It was dark as the car sped along a small road on the outskirts of the embattled Iraqi city of Mosul. The car was driving fast, but not so fast as to draw attention. That was essential. The lives of the two men in the front seat depended on their ability to keep a low profile and pass through undetected.
In the passenger seat, Khaleel Al-Dhaki was focused on the secret mission he was leading to rescue a Yazidi woman and her child, both of whom were taken by ISIS and dragged into Mosul.
“This kind of operation can’t be done during daytime,” he later told NBC News. “We are basically going in there to kidnap them back from ISIS.”
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The night of her rescue from ISIS Leila reunited with some of her and her husband’s relatives who had also been previously rescued from ISIS captivity. Marc Smith / NBC News
More than three months before any ballots have been cast at the Republican convention, Roger Stone, Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again consigliere, has delivered the campaign equivalent of a severed horse head to delegates who might consider denying Trump the nomination. Trump’s supporters will find you in your sleep, he merrily informed them this week. He did not mean it metaphorically.
“We will disclose the hotels and the room numbers of those delegates who are directly involved in the steal,” Stone said Monday, on Freedomain Radio. “If you’re from Pennsylvania, we’ll tell you who the culprits are. We urge you to visit their hotel and find them. You have a right to discuss this, if you voted in the Pennsylvania primary, for example, and your votes are being disallowed,” Stone said.
Over the years, I’ve covered elections in Iraq, Iran, and Burma. Stone’s taunt is every bit as threatening as anything I heard in those places, which have far less experience than America with democracy. Such is the moment we currently inhabit.
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Even before he was a candidate, Trump displayed a rare gift for cultivating the dark power of a crowd. Credit Photograph by Edmund D. Fountain/The New York Times/Redux
Believing that Islamic State captives held on a compound in northern Iraq faced “imminent mass execution,” dozens of U.S. special operations troops and Iraqi forces raided the site Thursday, freeing approximately 70 Iraqi prisoners in an operation that saw the first American killed in combat in the country since the U.S. war against IS began in 2014, officials said.
The raiders killed and captured a number of militants and recovered what the Pentagon called a trove of valuable intelligence about the terrorist organization.
The U.S. service member who died was not publicly identified pending notification of relatives. Officials said this was the first American combat death in Iraq since the U.S. began its counter-IS military campaign in August 2014.
The biggest entitlement legislation in a generation is causing barely a ripple in corporate America.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — otherwise known as Obamacare — is putting such a small dent in the profits of U.S. companies that many refer to its impact as “not material” or “not significant,” according to a Bloomberg review of conference-call transcripts and interviews with major U.S. employers.
That’s even after a provision went into effect this year requiring companies with 50 or more full-time workers to provide coverage, and after more workers are choosing to enroll in existing company coverage because of another requirement that all Americans get insured.
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Click link belowfor article (Obamacare Barely Affecting Corporate Profits…):
Outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in an interview on Friday the United States might eventually need to send non-combat ground troops to Iraq to help turn back Islamic State forces.
Hagel, who announced his resignation under pressure in November, told CNN all options must be considered in Iraq, including sending troops for non-combat roles such as gathering intelligence and locating Islamic State targets.
“I think it may require a forward deployment of some of our troops …,” he said. “I would say we’re not there yet. Whether we get there or not, I don’t know.”
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Departing US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel delivers remarks at his Armed Forces Farewell Ceremony at Joint Base Fort Myer-Henderson in Arlington, Virginia, January 28, 2015. AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images) | JIM WATSON via Getty Images
Four former Blackwater security guards were convicted Wednesday in the 2007 shootings of more than 30 Iraqis in Baghdad, an incident that inflamed anti-American sentiment around the globe and was denounced by critics as an illustration of a war gone horribly wrong.
The men claimed self-defense, but federal prosecutors argued that they had shown “a grave indifference” to the carnage their actions would cause. All four were ordered immediately to jail.
Their lawyers are promising to file appeals. The judge did not immediately set a sentencing date.
In a cautionary report on Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned of a deadly new virus that has sickened more than a dozen people and killed eight in the Arabian peninsula and the U.K. so far.
No cases of the new virus — a coronavirus that experts say had previously never been seen in humans — have been reported in the United States. Still, the CDC has advised anyone visiting countries in or near the Arabian peninsula, including Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to see a doctor if a fever or symptoms of a lower respiratory illness develop within 10 days of their travels.
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RECEIVED THIS LINK FROM AN EMAIL FRIEND WHO DOESN’T WATCH X-FACTOR
Click link below slideshow
Wow! Get out the tissues. Please listen to it all. This boy is amazing!
I don’t watch the X-Factor, and in fact never heard of it before, but a friend sent this to me, and it’s beyond words. Two little Iraqi boys are born with birth defects in the midst of the chaos of war, and thrown away in a shoe box. They are found, somehow; and an Australian woman goes to Iraq , adopts them, and brings them home. Now, about 17ish years later, the older boy Emmanuel lives his dream by appearing to sing “Imagine” on the X-Factor audition. Talk about staring unbelievable adversity in the face and climbing above it!!! WOW!
His mother should also, win an award! Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to watch this YouTube video…
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Emmanuel Kelly The X Factor 2011 Audtions
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.Click link below for video (I believe you can skip the ADVERT):
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The night of her rescue from ISIS Leila reunited with some of her and her husband’s relatives who had also been previously rescued from ISIS captivity. Marc Smith / NBC News
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James' World 2 