ABBU represents ISIS at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Boomtzi Boom”.
Taken from the Israeli comedy show ‘Eretz Nehederet’ (A Wonderful Country).
For more information: http://www.mako.co.il/tv-erez-nehederet
H/T
E.J. Bron
(www.ejbron.wordpress.com)
Congressman: Classified Details of Iran’s Treatment of U.S. Sailors Will Shock Nation Lawmaker says new details being withheld by Obama administration
BY: Follow @Kredo0
May 16, 2016 12:35 pm
Source: Details of Iran’s Treatment of U.S. Sailors Will Shock Nation
Credit: Iranian state media
The classified details behind Iran’s treatment of several U.S. sailors who were captured by the Islamic Republic during a tense standoff earlier this year are likely to shock the nation, according to one member of the House Armed Services Committee, who disclosed to the Washington Free Beacon that these details are currently being withheld by the Obama administration.
Rep. Randy Forbes (R., Va.) told the Free Beacon in an interview that the Obama administration is still keeping details of the maritime incident under wraps. It could be a year or longer before the American public receives a full accounting of the incident, in which several U.S. sailors were abducted at gunpoint by the Iranian military.
“I’ve had a full classified briefing” from military officials, Forbes told the Free Beacon. “It could be as long as a year before we actually get that released.”
Details of the abduction are likely to start an uproar in the nation and call into question the Obama administration’s handling of the incident, which many experts say violated international and maritime law.
“I think that when the details actually come out, most Americans are going to be kind of taken aback by the entire incident, both how Iran handled it and how we handled it,” Forbes disclosed. “I think that’s going to be huge cause for concern for most Americans. That’s why I’ve encouraged members of Congress to get that briefing so they do know exactly what did take place.”
Forbes suggested that Iran’s treatment of the U.S. sailors—which included filming them crying and forcing them to apologize at gunpoint—may have been much worse than what has been publicly reported.
“I think clearly there were violations of international and maritime law that took place here,” Forbes said. “We [the United States] did almost nothing in response, in fact, to have Secretary [of State John] Kerry actually thank them for releasing our sailors after they way they captured them, I think was s slap in the sailors’ face.
Forbes is pushing a new measure that would increase sanctions on Tehran for its treatment of the U.S. sailors in order to hold Iran accountable for its aggressive behavior.
Forbes’ measure outlines a range of Iranian aggressions against U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region.
“Iranian military and paramilitary vessels have repeatedly behaved in a dangerous and unprofessional manner in close proximity to naval vessels and commercial shipping operating in internationally recognized maritime traffic lanes,” according to a copy of the measure viewed by the Free Beacon.
The list of provocations includes a December 2015 incident in which Iran conducted a “live firing exercise within 1,500 yards of the U.S. aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman.”
Iranian military aircraft buzzed the Truman and a French aircraft carrier in the region in January.
“The administration will not stand up and say this is just wrong,” Forbes said. “Instead of thanking them the administration should be standing up and saying its wrong.”
Congress must take action to hold Iran accountable for its aggressive military behavior, Forbes said.
“These kind of actions undermine stability in the Gulf,” he said. “And they raise the danger of inadvertent escalation.”
“I think it goes without saying that if that’s the case and they won’t stop that activity, all of that should at least be considered and debated as part of any Iran sanctions bill that may come up in the future.”
Revealed: Hamas using Gazan fishermen to smuggle weapons Fisherman arrested by Israeli navy reveals Hamas’s efforts to circumvent military blockade, in latest Israeli intelligence coup.
By Ari Soffer
First Publish: 5/16/2016, 3:55 PM
Source: Hamas using Gazan fishermen to smuggle weapons – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva
A Gazan fisherman arrested by Israeli security services has revealed how Hamas regularly uses fishermen to smuggle weapons and other military equipment into Gaza.
The Shin Bet security service (Israel Security Agency), Israeli navy and Israel Police released for publication Monday afternoon the arrest of 39-year-old fisherman Salim Jamal Hasan Na’aman back in April.
Na’aman, a resident of the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, was initially detained by Israeli naval forces after straying beyond the zone permitted for fishing, as part of the Israeli military’s blockade aimed at containing the Hamas terrorist group.
Under Shin Bet interrogation, the fisherman revealed how over a prolonged period he had personally helped smuggle weapons, ammunition, rocket-making equipment and other military equipment via sea into Gaza, on behalf of Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
The items he was tasked with smuggling ranged from live weapons and ammunition, to elements such as liquid fiberglass, which is a key ingredient in rocket production.
Na’aman also revealed to his interrogators a trove of valuable information about Hamas’s own naval activities, including how Hamas operatives aided in smuggling efforts, and worked hard to disguise such activities from Israeli intelligence.
He also provided detailed information on Hamas smuggling routes between Gaza and Egypt, such as the use of fishermen and other smugglers.
In a statement, the Shin Bet hailed the breakthrough in efforts to restrict the flow of weapons and ammunition to Hamas and other terrorist groups inside Gaza.
“The intelligence gained from this interrogation, as in the interrogation of other Hamas terror operatives arrested recently, exposes yet another way among many others in which Hamas is investing in preparations for further violent terrorist acts. In this case: taking advantage of concessions by Israel towards fisherman in Gaza,” the statement read, referring to Israel’s recent extension of the fishing zone.
As noted in the statement, this is only the latest in a series of arrests of Hamas terror operatives from Gaza.
The Shin Bet and IDF recently revealed the arrest of a senior Hamas tunnel builder, who yielded a wealth of intelligence on the jihadist group’s efforts to build attack tunnels into Israeli territory.
Another teenage terrorist was also recently captured, revealing yet more information on Hamas’s preparations for another war with Israel.
Trump, Ryan and the Islam Problem, PJ Media, Roger L. Simon, May 15, 2016
One of the main areas of contention between Donald Trump and Paul Ryan is the question of Muslim immigration. In early December, when Trump first made his proposal (now a “suggestion”) to stop all such immigration until we “understood what was going on,” one of the first to react in high dudgeon was Ryan, who declared: “This is not conservatism.”
He was applauded for his four-word pronouncement by those “conservatives” at the Washington Post, who called his response “near-perfect.” Actually, to me it seemed morally narcissistic and had little to with conservatism, pro or con. Ryan wanted to disassociate himself as quickly as possible from the ugly and seemingly racist Trump.
But let’s look more closely at what the speaker said during that response:
When we voted to pause the refugee program a few weeks ago, I made very clear at the time: there would not be a religious test. There would be a security test. And that is because freedom of religion is a fundamental Constitutional principle. It’s a founding principle of this country.
