Flight attendant Betty Ong spent the final moments of her life helping authorities identify the men who had hijacked the flight she was on — American Airlines Flight 11 — on September 11, 2001.
Ong, a San Francisco native who worked out of Boston&#8217;s Logan International Airport, had been on the job for 14 years and worked the rear cabin as the No. 3 flight attendant. She was aboard the Los Angeles-bound flight with 81 passengers and 10 other crew members when everything went wrong.
The last official contact from Flight 11 to air traffic control was recorded at 8:13 a.m., with the pilots acknowledging an instruction to turn 20 degrees to the right. Sixteen seconds later, Boston Center controllers told the pilots to climb to 35,000 feet, but received no response. After seven minutes of dead air, the plane had veered so far off course that controllers began to speculate that a medical emergency or hijacking had taken place.
At 8:20 a.m., Ong calmly picked up an Airfone to contact American Airlines, and confirmed officials&#8217; worst fears.
&#8220;The cockpit is not answering. Somebody&#8217;s stabbed in business class, and, um, I think there&#8217;s Mace and we can&#8217;t breathe,&#8221; Ong said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know, I think we are getting hijacked.&#8221;
Ong remained on the line for more than 20 minutes, describing the violence unfolding inside the plane. Shortly after she hung up, someone turned off the plane&#8217;s IFF (&#8220;identify friend or foe&#8221;) beacon.
<blockquote>Male voice: Can you describe the person that you said—someone is what in business class?
Betty Ong: I&#8217;m sitting in the back. Somebody&#8217;s coming back from business. If you can hold on for one second, they&#8217;re coming back&#8230;
Okay. Our number 1 got stabbed. Our purser is stabbed. Nobody knows who stabbed who, and we can&#8217;t even get up to business class right now &#8217;cause nobody can breathe. Our number 1 is stabbed right now. And who else is?
Male voice: Okay, and do we—
Betty Ong: And our number 5 — our first class passengers are — galley flight attendant and our purser has been stabbed. And we can&#8217;t get into the cockpit, the door won&#8217;t open. Hello?</blockquote>
Ong proceeded to give details about the hijackers — including their seat numbers — that helped investigators identify them based on the flight manifest. Men from first-class seats 2A and 2B had charged the cockpit and forced their way in, she said, and the person in seat 9B had also been involved.
Fellow flight attendant Madeline &#8220;Amy&#8221; Sweeney also made a call from Flight 11 that day. Filling in for a sick colleague, Sweeney had not been scheduled to be on that flight — but when it was hijacked, she too picked up an Airfone and called American Airlines Flight Service at Logan Airport, reaching her friend and service manager Michael Woodward.
&#8220;Listen, and listen to me very carefully. I&#8217;m on Flight 11. The airplane has been hijacked,&#8221; she said.
Sweeney proceeded to relay a lot of the same information Ong was giving to another colleague — that the cockpit had been breached and that two flight attendants and a passenger had been stabbed: &#8220;A hijacker also cut the throat of a business class passenger, and he appears to be dead.&#8221;
She went on to describe the hijackers as Middle Eastern, noting that at least one of them spoke English very well.
She also relayed three additional seat numbers that may have been connected to the terrorists: 9D, 9G, and 10B.
While the two flight attendants stayed on their calls, Flight 11 descended rapidly toward New York City. Before contact with Ong was lost, she made a final request: &#8220;Pray for us.&#8221;
Around the same time, Woodward asked Sweeney several times if she knew where they were, since by then the hijackers had disabled the plane&#8217;s transponder.
&#8220;I see water. I see buildings. I see buildings! We are flying low. We are flying very, very low. We are flying way too low. Oh my God we are flying way too low. Oh my God!&#8221; Sweeney could be heard saying just before the line went dead.
American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center&#8217;s North Tower at 8:46 a.m., killing everyone on board. Much of what investigators learned about the first hijacking of September 11 came from the final calls made by Ong and Sweeney.

Septmber 11, 2001

9/11: The Flight Attendants Who Spent Their Final Moments Helping Identify The Hijackers

9/11: The Flight Attendant Who Used Her Last Moments To Help Identify The Hijackers

