Conservative Blogger
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
US military officials ID officer killed in Afghanistan as Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene
This goes back to the old saying about the Dog that bites the hand that feeds it.
Greene, who was on his first deployment to a war zone, was involved in preparing Afghan forces for the time when U.S.-coalition troops leave at the end of this year. An engineer by training, he was the deputy commanding general, Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said earlier that the assailant fired into a group of international soldiers at the Marshal Fahim National Defense University at Camp Qargha, a base west of Kabul, and was subsequently killed.
Another 15 people, roughly half of them Americans, were wounded. Among the wounded were a German brigadier general, two Afghan generals and an Afghan officer, whose rank the Afghan Defense Ministry did not provide.
The attack occurred during a site visit to the university by coalition members.
Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said a "terrorist in an army uniform" opened fire on both local and international troops.
The Qargha shooting comes as so-called "insider attacks" -- incidents in which Afghan security turn on their NATO partners -- largely dropped last year. In 2013, there were 16 deaths in 10 separate attacks. In 2012, such attacks killed 53 coalition troops in 38 separate attacks.
The Army's top soldier, Gen. Ray Odierno, issued a statement Tuesday evening saying the Army's thoughts and prayers were with Greene's family as well as the families of those injured in the attack.
In a 34-year career that began at Fort Polk, La., Greene, a native of upstate New York, earned a reputation as an inspiring leader with a sense of humility. He had been in Afghanistan since January.
At the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks Greene was serving at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and when the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003 he was a student at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, at the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Greene flourished in the less glamorous side of the Army that develops, tests, builds and supplies soldiers with equipment and technology. That is a particularly difficult job during wartime, since unconventional or unanticipated battlefield challenges like roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, call for urgent improvements in equipment.
In 2009-2011, for example, he served as deputy commanding general of the Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command and senior commander of the Natick Soldier System Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland. During that tour of duty he gained the rank of brigadier general, and at his promotion ceremony in December 2009 he was lauded for his leadership skills and ability to inspire those around him.
Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes applauded Greene for a "sense of self, a sense of humility" and an exemplary work ethic, according to an account of the promotion ceremony published by the Times Union of Albany, N.Y., which called Greene an Albany native.
"In every job I had we got things done that I think made our Army better, and it was done by other people," Greene was quoted as saying. "All I did was try to pull people in the right direction and they went out and did great things."
Greene earned a bachelor of science degree in materials engineering and a master's degree in industrial engineering, both from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He later studied at the University of Southern California and also attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Leavenworth, Kansas.
In 2010, he spoke at the opening of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center, a research facility at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with the mission of improving the Army's understanding of social, information and communication networks, according to the Army's account of the event.
"We're in a fight now with an enemy that's a little bit different and uses different techniques ... and networks are a key part of that," Greene said.
He said finding patterns in the tactics of insurgents was difficult because of the way networks evolve and otherwise change. So the goal was to bring to light the patterns and determine how to anticipate and influence the actions of insurgents.
"The enemy is every bit as good as we are at using that network to our detriment so this is essential work, this is about defending our country," Greene said. "You must know that there is a direct application on the battlefield and we're using it today, but we don't really understand it yet so this is a critical element."
His awards include the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Service Medal, a Meritorious Service Award and an Army Commendation Medal.
Suspects in murder of Border Patrol agent arrested and deported numerous times
RAYMONDVILLE, Texas -- Two illegal immigrants from Mexico who were charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent in front of his family in Texas have been arrested and deported numerous times, police sources told FoxNews.com.
One suspect has been arrested no fewer than four times for entering the U.S. illegally, according to federal court records. The other has been deported twice after entering the U.S. illegally, sources said.
Gustavo Tijerina, 30, and Ismael Hernandez, 40, were arraigned Tuesday afternoon inside the Willacy County jail library. They were ordered held without bail after being charged with capital murder of a peace officer, attempted murder, and a variety of lesser charges.
