[IsraelTimes] Law enforcement dropped charges, but only after after 8-month ordeal; interrogator asked suspect if he thought placard would offend pro-Hezbollah protesters
British police arrested and charged a Jewish man in London in September with racial harassment for holding a poster satirizing Hezbollah — with officers at one stage expressing concern that supporters of the terror group would be offended — only dropping the charges earlier this month, the Telegraph reported Friday.
The placard mocked His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> by showing the Hezbollah leader with a pager and the words "beep, beep, beep," a reference to the Israeli operation in September that saw pagers and walkie-talkies explode and kill 42 people.
The man, who was a counter-protester on September 20 at an anti-Israel demonstration near the home of Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely in Swiss Cottage, north-west London, held the placard for less than three minutes; he chose to remain anonymous out of fear for his safety.
On September 27, an Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... killed Nasrallah in Beirut. That same day, the man returned to Swiss Cottage for another counter-protest and was arrested.
Before being kept overnight at a local cop shoppe, police searched his home for the poster, which they could not find, despite the man telling them it was not his.
"Two police vans and six officers turned up at our house to search for ’offensive material’, which was quite invasive. It was a horrible experience," he told the Telegraph.
"They put me in the lounge and asked my partner to go with them around the house. They weren’t very pleasant to her and even went through her knicker drawer. It was totally ridiculous."
Video from the man’s interrogation obtained by the Telegraph shows a policewoman repeatedly asking him about the poster: "Do you think that showing this image to persons protesting who are clearly pro-Hezbollah and anti-Israel that by doing so would stir up racial hatred further than it is already?"
The man’s attorney, Carl Wolf, replied: "Are you saying that there were pro-Hezbollah people there? Because it is a proscribed terrorist organization." The officer said she was "aware of that" and continued her line of questioning.
Despite denying that he intended to incite racial hatred or insult supporters of Hezbollah, which is recognized as a terrorist organization in the UK, police charged him for "causing racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress by words or writing," the Telegraph reported.
The charges were dropped on May 10 after the Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.
"The Met Police are still completely out of their depth when it comes to policing the anti-Israel hate marches we’ve seen on our streets week in, week out since the October 7 attacks," the man told the Telegraph.
"It beggars belief that police could think that this placard may be offensive to supporters of Hezbollah. If there are Hezbollah supporters at these marches, then why weren’t charges brought against them for terrorist offenses, rather than me being charged for holding a sign that can only be construed as political satire?
"I didn’t realize how relieved I was until I heard I wasn’t going to court."
London police told the Telegraph that the officer "clearly misspoke when she described those in the protest as pro-Hezbollah instead of pro-Paleostinian," adding that the man "was charged following a careful consideration of the evidence."
John Woodcock, the UK’s former extremism tsar, told The Telegraph: "We all understand the police have a difficult job preventing protests escalating into disorder, but the idea that officers intervened on the side of supporters of a proscribed terrorist organization is grotesque."
He added that "it’s an implausible explanation from the police that this officer simply misspoke. She was reading from a list of pre-prepared questions. They should just own their mistake and use this opportunity to ensure lessons are learnt."
Chris Philip, the UK shadow home secretary, told the Telegraph: "In recent times, the police have failed to act when confronted with protesters calling for jihad and intifada in London. Yet this man was apparently arrested because he might have offended supporters of a banned terrorist organization.
"This is two-tier policing in action. The law is rightly clear that supporting banned terrorist groups, inciting violence, inciting racial hatred or harassing people is illegal. Beyond that, free speech applies to everyone. The police sometimes turn a blind eye when applying the law might be difficult, yet over-police at other times. The law should be applied equally to all, robustly and without fear or favor. That is not what happened here."
Ian Austin, a man who was investigated by UK police for calling the terror group Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... "Islamists" on social media, told the Telegraph: "It beggars belief that someone would be arrested, put in the cells and then charged for holding this sign because it might upset supporters of Islamist holy warriors and a proscribed organization, rather than take action against the terror supporters.
