Author: AW1Ed

It seems Intel sources fear terrorists can now make bombs as small as computer batteries, resulting in the ban on carry-on electronics at selected foreign airports.

“Intelligence sources say that the ban on carry-on electronics aboard U.S.-bound flights from 10 airports in North Africa and the Middle East was the result of information seized during a U.S. raid on Al Qaeda in Yemen in January. The United Kingdom joined the U.S. ban Tuesday.

Information from the raid shows al Qaeda’s successful development of compact, battery bombs that fit inside laptops or other devices believed to be strong enough to bring down an aircraft, the sources said. The battery bombs would need to be manually triggered, a source explained, which is why the electronics ban is only for the aircraft cabin not checked luggage.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security publicly cited two attacks on flights in the last two years, the downing of a Russian jet over the Egyptian Sinai in October 2015 and an attempt that nearly succeeded in bringing down a jet that had taken off from Mogadishu, Somalia last year and made an emergency landing after an explosion ripped open its cabin. The insurgent group Al-Shababb claimed credit for getting a laptop onboard the flight that had been rigged as a bomb.

“Since they weren’t high enough, the explosion wasn’t catastrophic to the plane and they were able to land,” one source told The Daily Beast. “The bomber got sucked out of the hole, but it was proof of concept.”

The chief bomb maker for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Ibrahim al-Asiri, has been working on packing even smaller devices.”

Be a real shame if a JDAM parked itself on Ibrhim’s passenger seat, while he was driving.

More here.

Bowe’s lawyers are at it again, filing yet another appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces on the issue of President Trump’s undue command influence. The previous appeals were denied by lower courts because his remarks were made as a private citizen.

“Attorneys for accused Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl took their third shot Thursday at getting his case tossed, once again arguing that President Trump blew their client’s chance of a fair trial when he called the sergeant and former Taliban captive “a dirty, rotten traitor.”

In a 50-page appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, Bergdahl’s legal team argued that the “unprecedented circumstances” of then-candidate Trump calling Bergdahl a traitor and suggesting he should be executed create an “unlawful command influence.”

The term refers to a military legal concept in which someone in authority attempts to influence military judicial proceedings.”

Seems to me they’re grasping at straws, and this is the only argument the lawyers can make. Because Trump, “by not repudiating his earlier statements, President Trump brought them with him”  And “They cannot be scrubbed from the record as if he had simply put on a clean shirt for the Inauguration,” Bergdahl’s team wrote.

Pretty weak. Perhaps if Bowe had not deserted his post and sought out the enemy during a time of conflict, endangering his fellow troops, none of this would be occurring. My personal feelings aside, Bowe is most likely to receive a Dishonorable Discharge, reduction in to rate to E-1, and do some hard time. Despite the efforts of his lawyers.

My how times have changed. While searching for 250,000-year-old flint tools, Israeli archaeologists have discovered a a more modern find — century-old liquor bottles that belonged to British soldiers in World War I.  Of course, they were empty.

“Excavation director Ron Toueg says uniform buttons, belt buckles and riding equipment were found near the city of Ramle in addition to the bottles of gin, whiskey and wine. He said it offered a glimpse into “the everyday life and leisure of the soldiers.”

The items appear to have belonged to members of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force commanded by General Edmund Allenby.”

Back in the ancient days of Gulf War, Round I, I can neither confirm nor deny the traffic of contraband 1.75 liter jugs of vodka arriving via Navy P-3C Orion in what was termed, The Sensor One Station Duty Free Locker. Seems I was the Sensor One.

Zum Wohl!

http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2017/03/22/israeli-archeologists-uncork-liquor-bottles-abandoned-british-wwi-troops/

SRV was an extraordinary guitar talent, known for his bluesy rock and roll. I came across this in my wanderings around the interwebs, and thought I’d share. Enough of this, watch and listen to a master.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSLc0tCnOrM

President Trump’s appointment to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Scott Pruitt may be many things, but a believer in man caused global warming is not one of them.

‘Asked his views on the role of carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas produced by burning fossil fuels, in increasing global warming, Mr. Pruitt said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that “I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so, no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.”’

The quote is from The New York Times, so the phrase “…heat-trapping gas produced by burning fossil fuels, in increasing global warming…” is a bit disingenuous, if unsurprising.

Also to the good, the EPA’s head of Environmental Justice just resigned. What, you didn’t know the EPA has a department, funded by tax dollars, that deals in environmental justice issues? Me neither. It was headed by a fellow named Mustafa Ali, who has resigned in response to upcoming EPA budget cuts, cuts on the order of 20% of the 15,000 current staff, and ¼ of it’s budget of $8 billion. I would say Mustafa saw the writing on the wall, and quit before they fired him.

Here’s a link to a remarkably unhelpful page about EJ 2020:

https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/about-ej-2020#about

I’ll save you the pain. By 2020, the Environmental Justice Department of the EPA will:

• Improve on-the-ground results for overburdened communities through reduced impacts and enhanced benefits
• Institutionalize environmental justice integration in EPA decision-making
• Build robust partnerships with states, tribes and local governments
• Strengthen our ability to take action on environmental justice and cumulative impacts
• Better address complex national environmental justice issues.

Bill Shakespeare would call this Sound and Fury, but signifying nothing. And he’d be right. I call the budget  cuts a pretty good start.

Read more at:

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/11/delingpole-pruitt-says-no-co2-social-justice-epa/

The Trump administration will propose cuts to foreign aid, according to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director Mick Mulvaney. The money saved will be spent here.

“By the 16th of March, we’ll be able to roll out the full spending budget,” Mulvaney told Fox News.

“We are going to propose to reduce foreign aid and we are going to propose to spend that money here,” he added, explaining that the reductions will be “fairly dramatic.”

“The overriding message is fairly straightforward, which is, less money spent on folks overseas — more money spent on folks back home,” he said.

Earlier this week, the White House proposed cutting the budgets of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development by 37 percent in an effort to significantly increase defense expenditures.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-proposes-cutting-state-department-budget-by-one-third-1488306999

The usual suspects are, of course, vehemently opposed. Can’t say I’m too impressed at the outrage, considering the sources. US Agency for International Development? Shut it down.

JMHO, YMMV.