Pentagon Purge: Trump Fires Chairman Of Joint Chiefs, Navy Chief And Other Top Brass

Making good on a campaign pledge to shake up the senior military ranks to ensure a focus on his policy priorities, President Trump on Friday night took the extraordinary step of firing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and five more senior Pentagon officers. The fired chair, Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., had only served two-and-a-half years of his four-year term.

Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs usually stay in their posts when control of the White House changes hands. Trump's move immediately triggered accusations that he was politicizing the US military. “A professional, apolitical military that is subordinate to the civilian government and supportive of the Constitution rather than a political party is essential to the survival of our democracy,” said Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed in a statement

To replace Brown, Trump has nominated retired USAF Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Cain. The selection of Cain is highly unusual: Not only had he already retired from service, but he would be the first three-star general to ascend to the highest post in the US military. Cain is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and an F-16 pilot credited with 150 combat hours and two tours in Iraq. From 2021 to 2024, Cain served as the CIA's associate director for military affairs, collaborating on several highly classified initiatives, the New York Times reports.

Announcing the nomination on Truth Social, Trump's praised Cain's performance against ISIS:

"During my first term, Razin was instrumental in the complete annihilation of the ISIS caliphate. It was done in record setting time, a matter of weeks. Many so-called military 'geniuses' said it would take years to defeat ISIS. General Caine, on the other hand, said it could be done quickly, and he delivered."

While praising Cain, Trump accused his own predecessor for failing to recognize Cain's talents. "Despite being highly qualified and respected to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the previous administration, General Caine was passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden. But not anymore!"

Trump was gracious, however, toward the fired chairman, thanking Brown for "his over 40 years of service to our country," calling him "a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader," and wishing him "a great future for him and his family."

Brown was just one of six casualties on Friday night. After Trump's announcement, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a statement indicating that Chief of Naval Operations Adm Lisa Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff James Slife have also been removed, along with the judge advocates general of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/pentagon-purge-trump-fires-chairman-joint-chiefs-5-more-senior-pentagon-officers

LEAKED PHONE CALL: LA Mayor Karen Bass Preemptively Defended Ghana Trip Despite Local Catastrophe: "I'm Missing Two Workdays, That's It"; Dropped Cryptic Warning Days Before LA Fires

"Read in between the lines… hold tight, you will understand soon."

https://twitter.com/i/status/1893037313602560293

‘Terrorism’ behind Algerian’s stabbing spree in France – Macron

At least one person has been killed and two injured in the city of Mulhouse, according to TF1

At least one person has been killed and two others injured after an Algerian man went on a stabbing spree at a market in the French city of Mulhouse on Saturday afternoon, according to local media.

The events took place during a demonstration in support of Congo, where a security perimeter was set up, Le Figaro wrote.

The suspected attacker is a 37-year-old Algerian who was allegedly under an obligation to leave French territory as well as a judicial ten-year ban from the country, according to TF1, citing police sources.

“At the time of the events, the man was to come and sign his judicial control at the police station to verify his house arrest, which he refused,” TF1 reported.

Witnesses reportedly heard the phrase “Allahu Akbar” during the incident.

https://www.rt.com/news/613159-algerian-man-stabs-multiple-people-france/

European Military Chiefs Proposed Dubious Plan To Send 30,000 Troops To Ukraine

The Times reported on Wednesday that European military chiefs have proposed a plan to deploy 30,000 troops to Ukraine to provide security guarantees as part of a potential future peace deal.

The report said the UK and France are leading the discussions about deploying a "reassurance" force to Ukraine, an idea that’s been firmly rejected by Moscow. In response to the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Russia’s opposition to the deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine.

Peskov pointed to recent comments from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said the "presence of armed forces from NATO countries [in Ukraine]… is completely unacceptable to us."

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also ruled out the idea of a NATO deployment to Ukraine, saying if a peacekeeping force is deployed, it must be a non-NATO mission. But the British and French plan envisions the US providing support for the European deployment.

The Times report reads: "A US backstop, which is deemed essential for the plan, would likely be based on the ‘extraordinary strength in air power’ that NATO countries have. It could be in the form of US aircraft based in Poland and Romania, subject to the agreement of President Trump, an official suggested."

The report comes after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was ready to send British troops to Ukraine. While Starmer is eager, others doubt the British military is really up for the deployment. Lord Danatt, head of the British Army from 2006 to 2009, has said the British military is too "run down" to lead the mission.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/european-military-chiefs-proposed-dubious-plan-send-30000-troops-ukraine

Hamas frees six captives as Israel delays release of 620 Palestinian prisoners

More than 10,000 Palestinian detainees remain in Israeli custody as the first phase of the ceasefire deal comes to an end

In exchange, Israeli authorities are set to release 620 Palestinian prisoners, including around 150 serving long or life sentences and 445 taken from the Gaza Strip during Israel's latest invasion.

