NEWS OF THE FORCE | Saturday, October 17, 2015 - Page 1

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Saturday, October 17, 2015 - Today is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Hungary closes border with Croatia

Accused of a heavy-handed response to the thousands of migrants and refugees crossing over its borders in recent months, Hungary closed its border with Croatia at midnight last night.

New IS branch claims shootings in Saudi Arabia

A previously unheard of Islamic State group branch with links to Bahrain has purportedly claimed responsibility for a deadly shooting yesterday targeting Shiite worshippers in eastern Saudi Arabia. Five people were killed.

Cuba is intervening in Syria to help Russia

By Lisa Levine, News of the Force Tel Aviv

Reports that Cuban forces are now fighting in Syria follow a long history of the Castro brothers working closely with their patrons in Moscow.

Turkey said its warplanes shot down a drone yesterday near its border with Syria, underscoring heightened hostility in the region's increasingly crowded airspace.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country's air campaign backing a Syrian government offensive has "killed hundreds."

Palestinians set fire to a Jewish holy shrine in the West Bank yesterday morning, and clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli military flared throughout the day after the militant Islamist group Hamas called for a "day of rage."

Government officials say two Palestinians who were shot while trying to stab Israelis in Jerusalem and the West Bank have died of their wounds. And police spokeswoman Luba Samri says officers approached a Palestinian who then pulled out a knife and tried to stab them. The officers opened fire and seriously wounded the assailant.

And the current violence here has been characterized by two things: An unbridled bloodlust among an entire brainwashed generation of Palestinian Arabs and an unprecedented level of faulty and biased media coverage. One example of that media bias came from the BBC, which said on its website, "Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills two." What the BBC didn't say is that the two people killed were Jewish Israeli citizens, and the Palestinian was shot dead because he was the murderer.

Cuzin Jim's Thought for the Day: You can't fix stupid, but you can vote it out.

U.S. Army

A 75-year-old U.S. Army veteran who fought off a knife-wielding man who was threatening to kill children at an Illinois library says training he received nearly five decades ago helped him in the scuffle. James Vernon was teaching a chess class with 16 children at the Morton Public Library, in Morton, Illinois, when authorities say 19-year-old Dustin Brown entered the room with two knives. According to a court affidavit, Brown told police afterward that he "failed in his mission to kill everyone." "He actually ran into the room yelling, 'I'm going to kill some people!' He was holding two knives," Vernon said. Vernon described the knives as "hunting types" with "fixed blades about 5 inches" long. Vernon, a retired Caterpillar, Inc., employee, said he remembered the knife-fight training the Army had given him. Despite his cuts, Vernon contended he won his "90 seconds of combat" with Brown, "but I felt like I lost the war." He suffered two cut arteries and a tendon in his left hand as he blocked Brown's knife swipe. He said he first tried to calm Brown and deflect his attention from the children attending his class. "I tried to talk to him. I tried to settle him down," he said. "I didn't, but I did deflect his attention" from the children "and calmed him a bit. I asked him if he was from Morton, did he go to high school. I asked what his problem was. He said his life sucks." Vernon said the man backed away as he got closer to him, but he was able to put himself between Brown and the room's door, with the children hiding under the tables behind him. "I gave them the cue to get the heck out of there, and, boy, they did that!" Vernon said. "Quick, like rabbits." Vernon said Brown responded by slashing him with a knife. Vernon, saying he was "bleeding pretty good" at the time, held the suspect until a library employee arrived to remove the knives, and kept the man pinned until police officers and paramedics arrived. Brown, who was free on child pornography charges, is being held on $800,000 bond on charges of attempted murder, armed violence and aggravated battery. It wasn't immediately known whether Brown has a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.

Lt. Col. Kevin Ferreira, an Iraq War veteran and New York Army National Guard aviation officer took command of the 3rd Battalion, 142nd Assault Helicopter Regiment, a UH-60 Blackhawk battalion, from Lt. Col. Jeffrey Baker at Camp Smith today. The battalion has elements at McArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma and at Albany International Airport.

A Texas Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk out of the Austin Army Aviation Facility is helping to fight wildfires threatening homes and property near Bastrop, Texas.

Lt. Col. Jason Souza, a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, took command of the New York Army National Guard's 501st Ordnance Battalion, a headquarters unit that controls up to five explosive ordnance disposal companies, today during a ceremony at the Armed Forces Readiness Center in Scotia-Glenville.

The Idaho Army National Guard is proposing fewer, but larger armories across the state. Col. Farin Schwartz says the Guard won't know whether they can secure funding for the project for at least another year.

Eighteen members of the Wyoming Army National Guard's 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, left home this morning for a training mission prior to their deployment to Afghanistan.

