The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."
The B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range heavy bomber that has the ability to perform various missions, according to the US Air Force.
The U.S. military unveils a B-52 strategic bomber at an
air base in Cheongju, South Korea, on Oct. 19, 2023, two days after it
landed there.(photo credit: Kyodo News via Getty Images)
B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers have arrived in the Middle East
area after being deployed by the US, the United States Central Command
(CENTCOM) announced late on Saturday night in an X/Twitter post.
According
to the post, the B-52 bombers arrived in CENTCOM's area of
responsibility, which includes the Middle East region, and were sent
from the Minot Air Force Base's 5th Bomb Wing.
B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers from Minot Air Force Base's 5th Bomb Wing arrived in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. pic.twitter.com/6mDs4n5G2u
The B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range heavy bomber that has the
ability to perform various missions, according to the US Air Force.
Furthermore,
the US Air Force said the B-52 is capable of flying at "high subsonic
speeds," and it can carry "nuclear or precision guided conventional
ordnance with worldwide precision navigation capability."
"In
a conventional conflict, the B-52 can perform strategic attack,
close-air support, air interdiction, offensive counter-air and maritime
operations," the US Air Force added.
A US Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bomber, manufactured by Boeing Co.,
at an air base in Cheongju, South Korea, on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023
(credit: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The
timing of B-52 bombers' arrival to the region comes as Israel prepares
for an anticipated Iranian attack in response to the Israeli strike last
week on missile production facilities in the Islamic Republic.
The Pentagon said on Friday that the deployment would occur throughout the coming months.
"Should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target
American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will
take every measure necessary to defend our people," Pentagon
spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said in a statement.
How does the B-52 Stratofortress operate?
According
to the US Air Force, the B-52s can be equipped with electro-optical
viewing sensors to improve targeting and combat ability.
Pilots
operating the bombers wear night vision goggles during night
operations. Additionally, the B-52s are reportedly effective for ocean
surveillance and have the ability to "monitor 140,000 square miles
(364,000 square kilometers) of the ocean surface," the US Air Force
noted.
During Desert Storm, B-52s delivered 40 percent of all the weapons dropped by coalition forces, the US Air Force added.
Tovah Lazaroff and Reuters contributed to this report.
Had Israel complied with the Biden-Harris administration's request and not gone into Rafah, Sinwar would still be preparing the next massacres and making sure that Hamas keeps stealing the humanitarian aid intended for the people of Gaza.
US President Joe Biden said
that Sinwar had been an "insurmountable obstacle" and that his death
offered "the opportunity... for a political settlement" in Gaza. A short
time later, US Vice President Kamala Harris said that it was now
possible to "finally end the war in Gaza."
Had Israel complied with the Biden-Harris administration's
request and not gone into Rafah, Sinwar would still be preparing the
next massacres and making sure that Hamas keeps stealing the
humanitarian aid intended for the people of Gaza. When the IDF killed
him, just a mile from the Egyptian border, he was found carrying a large
sum of money and the passport of a man described as an "UNRWA teacher."
Hamas continues to steal the humanitarian aid and then sells it
on the black market at extortionate prices, from which Hamas has
"profited by at least half a billion dollars." Approximately 200 trucks
of aid enter Gaza every day, yet the media report that Gazans are
"starving" and that the blame for the supposed "war crime" goes, of
course, to -- Israel.
[B]y waiving sanctions that block Iran from selling its oil, the Biden-Harris administration has effectively been funding Iran's nuclear weapons program to the tune of roughly $100 billion.
"After Iran's Oct. 1 missile attack, Mr. Biden told Israel not to
attack Iran's nuclear program. Mr. Trump replied, 'Isn't that what
you're supposed to hit? It's the biggest risk we have, nuclear weapons.'
He reportedly told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 'Do what you have
to do'... [Trump] tells Israel to do what it needs to do to end the war
quickly in victory. Ms. Harris piles on restrictions and insists a
cease-fire lead to a two-state solution disconnected from reality."—
Elliot Kaufman, Wall Street Journal, November 1, 2024.
"Now, as the ICC expands and abuses its powers to attack Israel,
and Unrwa is exposed as compromised by Hamas, Mr. Biden blocks new
sanctions against the ICC and tries to preserve Unrwa." — Elliot
Kaufman, Wall Street Journal, November 1, 2024.
Which will Americans vote for this week? The policies of President Trump or the policies of Presidents Biden and Obama?
US President Joe Biden said that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar
had been an "insurmountable obstacle" and that his death offered "the
opportunity... for a political settlement" in Gaza. US Vice President
Kamala Harris said that it was now possible to "finally end the war in
Gaza." Had Israel complied with the Biden-Harris administration's
request and not gone into Rafah, Sinwar would still be preparing the
next massacres. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
October 17. Israeli authorities announce
that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, the
man who planned and ordered the atrocities of October 7, 2023 and the
hostage-taking that accompanied them, has been eliminated. In the hours
that followed, US President Joe Biden said
that Sinwar had been an "insurmountable obstacle" and that his death
offered "the opportunity... for a political settlement" in Gaza. A short
time later, US Vice President Kamala Harris said that it was now possible to "finally end the war in Gaza."
This is not the first time the Biden-Harris administration has spoken of "political settlement" in Gaza and the possibility to "end the war in Gaza." It has, in fact, been putting pressure on Israel for months to end the conflict. Both Biden and Harris, earlier, also insisted that the Israeli military not enter Rafah, where weapons were being smuggled into Gaza from Egypt through at least 20 massive cross-border tunnels.
Had Israel complied with the Biden-Harris administration's request and not gone into Rafah, Sinwar would still be preparing the next massacres and making sure that Hamas keeps stealing
the humanitarian aid intended for the people of Gaza. When the IDF
killed him, just a mile from the Egyptian border, he was found carrying a large sum of money and the passport of a man described as an "UNRWA teacher."
