U.S. May Send 15,000 Troops To Southern Border

Trump says border troops could hit 15K, surprising Pentagon

President Donald Trump says the number of military troops deployed to the U.S.-Mexican border could reach 15,000 — roughly double the number the Pentagon said it currently plans for a mission whose dimensions are shifting daily.

The Pentagon says "more than 7,000" troops were being sent to the southwest border to support the Customs and Border Protection agents. Officials said that number could reach a maximum of about 8,000 under present plans.

The troop numbers have been changing at a dizzying pace, with Trump drawing a hard line on immigration in the lead-up to the midterm elections.

Just last week officials were indicating that about 800 to 1,000 might be sent. On Monday, officials announced that about 5,200 were being deployed. The next day, the Air Force general running the operation said more than the initially announced total were going, and he pointedly rejected a news report that it could reach 14,000, saying that was "not consistent with what's actually being planned."

Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, the commander of U.S. Northern Command, told reporters the number would exceed the initial contingent of 5,200, but he offered no estimate of the eventual total.

Just 24 hours later, Trump thrust new uncertainty into the picture, catching the Pentagon by surprise.

"As far as the caravan is concerned, our military is out," Trump said. "We have about 5,800. We'll go up to anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 military personnel on top of Border Patrol, ICE and everybody else at the border."

Later Wednesday, Trump told ABC News, "We have to have a wall of people."

His comments were the latest twist in a story that has pushed the Pentagon unhappily into the political space, prompting questions about whether Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was allowing the military to be leveraged as a political stunt.

"We don't do stunts," Mattis said Wednesday.

Trump has insisted the media is underestimating the caravans. "You have caravans coming up that look a lot larger than it's reported actually. I'm pretty good at estimating crowd size. And I'll tell you they look a lot bigger than people would think," he told ABC.

He has also promised to end so-called catch-and-release policies by erecting tent cities to hold those crossing illegally. And this week he is asserting he could act by executive order to unilaterally end birthright citizenship for the children of non-U.S. citizens.

A deployment of 15,000 would bring the military commitment on the border to roughly the same level as in war-torn Afghanistan. And it would more than double the number of people thought to be in the caravans.

Russian Fighter Jets In U.K. Airspace Intercepted By Royal Air Force

UK jets intercept suspected Russian fighter jets, report says

Russian fighter jets reportedly flew close to foreign territory again – this time in the United Kingdom.

The suspected Russian aircraft were spotted near U.K. airspace, prompting Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon fighter jets to deploy and intercept them, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing a British Ministry of Defense statement.

“Typhoon fighters … were scrambled today as a precautionary measure against a potential incursion into UK area of interest by one or more unidentified aircraft,” the Ministry of Defense (MOD) said.

https://t.co/xbk5L70UgN

— MSN UK (@msnuk) November 1, 2018

The MOD determined that the incident did not pose a threat to the U.K. or its airspace.

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The incident is not out of the ordinary, as Russian aircraft frequently pass near U.K. territory. The RAF constantly monitors the presence of foreign aircraft near their airspace and have intercepted Russian aircraft in the past – even recently.

In September, Russian Blackjack long-range nuclear bombers were intercepted by two RAF jets near the coast of Newcastle as they traveled through international airspace while ignoring radio calls, Fox News reported at the time.

“The Russian Blackjacks… were not talking to air traffic control, making them a hazard to all other aviation,” the RAF said in a statement.

UK fighter jets intercept Russian bombers over North Sea https://t.co/fnJcZUMyXw

— CNN International (@cnni_headlines) September 22, 2018

The incident was the third intercept of Russian bombers in a month.

Near the coast of Alaska, the U.S. Air Force intercepted Russian TU-95 Bear bombers on two occasions in September. They were intercepted west of Alaska and escorted by two U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter jets.

