News of the Force: Saturday, September 2, 2017 - Page 1

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Saturday, September 2, 2017 - Today is National Day in Vietnam

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Trump and South Korea's president pledge more pressure on the North

    

    U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae In yesterday pledged to continue a regime of diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea, and Trump gave "conceptual approval" to a multi-billion dollar military equipment sale to South Korea.

    President Trump agreed with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to revise a joint treaty capping the development of the South's ballistic missiles, Moon's office said today.

    Japan is debating whether to develop a limited pre-emptive strike capability and buy cruise missiles - ideas that were anathema in the pacifist country before the North Korea missile threat.

    The U.S. military, together with South Korea and Japan, have dropped bombs on a training range east of Seoul in a stark new show of force against North Korea.

    And North Korea's Central Court has sentenced two South Korean journalists and two media executives to death for reviewing a book that out-lines a sprawling underground capitalist economy in the secretive communist state.

 

U.S. State Dept. reports another case of diplomats in Cuba being harmed

    

    American diplomats suffered symptoms from a sonic "incident" in Cuba last month, the State Department said yesterday, adding to the mystery of how Americans serving there have been diagnosed with hearing loss, traumatic brain injury and other ailments.

 

Inherent Resolve strikes continue targeting ISIS in Iraq

    

    U.S. and Coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today. In Iraq, Coalition military forces conducted three strikes consisting of three engagements against ISIS targets near Qaim, destroying two ISIS fuel storage sites, an ISIS-held building, a front-end loader, a weapons storage area and an excavator.

 

Kenya's Supreme Court annuls presidential election

    

    In a decision hailed as the first of its kind for Africa, Kenya's Supreme Court yesterday annulled the president's Aug. 8th reelection victory, citing irregularities, and ordered a new vote within 60 days. President Uhuru Kenyatta has branded judges in the country's Supreme Court "crooks."

 

How will the U.S. deal with terrorists' safe havens in Pakistan?

    In his South Asia strategy speech last week, President Donald Trump publicly put Pakistan on notice that it must stop providing sanctuaries to armed groups that are fighting in Afghanistan.

 

Movin' on out

    

    Officials at the Russian consulate in San Francisco have begun moving out of the building, a day after the Trump administration ordered them out of the country. Acrid black smoke was seen pouring from a chimney at the Russian Consulate yesterday, which usually indicates the burning of classified materials.

    The U.S. announced on Thursday it will shutter the Russian consulate in San Francisco, as well as annexes in Washington and New York, in response to mandated staff cuts at the U.S. mission in Russia.

 

U.S. secretary of State thanks Mexico

    

    The state of Texas has accepted an offer of flood aid from Mexico despite tension over President Trump's proposed border wall and his threats to scrap a free-trade deal.

 

In Burma, Rohingya crisis explodes again

    Hundreds have died in western Burma in clashes between insurgents and security forces, a dramatic escalation of the Rohingya crisis that has haunted the country's transition to democracy and tainted leader Aung San Suu Kyi's legacy.

 

Islamic State's convoy appears to have turned back

By Lisa Levine, News of the Force Tel Aviv

    

    A convoy of Islamic State fighters appears to have turned back after U.S.-led Coalition forces airstrikes thwarted its attempt to reach territory held by the militant group in eastern Syria. Buses had lined up near the Syria-Lebanon border on Monday to take 308 Islamic State fighters and their families to Islamic State-controlled territory.

    In Syria yesterday, Coalition military forces conducted 22 strikes consisting of 40 engagements against ISIS targets. Near Dayr Az Zawr, five strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed 11 oil stills, four vehicles, an ISIS-held building, a bulldozer, a fuel truck and an artillery system. And near Raqqa, 17 strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and destroyed 16 fighting positions, three logistics nodes, two command and control nodes, and a vehicle-borne bomb.

