Friday, April 18, 2025
Trump appoints Mark Levin and others to lead ‘revamped’ Homeland Security Advisory Council
President Trump has appointed Fox News host Mark Levin and a host of others to lead his “revamped” Homeland Security Advisory Council.
“I am proud to announce the formation of my revamped Homeland Security Advisory Council [HSAC], which is comprised of Top Experts in their field, who are highly respected by their peers,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Thursday.
Levin, who is the host of Fox News’ “Life, Liberty & Levin”, will be joined by ex-NYPD detective Bo Dietl, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and Florida state Sen. Joseph Gruters.
“It is a big honor to serve on HSAC, and I know the new Members, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, Mark Levin, Bo Dietl, and Joseph Gruters, will do an incredible job,” Trump continued.
“Under Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s leadership, HSAC will work hard on developing new Policies and Strategies that will help us secure our Border, deport Illegal Criminal Thugs, stop the flow of Fentanyl and other illegal drugs that are killing our Citizens, and MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.”
Levin, who has publicly criticized the Trump admin in recent months regarding Ukraine, quickly thanked the president, writing on X: “What an honor! Thank you, Mr. President!”
It comes after the DHS advisory board was among those dismantled as soon as Trump took office.
At the time, the administration said the move was being made to guard against “misuse of resources” after the Biden administration’s disastrous attempt to create a Big Brother-style “Disinformation Governance Board.”
MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia seen ‘sipping margaritas’ with Sen. Van Hollen amid El Salvador deportation battle
Alleged MS-13 gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia was seen “sipping margaritas” with Sen. Chris Van Hollen Thursday amid his high-profile deportation battle, according to photos shared by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
Bukele shared three pics of the Democratic Maryland lawmaker meeting with Abrego Garcia — who was wrongly deported to El Salvador’s notorious megaprison last month — lounging in the country’s “tropical paradise” with what appeared to be salt-rimmed drinking glasses containing an unknown liquid and a cherry.
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador,” Bukele said in an X post Thursday night.
Ronen Bar Head of Shin Bet Directly Responsible for Oct 7 : Smotrich!
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich published a statement this evening (Thursday) explaining his decision not to sit at the cabinet meeting with Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
"'There is no authority without responsibility and there is no responsibility without authority.' This is the first principle in any system that desires life and this is the heart of the debate surrounding the legal coup that has been carried out here in recent decades and has led to an absurd disconnect between authority and responsibility. A disconnect that is now reaching an endpoint around forcing Ronen Bar to continue his term as head of the Shin Bet," Smotrich began.
"Let's start with the fact that Ronen Bar is the head of the Shin Bet who has failed colossally in his position. He is personally responsible for the greatest disaster in the history of the State of Israel. He heads the intelligence organization that was supposed to provide the warning of a Hamas attack and for three years fell asleep on duty and allowed the great strategic deception that Sinwar perpetrated on the State of Israel. Ronen Bar received indications on the night of October 6th to 7th of an unusual occurrence in the Gaza Strip and made the wrong decision to continue the regular routine, not to mobilize forces and not to wake anyone up at the political level, a decision that cost us 1,200 civilians who were murdered, butchered, raped and burned in the terrible massacre committed by Hamas, and 250 kidnapped people, some of whom are still suffering in the tunnels in Gaza in Hamas captivity," he said.
According to Smotrich, "If he had a little self-respect and a little integrity and responsibility, he would have put the keys on the table of his own initiative in shame for October 8th and locked himself in his house after that without putting his nose outside the door for the rest of his life. In a civilized country, if he had not done this alone, the political level would have ousted him immediately. In President Biden's America, it took the head of the Secret Service three days after the attempted assassination of Trump to give back the keys and take responsibility for the failure."
"Bar is rewriting history with fabricated investigations and is now imposing himself on the political echelon, having been forcefully elected by the attorney general and the Supreme Court. Bar is causing a huge injustice to thousands of dedicated employees of the ISA who do sacred work for the security of Israel, dragging them against their will into the center of a public storm, using them as a tool and turning them into hostages in his personal struggle, shaking them and the organization and seriously damaging the public's trust in the organization.
"But on the flip side, this moment could become a defining moment, a blessing in disguise, a moment when the law and the legal profession are forced to understand the limits of power. A moment when everyone will understand that while the law may be able to impose technique, it simply cannot impose substance," he said.
