Rio de Janeiro ... Echoes of the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte's Anti-Drug Campaigns
Some of the bodies were displayed in their underwear in the Rio slums. AFP via Getty Images
"The
succession of lethal operations that do not result in greater safety
for the population, but that in fact cause insecurity, reveals the
failure of the policies of Rio de Janeiro."
"[These deaths are a] tragedy."
"The public prosecutor's office must open its own investigations and clarify the circumstances of each death."
César Muñoz, director of
Human Rights Watch in Brazil
"We saw executed people: shot in the back, shots to the head, stab
wounds, people tied up."
"This level of brutality, the hatred
spread—there’s no other way to describe it except as a massacre."
"This cannot b e considered public safety."
Raull Santiago, local activist
"The terrible conditions in Candido Mendes prison, on Ilha Grande island
in the state of Rio de Janeiro, pushed inmates to band together to
survive within the system."
"[Within the last two years, Red Command has been able to take back control of Rio, now] ruling more than half of the city."
InSight Crime, think tank studying organized crime
"We fully understand the challenges of having to deal with violent and
well-organized groups such as Red Command."
"[But Brazil is called on to] break this cycle of extreme brutality and ensure that law
enforcement operations comply with international standards regarding the
use of force."
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Marta Hurtado
"They [Rio police] slit my son’s throat, cut his neck, and hung the head from a tree like a trophy."
"They executed my son without giving him a chance to defend himself. He was murdered."
"Everyone deserves a second chance. During an operation, police should do their job, arrest suspects, but not execute them."
Raquel Tomas, mother of 19-yr-old alleged gang member
Police said that among those detained were key members of the Red Command gang ANTONIO LACERDA/EPA/Shutterstock
The
public defender's office in Rio de Janeiro, stated that 132 people had
died as a result of the Brazilian capital's bloodiest police raid on
record as drug gangs were targeted in a ferocious, warlike raid with no
holds barred. The bodies of dozens of victims were laid out in the
streets by grieving residents. The Rio state public defender's office
which provides legal assistance to the poor announced: "The most recent update is 132 dead".
Governor
Claudio Castro, Rio state governor, put the toll of dead from the
violence on Tuesday at around 60, cautioning that the real figure was
without doubt higher, as bodies were beginning to be taken to a morgue.
Among the dead were four police officers, killed during the
military-type operation. No fewer than 2,500 police officers were
assigned to the raids on the city's powerful criminal organization, the
Comando Vermelho (Red Command).
At
one of two densely populated working-class neighbourhoods that had been
targeted in northern Rio -- Penha Complex -- residents assembled a line
of corpses, at least fifty in number, early Wednesday, and wept over
the loss of life. One woman screamed, hunched over the body of a victim.
The bodies were covered in makeshift shrouds, stained with blood. A
sombre urban landscape of wasted lives.
"The state came to massacre, it wasn't a [police] operation. They came directly to kill, to take lives",
one woman shouted as she touched the face of one of the victims. Two
girls, faces tear-streaked, caressed the face of a dead man wrapped in a
sheet. They then turned helplessly to one another, and hugged tightly,
their bodies convulsed in grief.
People
stand next to the bodies with a sign that reads "Claudio Castro (Rio de
Janeiro governor) assassin and terrorist" in the Penha neighborhood a
day after a massive anti-gang police operation took place at the
Complexo da Penha and Alemao favelas on October 29, 2025 in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil.Wagner Meier—2025 Getty Images
"Sixty criminals",
according to authorities, had been killed in fighting that resulted
during the drug raids in the Penha Complex and the Alemao Complex, both
located nearby Rio's international airport. They died, furious residents
responded, the victims of police summary killings.
Albino Pereira Neto, a lawyer representing three families with lost relatives, described "burn marks" on some of the bodies, and among those killed, some had been tied up. Some, he said, were "murdered in cold blood".
Armoured vehicles, helicopters and drones backed up the police officers
during the operation, as the streets of the favelas became scenes of
war.
The 'suspects' were accused by authorities of using buses as barricades and drones to attack police with explosives. "This is not ordinary crime, but narcoterrorism" wrote Rio state Governor Claudio Castro, on the social media platform X.
More than 100 gang members were allegedly killed in the crackdown ahead of next month’s COP30 climate summit. Anadolu via Getty Images
Does The Jewish Faculty Network Represent Jewish Introspection?
"[The ACLA {Arab Canadian Lawyers Association} defines anti-Palestinian racism in part, as] failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an indigenous people with a collective identity, belonging and rights in relation to occupied and historic Palestine."
"Defaming Palestinians and their allies with slander such as being inherently antisemitic, a terrorist threat/sympathizer or opposed to democratic values."
Arab Canadian Lawyers Association
"[The Jewish Faculty Network {JFN}'s] assessment of antisemitism in Canada is misleading."
"[His own research and that of the Anti-Defamation League {ADL}, found low levels of antisemitic views in Canada compared to many other countries, but that] Eight percent of Canada's population is 3.3-million people."
"Canada's Jewish population is about 410,000."
"Therefore, there are eight times more antisemites than Jews in Canada."
"The CIJA [Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs] [failed to] distinguish attitudes from behaviour [by ignoring evidence showing that antisemitic behaviour has] skyrocketed in Canada, [including his own survey, which found that in 2023] Two of 10 Canadian Jews were called offensive names because they are Jews; three of ten were made to feel unwelcome because they are Jews; and five of 10 heard someone say the Holocaust did not happen or has been exaggerated."
