News of the World
08-01-2024, 03:52 AM
MIDDLE EAST
USA
Ayatollah VS Israel
Quote:Iran’s so-called “Supreme Leader” has called for a direct attack on Israel in response to an Israeli airstrike on Tehran, Iran’s capital city, that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday.
The New York Times reported:
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued an order for Iran to strike Israel directly, in retaliation for the killing in Tehran of Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, according to three Iranian officials briefed on the order.
Mr. Khamenei gave the order at an emergency meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on Wednesday morning, shortly after Iran announced that Mr. Haniyeh had been killed, said the three Iranian officials, including two members of the Revolutionary Guards. They asked that their names not be published because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Israel has not yet directly claimed responsibility for the airstrike.
An Iranian attack on Israel in April involved some 300 projectiles, almost all of which were intercepted by Israeli air defenses and those of allies in the region.
Many countries have urged their citizens to leave Lebanon, and some U.S. carriers have canceled flights to Israel, in anticipation of a possible war between Israel and Hezbollah, Iran’s terrorist proxy in Lebanon.
Israel killed Hezbollah’s second-in-command in an airstrike on Beirut on Tuesday.
Netanyahu on Strikes on Terrorist Leaders
Quote:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed his nation on Wednesday evening in the wake of successful airstrikes on terrorist leaders in Beirut, Lebanon, and Tehran, Iran.
As Breitbart News reported, Israel killed Hezbollah’s second-in-command, Fu’ad Shukr, in Beirut on Tuesday; and killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday.
Notably, Netanyahu did not say directly that Israel was responsible for the latter strike.
His full remarks follow (translated from Hebrew by the Government Press Office):
...
Since the beginning of the war, I have made it clear that we are in a fight against Iran’s axis of evil. This is an existential war against a stranglehold of terrorist armies and missiles that Iran would like to tighten around our neck.
In my address to Congress several days ago, I noted that the three main arms of this axis of evil are Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah, the three H’s. We have recently struck crushing blows on each one.
Three weeks ago, we attacked the Hamas chief-of-staff, Muhammad Deif. Two weeks ago we attacked the Houthis in one of the Air Force’s most distant assaults, and yesterday, we attacked the Hezbollah chief-of-staff, Fuad Shukr, aka Mohsin.
On behalf of the citizens of Israel, I would like to express deep appreciation to the IDF, the ISA, IDF Intelligence, the Air Force, and all of the security services for the precision operations on three different fronts.
In the attack yesterday, we eliminated Nasrallah’s deputy. Mohsin was directly responsible for the massacre of our dear boys and girls in Majdal Shams. He was responsible for the murder of many other Israeli citizens. He was responsible for the unceasing assault against our citizens in the northern communities over nine months of war.
He was one of the most wanted terrorists in the world. The US put a $5 million bounty on his head, and for good reason. He was involved in the murder of 241 American soldiers and 58 French soldiers in Beirut in 1983. He was the main liaison between Iran and Hezbollah and he was responsible for the organization’s missiles.
...
Citizens of Israel, challenging days are before us. Since the attack in Beirut, we have heard threats from all sides. We are prepared for any scenario and we will stand united and determined against any threat. Israel will exact a very heavy price for aggression against us from whatever quarter.
Citizens of Israel, in the first days of the war I said that the war would take time and require us to show patience. I reiterate that today as well.
For months, there has been no week in which they have not told us – at home and abroad – to end the war. ‘End the war’ because we have exhausted what can be achieved and ‘it is impossible to win’ in any case.
If we gave in to this pressure – we would not have eliminated senior Hamas leaders and thousands of terrorists. We would not have destroyed terrorist infrastructure and extensive Hamas underground infrastructure. They simply would have kept it. We would not be in control of the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing – the lifeline of Hamas by which they arm and rebuild themselves, and we would not have created the conditions that are bringing us closer to an outline that will also return our hostages, and which will allow us to achieve all of our objectives for the war: Returning all of our hostages, eliminating Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel, and restoring our residents securely to their homes in both the south and the north.
All of the achievements that we have achieved in recent months, we achieved because we did not give in, because we made courageous decisions despite the great pressure at home and abroad. And I tell you: This was not easy. I needed to reject very great pressure. But above all, we achieved this because our fighters, both reservists and conscripts, in the IDF, the Police, the ISA and the Mossad – did not give in. They are fighting like lions, they are determined to win, and I, together with the people of Israel, back them with great love and with great faith in the justice of our cause.
Turkey on Haniyeh's Death
Quote:The Turkish government on Wednesday condemned the killing of Hamas terrorist Ismail Haniyeh in Iran as a “shameful” assassination that could escalate the Gaza war into a regional conflict.