The pair, who have been living in Texas illegally, confessed after being interviewed multiple times Monday to killing Border Patrol agent Javier Vega Jr. in front of his wife and two kids and his parents Sunday night while they were fishing in Santa Monica, Sheriff Larry Spence told FoxNews.com.
They finally confessed to the robbery and indicated they knew they had killed someone, but did not know it was an off-duty Border Patrol agent, Spence said in an interview in his office Tuesday morning.
"They do now," he said.
When asked how the suspects reacted when they learned the victim was a Border Patrol agent, Spence said, "shock and concern."
The sheriff said the two suspects were likely connected to cartels or other criminal gangs.
"They claim to have been involved in other incidents, this means you've got stolen vehicles going into Mexico," he said.
"Everything is going to be cartel-related, there's a connection somehow.
"This is not the first episode of border violence in Willacy County but it's the first time someone's been killed," he said.
Tijerina, who according to records was arrested at least four times between 2007 and 2010 for entering the U.S. illegally, and Hernandez allegedly approached Vega and his family and tried to rob them on Sunday night. When Vega pulled out his weapon, the suspects allegedly shot him in the chest, killing him.Vega's father was shot in the hip and is recovering at a nearby hospital.
Both Tijerina and Hernandez were arraigned on seven charges: capital murder of a peace officer, attempted murder, four counts each of aggravated robbery and one count of tampering with evidence. When asked by the judge if they wanted to notify the Mexican Consulate and if they wanted attorneys, both said yes. Each also wanted to be allowed to call family members.
At 12:45pm, the first suspect, Tijerina, appeared before Judge George Solis. He wore an orange short-sleeve shirt and pants and black flip flops with silver chains around his ankles. His blood-shot eyes bulged in apparent surprise when the judge told him he faced seven different counts.
Tijerina at several points during his arraignment looked around the room and stared at each person, including this reporter and two others, and the county sheriff.
When the charges were being read, Tejerina interrupted to say there was no robbery. Sources told FoxNews.com Tejerina is the one believed to allegedly have fired the shots that killed Vega.
As he was being walked out, he asked if he could have a Bible from the library shelf. He was told he would be brought one later in his cell.
After Tijerina had been escorted out of the small room, Hernandez, thin and lanky and wearing dark green prison garb, was brought in about 1:10pm. He was more vocal than the first suspect. When told of the seven charges he was facing, Hernandez exclaimed "seven charges?" in Spanish.
"I don't understand why I'm being accused of so many things," he told the judge.
Hernandez said he tested negative for gunshot powder. Sources said this suspect’s job in the robbery-turned-murder was to drive the car they planned to steal.
Hernandez said he wanted to tell his wife and his brothers "who live here" what had happened.
"I wish I could let my wife know and my brothers, the ones who are here," he said.
When he was told a lawyer would be provided if he couldn't afford one, Hernandez said, "Yo no tengo deniro. No tengo nada." ("I don't have money, I don't have anything.")
According to court records, Tijerina, who also goes by the name Tijerina-Sandoval, pleaded guilty to entering the U.S. illegally on July 9, 2007. He was given a 30-day sentence with credit for time served and charged a $10 fee.
Three months later, on Oct. 4, he was again found guilty of entering the country illegally and was sentenced to 60 days in jail and $10 fee. In a criminal complaint, he said he entered the U.S. on Sept. 1 and was encountered by border patrol agents near Weslaco, Texas, on Oct. 3. He had waded across the Rio Grande River near Progreso, Mexico, court records show.
A year later, on Oct. 25, 2008, he again crossed into the U.S. by wading across the river. On Nov. 18, 2008, he was given 90 days in jail and another $10 special assessment fee.
On Dec. 15, 2009, Tijerina was indicted by a grand jury on charges of entering the U.S. illegally yet again. The indictment says he "had previously been denied admission, excluded, deported and removed, knowing and unlawfully was present in the United States having been found near Edinburg, Texas." Court records say he had not obtained consent from the U.S. attorney general and the secretary of homeland security to reapply for admission into the U.S.
