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What Should America Do in Yemen?
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by Harold Hutchison  
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Marines’ F-35B Joint Strike Fighter Conducts
First-Ever Combat Mission with Strike in Afghanistan
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{news.usni.org} ~ The Marine Corps’ F-35B Joint Strike Fighter has conducted its first-ever combat strike... completing a mission in Afghanistan today in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. The jets “conducted an air strike in support of ground clearance operations, and the strike was deemed successful by the ground force commander,” according to a U.S. Marine Corps news release. U.S. Naval Forces Central Command confirmed to USNI News that the F-35Bs typically fly in pairs. “The F-35B is a significant enhancement in theater amphibious and air warfighting capability, operational flexibility, and tactical supremacy,” Vice Adm. Scott Stearney, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said in the release. “As part of the Essex Amphibious Ready Group, this platform supports operations on the ground from international waters, all while enabling maritime superiority that enhances stability and security.”...    https://news.usni.org/2018/09/27/36885?utm_source=USNI+News&utm_campaign=1edf2d60c9-USNI_NEWS_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0dd4a1450b-1edf2d60c9-231491269&mc_cid=1edf2d60c9&mc_eid=3999f18767 
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Iranian Tankers Hide Locations Ahead of Impending Sanctions
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by David Adesnik
{defenddemocracy.org} ~ The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) requires the continual operation of an Automatic Identification System (AIS) on all ships... that undertake international voyages and have a volume greater than 300 gross tons. Both Iran and the U.S. are parties to SOLAS, along with 162 other states, yet Iranian oil tankers have begun to mask their location for several days at a time by turning off their AIS transponders. This is likely a dry run for the evasion of U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, which will take effect on November 4. Tehran previously directed the captains in its tanker fleet to switch off their transponders to frustrate enforcement of the U.S. and European oil sanctions that were in effect prior to the conclusion of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. However, there are substantial risks associated with concealing the position of a ship from other vessels. In January of this year, the Iranian tanker Sanchi burned and sank in the East China Sea after colliding with a freight ship, killing all 32 members of the tanker’s crew. The tanker had not broadcast an AIS signal for more than 9 hours prior to the collision. Bloomberg reports that ten Iranian-owned tankers recently failed to broadcast their location for several days. The Tanker Trackers analysis group employed satellite imagery to show that two of the ten invisible tankers remained, as of late Monday, at their previously broadcast location, near the main Iranian export terminal at Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. However, the imagery shows that a third tanker has departed...
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Germany: Plot to attack Israel with chemical weapons uncovered
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by David Rosenberg
{israelnationalnews.com} ~ A Syrian national recently arrested in Germany was part of an apparent plot to attack Israeli targets with chemical weapons... the German Bild newspaper reported. Last Thursday, Germany’s special police unit, the SEK, arrested a 21-year-old Syrian man in Berlin. At the time, police said the suspect was wanted in connection with an April 14th assault in the German capital.The suspect allegedly assaulted a man he claimed owed him 4,000 Euros, kicking the victim in the head and holding a knife to his throat while demanding the money. On Thursday night, however, it was revealed that the suspect was also wanted due to his alleged terrorist ties, and that he had been behind a plot to attack Israeli targets with chemical weapons. Local police acknowledged that the suspect had been taken into custody last week, without confirming details regarding the alleged terror plot. A police spokesperson did say that the suspect was “very dangerous”, and that he was under investigation for a matter unrelated to the assault charges stemming from the April 14th incident...  https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/252531
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Welcome to Sanctuary Sweden!
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{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ Are you in a European country illegally, flouting your deportation order and committing arson? No problem... If the country to which you are to be returned might conceivably harm you, instead you are welcome to stay in Sweden, commit more crimes and harm Swedes. A Swedish Court of Appeal recently overturned the deportation ruling against one of three convicted perpetrators of an arson attack against the synagogue of Gothenburg in December 2017, on the grounds that it would be in contravention of his "fundamental human rights". The 22-year old Arab man from Gaza, known as Feras, was in Sweden illegally when he committed the attack. His asylum request had been rejected by the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket); he had apparently been told to leave the country, but he did not. For reasons that are unclear, he was not held for deportation, but still walking around freely in Sweden. Feras used that freedom to participate in an attack on the Gothenburg synagogue. Approximately 10-15 other young men, of whom only three were charged, joined him. It seems that while young Jews were gathered for a party in an adjacent building, Feras and his friends threw burning objects at cars parked inside the synagogue fence. No one was hurt and the fires were quickly extinguished by rain, leaving only marginal material damage. The court therefore refused to categorize the crime as attempted murder, as the prosecution had requested. Both the lower court and the Court of Appeal did find, however, that the arson attack constituted an anti-Semitic hate crime...
7.5 magnitude earthquake in
Indonesia triggers tsunami, officials say
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by Ryan Gaydos  
{foxnews.com} ~ A powerful magnitude 7.5 earthquake in Indonesia triggered a tsunami and swept houses away in two cities Friday... the country’s disaster agency said. The earthquake struck the central Sulawesi region around 6 p.m. and was centered at a depth of 6 miles about 35 miles northeast of Donggala, the U.S. Geological Survey said. A tsunami was reported to have hit the cities of Palu and Donggala, the Indonesia disaster agency said.The extent of the damage and the number of injuries weren’t immediately clear, but families were reported missing, officials said. “Many houses have collapsed,” an official with the disaster agency told the Associated Press.
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“It happened while we still have difficulties in collecting data from nine villages affected by the first quake,” the official said. “People ran out in panic.” Sutopo Purow Nugroho, a National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman, said communications with the earthquake-stricken region were disrupted. “Our early estimation, based on experience, is that it caused widespread damage, beginning from Palu northward to Donggala,” he told MetroTV...
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What Should America Do in Yemen?
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by Harold Hutchison:  The Yemeni civil war is a humanitarian disaster — one that is completely man-made. Let’s stipulate that fact up front. It’s really a proxy war, with one side consisting of Gulf States like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates backing the Yemeni government, and the other being Iran, which backs Houthi rebels.

