Missing : Hero of Ukraine Recipient

"She was captured with her driver Serhiy, also a volunteer, driving an ambulance in a humanitarian corridor."

"I know that the Russian occupiers will torture them."

"Russian propaganda talks about her as a really dangerous woman, a killer, really violent, but that's not true."

"She was not only saving the lives of our soldiers, our civilians. She was also fighting for my future and for Ukraine."

"This is my job now, this is my duty. This isn't just about my mother, but the women, children and civilians detained illegally by Russia."

Anna-Sofia Puzanova, 19, daughter of hostage-taken volunteer ambulance corps founder, Ukraine 

Yulia Paevska is the founder of the volunteer ambulance corps, Tayra's Angels

 

Paramedics rushing in hope of using their emergency medical skills to save survivors of the Mariupol theatre bombing are now in an unknown place. While en route to the scene of the bombing knowing that over a thousand women and children were sheltering in the city and would be targets, Yulia Paevska while travelling to the bombing was taken by Russian troops.

She had stopped to treat a civilian wounded on March 15, who had been attempting to evade the Russian military's bombardment through a humanitarian corridor, when she was captured. Since then, her daughter Anna-Sofia Puzanova, has not seen or heard from her mother, apart from forced appearances in Kremlin propaganda videos.

She has no idea whether her kidnapped mother is safe, much less that she remains alive. Before the kidnapping they had spoken when the mother informed her daughter about rescuing civilians as they attempted escape from the Russian forces' constant bombardment. She believes, however, that it is likely her mother is being kept among thousands of Ukrainians in concentration camps in the Russian-held parts of the Donbas.

Her mother, whose nickname is Tayra, is listed as a prisoner of war whom the government of Ukraine is willing to exchange for captured Russians. Moscow, however has repeatedly refused any such requests for her release. She is the founder of the volunteer ambulance corps, Tayra's Angels, and as such considered a prize grab by the Kremlin.

The corps, Tayra's Angels, founded in 2014, is credited with saving over 5,000 lives and training over 1,000 volunteer medics. There is a grim analogy here with the White Helmets volunteer medic group in Syria also dedicated to rushing in wherever Russian planes bombed the civilian populations in Sunni-majority areas of the country, to save lives. And who were themselves bombed on arrival at bombed-out sites.

The White Helmet group turned to giving aid and practical support to their Ukrainian counterparts through video training and encouragement. In acknowledgement of her humanitarian efforts Paevska was awarded the national title of Hero of Ukraine, given to civilians recognized for outstanding service to the country. Her government is anxious to repatriate her. Russia is determined to prevent it.

 

Now, her daughter is mounting another type of campaign; one which would see her mother released, along with the release of an estimated five hundred Ukrainian women who have been captured by Russian troops. In Ukraine, ample evidence is documented of targeted bombings of civilians, deportations and relocation of children and women. 

Irina Dubchenko, a missing Ukrainian journalist, fits a larger pattern of Russian forces detaining Ukrainian women.  CNN

The Long Retributive Arm of Iranian Reprisal

"The [Iranian] campaign incorporates the full spectrum of transnational repression tactics, including assassinations, renditions, detentions, unlawful deportations, Interpol abuse, digital intimidation, spyware, coercion by proxy, and mobility controls."

"These tools have been deployed against Iranians in at least nine countries in Europe, the Middle East, and North America."

"The Iranian campaign is distinguished by the total commitment it receives from the state, the level of violence that it employs, and the sophisticated application of diverse methods against a similarly diverse set of targets."

"The result is intense intimidation of the Iranian diaspora, from which even those who avoid physical consequences ultimately suffer."

"As an Iranian activist told Freedom House, 'They drain you emotionally financially, in every way'." 

"Another recent tactic is renditions, in which Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC], leads operations to kidnap exiles from other countries and forcibly repatriate them."

Report, Freedom House

 

"I am grateful to [the] FBI for foiling the Islamic Republic of Iran's Intelligence Ministry's plot to kidnap me."

"Initially, I naturally felt shocked. Then I got worried -- then I thought about it; we have been scared of the Islamic regime for a lifetime. But now the Islamic regime is scared of me."

