[NYPost] “Thousands” of migrant children who disappeared after being smuggled across the US-Mexico border under the Biden administration have been rescued from grim fates such as being sex-trafficked to pedophiles, according to border czar Tom Homan — who revealed that a 14-year-old pregnant girl was found living with adult men just two weeks ago.
In the latest episode of Miranda Devine’s “Pod Force One” podcast, Homan said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have also located minors who were forced into servitude on ranches and chicken farms, as the agency searches for hundreds of thousands of migrant children unaccounted for during President Joe Biden’s four-year illegal alien invasion.
“There were 300,000 missing children under the last administration,” said Homan. “We’ve found thousands of them … We rescued victims of sex trafficking [and] two weeks ago, we rescued a 14-year-old that was already pregnant, living with adult men …
“We rescued some victims of forced labor. We found children working on ranches and chicken farms, not going to school, but enslaved labor in the United States of America …
“Some of the children we found [were] perfectly fine with their families … They just didn’t respond to call-ins [because they] didn’t want to face the consequences of immigration court.”
The number of unaccompanied alien children [UACs] entering the US surged to record levels under Biden, as changes to border enforcement policies incentivized families and smugglers to send minors to America.
More than 500,000 children were recorded entering the country and were placed with sponsors while awaiting immigration proceedings.
A report last August from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General found that the Biden administration lost track of hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children and placed some with potentially dangerous sponsors who had not been adequately vetted.
More than 31,000 addresses provided by sponsors turned out to be “blank, undeliverable, or missing apartment numbers,” the inspector general reported. At one location, “sponsor addresses were incorrect 80 percent of the time.”
ICE officers at one field office also told the inspector general that thousands of migrant children had been released to sponsors “who are not immediate family and are not a parent, sibling, or grandparent.”
HHS released more than 14,500 migrant children in 2023 and more than 9,600 in 2024 “to unrelated sponsors” or distant relatives.
Of the more than 2,400 children released to sponsors over one week in November 2023, only 1,000 went to their parent or a legal guardian.
About 300 went to unrelated sponsors or distant family members. Three children were released to their “spouses,” including one who was 40 years old.
“Although these relatives may have been appropriately qualified, [one ICE officer] noted the UACs most at risk for trafficking or forced labor are those released to an unrelated sponsor.”
During visits to three sponsor addresses to which multiple children had been released, the inspector general found “potentially unsafe conditions” including “bars on the inside of a window” in an area that was “very dangerous, was run by gangs, and had high crime rates and daily shootings. The [ICE officer] noted one UAC within their area of responsibility left their sponsor’s address to join a local gang.”
“Another sponsor address was a dilapidated motel that did not have a kitchen. UACs’ sponsors provided this address five times.
“During a site visit in another city, ICE officers noted an illegal drug deal occurring based on their law enforcement experience at an apartment complex where 44 UACs had been released in FY 2023.”
Homan told “Pod Force One” that the Biden administration rushed the vetting process to avoid the “optics” of overcrowding at the border.
“They didn’t care about the invasion itself; it was the optics.”
DNA tests were routinely used during the first Trump administration to verify that an adult accompanying a child really was the parent, he said, but the Biden administration abandoned that policy.
Homan said in some of the DNA testing “as high as 30 percent [of] the families weren’t families. Not relatives at all. The [children] were being trafficked…
“A lot of parents paid a smuggling organization to bring their kids [over the border]. Some of these children were trafficked. We know HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] had several investigations where a child was rented by the criminal cartel to an adult male or female, crossed the border [and] when you’re done, you send the kid back [and] re-rent them.”
“We’re going to find every one of these kids,” Homan vowed. “President Trump made a promise. We’re going to keep that promise.”
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Skidmark ||
07/01/2025 05:06 ||
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[IsraelTimes] 57-page investigation cites allegations of bias beginning shortly after Oct. 7 attack and stretching into this year, threatens loss of all federal funding
Harvard University failed to protect Jewish students from harassment, US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... ’s administration concluded after an investigation, threatening on Monday to cut all federal funding from the Ivy League school if it fails to take action.
A federal task force sent a letter to Harvard on Monday, finding the university violated civil rights laws requiring colleges to protect students from discrimination based on race or national origin. It says Sherlocks found Harvard was at times a "willful participant in antisemitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff" and that campus leaders allowed antisemitism to fester on the Massachusetts campus.
A Trump administration statement said the school was "deliberately indifferent to the severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment of Jewish and Israeli students by its own students and faculty." It cited an internal university investigation into antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, an investigation by the US Congress, and media reports that documented "vandalism, harassment, and physical violence" against Jewish and Israeli students.
"Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government," officials said in the letter, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Harvard did not immediately comment.
The letter finds that Harvard violated Title VI of the US Civil Rights Act of 1964. Such findings have almost always been resolved through voluntary resolutions between schools and the federal government. The Trump administration has taken a much sharper edge than its predecessors, however.
Trump’s administration and its predecessor under former president Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Too old and senile to be prosecuted, not too old and senile to set national policy... opened Title VI investigations into antisemitism at campuses across the country following Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... ’s October 7, 2023, onslaught and during the ensuing war, which sparked a spike in antisemitism worldwide. A number of them have been resolved. It has been decades since a US administration even attempted to fully strip a school or college of its federal funding over civil rights violations.
The letter is the latest intensification in the White House’s battle with Harvard over campus antisemitism. The school lost more than $2.6 billion in federal research grants after rejecting a list of federal demands calling for sweeping changes to campus governance, hiring, and admissions. According to the investigation, from fiscal year 2023 to 2025, the school received more than $794 million in federal funds.
A formal finding paves the way for a negotiated agreement or — if one is not reached — an attempt to cut the school off from federal dollars. The Trump administration has also sought to bar foreign students from studying at Harvard. A federal judge issued an injunction against that ban last week.
The 57-page investigation cites allegations of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bias beginning shortly after the October 7 attack and stretching into this year. It includes reports of discriminatory conduct on social media and in campus spaces, as well as sections titled "Targeted harassment by student groups" and "Institutional acceptance of antisemitism."
Much of the investigation’s evidence focuses on campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war, which drew global attention particularly in the spring of 2024 as anti-Israel groups set up encampments on campuses across the United States and in other countries. The investigation says Harvard was "overrun by an impermissible, multiweek encampment" that left Jewish and Israeli students fearful and disrupted their studies.
It accuses Harvard of imposing lax and inconsistent discipline against students who participated in the encampment, noting that none were suspended.
Harvard President Alan Garber has acknowledged problems with antisemitism and anti-Moslem bias on campus, but he says Harvard has made strides to fight prejudice. He announced new initiatives in April after Harvard released its internal reports finding evidence of antisemitism and Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... on campus.
"Harvard cannot — and will not — abide bigotry," Garber wrote in releasing the reports.
“Antisemitism is a serious problem and no matter the context, it is unacceptable,” the university says in a statement. “Harvard has taken substantive, proactive steps to address the root causes of antisemitism in its community.”
The government’s investigation largely relied on a campus antisemitism study commissioned by Harvard and released in April. Federal officials cited numerous details from that report, including accounts of Jewish students who said they were spit on and faced chants on campus including “Heil Hitler.”
It focuses heavily on last year’s protests over the Israel-Hamas war. In the letter to Harvard, federal officials say the campus was “overrun by an impermissible, multiweek encampment” that left Jewish and Israeli students fearful and disrupted their studies.
The task force threatens to refer the case to the Justice Department to file a civil rights lawsuit “as soon as possible,” unless Harvard comes into compliance.
Harvard has faced mounting sanctions after rejecting a list of federal demands calling for sweeping changes to campus governance, hiring and admissions. The formal finding could now jeopardize Harvard’s eligibility to accept federal loans or grants for students to attend the university — a penalty often referred to as a “death sentence” in higher education.
