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US investigating release of classified docs on Israel’s planned strike on Iran

US investigating release of classified docs on Israel’s planned strike on Iran

The United States is investigating the unauthorized release of classified documents detailing Israel’s planned attack against Iran, The Associated Press reported. The documents, attributed to the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, note that Israel was still moving military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran’s blistering ballistic missile attack on Oct. 1. They were sharable within the “Five Eyes,” which are the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The documents, which are marked top secret, were posted to the Telegram messaging app last week and first reported by CNN and Axios. The AP first reported Sunday about the U.S. investigation into the unauthorized release, citing three U.S. officials. The AP said a fourth U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, indicated that the documents appeared to be legitimate.  House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also confirmed the investigation in an appearance on CNN.  “The leak is very concerning. There’s some serious allegations being made, there’s an investigation underway, and I’ll get a briefing on that in a couple of hours,” Johnson said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “There’s a classified level briefing and then another. But we’re following it closely.”  IDF SAYS ‘MISSION IS NOT OVER’ UNTIL HOSTAGES ARE RETURNED: ‘WE WILL NOT REST’ The investigation is also examining how the documents were obtained – including whether it was an intentional leak by a member of the U.S. intelligence community or by another method, like a hack – and whether any other intelligence information was compromised, one of the officials told the AP, adding that officials are working to determine who had access to the documents before they were posted.  The documents first appeared online Friday via a channel on Telegram, claiming they had been leaked by someone in the U.S. intelligence community, then later the U.S. Defense Department. The information appeared entirely gathered through the use of satellite image analysis. ISRAEL’S UN AMBASSADOR: RESPONSE TO IRAN WILL BE ‘VERY PAINFUL’ The AP reported that one of the two documents resembled the style of other material from the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency leaked by Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guardsman who pleaded guilty in March to leaking highly classified military documents about Russia’s war on Ukraine and other national security secrets. The Telegram channel involved in the leak identifies itself as being based in Tehran, Iran’s capital. It previously published memes featuring Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and material in support of Tehran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Middle East terrorist groups armed by the Islamic republic. In a statement to the AP, the Pentagon said it was aware of the reports of the documents but did not elaborate further. The AP said the Israeli military did not immediately return their request for comment. Fox News Digital reached out to the U.S. Department of Defense but did not immediately hear back.  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

What Vice President Harris left out about Biden admin’s role in border crisis: A timeline

What Vice President Harris left out about Biden admin’s role in border crisis: A timeline

Vice President Kamala Harris faced a series of questions from Fox News’ Bret Baier on Wednesday about the administration’s record on the border crisis – but did not mention a number of key decisions that critics say fueled the historic migrant crisis. “The first bill that we offered Congress before we worked on infrastructure, before the Inflation Reduction Act, before the Chips and Science Act, before any, before the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first bill, practically within hours of taking the oath, was a bill to fix our immigration system,” Harris said in response to questioning on how the administration handled the border crisis. But Harris skimmed over some of the details of that bill and also did not mention other actions taken by the administration at that time. KAMALA HARRIS AVOIDS QUESTIONS ABOUT BIDEN’S MENTAL DECLINE: ‘JOE BIDEN IS NOT ON THE BALLOT’ After the Biden administration took office, it did, as Harris said, introduce a sweeping immigration reform bill. It would also grant farmworkers, along with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), immediate green card eligibility. They would then be eligible for citizenship three years later.  The bill would have also significantly increased the number of green cards and other immigration pathways available to foreign nationals. It would have also ended per-country caps and implemented a strategy to address “root causes” of migration. Additionally, the administration announced the same day a 100-day moratorium on all deportations. It was eventually blocked by a federal judge after a lawsuit from Texas. Biden also ordered a halt to all border wall construction, an abrupt move that resulted in piles of unused border wall materials littered throughout the border. Separately, the administration also ended the “Remain-in-Mexico” policy, which had forced asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their asylum cases were heard. Supporters had said that policy had effectively ended “catch-and-release” in the areas in which it was implemented. Other orders included a directive to safeguard protections for DACA recipients, and a revocation of the Trump restrictions on travel from predominantly Muslim countries. Encounters soon began to skyrocket at the southern border and President Biden took action by putting Harris in charge of tackling root causes. The administration said issues like climate change, poverty and violence were driving migrants north. It quickly led to Harris being dubbed by media outlets and Republicans as the “border czar.” The White House rejected that title, but it has stuck with her ever since and made her a figurehead, along with DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, for the crisis. After the assignment by Biden, and with numbers skyrocketing through subsequent months to record highs, Harris immediately came under pressure to visit the border as the White House said her role was more diplomatic than related to the border directly. She instead went to Mexico and Guatemala and had a stern message for migrants that upset immigrant activists. “Do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our borders,” she said. “If you come to our border, you will be turned back.” She would face pressure to go to the border itself, and eventually would visit the border in El Paso, Texas. KAMALA HARRIS REPEATEDLY PIVOTS TO TRUMP WHEN GRILLED ON IMMIGRATION RECORD IN FOX NEWS INTERVIEW After a lengthy court battle over first its deportation block, and then subsequent guidance that narrowed interior enforcement, the Biden administration announced its official rules for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. “The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen therefore should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them,” the memo said. It restricted agents to targeting recent border crossers, national security threats and public safety threats. That guidance coincided with a sharp drop in deportations and arrests. The administration would attribute that to COVID-era restrictions, but Republicans said it was part of a broader decrease in enforcement.  That month would also see a controversy over since-debunked claims migrants were whipped by Border Patrol agents on horseback in Texas. Harris helped fuel those claims. “What I saw depicted about those individuals on horseback treating human beings the way they were was horrible,” Harris told reporters. “And I fully support what is happening right now, which is a thorough investigation into exactly what is going on there. But human beings should never be treated that way. And I’m deeply troubled about it. And I’ll also be talking to Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas about it today.” A subsequent investigation faulted the agents for minor infractions but found the underlying claims that migrants were whipped were not true. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Democrats attempted to use the budget reconciliation to bypass the Republican filibuster and pass a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.  Multiple plans were proposed, but were ruled inappropriate by the Senate parliamentarian. The measure was killed in October, when Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said he was opposed to pushing an amnesty through in the process. In 2022, the Biden administration sparked outrage by announcing that it intended to end Title 42 – a COVID-era order that allowed border officials to turn back migrants quickly at the border for public safety reasons. The administration was blocked by a federal judge, and faced bipartisan backlash for the move, given that numbers were on the rise – with more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in FY 23, which was then a record. The administration said it had a plan in place for the order, but that did not convince critics, including border Democrats. The administration also faced legal challenges over its ICE rules for agents, and a tougher congressional makeup as Republicans took control of the House. Meanwhile, Harris traveled to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles and met with other leaders on how to handle the crisis. During that summit, she announced that $3.2 billion in commitments from private sector companies had been secured. She also doubled down on the root causes explanation for the crisis.

