[FoxNews] The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo sent a letter to President Donald Trump offering a minerals deal in exchange for a security agreement with the U.S. that would remove violent rebels from the war-torn nation.
"Your election has ushered in the golden age for America," President Félix Tshisekedi wrote in February to Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. "Our partnership would provide the U.S. with a strategic advantage by securing critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, copper and tantalum from the Democratic Republic of Congo."
The Congo has over $20 trillion worth of minerals available, according to the Congo-based Panzi Foundation, including gold and copper. The African country is also the world’s largest producer of cobalt, which is essential for defense and aerospace applications, and a main component in the batteries of many electric vehicles and cellphones.
Tshisekedi seeks to strike a "formal security pact" so Congo's army can defeat a Rwandan-backed rebel group called M23 in exchange for a minerals deal, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The letter did not provide details on what a potential security pact would look like or operate.
#5
It would not be as hard as people think to improve things there unless we plan to do it the same way that we’ve tried using NGOs, USAID, the Clinton’s Global Initiative and/or the Military Industrial Complex. Erik Prince probably has a workable plan that he can execute within six months.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/22/2025 13:32 Comments ||
Top||
[FoxNews] 'Now the Haitians are looking at China, looking at Russia. They're like, "Somebody help us,"' former envoy says
A former special envoy to Haiti blames what he views as former President Joe Biden's absentee approach to decision-making for the current woes afflicting the Caribbean nation.
Daniel Foote served as special envoy to Haiti in 2021 but resigned in protest over what he said was the administration’s failed approach of supporting unpopular and unelected leaders.
"All of the governments that the U.S. has backed or anointed or imposed in the last 110 years have not represented the Haitian people," Foote said. He said the Biden administration backed the then-unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry solely for his unwavering loyalty despite lingering questions about how Henry rose to power.
Foote has been involved with Haiti since the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people. He now believes the country has descended into near-total collapse.
"It's a thousand times worse now because we broke whatever weak social contract there was between the people and the government. And there has been no government since basically 2012. It's a failed state."
A recent U.N. report revealed that more than 1 million people have been displaced due to gang violence in Haiti, nearly 10% of the population. Another report indicated that 85% of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, is under gang control.
Foote said he never met Biden while serving as envoy, claiming that by then, Biden had "deteriorated to the point that they didn’t want him to see a lot of people." Instead, he said, Victoria Nuland, undersecretary of state for political affairs, and U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Michele Sison devised the plan to support Henry.
Foote said he recalled a remark that Biden allegedly made as a senator in 1994: "If Haiti just quietly sunk into the Caribbean, or rose up 300 feet, it wouldn’t matter a whole lot in terms of our interests."
"That explains Joe Biden's approach to Haiti," Foote said.
Nuland rejected Foote’s accusations, calling them "completely false" and referred Fox News Digital to former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols.
"What I observed that there was intense coordination, and there was not one person or two people who would make a significant decision on the policy," Nichols said, noting that he got the job roughly a week before Foote resigned on Sept. 21 and so was not involved in earlier decisions. "All issues were debated extensively internally at multiple levels, all the way up to the principals, that's the Cabinet secretary level."
Foote said that in the past he felt no need for security while walking around Haiti because Americans were widely welcomed. Things are not the same anymore.
"Now the Haitians are looking at China, looking at Russia," he said. "They're like, ‘Somebody help us. The Americans just keep screwing us over,’ yet they still want the Americans to help them."
The Biden administration committed around $600 million to fund an international security force, known as the multinational security support mission (MSS), composed of personnel from countries like Bangladesh, Kenya, Chad and Guyana. But Foote said he sees the MSS strategy as a waste of taxpayer money.
"They don't have the security backbone to take on the gangs," he said. "They need help. And that help is not 5,000 random police officers from a mishmash of 10 different developing countries led by the Kenyans, who have never led a security mission in history."
[IsraelTimes] Thousands respond to image of Clifford’s Tower, where 150 Jews were murdered in 1190, with ‘laugh’ reacts and antisemitic jokes
The Facebook page British History has a devoted but not particularly emotive following. Multiple times a day, it posts an image and factoid from, well, British history, to a handful of comments and thumbs-up emojis.
But when it showed followers an image of Clifford’s Tower in York, England, over the weekend and informed them about an antisemitic massacre of 150 Jews that took place there in 1190, the response was different.
More than 1,600 people applied Facebook’s "laughing" emoji, signaling that they were making light of one of the starkest instances of antisemitic violence in British history. The massacre took place when an estimated 150 Jews who had taken refuge inside the tower chose to take their own lives rather than be forcibly converted; a few who sought to escape were murdered.
Several commenters rejected the hateful responses. "Disgusting to see so many people laughing at this post. Totally think you’re in the wrong group," one wrote.
The original poster, British History, replied to another comment decrying the antisemitic reactions saying that they had blocked many of the offenders.
But a handful of antisemitic comments remained. When one commenter noted that Jews were later expelled from England and not allowed to return until the 1650s, he got a reply of his own: "Should have kept the law !!" It got 265 approving responses, compared to 100 signaling anger.
The proliferation of mocking emojis and antisemitic comments reflects a familiar dynamic for anyone engaging with Jewish content online in recent years, particularly as multiple social media platforms, including Facebook, have recently relaxed their policies against hate speech. Earlier this year, Meta, which owns Facebook, rolled back restrictions on free speech and stopped automating the detection and removal of hate speech.
