[FoxNews] Bill from Sen. Blackburn would deny federal handouts for those who smuggle drugs, humans across US border
Karla Jacinto never wanted to become a statistic, but at 12 years old she was trafficked in Mexico. She describes the brutal torture she endured for four years at the hands of pimps and criminals, and how she reclaimed her life.
On the heels of another record-setting year for illegal border crossings, Sen. Marsha Blackburn is rolling out legislation targeting traffickers' wallets, denying them access to welfare, public housing and other federal benefits.
"This legislation ensures that hardworking American taxpayers — already crushed by inflation — are not forced to fund the lifestyles of offenders who are making our country more dangerous," the Tennessee Republican said in a statement provided to Fox News.
Blackburn's Stop Taxpayer Funding of Traffickers Act would ban anyone charged with drug or human trafficking at the United States' international borders from receiving federal benefits including welfare, Social Security, public housing and any retirement, health or disability benefits. Accused traffickers would also be barred from receiving federal grants, contracts, loans and commercial or professional licenses.
Suspects who are later acquitted or have their charges dropped would be eligible for back pay of benefits under the act.
The act includes smuggling, transporting and harboring individuals within its definition of "human trafficking."
Crossings at the southwest border have continued to skyrocket under the Biden administration. Border Patrol agents recorded nearly 2.4 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2022, up from about 458,000 in 2020, according to Customs and Border Protection. Revenue from human smuggling operations is difficult to track, but some experts estimate cartels are raking in billions of dollars each year.
"For two years, President Biden’s open border policies have emboldened the cartels and caused human trafficking to grow to a $13 billion industry," Blackburn's statement reads. "We cannot continue to incentivize this blatant criminal activity."
The vast majority of drugs seized by Border Patrol agents are confiscated at the southern border, according to CBP data. Methamphetamine has been the most prevalent drug seized so far in fiscal year 2023, followed closely by marijuana. Fentanyl seizures have increased nearly sixfold since 2019, with Border Patrol agents finding about 14,700 pounds of the substance last year.
Posted by: ACA JOE ||
02/15/2023 0:54 Comments ||
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#2
I would propose that anyone trafficking fentanyl is committing murder
I just know that in the liberal paradise of Europe the border police will shoot you if you try to cross illegally into their countries
#3
What I was hoping for was a designation of the cartels as terrorist groups. What I received was a bill that Schumer will kill that will remove their SSN benefits. I would hang this bill in my closet next to my flamingo print tie.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/15/2023 19:56 Comments ||
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[AMUTTV Some tribal elders and residents of Panjshir, a province north of Kabul, said they face "unfair treatment" from the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... military personnel in the province who consider the residents as "an enemy."
Their treatment towards the people in Panjshir hasn’t changed over the past 18 months of their rule in Afghanistan, a tribal elder from Onaba district explained, adding that the military members of the group roam the streets while carrying heavy weapons.
Panjshir has witnessed heavy fights between Taliban members and the resistance front over the past 18 months, especially last summer, that have led to the deaths of dozens on both sides.
A doctor from Panjshir, who requested to remain anonymous, said some patients who visit his clinic in the evenings say they are "harassed" by the Taliban.
"When it is my shift during nights, some patients whom we meet say they’re not allowed to visit the clinic after 9 pm and if they get the permission they are harassed by Taliban on the way to the health clinic," said the doctor.
A teacher from Panjshir said on condition of anonymity that whenever the Taliban suffer casualties in resistance force attack, they arrest civilians and harass them.
Taliban has reportedly arrested dozens of civilians from Panjshir on charges of links with the resistance front over the past year. The group has rejected the reports.
A shepherd from Panjshir, who wished not to be named in this report, said he is often interrogated by the Taliban.
"The Taliban is counting my sheep every day to see if I wouldn’t have sold them to the resistance front," said the resident.
A member of the Panjshir religious scholars’ council said they have shared the matter with Taliban officials but they have not seen any change in the Taliban’s treatment of the people.
A similar issue was raised by residents of Andarab valley in Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan. They said the Taliban’s civilian local officials have also criticized the treatment of their military members with them.
