May 17, 2024

SLOVAKIA: Slovakia First Prime Minister Was Shot 5 Times In Assassination Attempt. He Is Expected To Survive. This Is After He Rejected WHO Pandemic Treaty And EU Immigration Rules.

GlobalAwareness101 published Assassination Attempt On Slovakia First PM After Rejecting WHO Pandemic Treaty. If you want to skip his full speech, jump to 2:50 to see the news about his assassination attempt.

He is a Slovakia First Prime Minister. The media are shaming anyone who connects the assassination with the PM rejecting the WHO Pandemic Treaty and putting his foot down with EU immigration demands.

You can manipulate the video player and pause the video to read each page. Look on the lower left of the video to see the play, pause, stop button. Also on the lower right you'll see a button to enlarge your screen to read better.
CBS Chicago published May 15, 2024: Prime Minister of Slovakia shot 5 times in assassination attempt. A top government official now says Prime Minister Robert Fico is expected to survive.
Sky News published May 16, 2024: Slovak PM shooting suspect named as 71-year-old writer and poet. A man charged with attempted murder following the shooting of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has been named as 71-year-old Juraj Cintula.

Sky News
written by Staff
Friday May 17, 2024

Juraj Cintula is described as a writer who penned a poem in which he describes how he grew up to be someone who strikes back. He is also said to have initiated the creation of a movement called Against Violence.

A man charged with attempted murder following the shooting of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has been named as 71-year-old Juraj Cintula.

The pensioner, from the town of Levice in western Slovakia, is said to be a writer and poet.

In one of his poems he describes how he grew up to be someone who strikes back, they say.

Eight years ago, however, he initiated the creation of a movement called Against Violence, and published a statement about it online.

Cintula previously worked as a security guard, during which time he was reportedly badly beaten by a man in a shop.

Meanwhile, one of his neighbours said he was "shocked" about the shooting of the prime minister.

'Fantastic man'

"We had no problems with them. He is a fantastic man. I can't explain it," the neighbour said.

"I knew him and his wife as well. They were great people - pensioners. His wife was a university teacher - they used to go for a walk - great family."

Asked whether it was clear that Cintula had a gun, the neighbour added: "He didn't tell me. Police should check old people [and carry out psychological tests]."

Cintula founded a literary club in Levice and is the author of several poetry collections, local media reported.

He has also written a novel called The Message Of Sacrifice and is said to be a member of the Society of Slovak Writers.

Mr Fico - who is fighting for his life in hospital after Wednesday's assassination attempt - was shot several times in the town of Handlova, around 85 miles northeast of the capital Bratislava, where he was meeting supporters.

Slovakia's interior minister, Matus Sutaj Estok, told reporters that Cintula was a "lone wolf".

The suspect "acted alone", Mr Estok said.

Speaking previously, he said the attempt on Mr Fico's life was "politically motivated".

On Wednesday, he said an initial investigation found the suspect had a "clear political motivation" for carrying out the shooting, adding the "perpetrator's decision was born closely after the presidential election".

President-elect Peter Pellegrini, an ally of Mr Fico, won a fiercely contested presidential election last month.

The alleged gunman fired five bullets at the 59-year-old prime minister as he greeted supporters following a government meeting in a former coal mining town in central Slovakia.

What have those who knew the suspect said?

News outlet Aktuality.sk cited the suspect's son as saying his father was the legal holder of a gun licence.

"I have absolutely no idea what my father intended, what he planned, what happened," it quoted the son as saying.

He said all he could say about his father's views about the prime minister was that he did not vote for him.

He also said his father was not a psychiatric patient.

A member of the Rainbow Literary Club in Levice told Reuters she knew the suspect.

She said he was one of the club's founding members and had been its chairman for a time.

In a statement, the club condemned the attack and said that as a strictly apolitical group it had revoked the suspected attacker's membership with "immediate effect".

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 6:08 PM 0 comments

VATICAN: The Vatican Is Offering New Guidance Friday Regarding Supernatural Phenomena And Other Apparitions. News Started Reporting People Having 'Demon Face Syndrome' In March 2024.

NewsNation published May 17, 2024: Vatican releases new supernatural guidelines.

The Vatican is offering new guidance Friday regarding supernatural phenomena and other apparitions, presenting new provisions of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Historical theologian Dr. Paul Thigpen said the Vatican will likely not mention aliens or UFOs, explaining the press conference will focus on apparitions of spiritual beings.
NewsNation published May 17, 2024: Vatican moves to overhaul process for evaluating visions of Mary.

The Vatican on Friday overhauled its process for evaluating alleged visions of the Virgin Mary, weeping statues and other seemingly supernatural phenomena that have marked church history, putting the brakes on making definitive declarations unless the event is obviously fabricated.

CNN
written by Catherine Nicholls, Christopher Lamb and Lianne Kolirin
Friday May 17, 2024

The Vatican has tightened up its guidance on recognizing supernatural phenomena such as apparitions of the Virgin Mary and seemingly blood-soaked crucifixes.

The new guidelines replace rules drawn up in 1978 and say that bishops should no longer act independently over such sightings but instead consult the Vatican.

The changes made by the Vatican’s doctrinal office (DDF) aim to to bring the church up to date in responding to the swift spread of claims of apparitions online.

According to the document released by the Vatican Friday, the new procedure will allow for “faster decisions while respecting popular devotion” when it comes to assessing claims of supernatural phenomena, which could include the appearance of stigmata and other purported miracles.

Under the previous guidelines, a local bishop could rapidly declare a phenomenon’s supernatural nature, the Vatican said, “only for the Holy Office to express a different decision later.” In other instances a bishop might decide whether or not an occurrence was supernatural only for his successor to conclude the opposite, the statement continued.

The new Vatican guidelines say “as a rule” bishops and church officials will not declare whether alleged phenomena are supernatural or not, leaving this decision to the Pope.

The head of the DDF, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, told reporters that often these events “have led to a great richness of spiritual fruits, growth in faith, devotion, fraternity, and service. In some cases, they have given rise to shrines throughout the world that are at the heart of many people’s popular piety today.”

Speaking at a Vatican press conference, the cardinal cited Lourdes, the Marian shrine in the southwest of France visited by those with physical and spiritual ailments, as a positive example.

However, he went on to add that some alleged events which derive from the pursuit of “profit, power, fame, social recognition, or other personal interest” may harm the faithful, potentially even to the extent of “exerting control over people or carrying out abuses.”

Bishops will now generally be expected to issue a “nihil obstat” which will allow for worship but will leave open the issue of formal recognition of “supernatural” activity to the Vatican. However, Fernandez said that this recognition would be “very exceptional”.

