[FoxNews] Cellebrite helps law enforcement around the world break into criminals' smartphones
The FBI has contracted the Israeli tech firm Cellebrite to help in its investigation into Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who tried to kill former President Trump at a rally on July 13 and mortally wounded a supporter in the crowd instead, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
American law enforcement agencies have tapped the company for years for its ability to break into smartphones from a range of Big Tech firms and using different mobile operating systems. Who you gonna call when the wrath of a nation isn't sufficient?
However, while a Cellebrite software patch helped investigators get into Crooks' phone within 24 hours of the shooting, the company is not privy to any of the investigation's findings, according to the source.
The FBI on Wednesday told Fox News Digital it does not comment on the tools or techniques it uses and could not confirm or deny Cellebrite's involvement in the Crooks probe. Prob didn't know.
The wider investigation involves more than just accessing that data on Crooks' phone. Providers of encrypted messaging services have been served legal process, and the bureau is patiently
awaiting responses from them. CEO imprisonment is an incentive.
While the FBI obtained a shocking search history and other evidence from the gunman's phone after he struck Trump in the ear and critically injured two other spectators and the dead guy
, they ran into trouble with encrypted apps, authorities told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
"I think we've experienced a range of returns because some of the applications that he was using online were encrypted in nature," FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said during the hearing Tuesday under questioning from South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Once investigators get a search warrant or other legal authorization, Cellebrite provides tools that can help access encrypted apps and hidden data on a suspect's smartphone, the firm's chief marketer, David Gee, told Fox News.
Most present-day smartphone apps use some kind of encryption, he added, and it is not uncommon for them to store data outside the U.S.
"Whether that application was created in the U.S., in Europe, in Asia, the chances are that they have some encryption built into them to ensure that the data is transferred backwards and forwards, and stored on the device, generally encrypted," he said.
However, reports that Crooks used encrypted apps and had data stored overseas have raised questions about who he was talking to — and about what. Especially after federal authorities acknowledged they were aware of an Iranian threat on Trump's life before the failed assassination attempt.
While Abbate said investigators have found no information that Crooks had any co-conspirators, "foreign or domestic," he added that the encrypted information remains a wild card and said investigators are keeping an open mind until they get all the results back. It's good to have options
The FBI has gained access to some of Crooks' emails, he said, but some of his encrypted communications remained unavailable. Authorities are also awaiting responses to legal requests from some of the companies behind the apps.
Investigators are also continuing to examine information that they have received, including activity from social media accounts that may have been used by the gunman and espoused what Abbate called "differing points of view."
On Friday, Trump revealed he would be returning to Butler for another rally to honor the bystander who was killed by a stray bullet fired by Crooks.
Crooks fatally struck 50-year-old Corey Comperatore and critically wounded David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74.
#2
/\ If you mash the 'push to talk button' you can be monitored. It may or may not take a while to decipher or decrypt the signal, but you can be monitored.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] Chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of the Ansar Allah movement, one of the leaders of the Yemeni Houthis, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, called the murder of the head of the Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh "a monstrous terrorist crime."
Whatevs.
"We wish patience and consolation to the family, brothers and supporters of Ismail Haniyeh. The attack on him is a heinous terrorist crime and a flagrant violation of laws and ideal values," he wrote on the social network page of H.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on the night of July 31, the 61-year-old head of the Politburo and one of his bodyguards were killed in a missile attack on a house in Tehran. Hamas officially confirmed the death of Ismail Haniyeh. He arrived in Iran to participate in the inauguration ceremony of the country's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.
On the same day, Deputy Head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Bogdanov stated that the death of the head of the Politburo was a political assassination and such actions threatened further escalation. He noted that what happened would negatively affect the course of the Middle East settlement talks taking place in Doha.
