MintPress News

1. The Resistance Is Not Dead, With Ghadi Francis

The coming year is promising to be a crucial one in the history of West Asia. Just weeks have passed since the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad and his replacement with pro-Western leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

Syria was a key member of the so-called "Axis of Resistance" – a coalition of actors opposing Israel and its actions. What will Assad's departure mean for the resistance against Israel, especially given Jolani's overt friendliness with Tel Aviv? Given their new government, what is in store for Lebanon and Hezbollah now? And how about Iraq and Yemen?

To discuss all of this and more is returning guest, Ghadi Francis. Ghadi is an author, journalist, and war correspondent who has covered the situations in Syria and Palestine in great detail. Born in Lebanon, she is the author of the book "My pen and pain: One hundred days in Syria" (2012).

Last month, Ghadi joined The MintCast to discuss the fallout of Israel's attack on its neighbors. During the interview, she set her sights on the Erdoğan administration in Ankara, stating that "Türkiye is as expansionist as Israel – and it is not new!"

We lived in a nation that was called 'Greater Syria' that was occupied by the Ottomans for around 300 years. And it stretched from Lebanon to Syria to Iraq. Nineveh, Aleppo, all of that was occupied by the Ottomans. We were part of the Ottoman Empire. We were ruled by them in a dictatorship and in an occupation."

The defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War, she said, did not bring an end to this occupation. "When you look at the map today, southern Türkiye is nothing but northern occupied Syria. Gaziantep Diyarbakır, Mardin – these are areas that are historically Syria, not Türkiye," she added.

Despite Assad's ouster, Francis is convinced that the resistance to Israeli occupation is far from over. Today, she says, some of the most principled and committed solidarity with Palestine comes from Yemen. "God bless Yemen and the Yemeni people," she said, noting that Yemen is the most impoverished nation in the region but also the most courageous.

Yemen has faced years of Saudi-led bombing, as well as months of U.S. attacks, and yet it has stood up to those and continued to resist. "What can the Americans do?" asked Francis; "Yemen is a vast nation. They have nothing to lose, and they have everything to win," she added.

Francis recently returned from a trip to Iraq, where she was impressed by the rebirth of the country after decades of occupation. Unlike Yemen, she assessed, Iraq is not in a position to face down the might of either the U.S. or Israel. "If the Iraqis continue to resist on their own and they get attacked by the Israelis, nobody is going to protect them," she said. "So if they refrain for a while from being in active resistance operations and, rather, being a good and strong community…this itself is a great achievement."

Mnar Adley is an award-winning journalist and editor and is the founder and director of MintPress News. She is also president and director of the non-profit media organization Behind the Headlines. Adley also co-hosts the MintCast podcast and is a producer and host of the video series Behind The Headlines. Contact Mnar at mnar@mintpressnews.com or follow her on Twitter at @mnarmuh.

MintPress News is a fiercely independent media company. You can support us by becoming a member on Patreon, bookmarking and whitelisting us, and subscribing to our social media channels, including YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Also, check out rapper Lowkey's video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog.

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2. The Burning Questions: LA Fire Cuts vs. Billions for Israel and Ukraine

As Los Angeles battles historic wildfires, residents are demanding accountability for why the city's fire department faced budget cuts while greater disaster preparedness measures were overlooked. These frustrations have fueled questions about the prioritization of aid to Israel and Ukraine.

Just months before the wildfires ravaged the city, LA Mayor Karen Bass approved the budget for the next fiscal year, which included a $17.5 million reduction to the fire department's funding. The department's budget slashed to $819.64 million, prompted warnings from Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, who cautioned that the cuts were already impeding emergency response capabilities.

All of this comes amid a revelation that the State of California has sent approximately $610 million in taxpayer funds to Israel, making it the most significant state contributor to Israeli aid in the U.S. This disparity gained attention online after Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson suggested imposing conditions on federal disaster relief for Los Angeles.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has been a staunch advocate of unconditional aid for Israel, notably championing a $74 billion aid package in April 2024 that included $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel, despite mounting public and congressional pressure to curtail such transfers. Specifically, the Leahy Law, named after its author, former Senator Patrick Leahy, prohibits the transfer of military aid to nations credibly accused of committing human rights abuses. In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Leahy urged that the law be applied to Israel, arguing that ongoing rights violations demand accountability and adherence to U.S. legal standards.

Mike Johnson wants to put conditions on aid to those affected by the fires in California – but didn't allow one condition on the more than $100 billion in aid we gave to Ukraine or the more than $20 billion we gave to Israel.

Once again, the American ppl come last. https://t.co/5vqKhNa8GV

— Prof Zenkus (@anthonyzenkus) January 13, 2025

In October 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden drafted a $100 billion aid package for Ukraine and Israel—a striking coincidence, as this is the same amount now proposed to confront the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles. The announcement of a one-time payment of $770 to each wildfire victim by the administration has drawn mixed reactions, with some calling it a necessary gesture while others see it as woefully inadequate. This announcement came mere days after the White House informed Congress of its intention to send an additional $8 billion in military aid to Israel.

Although the aid package isn't a cash handout to Israelis, the cost of the military aid package would be the equivalent of handing each Israeli over $820. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. aid in history, amounting to a total of over $250 billion in American taxpayers' dollars, at least $25 billion of which has been publicly disclosed to have been sent since the beginning of the war in Gaza. At a time when U.S. domestic crises demand urgent attention, the government's unwavering commitment to foreign aid for Israel continues unabated.

The concern extends beyond monetary figures. Cities across the U.S. struggle to provide safe drinking water, veterans face mounting suicides due to inadequate access to healthcare, and Los Angeles grapples with a homelessness crisis. Experts estimate that $22 billion—roughly equivalent to the aid Israel received in a year—could eliminate homelessness in LA over the course of a decade. Meanwhile, Israelis enjoy clean drinking water year-round and are even expanding their control to include six key water sources in southern Syria, in contravention of international law.

Feature photo | Locals help a firefighter stretch a hose as an apartment building burns, Jan. 8, 2025, in the Altadena section of Pasadena, Calif. Chris Pizzello | AP

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show 'Palestine Files'. Director of 'Steal of the Century: Trump's Palestine-Israel Catastrophe'. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

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3. Sarah Adams and the Return of the Iraq War Playbook

A network of former intelligence operatives has woven itself into the fabric of right-wing alternative media, amplifying anti-Muslim scare narratives that appear aimed at countering a noted decline in conservative support for Israel since October 7, 2023. Central to this effort is Sarah Adams, a figure promoting conspiracies about a supposed Palestinian-linked Al-Qaeda plot against the West.

On December 12, 2024, Adams appeared on the Shawn Ryan Show for a two-hour interview that quickly amassed over 2.5 million views on YouTube. Shorter excerpts have gained further traction across social media platforms.

The central theme of Adams's podcast appearance is her assertion that Al-Qaeda is planning a series of large-scale attacks on civilian targets in the West, claiming the Hamas-led October 7 attack was "only the beginning." She elaborates on the alleged threats while positioning herself as a Pentagon critic, accusing the U.S. government of ignoring its own intelligence.

Throughout the interview, Adams frequently references Hamas, often in contexts where the connection seems tenuous, reinforcing the conflation of disparate narratives under a singular alarmist frame. She even attempted to connect Hamas to the 9/11 attacks, hearkening back to the days leading up to the Iraq War, when fantastic claims were made without being challenged and tenuous connections promoted as evidence of the pressing threats against Americans.

"Al-Qaeda found the building 7 conspiracy stuff fascinating," Adams claims, referencing theories that question the events surrounding the September 11 attacks. She elaborates, stating, "They [Al-Qaeda] actually had discussions on how we can do ruses and bring in the building 7 people to blame their government more. So they are actually looking at our conspiracies and targeting those people for the homeland attack. Basically, those people almost back Al-Qaeda, as 'revolutionaries' and 'rebels' and 'heroes' against our government, kind of like how the Hamas supporters do it."

A former CIA contractor, Shawn Ryan has built his own reputation for entertaining provocative and often unsubstantiated claims. Earlier in January, he interviewed another ex-intelligence officer who made another unsubstantiated and outlandish claim: that Iranian missiles had been smuggled into the United States.

The girl who told us if we question the collapse of Building 7 we are helping the Taliban is even talking shit about Gorka.pic.twitter.com/k0wmcDWOaP

— RyanMatta (@RyanMattaMedia) January 10, 2025

 

A Recycled Narrative

Both Sarah Adams and Shawn Ryan are riding a new wave of anti-Muslim frenzy reminiscent of the lead-up to so-called the first War on Terror that has taken hold across social media. Adams, a former CIA operative elevated to the status of a whistleblower, has positioned herself as a harbinger of warning for the West, claiming to expose an alleged Al-Qaeda plot with Palestinian ties.

