Vulnerabilities in Israeli-made GPS systems may delay weapons delivery to Denmark by 3 to 4 years
MEMO | December 18, 2024
Genocide in the name of security, according to Israeli settler narratives

Heavy machinery demolishes the house of Palestinian Bilal Abu Ayyash under the pretext of building without a permit in Area C, in West Bank on November 16, 2024
[MOSAB SHAWER/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images]
By Ramona Wadi | MEMO | December 17, 2024
Is Seeking to Stop a War a Crime?
Whistleblowers and other government activists need to be heard
By Philip Giraldi • Unz Review • December 18, 2024
The early November detention of Asif Rahman, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, indicted in a federal national security court in the Eastern District of Virginia on two counts of “willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act,” was largely downplayed in the national media. He was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Tuesday November 5th at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh in Cambodia where he was stationed and was sent to appear in the nearest federal court in Guam on Thursday the 7th to be charged. After his initial court appearance and indictment, Rahman, was transferred to a federal prison in Virginia.
Rahman was a CIA analyst with a top-secret clearance that gave him access to the classified material that passed through the Agency’s Cambodia Station, which would have included much of the routine collection and dissemination of information on developments in Asia. Rahman allegedly selected one report containing two files relating to plans by Israel to attack Iran, which he then placed on an Iranian frequented site on the Telegram messaging app called the “Middle East Spectator,” which in turn claimed that the information came from a Pentagon source. After being posted it attracted a considerable audience, including US security monitors, numerous Iranians and, inevitably, the Israelis. The two top secret documents were marked as having been produced by the US government’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. They included satellite imagery from October 15th and 16th that showed that Israel was moving Air Force military assets preparatory to conducting a military strike on Iran. Bear in mind that Israel has long sought to eliminate Iran as an adversary in the Middle East region they share, up to and including assassination of Iranian scientists and government officials and air attacks on targets in places like Syria that have been regarded as Iranian allies. Iran, for its part, has never attacked Israel prior to recent developments relating to the Gaza conflict.
The US government declared the leak of the classified files to be “deeply disturbing” and investigators who finally focused on Rahman declared that he might have been “ideologically” motivated to expose the information. Rahman has declared himself to be not guilty and as the case relates to intelligence on a non-allied foreign country’s military making preparations for war it raises some ethical problems as well as political issues connected to Israel’s unofficial special relationship with the United States government. It is, for example, not normal for someone detained for leaking classified information to be imprisoned as the preparations for trial are underway unless they are likely to flee jurisdiction. Rahman is from a prominent and wealthy family based in Vienna Virginia and his father Muhit Rahman and lawyer Amy Jeffress sought to have him stay at home with family in custodial pretrial, which is normal, but a ruling by US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles overruled a magistrate who said a week before that Rahman could be free of additional restrictions including detention while he is awaited his trial. Jeffress has indicated that she will be appealing the detention order which was restored by Giles.
In the event, Israel decided to proceed with its plans and carried out the attack targeting Iran’s air defense systems and missile manufacturing facilities in late October. Citing no actual evidence, court papers related to the case reveal that the US government claims the leak of the files caused Israel to delay its attack plans. Prosecutor Troy Edwards said the volatile nature of the developing situation in the Middle East made the leak especially dangerous. He explained that “It is hard to overstate what other circumstances present graver risks of danger to human life than unilaterally deciding to transmitting information related to plans for kinetic military action between two countries.”
Actually, stopping the planned “kinetic action” is the solution if one wants to save lives. Edwards’ line of reasoning, encouraging one side to proceed, could be considered to be the reverse of what might be true if one is truly seeking to mitigate the “danger to human life.” While it is unquestionably true that a government employee who takes classified information and shares it is committing a serious crime under the Espionage Act as well as other legislation, one might argue that Rahman, if actually guilty as charged and convicted, may have been responding to what he might have considered to be mitigating circumstances. By exposing information on Israeli plans to attack Iran he might have believed that he was actually saving many lives as well as avoiding an escalation of a developing major war in the Middle East. He may have revealed information that the US government considered to be classified due to the way it was obtained by satellite but which, apart from that fact, did not in any way impact on the national security of the United States. Quite the contrary, as it would be quite plausible to argue that the United States would have been dragged into any conflict escalated by Israel against Iran, which does not in any way threaten the US, and which would serve no American national interest. Examining the leak from that perspective it would be quite reasonable to argue that Rahman, if he is guilty of mishandling the classified information, was trying to avert escalating a war that would quite plausibly do damage to all countries involved, including the United States and Israel.