In a court filing Monday seeking to annul the freezing of federal funds over antisemitism claims, Harvard argues that the formal filing marks a concession by the government that it previously bypassed required procedural findings under Title VI.
It calls the administration’s previous use of antisemitism claims to justify the freeze “arbitrary and capricious,” with the government failing to investigate or document antisemitism on campus itself and relying instead on Harvard’s own study.
The filing also claims an “absence of any concrete evidence of antisemitism in the administrative record,” while accusing the government of ignoring the school’s efforts to combat hate.
“Harvard’s willingness to seek and publish a report harshly condemning antisemitism on its campus, and detailing actions to implement the report’s recommendations, show that Harvard did respond and is responding
forcefully to antisemitism,” the filing reads.
#2
An utterly amazing finding nearly on a par with 'time travel' and the discovery of the seldom discussed physical limits vs the infinity of the universe. Hatred need not be pondered, simply recognized as the abundant fruit of evil and fall of mortal man. "Willfully ignored" or actively taught? You decide.
A northern Virginia private school hung up a Palestinian flag in the school gym and taught the kids that H!tler was a “strong historical leader,” before expelling Jewish kids who complained. pic.twitter.com/sSGphCJTk1
[IsraelTimes] The 20-year-old transient who started a wildfire and then fatally shot two firefighters and wounded another in northern Idaho drew swastikas in school and was obsessed with guns, former classmates tell USA Today.
Authorities say they do not yet know why Wess Roley staged the attack Sunday at Canfield Mountain, a popular recreation area just north of Coeur d’Alene, setting off a massive manhunt. He was found dead after taking his own life, police say.
“We have not been able to find a manifesto,” Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris told reporters earlier, adding a motive was still unknown.
“My good friend saw drawings of swastikas and guns in his notebook,” Harry Standley, who attended middle and high school with Roley, tells USA Today. “We were all pretty scared of him.”
A second classmate who also attended elementary school with Roley also recalled the swastika incident, USA Today reports, though he just thought Roley was trying to be “edgy.”
The report also includes an unattributed quote claiming he had “Nazi tendencies.”
“Everybody just thought he was weird,” Standley says, adding that “he was also obsessed with guns.”
Roley was living out of his vehicle, had once aspired to be a firefighter and had only a handful of minor contacts with area police, Norris said.
He had ties to California and Arizona and was living in Idaho “for the better part of 2024,” the sheriff added.
Roley lived with T.J. Franks Jr. for about six months in Sandpoint, Idaho, while working for a tree service, Franks said on Monday. Franks had cameras in his apartment that caught Roley throwing gang signs at them one day, which worried Franks to the point that he called police.
“I didn’t know what to really think about it,” Franks said. “I just called the cops and had them talk to him.”
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/01/2025 2025-07-01 01:50 ||
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#1
I get the impression there was no political motive but that this guy was a pyromaniac. I've heard of guys pleasuring themselves while they watch the fire burn but Mr. Roley got his pleasure with a real gun.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/01/2025 13:41 Comments ||
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[BBC] The UK's High Court has rejected a case brought by campaigners trying to stop the transfer to Israel of all British-made spare parts for US-produced F-35 fighter jets, saying it didn't have the constitutional authority to intervene.
The government suspended about 30 arms export licences to Israel last September because of a risk of UK-made weapons being used in violations of international law in the Gaza Strip.
But the UK supplies components to a global pool of F-35s which Israel can access. The government had argued it could not pull out of the defence programme without endangering international peace.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch expressed their dismay at the ruling.
Both groups had intervened in the case.
"The horrifying reality in Gaza is unfolding in full view of the world: entire families obliterated, civilians killed in so-called safe zones, hospitals reduced to rubble, and a population driven into starvation by a cruel blockade and forced displacement," said Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty International UK.
"This judgment does not change the facts on the ground, nor does it absolve the UK government of its responsibilities under international law."
The two judges said the case was not about whether the UK should supply arms and other military equipment to Israel - because the government had decided it should not. They were being asked to decide on a particular issue: whether the UK "must withdraw from a specific multilateral defence collaboration" because of the prospect that some UK-manufactured parts may be supplied to Israel and used in contravention of international law in the conflict in Gaza.
The poor darlings do find themselves in a thorny dilemma.
"Under our constitution, that acutely sensitive and political issue is a matter for the executive which is democratically accountable to parliament and ultimately to the electorate, not for the courts," they ruled.
UK industry makes 15% of every F-35, according to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade.
Oxfam, which provided evidence to the court, said: "It is unconscionable that the government would continue to license the sale of components for F-35 jets knowing that they are used to deliberately attack civilians in Gaza and destroy their means of survival, including vital water supplies."
The case was brought by al-Haq, a group based in the Israel-occupied West Bank, and the Global Legal Action Network against the Department for Business and Trade.
The court said that Business Minister Jonathan Reynolds was "faced with the blunt choice of accepting the F-35 carve out or withdrawing from the F-35 programme and accepting all the defence and diplomatic consequences which would ensue".
The government also argued pulling out of the defence programme could undermine US confidence in the UK and Nato.
But human rights groups argue that the global rule of law is under threat over Gaza.
"The atrocities we are witnessing in Gaza are precisely because governments don't think the rules should apply to them," said Yasmine Ahmed, UK director of Human Rights Watch.
"Judicial deference to the executive in this case has left the Palestinians in Gaza without access to the protections of international law, despite the government and the court acknowledging that there is a serious risk that UK equipment might be used to facilitate or carry out atrocities against them."
The government says it will continue to keep its defence export licensing under review.
"The court has upheld this government's thorough and lawful decision-making on this matter," a spokesman said.
Lawyers for the human rights groups are considering if they can find grounds to appeal.
Al-Haq alleged that the UK broke domestic and international law and was complicit in atrocities against Palestinians by allowing essential components for the warplanes to be supplied to Israel.
The government said the ruling showed it had rigorous export rules and it would continue to review its licensing agreements, a spokesperson said.
The government last year suspended about 30 of 350 existing export licenses for equipment deemed to be for use in the conflict in Gaza because of a “clear risk” the items could be used to violate international humanitarian law. Equipment included parts for helicopters and drones.
But an exemption was made for some licenses related to components of F-35 fighter jets, which are indirectly supplied to Israel through the global spare parts supply chain and have been linked to bombing the Gaza Strip.
While Al-Haq argued the UK shouldn’t continue to export parts through what it called a “deliberate loophole,” given the government’s own assessment of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law, the government said the parts were distributed to a collaboration involving the US and six other partners to produce the jets.
Al-Haq had its offices in Ramallah shuttered by Israel in 2022, 10 months after the Defense Ministry designated Al-Haq and several other Palestinian groups as terrorist organizations over their alleged links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a leftist terror group. The international community has asserted that Israel has failed to provide convincing evidence to back up its claims.
Components manufactured in the UK are sent to assembly lines in the US, Italy and Japan that supply partners — including Israel — with jets and spare parts, the court said.
[RedState] The hammer has dropped on a British punk/rap duo called Bob Vylan,
… it’s ironic that Bobby Vylan, whose real name we learnt yesterday is Pascal Robinson-Foster, chose the name to honour Jewish Zionist singer Bob Dylan…
who led chants at the Glastonbury Music Festival over the weekend, calling for the death of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.
In a statement on Monday on X, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said, "The @StateDept has revoked the US visas for the members of the Bob Vylan band in light of their hateful tirade at Glastonbury, including leading the crowd in death chants."
"Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country," the statement added.
It came after a clip posted on X from SkyNews where the anchor announced that the British rappers had been dropped by their talent agency, United Talent Agency after the duo were seen on a BBC live stream leading thousands at the festival in chants calling for "Free, free Palestine" and "Death, death to the IDF," as RedState reported.
