IF TRUMP ATTACKS VENEZUELA HE WILL BE BREAKING INTERNATIONAL LAW WHICH LEGAL EXPERTS SAY HE IS ALREADY DOING WITH MISSILE STRIKES ON BOATS ..... HIS DEECLARATION THAT THE VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT IS A TERRORIST NETWORK MAY SATISFY AMERICAN LAW BUT NOT INTERNATIONAL LAW

Details of Trump's secret phone call with Venezuelan leader emerge as Pentagon hits back at chilling 'kill everybody' message

 

By Sophie Gable 

 

Daily Mail

Nov 29, 2025

 

 

Politicians and legal experts have argued that the Trump administration's lethal force in the Caribbean violates international law  

 

President Donald Trump and Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro had a phone call where they discussed a possible meeting as the US continued to threaten military action against the country.

Trump has launched a crusade against suspected drug traffickers from Venezuela, breaking with US foreign policy and authorizing missile strikes on suspected vessels funneling drugs into the country. 

The New York Times reported on Friday that multiple sources close to the president said Trump spoke with Maduro on the phone sometime last week

The conversation included a potential meeting between the two leaders, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly joined the call as well. 

Another source clarified to the publication that there are currently no concrete plans between the two leaders. 

The Trump administration has repeatedly stood by efforts to kill potential Venezuelan operatives traveling by boat in the Caribbean.  

Current and former officials at the Pentagon have estimated that the lethal campaign against suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers has killed over 80 people, including 11 people on board a boat hit by a US missile strike in September, according to the Washington Post. 

On Friday the Post reported that two sources with direct knowledge of the operation said that US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave intelligence analysts monitoring the boat to 'kill everybody' on board on September 2. 

Donald Trump reportedly spoke to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro last week on the phone as military tensions rose between the two countries 

The Trump administration has condemned Maduro's rule as the Department of War ramps up strikes against potential drug traffickers from Venezuela 

The US launched two missile strikes at a vessel believed to be carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing the 11 people on board in the September 2 attack

 

The sources said that the first missile struck the boat and set it on fire, but officials saw two survivors clinging to the wreck once the smoke cleared. 

In line with Hegseth's lethal direction, a second missile was fired, and the two survivors were 'blown apart in the water,' The Post reported. 

Hegseth fired back on the reporting of his chilling message, taking to X on Friday and calling it 'fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory.' 

The Defense Secretary doubled down on the 'lethal, kinetic strikes' and confirmed that the administration intends to kill 'narco-terrorists' who are 'poisoning the American people.' 

'The Biden administration preferred the kid gloves approach, allowing millions of people - including dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans - to flood our communities with drugs and violence,' Hegseth wrote.

'The Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists. Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them.' 

In a separate post shared on Friday evening, Hegseth warned: 'We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.' 

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell also denied the reporting, telling The Washington Post in a statement: 'This entire narrative is completely false.' 

 

 

'Ongoing operations to dismantle narcoterrorism and to protect the Homeland from deadly drugs have been a resounding success.'

The September attack was reportedly led by SEAL Team 6 and overseen by Admiral Frank 'Mitch' Bradley, according to the Washington Post. 

Two sources told the outlet that Bradley said on a conference call that the two survivors needed to be killed because they could call other traffickers to save them and their cargo, making them a continued threat. 

One person who watched the live feed of the attack told The Post that the footage was horrifying. 

There's also a discrepancy in how the White House justified the attacks, with two congressional aides telling the publication that lawmakers were told the follow-up attack was to remove carnage, not kill survivors. 

Politicians and legal experts have disputed Hegseth's claim that the administration is acting in accordance with international law. 

Representative Seth Moulton called the explanation for the second attack 'patently absurd,' noting that 'killing survivors is blatantly illegal.' 

'Mark my words: It may take some time, but Americans will be prosecuted for this, either as a war crime or outright murder,' Moulton added. 

 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly gave a directive to 'kill everybody' on board the vessel, approving a follow-up strike that killed two survivors 

 

Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised Special Operations forces, told The Post that since the two countries aren't in 'armed conflict' killing the men 'amounts to murder.' 

The United Nations Charter states that the US only has the right to use military force against a vessel if it is engaging in an armed attack. 

Anthony Clark Arend, a Georgetown University specialist in international law, told Politifact that: 'There has been no evidence presented that the vessel was engaging in an armed attack or was about to be engaging in an armed attack.'

However, Mike LaSusa, the deputy director of a crime and security think tank, told Politifact that it isn't unprecedented for the US to use lethal military force against suspected drug traffickers.