Other options available to the bishops include the option to formally reject an experience as supernatural, as well as steps to ban or limit worship of phenomena regarded with suspicion. The guidelines state that those spreading false claims can face sanctions, including formal church penalties.

Positive criteria that will be considered by the Church when making a conclusion include the credibility and reputation of those reporting the occurrence, while negative criteria include possible errors, overt pursuit of personal interest, and “any psychosis (or) collective hysteria.”

One site of alleged Marian apparitions still under review by the Vatican is Medjugorje, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Cardinal Fernandez telling reporters the claims would be studied according to the new norms.

***RELATED***
GlobalAwareness101 published Look at the Negative Image of King Charles First Portrait. Trippy images. How can you explain this away? Do see these images? Because people keep saying that it's a reflection of what's in our head. And why do the NWO Commie globalist Luciferians keep warning us seeing demon faces and now apparitions? What are they unleashing on us? They're preparing us. They're saying that what you're seeing or going to see is not real. What are your thoughts on this? Do you see the images I pointed out or images I didn't catch?

***I RECOMMEND WATCHING, THEY LIVE, THIS WEEKEND***
GlobalAwareness101 published I Recommend Watching The 1988 Sci-fi Movie, They Live. This clip is 'One that can see' scene.

***NEWS STARTED REPORTING DEMON FACE SYNDROME IN MARCH 2024***
FOX 26 Houston published March 22, 2024: Rare 'demon face' syndrome. In this segment, we discuss a medical condition that could scare you if you have it.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 5:24 PM 0 comments

ENGLAND: King Charles First Official Portrait Since Coronation Was Unveiled This Week.

GlobalAwarneness101 published King Charles First Official Portrait Is Red And Filled With Demons.
GlobalAwareness101 published Look at the Negative Image of King Charles First Portrait. Trippy images. How can you explain this away? Do see these images? Because people keep saying that it's a reflection of what's in our head. And why do the NWO Commie globalist Luciferians keep warning us seeing demon faces and now apparitions? What are they unleashing on us? They're preparing us. They're saying that what you're seeing or going to see is not real. What are your thoughts on this? Do you see the images I pointed out or images I didn't catch?
CNN News18 published May 15, 2024: New Portrait Of King Charles: People Have A Lot Of Thoughts About The Striking New Portrait. The King unveiled a new portrait by Real Jonathan Yeo at Buckingham Palace. The painting - commissioned by The Draper’s Company - is the first official portrait to be completed since His Majesty’s Coronation. It will hang in Draper’s Hall in London. 
ABC News published May 16, 2024: Londoners react to King Charles III's portrait. "It's kind of ghoulish." People in London were asked what they thought of the official portrait of King Charles III, and they didn't hold back.

BBC News
written by Katie Razzall, Culture and media editor
Tuesday May 14, 2024

The first official painted portrait of King Charles III since his coronation has been unveiled at Buckingham Palace.

The vast oil on canvas shows a larger-than-life King Charles in the uniform of the Welsh Guards.

The vivid red work, measuring about 8ft 6in by 6ft 6in, is by Jonathan Yeo, who has also painted Tony Blair, Sir David Attenborough and Malala Yousafzai.

Queen Camilla is said to have looked at the painting and told Yeo: "Yes, you've got him."

In the new portrait, the King is depicted, sword in hand, with a butterfly landing on his shoulder.

Unveilings are always a little nerve-wracking, both for the sitter and the artist, but particularly when one of them is a King.

Yeo jokes: "If this was seen as treasonous, I could literally pay for it with my head, which would be an appropriate way for a portrait painter to die - to have their head removed!"

In reality, Yeo isn't going to lose his head of course - no executions for a badly received portrait of a monarch, in modern times anyway.

The Queen dropped in during the final sitting and said the artist had captured the King well. Yeo says the best judge of a portrait is someone who knows your sitter really well because they have instant recognition of whether it feels familiar.

The King also got a glimpse of it, says Yeo, in its "half-done state… He was initially mildly surprised by the strong colour but otherwise he seemed to be smiling approvingly".

It is a vibrant painting.

The King was made Regimental Colonel in the Welsh Guards in 1975. In the picture, the red of the uniform fades into the red background, bringing the King's face into even more prominence.

Yeo says he wanted the painting to be distinctive and a break with the past. He was aiming for something personal.

"My interest is really in figuring out who someone is and trying to get that on a canvas."

Yeo decided to use some of the traditions of royal portraiture - the military outfit, the sword - but aimed to achieve something more modern, particularly with the deep colour and the butterfly.

He says he's referencing the tradition of official royal portraits but suggesting that's something "from the past and what's interesting about them is something a bit different from that".

"In history of art, the butterfly symbolises metamorphosis and rebirth," he explains, fitting for a portrait being painted of a monarch who has recently ascended to the throne.

The butterfly is also a reference to the King's long held interest in the environment, causes "he has championed most of his life and certainly long before they became a mainstream conversation".

Yeo says it was Charles' idea after they talked about the opportunity they had to tell a story with the portrait.

"I said, when schoolchildren are looking at this in 200 years and they're looking at the who's who of the monarchs, what clues can you give them?

"He said 'what about a butterfly landing on my shoulder?'".

Yeo began the portrait when Charles was still Prince of Wales, with the first sitting at Highgrove in June 2021.

The King sat four times in all, for about an hour at a time, with the final sitting at Clarence House in November 2023. Did the artist notice any obvious change in the man after he became King?

Yeo says he's spotted "a physical change" in politicians he's painted in the past. "They physically look and feel different when they're in high office or out of it."

Yeo adds the King "had already been gaining presence and stature by the time I started it, and it went up a level again when he became King, as you'd expect".

The sittings ended before the King's cancer was diagnosed. He had a lot going on, says Yeo, with an upcoming speech at the COP Summit, but "didn't seem like someone who was physically exhausted".

He was "in good spirits", the painter adds.

King Charles posed in his full Welsh Guards uniform and had to stand leaning on his sword for around 40 minutes each time.

"He stood impressively still, and didn't get distracted like some sitters do."

Yeo won't reveal much of what they talked about during sittings, although he says Charles III has "a great sense of humour" and is a "very engaging person".

His interest in art meant Charles wanted to discuss the process of creating the work and the brushes being used. They also talked about "how he'd learned to paint and about some of the pictures on the walls".

But Yeo says "there's a sanctity to the portrait process". Your sitters "need to believe what goes on is between the two of you because that way I think they feel more comfortable about opening up".

Royal portraits in the past have had an important role to play in signifying power and projecting an image. They were part of the tools used to ensure the survival of the monarch. Some of the most memorable include Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger. The Tudor king employed Holbein as court artist, although only two portraits survive.

But Yeo says our relationship with royalty has shifted since those days.

