By Howie Katz
While I was in the hospital, a CAT scan showed that there was a mass between my heart and my trachea. A biopsy revealed that the mass was lymphoma.
My followup visit to the oncologist was not exactly encouraging when I spotted his pet, a vulture.
By Trey Rusk
A formidable Japanese 'destroyer' that can repel any Iranian missiles and drones will escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
Michael Chadwick Fry, 41, was taken into custody on Thursday and charged with abuse of a corpse after he allegedly tossed human remains at the FBI field office in Dallas, Texas
A crazed criminal who rammed his truck into a Dallas news station in 2018 has been arrested again for allegedly tossing human remains at an FBI field office.
Michael Chadwick Fry, 41, was taken into custody on Thursday and charged with abuse of a corpse for the disgusting act, which police in Bartonville, Texas said he filmed and posted on YouTube.
He was caught after his mother called police on March 16 to report that her son had asked her for money to rent a U-Haul.
When she asked why, the son said he 'had a body that needed to be moved,' according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by NBC News.
At that point, Fry became 'irate' and left the home, the probable cause affidavit stated.
Shortly after, police said they received a call from Fry's sister that he 'filmed himself on YouTube' throwing 'Elizabeth's remains' over the fence to the FBI Dallas office, the Denton Record-Chronicle reports.
That video allegedly showed him throwing a large, closed white bucket over the fence into the secure parking lot of the FBI building.
He claimed he was trying to compel the bureau to intervene in 'what he describes as wrongdoing by Denton County officials from a past arrest.'
The bucket 'contained numerous bones' that appeared to be human, the FBI said. Those bones are now awaiting further forensic analysis.
Police have confirmed to KDFW that Fry is the same man who rammed a truck into the station's building in downtown Dallas in 2018 (pictured)
This led police to believe the skull came from the same set of human remains as those found in the bucket.
But Denton police spokesperson Amy Cunningham said Lyons was buried at a local cemetery and her grave remains undisturbed.
Fry's mother told police she found in her vehicle's GPS history three searches for cemeteries - one in Arlington, Texas and two in Oklahoma City.
She also said she found a shovel that was never at their home before and that her son had started to lock the shed in the back of the home, which he didn't do previously.
As the investigation continued, investigators learned Fry had stolen an urn containing human remains from a cemetery in Oklahoma City - which was the subject of a police investigation there.
FBI agents also found evidence at a cemetery in Denton 'indicating that a coffin containing human remains had been removed from a mausoleum.'
Reporters visited the cemetery and observed damage to the Magee mausoleum, which contains the remains of Jasper P Magee and Mary Myrtle Wright, a married couple who died in 1942 and 1940, respectively.
The case against him now remains active, and police said the next of kin have been notified.
Authorities found him in 2018 pacing and scattering numerous handwritten leaflets outside
Officers later determined Fry was upset about a 2012 police shooting that killed his friend, and a Dallas police spokesperson said he was trying to get media attention
Fry was unable to enter the building and was soon arrested
Meanwhile, police have confirmed to KDFW that Fry is the same man who rammed a truck into the station's building in downtown Dallas in 2018.
Footage of the attack showed Fry slowly approaching the building, coming to a full stop before accelerating once again and then swerving head-on into the building.
The vehicle then goes in reverse - pulling with it a large panel of glass.
After returning to the street, the truck once again slams into another part of the building.
Police said at the time they arrived on the scene and arrested a 'ranting' man behind the wheel of the pickup truck.
He also was seen pacing and scattering numerous handwritten leaflets outside, but Fry was not able to enter the building and was soon arrested.
But he left behind a suspicious bright orange duffel bag that prompted police to set up a perimeter and bring in a bomb squad.
Officers later determined Fry was upset about a 2012 police shooting that killed his friend, and a Dallas police spokesperson said he was trying to get media attention.
Fry later apologized to the news station during a court hearing.
He also has a number of other arrests, most recently on March 20, 2022 when he was booked on a criminal mischief charge that occurred on October 26, 2021, according to the Cross Timbers Gazette.
In total, Fry has been arrested 28 times by the Denton County Sheriff's Office, Denton Police Department and Argyle Police Department dating back to August 5, 2003 on charges including burglary, engaging in organized criminal activity, arson, theft making terroristic threats and resisting arrest.
He is now being held on a $300,000 surety bond.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has seized more than 650,000 ballots as his office investigates 'alleged irregularities' in the county's elections
A Republican California sheriff who is running for governor has seized more than 650,000 ballots to investigate an alleged excess of votes.
Sheriff Chad Bianco, who oversees Riverside County just east of Los Angeles, began his investigation over the weekend, with his office describing 'alleged irregularities' in the county's elections.
The move stemmed from the findings of a third-party, citizens' election watchdog group called the Riverside Election Integrity Team.
The organization claimed to have found an excess of around 46,000 votes in the November special election for Proposition 50, which was a redistricting effort intended to favor Democrats in the midterm elections and was voted into law.
Proposition 50 was introduced by California Governor Gavin Newsom in response to a similar redistricting move in Texas that strengthened Republicans' prospects in the upcoming midterms.
California officials have insisted that the Riverside Election Integrity Team's findings are unfounded and could fuel conspiracy theories, but Bianco has gone ahead with his investigation anyway and has said his office will conduct another count.
At a press conference on Friday, the sheriff, who is an avid supporter of Trump, said: 'This investigation is simple: physically count the ballots and compare that result with the total votes recorded.'
But California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has questioned Bianco's investigation and said his office has neither the expertise nor the authority to conduct a recount.