Shortly after the news, information surfaced that the rap duo's entire US tour, which included 26 concerts, was canceled.
Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, said it was “very concerned” about the BBC livestream and said the broadcaster “clearly has questions to answer.”
The BBC said earlier in its defense that it had issued a warning on screen about “very strong and discriminatory language” during the livestream.
Bob Vylan, which formed in 2017, have released four albums mixing punk, grime, and other styles with lyrics that often address issues including racism, masculinity and politics. Its two members keep their real names secret for privacy reasons.
Oh dear. But Bobby Vylan’s has already been revealed, as shared above and in yesterday’s post. My bad.
In a statement posted on social media, singer Bobby Vylan said he was inundated with messages of both support and hatred.
“Teaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place,” he wrote.
The duo played Saturday afternoon right before Kneecap, another band that has drawn controversy over its stance on Middle East politics. Kneecap led a huge crowd in chants of “Free Palestine” at the festival.
They also aimed an expletive-laden chant at Starmer, who had said he did not think it was “appropriate” for Kneecap to play Glastonbury, after one of its members was charged under the Terrorism Act. Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged with supporting a proscribed terror organization for waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London last year.
A Facebook Reel, courtesy of badanov — if you can’t see it here, click on the headline below to see it at the link.
Hating on Jews is a ticket to fame
There’s a viral moment coming out of Glastonbury this weekend, for all the wrong reasons. British punk duo Bob Vylan used their stage to promote violence and hate.
But chanting “Death to the IDF” isn’t a political statement.
Whether calling to “Free Palestine” is really their personality or just a bad PR stunt, it’s hard to ignore how quick the media is to give these acts the spotlight.
Their prime directive has become hating Israel. May they get much joy from it. And buying opportunities for the rest of us, I suppose.
[IsraelTimes] KLP says Oshkosh Corporation and ThyssenKrupp excluded due to sale of products to states that use them in ‘systematic breaches of international law’
Norway’s biggest pension fund, KLP, said Monday it had dropped US group Oshkosh Corporation and Germany’s ThyssenKrupp from its investment portfolio for selling weapons and equipment used by Israel’s military in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... KLP — which is separate from Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest — said Oshkosh Corporation was supplying trucks to the Israeli military, which adapts them into armored troop transport vehicles.
The fund also accused ThyssenKrupp of agreeing to supply Israel’s navy, before the outbreak of the war in Gaza, with corvettes and submarines.
"Companies have an independent duty to exercise due diligence in order to avoid complicity in violations of fundamental human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. and humanitarian law," Kiran Aziz, head of responsible investments at KLP Asset Management, said in a statement.
KLP, which managed assets worth $114 billion in the first quarter, sold its holdings in Oshkosh Corporation valued at 19 million kroner ($1.9 million).
It also sold its investment in ThyssenKrupp worth 10 million kroner.
The two companies were excluded on the basis of KLP’s criterion relating to the "sale of weapons to states in armed conflicts that use the weapons in ways that represent serious and systematic breaches of international law governing the conflicts," KLP said.
The fund emphasized that the two companies had long-established cooperations with the Israeli army, and their deliveries continued after the start of the Gaza war on October 7, 2023, which was triggered by the devastating invasion of southern Israel led by the Paleostinian terror group Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... that killed 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians.
"The transfer of weapons and ammunition to Israel may constitute serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian laws and risk state complicity in international crimes, possibly including genocide," UN experts warned in June 2024.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, whose assets are valued at around $1.9 trillion, is also under pressure to divest further from groups accused of helping Israel wage its war in Gaza and continue its settlement policy in the West Bank.
However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... earlier this month, the Norwegian parliament rejected moves to toughen rules on its sovereign wealth fund investing in companies operating in the West Bank.
Lawmakers voted by 88 to 16 against a proposal to order the fund to withdraw from companies "that contribute to Israel’s war crimes and the illegal occupation" of the West Bank.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, fueled by vast revenue from the country’s oil and gas exports, is the biggest in the world and has nearly $1.65 trillion invested around the globe.
Israel has faced arms embargoes and the cancellation of arms orders by some countries due to the war.
Is a country that delegates decisions with a military strategic impact to an individual who feels she 'belongs' to Pakistan really a suitable member of NATO?
[Rudaw] Turkey has begun demolishing the Gendarmerie military base in Hakkari, a site historically significant to the conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). This move, coinciding with renewed peace talks between the two sides, has sparked hope among locals for healing and new opportunities.
[IsraelTimes] The United States announces the approval of a $510 million sale to Israel of bomb guidance kits and related support, after Israel expended significant munitions in its recent conflict with Iran.
“The proposed sale will enhance Israel’s capability to meet current and future threats by improving its ability to defend Israel’s borders, vital infrastructure, and population centers,” the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) says in a statement.
“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” it adds.
The State Department approved the possible sale and the DSCA has provided the required notification to the US Congress, which still needs to sign off on the transaction.
[IsraelTimes] Iran-linked hackers have threatened to disclose more emails stolen from US President Donald Trump’s circle, after distributing a prior batch to the media ahead of the 2024 US election.
In online chats with Reuters on Sunday and Monday, the hackers, who go by the pseudonym Robert, say they have roughly 100 gigabytes of emails from the accounts of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan, Trump adviser Roger Stone and porn star-turned-Trump antagonist Stormy Daniels.
Robert raises the possibility of selling the material but otherwise does not provide details of their plans or the content of the emails.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi describes the intrusion as “an unconscionable cyber-attack.”
Iran’s mission to the United Nations does not return a message seeking comment. Tehran has in the past denied committing cyberespionage.
Robert materialized in the final months of the 2024 presidential campaign, when they claimed to have breached the email accounts of several Trump allies, including Wiles.
The hackers then distributed emails to journalists.
The US Justice Department in a September 2024 indictment alleged that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ran the Robert hacking operation. In conversations with Reuters, the hackers declined to address the allegation.
After Trump’s election, Robert told Reuters that no more leaks were planned. As recently as May, the hackers told Reuters, “I am retired, man.”
But the group resumed communication after this month’s 12-day air war between Israel and Iran, which was capped by US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites.
In messages this week, Robert said they were organizing a sale of stolen emails and wanted Reuters to “broadcast this matter.”
American Enterprise Institute scholar Frederick Kagan, who has written about Iranian cyberespionage, says Tehran’s spies are likely trying to retaliate in ways that do not draw more US or Israeli action.
“A default explanation is that everyone’s been ordered to use all the asymmetric stuff that they can that’s not likely to trigger a resumption of major Israeli/US military activity,” he says. “Leaking a bunch more emails is not likely to do that.”
Continued on Page 47
#1
We didn't finish the job in Iran. This will keep happening until complete regime change. The CIA tried and failed, again. There's only one way and that's a thunder run to Teheran.
[Breitbart] A group of families who had their loved ones slaughtered by drug cartels are asking the Trump administration to designate the Juarez Cartel and its armed wing La Linea, as foreign terrorist organizations. The move would place that cartel on the same list as six other Mexican cartels previously designated as FTOs
In a letter sent to the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the members of American Families Against Cartel Terrorism asked Trump administration officials to designate La Linea and the Juarez Cartel as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs). As Breitbart Texas reported, the Juarez Cartel is one of the groups behind the November 2019 murder of nine American women and children from the Lebaron family just miles south of the New Mexico border.
The request was first reported by ABC, which obtained a copy of the letter from group members.
“This is not just about our families, it is about keeping Americans safe and getting justice for all American victims and ensuring that no American is left behind,” ABC quoted from the letter. “We ask you to designate the Juárez Cartel and its armed wing La Línea, as FTOs, and keep sending a clear message that the United States will not tolerate the murder of innocent Americans or the terrorization of our communities.”
