The Palestinian Hamas terror group known as Hamas has called on Muslims worldwide to stage a “Day of Jihad,” or holy war, on Friday, October 13th — coincidentally, a date that resonates with horror movies and the upcoming Halloween holiday.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)reported Hamas as saying:
We declare next Friday, ‘The Friday of the Al-Aqsa Flood,’ as a day of general mobilization in our Arab and Islamic world and among the free people of the world. It is a day to rally support, offer aid, and participate actively. It is a day to expose the crimes of the occupation, isolate it, and foil all its aggressive schemes. It is a day to demonstrate our love for Palestine, Jerusalem, and Al-Aqsa. It is a day for sacrifice, heroism, and dedication, and to earn the honor of defending the first Qibla of Muslims, the third holiest mosque, and the ascension of the trusted Messenger
We call upon the free people of the world to mobilize in solidarity with our Palestinian people and in support of their just cause and legitimate rights to freedom, independence, return, and self-determination.
The annual memorials of 9/11 felt a bit different this year. Even for me.. I have morbidly consumed 9/11 material each year starting around mid-August through the middle of September. I do this not for some macabre enjoyment, but instead it is truly to remember and place myself back into that timeline again. For a moment. To feel those emotions. To witness, again, the tragic events..
Have said before that it was a best of times and worst of times era for me personally. I had just turned 21 and had yet too be crushed by the perils of modern life and adulthood. It was late nights with friends and all you can eat garbage after bars.
On 9/11 it was coupled with the worst of times. This horrid notion that 3000 people can die within minutes on live TV with the entire United States government paralyzed.
It is odd to think, now 22 years later. As the years slowly tick away they seemingly become faster. Like a freight train losing control on tracks to the future! All of us are passengers whether we like it or not.
This year’s anniversary of 9/11 appears to cross into a new place.. one where many who experienced those events that day have aged or even passed away. It was a different era for me. No child, I had my mom and dad, and everyone had those huge tube TVs with bad pictures . Cell phones were gloriously huge. Yet somehow it seemed like technology worked better..
In going back to the past again this year, it was weird to hear the news anchors. They were so worked up and shook that day but their professionalism showed .. they held it together and narrated the end of the world for the country to hear and see. Politicians, though we know the truth that it’s all for show, also held it together and gave us advanced patriotic theater for the moment. They appeared strong even though we new behind the scenes they were stammering.
That was the element this year that stood out. The idea that when compared to 2001, how much we have changed.
It goes without saying that 9/11 changed everything. It changed everything SO much that if 9/11 happened today, 9/11 forever changed what our response to the attacks would be. Internet chaos. TikTok immediate conspiracy. Stumped politicians. News media that wouldn’t know how to talk without a script.
We sure did change.
That era of the 1990s is gone. It ended on 9/11. And now 22 years later it seems difficult to understand who we have all become, but more so what we never experienced and in the end what we all lost..
INVESTIGATORS have identified the suspect who shot at commuters on a smoke-filled subway train in Brooklyn Tuesday while wearing a gas mask.
The suspect was identified after investigators found a credit card at the scene, used to rent a U-Haul van connected to the incident, said law enforcement…
The van was found in Brooklyn but appears to be from Philadelphia..
X X X
The attack is NOT being investigated as an act of terrorism but authorities have not ruled anything out, the NYPD commissioner said. Investigators have cell phone video from an eyewitness that shows the suspect, sources say, and a U-Haul cargo van “connected with” the shooting has been located in Brooklyn alongwith a credit cardthat identified the suspect.
A federal law enforcement source toldNewsweekthe suspect was the previously known to the FBI, having been entered into the Guardian Lead system in New Mexico.
The system is the FBI’s way of coordinating information from other law enforcement partners about potential terrorism-related threats and suspicious activity reports.
While the world focuses its attention on Vlad’s aggression in Ukraine, the Saudi royal family just set a record: 81 men were executed in one day.
From what we know, Saudi Arabia killed them on Saturday. The number included seven from Yemen and one fro Syria for terrorism. Also “other offenses” that included holding “deviant beliefs.”