Since that attack, the Pentagon was estimated to have launched missiles at at least 22 more boats, according to internal data seen by The Post. 

Rubio announced earlier this month that, as of Monday, the department named the Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. 

Rubio stated that the Cartel de Los Soles is a group of high-ranking individuals following Maduro who have corrupted the country's military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary, including invoking terrorist violence and trafficking drugs. 

However, experts told CNN that the term is more of a broad description of corrupt officials as opposed to an organized terror group.  

 

The two leaders reportedly discussed a meeting, although one source said there were no concrete plans 

 

 

The Trump administration has vocally opposed Maduro's rule, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio deeming him an illegitimate president 

Trump reportedly told service members on Thanksgiving that the administration was planning on expanding military efforts to land strikes 

 

The Trump administration has been vocally opposed to Maduro, with Rubio calling the leader an illegitimate president. 

On Thanksgiving, a week after the reported phone call, Trump told service members that the administration was expanding military efforts to land strikes. 

'In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many. Of course, there aren’t too many coming in by sea anymore,' he said. 

Trump added that it was 'easier' to intercept potential drug traffickers on land, and that it would be starting 'very soon.'   

'We warn them: Stop sending poison to our country,' he added. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House and the Defense Department for comment.  

SAMSUNG TURNS HALF-DEAD TEXAS TOWN INTO BOOM TOWN

Texas railroad city to boom again as tech giant moves in and community say it's time to 'grow or die'

 

By Eliot Force 

 

Daily Mail

Nov 29, 2025

 

 

 

Taylor is a small city in the Austin metropolitan area with a population of a little less than 18,000 

 

A Texas town that has gone through booms and busts since it was founded in the late 1800s is on the up again as Samsung moves into town.

Taylor, a small city in the Austin metropolitan area with a population of a little less than 18,000, has been experiencing steady growth over the past six or seven years that has ramped up since Samsung began building a $17 billion plant there in 2022. 

According to local business owner Cliff Olle, trendy businesses including a Korean restaurant, 6,000sq ft arcade, speakeasy and art gallery have been popping up - a stark contrast to 15 years ago when he said 'downtown was completely dead.'

At the same time, millions of dollars have been invested in public services and infrastructure. Half of the more than $20million of sales tax revenue derived from Samsung plant's construction has been invested into services such as animal shelters, police equipment and public amenities.

The standout investment and improvement for some locals is the city's park system, which includes a new stadium with public fitness equipment inside. 

'The landscape is just completely different,' said Olle, who has been operating businesses in Taylor along with his wife, Kaitlin, since 2008. 

That year, the couple moved their wireless internet company to the city. He said that at the time, there were 'no businesses to speak of.' 

The couple now operates apartment complexes in Taylor, and they are the proud owners of Old Taylor High, a high-school building that they converted into a retail center in 2018, which is home to dozens of local businesses.

The Samsung semiconductor plant began construction in 2022, and it has pumped huge amounts of money into the local economy of Taylor, Texas

Cliff and Kaitlin Olle have been running businesses in Taylor since 2008, and Cliff said the city has already changed dramatically. The couple are pictured with their children, Alaina and Mitchell

A passenger depot and wood burning engine shows what Taylor looked like in the late 1800s and early 1900s

 

Olle told the Daily Mail that in '2018, 2019, things were starting to pick up... When Samsung was announced, I mean, that just changed the landscape completely.'

Taylor was established as a railroad town in 1876, and it was appropriately named after Edward Moses Taylor, a railroad official. 

The trains that ran through Taylor were key to its growth in the town's early years, but when the country's primary mode of transportation switched from rail to commercial and personal vehicles, the settlement suffered. 

Evolving technology has spelled ups and downs for the city, which is now on the rise as it benefits from the rapidly growing demand for advanced computer chips that power artificial intelligence and factories to create them. 

A Biden-era law called the CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed in 2022, provided more than $52 billion in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research and development.

In response, several tech giants began building plants in the US. Samsung was one of them, and it received up to $4.75 billion in federal support to construct the semiconductor plant in Taylor. 

Tia Stone, president of the Taylor Chamber of Commerce, told Daily Mail: 'Our economic development corporation (EDC) was ready.

'When [Samsung] asked questions, other people were having to wait to get answers, and our EDC already knew the answers. I think they’d even already talked to landowners to see which ones would be interested in selling. I think they did that before Samsung even called them, because it really happened very quickly.' 

