🔴Turkish President Erdogan expected to meet senior Hamas officials to discuss hostages in Gaza

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 11, 2023

AgGrad99 said:

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Agthatbuilds said:

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I see the “open air prison” line on Gaza is gaining traction in the discourse. To the extent that the phrase reflects some reality, this too is the fault of Hamas. Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in the mid-2000s. ‘Land for peace.’ Their reward for this massive concession…

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 10, 2023

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More people need to read this entire tweet.

I am nauseated by the victimhood stance Hamas/Palestinians are taking. This repeated equivalency to prison, slavery, apartheid, etc....it's ridiculous and an outright lie. It's all such an obvious cover/excuse for horrific behavior, because they simply hate a people group.

The people promoting and celebrating it are either extremely dumb/naive, or evil. There are no other options.

And even if you are dumb enough to fall for their propaganda, why on earth wouldn't you question these ideals after seeing the atrocities the past week, which have been videoed and distributed worldwide??? How is rape and torture of children and grandmothers an effective way to end 'oppression'?

Anyone supporting Hamas, or celebrating the attacks on the Jews are outing themselves right now. Pay attention world.

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Gyles Marrett said:

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aTmAg said:

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Do morons really think that Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are supplying Hamas weapons?

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Why would anyone need to supply them weapons? I'm sure they have all they need from what was left in Afghanistan.

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Nitro Power said:

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aggiehawg said:

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Agthatbuilds said:

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I thinks there's probably hope for clearly non Israeli hostages. Ie- they found a bunch of alive Thai workers that were kidnapped.

Those that are Jewish or Israeli I think are probably dead.

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Which again raises the question of what was the rationale for taking hostages back into Gaza in the first place? Human shields? Cannon fodder?

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This is something I was pondering earlier. These barbarians hide in schools, hospitals, mosque, etc...why then would they not hide behind the hostages. Or place the hostages in a location that will be destroyed? They could then turn around and say they were going to return them but Israel killed them.

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Isosceles_Kramer said:

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What videos? Are these on X?

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Pepper Brooks said:

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This feels like the elephant in the room to me. This is from a newsletter I subscribe to…

TLDR warning

" Like most people, I've been closely following what's been going on in Israel and Gaza since Saturday's attack.

Most of our readers know that I'm a former intelligence officer; while it seems like a lifetime ago, those instincts never leave. And as I'm shaking my head in disgust at what's happened, I also can't help but notice a number of peculiarities that just don't add up.

First, it's bizarre… almost suspicious… just how poorly trained the Hamas fighters are. As I watch videos of the gunmen, they demonstrate a distinct lack of even basic firearms proficiency.

They have limited trigger discipline. They wave their weapons around like children playing with toy guns. They shoot one-handed as if they learned marksmanship from watching Rambo.

Plus their small unit tactics are pitiful; they don't know how to move and fight as a unit or how to clear buildings. They don't even know basic hand and arm signals.

There also don't seem to be any tactical or strategic objectives. In warfare, opposing sides seek to achieve clear goals-- destroy high value targets, disrupt lines of communication, neutralize enemy units, secure key terrain, etc.

But there's been none of that so far from Hamas.

This weekend's attack had obviously been in the works for several months, with significant external support from Iran.

Yet it appears that all of the meticulous planning went into logistics, finance, smuggling, and cross-border coordination. Zero planning went into figuring out the actual mission… let alone training the fighters for combat.

It's as if Hamas and their allies in Iran thought about every tiny detail about the attack… except for the attack itself. Instead they just rounded up a bunch of angry teenagers, put weapons in their hands, and told them to go murder civilians while screaming "Allahu Akbar".

Now, it's not unusual for terrorists to be poorly trained. When I was in the military, we saw so many reports of bomb makers accidentally blowing themselves up, or fighters literally shooting themselves in the foot, that my colleagues and I euphemistically referred to them as "stupid terrorists".

It's also not unusual for a terrorist group to lack achievable objectives; some people just want the world to burn, and anyone attracted to such a vocation is typically lacking in intellect and strategic vision.

