Report: Iran-Backed Militias in Iraq Open to Disarming to Avoid Trump Airstrikes 1/2

Frances Martel7 Apr 2025

The leaders of some of the most powerful Iran-backed terror groups in Iraq, including the notorious Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH),are considering disarming, Reuters reported on Monday, in response to threats of airstrikes from President Donald Trump.

Reuters spoke anonymous to “six local commanders” of mostly Shiite terrorist militias in Iraq, which it identified as KH, Nujabaa, Kataib Sayyed al-Shuhada and Ansarullah al-Awfiyaa. It described the militias as members of the amorphous “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” group, which emerged in response to the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, in solidarity with the fellow Iran-backed terrorist organization.

The “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” conducted several attacks targeting American basesin Iraq in 2024 in support of Hamas, KH, which is believed to have been the most powerful entity in that coalition, initially announced its intent to launch a war against American forces in the region, but ultimatelybacked out in late January 2024, stating they did not wish to “embarrass” the Iraqi government.

These groups are also part of the more formal coalition known as the Popular Mobilization Forces(PMF), which helped the Iraqi military fight the Sunni jihadists of the Islamic State and were formally integrated into the Iraqi armed forces despite their status as anti-American terrorist organizations.

The commanders consulted for the Reuters article indicated that the threat of the Trump administration killing the militias’leaders in airstrikes or other military operations informed their decision to consider fully dismantling. An Iraqi politician identified as Izzat al-Shahbndar corroborated the report, stating that talks between Baghdad and the jihadist militias about disarming and integrating into the formal Iraqi military were “very advanced.”==

Iran is also reportedly involved in the process of evolving these militias into a new, presumably more legitimate form. The head of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Esmail Qaani, reportedly visited Iraq in March urging PMF terrorists to retain “discipline” and prevent any unwanted military exchanges with America. The Quds Force is Iran’s external terrorism unit, responsible for coordinating with the country’s many jihadist proxies around the world and reinforcing Tehran’s interests and goals regarding terrorist attacks on foreign enemies.

President Trump killed Qaani’s predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, in January 2020 in an airstrike in Baghdad, where he was meeting with the founder and leader of KH, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The airstrike also eliminated Muhandis, leaving the jihadists leaderless.

The possibility of similar airstrikes on PMF and “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” leaders now that Trump has returned to the White Housefeatured prominently in the decision by the militias to seek disarmament, Reuters indicated.

“Trump is ready to take the war with us to worse levels, we know that, and we want to avoid such a bad scenario,” an anonymous KH commander told the outlet.

“The move to defuse tensions follows repeated warnings issued privately by U.S. officials to the Iraqi governmentsince Trump took power in January, according to the sources who include six local commanders of four major militias,” Reuters reported. “The officialstold Baghdad that unless it acted to disband the militias operating on its soil, America could target the groups with airstrikes, the people added.”

https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2025/04/07/report-iran-backed-militias-in-iraq-open-to-disarming-to-avoid-trump-airstrikes/

>>22878752

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Shahbndar, the Iraqi politician, credited the jihadist groups with “not acting stubbornly” and seeking to coexist with the Iraqi government, which would in theory require them to accept Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as their commander in chief. He suggested that their future could include being accepted as formal political parties, giving them some say in the workings of the Iraqi government, or arms of the Iraqi military. The framework is similar to negotiations occurring in nearby Syria, where the jihadist terror organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted longtime dictator Bashar Assad in December. In March, the head of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led pro-U.S. militia, accepted becoming part of the new Syria’s military, meaning it would accept the head of HTS, now-President Ahmed al-Sharaa, as its commander-in-chief.

Reuters reported that, in addition to verbal assurances from the PMF commanders thatthey were working towards dismantling the current state of their operations, they have begun limiting their public presence in Iraq.

“Some groups have already largely evacuated their headquartersand reduced their presences in major cities including Mosul and Anbar since mid-January for fear of being hit by air attacks, according to officials and commanders,” the outlet reported.

The Iranian government, apparently concerned of an American attack on its proxies, appears to have given its blessing for the reconfiguration. The regional outlet Shafaq News reported in late March that, following a visit by Qaani to Baghdad in which he urged the militias not to “escalate” tensions, the militias agreed to accept the Iraqi government’s authority.

“Under the arrangement,all PMF brigades and units, including the formerly independent factions,=will operate under the direct command of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani as commander-in-chiefof the armed forces,” Shafaq reported, citing anonymous sources.

