Intel Update — August 30 — Persistent Concerns

Hello again everyone and welcome back to the underground. This is the intel update for August 24th through the 30th of 2025. It's been a busy week as usual. So, let's get right to it. Starting off with a global overview. There haven't been really that many new events going on around the world this week. Just a lot of continuation and increasing of severity of things that have already been going on in the Middle East. Tensions are increasing once again as Israeli forces make their advance into Gaza City once more. There has been a lot of conflicting information on this. Some sources claim that Israel is continuing their push into Gaza City just like they did the last time. Whereas other sources are claiming that they've suffered fairly severe losses so far, so they've decided to withdraw, regroup, and try this again in a few days. It's really hard to say. None of the sources involved in any of this are reliable in any form or fashion. So getting to the truth is not really possible in in many cases, but just know that things are still pretty hot in the Middle East, especially with regards to what's going on in Gaza and also what's going on with the Iranians. Several European nations have decided to reimpose the formerly withdrawn sanctions on Iran. So that could be a point of things escalating over the next few days and weeks. So far, there really hasn't been that much of an indication, but European uh leadership seems to be quite uh concerned with that being a possibility. So, not entirely out of the ordinary, but just something to keep an eye on. Similarly, the US Navy continues their deployment down off the coast of Venezuela, which we'll talk about in just a moment. But just at a high level, there's been a lot of speculation that war with Venezuela is imminent. I don't know about that. There's just a whole lot of discussion that needs to be had regarding what's the point of all of this. Strategically speaking, I'm not entirely certain what is the plan here other than just posturing, which is where it's uh mostly stayed right now, but just at a high level, uh just know that there are a substantial number of military forces deployed down to South America, which again we'll talk about next. And finally, here in the United States, we of course had the Minneapolis church shooting, the the shooting at the Church of the Enunciation in Minneapolis, which we'll discuss in greater depth in just a moment. Moving on to strategic movement. Like I said, there have not been a whole lot of changes from last week. There are still a lot a lot of forces deployed down off the coast of Venezuela. I know that slides like this can be a little bit sensational sometimes. So, it is important to remember that moving navy ships around is a fairly cheap way or at least a comparatively cheap way of posturing and threatening other nations and trying to bully other nations to do what we want. Every nation since the dawn of time that has had a very powerful navy has done the same, right? The British are kind of infamous for doing this as well over the past few centuries. So just because there are a lot of navy ships in any one place doesn't necessarily mean that something's going something is going to happen. But it is something to be aware of especially in the context of this just kind of appearing out of nowhere. The US Navy has really engaged in counter narcotics operations along with the Coast Guard especially in the Caribbean over the past few decades. So this is not new by any stretch of the imagination. But once again, wavetop level. It's 2025 and we don't want to obsess too much over this sort of thing because this is how the White House wages diplomacy. Put some very, very expensive hardware someplace around the world. But again, a lot of times it's not a bluff, right? We everybody was utterly and completely convinced that the B2 deployment to Diego Garcia was a bluff, right? And it wasn't a bluff. It was a threat. It was literally what was going to happen. They were training at Diego Garcia so that they could launch from there if need be. if this became a wider campaign. In the end, we of course know that they did not end up striking Iran using Diego Garcia as a base. They just took off from Missouri like normal. But in hindsight, we have to remember, yeah, there were indications and warnings. And I think that if war breaks out in a couple of months with Venezuela, we're going to look back at, you know, today and say, well, yeah, there were signs. Of course, there were signs, right? So, this will be something to remember moving forward, but right now there's just not a whole lot to go on. Moving to the United States, the kinetic events for this week are largely centered around um I've I've chosen to focus mostly on the mass shooting in Minneapolis. It's been a pretty kinetic week. I've still tried to find out uh from last week where these 1700 National Guard soldiers have gone or where they're going to go around the country in all of these states that have said that they're going to be deployed to. I haven't found anything so far. I don't think any of these soldiers have actually moved. And of course, 1,700 soldiers spread around 19 states is not a lot. So, you're not exactly going to see them standing on street corners and, you know, like they are in DC around the country. There's just not that many of them yet. Ever since that was announced, of course, everyone just kind of forgot about it, but I just wanted to keep it fresh in everyone's mind cuz I haven't forgotten about it. And if this is the plan, then you know, something to be aware of, especially for places like Chicago and New York, which of course are being touted by the White House as being the next big pushes for National Guard deployments. So Chicago and New York City are definitely the two to watch next. But if we're going to be sending National Guard troops to Nebraska, then that's something to be aware of uh as well. And speaking of Nebraska, unintentional segue there. Uh the two other hotels that were implicated in the Chadari family human slavery, human trafficking operation. Uh those other two hotels have been closed down. At least what that's what local media are reporting. And local journalists who are now a full month behind the story have decided to actually start investigating this a little bit more. And they found out that it's not just hotels, but it's also nail salons. So around