Robert Brym, professor emeritus, University of Toronto
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside the fenced in area of an
encampment on the University of Toronto campus in Canada on May 2, 2024.
Photo by Cole Burston/AFP via Getty Images.
Jews are a famously argumentative lot, but it still takes many Jews themselves who support Zionism by surprise when there are other clusters of Jewish communities who are anti-Israel, and who support accusations leveled by non-Jews that a genocide is taking place in 'Palestine' through the Israeli government's and its Israel Defense Forces' campaign to eradicate the Palestinian Islamist terrorist group Hamas which has spent decades on a futile, but deadly campaign to eliminate the Jewish state from the Middle East.
It seems to matter far less to such groups of Jewish Israel-detractors that Jews are in the crosshairs of world opinion with a resurgence of viral antisemitism throughout the West, and that Palestinian terrorist groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah and others of their ilk, along with Palestinian civilians marauded through Israel on 7 October 2023 in a sadistic savagery of shocking dimensions of rape, mutilations, mass killings and hostage-taking. Israel's response to the terrorists shielding themselves from retribution by installing themselves in the general Palestinian population and in the process searching out the terrorists, means civilians are caught in the crossfire.
That Hamas built a wildly complex underground labyrinth of tunnels for weapons storage and haven for its operatives, installed command centres and weapons depots along with communications centres in and beneath mosques, hospitals, schools and private homes, making it impossible when targeting the terror operatives to avoid sweeping in civilians as collateral damage through the military responses to the atrocity and barrages of rockets, is of no account to Israel's critics, among them Canada's New Democratic Party, and legacy media which publish whatever comes out of Hamas public relations to tarnish Israel.
The Jewish anti-Israel lobby alone is appalling in its astonishing complicity in demonizing Israel. It has helped to pressure the Liberal government in Canada toward an arms embargo for Israel, to vote at the United Nations against Israel's interests and finally to capriciously recognize a Palestinian state which has time and again refused to recognize the legitimacy of Israel's existence. That Jewish lobby has been agreeable to shutting down university campuses and city streets. Their actions portraying Israel negatively receive media attention as representative of Canadian Jews.
People demonstrate against the participation of cyclists racing for
Israel-Premier Tech at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec on Friday in
Quebec City. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)
And they have produced a report that anchors their antagonism against Israel's existence, citing it as an academic team professionally and expertly diminishing and delegitimizing Israel's right of existence, calling themselves the Jewish Faculty Network. They do not even blush in calling Israel 'racist' and supporting a universal boycott of Israel. They claim that there is no problem of antisemitism in Canada, regardless of protests by anti-Israel groups taking place in Jewish neighbourhoods, outside synagogues, daycare centres and seniors' residences.
"Labelling critics of Israel as antisemitic, as CIJA does, is a clear example of anti-Palestinian racism" claims the 'Jewish Faculty Network', right in sync with the definition by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association. The fact is, most Canadians are not devoutly antisemitic. Those that are, and who join arms with the part of the Canadian Muslim population that are, still represent a relatively modest proportion of the Canadian population. They are adamant, they are loud, they are bold, and they are shameless in their excoriation of Israel and their concomitant threats to Canada's social contract.
And the government of the day, and the day before, Liberals both, who cater to the large and growing Muslim demographic as opposed to the sedate and relatively small Jewish-Canadian population, forced to protect itself by hiring private security guards at its schools and synagogues, sees nothing amiss in the wild demonstrations that target Jewish community centres and parochial schools, more attuned to favouring the ballot box than ensuring security for the smaller demographic left to fend for themselves.
"[I am] deeply alarmed [by reports of civilian casualties and forced
displacement from El-Fasher]."
"With fighters pushing further into
the city and escape routes cut off, hundreds of thousands of civilians
are trapped and terrified — shelled, starving and without access to
food, health care or safety."
"[There is a dire need for an] immediate ceasefire [throughout the region]."
"[The UN has life-saving supplies ready, but due to the intensified
attacks in the region, it has made it impossible for workers to get aid
in]."
"Safe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access must be allowed to reach all civilians in need."
Tom Fletcher, emergency relief co-ordinator, United Nations
"Our liberation of [El Fasher] is the liberation of Sudan, all the
way to Port Sudan...."
"We are coming and we are coming heavy."
"The new Sudan goes forward, the old Sudan gets destroyed."
RSF
second-in-command Abdelrahim Dagalo
"[The
Rapid Support Forces [RSF] committed heinous crimes against innocent
civilians in the city of El-Fasher, where more than 2,000 unarmed
citizens were executed and killed on October 26 and 27, most of them
women, children and the elderly."
Joint Forces, allies of the Sudanese military
Camp for displaced families who fled from al-Fashir to Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan.Photograph: Mohammed Jamal/Reuters
Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al Burham stated his forces had withdrawn from El-Fasher "to a safer location".
In so doing, he acknowledged that his defense operations had lost the
battle for the strategic city, leaving the Rapid Support Forces now in
full control of all of Darfur. Even so, he made a pledge to continue to
fight "until this land is purified".
Despite which, analysts conclude that Sudan has now been partitioned
along an east-west axis. The RSF has set up a parallel government from a
territory that will prove extremely difficult for the military to
extract them.