"On the one hand, we know they're real people with quirks and personality traits. We've seen that much more of them. On the other hand, we still want to buy into the mysticism and the fairy tale that they're different from us, that there's a bit of magic there."

In his portrait, he was "trying to figure out how to do both at once".

Painting a portrait of this size was "quite an operation", says Yeo. Having used his first sittings with the king for photographs and sketches, he did most of the painting between the third and fourth sittings.

He then had to hire a truck to transport the canvas and his equipment to Clarence House for the last time he saw the King.

As well as easel, painting tables and lighting, they had to "cover all the carpets in sheets so we didn't damage these priceless carpets".

Yeo also brought "a dais, a sort of platform, for me to stand on so I was up high enough to paint his face and one for him to stand on so that he's on a level as well".

The artist claims not to have been interested in getting involved in the "rigid formality" of royal portraiture previously. But as he turned 50, he began to think about how "you have to see how you measure up against the works of the past".

The portrait was commissioned by the Drapers' Company, the City of London livery company which has been collecting royal portraits for centuries.

His painting will go up in Drapers' Hall in London surrounded by "a dozen other fabulous, similarly huge portraits of Queen Victoria and various other kings and queens".

For him, painting Charles III was different from most previous commissions, where you start from scratch.

"All my life I'd known who he was and what he looked like so it was really just a case of deciding what to show and trying to slightly channel who he seems to be now."

He deliberately minimized the visual distractions in his portrait to "allow people to connect with the human being underneath".

There's a great deal of sympathy for the King, Yeo adds. The portrait "reflects exactly who he is, everything he represents and what he's been through".

The portrait will go on public display at the Philip Mould Gallery in London from 16 May until 14 June. It will be displayed at Drapers' Hall from the end of August.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 4:13 PM 0 comments

May 13, 2024

USA: Federal Judge Postpones Trump Classified Documents Trial Indefinitely After Lead DOJ Prosecutor Admitted FBI Used Props For Infamous “Classified Documents” Photo Taken At Mar-A-Lago

FOX 32 Chicago published May 8, 2024: Donald Trump secures legal victory with postponed trial. Former President Donald Trump got a legal win Wednesday in his classified documents case with a federal judge is postponing the trial indefinitely.
CNN
written by Katelyn Polantz, Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand and Tierney Sneed
Tuesday May 7, 2024

Judge Aileen Cannon has indefinitely postponed former President Donald Trump’s classified documents trial in Florida, citing significant issues around classified evidence that would need to be worked out before the federal criminal case goes to a jury.

In an order Tuesday, Cannon cancelled the May trial date and did not set a new date. While Trump was in criminal court Tuesday for his hush money trial in New York, Cannon’s move means there are no trial dates currently set for the other three criminal cases against him.

By indefinitely postponing the classified documents trial, Cannon’s order pushes it closer to the 2024 election – and potentially afterward.

The judge’s new schedule lays out all the legal disputes that Cannon must decide before a jury could hear the case. Cannon said that process will take at least until late July of this year.

Cannon noted in her Tuesday order that there are eight substantive pending motions she has yet to decide. She also reiterated that she believes the national security mishandling allegations in the case “present novel and difficult questions.”

Though all parties agreed that the case wouldn’t be ready to go before a jury in May, prosecutors still pushed for a July trial date, while Trump and his co-defendants proposed dates in August and September. Although Trump’s attorneys have continuously asserted in court filings that a pre-election trial would be “unfair.”

The further delayed trial also could put Trump’s two federal cases on a collision course.

In Washington, DC, the former president is charged with alleged crimes he committed during his presidency to reverse the 2020 election results. That case, also brought by special counsel Jack Smith’s team, has been on pause while the Supreme Court considers Trump’s claims of sweeping immunity. A decision from the high court is expected by July.

Trump is charged in the Florida case with mishandling classified documents and with working with two co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation. All three have pleaded not guilty.

Cannon said in her new scheduling order that she will hold a hearing on what had been considered Trump’s longshot request for records from the Biden administration.

The hearing will start on June 24 and is scheduled to last three days.

The move by Cannon is a significant win for the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee. The proceeding will give Trump and his attorneys a platform to air unfounded theories about the prosecution, including the accusation that it is politically motivated.

Attorneys for Smith have vehemently denied allegations of political bias and opposed the move to hold the hearing as unnecessary and unjustified.

Cannon also scheduled a June 21 hearing on Trump’s claims that Smith was unlawfully appointed.

In his bid for records from the Biden administration, Trump has argued that he is entitled to a broad swath of records from various federal agencies, including from President Joe Biden’s White House, because Trump claims those agencies are effectively part of the prosecution team.

Smith’s office countered that Trump’s theories were “baseless,” that the discovery request was “frivolous,” and that the defense lawyers’ arguments had fallen well short of the high threshold for holding such a proceeding.
The Daily Caller
written by Reagan Reese
Tuesday May 7, 2024.

The FBI brought props to its raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for classified documents that were pictured in an infamous photo taken at the alleged crime scene, according to court documents.

Jay Bratt, the lead Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor now assigned to special counsel Jack Smith’s team, admitted in a recent court filing that FBI agents brought cover sheets reading “top secret” to the raid of Mar-a-Lago to use as placeholders in their gathering of classified documents. The classified documents, however, now appear to be out of order following their seizure, both Trump’s defense attorney and the special counsel have admitted, according to court documents first reported by Declassified with Julie Kelly.

The crime scene photo of classified documents allegedly found at Mar-a-Lago, complete with the bright red “classification” cover sheets, went viral in the weeks after the raid. Corporate media outlets breathlessly reported on the photo and the cover sheets as proof that Trump had been storing classified documents at his Florida property.

“[If] the investigative team found a document with classification markings, it removed the document, segregated it, and replaced it with a placeholder sheet. The investigative team used classified cover sheets for that purpose,” Bratt wrote in a recent filing.

In a May filing, defense attorneys for Trump c0-defendant Waltine Nauta wrote that the placeholders which the FBI brought to the scene to mark classified documents in stacks were out of place.

“Following defense counsel’s review of the physical boxes…and the documents produced in classified discovery, defense counsel has learned that the cross-reference provided by the Special Counsel’s Office does not contain accurate information,” the attorneys wrote, according to Kelly.

“[Thirteen] boxes or containers contained documents with classification markings, and in all, over one hundred unique documents with classification markings…were seized. Certain of the documents had colored cover sheets indicating their classification status. (Emphasis added.) See, e.g., Attachment F (redacted FBI photograph of certain documents and classified cover sheets recovered from a container in the ‘45 office’),” Bratt wrote in an August 2022 court filing.

Kelly writes that Bratt’s original filing did not explain where those classified document sheets had come from, though later he admitted that the sheets were in fact brought to the scene by FBI agents.

