Sat/Noon ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Islamic State readies for fall of 'caliphate'
by Joby Warrick & Souad Mekhennet
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 Who Is More Obstructionist? 
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"It is a disgrace that my full Cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country," Donald Trump tweeted earlier this month. "Obstruction by Democrats!" Is this typical Trumpian hyperbole, or are Democrats really blocking his nominees? Well, a month after his inauguration, there are still several cabinet picks awaiting confirmation. And by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's own admission, Democrats are "using everything we can to stop these awful nominees."
          Remember in 2014 when the Demo Congressional Campaign was complaining, "No president in U.S. history has faced the level of obstruction that Barack liar-nObama has"? Good times. Here's a rundown of confirmation times compared to those of the previous cabinet:
  State: Rex Tillerson (13 days) vs. liar-Hillary Clinton (2 days)
  Treasury: Steve Mnuchin (25 days) vs. Timothy Geithner (7 days)
  Justice: Jeff Sessions (20 days) vs. Eric Holder (14 days)
  Education: Betsy DeVos (19 days) vs. Arne Duncan (1 day)
  Veterans Affairs: David Shulkin (25 days) vs. Eric Shinseki (1 day)
  HUD: Ben Carson (still waiting) vs. Shaun Donovan (3 days)
  Energy: Rick Perry (still waiting) vs. Steven Chu (1 day)
  Agriculture: Sonny Perdue (still waiting) vs. Tom Vilsack (1 day)
  Interior: Ryan Zinke (still waiting) vs. Ken Salazar (1 day)
          Mark Alexander called Trump's nominees even better than Ronald Reagan's, and it's past time to get them confirmed. 
~The Patriot Post
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Iran's Bluster Is Just Fear of Trump --
and Revolution
by DR. MICHAEL LEDEEN
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{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ They're chanting "Death to America" in Tehran again, on the anniversary of the Iranian revolution of 1979. And they are stomping on big posters of The Donald... Iranian leaders are warning the United States that tough talk and threats are pointless; that Iran is so powerful they will pursue their revolutionary mission no matter what we do or say, that their efforts are blessed by Allah. But it's all bluster -- and the Iranian people know it. The rent-a-crowds, which have a high proportion of military men, are not really prepared to directly challenge the United States. The marches, chants, and posters are not so much for our consumption as for that of their own citizens, most of whom are disgusted with the failed regime and yearn for a return to the Western world. The regime fears that, sooner or later, the tens of millions who detest Khamenei, Rouhani, et al., will flood the streets as they recently did on the occasion of the funeral of Hashemi Rafsanjani, chanting anti-regime and anti-Russian slogans...  http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/irans-bluster-is-just-fear-of-trump-and-revolution?f=must_reads
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Vetting Immigrants and Refugees
by DR. LAINA FARHAT-HOLZMAN
{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ Our country has every right to vet the flood of immigrants trying to come to this land. But one size does not fit all. This is why a blanket Muslim ban is without nuance, to say the least!... President Trump is not going about this process with subtlety, unlike our current vetting process, one that is the result of continued refining. It does make sense to sort through the refugees, first admitting those least likely to be a danger to us, and then vetting the rest. The Trump administration has recognized that refugees fleeing religious persecution should be admitted first. This is our tradition as a correction over our earlier rejection of Jewish immigrants fleeing Nazi Germany. The excuse then was that Nazis could slip in among the Jews. This unlikely excuse hid the real reason: anti-Semitism. The consequences of that vetting shamed us. If refugees are fleeing because they are persecuted for their religion in their home country, the vetting should include all those persecuted, not just one favored group. The lack of subtlety of President Trump's changes makes him favor Christians in the Middle East and South Asia...
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How Radical Islam Penetrated
The U.S. House of Representatives
by George Rasley
{conservativehq.com} ~ Our friend Luke Rosiak, Investigative Reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation, should receive a Pulitzer Prize for his investigative reporting of the vast national security breach of the House of Representatives... perpetrated by five Pakistani Muslims who were employed as information technology staff by dozens of House Democrats. In his latest report on a story that, we might add, has been completely ignored by the establishment media Rosiak documents how the five Pakistanis have been connected to the Iranian-backed terror organization Hezbollah, that has killed hundreds of Americans and Israelis. Brothers Imran, Abid and Jamal Awan, as well as their wives Natalia Sova and Hina Alvi, were all on the congressional payroll serving as IT administrators for House Democrats... http://www.conservativehq.com/node/25153
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U.S. Military Releases
Clip of Fiery Missile Interception
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{conservativetribune.com} ~ “The crew of the John Paul Jones detected and tracked the target missile with its onboard radar using the Aegis Baseline 9.C2 weapon system,” the report continued...Upon acquiring and tracking the target, the ship launched an SM-3 Block IIA guided missile, which intercepted the target.” The successful test was a massive step in the right direction in terms of dealing with the threat that is an increasingly-aggressive Iran, and Missile Defense Agency director Vice Admiral Jim Syring is elated. “Today’s test demonstrates a critical milestone in the cooperative development of the SM-3 Block IIA missile,” he said in a statement. “The missile, developed jointly by a Japanese and U.S. government and industry team, is vitally important to both our nations and will ultimately improve our ability to defend against increasing ballistic missile threats around the world.”...  http://conservativetribune.com/iran-flaunts-new-missiles-so-u-s/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=C50ConservativeBrief&utm_content
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liar-Hillary Clinton Identified
as ‘Insider Threat’ by U.S. Army!
by Jim Kouri
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{ipatriot.com} ~ Arguably the nation’s most prolific and successful non-government organization that investigates and exposes government and political corruption on Tuesday released what amounts to another stain on the reputations... of former Democratic presidential candidate liar-Hillary Rodham Clinton and General David Petraeus (U.S. Army Ret.). Judicial Watch released a United States Department of the Army OpSec (Operational Security) PowerPoint presentation that depicts liar-Hillary Clinton and others as examples of “insider threats.” The graphic was part of a presentation on the current cybersecurity threats and solutions to enemy infiltration of government cyber assets. Those included with liar-Clinton and Petraeus are terrorist and former U.S. Army Major Nidal Hassan; military-intelligence leaker Bradley Manning (a/k/a Chelsea Manning); intelligence “hijacker” Edward Snowden; and the Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis...  http://ipatriot.com/hillary-clinton-identified-insider-threat-u-s-army/
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Islamic State readies for fall of 'caliphate'
by Joby Warrick & Souad Mekhennet
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{jewishworldreview.com} ~ Late last month, a pair of Islamic State fighters in desert camouflage climbed to the top of a river bluff in northern Iraq to demonstrate an important new weapon: a small drone, about six feet wide with swept wings and a small bomb tucked in its fuselage.

