Joe Kent has resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He should never have had the job to begin with. 
Kent <a href="https://x.com/joekent16jan19/status/2033897242986209689/photo/1">explained</a> in his resignation letter that he believes Iran posed “no imminent threat to our nation” and that Israel with the help of Israel’s powerful “lobby” is behind the United States “starting” the war. 
These galling, fact-defying claims reveal Kent’s belief in a crank evil conspiracy about Israel and the “Israel lobby,” i.e., the Jews, controlling American foreign policy. It is exceptionally concerning that it was his job to protect the American people from terrorism and he discounts the role Iran plays in threatening the American people as the leading sponsor of terrorism globally. The regime funds, equips, and trains Islamist proxies throughout the Middle East to harass global shipping and attack Americans and our allies. Iran is directly responsible for the maiming and killing of hundreds of Americans since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Kent’s resignation could have simply stated he does not personally support the war and that his conscience prevents him from continued public service. Instead, he used the position from which he resigned to provide him credibility in an effort to undermine Trump, public support for the war, and the success of the war effort. 
There are two critical points to understand in all of this.
One, the political ecosystem that Kent decided to align with, and which supported his rise to influence within the MAGA coalition over the last several years, includes Nick Fuentes and his followers, the so-called Groypers. Nick Fuentes told Tucker Carlson <a href="https://x.com/moymiz/status/2033974462635512061?s=46&amp;t=lyk8m90xboRd4ImqIJ-GGA">a few months ago</a> on his podcast that he spoke with Joe Kent and supported him and his failed congressional campaign. Fuentes also said that Kent’s campaign manager bought a table at Fuentes’ event and introduced Fuentes to Kent. According to National Review reporter Audrey Fahlberg, Joe Kent’s former campaign manager acknowledged sending texts referring to Jews as “f*c*ing ki*es” and writing “heil f*cking Kent” and “allah f*cking akbar.” Kent also <a href="https://x.com/RichWWilliams/status/2033986403982581852?s=20">publicly aligned</a> with Fuentes when he launched his unsuccessful campaign. All of this is public information and did not prevent him from attaining a senior job in the administration. 
How many more people are serving in the Trump administration share these views or are sympathetic to them? Since Hamas carried out the worst attack on the Jews since the Holocaust on October 7, 2023, the United States has experienced a spike in open antisemitism and expressions of sympathy towards Islamist terrorists. College campuses have been awash with organized protesters chanting “from the river to the sea” and other genocidal slogans against the Jewish people. Since the initiation of Operation Epic Fury, there have been four terrorist attacks here at home: a <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/suspect-in-texas-bar-shooting-wore-property-of-allah-clothing-and-iranian-flag-emblem-according-to-ap-source">shooting </a>at a bar in Austin, an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/15/new-york-mamdani-teen-suspects">attempted bombing </a>in New York City, an <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/14/us/michigan-synagogue-attack-hnk">attack </a>on the Temple Israel synagogue in Michigan, and a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/15/us/mohamed-bailor-jalloh-old-dominion">shooting </a>at Old Dominion University in Virginia. 
This is a time to clearly and decisively marginalize those who traffic in antisemitic views, not elevate them and place them in positions of authority. 
Two, Dana Loesch said it well when she noted that those circling the wagons for Kent’s stand against Operation Epic Fury are not only undermining President Trump now, they are “power-jockeying for 2028.” They insist that Trump betrayed them in taking joint action with Israel in Operation Midnight Hammer to degrade Iran’s nuclear program, and again now in Operation Epic Fury to dismantle the Iranian regime’s ability to threaten the United States and its allies. They ignore the long pattern of Trump’s support for Israel as a valued and highly capable ally, which was a hallmark of his first term. And, they ignore Trump’s support for a world-class military — he recently said he supports a $1.5 trillion defense budget, which would commit the United States to 5% of GDP on defense spending, matching his demands for the rest of NATO — designed not to retreat and pull up the proverbial drawbridge, but to project power across the globe to defend its declared vital interests in the Middle East, Europe, and Indo-Pacific. 
Additionally, they discounted Trump’s willingness in his first term to use military force to destroy the ISIS caliphate and other Iranian leaders and proxies sprawled across the Middle East. They also ignore Trump’s decades-long view that the Islamic Republic could not have a viable nuclear weapon, and that military action was a plausible and legitimate course of action if Iran refused to willingly dismantle its illicit program. Trump did not betray them. They simply could not manipulate Trump into becoming what they are.
Tucker Carlson is already planning to host Joe Kent on his podcast today (Wednesday). We should expect them to try to galvanize more opposition to President Trump’s efforts in Iran. They may be mad about not having power and influence on policy now, but we should expect this pernicious effort to continue into election season where they hope to have better luck.
* * *
Rebeccah L. Heinrichs is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and the director of its Keystone Defense Initiative. She specializes in US national defense policy with a focus on strategic deterrence.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

US-POLITICS-SECURITY-NOEM

Joe Kent Never Should Have Had This Job

Donald Trump

Iran

Joe Kent

Middle East

National Security

Opinion

Radical Islamic Terror

Tucker Carlson

Tulsi Gabbard

US-NEWS-CMP-OLD-DOMINION-SHOOTING-GUNMAN-2-VP

I Looked Into Why Terrorists Are Being Let Into Our Country. It’s Worse Than You Think.

I Looked Into Why Terrorists Are Being Let Into Our Country. It's Worse Than You Think.

