Hi there, !
Thu 07/17/2025 Wed 07/16/2025 Tue 07/15/2025 Mon 07/14/2025 Archives
Rantburg
559777 articles and 1929884 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 62 articles and 101 comments as of 15:03.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    Non-WoT    Opinion    Local News    Politix   
Iran ready to respond to any new attack, says supreme leader
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 2: WoT Background
0 [29] 
1 14:28 3dc [59] 
1 14:32 3dc [45] 
0 [32] 
5 10:55 Abu Uluque [93] 
0 [31] 
0 [37] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
1 14:26 Silentbrick [25]
0 [46]
0 [48]
0 [35]
0 [50]
2 09:35 Lord Garth [67]
3 11:10 HeavyG [91]
4 12:23 Grom the Affective [103]
0 [40]
0 [43]
0 [47]
2 13:02 swksvolFF [88]
0 [35]
2 15:03 3dc [52]
2 14:56 swksvolFF [81]
3 06:45 Grom the Affective [73]
8 12:55 mossomo [127]
3 05:04 Glolutch Tingle1702 [134]
0 [48]
Page 3: Non-WoT
1 09:31 Skidmark [50]
5 13:47 DarthVader [159]
0 [33]
3 14:58 Skidmark [89]
2 09:16 Mercutio [103]
Page 4: Opinion
2 15:03 Skidmark [78]
0 [28]
Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
0 [29]
0 [26]
0 [26]
0 [33]
0 [23]
0 [27]
0 [27]
Page 6: Politix
2 10:29 Procopius2k [45]
10 14:54 Pancho Poodle8452 [140]
1 07:09 NN2N1 [50]
5 04:54 Besoeker [105]
16 14:24 Silentbrick [209]
1 07:14 NN2N1 [45]
6 10:04 swksvolFF [127]
0 [41]
1 12:40 Skidmark [43]
2 12:41 swksvolFF [68]
3 07:22 NN2N1 [106]
0 [54]
2 07:31 NN2N1 [70]
2 10:36 ed in texas [114]
Britain
'Russian spy' caught in England turns out to be alcoholic who sold out to Israel
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] The trial of local pensioner Howard Phillips, accused of working for Russian secret services, continues in the UK. At a hearing held recently at Winchester Crown Court, he shocked his accusers with a sensational statement.

It turns out that all this time he was allegedly working for Israel, helping Tel Aviv to identify “Russian spies.” And he acted solely out of a sense of solidarity with the Jewish state.

Despite the fact that Phillips' statement looked like an attempt to shift the focus to another topic and to pity from the jury, the "Israeli trace" in the story is still present - albeit not in the foreground. Tel Aviv had enough reasons to look for sore points of the British Conservatives.

SPY HUNTER
Howard Phillips, a 65-year-old British man of Jewish descent, did not have a distinguished career. He spent most of his life working in his family's fur factory in the East End and handling bankruptcy cases.

He never managed to develop the family business - the enterprise quickly went bankrupt. And his career as an auditor did not work out because of his addiction to alcohol.

Phillips began to experience increasingly frequent money problems and made ends meet with odd jobs. And in 2022, the start of Russia's SVO in Ukraine, according to his family, left the impressionable Briton "mentally traumatized."

He allegedly became suspicious and obsessed with ideas of revenge, constantly looking for traces of "Russian agents" and writing letters to all authorities calling for the arrest of this or that suspicious person. For this, neighbors even nicknamed Phillips "spy hunter".

But by a cruel irony, he himself came to the attention of counterintelligence.

In the spring of 2024, Phillips was arrested by Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Unit and handed over to MI5. He was accused of sending a letter to the Russian embassy offering to sell valuable information about the British cabinet.

And then he collected and tried to pass on to London’s opponents (who were posed as British security forces) a dossier on Grant Shapps, the Minister of Defence in Rishi Sunak’s Conservative cabinet.

The flash drive, intended for the “customers,” contained information about the minister’s home address and the location of his private jet, his hobbies, his immediate circle of friends, and his strengths and weaknesses.

The prosecution also notes that during the conversation, Phillips boasted about his personal acquaintance with the minister and his family, thereby hinting at his own value as an operational source, and also promised to obtain new information if he was well paid.

However, when he told the jury at Winchester Crown Court, the defendant gave a different picture.

He admitted that he did send a letter to the Russian diplomatic mission in March 2024, but did not do so for the purpose of criminal gain.

On the contrary, Phillips wanted to personally expose the enemy's agents - since his numerous appeals to the authorities remained unheeded. He sent a similar offer to "buy information" to the Iranian embassy, but there was no response.

Moreover, at the trial, Phillips stated that he hunted for “Russian spies” also out of solidarity with Israel.