american airlines flight 11

aviation

september 11 attacks

terrorism

world trade center

I was 18 years old on the morning of September 11, 2001, had recently graduated from high school, and was totally uninterested in attending college.
I&#8217;d been a shy kid and had only recently discovered a core group of rebel friends, unchaperoned barn parties, and Mike&#8217;s Hard Lemonade. Best Buy hired me as a cashier, and I was supposed to start my first day of training on Tuesday, September 11.
I&#8217;ve read a lot of recountings of that day over the years, ticking off the timestamps as one of four passenger airliners-turned-ballistic missiles crashed into a homicidal fireball.
But that&#8217;s not my memory of the early hours of that morning.
And 25 years later, I think there may be some value in remembering what September 11 actually felt like to an ordinary American kid, especially for people too young to remember a world before it.
My friend group had adopted me as a straggler about a year earlier, when my mom, my brother, and I moved to Frederick, Maryland, from Baltimore amid my parents&#8217; bitter divorce. I didn&#8217;t have many friends at school. I had been a horse girl, kept to myself, possibly internalizing the turmoil at home, or maybe I was just a weirdo. Years of therapy have left that time a lingering mystery.
But there I was, finally breaking open as the funny, quirky girl in a group of kids that included several who had already been arrested or even had a stint in rehab.
I had long glamorized booze as a kid, but when we finally had access to it — a lot of it — I really became a fan of its unbridled ability to change me from awkward to awesome.
Boys even talked to me.
All this to say: I wasn&#8217;t in a dorm or a classroom the morning of 9/11.
I was wearing my clothes from the night before, hungover, and sitting disheveled in an old recliner placed randomly in a barn loft on my friend Christina&#8217;s mother&#8217;s property.
The loft was &#8220;finished,&#8221; as in there was plumbing, ancient carpeting, and electricity working at an unreliable level for us to never trust the freezer. As I recall, we also had a landline phone with a cheetah-print handset.
That&#8217;s the phone that rang with the first news of the attacks.
It was my friend Alexis, then a freshman at Towson University.
&#8220;Are you watching the news?&#8221; she asked at 8:55 a.m.
&#8220;Are you being serious?&#8221; I retorted.
What a question. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;d ever once intentionally &#8220;watched the news&#8221; in my whole life.
&#8220;Some idiot just flew into the World Trade Center in New York.&#8221;
The World Trade Center, I thought, trying to recount exactly what — or where — that was.
I had been to New York once at that point in my life, on an overnight trip with my dad when I was a kid to see “The Nutcracker” at Lincoln Center. A great memory, but the World Trade Center wasn&#8217;t ringing any bells.
&#8220;What?&#8221; I asked. &#8220;New York?&#8221;
At the time, millennials were still reeling from the death of singer Aaliyah in a plane crash just days before. The news Alexis was delivering seemed much less important.
But she insisted I turn on the television. I did, flipping through the snow until I found smoky images from Lower Manhattan.
Oh, I thought. That&#8217;s the World Trade Center. The one with the two buildings.
It was suddenly familiar from movies I&#8217;d watched my whole life.
Only minutes later, I watched in confused horror as a second plane, as clear as the nose on my face, flew directly into the second tower on live television.
I don&#8217;t remember whether I was still on the phone with Alexis.
I didn’t immediately understand that we were under attack, because until that moment I hadn’t even fathomed that anything like this could happen.
Even though my feeble teenage mind couldn&#8217;t yet grasp terrorism, at that moment I understood one thing:
This was not an accident.
Christina had slept in the main house on the property, in her old bedroom, but came over to make sure I knew what was going on.
&#8220;This is crazy,&#8221; she said. “Someone’s trying to blow up New York.”
Yes. That made sense.
New York is being attacked.
We suburbanites thought of New York as its own glamorous and wonderful thing, foreign in its own right, close to us and still somehow unreachable. A tragedy was unfolding, yes, but it was in New York.
And watching the billowing smoke on television, we simply could not comprehend the profound chaos and loss of life happening there.
Pure panic was still to come.
It began for me with a call from my father to my Nokia cellphone, with its pink faceplate and light-up antenna.
He is a panicker by nature, but there was something unmistakable in his voice that morning that chilled me to my core.
&#8220;Where are you? I need to know where my kids are.&#8221;
&#8220;Uh, I&#8217;m in Frederick&#8230;&#8221;
He asked if I had shelter. He wanted to know where my brother was.
&#8220;School?&#8221;
My brother was a junior at a private school nearly 30 miles away.
He carefully explained everything he could from his far more mature knowledge of the world, warning me that cell towers would be overwhelmed and calls might not get through.
&#8220;We are under attack,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This is very serious.&#8221;
I was suddenly very awake.
And very worried.
Was there a reason to find a bomb shelter? I couldn&#8217;t fathom it. Surely Dad was overreacting.
Except it wasn&#8217;t just my dad.
It was everyone&#8217;s dad.
It was the newscasters.
Reports of crashes and explosions came in everywhere, some taking hours — and in some cases longer — to untangle. At one point, we heard the National Mall was on fire. Reports about the Pentagon mixed together with rumors about Chicago, Los Angeles, and other American cities.
Then we saw the images of the Pentagon.
We didn&#8217;t know how many planes had been hijacked. We didn&#8217;t know how many attacks were still coming.
As ignorant kids watching television in a barn loft in Maryland, it felt as though the entire sky might be full of hijacked aircraft.
Even the towers falling didn&#8217;t register for me as the singular, heart-stopping moment it appears in retrospectives now. It was almost beside the point.
Because by then, something I had believed in as firmly as I believed in anything was being eviscerated.
The America I had grown up in, safe, free and impenetrable, was disappearing on a clear, beautiful September morning.
And that childlike, almost comical ignorance I possessed that day would never be permitted to return again.
It’s been 25 years of knowing that anything could happen. Any day, any perfect morning could turn into hell on earth.
But over the years I have learned many things because of that morning.
It’s not luck that we haven’t had a repeat of that day. It’s vigilance, advocacy, strategy, policy, alliance, and yes – war, that have kept the door closed. It’s not guaranteed.
I have now spent years reading about the people who attacked us that morning, trying to understand what they believed, why they hated us, how they got access and opportunity, and the threats that remain. Maybe I would have found my way here anyway.
I&#8217;ll never know.
I envy something about generations too young to remember September 11. They cannot know what it was like to possess the almost absurd confidence in our own security that so many of us had before 9:03 that morning.
For thousands of families, the horror of that day was unimaginably greater. They lost parents, children, spouses, siblings, and friends.
I didn&#8217;t lose anyone I loved on September 11.
What I lost was much smaller.
I lost the certainty that another ordinary Tuesday would always come.
At 8:55 that morning, I was an 18-year-old girl in yesterday&#8217;s clothes, hungover, laughing at the idea that I might be watching the news. My biggest concern was making it to my first shift at Best Buy.
Eight minutes later, I watched an airplane disappear into the side of a skyscraper full of people.
Twenty-five years have passed. I know much more about that world now. I know the names of the men who attacked us. I know what they believed. I know what it takes to keep people like them from doing it again. And I know that the safety I once took for granted was never guaranteed at all.
But sometimes, when I think about September 11, I don&#8217;t think first about terrorists or wars or falling towers.
I think about that girl in the barn loft.
I think about how completely safe she believed she was.
And I wish, just for a moment, I could give her back the world she thought she lived in.
***
Ellie Bufkin is director of communications at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Twin Towers Manhattan

