When ISIS seized swathes of Iraqi land in 2014, Peshmerga played a key role in driving the extremist group out of the areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, especially Kirkuk. The US-led global coalition provided Peshmerga and Iraqi forces with military assistance to defeat ISIS territorially, which was completed in 2017.
Barzani and Leahy also discussed the latest developments in Syria and their impact on neighboring countries.
(December 13, 2012)
Die neuesten Äußerungen von Sergej Lawrows Stellvertreter, Mikhail Bogdanov, sind ein weiteres, unleugbares Anzeichen dafür, dass die derzeitige Regierung in Moskau, wenn nicht sogar Russlands Präsident Wladimir Putin, bei der laufenden Invasion und Zerschlagung Syriens durch Proxy-Armeen einfallender Militärmächte – namentlich der Türkei, Frankreich, U.S.A., Großbritannien, sowie diverser asiatischer Kirchenstaaten und Monarchien – aktiv oder passiv kollaboriert.
Following Assad’s downfall, Russia relocated its troops and assets from all over Syria to its main hub at the Hmeimim air base near Latakia. There has been no indication that Moscow was preparing to evacuate the Hmeimim base or the naval facility in Tartus altogether.
The documents reveal that dozens of units in the Israeli army have purchased services from Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, Azure, in recent months — including units in the air, ground, and naval forces, as well as the elite intelligence squad, Unit 8200. Microsoft has also provided the military with extensive access to OpenAI’s GPT-4 language model, the engine behind ChatGPT, thanks to the close partnership between the two companies.
These revelations are the product of an investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call in collaboration with The Guardian.
The FBI started spying on renowned German-born scientist Albert Einstein when he moved to America in 1933, shortly before Adolf Hitler rose to power. Agents listened to the physicist‘s phone calls and searched his mail and trash, suspecting he was a Soviet spy. The surveillance, totalling 1,800 pages, ended with Einstein‘s death on April 18, 1955, with no supporting evidence.
(January 18, 2021)
One of the biggest lessons contained in the documents is abundantly clear: Whatever you do, don’t let them think you’re a communist.
For Hoover, an Ahab-type character in pursuit of his cursed whale, the mere whiff of such leanings could trigger the dirtiest of tricks in the FBI’s arsenal.
“No holds were barred,” said assistant FBI director William C. Sullivan in his testimony for the U.S. Senate’s Church Committee, as recorded in documents held by the Library and freely available on the digital repository HathiTrust. “We have used (these techniques) against Soviet agents. They have used (them) against us.”
“We did not differentiate,” Sullivan said. “This is a rough, tough business.”
Die Deutschen hielten Rücksprache mit dem ausländischen Nachrichtendienst. Dieser scheint den angeblich brisanten Chat von einem sogenannten Nachrichtenhändler eingekauft zu haben, der Zugang zu der Kommunikation gehabt haben muss. Nachrichtenhändler sind Personen, die Nachrichtendiensten Informationen für Geld anbieten, die sie anderweitig und manchmal auch illegal erhalten.
Naheliegend ist, dass dieser Nachrichtenhändler einen harmlosen Chat von A. fingiert hat, um den Hinweis zu Geld machen zu können.
/December 26, 2024)
The weeks running up to the election: a campaign called #BalanceAndIntegrity begins on TikTok. Roughly 130 influencers follow a similar script to make videos describing qualities of a future unnamed president. Some of the influencers do, however, write in the comments of the video: “Călin Georgescu.”
Nov. 24: The presidential election. Georgescu — a relative unknown who runs on a Christian conservative, economic populist and non-interventionist policy towards Project Ukraine — surprisingly comes out on top. Disaffected working class voters back him strongly as he wins more than 2 million votes (23 percent) in the first round. As no candidate achieved an absolute majority, a second round was to be held on Dec. 8.
Nov. 28: Romania’s Supreme Country Defense Council (CSAT) announces that “cyber attacks with the aim of influencing the correctness of the electoral process” took place and, separately, that “a candidate for the presidential elections benefited from a massive exposure due to the preferential treatment that the TikTok platform granted him by not marking him as a political candidate.”
