An American journalist that Al-Qaeda threatened to kill Saturday died during a rescue attempt by U.S. led forces.
U.S. Special Forces discovered the location where the Islamic terrorists were holding Luke Somers, 33, and a South African hostage, Pierre Korkie, 56, in the village of Dafaar. The raid just after midnight also left 13 terrorists dead.
Al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula has been establishing itself in Yemen and has been gaining support among Sunnis in the nation.
The group has also been publicly denouncing ISIS but intelligence officials say that the groups are quietly working together behind the scenes. The group has two other western hostages that they are reportedly demanding cash ransom for their release.
Compounding the tragedy are reports from South Africa that the terrorists had agreed to release Korkie on Sunday, the day after the failed raid. The family said they hold no ill will toward the U.S. for their loved one’s death and said they “choose to forgive. We choose to love.”
The man who has overseen the most anti-Christian Justice Department in American history is going to be leaving the position.
Justice Department and White House officials confirmed that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will be announcing his resignation but staying on until a successor is confirmed to replace him.
Holder’s tenure in the office has been marked by multiple scandals and an open hostility toward conservative and Christian groups.
During Holder’s reign, evangelical Christians were listed to soldiers at military basis as threats to the country, although that was later claimed as a mistake. They also said that when the soldiers were threatened with punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice if they donated to evangelical an Christian group, that was also a mistake.
Holder has also been at the forefront of suing Christian groups and organizations who refuse to follow the ACA’s mandates on abortion inducing drugs. He also vehemently defends the law against any Christian group that sues against it, including the Little Sisters of the Poor.
In these days where Christians in the Armed Forces are coming under attack, it’s rare that a video with troops praising God is able to gain attention let alone not be stopped by anti-Christian groups.
A video of almost 500 Marines at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton performing the song “Days of Elijah” is flying around the internet obtaining millions of views.
The troops loudly proclaim, “There is no God like Jehovah” and even shout “oorah!” to emphasize some points of the song declaring the one and true God.
“I’m really happy that this video has gone viral, but the thing that I’m hoping for is that I want people to pray for our troops. That’s my intention. I want more people praying for our troops because there is so much bad news in the media that I want people seeing something positive,” Merrie Baldwin, a volunteer who posted the video, told The Christian Post. “We do prayer request cards with them and the majority of them are very concerned with ISIS right now.”
The worship services and outreach began as an offshoot of a Christmas activity from Arbor Christian Fellowship Church in Lake Forrest, California. They would provide gifts and baked goods for the soldiers away from their home on the holidays.
“Every second Sunday we go down and the Saturday before I bake thousands of cookies. So I bring cookies with me because most of the guys are homesick and missing their moms or wives,” Baldwin said. “I give them a bag of cookies and we have the church service, and my husband and I stand at the back and we are just there available if they need counseling or just want to talk to somebody ’cause they are homesick or to pray with them.”
The fight against Ebola is now considered such a world threat that the U.S. military is becoming involved in the containment of the West African outbreak.
President Obama has said the outbreak is now “a serious national security concern.”
“We’re going to have to get U.S. military assets just to set up, for example, isolation units and equipment there,” the President said, “to provide security for public health workers surging from around the world.”
The move will allow the military to provide containment units, medical supplies and other advice to health officials on the ground in Liberia and other nations where the virus is running rampant.
Military officials say they will be working closely with Doctors Without Borders.
West African nations are stepping up to offer infrastructure to aid organizations and military relief efforts. Ghana said they would make their international airport in Accra an “air bridge” for Ebola response.
The U.N. says that $600 million will be needed at the bare minimum to stop the virus.
“Today, America is coming to help,” President Obama stated after authorizing airstrikes in northern Iraq against the Islamic State.
After weeks of weighing options, the administration took action due to the unrelenting progress of the Islamic extremists and the mounting humanitarian crisis.
The most recent crisis involves the Yazidis, a small religious minority, who are currently trapped on a mountaintop after fleeing their homes and are surrounded by Islamic militants. The United States has made several airdrops containing food and water to the thousands of trapped Yazidis, but only recently took action against the surrounding Islamic militants.