The Last Ordinary Morning In Yesterday’s World

pentagon

personal essay

Sarah Adams was a targeting officer for the Central Intelligence Agency. It’s as cool as it sounds. She was in charge of disrupting terrorist attacks by identifying the people and organizations that pose a threat to the United States, a job that put her on the ground in the Middle East. 
She helped lead the investigation into the deadly terror attack on our diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, and then <a href="http://amazon.com/Benghazi-Know-Enemy-Cold-Investigation-ebook/dp/B0BHV5R7CT?ref_=ast_author_dp&amp;th=1&amp;psc=1">wrote the book on it</a>. Now, she’s warning the world that global terror threats are rising and we may not be prepared for it. The next 9/11 is being planned right now.
We asked Sarah to work with us to make sure our readers know what’s happening. Her first examination for The Daily Wire is on a loophole that allowed a terrorist to execute his deadly mission, even after we caught him. &#8211; Brent Scher, Editor-in-Chief
**
Four months after an ISIS supporter walked into a classroom and opened fire at Old Dominion University, an independent investigation revealed another disturbing part of the story: the university had no idea it had readmitted a convicted terrorist to its school.
Mohamed Bailor Jalloh’s terror ties were well known to the federal government. In 2016, the former Virginia Army National Guard soldier pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to ISIS. His case involved weapons he believed would be used in an attack against U.S. military personnel. He was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release. He was released early, in December 2024.
Before he was even out of prison, Jalloh had applied to return to Old Dominion University. He was readmitted in January 2025 and approved for on-campus status. Old Dominion was left in the dark about why he had spent the previous years in federal prison.
Just over a year later, on March 12, 2026, Jalloh entered a classroom for the ROTC program, which trains college students to become commissioned officers in the armed forces when they graduate. After confirming that it was, he shouted “Allahu Akbar” and opened fire.
Lt. Col. Brandon Shah was killed, and two cadets were wounded before students stopped the attack.
Last month, an independent review released by Old Dominion concluded that Jalloh had carried out a targeted terrorist attack against ROTC students and their instructor. It also documented the information gap that preceded it. No federal or state law-enforcement agency had notified Old Dominion about Jalloh&#8217;s terrorism conviction. His probation officer had not notified the university either.
That leaves a much larger question than what happened on one campus: who owned Jalloh&#8217;s risk?
Terrorists After Prison
For more than two decades, the United States built an enormous counterterrorism system around finding people before they could attack. Intelligence agencies mapped networks. Investigators tracked communications and money. Joint Terrorism Task Forces developed cases. Prosecutors charged hundreds of defendants with terrorism-related offenses, and courts sent them to federal prison.
Most of those sentences end. The ISIS cases of the last decade are now moving into that next phase. Defendants arrested during the height of the group&#8217;s western recruitment campaign have completed sentences and returned to American communities. More will follow.
Jalloh had not disappeared from government oversight. He was serving a five-year term of supervised release. His conditions allowed his probation officer, when appropriate, to require notification of third parties about risks associated with his criminal history or to make those notifications directly. Old Dominion was never notified.
This was not a simple case of a university failing to run a background check. Virginia law restricts public universities from asking applicants about criminal history on their admissions applications. Universities can only inquire after admission and before enrollment, allowing them to assess whether a student&#8217;s history presents a threat to the university community.
Old Dominion already had a process for doing that. Since 2022, the university has sent a voluntary criminal-history questionnaire to newly admitted freshmen, transfer students, and graduate students. The gap was readmitted students. Jalloh was a readmitted student, so he was never asked.
The federal government knew Jalloh had been convicted in an ISIS case involving a planned attack against American military personnel. It knew he had been released from prison, and he remained under federal supervision. Old Dominion knew none of that. That becomes harder to dismiss as an administrative oversight when considering where Jalloh eventually went. He did not randomly enter a classroom. He went to ROTC.
The independent investigators later concluded that if Old Dominion&#8217;s threat-assessment personnel had known about Jalloh&#8217;s terrorism conviction, it was highly likely the university would have tried to remove him from campus because of the potential threat he presented, particularly to military-affiliated members of the university community. The people responsible for protecting that community never received what they would have needed to make that assessment.
There is another unanswered part of the story. During its investigation, the law firm conducting Old Dominion&#8217;s independent review sought information from the FBI and the U.S. Probation Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Both declined to meet with the investigators. As a result, the review could not fully determine what happened during Jalloh&#8217;s federal supervision or why his terrorism history was never passed to the university.
We know where the system broke. We still do not fully know why.
This Was Already Coming
The larger problem did not begin at Old Dominion. Researchers had already warned that the United States was entering a new stage of the ISIS-era terrorism problem. A 2024 analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, using data from George Washington University&#8217;s Program on Extremism, found that 72 of 209 Americans arrested on ISIS-related charges had already been released. At least 73 more were expected to reach their scheduled release dates during the following decade.
The overwhelming majority had not been publicly linked to new terrorism activity. That matters. A terrorism conviction should not create a lifetime presumption that someone will attack again. People can disengage from extremist movements and rebuild their lives, and education and employment can be an important part of that process.
Researchers, however, also identified a smaller group who had been rearrested or reincarcerated after violating conditions of supervised release. Some returned to behavior remarkably similar to what brought them into the system in the first place.
One of those cases is particularly relevant because, by conventional measures, the individual appeared to be succeeding after prison. Ali Shukri Amin was 17 years old when he pleaded guilty in 2015 to conspiring to provide material support to ISIS. Amin had operated a prominent pro-ISIS social-media account and helped another young man travel to Syria. After cooperating with authorities and serving several years in federal prison, he was released in 2020.
His life afterward appeared to be a model of reintegration. He earned numerous technical certifications, graduated summa cum laude from Northern Virginia Community College, pursued graduate education in information technology management, and obtained professional employment.
At the same time, federal authorities determined that Amin had repeatedly violated the conditions of his supervised release. Court records examined by researchers showed that he had resumed prohibited contacts, including communication with convicted terrorist John Walker Lindh, and engaged in activity involving the dissemination of ISIS propaganda.
In 2023, Amin was returned to prison for violating supervised release. His case does not show that education failed. It shows that education, employment, and outward signs of stability do not necessarily tell us whether ideological disengagement has occurred. Those are different assessments, and confusing the two creates its own blind spot.
A Campus Is a Community
Universities make this problem particularly visible because they are designed to be open. Thousands of people move through campuses every day. Universities contain laboratories, research facilities, religious organizations, political groups, foreign students, major public events, and military programs. Many operate more like small cities than controlled facilities.
That does not mean that terrorism offenders should automatically be excluded from higher education. The problem at Old Dominion was not simply that Jalloh was allowed to pursue an education after prison. It was that nobody at the university knew enough to assess the risk.
There is a significant difference between giving someone a second chance and requiring the people responsible for security to operate blind. A terrorism conviction may involve extremist relationships, allegiance to a foreign terrorist organization, specialized knowledge, previous target selection, or a demonstrated interest in attacking a particular population. None of those factors prove someone will offend again, but they matter when assessing risk.
Old Dominion has already fixed one part of the problem. Following the attack, the university expanded its post-admission criminal-history questionnaire to include readmitted students. Someone returning through the same admissions pathway Jalloh used should now receive it.
The university has also increased resources for its Office of Threat Assessment, added staffing, and moved toward additional investigative and threat-management capabilities. Those are reasonable changes, but they still depend in part on someone disclosing their own history.
The independent review recognized that limitation. A voluntary questionnaire is only useful when the person filling it out decides to tell the truth. For someone who presents a serious threat, that is not much of a safeguard.
The review therefore pointed toward the issue at the center of the case: information sharing. Old Dominion already had a working relationship with the FBI&#8217;s Joint Terrorism Task Force before the attack. The university&#8217;s police chief regularly communicated with the task force, yet Jalloh&#8217;s terrorism history never reached the university. Investigators recommended that Old Dominion explore using that relationship to establish a notification process when terrorism defendants or people convicted of other particularly dangerous crimes seek to enroll or are already students.
That may be the most important recommendation in the report. The information existed. It never reached the people who needed it.
What Has Changed, and What Hasn&#8217;t
The Bureau of Prisons has addressed another part of Jalloh&#8217;s case. He received an early release, despite his terrorism conviction, because he completed the federal Residential Drug Abuse Program. The Bureau of Prisons has since closed that loophole for terrorism-related offenders.
That addresses how Jalloh got out early. It does not solve what happened after he got out. As of August 2026, there is no publicly announced national requirement directing federal probation offices, the FBI, or another federal agency to notify a university when a terrorism offender under federal supervision enrolls there. Virginia&#8217;s underlying admissions law also remains in place.
That does not mean that nothing has changed internally. Policies and practices can change without becoming public. But there is no publicly announced nationwide system that would guarantee a different outcome if the same circumstances occurred somewhere else tomorrow.
The concern is not that every terrorist offender leaving prison is waiting to attack again. The concern is that we already know some do not fully disengage. Some violate supervision. Some reconnect with extremist networks. Some return to the same behavior that put them in prison. A functioning system has to identify the individuals who continue to present a risk, and it cannot do that when the relevant pieces remain separated.
America spent the years after September 11, 2001, building one of the most sophisticated counterterrorism systems in the world. We became very good at finding terrorists. Now we have to get better at what happens after prison.
More terrorism offenders will complete their sentences in the coming years. They will go to work, attend universities, move into neighborhoods, and rebuild their lives. Successful reintegration should be the goal, but reintegration and threat management are not opposing ideas. Someone can deserve the opportunity to start again while their history still matters to those responsible for assessing a legitimate security risk.
Old Dominion has begun fixing what it can control. The larger gap remains. Mohamed Bailor Jalloh had been convicted of attempting to support ISIS. His case involved an intended attack against American military personnel. He remained under federal supervision and returned to a university with a significant military-affiliated population. The pieces were there, but no one connected them before he walked into an ROTC classroom.
The next terrorism offender leaving federal prison may go to work, return to school, or enroll at another American university. In most cases, that will simply be part of rebuilding a life. But when someone presents a genuine threat, the institution responsible for the people around them should not have to discover that history after an attack.
Someone needs to know, someone needs to make the assessment, and someone needs to own the risk.

