United States Advisers Stay Out of Combat but See ISIS Fight Edging Closer; Multiple Reports that ISIS Fighters Have Ebola (+video)

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Photo Credit: Musadeq Sadeq

Photo Credit: Musadeq Sadeq

By Missy Ryan and Erin Cunningham. In Iraq’s western Anbar province, more than 300 U.S. troops are posted at a base in the thick of a pitched battle between Iraqi forces, backed by tribal fighters, and well-armed Islamic State militants.

The militants, positioned at a nearby town, have repeatedly hit the base with artillery and rocket fire in recent weeks. Since the middle of December, the U.S.-led military coalition has launched 13 airstrikes around the facility.

U.S. troops have suffered no casualties in the attacks. But the violence has underlined the risks to American personnel as they fan out across Iraq as part of the expanding U.S. mission against the Islamic State, even as President Obama has pledged that U.S. operations “will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.” (Read more on what the United States advisers said HERE)

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US Veteran Says Fighting in Syria was Just as Easy as Buying a Ticket to Miami

By Catherine Herridge. All it took was a plane ticket, and an informal background check over Facebook. Then he was ushered to the front lines in Syria, fighting against the Islamic State.

In a rare, exclusive interview with Fox News, a U.S. military veteran with multiple tours in Iraq detailed his journey to Syria to fight against ISIS, on the condition his identity was protected.

The veteran, who asked to be identified as “John,” described a surprisingly simple process that took him from America to the dangerous Syrian civil war – and not as part of the U.S. military.

“I just went online and bought a ticket. It was that easy. It was like booking a flight to Miami Beach,” said “John.”

Then he found a Kurdish group known as the YPG. (Read more from this story HERE)
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Reports: ISIS Fighters Have Ebola

By Jordan Schachtel. Multiple Iraqi and Kurdish media sources have claimed that some Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Mosul, Iraq, have contracted the deadly Ebola virus, Mashable reports.

The Iraqi outlets reportedly claimed that Ebola had started to spread in a Mosul hospital. The city, known as ISIS’s most important strategic stronghold in Iraq, has been under the control of the Islamic State since June.

Christy Feig, the World Health Organization (WHO) director of communications, told Mashable, “We have no official notification from the Iraqi government that it is Ebola.” She said that WHO had reached out to authorities and asked if they needed help investigating the matter. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Suspect Who Threatened to Kill Cops on Youtube Fatally Shot (+video)

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Photo Credit: Free Patriot

Photo Credit: Free Patriot

By Jason Howerton. Police officers fatally shot a suspect in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night after he allegedly tried to “run down a couple cops” with his vehicle.

Officers were initially attempting to arrest the man for making terroristic threats against law enforcement officials in rants posted on YouTube, according to police.

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood told reporters officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant at a home in Clifton, Pennsylvania, when they saw the suspect leaving the scene, according to WPVI-TV. Officers pursued the suspect, but they tried to stop him in his vehicle, he allegedly tried to run over the cops.

It was reported that several officers fired shots at the suspect, killing him. Officers with the Clifton Heights, Upper Darby and Haverford Police Departments were reportedly involved in the incident, which unfolded at around 4:35 p.m. on Tuesday. (Read more about the suspect who threatened to kill cops HERE)

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NYC Mayor de Blasio’s Pick for NYPD Oversight Board Linked to Group in Cop-Killer Video

By Evin Gahr. The lawyer who chairs the New York City agency responsible for investigating police brutality allegations has ties to the federally funded legal-aid group featured in a cop-killer video.

Richard Emery, chairman of the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board and his own civil-rights law firm, told The Daily Signal that any perceived conflict of interest is absurd.

Bronx Defenders, which received at least $1.5 million from the Obama Justice Department since 2009, says on its website that assistance from Emery’s firm, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff and Abady, “makes the work we do possible.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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ISIS is Setting Sites on Israel (+video)

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Photo Credit: ISIS video

Photo Credit: ISIS video

By WND. A new video issued by ISIS contradicts the oft-repeated claim that the Islamic movement now controlling large portions of Iraq and Syria has no interest in the Palestinian jihad against Israel.

ISIS, which now calls itself the Islamic State after declaring the creation of a new caliphate, vows in the video: “Allah willing, we will continue to fight against the Israelis and their allies.”

Islam researcher Robert Spencer, editor of Jihad Watch, notes, for example, Jay Michaelson claimed in the Jewish Daily Forward that “the Islamic State is a Salafist jihadist/fundamentalist movement that regards Hamas as impure and the Israel/Palestinian conflict as largely irrelevant.” (Read more on how ISIS is setting sites on Israel HERE)

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Islamic State Releases Interview with Captured Jordan Pilot

By Newsmax. The hardline Islamic State group has released what it said was an interview with a Jordanian pilot captured last week after his plane crashed during U.S.-led coalition bombing in eastern Syria.