If you are keeping track, this number far outdid the 67 in 2021 and 27 in 2020. But the pandemic was raging. I guess that’s why we didn’t see the big numbers, right?
The interior ministry said this in a statement: “These individuals, totaling 81, were convicted of various crimes including murdering innocent men, women and children.”
“Crimes committed by these individuals also include pledging allegiance to foreign terrorist organizations, such as ISIS (Islamic State), al Qaeda and the Houthis.”
The kingdom did not say the way that the deaths occurred..
An armed suspect claiming to have bombs in unknown locations took a rabbi and three others hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, a source familiar with the situation told ABC News. One hostage was released uninjured at about 5 p.m. local time, Colleyville police said.
At about 9:30 p.m. local time, Abbott tweeted, “Prayers answered. All hostages are out alive and safe.”
Original story:
Authorities said a man took hostages Saturday during services at a Texas synagogue where the suspect could be heard ranting in a livestream and demanding the release of a Pakistani neuroscientist who was convicted of trying to kill U.S. Army officers in Afghanistan.
The Colleyville Police Department tweeted Saturday afternoon that it was conducting SWAT operations at the address of Congregation Beth Israel, northeast of Fort Worth.
At least four hostages were believed to be inside the synagogue, according to two law enforcement officials who were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. The synagogue’s rabbi was believed to be among the hostages, one of the officials said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Saturday released the first of what is expected to be several documents related to its investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and suspected Saudi government support for the hijackers, following an executive order by President Joe Biden.The newly declassified document, which is from 2016, provides details of the FBI’s work to investigate the alleged logistical support that a Saudi consular official and a suspected Saudi intelligence agent in Los Angeles provided to at least two of the men who hijacked planes on September 11, 2001. The document, released on the 20th anniversary of the deadly attacks, still contains significant redactions.It details multiple connections and witness testimony that prompted FBI suspicion of Omar al-Bayoumi, who was purportedly a Saudi student in Los Angeles but whom the FBI suspected to be a Saudi intelligence agent. The FBI document describes him as deeply involved in providing “travel assistance, lodging and financing” to help the two hijackers.
The Saudi embassy in Washington, DC, previously said Wednesday that it “welcomes the release of” the FBI documents and that “any allegation that Saudi Arabia is complicit in the September 11 attacks is categorically false.”
Today was a bad, bad day for President Joe Biden. But maybe worse for the United States.. and global stability..
The collapse of the Afghan government is the biggest foreign policy crisis of Biden’s presidency at this point..recalling setbacks for past presidents such as the withdrawal from Vietnam and the botched Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. The AP wrote in a fresh dispatch that the reverberations of the Taliban’s success were startling, endangering Afghan women and girls, posing new security threats and threatening to undercut global views of America’s reliability..
After Biden addressed the nation around 4pm, he flew back to Camp David again..
As he boarded Marine One, an image of him saluting appeared to featuring him covered in the late summer flies of August.
Other images showcased today are not pleasant.. they are actually graphic.
The fall of Saigon and Kabul are perfectly compared in this photo, chilling in similarities:
Other images were more harrowing.
People hanging on for dear life as a plane leaving the nation was swarmed with civilians attempting to escape for their lives… At least two died as they fell from the aircraft as it reached into the sky..
A war, 20 years in the making.. and an ending of the Taliban taking back over in just 20 hours …
Disturbing reports are already emerging from Afghanistan as the government collapsed and the Taliban seized power once again nearly 20 years after being driven out by the West.
There have already been reports throughout the advance of the Taliban of women being shot dead and girls as young as 12 being dragged from their homes to be “married”. Afghanistan’s descent into chaos has seen unverified reports emerge of thousands gathering to witness an execution in Kandahar at a sports stadium.
The media began to turn on Biden tonight in pure feeding frenzy style — even the fans at CNN and MSNBC questioned the Commander in Chief over decisions made in the past few days.
Decisions that included promises that the Taliban’s advance would NEVER be as fast it was..