Ryan, who recently appeared on the Joe Rogan Podcast, is a conservative, conspiracy-leaning commentator critical of the U.S. government. During his conversation with Rogan, Ryan remarked, "My podcast was started with all my former colleagues," as part of a broader point about the consensus within the military and intelligence community that the Iraq War was a disaster. The exchange caught wider attention when it was shared on X by none other than its CEO, Elon Musk.

Adams, meanwhile, has embraced her role as a self-styled whistleblower, amplifying her message on the Tudor Dixon Podcast on January 9. Dixon, a conservative commentator with frequent appearances on Fox News and Newsmax, provided another stage for Adams's alarmist claims. While her statements often veer into the explosive and outlandish, her central assertion remains consistent: that the U.S. government is ignoring the presence of thousands of Al-Qaeda militants allegedly embedded within the United States.

Former CIA intelligence expert @TPASarah: "The terrorists are already here. The plan is operational." pic.twitter.com/mbAwFROGjy

— Tudor Dixon (@TudorDixon) January 10, 2025

A former Secret Service agent, Scott Bryson, emerged suddenly in the aftermath of the New Year's Day car-ramming attack in New Orleans and the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas, posting a video urging viewers to heed Adams's warnings. "I think it's here," Bryson concluded ominously. Though relatively unknown, Bryson recently launched a show called "Beyond the Service." His video gained traction after being shared by prominent conservative Trump supporter Juanita Broaddrick, amassing 6.8 million views on X (formerly Twitter).

"They are going to get the same October 7 attack in Europe as we're getting in the U.S.," Adams claims, pushing her conspiracy linking Hamas to a plot involving Al-Qaeda operatives planning "multi-coordinated attacks" across the West. Adams repeatedly intertwines her narrative about the alleged planned attacks with references to October 7, suggesting an alliance between Hamas and Al-Qaeda.

Adams also alleges that Al-Qaeda was aware of the October 7  attack in advance and asserts it was merely the opening act in a broader series of planned assaults against the West. She goes so far as to claim that Hamas trained in Afghanistan to prepare for its assault on Israel. These allegations are presented without evidence, and notably, even the Israeli government has not made such claims.

Adams has built a reputation on outlandish and unsubstantiated claims, including her assertion that Al-Qaeda's special forces are more advanced than the Taliban's—a claim entirely devoid of evidence. This penchant for hyperbole was on full display in a July 13, 2024, tweet, where she attempted to link Mohammed Deif, the elusive commander of Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades, to Al-Qaeda.

"Important to note—Deif was also a close associate of the now-deceased 2012 #CIAAnnex in #Benghazi mastermind #WissamBinHumaid," she wrote. "Yes, the #terrorist responsible for the deaths of our brothers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Prior to his death and according to Hamas spokesman Abu Obaida Wissam was one of the top weapons suppliers to the Al-Qassem Brigades"[sic].

The assertion is, at best, an elaborate stretch. Abu Obaida, the spokesperson for the al-Qassam Brigades, never made such a statement publically, and there is no credible evidence linking him to Al-Qaeda. Deif himself remains a shadowy figure, so enigmatic that only two known photographs of him exist. Compounding the absurdity, Hamas has actively suppressed Al-Qaeda's influence in Gaza, making the purported alliance fantastical at best.

Even the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a bastion of neoconservative thought, and a reliable proponent of Israeli interests, doesn't partake in such dangerous speculation. WINEP, who was instrumental in manufacturing public consent for the Iraq war, has argued that Al-Qaeda has sought to exploit the Gaza crisis for propaganda purposes but stops short of claiming any partnership between Hamas and Al-Qaeda. Adams's rhetoric is more extreme than even the most hawkish think tanks. Yet, because she packages her conspiracies under the guise of government critique, she can grant her assertions a false veneer of credibility.

 

Who is Sarah Adams?

Far from being the "outsider" or ex-CIA "whistleblower" she markets herself as, Adams has a well-documented history within the U.S. government. Under the Biden administration, she worked as a Program Analyst for the Air Force, where her role focused on the Concepts, Development, and Management Office's Intelligence Systems Support Office (ISSO).

To this day, Adams remains firmly tied to government work. Given the rising skepticism among Republicans about U.S. foreign aid, with 42% believing the government is providing too much assistance to Ukraine, it is unlikely that Adams' conservative audience is aware that she not only served as Chief of Operations for the Ukraine NGO Coordination Network (UNCN) but also serves as Vice President of Ukraine Operations at Heart of an Ace Inc.

Adams's professional connections further complicate the narrative of her as an independent whistleblower. She is an advisor to Metis Analytics, a predictive geospatial intelligence company specializing in threat detection. Notably, the company's purchase page features an image of the Gaza Strip. Metis Analytics maintains a partnership with Fox2sierra, a security consulting firm headquartered in Tel Aviv, San Antonio, and New York. The firm is led by Israel "Izzy" Fried, a former Israeli soldier who has openly voiced support for Tel Aviv's ongoing war against Gaza.

Fox2sierra's activities extend to providing services to the illegal West Bank settlement of Barkan. A LinkedIn post by Fried about the firm's work in the settlement even tagged Adams. Adams is also a Senior Consultant for Wolf Global, a crisis management legal firm whose president touts recognition from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) among his accolades. Adams's affiliations paint a portrait not of a detached government critic but of an active participant in a network deeply entwined with U.S. and Israeli intelligence and security interests. Notably, despite her access to government intelligence circles, Adams provides no sources for her claims; her information is disseminated solely on the strength of her credentials. Moreover, she is propped up within a network of media personalities, nearly all of whom maintain ties to government agencies and private security firms.

Her oddly specific warnings about alleged Al-Qaeda conspiracies and the supposed number of militants involved raise important questions. If she genuinely possessed detailed intelligence about such a large-scale operation—allegedly beginning with the October 7, 2023, attack—would her public disclosures not alert the militants that their plans had already been exposed to U.S. intelligence? Such revelations seem counterintuitive if the threat were as imminent and coordinated as she claims.

The content Adams promotes appears to be strategically tailored for a conservative audience in the United States, a demographic historically more inclined to support foreign interventions when framed as responses to threats against American security. This approach mirrors the messaging seen in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, where fear played a central role in garnering public approval for the war.

Yet the public's trust in major media outlets has eroded significantly as their credibility and influence continue to wane. Increasingly, audiences are turning to social media platforms to find information they perceive as more reliable. The rise of X (formerly Twitter) as the top global news app reflects this shift. According to the Pew Research Center, Republicans and younger Americans are now as likely to trust social media as traditional broadcast news. Simultaneously, the Gaza war has contributed to a decline in support for Israel across the political spectrum.

Media outlets that once shaped public opinion during Washington's "War on Terror," providing legitimacy to an otherwise unpopular war, now face declining trust. Yet, their past effectiveness cannot be denied. A month before the invasion of Iraq, 83% of Republicans and 52% of Democrats supported the war. By 2019, a majority of Americans had come to believe the war was not worth waging.

There is no question that media complicity in promoting falsehoods—such as Saddam Hussein's alleged ties to al-Qaeda and supposed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction—played a central role in generating public support for the invasion. Today, these outlets, often labeled by alternative media voices as "legacy media," no longer command the public trust they once enjoyed. Ironically, the tactics once weaponized by corporate media appear to have simply been retooled for "new media" platforms.

Feature photo |Illustration by MintPress News

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show 'Palestine Files'. Director of 'Steal of the Century: Trump's Palestine-Israel Catastrophe'. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

The post Sarah Adams and the Return of the Iraq War Playbook appeared first on MintPress News.

4. Pro-ISIS Accounts Surge on Meta After Assad’s Ouster

Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, fears of a renewed ISIS insurgency have intensified. MintPress News has uncovered that, despite Meta's previously strict policies on banning terrorism-related content, ISIS-linked accounts have been posting freely on its platforms.

Although Meta previously removed 26 million pieces of terrorism-related content—an impressive 99% of such material on its platform—MintPress News has revealed that content supporting ISIS, often referred to by its pejorative epithet 'Daesh' in the Arab world, is now flourishing on the platform. Many of these accounts are based in regions of Syria historically known as strongholds for the extremist group.

In early 2020, following the U.S. drone strike that assassinated Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)'s Quds Force, Meta's platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, swiftly began removing posts featuring images of Soleimani. Meta implemented measures to detect and block such images, preventing users from posting them altogether.

Similarly, videos commemorating the late Secretary General of Hezbollah, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, were swiftly targeted and removed by Facebook for allegedly violating the platform's guidelines. In October 2024, The Intercept revealed that Meta's Israel policy chief, Jordana Cutler—a former senior Israeli government official—had actively advocated for censoring pro-Palestine accounts across Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

These efforts included targeting prominent organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

However, following the rebel offensive that overthrew Assad, there appears to be a resurgence of openly pro-ISIS content that Meta has yet to address. For instance, a pro-ISIS Facebook user posted an image of former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi held up at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. The post, which glorifies al-Baghdadi, has remained on the platform since December 22, garnering over 1,000 likes and countless supportive comments.