DWterrorism

The Terrorist On Campus

campus security

isis

mohamed bailor jalloh

old dominion university shooting

Hackers believed to be backed by Iran targeted more than 30 municipal water systems across Minnesota this week, several media outlets reported, appearing to validate months of <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa26-097a">federal warnings</a> that Tehran aimed to disrupt internet-exposed devices controlling operations at U.S. water, wastewater, and energy facilities.
<a href="https://mn.gov/mnit/media/blog/?id=38-761869">Minnesota IT Services (MNIT)</a> said a &#8220;coordinated cyberattack&#8221; targeted operational technology on July 26 and 27, triggering the state&#8217;s cybersecurity incident response protocols.
The attack briefly knocked one system offline and disrupted remote sensors at another, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/07/30/us-spy-agencies-suspect-iran-launched-cyberattack-minnesota-water-facilities/">The Washington Post.</a> No drinking water has been reported as unsafe, according to the outlet.
&#8220;Cyberattacks against critical infrastructure require a coordinated, whole-of-government response,&#8221; said John Israel, Minnesota chief information security officer. &#8220;MNIT is working side by side with our partners to share intelligence, support affected communities, and help utilities restore operations safely while strengthening defenses against future attacks.”
Investigators are now probing whether Iranian hackers carried out the attack, but intelligence officials cautioned the assessment remains preliminary as additional forensic evidence is gathered, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-investigating-iran-cyberattack-minnesota-water-systems/">according</a> to CBS News. Officials have not ruled out the possibility that another actor is posing as Iran to inflame tensions amid the U.S. conflict with the regime. 
The FBI is investigating, The Washington Post reported. If Iranian involvement is confirmed, it could mark a serious escalation in Tehran&#8217;s ongoing campaign to target U.S. critical infrastructure. 
“It is not a secret that these things have been taking place since the spring,” Joe Slowik, director of threat research for Dataminr, told the Post. “There have been disruptions in multiple critical infrastructure sectors. It’s a big deal.”
President Trump, however, cast doubt on reports linking Iran to the attack, using a Cabinet meeting at Camp David to dismiss the incident and instead blame Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“I think Minnesota is behind it. Do you know who&#8217;s behind it? Minnesota, because they&#8217;re grossly incompetent. I think the governor&#8217;s behind it,” Trump <a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/2083228500077797797?s=20">said</a>. “I don&#8217;t think there was an Iranian cyber attack. I think that Minnesota ought to get its act together. It&#8217;s one of the worst-run states.” 
&#8220;They like to say, &#8216;Oh, it was Iran.&#8217; Iran should be so lucky. Iran&#8217;s got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota,&#8221; the president <a href="https://x.com/disclosetv/status/2083215311315087592?s=20">added</a>.
Nate George, the mayor of Braham, Minnesota, appeared to echo Trump&#8217;s criticism, arguing that misplaced government spending leaves local communities less prepared to defend against cyberattacks.
&#8220;This is exactly why state government must spend taxpayers&#8217; money on the things that matter, not political agenda action items,&#8221; George said. &#8220;That means funding Local Government Aid and providing practical assistance to help communities strengthen cybersecurity, replace aging systems, and protect basic services residents and businesses rely upon.&#8221;
Walz, on the other hand, quickly fired back, arguing that federal cuts made the U.S. vulnerable to such attacks. 
“Trump knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too. This is what modern warfare looks like, and it further illustrates there’s no plan to win a war with Iran,” Walz <a href="https://x.com/GovTimWalz/status/2083235434168021219?s=20">said</a> on X. “DOGE took an axe to CISA and left the U.S. exposed to cyber attacks. Thankfully, our experts in Minnesota were able to identify the vulnerability quickly and work with local communities to stop it.”