On October 29, after it was disclosed that members of UNRWA were among those who had participated in the Oct 7 massacre, and that, instead of remaining neutral as expected of a UN body, UNRWA had been acting as an extension of Hamas, the Israeli government unanimously voted to ban the organization. Many employees of UNRWA in the Gaza Strip, it appeared, are or were members of Hamas, and UNRWA schools in Gaza are and were being used as storage facilities for Hamas's explosives and weapons, as well as indoctrinating young Gazans to violence against Israel and hatred of Jews.
In response, UN Secretary General António Guterres, reportedly "furious," sent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a letter
threatening to "initiate a case against Israel at the International
Court of Justice," but omitting any "mention of UNRWA's documented ties
to Palestinian terror organizations, including Hamas, which sparked the
legislation Guterres denounced." Guterres lamented that it would deprive
Palestinian children of education, but if the education includes jihadi
"hate and antisemitism," for some reason that fails to seem a great loss.
The Biden-Harris administration has continued to support UNRWA,
and is currently pressuring Israel to provide Gaza with more
humanitarian aid. Last month, the Biden-Harris administration falsely accused Israel
of cutting off aid deliveries to Gaza – never mind that the Israelis
might not have been enormously eager to resupply a terrorist group
dedicated to killing them -- and demanded that Israel resume allowing
into Gaza items, some of which could possibly be used for terror. The
Biden-Harris administration added
that if Israel refused, the IDF could lose access to U.S. weapons The
administration, it seems, is trying to appear "evenhanded" as if both sides should win.
Hamas continues to steal the humanitarian aid (as here and here) and then sells it on the black market at extortionate prices, from which Hamas has "profited by at least half a billion dollars." Approximately 200 trucks of aid enter Gaza every day, yet the media report that Gazans are "starving" and that the blame for the supposed "war crime" goes, of course, to -- Israel.
The Biden-Harris administration appears, similarly, not to want the defeat of a second Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, a terrorist group which has taken over Lebanon.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel
on October 8, 2023, the day after the Hamas massacre, and has not
stopped since. Tens of thousands of Israelis have been forced to leave their homes
in Israel's north. Biden-Harris administration envoy Amos Hochstein
even suggested that Israel, smaller than the state of New Jersey, should
give land to Lebanon and redraw its own border.
Israel's response, after weakening Hamas, was eliminate Hezbollah's senior leadership in a few airstrikes and remotely detonate handheld pagers which Hezbollah had given its terrorists.
Israel took the precaution of informing the Biden-Harris administration only shortly before the assassinations of Hezbollah's terrorist leader, Hassan Nasrallah and its senior leadership. At least the administration was able to announce that "the United States was not involved" in the incident. Biden described
Nasrallah's killing as a "measure of justice", but immediately followed
the remark by calling on Israel not to launch a ground offensive into
southern Lebanon. "We should have a ceasefire now," Biden said.
Israel, seemingly aware that the destruction of Hezbollah's installations would necessitate a ground campaign, entered South Lebanon anyhow, calling on UNIFIL personnel to avoid harm by withdrawing northward.
Under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, the UN peacekeeping agency, UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) had a mandate to stop Hezbollah from entering southern Lebanon. Unable to do so, UNIFIL was now refusing to leave. Perhaps someone -- Hamas or the leadership at the UN -- thought that UNIFIL might be a useful human shield
to prevent Israel from entering Lebanon altogether. When a reporter
asked Biden: "Are you asking Israel to stop hitting UN peacekeepers?"
Biden replied,
"Absolutely, positively." Biden could have reminded the reporter that
Israel UN peacekeepers were not what Israel was targeting and that he
supported Israel's request for them to withdraw, but he did not.
The Biden administration also pressed
Israel, after Iran attacked the country with drones, cruise missiles
and ballistic missiles in April, not to retaliate. The Iranian regime,
Israel's main enemy in the Middle East, does not make a secret of
wanting to wipe Israel off the map. Israel, possibly to accommodate US wishes, limited itself to striking an air-defense system at an airfield in Isfahan. When however, Iran attacked Israel again on October 1 and launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israeli targets, Israel replied with an all-night attack.
Due to apparent treachery, the Israeli strike was delayed. US
intelligence documents on Israel's preparations for the strike on Iran appeared
on a Telegram account linked to Iran. The leak seemed to have come from
a source within the US intelligence community. As Israel again had
evidently not informed Biden-Harris administration of its plans, the
documents presumably could only have come from US espionage activities carried out on Israel. The Biden-Harris administration has claimed that it is investigating the matter. Unfortunately, the Biden-Harris administration has kept at the Pentagon people who have access to classified documents and links to Iran's regime
who should have been removed long ago but were not. The disclosure of
elements obtained by espionage carried out against an ally of the United
States to an enemy of the ally of the United States is an act of treason.
On October 26, Israel finally responded to the Iran's October 1 attack. The Israel Air Force struck military targets inside Iran , but, as the Biden-Harris administration had requested, left nuclear facilities and oil installations untouched. Although devastating for Iran, the assault may not have been strong enough
to deter the regime from launching further attacks on Israel. and
certainly, will not deter Iran from advancing its nuclear weapons
program.
The Biden-Harris administration, perhaps because of its new "two-state solution: Michigan and Minnesota," seems not to want Israel to win
, and does want Hamas and Hezbollah to survive. Both terrorist groups
have the same goal as Iran -- Israel's obliteration -- and Hezbollah has
even greater destructive capabilities than Hamas.