A series of seemingly pro-ISIS accounts have emerged, concentrated in areas such as Binish, Sarmeen, Jarablous, Manbij, Palmyra and Deir Ezzor—regions historically known as strongholds for the terrorist group. New accounts appear daily, with some prominently displaying ISIS flags as their profile pictures.

These accounts frequently post speeches by ISIS leaders, which remain active on the platform and often garner hundreds of likes and comments. These include videos of the group's fighters parading with weapons in the back of SUVs, attracting significant attention and interaction on the platform.

Notably, Facebook had previously taken significant measures to ban and censor this type of content. In July 2020, the London-based think tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) published a study on ISIS propaganda, highlighting Facebook's past efforts. The report revealed that, over a two-year period, Facebook removed 99% of what it classified as terrorism-related posts, amounting to approximately 26 million pieces of content.

The surge in popularity of pro-ISIS content, which has evidently followed the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, contrasts sharply with the relentless censorship of such material in the past. Previously, engaging with ISIS propaganda online required navigating a labyrinth of accounts that often employed cryptic language to obscure their affiliations.

The surge also comes amid numerous warnings from experts and officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, about the group's attempts by ISIS and its affiliates to exploit the chaos in Syria to stage a revival. These warnings underscore the critical need for vigilance in countering extremist propaganda, yet the response from platforms like Meta has been inconsistent.

Meta recently announced plans to scrap its "fact-checker" system and replace it with "community notes," a change pitched as a step away from overt censorship. However, this shift appears to have coincided with a more lenient approach to pro-ISIS content, even as pro-Palestinian content continues to face shadow bans and restrictions.

A Syrian military analyst with direct insight into the country's security landscape, speaking on the condition of anonymity, provided MintPress with a sobering assessment of the chaos following the overthrow of Assad's government. "Weapons depots are open around the country, which many terrorist groups could easily supply themselves from," the analyst explained. "There is no real state or security apparatus here yet."

The source further revealed that there had already been a significant uptick in extremist activity over the past year, including operations by ISIS members in areas such as Eastern Hama. "The ISIS terrorists had started to make a comeback before the fall of the regime, which is why the U.S. was even launching airstrikes in territory technically held by the Syrian state last year," the analyst explained.

He added, "These people are not happy with Ahmad al-Shara'a. They believe that he sold them out, that he betrayed their cause." Ahmad al-Shara'a, Syria's new de-facto leader, only recently resumed using his given name. He was previously known as Abu-Mohammad al-Jolani, a moniker he adopted during his tenure as a leader of ISIS and later Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

To Meta's credit, Syria's myriad other militant groups, even those backed by the United States, are often flush with former ISIS fighters. This can make it difficult to differentiate between the grFor example, Jund al-Aqsa, initially an affiliate of the al-Nusra Front, was heavily populated by former ISIS members. The situation became so fraught that al-Shara'a, then leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, launched a military offensive in 2017 to crush the rebranded group in Idlib, accusing it of serving as a front for ISIS.

Even the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), close allies of the U.S. government,  were not immune to such overlaps. The SDF's "Deir Ezzor Military Council" reportedly included numerous former ISIS fighters.

There is growing chatter online about a potential ISIS resurgence during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, fueling anxiety within Syria. Such a revival could notably serve to justify the continued presence of U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria under the pretext of combating terrorism through "Operation Inherent Resolve." This could provide the U.S. with a rationale to increase its troop numbers in the region, which some experts anticipate, despite murmuring that the Trump administration may have its eye on winding down the U.S. military presence in the country.

An ISIS resurgence would also pose a significant challenge for Turkiye, which currently seeks to target the SDF in northeastern Syria. A renewed insurgency could blunt Ankara's efforts by creating additional instability, complicating its military objectives.

Following Israel's largest-ever air campaign, which decimated much of Syria's military infrastructure, the country now lacks the air power necessary to combat a potential ISIS insurgency. The power vacuum left behind has not yet been effectively addressed by the new HTS-led administration. Compounding the issue is the absence of key actors who previously countered ISIS on the ground—Russia, Iran, Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and Hezbollah are no longer actively engaged in Syria, removing a critical layer of resistance against the extremist group. Meta, it seems, has left its own vacuum, allowing Syria's myriad extremist groups to rebuild their ranks unhindered.

Feature photo | Syrian militants take a selfie in downtown Hama, Syria, Dec. 6, 2024. Omar Albam | AP.

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show 'Palestine Files'. Director of 'Steal of the Century: Trump's Palestine-Israel Catastrophe'. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

The post Pro-ISIS Accounts Surge on Meta After Assad's Ouster appeared first on MintPress News.

5. From Genocide Joe to Trump’s Israel First: What’s Next for Palestine?”

As President Biden greenlights another $8 billion in weapons to Israel in his last days in office and Secretary Blinken gives a parting New York Times interview in which he denies that a genocide is taking place in Gaza, many pro-Palestine activists are anxiously counting down the days until "Genocide Joe" and his crew exit the White House. But what will activists have to contend with under the Trump presidency?

Donald Trump proved his pro-Israel agenda in his first term by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, supporting West Bank settlements, recognizing the Golan Heights as part of Israel, pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and enacting the Abraham Accords to normalize relations between Israel and Arab states, while disregarding the plight of Palestinians. Recently, Trump has said that the U.S. should let Israel "finish the job," warned that there will be "all hell to pay" if the hostages aren't released by the time he takes office, and threatened to blow Iran to smithereens.

Trump has signaled his intentions this time around by the people he has selected for key positions. Mike Huckabee, his pick for U.S. ambassador to Israel, is a religious fanatic who doesn't think Israeli settlements are illegal and says, "There is no such thing as a West Bank. It's Judea and Samaria [the territory's biblical name, revived in Israeli propaganda]." He even insists there is no such thing as a Palestinian. Elise Stefanik, Trump's pick for U.S. ambassador to the UN, used her position in Congress to stifle free speech on college campuses and advocates deporting pro-Palestinian protesters who have student visas.

What about Congress? While the 118th Congress was overwhelmingly pro-Israel, the new one, with both the Senate and the House under Republican control, will be even more aggressively biased. Members want to pass a host of horrific bills that will further cement U.S. ties to the Israeli government, punish international actors that dare try to hold Israel accountable and repress the domestic movement for Palestinian rights. This legislation includes a bill that equates criticism of Israel with anti-semitism, a bill that gives the Treasury Department the power to investigate non-profit groups for links to "terrorism" and then shut them down, a bill to sanction the International Criminal Court for issuing an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, a bill to make permanent the U.S. ban on funding the relief agency UNRWA, and a bill to cancel trade agreements with South Africa because of its genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice.

And, of course, we can't leave out the challenges posed by three powerful forces: AIPAC, Christian Zionists and military contractors. Best known is the lobby group AIPAC, which used its financial muscle in the recent elections to knock out two of the most pro-Palestinian members of Congress, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman, leaving others terrified of becoming AIPAC targets. Lesser known but enormously influential are the tens of millions of Christian Zionists, who are driven by the radical belief that Israel is key to Jesus' return to Earth after a bloody final battle of Armageddon in which only those who accept Jesus as their savior will survive. Christian Zionists—already numerous in Congress, the White House and even the military—will be emboldened by Trump.

The third powerful lobby group is the military contractors, which has more lobbyists than members of Congress. Thanks to the $18 billion that Congress allocated for Israel in 2024, weapons stocks have soared over the past year, dramatically outperforming the major stock indexes.

But there are countervailing forces as well. The American public has become more and more sympathetic to Palestinians. A November opinion poll showed that, despite the pro-Israel bias of our government and corporate media, most Americans (63 percent) want a ceasefire, and 55 percent think the U.S. should not provide unrestricted financial and military assistance to the Israeli government.

This is especially true among young people and among Democrats. And with a Republican in the White House, more Democrats in positions of power should be willing to oppose Israel's actions since they will no longer be defying their own party's president. And it's not just Democrats. Many Trump supporters oppose U.S. involvement in overseas wars, and Trump himself, on the campaign trail, repeatedly claimed that he wants to bring peace to the Middle East.

Worldwide, more countries are not only voting for a ceasefire at the UN but taking concrete measures to hold Israel accountable. The long list of countries and parties that have either submitted or announced their intention to join South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice includes Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ireland, Jordan, Libya, Maldives, Mexico, Namibia, Nicaragua, Palestine, Spain, Türkiye and the Arab League. Countries that have either banned, limited or announced their intention to embargo arms to Israel include Italy, Spain, the UK, Canada, Belgium, The Netherlands, Türkiye, Russia and China.

