[Independent.UK] 'For Trump to just step in and undermine centuries worth of morale and discipline undercuts the very military that he's trying to command'
US veterans decried Donald Trump's orders to restore an accused war criminal's rank in the Navy, saying the decision "sets a dangerous precedent" and suggests the commander-in-chief views the military "as a tool for massacres".
Numerous veterans spoke out about the move to The Independent after Secretary of Defence Mark Esper confirmed he was ordered by the president to retain Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher's status in the elite service, as well as his Trident pin, a prestigious special warfare insignia.
"Ever since Donald Trump became president he's been tearing the military apart, putting troops in the difficult position of needing to choose between obedience to his unhinged orders, and staying true to our code of honour," said Alexander McCoy, a former Marine and political director of the veteran group Common Defence. "By pardoning war criminals because Fox News told him to, Trump showed he sees our military as a tool for massacres, not as the professional, honourable force we aspire to be."
Gallagher, who was accused of killing Iraqi civilians and an unarmed Islamic State fighter, was acquitted in July of murder but found guilty of posing in a photograph with a war casualty. Mr Trump later intervened in the case, restoring Gallagher's rank to E-7, otherwise known as a chief petty officer, and demanding he be allowed to keep his Trident and retire at the rank and pay grade he earned before the allegations were brought against him.
The defence secretary announced on Monday that Gallagher "will retain his Trident as the Commander in Chief directed and will retire at the end of this month", adding that the case "has dragged on for months" and "must end".
In his statement, Mr Esper said the firing was not about Gallagher, but rather "Secretary Spencer and the chain of command".
The president's demands could cause "significant long-term damage to the Naval Special Warfare community," according to James Waters, a former Navy SEAL platoon commander and White House staff member in the Bush administration, who told The Independent: "The only people who weigh in on whether a Navy SEAL deserves to keep his Trident are people who have their Trident." Aquaman too ?
"Every SEAL knows he must 'earn your Trident every day' Wholly out of context and spouted here for semantic emphasis, like a grade school coach using mil-speak.
even after officially qualifying - and the same standard should apply here," Mr Waters said. "Unless you've been through Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training and served in the Teams and know the specific facts related to a person's performance, you're not qualified to weigh in."
He added: "This is vital to maintaining the high standards required to be effective in the Teams and on the battlefield. The absolute last thing the nation needs is to open the floodgates to outside interests determining who gets to wear and keep the Trident." I see now why it's difficult to vote for ex-soldiers.
It goes on about Geneva conventions and the glory of the American Navy in danger. Read this at the Independent !
Common Defense was founded in 2016 by veterans who oppose Trump’s corrupt agenda of hate. Together we will reclaim our democracy and build a truly grassroots movement to fight for our future.
#10
Common Defense was founded in 2016 by veterans who oppose Trump’s corrupt agenda of hate.
So it's like five guys?
Just turned on the radio. An NPR call-in talk show on the Gallagher thing.
Some guy is bitterly ranting about how Trump, a civilian, has no business telling the military how to run their business. Jeez Louise! Never mind that he is the Commander in Chief. Did you morons sleep thru 9th grade Civics class? *CLICK*
[660citynews] WASHINGTON - The Latest on President Donald Trump and the case of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher (all times local):
2:50 p.m.
President Donald Trump says "I have to protect our war fighters" as he explains his actions in the case of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq.
Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher was acquitted of murder in the stabbing death of an Islamic State militant captive but convicted of posing with the corpse in 2017.
Defence Secretary Mark Esper allowed Gallagher to retire with his Trident pin, retaining his status as a SEAL. He says he did so at the president's direction.
Trump said Monday that he is sticking up for members of the armed forces.
Esper fired Navy Secretary Richard Spencer on Sunday, accusing him of secretly offering to the White House to rig the Navy disciplinary process to ensure that Gallagher not lose his Trident.
11:10 a.m.
Defence Secretary Mark Esper says President Donald Trump gave him a direct order that a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq be allowed to retire without losing his SEAL status.
