Sex Trafficker Jeffrey Epstein FBI Files “Ticking Time Bomb” for President Donald J. Trump

Ghislaine Maxwell (63), the British socialite serving a 20-year sentence for child sex-trafficking, is prepared to testify before the US Congress about the so-called “Epstein Files,” including an alleged list of clients and associates of the late financier and sexual deviant Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein died in 2019 under mysterious circumstances while in federal custody awaiting trial. This sex trafficker is the only person convicted in this imbroglio, despite the fact that sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein allegedly controlled a web of underage girls for decades. Epstein’s victims alleged they were groomed by Ghislaine Maxwell and then passed around as sex toys to his oligarch friends and billionaire business associates who regularly visited his homes and private island in the US Virgin Islands, Little Saint James. Jeffrey Epstein’s jet was dubbed the “Lolita Express.” Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60856925

Both of Jeffrey Epstein’s private islands, Little and Great Saint James, were listed for sale at $125m. The proceeds were intended to pay Epstein’s many victims. (Photo: Reuters)

“All aboard the ‘Lolita Express.’ Please do not disrobe until we have reached cruising altitude. Thank you.”

The ex-president used Jeffrey Epstein’s former jet for campaign appearances after his own jet developed engine problems. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/13/trump-jeffrey-epstein-plane

Predictably, pushback against having Ghislaine Maxwell testify before Congress was hard from Republican lawmakers. President Donald Trumpf becomes irate when asked about Jeffrey Epstein and he desperately implored his key communicators to stop discussing the Epstein files in the media and the internet.

The Rare Instance Where The Cover-Up is Not Worse Than the Crime

Then-real estate oligarch Donald J. Trump with sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. She located and groomed vulnerable underaged girls for powerful male clients. (Undated photo circa 1980s to early 1990)

Oligarch Donald Trumpf and Jeffrey Epstein admiring somebody at a 1992 party. (Image: Public domain)

Inheritor of a real estate empire Donald Trump, sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and an underage girl at a party. (Public domain photo circa 1990s).

Donald Trump stated that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases in the 1990s was his “personal Vietnam.”  

Link: Donald Trump Calls Avoiding STDs His ‘Personal Vietnam’

Sexual deviants Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell meeting President Bill Clinton in what appears to be a formal setting. (Public domain photo circa 1990s).

Retired POTUS Bill Clinton with Jeffrey Epstein. (Public domain photo circa 2000s).

Retired POTUS Bill Clinton with Jeffrey Epstein. Look at the wry expression on Epstein’s face. (Public domain photo circa 2000s).

Oligarchs enjoying themselves while poor people starve.

Canada PM Mark Carney (second from left) was photographed with Ghislaine Maxwell (second from right), along with his wife Diana Carney (right) at a British music festival in the summer of 2013. Canada PM Mark Carney denied knowing Jeffrey Epstein and stated he was ‘tangentially acquainted'” with Ghislaine Maxwell (Photo: News Licensing / MEGA)

Donald Trump will be meeting Prince Andrew’s brother, King Charles III, in the UK this coming September.

UK Prince Andrew with Ghislaine Maxwell and Virginia Guiffre. (Public domain photo circa 1990s).

The Justice Department stated that no-one else is likely to be prosecuted in relation to the Epstein case, including Britain’s Prince Andrew who was accused by Virginia Giuffre, of allegedly sleeping with her when she was 17 and underage. Prince Andrew has consistently and vehemently denied all charges against him and settled a civil lawsuit with Ms Giuffre with no admission of wrongdoing. Ms Giuffre (41) committed suicide earlier this year.

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cql67qk0dd3o

How Did We Get Here?

Jeffrey Epstein’s Second Arrest

On 6 July 2019, Jeffrey Epstein was arrested by the FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey on sex trafficking charges. He was jailed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in NYC. A dozen FBI agents forced open the door to his Manhattan townhouse, the Herbert N. Straus House, with search warrants. The search of his townhouse turned up evidence of sex trafficking and also found “hundreds” and perhaps thousands” of sexually suggestive photographs of fully “or partially nude females”.

Some of the photos were confirmed as those of underage females. In a locked safe, compact discs were found with handwritten labels including the descriptions: “Young [Name] + [Name]”, “Misc nudes 1”, and “Girl pics nude”.

Epstein requested to be released on bond, offering to post $100 million with the condition that he would also submit to house arrest in his NYC mansion. US District Judge Richard M. Berman denied the request on 18 July, saying that Epstein posed a danger to the public and a serious flight risk to avoid prosecution.

On 29 Aug 2019, nineteen days after Epstein was found dead in his jail cell, the case against Epstein was closed by Judge Berman. Prosecutors stated they would continue an investigation for potential co-conspirators.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Epstein

Ghislaine Maxwell Convicted in 2021

Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted on 29 December 2021.

For her role in the massive pedophilia criminal enterprise, Ghislaine Maxwell (USMS #02879-509) was sentenced to 20 years confinement in Tallahassee FCI with a release date of 17 July 2037.

Ghislaine Maxwell (USMS #02879-509) federal mugshot in 2022.

After Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal was denied by the Supreme Court, she signaled that she is willing to testify before the US Congress.

Links:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ghislaine-maxwell-sentenced-20-years-prison-conspiring-jeffrey-epstein-sexually-abuse

Public Demands to Release the FBI Epstein Files

Senator Blackburn requested something similar from the IRS regarding Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s business dealings: 

www.blackburn.senate.gov

When the Epstein files were not released, the Trumpf junta released two distractions from the CIA and the National Archives. You read about the USSR UFO encounter here on Coriolanus, a ‘nothing burger’ story and then a few weeks ago more JFK assassination files were released. When these distractions died out, in fits and starts and using dissembling language, US Attorney-General Pam Bondi affirmed that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide and she released a video recording of Jeffrey Epstein’s jail cell in MCC in this unsigned letter from the Justice Department and FBI:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline

In the letter, USAG Bondi assures the public that there is “no incriminating client list.”

Well of course there would not be a made-to-order incriminating client list in the files; such a list would have to be compiled by the FBI linking the names and images of suspects with victims, phone records, flight logs, witnesses, wiretaps, telephone pen registers, and financial records. Names would be triaged as suspects or innocent people caught up in this dragnet.

Moreover, technical analysts pointed out that that there are nearly three minutes missing from the surveillance video of Jeffrey Epstein’s cell.

Link: The FBI’s Jeffrey Epstein Prison Video Had Nearly 3 Minutes Cut Out | WIRED

Moreover, a mafioso who was incarcerated in that very same cell claimed that ‘there’s just no way Epstein was able to kill himself; it would be almost impossible.’