“In other words, in their zeal to stage a phony photo using official classified cover sheets, FBI agents might have failed to accurately match the placeholder sheet with the appropriate document. This is a potentially case-blowing mistake, particularly if the document in question is one of the 34 records that represents the basis of espionage charges against Trump,” Kelly reported.

In response to Nauta’s filing, Bratt admitted that the placeholders had been rearranged, and that not all of them had been properly matched with the right placeholder sheet, according to a court document.

“In many but not all instances, the FBI was able to determine which document with classification markings corresponded to a particular placeholder sheet,” Bratt wrote in response to the defense attorney’s request for more time.

While Trump is being charged for mishandling classified documents, President Joe Biden had a special counsel of his own investigate him for his handling of similarly classified documents. Despite the FBI seizing documents from Biden’s Delaware home, the photo of the raid showed the president’s documents in boxes, rather than sprawled out with “top secret” placeholders.

Special Counsel Robert Hur did not recommend bringing charges against Biden.
America First Legal (AFL)
written by Staff
Thursday April 4, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, America First Legal (AFL) sued the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to compel the immediate release of documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regarding the secretive Presidential Information Technology Committee (PITC) created by former President Barack Obama.

In January, AFL filed a FOIA with the Defense Information Systems Agency, part of the Department of Defense, to understand PITC.

PITC is highly relevant today as it creates a presumption that the President controls all information he receives. Thus, it is relevant to what a President may reasonably believe about information given to him in office.

If information stored on the PITC network formed the basis for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of former President Trump, that evidence should have been disclosed to the former President and may be relevant to his liability. This is especially significant given the Special Counsel’s case in Florida hinges on the notion that former President Trump was not “authorized” to retain certain documents. The PITC memo could create a reasonable belief for any President that he has such authority.

Additionally, suppose the records Trump allegedly destroyed are still preserved within the EOP or the U.S. Department of Defense as part of PITC-created information systems. In that case, claims in the indictment that President Trump removed or destroyed records may be baseless.

Given the DOD’s failure to hand over the requested information, AFL has filed a lawsuit. AFL will not cease in its legal battle until the DOD produces documents as required under the law.

Statement from Dan Epstein, America First Legal Vice President:

“America First Legal’s suit today raises significant legal questions the Biden Administration must confront. First, the President’s Information Technology Committee presumes that all information received by the President is within his control. That principle complicates the indictment by the Special Counsel’s Office, particularly on the question of what President Trump was authorized to access and retain. Alternatively, if the Court finds that records subject to PITC are agency records, not presidential records, and were separately preserved by the Department of Defense, then it raises serious questions about the National Archives’ decision to refer Trump to the Department of Justice as that referral would be based on the false claim that President Trump removed presidential records.” said Dan Epstein.

Read the lawsuit here.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 6:36 PM 0 comments

USA: FIRED! The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secret INTELLIGENCE Advisory Panel Disbanded After Conservative Legal Group Sues. Included John Brennan And James Clapper.

The Hill published May 10, 2024: FIRED! Secret INTELLIGENCE Advisory Panel Disbanded After Stephen Miller Sues. Jessica Burbank and Amber Duke discuss shutting of DHS' intelligence experts panel.
National Review
written by James Lynch
Monday May 6, 2024

The Biden administration is shutting down a partisan panel of “intelligence experts” that featured multiple signatories of the discredited Hunter Biden laptop letter.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed last week to dissolve its “Homeland Intelligence Experts Group” after conservative legal group America First Legal (AFL) filed a lawsuit arguing it was in violation of federal law.

“The Experts Group shall be wound down within thirty (30) days of the entry of the Order, it will not hold any future meetings, and the Department will not reconstitute the Experts Group inconsistent with the FACA or the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The Department will also provide the Experts Group meeting agendas and meeting minutes with participant identifying information redacted within fifteen (15) days of the entry of the Order,” reads a joint notice of stipulation and dismissal filed in Washington, D.C. district court last week. DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

AFL’s lawsuit, filed with former Trump official Richard Grenell, accused DHS of violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act because of the expert panel’s partisan imbalance. Congressional Republicans also pushed DHS to disband the panel because of its partisan imbalance.

A whopping 98 percent of the group’s political contributions have gone to Democrats compared to only one percent to Republicans, AFL noted in its lawsuit. The Federal Advisory Committee Act is meant to prevent government agencies from forming advisory panels lacking in objectivity.

Two members of the short-lived panel, former CIA director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, signed the discredited letter by 51 former intelligence officials ahead of the 2020 presidential election claiming the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation. Another signatory, former senior CIA official Michael Morell, testified last year the letter was orchestrated by then-Biden campaign senior advisr Tony Blinken.

Federal investigators verified the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop in late 2019 by cross-referencing it to his Apple iCloud server, special counsel David Weiss’s team of prosecutors said in a court filing earlier this year. IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, an agent who spent years on the Hunter Biden tax case, gave a similar account of how the laptop archive was verified when he testified last year before the House Ways and Means Committee.

“Thanks to the courage of Ric Grenell in standing up to the Deep State, we have just achieved an unqualified legal victory over Mayorkas and Biden. As a result of our lawsuit in federal court, DHS is surrendering in total to our demands,” America First Legal president Stephen Miller said in a statement.

“We won. We beat Biden and DHS.”
*******
Fox News
written by Adam Shaw and Andrew Mark Miller
Friday May 3, 2024

FIRST ON FOX: The Biden administration has agreed to wind down a controversial intelligence "experts" group, as it faced a lawsuit from a conservative legal nonprofit arguing that it was in violation of federal law.

The Homeland Intelligence Experts Group was announced by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in September. The group was a collection of figures from the private sector to provide perspectives on the government’s intelligence and national security efforts.

"The security of the American people depends on our capacity to collect, generate, and disseminate actionable intelligence to our federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, campus, and private sector partners," Mayorkas said in a statement.

But critics have said that the board was not a neutral body and was instead a partisan body. Critics highlighted former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan as two of the figures they saw as objectionable due to their signing on to a letter questioning the veracity of the Hunter Biden laptop story.

America First Legal, which filed the lawsuit, found that of all the political contributions of those named to the group, just 1% went to Republicans, while 98% went to Democrats.

Multiple Republican lawmakers had sent a letter to Mayorkas demanding that the appointments of "known purveyors of disinformation" be withdrawn. AFL, also representing itself and former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, sued DHS in November.

The lawsuit alleged that the alleged bias violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act, citing alleged lack of balance, a lack of public notice and inappropriate influence by the Biden administration.

According to a joint notice and stipulation of dismissal, DHS "maintains its position that the establishment and operation of the Experts Group did not violate the FACA" but agreed to wind the group down.

