Morning Wire XX
[0] Shocking reports of violence continue to emerge in the days following the Hamas attack on Israel, including horrific crimes against women and children.
[1] More than 1 ,000 civilians slaughtered.
[2] I just go slaughtered in Israel.
[3] How many hostages, including Americans, remain in terrorist control.
[4] I'm Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Vickley, with Georgia Howe.
[5] It's Wednesday, October 11th, and this is Morning Wire.
[6] Border agents continue to apprehend record numbers.
[7] of migrants, including thousands from terrorism -ridden areas in the Middle East.
[8] And biotech company 23 and Me confirms that the personal data of millions of its customers has been stolen and sold online by hackers.
[9] We have the details.
[10] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[11] Stay tuned.
[12] We have the news you need to know.
[13] Days after hundreds of civilians were slaughtered in Israel, more horrifying details of the attack have begun to emerge as the Jewish state wages war against Hamas.
[14] Here are the latest on the conflict is Daily Wire's senior editor Cabot Phillips.
[15] Cabot, we're piecing together more of the timeline of this terrible tragedy.
[16] Walk us through what we've learned in the last 24 hours.
[17] Well, every hour we're learning more and the stories somehow only get worse.
[18] At the moment, the death toll in Israel has risen over 1 ,000, with the vast majority of the victims being civilians, many of them women and children.
[19] On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers recaptured a town near the Gaza border and discovered dozens of victims, including reportedly 40 murdered children, some of whom may have been beheaded.
[20] Some of the victims appear to have also been burned alive.
[21] Photos from the scene showed blood -drenched nurseries and bullet -ridden strollers.
[22] At latest count, Israeli officials say 150 civilians and soldiers have been taken hostage, though that number could rise in the coming days.
[23] On Tuesday, Hamas continued to lob thousands of rockets into Israel, targeting airports and civilian hubs in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
[24] One of those attacks came as friends and family attended the outdoor funeral of a 20 -year -old British Israeli soldier.
[25] You can hear the screams of terror from mourners as those air raid sirens go off.
[26] And just terrifying and heartbreaking.
[27] We're now getting more details about the attack and how it unfolded.
[28] Tell us what we've learned.
[29] Yeah, so a big reason the attack was so devastating is because of its sophistication and the element of surprise.
[30] It's clearer this was not some thrown -together operation.
[31] The Gaza border is heavily fortified.
[32] with a 20 -foot wall equipped with high -tech motion sensors and radar detection tools.
[33] But on Saturday, Hamas used weaponized drones to target cameras and sensors before bulldozing specific portions of the wall, making way for terrorists to flood in.
[34] To give you an idea of the size of this operation, Israeli officials say they've recovered the bodies of at least 1 ,500 Hamas terrorists, while untold Moore escaped back into Gaza.
[35] Reports also indicate Hamas constructed a mock Israeli settlement in Gaza to train for their attack.
[36] So again, this was a complicated, coordinated effort that was clearly months or even years in the making.
[37] The complexity of the attack also leaves little question that Iran was heavily involved in planning the operation.
[38] Right.
[39] Lots of reports on that.
[40] Now, Israel has quickly ramped up its military response.
[41] What are we saying now?
[42] So in recent years, Israel has focused much of its military attention to the north, fortifying their border with Lebanon and then to the West Bank, where Palestinian insurgents have operated heavily.
[43] But they've now turned their attention to Gaza, launching targeted artillery and air strikes on Hamas strong holds there.
[44] In the last 24 hours, Israel has mobilized in additional 60 ,000 reservists.
[45] They've now called up 360 ,000 soldiers in the last few days.
[46] Israel has been sending texts and flyers over the last few days to Palestinians and Gaza, urging them to head to the south towards the Egyptian border away from the fighting.
[47] But Hamas is reportedly encouraging civilians to stay put.
[48] Israel says they're using their people as pawns and human shields.
[49] The expectation is that Israel will soon launch a ground invasion of Gaza, where the fighting there will only intensify.
