Intelligence Agency Investigating CIA Whistleblower Allegations, Official Confirms
By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | May 15, 2026
An official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) today told The Defender that the Intelligence Community Inspector General is aware of allegations by a CIA whistleblower that the agency obstructed a task force investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and is investigating them, along with ODNI and other agencies.
In written testimony provided to the U.S. Senate this week, James E. Erdman III told a Senate committee that the CIA obstructed the work of the CIA’s Director’s Initiatives Group (DIG), an agency task force investigating the origins of COVID-19, and retaliated against those in the group who believed the virus may have leaked from a lab.
Erdman worked for the DIG between March 2025 and April 2026. The group, created by Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard, was ordered to start winding down in January and has since been dissolved.
Soon after the group started to wind down, “the CIA retaliated” against members who supported the lab-leak hypothesis, Erdman wrote.
Erdman, one of the earliest members of the DIG, said he was hired due to his “many years of experience at the CIA and my knowledge on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
But during his year with DIG, “the CIA obstructed lawful oversight related to the DIG’s work and retaliated against the DIG with what I believe were illegal investigations into DIG members.”
Intelligence officials ‘spent years covering up the truth’
According to Erdman’s testimony, he believes ODNI, the National Intelligence Council (NIC) and CIA personnel “have spent years covering up the truth” about the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The CIA did not comply with lawful oversight requests during the DIG’s investigation,” Erdman wrote.
Erdman’s written statement adds to the oral testimony he delivered before the Senate on Wednesday, as part of Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) ongoing investigation into the origins of COVID-19. Erdman told the Senate that “Dr. Fauci’s role in the cover-up was intentional” and that the CIA targeted whistleblowers supporting the lab-leak theory.
In an interview with The Defender on Thursday, Erdman’s attorney, Carol Thompson, said her client is now “concerned that the CIA will use bureaucratic processes and alleged secrecy requirements to undermine his testimony and obfuscate the truth.”
In a letter to CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Thursday, Sens. Paul and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) forwarded a copy of Erdman’s written testimony — and warned the agency not to take any action against Erdman.
“We expect no retaliatory action of any kind to be taken against Mr. Erdman in connection with his appearance before the Committee,” the letter states.
An individual with knowledge of the situation told The Defender that ODNI previously received a complaint alleging that the CIA was spying on DIG members.
Stephanie Weidle, executive director of Feds for Freedom, a group Erdman co-founded that advocates for government transparency and informed consent, called Erdman “a hero.” She told The Defender his testimony shows that “checks and balances are broken.”
“The CIA is undermining Congress and their boss, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard,” Weidle said. “The CIA spies on innocent American citizens, including those tasked with rooting out corruption. They have not yet been held accountable.”
“The agency under investigation killed the investigation,” said Sayer Ji, chairman of the Global Wellness Forum and founder of GreenMedInfo. “The question this raises is who is actually running the U.S., the elected president and his DNI, or a permanent intelligence bureaucracy that has now demonstrated, on the record, that it can dissolve its own oversight.”
The CIA did not respond to The Defender’s request for comment by press time.
‘Dissolution of the DIG has halted critical transparency work’
According to the ODNI, the DIG was formally established in April 2025 and tasked with “restoring transparency and accountability to the Intelligence Community.”
Its mission included reviewing documents for potential declassification — “including information related to COVID-19 origins.”
The CIA hasn’t publicly listed DIG members. However, The Washington Post reported in July 2025 that senior national intelligence officer Paul McNamara, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and Marine officer, oversaw DIG’s efforts.
According to the Post, some intelligence officials were “privately concerned” that DIG “could be used to pursue perceived disloyalty to the Trump administration, including to identify individuals who implemented the policies of the previous administration.”
According to Erdman’s testimony, in October 2025, investigative journalist Steve Baker contacted ODNI “with information allegedly related to the identity of the January 6 pipe bomber.”
DIG “could not and did not attempt to corroborate Baker’s allegations,” but consulted with senior ODNI leadership to share this information with appropriate agencies that could investigate the matter.
That revelation led to a series of events and “drama” that “helped spark a pause in the DIG’s work in December 2025, and its ultimate dissolution in January 2026,” Erdman alleged in his testimony.