    And a U.S. doctor is bringing doses of love and wellness to Israel. Dr. Jim Lando sees his work in the U.S. Public Health Service as an extension of his "Jewishness."

 

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    Couzin Gym's Thought for the Day: The fool wonders, but the wise man asks.

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Special report: Suicide prevention

    

    We can all play a role in preventing suicide, but many people don't know what they can do to support the service member or veteran who is going through a difficult time. The Defense Department's theme for Suicide Prevention Month is: "BeThere - your action could save a life." Click to learn more in the Defense.gov special report: Suicide Prevention - BeThere.

 

U.S. Army

    

    The Department of Defense announced yesterday the death of a soldier who was previously listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown (DUSTWUN) on Aug. 25th. The soldier was involved in a training incident off the coast of Yemen, where the soldier was supporting U.S. Central Command operations. Staff Sgt. Emil Rivera-Lopez was declared deceased on Aug. 31st as a result of the training incident on Aug. 25th. He was assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

    A U.S. Army convoy threaded its way through Houston traffic yesterday, headed southeast toward the Wharton County town of Boling to assist with rescue operations there.

    The U.S. Army is performing the first of two rounds of testing for its Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS).

    The U.S. Army's rapid reaction force in Europe is under-equipped, under-manned and inadequately organized to confront military aggression there, officials say.

    U.S. Army Lt. General Stephen Townsend, the head of U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, says he believes Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is still alive.

    A United States Army official has expressed concern over China's militarizing of artificial islands in the South China Sea.

    John Roberts, 27, of Clarksville, Tenn., was found guilty yesterday by a federal jury of conspiracy to steal and sell U.S. Army property, and 10 counts of wire fraud.

    The U.S. Army Reserve dispatched crews from the C. Company 7-158th General Support Aviation Battalion, from Fort Carson, Colo., to Port Arthur, Texas, where they rescued 183 civilians from a nursing home.

    The Army Reserve said its 26 aviation and vehicle missions in Texas have led to the rescue and evacuation of more than 3,800 people and more than 40 pets.

    The U.S. Army is testing a new fighting load system for its paratroopers.

    Army National Guard units from around the country are assisting in rescues amid floods in Texas. Gov. Tom Wolf announced that ten soldiers from the Pennsylvania Army National Guard departed for Texas yesterday in two of their CH-47 Chinook helicopters. Iowa Army National Guard soldiers have taken their Chinooks and their crews to Texas. The Kentucky Army National Guard is in Houston, and thirty helicopter maintenance crews from the Arizona Army National Guard left home for Texas yesterday to join the response effort for Hurricane Harvey.

    Some 10,000 people, so far, have been rescued in hurricane-affected areas by federal forces.

    A team of National Guardsmen, Coast Guardsmen, swift-water rescue technicians and volunteers worked together in Orange, Texas, on Aug. 30th to rescue and airlift a patient needing special medical attention from severe flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey to a safe medical facility. Service members from the Texas Army National Guard and a swift-water rescue team from Texas Task Force 1 and the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Service arrived in a severely flooded neighborhood looking to help anyone in need when, due to special circumstances, they ended up flagging down a Coast Guard helicopter and evacuating a patient, rescuing him from danger and potentially saving his life.

    As Americans continue to rush to the aid of their neighbors affected by Hurricane Harvey's destruction, a civilian driving an elevated Cadillac Escalade has used his vehicle to pull an Army truck out of the water.

    In Katy, Texas, a soldier commanding a vanished Humvee was not answering calls on his cell phone or the radio. No one in his unit had the driver's phone number, worsening the situation, so the Army found them using Snapchat.

    And one hundred and fifty New York Army National Guard soldiers from the 1156th Engineer Company are back home after spending a year in Kuwait and Iraq.

 

Crime stories

    

    Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has appeared in Tampa with Sheriff's Colonel Chad Chronister and his wife, Nikki, Gov. Rick Scott, and Sheriff David Gee and his wife, Rhonda, at an event announcing the appointment of Col. Chronister as the next Hillsborough County sheriff.