"I was in three safe houses, and they were following me. I think I’m living in a movie. I’ve cooperated with the FBI for the last eight months."

"I have 5 million followers on my Instagram... I’m giving a platform to people inside, challenging the compulsory hijab, and challenging the religious dictatorship. All the years and years they called America the great Satan, the biggest enemy. But they’re scared of their own people. That’s why they sent officers from the intelligence service to Brooklyn to kidnap me."

"My heart was broken following the news of his execution [Ruhollah Zam, a dissident journalist living in France], and I was like, ‘Wow, they’re trying to exactly do the same to me.’ It’s scary but it gives me hope. I give voice to the voiceless people inside Iran."

Masih Alinejad, U.S.-Iranian journalist, activist and author

Masih Alinejad (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)

"[The incident sounds like] some far-fetched movie plot."

"We allege a group backed by the Iranian government conspired to kidnap a U.S.based journalist here on our soil and forcibly return her to Iran."

"Not on our watch."

William Sweeney, head, New York FBI office

Four Iranian intelligence officials between 2020 and 2021 used the services of private investigators in surveillance, including the photographing and video recording of journalist Masih Alinejad along with her household members, accumulating several days' worth of surveillance and a live high-definition video feed installed at Alinejad's home, according to an indictment filed in New York, after a plan to abduct expatriate Iranians and return them to Iran was interrupted by an FBI investigation.

That investigation served to highlight a covert program organized by the Islamic Republic of Iran to deal with Iranians living outside the country who are critical of the regime, subjecting them to harassment meant to intimidate dissidents living in countries abroad. Freedom House, an organization advocating for human and political rights, published a report detailing the Iranian methodology and its reach.

In the wake of U.S. authorities revealing a kidnapping plot, three Canadians have been revealed as targets of the Iranian regime. The investigation resulted in the charging by U.S. prosecutors of four Iranian intelligence officials for plotting to lure the Canadians to Iran, as well as a New York journalist and an individual living in the United Kingdom. The four intelligence officers have been accused by the FBI of surveillance on the targets for the purpose of kidnapping them to smuggle them out of the country.

"Thanks to the FBI's exposure of their alleged scheme, these defendants have failed to silence criticism by forcible abduction", stated U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, Southern District of New York. One of the Iranians has been arrested and is in custody, the other Iranian intelligence officers are back in Iran, being sought as fugitives from justice. 

Part of the plot was a scenario involving evacuating the kidnapped Iranians from New York city to Venezuela via a military-style speedboat. It is highly likely that the three Iranian-Canadians knew full well the danger they were in, targeted by the Iranian government for reprisal for their outspoken criticism of the Islamic Republic. One, in fact is himself a former Iranian head of intelligence who stands accused by the regime of having embezzled state funds. The man accuses the regime of sending a team of hit-men to silence him.

Some previous attacks saw a refugee living in the Netherlands assassinated outside his home in 2015, after living outside Iran for decades. A bomb plot against a gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in France was disrupted by Belgian authorities in 2018. That same year Danish intelligence officials disrupted an assassination attempt organized by the Republic of Iran against the head of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz.

"As alleged, four of the defendants monitored and planned to kidnap a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin who has been critical of the regime’s autocracy, and to forcibly take their intended victim to Iran, where the victim’s fate would have been uncertain at best.  Among this country’s most cherished freedoms is the right to speak one’s mind without fear of government reprisal.  A U.S. citizen living in the United States must be able to advocate for human rights without being targeted by foreign intelligence operatives.  Thanks to the FBI’s exposure of their alleged scheme, these defendants have failed to silence criticism by forcible abduction."