Esper told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday that was the reason he announced Sunday evening that Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher would be allowed to retire with his Trident Pin, retaining his status as a SEAL.
Esper also accused Navy Secretary Richard Spencer of secretly offering to the White House to rig the Navy disciplinary process to ensure the Gallagher not lose his Trident. Esper fired Spencer on Sunday.
#2
Listening to the Beeb, they keep using the phrase, "Gallager, who was accused of war crimes..." which is true, but somehow they never get around to the acquittal part. Wankers.
Seems to me, if you earn the right to be called a SEAL, then you're a SEAL. They may kick you out of the club for doing something heinous, but you still earned the badge. And no, peeing on the carcasses of your dead enemies doesn't count as heinous.
#3
Esper also accused Navy Secretary Richard Spencer of secretly offering to the White House to rig the Navy disciplinary process to ensure the Gallagher not lose his Trident.
"Secretly offered to rig" ... Good Grief! This is (A) beyond stupid and/or (B) deliberate sabotage of Trump because there is no way that this would not leak. The "rigging" would be seen as a corrupt act be everyone!
#6
The "posing for a selfie with a dead Taliban" is what has come to be a (quote) War Crime (un-quote) these days. Part of the Geneva Accords to not "denigrate enemy corpses"...If you compare it to historical events this case is a trivial case that only a REMF JAG would get into spasms over... The Mimizuka(耳塚, "Ear Mound", often translated as "Ear Tomb"), an alteration of the original Hanazuka (鼻塚, "Nose Mound")[1][2][3] is a monument in Kyoto, Japan, dedicated to the sliced noses of killed Korean soldiers and civilians[4][5] as well as Ming Chinese troops[6] taken as war trophies during the Japanese invasions of Korea from 1592 to 1598. The monument enshrines the severed noses of at least 38,000 Koreans killed during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions.
#2
That was part of the 'O's' flexibility program, Glenmore.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
11/25/2019 12:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Another f---up by our incompetent foreign-policy elite.
Something is seriously wrong with the way these people form their conception of the world. Seems to be a reinforcing dynamic in which they start with spurious ideas that no one has really examined closely - the "Arab Soring" conceit, for ex. - and then dig the hole deeper by shutting out dissenting views.
#4
Colonel Khadaffy (and all his alternative spellings) had become arrogant again after a period of cowering following turning over Libya’s nuclear bomb materials to President George W. Bush; he was openly threatening to release pent up jihadis on Europe if they didn’t indulge his every wish. Britain, France, and Italy, as I recall, requested President Obama aid them as they put Qaddafi in his place. Obama’s female squad of advisors, Valerie Jarrett, Susan Rice, and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton persuaded him to join in the fun.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] French naval base in Abu Dhabi will serve as the headquarters for a Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an-led mission to protect Gulf waters that will be operational soon, La Belle France’s defense minister said on Sunday.
La Belle France is the main proponent of a plan to build a European-led maritime force to ensure safe shipping in the Strait of Hormuz after tanker attacks earlier this year that Washington blamed on Iran.
Tehran has denied being behind the attacks on tankers and other vessels in major global shipping lanes off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in May and which increased tensions between the United States, Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and Gulf Arab states.
"This morning we formalized that the command post will be based on Emirati territory," Defence Minister Florence Parly told news hounds at a French naval base in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.
The command center will host around a dozen officials representing the countries involved, she said. In a speech to French military personnel, she said the next time she visited the base she hoped the mission would be operational and thanked the UAE for supporting it.
The UAE has tempered its reaction to the attacks and has called for de-escalation and dialogue with Iran.
On Saturday, Parly said the initiative could start early next year and around 10 European and non-European governments would join, pending parliamentary approval.
First announced in July, the plan is independent of a US-led maritime initiative which some European countries feared would make US-Iranian tensions worse.
Parly said the two missions would coordinate in order to ensure safety of navigation in an already tense area.
[Metro.UK] Cinema on lockdown after ‘gang with machetes brawl and assault police officers’
A number of police officers have been assaulted after a large brawl broke out at a cinema in Birmingham.