(December 20, 2024)
Snoop a aflat că ANAF a descoperit în aceste zile că „acțiunea de campanie Echilibru și Verticalitate, de pe pe TikTok, a fost plătită din banii Partidului Național Liberal”, conform unei surse confidențiale, la curent cu rezultatul cercetării ANAF.
Informația a fost confirmată pentru Snoop din discuțiile și corespondența purtată chiar cu firma angajată de PNL, Kensington Communication, care a gândit campania.
Firma a plătit 130 de influenceri cooptați pe platforma FameUp, dar susține că „forma generată de Kensington Communication a suportat unele modificări, care nu aparțin echipei noastre și nici nu avem cunoștință să fi fost solicitate de către reprezentanți ai partidului”.
Kensington spune că „hashtag-ul ales de compania noastră a fost #echilibrusiseriozitate, acesta fiind schimbat în platforma FameUp, fără implicarea noastră, în #echilibrusiverticalitate”.
(December 23, 2024)
The Romanian National Liberal Party (PNL), one of the ruling parties in Romania, financed a TikTok campaign that intelligence services used as evidence of “foreign interference” in favor of independent candidate Calin Georgescu, according to a new report by the investigative portal snoop.ro.
(December 22, 2024)
Russia was accused of interfering in Romania’s November 24 presidential election that saw far-right and pro-Russian outsider Calin Georgescu storm to a shock first round victory. But an investigation by the tax authorities has exonerated the Kremlin and revealed the highly effective TikTok campaign was funded by the liberal, pro-EU National Liberal Party (PNL) in an effort to knock out a rival in a plan that badly backfired.
Auch eine Verbindung zur Explosion eines Tesla Cybertrucks vor einem Trump-Hotel in Las Vegas sei zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt nicht erkennbar. Der Vorfall, bei dem der Fahrer des Wagens in Las Vegas getötet wurde, ereignete sich nur wenige Stunden nach der Attacke in New Orleans. Ein Zusammenhang erschien zunächst naheliegend, weil sowohl der aktive US-Soldat der Eliteeinheit der Green Berets als auch der mutmaßliche New-Orleans-Täter, Shamsud-Din J., einige Zeit auf dem Stützpunkt Fort Liberty (ehemals: Fort Bragg) gedient hatten. Man sehe bislang aber keine Überschneidung der Dienstzeiten der beiden Männer in Fort Bragg, teilte das FBI mit.
The officials spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation. Livelsberger, 37, has several addresses associated with him and was on leave from Germany, where he was serving with the 10th Special Forces Group.
The Colorado Springs resident suspected of detonating a Tesla Cybertruck in front of a Las Vegas hotel and the Texas man accused of driving a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans served at the same military base, sources told Scripps News Denver.
Livelsberger was a member of the Army’s elite Green Berets, a special forces unit and guerrilla warfare experts, according to an Army statement reported by the Associated Press. He has served in the Army since 2006, rising through the ranks, and was on approved leave when he died, the statement said. The Green Berets work to counter terrorists abroad using unconventional techniques.
Livelsberger spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to Army special forces command.
On Dec. 6, the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and National Counterterrorism Center issued a joint intel bulletin warning law enforcement about the ongoing serious threat posed by lone offenders during the winter holiday season.
(,,,)
„Lone offenders have historically used simple tactics, such as edged weapons, firearms, or vehicle ramming, due to their ease of access, ability to inflict mass casualties, and lack of required training,“ the bulletin stated.
(December 22, 2024)
Assad‘s fall has left the Kurdish factions on the back foot as they seek to retain political gains made in the last 13 years.
In an interview with France 24, Fidan said Ankara‘s preferred option was for the new administration in Damascus to address the problem in line with Syria‘s territorial unity, sovereignty, and integrity, adding that the YPG should be disbanded immediately.
Regional premier says suspect is doctor, 50, who lived in Germany since 2006, showed support for far-right AfD;
Holger Münch, Präsident des Bundeskriminalamts (BKA), besichtigt vor Beginn der Herbsttagung des BKA mit dem Schwerpunkt künstliche Intelligenz den Veranstaltungssaal. (…)
Der Chef des Bundeskriminalamts (BKA), Holger Münch, hat bestätigt, dass das BKA im November 2023 einen Hinweis aus Saudi-Arabien zu dem mutmaßlichen Attentäter des Magdeburger Weihnachtsmarktes bekommen habe. Im heute-journal des ZDF sagte er, „hier ist auch ein Verfahren eingeleitet worden.