But this isn't an ordinary terrorist organization. This attack was essentially from a sovereign government. And it's frankly strange that they would take such a big swing without thinking through the basics.

Another point that doesn't add up is America's role.

Much has already been written about the Biden administration's culpability in this attack, including the humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan that weakened America's standing in the world, as well as abandoning tens of billions of dollars in military equipment to the Taliban.

Then of course there was that small matter of releasing $6 billion to Iran in exchange for five US hostages (at least three of whom were also Iranian nationals).

Well, Mr. Biden himself announced that at least 14 US citizens have been killed by Hamas. At least 20 US citizens are missing in Israel and suspected to have been kidnapped by Hamas.

So where is their $6 billion? What was so special about those Iranian-Americans that the United States government (which laughably insists they 'do not negotiate with terrorists') allowed Iran to pocket $6 billion in frozen cash to release them?

Don't misunderstand-- I'm not advocating for paying Hamas to get the American hostages out. Quite the opposite. In my mind, you don't negotiate with terrorists. You neutralize them. Especially when said terrorists are sloppy, emotional, poorly-trained cowards.

But that's not the point. I'm just trying to understand the logic. Why pay $6 billion for some Americans, but nothing for other Americans? For that matter, why do a costly, one-sided prisoner exchange with Russia for a WNBA player, but don't do the same to secure the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich (who has been unjustly held in Russia for more than six months)?

What is the President's logic?

Sorry I almost threw up in my mouth a little bit. I apologize for suggesting the man has any logic at all.

Bizarrely, the Pentagon-- presumably under the President's direction-- went to the trouble to announce that a rescue mission "is not off the table". What does that even mean? If you're going to rescue people, you go and do it. You don't say you might do it. Or that doing it "is not off the table". You just go and do it, while you still have the initiative and element of surprise.

Saying you might send your Special Operations Forces on a rescue mission either tips off the enemy, or proves you are full of hot air… thus weakening your position even further. Talk about a bonehead move.

(In completely unrelated news, the Pentagon also recently announced that it was slashing its Special Operations Forces. But hey, at least the Navy has plenty of drag queens now.)

A final point that doesn't add up is what the media is calling an "intelligence failure" on the part of the Israelis. Come on. That's a colossal understatement at best.

Mossad (Israeli intelligence) has agents and operatives all over the world. They have countless resources in Gaza. They have people in Iran. They have assets at luxury hotels in key cities like Beirut, Cairo, and Dubai, all to keep tabs on high profile guests and meetings that take place.

So it's hard to believe that they were caught off-guard and had no idea that this attack was being planned for months.

They completely missed the smuggling operation that brought an arsenal of weaponry into Gaza. They missed the multiple meetings that took place over the past few months in Beirut between Hamas leaders and senior Iranian officials.

And these weren't even secret meetings; they took place in broad daylight and included some of Iran's top military commanders and even the country's foreign minister.

It's not just Mossad; plenty of nations' intelligence agencies (including in the United States) keep close tabs on Hamas and Iran. The CIA has a whole division dedicated to Iran. Yet apparently everyone missed it.

Additionally, it's worth noting that, despite the mountain of bureaucracy and compliance now required in the global banking system, everyone also missed the river of money that funded Hamas's operation.

This is mind boggling; laws like FATCA, CRS, and the USA PATRIOT Act were supposedly passed, at least in part, to cut off terrorist groups from the global financial system.

Banking has become so cumbersome that the rest of us ordinary, law-abiding citizens have to suffer ridiculous paperwork and compliance just to conduct routine financial transactions.

Your bank will treat you like a criminal if you withdraw $5,000 in physical cash.

Yet Iran-- a nation that has been blacklisted by the global financial system-- has been able to send hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas-- a blacklisted terrorist organization.

This is not a simple 'intelligence failure'. The 'experts' missed it. And the systems they designed failed miserably.

At best, this was a catastrophic breakdown of an entire system that was put in place worldwide to prevent the very thing that just happened this weekend.

