Photo: Russian Shahed drone arrived in Belarus on 14 Sep (Getty Images)
Denis Postovoy (44) was arrested on charges of conspiring to violate US export control laws. Residing in Sarasota, FL, the defendant is accused of smuggling, money laundering, and defrauding the US by exporting microelectronic components with military applications to Russia.
Postovoy allegedly began his illicit activities in February 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, by acquiring US-made microelectronics used in drones and exporting them to Russia without proper licenses.
Postovoy allegedly operated through a network of companies in Russia, Hong Kong, and other locations, purchasing the components from US distributors and using intermediary destinations to conceal the final destination of the shipments. The scheme aimed to strengthen Russia’s military capabilities.
Postovoy’s companies, including Hong Kong-based WowCube HK Limited and Russia’s Vector Group, are said to have played a key role in the scheme by submitting false documentation and transshipping goods through countries like Switzerland and Hong Kong. Payments were allegedly funneled through foreign bank accounts, including those in Russia and Hong Kong, to US suppliers of the microelectronics.
Postovoy’s arrest is part of a broader effort coordinated by the Disruptive Technology Strike Force, a joint initiative of the Departments of Justice and Commerce to prevent hostile regimes from acquiring sensitive technologies.
Denis Postovoy faced previous litigation from the State of Florida.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Sources:
STATE OF FLORIDA VS POSTOVOY, DENIS (unicourt.com)
Louisiana Man Sentenced on Felony and Misdemeanor Charges for Actions During 6 Jan Attack Against Capitol Hill
Willard Purkel (51) of Covington, LA, was sentenced on 12 Sept 2024 to 60 days in prison, nine months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution after he previously pleaded guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges related to his conduct during the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Purkel pleaded guilty on 3 Jun 2024, to a five-count indictment charging him with civil disorder, a felony, and misdemeanor offenses of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
The FBI arrested Purkel on 30 Nov 2023, in Louisiana. His son, Colby (USMS #89223-510), was sentenced last month to three weeks in prison for his role in the riots.
In the 44 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,504 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 560 seditionists charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.
Source:
Doctors Without Borders Ceases Operations in Russia
MSF volunteers serve in these locations
The Swiss-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) aid group on September 16 said it has been forced to close its operations in Russia. “It is with a heavy heart that we have to close our activities in Russia,” said the head of the group’s Russia program. “Our organization’s work is guided by the principles of independence, impartiality, and neutrality, and medical ethics. We provide assistance based on the needs.” MSF has been in Russia since 1992 but said it received notice in August from the Justice Ministry that its office was removed from the register of nongovernmental organizations.
This draconian move only punishes Russians in remote areas who have little to no access to healthcare. The elites and the oligarchs can access medical care and medicines under the sanctions, unlike the average Russian.
Source:
Doctors Without Borders Ceases Operations In Russia (rferl.org)
NORAD Tracks More Russian Military Planes Near Alaskan Air Space
Russian IL-38 (undated imagery)
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected and tracked two Russian IL-38 military aircraft operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on 15 Sep 2024.
The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace. This Russian activity in the Alaska ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat.
An ADIZ begins where sovereign airspace ends and is a defined stretch of international airspace that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security.
NORAD employs a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars and fighter aircraft to detect and track aircraft and inform appropriate actions. NORAD remains ready to employ a number of response options in defense of North America.
The string of recent interceptions began Sept. 11 when NORAD spotted a pair of Russian military aircraft operating in international air near ADIZ but also did not enter Canadian or United States sovereign airspace, according to a release on Wednesday.
However, Russian flights occur “regularly” into the airspace known ADIZ with other recent interceptions in recent as July and May.
July’s incident arrived days after the Kremlin’s Defense Ministry claimed it had intercepted two US B-52N bombers near the Russia’s borders just days prior.
Then on Friday, a pair of TU-142s were detected by NORAD. Those aircraft are Russian reconnaissance and anti-submarine planes. A day later came reports of two Russian IL-38 planes detected, followed by Sunday’s announcement.
Earlier in the summer, NORAD intercepted two Chinese and two Russian military jets flying near Alaska in what officials say was the first known time the two large nations had been recorded operating together.
