Tuesday, August 31, 2021
The Taliban are from Shevet Reuvein....Who Knew?
Gleaned from an article by David Israel
The late Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail was one of the persistent voices claiming that the Afghani warrior tribes of Afridi, Lohani, Jaj, and Rabani, are the heirs of the tribes of Ephraim, Levy, Gad, and Reuven, four of the Ten Tribes of Israel the Assyrian empire exiled in 722 BCE.
According to Rabbi David Pisanti, director of a research institute that was sponsored by the late Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, 20 million or so Pashtuns (out of around 63 million – the last official census in Afghanistan was conducted in 1979 – DI) identify themselves as “Bnei Israel,” and are known as such by their Muslim neighbors.
Rabbi Avichail believed some of the Taliban came from the “Israelite” Pashtu and as such bore the spirit of the warlike tribe of Reuven.
Author Benzion Yehoshua, whose father came to Israel from Afghanistan, conducted historical, cultural, and social research on the Jewish communities in Iran and Afghanistan. He documented several traditions that are kept by the Pashtuns who claim they come from the exiled tribes of Israel:
Taliban execute folk singer days after saying music is ‘forbidden,’
I guess no Carlebach minyanim for the Taliban!
An Afghan folk singer has been executed by the Taliban just days after the Islamic fundamentalist group stated that “music is forbidden in Islam,” according to his family.
Fawad Andarabi’s family told The Associated Press that he was shot dead Friday, just days after enforcers had searched his home and drank tea with him.
“They shot him in the head on the farm,” his son, Jawad, said of the killing in the Andarabi Valley for which he was named.
“He was innocent, a singer who only was entertaining people,” the grieving son said of his dad, who played a bowed lute called a ghichak and sang traditional songs about his country.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the AP that the insurgents would investigate the incident, but had no other details on the killing in the area about
It came just days after Mujahid told The New York Times that music was being outlawed, just as it had been during the group’s brutal rule from 1996 until 2001.
“Music is forbidden in Islam,” Mujahid told the paper, while insisting, “We’re hoping that we can persuade people not to do such things, instead of pressuring them.”
Afghanistan’s former interior minister, Masoud Andarabi — who is not related — shared footage of the singer performing, saying he was “brutally killed” simply for “bringing joy to this valley and its people.”
“As he sang here ‘our beautiful valley….land of our forefathers’ will not submit to Taliban’s brutality,” he tweeted.
Trump: Demand US Equipment From Taliban or Bomb it
Former President Donald Trump said on Monday that the U.S. should demand that all of their equipment back from the Taliban, “or at least bomb the hell out of it,” in a statement emailed to supporters.
“Never in history has a withdrawal from war been handled so badly or incompetently as the Biden Administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Trump said. “In addition to the obvious, ALL EQUIPMENT should be demanded to be immediately returned to the U.S., and that includes every penny of the $85 billion dollars (sic) in cost. If it is not handed back, we should either go in with unequivocal Military force and get it, or at least bomb the hell out of it. Nobody ever thought such stupidity, as this feeble-brained withdrawal, was possible!”
According to reports, billions of dollars worth of weapons and equipment have fallen into the hands of the Taliban since the group swept through the country. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said earlier this month that “We don’t have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone, but certainly a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban. And obviously, we don’t have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us at the airport.”
“When an armed group gets their hands on American-made weaponry, it’s sort of a status symbol. It’s a psychological win,” noted Elias Yousif, deputy director of the Center for International Policy’s Security Assistance Monitor, according to The Hill.
“Clearly, this is an indictment of the U.S. security cooperation enterprise broadly,” he added. “It really should raise a lot of concerns about what is the wider enterprise that is going on every single day, whether that’s in the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia.”
18 Year old Chazzan does Akavia
Newcomer A.T.(avrohom tzvi) Friedman is just eighteen years old, and he is NOT entering the Jewish music world. He is doing something rather unique and original by entering the much smaller arena of chazanus. Yes, you heard right.
The world of chazanus you see is usually full of seasoned veteran cantors who have been doing this a long time. However, it is not very often that new young blood has entered the arena.
