Latest news with #terroristgroup
National Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- National Post
Hezbollah leader says group refuses to be disarmed by Lebanon, suggests that would benefit Israel
Article content BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon's terrorist group Hezbollah on Friday vowed not to disarm, saying last week's decision by the national government to remove the Iran-backed group's weapons by the end of the year serves Israel's interests. Article content Naim Kassem said the government's decision to remove 'the defensive weapons of the resistance, its people and Lebanon during an aggression' facilitates the killing of 'resistance fighters and their families and evict them from their land and homes.' Article content Article content Article content He said the government should have instead 'spread its authority and evicted Israel from Lebanon.' Speaking in a televised speech to mark a Shiite religious event, he added 'the government is serving the Israeli project.' Article content Article content Kassem added if the ongoing crisis leads to an internal conflict, the government is to blame. He noted that Hezbollah and its Shiite ally, the Amal movement, did not to ask their supporters to protest in the streets to give way for more discussions. The Amal movement was one of the main armed groups in Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war and is now a powerful political party led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. Article content But, he said if a decision is taken to protest in the streets, protesters 'will be all over Lebanon and head to the U.S. embassy.' He did not elaborate. Hezbollah's weapons have been a major dividing point in Lebanon with some groups that are opposed to Hezbollah saying only the state should be allowed to have arms. Article content The Lebanese government voted last week for a U.S.-backed plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year and implement a ceasefire with Israel. Article content Article content The small Mediterranean country has been under international pressure to get Hezbollah to lay down its arms since the 14-month war with Israel that ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November. Article content Article content However, the Hezbollah leader said his group will only discuss a national defense strategy over its weapons once Israel withdraws from Lebanon and stops its almost daily airstrikes that have killed scores of Hezbollah terrorists since the war's end. Article content 'The resistance will not hand over its weapons as the aggression continues and occupation remains,' Kassem said, adding that the group will fight a long battle if needed. Article content The Israel-Hezbollah war weakened the Iran-backed terror group and left much of its military and political leadership dead. The war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, displaced over 1 million and caused destruction that the World Bank said will cost $11 billion in reconstruction. Article content
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Oh. My. God. Albo comment about what Hamas wants leaves egg all over PM's face: PETER VAN ONSELEN
As a political leader in Australia there are endorsements you want, endorsements you can live with and endorsements you would rather never have come your way. Undoubtedly the latter includes the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which has now endorsed Anthony Albanese 's decision-making credentials as Prime Minister. It has welcomed his decision to recognise as a state.
Associated Press
28-07-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Chilean investigators close in on the notorious Venezuelan gang targeted by Trump
ARICA, Chile (AP) — The Venezuelan gang members wrote out even their most minute purchases in blue pen: $15 for a drug trafficker's Uber; $9 for instant coffee during a lookout shift; $34 for supplies to clean what investigators learned were torture chambers. The meticulous spreadsheets seized during police raids in Chile's northern town of Arica, and shared with The Associated Press, suggest the accounting structure of a multinational. They amount to the most comprehensive documentation to date of the inner workings of Tren de Aragua, Latin America's notorious criminal organization designated by President Donald Trump as a foreign terrorist group. An investigation built over years by Chilean prosecutors in Arica, which resulted in hefty sentences for 34 people in March — and inspired other cases which, earlier this month, sent a dozen Tren de Aragua leaders to prison for a total of 300 years — contrasts with Trump's mass deportations of suspected gang members. While Trump's supporters cheer the expulsions, investigators see missed opportunities to gather evidence aimed at uprooting the criminal network that has gained momentum across the region as migration from Venezuela surges and global cocaine demand spreads. 'With the U.S. snatching guys off the streets, they're taking out the tip of the iceberg,' said Daniel Brunner, president of Brunner Sierra Group security firm and a former FBI agent. 