SOF

US: North Korea Replaces Top Three Military Officers

In a move U.S. officials say is to jump-start the country’s economic development and engage more with the outside world, North Korea has replaced their top three military officers.

Kim Jong Un is preparing for a high-stakes summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12, the first such meeting between a North Korean leader and a sitting U.S. president.
The U.S. official, who spoke on Sunday on condition of anonymity, was commenting on a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that all three of the North’s top military officials were believed to have been replaced.
Kim’s motivation remains unclear but analysts said the shake-up allows him and the ruling party to tighten control over the Korean People’s Army (KPA) at a critical time of international engagement and domestic development.
“If Kim Jong Un is set on making peace with the U.S. and South Korea and dealing away at least part of the nuclear program, he will have to put the KPA’s influence in a box and keep it there,” said Ken Gause, director of the International Affairs Group at CNA, a non-profit research and analysis organization.
The United States is seeking a negotiated end to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and U.S. officials believe there was some dissension in the military about Kim’s approaches to South Korea and the United States.
Trump wants North Korea to “denuclearize”, or get rid of its nuclear arsenal, in return for relief from economic sanctions. North Korea’s leadership is believed to regard nuclear weapons as crucial to its survival, while Kim has said he plans to focus on economic development.
Citing an unidentified intelligence official, Yonhap said No Kwang Chol, first vice minister of the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, had replaced Pak Yong Sik as defense chief, while Ri Myong Su was replaced by his deputy, Ri Yong Gil.
North Korean state media previously confirmed that Army General Kim Su Gil had replaced Kim Jong Gak as director of the KPA’s General Political Bureau.

The moves are seen by some officials as a way of Kim Jong Un of consolidating his power by installing younger, more capable officers in charge who are totally loyal to him and have the military at the forefront of all of his economic development programs.

Photo: Wikipedia

To read the entire article by Reuters, click here:

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 11, Day 2

Monday morning, we kick our week off right. Head to the gym where we’ll do our workout with the basics of pushups, sit-ups, and crunches, then to the bar for V-ups, pull-ups, and dips before a 4-mile run. Remember to stay hydrated and mark your progress in your workout log book.

Training:

More preparation for the UBRR

1 x 1-minute Pushups

1 x 1-minute Sit-ups

1 x 1-minute, Crunches

1 x 1-minute, V-ups

1 x Dips as many as possible to muscle failure (no time limit)

1 x Pull-ups as many as possible or to muscle failure (no time limit)

4-mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 11, Day 1

It is time for our Sunday morning ruck march. We’re going to do an eight-mile course today over varied terrain. Strive to better the standard time of 120 minutes. Do a quick warmup of pushups and sit-ups before heading out.

Stretch well both before and after the ruck march. Remember to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated out there. And wear your second pair of boots today.

Training:

Warm up

2 x 20 Pushups

2 x 20 Sit-ups

8-mile Rucksack march over varied terrain. And mark your times in your workout log book. If your feet are hurting after completion, then that second pair of boots may need more break-in time. Don’t wait for Selection to get that done.

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 10, Day 7

Back in the gym this Saturday morning for a shoulder and back workout. Towel pull-ups if you have no access to ropes or climbing ropes if they are available. Followed by a four-mile run in 32 minutes or less.

Log your numbers down in the workout notebook and prepare for a long ruck on Sunday morning. And as always, remember to stay hydrated.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 10 Lat Pulldowns, rear

3 x 10 Barbell Dead Lift

3 x 10 Wide Grip Pull-ups

3 x 10 Towel Pull-ups

3 x 10 Seated Rows

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Seated Bent-Over Delt Raise

3 x 10 Dumbbell Shoulder Press

3 x 10 Arnold Dumbbell Press

4-mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Anarchist Bombs Set Off Red Scare and Give Rise to J.Edgar Hoover

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States had a series of events that forever changed the face of our nation’s national law enforcement agency and set off a wave of anti-immigration acts around the country.

