US Army First Lieutenant Joshua Phillip Yabut was found not guilty by reason of insanity in a case that involves Lieutenant Yabut fleeing from police while driving M577 Mobile Armoured Command Post on public highways last summer (archived). The commisioned officer violated his bond in January by traveling to Iraq=. He will be warehoused in Central State Hospital for evaluation through an October 4th hearing during which the USG will decided whether to lock him away indefinitely or release him under conditions.
Category Archives: Hardware
Impotent USG Unseals "Warrant" For Liberated Iranian Tanker
The USG has unsealed the "warrant" it issued for the seizure of the Iranian tanker released by Gibraltar yesterday. Far more interesting than the unsealed warrant is the press release announcing the unsealing of the warrant which is at the same time triumphantly self congratulating while including one very important caveat, bolded in the text of the press release reproduced below:
WASHINGTON – A seizure warrant and forfeiture complaint were unsealed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that Oil Tanker “Grace 1,” all petroleum aboard it and $995,000.00 are subject to forfeiture based on violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), bank fraud statute, and money laundering statute, as well as separately the terrorism forfeiture statute.
John Demers, Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division, Jessie K. Liu, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Steven W. Cagen, Special Agent in Charge, Denver, Colorado, Homeland Security Investigations; and Jill Sanborn, Special Agent in Charge, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Federal Bureau of Investigation, made the announcement.
The documents allege a scheme to unlawfully access the U.S. financial system to support illicit shipments to Syria from Iran by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated foreign terrorist organization. The scheme involves multiple parties affiliated with the IRGC and furthered by the deceptive voyages of the Grace 1. A network of front companies allegedly laundered millions of dollars in support of such shipments.
A seizure warrant and a forfeiture complaint are merely allegations. The burden to prove forfeitability in a civil forfeiture proceeding is upon the government.
In announcing the forfeiture complaint and seizure warrant, U.S. Attorney Liu commended the work of those who investigated the case from HSI and FBI. They also expressed appreciation for the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs for its assistance in this case. Finally, they acknowledged the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zia Faruqui and Brian Hudak and National Security Division Trial Attorney David Lim who are handling this matter, with assistance from Paralegal Elizabeth Swinec and Brian Rickers, and Legal Assistant Jessica McCormick from the U.S. Attorney’s Office from the District of Columbia.
As Mircea Popescu very helpfully pointed out yesterday in response to this failure of the USG to impose its will:
get ready for a lot more "over usg objections" once Trilema opened the floodgates.
NYC Subway Station Temporarily Shuttered Over Presence Of Pressure Cookers
A subway station in New York was closed while police worked to determine two pressure cookers in the station were simply mundane kitchen equipment and not dangerous instruments of terrorism (archived). Simple pressure cooking vessels retail for ~50 USD in the US. This means ~100 USD in expenditure for materials incurred many orders of magnitude greater expenditure from the imperial security budget.
Dam England: Derbyshire Evacuated As Toddbrook Reservoir Dam Approaches Failure
England's problems continue piling up as the dam protecting the towns of Derbyshire and Whaley Bridge from the contents of the Toddbrook reservoir appears to be failing (archived). Concrete slabs on the dam are collapsing and an RAF Chinook helicopter is attempting to pull double duty shoring up the dam with rubble while also depositing rubble to divert incoming water away from the reservoir. The Brits expect several more days of work by the earthmoving helicopter and a pump battery will be required to bring the reservoir down to a level allowing for repairs, provided it doesn't rain.
DNC Loses 2016 Hack Related Racketeering Suit
A lawsuit filed by the Pantsuitist US DNC against numerous parties including the Russian Federation, democratically elected US President Donald Trump, and others has been dimissed (archived). Clinton appointed District Judge John Koeltl found the Russian Federation's earlier declaration of sovereign immunity compelling though he declared:
The primary wrongdoer in this alleged criminal enterprise is undoubtably the Russian Federation, the first named defendant in the case and the entity that surreptitiously and illegally hacked into the DNC’s computers and thereafter disseminated the results of its theft
As Koeltl accepted the DNC's own political talking points about this particualr hack, one which saw their emails spread all over, everyone later spreading the emails was therefore indemnified for engaging in protected journalistic activity. This case's end comes as a case involving the embattled Pantsuit's own supernode Jeffery Epstein is in the early stages of its own prosecution after stalling for years due to Epstein's protection as an "intelligence" asset.