(December 17, 2024)
In the petition, Adalah Attorney Salam Irsheid argued that the law is clearly racist in intent, especially given the widespread persecution and criminalization of hundreds of Palestinian citizens by Israeli authorities and other entities since the outbreak of the war 7 October 2023, for merely expressing entirely lawful opinions. The law’s deliberate vagueness, and the fact that it only addresses “incitement to terrorism”—which is used almost exclusively to target Palestinians—while excluding incitement to violence or racism, highlights its discriminatory purpose. By granting broad, unchecked powers to political and administrative authorities, the law enables punitive actions to be taken against Palestinian educators for expressing views that fall outside the mainstream consensus, thereby severely undermining their basic right to freedom of expression. Adalah further argued that the law breaches the principle of the separation of powers, as it grants the Education Ministry the authority to infringe on teachers’ rights to freedom of expression and occupation, effectively requiring a determination of whether they have committed a criminal offense, even if no charges have been filed against them.
Hadash MKs opposed the proposed legislation, calling it “dime-store fascist populism and McCarthyism.” According to Hadash MK Aida Touma-Sliman, “The Knesset is advancing two bills targeting critical students and professors, aimed primarily at Palestinian and leftist voices in academia. These bills seek to silence any remaining voices resisting the government’s policies of occupation and war. This marks another step in the fascist agenda to suppress any real opposition to the extreme right. Heads of universities, professors, and students recognize the danger of such legislation and are voicing their opposition.
On past week, the Knesset plenum, in a preliminary reading, passed a proposed law that would amend the Students Rights Law, allowing most Israeli higher education institutions to implement gender separation. MK Son Har-Melech proposed the law, which 55 members of the Knesset (MKs) supported and 45 MKs opposed.
After countless social media users shredded CNN’s story, a fact-checking organization with ties to the US government has exposed the prisoner seemingly liberated in Ward’s theatrical performance turns out to have been a low level Syrian intelligence official jailed for corruption and abuse charges.
CNN finally addressed the deepening scandal on December 15, declaring that it would investigate the subject of Ward’s piece. However, the network continues to protect the correspondent responsible for the journalistic flim-flam, while rebroadcasting the staged report for its views day after day.
On December 12, CNN published a video report on its website, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) titled, „CNN Reporter Documents a Shocking Moment of Finding a Prisoner Held in a Secret Syrian Jail, Unaware of Assad’s Overthrow.“ In the footage, CNN’s correspondent Clarissa Ward is seen accompanied by an armed individual as they open a cell in a Damascus prison. The report features a man named „Adel Gharbal“ from Homs, who claims he was arrested three months earlier for having his phone searched and was taken to Damascus, initially held in an unnamed prison before being transferred to the location shown in the video. According to the report, this transfer occurred three days after the fall of Assad‘s regime.
The man, hidden under a blanket despite the gunshots used to break his cell lock, claimed he had not seen sunlight for three months.
(December 8, 2024)
The Bashar al-Assad regime’s rapid collapse deals a heavy blow to Iran’s “axis of resistance” and its ability to project power in the region, and it raises fears Iran will focus more on developing its nuclear program.
Zum anderen dürfte das, was wir in Syrien sehen, der Hinweis auf eine etwas größer angelegte türkische Strategie sein. Ich vermute, dass die Türkei längerfristig große Teile von Nord- und Ostsyrien einer zumindest indirekten Kontrolle unterwerfen und damit vor allem das kurdische Autonomiegebiet im Nordosten Syriens in Schach halten oder sogar beseitigen will. Dort herrscht nämlich ein Ableger der türkischen PKK.
(November 30,2024)
Opposition sources in touch with Turkish intelligence said Turkey, which supports the rebels, had given a green light to the offensive. Turkish officials were not immediately available to comment on Saturday.
