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Putin - Netanyahu Intelligence Cooperation - Google Search

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 07:15:12 -0400

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Russia and Israel: an improbable friendship - ‎Katz - Cited by 16

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Jul 12, 2024 — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the importance of Israeli-Russian military cooperation to prevent "unnecessary accidents" ...

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Feb 6, 2023 — Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Kremlin in Moscow on Jan. 30, 2020. MAXIM SHEMETOV/ ...

Netanyahu's Deal With Putin Goes Wrong

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Oct 24, 2023 — He had always considered his close personal relationship to Russian President Vladimir Putin to be both a political and national asset, grounded ...

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Male October 7 survivor recounts rape at hands of Hamas terrorists

Wed, 24 Jul 2024 06:17:35 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The Times of Israel.

A survivor of the Hamas massacre at the Supernova music festival on October 7 said he was raped by terrorists attacking the rave, the first time a male victim has come forward to publicly detail sexual offenses during the brutal assault.

The testimony by the victim, whose comments to Channel 12 news were aired without revealing his identity, add to a growing body of evidence that terrorists who stormed into Israel on October 7 sexually assaulted their victims, both male and female.

Firsthand testimony of such acts has been fairly rare, as most of the victims were killed, a fact that some Israel critics have used to sow doubts about the allegations.

The victim was with hundreds others fleeing terrorists who descended upon the festival near Kibbutz Re’im early on October 7, when he said he was caught by forces from Hamas’s elite Nukhba unit.

“They pin you to the ground, you try to resist, they take off your clothes, laugh at you, humiliate you, spit at you,” he said, his face blurred and his voice distorted to avoid recognition. “They touched [private] parts, they rape you.”

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“There is a circle, [people] laugh, and you don’t know what to do in the moment, whether you should resist or let it pass, how to deal with the situation. There was a very difficult rape. At some point more people arrived and called for them and so they had to stop,” added the man, who was identified by the Hebrew initial Dalet.

The site of the Re’im music festival massacre, in southern Israel, June 9, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

“It’s a very tough moment. Weakness in the entire body. As if your blood is cheap. They were wildly intoxicated, celebrating, laughing with their pistols, with their knives. You disassociate yourself from the situation, but on the other hand experience it very strongly. Very difficult,” he said.

Dalet eventually managed to escape, the report said, with the help of Israeli forces that showed up.

Asked how he has been coping with the experience, Dalet replied, “It wasn’t simple in the beginning. I was very closed off.” He also reported an obsessive fixation on cleanliness in the aftermath of the attack. “A lot, a lot of showers, to get all that energy off me, everything that happened.”

Dalet’s testimony has been handed to a police unit investigating sexual crimes committed by the terrorists on October 7, after he filed a complaint, the report said.

Aware that some are casting doubt on testimony of sexual violence on October 7, Dalet has presented various sources with medical opinions that testify to the harm done to him, as well as sitting for a polygraph test.

His testimony is also included in a major lawsuit filed by more than 100 survivors of the Supernova festival against the State of Israel, demanding more than NIS 500 million ($137 million) in government support.

“Many of them aren’t able to return to work, and aren’t able to return to their lives— to address [the case of] Dalet specifically, of course it’s impossible, at this stage, to return to normal life after what happened,” said Einat Ginzburg, one of the lawyers representing the massacre survivors.

Israeli police have been collecting survivor testimony, physical evidence, and confessions of sexual assault by terrorists on October 7 since the immediate aftermath of the attack, when thousands of terrorists burst into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war.

A February report by the United Nations Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict found that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attacks in multiple locations across the Gaza periphery, including rape and gang rape, in at least three locations.”

The report also testified to “clear and convincing” evidence that hostages were raped while being held in Gaza, and that those currently held captive are still facing such abuse.

Further evidence was made public in April by the release of a one-hour documentary on the topic directed by former Meta CEO Sheryl Sandberg, called “Screams Before Silence,” which is free to watch online.

Amit Soussana, an Israeli hostage who was released during a weeklong truce in November, was the first to speak publicly about being sexually abused in captivity, recounting being marched at gunpoint to the bedroom of her captor, where he forced her to “commit a sexual act on him.”

Teenager Agam Goldstein-Almog, also released in the November deal, reported having been groped by captors and being constantly afraid she would be raped. “Half of the girls and young women I met in captivity told me they experienced sexual or physical abuse or both. They are still living there with their rapists,” she said at the time.

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Israel's Netanyahu walks political tightrope on Washington trip following Biden's exit from race

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 09:29:30 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story .

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left for Washington on Monday, leaving behind a brutal war to make a politically precarious speech before the U.S. Congress at a time of great uncertainty following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race.

With efforts ongoing to bring about a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, rising concerns about the war spreading to Lebanon and Yemen, and the U.S. in the midst of a dizzying election campaign, Netanyahu’s speech has the potential to cause disarray on both sides of the ocean.

The risks only increased with Biden’s decision Sunday to drop out of the race for president, especially since the choice of a replacement Democratic nominee — and the potential next American leader — are still up in the air.

Before stepping on the plane, Netanyahu said he would emphasize the theme of Israel’s bipartisanship in his speech and said Israel would remain America’s key ally in the Middle East “regardless who the American people choose as their next president.”

“In this time of war and uncertainty, it’s important that Israel’s enemies know that America and Israel stand together,” he said, adding that he will meet Biden during his trip and thank him for his support for Israel.

What to know:

Biden drops out: The president ended his reelection bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris after a disastrous debate inflamed age concerns. Read Biden’s letter announcing his withdrawal.
What happens next: How Biden passing the baton to Harris might work.
Praise, calls for resignation: Democrats hailed Biden’s decision as selfless while Republicans urged him to resign.
Inside Biden’s legacy: Historians and political advisers say history will be kinder to Biden than voters have been.
Broken barriers: Harris could become the first Black woman, person of south Asian descent to head major party’s presidential ticket.

A person familiar with Biden’s schedule confirmed Sunday that the president will host Netanyahu at the White House. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, said the exact timing of the meeting has not been established because Biden is recovering from COVID-19.

Netanyahu is scheduled to address Congress on Wednesday. He is also expected to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris, who is seeking the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

Netanyahu will deliver his congressional address with an eye on several audiences: his ultranationalist governing partners, the key to his political survival; the Biden administration, which Netanyahu counts on for diplomatic and military support; and Donald Trump’s Republican Party, which could offer Netanyahu a reset in relations if he is reelected in November.

His words risk angering any one of those constituencies, which the Israeli leader cannot afford if he hopes to hold on to his tenuous grip on power.

“There are a few land mines and pitfalls on this trip,” Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, said before Biden’s withdrawal. “He is thought of as a political wizard who knows how to escape from traps. I am not sure he still knows how to do that.”

It is Netanyahu’s fourth speech to Congress — more than any other world leader. During his address, his far-right governing partners will want to hear his resolve to continue the war and topple Hamas.