 

According to Olle, Taylor was already growing around 2018 and 2019, and things really began to pick up when the Samsung plant began construction in 2022 

Taylor Seoul Food is an authentic Korean Restaurant in Taylor that rents its space from the Olles in Old Taylor High. The owner is a Korean woman who uses family recipes

 

Samsung has committed to investing at least $6 billion in buildings and other real property improvements in Taylor, and at least $11 billion in machinery and equipment.

It has also donated more than $3 million to the city, on top of the tens of millions of dollars in sales tax revenue Taylor has received from the project.

'They’ve been a great partner for our community. They've donated to our food banks. They've donated to multiple nonprofits and our school district,' said Stone.

Suppliers and construction workers for the plant's construction also pumped money into the local economy. Stone told the Daily Mail that activity has both attracted new businesses and stimulated existing ones. 

'Our local printer who does T-shirts... he still does a lot of his stuff by hand, and when Samsung has an order, it changes the whole way he can operate it, because it's quantities that he's never dealt with before,' she said. 

Samsung stated that in 2024, construction activity of the Taylor plant injected $8.6 billion into the local economy and created 8,868 direct and 9,768 indirect construction jobs, which is a total higher than the town's entire population. 

The company also said operation at the site has thus far supported 3,664 jobs and pumped an additional $184 million into the economy. The plant is expected to directly create 1,800 high-tech jobs over the next ten years.

Delays in construction have extended the timeline for the plant to begin operation. It was supposed to start producing chips by the end of the year, but that projected start date has been pushed to the end of 2026.

 

Yesteryear remembered: The Missouri-Pacific Railroad in Taylor, Texas, in 1935

The CHIPS and Sciences Act, which provided billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research and development, incentivized Samsung to build the plant in Taylor

Tia Stone is the president of the Taylor Chamber of Commerce. In regard to the city's boom, she said: 'You either grow, or you die'

 

The city negotiated an extension with Samsung that allowed the tech giant more time to complete the first phase of its construction while maintaining the tax breaks and government subsidies that drew the company there in the first place. 

City leaders said the economic stimulation and high-paying jobs the plant will create for locals are worth the wait. 

Samsung has said it is still on track to meet the 2026 deadline, but the plant is not expected to produce the maximum number of chips it is potentially capable of until 2028 or later.

Daniel Seguin, the communications director for the City of Taylor, told the Daily Mail: 'Samsung and the city of Taylor recently amended their agreements at the request of the city to provide additional benefits to the city of Taylor from utility providers on site, decrease inspection costs for the city, and to clarify expectations for Samsung's operational status. 

'The new agreements require Samsung to install and commission $2 billion worth of equipment by the end of the 2026 calendar year.'

The Daily Mail has reached out to Samsung for comment regarding the delays. 

But Olle believes that despite the delay, the city is on the verge of a boom. 'What I see coming is hopefully more apartment complexes and more development like ours,' he said. 

'Once Samsung goes live, that's when we're going to see that huge growth of Home Depots and Lowe’s and the large big box stores. 

 

Taylor is home to a 6,000sq ft arcade. Locals hope that the city's growth could draw more businesses and continue to bolster existing ones

Sophia's Brocante is a home goods store popular with locals looking to decorate their houses

 

'You don't really see that growth until they're active. And then all that support business comes in, and then we're going to have those support companies for Samsung and chip manufacturing. You're going to have a whole bunch more businesses move in.'

Seguin said that the city currently has, 'thousands of living units... in various stages of development with over 900 currently under construction and over 6,000 in their final planning stages.'

The only caveat of the city's growth that both Olle and Stone presented to the Daily Mail was their desire to maintain the city's 'small-town charm.' 

Some naysayers do not see the explosive growth as a positive and wish to keep Taylor a quaint place where everyone knows each other. 

'But that ship has sailed, and now it's time to embrace it,' said Olle. Stone echoed his sentiment. 

'You either grow, or you die,' she said. 

But she also made sure to add: 'We are looking at all the ways you try to keep your charm as you grow. We are a community with an identity. We don't tell people that we live in Austin. We tell people we live in Taylor.'

Olle similarly said: 'My hope is that we thread the needle, and Taylor just continues its growth trajectory but keeps that small town feel.' 

 

Cliff Olle said he hopes that Taylor will keep its growth trajectory while maintaining its small-town charm

 

Stone said she is 'optimistic' about the city's future and that all this economic development will revamp Taylor into a place where families can raise children who can find work locally when they get older and stay in the city, which was not the case for decades. 

'Our civic leaders talked about... how some of their parents had to work out of town. That drive into Austin, 30 to 40 minutes is normal, but during rush hours, it's much extended,' she said.