An audio file leaked to the media last year indicated that Mir Agha, a Taliban intelligence officer in Panjshir, criticized the way Taliban members treated local residents, saying the authorities had violated their commitment.
Another Taliban official, Musawir Mansoori, who is district governor for Banu district in Baghlan, last month accused members of the group for mistreatment of locals and said the authorities of the group are "insufficient."
Taliban officials in Panjshir did not comment on the allegations by the residents.
According to Amu findings from multiple sources, at least 66 non-combatants were killed in the Andrab valley in Baghlan and 172 civilians, including women and kiddies, were killed in Panjshir by the Taliban in the first year of their rule in the country.
After reports about human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... violations by the Taliban in Panjshir, UN special rapporteur Richard Bennett visited Panjshir in October 2022. He expressed his concerns about the situation there after returning from the province where he held talks with Taliban officials.
[Breitbart] Residents of Chicago’s South Side, home to the city’s poorest neighborhoods, are outraged as Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot spends millions housing newly arrived border crossers in an abandoned school.
Earlier this month, Lightfoot’s administration began housing border crossers in Wadsworth Elementary School — an abandoned school that sits in the city’s Woodlawn neighborhood. The school was closed a decade ago after the community tried to save it.
Some residents told the Wall Street Journal that city officials failed to take their community into account before deciding the house the border crossers in their neighborhood. In total, the city is spending nearly $7 million to shelter and offer services to the new arrivals.
The Journal reports:
“I’ve got nothing against them,” Luis Cardona, a retired tow-truck driver who helped organize Friday’s demonstration, said of the migrants. “We need to help the people here that need it, and then help the other people.” [Emphasis added]
In Woodlawn, some residents said the neighborhood has long been underserved by the city, and that the reopening of the school to house migrants represented another instance of the city acting against the community’s wishes. [Emphasis added]
The school’s closing was “like a feeling of just total disregard and disrespect for the community,” said Patricia Hightower, an 80-year-old community activist. [Emphasis added]
Since last August, an estimated 5,100 border crossers have been bused to Chicago mostly from Texas though some have arrived from Arizona and Colorado. The overwhelming majority, nearly 80 percent, have been housed by the city and received public services.
Andre Smith, a local activist in Woodlawn who is running against Alderman Jeannette Taylor, told FOX32 News that the community knows close to nothing about the newly arrived border crossers despite their being sent to the area.
“We don’t know anything about the people except they’ve fled danger in their countries,” Smith said. Meanwhile, Taylor has complained that the housing of border crossers in the community will have a negative impact on home values.
#4
Now there's a thought.
Start a South of the Border information campaign.
Pay Media and key persons to rant and spread the truth of how bad things have gotten in the USA.
That should consider socialist countries like Canada instead.
#13
I would have liked to have been there on the day that all the teachers and students collectively decided that they were wasting their time entirely with education and by consensus booked it out of the place.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/15/2023 20:00 Comments ||
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[GreaterKashmir[ On the fourth anniversary of Pulwama attack, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... Zone, Vijay Kumar on Tuesday said that out of 19 murderous Moslems involved in the attack, eight have been killed, seven arrested and four others including three Paks are still on the lam.
Talking to the media persons after paying tributes to the CRPF men, who were killed on this day in 2019, ADGP Kumar, as reported by the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said the security forces are after Jaish-e-Muhammad and almost all their top commanders have been neutralized.
"At present JeM has only 7-8 locals and 5-6 active Paks including Mossa Solaimani," he said, adding that police are after them and they will be neutralized soon.
He said they are busting holy warrior modules, especially they are after narco-terrorism and terror funding. "We have been able to recover Rs 41 lakh and recently in Baramulla, Rs 26 lakh have been recovered," he said while replying to a query.
He also said the cases registered against OGW (Over Ground Worker) Over ground workers (OGWs) are people who help militants, or terrorists, with logistical support, cash, shelter, and other infrastructure with which armed groups and insurgency movements such as Hizbul Mujaheddin and Jaish-e-Muhammad in Jammu and Kashmir can operate.... s involved in such activities are being disposed of at a rapid pace. "The number of such cases have reduced from 1600 in October last year to 950 at present and 13 convictions have also been made so far."