"The Experts Group shall be wound down within thirty (30) days of the entry of the Order, it will not hold any future meetings, and the Department will not reconstitute the Experts Group inconsistent with the FACA or the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The Department will also provide the Experts Group meeting agendas and meeting minutes with participant identifying information redacted within fifteen (15) days of the entry of the Order," it said.

AFL in turn agreed to dismiss the lawsuit. DHS also reserves the right to create an advisory committee under the FACA provisions. The conservative plaintiffs hailed the agreement as a win.

"Thanks to the courage of Ric Grenell in standing up to the Deep State, we have just achieved an unqualified legal victory over Mayorkas and Biden," Stephen Miller, President of America First Legal and a former senior Trump White House advisor said in a statement.

"As a result of our lawsuit in federal court, DHS is surrendering in total to our demands: they are closing down their new partisan intelligence board featuring Clapper and Brennan — which would have been used to promote censored, unethical spying, and gross civil rights invasions of political enemies — and they are surrendering their documents, handing them over to our possession. We won. We beat Biden and DHS," he said.

Grenell said that DHS "surrendered" because "they knew the America First Legal team was right, and Biden’s team broke the law."

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 6:14 PM 0 comments

UKRAINE: Ukraine Has Unveiled Its First AI-Generated Spokesperson That Is A Deep Fake Of A Singer And Former Contestant On Ukraine Bachelor. This Is What SAG-AFTRA Union Was Fighting Against.

THIS WAS THE FORMER UKRAINE SPOKESPERSON until he threatened to hunt down and kill anyone who criticized, spoke negatively about Ukraine's government just like they're trying to do with making it illegal for any person who criticizes Israel and Zionist Kabbalah Talmudic esoteric mysticism cult. Every human on this planet must like them and support them or else they will destroy you. (emphasis mine)
CRUX published September 22, 2023: Ukraine Military Suspends American Spokeswoman After "Hunt Russian Devils" Remarks In Video. Ukraine has suspended Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, a transgender American who served as a spokeswoman for its military, due to a controversial video in which she vowed that Russian propagandists would be "hunted down" and "justice served". The video also contained strong anti-Russian sentiments. The Territorial Defence Forces (TDF) of Ukraine disapproved of her comments and launched an official investigation into the matter, suspending Ashton-Cirillo pending the outcome. She arrived in Ukraine as a reporter, later became a combat medic and eventually served as a military spokesperson. Her appointment had sparked controversy, with some questioning her lack of military experience. Republican Senator JD Vance also raised concerns about the use of American resources for her role. Ashton-Cirillo defended herself, claiming she was being targeted and emphasising the importance of countering Russian propaganda.
Breaking Points published September 21, 2023: Ukraine FIRES Spokesperson For BLOODTHIRSTY Rhetoric. Krystal and Saagar discuss Ukraine firing their controversial spokesperson Sarah Ashton-Cirillo who officially announced.
"Next week, the teeth of the Russian devils will gnash even harder, and their rabid mouths will foam in uncontrollable frenzy as the world will see a favorite Kremlin propagandist pay for their crimes. This puppet of Putin is only the first. Russia's war criminal propagandists will all be hunted down and justice will be served."
***SO, UKRAINE REPLACED THEIR TRANS SPOKESPERSON WITH AI***
Firstpost published May 2, 2024: Ukraine Unveils Its First AI-generated Spokesperson | Vantage with Palki Sharma. The digital model called Victoria will be Foreign Ministry's spokesperson. Victoria's image is AI-generated but her statements will be written by humans. Kyiv says the move will save resources and time of its diplomats. Some others are thinking along the same lines. British singer FKA Twigs is creating a deepfake of herself. Twigs will use the deepfake to interact with fans and journalists while she focuses on music. Humans are increasingly delegating work to AI avatars. After all, artificial intelligence is capable of simplifying complex tasks. But delegating work to artificial intelligence comes with ethical concerns. So where do we draw the line? Palki Sharma tells you.
The Guardian, UK
written by AFP staff

Friday May 3, 2024

Ukraine on Wednesday presented an AI-generated spokesperson called Victoria who will make official statements on behalf of its foreign ministry.

The ministry said it would “for the first time in history” use a digital spokesperson to read its statements, which will still be written by humans.

Dressed in a dark suit, the spokesperson introduced herself as Victoria Shi, a “digital person”, in a presentation posted on social media. The figure gesticulates with her hands and moves her head as she speaks.

The foreign ministry’s press service said that the statements given by Shi would not be generated by AI but “written and verified by real people”.

“It’s only the visual part that the AI helps us to generate,” Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said, adding that the new spokesperson was a “technological leap that no diplomatic service in the world has yet made”.

The main reason for creating her was “saving time and resources” for diplomats, he said. Shi’s creators are a team called the Game Changers who have also made virtual-reality content related to the war in Ukraine.

The spokesperson’s name is based on the word “victory” and the Ukrainian phrase for artificial intelligence: shtuchniy intelekt.

Shi’s appearance and voice are modelled on a real person: Rosalie Nombre, a singer and former contestant on Ukraine’s version of the reality show The Bachelor. Nombre was born in the now Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. She has 54,000 followers on her Instagram account, which she uses to discuss stereotypes about mixed-race Ukrainians and those who grew up as Russian speakers.

The ministry said that Nombre took part free of charge. It stressed that Shi and Nombre “are two different people” and that only the AI figure will give official statements.

To avoid fakes, the statements will be accompanied by a QR code linking them to text versions on the ministry’s website. Shi will comment on consular services, currently a controversial topic.

Ukraine last week suspended such services for men of fighting age living abroad, making it necessary for them to return to their country for administrative procedures and potentially face the draft.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 5:25 PM 0 comments

USA: Whistleblower Josh Dean of Boeing Supplier Spirit AeroSystems Died After A Struggle With A Sudden, Fast-Spreading Infection. That's Sus.

The Hill published May 2, 2024: Another BOEING Whistleblower DIES; Joshua Dean, 44, 2nd Dead In 2 Month. Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave discuss news that another Boeing whistleblower as died.
Firstpost pubilshed May 2, 2024: Is Someone Behind the Deaths of Boeing Whistleblowers? Vantage with Palki Sharma. Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems who had flagged safety concerns and alleged misconduct by the aircraft manufacturer, died after a sudden and severe infection. Dean fell ill just over two weeks ago with breathing difficulties. He is the second Boeing-linked whistleblower to have died in the last two months. The last one was John Barnett who died by suicide while embroiled in a lawsuit alleging retaliation for exposing safety concerns with the 787 Dreamliner. This comes as the company has come under heightened scrutiny over multiple issues. Is someone behind the death of these Boeing whistleblowers? Palki Sharma tells you.
  