'So it took some time away from their families, and a lot of them then decided to leave Taylor for a while. And this idea that we're gonna give our kids something, jobs to grow into, that's very exciting for our community.'

THE IDF HAS BEEN OPERATING IN SYRIAN TERRITORY FROM 10 OUTPOSTS

Israel's hidden campaign in Syria is far more than stopping terrorism

After the fall of the Assad regime, Israel moved quickly and ordered the IDF to take control of the buffer zone on the Syrian Golan Heights. Over the past year, IDF forces have thwarted Hamas-directed cells, Islamic State-inspired cells and cells guided by Iranian emissaries. The operation is also shaping developments inside Syria that directly affect Israel's long-term strategic interests.

 

by Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen 

 

Israel Hayom

Nov 29, 2025

 

 

Israeli soldiers during operations in Syria.

 

 

For a year now, IDF forces have been operating in the buffer zone on the Golan Heights and east of it, working to disrupt terrorist networks threatening Israel. That is what the IDF troops were doing before dawn on Friday in the village of Beit Jann.

 

Despite the dramatic surprise surrounding the fall of the Assad regime, the Israeli government accurately read the situation and swiftly instructed the IDF to seize control of the buffer zone on the Syrian Golan Heights. Since then, Israeli forces have been operating in Syrian territory from roughly 10 outposts stretching from Mount Hermon to the southern Golan near the Yarmouk slopes.

 

 

IDF troops operating in southern Syria.

 

 

Hostility to Israeli presence

Within this framework, the forces carry out intelligence-driven raids to foil terrorist activity in villages within their sector, including beyond the buffer zone. This activity, which over the past year has become routine, has led to the thwarting of Hamas-directed cells, Islamic State-inspired cells and cells directed by Iranian proxies. In Sunni Muslim villages and towns, there is hostility toward the Israeli presence, and there have already been exchanges of fire that, until Friday morning, had not resulted in Israeli casualties. In this context, the encounter early Friday between a paratroop unit and armed men in Beit Jann, in which six soldiers were wounded, was not unexpected.

Beit Jann lies in a narrow valley on the slopes of Mount Hermon. Its residents, together with the adjacent town Mazraat Beit Jann, about twenty thousand Sunni Muslims in total, were considered supporters of the Assad regime during the civil war. After the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the IDF captured the area and remained there throughout the months of attrition until withdrawing under the 1974 disengagement agreement. At the time, I served as a tank commander at an outpost near Mazraat Beit Jann. In those days, the villagers were unarmed and did not serve as fertile ground for terrorist networks.

Today, the situation across Syria is entirely different. During the civil war, and especially after the fall of the Assad regime and the collapse of the Syrian army, the villages and towns became awash with weapons of all kinds, not only small arms. In this dimension, the monopoly on armed force across Syria is far from being held solely by the official government and army.

Political upheaval in Damascus

Damascus is marking one year since the fall of the Assad regime. Through astute diplomatic maneuvering, the new president, Mahmoud al-Shar'a, has secured broad international backing, including from the White House. Yet he is struggling to impose stability in the face of heavily armed separatist minorities, primarily the Druze and Kurds. At the same time, the regime itself uses armed Bedouin tribal groups for its purposes, as seen in the fighting in the Druze Mountain region, even though these groups are not fully subject to government authority.

Syria today is in a state of fluid, uncontrollable transformation, resembling streams of molten lava flowing during a volcanic eruption. Israel's activity, by this analogy, serves a dual purpose. The first and immediate goal is to prevent these streams from reaching the Israeli Golan border.

The second goal is to influence the shaping of trends unfolding in Syria that have long-term implications for Israel's strategic interests, just before these "lava streams" cool and solidify into a lasting new reality. From this perspective, the IDF's military friction, which also includes efforts to provide humanitarian aid to local residents, serves a purpose that extends beyond counterterrorism.

A global battleground

Meanwhile, Syria has become a battleground for global influence. Turkish efforts, bolstered by Qatari funding, stand out prominently. At the same time, Russia is seeking to restore its influence in and on Syria, including moves to reassert its presence on the Golan. One can assume Moscow is aiming to prevent a situation similar to the Gaza Strip, where the US has exclusive regional dominance in shaping long-term trends.

Within this system, the IDF presence in the area carries strategic significance, tied to readiness and the ability to operate east of the Golan border. This operational concept dates back to the tactics passed from Orde Wingate to Moshe Dayan and Yigal Allon in the 1938 Special Night Squads, which emphasized proactive operations beyond settlement fences and raids deep into Arab villages. This is what active defense looks like.