Bianco cited an alleged excess of around 46,000 votes in the special election for Proposition 50, which was a redistricting effort favorable to Democrats that was introduced by California Governor Gavin Newsom (pictured)
Bianco is a Republican, and he is running for governor of California. He is pictured walking through a crowd after announcing his gubernatorial bid in February
'The Riverside County Sheriff's Office has taken actions based on allegations that lack credible evidence and risk undermining public confidence in our elections,' Weber told the City News Service, a news wire for Southern California.
'The sheriff's assertion that his deputies know how to count is admirable. The fact remains that he and his deputies are not elections officials, and they do not have expertise in election administration.'
Proposition 50 was passed into law after receiving 64 percent of statewide ballots cast in November of last year.
The law won 56 percent of the vote in Riverside County, where a total of 656,000 votes were cast. That means Bianco has seized pretty much every vote that was made.
At a Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting in February, Greg Langworthy, a leader of the Riverside Election Integrity Team, explained his group's method of auditing voting machines.
'We are accounting for all the ballots that came into the system, and there cannot be any more votes than the ballots that came into the system,' he said, noting that the exact number of ballots that allegedly could not be accounted for was 45,896.
Art Tinoco, a Riverside County election official, dismissed the Riverside Election Integrity Team's excess ballot findings last month and said the organization did not understand how vote counts are done on election day.
The election official told county supervisors that initial intake logs are supposed to be estimates rather than exact counts and that the final tally, which was determined through two independent systems, was still within 103 votes of that estimate.
A Riverside County election official dismissed the excess vote count and said that the election integrity did not understand how vote tallies work on election day. A woman casting her ballot is pictured (stock image)
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has questioned Sheriff Bianco's investigation and whether his office has the experience or authority to conduct a recount
![California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office has said that it has 'serious questions about the merits of [Bianco's] investigation'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2026/03/22/20/107334585-15669493-California_Attorney_General_Rob_Bonta_s_office_has_said_that_it_-a-30_1774211617792.jpg)
California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office has said that it has 'serious questions about the merits of [Bianco's] investigation'
That is a tiny fraction of the discrepancy cited by the sheriff's office, and it is well within the state's accepted margin of error, Tinoco said.
'Did the Nov. 4, 2025, statewide special election have a 45,896-ballot discrepancy between ballots cast and ballots counted?' Tinoco asked at the board of supervisors meeting. 'The answer to that is no.'
On top of vocal opposition, Sheriff Bianco has said that Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta has actively worked to undermine his investigation.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Bonta's office refuted that allegation and said: 'We have attempted to work cooperatively with the Sheriff’s Office in order to better understand the basis for their investigation, including by reviewing the warrants themselves and by requesting the Sheriff’s complete investigative file.'
The California attorney general's office added that Bianco 'has delayed, stonewalled, and otherwise refused to work with us in good faith.'
Bonta's office said that the sheriff has not provided most of the documentation that has been requested and that it has 'serious questions about the merits of this investigation.'
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Riverside County Sheriff's Office for comment.
At the top of the Military Intelligence Directorate, officials struggled to understand the nature of the intelligence, which seemed to have landed on them without context. No one in the intelligence community had the faintest idea that Hezbollah was planning to assassinate the former defense minister and IDF chief of staff, or anything close to that.
But the report, whose existence is being revealed here for the first time, came from reliable sources, and Military Intelligence decided not to take any risks. Officials called the Shin Bet security agency, the body responsible in Israel for protecting public figures. "We don't know exactly what is going on," they told them. "But Bogie should not leave the house any time soon."
"That night I slept in my apartment in central Israel," Ya'alon, a member of Kibbutz Grofit in the Arava region, recalled this week. "The next morning I was planning to head out early for a handbike ride in Yarkon Park, as part of an activity I have been doing for years with wounded IDF soldiers. But before dawn, Shin Bet people came to my house, knocked on the door and told me, 'You are not going out.'"
Did that surprise you?
"No, because for many years now I have seen myself as a target. That means looking around, being cautious and sensitive to any change."
Ya'alon may be sensitive to every change, but on that day he came within a hair's breadth of death. At around 6:30 a.m. on September 15, 2023, while Ya'alon remained inside his apartment in central Israel on Shin Bet instructions, a powerful Claymore-type explosive device detonated in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park. The device had been planted beneath a tree, directly on Ya'alon's planned riding route. Only by sheer luck was no one hurt.
Following the explosion, the Shin Bet launched an investigation. With the help of security cameras, it quickly traced those who had planted the bomb and arrested them later that same day with police assistance. In the interrogation rooms, the suspects spun for their interrogators a long and convoluted story that exposed an extensive terrorist network and the blindness of the entire intelligence community. It turned out that, right under its nose, a skilled and well-equipped terrorist cell had been operating inside Israel, and only a great deal of luck prevented it from carrying out its plan: revenge.
Ibrahim Makhoul, an Israeli citizen, had made a living from smuggling even while living in Israel, and maintained ties with criminal elements in Lebanon. Handguns, drugs, weapons, Makhoul moved all of them across the border fence and into Israel. In early 2023, he apparently decided to expand his business and crossed into Lebanon on his own initiative. When Hezbollah operatives captured him, they immediately suspected he was an Israeli spy. After several days of interrogation, they realized they had in their hands a smuggling expert with deep ties inside Israel, and recruited him.
Under Hezbollah's protection, Makhoul began smuggling weapons and drugs into Israel through the Lebanese border, relying on his friends in Israel. As emerges from the severe indictment filed against eight of them, all of whose names are barred from publication, Makhoul at some point enlisted his acquaintances to carry out what can be called the "Claymore plan": an operation to assassinate two senior Israeli security figures using explosive devices to be smuggled from Lebanon. The operation was run by Hezbollah, but according to Israeli intelligence assessments, it was directed by figures in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The explosive devices themselves, Israel believes, were manufactured in Iran or with Iranian assistance.
