[KhaamaPress] The Taliban ...Arabic for students... claims that members of ISIS and other "destabilizing" groups, with the "indirect support of certain factions," have established themselves in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... and some tribal regions of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistain.
In its annual security report published on Wednesday, January 22, the Central Commission for Security and Purging of the Taliban accused Pakistain of supporting ISIS.
The report states that the "plot of sedition and destabilization-(ISIS)" has been completely suppressed in Afghanistan; however, some leaders of these groups, with indirect support from Pakistain, have begun reorganizing themselves.
According to the report, "many commanders, heads of important branches, planners, and executors of major attacks, as well as hundreds of their members (mostly ISIS), have either been killed or arrested." Meanwhile,
...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... "some of the leaders and members of this group, who fled to neighboring countries after being suppressed, have once again begun reorganizing with the tolerance, leniency, and indirect support of certain factions."
Although ISIS is not directly named in this report, the Taliban officials usually refer to ISIS and other opposing groups as "destabilizing projects" or "plots."
In its report, the Commission accuses neighboring countries of providing indirect support for terrorism, further stating that fleeing ISIS leaders have "established themselves in Balochistan and some tribal regions of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistain, where training camps were set up, financial assistance was provided, and conditions were made favorable for recruitment and propaganda from various countries around the world."
The Taliban claims to have credible information showing that these groups "are transferring newly recruited forces from several Asian and European countries to their centers in Balochistan and the tribal areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa through Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and Islamabad airports."
The report has raised concerns about the growing threat, warning that "there is a high likelihood that in the coming months, these individuals may be used to carry out attacks in various countries in the region and globally."
Pakistain has not yet responded to the Taliban’s report, though earlier, the federal government of Pakistain had leveled similar accusations against the Taliban, leading to border tensions and warlike rhetoric.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/25/2025 2025-01-25 03:11 ||
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[ToloNews] The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, which has been operating in Afghanistan for over 40 years, announced the complete cessation of its activities in the country.
The organization said that it has closed all its offices in Afghanistan and will henceforth operate from outside the country as "Solidarity Committee for Afghanistan."
In a statement, the committee said: "SCA no longer implements activities in Afghanistan and our offices have closed. Outside Afghanistan we now operate under the name of Solidarity Committee for Afghanistan."
This comes after the Islamic Emirate suspended the operations of Swedish organizations in Afghanistan in July last year in response to the burning of a copy of the Holy Koran by a Swedish citizen.
The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan mainly focused on providing aid to women, children, and people with disabilities.
Although officials of the Islamic Emirate have not yet commented on the suspension of the Swedish Committee’s activities in Afghanistan, some experts say that humanitarian assistance from organizations like the Swedish Committee benefits Afghanistan. They suggest that the Islamic Emirate should adopt a suitable mechanism to allow such organizations to continue their operations.
Economic analyst Shakir Yaqubi said: "If the Islamic Emirate reviews its strict policies or restrictions imposed on international organizations in Afghanistan, this could naturally enhance Afghanistan's international credibility and attract other international organizations to the country."
Another economic expert, Lal Zazai, said: "It is necessary to establish a mechanism through mutual agreement to align the goals of the Afghan government with those of the Swedish government."
According to information provided by the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, the organization operated in 16 provinces of the country in 2023 with approximately 7,000 Afghan employees.
The Islamic Emirate suspended the activities of the Swedish Committee in Afghanistan earlier this year in response to the burning of the Koran in Sweden.
[IsraelTimes] United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls for the “immediate and unconditional” release of all aid staff held in Yemen, after the Iran-backed Houthi rebels detained another seven UN employees.
“Their continued arbitrary detention is unacceptable,” Guterres says in a statement, adding that the UN is working to secure the release of those being held.
The Houthis have detained dozens of staff from the UN and other humanitarian organizations, most since the middle of last year.
Guterres says the “continued targeting of UN personnel and its partners negatively impacts our ability to assist millions of people in need in Yemen.”
The detentions come after US President Donald Trump ordered the Houthis to be placed back on the US list of foreign terrorist organizations, which will trigger a review of UN agencies and other NGOs working in Yemen that receive US funding.
[YouTube] White Englishman from UK Independence Party (Tim Coney ?) disrupting Socialist Worker Party events with a bullhorn, Great Britain News reporter challenges Green Peace office about one of their direct actions at a private home.
[FoxNews] 80 people have been killed and around 36,000 more displaced in the past week
Colombia’s president issued a decree Friday giving him emergency powers to restore order in a coca-growing region bordering Venezuela that has been wracked in recent days by a deadly turf war among dissident rebel groups.
President Gustavo Petro's decree, which can be extended, gives him 90 days to impose curfews, restrict traffic and take other steps that would normally violate Colombians' civil rights or require congressional approval.
It is the first time in more than a decade that a Colombian president has used such an extreme measure and underscores the seriousness of the current conflict in a country that for decades was paralyzed by political violence.
However, it applies only to the rural Catatumbo region near the border with Venezuela, where the Colombian state has struggled for decades to gain a foothold. In the past week, at least 80 people have been killed and an estimated 36,000 more displaced as fighting intensifies between the National Liberation Army, or ELN,
… Marxist-Leninist liberation theology guerrilla group established in Columbia in the 1960s that expanded into Venezuela. In Columbia they’re a revolutionary narco gang with political aspirations (I know, right?) fighting for territory against other narco gangs, while in neighbouring Venezuela they’re a paramilitary supporting the Maduro government. It is currently estimated to be about 6,000 members …
and holdouts from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
Petro's conservative opponents have criticized the move, accusing the former guerrilla of riding roughshod over the constitution. But some activists have celebrated it, saying they are hopeful the move translates into better infrastructure, health care and schools in the traditionally lawless region.