The Biden administration will look for progress toward the latest U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal and details on a postwar vision. Republicans hope Netanyahu besmirches Biden and bolsters the GOP’s hoped-for perception as Israel’s stalwart supporter.

The war, which was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, has tested Israel’s ties with its top ally as never before.

The Biden administration has stood staunchly beside Israel. But it has grown increasingly alarmed about the conduct of the Israeli military, the continued difficulties of getting humanitarian aid into Gaza, especially after the short-lived U.S. military pier off Gaza coast, as well as Israel’s lack of postwar plans and the harm to civilians in Gaza. Similar concerns will likely persist if Americans elect a new Democratic president.

Biden earlier this year froze the delivery of certain bombs over fears they would be used in Israel’s incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which at the time sheltered more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.

The U.S. abstained from a United Nations Security Council vote in March that called for a cease-fire and the release of hostages but did not link the two. Netanyahu called the decision a “retreat” from a “principled position” by Israel’s ally.

Biden has had to walk a fine line of his own. He has faced harsh criticism from progressive Democrats and many Arab Americans. Even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking elected U.S. Jewish official, lambasted Netanyahu in March for his handling of the war.

Some Democrats will likely demonstrate their anger toward Biden and Netanyahu by skipping Wednesday’s speech. Netanyahu is also likely to be hounded by pro-Palestinian activists during his trip.

The last time Netanyahu spoke to Congress in 2015 was at the invitation of the Republican Party. The trip drove Israeli-American politics deep into the partisan divide as Netanyahu railed against then-President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal.

Netanyahu has not shied away from making Israel a partisan issue. With his nationalist conservative ideology, he has been perceived as throwing his support behind Republican candidates in the past, rankling Democrats and Israelis who want to keep the U.S.-Israel relationship bipartisan.

It’s unclear if he will meet Trump. If there is a meeting, it could expose Netanyahu to accusations that he is once again taking sides. But if he doesn’t meet with Trump, the former president could feel slighted.

The speech also offers Netanyahu opportunity. He will be able to show Israelis that despite the tensions with the Biden administration, U.S. support for him remains ironclad.

“He wants the Israeli public to believe that he is very much still very welcome in the United States. And this shows that the American people are with him,” said David Makovsky, director of the program on Arab-Israel Relations at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

For critics of Netanyahu, that embrace is unacceptable and grants legitimacy to a deeply polarizing leader whose public support has plummeted. Netanyahu faces widespread protests and calls to resign over the failures of Oct. 7 and his handling of the war.

In a letter to Congress, 500 Israeli writers, scholars and public figures expressed their dismay over the invitation to Netanyahu, saying he will use the platform to advance misguided policies that align with his far-right governing partners.

“His only interest is preserving his own power,” they wrote. “Does the United States Congress wish to support such a model of cynical and manipulative leadership in these times?”

Israeli media reported that Netanyahu will be joined by rescued hostage Noa Argamani and her father. But for many of the families of hostages held in Gaza, the trip is an affront.

“This is not the time for trips,” Ayelet Levy Shachar, whose daughter Naama was kidnapped on Oct. 7, told reporters.

“Netanyahu: First a deal, then you can travel.”

Vladimir Putin Looks to Donald Trump for a Win in His War in Ukraine

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 06:31:18 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story .

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For all the political theater at the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump’s main foreign-policy message was that he’s a peacemaker. That’s of particular interest to Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin isn’t hiding its satisfaction at the prospect of Trump and his running-mate, JD Vance, winning November’s presidential election on a platform that includes a pledge to end the war in Ukraine quickly. Russia’s foreign minister this week said Vance’s stated opposition to further aid for Ukraine was “what we need.”

Ukraine fears Trump may force it to make territorial concessions to Putin or face Russia’s army without US backing. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy challenged Trump in a Bloomberg interview this month to explain how he’d end the war, and they may speak by phone today.

Russia’s military is largely bogged down in Ukraine after incurring huge losses. By digging in for another four months, Putin now knows American voters may help him deliver the victory he failed to achieve on the battlefield.

And there’s a potentially even greater prize on the horizon.

The Russian president has started arguing for a new security architecture embracing Europe and Asia to replace the “outdated” US-led world order, with a central role for Russia.

The Kremlin may hope the offer of a grand bargain to reshape global security will appeal to Trump, a famously transactional dealmaker.

Europeans are already fearful he’ll leave them exposed to Russia by pulling the US out of the NATO military alliance.

In his convention speech yesterday, Trump said the planet is “teetering on the edge of World War III.” He declared he’d “end every single international crisis that the current administration has created” including the war in Ukraine.

It was Putin who started the war in February 2022.

The question for the Russian leader is what a peacemaking Trump may now offer him to end it.

Global Must Reads

Trump used his 93-minute speech accepting the Republican nomination for president to fire off insults at his usual targets: immigrants, Democrats and the media. Basking in total control of the party, he vowed to reverse President Joe Biden’s policies to promote electric vehicles and criticized what he said was trillions of dollars of wasteful spending “having to do with the green new scam.” He also recounted to thousands of rapt supporters his narrow escape from a would-be assassin’s bullet.

The pressure on Biden to quit his reelection bid keeps building. While his surrogates insisted that he was “not wavering” on running, even some of his cabinet ministers discussed among themselves whether he should step aside due to his health and doubts over his ability to defeat Trump in November. The harshest blow was a report in the Washington Post that former President Barack Obama told allies the pathway to victory for Biden, who is isolating at home due to Covid-19, was greatly diminished.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves warned “difficult decisions” lie ahead as she tries to fix the UK’s public finances, raising the prospect of tax hikes or spending cuts in her maiden budget. Reeves, Britain’s first female finance minister, told Bloomberg in her first TV interview since the Labour Party’s landslide election victory that she would be honest about the scale of the challenges ahead.

A wave of arrests kicked off Tunisia’s election season with the targeting of rivals and critics of President Kais Saied, stirring fears of a barely contested presidential vote on Oct. 6 that would deal a hammer blow to what was once the Arab world’s most progressive democracy. In a matter of days, three prominent aspiring candidates have faced police action in a crackdown that’s also swept up members of the largest remaining opposition party.

French President Emmanuel Macron scored a political victory when lawmakers reelected a centrist candidate from his party to a second term leading the National Assembly. Yael Braun-Pivet of Macron’s pro-business Renaissance party won the vote for parliamentary president by 13 ballots, with the support of centrist and center-right lawmakers from outside his alliance.

Computer systems failed across the globe today, taking down services at airlines, banks and the London Stock Exchange after a widely used cybersecurity program crashed and Microsoft separately reported problems with its cloud services.

One man was killed in the heart of Israel’s commercial capital Tel Aviv today by an explosion from a suspected drone, with Yemen’s Houthi militants claiming responsibility.

Russian prosecutors have asked a court to hand down an 18-year sentence in a penal colony on espionage charges for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, the Interfax news service reported.

