Podcasts about Libya

In this episode, Captain Troels “TEO” Vang joins The Afterburn Podcast host, John “Rain” Waters. As one of the most experienced F-16 pilots in the Royal Danish Air Force, TEO offers an in-depth look into the life of a European Viper driver with more than two decades of combat aviation experience. From missions over Libya, Iraq, Syria, and the Baltics to leading Denmark's F-16 solo display team across Europe, TEO shares powerful insights into tactical flying, military leadership, and the future of fighter aviation. He and Rain discuss the cultural and structural contrasts between the U.S. and Danish Air Forces, and how Denmark's 37-hour workweek model may be the secret to long-term pilot retention. TEO also unpacks the evolution of the Danish demo jet—including the iconic “Dannebrog” paint scheme honoring the world's oldest national flag and the F-16's 50th anniversary. Whether he's intercepting Russian aircraft or wowing crowds at international airshows, Captain TEO exemplifies the mindset and mission of the fighter pilot brotherhood. Subscribe for more veteran stories, tactical airpower insight, and global combat aviation perspectives.

Today I have the honor and the pleasure to speak once again with celebrated poet and physician, Fady Joudah. The last time Fady was on the podcast was in November, 2023, shortly after the outbreak of war in Gaza. At that point we spoke about the impossibility of, even then, quantifying the genocide. Today we focus on the politics of language—in particular, the distinction Fady Joudah makes between Palestine in English, and Palestine in Arabic. We speak too of the need for and limitations of solidarity, and finish with a reading and discussion of one of Fady Joudah's most remarkable and stunning poems, “Truth is Never Finished.”  Fady Joudah is a Palestinian American physician, poet, and translator. He was born in Austin, Texas, and grew up in Libya and Saudi Arabia. He was educated at the University of Georgia, the Medical College of Georgia, and the University of Texas Health Sciences in Houston. In 2002 and 2005 he worked with Doctors Without Borders in Zambia and Sudan, respectively.Joudah's debut collection of poetry, The Earth in the Attic (2008), won the 2007 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, chosen by Louise Glück. Joudah followed his second book of poetry, Alight (2013) with Textu (2014), a collection of poems written on a cell phone wherein each piece is exactly 160 characters long. His fourth collection is Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance (2018).  In 2014, Joudah was a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry. As critic Charles Bainbridge observed in a 2008 Guardian review of The Earth in the Attic, “Joudah's poetry thrives on dramatic shifts in perspective, on continually challenging received notions.”Joudah translated  several collections of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish's work in The Butterfly's Burden (2006), which won the Banipal prize from the UK and was a finalist for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation; and in If I Were Another, which won a PEN USA award in 2010. His translation of Ghassan Zaqtan's Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me (2012) won the Griffin International Poetry Prize in 2013. His other translations include Amjad Nasser's Petra: The Concealed Rose and A Map of Signs and Scents.Joudah lives with his family in Houston, where he works as a physician of internal medicine.

Welcome to Episode 104 of Lessons from the Cockpit! I'm Mark Hasara, former KC-135 pilot, author of Tanker Pilot: Lessons from the Cockpit, and a lifelong aviation fanatic. For over 60 years, aviation has been my passion, and this show brings you stories from the cockpit, the mission planning room, and beyond. This week, I sit down with Mike Ethridge, a longtime friend and fellow Air Force aviator. We met as cadets at BYU's ROTC Detachment 855, and he went on to fly the KC-10A Extender, KC-135s and every Boeing airframe Delta Airlines has flown around the world. What's in This Episode?  ✈️ The KC-10 in Action – Flying the ultimate tanker, refueling everything from fighters to bombers to transports. Mike lead the KC-10 formation of F-111's going to Libya in Operation Eldorado Canyon ⚠️ T-38 Emergency! – Mike relives a high-speed in-flight emergency that nearly ended in disaster and shares an exclusive piece of that event

Iain Dale talks to former Conservative MP Daniel Kawzcynski about the life of the notorious Libran dictator, Colonel Gaddafi Buy a signed copy of the book THE DICTATOR https://www.politicos.co.uk/products/the-dictators-a-warning-from-history-edited-by-iain-dale-signe-copy-coming-in-2024

With a career spanning five decades across stage and screen — and unforgettable roles in EastEnders and Gavin & Stacey — today's guest is one of British television's most beloved actors, whose life has been anything but ordinary. It's the brilliant Larry Lamb!In this episode, Larry reflects on the winding road that brought him to acting. From a difficult and volatile childhood in London to an early life working abroad in Germany, Libya, and Canada, he talks candidly about the decades it took to truly understand himself, the life-changing decision to leave a successful corporate career in his 30s to pursue acting full-time, and the surprising way his beloved Gavin & Stacey character, Mick Shipman, helped him on his own journey of self-discovery.Larry also shares his thoughts on ageing, therapy, sobriety, and explains why he finally feels at peace with who he is. And as he embarks on yet another creative chapter with his debut novel, All Wrapped Up, he shares what keeps him curious and why he's not ready to slow down just yet!All Wrapped Up is available on 15th April, wherever you get your books.For all the latest news, click here to follow us on Instagram!***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

3.25.25My Book: https://www.semperfryllc.com/store/p93/Priestcraft%3A_Beyond_Babylon_%28Signed_Copy%29.htmlMuammar Gaddafi achieved something unique that set Libya apart from the rest of the world. It was an example that shows us what is possible when 2 conditions are met: 1. You kick the malicious, parasitic element of international Jewry out of your country and disallow their banks and institutions to operate within your country. 2. You have a leader that really cares about his people.Gaddafi was a true Nationalist leader, and like Chavez, like Hitler, actually cared about his people and his country.https://x.com/DisguiseLimitsPATREON Community to ChatGET AD-FREE and Exclusive Content: Become a Patron.https://Patreon.com/DisguisetheLimitsBEST HOT SAUCE of the Realm:https://SemperFryLLC.com to get Priestcraft: Beyond Babylon, AWESOME Hot Sauce and Creatine-HCL. Use code 1STOPSHOP for 10% OFFStefan's Clinical Nutrition Fundraiser: https://gofund.me/679c4e65I was deleted from Spotify! If you absolutely must listen to podcasts instead of just listening to videos like I do, go here and FOLLOW:https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ba-al-busters-broadcast--5100262Call In: 619-431-0334Join Dr. Glidden's Membership site:https://leavebigpharmabehind.com/?via=pgndhealthCode: baalbusters for 50% Off membershipDR MONZO CODE: BaalBustersSTRIPE: https://buy.stripe.com/cN28wSelp30wgaA288BMC: https://BuyMeACoffee.com/BaalBustersGiveSendGo: https://GiveSendGo.com/BaalBustersGet a Signed Hellstorm NOW!https://www.moneytreepublishing.com/shop/hellstormCode: BAAL for 10% Off!European Viewers You can support here: https://www.tipeeestream.com/baalbusters/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ba-al-busters-broadcast--5100262/support.

3.26.25 (Continuation from the previous)My Book: https://www.semperfryllc.com/store/p93/Priestcraft%3A_Beyond_Babylon_%28Signed_Copy%29.htmlMuammar Gaddafi achieved something unique that set Libya apart from the rest of the world. It was an example that shows us what is possible when 2 conditions are met: 1. You kick the malicious, parasitic element of international Jewry out of your country and disallow their banks and institutions to operate within your country. 2. You have a leader that really cares about his people.Gaddafi was a true Nationalist leader, and like Chavez, like Hitler, actually cared about his people and his country.https://x.com/DisguiseLimitsPATREON Community to ChatGET AD-FREE and Exclusive Content: Become a Patron.https://Patreon.com/DisguisetheLimitsBEST HOT SAUCE of the Realm:https://SemperFryLLC.com to get Priestcraft: Beyond Babylon, AWESOME Hot Sauce and Creatine-HCL. Use code 1STOPSHOP for 10% OFFStefan's Clinical Nutrition Fundraiser: https://gofund.me/679c4e65I was deleted from Spotify! If you absolutely must listen to podcasts instead of just listening to videos like I do, go here and FOLLOW:https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ba-al-busters-broadcast--5100262Call In: 619-431-0334Join Dr. Glidden's Membership site:https://leavebigpharmabehind.com/?via=pgndhealthCode: baalbusters for 50% Off membershipDR MONZO CODE: BaalBustersSTRIPE: https://buy.stripe.com/cN28wSelp30wgaA288BMC: https://BuyMeACoffee.com/BaalBustersGiveSendGo: https://GiveSendGo.com/BaalBustersGet a Signed Hellstorm NOW!https://www.moneytreepublishing.com/shop/hellstormCode: BAAL for 10% Off!European Viewers You can support here: https://www.tipeeestream.com/baalbusters/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ba-al-busters-broadcast--5100262/support.

It's Tuesday, April 8th, A.D. 2025. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 125 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Kevin Swanson Horrific Muslim persecution of Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa The Gatestone Institute's International Policy Center has released its report on the persecution of Christians in Africa.   The report claims that the West is ignoring the carnage playing out in Sub-Sahara Africa, and that Muslim “Jihadists are murdering, raping, torturing, kidnapping, enslaving, and, in some instances, burning people alive — across Africa, and now in Syria.” The newly-installed Syrian government and the al-Qaeda-affiliated HTS terrorists, are still conducting door-to-door purges, massacring religious minorities in cruel, sadistic ways. Reliable reports indicate they have massacred 7,000 Christians and Alawites, a sect of Islam. And the death toll is still rising. Jihad is spreading in at least twelve African nations. Muslim jihadists beheaded 70 Christians in the Congo in February. Church leaders are targeted, abducted, tortured, and murdered. Christian villages have been burned down. Plus, pastors, priests and lay Christians have been abducted by the Islamist Allied Democratic Forces. More than 16.2 million Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa have been driven from their homes by jihadist violence and conflict. Women and girls are abducted, forced into "marriage," forced to convert to Islam, raped, and subjected to forced labor. Some are forced to act as suicide bombers or human shields at the hands of jihadis. Boko Haram and the Islamic State West African Province regularly attack, abduct, and murder Christians in Cameroon located in Central Africa. Churches have been set on fire and church leaders and seminary students kidnapped. Plus, the report claims that no Christian is safe in Burkina Faso, a country in West Africa.  Hundreds of churches there have been closed. The Muslim-run nation of Libya, in North Africa on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, countenances widespread slavery, forced labor, and human trafficking. Sharia law is strictly upheld. For a Muslim to convert to Christianity is a crime punishable by death. Any Libyan woman suspected of associating with Christians faces house arrest, sexual assault, forced marriage, or even death. Nigeria remains the worst example of Jihadist murder and mayhem. Tens of thousands of Christians have been murdered and thousands of women and girls have been abducted and subjected to sexual violence. But, do keep in mind what Jesus said in Matthew 16:18. He declared, “On this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” British Christian nurse in trouble for referring to confused man as man More outrageousness from the United Kingdom. A nurse has lost her job with the National Health Service because she was caught referring to a pedophile transgender person as a “Mister.” Nurse Jennifer Melle, age 40, was fired from her job in Carshalton, Surrey, after having to endure the patient hurling racial slurs at her. She added, “I am devastated to have been suspended. … Despite being the one placed at risk, I am the one being punished. The message I have received is clear: I am expected to tolerate racism, deny biological reality, and suppress my deeply-held Christian beliefs." Appearing on Free Speech Nation, she shared her Biblical convictions. MELLE: “I thank Jesus for giving me the courageous spirit, standing on the Word of God. According to the Word of God, Genesis 1:27 said, ‘God created a male and female.' I just stood by it. I said, ‘Well, I'm a Christian woman, and I love the Lord, and I know beyond male and female is an abomination to the Lord. And I can't do that.'” Represented by the Christian Legal Centre, Andrea Williams, its chief executive, criticized the National Health Service for allegedly focusing on trans ideology instead of protecting its staff from racial and physical abuse. U.S.-China tariff war heats up The tit-for-tat tariff war with China is heating up.   On Friday, China announced a 34% tariff on U.S. imports as an answer to President Trump's 34% reciprocal tariff. Yesterday, the U.S. president announced an additional tariff of 50% effective tomorrow, unless China backs down, reports CBS News. Aboard Air Force One on Sunday night, President Trump did not pull any punches. TRUMP: “When you look at the trade deficit that we have with certain countries, way over a billion [dollars] per country. With China, it's a trillion dollars. And we have to solve our trade deficit with China. We have a trillion dollar trade deficit with China. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose with China. And unless we solve that problem, I'm not going to make a deal. “Now, I'm willing to deal with China, but they have to solve their surplus. We have a tremendous deficit problem with China. They have a surplus of at least a trillion dollars a year. And I want that solved. No other President has taken it on.” New Yorkers need “good moral character” before carrying handgun The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a New York law that requires residents to demonstrate “good moral character” before they are permitted to carry a handgun. The law requires applicants to have “the essential character, temperament and judgement necessary to be entrusted with a weapon and to use it only in a manner that does not endanger oneself or others.” Stocks, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq down U.S. stocks are down over the last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 4,000 points, 11% down for the year.   And the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down by about 2,000 points, settling around 15,570 points on Monday evening. The Nasdaq is down 19% on the year, about where it was in November 2021.  Court awards 7,000 sexual abuse victims $4 billion in Los Angeles While the state-controlled foster care system is supposed to protect children, the unaccountable system, made up of sinful men and women, has become the predator. Last week, the courts awarded a record $4 billion against the Los Angeles County's juvenile detention and foster care system. The settlement was the largest of this kind, distributed to 7,000 plaintiffs — victims of unspeakable sexual abuse. L.A. officials have issued concerns that the fine might bankrupt the county.  The rise of America's “assassination culture” The Network of Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University's Social Perception Lab have issued a report concerned with a rising “assassination culture” in the United States.  Especially troubling is the view that 31% of respondents stated it would be at least somewhat justifiable to murder Elon Musk.  And 38% said it would be at least somewhat justifiable to murder President Donald Trump. Among those who identify left of center, 48% to 55% would justify these assassinations. 22 million watched House of David finale And finally, the producers of the Amazon-released program, House of David, announced over the weekend, that the season finale had achieved #1 on Prime. WatchWonderProject took to Instagram with a message: “All glory to God!” Thus far, the program has brought in 22 million viewers. Of Amazon's new releases in 2025, House of David has taken the top position, holding its own in the top 10 for 38 days. Producer and writer for House of David, Jon Erwin, previously produced Christian films like October Baby, I Can Only Imagine, and American Underdog. The studio has announced a forthcoming Season 2. Let us not forget David's greater Son who reigns today, over all. Luke 1:32 declares, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of his father David.” Close And that's The Worldview on this Tuesday, April 8th, in the year of our Lord 2025. Subscribe by Amazon Music or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ. Print stories British Prime Minister: Time to focus on Britain British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke yesterday, indicating an end to globalization, and a return to nation's focusing in on their own national interests, reports The Independent. He called the present times “a completely new world.”  Former Brazilian president thanked God for Trump's re-election Brazil's previous president Jair Bolsonaro addressed a peaceful protest of 40,000 in Sao Paulo over the weekend, thanking God publicly that Donald Trump was re-elected in the United States, reports Breitbart. Bolsonaro told the crowd, “I have nothing but gratitude for the two years we spent together in our respective presidencies.”

