ceasefire cartoon

ISIS closing in? Terror group seizes Iraqi town 5 miles from Marine base

Islamic State has reportedly seized al-Baghdadi, in Iraq’s Anbar Province, 5 miles from an air base staffed by U.S. Marines, as the terror group continues its push beyond its bases in Syria and Iraq in an attempt to establish militant affiliates in other countries.
Hundreds of Islamic State fighters reportedly captured most of al-Baghdadi, which is 55 miles from the capital Ramadi, on Thursday.
On Friday, Iraqi soldiers had retaken several government buildings, but the soldiers withdrew early Saturday, handing the town back to the militants, The New York Times reported, citing local security officials.
One local Iraqi official told Reuters that, "Ninety percent of al-Baghdadi district has fallen under the control of the insurgents."
Militants attacked the town of al-Baghdadi from two directions before advancing inward, Reuters reported.
According to the Pentagon, al-Baghdadi was the first territorial gain by the militant group in months.
On Sunday, a U.S. Central Command spokesman refuted reports that ISIS had taken al-Baghdadi. "Al-Baghdadi has not fallen to ISIL or been seized by them," said U.S. Central Command, in an email to Fox News. Al-Baghdadi is "contested" not "Daesh held," said the email, referring to ISIS as Daesh, the name used by Arab partners to refer to the terrorist group.
On Friday, following the attack on al-Baghdadi, Islamic state fighters led a suicide attack on the Ayn al-Asad air base, where U.S. Marines are training Iraqi troops.
Most of the Islamic State fighters died in the suicide attack, killed either by Iraqi government forces or by detonating their suicide vests, said Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman.
Kirby said an estimated 20-25 Islamic State militants were involved in the attack on al-Asad air base in Iraq's Anbar province. He said the attack was led by "at least several" suicide bombers, some of whom managed to detonate their bombs, while others were killed by Iraqi troops.
It appeared that most, if not all, of the militants were wearing Iraqi uniforms, Kirby said.
No Iraqi or U.S. troops were killed or wounded, Kirby said, and no U.S. troops were involved in the gunfight.
“This isn't the flu,” Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told Greta Van Susteren during “On The Record” Friday. “The fact is those 300 Marines [at al-Asad] are the toughest guys around. And they are well-armed. But the fact that the ISIS attack today didn't work doesn't mean that it couldn't work in the future,” said King.

“We have been given a warning signal, and we must take action.”- Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney

Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney says the United States must use force in the area, seizing control of the key roads Islamic State, also known as ISIS, will need to continue its march toward the capital.
“We have been given a warning signal, and we must take action,” McInerney (Ret.) told Fox News Sunday. “The best defense is a good offense.”
A Defense Department spokeswoman confirmed to Fox News that “heavy fighting” took place in the area on Thursday, but referred questions about the status of al-Baghdadi to the Iraqi government.
“There was no direct attack on the al-Asad air base,” the spokeswoman assured, while acknowledging reports of “ineffective indirect fire in the vicinity of the base.”
The area in Anbar Province has long been a hot zone of fighting as ISIS looks to hold and expand its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria. In January, the Pentagon first confirmed that U.S. troops at the Al Asad base had been coming under regular mortar fire.
To date, those attacks have been described as ineffective. A senior U.S. official told Fox News the base receives “low-scale” indirect fire from time to time.
“We continue to support efforts by Iraqi Security Forces, working in conjunction with tribal fighters, directed against ISIL in the province,” the DOD spokeswoman said Thursday.
Another Pentagon spokesman, Col. Steven Warren, said the U.S. troops were about 2 miles away, in a different section of the base.
According to The Times, American intelligence officials estimate that the terror group’s fighters have reached as many as 31,000 in Syria and Iraq.
U.S. unmanned surveillance aircraft and Army Apache attack helicopters were sent to the scene from Baghdad, but the attack was over before they arrived, so they did not engage in fighting, Warren said.
There are currently nearly 2,600 U.S. forces in Iraq. Of those, about 450 are training Iraqi troops at three bases across the country, including al-Asad.
Forces from other coalition countries conduct the training at the fourth site, in the northern city of Irbil.
The development comes as the U.S.-led coalition continues to launch airstrikes against ISIS, with Jordan taking on a greater role following the brutal execution of a captured Jordanian pilot at ISIS’ hands.