Throughout the weekend, Biden had remained at the presidential retreat, receiving briefings on screens or over the phone while sitting alone at conference table. Advisers huddled separately to discuss when and how he should address the situation. When he returned to the White House midday Monday, many of his aides assumed he would at least spend the night. Yet almost as soon as Biden touched down in Washington, word went out that his stay at the executive mansion would be brief. After his 18-minute speech, Biden quickly decamped again for the mountains.
Meanwhile on Peacock: Former CIA Analyst and US veteran Matt Zeller said he was “appalled” by Joe Biden’s Afghanistan speech on Monday…
U.S. Army veteran Matt Zeller goes off on MSNBC about Biden’s remarks on Afghanistan:
Zeller: “I feel like I watched a different speech than the rest of you guys. I was appalled.” pic.twitter.com/eGC5tMBvy4
Those who made big pronouncements in 2001 when we invaded, all the while the smoke was still billowing out and embers were still smoldering at Ground Zero ….?
Bush? Cheney? Obama? Trump? Biden?
This war went on, and on, and on for 2 decades.
5 presidents
American service members killed in Afghanistan through April: 2,448.
U.S. contractors: 3,846.
Afghan national military and police: 66,000.
Other allied service members, including from other NATO member states: 1,144.
We have written about Mr. Leeds before. His name comes from the film LADY IN THE WATER. That movie was panned by critics and remains one of the most unpopular of the M. Night Shyamalan films–but we have always loved it. It’s a bed time story, a fable, and a beautiful tale about mundane lives of human beings that can become extraordinary when you least expect it. And characters who rise to an occasion as they are all equipped with hidden talents and deep purpose. True purpose..
In the film, Mr. Leeds plays an important role.. Played by actor Bill Irwin, Leeds is one of the tenants in the apartment building where a magical fairy tale will soon ensue.. but until it does, he is busy daily watching his television set of the latest scenes of chaos, strife, warfare and murder across the planet.
Shyamalan presents him as a stoic man, someone who watches chilling news broadcasts play out 24/7 in his living room in a silent agony.
So often through the years, when big news occurred, I pictured Mr. Leeds continuing to watch developments with his expressionless face–but taking it all in and craving for peace and love to take over the planet.
During LADY IN THE WATER, Leeds questions whether humanity should be saved in his dialogue in the film. He goes on to inspire the main character of the film at the most crucial time. And it leads to redemption–redemption of the entire group of apartment misfits that never realized the power of humanity to work as one.
2020 TO THE ‘NORMAL’
During the 2020 presidential race and COVID pandemic, we were reminded by the media and purveyors of clickbait on the socials that everything was wrong. Upside down. Abnormal..
The kind of life that even had Mr. Leeds contemplating throwing in the towel.
After the tumultuous election and eventual Inauguration of Joe Biden, Mr. Leeds and all of us watched the media portray the new presidency as a return to “normal.” A return to the mundane.. the life that Mr. Leeds had previously gotten used to. Sure 2020 threw a number of wrenches into his life, but he wanted his typical 6 o’clock news back.
So as 2021 took flight, we were ready to get back into normal!
Back to work! Offices reopening.. businesses back! Vaccines rolling out and sleeves rolling up.
Until Delta. Until Lambda.. And until a brand new variant took hold across the southern United States, including Florida, Texas, Mississippi, and even beginning in some vaccinated Northern states..
What about normal?
THE ABNORMAL NORMAL
Mr. Leeds had become very used to warfare on his newscasts. Reports of battle lines, reports of casualties and coffins draped with American flags were his normal in LADY IN THE WATER.
But now a new normal is playing out. Mr. Leeds feels right back at home again as war begins to become the top story…
President Joe Biden on Saturday doubled down on his previous decision to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan despite the Taliban’s rapid advances. However he pledged to send more troops to evacuate civilians and warned the insurgents not to threaten that mission.
After consultations with his national security team, Biden said a total of “approximately 5,000” US soldiers — up from 3,000 — will now help organize evacuations and the end of the US mission after 20 years on the ground.
He warned the Taliban that any action “that puts US personnel or our mission at risk there, will be met with a swift and strong US military response.”