“The dissolution of the DIG has halted critical transparency work,” Erdman wrote.
CIA fired contractor involved with DIG’s COVID origins probe
But even before then, the CIA was obstructing the DIG’s work, Erdman alleged — including its investigation into COVID-19’s origins.
“The CIA illegally monitored the computer and phone usage of DIG personnel … their investigations, and contact with whistleblowers,” Erdman wrote.
A CIA contractor involved with the DIG’s COVID-19 origins investigation “was fired one day after meeting with the DIG.”
Erdman alleged the investigation also faced obstructions from within ODNI:
“In my time at the DIG, my team reviewed internal communications that led me to believe that ODNI [and] NIC, under then DNI Avril Haines, did not conduct a serious review or declassification effort for these documents.
“I also reviewed thousands of pages of material that I believe were responsive to the law, but that the Intelligence Community ignored.”
Once DIG was shut down, its investigative work into COVID-19’s origins was transferred to the NIC, Erdman wrote.
Former pharmaceutical research and development executive Sasha Latypova told The Defender that COVID-19 has long been a “classified global military operation.”
“It is not surprising to me that the CIA is ‘not happy’ with Erdman’s testimony. It is likely that they are not happy with the fact that the testimony may pull on the thread that will lead in the direction of the intelligence and defense agencies’ role in the internationally coordinated Project COVID-19,” Latypova said.
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.
A decade of lies: The US-funded biolab denial saga
RT | May 15, 2026
Russia’s allegations that the US funded clandestine biological laboratories near its borders – claims denied until recently by Washington – have remained a persistent flashpoint in the steadily deteriorating relationship between Russia and the West for nearly a decade.
The biolabs affair was revealed in a 2017 exposé by RT that questioned a shady US military tender seeking the genetic material of living Russians. Over the years, Moscow has raised allegations against Washington of conducting clandestine bio-research, including potential WMD development and illicit human testing, in a network of labs located across multiple nations, the bulk of which operated in Ukraine. The claims were met with a blanket denial in the West, which repeatedly dismissed them as “Russian propaganda.”
This abruptly changed the past week when US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that her department had identified more than 120 US-funded biological laboratories in 30 countries, with over a third of them located in Ukraine. The agency is now working to “identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain, and what ‘research’ is being conducted to end dangerous gain-of-function research that threatens the health and wellbeing of the American people and the world,” according to Gabbard.
RT looks back at the timeline of the biolabs saga and the US denial of its existence until now.
2017 RT report
The US-funded bio research made international headlines in July 2017, when RT published an investigative report revolving around a tender issued by the US Air Education and Training Command (AETC). The command was seeking to procure genetic material samples that “shall be collected from Russia and must be Caucasian.” The Air Force explicitly said that it did not want samples from Ukraine, for reasons not explained.
The harvesting of genetic samples in the country did not escape the attention of the Russian leadership. President Vladimir Putin stated later that year “that biological material is being collected all over the country, from different ethnic groups and people living in different geographical regions.”
“The question is – why is it being done? It’s being done purposefully and professionally. We are a kind of object of great interest,” the president said. “Let them do what they want, and we must do what we must,” he added.
The attention this garnered from the Russian leadership prompted a vague explanation from AETC, which claimed the samples were needed for research on the musculoskeletal system and Russia had been picked as the source of the samples for no particular reason.
Georgia revelations
Another bombshell on the clandestine US-funded biolabs was dropped by a former Georgian minister for state security, Igor Giorgadze, in late 2018. He claimed he had obtained some 100,000 pages of data pointing to questionable practices at the US-funded Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research near the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
The documents published by Giorgadze were examined by the Russian Defense Ministry, which suggested the laboratory in Georgia may have concluded bioweapons research under the guise of a drug test. The research resulted in the deaths of at least 73 subjects over a short period of time, the Russian military’s investigation indicated.
The tests appeared to involve “a highly toxic chemical or biological agent with a high lethality rate,” the commander of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces (RKhBZ), Igor Kirillov, said at the time. Kirillov, who had spearheaded the Russian military’s probe into the US-funded biolabs in Ukraine and beyond, was assassinated in late 2024 in a bombing staged by Kiev’s intelligence.