The young Friedman’s father is a beautiful baal tefila, and so are his brothers, though they were never formerly trained. A.T. is the first in his family to train.
Though he grew up listening to chazanus, at first he didn’t appreciate it. As he got older, he started to really love chazanus and today he actually LIVES chazanus. The world renowned Chazan Moshe Koussovitsky is one of his favorite cantors among other world renowned chazanim.
The piece of chazanus A.T. is releasing to the world is titled “Akavia Ben Mehalalel” with words from Pirkei Avos. The song is a classical piece of chazanus made famous by Chazan Moshe Koussovitsky. Friedman’s goal is to inspire more people, especially the younger generation to listen to chazanus and give it a chance, to connect to it on an emotional level deeper than the typical pop tunes out there.
Akavia is a perfect message to send out to the world during Elul, days before Rosh Hashanah.
Chareidie "Influencer" gets flack ... Her Kids Kicked out of School
So who is watching her? People who don't care about the "rabbinical" bans on the internet.
Question: How did the rabbis find out that she is an "influencer"
and what's wrong? She is bringing in a nice parnassah supporting her family and not having her husband run around every morning to the schuls "schnorring"
Monday, August 30, 2021
Some Chasidic GroupsWill Ban Unvaccinated on Rosh Hashana
Ahead of Rosh Hashanah, preparations are being completed in Chasidic communities for large groups of Chasidim to spend the holiday with their rabbis and teachers.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year several Chasidic groups have come out with clear instructions regarding who is allowed to attend the mass prayers.
According to Kikar Hashabbat, Rabbi Itche Meir Tauman, a leading Gerrer rabbi, has ordered that anyone who is eligible for a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine receive it immediately. Those who are unvaccinated will not be allowed to pray in the synagogue, he said.
Rabbi Tauman also said that anyone who has a Green Pass will be able to receive an entrance permit so that the guards will be able to allow him in, and that children over 12 years of age must also be vaccinated in order to enter the synagogue.
Yeshiva students who have a Green Pass will receive a special bracelet from their yeshiva supervisors, and anyone who has symptoms in the coming week will not be allowed to enter the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah.
Border Police Officer Wounded By Arab In Gazan Riot Passes Away
Sergeant Barel Shmueli, the Border Police officer who was critically wounded by an Arab during a riot by the Gaza border last Shabbos died of his injuries, a Saroka Hospital spokesperson said on Monday.
Barel, 21, who was shot in his face at point-blank range, had undergone multiple surgeries but on Sunday he suffered a serious deterioration in his condition.
“The medical staff fought for Shmueli’s life as he underwent several surgeries. But despite all the efforts and due to the complexity of his injury, we were forced to determine his death,” a statement from Soroka read.
Shmueli, a resident of Be’er Yaakov, served as a sniper in the undercover Yamas Border Police unit and was slated to be discharged in only two months.
Yehi Zichro Baruch.
Rashida Tlaib Demands ‘Dignity’ for Arab Woman Killed while Ramming Israeli Soldiers
“Meet Mai Afana’s mother, Khuloud, who is fighting to be able to bury her daughter & begin her healing,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich) tweeted on Saturday, explaining: “Mai was a mother, loving daughter & successful Ph.D. student. She was killed by the Israeli government last June. Israel won’t release her body to her family.”
To which former Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) responded: “You forgot the part where she attempted to murder a bunch of Israelis. Minor detail, for you, we know…”
The Song of Sukkah
NEW! SONG OF SUKKAH! A great Chazara -
Daf Yomi will be celebrating the Siyum of Meseches Sukkah this Wednesday. The SONG OF SUKKAH includes hundreds phrases and expressions of the mesechta, chazur’ing its’ key klallim and yesodos - all in rhyme!
