Tag: foreign aid

US Sent Israel Hundreds of Missiles Days Before Attack on Iran

Just days before the surprise and unprovoked Israeli war on Iran, the US shipped Tel Aviv 300 Hellfire missiles. An Israeli official implied they were used in the assault.

On Friday, Israel launched an offensive war against Iran, striking military sites, nuclear facilities, and carrying out targeted assassinations of top officials. Middle East Eye reports that on Tuesday, just three days before the attack began, the US sent 300 Hellfire missiles to Israel.

One Israeli official indicated that the precision air-to-ground munitions were used in targeted attacks on top civilian and military leaders. Ali Shamkhani, a senior aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in his home on Friday.

Shamkhani was part of the negotiation team engaging with the US to work out a new nuclear agreement. American and Iranian officials have engaged in five rounds of talks, with a sixth previously scheduled for Sunday. Tehran recently indicated it believed a deal was possible.

However, following the start of Israel’s undeclared war, Iran called off talks with the US. New York Times UN correspondent Farnaz Fassihi said Iranian officials made it clear that Tehran views Shamkhani’s assassination as “Israel targeting and killing nuclear diplomacy with the US.”

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EU transfers €1 billion in aid to Ukraine — von der Leyen

The EU has transferred €1 billion of macro-financial aid to Ukraine, bringing its total spending on supporting Kiev since the beginning of the special military operation to €150 billion, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X.

“Today we disburse a new €1 billion to Ukraine, bringing our total support to almost 150 billion,” she wrote.

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US quietly sent hundreds of Hellfire missiles to Israel before Iran attack

The US quietly delivered hundreds of Hellfire missiles to Israel before its unprecedented attack on Iran on Friday, Middle East Eye can reveal. 

The US sent around 300 Hellfire missiles to Israel on Tuesday in a large-scale stock-up of supplies before its attack, and as the Trump administration was saying it was ready to continue engaging Iran in nuclear talks. 

The transfer of such a large quantity of Hellfires suggests that the Trump administration was well-informed of Israel’s plans to attack the Islamic Republic of Iran, two US officials told MEE on the condition of anonymity. 

The US’s delivery of Hellfires or other large quantities of weapons in the lead up to Friday’s attack has not been previously reported. 

The US military helped shoot down Iranian missiles that were headed towards Israel, two US officials told Reuters on Friday.

Hellfires are laser-guided air-to-ground missiles. They would not be useful for Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, but for precision strikes. 

Israel’s military used more than 100 aircraft in its attack on Friday, which used precision tracking to target senior military officials, nuclear scientists, and command centres.

“There is a time and place for Hellfires. They were useful to Israel,” one senior US defence official told MEE. 

Israel killed scores of senior Iranian officials and nuclear scientists on Friday. 

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Critics Call for End to US Aid to Israel After Iran Attacks

Progressive U.S. lawmakers and human rights defenders demanded an end to unconditional American armed and diplomatic support for Israel after it launched a series of attacks on Iran early Friday, reportedly killing senior military officials and civilians including nuclear scientists, women, and children in a dramatic escalation that Iranian leaders vowed to avenge.

Iran, later on Friday, reportedly fired hundreds of ballistic missiles toward Israel, and smoke was seen rising from the city of Tel Aviv as Tehran began its retaliation for the large-scale attack that Israel’s military committed just hours earlier.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on social media that “all of Israel is under fire.” Minutes later, the IDF said that the “Iranian attack is ongoing,” noting that “dozens of additional missiles were launched toward Israel.”

The Israeli military instructed residents across the country to “remain close to protected spaces” and minimize “movement in public areas” until an all-clear is given. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Unnamed U.S. officials told the Associated Press that American military assets were being used to help the Israelis intercept incoming missiles from Iran, though the sources, according to the AP, “did not say how the U.S. provided assistance.”