Your daily news in under three minutes. At Al Jazeera Podcasts, we want to hear from you, our listeners. So, please head to https://www.aljazeera.com/survey and tell us your thoughts about this show and other Al Jazeera podcasts. It only takes a few minutes! Connect with us: @AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and YouTube

Director Laura Warner discusses her Ukraine War documentary, The Cranes Call and what she's learned traveling to over 100 countries. Warner has covered Libya, Iraq and many of the hardest hit places in the world. Her latest documentary, The Cranes Call follows war crimes investigators from the Clooney Foundation (Anya Neistat and Solomiia Stasiv) who interview survivors and document human rights abuses. The film is backed by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton's production company, Hidden Light.Links:- Watch The Cranes Call- Laura Warner

Jason Lee Morrison is a U.S. Marine Force Recon Veteran who's seen action in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel. Having deployed into the invasion of Iraq, he would go on to serve eight years as an elite Force Recon Marine, before spending the next few years working for various U.S. Government organizations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Israel and Palestine during the Israeli-Hezbollah war. Jason's perspective is uniquely grounded in his upbringing, being born in America but raised in Indonesia before coming back stateside to serve his country. Since then, Jason has transitioned into a career in technology development and consulting in government and private sectors, before pivoting full-time to writing about his work, his past, and on occasion, poetry and prose. ---------- Support Jason Morrison - Get Your Copy of Jason's Books 'The Perfect F*cking Life' and 'Finally Somehow Home' at https://www.theperfectfuckinglife.com/selected-work-1 Website - https://www.theperfectfuckinglife.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/swiftnshiftyninja/ ---------- Sponsors: C. Crane When the internet goes dark, radio still works! Order Your C. Crane CC Skywave SSB 2 today when you call C. Crane's U.S. based Customer Service at 800-522-8863 or visit https://ccrane.com/drop and use code DROP at checkout for 10% off orders over $75! ---------- Helix Go to https://www.helixsleep.com/mikedrop for 20% Off Sitewide! That's https://www.helixsleep.com/mikedrop for 20% Off Sitewide. https://www.helixsleep.com/mikedrop ---------- Beam Visit https://shopbeam.com/MIKEDROP and use code MIKEDROP to get our exclusive discount of up to 40% off! ---------- BUBS Naturals The BUBS namesake derives from Glen ‘BUB' Doherty, who was heroically killed in Benghazi, Libya in 2012. In addition to remembering Glen for the patriot he is, the BUBS ethos centers around the passionate and adventure seeking life that Glen lived. BUBS Naturals products are rooted in sustainably sourced ingredients and controlled consistency to provide our customers with the highest quality Collagen Protein & MCT Oil Powder that help you feel amazing and live a fuller life. Our mission is simple. FEEL GREAT. DO GOOD. 10% always goes back to charity, helping military men and women transition back into civilian life. Go to https://www.bubsnaturals.com/mike and use code MIKE for 20% off your order. ---------- TEAM DOG FOOD, TREATS & SUPPLEMENTS Be Your Dog's Hero: Veteran-owned by a former Navy SEAL and Special Operations K9 Trainer, Team Dog provides a complete diet of science-backed premium dog food, treats, and supplements to optimize your dog's health, forged from rigorous standards and real-world expertise. https://www.teamdog.shop TEAM DOG ONLINE TRAINING Mike Ritland – a former Navy SEAL & Special Operations K9 trainer – shares his simple and effective dog training program to build trust and control with your dog. Based on Mike's bestselling book “Team Dog, Train the Navy SEAL Way”, join tens of thousands of families that successfully trained their way to a better dog. https://www.teamdog.pet SHOP ALL THE MIKE RITLAND BRANDS Get all your Mike Ritland branded gear - Mike Drop | Trikos | Team Dog https://shop.mikeritland.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He is also called 'Mark the Athenian' because he was born in Athens. When his parents died, he pondered the transience of all earthly things, gave his goods to the poor, and embarked on a plank in the sea, asking God to lead him wherever He desired. By God's providence, Mark was cast up on the shores of Libya, where he settled as a hermit on a mountain called Trache. (Some say it was in Ethiopia, but this seems less likely.) There he lived for ninety-five years, never seeing another human being.   Saint Serapion visited him before his death and recorded his life. Serapion asked Mark if there were any Christians whose faith was so great that they could say to a mountain 'Get up and cast yourself into the sea,' and it would be so. Immediately the mountain on which they stood began to move like a wave, but Mark raised his hand and stilled it.   On his deathbed, St Mark prayed for the salvation of all men and gave up his soul to God. Saint Serapion saw an angel carrying Mark's soul, and a hand extended from heaven to receive it. Saint Mark was about 130 years old when he reposed.

Join us for a special podcast to hear the stories of the Able Shepherd community. Subscribe for more episodes on protector culture, leadership, and resilience! Who's Jimmy Graham? Jimmy spent over 15 years in the US Navy SEAL Teams earning the rank of Chief Petty Officer (E7). During that time, he earned certifications as a Sniper, Joint Tactical Air Controller, Range Safety Officer for Live Fire, Dynamic Movement and Master Training Specialist. He also served for 7 years as an Operator and Lead Instructor for an Elite Federal Government Protective Detail for High-Risk and Critical environments, to include; Kirkuk, Iraq, Kabul, Afghanistan, Beirut, Lebanon and Benghazi, Libya. During this time he earned his certification for Federal Firearms Instructor, Simunition Scenario Qualified Instructor and Certified Skills Facilitator. Jimmy has trained law enforcement on the Federal, State, and Local levels as well as Fire Department, EMS and Dispatch personnel. His passion is to train communities across the nation in order to enhance their level of readiness in response to active shooter situations. Make sure you subscribe and stay tuned to everything we are doing. Want to get more training? - https://ableshepherd.com/ Need support? https://able-nation.org/ Follow us on: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ableshepherd Instagram - ​​https://www.instagram.com/ableshepherd/ Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ableshepherd

Ikiwa leo ni siku ya kimataifa ya kuelimisha umma kuhusu mabomu ya kutegwa ardhini, kauli mbiu ikiwa Mustakabali salama unaanzia hapa, Umoja wa Mataifa unasisitiza umuhimu wa kufadhili miradi midogo yenye matokeo chanya na ya haraka ili kusaidia sio tu watu wanaopata ulemavu wa viungo kutokana na madhara ya mabomu hayo bali pia kuwezesha watu kurejea kwenye maisha yao ya kawaida Sharon Jebichii anamulika Lebanon na Libya.

Hii leo jaridani tunaangazia Siku ya kimataifa ya kuelimisha umma kuhusu mabomu ya kutegwa ardhini. Makala inamulika harakati za kusongesha malengo ya maendeleo endelevu ikitupeleka nchini Kenya na mashinani tunasalia huko huko nchini Kenya, kulikoni?Ikiwa leo ni Siku ya kimataifa ya kuelimisha umma kuhusu mabomu ya kutegwa ardhini na Msaada wa Hatua Dhidi ya Mabomu hayo, Katibu Mkuu wa Umoja wa Mataifa akisisitiza nchi kuheshimu mikataba ya kimataifa dhidi ya vilipuzi na silaha nyingine, Umoja wa Mataifa leo umethibitisha tena dhamira yake ya kusaidia Somalia katika mapambano dhidi ya hatari za vilipuzi kwa ajili ya mustakabali salama kwa Wasomali wote.Mwaka huu wa 2025, Siku ya Kimataifa ya Uhamasishaji Kuhusu Mabomu ya Ardhi na Usaidizi kwa Hatua Dhidi ya Mabomu inaadhimishwa chini ya kaulimbiu “Mustakabali Salama Unaanzia Hapa.” Umoja wa Mataifa inasisitiza umuhimu wa kufadhili miradi midogo yenye athari za haraka kusaidia watu wenye ulemavu wa viungo waliathirika katika mizozo. Juhudi hizi zinaimarisha ulinzi wa raia na kupanua teknolojia na uvumbuzi katika nchi zinazoendelea.Makala ambayo inamulika majadiliano ya siku mbili yanayofanyika kila mwaka ya será kuhusu maendeleo endelevu. Majadiliano hayo yanayokunja jamvi leo jijini Nairobi Kenya yameandaliwa na Club De Madrid na mwaka huu yamejikita na ufadhili wa maendeleo, Stella Vuzo kutoka kitengo cha habari cha Umoja wa Mataifa UNIS Nairobi amepata fursa ya kuzungumza na baadhi ya vijana wanaoshiriki mkutano huo wa club de Madrid.Na mashinani leo utamsikia mhadhiri kutoka chuo kikuu cha Bayero jimboni Kano nchini Nigeria anayeshiriki mkutano wa majadiliano ya ufadhili wa maendeleo endelevu unaofanyika Nairobi Kenya.Mwenyeji wako ni Assumpta, karibu!