"There is clearly a systemic problem when it comes to dealing with the hate marches and, instead of telling us they disagree with individual decisions, ministers need to get a grip and sort it out."
A front man for the police told the Telegraph that 28 arrests have been made since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught under the UK Terrorism Act "for offenses at protests, including wearing clothing or displaying symbols that indicated support for such groups, including Hezbollah. This is in addition to the hundreds of arrests made for other offenses."
🚨🇬🇧BREAKING: Today, in over 76 towns and cities across Britain, thousands of protesters called on Keir Starmer to resign immediately. pic.twitter.com/nYfZ7wEBAB
[IsraelTimes] After initially condemning killing of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, Guy Christensen tells his over 3 million followers that shooter ‘isn’t a terrorist. He’s a resistance fighter’
A sweet-faced, vicious asshole.
Guy Christensen, a TikTok influencer with more than 3 million followers, came out in support of the shooting attack that killed two Israeli embassy employees.
"I do not condemn the elimination of the Zionist officials who worked at the Israeli embassy last night," Christensen, an American Gen-Z influencer who goes by YourFavoriteGuy on TikTok, said in a video posted Thursday.
"I want to urge you first to support Elias’ actions," he added later, referencing the alleged shooter. "He is not a terrorist. He’s a resistance fighter, and the fact is that the fight against Israel’s war machine, against their genocide machine, against their criminality, includes their foreign diplomats in this country."
The video represented a reversal for Christensen, who had earlier posted a video condemning the murders. The video supporting the attack later disappeared from TikTok and Instagram. He appeared to suggest that the platform had removed it: "also tiktok banned my vid LOL," he wrote on a subsequent post.
With the video, Christensen joined a growing collection of voices openly supporting the attack. He may be the one with the largest audience.
For nearly all of the time since Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... ’s October 7, 2023, attack and the war it launched 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... , Christensen has been a constant, vocal pro-Paleostinian activist. In a November 2023 essay, penned when he was still in high school, he wrote that his support began when he discovered "more than what the media was telling me."
Since then, videos condemning Israel and voicing support for Paleostinians have populated his feed, and helped him rack up followers in the process. In the video supporting the murders, Christensen — as in many of his videos — was decked out in pro-Paleostinian paraphernalia. He wore a keffiyeh as well as a shirt that appeared to say "Jesus was a Paleostinian." A Paleostinian flag hung behind him.
In his initial denunciation of the attack — which killed Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young couple who were attending an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee — Christensen said, "I don’t support the slaughter of civilians. That’s not the way to go about it and bring justice."
In the earlier video, he made clear that he still condemned the victims’ activities and affiliations — just not their murders. "These people deserve to be tried and punished and sentenced to jail for their facilitation of this genocide," he said.
He spent much of the video predicting that the attack would lead to a government crackdown on pro-Paleostinian activists, which he compared to Kristallnacht, the mass Nazi pogrom that is considered by many to be the beginning of the Holocaust.
Some of Christensen’s followers said they agreed with that stance. But others rejected it. Many made the case that they believed that the attack had been a "false flag" operation perpetrated by supporters of Israel to galvanize opposition to pro-Paleostinian activism.
Similar comments were unfolding across the internet on Thursday. Pro-Paleostinian activists and groups that denounced the shooting drew a flurry of rebuttals: "Condemn yourselves," one popular account responded to Jewish Voice for Peace’s post decrying the attack on X.
News stories related to the shooting, meanwhile, saw fights play out in their comments section. When the news site Block Club reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... reported on a search of the alleged gunman’s apartment, for example, several responses included requests for Rodriguez’s legal defense fund. The progressive radio show "Democracy Now" elicited comments likening Rodriguez to Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in December — reflecting a trend peeking out across the internet.
Amid this context, by Thursday night, about a day after the murders, Christensen reversed course.