“We condemn the assassination of the leader of Hamas’s political office, Ismail Haniyeh, in a heinous attack in Tehran,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We express our condolences to the Palestinian people, hundreds of thousands of whom, like Haniyeh, have been martyred in order to live peacefully in their homeland under the roof of their own state. The Netanyahu government’s lack of intention to achieve peace has been demonstrated once again,” the statement continued.
“This attack is also aimed at spreading the war in Gaza to a regional level. If the international community does not act to stop Israel, our region will face an even greater conflict,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
Turkey’s authoritarian Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was even more hyperbolic in a social media post on Wednesday morning, mourning Haniyeh as his “brother” and accusing the Israelis of “barbarism” for allegedly assassinating him.
“This assassination is a despicable act aimed at disrupting the Palestinian cause, the glorious resistance of Gaza, and the just struggle of our Palestinian brothers, and demoralizing and intimidating the Palestinians,” Erdogan railed.
Erdogan vowed that Turkey will “support our Palestinian brothers with all our means and all our strength.”
“We will continue to work for the establishment of a free, sovereign and independent State of Palestine, based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” he said.
Erdogan was no fan of Israel before Haniyeh’s death, having compared the Israeli government to Nazi Germany. Two weeks ago, he said Turkey – an increasingly problematic member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – would block any NATO effort to cooperate with Israel.
On Monday, while holding forth at a rally for his AKP party, Erdogan threatened to invade Israel on behalf of the Palestinians.
“Just like we entered Karabakh and the way we entered Libya, maybe we’ll do the same thing. There’s nothing we can’t do. We have to be strong,” Erdogan said.
Turkey provided drones to the Islamist regime in Azerbaijan, helping it to conquer the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region by force in September 2023 and begin ethnically cleansing the Armenian Christians who live there. Turkish troops launched an outright military intervention in Libya in 2020.
Turkey does not recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization – on the contrary, Erdogan’s government actively encourages Hamas to hold rallies in Turkey – and Erdogan refused to condemn the October 7 atrocities perpetrated by the Palestinian terrorists. Instead, he insisted Hamas is “not a terrorist organization,” but rather a “liberation group” filled with “mujahideen” (Muslim holy warriors).
The AKP Party released its own statement on Wednesday claiming Israel “pulled the trigger” on a regional war by assassinating Haniyeh.
AKP spokesman Omer Celik called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his administration “the biggest obstacle to world peace.”
“This attack proves that the genocidal network is only going to increase its tyranny from now on,” he said.
“Initial reports say the assassination was carried out with a missile from another country. If this is true then it demonstrates Israel’s genocidal network,” he continued. The other country he obliquely referred to would most likely be the United States.
The exact circumstances around Haniyeh’s death in Tehran on Wednesday have not yet been revealed by the Iranian government. As of Wednesday afternoon, the Israeli government has not claimed any involvement in his death.
Fatah on Haniyeh's Assassination
Quote:Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was targeted in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday while attending the inauguration of new president Masoud Pezeshkian.
The Times of Israel reported: “Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemns the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, calling it a ‘cowardly act and dangerous development.'”
Theoretically, Abbas’s Fatah faction and Haniyeh’s Hamas organization are political rivals, but the Palestinian Authority has long supported and subsidized terror.
Abbas has yet to condemn the October 7 attack, though Fatah-controlled media outlets have criticized it on tactical grounds.
U.S. President Joe Biden has pushed for the Palestinian Authority to be placed in charge of Gaza after the current war ends. The Palestinian Authority ran Gaza from 1994 until 2007, when Hamas ousted the Fatah leadership in a bloody coup inside the territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stringently opposed allowing the Palestinian Authority to return, and has likewise pushed back against Biden’s attempt to achieve a Palestinian state as one of the outcomes of the war.
In these positions, Netanyahu is strongly supported by the Israeli public — as well as the American public, 80% of whom support Israel against Hamas, according to the Harvard-Harris Poll, which has shown consistent results throughout the duration of the war.
US Attacks Iraqi Base
Quote:U.S. officials on Tuesday said American forces struck a base near Baghdad, Iraq, used by the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the Iran-backed Shiite militias that have launched numerous terrorist attacks on American forces since the beginning of the Gaza war.
Iraqi sources said the strike killed four PMF members and wounded four others. The Iraqi government condemned the strike as a “heinous crime” and a violation of the U.S.-led coalition’s mandate to help Iraq combat the Islamic State.
Yehi Rahool, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said the U.S. attack was a “blatant aggression.”