The Rahman case is just one more indication of how anything having to do with Israel is not quite treated by government and media in the same fashion as for any other country. It is clearly a response to the immense power of the Israel Lobby in the United States. There is a strong tendency by the US to always defer to actions and behavior that Israel exhibits while also giving the Jewish state a pass when the results are awful or even genocidal as they are in Gaza. And there is a certain irony in how it all plays out going in the other direction. Israel, in fact, has a history of actively spying against the United States without any real consequences to make it pay a price for such behavior. The most devastating spy ever to steal American defense secrets was Jonathan Pollard, a Jewish civilian employee of the US Navy, who stole whole rooms full of classified information in the 1980s, including the beyond top secret National Security Agency‘s ten-volume manual on how the US gathers its signal intelligence, to include the technical details of how the US collected information on its actual enemies during the Cold War, revealing aspects of US intelligence gathering’s “sources and methods.” The defense information went to Israel where it was used in part to trade for visas from Moscow so Russian Jews could emigrate, certainly arguably a good cause, but paid for by damaging US security. Other US classified information went from Tel Aviv to China. Condemned to a life prison sentence, Pollard actually spent years in jail, where, in 1995, he became an Israeli citizen, but he was eventually released under parole in 2015 requiring him to stay in the United States. The parole requirement was canceled by President Donald Trump and Pollard immediately returned to Israel where he was celebrated as a hero. So much for Israel as America’s good friend and ally.
By another definition, Rahman, even if found guilty as charged over the sharing of classified documents, might easily be viewed as a whistleblower, revealing information that the United States government had collected on a foreign government that might lead to a war and many deaths. Rahman may have believed that the exposure of the war plans would make Israel pause and reconsider. And maybe it would also lead the United States to also reexamine its often touted “ironclad” support of everything that Israel does as excessively risky in a volatile part of the world where Washington has considerable real interests in terms of energy issues and national security.
If Rahman were to consider himself a whistleblower acting as he did as a matter of conscience, he would not be the first CIA officer to do so. John Kiriakou was an analyst and later a case officer and counterterrorism specialist for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who worked in the Middle East, Pakistan and Greece. After leaving the Agency he became a senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and later a consultant for ABC News, after which he became the operating manager of a political risk analysis consulting firm in Arlington Virginia. To John’s credit, he became the first US government official to confirm, during an interview with a reporter in December 2007, that waterboarding, which was simulated drowning, was routinely used to interrogate terrorist suspects, which he described as torture. One victim was reportedly waterboarded 183 times in a secret prison.
In Kiriakou’s case, as it was and still is illegal for the US government to torture people to extort a confession, the same Virginia court that is trying Rahman had to avoid allowing the potential war crimes issue to surface. So on April 5, 2012, Kiriakou was indicted, not for exposing torture, but rather for one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, three counts of violating the Espionage Act, and one count of “making false statements” for lying to the Agency’s Publications Review Board regarding a book that John was writing. Kiriakou pleaded not guilty and was released on bail. His time in court began on September 12th, 2012, at the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. It was conducted as a closed hearing in line with the Classified Information Procedures Act. On October 22, 2012, Kiriakou agreed to a plea bargain of guilty to one count of passing classified information to the media, violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and thereby avoiding a formal trial. All other charges were dropped. On January 25th, 2013, John Kiriakou was sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison. On February 3rd, 2015, Kiriakou was released to serve a final three months under house arrest at his home in Virginia. Following his release, Kiriakou said his case was not about leaking information but about exposing torture, continuing, “and I would do it all over again.”