In the coming year, the Palestine solidarity movement must find and expand the cracks in the pro-Israel war machine. It must strengthen the spine of Democrats who live in fear of AIPAC and reach out to Republicans who oppose funding foreign conflicts. The same arguments many Republicans make about defunding Ukraine must be applied to Israel. Activists must expand campaigns against companies supporting Israel's genocide, as well as efforts at the state, city, labor, university, faith-based and sectoral levels to condemn Israel's actions and promote divestment. The recent resolution by the American Historical Association condemning "scholasticide" is a good example.

While activists are bracing for a torrent of Trump policies that will create even more global and domestic chaos, including increased attacks on pro-Palestine organizations and individuals, the U.S. movement must be as resolute as the Palestinians themselves, who have demonstrated that, no matter what Israel does to destroy them, they remain determined to resist. The year 2025, with Donald Trump in the White House, will not be a time for despair or retreating in fear but a time for action.

Feature photo | A counter-protester shows his yarmulke and Trump hat during a pro-Palestine protest of the administration of the City University of New York's (CUNY) stance on Israel's unrelenting bombing of civilians in Gaza at the CUNY Chancellors Office on December 5, 2023 in New York City. Michael Nigro | AP

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of CODEPINK and author of Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the US-Saudi Connection. Her new book is Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic.

The post From Genocide Joe to Trump's Israel First: What's Next for Palestine?" appeared first on MintPress News.

6. Raffi Berg: BBC Middle East Editor Exposed as CIA, Mossad Collaborator

A senior BBC editor at the center of an ongoing scandal into the network's systematic pro-Israel bias is, in fact, a former member of a CIA propaganda outfit, MintPress News can reveal. Raffi Berg, an Englishman who heads the BBC's Middle East desk, formerly worked for the U.S. State Department's Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a unit that, by his own admission, was a CIA front group.

Berg is currently the subject of considerable scrutiny after thirteen BBC employees spoke out, claiming, among other things, that his "entire job is to water down everything that's too critical of Israel" and that he holds "wild" amounts of power at the British state broadcaster, that there exists a culture of "extreme fear" at the BBC about publishing anything critical of Israel, and that Berg himself plays a key role in turning its coverage into "systematic Israeli propaganda." The BBC has disputed these claims.

 

Our Man in London

Berg came to public attention in December after Drop Site News published an investigation based on interviews with 13 BBC staffers who present him as a domineering figure, systematically blocking coverage critical of Israel and manipulating stories to suit pro-Israel narratives.

The 9000-word report, written by popular journalist Owen Jones, is extensive and well-researched. However, one aspect of the story it almost completely avoids is Berg's connections to the U.S. national security state, which MintPress News can now reveal.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Berg was an employee of the U.S. State Department's Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) three years before joining the BBC. The FBIS is understood the world over to be a CIA front group known for gathering intelligence for the agency.

As the first two lines of its Wikipedia entry read:

The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) was an open source intelligence component of the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Science and Technology. It monitored, translated, and disseminated within the U.S. government openly available news and information from media sources outside the United States.

In 2005, the FBIS was subsumed into the CIA's new Open Source Enterprise.

Berg does not dispute that he was, in fact, a CIA man. In fact, according to a 2020 interview with The Jewish Telegraph, he was "absolutely thrilled" to be secretly working for the agency. Berg said, "One day, I was taken to one side and told, 'you may or may not know that we are part of CIA, but don't go telling people.'" He was unsurprised by this news, as the application process was extremely long and rigorous. "They went through my character and background with a fine tooth comb, asking if I had ever visited communist countries and, if I had, did I form any relationships while I was there," he said.

 

Mossad Collaborator

The CIA, however, is not the only clandestine spy organization with which Berg has a long history of collaborating. He also has a rich professional relationship with Mossad, Israel's premier intelligence agency.

In 2020, for instance, Berg published "Red Sea Spies: The True Story of Mossad's Fake Diving Resort," a book that tells the story of the Israeli operation to clandestinely smuggle Ethiopian Jews into Israel. That the 320-page account lionizes Israel and its spies is perhaps unsurprising, considering how much input Mossad had in its creation. Berg said that he wrote the book "in collaboration" with Mossad commander Dani Limor, whom he relied on extensively, as he, in his own words, knew "next to nothing" about the story and its background before writing it. Limor opened numerous doors and was able to secure "over 100 hours of interviews" with Israeli military and intelligence officials, including with the head of Mossad.

Limor and Berg became extremely close friends. In 2020, he posted a picture of himself with his arm around the ex-Mossad commander. The first page of "Red Sea Spies" is simply a glowing recommendation from Efraim Halevy, former director of Mossad, a group Berg describes as "the world's greatest intelligence service."

Berg has aggressively promoted his book and has, on multiple occasions, expressed his delight that Benjamin Netanyahu has shown interest in it. In August 2020, for example, he shared a picture of Netanyahu at his desk in front of a copy of his book. "First time I've been on a prime minister's bookshelf" I know I've got one of Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu's on mine – but wow!" he exclaimed, tagging Mossad, the Israeli Likud Party, and the Israeli Embassies in the United Kingdom and United States.

The following year, he messaged Netanyahu's son, Yair, stating, "Your dad has my book, 'Red Sea Spies: The True Story of the Mossad's Fake Diving Resort,' and sent me a lovely letter about it." That letter can be seen on the wall of Berg's office in his many public posts and videos, framed and placed beside pictures of him meeting a Mossad commander and meeting Mark Regev, the former spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.

That a BBC Middle East editor would not only frame these images and documents and put them pride of place in his office but also choose to display them while talking publicly and in an official role is telling. The BBC sells itself as an impartial distributor of news on the Middle East and beyond. And yet, Berg, who, by most accounts, calls the shots when it comes to the network's Israel-Palestine coverage, clearly believes that this is acceptable and unremarkable behavior.

If the opposite were true – that even a low-level BBC employee was openly sharing pictures of themselves embracing Hamas commander Yahya Sinwar or displaying a glowing letter from Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei – it is clear that there would be serious repercussions. The BBC suspended six of its reporters for simply liking pro-Palestine tweets. And yet, in Berg's case, his overt pro-Israel advocacy has been treated as entirely unproblematic.

 

Relentlessly Pro-Israel

Of course, it is entirely possible that a pro-Israel stance would help one climb the ladder at the BBC, an organization long known to display a strong bias in favor of the country and its interests.

Born and raised in England, Berg always took a keen interest in Israel, moving there to study Jewish and Israel Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He worked at the FBIS between 1997 and 1998 and joined the BBC in 2001, starting as a world news writer and producer.

One of his first BBC articles profiled the Israeli military and its recruits, presenting the IDF as brave protectors of their homeland and as a "source of national pride" and framed women serving as a win for sexual equality.

In 2009, at the height of Operation Cast Lead – the Israeli attack on Gaza that killed more than 1,000 people – Berg attended a pro-Israel demonstration in central London. Moreover, he even chastised the Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, for noting that only 5,000 people showed up to the event. In Berg's opinion, there were three times as many in attendance. The BBC would later change its guidelines to prevent its newsroom employees from attending controversial demonstrations.

During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli military was found to have indiscriminately targeted and killed civilians, used Palestinians as human shields, and used banned chemical weapons, such as white phosphorous, on civilian areas.

Three years later, in November 2012, Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense, a high-profile, bloody assault on Gaza that made worldwide headlines. As Israel bombarded the densely-populated civilian area, Berg went on his own internal offensive, telling his BBC colleagues to word their stories in a way that does not blame or "put undue emphasis" on Israel. Instead, leaked emails show, he encouraged journalists to present the attack as an operation "aimed at ending rocket fire from Gaza," thereby framing Hamas as the aggressor.

Another Berg email instructed his coworkers to "Please remember, Israel doesn't maintain a blockade around Gaza. Egypt controls the southern border" – a highly contestable opinion not shared by the United Nations, which declared that Israel was the occupying power besieging the strip.

 

Extraordinary Revelations

Shortly after Operation Pillar of Defense, Berg was promoted, becoming head of the BBC's Middle East desk. This position gives him enormous influence in shaping the platform's presentation of Israel's current war on Gaza. In this role, he has helped turn the network into "systematic Israeli propaganda," according to one journalist quoted by Jones in his Drop Site investigation. "This guy's entire job is to water down everything that's too critical of Israel," said another.

The BBC staff Jones talked to painted a picture of a pro-Israel zealot systematically suppressing any content or information that would paint Tel Aviv in a negative light. A micromanager, numerous journalists reportedly attempted to notify management of their issues with Berg, but their complaints fell on deaf ears. "Almost every correspondent you know has an issue with him," one staffer stated. "He has been named in multiple meetings, but [management] just ignore it."

"How much power he has is wild," another journalist told Jones, who explained that essentially every story or segment featuring Israel would have to be signed off by Berg first, even leaving other editors in "extreme fear" of commissioning anything without his approval.