This
is a bloody civil war, with the RSF, formerly in partnership with the
Sudanese army, since April of 2023 challenging the Sudanese government
for total control of Darfur. Formerly known as the Janjaweed, horsed
Arab militia in conjunction with the previous government of Omar
al-Bashir who was found by the ICC to have been guilty of war crimes in
Darfur, the power struggle between the two forces led to their violent
separation and the challenge that followed. Since then, over 150,000
people have been killed, with over 14 million displaced in the
fighting.
"The shelling was so intense on Saturday
that we had no choice but to flee El-Fashir."
"Along the
way, the RSF filmed us and we were beaten and insulted - and they stole
what we had on the journey."
"A number of people were captured and
ransoms were demanded for their release. Some
of those who were taken were later executed."
"During the journey, many
people were arrested, and we suffered greatly from hunger and thirst."
Displaced Darfurian
People arriving in Tawila have been describing the extreme violence they faced as they fled el-Fasher. AFP/Getty Images
Ethnically-motivated
atrocities in the western Sudanese city of El-Fasher have been reported
since it fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, concluding the
years-long siege that made life an utter misery for those city dwellers
who were unable to flee, with the city surrounded by RSF forces. Over 18
months of siege warfare had created fear and threats of starvation for
those forced to remain in the city, trapping 260,000 people without
external aid being able to reach them.
The
Rapid Support Forces now has control over every state capital in the
sprawling Darfur region comprised of mostly non-Arab, Black farming
communities. NGOs, along with local groups had given warning that mass
atrocities would be triggered by El-Fasher's fall to the RSF and those
predictions are ringing true. Open-source intelligence and satellite
imagery have confirmed the dire state of affairs now reigning for the
residents of the city.
According to Volker Turk, UN rights chief, there is a growing risk of "ethnically motivated violations and atrocities", as his office was "receiving multiple, alarming reports that the Rapid Support Forces are carrying out atrocities, including summary executions". According to pro-democracy activists, El-Fasher residents endured "the worst forms of violence and ethnic cleansing" since control of the area was claimed by the RSF.
A
fighter known for executing civilians in RSF-controlled areas was shown
in a video released by local activists shooting a group of unarmed
civilians seated on the ground. They were killed at point-blank range.
As many as 15,000 civilians from non-Arab groups in the West Darfur
capital of El Geneina have been reported to be killed by the
paramilitaries, with their track record of atrocities. The Sudanese army
itself has also been accused of war crimes.
The paramilitary RSF Forces have taken over el-Fasher prompting fears of the lives of thousands of civilians Image: UNICEF/Xinhua/IMAGO
El-Fasher
was considered to represent one of he grimmest places in war-torn Sudan
-- thanks to a war labelled by the UN as among the world's worst
humanitarian crises. Located outside the city, displacement camps were
declared to be in famine. Within El-Fasher, the quarter-million
population in desperation turned to eating animal feed to stay alive.
"[The
city] appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic
cleansing of Fur, Zaghawa, and Berti indigenous non-Arab communities
through forced displacement and summary execution."
"[This includes what appears to be] door-to-door clearance operations."
Yale University Humanitarian Research Lab
"[The crisis is] the final stage of the Darfur genocide."
"I have
seen videos of ditches and trenches entirely full of friends, neighbours
and family members’ bodies."
"There have been reports of entire families
hanging from trees."
Emi Mahmoud, Darfur Internally Displaced People Network
"Whereas the United Nations has designated zero mandates to investigate human rights violations suffered by the one-fifth of humanity living in China -- and zero on Cuba, Turkey, Zimbabwe, and most other countries in the world -- it has a plethora of mechanisms targeting Israel."
"Every year since 1968, the UN's 'Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices' has produced annual 70-page reports with legal analyses and recommendations on Israel's alleged violations, summaries of Palestinian testimonies, and collections of statistics."
"Composed of Malaysia, Senegal, and Sri Lanka, and staffed out of the UN human rights office the Special Committee also conducts regular field missions, including to Amman, Cairo and Damascus."
"This has been going on for five decades and still continues."
Hillel Neuer, Executive Director, United Nations Watch, Geneva
The United Nations flag flies on a stormy day at
the U.N. during the United Nations General Assembly, Thursday, Sept. 22,
2022. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
A UN commission of inquiry on Israel presented a report on Tuesday which accused the Jewish state of genocide. All three of the commissioners that make up this special commission resigned in July; resignations meant to be effective following their final report scheduled for Tuesday, 28 October. These resignations build on the UN's special rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese having been designated on the U.S. sanctions list, in response to her overt support for Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group whose latest atrocities on October 7, 2023, sparked a two-year war with Israel. To Ms. Albanese, Hamas are 'freedom fighters', struggling against 'oppression'.
Arab and Islamic states initiated this last inquiry at a special session they convened at the UN Human Rights council in May of 2021 during an earlier conflict between Israel and Hamas which led to a ceasefire. That inquiry made no move to investigate Hamas rockets into Israel threatening Israeli citizens, but focused on examining 'root causes' of the conflict, focusing on Israel's purported racist "systematic discrimination". In actual fact, no discrimination exists in Israel; citizenship includes Jews, Arabs, Circassians, Druze, Bedouin, Christians, Muslims. In contrast, the Palestinian Authority allows no Jews.