In early 1919 a group of anarchists mailed bombs to 36 prominent politicians and appointees, including the Attorney General of the United States, as well as justice officials, newspaper editors and prominent businessmen. These dynamite-laden booby-trapped bombs were the work of a group of disciples of Luigi Galleani, a particularly radical anarchist who advocated violence as a means to effect change, to rid the world of laws and capitalism.

After the April spate of bombings, another wave early in June 1919 in seven different cities all within 90 minutes of one another, bombs of a much stronger capacity rocked New York; Boston; Pittsburgh; Cleveland; Washington; D.C.; Philadelphia; and Patterson, New Jersey.

On the evening of June 2, 1919, an anarchist named Carlo Valdinoci, who was a former editor of the Galleanist newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva and close associate of Luigi Galleani blew up the front of newly appointed Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer’s home in Washington, D.C.

Valdinoci also blew himself up in the process when the bomb exploded prematurely. Across the street, a young man named Franklin Roosevelt, along with his wife Eleanor were also shaken by the blast. The Roosevelts had just returned home from a walk and had just passed by the Palmer home.

The bombs placed on June 2nd were much more powerful than the ones that had been mailed in April. The bombs were composed of up to 25 pounds of dynamite packed with heavy metal slugs designed to act as shrapnel. The targets of the anarchist bombs included government officials who had pushed for anti-sedition laws and deportation of immigrants suspected of crimes or associated with illegal movements, as well as judges who had sentenced anarchists to prison.

Within minutes the other bombs rocked the cities across America as the bombs were initially designed to explode at about the same time. Luckily, none of the intended targets were killed or injured but a nightwatchman, William Boehner was killed in New York City.

The bombs were also packed with leaflets printed on pink paper titled, “Plain Words” which was the anarchists attempt at psyops.

War, Class war, and you were the first to wage it under the cover of the powerful institutions you call order, in the darkness of your laws. There will have to be bloodshed; we will not dodge; there will have to be murder: we will kill, because it is necessary; there will have to be destruction; we will destroy to rid the world of your tyrannical institutions.

Law enforcement officials were able to quickly trace the leaflets to a print shop they had already arrested two members from. The Canzani Print Shop in New York City had been under surveillance by federal authorities for some time. The feds arrested the typesetter Andrea Salsedo and Roberto Elia, a compositor.

After being held for weeks incommunicado without the benefit of calling his lawyer, Salsedo reportedly committed suicide by leaping out the window of the Federal building and landing on the sidewalk 14 floors below. There were rumors that Salcedo didn’t leap but was pushed out the window.

This was a dark and generally unknown time in American history. The nation was reeling from a pandemic flu which was killing thousands and the rise of the Bolsheviks in Russia had given rise to a “Red Scare” as well as the many labor strikes that were prevalent of the days leading up to and after the bombings.

The anarchists overplayed their hand. Rather than fomenting revolution as they had hoped, the American public was demanding action be taken. The Attorney General in Washington D.C. put a young lawyer in charge of the federal investigation by J. Edgar Hoover.

The Palmer house and a young J.Edgar Hoover

Hoover began collecting and organizing every scrap of intelligence gathered by the Bureau of Investigation (the FBI’s predecessor) and creating large files to identify anarchists. This is what he would take to extremes once he became the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Investigation along with the Immigration Bureau worked to round up and deport illegal immigrants who they said posed a threat to national security, including many Galleanists, the anarchists dedicated to Luigi Galleani.

But the abuses of power by the federal government and the trampling of the rights of those scooped up in the many raids led to the same population having the severe criticism of the tactics used by the federal government.

Hoover’s voluminous files resulted in several arrests under the quickly passed Sedition Act. Among those arrested included .suspected radicals and foreigners identified by Hoover’s intelligence gathering, including well-known leaders Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. In December of 1919, after the arrest of many of the “Red” radicals, they were publicly put on a ship that the public named the “Red Ark” and deported to the Soviet Union.