Kiriakou, to his immense credit, never walked away from what he did, declaring firmly that the torture regime and the lies that supported it was wrong, both illegal and immoral. Was Asif Rahman a whistleblower like Kiriakou? The answer to that depends on one’s point of view as he might have been seeking to stop a war rather than start one. He may have thought that it was something that his conscience and sense of shared humanity obligated him to do without regard for the possible consequences to himself. We will see how he defends himself when he finally appears before the judges. It will possibly be a very interesting discussion about America’s values as a nation vis-à-vis the questionable behavior of the state of Israel, but instead of listening to what Rahman has to say, the public will likely be hearing something like this from those in government as echoed by the captive media: Michael Waltz, Trump’s foreign policy advisor nominee recently said “When [Secretary of State] Blinken touched down in Israel yesterday, I hope he apologized to Bibi for leaking their battle plans, and told the Israelis that they were right all along. Because the Ayatollah is in hiding right now, not because of Biden, but because of Bibi.” The sad reality is that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has overwhelmed Joe Biden and will likely do the same to Donald Trump, has been allowed to become the prime architect of the shambles that the Middle East has become with no one but a handful of whistleblowers seeking to restore sanity.
Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.
Syria’s de facto ruler says foreign extremists ‘deserve Syrian citizenship’

The Cradle | December 17, 2024
Abu Mohammad al-Julani, who now goes by his real name Ahmad al-Sharaa, the head of Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS) and Syria’s new de facto ruler, has stated that foreign fighters who helped his organization topple the Syrian government may be allowed to receive Syrian citizenship.
Julani, the former Al-Qaeda commander and UN-designated terrorist, was asked during a press briefing in Damascus on 17 December about the status of foreign fighters who took part in the so-called Syrian revolution and who have now been present in Syria for many years,
Julani stated that foreign fighters who entered Syria for HTS to fight against the Syrian government were “part of the movement that led to the downfall of Assad and should be celebrated.”
As part of the US-backed covert war on the Syrian government, Islamic State of Iraq (later ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dispatched Julani and a group of extremist fighters from Iraq to Syria in August 2011 to establish the Nusra Front, the official Al-Qaeda branch in Syria.
Julani’s organization carried out suicide bombing attacks in Damascus in December 2011 and January 2012 before announcing the existence of the group.
Thousands of Salafist religious extremists from dozens of countries, including Britain, Belgium, France, China, Chechnya, Tunisia, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia came to fight with Julani against Syria.
Julani later broke from Baghdadi, after he declared a merger between Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq, and announced the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Nusra and ISIS began competing for the new foreign fighters who continued to flood into Syria from Turkiye.
The Nusra Front imposed fundamentalist Islamic rule on large areas of Syria under its control and committed numerous sectarian massacres, including the killing of 190 Alawites in villages in Latakia in August 2013.
“Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the grave” became a common slogan among fighters from Nusra and other armed factions fighting in Damascus.
Nusra later changed names several times and is now known as HTS.
Julani stated that the fighters in HTS have been in Syria for many years, and it should not be beyond the realm of possibility that they could be integrated into Syrian society because they believe in the same ideology and values as the Syrians.
He claimed that the number of foreign fighters in Syria has been exaggerated because no one has a clear record of how many there are.
After the Nusra Front captured Idlib Governorate in 2015, Julani’s foreign fighters occupied the homes of the Christians and other minorities who the group expelled.
During Tuesday’s press conference, Julani also stated that Syria would no longer be used as a base to attack Israel or any other nation.
Regarding a new constitution for Syria, Julani stated it will reflect the values, culture, and beliefs of the Syrian people. It will not be a constitution that is alien to the Syrian people, he added.
Syria’s minority Christians, Alawites, and Druze fear that Julani will impose a fundamentalist Islamic government on Syria that restricts their rights similar to that imposed by Nusra in areas of Syria in the past.
‘Profiting from mass immigration to Germany’ – Israeli-owned firm could earn €300 million housing migrants in Berlin
Remix News | December 18, 2024
An Israeli real estate firm based out of Luxembourg is set to profit massively from Germany’s migrant crisis. Currently, the Berlin Senate is preparing to approve a plan to pay the firm €157 million to accommodate 1,500 migrants in an office complex until 2035 in Berlin’s Westend.
The Aroundtown group is already earning €143 million for an accommodation in Lichtenberg in the east of Berlin. The Senate was set to decide on the building’s future on Dec. 11, but that decision has now been pushed back to January due to opposition from the Christian Democrats (CDU) and various citizens’ groups. If it eventually goes through, the company would earn €300 million over the next 10 years in total between the two different projects.