OPERATION RISING LION

‘Probably the most impressive operation I’ve ever seen’

Former US military commanders reveal new details about Israel’s 12-day war against Iran, from the four-minute decapitation strike to “beast mode” F-35s 

 

By Yaakov Lappin

 

Israel Today

Nov 27, 2025

 

An Israeli F-35 Adir being refueled during "Operation Rising Lion”

 

A team of former senior United States military commanders released in recent days a comprehensive assessment of the 12-day war (June 13 – 25) fought between Israel and Iran, revealing new details about the scope, speed and strategic impact of the operations that reshaped the Middle East earlier this year.

The report, published on Nov. 20 by the Washington DC-based Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), concludes that Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion” was an “operational masterpiece” that not only removed an existential threat to the Jewish state by severely degrading Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, but also advanced American national security interests.

The assessment drew on an August fact-finding mission to Israel by a delegation that included Gen. Charles Wald (United States Air Force, ret.), former deputy commander of US European Command; Lt. Gen. (United States Army, ret.) Robert Ashley, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; and Vice Adm. Mark Fox (United States Navy, ret.), former deputy commander of US Central Command.

The authors were granted significant access to Israel’s government, intelligence community and the Israel Defense Forces to reconstruct the decision-making process and battlefield performance of the campaign.

“We came away convinced that in Operation Rising Lion, Israel displayed intelligence and military capabilities that exceed any of America’s allies in the world,” Wald told a press briefing on the report on Wednesday. “More than just operational excellence, Israel achieved major strategic effects advancing not just its own, but America’s national interests.”

The report said the operation was “30 years in the making,” following decades in which “Iran worked towards Israel’s destruction” along three main efforts: Its nuclear program, ballistic missile capabilities, and the Iranian proxy network.

Referring to Operation Rising Lion, Wald stated, “It’s probably the most impressive military operation I’ve ever seen or been a part of.”

The report also highlights some differences that exist between the US and Israel from a strategic standpoint when it comes to Iran.

Operation Rising Lion began with a synchronized opening strike that eliminated around 30 senior Iranian military leaders, IRGC commanders, and nuclear scientists within the first four minutes. This “decapitation” strike threw the regime’s command and control into disarray. The fact that the IRGC’s planned “ring of fire”—its network of terrorist armies led by Hezbollah and Hamas—had been so severely degraded before the Israeli operation in June helped prevent a coordinated Iranian axis response, the report noted, stating that Israel had been able to “handle one problem at a time.”

According to the authors, the opening blow was made possible by “intelligence dominance” as well as “operational ingenuity and tactical lethality,” allowing Israel to track Iranian individuals in real-time. “The intent, as one high-level official told us, was not simply to destroy things, but to break spirits,” the report stated.

Ashley noted that the intelligence preparation for the strikes was exceptional and provided deep insights into the Iranian defense system. “You’re actually tracking individuals in real time, and, literally on the fly, you’re making adjustments,” Ashley said. “So the intelligence preparation for what really were surgical strikes was very impressive.”

The assessment also highlighted the critical role of the F-35 stealth fighter, which Israeli pilots flew in “beast mode”—carrying external munitions—for the first time in a deep-strike capacity.

“The F-35 became indispensable to the [Israelis],” Ashley explained. “They would not do an operation without the use of the F-35, including nothing in the future. So it was really this fifth-gen fighter that was a huge enabler for the other fourth-gen aircraft [F-15s and F-16s].”

One of the most significant revelations in the report is the immediate trigger for the war. While Israel had been preparing for the confrontation for decades, the decision to strike in June was driven by intelligence that Iran was preparing a massive preemptive attack.

“Israeli intelligence indicated that Iranian officials, well aware of their sudden vulnerability and the very real potential of an Israeli attack, were seriously debating launching between 700 and 1,000 ballistic missiles in a preemptive strike against Israel,” the report stated. “There was a real concern that hundreds of missiles might rain down on Israeli bases, cratering runways, destroying jets, and effectively neutering Israel’s air force.”

This intelligence, combined with alarming warning signs that Iran was accelerating its nuclear weapons research towards a “cruder, but still testable and deployable” nuclear device, caused Israel to abandon its initial plans for a limited surgical strike in favor of a comprehensive campaign.

“This new operational plan—first conceived in the spring of 2024 but only coming together in the last months of the year—hinged on achieving air superiority and utilizing it to neutralize a much bigger portion of Iran’s nuclear program, eliminate high-value individuals, and destroy critical elements of Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities,” the report detailed.

