Hezbollah ‘financier’ pleads guilty to evading US sanctions
Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi, accused of being a “financier” for Hezbollah, has appeared in a US court accused of evading financial sanctions against him and his organisation, which the US has designated a “terrorist” group.
Bazzi who has Lebanese, British and Belgian citizenship, “accepted responsibility for his role in conspiring to secretly move hundreds of thousands of dollars from the United States to Lebanon in violation of sanctions placed on him for assisting the terrorist group Hezbollah”, US prosecutor Breon Peace was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
Bazzi faces up to 20 years in jail, as well as deportation. He will also have to forfeit the $828,528 involved in the illegal transactions. No date has yet been set for sentencing.
Hedge fund manager put on leave for celebrating Gaza destruction
Steven Eisman, who is known for his big winning bet against the US housing market before its collapse in 2008, dramatised in the movie “The Big Short”, has been put on leave after he celebrated the death and destruction in Gaza.
“You must be kidding. We are not silent. We are celebrating,” Eisman wrote in response to an X user who posted that the world was silent about Gaza.
Neuberger Berman, Eisman’s firm, called his actions “objectionable” and said he did not speak on their behalf. A company spokesperson said the leave was effective immediately.
Eisman has deleted his X account and apologised, explaining that he intended to celebrate Israel’s wave of attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon instead.
“I posted about that multiple times, one time inadvertently in response to a post referencing deaths in Gaza and having nothing to do with Lebanon,” Eisman wrote. “When this was pointed out to me, I immediately deleted my post and I regret the mistake.”
Yeah that's much better....
US lawmaker condemns racist cartoon showing her with exploding pager
Rashida Tlaib has condemned a cartoon published in the conservative magazine National Review depicting her seated next to an exploding pager as racist.
“Our community is already in so much pain right now. This racism will incite more hate + violence against our Arab & Muslim communities, and it makes everyone less safe. It’s disgraceful that the media continues to normalize this racism,” the only Palestinian American lawmaker in the US Congress wrote on X.
The cartoon, created by journalist Henry Payne, portrayed a woman at her desk next to an exploding pager – a reference to Israel’s detonation of Hezbollah communications devices in successive days of deadly attacks in Lebanon.
On the desk is a name card reading “Rep Tlaib”, while the woman says: “ODD. MY PAGER JUST EXPLODED”.
Thank you, Mayor @AHammoudMI, for speaking up. Our community is already in so much pain right now. This racism will incite more hate + violence against our Arab & Muslim communities, and it makes everyone less safe. It’s disgraceful that the media continues to normalize this… https://t.co/JTn2mur4Yj
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) September 20, 2024
