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Marine Sentenced to 26 Years for Rape, Kidnap of Anchorage Woman

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LawA U.S. Marine has been sentenced to 26 years in federal prison for the sexual assault and kidnapping of an Anchorage woman in August 2013, according to Anchorage police.

James Hale III, 35, was convicted Thursday of first-degree sexual assault, kidnapping and other misdemeanors.

Hale was a staff sergeant stationed in Anchorage at the time of the rape, police said. He was dishonorably discharged and stripped of his rank following a court-martial, they said.

The police department originally investigated the case. On Aug. 26, 2013, Special Victims Unit detectives began investigating the rape of a woman in the Spenard neighborhood the night prior.

“It was reported to police that the adult female was driven by the suspect to a location in Spenard and held at gunpoint while the male sexually assaulted her,” police said in a news release Friday. (Read more from “Marine Sentenced to 26 Years for Rape, Kidnap of Anchorage Woman” HERE)

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Marine Banned From Daughter’s School Because He Spoke Out About Islam

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A father and military veteran says he has been banned from a Charles County high school because he got into an argument with faculty over his child’s homework assignment.

Kevin Wood received his no trespassing order on Tuesday. This all stems from a run-in between Wood and the vice principal at his daughter’s school.

He says he challenged a history class assignment that had students list the benefits of Islam . . .

Melissa says her husband Kevin, a United States Marine and Iraq veteran, is the most patriotic person she has met. But now, he is banned from even stepping foot near their daughter’s high school . . .

This started when their eleventh grader came home from La Plata High School with a three-page assignment. It asked for explanations of Islam’s Five Pillars, Mecca and Muhammad. (Read more from “Marine Banned From High School” HERE)

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Obama 'AWOL'?: GOP Questions President's Role in Freeing Marine

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Photo Credit: Fox News Republicans on Saturday welcomed the news of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi being released from a Mexico prison and the efforts by GOP congressmen to help broker a deal but questioned whether the Obama administration did enough.

“President Obama still isn’t using all of the tools and levers that we have as the world’s lone super power, whether it is as simple as getting Sgt. Tahmooressi released from custody to defending our interests or protecting our allies in the Middle East,” Arkansas GOP Rep. Tom Cotton told Fox News.

Cotton, who is now running for Senate, wrote Obama asking him to intervene.

A Mexican judge on Friday ordered Tahmooressi’s immediate release, after he spent seven months behind bars for crossing the border with loaded guns.

The judge said Tahmooressi should be freed because of his mental state. But he did not make a determination on the illegal-arms charges against the Afghanistan veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a Mexican official who had knowledge of the ruling but was not authorized to give his name.

Read more from this story HERE.

Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi Freed from Mexican Jail, Immediately Returns to US

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsAfter 214 days in a Mexican prison, Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi crossed the US – Mexican border Friday night, boarding a private jet for Florida shortly after 9 p.m., after a strong diplomatic push convinced a judge to release the former Marine on humanitarian grounds.

His release comes after a lengthy trial and a Congressional hearing in September highly critical of Obama Administration efforts to secure his release and Mexico’s refusal to let him go. Tahmooressi said he made an innocent mistake the evening he crossed into Tijuana with three weapons in his truck on March 31.

While his defense rested its case several weeks ago, Tahmooressi’s release came only after a strong diplomatic push from former Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Reps. Ed Royce (R-CA) and Matt Salmon (R-AZ).

The three officials, along with Tahmooressi’s mother Jill, have spent the last week in Tijuana pressing officials for his release.

Speaking by phone on his way to board a plane with Tahmooressi, Richardson said the trio, along with talk show host Montel Williams, met with Mexico’s Attorney General and Ambassador to the US, advocating for his liberation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Jailed Marine's Mom: 'My Heart is Breaking

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

For weeks, the mother of a U.S. Marine who made a wrong turn at the Mexican border and ended up over the international boundary has waited for President Obama to respond to a petition on behalf of Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, 25.

Without results.

Even though the threshold for a response of 100,000 signatures at a White House petition website was reached.

In fact, the number of signatures was surging past 130,000.

So when the question about presidential intervention in Tahmooressi’s case was brought up at a press availability with White House press secretary Josh Earnest, hopes were raise again.

But only briefly.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rep. Salmon: Obama ‘Hasn’t Lifted a Finger’ to Help U.S. Marine in Mexico Jail (+video)

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Photo Credit: APRep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) said on Tuesday that President Barack Obama’s claim that no members of the U.S. military are “left behind” does not seem to hold true for Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, the Marine arrested by Mexican authorities on April 1 on weapons charges.

When asked about the exchange of Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban terrorists at a Heritage Foundation event on Capitol Hill, Salmon recalled attending a classified briefing given to House members by Obama administration officials.

