terrorist

‘Total Amateur Hour’: FBI Official Says Antifa Is #1 Threat in US—But Can’t Say Where, Who, or What It Is

Spread the love

Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Operations Director of the National Security Branch at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Michael Glasheen testifies before the House Committee on Homeland Security on December 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“Just a complete admission here that the entire ‘antifa’ threat narrative is totally manufactured by this administration,” said one critic.

A top FBI official struggled on Thursday to answer basic questions about antifa, a loosely organized collective of anti-fascist activists that he labeled the top terrorist threat facing the US.

Michael Glasheen, operations director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, testified before the US House Committee on Homeland Security that antifa was “the most immediate violent threat” facing Americans today when it comes to domestic terrorism.

RECOMMENDED…

Leaked Memo Shows Pam Bondi Wants List of 'Domestic Terrorism' Groups Who Express 'Anti-American Sentiment'

Leaked Memo Shows Pam Bondi Wants List of ‘Domestic Terrorism’ Groups Who Express ‘Anti-American Sentiment’

Defiant Democrats Slam Trump 'Intimidation' After FBI Seeks Interviews Over 'Illegal Orders' Video

Defiant Democrats Slam Trump ‘Intimidation’ After FBI Seeks Interviews Over ‘Illegal Orders’ Video

But when Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, asked Glasheen for specifics about this purportedly dire threat, he mostly came up empty.

“So where is antifa headquarters?” Thompson asked him.

Glasheen paused for several seconds and then said, “What we’re doing right now with the organization…” before Thompson interrupted him.

“Where in the United States does antifa exist?” asked Thompson.

“We are building out the infrastructure right now,” Glasheen replied.

“So what does that mean?” asked a bewildered Thompson. “I’m just, we’re trying to get information. You said antifa is a terrorist organization. Tell us, as a committee, how did you come to that? Whether they exist, how many members do they have in the United States as of right now?”

“Well, that’s very fluid,” Glasheen said. “It’s ongoing for us to understand that… no different from al-Qaeda and ISIS.”

Thompson again interrupted and tried to make Glasheen answer his original question.

“If you said antifa is the No. 1 domestic terrorist organization operating in the United States,” he said, “I just need to know where they are, how many people. I don’t want a name, I don’t want anything like that. Just, how many people have you identified, with the FBI, that antifa is made of?”

“Well, the investigations are active…” Glasheen said.

Thompson then became incredulous.

“Sir, you wouldn’t come to this committee and say something you can’t prove,” he said. “I know you wouldn’t do that. But you did.”

Many observers were stunned that Glasheen appeared to know so little about what he proclaimed to be the top domestic terrorist threat facing the US.

“Total amateur hour in US law enforcement,” remarked Democracy Docket news editor Matthew Kupfer, “where the No. 1 terror threat is an organization that does not formally exist and a career FBI official is dancing around before a congressional committee trying to make the Trump strategy sound legit.”

Zeteo editor-in-chief Mehdi Hasan argued that Glasheen’s testimony was proof that the administration was simply concocting domestic terrorism threats with zero basis in reality.

“Wow,” Hasan marveled. “Just a complete admission here that the entire ‘antifa’ threat narrative is totally manufactured by this administration.”

Fred Wellman, a Democratic congressional candidate in Missouri, wondered how many actual dangerous criminals are running free while the FBI focuses on taking down an organization that it apparently knows nothing about.

“This would be comical if there wasn’t real world impact from this idiocy,” Wellman wrote. “We have real crimes and real threats and they are chasing a fake ‘organization’ for politics.”

Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee also piled on Glasheen, citing his testimony as evidence that the Trump administration is completely unserious about law enforcement.

“If your ‘top threat’ has no headquarters, no organization, and no definition then it’s not a top threat,” they posted on social media. “The Trump administration is ignoring real threats, and the American people see right through it.”

Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue Reading‘Total Amateur Hour’: FBI Official Says Antifa Is #1 Threat in US—But Can’t Say Where, Who, or What It Is

Israel’s war on truth: the systematic killing of Palestinian journalists

Spread the love

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israels-war-truth-systematic-killing-palestinian-journalists

 Palestinian and Israeli activists take part in a protest against the killing of journalists in the Gaza Strip as they gather in the West Bank town of Beit Jala, August 15, 2025

With foreign media banned from Gaza, Palestinians themselves have reversed most of zionism’s century-long propaganda gains in just two years — this is why Israel has killed 270 journalists since October 2023, explains RAMZY BAROUD

THE killing of seven Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza on August 10 has prompted verbal condemnations, yet has inspired little to no substantive action. This has become the predictable and horrifying trajectory of the international community’s response to the ongoing Israeli genocide.

By eliminating Palestinian journalists like Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qraiqeh, Israel has made a sinister statement that the genocide will spare no-one. According to the monitoring website Shireen.ps, Israel has killed nearly 270 journalists since October 2023.