The Pentagon flatly denied the allegations, with then-spokesman Eric Pahon dismissing the Russian ministry’s statements as a part of “a Russian disinformation campaign directed against the West.” The US and Georgian governments also dismissed the claims made by Giorgadze, describing them as “absurd.”
Ukraine conflict
The escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022 marked a new turn in the biolabs saga. While Moscow seized additional evidence of questionable research activities conducted in secretive facilities dotting Ukraine, the West entered a full-denial mode, bluntly dismissing any Russian statement on the matter as “propaganda.”
Early in the conflict, Russian troops seized thousands of pages of documents from labs in the Donetsk, Lugansk, and Kherson regions. The Russian military has been releasing the materials in batches while continuing an internal investigation and ultimately concluding in 2023 that “the US, under the guise of ensuring global biosecurity, conducted dual-use research, including the creation of biological weapons components, in close proximity to Russian borders.”
“The credibility of information provided by the Kremlin is in general very doubtful and low,” EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said at the time. “Russian disinformation has a track record of promoting manipulative narratives about biological weapons and alleged ‘secret labs.’”
The Biden administration took a similar defensive stance, with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki calling the allegations “preposterous” and accusing Moscow of plotting to use “chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine or to create a false flag operation using them.” John Kirby, then-Pentagon spokesman, also branded the Russian allegations “absurd,” “laughable,” and a “bunch of malarkey.”
“There’s nothing to it. It’s classic Russian propaganda,” Kirby told reporters at the time.
US Overseas Biolabs Probe Aims to Rein in ‘Deep State’ Bureaucracy
By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 15.05.2026
The announced investigation into secret US overseas biolabs by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) could end up being more of an internal compliance review than a sweeping exposé, experts told Sputnik.
“This is less about legal prosecution and more about the administration asserting control over the ‘Deep State’ bureaucracy and signaling a broader rapprochement with Moscow by validating some of their long-standing security grievances,” says London-based foreign policy analyst Adriel Kasonta.
When it comes to accountability, the development, spearheaded by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, “suggests a move toward ‘America First’ oversight rather than an admission of criminal activity by previous officials,” the pundit believes.
“If the ODNI review reveals that US agencies lacked sufficient oversight, failed to properly manage the security risks of funding pathogen research abroad, or lacked transparency, ‘accountability’ will likely take the form of domestic policy adjustments, congressional hearings, and stricter funding guidelines,” says Marco Marsili, associate researcher at the Center for International Studies (CEI-Iscte).
Earlier this week, Tulsi Gabbard announced an investigation into more than 120 US biolabs operating across 30-plus countries, including 40 in Ukraine, with a focus on potential “gain-of-function” research.
The probe came on the heels of the indictment of a former advisor to top US health official Anthony Fauci, accused of unlawfully concealing federal records tied to the origins of COVID-19.
CIA Waging Covert War Against Drug Cartels in Mexico – Reports
Sputnik – 13.05.2026
The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is waging a covert war against drug cartels in Mexico and is now directly involved in the assassinations of their members, media reported, citing sources.
The previously unreported CIA campaign in Mexico, overseen by the elite and top-secret Ground Branch, is aimed at the complete dismantling of drug cartels, the report said on Tuesday. Since last year, CIA officers have been personally involved in assassination attempts against cartel members, primarily mid-level ones, the report added.
One of the US intelligence operations in the country was the car bombing of Francisco Beltran, a suspected member of the Sinaloa Cartel, on a highway near Mexico City in March, the report read. According to the report, CIA officers planted a bomb directly in Beltran’s car.
Such operations may be illegal in Mexico, the broadcaster reported, adding that not all missions were coordinated with the Mexican government, creating the risk of retaliatory action by cartels in the United States.
In March, US President Donald Trump announced that the US and Latin American countries were creating a military coalition to combat drug cartels in the region.
Trump admits US sent weapons to fuel riots, terrorism inside Iran
Press TV – May 12, 2026
US President Donald Trump has again admitted to Washington’s support for armed riots and terrorist activities inside Iran amid continued aggressive American measures targeting the nation.
Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said elements were willing to take such seditious actions inside Iran.
He, however, referred to such actors as “the Iranian people” and pointed to the measures they could take as simply “going out on the streets.”
“They have no weapons. They have no guns,” he claimed.