"Israel has livestreamed a genocide to the entire world the last two years," he said regarding the war that began 19 months ago with Hamas’ invasion. "And you cannot expect to do such a thing in this world without the people standing up to fight, to stop you in any way they can, to resist against you, and that is exactly what happened."
Like some who have praised the attack, Christensen denied that it was antisemitic by citing Lischinsky’s self-identification as a Christian. (Lischinsky had posted that he was Christian, and appears to have affiliated as a Messianic Jew, a movement that couples Jewish practices with belief in Jesus as the messiah — an idea considered incompatible with Judaism by all Jewish denominations.)
"Do not let yourself be fooled by the media, by the Zionists in this country who are telling you that this was an antisemitic terrorist attack," he said. "It was not. First of all, the man who was assassinated was a Christian Zionist, proclaiming it so on his social media. He spent his days working at the Israeli Embassy fighting to maintain Israel’s genocide and support for that genocide in this country."
Christensen continued, "He is a war criminal, and the same is true for the woman. This was not because they were Jewish, it was because they were Zionists."
(On Friday afternoon, he posted a "disclaimer" video where he said the following: "Since Zionists on Twitter are going rabid over what I just posted, I just want to disclaim that I’m not suicidal, I would never make a threat that would jeopardize my position to influence and educate people about the atrocity and evils that Zionism is currently bringing down upon the Paleostinian people, especially in Gaza. I hate Nazis and I hate Zionists, so I don’t have a problem with you much if you’re not one of those things.")
He spent much of his video supporting the attack reading the entirety of a manifesto that appears to have been posted by the gunman, titled "Escalate For Gaza, Bring The War Home." In a subsequent video, he expressed fear that pro-Israel activists would spur a federal investigation of him.
After reading the document, Christensen reiterated the reversal of his condemnation of the attack, comparing himself to Luke Skywalker, the protagonist of the Star Wars franchise.
Condemning the attack, he said, would be like "condemning Luke Skywalker for attacking the Death Star because the Empire might crack down on the resistance."
He then signed off.
"We must meet with escalation and stronger resistance," he said. "I hope my retracted condemnation does not allow our government to condemn me to a cell. But I don’t know. Follow my page for more. Thank you and free Paleostine."
A waste of time, but at least it gets the information into the historical record.
[Rudaw] A French-Syrian group has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing Syria’s interim president of being responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, according to a media report.
The Franco-Alawite Collective, which is composed of Alawites, Druze, Kurds, Christians, and Sunnis, filed the complaint against interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, La Belle Franceinfo reported on Friday. They accuse him of orchestrating massacres in March and May that left between 1,700 and 2,000 people dead.
In March, violence erupted like lava from a volcano in Alawite-majority areas after gangs, many loyal to ousted president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... , launched attacks on forces allied with the government, prompting Damascus to respond with force. Around 1,500 people, mainly Alawite civilians, were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said most of the casualties were caused by government or government-affiliated forces. Amnesty International said the mass killings must be investigated as a "war crime."
In April and May, deadly festivities broke out between government forces and Druze fighters.
The collective claims the deaths qualify as genocide or crimes against humanity and say they have video evidence to support their accusations.
"This complaint is in the name of the Syrian people," said Lina Peron, a member of the collective’s legal committee, La Belle Franceinfo reported.
The complaint was submitted to the ICC prosecutor’s office, which will decide whether to open a formal investigation.
Facing international criticism, Sharaa, who led the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) militia that spearheaded the offensive to topple dictator Bashir al-Assad, ordered an investigation into violence against minorities.
Sharaa’s interim government has faced repeated criticism for its treatment of minority groups, with many Syrians and foreign powers fearing it will impose strict religious rule, posing a threat to Kurds, Druze, Christians, and Alawites. The violence heightened concerns over the future of these populations.
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[IsraelTimes] Apparent spam calls use voice of Yosef-Haim Ohana from Hamas video released earlier this month; Hostages Forum say its members also received calls, stresses it is not behind them
Israelis reported receiving recorded voice messages overnight Friday and Saturday of hostages pleading to be released and sounds of explosions in the background, with the National Cyber Directorate saying that the calls were an apparent attempt to create panic among the public.
