By Reuters. Russia threatened to aim nuclear missiles at Danish warships if Denmark joins NATO’s missile defense system, in comments Copenhagen called unacceptable and NATO said would not contribute to peace.
Denmark said in August it would contribute radar capacity on some of its warships to the missile shield, which the Western alliance says is designed to protect members from missile launches from countries like Iran.
Moscow opposes the system, arguing that it could reduce the effectiveness of its own nuclear arsenal, leading to a new Cold War-style arms race.
In an interview in the newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the Russian ambassador to Denmark, Mikhail Vanin, said he did not think Danes fully understood the consequences of joining the program . . .
Tensions between Moscow and the West have grown since the imposition of economic sanctions on Russia over a pro-Russian rebellion in eastern Ukraine. NATO has recorded increased activity by the Russian navy and air force in the Nordic region. (Read more from “Russia Threatens to Aim Nuclear Missiles at Denmark Ships If It Joins NATO Shield” HERE)
EU Pledges to Extend Russian Sanctions, Vote to Come Later
By James G. Neuger and Daryna Krasnolutska. The European Union pledged Friday to prolong sanctions against Russia, pressuring President Vladimir Putin to support a cease-fire in Ukraine that’s straining under violation complaints from both sides.
The commitment to extend the penalties until year-end stopped short of the actual approval sought by hard liners in eastern Europe and left open the possibility that the trade and investment curbs might not be renewed when they expire in July. It followed a call from Ukraine and Germany for new talks on the Feb. 12 cease-fire signed in Minsk, Belarus after Russia accused its neighbor of putting the deal at risk.
“There will be an assessment in June,” French President Francois Hollande told reporters early Friday after the first session of an EU summit in Brussels. “We decided not to rush. We decided not to prejudge.” (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-03-24 03:54:082015-03-24 03:54:08Increasingly Aggressive Russia Threatens to Aim Nuclear Missiles at Denmark Ships
By Marga Zambrana, Hazar Aydemir in Istanbul and Emma Graham-Harrison. Nine young British medical students have travelled illegally to Syria and are believed to be working in hospitals in Islamic State-controlled areas, the Observer can reveal. Their families were mounting a desperate effort on Saturday at the Turkish-Syrian border to persuade them to come home.
The group of four women and five men crossed the border last week, apparently keeping their plans secret from relatives until just before entering Syria, when one woman sent her sister a brief message and a smiling selfie.
“We all assume that they are in Tel Abyad now, which is under Isis control. The conflict out there is fierce, so medical help must be needed,” Turkish opposition politician Mehmet Ali Ediboglu told the Observer, shortly after meeting the families.
Photo Credit: The Guardian
“They have been cheated, brainwashed. That is what I, and their relatives, think.”
Both he and the students’ parents were convinced that the young medics wanted to work with Isis, Ediboglu said, but they were also certain that the group did not plan to take up arms. “Let’s not forget about the fact that they are doctors; they went there to help, not to fight. So this case is a little bit different.” (Read more from “Nine British Medics Enter Isis Stronghold to Work in Hospitals” HERE)
Nine British Medics Feared to Have Crossed into Syria
By BBC. The group, all in their late teens or early 20s, had been studying medicine in Sudan.
Some of their relatives, who have travelled to the Turkish-Syrian border, told the BBC they were gravely concerned about their welfare.
The medics are believed to have entered Syria more than a week ago.
They have been named as Ismail Hamadoun, Tamer Ahmed Ebu Sebah, Mohammed Osama Bedir, Hisham Muhammed Fadlallah, Sami Ahmed Khader, Nada Sami Khader, Lena Maumoon Abdul Qadir, Rowan Kamal Zine El Abidine and Tasneem Suleyman Huseyin. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-03-24 03:53:292015-03-24 03:53:29Nine “Brainwashed” British Medics Enter ISIS Stronghold to Work in Hospitals
A nightclub bouncer who reportedly became a terror group leader. A man who tweeted a photo of his young son clutching a severed head. A teenager who is believed to have turned suicide bomber, and others suspected of attempting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State movement. All of them, Australian.
The London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence reports that between 100 and 250 Australians have joined Sunni militants in Iraq and Syria. Given Australia’s vast distance from the region and its population of just 24 million, it is a remarkable number. The center estimates that about 100 fighters came from the United States, which has more than 13 times as many people as Australia.