The British History post about the massacre at Clifford’s Tower went up on its 835th anniversary. The same day, members of York’s Jewish community and local officials gathered for a memorial service that takes place every year and doubles as a Holocaust memorial ceremony.
It was the second ceremony to include Rabbi Elisheva Salamo, the first rabbi to work in York since its Jewish population was wiped out in the massacre. "Helping to rebuild what was once one of England’s most vibrant Jewish communities is an honor and a privilege," she told The Guardian when she was hired.
At the ceremony, Barbara Boyce, York’s former lord mayor who was involved in the decision to memorialize the Holocaust locally, said she feared that contemporary discourse was redolent of the hate espoused before the massacres the ceremony was memorializing."Social media has become an echo chamber that reinforces people’s prejudices," she said. "Opinions, however ill-informed, can be published."
A strong contrast to the current, Israel-hating government. Much like we saw here in America, in fact.
[IsraelTimes] Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton says one of his first acts if elected premier in May will be to bolster ties with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
In his first major foreign policy address, Dutton says calling Netanyahu will be among his first official acts, calling the current government’s stance toward Israel one of its "most egregious foreign policy failures."
"Instead of treating Israel like the ally it is, this Government has treated Israel like an adversary," he says, according to a transcript of the speech released by his office.
The Liberal Party leader promises that Canberra will end funding for the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Relief and Works Agency, the main agency providing aid for Paleostinian refugees, citing its employment of Gazooks who took part in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
He adds that Australia will resume voting with Israel at the UN, accusing the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of adopting "adversarial positions towards Israel to shore-up Labor votes in certain seats where there are, undeniably, anti-Israel and antisemitic views."
He does not address a rash of antisemitic attacks in Australia seemingly linked to the war against Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... 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... Dutton also says he will make Washington his first overseas stop if elected, seemingly marking a pivot toward the US and away from Southeast Asia where Canberra has normally focused its foreign policy efforts.
[IsraelTimes] Order from ICE indicates Trump administration intends to deport Gambian-British national Momodou Taal, who is among those a pro-Israel watchdog has been pushing to expel
A pro-Paleostinian activist at Cornell University has been ordered to report to immigration authorities, in a sign that the Trump administration is planning to deport him.
Momodou Taal, a Gambia ... The Gambia is actually surrounded by The Senegal on all sides but its west coast. It has a population of about 1.7 million. The difference between the two is that in colonial days Senegal was ruled by La Belle France and The Gambia (so-called because there's only one of it, unlike Guinea, of which there are the Republic of Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, New Guinea, the English coin in circulation between 1663 and 1813, and Guyana, which sounds like it should be another one) was ruled by Britain... n-British national who was briefly suspended from Cornell over his anti-Israel activism, had preemptively sued to block any effort to deport him, saying that the administration was penalizing protected speech in its mass crackdown on pro-Paleostinian protesters.
He has come under particular fire a tweet posted the day of the October 7, 2023, Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... -led terror attack that said "glory to the resistance!" In another X post two days later, Taal further expressed support for the atrocities, declaring himself to be "an anti-imperialist who believes that colonised peoples have the right to resist by any means necessary."
Now, his lawyers have filed for a restraining order against the government, saying he has been told to "surrender to ICE custody" at a Department of Homeland Security office in Syracuse, New York, about 50 miles north of Cornell. Taal’s supporters have demonstrated on campus this week after observing what they believed to be law enforcement outside his home.
Taal’s lawsuit cited advocacy against him by the krazed killer pro-Israel group Betar US, which says it has submitted names of protesters eligible for deportation to the government.
"Betar confirms that @MomodouTaal was among those on our list of jihadis which we submitted to various government offices for deportation," the group tweeted on Friday. "We are pleased he has been ordered to surrender to @ICEgov."
Betar is happy that Momodou Taal has had his visa revoked. This is an evil jihadi who is an enemy to America and the Jewish people. He was among those on our list of people who must be deported. Many more jihadis to go! https://t.co/BgfVBdixeFpic.twitter.com/oKwlfILu0G
Using the formulation "Shalom Momodou," reflecting a recent Trump administration catchphrase intended to be threatening, the group said it urged more deportations, including of "jihadis who have [become] naturalized citizens."
The group also said it had "reason to believe" that two other pro-Paleostinian activists it has lobbied against — Mohsen Madawi, a Paleostinian graduate student at Columbia, and Mosab Abu Toha, a poet who is working at Syracuse University after fleeing 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... in late 2023 — are "on the short list of those who will shortly be deported."
It is unclear how much the group’s advocacy has set priorities for the Trump administration as it carries out its vow to deport "Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... sympathizers" on college campuses. But Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University anti-Israel protest leader who is facing deportation despite holding a green card, faced criticism from the group shortly before he was arrested earlier this month.
#1
Makes sense, to revoke a visa of any student here claiming to get an education. But is more focused on violent protests supporting a known murderous terrorist group.
No matter what the Liberals, Democrats and idiot college professors say. Supporting terrorists dedicated to the murder of anyone not of their religion views, has NO Place in America.
Such students should look to Europe, or the UK.
Where they would feel right at home instead.
Columbia U. is only the first. The feds have an entire list of the next schools that need similar attention.
