#Iran travel agency

[letsvisitpersia]

We offer amazing Iran tours that suit you the best. From cultural and historical tours to adventurous hikes, we provide comprehensive services and experiences that will make your trip unforgettable.

[girlactionfigure]

🟧 DRONE HIT NAHARIYA - Real time from Israel  

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

🚨VIDEO - HEZBOLLAH SUICIDE DRONE HIT in Nahariya, hit a support cable on a pedestrian bridge near Nahariya's train station. Shrapnel caused slight damage to a train carriage (broken window). No injuries, thank G-d. 

⚠️THREATENING SMS MESSAGES.. reports of people receiving threatening SMS messages overnight from “SINVAR” (name of the killed Hamas leader).  Ignore, BLOCK, and DO NOT CLICK THE LINK.

▪️IDF - SOMEONE STOLE.. the captured Hezbollah rocket-launching truck, from an army storage parking lot in the north. In a quick operation by the police, the vehicle was found to be on a tow truck in the area of ​​the Golani interchange and two suspects were arrested.  No word on whether the stolen truck actually had rockets in the launchers.

▪️CHANGE OF ATMOSPHERE.. (Abu Ali) many videos from Lebanon in the last day show a change of perception in the air. People talk differently. They speak freely against Hezbollah, which previously was dangerous to do. These are the fruits of the fighting in Lebanon.  An amazing and historic change in less than a month. (( The particular significance: Lebanon is very sectarian, with different ARMED groups. Hezbollah had been so powerful that the other groups didn’t dare to raise their heads. That’s changing, quickly. ))

▪️THE UNRWA VOTE.. as previously reported, the Knesset has passed the anti-UNRWA law, to prevent any activity of UNRWA in the State of Israel. UNRWA will not be allowed to operate any office, provide any service nor carry out any activity, directly or indirectly, in Israel.  The vote: out of 120 Knesset members: 92 for, 10 against, 12 abstentions. 

.. UNRWA: We condemn the shameful decision of the Knesset in Israel to prevent our activity.

.. UN SEC GENERAL: “I am very concerned about the decision of the Israeli Knesset to adopt two laws concerning UNRWA, which, if implemented, will prevent the agency from continuing to operate in Palestinian territory. There is no alternative to UNRWA.”

▪️AID.. Gaza sources: a large amount of trucks with goods entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing: some trucks ordered by merchants and some aid trucks. The trucks with the goods of the private traders reached their destination, while the aid trucks were robbed and "taken to an unknown location".  (( Reminder: the US State Dept and Def Dept DEMAND Israel increase aid - which is then taken by “unknown people” to “an unknown location”. ))

🔹US WARNS IRAN AT UN.. The United States ambassador to the UN at the Security Council meeting today issued a stern warning to Iran. “Should Iran choose to undertake further aggressive acts against Israel or US personnel, there will be severe consequences, we will not hesitate to act.”

♦️LEBANON - Enemy report: IDF tanks are advancing towards the south of the town of Khiam, south Lebanon, under intense cover fire.  That’s approx. 6 km north of the border, north of Ghajar, in the Metulla area.

▪️SIREN TESTS.. Almagor 10:05, Chazon 12:05.  It’s a test.

▪️AIR TRAVEL.. Polish airline LOT delays return to Israel until at least Nov. 19.

⭕While we aren’t reporting it because of the volume - CONSTANT rocket and drone alarms throughout the north, 70-200 rockets fired at Israel, mostly at civilian areas, PER DAY.

[beardedmrbean]

Scores of Iranian women posted videos of themselves celebrating the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Monday — openly dancing on his “dirty grave” after he oversaw a brutal crackdown on 2022 protests against the Islamic “morality police.”

Raisi, a reviled leader known as the “Butcher of Tehran,” died when his helicopter crashed in a remote region of the country Sunday.

While the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, announced five days of public mourning in the wake of the 63-year-old death, a slew of women took to social media to share clips of themselves throwing back drinks and otherwise cheering his demise.

“We freely dance and celebrate on your dirty grave,” one woman, Mersedeh Shahinkar, tweeted.

Shahinkar was blinded by Iranian security forces after taking part in mass protests across Iran in 2022 that were sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for not properly wearing a hijab in public.

Shahinkar filmed herself smiling and dancing alongside Sima Moradbeigi, who lost her right arm after being shot by cops during a women’s rights protest during the same period of unrest.

The daughters of Minoo Majidi, a 62-year-old woman killed during the same protests, shared a clip of themselves toasting news of Raisi’s death with the song “Helikopter” by Bosnian singer Fazlija blasting in the background.

Meanwhile, Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad, who lives in Brooklyn, shared a video of a mom and daughter rejoicing — just months after Raisi had ordered the execution of the woman’s son.

“Just a few months ago, Ebrahim Raisi executed her son, Now, she’s dancing over his death in a helicopter crash,” Alinejad tweeted.

“I told you Iranian women are wounded, but unbowed to their oppressors. My social media is flooded with videos of the family members of those killed by the President of the Islamic Republic, celebrating his death.”

A UN Human Rights Council report this year found that more than 500 Iranians were killed in the government’s brutal crackdown on the protests, and more than 22,000 were arrested.

The report also found that Iranian security forces raped or otherwise sexually assaulted many women in custody.

Footage was also circulating on social media showing people setting off fireworks and cheering in the wake of Raisi’s death.

The scenes of celebration unfolded as government loyalists packed into mosques and squares to pray for Raisi.

Raisi’s body, as well as that of his foreign minister and six others, was found by rescuers early Monday after an overnight search in a blizzard and heavy fog.