ISIS

Matt Walsh

Murder

Old Dominion University

ROTC

Virginia

“You’re worried about Islamic terrorism? That is a false flag or an op.”
If you believe the people who tell you this, you are the sucker.
And if America ignores the very real problem of radical Islam, and you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, you&#8217;ll end up dead. 
That is the message across America for the last couple of weeks, and it&#8217;s coming in loud and clear.
Yesterday alone, there were two Islamic terror attacks. The first happened at Old Dominion in Virginia, when ISIS-linked Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 26, stormed a classroom and demanded to know if it was an ROTC class. He then shouted — wait for it — “Allahu akbar!”
I know: you&#8217;re shocked.
He shot and killed the professor, Army Lt. Col. Brandon A. Shah, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Atlantic Resolve, before a group of heroic cadets jumped into action and stabbed Jalloh to death.
So who was the terrorist? According to the New York Post, he was a naturalized citizen from Sierra Leone and a former Virginia National Guard member.
Were there any red flags? Just a few.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2387-the-ben-shapiro-show?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Fox News reports that Jalloh was forced to leave the military after he tried to provide material support to ISIS. He was a follower of Anwar al Awlaki, the now-dead leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The DOJ prosecution documents show Jalloh praised a July 2015 terror attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in which a radical Islamist killed four Marines and a Navy sailor. He was actually arrested in 2016 after attempting to buy an assault rifle in Northern Virginia and then sentenced to 11 years in prison. Then he was released just 15 months ago for good behavior.
Good behavior.
So we released an actual, honest-to-God, ISIS-affiliated terrorist into the population for “good behavior.” Did he drop his terror support somehow? If so, what was the evidence that he had? Why did America owe him a free run of the country after he decided to side with an actual, honest-to-God terrorist group?
It should be noted that Jalloh received the victim treatment from leftists in the media. In 2016, The Intercept, a far-left publication, printed a sympathetic piece quoting his family, who said he was set up by the FBI. His brother told The Intercept that Jalloh was just another “Mohammad” who got set up.
The problem, you see, was really Islamophobia. Never radical Islam, just Islamophobia.
So was that attack at Old Dominion the only radical Islamic terror attack of the day? Of course not. Halfway across the country, at one of the biggest Reform Jewish synagogues in America, a radical Muslim suspect named Ayman Mohamed Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon who received a visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and was naturalized under the Obama administration, tried to drive an explosive-laden car into the entrance of a preschool with 140 students in attendance. 
According to the New York Post, “He barreled down the hallway before security opened fire, killing the suspect.” That attack started a fire in the building. The driver was killed while he was in the car. Police found in the car a rifle and mortar shells.
The suspect allegedly came from Dearborn Heights, Michigan. The synagogue was located 20 miles north of Dearborn, an Islam-dominated city represented in Congress by radical Islamic terror apologist Rashida Tlaib.
How radicalized is Dearborn? In recent days, some Dearborn mosques have been praising Ayatollah Khamenei. In 2025, the city decided to honor terror-supporting activist Osama Siblani with a street sign. Siblani is a radical Muslim who openly speaks of his pride in terror leaders like deceased Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah, whom he called a great leader, saying he was “proud” of him. He also advocated for Hezbollah to make Israel “taste the Lebanon poison.”
When a resident of Dearborn showed up at a city council meeting to protest naming a street after this radical Islamist, the mayor of Dearborn told him to get out of the city and then called him — wait for it — wait for it — wait for it — an Islamophobe.
Unsurprisingly, there were some people in the media who found excuses for the terror attack at the synagogue. Over on GB News, one commentator explained that this was an “Israeli temple” and thus presumably deserving of its fate. The argument here seems to be that if you are a pro-Israel Jew in the United States, then it&#8217;s totally fine for a terrorist to drive a car laden with explosives into your synagogue.
Ryan Grim, formerly of The Intercept, reported that the terrorist had family members recently killed by Israel and its current action against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Even if that&#8217;s true, it makes for a rather strange defense of these terrorist actions. The mass murder of 1,200 Jews on October 7 in Israel has caused precisely zero Jews, zero, to drive an explosives-laden car into a mosque or near a Muslim school.
There&#8217;s just something about radical Islam that isn&#8217;t quite the same.
Of course, as we have been following, the two attacks yesterday were not the first attacks of the last few weeks. Last week, we reported on a radical Islamic terror attack in Austin, Texas, in which a 53-year-old Senegalese immigrant to the United States killed three people and wounded 13 more. He happened to be wearing a sweatshirt that read —wait for it, wait for it — “Property of Allah.”
I know, you&#8217;re shocked.
Over the last weekend, we saw two ISIS-affiliated radical Muslims throw IEDs at a rally outside Gracie Mansion, all of which led the mayor of New York to spend extraordinary efforts condemning — wait for it, wait for it, you&#8217;re not going to believe it — Islamophobia.
How does this radical ideology spread in America?
The answer is twofold. First, we import people who are sympathetic to terrorism, and then addle-pated Americans argue that they ought to be mainstreamed.
That&#8217;s how you end up with Zohran Mamdani — yes, he is a terrorist supporter — as mayor of New York. It&#8217;s how Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar end up in Congress.
What should we do about it? First, we can stop future immigration from radical Islamic countries and other third-world areas where we can&#8217;t vet our immigrants at the source. You cannot import problems from other parts of the world, require zero assimilation, and then pretend that the big issue is “Islamophobia.”
Unfortunately, there are people dedicated to forcing our border wide open.
Secondly, we ought to enforce the law to revoke the citizenship of people who associate with terrorist groups or who favor totalitarian forms of government. That is, in fact, the law under title VIII, U.S. code, section 1484.
If enforced properly, this would mean revocation of citizenship for a wide variety of radical Islamists living in the United States right now. This law is difficult to enforce; it requires a high degree of evidentiary demonstration. But that degree ought to be met when you affiliate with an actual terrorist group, and if it is not, then the law itself ought to be changed to allow for revocation of such citizenship.
It is not our duty to people who seek to destroy America in the name of radical Islam.
Until the law is either enforced to the letter or changed, we have an enormous number of people in the United States who are devotees of radical Islam. What&#8217;s more, we&#8217;ve been told by one entire political party that mentioning this inconvenient fact is tantamount to Islamophobia.
Have Americans seen enough?