"Why are the armed groups here? Because the last government hasn't made investments. They've abandoned us," Jaime Botero, an activist in the town of Tibu, told The Associated Press.
Earlier this week Petro reactivated arrest orders against 31 top ELN commanders that had been suspended as part of an effort to woo the the Cuban revolution-inspired insurgency into a peace deal to end its 60 year war against the state. Petro also suspended all peace talks, which have advanced slowly since he took office in 2022.
The ELN has traditionally dominated in Catatumbo but has been losing ground to holdouts from the FARC, a guerrilla group that largely disbanded after signing a peace deal in 2016 with the government.
The current conflict is spilling across the border into Venezuela, where some of those fleeing the violence have sought refuge.
The current whereabouts of the ELN peace negotiators is unknown. But Cuba's government this week said they are not there, leading some to speculate they may be hiding in Venezuela, which is one of the sponsors of Petro's peace initiative with the ELN.
Text taken from the Telegram Channel of darpaandcia
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] US Pushes for AI-Based Global Financial Control
On December 18, 2024, DARPA published a notice of the launch of the A3ML (Anticipatory and Adaptive Anti-Money Laundering) program, and on February 20, 2025, they plan to hold a presentation day for potential project participants.
According to them, the goal of the program is "to completely eliminate the ability to launder money on a global scale."
DARPA plans to achieve this by replacing existing manual analysis methods with next-generation algorithmic solutions. The agency openly admits the ineffectiveness of current anti-money laundering methods, despite all the efforts being made.
The documents say that half of the North Korean nuclear program is funded through money laundering schemes, and Chinese underground banking structures are closely linked to the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel.
Technically, the program involves creating complex algorithms that will:
1. Track all money transfers worldwide
2. Automatically find strange money transfer patterns, such as when they "go in circles" or unexpectedly split into small parts
3. Predict new ways of laundering money
4. Create "digital dossiers" on suspicious transactions in a format that other computer systems can quickly understand and use
The program must learn to work without direct exchange of confidential data between participants, which indicates plans to create a distributed system of global financial monitoring.
The program will have both open and closed parts. Only US citizens with the highest level of clearance to classified information (TS/SCI) are allowed to the closed session, which indicates the use of particularly sensitive intelligence.
Of course, this is not about "fighting money laundering", but about establishing a new global system for monitoring and controlling financial flows, with the option of influencing them.
Trump has signed an executive order that allows the deportation of foreign students who express support for terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis.
Should foreigners who burn the American flag and express hatred for America also be deported? pic.twitter.com/HjVAGEXvJ6
Zionist organization Betar is compiling lists of foreign students in the U.S. who have supported Hamas or joined anti-Israel protests, aiming for their deportation under Trump’s proposed policies.
[IsraelTimes] Legislation would create crime of ‘masked intimidation,’ partially in response to anti-Israel protests and antisemitic hate crimes
Legislation that would crack down on masking, a priority for some Jewish groups, was introduced to the New York State legislature on Thursday, after the start of the state legislative session at the beginning of the year.
The legislation, if passed, would establish the crime of "masked harassment" when a person conceals their face "for the primary purpose of menacing or harassing."
Anti-masking legislation was introduced to the state legislature last summer, near the end of the state government’s legislative session, but failed to make it through the legislative process before the session ended. The bill introduced on Thursday differs from the legislation from last year.
State Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, one of the bill’s sponsors, told The Times of Israel he aims to pass the legislation by the end of the next session in June, while acknowledging that there will likely be opposition.
"People generally don’t wear masks for good reasons. We want this to happen this year. There’s going to be opposition, there’s no question," said Dinowitz, a Jewish politician from Assembly District 81 in the Bronx.
"People who wear masks do it for two reasons. One is for intimidation purposes, and two is they want to hide their identity," he said.
"New York state currently faces a new era of masked harassment and intimidation. Individuals who are targeting others with violence and intimidation are using masks and other face coverings as a tool to place their targets in fear of physical harm," the bill says.
The legislation includes exemptions for holidays, celebrations or costumes; physical safety, such as a welder wearing a protective mask; masks for weather, such as for winter sports; artistic or theatrical events; gas masks or protective gear for emergencies or drills; face coverings for religious purposes; and medical masks.
The bill is significantly different from the legislation introduced last year. That bill banned "concealment of identity in a lawful assembly, unlawful assembly, or riot," and had a more narrow set of exemptions. The new legislation does not mention public gatherings.
The new law would make masked harassment a violation, a non-criminal offense, and if the harassment takes place in conjunction with discrimination, it would become a misdemeanor, Dinowitz said.
The legislation would not "affect one particular ethnic group," Dinowitz said, while highlighting harassment against Jews since the start of the war.
"In the past year and three months, but even before then, Jewish people have been probably the largest target of hateful demonstrations and this is meant to combat that, but as I said, it applies to everybody," he said.
Masking has become a divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... focal point in the debate over anti-Israel activism and protests in New York. Some Jewish groups have said agitators conceal their identities to intimidate and harass others, and that masking hinders prosecution for crimes including hate offenses and vandalism. Supporters of masking, including some leftist Jewish organizations, said the ban introduced last year would infringe on civil liberties and pose a health risk.
Jewish and Black community groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and NAACP, formed a coalition called UnMaskHateNY last year to support anti-masking legislation. The group announced the effort at a presser in June outside Columbia University, which has been rocked by anti-Israel protests since the start of the Israel-Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... war.
On Tuesday, the first day of class for the spring semester, several masked protesters disrupted a class on Israel’s modern history led by an Israeli professor.
At other anti-Israel protests in New York, demonstrators often conceal their faces, including while committing antisemitic crimes.
"New legislation introduced today will bring back and strengthen a law prohibiting masked intimidation," UnMaskHateNY said in a Thursday statement. "The law pledges to finally protect New Yorkers from unchecked harassment and violence as masks and face coverings have been exploited to subject innocent New Yorkers to threats, violence and intimidation."