Earlier this year, too, Trump had unequivocally admitted to the United States’ intentions to arm such elements, saying, “We sent guns, a lot of guns.” “You know what happened? The people that they sent them to kept them,” he had added at the time.
Adding to his Monday remarks, the US president said the weapons had been transferred to “Kurds,” who, according to him, stopped short of relaying the arms. “The Kurds disappointed us. The Kurds take, take, take… I’m very disappointed in the Kurds.”
The comments came as Iran faced widespread riots and terror activities across the country in late December and early January, during which elements primed and trained by American and Israeli spy agencies roamed the streets and opened fire against civilians and security forces.
Thousands, including women and children, were martyred throughout the episode that sought to take advantage of peaceful economic protests.
The Islamic Republic has denounced such “long-standing” policy on the part of the United States “of creating, financing, and arming terrorist groups in West Asia and beyond,” saying, it “constitutes a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and the fundamental principles and rules of international law.”
Tehran has also urged the United Nations to condemn and confront such measures.
Trump’s remarks also follow unprovoked American-Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic, which was launched in late February.
The US president announced a ceasefire on April 8 amid decisive Iranian retaliation, but continues to target the country with an illegal naval blockade.
The Next Indictment Should Be Against Greg Folkers
Brownstone Institute | April 30, 2026
The Department of Justice does not need to wait for Dr. David Morens to turn on his colleagues; the evidence to charge the next key advisor to Dr. Anthony Fauci is already in the public record.
Greg Folkers was critical to the censorship operation at the heart of the Covid response. As Chief of Staff at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Folkers oversaw operations for the agency’s $6 billion budget and later sought to evade FOIA requests by conspiring with Dr. Morens and intentionally misspelling key phrases such as “g#in-of-function.”
In January 2020, he sent the first email to Anthony Fauci warning that the NIAID had funded gain-of-function research on coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through grants it made to EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak’s organization. That research, Folkers cautioned, could be the source of Covid-19.
But instead of warning the public of the “lab leak” as it would come to be known, Folkers, Fauci, and Morens initiated the coverup.
Hours after Folkers’ initial warning, Fauci recruited virologists Kristian Andersen and Eddie Holmes to plant a cover story. This conspiracy prompted “Proximal Origin,” the infamous Nature article that stated that it was “implausible” that the virus was “laboratory-based,” even though Andersen and his colleagues made over 50 direct statements that expressed their belief that a lab leak was the likely origin of the virus.
While that article became the basis to censor any dissidents who questioned the origins of the virus, Folkers, Morens, and Fauci conspired to keep their role in the affair secret. “Tony doesn’t want his fingerprints on origin stories… Don’t worry… I will delete anything I don’t want to see in the New York Times,” Morens wrote to Peter Daszak.
Morens then coached his colleagues on how to avoid Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests (in defiance of federal law) by misspelling key phrases, using code words, deleting emails, and sending sensitive information to non-government accounts. “I learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear after i am foia’d but before the search starts, so i think we are all safe,” he wrote in February 2021.
This is the crime that led to Tuesday’s charges against Dr. Morens, which include “conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting.” FBI Director Kash Patel spoke out against the “illegal obfuscation of…communications” and vowed that “if you have engaged in activity conspiring against the United States, we will not stop until you face justice.”
The US Government already has concrete proof that Folkers conspired to evade FOIA requests on at least three occasions in June 2021 alone.
On June 4, 2021, in an email exchange discussing Peter Daszak’s gain-of-function research, he intentionally misspelled “EcoHealth” as “Ec~Health.” Three days later, in an email to Dr. Morens, Folkers attempted to hide his reference to Kristian Andersen by typing his last name as “anders$n.” Dr. Morens forwarded the message to his personal email account.
Three weeks later, Folkers intentionally misspelled “gain-of-function” to be “g#in-of-function” in another email to Dr. Morens.
While President Joe Biden (or his autopen) granted a startlingly broad pardon to Anthony Fauci in the final days of his administration, there is still ample opportunity to bring his co-conspirators to justice. Greg Folkers was a central figure in the Covid operation. He knew of NIAID’s culpability, he served as Dr. Fauci’s liaison, and he helped orchestrate a massive coverup. In the process, he partook in the same crimes that now support the indictment against Dr. Morens.
