Follow us on social

North Gaza Gazans

Surprise: CIA link to sketchy Israeli aid scheme

Meanwhile, retired Marine tapped to run the project resigns saying it cannot be independent or meet humanitarian standards

Analysis | QiOSK

A former CIA officer who once headed American schemes to train right wing contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s has been working with the Israelis to hatch a new aid organization, call it "independent," and proceed to deploy it on the starving Gaza population with the assistance of foreign entities and U.S. security contractors, according to new reports.

To say something stinks here is an understatement. After the New York Times got a whiff and started writing about how the idea came together shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, and that it was the brain child of IDF officials, Israeli tech entrepreneurs, and ex-COGAT (state aid coordinators) and one Israel-American venture capitalist, the CEO of the mysterious "Gaza Humanitarian Organization" quit last night.

CEO Jack Wood is a retired U.S. Marine who was on board to lead the fundraising for this effort. Upon his resignation he said in a statement: “It is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon.”

This sets back plans by ex-CIA officer Phillip F. Reilly, who the NYT describes:

As a young C.I.A. operative in the 1980s, Mr. Reilly had helped to train the Contras, right-wing militias fighting Nicaragua’s Marxist government, according to a 2022 podcast interview. Two decades later, he was one of the first U.S. agents to land in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the interview. He became the C.I.A. station chief in Kabul, then left to work as a private security expert for groups including Orbis, a Virginia-based consulting firm.

Reilly had engineered the procurement of Safe Reach Solutions, another mysterious U.S. private security firm that has been operating in the Gaza strip since early this year and my colleague Stavroula Pabst has written about for RS given the risks of having private American boots on the ground — for both the local population, and the "boots." The arrangement brings the U.S. closer than ever to the fighting there and in a split second could draw Washington into the conflict directly. It is not clear what Reilly's role is in UG Solutions, the other firm mentioned in past reports, but the New York Times mentions another U.S. based entity, G.H.F. under his purview.

What makes it even more suspicious is Wood told NYT (before his resignation) that these security companies work at "arms length" from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (by the way there are two of the same name registered, one in the Delaware and the other in Switzerland). But an American lawyer, James Cundiff, registered both Safe Reach Solutions and the Delaware-based foundation and had been serving as a spokesperson for both. Confused yet?

All of this seeming skullduggery belies the fact that no real aid is getting to the civilians of Gaza, that the illegal siege of the population persists, and any idea that a new system will open up assistance this week is likely to be another gambit to force Gazans from their homes, particularly in the north (expulsion) under the auspices of humanitarianism.


Top photo credit: Displaced Gazans in North Gaza. January 2025. (Anes Mohammed/Shutterstock)
Analysis | QiOSK
Europe Emmanuel Macron Ursula Von der Leyen Iran attacks
Top photo credit: French President Emmanuel Macron (Sasa Dzambic Photography/Shutterstock); damage to apartment building in Tehran after Israeli strike on 6/12/25 (Reuters);President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (Shutterstock/Alexandros Michailidis)

Pure Orwell: Europe condemns Iran for attacks on its own territory

Europe

When Israeli warplanes struck Iran this week — violating Iranian sovereignty in a brazen act of aggression, killing scores of civilians alongside top military commanders and nuclear scientists and inviting Iran’s equally indiscriminate retaliatory strikes — Europe’s leaders didn’t condemn the attack.

They perversely endorsed it and condemned Iran for the attacks on its own territory.

keep readingShow less
Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson MAGA
Top photo credit: Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson (Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons)

MAGA to Trump: Supporting Israel attacks is a 'middle finger' to voters

Washington Politics

The Republican president who vowed to “Make America Great Again” by ending “endless wars” now finds himself on the precipice of a potential new one.

Israel’s airstrikes on Iran Thursday came after President Donald Trump said he was hopeful for a nuclear deal and made clear publicly that he did not want Israel to interfere by acting militarily.

keep readingShow less
 israel attacks Iran
Top photo credit: Firefighters work at the scene of a damaged building in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 13, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Trump must condemn Israeli acts of illegal, naked aggression

Middle East

The Israeli attack on Iran is an act of naked aggression, in clear violation of international law as enshrined in the United Nations Charter and of anything that can labeled a rules-based international order.

The attack continues and expands Israel’s record of profligate use of military force throughout its region, including serial attacks on Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and the Palestinian territories, including the devastation in the Gaza Strip that many informed and objective observers consider genocide. Israel has thrown its military weight around the Middle East far more than any other state and as such is the biggest destabilizing actor in the region.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.