Experts disagree about why the Islamic State group has been so effective recruiting in Australia, which is widely regarded as a multicultural success story, with an economy in an enviable 24th year of continuous growth.
Possible explanations include that some Australian Muslims are poorly integrated with the rest of the country, and that Islamic State recruiters have given Australia particular attention. In addition, the Australian government failed to keep tabs on some citizens who had been radicalized, and moderate Muslims have been put off by some of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s comments about their community.
Greg Barton, a global terrorism expert at Monash University in Melbourne, said Australia and some other countries underestimated Islamic State’s “pull factor.” (Read more from “Australia a Puzzling Hotbed of Islamic State Recruiting” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-03-24 03:52:582015-03-24 03:52:58Australia a Puzzling Hotbed of Islamic State Recruiting
By Fox News. The U.S. has removed all remaining personnel from Yemen as Shiite rebels controlling the country’s capital called for others to join its battle against government forces.
The State Department said in a statement it is removing personnel due to the “deteriorating security situation” in the country. The State Department also said it will continue to engage the Yemeni people and international community to support the country’s political transition.
Earlier Saturday, Yemeni security and military officials said that U.S. troops and Special Forces commandos were evacuating from an air base in southern Yemen. The air base was believed to have at least 100 American troops stationed there. (Read more from “Yemen Collapses” HERE)
US Special Ops Forces Scramble out of Yemen, Weapons Missing, and Obama Was Doing What?
By Tom Tillison. As U.S. special operations forces scrambled Saturday to evacuate the Al Anad air base in southern Yemen after al-Qaida fighters seized the nearby city of al-Houta, their commander in chief enjoyed an afternoon of leisure.
Yes, this is the same Middle Eastern country that President Obama touted as a “success” in the war on terror just six months ago . . .
Nevertheless, Obama spent part of the day Saturday watching the Princeton women’s basketball team in the NCAA tournament — his niece plays for the Tigers.
And since the weather was being cooperative for March, the president squeezed in a round of golf, too. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-03-23 03:08:392015-03-23 03:08:39Obama Golfs as Yemen Collapses, the Same Nation the Traitor-in-Chief Called a “Success” Just 6 Months Ago
Admiral James “Ace” Lyons, the former commander of the US Pacific Fleet, was on The Joe Miller Show several days ago, discussing a number of nationals security threats to the United States. He described Iran as “at war with the United States,” blamed the “terrorist nation” for 9/11, claims the Muslim Brotherhood has penetrated every national security and intelligence agency in the nation, and stated the Islamic problem in our country began prior to the Clinton administration. This is a must-watch video (audio and transcript below).
The interview began with Joe asking Admiral Lyons about the Iranian threat:
Admiral Lyons: Iran has been at war with the United States for over 35 years. They have cost the lives of thousands of American’s and your listeners should never forget that Iran provided the key military and training support to the 9/11 hijackers. Without that support, that 9/11 tragedy could never have happened and 3000 innocent American’s wouldn’t have lost their lives. Iran has been at the center of the world’s leading states of terrorism. They have an apocalyptic mindset that they believe a holy war, a catastrophic holy war, will bring back their leader. Their mentality is a 7th century mentality and it is an evil regime that cannot be trusted. We’ve seen this time and time again.
Joe Miller: Have you perceived that the people of Iran support the Ideology, the objectives, of the leadership of their country, or is there a divide?
Admiral Lyons: Well, unfortunately I’d like to say there’s a divide but recently, I think in 2013, there was a huge survey that said roughly 80% of the people support the implementation of Sharia Law, which is the draconian Sharia Law which goes back to the 7th century.
Joe Miller: It’s interesting that, in reminding us about Iran’s role in 9/11, that when you evaluate who actually carried out those attacks, they were primarily Sunni and yet Iran is primarily Shia, so it appears in certain circumstances, you can find unity of purpose between those two sides.
Admiral Lyons: Oh, absolutely Joe. When it becomes, whether it’s the little Satan in Israel or the great Satan in the United States, their sectarian issues are put aside and they join to go after whoever is the target at the time.
Joe Miller: We had a guest on our show last week that suggested that ISIS’s goal is, of course as many conventionally believe, to create this Islamic caliphate across the Middle East and beyond. And this guest suggested that the caliphate would be carried, the banner would be carried, by Turkey potentially. Do you think that Iran would consent to that?