Iran’s retaliation followed at least five waves of Israeli airstrikes targeting not only Iran’s nuclear facilities but also its military leadership and capabilities, Al Jazeera reported. In addition to airstrikes, Israeli and international media reported that operatives from Mossad, Israel’s foreign spy agency, also conducted assassination and sabotage attacks in Iran.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander-in-Chief Major Gen. Hossein Salami and Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major Gen. Mohammad Bagheri were assassinated, as were numerous Iranian nuclear scientists [and key nuclear negotiator Ali Shamkhani.]

Israeli attacks targeted cities including the capital Tehran, Natanz, Isfahan, Arak, Tabriz and Kermanshah. Iranian television reports showed bombed-out apartment towers and said that an unknown number of civilians including women and children were killed in the strikes. [The New York Times cites Iran’s Fars news agency’s report of at least 78 deaths and 329 injuries.] 

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State Department Weighing $500 Million Grant to Controversial Gaza Aid Group: Report

According to The New Arab, the State Department is considering a massive distribution to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The new Israeli and US-backed agency has been accused by human rights groups of being a tool of Tel Aviv to complete the ethnic cleansing of Gaza rather than an organization attempting to feed the starving people of the Strip.

Citing two current and two former officials, the outlet reported that the State Department is considering a $500 million transfer to the GHF. The money would fund the organization for about six months.

Responding to an inquiry by the Libertarian Institute, the State Department press office declined to confirm the report, only stating that the GHF is “an independent organization” that “currently does not receive [US government] funding.” It directed further questions to the organization itself, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some US officials have opposed the large grant, raising concerns related to incidents when Israeli forces killed scores of Palestinians near GHF aid sites.

The GHF has met intense criticism for being unprepared to provide food and other desperately needed supplies in Gaza. UN and other aid agencies previously used established distribution networks to feed the millions of people languishing under the Israeli blockade. However, since the GHF was established in February, Israel has refused to allow UN and international agencies to bring aid into Gaza in favor of the new organization.

In the first weeks of the GHF operations in Gaza, Israeli forces killed scores of Palestinians attempting to get food, prompting top officials and firms to cut ties with the agency. GHF’s previous executive director, Jake Wood, resigned just hours before the organization began operating in the Strip, arguing the group’s plans were not in line with “humanitarian principles.”

Reverend Johnnie Moore, an American evangelical Christian leader and staunch Zionist, took over Wood’s role last week.

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Bono set out to feed starving kids. He armed bloodthirsty warlords instead…

Many of you will remember that massive Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium back in the ’80s, when everyone was laser-focused on feeding starving kids in Africa.

Bob Geldof became the face of the UK-based “Band Aid” charity, which brought together a lineup of famous musicians to record the iconic “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Bono was front and center, not just in the song but in the mission itself. It was supposed to launch his big “philanthropy” era.

But instead of feeding hungry Ethiopian children or bringing them holiday cheer, Bono and his Band Aid crew ended up arming bloodthirsty warlords.

Turns out the only people who got Christmas presents in Ethiopia that year were the bad guys, thanks to Bono and friends.

Daily Mail:

The images of starving children flickered across the screen  –  youngsters hardly conscious, possessing not even the energy to bat away the flies descending on their emaciated bodies.

BBC broadcaster Michael Buerk described the scene in Ethiopia 1984 as ‘the closest thing you get to hell on earth’. The famine pictures awoke the conscience of the world. A year later, Britain was host to the biggest fund-raising event of all time, Live Aid.

Who can forget it? At Wembley, and in Philadelphia, pop stars including Queen, David Bowie and George Michael were part of a dazzling line-up determined to feed the world.

And Bob Geldof demanded: ‘Don’t go to the pub tonight  –  please, stay in and give us the money. There are people dying NOW, so give me the money.’

Money poured in. The 16-hour rock concert on July 13, 1985 raised around £65million and was watched by a global audience estimated at 1.5 billion.

It was a moment of hope. But that was then.

Now the BBC has reported that substantial amounts of money  –  some of it raised by Band Aid  –  were siphoned away from relief efforts and went to fund guns for Ethiopian warlords during the Eighties.

