logo
Mossad to Tehran: we already know your ‘secret' war commander

Mossad to Tehran: we already know your ‘secret' war commander

Yahoo2 days ago
'We know exactly who he is and know him well. Unfortunately, such basic information is hidden from the Iranian people. Please send us your guesses about his name.'
Israel's Mossad intensified its online campaign against Tehran on Tuesday, seizing on a Tasnim News Agency report that the Islamic Republic would not reveal the name of the newly appointed commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters and declaring on its Persian-language X account:
'We know exactly who he is and know him well. Unfortunately, such basic information is hidden from the Iranian people. Please send us your guesses about his name.'
The Khatam al-Anbiya post—Mossad's second major tweet of the day—came minutes after Tasnim said the regime was withholding the commander's identity 'for his protection' following the killings of his two predecessors in Israeli strikes last month.
Earlier on Tuesday, the same Mossad account asserted that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had 'surrendered' and approved negotiations with both the United States and Israel, calling the move 'the beginning of the end of the Islamic Republic' and proclaiming that 'the countdown has begun.'
The twin messages are the latest salvoes in a Farsi-language influence campaign Mossad launched last month. Initial posts mocked senior Iranian officials for secretly following the feed, offered VPN tips, and warned ordinary Iranians not to like or share content to avoid detection by security services.
Iranian officials haven't acknowledged appointing a successor to the slain Maj.-Gen. Ali Shadmani. Khamenei, 86, last appeared on state television on June 26, vowing that Iran would 'never surrender,' a stance starkly at odds with Mossad's earlier claim.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

These 4 charts show where the hedge fund industry is midway through 2025
These 4 charts show where the hedge fund industry is midway through 2025

Business Insider

time25 minutes ago

  • Business Insider

These 4 charts show where the hedge fund industry is midway through 2025

That optimism did not last long, however, as the President's tariff policies disrupted global trade and sent markets into a frenzy. Big-name managers such as Bill Ackman, Dan Loeb, and Ken Griffin, each of whom voted for Trump, were critical of the tariffs, but the administration used one of the industry's own — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a former macro investor who worked for George Soros — to sell the policies at the Milken conference and on TV. Tariff negotiations are still ongoing, but the administration's 90-day pause is set to end Wednesday. Meanwhile, choppy markets and the rise of artificial intelligence renewed interest in long-short equity managers, as hedge fund backers sought investors who can pick winners and losers in the new world order. The first quarter of this year was one of the sector's best fundraising stretches in a long time. Markets have since settled down, and June was a strong month for stocks. One hedge fund founder, BoothBay's Ari Glass, told investors after the first quarter that the portfolio managers and firms his fund backs believe "it is beginning to feel like sentiment is similar to the second quarter of 2020 and we know that while history does not repeat itself, it can rhyme." While the pandemic slammed stocks in March 2020, many hedge funds had a stellar year by betting on a quick and significant recovery. Still, there's the possibility of more macro tremors shaking global markets. Trump is still pursuing his tariff agenda. He will sign his "Big Beautiful Bill," which contains about $4.5 billion in tax cuts and is estimated to add billions to federal deficits, into legislation on Friday. And the potential for a broader conflict in the Middle East has investors on edge. According to a recent report from Goldman Sachs' prime brokerage desk, the week the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites was the second-largest net selling of energy stocks by hedge funds in the last 10 years, with many American funds now shorting energy stocks. Multistrategy giants hitting their peak? The biggest hedge funds still dominate the conversation as managers like Millennium, Citadel, Point72, and Balyasny continue their long-running war over talent that has sent compensation costs skyrocketing. Many multistrategy funds, even smaller peers without the track record of the so-called big four, can only afford these payouts to coveted personnel thanks to pass-through fees, which leaves limited partners holding the bag for all the costs of running the business. A Goldman Sachs survey of multi-manager firms running a combined $300 billion from earlier this year found that 61% have changed their terms by adding either pass-through fees or "more onerous" liquidity terms. End investors have been pushing back for years and finally broke through last year, getting managers as large as Michael Gelband's ExodusPoint to agree to a cash hurdle that requires a fund to outperform Treasury bonds to earn performance fees. Another Goldman report found that close to half of allocators are now looking for managers they back to adopt hurdles. In other words, after years of explosive asset growth, multi-strategy funds might finally be plateauing. According to Nasdaq's eVestment, the sector had net outflows of $1.2 billionin the first quarter. Managers with tens of billions in assets like Citadel, Point72, and D.E. Shaw even returned capital to start the year. Other mega-funds, especially Millennium, have focused increasingly on allocating to external managers via separately managed accounts, which has warped the emerging manager space. SMAs often allow allocators more transparency and customization into a fund's operations and trading, though the independence of these new managers from their behemoth backers is in question. JPMorgan expects 58% of new launches over the next year to be SMAs, despite, as Goldman wrote, the "lines are now more blurred between platform hedge funds vs fund of hedge funds, proprietary vs external." The shift has meant seed investors feel they can push for even greater transparency into managers' books. According to law firm Seward & Kissel, close to half of those who backed new launches last year required the new funds to provide daily trading reports.