TOPSHOT-US-SHOOTING-SYNAGOGUE-MICHIGAN

The Deadly Cost Of Denial

Ben Shapiro

Islam

Shooting

Suspected terrorist Emir Balat flashed an ISIS salute three times while being escorted in handcuffs from a police precinct in New York on Monday.
Balat first made the gesture as he emerged from a tunnel outside the precinct where he had been held after being arrested on Saturday. A police officer attempted to cover his hand with a manila folder, but Balat raised his hand above the folder and repeated the gesture. He briefly lowered his hand before raising it a third time as he was placed into a vehicle.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The 18-year-old was seen holding up his right index finger — a universal salute for the terror group — and grinning at the press while being led by a cop and an FBI agent. Read more at the link in our bio. <a href="https://t.co/9bg83J1HQ1">pic.twitter.com/9bg83J1HQ1</a>
— New York Post (@nypost) <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost/status/2031033866236960770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2026</a></blockquote>
ISIS began using the gesture, a raised index finger accompanied by a slight shaking motion, in 2014. The gesture refers to Tawhid, the Islamic belief in the oneness of God.
When taken into custody on Saturday, Balat pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. He wrote, &#8220;All praise is due to Allah lord of all worlds. I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State. Die in your rage yu [sic] kuffar,&#8221; on a sheet of paper at the police precinct. Police body cam footage showed Balat saying, &#8220;this isn&#8217;t a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet &#8230; We take action! We take action!&#8221; and &#8220;if I didn&#8217;t do it someone else will come and do it.&#8221;
A federal complaint released Monday adds that Balat stated he wanted to carry out an attack bigger than the Boston Marathon bombing, which Balat said caused &#8220;only three deaths.&#8221;
Eighteen-year-old Balat was arrested Saturday along with 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi after an explosive device was thrown into a crowd of protesters and police officers. Balat and Kayumi are no longer being held by the NYPD and will instead be held on federal charges pending further court proceedings.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, “Once again, we were fortunate that the devices used this weekend did not cause the kind of harm that they were certainly capable of causing, but luck is never a strategy.” Tisch added that if the weapons had detonated, they could have caused serious injury or death.
Balat and Kayumi traveled from Pennsylvania to New York City on Saturday morning. Both reportedly grew up in affluent neighborhoods. Balat’s home in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, is estimated to be worth $653,000, while Kayumi’s home is valued at approximately $2.25 million. Balat&#8217;s parents were born in Turkey, and Kayumi&#8217;s are from Afghanistan, <a href="https://x.com/annaschecter/status/2030817903746965817">according to</a> federal officials.

Right-Wing Activists Protest Against New York Mayor Mamdani Outside Gracie Mansion

WATCH: Suspected NYC Terrorist Flashes ISIS Salute Three Times

Afghanistan

New York City

Turkey

Shooting At Brown University In Providence Leaves Multiple People Dead And Injured

Violent Migrants Are Invading And Western Leaders Are Surrendering Without A Fight

Brown University

Europe

France

Muslim Immigration

Rhode Island

Riots

Violent Crime

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, President Trump went into high gear talking about the necessity of deporting all third-world migrants and of stopping further third-world migration into the United States.
This has been a long time coming — Trump has been saying this for roughly a decade. One of the very first things he did during his first administration was attempt a migration moratorium on a series of countries where vetting was very, very difficult.
All of this is now coming to a head. On Thursday, President Trump said he would permanently pause all immigration from what he called third-world countries.
President Trump <a href="https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1994272683387687053">stated</a>:
<blockquote>Even as we have progressed technologically, Immigration Policy has eroded those gains and living conditions for many. I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country, end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens of our Country, denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.
These goals will be pursued with the aim of achieving a major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations, including those admitted through an unauthorized and illegal Autopen approval process. Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation. Other than that, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long!</blockquote>
This happened in the aftermath of a dual set of stories, one of them being an Afghan national shooting two members of the National Guard, killing one, and the other the unbelievable story of Somali welfare fraud in the state of Minnesota.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem <a href="https://grabien.com/story?id=558818">stated</a>, “The President is absolutely determined to stop all processes at this point in time from third-world countries until we can have a thorough opportunity to go through these individuals, know that they&#8217;re here for the right intentions, and that they even should be in our country to begin with. He&#8217;s putting Americans first, their safety first.”
The State Department then immediately announced it would pause visa issuance for individuals traveling on Afghan passports, stating, “The department is taking all necessary steps to protect U.S. national security and public safety again.”
Noem said the shooting suspect, who was let in the country by the Biden administration, was later radicalized through connections already in the country, which is significantly more dangerous than just bringing people in from cultures that are non-communicative and non-coalescing with Western civilization.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2324-the-trump-administration-cracks-down-on-third-world-migration?elementPosition=0&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-974957 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
If there are people being brought in who are initially somewhat friendly to the United States and then become radicalized in the United States, you have to start asking some pretty serious questions about which organizations in the United States are actually radicalizing people.
The real concern then becomes an Islamization problem inside the United States, which would fit with lone wolf attacks, ISIS-inspired attacks, or ISIS-connected attacks. Those range from the Fort Hood shooting in 2009 all the way through to the 2025 New Orleans truck attack, in which an ISIS-inspired person killed 14 people.
It&#8217;s amazing how terrorist attacks like the latter can completely be memory-holed. It happened at the beginning of this year. 14 people were killed, and we&#8217;ve already forgotten about it because the way the media works is this: If someone is inspired by ISIS or a radical Islamic group and they commit a terror attack in the United States, we simply memory-hole it.
The same thing happened in 2016 with the Orlando nightclub shooting, the deadliest mass shooting in American history at that time, in which a shooter killed 49 people. The shooter in that case pledged allegiance to ISIS.
What did we get? A national debate about whether Christians were too intolerant toward gay people, even though it was an Islamic terror attack.
There was also the 2015 San Bernardino terror attack, in which a couple of people who communicated with ISIS via encrypted messages killed 14 people and injured 22 others.
So radicalization in the United States is a massive problem that requires the FBI and the DOJ to actually follow through on what they are supposed to do: Track down the groups doing the radicalizing, follow them around, and monitor the places where the radicalization is occurring.
That is a significantly harder problem to solve than shutting the borders, which is what President Trump is attempting to do. They are not mutually exclusive. You can shut the borders to immigration and mass migration from third-world countries. We should also track down the groups doing the radicalizing.
In the National Guard case, it seems that the shooter became radicalized after he came to the United States.
The New York Post reports that a leading national refugee agency was warned multiple times about him. Apparently, the shooter&#8217;s behavior was so disturbing that a local community advocate reached out to a refugee organization for help.
This connects with another gigantic story that broke over the course of last week, the amount of Somali welfare fraud in Minnesota. Between 1990 and 2025, the United States has seen significant Somali immigration, with estimates suggesting between 140,000 and 167,000 Somali immigrants settling here.
The fraud scandal in Minnesota is staggering. Over $1 billion in taxpayers’ money was reputedly stolen, more than Minnesota spends annually to run its entire Department of Corrections. The reality is that importing gigantic waves of Somali immigrants into Minnesota, of all places, might create some culture clash.
Reports say that when the allegations were first made about welfare fraud in Minnesota, the first response was, “We can&#8217;t look into this. It&#8217;s racist.”
So President Trump has responded to all of this by doubling down on his suggestion that third-world migration be reversed.
Douglas Murray has a great <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/11/27/opinion/afghan-terror-and-somalia-fraud-shows-why-trump-is-right-on-migrants/">column</a> over in the New York Post in which he states:
<blockquote>You have to be careful with a country. Even a nation as vast in size and huge in population as the United States cannot be endlessly experimented upon. You cannot just leave borders open, or allow in large numbers of people with totally different value systems from your own. That is the mistake many European countries have committed in recent years. They have opened their homes up to people from almost every part of the world where there is civil strife, war or just a lower standard of living.
The results can be seen everywhere. It is the reason why a country like Sweden — that used to be such a placid, decent place — has become one of the most violent countries in the world not actually at war. Grenade attacks, gang-warfare: these things were recently alien to Sweden. Not anymore. It is the same here in the United States — though here the effects are more dispersed, so the problem can be covered up for longer.</blockquote>
He writes that all of this begs the question: Why should a group of people be given sanctuary in the United States, who presumably say they were fleeing from terror, only to use their time in the United States committing fraud to send money to terrorists?
The president of the United States is right about this particular issue.
Democrats, of course, are freaking out about it.
It&#8217;s all coming to a head now, and not just because of the recent shooting of National Guard members in Washington, D.C., or what&#8217;s happening in Minnesota.
It’s happening all over the West because the West has finally decided to wake up to the reality that — through our niceness, kindness, and civility — we should never have allowed our nations to be eaten from within by people who enter and then take advantage of all the benefits, only to fight and destroy that same civilization.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP-MILITARY-HOLIDAY