(November 30, 2024)
Militants from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) currently invading Aleppo, Syria‘s second-largest city, are taking orders from Turkish intelligence, French news agency AFP reported on 30 November.
Only hours after the cabinet voted unanimously on Sunday to support a boycott of the left-wing Haaretz daily, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation gave its backing to a bill mandating the privatization of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation within two years, effectively closing down the public broadcaster.
The private member’s bill, sponsored by Likud MK Tally Gotliv, would require the government to issue a tender for the purchase of the television and radio networks controlled by the IPBC, which operates the Kan public broadcaster and Reshet Bet radio, among others.
Ahmed Khalefa’s life turned upside down after he was charged with inciting terrorism for chanting in solidarity with Gaza at an anti-war protest in October 2023.
The lawyer and city counselor from central Israel says he spent three difficult months in jail followed by six months detained in an apartment. It’s unclear when he’ll get a final verdict on his guilt or innocence. Until then, he’s forbidden from leaving his home from dusk to dawn.
According to Spiegel, SPD members of the Bundestag in a recent meeting joined local and regional politicians in voicing doubts over Scholz’s chances to succeed and called for Pistorius to step in.
The comments were made on Tuesday at a meeting of the Seeheimer Kreis (Seeheim Circle), a conservative wing of the SPD which claims to be aiming at “a modern and pragmatic policy,” the German newspaper reported
Baghaei said the repetition of such claims at this juncture is “a malicious conspiracy by Zionist and anti-Iranian circles aimed at further complicating the issues between the United States and Iran.”
It came after Trump was declared the winner of the presidential election on Wednesday. On July 13, Trump survived an assassination attempt, suffering only minor injury to his ear.
In August, Iran dismissed having any connection with a Pakistani individual allegedly arrested in the United States and charged with being behind a foiled plot to assassinate US politicians.
Prosecutors allege Shakeri – who participated in recorded conversations with law enforcement – was originally tasked by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to carrying out other assassinations against US and Israeli citizens inside the US. (…)
Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, in statements released Friday, denounced the continued threats from the Iranian government against individuals in the United States.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Garland said.
The bill was attacked during the debate in the plenum by Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi, who retweeted a statement by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) arguing that its purpose was “to regulate the discourse in schools and to harm teachers whose statements and worldview do not coincide with those of the education minister and the political parties controlling the Education Ministry.”
“The purpose of the law is to threaten teachers and principals of Arab schools, to mark them and make them a target for surveillance and persecution,” the rights group stated, arguing that the tools already at its disposal before the current law were “adequate and sufficient.” “The law severely violates the rights to expression, employment and pedagogical autonomy of teachers and administrators,” it added. The teachers’ unions also opposed the bill.
Israel’s Justice Minister Yariv Levin has announced Thursday, October 31, he’s pushing a bill to impose 20-year prison sentences on Israelis who advocate for sanctions against the country or its leaders. In other words: 20-year prison sentence for exercising freedom of speech in Israel.
The far-right government craziness in Israel is intensifying after a “Call for International Pressure,” initiated by Academy for Equality activists, was wide-world published last week and signed by over three thousands petitioners, including a group of leading Israeli academics, among them: Anat Matar, Smadar Ben-Natan, Moshé Behar, Tamir Sorek, Rafi Greenberg, Shira Klein, Lior Sternfeld, Ophira Gamliel, Hilla Dayan, Regev Nathansohn, Uri Hadar, Snait Gissis, Amalia Saar, Avishai Ehrlich, Efraim Davidi, Maya Rosenfeld, Avraham Oz, Ronnen Ben-Arie, Yael Berda, Anat Biletzki, Sivan Rajuan Shtang, Hannan Hever, Orly Lubin, Raz Chen-Morris, Hannah Safran, Revital Madar, Ilana Hairston, Amos Goldberg, Tamar Hager and Miriam Eliav-Feldon.
The petition stated, “We, Israeli citizens, living in Israel and abroad, are calling on the international community – the United Nations and its institutions, the United States, the European Union, the Arab League and all the countries of the world – to intervene immediately and apply every possible sanction… put real pressure on Israel for an immediate ceasefire.”