The Seattle Times
written by Dominic Gates and Lauren Rosenblatt
Wednesday May 1, 2024

Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems and one of the first whistleblowers to allege Spirit leadership had ignored manufacturing defects on the 737 MAX, died Tuesday morning after a struggle with a sudden, fast-spreading infection.

Known as Josh, Dean lived in Wichita, Kan., where Spirit is based. He was 45, had been in good health and was noted for having a healthy lifestyle.

He died after two weeks in critical condition, his aunt Carol Parsons said.

Spirit spokesperson Joe Buccino said: “Our thoughts are with Josh Dean’s family. This sudden loss is stunning news here and for his loved ones.”

Dean had given a deposition in a Spirit shareholder lawsuit and also filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration alleging “serious and gross misconduct by senior quality management of the 737 production line” at Spirit.

Spirit fired Dean in April 2023, and he had filed a complaint with the Department of Labor alleging his termination was in retaliation for raising concerns related to aviation safety.

Parsons said Dean became ill and went to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing just over two weeks ago. He was intubated and developed pneumonia and then a serious bacterial infection, MRSA.

His condition deteriorated rapidly, and he was airlifted from Wichita to a hospital in Oklahoma City, Parsons said. There he was put on an ECMO machine, which circulates and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body, taking over heart and lung function when a patient’s organs don’t work on their own.

His mother posted a message Friday on Facebook relating all those details and saying that Dean was “fighting for his life.”

He was heavily sedated and put on dialysis. A CT scan indicated he had suffered a stroke, his mom’s post said.

By the end, doctors were considering amputating both hands and both feet. “It was brutal what he went through,” Parsons said. “Heartbreaking.”

Dean was represented by a law firm in South Carolina that also represented Boeing whistleblower John “Mitch” Barnett.

Barnett was found dead in an apparent suicide in March. He was in the midst of giving depositions alleging Boeing retaliated against him for complaints about quality lapses when he was found dead from a gunshot wound in Charleston, S.C., where Boeing has its 787 manufacturing facility.

The Charleston County Coroner’s Office reported Barnett’s death appeared to be “from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.” Almost two months later, the police investigation into his death is still ongoing.

Brian Knowles, one of Dean’s lawyers, said he didn’t want to speculate about the close timing and circumstances of the two deaths.

“Whistleblowers are needed. They bring to light wrongdoing and corruption in the interests of society. It takes a lot of courage to stand up,” Knowles said. “It’s a difficult set of circumstances. Our thoughts now are with John’s family and Josh’s family.”

Dean, a mechanical engineer, began working at Spirit in 2019. He was laid off the next year following pandemic-related job cuts and returned to Spirit in May 2021 as a quality auditor.

In October 2022, Dean said he found a serious manufacturing defect: mechanics improperly drilling holes in the aft pressure bulkhead of the MAX. When he flagged this issue with management, he said nothing was done.

Focused on those defects, he said he missed during that same audit a separate manufacturing flaw in the fittings that attach the vertical tail fin to the fuselage. When that was discovered in April and caused a delivery pause at Boeing’s Renton plant, Dean was fired.

Then in August, Spirit announced the discovery of improperly drilled holes in the MAX’s aft pressure bulkhead, a flaw that was present in MAXs built as early as 2019. This caused another delivery halt in Renton.

With that discovery, Dean filed a safety complaint with the FAA. He said Spirit had used him as a scapegoat and had lied to the FAA about the aft pressure bulkhead defects.

“After I was fired, Spirit AeroSystems [initially] did nothing to inform the FAA, and the public” about their knowledge of the aft pressure bulkhead defects, he wrote in his complaint.

In November, the FAA sent Dean a letter stating that it had completed an investigation of the safety issues he had flagged. The letter cloaks the outcome though it seems to confirm that his allegations had substance.

“The investigation determined that your allegations were appropriately addressed under an FAA-approved safety program,” the FAA wrote. “However, due to the privacy provisions of those programs, specific details cannot be released.”

That same month, Dean filed his aviation whistleblower complaint with the Department of Labor, alleging wrongful termination and “gross misconduct of senior level Spirit AeroSystems Quality Managers.”

That case was still pending.

After he left Spirit, Dean took a job for a short time at Boeing Wichita, then left to work for another company.

The shareholder lawsuit alleging that Spirit management withheld information on the quality flaws and harmed stockholders was filed in December. Supporting the suit, Dean provided a deposition detailing his allegations.

After a panel blew off a Boeing 737 MAX plane in January, bringing new attention to the quality lapses at Spirit, one of Dean’s former Spirit colleagues confirmed some of Dean’s allegations.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 4:56 PM 0 comments

May 12, 2024

This Is A Great Story To Be Shared On This Mother's Day And Remembered For A Lifetime...💖

One young man went to apply for a managerial position in a big company. He passed the initial interview, and now would meet the director for the final interview.

The director discovered from his CV that the youth's academic achievements were excellent. He asked, "Did you obtain any scholarships in school?" the youth answered "no".

"Was it your father who paid for your school fees?"

"My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees.” he replied.

"Where did your mother work?"

"My mother worked as clothes cleaner.”

The director requested the youth to show his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect.

"Have you ever helped your mother wash the clothes before?"

"Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books. Besides, my mother can wash clothes faster than me.

The director said, "I have a request. When you go home today, go and clean your mother's hands, and then see me tomorrow morning.

The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back home, he asked his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to her son.

The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother's hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother winced when he touched it.

This was the first time the youth realized that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to enable him to pay the school fees. The bruises in the mother's hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his education, his school activities and his future.

After cleaning his mother hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother.

That night, mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director's office.

The Director noticed the tears in the youth's eyes, when he asked: "Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?"

The youth answered," I cleaned my mother's hands, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes'

“I know now what appreciation is. Without my mother, I would not be who I am today. By helping my mother, only now do I realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done on your own. And I have come to appreciate the importance and value of helping one’s family.

The director said, "This is what I am looking for in a manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life.”

“You are hired.”

This young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates. Every employee worked diligently and worked as a team. The company's performance improved tremendously.

A child, who has been protected and habitually given whatever he wanted, would develop an "entitlement mentality" and would always put himself first. He would be ignorant of his parent's efforts. When he starts work, he assumes that every person must listen to him, and when he becomes a manager, he would never know the sufferings of his employees and would always blame others. For this kind of people, who may be good academically, they may be successful for a while, but eventually they would not feel a sense of achievement. They will grumble and be full of hatred and fight for more. If we are this kind of protective parents, are we really showing love or are we destroying our children instead?