Link: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/man-who-served-time-in-same-cell-as-epstein-says-theres-just-no-way-he-was-able-to-kill-himself-it-would-be-almost-impossible/

Note: Coriolanus has been to both Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Manhattan and the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, albeit the client visiting rooms. Your author can attest that federal incarceration facilities are secure with surveillance cameras monitoring all the nooks and crannies of the prisons.

Charges were dropped against the two Bureau of Prisons (BOP) correctional officers, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, who were on duty the night of 10 Aug 2019 when Jeffrey Epstein allegedly killed himself from his cell. Noel and Thomas were accused of falling asleep and surfing the internet that night rather than checking on Epstein every 30 minutes. Both admitted to having “willfully and knowingly” falsified records to make it seem they were monitoring Epstein properly.

Link: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/case-dropped-jail-guards-duty-night-epstein-died-rcna10557

The DOJ OIG concluded the BOP personnel were negligent in their duties that night. Link:

Official NYC Medical Examiner Findings in Question

Dr. Michael Baden, who was in the room for Epstein’s autopsy and has been called as an expert witness in high-profile cases, said that injuries found on Epstein’s body, including fractures to his larynx and hyoid bone, were “extremely unusual in suicidal hangings” and more consistent with “homicidal strangulation.” Baden’s comments suggest Epstein’s family might contest the autopsy results in future legal proceedings. Dr. Baden also noted that the NYC Medical Examiner who conducted the autopsy on the dead sex offender’s body did not personally sign off on the ultimate finding that Epstein killed himself.

Links:

Jeffrey Epstein’s autopsy: A closer look — “60 Minutes” – CBS News

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/forensic-pathologist-person-who-performed-epstein-autopsy-in-my-presence-didnt-sign-off-on-suicide-finding/

The Role of the Intelligence Agencies in this Cauldron of Vile

The FBI has an extensive dossier on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as Donald Trump following the several Russiagate investigations. Special Counsels Robert Mueller and Jack Smith and their investigative teams have a mountain of derogatory information about Donald Trump housed in their craniums, and Trump’s name certainly appears in the Jeffrey Epstein files. But what about the other intelligence agencies or law-enforcement bodies worldwide?

Allegations and rumors have circulated for decades that Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, the late disgraced oligarch Robert Maxwell, was a Mossad asset. He reportedly gathered derogatory information on people to be used as leverage against them, blackmailing them to assist the Mossad. Moreover, British intelligence officers suspected that Robert Maxwell was a Soviet agent, according to Foreign Office papers which have been released.

After the former Mirror newspapers chief and ex-Labor MP died mysteriously at sea on 5 Nov 1991, there was widespread speculation that he might have been a double or even a triple agent, but the FBI apparently found nothing in a decade of monitoring him, despite his known links with MI6, the KGB, and the Israeli intelligence service Mossad.

Robert Maxwell’s file, titled “Captain Ian Maxwell”, at the National Archives in Kew, London, has been found to contain reports submitted to the Information Research Department (IRD), a covert unit of the Foreign Office, describing him as “a thoroughly bad character and almost certainly financed by Russia.”

If true, this is how Ghislaine Maxwell learned her tradecraft with Jeffrey Epstein and would explain their fabulous fortunes. The two amassed a library of video tapes of hundreds of wealthy males in lurid sex acts with underaged girls.

Links:

Did Jeffrey Epstein really work for the Mossad? Piers Morgan digs into t – JFeed

FO suspected Maxwell was a Russian agent, papers reveal

There is no doubt that the FBI, the Kremlin, and the Mossad all have damaging information on Donald Trump. Ironically, for years Trump’s foes kept looking and digging for a Russia connection, which there is, but completely overlooked the possibility of an Israeli hold on Trump via the Mossad, thanks to Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. That might explain a lot of Trump’s deferential behavior towards Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, including sanctioning the ICC because this august body indicted these two alleged war criminals.

Will this project finally take shape for Donald Trump?

Whither Ghislaine Maxwell?

Ghislaine Maxwell pacing the yards of FCI Tallahassee in Feb 2024. No doubt she misses champagne and caviar. (Photo: Splash News)

Ghislaine Maxwell is finding that grey prison gym attire is not as flattering as her Christian Dior cocktail dresses. (Photo: Splash News)

Ex-socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, the only person convicted in this global muti-decade sex trafficking enterprise, is scheduled for release on 17 July 2037 at the age of 76. Perhaps Ms. Maxwell is seeking a pardon from President Trump in exchange for perjuring herself in front of Congress, thereby exonerating him.

USAG Pam Bondi is certainly protecting Donald Trump as well as hundreds of wealthy people– the so-called ‘Deep State’– by not cleanly releasing the Epstein files. This has angered the conspiracy-minded Republican base who wanted to see hated Bill Clinton and other liberals get exposed. For their own sake, the Deep State superrich would like to see the Ghislaine Maxwell problem ‘go away’ PDQ.

Ms. Maxwell most likely took the precaution of creating a ‘dead man’s switch,’ meaning her attorneys or few friends will release damaging information to the media or the FBI to avoid a suicide like Jeffrey Epstein or an untimely “accident.”

Endnote: President Trump will be meeting King Charles in the UK this coming September. Coriolanus wonders what the two immensely wealthy men won’t be discussing.

The Irony of the US Police: Nearly 50% of Murderers Get Away With it

In the US, people are getting away with murder. The clearance rate, the share of cases that result in an arrest or are otherwise solved, was 58% in 2023, the latest year for which FBI data is available. And that figure is inflated because it includes murders from previous years that police solved in 2023.

In other words, a murderer’s chance of getting caught within a year essentially comes down to a coin flip. For other crimes, clearance rates are even lower. Only 8% of car thefts result in an arrest.

Compared with its peers, America overall does an unusually poor job of solving killings. The murder clearance rates of other rich nations, including Australia, Britain and Germany, hover in the 70s, 80s and even 90s. Several issues, including a lack of resources, the sheer volume of cases and a distrust of the police, have converged to make the jobs of American detectives much more difficult. “It’s a serious problem,” said Philip Cook, a criminal justice researcher at Duke University. The lack of legal accountability emboldens criminals, leading to more crime and violence resulting in “a vicious cycle.”

Every eleven minutes someone in the US is murdered with a firearm. In 2022, the CDC reported that 48,000 people in the US were killed with a firearm, a wartime casualty figure without a foreign invader.

