[IsrraelTimes] Two former members of the US military were arrested Monday in Washington state with an arsenal that included dozens of guns, explosives and body armor, along with Nazi paraphernalia, investigators say.
Levi Austin Frakes and Charles Ethan Fields were arrested at their home in Lacey, near Olympia, after being caught trying to steal weapons and other gear from a army base, according to a criminal complaint filed in US District Court.
At the home, agents found rifles staged at the upstairs windows, a probable cause affidavit filed in Thurston County Superior Court says. The federal complaint says agents “observed numerous Nazi/white supremacy memorabilia, murals, and literature in every bedroom and near several stockpiles of weapons and military equipment.”
Photos from inside the home included in court documents show a wall decorated with a red Nazi flag emblazoned with a black swastika and a black SS flag — the letters shaped like lightning bolts — referencing the Schutzstaffel, the Nazi paramilitary led by Heinrich Himmler.
Washington state business license records show that Frakes and Fields have a company called Sovereign Solutions, which featured an “SS” logo with the letters separated by a lightning bolt. Its website advertises “Quality Training and Equipment for the Modern Warfighter,” including marksmanship classes, as well as a T-shirt with the company logo and the words “Professional War Crime Committer.”
Authorities say agents seized about 35 firearms at the home, including short-barreled rifles and an MG42 machine gun — a type typically supported with a bipod and which was used by German troops during World War II.
Other seized gear included 3D-printed silencers and Army-issued gear that included explosives such as smoke grenade and blasting caps, ballistic plates and helmets, and night-vision devices, authorities say.
According to the complaint, a soldier entered a building at the Army Ranger compound at Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Sunday night and found two men, partially masked, with a cluster of US Army property around them. The two fled following a fight with the soldier that left him hospitalized, and were arrested the next day.
The federal complaint charges them with robbery, assault and theft of government property. They also face investigation on state charges of unlawful possession of incendiary devices, short-barreled rifles and a machine gun. Each is being held at the Thurston County Jail on $500,000 bail.
Pakistan fails pretty much covers it. That it’s women being failed serves them right for escaping purdah, amirite?
[GEO.TV] ''It's brought me some closure,'' said Shafaq Zaidi, a school friend of Noor Mukadam, reacting to the Supreme Court's May 20 verdict upholding both the life sentence and death penalty for Noor's killer, Zahir Jaffer.
''Nothing can bring Noor back, but this decision offers a sense of justice —not just for her, but for every woman in Pakistain who's been told her life doesn't matter,'' Zaidi told IPS over the phone from Islamabad. ''It's been a long and painful journey—four years of fighting through the sessions court, high court, and finally, the Supreme Court.''
Echoing a similar sentiment, rights activist Zohra Yusuf said, ''It's satisfying that the Supreme Court upheld the verdict,'' but added that the crime's brutality left little room for relief. ''It was so horrific that one can't even celebrate the judgment,'' she said, referring to the ''extreme'' sadism Noor endured—tortured with a knuckleduster, raped, and beheaded with a sharp weapon on July 20, 2021.
Yusuf also pointed out that the ''background'' of those involved is what drew national attention.
Noor Mukadam, 27, was the daughter of a former ambassador, while Zahir Jaffer, 30, was a dual Pakistain-US national from a wealthy and influential family. Her father and friends fought to keep the case in the public eye, refusing to let it fade into yet another forgotten statistic.
Still, the response has been muted — many, including Yusuf, oppose the death penalty.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistain recorded at least 174 death sentence ...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead... s in 2024 — a sharp rise from 102 in 2023 — yet not a single execution was reportedly carried out. The last known hanging was in 2019, when Imran Ali was executed for the rape and murder of six-year-old Zainab Ansari.
However,
the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... Noor's father, Shaukat Ali Mukadam, has repeatedly stated that the death sentence for Zahir Jaffer was ''very necessary,'' emphasising, ''This isn't just about my daughter — it's about all of Pakistain's daughters,'' referencing the countless acts of violence against women that go unpunished every day.
The HRCP's 2024 annual report painted a grim picture of gender-based violence against women in Pakistain.