DOJ once OK’d law at center of Youngkin voter roll-culling order feds now suing to block

DOJ once OK’d law at center of Youngkin voter roll-culling order feds now suing to block

The Justice Department once green lit the very election reform law it is now suing Virginia over, a measure aimed at removing noncitizens from the commonwealth’s voter rolls, Fox News Digital has learned. The DOJ filed suit Oct. 11 in Alexandria federal court, alleging the state, its board of elections and Elections Commissioner Susan Beals violated a federal law by carrying out an executive order by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The order directed municipal and/or state officials to cull names of people who are “unable to verify that they are citizens” to the Department of Motor Vehicles for voter registration purposes. FLURRY OF PRE-ELECTION LEGAL CASES IN NOW ‘STANDARDIZED’ STRATEGY, EXPERTS SAY Youngkin told Fox News Digital the order he issued in August simply followed a rule put in place in 2006 by then-Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine and approved by the DOJ. But with the November election just weeks away, the agency is now saying it violates a provision of the National Voter Registration Act which requires any voter roll maintenance to be completed before the 90-day window prior to an election. “[W]e now know that the Virginia law was reviewed and expressly approved by the DOJ civil rights division,” Youngkin said. “Now, after being applied for 18 years by both Democrat and Republican governors, with just 25 days before the presidential election, the Biden-Harris DOJ sues Virginia: Ensuring Virginia’s voter rolls do not include non-citizens is constitutional, it’s the law in Virginia and it’s common sense.” YOUNGKIN: EDUCATION IS THE BEDROCK OF THE AMERICAN DREAM Youngkin’s order cited Virginia code 24.2-439, requiring government registrars to cancel noncitizens’ voter registrations deemed to have been sought under false pretenses. It also cited Virginia Code 24.2-1019, requiring registrars to immediately notify their county or city prosecutor of such situations. At least 165 election-related lawsuits have already been filed across the country, with the majority focused on issues such as who should be eligible to vote, how ballots are cast and counted, and how to ensure election security and protect against alleged voter fraud. Legal analysts say they doubt that any of these lawsuits will have a protracted impact on the 2024 election and describe the nature of the claims as fairly standard fare, especially during the more than two decades since George W. Bush fended off Al Gore and a mountain of legal challenges to win the 2020 presidential election. The DOJ alleged in its lawsuit that actions resulting from the August order violated the federal 90-day window. However, Virginia officials maintain their actions target self-reported eligibility discrepancies and were not the kind of systematic voter-roll purging that would violate the Quiet Period provision. An internal Richmond memo obtained by Fox News Digital asserted that the established process for removing noncitizens from voter rolls has taken place under Democratic and Republican governors since Kaine, now a senator, signed the law in 2006. The federal Quiet Period cited by DOJ is “not relevant” to the Commonwealth’s policy, the memo stated, adding that individuals also have the two-week window to affirm citizenship before they are stripped from the rolls, so disqualification is not automatic. If a person believes they were wrongly removed from the rolls, Virginia has long offered same-day voter registration at the polls.  In Kaine-era official correspondence obtained by Fox News Digital, an official in the Virginia attorney general’s office wrote the George W. Bush Justice Department asking for approval of the new law. Two months later, in December 2006, an official in the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section wrote back that the U.S. attorney general “does not interpose any objections to the specific changes,” although it added that the feds’ lack of objection does not rule out future injunctions against the law’s enforcement. CLIMATE PROTESTERS INTERRUPT YOUNGKIN’S 9/11 SPEECH The process for removing an ineligible voter described by the law only begins when a person who files for a driver’s license or other government document attests that they are a noncitizen. From there, the Department of Motor Vehicles shares that information with the state Department of Elections, which matches the information with the county or independent city’s registrar. The individual is then notified that they are ineligible and is given 14 days to prove their citizenship. If they do not, they are then notified that they will be removed and are ultimately removed, the source said. Virginia reportedly removed more than 6,300 individuals from their voter rolls since the order was signed. In a statement after the lawsuit was filed, Youngkin called the legal action “unprecedented” and said he was simply assuring a law signed in 2006 by Kaine, who is running for reelection to the U.S. Senate this year, was being followed by counties and independent cities. In a statement following the filing of the DOJ’s lawsuit, Youngkin staunchly defended his order. “Americans will see this for exactly what it is – a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth, the very crucible of American Democracy,” he said. “I will not stand idly by as this politically motivated action tries to interfere in our elections, period.” However, at the DOJ, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke said that culling voter registrations this close to election day potentially places qualified voters “in jeopardy of being removed from the rolls and creates the risk of confusion for the electorate.” “Congress adopted the National Voter Registration Act’s Quiet Period restriction to prevent error-prone, eleventh-hour efforts that all too often disenfranchise qualified voters,” Clarke said in a statement. As a result of Youngkin’s order, more than 1,000 registrations in two major Washington, D.C-area counties were canceled, according to local reports. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Loudoun County, a formerly-red bastion now tinted blue due to exurban sprawl from the nation’s capital, culled 98 names. Eastward along US-50, heavily-Democratic Fairfax County removed 985 and is transmitting them to the local prosecutor and Attorney General Jason Miyares to probe any potential lawbreaking, according to