half a dozen nail salons throughout the city have been shut down due to this similar uh activity being undertaken there. I don't have much context and I don't have a list of addresses just yet, but I'm I'm going to be updating the map uh as usual from from this as best I can. Just something to keep in mind because again this is Omaha, Nebraska and it's it's not somewhere where you'd think this kind of thing happens, but this is what Heartland America looks like in many cases. A lot of the time you've got very large criminal enterprises being waged in the middle of places which are basically just a Norman Rockwell painting. Right? Just to keep it fresh in everyone's minds. Just wanted to remind everyone that this investigation is ongoing. So jumping to the regions this week there have been a lot of things coming out of Washington DC. So this week the executive orders which have garnered a lot of attention. Again the current White House is using a slightly different vernacular. They're calling these executive actions and they're not numbered. I don't I think they will be numbered later on, but for right now, these are just posted on the White House's web page as executive actions, but they're really executive orders. The executive order that has gotten a lot of press this week is the one which bans the burning of the American flag and sets a penalty of one year in prison for burning the American flag uh as part of a demonstration. Now, the interesting part about this one, of course, I think this one's going to go to court because the American legal system has really examined this question of whether it's legal, illegal, free speech, not free speech to burn the American flag. So, I'm not going to get into that part of it because this has already been argued to death and it's already being reargued again by this executive order. What's interesting to me is the way that the White House is coming at it and that kind of gives you this indication and warning of how the White House is thinking about similar types of issues. For instance, the White House knows that the Supreme Court has ruled many, many, many times that it's okay in its free speech to burn the American flag. So, what are they doing? They're coming at this, and this is why I've highlighted this paragraph. They're coming at it from a perspective of hate crimes and it is an incitement to commit conspiracy to commit a crime. So, this is very much in the gray area of pre-rime policing kind of thing. So, I thought this was kind of an interesting way of of coming at it. So, yeah, I know this has been a tiring debate on social media. I'll just kind of leave it there. But another thing that that the White House has done, another executive order, is the establishment of a National Guardbased QRF or quick reaction force. I don't know how this is going to work out administratively, but it seems like this is definitely an effort to have a permanent active duty force, even if it's on paper still national guard, to serve as a military police for the United States. So, I would encourage everyone to just read this for yourself and see if you can figure out what is going on here because it's it's a very concerning thing to see and uh there hasn't really been a whole lot of talk about it. No one seems to have figured out that the White House is trying to get around the federal regulations and the constitutional regulations regarding a standing army being used for police forces. So again, I thought I would call everyone's attention to it and maybe we can get to an answer at some point with regards to what this actually means. And of course, the White House would not be the White House without a scandal this week. And this week it has been the Chinese visa scandal. So, President Trump and uh Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik made very clear statements a few days ago regarding the import of 600,000 uh Chinese students. At the time this was announced, it was roughly a doubling of the Chinese uh visas that we give for students to come to the United States to study every year. As we can see by the chart from last year, India is of course the top visa holder for student visas, but China is a close second at around 277,000 visas per year, or at least that was last year. China's visa applications went down 4% last year. Uh but India's went up 23%. So of course, well, you know, we know what that's all about. But sticking with the China scandal, the White House made very clear statements. They were look seeking to double the number of students allowed into the United States. And then what happened? Everyone, including uh President Trump's most ardent supporters, said this is a horrifically bad idea. You have not even deported this many illegal immigrants yet. Uh this is kind of a big problem. So, what did the White House do? Well, I'll tell you. The White House did exactly what the previous administration did, which is float the idea. Everybody gets upset about it and then in a few days they pretend like that was never their plan. It was all just a misunderstanding. And then they backtrack on it quietly and say, "Shame on you forever thinking we might do that." It's literally the same exact playbook from the past four years. So, I know people might not want to hear that, but it's kind of entertaining to see sometimes, but the White House is backtrack on that for now, especially considering what we'll talk about in a moment, which is the uh Chinese spying thing down in Texas. Another Chinese spy has been outed. So, this all happening on the same exact day was kind of concerning and it was probably something that the White House could not easily defend. So, they shelved the plan for now and we'll see how it works out in the future. So, that's it for what's been going on in Washington this week. Let's move over to the Midwest and talk about the church shooting at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Most important stuff right up front. So, prayer requests for this week. Harper Lillian Moi and Fletcher Merkel have been identified as the two children who were killed during this horrific attack. And prayers have been requested for all of the other wounded. There are still five children who are in the ICU from this uh incident and one adult is also still hospitalized due to wounds sustained during the attack. So, I've also posted a message from the principal of the school and the priest at the church and also a reminder that one