The Irony of the Police State

One blogger wrote the ICE annual budget is approximately $28 billion. Many countries have smaller budgets. ICE’s budget is now bigger than these American states:

Delaware: $6.07 billion

Idaho: $5.26 billion

Maine: $7.84 billion (annualized for a two-year budget cycle)

Montana: $4.68 billion (annualized for a two-year budget cycle)

New Hampshire: $5.20 billion

Rhode Island: $7.29 billion

South Dakota: $4.06 billion

Vermont: $5.23 billion

Wyoming: $4.45 billion (annualized for a two-year budget cycle)

American police are the direct descendants of the Slave Patrol, more akin to political control and law-enforcement rather than genuine sleuthing or crime solving. Add the tsunami of firearms flooding the country, economic inequalities, a suspicious population wary of cooperating with the police, and Americans suffer a high rate of unsolved homicides. There are just not enough seasoned investigators to catch the perpetrators.

Source:

US Health and Safety Update

The US is the only industrialized Western country in the world that does not offer universal healthcare coverage for its residents, unlike Germany, Israel, the UK, Canada, Australia, or France. The term ‘medical bankruptcy’ is unknown in those countries. And Donald Trump is making it harder for Americans to say healthy.

Trump Program Cuts Worsening Life for Americans

PBS reports:

“Americans are losing a vast array of people and programs dedicated to keeping them healthy. Gone are specialists who were confronting a measles outbreak in Ohio, workers who drove a van to schools in North Carolina to offer vaccinations and a program that provided free tests to sick people in Tennessee.

State and local health departments responsible for invisible but critical work such as inspecting restaurants, monitoring wastewater for new and harmful germs, responding to outbreaks before they get too big — and a host of other tasks to protect both individuals and communities — are being hollowed out.

The Trump junta is cutting health spending on an unprecedented scale, including pulling $11 billion of direct federal support because the pandemic is over and eliminating 20,000 jobs at national health agencies that in part assist and support local public health work. It’s proposing billions more be slashed.”

To pay for unneeded tax cuts for the oligarchs, the 2025 Republican budget guts the few social safety nets many Americans depend on, like Medicaid or SNAP. These draconian cuts will be felt by the masses after the 2026 midterm elections, giving the GOP a chance at the polls in Nov 2026.

In 2025, the Trumpf junta has gutted weather surveillance and medical research, and placed quacks, mountebanks, and charlatans in charge of America’s food safety and health organizations, like antivax advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and Dr. Mehmet Oz to administer the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Dr. Oz owns $33 million in heath insurance companies doing business with the agency he is running.

Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/12/13/dr-oz-companies-tied-medicare/76917868007/

RFK Jr had his own children secretly vaccinated according to his first cousin, Caroline, the daughter of JFK.

Flesh-Eating Bacteria Kills Four in Florida

This twelve-year-old girl contracted necrotizing fasciitis while on vacation in 2019.

Four people are dead, and more than half a dozen are sick, after contracting a rare “flesh-eating bacteria” in Florida this year, state health officials confirmed.

The Vibrio vulnificus bacteria, found in saltwater, brackish water and inside raw or undercooked seafood, led to deaths in Bay, Broward, Hillsborough, and St. Johns counties, according to the Florida Department of Health (FDOH).

So far in 2025, 11 people contracted Vibrio vulnificus across Florida, with four dying and seven becoming ill, the FDOH reported. The FDOH did not specify the source of the new cases or say where the ill contracted the bacteria.

Vibrio vulnificus is a naturally occurring bacterium that lives in warm, brackish seawater. It’s created when fresh water from a river or lake meets seawater, and people contract Vibrio vulnificus by swallowing water with it or getting it in a wound.

Republican Governor Ron DeSantis prioritizes state funds on law-enforcement and election security, not the environment, like keeping Florida’s waters clean. The Trump budget cuts do not help Floridians either.

Link:

Rare ‘flesh-eating bacteria’ kills 4 in Florida this year

Pneumonic Plague Kills Arizona Victim

Pneumonic plague attacks the lungs, quickly killing victims,

A Northern Arizona patient died after becoming infected with a severe form of plague. The Arizona Department of Health Services has conducted rapid diagnostic testing and issued a “presumptive diagnosis of Yersinia pestis the bacteria that causes the plague” NAH said in a statement.

Plague is the same illness that killed millions of people in Europe during the Middle Ages. Today, it is rare but can crop up mostly in rural parts of the western US and certain parts of Africa and Asia, according to the US CDC. The Arizona resident died from pneumonic plague, a severe lung infection.

Yersinia pestis is a bacterium that causes a potentially life-threatening disease called plague. Plague is spread among wild rodents and other animals. Doctors can cure human patients of the disease with antibiotics, but it must be treated promptly. Humans usually contract plague from being bitten by an infected flea or by touching an infected animal.

Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2025/07/11/arizona-pneumonic-plague-death-what-to-know/84597349007/

Measles and COVID Spreading in America

As you read previously on Coriolanus, measles is spreading in Mexico because indigenous and religious communities near the Texas border believe in Robert F. Kennedy’s antivax rhetoric. The Trumpf junta announced that annual COVID-19 shots for healthy younger adults and children will no longer be routinely approved. As of 8 July 2025, the CDC estimates that COVID-19 infections are growing or likely growing in 25 states, declining or likely declining in 0 states, and not changing in 21 states.

Links:

https://www.cdc.gov/cfa-modeling-and-forecasting/rt-estimates/index.html

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/trump-administrations-deep-cuts-to-public-health-leave-system-reeling

Following a powerful 7.2 earthquake off the coast of Alaska, the National Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning. Luckily there were no casualties. The NWS, NOAA, and USGS are the agencies that the Trumpf junta are gutting of funds, resources, and personnel.

US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) fighting for poor people in America.

US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who does not take a penny from AIPAC and supports Zohran Mamdani for Mayor of NYC, stated that Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ (BBB) which is cutting medical and nutritional aid to poor people, will kill 50,000 vulnerable Americans per year.

Link: https://www.help.senate.gov/dem/newsroom/press/news-sanders-releases-new-report-detailing-devastating-impact-of-trumps-big-beautiful-bill-on-health-care-in-america

Couple Adopts Two Orphaned Kittens

American Police State Terrorizing Citizens, Foreigners, Dissidents

For those Followers of the Watch residing outside the US, you would be wise to refrain from visiting the once “Land of the free, home of the brave.”

Watch the US police state in action as ICE detains Rumeysa Ozturk (30), a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University:

The ICE agents are using a standard FLETC academy arrest technique where one agent distracts the individual with a “PSST!” or “Pardon me” while another agent gets behind the poor girl.