Bangladesh was hit by a nationwide internet shutdown as students armed with sticks and stones clashed with police in protests against the government’s job quota policy that reports said have left at least 39 people dead.

Washington Dispatch

The moment that markets and economists as well as people seeking mortgages and lower credit-card charges have long anticipated may finally be at hand. The US Federal Reserve, after more than two years of a laser focus on inflation, may be prepared to cut interest rates in September.

The central bankers have expressed increasing confidence that price stability is within sight, while risks to the labor market have grown. They’ve laid the groundwork for the coming decision in speeches over recent weeks, and Chair Jerome Powell will likely offer more specifics after a policy meeting on July 30-31.

It’s not quite a sure thing. Fed officials still want to see monthly price numbers continuing to trend down toward their 2% annual inflation goal before they commit to lowering borrowing costs from a two-decade high. Yet Powell and his colleagues are also determined not to squander the chance of a so-called soft landing for the American economy, which is showing at least a few signs of losing momentum.

One person to watch today: Raphael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, will speak at a conference.

Sign up for the Washington Edition newsletter for more from the US capital and watch Balance of Power at 1 and 5 p.m. ET weekdays on Bloomberg Television.

Chart of the Day

At the current pace, public fast-charging sites for electric vehicles will outnumber gas stations in the US in about eight years, and the momentum is expected to accelerate. North American operators will spend a collective $6.1 billion on the necessary infrastructure this year, nearly double their 2023 investment, according to BloombergNEF estimates. The annual outlay is expected to double again by 2030.

And Finally

While the vast majority of the world supports a two-state solution to solve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, the Knesset rejected the establishment of an independent Palestinian state at a sitting yesterday in Jerusalem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to visit Washington next week where the Biden administration is expected to urge him to accept a nation for Palestinians as the way to bring Arab states into the rebuilding of Gaza and normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Pop quiz (no cheating!) Which former French president never kept his promise to swim in the Seine to show how clean it was? Send your answers to balancepower@bloomberg.net.

89-year-old comedian recovering after she was randomly punched on New York street

Sun, 21 Jul 2024 03:19:25 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from NEWS10 ABC.

NEW YORK (AP) — An 89-year-old comedian is recovering after being randomly punched and knocked to the ground while waiting to cross a street in New York earlier this month.

D’yan Forest said she had just stopped at a coffee shop and was heading to a swimming pool when someone came up to her from behind and hit her in the eye. She lay on the ground in shock as police and paramedics came to her aid.

“I thought I had lost use of the eye because I couldn’t see anything.” Forest said. Her eyesight returned over the next four hours while she underwent tests at a hospital.

Police on Saturday said the female suspect in the July 10 incident had a medium complexion and cornrow braids and was last seen wearing a tank top and shorts with a Jurassic Park logo.

Forest said she has lived in Greenwich Village since 1966 and had never had anything else bad happen to her aside from watching the 9/11 attacks from her roof.

“I walk around the village now and I don’t go near anybody. I don’t want to be near anybody,” she said.

Forest holds the Guinness World Record for being the oldest working female comedian. She said her first thought after falling to the ground was whether she would be presentable for her July 29 nightclub show.

But she said her eye is healing.

“My eye was totally red and horrible. But now at least I can go on stage without a black eye,” Forest said.

Person in police custody allegedly killed 4 relatives in Brooklyn: NYPD

Sun, 21 Jul 2024 03:14:28 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from PIX11.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) – We’re learning new disturbing details about a horrific quadruple homicide in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

Four members of the same family, including two young children, have died. A family member is now in custody.

Police say they were called to an apartment at the corner of West 8th and Avenue P around 10:30 p.m. Friday night about an assault that was in progress.

Sources say a man came home to find his wife, two young children, and his mother inside the apartment, all suffering from stab wounds.

They were all pronounced dead at the scene.

Police then arrested the man’s 24-year-old brother.

A woman named Guzal lives in the building and says she knew one of the women. “She always helped me when I came ten years before, and she was always helpful.”

Neighbors say the family was originally from Uzbekistan and had lived in the building for years.

Jennifer Ponti was still reeling after seeing officers remove body bags from the apartment.

Ponti said, “It’s sad. It’s horrible. Babies shouldn’t die no matter what.”

Detectives believe the stabbings took place due to a domestic dispute.

The 24-year-old man is now a person of interest in the deaths of his own mother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew.

He was taken into custody for questioning.

One neighbor says after the stabbings, a large crowd gathered to console the family outside.

Juan Perez said, “There were multiple men sobbing and crying inconsolably and multiple men trying to console and just cries.”

“It’s heartbreaking to hear this. They didn’t deserve this.”

The victims have been identified as 56-year-old Fayzieva Mavlyuda, 27-year-old Maftuna Khakimova, 5-year-old Kamila Shavkatova, and 4-year-old Timur Shavkatov.

Police have not released the identity of the 24-year-old person of interest.

Physicians weigh in on potential impact of Trump’s ear wound: 'It’s a matter of inches'

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 17:06:50 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from STAT.

The ballistic aspects of the Trump assassination attempt of 7.13.24 - My Opinion and Questions - News Review In 100 Tweets

Sun, 14 Jul 2024 14:20:12 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The News And Times.

Michael Novakhov (Mike Nova)

My Opinion and Questions

How did the bullet "graze" Trump's ear, and was it really a bullet?

The presumed gunman Thomas Matthes Crooks was located on the roof to the right side of Trump, and the bullet shot from this direction, which "grazed" the upper tip of his right ear, would inevitably hit the right side of his skull, and this did not happen. It looks like, from Trump's reaction, that his ear was possibly hit from behind him, and it was something smaller than a regular bullet. Hypothetically and theoretically, the attack with mini-drone, the size of the insect, is possible, as one of the explanations.

I would also be interested in the identities of people standing on the podium right behind Trump.

Trump touched the injured ear with his right hand, and when the palm of his hand showed on video, there was no blood on it, immediately after the injury.

All in all, it is nothing short of miracle that this presumed bullet "grazed" his ear but did not cause any other damage.

The medical forensic expertise of the Trump's wound after the assassination attempt is needed, with the specific question, if it is consistent with bullet injury.

However, one of the attendees was killed, and two were seriously injured. The locations of these persons and the nature of their injuries should be analyzed forensically vizavi the location of the presumed gunman Crooks, in their ballistic aspects. Were the shots fired by one or more than one person?

These questions and doubts are supplemented by the set of very clear and sardonic Telling Names: "Trump was shot at Butler Farm Show, Pa; by Crooks".

My opinion is that there are observable similarities between this Trump incident and the cases of mass shootings, with regard to the questions about the numbers of the actual shooters and their true identities. It is possible that the authors of these "shows"are the same: Putin and his circle, and that they took some care to avoid the risk to Trump's life while maximizing its impact on the inciting the Civil War and bringing other similar calamities upon America.