In summer 2023, Makhoul called two of his friends in Israel on WhatsApp and Signal video calls, while filmed against the backdrop of a car with a Lebanese license plate and holding a weapon. In this way he proved to them that he was cooperating with Hezbollah and working for it, and that there was a good deal of money in this business. Makhoul instructed them to reach the border with Lebanon near Kibbutz Sasa, and while they were driving along the fence he guided them to a point where they picked up packages of weapons and military equipment that had been thrown in advance over the border fence from Lebanon. In this way, the terrorist cell succeeded in smuggling into Israel a carbine rifle, two handguns, and above all three Claymore devices.
The advanced explosive devices were later transferred, under Makhoul's direction, to other figures in the terrorist network he had built, through a maze of intermediaries, cellphones purchased for the purpose and dead drops. One of the places where the explosive devices were hidden was a girls' school in the Palestinian town of al-Eizariya, near Jerusalem. All of this was discovered by the intelligence services only in hindsight.
At the end of August 2023, Makhoul, who was operating in Hezbollah's service and under Iranian direction, began engineering the next stage of his Claymore plan. Under his instructions, one of the members of the network in Israel bought a remotely controlled camera and installed it in his car. That same terrorist also fitted one of the Claymore devices with a remote activation mechanism. "We are going to kill an important person," Makhoul told his partner in a phone conversation.
On the evening of September 14, 2023, the terrorist arrived at Yarkon Park equipped with the explosive device and planted it at the point Makhoul had instructed him to. He parked his car so that the camera inside it was aimed at the tree beneath which the device had been planted. From that moment on, all that was needed was to press a button, somewhere in Lebanon. Only in hindsight did Israel understand that this was what Hassan Nasrallah had meant when he gave the authorization to kill Bogie Ya'alon.
Ya'alon did not pass through the park that day. The explosive device went off anyway at 6:30 a.m., apparently because of a mistaken identification, according to the Shin Bet, and no one was hurt. This was the closest Iran had ever come to assassinating a senior Israeli official. In hindsight, it became clear that the same terrorist network had planned to assassinate another former senior security figure using an additional Claymore device. The identity of that figure is barred from publication, but it can be said that he held one of Ya'alon's former positions.
Military Intelligence received much praise because of the affair. The attack on Bogie had been foiled only thanks to the strange piece of information it picked up at the last minute. But the Military Intelligence officers who handled the case did not allow themselves to rejoice. They felt that this was an intelligence failure that had turned into a success almost purely by chance. A fluke. Three weeks later came the surprise attack of October 7.
Immediately after the bomb exploded in Yarkon Park, a gag order was imposed on the details of the investigation, and it was lifted only a year later. By the time the Shin Bet finally exposed the terrorist cell that had intended to assassinate Ya'alon, the war was already at its height and the story had faded and been forgotten. But the attempted assassination of the former defense minister and chief of staff is only one expression of a broad and long-running Iranian project, led by the Revolutionary Guards and intended to strike senior Israelis wherever they may be. It is an ongoing, sophisticated effort, driven mainly by feelings of revenge, feelings that took root among the Iranians long before the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei. The scale and depth of this Iranian operation are described here for the first time.
"I know very well who sent the cell that was meant to kill me," Ya'alon told us. "It was a senior Hezbollah figure, working in cooperation with the Iranians. Luckily for me, a pager exploded in his hand, and he lost his hand and his eyesight. In that respect, I have some satisfaction, because as defense minister I approved the idea behind the pager operation."
It is not recommended to rely on karma, which so far has prevented Iran from assassinating a senior Israeli figure. "The fact that until now none of our senior commanders, in Israel or abroad, has been murdered owes a lot to luck," says a former senior IDF officer familiar with the issue.
Iranian activity aimed at harming senior Israeli figures has been going on for decades, first under the umbrella of Iranian intelligence and later under the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Over that period, the Iranians have operated in several waves. For example, between 2011 and 2016, following a wave of killings of Iranian nuclear scientists attributed to Israel, more and more Iranian attempts were uncovered to retaliate by harming figures in Israel, from security personalities to businessmen.
The current wave began in January 2020, immediately after the killing of Quds Force commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani. "Their efforts intensified greatly after Soleimani was killed, and later after the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of the nuclear program, in November of that same year," confirms a former Mossad official who until recently dealt precisely with these matters.
"The motivation is revenge," adds Shalom Ben Hanan, former head of the Shin Bet's counterespionage division. "We have been killing their senior figures for many years. In recent years it has also come out in the media, and the Iranians want to create a response equation, a price tag. This is a very significant issue for them and part of the overall campaign they are waging against us."
One of the tools the Iranians use to gather intelligence on senior figures in Israel is the spy network they have deployed inside the country, which surfaced after October 7. "Under the heading of Iranian espionage in Israel, the target of harming individuals is one of the central ones," Ben Hanan says. "Many of those involved in espionage affairs in the past two years, at some point in the investigation it emerges that they were offered the chance to assassinate a senior figure or collect intelligence on a senior figure in preparation for an assassination. Sometimes it is a blunt proposal, sometimes it is a request to collect pre-operational intelligence, and sometimes it is testing and probing the willingness of that person to carry out an assassination."
