IRGC ground forces, the equivalent of a territorial army in the provinces, then the Ali Battalions of the Basij Command are the equivalent of a gendarmerie aimed at suppressing unrest and counter-revolutionary rebellions. They work closely with the police and security forces.
The IRGC has created a multi-layered presence in Iranian society and has engaged in its activities in one form or another millions of people who are ready to stand up for the Islamic revolution at the first order. At least, this is what is expected of them.
This is the foundation, the basis on which the Iranian regime relies. And even if its supporters are in the minority, their unity and organization will most likely allow them to withstand the challenges and threats of internal destabilization.
Posted by: badanov ||
06/25/2025
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] A 16th-century ship that sank at a depth of more than 2.5 km was discovered off the coast of Ramatuelle in southeastern France. This was reported by the French television news network France 24.
"Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 16th-century merchant ship at a depth of more than 2.5 kilometres off the coast of southern France. It is the deepest find of its kind in this part of the Mediterranean or any other French waters," the report says.
Archaeologists believe the vessel, loaded with pottery, was heading from northern Italy when it sank.
According to the deputy maritime prefect Thierry de la Bourgade, the remains of the ship were discovered by an unmanned underwater vehicle back in March of this year. The vehicle was descending into the depths as part of a project initiated by the French government to explore and monitor the country's deep-sea resources.
The previous record was held by the submarine La Minerve, which was found off the coast of Toulon, France. It was found at a depth of approximately 2.3 km.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on June 12, it was reported that the wreckage of a ship that sank in the 19th century had been discovered off the British coast. As diver Dom Robinson said, he learned about the unidentified wreckage from the British Hydrographic Office and decided to study it. The man dived to the sunken ship and found a broken plate with the seal of the Cunard Steamship Company on it. Thanks to it, Robinson realized that it was the steamship Nantes, which sank 140 years ago.
The day before, Live Science reported that treasure from the Spanish galleon San Jose, which sank 300 years ago, had been found in the Caribbean. The coins in question were minted in 1707 and were scattered around the wreckage.
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 braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
...
...
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...every time you hear the phrase 
[Townhall] 
On June 24, 2025, the Tulsa Police Department arrested 19-year-old Timetrious Moore for 2nd Degree Murder related to a tragic shooting that occurred during the 
...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end...
[Regnum] In Mozambique, a crocodile attacked a 19-year-old footballer during training and ate him. This was reported on June 24 by the Daily Sun.
[NY Post] An accused co-conspirator in last month’s terror attack at a Palm Springs, California, fertility clinic has died in federal custody, authorities confirmed.
... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia attempting to metastasize into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and similar places, all ofwhich have enough problems without them...
This quote was penned by Lord Acton, the strong 19th century advocate for individual liberty. It is a timeless observation as old as the scriptures. It underscores his conviction that unchecked power poses the greatest threat to human freedom. His work consistently underscored the significance of limiting government and concentrated authority in favor of individual rights and personal liberty.