[AmericanThinker] While journalists at The Washington Post might call SheikhYasser al-Habib an “austere religious scholar” (the descriptor so affectionately used to eulogize Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after he detonated himself and his own children a tunnel to evade capture by U.S. forces), others night label the Muslim cleric a terrorist, or even just a devout Islamist, while a report at the Daily Mail describes al-Habib
… Sheikh Yasser al-Habib, 45, is the soft-spoken yet fiery heretical Shiite preacher who keeps collecting lotsa money from his followers for a variety of projects, including a separate island homeland for his followers to establish a base for living and training, where they can show those other so-called Moslems how to do it right. As part of their outreach they have Al-Muhassin mosque and a £2 million compound – also known as the Minor Land of Fadak — in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, the Fadak satellite TV station, a scattering of military training camps, and a former charity known as the Mahdi Servants Union (formerly the Khoddam Al-Mahdi Organisation). Sometimes even busy hands are the Devil’s playground…
as a “vile Muslim extremist”; after the massacres in the kibbutzim on October 7th, al-Habib reportedly said he and his followers were “buoyed” by the slaughter, and rhetorically asked, “Who among us does not enjoy retaliation of the Zionist enemy?”
A traditional Moslem outlook in certain circles, but then the sheikh was traditionally educated, back before he developed his own innovative ideas…
Anyway, al-Habib has a substantial following, complete with his own “army” of jihadis, and he’s apparently eyeing small islands across the West—some even along the U.S. border—for purchase, in order to establish Sharia law domains, and he’s just about succeeded in buying a small uninhabited Scottish island called Torsa. As you can expect, the Western governments are radio silent on al-Habib’s ambitions.
Sheikh Yasser al-Habib, 45, claimed asylum from Kuwait in Britain 20 years ago. He repays us by wanting to set a Sharia Law island at isle of Torsa, in the west coast of Scotland.
Continued on Page 49
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] The militant attacks in Dagestan, like the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, occurred due to the authorities' miscalculations, which did not pay enough attention to countering terrorism, said Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov.
As the "Caucasian Knot" reported, on June 23, militants attacked an Orthodox church and a synagogue in Derbent, and in Makhachkala - the Holy Dormition Cathedral and a traffic police post. As a result of the attack, 22 people were killed and 46 were injured. Investigators believe that the group whose members carried out the attacks was created by the son of the head of the Sergokalinsky District, Magomed Omarov.
The terrorist attacks in the Moscow region and Dagestan "have challenged the law enforcement system and the entire Russian society," said Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov at a meeting devoted to summing up the work of the prosecutor's office for the first six months of 2024.
"In many ways, this became possible due to mistakes made by authorized government bodies, which requires us to conduct inspections and respond to counter-terrorism at a fundamentally different level," Krasnov's words are quoted in a publication on the Prosecutor General's Office website.
Recall that the militant attacks in Dagestan could have been prevented if the security forces had guarded religious sites more carefully and paid more attention to preventive work, veterans of the special services interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" indicated. However, the security of religious sites in the republic was strengthened only the day after the militant attacks and deaths.
On June 24, the head of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, announced that Magomed Omarov, whose two sons and nephew participated in the militant attack, had been dismissed from his post as head of the Sergokalinsky District. On June 25, Melikov announced an investigation into the personal files of officials and members of the Dagestan parliament.
The attacks in Derbent and Makhachkala were the first armed incidents in the republic in more than a year. At the same time, a number of incidents related to attacks on religious figures and religious buildings had occurred in Dagestan earlier.
On March 22, armed men broke into the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region, opened fire and set fire to the building. According to official data, 145 people were killed in the terrorist attack, and the FSB classified the incident as a terrorist attack. Eleven people were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the terrorist attack.
On March 31, three people were detained in Makhachkala and Kaspiysk during a counter-terrorist operation. The detainees supplied money and weapons to the participants in the attack on Crocus City Hall, and also prepared the terrorist attack themselves, the FSB said. By April 4, the number of those arrested who, according to the security forces, were preparing the terrorist attack in Kaspiysk and supplied weapons to the attackers on Crocus City Hall had reached five.
The terrorist attack in Krasnogorsk was the largest in the Moscow region in 30 years. From 1999 until the events at Crocus City Hall, there had been five terrorist attacks there, each killing more than 40 people. Before the terrorist attack at Crocus, the largest number of fatalities, 130 people, was attributed to the seizure of the Theater Center on Dubrovka.
The Clown Prince of Chechnya speaks.
[Regnum] On July 31, at a meeting with the government of the republic,the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, spoke out against wearing the burqa.