             America is also involved in this conflict. We’re supporting the Saudis with aerial refueling, and we’re also selling them precision-guided weapons. That’s because Yemen is on one side of the Bab el Mandab, a relatively narrow strait that connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. This is what is known as a chokepoint. Ships have to pass through to get to that destination — or accept a longer journey around Africa. We all know that time is money.
               In essence, that location is a perfect place to set up an ambush, either with planes, missile-equipped ships, or shore-based missiles. Having this in the hands of Iranian stooges is bad news. Especially when those stooges took shots at the guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG 87) in October 2016. Well, back then, the U.S. responded very ineffectively. A few Tomahawks fired immediately is understandable. But to wait days to send less than half a dozen Tomahawks looked pretty weak.
               Well, the Saudi-led coalition (with American support) has been making progress against the Iranian stooges. As in all wars, there are civilian casualties. Recently, there was an effort by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) to cut off the provision of weapons. The amendment was blocked, but disturbingly for those who seek to keep Iran from gaining new bases from which to support terrorism, Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Todd Young of Indiana have supported this effort.
               Nobody wants civilian casualties. But at the same time, giving Iran any sort of foothold in Yemen — or anywhere else — is not a good idea. Just look at Lebanon and Syria to see what happens when Iran does get that foothold. But there’s also a bit of reason to work hard against the Houthis as well. Remember, they took multiple shots at an American ship. Furthermore, the Bab el Mandab is crucial — it offers a back door maritime route to Israel that bypasses the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal.
               The entire American involvement in Yemen is somewhat dubious legally. Yes, al-Qaida has an affiliate called al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula that operates out of Yemen. That group, incidentally, was behind the Fort Hood and underwear-bomb terrorist attacks of 2009. This means the 2001 authorization for the use of military force applies — but it is a very huge reach to apply operations against the Houthi.
               But the United States is not in active combat — the involvement is literally refueling Saudi planes. There was a similar support operation for the French in Mali earlier this decade, also against an al-Qaida affiliate. American forces aren’t fighting, but they are enabling action against bad guys.
               Exactly what Congress should do in these situations is something worth figuring out. Perhaps it is too easy to get involved in conflicts in this manner, but it’s also worth noting that congressional micromanagement doesn’t make things better.

~The Patriot Post  

https://patriotpost.us/articles/58517?mailing_id=3762&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3762&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

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