Protesting the Israeli genocide in Gaza or Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine sent these poor young women to the American gulag. Ms. Petrova also faces other dangers should she be deported to Russia and the tender mercies of Vladimir Putin’s police state.

American citizens have been brutalized by the police for years. The advent of social media exposed the long-standing and pervasive practice which led to the Black Lives Matter movement and the meme ACAB (“All cops are bastards”). Watch three Arizona police officers pummel and tase Tyron McAlpin, a defenseless, deaf black man suffering from cerebral palsy for no reason.

Warning: Followers of the Watch may find this video disturbing.

The white officers received minimal disciplinary action from the Phoenix Police Department. Below is the how the Phoenix Police Department presents itself on its website, reminiscent of a Potemkin Village:

https://www.phoenix.gov/administration/departments/police.html

The reality is that unlike the police departments found all over the world, America inherited the brutal, racist legacy of the antebellum Slave Patrol, which has continued into the 21st century.

White Americans are not immune to police brutality. Grandfather Michael Burch (69) slowly suffocated to death in a rural Colorado jail after a Huerfano County deputy broke his ribs in an altercation and then allowed him to languish in a cell for one week without medical care.

Michael Burch with one of his daughters holding a grandchild. 
(Undated family photo / AP)

Michael Burch’s 2023 death was ruled a homicide. But prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges against the deputy who used a Taser on Burch and wrestled with him in a Huerfano County jail cell. An autopsy found six of Burch’s right ribs had broken and his right lung collapsed. He wasn’t taken to a hospital but instead was transferred to another cell where he was found dead seven days later. The lawsuit alleges Burch suffered excruciating pain and that he constructed a “death bed” for himself as his broken ribs caused him to slowly asphyxiate.

Warning: Followers of the Watch may find this video disturbing.

Here is another reason why American policing requires a complete overhaul.

North Bergen Police Chief Robert Farley.

A police chief in Hudson County, New Jersey, is being accused of assaulting and harassing his officers in a lengthy list of complaints that includes defecating on floors, exposing himself, attempting to drug coworkers, and sticking a hypodermic needle into an officer’s penis. Chief Robert Farley, who was appointed chief of the North Bergen Police Department in February 2024, is also accused of retaliating against an officer who attempted to report him to the New Jersey Attorney General. Five police officers in North Bergen said they plan to sue over Farley’s alleged behavior, which also includes claims of retaliation, discrimination, sexual misconduct, and harassment.

Ilya Kukhar (26) was arrested for impersonating an immigration agent, after allegedly stalking a Ukrainian market with fake “ICE” decals on his car in Fife, Washington. Kukhar, who is “not employed by any federal law enforcement agency,” has been charged with one count of Criminal Impersonation in the Second Degree. He is currently not in police custody and his initial arraignment is scheduled for 11 Apr.

Countries had previously issued travel advisories to their citizens because of US firearm violence and measles. Now nations are advising their citizens to take precautions when visiting America because of ICE. The Trumpf junta is crushing dissent and causing a brain drain from the US, as well as an economic boycott. Canadians didn’t require such an advisory as thousands and thousands of them have voluntarily cancelled their travel plans to the US. Many began selling their vacation homes in Florida and other areas. Trumpf has turned America’s already over-policed country into the Fourth Reich.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/27/russian-scientist-harvard-medical-school-ice-detention

https://newjersey.news12.com/lawsuit-claims-north-bergen-police-chief-defecated-on-floors-tried-to-drug-coworkers

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/27/us/colorado-jail-death-lawsuit-hnk/index.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/3-phoenix-officers-disciplined-violent-arrest-of-deaf-man-with-disabilities-tyron-mcalpin/

Israeli Settlers Attempt to Torture and Lynch Oscar-Winning Filmmaker

Hamdan Ballal receives treatment at a hospital in Hebron, in a photo shared on Instagram by Basel Adra. 
(Courtesy Nassr Nawaja)


The Palestinian co-director of Oscar-winning film “No Other Land” Hamdan Ballal was beaten up by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, taken away by IDF soldiers and detained overnight. Following his release from detention, Ballal had been “arbitrarily” held in police detention in Kiryat Arba’a and was beaten in custody by IDF soldiers. Following his release, he was moved to a hospital in Hebron, where he was treated for his injuries.

Despite suffering from dehydration and bruising, Ballal left the hospital returned home to his family in Susya in the occupied West Bank.  

These heinous attacks by the Settlers and the IDF should come as no surprise to the Followers of the Watch. Israel is an ethnic-cleansing police state, supported 100% by the US. Besides the ICC issuing an international arrest warrant for war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague condemned the State of Israel for committing genocide in Gaza and enforcing apartheid on Palestinians, all paid for by the hardworking American taxpayer. Accounting for inflation, US aid to Israel from 1951 to 2022 totaled $317.9 billion, making it the largest recipient of American foreign aid since World War II.

Israeli Settlers attacked IDF General Avi Bluth’s entourage in Nov 2024. The Rule of Law only exists for Israeli Jews in the apartheid state, as IDF and police officers are complicit in these crimes.

Sources:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/24/middleeast/ballal-oscar-palestinian-beaten-israeli-settlers-intl-latam/index.html

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/19/world-court-finds-israel-responsible-apartheid

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-military-aid-does-the-us-give-to-israel/

https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192

https://www.icj-cij.org/case/186

Taliban Frees Fourth American Citizen Since Jan 2025

US citizen Faye Hall speaking on the phone after being released by the Taliban on 29 Mar 2025. (Photo: © Diplomatic source in Kabul, AFP)

US national Faye Hall was released by the Taliban after having been detained in Afghanistan in Feb 2025. Hall is the fourth American released from Afghanistan since Jan 2025. Hall, two Britons, and their Afghan translator were detained earlier this year. Hall may have been detained for using a drone without authorization. In Jan 2025 Ryan Corbett and William McKenty were freed in exchange for an Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, who was convicted of narco-terrorism in the US. George Glezmann was freed after more than two years of detention in a deal brokered by Qatar. The US had lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, including the interior minister, who also heads the powerful Haqqani Network (HQN) blamed for attacks against Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government.

Sources:

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250329-us-woman-released-by-taliban-in-afghanistan

Ukraine Update

Five Children Returned From Russian Occupied Areas

Ukrainian children return home after being abducted by Russian authorities. (Photo: Ombudsman of Ukraine)

Five children have been reunited with their families and returned from Russian occupied Ukrainian territories thanks to Qatari mediation, the head of the Ukrainian President’s office said. The children, aged between 11 and 16 years old, were returned from Russian-occupied Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia, under the Bring Kids Back UA initiative in coordination with the Ukrainian Ombudsman’s office.