Kadyrov published a video recording with fragments of the meeting on his Telegram channel.
"We are against the burqa, which covers the face. We are against this," said the head of Chechnya.
At the same time, Kadyrov criticized those demanding a ban on the hijab and called them his personal enemies.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on July 3, the Muftiate of Dagestan temporarily banned the wearing of niqabs in the region. The ban will remain in effect until the identified threats are eliminated and a new theological opinion is issued.
The Coordination Center of Muslims of the North Caucasus noted that in Russia, under modern conditions, wearing the niqab, burqa and other headdresses that conceal the face is harmful to Muslims and also threatens discord in interreligious and interethnic relations.
The Supreme Mufti of Russia and Chairman of the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims Talgat Tadzhuddin previously stated that the majority of Russian Muslims do not have an obligation for women to cover their faces and hands. According to him, the Muslims of the North Caucasus are an exception, but this issue can be resolved by law in connection with the terrorist threat and ensuring state security. The Mufti recalled that there was no niqab in the country for 14 centuries.
[GEO.TV] The European Union on Wednesday urged all sides to avoid escalation after Hamas said its political leader Ismail Haniyeh had been killed by an Israeli strike on Iran's capital.
"We call on all parties to exert maximum restraint and avoid any further escalation," EU spokesman Peter Stano said. "No country and no nation stand to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2024 00:00 ||
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Ha! Good move. That oughta take care of the problem.
[GEO.TV] In a move to shift its war on terror from a physical to an ideological front, the government on Wednesday categorised the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... Pakistain (TTP) as "Fitna al-Khawarij."
The government also made it mandatory for all institutions to use "Khariji" before the names of perpetrators of terrorist attacks on Pakistain, according to a notification issued by the Ministry of Interior.
The notification, which comes at a time when forces of Evil have intensified attacks on armed forces, intends to expose the real "ideology" of the banned holy warrior outfits, which it asserts have "distorted the image of Islam under the guise of religion."
According to the notification, titles such as 'Mufti' and 'Hafiz' will not be used for individuals associated with terrorist organizations, while in all correspondence and documents, the term "Khariji" will be written and read before their names.
The notification adds that the TTP forces of Evil have no genuine interest in the religion and such "corrupt elements" are referred to as "Fitna al-Khawarij."
The ministry directed all government institutions to implement the order immediately and use the terms in their letters and documents.
Subsequently, the interior ministry banned two more terrorist outfits, including the Hafiz Gul Bahadur ...a member of the Madda Khel clan of the Uthmanzai Waziris. Educated in a Deobandi madrassa located in Multan, he is affiliated with the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) political party. Upon the formation of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in December 2007, he was announced as the group's overall naib amir under Baitullah Mehsud, who was based in South Wazoo, but has largely distanced himself from the TTP due to rivalries with the Mehsuds and disagreements about the TTP's attacks against the Pak state.. Group (HGBG) and Majeed Brigade (MB).
The interior ministry approved the recommendations to ban the holy warrior groups monitoring them for two years, according to the notification.
Following the interior ministry's nod, the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) added the aforementioned groups to the proscribed organizations' list.
Pakistain witnessed a surge in terror activities over the past few months, particularly in its Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan provinces.
According to the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) Annual Security report, during the second quarter of 2024, the country suffered 380 violence-linked fatalities and 220 injuries. These stats include casualties of civilians, security personnel, and outlaws, it said.
As a result of as many as 240 incidents of terror attacks and counter-terror operations, a mentioned.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres considers the assassination of the head of the Palestinian Hamas Politburo Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, as well as Israel's strikes on Beirut, a dangerous escalation of the situation in the Middle East, Stephane Dujarric, the official representative of the head of the world organization, said at a briefing on July 31.
"The Secretary-General believes that the attacks we have seen in southern Beirut and Tehran represent a dangerous escalation at a time when all efforts should be directed towards a ceasefire in Gaza," he said.
Dujarric added that the UN Secretary General calls for maximum restraint and for working towards de-escalation in the region.
As reported by Regnum news agency, on July 30, Israeli Air Force aircraft fired four missiles at targets in the southern suburbs of Beirut, destroying a residential building. According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, three people were killed and 85 were injured. It was later reported that the body of Hezbollah commander Fuanda Shukr was found after the Israeli army's missile strike.