Bob Geldof has responded with a vitriolic attack, dismissing the story as ‘total b******s’ and accusing the BBC of a ‘total collapse of standards’. He has branded the BBC World Service a ‘rotten old cherry’.

Geldof can scream and stomp his feet all he wants, but the people who were actually on the ground in Ethiopia are talking, and what they’re saying is very damning. A huge chunk of that Band-Aid money ended up funding the very warlords who were terrorizing the innocent. The Daily Mail piece goes on:

Today, for the first time, the Band Aid man on the ground in Ethiopia speaks out exclusively to The Daily Mail, saying he believes it is possible that up to 20 per cent of donor’s money went to fund the rebels.

Furthermore, he told me that he personally sympathised with the rebel cause he calls ‘a liberating force’, and travelled in convoys he suspected were transporting arms to them.

John James was Band Aid Field Director in Ethiopia from 1985-91 and was awarded an MBE for his charity work. He says: ‘I would be surprised if it were any less than 10-20 per cent of funds were diverted to the rebels.

‘Did I sympathise with the rebels? Yes. We would not have tolerated any direct assistance in the purchase of arms or condoned it, but just remember it was a highly complex situation.’

James, a farmer who is now 85 and living in Devon, adds: ‘I think it is ridiculous for anybody to claim that not one penny of aid money was diverted.

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OMB: Rescission Bill Would Cut Funding For ‘Sexual Networks’ In Nepal And These 16 Other Boondoggles

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent a rescission package to Congress on Tuesday, requesting $9.4 billion in funding cuts for various programs. This is the first package of proposed DOGE cuts since Trump was elected on the promise to eradicate waste, fraud, abuse, and excessive government spending. According to the OMB, here’s some of the waste they found.

OMB reported that the rescission bill would cut “$67,000 for testing insect powder nutrition on children in Madagascar.” Details listed for a USAID grant first awarded in 2023 dedicated funds to testing a porridge made from “dried cricket powder.”

The bill would nix $33,000 in funding for the United Nations program “Being LGBTQI+ in the Caribbean,” as well as $643,000 for a similar program in the Western Balkans and $567,000 for one in Uganda. It also proposes a $5 million cut in funding for the Minority Serving Institute, which awards National Nuclear Security Administration grants to “Minority-Serving Institutions,” and would nix $595,400 for “training women in gender equity.”

The bill would also prevent $500,000 from going to an electric bus program in Rwanda. USAID approved a grant to “scal[e] up clean, green, public transportation in Rwanda” in 2023. The package would cut $6 million in funding for “net zero cities” in Mexico, $2.1 million for “climate resilience in Southeast Asia, Latin America, & East Africa,” and $5 million for “green transportation and logistics” in Eurasia.

The package would remove $4 million in funding for “legume systems research” — which was apparently not intended for increased agricultural productivity in the U.S., but for improving bean production in Guatemala and Honduras. The bill also includes a $3 million cut to funding for a Sesame Street program for children in the Middle East. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, once quipped, “USAID asked, ‘Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?’ and ended up in Iraq.”

The OMB’s suggested cuts would save taxpayers $833,000 in funding that would have gone to “transgender people, sex workers and their clients, and sexual networks” in Nepal, while slashing $5.1 million allocated for “resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans gender, intersex, and queer global movements.” Additionally, the bill would nix $3 million in funding for circumcision, vasectomies, and condoms in Zambia, apparently for HIV prevention.

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USAID Paperwork Found in the Vehicle of Biden Illegal Alien Responsible for Boulder Terror Attack

A discovery by law enforcement officials regarding the Islamist terrorist responsible for burning several peaceful Jews alive Sunday in Boulder, Colorado, will certainly invite some interesting questions from Americans.

As Jim Hoft previously reported, a deranged man screaming anti-Jewish epithets attacked Jewish families, including children, in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday.

The attacker was identified as Mohamad Soliman. Several children were injured in the planned attack.

Soliman came in 2022 during the Biden regime and overstayed his visa and never left.

Now, Fox News has obtained an arrest affidavit which reveals law enforcement officials found paperwork with the words “USAID” inside Soliman’s 2015 silver Toyota Prius.