“Time and time again the comment was made that we leave no soldier behind and then the other comment was under Article 2 of the Constitution, the president has the responsibility for the troops and a responsibility to protect all Americans abroad,” Salmon said. “And given that, I’m just wondering why the president hasn’t lifted a finger at all to help Sgt. Tahmooressi, who’s in prison in Mexico – has been for two months.”

“And he needs to be home,” said Salmon, who has visited Tahmooressi.

Read more from this story HERE.

Marine Vet Watches Robbery Unfold, Intervenes; One Dead

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller A Marine Corps veteran was eating lunch at a sandwich restaurant in Houston on Thursday when he saw two men pull up hoodies, tie on bandanas and enter a video game store.

The 28 year-old had a concealed carry permit but had left his gun in his truck.

He went to get it and waited for the criminals to emerge from the store, where they had robbed a cashier and stolen cash and video games, KPRC reports.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mom of Marine Jailed in Mexico Says Son ‘Not a Criminal,’ Hopes for White House Response

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Photo Credit: Fox News The mother of a U.S. Marine being held in a Mexican prison on weapons charges told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Monday that her son is “not a criminal,” and she is hoping President Obama will respond to his plight.

Jill Tahmooressi said on “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” that she recently saw her son Andrew after he was transferred to a new prison. She said she was able to bring him clothes and books but not food, and that her son told her he was always hungry.

Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, 25, has claimed he was headed to dinner in San Ysidro, California on March 31 when he mistakenly wound up at a border crossing point in Tijuana. According to his mother, Tahmooressi said he made a wrong turn, and Mexican authorities found three guns in his truck.

In an interview on the Mexican border, Jill Tahmooressi told Van Susteren her son would have never intended of smuggling or selling his guns, adding he had them for self-defense.

“He needed those firearms for his own sense of security,” she said. “He never – not for any price – would he have sold those guns.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Marine Facing Discharge for Sending Unsecured Threat Warning Email To Fellow Marines Garners Capitol Hill Defenders

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Photo Credit: BREZLER FAMILY

Photo Credit: BREZLER FAMILY

A Marine facing military discharge for mistakenly sending a threat warning from an unclassified email account garnered high-level support ahead of a military hearing that began Tuesday, with several members of Congress leaping to his defense.

Maj. Jason Brezler, a Marine Corps reservist and New York City fire fighter was facing a board of inquiry — the equivalent of an administrative hearing in the military — for warning his fellow Marines of an insider threat in August 2012.

He had tried to warn about an Afghan police chief — known to be linked to the Taliban, and also a child predator. Brezler’s warning was ultimately ignored, and three Marines were killed by one of the Afghan police chief’s alleged child victims.

The Marine reservist, though, now stands accused of passing classified information through unclassified channels because he allegedly used an improper email account to pass on the warning.

“It really does seem to be a witch hunt,” said Kevin Carroll, an attorney working on Brezler’s case.

Read more from this story HERE.

Bill O’Reilly’s ‘Killing Kennedy’ Selects Its’ Lee Harvey Oswald and Will Begin Filming

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Photo Credit: Irish Central

In a press release this afternoon, National Geographic announced, the final major actor has been signed to round out the cast of Killing Kennedy. Actor Will Rothhaar will play the volatile former Marine and assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

Rothhaar is the final of the four major players in the film to be announced. He joins Rob Lowe (John F. Kennedy), Ginnifer Goodwin (Jacqueline Kennedy) and Michelle Trachtenberg (Marina Oswald).

The upcoming two-hour original factual drama, Killing Kennedy by Scott Free Productions, will premiere on the National Geographic Channel later this year. It is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; it will air in the United States and globally in 171 countries and 38 languages.

According to National Geographic:

“Based on the best-selling book by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, Killing Kennedy begins in 1959, at major turning points for both the future president and his assassin. John F. Kennedy is in Washington, D.C., announcing his presidential candidacy, while Lee Harvey Oswald finds himself in the U.S. embassy in Moscow, renouncing his U.S. citizenship. These two events start both men — one a member of one of the United States’ most wealthy and powerful families, the other a disillusioned former Marine and Marxist — on a cataclysmic track that would alter the course of history. Throughout we see their highs and lows, culminating in not one but two shocking deaths that stunned the nation.”

Bill O’Reilly’s mastery of storytelling artfully woven into his fact based books, is proving to be a goldmine for the Fox News Anchor. His last book, Killing Lincoln, was a blockbuster best seller and made into a movie as well.

O’Reilly has already announced he is working on a third “killing book,” this one titled “Killing Jesus.” National Geographic Channel has already confirmed it is set to adapt this third partnering with the author and Ridley Scott’s, Scott Free Productions on its network.

Production on Killing Kennedy begins this week in Richmond, Va.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.