There are many more besides, among whom the heads of the Cybersecurity Inflation Security Agency, which divided the population between essential and nonessential and masterminded the censorship regime, the employees of the Department of Health and Human Services who worked to close medical services to non-Covid-related diagnostics, and the people at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who used the crisis to push for mail-in ballots.
May all this come in time. We’ve got a good start. Much more needs to be done.
We refuse to be silenced’: Gaza film producers blast BBC at BAFTAs
Al Mayadeen | May 11, 2026
The producers of the documentary “Gaza: Doctors Under Attack” used their BAFTA TV Awards win on Sunday to publicly denounce the BBC for refusing to air the film, accusing the network of censoring coverage of “Israel’s” genocidal assault on Gaza and silencing voices that document the atrocities committed against Palestinian medical workers.
The documentary, originally commissioned by the BBC but never broadcast due to what the network called “concerns about impartiality” towards “Israel,” won in the current affairs category at the BAFTA ceremony in London. The film was eventually aired by Channel 4 and investigates the systematic targeting of medical personnel and healthcare infrastructure in Gaza during the ongoing genocide.
Journalist Ramita Navai delivered a speech while accepting the award, in which she stated that the occupation has killed tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza and deliberately targeted hospitals and medical workers. According to the documentary’s investigation, more than 1,700 Palestinian health workers have been killed, and over 400 have been abducted by Israeli forces.
Citing United Nations language, Navai described “Israel’s” attacks against Gaza’s medical infrastructure and personnel as “medicide.” She concluded her remarks with a defiant message: “We refuse to be silenced and censored.”
Executive producer challenges BBC on camera
Executive Producer Ben De Pear, speaking during the acceptance speech, dedicated the award to journalists in Gaza who continue to work under extreme danger. He then directly addressed the BBC on camera, questioning whether the broadcaster would also cut their acceptance speech from the delayed broadcast of the ceremony.
De Pear’s challenge to the BBC adds renewed pressure on the network over its long-standing Zionist bias and controversial editorial decisions regarding coverage of Palestine.
The incident follows a report by a Freedom of Information NGO on April 16, 2026, revealing that BBC executives have met nine times with Zionist groups since the start of the genocide, compared to just once with pro-Palestinian organizations.
Furthermore, over 100 BBC staff signed an open letter on July 2, 2025, addressed to Director-General Tim Davie, accusing the broadcaster of acting as “a mouthpiece” for “Israel” and failing its own editorial standards.
The documentary team’s defiance at the BAFTA awards underscores a growing crisis of credibility for the BBC, as even its own journalists and the filmmakers it commissioned accuse the network of actively suppressing evidence of war crimes and genocide.
UK mainstream media has been constantly criticized for its coverage of “Israel’s” genocide on Gaza, sparking controversy for its journalistic biases that promote double standards through misinformation.
“The coverage of Gaza has several noticeable features. There have been instances of misleading and factually incorrect information being published throughout the last 10 months,” media analyst at the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) Faisal Hanif told Anadolu in September.
“Israel” killed two four-day-old newborn twins at their parents’ apartment in central Gaza in an airstrike as their father went to collect their birth certificates.
Western mainstream news outlets, including the BBC and Sky News, did not mention “Israeli strikes” in their headlines on their social media posts, prompting online users to ask “Killed by who?”
Hanif highlighted that many Western news outlets continue to refer to a fabricated story presented at the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, claiming the Palestinian resistance “beheaded babies.”
The media analyst emphasized that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the debunked narrative in his address to the US Congress in July 2024, which the BBC reported verbatim without providing context for readers that investigative journalists determined the story to be a fabrication.
Hamas leaders say targeting families will fail to extract concessions
Palestinian Information Center – May 8, 2026
Khalil al-Hayya, head of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, in the Gaza Strip, said Israel’s attempts to impose its will through assassinations and attacks on political leaders and their families “will fail,” following the assassination of his son Azzam al-Hayya in an Israeli strike on Gaza City.
Speaking during a memorial gathering on Thursday, al-Hayya described the martyrdom of his son, alongside several other Palestinians, including neighbor Hamza al-Sharbasi, as part of a continuing campaign targeting Palestinian families and resistance leaders.