According to data Israel Hayom publishes here for the first time, since the outbreak of the war the Shin Bet and the police have uncovered 38 cases of Israelis recruited by Iran, of which in 13 cases Israeli citizens were asked to collect information on senior Israeli figures in order to pass it on to Iranian operatives.
Among the targets identified by Shin Bet investigations during this period are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ministers Israel Katz and Itamar Ben-Gvir, MK Benny Gantz, who held several senior security positions, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, former defense minister Yoav Gallant, former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi, former Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, and even a senior female academic working at the Institute for National Security Studies. "The Iranians have a well-oiled system, it works all the time, and they have high motivation," says a legal source familiar with some of these cases.
The Iranian effort to assassinate senior figures intensified even further after Operation Rising Lion. "There we basically carried out a decapitation operation against them, with wholesale assassinations," in Ben Hanan's words. Following that, the Shin Bet began identifying persistent Iranian attempts to recruit and run more and more Israeli citizens for the purpose of harming individuals, with an emphasis on senior officers. During the operation, the IDF set up a "shadow general staff," intended to deal with a situation in which the army's top brass was hit, and one of the directives barred the chief of staff and his deputy from being in the same room. Former chief of staff Herzi Halevi also received increased security during the operation and was instructed not to move around in crowded places. Other generals were asked to evacuate their homes for several days. During Operation Lion's Roar as well, security was reinforced for officers, along with some cabinet ministers and other senior figures. In several cases, the families of senior figures were asked to leave their homes and move to alternative apartments.
"The counterespionage division that I headed made a leap forward in the past decade in everything related to Iranian espionage," says Ben Hanan. "It is investing a great many resources in this, including setting up new units operating in cyberspace, greatly expanding the use of human intelligence tools, working with technologies suited to the world of state espionage, and international cooperation."
The IDF also stepped up its security arrangements for senior officers at the start of the October 7 war, through the General Staff unit for protecting senior officials in the Operations Directorate. The unit, which among other things runs a command center linked 24/7 to cameras documenting protected officers, has been expanded significantly over the past two years. For example, the unit began providing exceptional protection to the commander of the Nevatim Air Force Base as early as November 2024. The opposition channel Iran International claimed that the Nevatim commander was the assassination target of seven Israelis from northern Israel accused of spying for Iran.
"There are people, mainly in politics, who like the security around them because it is a status symbol," says Brig. Gen. (res.) Ran Kochav, who during his tenure as IDF spokesman was protected at the highest level after receiving threats on his life דווקא from far-right activists. "In my experience, it is something very unpleasant. The bodyguard is attached to you 24 hours a day and sits outside your house while you sleep, shower or host guests, and they put cameras inside your private space. Sometimes in the middle of the night you feel like opening the door and telling the bodyguard, 'Brother, forget the security. Come in and warm up.'"
The expansion of the unit protecting senior officials joins another step the IDF is preparing to take: the establishment of a new brigade in the Operations Directorate that will bring under it the unit for protecting senior officials, the Information Security Department operating in Military Intelligence, and the Military Police's camp protection array. "This is a direct result of the IDF's understanding that there is a problem not only with protecting senior figures, but also with everything connected to information security in general and the leaking of secrets," says a source familiar with the details. As of the time of writing, the new brigade is expected to be headed by Tal Ashur, who was commander of the Multi-Domain Unit and commander of the Southern Brigade in Gaza. He is to be promoted to brigadier general.
In Israel, of course, efforts are being made to thwart plots to assassinate senior figures and also to protect them as much as possible. But not infrequently the Iranians have managed to come close again to carrying out their plans. One such case occurred in October 2024. This time the target was a well-known Israeli scientist living in Rehovot.
For several months, Binyamin Weiss, a resident of Bnei Brak, had been in contact with an Iranian handler through messaging apps on his phone. Weiss carried out tasks for his handler such as setting cars on fire, spraying graffiti and hanging posters calling for civil revolt. Seemingly, Weiss was just another one of those low-level Israeli spies caught in the web Iran had cast online. But at a certain point Weiss's activation was escalated, and he was asked to gather intelligence on a well-known Israeli scientist living in Rehovot. Weiss agreed. He drove to Rehovot and photographed the scientist's home and car using a camera that transmitted the information back.
The intelligence supplied by Weiss was used by the Iranians to direct a terrorist cell from Beit Safafa that had already managed to obtain weapons and was on its way to the scientist's home. Thanks to Shin Bet intelligence guidance, which apparently had already been tracking the cell, its members were arrested. "But this is proof of Iranian activity not only on the intelligence level, but also on the operational level," a security source said this week. "In this case, there really was an assassination cell that was ready to carry out the killing."
Another case foiled by the Shin Bet and the police was that of Vadim Kupriyanov, a handyman who had simply been looking for work in a Telegram group for job seekers. Someone in the group apparently identified Kupriyanov's strong desire to make easy money, and began running him on seemingly simple jobs. In the Shin Bet, this Iranian recruitment practice is called "the spray method."
The first tasks given to Kupriyanov were described by his handler as "real estate jobs." He photographed busy streets in cities in central Israel, later also prices of products in supermarkets and pharmacies, and sent them in. In his defense, Kupriyanov would later claim that he did not think he was carrying out espionage tasks. In any event, he was paid thousands of shekels for the service via cryptocurrency.
Kupriyanov became so enthusiastic about the easy money he was making that he opened an additional Telegram user account on his partner's phone and established a second, parallel connection with the Iranian handler, thinking he could make money twice over. The Iranians, whether or not they knew that Kupriyanov was "working" them, began raising the bar of the missions. His partner, who sensed that something was not right with what was going on on her phone, urged him to stop, but Kupriyanov ignored her.