The ADL, The UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg ...Soros-owned and operated Manhattan DA. Putting vicious and blood-thirsty criminals in jail only makes them unhappy, and they've led such hard lives after all... also backed the legislation.
"This proposed legislation will bring back and strengthen a law prohibiting masked intimidation, not masks, which remain a critical public health tool. Under this law, you can wear a mask for lawful reasons, but not to hide your identity while committing another crime," Bragg said.
A group called Jews for Mask Rights came out against the measure, calling it ineffective and dangerous.
"This vague, subjective ’intent/intimidation’ language makes anyone a potential target. It’s a recipe for unnecessary harm and escalation," the group told The Times of Israel. "Amid the chaos of the current administration and escalating public health threats, this bill strips away fundamental rights, making everyone less safe."
The leftist Jews for Economic and Racial Justice is also opposed the new version of the bill, saying it was "not a serious approach" and focused on legal penalties, instead of more systemic change to combat hatred.
"New Yorkers — especially Jews and all minority groups vulnerable to acts of hate violence — deserve real solutions to the very real and serious issues of harassment and bias incidents," JFREJ told The Times of Israel. "That takes funding and investment in the kinds of programs we know address (a) violence, and (b) hate — but those are not as flashy as hate crimes legislation, and they take time to implement and yield results."
Dinowitz dismissed opposition to the bill as "nonsense," saying there were appropriate exemptions for health, safety and religious concerns, and that it would not infringe on protesters’ rights.
"If anybody has lost a job during the past year or more because of their activities, it might have been because they’ve done something that was particularly egregious, not because they were exercising their First Amendment rights," he said, citing anti-Israel activists who were punished for tearing down posters of Israeli hostages.
"We’ve got to have appropriate laws in effect to both, on the one hand, protect people’s right to participate in protests, but on the other hand, make sure that nobody is infringing on anybody else’s rights or engaging in any hate or discrimination," he said.
New York State had an anti-masking law dating back to the 1800s that was scrapped in 2020, during the COVID pandemic, to help stem the spread of the virus.
That's why. Good to know.
Long Island’s conservative-leaning Nassau County passed a masking ban in response to anti-Israel protests in August. That measure was led by Mazi Pilip, an American-Israeli Republican politician.
[IsraelTimes] State Department to conduct review to ensure funding aligns with Trump’s ‘foreign policy agenda’; humanitarian food programs and military assistance to Egypt also won’t be impacted
The State Department on Friday froze new funding for almost all US foreign assistance, making exceptions to allow humanitarian food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt to continue.
The sweeping order threatened a quick halt to countless projects globally aiding health, education, development, job training and other efforts by the United States, the largest provider of foreign aid. It appears to begin enforcement of a pledge to eliminate aid programs that President Donald Trump ...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party... judges not to be in US interests.
The order — sent in a cable to US embassies worldwide and obtained by The News Agency that Dare Not be Named — prohibits new government spending, which appears to limit programs to running only as long as they have cash on hand.
Some leading aid organizations on Friday were interpreting the directive as an immediate stop-work order for US-funded aid work globally, a senior aid organization official said. Many would likely cease operations immediately so as not to incur more costs, the official said.
The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The State Department during the freeze will conduct a review of which of the thousands of US aid and development programs can continue. Its order spells out the execution of the aid-freezing executive order Trump signed on Monday.
Friday’s order especially disappointed humanitarian officials by not including any exemptions sparing health clinics and other health programs worldwide from the new funding freeze.
The freeze was necessary to ensure that "appropriations are not duplicated, are effective, and are consistent with President Trump’s foreign policy," the global cable stated.
Within the next month, standards for a review of all foreign assistance are expected to be set to ensure that it is "aligned with President Trump’s foreign policy agenda."
Within three months, the government-wide review is expected to be completed with a subsequent report to be produced for Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... to make recommendations to the president.
#2
Foreign aid to Israel and Egypt, annually in the billions of $ were set by treaty during the Kissinger years. They have served the purpose of maintaining peace between two former belligerants.
#4
Jimmy *SPIT* Carter's brilliant solution to the middle east problem that was never ours in the first place. Bribe Egypt with billions.
And then, for reasons that are still unclear to everyone, Israel had to get a similar bribe.
If these programs are so critical, let Europe and other nations who think they're important step in and cough up the cash. We have a border and North Carolina to attend to. We're broke from printing money to hand to Ukraine.
#6
And then, for reasons that are still unclear to everyone, Israel had to get a similar bribe.
This followed the Yom Kippur War, which Israel won overwhelmingly, and in fact General Ariel Sharon was well on his way to overrunning Cairo when he was stopped. If Egypt were the only one to get an American payoff in addition to getting the Sinai back from Israel in the usual land-for-peace trade Israel used to offer, the world would agree with Egypt that Israel had lost after all, and the rest of the surrounding nations would recalculate in favour of having America hand them similar wins against the hated Zionist entity in their midst.
As it is, Egypt gets money and arms, but Israel gets enough more that she maintains military superiority. Or at least that’s how I’ve always understood it.
[FoxBusinessNews] If passed, the legislation would create the Illegal Alien Certified Bounty Hunter Program
Matthew Barton, a Mississippi district attorney, is proposing a bill that would pay bounty hunters for assistance in deporting illegal immigrants.
Under the terms of House Bill 1484, the state would create the Mississippi Illegal Alien Certified Bounty Hunter Program, which would pay a $1,000 reward to registered bounty hunters for each successful deportation they facilitate.
"This legislation is about keeping Mississippi communities safe," said Republican state Rep. Justin Keen, who authored the bill.