This was followed by the “Palmer Raids” in January of 1920. The raids were the subject of illegal search and seizures, unwarranted arrests and detentions, and the deportation of several hundred suspected radicals and anarchists.

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and Hoover came under increasing criticism for the heavy-handed way they conducted the raids. Under the guise of the Espionage Act, the Sedition Act, and/or the Immigration Act of 1918, there were nearly 10,000 people arrested, of those 3,500 were held in detention. And only 556 resident aliens were eventually deported.

The FBI admits that the Palmer Raids, in part fueled by the AG’s aim for a White House bid in 1920 was hardly a bright spot in the Bureau’s history, however, in their words, they claim that this incident allowed the FBI to “gain valuable experience in terrorism investigations and intelligence work and learn important lessons about the need to protect civil liberties and constitutional rights.”

Photos: Wikipedia

US Tells China They Have Experience Taking Down Small Islands

The war of words between the United States and China has been amped up even more when on Thursday a Pentagon official stated while the US will seek common ground with China on North Korea and other issues, they will continue to protect their interests.

And the message was clear on what the United States claims are clear provocations by the Chinese in the South Pacific, especially in areas of the South China Sea.

“We continue to seek areas to cooperate with China where we can, but where we can’t we’re prepared to certainly protect both U.S. and allied interest in the region,” Director of the Joint Staff Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told reporters at the Pentagon.
“I would just tell you that the United States military has had a lot of experience in the Western Pacific taking down small islands,” McKenzie said, when asked if the United States has the ability to “blow apart” one of China’s disputed, man-made islands in the South China Sea.
He later clarified that he was referring to U.S. military operations during World War II.
“It’s just a fact we had a lot of experience in the Second World War taking down small islands that are isolated, so that’s a core competency of the U.S. military that we’ve done before. [You] shouldn’t read anything more into that than a simple statement of historical fact,” he said.
U.S. warships on Sunday cruised by disputed islands in the South China Sea in a planned exercise. The United States claims the area is considered international waters, while China asserts its right to the islands and saw the move as a threat.

The US Navy conducts what it terms “freedom of navigation” exercises in the disputed areas that Washington claims as international waters. The Chinese however, claim these as their own.

To read the entire article from The Hill, click here:

Photo: Wikipedia

North and South Korea Agree to Hold Military, Red Cross Talks

While the on-again, off-again summit meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un is still in flux, the divided Korean states, both North and South have agreed to conduct military and Red Cross talks later this month. They are trying to finally end the war that began 68 years ago and hopefully set the table for families to be able to reconnect since the war began.

The rivals also agreed at a meeting of senior officials at the border village of Panmunjom to soon establish a liaison office at the North Korean border town of Kaesong and hold sports talks on fielding combined teams in some sports at the Asian Games in August, as they continue to take steps toward reconciliation.
South Korea says building trust with North Korea is crucial amid a U.S.-led diplomatic push to persuade the North to give up its nuclear weapons.
The high-level meeting between the Koreas followed talks in New York between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol on a possible summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. American delegations are also meeting with North Koreans at Panmunjom and in Singapore.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reported that “good progress” has been made with North Korea and setting up the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un.

The US is pressing a demand for “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization.” The US has promised the North Koreans security guarantees as well as helping them achieve economic prosperity.

To read the entire article from Fox News, click here:

Photo: screenshot of North and Korean leaders meeting

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 10, Day 6

It is Leg Day at the gym. Starting with Squats – (front, dumbbell goblet, and barbell), then some lunges and the weighted sled push.

And then finish the workout with a five-mile run in 40 minutes or less. Mark your progress down in your workout log book and stretch well after the session.

Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR.

3 x Front Squat 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x Goblet Dumbbell Squats 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x 10 Barbell Squats

3 x 10 Deadlifts

3 x 10 Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 10 Romanian Lunges

3 x Weighted Sled Push or Fireman’s Carry

5-mile run (40-minute maximum)

Stretch well after completion

On This Date in 1962, Nazi War Criminal Adolf Eichmann Hanged in Israel

Adolf Eichmann was a member of the Nazi Party, the SS, and the SD during Hitler’s reign of terror during the 1930s and 1940s. He was an SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. He was tasked by SS-Obergruppenführer (Lieutenant General) Reinhard Heydrich with facilitating and managing the logistics involved in the mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe during World War II.