'They're not looking at how the group operates.' Transnational mafias have fueled an extraordinary crime wave in once-peaceful nations like Chile and consolidated power in countries like Honduras and Peru, infiltrating state bureaucracies, crippling the capacities of law enforcement and jeopardizing regional stability. The new developments are testing democracies across Latin America. 'This is not your typical corruption involving cash in envelopes,' said former Peruvian Interior Minister Ruben Vargas of the impunity in his country. 'It's having criminal operators wield power in the political system.' Chile, long considered one of Latin America's safest and wealthiest nations, is also among its least corrupt, according to watchdog Transparency International, giving authorities an edge in fending off this kind of organized crime. But with no experience, the country was caught unprepared as abductions, dismemberments and other grisly crimes reshaped society. Now, three years later, experts hold out Arica as a case study in wider efforts to combat the gang. While some see El Salvador President Nayib Bukele'scrackdown on criminal gangs as a model, critics see an authoritarian police state that has run roughshod over due process. 'Criminal prosecution, financial intelligence, witness protection and cooperation with other countries, that's what it takes to disrupt criminal networks,' said Pablo Zeballos, a Chilean security consultant and former intelligence officer. Using Tren de Aragua documents first recovered in 2022, Chilean prosecutor Bruno Hernández and his unit brought an unprecedented number of gang members to trial last year, dismantling the gang's northern Chile offshoot, known as Los Gallegos. 'It marked a milestone,' prosecutor Mario Carrera said last month from Arica's shantytown of Cerro Chuño, a Los Gallegos stronghold. 'Until then, they were acting with impunity.' Following migrants to 'virgin territory' Tren de Aragua slipped into northern Chile in 2021, after the pandemic shut borders and encouraged Venezuelans to turn to smugglers as they fled their nations' crises and headed to Peru, Colombia and Chile. Héctor Guerrero Flores — a Tren de Aragua leader nicknamed 'Niño Guerrero' — dispatched managers to take over networks of 'coyotes' shepherding human cargo across Chile's desert borders. 'It was virgin territory from their perspective,' said Ronna Rísquez, the author of a book about the group. Tren de Aragua put down roots in Cerro Chuño, a former toxic waste dump outside Arica where Venezuelan migrants squeeze into boxlike homes. Residents said gangsters extracted 'protection' fees from shop owners and unleashed violence on those who wouldn't pay. 'We live in fear of them,' said 38-year-old Saida Huanca, recalling how Los Gallegos extorted her minimarket colleague and sent a knife-wielding man to collect road tolls. 'I didn't leave the house.' The gang terrorized competitors and turncoats. Court documents describe members tying up defectors and filming as they administered shocks and slashed fingers in clandestine torture chambers. Intercepted calls from March 2022, obtained by AP, show a rival panicking about Tren de Aragua's arrival. 'Where am I supposed to run, dude?' Chilean kingpin Marco Iguazo can be heard asking. Bodies were found, shot or dismembered and stuffed into suitcases. Many were buried alive under cement. 'It was total psychosis,' said Carrera, who reported Arica homicides surging 215% from 2019 to 2022. Cloud emojis and Christmas bonuses Last month at Arica's investigative police headquarters, AP observed Hernández attempt to persuade 23-year-old Wilmer López to talk. The alleged Los Gallegos hitman kept silent, eyes fixed on his Nikes. As a rule, members don't collaborate with investigations. Without testimony last year, Hernández's main recourse was bookkeeping records. They revealed a rigid bureaucracy with centralized leadership that granted local cells autonomy. 'We had to prove not only that they committed crimes, but that there was a structure and pattern,' said paralegal Esperanza Amor, on Hernández's team. 'Otherwise they would've been tried as common criminals.' Documents showed migrant smuggling and sex trafficking as the gang's primary source of income. While the per-client price for sex varies by city — $60 in Arica, over $100 in the capital of Santiago — each cell replicated the same structure. The gang confiscated half of women's earnings, then deducted rent and food in a form of debt bondage. Salary spreadsheets showed regional coordinators earning up to $1,200 monthly. Hitmen could earn $1,000 per job, plus protection for relatives in Venezuela. Most operatives received $200 Christmas bonuses. Investigators cross-checked messages among gang members with drone surveillance to decrypt their use of emojis. Some were self-explanatory — a snake signifying a traitor. Others less so: A bone meant debt, a pineapple was a safehouse, a raincloud warned of a raid. Getting to trial With the defendants in custody, the bloodshed abated: Arica's homicide rate plunged from 17 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022 to 9.9 homicides per 100,000 last year. After the team secured 34 convictions on charges including aggravated homicide, human trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors, authorities paid more attention. Similar investigations proliferated nationwide. Carrera traveled to Washington to share intelligence with the FBI. 