NEWS OF THE FORCE - Saturday, December 12, 2015 - Page 1

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Saturday, December 12, 2015

Ed. note: This issue was to be sent yesterday afternoon at about 2:30 p.m., EST, but just before sending it our systems were hit by a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. While our protective systems intercepted most of the attack, our Windows Explorer systems were extensively damaged and it took most of last night to repair our systems. We apologize for this inconvenience.

Six killed near Spain's embassy in Afghanistan

An Afghan official says that at least six people have been killed in a Taliban attack near the Spanish embassy in the capital city of Kabul. The Afghan security forces suppressed the suicide attack on a guest house attached to the Spanish embassy, killing three Taliban fighters after hours of intermittent gunfire and explosions that lasted into the early hours of today.

Meanwhile, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says "serious" reconciliation talks with pro-peace Taliban factions will begin very soon, with the goal of reaching an agreement.

President of France joins climate talks

French President Francois Hollande will join the Paris climate talks as delegates debate on what organizers hope is the final draft of an agreement.

After almost two weeks of marathon negotiations, the lines for food and coffee last night snaked through the temporary tent city in Le Bourget, France, that has been the home to the global climate talks.

Pakistan test-fires long-range missile

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan yesterday test-fired a surface-to-surface ballistic missile, with a maximum range of 2,750 km, the military said.

Libyan parties set Dec. 16 for signing of political agreement

The new United Nations envoy for Libya has announced that the parties to the country's political dialogue process have agreed to set Dec. 16 as the target date to sign the U.N.-facilitated agreement on forming a national unity government, aiming to bring an end to the crisis that has left nearly 2.4 million Libyans in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

Women in Saudi Arabia voting for first time

Saudi women are heading to polling stations across the kingdom today - both as voters and candidates for office - for the first time in the nation's landmark election.

Turkey says it will 'reorganize' its troops in Iraq

Turkey says it has decided to "reorganize" its troops in a camp in northern Iraq after holding talks with officials in Baghdad who strongly criticized Ankara for the deployment.

Islamic State's oil going to Assad, and some goes to Turkey

By Lisa Levine, News of the Force Tel Aviv

Islamic State militants have made more than $500 million trading oil with significant volumes sold to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and some finding its way to Turkey, a senior U.S. official says.

Syria's President al-Assad declared yesterday that he would not negotiate with armed groups, appearing to scupper peace talks that Russia and the United States hope to bring about next month.

President Assad has refuted information about a second possible Russian military base in Syria, and said that President Putin has not asked for anything in return for Russian military assistance in fighting against Daesh; the comments came in an interview the Syrian leader granted the Spanish news agency EFE.

And Russia's President Vladimir Putin said Russia is now supporting a leading Western-backed opposition group in joint operations with Syrian troops against Islamic State militants.

Cuzin Jim's Thought for the Day: There can't be any life on Mars: they haven't asked the United States for any money.

Only 500 show up for Clinton rally

By Jim Corvey, News of the Force St. Louis

A boisterous Hillary Clinton whipped up a partisan crowd of some 500 supporters last night in St. Louis, Mo., her voice hoarse from the campaign but virtually yelling nonetheless through a speech heavy on economic themes. "I am not running for my husband’s third term, and I am not running for President Obama’s third term - I’m running for my first term," Clinton said to thunderous applause. But as large as that crown appears, only 500 is considered a very low turnout for a major presidential candidate.

U.S. Air Force

Air Combat Command (ACC) officials have announced the results of their study into the remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) community in an attempt to normalize operations and ensure long-term mission success.

Air Force leaders discussed the future of professionalism in the total force and how to forge better airmen during a summit on Dec. 2-3. Nearly 80 leaders from all major commands joined stakeholders from Headquarters, Air Force, the Air University, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard to pool resources and learn what the Profession of Arms Center of Excellence has to offer.

The U.S. Air Force has selected 176 enlisted airmen for promotion via the December enlisted supplemental promotion process.

The Lackland Officers’ Spouses’ Club, at Lackland AFB, Texas, recently elected Caesar Jordan Nafrada as the club’s first male president. Nafrada initially joined as a way to repay a group that helped him in the past. When he graduated from Kadena High School, in Okinawa, 20 years ago, Nafrada received aid for college from the local club.

Under VLPAD, opportunities to serve an active duty tour for a period of three years and one day are being offered to Air Force Reserve members.

A key advisor to the secretary of the Air Force has committed to visiting the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, N.Y., and that could mean a major boost to the facility.

Test flights by fighter jets of the 180th Fighter Wing, of the Ohio Air National Guard are taking place in the skies over Toledo. Those living in the Toledo and Sandusky County areas may see or hear fighter jets near a Civil Air Patrol aircraft during the exercise.

This week, the DOD announced that both Texas Army and Air National Guards will each activate a new cyber unit.

The 124th Fighter Wing, of there Idaho Air National Guard, will dedicate and name each of its 21 fighter jets assigned to Gowen Field to an Idaho community.