Berg is alleged to have made extensive pre-publication edits to others' stories, changing the framing of news events to shield Israel from blame. One example of this is the whitewashing of the Israeli attack on the funeral of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. In May 2022, Israeli snipers shot the Al Jazeera anchor in the head and proceeded to lie about their culpability. Israeli forces subsequently attacked the public funeral, beating mourners and firing tear gas. The BBC's text, allegedly penned by Berg himself, read:

Violence broke out at the funeral in East Jerusalem of reporter Shireen Abu Aqla, killed during an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank.

Her coffin was jostled as Israeli police and Palestinians clashed as it left a hospital in East Jerusalem.

Thus, Abu Akleh's murder by Israeli forces was downgraded to a mere death during an operation (with no perpetrator mentioned), while a police attack on a funeral procession was presented as a "clash" between rival factions, presumably of roughly equal responsibility.

A more recent example of this, Jones claims, comes from a July story about IDF soldiers setting an attack dog on Muhammed Bhar, a severely disabled Gazan man, and letting him bleed to death. Under Berg's supervision, the original headline ran: "The Lonely Death of Gaza Man with Down's Syndrome." Only after a gigantic worldwide outcry did the BBC change its framing to note anything about how Bhar met his end. "There has to be a moral line drawn in the sand. And if this story isn't it, then what?" one BBC journalist said, commenting on the affair.

Since the investigation was published, Berg has remained silent, although he has hired defamation lawyer Mark Lewis, the former director of U.K. Lawyers for Israel.

The BBC, meanwhile, has offered unequivocal support for him and his work, rejected any suggestion of a lenient stance towards Israel, and alleges that the Drop Site article "fundamentally misdescribe[s] Berg's power, influence, and how the network works.

Israeli soldiers set an attack dog on this disabled man, and watched him bleed to death.

You'd never guess this from this BBC headline, though. pic.twitter.com/dvEapeK4O4

— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) July 16, 2024

 

A Worldwide Network

Whatever the veracity of the Drop Site allegations, the undisputed fact that a former U.S. State Department and CIA operative is calling the shots at the BBC for its Middle East coverage is undoubtedly of public interest.

It also bears a striking resemblance to the accusations of journalist Tareq Haddad. In 2019, Haddad resigned in frustration from Newsweek, claiming that the outlet systematically stymied him from covering important Middle East news stories that did not align with Western objectives. Perhaps most strikingly, though, he claimed that Newsweek employed a senior editor whose only job was seemingly to vet and suppress "controversial" stories, in the same vein as Berg. This editor also had a similar background with state power. As Haddad concluded:

The U.S. government, in an ugly alliance with those the [sic] profit the most from war, has its tentacles in every part of the media — imposters, with ties to the U.S. State Department, sit in newsrooms all over the world. Editors, with no apparent connections to the member's club, have done nothing to resist. Together, they filter out what can or cannot be reported. Inconvenient stories are completely blocked."

When contacted by MintPress News for comment, Haddad said he found the BBC, State Department and CIA links to be "staggering," adding:

When I resigned from Newsweek, I did so because all reporting on foreign affairs went through a particular editor, who, in my case, turned out to be connected to the European Council on Foreign Relations. That prevented me from writing truthfully when it came to a number of sensitive issues."

 

CIA-Affiliated Media

The implications of former U.S. national security state operatives dictating global media output are profound. This is not least because the State Department and CIA are among the world's most notoriously dishonest and perfidious institutions, regularly injecting lies and false information into public discourse to further Washington's ambitions. As Mike Pompeo, former Director of the CIA and then-Secretary of State, said in 2019:

When I was a cadet, what's the cadet motto at West Point? You will not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do. I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses [on] it!"

Furthermore, both organizations have a long history of organizing invasions of and coups against foreign countries, drugs and weapons smuggling and operating a worldwide network of "black sites," where thousands are tortured.

The CIA, in particular, has an extensive record of penetrating media outlets. As far back as the 1970s, the Church Committee unearthed the existence of Operation Mockingbird, a secret project to infiltrate newsrooms across America with secret agents masquerading as journalists. Investigative reporter Carl Bernstein's work found that the agency had cultivated a network of over 400 individuals it considered assets, including the owner of The New York Times.

John Stockwell, former head of a CIA task force, explained on camera how his organization infiltrated media departments across the planet, establishing fake outlets and news agencies that worked to control global public opinion and spread false information demonizing Washington's enemies. "I had propagandists all over the world," he admitted, adding:

We pumped dozens of stories about Cuban atrocities, Cuban rapists [to the media]… We ran [faked] photographs that made almost every newspaper in the country… We didn't know of one single atrocity committed by the Cubans. It was pure, raw, false propaganda to create an illusion of communists eating babies for breakfast."

This process continues to this day, as the CIA continues to promote dubious stories about so-called "Havana Syndrome" and Russia putting bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan.

Cable networks routinely employ a wide range of former State Department or CIA officials as personalities and trusted experts. Former CIA director John Brennan is employed by NBC News and MSNBC, while his predecessor, Michael Hayden, can be seen on CNN. Top anchors such as Anderson Cooper and Tucker Carlson have their own connections to the agency.

Meanwhile, in 2015, Dawn Scalici, a 33-year CIA veteran, left her job as national intelligence manager for the Western hemisphere at the Director of National Intelligence to become the global business director of the international news conglomerate Reuters. That this was a political hire was barely hidden; in Scalici's official announcement, the company declared her primary responsibility would be "advancing Thomson Reuters' ability to meet the disparate needs of the U.S. government."

Social media, too, is full of former U.S. national security state agents. A previous MintPress News investigation uncovered a network of dozens of ex-CIA officials working at Google. Most of these individuals work in highly politically sensitive roles such as security and, trust and safety, effectively giving them control over the algorithms that decide what content gets seen and what is suppressed worldwide. Some were even directly recruited from the CIA, leaving the agency to join the Silicon Valley giant.

Competing with Google for the crown of employing most former CIA agents is Facebook. The company's senior product policy manager for misinformation, Aaron Berman, the man most responsible for deciding what the world sees (and does not see) in its news feeds, was directly parachuted in from Langley, Virginia. Berman was one of the agency's highest-ranking officers, writing the president's daily brief for both Obama and Trump until July 2019, when he made the switch from big government to big tech.

And since it became a target of Washington's ire, TikTok has been on a hiring spree, recruiting large numbers of U.S. State Department officials to run its internal affairs. The company's head of data public policy for Europe, for example, is Jade Nester, who was previously the State Department's director of internet public policy. These connections were explored in a MintPress investigation entitled, "TikTok: Chinese "Trojan Horse" Is Run by State Department Officials."

 

Cheering on a Genocide

In recent years, Washington has shown considerable interest in influencing the British press. The National Endowment for Democracy—another unofficial branch of the CIA—has spent millions of dollars funding a wide range of media outlets in the U.K. The NED's sister organization, USAID, is the third-largest funder of BBC Media Action, the company's charitable arm, donating over $2 million annually.

The BBC itself has faced repeated accusations of pro-Israel bias, not only from the public but also internally. Their headquarters are a common start or end point for numerous pro-Palestine marches, including an upcoming national rally in London on January 18. In November, over 100 BBC staff signed an open letter to the corporation's director-general, Tim Davie and Chief Executive Officer Deborah Turness. The letter admonishes the company for consistently providing "favorable coverage to Israel," failing to uphold even "basic journalistic tenet[s]" when covering its war on Gaza, and aiding in "systematically dehumanizing Palestinians."

Haddad agreed that much of the network's coverage had been subpar, telling MintPress:

The BBC, of course, like many institutions, has fallen way short of their coverage in documenting what Israel has done in a densely populated strip of land we know as Gaza over the last 14 months and prior."

Partially as a result, public confidence in the broadcaster has fallen to an all-time low. By July 2023, just 38% of Britons said they trusted the BBC to tell the truth – down from 81% 20 years previously. Since October 7, its biases have been put under even more scrutiny.

Israel's actions, Haddad said, are "growing harder to ignore." Officially, the death toll from the Israeli attack on Gaza stands at almost 50,000, although credible estimates put the likely figure at many times that. International organizations, such as the United Nations and Amnesty International, have described the onslaught as "genocidal."

Israel could not sustain its attack without vital military, logistical, economic, and political support from Western powers. It is, therefore, vital for Washington, London and the E.U. that public opinion does not turn too far in favor of Palestine to the point where widespread public rebellion forces a change in policy. The BBC, with its deeply misleading and one-sided coverage of the events, therefore, plays an important role in the perpetuation of crimes against humanity. That this is being driven from the top down by overtly pro-Israel editors, including one with a history in both the State Department and CIA, is perhaps unsurprising but no less shocking, nonetheless.