He said the martyrdom of Palestinians would only strengthen the struggle for the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem, adding that Israel’s efforts to pressure negotiators through violence would not succeed.
Al-Hayya also linked the attack to previous Israeli strikes targeting Hamas negotiators in Qatar last year, saying the Movement continued negotiations “on behalf of its people and national interests,” despite ongoing attacks.
Meanwhile, Khaled Mishaal, head of the Hamas Movement abroad, praised al-Hayya’s resilience during the funeral gathering, describing the loss of multiple sons and relatives as “a great sacrifice.”
Mishaal said Gaza continues to “write epics of steadfastness and sacrifice” despite the Israeli war, siege, and destruction, arguing that the suffering endured by Palestinians increases the responsibility of the wider Arab and Muslim world toward Gaza and the Palestinian cause.
He also called for greater support for Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Palestinian prisoners, while stressing that the sacrifices made during the war were “not only for Palestine but for humanity as a whole.”
Harrowing testimonies expose Israeli torture of Gaza hospital director
Press TV – May 8, 2026
Former Palestinian detainees have come forward with disturbing firsthand accounts of the systematic torture inflicted on Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, during his detention in an Israeli prison.
Rami Abu Amira, a former prisoner, described how interrogators stripped Dr. Abu Safia naked and set police dogs on his frail body, leaving deep wounds and scratches.
Ahmad Qaddas recounted that the prison cells echoed with the doctor’s screams as he endured severe beatings.
He said he could no longer recognize Abu Safia due to extreme weight loss and his dazed, barely conscious state.
“He was physically shattered,” Qaddas added. Another former detainee, Hamza Abu Amira, spoke of the “relentless humiliation” and combined physical and psychological torture carried out by specialized Israeli prison units.
Guards reportedly forced Dr. Abu Safia to repeat degrading phrases while inflicting extreme pain in an apparent effort to break him.
Prisoners also described repeated night raids on their cell using sound grenades and tear gas canisters. Other detainees were strictly forbidden from approaching his cell or inquiring about his condition.
Dr. Abu Safia has been held since 27 December 2024, when Israeli forces abducted him during their assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital — the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza at the time. Even after an Israeli airstrike killed his own son, he had refused to abandon his post and his patients.
In March, UN Special Rapporteurs Tlaleng Mofokeng and Ben Saul confirmed receiving credible reports of his torture and the systematic denial of medical care.
They warned that his life was in grave danger and urged countries with influence over Israel to intervene.
Yet the US and its Western allies have taken no meaningful action to halt Tel Aviv’s brutality.
A UK-based human rights organization described his arrest as part of Israel’s broader policy of systematically targeting Palestinian health workers and destroying Gaza’s healthcare system — actions it said were intended to create conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people.
Dr. Abu Safia is one of at least 737 Palestinian medical workers arbitrarily detained by Israeli forces since October 2023.
During the same period, at least 1,722 medical personnel have been killed — an average of more than two per day.
The World Health Organization has documented over 930 attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system, with all 36 hospitals damaged or destroyed and only half partially functional.
These assaults form part of a deliberate campaign to annihilate Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure as an integral component of Israel’s genocidal war on the Strip, which has so far claimed more than 72,500 Palestinian lives since October 2023.
Britain quietly approves $11.85m arms licence to Israel despite Gaza ban
MEMO | May 8, 2026
The UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has granted two new licences for the export of military equipment to Israel, including an £8.7 ($11.85) million licence covering “components and technology for targeting equipment”, the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has revealed.
The licences were issued despite the British government’s September 2024 suspension of such exports over fears they would be used in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. CAAT’s analysis of UK export licensing statistics for the fourth quarter of 2025, published on 30 April, found that the UK issued export licences worth £20.5 ($27.9) million in total for transfers to Israel during the quarter.
The most significant of the new approvals was an Open Individual Export Licence for “components and technology for targeting equipment” — a category of export the UK government had publicly suspended eight months earlier, citing the risk of use in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. When questioned about the licence, DBT replied that it “covers items for re-export from Israel, and the Government of Israel is not an end-user or ultimate end-user. This is consistent with our suspension”.
CAAT said the defence rested on a legal fiction. The watchdog warned of the risk of “auto-diversion”: a process by which Israel can fail to retransfer military equipment to its declared destination and instead assign it to an unauthorised end-user, such as the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), for use in Gaza.