Raisi was traveling in a convoy of choppers when his went down near the city of Jolfa, about 375 miles northwest of Tehran, Iran’s official news agency INRA said.

Early footage and images of the crash site showed scattered debris and detached helicopter parts strewn across the mountainous terrain.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Israel’s National Cyber Directorate (INCD) stated on Thursday that Iran is running a cyber campaign against members of the Israeli delegation arriving in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

In its investigation, the INCD revealed that Iranian hackers have created social media channels and published personal information about the Israeli team members to send them threats. The INCD is working with the Cyber Unit of Israel’s State Attorney to shut them down. 

As part of their anti-Israeli campaign, the hackers reportedly pose as the French organization GUD. INCD authorities are continuing to coordinate both with the Israeli Olympic Committee and the Security and Emergency Department of the Culture and Sports Ministry to make sure that Israel’s athletes and other delegation members remain safe during the Paris international sports competition.

INCD Dir.-Gen. Gabi Portnoy said Iran was exploiting the Olympics to terrorize Israel.

“Iran is exploiting an apolitical international sporting competition to promote digital terrorism against Israel and its right to participate in these competitions,” he said.

Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar echoed Portnoy’s remarks. 

“We are witnessing attempts by the Iranian regime to intimidate Israeli athletes and carry out psychological terror against our amazing delegation. We are here in Paris, continuing with full force, and nothing will stop us,” he said.

“Our athletes are more prepared and determined than ever to achieve great results, and our security apparatus is ready for any scenario. We will not relent until we topple the Iranian regime,” Zohar added.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Thursday that while cyberattacks on the Paris Olympics are inevitable, France will do all it can to limit the effects of such attacks.

“We are a target. There will be cyberattacks. The key thing is to limit their impact,” Attal told reporters at the headquarters of France’s ANSSI software security agency.

In the meantime, Israeli tourists in Paris face escalating threats.

On Sunday, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) advised Israeli nationals traveling to the Olympic Games in Paris to exercise increased caution due to anti-Israel threats, warning that it believes Iranian-backed terror organizations “are seeking to carry out attacks on Israeli/Jewish targets around the Olympics.”

Earlier this week, a masked man with a Palestinian Authority flag on his shirt threatened the "Zionist regime" participating in the Olympic Games, saying, “Rivers of blood will flow through the streets of Paris.”

Despite the threats, the Israeli delegation traveled to Paris on Monday with their heads held high and the support of the entire nation.

“We feel like emissaries of the State of Israel – our athletes, every one of them are here to achieve their dreams, but there is another layer, of a national mission,” the President of the Olympic Committee of Israel Yael Arad said ahead of the flight to France.

French authorities have reportedly dispatched around 1,000 elite anti-terrorist officers to provide security and a "ring of steel" for Israel’s Olympic athletes. The first competition involving Israelis, a soccer match between Israel and Mali on Wednesday, passed without major security incidents, despite the presence of anti-Israel activists who held Palestinian Authority flags and demonstrated against the Jewish state. Some activists wore “Free Palestine” t-shirts and booed when the Israeli national anthem, "HaTikva" (The Hope) was played before the game. Israeli players were also met with initial boos when they touched the ball during the game.

On Friday, despite heightened security, France suffered attacks targeting the country's train networks in what authorities described as "coordinated sabotage," including arson. No organization has claimed responsibility. The attacks are expected to negatively impact around 250,000 travelers today and 800,000 over the weekend.

[mariacallous]

It’s telling that the first question I saw raised in the media after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed when his helicopter crashed in the country’s mountainous northeast on his return from Azerbaijan in May was whether the United States had a hand in it. In that same regard, among the questions raised concerning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent travel to Pyongyang, apart from its impact on the simmering tensions across Asia, was what opportunities his willingness to venture farther from the Kremlin offers. Namely, should the United States and its allies seek to depose Putin by enabling a coup in his absence, or assassinating him during such travels? The answer lies in assessing the risk versus gain.

What would be gained by killing Putin? If the bar was juxtaposing the status quo with the consequences of Putin’s violent removal, would Russia’s threat to the United States and its allies be degraded? Would Russian troops withdraw from Ukraine and cease posing a threat to NATO allies in the Baltics and Eastern Europe? Or might Russian intentions become even more hostile and less predictable? Despite Putin’s obsession with intrigue, denial and deception, and smoke and mirrors, he’s fairly predictable. Indeed, the United States, with Britain leaning in the same direction, was the exception among its NATO allies, not to mention Ukraine itself, in forecasting with high confidence Putin’s plans to attack.

Would the United States do it? The record shows that the U.S. sanctioned violence in sponsoring the overthrow of democratically elected antagonist regimes in Iran in 1953 and Chile in 1973, while the Church committee investigations documented multiple CIA attempts to assassinate Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

More recently, the United States made no pretense in concealing its hand in killing Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Commander Qassem Suleimani in January 2020, an action that historic precedent would suggest was an act of war. Since 9/11, U.S. counterterrorism strategy has in practice been predicated on assassination. The mantra “find, fix, finish” is the other euphemism for preemptively hunting down and killing terrorists abroad before they might strike the U.S. homeland.

Left: Iranians tear up a U.S. flag during a demonstration following the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Gen. Qassem Suleimani, in Tehran on Jan. 3, 2020. Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images   Right: The statue of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is toppled at al-Fardous square in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 9, 2003. Wathiq Khuzaie /Getty Images

While these episodes collectively demonstrate the U.S. government’s willingness to undertake consequential, lethal actions in the name of national security, when separated from transnational terrorist targets, only the strike against Suleimani occurred while he was abroad. Operations to depose Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran, Salvador Allende in Chile, and Castro in Cuba depended rather on internal elements to facilitate the plots.