At a certain point, Kupriyanov was asked to install a camera in the front and rear of his car and drive to a certain address in Ra'anana. According to him, he did not know that it was the home of former prime minister Naftali Bennett. In line with the instructions he received, he circled Bennett's house in Ra'anana and then positioned himself with the car up the street, with the camera aimed at the house and transmitting constantly backward. At that stage he was arrested on the spot by the Shin Bet, and an indictment was later filed against him.
The cases of Weiss and Kupriyanov are characteristic of the Iranian method of operation: the use of Israeli agents activated through readily available messaging apps, paid in digital currency, and taken through a slippery process of escalation.
Another case with similar characteristics that was recently exposed involved the collection of intelligence around Gallant's home. Fares Abu al-Hija, a 32-year-old resident of Kaukab Abu al-Hija, had also been looking for casual work online. He connected with a figure calling himself "Martin" and began receiving relatively simple assignments from him, including buying and transferring cellphones. At the end of each such mission, Abu al-Hija sent a photo and video to his Iranian handler to prove that it had indeed been carried out. In return, he was paid through the Binance app. After several such tasks, he was asked to photograph a café in Tel Aviv.
Abu al-Hija's "classic" process of escalation took a twist when it became sharp and steep almost all at once. At a relatively early stage in the operation, he was asked to go to the community of Amikam, where Gallant lives, and document several streets. A report on Channel 12 claimed that in any case Gallant was not staying at his home at that time, after he had been asked to leave because of another affair in which someone else had been discovered photographing the area around his residence.
Abu al-Hija was arrested on the spot, immediately after he sent "Martin" photos and videos from Amikam. That fact, combined with the timing of other arrests for similar offenses, may point to the working method of the Shin Bet and the police. A source familiar with the issue who spoke with us says that the Shin Bet tracks many Iranian operations in parallel, and tries to balance the need to "maintain control" with the desire to gather more evidence against Israeli spies. "The Shin Bet is flooded with many incidents, and it is impossible to monitor everything," he explains. "Therefore, from the moment an activation process 'deteriorates' to a certain stage, arrests are made as quickly as possible."
Somewhat oddly, neither the Shin Bet nor the police has succeeded in formulating a profile of the average Israeli "assassin." The spies run by Iran who have been caught paint a colorful mosaic that includes different ages and backgrounds, diverse population groups and varying motivations. "We have not managed to identify common DNA," says Chief Insp. Yossi Elkrif. "It starts with people who are desperate for money, use drugs of various kinds or who understand that easy money will help them survive, and goes all the way to normative people, but apparently the thrill gives them great satisfaction."
For nine years now, Elkrif has served as an investigations officer in the security division of Lahav 433's international crime investigations unit. As such, he has a long-term perspective on Iran's efforts to activate agents in Israel. "Since October 7 we have seen a significant increase, by hundreds of percent, in cases involving contact with an Iranian agent," he says. "They are trying to get as deep as possible into the soft underbelly of the State of Israel."
One of the spies Elkrif himself investigated is Yaakov Perel, a Satmar Hasid arrested in September 2025 and charged with assisting the enemy in wartime and passing information to the enemy with intent to harm state security. "In his case, for example, the motivation was not money but ideology," Elkrif says. "We defined him as a 'ticking bomb.' In the interrogation room, when he already understood he was facing many years in prison, he told me, 'So much the better, now I will spread my doctrine in prison.'"
Perel, an anti-Zionist activist with Israeli and US citizenship, was living in Morocco, where he first made contact with the Iranians back in 2017. In November 2024, after Nasrallah was killed, the enraged Perel contacted an Iranian handler on Telegram and offered his services. Under Iranian direction he flew from Casablanca to Boston to renew his Israeli passport at the Israeli consulate, where he bought two "operational" phones with SIM cards and installed apps for encrypted messaging with his handlers. Two days later he landed in Israel and rented an apartment in Beit Shemesh. According to the understandings between Perel and his handlers, he was told that immediately after completing his tasks in Israel, they would arrange political asylum for him in Iran, together with all the members of his family.
Perel began by photographing train stations, but was quickly sent on two more complex missions: gathering intelligence around the homes of Minister Ben-Gvir and former chief of staff Halevi. Because he did not have a driver's license, he installed cameras on his bicycle and began riding around the homes of both targets. He transmitted the video live to his handlers in Iran. In this case as well, he was arrested immediately after the act. "In the interrogation, when Perel was already trying to reduce the legal damage for himself, he explained that he saw this as legitimate transmission of information," investigator Elkrif says. "He knew that what he was doing could lead to harm to Ben-Gvir and Halevi, but he said, 'I will not pull the trigger.'"
Perel's trial is still ongoing, like the trials of most of the Iranian spies caught in Israel. In fact, apart from Moti Maman, a resident of Ashkelon who was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of contact with a foreign agent, all the other cases opened in these affairs over the past two and a half years are still underway. Even Maman's case ended in conviction only as part of a plea bargain.
Within the law enforcement system there are those who are dissatisfied with the conduct of the judicial system on this issue and claim it is dragging its feet. On the other hand, there are those who argue that the legislature set a very high threshold of punishment for security offenses, while in practice many of the detainees are "stupid kids who did not fully understand what they were doing." That gap causes the prosecution and the courts, according to this view, to hesitate before convicting defendants of offenses such as contact with a foreign agent and assisting the enemy in wartime.