Smotrich noted, "After the entire government unanimously expressed a lack of confidence in the head of the Shin Bet and decided to terminate his term on the basis of an explicit law that states that the government is authorized to do so, the power-drunk Supreme Court judges issued an interim order that forces the government to continue Ronen Bar's term. From that moment on, Ronen Bar is the head of the Shin Bet under the auspices of the Supreme Court. He continues to receive a paycheck as head of the Shin Bet, on the door of his office at the organization's headquarters there is a sign that says 'Head of the Shin Bet,' he has a driver and a car like the head of the Shin Bet.
"But, that's it. The court cannot impose trust and interpersonal relationships. It cannot force me to listen to him, to take him seriously in making decisions, to trust him and to give him confidence. I have no confidence in the head of the Shin Bet, I believe he is a resounding security failure and democratic understanding goes beyond that. There is no judge in the world who can force me to trust him, to have good interpersonal working relationships with him, and to reach decisions with him."
He continued, "Just as the law cannot force the sun to shine in the west, just as it cannot force couples to continue living together in love and trust, it cannot force a government to fulfill its responsibility for Israel's security through failed people who push us into the abyss over and over and over again. The attempt to force the government to have the Shin Bet head serve is yet another peak of absurdity that illustrates the court's disconnect from reality."
"So I have no intention of sitting in discussions if he is present. If he comes to cabinet discussions (which were stipulated by law and supposedly the Supreme Court forced him to be invited) I will leave when he speaks. As far as I am concerned, starting on the 10th of this month, he is the Shin Bet head on behalf of the Supreme Court, and the arrogant Supreme Court judges are invited to sit with him and discuss with him any issue they see fit," he stated.
"I very much hope that the government will soon be able to appoint a new head to this all-important organization, a head who understands security and intelligence, but also democracy, a head who will heal the organization, embrace his people, restore their trust, and lead them in the face of the great security challenges facing the State of Israel," Smotrich concluded.
Itamar Ben Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party would win 11 Knesset seats if elections were held today
MK Itamar Ben Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party would win 11 Knesset seats if elections were held today, a new poll by Maariv revealed.
In such a scenario, the Likud party is projected to win 22 Knesset seats, followed by Yisrael Beytenu and the Democrats with 17 seats each.
Third-largest in the Knesset would be the National Unity party, with 15 seats. Yesh Atid and Otzma Yehudit would win 11 seats each, and Shas would win 10 seats.
United Torah Judaism would win seven seats, and Hadash-Ta'al and Ra'am (United Arab List) would win five seats each.
Neither Balad nor Religious Zionism would pass the electoral threshold.
Divided into blocs, the coalition parties would win 50 Knesset seats, while the center-left would win 60. Hadash-Ta'al and Ra'am, which traditionally do not join any coalition, would hold the remaining 10 seats.
United Torah Judaism would win seven seats, and Hadash-Ta'al and Ra'am (United Arab List) would win five seats each.
Neither Balad nor Religious Zionism would pass the electoral threshold.
Divided into blocs, the coalition parties would win 50 Knesset seats, while the center-left would win 60. Hadash-Ta'al and Ra'am, which traditionally do not join any coalition, would hold the remaining 10 seats.
Thursday, April 17, 2025
El Salvador Blocks Sen. Chris Van Hollen from visiting Kilmar Abrego Garcia a Gang Member at the notorious mega-prison complex
Sen. Chris Van Hollen was blocked Wednesday from visiting Kilmar Abrego Garcia at the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) mega-prison complex after the Democrat traveled to El Salvador to push for the release of the illegal migrant and purported MS-13 member.
Van Hollen (D-Md.), 66, met with the Central American nation’s vice president, Félix Ulloa, and publicly pleaded for Abrego Garcia to be set free.
“They should just let him go,” Van Hollen complained to reporters after the meeting. “I promised them [Abrego Garcia’s family] that I would do everything I could to get him out.”
“I won’t stop trying,” he added. “This is an unsustainable and unjust moment. So it cannot continue this way.”
Meanwhile, fresh revelations emerged Wednesday that Abrego Garcia’s wife — who has pushed for his release, pursued a domestic violence restraining order against him in 2021, alleging that he ripped off her shirt, punched her and scratched her.
White House officials needled Van Hollen over his advocacy for Abrego Garcia while his own constituents grapple with migrant crime.
“The criminal illegal immigrant is already home — he’s a Salvadoran citizen,” the Trump administration said in a statement. “… [W]here was his [Van Hollen’s] concern for Maryland constituents put at risk by the many other illegal immigrants allowed to roam free until now?”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt raked Van Hollen over the coals Wednesday for “rushing” over to El Salvador advocate for Abrego Garcia instead of focusing on his constituents who have been harmed by illegal immigrants.
