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AOC & Mamdani Caught Laughing at Ground Zero During 9/11 Name Reading
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DS-NY) and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (DS) were captured on camera smiling and laughing together Friday at the 25th anniversary 9/11 ceremony at Ground Zero as relatives read the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 2001 attacks. Live footage intercut their exchange with images of mourners weeping, including a man holding his head in his hands. Mamdani attended despite a petition from 9/11 families that gathered more than 100,000 signatures urging him to stay away. US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and others publicly questioned the optics. A security official standing nearby said the clip showed Ocasio-Cortez greeting the mayor and that other officials of both parties were also speaking casually.
Editorâs Note: This is grounds for an immediate recall of Mamdani and for AOC to lose the election, that is, if anyone in New York City actually cares anymore.
đď¸ News & Politics
CIA Releases 71 Daily Briefs Warning of Bin Laden Hijack Plots Before 9/11
The CIA on Friday declassified 71 Presidentâs Daily Brief products given to Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush from 1998 through Sept. 12, 2001, the agencyâs largest public release of 9/11-related analysis. On Sept. 10, 1998, a brief warned that the group behind the Africa embassy bombings âmay fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city.â On Dec. 4, 1998, an item said bin Laden was preparing to hijack US aircraft after a trial run at a New York airport. The set includes the August 2001 memo âBin Laden Determined to Strike in US.â CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the release honors those killed on 9/11 as part of President Trumpâs transparency effort.
Reagan-Era Prosecutor Resigns From Trump Grand Conspiracy Inquiry
Joseph diGenova resigned Thursday as counselor to the attorney general after five months leading a Justice Department investigation in South Florida into an alleged conspiracy against President Trump. The former Reagan-era U.S. attorney said it had been a privilege to serve and cited differences of opinion common to arduous investigations. A source familiar with the matter said White House and Justice Department officials had lost confidence in his management and the pace of the case. The probe has issued grand jury subpoenas to former officials, including John Brennan, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and James Comey. No charges have been filed.
Trump Signs Law Clearing Medal of Honor Monument on National Mall
President Donald Trump signed the Hershel âWoodyâ Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act on Thursday at the National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas. The law authorizes a privately funded commemorative work in the National Mall reserve near the Lincoln Memorial. It does not build the monument. The National Park Service will pick the exact site. Williams, the last surviving World War II recipient, earned the medal at Iwo Jima for knocking out machine-gun nests with a flamethrower. More than a dozen living recipients attended. Trump described Williams going back and forth through enemy strongholds for hours.
AOC & Pressley Call Ruled Suicides Modern-Day Lynchings
US Reps. Ayanna Pressley (DS-MA) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DS-NY) led nearly 60 Democrats in a letter demanding a federal lynching probe after about 10 Black people were found hanged in 2026. Pressley invoked âstrange fruitâ and said the country cannot stand by. Ocasio-Cortez called the deaths widespread racial terror. Police and medical examiners had already ruled most of those cases suicides with no foul play. One Mississippi death is a homicide probe. The person of interest there is Black. No public finding has named a non-Black killer. The posts went out anyway, converting closed local rulings into a faux national racial emergency.
Editorâs Note: Itâs past time that disingenuous, opportunistic race-baiters were publicly humiliated.
Anthropic Says Iran Used Claude to Target U.S. Navy as China, Russia, Yemen Built Weapons Software
Anthropicâs threat report says an Iranian actor used Claude to scrape U.S. personnel from public photos, collect ship and aircraft identifiers and satellite-imagery scripts, and draft targeting recommendations against Navy forces in the Middle East. China-linked users worked on an anti-torpedo fire-control system, electronic warfare and air-defense suppression tools, and directed-energy briefings. One project switched a simulation to 12 targets in Taiwan, including Patriot and Tien Kung sites, as well as air bases. A Russia-linked team designed kamikaze drone swarm software that could select a person and detonate without a human in the loop. Yemen-linked actors sought guidance code for rockets, a multi-stage ballistic missile, and a hypersonic glide vehicle. The company banned the accounts and also blocked five biological research cases that could support weapons work.
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đ˘ The American Fifth Column
Fairfax Schools 9/11 Guide Warns Teachers Not to Link Attacks to Islam
Fairfax County Public Schools distributed a six-page instructional guide titled â25th Anniversary and Commemoration of 9/11â that instructs teachers not to associate the attacks with Islam or Muslims and not to center the extremists or their acts. Roughly half of the 1,740-word document is devoted to creating safe spaces for Muslim and Middle Eastern students and challenging anti-Muslim racism, with 30 references to Islam, Muslim families, and Islamophobic rhetoric. Military families appear only three times, and first responders once. The guide tells educators that speaking out against anti-Muslim bias is part of their sacred role and that they must disrupt Islamophobic rhetoric if they hear it. The district said it remembers the nearly 3,000 killed, including 184 at the nearby Pentagon, and remains committed to an inclusive environment.
Editorâs Note: This is The American Fifth Column in living color.