    A Utah nurse said she was scared to death when a police officer handcuffed and dragged her screaming from a hospital after she refused to allow blood to be drawn from an unconscious patient. After Alex Wubbels and her attorneys released dramatic video of the arrest, prosecutors called for a criminal investigation and Salt Lake City Police put Detective Jeff Payne on paid leave yesterday. "This cop bullied me. He bullied me to the utmost extreme," Wubbels said in an interview with The Associated Press. "And nobody stood in his way." The Salt Lake City Police chief and mayor also apologized and changed department policies in line with the guidance Wubbels was following in the July 26th incident. Wubbels, a former alpine skier who competed in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics, said she adhered to her training and hospital protocols to protect the rights of a patient who could not speak for himself. "You can't just take blood if you don't have a legitimate concern for something to be tested," Wubbels said. "It is the most personal property I think that we can have besides our skin and bones and organs." Payne didn't return messages left at publicly listed phone numbers, and the Salt Lake Police Association union did not respond to messages for comment. The department and a civilian board also are conducting reviews. "I was alarmed by what I saw in the video with our officer," Police Chief Mike Brown said. Police body-camera video shows Wubbels, who works in the burn unit, calmly explaining that she could not take blood from a patient who had been injured in a deadly car accident, citing a recent change in law. A 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling said a blood sample cannot be taken without patient consent or a warrant. Wubbels told Payne that a patient had to allow a blood sample to determine intoxication or be under arrest. Otherwise, she said police needed a warrant. Police did not have a warrant, but Payne insisted. The dispute ended with Payne saying, "We're done, you're under arrest" and pulling her outside while she screamed and said, "I've done nothing wrong!" He had called his supervisor and discussed the time-sensitive blood draw for over an hour with hospital staff, police spokeswoman Christina Judd said. "It's not an excuse. It definitely doesn't forgive what happened," she said. Payne wrote in a police report that he grabbed Wubbels and took her outside to avoid causing a "scene" in the emergency room. He said his boss, a lieutenant whose actions also were being reviewed, told him to arrest Wubbels if she kept interfering. The detective left Wubbels in a hot police car for 20 minutes before realizing that blood had already been drawn as part of treatment, said her lawyer, Karra Porter. Wubbels was not charged. "This has upended her world view in a way. She just couldn't believe this could happen," Porter said. Wubbels and her attorneys on Thursday released the video they obtained through a public records request to call for change. She has not sued, but that could change, said attorney Jake Macfarlane. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said that the video was concerning and called the police chief to ask for a criminal investigation. The department is open to the inquiry that will be run by Salt Lake County's Unified Police, Judd said. Gill's office will review the findings. In response to the incident, Judd said the department updated its blood-draw policy last week to mirror what the hospital uses. She said officers have already received additional training. The agency has met with hospital administration to ensure it does not happen again and to repair ties. "There's a strong bond between fire, police and nurses because they all work together to help save lives, and this caused an unfortunate rift that we are hoping to repair immediately," Judd said. The hospital said it's proud of the way Wubbels handled the situation. The patient was a victim in a car crash and Payne wanted the blood sample to show he had done nothing wrong, according to the officer's written report. The patient, William Gray, is a reserve police officer in Rigby, Idaho, according to the city's police. They thanked Wubbels for protecting his rights. Gray is a semi-truck driver and was on the road when a pickup truck fleeing from authorities slammed into him and his truck burst into flames, police reports say.

    The U.S. Marshals Service is warning the public of several nationwide telephone schemes involving individuals claiming to be deputy U.S. Marshals.

    A wanted sex offender has been caught operating a kid's ride at Ohio's Youngstown-area fair. Brandon Walsh, 30, was charged with criminal solicitation of a minor after being arrested by the U.S. Marshals.