The report also provided new details on the American role in the conflict, specifically concerning “Operation Midnight Hammer,” the US military’s first direct kinetic strike on Iran’s nuclear program. On June 22, a US strike package including seven B-2 bombers dropped massive ordnance penetrators (MOPs) on the deeply buried Fordow and Natanz enrichment facilities. This was followed up by a US submarine striking the Isfahan nuclear site with more than 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles.

While CENTCOM’s original plan for envisioned an approach from the south, Israeli commanders helped plot an “optimal route by suggesting that an approach from the west would be more secure for the US bombers due to Israel’s control of the skies,” the report stated, shedding new light on tight military planning between Israel and the US.

Fox emphasized that the integration of Israel into the US Central Command (CENTCOM) in September 2021 was a decisive factor in the war’s success. “I think it’s really impossible to overstate the importance of the fact that Israel was moved into the Central Command Area of Responsibility,” Fox said, adding that a decade ago, this would have been considered “a pipe dream.”

The cooperation extended to air defense, where US and Israeli systems achieved an 85 percent interception rate against Iranian missiles that threatened population centers. “The United States reportedly used 150 THAAD interceptors and 80 SM-3 interceptors in defense of Israel, a clear signal of US support,” the report noted.

Despite the tactical success, the authors warn that the threat from Iran has not been eliminated. The report outlines a series of recommendations for US policy, including “doubling down” on defense cooperation and maintaining a “campaign between wars” to prevent Iran from rebuilding.

“What Operation Rising Lion achieved was a strategic resetting, a reassertion of Israeli strength and diminution of Iranian power, but one that will not last without concerted political will and military might to maintain it,” the report concluded.

The authors specifically point to the need for the US to expedite the delivery of KC-46 refueling tankers to Israel, noting that the Israeli Air Force’s reliance on veteran 50 and 60-year-old Boeing 707 tankers.

“Israeli pilots described these as precarious plaƞorms to use and maintain. Once aircraft returned from long-range missions, they were refueled, rearmed, and redeployed, often within 90 minutes. In some cases, pilots flew two sorties per day, instead of the usual one per day in past operations,” the report stated.

ISLAMISM IS A POLITICAL ACTOR OPERATING THROUGH COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS, UNIVERSITIES, NONPROFITS AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS

The quiet conquest: Adaptive Islamism in American institutions and the Texas response

Its development is no longer an abstract debate, but a political actor operating through community institutions, universities, nonprofits and municipal governments. 

 

By Amine Ayoub 

 

JNS

Nov 28, 2025

 

 

Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan.

 

The United States is entering a critical phase in its encounter with political Islam. For decades, Washington viewed Islamism primarily through the prism of counterterrorism, assuming that the absence of violence signaled the absence of threat. Europe learned too late that nonviolent Islamism can be far more enduring because it works within democratic systems rather than against them. The same adaptive strategy is now visible in the United States, and the patterns are unmistakably similar.

Islamism in its modern form does not attempt to replace the state through force. It attempts to reorient institutions from within by converting religious identity into political authority. The movement relies on the protections of liberal democracy, using civic participation and cultural legitimacy to advance a political worldview that ultimately rejects the very foundations of pluralism. Its objective is not representation but primacy.

Once institutional footholds are secured, influence deepens through continuity rather than confrontation. The cumulative result is the emergence of a parallel civic structure that competes with, rather than integrates into, the American model of governance. Islamism succeeds not by attacking institutions but by inhabiting them. It advances through legitimacy, not subversion. It grows through continuity and repetition, not rupture. It reshapes expectations of representation and authority in ways that are subtle, durable and difficult to reverse once established.

The transformation of Dearborn, Mich., provides a clear example of how ideological networks can dominate local governance. The city outside Detroit is home to one of the largest and most concentrated Arab and Muslim populations in the United States, with estimates suggesting that the Arab American population, which is predominantly Muslim, makes up more than 40% of the city’s total population.

The 2022 school board upheaval was not an isolated cultural dispute but a crucial flashpoint resulting from the rapid, coordinated mobilization of community structures, predominantly led by conservative religious parents. The controversy began when parents protested the availability of certain books in high school and middle-school libraries. The books, many of which contained LGBTQ+ themes or explicit sexual content, were deemed inappropriate and incompatible with their religious and family values.

This dispute quickly converted religious identity into a focused political authority. School-board meetings became intensely confrontational, leading to the eventual removal or restriction of some challenged books. More significantly, the incident became a decisive factor in subsequent local elections, translating mobilization into electoral action that led to the selection of new school-board members seen as more responsive to the demands of the conservative parent base.