IDF says ‘mission is not over’ until hostages are returned: ‘We will not rest’

IDF says ‘mission is not over’ until hostages are returned: ‘We will not rest’

The Israel Defense Forces said that the war in Gaza is not over following the killing of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ top leader and the mastermind of the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack, and will continue until the hostages taken amid that day’s massacre are returned. IDF Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari released declassified footage showing Sinwar hours before the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, as well as his movements in Gaza as he fled over the past year. Hagari said 101 hostages remain held in Gaza after a year in captivity under “ruthless conditions.”  “Killing Sinwar is the result of a year of operational and intelligence efforts to bring him and other Hamas leaders to justice. Sinwar has been eliminated. But our mission is not over,” Hagari said in a video statement on Saturday. “We will not rest until we bring all our hostages home by any means possible. And we will continue to defend the people of Israel from all threats on all of our borders.”  NETANYAHU PROMISES RETALIATION FOLLOWING ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT BY HEZBOLLAH Hours before the Oct. 7 attacks, during which Hamas terrorists murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds more as hostages into Gaza, Sinwar was captured on video alone hiding his family and equipment, including beds, pillows, food, water and a TV in an underground tunnel network, Hagari said.  NETANYAHU’S DEFIANCE OF BIDEN-HARRIS RAFAH INVASION THREATS LED TO ELIMINATION OF SINWAR, EXPERTS SAY While Sinwar’s location was kept classified while he ordered the attacks from the underground tunnels, “this was a luxury that the people of Gaza did not have as Sinwar always prioritized himself, his money and the Hamas terrorists over the people of Gaza,” Hagari said. “Each step was planned to maximize harm to Israeli and Gazan civilians and to minimize harm to himself and other terrorists.” “Throughout the war that Sinwar started, he continued to hide underneath the people of Gaza,” Hagari said. In February, Hagari said Israeli troops found Sinwar’s underground hideout in Khan Yunis that included money, food, beds, documents, a shower and a kitchen. IDF operations in Khan Yunis forced Sinwar to flee to Rafah last month, Hagari said.  Sinwar’s DNA was recovered on a piece of tissue “a few hundred meters” from a tunnel where six Israeli hostages were executed in Rafah before Sinwar fled again, Hagari said.  “When Sinwar was running for his life and went above the ground, this was the first and last time that he encountered Israeli soldiers in combat,” Hagari said. “Sinwar was eliminated by the IDF in Rafah last Wednesday. I want to emphasize it again: This was the first and last time he encountered Israeli soldiers, and he was eliminated. There were no hostages with Sinwar when he was eliminated.”