The Trump Administration Cracks Down On Third-World Migration

illegal immigrants

Immigrants

Kristi Noem

National Guard

In 1946, not too long after the end of World War II, Winston Churchill famously spoke of a “special relationship” between the United Kingdom and the United States — not only as a bond of history and language, but as a partnership grounded in shared principles and moral duty. That same sense of duty must guide us today as we confront the world’s leading state sponsor of terror: the clerical regime in Iran.
Historically, when facing totalitarian regimes, Britain, the US, and other Western powers have placed local dissidents at the center of any discussion about the future of oppressed nations. Yet Iran remains a glaring exception. For reasons that defy logic and morality, successive governments have marginalized the voices of Iranian democrats.
I am one of a growing number of Western politicians on both sides of the Atlantic who believe this should change and to this end, I will speak at the Free Iran Convention in Washington, D.C., on November 15, where more than one thousand Iranian experts, professionals, and academicians from all over the US, will present their vision for a free, democratic Iran.
For nearly half a century, Western policy toward Tehran has prioritized negotiation over accountability, assuming the clerical regime’s grip on power was unshakeable. Many believed Iran’s rulers would never meet the same fate as the Shah — at least not without chaos in the absence of a viable alternative.
That assumption was flawed from the outset. In the immediate aftermath of the 1979 revolution, the forces that helped topple the Shah — chief among them the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) — remained active, popular, and determined to oppose the theocracy that hijacked the revolution’s promise. The regime responded with brutal repression throughout the 1980s, culminating in the horrific 1988 massacre of around 30,000 political prisoners, most of them MEK members and supporters.
This atrocity was meant to eliminate organized opposition once and for all. It failed. The MEK survived and went on to form the backbone of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a broad coalition advocating regime change and democratic transition. Yet, tragically, the massacre convinced much of the international community that internal resistance had been extinguished — and that engagement with Tehran was the only realistic path forward.
Encouraged by that misperception (echoed by the regime’s protagonists and lobbyists), the regime deepened its repression at home and aggression abroad. It became the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, the nation with the highest per-capita rate of executions, and the only non-nuclear-armed state enriching uranium to 60% purity — just short of weapons-grade.
Ironically, by assuming the regime’s permanence, Western leaders helped create a situation where regime change has become essential for global security and human rights. Some progress is evident: the UK, France, and Germany recently triggered the re-imposition of UN sanctions following Washington’s return to a “maximum pressure” strategy.
But it remains unclear whether today’s policymakers grasp how profoundly their predecessors misread the regime’s vulnerability.
That misunderstanding can no longer be excused. Three nationwide uprisings — in 2018, 2019, and 2022 — have shown the Iranian people’s enduring commitment to democratic change. The unity and persistence of their demands reveal the strength of an organized opposition that, despite deadly crackdowns and decades of dismissal by Western analysts, continues to challenge the regime from within.
The Free Iran Convention in Washington builds on this momentum. It follows major gatherings in Brussels and across Europe, where Iranian youth and dissidents reaffirmed their readiness for a democratic transition. The movement’s supporters will call for a coherent Western policy — one that recognizes the NCRI as a credible alternative and supports the Iranian people’s right to determine their future.
Many of us in public life have already joined this cause. In parliaments on both sides of the Atlantic, lawmakers have endorsed resolutions recognizing the NCRI as a legitimate democratic alternative to the current regime and affirming the Iranian people’s right to establish a secular, non-nuclear republic. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the NCRI, has articulated a ten-point plan as a roadmap for a future democratic republic of Iran. It has gained cross-party support of the majority of members of both the US House of Representatives and the UK House of Commons.
It is time for policymakers to act accordingly. The UK and European Union must designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, and democratic governments should hold Tehran’s leaders accountable for crimes against humanity. Most importantly, the West must acknowledge the Iranian people’s right to overthrow tyranny and build a democratic future.
Appeasement has never delivered stability. Courage, clarity, and solidarity with the Iranian people just might.
* * *
Rt. Hon. John Bercow was the Speaker of the UK House of Commons from 2009 to 2019.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Protest Against U.S. Attacks On Iran