Israelis Enthusiastically Burning F-35's Stealth Window With Strikes, Now In Iraq
News is emerging that Israel is enthusiastically exploiting the fact they were the first to deploy US made F-35A fighters in combat by launching strikes in Iraq (archived). While the F-35 program has been an absolute boondogle for the US, for Israelis the F-35 program has allowed them to be the first to fly this particular stealth attack aircraft in anger. Doing so they enjoy the advantages of its stealth before the ongoing collection of radar data negates its present advantage over air defense systems.
While the US cut Turkey out of the F-35 program over the NATO ally's purchase of Russian made S-400 missiles fearing Turkish operation of the jets near Turkish radar pickets will generate Russian data allowing better identification of the F-35 as an air defense target, Israel's ongoing airstrikes on foreign soil are generating the same sort of data and incentivising the development of F-35 countermeasures. With the problems everyone else is having bringing their F-35's operational, it is possible the Israelis may be the only ones to enjoy use of the F-35 as a steath aircraft. Once again history rhymes.
20 years of development time and 1.5 trillion USD in IOUs burned so some Jews can bomb some warehouses in the desert.
Obama Worm From Brazil Eating Its Way Through Spain
Native worms and snails in Spain are finding themselves falling prey to the invasive Obama flatworm from Brazil (archived). The Obama flatworm presents two traits that make it a truly destructive invader. It's a generalist predator happy to eat whatever invertebrates present themselves in the local environment, and the Obama worm itself has an awful taste which discourages native potential predators from hunting it.
Iran Detains Tanker For Smuggling Fuel In Persian Gulf
The Revolutionary Guard of Iran has seized a Panamanian flagged tanker which was allegedly smuggling fuel (archived). The smuggling operation was apparently discovered after Revolutionary Guard boats responded to a distress call issued by the tanker. The ship was apparently being loaded with fuel from Iran for transit to foreign ships. This would mean the ship's seizure is a matter of Iranian law enforcement rather than a tit-for-tat response to foreign piracy conducted against ships carrying Iranian oil at sea.
At this time the foreign party receiving smuggled Iranian oil has yet to identify itself.
Ukrainian Maidan-Government Aligned Militia Caught Smuggling Missile In Italy, Threatening Salvini Assassination
A Ukranian militia group alligned with the Maidan government of Ukraine has been busted smuggling weapons including an air to air missile through Italy while also issuing death threats against Italian deputy Prime minister and de facto head of government Matteo Salvini (archived). Western media had to walk back their initial reports that the group was instead aligned with Russophilic seperatists seeking to defend themselves from the embattled US backed government of Ukraine.
This incident highlights the increasingly strained nature of the NATO behemoth as intraEuropean tensions build and major members of NATO are seeking more cordial relationships with Russia as a hedge against other NATO allies with conflicting interests.
Empire Today: S-400 Deliveries, Bitcoin, And More Pantuit Darkmoney Sex – A Week In Review
As the Empire's relevance in the world continued to slide, the very inconvenient happenings are piling up:
- Turkey, bearer of the NATO alliance's second largest military,1 has begun taking delivery of S-400 air defense hardware from Russia in defiance of the USG empire's wishes. The US had been reluctant to sell NATO ally Turkey the inferior US air defense missile systems until Turkey had already made the deal with Russia, and when the belated offer to sell came from the USG, the price tag was several times higher than the superior Russian option.
- Democratically Elected US President Donald Trump declared his dislike for Bitcoin and desire that the USG move to regulate Bitcoin far too late for it to even try.
- The recent arrest of Pantsuit Supernode Jeffery Epstein appears positioned to bring all sorts of ugly inside the US Demoocracy and its party into view. One of the larger carbuncles consists of the tamper put on earlier Epstein prosecutions due to his ownership by an "intelligence" agency. Attempting to preempt the mess, the Pantuitist media cucks are underweighting inconvenient portions of Epstein's WoT in their coverage while party legislators call for probes into their opposition's funders before their own supernode's network gets mapped (archived).
- The "panic over energy expenditure for the purpose of socialist industrial capture" lobby has yet to produce a response to address bold scientists declaring clouds exist.
The individual Western European members are distantly behind. ↩