(archive entries)
Daily Archives: 9. Juni 2026
‘They were laughing’: Israel’s use of rape and sexual abuse in prisons
It was April 10, 2024, during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, at the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The Gaza civil servant had been beaten, tortured, bound and forced to soil himself since his arrest by Israeli soldiers a month earlier.
The soldiers and their guard dogs surrounded him that day. “There were six soldiers on the right and six on the left,” he recalled. “They would ask your name. If you said ‘Muhammad’, they would say, ‘No, say your name is b****.’”
Al-Bakri said he was held with seven other prisoners. They were all stripped, blindfolded and handcuffed.
“We were raped after being stripped of our clothes,” he said. “We were shouting, ‘Oh Lord, oh God’, but they were just laughing and filming us.” Al-Bakri then echoed what several rights agencies have also reported – that guards also used dogs during the sexual abuse of prisoners. “The dogs were following commands from the officers to [attack] us,” he said.
“There was no mercy. We stayed in that state of sexual abuse and beatings for about 20 minutes to half an hour. Then they told us to get dressed and took us back to the prison.”
Lesley Groff, ex-Epstein assistant, denies knowledge of his crimes to the House Oversight Committee
Lesley Groff, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime assistant, denied knowledge of her former boss’s crimes in her transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, the latest witness to testify in the panel’s sprawling Epstein investigation.
“I never saw anything improper,” Groff told members of the committee, a source familiar with the matter told MS NOW.
Groff, who worked for Epstein for nearly 20 years until he was arrested in 2019 on sex trafficking charges, began her testimony before the Republican-led committee around 10 a.m. ET.
The Club de Berne: a black box of growing intelligence cooperation
(April 1, 2020)
“To date, neither the public, nor Parliament, nor other departments have been informed of the existence, let alone the extent, of the practices of this secret service exchange”, Guttmann notes. Her research work in the Swiss Federal Archives however, does not go beyond the 1980s, as more recent files are subject to the usual 30- to 50-year retention period for documents held by federal authorities. Since then, the CdB has largely been a black box.
Israel’s crack spy agencies rely on help from their friends
(October 16, 2025)
When Israel launched its attacks on Iran in the early morning of June 13, many news reports marvelled at the quality and ingenuity of its intelligence agencies in enabling the Israel Defense Forces to strike with such precision. But one element was not talked about in any detail: Israel’s network of relationships with other countries’ intelligence agencies and their contribution to these covert operations.
(…)
While searching the Swiss national archives, I found a large cache of encrypted telegrams that had been shared in a network called Kilowatt. This network involved 18 countries and shared information such as the movements of specific Palestinian people identified as terrorists, including the safe houses and vehicles they used. Mossad was part of Kilowatt and could use the intelligence it received from European partners to plan and carry out its targeted assassinations in Europe. There is also ample evidence in the cables that western governments knew what Mossad was using the intelligence for.
“Club de Berne” meeting in Switzerland
(April 28, 2004)
The CTG was formed in September 2001. Since then it has provided threat assessments to key EU policymakers. Those assessments are based on information provided by member services having access to all relevant intelligence. CTG also provides a forum for experts to develop practical collaboration and an understanding of the terrorist threat.
Europäisches Geheimdienstzentrum soll nicht im EU-Kontext operieren
(March 21, 2016)
Die EU-Kommission ist ebenfalls in der CTG vertreten.
(…)
Die CTG wiederum hat der informelle „Berner Club“ ins Leben gerufen, den 1971 Deutschland, Frankreich, Italien, Großbritannien, Belgien, die Niederlande, Luxemburg, Dänemark und die Schweiz gegründet haben sollen. Obwohl dieses Geheimdienstforum einen Wikipedia-Eintrag hat, will sich die Bundesregierung dazu überhaupt nicht äußern.
Der entsprechende Frageteil könne „aus Gründen des Staatswohls nicht auch nicht in eingestufter Form -“ beantwortet werden, schreibt das Innenressort.
Europäische Inlandsgeheimdienste sind weltweit vernetzt
(05.03.2020)
Das Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz arbeitet im „Berner Club“ mit den Auslandsgeheimdiensten Mossad und CIA zusammen. Mit weiteren Behörden tauscht der deutsche Inlandsgeheimdienst Informationen zu „nicht-islamistischem Terrorismus“ sowie „Rechts- und Linksextremismus“. Wegen des „Staatswohls“ hielt die Bundesregierung diese Details bislang geheim.
Death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2 rises to 3,666
The Lebanese Ministry of Health says a total of 3,666 people have been killed since Israel escalated its attacks on the country on March 2.
A further 11,321 people have been wounded, according to the ministry.
At least eight killed by Israeli strike on Tyre before order
Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli air strike on the southern city of Tyre on Tuesday killed at least eight people and wounded 32 others, noting the toll was provisional.
The strike was before Israel’s military issued an expulsion order for the entire city and surrounding areas, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.
Israel launches new Lebanon strikes even as Trump insists Iran deal coming soon
Hours after the president’s latest optimistic assessment, Israel renewed its military assault in Lebanon, striking the southern city of Tyre and issuing an evacuation warning that for the first time included the port’s Christian quarter.
WATCH: Trump says Iran deal could be signed within days
President Trump says Washington is in the final stages of negotiating an agreement with Iran and believes a deal could be signed within days.
Trump told reporters the accord would prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and lead to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz “immediately” after signing.