Admiral Lyons: Iran certainly wouldn’t agree to that, they would feel they would be the leader of the caliphate and that’s part of sectarian issues. I do know with Iran . . . they’ve been at war with us for 35 years starting with their takeover of our embassy in Tehran in November 1979. We had an opportunity then to cut off Islamic fundamentalism at the knees, we were going to take Kharg Island and President Carter rejected it out of hand.
The next time they went ahead and we had countless murders, kidnappings and so on and in April 1983 we had our embassy in Beirut blown up. Sixty-three were killed including our key Middle East expert, Bob Ames, plus many other of our CIA operatives. That same year, October 23, 1983, a massive truck bomb exploded at our marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 of our finest military personnel. I can tell you this, we had positive proof the orders for that bombing came out of Iran. I personally happened to have the planes loaded, we were ready to attack, we were going to wipe out the core group of the Hezbollah and . . . the one who sabotaged the strike was none other than our Secretary of Defense [Casper Weinberger].
And you might ask, some of you listeners may be wondering, “where did all of this come from?” Well, I can trace it back to the Muslim brotherhood and their penetration which has gone on for years, starting even before the Clinton administration, but it’s been greatly accelerated under the Obama administration where they’ve now been able to penetrate every single one of our national security agencies and intelligence agencies . . . I would consider them a de facto cabinet member.
. . .
You know, actually, your listeners should understand that there’s no difference between the Muslim brotherhood, Al-Qaida and the Islamic state. They all have the same objective, and that’s to take America down and replace our constitution with the draconian, 7th century Sharia Law. And the Muslim brotherhood creed, which has been verified by the FBI, is to destroy America from within by our own miserable hands, and to replace our constitution with Sharia Law. This has been verified by the FBI. This was exposed at the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial in Dallas, TX, which was the largest terrorist funding trial in our history. The unindicted co-conspirators at that trial were the Muslim Brotherhood front groups and the Islamic society of North America and all these really should be taken down from the United States.
Joe Miller: Well in fact, many of these groups are intimately involved in the process of government in this country. We have seen, over the course of the past several months, a number of reports coming out about Muslim brotherhood agents that are influencing the Obama administration. I read an article that you posted on Breitbart several weeks ago that suggested though that this influence, that its genesis was not the Obama administration, it pre-dates the Obama administration. Could you trace out that influence on American government?
Admiral Lyons: Well they’ve been working on this for 34 years and certainly I can trace back to even under the Bush – it started every penetration in the Clinton years. In fact, Clinton’s Islamic advisor was a guy by Al-Amoudi. And Al-Amoudi, for your listener’s information, is a guy who personally chose the first 13 Muslim clerics to go into our military chaplain corp. Al-Amoudi happens to be serving 30 years in federal prison for terrorist financing. And as far as I know, we’ve never been able to vet those 13 original chaplains and in unconscionable what they’ve been able to do. In fact, some of the restricted rules of engagement, in my view, have their genesis coming out of the Muslim brotherhood; unnecessarily exposed our wonderful military personnel to these draconian restricted rules. In fact our enemy, the Taliban, knew the rules better than we did. If you saw an enemy implanting and IED and he was walking away, you couldn’t shoot him. This is nonsense.
Joe Miller: It’s amazing to me too, when I look back on my military service, Desert Storm – this is ’90-’91 in Saudi Arabia, when we were based over by Khobar Towers, there were a number, I don’t know what you’d call them, Muslim missionaries or evangelists that we were almost forcibly exposed to. Now I’m sure that Saudi Arabia had something to do with that, but there is no doubt that the hierarchy in the military knew what was going on, probably could have stopped it, but we suspected at the time there was probably something afoot, certainly looking at what’s happening since, I guess I wouldn’t put anything past them as to whether or not this has even a longer term than even say 20 years. They look at these types of conflicts in terms of not even decades, but centuries, right?
Admiral Lyons: Absolutely, and since you mentioned Khobar Towers, as you recall in ’96, we had a truck bomb go off outside Khobar Towers, killing 19 US Air force personnel and wounding almost 500, the ones who were behind that was Iran and that was proven in court. And also, I should tell you, Judge Daniels, in 2011 in NY district court found Iran guilty in the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Joe Miller: It amazes me, when you have all this proof and yet there’s not retaliation, and not only just in not retaliating, but now Obama, according to reports that have been leaked out from negotiations with Iran, is apparently consenting to a long term process by which Iran which actually have the capacity to produce nuclear weapons, if it’s not already there. He’s consented effectively to Iran having nuclear weapons. That can’t be more counter to American interests, can it?