They also found paperwork with the words “Israel” and “Palestine” inside the terrorist’s vehicle.

It is not clear why an illegal alien from Egypt would have USAID-related paperwork. There is no indication he was ever an employee with the agency, and any other affiliation is unknown.

This disturbing discovery came after Soliman was charged with 16 counts of attempted murder in the first degree and will face the maximum federal sentence, which is life in prison.

Soliman was also found with 14 more Molotov cocktails on his person, along with a makeshift flamethrower. Further reports say that during interviews with police, he said he wanted to “kill all Zionist people,” and “wished they were all dead.”

Additionally, he said that he would “do it again.”

Soliman is currently in jail on a $10 million bond.

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Elon Musk: Bono Is A Retard

Outgoing DOGE overseer Elon Musk has hit back at claims made by U2 singer Bono that 300,000 people have “already died” because of cuts made to USAID.

Appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast, the Irish singer declared “It’s not proven, but surveillance suggests 300,000 people have already died from this cut-off, this hard cut of USAID.”

The key phrase there being ‘it’s not proven’.

Bono added “So, there’s food rotting in boats and warehouses…This will f**k you off.”

“No American will be happy. There is 50,000 tons of food that are stored in Djibouti, South Africa, Dubai, and wait for it, Houston, Texas that is rotting,” he further claimed.

“The people who know the codes at the warehouses are fired, they’re gone,” the singer also suggested.

He then asked Rogan “What do you think? That’s not America, is it?”

Rogan responded with actual facts, noting “There have been a lot of organizations that have done a tremendous amount of good all throughout the world. Also, for sure, it was a money-laundering operation.”

“For sure, there was no oversight, for sure, billions of dollars were missing,” he continued, adding “In fact, trillions that are unaccounted for were sent off to (who knows) where, because there are no receipts.”

“The way Elon Musk described it, he said if any of this was done by a public company, the company would be delisted and the executives would be in prison. But in the United States, this is standard,” Rogan emphasised.

ZeroHedge notes that “Bono’s claim may be based on projections by Brooke Nichols, a mathematician and infectious disease professor at Boston University, who modeled an estimated 300,000 deaths, with over 200,000 of them being children. However, much like weather models, these projections are highly speculative and come with significant uncertainty.”

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Inside America’s Hidden Power Network: NGOs, The CIA, And The Rise Of The Blob

Former State Department official and director of Foundation for Freedom Online Mike Benz sat down once again with Tucker Carlson, where he laid out a labyrinthine narrative about U.S. power and influence that should come as no surprise to those who have been paying attention. Benz described the role non-governmental organizations (NGOs), intelligence agencies, and private philanthropic empires have engaged in to quietly shape global and domestic affairs.

“NGOs are the stem cell of the government’s central nervous system,” Benz said, adding “They are this highly flexible tool…you can’t disentangle or really separate the government from the non-governmental organizations.”

According to Benz, the US often wields power through unofficial channels – increasingly through a network of publicly funded and privately directed institutions Benz dubbed “the Blob,” a term originally coined by Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security advisor to President Obama.

According to Benz, the roots of this NGO influence structure go back to the early 20th century, with the 1913 introduction of the income tax and the subsequent 1917 law making contributions to charities tax-deductible. This opened a floodgate of elite philanthropy which, during World War II and the Cold War, merged with U.S. intelligence objectives.

“In 1948,” said Benz, “the CIA achieved its first covert operation: rigging the Italian election by working through trade unions, charity fronts, and other non-profits.” He cited a now-declassified memo by diplomat George Kennan, who described the need for a “Bureau of Political Warfare” and endorsed a system where covert influence would appear to originate from civil society.

Benz divided the “Blob” into three strata: official government actors (State Department, Pentagon, CIA, USAID), a network of NGOs funded and coordinated by these agencies, and the “donor-drafter class” – high-net-worth individuals like George Soros and Bill Gates, whose foundations shape U.S. foreign policy priorities.

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