“When I came to office,” Biden wrote, “I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor—which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019—that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001 and imposed a May 1, 2021 deadline on U.S. Forces. Shortly before he left office, he also drew U.S. Forces down to a bare minimum of 2,500.”
Biden faced a choice as his presidency began, to either follow through on the deal, “or ramp up our presence and send more American troops to fight once again in another country’s civil conflict.”
“I was the fourth President to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan—two Republicans, two Democrats,” he concluded. “I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.”
The working assumption in Biden’s inner circle had been that Kabul could hold for the short term, allowing the U.S. to stay diplomatically engaged and help Afghan women secure their rights beyond the U.S. withdrawal.
Some who read this today were not alive like us, and Mr. Leeds, in 1993.
During that year, when Bill Clinton launched a hasty withdrawal of troops (Bush put them there to feed the hungry and do a ‘humanitarian mission’ in 1992), things got out of control, as illustrated by this TIME magazine cover in October 1993:
Pictures on the cover: Michael Durant. He was held prisoner for 11 days..
The images can still be found today. Media had them at the time but immediately stopped showing.
But Mr. Leeds saw them.. It affected him greatly. It taught him the horrors of war, and the evils of humanity… He doesn’t forget.
And that, my friends, is why Mr. Leeds today is a little worried. A little concerned about what will occur in Afghanistan.
He is torn..
20 years in this nation, and for what?
For the same towns once liberated of the Taliban to be taken over by the Taliban two decades after 9/11..
Officially the Pentagon says there are about 2,500 American troops serving in Afghanistan as part of an advise-and-assist mission to help Afghan security forces. However, U.S. officials have acknowledged the number is higher as U.S. counterterrorism forces are not counted in the official training mission number.
As the Taliban takes hold, inch by inch, women are back in Burqas. Where are the Woke Crowds to lament? People are back in fear.. Mr. Leeds knows that we cannot be nation builders. But what is the right way to withdraw vs. the wrong way..? What is worse?
Hackers were able to launch cyberattacks on more than 24 other companies across a range of industries after shutting down the Colonial Pipeline, according to reports.
At least two dozen other victims – which have not been named – were also affected by the ransomware attack, Bloomberg reported. They were helped by private-sector companies and US agencies who helped disrupt the hack, the news agency said.
On Monday DarkSide posted an apology on the dark web, Vice reported, and said they did not want ‘social consequences’, nor did they seek political influence.
White House officials have warned the attack shows just how vulnerable the US is to such events. President Joe Biden said Monday: ‘We need to invest to safeguard our critical infrastructure.’
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the attack ‘tells you how utterly vulnerable we are’ to cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure.
“Our goal is to make money and not creating problems for society,” DarkSide wrote on its website.
HERE IS THE FBI STATEMENT ON THE COMPROMISE OF COLONIAL PIPELINE: The FBI confirms that the Darkside ransomware is responsible for the compromise of the Colonial Pipeline networks. We continue to work with the company and our government partners on the investigation.
Gas stations along the U.S. East Coast are beginning to run out of fuel as North America’s biggest petroleum pipeline races to recover from a paralyzing cyberattack that has kept it shut for days. From Virginia to Florida and Alabama, stations are reporting that they’ve sold out of gasoline as supplies in the region dwindle and panic buying sets in. An estimated 7% of gas stations in Virginia were out of fuel as of late Monday, according to GasBuddy analyst Patrick DeHaan. The White House said in a statement it is monitoring the situation and directing government agencies to help alleviate any shortages. Colonial Pipeline Co. said it’s manually operating a segment of the pipeline running from North Carolina to Maryland and expects to substantially restore all service by the weekend.
Major news organizations are reporting: A hacker group called DarkSide is reportedly behind the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline that shut down a major oil pipeline over the weekend..
DarkSide makes ransomware hacking tools, but only largely goes after for-profit companies from English-speaking countries.
MORE:
According to Boston-based Cybereason, DarkSide is an organized group of hackers set up along the “ransomware as a service” business model, meaning the DarkSide hackers develop and market ransomware hacking tools, and sell them to other criminals who then carry out attacks. Think of it as the evil twin of a Silicon Valley software start-up.