What happened in Dearborn mirrors earlier European experiences, where municipal battles over curriculum and public service norms became early theaters of Islamist political consolidation.

The university system represents a second arena undergoing subtle reorientation. The long-standing presence of the Muslim Students Association has evolved into a broader ecosystem in which religious identity politics and Islamist-derived frameworks often merge. College campuses in Michigan, New York, California and Illinois now host a generation of activists who approach political Islam as a cultural or anti-colonial narrative rather than a governance ideology.

This shift has long-term policy consequences. Students shaped by this environment move into nonprofit work, civil-rights organizations, media and local government, carrying with them a worldview that normalizes Islamist political concepts within American institutions. The rise of Zohran Mamdani, soon to be mayor of New York City, illustrates how these networks eventually convert cultural legitimacy into political authority, with his rhetoric on Middle Eastern affairs often mirroring the discourse of transnational Islamist movements.

The nonprofit sector adds a further layer of complexity. Organizations previously scrutinized by federal authorities have demonstrated an ability to survive investigations and emerge with renewed legitimacy through procedural protections and the opacity of the charitable regulatory system. The effect is an ecosystem in which ideological movements can access funding, build institutional continuity and position themselves as community representatives even when their political goals contradict the preferences of most Muslim Americans.

The presence of explicit Islamist movements, such as Hizb ut-Tahrir America, reveals another critical dimension; although nonviolent, the group openly calls for replacing secular governance with a religious political order, underscoring the permissive environment Islamist movements have learned to navigate.

 

 

 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott officially designated the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as state-level Foreign Terrorist and Transnational Criminal Organizations on November 18.

 

The ongoing activities of these groups have prompted a sharp, escalatory response from some U.S. political leaders. On Nov. 18, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Brotherhood as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) under Texas state law, stating that the move was necessary due to the groups’ actions to “support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation and harassment.”

The designation prohibits these organizations from acquiring property in the state and authorizes legal action by the state attorney general to shut down affiliated entities. This action marks a massive escalation in Abbott’s confrontation with Muslim organizations and communities in Texas, and it drew immediate legal and political scrutiny because states have no authority to designate FTOs on behalf of the U.S. government. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, only the U.S. Secretary of State can officially make such a designation.

The impact of Abbott’s action is limited to Texas state law enforcement and authorizes civil legal action, carrying no federal immigration consequences, asset-freezing powers or criminal penalties that accompany legitimate federal FTO designations. CAIR, a Washington-based Muslim civil-rights organization that has consistently rejected accusations of terrorist ties, responded by calling Abbott an “Israel First politician” stoking “anti-Muslim hysteria” and noted that the group has previously sued Abbott successfully for First Amendment violations.

This state action follows a contentious period in Texas, including months of state action against Epic City, a proposed 400-acre Muslim community development near Dallas, which Abbott referred to as a “sharia compound.” Abbott has been vocal in asserting that “the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world.’”

Islamism in the United States is no longer an abstract debate. It is a political actor operating through community institutions, universities, nonprofits and municipal governments.

Understanding its adaptive strategies—and the varied governmental responses they provoke—is the first requirement for preserving a civic landscape that remains genuinely pluralistic.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

 

 

The Clear Lake Islamic Center is just a short distance from my home.

 

Houston-area Democrats have condemned Gov. Abbott's decision to label CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization

TRULY ORWELLIAN BULLSHIT FROM ACROSS THE POND

By Bob Walsh

 

 

Jon Richelieu-Booth says he posted the image while on holiday in Florida 

 

There are some truly scary laws in the U.K. which are, at least on occasion, enforced.  I came across this item on one of the fire arms blogs I haunt

It seems that, back in August, an IT consultant with the rather interesting name of Jon Richelieu-Booth, 50, was arrested by the constabulary in West Yorkshire.  He had been in the United States and had a photo taken of himself firing a pump shotgun here in the U.S.  This occurred on private property in Florida.  (His form was terrible by the way.)  He posted the photo on social media.  Apparently the photo of him was so disturbing to somebody that he was arrested for posting it.  

His post was along the order of "this is one of the things I did on such-and-such a day while visiting in the U.S."

The charges were dropped one week before his scheduled court appearance.

HONG KONG HIGH-RISE FIRES

By Bob Walsh

 

The Wang Fuk building complex, consisting of several high-rise structures, was undergoing a major renovation when a fire started on the bamboo scaffolding outside of the buildings.  Bamboo is still commonly used as a scaffolding material in the far east but is flammable and can act as a conduit for fire.  The fire jumped from building to building in the eight-building complex three days ago.