It’s Time To Challenge Tehran’s Illusion Of Strength With Reality

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Democracy

European Union

Great Britain

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Two privileged young men from Montclair, New Jersey, one the child of a United Nations diplomat and one the child of a professor at Queens College, now stand at the center of a hate-fueled terror plot that shattered the illusion of safety in suburban New Jersey.
Nineteen-year-old Milo Sedarat, whose father, Roger, is a poet and professor at Queens College, <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/11/06/us-news/accused-nj-jihadi-yuppie-teen-spewed-vile-antisemitic-hate-wanted-to-murder-moms-jewish-friends-feds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dubbed himself</a> “the biggest antisemite in America.” His home — a million-dollar Victorian on a tree-lined street — became the backdrop for his vicious selfies: clad in black, sword and knife in hand, dreaming of killing Jews. Court filings allege that Sedarat glorified genocide in online messages, while saying, “Line up like 500 Jews and execute them in front of their wives and family. Then take all their wives [as] slaves. Imma have like 10 yahood (Jewish) slave girls inshallah.”
Prosecutors say he even told his mother her Jewish friends “deserve to die” before she confiscated his swords.
The second suspect, Tomas Kaan Jimenez-Guzel, also 19, is the son of a United Nations diplomat focused on women’s entrepreneurship. He, too, reveled in violence, boasting about wanting to stage a Boston Marathon–style bombing that would make him infamous enough for a Wikipedia page. Jimenez-Guzel allegedly offered to lead beheadings for propaganda videos, declaring, “I’ll do it, bro.”
According to federal agents, he was arrested at Newark Airport en route to Turkey, trying to join ISIS forces in Syria.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
⚡<a href="https://twitter.com/nypost?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nypost</a> covered the two young men from a wealthy NYC suburb who planned to join ISIS and commit terror attacks on American soil.
Tomas Kaan Jimenez-Guzal and Milo Sedarat plotted violent, antisemitic attacks and accumulated an arsenal of weapons and ammo. The two were arrested… <a href="https://t.co/DqDmCWgv8I">https://t.co/DqDmCWgv8I</a> <a href="https://t.co/kWdkOAshuj">pic.twitter.com/kWdkOAshuj</a>
&mdash; Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/IsraelWarRoom/status/1986800308467466452?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Investigators say their online chats tied them to a wider ISIS-linked network; five others have been detained across New Jersey, Michigan, and Washington in connection with plans to massacre Jews and LGBT clubgoers. Rabbi Yaacov Leaf of Chabad of Montclair voiced the community’s disbelief: “It’s so shocking to see how such a radical ideology can be living in your backyard. It’s frightening to realize this type of hate has seeped into our suburban liberal community … It’s a diverse community where we are open to every type of human being and every type of belief system. To see that hate has found its way into the community is very frightening.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba echoed the alarm, saying that radicalization now spares no zip code. “We can never believe this can’t touch us,” she warned. “We run down every lead, no matter where it starts.”

Warfare

Rich New Jersey Teen Plotted ISIS-Inspired Terror While Living Large

Islamists

New Jersey

Terrorism

U.S.

Federal law enforcement arrested three more Islamic terror suspects linked to an ISIS-inspired plot to attack bars and nightclubs in Detroit on Halloween, the FBI announced Wednesday. 
Last week, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/michigan-terror-suspects-plotted-to-target-bars-nightclubs-during-halloween-celebrations-fbi-says?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=7&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Michigan+Terror+Suspects+Plotted+To+Target+Bars%2C+Nightclubs+During+Halloween+Celebrations%2C+FBI+Says">the FBI said agents arrested</a> four suspects accused of plotting an attack they hoped would mimic the 2015 Paris terrorist massacre that left 130 people dead. On Wednesday, three more men, two in New Jersey and one in Michigan, were hit with charges. 
The two New Jersey suspects are Milo Sedarat and Tomas Kaan Jimenez-Guzel, both from Montclair. Jimenez-Guzel was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport on his way to travel to Syria to join ISIS fighters, a law enforcement official <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/more-arrests-are-made-in-alleged-isis-pumpkin-terrorist-plot-6fe5e4d6?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqfzLC43UvlROLGVKWI6hHud_-UTTKntEYZCGUkC4NKLla1JGlpKm7CYL98meVM%3D&amp;gaa_ts=690c9a87&amp;gaa_sig=bA3S8rI0TsYbEpPSJ1ELJNSb3VfMnBcubWzfYfqmdj-FNYgBKa2Zxz18AlpN8A4p0KXmFfQGEG9mz0xQp04Shg%3D%3D">told</a> The Wall Street Journal. 
Jimenez-Guzel has been charged with conspiring to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization. Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba <a href="https://x.com/USAttyHabba/status/1986190944903803305">said</a> that law enforcement obtained a photo of Jimenez-Guzel posing in front of an ISIS flag with a knife. 
A law enforcement official told the Journal that Jimenez-Guzel was aware of the plans for the Halloween attack in Detroit and had previously visited the suspects planning that attack. Those suspects were named as Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud. Two juveniles have also been charged but have not been named. 
Sedarat has been charged with transmitting threats to interstate and foreign commerce. 
The complaint against him “describes a pattern of antisemitic messages advocating violence, along with images and purchases consistent with preparation for attack, including a knife and sword collection, tactical gear, and images of him practicing at a gun range,” Habba said. 
Habba added that both men had “pledged themselves to ISIS, and were plotting acts of terrorism in our country,” according to the criminal complaint. 
“Protecting the District of New Jersey and the United States, its people, its neighborhoods and its institutions is the core mission of our office. With our partners at the FBI and main Justice, we will continue to move swiftly and decisively whenever terrorism or hate threatens our communities,” she said. 
After the announcement of the New Jersey arrests, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said that another suspect had been arrested on Wednesday. 
“Today [FBI Detroit] and partners arrested a third additional suspect in connection to the alleged foiled terrorist attack in Michigan last week. Our investigation suggests this individual had been providing material support in preparation for the attack, inspired by ISIS,” he wrote on X. “They are now in custody. More to come. Thank you to the men and women who continue to work this case diligently.”
That suspect was identified as 19-year-old Ayob Nasser of Dearborn, Michigan. Nasser has been charged with conspiring to provide material support to ISIS and having firearms that would be used to commit an act of terrorism on behalf of ISIS. 
According to law enforcement, the suspects were all in a Signal chat together where they discussed ways to support ISIS.
“We will not stop. We will follow the tentacles where they lead. We will continue to stand guard with the FBI against terrorism,” said U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon, Jr.