Admiral Lyons: It’s mind boggling. Because let me just tell you, you know there was this school of thought by the Washington-Iranian lobby who keeps trying to promote the view that since we were able to deter the Soviets we can do the same thing with Iran. That’s pure hogwash. Even great scholars like Bernard Lewis have come to the reluctant conclusion that Iran cannot be deterred. And other scholars like Matthew Koneg in his recent book – and this is a scholar who worked in the office of the Secretary of Defense in 2011 and 2012 – have now come to the conclusion that the only way for us to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is for us to conduct a military strike. It’s all there.
And you know, you have to wonder, what is behind all of this? What is the administration perusing that seems to be so counter, not only to our own objectives, but to world stability? Here you would want to enter in to an agreement with the world’s leading sponsor of State terrorism? And behind thousands of American desks, it makes no sense. And of course I go back to when in 2008, when president Obama was still campaigning for how he was going to fundamentally change America and expose before he took the oath of office, he repeated that and you have to look at everything he does through the prism of the strategy that he wants to fundamentally change America. And I’ve gotta say, why would you embrace a group like the Muslim brotherhood with their creed which is to destroy us from within? That makes absolutely no sense. But you know, some people try to put off the administration as incompetent. They’re not incompetent at all. Their strategy, as regretfully as I must say, is anti-American, anti-Western, is pro-Iranian, pro-Islam and pro-Muslim brotherhood. And if you look through that prism of fundamentally changing America, I think it will become very clear. In the words of the former Mayor of NY, Giuliani, when he said he doesn’t believe president Obama loves America, you have to then say, “well, if he loved America, why would have to change it?”
Joe Miller: Exactly and there’s a Washington Times poll, not scientific, but I think it’s up to now 80% who say that, in fact, Obama doesn’t love America as reflected by his actions. I think 15,000 or so have voted in that poll. Anecdotal of course, but everybody who is paying attention to what this guy is doing has to make that conclusion. But the real question, Admiral Lyons is, why? Is it because of his background?
Admiral Lyons: Well, it’s his background. I mean, look. He has a Marxist background. He was brought up by Franklin Marshall Davis, indoctrinated, you know Axelrod, one of his key advisors, his parents were communist. Actually he was brought up with the view that many of the world problems would lead to America and therefore that anything that undercuts America’s influence and capabilities is seen as objectively progressive. And if you look at it, again, through the prism of “fundamentally changing America,” it should become very clear.
We’re doing this unilateral disarmament of our military, the social engineering that they forced on our military is unconscionable. Either we are going to wind up with the smallest army prior to WWII, and we’re winding up with the smallest navy, not since WWII, but prior to WWI. This is absolutely unconscionable. Our friends and allies throughout the world are totally confused and they are searching for leadership and it’s not coming from us. Look at Putin in the Ukraine. There is no question we should be provided defensive arms, legitimate defensive arms, to the Ukrainians so they make Putin pay a tremendous price for his aggression in the Ukraine. Instead, we’re providing nothing. And what Putin’s doing is the emasculation of nature. This all forms under that category.
Joe Miller: Right. It started with taking out or ending the agreement with Poland regarding the missiles, this president is just waving the white flag of surrender everywhere, I think you’re right, Anti-Americanism – that’s what motivates him.
[break]
Joe Miller: Admiral Lyons you had talked earlier about, during one of our breaks, that in your view our intelligence agencies have been compromised. Can you give our audience a little bit of an understanding from where you’re coming from on that?
Admiral Lyons: Well Joe, of course one of the key agencies is the CIA and I have to tell your audience that John Guandalo, who is a former marine and a former FBI agent, told me that the current director, John Brennan, had converted to Islam when he was the CIA station chief in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the 1993-94 timeframe and that should be very disturbing from a number of aspects. When he was President Obama’s National Security Advisor on Terrorism, a letter from fifty-seven mostly Muslim Brotherhood that complained about the training we were giving our military personal on educating them on the real threat that was driving the enemy. And so what he did, he authorized that group to purge all our military training manuals that would be utilized to train our military personnel going overseas on the threat of Islamic terrorist. He not only did that, but they took out anything that did not portray Islam as a “religion of peace.”