The Iranian regime, which has openly wanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" for 45 years, is reportedly only "one to two weeks"
away from completing its nuclear weapons program – while the Biden-
Harris administration appears to be doing all it can to protect Iran.
The US administration claims that it does not want Iran to have nuclear weapons, but has done nothing to stop it. Not only that, but by waiving sanctions that block Iran from selling its oil, the Biden-Harris administration has effectively been funding Iran's nuclear weapons program to the tune of roughly $100 billion. In 2024, Iran's petroleum exports reached new heights.
Former President Barack Obama, as recalled in an article, "The Realignment", by Michael Doran and Tony Badran, had put in place a policy ostensibly intended for Iran to be a "balancing power" to Israel, and to reduce "American support for Israel" and the Sunni Arab countries.
Former President Donald Trump has replaced that policy with one of "maximum pressure" on Iran, accompanied by strengthening the relationship between Israel and the Sunni Arab world. His policy led to the Abraham Accords, the greatest advance towards peace in the Middle East in seven decades.
The Biden administration, nonetheless, returned to the pro-Iran policies of Obama. The results have been appalling.
Iran evidently used at least some of the windfall from the Biden-Harris administration to rearm all its proxies:
Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. What
followed was Hamas's massacre of October 7, 2023; the intensive daily
bombing of Israel by Hezbollah, and, in a show of gratitude for
America's generosity, more than 160 attacks
on US troops in the Middle East, just in one year. Add to that, the
Houthis, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken had removed from the
list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations a few weeks after Biden's
inauguration, demonstrated its appreciation by closing off virtually all maritime traffic in the Red Sea.
The Biden-Harris administration, by preserving these questionable actors -- not only by preserving the Iranian regime but facilitating
its advance towards nuclear weapons -- is going well beyond "reducing
American support for Israel." The Biden-Harris administration has placed
America, Iran's "Great Satan," in a terrible situation. Iran's regime
has apparently felt sufficiently emboldened to organize hit squads
inside the US to assassinate former US officials, Iranian dissidents and
even the current presidential candidate, Trump.
As early as November 2022, a year before the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, the Biden-Harris administration helped to destabilize Netanyahu's government, by financing protests to weaken it; and has seemingly been trying to destabilize Netanyahu's government to this day.
Harris refused to attend an address given by Prime Minister Netanyahu before the US Congress on July 24, 2024. She received Netanyahu coldly the next day and then accused Israel of being responsible for "the death of far too many innocent civilians," adding that "I will not be silent."
On September 28, after a speech at George Mason University in Virginia, Harris agreed with a student who accused Israel of "genocide". The student's "truth," she stated, "should not be suppressed,."
On October 19, when a man wearing a keffiyeh spoke about Israel being genocidal, "What he's talking about," she said, "it's real, I respect his voice".
"Ms. Harris repeats the Obama line: 'All options are on
the table.' Mr. Trump offers sanctions enforcement with a more credible
deterrent. After Iran's Oct. 1 missile attack, Mr. Biden told Israel not
to attack Iran's nuclear program. Mr. Trump replied, 'Isn't that what
you're supposed to hit? It's the biggest risk we have, nuclear weapons.'
He reportedly told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 'Do what you have
to do'...
"The war won't go on forever. Mr. Trump, too,
says Israel should 'finish up,' reportedly by Inauguration Day. But on
whose terms? He tells Israel to do what it needs to do to end the war
quickly in victory. Ms. Harris piles on restrictions and insists a
cease-fire lead to a two-state solution disconnected from reality...
"Now, as the ICC expands and abuses its powers
to attack Israel, and Unrwa is exposed as compromised by Hamas, Mr.
Biden blocks new sanctions against the ICC and tries to preserve Unrwa."
Which will Americans vote for this week? The policies of Trump or the policies of Biden and Obama?
Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
Some 20 Israeli special forces wearing Lebanese security uniforms
partook in the capture of senior Hezbollah official Emad Fadel Amhaz in Lebanon on Saturday, the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on Sunday.
The Al-Akhbar report noted that the operation took a total of four minutes.
The report claimed that Lebanese civilians escorted the Israeli force to the apartment from which Amhaz was taken.
According
to the report, Lebanese security officials located ten sim cards, a
phone, and a foreign passport in Amhaz's apartment.
The Israeli forces were also able to delete footage from security cameras around the area remotely, the report alleged.
Footage from a security camera reportedly showing the operation in Batroun, in northern Lebanon. (credit: Via Maariv)
Shayetet 13 operates in Lebanon
On Saturday, the Army Radio cited an Israeli official as confirming that Shayetet 13 commandos had landed in the northern Lebanese coastal city of Batroun and captured Amhaz.
The Hezbollah official was reportedly subsequently transferred to Israeli territory.
The Lebanese city is about 140 kilometers from the Israeli coast and 55 kilometers north of Beirut.
Biden administration gives Israel until November 13 to implement its demands to improve humanitarian situation in Gaza - or military aid will be suspended. The humanitarian aid enables Hamas to continue its terror operations.
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid enter Gaza IDF Spokesman Unit
The Biden administration is putting maximum pressure on
Israel, threatening to suspend military aid if Israel does not fully
implement its demands before November 13, Axios reported.
Biden
has thus far avoided suspending military aid, but the move is "gaining
more support inside the State Department," the site reported, quoting a
US official.
The threat follows an October 13 letter sent by US
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin
to their Israeli counterparts, warning that if the humanitarian
situation in Gaza did not significantly improve within 30 days, it would
affect the weapons the US supplies to Israel.
Over half of all
humanitarian aid to enter Gaza is taken over by the Hamas terror group,
and used to fund its continued terror operations. According to
officials, the increased humanitarian aid taken over to Hamas is
significantly extending the war in Gaza.