Apart from these episodes and a possible hand in others,  U.S. governments have arguably favored the status quo of a predictable adversary. Regime change has not worked out well for U.S. interests. The overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq was no small factor in bringing about the Arab Spring, with effects that continue to reverberate across the Middle East as reflected by unresolved civil wars in Libya, Syria, and Yemen, as well as ongoing political instability in Egypt and Tunisia.

The U.S. occupation of Iraq also facilitated the rise of the Islamic State. And the Taliban ultimately outlasted the United States in Afghanistan by returning to power despite 20 years of American blood and treasure, and they now give sanctuary to insurgent groups threatening Pakistan, Iran, its Central Asian neighbors, and China.

The inclination to accept the known status quo is further strengthened when that country is armed with nuclear weapons. As regards Russia, even under the most ideal circumstances in which the U.S. government could remove Putin and conceal its hand in doing so, how confident is Washington that a stable and less hostile leadership would succeed him?

In Russia, like most autocracies, power rests with those who control the nation’s instruments of power—primarily the guns, but likewise the money, infrastructure, natural resources, connections, and knowledge of where the skeletons are to be found. That power is currently concentrated within a small circle of septuagenarians, almost all of whom have long ties to Putin, the Cold War-era KGB, and St. Petersburg. The Russian Armed Forces might have the numbers in terms of troops and tools, but under Putin, as it was in Soviet days, they are kept on a tight leash and closely monitored, with little discretionary authority for drawing weapons or coming out of their garrisons.

The three organizations most capable of moving on Putin and the Kremlin are the Federal Security Service, or FSB; the Rosgvardia, or National Guard; and the Presidential Security Service within the Federal Protective Service, or FSO. The FSB is Russia’s internal security and intelligence arm through which Putin governs given its relatively massive and ubiquitous presence across all the country’s institutions. The FSB enforces Putin’s rule, monitors dissent, intimidates, punishes, and liaises with organized crime. The Rosgvardia is Putin’s brute force. It was established in 2016 from among the interior ministry’s militias variously responsible for internal order and border security to be Putin’s long red line against protests, uprisings, and armed organized coup attempts.

Alexander Bortnikov leads the FSB, having succeeded Nikolai Patrushev, who followed Putin and has served since as one of his chief lieutenants. Until recently, Patrushev served as Russian Security Council chief and was most likely the Kremlin’s no. 2, and might still be, despite having been made a presidential advisor for shipping. Bortnikov, like Patrushev, shares Putin’s world view, paranoia for the West, political philosophy, and glorification of the old Soviet empire.

Bortnikov is considered by Kremlinologists to be Putin’s most relied-upon and trusted subordinate, and in turn, the individual best positioned to overthrow him, should he desire. While Bortnikov maintains a relatively low profile, limited glimpses suggest some degree of humility and contained ambition, although uncorroborated rumors suggest health issues. His deputy, Sergei Borisovich Korolev, some 10 years younger, is regarded as effective, similarly ruthless, but perhaps too ambitious and ostentatious in his relationships with Russian organized crime. It’s likely that Putin sees a bright future for Korolev but has enough reservation to justify more seasoning and evaluation before having him succeed Bortnikov.

The roughly 300,000-strong Rosgvardia is commanded by longtime former Putin bodyguard Viktor Zolotov. Likewise a part of Putin’s septuagenarian St. Petersburg crowd, with extensive past ties to organized crime, Zolotov emerged somewhat from the shadows following then-Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s June 2023 revolt. Zolotov claimed credit for protecting Moscow and mused publicly at how his organization would likely grow and secure more resources to facilitate its critical responsibilities.

Zolotov might not be as educated or sophisticated as Putin’s traditional siloviki associates, all former Cold War-era KGB veterans, but making his way up the ladder as he did from a St. Petersburg street thug, he’s not averse to using force to achieve his aims.

Little is publicly known concerning Zolotov’s politics apart from loyalty to his boss, but there’s no evidence he might offer a progressive alternative less hostile to the West. As Putin has done for all of those in his inner circle to secure their loyalty, Zolotov’s family members have been awarded land, gifts, and key posts. Patrushev’s son, for example, is now a deputy prime minister.

The FSO includes the Presidential Security Service, some 50,000 troops, and is responsible for Putin’s close physical protection. Little is known about its director, Dmitry Viktorovich Kochnev, now 60, whose mysterious official bio indicates that he was born in Moscow, served in the military from 1982 to 1984, and then went into “the security agencies of the USSR and the Russian Federation” from 1984 to 2002, after which time he was officially assigned to the FSO.

If Kochnev wanted Putin dead, he’s had plenty of time to pursue that goal, but he is unlikely to have the means and network to go further on his own in seizing power. Kochnev would still need the FSB and the Rosgvardia to accomplish the mission so would likely be an accomplice, but he would not be at the forefront of such a plot.

There are likewise a handful of others close to Putin who might influence his succession, or be the face of it, such as Igor Sechin, former deputy prime minister and current Rosneft CEO; former KGB Col. Gen. Sergei Ivanov, also a former defense minister and first deputy prime minister; and former KGB Col. Gen. Viktor Ivanov, who also had a stint as the Federal Narcotics Service director. All are known to be ideologically in line with the Russian leader and seek a restored empire unwilling to subscribe to a world order and rules created by the West that they believe aim to keep Moscow weak and subservient.