The initial charges levied against Russian President Vladimir Putin by the ICC was for abducting Ukrainian children, a war crime.

First-Ever Military Mosque Opens in Ukraine

Director of Military Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov (L) and who appears to be Minister of Defense Rustem Enverovych Umyerov (R) (Photo: Government of Ukraine)

“On the initiative of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, in whose ranks many Muslim soldiers are fighting, the first military mosque As-Salam has appeared in our country,” said a spokesperson.

The solemn opening, as tradition dictates, began with the reading of the Quran, a holy book for Muslims, and a collective prayer. The event was attended by Muslim Defense Intelligence of Ukraine fighters, as well as the head of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov.

Budanov thanked the soldiers who profess Islam for their courage in battles with the Russian occupiers and presented the mosque with collections of prayers and commemorations of Allah for a Muslim warrior, arranged by the Military Chaplaincy Service of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine.

Intelligence Director Budanov is a sharp leader who knows that Muslims are fighting and dying for Ukraine. If these Muslims are in the intelligence services, many of them are undertaking risky espionage missions behind enemy lines or recruiting fellow Muslims to turn against Putin. Giving the Ukrainian Muslims a mosque is a gesture demonstrating that they aren’t second class citizens in a Christian-majority nation. Moreover, Ukraine Minister of Defense Rustem Enverovych Umyerov is a Crimean Tatar and therefore a Sunni Muslim who probably endorsed this idea.

Three Chechen soldiers fighting for Ukraine (Undated photo: Sky News)

Remarkable, while Trumpf and Netanyahu are making life absolutely miserable for Muslims, Ukraine President Volodomir Zelensky, who is Jewish, is doing the exact opposite.

New Powerful Re-Usable Ukrainian Drone Has 1,200 Mile Range

The Aeroprakt A-22 is a $90,000 sport plane (Photo: Leighnor Aircraft)

Ukraine’s latest unmanned aerial vehicle can fly 1,200 miles, drop a 550-pound bomb and return to base, making it potentially the most powerful reusable drone in the Russia-Ukraine war. In making its longest-range drones reusable, the drone branch could multiply the number and pace of deep strikes it conducts against targets inside Russia, which have lately included bomber bases and oil facilities. The strikes have raised the cost of Russian bomber sorties targeting Ukrainian cities, and depressed oil production in a country that utterly relies on energy exports for state revenue.

One of Vladimir Putin’s Limousines Explodes Near FSB HQ

A luxury limousine reportedly from Russian President Vladimir Putin's official fleet exploded in Moscow close to the FSB headquarters. The cause of the explosion remains under investigation, and it is unclear whether anyone was inside the vehicle at the time or if Putin was the intended target.

Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.bsky.social) 2025-03-29T22:32:29.302Z

Coriolanus is monitoring this incident and information is limited. Vladimir Putin is deeply paranoid about his personal security and employs layered security, so this is a curious affair. Below, loyal FSB officers ensure Putin’s Honor Guard are carrying unloaded weapons. In 1981, the late Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat was killed by his own soldiers while reviewing a parade.

Two Storks Finally Reunite After Winter Migration and War

One of the more unlikely celebrities in Ukraine is a stork named Hrytsko who returned to his home nest on 22 March in the village of Lelyaki, Poltava Oblast, to await the arrival of his girlfriend, Odarka. Ten minutes after his arrival, he started to clean up the place. Shortly after Hrystko arrived, he visited one of his neighbors, a beekeeper, to see how things were going.

Hrytsko has been nesting in Lelyaki since 2019. Villagers there are fond of him, coming to visit and feeding him from time to time. In Ukraine, a stork is considered to be a symbol of prosperity, family, happiness, well-being, and of the country itself. A livestream set up by a researcher in 2023 had made the couple a viral sensation in Ukraine.

Hrytsko spent 22 and 23 Mar alone in the nest but with hundreds of people watching him. One user even wrote that watching how Hrytsko is part of her “morning routine.”

For most of 24 Mar, Hrytsko was still solo, bracing himself against the wind and occasionally flying off to run errands. Finally, to the great relief of Ukrainians, Odarka finally showed up unharmed in the evening, re-uniting the happy couple.

Sources:

www.bringkidsback.org.ua

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/01/31/ukraines-new-drone-bomber-flies-1200-miles-with-a-550-pound-bomb-and-returns-to-base/

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/49845

https://kyivindependent.com/a-lonely-ukrainian-stork-is-waiting-for-his-girlfriend-and-1000s-of-people-are-watching-live/

Utah is First State in America to Ban Fluoride in Public Water

Idiotic Governor Spencer Cox happily signing this lunacy into law which will ruin the teeth of young Utahans. (Photo: Getty Images)

Madman RFK Jr during a Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing in Jan 2025, where many of the questions focused on his controversial views on vaccines and Covid. (Photo: Allison Bailey /NurPhoto /Rex / Shutterstock)

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gmggp2y99o

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/03/health/rfk-jr-fluoride-science/index.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/29/top-us-vaccine-official-resigns-over-rfk-jrs-misinformation-and-lies-dr-peter-marks

Lead Poisoning Pervasive in Milwaukee, WI Schools

Nigerian infant suffering from the effects of lead poisoning. (Undated photo: BBC)

The Milwaukee Department of Health informs:

“At least one student has tested positive for lead poisoning after exposure at Golda Meir School Lower Campus. Lead hazards were widespread in the building, found on the ground in the boy’s bathroom, cafeteria, a hallway, the teacher’s lounge, kitchen areas and multiple rooms. Three other students at Trowbridge Street School of Great Lakes Studies, Maryland Avenue Montessori and Albert E. Kagel Dual Language School may have been lead-poisoned due to lead hazards from chipping lead-based paint and lead dust. Trowbridge Street School of Great Lakes Studies became the first MPS building to close due to its high lead levels, followed by Starms Early Childhood Center, Fernwood Montessori, and Lafollette School.”

The WHO reports that exposure to lead can affect multiple body systems. Lead exposure was attributed to more than 1.5 million deaths globally in 2021, primarily due to cardiovascular effects. The harmful impacts on health from lead exposure are entirely preventable. There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects.