Song of Sukkah https://share.vidyard.com/watch/HQHFaXY5B4Wi9YKNNxz7un?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BP5NTm_hUVtZnaNPNXf1-fSHfvoBfSLq/view?usp=sharing
R' Chaim Kanievski Paskens that a Pedophile Can Be Reported to Police
הגר"ח קנייבסקי מתיר לפנות למשטרה נגד סוטים
פסק דין דרמטי של שר התורה הרב קנייבסקי שליט״א שהותר לפרסום עם חשיפת מעשי הפדופיליה החמורים של ראשי ישיבת באר יהודה בתלמידים שהושתקו במשך שנים רבות
Everything You Need to Know About Biden in One Clip
Everything you need to know about this guy in one tiny clip…
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) August 30, 2021
“I’m not supposed to answer any questions…”
pic.twitter.com/IEsAad8mXW
Two Roshei Yeshivos ..Brothers..Sexually abused their Talmidim for Years
A special rabbinical court convened by five prominent Charedi rabbis has ruled that two brothers who are deans of a prominent yeshiva in Jerusalem sexually abused their students for years, and have forbidden parents from sending their sons to the institution.
The court said that “severe and obscene transgressions” had been committed by Rabbi Yitzhak Tufik, dean of the Be’er Yehudah Yeshiva in the Sanhedria neighborhood of Jerusalem, and his brother, Rabbi Moshe Tufik, dean of the Be’er Yehudah “yeshiva ketana” for high-school pupils.
The Tufik brothers are the sons of the well-known haredi Rabbi Eliyahu Tufik, senior dean of the Be’er Yehuda Yeshiva institutions. He is not implicated in the alleged sexual abuse.
Gerer Rebbe contracts coronavirus
Gerrer hasidim are concerned, following news that their leader has contracted coronavirus, Kikar Hashabbat reported.
Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, the Gerrer Rebbe, received the third dose of the coronavirus vaccine approximately two weeks ago, during a trip to the US.
According to Kikar Hashabbat, Rabbi Alter did not feel well and did not attend Selichot prayers. In addition, the reception scheduled for Monday has been canceled.
Wise'ass Who Worked Against COVID Measures Dies From Virus
A man who led efforts in his Central Texas community against mask wearing and other preventative measures during the coronavirus pandemic has died from COVID-19, one month after being admitted to the emergency room.
Caleb Wallace died on Saturday, his wife Jessica Wallace said on a GoFundMe page where she had been posting updates on his condition, the San Angelo Standard-Times reported Saturday. He was 30 years old and a father of three children. His wife is pregnant with their fourth child.
“Caleb has peacefully passed on. He will forever live in our hearts and minds,” Jessica Wallace wrote.
On July 4, 2020, Caleb Wallace helped organize “The Freedom Rally” in San Angelo. People at the event carried signs that criticized the wearing of masks, business closures, the science behind COVID-19, and liberal media. He also organized the group “The San Angelo Freedom Defenders.”
“We are not real happy with the current state of America at the moment,” Wallace said in July 2020.
In April, he wrote a letter to the San Angelo school district, demanding it rescind all its COVID-19 protocols.
Jessica Wallace told the newspaper her husband began experiencing COVID-19 symptoms on July 26 but refused to get tested or go to the hospital. He instead took high doses of Vitamin C, zinc aspirin and ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medicine that officials have urged people not to take for COVID-19.
Caleb Wallace was taken to an emergency room on July 30 and since Aug. 8, he had been unconscious and on a ventilator.
A day before his death, Jessica Wallace has posted on the family’s GoFundMe page that her husband “was an imperfect man but he loved his family and his little girls more than anything.”
“To those who wished him death, I’m sorry his views and opinions hurt you. I prayed he’d come out of this with a new perspective and more appreciation for life. I can’t say much more than that because I can’t speak for him,” she said.
Fire Destroys Monsey Home on Main Street Near Motti's Grocery That Burned Down 6 Months Ago?
A fast-moving fire left a home in Monsey destroyed, but thankfully, no one was injured.
The fire started at around 6:00PM at 19 Main Street, just next door to Motty’s Supermarket.
The Fire Department, Rockland Hatzolah and Rockland Chaveirim all received multiple calls reporting the fire. Chaveirim and Hatzolah arrived first on the scene, and both assisted in evacuating multiple elderly occupants from the home. Eyewitnesses told YWN that Hatzolah and Chaveirim volunteers literally saved the lives of the occupants of the home.
In an "interesting twist," Motty’s Supermarket – which is located next door – burned down around 7 months ago.