The additional, facetious side benefit for them, the Putin's circle, would be to confuse and to fool the FBI and the public by introducing the explanations which have very questionable relations with the common sense.

Michael Novakhov | 7.14.24

______________________________

Links

The ballistic aspects of the Trump assassination attempt of 7.13.24 - GS

The Hill

Fri, 12 Jul 2024 19:55:01 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The Hill News.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart for the second time in less than a month and one day after the NATO summit wrapped up in Washington with a focus on countering Moscow, according to the Pentagon.

During the call with Russian Minister of Defense Andrey Belousov, which was initiated by Moscow, Austin “emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine,” deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters.

Austin last spoke with Belousov on June 25, about 2.5 weeks earlier. Prior to that, the Pentagon chief had not directly spoken with his Russian counterpart since March 2023. Communications between Washington and Moscow have almost entirely broken down since Kremlin forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

But Russia appears to be roiled following the NATO Summit, during which alliance members issued a joint communique laying out new military and financial support for Ukraine and pledged their support for an “irreversible path” to future membership for the embattled country.

What’s more, NATO has backed Ukraine’s push for more latitude in its use of Western-supplied weapons to strike inside Russia, with the United Kingdom announcing it would allow Kyiv to hit targets over Russian borders with British-provided long-range missiles.

In addition, the U.S. and Germany on Wednesday announced the movement of more strategic weapons into Europe, including long-range fires such as undeveloped hypersonic missile systems, starting in 2026.

Moscow, which has long viewed the expansion of NATO as a national security threat, said it would retaliate against the U.S. missile deployment plans.

“NATO once again very clearly confirmed its essence. It is an alliance founded in an era of confrontation with the aim of continuing confrontation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday during a press conference with Russian news agencies.

“We see in fact that the alliance’s military infrastructure is constantly and gradually moving towards our borders. … All of this will require us to take thoughtful, coordinated and effective responses to deter and confront the alliance.”

Adding to tensions, reports emerged this week that U.S. and German intelligence had foiled a Russian assassination plot against the CEO of a German manufacturing company sending munitions to Ukraine.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has since said allies are increasing intelligence sharing to combat such Russian attacks.

Asked whether the Pentagon has any intelligence corroborating the Russian assassination scheme, or if Austin brought up the foiled plot with Belousov, Singh declined to provide further details.

“Of course we always, with any of our allies and partners, always share intelligence and information, but I just don’t have more to add,” she said.

My Opinion: Mr. Biden does not have to demonstrate that he has a 100% of mental or cognitive acuity; no one single person has it all of the time. However, his team and his aides as the "collective Presidency" have this acuity.

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 08:31:55 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The News And Times.

Putin’s fingerprints are all over the Hamas attack

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 12:04:00 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The Hill News.

There was only one real winner last Saturday when war broke out in Israel — Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin’s enabling of his “Arsenals of Evil” ally, Iran, resulted in the opening of a new front in Gaza in his war against the West.

Mitt Romney got it right in 2012 when he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that “Russia [is] without question, our number one geopolitical foe. … They fight every cause for the world’s worst actors.”

Later, during a presidential debate, Barack Obama responded to Romney, “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”

But this is not your 1980’s Russia — it is worse. Under Putin’s leadership, it has militantly sought to restore its prominence and establish a new global order in its likeness.

There was never going to be a Russia reset. And the ramifications of failed Russia policy has been on full display for the last 11 years — under both Republican and Democratic presidential leadership.

Russia has fomented discord, violence and division throughout the Sahel, the Black Sea, the Middle East, the Balkans and the Baltic States. It has done so by sowing disinformation through social media platforms, by direct interventions and by funding and training insurgents to overthrow governments through the use of mercenaries such as PMC Wagner.

Moscow has brutally suppressed uprisings in Chechnya and Syria, supported insurrections in Niger and Sudan, illegally annexed “Russian-speaking” territories in Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Crimea, and, in February 2022, launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine — so far a failure that threatens Putin’s aspirations.

He needed a distraction, and last weekend he got it.

The Kremlin’s surreptitious activities resurfaced in a surprise attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas, code-named Operation Al-Aqsa. Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, described the attack as “the single deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.”

It was a multi-domain assault — air, land, sea, and cyber. Well beyond the recognized capabilities of Hamas, fueling speculation that the terrorist organization received direct support from Iran, and likely from Russia as well.

The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal confirmed the speculation with respect to Iran. Both reported that Hamas “began planning the assault at least a year ago, with key support from Iranian allies who provided military training and logistical help as well as tens of millions of dollars for weapons” — and greenlighted the operation last week in Beirut. They also reported officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had trained Hamas.

Putin also likely saw an opening after Congress passed its 45-day continuing resolution last week that provided no additional funding for Ukraine.

Now Israel, a historic and strategic ally in the Middle East, is under attack, facing its own 9/11, just as Russian forces in Ukraine are teetering on the edge of defeat in the Donbas and Crimea. Coincidence? Had the White House, while publicly supporting Ukraine, unwittingly painted itself into Putin’s corner?

The evidence for Russian involvement in this atrocity is circumstantial but present. Putin benefited from leveraging Hamas to incite terror and generate an Israeli response to distract the U.S. government from supporting Ukraine, and he used Iran to achieve his end.

Russia’s relationship with Iran — a principal supporter of Hamas — suggests a more nefarious relationship.

Hamas leaders traveled to Moscow in March 2023, where according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, their meeting “touched on Russia’s unchanged position in support of a just solution to the Palestinian problem.” More recently, Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh was in Moscow on Sept. 10. At the time, Hillel Frisch, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, thought the purpose of the meeting was “to signal [Moscow’s] displeasure with Israel, perhaps in relation to Ukraine.”

Given the events of Oct. 7, a more likely explanation would be that he back-briefed the Kremlin on Hamas’s final preparations for the attack timed to take place on Putin’s 71st birthday — a quid pro quo.

Other activities suggest Russian support and organization.

According to the Ukrainian Center of National Resistance, members of PMC Wagner, who left Belarus for Africa, allegedly participated in the training of Hamas militants on “assault tactics and the use of small unmanned aerial vehicles to drop explosive devices onto vehicles and other targets.”

Israeli government and media websites were repeatedly targeted with distributed denial-of-service attacks — “a type of cyberattack that floods websites with traffic and forces them offline” — by hacking groups associated with Russia and allied with Hamas. Killnet and Anonymous Sudan claimed they had brought down multiple Israeli websites, including those of Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet and the Jerusalem Post.

A Russian disinformation campaign was launched immediately trying to associate weapons found in Gaza, used by Hamas to slaughter innocent civilians in Israel, with “Western-donated weapons” to Ukraine, implying that they had been sold on the black market to Hamas, in an attempt to “erode support for Ukraine.”

Finally, shortly after the initial attack, there was a call by Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova for Palestine and Israel to “implement an immediate ceasefire, renounce violence, exercise the necessary restraint and establish, with the assistance of the international community, a negotiation process aimed at establishing a comprehensive, lasting and long-awaited peace in the Middle East.”