In
a Thursday press conference with Austin, Blinken said, "Both of us and
our teams are tracking very carefully Israel's responsibilities to meet
the letter of the law ... with regard to the provision of humanitarian
assistance." They emphasized that although Israel has made progress,
more needs to be done.
Meanwhile, Israeli and US officials said
that Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer has been tasked with
drafting the response to the letter from Blinken and Austin, but that
the letter is expected to be finalized and sent only after the US
elections next week. Its contents are likely to be influenced by the
results of the elections.
On Friday, the State Department stated:
"Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with the Israeli
Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer. The Secretary and Minister
discussed necessary steps for regional de-escalation. The Secretary
emphasized the importance of ending the war in Gaza and bringing all of
the hostages home, as well as charting a path forward in the
post-conflict period that provides governance, security, and
reconstruction. He discussed the dire status of humanitarian conditions
in Gaza, reviewed steps that have been taken to improve the situation,
and urged further actions to surge aid to civilians. The Secretary and
Minister discussed ongoing efforts to reach a diplomatic resolution in
Lebanon that allows both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to return safely
to their homes. The Secretary reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad
commitment to Israel’s security against threats from Iran and
Iran-backed proxy groups."
Among the US demands is that 350 aid trucks enter Gaza each day by November 13.
Already in September, Channel 12 News - a left-wing media outlet - reported that Hamas has profited by at least a half billion dollars
from humanitarian aid entering Gaza. The terror group takes control
over the aid, hides it in warehouses, and later sells it to the Gazan
population, earning a lot of money from it, which is then invested in
recruiting new terrorists and paying salaries to existing terrorists.
The
channel's Almog Boker noted that approximately 200 aid trucks already
enter Gaza each day, something which has "actually become the main
oxygen pipeline for the terrorist organization."
A group of senators addressed the ICC prosecutor to raise concerns about the international legality of the request for warrants against Israel's Prime and Defense Ministers.
International Criminal Court at The Hague iStock
On Friday US senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Ben Cardin
(D-Maryland), John Thune (R-South Dakota), Richard Blumenthal
(D-Connecticut), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania)
sent a letter to the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), the governing
body of the International Criminal Court (ICC), calling for an
investigation into misconduct allegations against Prosecutor Karim A.A.
Khan that seem to implicate his decision to apply for arrest warrants
for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense
Yoav Gallant.
The senators wrote, “First, Prosecutor Khan did not
comply with the law when he applied for arrest warrants against Israeli
government officials… we received notification that members of
Prosecutor Khan’s team were scheduled to meet with legal representatives
for the State of Israel on May 20 in Israel. To our astonishment,
however, members of the Prosecutor’s office never boarded the plane to
Israel and the meeting was abruptly canceled just a few hours before it
was to take place... Prosecutor Khan’s abrupt cancelation and his
announcement of an application for arrest warrants on that same day have
always been perplexing, and stand in stark contrast to the assurances
we received from his office that there would be meaningful consultations
with Israel, as required by the letter and spirit of the Rome Statute.”
They
continued, “Second, in addition to these legal concerns regarding
Prosecutor Khan’s application for warrants against Israeli officials,
there is a cloud hanging over the Prosecutor and his office. It has come
to light recently through numerous media reports—particularly an
Associated Press (AP) story dated October 25, 2024—that allegations of
sexual harassment and misconduct against Prosecutor Khan emerged earlier
this year, around the time he decided not to send his team to meet with
Israeli legal representatives and announced a warrant application
instead… If the allegations are substantiated, we urge the Assembly to
take all necessary steps available under its authority—up to and
including holding a vote for his removal—and to consider the
implications on the investigations led by Prosecutor Khan. Transparency
is of utmost importance regarding the allegations against Prosecutor
Khan. We urge the body to take this seriously.”
The
senators concluded, “Any action by the Court regarding arrest warrants
for Israeli officials without the benefit of a completed investigation
into the serious allegations hanging over Prosecutor Khan would cast
doubt on the Court’s actions, and jeopardize the credibility of the ICC
more broadly. We urge you to consider seriously the concerns we have
raised.”
The IDF considers Imad Amhaz to be a "significant source of knowledge" in the terror group's naval force.
Israeli troops operating in Southern Lebanon, October 2024. Credit: IDF.
The Israel Defense Forces’ elite Shayetet
13 naval commando unit on Friday night captured a senior Hezbollah
figure in Northern Lebanon.
The IDF confirmed the operation in Batroun, south of Tripoli, on Saturday.
The terrorist, identified as Imad Amhaz, is considered to be a
“significant source of knowledge” in the terror group’s naval force,
according to the Israeli military.
🚨 Israeli Navy Seals carry out covert-operation in #Lebanon, capture Imad Amhaz, a senior officer in the Lebanese Navy and #Hezbollah
Amhaz, who is seen as a significant source of knowledge within the terror organization, has reportedly been taken for interrogation to Israel. pic.twitter.com/wCsgvjGlH5
Amhaz is being interrogated by the
Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504, which specializes in
HUMINT, or human intelligence.
According to Lebanese reports, a 20-man
team disguised as Lebanese security forces, including two soldiers in
civilian clothes, arrived by sea on speedboats and raided a chalet on
the coast, capturing Amhaz before leaving on the speedboats. The entire
raid took only four minutes.
The IDF announced on Sunday morning that
the commander of Hezbollah’s terror forces in the Khiam area, located in
the Nabatieh Governorate of Southern Lebanon, had been killed in an
Israeli drone strike.
Farouk Amin Alasi led many anti-tank
missile and rocket attacks on Israeli communities in the Galilee
Panhandle, especially Metula, according to the army.
Additionally, the IDF eliminated Yousef
Ahmad Nun, a Radwan Force company commander in the Khiam area who was
responsible for rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on Israeli
communities in the Galilee area and IDF troops operating in Southern
Lebanon.