If Putin were assassinated abroad, regardless of the evidence, the old guard would likely accuse the United States and use it as a lightning rod to consolidate power and rally the public. And sharing Putin’s paranoia over the West’s existential threat, the risk is credible that they would retaliate militarily, directly, and with uncertain restraint. Believing themselves insecure, they would likewise crack down at home in an indiscriminately ruthless manner that might unleash long-contained revolutionary vigor among the population, which would throw a large, nuclear-armed power into chaos.

But could the United States do it if it wanted to? History shows that foreign leaders are not immune to assassination, as we were reminded when Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico survived being shot at close range by a disgruntled citizen in May. Unlike in the movies, however, assassinations are complicated, particularly against well-protected and deliberately unpredictable targets in foreign environments over which one has no control.

According to leaked documents and the account of Gleb Karakulov, a former engineer and FSO captain, Putin is paranoid concerning his safety and health. Karakulov’s observations, Putin’s limited travel, and his proclivity to cloister himself from direct contact with but a small number of insiders for his safety makes him a hard target. Scrupulous care for his movements includes the intense vetting, quarantining, and close monitoring of those involved with his transportation and his personal routine as well as in securing the cars, trains, and planes he uses. Who can forget the flurry of photos and memes surrounding the 15-foot-long table Putin used when conducting personal meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic?

For any such operation to succeed, close target reconnaissance and good intelligence are required to determine patterns and vulnerabilities on which to construct a plan. But while foreign head-of-state visits follow certain protocols and have predictable events, there are no long-term patterns within which to easily identify vulnerabilities. Other considerations include a means to infiltrate and exfiltrate the various members executing the operation as well as their tools. North Korea is not an easy place to visit let alone operate in for a foreign intelligence service to clandestinely steal secrets or conduct an observable action such as an assassination.

There are certainly additional risks when Putin or any foreign leader ventures beyond the layered, redundant, and tested security protocols enjoyed in their home cocoons. Visiting dignitaries must rely on the host government for a variety of resources and needs too numerous and costly to pack, and when doing so would offend the locals. And that extends to perimeter and route security, emergency medical support, and infrastructure integrity.

The threat to a foreign leader’s communications security, habits, health information, and that of their entourage is higher while in transit abroad—and therefore an attractive intelligence target. The multiple moving pieces and complicated logistics associated with such visits produce information that must be shared with the host governments and span agendas, itineraries, dietary requirements, flight and cargo manifests, communication frequencies, telephone numbers, email addresses, travelers’ biographic details, and weapons, to name a few.

In the era of ubiquitous technical surveillance, as the Israelis learned firsthand when Mossad agents assassinated Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in 2010, going undetected in any city is no small feat. Mabhouh’s killing was largely captured on CCTV. The Dubai investigation identified as many as 28 operatives who were involved, almost all of whom were revealed through technical means or the leads they generated.

Still, whoever assassinated Lebanese Hezbollah’s notorious international operations chief, Imad Mughniyah, in Damascus in February 2008 and al Qaeda deputy Abu Muhammad al-Masri in Tehran in 2020 managed to mount complex attacks in highly restrictive police states. Of course, neither moved about with a protective detail, let alone that which would surround a head of state.

Israel managed to assassinate Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, in November 2020 in Iran despite a protective detail—although it was an operation that might have been taken from a science fiction movie involving automated robotic machines guns controlled from afar.

Then again, even with the best-laid plans for protecting Putin, one weak link could be the Russian leader’s self-imposed vulnerability, depending on the aging and problematic Soviet-designed Ilyushin Il-96 series jets he uses, as he did in recent travels to North Korea and Vietnam. Even if Russia builds and updates the replacement parts, there is long-term structural fatigue and limitations when trying to reconfigure so old an airframe design.

While there’s arguably an element of Putin’s pride in wishing to use Russian equipment, I suspect his inclination is driven more by paranoia for what adversaries might implant on his transport that prevents him from adopting newer Western aircraft, as his country’s commercial airlines have.

There are also significant bureaucratic hurdles to lethal operations. For the moment, at least, the U.S. practice of covert action is dictated by the rule of law. These are primarily executive orders rather than public laws, like EO 12333, which ironically forbids assassination, and the various presidential memos issued by Barack Obama in 2013, Donald Trump in 2017, and Joe Biden in 2022 guiding the use of “direct action,” the euphemism for drone strikes and other kinetic operations, against terrorist targets outside of conflict zones. But while the United States killed Suleimani as a terrorist who fit these guidelines, killing foreign leaders based on credible intelligence reflecting their ongoing efforts to do harm to the United States would reasonably still meet the legal bar for preemptive self-defense.

When it comes to killing Putin or any prominent adversary, the biggest challenge is not necessarily if it can be done, but whether it should be done. Openly killing Suleimani posed risks, of course, but ultimately, Iran is not an existential threat. Its retaliation could have been more costly, had Tehran chosen escalation, but still manageable.

Russia, on the other hand, as Putin frequently reminds the West in his saber-rattling speeches threatening nuclear war, is another matter. What happens if you fail? As The Wire’s Omar Little said, paraphrasing Ralph Waldo Emerson, “When you come at the king, you best not miss.”

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence has long been regarded as dangerous for her Syria contacts and stance on Ukraine

Guardian international staffThu 5 Dec 2024 18.00 AEDTShare

In 2018, a Syrian dissident codenamed Caesar was set to testify before the House foreign affairs committee about the torture and summary executions that had become a signature of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on opposition during Syria’s civil war.

It was not Caesar’s first time in Washington: the ex-military photographer had smuggled out 55,000 photographs and other evidence of life in Assad’s brutal detention facilities years earlier, and had campaigned anonymously to convince US lawmakers to pass tough sanctions on Assad’s network as punishment for his reign of terror.