[50] On Tuesday, Israeli officials asked the U .S. for more weapons, including precision -guided missiles for fighter jets and also interceptors for their Iron Dome system, which has been really strained as thousands of rockets have been fired at cities across the country in Israel.
[51] Right.
[52] And now we heard from President Biden yesterday.
[53] What did he have to say?
[54] Well, on Tuesday, the president made his first public appearance since the attack.
[55] He reiterated American support for Israel and offered a warning to other nations and terror groups.
[56] To any country, any organization, anyone thinking of taking advantage of this situation, I have one word, don't, don't.
[57] Our hearts may be broken, but our resolve is clear.
[58] According to Biden, we now know that at least 14 American citizens were killed, while around 20 remain missing, either murdered or being held hostage.
[59] On Tuesday, the Pentagon reportedly offered the support of U .S. Special Forces, specializing in hostage rescue operations.
[60] A secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, announced he'd be visiting Israel as a show of solidarity.
[61] And as a further sign of American support, the Pentagon was reportedly considering Tuesday deploying a second carrier group to the coast of Israel.
[62] The clear intention there is deterring other nations, particularly Iran, from joining this war.
[63] And one more thing to note, the vast majority of global flights to Israel have been halted amid the fighting.
[64] Stateside, Delta shut down all flights to Israel until at least November, while United and American canceled flights indefinitely.
[65] So the effects here are being felt around the world.
[66] Yeah, meanwhile, a lot of information coming out.
[67] Thanks for keeping on top of it.
[68] Any time.
[69] Coming up, Border Patrol apprehends record numbers of migrants, including thousands from terrorism -plagued regions.
[70] The potential for terrorists to enter the United States through its southern border has surged since President Biden took office.
[71] Border enforcement has arrested a record number of known and suspected terrorists this year, in addition to tens of thousands of immigrants from hotbeds of terrorism, including the Middle East.
[72] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce joins us to talk about the national security threat at Biden's border.
[73] Hi, Tim.
[74] So what's the scope of the problem of terrorists at the southern border?
[75] It's pretty significant compared to past years.
[76] Border authorities this fiscal year have encountered 151 people listed on the FBI's terror watch list.
[77] Last year, that number was 98, and the year before that, it was 15.
[78] Compare that to the years right before President Biden took office, and the numbers are much less, 11 total from fiscal year 2017 through 2020.
[79] But this week, we got more data that gives more context to the extent of this national security issue.
[80] Fox News scooped the numbers on special interest aliens that have been arrested while attempting to enter the U .S. illegally.
[81] Special interest aliens are from countries that are known terror hotspots, including places such as Iran and Syria.
[82] And this kind of illegal immigration is in the tens of thousands in the past several years.
[83] Wow.
[84] Do we have any specific numbers on where these immigrants are coming from?
[85] We do.
[86] Here's some rough numbers based on what Fox reported of Department of Homeland Security data.
[87] And these are all attempted illegal entries from October 2021 through October 2023.
[88] 6 ,400 from Afghanistan, 3 ,200 from Egypt, 700 from Iran, 100 from Iraq, 30 ,800 from Turkey, and 12 ,600 from Uzbekistan.
[89] So those were all arrested trying to cross illegally.
[90] But what the data doesn't tell us is what happened after they were arrested, whether they were detained, deported, or released into the U .S. It also does an account for hundreds of thousands of godaways never intercepted by authorities.
[91] Morningwire spoke to Celine Rodriguez at the Texas Public Policy Institute about the scope of the problem.
[92] We have our 1 .5 million plus known godaways.
[93] We have no idea who they are or where they're at or what their intention is.
[94] And that's just the known gotaways.
[95] We have no idea how many people came in, virtually undetected due to the lack of law enforcement presence along most of the border.
[96] She also said that drug cartels effectively control large sections of the border, so they control to some extent who gets in.
[97] That includes drug traffickers, human traffickers, and violent criminals as well.
[98] Right.
[99] Now we've seen reports of immigrants coming over the border with prepaid debit cards.
[100] What do we know about that trend?
[101] That's right.
[102] That was something we spoke to Rodriguez about as well, and we don't really know who is providing the debit cards, whether it's being orchestrated by a group or series of groups.