“It’s appalling and sad that Senator Van Hollen and the Democrats applauding his trip to El Salvador today are incapable of having any shred of common sense or empathy for their own constituents and our citizens,” she chastised.
Leavitt then welcomed Patty Morin to the White House press briefing to discuss in gruesome and graphic detail how an illegal immigrant savagely raped and murdered her daughter, Rachel, a mom of five, in 2023.
“To have a senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge or barely acknowledged my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother,” she lamented during her somber remarks, ‘to use my tax money to fly to El Salvador to bring back a person…i just don’t understand this.”
On Monday, Victor Martinez-Hernandez was found guilty by a jury of first-degree rape, first-degree premeditated murder, third-degree sexual assault and kidnapping.
“While the conviction of Rachel Morin’s killer will not return Rachel to her family where she rightfully belongs, this verdict brings a measure of justice that they so deserve,” Van Hollen had said in a statement Tuesday, the day after the verdict.
“A US federal court judge said that the Trump administration did not have evidence to support the claim that he had ever been part of MS-13,” Van Hollen lyingly claimed during his visit Wednesday. “In fact, Mr. Abrego Garcia is legally in the United States.”
Court documents indicate that Abrego Garcia illegally entered the US in 2011. In 2019, a federal judge blocked him from being deported back to his home country of El Salvador amid concerns he could face persecution from groups like the Barrio 18 gang.
“I want to emphasize that President Trump and our Attorney General Pam Bondi and the vice president of the United States are lying when they say that Abrego Garcia has been charged with a crime or is part of MS-13,” he added. “That is a lie.”
The Trump administration claimed in court documents that Abrego Garcia is “confirmed to be a ranking member of the MS-13 gang by a proven and reliable source,” something his family disputes.
Wednesday evening, the Justice Department released police reports that indicated Abrego Garcia was an active MS-13 member at the time of his initial detention in March 2019.
Last week, the Supreme Court instructed the Trump administration to take steps “to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to” the Latin American country.
At the same time, the high court ruled that lower courts must show “deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
After that order, the Trump administration declined to pressure El Salvador to release Abrego Garcia and insisted that they are complying with the Supreme Court’s ruling because they have taken steps to “facilitate” his return if El Salvador ever releases him.
Trump welcomed El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to the White House on Monday, and the US ally scoffed at the notion that he’d send Abrego Garcia back to the US.
“I hope you are not suggesting that I smuggle terrorists into the United States,” Bukele, 43, told reporters while sitting alongside Trump in the Oval Office. “Of course, I’m not going to do it.
“The question is preposterous,” Bukele added. “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”
Trump administration officials have countered that they don’t have the power to bring him back because Abrego Garcia is an El Salvadoran national imprisoned in his home country.
'Hero of Israel' | Detained Shin Bet agent receives hero's welcome
A., who was arrested on suspicion of leaking classified documents to a minister and journalists, received a hero's welcome from his neighbors as he returned home after being released to house arrest.
The residents of his village welcomed him by waving Israeli flags and singing: "Don't fear Israel, since you are a lion cub and when a lion roars - who doesn't fear?"
Earlier on Wednesday, the Police Investigations Department requested during a court hearing to release the agent to a month-long house arrest, which will include various restrictions and a prohibition on meeting with other parties involved in the affair.
The ISA employee was arrested on suspicion of leaking information to the media. The investigation was opened in recent weeks following reports that ISA head Ronen Bar ordered an investigation into what has been termed "the takeover of the police by the Kahane movement."
His attorney referred during the hearing on extending the arrest to the allegations against the senior official: "In the (leaked) information, there is no danger to the security of the information and the public; it was published with the approval of the censor. The ISA has a lot of classified information, but it must be careful not to hold on to information that is not classified just because it can."
In an interview with Kan this morning, the attorney said that the ISA "Opened an investigation against politicians, which found nothing. Ronen Bar then ordered, 'Keep looking, see what can be found, and bring me everything'. The agent saw that the ISA's inquiry did not match its charter, that the assignment presented the inquiry in a distorted manner, and the inquiry was hostile to politicians in certain matters. The full inquiry shows that the ISA did the same things and supported them. These are things he disclosed due to the public's right to know."
"From the first moment, he said that he leaked documents of positions and actions, not information from intelligence documents. The censor approved them. They are of great public interest. I am not aware of cases where individuals were arrested for leaks that are not of a security nature," he noted.
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