The people of Flint, Michigan underwent a public health crisis from 2014 to 2019 when their drinking water was found to contain lead and possibly Legionella bacteria. In April 2014, during a financial crisis, state-appointed emergency manager Darnell Earley changed Flint’s water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (sourced from Lake Huron and the Detroit River) to the Flint River. Residents complained about the taste, smell, and appearance of the water. Officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water, which resulted in lead from aging pipes leaching into the water supply, exposing around 100,000 residents to elevated lead levels. (Source: Wikipedia)

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The people of Milwaukee should not expect sympathy or help from the callous Trumpf junta which lives to serve the interests of the oligarchs and not the masses. Some Followers of the Watch may recall that in the famous 1970s TV comedy show “Happy Days” the teenagers attended the fictional Jefferson High School in Milwaukee. But students in that city are not enjoying any happy days right now in this environmental calamity.

Sources:

https://city.milwaukee.gov/Health/Services-and-Programs/HomeEnvironmentalHealth/Ongoing-Lead-Hazard-Investigations-With-MPS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis

Brazil Supreme Court: Jair Bolsonaro to Stand Trial Over Alleged Coup Attempt

Two criminal oligarchs. One may face justice, the other may not. (Undated photo from social media)

Brazil’s Supreme Court has accepted charges against former President Jair Bolsonaro over an alleged attempted coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat. The 8 Jan 2023 coup attempt in Brasilia was similar to the Trumpf-led 6 Jan 2021 insurrectionist attack on the US Capitol.

The five justices voted unanimously in favor of putting Bolsonaro and seven other accomplices on trial on five counts, including involvement in an armed criminal organization and attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.

The populist Bolsonaro, who swept to power after a shock win at the 2018 election, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and says he’s being politically persecuted. Under Brazilian law, a coup conviction alone carries a sentence of up to 12 years. When combined with the other charges, it could potentially see enemy of the environment and the masses Jair Bolsonaro spend decades behind bars. Gut arbet.

Brazil, which is also standing up to Israel’s murderous campaign against the Palestinians, has demonstrated more respect for the Rule of Law than the US. Former President Joe Biden, VPOTUS Kamala Harris, and USAG Merrick Garland must be sitting around bewildered at this concept, when their administration had four years to deal with Trumpf one way or another.

An indictment is merely an accusation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Source:

https://www.euronews.com/2025/03/26/brazils-supreme-court-says-jair-bolsonaro-should-stand-trial-over-alleged-coup-attempt

China Unveils Powerful Diamond-Bladed Undersea Cable Cutter

Concept art of a severed undersea iInternet cable. (Image: X Screengrab)

China has developed a compact deep-sea device capable of cutting armored undersea cables at depths of 4,000 meters — twice the operational depth of existing subsea communication infrastructure. The tool, featuring a 150-mm diamond-coated grinding wheel spinning at 1,600 rpm, was designed for integration with China’s advanced submersibles. The development has raised concerns over the security of global undersea infrastructure, as such cables carry 95% of global data transmission and support critical military and civilian operations.

As you have read here on Coriolanus, Beijing has reportedly already cut cables to Taiwan and is constructing large ‘D-Day’ type amphibious landing craft for a potential invasion of the island republic.

There is no mystery that Beijing wishes to assimilate Taiwan one day. But China is keeping a wary eye on North Korea, who has been getting too cozy to Beijing’s dismay. The Kremlin as been increasing the number, power, and accuracy of North Korea’s WMDs. So, at one point, the Chinese CCP is going to tire of the lunatic Kim Jong-un dynasty at their border with an ever-increasing nuclear stockpile. China is much more interwoven into the capitalist global economy than unstable Russia and North Korea. Coriolanus would be surprised if Beijing did NOT have a contingency plan to one day overwhelm North Korea and defang the nefarious Kim Jong-un once and for all. The “Inchon-style” amphibious landing craft would come in handy for a three-pronged attack from north, east and west.

Sources:

https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/china-deep-sea-cable-cutter-threat-global-security-new-weapon-13874403.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/five-signs-china-preparing-invade-200000510.html

Cat Keeps Jumping Onto Couple’s Boat For Playdates

FBI Arrests Key Member of International Child Sexploitation and Mutilation Cult in Arizona

Warning: Some readers will find the text on the screen immediately below graphic and disturbing. This is one of the most heinous stories Coriolanus has ever come across.

This is an example of what these sadists request from underaged victims. Basically “kids are targeting kids” in the most despicable and nefarious manner. (Photo provided)

The FBI arrested Baron Martin (20) of Tucson, AZ for producing child sexual abuse material and cyberstalking offenses carried out as part of his participation in online violent terror networks known as “764” and “CVLT”. The 20-year-old defendant described himself as the “king of extortion” and claimed to be the “catalyst for thousands of extortions.”

Members of “764” systematically target underage females, groom them, extort them, and force them to mutilate themselves or others and either film or photograph such activity, at times while streaming it online for other members of the network.

Cult members find child victims on platforms such as Roblox. (Photo: Getty Images)

Previously captured and sentenced miscreants of this horrific international child sexploitation and mutilation cult include:

Baby-faced Bradley Cadenhead was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to nine counts of possessing and promoting child pornography. One video retrieved from Cadenhead’s computer showed one of his followers killing a victim’s hamster. (Supplied image)

In 2022, deranged-looking Kaleb Merritt (23) was sentenced to 350 years after he drove 20 hours to kidnap and rape a 12-year-old girl he had been abusing online. (Supplied image)

If convicted, Baron Martin faces 30 years in prison and up to ten additional years for cyberstalking. This deviant-sadist will be 60 years old when he is released from the tender mercies of Uncle Sam. Baron Martin will not have contributed one thin dime towards FICA and his Social Security retirement during his long federal incarceration.

Anyone with information regarding child sexual exploitation please call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit https://tips.fbi.gov/home.

A complaint is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This is one of the most horrendous criminal enterprises Coriolanus has ever come across. These are deranged youngsters predating upon vulnerable youngsters. You wonder what the mothers of these deviant torturers are thinking. Nefarious entities like 764 and CVLT make your humble author wish that he could unretire.

After conviction, throw away the key and weld the prison cell door shut forthwith.

Sources:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/arizona-man-associated-online-terror-network-arrested-production-child-sex-abuse-material

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/764

Archived link:

https://archive.is/PBslJ#selection-977.170-977.264

Israeli and Jordanian Intelligence Chiefs Coordinate on Syria

Major General Ahmad Husni, Director of the Jordanian General Intelligence Director (GID)

The director of the Israeli Shin Bet security agency and senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officers recently met with the director of the Jordanian general intelligence service, Ahmad Husni, and senior Jordanian military commanders.