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Moshe Margaretten Charedi Jew is rescuing dozens of Afghan women
Zebulon Simantov, Afghanistan’s last Jew, has not left Kabul, despite the best efforts of some Jewish figures and organizations.
One of them was Moshe Margaretten, a haredi fixer whose passion is bringing Jews out of danger.
Margaretten paid Moti Kahana, an Israeli-American businessman who helped extract people from war-torn Syria, to be a middleman and get Simantov out — but Kahana told Margaretten what many others had heard: Simantov was not leaving because of his longstanding refusal to grant his Israeli wife a “get,” or decree of divorce. Simantov feared facing Israel’s legal system, which penalizes such a refusal.
But Kahana hatched another idea. The team he sent into Kabul to extract Simantov learned that there were plenty of women in danger of being targeted by the Taliban as they assumed total control of Afghanistan — among them members of the country’s national women’s soccer team, along with judges and prosecutors.
Was Margaretten interested in paying for their extraction?
“Absolutely,” Margaretten said. “Give me 10 hours.”
Within a day, Margaretten, who is based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, had drummed up $80,000 from his haredi community. He wired the funds to Kahana’s consultancy, GDC, and by Wednesday, Kahana was, from his New Jersey farm, coordinating the extraction of at least four soccer players, a judge, a prosecutor and their families, over land and by air. Kahana said they numbered 23 people. Margaretten said the money would also assist the refugees after their departure.
By Friday, Kahana said his team had extracted another 23 people.
Khalida Popal, the former captain of the national women’s soccer team who is now based in Denmark and is leading efforts to extract the players, thanked Margaretten’s nonprofit, Tzedek Association, on Twitter on Thursday afternoon, as the world was reeling from the news of a massive suicide bomb attack on Kabul’s airport.
“Thank you @Tzedek_Assoc for your incredible help w/ this life-saving rescue effort, including coordination to the airport and other routes, and political connections,” she said. “Together we are saving lives!” (Margaretten said that some of the funds are being directed through Tzedek, and some are going directly to the project to assist the refugees.)
Popal did not add details and did not return requests for an interview, but her expression of relief came after days of tweets expressing anxiety and uncertainty.
“This is exactly where our players were last night,” she tweeted 90 minutes earlier, attaching a video of the carnage at Kabul airport. “I am worried and nervous and feel bad in my stomach. I don’t know if some of our players are here. I am worried.”
Israeli boy dies after being stung by jellyfish in Thailand
A nine-year-old Israeli boy was stung by a box jellyfish on a beach in the Thai city of Ko Phangan and died as a result shortly after, Thai authorities reported.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been notified of the tragic case and the Israeli consulate in Thailand is handling the incident and is in constant contact with the boy's father.
According to reports, the child was stung by a jellyfish strain that is considered one of the most venomous in the world - and its venom causes various symptoms, the most extreme of which is death.
After being stung and beginning to suffer from a series of side effects he was taken to a hospital in Ko Phangan where doctors tried to save his life in various ways but were eventually forced to determine his death.
Insiders Say ..Not much is real about Julia Haart and ‘My Unorthodox Life’
On the buzzy Netflix reality series “My Unorthodox Life,” sexy, glamorous Julia Haart has quite a story to tell. It’s a fairy tale of how she fled her Orthodox Jewish community in Monsey, NY, to make her way in the fashion world: launching her own own shoe line, becoming creative director at the luxury fashion brand La Perla and, now, serving as the CEO of Elite World Group — a talent agency which includes Elite Model Management and represents the likes of Kendall Jenner, Iman and Helena Christensen.
But insiders say that she is painting an ugly, unfair picture of life in her former community — as uneducated and so restrictive it left her suicidal.
“Julia’s hanging on to this word ‘fundamentalism’ — and sensationalism sells,” said a former friend of Haart’s from Monsey. “She says she was held captive, but that’s not true.”
The show follows Haart, 50, her four kids and her second husband, Elite owner Silvio Scaglia, and includes lots of scenes of her railing against her past life in an “extreme” community” — a characterization that another old friend, Roselyn Feinsod, disputes.
(Haart did not wish to comment.)
Meanwhile, style insiders say Haart’s role in the fashion world is also distorted on the series.