Aside from the obvious — if people are fighting and killing you in the name of a religion, how do you ignore the “religious test” — what about that “security test”? Is it really happening or are people slipping into the country by various means, including an open border, with no test whatsoever? What about reports of an ISIS camp eight miles from El Paso?
And, perhaps more importantly, did that “pause” Ryan voted for actually take place in any meaningful way? According to the New York Post a “surge operation” bringing Syrian refugees to America was already in operation this past April. By “surge operation,” Gina Kassem — regional refugee coordinator in Amman — told reporters, it was meant the resettlement process that normally took 18 to 24 months would be sped up to 3 months. (Some pause!) And the figure of 10,000 refugees that has often been proffered by the administration was a minimum, not a maximum.
What is the maximum and how will they be vetted? And just how do you “vet” during a “surge”? Is that what Ryan really meant by a “security test”? I doubt it, but Trump should ask him at their next reconciliation meeting. As they say, Paul’s got some “xplainin” to do.
Now this isn’t a simple question. The Syrian people have suffered mightily at the hands of various psychotic despots, secular and religious. Trump has called for supporting more extensive refugee camps in the region, an idea that makes more sense than bringing them here. (He has also called for the Gulf states to pay for them — good luck with that.)
The main point is that this is a significant campaign issue and intelligent solutions have to be discussed. Trump has put Rudy Giuliani in charge of studying this from his side, an excellent choice.
There may be a short-term fix, but there won’t be a short-term answer. This is a very long-term problem, the longest one we have, dwarfing the deficit and everything else — civilizational, really. Will we be America or will we go the way of Europe and turn semi-Islamic like France in Houellebecq’s novel?
It wouldn’t be hard. We have been living under an administration that has been an enabler of Islamism. Obama has chosen to ally himself with Islamists like Turkey’s Erdogan, Egypt’s Morsi and, most stunningly, Iran’s Khamenei, while abjuring Egypt’s al-Sisi, who seeks to reform Islam. Go figure.
On top of all that — it’s hard to believe this — there are reports our administration was colluding with Russia in an attempt to get Israel to give back the Golan Heights to Syria in some putative peace settlement. Syria? Needless to say, Mr. Netanyahu was not amused.
In any case, on the immediate question of Muslim immigration, Trump may have sounded excessive and even been excessive. That’s his technique — he likes to get our attention, then negotiate. But in this particular negotiation (not, for example, on entitlements) the basic talking points — and the American people — are on Donald’s side. Ryan should listen.
Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Aerospace and Missile Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said at a conference of religious students in Qom on May 14, 2016:
Hajidazeh. Source: Farsnews.com.
“The arrogance [i.e. the U.S.] is trying to create [among us] the belief that Iran is at a crossroads, and that it has no choice but to compromise with America or be eternally subjected to American pressure and the problems that stem from that… At the same time, within Iran the belief has taken root that it is not possible to solve [Iran’s] problems without America…
“If we stand fast against this move by the Americans, who have stolen the funds of the [Iranian] nation, they will abandon this habit [of thievery]. But if we compromise with them, the[ir] thievery will end up [taking] $40-$50 billion of Iran’s assets and its blocked funds. The Americans understand only the language of force; they do not understand the language of reason. They cannot be trusted. We must face them down firmly, and we must act. If we do not, we will witness daily their exaggerated and evil demands.
“At this time, the Americans are telling [us]: ‘Don’t talk about missile affairs, and if you conduct a test or maneuver, don’t mention it.’ If we agree to this, they will advance another step, and say: ‘Don’t conduct [a missile test] at this time, and also don’t do it in the Persian Gulf region.’ After that, they will tell us: ‘Why do you need your missiles to have a range of 2,000km [anyway?]?’
“After that, they will tell [us]: ‘Next, we will check whether your missiles can really carry nuclear weapons. Bring us the details [of the missiles].’ After that, they will say: ‘We need to set up cameras.’ And, finally, they will say: ‘Either saw [the missiles up into pieces] or, like [Libyan dictator Mu’ammar] Gadhafi, load them onto a ship and hand [them] over to us.’
“They are clearly deluding themselves. Nothing like this will ever happen.”[1]
Endnote:
[1] Tasnimnews.com, Iran, May 14, 2015.
Inside the Pro-Iran ‘Echo Chamber’ Washington Free Beacon,
A White House-allied group funded a private email listserv that pushed out pro-Iran talking points and anti-Israel conspiracy theories to hundreds of influential policy experts, government officials, and journalists during the Iran nuclear debate.
The contents of the invite-only listserv, obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, could give a glimpse inside the “echo chamber” used by White House aide Ben Rhodes and allied lobbying groups to promote the administration’s nuclear deal with Iran.
Members of the list included an Obama White House adviser, senior officials at the State Department, journalists for the New York Times and the Washington Post, and fellows at prominent think tanks.
The email forum, known as “Gulf/2000,” was originally created by Columbia University professor and former Jimmy Carter aide Gary Sick in 1993.
Since 2010, Gulf/2000’s operations have been funded by the Ploughshares Fund, a group that worked closely with the White House to promote the Iran nuclear deal.
In a New York Times article earlier this month, President Obama’s foreign policy advisor Ben Rhodes said the Ploughshares Fund was part of the administration’s spin operation to sell the public on the agreement.
“We had test drives to know who was going to be able to carry our message effectively, and how to use outside groups like Ploughshares, the Iran Project and whomever else,” Rhodes said. “So we knew the tactics that worked.”
Gulf/2000 is still run out of Columbia University, where it is curated by Sick. Over the last two decades, Sick built the group into the predominant email list for Gulf State policy experts across the ideological spectrum.
The vast majority of posts on the forum are news articles, but occasionally members weigh in with their own comments. Posts are pre-approved by Sick or his assistants, and insiders say the forum is “dominated” by pro-Iran talking points.
One former member, who left Gulf/2000 several years ago because “90 percent of the traffic was either useless or promoting the official lines,” said the comments that were approved for posting seemed to follow an ideological slant.
“Gary [Sick] was the moderator, and the moderator is supposed to moderate,” said the former member. “And I learned after awhile, it was quite obvious, that Gary was filtering and navigating more toward his views of the world on all these issues.”
Sick said he was unable to discuss Gulf/2000 because he was traveling for the next few weeks. He declined to answer questions by email.
Joe Cirincione, the president of the Ploughshares Fund, did not respond to a request for comment. In a column last week, Cirincione disputed allegations that the Ploughshares Fund took orders from the White House about how to sell the Iran deal.