After the war, Eichmann escaped prosecution and fled to Argentina where he lived until 1960. There, he was discovered by members of the Israeli Mossad and arrested and smuggled out of the country to Israel where he stood trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity in 1961. He was found guilty and was hanged in an Israeli prison on May 30, 1962.

Eichmann was born in Solingen, Germany on March 19, 1906, and soon afterward moved to Austria. He was an indifferent student and never finished his studies. He drifted from job to job in the late 20s and early 1930s before he joined the Nazi Party and shortly after the SS.

In 1934, with the rank of SS-Scharführer (Sergeant) Eichmann joined the Security Service Main Office (Sicherheitsdienst (SD) working on surveillance of Jewish organizations. In 1937, he took an inspection trip to Palestine and Egypt for the purposes of facilitating a Zionist emigration of German Jews to Palestine.

He personally oversaw the forced emigration of Austrian Jews after Hitler took over. His system was deemed so “worthy” by the Nazi hierarchy that it was deemed a template for the Nazis to use elsewhere. Once Germany overtook Czechoslovakia, Eichmann oversaw the forced deportation of Jews in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and created a further Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Prague, on the pattern of his Viennese model.

Once World War II began Eichmann began to not only continue with the forced emigration of Jews from Germany and occupied territories, but the forced movement of Jews to the death camps. Eichmann during this time was responsible for the movement of nearly 1.5 million Jews to the death camps located in Poland and later parts of the occupied Soviet Union.

By the autumn of 1941, Eichmann had been promoted SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) and the chief of Reich Security Office (RSHA) which, took part in the planning of the annihilation of the European Jews. Since Eichmann was to be in charge of transporting Jews from all over Europe to the death camps, RSHA chief Reinhard Heydrich asked Eichmann to prepare a presentation for the Wannsee Conference. At the conference, RSHA officials advised the appropriate government and Nazi Party agencies on the implementation of the “Final Solution” to what the Nazis called the “Jewish Question.” Eichmann also relayed these plans to his network of officials who would help him to carry out deportation efforts in German-occupied areas and in Germany’s Axis allies in the murder of the Jews.

Eichmann and his underlings organized the deportation of Jews from Slovakia, the Netherlands, France, and Belgium. In 1943 and 1944 they deported the Jews of Greece, northern Italy, and Hungary. It was in Hungary where Eichmann involved himself directly in the deportation of the Jews. From late April 1944, six weeks after Germany occupied Hungary, until early July, Eichmann and his aides deported some 440,000 Hungarian Jews. Of these 75-90 percent were murdered in the gas chambers immediately after arriving in the death camps.

At the end of World War II, Eichmann changed his name to “Otto Eckmann” and had forged papers as such to avoid detection. He was captured by the Americans but when they found out his true identity, he escaped and with the help of the Catholic Church eventually made his way to Argentina.

But Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal learned he along with the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele were in the South American country. The Israelis dispatched intelligence gathering teams from the Mossad and Shin Bet intelligence services and they confirmed Eichmann’s location. Under the supervision of Mossad agent Isser Harel, the Mossad kidnapped Eichmann and smuggled him out of Buenos Aires to Israel to stand trial. Harel’s tale was eventually written into a fine book on the capture, “The House on Garibaldi Street” which is highly recommended.

The Mossad knew his routine and planned on abducting him when he passed an open field near his home after getting off a bus in his town. As he approached the field, a Mossad agent spoke to him in Spanish but Eichmann sensed danger and quickly two other Mossad agents jumped him as a well and the three subdued him as the agents whisked him to a Mossad safe house where he was held for nine days until they snuck him out via a flight from Buenos Aires to Jerusalem via Dakar, Senegal.