Besides being the only one convicted so far, Maman's story, who in an exceptional case visited Iran and met with local intelligence figures, provides fascinating testimony to the strong interest of the Revolutionary Guards in assassinating the most senior people in Israel. "The Iranians tried to understand whether Maman could get to Netanyahu or to Bennett," says attorney Eyal Besserlik, who represented Maman in the case and represents him on appeal. "Moti was obviously not in that direction, but they really insisted that he 'get to the man in Ra'anana.' Therefore, one of the first things Moti did when he landed in Israel and was immediately arrested was to ask that Bennett's security be increased. He told the Shin Bet that even while he was barred from meeting a lawyer." According to Besserlik, Maman offered to become a double agent who would work מול the Iranians and deceive them, but the prosecution rejected the proposal after consulting with the police unit and the Shin Bet.
Iranian attempts to harm Israelis do not end within the borders of the State of Israel. "There are constant attempts to assassinate and especially to kidnap senior figures abroad," says Ben Hanan, whose counterespionage division also dealt with this issue. "These are mainly security figures who were exposed to classified and sensitive information."
For that purpose, the Iranians use what is known as a "honey trap," intended to lure the target to a particular place. Ben Hanan reveals here for the first time one such attempt, in an effort to kidnap a very senior former figure in the security establishment. "The Iranians recruited an Israeli man, and we in the Shin Bet got onto it but did not understand why he interested them specifically," Ben Hanan recounts. "Only then did we realize that the goal was to use that Israeli, who happens to know several security figures, in order to lure the final targets of the Iranian operation. He was supposed to receive large sums of money for that."
At a certain point, that Israeli did in fact approach a senior security personality, a man who had held a very high security clearance, and tried to persuade him to meet at a certain point abroad. "At that point we stopped him and interrogated him," Ben Hanan says. "What I have just told you is based on that suspect's confession in interrogation."
"Since its establishment, the Khomeinist regime has operated to harm Israelis abroad," adds Yoram Schweitzer, a former intelligence official who researches terrorism. In a study he recently published together with Anat Shapira, Schweitzer analyzes Iranian methods of operation for harming Israelis abroad, including senior figures. Among those methods are the recruitment of local operatives, in many cases criminals, in order to give Iran plausible deniability; the use of extortion and threats, including against family members, when recruiting operatives; and the use of cryptocurrency to finance operations. Using these methods, the Iranians have in recent years tried to harm Israeli businessmen in Turkey and Georgia, and more recently also Israel's ambassador to Mexico.
"The body that took the lead in these operations is the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, which specializes in running cells or individuals outside Iran," says Schweitzer. "The Iranians have an almost absolute monopoly on managing assassination operations, whether abroad or in Israel. Naim Qassem, while still serving as Hezbollah's deputy leader, admitted that operations abroad can be carried out only with the approval of the supreme leader, because of the complexity and implications of the event." Hezbollah, according to Schweitzer, at times serves as a "contractor" for the Iranians, especially in places where the Lebanese terrorist organization has access to operatives on the ground in Israel, exactly as in the attempted assassination of Bogie Ya'alon.
Incidentally, the man in Iran who was responsible for managing the broad operation of assassinating and kidnapping senior Israelis was Saeed Izadi, a senior general in the Revolutionary Guards. He himself was killed in Operation Rising Lion.
“Hello, how are you? Is this Commander Fathi Zadeh?” the Israeli Mossad agent asks at the start of the phone call.
“Who are you? Hello?” the senior Iranian police officer responds.
“Are you listening?” the Israeli intelligence agent continues in Farsi. “We know everything about you, you are on our blacklist, and we have all the information about you.”
“OK,” the Iranian officer, identified as Mohsen Fathi Zadeh, head of the Protection and Intelligence Organization of the Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) of Iran, replies in the recording.
The Israeli agent continues: “Your daughter’s name is Zahara, and your wife’s name is Jahanbachsh, your mother’s name is Nadia, and your father’s name is Husain. I called to warn you in advance that you should stand with your people’s side. And if you will not do that, your destiny will be as your leader’s [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei]. Is that clear?
“Brother,” the Iranian commander responds, “I swear on the Quran I’m not your enemy, I’m a dead man already; just please come help us and cut off the head of all of the commanders.”
The call, a recording of which was sent to JNS by Israeli intelligence sources, was one of hundreds that Israeli Mossad agents made to senior Iranian security officials since the outbreak of the war on Feb. 28, in an effort to weaken the regime and its supporters.
The calls are coupled with the targeted killings of top Iranian leaders, from Khamenei, who was slain in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the war, followed by, among others, Iran’s top security official and the head of the feared Basij militia.
“This reveals the extent of the Israeli penetration into the Iranian governmental system,” IDF Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, an intelligence and security expert, told JNS on Sunday. “It is part and parcel of Israel’s goal to weaken the Iranian regime to create the condition for the Iranian people to change it.”
He noted that the psychological warfare Israel was using in Iran, coupled with targeted assassinations, was similar to the tactics the IDF used against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran’s proxies, only now at a distance of about a thousand miles away.
“There is no doubt that this is weakening the regime, but it is too early to say if this will do the work,” Kuperwasser said. “It is hard to determine at what point the regime is so weak that the people will rise up against it. Time will tell.”
Over the last three weeks, Israel has been hunting down Iranian regime members, one by one, and taking out their supporters on the streets of Iran.
Iranian experts said that the Islamic regime was fighting for its very existence, so it will take time to see any major change.
“This is part of Israel’s widespread psychological warfare being used against Iran, but whether it will be more than a tactical success, it is too early to say,” Tel Aviv University professor Meir Litvak told JNS.
He noted that with the stakeholders of the Iranian regime ruthlessly “fighting for their lives,” the system continues to function for now even as it is weakening.