Hezbollah terrorist Jaafar Khader Faour was killed in the area of Jouaiyya in Southern Lebanon, the IDF said on Saturday.
🔴 The Commander of the Hezbollah Nasser Unit’s Missiles and Rockets Array, Jaafar Khader Faour, was eliminated in the area of Jouaiyya in southern Lebanon.
Faour was responsible for multiple rocket attacks toward the Golan, including an attack that resulted in the deaths of… pic.twitter.com/rfXtG6qlBw
Faour, the commander of Hezbollah’s Nasser
Unit’s missile and drone arrays, “was responsible for terror attacks
carried out from eastern Lebanon, from which the first rocket launches
toward Israeli territory were fired on October 8th, under his command,”
the IDF said, adding that he planned many terrorist attacks against
Israel and IDF soldiers.
“As the commander of the Nasser Unit’s
missiles and rockets array, Faour was responsible for multiple rocket
attacks from his area toward the Golan, including the attack that
resulted in the deaths of the Israeli civilians from Kibbutz Ortal, the
attack on Majdal Shams, which killed 12 children and teenagers and
injured many others, and the rocket attack on Metula last Thursday,
which resulted in the deaths of 5 civilians,” the IDF stated.
On Friday, the IDF eliminated two Hezbollah commanders responsible for firing over 400 projectiles at Israel in October.
Mousa Izz al-Din, the commander of
Hezbollah’s forces in the coastal sector, and Hassan Majid Daib,
Hezbollah’s artillery commander in the coastal sector, were killed in an
airstrike in the Tyre area.
2,000 Hezbollah terrorists killed since start of ground op
Some 2,000 Hezbollah terrorists have been killed by troops and in airstrikes since the start of Israel’s ground operation in Southern Lebanon on Oct. 1, according to IDF estimates.
Israeli troops operating in Southern Lebanon, October 2024. Credit: IDF.
Since Hezbollah began its near-daily
attacks on Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas led a massacre of
1,200 people, nearly 3,000 Hezbollah members have been killed, according
to Israeli military assessments.
100 projectiles fired into Israel on Saturday
Hezbollah terrorists launched 100
projectiles (rockets, missiles and drones) from Lebanon into Israeli
territory on Saturday, according to the IDF.
Sirens continued to sound on Sunday
morning in the north and down into central Israel, with residents in the
Menashe and Carmel areas running to bomb shelters, including Talmei
Elazar east of Hadera.
Alerts were also heard in the Galilee and Golan Heights during the morning hours.
The IDF said two projectiles crossed into
Israel from Lebanon following the sirens that sounded in the areas of
Menashe and Carmel. The IAF shot down one projectile and the other fell
in an open area.
Another 10 projectiles were identified
crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory after alarms were heard in
the Western Galilee area, with some of the projectiles intercepted and
the rest falling in open areas.
Seven people were killed and one person was seriously wounded on Thursday in two separate Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel’s north.
"Unwinding" Facebook's demotion of New York Post bombshell "now will unfortunately create more headaches than it’s worth" and problem is "we manually" demoted the story, executives told each other.
Big Tech platforms had
shockingly frank internal conversations about their efforts to sway the
2020 presidential election, even stating explicitly they wanted to be on
the good side of a Biden-Harris administration, according to
communications released by the House Judiciary Committee days before an
election in which mainstream media are promoting censorship of
conservative voices.
"[W]hen we get hauled up to [Capitol] hill to testify on
why we influenced the 2020 elections, we can say we have been meeting
for YEARS with USG [the U.S. government] to plan for it," a member of
Facebook’s Trust and Safety team messaged colleagues during a July 15,
2020, meeting among tech companies and feds including the FBI.
"Obviously, our calls on this could colour the way an
incoming Biden administration views us more than almost anything else,"
U.K-based Nick Clegg, then-Facebook vice president of global affairs,
told Vice President of Global Public Policy Joel Kaplan as the
Meta-owned company debated whether to stop demoting a New York Post expose on then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
"From the beginning, the platforms understood what the FBI
was doing" even if "Big Tech may not have known that the FBI was priming
them to censor a true story," the GOP report says of the internal
communications committee staff obtained. Companies knew "their meetings
with the U.S. government regarding online speech could very well
influence the 2020 election."
A week before this year's election, prominent conservatives blasted The Washington Post for laying the groundwork to censor them through an analysis that claims their podcasts are superspreaders of "unfounded assertions including that the election will be rigged or stolen."
Ben Shapiro and Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton posted the Post queries they received. Shapiro noted the financially hemorrhaging newspaper
didn't specify what supposed misinformation he spread, and Fitton –
flagged for his appearance on Charlie Kirk's show – scolded reporter Cat
Zakrzewski for asking him after 5 p.m. with an 8 p.m. deadline.
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan also accused YouTube of "censor[ing]"
GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's interview with Joe Rogan,
likely the nation's most influential podcaster, and sibling company
Google elevating "material critical of the interview" in search results.
Jordan cited a New York Post report
that said "YouTube users reported difficulty searching for the video"
three days after it quickly racked up "tens of millions of views" Oct.
25 and that the full interview was "missing" from its trending videos
page the day after.
He also argued YouTube admitted censoring the video by releasing a statement Oct. 28 that said "the original 3-hour interview didn't appear prominently" in "some searches" the day before.
While Rogan said Oct. 25
there was "no issue with YouTube censoring the trump episode," blaming a
Spotify "glitch" for his decision to delist the YouTube interview
"until it’s fixed," the podcast celebrity switched gears Oct. 29 and posted the entire interview on X, formerly Twitter, because "there's an issue with searching for this episode on YouTube."
