[JustTheNews] Republicans, including Trump, have been critical of Biden's handling of the withdrawal, which resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members, rather than the underlying concept.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday told reporters during a Cabinet meeting that he clashed with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley over leaving U.S. military equipment in Afghanistan during a planned withdrawal.
Former President Joe Biden ended up overseeing the withdrawal in August of 2021, but it was planned in part by the first Trump administration in 2020. Republicans, including Trump, have been critical of Biden's handling of the withdrawal, which resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members, rather than the underlying concept of withdrawing under the right circumstances.
Trump said he knew Milley was an "idiot" after he suggested it would be cheaper to leave the equipment in Afghanistan, despite concerns that the Taliban could acquire it. The president has since pushed for the U.S. to retrieve the equipment.
"That's when I knew he was an idiot," Trump said. "Didn't take long to figure that one out. But they left all that equipment. But they left their dignity behind. It was the most embarrassing moment, in my opinion, in the history of our country. Not that we got out. We should not have been there, but that we got out the way we got out with great embarrassment and death."
The Defense Department reported in 2022 that the Taliban retrieved nearly all $7 billion worth of military equipment that was not destroyed by U.S. troops during the withdrawal. The condition of the remaining equipment is not known, per Fox News.
Milley, who Trump tapped for the post in 2019, has not commented on the latest criticism so far.
Algeria and Mauritania have signed a defense agreement aimed at strengthening cooperation in combating the threats posed by terrorist and armed groups in the region. pic.twitter.com/TfaKq23cnv
[Breitbart] Germany has summoned the Chinese ambassador for a dressing down after it stated a Chinese warship, unprovoked and without warning, fired a laser weapon at an aircraft on a European Union military mission.
The militaries of several developed nations are developing and deploying experimental laser weapons, a non-kinetic and potentially cost-effective anti-air capability for blinding military aircraft and shooting down drones and missiles. Now Germany alleges China has used such a device in anger against one of its aircraft over the Red Sea in the text of a diplomatic protest issued against Beijing.
Per the German Foreign Ministry, “The Chinese military employed a laser”, endangering the aircraft and the crew aboard. Germany has made a formal diplomatic protest over the incident, summoning the Chinese ambassador to Berlin for a dressing down. The Foreign Ministry said: “Endangering German personnel & disrupting the operation is entirely unacceptable”.
The aircraft, which is a surveillance platform operated by a defence contractor, flown by civilian pilots, but carrying a German military team operating the intelligence suite aboard, was flying over the Red Sea as part of the European Union’s Aspides deployment. The purpose of the mission is the protection of civilian shipping by monitoring and intercepting Houthi missiles and does not, the European Union says, contribute to American-led strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis themselves.
After the laser incident, the aircraft returned to its base in the Middle East as a precaution. Per German news magazine Der Spiegel, any possible damage to the aircraft and its sensor suite — which are typically sensitive and possibly the most vulnerable thing aboard to a directed-energy weapon — is “currently unclear and is still being investigated”.
A spokesman for the German military said the laser attack took place during a routine mission by “a Chinese warship that had already been encountered in the area several times, without any reason or prior contact” and that with the course of action followed, “the warship accepted the risk of endangering people and equipment”.
The contact with the Chinese warship is not the first incident for the German armed forces over the course of their involvement in EUNAVFOR’s Aspides mission to protect civilian shipping in the Red Sea. Last year, German Frigate Hessen, due to a communication failure with the American forces liaison, mistakenly launched two missiles at a passing U.S. Reaper drone. Fortunately for the U.S. and unfortunately for Germany, both missiles failed to reach the target and splashed into the sea, which sparked a debate about German military capability.
Laser air defences are an important emerging area of military technology that has become more urgently attended to in recent years as the Ukraine war massively underlined the present asymmetric nature of air war. The economics of shooting down single use explosive drones that can cost as little as tens-of-thousands of dollars with multi-million-dollar interceptor missiles is horrendous, and excluding development and deployment costs lasers can be fired for as little as $10 a time, providing just enough energy to a target to defeat its onboard systems to cause a crash.
The U.S. military has been developing laser air defence systems for decades and recently published an image [top] of USS Preble test-firing the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS). The 60kw weapon is intended to defeat fast attack craft and drones, and can also be used in a lower-power mode to dazzle enemy systems without actually destroying them, which may be similar to what the German aircraft experienced over the Red Sea.
Israel said this year it has used laser weapons to bring down enemy aerial threats and the British government has also said it has successfully used its experimental ‘Dragonfire’ laser and would even be deploying it to Ukraine to continue tests in a live environment. Images released by Britain’s weapons development department even showed, remarkably, a mortar round with a hole melted through it, suggesting a high potency weapon if faithfully represented.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Second Western District Military Court has received materials from the criminal case against 19 people accused of committing a terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region. This was reported on July 8 by the court's press service.