The calls, which came from unidentified numbers, used recordings taken from a propaganda video released by Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... in May of hostages Yosef-Haim Ohana and Elkana Bohbot.
In the video, Ohana is seen sitting up next to Bohbot, who is lying down on a mattress. "What will happen when I soon won’t be able to be near him and he will remain alone?" Ohana says in the recording.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum released a statement saying that its members had also received the voice messages and that the forum was not behind the recordings.
The National Cyber Directorate said the messages were "an attempt to create panic among the public."
The directorate added that receiving such a call does not harm the phone, but the call should not be answered, and the number should be blocked.
The directorate said the calls were received from the following numbers: 079-9444000; 074-7375311; 072-2604986.
Since taking 251 hostages on October 7, 2023, Hamas has often published videos of the captives as a form of propaganda and psychological warfare.
Bohbot and Ohana were both kidnapped by forces of Evil at the Supernova festival while trying to help injured people.
Terror groups 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 are holding 58 hostages, including 57 of the 251 kidnapped by Hamas-led forces of Evil on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF, and 20 are believed to be alive. There are grave concerns for the well-being of three others, Israeli officials have said.
Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March, and one additional hostage, a dual American-Israeli citizen, in May as a "gesture" to the United States. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 tossed in the slammer anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not Paleostinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazook terror suspects detained during the war.
A number have already been rearrested for misbehaving, and another number have gotten themselves killed, likewise. It’s likely in the end all will achieve one or the other stqte, in boring repetition.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas and is counted among the 58 hostages.
[IsraelNationalNews] Hamas captivity survivor Agam Berger tells France's Foreign Minister that "diplomatic solutions" are futile against Hamas, stating, "it's us or them."
[AnNahar] 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... has multiple major sites associated with its rapidly advancing nuclear program, now the subject of several rounds of negotiations with the United States.
The sites across the country, including one in the heart of Tehran, the capital, show the breadth and history of the program. One in particular, Iran's Natanz enrichment site, has been targeted several times in suspected sabotage attacks by Israel amid tensions between the two Mideast rivals.
Here's a look at some of those major Iranian sites and their importance in Tehran's program.
NATANZ ENRICHMENT FACILITY
Iran's nuclear facility at Natanz, located some 220 kilometers (135 miles) southeast of Tehran, is the country's main enrichment site. Part of the facility on Iran's Central Plateau is underground to defend against potential Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s. It operates multiple cascades, or groups of centrifuges working together to more quickly enrich uranium. Iran also is burrowing into the Kūh-e Kolang Gaz Lā, or "Pickaxe Mountain," which is just beyond Natanz's southern fencing. Natanz has been targeted by the Stuxnet virus, believed to be an Israeli and American creation, which destroyed Iranian centrifuges. Two separate sabotage attacks, attributed to Israel, also have struck the facility.
FORDO ENRICHMENT FACILITY
Iran's nuclear facility at Fordo is located some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Tehran. It also hosts centrifuge cascades, but isn't as big a facility as Natanz. Buried under a mountain and protected by anti-aircraft batteries, Fordo appears designed to withstand airstrikes. Its construction began at least in 2007, according to the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, although Iran only informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog about the facility in 2009 after the U.S. and allied Western intelligence agencies became aware of its existence.
BUSHEHR NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
Iran's only commercial nuclear power plant is in Bushehr on the Persian Gulf, some 750 kilometers (465 miles) south of Tehran. Construction on the plant began under Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the mid-1970s. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the plant was repeatedly targeted in the Iran-Iraq war. Russia later completed construction of the facility. Iran is building two other reactors like it at the site. Bushehr is fueled by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran, and is monitored by the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... ' ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency.
ARAK HEAVY WATER REACTOR
The Arak heavy water reactor is 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of Tehran. Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. That would provide Iran another path to the bomb beyond enriched uranium, should it choose to pursue the weapon. Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the facility to relieve proliferation concerns.