You can let your child live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch on a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plates and bowls together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parents are, one day their hair will grow gray, same as the mother of that young person. The most important thing is your child learns how to appreciate the effort and experience the difficulty and learns the ability to work with others to get things done.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 1:38 PM 0 comments

I Love You Mom! 💖 Happy Mother's Day. 😊💐

Mother
~ Author unknown
(American Greetings card)

Sometimes,
a mom means laughter, sharing, and warmth.
Sometimes,
a mom means understanding, encouragement, and guidance.
But always, a mom means love.

As time goes by,
I appreciate more and more
all the things you've done for me.

I recognize kind acts and realize sacrifices;
I understand your viewpoints and appreciate your wisdom.

And with these things,
I discover I not only love you,
but I love what you've done,
I love who you are,
and I love that you are my mom.

******************************
Dear Mom,

I don't know if you realize how much I admire you, but I do.

Being your daughter is a joy, because you've been such a wonderful role model for me, not just in the way you raised me, but in the way you live your own life.

I've learned so much from you, what it means to be truly giving and caring, how important it is to be fair, how to believe in myself and in my ideals. But my most cherished observation, to be a free spirit.

Your example has shaped the way I think and feel and believe much more than you will ever know.

Happy Mother's Day!

💖 I LOVE YOU! 💖

Your favorite one and only child,
😊~ Josette ~😊
Me and my mom celebrating my 1st birthday!

Me and my mom celebrating my 44th birthday!
almost 11 years ago.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 1:34 PM 0 comments

Happy Mother's Day To All Of You Beautiful Wonderful Inspiring Women Around The World! :)


I just want to take a moment to personally thank ALL of the women around the WORLD who have chosen to sacrifice their personal lives in order to give birth to new life. Women who have chosen to give unconditional love to their children. Women who have chosen to nurture and mentor these children who will become our future leaders. All of humanity owes you a GREAT deal of gratitude, because without you women, NONE of us would exist.

"The love of a mother is the veil of a softer light between
the heart and the heavenly Father."
~ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge ♥

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 1:32 PM 0 comments

May 7, 2024

ISRAEL: Israel’s Military Intelligence Chief Resigned Over Failure To Prevent Hamas Attack On Oct 7. Chose To Ignore Hamas Document OUTLINING THE ATTACK PLANS Obtained Year Prior To Incident.

Israeli officials ALLOWED Hamas terrorists to cross into Israel and massacre Israelis and allowed Hamas terrorists to kidnap Israelis for 7 HOURS. THE Israeli government is to blame for not protecting Israelis and then worse NOT SEND THEM HELP FOR 7 HOURS. Hamas terrorists have always been terrorists and have always hated Israel right. Think about it. Israel government didn't do anything to stop Hamas terrorists.

I'm going to use the Mexican Cartel who are the same as Hamas terrorists as an example. Imagine Mexican Cartel crosses into United States and massacres Americans for 7 hours and takes American hostages. Well who would you blame? Mexican Cartel has never changed their vicious ways. The US government intelligence is aware of who they are and what they do. I would blame American officials who are responsible for PROTECTING and DEFENDING American people.

Israel government ALLOWED Hamas terrorists to do whatever they wanted IN ISRAEL FOR 7 HOURS and watched on their high tech surveillance cameras that can see everything. Then when Isreal did finally arrive, the Israeli military was ordered to carpet bomb the entire area where Hamas was. They didn't care that Israelis were in the area too AND Israeli military were ordered to shoot every person on sight meaning Israelis were casualties of IDF too. Those Israeli civilians killed by the IDF were included in the Hamas death numbers.

Now Israel has been bombing civilians en masse in Gaza and has destroyed two thirds of Gaza housing, hospitals, cemetaries, schools, places of worship from the North to the South. That is like USA bombing Mexico infrastructure and killing Mexican civilians who had nothing to do with the Mexican Cartel attack on US soil. Israel wants to wipe out Gaza and the people living there so they have no place to return to and Gazan population is wiped out for Israel to take over and build Israeli resorts along the coast. (emphasis mine)
GlobalAwareness101 published I stitched together several videos to help me tell a story. IDF were told to stand down for 7 hours.
GlobalAwareness101 published Israel’s Military Intelligence Chief Resigned Over Failure To Prevent Hamas Attack On Oct 7. Conspiracy "theorists" were right again. Israel military intelligence knew in advance that Hamas was going to attack as they always had in the past. He gets to retire with full pension and no penalties. He's still being honored by Israel.

I typed a transcript for you below of the 3 news broadcast video I put together in my video above. Each one has different information.

Sky News: And on that Israel's military intelligence chief has taken responsibility for officials failures leading up to the October 7 attacks and has resigned. Major General Aharon Haliva is the first senior figure to quit over those Hamas attacks. Israeli military and intelligence officials missed OR IGNORED multiple warning signs leading up to the Hamas attacks on October 7th.

Havliva says he will carry the horrible pain of the war with him forever. He will retire once a successor has been selected.

Dawn News: In a significant development, Major General Aharon Haliva, the former head of Israel's military intelligence resigned attributing his departure to the failure to prevent a deadly surprise attack orchestrated by Hamas. His resignation marked the first instance of a senior official taking direct responsibility and stepping down in the aftermath of the incident. Haliva emphasized in his resignation letter that the intelligence division had fallen short of its responsibility. (NO SHIT) Acknowledging a substantial oversight that enabled Hamas to execute a large scale assault within Israel territory.

Notably Israel had obtained a Hamas DOCUMENT OUTLINING THE ATTACK PLANS a year prior to the incident. Additionally, military supporters stationed near Gaza had reported SIGHTINGS of Hamas battalions MAKING PREPARATIONS FOR A POTENTIAL ASSAULT in the weeks and months leading up to the infiltration.

Despite these warnings, leadership chose to disregard the looming threat operating under the belief that Hamas' primary focus was on managing affairs within Gaza.

The strategic miscalculation proved costly ultimately leading to Haliva's resignation as a testament to accountability within the military heirachy.

News Nine: Aharon Haliva the head of Israeli military intelligence who last year accepted responsibility for the failure THAT ALLOWED the homicide attack on Israel on October 7th has resigned.

Haliva was one of the number of senior Israeli commanders who said that they had failed to foresee and prevent the most devastating attack in Israel's history. Having served in IDF for over 38 years. Haliva will leave his post as soon as his successor's appointed.

"The intelligence division under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with. I've carried that black day with me ever since." He said in resignation letter released by the military.

During the October 7th attack, thousands of fighters from Hamas and other groups BROKE THROUGH THE HIGH TECH (high end state of the art) SECURITY BARRIERS AROUND GAZA, surprising Israeli forces and rampaging through the communities around the enclave.

So 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed in the attack. Most of them civilians and 253 were taken into captivity into Gaza where 133 remain as hostages.