Such a move would constitute a breach of the export licence and a potential criminal offence under UK law. British ministers have previously said they would revoke any licence should “any evidence” emerge that exported equipment had not reached its declared destination, but CAAT noted that the UK government makes no known efforts to verify what happens to its military exports after they leave Britain.
The watchdog’s concerns are not theoretical. In March, an investigation revealed that an Elbit-owned subsidiary in the UK had shipped dozens of drone components, including Watchkeeper engines, to Israel over an 18-month period.
Israel had failed to retransfer the equipment to Romania as required by the licence, citing force majeure arising from its assault on Gaza. The contract with Romania has still not been fulfilled. Elbit announced it would start delivering the drones only two days after Romania threatened to cancel the contract.
A second new licence covers components for military training aircraft, and related technology, for transfer to France, Greece, Israel and Italy — likely supplied by the US aerospace firm Moog for the M-346 Lead-In Fighter Trainer produced by Italy’s Leonardo.
The M-346 is used in every phase of advanced and pre-operational training for Israeli pilots before they fly combat missions in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon using F-16 and F-35 jets. Israel has caused massive devastation with F-35 jets across Gaza, Iran and Lebanon. Similar components shipped by Moog from the UK were recently seized by authorities in Belgium, who have since opened a criminal investigation.
CAAT’s Research Coordinator Sam Perlo-Freeman said the new licences exposed the limits of the British government’s stated policy.
“These new export licenses show just how willing the UK is to continue enabling Israel’s genocidal assaults, while staying within the technical rule of a vastly insufficient and ineffective policy towards IDF war crimes,” he said.
“The targeting equipment for which DBT granted a license, for transfer to and re-export by Israel, could easily be used in Gaza. Given Israel’s history of weapons diversion and illicit transfers, and outstanding questions about Elbit drone components failing to arrive in Romania, there remains a grave risk that Israel will auto-divert the targeting equipment to the IDF for use in Palestine.”
Perlo-Freeman explained that the British government was leaning on a system of declarations it has no power to enforce. “DBT is relying on end-user undertakings that hold no legal force in Israel, which the UK government does not check up on and cannot enforce. The exporter is technically in-the-clear, so long as it can’t be shown they knew the end-user undertaking was false.”
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Villains of Judea
Abe Foxman
Foxman left a legacy of surveillance scandals, political vendettas, and selective outrage.
José Niño Unfiltered | May 24, 2026
When Abraham Foxman died on May 10, 2026, tributes poured in from presidents, prime ministers, and Jewish leaders worldwide, yet his legacy remains defined as much by controversy as by accomplishment.
Foxman described himself as “a passionate supporter of the State of Israel” and spent his career building the ADL into a roughly $60 million per year organization that defined mainstream American Jewish advocacy on antisemitism, civil rights, and the Jewish state. … continue
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- ISRAELI MEDIA: They Were Children During the Nakba. This Is What They Remember 78 Years Later
- Pro-Israel commentator warns critics face ‘buzzsaw’ of ‘Jewish money’ after Massie defeat
- No Tricks Zone
- European “Expert Commission” Urges COVID-19-Like Global Climate State Of Energency!
- Real-World Observations Do Not Support The Position That Climate Change Is Human-Caused
- Germany’s AfD Party Calls Debunked Climate Scenarios “Greatest Fraud In Human History”
- Researchers Find Rapid Global Warming Phase At End Of Last Ice Age (Ca.18,000 Years Ago)
- Even The DNA Of Single-Celled Plankton Can Upend Alarmist Arctic Sea Ice Melt Claims
- Scandal: Although Climate Panic Is Canceled By IPCC, Europe’s Policymakers Continue With Their Crushing Policies
- How Once Hardcore Climate Alarmist Lucy Biggers Realized It Was All A Scam, Brainwashing
- German Expert: “No Climate Crisis” …”Warming Generally Better For Humanity”
- New Paleo Research: Modern ‘Climate Change’ Has Had No Apparent Impact On Precipitation Patterns
- 90% Subsidized… Bielefeld Germany’s €7 Million Hydrogen Garbage Truck Fleet Sits Idle
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