The House Judiciary GOP report says the FBI's Foreign
Influence Task Force met more than two dozen times between Feb. 10 and
Oct. 14, 2020, in one-on-one "bilateral meetings" with Big Tech
companies including Google, then-Twitter, Facebook and Microsoft. The
FITF's Russia unit chief told staff it resumed meetings with them this
year.
The chief also said FITF's members knew the FBI had "Hunter Biden’s authenticated laptop" before the New York Post
reported Oct. 14 on its "smoking-gun email" that said he introduced his
father, the vice president at the time, to a top executive at Ukraine
energy firm Burisma.
This is "consistent with other testimony" Judiciary and
Weaponization received, the report said, citing FITF Section Chief Laura
Dehmlow, who was then its China unit chief. Her predecessor, Brad
Benavides, was also "certainly … aware" they had authenticated the
laptop, she said.
Another set of meetings known as "USG-Industry" included
FBI, Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity
and Infrastructure Security Agency and Office of Intelligence &
Analysis, Office of the Director of Intelligence, Facebook, Google,
Twitter and Microsoft among others.
Clegg and Kaplan were on a Sept. 21, 2020, Facebook email
that said "USG partners" believe Russian actors will conduct a
"hack/leak operation" before the first debate eight days later, "likely
involving real or manufactured evidence" of links between the Biden
family and Burisma.
"FBI tipped us all off last week that this Burisma story
was likely to emerge," according to internal Microsoft notes Oct. 14,
2020, the same day of the New York Post report.
Oct. 14, 2020, shows up repeatedly in the interim staff report, including Facebook's decision to demote the Post story, then hand-wringing over feared blowback for undoing demotion.
"Unwinding will likely leak and be a story (conversely,
doing things that might be perceived as anti-conservative, like demoting
the content, never seem to leak)," Kaplan, a former deputy chief of
staff for President George W. Bush, told Clegg among a series of
WhatsApp messages.
Clegg agreed that "unwinding it now will unfortunately
create more headaches than it’s worth." Kaplan clarified the problem was
"we manually" demoted the story, because "if it were automatic, it
would be sort of an easy call not to intervene."
Social media companies had "significant confusion around the Post
article" during one-on-one FITF meetings Oct. 14, 2020, according to a
paraphrase of the Russia unit chief's testimony. Quoting the chief, the
report said he "felt [it] necessary to reach out to some of the more
major companies" because an FBI analyst apparently confirmed the
laptop's existence to Twitter.
The chief said he had a joint "follow-up discussion" with
Twitter, Facebook, Google and Microsoft reps in which he shared a
statement he "cleared" with superiors while "trying to skirt multiple
policies and be within bounds legally," later telling GOP staff he told
them something like "The FBI has nothing in its possession to suggest
that the laptop is a hack or a leak."
He refused to answer any followup questions they had,
saying his hands were tied by FBI policy even while acknowledging the
agency "had more information" beyond knowing the laptop was not a hack
or leak, the report says.
The companies nonetheless treated the laptop as a hack-and-leak, throttling the Post
story so that "millions of Americans cast their presidential vote
unaware of serious, credible allegations of misconduct levied against
one of the two candidates," the GOP-led committee concludes.
"Today, these companies and their executives belatedly
admit that their censorship was wrong," it says. "Although the FBI
conditioned Big Tech to believe any allegations about [now first
son]Hunter Biden were Russian disinformation, the social media companies
are far from blameless."
Our military has a cancer, and drastic actions must be taken to cure it.
As a second Trump term becomes possible (or even likely), the
literary world of military pundits is ablaze with articles,
recommendations, and ideas on how to reform the Department of Defense
(DoD) in a second Trump Administration. As a retired U.S. Army colonel, I
am encouraged to see such thoughtful analyses and deeply hope a new
Trump Administration takes heed of these many excellent recommendations.
However, one area of concern for which I have seen little commentary is
how to halt the deep institutional rot associated with what I call the
“civilianization” of America’s military. The military forces of the
United States of America exist first and foremost to kill the nation’s
armed adversaries. Historically, this understanding has underpinned the
“Warrior Ethos” that has made our military so great, but somewhere along
the way, we lost this ethos in favor of a politicized, more civilian
approach to warfare. I believe this is due to certain dysfunctional and
deeply ingrained institutional processes and structures that must be
fully and radically reformed in order to restore our military to one
that defends the nation effectively and does not merely defend its own
budget.
There are four fundamental areas for institutional reform, and all involve the “de-civilianization” of warrior institutions:
The “interagency” process in the DoD.
After 9/11, the DoD (and the federal government more broadly) placed a
significant emphasis on better coordination between the DoD and other
federal departments like the State Department and the CIA. The idea was
simple and appealing enough: to produce better coordination across
domains. Nowhere was this more important than in the intelligence
community, where failure to crosstalk between agencies led to startling
intelligence failures like 9/11. However, this “interagency” approach
became unfocused across all of the DoD and all agencies and became a
priority in and of itself, whether it related to, for example, supposed climate change, government acquisition, federal land and water management, or leader professional development. While the goal of burgeoning interagency processes was to improve efficiency,
the actual and unfortunate effect it had on the senior officer warriors
of the DoD was to civilianize their mindsets. Instead of the State
Department becoming more like the DoD, the DoD started thinking like the
State Department. Historically, there was a healthy tension between the
State Department and the DoD. The new interagency emphasis made former
warriors think the goal was to be like diplomats, and it turned too many
of our senior officers into wannabe State Department grandees who get
invited to the best Georgetown cocktail parties. That former healthy
tension between State and Defense was destroyed, and the warrior ethos
of so many officers with it. We see this today in the form of the many
retired and political admirals and generals who view their devotion to
the D.C. bureaucracy to be more important than their oath to the
Constitution, and nowhere has this phenomenon been more apparent than
the nefarious shenanigans of the infamous Lieutenant Colonel (Retired)
Alexander Vindman, who deemed his allegiance to the interagency to be more important than the judgment of his Commander-in-Chief.