Armed police were deployed after reports of people with machetes at Star City, in the Nechells area of the city, shortly after 5.30pm on Saturday.
They found a group of more than 100 people there, and said ‘pockets of fighting’ had broken out.
The cinema was packed as children queued up to see Frozen 2.
West Midlands Police confirmed that several arrests had been made and said a dispersal order had been put in place, meaning officers can arrest anyone who refuses to leave when asked.
Rival gangs were reported to be fighting in a screening of ‘Blue Story’ in the Vue complex.
A second cinema chain has banned Blue Story from all its cinemas after a mass brawl in Birmingham last night - as the director defends his BBC-funded movie as 'about love not violence.'
Showcase Cinemas has followed Vue by axing screenings of the gangster film.
Five teenagers, including a 13-year-old girl, have been arrested by police after they swooped at around 5.30pm. They also seized two machetes and a knife from a nearby roundabout.
A senior police chief said today the disorder 'may be the worst thing' the responding officers had seen.
Blue Story director Andrew Onwubolu, known as Rapman, has said the gang film is about 'love not violence', after seven police officers were injured in a disturbance at a screening.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... will visit Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... on Monday for discussions on Middle East issues, according to the Ottoman Turkish Presidency.
"The means to further deepen the cooperation between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... and Qatar in all areas will be addressed and views on regional and international issues will be exchanged during the talks," the Ottoman Turkish presidency said in a statement.
It said Erdogan would attend the fifth meeting of the Turkey-Qatar Supreme Strategic Committee at the invitation of Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
The Qatari emir was the first world leader to call Erdogan following the July 2016 attempted coup and congratulate him on his victory.
While Doha provided support to Ankara after its military launched an offensive on October 9 against a Syrian Kurdish militia, Arab countries including Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... condemned Turkey’s "aggression".
The burgeoning relationship saw Turkey’s military presence in Qatar increased while Doha promised economic support to Ankara during last year’s currency crisis.
The two countries also have similar policies with regards to Islamist groups, primarily the Moslem Brüderbund.
[DAWN] The government has decided to bring all unregulated sectors of the national economy under an interim regulatory framework to address at the earliest outstanding reservations on money laundering and terror financing (ML and TF) of the international financial watchdog ‐ Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The decision was taken by the National FATF Coordination Committee (NFCC) at its recent meeting. Prime Minister Imran Khan ...aka The Great Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... had set up the high-powered 12-member NFCC in the first week of October to ensure execution of all FATF-related tasks till Dec 1.
A senior government official told Dawn that the NFCC has decided to appoint the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) as an interim regulator for the real estate sector in view of disagreement among key stakeholders over creation of proposed Real Estate Regulatory Authority. The FBR will also act as a regulator for jewellers, jewels, diamonds and precious stones because there was no regulator at present for the sector.
Likewise, the NFCC has recommended the role of regulator for lawyers, legal advisers and law firms to the Ministry of Law and Justice. It authorised the Audit Oversight Board to act as a regulator for chartered accountants, accountants, financial consultants and all those relating to accounts groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2019 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[3 views]
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[DAWN] A multi-party conference has been called by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman ...Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty... to decide on the next course of action in the anti-government campaign by the opposition, his spokesperson told DawnNewsTV on Sunday.
The conference, to which a total of nine parties have been invited, will be held in Islamabad on Tuesday and hosted by the JUI-F chief.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh Gawd, this guy ! That turban. Same color palette. He's becoming as recognizable as donald duck !
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has urged the country’s judiciary to mete out harsh sentences to what he described as "mercenaries" involved in protests against a fuel price hike last week, the judiciary’s Mizan news site reported.
"We caught all the mercenaries who openly confessed they were doing mercenary work for America and, God willing, the judicial system of the country will give them maximum punishments," Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, a deputy Guards commander, was quoted as saying.
Iran’s holy manal rulers have blamed "thugs" linked to exiles and foreign foes - the United States, Israel - for stirring up unrest which has led to some of the worst violence in the country in a decade.
