President Donald Trumpf signed a memo Wednesday that sets in motion preparations for a facility to house thousands of migrants at the US military camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which he said was an effort to “halt the border invasion.”
Trumpf said the US has
“30,000 beds in Guantánamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.”
Trumpf previewed the directive at a signing ceremony for the Laken Riley Act, an immigration detention measure, saying he would “instruct the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantánamo Bay.”
No, those aren’t Russian soldiers abusing Ukrainian POWs. They’re Muslim detainees arriving at Camp X-Ray in Jan 2002. (Photo: Shane T. McCoy, US Navy)
The Guantánamo Bay announcement caught many officials at the Pentagon off-guard, according to five defense officials. One official said the Guantánamo mission will be a DHS mission. It is unclear whether the military will be involved, but the Pentagon has no orders or guidance from the White House beyond the memo.
Officials who were surprised by Trump’s announcement said they do not know how many beds for migrants are at Guantánamo or whether it would be a short- or a long-term mission. They said there are no plans to upgrade or change the military facilities there.
Camp X-Ray in Jan 2002 (Photo: Shane T. McCoy, US Navy)
Beginning in 1991, over 32,000 men, women and children fled Haiti in makeshift boats. Many were pro-democracy activists seeking refuge after a military dictatorship overthrew President Aristide. Intercepted by the US Coast Guard, they came to crowded camps surrounded by barbed wire at Guantánamo to pre-screen their asylum claims.
Somebody on Trumpf’s staff alerted him that Guantanamo Bay once held 32,000 Haitian migrants, which is where he got the number 30,000 for his directive.
There are only a handful of Muslim detainees left in Guantanamo. President Barack Obama made several efforts to close down this tropical torture chamber but was stymied by Republicans in the Congress. This inhumane ukase will be a costly one for the hardworking American taxpayer. The expense of operating a C-17 military transport aircraft is $28,500 per hour. A recent military deportation flight to Guatemala most likely cost at least $4,675 per migrant. Moreover, feeding 30,000 unfortunate souls will be expensive as well. One wonders which Trumpf crony will be awarded the lucrative contract to cater to these poor detainees. No doubt the oligarch will overcharge the US government while providing the refugees gruel.
Trumpf is a fount of human kindness like his role model. (Michelle Kondrich/The Washington Post; Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post; AP)
Sources:
Trumpf Withdraws Security Details for Several Former VIPs
President Trumpf pulled security from John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and his assistant John Hook, despite an assassination contract put out by Iran. This is just another example of Trumpf’s vindictive nature to invite political violence against his enemies
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced he is “immediately pulling” retired Gen. Mark Milley’s personal security detail and security clearance. The sycophantic secretary is also directing the new acting Inspector General to conduct a review board to determine if enough evidence exists for Gen. Milley to be stripped of a star in retirement based on his actions to “undermine the chain of command” during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The DoD will also be removing a second portrait of Gen. Milley inside the Pentagon. This one is from the Army’s Marshall Corridor on the third floor honoring his service as chief-of-staff of the Army. This means there will be no more portraits of Gen. Milley inside the Pentagon.
Background Information
The US State Department announced a $20 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the alleged Iranian mastermind behind a plot to assassinate former White House official John Bolton.
The US designated the entire IRGC a “foreign terrorist organization” in 2019, after previously designating its external operation wing, the Quds Force.
In Aug 2022, US officials uncovered a plot by Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to kill John Bolton, who served as national security adviser to former President Donald Trump. The reward offer came when Trumpf who was running for a new White House term, claiming there were “big threats” on his life by Iran.
Bolton, an Islamophobe, is considered a foreign policy hawk and is a fierce critic of Iran. He advocated that Trump unilaterally and recklessly withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.