Before a date is set for a preliminary hearing or the first hearing on the merits, the judge will need up to 30 days to review all the documents on the 19 defendants.
The case materials consist of almost 450 volumes, including material evidence, as well as the results of dozens of expert examinations conducted on the accused.
The court will need to decide on a building where the hearings will take place. The courtrooms on Gospitalny Lane will not be able to accommodate all the participants in the trial, and the buildings in the Moscow City Court, where the military court periodically held hearings, are closed for repairs.
In addition, it remains unclear whether the trial will be open to the public.
No hint about the identity, or at least linkages, of the miscreant, so Page 2: War on Terror Background for now. If it is revealed to be an effort for China or Russia, we’ll refile it.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] An imposter used AI technology to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and contacted at least a handful of top U.S. and foreign government officials, according to a diplomatic cable warning of the stunning blunder.
U.S. officials are hunting for the culprit, and assess that it is part of a plan to mop up information, the Washington Post reported.
The news comes just weeks after another impersonation plot involving a high-powered figure in the Trump White House, this one involving White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
That nefarious plot involved stolen data from the personal cellphone of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles that was then used to call some of American's most powerful people.
In the Rubio scam, someone purporting to be the secretary of state who also serves as Trump's national security advisor dialed three foreign secretaries, as well as a governor and a U.S. member of Congress 'with the goal of gaining access to information or accounts,' according to a cable obtained by the Post.
The imposter 'contacted at least five non-Department individuals, including three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a U.S. member of Congress,' according to the July 3 cable.
The imposter used text messages and the encrypted Signal app, the same app that led to the ouster of former National Security Advisor Michael Waltz after he accidentally added a reporter to a Signal group chat where top officials discussed a bombing campaign.
The contacts came in mid-June, during a flurry of high-stakes diplomatic activity amid wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and trade wars set off by President Trump's tariffs.
'The actor likely aimed to manipulate targeted individuals using AI-generated text and voice messages, with the goal of gaining access to information or accounts,' according to the cable.
The Daily Mail reached out to the State Department for a comment on the security breach.
AI tools are becoming increasingly powerful and easy to access, and creating a message in the voice a senior government official like Rubio is not particularly challenging.
There are massive amounts of publicly available clips that would allow AI technology to closely mimic Rubio's speech patterns and even content.
By relying on voice messages, the imposter would be able to fire off believable sounding missives that could potentially be used to collect additional information, with less risk of catching an error through real-time interaction.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the State Department and the White House for comment.
'The actor left voicemails on Signal for at least two targeted individuals and in one instance, sent a text message inviting the individual to communicate on Signal,' according to the cable.
Rubio makes for an obvious target because of his influence and his portfolio, which would give him a reason to interact with top officials throughout the government and abroad.
The former U.S. senator and former presidential candidate was seated to Trump's right during Monday night's high-stakes meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where the Israeli leader handed Trump a letter nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize, and where Trump called for sending arms to Ukraine and said he would meet with Iranian officials on a potential deal next week.
AI has already been used to manipulate public officials in campaign ads or commit deep fakes of Hollywood celebrities like Jennifer Anniston.
The FBI warned in May about an 'ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign.'
Continued on Page 47
[News5Cleveland] A Northeast Ohio physician accused of threatening the lives of Rep. Max Miller and his family during an alleged road rage incident last month has been indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury on multiple charges.
According to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office, the defendant, Feras Hamdan,
…previously in our archives as Feras S. Hamdam…
is charged with one count of ethnic intimidation, one count of tampering with evidence, one count of aggravated menacing and one count of menacing.
In a recent interview to Al Jazeera, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, former Foreign Minister of Pakistan and current dynastic heir to the Pakistan People's Party, made headlines by suggesting his country is finally ready to behave. When prompted about UN-designated terrorists Hafiz Saeed…
[IsraelTimes] Dinah Project findings confirm Hamas systematically weaponized sexual assault as part of a broader campaign to terrorize, humiliate and dehumanize Israelis
A new report providing the first legal framework to prosecute Hamas terrorists for the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war during the October 7, 2023, massacre was presented Tuesday to First Lady Michal Herzog at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.
The report by the Dinah Project confirms that Hamas systematically used rape and sexual violence during the massacre as part of a broader campaign of terror, collective humiliation, and dehumanization of Israeli society.
Titled, “A Quest for Justice: October 7 and Beyond,” it is the first report to offer a legal roadmap based on international law for identifying and pursuing justice for the use of sexual violence as a weapon of warfare, which constitutes a crime against humanity.