The use of intelligence targeting senior Iranian commanders both physically and psychologically comes a year and a half after thousands of pagers and hundreds of walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded simultaneously in two separate events across Lebanon and Syria, in a highly acclaimed Mossad operation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month that Israel has “many more surprises” in store for the next phase of its Iran operation.
Kuperwasser said that patience was needed in a planned four- to six -week war, which has now entered its fourth week.
“Patience, endurance, and perseverance are what will determine the outcome,” he said.
The Senate approved by unanimous consent Thursday a proposal to end the special treatment members of Congress get at airports that allows them to speed through or skip the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) screening checkpoints.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) proposed the legislation on the Senate floor Thursday night to force Democratic colleagues to wait in the same long security lines as the rest of the flying public during the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, which has now stretched for 35 days.
Security screening lines have been especially long at Houston’s Hobby Airport, where people have had to wait three to four hours to get through TSA lines.
Wait times have increased dramatically at airports around the country in large part because more TSA agents are missing work during the shutdown as they’re not getting paid.
“Staffing constraints have not only led to longer wait times around the country but also significant delays, disruptions and missed flights,” Cornyn said on the floor, blaming Democrats for the Homeland Security shutdown.
“The only reason I can fathom, other than being completely out of touch, that our Democrat colleagues would do this is not all members of Congress are being forced to experience the same mess of their own making,” Cornyn said.
“As many Americans probably don’t know but most of us in Washington do know, airports around the country allow members of Congress to bypass the usual TSA screening process at airports nationwide. In other words, they get to skip the line. This should end today,” he said.
Cornyn’s proposal would prohibit TSA from using any funding to provide or facilitate the “expedited” passage through security screenings.
No senator objected when he asked that it be passed by unanimous consent.
If enacted, the legislation to end preferential treatment for lawmakers at airports would be in effect even once the Department of Homeland Security reopens.
The House would need to pass the bill and President Trump would have to sign it for it to become law.
Democrats have repeatedly blocked legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security demanding reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection.
Democrats, instead, have proposed several times to fund just TSA or TSA and other critical agencies such as the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency but not ICE and Border Patrol. Republicans, however, have blocked these efforts, declaring they won’t split off funding for immigration enforcement agencies.
President Donald Trump says he's ready to send ICE agents into airports starting on Monday if Democrats don't agree to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
By Jackie DeFusco
"If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country," Trump wrote in a post on Saturday.
The details of that plan were not immediately clear. Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, told CNN that planning discussions would happen later on Sunday. Homan said ICE is expected to assist with security at entrances and exits, but not in areas where they're not trained, like passenger screenings.
The announcement prompted swift backlash from Democrats.
"Masked, armed police at travel checkpoints is a hallmark of dystopian movies," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. "He is manufacturing chaos at airports for political leverage and trying to force Democrats to accept unaccountable secret police at security checkpoints around the country."
Airport security wait times have been growing since DHS funding lapsed more than a month ago. TSA agents are expected to work without pay until the partial shutdown ends, as is the case for other federal employees deemed "essential." Others have been furloughed.
Democrats are still demanding new restrictions on immigration enforcement before fully funding DHS, which is also home to ICE and Border Patrol. Those agencies haven't been hit as hard by the funding lapse since Congress surged immigration enforcement funding as part of Trump's megabill, which was signed into law last summer.
Democrats have proposed moving forward with TSA funding while talks about reforming ICE continue, but Republicans rejected that approach Saturday as the Senate met for a rare weekend session.
Meanwhile, there has been some movement on negotiations. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has been meeting in recent days, but no compromise has publicly emerged yet.
Calls for reform ramped up after two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis as protesters pushed back on the president's sweeping immigration crackdown.
The Minnesota operation was in part motivated by allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. Trump said in his post on Saturday that ICE officers sent to airports would focus on arresting immigrants from Somalia who are in the United States illegally.
The funding turbulence comes as DHS is also bracing for possible changes under new leadership. The Senate could vote as early as this week to confirm the president's pick to take over the department, Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was ousted from the role after her leadership faced criticism from both sides of the aisle.
ANDERSON COUNTY, Texas — A $16 billion natural gas project is headed to East Texas following a Thursday meeting between President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, marking one of the region’s largest energy investments in recent years.
East Texas Rep. Cody Harris, whose district includes Anderson County—the planned site of the new natural gas generation hub—said the project would create roughly 3,000 long‑term, high‑paying jobs and give local taxing entities room to lower property taxes.
“This will be a massive investment in House District 8, which will have a multi-generational impact. Very exciting day for our area,” Harris said.
KETK News spoke with Anderson County Judge Carey McKinney, who says the project will have a major impact on their local economy.
“It’d be a major impact on our economy, both in creation of jobs and as well our local businesses, because the intent is to try to hire as many local workers in the construction phase and in the long term, long term jobs, for the power plant and you’re going to be interacting with our local businesses, you’re going to have plumbers,” McKinney explained. “I’m sure there’ll be some workforce trainings that are probably going on with this too.”
According to McKinney, the jobs will be high paying positions and since the project is entirely within their school tax district, it will generate a significant boost for their education funding.
The $16 billion Anderson County natural gas project is a part of a larger $550 billion that the United States and Japan negotiated in 2025. As part of the deal, Japan will invest $550 billion into projects across the United States in exchange for a reduced 15% tariff on all U.S. imports of Japanese products, rather than the 25% tariff that President Trump proposed in July 2025.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the new Anderson County natural gas hub will be operated by NextEra Energy Resources of Juno Beach, Fla. and will generate up to 5.2 gigawatts of power for the Texas electricity grid.