Brown University student wants ROTC ‘criminals’ banned from campus

Ingraham

A Brown University student says the ROTC is guilty of “state-sanctioned violence” and its cadets are “criminals,” in a column published earlier this month.
The column, written by Peter Makhlouf, was written following the Feb. 3 decision by Brown University’s faculty to create a partnership between the school and the Navy and Air Force ROTC programs
Makhlouf is calling for the campus to ban the ROTC programs.
“By outlawing ROTC and its byproducts on our campus, we have the opportunity to maintain and strengthen a tradition of refusing to capitulate to the increasing demands of military engagement in today’s global agenda,” Makhlouf wrote in The Brown Daily Herald.
“It’s a bit disillusioned to think that Brown students should be exposed to every potential career — even more unthinkable to assume that they should be exposed to all potential military careers,” he wrote.

“Name just one criminal act committed by the ROTC?"- Thomas Mag Malaglowicz

The piece continues: “Admittedly, Brown is more active than most schools, though the overwhelmingly centrist nature of our campus’ political discourse should be further reason for opposing military presence. The push for normalizing militarism on our campus needs to be opposed because Brown students are so often unsure of their political leanings.”

Related Image

Expand / Contract

 Peter Makhlouf

The stand by Makhlouf, who expects to graduate in 2016, earned him criticism from readers who posted comments to his Op-Ed.
Rae Shue wrote:  “As one who served, I have this to say to you: those of us who have served or are serving made the choice to serve. We did this because there are evils out there that must be fought and only a select few will answer that call. We serve so you can choose not to. We sacrifice our present and future so you don't have to.”
Many commenters slammed what they deemed Makhlouf’s poor grammar and writing style, while others challenged his facts.
“Name just one criminal act committed by the ROTC. Take your time...I'll wait,” wrote Thomas Mag Malaglowicz.
And Daric Wade wrote, “You completely misunderstand the term "military science", as applied to ROTC. Military Science courses are designed to teach the "science" of military leadership, decision-making, and tactical thinking, in very basic forms, not to invent new weapons. Nobody's building a death ray at Brown.”

Surveyors to announce Washington Monument's new official, shorter height

Government surveyors will announce on Monday that the official height of the Washington Monument on the capital's National Mall has been revised downward by nearly ten inches. 
The new measurement puts the obelisk's height at 554 feet, 7 and 11/32 inches, as measured from the floor of the main entrance to the top. Since the monument's completion in 1884, however, the official height has been recorded as 555 feet, 5 and 1/8 inches. 
Dru Smith, chief geodesist with the National Geodetic Survey, tells the Associated Press that modern international standards from the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat call for a different base point than what was likely used in the 1880s. The new standards call for measurements to be taken from the lowest open-air pedestrian entrance to the building.
"The building didn't change height because of anything; it is just where you start from," Smith said.
The original measurement conducted in 1884 by Lt. Col. Thomas Casey is believed to have used four brass markers as a base for measurement. Those markers remain in place 9 inches below ground off each corner of the monument. It's possible the markers were at ground level in the past. A new plaza was installed around the monument more recently, and "it's clear that what was ground level has changed over the years," Smith said.
Measurements from the brass markers to the top in 1999 and 2014 essentially reconfirmed the original measurement, showing the 1884 measurement was done with "incredible accuracy."
The only observable height change was the pyramid-shaped tip had been rounded off over time. Surveyors in 1934 also noticed the peak had been rounded and believed it was due to frequent lightning strikes that melted the aluminum tip.
"Well, this time around, we took very careful measurements," Smith said. "We were able to determine about 3/8 of an inch had been melted off from the very top."
That means the original 1884 measurement, completed with much less sophisticated equipment, was within 3/4 of an inch of the findings from the newest survey, using the original brass markers as a base point.
"It's remarkable, quite honestly, that they had the ability to get such an accurate measurement back in that time," Smith said.
When the monument was completed in 1884, it was the world's tallest structure until 1889 when the Eiffel Tower was built. It remains by far the tallest structure in the nation's capital, which strictly restricts building heights. Most buildings are shorter than the U.S. Capitol dome, which rises 288 feet.
The new survey was conducted while the monument was wrapped in scaffolding for restoration work following a 2011 earthquake. Earlier survey results showed the monument did not sink any further into the ground as a result of the 5.8-magnitude earthquake. The monument was built on land that used to be underwater, and it has sunk about 2.2 inches since 1901.
Lest anyone be confused by the changing measurements, the National Park Service as caretaker of the monument has no intention of changing its brochures or description of the height to reflect the new numbers.
"For our purposes we'll still use the historic height rather than the architectural height, since they're measured from different places," said spokeswoman Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles.
The extensive survey will give the Park Service new data as a baseline to track any changes in the monument's height, tilt or compression in the future. The National Geodetic Survey and National Park Service revealed the survey results on President's Day, which also celebrates Washington's birthday.
"I think we can all agree the significance of the Washington Monument is really far greater than the architectural qualities or even its height," said Mike Commisso, a cultural resources specialist for the National Mall. "It continues to serve as a memorial to one of the most influential and prominent public figures in our nation's history."