ISFAHAN NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY CENTER
The facility in Isfahan, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) southeast of Tehran, employs thousands of nuclear scientists. It also is home to three Chinese research reactors and laboratories associated with the country's atomic program.
TEHRAN RESEARCH REACTOR
The Tehran Research Reactor is at the headquarters of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the civilian body overseeing the country's atomic program. The U.S. actually provided Iran the reactor in 1967 as part of America's "Atoms for Peace" program during the Cold War. It initially required highly enriched uranium but was later retrofitted to use low-enriched uranium over proliferation concerns.
[IsraelTimes] Syrian authorities announced yesterday an interior ministry restructuring that includes fighting cross-border drug and people smuggling, as they seek to improve ties with Western nations that have lifted sanctions.
Keen to reboot and rebuild nearly 14 years after a devastating civil war broke out, the new authorities in Damascus have hailed Washington’s lifting of US sanctions.
The move was formalized Friday after being announced by President Donald Trump on a Gulf tour this month during which he shook hands with Syria’s jihadist-turned-interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Spokesman Noureddine al-Baba said the interior ministry restructure included reforms and creating “a modern civil security institution that adopts transparency and respects international human rights standards.”
It includes setting up a citizens’ complaints department and incorporating the police and General Security agency into an Internal Security command, he told a press conference.
A border security body for Syria’s land and sea frontiers will be tasked with “combating illegal activities, particularly drug and human smuggling networks,” Baba said.
The restructure includes “strengthening the role of the anti-drug department and further developing its importance within Syria and abroad” after the country became a major exporter of illicit stimulant captagon, he added.
[IsraelTimes] Sweeping economic relief doesn’t include removal of Sharaa’s HTS from terror blacklist; some US officials pushed for phased approach that would include normalizing ties with Israel
The Trump administration granted Syria sweeping exemptions from sanctions Friday in a big first step toward fulfilling the president’s pledge to lift a half-century of penalties on a country shattered by 13 years of civil war.
While broad, the administration’s actions could possibly be reversed. Syrians say they need permanent relief to secure the tens of billions of dollars in investment needed to rebuild after a conflict that fragmented the country, displaced or killed millions of people, and left behind thousands of imported muscle.
A measure by the State Department waived for six months a tough set of sanctions imposed by Congress in 2019.
A measure by the State Department waived for six months a tough set of sanctions imposed by Congress in 2019. A Treasury Department action suspended enforcement of sanctions against anyone doing business with a range of Syrian individuals and entities, including Syria’s central bank.
Trust but verify. And quietly watch where the money flows…
Syria is now led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former militia commander who helped drive longtime autocratic leader Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... from power late last year.
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... announced last week that the US would roll back the heavy financial penalties in a bid to give the interim government a better chance of survival. The Trump administration said businesses and investors are getting the protection against sanctions they need to come back to Syria, calling it "the opportunity for a fresh start."
"The only other option was Syria becoming a failed state and civil war," said Mouaz Moustafa, a Syrian American advocate who had campaigned for quick, broad relief. "Now there is hope for a future democratic Syria."
The congressional sanctions, known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, had aimed to isolate Syria’s previous rulers by effectively expelling those doing business with them from the global financial system. They specifically block postwar reconstruction, so while they can be waived for 180 days by executive order, investors are likely to be wary of reconstruction projects when sanctions could be reinstated after six months.
The Trump administration said Friday’s actions were "just one part of a broader US government effort to remove the full architecture of sanctions." Those penalties had been imposed on the Assad family for their support of Iranian-backed militias, their chemical weapons
...have not been used since WWI except for in Iraq, by the late, unlamented Saddam Hussein and in Syria, but really, honest, not by the Syrian government. And in Germany in WWII, but that was against civilians. Lots of them, just one of many reasons Hitler's also late and unlamented... program and abuses of civilians.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SAYS IT EXPECTS ACTION FROM SYRIA
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... said in a statement Friday that in return for sanctions relief, Trump expects "prompt action by the Syrian government on important policy priorities."