Eichmann protested his innocence and used the well-worn “following orders” alibi which was discounted at the Nuremberg Trials. “There is a need to draw a line between the leaders responsible and the people like me forced to serve as mere instruments in the hands of the leaders”, Eichmann said. “I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty.”

Eichmann’s trial before a special tribunal of the Jerusalem District Court began on April 11, 1961. The legal basis of the charges against Eichmann was the 1950 Nazi and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law, under which he was indicted on 15 criminal charges, including crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership in a criminal organization.

The Nazis were meticulous in their record keeping and this was part of the reason that so many Nazis were found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Eichmann was no exception to this rule. His own words were the most-damning toward his case when the prosecution brought forth a statement he made in 1945 that the Nazis had been responsible for over 5 million dead Jews. “I will leap into my grave laughing because the feeling that I have five million human beings on my conscience is for me a source of extraordinary satisfaction”

Any hope the defense had of receiving clemency from the Israeli courts were quickly extinguished over this statement. Eichmann tried to say that he was speaking about the Russians and enemies of the Reich but later admitted that he was speaking about the Jews.

The verdict was read on December 12, 1961. The judges declared him not guilty of personally killing anyone and not guilty of overseeing and controlling the activities of the Einsatzgruppen (SS Mobile Extermination Units). He was found responsible for the deplorable conditions on board the deportation trains on which the Jews were transported to the death camps. He was found guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes against not only the Jews but the Poles, Slovenes, and Gypsies. He was also found guilty of membership in three organizations that had been deemed criminal at the Nuremberg trials: the Gestapo, the SD, and the SS.

When considering the sentence, the judges concluded that Eichmann hadn’t been just following orders, but believed in the Nazi cause wholeheartedly and had been a key perpetrator of the genocide of the Jewish people. On 15 December 1961, Eichmann was sentenced to death by hanging.

Eichmann appealed his sentence but on May 31, 1962, the judges rejected his appeal. He was put to death several hours later around midnight on May 31-June 1, 1962.

His final words were about one would expect:

Long live Germany. Long live Argentina. Long live Austria. These are the three countries with which I have been most connected and which I will not forget. I greet my wife, my family and my friends. I am ready. We’ll meet again soon, as is the fate of all men. I die believing in God.

After his death, his body was immediately cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Mediterranean outside of Israel’s territorial waters.

Photos: Wikipedia

Assad Vows to Retake Areas of Southern Syria Held by US-Backed Kurds

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has upped the ante and warned Kurdish forces that are trained and equipped by the United States that he wouldn’t hesitate to use force to retake the roughly one-third of the country they currently control.

Assad also tried to sound ominous and said in an interview with Russian television that the U.S should learn the lessons of Iraq and remove their troops from Syria.

“The only problem left in Syria is the SDF,” Assad said, referring to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which spearheaded battles against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).
“We’re going to deal with it by two options: the first one we started now opening doors for negotiations, because the majority of them [SDF] are Syrians. Supposedly they like their country, they don’t like to be puppets to any foreigners,” Assad said.
“If not, we’re going to resort … to liberating those areas by force. It’s our land, it’s our right, and it’s our duty to liberate it, and the Americans should leave. Somehow they’re going to leave,” he added.
“They came to Iraq with no legal basis and look what happened to them. They have to learn the lesson. Iraq is no exception and Syria is no exception. People will not accept foreigners in this region any more.”
Assad said a confrontation between Russia and US forces over Syria had been narrowly avoided.
“We were close to having direct conflict between the Russian forces and the American forces,” he said. “Fortunately it has been avoided – not by the wisdom of the American leadership, but by the wisdom of the Russian leadership.”

Assad in his comments about foreigners neglected to mention the scores of Iranian troops that have been spoiling to start a fight with Israel and have been being hammered …on Syrian soil nor the attack by Syrian and Russian “contractors” on a US base that resulted in a stinging defeat at the hands of the US-backed Kurds.

To read the entire article from Al Jazeera, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia