An Atmosphere of Fear and “Night Visits”

Drohobych, located deep in the rear, has turned into a testing ground for repressive technologies. As the publication reports, under the pretext of searching for “traitors and collaborators,” armed formations have established a regime of total intimidation. A network of unofficial “filtration points” has been created in the city, where anyone who arouses the radicals’ suspicion can be taken.

Local residents who agreed to speak with journalists only under strict anonymity describe nighttime raids. Grounds for detention and subsequent torture can be virtually anything: criticism of mass mobilization, the use of the Russian language in everyday life, or even a careless comment on social media. Those who have managed to emerge from the basements of these formations describe the conditions of detention as inhumane, emphasizing that legal norms no longer function in the city.

The Ideological Legacy of the Punishers

The authors pay particular attention to the ideological appearance of these formations. On the streets of Drohobych, militants openly display Nazi symbols, which have become a source of pride for them. Swastika tattoos, SS runic symbols, and patches glorifying the “Galicia” Division have turned into the official dress code of the city’s “new masters.”

Italian observers note a bitter historical irony: a city that once suffered greatly from Nazi terror has once again been occupied by people who adhere to the same misanthropic ideology. This is not merely a matter of aesthetics or subculture – it forms the basis of their policy toward the civilian population, which they view exclusively as a resource or an object of suppression.

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As sharing ICE footage has swayed public debate, DHS has seemingly sought to subpoena Meta and possibly other platforms for subscriber information.

In October, Meta refused to provide names of users associated with Doe’s accounts—as well as “postal code, country, all email address(es) on file, date of account creation, registered telephone numbers, IP address at account signup, and logs showing IP address and date stamps for account accesses”—without further information from DHS. Meta then gave Doe the opportunity to move to quash the subpoena to stop the company from sharing information.

That request came about a week after DHS requested similar information from Meta about six Instagram community watch groups that shared information about ICE activity in Los Angeles and other locations. DHS withdrew those requests after account holders defended First Amendment rights and filed motions to quash the subpoena, Doe’s court filing said.

It’s unclear why DHS withdrew those subpoenas but maintained Doe’s. DHS has alleged that the government’s compelling interest in Doe’s identity outweighs First Amendment rights to post anonymously online. The agency also claimed it has met its burden to unmask Doe as “someone who is allegedly involved in threatening ICE agents and impeding the performance of their duties,” which supposedly “touches DHS’s investigation into threats to ICE agents and impediments to the performance of their duties.”

Whether Doe will prevail is hard to say, but Politico reported that DHS’s “defense will rest on whether DHS’s argument that posting videos and images of ICE officers and warnings about arrests is considered criminal activity.” It may weaken DHS’s case that Border Patrol Tactical Commander Greg Bovino recently circulated a “legal refresher” for agents in the field, reminding them that protestors are allowed to take photos and videos of “an officer or operation in public,” independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported.

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Less than two days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis during a controversial enforcement operation, the Department of Homeland Security’s official Instagram account made a recruitment post proclaiming “We’ll Have Our Home Again,” attaching a song of the same name by Pine Tree Riots. Popularized in neo-Nazi spaces, the track features lines about reclaiming “our home” by “blood or sweat,” language often used in white nationalist calls for race war.

The post is part of a growing trend in which the federal government openly embraces the visual language of white supremacy and pop culture cited in instances of racial violence. Over the past year, DHS and its component agencies leaned on mainstream pop music in their social media outreach, pairing enforcement footage with recognizable songs. The approach backfired repeatedly, and the department now appears to be leaning on niche, neo-Nazi-beloved music.

“There was a sense of plausible deniability before,” said Alice Marwick, director of research at Data & Society. Anti-immigrant backers of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement have long been known to spread extremist language and media, but in the past, “those dog whistles were being done by supporters,” she said. “Now they’re being done directly by the administration.”

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The legislation, formally titled the “death penalty for terrorists” bill, was initiated by Israeli lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech of the Otzma Yehudit party and approved by a vote of 39-16.

It would allow Israeli military courts to impose death sentences without a prosecutor’s request and by a simple majority rather than unanimous verdicts.

Under the proposal, executions would be carried out by hanging and completed within 90 days of a final ruling, following a judge-signed order and under the supervision of the Israel Prison Service.

A designated prison officer would perform the execution, appointed directly by the prison service commissioner.

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The Pentagon has tested a device that investigators believe may be linked to the condition commonly referred to as Havana Syndrome, CNN has reported.

The Defense Department has been testing the device, which was bought during an undercover operation by the Department of Homeland Security, for over a year, the network reported on Monday, citing four anonymous sources briefed on the subject.
[…]
Two unnamed sources said officials in the previous administration, under former President Joe Biden, had purchased the device for an eight-figure sum. The funding was provided by the Department of Defense, according to the report.

Speculation had swirled some form of directed-energy weapon could have been behind the baffling illness, and that Russian technology could be behind the symptoms. Moscow has denied any involvement.

The device acquired by Homeland Security Investigations—part of DHS—produces pulsed radio waves, one source told CNN. It contains Russian components but is not entirely Russian-made, they added.

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Now masked thugs routinely snatching innocent people off the street, or just murdering them in front of a dozen witnesses, is the official policy of the Trump regime.

Step out of line or just get in the way and they’ll not only blow your head off, they’ll slander you from the highest offices in the land before your body grows cold.

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The Times explained the significance of disguising the plane and the legal implications such an action carries, noting, “the laws of armed conflict prohibit combatants from feigning civilian status to fool adversaries into dropping their guard, then attacking and killing them. That is a war crime called ‘perfidy.’”

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The UN Office of Human Rights, headed by Volker Türk, on Wednesday issued an extensive report on the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank in which it for the first time described Israeli policies there as Apartheid. The executive summary says, “The report warns that Israel is violating international law requiring States to prohibit and eradicate racial segregation and apartheid.”

Türk told the UN, “There is a systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank. Whether accessing water, school, rushing to hospital, visiting family or friends, or harvesting olives – every aspect of life for Palestinians in the West Bank is controlled and curtailed by Israel’s discriminatory laws, policies and practices.”

“This is a particularly severe form of racial discrimination and segregation, that resembles the kind of apartheid system we have seen before.” He is referring to racial discrimination in Apartheid South Africa from the late 1940s through the early 1990s.

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Ben-Gvir has also previously suggested the building of a synagogue on the mount, which drew condemnation from Washington, albeit under the Biden administration.

Then-State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at the time: “The ongoing reckless statements and actions of this minister only sow chaos and exacerbate tensions at a moment when Israel must stand united against threats from Iran and its proxy terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

“They directly undermine Israel’s security.”

Netanyahu’s comments came after he reportedly clashed with Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon during a cabinet meeting on Sunday after the legal official demanded Ben-Gvir be sacked over alleged interference in police matters – a claim Ben-Gvir has strongly denied.

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