The Wire - November 24, 2025

//The Wire//2300Z November 24, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: MASS STABBING STRIKES MADRID. EFFORTS TO OUTLAW CHRISTIAN CHURCH CONTINUE IN CONGRESS. COUNTER-ICE OPERATIONS CONTINUE TO GROW AND ORGANIZE NATIONWIDE.//

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-International Events-

Caribbean: This morning the White House designated the Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).

Analyst Comment: This is a big deal. This was announced a few weeks ago but this morning this designation appeared in the Federal Register, so it's now in effect. The Cartel de los Soles is the cartel affiliated with much of the Venezuelan military, so this move is a necessary step in the process of expanding the conflict throughout the region.

Spain: This morning a mass stabbing was reported in Madrid. One Moroccan national stabbed 3x people this afternoon in a residential area, before fleeing the scene. Counterterrorism police were activated due to the assailant shouting Islamic phrases during the attack. Authorities identified the man and raided his residence, and tased him twice while attempting to arrest him. The tasing failed, and armed police shot him four times, ending the incident. The assailant survived the shooting, and is currently being treated at a local hospital. The three victims also survived, though some of which suffered serious wounds.

-HomeFront-

Washington D.C. - The Department of Homeland Security has announced a new billion-dollar initiative to increase biometric scanning at airports. DHS Secretary Noem stated that this investment is the largest expansion of surveillance technologies in many years.

In Congress, significant efforts are underway to initiate a criminal investigation into the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) within the United States. Last week, Rep. Joe Wilson (R) from South Carolina urged AG Bondi to investigate the Church due to his personal political opposition to Russia.

Analyst Comment: These types of efforts always come out of the woodwork during the lead up to Christmas, so this is certainly not out of the ordinary. Almost all Dioceses have already condemned these efforts in the strongest possible terms, so this has done nothing but strengthen the communion between various jurisdictions. This effort is also largely a farce as Rep. Wilson, just a week before this scandal, showed enthusiastic support for the President of Syria, Mohammad al-Jolani. It is excessively ridiculous to seek the opinion of those whom would support a genocidal warlord who is actively murdering Christians (and everyone else) in his own country *right now*, so Wilson's efforts largely can be dismissed. Nevertheless, it is important to consider as, no matter who's in office, Christians are the only group that politicians feel safe in persecuting openly. The goalposts will continue to be moved, or at least try to be. Today it's ROCOR, tomorrow it will be another jurisdiction. There are already other similar initiatives to encourage the labeling of the eastern Three-Bar Cross as a hate symbol, along with the general targeting of Christian churches around the United States. Protestant churches keep burning down due to arson attacks, and Catholic churches are also host to desecration efforts worldwide, so this targeting does not apply only to the East.

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Analyst Comments: Around the country, counter-ICE demonstrators have expanded operations to the economic front, in the form of protests against Home Depot for their alleged cooperation with ICE. Demonstrators have been observed to be taking advantage of a loophole in the retail world so as to cause economic harm to Home Depot. Demonstrators will purchase an ice scraper in the store, then promptly walk over to return it at customer service, running through this cycle over a period of hours. The end goal of this purchase/return cycle is mostly just to cause frustration for other shoppers. Which is probably not the best idea. In exactly the same manner as the protesters who take to the freeways to block traffic, the number one way to encourage unity *against* one's cause, is to impede the movement of traffic, or in this case shoppers, during the holiday shopping season.

A secondary goal is to cause some kind of economic issues in the form of Home Depot eating the costs of charging a credit card, but also not getting the revenue because the product is returned immediately. Whether or not this actually works is debatable in terms of the agreements that Home Depot has with payment processors...this is probably not doing anything at all, and it's probably flagging the bank accounts of protesters due to a pattern of suspicious purchases.

As humorous as it is to see these types of events taking place, in reality this does confirm the sheer number of people who are willing to waste their time for their cause. In many cases, it's absolutely certain that many of these people are paid; matching signs, banners, and clothing is a strong indicator of outside funding. However, it would also be unwise to think that because many of these people are paid, they aren't ideologically motivated or believe in their cause.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report.
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