Many of you know that a B'nai B'rith organization gave birth to the ADL while defending its Atlanta chapter president Leo Frank. Frank raped and murdered a 13 year old girl who he was also employing along with many other teens, against child labor laws. Leo Frank ran a pencil factory sweatshop and often flirted with his illegal underage employees. The ADL was formed to defend him when he murdered and raped Mary Phagan. The details were disgusting. Her underwear was ripped and bloody and she was strangled to death with a wire. Her head had also been pummeled with a pipe. She went to get her paycheck of a meager $1.20 and never returned home. She was raped and murdered and then her body was dragged to the basement. Police found strands of her hair and blood on the floor above right across from Frank's office. Frank nervously revealed the victims name in front of police before they had given him any such details. The ADL was going to get him released based purely on the fact that He was Jewish and a high profile crime made Jews look bad. Arguably a Jewish organization trying to get a child murderer off the hook, makes Jews look worse. They would like one to believe that he was innocent with fake news history and will tell you so on Wikipedia which has Israelis paid to edit it. Leo admitted on the witness stand to the jury that he was “unconsciously” at the scene of the crime when the murder occurred. What we don't know, is if he raped her before or after killing her. The grand jury voted 21 – 0 for indicting him. Four of those jurors were Jewish. That shouldn't matter, but it does because later the ADL would try to argue that the jury wrongly convicted him because of antisemitism rather than because all the evidence showed that he did it in everyone's eyes. He was convicted. After the Judge, Leonard Roan, rejected all the appeals, he ordered Leo to be hanged on his birthday April 17, 1913. However Frank who was unanimously elected president of the B'nai Brith Chapter again even after being convicted of rape and murder had one last method to weasel out. He with Jewish pressure groups, appealed to the Governor. The lame-duck governor, John M. Slaton, in a very Clinton-esk move, commuted Leo's sentence his last week in office. He changed it from the death penalty to life in prison.Frank was knifed in prison by an inmate who took justice into their own hands. William Creen used a butcher knife and cut Leo's throat severely injuring him. On August 16th a mob broke into the prison captured Leo Frank and took him 2 miles away and hanged him. Although they took photographs no one in town would identify them. Of course the ADL twisted the story to say that these men were motivated by antisemitism and not that they hated him for raping and murdering a child. To see Southern Justice click hereThe ADL would fight to have him given a posthumous pardon which he got in 1986. Fred Grimm of the Miami Herald said in response to the pardon, “A salve for one of the South's most hateful, festering memories, was finally applied” showing his own prejudice towards the South rather than admitting a well known exploiter of child labor, who raped and killed a young girl and was unanimously convicted for the crime and sentenced to death was killed even after weaseling a pardon by an outgoing governor. Fred Grimm is constantly chasing down and doing stories about “Neo-Confederates” and “Neo-Nazis” as if either one are some huge bane and influence in modern society. Ironically it is groups like Antifa who act like ISIS tearing down American Statues and assaulting people. Despite having entire cities burned civilian homes and all by Lincoln's terrorists, not once in 150 years has a Southerner attacked a Union monument. Yelling racism at everything is fun though because it exercises safe moral indignation. That the US recently invaded Libya and have caused a country to be run by Al Qaeda terrorists who have revived the institution of slavery, selling humans for $400 in the market, doesn't seem to bother these same people so much as statues of Confederate generals. Apparently the Union military generals like Custer who rode west and committed genocide on Native Americans immediately following the Civil War, or enslaving the Chinese to build railroads, doesn't count as racism either.The ADL itself was created with Jewish mafia money. With connections to Meyer Lansky, Moe Dalitz, Bugsy Siegal, and illegal arms trafficker Hank Greenspun. The ADL gave Jewish gangster Moe Dalitz the Torch of Liberty Award. Dalitz was partnered with Galvastan's Sam Marceo and his brother Rosario of international narcotic trafficking fame. Dalitz and Sam began with a bootlegging gig. And it was the Maceo brothers who with Dalitz financed the Desert Inn Casio (where Frank Sinatra got his first Vegas gig). Interesting note, Sam's sister Olivia married Joseph Fertitta. You probably know the famous former owners of the UFC Frank III and Lorenzo Fertitta. They're all “family”. Maceo died only a year after purchasing the casino and it quickly went into the Fertitta side of the family. Dalitz not only did business with Maceo, he ran with the Mayfield Road gang in Ohio who had a branch dubbed the Collinwood Crew nicknamed the Young Turks. This is a very fitting name considering that the ADL denies the Armenian genocide. They even fired a New England Director Andrew H. Tarsy because he broke rank and called it a genocide. See killing 1,500,000 people isn't genocide because nothing is allowed to compete with the Holocaust victimhood.Moe Dalitz at Desert InnDalitz was an early business partner with Abe Berstien of the murderous Purple Gang. They used to murder motorists for sport. That didn't bother the ADL. In 1985 they gave Moe an award. Moe would become the Mob Boss of Cleveland, even tough most of his operations would move and center on Vegas. His businesses however were all over the United States. Dalitz was not only a close confidant of Meyer Lansky, the two co-owned the Frolic Club in Miami. (p.6)The Desert Inn casino also took investments from convicted illegal arms smuggler Hank Greenspun, who was not only invested but became the publicist as well. He owned the Las Vegas Sun and pulled a money laundering scheme with advertising that was similar to what Boris Berezovsky repeated in Russia. Prior to that, he had been the publicist for another Mafia Casino, the Flamingo, which was run by Lanksy's childhood friend and murderer Bugsy Siegal. Greenspun's wife was given top honors by the ADL. Her husband attempted to smuggle 42 Pratt and Whitney R2800 LOW airplane engines to Palestine when the Haganah terrorist group was creating the state of Israel through ethnic cleansing.After jury tampering, with the sole Jewish Juror meeting with the defense, Greenspun and two of his cohorts William Sosnow, and Samuel Lewis were acquitted, but his other partners Adolph Schwimmer, Leon Gardner, Renoyld Selk, and Abraham Levin, were convicted.But Greenspun would be found guilty of smuggling the machine guns that would go with the planes as well as artillery and ammo. He stole 30 and 50 cal machine guns from Hawaii and shipped them to the Haganah in Palestine through Mexico. When he was indicted Greenspun tried to bribe his way out. He offered $25,000 to Seth Solomon Pope “or anyone else designated by Pope” to “quash” a second Neutrality Act indictment against him. Solomon worked in Hawaii at the War Assets Administration, in charge of decommissioning and selling off WWII surplus. He was most likely the original contact for the smuggling. The man was investigated three time for fraudulent sales. They also stole over 500 machine gun barrels. Reportedly Hank took an addition 10% Kickback from arms sales he made. A Grand Jury in Los Angeles indicted Hank and six other of violating the Neutrality Act and Export Control Law, Title 50 United States Code section 701 and Title 22 United Stated Code, section 452. However he got only a 10k fine and no jail time. Greenspun was paid through the SSE. The SSE was a front for the AJDC's Lishka which financed communist and Bricha illegal immigration. The Jewish Agency which was the government in waiting that organized the terrorist groups that formed Israel, facilitated the cash flow to gun runners like Hank. In “Concealed in the Open: Recipients of International Clandestine Jewish Aid in Early 1950s Hungary” Zachary Paul Levine, of Yeshiva University Museum writes.“The JDC-Israeli collaboration that formed around clandestine emigration to Israel and welfare to migrants filled the vacuum with the creation of two institutions. The first was created in 1952 by the Israeli government's Liaison Bureau of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or Lishka by its Hebrew acronym, which collected information and administered individual aid. The second was created in Switzerland in 1953. Known as the Society for Mutual Aid (SSE by its French acronym), this organization directed AJDC funds to the Lishka and represented Jewish aid providers' interests to communist governments” …”However, as an American organization at the height of the McCarthy “Red Scare,” AJDC administrators could hardly justify the appearance of sending cash or material into a state with which the U.S. was technically engaged in “economic warfare.” In March 1953, the AJDC and Lishka together established the SSE, a “paper organization” that “covered” the AJDC-Israeli partnership, and provided a means for regularized AJDC funding for Lishka from the Joint's Relief-in-Transit budget that funded activities that might have contravened U.S. law (Beizer 2009: 117). The SSE's Swiss chairman, Erwin Haymann, had years of experience channeling money from the U.S. for Bricha and other clandestine activities. Funds traveled through the SSE and on to Lishka agents who received U.S. dollars or another western currency and exchanged them into Hungarian forints on the black market in Vienna. Subsequently, these forints traveled via diplomatic pouch or in the suitcase of an apparent traveler to the legation in Budapest, whose staff distributed the cash around the country.”We learned from declassified FBI documents that Erwin Haymann, the same man aiding communist on behalf of the JA is who made three transfers of 1.3 million dollars to Greenspun. Greenspun would later become the Western Director of bonds for Israel. Haymann sent the payments to Banco del Ahorro, Mexico by cable.Interesting, because 1.3 million is exactly how much Moe Dalitz sank into the Desert Inn Casino, which Greenspun was a publicist for and invested in, what a coincidence. If you are into Kennedy Research here is a cookie for you. Hungarian Jew Tibor Rosenbaum is the bridge between Meyer Lansky, Erwin Haymann, and heavy Florida-Cuba crime syndicate. …But I will leave that tangent alone. Greespun was known for having blackmail on political candidates, Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy even plotted to raid on the Vegas Sun vault in order to gain access to blackmail that Hank had on Howard Hughes. Hughes by the way bought Mafia properties like the Desert Inn Casino using millions in cash. They credit him with cleaning Vegas up from the mob, it was more like the mob took him to the cleaners. Dalitz ironically started out with a cash only dry cleaning business.Kennedy whose father was involved with the Outfit and the East Coast mob and who had a love affair with his friend Frank Sinatra's ex-girlfriend Judith Exner while she was also involved with Chicago mob boss Sam Giacanna. Sinatra introduced her to JFK. Kennedy gave Greenspun a pardon his first year in office. I wonder why. LBJ likewise was sleeping with Mathilde Krim who was also part of the Swiss connection who help Irgun terrorist. Johnson did all this while she was married to his campaign advisor Athur Krim, a willing cuck. It makes you rethink Monica Lewinsky doesn't it. Well Clinton did give Jewish Billionaire Marc Rich a pardon, after Rich donated $100,000 to the ADL. Rich was yet another crook in the Swiss connection.These are the founders and reward recipients of the ADL. The ADL was given defacto powers of an intelligence agency in the United State and it gathers intel on who it pleases. It is anything but an Anti-Defamation League. They defame people themselves. The ADL under the cover of fighting Anti-Semitism, simply uses this cry as a club to chase down and censor anyone critical of Zionism or the Israeli state. If you point out that Israeli snipers are shooting children in Palestine from across the border, then the ADL can get you removed. Vimeo stole $5,000 in profits from me and erased six years worth of my work because of my criticism of Israel. When the ADL partnered with YouTube December of 2008, my channel was gone the first day, and over a thousand videos were erased. No justification was needed, simply the accusation of antisemitism. When I made a complaint in my appeal I learned that the ADL would oversee the case. Of course I never had my channel restored nor was I even given an explanation from YouTube. Another wing of the ADL is the SPLC and they too have been granted censorship powers across social media. The ADL used the SPLC as both an attack dog and a buffer to separate itself from ramifications of its constant chicken little censorship. In the rare case of actual antisemitic groups online or otherwise the ADL has been busted reacting to its own creations as the “Nazis” they screech about turn out to be their own provocateurs.Birthed to defend a murdering child rapist, financed by mass murdering terrorists and organized crime, narcotic peddling, gun running, psychopaths formed the pro Zionist organizational bully called the ADL. They have been caught spying through American police departments, spying on American citizens, and even coaching American police on what they should be on the look out for and how Hate Crime means anything Israel doesn't like. And this is their great online weapon. The Zog Media already refuses to report on what Israel is doing to Palestine, the Israeli role in orchestrating the Iraq War, and the Proxy War on Syria. People have been giving the information online. Naturally the ADL has been censoring such journalist all while screaming antisemitism. AIPAC bribes congress and the ADL censors the media. It is a one two punch to protect criminal Zionists interest. And now you know its criminal origins. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ryandawson.org/subscribe

Episode 740: March 27, 2025 playlist: Disiniblud (Rachika Nayar and Nina Keith), "It's Change (ft. Willy Siegel, Katie Dey and Julianna Barwick)" (Disiniblud) 2025 Smugglers Way Velvet, "Winter" (Winter) 2025 [self-released] HTRK, "Swimming Pool" (Swimming Pool / Puddles on My Pillow) 2025 Ghostly Neu!, "Seeland" (Neu! 75) 1975 Brain Nurse With Wound, "Yagga Blues (Instrumental)" (Yagga Blues) 1995 United Dairies Bella Wakame, "Shades of Nambei" (Bella Wakame) 2025 Umor Rex monde ufo, "Samba 9" (Flamingo Tower) 2025 Fire Lisa Germano, "My Secret Reason" (Geek The Girl) 1994 / 2025 4AD Abu Bakr Abdel Aziz, "Al Bint al Libya" (Born in the City of Tanta - Lower Egyptian Urban Folklore and Bedouin Shaabi from Libya's Bourini Records 1968-75) 2025 Sublime Frequencies Softcult, "9 Circles" (Heaven) 2024 Easy Life Corps Diplomatique, "Paradis I" (Dans Ta Nuit) 1988 Milk Shake Records / 2025 Dark Entries Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, "This Land Is Your Land" (Naturally) 2004 Daptone Email podcast at brainwashed dot com to say who you are; what you like; what you want to hear; share pictures for the podcast of where you're from, your computer or MP3 player with or without the Brainwashed Podcast Playing; and win free music! We have no tracking information, no idea who's listening to these things so the more feedback that comes in, the more frequent podcasts will come. You will not be put on any spam list and your information will remain completely private and not farmed out to a third party. Thanks for your attention and thanks for listening.

And our final episode in our council series is Councilmemers Tracy Taylor and Hanan Amer, two of our newest on the council.  Councilmember Taylor was a 6-time Emmy nominated and Edward R. Murrow TV/Radio Reporter in the Seattle Market for over two decades before transitioning to government work.  She now serves as a Communications Coordinator in the City of Kent, bringing her wealth of experience and community-driven spirit to her current role.  Tracy's dedication to the community is evident as the former Vice President and current board member of the Seattle Animal Foundation, volunteer and foster family with Hearts for Doxies Dog Rescue, and former City of Auburn Arts Commissioner. In addition to her community service, Tracy is a devoted bonus mom to her 18-year-old daughter and a wife to her husband, Kyle.  Councilmember Amer was born in Oklahoma and raised in Benghazi, Libya. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry from Benghazi University and works as an engineer at The Boeing Company. In 2008, Hanan married her husband, who has been a resident of Auburn since the 1990s. They raised their children in this beautiful community, both of whom graduated from Auburn High School. (Go Trojans).  Hanan graduated from the Community Emergency Response Team (or CERT) program in 2014 and is a proud lifelong member of Girl Scouts. In 2023, she was honored with her 35-year volunteer pin as a Girl Scout / Girl Guide and received the Girl Scout honor pin for outstanding service in Girl Scouts of Western Washington. She also earned the Bronze and Gold President's Service Volunteer Awards for her dedication to volunteering with the Girl Scouts and United Way of King County. 