At the time of their joint encounter, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Russia and China are “always testing us.”
The US Army recently deployed a large contingency of paratroopers, radar units and at least one M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System to Shemya Island, off the coast of Alaska.
A US Army M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) launches ordnance during RED FLAG-Alaska 21-1 at Fort Greely, AK, 22 Oct2020. This exercise focused on rapid infiltration and exfiltration to minimize the chance of a counterattack. (USAF photo by Senior Airman Beaux Hebert)
This deployment occurred concurrently with Russia’s own extensive naval exercises taking place across the Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Arctic Ocean to assess Russian combat readiness, the EurAsian Times reported.
Sources:
NORAD says it continues to track more Russian military planes near Alaska’s air space – UPI.com
Iran Allegedly Hiring Hells Angels to Target Enemies in West
Recent open source reporting reveals that Iran has been hiring criminal organizations, including the Hells Angels, to assassinate or abduct Iranian dissidents or political critics living in the West. A British journalist was recently attacked in London and US authorities uncovered several plots. In total, 88 violent plots linked to Iran have been identified over the last five years by journalists and law-enforcement agencies.
Hells Angels’ boss Ramin Yektaparast is wanted in Germany on terror charges; he has been living in Iran since 2021 Credit: Instagram
Iranian drug trafficker Naji Sharifi Zindashti illustrates how Iran’s intelligence operations are integrated with organized crime.
Heroin kingpin Naji Sharifi Zindashti allegedly contacted Hells Angels bikers to kill an Iranian defector Photo: FBI
But the nexus between state players and organized crime is not a new phenomenon and should not come as a surprise to anyone.
Saigon’s notorious underworld was the scourge of the Viet Cong in the 1950s and 1970s. Chiang Kai-Shek relied on the Green Gang, a powerful criminal organization in Shang Hai to suppress dissidents (until finally losing the Civil War to Mao Tze-Dong). Israel employs a terrorist organization, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. We see in open press reporting Russian oligarchs with links to the Kremlin and organized crime; Chechnya is a basically a criminal fiefdom of Russia run by warlord Ramzan Kadyrov.
Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) cooperates with both the powerful Haqqani Network (HQN) in Afghanistan and with Ibrahim Dawood and his notorious D Company. This criminal terrorist organization has business tentacles in India, the UAE, Morocco, the UK, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Italy, France, and allegedly Mexican criminal organizations.
Sources:
Iranian man and two Hells Angels accused in murder-for-hire plot in U.S. (nbcnews.com)
Assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists – Wikipedia
Wanted Persons / Internet / Home – INTERPOL (archive.ph)
WHO: Over 22,500 Palestinians Suffered ‘Life-Changing Injuries’ in Gaza
Palestinian children at a temporary field hospital in southern Gaza Strip. Photo: WHO/Christopher Black
More than 22,500 people – a quarter of those wounded in Gaza since Israel’s offensive began – have life-changing injuries, requiring rehabilitation services “now and for years to come”, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) reported. These include severe limb injuries, amputations, spinal cord trauma, traumatic brain injuries, and major burns.
Israeli forces invaded Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 terror attacks by Palestinian armed groups in southern Israel.
Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, highlighted that the surge in rehabilitation needs is occurring alongside the wholesale collapse of Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure.
“Patients can’t get the care they need. Acute rehabilitation services are severely disrupted and specialized care for complex injuries is not available, placing patients’ lives at risk. Immediate and long-term support is urgently needed to address the enormous rehabilitation needs.”
Services such as wound care, physical therapy, and psychological support are either inaccessible or entirely unavailable, leaving thousands at risk of further complications, disabilities or even death.
According to the UN health agency, only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional, primary healthcare and community-level services are frequently suspended, due to insecurity, attacks and repeated evacuation orders.
Gaza’s only limb reconstruction and rehabilitation centre, located in the Nasser Medical Complex and supported by WHO, has been non-functional since Dec 2023 due to lack of supplies and staff, and was further damaged in a Feb 2024 raid.
Additionally, the loss of trained physiotherapists due to the fighting between Israel and Hamas has further hampered rehabilitation efforts.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Cabinet have well-incubated the next generation of Israel haters and antisemites.