of the children was actually from the Greek Orthodox community. So, uh she was not Roman Catholic, but she was attending the Catholic school there. So, for those in the Greek Orthodox church, prayers have been requested for Sophia, uh who remains still in the ICU. There have been a few prayer vigils at the church over the past few days and I don't know if I'll I'll make it timing wise with this update today, but Saturday there is five o'clock mass uh this evening. So, just as a reminder uh for those so inclined. Now, as far as the details of the shooting itself, the killer has been identified as Robin Westman. That is the person's actual legal name. Unlike a lot of the other uh transgender murders that have taken place, this person actually went through the effort to change their name. So, they were formerly Robert Westman, but in terms of their actual legal name, it is Robin Westman from what I've been able to determine. There has, of course, been a lot of speculation regarding what's going on with this case, and I will try to leave a lot of that speculation at the door for now, with the exception of some of the things that might be more time-sensitive for preventing further shootings. So, the only things that are very, very clear is that there's a lot of suspicious behavior here uh with regards to the individual who conducted the shooting, but also the family as well. I don't know how much of that is understandable suspicion or just a reaction to the media blitz on this. I will let you decide on that for now. We will probably have more details again in a few days. But for right now, the family has not been cooperative with authorities at all. At least that's what local authorities have stated and federal investigators have stated. The mother of the shooter has lawyered up uh with the same lawyer who represented uh Colin Capernick. That's kind of an interesting detail. uh investigators will definitely take that into account when it comes to trying to figure out were there signs that this could have been prevented and from my own investigation. Absolutely. Another thing that I wanted to mention because it's again this is just spiraling out of control on social media. This one's way worse than many of the other mass shootings that we've seen in that regard. But a lot of people are trying to draw the link between this individual, this shooter, and the Order of Nine Angles and the 764 network. Uh, this is a rabbit hole that I would encourage everyone to not go down because it's just horrific. These are two online groups which are I don't know if you describe them as cults, but they're definitely like satanic organizations and they have a lot of links to other mass shooters. So, some of the common things that you tend to see with these people associated with these these two groups, which are separate groups, but they're kind of linked together, is the way that the shooter will mark their firearms, the way that the symbology that they will use in their manifestos and stuff like that. So, very, very horrific stuff uh that I I wish no one had to see, honestly. But, there's a lot of people that are claiming that maybe this guy was affiliated with 764 or the 09A guys. So, I don't know about that just yet. if we I'm sure if we dig far enough, we'll probably find a link. But at at what point does a link become not necessarily that valuable to to make, but at the risk of digressing too much, let's talk about some of the tactical lessons learned so far in terms of trying to prevent other and future attacks. Again, we can go down rabbit holes all day long, but my main focus, my main goal here is to bring awareness and also prevent future incidents. So, if we cherrypick the details of this story to focus on, let's uh let's focus on the things that can actually maybe save some lives here. One of the main key takeaways so far is that Westman decided to target this church, not necessarily because this was his former church and the his mother worked at the school next door. Not necessarily because of that personal connection, but because he knew based on his connection to the church that the church was vulnerable. This is the rantings and ravings of a madman. So, we can't exactly get too much uh benefit from this sort of thing, from the diaries of a of a psychopath, right? But that's the very wavetop level of of a consideration that this the shooter undertook when this person was conducting his attack planning. So, this guy actually sketched out a sector sketch of the inside of the church inside the nave and the narthx. So, you know, this this shows that this person was thinking tactically for a very long period of time. It's something to consider. It's something to be aware of. But again, you also have to remember that when we're undertaking these risk assessments to try to prevent this from happening somewhere else, there are survivors here. There are people who are going to be watching this and be aware of all of this discourse surrounding the things that maybe they could have done better. So, we need to tread carefully here, right? We need to be as respectful as possible. And I think that when these shootings happen, that doesn't tend to be a point of consideration, right? So if we're trying to wargame this and trying to prevent the further loss of life, we have to be aware that this shooter was planning this attack for a very long time and there were perceived vulnerabilities here on the part of the shooter. Though with that caveat that there also may have been nothing that could have been done to prevent this, which we'll touch on in just a moment. Perhaps more concerningly, right, this shooting is over. The shooter is is dead and this incident has reached a conclusion. However, online things are not doing so well. When this shooting occurred, there was an outcry of support for the shooter. Uh, this has become unfortunately quite common when there is a transgender shooter anywhere in the United States or around the world or for that for that matter. But when it happens here in the United States, when a transgender person conducts a horrific crime, there is an outpouring of support for the killer. I know that's shocking. I know that's going to make a lot of people very angry, but this is the reality of the situation. There's even one vendor on the internet which has decided to sell t-shirts with the killer's face on the t-shirt. You know, uh that's something to keep in mind, especially considering