[103] But Rodriguez said there's some reason to suspect that U .S. taxpayer money is going toward those cards.
[104] We have seen some instances within the United States where certain NGOs are giving out those cards.
[105] NGOs are funded both by private donations and federal government subsidies.
[106] So it's easy to say that if an NGO is giving out certain resources right now to include debit cards, cell phones, anything to that effect.
[107] It is in some way taxpayer funded.
[108] Definitely something that needs to be further looked into.
[109] Tim, thanks for reporting.
[110] Thanks for having me. The Biotechnology Company 23 and Me confirmed on Friday that the personal data of many of its customers has been stolen, specifically the hackers targeted accounts of Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish users.
[111] Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham is here now at the latest.
[112] So, Megan, the industry has always insisted that their bio data is secure.
[113] How big of a breach was this?
[114] Well, you know, reporting is varying on that.
[115] You've got some tech outlets that are saying it was around a million accounts.
[116] Others are putting it closer to 10 million.
[117] But 23 and me said in their statement that this wasn't technically a breach of their system.
[118] They said that these hackers used what they called recycled login credentials.
[119] So basically, they just kept trying passwords until they were able to access this data that they wanted.
[120] But, you know, that's probably not a huge amount of comfort to the company's customers right now.
[121] Once the hackers were in, they made use of this feature called DNA Relatives.
[122] And that's an opt -in feature where customers can choose to share their info with one another.
[123] So according to Wired Magazine, what's being sold on the dark web right now is a list of over one million data points of people with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.
[124] The outlet also reported that the hackers obtained info on hundreds of thousands of users of Chinese descent.
[125] So for sample data, they're actually offering information on Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Google founder Sergei Bryn.
[126] Now, do we know why users with these particular ethnic backgrounds were targeted?
[127] No, that's definitely not clear right now, but there has been some speculation about just how dangerous a compiled list like this could be if, say, someone wanted to target a particular ethnic group.
[128] And what we do now is that tech outlets are reporting that the cyber attackers are selling these data profiles for anywhere between a dollar and $10 each on the dark web.
[129] And those sales include names, gender, location, genetic ancestry, date of birth, just really the most personal information you can imagine.
[130] And it's worth pointing out that in 2021, military officials issued a warning to service members, and it ordered them not to use these kinds of DNA tests for just this reason.
[131] So this was Bill Evanina, former top counterintelligence official at the Directorate of National Intelligence, talking to 60 minutes about that at the time.
[132] Sometimes Americans or people on the globe don't even know their value or their DNA that even has value, but it's your single sole identifier of everything about you as a human being.
[133] So it's your past and your future as well as your children's future.
[134] Now, I had actually thought that genetic data was already being sold on these sites.
[135] That was one of the reasons why people were creeped out by them.
[136] Yeah, exactly.
[137] And in defense of that practice, 23 and me, CEO, Ann Wojcicki, has said this data sharing was for the purpose of things like medical research and customers are given a choice if they want their data to be sold.
[138] In that same 60 -minute segment, she said this about selling biodata to pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Glaxo Klein -Smith.
[139] We have empowered individuals with this opportunity to come together to crowdsource research.
[140] We are going to develop drugs so that everyone is actually benefiting from the human genome.
[141] So absolutely, the data is valuable.
[142] And of course, these ancestry DNA companies have also allowed law enforcement to access this information in order to solve crimes.
[143] The Golden State Killer case from the 1970s and 80s was famously the first one solved.
[144] using genealogy data from these commercial companies.
[145] So a good thing to bring the guilty to justice, of course, but these situations do clearly now bring up a lot of ethical questions.
[146] Right.
[147] And what's creepy about it is clearly there are people who are willing to pay, you know, $10 per pop, which makes you think they've got something in mind for it.
[148] Yeah.
[149] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[150] Anytime.
[151] Another story we're tracking this week.
[152] Members of the House will be voting on a new speaker this morning.
[153] We'll have all the results in today's afternoon update.
[154] Thanks for waking up with us.
[155] We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.