As commissioners to lead the inquiry which has no end-date, South African Navi Pillay was made chair of the commission. As the impartial chair she had openly lobbied governments to "sanction apartheid Israel" before being chosen to lead the inquiry. Another commissioner, Miloon Kothari gave an interview on an anti-Israel website, questioning Israel's right to UN membership and spoke of "the Jewish lobby controlling social media". The third of the commissioners, Chris Sidoto, claimed that Jews "throw around accusations (of antisemitism) like rice at a wedding".
So much for impartiality and commitment to truth, justice and reality. The commission has a staff of 18 and an annual budget over $4 million, delivering annual reports that accuse Israel of war crimes. They meet in The Hague with the International Criminal Court to render legitimacy to their reports. That's one commission, geared solely to 'investigating' Israel but there's more. No other country in the world has the distinction of being 'investigated' by a plethora of committees in the United Nations struck solely for that purpose.
There is a 25-nation "Committee On the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People", led by Cuba, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, staffed by15 employees within the UN's Division for Palestinian Rights which produce legal studies, background papers and public communications materials as well as holding annual conferences and organizing global advocacy networks targeting Israel. Another based out of Geneva is the UN Human Rights Council's "Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967" with another open-ended mandate to focus on 'Israel's violations'.
This is the group headed by Hamas apologist Francesca Albanese who produces reports and statements on 'Israeli crimes'. A little-known entity in Vienna, the "United Nations Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall ln the Occupied Palestinian Territory", employs 19 staff under the leadership of a former Russian diplomat, financed both through the UN and by voluntary donors that include France, Austria and the Netherlands.
And then, of course, there's UNRWA, a billion-dollar agency employing 30,000 people with a focus supposedly on aid for Palestinians, whose senior staff also engages in public media campaigns targeting Israel. There are no staff at the United Nations mandated to critically examine or address China, for example, or Turkey, or Russia, or the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo where millions are displaced and tens of thousands are victims of mass rape and torture. Nor is there a committee to examine the bloody civil war in Sudan.
Strange, isn't it, that the entire world focus as demonstrated by the actions and activities of the United Nations are focused on one tiny country located in a sea of undemocratic neighbours where sectarian and tribal conflicts break out at the drop of a pin, but it is Israel, a state for Jews located on their own ancestral, historical lands that fascinates the world, eager to condemn Jews there, and everywhere. What is it that consumes such a rabid fascination in a people that only want to be left alone, to live normal lives with respect for their human rights, just like everyone else?
Partition: The Division that Arab States and Palestinians rejected time and again...
"President Donald Trump accumulated hundreds of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago during
his presidency and the tumultuous transition of power to Biden in 2021.
Officials repeatedly demanded those documents and other unclassified
files back."
"Trump aides returned 15 boxes in January 2022. Prosecutors
acquired another 38 classified documents in June 2022 in response to a
grand jury subpoena, but were convinced more remained."
"A
court-ordered FBI search in August 2022 turned up more than 100
additional classified records, including 17 “top secret” documents."
Josh Gerstein, Politico
"President Donald Trump has made no
secret of his desire to see his critics investigated, pressuring the
Justice Department to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and New
York Attorney General Letitia James."
"We
can't delay any longer, it's killing our reputation and credibility,"
the president wrote last month in a Truth Social post."
"They
impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!)" he said, referencing
the four criminal cases he faced after leaving the White House in 2021
and James's civil case."
"Both have
since been charged, in cases that many experts have said appear to be
politically motivated and difficult to win in court."
Kayla Epstein, BBC
"An objective and thorough review will show nothing inappropriate was
stored or kept by Amb. Bolton. These materials, many of which are
documents that had been approved as part of a pre-publication review for
Amb. Bolton’s book, were reviewed and closed years ago."
"These are the kinds of ordinary records, many of which are 20 years old
or more, that would be kept by a longtime career official who served at
the State Department, as an Assistant Attorney General, the U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations, and the National Security Advisor."
Bolton's Lawyer, Abbe Lowell
Letitia
James, one of three prominent Trump critics hit with criminal charges
recently had successfully prosecuted President Donald Trump as the New
York attorney general. On Friday she pleaded not guilty to bank fraud
charges. She entered her plea at an arraignment in a federal court in
Norfolk, Virginia. A trial date of January 26 was set by the presiding
judge. Facing one count of bank fraud and a second one of making false
statements to a financial institution in connection with a property she
purchased in 2020 in Virginia.
The
case was brought a day after yet another Trump target, former FBI
director James Comey, pleaded not guilty to charges of making false
statements to Congress, and obstructing a congressional proceeding.
Charges that seem eerily similar to some that were in fact brought
against President Trump himself, in the past. And then there is John
Bolton, who served as national security advisers in the first Trump
administration before falling out with the irascible president whose ire
against those who turn against him becomes an acidic maelstrom of
tit-for-tat.
Mr.
Bolton's charge was that of mishandling classified information. He too
has pleaded not guilty. 'Mishandling' government documentation is a
charge made against many, including former president Joe Biden who was
found by a special counsel to have improperly stored classified
documents from his time as vice-president. He, on the other hand, did
not have criminal charges pressed against him. Just as the presidential
position prevented similar charges from being pressed against Donald
Trump himself.
President
Trump's great good friend Lindsey Halligan whom the president elevated
to the position of U.S attorney following her predecessor's resignation
after claiming insufficient evidence was produced, filed those cases
against James and Comey. The charges were rejected by James as "baseless, nothing more than a continuation of the president's desperate weaponization of our justice system".
"The president's own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution", she responded.