Gulf/2000 members said the forum posts, which are supposed to focus on Gulf State policy issues, often veer into defenses of the Iranian regime or conspiracy theories about Israel. Another member, speaking on background to theWashington Free Beacon, compared the group to a pro-Iran “info-op”—military jargon for a campaign to influence policy decisions.
“The most significant forum for scholars of Iranian studies to exchange ideas and views was dominated by apologists for the Iranian regime and was dominated by people who would reflexively push back on any argument that the Iranian regime was involved in what we would call ‘malign activities’ or ‘illicit activities,’” said the member, who added that the majority of his colleagues who work on Gulf issues belong to the forum.
The Ploughshares Fund said it finances Gulf/2000 in order to “inform the debate over Iran’s nuclear program in the media and among policymakers by assessing and reporting on events, generating viable solutions and refuting false stories,” according to its annual reports. The foundation has given the email list $75,000 a year since 2010.
Gulf/2000 is linked to a larger messaging effort on the Iran deal that has been reported on by the Free Beacon and other outlets.
In October 2014, the Free Beacon published audio recordings from a since-discontinued strategy meeting between the White House and activist groups lobbying for the nuclear deal. During the session, Rhodes stressed that the agreement was “the biggest thing President Obama will do in his second term on foreign policy.”
Last summer, the Free Beacon posted tapes from a private conference call with progressive groups organized by the Ploughshares Fund that discussed how to sell the Iran deal to congressional Democrats.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are calling on Rhodes to testify about his comments to the Times, which seemed to suggest the administration misled the public and created an “echo chamber” in order to get the deal through.
Members of Gulf/2000 include activists and writers who worked closely with the Obama administration on Iran issues. One is Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council, a lobbying group working to repeal Iran sanctions. Another is Al-Monitor reporter Laura Rozen, who a White House aide described as her “RSS feed” on Iran in the Timesarticle. Cirincione is also on the list.
Other members have included Puneet Talwar, a senior State Department official and former advisor to Joe Biden in the Senate and White House; John Limbert, Obama’s former deputy assistant secretary of state for Iran; and Tamara Cofman Wittes, Obama’s former deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.
Many of the email list’s regular contributors are bloggers and academics: Jim Lobe and Marsha Cohen, writers for the anti-Israel website LobeLog; Flynt and Hillary Leverett, authors of the book “Going to Tehran: Why the United States Must Come to Terms with the Islamic Republic of Iran”; Truthout writer Gareth Porter; and Cyrus Safdari, a commentator at Iran Review. Gulf/2000 also includes a number of current and former Iranian scholars who work at state-controlled universities or think tanks.
The Free Beacon reviewed hundreds of posts sent to the listserv between 2010 and 2015. Many contain theories about the “Israel Lobby’s” destructive influence over U.S. foreign policy and politicians, defenses of the Iranian government, and comments downplaying news stories that cast the regime in a negative light.
Although some Gulf/2000 members are strong critics of the Iranian government, particularly on human rights, many of the most active posters are vocal defenders of the regime.
“Perhaps above all, one of the greatest benefits of this [Iran] deal has been to put some limits, at least for the time being, on the Israeli Lobby and their rightwing supporters in the Congress,” wrote Farhang Jahanpour, a former dean at a state-run Iranian university, in 2013.
Other posts talked about the necessity of “breaking the power of the domestic Israel lobby” and the “neo-con cabal” that were allegedly the main threats to the Iran deal.
“The Neo-Cons have convinced themselves that no costs of human life outweigh the moral benefits they see of ridding Israel of any perceived military threat by pre-active lethal military force,” wrote David Long in January 2013.
The forum is also littered with conspiracy theories about the Israeli government and foreign affairs. In one post, retired journalist Richard Sale claimed the CIA told him that pro-Israel Christian groups were “secretly funded by Mossad.” In another, Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich speculated that the Iranian-backed bombing of the 1994 AMIA Jewish community center was actually a false flag operation by the Argentine government to cover up its complicity with the Nazis.
Although Gulf/2000 is ostensibly a forum to discuss Gulf policy issues, the listserv’s fixation with “neocons” and the “Israel lobby” is not new. In 2003, a Lebanese columnist named Jihad Al Khazen published a series of lengthy posts on Gulf/2000 that purported to tell the “Biographies of the Neo-Cons.” His subjects included Bill Kristol, Douglas Feith, Michael Ledeen, and Robert Kagan.
At the time, members also debated the correlation between “neo-cons” and Jews.
“It is certainly true that not every supporter of the [Iraq] war is Jewish, but it is definitely true that every supporter of the war with Iraq is a supporter of the most extreme Israeli right-wing. The coincidence is hard to ignore,” noted William Beeman.
Occasionally a contributor would push back on the forum’s general consensus.
“I am puzzled by the consistent tone of dismissal of any allegations of wrongdoing on the part of Iran by members of this list,” wrote one poster in 2003. “These charges are lumped together as either the baseless allegations of the US government, or worse, the product of a secret Jewish-neocon plot to discredit an Iran which would never, ever participate in terrorism.”
But a former forum member said Sick would often cut off conversations as “off-topic” when commenters tried to defend Israel against charges.
“There were clearly cases where there were things that were said about Israel, or written, posted about Israel, that were false, defamatory, absurd,” said the former member.
On March 5, 2014, the day the Israeli military announced it had intercepted an Iranian shipment of advanced rockets to Gaza, the news was greeted with typical suspicion in the forum.
“Call me a cynic, but it does seem like amazingly fortuitous timing: just when the IAEA have resisted Israel’s call to publish the claims (probably) Israel leaked, and while Bibi is tub-thumping to AIPAC in Washington ,” wrote James Spencer, a blogger for LobeLog.
“[S]omething did not jibe with this story. It is just a little bit too convenient,” agreed another poster.
“I can’t take that narrative at face value,” added Thomas Lippman, former Middle East bureau chief of the Washington Post.
“As James Spencer and Walter Posch noted the timing is suspicious, occurring as the AIPAC conference convened with Netanyahu in Washington,” wrote Charles Smith, a professor at the University of Arizona.
When the Iranian government weighed in on the arms seizure the day after the story broke, its response was similar.
“An Iranian ship carrying arms for Gaza. Captured just in time for annual AIPAC anti Iran campaign. Amazing Coincidence! Or same failed lies,” wrote Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Twitter.
Another common refrain in posts is that there is no evidence Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons.