After 20 months of the Biden administration providing Ukraine just enough military aid to survive, the Kremlin likely created conditions in Israel to divide the U.S., allowing disinformation to seep within the American political fabric, designed to create dissension and paralysis while placing doubt in the minds of America’s allies.

The administration must now support two crises, Ukraine and Israel, while managing a Chinese threat to Taiwan and a North Korean threat to South Korea and Japan. It will not be able to pivot its way out of this.

The National Security team that got the U.S. into this predicament is not the team Washington needs to get us out of it. Bold and resolute solutions are required. The administration can continue to battle the hydra, or it can cut off its immortal head.

That requires a Russia-first strategy — a decision that helps Ukraine actually win, while setting conditions for Israel’s security.

Defending Israel is a top priority. The White House must strike a balance that meets Israel’s and Ukraine’s needs. The White House is trying to tie military aid to both together, and that is a step in the right direction.

But it must provide Ukraine with what it needs to win — namely, precision deep strike weapons and munitions, fighter jets, HIMARS-delivered cluster munitions, and engineering equipment to breach minefields and obstacles.

As Hamas continues its relentless rocket assault on Israel, the U.S. must sustain the Iron Dome missile defense system, while leveraging American military assets, including the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford carrier task force, to keep Hezbollah and other potential regional adversaries in check.

In March, Biden got it right in Warsaw when he exclaimed, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” A Russian defeat in Ukraine would likely bring an end to the Putin regime, and the cancer it propagates throughout the world — including Hamas.

Jonathan Sweet, a retired Army colonel and 30-year military intelligence officer, led the U.S. European Command Intelligence Engagement Division from 2012 to 2014. Mark Toth is an economist, entrepreneur, and former board member of the World Trade Center, St. Louis.

The real Mr. Kalika is happily found! The Annual meeting of 6.12.24 – Report and Updates

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 06:05:29 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The News And Times.

Michael Novakhov (Mike Nova)

Who is Roman Kalika? | Violations: This owner/manager has a total of 81 violations which is 3.37 violations per unit for their entire portfolio. That is worse than the city average, which

Visit

2900oceancondo.com

The real Mr. Kalika is happily found! The Annual meeting of 6.12.24 – Report and Updates – LINK TO POST

https://2900oceancondo.com/the-annual-meeting-of-6-12-24/

Dear Mr. Kalika: This is the Currently UPDATED Post, for your information and attention. Sincerely, Michael Novakhov. 6.18.24

P.S. You may also respond in writing, if you so wish. – Copy of the Sent Email.

The real Mr. Kalika is happily found! But why was he so mysteriously lost?

The Annual meeting of 6.12.24 – Report and Updates

Годовое собрание от 12 Июня, 2024 г. – Отчёт и Дополнения

The Annual meeting of 6.12.24

The meeting was held, with no quorum, and the elections were not held.

The Financial Statement was not ready and will be mailed in 2 weeks, as per Mr. Kalika.

It transpired that the person who claimed to be Mr. Kalika, the head of the Dependable Pro Management, at the last Annual meeting of March 22, 2023, (and with the false introduction by Grace Bishop), actually was not Mr. Kalika but one of his accountants, apparently chosen for this role for his deep voice and the imposing, authoritarian demeanor.

Now, hopefully, we deal with the real Mr. Kalika. He was again introduced by Grace Bishop, without any explanations of her mistake and this discrepancy, which proves once more that she is the blatant liar, bullshitter, and the psychopath.

I would like to remind everyone that impersonating the officer in his official capacity is illegal, and it is the criminal offense.

In plain English, they take you for idiots, guys!

In plain Russian: Они берут вас за ЛОХОВ!

The similar situation is with Al Rutigliano, Grace Bishop’s common law husband. He does not own any shares in this condo, nevertheless he was on the Condo Board. This is also illegal and the practice of Nepotism. According to the rules common for all Condos, the members of the same household are prohibited from serving on the same condo Board. The problem with Al was that he imagined himself a little Mafia Boss, and he tried to rule the roost, on behalf of his wife Grace, via his ENFORCER, super Ray, by instructing him to be rude and insulting to people, so he could insert himself as the middle man. Both of them were warned.

The atmosphere of lies and deceits pervades the whole behavior and the style, the modus operandi of Grace Bishop and the people around her, including the Dependable Pro and the Super, all of whom rob this Condo of the services it deserves, and MILK IT SHAMELESSLY for their own purposes and benefits, as it was described by me in the previous posts, and will be described again, in details, in the future.

And this continuous robbery results in the chronic state of disrepairs, with the ceilings falling on people’ heads at the regular intervals. The review of this subject as addressed in the previous posts, suggest that the main reason are the continuous leaks; in the winter from the heating system, and in the summer from the incorrectly installed air conditioners. And the reason for continuous leaks is that they are hidden inside the building structures, they are not watched for, and are not fixed in time. People do not want to deal with a super (“Ray”), who is arrogant, rude, and insulting to people, demands the exorbitant tips, and with all that is incompetent, and does the shoddy work. People do not want to bother with him. The super and his family are more interested in free apartment than taking the adequate care of the building. The problem is not that they are the Muslim family, the problem is that their pattern of work fits with the very well known pattern and style of other supers of the Alban

Rescued hostages suffering from malnutrition, possibly Stockholm syndrome

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 13:17:07 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The Times of Israel.

The four hostages who were rescued on Saturday from Gaza are in a worse physical and psychological state than initially believed, according to Hebrew media reports on Sunday.

Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan, and Andrey Kozlov were found to be malnourished during initial medical tests at Sheba Medical Center on Saturday, but the mental influence of their captivity had yet to be established.

The Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday evening that after initial conversations with the four, medical professionals believed they were exhibiting signs of Stockholm syndrome, as the rescued hostages spoke about awful experiences they had been subjected to in captivity while also saying that their captors cared about their wellbeing.

Jan said that as a “cynical” gesture, his captors made him a cake for his birthday.

Staff at the hospital told the media that the four rescued hostages did not sleep on Saturday night, their first night back in Israel after their resuce, and instead stayed up talking to their families and among themselves.

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The doctors also told Kan that the four were constantly seeking each other out, indicating their continued need to lean on each other for support.

Rescued hostage Shlomi Ziv is reunited with his family at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, June 8, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The rescued hostages have begun to talk about their experiences, according to various reports.

Channel 13 reported on Sunday that Ziv said he had learned Arabic from Al-Jazeera broadcasts he watched in captivity and that their captors made them read the Quran and pray every day.

Argamani has also begun to share some of what she went through, telling her family that she narrowly avoided death four times in captivity, according to Channel 12 news.

According to a Monday Ynet report, Argamani learned Arabic while she was in captivity and used it to become a spokesperson for other female hostages she was held with before they were released in November during a weeklong truce. Before they were separated, Argamani would use the Arabic she learned to get things the hostages needed for them.