German news outlet NIUS has reviewed court documents related to the case. The building at Soorstrasse 80 is located in the middle-class Berlin Westend, and according NIUS, the Senate is ready to pay a “whopping” sum to house the migrants, far higher than what the actual real estate market in the area would normally be able to obtain.
“A state government that dreams of diversity and sustainability has no qualms about doing business with a real estate company based in Luxembourg that could not care less about the concerns of local residents,” writes NIUS.
Notably, Berlin is run by a Christian Democrat (CDU) mayor, Kai Wegner, who is notably extremely pro-migrant. His government has been actively looking for accommodations for migrants as the Berlin-Tegel reception center, which is housed in the former airport, is currently overflowing and facing massive problems.
The office space in Westend, which is 32,000 square meters of space, would earn the Israeli-owned firm an extraordinary sum of money.
According to the documents obtained by NIUS, the agreed to rent per square meter is €25.02 per square meter per month. Included in this sum is €8.80 per square meter for “conversion and refurbishment measures” because the real estate company is paying for converting the office tower into a migrant shelter.
However, the real estate portal ImmoScout24 states that the average rent in the area is €14.46 as of October 2024, which means the rent is nearly twice as high as market rates. In addition, of the 32,000 square meters in the space, only 23,000 square meters can actually be used, according to the State Office for Refugee Affairs.
However, the building management costs are also extremely high, equaling an additional €10 per square meter compared to the average of €2.79 for Berlin renters. That is three times as high as average. The Senate will pay €1.2 million per month based on these sums, which will be increased at a rate of 3 percent per year due to annual rent indexation.
In total, the real estate firm will earn €156.7 million over the course of 10 years, far higher than market prices.
To illustrate this point, at least one private investor wanted to purchase the building in the summer of 2024 for €45 million. However, the Israeli owners are going to be earning more than three times as much merely by renting out the office building. Afterward, they could theoretically sell the building and earn an enormous profit on top of the €156 million they already earned from German taxpayers.
The firm that owns the building is “Projekt Soorstraße 80-82 Berlin Grundstücks GmbH,” which is a company in the “opaque corporate network of the Tel Aviv-born investor Amir Dayan, who comes from one of the richest families in Israel,” according to the NIUS report.
“Since 2008, he has been buying up commercial properties on a large scale, especially in Germany. Dayan’s main company, TLG Immobilien AG, later merged with the real estate group Aroundtown – and so the office complex on Soorstrasse passed into the hands of the Luxembourg-based company.”
The report continues: “Aroundtown, in turn, was founded 20 years ago by the Israeli businessman Yakir Gabay. It is now one of the largest real estate companies in Europe. Gabay followed a similar principle to Dayan. In 2004, the now 58-year-old began investing in Berlin real estate. The group has its formal headquarters in the tax haven of Luxembourg, but its operational headquarters are in Berlin-Tegel at Wittestrasse 30. The subsidiary “Projekt Soorstrasse 80-82 Berlin Grundstücks ApS & Co. eGbR” is also based there.”
The company, which specialized in buying up “problem” properties others did not want, has faced serious losses in recent years, amounting to nearly €2.5 billion in 2024. Its stock price has declined dramatically from 8.70 euros down to 90 cents and currently, it is back up to approximately 3.18.
“In these difficult times, Aroundtown is apparently moving towards a new business model. While the industry is fighting for survival, it is profiting from mass immigration to Germany. The state as tenant promises guaranteed payments of millions,” writes NIUS.
US declassifies explosive documents on ‘Israel’s’ nuclear arsenal
Al Mayadeen | December 18, 2024
Declassified documents cited by the US National Security Archive reveal that the United States has been aware since the 1960s of “Israel’s” ability to produce weapons-grade plutonium at its Dimona nuclear research center.
The US National Security Archive, established in 1985 by journalists and academics, has released a new collection of documents shedding light on “Israel’s” nuclear program.
Among these documents is a December 1960 report from the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), described as “the first and only known report that correctly and unambiguously states that the Israeli Dimona project would include a plutonium reprocessing plant and would be linked to a weapons program,” according to the archive.