“Like other counter-factual mythologies (President Obama’s birthplace, the identity of the Kennedy assassin, Jimmy Hoffa’s killer), this one seemingly will never die–at least as long as the neo-cons are alive to fan the last of its faint sparks,” wrote William O. Beeman, an anthropology professor at the University of Minnesota.
An official at an Iranian university, whose name was withheld, claimed the notion that Iran was seeking a bomb was driven by “Iranophobia.”
“Iran repeatedly has said that it doesn’t pursue the way of reaching to Atomic bomb,” said the poster. “What makes the US doesn’t believe this is exactly rooted to what Mr. Aboutalebi described it in his interview as Iranophobia.”
Posts also defend Iran against allegations of human rights violations by suggesting the claims are intended to undermine moderates or denying the charges altogether.
“[A]s the nuclear issue has become effectively – for now – insulated due to the support of Khamenei, critics are seeking to undermine Rouhani through other issues,” wrote Parsi in March 2014. “Human rights – due to the impact it has on Rouhani’s external image and the impact that can have on negotiations – appears to be one such issue.”
Other commenters were less subtle than Parsi.
“The Leveretts said it best: Ahmadinejad won those elections; get over it already,” argued blogger Safdari in December 2013.
One former member expressed concern that the influential listserv was being used to whitewash the Iranian government.
“If the Iranian regime wanted to push back on any assertion against it … it could not do a better job itself than the American academics and pundits who do it on Gulf/2000,” he said.
Islamists Infiltrate the Swedish Government, Gatestone Institute, Ingrid Carlqvist, May 16, 2016
One Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Sweden: April 2016
♦ The library in Arvika surprised patrons by offering Arabic language courses. Many Swedes wondered if offering courses in Swedish to the Arabic-speaking immigrants would not be more productive. The library, however, does not offer any such service.
♦ The Immigration Service released a new report on April 8, entitled “Are You Married?”, which showed how its own case officers allow child marriages.
♦ Swedish authorities have approved hundreds of polygamous marriages among immigrants, law professor Göran Lind revealed on April 4.
♦ An asylum seeker was arrested April 23 for kicking his wife in the head, among other things. According to police, the man became angry with his wife because she was trying to learn Swedish.
April was the month when the Islamist scandals in the Green Party (Miljöpartiet) came one after the other. The Green Party sits in Sweden’s government, along with its coalition partner, the Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterna). They have made themselves known as a party favoring open borders, and with a passionate love for multiculturalism. These infatuations are precisely why the party has been a perfect candidate for Islamist infiltration. Within the Green Party, even to ask the question whether Muslims view Islam as a political force has been considered rude and “Islamophobic.”
On April 17: Housing Minister Mehmet Kaplan was forced to resign after it was reported that he not only socialized with Islamists and fascists, but also compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians with Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews.
April 20: A would-be member of the Green Party executive, Yasri Khan, refused to shake hands with a female TV reporter, Ann Tiberg, causing much hoopla and eventually forcing Khan to resign.
April 22: The scholar Lars Nicander of the Swedish Defense University warned that the Green Party may have been infiltrated by Islamists: “It is obvious they are trying to get in and ascend to positions of trust,” Nicander told the daily Aftonbladet.
Anders Wallner, Secretary of the Green Party, commented on Nicander’s remarks:
“What is being put forth by Lars Nicander is something we take very seriously. Extremism has no place in our party, something our spokespersons have been very clear about.”
April 23: Semanur Taskin, spokesperson for the Green Youth (the Green Party’s youth wing) in Stockholm, decided to drop out of politics. As a Swedish Muslim, she said, she felt “misunderstood and no longer secure in politics.” Taskin is also a member of an organization founded by Mehmet Kaplan — Swedish Muslims for Peace and Justice (Svenska muslimer för fred och rättvisa). The organization is best known for working for Muslim rights in Sweden; participating in “Ships to Gaza,” and criticizing all things they perceive as “Islamophobic” or the government’s work against Islamism.
April 24: It was reported that the spokesperson for the Green Youth in Malmö, Salahaden Raoof,could be seen giving the so-called Rabia sign — a four-fingered salute in support of the Muslim Brotherhood — on live television, filmed during a political convention at Almedalen in 2015. He was, however, allowed to retain his post after stating that he “will not do it again.”
Salahaden Raoof (left), spokesperson for the Green Youth in Malmö, Sweden, appeared on live TV giving the Rabia sign — a four-fingered salute in support of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was allowed to retain his post after stating that he “will not do it again.” Pictured at right: Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader and Egypt’s deposed president, popularized the Rabia sign.
April 27: Local Green Party politician Kamal al Rifai from Burlöv announced he was taking a time out from politics — after attracting much attention for inviting a world-famous Salafist, Salman al-Ouda, to speak at an event in Malmö for the benefit of the children of Syria. Al-Ouda is known, among other things, for being the mentor of Osama bin Laden. He later renounced bin Laden and now preaches a “peaceful transition to sharia.”
May 3: Mohamed Temsamani of the Green Party (Solna) was also identified as an Islamist. It emerged that he had been active in a political party connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, and had been seen giving the Rabia sign.
April 29: The author and social commentator Johan Lundberg wrote in the daily Göteborgs-Posten:
“The examples of associations and organizations with an Islamist agenda, who have received state subsidies and won the hearts of Green Party Ministers abound. How then, do you explain the Green Party dedication to conservative Islam? One explanation is the common view of identity politics, norm criticism and diversity in the sense of ethnicity, which has led to a troublesome blindness to extremism.”
April 1: An Afghan man claiming to be a child was placed in an institution for youths, where he raped a 15-year-old girl. The man came to Sweden at the end of last year, and applied for asylum on December 14. The next day, he was arrested for raping a girl at the home for youths with psychiatric problems, where he had been placed. The girl had several times reported that the man (who later turned out to be at least 19 years old) was uncomfortably intimate towards her. Even so, they were left alone one night in front of the television. When the staff came back, they saw the Afghan raping the crying girl. He has now been sentenced to forensic psychiatric care and deportation.
April 4: A large police search was called to look for an Iraqi citizen, Ramin Sherzaj, 23, who was abducted against his will in central Gävle. He was pulled into a car, which, with “screeching tires,” disappeared from the site. Sometime later, five Iraqis who came to Sweden early this century were arrested: one woman and four men. Two weeks later, Sherzaj’s dead body was found. In all, seven people have now been taken into custody in connection with the murder.