Among the acts that would be construed as support for terror would be visiting the family of an attack suspect.
According to the proposal sponsored by Likud MK Ofir Katz, a candidate can be banned by the Central Election Committee without needing the final approval of the High Court of Justice, as is currently required. The proposed law is at base to ban Hadash and Arab parties from participating in the election, as well as weaken the Supreme Court’s power to overturn the decision. Furthermore, since left-wing and Arab voters do not belong to the right-wing camp, blocking participation of Hadash and Arab parties will also benefit the current far-right governing coalition electorally and increase its chances to win the next election.
The Senate will vote on these resolutions when it reconvenes in November. Let me explain why these arms sales must not proceed.
Israel clearly had the right to respond to Hamas’ horrific terrorist attack on October 7th, which killed 1,200 innocent Israelis and took hundreds of hostages. But Prime Minister Netanyahu’s extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas. It has waged all-out war against the Palestinian people, killing more than 41,000 Palestinians and injuring more than 95,000 – 60 percent of whom are women, children, or elderly people. Netanyahu has bombed hospitals and schools, starved children, destroyed infrastructure and housing stock, and made life unlivable in Gaza. The United States must end its complicity in this atrocity.
Sending more weapons is not only immoral, it is also illegal. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act lay out clear requirements for the use of American weaponry – Israel has egregiously violated those rules.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and a pair of his Senate colleagues on Wednesday formally introduced resolutions aimed at blocking a series of proposed arms sales to the Israeli government as it bombards Gaza and Lebanon, deepening humanitarian crises there and pushing the region to the brink of all-out war.
The six Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, five of which were backed by Sens. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), would together prevent the sale of $20 billion of U.S. weaponry to Israel. The Biden administration approved the massive sale of Joint Direct Attack Munitions, tank ammunition, F-15 fighter jets, and other military equipment last month.
Gov. Gavin Newsom Wednesday criticized law enforcement‘s slow response to violent brawls that broke out between pro-Palestinian protesters and counter demonstrators on the UCLA campus Tuesday night.
“The limited and delayed campus law enforcement response at UCLA last night was unacceptable – and it demands answers,” Newsom said in a statement. “As soon as it became clear that the state assistance was needed to support a local response, our office immediately deployed CHP personnel to campus.”
Kiesewetter sprach sich auch dafür aus, „extremistische Bereiche“ in den Blick zu nehmen. Konkret nannte er „AfD-Sympathisanten, die sich Russland freiwillig andienen“ sowie deutsche Kämpfer bei russischen Söldner-Truppen oder anderen russischen Kampftruppen, die nach Deutschland zurückkehrten.
Germany has been most prominent in this regard. In 2023 30% of Israel’s military equipment purchases totalling US$326 million came from Berlin. The Scholz government has also been a firm public supporter of Israel’s offensive. “There is only one place for Germany at this time, and that is by Israel’s side,” proclaimed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to German lawmakers on October 12 last year. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock curtly stated that “It was not the job of politicians to tell the guns to shut up.
Baerbock’s remarks were all the more jarring given the 2006 views of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was then serving as Germany’s foreign minister. With puffed up confidence, he claimed then that Europeans and Germans had played a seminal role in ending the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon in “silencing of the guns.”
After a week of being very careful regarding statements directed at Iran, the US gave Israel something to be satisfied about on Wednesday. US President Joe Biden said America’s commitment to Israel’s security, amid the threats from Iran and its proxies, is “ironclad.”
Biden’s statements are aimed directly at Iran, and it’s certainly possible that they’re the result of a worrying intelligence assessment Israel presented to the US.
Gen. Erik Kurilla, commander of the U.S. Central Command, is expected to meet Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and senior Israel Defense Forces officials.
Israeli officials say they are preparing for a possible unprecedented direct attack from Iranian soil using ballistic missiles, drones and cruise missiles against Israeli targets.
In such a scenario, Israel will retaliate with a direct attack against Iran, the officials said.
„Regarding the events in Moscow‘s Crocus City in the Russian suburbs, where a shooting took place just today, certain terrorist actions by unidentified persons. Let‘s make it clear: Ukraine absolutely has nothing to do with these events,“ Podoliak said in a special video message.