“The show is so misleading. It is a house of mirrors,” said an Elite source. “When she came in, it was all about her self-promotion … She is really good at making it seem like she is an agent of change and she is good at pretending to be all about empowerment. But it’s all publicity for her.”
Julia Haart freely admits that she changed both her name and her persona — more than once.
Born Julia Leibov, she moved as a child from Russia to Texas and, eventually, to Monsey, NY — a center for Orthodox Jews. That’s where Feinsod first met her, at yeshiva.
HaRav Yitzchak Dovid Grossman And Wife of Migdal Ha’Emek Test Positive For COVID
The Rov of Migdal Ha’Emek and a member of the Chief Rabbi’s Council of Israel, HaRav Yitzchak Dovid Grossman and his wife have both tested positive for COVID.
According to a reports, Both Rav Grossman and his wife received the first two Covid-19 vaccines and were supposed to go and receive their third booster dose of the vaccine in the coming days, but tested positive yesterday with the virus.
Yossi Roush, an assistant to Rabbi Grossman told the media that “Ever since the virus hit Israel, the Rabbi and his family have strictly complied with all of the health regulations set forth by the Health Ministry. In the end, the virus got to them as well. We are all praying that both the Rabbi and his wife will recover fully and quickly.”
They are both at home.
Did President Biden Fall Asleep During Meeting With Prime Minister Bennett?
Did President Joe Biden fall asleep during his Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday?
Biden met with the Israeli Prime Minister on Friday in his only public event for the day.
At one point during the meeting, Biden dropped his head down and appeared to be asleep as Bennett spoke about the friendship between the US and Israel.
Saturday, August 28, 2021
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Undermining the pro-Israel Community’s Efforts to Combat Antisemitism.
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| Greenblatt the stooge for leftist' Jew Haters |
t’s enormously frustrating when the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) – which should be working with us―instead undermines the pro-Israel community’s efforts to combat antisemitism. Too often, ADL gives a “free pass” to Islamist, BLM, and other left wing antisemitism. ADL now appears ready to hand out “free passes” to radical Islamist antisemites on college campuses, during ADL’s new partnership with Hillel.
The partnership calls for ADL’s “experts” to determine what is antisemitic. Yet, absurdly, when describing how the ADL-Hillel partnership will operate, ADL’s “experts” announced that “a BDS resolution alone would not count as antisemitism,” but “might”―might (!)―count as antisemitism if Jewish students were excluded from the debate on the resolution.
It is deeply concerning that ADL’s “experts” are ignoring the fact that BDS resolutions are invariably antisemitic. These sinister BDS resolutions are propagated on college campuses by the antisemitic hate group Students for Justice in Palestine.
Head of Ben & Jerry’s board accused of Using Foundation to Fund Her Own Pro-Palestinian Tzedakka Fund
The head of the board of directors of Ben & Jerry’s is accused of alleged self-dealing, doling out tens of thousands in cash from the controversial ice cream company’s foundation to fund her own pro-Palestinian non-profit, according to a watchdog complaint to the IRS.
Anuradha Mittal, the chair of the ice cream maker’s board since 2008, organized the company’s recent, controversial boycott, refusing to sell ice cream to Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories.
She is also a vice president of the company’s non-profit foundation. Between 2017 and 2018, the foundation doled out more than $100,000 to the Oakland Institute, a progressive think tank that studies land reform around the world, where Mittal is executive director and the only salaried employee, according to IRS filings.
“It is our contention that this a possible violation of self-dealing as Mittal is considered a disqualified person under IRS rules,” reads a copy of the complaint prepared by the Virginia-based National Legal and Policy Center.
Robert F. Kennedy’s Murderer Sirhan Sirhan granted parole
A grinning Sirhan Sirhan arrives for his parole hearing Friday.
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The late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin was granted parole Friday after two of the slain political icon’s sons said they supported his release.
Douglas Kennedy, who was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968, said he was moved to tears by Sirhan Sirhan’s remorse during a parole hearing that prosecutors didn’t attend.
“I’m overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face,” he said.
“I think I’ve lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spoken in favor of Sirhan’s release in the past, also wrote in favor of paroling Sirhan.