Now you have to be brain dead to not understand that there’s a hundred and nine verses in the Quran which we would consider sanctioning aggressive action, violent action. And in fact in chapter 2 of verse 106, it says – it’s the section on abrogation – it says the more extreme verses take precedence over the less violent ones and that lays it all out. You know, when Jim Clapper, who was the director of our National Intelligence, he classified the Muslim Brotherhood as basically a secular organization. Now this is mind boggling to me when you know what their creed is, which is to destroy America from within. How could he make such a statement? Who are his advisors? And you have to look at who – it’s the Muslim brother hood who have many key positions, not only there, but in advising the Department of Homeland Security, certainly the National Security staff, and this goes back to the Director of National Intelligence, even before Clapper, declared that Iran had really given up its drive to achieve a nuclear weapon program. They had never given up anything. They’ve been increasing it all these years.
Joe Miller: Are these folks who are working in the Intelligence agencies, it’s more than just the appointees right? …
Admiral Lyons: They’ve been seating these people, putting them in as GS-14s, GS-12s so you know, they’re there. This is the same as the Muslim brother hood penetration. You have to look at it the same as the Communists did in the thirties, forties and fifties. It’s exactly the same.
Joe Miller: So how do you correct it?
Admiral Lyons: Well, the first thing you gotta do is you gotta have a different administration. You’ve gotta have an administration that puts America first and you have to believe in America’s exceptionalism and that we are a force for good in the world. This administration obviously doesn’t believe that.
Joe Miller: And even once you have that administration, given as deep-seated as some of these folks are in the intelligence agencies, it’s not going to be any small deal to get rid of them, is it?
Admiral Lyons: Well let’s put it this way, as I said earlier Joe, it hasn’t mattered whether it’s been a Democratic or Republican administration, we failed to take the action necessary action when challenged by Iran and in these other areas. So just a change in administration is not enough, I mean there has to be a significant education program. And we haven’t touched on it. Our borders must be secured.
This is unconscionable what’s been going on and the integration of the Muslims under the Obama administration that are pouring into this country must cease. Actually 80% of the mosques in this country preach sedition. They’re Imams and those mosques should be closed down. They should be expelled to the countries where they came from and we should stop building mosques just like Switzerland has stopped building them there and now some of the countries in Europe are starting to wake up to the threat that they’ve been so benign to.
Joe Miller: Well Admiral Lyons I really appreciate having you on the show, your insights, patriotism are second-to-none. I appreciate you sounding the alarm on these issues, this is not the time for compromise, we’ve got to be active if we want to save our country. Do everything you can to support Admiral Lyons and what he’s doing. Again, Sir, thank you for being on the show.
Admiral Lyons: Alright Joe, nice to be with you and your listeners.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-03-21 03:00:312015-03-21 03:00:314-StarAdmiral: Iran is at WAR with the US; Muslim Brotherhood has Penetrated EVERY National Security and Intelligence Agency
Russia is developing a long-range cruise missile that poses a new threat to the United States, the commander of the U.S. Northern Command warned this week.
“Russia is progressing toward its goal of deploying long-range, conventionally-armed cruise missiles with ever increasing stand-off launch distances on its heavy bombers, submarines, and surface combatants, augmenting the Kremlin’s toolkit of flexible deterrent options short of the nuclear threshold,” Adm. William Gortney, Northcom chief who heads the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said Thursday.
“Should these trends continue, over time NORAD will face increased risk in our ability to defend North America against Russian cruise missile threats,” he said in prepared testimony to the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces.
A defense official said the missile that concerns the Northcom commander is the Russian KH-101 cruise missile which Russia has developed as a weapon to attack critical infrastructure in the United States, such as the electrical grid.
The comments highlight what defense officials and military analysts say is the growing threat of long-range cruise missiles. (Read more from “Northcom: Russian Cruise Missile Threat to U.S. Grows” HERE)
Quadruple suicide bombers on Friday hit a pair of mosques controlled by Shiite rebels in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, unleashing blasts through crowds of worshippers that killed at least 137 people and wounded around 350 others in the deadliest violence to hit the fragile war-torn nation in decades.
A group claiming to be a Yemeni branch of the Islamic State group said it carried out the bombings and warned of an “upcoming flood” of attacks against the rebels, known as Houthis, who have taken over the capital and much of Yemen. The claim, posted online, could not immediately be independently confirmed and offered no proof of an Islamic State role.