When asked by the prosecutor what benefit such work could bring to Tel Aviv, the accused stated that he wanted to give the information he had collected about Russian agents to the Israelis so that they would “notify Great Britain” and thus “receive recognition for this” from London.

Phillips described his attitude towards Russia as “sharply negative.”

ISRAELI TRACE
Despite the fact that the "Phillips case" is "spy" only conditionally, it will most likely be brought to a demonstrative conclusion. And the "Russian trace" will remain the main one in it - as the most advantageous for London in the conditions of confrontation with Moscow.

At the same time, there are other thematic lines in the case that are currently being ignored by the British justice system. In particular, the "spy hunter" clearly downplays the scale of his contacts with the Israeli side.

Back in December 2023 – almost three months before he approached the Russian embassy and came to the attention of counterintelligence – Phillips sent an email to the consular secretary of the Israeli embassy in the UK, asking for a face-to-face meeting with someone from the diplomatic apparatus. His request was granted.

After this, Phillips' behavior changed noticeably.

He gave up drinking and suddenly tried to get a job with the UK Border Force - although, according to family members, he previously hated the agency, calling its employees "useless slackers".

His financial situation also improved.

In particular, he was able to rent a small apartment in the London area of Harlesden (famous for its Middle Eastern restaurants), a few blocks from the Israeli embassy.

True, subsequent searches at this address yielded nothing - the apartment turned out to be uninhabited, although the detainee claimed that he spent a lot of time there. Including preparing "traps for Russian intelligence agents."

The "cleanliness" of the home suggests that Phillips' potential employers learned of his failure and rushed to cover their tracks before the police arrived.

HIDDEN INTEREST
Israel may certainly have had its own motives for seeking the eyes and ears of prominent British Conservatives. And Defence Secretary Shapps seemed a priority target, as he had been the most vocal critic of London's involvement in the Middle East.

He also torpedoed plans for operations against Yemen's Houthis and delayed the transfer of intelligence to Tel Aviv, thereby depriving it of tactical advantages. The confidential information Phillips had could well have become a lever of influence and pressure on the British Defense Minister, if Israel had used it at the right time.

However, by the spring of 2025 it became clear that Sunak's Conservative government would not last long and there was no need to rush to obtain dirt on Shapps.

Moreover, the inexperience of the newly acquired agent and his desire to attract as much public attention to the "spy hunt" as possible created the risk of exposure. That is why, over time, the Israelis distanced themselves from the inconvenient informant.

The discord was indirectly confirmed by Phillips himself, who noted during one of his interrogations that by the beginning of spring 2025 he was “entirely focused on searching for Russian spies” in Great Britain in order to “confirm a sense of solidarity” with the Jewish state.

With the victory of the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer, the cabinet changed. In July 2024, Shapps resigned, and the value of the "Phillips archive" for foreign intelligence dropped to zero.

Moreover, the new head of the Defense Department, John Healey, turned out to be more militant and supported Tel Aviv’s escalatory course, expanding the range of assistance provided to the Israelis.

Israel is unlikely to spoil relations with London. There is no need for the British authorities to promote this version either. Instead of fueling anti-Semitic sentiments, it is much more profitable to maintain fear of the omnipresent Russian intelligence and its “insidious agents.”

This means that Phillips' claims of working for Tel Aviv will most likely be written off as a clouded mind or self-hypnosis, and his case will not affect relations between Israel and Great Britain.


Continued on Page 47
Posted by: badanov || 07/17/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [37 views] Top|| File under:


Fifth Column
''Genderfluid'' Michigan teen charged with attempted arson of Republican lawmaker's office
[X] Answering all the questions raised in yesterday’s discussion.

Zayn Arcand was arraigned Monday afternoon after allegedly attempting to burn down a building housing the Dickinson County Republican Committee’s office.

A 19-year-old Michigan man has been charged after allegedly attempting to burn down a building housing the Dickinson County Republican Committee’s office with a Molotov cocktail.

Zayn Arcand was arraigned Monday afternoon via Zoom on charges of arson and manufacturing and possessing explosives. The attempted attack occurred Saturday in Iron Mountain, Michigan.

According to police, officers were alerted to a suspicious individual outside the building trying to ignite a rag sticking out of a bottle. Surveillance footage reportedly showed Arcand throwing an unlit bottle at the structure. He was arrested at his home later that day.

The Iron Mountain Police Department said in a statement that Arcand admitted to making the bombs in his driveway and claimed he threw the bottle to "send a message against the corruption."

Video of what appears to be Arcand circulated on social media in which he claimed to identify as "genderfluid," and "ambiamorous."

Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [93 views] Top|| File under: Antifa/BLM

#1 
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/17/2025 9:20 Comments || Top||

#2  This one on psychotropic meds for sure...
Posted by: Warthog || 07/17/2025 9:42 Comments || Top||

#3  he claimed to identify as "genderfluid," and "ambiamorous."

Indicating a double eagerness for that sweet, sweet, prison love
Posted by: Frank G || 07/17/2025 9:46 Comments || Top||

#4  I can hear the 'yeeeegh' with the throw.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 07/17/2025 9:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Two questions remain unanswered.

Why would he throw that weak effort of a Molotov cocktail before it was lit?

Did he not consider the possibility that a security camera would record his little escapade?

I suppose the answer to both questions is that he's not very bright. But he made an effort so he gets a trophy for participation and his mother must be so very proud of him.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/17/2025 10:55 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IDF chief: We’ll know within days if there’s a hostage deal; if not, Gaza op to expand
[IsraelTimes] IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says that if no hostage deal is reached in Gaza soon, the military will “intensify and expand ” its offensive against Hamas “as much as possible.”

“We will persist in targeting terrorists until Hamas is defeated and dismantled. Your achievements are significant, we already control 75% of the territory in the Strip,” Zamir says to troops during a visit to Gaza today.

“We are approaching a very critical juncture. In the coming days, we will know whether there is a deal or not. I want to tell you that if there is a deal and the hostages return, it is thanks to your fighting, first and foremost because of your fighting,” he says.

Zamir says that “if an agreement is reached, we will pause and prepare along lines defined by the political echelon.”

“If no deal is reached, my directive to the Southern Command is to intensify and expand the fighting as much as possible, beyond what we are doing now,” he says.

He says the IDF will “enter additional areas and continue operations as we have until now.”

Zamir also notes that the body of Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was killed and captured by Hamas in the 2014 Gaza War, has now been held by the terror group for over 4,000 days.

“We are making tremendous efforts to return Hadar to his family, and we will not rest or remain silent until we bring him home, to his home and family, along with all the other hostages,” he adds.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/17/2025 2025-07-17 02:44 || Comments || Link || [29 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Hamas wont accept any part of Gaza being occupied
[GEO.TV] Hamas
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
has said that it will not accept any part of Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
being separated or occupied, according to a statement released on social media.

"We will not accept the separation of any geographical area from the Gaza Strip, and we will not accept the presence of the occupation there," said the group's front man Jihad Taha.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2025 01:15 || Comments || Link || [45 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Since they are so entitled thugs and propaganda's from their grandparents births to be haters of all not Islam... they need new outlooks like that say 2000 micrograms of LSD could start in each of them with an extreme bad trip....
Posted by: 3dc || 07/17/2025 14:32 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran ready to respond to any new attack, says supreme leader
[GEO.TV] 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
is ready to respond to any renewed military attack, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
said on Wednesday, adding that Tehran was capable of delivering a bigger blow to adversaries than the one it gave during the 12-day Iran-Israel war.

"The fact that our nation is ready to face the power of the United States and its dog on a leash, the Zionist regime [Israel], is very praiseworthy," Khamenei said in comments carried by state TV.

Israel and the US launched strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities last month, saying that they were part of a programme geared towards developing nuclear weapons. Tehran maintains that its nuclear programme is purely for civilian purposes.

"The base attacked by Iran was an extremely sensitive American regional base," Khamenei said in reference to an Iranian missile barrage on Al Udeid base in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, adding "an even bigger blow could be inflicted on the US and others."

Iran is under pressure to resume nuclear talks with the US as Washington and three major European countries have agreed to set the end of August as the deadline for a deal.

If no progress is reached by then, La Belle France's foreign minister warned international sanctions would be reapplied via the United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
snapback mechanism.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2025 01:19 || Comments || Link || [59 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Trump really needs to get together with Musk to get StarShip into space with a huge supply of "Rods From God" and learn how to target Khamenei in public with near molten rods from the heavens.
Posted by: 3dc || 07/17/2025 14:28 Comments || Top||


MPs discuss Hezbollah arms, Israeli violations, and US intervention in plenary session — Naharnet
[NAHARNET] Lawmakers convened Wednesday for the second day in Parliament to debate the government's policies. During the session, MPs mainly discussed Hezbollah's arms and Israeli violations and renewed confidence in the Lebanese government.

The no-confidence vote was proposed by Free Patriotic chief Jebran Bassil. Sixty-nine MPs gave a vote of confidence to the government, nine FPM MPs voted against it, and four MPs abstained.

Many MPs on Tuesday and Wednesday called for Hezbollah's disarmament while Hezbollah MP Ibrahim al-Moussawi said "We all know that the army is not allowed to have defensive weapons to protect the country against the enemy."