[IsraelTimes] University to limit masking, give up faculty control over Mideast studies department in bid to regain $400 million in federal funds it lost for its response to anti-Israel activity
Columbia University has agreed to a series of changes demanded by the Trump Administration as a precondition for restoring $400 million in federal funding the government pulled this month over the school’s handling of antisemitism on campus amid pro-Paleostinian protests against Israel.
The university released a memo outlining its agreement with US President Donald Trump ...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party... ’s administration hours before an extended deadline set by the government was to expire.
Columbia acquiesced to most of the administration’s demands, including restricting face masks on campus, empowering security officers to remove or arrest individuals, and taking away control of the department that offers courses on the Middle East from its faculty.
The Ivy League university’s response is being watched by other universities that the administration has sanctioned as it advances its policy objectives in areas ranging from campus protests to transgender sports and diversity initiatives.
The administration has warned at least 60 other universities of possible action over alleged failure to comply with federal civil rights laws related to antisemitism, which has spiked since the Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... -led October 7, 2023, terror onslaught in Israel and subsequent 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... The White House had yet to respond to Columbia’s memo as of Friday evening, and the status of the $400 million in frozen funds remained unclear.
Among the most contentious of the nine demands, Columbia agreed to place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department under a new official, the memo said, taking control away from its faculty.
The university will appoint a new senior administrator to review the curriculum and faculty to make sure they are balanced, and to provide fresh leadership at the department, which offers courses on Middle Eastern politics and related subjects.
The demand had raised alarm among professors at Columbia and elsewhere, who worried that permitting the federal government to dictate how a department is run would set a dangerous precedent.
Republican politicians in the US House of Representatives last year criticized professors in the department for comments expressing support for Paleostinian terror groups and praising the October 7 atrocities, during which thousands of Hamas-led faceless myrmidons invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 to Gaza.
The school has also hired three dozen special officers who have the power to arrest people on campus and has revised its anti-discrimination policies, including its authority to sanction campus organizations, the memo said.
Face masks to conceal identities are no longer allowed, and any protesters must now identify themselves when asked, the memo said.
The school also said it is searching for new faculty members to "ensure intellectual diversity." Columbia plans to fill joint positions in the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and the international affairs school in an effort to ensure "excellence and fairness in Middle East studies," the memo said.
"The way Columbia and Columbians have been portrayed is hard to reckon with," Interim President Katrina Armstrong wrote in a letter announcing the changes. "We have challenges, yes, but they do not define us. We are a community of scholars who have deep respect for each other and our mission. We teach the brightest, most creative students in the world, and we care deeply for each and every one of them. I have every faith in our ability to overcome the greatest of challenges. We stand resilient and brilliant."
Armstrong added, "At all times, we are guided by our values, putting academic freedom, free expression, open inquiry, and respect for all at the fore of every decision we make."
The sudden shutdown of millions of dollars in federal funding to Columbia University this month was already disrupting medical and scientific research at the school, researchers said.
Critics of the Trump administration’s intervention at Columbia, including thousands of Jewish academics who signed a protest letter this week, say the crackdown there and at other universities reflects an inappropriate incursion on academic freedom and uses fears of antisemitism to justify repression.
The administration’s supporters, who include some pro-Israel students, say the moves are necessary to improve the climate for Jewish students at Columbia, which was the first university to see students form a pro-Paleostinian encampment in the spring of 2024.
"This is a huge win for Jewish safety at Columbia," tweeted Eliana Goldin, who is enrolled in Columbia’s joint program with the Jewish Theological Seminary and a leader in the campus Zionist group Aryeh, on Friday. "I’m looking forward to seeing how the university improves these coming weeks."
[X] Varad Mehta
@varadmehta
“Although Columbia stands among the country’s wealthiest universities, with an endowment of about $15 billion, it wouldn’t take long for it to cease to operate in any recognizable form without government money.”
I’m beginning to see the problem.
Quote
Square profile picture
The Wall Street Journal
@WSJ
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9h
Exclusive: Columbia University will cede to Trump’s far-reaching demands in negotiations over $400 million in federal funding he revoked https://on.wsj.com/4kM9pJc
4:16 PM · Mar 21, 2025
Varad Mehta
@varadmehta
·
9h
Columbia’s leadership clearly saw the problem.
Quote
Charles Ornstein
@charlesornstein
·
9h
“A Columbia senior administrator said the school considered legal options to challenge the Trump team but ultimately determined the federal government has so many available levers to claw back money, it would be a difficult fight.” https://wsj.com/us-news/education/columbia-university-trump-demands-federal-funding-e94d41ca
Not just Jewish students — all the sensible people who are not lovers of rioting, screaming, and bullying everyone who isn’t them.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kamran Gasanov
[REGNUM] Turkey's most popular opposition politician was arrested on March 19. Ekrem Imamoglu, 53, is accused of corruption and supporting terrorist organizations. In addition to being a prominent opposition figure, Imamoglu has held the key position of mayor of Istanbul since 2019.
At one time, the country's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: whoever controls Istanbul controls Turkey. Because the current president came to the Olympus of political power from the same position of the mayor of Istanbul. Now the young and ambitious Imamoglu has entered this path.
Imamoglu emerged as the main opposition figure after the 2019 municipal elections. At that time, he ran for the Republican People's Party (CHP), the party of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. Imamoglu was able to beat the contender from the ruling Justice and Development Party, former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, and won by 20,000 votes.