Jimmy Graham is joined by Mike Gerst, founder and CEO of Prep EM. In this episode, they share essential tips and tricks for handling basic medical needs and discuss real-life experiences from the field as an EMT.   Subscribe for more episodes on protector culture, leadership, and resilience! Who's Jimmy Graham? Jimmy spent over 15 years in the US Navy SEAL Teams earning the rank of Chief Petty Officer (E7). During that time, he earned certifications as a Sniper, Joint Tactical Air Controller, Range Safety Officer for Live Fire, Dynamic Movement and Master Training Specialist. He also served for 7 years as an Operator and Lead Instructor for an Elite Federal Government Protective Detail for High-Risk and Critical environments, to include; Kirkuk, Iraq, Kabul, Afghanistan, Beirut, Lebanon and Benghazi, Libya. During this time he earned his certification for Federal Firearms Instructor, Simunition Scenario Qualified Instructor and Certified Skills Facilitator. Jimmy has trained law enforcement on the Federal, State, and Local levels as well as Fire Department, EMS and Dispatch personnel. His passion is to train communities across the nation in order to enhance their level of readiness in response to active shooter situations. Make sure you subscribe and stay tuned to everything we are doing. Want to get more training? - https://ableshepherd.com/ Need support? https://able-nation.org/ Follow us on: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ableshepherd Instagram - ​​https://www.instagram.com/ableshepherd/ Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ableshepherd