Donald Trump

America’s Water Supply Was Attacked, And Iran Is The Main Suspect

Cyberattack

cybersecurity

iran

Islamic Republic

islamic revolutionary guard corps

minnesota

News

politics

President Trump

tim walz

Trump

water

Last weekend&#8217;s deadly terror <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/berlin-terrorist-attacker-shot-and-killed-by-police">attack</a> at a Pride parade in Berlin has drawn attention to Germany&#8217;s long-running attempts to deradicalize convicted Islamist extremists. The country operates several government-backed programs designed to help high-risk offenders disengage from extremist ideology, often through years of counseling, education, and social support.
The criticism emerges after authorities identified the attacker as a convicted Islamist extremist who had been participating in one of Germany&#8217;s deradicalization programs before carrying out the attack. While the programs are intended to reduce the risk of future terrorist violence, they rely on lengthy voluntary participation and individualized intervention.
Authorities said 21-year-old Lebanese-German Abdul Ballout drove a van into a Pride parade in Berlin, killing one person and injuring 29 others. Ballout had previously attempted to join ISIS, was convicted of preparing a serious act of subversive violence, and had been ordered to participate in a deradicalization program. He completed two sessions, and a third was scheduled for two days after the attack. Ballout&#8217;s cooperation was reported as &#8220;fake&#8221; by staff at the program, according to CBS News. Police shot and killed him at the scene.
His case has renewed scrutiny of the broader deradicalization system Germany uses for high-risk Islamist extremists. One prominent organization working within that system is <a href="https://violence-prevention-network.de/angebote/trainings-in-haft/?lang=en">Violence Prevention Network</a>, a Berlin-based nonprofit that has spent two decades on extremism prevention, and deradicalization and disengagement support. Its staff has developed extensive experience working with ideologically motivated offenders, including people drawn into Islamist extremism.
The Violence Prevention Network works with people already drawn into Islamist extremism through a method it calls Education of Responsibility. The approach starts from the view that radicalized thinking and behavior provide people a sense of support, orientation, and self-assurance from their own insecurities and fears. The work aims to replace those patterns with new constructive ways of thinking and acting.
The staff at the Violence Prevention Network focus on three things. First, they push the person to recognize and understand their own emotions and values, the history behind them, and the actions that followed. Second, they require the person to take responsibility by having individuals constructively integrate those parts while distancing from violent, anti-democratic ideas. Third, they work on building an individual perspective with empathy, self-reflection, self-esteem, problem awareness, and confidence in crises.
The foundation of the process is a stable long-term working relationship. The program combines group training, individual training, political education workshops, transition management, and stabilization coaching. This work continues both inside prison and after release. More than 150 staff members operate across eight German states and in Europe.
A second major institution is the <a href="https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/networks/radicalisation-awareness-network-ran/collection-inspiring-practices/ran-collection-search/aussteigerprogramm-islamismus-nrw-exit-programme-islamism-nrw_en">Aussteigerprogramm Islamismus</a>, or Exit program Islamism, run by the Ministry of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is one of three exit programs operated by the Department of Prevention inside the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of that state. The other two programs cover radical left-wing and foreign extremism. 
The Islamism program is designed specifically for people who want to leave Islamist communities. Its clients are primarily highly radicalized individuals who are already operating inside an extremist context. The majority of them have been classified as security threats by public authorities.
The stated goals of the program are to stop radical Islamist activities and to disengage the person from the former ideology. They also aim to achieve social reintegration and to ensure personal security to prevent criminal actions. The goal is to reduce the overall number of people involved in the Islamist scene. Deradicalization is treated as a lengthy process that depends on cooperation and voluntary participation. A typical case requires three to five years of attendance.
The work itself is divided into two main components that run side by side. The first is ideological work. Through personal meetings, staff examine with the client the reasons for involvement in the Islamist scene and challenge the extremist ideology to provide a paradigm shift. The program is explicit that this process does not involve requiring anyone to renounce Islam. The second component is psychosocial stabilization. 
This covers practical needs: help with social welfare, finding housing, seeking employment, arranging therapies, and other forms of support that make daily life outside the extremist environment possible. The aim is to give clients the ability to change their attitudes and their view of the future. When a person is being released from prison, the program also works on preparation for that return to society.
The people who carry out this work come from mixed professional backgrounds. The team includes police officers, prison staff, administrative officials, intelligence personnel, social workers, psychologists, and experts in Islamic studies.
The program does not operate in isolation. It cooperates with a network of partners that includes social welfare institutions, police, intelligence services, prisons, courts, immigration authorities, and deradicalization programs from other German states. That network is intended to create a complete approach that matches the specific needs of each client.
Germany&#8217;s programs reflect a broader European model for managing high-risk Islamist extremists. The <a href="https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/networks/radicalisation-awareness-network-ran/collection-inspiring-practices_en">Radicalisation Awareness Network</a> lists similar programs across Europe.

A Palestinian child and member of the Islamic Jihad movement

Inside Europe’s Deradicalization Programs For Islamist Terrorists

Islamic Extremism

Islamic Jihad

radical islamic terrorism

A knife-wielding man injured three women, including a pregnant woman, during a stabbing spree in central Paris, reportedly shouting that Allah had ordered him to do it.
The suspect attacked three women, ages 19, 24, and 36, on Monday morning with two kitchen knives near Porte de Clichy in Paris, severely wounding two of them, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/french-police-arrest-man-after-knife-attack-paris-2026-07-27/">told reporters</a>. Police have not yet released the identities of the suspect or victims. 
Two of the women remain in critical condition, <a href="https://www.gbnews.com/news/world/paris-stabbing-pregnant-woman-three-injured-knife-attack">according to GB News</a>. One woman was stabbed in the lower back, while another suffered a stab wound to the abdomen. An off-duty police officer is said to have detained the disturbed man at the scene.
<a href="https://x.com/ScopeReport_/status/2081701503203455484?s=20">Multiple videos</a> circulating on social media appear to capture moments before and after the attack. Footage shows the suspect, who has long black hair and is wearing a cream-colored tracksuit, carrying two large knives. In one clip, he is seen running down a street before appearing to lunge at a woman who is walking alone.
French outlet Le Figaro reported that the suspect shouted, “It is Allah who ordered me.&#8221; At the scene, however, police urged caution, insisting the man made &#8220;incoherent&#8221; statements and that investigators had not yet identified a motive.
Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro <a href="https://x.com/benshapiro/status/2081736070643757447?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">posted</a> on X: &#8220;What was his motive? We may never know.&#8221;
The Paris stabbing spree came roughly 40 hours after another Islamic terror attack rocked a neighboring European country.
German police on Sunday <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/known-islamic-terrorist-on-the-run-unleashed-machete-attack-after-plowing-van-into-crowd?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=5&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Known+Islamic+Terrorist+On+The+Run+After+Deadly+Berlin+Car-Ramming+Attack">shot and killed</a> a Muslim man who previously tried to join the Islamic State after he rammed a vehicle into Berlin’s Pride festival on Saturday and then attacked bystanders with a machete, leaving one person dead and several others injured.
The Associated Press reported 21-year-old Abdul Ballout was shot and killed by police at a complex in Spandau, one of Berlin’s boroughs.
Police said Ballout fled the “horrific scene” on foot. German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt <a href="https://x.com/SkyNews/status/2081357342902300677?s=20">connected</a> the attack to radical Islamist ideology.
The BBC reported Sunday <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3r2nz9ed3lt?post=asset%3Af7bf096b-0bc4-4496-b0f8-d2def8c5a207#post">Ballout</a> was a German citizen of Lebanese background who was known to police for being part of Berlin’s “Islamist scene” and had previously “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3r2nz9ed3lt?post=asset%3A679975ea-dc63-4cff-b17e-cc95f0cbef6f#post">committed a number of crimes</a>.” Ballout was born in Germany, and his mother became a naturalized German citizen in 2002, three years before his birth, police told the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/germany-berlin-lgbtq-pride-parade-van-ramming-3ba5e3f1becffd0da5f47b29aa08da9d">Associated Press</a>.
<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/07/26/abdul-ballout-berlin-pride-suspect-tried-join-islamic-state/">The Telegraph</a> reported Ballout was a convicted terrorist who tried to join the Islamic State terror group. Ballout was previously arrested in Lebanon after he was accused of attempting to join the Islamic State in Syria and plotting a terrorist attack. Then, he returned to Germany, where, according to Die Welt, he was arrested by German authorities and sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison for plotting a “serious act of violence that threatened the state.”
“Horrendous attack in Berlin last night,” Nigel Farage, leader of the U.K.’s Right-wing Reform UK party, said of the attack. “The strange left-wing alliance between Islamists and the LGBT community in this country cannot last.”