But ahead of that hearing, staffers on the committee, activists and Caesar himself, suddenly became nervous: was it safe to hold the testimony in front of Tulsi Gabbard, the Hawaii congresswoman on the committee who just a year earlier had traveled to Damascus of her own volition to meet with Assad?

Caesar at the closed member-only briefing with the House foreign affairs committee in 2018. Photograph: Syrian Emergency Task Force

“There was genuine concern by Democrats in her own party, and Republicans and us and Caesar, about how were we going to do this?” said Mouaz Moustafa, the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, an activist group, who had previously traveled with Gabbard in Syria in 2015. “With the member sitting on this committee that we believe would give any intelligence she has to Assad, Russia and Iran, all of which would have wanted to kill Caesar.”

During a congressional trip in 2015, Moustafa recalled, Gabbard had asked three young Syrian girls whether the airstrike they had narrowly survived may not have been launched by Assad, but rather by the terrorist group Isis. The one problem? Isis did not have an air force.

Photographs from the 2018 briefing showed a heavily disguised Caesar sitting in a hoodie and mask giving testimony before the House committee.

“I often disguise [witnesses],” said Moustafa, who had worked closely with Caesar and served as his translator. “But that day I was especially wary of Tulsi.”

There is no evidence that Gabbard sought to pass any information about the Syrian whistleblower to Damascus or any other country, nor that she has any documented connection to other intelligence agencies.

But within Washington foreign policy circles and the tightly knit intelligence community, Gabbard has long been seen as dangerous; some have worried that she seems inclined toward conspiracy theories and cosying up to dictators. Others, including the former secretary of state and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, have gone further, calling her a “Russian asset”.

Those concerns have been heightened by Gabbard’s nomination under Donald Trump to the post of director of national intelligence, a senior cabinet-level position with access to classified materials from across the 18 US intelligence agencies, and shaping that information for the president’s daily briefing. The role would allow her to access and declassify information at her discretion, and also direct some intelligence-sharing with US allies around the world.

Tulsi Gabbard during an antiwar rally to mark the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine in February 2023. Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Gabbard and her supporters have denounced those attacks as a smear, saying that her history of anti-interventionism in Syria and Ukraine has been misrepresented as a kind of “cold war 2.0”.

In Washington, she has staked out a unique foreign policy position as a strong supporter of Israel and the “war on terror” – but also as a critic of US rivalries with countries like Russia and Iran (she strongly criticised Trump’s decision to assassinate the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani as an “illegal and unconstitutional act of war”).

“When it comes to the war against terrorists, I’m a hawk,” she told a Hawaiian newspaper in 2016. “When it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I’m a dove.”

Jeremy Scahill, the leftwing US journalist and activist, wrote that to “pretend that Gabbard somehow poses a more grave danger to US security than those in power after 9/11 or throughout the long bloody history of US interventions and the resulting blowback is a lot of hype and hysteria”.

But Gabbard has repeatedly shared conspiracy theories, including claiming shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine that there are “25+ US-funded biolabs in Ukraine which if breached would release & spread deadly pathogens to US/world”. In fact, the US program stemming back to the 1990s is directed at better securing labs which focus on infectious disease outbreaks.

Tulsi Gabbard and Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, in October. Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

And she has repeatedly supported dictators, including Assad, suggesting that reports of the 2013 and 2017 chemical weapons attacks were false, and calling for the US to “join hands” with Moscow following its 2015 intervention in Syria.

Establishment Democrats and Republicans have openly questioned whether or not she poses a threat to national security.

“I worry what might happen to untold numbers of American assets if someone as reckless, inexperienced, and outright disloyal as Gabbard were DNI,” wrote Adam Kinzinger, a former congressman who served on the foreign affairs committee with Gabbard in 2018 when Caesar testified.

The person close to the intelligence community said that there were continuing concerns about Gabbard’s contacts in the Middle East, stemming back to the controversial 2017 meeting with Assad – an encounter that Gabbard has insisted she does not regret.

Those contacts may be explored during a Senate confirmation hearing early next year, the person said.

Gabbard was briefly placed on a Transportation Security Administration watchlist because of her overseas travel patterns and foreign connections, CNN reported last month, but was later removed.

She does not have a background in intelligence, although the Hawaii native served in the army national guard for more than two decades, and has deployed to Iraq and Kuwait.

Moreover, there are concerns that her choice could affect intelligence sharing among US foreign allies, including the tightly knit Five Eyes intelligence group that includes the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand, as well as Nato and allies in Japan and South Korea.

“Much of the intelligence we get, at least from the human collector side, is from our partners,” said John Sipher, formerly deputy director of the CIA’s Russia operations, noting that the cooperation was usually informal, “personality- and trust-based”.

“They’re going to be really hesitant to pass [information] to a place that that is becoming more partisan and less professional … they would be making their own checklist: ‘Hey, this sensitive thing that we would in the past have passed to the CIA that could do us damage if it becomes public … Let’s just not do that this time.’”

[workersolidarity]

🇮🇷⚔️🇮🇱🇺🇸 🚨

AMERICAN GENERAL TO VISIT "ISRAEL" TO COORDINATE DEFENSE AS IRAN CANCILS FLIGHTS FOR MILITARY MENEUVERS

The Israeli media outlet, Walla News, is reporting that U.S. Army Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander, General Eric Kurilla, will be traveling to the occupied Palestinian territories to meet with the Israeli occupation's Defense Minister, Yaov Gallant and occupation Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, to coordinate a defense in the event of an expected Iranian counter-attack after the Israeli occupation army bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria last week.

