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Tues. Apr. 25, 2017
Please forward the attached on to all of your known college professors, Millennials, etc., as they will no doubt believe this to be accurate...
Collaring Sherman's Tank
Report: 300 U.S. Marines ‘En Route’ to Taliban Stronghold in Afghanistan
by EDWIN MORA
An estimated 300 U.S. Marines are heading to a Taliban stronghold in the southern Afghanistan province of Helmand, one of the deadliest regions of the ongoing war for coalition forces located along the Pakistan border, reports Marine Corps Times.
The American troops are expected to reach their destination — where the Taliban has largely reversed previous U.S./NATO coalition gains — by the end of this month. Nearly all of Helmand has once again fallen under the control of the Taliban. Helmand sits next to Kandahar province, widely known as the birthplace of the Taliban.
The 300 additional Marines, with the appropriate support, “can absolutely make a difference in Helmand province,” retired Gen. David Petraeus, who served as the top commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan between 2010 to 2011, told Marine Corps Times.
He added that the Marines’ advise-and-assist mission could provide the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) “the support they need to reverse the momentum of the Taliban in that important province that sits astride the critical ‘Ring Road’ that connects the southern and western parts of the country to Kabul.”
The ANDSF includes police and army units.
Marine Corps Times reports:
The deployment of Marines from the II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, will be the largest Marine deployment to Afghanistan since 2014, when the U.S. military’s combat mission known as Operation Enduring Freedom officially ended.
By the end of April, the Marines will be in Helmand province as Task Force Southwest, replacing the Army’s Task Force Forge. During their nine months in Helmand, the Marines will train the Afghan National Army’s 215th Corps and the 505th Zone National Police in marksmanship, indirect fire and small-unit tactics and other skills, Marine Corps officials said.
According to various assessments, the Taliban controls more territory now than during any time since U.S./NATO troops removed the jihadist group from power in 2001.
Long War Journal recently reported that the terrorist group controls (7) or contests (6) nearly all of the 14 districts in Helmand.
“Helmand province is becoming increasingly dangerous for U.S. troops. In March, three American soldiers were shot at an Afghan military base in an apparent insider attack and in February, a Special Forces soldier was severely wounded in Sangin,” notes Marine Corps Times.
Although the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has established a presence in the Afghanistan region, the Taliban remains the strongest jihadist group there. The two groups have fought one another for turf, influence, and recruits.
Former President Barack Obama reportedly approved the deployment of the 300 Marines before leaving office.
In the year after the former commander-in-chief declared an end to the U.S. combat mission and withdrew most American troops from the war-devastated country, the State Department deemed Taliban jihadists the world’s chief perpetrators of terrorism in 2015, with 1,093 individual attacks.
“Make no mistake, though we are no longer in a combat role in Afghanistan, it is still a combat environment,” Col. Matthew Reid, deputy task force commander, told Marine Corps Times in January. “As Marines, we train and deploy with a combat mindset.”
This year, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) revealed that the American-backed Afghan government had lost control of nearly half (43 percent) of the country, primarily to the Taliban.
The rest of the country was either contested or under the control/influence of terrorists.
Nevertheless, U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster sounded optimistic over the weekend that U.S.-backed forces will defeat the Taliban.
The Taliban must be defeated as well. They can be defeated in a number of ways. For those that are reconcilable, who are now willing to join their Afghan brothers to strengthen the Afghan state, to end the violence, to be part of the political process, I think your president and the chief executive officer they will welcome them back in. So it is their choice now.
The Taliban has refused to participate in peace negotiations with the Afghan government, saying they have no reason to engage in talks because they are winning the war.
American Gen. John Nicholson, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said late last year that the Taliban generates nearly 60 percent of its funding from trafficking opium primarily cultivated in Helmand.
In its most recent assessment, the United Nations reported that Helmand remains the top opium-producing province in Afghanistan.
The war-ravaged country is the world’s top supplier of opium and its heroin derivative.
FBI ARRESTS MUSLIMS DURING FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION CLINIC BUST
Islamic law spreading in US
Kit Daniels
Three Muslims were charged with performing female genital mutilations on young girls in the Detroit area.
Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, 53, and his wife, Farida Attar, 50, were arrested by federal officers this past week at their medical clinic in Livonia, Michigan, outside of Detroit.