Since last week, Turkey has been rocked by mass protests over the jailing of Istanbul's opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, on thinly-evidence corruption and terrorism charges. These protests are widely seen as the most significant challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he came to power 22 years ago. Turkey experts Gonul Tol and Lisel Hintz weigh the risks and opportunities for the country's beleaguered democracy.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Diplomatic Hell Hole.Book 3 in 18 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels."Are we in the right place?" the stranger worried."I'm afraid so. Anais, you need to leave.""Not until you tell me what is going on here," she sizzled."She's not here to have sex, if that's what you worried about," I retorted. "Wait, are you here to have sex with me?""I barely know you.""That rarely stops me," I muttered."He's a master of bedroom antics," Pamela praised me. "He's pretty much at a loss at doing anything else.""Thanks Grandma," I griped."Your welcome, Grandson.""We, are here to meet someone," the stranger hedged."You came to the right place," Pamela preempted me. "He's definitely someone.""Fine, redo. I'm Cáel Nyilas," (deep breathe), "NOHIO, HCIESI-NDI, U HAUL, Magyarorszag es Erdely Hercege plus a bunch of other honorifics that have yet to be confirmed. I am single-handedly bringing back medievalism to the center of Europe and the Near East. The woman to my left is Pamela Pale, and she really is my bodyguard. The woman to my right is Sgt. Anais Saint-Amour, RCMP, my ex-lover and the person that needs to leave   right now.""I'm not sure I should leave at this moment," Anais shifted possessively. I had to recall earlier this morning, the part where we'd broken up by mutual consent. Yep. That had really happened. I had thought I was whittling down my current list of paramours. Why do the Goddesses hate me so?"Told you, she can't give up that cock," Pamela whispered."As you can see, I have limited control of my life," I told the strange woman. "I know you are here to meet somebody who isn't me. Now you know who I am. Who are you and your companions?""I'm Ms. Quincy.""Sorry; I'm on a first name basis with everyone I meet," I interrupted."What's your rank, Honey?" Pamela added."What makes you think,?""She doesn't think. That's what makes her so dangerous." I explained."Hey now," Pamela faux-complained."Okay. She's a fledgling telepath, or medium," I shrugged."Captain, Zelda Quincy.""In case you are mesmerized by her tits," Pamela tapped me, "she's packing some serious hardware.""One of those personal defense gizmos?" I leaned Pamela's way."Close, but no cigar. She's my kind of girl, big 'bang-bang', back-up at the small of her back and knife in her boot.""What!" Zelda gulped."She's his knife-fighting instructor," Anais answered drolly."Are you Special Forces?" Zelda regarded my mentor."Nah, I got kicked out for a consistent failure to observe even the loosest Rules Of Engagement. I'm a free-spirit.""Oh, you're a sniper," Zelda nodded."I like this one," Pamela smiled."Ah, thank you." Then, over her shoulder, "I think we are in the right place." Zelda entered the room, followed by a Hispanic panther of a man (kind of like a tanned, slightly shorter Chaz without the cool accent) wearing a long coat, and a Subcontinent-cast woman who looked at everyone as if she expected us to sprout fangs, or start quoting the Koran any second now. She obviously was a brain seconded to this mission very much against her will.The fourth person had that cagey 'when my lips move, I'm lying' look while seemingly unhappy with her current assignment. The heavy implication was that the lady was a career diplomat. Considering our current company and who we were talking to, she was State Department. She was in her late 30's or early 40's and giving off the sensation she had devoted so much to her career that she was starting to wonder if that was all that life had to offer.The fifth member was a military man clearly uncomfortable about what he was doing here, thus not a spook. His off-the-rack suit wasn't terrible, so he expected to socialize somewhat while performing his duties. He also looked like a man who expected other people to speak half-truths and obfuscated lies as easily as they breathed. Numbers three, four and five were dressed for the weather and unarmed.All of this meant they were good at what they did, though they probably didn't know the particulars of what was expected of them. They had their marching orders. Those orders were about to be made irrelevant in the company they would be keeping. The latter weren't the 'doing it by rote' kind of people they would normally be dealing with."I bet you she's a doctor," I murmured to Pamela, "she's with State and he's some sort of Foreign Service type.""I bet the first guy is Air Force," she countered."Like one of those Para-rescue guys?""No. More like one of those Battlefield Air Operations guys, I'm guessing," she corrected me."That guy?" I nodded to the final guy. "Pentagon wonk?""More likely he's one of those embassy guys. I'm going to take an educated leap here, Office of Military Cooperation, Mongolia?""That is pretty clever of you. Kazakhstan. Major Justin Colbert.""I bet some people in the White House, Pentagon and Langley are disappointed with you right now," I reasoned. His jaw grew tight."Don't worry, Major," Pamela grinned. "We consider that a good thing. We don't like the people in charge and have a low opinion of their opinion on just about everything, including their habit of blaming the blameless for their government's fuck ups.""Who are these people?" the first man whispered to Quincy."She's a telepath." That was Zelda"She's a psychic-medium." That was Anais."She can see through time." That was me. "Nice to meet you. Who are you?""Chris Diaz. Lieutenant Colonel, USAF.""Dr. Saira Yamin," the second woman introduced herself. "Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies. Are you the man from Johnston Island?""Why yes, yes I am," I beamed."The APCSS is in Waikiki, Hawaii," Pamela educated me. "Your arrival probably cost her some prime surfing time.""I was more interested in the fact that he survived a plane crash in a Category Four Cyclone," she admitted."Mother Nature hates me. No matter how hard I try, she refuses to kill me," I confessed. "My suffering is an endless source of amusement to that bitch.""That, that wasn't the helpful answer I was looking for," she stammered."So, Lt. Colonel Chris Diaz, you must be with JSOC, I have a deep and abiding respect for you guys. If you need something, just ask," I greeted him. "Captain Zelda, you are not with JSOC.""She's with the DCS ~ that is the Defense Clandestine Service," Pamela kept going. "Zelda, you love being in your uniform, you're proud, yet happy with the concept of dying in an unmarked grave for Constitution and Country. You are too old to have been in the first female class at Ranger School, so that means no 'in the field' JSOC for you. You've gotten around that stone wall by joining the US Defense Department's own little pack of killers.""Also, you felt it was necessary to bring a Benelli M4-11707. That's a close-in action shotgun, but a bit over-kill considering the paper-thin walls in this building. That tells me you are used to being in the kinds of places where such a tool is a necessity. Or in other words, since you think you are meeting a band of terrorists, you brought along your favorite toy.""Your personal weapon is a SIG Sauer P229R DAK in .357 which is a new weapon still under trial by the US Army and Air Force. Your boot dagger is ceramic so it will pass a cursory exam, or scan. You hate the idea of being trapped on a public aircraft weaponless. You have also given up killing power for a proper balance for throwing. I like a forward-thinking gal.""Air Force ~ you've recently come back from Asia, most likely Tibet. It shows in your breathing brought about by a close call with Altitude Sickness. The only reason for an Air Force guy to be here is because he's familiar with the Khanate military and you are not US Army, or Marine Corp Special Forces. I know the type.""You went with the MP5K in the standard 9mm, so you are more interested in sending bullets down range than looking into someone's face as you kill them. You may be a 'light' Colonel, which means you are almost somebody. What your higher-ups haven't appreciated is that our guests will respect you because they are like that ~ remembering past friends and comrades in arms. Of greater importance, you have Cáel's gratitude which will count for more than you currently believe."I pledged then and there to be as good as Pamela at determining that kind of stuff before I died. She had assured me it was as much a matter of psychology as eagle-eyed perception. People were often a type that gravitated to various forms of destruction, be they old school, or going for the latest gadget."I told you all that firepower was excessive," State softly chastised her associates (what they really were, not the underlings she saw them as)."So, you appeared to have forgotten to tell us your name," I regarded the State lass."Nisha Desai Biswal. I'm with the government.""Oh, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, I've examined your website," I told her. It clearly pissed her off somewhat that I so swiftly disregarded her crude attempt at subtle manipulation."Hey. I've got some real enemies at State, so it pays to know who might be the next suit trying to cock me over," I explained. I had to prioritize. It would take some serious effort to convince Zelda to have a MFF three-way straight out the gate and she was definitely the hotter number."Major, you came here unarmed," Pamela noted. "That won't do. They expect you to be armed because you are a warrior, damn it. Cáel get him one of your Glock 22's.""Gotcha," I nodded. I went to my room, tipped away the false back to my closet (that Havenstone had installed recently so Odette wouldn't accidently fire off one of my weapons) and retrieved one of my spare Glocks, but not the one with the laser sight. Such over-the-top fancy gear would be inappropriate. I only gave him one mag. If he couldn't get the job done with 15 rounds, he wouldn't have a chance to reload.Mind you, I took two in a twin-rig shoulder holster and four 22 round magazines, because I tend to shoot two-handed which doesn't exactly give you a bullseye every time. I returned to our crowded living room, handed the Major his weaponry, and then directed the US group to the far side of the room (towards Timothy's bedroom. Saira and Nisha took the couch.Because this tiny space wasn't crowded enough, there was a knock at the door. I checked. It was Juanita, oh yeah, my real bodyguard."Listen up everybody," I announced to the room. "This is my other bodyguard, my official one. Her names is Juanita Leya Antonio Garza, she's from the Dominican Republic via Buenos Aires and she is armed, so don't freak out." I opened the door."What is going on?" Juanita hissed."I'm having a private meeting with a few heavily armed friends. The other side to this party hasn't arrived yet. Why don't you come in?" She came in."Why didn't you warn me?" she whispered her complaint."Long night, worse wake-up, needed to do some soul-searching. Pamela was looking after me, then this came up and I forgot. I apologize," I lowered my head in shame. Juanita was only trying to do the job she'd been entrusted with and by not thinking of her, I was making that so much harder.I made the introductions, first names only."Juanita, Anais, Pamela; please slip into the kitchenette," I suggested.Anais "Why?"Juanita "Where are you going to be?"Pamela "Sure. I'm starving. I'm going to raid the fridge.""Anais, because I need my faction in one place. Juanita, I will be refereeing this meeting, so I will have to remain in the living room, roughly six feet from you." It was really a small apartment. "Pamela, if it is edible, it isn't mine and you'll have to replace it."Great Caesar's Ghost! No wonder Big Wigs had their personal assistants handle this pre-meeting crap. I was on my last two fucking nerves and one of those was already stressed and tender. And the real reason for being here hadn't even arrived yet."Why am I in your faction?" Anais mulled over threateningly."Because you haven't walked out that door. There are going to be three sides to this meeting, not three plus Anais. That is the way it is going to be. Now, are you going to behave, or are Juanita and Pamela going to toss you out?""You are threatening me!""Finally catching on to that, aren't you, Sweetie?" Pamela chimed in."I'm only staying because I believe you are in trouble," Anais grumped."Why is she (Anais) here?" Nisha inquired heatedly. "This is supposed to be a very, very private encounter.""I know Anais. I don't know you. I trust Anais with my well-being despite the fact she has numerous reasons to distrust me. She's staying because she is a straight arrow. That's good enough for me.""But is she going to keep her mouth shut about what happens here today?" Nisha pressed."Anais, this is a clandestine meeting that isn't going to be recorded by anybody so, barring a crime being committed, you can never discuss this with anyone who isn't already in the room. Agreed?"Pause."I agree," she nodded. I really was going to have to fuck her again. Not today. Well, maybe not today; I had to keep my options open. Her investigator mind was going into overdrive. Give it a week and she'd be knocking on my door late one night. Inquisitive, truth-hungry dames are like that, trust me. Then it would be 'bask in my genius' sex. It had been a while since I'd experienced that, with Lady Yum-Yum.There was another knock at the door. I checked before Juanita could do the checking for me, in case someone was going to shoot me through the door. Fuck it. I was going to talk to Timothy about moving. Him, me and Odette. I couldn't give those two up. It was Kazak bookends. I opened up and invited them in. It turned out they had names besides Bookends #1 and #2, Nuro and Roman.Nuro (I think) checked out the rooms while Roman (I was pretty sure) kept an eye on my guests. I made introductions, first names only and specifying who was with who. Technically, they could trust my side because I was the Great Khan's brother and thus my servants were his servants. Technically.Iskender came next followed by OT. A woman I didn't know (sadly, not OT's daughter) came in behind him while the other two quintuplets stayed in the hallway. Iskender and I hugged."Ulı Khaan s yikti ağası," he smiled. That was 'Prince-something'. My Kazak was a bit rusty. He then whispered into my ear. "OT bows to you first. His title is Hongtaiji." What?"Ulı Khaan s yikti ağası," OT bowed."Hongtaiji Oyuun T m rbaatar," I bowed back. I remembered I had to rise first. It was an etiquette thing. In retrospect, Iskender had stretched the bounds of tradition by hugging me, his titular superior. "Welcome to my humble abode.""I thank you for your hospitality," he 'grinned'. His face wasn't made for that gesture so that faint gesture came across as rather unnatural.My mind finally finished translating what Iskender and OT had called me. It wasn't 'prince'. It was 'beloved brother of the Great Khan'. Mother fucker!"Wait," Justin, the military attach  guy muttered, "we are here to meet this guy?" indicating me."What do you mean?" Saira questioned."The title Mr. Nyilas was identified with means 'beloved brother of the Great Khaan'," he explained. "The Kazakhs don't go tossing honorifics like that around. This guy," again pointing at me, "is a really important somebody.""Thanks for dropping this grenade in my lap, OT," I joked. "I'll get you for this, and your little yak too.""Odette is going to be so miffed that she missed this," Pamela chuckled."Mr. Nyilas," Zelda began."Please, call me Cáel. It is how I roll.""Cáel, can I ask you a stupid question?""Go right ahead," Pamela snorted. "Cáel does stupid real well. It is a critical part of his skill set. It makes him adorable instead of annoying. Trust me, you'll learn that soon enough."Too much 'trust me' was flying around in a room where nobody trusted anybody."Thanks for that encouragement, Teach," I grumbled. "Ask away, Captain Zelda.""Why are you playing this game with us?""I wasn't. Until thirty seconds ago I was sure I was here totally as a spectator," I gripped. "My buddy," the word dripped with sarcasm, "Temujin likes dumping these kinds of surprises on me.""Did you mean what Ms. Pale said about you feeling you owed me?" Chris asked."Absolutely.""We need help defusing this Thailand crisis before a shooting war begins.""What do you suggest?""We want the Khanate to back down," Chris stated firmly."I thought we had agreed that I would spearhead this delegation," Nisha reminded Chris."I think the situation had evolved and we need a different approach," Chris insisted."You should listen to the Lieutenant Colonel," I advised. "He knows a whole lot more about what is going on than you do.""Why don't you explain it to us?" she began her weevil-ling."You are engaging in linguistic niceties with men who have bled together, Ms. Biswal," I instructed. "Not that Chris and I have bled on the same battlefield, we have shed blood in the same cause; and that cause has been bringing our two nations, the Khanate and the US, together. The Khanate owes Chris for his efforts on our behalf and we pay our debts.""How so?" Nisha asked."National Security stuff," I evaded. "If you don't know, you shouldn't know and you probably don't want to know. Suffice it to say, the Khanate is willing to listen to Lt. Colonel Diaz's request as a friend.""But he doesn't speak for the United States Government," she corrected."Why not?" I riposted. "He's dealt with the Khanate longer than you have. He has a clue about the mindset of their rank and file.""But does he know their leadership?" she persisted."I don't know. Chris, do you think you have a handle on me?""Are you really capable of talking for the Khanate government?" Nisha preempted Chris. What she left unsaid was 'are you culpable in their atrocities?'"Let's find out," I then looked over my shoulder. "Hongtaiji Oyuun T m rbaatar, will my words and wishes reach my brother's ear?""That is why I am here," he replied."Don't you have the authority to speak for your leader?" she grilled OT. Nisha was relentless trying to stay in the limelight. "Aren't you a diplomat?""There is no need to insult the man," Pamela snidely commented."I am one of many voices that provide information to the Great Khan. I am not his brother. Cáel Nyilas is and has already proved his familial affection by proposing Operation Funhouse and brought whole nations as gifts," OT schooled her. "He is gifted with both tactical and strategic insight as well as sharing the Great Khan's love for his people and his hopes for their eventual freedom.""I didn't think you were a soldier," Zelda looked me over."Oh no," I wove off that insinuation. "I've never been a real soldier and am unworthy of that distinction. I know quite a few who have earned that title and they scare the crap out of me. I mean, they go looking for trouble. In my case, trouble comes looking for me. I'm damn lucky to still be alive and that's the damn truth.""Bullshit," Pamela coughed."What was that, Artemisia?" I winked at her."Bitch," she laughed "My men have become women, and my women men. At least you didn't call me Cassandra.""Well, she's Greek (a deadly insult to all Amazons), but you could be her Evil Twin because everyone believes whatever you say.""Can we get down to business?" Chris inquired."Damn," Pamela shook her head. "They haven't been paying attention.""What does that mean?" Zelda griped."Iskender, you know what I'm talking about, don't you?" I asked."Not a clue, Exalted One," he stood there like a stone statue. Note, the Khanate contingent really were standing there like the Altai Mountains, doing nothing. You had to carefully examine them to see that they did indeed breathe and blink."Use small words," Pamela advised."You really are a rude misanthrope," Anais told Pamela."Do you know what's going on?" Pamela volleyed."No.""Then sit back and watch how the madness works," she snickered. "It is all you, Cáel.""Okay. One; how did Artemisia escape the battle of Salamis?" I began. Nothing."Oh," Justin nodded. "She rammed an allied ship to make the pursuing Athenians think she was an ally. What does that have to do with our current predicament?""Achieve your ends by using violence as a distraction," I sighed. "The Khanate will invade Thailand in," I looked to OT, "tomorrow?" He nodded."How does that help us?" Nisha complained."Second example, Cassandra. She saw the truth through all illusions and falsehoods and no one believed her. Now, reverse that."Pause."We are waiting," Saira finally joined the conversation. I could hear those little microprocessors inside her noggin firing electrons at light speed."We fight a phony war. The Khanate and their buddies invade in a lightning campaign that appears to be successful. Shit like attacking the opposition where they ain't. Things that look epic on CNN where some retired colonel, no offense...""None taken," Chris responded."Where some colonel talks about seizing resources, severed supply lines and encirclement. We, the Khanate, bomb shit like bridges and supply dumps, things with no civilians to get killed. On the downside, to make this work the Khanate needs to put some level of force into Bangkok.""That will get civilians killed," Nisha reminded me, unnecessarily."Civilians are getting killed right now by their own government. This time they will get a chance to strike back," I stated firmly. "The Thai protestors aren't cowards. They are just grossly outgunned. We can change that.""How does that help the United States?" Nisha queried."The US gets to come in and save the day," I sighed. "The US can t get there until the day after, so you don't look bad about letting the first 24 hours of brutality happen.""Oh," Zelda blinked."The US gets to end the fighting that the Khanate has no desire to continue. The US brings peace, while whomever takes over owes the Khanate. Both sides look good. Both sides claim victory. The President gets a second Nobel Peace Prize (psychic, aren't I?). The US gathers some regional allies like Malaysia, the ROC and the Philippines along with our Marines to ensure free and fair elections. The Khanate isn't seen to be backing down against the Titan of Western Civilization. They are working with them to bring about a better world.""Win-win," Saira nodded in agreement."The Khanate is still an autocratic tyranny," Nisha commented."As opposed to the People's Republic's oligarchical tyranny?" Chris countered."Agreed," Saira said. "I now think we should work with the Khanate to bring stability to Central Asia which which was impossible while those member nations were being squeezed between Russia, Europe, China and India.""What are you a doctor of?" I asked."I specialize in 'failed states', among other things," Saira grinned."This could still turn into one bloody cluster-fuck," Zelda mused."My peopled don't have the resources to devastate Thailand," OT finally spoke. "If you, the US, agrees to intervene on our timetable, you will have our thanks, off the record, of course.""How do we know this isn't some ruse to allow the Khanate to overthrow Thailand's existing government?" Justin questioned."You have my word," I replied. No one said anything for several heartbeats."Really?" Nisha balked."Mr. Nyilas, Cáel, do you give me the Great Khan's word?" Chris studied me intently."Without reservation," I answered. "For what you have done for us and more, the Great Khan will honor this deal. We and the Thai's will do the bleeding. You will get your accolades. We avoid a pointless clashing of forces, which is why we are all here today.""I will give you my written recommendation in a few hours," Saira told Nisha.Chris stepped forward to shake my hand. He was an alpha-type alright. I gave as good as I got. His eyes bore into mine, looking for a faltering of will."What did you do in Romania?""I got a lot of good men killed.""Okay.""Okay?" Nisha squawked. "A handshake, a pat on the back and the deals done? Since when did our democratic republic do business this way? He admitted he got men killed in Romania. What is to say this won't be Romania writ large?""Ms. Biswal, he told the truth. He got good men killed and he isn't happy about it. I would be worried if he claimed one bit of glory from that episode. He didn't.""Nisha," I took a deep breathe, "When you unleash men with weapons, nothing is assured. Maybe the Thai government will see the hate coming their way and back down. Maybe the people will resist the intrusion. Maybe the Khanate's forces will get slaughtered at the starting line. It isn't like they have enough time to deploy enough forces to win a protracted war.""What happens if the Khanate decides it won't go?" she continued."Then they get destroyed on the ground in a war of attrition," Chris answered for me. "He's right. They can't bring enough in the time allotted to completely overwhelm the roughly 120,000 members of the Royal Thai Army that have remained loyal to the regime.""In three days they will be out of fuel, shells, rockets and bullets. It is logistics, Ms. Biswal," Zelda piled it on. "The Khanate war-fighting systems are not NATO compatible. That means they can't simply capture more material as they penetrate the frontiers. If they overstay their welcome, we can launch missile strikes against their fuel depots. The combat devolves back to World War I and that's a style of war they can't afford to fight.""What about stopping the Khanate from invading in the first place?" Nisha wouldn't give up."Had the US acknowledged the Khanate, none of this would have happened, Ms. Biswal," I became snappish. "Neither superpower talked to the other until other commitments had been made.""If you think you can come in and start dictating Khanate policy, you are dreadfully mistaken. The US doesn't have the power, or the resolve," I glared at her. "Don't try convincing the Khanate that isn't the case. We know better.""You don't know what the US is capable of," she snapped back."Abandoning Iraq with a fractured pseudo-democratic process? Abandoning Afghanistan without destroying the Taliban? The Syrian Civil War? The Donbass Crisis? The collapse of Libya? Boko Haram? Somalia? Yemen? Exactly how has the US's power and resolve solved any of those issues?" I countered."Ms. Biswal," OT spoke again. "We are willing to create a desert and call it 'Peace'. Our enemies know that. Your unwillingness to do so is neither a strength nor a weakness. It is a hallmark of your society in the same way that 'Total War' is a hallmark of ours. We are more than willing to leave you to manage the Peace. Let us manage the War against the forces opposed to civilized discourse.""As ugly and disagreeable as it is, we are willing to keep creating pyramids of skulls on every street corner until either they learn their lesson, or we kill them all. Let us do that and you will have your global stability and reap the economic benefits and accolades of Pax Americana. We are not your enemy. We are precisely the ally you need to keep the peace and we will do that, if you let us.""To allow barbarism is to become barbarians," Saira mused."That is complete fiction," I scoffed. "The United States didn't become communist because it allied with the Soviet Union in World War II. Truman didn't become Stalin. The enemy of my enemy is my friend is older than recorded history.""It is the Carrot and the Stick on a Global basis," Justin agreed. "Listen to the gentle words of the West, or you will end up feeling the wrath of the East.""As long as the Khanate accepts the limitations of is role," Saira added, "this might work. Please understand there will be factions in the Western Democracies who will not accept that status quo. It is not in the nature of our societies to stifle dissent.""Is it possible to get any political concessions from the Khanate's leadership?" Justin requested. "A pledge to hold some level of democratic elections? A Constitution with some strong provisions to protect individual rights and liberties would be nice.""Justin, in case your bosses missed it, the Khanate is still at a state of war with the PRC," I shook my head. "With their limited experience with democratic government throughout most of the Khanate's territories, that would be madness.""With limited concessions to the Imperial State, we have not interfered with the politics of Albania, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey. We are never going to become a Western-style democracy. We have had limited rule by consensus long before White Men arrived in the Western Hemisphere," OT informed them."Discounting the Irish Monks, Vikings and Knights Templar," Pamela interjected."If you say so," OT gave a minuscule bow to Pamela. "Long before your nation was anything more than the scribbled history of a long-faded Greek city-state, we had meritocracies, oligarchies of senior statesmen & warriors, thinkers and religious leaders, and we had codified judicial moral equality into the political arena. We have a far superior record of religious and minority freedom, of genuine multi-culturalism plus a deeper understanding of the arts and crafts as a means of uniting disparate peoples. We find your claims of cultural superiority to be childish.""Oh, snap," I snickered. "You get'em, OT.""I bet the boys in Foggy Bottom felt that pimp-slap," Pamela agreed."I bet the bronzed skull of some Harvard dean just fell off its pedestal.""They are called 'busts'," Anais groaned. "With a name like that, how could you forget it?""So true," I concurred. "All this responsibility must have clouded my normally hedonistic vocabulary.""That doesn't change the fact that you have employed biological warfare and genocide in this current day and age," Justin pointed out."Tell that to our Native Americans," I snorted. "They are easy to find. They live in trailer parks in whatever blasted Hell Hole we stuck them in, or in their casinos where they are buying back their country, one rube at a time. Ask them if they've gotten over it.""We don't claim to be perfect," Justin insisted."No, we merely claim to have the only correct form of government, economic policy and schools of philosophical, political, scientific and educational thought," I pointed out."We definitely should revive ethical utilitarianism," Pamela slapped a fist into her palm. "Oh, and the guillotine. Work houses for orphans and grist mills for the disabled, and A Modest Proposal for those chronically unemployed and terminally homeless, yes, and,""Pamela, what is it with you today?" I snickered."It is nearly sunset,""Ah, and you haven't killed anyone yet.""You know how cranky I get when I don't get my daily dose of homicide.""Are you two done?" Anais frowned. She did that a lot around me."And you don't hand out Mini-Uzi's to your preschoolers," Pamela glowered. "What is wrong with you people?"Pause, waiting for that punch line that was never coming. See, it was more difficult to sense Pamela was an immediate threat to your health if you thought she was completely off her rocker."Hmm, well, on that note, ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have a deal. Chris and Justin, I will leave you with my loyal Iskender to work out the gory details. Who wants to grab dinner?" I inquired."Are you serious?" Nashi gasped."Oh yeah. I had the Russian invasion of Manchuria figured out in this amount of time and Manchuria is way bigger than Thailand." Was it? I didn't know. Geography was not one of those subjects which gets you laid."What do you have in mind?" Zelda inquired."Whatever you want."{1 am, Sunday, August 31st ~ 8 Days to go}"How did I end up in bed with you?" Zelda sighed happily, her body splayed halfway over mine and her head resting on my chest, listening to my heartbeat."You aren't the first girl to ask me that question."On the other side, Anais moaned in her sleep. Yeah, she was over me. Abso-fucking-lutely. If you recall, she'd try anything once. I convinced her the military babes were totally different than that Goth chick we'd blown the mind of back in Montreal.Zelda was with me because I had caught her in a lie. She claimed to be a lesbian when I first hit on her. She was adamant. I destroyed her with incontrovertible evidence.A) She hadn't scoped out Anais when she came in. A glance didn't count and Anais oozed sexy when she was angry, which was most of the time.B) She hadn't scoped out Juanita's figure when said worthy went to the kitchenette. I look for such things and Juanita has thighs to die for.C) When I told her she had a wicked sense of humor, she blushed. Honestly, lesbians rarely care about strange men complimenting their personalities.D) Then I double-downed by asking her if she preferred a shower, or bath. She said shower (because that's the butch thing to say). When I asked her 'when was the last time she'd had a bubble bath', she blushed again. Lesbians don't like it when a man imagines them naked. Straight chicks, unless you are a creepy, stalker guy, like it when men fantasize about them swathed in bubbles, thus semi-clothed, thus not creepy.E) In a final and fatal act of evasion, she asked a grumpy Anais what she liked about me. Anais was blunt."He can fucking hammer you all night, sneak in a romantic quickie in the shower, cook you a delicious breakfast then give you another round of mind-numbing intercourse up against the wall before you have to go to work. And still find the time and energy to fuck your neighbor."Woot!"So, this happens to you often?" she mused, it was a trap. She really wanted to know if I was an egotistical scumbag who took advantage of every woman I came across. At the same time, she wanted to know if I considered her a 'whoe' ~ a woman who gives up the goodies for free."Do you mean 'am I taking advantage of you'?" I replied."That is not what I asked," she persisted. That meant 'yes'."Let me see," I laid back and looked up at the ceiling. "I have a fiancée, six women I am close enough to to spend quality time with, a fuck-buddy who is a sweet girl and trusts me too much and a passel of ex-girlfriends who have found my infidelity to be reprehensible.""Six women?" she frowned."Four co-workers (Rhada, Oneida, Yasmin and Buffy), the girlfriend of a co-worker who dumped her in a very public fashion (Brooke) and that woman's friend (Libra). She was the wing-chick who was stuck with me on a quadruple-date and was underwhelmed with me when we first met."I didn't count my 'hook-ups' and I wasn't sure how to qualify Nicole."Ex's?""'No' is not a word in common usage in my vocabulary. I've dated a best friend's girl, a mother, sister and aunt of the same girlfriend, basically, I'm either highly immoral, incredibly loose, or a letch.""Don't you take responsibility for any of those, relationships?""Hell yeah," I tilted her chin up so that we could make eye-contact. "I've never blamed a woman for taking out her frustrations on my flesh, ran away from a screaming fit (Big Lie!), or blamed them for any failing in our relationship. It is always my fault because I can't stay loyal.""That's depressing," Zelda moped."Don't get me wrong. I don't find fault in any of the women I have spent time with. That is my problem, I find women fascinating; never boring, or bland. Quite frankly, it is a gift that I don't regret having. I may be a fuck-up, but I'm a fuck-up who will give you the very best attention.""Full of yourself, much?" her attitude shifted. I had short-circuited her fears; I was a cheater, I confessed to it without shame because I was inexorably drawn to her beauty, personality and charm. With Anais around, I couldn't claim to be solely enchanted with Zelda, so I had to think quickly on my feet. After all, Zelda was energetic and had great stamina."I promised you pleasure," I countered. "Did I deliver?""Yes, you are full of yourself," she slapped my stomach. I wasn't full of myself. I was a confident sex machine."Thank you.""Huh?""Wonderful sex, taking a chance with me, agreeing to a three-way, being awake after," I looked at the bed-table clock, "six hours.""I run five miles a day," she bragged."I try to have ten hours of sex a day," I teased. Zelda slapped my stomach again. Anais stirred."Do any women like you, for any reason beyond your cock?""I'm considered loyal where sex is not concerned, reliable and brave," I offered."What happened in Romania?""Have you ever been in combat?""I've been in violent confrontations, but not a true firefight," she admitted."Hmm,""Is it something that you can't relate?" she asked."No. You are a soldier so you probably know more about combat than I do. It was, not chaotic at all. I never lost perspective of what was going on despite the bullets flying around. The Romanian Captain in charge knew his stuff, directed his company well and all I had to do was figure out where the terrorist leader was.""What happened?" she perked up."I am here talking with you and he's in a morgue in Bucharest.""Oh," She wanted more."I have to live with the knowledge that I set all of that in motion, Zelda. I convinced the Romanians that they had to confront that terror group before they moved on to their next target, me.""I knew they would come after me and my friends, no matter where we were. Which would have ended up as a blood bath in some urban center. So I felt compelled to strike first. Based on information I provided, the Romanian Army sent two battalions, the 22nd and 24th, of the 6th Mountain Troops Brigade into battle.""It was a massacre," I remembered sadly."But you won," she tried to comfort me."Of the four companies involved in the battle, the Romanians suffered nearly two hundred dead and wounded. I hardly consider it anything other than a massacre. Yes, we won. Only three of the terrorists escaped. Their leader died. I don't think I've ever felt so hollow in my life," I finished."Forty percent losses, that is horrific," she crawled on top of me."The kicker is the Romanians sent some men of the 24th to hunt me down when I was kidnapped. A squad was in the group that rescued me and my companion from Johnston Island. I thought they would never want to deal with me ever again.""Don't be so hard on yourself. If they thought well enough of you to send their men out to rescue you, then you must have done right by them.""Chaz said something like that too," I felt sheepish and sleepy."Chaz? Who is she?"Honest to God, one day I want to find a girl who thinks I'm talking about another girl and asks if we can have a three-way, instead of trying to compare herself to this unknown person. Wait... I already had someone like that. Her name was Odette."Chaz is Color Sergeant Charles 'Chaz' Tomorrow of Her Majesty's SSR," I corrected her assumption."SSR? Those are some tough people. How do you know him?""Black Bag directives from the National Security Council, sworn to secrecy upon penalty of death, pinky-promise kind of stuff," I grinned. Maybe I wasn't all that sleepy after all."You really are a Man of Mystery," Zelda purred. She had truly exceptional stamina. "Maybe I can convince you to talk.""Maybe I can find another use for my tongue," I countered and off we went. Somewhere along the process, Anais woke up and joined in.It wasn't all fun and games. Anais' parting words were "You are a pig," then she sauntered out of my room and out of my life. Had she remembered to take her Serge with her, I would have bought the act. As it was,"Is she always so volatile?" Zelda remarked."Volatile? That's not her being volatile. That's Anais being affectionate. Volatile usually is accompanied by thrown objects and bodily harm," I sighed happily. Meeting her one more time couldn't be all that bad, could it? Zelda looked hungry so I shoved that thought to the back of my mind and got to work.That was the highlight of my Sunday. Zelda had to fly back to Washington D.C. and I had to go to work with JIKIT. It seemed that the Khanate and the US military were heading for a showdown. I unloaded all my Saturday's activities to the team and we got to work, no recriminations. I was the Khan's spiritual brother and sometimes that meant I had to do him favors.I asked Addison when she thought he would return the favor. She laughed, then smiled and told me that wasn't how it worked. He was a world leader now and I was merely his kooky kinsman that he would keep throwing problems at until one day I broke. Then it would be some other poor saps turn.Then she told me she was kidding and clearly the Great Khan thought the world of me. I chose to believe the second lie because it made me feel better, and it was promising to be a long weekend/start of the week.Note: Geopolitical DevelopmentsWhat follows are snippets of the Battle for Thailand that takes place late in the night of September 1stand continued into the early morning of September 3rd. If this does not interest you, you can rejoin Cáel's exploits in four pages)On the eve of battle, the Royal Thai High Command had decided to strip all but one armored unit from the 2nd Army in order to give the First Army's offensive against the rebels more of a punch. It's decision to strip the tank battalions from both their infantry divisions as well as the armored and one of the two mechanized regiments would prove to be disastrous. It was as if the leadership of the Royal Thai military were idiots.The least economically valuable part of the country was the northeast which the 2nd Army warded. They had severely underestimated the airlift capacity of the Khanate as well as the willingness of Laos and Cambodia to both use their armed forces in an invasion as well as their willingness to let Vietnamese troops cross their countries.That thinking had led the Thai military to adopt a 'forward defense' strategy, the desire to fight the enemy at the borders, as opposed to having stronger formations deeper within the country. Considering the relative weakness of the Cambodian and Laotian militaries, that policy had made sense:- The baseline Laotian and Cambodian tank was the T-54/55, a 1950's Soviet relic. The normal anti-tank capabilities in all Thai infantry formations was more than equal to such a threat.-Neither country had an air force worth worrying about.In contrast, the Khanate's primary tanks, the T-90SM and T-95 were resistant to most of what the Thai Army could throw at them, at least from the front. The seven hundred combat aircraft the Khanate and the Vietnamese were able to field was an equal catastrophe for the Thais. It greatly compensated for the relative small numbers of invaders.Finally, there was a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Alliance's goals were. Military logic dictated the destruction of Thailand's mobile force followed by the capture of Bangkok. As long as the Thai regime held the capital, it would remain the legitimate power in the country.Due to the altering political landscape, the Alliance's only option was to make the government 'look bad'. The loss of peripheral provinces, while of negligible immediate strategic value, looked great on the maps the world-wide media would be showing to their audiences. It would appear that the Thai army had failed to defend their country. That would (hopefully) make the Thai Third Army look like the legitimate authority in Thailand.That was the plan anyway, and you know what they say about battle plans and the enemy, right? H-hour was 4 am, September 1st.The commander of the Zuun stood up and waited to be recognized. The staff officer from the Yunnan Command pointed at him."Sir, why are we doing this? I am not afraid to fight for the Great Khan, but this action seems to be suicidal. We will be far behind enemy's lines while our offensive force will be grossly under-equipped.""You will have to rely on our ability to supply you by air.""We only have supplies for two days of operations. What happens then?""We rely on the Americans to come and save us," the senior officer responded bitterly."Allah save us from allies," the young commander muttered. What else could he do?He was part of the 2nd Mountain Sultan Mehmet Tumen which had just arrived in Yunnan to replace the exhausted 1st Mountain Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur Tumen. His men were from Turkey, inexperienced in combat and using new equipment they were not familiar with. They would be working with a unit he had never worked with before, the 1st Airmobile Tauekel Khan Tumen, Kazaks, who would be seizing the small airport his men needed to land in.From there, they were to 'run amok'. That was the technical term for racing south down a highway in Central Thailand, attacking the headquarters of the 3rd Cavalry Division, an armored unit. Once that was accomplished, they were to attack the local police precinct. Provided they were still alive after that, they were to return to the air strip to resupply then they were to 'spread chaos' until they were finally hunted down by the vastly larger Thai division his 100 men would be fighting.Of course, there was the plan for the rebel Royal Thai Third Army to force their way through the larger frontline forces of the loyalist Royal Thai First Army and come to his rescue. How would the Thai troops respond when ordered to fight their fellow Thais? No one was sure. If there was any hope in this mission, it was the knowledge that several other Zuuns had the exact same mission in other areas of Thailand.  It was H-hour minus twenty-two.It was 11 o'clock in the evening when the general in charge of the Royal Thai 9th Infantry Division was woken up. The Marines were leaving. That was correct; the three Royal Thai regiments were heading west to Sattahip Naval Base, because they had been ordered to by the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Navy. It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize why this was going on.Seven hours earlier, the Royal Thai Army had seized all the Air Force bases in the 1st and 2nd Army districts as well as ordering the 4th Army to do the same thing (The Royal Thai Air Force had been trying to remain neutral in the upcoming civil war).Undoubtedly the navy had decided to make their assets less 'hijack-able'. A few phone calls later confirmed that most of the Navy had set sail for parts unknown and the naval air units at Ban Sattahip Air Base (U-Tapao International Airport) had also departed either out to sea, or to ports and bases in the South.He made a personal appeal to the commander of Marine Forces to no avail. They wanted no part of the upcoming struggle and advised the general to do the same. The general had other problems. The Royal Thai Marines were the frontline forces facing the southern border with Cambodia. He quickly reorganized his regiments, sending them to take the old Marine strongpoints to await further orders. Stopping the Marines never entered his mind.That was a bloodletting he wanted no part of. The last thing he did was inform his superiors, thus avoiding any stupid orders to the contrary. Suddenly the nebulous movements along the Cambodian border developed a haunting significance. He wondered how much longer he had before something happened.  It was H-hour minus five.At midnight a loyalist commander of a company of mechanized infantry in the 2nd Cavalry's 11th Battle Group (named after their axis of advance, Highway 11) decided to send a motorized section of his command forward to the advance position his battalion was to occupy come sunrise. Either later in the day, or tomorrow morning, the forces loyal to the regime would launch a coordinated assault against the rebels main supply center at Phitsanulok.He had a cot set up in his communications hut and had just nodded off when the radio squawked to life. His lieutenant in charge of the advance made a hurried report. They had encountered serious opposition in a confusing night action, then he went silent. The captain immediately swung into action. He put the rest of his men on alert, then contacted the neighboring Tank Battalion. He needed some armored support. He made a similar call to the attached artillery component.The Tank Battalions night officer quickly put a platoon of light tanks at his disposal. The artillery were ready for any fire mission he sent their way. Before the armor could arrive, the company commander found himself being called to the carpet by the Duty Officer at the 3rd Cavalry (two regiments of the 2nd Cav. had been attached to the 3rd's command) over his 'offensive' action and the relief mission was called off. What had happened to the patrol of 20 Royal Thai soldiers? He was ordered to wait until sunrise to find out.Little did anyone know, these were the first combat casualties of the upcoming rebel offensive. His patrol had stumbled across a battalion of mechanized troops arriving at their jump off point for the attack that was less than six hours from beginning. Neither the commander of the 11th Battle Group, the 3rd Cavalry Division, or First Army was informed that the enemy had already advanced twenty kilometers south of where they were supposed to be.  

