Tag: religion

How Western Intelligence Agencies Built the Global Jihadist Network

Americans have been fed a comforting fairy tale about Islamic terrorism. Radical jihadists attack the West simply because they despise freedom, democracy, and the American way of life. This narrative flatters domestic audiences while conveniently obscuring a far more troubling reality. For decades, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel have armed, financed, tolerated, and tapped into Sunni Islamist extremists as geopolitical tools to destabilize rivals. The evidence spans multiple theaters and rests on declassified documents, congressional investigations, and credible investigative journalism.

The most thoroughly documented case is Operation Cyclone, the CIA program to arm and finance the Afghan mujahideen from 1979 to 1992. In a 1998 interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski confirmed that the CIA began aiding mujahideen opponents of the pro-Soviet Kabul government six months before the Soviet invasion—a calculated provocation intended to draw Moscow into an unwinnable war. When asked if he regretted supporting Islamic fundamentalism that gave “arms and advice to future terrorists,” Brzezinski replied:

“What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?”

Multiple intelligence agencies participated in this operation. MI6 ran covert operations supporting hardline commanders. Pakistan’s ISI served as the critical financial and logistical conduit—operating under the direction of Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq, who controlled ISI policy throughout the war. Saudi Arabia agreed to match CIA contributions dollar for dollar, a commitment secured when Brzezinski visited Riyadh in February 1980 and one that CIA officer Gust Avrakotos and congressman Charlie Wilson (D-TX) would fly to Riyadh to enforce whenever Saudi payments fell behind. Historian Steve Coll documented in Ghost Wars that Osama bin Laden informally cooperated with ISI-run guerrilla training camps on behalf of newly arrived Arab jihadists, with intimate connections to CIA-backed commander Jalaluddin Haqqani. The global jihadist network that became al-Qaeda grew directly from this infrastructure.

The Afghan theater was not an isolated experiment but the opening chapter of a longer story. The same networks it created spread rapidly to the next front. The Chechen insurgency of the 1990s was joined by Arab and Central Asian jihadists who had cut their teeth in Afghanistan. The most prominent was Ibn Khattab, a Saudi-born mujahideen veteran born in 1969 inʿAr’ar, Saudi Arabia, who left for the Afghan jihad at age 18 before entering Chechnya in 1995. Saudi-backed organizations funneled funds, and Gulf state charities developed during the Afghan jihad maintained, in some cases wittingly and in others not, support for al-Qaeda-affiliated groups throughout the decade. Several of the future 9/11 conspirators—including Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Ziad Jarrah, and Ramzi bin al-Shibh—originally sought to travel to Chechnya in 1999 before being redirected to al-Qaeda’s Afghan camps, per the 9/11 Commission.

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Pete Hegseth Details Trump’s Orders for Department of War to Protect Nigerian Christians

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth detailed President Donald Trump’s instructions for the Department of War to protect Christians in Nigeria who were being targeted and murdered by ISIS terrorists.

Giving some examples of what the establishment media does not focus on when it comes to President Trump and the Department of War, Hegseth pointed to the plight of Christians in Nigeria.

“I just want to note one more thing to give you a sense of how committed this president is. Maybe a year ago he heard the call of Nigerian Christians who were being targeted and killed by ISIS in Nigeria, and he said, ‘Pete, I want the War Department to focus on ensuring that we do everything we can to protect those Christians,’” Hegseth revealed during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.

“Partnerships like that can take time behind the scenes, but he never wavered on it,” he continued, explaining that they put out their assets and have successfully killed one of the ISIS heads inflicting harm on Nigerian Christians.

“Over the last month — and there hasn’t been much coverage of this — we killed ISIS’ number two in Nigeria, who is most responsible for killing Christians and trying to target the U.S. homeland, and have since — because of the intel we gathered — killed hundreds of ISIS members who were targeting and killing Christians in Nigeria, creating a whole new opportunity there,” the secretary revealed.

“So, there’s a lot of things we do that the media pays attention to, and a lot of things the President empowers the department to do on behalf of the American people that he deserves great credit for,” Hegseth continued, noting that the American people are happy with what the president is doing as evidenced by the increased recruitment rates.

“Thanks to the investments that you’ve made in this department, firing on all cylinders for the second year in a row, we’re at historic recruitment rates,” Hegseth said. “Last year we said that here, this year we beat it even faster. The American people are excited about what you’re bringing to our department.”

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Don Lemon Discovers Rules After a Church Service Gets Disrupted

“Independent journalist” and former CNN anchor Don Lemon filed a motion today in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis seeking the release of grand jury transcripts in the federal civil rights case against him. From the AP:

Lemon pleaded not guilty in February to federal civil rights charges, following a protest at a Minnesota church where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official is a pastor. He is one of 39 people charged in the January incident.

Lemon insists he was at the Cities Church in St. Paul to chronicle the Jan. 18 protest but was not a participant.

Lemon and another independent journalist, Georgia Fort, filed a motion in February seeking transcripts of the grand jury proceedings that resulted in the indictments against them and seven others.

In the latest filing in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, Lemon’s attorneys argue that “the past 15 months have seen an unprecedented and growing distrust in the Justice Department’s use of the grand jury process.” For that reason, the transcripts from Lemon’s grand jury should be released, his attorneys said.

“In the past two weeks alone, several courts have chastised Justice Department prosecutors for irregularities in the grand jury process and gone so far as to dismiss indictments for grand jury misconduct,” Lemon’s attorneys said in the Wednesday filing.

Lemon and journalist Georgia Fort face charges tied to a Jan. 18 protest that disrupted worship at Cities Church in St. Paul. Prosecutors charged 39 defendants in the case, while Lemon insists he attended the protest to document events as a journalist, not to join the disruption.

The case centers on a protest at a house of worship connected to David Easterwood, a Cities Church pastor who also serves as acting director of the ICE field office in St. Paul.

Protesters entered during Sunday worship, chanted, confronted people inside, and turned a sacred space into a political theater.

Lemon’s defenders want the country to see only a journalist with a camera. Worshippers had reason to see something else: a service interrupted, a congregation targeted, and a church treated like fair game because activists disliked the pastor’s government job.

Lemon is now arguing that recent grand jury problems in other federal cases make the transcripts necessary, with his attorneys pointing to dismissals and judicial rebukes in Chicago, Wyoming, and Rhode Island. 

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Pope Leo Calls for AI Weapons to Be “Disarmed,” Warns of Threat to Humanity

In a sweeping address, Pope Leo XIV has issued a stark warning about artificial intelligence, cautioning that the technology risks eroding human dignity, accelerating global conflict, and placing life-and-death decisions in the hands of unaccountable systems.

The warning came in his first major encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), a wide-ranging document that places AI at the center of a broader moral and civilizational crisis.

At more than 40,000 words, the document represents one of the most comprehensive statements yet from the Catholic Church on the role of technology in modern life. It also signals a growing concern that rapid innovation is outpacing ethical reflection.

The Pope’s central argument is this: technology, he insists, must remain subordinate to the human person—not the other way around.

“Technology is never neutral,” Leo wrote, emphasizing that it reflects the values of those who design and deploy it. That insight forms the foundation of the document’s broader critique.

While acknowledging the benefits of technological progress, the pontiff warned that AI is increasingly being shaped by forces disconnected from moral accountability. Chief among these are large corporations and geopolitical actors.

The encyclical highlights what Leo calls a dangerous shift. Power, he argues, is moving away from democratic institutions and into the hands of “major economic and technological actors.”

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Washington Nationals Director of Community Relations Admits on Hidden Camera to Discriminating Against Christian Pitcher Trevor Williams

The O’Keefe Media Group on Tuesday released an undercover video of Washington Nationals Director of Community Relations, Sean Hudson, admitting to religious discrimination against Christian pitcher Trevor Williams.

Hudson told the OMG undercover journalist that he also surveilled the Nationals’ fans’ Google history.

“One of our pitchers, Trevor Williams. He’s super Christian-Catholic, all these tattoos that mean a lot,” Hudson told the undercover reporter.

“The Dodgers had a group… who were drag queens who sometimes dressed up as nuns. [Trevor Williams] went on social media like… ‘This is my religion. You all are mocking it,’” he said.

“Because of that, we don’t use [Trevor Williams] on social [media],” Hudson added.

“Like, when they’re like, is a hot dog a sandwich? And like, the players come up, you know what I mean? Like, we don’t ask [Trevor Williams],” Hudson admitted.

Hudson then told the undercover reporter that the Nationals assign fans to different groups based on their Google history.

“If you ever come to a Nats game, there is someone on our team who is responsible for figuring out everything about you and assigning you into a bucket of people. If you’re accepting cookies, we’re getting a plethora of your Google history,” he said.

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Woke Pope Leo Apologizes for Slavery, Claims Church Played Role in Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

The Vatican is now apologizing for events that occurred centuries before anyone alive today was born.

Pope Leo XIV formally apologized on Monday for the Catholic Church’s role in “legitimizing” slavery, according to the Associated Press.

The apology reportedly appeared in Leo’s first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” which mostly focused on artificial intelligence.

“It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many,” Leo wrote.

It was the first-ever official papal apology, and it assigned blame to the Vatican for the slave trade.

“For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon,” the holy father added.

He called the church’s record on slavery “a wound in Christian memory.”

“The pope said that the church has long affirmed the dignity of every human being as the basis of its doctrine, ‘even if it took eighteen centuries for its full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognized,’” the Associated Press article read.

“This constitutes a wound in Christian memory, one from which we cannot consider ourselves detached.”

His encyclical also mentioned that the Holy See had “intervened several times in order to regulate and legitimize forms of subjugation.”

“Yet neither can we deny or diminish the delay with which both society and the church came to denounce the scourge of slavery,” he wrote.

Since the beginning of his papacy last year, Leo, a Chicago native, has repeatedly embraced liberal policies and climate change narratives.