She said she had been held in four different apartments during her eight months in captivity and that in the last location, the family made her wash their dishes. Ynet reported that she also cooked at times with basic ingredients she was provided with.

Describing the rescue on Saturday, Argamani said she was washing the dishes when she heard a shout from the living room and saw people with their faces covered who told her they were from the IDF.

Rescued hostage Noa Argamani is reunited with her father Yaakov Argamani at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, June 8, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

“At first, I thought they were making fun of me, and I didn’t move, but then he asked me, ‘Can I throw you over my shoulder?’ and I realized what was happening,” Channel 12 quoted her as saying.

She added that on the way to the extraction spot, their truck broke down.

“It was scary. The soldiers were brave. In a matter of one second, I may not have been here today,” she said.

Argamani was taken to see her mother, Liora, who is suffering from terminal cancer, but her father, Yaakov, said that Liora’s advanced illness made communication between the two difficult.

“I believe she understood what was happening. There was a foggy response, but Liora is in a bad way, and she barely looked at Noa,” Yaakov said.

Doctors at Ichilov Hospital, where Liora is a patient, told Ynet that Noa has become actively involved in her mother’s treatment since her return, seeking extensive information from the medical team and asking questions.

Shortly after Noa was taken captive, Liora appealed to Hamas to let her daughter go so that she could see her before she died.

Kozlov also reunited with his family on Sunday after his parents landed from St. Petersburg. In a video of the reunion, he could be seen falling to his knees and bursting into tears as soon as he saw his mother.

Andrey Kozlov (C), freed from Gaza in an Israeli military operation a day earlier, meets with his parents at Sheba Medical Center, June 9, 2024. (Hostage and Missing Families Forum)

Argamani, Jan, Kozlov and Ziv were abducted from the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im on the morning of October 7, when 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages in a murderous rampage across southern Israel.

Officers of the police’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit, along with Shin Bet agents, on Saturday morning simultaneously raided two multi-story buildings in the heart of Nuseirat, where the four hostages were being held by Hamas-affiliated families and guards of the terror group, according to the military.

Hamas’s government media office claimed at least 274 people were killed amid the operation, an unverified figure that also does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

The IDF acknowledged that it killed Palestinian civilians amid the fighting, but it placed the blame on Hamas for holding hostages and fighting in a dense civilian environment. “We know about under 100 [Palestinian] casualties. I don’t know how many of them are terrorists,” IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Saturday.

COVID guidelines caused millions to suffer. Now Fauci admits 'there was no science behind it.'

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 14:22:16 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story .

When COVID-19 hit in 2020, I jotted down a makeshift "will" for my four kids under 12. It wasn't official, just a set of instructions for my children and other immediate family members in case anything happened to me. Bank accounts, passwords, and access to other valuable information the family might need were included.

It was the beginning of the pandemic and we had no idea just how serious things would get.

As a single parent, I worried that if I suddenly caught it and died, my children would languish. The virus was rampant, and the risk of dying seemed high and very real. Fear and anxiety took hold.

COVID-19 deaths weren't exactly uncommon. The pandemic killed more than a million Americans, and there have been about 104 million confirmed cases in the United States alone. A lot of decisions were rooted in fear and brought with them life-changing consequences. Statewide lockdowns, shuttered businesses, school closings: All were based initially on the social distancing rule of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We're now getting answers to questions those decisions raised.

In his testimony to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and former chief medical adviser to President Donald Trump, said the 6-foot social distancing rule, which the CDC originally recommended, had not been backed by a clinical trial. This is despite constant claims that COVID-19 protocols were based on science.

These disclosures are damning and maddening for all of us who had structured our lives around these rules for years. As a result, millions of people suffered needlessly.

In testimony, Fauci admits COVID rules weren't based on science

On Monday, Fauci was also asked to clarify his comments during the two-day congressional testimony he gave in January. The transcript of that testimony was recently released.

He specifically responded on Monday to questions about the 6-foot rule: “It had little to do with me since I didn’t make the recommendation and my saying ‘there was no science behind it’ meant there was no clinical trial behind that."

In January, Fauci told staff and members of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic that "there was no science behind" the 6-foot social distancing rule that state and local governments repeated for months if not years.

What about the next pandemic:The world desperately needs a pandemic agreement. Will we come together to save lives?

“You know, I don’t recall. It sort of just appeared. I don’t recall, like, a discussion of whether it should be 5 or 6 or whatever,” Fauci said in January's testimony.

He also admitted in the January interview that there was little science that backed requiring children to wear masks in public and at schools for almost two years.

“Do you recall reviewing any studies or data supporting masking for children?” a staffer asked Fauci.

“You know, I might have," he answered, "but I don’t recall specifically that I did. I might have.”

These revelations are infuriating. Fauci repeated CDC-based COVID-19 protocols as the mouthpiece of President Trump's administration. Desperate for guidance, states, local governments, businesses, churches and schools instituted them.

Closing schools because of COVID guidelines hurt kids

The real effect of social distancing − which Fauci basically admitted Monday and in January's testimony was just an educated guess on how to deter COVID-19 − devastated America's economy, small businesses and families. It interrupted the fabric of American life. For what?

The CDC's now-infamous three weeks to "flatten the curve" turned into months for students and families living with the consequences. Here are some.

Closing schools was devastating to kids, especially poor or otherwise disadvantaged children. Remote learning wasn't as effective as in-person learning, especially in the first year, as teachers had no time to prepare. Kids fell behind their grade levels. Pandemic closings resulted in two decades of learning loss.

Operation Warp Speed:Trump has to disavow his COVID vaccine to keep voters from RFK Jr. and his anti-vax clout

Anxiety and depression skyrocketed, especially among adolescents and teens. Kids with learning disabilities were completely left behind.

Non-urgent but still important medical diagnoses and exams were halted altogether. (This went for adults, too.) When schools did reconvene, masks were treated as sacrosanct, and kids were forced to eat lunch several feet apart.

Children learning to read and write at the beginning of the pandemic are still behind even now. Never mind that kids rarely showed any adverse effects of COVID-19, let alone died from it.

This is not a matter of hindsight being 20/20, either. People, including myself, were calling for schools to open in the fall months after the pandemic began, predicting it would continue to be harmful.

The entire medical profession, well beyond Fauci's purview, seemed to struggle to understand how to mitigate the virus while continuing to provide medical care to those in need. While most providers pushed everyone to get vaccinated, screenings and routine care were pushed off for fear of COVID-19, even though they themselves were vaccinated.

At one point during the first year of COVID-19, one of my daughters became extremely ill. I phoned our pediatrician. Even though the staff was vaccinated, they would only see newborns. Her pediatrician refused to examine my daughter in person, and we tested negative for COVID-19 three times. She lost weight and refused to eat, sleeping all day.