Clint Emerson is a retired DEVGRU Navy SEAL, bestselling author, media personality, and the #1 crisis management professional you want in your corner when things go awry. As an operative within the elite SEAL Team 6, Clint served in various combat zones executing high-stakes missions including against Somali Pirates, Al Qaeda Leaders, and other covert operations. And he's a returning guest to the podcast as well - a personal friend of Mike's outside the studio, familiar fans will recognize Clint from his previous appearances alongside the likes of Shane Hiatt and Clark Impastato. But lately, Clint's been working on something new - a state-of-the-art crisis management and risk mitigation company called 'Escape The Wolf' that's been making worldwide waves in the private security sector due to Clint's emphasis on providing actionable information on insecure corporate buildings, file systems, and even employees - all obtained by breaking into multi-billion dollar corporations in the dead of night, among other means. And speaking of security, what kind of hardware are two retired Navy SEALs like Mike and Clint hauling around in their EDC's nowadays, anyway? Subscribe to the Mike Drop Patreon Page to see Ad-Free Episodes Early + Bonus Content at https://www.patreon.com/mikedrop ---------- Support Clint Emerson - Get Your Copy of Clint's Books 'Escape The Wolf,' '100 Deadly Skills,' and more at https://clintemerson.com/books/ Find Out More About Clint's Security Company ESCAPE THE WOLF at https://escapethewolf.com Website - https://clintemerson.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/100deadlyskills ---------- Sponsors: C. Crane When the internet goes dark, radio still works! Order Your C. Crane CC Skywave SSB 2 today when you call C. Crane's U.S. based Customer Service at 800-522-8863 or visit https://ccrane.com/drop and use code DROP at checkout for 10% off orders over $75! ---------- Truewerk Check out the full lineup and get 15% off your first order at https://truewerk.com/mikedrop. That's 15% off at https://truewerk.com/mikedrop! ---------- BUBS Naturals The BUBS namesake derives from Glen ‘BUB' Doherty, who was heroically killed in Benghazi, Libya in 2012. In addition to remembering Glen for the patriot he is, the BUBS ethos centers around the passionate and adventure seeking life that Glen lived. BUBS Naturals products are rooted in sustainably sourced ingredients and controlled consistency to provide our customers with the highest quality Collagen Protein & MCT Oil Powder that help you feel amazing and live a fuller life. Our mission is simple. FEEL GREAT. DO GOOD. 10% always goes back to charity, helping military men and women transition back into civilian life. Go to https://www.bubsnaturals.com/mike and use code MIKE for 20% off your order. ---------- TEAM DOG FOOD, TREATS & SUPPLEMENTS Be Your Dog's Hero: Veteran-owned by a former Navy SEAL and Special Operations K9 Trainer, Team Dog provides a complete diet of science-backed premium dog food, treats, and supplements to optimize your dog's health, forged from rigorous standards and real-world expertise. https://www.teamdog.shop TEAM DOG ONLINE TRAINING Mike Ritland – a former Navy SEAL & Special Operations K9 trainer – shares his simple and effective dog training program to build trust and control with your dog. Based on Mike's bestselling book “Team Dog, Train the Navy SEAL Way”, join tens of thousands of families that successfully trained their way to a better dog. https://www.teamdog.pet SHOP ALL THE MIKE RITLAND BRANDS Get all your Mike Ritland branded gear - Mike Drop | Trikos | Team Dog https://shop.mikeritland.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Self-management was at the core of the identity of Yugoslav socialism and its best export. It was an outgrowth of nonalignment, the domestic expression of Yugoslavia's aspirations to play a global role and differentiate itself from the two power blocs. Yugoslavia's nonalignment would not have been possible without self-management and Yugoslavia's self-management would not have been possible without nonalignment.With Goran Musić, Ljubica Spaskovska, and Želimir Anić. Featuring music by Five Revolutions, Groupe Amnar awal Libya, and Kemal Monteno.Part 3 of 6.* * * Remembering Yugoslavia PLUS: an extended episode featuring 20+ min. of additional commentary, stories, analysis, archival footage, and music. Exclusive for Yugoblok members. * * * Remembering Yugoslavia is a Yugoblok podcast exploring the memory of a country that no longer exists. Created, produced, and hosted by Peter Korchnak.Show notes and transcript: Yugoblok.com/Nonaligned-Movement3/Instagram: @rememberingyugoslavia & @yugo.blokJOIN YUGOBLOKSupport the show