Obama administration proposes regulations on commercial drones amid security, privacy concerns

President Obama on Sunday announced plans to regulate the use of small, commercial drones -- attempting to get ahead of safety, privacy and economic issues as the unmanned aircraft quickly become more a part of everyday American life.
Obama said in a presidential memorandum that drones are already a more flexible and less-expensive alternative to piloted aircraft for public and private users. And they could play “a transformative role” in urban infrastructure management, farming, public safety, coastal security, military training, search and rescue and disaster response.
The president has given federal agencies at least 90 days to start drafting guidelines, but the Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday released preliminary rules in conjunction with the memorandum.
Among the chores that federal officials envision drones performing are aerial photography and mapping, crop monitoring and inspecting cell towers, bridges and other tall structures.
However, the proposal includes safety restrictions such as keeping drones within sight of operators at all times and no nighttime flights, which could mean no pizza or Amazon package deliveries by drone.
Commercial operators, for example, will have to take an FAA-administered knowledge test and pass a Transportation Security Administration security check to fly small drones, defined as weighing less than 55 pounds, according to the proposal.
The final rules still could be two or three years away.
Even if the White House approves the FAA's proposal, the agency must offer a public comment period, and tens of thousands of comments are anticipated and must be addressed before final regulations are issued.
The FAA currently bans all commercial drone flights except for those by a small number of companies that have been granted waivers. Congress has been leaning on the agency to move faster on regulations that would allow a wide variety of companies to employ drones.  
Under a law passed in 2012, the FAA was to issue final regulations by September 2015, but that appears unlikely.
"We have tried to be flexible in writing these rules," said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. "We want to maintain today's outstanding level of aviation safety without placing an undue regulatory burden on an emerging industry."  He said the agency intends to issue final rules as quickly as it can.
Brian Wynne, president and chief executive officer of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a trade group, called the proposed rules "a good first step" toward bringing the United States closer to realizing the benefits of drone technology.
The memorandum also lays out measures federal agencies must follow to guard against abuse of data collected in drone flights and states they must have polices that “prohibit the collection, use, retention or dissemination of data in any manner that would violate the First Amendment or in any manner that would discriminate against persons based upon their ethnicity, race, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The FAA analysis suggests drones -- officially known as Unmanned Aircraft Systems -- would be safer than heavier, manned aircraft in such operations as cell-tower and other high-tower monitoring, citing 95 fatalities involving climbers from 2004 to 2012.      
Officials have not made public an estimate of the total annual economic benefit of regulations but say it would exceed $100 million a year.
For example, about 45,000 annual bridge inspections could be conducted with small drones, they say.
The document indicates the agency has dropped its insistence that drone operators have the same licenses and medical certificates required for pilots of manned aircraft. Industry officials complained that obtaining a private pilot license or medical certificate would be unnecessarily burdensome. The agency estimates the cost to operators of obtaining certificate at about $300.
A private pilot license can cost thousands of dollars because it requires many hours of experience flying a plane.
Operators would have to fly drones at less than 500 feet, which is below where most manned aircraft fly. That's 100 feet higher than the agency typically has approved in waivers to commercial operators.
The line-of-sight requirement would preclude delivery drone of the type envisioned by Amazon. Google is also experimenting with such drones.
Industry officials have chafed at both restrictions, saying they significantly reduce the usefulness of unmanned aircraft. The FAA's concern is that with no pilot on board, the operator on the ground is best able to prevent a collision with another aircraft by keep the drone in sight at all times.
The FAA analysis was first reported by Forbes on Saturday.

Egypt hits ISIS-affiliated terrorists in Libya after video showing mass beheading of Christians appears