He further said that a total of 37 local murderous Moslems are presently active and that only two among them including Farooq Nalli and Riyaz Chatri are old while rest have joined recently.
[IsraelTimes] Statement by foreign ministers of the US, UK, La Belle France, Germany and Italia shows extent of their frustration with Netanyahu government
Notably absent from the list of countries condemning Israel were Abraham Accords signatories UAE, Bahrain and Morocco.
The foreign ministers of the US, the UK, La Belle France, Germany and Italia issued a joint statement on Tuesday condemning Israel’s decision to legalize nine outposts and advance plans for some 10,000 new settlement homes in the West Bank.
The steps to further entrench Israel’s presence in the West Bank were unanimously approved on Sunday by the cabinet, which framed the measures as a response to a series of terror attacks in Jerusalem.
Most of the foreign ministers’ countries had already condemned the Israeli announcement individually, so Tuesday’s statement appeared to represent an attempt to drive home the extent of their frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government.
The top diplomats said they were "deeply troubled" by the cabinet’s decision and "strongly oppose these unilateral actions which will only serve to exacerbate tensions between Israelis and Paleostinians and undermine efforts to achieve a negotiated two-state solution."
While the US has led the international pushback, it has indicated that verbal condemnations will be the extent of its efforts. "Israel, of course, is going to make its own sovereign decisions," State Department front man Ned Price said on Monday.
The plans to further entrench Israel’s presence in the West Bank have also been lambasted by the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... ’s foreign policy chief, the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... secretary-general, Norway, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... , Jordan and Egypt. Saudi 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. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century... , with which Netanyahu is keen on normalizing relations, called the Israeli plan "a blatantly illegal act."
Paleostinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh blasted Sunday’s announcement as "a recipe for escalation, whose dangerous consequences for the region and the world cannot be avoided, as they threaten the Paleostinians’ [very] existence."
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir responded dismissively to the joint statement Tuesday, telling "the Americans and Europeans [to] stop worrying."
"This is our mission... Nine [outposts] is nice, but it is not enough. We want many more [legalized]," Ben Gvir said.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich directed his comments to the US condemnation in particular, saying that Israel had "clarified our position to the Americans" and that "disagreements are allowed, even between friends."
On Monday, Israel issued a statement in the name of an anonymous senior diplomatic official who appeared similarly dismissive of the US blowback, saying Jerusalem was not surprised by it.
"We have had differences of opinion on this issue for decades," the statement said, pointing out that the illegal outposts being legalized were not new and that some of them had existed for several decades. "These disagreements did not and will not harm the strong alliance between Israel and the US."
Notably absent from the list of countries condemning Israel were Abraham Accords signatories UAE, Bahrain and Morocco. Since signing normalization agreements with Israel in 2020, the three countries have largely focused their criticism of Israel on matters pertaining to Jerusalem, not the West Bank.
The outposts that Israel plans to legalize are Avigayil, Beit Hogla, Givat Harel, Givat Arnon, Mitzpe Yehuda, Malachei Hashalom, Asahel, Sde Boaz and Shacharit.
To legalize the outposts, the government will have to prove that they were established on what Israel considers to be state land. This will likely be difficult, given that many of them, including almost all of Sde Boaz and Givat Harel, were built on private Paleostinian land.
While the international community considers all settlements illegal, Israel differentiates between settlement homes built and permitted by the Defense Ministry on land owned by the state, and illegal outposts built without necessary permits, often on private Palestinian land. However, outposts are sometimes established with the state’s tacit approval, and successive governments have sought to legalize at least some of the 100-plus unrecognized communities as a result.
[IsraelTimes] Hoping not to have to use its veto, US reportedly urging Ramallah to instead pursue a symbolic joint statement condemning Jerusalem, which it would be willing to support.
[WarZone] Iran has unveiled the latest in its line of underground bases, with a cavernous facility now apparently being used to protect fighter jets. From the imagery released so far, the aircraft currently in these caverns are veteran F-4D/E Phantom IIs that continue to make up a significant portion of its air power. With around 60 examples still in service, the F-4 is the most numerous IRIAF combat jet, by some margin.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
02/15/2023 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Hey America stuff your Iranian sanctions in your ass
Today IRAN & CHINA sign 20 strategic, defence, scientific and trade pacts. Earlier in the day, President Raeisi received an official welcome from his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping after arriving on a state visit to China.