U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss

Four Iranians, one an intelligence officer, have been charged by the US justice department of conspiring to kidnap a New York journalist. Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

The Options of Resistance

"All options of the Palestinian resistance remain open. We warn the Zionists against committing any more stupidities, including their violations of international laws by their arresting of the Parliament speaker."
"The resistance is the only route to freeing the prisoners."
"The lives of the three [Israeli teens] are not worth those of the 5,000 [Palestinians in Israeli prisons]."
Mushar al-Masri, Hamas spokesman

Female soldiers of Hamas which has been blamed for the kidnapping, rallying in uniform to show their support for the kidnappers - Photo Screenshot/Israellycool

"The kidnapping was carried out by Hamas members. We know that for a fact. Hamas denials do not change this fact."
"Instead of abiding by his international obligation to disarm Hamas, President Abbas has chosen to make Hamas his partner. I believe that the dangers of that pact now should be abundantly clear to all."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The Israeli military has arrested hundreds of Palestinians and closed off West Bank roads in a frantic search for three missing youths, two 16-year-olds and one 19-year-old, all of them hitchhiking back home from their school in a West Bank settlement. The recently signed re-alliance of Fatah and Hamas in a unity government condemned by Israel given the terrorist credentials of Hamas and the fact that it is on the terror list of most Western countries, appears to illustrate the dysfunctionality of the Palestinian Authority with the abduction of the three Israelis.

Hamas speaks authoritatively of 'violations of international laws', alluding to the detaining and imprisonment of members of Hamas by the IDF, but international laws obviously express no opinion on the abduction of three civilian Israeli youth, described by Hamas spokespeople as "Israeli soldiers", in a gleeful triumph of 'resistance' to the oppressive 'occupiers'. The three youths disappeared on Thursday night heading away from their religious school. One of the teens had placed an emergency call with the statement "We've been kidnapped" before the line went dead.

The capturing of Israelis, be they soldiers or civilians represents a high-value target for Palestinian 'militants', for the potential use of the captured Israelis as bargaining tools in the exchange of prisoners; the usual ratio of exchange hugely favours the Palestinian 'resistance', at something approximating 500 to one. A senior Israeli military intelligence officer stated his opinion based on experience that only the "most institutionalized cells ... promote suicide bomber attacks and kidnapping"; a direct referral to the activities of Hamas operatives.

The IDF's closure of the West Bank city of Hebron as the likeliest place where the three boys were abducted and may be being kept, is in the hopes that the restricting of traffic may constrain, or prevent the kidnappers from smuggling them out of the area. "The Israeli government cannot blame the Palestinians for security issues in areas that are not controlled by them", insisted Ehab Bseiso, spokesman for the Palestinian unity government, a claim rejected as "absurd" by Mr. Netanyahu who pointed out that the attackers had originated in Palestinian territory.

It is worth iterating that the Palestinians express their resentment and grievances against Israel and its citizens in the most heinous manner, by constant violent attacks both through the activities of terrorist groups and through the individual initiative of lone Palestinians or groups of young thugs who target Israelis to stone their vehicles on highways, or to attack and kill them when opportunity arises. Israel, on the other hand, welcomes the opportunity to give expert medical treatment to seriously ill Palestinians. Case in point, Chairman Abbas's wife was released from a Tel Aviv hospital on Monday after undergoing surgery in a neurological orthopedic unit of Assuta Hospital.

Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ (Abu Mazen) wife has been released from Tel Aviv’s Assuta Hospital the Yisrael Post reports on Monday, 18 Sivan 5774.
YWN ISRAEL reported on Sunday that the PA leader’s wife was hospitalized in the Tel Aviv hospital on Thursday, under an assumed name. Her true identity was not revealed. She underwent surgery for an unspecified problem with a leg and she was admitted to a neurological orthopedic unit.
- See more at: http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/239979/abu-mazens-abbas-wife-discharged-from-israeli-hospital.html#sthash.4WoQd74k.dpuf

Immediately after the event occurred, Hamas gave high praise to the kidnapping without claiming direct responsibility. After all, inclusion in the unity government could be tainted in the opinion of the West hesitating to accept this new standing for Hamas, should they admit in public that they were involved in the abduction of three teens. However, in a message they sent on to journalists reference was made to "the success of the kidnapping", and that "the movement pays tribute to the heroes who are behind the kidnapping", speaking volumes about their agenda as terrorists.

A senior security official in Egypt offered the information that Egyptian National Security was communicating through a third Palestinian party to aid in the resolution of the crisis. Egyptian authorities use intermediaries in contact with Palestinian militant groups since the government refuses direct contact with Hamas, whom they too consider a terrorist organization. According to the Egyptian official, the three Israelis are believed to be still in the West Bank.