Sudani has for months urged the United States to vacate his country, insisting that the fall of the Islamic State “caliphate” and reduced presence of Sunni terrorists allow for this,but omitting mention of the Shiite terrorists.

“Today, Iraq in 2024 is not the same as Iraq of 2014,” Sudani insisted in September. “We have defeated Daesh [ISIS] with our sacrifices and the Iraqi people’s position from all its components and factions and with the support of the international community and friends.”

“We found that the justifications have ended. There is no longer a need for a coalition of 86 countries. We moved from a period of wars to a period of stability.Daesh doesn’t pose a threat to the state,” he told Bloomberg News.

https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2025/04/07/report-iran-backed-militias-in-iraq-open-to-disarming-to-avoid-trump-airstrikes/

The American Jacobin: How Some on the Left have Found Release in an Age of Rage

4/7/251/2

Below is my column in the Hill on the rising political violence on the left. Many have found an irresistible release from both reason and responsibility in rage.A new study found more people embracing political violence. Joel Finkelstein, the lead author of the report, stated that “what was formerly taboo culturally has become acceptable… We are seeing a clear shift – glorification, increased attempts and changing norms –all converging into what we define as ‘assassination culture.’” Roughly 40 percent reportedly found it somewhat justifiable to burn a Tesla or even to kill Donald Trump.

Here is the column:

“We should replace our piece of crap Constitution.”

Those words fromauthor Elie Mystal, a regular commentator on MSNBC, are hardly surprising from someone who previously called the Constitution “trash” and urged not just the abolition of the U.S. Senate but also of “all voter registration laws.”

But Mystal’sradical rhetoric is becoming mainstream on the left, as shown by his best-selling books and popular media appearances.

There is a counter-constitutional movement building in law schoolsand across the country. And although Mystal has not advocated violence, some on the left are turning to political violence and criminal acts.It is part of the “righteous rage” that manyof them see as absolving them from the basic demands not only of civility but of legality.

They are part of a rising class of American Jacobins — bourgeois revolutionariesincreasingly prepared to trash everything, from cars to the Constitution.

The Jacobins were a radical group in France that propelled that country into theworst excesses of the French Revolution. They were largely affluent citizens, including journalists, professors, lawyers, and otherswho shredded existing laws and destroyed property. It would ultimately lead not only to the blood-soaked “Reign of Terror” but also to thedemise of the Jacobins themselves as more radical groups turned against them.

Of course, it is not revolution on the minds of most of these individuals.It is rage.

Rage is the ultimate drug. It offers a release from longstanding social norms — a license to do those things long repressed by individuals who viewed themselves as decent, law-abiding citizens.

Across the country,liberals are destroying Tesla cars, torching dealerships and charging stations, and even allegedly hitting political dissenters with their cars.

Last week,affluent liberal shoppers admitted that they are shoplifting from Whole Foods to strike back at Jeff Bezosfor working with the Trump administration and moving the Washington Post back to the political center.They are also enraged at Mark Zuckerberg for restoring free speech protections at Meta.

One “20-something communications professional” in Washington explained “If a billionaire can steal from me, I can scrape a little off the top, too.” These affluent shoplifters portrayed themselves as Robin Hoods.

Of course, that is assuming Robin Hood was stealing organic fruit from the rich and giving it to himself.

On college campuses, affluent students and even professors are engaging in political violence.

Just this week, University of Wisconsin Professor José Felipe Alvergue, head of the English Department, turned over the tableof College Republicans supporting a conservative for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He reportedly declared, “The time for this is over!”

Likewise, a mob this week attacked a conservative display and tent on the campus of the University of California-Davis as campus police passively watched. The Antifa protesters, carrying a large banner with theslogan “ACAB” or “all cops are bastards,” trashed the tent and carried it off.

https://jonathanturley.org/2025/04/07/the-american-jacobin-how-some-on-the-left-have-found-release-in-an-age-of-rage/

>>22878778

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Antifa is a violent and vehemently anti-free speech group that thrives on U.S. college campuses. In his book “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” Mark Bray explains that“most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or antiauthoritarian communists. … From that standpoint, ‘free speech’ as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.”

Of course, many of the American Jacobins are themselves bourgeois or even affluent figures. Andthey are finding a host of enablers telling them that the Constitution itself is a threatand that the legal system has been corrupted by oligarchs, white supremacists, or reactionaries.