Civilian degree-producing programs for line officers.
All of the military services send their promising O-4s, O-5s, and O-6s
to advanced degree-producing programs at civilian universities, with the
choicest schooling opportunities happening at Ivy League universities.
(David Petraeus and H.R. McMaster are two well-known products of this
process.) The idea of the “warrior scholar” is nice in the abstract, but
in reality, what we did was infect our senior military leaders with DEI
sensibilities and the same woke mind virus that has nearly destroyed
America’s institutions of higher learning. While advanced civilian
degrees are necessary for officer specialists like physicians, dentists,
attorneys, chaplains, and officers serving in science and engineering
fields, they do nothing but diminish the warfighting capabilities of
line officers in tactical units, nor do they enhance the strategic
abilities of our most senior officers. Even worse, we made possession of
these degrees a positive criterion for promotion. The other negative
consequence of this woke mind virus infestation is that it flows
downhill—junior officers and NCOs emulate the successful senior officers
above them, and the civilianization runs rampant, reducing combat
effectiveness and focusing troops on all the wrong priorities.
Service academies and War Colleges emulating Ivy League universities.
The institutional learning processes of our nation’s military are built
upon a foundation of prestigious uniformed learning institutions. You
probably know the service academies (West Point, Annapolis, and the Air
Force Academy), but the service and joint service “War Colleges”
(schools for O-5s and O-6s who are marked as having flag officer
potential) are equally important in building military culture and
skills. All of these once purely military schools now have large numbers
of civilian faculty members, many of whom seek the “publish or perish”
route so they can ultimately join the Ivies they so eagerly and
enviously emulate. With this preponderance of civilian faculty come the
civilian dogmas—DEI, the joys of the interagency, and the cancer of
courses and majors that end in “studies.” When I attended the National
Defense University as a promotable O-5, we even had a choice in
uniforms—our usual duty uniform or a civilian coat and tie. That War
College’s quest to look and feel like a civilian Ivy was palpable and
very real.
Career SES civilians actually control the nuts and bolts of the military.
The Senior Executive Service (“SES”) represents the senior ranks of
civilian federal employees. There are “career” SES members and
“non-career” SES members. The non-career SES ranks generally represent
political appointees, and the career SES ranks serve and keep serving
regardless of who holds the presidency. In the DoD, career SES members
sit in some of the highest and most influential offices in the Pentagon
and the military agencies, wielding enormous power over defense budgets,
material acquisition, warfighting doctrine, personnel policies, and
force structure. As their military bosses come and go every two years or
so, they stay. If they don’t like what their military boss tells them
to do, they can obfuscate, delay, bluster, and just generally wait until
a new military boss shows up, then the cycle can start again. What’s
worse is that most career SES billets are filled via the Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program,
which generally includes sponsorship and mentorship components that
allow serving SES bureaucrats to ensure that their vision of how the
bureaucracy should run will endure for decades. This bloated, careerist
system of never-changing bureaucracy contributes immeasurably to the
civilianization of the military and the diminishment of the Warrior
Ethos and is a great inhibitor to meaningful structural change.
So how to fix these Four Horsemen of the Civilianization Apocalypse?
It won’t be easy, but here are some ideas:
Dramatically cut back on interagency activities except for strict
intelligence functions. Greatly reduce officer billets in interagency
positions. Make service in a non-intelligence interagency position a
hindrance to promotion. Eliminate cross-agency attendance at agency
professional education programs.
Eliminate advanced degrees as promotion criteria for line officers.
Stellar service in combat and line units/ships/planes will be the
overwhelming consideration for promotion.
Eliminate all DEI programs of every kind at all levels. Demonstrated
adherence to DEI principles will be a “do not promote” criterion for
officers and NCOs alike.
Cease all advanced degree-producing programs at civilian
universities for line officers (but doctors, lawyers, chaplains, and
scientists can still go).
Except for essential scientific and engineering faculty, fire 100%
of the civilian faculty at the service academies and the War Colleges.
Screen the scientific and engineering faculty for retention to ensure
that their subject areas cannot be taught by rotating uniformed
personnel.
Greatly reduce permanent military faculty at the service academies
and War Colleges and limit those billets to only very specialized areas.
Rotate accomplished line officers through these schools as
instructors. Such instructor duty will be after successful command and
will signal a “must promote” officer.
Refocus the service academies on disciplines related to warfighting,
pure science, and engineering. Eliminate any and all courses and majors
that end in “studies.”
Completely revamp the curriculums at all War Colleges so there is a
laser focus on strategy at the national and theater levels. The uniform
at these schools must be military attire only.
Mirror all of the above in junior officer and NCO professional development programs.
Eliminate all career SES positions in the DoD. Let non-career (i.e.,
political appointee) SES members handle the arcane stuff of navigating
Congress. If the flag officers commanding Army and Marine divisions,
Navy carrier battle groups, and Air Force MAJCOMs (and whatever it is
generals do in the Space Force) can change out every two years, the SES
running the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Organizational
Entropy can be replaced too.
I am entirely confident that the above recommendations can halt the
civilianization of our military and serve as a great start to restoring
an essential warfighting focus. I am also entirely confident that the
DoD bureaucracy will fight every recommendation I made above tooth and
nail and will in fact have a host of somewhat persuasive arguments as to
why I am wrong. But here is the thing: this is like chemotherapy. Our
military has a cancer, and drastic actions must be taken to cure it.