Fadavi said several people were killed during the protests after being shot at with a handgun from a close distance behind themselves, which he said indicated the shooters were among the crowds.
Rights group Amnesia Amnesty International said in a release earlier this week that security forces shot into crowds of protesters from rooftops and, in one case, from a helicopter.
Amnesty said at least 115 people have died in the unrest. Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... has rejected corpse count figures as "speculative."
Iranian authorities have said about 1,000 demonstrators have been arrested.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based advocacy group, said on its website that a tally based on official figures and credible reports suggested that "a minimum of 2,755 people have been arrested with the actual minimum number likely being closer to 4,000."
US politicians and military officials are speaking up about their support for the Lebanese military following confirmation that the Trump administration is withholding $105 million in security aid to Lebanon.https://t.co/ZATlIx8nudpic.twitter.com/SodRFcIS3h
Earlier this month, it was reported the Trump administration has frozen $105 million in security aid to Lebanon, including military vehicles, weapons and ammunition.
David Hale, the top career diplomat at the State Department, confirmed the freeze on Wednesday, saying there was apparently “a dispute over the efficacy of the assistance.”
The US State Department told Congress on October 31 that the White House budget office and National Security Council had decided to withhold the foreign military assistance, according to two US officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity. The officials did not say why the aid was blocked.
The aid was frozen before massive demonstrations, protesting against economic hardship and corruption, began in Lebanon on October 17.
The Trump administration, which has not publicly explained its decision to withhold funding, has been pressing for the isolation of Lebanese Hezbollah, which is allied with Iran and has seats in the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Hezbollah controls the Lebanese government and appears to control its army which we have been paying for through this 'security aid'.
There is now unrest in Lebanon; nobody really understands its cause.
One unstated possibility is that the Lebanese people are afraid that Hezbollah, which is controlled by Iran, will involve Lebanon in a war with Israel which will probably destroy much of the country, since Hezbollah has rockets everywhere in it aimed at Israel.
The conventional view of the state department and those supplying this now traditional support to the Lebanese army despite its control by Hezbollah, is that it should continue forever. This is apparently in the hope that this will serve some useful purpose. What that purpose is, is a bit obscure at this time.
Trump has shown a tendency to shake up such arrangements, even sometimes seeking something in exchange for continuing them.
Posted by: Daniel ||
11/25/2019 2:35 Comments ||
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#2
The conventional view of the state department and those supplying this now traditional support to the Lebanese army despite its control by Hezbollah, is that it should continue forever. This is apparently in the hope that this will serve some useful purpose.
#4
#1 Trump has shown a tendency to shake up such arrangements, even sometimes seeking something in exchange for continuing them.
Kissinger on Trump last year: "Trump may be one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretenses."
#6
So now the media thinks that any aid given in the past is just automatically supposed too continue. I wish these idiots would learn too report the news instead of being political asshats.
Posted by: chris ||
11/25/2019 9:37 Comments ||
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h/t Instapundit
[Algemeiner] Anti-Zionist students at Oberlin College in Ohio erected a memorial last week commemorating the death of multiple Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists.
Oberlin Students for a Free Palestine shared in a Facebook post on Thursday that it had installed a display in "commemoration of the 34 Palestinians killed by Israeli rocket fire this last week" in Wilder Bowl, a central outdoor space on campus where students often congregate.
Prior to joining Lion’s Head, Chris was Director of Global Policy Development at Soros Fund Management, where he spent nine years working on a variety of initiatives for the firm’s founder. ... He received his B.A. from Oberlin College, where he is now the Chair of the Board of Trustees.
#12
On a serious and deeply sad note, the father in the Gibson's Bakery matter, David Gibson, son of the patriarch and father to the young man who apprehended the shitty little Oberlin thug-thief whose idiocy launched this absurd horrific nightmare, has died of pancreatic cancer.
#15
Supporting terrorists is terrorism, arrest them, send them to Gitmo, and after their trial, give them a good old fashioned German suicide, two rounds to the back of the head.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
...aka 
...Deobandi holy man, known as 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