A warrant issued for his arrest said he faced up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
He was held without bond on Jan. 26, 2010. He was given nine months in jail and fined $100.
Sources confirmed that these court cases involved the same Tijerina in custody for killing the Border Patrol agent. They said Hernandez, the other suspect, has been deported twice for entering the U.S. illegally.
Kerry calls for fresh Middle East peace talks as Cairo mediations get underway
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Where's Obama in this matter?
Speaking to the BBC, Kerry said that both sides needed to make a "bigger, broader approach to the underlying solution of two states," adding "I believe that the situation now that has evolved will concentrate people's minds on the need to get back to the negotiations and try and resolve the issues."
Kerry spoke on the second day of the truce, which came into effect Tuesday morning and was precipitated by Israel's withdrawal of all ground forces from Gaza. Israeli troops had begun their ground offensive July 17, nine days after the commencement of airstrikes against Hamas rocket sites as part of Operation Protective Edge. Israel said it had destroyed 32 cross-border tunnels used by Hamas to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians.
In the BBC interview, Kerry said that Israel had a right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Gaza, saying ""No country can live with that condition and the United States stands squarely behind Israel's right to defend itself in those circumstances. Period."
Kerry added that Hamas had "behaved in an unbelievably shocking manner engaging in this activity and, yes, there has been horrible collateral damage as a result."
Delegations from Israel and the Palestinians were in Cairo Wednesday for the scheduled start of talks on a longer-term cease-fire. As part of the format of the indirect talks, Egyptian mediators planned to shuttle between them to try to work out a deal.
The Palestinian delegation is led by a confidant of Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and includes members of Hamas and other factions. The delegation has presented a list of demands, including a lifting of a joint Israel-Egypt blockade of Gaza and a release of Palestinian prisoners arrested by Israel in a recent West Bank sweep
Israel has refused to do lift the blockade in the past, claiming that such an action would lead to Hamas importing more weapons into the territory, and has countered with demands that Hamas be made to disarm.
"The extent to which we are going to be ready to cooperate with the efforts to have better access and movement in Gaza will deeply depend on the kind of arrangements that would secure our peace and security," Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior official in Israel's Strategic Affairs Ministry, told the Associated Press.
That demand, in turn, has been rejected by senior Hamas officials, with one telling the AP "We'd take the life of anyone who tries to take the weapons of resistance."
The AP also reported that the outlines of a proposed solution would call for Abbas would oversee rebuilding in Gaza and reassert his authority in the territory that his Fatah faction lost to Hamas in 2007.
Forces loyal to Abbas would be deployed at Gaza's crossings to encourage Israel and Egypt to lift the blockade they imposed after the Hamas takeover.
Kuperwasser, the Israeli official, told reporters earlier Tuesday that having forces loyal to Abbas deployed at the Gaza crossings would likely not be enough to allow restrictions to be eased, and that there should also be international supervision.
"Yes, they (Abbas' forces) can have a role in the crossings, but we can't say we can fully trust just Abu Mazen," he said, referring to Abbas. "It's got to be something more robust. International and Egyptian elements should be involved in it. And other means of supervision should be involved as well."
One key sticking point will be the import of construction materials, including cement and steel. Israel says that such materials, meant for civilian use, were diverted in the past by Hamas to build the cross-border attack tunnels
Mohammed Mustafa, a deputy prime minister in the Abbas-led government, said he has already started preparing a Gaza reconstruction plan that would be presented at an international pledging conference in Norway tentatively scheduled for early September. He said the usual lineup of donors — the United States, European Union, Japan, Arab states and international organizations like the World Bank are likely to be there.
The Islamic militant group's fortunes changed dramatically last year after the Egyptian military deposed a Hamas-friendly government in Cairo and began closing hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.
The closures deprived Hamas of a key source of revenue — the taxation of goods brought through the tunnels — and prevented weapons and cash destined for Hamas from flowing into Gaza.
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