John's guest this week is John Nay. He is a guest from a previous show where they talked over Nay's life journey, including 36 years in the US Foreign Service. In this show they talk over the wide range of experiences of such a career. Also, he talks over the murder of the American Ambassador to Libya in Benghazi, and the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, leading to 444 days as hostages before being released.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this shocking and deeply revealing episode, Michael Jaco is joined by Cathy O'Brien, a survivor of MK-Ultra mind control and whistleblower, and Lynn Scott Haggerman, an investigator exposing global trafficking networks. Together, they pull back the curtain on the sinister forces enabling child exploitation—and what YOU can do to fight back.

Jonathan Powell, the UK's National Security Adviser, is used to operating behind the scenes: he's spent decades working as a diplomat, negotiator and mediator. Recent events in the US and Ukraine have thrust him into the spotlight. After the fiery Oval Office meeting between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, Powell has been credited with advising Ukraine and ensuring that lines of communication were kept open. He travelled to Kyiv to meet Zelensky and played a key role in fashioning a plan for a ceasefire and the steps that might follow.Powell began his career in the foreign office before becoming Tony Blair's chief of staff. He was crucial to the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement which helped bring peace to Northern Ireland. Since then, he's worked on resolving conflicts and crises all over the world in places like Colombia, Mozambique and Libya.Mark Coles talks to his friends, family and former colleagues to find out how this veteran negotiator became one of the most important figures shaping British foreign policy. Presenter: Mark Coles Producers: Viv Jones, Hugh Sheehan, Clare Williamson, Mantej Deol Editor: Bridget Harney Sound: James Beard Production Co-ordinators: Maria Ogundele, Sabine Schereck

Putin hesitates on Ukraine's ceasefire, Trump plays shuttle diplomacy, and the West braces for Russia's next move. We break down Mark Galeotti's take on Putin's indecisiveness and Trump's latest call with Moscow. Plus, Russia's ghost ships in Libya—what's behind Moscow's growing influence in North Africa? Then, we tackle listener questions: Is the West retaliating against Russian undersea sabotage? Will NATO stand by Denmark over Greenland? And is Trump trying to pull a “Nixon to China” move with Russia? We wrap up with a former MI6 officer stepping out of the shadows for a very British cause. All that and more in this week's Espresso Martini. Subscribe and share to stay ahead in the world of intelligence, geopolitics, and current affairs. Please share this episode using these links YouTube: https://youtu.be/9wFN-TxSpss Podfollow: https://pod.fo/e/2bc5e8 Articles discussed in today's episode "Ukraine talks show that ‘macho' Putin hates tough decisions" by Mark Galeotti | The Times: https://www.thetimes.com/world/russia-ukraine-war/article/ukraine-peace-deal-is-on-trump-time-putin-may-miss-his-moment-n58zc7glm "Trump says Russia-Ukraine 'on track' for ceasefire after Zelensky call" by Barak Ravid | Axios: https://www.axios.com/2025/03/19/trump-zelensky-call-russia-ceasefire "Russia's ghost ships haunt Libya" by David Kenner | ICIJ: https://www.icij.org/news/2025/03/russias-ghost-ships-haunt-libya/ "Former intelligence agent to host talk for Suffolk Church" by Oil Picton | Ipswich Star: https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/24999442.former-intelligence-agent-host-talk-suffolk-church/ Thanks for listener questions from Richard, Daniel, and Michael! Support Secrets and Spies Become a “Friend of the Podcast” on Patreon for £3/$4: www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies Buy merchandise from our Redbubble shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996 Subscribe to our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDVB23lrHr3KFeXq4VU36dg For more information about the podcast, check out our website: https://secretsandspiespodcast.com Connect with us on social media Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/secretsandspies.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/secretsandspies Facebook: https://facebook.com/secretsandspies Spoutible: https://spoutible.com/SecretsAndSpies Follow Chris and Matt on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fultonmatt.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/chriscarrfilm.bsky.social Secrets and Spies is produced by F & P LTD. Music by Andrew R. Bird Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode unpacks global events through the lens of intelligence and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and analysts.

The Adverb that Changed Everything: Arbitration, State Immunity and the case of General Dynamics v Libya Join Liz Kantor, Vanessa Naish, and guest, Andrew Cannon, as they explore the fascinating intersection of arbitration and state immunity in the Court of Appeal's decision in General Dynamics v Libya. They unravel how the addition of a single adverb in an arbitration clause could waive a state's immunity from execution. Discover the implications of this case for the enforcement of arbitral awards against states and the importance of precise drafting in arbitration agreements.