According to the National Police Bureau, at least 405 women were killed in so-called honor crimes. Domestic violence remained widespread, resulting in 1,641 murders and over 3,385 reports of physical assault within households.
Sexual violence showed no sign of slowing. Police records documented 4,175 reported rapes, 733 gang rapes, 24 cases of custodial sexual assault, and 117 incidents of incest-related abuse — a chilling reminder of the dangers women face in both public and private spaces. HRCP's media monitoring also revealed that at least 13 transgender individuals experienced sexual violence — one was even killed by her family in the name of honor.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2025 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, there's Pakistani's involved. And their cousins.
It's like, why can't India complete a working weapon project? 'Cause they have their own government.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/05/2025 15:36 Comments ||
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That could ruin someone’s day under the wrong circumstances.
[GEO.TV] Researchers in Japan have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours, offering up a potential solution for a modern-day scourge polluting oceans and harming wildlife.
While scientists have long experimented with biodegradable plastics, researchers from the RIKEN Centre for Emergent Matter Science and the University of Tokyo say their new material breaks down much more quickly and leaves no residual trace.
At a lab in Wako city near Tokyo, the team demonstrated a small piece of plastic vanishing in a container of salt water after it was stirred up for about an hour.
While the team has not yet detailed any plans for commercialisation, project lead Takuzo Aida said their research has attracted significant interest, including from those in the packaging sector.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2025 00:00 ||
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#2
OK!, It dissolves.
But what chemicals has it broken down into, which will be contaminating the Seawater and those items we eat, like our seafoods?
A short list of Plastic chemicals include:
Polyethylene terephthalate, High-density polyethylene, Polyvinyl chloride, Polypropylene, Polystyrene, or Low-density polyethylene.
It's a given, that many of the things used to make plastics are toxic.
Googling/D2D each chemical name with the word "cancer" added produces some interesting results.
Plus now add what new chemicals will be used, and what are the side effects are when used with packaged consumable items?
Are we repeating an updated latest and greatest modernization hazard, like when ancient Rome started using LEAD Pipes to supply water?
[TWZ] The U.S. Army says it is on schedule to retire the last of its turboprop-powered intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft by the end of this year. Prior to the start of these divestments in 2022, the service had dozens of crewed turboprop ISR planes spread across units in the United States and forward deployed overseas. There continues to be questions about forthcoming capability and capacity gaps, with business jet-based replacement aircraft still years away from entering service and recent reports that the Army could ultimately buy just six of them.
"The divesture of the AISR [aerial ISR] legacy fleet is ongoing and will continue throughout 2025," a spokesperson for the Army’s Program Executive Office for Aviation (PEO-A) confirmed to TWZ. "The RC-12X, MC-12, and EO-5 fleets will be divested by the end of 2025. The divestment of the legacy AISR fleet has been ongoing since 2022."
The RC-12X, also known as the Guardrail Common Sensor (GRCS), is a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air-based ISR aircraft equipped with a signals intelligence (SIGINT) package and a ventral sensor turret with electro-optical and infrared full-motion video cameras. The RC-12X is the latest in a line of Guardrail variants with steadily improving capabilities, the first of which entered service in the 1970s and were staples during the Cold War. Prior to 2022, the Army had 14 GRCS aircraft, plus five RC-12X(T) pilot trainers with no sensors fitted.
Aircraft in the graphic is not an RC-12 but rather a Shorts-360 deployed to Iraq in 2009 to conduct 'persistent surveillance' in support of the counter-IED mission.
#3
Really nice looking aircraft. And Dear Army, why is there an apparent gap between now and what works, and the when of this aircraft's jet replacement? The tyranny of "the schedule"? Do better, please.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/05/2025 5:59 Comments ||
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#4
Possibly less expensive to contract it out or use drones.
#5
...We see a GUARDRAIL about once every two weeks, shooting touch-and-goes at Columbia Regional. It's fun watching people's faces when I tell them what it can do. (low, mildly evil chuckle).
#6
Reserve Crazy Hawk C-12's used to fly out of Orlando. Kept an eye on Cuba when tasked, sometimes when not tasked. Mostly Viet vet pilots and backseaters.
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.
...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