Egypt's military said Monday that it had launched airstrikes against ISIS-affiliated militants in Libya after a video purporting to show the mass beheading of Coptic Christian hostages surfaced Sunday.
A spokesman for the Armed Forces General Command announced the strikes on state radio Monday, marking the first time Cairo has publicly acknowledged taking military action in neighboring Libya, where extremist groups seen as a threat to both countries have taken root in recent years.
The statement said the warplanes targeted weapons caches and training camps before returning safely. It said the strikes were "to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers."
"Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield that protects them," it said.
Egypt is already battling a burgeoning Islamist insurgency centered in the strategic Sinai Peninsula, where militants have recently declared their allegiance to ISIS and rely heavily on arms smuggled across the porous desert border between Egypt and Libya.
The strikes also come just a month before Egypt is scheduled to host a major donor's conference at a Sinai resort to attract foreign investment needed to revive the economy after more than four years of turmoil.
The Egyptian government had previously declared a seven-day period of mourning and President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi addressed the nation late Sunday night, saying that his government reserved the right to seek retaliation for the killings.
"These cowardly actions will not undermine our determination" said el-Sissi, who also banned all travel to Libya by Egyptian citizens. "Egypt and the whole world are in a fierce battle with extremist groups carrying extremist ideology and sharing the same goals."
Libya's air force commander, Saqr al-Joroushi, told Egyptian state TV that the airstrikes were coordinated with the Libyan side and that they killed about 50 militants. Libya's air force also announced it had launched strikes in the eastern city of Darna, which was taken over by an ISIS affiliate last year. The announcement, on the Facebook page of the Air Force Chief of Staff, did not provide further details. Two Libyan security officials told the Associated Press civilians, including three children and two women, were killed in the strikes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The video was released late Sunday by militants in Libya affiliated with the Islamic State group. The militants had been holding 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian laborers rounded up from the city of Sirte in December and January. It was not clear from the video whether all 21 hostages were killed.
The killings raise the possibility that the extremist group -- which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq in a self-declared caliphate -- has established a direct affiliate less than 500 miles from the southern tip of Italy, Libya's former colonial master. One of the militants in the video makes direct reference to that possibility, saying the group now plans to "conquer Rome."
In Washington, the White House released a statement calling the beheadings "despicable" and "cowardly", but made no mention of the victims' religion, referring to them only as "Egyptian citizens" or "innocents". White House press secretary Josh Earnest added in the statement that the terror group's "barbarity knows no bounds."
Also Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry called Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. He offered his condolences on behalf of the American people and strongly condemned the killings. Kerry and the foreign minister agreed to keep in close touch as Egyptians deliberated on a response, according to a release from the State Department. 
On Monday, el-Sissi visited the main Coptic Cathedral of St. Mark in Cairo to offer his condolences on the Egyptians killed in Libya, according to state TV.
The U.N. Security Council meanwhile strongly condemned what it called "the heinous and cowardly apparent murder in Libya of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by an affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant," using another name for the terror group.
The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also condemned the mass killing, calling it an "ugly crime."
"The United Arab Emirates is devoting all its resources to support the efforts of Egypt to eradicate terrorism and the violence directed against its citizens," he said.
Sheikh Abdullah added that the killing highlights the need to help the Libyan government "extend its sovereign authority over all of Libya's territory."
The oil-rich Emirates, along with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, has given billions of dollars in aid to Egypt since el-Sissi, who was then military chief, overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013 amid massive protests against his yearlong rule.
Egypt has since waged a sweeping crackdown against Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group, which it has officially branded a terrorist organization. El-Sissi has insisted the crackdown in Egypt, as well as support for the government in Libya, is part of a larger war on terror.
Libya in recent months has seen the worst unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, which will complicate any efforts to combat the country's many Islamic extremist groups.
The internationally recognized government has been confined to the country's far east since Islamist-allied militias seized the capital Tripoli last year, and Islamist politicians have reconstituted a previous government and parliament.
Egypt has strongly backed the internationally recognized government, and U.S. officials have said both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have taken part in a series of mysterious airstrikes targeting Islamist-allied forces.

Impeach Cartoon

ObamaCare sign-ups hit snag on big weekend

WASHINGTON –  Consumers trying to sign up for health insurance ahead of a looming deadline are getting snagged by technical difficulties, the Obama administration said Saturday.
Administration spokeswoman Katie Hill said some people trying to get coverage under President Barack Obama's health care law haven't been able to get their income information electronically verified.
That's crucial because the amount of financial assistance to help pay premiums is based on people's income. The health care law offers subsidized private insurance to people who don't have coverage on the job. More than 8 in 10 of those who apply qualify for help. Without it, most can't afford the coverage.
The Internal Revenue Service handles income verification for the HealthCare.gov website. In a statement, Hill said the problem was due to issues with "external verification sources."
The glitch seemed to be affecting people with new applications.
People who previously submitted their income details -- but hadn't completed the final step of picking a plan -- were still able to do so.
The technical problems tied up some consumers who'd come out Saturday to an enrollment event in the central Illinois city of Jacksonville.
"They were frustrated, but they were nice about it," said Miranda Clark, who was helping people sign up. "They can come back tomorrow or call ... or log back into their account and do it on their own."
Officials posted an advisory on the home page of the HealthCare.gov website.
It reassured consumers that they would still be able to get coverage once the glitch is resolved. "Keep checking back for updates," it said.
The official deadline in the 37 states served by HealthCare.gov is 2:59 a.m. Eastern time Monday.
Last year, HealthCare.gov stumbled at the start. Numerous technical problems with the website were a huge headache for consumers, and an embarrassment for the tech-savvy White House. This year, the process had worked fairly smoothly.
The administration has set a goal of 9.1 million people signed up and paying their premiums in 2015.