Israeli strikes kill 15 in Gaza, while shootings kill 20 people waiting for aid
Israeli strikes kill 15 in Gaza, while shootings kill 20 people waiting for aid

Hamilton Spectator

time33 minutes ago

  • Hamilton Spectator

Israeli strikes kill 15 in Gaza, while shootings kill 20 people waiting for aid

DEIR al-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early on Friday, while another 20 people died in shootings while waiting for aid, the hospital morgue that received their bodies told The Associated Press. At least 15 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes, including eight women and one child. Another 20 were shot while waiting for aid, according to Nasser Hospital, including two who were killed near distribution sites in Rafah and 18 who were waiting for trucks to deliver supplies elsewhere in southern Gaza. The recent killings took place as efforts to halt the 21-month war appeared to be moving forward. Hamas said Friday that it was holding discussions with leaders of other Palestinian factions to discuss a ceasefire proposal presented to it by Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. Hamas will give its final response to mediators after the discussions have concluded, the statement said. The Health Ministry in Gaza said the number of Palestinians killed in the territory has passed 57,000. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says more than half of the dead are women and children. The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages. According to Palestinian witnesses and Gaza's Health Ministry, several hundred people have been killed or wounded by Israeli troops when trying to reach the aid sites since they opened in May. The military has repeatedly said it's fired only warning shots, denies deliberately firing towards civilians, and says it's looking into reports of civilian harm. ___ Kullab reported from Jerusalem. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .

'Are We At Risk?' Wave of ICE Arrests Strikes Fear in Iranian Communities
'Are We At Risk?' Wave of ICE Arrests Strikes Fear in Iranian Communities