Louvre Museum

‘It Is Allah Who Ordered Me’: Knife-Wielding Man Targets Three Women In Brutal Rampage

attack

europe

france

Germany

islam

Knives

stabbing

German police shot and killed a Muslim man who previously tried to join the Islamic State after he rammed a vehicle into Berlin&#8217;s Pride festival on Saturday and then attacked bystanders with a machete, leaving one person dead and several others injured.
<a href="https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/2026-07/anschlag-auf-csd-mutmasslicher-attentaeter-abdul-b-offenbar-erschossen">Die Zeit</a>, a national German newspaper, reported that 21-year-old Abdul Ballout was shot and killed by police at a complex in Spandau, one of Berlin&#8217;s largest boroughs. The Associated Press also confirmed the report a short time later.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/known-islamic-terrorist-on-the-run-unleashed-machete-attack-after-plowing-van-into-crowd?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Known+Islamic+Terrorist+On+The+Run+After+Deadly+Berlin+Car-Ramming+Attack">Police launched a massive manhunt</a> for Ballout, who police say deliberately drove a white van into Berlin&#8217;s Tiergarten park around 10 p.m., killing one woman and injuring at least 29 others before attacking festivalgoers with what authorities said may have been a machete. Ballout is said to have fled the &#8220;horrific scene” on foot. German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt <a href="https://x.com/SkyNews/status/2081357342902300677?s=20">connected</a> the attack to radical Islamist ideology.
The BBC reported Sunday <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3r2nz9ed3lt?post=asset%3Af7bf096b-0bc4-4496-b0f8-d2def8c5a207#post">Ballout</a> is a German citizen of Lebanese background who was known to police for being part of Berlin&#8217;s &#8220;Islamist scene&#8221; and had previously &#8220;<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3r2nz9ed3lt?post=asset%3A679975ea-dc63-4cff-b17e-cc95f0cbef6f#post">committed a number of crimes</a>.&#8221;Ballout was born in Germany, and his mother became a naturalized German citizen in 2002, three years before his birth, police told the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/germany-berlin-lgbtq-pride-parade-van-ramming-3ba5e3f1becffd0da5f47b29aa08da9d">Associated Press</a>.
<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/07/26/abdul-ballout-berlin-pride-suspect-tried-join-islamic-state/">The Telegraph</a> reported Ballout is a convicted terrorist who tried to join the Islamic State terror group. German authorities previously arrested Ballout in Lebanon after accusing him of attempting to join the Islamic State in Syria and plotting a terrorist attack. Then, he was returned to Germany, where, according to Die Welt, he was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison for plotting a “serious act of violence that threatened the state.”
This is a breaking story. Stay with The Daily Wire for updates.

Berlin Police

Berlin Terrorist Attacker Shot And Killed By Police

Radical Islamic Terror

An LGBTQ activist is doubling down, blaming white men after a Muslim man with known Islamist associations rammed a vehicle into Berlin’s Pride festival on Saturday before attacking bystanders with a machete, leaving one person dead and several others injured.
A viral video circulating online shows an <a href="https://x.com/iAnonPatriot/status/2081229875361325146?s=20">unidentified pink-haired woman</a> lamenting not the terror attack, but the public&#8217;s reaction to it.
“I&#8217;m getting really, really sick of this. I&#8217;m getting really tired of having to repeat myself over and over again,” she said. “So the suspect is an Islamic extremist. That&#8217;s their suspect right now. That&#8217;s what I read. Okay, I&#8217;m not going to say anything about the rest of the Muslim population because of actions of this one person.”
Then, the leftist shifted her focus and hurled unfounded accusations towards another demographic: white Christian men.
“But what I can say is the people who were celebrating about this were all white men, young white men with crosses in their profiles because we&#8217;ve all seen it. We&#8217;ve all seen how you guys react towards gay people, and how you wish harm on them constantly,” she said. “I get a constant hate on my videos, especially about trans people. You&#8217;re not going to hide behind another scapegoat group and pretend that they&#8217;re actually the violent ones when it&#8217;s you.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
OMG. Liberal women are blaming “white men” for the Islamic extremist who ran over people at an LGBTQ parade in Berlin.
“You’re not going to scapegoat the Muslim community like they’re the violent ones, when it’s actually you (white men).”
Can’t make this sht up. 💀💀 <a href="https://t.co/0nbsKYgqys">pic.twitter.com/0nbsKYgqys</a>
— American AF 🇺🇸 (@iAnonPatriot) <a href="https://x.com/iAnonPatriot/status/2081229875361325146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
The woman claimed white Christian men share the same ideology as Abdul Ballout, who police say deliberately drove a white van into Berlin’s Tiergarten Park around 10 p.m., killing one woman and injuring at least 29 others before attacking festival goers with what authorities said may have been a machete. The 21-year-old convicted terrorist had previously attempted to join the Islamic State in Syria and was released from German custody just months before Saturday’s attack, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/known-islamic-terrorist-on-the-run-unleashed-machete-attack-after-plowing-van-into-crowd?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Known+Islamic+Terrorist+On+The+Run+Unleashed+Machete+Attack+After+Plowing+Van+Into+Crowd">The Daily Wire reported</a>.
Migration levels in the European Union remain high, with approximately <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20260227-1">4.2 million</a> immigrants arriving in 2024 and total foreign-born residents reaching roughly 64 million. Spain and Germany recorded the largest absolute numbers of new arrivals, according to the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Migration_to_and_from_the_EU">European Commission</a>.
“You hold the same exact beliefs that this man who did this attack did, and you&#8217;re trying to distance yourself from it. And you know why you&#8217;re trying to do that? Because you&#8217;re ashamed, and you should be,” she said in the video.
The passionate defense highlights the growing, confounding alliance between LGBT activist groups and Islamic ideology in Western countries.
“Ahmad attacks people at a Pride Parade because Islam. White liberal woman with aposematic hair coloring concludes white men are to blame. Suicidal Empathy is a fatal disease of the human spirit,” Gad Saad, an evolutionary behavioral scientist, <a href="https://x.com/GadSaad/status/2081359046775275807?s=20">said</a> on X.
“Queers for Palestine real quiet about this one,” Kangmin Lee, a conservative digital content creator, <a href="https://x.com/kangminlee/status/2081243091629904336?s=20">reacted</a> on social media.
Germany’s latest terror attack, which is said to have left a “horrific scene,” left Pride attendees reeling, including Ricarda Hofmann, a presenter at one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ celebrations.  “What happened today has changed something in me,” she <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DbPTNq6iDz4/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1">wrote on Instagram</a>.
On Sunday, organizers of the Berlin Pride festival vowed not to allow the Islamic terror attack to be used &#8220;for political ends.&#8221;
&#8220;People are trying to divide our society and set some people against others. As the CSD in Berlin, we will not allow this,&#8221; a representative for the group <a href="https://x.com/SkyNews/status/2081393662244646936?s=20">said</a> at a press conference.