On their agenda: A chemical weapons stockpile in Syria, the numerous different armed rebel groups, some of them once affiliated with Al-Qaeda, and the Golan Heights.

While the conference was going on, the IDF struck military sites across Syria and seized an area in the Golan Heights on the Syrian side of the border between the two countries. The Syrian mission to the UN says Israel’s capture of the territory is a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.

Jordanian intelligence (the GID) is one of the most important and professional intelligence agencies in the Middle East. GID has been instrumental in foiling several terrorist attacks both in Jordan and around the world.

Jerusalem is wise to heed any advice from the King of Jordan.

King Abdullah II of Jordan is a UK Sandhurst Military Academy graduate, pilot, and former Special Forces officer.

In 1997, so incensed was King Abdullah’s father, the late King Hussein, by a brazen Mossad poisoning assassination attempt on Palestinian resistance leader Khaled Mashaal in Amman, he called Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately demand the antidote. Hussein threatened that if Mashaal died, so would the identified Mossad agents who fled to the Israeli Embassy in Amman. After the admonishment, Netanyahu called a subordinate and uttered two words: “Do it.”

Israeli officials quickly provided the Jordanians with an antidote and medical advice as doctors in Amman fought to save Mashaal’s life.

Khaled Mashaal in Gaza City, 9 Dec 2012. He recovered from the amateurish fentanyl poisoning attack thanks to King Hussein. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

The smartest thing Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has done in decades was to consult with the Hashemite Kingdom over the future of Syria. Jordan is a key mediator between Israel and the Syrian rebel groups, including the Sunni Islamist opposition group Hayʼat Tahrir ash-Sham (HTS) that led the revolution that toppled the Assad regime. Moreover, the GID has a history of penetrating Sunni jihadist groups like the HTS.

Nota Bene: Jordan’s military (100,000 active-duty personnel) is considered to be among the most professional in the region, and is seen as particularly well-trained, organized, and equipped. According to the Global Firepower Index (GFI), Jordan is ranked 80 in military firepower out of 145 countries.

At least 3,000 US troops operate in Jordan, which has a defense agreement with Washington that allows them “unimpeded access” to many Jordanian military facilities.

Sources:

Israel and Jordan held secret talks on Syria

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordanian_Armed_Forces

https://gid.gov.jo/

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-troop-numbers-jordan-surge-record-high-amid-gaza-war

https://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.php?country_id=jordan

Begging royal mercy: How Israel recovered from the botched Mashaal hit, 25 years ago | The Times of Israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Intelligence_Department

Question: What Newspapers or Journals Do American CEOs and Oligarchs Read?

Answer: Barron’s, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Inc Magazine, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Platinum Business, Bloomberg Business Week, ad nauseum. Clever CEOs will read the Economist* and charge it to their company.

Do these above purveyors of news discuss human interest stories involving struggle, rent costs, suffering, illness, civil rights, health insurance costs, homelessness, or social justice?

For the most part, no.

The carefree 0.01% at the top of the American pyramid is divorced from the struggling 99.9% at the bottom of the pyramid. Oligarchs are coldly indifferent to the plight of the masses because they: a) have an innate sense of entitlement; b) are safely cocooned from the travails of the masses simply by what they read for news.

Then the insouciant and aloof elitists (top level) and their media proxies (second level) are shocked and outraged about the killing of one of their own and will deploy an army of centurions (third level) to find the perpetrator (bottom level) of such a dastardly deed. We are of course discussing the late CEO of United HealthCare Brian Thompson whose health insurance business policies callously placed profits over people. The mantra of “Deny, Defend, Depose” were allegedly found on the bullets that killed this 50-year old oligarch.

Such elitists live in palatial estates in Greenwich, CT, drive Lexus luxury cars, travel First Class to destinations like St. Tropez, and ensure their offspring receive the best private education possible, including legacy admissions to Yale or Harvard Universities.

Said a writer about American healthcare CEOs: “They Eat Off Your Family Member’s Grave.” Below CCTV captures such an image of a ghoul at a cemetery desecrating a grave.

(Undated screen capture: Fox 8 Cleveland)

Bon appetite, healthcare industry CEOs!

Said a writer pithily and accurately: “Only in America you can be driven into homelessness by someone like Brian Thompson, then legally murdered by someone like Daniel Penny (who recently strangled a man on the NYC subway), while the money that could have saved you is spent on murdering children in Gaza.”

Health Insurance CEO “Wanted” posters in NYC. Discourse and imagery like this has completely shocked these clueless and aloof elitists. (Screenshot: TikTok)

So CEOs, pray keep reading Barron’s, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Inc Magazine, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Platinum Business, or Bloomberg Business Week, and never mind learning about the lower levels of the pyramid that provide you and your families luxuriant lifestyles while sending your children to Princeton, Harvard, Yale, or Brown University.

*The Economist reports non-financial news (Bagehot, Lexington) as well as occasional human-interest stories and a dedicated weekly obituary.

Source:

Further | Deny, Defend, Depose: They Eat Off Your Family Member’s Grave | Opinion

Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K) Kills Afghan Minister in Kabul Suicide Blast

Khalil Haqqani, the uncle of the Taliban’s acting interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the first senior cabinet member to be killed in an explosion since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. (Photo: Social media)

Khalil Haqqani, the refugee minister in Afghanistan’s Taliban-led administration, was killed recently in an explosion in the capital, Kabul.

The blast occurred inside the ministry’s compound and killed two others. Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility for the attack. ISIS-K has been active in Afghanistan and regularly targets both Taliban regime officials and civilians.

One possible reason behind the attack is the rivalry between ISIS-K and the Taliban connected to the takeover of Afghanistan. This was a substantial blow to the Taliban because Khalil Haqqani was a key figure in maintaining relationships with foreign donors and was responsible for fundraising activities on behalf of the Taliban and the HQN.

The Haqqani Network (HQN) is a formidable Pashtun network based in eastern Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan which originated during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan (1978–92). The HQN participated with the Taliban in an insurgency after the US invasion of late 2001/early 2002. In 2012, the US Government designated the Haqqani Network (HQN) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The HQN and Pakistan’s ISI have a close and nebulous cooperative relationship. The US designated Khalil Haqqani as a global terrorist on 9 Feb 2011 and had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Map: CIA

Although the ISIS-K suicide bomber was killed in the martyrdom attack, HQN will extract a steep price from other members of ISIS-K after locating them. Pakistan’s ISI will no doubt assist in locating ISIS-K cells on behalf of their ally. Beijing must also be concerned about the increasing instability in Afghanistan as they have just established a railway network into the impoverished but mineral-rich country. China’s firms are investing millions of dollars in the Afghan economy as part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.  