Simon Black"

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aggiehawg said:

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Wait, what? Commercial flights are being allowed to leave and there are road routes available?

John Kirby says he has no information on an airlift of U.S. citizens from Israel.

Kirby continues to advise Americans who want to leave Israel to take a commercial flight, even as all U.S. airlines have suspended flights from Israel's main airport. pic.twitter.com/PPTAjRLKzz

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 11, 2023

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aggiehawg said:

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Nitro Power said:

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aggiehawg said:

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Agthatbuilds said:

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I thinks there's probably hope for clearly non Israeli hostages. Ie- they found a bunch of alive Thai workers that were kidnapped.

Those that are Jewish or Israeli I think are probably dead.

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Which again raises the question of what was the rationale for taking hostages back into Gaza in the first place? Human shields? Cannon fodder?

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This is something I was pondering earlier. These barbarians hide in schools, hospitals, mosque, etc...why then would they not hide behind the hostages. Or place the hostages in a location that will be destroyed? They could then turn around and say they were going to return them but Israel killed them.

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My recollection of the embassy hostage crisis was that the Iranians kept moving the hostages to thwart recsue attempts in any specific location, no matter how well defended. it also provided the important proof of life video while they were being placed into transport to be taken elsewhere.

I guess in Gaza, Hamas knows the Israeli eyes and ears are always watching and listening so following that example would be much more dangerous now.

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Quote:

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First, it's bizarre… almost suspicious… just how poorly trained the Hamas fighters are. As I watch videos of the gunmen, they demonstrate a distinct lack of even basic firearms proficiency.

They have limited trigger discipline. They wave their weapons around like children playing with toy guns. They shoot one-handed as if they learned marksmanship from watching Rambo.

Plus their small unit tactics are pitiful; they don't know how to move and fight as a unit or how to clear buildings. They don't even know basic hand and arm signals.

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WATCH: Israel is only the first target, warns Hamas commander #Hamas | #Gaza | #Israel https://t.co/F98YVGtOsj

— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) October 11, 2023

javajaws said:

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Looks to me like there was a minimal amount of people involved in the actual planning and that everyone they actually sent on the ground (or through the air lol) was cannon fodder - likely recruited for their mission the day/night before to keep security leaks to a minimum. This wasn't actually very well coordinated so much as timed to hit all at once. That's why you didn't really see any strategic objectives hit. This was very much a mass terror operation.

And really, this just shows how stupid Hamas is. They got used by Iran and Russia to stir up trouble. Not that I feel sorry for what is coming their way...

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Quote:

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And really, this just shows how stupid Hamas is. They got used by Iran and Russia to stir up trouble.

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The Bataan Amphibious-Ready Group consisting of the USS Bataan (LHD-5), USS Mesa Verde (LPD-19), USS Carter Hall (LSD-50), and also roughly 3,000 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit are right now off the Coast of Bahrain and heading in the direction of the Arabian… pic.twitter.com/S4beGjfljL

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 11, 2023

Agthatbuilds said:

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https://instagr.am/p/CyQmABjLztV

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Quote:

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[url=https://www.instagram.com/the_amateur_historian/][/url]the_amateur_historian
[url=https://www.instagram.com/the_amateur_historian/][/url]
Edited6h
It is now being reported by both Israeli and Palestinian media that Abd al-Fattah Dukhan, AKA "Abu Osama" - who was one of the original founders of the H@mas t3rror group - was killed one hour ago by an Israeli Air Force strike.

Dukhan's death, still unconfirmed at the time of this post, is said to have occurred during an Israeli airstrike on a H@mas target in the Nuseirat neighborhood of Gaza City.

This reported death comes one day after the reported deaths of H@mas's finance minister and a member of the terror group's politburo in other Israeli military actions.

Abd al-Fattah Dukhan was among those who were present at the December 1987 meeting of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza where it was agreed to start a militant opposition to Israel. He was one of the people who wrote the group's charter that calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.

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