American University Marks 9/11 With Speaker Who Mourned Bin Ladenâs Death
American University put Maha Hilal on a 9/11 anniversary panel 25 years after al Qaeda murdered 2,977 people. Hilal called the killings of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri âextrajudicial assassinationsâ and said U.S. victimhood was used to justify them. On Oct. 7, 2023, as Hamas slaughtered Israelis, she cheered âresistanceâ and told critics of âPalestinian liberationâ to get out of the way. She has solicited writing on suicide as political resistance and treated an American servicemanâs self-immolation as a call to action. The school offered no comment. The session is billed as tracing the âforever wars.â
Denver Socialist Says Food Stamp Theft Conviction Qualifies Her for Mayor
Denver City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis, the Democratic Socialists of Americaâs pick for mayor, told reporters that her 2008 misdemeanor theft conviction over public food-stamp benefits âactually qualifiesâ her to run the city. Lewis pleaded guilty after using her job at the Colorado Department of Human Services East Food Stamp Office to reissue Electronic Benefit Transfer cards meant for others to herself and a roommate. She said she was a grieving young mother who did something âreally silly,â paid restitution, and served 18 months of probation. Coloradoâs constitution bars people convicted of embezzlement of public moneys from holding office. Lewis also declined to specify police-budget cuts beyond overtime.
Dallas Democrats Draw Anemic Crowd Against Packed GOP Midterm Convention
Democrats staged counter-events on Thursday in Dallas while Republicans held their first midterm convention at the American Airlines Center, where President Trump and Vice President JD Vance spoke. One on-the-ground account put Democrat turnout at about 100 to 120 people. Texas House Democrats held a âPeopleâs Hearing.â An afternoon march started at Pike Park. A City Hall rally featured Beto OâRourke, Colin Allred, and other party figures. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and the state party chair had opened the weekâs counterprogramming. Republicans, in contrast, counted tens of thousands who attended the two-night GOP gathering.
Viral Clip Calls Staring Infant Racist as Nurseries Log Toddler âIncidentsâ
A woman posted a video this week calling a baby racist after the child stared at a friend of color, treating ordinary infant curiosity as racial hostility. She cited a 2012 University of Massachusetts Amherst study that found nine-month-olds get better at recognizing familiar-looking faces, not that preverbal children hold racial ideology. In Wales, taxpayer-funded DARPL guidance circulated to more than 300 nurseries tells staff to record âracist incidents,â discuss skin color with young children, and contact police if an episode could be treated as a hate crime. Kent Police logged a one-year-old girl as a crime suspect after a minor injury to another toddler. The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10.
ON THIS DAY IN 2001:
Nineteen Islamist al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing them into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing 2,977 victims and fundamentally altering U.S. national security policy.
đ International
Iran Assembles Ballistic Missiles Again in Underground Plants
Iran has resumed assembling ballistic missiles from stockpiled parts at underground sites, U.S. and Middle East officials told The Wall Street Journal. Activity includes both liquid-propellant missiles, which must be fueled before launch, and solid-propellant missiles, which can be stored ready to fire. Intelligence points to work at several locations, including the Khojir plant. Tehran is also building new underground facilities. Output remains below prewar levels after U.S. and Israeli strikes and a naval blockade. Iran this week fired missiles at a Jordanian base used by U.S. troops. The Pentagon said U.S. forces had degraded up to 90 percent of Iranâs missile industrial base.
G20 Isolates China Over Export Surplus and Cheap Goods Flood
G20 finance ministers and central bankers meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, issued a chairâs statement calling on countries with âexcessive and persistent external surplusesâ to stop relying on exports, drop non-market policies and lift domestic consumption. China was the only member to dissent. Even Russia signed. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said non-market economies pushing a stream of cheap exports is not sustainable. China ran a record surplus last year. Officials in France, Germany, and Japan have described the same export pressure. Currency estimates put the yuan undervalued by roughly 19 percent to 35 percent. Beijing rejected the language about imbalance and said it does not seek a surplus.
Kristersson Seeks New Term With Sweden Democrats in Cabinet
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is seeking reelection in Sundayâs vote and has said he will give the Sweden Democrats cabinet posts if the right-wing bloc wins, the first time the party would join a government. The Sweden Democrats backed his minority government after 2022 and pushed tougher immigration and crime policies, including ending permanent residency for asylum seekers and increasing expulsions. Polls show a close race with the left-leaning opposition. Party leader Jimmie Ă kesson said other parties now sound more like his on those issues. Analysts say Kristersson could remain prime minister even if the Sweden Democrats outpoll his Moderates.
Singapore Citizen Pleads Guilty in $245 Million Crypto Theft Ring
Malone Lam, 22, a Singapore citizen and recent Miami resident, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Washington to a RICO conspiracy for leading a scheme that stole and laundered more than $245 million in cryptocurrency. Prosecutors said the enterprise operated from October 2023 through at least May 2025, used social engineering and occasional home break-ins, and grew out of contacts on online gaming platforms. Lam, who used aliases such as Anne Hathaway and King Greavy, organized targets and assigned roles. Stolen funds paid for nightclub tabs up to $500,000 a night, luxury watches, rental homes, private jets, and cars worth as much as $3.8 million. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the network preyed on victims through deception. A status hearing is set for Dec. 8.
British Commons Rejects Assisted Dying Bill After Five-Hour Debate
The House of Commons rejected the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on Friday by 286 votes to 270, ending the latest attempt to legalize assisted dying in England and Wales. The private memberâs bill, reintroduced by Labour MP Lauren Edwards after a similar measure stalled in the Lords, would have allowed terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to seek medical help to end their lives after approval by two doctors and an expert panel. Opponents cited inadequate safeguards, the risk of coercing vulnerable people, and the need to address patchy palliative care first. Prime Minister Andy Burnham abstained. The bill now falls and would have to be started again.
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