MixCollage-06-Nov-2025-07-28-AM-45

FBI Nabs Three More Men Tied To ISIS-Inspired Halloween Terror Plot

Crime

Dan Bongino

terrorist attack

Just one day after the first New York City mayoral debate, Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani shared a smiling photo with a Brooklyn imam who had been named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing — a terrorist attack that killed six people, including a pregnant woman, and wounded more than 1,000 others.
Mamdani grinned while standing arm-in-arm with Imam Siraj Wahhaj at his Bedford-Stuyvesant mosque.
“Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century. A beautiful Jummah,” Mamdani wrote on X.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century. I was also joined by CM <a href="https://twitter.com/dr_yusefsalaam?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dr_yusefsalaam</a> of Harlem. A beautiful Jummah. <a href="https://t.co/4kcN4CGlUk">pic.twitter.com/4kcN4CGlUk</a>
&mdash; Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) <a href="https://twitter.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1979353018589237717?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Wahhaj took the stand in defense of the notorious “blind sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman, the radical cleric convicted of conspiring in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. “After the bombing, the U.S. government recorded the sheikh encouraging further violence against targets in New York and New Jersey,” ABC News <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/blind-sheikh-linked-1993-world-trade-center-bombing/story?id=45582741">reported</a>.
Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to <a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/" data-sk="tooltip_parent">DailyWire.com/Subscribe</a> to join now.
Some statements Wahhaj has made in the past:
“I <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/siraj-wahhaj-on-jihad">pray</a> one day Allah will bless us to raise an army, and I’m serious about this. We were very close, recently. We had made intention to raise an army of 10,000 men in New York City.”
“I’m not telling you, no, don’t pick up a gun, no. Just march. March through the city of New York. Let them hear your voice. Let them hear it at night. Let them hear it 24 hours, until the whole city can’t sleep.”
As Daniel Pipes <a href="https://www.danielpipes.org/77/the-danger-within-militant-islam-in-america">reported</a>, in 1992, Wahhaj stated, “If we were united and strong, we&#8217;d elect our own emir [leader] and give allegiance to him. &#8230; Take my word, if 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.”
In a September 1991 speech in Toronto, titled “The Afghanistan Jihad,” Wahhaj <a href="https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/10/18/this-photo-should-end-zohran-mamdanis-campaign-n4944999">stated</a>, “Those who struggle for Allah, it doesn’t matter what kind of weapons [you use], I’m telling you it doesn’t matter! You don’t need nuclear weapons or even guns! If you have faith in Allah and a knife! If Allah wants you to win, you will win! Because Allah is the only one who fights. And when his hand is over your hand, whoever is at war against my friends, I declare war on them…. The Americans are not your friends … The Canadians are not your friends … The Europeans are not your friends. Your friend is Allah.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Here&#39;s Mamdani&#39;s Imam, Siraj Wahhaj, calling America &quot;filthy&quot; and &quot;sick&quot;, saying it&#39;s an honor to die in Jihad and saying that getting involved in &quot;politics is a weapon in the cause of Islam&quot; <a href="https://t.co/eBR4SoI7X6">pic.twitter.com/eBR4SoI7X6</a>
&mdash; Daniel Greenfield &#8211; &quot;Hang Together or Separately&quot; (@Sultanknish) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sultanknish/status/1979996171759141120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Conservative political figures blasted Mamdani:
Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis stated on X: “If you had told people after the 9/11 attacks on the WTC that, within a quarter century, NYC would elect a mayoral candidate who campaigns with an unindicted co-conspirator in the bombing of the WTC, you would have been considered to have a few screws loose. Yet, here it is. From fighting jihad to embracing it. What a slap in the face to the memories of those killed in both the 1993 and 2001 jihadist attacks on the World Trade Center.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
If you had told people after the 9/11 attacks on the WTC that, within a quarter century, NYC would elect a mayoral candidate who campaigns with an unindicted co-conspirator in the bombing of the WTC, you would have been considered to have a few screws loose.
Yet, here it is.… <a href="https://t.co/RHp8FmCzoi">https://t.co/RHp8FmCzoi</a>
&mdash; Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) <a href="https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/1979981822667960541?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) posted: “&#8217;I am not a jihadist.’  [poses arm-in-arm with an indisputable jihadist  💋👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨🔥]  You are being LIED TO, and let’s be honest—you know you’re being lied to.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“I am not a jihadist.”
[poses arm-in-arm with an indisputable jihadist 💋👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨🔥]
You are being LIED TO, and let’s be honest—you know you’re being lied to. <a href="https://t.co/aJQc1BxRKG">https://t.co/aJQc1BxRKG</a>
&mdash; Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1979654209873256675?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Former CBS correspondent Lara Logan chimed in: “Imagine being a New Yorker who lived through 9/11 and voting for this?”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Imagine being a New Yorker who lived through 9/11 and voting for this? <a href="https://t.co/Pk5HwVR268">https://t.co/Pk5HwVR268</a>
&mdash; Lara Logan (@laralogan) <a href="https://twitter.com/laralogan/status/1980078068292268457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Zohran Mamdani Visits “The Story With Martha MacCallum”