This includes leading academics and commentatorswho are denouncing the Constitution and core American values. Erwin Chemerinsky,dean of the UC Berkeley Law School, is the author of “No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.”

In a New York Times op-ed,“The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale called for the nation to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”

CommentatorJennifer Szalai has scoffed at what she called “Constitution worship.” “Americans have long assumed that the Constitution could save us,” she wrote. “A growing chorus now wonders whether we need to be saved from it.”

As intellectuals knock down our laws and Constitution,radicals are pouring into the breach. Political violence and rage rhetoric are becoming more common. Some liberals embraced groups like Antifa, while others shrugged off property damage and violent threats against political opponents.It is the very type of incitement or rage rhetoric that Democrats once accused Trump of fostering in groups like the Proud Boys.

Members of Congress such as Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) have called for Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be “taken down” and said that Democrats have to be “OK with punching.”

Some take such words as a justification to violently attack a system supposedly advancing the white supremacy or fascism. Fortunately, such violence has been confined so far to a minority of radicalized individuals,but there is an undeniable increase in such violent, threatening speech and in actual violence.

The one thing theAmerican Jacobins will not admit is that they like the rage and the release that it brings them. From shoplifting to arson to attempted assassination, the rejection of our legal system brings them freedom to act outside of morality and to take whatever they want.

Democratic leaders see these “protests” as needed popularism to combat Trump — to make followers “strike ready” and “to stand up and fight back.”

For a politician, a mob can become irresistible if you can steer it against your opponents.The problem is controlling the mobonce it has broken free of the bounds of legal and personal accountability.

https://jonathanturley.org/2025/04/07/the-american-jacobin-how-some-on-the-left-have-found-release-in-an-age-of-rage/

WATCH: 100-Year-Old WWII Veteran Travels from Connecticut to Iwo Jima for 80th Anniversary of Battle

Alana Mastrangelo6 Apr 2025

A 100-year-old World War II veteran traveled from Bristol, Connecticut, to Iwo Jimato mark 80 years since the U.S. fought on the small Japanese island.

Joseph Caminiti, a100-year-old WWII veteran who still goes to the gym daily, joined U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, military officials, and familiesof those killed in the battle of Iwo Jima to visit the island for the combat’s 80-year anniversary, according to a report by WTNH.

Watch Below:

Caminiti is among the estimated three remaining living survivors of the battle of Iwo Jima, where the iconic photograph was captured of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on the island.

The Marine fought as a gunner on an Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) in the 36-day battle for Iwo Jima, where more than 6,800 Americans and 20,000 Japanese were killed in what was considered a major turning point in the last phase of World War II.

“I wanted to see where we came in and landed, and we did. We came down there where the red beach was, right by the mountain there, and I said, ‘Neil, there’s where I came down,'” Caminiti told WTNH in an interview after returning to Connecticut.

Bristol Mayor Jeff Caggiano added,“Here’s a guy who goes back to Iwo Jima at 100-years-old — and is as humble as could be, and doesn’t believe that he’s done anything amazing. And it’s one of the most amazing stories that I know in this city of Bristol.”

Caminiti reportedly took a 23-hour flight to Guam, then traveled to Iwo Jima and laid one of three wreaths at the site where the American flag was raised in March 1945.

The 100-year-old Marine is now back home in Connecticut, a state from which 100 people died at Iwo Jima, WTNH noted.

Bristol honors 100-year-old Iwo Jima veteran1:06

https://youtu.be/iKB4OmSMZbg

IWO JIMA SURVIVOR APPLAUDED ON FLIGHT AT 100 YEARS OLD 🥹

https://youtu.be/e-1zMJ4TUVI

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2025/04/06/watch-100-year-old-wwii-veteran-travels-from-connecticut-to-iwo-jima/

>>22878795

IWO JIMA SURVIVOR APPLAUDED ON FLIGHT AT 100 YEARS OLD 🥹

https://youtu.be/e-1zMJ4TUVI

55% Of Self-Identified Leftists Say Killing Trump Is Justifiable

M.D. Kittle 4/7/251/3

The unhinged left, fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome and seething hatred for Elon Musk, is trending more violent, according to anew study that finds political violence targeting President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser is “becoming increasingly normalized.”

The report, producedby the Network of Contagion Research Institute (NCRI)in partnership with Rutgers University’s Social Perception Lab,finds a broader “assassination culture” appears to be “emergingwithin segments of the U.S. public on the extreme left, with expanding targets now including figures such as Donald Trump.”