But then Erdogan came on the scene, accused Imamoglu of stealing votes, the Central Election Commission recounted them and awarded the victory to Yildirim. But then the street intervened. Under pressure from protests, the results of the vote were annulled, and Imamoglu won a landslide victory in the re-run.
Imamoglu's triumph, on the one hand, made him the clear leader of the CHP and a direct competitor to Erdogan in the upcoming presidential elections, but on the other hand, it created obstacles for his future career.
After the politician called the Central Election Commission's decision to cancel the first elections in Istanbul "stupid", he was accused of insulting the authorities, judicial investigations were launched and, at the end of 2022, he was sentenced to almost three years in prison.
Imamoglu was also banned from political activity, partly because of this, the alliance of opposition parties did not risk nominating him as their leading candidate in the 2023 presidential elections.
To be fair, it should be acknowledged that Imamoglu is no less disliked within his own party than Erdogan. He was a competitor of former CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş. Kılıçdaroğlu even preferred to lose the presidential election rather than follow in the footsteps of the Istanbul mayor.
At the same time, the defeat, not only in the presidential but also in the parliamentary elections, forced the Republicans to think about renewal.
Kılıçdaroğlu was removed from his post as chairman, and the new leader became Özgür Özel, who favored İmamoğlu.
In the spring of 2024, when Erdogan's AKP lost municipal elections for the first time, Imamoglu was re-elected as mayor of Istanbul and further increased his influence in the country and within the party.
The opposition is now insisting on holding early elections and criticizing the government for the ongoing crisis of the national currency. But they need to decide on a candidate, and Ozel proposed holding a "primary" a month ago. Imamoglu has a high chance of winning, so another major opposition figure, Ankara Mayor Yavaş, is against it.
Feeling his strength and the support of party functionaries, Imamoglu officially entered the race for the presidency on March 8–9. He began touring the country, starting with Izmir, which he called “the city of the first shot and the last victory.”
ERDOGAN'S ENEMY NO. 1 IS DEAD, BUT BEHIND HIS DEATH LURKS THE GHOST OF AN IDEA
Imamoglu, who is taking over power and popularity among Republicans, is becoming a "stone in Erdogan's shoe". The current term is the last for the Turkish president; he will have to leave in 2028.
And with the successor, everything is very complicated.
At one time, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Suleyman Soylu, was considered such, but he discredited himself during the pandemic. The sons are also no good, because they were involved in various corruption scandals.
They also predicted Berat Albayrak's son-in-law, but in 2020 he resigned as finance minister due to health reasons, although it is more likely that he could not cope with the crisis and inflation.
Last year, Western media focused their attention on another of the president's sons-in-law, drone developer Selcuk Bayraktar. There is also the highly experienced former intelligence chief and current Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
But can they compete with Imamoglu?
The ruling party is now talking about the possibility of holding early elections to nominate Erdogan for another term.
On March 1, AKP Chairman's aide and head of the parliament's Digital Media Committee Huseyin Yayman said that snap elections could be held in November 2027, with Erdogan as the AKP's candidate.
Although the latter has a better chance of competing with Imamoglu than the others, even for him, the election fight is a risk. Since 2016 and after the attempted coup, Erdogan has launched a large-scale purge in the country, arresting many journalists, opposition figures and politicians, including the leader of the pro-Kurdish party, Selahattin Demirtas.
Erdogan changed the constitution and expanded presidential powers, making Turkey a presidential rather than a parliamentary republic. An expansionist foreign policy and achievements in Syria, Libya, and the South Caucasus, coupled with Turkey’s opposition to the West, helped Erdogan retain power in subsequent elections.
However, the protracted financial and economic crisis, exacerbated by the 2023 earthquakes and the Syrian refugee problem, have hit the government's reputation. The defeat of the ruling party in the 2024 regional elections is an alarm bell.
Commenting on Imamoglu's detention, Erdogan and the AKP leaders deny their interference and refer to the independence of the judiciary.
The mayor of Istanbul is accused not only of insulting the CEC, but also of large-scale fraud, bribery, manipulation during tenders, abuse of power and cooperation with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is banned in the republic.
While the first points of the indictment have yet to be proven, there are already concrete facts regarding the PKK's cooperation. In the regional elections, Imamoglu entered into a tactical alliance with the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), many of whose leaders were arrested on charges of collaborating with the PKK.
Along with Imamoglu, another 100 people were arrested on corruption charges, so Erdogan can formally claim that there was no political motive.
However, no matter how hard the government tries to distance itself from the process, all the arrows still point to the very top. Because Yamamoğlu has become a major obstacle for Erdoğan and threatens to destroy the Islamist model of society and neo-Ottoman foreign policy he is building.
The arrest of Imamoglu carried a great risk, because he is the most popular opposition figure, and the secular population of large cities is already unhappy with Erdogan because of low wages and high prices.
One gets the impression that the president himself is provoking a Turkish “Maidan”.
And the first signs of a velvet revolution are already evident. For the second day, thousands of people have been protesting in Ankara, Istanbul and other major cities, while those who stay home are holding flash mobs, turning lights on and off and banging pots.
Why would Erdogan take such a risk?