that if we go back and see the link analysis chart here, this person chose to idolize other shooters as well. So, if we're talking about risk assessment and trying to prevent future shootings, that's not a good thing. uh from a risk assessment perspective, from any perspective, it's not a good thing and I'm very concerned about that. So there are other future killers out there right now who are planning attacks and they are watching the internet. They are reading Reddit posts. They are reading Discord. That's what all these people are on, right? These people are are classic Reddit tier human beings and they are reading all of the positive support for these mass murderers. the chance of a copycat is extraordinarily high when you've got a pretty good part of the internet which is supporting this kind of behavior and uh trying to support the killer, right? So, from a riskmanagement perspective, we're talking it's extreme. Okay, so head on a swivel the next few weeks. I don't want to raise too many alarm bells, but this is the thing that you need to definitely be mindful of and aware of as we move forward. Now, on the flip side of that, we also have to be mindful that everything is a balance, right? We know that the risks of copycats is extremely high, especially now that people are supporting the killer online, right? Uh and especially since politicians are giving that nudge nudge wink wink uh sort of approval for the transgender community to kind of do whatever they want to do, right? Even if it hurts people. Yes, it is good to be aware of these things and to do what you can to prevent further loss of life, but at a certain point, a lot of this is going to be out of our hands. So that's the best that we can do and that's what we will continue to do. So, as more information comes out, we'll uh see if we can draw any lessons learned that might be helpful in the future. But for now, that's really all I've got on this uh horrific horrific crime. Moving down to the southwest region, I wanted to briefly mention the story of Yhai Lee, who was a researcher who was recently arrested at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for spying, or really just the theft of proprietary research. The short version of the story is this guy was employed by this university's medical school and he stole a lot of data and was trying to head back to China where he was actually currently working. So, this is kind of an interesting case. It's it's not really that out of the norm. This happens all the time, but what I found to be kind of entertaining is that this individual was publishing research papers for his home university in China this entire time using his real name. So, I pulled up his uh Google Scholar page using his real name. He wasn't even trying to hide it. And you can see all the research papers that he's been publishing over the years, including one as recently as just a couple of months ago. So, I don't know how they didn't catch this. Maybe they just didn't care. But he was definitely double dipping. He was working for a Chinese medical university this entire time and stealing all of the intellectual property and uh medical research that was being conducted at the University of Texas. Now, interestingly enough, he was also getting Department of Defense grants and National Institute of Health grants uh to conduct his research. And nobody even thought to just Google this guy's name because this came up like the first thing. I don't know, maybe maybe we should add in a criteria. If you're getting federal money, just Google the person's name first. May maybe that would be a good idea. I don't know. But anyway, I found that to be kind of interesting because uh this is just the latest in a long series of uh Chinese researchers being very heavily embedded in the United States uh and stealing intellectual property for the homeland. though. Now, moving over to the United Kingdom, I briefly wanted to touch on what's been going on in Britain over the past couple of weeks, which has not gotten any better. Of note, two things this week. Of course, we have the highly inflammatory and very viral Hatchet Girl from Dundee. Uh, so I have not had enough time to do enough solid research on what's going on with this case. All I can say is that it's a lot more complicated than we might want to think. I'm digging into this myself because I'm very interested in the situation itself and I I think that really this has just become kind of a catalyst for more protests and demonstrations and things like that. Another catalyst has been the Eping Court which has decided to keep the Eping migrant center which is again another inflammatory or very controversial uh migrant center in Eping. They were going to close it down because obviously it was creating a lot of problems for locals and then the court reversed their decision. This red poster here is one of the notices for enduring protests. So there are now basically going to be protests pretty much every weekend as there have been over the past few weeks. Flagging continues. Flagging operations continue. Marches continue. Uh there's a lot of demonstrations outside migrant centers now. It's uh it's it's approaching a very widespread case of civil unrest nationwide. Again, I I need more time to to dig into what's going on with our friends across the pond, but suffice it to say, it's been a very busy week for the English, and I think that sentiment is spreading throughout uh the whole British Isles at this point. But where it's going to go, I don't know. But the people are making their displeasure known. So, we shall see how this works out. So, that's all I have for today. Uh, I was going to roll up with the intercepted ghost net reports as usual, but this week catastrophe struck. I had not only internet outage, but I also had thunderstorms roll through at the exact time of the ghost net and I was unable to safely use my radio equipment. So, I was in the dark during the exact moment of the ghost net because, of course, that's how it worked out. But, sometimes that happens. It's all right. It tends to tends to be one of those things. And I hope that good information was exchanged this week even though I was absent myself. So, thank you again for all of your support. Here are the sources as usual and all the research links if you want to dig deeper yourself. And that's all I have for today. So, thanks again and I will see you next time. And as always, fight in the shade.