The 183d Fighter Wing, of the Illinois Air National Guard in Springfield, has conducted joint training scenarios with the U.S. Air Force.

Adult members of the Civil Air Patrol's Indiana Wing recently attended a professional development weekend at the Anderson Municipal Airport. Members from ten of the Indiana Wing's 29 subordinate squadrons were there for a Corporate Learning Course and a training Leaders of Cadets course.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has taken the lead in the search for two Afghan air force men who went missing while training with the U.S. military at a Georgia air base. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of Homeland Security, is the lead investigative agency looking for the two Afghan trainees.

And the Civil Air Patrol squadron in Torrington, Conn., recently celebrated the achievements of its cadet members.

News from the U.S. Marshals Service

Combined efforts of the U.S. Marshals Service, Lane County Parole & Probation, the Eugene Police Department, and the Springfield Police Department led to the arrest of Edward Collicott on Thursday afternoon in Springfield, Oregon. Collicott was wanted on a violation of parole/absconder warrant.

Tre Anthony Jones has been arrested by members of the U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force, in Houston, Texas. An arrest warrant was issued pursuant to an investigation by the San Antonio Police Department, where it is alleged that Jones committed murder.

The U.S. Marshals and the state of Kansas are seeking the public’s help in locating Bryan Levi Bridges, one of Kansas’ most wanted fugitives. Bridges is wanted for first degree murder, aggravated burglary, and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery during a home invasion where a victim was killed.

In Pennsylvania, U.S. Marshal Martin Pane has announced the arrest of Dashawn McLendon and Ibn McClain, who were wanted for aggravated assault with a firearm, as well as other related offenses.

And the United States Marshals Service's Joint Fugitive Task Force, with the assistance of the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Police Department's SWAT Team, and its gang and K-9 units, have arrested a North Carolina fugitive, Elliot David Coleman, II. He's a post-release violator now facing multiple drug charges.

U.S. Army

The Kentucky Army National Guard has fallen short of money in its tuition assistance program. The news will affect 68 students at The University of Louisville who are members of the Kentucky Army National Guard.

Army Maj. Gen. Robert E. Livingston, Jr., the adjutant general for South Carolina, has attended the National Guard's 379th birthday ceremony.

The chief of the National Guard Bureau (NGB), Army Gen. Frank Grass, has announced that the National Guard will activate 13 additional cyber units across the country.

University of Arkansas-Fort Smith student Travis Williams, of Fort Smith, has been commissioned as an officer into the Arkansas Army National Guard.

Army Staff Sgt. Jenna Watkins, a member of the South Dakota Army National Guard, is representing the North Pole by playing Santa Claus at The Hope Center in Rapid City.

Pennsylvania Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Kwiecien, a flight medic with nearly 20 years of service, is deploying to Southwest Asia soon - it will be his fifth overseas deployment.

And Major Gen. Stephen Hogan, who served more than 30 years in the Kentucky Army National Guard and the active duty Army, has been selected by Kentucky's governor as the commonwealth's next adjutant general.

One dead and one seriously wounded in St. Louis attack

Mourners who gathered in St. Louis, Mo., after a funeral yesterday became witnesses to violence when dozens of gunshots interrupted their afternoon meal.

One man died and another was in critical condition after the shooting in the parking lot of the New Northside Conference Center, on Goodfellow Blvd., near West Florissant Avenue. One victim was shot in the chest and the other in the head, police said.

Rev. Rodrick Burton, of New Northside Missionary Baptist Church, said he was angered by the shooting outside a building that also houses a day-care center. "A family should be able to mourn a loved one," Burton said. "The amount of bullets flying at a family life center is mind-numbing, especially this time of year when we're supposed to be talking about peace.”

About 100 people were attending the post-funeral gathering called a repast, Burton said. An unknown number of children were attending the day-care center at the same time.

The gunshots were heard at about 2:30 p.m. Bystanders were seen crying and screaming outside the center. Many of the families, including children, stayed in the building until 5 p.m., when police cleared the parking lot.

The funeral service was for Sherrod Lamar White, 27, who died on Nov. 30, said his aunt, Elizabeth McPherson. She said his cause of death has not been determined. Another of her nephews was one of the victims in yesterday’s shooting, she said. She said she now lives in Dallas, Texas, but lived in St. Louis until she was 10. "This city is out of control," she said. "I’m glad I left."

Rodney Edwards, 54, said he was driving near the scene when he heard between 20 and 25 shots and saw people running and screaming. Edwards, who said he is an emergency dispatcher for the city and has medical experience, said he saw two people who had been shot, one near the front door of the center and another man who was near a truck on the parking lot. Edwards tended to one of the men, who had been shot in his face, throat, sternum and leg. "Duty calls even when you're not at work," Edwards told a reporter, the victim’s blood still on his jeans and shirt. I’m just glad I keep up on my skills, because I needed it today." He said the man he helped still had a pulse when an ambulance took him from the scene, but he was not sure whether he would survive.