President Donald Trump flanked by National Security Adviser John Bolton, right, speaks during a meeting with Senior Military Leadership in the Cabinet Room of the White House on 9 April 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Oliver Contreras /Sipa USA via AP)
Poursafi allegedly offered an unidentified person inside the US $300,000 to kill Bolton in the capital area. The plan was likely set in motion after the US killing of top IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq on 3 Jan 2020 by a drone strike outside Baghdad Int’l Airport (BIAP). But it never made headway because the ostensible assassin became an informant of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Iranian authorities have dismissed the allegations as “fiction.”
The late General Qasem Soleimani. (Photo: Public domain)
General Qasem Soleimani was a popular figure in Iran and an effective combat leader against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. When the US invaded Afghanistan in Oct 2001 after the 11 Sep 2001 attacks, General Soleimani collaborated with the US and led the 2001 uprising in Herat against the Taliban, which included ethnic Hazaras, the Northern Alliance, and the Quds Force which liberated the city before US forces entered. Years later, the QF supported the Shia resistance against US forces in Iraq, particularly with lethal EFPs (explosively formed penetrators,
As reported previously here on Coriolanus, the IRGC-QF have contracted out assassinations to organized crime groups such as the Hell’s Angels, as well as recruited spies and saboteurs within Israel.
“Crossing Lines”
On 4 Dec 1981, President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12333. Part 2.11 of E.O. 12333 reiterates a proscription on US intelligence agencies sponsoring or carrying out an assassination. It reads:
No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.
Then-President Trumpf abused the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) to get around this proscription by deploying DOD assets to murder General Soleimani.
America’s beloved “Old Blood and Guts.” (Photo: Public domain)
During a state of war, enemy generals are high value targets (HVTs). The Ukrainian secret services killed a Russian CBRN general last year. In mob parlance, Trumpf killing Qasem Soleimani “crossed a line” with the Iranians as the US was not in a Congressionally-declared war with Tehran. Imagine how upset Americans would have been in 1945 if former members of the Third Reich assassinated General George Patton after the war ended. That’s how the Iranians feel today about Soleimani’s death.
Giuseppe “Pino” Greco killed up to 300 victims on behalf of the powerful Corleonesi clan during the Sicilian Mafia war of the late 1970s.
Like Giuseppe “Pino” Greco, when you live by the sword, expect to die by the sword. Perhaps this will be a lesson to national security functionaries to be a little more circumspect before ordering the taking of another man’s life. In sharp contrast to America’s dilemma of protecting homicidal bureaucrats, former President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador dismissed his military bodyguard detail when he assumed office. During his five year term, no one from the drug cartels, ISIS, the FSB, the IRGC-QF, or even a deranged lunatic made any attempts to harm President Obrador.
President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Photo: Government of Mexico)
Mexico’s President-Elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador shakes hands with a supporter while leaving the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico 3 Jul 2018. (Photo: Reuters / Daniel Becerril)
Mexico President Obrador sat unprotected on a delayed commercial flight for three hours. He said he would be “embarrassed” to board “a luxurious plane in a country where there is so much poverty.” President Obrador intended to sell the specially made $218.7m presidential jet.
Sources:
Putting A Target On His Back – Digby’s Hullabaloo
https://www.federalregister.gov/executive-order/12333
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45596480
Ukraine-Russia Update
Distributing military recruitment leaflets in Moscow. (Photo: Pelagia Tikhonova / Moskva News Agency)
I Russian Recruitment
The number of Russians signing contracts at Moscow recruitment centers to fight in the war against Ukraine has fallen five-fold since its peak in late summer of last year. The daily number of volunteers signing-up reached a high following Ukraine’s Kursk offensive and the introduction of a one-time payment of 1.9 million rubles ($19,200) shortly before that.
Since then, daily applicants number around 40, a fivefold decrease, citing a source in the Moscow mayor’s office. The composition of applicants has changed, and half of those signing up currently are foreigners of African, Asian, or Chinese origin looking to make extra money, or Russians under investigation in criminal cases.
Russia is currently suffering around 1500-1750 casualties daily on the battlefield, including dead, wounded, and captured, as it continues to make grinding advances in eastern Ukraine in “meat attacks.”
Soviet Army human wave attack in WWII.