Yes, some healthy tissue may get destroyed, but so will the cancer
itself, and the patient will live.
Let’s build back an effective, lethal, efficient military that wins its wars for a change and leaves us all proud once again.
* * *
Cynical Publius is the nom de plume of a retired U.S. Army
colonel, veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, and reformed denizen of the
Pentagon who is now a practicing corporate law attorney. You can follow
Cynical Publius on X at @CynicalPublius.
Whale advocates have a difficult time proving that a particular whale died as a result of injuries from the noise of offshore wind development, because the deaths are incidental to the reactions and injuries from noise levels, they say.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took aim at the offshore wind industry during a three-hour interview with Joe Rogan
last week. The former president said “windmills” harm whales, and he
said he’d eliminate offshore wind power on the first day of his second
term.
“I wanna be a whale psychiatrist. It drives the whales
fricking crazy. And something happens with them, but for whatever
reason, they’re getting washed up onshore and you know, they’re ignored
by these environmentalists. But they don’t talk about it.” Trump said.
Trump claimed that it’s the operational vibrations of the
massive structures that drive whales “crazy,” but it’s more the
construction and vessel activity that experts say is causing the animals
harm.
Unavoidable impacts
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) concluded as much in a new report
on the environmental impacts of six wind lease areas off the coasts of
New York and New Jersey. The report finds that noise could harm fish,
marine mammals, sea turtles and birds, resulting in habitat displacement
and disruptions to migratory patterns.
The report includes details on mitigation measures that can
be taken, but it concludes that offshore wind development “would result
in unavoidable adverse impacts.”
Robert Rand, founder of the acoustics consultancy company Rand Acoustics, has surveyed noise levels from pile driving and sonar survey vessels. Both of his independent studies found that the incidental harassment authorizations,
which are permits that offshore wind developers are required to obtain
to conduct activities that might threaten marine animals, don’t impose
sufficient mitigation requirements to protect marine animals.
Rand told Just the News that the report shows that
federal agencies may be backing away from their insistence that
offshore wind isn’t harming marine wildlife. “Any concession by federal
agencies that they are injuring marine species is both a step in the
right direction and also damning to the agencies charged with
implementing the MMPA [Marine Mammal Protection Act] and ESA [Endangered
Species Act],” Rand said.
Installation of offshore wind towers requires that 30-foot wide monopiles be pounded into the seabed floor
with special ships. Rand said his studies showed that even with the
full complement of noise controls that the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) requires, the pile driving makes a
sound as loud as 2000-psi seismic airguns. The equivalent noise level in
the air is a 155mm Howitzer blasting every two seconds, he said.
Rand said developers have no feasible means of noise
control, except maintaining sufficient distance from any marine
wildlife. However, NOAA is permitting the machinery inside endangered
whale and marine species habitat, so safe distances can’t be
maintained.
Nothing new
Dr. David Wojick, senior policy advisor for a Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, told Just the News
that the BOEM report for the wind lease areas doesn’t contain any new
findings. He said there are draft environmental impact statements that
precede each wind project. These are prepared jointly between BOEM and
NOAA, such as the environmental impact statement (EIS) report
for the Empire Wind project off the coast of New York. They include an
assessment of the environmental impacts for NOAA’s harassment
authorizations.
The EIS report for Empire Wind states, “It is possible that
pile driving could displace animals into areas with lower habitat
quality or higher risk of vessel collision or fisheries interaction.”
“Notice that this doesn’t say that any whale has actually
been killed, and that’s important. They still claim there’s no evidence
that the whales are being killed,” Wojick said. He said that offshore
wind developers receive Level A and Level B harassment authorization.
Level A harassment includes activities that could result in permanent
deafness in marine animals, Wojick explained, and the permits estimate
the number of animals that will be impacted in this way. The developers
are required to implement various mitigation measures, which are
supposed to prevent the activities from exceeding this number.
He said the denials of environmental groups, federal
agencies and offshore wind developers exploit a lack of a direct causal
relationship to deny any harm to whales. Whale advocates have a
difficult time proving that a particular whale died as a result of
injuries from the noise of offshore wind development, because the deaths
are incidental to the reactions and injuries from noise levels, they
say.
“Of course, no one is claiming that the pile driving or the
sonar surveys are outright killing the whales. That's a trick that they
use,” Wojick said. He compared it to a kid throwing fireworks on the
sidewalk and some dogs turning up dead in the street. While the autopsy
of the dog shows that it was hit by a car, it’s the fireworks that
caused the dog to run into traffic.
“Rather than hold to their mandate by law, NOAA has issued
hundreds of thousands of ‘takes’ for noise harm, including takes on the
critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, an already
noise-burdened species with risk classification ‘Major.’ the most
serious classification,” Rand said. “This is disgraceful and
unconscionable.”
Other impacts
Rand said there are other issues that the report and federal agencies still aren’t addressing. A 2017 study found
that seismic airguns with sound levels comparable to pile driving kill
krill and zooplankton, which the whales consume for food. A complex food
chain with zooplankton, he said, exists throughout the ocean, and
killing them will directly impact the marine food web.
“I find it disturbing that so-called environmental groups have railed against seismic airguns,
for decades, because of the noise harm on whales, but equally
shockingly loud noise levels from pile-driving for offshore wind brings
no reaction at all. Noise harm is noise harm,” Rand said.
As many offshore wind opponents
have been pointing out in the wake of the broken blade incident off the
shores of Nantucket, Rand said the impacts of blade incidents haven’t
been considered in any of the environmental impact assessments.
While it’s true that direct causal proof that offshore wind
is hurting whales is missing, there is evidence that these projects are
harming whales. The industry’s critics say more attention should be
given to how these impacts are the cause of the increased whale mortality in the Atlantic Ocean.