"We’ve seen firsthand the danger posed by bad actors and violent criminals who enter this country illegally, like the innocent life of Laken Riley," he added. "President Trump’s administration has made it clear that deporting illegal immigrants is a priority, and we are proud to do our part here in Mississippi to help support his agenda and protect our citizens."
Funding for the proposed program would come from the general assembly and be administered by the state treasurer.
The intention, Keen said, is to encourage collaboration between law enforcement and private citizens in identifying illegal immigrants in the state. It would also alleviate financial burdens on Mississippi taxpayers, who bear the costs of illegal immigration, a press release states.
The bill comes as the Trump administration continues to tout tougher policies to combat illegal migration into the United States, as well as crime. Federal immigration authorities have made hundreds of arrests this week of illegal immigrants with criminal histories.
"When President Trump took office this week, he immediately recognized the emergency at our borders, rolling out executive orders to combat illegal immigration and cartels," DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton said in a statement. "This legislation builds upon that foundation, empowering local leaders and communities to support federal efforts in protecting our citizens."
"Legal immigration is a cornerstone of America, and we must ensure that our borders are secure and that the safety of Mississippians comes first," Barton continued
#2
I can already see the STAGED scenario.
Where the Open Borders type film a video acting like Bounty Hunters. They post a staged video of a detention of a Hispanic looking female and baby. Then release her and her baby per the video written script, after she proves they are US Citizens.
[NYPOST] Border czar Tom Homan had a simple message for the Haitian gangster who defiantly yelled ''F—k Trump, Biden forever!'' and how he was ''not going back to Haiti'' when he was picked up during immigration raids. He's got a face and attitude meant for a pickaxe handle
''Well, he's wrong. He's going back to Haiti, I can tell you that,'' Homan told Fox News' ''The Will Cain Show'' with a smile as he was played the now-viral clip.
The Haitian migrant, who reportedly has at least 17 recent convictions, was one of eight notable arrests federal immigration officers made in Boston, including multiple MS-13 gang members as well as murder and rape suspects, Fox News first reported.
The point has been made by others but just consider for a second that ICE is snatching up all these animals within 72 hours of Trump taking office.
Meaning Biden knew exactly where all these people were and they let these barbarians stay here to prey on you.
[IsraelTimes] After House approves sanctions bill, source says the court is backing up digital files over fears that Microsoft could stop working with it, and paying salaries 3 months in advance
The International Criminal Court has taken measures to shield staff from possible US sanctions, paying salaries three months in advance, as it braces for financial restrictions that could cripple the war crimes tribunal, two sources said on Friday.
The US House of Representatives voted this month to punish the court for issuing arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister over the military campaign against Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... , which started the war 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... with its devastating invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The court also issued arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, 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 continued as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintained a separate PM in the West Bank. Zapped during the 2023-24 war, to eveyone's satisfaction... and Mohammad Deif, all of whom have since been killed, though the warrant for the latter remains standing as the terror group has yet to confirm his death.
The bill would impose sanctions on any foreigner who investigates, arrests, detains or prosecutes US citizens, or those of allied countries that are not members of the court. That includes Israel, which is not a formal ally of the United States.
While the exact scope of the sanctions and the targets are still unclear, the court is preparing for major financial fallout, the sources, who spoke to Rooters on condition of anonymity, said.
One of the sources said evidence was being backed up due to fears US tech giant Microsoft would have to stop working with the court.
The ICC told Rooters in an email it would not comment on any internal measures that may have been taken to protect the organization and its staff.
The bill’s sponsors said they wanted a vote as soon as possible, which could be next week, but politicians have been busy confirming officials for new US President Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... ’s administration.
It will be the second time the court has faced US retaliation as a result of its work. During the first Trump administration in 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes by American troops in Afghanistan.
Any banks with ties to the United States, or who conduct transactions in dollars, are expected to have to comply with the sanctions, severely limiting the ICC’s ability to carry out financial transactions.
The 125-member ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals. The United States, China, Russia and Israel are not members.
In December, the court’s president, Judge Tomoko Akane, warned that sanctions would "rapidly undermine the court’s operations in all situations and cases, and jeopardize its very existence."
#2
Why is our US government acting in the interests of a foreign country?
Hurting ourselves with stupid, one-sided trade deals is one thing but defending war criminals is another level.
[WashingtonExaminer] Hostages Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher, who were released from Hamas custody on Sunday, reported that they had been held in a U.N. refugee camp at some point during their captivity, according to Israel’s Channel 13. Details were not given as to what camps they were held in, when, or for how long.
The revelation is the latest blow to the position of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which has faced attacks against its credibility throughout the war in Gaza.
Oh? How do American intelligence numbers compare to what Israel’s intelligence services hve discovered?
[IsraelTimes] Sources acknowledge Palestinian terror group’s success in enlisting new members but say many of the recruits are young and untrained; Israel estimates some 20,000 terrorists killed "We need more flaming hoops!"
The Paleostinian terror group Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... has recruited between 10,000 and 15,000 members since the start of its war with Israel, according to two congressional sources briefed on US intelligence, suggesting the Iran-backed fighters could remain a persistent threat to Israel.
The intelligence indicates a similar number of Hamas fighters have been killed during that period, the sources said. The latest official US estimates have not been previously reported.
Hamas and Israel began a ceasefire on Sunday after 15 months of a conflict that began with the terror group’s devastating attack on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in the 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... Strip and inflamed the Middle East.
The sources briefed on the intelligence, which was included in a series of updates from US intelligence agencies in the final weeks of the Biden administration, said that while Hamas has successfully recruited new members, many are young and untrained and are being used for simple security purposes.
The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.
On January 14, then-president Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created ... by the — you know — you know, the thing... ’s 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 the United States believed Hamas had recruited almost as many fighters as it had lost in the Paleostinian enclave, cautioning that this was a "recipe for an enduring insurgency and perpetual war."
