News of the Force: Sunday, October 9, 2016 - Page 1

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Sunday, October 9, 2016 - Today is World Post Day

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No 'blank check' for Saudi Arabia in Yemen, U.S. says

    

    The White House yesterday condemned a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a funeral home in Yemen that local health officials said killed at least 155 people.

    Over 500 were injured in air the strikes on the funeral gathering in Yemen's capital city of Sanaa, a senior U.N. official says.

 

Three arrested as German police hunt for Syrian-born bomb suspect

    

    German police hunting for a Syrian-born man suspected of planning a bomb attack have arrested three people connected to him, but haven't found him yet, officials said.

 

Russian official says country is considering reopening bases in Cuba and Vietnam

    With relations between Washington and Moscow deteriorating, Russian news agencies are quoting a top defense official as saying the possibility of reopening Russian military facilities in Cuba and Vietnam is under consideration.

 

Pentagon asked to explain 'ghost soldiers'

    

    A U.S. Government watchdog is asking the Pentagon to explain reports about tens of thousands of non-existent troops on the payrolls of Afghanistan's security forces.

 

A moment, please...

    

    The Philippines' Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana says plans for joint patrols and naval exercises with the United States in the disputed South China Sea have been put on hold.

 

AC-208 aircraft going to Iraq, and a sale to Egypt

    

    The U.S. State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq for AC-208 aircraft and related equipment, training, and support. The estimated cost is $65.3 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on Oct. 6th.

    Additionally, the State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Egypt for Common Missile Warning Systems (CMWS) for AH-64E Apache, UH-60 Blackhawks, and CH-47 Chinook helicopters and related equipment, training, and support. The estimated cost is $81.4 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on Oct. 6th.

 

North Korea continues development of its nuclear arsenal

    

    North Korea has reached a significant level of miniaturization and power of its nuclear weapons, a spokesperson for the South Korean Defense Ministry has said.

 

Kerry calls for war crimes probe of Russia's activity in Syria

By Lisa Levine, News of the Force Tel Aviv

    

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is calling for a war crimes investigation of Russia and Syria. He made the comment in a meeting in Washington, D.C., with visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.

    In a dozen YouTube videos recently released, Syria's Tourism Ministry praised the country's sandy, fun-filled beaches as ideal vacation spots and its many "World Heritage Sites" as renowned tourist exhibits - attempting to distract world travelers from the country's daily bloodshed (and the wartime destruction of those priceless historical sites). Before civil war broke out in 2011, Syria was a fashionable, $8 billion-a-year destination, and the now-
devastated city of Aleppo was known worldwide for its food.

    U.S. Republican officials insist a majority of the 200,000 U.S. voters in Israel will still vote Donald Trump, even after his lewd remarks on women (from ten years ago).

    And a terrorist gunman has killed two Israelis in Jerusalem. The Palestinian Arab opened fire near Ammunition Hill, killing a police officer and a female bystander.

 

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    Cuzin Gym's Thought for the Day: I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.

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Homeland insecurity

    

    In a joint statement, the DNI and the DHS said that the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian government directed the recent compromises of e-mails of U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. those of U.S. political organizations.

    Some Florida law enforcement officers will be conducting training with the DHS. The Orlando Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff's Office will be accompanying DHS agents at Lake Como Elementary School.

    The Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has awarded a joint venture team a renewed contract for its Immigration Task Tracking System.

    A new report shows a significant increase in those seeking asylum along the U.S.-Mexico border.

    For nearly two years, dozens of trained Afghani soldiers have escaped from United States military bases and have lived illegally in our borders - and President Barack Obama’s administration has done nothing about it. Since January 2015, 44 Afghani security forces have deserted training facilities on U.S. soil, a serious safety concern considering the Afghani military has been frequently infiltrated by Taliban militants. The frequency of these Afghani desertions is "out of the ordinary," say Defense Department sources. That’s according to Reuters, which first broke the story and wrote the escaped Afghani’s are "embarrassing for U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, which has spent billions of dollars training Afghan troops as Washington seeks to extricate itself from the costly, 15-year-old war. The disclosure could fuel criticism by supporters of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has accused the Obama administration of failing to properly vet immigrants from Muslim-majority countries and has pledged a much tougher stance if he wins." The Obama administration bills taxpayers billions to bring an estimated 245 Afghani military personnel into the United States annually for extra military training. Quick math says that approximately 10 percent of every Afghani soldier brought to the U.S. is deserting, roaming untraced through America. Defense Department officials insist they vet every foreign-born soldier brought to the United States for training. However, this is little comfort to opponents, who note that failures in the vetting system are disturbingly frequent. The Islamic radical behind the recent bombings in New Jersey and New York, the father of the Orlando night club massacre gunman, and one of the San Bernardino terror attackers had all been vetted by this same system before entering the United States from Afghanistan. In 2014, an American general was assassinated by a Taliban militant that had infiltrated the Afghani security forces. Following the terror attack, The New York Post reported, "US. military intelligence now fear as much as 25 percent of Afghan security forces are Taliban or al-Qaida operatives and sympathizers, which means we may be arming and training an army of some 87,500 enemy infiltrators with easy access to U.S. personnel and intelligence. The massive infiltration puts the entire Afghanistan exit strategy at risk. The compromised Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) takes over the country’s security on Jan. 1, 2015." In the two years since, it would be foolish to assume none of them have made it to U.S. soil.