An undeclared nuclear entity
However, subsequent US intelligence remained uncertain about “Israel’s” reprocessing activities until the late 1960s, when “Israel” reached the threshold of nuclear weapons capability. Around this time, a secret understanding was reportedly reached between “Israel” and the United States, acknowledging “Israel’s” status as an undeclared nuclear entity.
By 1967, evidence suggested that the Dimona reprocessing plant was either complete or nearly so, and the reactor was operating at full capacity. This progress meant that “Israel” could potentially produce a nuclear weapon within “six to eight weeks,” the report noted. In the following decade, according to declassified documents, the United States appeared to have adjusted to the reality of “Israel’s” nuclear weapons potential.
Dive deeper
A newly released briefing book, titled 1960 Intelligence Report Said Israeli Nuclear Site Was for Weapons, exposes shocking revelations about the US government’s early awareness of “Israel’s” nuclear weapons program.
The 20 declassified documents, which include intelligence reports and diplomatic exchanges, reveal that the US had serious concerns about “Israel’s” covert nuclear activities at the Dimona facility in the al-Naqab Desert.
These documents paint a striking picture of how the US monitored “Israel’s” nuclear schemes from the late 1950s and 1960s, knowing all along that Dimona was more than just a research center—it was the heart of “Israel’s” secret nuclear weapons development.
One of the most significant revelations, as per the book, comes from a December 1960 report by the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee (JAEIC), which explicitly states that the Dimona project was designed for plutonium production with the goal of developing nuclear weapons.
This marked the first known US intelligence report to confirm the weapons-related purpose of the Dimona facility.
‘Not a satellite of America’
A second explosive document unveils then-Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s fiery rebuttal to US questions about Dimona, where he defiantly declared that “Israel” was “not a satellite of America.” Rejecting any calls for international inspections or oversight, Ben-Gurion’s response reveals “Israel’s” bold strategy of nuclear secrecy—refusing to let outside scrutiny threaten its covert weapons program. At the time, this response highlighted “Israel’s” deliberate efforts to present itself as a sheep in wolf’s clothing in the external arena while pursuing its controversial nuclear program in the internal arena.
Documents detailing US inspections of Dimona between 1965 and 1967 highlight a growing sense of skepticism among US officials regarding Israeli assurances of “peaceful nuclear use.”
Despite “Israel’s” claims, US inspectors observed inconsistencies between the information provided and what was seen at the facility. These limited inspections fueled suspicions about “Israel’s” nuclear ambitions.
A 1967 intelligence assessment delivered a bombshell revelation: “Israel” was just “six to eight weeks” away from producing a nuclear weapon. This alarming disclosure marked a seismic shift in US intelligence, moving from mere suspicion to near-certainty about “Israel’s” covert nuclear weapons capability—exposing how close the entity was to an unprecedented arms escalation.
The big picture
The documents collectively highlight “Israel’s “strategy of nuclear ambiguity, known as “amimut”, which allowed it to maintain a nuclear deterrent without officially acknowledging it. This policy complicated US efforts to enforce global non-proliferation while preserving its alliance with “Israel”.
In short, the declassified documents revealed that by the early 1960s, the US possessed substantial intelligence indicating “Israel’s” nuclear program was geared toward weapons development, a fact that remained hidden from public view for decades. They also underscore the intricate balancing act of US foreign policy, where national security priorities and strategic alliances often clash with non-proliferation goals.
As “Israel” continues to maintain its policy of nuclear ambiguity, the question remains: what role does “Israel”, as an undeclared nuclear power, play in shaping the current landscape of regional and global nuclear politics—particularly when paired with its actions in Gaza, widely criticized as genocidal?
Should the global community be more alarmed?
Nuclear war would be good for Ukraine – neo-Nazi activist

RT | December 18, 2024
Ukraine would benefit from being targeted by a Russian nuclear strike, which is why Moscow will never undertake such a step, a notorious far-right activist and head of a hate group has claimed.
Prominent Ukrainian neo-Nazi Evgeny Karas has said he would welcome a nuclear escalation in the Ukraine conflict, in an interview on Tuesday with Ukrainian broadcaster Radio Bayraktar. Karas is leader of the S14 far-right group, whose members have a record of harassing minorities and have been accused of high-profile political murder.
”Nuclear war is good,” he told the station, named after a Turkish-made attack drone. “When it happens, we’ll have no more reasons to whine. Nothing worse could happen after a nuclear strike.”
Countries like India and China would turn against Moscow, Karas argued, adding that nuclear fallout in Ukraine may even be good for evolution. “A nuclear war may help us evolve in a way that we could see through an official and tell whether he is a thief or not.”
Karas claimed that the November release of the video game ‘S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl’, which was developed in Ukraine, has prepared the country for a nuclear war. The country will come through a nuclear crisis and make a leap forward in technology, producing artificial intelligence and advanced robots, Karas believes.
The remarks were part of his dismissal of Russia’s new hypersonic ballistic missile Oreshnik, which he called poorly-named and not really scary.
Russia demonstrated the Oreshnik’s capability in late November in response to Ukraine’s use of long-range Western-donated weapons for strikes deep inside its territory. It fired a non-nuclear version of the medium-range missile at a Soviet-built arms factory in the city of Dnepr, Ukraine.
US Withdrew From Arms Treaties to Develop New Weapons – Russian General
Sputnik – 18.12.2024
The US pulled out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM), Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) and Open Skies treaties so it could build more destructive weapons, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov has said.
“The situation is also aggravated by the crisis in the system of international arms control commitments and agreements,” Gerasimov told a briefing for foreign military attaches.
“Since 2002, the United States has destroyed all the agreements in this area signed during the Cold War — the ABM Treaty, the INF Treaty and the Open Skies Treaty,” he noted.
“The reason why the United States withdrew from these agreements was the desire to ensure the possibility of creating new types of weapons, which were considered the most destructive.”
Gerasimov said the first and foremost issue was medium- and short-range missiles, as well as the US deployment of its missile defense systems in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
The general said Russia’s Armed Forces in 2024 had met all the tasks set by the government.
“Summing up the performance of the Armed Forces this year, I would like to note that all the tasks set by the country’s leadership have been fulfilled,” Gerasimov said.
He noted that the renewal of weapons and military equipment was underway and the level of training of the command and units was increasing.
Much practical experience had been gained during the special operation in combat operations by various formations, use of aviation, air defense and other units.
More than 30 countries have provided Ukraine with $350 billion in financial aid, including about $170 billion for military needs, and more than 165,000 Ukrainian servicemen have been trained to NATO standards, Gerasimov said.
But the goals of the special military operation would definitely be achieved, he insisted.
The general added that the proportion of strategic nuclear forces units equipped with the newest weapons was now at 95 percent.
Gerasimov announced that the first regiment equipped with the S-500 surface-to-air missile system, which is capable of strategic missile defense, was on the verge of completion.
Ukraine’s secret service urges neo-Nazis to target MP
RT | December 18, 2024
The spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence service (HUR), Andrey Yusov, has called on “radicals” to go after opposition MP Yury Boyko for criticizing Kiev’s crackdown on the Russian language and attempts to “de-communize” the country.
Over the weekend, Boyko, who had previously served as the co-chairman of the now-banned Opposition Platform – For Life party, published a video in which he spoke in defense of the Russian language and condemned Kiev’s demolition of monuments, renaming of cities, and the ban on the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The politician currently heads the parliamentary group Platform for Life and Peace in the Ukrainian Rada.
Boyko’s video sparked a backlash from a number of top Ukrainian officials, including the head of the presidential office, Andrey Ermak, who called the criticisms “Russian narratives.”
Meanwhile, writing on Facebook, Yusov claimed that the fact that Boyko was still free was a call for action for radical groups in Ukraine and suggested that the “Derussification, decolonization and decommunization of Ukraine should move so fast that no bastard could even have the time to record a Тiktok.”
Evgeny Karas, a notorious far-right activist and leader of the neo-Nazi S14 group, whose members have a record of harassing minorities and have been accused of high-profile political murders, also called for violence against Boyko.
”Commissioned officers, civilians and demobilized for family reasons, join the squadron of the Holy Inquisition,” Karas wrote on Telegram, calling on them to “roll up their sleeves” and punish Boyko.
On Tuesday, Boyko was summoned for questioning by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), after which he posted another video in which he apologized for his previous comments.
“If any Ukrainians <…> were offended by my words, I want to apologize and say that we must all be united,” the politician said in a video published by the news outlet Strana.