NYC Pride

WATCH: Pink-Haired LGBT Activist Blames White Christian Men For Islamic Terror Attack

Berlin

Christian

christianity

identity politics

lgbt

lgbtq

Muslim

radical islam

terror attack

President Donald Trump may be looking at potential strikes on another growing Islamic terrorist hotbed in the coming weeks — this time in the West African nation of Mali.
The Trump administration has reportedly been considering strikes against Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an Al Qaeda-linked militant group operating in the Sahel region that has attacked both local militias and international forces and has endeavored to enforce strict Islamic law throughout its areas of control.
The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/07/22/trump-administration-weighs-military-options-mali-officials-say/">reported</a> on Wednesday that the Trump administration is divided on military action — and said that one of those in favor of such is the current National Security Council’s senior director for counterterrorism, Sebastian Gorka.
One official did tell the outlet that, despite that division, the United States had been encouraging other nations in the region &#8220;to purchase U.S. equipment and services to support their war efforts against the terrorists.&#8221;
The entire region has been in a state of upheaval in recent years as a series of Russia-backed coups upended democratically elected governments in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger — and the three nations have increasingly rejected ties with Western nations, instead joining together as The Alliance of Sahel States.
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/they-kicked-america-out-now-theyre-being-hunted-by-jihadists">previously reported</a>, Niger overtly rejected the United States when President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration delivered an ultimatum just as the West African nation was inking a deal to provide Iran with Uranium. The Biden administration demanded that Niger cut ties with Russia and Iran, but the military junta running things at the time was disinclined to acquiesce. Instead, in addition to refusing Biden&#8217;s ultimatum, Niger ousted all remaining American military assets from the country — including a drone base that was used to target terrorists in the region.
Zineb Riboua, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, told The Daily Wire that the Biden administration&#8217;s presentation may have been the crux of the problem: &#8220;Instead of presenting it as an ultimatum, they could have presented an alternative. Instead of doing a uranium deal with Iran, why don’t you do one with the United States, and you get a school program or something in Niger, something they don’t have.&#8221;
But once the United States was gone, it was soon quickly apparent that the Russian security forces with whom they&#8217;d cast their lots were more of a liability than an asset. As previously reported, &#8220;The Russians were killing untold numbers of civilians and still somehow managing to cede ground to the jihadists. In fact, in Burkina Faso and Mali, the Russians and government forces actually killed more civilians last year than the jihadists.&#8221;
The situation has only deteriorated in the years since, leading to the current consideration of possible military action.
&#8220;We urge regional partners and NATO allies to support the Alliance of Sahel States in their war against JNIM and ISIS,&#8221; the Trump administration official told The Washington Post, noting that partnership with Russia had clearly only allowed the terrorist factions to fester and grow. &#8220;We hope that other African nations take note of Russia’s terrible performance in combating terrorism.&#8221;
When asked, Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not say whether he supported military action. Instead, the State Department said that the United States &#8220;unequivocally condemns the terrorist activity in Mali.&#8221;

Trump Says Israel And Lebanon To Extend Ceasefire By Three Weeks

Trump May Have His Eye On New Jihadi Hot Spot To Bomb

Africa

al qaeda

biden administration

donald trump

Global Politics

gorka

joe biden

Mali

marco rubio

Military

niger

russia

Terrorists

Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/world/middleeast/houthis-yemen-iran-war.html">declared</a> a maritime blockade targeting Saudi Arabian ships in the Red Sea, a move that risks pulling the group deeper into the U.S.-Iran war and further straining global energy routes.
As the conflict between the United States and Iran festered across the Middle East over the past five months, Yemen had largely remained a spectator. That changed Monday when the Houthis, who control a significant portion of the country including areas along the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, announced the blockade on Saudi vessels. The declaration comes amid rising tensions and raises the prospect of disrupted oil and gas shipments at a time when the Strait of Hormuz has already been heavily impacted.
The Houthis, a terrorist group originally from Yemen’s northern highlands, took control of the capital Sanaa over a decade ago with Iranian backing. Saudi Arabia responded in 2015 by leading a military intervention aimed at restoring the internationally recognized government, triggering a prolonged civil war. A ceasefire in 2022 largely froze the conflict into a fragile stalemate.
Tensions reignited last week after the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of striking Sanaa’s main international airport. The dispute centered on an Iranian plane that attempted to land there following a Houthi delegation’s attendance at the funeral in Tehran for Iran’s slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Yemen’s Saudi-backed government claimed responsibility for the airport strike, though it lacks a functional air force and depends heavily on Saudi military support. A senior Yemeni official said the plane was believed to be “carrying personnel and military dual-use equipment” from Iran.
In response, the Houthis launched an attack on Abha airport in southern Saudi Arabia, the first direct strike on Saudi soil by the group since early 2022. Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi had previously warned that all Saudi oil and energy facilities would become targets if the kingdom escalated militarily.
Analysts view the Red Sea threat as potential leverage for Iran in its confrontation with the United States. “I think the message from Iran is: Don’t assume our leverage is limited to the Strait of Hormuz. We also have an ally that can threaten the Bab al-Mandab if needed,” said Ahmed Nagi, a Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group.
The Saudi-led coalition stated it would respond to any Houthi threats against transiting vessels “swiftly and firmly,” according to coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki. Yemen’s defense minister, Taher al-Aqili, said the army of the internationally recognized government stands ready “to end the Houthi coup,” while exiled president Rashad al-Alimi urged residents in Houthi-controlled areas to “align themselves around the state.”
The Houthis have disrupted Red Sea shipping before. During the two-year Gaza war that began in late 2023, they targeted commercial vessels with drones, missiles, and hijackings. Saudi Arabia has recently relied on Red Sea routes to export more than 3.6 million barrels of oil and related fuels a day, mostly to Asia, according to maritime data firm Kpler. 
Yasir al-Rumayyan, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant, described the ability to use Red Sea export terminals — circumventing the blocked Strait of Hormuz — as a “lifeline” for the country&#8217;s economy. A sustained Houthi blockade could impact more than 3 percent of the global oil market.
“The Red Sea is always an easy way in which they can make the world bleed,” said Farea Al-Muslimi, a research fellow at Chatham House. “The Houthis are banking on insurance costs going up and panic among the global shipping industry like what happened during the war in Gaza.”
The latest developments unfold against a backdrop of continued Iranian efforts to arm the Houthis. In July 2025, U.S. Central Command <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/centcom-praises-yemeni-allies-who-interdicted-irans-weapons-bound-for-houthis?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=CENTCOM+Praises+Yemeni+Allies+Who+Interdicted+Iran%E2%80%99s+Weapons+Bound+For+Houthis">praised</a> Yemeni National Resistance Forces, led by Gen. Tareq Saleh, for intercepting the largest seizure of Iranian advanced conventional weapons in their history, over 750 tons of munitions and hardware, including hundreds of advanced cruise, anti-ship, and anti-aircraft missiles, warheads, seekers, components, hundreds of drone engines, air defense equipment, radar systems, and communications gear. Manuals were in Farsi, and many systems came from a company affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of Defense. 
At the time, CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla called Iran “the most destabilizing actor in the region” and stressed that limiting the flow of Iranian support to the Houthis remains critical to regional security, stability, and freedom of navigation.
The Houthis have not yet detailed how they plan to enforce the blockade.