However,
this is the president of the great United States of America. And he has
used the great powers vested in him as the world's arguably most
powerful political figure to stamp his personal mark in a myriad of
ways, from the world economy, to strong-arming countries around the
world to do his bidding in his very personal campaign to be awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize; not this year, but the one to follow, surely. This
president's penchant for admiring the world's strong men as well as
those with the aura of power that accompanies great wealth is
legendary.
As is his splenetic outbursts at criticism.
U.S.
Attorney General Pam Bondi was recently instructed in public to take
action against James, Comey and any others the president views as his
personal adversaries as he escalates his campaign dedicated to ensuring
that those who cross him bear the burden of a cross of their own.
And
Letitia James has certainly earned that cross earmarked for her bent
back, when in 2021 she brought a major civil fraud case against him that
alleged he and his real estate holdings inflated his wealth unlawfully
to manipulate the value of properties with an eye to favourable bank
loans or insurance terms. Mr. Trump was ordered to pay a $46 million
penalty by a New York State judge, but the financial penalty was removed
by a higher court which chose nonetheless to uphold the underlying
judgment.
Democratic
Senator Adam Schiff, is also in Mr. Trump's crosshairs for leading the
first impeachment of the president in the House of Representatives.
Seeking to have the case against the former FBI chief dismissed, Comey's
lawyer characterized the charges as vindictive and selective
prosecution. It certainly has that kind of whiff about it.
"[My
book,] The Room Where It Happened, [was reviewed and approved by] the
appropriate, experienced career clearance officials. [The
FBI was made fully aware of the 2021 email hack. In the four years of
the Biden administration, no charges were filed]."
"Then came Trump 2 who embodies what Joseph Stalin’s head of
secret police once said, ‘You show me the man, and I’ll show you the
crime’."
"These charges are not just about his focus on me or my
diaries, but his intensive effort to intimidate his opponents, to ensure
that he alone determines what is said about his conduct."
"Dissent and disagreement are foundational to America’s constitutional
system, and vitally important to our freedom. I look forward to the
fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power."
John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser
"Anonymous
recruiter proxies operating through internet chat rooms [on encrypted
platforms had found young men] who were prepared to undergo a form of
radicalization and betray their country for what seemed easy money."
"In past years, our parents and grandparents would have had a simple term for what Dylan Earl and Jake Reeves did: treason."
Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb, Old Bailey court, London
The Ukrainian-owned warehouse in Leyton, East London was torched in March 2024 PA Media
A
loose network of young British men were jailed, given particularly long
prison terms for their part in torching a warehouse that stored
supplies for Ukraine, when the Russian paramilitary Wagner group
recruited them alongside the attack's orchestrator. A March 2024 fire at
an industrial estate in east London, drew a focus of attention on
Russia's spying and sabotage campaigns that Moscow initiated along with
its European proxies.
The
Kremlin stands accused by Western nations of masterminding a string of
incidents for the purpose of undermining support for Ukraine in its
battles with the Russian invaders. Counter-terrorism police in the
United Kingdom have made a series of arrests related to this critical
issue. Some of the six sentenced on Friday had their lawyers charge
that Russian operatives preyed on their 'unsophisticated' clients'
vulnerabilities, including financial, drug and mental health issues.
Jake Reeves (left) and Dylan Earl (right) were among six Brits recruited by Russia’s Wagner group Credit: PA
Some
in the group, ages ranging from 19 to 22 at the time of the offence --
had plotted to kidnap a billionaire Russian dissident; a plot foiled by
police -- as well as their involvement in the arson. Judge Cheema-Grubb
declared the case highlighted "interference ... by a foreign power leveraging the greed and base instincts of unsophisticated individuals", as she went on to sentence the accused to varying, lengthy prison terms.
These
were the first sentences handed out under the U.K.'s 2023 National
Security Act, meant to counter evolving threats from hostile states.
Earl, a low-level drug dealer from central England, had pleaded guilty
to various offences including aggravated arson and possession of
criminal property. He met, then corresponded with members of Wagner
through the Telegram messaging app; a group classed as a "terrorist" organization, by Britain.
(Left to right) Ashton Evans, Nii Mensah, Jakeem Rose, and Ugnius Asmena were all sentenced at The Old Bailey Credit: PA
Earl
went on to recruit Reeves -- a man he had never previously met -- to
burn down the business that was supplying communications equipment to
Ukraine. Fellow south Londoners Nii Mensah, 23, Jakeem Rose, 23, and
Ugnius Usmena, 20, were then recruited by Reeves to torch the site,
live-streaming it back to Earl. The last three were sentenced to between
eight and ten years each. Dylan Earl received the longest term of 23
years, while co-defendant Jake Reeves was sentenced to 13 years.
"A new poll shows that 74 percent of Democrats prefer Democratic socialism over capitalism."
"The poll shows that even 58 percent of Republicans agree that our economic system is 'rigged in favor of corporations and the wealthy'."
Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
"I had arrived in a society where privilege was a different color. Gone was the image of the white Christian male that I had grown accustomed to, and in its place was a darker, more familiar picture -- one that, for the first time, I fit: brown skin, black hair, and a Muslim name."
"After just a little while in Tahrir [Square, Egypt--Arab Spring] I understood the addiction of revolution, of protest."
"Those who traditionally had little say on society's direction were immediately granted the chance to speak, with the promise of an echo of thousands." "Ideas of class and status were upturned, as men without means stood high on the shoulders of others, their voices loud. This new solidarity was founded in a widespread opposition to all that the government had grown to represent -- inefficiency, unjustness and sectarianism."