(Blythe Bernhard, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, contributed to this report.)

NOAA news

The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Kathryn Sullivan, is refusing to turn over internal e-mails sought be the U.S. Congress.

And scientists at NOAA have predicted a warmer, dryer winter and generally lower water levels in the Great Lakes this year.

U.S. Coast Guard

The Coast Guard says it has rescued and flown a man to a hospital in the U.S. after he was attacked by a shark in the waters southwest of the Bahamas' Andros Island.

U.S. Coast Guard personnel are overseeing the response to a 65-foot vessel leaking diesel after it sank at Makah Marina, in Neah Bay Wash.

The U.S. Coast Guard has published a final rule increasing limits of liability for vessels, deepwater ports, and onshore facilities under OPA 90's liability limits.

The United States Coast Guard has closed all maritime entrances in the Pacific Northwest due to severe sea conditions and large amounts of flood debris in the water.

U.S. Coast Guard pilots have made a safe but emergency landing in California after the landing gear on their HC-144 aircraft failed.

Although the temperatures are much warmer than average this December, the Coast Guard wants to warn swimmers and boaters in the Cleveland, Ohio, area about cold water temperatures and the possibilities of hypothermia.

And a provision included in the U.S. Coast Guard Reauthorization Act of 2015 will keep the air station in Newport, Oregon, open for at least two more years.

Welcome to 'Ferghanistan'

After the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., viewers of cable television news got familiar with Jeff Roorda - a former Missouri legislator, a former cop in Arnold, a former police chief of Kimmswick and a current business manager of the St. Louis Police Officers Association.

The cable networks pressed Roorda for the police side of the story behind the death of Brown, killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. In Ferghanistan: The War on Police,

Roorda expands on his take on the case - "The Blue View," as it were. About that title: Early in his book, Roorda writes that the violence that followed Brown’s death “was most certainly a war. That’s why cops on the ground dubbed it ‘Ferghanistan.’” About Roorda’s take on the case: He calls his book "a cop’s-eye view of things, and I do not purport it to be counterbalanced by, or fairly representative of other viewpoints."

In other words, the book is a 209-page editorial, although one written with more linguistic gusto (if a touch less copy-editing precision) than most editorial pages display.

Among his many observations and conclusions is a warning about what has come to be called “the Ferguson Effect.” As Roorda puts it, “Cops under the constant siege of violent assaults against them, along with the threat of criminal prosecution or civil litigation, suddenly become reluctant to do their jobs.” As a result, he adds, crime jumps up as more people conclude that they have little to lose when police are passive. (This theory has been contradicted by many, including President Barack Obama.)

Roorda heaps blame on the likes of St. Louis Aldermen Antonio French and Terry Kennedy and the Rev. Al Sharpton - in the author’s eyes, the real bad guys. Other targets are Gov. Jay Nixon, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill and Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, sent in to control the police operation against violent protesters. Coming under more of Roorda’s fire are much of the media, including Mika Brzezinski, her MSNBC network and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Still, Roorda has praise for others in the media who interviewed him, including Don Lemon, Michael Smerconish and Jake Tapper of CNN, and Joe Scarborough of MSNBC. CNN’s Anderson Cooper gets both a pat on the head and a boot in the butt.

Roorda has salutes for St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch for his handling of the grand jury that declined to indict Officer Wilson - "Bob was in a no-win situation, but he handled it like a champ" - and for St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson and then-Ferguson Chief Tom Jackson.

Despite his praise for those wearing badges, Roorda has some suggestions for police departments facing the threat of similar fracases. He says that "One of the big post-Ferguson lessons for police is to tell the press what you know, when you know it."

Despite Roorda’s hard-nosed tone, he writes an emotional account of getting to know and cherish an elderly black woman in Kimmswick. He makes a strong case that stronger schools in black neighborhoods are the crucial first step in washing away the poverty that he says inflicts a sense of hopelessness on young black men.

At the book’s end, he has advice for both sides in the debate: "If you want to do something to diminish the use of deadly force by cops, do something about poverty. If you want to do something about police officer safety, do something about poverty." And if you want to be better informed about the debate - no matter which side you're on - read this book.

Related site: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, www.stltoday.com .

President Obama's weekly address

In this week's address, the President praised our country’s resilience in the face of terrorism, and discussed how we will keep America safe.

Our military has been stepping up its campaign to destroy ISIL, and our airstrikes are hitting ISIL harder than ever before. The President emphasized that we will continue to move forward on all fronts, which is why this week he will go to the Pentagon to review our military campaign, and to the National Counterterrorism Center to review our efforts to prevent attacks. And he reminded us that we all have a part to play in the fight against terrorism – potential terrorist attacks have been prevented over the years because someone saw something and said something.

Americans should not turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam, which is what ISIL wants and only serves to undermine our national security.

The President praised Americans across the country who have come together to reaffirm our core values and stand up, forcefully, for freedom of religion.

The audio of the address and video of the address is available online at www.whitehouse.gov .