Since then Israel's war on Gaza has killed over 34,000 Palestinians and injured 76,000.

The attack badly tarnished the reputation of the Israeli military and intelligence services perviously seen as virtually unbeatable. The head of the armed forces Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi and the head of the Domestic Intelligence Agency Shin Bet Ronen Bar Both accepted responsibility in the aftermath of the attack but has stayed on while the war in Gaza has continued.

By contrast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so far has not accepted responsibility. Although surveys indicate that most Israelis blame him for failing to do enough to prevent or defend against the attack.

Haliva's resignation is seen as the lynch pin into what could be the first of many high profile resignations. Especially since the war in Gaza is only escalating.

Haliva was considered most vulnerable as he was calling on the morning of the attack and was informed of updates on the same. BUT WAS MISSING FROM THE CONVERSATIONS AFTER AS HE WAS ON HOLIDAY AT A RED SEA RESORT. [He didn't believe it was important enough to rush back from his vacation for the "worst attack on Jews since the holocaust? emphasis mine)]
TheHindu.com
written by Staff
Sunday October 29, 2023

Faced with sharp criticism from allies and opposition alike, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on October 29 apologized for an earlier statement in which he blamed the security services for failing to prevent the Hamas attack on October 7.

"I was wrong. The things I said following the press conference should not have been said and I apologize for that," Mr. Netanyahu said in a post on X, shortly after deleting his original statement on the same social media platform.

"I give full backing to all the heads of the security services. I am sending strength to the [IDF] chief of staff and the commanders and soldiers of the IDF who are on the frontlines and fighting for our home,” the Israeli prime minister further said.

Late Saturday night, Mr. Netanyahu in a post on X said that he never received any warnings of Hamas' “war intentions” at any stage, and stressed that “all the security services, including the head of military intelligence and the head of the Shin Bet, were of the opinion that Hamas was deterred and wanted to come to a settlement”.

His comments evoked sharp criticism following which it was deleted.

At a press conference on Saturday evening, reporters repeatedly asked the Israeli prime minister if he accepted responsibility for the failure, a question he evaded saying that there would be a thorough enquiry about it after the War and everyone would have to give answers, "including me".

Several security chiefs have accepted responsibility for the massive failure, but Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister who has been at the helm of affairs since 2009 except for a brief 13-month gap, has desisted from taking any blame for it.

The spokesman for the Israeli Army, Daniel Hagari, tried to brush aside the controversy, saying "I will not answer that question. We are now in a war and are focused on it”.

"We in the IDF and Shin Bet will conduct a thorough investigation of the truth and present everything to the public,” Hagari was quoted as saying in the local media.

“Now we are fighting and focused on the war,” he emphasised.

Netanyahu's ally National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir criticised the Prime Minister for the post but said that this was not the proper time "for an accounting".

“The problem isn’t specific warnings, but rather the entire mistaken concept. The policy of containment, the imaginary deterrence, and buying temporary quiet for an exorbitant price” are the root of the entire problem, Ben Gvir said in a post on X, referring to Netanyahu’s post.

Ben Gvir, the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, however, said that such a discussion “is not for now,” but that there will be “a lot of time afterwards for an accounting”.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that the prime minister has “crossed a red line” by blaming the security and defence services.

"While IDF soldiers and commanders are fighting valiantly against Hamas and Hezbollah, he is trying to blame them instead of backing them up,” Mr. Lapid wrote on X.

“Such attempts to evade responsibility and place the blame on the security establishment weakens the IDF while it is fighting Israel’s enemies,” he said, demanding, “Netanyahu must apologize for his words”.

National Unity chairman and former Defence Minister Benny Gantz, who joined Netanyahu's government to boost war preparation efforts, called on the Prime Minister to retract his comments.

"This morning in particular I want to back and support all the security forces and IDF soldiers, including the IDF chief of staff, the head of military intelligence, the head of the Shin Bet,” Mr. Gantz said.

“When we are at war, leadership needs to be responsible, to decide to do the right things and support the [security] forces in a way in which they can carry out what we demand of them. Any other action or comment harms the resilience of the people and its forces," he asserted.

"The Prime Minister must retract his comments from yesterday and stop dealing with this issue,” Mr. Gantz stressed.

Meanwhile, the IDF intensified attacks on Hamas bases in Gaza, saying that it struck some 450 targets belonging to the organisation over the past day.

The targets included Hamas command centres, observation posts, and anti-tank guided missile launch positions, the IDF said.

The Israeli army also expanded ground operations in the Gaza Strip overnight, reinforcing with additional troops.

More than 1400 Israelis were killed and around 230 were taken hostage when Hamas carried out a dastardly attack infiltrating several communities in the south of Israel.

The health ministry in Gaza run by Hamas has claimed that more than 8,000 people have been killed in the coastal Strip since Israel launched a retaliatory campaign to eliminate the militant group.
The Grayzone
written by Wyatt Reed
Wednesday January 3, 2024

A note explaining the retraction of the claim that Hamas militants had specific orders as to “which commander should rape which soldiers” indicates the publication censored itself at the behest of the Israeli government. The Washington Post has quietly removed an outlandish claim by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that Hamas battle plans included specific instructions on which Israeli troops should be raped during their October 7 incursion.

In the original article, which was published on November 12 and promoted as a Washington Post “exclusive,” Gallant is quoted as telling the outlet: “We know from interrogations that Hamas came in with detailed plans of their attack, including which commander should rape which soldiers in different places.”

A day later, the allegation disappeared from the piece, which had been amended to include the following “correction”:

“A previous version of this article included a quote from Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that was not authorized for publication. The quote has been removed.”

The act of self-censorship was seemingly first spotted by a social media user who suggested that the embarrassing incident was the result of what they described as “the Israeli way” of propaganda: “Privately lying to a journalist to shape her coverage, then scrambling to correct the record when the journalist accidentally prints the lies you told her in confidence.”

So far, not a single supposed victim of what one Associated Press headline insisted were “‘widespread’ sexual crimes by Hamas” on October 7 has come forward to publicly testify about the allegations. But this has not stopped senior US administration officials from accepting Israeli claims at face value.

US President Joseph Biden has condemned as “appalling” what he described as “reports of women raped — repeatedly raped — and their bodies being mutilated while still alive — of women’s corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them.”

But as The Grayzone has revealed, many of the most incendiary claims of sexual violence appear to have been fabricated by Israeli soldiers or members of ultra-Orthodox “rescue organizations” which immediately exploited their newfound prominence to raise millions of dollars.

Further, many residents of frontline kibbutzim and attendees of the Nova music festival were killed by Israeli forces.
UPDATE 5/7/24 at 5:57pm: Added info below.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 5:32 PM 0 comments

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