To be clear, this article does not claim that Berg or anyone at the BBC is a plant. Nor is it accusing him of any specific wrongdoing beyond working at a distinctly biased network. What it is stating is that it is telling that the person in charge of its Middle East reporting has framed pictures and letters of Mossad commanders and high Israeli officials on the wall, as if they are rock stars and he is a teenage fan. That someone such as this rose the ranks is a clear indication of the kind of culture that exists at the BBC – one that has systematically demonized Palestinians and manufactured consent for genocide.

Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News

Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.

The post Raffi Berg: BBC Middle East Editor Exposed as CIA, Mossad Collaborator appeared first on MintPress News.

7. Peace with Israel Tops the Agenda for Syria’s New Leaders

It is not just isolated voices advocating for normalization; the new Syrian government and its backers appear determined to establish ties with Israel, even as Israel continues its occupation of Syrian territory and the bombardment of what remains of its infrastructure. While apologists attempt to justify Damascus's Israel-friendly comments, the writing on the wall has long been clear.

The new Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) backed Mayor of Damascus, Maher Marwan, stirred controversy last week when he called for normalization with Israel. Even though Damascus, the city he now governs, endures frequent Israeli airstrikes, Marwan defended his stance in an interview with NPR. "Our problem is not with Israel," he stated, adding, "We don't want to meddle in anything that will threaten Israel's security."

Following widespread public backlash, the HTS-led government in Damascus released a statement addressing Marwan's remarks. The statement proclaimed that Marwan's comments didn't necessarily reflect the policies of the al-Jolani government, but it stopped short of explicitly denying his call for normalization with Israel.

The sentiments expressed by Marwan are consistent with those of Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Shara'a, known more commonly by his ISIS-associated moniker, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. Al-Jolani once said that Syrian territory must not be used as a launching pad for conflict with Israel. He emphasized, "We do not want any conflict, whether with Israel or anyone else."

Israel's existence is "a proven fact," according to Syria's new foreign minister, Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, who has further stoked controversy by implying that, given the correct circumstances, talks would be possible. Both at home and abroad, this change in tone has been greeted with suspicion and anxiety.

During an interview with Channel 4 News, HTS spokesperson Obeida Arnaout refrained from providing a clear response when asked about the hundreds of Israeli attacks on Syrian territory. In the same vein, Arnaout avoided questioning and used evasive political jargon when 5 Pillars journalist Dilly Hussein pressed him on the subject.

HTS spokesman Obeida Arnaout is asked by Channel 4 News about Israel's strikes on over 300 sites in Syria (latest update: 480 strikes). He refused to denounce Israel's massive airstrikes and ground incursions. When pressed, he offered vague, general comments. pic.twitter.com/cetEisYXIs

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) December 11, 2024

 

Pro-Israeli Voices Of The "New Syria"

Although the majority of high-ranking officials in the HTS-led administration refrain from making categorical claims about Israel, they constantly stress that Iran and Hezbollah, not Israel, are Syria's main enemies. Prominent members of the larger "Free Syria" movement, which supports HTS, have expressed similar views. Others have even gone so far as to demand that formal relations be established with Israel, a significant shift from Syria's historical stance.

Ayman Al-Asimi, a senior member of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) and former spokesperson for the Syrian opposition delegations during the Astana talks, made headlines with his remarks to BBC Arabic. He stated unequivocally that Syria's only opponent is Iran. When pressed by the host on whether Israel is considered a friend or an enemy, Al-Asimi responded by saying Syria only has "friends or potential friends."

In an interview with Israeli media outlet I24 News, Fahad al-Masri, the chairman of the Syrian National Salvation Front, made a telling declaration:

Once Bashar al-Assad's government is overthrown, we want to see an Israeli embassy in the place of the Iranian embassy in Damascus."

Al-Masri, who co-founded the Free Syria Army in February 2012, is a well-known member of the Syrian opposition. He has also been known to have ties to Western interests, such as receiving funding from the U.S. State Department to host an opposition program in Syria. During the country's prolonged conflict, he was instrumental in facilitating coordination between Syrian opposition groups and French media.

During the HTS-led offensive to take Aleppo, al-Masri had additionally publicly appealed to Israel to help rebel groups overthrow the government of Syria. Notably, al-Masri has a well-documented habit of praising Israeli airstrikes on Syria.

Around the same period, Israel's Channel 12 News aired an interview with a Syrian rebel officer who expressed optimism about regional relations in the aftermath of Bashar al-Assad's potential overthrow. The officer stated that the rebel groups envisioned "peace and security with the entire region and with Israel."

Former Israeli military intelligence officer Lt. Col. Mordechai Kedar revealed that he had maintained direct contact with Syrian rebel factions for some time. According to Kedar, these groups actively sought "peace" with Tel Aviv and even submitted requests for military support. "I passed on to senior officials in Israel a detailed list of equipment that they requested to receive from Israel," he disclosed.

Another notable development was the sudden increase in the Free Syria Army (FSA) and other militant factions, allowing their fighters to engage with Israeli media and openly advocate for closer ties. In one instance, an FSA member from the southern Syrian city of Dara'a appeared on Israel's Channel 11, stating, "We invite Israel to come to Syria and invest." The overture came as Israeli forces were invading Syrian territory and forcibly expelling residents from their homes at gunpoint.

Even prominent Syrian journalists supportive of the HTS-led government, such as Hossam Taleb, have echoed similar sentiments, framing the current period as an "opportunity to achieve peace and security for Israel through a commitment to returning rights to Syria."

On social media, prospective candidates for local government positions have openly called for normalization with Israel. Posts advocating for "the signing of a peace agreement between Israel and the new Syria" highlight the growing trend.

"We invite Israel to come to Syria and invest," a FSA member in Daraa, Syria, tells Israeli outlet Channel 11.

"Dear neighbours and friends from the friendly state of Israel, I'm talking to you. The people of Daraa are joyous after Assad's rule has been brought to an end.
I'm… pic.twitter.com/YTY9sy5R2M

— In Context (@incontextmedia) December 7, 2024

 

"We have common interests"

Pro-Israeli statements from Syrian opposition figures are not a recent phenomenon. In 2016, Nabil al-Dandal—a former Brigadier General under Bashar al-Assad's government who defected in 2012 to become a leader of the Free Syria Army—openly advocated for "peace with Israel" and sought support from Tel Aviv.

In an open letter to the Israeli Knesset, al-Dandal wrote, "We can cooperate; we have common interests. Our true enemies are the Iranians and the Islamic fundamentalists."

Even American members of the Syria Lobby, such as Wa'el al-Zayat, have been connected to pro-Israel organizations. The Electronic Intifada revealed that al-Zayat, the head of the Muslim advocacy group Emgage, had connections to the Israel Lobby. He also worked as a senior adviser to then-UN Ambassador Samantha Power during the Obama administration and for ten years at the U.S. State Department. Known for advocating for U.S. sanctions that disproportionately affected Syrian civilians, the Syria Lobby has come under fire for its ties to pro-Israel organizations.

In 2013, Israel began openly supporting at least a dozen Syrian opposition groups, many of them with extremist ties, in their fight against Bashar al-Assad's government in the country's southern regions. Among these groups was Jabhat al-Nusra, which has since rebranded as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

In addition to supplying material and logistical aid, Israel also treated thousands of opposition fighters in field hospitals set up in the occupied Golan Heights.

Even Syria's White Helmets organization, led by Raed Saleh, has faced scrutiny for its ties to Israel. In one particularly telling incident, White Helmets members were evacuated from southern Syria by Israeli forces, an operation that drew considerable media attention. Despite the significance of the collaboration, the White Helmets omitted any mention of Israel in their official statement about the evacuation.

Saleh later defended the decision, arguing that collaboration with Israel was the only option to ensure the safety of his group. The omission reportedly angered Israeli officials, who had hoped for a public relations boost from their involvement in the raid.

Jolani states that the HTS offensive prevented a great regional war against Israel by the Iranians and Iraqis and has secured the security of the Gulf for the next 50 years.

He also states that the US bases in the Gulf would have been attacked by Iran and this was prevented. pic.twitter.com/0R1hXd9UYN

— Islamic Resistance (@resistance_sa) January 1, 2025

In an interview with Saudi state broadcaster Al-Arabiya, Syrian leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani made a striking claim regarding the regional dynamics preceding the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. He asserted that an Israeli invasion of Syria was imminent at the time and would have been met with resistance from Iranian and Iraqi forces.

Al-Jolani went on to boast about his role in preventing such a confrontation, claiming credit for thwarting the Iranian agenda in Syria and setting what he called "the Iranian project" back by 40 years.

The new rulers in Damascus have notably departed from the longstanding Syrian tradition of vocal and material support for the Palestinian cause. Unlike previous Syrian governments, the current leadership has not issued any statements condemning Israel's actions in Gaza or expressing solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.