He did not provide further details about the assessment, but Israeli figures have put the total terrorist corpse count in Gaza at around 20,000.
"Each time Israel completes its military operations and pulls back, Hamas snuffies regroup and reemerge because there’s nothing else to fill the void," Blinken said.
Asked for comment, a Hamas official said he was checking with the relevant parties in the group. Hamas armed wing front man Abu Obeida said in July that the terrorist organization had been able to recruit thousands of new fighters.
In the days since the ceasefire, Hamas has shown itself to be deeply entrenched in Gaza despite Israel’s vow to destroy the terror group. The territory’s Hamas-run administration has moved quickly to reimpose security measures and to begin restoring basic services to parts of the enclave, much of which has been reduced to wasteland in the fighting.
Since the start of the war, American officials have not said publicly how many fighters Washington believes Hamas has lost, only noting that the group has been significantly degraded and has likely lost thousands.
WARNINGS OF A CONTINUED THREAT
US officials have issued similar warnings since the Hamas-led terror onslaught against Israel in October 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and more than 251 taken hostage. More than 46,000 people have been killed in the Israeli assault that followed, according to Hamas health authorities, whose unverified figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
At a congressional hearing in March 2024, then-director of national intelligence Avril Haines said that the war in Gaza would have a "generational impact on terrorism" and that the crisis had already "galvanized violence by a range of actors around the world."
Gathering exact data on Hamas is notoriously difficult because of a lack of verifiable intelligence from inside Gaza and because the terror group’s recruitment and training efforts are fluid. But official US figures show that prior to October 7, 2023, Hamas had anywhere between 20,000 and 25,000 fighters.
Asked on Wednesday about Blinken’s comments, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon acknowledged Hamas’s recruitment efforts but played down the threat.
"We know that Hamas recruits youngsters," Danon said. "But even if they recruit youngsters, they don’t have the weapons or the training facilities. So basically, yes, you can incite those youngsters against Israel, but they cannot become a terrorist, because you cannot equip them with weapons or rockets."
Following the ceasefire, Israeli troops have begun to move back from some of their positions inside Gaza. The second phase of the ceasefire deal could bring about a permanent end to the fighting.
The terms of that phase still need to be negotiated.
In his resignation speech on Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Israel’s military chief, said Hamas had been severely damaged and that most of the group’s military commanders had been killed. But he said Hamas had not been eliminated and the Israel Defense Forces would continue to fight to further dismantle the terror organization.
One of the most difficult issues involved in negotiating the next phases is postwar Gaza’s governance. Some Israeli officials say they won’t accept Hamas staying in power. Hamas so far has not given ground.
Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... ’s national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday that Hamas will never govern Gaza and if it reneges on the deal, Washington will support Israel "in doing what it has to do."
[IsraelTimes] Hamas says it will release Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa and Naama Levy; all four were abducted when terrorists stormed IDF’s Nahal Oz surveillance base on Oct. 7, 2023
Israel on Friday evening confirmed the names of four female Israeli hostages who are set to be released by Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... on Saturday, after 477 days in captivity, in the second exchange under a ceasefire deal with the terror group that came into effect on Sunday.
The four hostages, whose names were submitted by Hamas late on Friday afternoon, are Liri Albag, 19, Daniella Gilboa, 20, Karina Ariev, 20, and Naama Levy, 20.
The four are among seven female soldiers kidnapped from the IDF surveillance unit at the Nahal Oz army base during the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023.
One of the kidnapped surveillance soldiers was later rescued alive, and the body of a second one was recovered after she was murdered in captivity.
Of the five remaining surveillance soldiers that were taken hostage, Agam Berger, 21, is the only one not included on the list that Hamas released Friday.
The list of the four soldiers is in partial violation of the ceasefire agreement, which states that female civilians are to be released first, then female soldiers, followed by the elderly and then those who are deemed extremely ill. Israel, however, agreed to receive the four hostages, deciding the breach was not grave enough to collapse the deal.
Outside of the five surveillance soldiers, there are two female civilian hostages from the original list of 33 who are slated to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire deal: Arbel Yehud, 29, and Shiri Silberman Bibas, 33. Bibas’s two sons Ariel and baby Kfir, and her husband Yarden, are also on the list of 33 to be freed.
Israel had conveyed to Hamas that it expected Yehud — who is thought to be held by fellow terror group Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... — to be released this weekend. However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... she was not named by Hamas on Friday. Yehud had been on the list to be released in the only previous hostage-truce deal, in November 2023, but the deal collapsed before the final scheduled group of releases.
Details about the four girls can be read at the link.
[IsraelTimes] One shot shows Sinwar on battlefield, another shows him in an apartment, looking at a map; terror group confirms deaths of top officials months after Israel said they were killed
The Al Jazeera network on Friday aired unseen footage purporting to show slain Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... leader Yahya Sinwar during different points of the war in the 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... Strip, some four months after he was killed in a firefight with Israeli troops in the southern city of Rafah.
In one shot published in the report, Sinwar can be seen walking through a battleground with a walking stick, wearing a military vest, and with a blanket covering his body so he cannot be identified from afar.
The footage shows the Hebrew word "north" graffitied on the wall where Sinwar briefly resided, indicating that Israel Defense Forces soldiers had operated in that home before the terror leader arrived there.
Another shot shows Sinwar wearing a polo shirt, walking through a residential apartment and at one point kneeling on the floor with another man, pointing at a map spread out in front of them.
In the report, the Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i channel also showed what it said was the order Sinwar signed to begin the terror group’s October 7, 2023 onslaught at 6:30 a.m. that day.
They had the footage and said nothing so that they could get footage of the invasion. Such lovely people, all.
The massacre, which sparked over 15 months of war in Gaza, saw some 3,000 Hamas-led bandidosmurderous Moslems burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Israel has long accused Al Jazeera of cooperating closely with Hamas and says that its news hounds in Gaza are operatives of Paleostinian terror groups.