    A private detective and former Riverside, Calif., police officer accused of trying to help set up Costa Mesa city leaders in the midst of a police union dispute has died while awaiting trial.

    Two St. Louis, Mo., police officers were shot around 2 p.m. yesterday near 14th Street and Cass Avenue. The officers, a man and a woman, were in stable condition at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, said police Major Dan Howard. The officers, members of the gang squad, were in the area and went to interview someone, said acting Police Chief Lawrence O'Toole. He said the person fired on the officers with a "small" assault-style rifle. Police are searching for two suspects, O'Toole said.

    Starting next week, the Medical Reserve Corps in Spokane, Wash., will supply the Spokane County Sheriff's Office with 150 kits of naloxone, a drug that can be used to stop an opioid overdose.   

    And Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi issued the following statement regarding President Donald J. Trump’s executive order lifting the ban on transferring certain surplus military equipment to local law enforcement agencies: "This executive order will help ensure our brave law enforcement officers have the gear they need to combat terrorism, drug cartels, gangs and other threats to public safety. This order will give our law enforcement officers access to billions of dollars’ worth of equipment such as armored vehicles, ammunition and other military gear that will help in disaster related situations like we are seeing in Texas with Hurricane Harvey - as well as terrorism-related cases such as the Pulse nightclub attack, where a military-style helmet stopped a bullet, saving an officer’s life, and San Bernardino, where this type of equipment protected law enforcement officers as they pursued terrorists."

 

U.S. Navy and Marine Corps

    

    In a recent report, the GAO examined eight U.S. Navy ships from February 2016 to July 2017 and determined that "all either entered or will likely enter the fleet with unfinished work and quality problems."

    The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin so it can begin production of the service's new CH-53K helicopters. The Marines are planning for eight active duty squadrons, a training squadron and a reserve squadron.

    Safran Optics 1, Inc., announced yesterday that the U.S. Marine Corps will be buying its Integrated Compact Ultralight Gun-mounted range-finder.

    A U.S. Marine Corps Osprey aircraft still remains at Oita Airport in western Japan after making an emergency landing there on Tuesday.

    Five weeks into his second space mission, Randy Bresnik yesterday became the first U.S. Marine Corps officer to command the International Space Station.

    And the Marine Forces Reserve, in support of Marine Forces North, the U.S. Northern Command and FEMA, is responding to Hurricane Harvey response efforts.

 

Homeland insecurity

    

    A lawsuit against President Trump's travel ban has been settled. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two Iraqi men who had valid visas but were detained at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

    The Department of Homeland Security is classifying actions by the leftist group known as antifa - or anti-fascist groups - as "domestic terrorist organizations."

    And Hurricane Harvey has affected approximately 100,000 homes, according to White House Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert.

 

U.S. Public Health Service

    

    The Disaster Medical System and members of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps on the ground providing care to people affected by Hurricane Harvey.

 

NOAA news

    

    Capt. Nancy Hann has taken over as commanding officer of the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center at Florida's Lakeland Linder Regional Airport.

    Through NOAA's weather monitoring and continual updates, residents of the Gulf Coast were able to prepare for Harvey's landfall.

    And Hurricane Irma has just made it to Category 3. A NOAA 15-day weather outlook map shows that the storm may hit New York City.

 

UFO news

    

    New unidentified signals from deep space have been detected by the Breakthrough Listen project, a SETI program and an attempt to detect evidence of an extra-terrestrial civilizations. Similar signals have been detected before, but more signals than ever were recorded recently, and, according to the Breakthrough Listen project, an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization has not been ruled out as a potential source. The type of signals recently observed are called fast radio bursts (FRBs). They are extremely short bursts, but also extremely bright. Most of the FRBs detected thus far have been singular events, which is not so mysterious. Scientists often discover mysterious radio transmissions, but they are typically due to cosmic events. What makes the newly discovered signals mysterious is that they repeat, unlike a cosmic event which sends out one large signal when the event takes place.

 

 

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