On the night of July 31, 61-year-old Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed in a rocket attack on a house in Tehran. Hamas spokesman in Lebanon Mahmoud Takh blamed Israel and the United States for Haniyeh's murder. He said the attack had been coordinated with Washington.
The Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the attack on Haniyeh. According to Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, a political assassination was committed that will further escalate tensions in the region.
Posted by: badanov ||
08/01/2024 00:00 ||
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[GEO.TV] UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo is giving the opening remarks at the emergency meeting over the killing of Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... chief in Tehran.
DiCarlo said a path to de-escalation is needed at this dangerous time.
"The international community must work together to avoid any action that will make the conflict much bigger and wider very quickly," she said.
"We need swift diplomatic efforts towards de-escalation [and] the Security Council plays a crucial role in this regard."
[Regnum] Three countries have blocked the draft statement of the UN Security Council (SC) on the assassination of Hamas Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh, proposed by Russia. This was stated at a meeting of the world organization by Iran's permanent representative Amir Saeed Iravani.
"The draft press statement proposed by Russia to condemn Israel's brutal act was blocked by the US, UK and France," he said.
Earlier, Iranian diplomats sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russia, which chairs the Security Council, demanding that they condemn Israel's attack on Lebanon.
As reported by Regnum news agency, on July 30, Israeli Air Force aircraft fired four missiles at targets in the southern suburbs of Beirut, destroying a residential building. According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, three people were killed and 85 were injured.
Hezbollah's second-highest commander, Fuad Mohsen Shokr, was killed in a strike on southern Beirut in a targeted, intelligence-driven operation, the Israeli army said.
On the night of July 31, 61-year-old Ismail Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed in a rocket attack on a house in Tehran. Hamas officially confirmed the death of the head of the Hamas politburo. He arrived in Iran to attend the inauguration ceremony of the country's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.
Hamas spokesman in Lebanon Mahmoud Tah blamed Israel and the US for Haniyeh's killing, saying the attack had been coordinated with Washington.
On July 31, a red flag was raised over the Jamkaran Mosque in Iran in vengeance for Haniyeh's murder. Red flags in Shiite tradition symbolize the desire to avenge unjustly spilled blood.
The Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the attack on Haniyeh. According to Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, it was a political assassination that would further escalate tensions.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2024 00:00 ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kirill Semenov
[REGNUM] Hamas has issued a statement saying its political leader and head of the politburo, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in a "treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran."
It came less than a day after three people, including two children, were killed and 74 wounded in an Israeli strike in Beirut.
The Israeli military called the attack a "targeted assassination operation" against one of the military leaders of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, Fouad Shukr.
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded to Haniyeh's killing by saying that the "criminal and terrorist Zionist regime" would be "severely punished," adding that Iran considered it "obligatory to avenge the blood" of the Hamas leader.
And President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that Iran "will defend its territorial integrity, dignity, honor and pride and will make the terrorist occupiers regret their cowardly act."
The Iranian Foreign Ministry also stressed that “the blood of the slain Hamas leader will not be shed in vain.”
Iran has declared three days of mourning for the death of leader Ismail Haniyeh. After a ceremony in Tehran, his body will be transferred to Doha tomorrow afternoon. He will be buried in the Qatari capital on Friday, Hamas said.
At the time of writing, Israel remains officially silent about Haniyeh's murder and is "assessing the situation."
Iran's IRNA news agency reported that the killing took place around 2 a.m. Wednesday local time, noting that he was being held at a special center for war veterans in Tehran.
On the other hand, Iran's Pars news agency said Haniyeh's residence in an area north of the capital was attacked, adding that he was killed along with one of his bodyguards.
Estimates of where the attack came from varied. The most common version initially was that an Israeli warplane had entered Iranian airspace and attacked Haniyeh's residence outside Tehran.
Later, experts began to believe that the missile was launched outside the airspace of the Islamic Republic.
There is a possibility that the strike was carried out from Iraqi airspace, this version seems quite plausible. If so, then the risk of retaliatory actions by the "Axis of Resistance" against the United States increases, since the actions of the Israeli air force could hardly have been uncoordinated with the Americans, who participate in controlling Iraqi airspace and have bases there. Jordan may also be among the accomplices of this action.
CONSOLIDATION OF THE PALESTINIANS
Haniyeh's death will not weaken Hamas. On the contrary, his place may be taken by representatives of a new generation who will not only benefit from his political experience, but also increase it by working on his mistakes.
The son of the slain Hamas leader, Abdul Salam Haniyeh, said his father's assassination would only strengthen Palestinian resistance to Israel. "My father survived four assassination attempts for his patriotic mission, and today Allah has granted him the martyrdom he always dreamed of," the younger Haniyeh told Arab media.
Ismail Haniyeh spent three years in an Israeli prison and was wounded in an Israeli airstrike in 2003. Haniyeh also lost many of his loved ones in the conflict with Israel.
In April, three of his sons, Hazem, Amir and Mohammad, were killed when the car they were travelling in was bombed in Gaza. The attack also killed four of Haniyeh's grandchildren, three girls and a boy. More than 60 of his family members and relatives have been killed since the war began on October 7.
"He was very keen to establish national unity and sought unity among all Palestinian factions, and we say that this assassination will not stop the resistance, which will fight until freedom is achieved," Abdul Salam Haniyeh added.
It is possible that another incentive for the Benjamin Netanyahu regime to take this step, which is criminal from the point of view of international law, was precisely the agreement of the Palestinian factions to unite and form a government of national unity, in which Hamas and Haniyeh personally could play a significant role.
The murder appears to be a kind of Israeli revenge against the Palestinians for overcoming the rejection by Tel Aviv and its Western allies of Hamas's entry into the new PLO structures.
Thus, Israel failed to remove Hamas from the list of forces responsible for the future of Palestine, and it decided to destroy its leader, sending a signal to all Palestinian forces that they could share his fate.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing of the Hamas politburo chief, calling it a "cowardly act and a dangerous event." He called on Palestinians to "unite, be patient and steadfast in the face of the Israeli occupation."
NETANYAHU DECIDED TO "TURN THE TABLE"
Haniyeh's killing in the Iranian capital threatens to escalate tensions in the Middle East and could further undermine any prospects for a breakthrough in already stalled talks to end the war in Gaza.
Before Haniyeh's death, Israel and Hamas were believed to be close to an agreement to suspend the nearly 10-month war in Gaza that has killed 40,000 people, mostly Palestinian civilians, and led to a growing humanitarian crisis.
Haniyeh has been a key participant in months of talks brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States. Late last week, officials declared progress despite continuing disagreements on key issues. Then Israel began pushing new conditions that the Palestinians find unacceptable.
Now, it has finally become clear that Netanyahu has taken the most escalatory scenario, hoping to shift the responsibility for leaving the negotiation process to Hamas.
After the assassination of its leader, the Palestinian resistance is unlikely to find the strength to continue consultations on a truce and will most likely refuse further ceasefire negotiations.
Qatar, which played a central role in the mediation, also called Haniyeh's killing "a heinous crime and a dangerous escalation." Its Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the killing and "Israel's continued attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip... are leading the region toward chaos."
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, who personally brokered the ceasefire talks, questioned their chances of success after Haniyeh's killing. "How can mediation be successful if one side kills the negotiator on the other side?" the sheikh wrote on social media.
"The world needs serious partners and a global position against the disregard for human life," he added.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that the U.S. government, which also served as a mediator, would “work hard to make sure that we do everything we can to reduce tensions and resolve issues diplomatically.” But now, it appears, those efforts alone will not be enough.
IRANIAN RETALIATION AND RISKS FOR THE US
Haniyeh's death in Tehran, like the Beirut strike that killed Shukr, leaves Israel facing potential reactions not only from Hamas and Hezbollah in response to attacks on their leaders, but also the question of Iran's response to a murder on its soil.
Haniyeh was killed while in Tehran with other senior members of the pro-Iranian Axis of Resistance to attend the inauguration of Iran's newly elected president.
So what happened is not just the assassination of a senior Hamas leader, but a new challenge to the Islamic Republic that Tehran will not be able to ignore. At first glance, the negative resonance for Iran already significantly exceeds that caused by the assassination of senior IRGC officers in Damascus by the Israelis in April, which led to Iran’s first-ever strikes on Israeli territory. Then Iran fired multiple missiles.