If proof were needed, this proves it even more.
In October, the IDF published documents captured in Gaza that it said proved direct communication and cooperation between the Qatari network and Hamas, as well as documents showing that six active Al Jazeera news hounds were members of terror groups.
The outlet has fiercely denied No, no! Certainly not! Israel’s allegations and accused it of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees in the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera is banned from broadcasting from Israel and was recently also suspended by the Paleostinian Authority against the backdrop of the Qatari-based network’s critical coverage of Ramallah’s recent crackdown on terror groups in the West Bank.
Meanwhile,
...back at the dirigible, Cynthia backed into the galley, the barbecue fork held in front of her. Jack! she called. Where the hell are you?... the owner of the house where IDF forces purportedly killed Sinwar said on Friday that his ruined apartment in Rafah has become a macabre tourist attraction for admirers of the terror chief since a fragile hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas came into effect on Sunday.
Ashraf Abu Taha said he returned to the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah late on the night of October 17, shortly after Sinwar’s death, to find the ruins of his house mobbed by journalists and residents hoping to get a glimpse of the chair where Israeli drone footage showed Sinwar had been sitting in his final moments.
"I came at 11 o’clock. I was late, and I found people gathered with the journalists, almost thousands. I wondered what was happening. I found that they had come to take photos in the house," Abu Taha said.
In the video, shot right before IDF troops killed him and flattened part of the building, Sinwar — badly maimed, covered in dust and wrapped in a Paleostinian keffiyeh — hurled an object toward the drone. Israelis called it a sign of his weakness but Paleostinians have hailed it a final show of defiance against the more powerful Israeli army.
The chair on which he died has become somewhat of a Paleostinian nationalist symbol, Abu Taha suggested. He and his son have placed the seat and a vest they say was Sinwar’s on top of the ruins of their home.
"People are now saying the neighborhood is not Tal al-Sultan anymore, but it’s Tal al-Sinwar," he said, referring to the name of his neighborhood.
Also Friday, meanwhile, Hamas acknowledged that an Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... last summer eliminated Rawhi Mushtaha, Gaza’s de facto prime minister, along with another top official.
The Israel Defense Forces announced in October 2024 that Mushtaha had been killed in an airstrike on a tunnel in northern Gaza three months earlier, along with Hamas officials Sameh al-Siraj, who held the security portfolio in Hamas’s political bureau, and Sami Odeh, the head of Hamas’s "general security mechanism."
The Hamas statement on Friday confirmed the deaths of Mushtaha and Odeh only.
Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas and return the hostages taken on October 7, 2023, saw the military target many of Hamas’s leaders including the shadowy head of its military wing Muhammad Deif in a Gaza airstrike, political chief 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 continued as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintained a separate PM in the West Bank. Zapped during the 2023-24 war, to eveyone's satisfaction... in a kaboom in Tehran, both in July last year.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 46,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,000 bandidosmurderous Moslems inside Israel on October 7.
[IsraelTimes] UN envoy Danny Danon officially updates Guterres after Knesset passed legislation last year; UNRWA chief Lazzarini has said agency will ‘stay and deliver’ services where possible
UNRWA, the UN agency for Paleostinian refugees, must end operations and leave all its "premises" in Jerusalem by January 30, Israel’s UN ambassador said Friday, affirming timelines set out in controversial legislation passed last year.
Despite widespread international opposition, Israeli politicians in October passed two bills that essentially bar the UN agency from operating in Israel, and severely curtail its activities 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... and the West Bank.
Without coordination with Israel, it will be almost impossible for UNRWA to work in Gaza or the West Bank, since Jerusalem would no longer be issuing entrance permits to those territories or allowing coordination with the IDF. Israel also currently controls access to Gaza from Egypt, with Israeli forces deployed along the border between them.
The agency has faced criticism from Israel that has escalated since the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... ’s October 7, 2023, onslaught on southern Israel, including claims that a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in the deadly assault.
Israel alleges that more than 10 percent of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza have ties to terrorist factions and that educational facilities under the organization’s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror.
Israeli ambassador Danny Danon wrote to United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... chief António Guterres ...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years... on Friday, "UNRWA is required to cease its operations in Jerusalem and evacuate all premises in which it operates in the city no later than 30 January 2025."
UNRWA — short for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Paleostine Refugees in the Near East — provides education, health care and aid to millions of Paleostinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... and Syria. It is considered the backbone of humanitarian operations for Paleostinians.
While East Jerusalem has long been an administrative hub for the agency, it also runs schools and health clinics in the sector.
Israel has also passed a law that prohibits contact between Israeli officials and UNRWA, but its parliament has not banned UNRWA from operating in Gaza or the West Bank.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said earlier this month that the agency planned to "stay and deliver" services in areas where it can operate.
But having "no bureaucratic or operational relation," with Israel "makes your operational environment even more challenging," he said.
In February, the IDF revealed the existence of a subterranean Hamas data center directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza Strip headquarters. The IDF has also repeatedly targeted Hamas command centers and button men hiding out in UNRWA schools.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] The political crisis in Israel, triggered by the deal with the Palestinian movement Hamas, is gaining momentum.
Stung by the "betrayal of the authorities," the leader of the "Yiddish Power" party
…English speakers would translate Otzma Yehudit as Jewish Power….
and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir resigned and left the coalition. Along with him, other ministers from "Yiddish Power" vacated their posts - Amichai Eliyahu (Minister of Heritage) and Yitzhak Wasserlauf (Minister of Negev, Galilee and National Resilience).
The appointment of successors has been delayed, which seems to have come as a surprise even to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He was forced not only to look for a trusted person willing to accept vacant portfolios during the transition period, but also to try to restore the weakening parliamentary advantage under time pressure.