Despite a deeper involvement in the conflict, President Obama assured the public that it would not lead to U.S. involvement in a ground war in Iraq.
On Thursday night, President Obama authorized U.S. military action against the Sunni extremist advance on the Kurdish capital of Erbil leading to the first of many strikes that hit Islamic State artillery positions in northern Iraq.
Five hundred pound bombs were dropped by U.S. F-18 fighters just outside of Erbil according to the Pentagon.
President Obama claims the goal of these strikes is to stop militants from seizing Erbil and aiding the Yazidis, a religious minority.
Washington has considered direct military involvement in the past, but has delayed action for two reasons: the slowing of the Sunni militants advance in the past and to pressure Iraqi lawmakers to form a new government that might counter the militants.
A small country church in Carthage, Missouri wanted to honor veterans and soldiers during their Vacation Bible School. The military banned troops from going to the event.
Paramedics, police and firefighters in the community showed up Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to talk to the kids, teach them some basics of their jobs and receive thanks for their efforts to make the community better.
On Thursday, when the National Guard was supposed to show up, no one was there.
The military told the National Guard troops they were banned from the event and if they showed up at all on the grounds of the church they could face discipline. The military said that just the presence of the troops or any National Guard asset meant they were sponsoring the Baptist religion.”
The military officers were more concerned about someone who is not a Christian being offended by the troops appearing at the church than they were about any Christians who might be upset at being told they weren’t worth visiting.
The Missouri National Guard reportedly tried to do all they could to attend the event but it was at the federal level where the ban on associating with Christians was ordered.
National Guard troops were furious at the Defense Department’s actions.
“We had a lot of disappointed kiddos because of the National Guard being unwilling to allow a Humvee and a few soldiers to spend an hour at a Baptist Church,” a Guardsman said. “It makes we wonder what I’m actually fighting for.”
A gunman who was being treated for depression and anxiety and was being tested for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder opened fire with a handgun at Fort Hood in Texas Wednesday, killing 3 people and wounding 16.
Some of the wounded are in very critical condition at area hospitals and it’s possible the death toll could rise.
Spc. Ivan Lopez, 34, committed suicide when a military police officer confronted him.
Lopez opened fire inside one building, climbed in a vehicle and shot at people as he drove to a second building where he shot more victims.
Military officials say that Lopez did not see combat during his time in Iraq. They said that he was a truck driver at the time forces were withdrawing from the country. They insisted that even though he was not in combat, it is still possible he was suffering from PTSD.
Lopez reportedly lost his mother in November and he was having trouble dealing with the loss. He leaves behind a wife and 3-year-old daughter.
A man who had been scheduled to report to basic training next week is now on the run after the FBI claims he was planning an Islamic terrorist attack on U.S. troops.
Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, who goes by the alias “Booker,” had been recruited into the U.S. Army in Kansas City, Missouri February 2014. Military officials discharged him last week after his plot was discovered by law enforcement.
Friends of Hassan who claimed he was bragging about his upcoming attack had reportedly contacted the FBI.
The FBI is working with the 902d Military Intelligence Group in attempting to track down Hassan.
The Fort Hood attack which is being used as inspiration by Hassan happened November 5, 2009 when Army Major Nidal Hasan, a radical Muslim, killed 13 people and injured dozens at Fort Hood, Texas. He was sentenced to death after his trial last August.
Law enforcement sources say that Hassan might not be the only one plotting a similar attack.
A little known database managed by the U.S. military tracks civilian traffic tickets including parking tickets or minor traffic citations.
The Law Enforcement Information Exchange, also called LinX, has over 500 million law enforcement records. The information includes more than just official citations. The database includes information cards filled out by officers when no crime took place.
LinX is run by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and it is raising concern among privacy advocates that the database is allowing the military to access information on ordinary citizens in violation of the law.
A military law expert at Yale University called the system “domestic spying.”
“Clearly, it cannot be right that any part of the Navy is collecting traffic citation information,” Eugene Fidell said. “This sounds like something from a third-world country, where you have powerful military intelligence watching everybody.”