The first 42-day phase of the ceasefire agreement and prisoner exchange deal began on 19 January.

The second and third phases are contingent on the completion of the current one.

However, Israel has delayed talks for the second phase, which was scheduled to begin on 3 February, leaving the future of the ceasefire uncertain.

Hamas has stated its readiness to release all remaining Israeli captives in a single batch during the second phase of the agreement, scheduled to start on 2 March.

In return, the Palestinian group asks for an official end to the war, the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the release of all Palestinian prisoners.

Saturday's exchange is the latest one scheduled in the first stage involving living captives.

Hamas is set to release the bodies of four deceased captives from Gaza next week.

With the first phase of exchanges concluded, an estimated 10,000 Palestinian prisoners or more remain in Israeli custody, including dozens of bodies taken by Israeli forces.

In Gaza, 59 Israeli captives remain in Hamas’ custody. Half of them are believed to be dead, according to Israeli estimates.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-releases-six-israelis-gaza-exchange-620-palestinian-prisoners

They love pushing baby death propaganda

A Primer in Propaganda

Spoiler Alert: There was no killing of babies in incubators.

PR giant Hill & Knowlton was subsidized by the Kuwaiti royal family, H&K dedicated 119 executives in 12 offices across the country to the job of drumming up support within the United States for the ’91 Iraq War. It was an all-out blitz: distributing tens of thousands of “Free Kuwait” T-shirts and bumper stickers at colleges and setting up observances such as National Kuwait Day and National Student Information Day. H&K also mailed 200,000 copies of a book titled The Rape of Kuwait to American troops stationed in the Middle East. The firm also massaged reporters, arranging interviews with handpicked Kuwaiti emissaries and dispatching footage of burning wells and oil-slicked birds washed ashore.

But nothing quite compared to H&K’s now infamous “baby atrocities” campaign. After convening a number of focus groups to try to figure out which buttons to press to make the public respond, H&K determined that presentations involving the mistreatment of infants, a tactic drawn straight from W.R. Hearst’s playbook of the Spanish-American War, got the best reaction. So on October 10, 1990, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a hearing on Capitol Hill at which H&K, in coordination with California Democrat Tom Lantos and Illinois Republican John Porter, introduced a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl named Nayirah. (Purportedly to safeguard against Iraqi reprisals, Nayirah’s full name was not disclosed.) Weeping and shaking, the girl described a horrifying scene in Kuwait City. “I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital,” she testified. “While I was there I saw the Iraqi soldiers coming into the hospital with guns and going into the room where 15 babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die.” Allegedly, 312 infants were removed.

The tale got wide circulation, even winding up on the floor of the United Nations Security Council. Before Congress gave the green light to go to war, seven of the main pro-war senators brought up the baby-incubator allegations as a major component of their argument for passing the resolution to unleash the bombers. Ultimately, the motion for war passed by a narrow five-vote margin.

Only later was it discovered that the testimony was untrue. H&K had failed to reveal that Nayirah was not only a member of the Kuwaiti royal family, but also that her father, Saud Nasir al-Sabah, was Kuwait’s ambassador to the U.S. H&K had prepped Nayirah in her presentation, according to Harper’s publisher John R. MacArthur’s book Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War. Of the seven other witnesses who stepped up to the podium that day, five had been prepped by H&K and had used false names. When human rights organizations investigated later, they could not find that Nayirah had any connection to the hospital. Amnesty International, among those originally duped, eventually issued an embarrassing retraction.

When asked if it acknowledges the incubator story as a deception, H&K’s media liaison, Suzanne Laurita, only responded, “The company has nothing to say on this matter.” Pushed further on whether such deception was considered part of the public relations industry, she reiterated, “Please know again that this falls into the realm that the agency has no wish to confirm, deny, comment on.”

Written by Ian Urbina at the Middle East Research and Information Project in Washington, D.C. November 12, 2002.

I’m not suggesting that old Saddam was a sweetheart, but seems there were enough true stories to smear the guy, no?

Why do people still believe a word of official narratives?

I’ll die baffled.

https://anthonyfreda.substack.com/p/a-primer-in-propaganda

Prominent Canadian activist and author arrested for pro-Palestinian activism

Yves Engler's arrest in Montreal has been labelled an 'attack' on free expression in Canada

A Canadian activist and author, who has been likened to Noam Chomsky, was arrested by police in Montreal, Canada, on Thursday for criticising Israel and accusations of harassment from a pro-Israeli influencer.

Yves Engler has been a voracious critic of Israel and the Canadian military complex for over two decades.

After Montreal Police reached out to him about their plans to arrest Engler because of a complaint lodged against him by Zionist influencer Dahlia Kurtz, he took to social media to highlight the issue. While he admitted he had responded to Kurtz's "racist, violent, anti-Palestinian posts" on X, he said he had not harassed her.