Less than a year after assassination attempts on then-presidential candidate Trump and the literally explosive violence against Musk’s Tesla electric vehicles, it’s no secret that leftists are ratcheting up violent rhetoric and actions.The more troubling trend is that an “assassination culture” isn’t just coming from the “fringe” left.

“These attitudes are not fringe— they reflect an emergent assassination culture, grounded in far-left authoritarianism andincreasingly normalized in digital discourse,” states the report, titled, “Assassination Culture: How Burning Teslas and Killing Billionaires Became a Meme Aesthetic for Political Violence.”

‘Widespread Justification for Lethal Violence’

NCRI, an independent institution working to “identify and forecast emerging threats in the era of information disorder,” finds the pattern is building on a broader trend discussed in two reports in December thatanalyzed “how viral social media narratives were legitimizing political violence, particularly in the aftermath of the United Healthcare CEO’s assassination.”

“The reports foundwidespread justification for lethal violence — including assassination — among younger, highly online, and ideologically left-aligned users,” the authors of the latest study write. (Is Google behind this? Has C shut down this talk?)

They note thespillover effectbeyond the online world, illustrated by a proposedCalifornia ballot measure macabrely named “the Luigi Mangione Access to Health Care Act,”celebrating the alleged leftist terrorist and murderer of United Healthcare head Brian Thompson. The ballot measure targets health insurance denials, one of Mangione’s reported flashpoints.

On Friday, aCalifornia man reportedly “angry with pharmacies” was arrested on charges of murdering a Walgreens employee just days after the Luigi Mangione Act was filedwith the state. ABC 30 reported that Erick Velazquez,the victim, was not a pharmacist, and was a respected husband and father of two.

NCRIaccessed the violence zeitgeistwith original survey data and open source intelligence analysis to determine “how normalized and justified violence against the administration has become in public discourse.”

“The findings signal a threat to political stability and public safety,”the reports warns.

Here are some of the troubling numbers, according to the report:

https://thefederalist.com/2025/04/07/survey-55-of-self-identified-leftists-say-killing-trump-is-justifiable/

>>22878973

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Murder Justification: 31% and 38% of respondents stated it would be at least somewhat justified to murderElon Musk and President Trump, respectively. (These effects were largely driven by respondents that self-identified as left of center, with 48% and 55% at least somewhat justifying murder for Elon Musk and President Trump, respectively, indicating significantly higher justification for violence against these figures.)

Property Destruction: Nearly 40% of respondents(39.8%) stated it is at least somewhat acceptable (or more) to destroy a Tesla dealership in protest.

Psychological/Ideological Correlations with Assassination Culture: These beliefs are highly correlated with one another, as well as with the justification of the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO and hyper-partisan left-wing ideology. (This suggests that support for violence is part of abroader assassination culture, underpinned by psychological and ideological factors.)

Interestingly,the report finds liberal social media platform BlueSky “plays a significant and predictive role in amplifying radical ideation.” BlueSky has seen its new user numbers surge since November’s election, according to the leftist publication The Guardian.Curiously, the “great X-odus” has been driven by liberals“seeking to escape Elon Musk’s X amid warnings from anti-hate speech campaign groups and the EU about misinformation and extremism on the platform,” The Guardian asserts.

NCRI also found that users are increasingly tying the “memification” of Mangione with calls for political violence against Trump, Musk and others, “reflecting the growing cyber-social presence of assassination culture.” Mangione supporters have been using a meme of the Luigi character from the Super Mario Brothers video game/movie franchiseas a symbol of political violence. Some of the threats echo the “Deny, Defend, Depose” mantra inscribed by Mangione on the shell casing that killed Brian Thompson, according to the report

‘We Will Gut You’

In February, law enforcement officials charged 28-year-old David Allen June Cherry of southern Indiana with felony intimidation after police sayhe posted online multiple violent threats against Elon Musk, including that Cherry would “gut” the close adviser to President Donald Trump.

“You’ve broken the law. You’re on the hit list,” Cherry allegedly declared on the Musk-owned social media platform X, to a Musk post, according to an affidavit. “You’re robbing American people. We will gut you and parade your corpse in the streets,” the leftist allegedly menaced Musk a short time later.

Indiana State Police tracked Cherry at his job at Batteries Plus and arrested him, according to news accounts.Detectives reportedly seized an AR-15-style rifle, a handgun, ammunition and a ballistic vestat his Palmyra home, according to Fox7.