After about 10 days, she eventually recovered. We still have no idea what illness she had, but her pediatrician's treatment, based on COVID-19 guidelines, made no sense.

Hundreds of providers endangered patients based on ideas that had no basis in research. We're only now learning just how much delaying cancer treatments out of the fear of spreading COVID-19 will cost people.

We cannot forget what we learned during the pandemic

Schools were just one example. The economic data, representing millions of families, is no more comforting.

In the second quarter of 2020, 1.2 million jobs were destroyed. In June 2021, 6.2 million people did not work at all or worked fewer hours because their employers closed or lost business. Family-owned businesses were lost, savings wiped, all for rules that had no real scientific basis.

Elderly loved ones, the most susceptible to COVID-19, died alone in hospital beds, with no one holding their hands and whispering last prayers. If funerals were held at all, expressions of affection was banned.

On Monday, Fauci did concede that some COVID-19 preventative measures may have gone too far and led to harmful outcomes. He said it is "very, very clear" that public health officials in the future should consider "the potential collateral negative effects" of controversial ideas like requiring masks and ask "how we can do better next time."

Still, even this seems too little too late.

While COVID-19 measures were set in place immediately, as hundreds, if not thousands, were at risk of dying from the disease, it became clear within months that the disease disproportionately targeted elderly people and hardly affected kids at all.

An adaptable administration led by Fauci, the CDC and the National Institutes of Health would have observed such shifts and lifted strict lockdowns of schools and businesses. A healthy society quarantines the sick, not the young. A robust economy never shuts down its economy and hopes it will thrive.

Because we live in Texas, which remained largely open save for a couple of months, my kids and I watched as friends and family struggled through the pandemic with shuttered businesses and schools. The contrast between living in a state where responsible freedom was encouraged compared with places where local governments kept businesses and schools closed was obvious and remains cemented in my mind.

COVID-19 was four years ago now, but as time marches on, we must never forget its valuable lessons so we don't repeat those mistakes again.

Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids.

Intelligence Analysis Fundamentals Course

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 19:53:40 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Grey Dynamics.

Course

Intelligence Analysis Fundamentals

Accredited

Online

Self-paced

Workshops

Now that information has been collected and processed, it’s time to use it to answer the intelligence customer’s requirements and the critical thinking stage: Intelligence Analysis.

This course focuses on the basics of intelligence analysis and serves as an introduction for the more in-depth courses on analysis.

From Data to Answers:

Understanding the Customer: The course will emphasize the importance of understanding the intelligence customer’s needs and requirements. Analysts must tailor their analysis to address specific questions and provide insights relevant to the customer’s decision-making process.
The Analytical Toolkit: You’ll explore various analytical techniques employed by intelligence professionals. Structured Analytic Techniques (SATs) like critical thinking frameworks and hypothesis testing offer a systematic approach to analyzing information and drawing well-supported conclusions.

Thinking Like an Analyst:

Critical Thinking and Reasoning: This section will hone your critical thinking and reasoning skills, essential for effective intelligence analysis. You’ll learn to assess the credibility of sources, identify biases, and weigh evidence to arrive at sound judgments.
Pattern Recognition and Anomaly Detection: The course will explore techniques for identifying patterns and uncovering anomalies within the analyzed data. Recognizing emerging trends and spotting deviations from the norm can be crucial for anticipating threats or opportunities.
Uncertainty Management: The real world is rarely black and white. You’ll learn how to manage uncertainty by assessing the confidence level of intelligence and clearly communicating the limitations of the analysis to the customer.

Crafting Compelling Analyses:

Writing Clear and Concise Reports: This section will equip you with the skills to write clear, concise, and well-organized intelligence reports. Presenting complex information in a readily digestible format is vital for effective communication with decision-makers.
Visualization Techniques: You’ll learn how to utilize charts, graphs, and other visual aids to enhance the clarity and impact of your intelligence analyses. Presenting data visually can help customers grasp complex relationships and trends more effectively.

The Evolving Landscape:

Cognitive Bias and Deception: The course might touch upon the challenges of cognitive bias and deception in intelligence analysis. You’ll learn how to mitigate these biases and identify potential attempts by adversaries to mislead or manipulate intelligence collection and analysis.
The Future of Analysis: Exploring emerging trends like the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in assisting with complex data analysis and the integration of new data sources like social media could also be covered.

Expected Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

Articulate the role of intelligence analysis in meeting customer requirements.
Apply various Structured Analytic Techniques (SATs) to analyze intelligence data.
Demonstrate critical thinking and reasoning skills for intelligence analysis.
Identify patterns, anomalies, and manage uncertainty within intelligence information.
Write clear, concise, and visually engaging intelligence reports.
Recognize the challenges of cognitive bias and deception in intelligence analysis.

The Intelligence Analysis Fundamentals course equips you with the analytical skills and knowledge necessary to transform intelligence data into valuable insights that inform decision-making across various intelligence disciplines.

Who this program is for:

The courses of the Intelligence Cycle Fundamentals program, are designed as an introductory window into the world of Intelligence, thus no previous training or education on Intelligence is required.

The courses of this program are for anybody who wants to engage with intelligence in their career right now, or in the future. These could be researchers, journalists, analysts, policymakers, security professionals and much more.

Content Warning:

This course deals with the common types of work in the intelligence industry and therefore features broad discussions of issues such as conflict, terrorism, and natural disasters. We also provide links to historic documents that deal with these topics throughout the course. We include this context because they are common topics in intelligence and are the subject of most historic and declassified documents. For specific concerns about the nature of any content please contact <a href="mailto:school@greydynamics.com">school@greydynamics.com</a>.

Instructors

Ahmed Hassan

CEO & Founder

I’m Ahmed Hassan the CEO of Grey Dynamics and you will see me in most of our courses. I have over 12 years of experience in the intelligence and security sector across government and private sector. I hold an MA in Intelligence and International Security Studies with a specialisation in counterintelligence, strategic forecasting and information security. Over the last 6 years, I have trained and mentored analysts. My objective with the Grey Dynamics Intelligence School is to demystify intelligence and prepare capable intelligence professionals.

Marcel Plichta

I’m Marcel Plichta, the Lead Instructor & Grey Dynamics Intelligence School Manager. I am a former analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense and PhD candidate at the University of St Andrews. I have taught and briefed on a variety of international relations and intelligence topics, including foreign policy analysis, African security, and emerging technologies. Currently, I hold a fellowship at the Centre for Global Law and Governance and wrote for Foreign Policy, the Irregular Warfare Initiative, and, the Counterterrorism Sentinel at West Point.

Contact

Have further questions? Feel free to email us at school@greydynamics.com.

Gantz submits proposal for state investigation into October 7 invasion and Gaza war

Sun, 26 May 2024 08:25:18 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The Times of Israel.

National Unity leader and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz submitted Sunday morning to the cabinet secretariat a proposal for a government resolution to establish a state commission of inquiry into the events surrounding the October 7 Hamas invasion and massacre and the subsequent, ongoing war in Gaza.