Jumana Nagarwala, a 44-year-old emergency room physician, was also arrested.All three of them have ties to the Dawoodi Bohra, an Islamic sect which advocates surgically removing the clitoris from girls as young as six to suppress their sexuality.The practice, however, is internationally recognized as a violation of human rights.
“An increasing number of females in the [Muslim] community worldwide have begun to speak publicly about FGM and the effects it has had on them and their families,” said FBI Special Agent Kevin J. Swanson in his affidavit. “Many describe pain during the procedure and a variety of effect on their physical and mental health later in life.”
The Trump Department of Justice acted swiftly on the case.
“Female genital mutilation constitutes a particularly brutal form of violence against women and girls. It is also a serious federal felony in the United States,” said Acting United States Attorney Daniel Lemisch. “The practice has no place in modern society and those who perform FGM on minors will be held accountable under federal law.”
According to the affidavit, the clinic operated in strict secrecy and operated on girls from neighboring states.
Nagarwala also admitted she knew the practice was illegal in an interview with the FBI.
If the allegations are true, they highlight how an increasing number of radical Muslims are advocating Islamic laws and other related practices in America even if they are illegal or unconstitutional.
Sharia law in particular is a legal system that is derived from the religious precepts of Islam, and it governs Islamic societies both in public and at home.
It’s one of the primary reasons why critics suggest radical Islam is not just a religion, but an ideology that’s not compatible with Western society and US constitutional law.
Sharia law advocates often harp the “supremacy” of Islamic law over “man-made” Western laws, including the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
“The invariable and basic rules of Islamic law are only those prescribed in the Shari’ah,” wrote Khirz Khan, who made headlines during the presidential race as a Democratic poster boy opposed to Donald Trump. “All other juridical works… must always be subordinated to the Shari’ah.”
WHY FOX NEWS TO BECOME MORE LIKE CNN
'The new global brand is worldly and unlimited'
With the emergence of Rupert Murdoch’s politically progressive son, James, in the leadership of his media empire and the unceremonious exits from Fox News of CEO Roger Ailes and now flagship anchor Bill O’Reilly, the cable-news powerhouse’s niche as an alternative to the left-leaning CNN, MSNBC and broadcast networks is suddenly in question.
Back in 2010, the New York Times brought to light the struggle between Murdoch and his children over the future of the Fox News Channel, quoting Matthew Freud, the brother-in-law of James Murdoch and a PR specialist who was said to often maneuver behind the scenes on behalf of James.
James Murdoch
The great-grandson of Sigmund Freud, Matthew Freud told the Times: “I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes’ horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to.”
Now, as CEO of parent company 21st Century Fox, James Murdoch, 44, reportedly played a decisive role in the ouster of both Ailes and O’Reilly, and, if his view of Fox News is any indication, fundamental changes could be on the way.
This week the Hollywood Reporter, citing insider sources, cast the “dream” of James Murdoch as “combining Sky News and Fox News with the vast Murdoch reach and producing some ultimate global news brand” that apparently would look more like CNN than the present Fox News.
“Where Fox News is parochial and America First, the new global brand is worldly and unlimited,” the Reporter said.
The paper said James Murdoch’s “longtime annoyance if not disgust with Fox News became cold fury” after the Times’ April 1 story about the accusations of sexual harassment against O’Reilly.
Despite the fact that Fox News is the biggest earning division of 21st Century Fox — with 20 percent of its profits — James “regarded many of the people at Fox News as thuggish Neanderthals and said he was embarrassed to be in the same company with them.”
The feeling apparently is mutual, with many at Fox News regarding James as “exhibit No. 1 of the liberal elite entitlement that Fox had so profitably programmed against.”
Filling a void
Last August, the New York Times noted James Murdoch’s promotion of the theory of human-caused climate change clashes with much of Fox News commentary and reporting.
His wife, Kathryn, was a trustee of the Environmental Defense Fund and a former director at the Clinton Climate Initiative. The couple has launched a foundation, Quadrivium, that focuses on the “sustainable use of resources” and “scientific understanding,” and James has led initiatives to make 21st Century Fox “carbon neutral.”
In an essay in Time magazine in December, he wrote, “Entrenched and compromised interests spin the fiction that science is more divided than united, and they sow seeds of uncertainty on issues of unquestionable priority: namely, the survival of our species on this planet.”
In contrast, the Times summarized Fox News’s objective as filling “a void that conservative-leaning viewers sensed in the mainstream media.”
“That guiding philosophy has provided a steady compass, and a lucrative revenue stream, as its competitors have struggled with their own paths.”