Boyko’s Opposition Platform – For Life party, which was the second largest party in terms of seats in parliament, was banned along with other opposition parties following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The authorities in Kiev claimed that the opposition had been involved in subversive activities and have prosecuted several MPs linked to the party.
Medvedev warns The Times over piece on Russian general’s murder
RT | December 18, 2024
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday slammed Britain’s flagship daily The Times for justifying the assassination of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov. Medvedev blasted the editors as “lousy jackals” who are part of a hybrid war against Russia.
Kirillov, who headed Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces, was killed in a blast outside his residence on Tuesday morning. Russian investigators said an improvised explosive device (IED) packed with up to 1kg of TNT was attached to an electric scooter parked near the building’s entrance. Investigators suspect Ukrainian special services of orchestrating the attack, which took place mere hours after the general was accused by Kiev of being linked to the use of chemical agents on the battlefield, a claim Moscow has denied.
In an article on Tuesday, the UK outlet claimed that its sources within Ukraine’s security services admitted responsibility for the assassination. It went on to describe the incident as “a legitimate act of defense by a threatened nation.”
“The assassination is a discriminate strike against an aggressor,” The Times wrote. The paper further characterized Kirillov’s killing as an “eminently defensible” act that should be seen as “a warning and deterrent to other plenipotentiaries of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin.”
“It’s impossible to ignore the editorial published in The Times, where the bastards called the terrorist attack on Igor Kirillov and his assistant a ‘legitimate act of defense’,” Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy head of the Russian Security Council, said in a Telegram post. He stated that according to the logic employed by The Times, its entire management could now be considered “legitimate military targets” for Russia, along with all Western decision-makers.
“All NATO decision-makers from countries that provided military assistance to Bandera Ukraine are participating in a hybrid or conventional war against Russia… All these individuals can and should be considered legitimate military targets for the Russian state,” Medvedev said, adding that the people “who committed crimes against Russia” always have accomplices, including in the media.
“And they, too, are now legitimate military targets. These may include the lousy jackals from The Times, who cowardly hid behind an editorial… So, be careful! After all, a lot can happen in London,” he warned.
Russian authorities have launched a criminal probe into Kirillov’s death and brought charges of murder, terrorism, and illegal weapons trafficking. On Wednesday, the Investigative Committee announced it has detained a 29-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan suspected of carrying out the attack. According to the investigators, the suspect admitted that he had been recruited by the SBU, and agreed to carry out the bombing in exchange for a reward of $100,000 and safe passage to the EU.
Kiev regime kills Russian general who exposed Western Big Pharma’s crimes in Ukraine
By Lucas Leiroz | December 18, 2024
The Kiev regime continues to use terrorist tactics against Russia, carrying out targeted assassinations against public figures outside the conflict zone. In yet another provocative move, Ukrainian intelligence assets in Moscow killed Igor Kirillov, head of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense Forces of the Russian Federation. The case clearly shows the terrorist nature of the Ukrainian regime and the impossibility of any kind of peace negotiations.
Kirillov’s assassination was carried out using a remotely activated explosion. This type of tactic has become commonplace in Ukrainian intelligence’s operations, being one of the main techniques used by the regime to eliminate specific targets. Along with Kirillov, his top aide, Ilya Polikarpov, also died in the attack. Both were leaving a building in Moscow when the explosive was remotely activated by a mercenary working for Kiev.
The main suspect has already been captured by the Russian security service. He is a citizen of Uzbekistan who was hired by Ukraine to carry out the terrorist attack in exchange for a reward of around 100,000 dollars, as well as relocation to a European country. The operation was carefully planned, with the Uzbek mercenary receiving a series of specific instructions to be successful in the plot.
The first step of the plan was to place the explosive device – which he received from the Ukrainian team – on an electric scooter parked near Kirillov’s residence. He then rented a car equipped with a surveillance camera and transmitted live footage to the organizers of the attack. According to the suspect, the organizing team is based in the Dnepropetrovsk region of Ukraine. Watching the images in live broadcast, the Ukrainians chose the most appropriate moment to detonate the explosive, giving the order to the Uzbek terrorist to carry out the attack.
