Sunday, December 20, 2015
Viper Pilots Doing The 10 Month F-16 B Course
Business Insider/Aviationist: 10 months F-16 pilot training in one stunning video
This is an interesting +11 minutes video filmed by pilots attending the F-16 B Course with the 309th Fighting Squadron atLuke Air Force Base, near Tucson, in Arizona.
Shot with GoPro cameras, the clip will bring you aboard the Viper during air combat maneuvering, aerial refueling, night flying, formation flying, live firing at the range and much more.
Enjoy.
Afghan Deputy Governor: Helmand Province on the Verge Of Falling To The Taliban
Afghanistan's Helmand province could fall to the Taliban after months of heavy fighting, with 90 members of the security forces killed over the past two days, the deputy governor of the volatile southern province warned on Sunday.
Mohammad Jan Rasulyar said unless President Ashraf Ghani took urgent action, the province, a centre of opium production and a Taliban heartland that British and American troops struggled to control for years, would be lost.
"Your Excellency, Helmand is standing on the brink and there is a serious need for you to come," he wrote on Facebook.
The highly unusual public plea from a serving official painted a picture strikingly similar to the situation that led up to the fall of the northern city of Kunduz in late September, when Taliban fighters seized and held on to for several days before government troops regained control.
Update #1: Afghan Official Uses Social Media to Ask President for Help -- AP
Update #2: Afghan official makes plea to president via Facebook (BBC)
WNU Editor: The takeover of the Afghan city Kunduz by the Taliban for a few days two months ago was a disaster for the Afghan government and the military. The fall of Helmand province would be many magnitudes worst than that.
Suspected Bomb Found On Air France Jet Results In An Emergency Landing in Kenya
Bloomberg: Air France Jet Makes Emergency Landing in Kenya on Bomb Fear
* Passenger finds `explosive device' in restroom on Paris Flight
* Paris TV channel says suspicious package was fake device
An Air France flight from the resort island of Mauritius to Paris made an emergency landing in Mombasa after a passenger discovered what appeared to be a bomb, Kenyan security officials said.
Several passengers were hurt scrambling off the plane when it landed on Sunday, police spokesman Charles Owino said by phone in Nairobi. “The plane made the call to Kenyan airspace 20 minutes after taking off from Mauritius at around 9 p.m. It safely landed at Moi International airport at 00:37.” The flight had 459 passengers and 14 crew.
A passenger on Flight 463 found what appeared to be explosive device with a timer in the plane’s toilet. Bomb experts removed the suspicious item and took it for analysis, Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka said from Nairobi. There was no information whether it was “a real device or a decoy.”
Update: Kenya says investigating device that caused Air France flight to make emergency landing (Reuters)
WNU Editor: Everyone is nervous.
Is Donald Trump The Islamic State's Best Recruiter?
Daily Mail: 'He is becoming ISIS' best recruiter': Hillary Clinton blasts Donald Trump for demonizing Muslims and using 'bluster and bigotry to inflame people'
* Democrats hit Republican frontrunner Mr Trump in New Hampshire debate
* Mrs Clinton claimed he's being used in ISIS propaganda to recruit fighters
* Also suggested Mr Trump is hurting the US chances of building coalition
Hillary Clinton ripped into Donald Trump at a Democratic presidential candidates' debate last night over his plan to ban Muslim immigrants.
'He is becoming ISIS's best recruiter,' she claimed. 'They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.'
Mrs Clinton said that Americans need to work more closely with the Muslim community in their country because 'they will be our early warning signal' against possible terrorist attacks.
Update: The trouble with verifying Clinton’s claim on Trump as ISIS propaganda (Ginger Gibson, Reuters)
WNU Editor: The Islamic State has had no trouble gaining recruits without the aid of Donald Trump for a very long time .... I doubt that they need him to recruit more. But for me .... the big news from yesterday's debate was this .... Clinton backs Obama's Islamic State strategy in Democratic debate (Reuters)
The U.S. Plan To Conquer Canada
Scott Mbley, War On The Rocks: The U.S. Navy's Secret, 11-Page Plan To Conquer Canada
The U.S. Navy schemed to invade Canada during the summer of 1887. This fact may surprise readers familiar with the long history of amicable relations between the United States and its northern neighbor. Even in 1887, the United States and the British Empire (which included Canada) were on generally agreeable terms. Nevertheless, Lt. j.g. Charles C. Rogers, USN, observing that “the frontier of Canada is assailable at all points,” imagined a joint Army–Navy campaign to seize Canada’s strategic heartland. “The distribution of her population, and the situation of her most important cities and strategical points,” he posited, “suggest three invading armies from the United States.”
WNU Editor: The funny thing about the U.S. and Canada is that most of the world wants to emigrate to the the U.S. and be American citizens .... but in Canada .... most people (99%) prefer to be Canadians rather than Americans. I know in my case .... my nationality may be Russian, but I am proud to be a Canadian, and my loyalties now reside with this country .... except when it comes to hockey between Canada and Russia. :)
A Look At The Gadgets That U.S. Agencies Use To Spy And Track Cellphones
Yesterday, The Intercept published an extensive catalog detailing the innumerable gadgets and technologies used by the military, law enforcement authorities, and U.S. governmental agencies like the NSA to track down and spy on targeted users via their cellphones.
The entire product listing is eye-opening, but given how extensive it is (53 items in total), we’ve compiled a list of some of the scariest and more worrisome devices on the list. Note: when compiling this list, we didn’t include tracking devices and technologies typically affixed to UAVs. Instead, we opted to focus on devices that enable local law enforcement authorities to conduct surveillance, listen in on phone calls, track user location, jam cellphones, obtain deleted text messages, and even zap up data from seized laptops or smartphones.
WNU Editor: These gadgets are not cheap!!!! The catalogue is here.
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