‘Sympathetic to Democratic causes’
In its 2010 story, the Times reported Rupert Murdoch’s eldest son, Lachlan, now executive co-chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox, along with his daughter Elizabeth, a TV producer in London, and James “are sympathetic to Democratic causes and frequently voiced concerns to their father” about Fox News’s coverage of Barack Obama’s initial presidential campaign in 2008.
Roger Ailes
In an interview with the Times in 2010, Ailes said that both Rupert Murdoch, now 86, and News Corporation had been consistently supportive of Fox News and its approach.
Ailes, the son of an Ohio factory foreman, said the three-word credo that described his family upbringing was responsible for the success of Fox News: “God, country, family.”
“I built this channel from my life experience,” Ailes said. “My first qualification is I didn’t go to Columbia Journalism School. There are no parties in this town that I want to go to.”
Meanwhile, a Politico feature Friday contended that months “before Donald Trump blew up American politics with his surprise win in November, he did the same thing to the conservative media.”
Politico said that while both Ailes and then-Breitbart Executive Chairman Steve Bannon “were angling to be the media Svengali whispering in Trump’s ear,” a rift occurred between the two over star anchor Megyn Kelly, who since has signed with NBC.
Bannon, who now is Trump’s chief strategist, said his relationship with Ailes began to sour when Kelly hammered Trump in the first Fox News primary debate.
Bannon told Politico he warned Ailes that Kelly would betray him.
“I told him then, I said, ‘She’s the devil, and she will turn on you.’”
By the summer of 2016, Ailes was forced to resign after former Fox host Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual-harassment lawsuit against him.
Politico said: “Since then, his legacy has been systematically dismantled, as several of the stars Ailes brought to the network have departed or been shown the door: Greta Van Susteren, then Kelly and, on Wednesday evening, Bill O’Reilly.”
Beginning Monday, Fox News will move the popular “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to O’Reilly’s 8 p.m. Eastern slot, shifting “The Five” from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eric Bolling will leave his seat on “The Five” to host his own show at 2 p.m. Eastern. Jesse Watters, a fixture on “The O’Reilly Factor” with his tongue-in-cheek “Watters World” reports, will take Bolling’s place on “The Five.” Sean Hannity remains at 10 p.m.
Tim Kaine Gets Backfire After Trump Tweet
BY V SAXENA
Failed Democrat vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine tried this week to slam President Donald Trump for his stance against illegal immigration by tweeting, “I’m amazed a President from an island in the Hudson River with a statue welcoming immigrants continues to push anti-immigration policies.”
The geographical inaccuracies aside, Kaine’s tweet — which he posted in response to something unrelated said earlier by Attorney General Jeff Sessions — was just plain dumb, though also typical.
Because of some unknown brain deformity, liberals such as Kaine remain intellectually incapable of differentiating between legal immigration and illegal immigration.
And for this continued ineptitude, the junior senator from Virginia was pummeled left and right on Twitter:
I'm amazed a President from an island in the Hudson River with a statue welcoming immigrants continues to push anti-immigration policies
I'm amazed you can tie your own shoes.
Stop demagoguing.
Policy is anti-ILLEGAL-immigration. To protect citizens.
Stop demagoguing.
Policy is anti-ILLEGAL-immigration. To protect citizens.
Twitter user “Gary Hokie Hawk” nailed it, writing, “Stop demagoguing. Policy is anti-ILLEGAL-immigration. To protect citizens.”
Exactly. About 30 years ago, my family immigrated to the United States legally. And as someone who earned entry the right way, I personally oppose illegal immigration just like President Trump, just like Attorney General Sessions, just like practically every other conservative.
Exactly. About 30 years ago, my family immigrated to the United States legally. And as someone who earned entry the right way, I personally oppose illegal immigration just like President Trump, just like Attorney General Sessions, just like practically every other conservative.
I'm amazed a President from an island in the Hudson River with a statue welcoming immigrants continues to push anti-immigration policies https://twitter.com/cnnpolitics/status/855194873196150784 …
@timkaine I'm amazed a person who wanted to be vice president of this country doesn't want the government to enforce federal law.
Does that make me a bigot, racist or white supremacist? (California state Sen. Kevin de León claimed this week that Trump’s enforcement policy is based on “principles of white supremacy“)
Of course not, and the same applies for President Trump.