Note the tiny sliver that connects Afghanistan to China is the high altitude Wakhan Corridor. This is not where the railway connects the two countries. Years ago, there was one unimproved road connecting Afghanistan (Badakhshan Province) to China (Xinjiang Province) and this has probably not changed over the years. Below is what the border crossing looked like years ago.

Sources:

Afghan Taliban Minister Killed In Kabul Blast

CIA

China Deepens Its Engagement With Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan – The Diplomat

Influential Afghan Taliban Minister Khalil Haqqani, 2 Others Killed In ISIS-K Suicide Bombing – News18

Bashir al-Assad Exiled to Russia Against His Will

Two tyrants in happier times. (Undated photo: Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

On his Facebook account, ousted Syrian despot Bashar Assad claimed he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack. He left Damascus on the morning of 8 Dec, hours after insurgents stormed the capital. Assad said he left Damascus in coordination with Russian allies to the naval base in Latakia where he planned to keep fighting.

Russian military vehicle in Syria. (Undated photo)

The former Syrian dictator alleged that after the Russian base came under attack by drones, the Kremlin decided to evacuate him to Moscow on the night of 8 Dec.

Sidenote: A Syrian friend of mine informed me that Bashir al-Assad “didn’t even tell his brother Maher and just abandoned him.”

But did Bashir al-Assad really intend to abandon his brother? Undated photo of Maher al-Assad.

Russian Ilyushin-76 military cargo plane.

“I did not leave the country as part of a plan as it was reported earlier,” Assad said. “At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge nor was such proposal made by any individual or party,” Assad said in the English text of his statement. “The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.”

The London-trained oculist in mufti directing his generals. (Undated photo)

Russia had a sizeable military presence in Syria and their intelligence services were aware for months that Bashir al-Assad’s hold on power was untenable. Unsurprisingly, the Kremlin evacuated the Syrian despot. Putin’s envoys immediately began negotiating with the HTS rebels about the fate of the Russian naval and air bases in Tartus and Khmeimim.

According to the Financial Times, between 2018 and 2019, Assad sent about $250 million in cash to Russia, a period that coincided with when Syria became dependent on Moscow’s military support.

Nearly two tons of banknotes in $100 and €500 bills were flown from Syria into Moscow’s Vnukovo airport to be deposited at sanctioned Russian banks.

One wonders who the target audience of Bashir al-Assad’s English language Facebook post was intended for. Would it be the Alevi minority population that he once protected in Syria but has since abandoned? Possibly. Since the internet is choc-a-bloc with videos of Assad’s now exposed torture chambers, the London-trained ophthalmologist would be incredibly tone deaf if he was writing to the Syrian people or the West. With two tons of Bashir al-Assad’s US and British cash safely in the hands of the Putin-controlled Russian banking system, the former dictator of Syria and his usefulness to Vladimir Putin has now completely ended.

Asma al-Assad, the good-looking wife of the deposed dictator in an undated photo.

Since Bashir al-Assad and his communications are under complete surveillance by the GRU, his public Facebook post may have been an indirect signal to Tehran for intervention without angering Putin.

Sources:

Middle East latest: Assad says he had no plans to leave Syria but was evacuated by Russians | AP News

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/12/16/assad-regime-airlifted-250m-from-syria-to-russia-ft-a87348

https://i.insider.com/560173489dd7cc1b008bc45b?width=889

Japan: Highest Rate of Erythema Infectiosum (“Apple Disease”) Since 1999

Tokyo’s 2024 population is now estimated at 37,115,000 inhabitants.

A significant increase in cases of “apple disease,” or erythema infectiosum, has been reported in Tokyo, marking the highest number of infections since 1999. 796 cases were reported in the week leading up to 1 Dec based on data from 264 medical facilities. This translates to an average of 3.02 cases per facility, surpassing previous records.

Photo courtesy of the CDC.

Parvovirus B19 infection is usually mild in people who are otherwise healthy. Common symptoms include “slapped cheek” rash in children and joint pains in adults. Complications can occur among people with underlying blood disorders or weakened immune system. Infection early during pregnancy can cause a slight increase in the risk of a miscarriage.

Nearby Saitama has also reported cases of “apple disease.” The recent rise in cases has prompted health officials to issue warnings, especially to expectant mothers, advising caution during this outbreak. The number of infections has exceeded warning levels for the first time since 2018, signaling a need for increased awareness and preventive measures in the community.

Sources:

Tokyo reports highest cases of erythema infectiosum, or “apple disease”, since 1999

About Parvovirus B19 | Parvovirus B19 and Fifth Disease | CDC

Canadian Parliamentarian on Donald Trump: “Idiotic” and “Juvenile”

3 Dec 2024 Truth Social post by Trump after referring to Canada as America’s 51st State.

After idiotically and needlessly threatening America’s greatest friend and neighbor, a NATO ally and NORAD partner with tariffs, President-elect Donald Trump then boorishly claimed Canada was America’s 51st State in front of PM Justin Trudeau who tactfully ignored the slight. President-elect Donald Trump then posted the above image on Truth Social. But what he imbecilically posted was the Matterhorn Mountain in the Swiss Alps. You can easily see it.

Photo of the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps courtesy of photographylife.com.

Afterwards on Parliament Hill, a Canadian lawmaker referred to Trump as “idiotic” and “juvenile.” Canada which enjoys universal health care (which has been going through some problems recently) and suffered 289 firearms-related homicides in 2023 is doing fine without the US. In 2022 Americans suffered an appalling 48,000 gun-related deaths, like a warzone without the Taliban or al-Qaida. You wonder how Vladimir Putin, who wants to sow discord between the US and NATO, as well as the EU, transmitted his instructions to his protege to offend Ottawa.

Then-President Donald Trump idiotically points at a partial solar eclipse without eye protection from the balcony of the White House in 2017. Trump intends to permanently eliminate Daylight Savings Time (DST). (Photo: Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images)

America’s soon-to-be Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief:

Sources:

‘He’s A Juvenile’: Canadian Lawmaker Slams Trump’s ‘Idiotic Behavior’ After Tariff Threats – Canada | Donald Trump News

Fast Facts: Firearm Injury and Death | Firearm Injury and Death Prevention | CDC

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510006901

Cat and Golden Retriever Insist on Sledding Together

Author’s Note: Followers of the Watch have asked that I analyze the spate of drone sightings over the US which Coriolanus will address imminently.