The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace, but their proximity to U.S. territory alerted U.S. forces, who continuously monitor the airspace.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad: 'March Of Return' To Continue Until Gaza Siege Lifted

Hamas, Islamic Jihad say 'March of Return' to continue until Gaza siege lifted

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The Times of Israel is liveblogging Thursday’s events as they happen.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad say ‘March of Return’ to continue until Gaza siege lifted

Following a meeting of Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders, the Gaza-based terror groups vow clashes on the border will continue until Israel lifts its blockade on the Palestinian enclave.

“The leaderships of the two movements affirmed the following positions: Continuing the March of Return and breaking the siege until it achieves its goals…and preserving its peacefulness,” the groups say in a joint statement.

The statement comes after reports said armed factions in Gaza agreed to temporarily halt violence along the border amid Egyptian efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

2hr ago

Iran’s FM accuses Mossad of running ‘program to kill’ nuclear deal

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accuses Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency of working to scuttle the 2015 international meant to curb Iran’s program.

“Incredible series of coincidences. Or, a simple chronology of a MOSSAD program to kill the JCPOA,” writes Zarif on Twitter, referring to the agreement by its official name.

His tweet includes intelligence revelations by or attributed to the Mossad that coincided with developments related to the nuclear deal, as well as a visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Europe in July. Zarif mistakenly writes the trip took place in June.

Life After ISIS

Life after ISIS 

I have just returned from a week-long fact-finding mission to Mosul and Christian towns in Northern Iraq, to assess the status of U.S.-led reconstruction efforts after the battle to defeat ISIS.

During that time, I met with hundreds of local residents who returned to find their homes burned and looted by ISIS, or bombed into rubble by coalition airstrikes. I met with scores of church leaders and aide groups who are coordinating reconstruction efforts, and with Iraqi and U.S. government officials.

Nineveh was proselytized by St. Thomas in the first century AD. Many of the churches still conduct mass in Aramaic, the language of Jesus. These communities are among the oldest, continuously inhabited Christian centers in the world. As Christians living in the West, this is our homeland, as well. These are our people.

The physical destruction I witnessed can only be called Biblical, with 4th century churches and monasteries in Western Mosul reduced to heaps of rubble and stone. Some of the surrounding Christian villages remain uninhabited to this day. Others are gradually struggling to rebuild.

Fewer than half of the Christian families who lived in the Nineveh Plain surrounding Mosul to the north and east have returned. Many of them live with traumas hard to imagine for ordinary Americans. Some lost children, physically ripped from their arms by barbaric ISIS fighters and sold into sex slavery. Most of them lost their homes, their jobs, and their possessions.

Christians throughout the world should care about their fate, because this is where Christianity began.

82-year old Hannah stayed behind when ISIS swept into Telescof, a Christian village north of Mosul. “I never saw ISIS. I don’t know what is ISIS,” she told us. “I only saw local Arabs, our neighbors.”

Hannah was lucky: the Muslim fighters who seized her village and held it for eight days gave her food and water and let her live. Simply put, she was too old to be sold as a sex slave.

While Telescof changed hands several times between ISIS and the Kurdish peshmerga until it was finally liberated last year, local residents are still hesitant to return even though much of the town has been rebuilt with funds from the Chaldean Church and the Hungarian government.

“More than 1000 families have returned,” says Father Salar Boudagh, the local Chaldean priest. “But most of them came from other places. Of the 1500 Christian families here before ISIS, just 650 have returned.”

The reason? “The Arabs never really left,” says Father Salar. “They just shaved their beards and joined Hasht-e Shabi,” the Iraqi government-backed Muslim militias who roam the area, often terrorizing the population in the name of restoring security.

Christians entering Bartella are met with the black flags of the Shabak militias and a portrait of Ali, the 4th Caliph of Islam revered by Shiites. The Iranian Consul General recently paid a visit to inaugurate a Shiite elementary school. Posters advertizing the school in downtown Bartella bear the photo of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

“To us, these things are the same as ISIS. They use almost the same black flag,” said Father Behnam Benoka, 39, the Syrian Catholic parish priest.