“I’ve never met Kurtz. Nor have I messaged or emailed her. Nor have I threatened her. I don’t even follow her on X (Twitter’s algorithm puts her posts in my feed).”

After Engler posted about his arrest and the allegations made against him, the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute organised an action campaign, and almost 3,200 people, by the time of publishing, had written to the Montreal police asking them to drop charges against Engler.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/prominent-canadian-activist-and-author-arrested-pro-palestinian-activism

>>22633992

>blood transfusions

From children?

Israeli settlers escalate attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank

Settlers raid Palestinian homes and lands, beating residents and stealing possessions

Israeli settlers have carried out several assaults against Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank over the past week, in a major escalation of settler violence in Palestinian villages.

Fares Kaabneh told Middle East Eye that settlers attacked the area where he lives near the village of al-Taybeh, east of Ramallah, on Wednesday morning.

Settlers broke into two of their family homes, beat his father and uncle, smashed the windows and stole money and gold.

The escalation of attacks comes in conjunction with statements by Israeli officials about the necessity of completing the plan to annex the West Bank during this year.

Palestinians believe the settlers are motivated by the Israeli government to carry out these attacks, especially in Area C, in order to expel its residents and facilitate its annexation to settlements, including outposts established during the past year.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-settlers-escalate-attacks-palestinians-west-bank

A federal agency, funded by American taxpayers, is actively shielding illegal immigrants while keeping secrets from the very government meant to oversee it.

This is a full-scale, taxpayer-funded cover-up. The Department of Education, the agency entrusted with shaping our future, is instead engaged in a secret operation to protect illegal immigrants—and they’re using encrypted apps to evade oversight. Travis Combs himself admits they’ve deliberately removed citizenship status checks to keep the program off the books. Who authorized this? Who is accountable? If a government agency can ignore laws and hide its actions, then what else are they concealing?

https://citizenwatchreport.com/a-federal-agency-funded-by-american-taxpayers-is-actively-shielding-illegal-immigrants-while-keeping-secrets-from-the-very-government-meant-to-oversee-it/

President Donald Trump: One other thing, just before we leave, I think you should do this. For safety and security and for the good of our nation, you should do it anyway, regardless, even if it costs 10 times more, but it actually costs you just a tiny fraction.

If you went to paper ballots in you’re voting, and I would hope that every Republican would. So it costs exactly 8% of what the machines cost. These machines, they got something going. They They get business. It’s amazing. So paper ballots, and paper is very sophisticated today. Paper, it’s called watermark. It’s impossible to copy, impossible to cheat. It’s actually hard to believe that a piece of paper is highly sophisticated, but it’s watermark, and it’s amazing, actually, when you see it. You can’t cheat.

But if you went to paper ballots and same-day voting, and if you went to voter ID, and also one other thing, you want a proof of citizenship. Those four things, proof of citizenship, voter ID, paper ballots, one-day voting. And if you went to two-day voting or three-day voting. But some of these states, you had 64 days. California just finished up just a short while ago.

They were voting a week and a half ago. They’re trying to finish them up. And other states, too. They were weeks after the election. I mean, if that were a close election, you’d have to wait for weeks and weeks and weeks. You got to finish fast, Brian. Thank you for your help. We did very well in Georgia. It was very nice. But some of these states, if you had a close election, you wouldn’t know who won. And then once that happens, then you really never know who won.

But you would save tens of millions of dollars, forgetting about right, wrong, and security, safety, our country, our Constitution, and all of this. Number one, you’d have a much safer election. Number two everybody. You know the results of your election by 10: 00. Everybody. It’s a beautiful system. It’s boxes of 5,000. Boom, boom. And you can go and examine each box. It’s so simple and so good.

I did ask Elon because he knows more about computers than anybody. And I said, What do you think of the voting system? He said, Computers are not meant for voting. It’s just not a good… It’s too many transactions taking place too quickly.

It’s just not… He said, Honestly… And I’ve gone to the best people, the smartest computer minds from MIT from others. My uncle was a professor for 41 years at MIT and a brilliant guy. And I got to know a lot of the people up there, and they will tell you that the most secure way that you can secure the election, and probably the fastest way, because there can be very little hanky panky, is paper ballots. Can you believe So I hope, Sarah, that certainly the Republican governors. But if you want to save a lot of money, you go to paper ballots. It’ll cost you 8% of what the costs are now. And that’s based on a good deal for machines.

And then when you go through the days and weeks and months of waiting,

France had mail-in ballots. Any time you have mail-in ballots, you’re going to have fraud without question. And France had it, and they went back to paper ballots. And I saw their election, and their election was over at nine o’clock, and their numbers came in at 10: 05. There were no complaints. They had a winner, they had a loser.

39 million votes, and it was done. We’re one of the only people that has now mail-in voting, one of the only countries that has mail-in voting.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1893014349414875469