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner in the New York City mayoral
race, speaks outside a Bronx Mosque and cultural center on October 24,
2025 in the Bronx borough of New York City (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
"He is the candidate for Pakistanis, Indians, and Bangladeshis alike, though they are not exactly one another's friends."
"And most of them are robust supporters of the market-driven New York economy and merit-based schools. How would they like living in Zohran's socialist paradise?"
"All the while he is also cultivating his base of disaffected -- mostly white and heavily female -- underemployed college graduates."
The Spectator
"What Western city or country has improved as the Muslim population has increased?"
"America's largest city was attacked by radical Islam 24 years ago, and now a similar form of that pernicious force is poised to capture city hall."
Charlie Kirk
New York City boasts the largest populations of both Jews and Muslims of any city in the Western Hemisphere. To the present an estimated 1.1 million Jews are New Yorkers, and roughly 750 Muslims now inhabit the city. It will not be the presence of Muslims in their voting strength that will elevate 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani to the mayoralty, but that of those Jews who feel he is the right person to administer the affairs of the most influential of American cities. Jews in Brooklyn who saw fit to honour the man when a group called Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, burst into applause when he spoke of the 'genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli military in Gaza'; a reported thousand in attendance.
That declaration in its unadorned antisemitic slander elicited a response, however, from the political newsletter City & State: "Until recently, this kind of anti-Israel rhetoric would have been unthinkable in New York City politics".
Mamdani, who only became a U.S. citizen in 2018, was born in Uganda, son of a 'progressive' filmmaker and a scholar of settler colonialism -- mother and father respectively; Shia Muslim and Hindu respectively. When Idi Amin, Uganda's dictator, expelled expatriate Indians who thrived there as business people and skilled entrepreneurs, academics and journalists among the Ugandan-Asian minorities, he enfeebled the Ugandan economy and robbed its culture. From the age of seven Zohran and his parents lived in Manhattan where Zohran was suckled on the socialist left.
His campaign spiel of no-fare transit, inexpensive apartments, discount groceries and anti-Zionist bile has found wide favour among local voters, enough to catapult him as the leading contender for mayor when the vote takes place on November 4. A card-carrying Democratic Socialist to become the 111th mayor of Corporate Capitalist City. This young, bearded, confidence-smiling man won himself the June Democratic Party primary for mayor. His strident condemnation of "Israel's Genocide" won close to half of the Jewish primary vote.
Zohran
Mamdani attends a campaign rally calling for the full enforcement of
New York City's sanctuary city laws in the Jackson Heights neighborhood
of Queens, New York, on 21 June 2025.Photograph: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis/Getty Images
His approval rate burped upward again when he committed to arresting both Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu should either dare to ever deplane in New York City. A New York Times/Siena College poll from early September saw 57 percent of the city's Democratic vote sympathizing with Palestinians in Gaza, a mere 18 percent with Israel. Assaults on Jews in New York city have been documented by the New York Police Department at an all time high, an increase of 583 percent since 2020; over 1,400 antisemitic incidents in 2024.
His opponents, down to the wire, are Curtis Sliwa, Republican known 40 years ago as a subway vigilante, fighting street crime, and Andrew Cuomo, former governor of New York State. The one-and-only (thank the heavenly stars) Senator Bernie Sanders of Brooklyn, all 84 years-old of him, campaigned with Mamdani, as did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the Bronx and Queens, at packed halls to wild applause. "Sanders said the United States should not be sending aid to 'the government of Israel that is currently starving children to death'", reported NY Jewish Week, of his statement that garnered a standing ovation.
Mamdani has promised "affordability", vowing to freeze rents on a million municipal-operated apartments. His own residence is a one-bedroom, rent-stabilized flat in a century-old building in the Borough of Queens for which he pays $2,300 monthly, where he moved in 2018. Interesting choice for a scion of wealth and privilege. This is a man with no work experience, never having earned a real paycheque. A former rapper, and few months served as a community organizer in Seattle and Texas.
Former three-term mayor Michael Bloomberg has distinguished himself by generously handing six million to Cuomo's race as an 'independent'. Prominent Jewish real estate developers financially supported opposition to Mamdani's campaign, warning "There is no more time for delay, discussion, or dithering -- we must act decisively to ensure that the next mayor of New York is Andrew Cuomo."
"We hold a common belief in the shared dignity of every person on this planet, and the refusal to draw a line in the sand when it comes to Palestinian lives."
"Our victory in June was evidence of many things, but truly, among them, it was a lesson that so many in this city are horrified by the genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli military in Gaza."
Zohran Mamdani
House Republicans are hammering Mamdani over his path to citizenship. Andy Ogles/ X
Lawsuit: Iraqi-Canadian-Jewish Family Vs Scofflaw France
"We all thought that it was lost, that we would never get it back."
"I
realized that this is not just about a house, it's about human rights.
That was my motivating factor. It is hugely unfair. They are occupying
our house."
"If you have art that's stolen or a house that's stolen, it's the same thing."
"It
wasn't a person or a company who stole it, it's a country. And France
was taking advantage of our misfortune and that's not right. They're a
G7 country and they also stand up for human rights."
"So how are they doing this? It doesn't make sense."
Philip Khazzam, Montreal businessman, grandson of Ezra Lawee
"[The
Lawee family] were robbed of their property. When the regime of M.