Al-Sharaa’s own past has fueled doubts. The group that he led, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... , was originally affiliated with al-Qaeda, although it later renounced ties and took a more moderate tone. It is still listed by the US as a terrorist organization.
But if al-Sharaa’s government fails, the US and others fear renewed conflict in Syria and a power vacuum that could allow a resurgence of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... and other bad boy groups.
"If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we do not engage them, it was guaranteed not to work out," Rubio told politicians this week.
Trump met al-Sharaa last week in Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... , a day after announcing his intention to lift the sanctions: "We’re taking them all off. Good luck, Syria. Show us something special."
Rubio said sanctions relief must start quickly because Syria’s transition government could be weeks from "collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions."
But asked by politicians this week what sanctions relief should look like overall, Rubio gave a one-word explanation: "Incremental."
DEBATE WITHIN THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
While some sanctions can be quickly waived through executive actions like those taken Friday, Congress would have to permanently remove the penalties it imposed.
Some Trump administration officials have been pushing for relief as fast as possible without demanding tough conditions first. Others have proposed a phased approach, giving short-term waivers right away on some sanctions then tying extensions or a wider executive order to Syria meeting tough conditions.
Critics said that could slow or prevent longer-term relief, hindering the interim government’s ability to attract investment and rebuild.
Proposals circulated among administration officials, including one shared this week that broadly emphasized taking all action possible, as fast as possible, to help Syria rebuild, according to a US official familiar with the plan who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Another proposal — from State Department staff — that circulated last week suggested a three-phase road map, starting with short-term waivers and then laying out sweeping requirements for future phases of relief or a permanent lifting of sanctions, the official said.
Removing "Paleostinian terror groups" from Syria is first on the list of conditions to get to the second phase. Supporters of sanctions relief say that might be impossible, given the subjectivity of determining which groups meet that definition and at what point they can be declared removed.
Other conditions for moving to the second phase are for the new government to take custody of detention facilities housing Islamic State fighters and to move forward on absorbing a US-backed Kurdish force into the Syrian army.
To get to phase three, Syria would be required to join the Abraham Accords — normalized relations with Israel — and to prove that it had destroyed the previous government’s chemical weapons.
Israel has been suspicious of the new government, although Syrian officials have said publicly that they do not want a conflict with Israel. Since Assad fell, Israel has launched hundreds of Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s and seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone in Syria.
[IsraelTimes] Ahmed al-Sharaa meets Thomas Barrack in Turkey, is also hosted by Erdogan, amid reports he kicked Palestinian factions out of Syria as part of US conditions for lifting sanctions
US President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... ’s special envoy to Syria said Saturday he met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and commended the steps he has taken regarding imported muscle and relations with Israel.
Thomas Barrack, a special envoy to Syria and the current US ambassador to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... member, but not the most reliable... , said in a statement that the two met in Istanbul on Saturday, and that he commended Sharaa for "taking meaningful steps" on imported muscle as well as "relations with Israel."
The meeting came a day after a report that leaders of Iran-backed Paleostinian terror groups in Syria, who were close to former president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... , left the country under pressure from Sharaa, citing Paleostinian sources.
The crackdown did not appear to affect the Syrian presence of 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... -based Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... , which is also backed by Iran, nor that of Fatah, the secularist faction that dominates the West Bank-based Paleostinian Authority.
The White House had demanded that Sharaa crack down on Paleostinian terror groups as a condition for the removal of Washington’s sanctions on Damascus.
There have also been unconfirmed reports that Syria’s new regime has held indirect talks with Israel on potential normalization between the two countries, despite Israeli leaders’ deep suspicion of Sharaa due to his jihadi past.
Sharaa was in Istanbul this weekend for an unannounced meeting with Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... , according to the Anadolu state news agency.
The two leaders were seen greeting each other outside Erdogan’s office, ahead of a meeting that private Ottoman Turkish news channel NTV said lasted more than two and a half hours.