Source:
Over 22,500 have suffered ‘life-changing injuries’ in Gaza: WHO | UN News
CBP: Record Number of Canadian Illegal Border Crossers Between 2021-2024
This image might represent a small portion of the US-Quebec border. (Undated photo: The Sun)
From 2021 through July 2024, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported 150,701 Canadians illegally entered or attempted illegal entry into the US. The majority were apprehended at the US-Canada border, followed by other locations nationwide, with a small number at the US-Mexico border.
The greatest number of Canadians encountered or apprehended by CBP or Border Patrol agents was in fiscal 2022: 47,126 (northern border 40,600; nationwide 6,413; 113 at the Mexican border). , according to the data.
The overwhelming majority are single military age adults.
Not all Canadian border crossers are native-born but include foreign nationals who received Canadian travel documents. Canadian citizens for years have legally traveled to the US for work and as tourists.
Over 1,100 individuals on the US terrorist watch list, referred to as known or suspected terrorists (KSTs), attempted to illegally enter the US-Canada border since fiscal 2021. They include an Iranian with alleged terrorist ties living in Canada and a Canadian woman previously arrested by Texas officials for claiming to threaten to kill former President Donald Trump. The terrorist watch list is not legal proof that someone is a terrorist but that the name is associated with a KST; border authorities are mandated to double-check the person’s bona fides.
As reported recently on Coriolanus, a Pakistani national living in Canada was arrested after announcing his idiotic plan to carry out a mass shooting at a Jewish Center in Brooklyn, NY to avenge Palestinian deaths at the hands of the IDF. This lunatic plot by a young man with no reported military or firearms experience or training was quickly and easily neutralized before the suspect reached the US border.
The number of Canadian illegal border crossers is not comparable to the nearly three million Mexican illegal border crossers since fiscal 2021. Among them, more than 22,000 Mexicans were apprehended by US federal agents after illegally entering or attempting entry from Canada. CBP data indicates that illegal border crossers holding travel documents from Canada and Mexico, America’s NAFTA partners, appear to be circumventing US immigration law.
The CBC reports that legal emigration from Canada to the US hit a ten-year-high. The Census recorded 126,340 people left Canada for the US in 2022, a 70 per cent increase over a decade ago. Of the 126,340, 53,311 were born in Canada, 42,595 were Americans repatriated, and 30,434 were foreign-born immigrants to Canada who decided to move to the US instead.
Canadians cite increased taxes, declining healthcare services, career opportunities, and high cost-of-living as their major reasons for emigrating to the US. Many find Florida’s weather attractive.
Marco Terminesi grew up in Woodbridge, Ont. but now lives in South Florida and sells real estate — mostly to Canadians — in Palm Beach County. He says a lot of prospective buyers are motivated to leave Canada because of politics. (Photo: Marco Terminesi)
Sources:
Border security, migrants, Canadian order | Homeland Security Newswire
Emigration from Canada to the U.S. hits a 10-year high as tens of thousands head south | CBC News
Brazilian Dog is Footvolley Star Teaching Beachgoers How to Play
Rio de Janeiro’s main beaches bustle with commotion on sunny weekends. But activity ground to a near standstill on one stretch of sand. People held up their phones to record athletic feats they’d never before witnessed, or even imagined.
The game? Footvolley, a combination of soccer and beach volleyball. The athlete? A three-year-old border collie named Floki.
Floki sparks wonder among bystanders, because he hangs tough in a game that even humans struggle to get a handle on. Footvolley rules are essentially the same as beach volleyball, but with a slightly lower net and, like soccer, players are forbidden from using hands and arms. Floki springs up from the sand to drive the ball with his mouth. He has become something of an internet sensation in Brazil, with hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok.
Floki’s owner, Gustavo Rodrigues, is a footvolley coach, but swears he didn’t plan this. He had wanted an American Bully, a decidedly less sprightly breed. Floki came into Rodrigues’ life instead and quickly revealed his potential when, at just two months old, he started jumping after birthday balloons.
Source:
This Brazilian dog teaches beachgoers to play footvolley | AP News
Coriolanus 