The two men launched the slender machine and took videos from a second, smaller drone that shadowed its movements. The aircraft glided over the besieged city of Mosul, swooped close to an Iraqi army outpost and dropped its bomb, scattering Iraqi troops with a small blast that left one figure sprawled on the ground, apparently dead or wounded.

The incident was among dozens in recent weeks in a rapidly accelerating campaign of armed drone strikes by the Islamic State in northern Iraq. The terrorist group last month formally announced the establishment of a new "Unmanned Aircraft of the Mujahideen" unit, a fleet of modified drones equipped with bombs, and claimed that its drones had killed or wounded 39 Iraqi soldiers in a single week.

"A new source of horror for the apostates!" the group's official al-Naba newsletter declared.

While the casualty claim is almost certainly exaggerated, U.S. officials confirm that the terrorist group appears to have crossed a threshold with its use of unmanned aircraft. Two years after the Islamic State first used commercially purchased drones to conduct surveillance, the militants are showing a growing ambition to use the technology to kill enemies, U.S. officials and terrorism experts say.

The threat to troops is serious enough to prompt U.S. and Iraqi commanders to issue warnings to soldiers near the front lines. But a far bigger worry, U.S. officials say, is the potential for future attacks against civilians. Islamic militants have long discussed the possibility of using drones as remote-control missiles that can deliver explosives or even unconventional weapons such as deadly nerve agents. In recent weeks, the notion of terrorist drones has moved a step closer to reality, terrorism experts say.

"They're now showing that these devices can be effective on the battlefield," said Steven Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a Washington nonprofit that analyzed dozens of incidents for a new report on Islamic militant groups' use of drones. "With the way these groups use social media, my worry is that they're also putting the idea into people's heads that this is something you can now do."

To be sure, the lightweight, relatively inexpensive drones in the jihadists' fleet are nowhere close to matching the sophistication and lethal power of the Predators and Reapers used by the U.S. military. The drones displayed by the Islamic State are too small to carry heavy bombs and rockets, and they lack the guidance systems used by U.S. pilots to steer missiles toward their targets. Still, even a small bomb, such as the three-pound mortar shells typically used against Iraqi government troops, can have an effective blast radius of 30 to 45 feet, enough to kill or injure dozens of people if dropped in a crowded area.

Pentagon officials say the drones have scant military significance and will not affect the Iraqi government's timetable for recapturing Mosul, the northern Iraqi city that fell to the Islamic State in 2014.

"Although dangerous, and effective as a propaganda tactic, it has limited operational effect on the battlefield and will not change the outcome," Air Force Col. John L. Dorrian, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition opposing the Islamic State, said at a press briefing last week.

But a second Pentagon official acknowledged that coalition troops had been forced to take countermeasures against drones - steps that include early-detection systems and electronic jamming - while also stepping up the search for factories and staging areas where the aircraft are being readied for use on the battlefield.

"The coalition takes this threat seriously," said the official, who insisted on anonymity in discussing the military's response to the new threat.

SMALL START, BIG AMBITIONS

As recently as a decade ago, drones were the province of a few advanced industrialized countries, especially the United States, the pioneer and lead practitioner in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to target and kill suspected terrorists overseas. But today, dozens of countries, including Israel, China and Iran, manufacture and operate military-grade UAVs.