Bibi is a political logroller par excellence. If anyone can find replacements to cobble together another coalition, he’ll pull it off again.
The resignation of Ben-Gvir's supporters has shaken Netanyahu's allied parties.
The coalition members saw a chance to strengthen their positions in the government by regaining control over previously lost departments. Among the first to express such an intention was Shas party leader Aryeh Deri, who had previously ceded the Ministry of Negev, Galilee and National Resilience to Ben-Gvir's supporters as part of the coalition agreements.
Tikva Hadasha and Religious Zionism also expressed a desire to intercept the vacant portfolios.
At the same time, the Prime Minister himself was clearly not in the mood to engage in political charity.
In the first days after the resignation of the Minister of National Security, Netanyahu tried to appoint trusted party members to the post. In particular, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Defense Minister Israel Katz received offers. However, both refused to combine the posts under plausible pretexts.
It was also not possible to reach an agreement with the head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Avi Dichter.
Although he was positioned as the "number one candidate" for the post of Minister of National Security, he did not dare to take on the additional burden. In addition, Dichter's constant calls to convene a commission to investigate the reasons for the successful Hamas invasion are causing concern among Netanyahu's "inner circle". The appointment was withdrawn.
Most Likud members, including the prime minister himself, would prefer to leave the vacant portfolios in the hands of the prime minister himself (Israeli law allows for this possibility).
However, Netanyahu's past turbulent political life played a cruel joke on him: due to the "Deri-Pinhasi precedent" (a ban on holding certain positions due to criminal prosecution), the current prime minister cannot apply for "sensitive posts," which include the Ministry of National Security.
As a result, after almost a week of heated debate, the parties finally reached a consensus.
All vacant portfolios went to Chaim Katz, the Likud Minister of Tourism (not to be confused with Israel Katz, the Minister of Defense. — Ed.).
This is far from the first time in Israel's history that several positions have been combined; however, in most cases, it was an emergency and the number of positions did not exceed two.
In fact, Katz became the unofficial record holder in Israeli politics for the number of positions held simultaneously.
However, in order not to once again emphasize the shift in the center of gravity towards the prime minister’s Likud, Netanyahu made a Solomonic decision.
According to his order, Katz will serve as acting minister for only the next three months. By the end of that period, the coalition must decide on candidates for permanent ministers.
Katz's appointment to three new positions at once, as well as his three-month term of office, quite transparently hints that Netanyahu has not abandoned hope of returning Ben-Gvir and his supporters to the coalition. Especially since the latter is in no hurry to get closer to the opposition forces and, out of habit, torpedoes their legislative initiatives.
In addition, Ben-Gvir leaves a window of opportunity to restore relations with Netanyahu.
The condition for his return, judging by the latest statements, is a more rigorous defense by the cabinet of ministers of the right to expand settlement expansion in the West Bank, as well as to maintain a presence in Gaza (at least symbolic). The former minister and his fellow party members also expect that Netanyahu will “show toughness” during the upcoming tour to the United States and will be able to disrupt the “protracted triumph” of Hamas.
The prime minister has been given three months to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of Israeli “hawks”.
In reality, however, Netanyahu has much less time. The squabbles with "Jewish Power" must be resolved before the first stage of the agreement with Hamas expires, that is, before the beginning of March. Otherwise, new lines of division will be added to the existing ones, provoked by the exodus of other "hawkish" parties.
Thus, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (leader of the Religious Zionism party), who is quite close in his views to Ben-Gvir, remained in the government only after Netanyahu’s “ironclad promises” to limit the truce with Hamas to only the stage of exchanging hostages and not to withdraw the remaining forces from Gaza.
If the prime minister does not keep his word, Smotrich's party will also leave the coalition. The government will lose mandates that are necessary not only to gain an advantage over the parliamentary opposition, but also to ensure its own legitimacy.
And this will make early elections inevitable, which will be the end of the political career of Netanyahu and his closest supporters.
I agree — it would be very nice. Not likely, I suspect, which is that whole reality thingy intruding, but nice if it were to happen that way.
[IsraelTimes] US president reportedly set to tap Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff as Iran point man, signaling turn away from ‘maximum pressure’ policy of 1st term: ‘Certainly somebody I would use’
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... on Thursday said he hopes the Iranian nuclear crisis can be solved without Israel having to carry out a military strike against the Islamic Theocratic RepublicThe remarks came after it was reported that Trump is planning to name his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as his point man on Iran, signaling the new administration’s resolve to address Tehran’s nuclear program diplomatically rather than militarily.
"I’m not going to answer that," Trump first replied when asked by news hounds in the Oval Office whether he would support an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, adding that he would be holding meetings with various bigwigs on the matter shortly.
"Hopefully that can be worked out without having to worry about it. It would really be nice if that could be worked out without having to go that further step," Trump continued.
"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... will hopefully make a deal, and if they don’t make a deal that’s okay too," he said.
Offering two possibilities. The second one is likely to be uncomfortable.
His administration has signaled in recent days that it wants to try and reach a diplomatic agreement with Iran to curb its nuclear program, rather than carrying out a military strike.
There had been some in Israel who assumed that Trump’s return to the White House would lead to the US backing an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites or even carrying out such an attack itself.
Trump had criticized his predecessor Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. You're a lyin' dog-faced pony soldier... for publicly telling Israel not to strike Iranian oil and nuclear sites in retaliation for Tehran’s ballistic missile attack last year. Trump had argued that Biden shouldn’t be publicly telegraphing Israel’s next move.
Senior Trump officials were earlier quoted by Channel 12 news as saying the new US president "doesn’t want to kick off his term with a war," is interested in a "firm deal" to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear arms, and assesses that "the Iranians will run to the negotiating table under his leadership."