More journalists are likely to die covering the genocide of their own people in Gaza, especially since Israel has manufactured a convenient and easily deployed narrative that every Gazan journalist is simply a “terrorist.”

This is the same cruel logic offered by numerous Israeli officials in the past, including Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who declared that “an entire nation” in Gaza “is responsible” for not having rebelled against Hamas, effectively stating that there are no innocent people in Gaza.

This Israeli discourse, which dehumanises entire populations based on a vicious logic, is frequently repeated by officials who fear no accountability. Even Israeli diplomats, whose job in theory is to improve their country’s image internationally, frequently engage in this brutal ritual. In comments made in January 2024, Israeli ambassador to Britain, Tzipi Hotovely, callously argued that “every school, every mosque, every second house has access to tunnels,” implying that all of Gaza is a valid military target.

…

Continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israels-war-truth-systematic-killing-palestinian-journalists

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Continue ReadingIsrael’s war on truth: the systematic killing of Palestinian journalists

As White House Doubles Down, Judge Launches Inquiry of Refusal to Return Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Spread the love

Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen and the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, speaks to the media before she enters federal court on April 15, 2025 in Greenbelt, Maryland. (Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

“There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding,” the judge said. “Cancel vacations, cancel other appointments… I expect all hands on deck.”

As White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday had a “full-blown meltdown” after a reporter asked about the Maryland man wrongly deported to a prison in his native El Salvador, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis launched an inquiry into the Trump administration’s refusal to seek the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States.

The Trump administration has previously admitted in court that Abrego Garcia was mistakenly sent to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT)—despite an immigration judge’s 2019 order barring his deportation to El Salvador—due to an administrative error. Xinis ordered the administration to facilitate his release, a decision unanimously affirmed last week by the U.S. Supreme Court.

However, Abrego Garcia remained imprisoned as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) argued in a Sunday filing that Xinis has “no authority” to compel the administration to bring him home, and as President Donald Trump on Monday welcomed Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to the White House. Their meeting was followed by a Tuesday court hearing.

According to NBC News: “Attorneys for Abrego Garcia had asked that the administration be found in contempt of court over its inaction. The judge said she wants to review the evidence the administration submits, which is expected to include sworn depositions, before ruling on the matter.”

During the hearing, Drew Ensign of the DOJ told Xinis—who was appointed to the District of Maryland by former President Barack Obama—that if Abrego Garcia “appears at a port of entry or U.S. Embassy we will facilitate his return.”

Meanwhile, the judge called out the administration, saying: “What the record shows is that nothing has been done. Nothing. I asked for reports from individuals with direct knowledge, and I’ve gotten very little information of any value.”

“We’re going to move. There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding,” Xinis continued. “There are no business hours while we do this… Cancel vacations, cancel other appointments. I’m usually pretty good about things like that in my court, but not this time. So, I expect all hands on deck.”

NEW: Judge Xinis authorizes up to 15 interrogatories, 15 document requests, depositions from all govt declarants (Cerna, Katz, Kozak, and Mazzara) and up to two others to assess what the govt has done to "facilitate" Kilmar Abrego Garcia's release storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us…

— Joshua J. Friedman (@joshuajfriedman.com) 2025-04-15T22:36:55.397Z

At the White House on Tuesday, a reporter asked Leavitt who is responsible for Abrego Garcia and where he is going to end up. The press secretary responded by sharing unfounded allegations that he is a “terrorist” and member of the gang MS-13, and said that “deporting him back to El Salvador was always going to be the end result.”

Leavitt also used Bukele’s framing from the Oval Office event, when he suggested that returning the Maryland resident would mean smuggling a terrorist into the country. In addition to Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration has sent 238 Venezuelan migrants to CECOT, and the president on Monday expressed interest in sending “homegrown” American prisoners there.

“This is what mass deportation looks like,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the advocacy group America’s Voice, said in a Tuesday statement. “The concept of stripping citizenship from U.S. citizens and sending them to El Salvador prisons without due process is the stuff of nightmares and undemocratic regimes, yet here we are.”

“It’s hard to overstate what the stakes are for our democracy and core American principles given what we’re seeing and what the administration is now floating as the next steps in their larger deportation agenda,” Cárdenas added. “And it’s time Americans of all political perspectives stand up and speak out in opposition.”

Some Democrats in Congress have blasted the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda and are part of the battle to bring Abrego Garcia home—including U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who is aiming to travel to El Salvador if the deported man is not swiftly returned to his state. Multiple Democratic members of the House of Representatives have signaled that they plan to join the trip.

Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Power-mad Neo-Fascist orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue ReadingAs White House Doubles Down, Judge Launches Inquiry of Refusal to Return Kilmar Abrego Garcia

US Urged to Condemn Israel’s ‘Summary Execution’ of Two Journalists

Spread the love

Original article by EDWARD CARVER republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifee were killed by Israeli forces on July 31, 2024. (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

International outcry and a reporter’s pointed questions weren’t enough to get the State Department to denounce the killings of Al Jazeera journalists.

A Palestinian journalist on Thursday pressed a U.S. State Department spokesperson to characterize the killings of two Al Jazeera journalists by Israeli forces as summary execution.

The heated press briefing followed an airstrike on Wednesday that killed Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifee, and sparked global outrage. Israel’s military acknowledged targeting al-Ghoul, saying he was “eliminated” because he was a Hamas “terrorist,” an allegation the Qatar-based network said was “baseless.”

The death toll of Palestinian journalists and media workers now stands at least 108, including several intentionally targeted by Israel forces, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Said Arikat, the Washington bureau chief of Al-Quds, an Arabic-language newspaper based in Jerusalem, called the strike a “premeditated crime to kill a journalist for doing their job” and a “summary execution” in the press briefing, but State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel declined to affirm the characterizations or condemn the airstrike.

Al-Ghoul and al-Rifee were killed in northern Gaza after reporting from near the home of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader who was assassinated in Tehran earlier on Wednesday. They wore press vests and had signs on their vehicle identifying them as journalists; they had last contacted their news desk just 15 minutes before the strike, Al Jazeera reported.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) presented no evidence in a social media post claiming that al-Ghoul was a terrorist and Hamas operative. In March, al-Ghoul reported being stripped, handcuffed, and blindfolded during the course of a 12-hour detainment by Israeli forces; he had been covering an Israeli attack on al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Witnesses said Israeli forces severely beat al-Ghoul at the hospital before arresting him.

Anas al-Sharif, another Al Jazeera reporter in Gaza, was on site at a different hospital on Wednesday when his colleagues’ bodies were brought in, and he spoke about the role al-Ghoul had played in the outlet’s war coverage.

“Ismail was conveying the suffering of the displaced Palestinians and the suffering of the wounded and the massacres committed by the [Israeli] occupation against the innocent people in Gaza,” he told his own news outlet.

“The feeling—no words can describe what happened,” he added.

In protest of the killings, Palestinian journalists gathered to throw off their press vests and vowed to continue showing the suffering of Gazans through their work, despite the dangers they faced.

Condemnation of the killings of the two Al Jazeera journalists came not just from Gaza but all over the world.

CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement that she was “dismayed” by the killings and that journalists are civilians who should never be targeted.

Defending Rights & Dissent, a U.S.-based civil liberties nonprofit, also condemned the killing of al-Ghoul and said the reasons for it were clear.

“When you ‘eliminate’ journalists, it’s much easier to hide war crimes, it’s easier to spread lies, it’s easier to commit genocide,” Sue Udry, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.

In response to the killing, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that journalists “must be protected, and we decry attacks against them.”

William Schomburg, head of the ICRC’s sub-delegation in Gaza, said in a statement that his team had just met with al-Ghoul the previous week to get an update on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. “Journalists in all wars play a central role in highlighting the plight of civilians and in speaking for the voiceless,” Schomburg said.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF, in French), a Paris-based nonprofit, wrote in unequivocal terms about the need for Israel to stop killing journalists.

“RSF is deeply disturbed to see the Israel Defense Forces using social media to justify their targeted killing of Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul,” the organization wrote on social media. “Journalists are not terrorists. This campaign of violence against media in Gaza must stop now.”

The Freedom of the Press Foundation also responded forcefully to the IDF’s claim about al-Ghoul.

“Documenting a war isn’t terrorism, it’s journalism,” the group wrote on social media. “If the IDF can prove al-Ghoul was working for Hamas’ military, it should do so immediately. If not, this looks like a flimsy excuse for intentionally murdering a journalist from an outlet Israel dislikes.”

Israeli forces have killed at seven journalists or media workers affiliated with Al Jazeera during the war, and Israel shut down the network’s local operations in May, citing a security threat, though critics said it was a case of censorship—an attempt to hide the brutality of the assault on Gaza.

In total, 113 journalists and media workers have died since the war began, including two Israelis and three Lebanese, according to CPJ, which says this has been the deadliest period for journalists anywhere in the world since it began collecting data in 1992.

The international outcry over all of the killings has ramped up pressure on the U.S.—which has backed the Israeli assault with weapons and diplomatic support— to condemn them, and Wednesday’s strike on al-Ghoul and al-Rifee has only increased that pressure. Still, Patel, the spokesperson, wouldn’t issue any such condemnation on Thursday.

Arikat also pressed Patel to call for the release of Palestinian journalists being held in Israeli detention centers without charges, but Patel didn’t do so.

Original article by EDWARD CARVER republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingUS Urged to Condemn Israel’s ‘Summary Execution’ of Two Journalists