Tuesday’s gathering of primarily women included former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky, 31, who has publicly spoken out about being sexually assaulted by her captors in Gaza.
Gritzewsky recounted her abduction on October 7 from her home on Kibbutz Nir Oz, where she lived with her partner, Matan Zangauker, who was also kidnapped and remains in captivity.
Details at the link.
The report consolidated data on sexual violence on October 7 and grouped it methodologically based on testimony from first-hand survivors, eyewitnesses, first responders, workers at the Shura military base, which served as a morgue, healthcare workers, and therapists, as well as captured photos and video footage.
The authors acknowledged that it is not the first report to collate data on the use of sexual violence on October 7. Such research has already been conducted by others, including by the Office of the Under Secretary General of the UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, in March 2024.
Based on existing doctrine in international and Israeli law, the authors call for the promotion of a key legal principle: the imposition of collective criminal responsibility on all participants in the attack — even if they did not personally commit rape — on the grounds that they knew, should have known, or took part in enabling sexual violence during the attack.
“Our goal is to demonstrate how perpetrators and commanders can be prosecuted even without direct testimony against each individual,” said Halperin-Kaddari.
The next steps they intend to pursue include calling on the Israeli government and judiciary to apply the doctrine of collective responsibility in order to prosecute terrorists for sexual crimes as crimes against humanity and urging the UN Secretary General to add Hamas to the blacklist of organizations that use sexual violence as a weapon of war, in accordance with past Security Council resolutions.
The authors of the report then want to establish a legal process and framework that can be used internationally for prosecuting sexual crimes in war before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and UN human rights bodies.
Finally, they are seeking to use their research to develop a new legal protocol for addressing sexual violence in armed conflict, including rules for evidence collection, the use of indirect evidence, and recognition of the community-wide harm caused by such acts.
Several speakers referred to the feeling of “betrayal” they felt from the world, especially from other women, who they expected to show empathy and solidarity. The widespread denial of the sexual crimes committed against Israeli women and men on and since October 7 was one of the other motivations for producing the report.
[IsraelTimes] PM’s second sit-down with Trump in as many days ends with no public component; Witkoff delays Doha trip in sign talks not yet ripe after expressing optimism deal can be reached this week
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrapped up his second White House meeting with US President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... in as many days without any public announcement of a breakthrough in the ongoing Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ceasefire and hostage release talks, which was the primary topic of the sit-down.
The possibility of such a declaration appeared to rise after the meeting was publicly added to Netanyahu’s schedule just hours in advance, with Trump saying they would discuss the Gaza Strip while US special envoy Mideast Steve Witkoff expressed hope a deal could be reached this week.
But as Netanyahu and Trump met for over an hour in the Oval Office along with US Vice President JD Vance, two sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel that Witkoff decided to push back his flight to Doha, where he had been slated to join ongoing proximity talks between Israel and Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... Witkoff initially was slated to fly to Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... on Tuesday, the sources said, adding that a new departure date had yet to be scheduled.
The US envoy informed mediators that he still plans to travel to Doha in order to help bring the deal across the finish line, with his decision to push back the trip indicating that a significant amount of progress still needed to be made.
The Saudi Asharq News outlet cited unnamed "informed sources" who reported that the fifth round of proximity talks in Qatar ended Tuesday night without significant progress.
A Paleostinian official told the news site that talks were "at a standstill," charging that the Israeli negotiations team is "limiting itself to listening rather than negotiating" and consulting on "every issue" with Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, the lead Israeli negotiator who is accompanying the premier in Washington.
The Paleostinian official claimed the Israeli team lacks authority to make actual decisions, "a continuation of the stalling policy of Netanyahu to obstruct any potential agreement."
Shortly before Netanyahu met with Trump on Tuesday, a delegation of senior Qatari officials held talks with Witkoff for three hours at the White House to discuss the hostage negotiations, a source familiar with the matter said.
After the conclusion of his meeting with Trump, Netanyahu said the discussions "focused on efforts to free our hostages."
"We are not letting up for a moment, and this is possible because of the military pressure exerted by our heroic soldiers," he said in a video shot in the Blair House. "Unfortunately, this effort is exacting a painful price from us, in the loss of our best sons."
Netanyahu stressed that Israel is determined to achieve all of its goals in Gaza -"the release of all our hostages, both living and dead; the elimination of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities; and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel."
He also discussed "the implications and possibilities" of the operation Israel and the US carried out against 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... with Trump and Vance, said Netanyahu.
"Opportunities are opening up here for expanding the circle of peace, expanding the Abraham Accords," he said. "We are working on this with full vigor."
