“Ismail Selim Elbarasse, an accountant by training, seemed to be living a quiet life in Annandale, Virginia. But in 2004, when police officers noticed him driving with his wife across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and filming its critical structural elements, they decided to act, then detained him and notified federal agents. He was already a suspect in a scheme to provide funding to Islamist terrorist groups, and now agents were searching through his home for further evidence of his possible involvement. They discovered far more than a terrorism funding scheme. Buried among the stacks of paperwork in his home was a document written in Arabic titled ‘An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America’, written by a US-based Islamist leader from the Muslim Brotherhood. The strategic goals memo specifically addressed the ‘Civilization-Jihadist Process’ for using migration as a weapon of subversion.” (01/19/25)
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by Whitney Eulich
“It’s a phone call no editor wants to receive: a late night jolt from a reporter facing trouble. I have worked with journalists in challenging environments – writing on gang violence and public protests, or from rural, hard-to-reach areas of Latin America and the Caribbean. But it took 15 years before I got my first call from a colleague facing an arrest warrant for his work. Nelson Rauda Zablah, our freelance correspondent in El Salvador, has documented his country’s democratic backsliding since President Nayib Bukele took office in 2019. … When I learned that he was facing the risk of arrest, I felt concerned. I informed Monitor management, offered an advance on his next story payment, and urged him to stay in close touch.” (01/16/25)
“Democrats are bullish about retaking the House of Representatives and making Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) the next Speaker after the midterm elections. Part of that optimism is the cushion of five seats created through further gerrymandering of California’s U.S. House districts. According to one respected Ninth Circuit judge, however, California may have a slight problem: Its new congressional map may be based on racial discrimination. Judge Kenneth Lee this week dissented from a decision upholding the districts, and his detailed dissent could lay the foundation for a serious challenge that goes all the way to the Supreme Court.” (01/19/25)
“Sen. Bernie Sanders has served on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s board for 18 years, but hasn’t attended a single meeting — inspiring a bipartisan push to oust him, The Post has learned. Sanders (I-VT) was appointed in 2007 to the Holocaust Memorial Council, which meets twice a year to oversee the landmark DC museum located about 2 miles from the Capitol. Records supplied to The Post by museum staff show that Sanders, who mainstreamed Democratic socialism with grassroots campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, has missed every meeting of the board since his appointment.” (01/19/25)
“‘Intimidation,’ ‘threats’ and ‘blackmail’ are just some of the terms being used by European Union leaders to describe U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning that he will slap new tariffs on nations opposing American control of Greenland. European language has hardened since Trump returned to the White House 12 months ago. Now it’s in reaction to the previously unthinkable idea that NATO’s most powerful member would threaten to seize the territory of another ally. Trade retaliation is likely should Trump make good on his tariff announcement. A year into Trump 2.0, Europe’s faith in the strength of the trans-Atlantic bond is fading fast. For some, it’s already disappeared. The flattery of past months has not worked and tactics are evolving as the Europeans try to manage threats from an old ally just as they confront the threat of an increasingly hostile Russia. Trump’s first term brought NATO to the brink of collapse.” (01/19/25)
“Two years ago, recordings released during actor Jonathan Majors’ domestic violence trial sparked controversy when he was heard scolding his ex-girlfriend to be more like Coretta Scott King. Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Majors, I thought. Coretta Scott King was a fierce, relentless freedom fighter all her life — and these politics were key to why Martin Luther King Jr. fell in love with her. Yet, time and again, Scott King said she was ’made to sound like an attachment to a vacuum cleaner, the wife of Martin, then the widow of Martin. … But I was never just a wife, nor a widow. I was always more than a label.'” (01/18/25)
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by Christa Case Bryant, Kurt Shillinger, Kenny D’Evelyn, & Casey Fedde
“At a time when shifting corporate interests, market forces, and demographic trends are buffeting many news organizations, The Christian Science Monitor is different. We are published by a church. And that means our work is based on unshakable ideals that aren’t swayed by the latest algorithm. As we begin our 118th year of publication, our new leadership team is working to both articulate these ideals and enable the sort of journalism that best encapsulates our mission in today’s news ecosystem. To do this, we’ve been going back to our founding documents from 1908, when Mary Baker Eddy established The Christian Science Monitor. Our founder wrote that she established The Christian Science Monitor ‘to spread undivided the Science that operates unspent.’ What does that mean? Many of us over the years have grappled with this.” (01/16/25)
“On a nearly three-week visit to South America, during which I interviewed the presidents of Argentina and Peru, many friends asked me the same question: ‘Who is actually running Venezuela?’ My answer was, ‘The same crooks as before.’ President Donald Trump has claimed he’s running Venezuela following the US raid that captured former dictator Nicolás Maduro, and even posted a picture of himself on social media calling himself ‘Acting President of Venezuela.’ He also said he has talked extensively with former Maduro vice-president — now interim president — Delcy Rodriguez, describing her as a ‘terrific person’ who will presumably follow his commands. She is, indeed, under pressure from a US naval blockade that could cripple Venezuela’s vital oil exports.” (01/18/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I support regime change in the United States. The real kind, not the ‘new face at the front desk every few years’ kind. I’m all for overthrowing tyrannical power structures, I just think we should start with the worst one. Why should I support the violent overthrow of the US empire’s enemies while the US empire itself remains standing? Why should I want to help the one power structure that’s terrorizing and destroying nations around the world with the goal of total planetary domination? Why should I facilitate the propaganda campaign of the latest imperial regime change operation by talking about the tyranny and oppressiveness of the Official Bad Guy of the Day when it will do nothing but help the empire expand its global hegemony?” (01/18/25)
“Donald Trump may, of course, be the Republican candidate for president in 2028, the US Constitution notwithstanding. Although it is clearly written in the 22nd Amendment that ‘no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,’ it may well be a majority vote of the Supreme Court that determines whether that applies to Trump. In the past, that court has gotten around the Constitution without a single word of it being changed. Rather, its judges have let an innovative interpretation prevail. In 1896, for instance, in Plessy v. Ferguson, the court ignored the unambiguous language of the 14th Amendment that demanded ‘equal protection’ and so upheld racial segregation by creating the fiction of ‘separate but equal.’ It would take 58 years before that lie would be overturned.” (01/18/25)