Saddam Hussein ordered the confiscation of all the property of Iraqi
nationals of the Jewish faith."
"[Iraq's
claim to the house had no legal basis and was] purely and simply a
plunder. [An Iraqi law for] the dispossession of Jewish people from
their properties in Iraq when they returned to Israel [did not apply
here; not only does it abuse international human rights but because the
Lawees didn't leave in the airlift program and didn't settle in
Israel]."
"It
creates a very difficult situation for France, which occupies Jewish
property seized in violation of rules, values of our Republic, and
international law."
"Apparently
we did not understand each other well. This property is not the
property of France. This property is also not the property of Iraq
because it has been plundered and stolen."
"This building is the property of my clients and of them alone."
Lawyer Jean-Pierre Mignard
A historic aerial shot of the house, known in the family as Beit Lawee (Picture: courtesy of Philip Khazzam)
In
the 1930s in Iraq, two Iraqi Jewish businessmen, brothers Ezra Lawee
and Khedouri Lawee, built a grand house for joint co-occupation of their
two families. The mansion was built near the Tigris River, an area of
the Middle East once historically known as Mesopotamia. The mansion
boasts a stately entrance with stone steps curving before a round
portico of four columns under an ornate balcony. This is a building of
note which is central to a contentious international dispute. A building
that houses the embassy of France in Iraq. For which France pays rent
to the government of Iraq.
Iraq
confiscated the property when the Lawee family fled their country of
birth in the 1950s during a period of deadly pogroms. The descendants of
the original Lawee brothers quietly campaigned for decades for
compensation from France. Finally, they filed a lawsuit in Paris against
the French government. Prior to the authoritarian aura prevailing in
Iraq along with pogroms, tranquility for the Jewish minority prevailed
in the Muslim-majority country where Jews have lived for millennia.
Before 1950, the Jewish Iraqi demographic represented 3% of the entire
population.
Iraq
was receptive to the Nazi propaganda during the Second World War, as
was much of the Arab world at the time. What followed was a period of
mass violence against Jews. In 1948 when Israel declared its national
return to its ancestral Judean land mass, Iraq joined an Arab military
coalition that included Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, along with a
token Saudi Arabian contingent, to challenge the nascent Jewish state
and destroy its foundation. A battle that the combined armies failed to
win, against a basically impromptu Israeli military, fighting for its
very life.
The French Embassy in Baghdad, Dec. 31, 2020 X.com/@FranceBagdad
Discriminatory
laws, public violence, executions, looting and religious repression
followed, targeting the Arabized Jewish population throughout the Middle
East, forcing some 300,000 of them into exile, dispossessed of their
property and goods. An international airlift operation between 1951/52
brought Jews from Iraq to Israel, but the wealthy Lawee family chose to
travel to England, then New York, and finally to resettle in Canada, in
1954 where they re-established their business representing General
Motors in a dealership.
In
their absence from Iraq, a caretaker watched their property on their
behalf. Then in 1964, five years after achieving their Canadian
citizenship, the brothers leased their Iraqi mansion to the French
government in an agreement that encompassed the mansion, caretaker's
home, two garages and a walled garden and greenhouse, a prestigious
location for France with its investment and influence in Iraq. France
paid rent to the Lawee brothers, attested to by documents. Then suddenly
in 1970 the rental payments were cut off. Rather than pay the Lawee
owners of the property, France had agreed to pay the Iraqi government.
In
response the Lawee brothers sent government officials in Paris appeals
over the rent owing them, but no resolution appeared. Following the
defeat of Saddam Hussein, France continued its payment of rent to the
Iraqi government, ignoring the family's appeals. After years of war,
France resumed its presence at the Lawee mansion in 2004. The family
hired Lucien Bouchard, lawyer, former Quebec premier, to renew their
legal campaign. The Lawee brothers were still listed in Iraqi records as
owners of the property. Mr. Bouchard's interventions were
unsuccessful.
IRAQI JEWS in Israel protest their counterparts’ persecution under the Ba’ath regime. (Photo Credit Fritz Cohen)
Finally,
the family hired a lawyer in Paris. The lawyer they chose had influence
in high places in the French government. Jean-Pierre Mignard was close
to Francois Hollande, and supported Emmanuel Macron. He wrote to his
government in 2021 directly to France's foreign affairs minister. The
family supplied copies of 22 documents attesting to their ownership of
the property; comprised of architectural drawings, photos from the
1930s, title deeds, lease contracts, birth certificates, the Iraqi
passports of the brothers, and their wills. Still nothing.
The
value of the house and property fluctuates in estimates ranging from
$10 million to over $20 million (US). The family feels that France owes
them $10 million in rent never paid over the years. It is willing to
cede the property to French ownership, once their responsibility to
recompense the Lawee family follows through. Friday marked the deadline
for both sides' submissions of documentation to the administration court
in Paris, in this court battle. A trial is expected to take place in
2026.
"France refuses to acknowledge any responsibility, claiming that it is a decision made by the Iraqi government. This is false."
"France
could at least continue to pay the rent [to the owners] which would
indicate that it is not complicit in the spoliation of Iraq."
"We want France to be condemned, and we feel ashamed and sad because we are French lawyers and this is our country."
French lawyer Jean-Pierre Mignard
The French government has ignored the family's request for reparations. Getty Images
"In
September 2022 Imtiaz was part of a delegation that visited Israel to
know and learn with the goal of fostering interfaith dialogue and
people-to-people understanding."