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Ohio Officials Who Excluded Christian Group From Foster Care System Forced to Pay Massive Sum

Officials in Montgomery County, Ohio, agreed to a more than $120,000 settlement after reversing a decision to exclude a Christian organization from the foster care system.

Gracehaven, which assists young people rescued from sex trafficking, filed a lawsuit in 2024 accusing the county of barring them from “a public program and benefit for which it is otherwise qualified.”

The decision was “based solely on the ministry’s commitment to hire only employees who share and adhere to its religious beliefs,” according to a May 12 release from the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Montgomery County had previously contracted with Gracehaven for years, reimbursing the ministry with public funds in exchange for their care services.

But they “suddenly decided to exclude” Gracehaven after the organization “told county officials that it was not waiving or surrendering its constitutionally protected freedom to employ those who share its faith.”

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ruled last year that Gracehaven could not be excluded from the foster care program because of its policy to only hire employees aligned on faith.

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Iran-Linked Terror Plot in Europe: Migrant Spy Ring Accused of Targeting Jewish Leaders in Germany

Federal prosecutors in Germany, according to various reports, have charged two men accused of participating in an Iran-linked plot to carry out violent attacks against Jewish leaders, in what officials describe as a chilling escalation of foreign-backed threats on European soil.

The case, naturally, has reignited urgent concerns across the continent about rising anti-Jewish violence, foreign intelligence operations, and the growing vulnerability of Europe’s Jewish communities.

According to prosecutors, a Danish national identified as Ali S. and an Afghan national, Tawab M., are accused of helping to prepare attacks targeting prominent Jewish figures in Germany. Both men face charges related to attempted murder.

Ali S. is also charged with acting as an agent for a foreign intelligence service. Authorities allege he was working on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Investigators say he maintained close ties with the elite Quds Force, a unit known for conducting operations abroad. The allegations point to a coordinated effort reaching far beyond Germany’s borders.

Prosecutors state that in early 2025, Ali S. was tasked with gathering intelligence on high-profile targets. Among them were Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Volker Beck, head of the German-Israeli Society.

Additional targets reportedly included Jewish businesses in Berlin. Investigators say the intent was to map out potential sites for attacks.

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Democrat candidate spoke at mosque event where imam prayed for infidels to be killed

Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander quoted the Quran before an imam reportedly prayed for “the killing of infidels” during a recent mosque visit.

During a visit to the Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Queens, New York, Lander described himself as “a proud Jewish New Yorker” before denouncing “Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” MEMRI reported May 15. He expressed his desire to partner with Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar.

Lander did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

“In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Say: ‘He is Allah, [who is] One, the Eternal Refuge, He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent.’ Thank you very much for welcoming me today,” Lander said before leaving the podium.

“Through your hands comes the relief for the believers and the killing of the infidels by your sword,” the imam then prayed, according to MEMRI.

Lander is currently running for New York’s 30th congressional district. He is the former comptroller of New York City, and a close ally of Mamdani.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him after he allegedly assaulted Department of Homeland Security officers last June, the DCNF previously reported.

Lander’s wife, former Planned Parenthood executive Meg Barnette, reportedly stated on X that the arrest occurred while he was “escorting a defendant out of immigration court.” He was released that same afternoon, according to CCN.

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Media Twist Opposition to Land Theft Into Hatred of a Religion

As revelations about the Catholic Church abuse scandals emerged in the early 2000s, protests at churches grew. In Los Angeles, protesters “defiantly entered” a “church with a wooden cross covered with photographs of abuse victims,” according to the LA Times (6/2/03). An AP report (9/23/02) covered what was then “the largest protest” in response to the sex abuse scandal at “the cathedral, the seat of the Archdiocese of Boston, in months.”

The protests continued for years; in 2018, the National Catholic Reporter (8/26/18) recounted, about “30 protesters, including survivors of clergy sex abuse, stood outside the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, DC,” to call for an “end to cover-ups.”

The widespread molestation of children by priests who had the protection of the church hierarchy angered Catholics and non-Catholics alike. And at no point did any reasonable observer misinterpret these protests as attempts to intimidate Catholic mass goers or spread anti-Catholicism.

Today in New York City, the press is focusing on a series of protests against real estate events that promote “properties for sale in the occupied Palestinian territories” (Intercept, 5/11/26), settlements that are widely recognized as illegal under international law (Amnesty International, 1/30/19). Several such events have taken place at synagogues; the first protest against these illegal land sales, at the Park East Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in November 2025, sparked so much outcry it inspired a new law giving police authority to restrict demonstrations near houses of worship (Politico, 4/24/26).

The local media have fanned the misconception that these are anti-Jewish protests, meant to intimidate Jewish worshippers attending synagogue, when in fact they are pro-Palestine protests against illegal land sales that are strategically held inside a house of worship.

In the Catholic sex scandal case, it was easy for most people to see that the protests were not about religion or bigotry, but about an injustice committed within a religious order. In the occupied land sales case, the press entertained the notion that any condemnation of Israel that happens within earshot of a synagogue must be rooted in anti-Jewish sentiment.

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