The two countries have been waging a secret war for years, using a variety of "proxies," and Israel has been practicing targeted killings. In recent years, the Israelis have already carried out a number of high-profile "operations" in Iran.
The current situation is aggravated by the Iranians' awareness of their inability to protect the leader of their ally in their own capital.
On Tuesday, shortly before his death, Haniyeh met with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader. Israel's ability to target the Islamic Republic's top leaders and their guests is a serious challenge to Iran, where no one can feel safe anymore.
It cannot be ruled out that the murder of Haniyeh will give rise to a new wave of rumors and gossip in the country regarding the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, and many will again talk about an Israeli connection.
Of course, such escalation does not add popularity to the Iranian authorities. On the other hand, it forces Tehran to look for such response measures that would demonstrate its ability to carry out retaliatory actions in order to prevent a repetition of such attacks.
The anxiety currently reigning in Iranian society has prompted the country's authorities to review security measures, which have now failed once again.
The Islamic Republic's leadership had already held an emergency meeting of the Supreme National Security Council at the Supreme Leader's Residence on Wednesday morning. Iranian state television said the Israeli attack would lead to retaliation from Iran-backed "Axis of Resistance" groups in the region.
Israel will face a "harsh and painful response" from Iran and its allies, Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) said in a statement following the meeting.
Haniyeh's assassination may also bring the denouement closer in Lebanon, as it coincides with the Israeli attack on Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut and the death of Fouad Shukr. Hezbollah and Iran will now coordinate their efforts to carry out possible retaliatory actions against Israel. This further increases the risk of Israelis clashing in Lebanon with the Iranians and other forces of the "Axis of Resistance."
This was probably Netanyahu's plan, too. The Israeli prime minister did not receive US approval to begin the campaign in Lebanon and is now trying to provoke Iran and Hezbollah into retaliatory actions that would serve as a pretext for an Israeli invasion. Then Washington will have nothing to say. The US will have no choice but to continue providing military aid to Tel Aviv.
Moreover, the United States cannot formally condemn Israel for the murder of Haniyeh, since it itself suggested that Israel, instead of carpet bombing and street fighting in Gaza, focus on eliminating the Hamas figures responsible for the October 7 attacks.
However, such a scenario also puts American forces in the region at risk, since responsibility for the death of the Hamas leader could also be placed on the United States.
The Axis of Resistance groups in Syria and Iraq are quite capable of resuming attacks on American military installations in those countries, taking the escalation to a new dangerous level.
#1
Russians are sentimental about "Palestinians" & Iran.
"Palestinians" because Soviet Union invented them in 1960es (and sold the idea to the Arabs - which wasn't easy).
Iran because it reminds them of Soviet Union - only with Islam instead of Marxism.
How very supportive.
[GEO.TV] US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm... said on Wednesday the United States was not involved in or made aware of the liquidation of Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... leader Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... "This is something we were not aware of or involved in. It's very hard to speculate," Blinken said in an interview with Channel News Asia during a visit to Singapore, when asked what impact it could have, according to a transcript.
Blinken sez, Blinken sez. How about just saying NOTHING !
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2024 00:00 ||
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#1
If the administration had been informed they would have tipped off the Iranians.
Haniyeh's death proves that Blinken is telling the truth.
[Reuters] Lebanon's Hezbollah did not clear its sensitive sites or evacuate top officials in Beirut's suburbs before this week's attack that killed a top commander because it thought U.S.-led diplomacy would keep Israel from striking the area, security sources close to the group and diplomats said. Fools trusted Biden/Harris/Blinken when their lips were moving.
Hezbollah's impression was that Israel would not hit the southern suburbs, or Dahiyeh, a heartland of support for the Shi'ite Muslim group, as it believed Israeli forces would adhere to unofficial red lines both sides have generally observed in the conflict that has escalated during the Gaza War, they said.
This assessment was relayed to Reuters by eight diplomats with knowledge of recent mediation efforts led by Washington and including France and the United Nations, as well as three security sources close to Hezbollah. They all spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the topic.