Sirhan — who smiled as Kennedy spoke — told members of the California Parole Board that he’d learned to control his anger.
“I would never put myself in jeopardy again,” said Sirhan, 77.
“You have my pledge. I will always look to safety and peace and non-violence.”
Sirhan, 77, a Christian Palestinian from Jordan, has acknowledged he was angry at Kennedy for his support of Israel, and he broke down in tears when asked how he felt about the Middle East conflict today.
“The misery that those people are experiencing. It’s painful,” he said after composing himself.
Young Girl Burned By Shabbos Hot-Water Urn Three Weeks Ago, Is Niftar
Beilinson Hospital in Ashkelon announced that the seven-year-old Chareidi girl, Uriya Karni, who was seriously injured three weeks ago when a hot water urn spilled boiling water on her, was Niftar on Wednesday night.
Uriya A”H, was helping prepare her house in Ashkelon for Shabbos, when the urn spilled water all over her body. She suffered serious burns.
United Hatzalah volunteers rushed to her house and initiated emergency medical treatment. She was then rushed to the hospital in moderate condition.
Doctors spent the last three weeks fighting for her life. On Wednesday the fight was lost and young Uriyah was Niftar.
Friday, August 27, 2021
The antisemitic uneducated Jew
by Rabbi Yaakov Menken
America has long been a welcoming home for minority religious groups, observant Jews being a notable example. In addition to synagogues, day schools and yeshivahs, growing demand is such that most sizable Jewish communities support at least one kosher grocery store with larger ones having multiple supermarkets carrying exclusively kosher foods.
Shoppers will find baked goods, produce, soda and so on, as they would in a Kroger or Publix supermarket, or Whole Foods Market, except that all items are kosher. But here's what they will no longer find: Ben & Jerry's. In response to the company's announcement last month that selling ice cream to Jews in Judea is "inconsistent" with its "values," there isn't a kosher supermarket or grocery store in the country willing to carry its products.
Driver flees after killing 20-year-old Chareidie near Modi'in
A 20-year-old Chareidie man was killed and two more injured Friday morning after he was hit by a car on Highway 6 in central Israel.
The incident occurred near the Daniel Junction on northbound Highway 6, northwest of the city of Modi’in, when the victim tried to cross the highway and was struck by a passing car.
Two other young men in their 20s who were crossing at the same time were also hit and injured in the accident. One was moderately injured, emergency responders said, while the third was treated for shock.
“On the side of the road a man roughly 20 years of age was lying unconscious, with serious head injuries,” MDA first responder Aryeh Mayers reported from the scene.
“He had no vital signs. We performed medical examinations on him, but were forced to declare his death shortly thereafter.”
The two other victims were evacuated to Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer, Ramat Gan.
Authorities say the driver of the car fled the scene shortly after the accident.
Local police have launched a search for the driver.
Black Cop that Killed an unarmed White Ashli Babbitt on Jan 6 Protests Says "I was Doing My Job"
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| Michael Byrd the Murderer |
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| Ashli Babbitt the victim |
The veteran US Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 riot defended his actions Thursday, telling NBC News that “I was doing my job” and insisting that Babbitt was a threat to lawmakers and congressional staff on that fateful day.
Lt. Michael Byrd came forward days after he was exonerated from any wrongdoing in Babbitt’s death by an internal use-of-force probe.
The 28-year veteran shot Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and devotee of the QAnon conspiracy theory, as she attempted to enter the Speaker’s Lobby via a broken door. The officer told NBC News’ Lester Holt that seconds before he fired his weapon, he had been screaming at Babbitt and her fellow rioters to “please stop” and “get back.”
“You’re ultimately hoping that your commands will be complied with,” Byrd said, “and unfortunately, they were not.”
When Holt asked Byrd what he thought Babbitt was doing when he shot her, the officer responded bluntly: “She was posing a threat to the House of Representatives.”
Byrd also shed more light on the chaos of the day.
At one point, he recalled, an incorrect report that gunshots had been fired into the House chamber came over his radio.
“I was very afraid,” Byrd said. “I’m hearing about the breaches of different barricaded areas, officers being overrun, officers being down.”