As he noted, „firstly, we are in a full-scale, full-fledged, large, intense war with the Russian regular army and with the Russian Federation as a country. And everything will be decided on the battlefield. It is important for Ukraine to conduct effective combat operations, offensive actions in order to destroy the Russian regular army and thus end this war.“
Secondly, according to Podolyak, Ukraine has never used terrorist methods of warfare. At the same time, he noted that, for its part, it is in Russia‘s recent history that it has repeatedly used certain terrorist acts against its own citizens.
Simonyan explained that the perpetrators were chosen to carry out the attack in a manner that would allow the West to persuade the international community that ISIS was behind the attack.
“Basic sleight of hand. The level of a railway thimble-rigger,“ she added.“ It has nothing to do with ISIS. It‘s Ukrainians.“
She added that the enthusiasm displayed by Western media when they tried to persuade everyone that ISIS was responsible even before arrests were made gave them away completely.
“This is not ISIS. This is a well-coordinated team of several other, also widely known, abbreviations,“ Simonyan concluded.
The man also said that the curators, whom he supposedly does not know personally, had contacted him via Telegram messaging app, and arranged an arms cache for the assailants.
According to the suspect, he had been “listening to sermons… by a preacher” on Telegram for some time before being approached by the supposed masterminds of Friday’s attack “around a month ago.”
Aus dem aufgezeichneten Verhör geht hervor, dass alle vier Verdächtigen am 4. März aus der Türkei nach Russland eingereist sind. Einer von ihnen spricht gebrochenes Russisch, kann sich aber ohne Dolmetscher verständigen. Bei einem anderen wurde eine Dolmetscherin, offenbar für Tadschikisch, hinzugezogen. Die massenhafte Tötung von Menschen in der „Crocus City Hall“ am Freitagabend haben die Männer ohne Umschweife gestanden.
Einer der Vernommenen gab auf die Frage, warum er die Konzertbesucher ermordet hat, an, die Tat für Geld verübt zu haben. Als Summe nennt er 500.000 Rubel (etwa 5.000 Euro).
Four assailants were apprehended in Bryansk Region near the border, and are being transported to Moscow. According to the FSB, the perpetrators of the terrorist attack – which has left at least 115 people dead – had contacts on Ukrainian soil.
“After committing the crime, the perpetrators attempted to flee, driving in a car in the direction of the Russia-Ukraine border,” the authorities stated. However, “all four [suspected] terrorists” were detained within several hours.
(19.03.2024)
It was here, he recalled, inside this hulking red brick school deep in south Brooklyn, where at 16 he was glued to his transistor radio to hear breaking news of the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. It was where he idolized Sandy Koufax, the Jewish pitcher for the Dodgers who refused to play on Yom Kippur, and learned it was cool to be proud of his heritage.
And on Sunday, Mr. Schumer, the New York Democrat, majority leader and highest-ranking Jewish official in the United States, returned to explain how his upbringing in Jewish Brooklyn in the shadow of the Holocaust prompted him to deliver a politically risky speech that brought about a watershed moment in the politics of U.S.-Israeli relations.
“I spent two months thinking about this and wrestling with it,” Schumer told me in an interview Friday. Far from being an attack on Israel, Schumer said, it was an attempt to shore up support for the Jewish state, particularly among young Americans who have known Israel only under Netanyahu’s leadership.
(15.03.2024)
But sometimes in Washington, the most telling indicator is not a public statement but the absence of one. Mr. Biden could have asked Mr. Schumer to hold back, so that he did not endanger the president’s future ability to deal with Mr. Netanyahu, with whom he now barely speaks. He could have said the United States should not express an opinion on the inner workings of Israel’s democratic processes. He did none of that.
Lawmakers and aides who have spoken with Mr. Biden in recent weeks say his anger at Mr. Netanyahu is now eating away at his reluctance to go public with his critiques.
What they are saying: „I‘m not going to elaborate on his speech,“ Biden said in response to a question at the top of his meeting with the prime minister of Ireland at the White House.
„He made a good speech, and I think he expressed serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans,“ Biden added.