April 4: Polygamy is against the Swedish constitution’s demands for equality and totally foreign to the Swedish legal system. Still, Swedish authorities have approved hundreds of polygamous marriages, law professor Göran Lind revealed. Men bringing several wives to Sweden have had their marriages approved. Göran Lind says that Swedish courts need to stop approving these marriages:
“This can create big problems if, say, an Iraqi man with three wives dies. Do all three have marital rights to the estate? Are they to share the half a monogamous widow gets or is the estate to be shared some other way? And are the children shared, or children from previous marriages?”
April 5: A Somali known as “Muhamed” was sentenced to community service for 180 hours, after brutally raping a 12-year-old girl. “Black dick is expensive,” he commented during the rape. Now the girl is being stalked, threatened and physically abused by Muhamed’s friends and family. The local daily Sundsvalls Tidning interviewed the girl, who told the paper about how she ran into the perpetrator’s family at a bus stop, and was beaten by one of his brothers:
“There came the other one, who I have a restraining order against, and I thought he was going to help me get up, but he punched me on the mouth with his fist. Then his mother came and I thought they would quit, but she kicked me, too.”
April 6: The Swedish National Audit Office, in its yearly review, criticized the Immigration Service on several counts. Members of the Audit Office wrote in their report that there was a risk of corruption. The auditors complained about a lack of policy documents and clear routines, and that the case officers can pick and choose which errands they want to process — opening up opportunities for corruption.
April 7: A 20-year-old Muslim medical student, Aydin Sevigin, was prosecuted for planning to blow himself up in Sweden in a terrorist attack. According to the prosecutor, Sevigin could have caused serious damage. When the trial started on April 15, Sevigin seemed unperturbed when the prosecutor read a passage about how one becomes a jihadi one-man army. He admitted to the police that he wants to die a martyr. Among the evidence presented against him are pictures in which Sevigin can be seen buying bomb-making ingredients at an Ikea store.
April 8: The Immigration Service released a new report, entitled “Are You Married?”, which showed how its own case officers allow child marriages. The report highlighted several cases where the officers did not ask any questions whatsoever, despite dealing with married 16- to 17-year-old girls.
The Immigration Service wrote:
“The Immigration Service has a duty to investigate, and questions about the marriage should be asked, regardless of whether a married child points to this circumstance as a factor in his or her need for protection or not.”
The report also noted that there is no comprehensive view or analysis of what is in the best interest of the child. Rules are not followed, and reports to Social Services and the police are not being filed to the extent that they should be.
April 10: For many years, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet), BRÅ, has claimed that the lethal violence in Sweden is on the decline. However, BRÅ failed to mention that this is in comparison to the record-breaking years, 1989-1991. If one instead were to compare the present with the 1950s, when Sweden was still a homogenous country, the number of murders and manslaughter cases has doubled. Recently, BRÅ was forced to confess that lethal violence did in fact increase in 2015, when 112 people were killed: 25 more than the year before. 2016 appears on track to top that — during the first three months of the year, 40 murders and 57 attempted murders were committed in Sweden, according to statistics compiled by journalist Elisabeth Höglund.
April 11: The New Welfare (Den Nya Välfärden), a think tank, presented an opinion poll that showed 70% of Swedes now think immigration is too high. In 2014, only 45% felt this way; in 2015, 58%. The poll also showed that the difference in opinion between people with higher education and blue-collar workers continued to shrink. The largest increase in critics of immigration is found among academics.
April 11: The library in Arvika surprised patrons by offering Arabic language courses. Many Swedes wondered if offering courses in Swedish to the Arab-speaking immigrants would not be more productive. The library, however, does not offer any such service. Library representatives wrote in a press release:
“As part of our work to create meeting points, bolster integration and increase knowledge of other cultures, peoples and languages, the Arvika Library and the Education Association NBV are now giving a course in Arabic at Arvika Library.”
April 12: A 33-year-old Arab man and a 34-year-old Turkish woman were prosecuted for a brutal murder in Malmö in the summer of 2015. The victim, a middle-aged Swedish man, had let the woman stay with him at his apartment in central Malmö. The woman was the one who called the police after the murder. However, the prosecutor believes that the murder actually took place 24 hours earlier, and that by the time the police arrived, the crime scene had been “scrubbed.” Both suspects have entered a plea of not guilty, and blame each other for the murder. Their motive remains unclear.
April 14: Gambian citizen Baboucar Mboge, 21, was sentenced to one year in prison for rape, robbery and minor drug-related offenses. He was also sentenced to pay 125,000 kronor (about $14,000) in damages to the woman he raped and mugged. The rape took place four years ago, but it was not until Mboge became a suspect in a robbery against a convenience store in Stockholm that his DNA could be tied to the rape. When questioned by the police, the Gambian claimed that the girl had consensual sex with him on a lawn, and he bragged about “f**king for over ten minutes.” The prosecutor did not ask for deportation.
April 14: Many Muslims in Sweden have been granted damages by the Discrimination Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen), DO, after their refusal to shake hands has led to them not getting a job for which they have applied. But the woman who refused to shake a doctor’s hand, leading to her not getting the physical examination she wanted, did not get any money. The Hässleholm Municipal Court previously convicted the doctor and the company he worked for, and sentenced them to pay the woman 75,000 kronor (about $8,700) in damages, but the verdict was reversed in the Court of Appeals, which said that the DO could not prove that the missed physical examination was due to the woman not shaking the doctor’s hand.
April 14: A 27-year-old scientist at Uppsala University was arrested, suspected of selling poison, munitions and narcotics online. The man, nicknamed “Chemical Ali,” is a German citizen of Turkish descent. He was arrested on suspicion of drug-related crimes, preparing to spread poison (aggravated offense) and breaking the munitions law. He was also suspected of attempted aggravated extortion after sending someone a poisonous substance “while trying to blackmail them.”
April 14: A Syrian asylum seeker was sentenced to two years in prison and deportation for having assaulted a woman in January, at an asylum house in Leksand. The woman had locked herself into a bathroom, but the 34-year old man managed to pick the lock, pull her out, rip off her clothes and rape her. During the rape, the man pulled his victim’s hair and beat her. She retaliated by biting his finger and shoulder. It was only when the man saw his wife outside the window that he stopped.
April 16: When local politicians of the Stockholm suburbs of Spånga-Tensta met the would-be neighbors of a planned asylum house for 600 people, the mood was close to that of a lynch mob. The citizens were concerned about the asylum house, planned right next to a school: “We will fight to our last drop of blood to make sure this plan is not carried out,” said one man, to uproarious applause.