At the same time, a rapidly growing commercial drone industry has made the technology available to private consumers almost anywhere in the world. Online shoppers can pick from hundreds of models, from sparrow-sized "nano" drones that can be controlled from a smartphone to larger aircraft that cost thousands of dollars and can carry small payloads.

The sudden availability of cheap, remote-controlled flying machines did not escape the notice of terrorists groups. The Islamic State is only the latest in a long line of militant organizations that have acquired drones and attempted to modify them for their own purposes. The Iranian-backed group Hezbollah has repeatedly used drones to probe Israel's air defenses, and the group released video last summer that appeared to show a drone dropping Chinese-made bomblets on Syrian rebels.

Al-Qaida operatives in Pakistan commissioned an avionics engineer to build small attack drones and conducted at least one successful test flight before the program was discovered by police in 2013.

There have also been plots involving drones by lone-wolf actors in the United States. In 2011, a physics graduate and model hobbyist from Massachusetts was accused of planning to launch small drones with bombs against the Pentagon and the Capitol, according to an FBI affidavit.

The Islamic State's efforts so far have been comparatively crude. Beginning in August 2014, the terrorist group began using drones to gather battlefield intelligence and to document the effects of suicide bombings, often broadcasting the videos online to bolster morale, according to the report by MEMRI. Occasionally the group would strap an explosive onto a small drone and try to land it near a military outpost, as happened in October when a booby-trapped toy aircraft exploded as Kurdish fighters were examining it near the northern city of Irbil.

Terrorist leaders last year put out appeals for scientists and engineers to travel to Iraq and Syria to work on weapons programs, including drones. In March, a group of pro-Islamic State technicians used the social-media platform Telegram to discuss how common engine parts might be adapted for use in missiles or in military-style attack drones, according to transcript of the discussion provided by MEMRI.

"What does success look like?" asked one of the participants, using a nickname but describing himself as an American with a microelectronics background. "Are we talking about an actual guided missile or a drone which can drop payload?"

COMING SOON: 'A LOT MORE SURPRISES'

At least a few technical experts appear to have responded to the call. When government troops recaptured the Iraqi provincial capital of Ramadi last year, they discovered a small workshop where workers were attempting to manufacture drone parts from scratch. Photographs from inside the facility show homemade wings and fuselage parts as well as electronics, camera controllers and gyro sensors used to control flight, according to an analysis by Conflict Armament Research, a London-based nonprofit that investigates weapons trafficking.

Similar factories built to modify commercial UAVs have been found in liberated parts of Mosul in the past few weeks, all pointing to an "increasing use by ISIS of weaponized drones," said James Bevan, Conflict Armament Research's executive director, using an acronym for the Islamic State.

Bevan's analysts found that the group initially favored small helicopter-like drones with four rotors and sufficient heft to carry a small bomb - usually a mortar shell or similar device with stabilizing fins and a point-detonating fuse built to explode on impact. But some of the more recent attacks involved fixed-wing drones of uncertain origin, U.S. officials said.

When Iraqi troops captured drone facilities in Mosul earlier this year, they discovered scores of documents detailing an elaborate procurement system for purchasing the aircraft and parts, as well as extensive procedures for altering and testing the equipment. The records "speak to the group's efforts to secure, modify and enhance the range and performance of its drones," said a report by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, N.Y., which published some of the documents.

When the siege of Mosul began in the fall, Islamic State fighters stepped up their use of small surveillance drones to gather intelligence and showcase their efforts to defend the city, producing mini-documentaries with aerial footage of successful suicide attacks on Iraqi troops.

The shift to weaponized drone attacks began late last year and was ramping up dramatically at the time of the group's formal announcement of the program Jan. 24.

"The army of the Islamic State has revealed its use of the unmanned aircraft weapon for the first time," the group's al-Naba newsletter said. It described an "aerial bombardment" of Iraqi forces around Mosul and said "most of the hits were precise, and inflicted losses in the ranks of the apostates."

Since then, the group's social-media pages have carried dozens of videos showing strikes using small bombs and rockets. Not all the bombs find their targets, but the drone attacks have become a daily threat for residents in some parts of liberated eastern Mosul, Iraqi news accounts show.

Iraqi troops also have been forced to scan the skies for tiny aircraft and to take cover when they appear. Videos released by the Islamic State show multiple instances in which bombs were dropped close enough to Iraqi troop positions to cause injuries. Some of the footage appears to show wounded figures on the ground following the attacks, although there has been no official confirmation from Iraq of the terrorists' claim of dozens killed and wounded.

Regardless of the actual numbers, the campaign appears to have raised the spirits of some of the group's supporters. The Jan. 24 announcement triggered euphoric discussions on social-media platforms used by Islamic militant groups, as well as predictions that armed drones would soon be deployed elsewhere. One February 3 post on the Telegram messaging site called the early attacks "a drop in the sea."

"The coming days will reveal a lot more, Allah permitting," the post said, according to a translation provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, a private company that monitors jihadist websites. "After the planes, there are still a lot more surprises." 

 
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