The case has a number of similarities with other recent terrorist attacks carried out by Kiev. The Ukrainian regime often uses explosives to kill its opponents, in addition to hiring mercenaries from Central Asia to carry out operations on Russian territory. It is worth remembering cases such as that of Daria Dugina and Maxim Fomin, both journalists who were murdered with explosives, as well as the Crocus City Hall massacre, when Tajik terrorists were hired by Ukrainian intelligence to murder civilians in Moscow.
The choice of Igor Kirillov as a target is easy to understand. He was responsible for investigating Ukrainian and Western crimes involving biological and chemical weapons. Since 2022, the Russian Federation has been releasing several reports showing illegal Western biomilitary activities in Ukraine, with Kirillov leading this investigative effort. He has published data proving the involvement of several Western public figures and companies in the production of biological weapons on Ukrainian soil. Those responsible for financing the biolabs included Big Pharma corporations and the Soros Foundation, as well as individuals such as Hunter Biden, the son of the US president.
In fact, the impact of Kirillov’s revelations was so deep that it caused a crisis in the Western pharmaceutical lobby. Since 2022, the crimes committed by American and European Big Pharma companies have been more easily exposed. Even the Covid-19 vaccine lobby has lost strength, with mandatory vaccinations being banned in many countries. These companies started to be the target of lawsuits and their shares have lost market value, which has obviously made Kirillov a target for several Western oligarchs.
In the same vein, Kirillov was the main investigator of chemical weapons provocations by Ukraine. The use of chemical weapons by Kiev troops has become commonplace in the conflict, with several cases of Russian military personnel and civilians being poisoned by toxic substances deliberately released by Ukrainians.
In 2023, I was invited by the Russian Mission in Geneva to present a report at the UN Human Rights Council on this topic, where I recalled several cases of Ukrainian use of chemical weapons. It must be mentioned that the US, which is the biggest supporter of the Kiev regime, is the only country in the world that still publicly maintains stockpiles of chemical weapons, and is therefore a possible supplier of these toxic materials to Ukraine. Without the work of the investigative committee led by Kirillov, this type of violation of international law would never have been revealed, which is why his efforts were so important.
It is still too early to determine the level of Western involvement in the assassination of the Russian general, but it is safe to say that the Kiev regime never acts “on its own.” Ukraine always receives authorization to carry out each attack, since it is a mere proxy agent without any sovereignty.
In addition, Kirillov has caused a great damage to the Western pharmaceutical lobby, becoming a public enemy of many oligarchs. In the end, this is just further proof that any negotiation in the conflict is unfeasible. Both the West and Ukraine are betting on terrorism and all-out war against Moscow, leaving no alternative but a military solution.
Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant.
You can follow Lucas on X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.
Israeli Enemy Procrastinates on Withdrawal from Southern Border Towns

The southern Lebanese town of Adaisseh after the Israeli aggression on Lebanon (December 2024)
Al-Manar | December 17, 2024
The Israeli enemy has been procrastinating on withdrawal from southern border towns, hindering the deployment of the Lebanese Army, Al-Manar correspondent in south Lebanon reported on Tuesday.
Our correspondent said that it was planned that the Israeli enemy forces would withdraw from Al-Hamamis Hill in the border town f Khiam during the first phase of a coordination deal with the UNIFIL peacekeeping force.
“However, the Israeli enemy delayed the withdrawal and the Lebanese Army didn’t manage to enter the area,” Al-Manar’s Ali Shoeib reported.
Meanwhile, the reporter added that the Lebanese Army wasn’t able to enter the border town of Adaisseh in a bid to retrieve the bodies of the martyrs.
He noted that another bid in the town of Taybe was also hindered as the Lebanese Army leadership is waiting for a response from the UNIFIL, which is coordinating these missions with the Israeli enemy.
On the other hand, the Israeli forces repeatedly opened fire at houses in the border town of Naqoura and carried, Shoeb said, adding that the Israeli enemy forces also went ahead with blowing up houses in the border town of Kfar Kila.

The Lebanese border towns were venue of epic battles between Israeli occupation forces and resistance fighters who heroically repelled the Zionist incursion into Lebanon throughout nearly two months (from October 1 till November 27.)
Lebanon has been subjected to brutal Israeli aggression on September 23, that killed more than 4,000 people and injured at least 12,000 others.