If true, Friday’s bombing would be the first major attack by IS supporters in Yemen and an ominous sign that the influence of the group that holds much of Iraq and Syria has spread to this chaotic nation. The claim was posted on the same web bulletin board where the Islamic State affiliate in Libya claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s deadly attack on a museum in Tunisia.
A significant presence of Islamic State group supporters would add an alarming new element to the turmoil in this fragmenting nation. Yemen is already home to the most powerful branch of the al-Qaida network – which is a rival of IS. On Friday, al-Qaida militants seized control of a southern provincial capital, al-Houta, in the group’s most dramatic grab of territory by the group in years.
Meanwhile, the Shiite rebels’ capture of the capital and a large swath of the country – at least nine of its 21 provinces – has raised fears of a civil war tinged with sectarianism. The government of the internationally backed president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, has fled to the southern port city of Aden, where it battled on Thursday with supporters of the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has allied with the Houthis. (Read more from “Massacre in Yemen: Suicide Bombers Slaughter 137 as They Prayed at Mosques [+video]” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-03-21 02:48:252015-03-21 02:48:25Massacre in Yemen: Suicide Bombers Slaughter 137, Wound Hundreds as They Prayed at Mosques [+video]
The U.S. Army is sending a field artillery battalion of about 400 soldiers and multiple-launch rocket systems to South Korea, a move the Pentagon said on Friday was part of a reorganization of the service and unrelated to any tensions on the peninsula.
Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said a battalion from the 20th Field Artillery would deploy from Fort Hood, Texas, in June for a nine-month rotation at Camp Casey in South Korea as part of the 210th Field Artillery Brigade.
The unit will leave its equipment in South Korea at the conclusion of the deployment so other battalions can use it as they rotate in on similar deployments, he said. The rotational deployments represent a slight increase in the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, defense officials said.
The multiple-launch rocket system can fulfill a variety of missions but is particularly effective at countering fire from enemy artillery batteries. Officials said they thought the field artillery brigade in South Korea was the only one permanently stationed outside the United States.
“The addition of this battalion is part of an Army-wide reorganization that will raise the number of MLRS (multiple-launch rocket system) battalions in all field artillery brigades from two to three,” Warren said. (Read more from “U.S. Moving Additional Artillery Battalion to South Korea: Pentagon” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-03-21 02:48:092015-03-21 02:48:09U.S. Moving Hundreds of Soldiers, Additional Artillery Battalion to South Korea
US warplanes have bombed a small drone used by Islamic State extremists in Iraq, marking the first time American-led forces had targeted an unmanned aircraft flown by the jihadists, officials said Wednesday.
The strike took place on Tuesday near the western city of Fallujah, destroying “a remotely piloted aircraft” and a vehicle with the IS forces, according to a statement from the US military command overseeing the campaign against the group.
The drone, used for battlefield surveillance, was “small-scale” and not a sophisticated aircraft equivalent to some US-made robotic planes that can fly at high altitudes or launch missiles, US defense officials said.
After flying the drone for a short period, Islamic State militants placed it on a vehicle. American aircraft then struck the vehicle near Fallujah, officials said. (Read more from “Officials: US Bombs ISIS Drone in Iraq” HERE)
ISIS apparently claimed responsibility Thursday for the deadly terrorist attack at a landmark museum in the heart of that country’s capital, a mass shooting that has shaken the birthplace of the Arab Spring and stirred questions about militants in the country.
In an audio statement posted online Thursday, ISIS identified two men — Abu Zakariya al-Tunisi and Abu Anas al-Tunisi — it said used “automatic weapons and hand grenades” to kill and injure what it called “crusaders and apostates” in the Bardo Museum in Tunis. Tunisian Health Minister Said Aidi said 23 people are believed to have been killed, including at least one who died at a hospital overnight.
And that bloodshed, the ISIS message warned, is “just the start” . . .
A U.S. official told CNN there is no reason to doubt the claim’s authenticity. That said, American officials are checking the platform that the statement went out on, including the extent to which it’s tied to the group calling itself the Islamic State.
The current U.S. thinking is the attack may have been carried out by local “franchise” adherents to ISIS, rather than centrally directed by the Islamist extremist group’s leadership, which is now thought to be in Syria. (Read more from “ISIS Apparently Claims Responsibility for Tunisia Museum Attack” HERE)