Despite the hours-long rampage — which included running battles between police and rioters — Babbitt was the only person who was killed on Jan. 6.
Three other Trump supporters died after suffering medical emergencies. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died the day after the riot following a pair of strokes and at least four other law enforcement officers who responded to the Capitol that day have taken their own lives in the months since.
“I’m sure it was a terrifying situation,” Byrd told Holt when asked why no other officers shot at the rioters that day. “I can only control my reaction, my training, my level of expertise. That would be upon them to speak for themselves.”
Trump earlier this month said that Babbitt was “murdered at the hands of someone who should never have pulled the trigger of his gun” and called for “justice.”
On Thursday, Byrd called that statement “disheartening,” but added that if he had been responsible for the former president’s protection, “I was prepared to do the same thing for him and his family … because it’s my job.”
Babbitt’s widower, Aaron, told Fox News Thursday evening that he was “pissed off” by Byrd’s statements in the interview.
“I don’t even want to hear him talk about how he’s getting death threats and he’s scared,” Babbitt told “Tucker Carlson Tonight”. “I’ve been getting death threats since January 7th. Two, three, five, ten a day, you know? And all I did on January 6th was become a widower, so you’re gonna have to suck it up, bud, and take it.”
Attorney Terry Roberts, who represents the Babbitt family, recently called her death an “ambush” and says the family is preparing to file a $10 million lawsuit against both Byrd and the Capitol Police.
Insane! Biden admits That He Gave Taliban ‘kill list’ of Afghans who aided US
A potentially deadly blunder by President Joe Biden’s administration effectively handed the Taliban a “kill list” to target Afghans who aided the US, according to a report Thursday — and admitted it may have happened when asked later at a White House briefing.
Following the Taliban takeover of Kabul, US officials there gave the Islamic extremist group the names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies so they could be allowed to enter the Taliban-controlled perimeter around the Hamid Karzai International Airport, according to Politico.
The decision was reportedly made despite the Taliban’s notorious reputation for brutally executing Afghans who helped the US military and other Western forces during the war and occupation that followed the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
“Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list,” a US defense official told Politico. “It’s just appalling and shocking and makes you feel unclean.”
During a news conference about Thursday’s deadly terror attack at the Kabul airport, Biden acknowledged unspecified “occasions” on which the US military had contacted the Taliban to say, “for example, this bus is coming through with ‘X’ number of people on it, made up of the following people.”
“And to the best of my knowledge, in those cases, the bulk of that has occurred. They’ve been let through,” he said.
“But I can’t tell you with any certitude that there’s actually been a list of names. There may have been, but I know of no circumstance.”
Biden added: “That doesn’t mean it’s not — it didn’t exist. That, ‘Here’s the names of 12 people. They’re coming. Let them through.’ It could very well have happened.”
The shocking revelation came just days after it was revealed that Taliban death squads have been going “door-to-door” to hunt down suspected Afghan “collaborators,” with tens of thousands of American allies potentially at risk.
The White House’s major miscalculation surfaced during a classified, Capitol Hill briefing earlier this week, Politico said.
The closed-door meeting reportedly grew heated when top administration officials tried to defend coordinating with the Taliban, claiming it was the best way to prevent a shooting war between US troops and Taliban fighters from breaking out at the airport.
The Biden administration has been relying on the Taliban to provide security outside the airport, and Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, and Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, head of US forces on the ground in Afghanistan, have referred to the Taliban in both written and verbal communications as “our Afghan partners,” two defense officials told Politico.
Following the fall of Kabul on Aug. 15, the joint US military and diplomatic team at the airport began giving the Taliban lists of people the US was seeking to evacuate, Politico said.
“They had to do that because of the security situation the White House created by allowing the Taliban to control everything outside the airport,” one US official said.
But after thousands of visa applicants started arriving at the airport, the State Department reportedly told those people to stay away until they were cleared for entry and the lists given to the Taliban no longer included the names of any Afghans.
As of Wednesday, only people with US passports and green cards were being admitted to the airport and processed for evacuation, the defense official told Politico.
A spokesperson for US Central Command declined to comment, Politico said.