Seizure Process Of Israeli Cargo By Houthis In Yemen

A Familiar Terrorist Foe May Be About To Enter The Iran War

Houthis

The suspect accused of detonating an incendiary device outside New York City&#8217;s federal immigration office has been identified by multiple news outlets as 43-year-old military veteran Andrew Arrabaca, who was said to be carrying a sign reading &#8220;ICE off our streets&#8221; during Monday&#8217;s attack.
Authorities said Arrabaca poured &#8220;what is believed to be gasoline&#8221; on the ground outside 26 Federal Plaza before placing fireworks on top of it and igniting the device. The &#8220;incendiary device&#8221; caused &#8220;a little fire,&#8221; FBI New York field office Assistant Director in Charge James Barnacle Jr. said.
&#8220;At approximately 8:20 AM, an anti-ICE rioter launched fireworks outside of 26 Federal Plaza, grazing a bystander and poured what is believed to be gasoline on the stairs of the entrance of the building and set it on fire,&#8221; the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) <a href="https://x.com/DHSgov/status/2079251017133154456">said</a> in a statement Monday.
“Officers quickly recovered the individual’s bag, which contained what appeared to be two pellet guns and a manifesto,&#8221; the agency said.
At the time, the suspect was seen pushing a cart with a sign on it reading, &#8220;ICE off our streets.&#8221; He was also carrying two axes, a hammer, a machete, and multiple knives.
&#8220;When he was being arrested, he yelled derogatory terms to ICE, used bad words, obviously. He is an anti-American, anti-government extremist. We know that from what he said, we know that from what he has said post-arrest, and we know that from his actions that he tried to take today,&#8221; Barnacle said.
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/07/20/us-news/terrorism-task-force-probes-armed-loon-who-set-off-incendiary-device-outside-nyc-fed-hq/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the suspect is a former U.S. Army and National Guardsman from Poughkeepsie.
Two federal employees and civilian sustained minor injuries in the attack and were treated and released, Barnacle said.
A Federal Protective Service officer &#8220;swiftly tackled and detained&#8221; the suspect, &#8220;sustaining minor injuries,&#8221; according to DHS.
The Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building houses ICE&#8217;s New York field office and an immigration court. During the Trump administration, the building has become a hotbed for anti-ICE protests.
The FBI New York Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating the incident, the bureau said.

Untitled design – 2026-07-20T135104.118

Suspect In NYC Explosion Outside ICE Office ID’d As Anti-ICE ‘Extremist’

Anti-ICE

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

new york

new york city

U.S.

A man believed to be an anti-ICE activist armed with two airsoft rifles deployed an incendiary device outside 26 Federal Plaza in New York City on Monday morning, prompting a swift response from federal and local law enforcement.
At least two people were injured in the incident after the suspect &#8220;menaced&#8221; bystanders with the airsoft rifles, MS NOW <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/20/new-york-nyc-fbi-incendiary-device.html">reported</a>. Five law enforcement sources told MS NOW that the suspect appeared to be an anti-ICE radical.
Video <a href="https://x.com/BillMelugin_/status/2079203258724471267?s=20">footage</a> showed a plume of smoke rising near the building&#8217;s entrance as law enforcement officers, including ICE agents and FBI personnel, rushed out with guns drawn. Federal Protective Service officers apprehended the suspect on scene. The sidewalk was shut down, and the building was evacuated as authorities responded.
According to the FBI, the incident occurred around 8:30 a.m. ET, Fox News <a href="https://x.com/BillMelugin_/status/2079203258724471267?s=20">reported</a>.
&#8220;This morning an individual deployed an incendiary device outside of 26 Federal Plaza. The individual has been taken into custody and the FBI New York Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating the incident,&#8221; the FBI said.
FBI Director Kash Patel <a href="https://x.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/2079219684717596752">added</a> that &#8220;two minor injuries reported thus far.&#8221;
Sources told MS NOW that the incendiary device was fireworks that were placed in a shopping cart and then doused in accelerant and lit on fire.
The New York Police Department told Fox News that a firearm was found in relation to the event, though officials could not confirm whether it was recovered from the suspect. It&#8217;s unclear if the firearm found by authorities is different from the airsoft rifles the suspect reportedly had on him.
The building at <a href="https://www.ice.gov/field-office/new-york-city-field-office">26 Federal Plaza</a> houses the ICE New York City Field Office on the 9th Floor as well as a federal immigration court. The ICE office oversees Enforcement and Removal Operations and Homeland Security Investigations across the five boroughs of New York City and several surrounding counties, including Dutchess, Nassau, Putnam, Suffolk, Sullivan, Orange, Rockland, Ulster, and Westchester.
This incident comes amid a broader trend of heightened concerns regarding threats to ICE operations. The Department of Homeland Security has previously reported a significant rise in vehicle attacks against ICE officers, noting a <a href="https://dallasexpress.com/national/dhs-warns-sanctuary-rhetoric-linked-to-surge-in-ice-vehicle-attacks/">3,300% increase</a> in such incidents during a recent period compared to the prior year.
Authorities have not released additional details about the suspect or possible motives as the investigation continues. The Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes partners from the NYPD and other agencies, is handling the case.
The building, a federal facility in lower Manhattan, serves multiple government functions and is a known hub for immigration enforcement activities in the region.

Fox News/NYC fire

Armed Man Triggers Terrorism Investigation Outside ICE Office

Fire

Menu