II Ukrainian Strategic Drone Offensive
Ukrainian drones continue destroying strategic targets inside Russia, including an oil refinery, pumping station, and a missile arsenal. Four drones struck the Lukoil oil depot in the city of Kstovo, causing “significant damage.”
All of these targets are hundreds of miles inside Russia, conducted by Ukrainian Special Operations or intelligence personnel (HUR). The Russians were forced to shut down the main pipeline that supplies oil to the Ust-Luga terminal in Leningrad Oblast.
Click here for video:
https://t.me/war_monitor/24687
https://x.com/i/status/1884475734309155281
III Australian POW Alive
Australian volunteer Oscar Jenkins. Credit: HANDOUT/’SLADKOV+’ TELEGRAM ACCOUNT/AAP
Oscar Jenkins is serving in the 402nd Separate Rifle Battalion, which is part of Ukraine’s 66th Separate Mechanized Brigade. He went missing on 16 Dec 2024 while on a combat mission near the village of Mykolaivka in Luhansk Oblast. Thought to be executed by the Russians, Australian FM Penny Wong received confirmation from the Kremlin that Jenkins is alive and in custody.
IV NATO Support for Ukraine
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: “Ukraine deserves NATO membership.” (Photo: Tolga Bozoglu EPA / Shutterstock)
NATO is on course to fulfill its promise to send approximately $41.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine by the end of the year, NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska said on 29 Jan. Member nations pledged to provide the funding to Ukraine during the NATO summit in Washington, DC in July 2024. The future of US military aid remains uncertain under President Donald Trump who has urged Europe to shoulder more of the financial burden.
Ukraine continues striking strategic targets inside Russia to damage its economy and undermine enemy morale. The word is out on the Russian street about the appalling number of deaths on the Ukrainian front, lowering the number of native Russians seeking military contracts. NATO and the EU are stepping up to fill the void of assistance caused by Vladimir Putin protégé Donald Trump and are executing their contingency plan across the financial, intelligence, and defense spectrum. For example, the US ceded Poland’s air defense command to NATO last year. The Russians would not execute a foreigner like Oscar Jenkins because he has value for any potential prisoner swaps. If a Russian spy is detained in Australia, Moscow and Canberra would conduct a trade.
“Uncle Vanya Wants You!”
Uh-huh.
A Russian Defender of the Fatherland Day poster, celebrated on 23 Feb.
Sources:
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2025-01-13/nato-air-defense-poland-patriots-16467545.html
Ebola Outbreak Strikes Uganda’s Capital
(Photo: CNN)
Uganda confirms an Ebola virus outbreak in its capital, Kampala, with the first patient, a nurse, succumbing to the disease. This highly infectious virus spreads through bodily fluids and has claimed 55 lives during a previous outbreak. The health ministry is handling the emerging situation cautiously.
Per CIA, Uganda has nearly 50m people; real GDP per capita is $2,800.
The highly contagious viral infection, which transmits through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissues, causes symptoms such as headaches, muscle pain, and bleeding. Uganda last battled an Ebola outbreak in late 2022, which officially ended on 11 Jan 2023, after claiming 55 lives, including six health workers.
The average Ebola case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25–90% in past outbreaks, depending on circumstances and the response.
Sources:
https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/health/3245580-ebola-outbreak-strikes-ugandas-capital
https://www.who.int/health-topics/ebola/#tab=tab_1
Trumpf 6 Jan Pardons Backfire
Violent Lunatic Pardoned by Trumpf Sought on Charges of Child Sex Solicitation
Andrew Taake holding a metal whip during a confrontation at the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021 (via FBI court filing).
Andrew Taake (36) from Houston, TX was released from prison after being pardoned by Donad Trumpf is now wanted on separate charges of child sex solicitation. He had pleaded guilty in 2023 to beating officers with a metal whip and dousing them with bear spray while storming the Capitol grounds on 6 Jan 2021.