Most likely, he understands that if early elections are held, Imamoglu may win. The arrest of the oppositionist may escalate the situation, creating the image of a "sacred victim", but if the president can withstand this challenge, then things will be easier.
The Turkish president has extensive experience in fighting coups.
He held on to power during the Gezi Park protests in 2013, and three years later he was able to suppress a military mutiny and defeat Fethullah Gülen. At that time, external support for the opposition and internal resistance to Erdoğan were higher. Now Gülen is dead, opposition media in the country are restricted, and the work of Western NGOs and CSOs is limited.
In the United States, it is not the Democrats who actively support Imamoglu and his party who are in power, but the cynical fighter against the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Donald Trump.
If earlier Europeans interfered with Erdogan and criticized him for violating freedom of speech, human rights and democratic procedures, now the EU is forced to be friends with Turkey to strengthen its defense capability in the face of the “Russian threat.”
In the end, the extreme consequences of the arrest of the main opposition leader are offset by Europe's growing dependence on Erdogan and Trump's anti-globalism. However, it would be short-sighted to overestimate or underestimate either of these two factors.
The “Maidan” sentiments may be neutralized by the activity of the president’s nuclear electorate, which already showed itself once during the military coup of 2016.
On the other hand, despite the arm-twisting of USAID by the Trump administration and Europe's high interest in the Turkish army, globalist structures are still strong and fairly independent.
Trump has only recently begun to strip USAID of its power, but the long-term work of this organization, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) it finances, its “twin brother” in the form of the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), the Voice of America* and many other organizations may continue to influence political processes in the countries of Eurasia for a long time to come, by inertia.
The limited but still important effect of external pressure should not be discounted: Germany, France and many EU countries condemned Imamoglu's arrest. Criticism from Turkey's main trading partner sent the lira plummeting.
So, by arresting Imamoglu, Erdogan has gone all in. Either he will deal a crushing blow and break the back of the opposition by eliminating its most dangerous leader, or he will turn the mayor of Istanbul into a hero.
In the 1990s, Erdogan himself found himself in a similar situation.
He, also the mayor of Istanbul, was jailed for religious poetry, which, however, made him even more popular. After his release, he founded the Justice and Development Party, with which he triumphantly won the 2002 elections. And the similarities do not end there.
Another similarity between Imamoglu and Erdogan is that both wanted to become footballers in their youth. But who will ultimately score the winning goal, no one can predict at this point.
[IsraelTimes] The Istanbul Bar Association’s executive board was dismissed on Friday on grounds of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization” and “publicly spreading false information,” a lawyers’ association says.
Prosecutors had filed suit against the bar association on January 15 after it demanded an investigation into the deaths of two journalists from Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast who were killed in northern Syria.
[IsraelTimes] US President Donald Trump’s administration will revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the United States, according to a Federal Register notice, the latest expansion of his crackdown on immigration.
[IsraelTimes] George Glezmann, an American detained in Afghanistan for more than two years before being released by the Taliban, has arrived in the United States, where he reunites with his wife and is greeted by a welcoming party that included his former cellmate.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce says Ryan Corbett, another former prisoner of the Taliban who had been held in the same cell as Glezmann, was at Joint Base Andrews, outside Washington, to greet Glezmann.
“After a brief ceremony, George and [his wife] Aleksandra flew to another location in the United States to rest and recover,” Bruce tells a regular State Department news briefing.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement on Thursday confirming the release of Glezmann, who was detained in 2022 while visiting Kabul as a tourist.
A source tells Reuters he left Afghanistan aboard a Qatari aircraft on Thursday evening bound for Qatar, following direct talks between US hostage envoy Adam Boehler and Taliban officials in Kabul.
Bruce says the US is grateful for the support of the government of Qatar in bringing Glezmann home. She says the United Arab Emirates also played a role in facilitating the initial discussions.
In a statement, the Taliban calls Glezmann’s release a “goodwill gesture” reflecting its willingness to engage with the United States “on the basis of mutual respect and interests.”
Bruce says the United States remains “deeply concerned” about the well-being of Mahmood Habibi and other Americans still believed to be in custody in Afghanistan.
Thursday’s meeting in Kabul marked the highest-level direct US-Taliban talks since President Donald Trump came to power in January.
Boehler met with the Taliban administration’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Afghan foreign ministry says in a statement.
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified before Congress in 2023 that at least 175 Americans remain stranded in Afghanistan, though he didn’t divulge how many were being wrongfully detained by the Taliban.
“There are several Americans currently detained in Afghanistan, and we have been pressing the Taliban to return the remains of a deceased American,” a State Department spokesperson told The Post.
“We are deeply concerned about the well-being of Mahmood Habibi and all Americans detained in Afghanistan and actively working to bring them home. Due to the sensitivity of these cases, we have nothing further. We remind all Americans — do not travel to Afghanistan.”
Glezmann, an airline mechanic for Delta Air Lines, was visiting Afghanistan as a tourist in late 2022 and intended to spend five days in the country exploring its history and culture, according to his family. He was detained by the Taliban's intelligence service on Dec. 5 but was never charged with any crime or offense.
In September 2023, he was declared wrongfully detained by the Biden administration.
The Taliban jailed Glezmann in a 9-foot-by-9-foot cell with other detainees and sometimes held him in "solitary confinement and underground for months at a time," according to a resolution put forward by Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock from Glezmann's home state of Georgia.