That understanding was shattered on Tuesday when an Israeli strike on Beirut's Dahiyeh killed Hezbollah's top military commander, an Iranian military adviser and five civilians. Lebanese officials and Hezbollah now question whether diplomatic assurances had been relayed to the group accurately.
"We were not expecting them to hit Beirut and they hit Beirut," Lebanon's foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib told Reuters. "We counted on our human shields!"
Coupled with the killing in Tehran hours later of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Palestinian armed group Hamas, it has risked sending the entire region into a violent tailspin.
Tensions began spiralling after a deadly strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on July 27 which Israel blamed on Hezbollah, vowing retaliation. The group denied any involvement.
Diplomats rushed to contain the fallout by urging Israel not to strike Dahiyeh as part of its response, with U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein specifically passing on those messages, several diplomats and a Lebanese official with direct knowledge of mediation efforts told Reuters.
A Hezbollah official said mediators had informed them of such efforts. The Lebanese official and three diplomats involved in the messaging said Israel had not made any commitments.
'DIPLOMACY HAS FAILED'
Indeed it has.
Still, Hezbollah's posture signalled its comfort: in the days leading up to the strike, top officials from the group were seen moving around Dahiyeh.
Hezbollah had cleared out some of its key sites in south and east Lebanon in anticipation of possible strikes, but did not take similar measures in Beirut, two security sources told Reuters. Hezbollah figures living near the targeted building were rushed out in a panic after it was hit, the sources said.
A regional diplomat said that meant Israel had no major Hezbollah targets to hit in south or east Lebanon. Two European diplomats said Hezbollah had not taken protective measures in Beirut and "were not cautious".
Several of the diplomats, as well as a Western envoy, said they had understood Dahiyeh would be spared. "There was a clear message sent" that Israel would spare big cities including Beirut, a diplomat said.
Instead, they said, Israel shunned efforts to constrain its response. "Israelis do not listen to a word that we tell them. They are following their plan and don't listen to us," one of the European diplomats said.
The Western envoy and an Iranian official said Israel had "crossed red lines" by striking Dahiyeh. "Diplomacy has failed," the envoy told Reuters, saying the ability of countries, even the United States, to influence Israel was limited.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a speech on Thursday marking the funeral of the slain commander Fuad Shukr, said Israel "does not know to what extent it has crossed the red lines" and that unnamed countries had asked the group not to respond to the strike - a request he rejected.
MISCALCULATION
Already, international efforts to rein in Israel's military blitz against the Gaza Strip - a response to Hamas' cross-border attack into Israel on Oct. 7 - have had limited success.
The United States has urged Israel to unblock aid deliveries into Gaza, avoid civilian casualties and refrain from launching a large-scale military offensive in Rafah, but its diplomatic efforts have yielded few results.
"The Israelis feel they are beset from all angles, politically, militarily, and it is a bit of a risky situation," a Western diplomat told Reuters.
As a result, Israel had shifted the war's rules of engagement, carrying out more audacious strikes against its Iranian, Lebanese and Palestinian foes, diplomats and analysts in the region said.
Hezbollah had "misread" Israel's mindset and thought it had done enough to deter Israel from bold strikes in Lebanon, several diplomats working on the issue and the Lebanese official said.
"Hamas, Israel, Hezbollah and Iran have all miscalculated since Oct. 7 and mis-assessed each other," the Western envoy said.
The Acting Foreign Minister of Iran, Ali Bagheri has reportedly delivered a Message to Qatar stating that "Any Arab Nation that provides its Airspace to the Zionist Entity (Israel) to launch Strikes against Iran, will become a Legitimate Target for Attack." pic.twitter.com/XhQZFJM1vx
#5
Tell them 'Obamas gift drone' was actually a dry run and Pakistan was in on it, providing an assembly and launch area. It is all that 'Infrastructure money' sent to support the LGB Poetry Club in Karachi. Zardari was aware; Sharif turned for much less.
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.
[Regnum] Chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of the Ansar Allah movement, one of the leaders of the Yemeni Houthis, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, called the murder of the head of the Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh "a monstrous terrorist crime.".JPEG)
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm...
Wishes to join Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh upon release from GITMO. I see no problem. 