Syria, once positioned as a staunch opponent of Israel—denouncing its war crimes, facilitating weapons transfers to resistance groups, and supporting Palestinian self-determination—now appears aligned against Iran, the only regional state actively opposing Tel Aviv.

Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show 'Palestine Files'. Director of 'Steal of the Century: Trump's Palestine-Israel Catastrophe'. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

The post Peace with Israel Tops the Agenda for Syria's New Leaders appeared first on MintPress News.

8. Systemic Rape Allegations Against Israel Meet a Deafening Silence

A flood of devastating new testimonies documenting the systemic sexual abuse of Palestinian men and women by Israeli soldiers has surfaced in recent weeks. Yet, as these harrowing accounts gain traction amongst human rights groups and international organizations, Western media has conspicuously turned its focus elsewhere—amplifying Israel's poorly corroborated claims against Hamas.

Following a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip on December 28, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor published a report documenting harrowing testimonies of sexual assault by Israeli soldiers. Eyewitness accounts described how female medical workers and patients were rounded up at gunpoint, coerced into removing their headscarves, and forced to strip naked. Witnesses also reported that these women were subjected to degrading verbal abuse throughout the ordeal.

"A soldier forced a nurse to take off her trousers, then placed his hand on her. When she tried to resist, he struck her hard across the face, causing her nose to bleed," a female survivor of the Kamal Adwan Hospital raid recounted to a Euro-Med Monitor team. Eyewitness testimonies further detailed male soldiers engaging in groping, beating, and forcibly sexualizing women, as well as ripping clothes from women's chests when they refused to strip.

These harrowing testimonies align with a documented pattern of abuse. In February 2024, Euro-Med Monitor reported similar accounts from female detainees in Gaza. Among them, a 45-year-old woman identified as N.H. recounted how she "was threatened with rape and told that I would not see my children if I disobeyed the soldier's orders."

In February 2024, United Nations officials formally acknowledged the growing body of evidence pointing to sexual violence against Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. They confirmed that at least two cases of rape had been documented, marking a critical official recognition of the abuse.

On June 12, the United Nations released a human rights report that detailed systematic sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) perpetrated by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians since October 7. The report concluded that Palestinians had been subjected to a range of abuses, including "forced public nudity, forced public stripping, sexualized torture and abuse, and sexual humiliation and harassment," both online and in person.

In March, Canadian physicians who had worked in Gaza came forward with harrowing evidence of rape against Palestinian women, urging an investigation into the atrocities. One physician recounted a particularly devastating case in which a woman was reportedly "raped for two days until she lost her ability to speak."

At the notorious Sde Teiman detention center, where Israeli soldiers detain Palestinian civilians from Gaza without charge, UNRWA documented a harrowing testimony from a female prisoner:

They asked the soldiers to spit on me, saying 'she is a b****, she is from Gaza.' They were beating us as we moved and saying they would put pepper on our sensitive parts [genitals]. They pulled us, beat us, they took us in the bus to the Damon prison after five days. A male soldier took off our hijabs and they pinched us and touched our bodies, including our breasts. We were blindfolded and we were feeling them touching us, pushing our heads to the bus. We started to squeeze together to try to protect ourselves from the touching. They said 'b****, b****.' They told the soldiers to take off their shoes and slap our faces with them."

The Sde Teiman detention facility became the center of international outrage after 10 Israeli soldiers were arrested for the brutal gang rape of a Palestinian detainee held without charge. The attack, which was captured on film, was further compounded by widespread Israeli public support for the perpetrators. This support came from members of the government, media, and the so-called "right to rape" protests, which defended the soldiers' actions.

Adding to the disturbing nature of the incident, Israel's Honenu legal aid organization, which represented four of the accused soldiers, claimed their clients were acting in "self-defense."

Sde Teiman was not alone in facing accusations of systemic sexual abuse. As early as January of 2024, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) provided testimonies in a report about "systemic" torture. One prisoner held in Ketziot Prison revealed the following:

Wardens would conduct searches while the prisoners were naked, place naked prisoners against each other, and place the aluminum device used in the searches in their buttocks. In another instance, the wardens passed a card in a prisoner's buttocks. All of this took place in sight of other prisoners and wardens, while the wardens took pleasure in beating the prisoner's genitals."

Palestinian lawyer Khaled Mahajneh, an Israeli citizen, revealed a harrowing account from a survivor of Ofer Detention Center in the West Bank. He cited the testimony of a 27-year-old Palestinian inmate who was subjected to brutal sexual violence:

A pipe from a fire extinguisher was used on a handcuffed prisoner. Forcing him to lie on his stomach, stripping him of all his clothes, and inserting the pipe of the fire extinguisher into the prisoner's rectum. Then, activating the extinguisher … in front of the eyes of the other prisoners."

The numerous reports by ostensibly objective human rights groups and international organizations documenting Israel's systemic sexual abuse against Palestinians are supported by survivor testimony, eyewitness accounts, video footage, photographic evidence and admissions from Israeli sources. Israel's claims of mass rape by Palestinians lack similar evidence. In fact, several of the purported Israeli eyewitnesses making these accusations have been exposed for fabricating their stories.

Israeli emergency workers have been implicated in manufacturing hoaxes, including the widely circulated claims of 40 beheaded babies, babies hung on clothing lines, and fetuses removed from mothers' wombs. According to a UN report by Pramilla Patten on October 7, 2023, one such "crime scene" had been altered by a bomb squad, and the bodies were moved. Additionally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fabricated a story about two boys killed in an attic, which he used in his address to the U.S. Congress in July 2024.

Cochav Elkayam-Levy was given a prominent platform in Western corporate media for her 'Civil Commission,' formed to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by Hamas against Israelis. Israel's most trusted news outlet, Haaretz, even reported that she had collected 'testimony after testimony,' despite later acknowledging that no direct testimonies had been taken.

After the 'Hamas mass rape' allegations spread across U.S. media and were echoed by Western politicians, Elkayam-Levy, previously cited as an expert, was exposed by Israeli media for 'fraud and scamming donors.' Ultimately, nothing emerged from her alleged investigative efforts.

A new Israeli government report submitted to the UN relies on second-hand accounts from physicians and healthcare workers who interacted with former Israeli captives but does not directly quote or name the individuals involved. While the report aligns with some previous findings, it introduces a new and striking claim: two Israeli teenagers were allegedly forced to perform sexual acts on one another. Notably, this claim was absent from the initial submission by the Israeli Health Ministry and did not surface during the year-old prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel.

Israel's claims about mass sexual violence lack any hard evidence, victims or testimonies to corroborate them. Yet, each new claim is covered uncritically by the Western corporate media. On the other hand, mountains of evidence documenting the systematic sexual violence committed against Palestinians are ignored in what can only be described as a deliberate cover-up.

Feature photo | A Palestinian woman observes the site of an Israeli airstrike on tents sheltering displaced people at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, October 14, 2024. Majdi Fathi | AP

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show 'Palestine Files'. Director of 'Steal of the Century: Trump's Palestine-Israel Catastrophe'. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

The post Systemic Rape Allegations Against Israel Meet a Deafening Silence appeared first on MintPress News.

9. BBC Exposé: Israeli Lobby and Government Collaborate in Free Speech Crackdown

Israeli lobbyists, organizations, and former intelligence operatives are actively working behind the scenes to suppress free speech, stifle debate at academic institutions, ban advocacy groups, and curtail the right to assembly. This coordinated effort has intensified during the ongoing Gaza war, with substantial complicity from Western governments and major social media platforms.

On December 17, the BBC published an investigation into META's censorship practices in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. A team from BBC Arabic analyzed 20 popular Israeli media outlets and 20 Palestinian ones, comparing their engagement before and after October 7, 2023.

The findings were striking: while engagement on Israeli pages surged by nearly 37%, Palestinian pages experienced a dramatic 77% decrease in reach.

Following an Israeli lobbying campaign, META escalated its censorship measures by banning pro-Palestine users from its platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. This move prompted at least 35 Zionist organizations to pressure other social media platforms to adopt similar policies. On X (formerly Twitter), owner Elon Musk announced plans to ban accounts using the phrase "from the river to the sea," controversially labeling it as a call for genocide.

For now, the public backlash against these decisions appears to have staved off a broader crackdown on X.

BREAKING: The Israeli regime and its propaganda apparatus is now pushing social media platforms to ban and censor anyone exposing and debunking the "mass rape" hoax. This is the only thing they have left now with all their hoax lies having crumbled: Direct censorship pic.twitter.com/1Dsxqi9d8c

— (@zei_squirrel) April 10, 2024

 

State-Backed Censorship

It is well-documented that former members of Israel's elite military intelligence Unit 8200 have, for years, secured prominent roles within major tech companies, including X, Meta, Google, and Microsoft. Despite this infiltration of influential platforms, spaces critical of Israel have continued to emerge online.