“They targeted, with fighter jets coming from beyond the borders, Iraqi sites belonging to security forces in northern Babil province,” he said:
Such serious and uncalculated violations can significantly undermine all efforts, mechanisms, and frameworks of joint security work to combat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. They could also drag Iraq and the entire region into conflicts, wars, and serious repercussions.
The PMF and Iraq’s leading Iran-backed militant organization, Kata’ib Hezbollah, were curiously subdued in their response to the strike. The PMF simply reported that the attack occurred, without identifying the attackers, although it added a demand for the Iraqi government to “make an immediate decision for the expulsion of foreign forces from our country.”
Kata’ib Hezbollah said that a U.S. strike, launched from Kuwait, took out a “group of drone experts” who were supposedly doing maintenance work on reconnaissance drones. The Iraqi militia warned Kuwait not to let its territory serve as a base for “American criminal actions.”
U.S. officials confirmed the strike took place and said the targets were militants threatening to launch drone attacks against American forces.
The last U.S. action against Iraqi militias took place in February, but the militias launched rockets and a drone at U.S. forces in July. The PMF rocket attack reportedly failed to cause any casualties or damage.
The American defensive strike against Iraqi militias came just hours after an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, a commander of Iran-backed Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.
USA
Surprise, Surprise: Biden Knows Nothing About Haniyeh's Death
Quote:Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the Biden administration was not informed in advance about any plans to eliminate Ismail Haniyeh, political leader of the Hamas terrorist organization.
Haniyeh was killed in Iran on Tuesday in an operation widely attributed to Israeli intelligence, although no public claim of responsibility has been made. Before his ill-fated trip to attend the inauguration of “moderate” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran, Haniyeh lived lavishly in Qatar, his accounts filled with loot skimmed from international aid to the Palestinian people.
“This is something we were not aware of or involved in,” Blinken said during an interview with Channel News Asia (CNA) in Singapore.
Blinken said talks for a ceasefire in Gaza would continue despite the liquidation of Haniyeh. He said it was “very hard to speculate” about the effect Haniyeh’s death would have on negotiations.
“We will continue to labor for as long as it takes to get there,” he vowed:
It’s vitally important to help end the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. It’s vitally important to get the hostages home, including a number of Americans. It’s vitally important to, hopefully, put things on a better path for more enduring peace and more enduring security, so that focus remains, and, again, speculating on the impact of any one event, I’ve learned, is not a not a wise thing to do.
Blinken added that one of the administration’s top priorities is “trying to make sure that the conflict that emerged in Gaza doesn’t spread, doesn’t go to other places, doesn’t escalate.”
“The best way to bring temperature down everywhere and to put us on a better path is through a ceasefire in Gaza,” he asserted.
Democrat on Israeli Strikes on Terrorist Leaders
Quote:On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) stated that Israel’s killing of a Hezbollah leader, which it says was in response to a rocket attack that killed children in Israel and its reported assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh make “it harder to accomplish a ceasefire. And that’s what we should be focused on is getting those hostages released, making it safe for those civilians again. That should be our north star in all of this.”
Host Yasmin Vossoughian brought up “the targeted assassination overseas of a top Hamas leader in Iran, … the bombing and killing of children on Saturday in northern Israel, … the killing of a Hezbollah leader in the suburbs of Beirut as well.”
Heinrich responded, “I think the most valuable thing we can do here, and it’s not a political thing, it’s just what is right to do, is to secure that ceasefire. And, unfortunately, these latest two attacks on the leader in Hezbollah, the political leader in Hamas, that makes it harder to accomplish a ceasefire. And that’s what we should be focused on is getting those hostages released, making it safe for those civilians again. That should be our north star in all of this.”
Texas Rancher Sues DHS
Quote:A Texas rancher, along with Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe, is suing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for record-breaking levels of illegal immigration on its watch.
The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) has filed suit on behalf of Michael Vickers, a veterinarian who owns a 1,000-acre ranch in Brooks County, as well as Coe, Atascosa County, and Kinney County that seeks to have a federal judge halt most of the Biden-Harris administration’s policies at the United States-Mexico border.
“By this time, it is glaringly obvious to all that the Biden administration has deliberately crashed border security in order to flood the country with as many illegal aliens as possible,” IRLI executive director Dale Wilcox said. “This is no mere policy failure, or just a violation of statutes, but flagrant disobedience to the Constitution.”
The lawsuit accuses the Biden-Harris administration of having “knowingly adopted numerous immigration policies … that, working in concert, encourage and facilitate the entrance and release of record numbers of illegal aliens into the United States while simultaneously preventing the removal of the vast majority of aliens who are unlawfully present in the United States.”