At the same time, Iranian news outlet, Merh News Agency, is reporting that all traffic to and from Tehran, the Iranian capital, have been halted as a result of Military meuneuvers, citing the Iranian Minister of Defense.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said during a meeting with ambassadors from Muslim-majority and Arab countries, as well as government officials for Eid al-Fitr, that the hearts of the world are with the Palestinian people.

Khamenei told the ambassadors he expected Muslim countries to sever all ties with Israeli regime, arguing that the current reality in Palestine is only possible due to the help the regime receives from Arab countries.

He called the assistance and trade rendered to the Zionist regime by Muslim nations a betrayal of Islamic Ummah and their own countries.

*Mehr News has since retracted its report that Tehran's airports have been closed for traffic.

#source1

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

[darkmaga-returns]

Iranian and Russian card payment systems were formally linked on 11 November, coming as the two nations have been working together to circumvent economic sanctions imposed by Washington and the west. 

The announcement was made on Monday during a ceremony attended by the Governor of Iran’s Central Bank Mohammad-Reza Farzin. 

During the ceremony, “a previous agreement on the connection of Iran’s Shetab and Russia’s Mir card payment systems for electronic fund transfers took effect,” Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported. 

“The two domestic payment systems have been interconnected following the finalization of plans in the wake of a meeting with Russian Central Bank chief Elvira Nabiullina on the sidelines of the Financial Congress of the Bank of Russia in St. Petersburg in July,” Farzin said.

Travelers making visits between the two nations will be able to use their local debit cards for purchases. 

In the first phase, Iranian nationals visiting Russia will use Shetab cards to withdraw rubles under the Kahroba smart debit card system. Russian travelers will then be able to use their Mir cards in the Islamic Republic. 

Following this, Iranian citizens will be allowed to use Shetab cards at Point of Sale (POS) terminals across Russia.

Over the past two years, Moscow and Tehran have been pursuing efforts to circumvent western sanctions. Discussions on linking card payment systems have been ongoing since 2022. 

In January this year, Iran was among several countries that joined the BRICS group of emerging economies, which is quickly expanding as an alternative to the western economic system.

Defense cooperation between the two states has also surged. 

The linking of the payment systems comes a week after Donald Trump was announced as the winner of the 2024 US presidential election. During his first term as president years ago, Trump initiated a “maximum pressure” policy of harsh economic sanctions against Iran.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ellen Ioanes at Vox:

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died Sunday in a helicopter crash, a shocking turn of events that immediately raised questions about the Islamic Republic’s future.  In the short term, Raisi’s passing is unlikely to alter the direction of Iran’s politics. But it does remove one possible successor to 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In the long term, Raisi’s unexpected death may prove more consequential. The question of Khamenei’s succession is increasingly urgent because of his advanced age. Though Iran’s president can be influential in setting policy, the Supreme Leader is the real seat of power, controlling the judiciary, foreign policy, and elections. Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian’s helicopter made a hard landing sometime on Sunday in Iran’s mountainous northwest, where weather conditions made travel difficult and dangerous. Iranian state media announced the deaths of the two politicians and six others onboard, including three crew members, on Monday after rescue teams finally reached the crash site. The deaths of both Raisi and Amirabdollahian come at a time of internal and external challenges for the Iranian regime. A harsh crackdown after the widespread protests of 2022 and significant economic problems domestically have eroded the regime’s credibility with the Iranian people. Internationally, Iran is embroiled in a bitter regional conflict with Israel as well as a protracted fight with the US over its nuclear program.

In the near term, the first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, will be the acting president as the country prepares to hold elections within the next 50 days as dictated by its constitution. (The Iranian government includes vice presidencies overseeing different government agencies, similar to US Cabinet-level secretaries; the first vice president is roughly equivalent to the US vice president.) Raisi was considered a potential successor to Khamenei, having already been vetted by the ruling clerics during his 2021 presidential run and having been committed to the regime’s conservative policies. With his death, amid one of the regime’s most challenging periods, Iran’s long-term future is a little less certain.

Within Iran, succession is the biggest question 

A hardline conservative cleric, Raisi always wore a black turban symbolizing his descent from the prophet Muhammad. His close relationship with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fueled speculation that he could succeed Khamenei. The paramilitary force exerts significant sway over internal politics and also wields influence throughout the broader region through aligned groups and proxy forces in Iraq and Syria, as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hamas in Gaza.  Raisi was initially elected in 2021 with 62 percent of the vote, though turnout was only 49 percent — the lowest ever in the history of the Islamic Republic, evidence of the crisis of legitimacy in which the government increasingly finds itself. “People don’t want to legitimate the government by participating in what they consider either fraudulent or just non-representative political outcomes,” Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, Walter H. Annenberg professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, told Vox. 

Throughout his judicial career, Raisi is alleged to be responsible for or implicated in some of the government’s most brutal repression and human rights abuses since the 1979 revolution, including serving on the so-called Death Committee, which was tasked with carrying out thousands of extrajudicial executions of political prisoners in the 1980s. During and after the Iran-Iraq war, there were a number of groups opposed to the regime, as well as supporters of the Iraqi position and even an attempt to attack Iran from Iraq. In order to preserve the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered a sweeping purge of the opposition; many of the dissidents who were arrested were chosen for execution arbitrarily.

Following the disputed 2009 election — which birthed the Green Movement, the most significant threat to the regime in decades — Raisi, then a high-level member of the judiciary, called for the punishment and even execution of people involved in the movement. And as president, he helped oversee the violent backlash to the Woman, Life, Freedom movement that erupted following the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman arrested by the morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. Raisi’s unpopularity due to his repressive past and worsening living standards for ordinary Iranians had helped further erode the government’s legitimacy, which may affect the upcoming presidential contest.