While in custody, Glezmann also suffered from "from facial tumors, hypertension, severe malnutrition and other medical conditions" and experienced a rapid decline in his physical and mental health, per the senators.
Talks aimed at bringing Glezmann home have been happening on and off since shortly after his detention, according to U.S. officials.
Negotiators came close in January, when officials cut a deal to bring Americans Ryan Corbett and another U.S. national in a prisoner swap -- but the Taliban rejected efforts to include Glezmann in the exchange.
"Today is a good day. We succeeded in obtaining the release of an American citizen, Georg Glezmann, after two years in detention in Kabul," former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad posted on X following his release. "The Taliban government agreed to free him as a goodwill gesture to @POTUS and the American people. George is on his way home to his family."
[DailyWire] A number of tax-deductible charities and financial service providers are helping fund groups linked to U.S.-designated terrorist organizations including Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a new report alleges.
Published by the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, the report accuses terrorist-linked groups of raising funds in the United States through tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations and through donor-advised financial service providers.
“The sharp rise in violent anti-Semitism in the wake of the October 7th massacre highlights the urgent need for greater vigilance in preventing the diversion of aid and NGO funding to terror and hate,” Professor Gerald M. Steinberg, Founder and President of NGO Monitor told The Daily Wire. “This includes systematically investigating and documenting the support that IRS-registered charities receive from and provide to individuals and organizations linked to designated terror groups or active in spreading hate propaganda.”
The report cites several NGOs tied to the PFLP and designated as terror groups by Israel, including the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), Al-Haq, Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), and Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). NGO Monitor accuses Al Mezan of having members with ties to both Hamas and the PFLP.
The Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP), a 501(c)(3) based in Washington, D.C., claims on its website that in 2025 it provided funds to Al Haq, Al Mezan, DCI-P, and PCHR. Its website does not state how much it has given, but according to 2023 IRS filings, FMEP granted $10,000 to Al Mezan, and $58,000 to Al-Haq.
Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros, provided $800,000 between 2020-2023 to Al Haq, $250,000 between 2023-2025 to Al Haq Europe, $170,000 to Al Mezan in 2023, and $450,000 to Al Mezan between 2021-2024.
Grassroots International has been soliciting donations for the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, which the group has called a “long-term partner,” according to NGO Monitor.
Other tax-deductible American charities that provided funds include the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) which granted $100,000 to DCI-P for 2020-2022 and Cultures of Resistance Network which has funded Al-Haq, DCI-P, the UAWC, and Al Mezan, according to NGO monitor.
A 2023 report from the New York Post revealed that RBF shelled out millions since 2018 directly or indirectly to six anti-Israel organizations, some of which openly celebrated Hamas’s October 7 attack on civilians. In response, RBF rejected and claimed that their “grantee organizations support, materially or ideologically, acts of terrorism.”
NGO Monitor’s report points out that the Alexandria, Virginia-based Charities Aid Foundation, which facilitated donor-advised grantmaking, lists DCI-P as a member of its “vetted network” of charitable organizations.
The report added that Al-Haq and the Hind Rajab Foundation — whose founder boasts his ties to Hezbollah — use the San Francisco-based Stripe Inc. to process donations.
The Hind Rajab Foundation, founded in Belgium, initiated legal proceedings to seek the arrests of IDF veterans, including American citizens, and has demanded the arrest of former President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Its founder, Dyab Abou Jahjah, in 2003 claimed he “joined the Hezbollah resistance against Israel,” called the September 11, 2001 attacks “sweet revenge” and is reportedly on the U.S. no-fly list. A Jerusalem Post report from last month reports that Jahjah has family and business links to actors designated as part of Hezbollah’s terror funding network.
Al Mezan’s director, Issam Younis, participated in a 2017 panel discussion alongside now-deceased Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar at an event that was also attended by leaders of other U.S.-designated terror organizations including Palestinian Islamic Jihad and PFLP. One of Al Mezan’s board members from 2010 to 2022 was Nafiz Al-Madhoun, the former Director-General of the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Legislative Council, according to NGO Monitor.
UAWC has been identified by a USAID audit as the “agricultural arm” of the PFLP and a 2022 audit by the Dutch government found that 34 individuals held politicians in both UAWC and PFLP between 2007-2020. Two of UAWC’s financial officers were arrested in 2019 for leading a PFLP terror cell that murdered a 17-year-old Israeli in a bombing.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense designated Al-Haq as a terrorist entity in 2021 because it operated on behalf of the PFLP. In 2018, the group had its online credit card donations shut down by Visa, Mastercard, and American Express because of its PFLP ties, reported NGO Monitor. The group’s director, Shawan Jabarin, has been identified as a leading PFLP member by the Israeli Supreme Court and has identified several PFLP events. He also was part of the 2017 panel alongside Sinwar and Younis.
PCHR’s founder and director, Raji Sourani, was imprisoned in 1979 for three years for being a member of the PFLP and denied entry to the United States in 2012, according to the report. He admitted his PFLP affiliation in a 2014 speech in Gaza where he said he was “proud” of the organization where he “fought in its ranks.”
DCI-P was designated as a terror entity by Israel in 2021, which claimed it operated on behalf of the PFLP. The group was reportedly cut off from Citibank, Arab Bank PLC, and the U.S.-based Global Giving crowdfunding because of its terror ties. Numerous members with PFLP ties have been employed and appointed as board members, according to NGO monitor.