Despite agitated feelings, the politicians had no answers, making the people even more upset. Several shouted: “Answer! Answer our questions! Why are you doing this? Where is your analysis? Are we to risk our children’s health?”
April 17: A soccer tournament for “unaccompanied refugee children” in Jämtland ended in a mass brawl, involving 40 people fighting with iron bars and wooden sticks. At least one person had to be taken to hospital. The police investigation turned up at least seven suspects in the case. “It is plaintiffs and suspects all jumbled together,” police officer Cecilia Modin told local paper, Länstidningen. A couple of days later, the municipality decided not to host any more soccer tournaments for “unaccompanied.”
April 23: An immigrant from the Middle East, Ali Al-Ali, at first evaded being sentenced for kidnapping and robbing a taxi driver as he was, according to public record, only 14 years old at the time the crimes were committed. His two accomplices, who both received six months in juvenile detention, but avoided deportation, stated to the court that Ali Al-Ali is older than 18, and frequently brags about fooling the Swedish authorities. Two days after the sentence, Ali Al-Ali was arrested at a shopping mall in Malmö. At the time, he was accompanied by two other youths, carrying firearms, knives and a balaclava. The other two youths escaped the scene, but Ali Al-Ali, suspected of preparing an armed robbery, is now in police custody.
April 23: The political news editor of the local newspaper, Eskilstuna-Kuriren, Alex Voronov, posted a picture of himself giving the Rabia-sign — four fingers in the air as a salute to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) — on Twitter. “I have met several MB-politicians who are now behind bars after mock trials,” Voronov tweeted, “and this is of course something that concerns me.”
The paper refused to comment on its editor’s message.
April 23: An asylum seeker from Hagfors was arrested, suspected of, among other things, having kicked his wife in the head. According to the police, the man became angry with his wife because she was trying to learn Swedish. The couple needed interpreter assistance in Dari, a language spoken in Afghanistan.
April 28: After brusquely rebutting a proposal by the Sweden Democrats (SD) to eliminate the two-week long suspension of Sweden’s border controls, the government suddenly announced that the border controls would not be suspended after all. The decision was welcomed by the SD, whose members are critical of immigration, and who assert that border-controls issue has been handled appallingly.
Kent Ekeroth, an SD representative and member of the parliament’s Justice Committee, stated:
“It is pretty comical how the other parties time and again vote no to our motion to remove the waiting period in connection with the identity checks, but it is good that they are now following our lead point by point and copying our suggestions.”
April 27: A 34-year-old Somali, who raped a woman in Gothenburg last year, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. The man pulled a dark hood over the woman’s head, held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. Then he ripped off her clothes and raped her. Afterwards, he stole her cell phone and said, “You could get 10,000 kronor if you come home with me and I could f**k you for a whole day.” Despite the court’s assertion that his crimes are of “a most serious nature,” the man will not be deported.
April 30: The mosque of Imam Abo Raad, identified as the foremost “militant Islamist leader in Sweden,” was subjected to a firebomb attack. The Islamist mosque, located in Gävle, has been highlighted in the local paper, Gefle Dagblad, in a series of articles beginning in the fall of 2015. On March 30, it also emerged that Gefle Dagblad’s editor-in-chief, Anna Gullberg, had received death threats from a close relative of Abo Raad. “This is a direct threat against the freedom of the press,” Gullberg said. “The threats are obviously connected to the articles Gefle Dagblad has published.”
Democrats Try to Outlaw Trump’s Muslim Immigration Ban, Front Page Magazine, Robert Spencer, May 16, 2016
(Since Islamic jihad has been deemed un-Islamic, and is therefore claimed to have no nexus with Islam, there is presently no effective way to bar Islamic terrorists from entry. Perhaps those who oppose Trump’s proposed temporary ban on Muslim immigration until ways are found to keep jihadists out should try to find ways. — DM)
Love him or hate him, Donald Trump has certainly turned American politics on its head. Has it ever happened before in American history that a political party began to frame legislation against an opposing candidate’s proposals before he was even elected – much less one whose election was as inconceivable as the mainstream media would have us believe about Donald Trump? Yet that is exactly what the Democrats are doing: Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) is spearheading a bill that would block a President Trump from instituting the temporary halt on Muslim immigration into the United States that he has proposed.
“It’s very narrow in scope,” says Beyer of his Freedom of Religion Act. “We’re not going to discriminate when it comes to immigration based on religion.” He added that his bill was intended to “appeal to hope rather than fear.” In our pusillanimous and puerile age, “fear” is not just a weakness of character, but a moral flaw: if you fear being beheaded or blown up by Islamic jihadists, you’re an evil person. And to be sure, fear is never to be encouraged or given into, but its opposite is not hope, it’s courage and resoluteness.
Beyer is not offering courage or resoluteness. He is proposing a ban on using someone’s religion as a reason for blocking them from entering the country based on the politically correct fiction that Islamic jihad terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, and that therefore to be concerned about jihad terrorists entering the country along with peaceful Muslim refugees is simply a manifestation of bigotry, racism and “Islamophobia.”
What Beyer is offering is “hope” and a rejection of “fear.” We should “hope” that there will be no jihadis among the immigrants. We should “hope” that there will not be another jihad attack a la San Bernardino perpetrated by another refugee like Tashfeen Malik, the San Bernardino jihad murderer who had passed five separate background checks from five separate U.S. government agencies. We should “hope” that the Islamic State will not make good on its threat to send jihadis into Europe and North America among the refugees. We should “hope” that we can continue to pursue self-destructive and suicidal policies without suffering any negative consequences.
To reject all of Beyer’s “hopes” would be, in his view, to succumb to “fear,” and remember: fear is morally wrong. Trump, after all, is like Hitler for even suggesting this temporary moratorium: hard-Left journalist Intercept co-founder Jeremy Scahill told Bill Maher on Real Time Friday: “I believe that what we’re seeing with Trump has whiffs of how Hitler rose to power.” Yes, of course: Hitler stopped emigration of Jews and kept them in Germany so he could kill them, while Trump proposed a temporary ban on Muslim immigration so that jihadis won’t kill us — clearly they’re the same thing, if you’re a hardcore doctrinaire Leftist.
Meanwhile, those who vilify Trump for proposing this have never actually come up with any viable alternative proposal for keeping jihadis out of the country. We’re just supposed to reject “fear” and rely on “hope” that it won’t all blow up on us – you know, the “hope” that prevented the jihad attacks in Paris and Brussels and San Bernardino and Garland and Chattanooga and Boston and Fort Hood. The “hope” that leaves us defenseless in the face of the advancing jihad, for fear of appearing “Islamophobic.”