WITKOFF ’CERTAINLY SOMEBODY I WOULD USE’
Trump on Thursday also addressed the 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... hostage release and ceasefire deal he helped finalize, saying it "should hold."
The comments appeared to soften ones he made earlier in the week, when he said he was not confident that the agreement would hold.
Asked to elaborate on those comments, Trump told news hounds, "It’s a very tricky place."
Trump credited his envoy Witkoff for securing the agreement that had been elusive for months. Noting that "both sides" liked Witkoff, Trump said, "That deal would have never been made without Steve."
"The deal should hold, but if it doesn’t there will be a lot of problems," Trump warned.
Trump was also asked whether he’ll want Witkoff to be negotiating directly with Iran, amid the reports that he was planning to have him handle US diplomacy with Tehran.
"No, but he’s certainly somebody I would use," Trump said.
The Financial Times had reported that Witkoff, known for his central role bringing the Gaza ceasefire deal to a conclusion, will oversee efforts to tackle Iran’s nuclear ambitions as part of a broader attempt to curb conflicts in the region, adding that the ceasefire agreement will remain Witkoff’s main focus.
News of Witkoff’s tentative appointment came as Trump revoked the security detail of two prominent Iran hawks from his previous administration: former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Iran envoy Brian Hook, both of whom were considered under threat by Iran.
Pompeo and Hook were the public faces of the US "maximum pressure" sanctions campaign against Iran after Trump in 2018 withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. The deal, signed in 2015, offered relief on sanctions in exchange for Iran’s drastically limiting its nuclear program.
In response to Trump’s withdrawal, Tehran, which is sworn to destroy Israel, has breached the deal in several ways, including by accelerating its uranium enrichment to levels that are unfeasible for civilian use.
Mohammad Javad Zarif ...former Persian foreign minister, Mouthpiece of Mullahs, good friend of John Kerry and similar exemplars of Merkin values... , a top Iranian official who was Tehran’s lead negotiator on the 2015 deal, said Wednesday that he hopes "this time around, a ’Trump 2’ will be more serious, more focused, more realistic."
Though Trump has publicly vowed to resume "maximum pressure" on Iran, the Financial Times said that the US president and his aides have indicated in meetings that they want to keep the door open to diplomacy with the Islamic Theocratic RepublicAccording to the newspaper, some Trump officials have told foreign counterparts that they expect Witkoff to check whether diplomacy with Iran was possible.
However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome... US officials cited by the newspaper said that Trump’s approach to Iran in his second term, and Witkoff’s mandate vis-a-vis the Islamic Theocratic Republic, were not yet settled.
A senior Republican staffer in the US Congress, quoted by the Financial Times, expressed frustration at Witkoff’s appointment, saying the new Iran point man was not hawkish enough.
"He’s already lifting pressure on Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, and in the process abandoning American hostages and endangering Israel," said the aide — though the White House on Thursday re-designated the Houthis as a terror group.
"He keeps saying he knows what Trump wants, but he doesn’t understand what Trump believes," the aide added.
The Financial Times noted that two of Trump’s appointments — Michael DiMino, the Pentagon’s new top Middle East official, and Elbridge Colby, nominated for under-secretary of defense for policy — have expressed skepticism over the use of military force to thwart Iran’s nuclear program.
A more robust approach, meanwhile, has been advocated by Trump’s designated national security adviser, Michael Waltz, and new US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... The top diplomat, who was confirmed on Wednesday, said in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later in the day that "he looks forward to addressing the threats posed by Iran and pursuing opportunities for peace," according to a State Department readout.
IRAN HAWKS POMPEO AND HOOK LOSE SECURITY DETAIL
A congressional staffer and a person familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered... to discuss personal security details, confirmed Thursday that Trump had revoked Pompeo and Hook’s security details.
Neither source could offer an explanation. They said Pompeo and Hook were told of the loss of protection on Wednesday and that it took effect at 11 p.m. that night.
A day earlier, Trump had revoked the security clearance and Secret Service protection from John Bolton, another Iran hawk who was fired as Trump’s national security adviser during his first term.
Bolton, who has been targeted for liquidation for Iran, later wrote a book whose publication the White House unsuccessfully sought to block on grounds that it disclosed national security information.
Trump had soured on Pompeo some months ago, saying publicly that he would play no role in his new administration. In a social media post this week, Trump also fired Hook from his presidentially appointed position on the board of the Wilson Center, a think tank.
A representative for Pompeo did not immediately reply to a request for comment, and Hook has not responded to multiple voice and text messages from the AP since Bolton was stripped of his protection on Tuesday.
The New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... first reported on the loss of protections.
The Biden administration’s State Department had provided and then systematically renewed round-the-clock protection by the Diplomatic Security Service for Pompeo and Hook since January 21, 2021, when they left office along with Trump. The last such authorization was on October 21.
Iran has blamed both for the killing of Iran Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani on January 3, 2020.
According to a March 2022 report to Congress, the State Department said it was paying more than $2 million per month to provide 24-hour security to Pompeo and Hook. But later determinations did not give a dollar amount.
In those notifications, the State Department told politicians that threats against Pompeo and Hook remain "serious and credible" and continue to warrant government-provided security details.
Biden administration officials briefed Trump officials earlier this month about the ongoing threat posed by Iran to Pompeo, Hook, Bolton and others and why the administration had extended the security details for them, according to a former senior Biden administration official familiar with the matter.
The official, who requested anonymity to discuss the private briefing, said Trump administration officials are "well aware" of the "active threats" against the former government officials and called the move "highly irresponsible."
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.
...Arabic for 
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
[NYPOST] Border czar Tom Homan had a simple message for the Haitian gangster who defiantly yelled ''F—k Trump, Biden forever!'' and how he was ''not going back to Haiti'' when he was picked up during immigration raids.
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
...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...
..always the voice of sweet reason...
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