Writing for Hot Air a couple years ago, contributor Patterico tried his hardest to reduce the differences between legal immigration and illegal immigration into a simple formula that he hoped liberals could follow: “(O)ne group is legal; the other is not. One group has followed a tortuous legal process to become citizens; the other has not.”
It’s so easy that even a child would be able to understand it, and yet this simple truth continues to fly right over the heads of liberal politicians, pundits and “reporters.” What in the world is wrong with them?
Better question: Is there anything wrong with them, or is their feigned ignorance just a stunt meant to conceal the real motivation behind their fanatical support for illegal immigration?
Trump Visits Walter Reed Hospital To Present Soldier With Purple Heart
President Donald Trump personally awarded a Purple Heart Saturday to an Army sergeant who lost part of his leg in Afghanistan.
“When I heard about this and I wanted to do it myself,” Trump said during a brief ceremony at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
JUST IN: President Trump awards Purple Heart at Walter Reed military hospital. Such a touching moment.
Earlier in the day, Trump had tweeted that he was going to Walter Reed.
Getting ready to visit Walter Reed Medical Center with Melania. Looking forward to seeing our bravest and greatest Americans!
After the ceremony, the president and first lady Melania Trump visited with veterans at the military facility. The visit lasted about 90 minutes.
Sgt. 1st Class Alvaro Barrientos, who was wounded in Afghanistan on March 17, was accompanied by his wife, Tammy. Barrientos was injured when when an Afghan soldier opened fire inside a base in Helmand province. Three soldiers were wounded in the attack.
Trump gave Barrientos’ wife a kiss and then pinned the medal on the sergeant’s left shirt collar, later shaking hands with Barrientos.
The Purple Heart is awarded to service members who are wounded or killed in action.
Many on Twitter praised Trump for making the trip to honor Barrientos.
PRES GOES TO WALTER REED HOSPITAL. HE IS VISITING WOUNDED WARRIORS. PRESENTS SOLDIER WITH THE PURPLE HEART. THERE IS A PRES THAT CARES USA
Obama was on Springsteen's Yacht playing Rich and Famous.PRESIDENT AND MRS TRUMP ARE VISITING WOUNDED TROOPS AT WALTER REED HOSPITAL.
President Trump visits vets at Walter Reed. Former President Obama visits INMATES! See the direct difference of PRIORITIES in this President
“Our veterans have delivered for this nation and now we must deliver for them,” Trump said in a February speech.
During that address to a joint session of Congress, Trump also singled out Carryn Owens, whose husband, Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens had been killed in a January raid on Yemen that Trump had authorized.
“Ryan’s legacy is etched into eternity,” Trump said then.
Carson: HUD-Funded Projects Will Grow Jobs For Low-Income Americans
"... something that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives."
By Jack Davis
Low-income Americans will no longer be passed over when the federal government pays the bill for construction projects, HUD Secretary Ben Carson said Thursday.
Carson said using a rule that has been ignored for much of the past 50 years is part of his different approach to running the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“It’s not how many people we can get into public housing,” Carson said during an interview with Newsmax TV. “It’s how many people we can get out of it.”
To that end, he said, HUD will require that contractors who build projects funded by HUD to work with the communities where those projects are being built to employ local low-income residents.
To that end, he said, HUD will require that contractors who build projects funded by HUD to work with the communities where those projects are being built to employ local low-income residents.
“We’re going to put much more emphasis on Section 3, which requires HUD builders to use low-income residents as employees during the construction of these various developments and in the redevelopment of places,” Carson said on The Joe Pags Show, referring to a law created in 1968.
“It’s largely ignored right now. We’re going to change that by emphasizing it in a different way and incentivizing people to use it,” Carson said.
Carson said that while architects and engineers are in the planning phase of a project, training providers can use that time to teach nearby residents the construction skills needed to work on those projects when the building begins.
“Most major construction and reconstruction projects are known about well more than a year in advance,” Carson said. “If you know that already, why not prepare the people, begin to train the people, ahead of time — so that when you’re ready to do it, you have the workforce that’s necessary?”
Carson said that approach not only rebuilds a community, it helps those in it rebuild their lives.
“If you give them those skills, you’re giving them something that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives,” he said.
Carson said HUD was created to be more than just a housing agency, and he wants to tap its full potential.
“It was designed because it was recognized that there were a number of people in our country who were disadvantaged but who were still very much in need of housing and in need of security,” Carson said.