“America needs more power, and NextEra Energy is ready to deliver. For more than a century, we have built the energy infrastructure that powers America’s growth,” NextEra CEO John Ketchum said. “Our hub strategy is designed to scale quickly and support rising demand while strengthening America’s energy security—without increasing electricity costs for American households. We are pleased that our Texas and Pennsylvania hubs have been selected to advance the President’s goal of American energy dominance.”
A NextEra press release said the Anderson County facility will be jointly owned by the United States and Japan, but will be built and operated by NextEra. Before construction can start on the project, NextEra said the Japanese investment is subject to further negotiations and the finalization of definitive documents between the parties involved.
McKinney said he expects construction to start in 2028, unless President Trump pushes the project toward an earlier date. He added that the Anderson County Commissioner’s Court plans to hear from NextEra about the project in their meeting on April 6 at 9:30 a.m.
Emergency response personnel work after an Iranian missile strike on Dimona
An Iranian ballistic missile has injured a 10-year-old old boy and around 38 other people in the Israeli city of Dimona.
Footage of the strike was posted on social media, showing the projectile hurtling towards a residential area and exploding in a huge fireball.
The Israeli army said there was a 'direct missile hit on a building' in Dimona and it was reviewing how the impact happened after videos also showed an interceptor trying and failing to down the missile seconds before the impact.
Israel's emergency service Magen David Adom said 39 people had been injured by shrapnel from the blast, including a 10-year-old boy who is in serious condition and a 40-year-old woman in moderate condition with injuries from glass fragments.
The other 37 casualties are in moderate condition and they have all been taken to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva around 30km away from Dimona.
Israel's Home Front Command has also dispatched search and rescue forces to impacted areas. Israeli police also released pictures of officers in a building with a large hole blown in the wall.
Iranian state TV has since claimed the attack was a 'response' to an earlier strike on its own nuclear site at Natanz, which Israel has denied responsibility for.
Iran's atomic energy organisation said earlier today that the 'Natanz enrichment complex was targeted this morning', though there was 'no leakage of radioactive materials reported', according to a statement carried by local media.
The city of Dimona is located around 13km from Israel's Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center - a top-secret nuclear weapons facility - in the Negev desert.
The moment an Iranian ballistic missile hurtles towards the Israeli city of Dimona, injuring a 10-year-old old boy and around 19 other people
Moments later a huge fireball can be seen engulfing the ground
Israel's Negev Nuclear Research Center in the Negev desert
While Israel says the Dimona plant officially focuses on research, it is widely believed to possess the Middle East's sole, if undeclared, nuclear arsenal.
The country has never officially confirmed its nuclear power, but it is believed Israel has possessed a significant number of nuclear weapons since the 1960s.
Earlier this month, Iran threatened to target the site if Israel and the US sought regime change in the Islamic Republic.
Following the strike, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had not received 'any indication of damage' to the research centre.
'Information from regional States indicates no abnormal radiation levels have been detected,' it added in a statement.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi also stressed that 'maximum military restraint should be observed, in particular in the vicinity of nuclear facilities'.
It comes after two ballistic missiles were fired towards Diego Garcia, a base in the Indian Ocean jointly operated by the US and the UK, on Friday night.
Sources reported that one of the missiles failed in flight, while the other was intercepted by a US warship in what is believed to be the first ever strike on the military base.
The precise timing of the incident is as yet unknown, though the Government confirmed on Saturday that it took place before Keir Starmer gave the go-ahead to for Donald Trump to use UK-based bombers threatening the Strait of Hormuz.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has accused the Prime Minister of a 'cover up' on the details and questioned why the public were not told 'sooner'.
The IDF confirmed the Diego Garcia attack was the first time Iran had launched a long-range missile, capable of reaching a distance of around 4,000km, since the start of the war.
'The Iranian terrorist regime poses a global threat. Now, with missiles that can reach London, Paris or Berlin,' it added.
Hours after the strike, Iran declared it had 'missile dominance...over the skies of the occupied territories' and warned its 'new tactics and launch systems' would leave the US and Israel 'astonished'.
Israeli soldiers work at the scene of damage after Iranian missile barrages struck Dimona on Saturday
An Israeli soldier uses a torch to inspect the damage after an Iranian missile in Dimona
Diego Garcia lies around 3,800km (2,360 miles) from Iran - undermining the regime's previous assertion that its ballistic missiles could only reach 2,000 km (1,240 miles).
The strike on Diego Garcia took place just seven days after Israeli forces struck Iran's main space research center in Tehran, amid fears it was being used to 'develop satellite attack capabilities in space.'
Experts have warned that if Iran has greater military prowess, the missile threat could now extend well beyond the Middle East and within distance of most capital cities in Western Europe.
This includes Paris, which is 4,198km (2,609 miles) from Tehran, while London lies on the 'edge of vulnerability' at around 4,435km (2,750 miles).
Despite the strike, Keir Starmer has vowed not to use its bases in Cyprus for any offensive action following a phone call with the country's president Nikos Christodoulide.
'The British Prime Minister reiterated ... that the security of the Republic of Cyprus is fundamental to the United Kingdom and, to that end, a decision has been taken to enhance the means contributing to the preventive measures already in place,' a Cypriot government spokesperson said.
'Finally, the Prime Minister reiterated that the British Bases in Cyprus will not be used for any offensive military operations.'
An Iranian-type Shahed drone caused slight damage when it hit facilities at Britain's Akrotiri airbase in southern Cyprus on March 2, with two others later intercepted. There have been no further known security incidents.
Britain retained sovereignty over two bases on the island when it granted its colony independence in 1960.