At least 128 people are known dead, 67 are injured and several hundred still not accounted for.  Several thousand people lived in the complex.

Right now 11 people are under arrest, being charged with manslaughter.  They take the concept of civic responsibility very seriously over there, or at least they used to before the ChiCOMS took over.  

PRIOR TO THE VIETNAM WAR, SAN FRANCISCO WAS THE NO. 1 AMERICAN CITY ON THE MUST VISIT LIST

Democrat set to control huge swathe of San Francisco believes police should be banned from carrying guns

 

By Alyssa Guzman 

 

Daily Mail

Nov 28, 2025

 

 

Natalie Gee is on the shortlist of contenders to fill the Sunset District supervisor seat inside City Hall, but the local police union is rallying against her consideration

 

A Democrat who could become the San Francisco mayor's right-hand woman believes police officers should go gunless in the crime-riddled city. 

Natalie Gee is on the shortlist of contenders to fill the Sunset District supervisor seat inside City Hall despite the local police union rallying against her consideration. 

Louis Wong, the union's president, said Gee's views on law enforcement are concerning and claimed she had the 'desire to silence the collective voice of the rank-and-file officers who keep this city safe,' he wrote in a letter to Mayor Daniel Lurie, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Gee indicated in a 2024 candidate questionnaire that she supported having the policing union dissolved and that officers should carry 'tasers and non-lethal weapons instead of using guns'.

She also said that she supported getting rid of qualified immunity, which shields officers and public officials from some lawsuits, The Chronicle reported. 

Public safety is Lurie's biggest priority as he continues to work to clean up the downtown area and crack down on drug-fueled crimes. 

Although citywide crime is down 25 percent compared to last year, the Bay Area city's Union Square zone has become an area to avoid for residents thanks to rampant fentanyl use, frequent thefts and violence. 

 

Gee indicated in a 2024 candidate questionnaire that she supported having the policing union dissolved and that officers should carry 'tasers and non-lethal weapons instead of using guns'

 

Out-of-control homeless encampments and crime had become a mainstay of the downtown Tenderloin district, forcing major brands to close flagship stores.

Gee's district would be on the other side of San Francisco from the Tenderloin District. Sunset is considered one of the safer neighborhoods. 

On her website, Gee talked about wanting to get officers 'out of their cars and back onto neighborhood beats, where they can prevent crime through visibility and connection'.

'I’ll also support expanding unarmed response teams for mental health and wellness calls, so police can focus on violent crime and community safety can be shared across trained professionals,' she said. 

In response to Wong's letter, Gee said she would 'welcome the opportunity to meet with' the union president to 'work toward a real solution', The Chronicle reported. 

Gee has not publicly addressed the concern around her policing stance. 

'I have always shown up in good faith with a willingness to collaborate, and I will continue choosing unity,' she said in a statement. 

Gee, who currently serves as an aide to Supervisor Shamann Walton, is currently up against three others for the Sunset District role. 

 

Louis Wong, the union's president, said Gee's views on law enforcement is concerning and claimed she had the 'desire to silence the collective voice of the rank-and-file officers who keep this city safe' 

Mayor Daniel Lurie, who recently visited the district she would cover, told residents that safety is his number one priority as he tries to clean up the crime-riddled city 

Man poops in aisle of San Francisco supermarket 

 

Lurie, who recently visited the district, told residents that safety is his number one priority.

'And I think it’s a huge priority for this district,' he said. 

But it wasn't just her beliefs on policing that Wong took issue with. He also highlighted to Lurie that Gee has indicated that she has donated to anti-police issues and has said she wants to dissolve ICE, and is supportive of reparations among other progressive policies. 

If Lurie selects her, she will hold the role in the interim, but has said she plans to run for the seat permanently this summer. 

She would be replacing Beya Alcaraz, who vacated the seat just a week into her tenure. 

She left after questionable business practices she may have engaged in while running a pet store surfaced. She evaded giving a direct answer to the allegations. 

'I fought tooth and nail to keep my business open,' she told ABC 7. 'The city makes it really hard to be able to operate a small business. 

'I don't owe any taxes. I, as a small business owner, it was really hard. We didn't as a business, every cent got poured back in. We didn't make any money. And so these are the things I did as a small business owner. We're to keep our lights on, to keep our employees, paid and to keep our animals well cared for.' 

Daily Mail has contacted Gee and Alcaraz for comment.