"Last year, he bagged the Ambassador of Peace Award for his work."
"Unfortunately,
on September 17 this year, Imtiaz was ambushed by armed assailants for
voicing his opinion. He couldn't survive the assault and tragically died
on September 24, 2025."
"The
terrorist group Lashkar e TharAllah [Al-Hsseini Resistance] claimed
responsibility, explicitly citing his interfaith work and participation
in the Israel peace mission."
"This
act was not an act of random violence -- it was a calculated attempt to
silence a voice that wanted dialogue and bridge-building."
International Religious Freedom Roundtable
"They hire hundreds of people who do nothing else but track people [like me] and they're paid very well for it."
"How
it connects to me [Mir's murder], is that the murderers of Imtiaz Mir
were a terrorist outfit closely linked with the Iranian regime. And the
day after Imtiaz Mir's assassination, my family and friends received
phone calls asking for my whereabouts. Is this a coincidence? I think
not."
Canadian-Pakistani journalist Raheel Raza, 75
Raheel Raza's official Website
Raheel
Raza is a well-known and -respected critic of Islamic fundamentalism.
She had recently lost a friend and fellow journalist in Pakistan, victim
of sectarian violence who was assassinated as an enemy of Islam. She
heard later, from Iranian dissidents in California that her mail had
been infiltrated by hackers associated with the IRGC. The hackers are
known as APT35, or Charming Kitten. And they produced a report on her
work. "You are on Iran's radar", one of the dissidents warned her.
A
profile of Raza was published on an anonymous account known as
KittenBusters. Raaznet, a publication specializing in exposing mass
surveillance revealed this to be the case. "The
Charming Kitten leaks are more than a window into Iran's cyber command,
they are a rare glimpse into the bureaucratic soul of digital
authoritarianism: structured, methodical, and quietly ruthless", reported Raaznet on October 17.
"[The
IRGC profile of Raza doesn't contain any threats in terms of saying] go
out and kill her', or 'we are going to kill her'."
"But
what they do is they expose you. I'm a 75-year-old grandmother who's
just had a kidney transplant. Why would they want to have my photo out
there?"
"It's
the Salman Rushdie syndrome. They put it out there and then some young
Islamist looks at it and thinks -- this woman is against Iran and
against the regime. Ergo, she is against Islam, so she's a heretic, and I
go to heaven if I kill her."
"That's definitely my fear."
Raheel Raza
The
IRGC hackers' report on Raza has her photograph and explains in Farsi
that it was prepared with information taken by infiltrating her emails
from 2017 to 2021, noting that among the 23, 938 emails she sent in that
time frame they have commented: "She
is an advocate for banning the Islamic hijab and burqa in public
places. In 2023 Raza called on the Canadian government to block
immigration from 'terrorist' countries like Iran. She is a supporter of
Islamic reform and is the author of the book Their Jihad, Not My Jihad."
Raza's involvement with a group called the Muslims Facing Tomorrow Association is also in the IRGC report: "The
motto of this association is to create reforms in Islam, confront
violence and bigotry, and defend human rights. She has introduced
herself as a liberal Muslim and believes in gender equality, especially
for Muslim women".
Contacting
a senior member of the Toronto police, Raza asked what she should do.
That officer told her to check in with her local division about the
security breach. "They
sent two officers over but they couldn't quite figure out what this
ideology is about. One of them asked me: 'Have you reported this to the
Iranian embassy?' I just looked at her and said, 'There is no Iranian
embassy'." Mind-bogglingly, the Toronto Police Service officer had no idea that Canada has no diplomatic relations with Iran?!
The
Islamic Republic's notoriety in its support for terrorist organizations
led to Canada under the Conservative government of Stephen Harper,
closing down the Iranian Embassy and its Consulates in Canada, while
recalling Canadian diplomats from Iran, in 2012. Raheel Raza contacted
the federal RCMP through a lawyer about the IRGC threats, but heard
nothing back from them.
"This is absolutely consistent with a much broader pattern that we see systematically with Iran."
"The
idea of intimidation tactics to silence, tactics to smear, tactics to
discredit journalists, activists, human rights militants and so on --
this is something that Iran does on a very large scale."
"[The
attack on Rushdie] is an extreme case, in the sense that there was an
actual fatwa from the ruler. It came from the very top."
"[But]
the intensity of the tactics puts a massive toll on them [their
targets] a physical toll, an emotional toll, a psychological toll. It
slows down their work. It discredits them."
Thomas Juneau, professor of public and international affairs, University of Ottawa
And
there is this, about Canada and Iran. Although there are no diplomatic
relations between the two, and much hostility, and most
Iranian-Canadians abhor and deplore the Islamist regime in Iran, it is
well documented that Canada under its current Liberal government makes
no effort to remove Iranians from Canadian soil who are connected to the
regime, and who harass other Iranians, threatening them and making
their lives a constant trial. Reports to the government produce no
solutions, even when it has been proven that regime members live in
Canada and appear in public.
"I
have been a human rights activist all my life. My main work has been to
speak out against radicalization and extremism and Islamism. This has
been the constant battle", she states. Since the October 7 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel, Raheel Raza has "also
been a very vocal advocate of Israel's right to exist and to defend
itself. I've been there 13 times, and I work very closely with the
Jewish community", she explains. Which in and of itself is enough for the Iranian regime to loathe her and work to repress her voice.
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