The members of American Families Against Cartel Terrorism include members of the Lebaron family who have been fighting for years for La Linea and the Juarez Cartel to be listed as terrorists. In the aftermath of the 2019 murder, Mexico’s government has made some arrests and convictions. However, government officials have been largely accused of covering up and minimizing the case.
Mexican officials claimed that the gunmen mistook the U.S. family for rivals who were traveling along a deserted highway when they shot at them and then tried to torch their vehicles and bodies as a way to cover up their crime.
Shed a tear for the fearful halcon,
Weary, working his corner alone
With The Line at his back
"In case bad guys attack!"
[wets his beak on un hueso] [trombone]
Posted by: Marilyn Gray6548 ||
07/01/2025 11:29 Comments ||
Top||
#5
This is absolutely why I do not support the Drug War 2.0: Cartel Wars, because it will only be another Wag the Dog sequel. They hype up the Fentanyl Angle but then the Cartel that is most wrapped up with fentanyl smuggling and distribution is conveniently left off being designated as a terror organization.
China, where the fentanyl precursor chemicals are manufactured before being exported to Mexico for assembly is conveniently ignored too.
I remember when Taliban eliminated poppy production in Afghanistan, only to see its return when CIA/DEA/State Department got involved there.
Globalizing the Intifada now upgraded from attempted murder to the real thing. Congrats, Muslim Brotherhood dude. Enjoy the thought while your wife and five kids languish in today’s Egypt.
[IsraelTimes] Karen Diamond, an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor, dies weeks after suffering severe wounds in firebombing of pro-Israel rally in Boulder
An 82-year-old Colorado woman who was injured in a Molotov cocktail attack on demonstrators in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza has died, US prosecutors said Monday.
Karen Diamond, a Holocaust survivor, died as a result of severe injuries she suffered in the June 1 attack in downtown Boulder, Colorado, the local district attorney’s office said in a statement. Prosecutors have listed 29 victims, including 13 who were physically injured.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman already faced dozens of counts in state court on charges including attempted first-degree murder, using an incendiary device, and animal cruelty because a dog was hurt in the attack. He has not been arraigned on the initial charges that now include first-degree murder.
The Associated Press left a voicemail Monday for Soliman’s public defender in the state case. The office generally bars its lawyers from commenting on their cases to the media. A preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to move forward with the case is set for July 15.
Separately, Soliman has been indicted on 12 federal hate crime counts. He entered a not guilty plea to those charges during a hearing Friday in federal court.
Leaders of the Boulder Jewish Community announced in an email Monday that Diamond died June 25 and said she will be deeply missed.
“Karen was a cherished member of our community, someone whose warmth and generosity left a lasting impact on all who knew her,” executive director Jonathan Lev and board chair David Paul said.
During the demonstration, Soliman posed as a gardener and wore a construction vest to get close to the group before launching the attack, prosecutors allege.
Investigators say Soliman told them he intended to kill the participants at the weekly demonstration. He yelled “Free Palestine,” as he threw just two of more than two dozen Molotov cocktails he had prepared.
Prosecutors say the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual national origin. An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.
Soliman told investigators he tried to buy a gun, but was not able to because he was not a “legal citizen.” Federal authorities have said the Egyptian national has been living in the US illegally with his family.
[Rudaw] The first batch of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters is set to disarm in the Kurdistan Region next month, two well-informed sources said, in a major step towards ending four decades of bloody conflict.
The disarmament process will take place in the Kurdistan Region in the beginning of July to launch the practical steps of implementing the PKK’s decision to dissolve and end its armed struggle against The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... , the informed sources told Rudaw, on the condition of anonymity.
"In the next few days, Abdullah Ocalan, the tossed in the calaboose Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! leader of the PKK, will publish a new message about the process, and after that, the disarmament process will begin," one source said.
The PKK announced its dissolution and an end to its four-decade armed struggle on May 12, responding to a call from Ocalan to end the conflict that has claimed around 40,000 lives and pursue a political and democratic path.
Ankara has welcomed the steps but wants the decision to materialize. The PKK expects democratic steps from Ankara.
The two source said that between July 3 and July 10, a number of PKK fighters - ranging between 20 to 30 - will lay down their arms in a ceremony in Sulaimani province.
"The guerrillas will lay down their weapons in the ceremony and return to where they currently live, meaning they will not return to the cities," a source said.
But despite renewed efforts toward a grinding of the peace processor, Ankara has continued striking suspected PKK positions in the Kurdistan Region. A series of strikes in the vicinity of Duhok province’s Metina Mountain - a conflict hotspot - on Sunday sparked wildfires that have yet to be controlled.
On Saturday, Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) told Rudaw that it will soon submit a proposal to the parliament speaker for the formation of a commission to oversee the grinding of the peace processor with the PKK.
DEM Party is the main mediator of the talks, and its delegations have made several visits to Ocalan and relayed his messages.
Ozgur Ozel, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), told Rudaw in a recent interview that the commission was initially their idea. He recommended that it include representatives from all 16 political parties in the legislature and be chaired by the parliament speaker.
Zekeriya Yapicoglu, leader of Turkey’s Kurdish Islamist Free Cause Party (Huda Par), told Rudaw earlier in June that he expects the PKK to take "concrete steps" to lay down arms in the summer.
Founded in 1978, the PKK initially sought an independent Kurdish state but later shifted its focus toward achieving broader political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey.
The group has been labeled as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its allies.
[IsraelTimes] Dani Elgarat reveals family given details of how sibling, 68, died in Gaza; Knesset guards forcibly remove him from committee meeting after he accuses Netanyahu of funding Hamas
Israeli hostage Itzik Elgarat died as Hamas tortured him for information because they thought he was a pilot, his brother told lawmakers Monday.
Dani Elgarat revealed during a raucous Knesset House Committee meeting that, a day earlier, intelligence officials had provided the family with more details about his brother’s death.
Itzik Elgarat, 68, was in his Kibbutz Nir Oz home on the morning of October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists attacked. They shot him through his safe room door, injured him, and took him captive. He was among 251 people abducted from Israel when the Palestinian terror group led thousands of gunmen in a devastating invasion of southern Israel that killed 1,200 people.
Dani Elgarat said that Hamas thought Itzik was a pilot because he had a tattoo of an eagle on his arm.
“They took him for interrogation and he never came back,” he said.
Itzik was initially held with Edan Alexander, a US-Israeli IDF soldier who was recently released from captivity in what was seen as a goodwill gesture by Hamas to US President Donald Trump.
Elgarat reported that Alexander had asked the Hamas guards where Itzik was when he didn’t come back, and they told him, “He has gone.”
“Itzik died, was murdered, he suffered a heart attack during interrogation under torture,” Elgarat said, without providing further details.
The body of Itzik Elgarat was released by Hamas in February, as part of a ceasefire deal that saw dozens of hostages, dead and alive, returned to Israel. He was buried close to his home in Nir Oz. At the funeral, Dani Elgarat proclaimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “dug his grave.”
The truce eventually collapsed, and the war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack, has persisted.
At the Knesset committee meeting, guards forcibly removed Elgarat after he yelled about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu funding Hamas. l.Since 2018 and prior to October 7, Israel had allowed suitcases filled with millions of dollars in Qatari cash to enter Gaza through its crossings, to maintain a fragile ceasefire with the Hamas rulers of the Strip.
As Elgarat was removed from the chamber, lawmakers shouted that he was staging a provocation. Earlier, the Knesset House Committee saw the removal of Hadash-Ta’al MK Ofer Cassif amid a heated debate that ended with a vote to impeach Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh over a statement he had made appearing to equate Israeli hostages held in Gaza with Palestinian security prisoners.