One such platform is TikTok, which has become a prominent hub for pro-Palestine content, particularly among younger audiences. The app's format has allowed young users to amplify voices critical of Israeli policies, making it a significant source of counter-narratives and grassroots activism.

Leaked audio from Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), revealed his explicit concern over what he described as a "major TikTok problem." The platform's proliferation of pro-Palestine content has clearly unsettled those advocating for stricter censorship of online spaces critical of Israel.

In response, the Washington-based Atlantic Council attempted to dismiss the Israeli lobby's efforts to censor TikTok as a "Tehran-cooked conspiracy theory." However, the motivations of pro-Israeli U.S. Congress members supporting legislation to ban TikTok were thinly veiled. Their actions, coupled with Zionist organizations openly celebrating the move, made clear the political intent behind targeting the platform.

Pro-Israel policing of public discourse has not just been relegated to the United States. Founded in Israel in 2002, NGO Monitor is an organization focused on scrutinizing and discrediting pro-Palestinian charitable and advocacy groups. It employs tactics similar to those used by the Israeli government to label six prominent Palestinian rights organizations as "terrorist organizations." These accusations claim links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a group designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, and Canada.

A formal complaint was recently lodged with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) concerning the activities of NGO Monitor. Although not registered as a charitable organization in Canada, NGO Monitor has received over $900,000 in Canadian tax-receipted donations since 2020. These funds were funneled through the Foundation for Public Policy Development and Canada Charity Partners.

Here is our compilation of data on the funding of NGO Monitor.

Funders include many Zionist family foundations also supporting the occupation of Palestine and the Islamophobia network:

Rosenwald
Koret
Singer
Becker
Milstein
Shillman#DismantleZionism pic.twitter.com/BJfmdrl3M8

— David Miller (@Tracking_Power) August 13, 2023

In 2021, when Tel Aviv presented a 74-page document alleging connections between Palestinian rights groups and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), it failed to persuade even Israel's staunchest European allies of its claims. However, NGO Monitor has seemingly achieved greater success in its campaigns targeting pro-Palestinian organizations.

The group played a significant role in lobbying efforts that led to the U.S. and Canadian governments designating Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network as a terrorist organization, a move critics say is little more than a politically motivated attempt to silence pro-Palestinian advocacy and humanitarian efforts while undermining free speech on behalf of Israel.

 

Free Speech for me, not for thee

As Donald Trump's Republican administration prepares to re-enter the White House on January 20, Texas Senator Ted Cruz has signaled the government's intent to implement measures that could severely restrict freedom of expression on college campuses. Cruz, a staunch supporter of Israel and recipient in millions in donations from pro-Israel lobby groups, declared that "antisemitic protests at universities will end next year."

Senator Ted Cruz escalated his rhetoric, asserting that arrests, expulsions, and even deportations would be used as responses to pro-Palestine student demonstrations. "We're going to see universities that tolerate antisemitism having their federal funds cut off," he stated, aligning himself with a similar pledge made earlier by Donald Trump.

Israeli and Israeli-linked private security firms have increasingly been contracted to enforce crackdowns on student protesters at academic institutions across Canada and the United States. This development appears to be a direct consequence of governmental pressure on universities to suppress criticism of Israel on their campuses.

While the Republican Party frequently touts freedom of speech on college campuses as a key talking point to criticize Democrats, this commitment vanishes when the topic shifts to Israel. Discussions critical of Israel, or even Zionism, or supportive of Palestinian rights often spark Republican-led efforts to suppress such speech.

Similarly, Elon Musk, who has branded himself as a staunch advocate for free speech on X (formerly Twitter), has shown a comparable inconsistency. Despite his rhetoric, Musk has reportedly acquiesced to Israeli demands to crack down on anti-Zionist accounts and impose shadow bans.

Feature photo | A video grab of protesters outside BBC Broadcasting House, London, October 16, 2023. Photo | AP

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show 'Palestine Files'. Director of 'Steal of the Century: Trump's Palestine-Israel Catastrophe'. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

The post BBC Exposé: Israeli Lobby and Government Collaborate in Free Speech Crackdown appeared first on MintPress News.

10. A Saudi Atheist and a Web of Lies: The Distortion of the Magdeburg Attack

In a calculated effort to stoke anti-Muslim hysteria, pro-Israeli right-wing social media accounts distorted the facts surrounding a tragic car-ramming attack on a German Christmas parade. This manipulation aligns with a broader trend of reviving post-9/11 Islamophobia to advance imperialist war narratives that ultimately benefit Israel.

When news broke that a Saudi-born man was responsible for the attack in Magdeburg, Germany—which left five dead and hundreds injured—right-wing accounts on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) were quick to frame the incident as "Islamist terrorism." However, the narrative unraveled as the attacker, identified as Taleb Al Abdulmohsen, was revealed to be a self-described "ex-Muslim."

Al Abdulmohsen's X account painted a starkly different picture than the one initially presented. He was a vocal supporter of Israel and the far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, frequently engaging with anti-Islam accounts such as Radio Genoa. Notably, in 2019, the BBC interviewed him as an atheist dissident from Saudi Arabia who had sought asylum in Germany.

Despite overwhelming evidence that Taleb Al Abdulmohsen was an atheist who openly despised Islam and railed against what he termed a German conspiracy to "Islamize Europe," far-right social media figures remained unwilling to abandon their narrative. Over the course of eight years, Abdulmohsen's X (formerly Twitter) account amassed more than 120,000 posts, chronicling a consistent and radical anti-Muslim ideology.

A viral video soon surfaced, posted by Maral Salmassi, a pro-Zionist activist who spent her early years living in Iran, Jordan, and Israel. Salmassi, the daughter of a diplomat under the deposed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, released a 2:38-second clip that quickly gained traction.

In the video, she alleged that Taleb Al Abdulmohsen was not an atheist but a Shia Muslim extremist who had engaged in taqiyya—a Shia Islamic concept that allows a person to conceal their faith if their life is at risk.

Salmassi's "evidence" for her incendiary claims hinged on little more than the attacker's name, which she argued "sounded Shia." She further alleged that Abdulmohsen was tied to "radical Islamist networks, including accounts linked to ISIS," based on his quote-tweeting another Saudi dissident.

While anyone with even basic knowledge of Islamic sectarian dynamics understands that Shia and Sunni extremist groups are ideologically opposed, Maral Salmassi's video was nevertheless amplified by X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk, garnering over 37.8 million views. Adding to the disinformation, a separate video went viral falsely asserting that Abdulmohsen had shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the attack.

The viral claims about Abdulmohsen engaging in taqiyya sparked a broader debate over the concept within Islamic jurisprudence. While taqiyya is a nuanced doctrine with specific applications, it has often been misrepresented in Western discourse. Historically, taqiyya emerged in the early years of Shia Islam during the 7th century as a means of self-preservation, allowing individuals to conceal their beliefs to protect their lives under threat. The principle is not exclusive to Shia Islam and is also recognized, albeit less prominently, within Sunni Islamic thought under similar circumstances.

Anti-Islam activists in the West have often distorted the concept, portraying it as a tool for deceiving non-Muslims, particularly in the context of terrorism.

In light of these claims, every tweet and interview the Christmas parade attacker made over the past eight years is alleged to have been part of an elaborate web of strategic lies—except, as Maral Salmassi highlights, a single instance where the purported Shia extremist retweeted an ISIS attack supporter.

Salmassi's video also exposes her lack of understanding of Shia Islam. She references the concept of "72 virgins" promised to martyrs, a belief rooted in Sunni Islam, which has no parallel in Shia teachings.

Elon Musk, who has cultivated close ties with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and controversially threatened to ban accounts using the phrase "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," framing it as a call for genocide, played a significant role in spreading disinformation about the German attacker. Musk shared unverified claims, amplifying misinformation to millions, before ultimately deleting the attacker's account from the X platform.

The far-right outlet Visegrad24, which propagated the false claim that Abdulmohsen shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the attack, has also been part of a network of explicitly pro-Israel accounts spreading disinformation. Among these were baseless stories alleging that Palestinians in Gaza used dolls to fabricate the deaths of babies.

Other prominent far-right figures who amplified the disinformation surrounding the Germany attacker were also notably staunch supporters of Israel. Among them was Tommy Robinson, a controversial figure who has reportedly received direct funding from Israeli sources and has even been rumored to work directly with Mossad.

Feature photo | Flowers and candles laid down in front of the Magdeburg Cathedra, after a car drove into a crowd of a Christmas Mark on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Dec. 22, 2024. Ebrahim Noroozi | AP

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show 'Palestine Files'. Director of 'Steal of the Century: Trump's Palestine-Israel Catastrophe'. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

The post A Saudi Atheist and a Web of Lies: The Distortion of the Magdeburg Attack appeared first on MintPress News.