Mamdani Poses With America-Hating Imam Who Defended Terrorists

Elections

New York

Politics

World Trade Center bombing

Zohran Mamdani

Just days after the two-year anniversary of the October 7, 2023, massacre that sparked the Israel-Hamas war, the Trump administration’s ceasefire deal has brought all surviving Israeli hostages home from the Gaza Strip.
Per the deal, in exchange for the 20 Israeli hostages, Israel was required to release over 1,700 Gazans held in Israeli jails back into the Gaza Strip.
As Israel released the prisoners, “Free Palestine” activists rejoiced in a spectacularly dishonest way by posting a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@plestiio/video/7461915368739704097?q=palestinian%20hostages%20released&amp;t=1760578336542">video</a> on TikTok. The video, which has amassed a whopping 131,000 likes, claims Palestinian “hostages” were released in the deal.
The only issue: Israel was not holding any hostages.
By <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hostage">definition</a>, a hostage is “a person held by one party in a conflict as a pledge pending the fulfillment of an agreement; one that is involuntarily controlled by an outside influence.”
This is precisely what Hamas did on October 7. As their rifles unloaded into crowds of civilians, the terrorists made sure to abduct over 250 people, who committed no crime, as a means of leverage against Israel and to strong-arm the country into restricting their military response.
<div id="attachment_987281" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-987281" class="size-large wp-image-987281" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240860508-864x576.jpg" alt="RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL - OCTOBER 13: Released hostage David Cunio (2L) walks with his wife, former hostage, Sharon Aloni-Cunio (L) in front of his brother, released hostage, Ariel Cunio(R), and his partner, former hostage Hostage survivor Arbel Yahud (C-R), after arriving at Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer on October 13, 2025 in Ramat Gan, Israel. The ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas has brought an end to the two years of war that followed the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. A condition of the deal was the immediate return of 48 hostages held in Gaza, around 20 of whom were believed to be alive. (Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240860508-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240860508-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240860508-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240860508.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images</div>
By contrast, the prisoners released by Israel in the deal were not innocent “hostages” as the Free Palestine movement wants you to think. They were primarily violent criminals with ties to terrorism.
Here are six examples.
<h3>Imad Qawasmeh</h3>
A senior Hamas <a href="https://x.com/IsraelMFA/status/1977732436826939410">Commander</a> from Hebron, Imad Qawasmeh, was captured in 2004 during a targeted operation by Israeli special forces. He personally directed the two suicide bombers responsible for the twin bus bombings in Beersheba on August 31, 2004.
The attack claimed the lives of 16 Israelis and left more than 100 others wounded.
An Israeli military tribunal found Qawasmeh guilty of murder, active participation in a terrorist organization, and illegal weapons trafficking. His crimes earned him a sentence of 16 consecutive life terms in prison.
<h3>Bakr Badr</h3>
A Hamas <a href="https://x.com/IsraelMFA/status/1977736448087412966">terrorist</a> from the town of Beit Liqya, Bakr Badr, was imprisoned for his involvement in a Hamas terror network active during the Second Intifada. This cell was responsible for a series of deadly attacks targeting Israeli civilians and soldiers.
Among the attacks were two major incidents: a 2003 suicide bombing near the Tzrifin army base that claimed the lives of nine Israelis, and a 2004 bombing at a Tel Aviv bus stop that killed one person and wounded several others. His capture marked the dismantling of part of the Hamas infrastructure operating in the area at the time.
<h3>Samir Ibrahim Mahmoud Abu Nima</h3>
An Islamic Jihad <a href="https://x.com/IsraelMFA/status/1977737833549816124">terrorist</a> from Abu Dis, Samir Ibrahim Mahmoud Abu Nima, was sentenced to life imprisonment for carrying out a 1983 bus bombing in Jerusalem.
The brutal attack murdered six Israeli civilians — Esther Ido, Nurit Peleg Mizrahi, Esther Peleg Mizrahi, Slav Demsky, Yehuda Kaklan, and Shoshana Zussman Galanti — and wounded 46 others.
In addition to the bombing, he played a key role in smuggling weapons to other terror cells and in plotting to rig a gas truck with explosives in Jerusalem — a plan intended to cause mass death and destruction among innocent civilians.
<h3>Mohammed Shamasneh </h3>
A Hamas <a href="https://x.com/IsraelMFA/status/1977738959682785785">terrorist</a>, Mohammed Shamasneh, was serving multiple life sentences for a series of cold-blooded murders carried out in the early 1990s. His crimes included the 1990 abduction and brutal killing of two Jerusalem teenagers, Ronen Karamani and Lior Tubul, both from the city’s Ramot neighborhood; the murder of taxi driver Rafi Doron that same year; and the 1993 ambush and killing of IDF soldier Yehoshua Friedberg.
Shamasneh’s actions were part of a wider Hamas campaign of terror aimed at targeting both civilians and soldiers, leaving behind a legacy of grief and horror among his victims’ families.
<div id="attachment_987285" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-987285" class="size-large wp-image-987285" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240432263-864x576.jpg" alt="TOPSHOT - Buses carrying Palestinians released from Israeli prisons under a Gaza ceasefire and hostage exchange deal with Palestinian factions, arrive outside the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP) (Photo by OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240432263-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240432263-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240432263-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240432263.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images</div>
<h3>Ayham Kamamgi</h3>
A Fatah <a href="https://x.com/IsraelMFA/status/1977740102034944465">terrorist</a> from the village of Dan, Ayham Kamamgi, was serving two life sentences for his role in the 2006 abduction and cold-blooded murder of Israeli teenager Eliyahu Asheri near Ramallah. 
The attack was part of a coordinated effort by his terror cell to target young Israelis and sow fear across the region.
In 2021, he gained notoriety once again as one of the six convicted terrorists who escaped from Israel’s high-security Gilboa Prison, sparking a nationwide manhunt. He was recaptured after several days on the run.
<h3>Ahmad Adel Jaber Saada</h3>
A Hamas <a href="https://x.com/IsraelMFA/status/1977738357355483461">terrorist</a> from Eastern Jerusalem and holder of an Israeli ID card, Ahmad Adel Jaber Saada, was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in a Hamas terror cell based in Bethlehem that carried out multiple deadly attacks during the early 2000s.
He played a direct role in the November 21, 2002, suicide bombing in Jerusalem, a horrific attack that murdered 11 Israelis and left dozens more wounded. Saada personally assisted the bomber and drove him to the scene of the massacre, ensuring the attack’s success and maximum civilian casualties.
If “innocent Palestinian hostages” were released by Israel every time a swap occurred, as the activists would like you to think, history would not show that it always comes back to haunt them.
A prime example of this is the now-deceased Yahya Sinwar. Sinwar was arrested in 1988 for serious crimes such as abduction and murder. During his time in prison, Israel graciously tasked its doctors with removing a brain abscess he had, saving his life.
In 2011, he was released as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, in which Israel released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in return for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Throughout the 12 years since his release, Sinwar rose to become the leader of Hamas in Gaza and served as the mastermind behind the October 7 attacks. He died one year ago while hiding in a tunnel in Gaza.
From <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@lin_nichi/video/7527500220242955527?is_from_webapp=1&amp;sender_device=pc&amp;web_id=7215984656980690478">claiming</a> Jesus was a Palestinian to claiming Israel is committing a modern rendition of the Holocaust, the “Free Palestine” movement has always relied on twisted information and blatant lies to gain support. The “Palestinian hostages” narrative is a continuation of this tactic.
Don’t fall for it.
* * *
Jacob Falach is an associate producer at The Daily Wire. You can find him on Instagram at: @jacobfalach.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