It was not possible to independently verify the interview published in the group’s English-language online magazine Dabiq in which First Lieutenant Muath al Kasaesbeh was quoted as saying his F-16 fighter was “struck by a heat seeking missile”.

“I heard and felt its hit. The other Jordanian pilot in the mission contacted me from a participating jet and told me that I was struck and that fire was coming out of the rear nozzle of my engine,” Kasaesbeh said.

He made brief comments about life at his base, sharing meals with hundreds of U.S. personnel.

“The Americans sometimes have dinner with us and eat mansaf (a traditional Arab dish) which they like alot. Their talk does not include details about operations because of matters of secrecy and security.” (Read more from this story HERE)
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ISIS Complains About Media Treatment of Australian Hostage-Taker

By Patrick Goodenough. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Monday praised the man responsible for a 17-hour siege at a café in Sydney, Australia this month, saying he had “added his name to the list of Muslims who answered the Khilafah’s [caliphate’s] call to strike those waging war against the Islamic State wherever they may be.”

In the latest edition of its propaganda publication Dabiq, ISIS lashed out at media for highlighting the fact that at the time of the “daring raid,” the hostage-taker, Man Haron Monis, was awaiting trial on several criminal charges.

It said any past transgressions had been wiped away by his act of martyrdom. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Thousands Delayed After Incredible Emergency Landing by Virgin Atlantic 747 (+video)

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Photo Credit: Virgin.com

Photo Credit: Virgin.com

At least 10,000 passengers flying to and from Gatwick had their flights cancelled when the airport’s single runway closed following an emergency landing. A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 returned to the Sussex airport for a “non-standard landing procedure”.

The Jumbo jet, flight number VS43, had taken off at 11.44am for the 5,200-mile flight to Las Vegas, with an estimated 450 passengers on board. The flight crew became aware of a problem with the landing gear soon after take-off. The aircraft flew circuits over southern England while burning fuel to reduce its weight, and made two low-altitude passes over Gatwick for visual inspection of the undercarriage.

The aircraft landed safely shortly before 4pm, with emergency vehicles in attendance. Nick Hughes, a passenger on the aircraft, told BBC Radio 5 Live: “Initially they didn’t reveal everything to the passengers. After we’d circled a few times you got the sense things weren’t quite right. They gave every opportunity for the landing gear to open, but unfortunately it never did.

“The actual landing was one of the softest landings I’d ever had. The crew were exemplary.”

The aircraft remained on the runway for more than three hours after the landing, closing the airport to arrivals and departures. (Read more about the incredible emergency landing HERE)

Watch: Children Encouraged to Steal Parents' Guns and Deliver to Teachers in PSA

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child stealing gunA startling new anti-gun ad released by a San Francisco-based production company encourages children to commit a series of crimes by stealing their parents’ guns and turning them over to school officials, The Daily Caller reported Monday.

Sleeper 13 Productions released the controversial video on Dec. 13. It shows a pouty, young boy wandering into his parents’ bedroom, stealing a handgun out of their dresser drawer and then shoving it into his backpack

The boy then carries what is presumably a loaded weapon into his classroom. After class, he approaches the teacher, takes the gun out of his backpack and slams it onto her desk.

“Can you take this away? I don’t feel safe with a gun in my house,” the boy says.

“Our children deserve a safe world,” the ad says. “Stop gun violence now.” (Read more from this story about children encouraged to steal parents’ guns HERE)

Outrage as Mayor de Blasio to Speak at Slain Cop's Funeral (+video)

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Photo credit: Breitbart

Photo credit: Breitbart

By Kerry Picket. De Blasio’s office announced his plans in a press release Friday night. The funeral of Wenjian Liu, who was shot execution-style in the same squad car as Ramos on December 20, is still being arranged.

A petition circulated by the NYC Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch almost two weeks ago urged police officers to demand that de Blasio not attend their funerals if they die in the line of duty.

The petition was triggered after de Blasio made remarks in reaction to a Staten Island grand jury decision that did not indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the death of Eric Garner, a man Pantaleo restrained in a headlock during an attempted arrest in July. New York City law enforcement found themselves at odds with the mayor when he said his biracial 17-year old son Dante should be as fearful of the NYPD as the criminals in the city. (Read more from the story about Mayor de Blasio to speak at Mr. Ramos’ funeral HERE)

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Wisconsin Sheriff Slams de Blasio’s Association With Al Sharpton

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Anti-Police Protestors Crash Memorial for Slain NYPD Officers

By Noah Rothman. Part of the reason for the major public rift between New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the police forces he commands has been the freedom that anti-police protesters have enjoyed over the past several weeks.