“We’re expanding that mission to developing communities and neighborhoods in a way that they can be nurturing places that can really help to develop a full potential of all of our people,” he added. “That means working across silos and basically having a holistic approach to the way we do things — education, jobs, healthcare, transportation. All of those things are involved in creating the right kind of atmosphere.”
Carson said that once Democrats see what he is doing, they support his efforts.
“I’ve talked to a lot of people on the other side about some of these programs,” he said. “They, for the most part, actually like them. When they actually sit down and listen and we engage in a dialogue, they begin to see what the real effects are.”
North Korea says it is ready to strike U.S. aircraft carrier
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) transits the Sunda Strait April 15, 2017. U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Sean M. Castellano/Handout via REUTERSNorth Korea said on Sunday it was ready to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier to demonstrate its military might, in the latest sign of rising tension as U.S. President Donald Trump prepared to call the leaders of China and Japan.
The United States ordered the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group to sail to waters off the Korean peninsula in response to mounting concern over the North's nuclear and missile tests, and its threats to attack the United States and its Asian allies.
The U.S. government has not specified where the carrier strike group is as it approaches the area. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Saturday it would arrive "within days," but gave no other details.
North Korea remained defiant.
"Our revolutionary forces are combat-ready to sink a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with a single strike," the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North's ruling Workers' Party, said in a commentary.
The paper likened the aircraft carrier to a "gross animal" and said a strike on it would be "an actual example to show our military's force".
The commentary was carried on page three of the newspaper, after a two-page feature about leader Kim Jong Un inspecting a pig farm.
A senior U.S. administration official said Trump was expected to speak later on Sunday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
In another sign of the intense focus on Pyongyang in Washington, the White House is expected to host U.S. senators for a top-level briefing on North Korea on Wednesday, a White House official said.
The official said the briefing would be led by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
U.S. and South Korean officials have been saying for weeks the North could soon stage another nuclear test, something the United States, China and others have warned against.
South Korea has put its forces on heightened alert.
China, North Korea's sole major ally, opposes Pyongyang's weapons programs and has appealed for calm. The United States has called on China to do more to help defuse the tension.
Speaking during a visit to Greece, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said there were already enough shows of force and confrontation and appealed for calm.
"We need to issue peaceful and rational sounds," Wang said, according to a statement issued by China's Foreign Ministry.
U.S. CITIZEN DETAINED
Adding to the tensions, North Korea detained a Korean-American man in his 50s, bringing the total number of U.S. citizens held by Pyongyang to three.
The man, Tony Kim, had been in North Korea for a month teaching accounting at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), the institution's chancellor, Chan-Mo Park, told Reuters. He was arrested at Pyongyang International Airport on his way out of the country.
The arrest took place on Saturday morning local time, the university said in a statement, and was "related to an investigation into matters that are not connected in any way to PUST".
North Korea will mark the 85th anniversary of the foundation of its Korean People's Army on Tuesday.
It has in the past marked important anniversaries with tests of its weapons.
North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, two of them last year, and is working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles that can reach the United States.
It has also carried out a series of ballistic missile tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions.
North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threat is perhaps the most serious security challenge confronting Trump.
WORRY IN JAPAN
North Korea says its nuclear program is for self-defense and has warned the United States of a nuclear attack in response to any aggression. It has also threatened to lay waste to South Korea and Japan.
The U.S. defense secretary said on Friday that North Korea's recent statements were provocative but had proven to be hollow in the past and should not be trusted.
"We've all come to hear their words repeatedly; their word has not proven honest," Mattis told a news conference in Tel Aviv, before the latest threat to the aircraft carrier.
Two Japanese warships, the Samidare and Ashigara, left western Japan on Friday to join the Carl Vinson and will "practice a variety of tactics" with the U.S. strike group, the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force said in a statement.
The Japanese force did not specify where the exercises were taking place, but the destroyers by Sunday could have reached an area 2,500 km (1,500 miles) south of Japan, which would be east of the Philippines.
From there, it could take three days to reach waters off the Korean peninsula. Japan's ships would accompany the Carl Vinson north at least into the East China Sea, a source with knowledge of the plan said.
Japan's show of naval force reflects growing concern that North Korea could strike it with nuclear or chemical warheads.
Some Japanese ruling party lawmakers are urging Abe to acquire strike weapons that could hit North Korean missile forces before any imminent attack.
Japan's navy, which is mostly a destroyer fleet, is the second largest in Asia after China's.
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