The Intercept

time37 minutes ago

  • The Intercept

'Are We At Risk?' Wave of ICE Arrests Strikes Fear in Iranian Communities

The brief war between Israel, Iran, and the United States appears to be over for now. But for many Iranian immigrants to the United States, a new period of uncertainty is just beginning. A wave of detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has sparked fear in Iranian communities across the country, amid heightened international tensions spurred by President Trump's decision to join Israel's bombardment of Iran. Among those recently detained are avowed foes of the current Iranian government, including Christian asylum-seekers, former protesters who fled repression, and aging immigrants who have called the U.S. their home for over 40 years, according to news reports, immigration advocates, and attorneys who spoke with The Intercept. 'What ICE has done is essentially look at the geopolitical situation and say, 'Okay, we need to go after Iranians'' More than 130 Iranian nationals have been arrested or detained in the three weeks since Israel launched its 12-day war with Iran on June 13. The Trump Administration has justified this sudden surge by invoking fears of 'sleeper cells' plotting attacks on behalf of the Islamic Republic, according to reporting by Fox News. 'We're seeing Iranians with varying immigration statuses, including green cards, being detained across the country,' said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition. 'They're targeting folks who have followed the process, who have done what the government told them to do in navigating the immigration system.' In the three-year period between October 2021 and November 2024, ICE arrested just 165 Iranian nationals, according to the most recent available statistics. According to Fox News, the total number of Iranians in ICE custody stood at 670 late last month, including the 130 new detainees. Multiple advocates and attorneys who spoke with The Intercept said they expect that number has only increased in the past week. ICE did not respond to a request for comment, nor to a question about the number of Iranians currently in government detention. The Department of Homeland Security last week trumpeted the arrest of 11 Iranian nationals whose only unifying factor was their shared national heritage. Some had criminal charges — decades old, in some cases — and others had irregularities in their immigration status that ICE claimed made them eligible for deportation. DHS claimed one of the detainees admitted having ties to Hezbollah, but the department did not elaborate on what those ties entailed. The wave of arrests came as first Israel and later the United States carried out airstrikes on military and scientific targets linked to Iran's nuclear program. Israel also carried out targeted assassination strikes and car bombings in dense residential neighborhoods across Iran over the course of the conflict. Iran retaliated with ballistic missile attacks on Israel. Though Fox News noted that the administration was conducting the raids in hopes of disrupting 'sleeper cells,' there has been no evidence to back up those claims. There was no indication from DHS and ICE that any of the detainees were picked up due to any actual intelligence on plots against the United States. 'What ICE has done is essentially look at the geopolitical situation and say, 'Okay, we need to go after Iranians,'' said Ryan Costello, policy director of the National Iranian American Council. 'And how they're doing that is essentially sorting by national origin and then looking for cases of individuals where there's some uncertainty on their status.' Read Our Complete Coverage 'It's basically 'The national heritage of Iranians means you're guilty of something, and we'll figure out what that is later,'' Costello said. The detentions have kindled fear among Iranian immigrants and Iranian Americans that they could be next, according to Curtis Morrison, an attorney in California who works extensively with Iranian clients. Speaking with The Intercept on Tuesday afternoon, Morrison said he had just moments ago gotten off the phone with an Iranian client calling in a panic despite having been granted asylum. 'He's asking 'Are we at risk?' And I was like, 'Yes,'' Morrison said. 'It's a really awkward conversation to have.' A number of the people recently detained by ICE had previously been released by ICE after passing a so-called 'credible fear' interview, a stage in the asylum application process in which immigration authorities assess the basis for a claim, according to Jonathan Aftalion, an attorney based in Los Angeles. Aftalion said he has at least one client currently in detention who fears for his life if the Trump administration makes good on its intention to deport him back to Iran. 'This is a guy who is about to be sent back to a regime that is in turmoil, and he is very clearly a political dissident,' Aftalion said. 'If you're clearly a political dissident, and [the Iranian government] has knowledge of that — this is a very harsh regime, and you're essentially going back to your death.' During the Biden administration, approximately 1,200 Iranian nationals were taken into immigration custody then released, according to Trump border czar Tom Homan. Many of those people could now face deportation. Now that Trump is ramping up attempts to send deportees to countries other than their nation of origin, their possible destinations are uncertain. While the timing of the recent uptick in detentions coincides with U.S. tensions with Tehran, it comes after of years during which the U.S. government placed additional burdens on Iranians hoping to immigrate to the United States, according to Aftalion. Under the first Trump administration, and during the later part of the Biden administration, Iranians had to jump through extra hoops to enter the United States or to prove their credible-fear claims, Aftalion said. 'There has been a lot that the Iranian community has had to go through, and it didn't just start with Trump and the tensions between Israel, Iran, and the U.S.,' Aftalion said. 'Iranians have not been getting a fair shake for years now, and it's just been amplified at this time.' For many, however, that amplification has been sudden, and severe. In Louisiana, masked ICE agents arrived on the doorstep of Mandonna 'Donna' Kashanian, 64, and took her into custody. Kashanian came to the United States in 1978 and, despite losing an asylum claim, was given a stay of removal. She has lived here ever since and checked in regularly with immigration authorities, and she has a spouse and a daughter who are both U.S. citizens. In Los Angeles, ICE called a family of Christian asylum-seekers in for a meeting, then took them into custody and transferred them to a detention center in Texas, ICE records show. The family's lawyer, Kaveh Aradalan, told NBC that he has another five clients seeking asylum who have been detained recently. And in Buffalo, unidentified agents have been camping out near the home of an Iranian dissident, prompting neighbors to organize to protect the man against deportation, according to a report in the Investigative Post, a local news site. Speaking with the Investigative Post, the dissident, who was not named, said he feared being sent back to Iran after fleeing in the wake of protests that broke out in 2022 after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman arrested for failing to wear hijab. 'These are people who are seeking safety here,' said Awawdeh, of the New York Immigration Coalition. The Trump administration and ICE authorities 'are creating a stereotype, and then weaponizing that stereotype, and then targeting people because of that.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store