“The dream of the Shabak is to make Bartella and the Nineveh plain a land for the Shabak. We cannot accept this,” he said.

For two centuries, Shabak primarily lived in villages on the outskirts of the Christian towns. Then in 2003-2004, the U.S. commander for Mosul, Gen. David Petraeus, resettled 2,000 Shabak families from Mosul into Bartella, changing the demography.

Although the town is historically Christian, going back two thousand years, Bartella now has a Shiite mayor, a Shiite town council, and Shiite heads of government services.

And they are exercising that new-found power brazenly. The Shabak militia, Brigade 30 of the Popular Mobilization Forces, stormed a health clinic built and operated by Samaritan’s Purse last year and simply confiscated it. “They took it over! So now it is a base for them,” Father Benoka said.

“I am sounding the alarm,” he warned. “If there is no solution to the Shabak problem, Christians will be gone.”

Reminders of the ISIS occupation can still be seen in bombed out houses, many of them with ISIS members still buried beneath slabs of collapsed concrete inside.

Everyone believes this area is on the verge of a tipping point: a bit more aide, a bit more reconstruction, and more people will come back. But a renewal of jihadi violence – from Shabak militias or ISIS – and they will flee.

In an upcoming report, I will detail the extraordinary efforts by U.S. AID, following the directive of Vice President Mike Pence, to tip the scales in favor of return.

Russia Warns That U.S. Planes Will Be Shot Down If Coordinating Drone Attacks

Russia Is Ready to Shoot Down Any US Plane Coordinating Drone Attacks on Its Syria Forces

Russia is prepared to shoot down any US plane coordinating UAV attacks on its Hmeimim Air Base near Latakia, Syria, according to Vladimir Shamanov, head of the lower parliamentary house’s defense committee, former Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Airborne Troops.

“In case of another U.S. drone attack on Russian Military Base in Syria, Russia is ready to shoot-down that plane,” Shamanov said.

Shamanov’s remarks followed an announcement by the Russian Defense Ministry that a US Posiedon-8 reconnaissance plan coordinated a drone strike attack on the airbase.

According to reports the airbase has further come under waves of attacks by small armed drones, which appear to be increasingly sophisticated.

On October 25th, Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said that a US reconnaissance aircraft had coordinated the attack on the Russian airbase in January 2018.

“Thirteen drones moved according to common combat battle deployment, operated by a single crew. During all this time the American Poseidon-8 reconnaissance plane patrolled the Mediterranean Sea area for eight hours,” the deputy defense minister said.

The official also said that the U.S. had supplied Syrian militants with equipment that allowed them to access radio frequencies operated by Russian aviation.

“Only a technologically advanced country has access to such tools; they cannot be made in the Syrian desert,” Fomin added.

At the time of the attack it was blamed on radical Islamists by the Russian Ministry of Defense. The January 8thattack included 13 drones in total, 10 of which approached the airbase, while 3 attempted an attack on the naval facility in Tartus.

On October 28th, Russian President Vladimir Putin also addressed the increase in drone activity, especially in the last two months when Russian forces reportedly downed 50. He spoke to reporters following the 4-way summit on Syria between France, Germany, Turkey and Russia.

Furthermore, Russia air defenses at the Hmeimim airbase shot down two attack drones launched by militants operating in Syria’s Latakia province, Maj. Gen. Alexei Tsygankov, head of the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation claimed on August 10th.

“Over the past 24 hours, the air defense units at the Hmeimim airbase detected two unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] launched from the territory controlled by illegal armed groups in the north of Latakia province,” Tsygankov said at a daily briefing. “Both aerial targets were destroyed at a safe distance from the base.”

Thus, the airbase appears to be under frequent and sporadic drone attacks. They are also reportedly mostly blamed on militant groups and not US activity.