Stripe, FMEP, Open Society Foundation, Grassroots International, RBF, and Cultures of Resistance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
#2
Such charities should immediately lose their tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status.
If the charity collected $$$$ under misleading or false, fraudulent statements? Then that charity's board of directors, should be investigated for supporting enemies of the USA and US Listed known terrorist groups.
[IsraelTimes] Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli says European Jews should be more worried about Islamic extremism than the far-right, defending his decision to invite far-right European politicians to Israel’s upcoming conference on combating antisemitism.
"The real threat to European Jewry is radical Islam, not the right," Chikli tells Israel Hayom in an interview published this morning.
Chikli blames the left-wing newspaper Haaretz for pushing a campaign that has led to a wave of cancellations of conference participants ahead of the Jerusalem event planned for March 26-27.
Among high-profile figures to pull out have been Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, and others.
Chikli criticizes them for "delegitimizing the people who support us the most," calling it a "terrible injustice."
"How can we boycott people who come to a conference against antisemitism in the State of Israel?" Chikli asks.
Chikli tells Israel Hayom that while many of the political parties in question have histories rooted in racism, they are currently fighting against antisemitism.
For example, Jordan Bardella, president of the French National Rally party founded by noted antisemite and Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen, recently challenged the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... about the connection between UNRWA and Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... , and has spoken out against a Paleostinian state after October 7, Chikli says.
Bardella also condemned arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, Chikli notes.
In contrast, he says, French President Emmanuel Macron is "weak" and a "disappointment for Israel."
On Wednesday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog offered to hold a private meeting with world Jewish leaders at his home the night before the main event, without those controversial figures, in an effort to reduce tensions.
#3
During the last 4-5 years especially after the Ukraine war started a significant part the the European "New Right" has sharply shifted to the left.
In terms of the US political spectrum they moved from "Ronald Reagan conservatism" to "Candace Owens/Tucker Carlson conservatism".
Their stance is pro Russia/China/Qatar(Erdogan/Iran and anti-Rushdie and also anti-Israel albeit in a passive aggressive way.
This shift has brought them into greater alignment with the European mainstream but since the mainstream is generally wrong on these issues that's a bad development.
Deepl translation: The #Hamas attack on #Israel is to be condemned. I mourn all the war dead. Now the states in the region must focus on de-escalation to avert a conflagration. Diplomacy is the order of the day. A viable solution for all sides must be the goal!
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
It’s Israel, where the Intelligence bench is both broad and deep. They’ll be fine without the idiots who think they’re more important than the elected government.
The Israeli government continues to be rocked by high-profile resignations and reshuffles. On March 19, the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, Itamar Ben-Gvir, returned to the ranks of the ruling cabinet, and on March 21, the cabinet reluctantly approved the resignation of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, initiated by the prime minister's office.
Two seemingly unrelated political “passes” are part of a larger scheme by the Prime Minister’s office to strengthen its own position and defeat the growing group of “oppositionists in uniform.”
True, the scheme of quickly dismissing opponents suddenly failed with the head of the Shin Bet.
PROTRACTED CONFLICT
Bar's resignation continued the trend of "starfall" in the Israeli security forces that began after the "October 7 catastrophe." The heads of all the country's key security agencies are gradually leaving their posts.
Of course, the Shin Bet chief held his position much longer than his colleagues from the General Staff and military intelligence. Not the least role in this was played by his contribution to the negotiation process on Gaza, where Bar was one of the leaders of the Israeli delegation.
In addition, counterintelligence operatives were able to identify and eliminate several influential figures in the Palestinian underground, which also went to the credit of the Shin Bet chief.
However, even this credit of trust did not save Bar from the blow. The conflict with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had an effect.
The counterintelligence chief tried to accuse the prime minister of corrupt ties and creating threats to national security by leaking confidential documents to the press (the so-called "Qatargate"). Netanyahu took this attack as a personal insult and used all available levers to force the offender to resign.
The Prime Minister was repeatedly reminded that Shin Bet operatives are involved in the operation in the Gaza Strip and that Bar is one of its leaders. “Decapitating” counterintelligence at such a critical moment would mean giving Hamas a tactical advantage.
However, Netanyahu eventually managed to convince both the government and the oversight bodies of the advisability of his proposal. On March 21, it was announced that there would be imminent changes in the Shin Bet.
Bar is expected to remain in office until April 10, while the process of immersion into the affairs of his potential successor is underway. Although an attempt to speed up the process by placing an "outsider" in the Shin Bet chief's chair is not ruled out.
Netanyahu and his entourage do not trust Bar's deputies too much, considering them "ideologically close" to the retired security official. In addition, the government has an effective argument - the entire top of the Shin Bet has been discredited to one degree or another by failures in the Palestinian direction, as well as a series of spy scandals. It is not difficult to justify the rejection of most of the candidates.
"CONSOLIDATED POSITION"
Amid the turmoil surrounding the reshuffle in the Shin Bet, the news of Itamar Ben-Gvir's return to the post of Minister of National Security went almost unnoticed.
Ben-Gvir, who left Netanyahu's coalition in a scandal in January 2025, agreed to take up the vacated post again with the start of the new phase of the operation in Gaza. Fortunately, Minister Haim Katz, appointed by the prime minister as the custodian of the vacated positions, handed them back without any resistance.