The commission, if be approved, would examine political, military, and intelligence decision making before, during and after the October 7 atrocities.

Critically, against the backdrop of the intense scrutiny by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the commission would also examine whether Israel has met its obligations under international law in prosecuting the war, which could head off the ICC’s weighing of arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Given the severe political tensions between Gantz and Netanyahu, and Gantz’s threat to quit the government by June 8 if the prime minister does not detail who should govern Gaza after the current war ends, it appeared unlikely that the proposal will be adopted by the Netanyahu-dominated cabinet.

State commissions of inquiry can be established by a government resolution or by the Knesset’s State Control Committee, and are independent panels whose members are selected by the Supreme Court president from among serving or retired Supreme Court or district court judges.

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“All the events that preceded the war will be investigated within the framework of the state commission of inquiry, [plus] decision making in the political and military echelons, and actions during the time of war itself,” National Unity said in announcing Gantz’s request for the commission.

Palestinian terrorists take control of an Israeli tank after crossing the border fence with Israel from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 7, 2023. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

The commission would examine the policy and decision-making processes of security and intelligence agencies as well as government ministries regarding protecting the border region with Gaza before the war, and how they responded to the events on October 7 and during the ensuing war.

Also under investigation will be “compliance with the obligations imposed by international law on the State of Israel in the conduct of the war,” the proposed government resolution says.

The commission would have to “establish findings and conclusions” and submit a report on its findings to the government.

“The establishment of a state commission of inquiry will send an important and unifying message to the Israeli public that the entire government and security establishment and those who head them are committed to an in-depth, objective and professional examination [of the October 7 events and their aftermath], which seeks to begin the process of national healing, restoring public trust and strengthening national resilience,” the draft proposal states.

Gantz first announced his intention to propose the commission last Thursday. Hours earlier, the IDF stated, in response to a freedom of information request, that over a period of several months last year, the prime minister had received four separate communiques from Military Intelligence warning him about how the country’s enemies were viewing the social upheaval in Israel at the time.

Netanyahu rejected the claim, countering that not only was “there no warning in any of the documents about Hamas’s intentions to attack Israel from Gaza, but they instead give a completely opposite assessment.”

Netanyahu has insisted on waiting for a state commission of inquiry to make determinations regarding the culpability of the government — which he insists cannot take place while the war in Gaza is ongoing.

Sam Sokol contributed to this report.

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All the reasons why Israel couldn't have been behind crash and death of Iran's president

Fri, 24 May 2024 06:29:29 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story .

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2024 purges in Russian military - Google Search

Thu, 23 May 2024 05:15:08 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story .

Новая газета Европа

Deputy chief of Russia’s General Staff arrested for ‘large-scale bribery’ as post-Shoigu purge continues

The deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and head of its Main Directorate of Communications Vadim...

57 minutes ago

Newsweek

Putin's Military Purge Ramps Up as General Gerasimov's Top Deputy Arrested

Vadim Shamarin, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, has been arrested, local media reported, marking the latest detention of a...

2 hours ago

The New York Times

Russia Detains Senior General, Widening Military Purge

Lt. Gen. Yuri Kuznetsov became the second senior defense official to be detained on an accusation of corruption in the past month.

1 week ago

Novinite.com

Continuing Purges: Russian Military Official Apprehended in Fraud Case

Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarin, Deputy Chief of the Russian Army's General Staff, has been apprehended in Moscow, as reported by...

36 minutes ago

The Telegraph

Russia's Maj Gen Ivan Popov, who criticised leadership of Ukraine war, arrested in corruption purge

Detention of Maj Gen Ivan Popov, who complained of 'mass deaths' among his troops, sparks uproar among pro-war bloggers in Russia.

19 hours ago

Michael_Novakhov shared this story .

Concealing the presence of a Russian on board the Bell-214 helicopter was very important for Moscow.

A mysterious Russian citizen, Kruchev, was on board the helicopter carrying President Iranian Ibrahim Raisi that crashed on May 19. He could be directly related to Iran's nuclear program.

This was reported by military-political observer of the Information Resistance group Alexander Kovalenko.

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“On board the helicopter, besides representatives of Iran, there was one more foreigner, whom almost no one mentions. A citizen of the Russian Federation, a certain Kruchev,” the analyst pointed out.

According to him, this ninth dead passenger of the Bell-214 helicopter was reported only by some Iranian media, as well as several foreign ones, in particular, the Georgian online publication Business Media and the Indian Lokmat Times.

At the same time, not a single Russian media reported about the Russian on board the Iranian helicopter.

Kovalenko noted that after the disaster, “people in Russia have become much more active . ” Thus, the Iranian Ambassador to Moscow told IRNA that Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with him late in the evening of May 19, which was attended by Defense Minister Andrei Bilousov, Security Secretary Council Sergei Shoigu, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov , Presidential Adviser Igor Levitin, and the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Alexander Kurenkov and one of the FSB officials, whose name the ambassador did not name.

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“And this whole crowd was gathered only to express concern about the fate of Raisi and offer to help in the search? It is possible that a certain Kruchev was directly related to Iran's nuclear program and accompanied by President Raisi on this trip for a reason . And the concealment of his presence on board Bell-214 was very important for Russia, and the Russian military-political leadership was concerned about the fate of this particular person in the first place,” the military-political observer expressed his opinion.

By the way, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blamed the Americans for the death of the Iranian President. They say the helicopter crashed due to US sanctions that prohibit the supply of aviation spare parts to Iran.

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Why is France accusing Azerbaijan of meddling in its Pacific territory of New Caledonia?

Sat, 18 May 2024 18:59:53 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story .

France's government has no doubt that Azerbaijan is stirring tensions in New Caledonia despite the vast geographical and cultural distance between the hydrocarbon-rich Caspian state and the French Pacific territory.

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3 min

Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

"This isn't a fantasy. It's a reality," French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

"I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It's indisputable," he alleged.

But he added: "Even if there are attempts at interference... France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better".

'Stand in solidarity'

"We completely reject the baseless accusations," Azerbaijan's foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

"We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan."

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan's neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a "dictatorship".

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the "Baku Initiative Group", whose stated aim is to support "French liberation and anti-colonialist movements".

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament's proposed change to New Caledonia's constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

"We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle," the Baku Initiative Group said.

'Massive campaign'

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June's European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made "attempts to interfere... for months".

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by "foreign actors".

But he accused Azerbaijan of "seizing on internal problems."

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

"It's a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts," the source told AFP.

"They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia."

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.

(AFP)

threats to Gay events during Pride Month - Google Search

Sat, 18 May 2024 13:52:38 -0400

Michael_Novakhov shared this story .

According to a report by the Anti-Defamation League and Glaad, a group formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, there were at least 145 incidents of anti-LGBTQ violence, harassment and vandalism during Pride Month in 2023.3 hours ago