Cassif was twice removed from the room after verbally sparring with bereaved father Itzik Bonzel, who lost his son Amit during the fighting in Gaza.
Families of hostages and victims of the Hamas attack have kept up a constant presence at the Knesset, attending committee meetings where they have frequently clashed with lawmakers over their sharp criticism of the government for security failures that led to October 7 attack, and for failure to reach a deal to bring back all of the hostages.
Mediated talks between Israel and Hamas have so far failed to make progress in reaching an agreement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed Sunday that freedom for hostages was a top priority.
“First of all, [we need] to free the hostages,” he said during a visit to a Shin Bet facility in southern Israel. “Of course, we will also have to solve the Gaza issue, to defeat Hamas, but I believe that we will achieve both tasks.”
His comments were broadly interpreted as prioritizing a deal to return the 50 remaining captives in Gaza before all else, as Israel faces mounting US pressure to reach a deal to end the war.
On Monday, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was set to meet in Washington with American officials to get on the same page with the US before another round of indirect talks in Cairo, the diplomat and a US official familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.
Text taken from a news article posted in secretra.com
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] According to Israeli media and economic reports, Israel has suffered direct losses of $12 billion as a result of the 12-day aggressive war against Iran, and total losses could reach $20 billion. Much, much cheaper than the cost of losing the war, so Israel will afford it. Fortunately, the Entrepreneurial Nation did not stop entrepreneuring just because there was a multi-front war on
The losses include not only military costs, damage from missile strikes, payments to individuals and entities affected, but also infrastructure repairs.
It would have been much worse, but much of the infrastructure is First World construction. And what is rebuilt will be even stronger against the damage of the next war.
Experts warn that the final amount of losses has not yet been established until the indirect economic consequences and compensation claims from the civilian population are fully calculated.
According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the country's budget has already suffered losses of NIS 22 billion ($6.46 billion).
The Israeli military is now asking for an additional NIS 40 billion ($11.7 billion) to replenish weapons stockpiles, purchase additional interceptors and offensive weapons, and maintain reserve units, in addition to pre-war requests for NIS 10 billion and then NIS 30 billion.
Israel’s budget deficit is expected to widen to around 6% amid problems financing military spending, on top of the deficit already accumulated during the Gaza war.
They’ll pay it off — a rising tide floats all boats, as ‘tis said. Israel Bonds pay a higher interest rate than US Treasuries, and can be purchased and held domestically in the U.S. and elsewhere, so they’ll be able to finance the debt.
Economic growth is projected to slow by at least 0.2%, further reducing tax revenues.
The damage inflicted on the Israeli regime by direct Iranian missile strikes is estimated at $1.3 billion.
Israeli business newspaper Calcalist reported that the regime’s cabinet has spent around $5 billion, or roughly $725 million a day, on offensive operations against Iran and defensive measures to intercept Tehran’s missiles and drones.
And more for the Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthi fronts of this war. Some expenditures are necessary.
Compensation alone is expected to cost at least $5 billion ($1.5 billion).
The Marker confirmed on Monday that material damage from Iranian missile strikes has already exceeded NIS 5 billion ($1.5 billion).
Economic analysts have warned that continuing the war could push Israel’s already weakened economy to the brink of collapse.
The Tax Authority estimates that some 15,000 Israeli settlers have been forced to flee their homes due to damage caused by Iran's retaliatory operations. Many have moved to hotels in the occupied territories.
The cost of their hotel stays is currently estimated at around 100 million shekels ($29 million). The regime will have to pay rent for an unknown period of time to hundreds or thousands of families, some of them long-term, until the destroyed buildings are rebuilt - a process that could take years.
Meanwhile, a German journalist has exposed censorship in the Israeli media following Iran's massive retaliatory missile strikes. Reporters are warned not to report on Iran's destruction of military targets or Israeli troop losses, he says, but only on civilian casualties.
The complaint is rich, coming from a Russian. The journalists were announcing the actual map coordinates to help Iran improve the aiming of their missiles. The rules change during war.
According to data published by the right-wing newspaper Israel Hayom, the regime's compensation fund has received more than 41,000 claims so far, with more expected.
Of these, about 33,000 claims were for damage to buildings, and more than 8,000 for damage to vehicles, property, and equipment. The majority of claims, about 26,000, were filed by Tel Aviv residents.
Until October 7, 2023, about 6,000 settlers were receiving permanent compensation from the regime. Following the Hamas operation in the southern settlements, this number skyrocketed to 25,000.
According to The Marker, this figure is expected to increase further after the war with Iran.
Tel Aviv is already planning to ask Washington for additional financial support in the form of aid or guaranteed loans to reduce military spending and finance urgent military priorities.
Iranian direct and indirect losses are preliminarily estimated at $25-30 billion (damaged infrastructure, damaged ground-based nuclear facilities, destroyed and damaged air defense systems, radars and other equipment, high missile consumption, including expensive ones, assistance to victims and those deprived of housing, etc., etc.).
If underground structures in Isfahan and Fordow were damaged,
…and they were. Probably so badly that repairing both sites will be impossible…
the amount would increase significantly, given the investment in Iranian nuclear facilities.
Probably best to just write them off, which costs nothing out of pocket. Israel will not allow them to be rebuilt, and America may well help enforce that so long as there is a Republican in the White House.
War is an expensive business. More precise studies of the actual losses and financial damage suffered by Israel and Iran will obviously appear in the long term, but for now these are early estimates.
They have better things to do than protest every single week. But every once in a while they insist on correcting the record about what they want.
[Ynet] With scars still visible on their bodies, wounded IDF soldiers gathered outside the Knesset on Monday, urging the government not to end the war in Gaza until Hamas is fully defeated. "We demand that the Israeli government give meaning to our blood—by winning this war," the group, members of the Heroism Forum, said in a statement.
Several Knesset members, including Matan Kahana and Chili Tropper from the National Unity party,
…centrist, Zionist, combines Benny Gantz’s Blue & White party and Gideon Saar’s New Hope. In addition to the usual they are committed to the independence of the judiciary, which suggests their raison d’être is to stop Bibi Netanyahu and Likud’s campaign against the Israeli deep state….
joined the event to show support and speak with the wounded veterans.
Lt. Col. (res.) Tomer Barok, a former battalion commander in the IDF’s Southern Brigade, said that at this stage in the war, halting the fighting would render all their sacrifices meaningless. "It feels like the objectives haven’t been fully achieved, and we’ve been spinning our wheels," he said. "I’m not here to give operational advice, but we have to finish this—there are still terrorists there, not Care Bears."
"We fought without political agendas, shoulder to shoulder, unified," Barok added. "We’re calling for national unity, but also for a clear and decisive outcome—not for us, but for the next generations. So our children can grow up in peace and flourish."
He emphasized that Israel is capable of achieving victory. "At this pace, we can bring the war to a decisive end. It’s not complicated, and it shouldn’t take years. This is a matter of national investment. We trust the state and the General Staff to do everything necessary to defeat the enemy, for all of us."
#2
On the day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they invaded the Philippines in force, taking hundreds of Americans and Filipinos captive.
The press expressed surprise when the U.S. Army Chief Staff said that there would be no attempt at a rescue... that at that point December 8, 1941, it just was too complicated, too dangerous to attempt, and too distracting. He is quoted as saying, "Sometimes men must die."
Postscript (for those who might not know) -- a few years later, Japan surrendered.
[IsraelTimes] State media claims 170 women and children among dead in 12-day war, in which Iranian missiles killed 28 in Israel
Iran raised the official death toll from its war with Israel on Monday, with regime-controlled media reporting that 935 people were killed in the country during the 12-day conflict.