It is noteworthy that in order to return Ben-Gvir to the post of Minister of National Security, Netanyahu risked challenging the position of Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who insisted that such a reshuffle was impossible from a legal point of view.
Upon his return, Ben-Gvir decided to abandon his critical attacks on Netanyahu and, moreover, stated that the current course of official Tel Aviv “completely satisfies” him, and the authorities’ decision to attack Hamas again was “timely.”
But those who tried to keep the ceasefire talks in the enclave afloat received their share of angry speeches from him. Among them was the head of the Shin Bet: Ben-Gvir unequivocally called him “the main threat to democracy.”
The prime minister's interest in his ultra-right ally is understandable. By pitting Ben-Gvir against Bar, Netanyahu has saved his own reputation from being damaged. Now the criticism of the Shin Bet chief, which is heard in high offices almost every day, is no longer his personal whim and revenge for the accusations, but a "consolidated position" of the ultra-right wing, whose interests Ben-Gvir expresses.
COLD CALCULATION
Netanyahu's plan to "cover the rear" with the help of far-right "hawks" apparently worked - it became much more difficult for his associates to defend Bar's innocence.
Moreover, after the return of the Ben-Gvir faction to the government, the coalition stabilized and, thanks to the six mandates of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, was able to make unpopular decisions without the risk of losing legitimacy.
The Prime Minister's opponents clearly overlooked the new combination. Although major figures in the "generals' opposition" in the form of former Defense Ministers Benny Gantz and Yoav Galant, as well as Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan promised to "stand firm" for Bar, they were unable to effectively take advantage of the popular demonstrations in his support.
Of course, the opposition forces still have a chance to turn the “Bar affair” to their advantage. Despite the government’s agreed resignation, the Shin Bet chief may remain at the helm until the end of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, citing the need to ensure the functioning of the agency. In that case, Netanyahu will have to put up with the unpleasant neighbors for some time.
On the other hand, the period of Bar's tenure in office "for strategic reasons" could be used by his opponents to expand the "dossier of failures."
In this case, the head of the Shin Bet risks becoming the main scapegoat in the prime minister’s rhetoric and, in addition to the failures in Gaza, receiving several more weighty accusations that will bury his career.
#1
(1) The counterintelligence chief tried to accuse the prime minister of corrupt ties Bar failed and tried to distract from failure by inventing "Qatargate".
(2) The Prime Minister's opponents get their instructions from Globalist Central in Brussels.
[IsraelTimes] Supreme leader, in televised speech, rejects Trump’s vow to hold Tehran responsible for attacks by Iran-backed Yemen group, which fired at Israel this week amid US strikes
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> said Friday that the Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s, an Iran-aligned terror group that controls much of Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... , act on their own motivations, after US President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... said he would hold Tehran accountable for the group’s actions.
Khamenei also warned, "If the US or anyone else commits any malicious act against Iran, they will receive a severe blow," in comments made in a televised speech, echoed by official social media posts.
Trump said Monday that he would hold 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... responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthis, as the American military carried out waves of strikes against the group, marking the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since he returned to the White House.
The Houthis, whose slogan calls for "death to America, death to Israel, [and] a curse on the Jews," have fired four missiles at Israel since Tuesday, all of which were intercepted, and none of which caused any casualties.
The group resumed its attacks on Israel after fighting resumed 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, amid the collapse of a hostage-ceasefire deal with the Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... terror group.
Americans, said Khamenei on Friday, "make a big mistake and call regional resistance centers Iranian proxies. What does proxy mean?"
"The Yemeni nation has its own motivation and the resistance groups in the region have their own motivations. Iran doesn’t need proxies," Khamenei said.
The US "issue threats," he added, but "we have never started a confrontation or conflict with anyone. However,
ars longa, vita brevis... if anyone acts with malice and initiates it, they will receive severe slaps."
Over the years, Iran has been aligned with groups across the region that describe themselves as the "Axis of Resistance®" to Israel and US influence. Those groups include Hamas, Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... ’s Hezbollah and various Shiite terror groups in Iraq and Syria.
The Islamic Theocratic Republic also counted the Syrian regime of Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... — ousted by Salafist tough guys in December — as an ally.
The Houthis began attacking ships in the Red Sea in November 2023, a month after Hamas stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
While the Houthis have said they were attacking Israeli-linked shipping in support of Gaza, they have also targeted vessels with no known Israeli connections.
The Iran-backed rebels also fired some 40 ballistic missiles at Israel, from November 2023 until just days before the Gaza hostage-ceasefire deal was reached in January 2025. They also launched several attack drones at Israel, including one that killed a civilian and maimed several others in Tel Aviv in July.
Responding to the attacks, Israel has carried out several strikes on Houthi sites in Yemen.
It is common knowledge, and Iran leaders have even publicly said: Iran supports the Houthi movement in Yemen, by providing various funds for military, and logistical support.
Khamenei and the inter-circle can see the USA finally has President, with both Congression and Voter support willing to correct, or at least seriously address Global Terrorism.
#3
Mask really needs to get StarShip working so massive Rods From God arrays can be placed in orbit to selectively take out perps like Khamenei as just freak meteor strikes.
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.
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
..always the voice of sweet reason...
..always the voice of sweet reason...