(14.03.2024)
Behind the scenes: Schumer told senior White House officials on Wednesday that he was going to give a speech about Israel, but he didn‘t give them a copy of the speech or ask for their permission, U.S. officials told Axios.
(…)
„I don‘t know if people in Israel really understand how big of a step it is for him to do this,“ one U.S. official said.
(14.03.2024)
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., delivered an address on the Senate floor to call for a two-state solution amid the conflict in Gaza and new elections in Israel.
Netanyahu sei „vom Weg abgekommen, indem er sein politisches Überleben über die besten Interessen Israels gestellt hat“. Die vom israelischen Regierungschef eingegangene Koalition mit weit rechts stehenden Extremisten habe zur Folge, dass Netanyahu „zu sehr bereit“ sei, „die zivilen Opfer im Gazastreifen zu tolerieren“. Dieses Handeln lasse die weltweite Unterstützung für Israel auf einen Tiefstand sinken. Das Land könne aber nicht überleben, wenn es zu einem „Paria“ – einem Ausgestoßenen – werde, warnte Schumer.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s warning that Israel risked becoming a “pariah” and his call for new elections marked a momentous moment in modern US-Israel relations.
(14.03.2024)
„As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7. The world has changed — radically — since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past,“ he said.
„At this critical juncture, I believe a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel, at a time when so many Israelis have lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government,“ he said.
(…)
He also called for a two-state solution.
(…)
Schumer also called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to step aside.
(20.02.2024)
Joseph and the former director-general of the national police, Leon Charles, were also found to have “sufficient indications” of involvement in the killing. AyiboPost specified that the document did not clearly identify the masterminds of the assassination, nor their financiers.
(20.02.2024)
A judge in Haiti responsible for investigating the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse has indicted his widow, Martine Moïse, ex-prime minister Claude Joseph and the former chief of Haiti’s National Police, Léon Charles, among others, according to a report obtained Monday.
Others who face charges including murder are Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian-American pastor who visualized himself as Haiti’s next president and said he thought Moïse was only going to be arrested; Joseph Vincent, a Haitian-American and former informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; Dimitri Hérard, presidential security chief; John Joël Joseph, a former Haitian senator; and Windelle Coq, a Haitian judge whom authorities say is a fugitive.
(09.07.2021)
Solages also worked as a security guard for the Canadian Embassy in Port-Au-Prince. (…)
Despite an obvious failure in police operations, the masthead of the police force has not changed, with Charles remaining the Chief of Police, despite claims from Haitian journalists that he gave the order to allow the caravan of assassins into the President’s neighborhood. In February, the Haitian National Police began a partnership with Colombian police forces, but it is unknown if any of the mercenaries arrested participated in this arrangement.
In the two days since the attack, former Prime Minister turned interim President Joseph has consolidated power. In 2004, Joseph was a member of the group Grenn Nan Bouda (GNB) which means “balls up your ass” in Haitian Creole. GNB participated in the coup to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide that same year.
Joseph was not elected to his position, but was appointed in April by Moïse, and served only three months as Prime Minister. After declaring himself interim President, he has been breezily accepted by the international community, including the United States.
The British public should realise that Muslim scapegoats today, much like the Jewish, Irish or Black scapegoats used by demagogues yesterday, are not their enemies
In an earlier statement, Gove‘s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the definition had been updated to respond to an “increased extremist threat since October 7 terror attacks in Israel”, citing an increase in reported antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes.
It said the new definition would be used by government departments and officials to help them decide which groups they should engage with and fund, and to identify “extremist organisations, individuals and behaviours”.
But it said: “This definition is not statutory and has no effect on the existing criminal law – it applies to the operations of Government itself.”
(12.01.2024)
UANI’s board is a who’s who of high state, military and intelligence officials from around the Western world. Among its more notable members include:
– CEO Mark Wallace, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and deputy campaign manager for George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection.
– Chairman Joe Lieberman, former senator and Democratic vice-presidential nominee for the 2000 election.
Tamir Pardo, Director of the Mossad, 2011-2016.
Dennis Ross, former State Department Director of Policy Planning and former Middle East Envoy under George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Field Marshall Lord Charles Guthrie, ex-Chief of Staff of the U.K. Armed Forces.
– Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida.
– August Hanning, President of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), 1998-2005; State Secretary at the Federal Interior Ministry, 2005-2009.
– Zohar Palti, former head of the Political-Military Bureau, Israeli Ministry of Defense; former Director of Intelligence of the Mossad.
– Frances Townsend, Homeland Security Advisor to President George W. Bush.
– John Bolton, former U.S. National Security Advisor and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
– Roger Noriega, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and Ambassador to the Organization of American States.
– Otto Reich, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and architect of the 2002 U.S. coup against Venezuela.
– Michael Singh, White House Senior Director for Near East and North African Affairs, 2007-2008.
– Giulio Terzi di Sant-Agata, former Italian Foreign Minister.
– Robert Hill, former Minister of Defense of Australia.
– Jack David, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction, 2004-2006.
– Mark Kirk, U.S. Senator for Illinois, 2010-2017.
– Lt. Gen. Sir Graeme Lamb, ex-Director of U.K. Special Forces and Commander of the British Field Army.
– Norman Roule, former CIA Division Chief and National Intelligence Manager for Iran at the Director of National Intelligence.
– Irwin Cotler, Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General, 2003-2006.
– Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, U.K. Minister of State for Security and Counter Terrorism, 2010-2011.
In the newspaper Al Khaleej, the novelist, poet, and critic Mohammed Al-Assad wrote of The Parachute Paradox:
What is identity? Is it assigned through words? Are they the labels we are born into and continue on living under in their shadows? The current Palestinian answer was proposed by the experiences of Edward Said who said that identity has a fluid nature––it does not settle, or rather it should not settle. He described it as whatever the person wants it to be, subject to constant change. But Steve adds new meaning in his book, derived from his life in exiled Jerusalem, and then in exile in London and Berlin, where he now lives. His multiplicitous identity arose from where he was born amongst standardized labels, from family, to community and the wider homeland. Steve doesn‘t state that he is with the case of his nation, exposed to all kinds of uprooting from the self and the land. This is a given, unarguable. But, and this is more important, he is for justice—in any time and any place. Here, the artist rises to an identity that he starts to embroider with threads of what he sees, knows and learns
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Paragliders were used by Hamas to breach the Gaza/Israel border during the terror attacks on 7 October where a large number of civilians were killed, and others were taken hostage.
KIVI wurde zunächst für deutschsprachige Inhalte entwickelt. Dafür sucht KIVI etwa nach verdächtigen Wörtern. Die genaue Liste möchte die Medienaufsicht jedoch nicht offenlegen. Bislang bekannte Wörter sind etwa „Terror“, „Mord“, „Islam“, „Juden“, „Christen“ – sie können KIVI etwa auf extremistische Inhalte hinweisen.
Beim Einsatz in Belgien geht es um Inhalte auf Französisch.
In dem Video sagt die gebürtige Freiburgerin: Wir müssen den „Einsatz gegen Fake News und Verschwörungsmythen intensivieren, indem wir die Vernetzungen der verschiedenen Akteure offenlegen. Wir brauchen weitere konkrete Maßnahmen, wie zum Beispiel eine virtuelle Polizeiwache, sodass jede Bürgerin, jeder Bürger Hass, Hetze, Beleidigungen, Bedrohungen, Antisemitismus bequem und einfach von zu Hause aus vom Sofa aus anzeigen kann. Wir müssen unsere Sicherheitsbehörden gut ausstatten, damit sie den Fahndungs- und den Ermittlungsdruck auf die rechte Szene erhöhen, dass sie die digitalen Machenschaften noch besser in den Blick nehmen können. Wir sollten darüber diskutieren, ob eine Prüfung eines AfD-Verbots nicht sinnvoll wäre. Auch davor sollten wir uns nicht scheuen…….“
The true protagonists in the February 8 national polls in Pakistan were two individuals — Army Chief General Asim Munir and former Prime Minister and founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party, Imran Khan. Munir used all levers of state power from behind the scenes and through other institutions and individuals to try to grind Khan into electoral dust. With results of 250 of the 266 general seats contested in the elections announced so far, it is certain, that he has failed to do so.