The remains of a Civil War soldier will be reburied in a southwest Missouri cemetery four years after they were illegally removed from a national battlefield site. The soldier’s bones, which were to be interred today at the Springfield National Cemetery, were collected in 2011 as Coy Matthew Hamilton was canoeing through the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield site near Springfield. Prosecutors said Hamilton, who was looking for artifacts after a storm, saw a bone sticking out of an embankment and started digging. About 10 days later, he turned the bones over to the National Park Service. Hamilton agreed in 2012 to pay $5,351 in restitution to the park service and perform 60 hours of community service to avoid prosecution. Wilson’s Creek Superintendent Ted Hillmer said removing any artifacts from a national park is forbidden. Hillmer said the burial ceremony will feature an honor guard made up of Union and Confederate volunteers and re-enactors, along with three volleys of musket fire and a cannon firing. "We want to show honor and respect for the remains that were found here," Hillmer said. "To me, this is very unique because we don’t bury remains of Civil War soldiers in this era." The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs by law considers all Civil War service members from both sides to be U.S. veterans. It said it’s not known whether the remains belonged to a Union or Confederate soldier, but the department said the park service was "confident" that the bones are associated with the 1861 clash at Wilson’s Creek, which was the first major Civil War battle fought west of the Mississippi River. Hillmer said a number of bone buttons, typical of what a cavalry unit would have worn, were found in the area where the remains were removed. The cemetery where the bones will be reburied contains graves of Union and Confederate casualties from the Battle of Wilson’s Creek and other battles in the area. Missouri, which entered the Union as a slave state but didn't secede, was the scene of frequent battles and skirmishes, with residents fighting for both sides.

And actor Shia LeBeouf drunkenly told an Austin, Texas, police officer that he was in the Army National Guard in an attempt at being let off the hook on a DUI charge.

President Obama signs new legislation into law

Yesterday, the President signed into law:

- H.R. 2835, the "Border Jobs for Veterans Act of 2015," which requires the Department of Homeland Security to: consider the expedited hiring of qualified veterans who have the ability to perform the functions of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers; and enhance its efforts to recruit members of the armed forces who are separating from military service to serve as CBP officers;

- S. 986, the "Albuquerque Indian School Land Transfer Act," which directs the Secretary of the Interior to take into trust four parcels of federal land in Albuquerque, N.M., for the benefit of 19 Indian Pueblos;

- S. 1300, the "Adoptive Family Relief Act," which authorizes U.S. consular officers to waive immigrant visa renewal or replacement fees for an immigrant child that is adopted by U.S. citizens if the child was unable to use the original visa during its period of validity as a direct result of extraordinary circumstances that were beyond the control of the child or the parents, including the denial of an exit permit; and,

- S. 2078, the "U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Reauthorization Act of 2015," which reauthorizes and amends the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

U.S. Coast Guard news

The controversial LNG terminal development at the U.S. East Coast Port Ambrose is making progress after gaining support from the Coast Guard.

The U.S. Coast Guard is naming its newest cutter for a sailor from San Antonio, Texas. Juanita Segovia, 84, lost her son, Heriberto Hernandez, in combat in Vietnam. He was the first member of the U.S. Coast Guard to die in that war.

Crew members aboard USCGC Isaac Mayo repatriated 57 Cuban migrants back to their home country yesterday.

Peter Eident will address officer candidates to honor a crew of shipwrecked sailors at 10 a.m., ET, on Oct. 20 at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy's chapel.

The Vermilion Parish, La., Sheriff's Water Patrol and the U.S. Coast Guard are searching for two missing crew members after a boat explosion on Thursday. The U.S. Coast Guard described the boat as a 30-foot deck boat, which was near a rig owned by the Texas Petroleum Investment Co.

Three men on a recreational boat had to be rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after their boat began taking on water off Carlsbad, Calif., near San Diego.

And the U.S. Coast Guard has launched a search near the Bristol Bay community of Ugashik, Alaska, after a boater failed to return home.

News from the U.S. Marshals Service

This week’s "Fugitive of the Week," Adam John Little, was arrested yesterday by the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force in a Denmark, Maine, apartment. Little was wanted for parole violations in the state of New Hampshire. Little was on parole due to his original conviction and sentence for criminal threatening and intimidation.

The U.S. Marshals’ Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team arrested fugitive Ronald Schwarm in Cincinnati yesterday on an outstanding warrant from the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, in Cincinnati, Ohio, on an indictment charging him with two counts of rape, two counts of sexual battery and one count of gross sexual imposition.

Three Smith County fugitives wanted by the U.S. Marshals Joint East Texas Fugitive Task Force were located and arrested by Mexico’s National Institute of Migration in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico. James Mitchell Zachary, Brandy Yvette Rucker, and Dawn Rae Barron were given a one way flight, and escorted by the Mexican Federal Police, to Houston, Texas, to be delivered to the U.S. Marshals.

And U.S. Marshals from the Northern District of Georgia's Special Response Team, with the assistance of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Georgia State Patrol, the Atlanta Police Department, SWAT, the Air and Traffic unit, and patrol, as well as the Federal Protective Service (FPS) Police, transported alleged drug lord Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez and Carlos Montemayor to U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta on Friday, Oct. 9.

American Red Cross

Did you know? Staff and volunteers with the American Red Cross are dispatched to home fires and other emergencies, every eight minutes.

The American Red Cross and the American Heart Association have jointly announced new first air guidelines.

The Mosaic Co., in Plymouth, Minn., has announced a $25,000 contribution to the American Red Cross to aid its flood relief mission in South Carolina.

The American Red Cross has opened two shelters for Palmdale, La.-area residents displaced from their homes by a debris flow of mud and rocks.

Students looking to give back this holiday season can become eligible to win a scholarship from the American Red Cross by hosting a blood drive.

And the American Red Cross of Kern County, Calif., has opened shelters in Tehachapi and Mojave to help the victim's of a major mudslide.

UFO news

Washington state can claim what's regarded as the "first of the modern era of UFO sightings" after, in 1947, pilot Kenneth Arnold spotted a formation of flying saucers while flying near Mt. Rainier.