For Leftists like Don Beyer and Jeremy Scahill, the mass murder of innocent non-Muslim civilians in the U.S. is preferable to taking any effective action to defend our nation – for to do so would be to succumb to “fear,” that fear that our Leftist moral superiors insist is a character defect. Why did the U.S. declare war on Japan after Pearl Harbor? Instead of giving in to “fear,” it should have laid down its arms and opened the door to unrestricted Japanese immigration. Britain should have done the same thing after Hitler invaded Poland: instituted a ban on anti-Nazi legislation and opened its arms and its shores to the Germans. What could possibly have gone wrong? Primitive man should never have fashioned a spear; he should instead have let the lion maul him; instead, he gave in to “fear.”
Don Beyer and the Democrats are, for the umpteenth time, demanding that the nation choose defeat and suicide.
Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew, Front Page Magazine, David Horowitz, May 16, 2016
Reprinted from Breitbart.
While millions of Republican primary voters have chosen Donald Trump as the party’s nominee, Bill Kristol and a small but well-heeled group of Washington insiders are preparing a third party effort to block Trump’s path to the White House. Their plan is to run a candidate who could win three states and enough votes in the electoral college to deny both parties the needed majority. This would throw the election into the House of Representatives, which would then elect a candidate the Kristol group found acceptable. The fact that this would nullify the largest vote ever registered for a Republican primary candidate, the fact that it would jeopardize the Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, and more than likely make Hillary Clinton president apparently doesn’t faze Kristol and company at all. This is to give elitism a bad name.
One would think that the Trump opponents would have substantial reasons for pursuing such a destructive course. But examination of their expressed reasons shows that one would be wrong. Their chief justification for opposing Trump is that he is not a “constitutional conservative” and in fact is “without principles” and therefore dangerous. The evidence offered is that he has supported Democrats in the past, and changed his positions on important issues. Yet in seeking a candidate to carry their standard the Kristol group has approached billionaire investor Mark Cuban a figure uncannily similar to Trump. During the presidential election year 2012, the Hollywood Reporter noted that, “in February, billionaire sports and media mogul Mark Cuban was seen hugging Barack Obama at a $30,000-a-plate fundraiser for the president’s re-election bid.” Cuban was also a visible campaigner for Obama four years earlier. A fan of Obamacare, Cuban wrote a column forHuffington Post just before the 2012 election titled, “I would vote for Gov. Romney if he were a Democrat.” Now it is true that Mark Cuban eventually had second thoughts about Obama, and perhaps even about Democrats. But what these facts show is that Kristol and his allies are willing to elect anyone but Trump and have even fewer principles than the man they hate.
A second charge against Trump is that his character is so bad (worse than Hillary’s or Bill’s?) that no right-thinking Republican could regard him as White House worthy. “I just don’t think he has the character to be president of the United States,” Kristol declared in a recent interview. “It’s beyond any particular issue I disagree with him on, or who he picks as VP or something. The man in the last five days has embraced Mike Tyson, the endorsement of a convicted rapist in Indiana…. He likes toughness, Donald Trump, that’s great, he likes rapists.” This would be fairly damning if the facts were as black and white as Kristol presents them. But as anyone familiar with the sports world would know, Mike Tyson had a dramatic change of heart following his release from prison – rejected the life he had led, repented his past, and committed himself to a course of humility and service to others.
Here is an online news summary of the transformation: “Former boxing champ Mike Tyson has dedicated the rest of his life to caring for others – because he considers himself a ‘pig’ who has ‘wasted’ so many years of his life.” Tyson himself toldDetails Magazine: “The first stage of my life was just a whole bunch of selfishness. Just a whole bunch of gifts to myself and people who didn’t necessarily deserve it. Now I’m 44, and I realize that my whole life is just a f**king waste. ‘Greatest man on the planet’? I wasn’t half the man I thought I was.” In an autobiographical best-seller, Tyson also conducted a searing self-examination, which was condensed into a one-man Broadway performance and HBO special. Whatever one thinks of Mike Tyson before or after his conviction, one has to concede that he has made a serious self-inventory and changed the way he sees himself and others. If Kristol were serious about the politics of winning elections rather than merely pontificating about them, he would have known these facts and also recognized that Tyson is an icon to an important segment of the voting population – one that is more likely than not to offer sincere repenters a second chance. Electorally speaking, Trump’s ability to win the endorsement of an African American sports champion is no small achievement. Nor is it an isolated one. Trump has also been endorsed by Adrien Broner, a world boxing champion in four weight classes, who is also African-American.
In addition to alleging that Trump is lacking in principles and character, Kristol claims that the Republican candidate is a crackpot conspiracy theorist, a disqualifying trait. Kristol’s evidence is a remark Trump made on the eve of the Indiana primary suggesting that Ted Cruz’s father might have something to hide about his alleged acquaintance with Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Wrote Kristol: “Calling in to Fox and Friends, Donald Trump, as Politico summarized it, ‘alleged that Ted Cruz’s father was with John F. Kennedy’s assassin shortly before he murdered the president, parroting aNational Enquirer story claiming that Rafael Cruz was pictured with Lee Harvey Oswald handing out pro-Fidel Castro pamphlets in New Orleans in 1963.’” The liberal writers at Politico can perhaps be forgiven for reporting that the Enquireronly claimed that Oswald and the senior Cruz were pictured together. The Enquirer actually published the picture.
“Here’s Trump in his own crazed words,” Kristol continues: [Trump:] “His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Kennedy’s being — you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this, right prior to his being shot, and nobody even brings it up. They don’t even talk about that. That was reported, and nobody talks about it. I mean, what was he doing — what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting? It’s horrible.’” Comments Kristol: “What’s horrible is a leading presidential candidate trading in crackpot conspiracy theories.”
So it might be if Trump were actually putting forward a conspiracy theory. But what we have here, obviously, is not a theorybut some Trumpian campaign mischief – not dissimilar in form to his earlier suggestion that because Ted Cruz was born in Canada he might not be able to actually run for president even if he were to win the nomination. These were both campaign tricks – dirty tricks if you like – to throw a rival off balance and gain an advantage. Were they dirtier than publishing nude photographs of Trump’s wife during the Utah primary, or publishing a false story that Ben Carson was quitting the race on the eve of the Iowa primary, as the Cruz campaign did? Do they justify sabotaging a Republican run for the presidency and potentially electing Hillary Clinton?