MixCollage-16-Oct-2025-02-33-PM-5250

Israel Freed Prisoners, Not Hostages — There’s A Difference

Gaza

Hamas

Hostages

Islamic Jihad

Israel

Israeli hostages

Peace Deal

Prisoners

A single moment in time can define the future and impact lives in ways beyond the comprehension of many Americans. For the crew and families who suffered the unimaginable loss of their Sailor, that moment in time came at 11:18 a.m. on October 12, 2000. Those of us who directly experienced that brutal Al-Qaeda terrorist attack on our ship, that moment in time loops back to play over and over in our minds. Now, each of us who was there, along with many in the Navy and the nation, will pause to reflect on the past 25 years of how that moment affected our lives. We live with the crystal-clear memory of those who chose to serve our nation and died for our freedom. Their sacrifice remains paramount in our thoughts and prayers.
USS Cole spent a year training for deployment to the Mediterranean and the Middle East with a clearly defined mission — safeguard U.S. national security through presence operations and maritime interdiction of illicit vessels smuggling oil out of Iraq. The crew was really good, but I knew I could demand better of them and was relentless in achieving more. Ultimately, our standards of performance and training were higher than any ship on the Norfolk waterfront.
Sure, there was the typical Sailor grumbling and complaining that we were spending too much time doing drills and learning watch and combat positions beyond their normal duty requirements. Little did we know that the investment in ourselves would save a $1 billion warship and most of the wounded crew.
On August 8, 2000, with families and friends tearfully waving goodbye, the ship slowly maneuvered off the pier and began a voyage into the annals of history. That day, a new benchmark of performance was set in the U.S. Navy — USS Cole got underway with a 100% qualified all-enlisted crew manning every sea and anchor detail watch position. It was an incredible achievement, never done before and never repeated since. More importantly, that accomplishment left an indelible mark on a crew, now absolutely confident they were well prepared for anything that might come their way, including combat.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="USS COLE: Al Qaeda’s Strike Before 9/11 | Official Trailer" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eTvFDubU86g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Following port visits in Spain, France, Malta, and Slovenia, we transited the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to enter the Port of Aden, Yemen, for an expected 6-8-hour brief stop for fuel. Three garbage barges were contracted to remove trash. After the first two barges departed, a third boat that looked exactly like the previous two garbage barges approached and came alongside amidship. We had no intelligence, warnings, or indications that this boat was actually manned by two Al-Qaeda suicide bombers and packed with explosives built into the hull as a waterborne improvised explosive device.
Suddenly, that singular moment in time occurred. At 25,000 feet per second, the blast shock wave pierced the hull, rapidly expanding as a powerful ball of flame into the interior of the ship. In a split second, metal was rendered unrecognizable, bodies were crushed and mangled, burned by the explosion’s wall of flame. In that instant, heroes stepped in to save lives that were forever changed, and within hours, families would be notified of the worst news possible — their loved one had been killed in the service of our country.
<div id="attachment_987153" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-987153" class="size-large wp-image-987153" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1159689-768x576.jpg" alt="380160 02: (FILE PHOTO) A gaping hole mars the port sidee sustained by the Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer USS Cole after a terrorist bomb exploded and killed at least five people and injured 36 during a refueling operation October 12, 2000 in the port of Aden, Yemen. October 12, 2001, marks the one year anniversary of the attack on the USS Cole. (Photo Courtesy of U.S. Navy/Getty Images)" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1159689-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1159689-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1159689.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" />Courtesy of U.S. Navy/Getty Images</div>
Training paid off within an hour as the crew valiantly stabilized the ship, preventing it from sinking and becoming a war trophy for Al-Qaeda. That first day, the crew evacuated 33 wounded off the ship within 99 minutes after the explosion. Ultimately, 32 would survive. While on our own in the immediate aftermath, we were never alone. France deployed a lifesaving medical team, flying 11 wounded to advanced medical facilities in Djibouti. That evening, staff from the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain arrived to arrange for security and get food and water out to the ship. The next morning, the British arrived with a security and damage control team from the HMS Marlborough. Later that day, two U.S. Navy ships, USS Donald Cook and USS Hawes, arrived to provide help and logistics support.
For the next 17 days, the Sailors of USS Cole exhibited initiative and ingenuity as they continually braved equipment failures, system challenges, and, at one point, the loss of our only operating generator on Sunday morning after the attack. The ship began to sink. God love Sailor ingenuity. By late morning, we had cut a hole in the side of the ship near the waterline to pump out floodwater as we feverishly worked to refill our high-pressure air tanks to restart the generator. After a harrowing 22 hours, the generator was started, and USS Cole was saved, again.
<div id="attachment_987149" style="width: 854px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-987149" class="size-large wp-image-987149" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1303030-844x576.jpg" alt="380441 07: U.S. President Bill Clinton speaks during a memorial service for the sailors of the USS Cole October 18, 2000 in Norfolk VA. Clinton attended the service to honored the wounded and dead from the U.S. navy destroyer that was bombed while on a refueling stop in the Yemeni port of Aden. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Newsmakers)" width="844" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1303030-844x576.jpg 844w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1303030-300x205.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1303030-768x524.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1303030.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 844px) 100vw, 844px" />Mark Wilson/Newsmakers</div>
Finally, after proudly sailing out of Aden harbor blasting our national anthem and Kid Rock’s “American Bad Ass” over the loudspeakers, USS Cole was floated onto the heavy lift ship, M/V Blue Marlin, and brought back to the United States for repairs. As a testament to the bravery and tenacity of that crew, USS Cole still proudly serves our nation today. This past Christmas Eve, she returned from deployment after shooting down Houthi anti-ship missiles in the Red Sea and successfully engaging Iranian ballistic missiles being fired into Israel. USS Cole remains in the fight to defend freedom.
As with any single moment in time that can shatter or change lives, the attack on USS Cole should serve as a poignant reminder that our freedom is not free. Twenty-five years ago, the courage of a crew was tested in combat, and the results speak for themselves. As a nation, we remain blessed with those who choose to raise their right hand, swear an oath to defend our Constitution and protect our freedom at the cost of their lives. Today, I could not be prouder of my crew and their accomplishments — they are the true heroes who saved USS Cole and their shipmates. Well done!
* * *
Commander Kirk Lippold, USN (Ret.), was the Commanding Officer of the USS Cole when it came under a suicide terrorist attack by al Qaeda in the Port of Aden, Yemen. During his command, he and his crew distinguished themselves by saving the American warship from sinking. This event is widely recognized as one of the most brazen acts of terrorism by al Qaeda prior to September 11, 2001.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/episode-1-the-attack?contentProgram=USS%20COLE%3A%20Al%20Qaeda%E2%80%99s%20Strike%20Before%209%2F11&amp;contentType=ShowEpisode&amp;elementPosition=6&amp;location=Home%20Tab&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Home%20Featured%20Carousel">WATCH: USS Cole: Al-Qaeda’s Strike Before 9/11 on DailyWire+</a></h3>

Menu