STICKING POINT(S)
Four sources familiar with the negotiations told The Times of Israel that the US is more optimistic than Egyptian and Qatari mediators about the chances that a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal can be reached this week.
Witkoff told news hounds earlier Tuesday that he is hopeful a deal can be reached this week, and that three of the four sticking points were resolved during the past three days of proximity talks in Doha.
A source familiar with the matter said the three issues Witkoff suggested have been solved were Hamas’s demand for guarantees from the mediators that the ceasefire will remain in place even if talks on the terms of a permanent ceasefire have not wrapped up by the end of the 60-day truce under discussion; Hamas’s demand for aid to be surged into Gaza through UN-backed mechanisms; and terms of the hostage-prisoner swap.
The source noted that while progress was made on the first two issues, the identities of Israelis and Paleostinians to be released in the deal have not yet been discussed by the negotiators in Doha, with Hamas insisting that other matters be resolved first.
However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes... the number and identities of those being released are not considered as thorny an issue as the others, the source said, speculating that this was why Witkoff grouped the hostage-prisoner swap component of the deal with the issues that have already been resolved.
Regarding the issue of aid, negotiators in Doha offered initial backing for clauses in the agreement that would prevent the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation from operating in areas where the IDF has withdrawn from, a source familiar with the negotiations told The Times of Israel.
Only the UN and international organizations that are not connected to either Israel or Hamas will be responsible for distributing aid in areas where the IDF is no longer located, the source said.
Continued on Page 47
[IsraelTimes] Naim Qassem says Lebanese terror group ‘didn’t know the supply chain had been exposed,’ suggests operatives’ growing suspicions about the beepers led Israel to detonate them
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem ... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies... admitted that the Lebanese terror group drastically underestimated the extent of Israel’s surveillance capabilities in the run-up to the pager operation last September, when thousands of beepers used by Hezbollah operatives went kaboom! across Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... , injuring thousands and killing dozens.
In an interview released Tuesday with the pro-Hezbollah al-Mayadeen news outlet, Qassem said an investigation in the wake of the pager operation uncovered serious flaws in Hezbollah’s procurement process, dating back more than a year.
Much more than a year. Mossad ha to be seeing what was there in order to be able to devise a scheme like the pagers. And how many years have they had phone lists that they called directly, just like they’ve been doing for years in Gaza? It’s a thing they're known for.
"We didn’t know the supply chain had been exposed," he said.
He said that although Hezbollah’s security checks failed to find the explosives that had been placed within each individual pager, operatives began suspecting something was wrong with them in the days leading up to the attacks.
"There were efforts to examine the pager differently, including attempts to break it open, prompted by some anomalies that raised questions," he said, suggesting that those efforts may have prompted Israel to detonate the pagers sooner than planned.
Qassem, who took over as the leader of the Iran-backed terror group following the liquidation of his predecessor His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> , also conceded that Hezbollah had no idea that Israel’s surveillance capabilities were as advanced and far-reaching as they are.
He said they were aware that there had been possible wiretapping but "did not realize the extent — that it was near-total and very extensive."
The Hezbollah chief estimated that Israel has been collecting data through aerial surveillance for the past 17 years — since the end of the Second Lebanon War — and that the terror group "couldn’t grasp how deep" it went.
He denied, however, that there were any serious cases of Israeli spies infiltrating Hezbollah’s senior ranks, saying no evidence had so far been uncovered of "vast human infiltration."
The pager attack marked the opening blow in an Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah, following nearly a year of cross-border skirmishes that began when the terror group began carrying out solidarity attacks a day after its ally Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... ’s October 7, 2023, onslaught. The fighting ended in November with a US-brokered ceasefire deal.
In the al-Mayadeen interview, Qassem explained Hezbollah’s decision to launch near-daily attacks on Israel in wake of the Hamas attack rather than a full-scale war.
"The outcome of a full war is predictable. It requires preparedness that simply wasn’t available," he said. "We had to enter the battle with limited support and observe developments closely. Based on how things evolved, we could make a clearer choice."
According to Qassem, Hamas did not coordinate with Hezbollah in advance of October 7, and the two terrorist organizations later discussed whether the latter should intensify attacks on Israel.
"Doing more than support would not have changed the outcome," he insisted, saying "we came to see that the Israeli aggression was extreme, supported by new rules of engagement and US backing."
Addressing recent Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Qassem threatened that "resistance will not wait forever. There are limits." Israel says it reserves the right under the ceasefire agreement to act against imminent threats by Hezbollah, and accuses the terror group of ceasefire violations, which it denies.
"There is no third option between victory and martyrdom. We do not have surrender as an option," Qassem said.
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.
..always the voice of sweet reason...
..always the voice of sweet reason...
