Free Republic

Some 2,500 documents, photos, and belongings of executed spy Eli Cohen were retrieved from Syria in a special Mossad operation, the Prime Minister's Office said on Sunday. The trove was recovered due to a secret, complex operation in cooperation with the official Syrian archive, which held thousands of classified items ever since his capture and subsequent execution in Damascus's al-Marjeh Square in 1965. The items included the keys to his Damascus apartment, forged passports, and photos he took during his espionage, particularly of senior Syrian officials. He also left behind notebooks and diaries that were seized by Syria's intelligence...

The new regime in Damascus, under President Ahmad al-Sharaa, does not rule out the possibility of transferring to Israel the remains of Israeli spy Eli Cohen, Lebanon's Al-Akhbar newspaper reported Friday morning, quoting Arab diplomats. Cohen was hanged in Syria in 1965. In an article written by the paper’s editor, Ibrahim al-Amin, it was claimed that intensive security talks have recently been taking place between Israel and Syria. The author noted that Damascus has expressed a willingness to reveal the burial sites of Israeli soldiers who went missing in Syria during the First Lebanon War in 1982. .....

The head of Russia's mercenary outfit Wagner said it could take months to capture the embattled Ukraine city of Bakhmut and slammed Moscow's "monstrous bureaucracy" for slowing military gains. Russia has been trying to encircle the battered industrial city and wrest it ahead of Feb. 24, the first anniversary of what it terms its "special military operation" in Ukraine. "I think it's (going to be in) March or in April," Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said in one of several messages posted online overnight. "To take Bakhmut you have to cut all supply routes. It's a significant task," he said, adding:...

The UN's humanitarian coordinator, Lynn Hastings, left the West Bank after Israel refused to renew her visa, according to a CNN report. Foreign Minister Eli Cohen was informed that Hastings' visa was not renewed due to the UN's preference towards the Palestinians. The spokesperson of the UN, Stefan Dogeric, said that a replacement for Hastings will be appointed soon.

The US National Hurricane Center monitoring storm Idalia strengthening into a hurricane... Also out in the Atlantic Ocean causing minor issues for Bermuda and the US East Coast is powerful Hurricane Franklin... Problems this evening around 7 pm or shortly afterwards US Eastern Time for users of the social media platform "X"... Russia says its aerospace forces have attacked terrorist command centers in Syria... The situation in Libya already unstable further destabilized after Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said he met Libya's Foreign Minister... Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich saying there can be no concessions to the Palestinians in any...

US Secretary of State congratulates Eli Cohen of the Likud on his new role, underscores commitment to Israel's security. .....

A senior official from Chad told Israel on Tuesday that the country was willing to open an official diplomatic mission in Jerusalem. Chad’s cabinet chairman, Abdelkerim Déby, who is also its president’s son, visited Israel for a series of meetings, including with Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen. A statement from the Intelligence Ministry said Déby expressed “willingness to open an official mission in Jerusalem.”

Israeli officials have been holding talks in Jordan with Syrian opposition officials “in advance of a possible Israeli-U.S. operation in Syria to protect the Golan Heights,” Western intelligence sources reported Tuesday, Jan. 1. There was no further information about this operation or how rebel commanders were involved in military plans “to protect the Golan Heights.” Altogether, the goings-on on the Israeli and Jordanian borders with Syria are in deep hush. But European intelligence sources, some of them French and Russian, reveal nightly clashes taking place between US, Jordanian, Israeli special forces and Syrian rebels, on the one hand, and Syrian...

<p>A Brooklyn man has been arrested by federal agents on charges of illegally shipping missile components, radar equipment and F-4 fighter parts through a company in Israel for later transfer to buyers in the Middle East.</p> <p>U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesman Dean Boyd yesterday said Leib Kohn, 70, was arrested Friday on charges of violating the Arms Export Control Act and the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations. He was named last week in a criminal complaint in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Conn.</p>