The state-run IRNA news agency did not give a breakdown between military and civilian casualties, but said of the 935 people, 38 were children and 132 were women, quoting judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir. Its previous report last week said 627 people had been killed.
Jahangir also said 79 people were killed in an Israeli strike on Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison for political dissidents. The previous casualty figure for the Evin strike was 71.
Israel began its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program on June 13 with the aim of preventing the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons and amassing long-range weapons.
Iran retaliated to Israel’s strikes by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel. The attacks killed 28 people, all but one of them civilians, and wounded over 3,000 in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals. In all, there were 36 missile impacts and one drone strike in populated areas, causing damage to 2,305 homes in 240 buildings, along with two universities and a hospital, and leaving over 13,000 Israelis displaced.
A ceasefire between the two countries went into effect on June 24, shortly after the United States joined the campaign with a strike on Iran’s nuclear enrichment centers, including the underground facility at Fordo.
The US-based Human Rights Activists, which focuses on Iran, said over the weekend that 1,190 people had been killed, according to data collected by the agency’s network of medical and local volunteers. Of those, it said 436 were civilians, 435 military and 319 have not yet been identified.
The group has consistently reported higher casualties than the official reports from Iran.
Continued on Page 47
Reason: Iran violating UN & USA No Nuke Enrichment agreements, running illegal nuke weapon development sites. Iranian Officials openly threatening to make Nukes and use them against all Infidel nations.
USA Goal & Response -Prevent Nukes & WW-III, used clean and focused targeting.
ISRAEL - Retaliatory strikes mainly focused on military and missile/drone launch sites.
According to IRAN, only 935 claimed killed in Iran, over the 12-day war.
IRAN - Attacked anything in Israel.
Results were about 29 killed, because Israel & USA had better defensive screens.
IF the USA/Israel had used Hamas or Iran historically used blanket attack tactics. The figures would have been in the 10's of 1000's.
BTW:
OCT 7th - HAMAS
Used 4,300+ rockets supplied by guess who? 1,195 people in Israel were killed. Reason: Genocidal Terrorism.
AFTER THE 12 DAY WAR
Now Iran, only has around 1,200 ballistic missiles, about 100 launchers, according to sources.
[IsraelTimes] Executive order follows through on May promise to remove restrictions blocking Damascus from global finance, in move that could bolster bid to bring country into Abraham Accords
President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... on Monday formally dismantled US sanctions against Syria, hoping to reintegrate the war-battered country into the global economy as Israel eyes ties with its new leadership.
Trump lifted most sanctions against Syria in May, responding to appeals from Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... after former Islamist guerrilla Ahmed al-Sharaa ended a half-century of rule by the Assad family.
In an executive order, Trump terminated the "national emergency" in place since 2004 that imposed far-reaching sanctions on Syria, affecting most state-run institutions including the central bank.
"This is in an effort to promote and support the country’s path to stability and peace," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told news hounds.
Brad Smith, the Treasury Department official in charge of sanctions, said the move "will end the country’s isolation from the international financial system, setting the stage for global commerce and galvanizing investments from its neighbors in the region as well as from the United States."
The orders still maintain sanctions on elements of the former government, including Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... , who fled to Russia late last year.
Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shibani said the US move marked a "major turning point."
"With the lifting of this major obstacle to economic recovery, the long-awaited doors are opening for reconstruction and development" as are the conditions "for the dignified return of displaced Syrians to their homeland," he wrote on X.
Syria recently carried out its first electronic transfer through the international banking system since around the time it descended into a brutal civil war in 2011.
The United States still classifies Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism, a designation that could take longer to lift and which also severely discourages investment.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... said the State Department would review the listing, along with terror designations on Sharaa and 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... , the al-Qaeda offshoot he leads.
TRANSFORMED MIDDLE EAST
Israel kept pounding military sites in its historic adversary after the fall of Assad and initially voiced skepticism over the trajectory of its neighbor under Sharaa, who was formerly linked to an al-Qaeda affiliate.
But Israel said earlier Monday that it was interested in normalizing ties with Syria as well as Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel... in an expansion of the so-called "Abraham Accords," in what would mark a major transformation of the Middle East.
Iran’s holy manal state’s once-strong influence in Syria and Lebanon has declined sharply under pressure from Israeli military strikes since the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... Trump administration officials argued that lifting the sanctions on Syria would better integrate the country into the region and incentivize overtures by Israel.
Israel’s intensive attacks 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... in June opened a "window that has never existed," said Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey who serves as Trump’s pointman on Syria.
"It’s an opportunity that we have never, ever seen, and this president’s put together a team that can actually get it done," Barrack told news hounds.
Until Trump’s surprise announcement of sanctions relief during a trip to Saudi Arabia, the United States had insisted on progress first in key areas including protection of minorities.
The country has seen a series of major attacks against minorities since the fall of Assad, a largely secular leader from the Alawite minority sect.
At least 25 people were killed and dozens more maimed in a suspected Islamist attack against a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus on June 22.
Continued on Page 47
[IsraelTimes] Tehran criticizes US president for sanctions ‘games,’ says its usual IAEA cooperation cannot be expected; France, Germany, UK condemn Iran’s ‘threats’ against watchdog head
US President Donald Trump said Monday he is not holding discussions with Iranian leaders and not offering them anything, as European nations condemned “threats” against the head of the UN nuclear watchdog.
In a middle-of-the-night post on Truth Social, Trump said, “I am not offering Iran ANYTHING, unlike Obama, who paid them $Billions under the stupid ‘road to a nuclear weapon JCPOA (which would now be expired!), nor am I even talking to them since we totally OBLITERATED their Nuclear Facilities.”
The social media post was a response to comments by Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, who told Fox News on Sunday that reports suggested Trump “is now moving toward negotiation and offering Iran a deal that looks somewhat similar to the Iran deal that was offered by Obama. Tens of billions of dollars of incentives and reduced sanctions in exchange for abandoning their nuclear program.”
On Friday, the US president dismissed media reports that said his administration had discussed possibly helping Iran access as much as $30 billion to build a civilian energy-producing nuclear program.
Iran on Monday criticized Trump’s apparently shifting stance on whether to lift economic sanctions against it as “games” that were not aimed at solving the problems between the two countries.
“These [statements by Trump] should be viewed more in the context of psychological and media games than as a serious expression in favor of dialogue or problem-solving,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told a press conference.
Meanwhile, France, Germany and Britain on Monday condemned “threats” against the head of the UN nuclear watchdog after Iran rejected its request to visit nuclear facilities bombed by Israel and the United States.
Tehran has accused Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, of “betrayal of his duties” for not condemning the Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, and Iranian lawmakers this week voted to suspend cooperation with the agency.
“France, Germany and the United Kingdom condemn threats against the director general of the IAEA Rafael Grossi and reiterate our full support to the agency,” foreign ministers Jean-Noel Barrot, Johann Wadephul and David Lammy said in a joint statement.
“We call on Iranian authorities to refrain from any steps to cease cooperation with the IAEA,” they added.
“We urge Iran to immediately resume full cooperation in line with its legally binding obligations, and to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety and security of IAEA personnel.”
Argentina, Grossi’s home country, has also slammed “threats” against him from Iran.
None specified which threats they were referring to, but Iran’s ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper recently claimed documents showed Grossi was an Israeli spy and should be executed.
On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that Grossi’s insistence on visiting the bombed sites was “meaningless and possibly even malign in intent.”
Iran has said it believes an IAEA resolution on June 12 that accused Iran of ignoring its nuclear obligations served as an “excuse” for the war that Israel launched on June 13 and that ended with a ceasefire last week.
Speaking to US broadcaster CBS on Sunday, Iranian ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani denied there was any threat to nuclear inspectors in Iran, insisting they were “in safe conditions” but their work was suspended.