'The unit did something that had never been done in Chile, and achieved results,' said Ignacio Castillo, director of organized crime at Chile's public prosecutor's office. Other countries have largely struggled to prosecute Tren de Aragua. The Trump administration has used the gang to justify deporting migrants, with some arrested for little more than tattoos. Experts say the Justice Department is too distracted by mass expulsions to conduct thorough investigations. 'Those kind of yearslong investigations are not happening,' said Brunner. 'I see the current deportation tactics as working in favor of organized crime.' A country traumatized, and transformed The next challenge for Hernández's unit is tracking Los Gallegos as they regroup behind bars. Some Cerro Chuño businesses said they still receive extortion threats — from prison phones. 'Organized crime will always adapt,' Hernández said. 'We need to get ahead.' Despite the national homicide rate declining, enthusiasm for a more ruthless approach is spreading as leftist President Gabriel Boric, a former student protest leader, battles for his legacy ahead of November presidential elections. Polls show security as voters' top concern. The current favorite is far-right candidate José Antonio Kast, who draws inspiration from Bukele and Trump. He vows to build a border barrier and deport undocumented migrants 'no matter the cost.' Watching her grandchildren play outside a church in Arica, Maria Peña Gonzalez, 70, said Kast had her vote. 'You can't walk at night like you could before,' she said. 'Chile has changed since different types of people started arriving.'
Washington Post
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
The outlines of a Gaza deal are obvious. But the suffering continues.
After 21 months of devastating warfare, Israel and the terrorist group Hamas appear tantalizingly, frustratingly close to a ceasefire that could see the release of some Israeli hostages and a flow of desperately needed food and medical supplies into Gaza. But close is not a deal. We've been here before, only to see hoped-for ceasefires fall apart.
The Independent
12-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Police ‘making arrests' at protest in support of banned Palestine Action in central London
Police are arresting protesters demonstrating against Palestine Action being designated as a terrorist group. Groups gathered in central London on Saturday for the second week in a row to protest the decision ban the direct-action group. The Metropolitan Police arrested 29 people for a similar demonstration last weekend. Two small groups sat at the steps of both the Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela statues shortly after 1pm in Parliament Square for the demonstration, organised by campaign group Defend Our Juries, and received a brief round of applause. The individuals then wrote the message 'I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action' with black markers on pieces of cardboard, and silently held the signs aloft, surrounded by Metropolitan Police officers, who formed a cordon around the Gandhi statue. By 1.20pm, the force confirmed they were 'in the process of making arrests'. It is not yet known how many are being detained. Officers could be seen searching the bags of protesters and taking their ID cards. Some demonstrators could be seen lying on top of each other while police held their handmade signs. The protesters were then led away from the statues by officers into waiting police vans parked around the square. More demonstrations will take place in London, as well as in Manchester, Cardiff and Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on Saturday, the campaign group said. Scotland Yard said its stance remains that officers will act where criminal offences, including support of proscribed groups or organisations, are committed. The force added that this includes 'chanting, wearing clothing or displaying articles such as flags, signs or logos'. The terror group designation means that membership of, or support for, Palestine Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The move to ban the organisation came after two Voyager aircraft were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20, an incident claimed by Palestine Action, which police said caused about £7 million worth of damage. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced plans to proscribe Palestine Action, saying that the vandalism of the planes was 'disgraceful' and the group had a 'long history of unacceptable criminal damage'.