Kristol is aware that his strategy risks electing an Obama loyalist, and attempts to neutralize the objection by claiming that Trump is himself an Obama clone whose policies would be no different: “[T]here is a president whose policies Donald Trump’s would in fact resemble: Barack Obama. No intervention against dictators? Check. No action to prevent mass slaughter? Check. Another reset with Putin’s Russia to break what Trump calls the ‘cycle of hostility’…? Check. ‘Getting out of the nation-building business, and instead focusing on creating stability in the world?’ Check! Trump’s agenda turns out to be Obama’s all-too-familiar agenda of national retreat masked by a rhetoric of America First bellicosity.”
This is pretty shabby stuff. Contrary to Kristol, far from being a non-interventionist, Obama conducted two interventions against dictators in Egypt and Libya with disastrous consequences. The intervention in Libya, which Kristol supported, has created two million refugees, hundreds of thousands of corpses and a terrorist state. One might suppose that a little re-thinking of interventionism would be in order. Trump’s readiness to rethink interventionism is hardly the same as Obama’s strategy of retreat and surrender. Contrary to Kristol’s assertion, Trump is not opposed to all interventions against dictators. He has promised to do what it takes to destroy ISIS, which includes bombing its oil facilities and destroying its headquarters, and is obviously only possible with interventions in Syria and Iraq. Destroying ISIS would also be an action to prevent mass slaughter, despite Kristol groundless claim. As for Trump proposing “another re-set with Putin’s Russia,” there was no re-set with Russia under Obama. Attempting a serious re-set – a re-set from strength – would seem reasonable and prudent, and would hardly be a repeat of Obama’s policies. It would be just the opposite.
“Getting out of the nation-building business and instead focusing on creating stability in the world” is hardly an Obama policy, as Kristol suggests. Obama’s intervention in Eygpt, put the Muslim Brotherhood in power; when the Egyptian military then overthrew the Brotherhood, Obama sided with the Brotherhood and alienated the most important power in the Middle East. These acts, together with Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq and waffling in Syria, created a power vacuum that spreadinstability throughout the region. “Avoiding nation-building, while focusing on creating stability” is a foreign policy any true constitutional conservative would support. Unless that conservative was driven by an irrational hatred of Trump. Finally, Trump’s promise to put American interests first and restore respect for America through rebuilding American strength can only be described as a “national retreat” by a very unprincipled – and careless – individual.
All these dishonesties and flim-flam excuses pale by comparison with the consequences Kristol and his “Never Trump” cohorts are willing to risk by splitting the Republican vote. Obama has provided America’s mortal enemy, Iran, with a path to nuclear weapons, $150 billion dollars, and the freedom to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles to deliver the lethal payloads. Trump has promised to abandon the Iran deal, while Hillary Clinton and all but a handful of Democrats have supported this treachery from start to finish. Kristol is now one of their allies. I am a Jew who has never been to Israel and has never been a Zionist in the sense of believing that Jews can rid themselves of Jew hatred by having their own nation state. But half of world Jewry now lives in Israel, and the enemies whom Obama and Hillary have empowered – Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, ISIS and Hamas – have openly sworn to exterminate the Jews. I am also an American (and an American first), whose country is threatened with destruction by the same enemies. To weaken the only party that stands between the Jews and their annihilation, and between America and the forces intent on destroying her, is a political miscalculation so great and a betrayal so profound as to not be easily forgiven.
IRGC routed in Syria by new missile, DEBKAfile, May 16, 2016
[N]either the Iranians nor Hizballah can win the war for Assad.
***************************
The battle on May 6 in the village of Khan Touman, located southwest of Aleppo near Route 5, the main highway leading to Damascus, will go down in the annals of the Syrian war as the biggest defeat suffered by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hizballah, as well as the battle that changed the face of the war.
DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report that an Iranian force consisting of IRGC troops and Hizballah was ambushed by fighters from the Jaysh al Fath organization, part of the Nusra Front.
Until this battle took place, Iranian and Hizballah commanders in Syria did not know that the rebels had received a shipment of MILAN antitank missiles provided by Turkey and funded by Saudi Arabia.
The encounter with the advanced weapon system brought the IRGC and Hizballah to rout.
The Iranians admitted that 17 of their fighters fell in the battle, including 13 from the IRGC’s “Karbala” Division that is usually based in Iran, and 22 were wounded. Among the dead were two Iranian brigadier generals. At least ten IRGC troops were taken prisoner by the rebels. Five or seven Iranian troops were executed immediately, and an unknown number were taken from the area to an undisclosed location.
Hizballah claimed that none of its troops were killed or taken prisoner. However, that statement was actually an attempt to hide that at least 15 of its fighters were killed. According to intelligence sources that monitored the battle, Hizballah’s death toll was even higher.
The defeat was a major shock to the Iranian and Hizballah hierarchies In Tehran and Beirut, and officials vowed that revenge would be coming soon.
The immediate result of the shock was the appointment of Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, commander of the IRGC 26 years ago in the 1980s, who retired years ago and was a candidate in several presidential elections.
DEBKAfile’s sources report that Rezaei is one of the only IRGC commanders to have visited many times in the West, mainly to participate in international conferences, and has spoken freely with Western military and intelligence officers on the situation in Iran and the Middle East.
It is hard to believe that he will succeed in turning the clock back for Iran and Hizballah in Syria. Rezaei’s appointment indicates confusion or panic in the Iranian hierarchy that does not know how to respond to the defeat.
In addition, it is still not clear whether Rezaei will replace Gen. Qassem Soleimanias commander of Iran’s forces in Syria, or be subordinate to him.
DEBKAfile’s military sources point out that bringing Rezaei to Syria does not resolve Iran and Hizballah’s main military problem, as the battle in Khan Touman showed. If the rebels continue to receive advanced weapons like antitank and antiaircraft missiles, they will become superior to the three military forces fighting for Syrian President Bashar Assad, namely Iran’s standing army and IRGC troops, the Syrian army and Hizballah.
In other words, neither the Iranians nor Hizballah can win the war for Assad.
Seven days after the battle, the commander of Hizballah’s forces in Syria, Mustafa Bader Al-din, was killed by a ground-to-ground missile strike near the Damascus international airport. Later claims by various sources that he was killed in battle at Khan Touman were actually attempts to conceal the two biggest military blows suffered by the Iranians and Hizballah in Syria
anneinpt
artaxes
danmillerinpanama
davidking1530
Peter Hofman
Joseph Wouk
Peter
Louisiana Steve
WarSclerotic 
Recent Comments