After being turned in by a woman he chatted with on the dating app Bumble, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison plus three years of post-released supervision. But now that he’s free again, Texas prosecutors are seeking him for trial on charges related to text messages he allegedly sent an undercover cop pretending to be a 15-year-old girl back in 2016.
This maniac was already awaiting trial for those messages when he journeyed to the Capitol “ready for violence” in January 2021. Nevertheless, Takke was freed from federal prison despite a formal request from Texas authorities to keep him in custody so that he could be tried for the 2016 charge.
Pardoned 6 Jan Offender Kills Mother of Two While DUI
Another one of Trumpf’s pardons backfired. Emily Hernandez was sentenced to ten years in prison for a deadly drunk driving crash days after being pardoned for her role in the 6 Jan Capitol attack.
Emily Hernandez holding a stolen, broken nameplate belonging to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Hernandez pleaded guilty for her involvement and served 30 days in federal prison. Look how happy she looks.
On 5 Jan 2022, Hernandez drove on I-44 in Missouri for several miles going the wrong way, with a blood and alcohol concentration of .125, before crashing into another car belonging to a Franklin County couple, Victoria and Ryan Wilson. The couple just left dinner celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary. Victoria (32) died and Ryan faced serious injuries. The couple has two children, now ages 18 and 13.
Credit: Family of Victoria Wilson
Emily Hernandez destroyed this once happy family in Missouri and a sexual predator is now on the loose in Texas. Expect more mayhem from the approximately 1,500 pardoned maniacs. When people contend that Donald Trumpf is trying to destroy the US from within, do not disbelieve them.
UK Shadow First Secretary of State Emily Thornberry in 2017: Trumpf Is a “dangerous asteroid of awfulness that has fallen on this world” and a “racist.” (Photo: Getty Images)
Sources:
UK: Alleged Russian Spy Believed She Was Working for Interpol
Court artist sketch of Vanya Gaberova, who said she never doubted the identity of the man who allegedly told her he was part of Interpol. (Photo: Elizabeth Cook / PA)
A woman accused of spying for Moscow told the Old Bailey she believed she was working for Interpol after a man showed her a fake ID and told her he could enrol her at “police school in Wembley.”
On her first day of giving evidence, London-based beautician Vanya Gaberova (30) said she did not question Bizer Dzhambazov (43) who also told her that untrained people such as her were better at surveillance because they did not stand out in a crowd.
Gaberova said she and Dzhambazov became close in Aug 2021 and gradually started a relationship as he began to give her surveillance tasks around Europe, which prosecutors say were for the benefit of Russia.
Dzhambazov, a medical courier, told her he was part of an Interpol economic crime unit and showed her credentials, which she did not question, and added that he could help her get a job in the police, which she said was an aspiration of hers.
Dzhambazov has already pleaded guilty to spying for Russia, carrying out surveillance tasks as part of a spy ring run by his friend Orlin Roussev, based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Roussev, who has also admitted guilt, was accused of working for Jan Marsalek, an Austrian fugitive and Russian agent based in Moscow.
The NATO Counterintelligence/Operational Security (CI/OPSEC) posture remains high because of the threat of Russian sabotage and espionage. The war in Ukraine has forced the Kremlin to recruit amateurs and non-professional assets without diplomatic immunity such as Vanya Gaberova. Nevertheless, they pose a threat to Western interests. These Russian spies will no doubt be traded in a future prisoner swap.
Russian spy Maria Butina who infiltrated the GOP and the NRA.
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jan/30/alleged-russian-spy-says-believed-working-interpol
Trumpf Golf Tracker
(Credit: PA:Press Association)
President Trumpf visited a Trump Organization property on 428 of the 1,461 days (30%) of his first presidential term and is estimated to have played 261 rounds of golf, one every 5.6 days.
One of Trumpf’s campaign pledges was to immediately lower the prices of eggs and gasoline for American consumers. Since being in office, both prices have increased while the Commander-in-Chief golfed. The ingenious Trumpf Golf Tracker is monitoring the time the President of the United States is on the links while “Rome burns down.”
Border Collie Has Perfect Pitch
Coriolanus 