The Syrian delegation included its foreign and defense ministers and would "discuss a number of common issues" with the Ottoman Turkish side, the Syrian presidency said on Telegram.
Turkey’s foreign and defense ministers, its intelligence chief and the head of the state defense industry agency also took part, according to Anadolu.
Since Assad’s ouster, the new administration has been looking to build relations with the West and roll back sanctions, but some governments have expressed reluctance, pointing to the Islamist past of leading figures.
Ankara is a firm supporter of Syria’s new Islamist authorities and is seeking to roll back sanctions and rebuild the country’s infrastructure and economy after almost 14 years of civil war. Erdogan also hosted al-Sharaa in February.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/25/2025 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria/HTS
It will be interesting to see whether the HTS government absorbs the ISIS fighters into their ranks or sees them as the undesirable other.
[Rudaw] The Syrian government will assume control of al-Hol and shift focus to rehabilitation of the thousands of suspected Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) sympathizers and family members being held in the camp in northeast Syria, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said on Saturday.
"Regarding the al-Hol camp issue, it is part of the agreement signed between the Presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic and the Syrian Democratic Forces, which stipulates that the Syrian Arab Republic will assume control over all areas in the Syrian Jazira region - namely, in Hasakah and Raqqa areas," Interior Ministry spokesperson Nouraldeen Albaba told Rudaw in a presser on Saturday.
The goal will be to ensure the camp is no longer a source of unrest and extremism. "Now, it will become a comprehensive societal rehabilitation dossier targeting the victims and families of individuals who joined ISIS," he said.
Al-Hol camp in Hasaka province is infamous for its squalid conditions and has been branded a breeding ground for terrorism. Iraqis and Syrians make up the majority of the 40,000 ISIS-linked people who have been held at the camp since the defeat of the group in 2019. There are also people in the camp from around the world who had traveled to join the so-called ISIS caliphate.
A delegation from the Syrian government visited al-Hol camp on Saturday, according to local media. The delegation consisted of 10 people and was the first visit to the camp by the interim government. They were also joined by representatives from the US-led global coalition against ISIS, Ronahi TV reported.
The purpose of the visit was to inspect conditions in the camp and explore returning Syrian nationals to their home regions, according to Ronahi, which is affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) in January announced that its doors are open to the "voluntary return" of Syrians in the camp to their hometowns. Iraq has been repatriating its nationals in groups, putting them through a rehabilitation program before they return to their original homes.
Rojava authorities also have thousands of ISIS fighters detained in jails.
United States President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... , when he met interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa last week, urged him to assume responsibility for ISIS detention centres in Rojava. The newly-appointed US envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack noted progress Damascus has taken on meeting Trump’s request when he met Sharaa in Istanbul on Saturday.
[IsraelTimes] Residents of southern Lebanon voted Saturday in the country’s municipal elections that will test support for Hezbollah in the predominantly Shiite areas, nearly six months after the ceasefire that ended Israel’s war with the Iran-backed terror group, whose leadership was decimated.
Hezbollah is running in an alliance with the Amal group of Lebanon’s powerful Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. Both are expected to win mayoral races and the majority of seats in municipal councils, and have already won many municipalities uncontested.
South Lebanon is the fourth and last district to vote in the elections since May 4. Among those who voted Saturday were Hezbollah members wounded on September 17, 2024, when Israel blew up thousands of booby-trapped pagers it had covertly sold to the terror group.
The attack, which Israel claimed in November, killed at least a dozen people, including at least two children, and wounded some 3,000 people, crippling Hezbollah’s fighting force ahead of an Israeli invasion some two weeks, which sought to end the terror group’s near-daily rocket fire.
“The will of life is stronger than death and the will of construction is stronger than destruction,” Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said during a tour of southern Lebanon on Saturday. He told reporters in his hometown of Aaishiyah that he voted for the first time in 40 years.
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.
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
like lava from a volcano
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