    State agents have raided the Dallas, Texas, offices of the adult classified ad portal Backpage.com and arrested Chief Executive Officer Carl Ferrer following allegations that adult and child sex-trafficking victims were forced into prostitution through escort ads posted on the site. Ferrer, 55, was arrested on a California warrant after arriving on Thursday in Houston on a flight from Amsterdam. Authorities also issued warrants for the arrest of the site’s controlling shareholders, Michael Lacey, 68, and James Larkin, 67. "Making money off the backs of innocent human beings by allowing them to be exploited for modern-day slavery is not acceptable in Texas," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, said in a statement. California Attorney General Kamala Harris said that Ferrer was arrested on felony charges of pimping a minor, pimping, and conspiracy to commit pimping. He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond and will face an extradition hearing before he can be returned to California. Under California’s law, felony pimping is defined as making money off prostitutes or soliciting customers for prostitution. "Raking in millions of dollars from the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable victims is outrageous, despicable and illegal," said Harris, a Democrat who is running for the U.S. Senate in next month’s election. "Backpage and its executives purposefully and unlawfully designed Backpage to be the world’s top online brothel." An attorney representing Backpage.com, Liz McDougall, did not immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages left by The Associated Press. Lacey and Larkin are former owners of the Village Voice and the Phoenix New Times. An attorney who previously represented the two men, Michael Manning, did not immediately respond to a telephone message from The AP. Backpage.com advertises a wide range of services, but the California arrest warrant alleges that internal business records obtained through a search warrant show that 99 percent its revenue came from its adult services section between January 2013 and March 2015. California officials said the site collects fees from users who use coded language and nearly nude photos to offer sex for money. Worldwide revenue from sex ads topped $3.1 million in just one week last year, according to a court affidavit. It says Ferrer expanded Backpage.com’s share of online sex marketing by creating affiliated sites including EvilEmpire.com and BigCity.com with related content.

Larkin and Lacey each received $10 million bonuses from the website in September 2014, according to the court filing. It says Backpage.com was created in 2004, but since 2014 has been owned by a Netherlands-based company that has Ferrer as its only named partner. California authorities said the state’s three-year investigation found many of the ads include victims of sex trafficking including children under the age of 18. One of the advertisers, identified only as "15-year-old “E.S.," "was forced into prostitution at the age of 13 by her pimp," according to an affidavit filed with the complaint. She used other online advertising services until they were shut down, the court filing says, when she turned to Backpage.com. "I mean, really, coming from someone my age, there is too much access, like it’s too easy for people to get on it and post an ad," she told California Special Agent Brian Fichtner, according to his affidavit. California officials said their investigation was prompted in part by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which reported 2,900 instances to California authorities since 2012 when suspected child sex trafficking occurred using Backpage.com. The criminal complaint includes allegations that five minors, three of them including “E.S.,” under age 16, paid to post advertisements on Backpage.com. The charges against Ferrer could bring him nearly 22 years in prison, while Larkin and Lacey face a maximum six years. A U.S. Senate subcommittee that has investigated the company estimated its annual revenues at more than $150 million.

    And FEMA Director Craig Fugate, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Deputy Homeland Security adviser Amy Pope say "thousands" lost power when Hurricane Matthew arrived along Georgia's coastline.

 

U.S. Air Force

    

    "Let the U.S. Air Force bomb forest fires," Smokey the Bear says. Upon request, the Air Force will deploy the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems, or MAFFS, which are aboard Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve C-130s.

    F-22 Raptors and T-38 Talons from Langley AFB, Va., were “hurrevaced” to Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base, Ohio.

    A search-and-rescue team with the Florida Air National Guard's 290th Joint Communications Support Squadron travels into areas affected by natural disasters.

    Ten members of the 188th Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard will return to Fort Smith this evening following a six-month overseas deployment. 

    And the Civil Air Patrol's Table Rock Lake Composite Squadron 147 and Hollister Schools are working together in Missouri to help students learn more about aerospace.

 

U.S. Coast Guard

    

    The U.S. Coast Guard rescued a man during Hurricane Matthew. Coast Guard crews rushed to the man's aid after his 35-foot sailboat ran aground near West Palm Beach, Fla.

    A man is safely back on land after the U.S. Coast Guard had to rescue him from the Atlantic Ocean, off Tybee Island, Ga.

    The Coast Guard has rescued five people from a 56-foot commercial fishing vessel that was taking on water off Washington state's coast, near Gray's Harbor.

    United States Coast Guard officials are searching for a 23-year-old man who went missing off the shore of South Padre Island, Texas, yesterday afternoon.

    The U.S. Coast Guard sent a helicopter and rescued an injured hiker from Champlain Mountain, in the Acadia National Park, yesterday afternoon.

    A crew from U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City, Mich., has rescued an injured kayaker from Lake Superior.

    Huntington Ingalls Industries' Ingalls Shipbuilding Division's sixth U.S. Coast Guard National Security Cutter (NSC), the future USCGC Munro, has successfully completed its sea trials.

    And Coast Guard aircrews from around the country staged yesterday at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga., which is serving as a forward operating base for the Coast Guard during Hurricane Matthew.

 

UFO news

    

    Video footage of a UFO above New Zealand on Oct. 7th has been posted on the Internet. Air traffic controllers using the nation's Airline Tracker System picked up the UFO on radar and said the object was flying 150 times faster than any known plane.

 

 

 

 

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