However, Baghaei said Monday that Iran cannot be expected to ensure usual cooperation with the IAEA when the security of agency inspectors cannot be guaranteed after the nuclear sites were hit by Israel and the US.
Baghaei said a parliamentary bill approved by the Guardian Council makes it mandatory for the government to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
“Iran shouldn’t be expected to accept its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) when the UN nuclear watchdog has stopped short of condemning the attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites,” he said.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/01/2025 00:00 ||
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#1
"I am not offering Iran ANYTHING." Nope. Trump gifted Iran Peace and forced Israel to cease hostilities. Which the next day Iran promised to covertly kill jew researchers and scientists too.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] The key goal of the Israeli Operation Lion Force was named the dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program.
A key goal, anyway. Another key goal was ending Iran’s ability to be a military threat to Israel’s existence, and a third — going beyond Lion Forces — was to end the ability of Iran’s alliance with Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis as a military threat to Israel’s existence.
More precisely, its military component, the existence of which official Tel Aviv Jerusalem has been convinced of for many years. Not just Israel…
Later, the Americans, who joined in the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, used the same considerations to explain their actions.
However, after the completion of the active phase of the operation, the victorious reports gave way to reflections on how real the damage to the Iranian nuclear industry was, and whether Washington and Tel Aviv, with their “decisive throw,” brought Tehran closer to obtaining its own nuclear arsenal.
WAYS TO GET RICH
According to the provisions of the “nuclear deal” concluded between Iran and a group of guarantors (Russia, China, the USA, Germany, Great Britain, the EU) in 2015, Tehran had the right to enrich about 300 kg of uranium to a level no higher than 3.7%. This symbolic threshold was quite sufficient for the development of the “peaceful atom” and conducting scientific research without the possibility of clandestine work on nuclear weapons.
With the collapse of the “deal” after the US withdrew from it in 2017, Iran began a gradual reduction in its commitments to its national nuclear program, reducing the frequency of international inspections and increasing the rate of enrichment, unilaterally raising the threshold several times.
According to the latest verified IAEA measurements (February 2025), of the 7.5 thousand kg of enriched stockpiles within the deal, less than 40% (2.9 thousand kg) were attributed to Tehran.
Moreover, at least 274 kg was enriched to 60%, which in theory gives Iran the ability to quickly increase these stockpiles to weapons-grade levels (enrichment of 90% or more).
The June strikes by Israel and the US on enrichment plants in Natanz and Isfahan, at first glance, set the process back. Washington emphasizes that the air raids allegedly managed to destroy the entire infrastructure for the production of metallic uranium in Isfahan, which will require Tehran to make “serious investments” in the near future to restore it.
The Israelis add that at least 13,000 centrifuges were damaged, both by direct missile hits and by power surges at enrichment plants.
However, the IAEA is less optimistic in its assessments. Rafael Grossi believes that Iran is capable of quickly - literally in a few months - replacing the centrifuges destroyed as a result of Israeli strikes. Using, among other things, what was stored in underground warehouses "in unspecified quantities." And over the next year, it can also modernize them, once again increasing the rate of enrichment work.
Predicting the timing of a new breakthrough will be extremely problematic, especially since, after a series of scandals with IAEA inspectors, Tehran has decided to dismantle the Agency's monitoring systems at its nuclear facilities.
UNEXPECTED EARTHQUAKE
A separate topic for discussion is the extent of damage to Iran's "nuclear perimeter." Despite the fact that the facilities in Natanz, Isfahan, Arak, and Fordow were subjected to intensive strikes at least three times in two weeks, the damage was inflicted mainly on above-ground buildings, while the underground infrastructure was practically unharmed.
That’s certainly one perspective. But given how thoroughly Mossad was embedded in Iran’s nuclear program since at least 2010, it’s possible their estimates if the damage are more accurate than some pundit sitting somewhere in Russia. And if not, they will discover the hard way, no?
Even the use of GBU-57 bunker busters by the US against the Fordow facility did not result in the destruction of the underground storage facility for highly enriched uranium, as evidenced by numerous radiological measurements in Iran and neighboring countries. If the underground storage facility with enriched uranium had suffered a direct hit, it would have been impossible to hide the traces of the man-made disaster.
However, as experts note, the attack provoked a "migration" of Iranian stockpiles. About 400 kg of highly enriched uranium disappeared from radars, which the Iranians allegedly transported from Fordow to an unknown location in advance.
Considering that IAEA inspections in the country have been stopped, it is not yet possible to determine the new storage location of the disputed stockpiles.
The unexpected earthquake (June 20, magnitude 5.2) in the province of Semnan, where a large number of facilities are located, added to the controversy. It was noted that its epicenter was at a depth of approximately 10 km, which only spurred discussions about the start of secret underground nuclear weapons tests in Iran.
However, the West did not develop the conspiracy theory. Especially since to create such shocks it would be necessary to detonate a warhead with a capacity of up to 200 kilotons. And this is many times greater than even the military capabilities attributed to Tehran.
WEAK SPOT
Perhaps the greatest damage to the Iranian nuclear program has been not in equipment and consumables, but in people.
The Israeli army's General Staff insists that it was able to eliminate at least nine leading scientists from the Iranian "nuclear project", at least five seconded figures, officers supervising intelligence and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Tehran, however, acknowledges the deaths of only six of them and emphasizes that all of those killed worked in the peaceful sector or were theorists.
Fierce debates continue in the West: did the dead nuclear scientists manage to pass on their accumulated knowledge or did Tehran not believe until the very end that Israel would hunt the scientists so actively? Especially since almost five years have passed since the previous major operation to eliminate Iranian nuclear scientists.
Either way, the one-time loss of a large number of high-level specialists will limit the capabilities of the Iranian nuclear sector for some time.
On the other hand, the patriotic impulse that has emerged in Iran in the wake of the US-Israeli attacks is driving a sharp rise in demand for science education among young people, according to universities that are seeing an influx of motivated applicants.
If Tehran manages to ride this wave, it will be able to saturate the industry with new personnel in the next decade.
BACK TO THE ROOTS
Although Iran has stopped publicly discussing a new "nuclear deal" after the US-Israeli operation, the authorities have left little room for maneuver.
The Iranian diplomatic corps maintains alternating contacts with the Europeans and Washington (although the White House denies the fact of these interactions), and also works closely with non-Western intermediaries in the form of Russia and China.
Tehran does not hide that it is still interested in dispelling the myths surrounding its "atomic dossier", although it makes a reservation that it will continue to enrich uranium within the limits that it deems necessary. And if the situation requires it, it is ready to continue the confrontation with the United States.
Even though concluding a new deal still meets the interests of the Masoud Pezeshkian government, official Tehran’s excessive attention to the diplomatic track could be perceived in the current circumstances as a sign of weakness and an admission of defeat in the recent conflict.
For this reason, it is important for Iranian elites to continue to balance, demonstrating a willingness to negotiate, but taking into account their own compelling interests.
Moreover, Iran even has some trump cards in its hands - for example, a draft law on the country's withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, following the example of the DPRK. It has already been repeatedly put on the agenda, but has not received support. If the guarantors put too much pressure on Tehran, it may well give the document a go.
That won’t protect Iran from Israel’s bombs, or America’s. Neither Iraq nor Syria’s nuclear programs were protected from Israel’s bombs, after all.
Posted by: badanov ||
07/01/2025 00:00 ||
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#1
Well - the same IC that stated Iran was not seeking nukes and that Saddam had a nuke under his bed... Now this same IC says Iran's nuclear program has been set back nearly a century. Maybe a slight exaggeration there, but you get my drift.
QFT "while the underground infrastructure was practically unharmed." Wow.