With the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi via a plane crash, it could have long-term effects, as Ayatollah Ali Khameini could be nearing the doorstep of death and succession plans to succeed him have been thrown into chaos.

[letsvisitpersia]

Are you thinking of traveling to Iran? These are the most important cities and attractions that you must see on your trip to Iran.

[girlactionfigure]

🔅Tuesday morning  - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

▪️LEBANON.. the IDF is continuing a high pace of attacks in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah.  In one case, demolishing a 3 story building with one strike.

▪️JUDEA-SAMARIA LARGE SCALE COUNTER-TERROR OPS.. Widespread activity of the IDF overnight in the Arab cities of Judea and Samaria:

Tulkarm, Jenin, Shechem, Al Bira, Hebron, Dura, Kalkilya, Bethlehem, Deheisha camp, and Shuafat (Jerusalem).

▪️IN BIZZARO WORLD, UN WORRIED ISRAEL WILL HIT.. The UN Atomic Energy Agency is concerned about the possibility of Israel attacking nuclear facilities in Iran. (( but not about those illegal facilities existing or the production of nuclear weapons, that’s ok. ))

▪️US ACKNOWLEDGES.. that Hamas is the obstacle to a ceasefire agreement.

▪️US DEPT OF DEFENSE.. The US intends to deploy more forces in the Middle East to provide additional protection for its forces stationed in the region and to increase deterrence efforts.

▪️ORDER 9 BLOCKED THE ALLENBY BRIDGE.. (to Jordan) to prevent the transfer of humanitarian aid into Israel to be sent to Hamas in Gaza.  After some hours the IDF declared the area a closed military zone, allowing the police to remove and arrest the protestors.  The protestors included multiple hostage families.

▪️ECONOMY.. Henkel Sood Ltd., which markets the brands Hawaii, Indola, Persil and Babee (popular detergent and shampoo brands) will increase prices by up to 20%, starting on May 1.

▪️AIR TRAVEL.. Who IS flying to Israel?  El Al, Israir, Aria, Flydubai, Lufthansa, Eurowings, Wizz, Aegean, Blue Bird, and a few other national airlines (Azerbaijani, Ethiopia, Argentina, Mexico, Hungary). (( not a comprehensive list, just reading the arrivals board ))

🔸DO NOT FORGET OUR WOMEN AND BABIES -> https://www.israelhayom.com/2023/10/31/these-are-the-captives-held-by-hamas/

🔹Homefront Preparation Instructions: https://www.oref.org.il/12490-15903-en/pakar.aspx  (Link valid only in Israel.)

[beardedmrbean]

Three Afghan people smugglers who were part of a gang that sexually abused young male migrants have been arrested in the UK.

The men were part of an organised crime group that “inflicted extreme cruelty” on the vulnerable people they smuggled, Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, said.

The trio helped smuggle migrants from Afghanistan through Iran, Turkey and the Balkans into France and Belgium.

From there, many of the people they smuggled made their way to the UK by travelling across the channel in small boats, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

Young boys who made the journey were often seriously sexually abused, with gang members filming the assaults. The footage was then used to blackmail their victims into taking part in “further criminality and sexual abuse”.

Saifur Rahman Ahmedzai, also known as Raees Hamza, 23, was arrested in Hemel Hempstead on Monday. Zeeshan Banghis, 20, also known as Bangash Zeeshan, 20, was arrested in New Kent Road, London on Dec 18.

In footage of his arrest, released by the NCA, Banghis appears to say to officers “you can’t arrest me” before being detained.

Their arrests came after Ziarmal Khan, also known as Boxer Bhai, 24, was arrested on Dec 6 at Stansted Airport on suspicion of domestic violence. He was then further arrested over his conviction in Belgium.

So far 23 members of the gang have been convicted and sentenced by a court in Antwerp, 11 of whom were prosecuted in their absence.

Ahmedzai was jailed for 10 years, while Khan and Banghis were each sentenced to three years, and all were fined 3,000 euros (£2,486).

Extradition proceedings have begun to send them to Belgium to serve their prison sentences.

The NCA worked with Belgian authorities for two years to build evidence against the gang, who now all face sentences ranging from two to 18 years.

Officers also worked with Border Force and Immigration Enforcement officials to identify migrants and victims of the network who had been transported to the UK, including conducting safeguarding checks.

Craig Turner, the NCA deputy director, said: “These men were part of a network involved in illegally moving migrants across the globe, through Europe and eventually into northern Europe and the UK, profiting from the dangerous situations they put vulnerable people into as they were transported, and committing the most heinous sexual offences against them.”

Ms Cooper said: “This case is nothing short of sickening. These men ran extensive illegal smuggling operations and inflicted extreme cruelty on the migrants they smuggled – some of them children – when they were at their most vulnerable.”

Last week, new figures showed that more than 150,000 illegal migrants have crossed the Channel since the small boats crisis began.

The number was reached when 858 asylum seekers made the journey on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, arriving in 21 dinghies.

Last month Sir Keir Starmer called a Downing Street press conference at which he attacked the Tories for using Britain as an “open borders experiment”.

However, more than 22,000 have arrived in the UK on small boats in the six months since Labour won the election.

[head-post]

Houthis attack two tankers in Red Sea, shell US military base

Military tensions are rising in the Middle East as the Houthis again attacked tankers in the Red Sea and fired shells at US military bases in Syria.

The attacks in the Red Sea

Two crude oil tankers were attacked in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen on Tuesday, but neither was injured, maritime security agencies said.

The attempted attacks on the vessels, identified as the Liberian-flagged Delta Atlantica and the Panama-flagged On Phoenix, have the hallmarks of attacks by Iran-linked Houthi militants on international cargo traffic in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.