During the official ceremony, the national anthems of the two countries were played and the two presidents reviewed a guard of honor. A 21-gun salute was performed in Raeisi’s honor.
High-ranking delegations of Iran and China held negotiations immediately after the ceremony. Senior officials of the two countries will sign important documents for developing bilateral cooperation in the presence of the two presidents.
Ha ha ha
Posted by: ACA JOE ||
02/15/2023 1:29 Comments ||
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#2
No doubt the pomp and circumstance of the signing comforted them both, Aca Joe. But both countries have well below replacement birth rates and therefore rapidly aging populations. Iran is hobbled by American sanctions, while China is busily driving away the international manufacturing and exports that have funded their dreams of world hegemony.
The times are going to be even more interesting for Iran and China than they are for America. I would pity them, but they both have worked really hard to put themselves in this position.
#4
True that, Dron. But even for enemies it is sad when they put cement overshoes on their feet, tie their own hands behind their backs, and deliberately jump off the bridge into the raging river below.
#10
when you have to to hide that 1980s fighter technology in a cave because it's the best you have
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/15/2023 8:54 Comments ||
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#11
Well, you really want to built a nice museum hangar when you need to keep your museum aircraft safe.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/15/2023 9:53 Comments ||
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#12
That is one heck of a valuable vintage barn find. Those historic fighters were instrumental in losing a huge air war against Iraq close to 40 years ago. They could be rented out for joy rides or for use in Vietnam War flicks if any of them are air worthy. The Iranians should look deeper in the hangers to see if there are any serviceable Mustang or Lightning airframes deeper in. Those are harder to find for the more popular WWII flicks.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/15/2023 10:07 Comments ||
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#13
The Phantom is in near B-52 all-time greatest airframe category. As a fighter, it was rode much harder and they wore out accordingly.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/15/2023 10:10 Comments ||
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#14
The peak of 1958 American technology. We've moved on. Iran? Not so much.
#17
^ I'd love to see them shoot down some Turk AF fighters. Really, I would enjoy that.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/15/2023 10:22 Comments ||
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#18
Turkey had an F-4 shot down not too long ago.
What I understand is Israel has but together a modernized cockpit for the F-4 platform which turns it into a rather nifty bomber. I believe Japan still uses it, and I'd guess with some cool marine strike capabilities.
-looks it up-
OK, looks like Japan has phased them out recently, but add South Korea to our list of current operators.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/15/2023 10:35 Comments ||
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#20
When our economy heads south we'll wish we still had servicable, not a million dollars-an-hour-stealth-fighters, made out of steel and aluminum fighters to actually do airspace control and interception.
The best thing Trump did for US defense was start making new build F-15s.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/15/2023 13:29 Comments ||
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#22
Rus won their last big war with lend-lease stuff built here.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/15/2023 13:31 Comments ||
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#23
The Iranian ones probably look good in the hanger, but their maintenance practice is likely to involve scavenging. A percentage of the planes will be donors. Anyone who tries to do a Firefox snatch and grab really needs to do the preflight checks meticulously. They don’t glide well.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/15/2023 14:11 Comments ||
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#24
#21 Wars are won by stuff built in wartime.
And I've seen too many factory parts sent to be melted down as scrap.
[IsraelTmes] Though successor to Ayman al-Zawahri not officially announced by terror group, most UN member states say commander is its ’uncontested leader’
UN experts say the predominant view among member nations is that the leadership of al-Qaeda has passed to Sayf al-’Adl, who was responsible for the late Osama bin Laden ...... who used to be alive but now he's not...... ’s security and trained some of the hijackers involved in the 9/11 attack on the US.
The panel of experts said in a report to the UN Security Council circulated Monday that no announcement has been made of Sayf al-’Adl replacing Ayman al-Zawahri, who was killed by a US dronezap in Kabul last August.
"But in discussions in November and December many UN member states took the view that Sayf al-’Adl is already operating as the de facto and uncontested leader of the group," the report said.
Assessments vary as to why al-’Adl’s leadership hasn’t been declared, it said.