[IsraelTimes] Official says Jerusalem pleased with Lebanese effort to disarm terror group, but ‘it will be very hard’; Beirut says it needs US guarantees Israel will fully withdraw from Lebanon
An Israeli official on Monday said that while talks about potential peace deals with both 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.... and Syria are taking place, Beirut must "finish the issue" of disarming the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group before any normalization can move forward.
Earlier Monday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that Lebanon and Syria are both prospective candidates to join the Abraham Accords alongside Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco, which normalized relations with Israel in 2020. A deal with Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... was also announced at the time, but is yet to fully materialize.
Both Syria and Lebanon do not recognize Israel and have been technically at war with it since its creation in 1948.
But before peace with Lebanon can move ahead, the Israeli official said, "We need to finish the issue of disarming Hezbollah. It will be very hard. I don’t know if they will succeed."
Still, the official indicated that the Lebanese Armed Forces have demonstrated they are serious about disarming Hezbollah.
"They definitely have limitations that are both subjective and objective, but we are under the impression that they are trying," the official said. "At least most of the army is trying. We see more-or-less effective enforcement, but you see that we are striking almost every day."
"That should say a lot," they said, adding that contacts with the US-led deconfliction mechanism in Lebanon continue "all the time."
Speaking on the issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament, a Lebanese official said Monday that the government seeks guarantees that Israeli forces fully withdraw from Lebanese territory in response to the US’s demand that Beirut formally commit to disarming the terror group.
Lebanese leaders who took office in the aftermath of a war between Israel and Hezbollah last year have repeatedly vowed a state monopoly on bearing arms while demanding Israel comply with a November ceasefire that ended the fighting.
The Lebanese government official told AFP that in a recent visit, US envoy Tom Barrack had presented the demand for Beirut to officially commit to start disarming the Iran-backed group as stipulated in the November agreement, along with a full Israeli withdrawal.
President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and parliament speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
...perennial Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... — who is a key Hezbollah ally — "are preparing a response," said the official on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.
With Barrack, Washington’s ambassador to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... and special envoy to Syria, expected back in Beirut by mid-July, the Lebanese leaders "will demand a halt to Israeli violations of the ceasefire, Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the release of prisoners [detained during the war] and the demarcation of the border," said the official.
According to the official, Barrack in his June 19 visit also asked that Lebanon work on securing its border with Syria and pursue economic reforms demanded by international creditors.
Aoun and Salam took power early this year as the balance of power shifted following the Israel-Hezbollah war that left the terror group — long an important player in Lebanese politics — severely weakened.
Lebanese authorities say they have been dismantling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in the south, near the Israeli border.
Israel has continued to strike Lebanon despite the November ceasefire, claiming to hit Hezbollah targets and accusing Beirut of not doing enough to disarm the group.
According to the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah is to pull its fighters back north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli frontier.
Israel was to withdraw its troops from all of Lebanon, but has kept them deployed in five points it deems strategic.
Israel has remained at the five points ever since a ceasefire began on November 27, 2024, halting more than a year of hostilities initiated by the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, including two months of full-blown war, during which Israel sent in ground troops across the northern border.
There was no comment from Beirut or Damascus, but the Lebanese government official told AFP normalization was not among the US envoy’s demands.
Continued on Page 47
[IsraelTimes] Isfahan site damage assessment shared with US lawmakers appears to mesh with that of Israeli officials; Iranian envoy to the UN vows the Islamic Republic ‘will never stop’ enriching uranium
CIA Director John Ratcliffe told skeptical US politicians that American military strikes destroyed Iran’s lone metal conversion facility and in the process delivered a monumental setback to Tehran’s nuclear program that would take years to overcome, a US official said Sunday.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence, said Ratcliffe laid out the importance of the strikes on the metal conversion facility during a classified hearing for US politicians last week.
The metal conversion facility that Ratcliffe said was destroyed was located at the Isfahan nuclear facility. The process of transforming enriched uranium gas into dense metal, or metallization, is a key step in building the explosive core of a bomb.
Details about the private briefings surfaced as President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... and his administration keep pushing back on questions from Democratic politicians and others about how far 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... was set back by the strikes before last Tuesday’s ceasefire with Israel took hold.
"It was obliterating like nobody’s ever seen before," Trump said in an interview on Fox News Channel’s "Sunday Morning Futures." "And that meant the end to their nuclear ambitions, at least for a period of time."
Ratcliffe also told politicians that the intelligence community assessed the vast majority of Iran’s amassed enriched uranium likely remains buried under the rubble at Isfahan and Fordo, two of the three key nuclear facilities targeted by US strikes.
But even if the uranium remains intact, the loss of its metal conversion facility effectively has taken away Tehran’s ability to build a bomb for years to come, the official said.
Rafael Grossi, head of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, said Sunday on CBS’ "Face the Nation" that the three Iranian sites with "capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of uranium have been destroyed to an important degree."
But, he added, "some is still standing" and that because capabilities remain, "if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again." He said assessing the full damage comes down to Iran allowing in inspectors.
"Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared, and there is nothing there," Grossi said.
Appearing on the same CBS program, Iran’s ambassador to the UN vowed the Islamic Theocratic Republic "will never stop" enriching uranium.
"The enrichment is our right, an innate right, and we want to implement this right," said Amir Saeid Iravani.
Trump has insisted from just hours after three key targets were struck by US bunker-buster bombs and Tomahawk missiles that Iran’s nuclear program was "obliterated."
His defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has said they were "destroyed." A preliminary report issued by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, meanwhile, said the strikes did significant damage to the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan sites, but did not totally destroy the facilities.
As a result of Israeli and US strikes, Grossi says that "it is clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage." Israel claims it has set back Iran’s nuclear program by "many years."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... in comments at the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... summit last week also suggested that it was likely the US strikes had destroyed the metal conversion facility.
"You can’t do a nuclear weapon without a conversion facility," Rubio said. "We can’t even find where it is, where it used to be on the map. You can’t even find where it used to be because the whole thing is just blackened out. It’s gone. It’s wiped out."
The CIA director also stressed to politicians during the congressional briefing that Iran’s air defense was shattered during the 12-day assault. As a result, any attempt by Iran to rebuild its nuclear program could now easily be thwarted by Israeli strikes that Iran currently has little wherewithal to defend against, the official said.
Ratcliffe’s briefing to politicians on the US findings appeared to mesh with some of Israeli officials’ battle damage assessments.
Israeli officials have determined that Iran’s ability to enrich uranium to a weapons-grade level was neutralized for a prolonged period, according to a senior Israeli military official who was not authorized to talk publicly about the matter.
Tehran’s nuclear program also was significantly damaged by the strikes killing key scientists, damage to Iran’s missile production industry and the battering of Iran’s aerial defense system, according to the Israeli’s assessment.
Continued on Page 47
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It took 78 years, but thanks to Sinwar’s folly, it looks like Israel will finally have peace with all four of its neighboring states —Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon—without any territorial disputes.
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.
[NYPost] “Thousands” of migrant children who disappeared after being smuggled across the US-Mexico border under the Biden administration have been rescued from grim fates such as being sex-trafficked to pedophiles, according to border czar Tom Homan — who revealed that a 14-year-old pregnant girl was found living with adult men just two weeks ago.
[IsraelTimes] 57-page investigation cites allegations of bias beginning shortly after Oct. 7 attack and stretching into this year, threatens loss of all federal funding
..always the voice of sweet reason...
[IsraelTimes] The 20-year-old transient who started a wildfire and then fatally shot two firefighters and wounded another in northern Idaho drew swastikas in school and was obsessed with guns, former classmates tell USA Today.
[BBC] The UK's High Court has rejected a case brought by campaigners trying to stop the transfer to Israel of all British-made spare parts for US-produced F-35 fighter jets, saying it didn't have the constitutional authority to intervene.
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
...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....
...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 