In particular, the lawsuit details the Biden-Harris administration’s parole pipeline that has welcomed nearly 1.2 million migrants to the U.S. — via the border and commercial flights — since the start of 2023.
The lawsuit states:
Defendants’ non-enforcement and parole policies have caused great harm to Plaintiff Vickers’ ranch. Because of Defendants’ policies, tens of thousands of illegal aliens have been released into the interior who thereafter travel cross country across the grasslands of Plaintiff’s ranch. In so doing, aliens routinely cause thousands of dollars in damage to fences or gates as they pass through the ranch. Since early 2021, Plaintiff Vickers has incurred more than $50,000 in fence and gate damages alone. Plaintiff Vickers has also spent thousands of dollars to mitigate environmental damage.
Aliens also deposit tons of trash and litter as they traverse Plaintiffs’ ranch, which compromises food and water sources for livestock. For instance, Plaintiff Vickers has autopsied cows with their rumen (large stomach) impacted with plastic bags and trash. Cattle also escape through cut fences and gates torn down by illegal aliens.
Something is Fishy
Quote:Investigative journalist Gerald Posner — whose deeply researched studies of the murders of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. made him a preeminent authority on political assassinations — says he can understand why so many people think there’s “something fishy” about the official story of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
Noting the belated admission by the Secret Service that Trump’s security team was denied requested resources before the July 13 assassination attempt, Posner asks, “Did they refuse to give Trump extra security for a two-year period?” They were almost creating a situation in which somebody could take a shot. Now I’m not saying that’s the case, but I understand why that speculation would be there.”
Posner lays out his analysis of the events in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left one man dead, seriously injured two others and wounded former President Trump in the most recent episode of the Drill Down podcast with Peter Schweizer and Eric Eggers.
Posner has been following the hearings into the Secret Service’s failure, and he has many questions. “We knew there have been screw-ups before, but they can’t keep it silent anymore because people who attend the rally take out their cell phones and start recording what happened. Everybody could see — ‘Hey, there he is! There’s that guy! Look at that guy on the roof! Hey, officers!’ — So, we know more than they are telling us. No wonder we think something is fishy here.”
Before the event, the shooter “was walking around with a range finder and apparently a large backpack and they were tracking him. And then the Secret Service was made aware, they’re saying they now knew 30 minutes in advance,” Posner says. “Why did they allow Trump to take that stage?”
Posner has written thirteen books, including deeply researched reviews of the slayings of President John F. Kennedy, called “Case Closed,” and “Killing the Dream,” about civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King. He and his co-author wife Patricia carefully reviewed the records around both assassinations, concluding that both Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray acted alone.
The new Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service, Ronald Rowe, called the assassination attempt against former President Trump “a failure of the Secret Service,” not of local law enforcement. He spoke to a joint Senate hearing this week investigating how 20-year-old Thomas Michael Crooks, armed with an AR-15-style rifle, was able to get so close to Trump and fire eight shots, despite spectators clearly shouting to police they could see the shooter on a roof near Trump’s platform.
“It’s a massive failure of communications,” Posner tells the hosts. “We don’t know yet if the shooter had anybody else working with him. We’ll find that out. Was he encouraged by others to go ahead and do it? Did he have any assistance?” Posner asks.
There were enormous procedural failures, too. “There is a water tower there, by the way. I’ve looked at this in close detail. It gives 360-degree coverage of the entire area. Somebody could have been posted on that water tower. That had been discussed and, evidently, not done,” he says. “One of the things we’ve now learned is that the Secret Service never had a meeting with the local police or state police before this event took place. Was that common practice in the last couple of years on other security matters? Or was this particular for this event, or particular for Trump?”
Worse is that the service has already said it erased the radio communications from its archive as their “standard operating procedure.”
Schweizer notes that the cascade of Secret Service failures might begin to seem to some like a “directed incompetence.” Posner recalls the revelations that key high-level FBI officials held personal animus toward Trump during his presidency, and asks, “Will we find personal emails or possibly even, you know, government emails from secret service officials that say, I can’t stand that no good ex -president, you know, I really don’t like him at all?”
After watching the testimony of both Rowe and former director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned in disgrace last week after her appearance before a House of Representatives panel, it’s easy for the public to conclude that “we know more [about the situation] than they are telling us.”
After Schweizer and Eggers share FBI Director Christopher Wray’s offhanded remark during his own testimony that “there’s some question” as to whether Trump was hit by a bullet or by shrapnel,” Posner agrees that “you can understand why people are suspicious.”
These hearings “were a master class in how not to disclose information if you’re a bureaucrat,” Posner tells the hosts. “The whole system went into paralysis.”
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
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My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
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HiddenChest & Roole
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Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