Some countries feel that al-Zawahri’s presence in Kabul embarrassed the country’s Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... rulers who are seeking legitimacy "and that al-Qaeda chose not to exacerbate this by acknowledging the death," the experts said.
"However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... most judged a key factor to be the continued presence of Sayf al-’Adl in the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran ...They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... (which) raised difficult theological and operational questions for al-Qaeda," they said.
While noting that one country rejected claims that any al-Qaeda affiliate is in Iran, the panel said that the location of Sayf al-’Adl’a "raises questions that have a bearing on al-Qaeda’s ambitions to assert leadership of a global movement in the face of challenges" from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... murderous Moslem group.
Sayf al-’Adl has been listed on the UN sanctions blacklist as Egyptian-born Mohammed Salahaldin Abd El Halim Zidan since January 2001, the panel said. He is described in the UN listing as taking over as military commander of al-Qaeda following the death of Mohammed Atef — one of bin Laden’s top aides — in a US attack in November 2001.
In addition to being bin Laden’s security chief, the UN says, Sayf al-’Adl taught bully boyz to use explosives and trained some of the hijackers involved in the attack in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. It says he also trained Somali fighters who killed 18 US servicemen in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993.
Sayf al-’Adl is wanted by US authorities in connection with the August 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya.
According to the report, the threat from al-Qaeda, the Islamic State murderous Moslem group, and their affiliates "remains high in conflict zones and neighboring countries," with Africa emerging in recent years "as the continent where the harm done by terrorism is developing most rapidly and extensively."
The panel said the Islamic State’s leadership has also become a question following the group’s Nov. 30 announcement that Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi had died in a battle the previous month, the group’s second leader to be killed in 2022.
"The new leader was announced as Abu al-Husain al-Husaini al-Qurashi, and his true identity is not yet known," the experts said.
Member states noted numerous pledges of allegiance to Abu al-Husain by Islamic State "affiliates far and wide without specific knowledge of his identity or qualities as a leader," they said.
According to the Egyptian authorities, the FBI information on Saif al-Adel confuses the biographies of two members of Al-Qaeda. The first, 'Mohammed Salah al-Din Zaidan', known as Saif al-Adel, an economy graduate, joined Al-Qaeda in 1991, but was never a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. The other individual, 'Mohammed Ibrahim Makkawi', is a former Egyptian Special Forces Colonel and a former member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, who traveled to Afghanistan in 1987 after his release from prison, and later joined Al-Qaeda.
According to the indictment, Adel is a member of the majlis al shura of al-Qaeda and a member of its military committee. He has provided military and intelligence training to members of al-Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sudan, and to anti-UN Somali tribes.[5] It is possible that his trainees included the Somalis of the first Battle of Mogadishu in 1993.[6] He established the al-Qaeda training facility at Ras Kamboni in Somalia near the Kenyan border.[7]
Adel was accused of being involved with Egyptian Islamic Jihad and attempting to overthrow the Egyptian government in 1987. After the charges were dismissed, he left the country in 1988 to join the mujahideen in repelling the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.[8] He is believed to have traveled to southern Lebanon along with Abu Talha al-Sudani, Saif al-Islam al-Masri, Abu Ja`far al-Masri, and Abu Salim al-Masri, where he trained alongside Hezbollah Al-Hejaz.[9]
In Khartoum, Sudan, Adel taught recruited militants how to handle explosives.[4] Along with Saeed al-Masri and Mahfouz Ould al-Walid, he is believed to have opposed the September 11 attacks two months prior to their execution.[10]
Many analysts believe that Saif al-Adel will be named as the successor of Ayman al-Zawahiri since he was a loyal aide of Osama bin Laden.[11] However, this is seen as a complicated issue due to his residency in Iran.[12]
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.
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
...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. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
[WarZone] Iran has unveiled the latest in its line of underground bases, with a cavernous facility now apparently being used to protect fighter jets. From the imagery released so far, the aircraft currently in these caverns are veteran F-4D/E Phantom IIs that continue to make up a significant portion of its air power. With around 60 examples still in service, the F-4 is the most numerous IRIAF combat jet, by some margin.
...They hate 