New York Police Department officers chafed over allowing protesters, incensed over the decision of a Staten Island grand jury to issue no-bill over the killing of Eric Garner, to take over major arteries in the city. In the wake of that grand jury’s decision, protesters crowded the FDR Drive, halted traffic on the West Side Highway, temporarily blocked circulation in and out of the Lincoln Tunnel, and seized the Brooklyn Bridge. For commuters traveling over the Thanksgiving Holiday, the unmistakable impression they got was that New York’s new and inexperienced mayor was on the side of the protesters rather than those who were abiding by city and state laws.

According to a report via the well-connected Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush in Politico, those commuters were not entirely unmistaken. Though de Blasio may not have felt himself entirely in league with the protest movement, he certainly sought to cater to them so as to avoid inflaming an already volatile situation. . .

This disconnect between America’s elected officials, who have been effectively intimidated by a small but menacing anti-law enforcement protest movement and the greater public has, in part, fueled the backlash against the mayor’s office in the wake of the execution-style murder of two NYPD officers. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Anti-de Blasio Banner Flown over NYC

By Sean Higgins. Rank and file New York City police officers dramatically escalated their feud with Mayor Bill De Blasio Friday. A group of them reportedly hired a plane to fly over the city while carrying a banner that said: “De Blasio Our Backs Have Turned To You.”

The plane reportedly flew five circles above the Hudson River before returning to a local airport.

John Cardillo, a retired NYC police officer, stated on his blog that he had arranged for the banner after hundreds of people on the police force asked him to do it on their behalf. The banner refers to an incident last week when cops literally turned their backs to De Blasio when he visited a hospital shortly after two Brooklyn cops, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, had been fatally shot by a man who was reportedly motivated by his hatred of police.

The shooter was reportedly angered after a grand jury refused on Dec. 3 to indict a police officer in the July death of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who had been allegedly selling illegal cigarettes. Garner died after being restrained in a chokehold, an incident that sparked mass city-wide anti-police protests. (Read more from this story HERE)

Video: Tylenol Attempts to Normalize Four-Parent, Lesbian Family

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Lesbian FamilyAmong the individuals featured in the [Tylenol Pain Reliever’s] “For What Matters Most” video series is the Beser Carr Schneider Musich family, a mixed unit that is comprised of a four parents, including a lesbian couple, the ex-husband of one of those women and another individual.

The two-minute clip, which offers a modernized, re-imagination of Norman Rockwell’s famed “Freedom From Want” painting, describes how the Beser Carr Schneider Musich family formed, while also showing the four adults and their children seated together around the Thanksgiving table.

“[My husband] and I were married for 10 years. We’ve known each other since we were 12,” one of the mothers proclaims in the clip. “When we divorced we had Cole and Elias and we decided that they should never be divided between the households.”

Her partner then explains that the two women met while the husband and wife were separated and began dating with the husband’s blessing. After the divorce, the lesbian couple, the ex-husband and another adult essentially became a mixed family that tries to parent together.

Read more about the lesbian family portrayed in the Tylenol video HERE.

Must Watch: Ultra HD Video Shows Extraordinary Images of Earth from Space

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ESAWatch Earth roll by through the perspective of ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst in this six-minute timelapse video from space. Combining 12,500 images taken by Alexander during his six-month Blue Dot mission on the International Space Station, this Ultra High Definition video shows the best our beautiful planet has to offer.

Marvel at the auroras, sunrises, clouds, stars, oceans, the Milky Way, the International Space Station, lightning, cities at night, spacecraft and the thin band of atmosphere that protects us from space.

Often while conducting scientific experiments or docking spacecraft Alexander would set cameras to automatically take pictures at regular intervals. Combining these images gives the timelapse effect seen in this video.

Watch: Man Shotguns Eggnog in Office Contest, Winds Up in Hospital With Pneumonia

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EggNogRyan Roche of Lehi, Utah, beat two co-workers by chugging a quart of eggnog in 12 seconds, as revelers cheered him on with chants of “Chug! Chug! Chug!”

When he began feeling ill later that evening, he went to the hospital, where doctors informed him that the holiday drink had triggered pneumonia.

After a 3-day stay at the hospital, Roche is fully recovered and ready to use the $50 gift card he won for his 12-second chug.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Massive Numbers of German Christians rise up to protest Islamization of Germany

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germany_healthcareGerman Christians in massive numbers are rising up to protest the Islamization of Germany. The media is reporting at least 17,500 came out in this protest but others say it was closer to 25,000.

According to this report the movement started in October and had just hundreds of people at the time. So apparently it’s grown to incredible numbers in just a couple of months. And of course, their opponents are calling them Nazis:

“More than 17,000 protesters rallied Monday in Dresden against the “Islamization of the West,” the tenth such demonstration in as many weeks. The far-right movement is becoming a problem for politicians.

German society and the political establishment have for weeks grappled with the emergence of the “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West,” or PEGIDA, whose ranks in the city of Dresden have quickly grown from just a few hundred in October.”

Read more from this story HERE.