Cherry, who reportedly runs an online business-selling anti-Musk merchandise— including an “anti-oligarch” patch with what appears to be an image of a raised-arm Musk in cross-hairs — told officials he merely wanted to make his posts “edgy” to spur social media reactions, and that he meant Musk no harm.He was released on $2,500 bond and faces the potential of six yearsin prison on the felony countswhile he continues his hate campaignagainst the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX. His trial is set for August, according to court records.

Cherry appears to becelebrating his alleged intimidation gameon his Red Pawn Dynamics page.

=“Let it be known that Red Pawn scared the richest man on the planet. What a giant p*ussy,”== the webpage boasts.

His GoFundMe page has raised $4,500 of a $15,000 goal, supposedly for legal fees and to get his car out of impound.His supporters claim the First Amendment protectsCherry’s speech and that he is being persecuted because “his opinion was about a billionaire.”

https://thefederalist.com/2025/04/07/survey-55-of-self-identified-leftists-say-killing-trump-is-justifiable/

>>22878978

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‘Too Far Down the Deep End’

Musk reportedly has been the target of a growing number of threats over his leadership role in Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency and his pledge to trim $2 trillion a year from the bloated, wasteful and fraud-plagued federal budget.

A Tennessee man reportedly= upset with Trump and Musk was arrested on charges of assembling explosives to “burn down” Musk’s artificial intelligence data facility in Memphis. Ethan Paul Early, 25,== told police that his friends talked him out of going through with the plan. He said had gotten too wrapped up in politics and had gone “too far down the deep end,” according to the affidavit, KBTX reported.

A recent Fox News analysisfound that there have been more than 50 reported targeted attacks on Tesla EVs, dealerships and charging stations in the U.S., and at least 17 internationally.

“The incidents range from minor vandalism, such as keying or graffiti, to more extreme cases like arson and drive-by shootings allegedly targeting Tesla vehicles,” the news outlet reports.

Trump, who was shot and narrowly escaped being assassinated at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in July,is a constant target of threats from members of the unhinged left. On Friday, Jupiter, Florida, police arrestedGlen DeCicco on charges of making written threats on his Facebook page a to kill Trump. “The Jupiter Police Department worked in coordination with the United States Secret Service throughout the investigation,” the press release states.

‘Real-World Escalation’

The NCRI report on the growing assassination culturenotes support for such political violence on the right, but the prevalence is not nearly as large.

“This report points to disturbingly high levels of support for political violence, particularly targeting President Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” the authors write. “Across survey responses, nearly one-third of respondents—and a significantly higher share of left-leaning respondents—expressed some degree of justification for acts of lethal violence.”

While threats and acts of violence rise on the left,the silence from Democrats in power is deafening. But we’ve seen this movie before.Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t end well for a lot of innocent people. Attorney General Pam Bondi has rightly called the spate of attacks against Tesla “nothing short of domestic terrorism,” because that’s what it is. Just like the myriad acts of domestic terrorism by the left during the Black Lives Matter riots at the end of Trump’s first term.

“For the last five years, the violent left has run rampant with few consequences for the chaos it has sown,”Karol Markowicz recently wrote in the New York Post.

The NCRI report includes a stark warning.

“Unless political and cultural leadership explicitly confronts and condemns this trend, NCRI assesses a growing probability of real-world escalation,” the report concludes. “Given the current economic volatility and institutional distrust, the online normalization of political violence may increasingly translate into offline action.”

https://thefederalist.com/2025/04/07/survey-55-of-self-identified-leftists-say-killing-trump-is-justifiable/

Peter Doocy: President Trump wants a BIG deal

Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy provides details on the economic fallout from President Donald Trump's tariffs, which the administration is categorizing as worthwhile 'short-term pain

7:29

https://youtu.be/oqHZMqM3LkY

Mahmoud Khalil makes ‘preposterous’ accusation after ‘abduction’

New York Post contributor Douglas Murray joins 'America's Newsroom' to discuss President Donald Trump's crackdown on antisemitism on college campuses as the administration halts $510 million in federal funding for Brown University

7:19

https://youtu.be/moLVawITm7k

Sen. Josh Hawley RIPS "Despicable Executive" To Shreds For Bullying American FarmersA private Corporation seizing land of farmers

Yesterday

13:16

https://youtu.be/28BDBejKgwg