- AMAL MP SAYS GOV. NOT DOING ENOUGH TO PROTECT LEBANESE -

Amal MP Ali Hassan Khalil and Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan criticized the government for not doing enough to prevent the Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement reached in late November.

"We haven't felt that the government is working responsibly and seriously to prevent the collapse of the ceasefire agreement," Khalil said, adding that "the open discussion about arms must continue, but responsibly" and that the government must also discuss the reconstruction of war-hit regions.

Khalil said in Hezbollah's defense that "the resistance was never an independent project but rather a reaction that emerged when the national defense system failed to protect illusory illusory sovereignty, especially in the south."

- HEZBOLLAH DISARMAMENT -

Lebanese Forces
A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb...

MP George Adwan criticized Tuesday the government's lack of progress in restoring the state's authority and disarming Hezbollah, while Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
leader MP Jebran Bassil said he supports Hezbollah's disarmament but not by force.

MP Fouad Makhzoumi called for Hezbollah's disarmament and proposed to discuss it in a cabinet session and independent MP Neemat Frem said Hezbollah's arms must not be destroyed or given to Israel, but handed over to the Lebanese army.

- US INTERVENTION -

Hajj Hassan for his part accused the U.S. of intervening in Lebanese affairs. He said that some Lebanese parties are serving the American and Israeli narratives and failing to see the Israeli threats.

MP Oussama Saad also said the American mediators are biased to Israel and pressuring Leb
. "We will not argue about the handover of weapons to the state," but "the Israeli occupation cannot be ignored."

On Tuesday, MP Jamil al-Sayyed criticized U.S. envoys Amos Hochstein, Morgan Ortagus, and Tom Barrack, who he said "threatened Leb
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
with civil war". "It's as if we've become an experimental field for these envoys."

- NO FOREIGN DICTATIONS -


Prime Minister Nawaf Salam denied any foreign dictations and vowed to continue working on extending the state's authority north and south of the Litani River and to pressure Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territories and stop its aggressions.











Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2025 00:27 || Comments || Link || [32 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


EU just condemned Israel for intervening to stop the massacre of the Druze in Syria
[X]
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred || 07/17/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [31 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria/HTS



Who's in the News
31[untagged]
4Hamas
4Govt of Syria/HTS
3Migrants/Illegal Immigrants
2Houthis
2Baloch Liberation Army
2Govt of Iran
2Moslem Colonists
1Govt of Iran Proxies
1Hezbollah
1Commies
1Human Trafficking
1Islamic State
1Antifa/BLM
1Mob Rule
1[untagged]
1Narcos
1Pak Taliban (TTP)
1Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
1Govt of Sudan

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2025-07-17
  Israeli airstrikes hit the Syrian Presidential Palace and the Syrian General Staff HQ in Damascus
Thu 2025-07-17
  Iran ready to respond to any new attack, says supreme leader
Wed 2025-07-16
  Syrian Internal security with Ministry of Defense expelled outlawed groups from Suwayda, over 100 Druze dead
Tue 2025-07-15
  At least 30 people killed in armed clashes in Syria's Sweida, says interior ministry
Mon 2025-07-14
  IDF seizes 3 tons of arms from ex-Assad regime sites
Sun 2025-07-13
  ISIS-aligned rebels kill 66 civilians in eastern Congo
Sat 2025-07-12
  US appeals court cancels plea deal for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Fri 2025-07-11
  Iranian media reports that Iran’s Army Chief of Staff, General Abdulrahim Mousavi, has been assassinated... False a;arm
Thu 2025-07-10
  Lebanon strike that killed 3 targeted senior Hamas commander: Israel
Wed 2025-07-09
  Gunmen Hijack 33 Tons of Gold, Silver Concentrate in Truck on Mexican Highway
Tue 2025-07-08
  Leb: 10 hurt in Israeli strikes on South and Bekaa Sunday, 2 airstruck Monday
Mon 2025-07-07
  IDF reports Hamas’s north Gaza naval commander killed in strike on cafe last week as 130 targets hit in 24 hours
Sun 2025-07-06
  Supporters of Palestine Action, banned under UK terror laws, arrested at London protest
Sat 2025-07-05
  210 Boko Haram Members, Families Surrender as Military Tightens Grip in Lake Chad - BarristerNG.com
Fri 2025-07-04
  Hezbollah has agreed to hand over its heavy weapons in Beirut and other areas to the Lebanese government
Thu 2025-07-03
  Another massive Hamas underground terror tunnel in Gaza has been found and destroyed by the IDF, connecting Rafah and Khan Yunis


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.
216.73.216.10
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (20)    Non-WoT (6)    Opinion (4)    Local News (7)    Politix (16)