The Houthis have not claimed responsibility. The ships and crews in both cases were unharmed and continued on to their next ports of call.

Since November, the Houthi military campaign has sunk two ships and killed at least three sailors. It continues despite US and UK strikes on equipment and launch pads in Yemen.

The threat of Houthi attacks has forced many ships travelling through the Suez Canal between Asia and Europe to reroute around Africa. This raises shipping costs, delays cargo and increases pollution.

Shelling of a US base

Shells fired towards a US airbase at a gas field in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province did not hit the facility, two US officials said on Tuesday.

Earlier, a security source told Reuters that an Iranian-backed group fired six shells at the base, all of which landed in close proximity to the US base, adding that the US-led coalition responded to the attack with artillery.

A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the shells did not hit the base and no one was hurt. He referred to early reports that could change.

Lebanese pro-Iranian TV channel Al Mayadeen reported that US warplanes were flying intensively in the skies over Deir ez-Zor after the attack. ConocoPhillips said it was aware of reports of damage to a US and coalition base in eastern Syria bearing the Conoco name, but its assets in Syria were withdrawn in the early 2000s.

The Pentagon said on Tuesday that eight US troops were injured in a drone attack on a base in Syria last week.

Read more HERE

[mariacallous]

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died on Sunday when a helicopter carrying him and a delegation of other Iranian officials crash-landed in the mountains of northern Iran, throwing the future of the country and the region into further doubt.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other top officials were also killed in the crash as the group was traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, the Iranian state-run Islamic Republic News Agency confirmed. Dense fog impeded search and rescue operations for hours before the crash site was found. The fog was so thick that it forced the Iranians to call on the support of European Union satellites to help locate the helicopter. 

Raisi’s death puts a coda on a short but transformative era in Iranian politics that saw the country lurch in a hard-line direction and threatened to bring the Middle East to the brink of regional war. In nearly three years in power, Raisi moved Iran’s domestic politics and social policy in a more conservative direction and pushed the country further into the role of clear U.S. antagonist in the region after his predecessor, Hassan Rouhani—who defeated him in the 2017 presidential election—first sought a detente with the West over Iran’s nuclear program before stepping up proxy attacks.

An Islamic jurist noted for his close relationship with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and considered by many officials and experts as a likely candidate to succeed the aging supreme leader, Raisi’s tenure saw Iran speed up uranium enrichment and slow down negotiations on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action after the United States exited the deal in 2018, three years before he came into office.

Iran under Raisi also supported Russia in its war against Ukraine with extensive exports of Shahed suicide drones and artillery; increased attacks by regional proxy militias against the United States and Israel after Hamas’s October 2023 cross-border attack on Israel; and just a month before his death launched a massive drone and missile attack against Israel. 

Experts say that regardless of who replaces Raisi, the strategy he pursued is unlikely to change, having been solidified among the higher echelons of Iran’s political and clerical leadership. 

“With Raisi, without Raisi, the regime is quite content with the way the post-Oct. 7 Middle East has been shaking out,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow focused on Iran at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). “It’s been able to continue its death-by-a-thousand-cuts strategy, firing directly against the U.S. and Israel via proxy and then even directly a few times itself with the tit-for-tat you saw in April, and still look like it won the round.”

Under the Iranian Constitution, First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber is likely to fill in as head of the cabinet for the next 50 days until elections can be called. Recent parliamentary elections drew record-low turnouts, analysts said. What’s more, significant effort was expended by Khamenei and his allies to ensure Raisi’s win during the last presidential election in 2021, disqualifying potential rivals. 

Before becoming president, Raisi served on Iran’s prosecution committee that was responsible for executing an estimated 5,000 dissidents in 1988. He had been accused of crimes against humanity by the United Nations and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department. And that heavy-handed approach continued with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police in September 2022 after allegedly not wearing a hijab properly in public, which sparked nationwide protests. 

Beyond the horizon of snap elections and the presidential election set for next year, there is potential for upheaval at the top of Iran’s ruling class. With a short line of possible successors to the 85-year-old Khamenei, other than the head of state’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, Raisi’s death could throw the country’s political future into further turmoil. 

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the largest branch of the Iranian armed forces that controls major swaths of the country’s economy, could also use the upheaval to strengthen its hand.

“There is no heir apparent if he’s gone,” said David Des Roches, a professor at the National Defense University’s Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies and retired U.S. Army colonel. “What’s really interesting is to see if the IRGC will basically complete a slow-motion coup.”

As rescue workers searched for Raisi’s downed helicopter, state media asked the Iranian people to pray for him. Instead, in the wake of reports of the crash, some Iranians appeared to light celebratory fireworks, cheering the demise of the hard-line leader.

“Today’s crash & likely death of president Raisi and his [foreign minister] will shake up Iranian politics,” Afshon Ostovar, an associate professor at the Naval Postgraduate School and a longtime Iran expert, wrote in a post on X before the president’s death had been confirmed. “Regardless of the cause, perceptions of foul play will be rife within the regime. Ambitious elements may press for advantage, compelling reactions from other parts of the regime. Buckle up.” 

While experts said it was unlikely that a liberalizing figure would emerge in either snap elections or Iran’s 2025 presidential election, Raisi’s death could leave a small opening for resurgent protest movements that have persisted under the surface. 

“These movements are not dead,” said Ben Taleblu, the FDD expert. “They operate on the low level, on the periphery—usually strikes, labor unions, that kind of thing. It could lead to a nationwide trigger, and it could be a nothing burger. But the story of the Iranian protest movement is always a matter of when and not if.”