Rescue and patchwork relationship.B Book 3 in 18 parts, y FinalStand. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels.Loving your enemy is easy, you know precisely where both of you stand(Right where we left off)The closest Marine had been waiting for me to finish my bonding moment with Menner before speaking. He walked and talked like an officer."You are certainly Mr. Cáel Nyilas," he nodded. "I'm Lt. Robeson, United States Marine Corps. I would like to take you and your party home. What is the situation?""Lieutenant, this young lady is Aya Ruger. She was kidnapped along-side me and managed to kill over twenty of our enemies, so be careful around her." I was deadly serious about what I said. Aya should get proper credit for all the people she sedated then drowned. Dead was dead, even if it was accidental."These two," I pointed to Zhen and Mu, "are Lúsìla ninda and Amar, Taiwanese nationals suffering some shock from the abrupt crash landing of the aircraft. They don't seem to know why they were kidnapped, but they were instrumental in aiding Aya and me making it to shore during the typhoon.""If you say so, Sir," he nodded. He did believe me, yet a soldier was taught to be skeptical of anything a civilian told him about a military situation. "The bodies?""Those are the corpses we found after the storm. I decided we should attempt to place them in your custody so you can figure out who they are," I suggested."Sir, I don't think we can let civilians keep their weapons aboard the flight," the Marine Lt. stated since I had both a pistol and submachine gun, Aya had her pistol and Zhen had her and Mu's blades. A Marine NCO sent a party to gather the dead."Marine, I am Cáel Nyilas, Irish diplomat, freebooter and Champion of the worst possible causes," I began my spiel."You probably have some orders concerning bringing me in alive. I am not so constrained and am more than willing to steal this aircraft and fly back to Hawaii without you. My team keeps their weapons, or you give me your best shot, right now," I met his gaze. He mulled over his options. Two Romanians and two Marines were starting to load the ad hoc body bags aboard the C-37B."Normally I don't take that kind of crap from a civilian and I don't want you to think I'm making an exception because of your Security Clearance. I'll let your people keep your weapons, but if something goes wrong, I'm shooting you first," he assured me."Done deal," I offered my hand and he shook it."Oh and Happy Tibetan Independence Day," he congratulated me."What?" I gasped. Rescue and patchwork relationships{6 pm, Sunday, August 17th ~ 22 Days to go}{11 pm Sunday, Aug. 17th (Havenstone Time)}{And just this once, 11am Monday, Aug. 18th Beijing Time}"Oh and Happy Tibetan Independence Day;, nice work.," the Marine congratulated me."What?""How is that possible?" muttered Mu."Yippee!! No more burning monks," Aya fist-pumped. Personally, I think she did that for the enjoyment of our guardians and to piss off Zhen and Mu just a tiny bit more.(Mandarin) "Brother," Zhen studied her brother's pained expression. "What has gone wrong?"(Mandarin) "The province of Tibet apparently has broken away," he groused. In English, to the Marine Lieutenant he repeated, "How is this possible?""I take it you didn't know Peace Talks had broken out?" he grinned. I doubted the Lt. bought my 'these are my two Taiwanese cobelligerents' story, but belief was above his pay grade, so he didn't give a shit."Yes," Mu mumbled, "we knew of the proposed cease-fire.""Yes, you mean both sides actually honored it?" I added. I really had been out things for a while."Nearly two days ago, noon, Peking Time, the People's Republic of China and the Khanate put a six month cease-fire into effect which has remained intact for forty-one," he looked at his watch, "forty-one and a half hours." He was being a cock to the petulant Mu. No one called Beijing 'Peking' anymore. I had even ordered Beijing Duck on several menus. Peking was the height of Western Imperialist thinking, or so it looked to Mu.(Mandarin) "He is yanking your chain, Mu," I explained. "You are looking pissed off at being rescued, which isn't doing my alibi for you much good.""My apology," Mu nodded to the lieutenant. "Is there any news from the Republic of China? Are they free as well?" That was nice of Mu to call Taiwan by its pet name, the ROC."Not yet," he patted Mu's unwounded leg, "but with the utter shellacking the Khanate put on the People's Navy (really the People's Liberation Army Navy, but the Marine was getting his shots in) it is only a matter of time."I had been translating in a low voice to the V nători de munte in order for them to keep up with the conversation. They all started laughing. The Marines joined in. There was a huge joke here that we had missed out on while stranded.(Romanian) "So, ask them if they know where their aircraft carrier is," Menner chuckled. Most Romanians had grown up knowing of only one China.Me: (Romanian) "What!"A Naval Corpsman who didn't know Romanian, but knew 'aircraft carrier' just fine jumped in: "Oh yeah, the missing Chinese Aircraft carrier," she chortled.Mu: "What!"I'd only been gone two and a half days. What the hell had been going on?(What had transpired in my absence and the subsequent consequences)(Notes:P R C = People's Republic of China; PLA = People's Liberation Army;P L A N = People's Liberation Army Navy;P L A A F = People's Liberation Army Air Force;R O C = the Republic of China {aka Taiwan, aka Chinese Taipei, aka the "other China"};The First Unification War {aka what the Khanate did to China in 2014};Truce lasts from August 16th 2014 until February 15th, 2015 = 183 days)There are several classic blunders grownups should know to avoid: never fight a land war in Asia, never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line, and, if you are going to cross a master thief, first make sure you have nothing of value. For the land war in Asia, check with my partner, the Khanate. Substituting Black Hand for Sicilian ~ check with Ajax, use an Ouija board. So far, destiny was batting .500.The last blunder I created entirely on my own, but I felt it was the true and right response for the circumstances. So witness the Six Families of the Ninja and the greatest theft in all of recorded history.In the closing hours of the First Unification War, as in many wars, some serious theft was going on; mainly it was the People's Republic getting fleeced.The most obvious and immediate blows came in the Spratlys and Parcel Islands where Khanate forces (actually, elements from all the JIKIT players) seized the key island in the Parcel chain, Woody Island, and secured the P L A N base the Chinese had created there, including the 2,700 meter runway built there in the 1990's. The 1,443 Chinese civilians and 600 military inhabitants in the area were incidental complications and the survivors were about to be 'repatriated' to the mainland anyway; the Khanate didn't want them hanging around as they prepared for the inevitable end of the six-month truce.Yes, the Khanate had stolen the most important island airfield ~ an unsinkable carrier really ~ in the South China Sea. It was also the northern end of the potential People's Republic of China's stranglehold on the east-west sea lanes between East Asia and the rest of the World, i.e., roughly 25% of all global trade.The southern end? That would be the Spratlys. There are few 'real' islands in that 'island group' and only two worth having: the artificial one the P L A N was building and the one the ROC has a 1200 meter airfield on. That artificial island and every other PRC/P L A N outpost in the region was also stolen by the Khanate between 4 a.m. and noon of that final day of active conflict.Every geological feature that had been the basis for the PRC's claims to all of the South China Sea was now in Khanate hands. Considering how much the P L A N had bullied everyone else in that portion of the globe, the Khanate taking over their geopolitical position was incredibly awkward. It was going to get worse.Technically, the Khanate hadn't stolen the P L A N 'South Sea Fleet' (SSF); they'd blown the fuck out of it, including sinking the sole fully-functioning P L A N carrier Liaoning as well as five of the nine destroyers and six of the nineteen frigates in her battle group. The Liaoning and one destroyer had died in those last few hours as the SSF was racing for the relative safety of Philippine waters ~ so close, but no cigar.So the Khanate had stolen the ability of the P L A N to project power in the South China Sea until February 15th, 2015 when the U N brokered truce ended. But that was not the epic theft, though. That distinction went to the Ninja. What did they steal? A semi-functional Chinese nuclear powered super-aircraft carrier still under construction.The beast had no official name yet, but she was a 75,000 ton engine of Global Domination laid down in 2011 and clearly complete enough to float and to be steered under her own power. (To be on the safe side, the Ninja included stealing four tugboats to help in their getaway.) So, you may be asking yourself, how does one 'steal' a nuclear-powered, 1000 foot long, 275 foot wide and ten-story tall vessel?For starters, you need a plan to get on board the sucker. We had begun with the Black Lotus. They wanted to sneak onboard, exit the dockyard the ship was being built in, then sink it off the coast so it couldn't be easily salvaged. That was plan A.Enter the Khanate and their plans; they too wanted to sink this vessel, and destroy the dry docks while they were at it. That was plan B. Actually, the Khanate desire was to contaminate that whole section of the port city with fallout from shattered reactors. They knew they would have to apply overkill when they smashed that bitch of a ship because the PLAN had hurriedly put on board its defensive weaponry ~ ensuring that the Khanate couldn't easily destroy it. For their approach, Temujin's people wanted the Black Lotus' help with the on-the-ground intelligence work. But the Black Lotus didn't want to help anyone irradiate Chinese soil.Enter JIKIT as referee. All those islands the 'Khanate' was busy stealing were actually part of a larger JIKIT mission called Operation Prism. Another object that was a part of the overall plan was Operation Wo Fat, the sinking of the Liaoning ~ again GPS direction and distance to be courtesy of the Black Lotus.JIKIT absolutely needed the Black Lotus. The Black Lotus wouldn't help anyone planning on poisoning any part of China for the next thousand years. Sinking the unnamed and incomplete vessel off the coast in deep waters meant no nuclear leakage and plenty of post-war time to salvage the wreck before it did start to hemorrhage. The Khanate wanted to kill this potential strategic nightmare no matter what it cost the Chinese ecology.JIKIT went to the Ninja to help them adjudicate the issue. All the lights flared brightly in Ninja-Town when they heard of that delicate dilemma. They could make everybody happy and send a clear message to the Seven Pillars expressing how unhappy the six surviving families were about the 7P's trying to annihilate them when all of this 'unpleasantness' began.The Khanate was already going to blast the shipyards and docks, the Black Lotus was already going to sail the ship into deep waters, so why not take it one step further, sail the ship into Japanese waters and declare it Khanate property as a colossal Fuck You! to the PRC, PLAN and specifically the Seven Pillars, all at the same time?Now normally, you can't steal a ship that big. The owners will notice it is missing and come looking for it. And you can't sell or hide the damn thing. So, you steal it at the tail end of a war before the players can capture, or sink it. It just so happened the Ninja had access to a war and such a time table.The next problem: where do you put it? The Khanate's closest safe haven was 8,000 km away at the Eastern Mediterranean Seaport of Izmir.But wait!The Khanate was about to steal an island airbase with its own (albeit small) harbor. The Khanate was confident that a few weeks after the truce, an alternate port, or two, would become available for the two-to-three year process it would require to prepare the vessel so it could be commissioned as the true warship it was meant to be.So, how do you steal a well-guarded, humongous ship with its skeleton crew of 500? You need a distraction ~ a big one. Remember those Khanate airstrikes? They intended to destroy the dockyards anyway. Now all they had to do was 'miss' the carrier.They could do that. If you recall, to dissuade the Khanate from sinking the ship in the final days of the war, the PLAN had hastily put teeth on the thing by giving it all its pre-designed defensive weaponry and added jury-rigged radar and sonar systems. The carrier could defend itself if needed. With the new plan (C), the airstrikes could avoid those teeth, thus reducing the risk of losing their precious planes and pilots.A series of bombing runs and missile hits near the carrier would convince the PLAN admiral in charge to hurriedly put some distance between the ship and shore, Not out to sea. That would be stupid. Within the harbor, his weaponry could adequately defend his ship. And if she took serious damage, he could run her aground, so the vessel wouldn't really sink.The only problem was that out in the harbor, with everything exploding, he was away from the only ground security support available. That was when the Amazons, Black Lotus, Ninja and JIKIT mercenaries would make their move. How could they sneak up on such a big, important ship? By using the submarines the US Navy, the British Royal Navy and Japanese Defense Force were providing, of course.Note: As I stated earlier, Lady Fathom, Addison and Riki had wandered way off the reservation . By this time, if you were a Japanese, British, or American submarine commander in the Yellow Sea and you weren't part of this madness, you were insanely jealous of those who were.The missions JIKIT was sending them on were:-definitely Acts of War if they were ever discovered,-far more dangerous than any war game exercise they'd ever been part of, and-the ultimate test of their crews and equipment.These people weren't suicidal. They believed they were the best sneaks under the Seven Seas and now they could prove it ~ in 50 years when this stuff was declassified (if it ever was).For the one American, two British and four Japanese submarines inserting the assault teams, this whole mission had a surreal feel to it. They were transporting a packed assortment of women of Indian, Malaysian and Indonesian descent along with some very lithe Japanese ladies and gents, none of who talked a whole lot.There was a third group with the spooky women and spookier Japanese teams, and that group was scared shitless about the sudden turn their lives had taken. They were all former American and British servicewomen (to not tick off the Amazons too much) with carrier and/or nuclear reactor experience who had been RIFed (Reduction in Force, aka fired) in the past five years from their respective national navies.Around a week ago, they had all answered an advertisement by a logistics support corporation that was going to do a 'force modernization' in an unnamed country. They all knew that mean the Khanate. The job had been laid out as 'basically your old job with the addition of training the natives' and it included the promise of no combat.It was a guaranteed five year contract with an option for a year-to-year extensions for another five years if you desired to stick around. For that, you received your 'pay grade upon retirement + 20%', free room and board, private security, judicial protections and a $10,000 to $10,900 signing bonus. For many struggling military families, it was manna from Heaven and thousands were signing up.Then 72 hours ago, a different group from the same company came knocking on the women's doors. If you could come with them right then and there, they had a satchel of money, $100,000 to $109,000, tax free, and a Non-disclosure Agreement for you to sign. Sure, the deal sounded shady, but the money was very real.Twenty-four hours later those who accepted the money found themselves in a small fishing village on Ko Island, Japan. There some rather fiercely intense people outlined the job they were needed for. From a submarine, the assault teams would sneak aboard the carrier, neutralize the crew and then the new crew (them) would sail it to Jeju, Jeju Island, South Korea.At that point they would be allowed to stay with the vessel (preferred), or depart for a non-war zone of their choice. Both options came with another $100,000 to $109,000 payment. Anyone who declined this particular job would remain incognito on Ko Island for another 48 hours then be allowed to leave without the need to return their initial payment.Of the 312 job applicants, 293 volunteered for both the first and second parts of the assignment. With the technical and linguistic expertise of the Amazons and 9 Clan members that would be enough to get their prize to Jeju Island's temporary safety and then make the last leg to Woody Island and a more permanent anchorage.Besides the airstrikes to goad the carrier away from the wharves, all the Khanate had to do with the carrier was put three or four clearly Mongolian faces onboard when the various nations of the world came calling. After all, what was the public going to believe:, the Khanate had pulled off yet another daring (i.e., mostly JIKIT) Special Forces coup, just as they'd managed to do throughout this short war, or that 'Ninjas stole my Battleship, umm, carrier' stuff some PRC leaders were claiming? Forty-eight hours later the whole globe was able to watch the newly named Khanate supercarrier, the  z Beg Khan, passing through Japanese territorial waters while being escorted by South Korean and Japanese warships.The PRC did complain to the United Nations over the 'theft' of both the carrier and 'their' islands, but the Security Council, led by the UK, could and would do nothing about the 'latest round of injustices heaped upon the People of China'. By the time the UN got around to doing nothing, the next round of JIKIT diplomacy was causing the PRC even greater headaches.That greatest theft, while remarkable in its own right, was really a sideshow to the reordering of the political order in Southeast Asia. The big winner wasn't the Khanate. And it certainly wasn't the mainland Chinese. No, the nations to immediately prosper were an unlikely pair, the Republic of India and the People's Republic of Vietnam (PRV). The Republic of China (R O C) was also getting its own small boost as well.By gambling their precious navy, India had become the largest power broker in the South China Sea's resource bonanza. She went from a minimal presence to being the critical ally of the Khanate and the 'big stick' (naval-wise) of Asia's new dynamic duo. The Indians had the only two functional aircraft carriers in the region and the Khanate had Woody Island with a mega-carrier number of planes sitting on it.Their combined naval aviation was not something any of the others powers wanted to mess with. The duo then sealed their supremacy by making the duo a trio. That third member was the PRV. Vietnam was the land-based logistical anchor of the three regional powers.Not only did Vietnam gain the prestige denied it for over two centuries, it redressed the P L A N humiliating treatment of their own navy for the past thirty years. The Khanate's naval aviation would shield Vietnam's economic exploitation of the Parcel Islands. The Indian Navy could counter anything the P L A N South China fleet could come at them with.Yes, the P L A N had two other fleets, the Northern and Eastern, but both had been put through their own 1001 levels of Hell by the Khanate's air power, plus they had to protect the Chinese heartland from Russia and North Korean ambitions. The South Koreans and Japanese were suddenly a very real threat from the East too. But for the time being, the Indians had the decisive edge.The final location for the  z Beg Khan was an old familiar haunt for some Americans, Da Nang, PRV. It had the facilities, courtesy of the US military from the 1960's and 70's, to be the new base for the Khanate's Eastern Fleet and logistical hub for their naval aviation forces in the Parcel Islands.The Vietnamese were thinking with more than their testicles, as were the Indians. Sure, geopolitical clout was nice, yet that was only the icing on the economic cake that was the Parcel Island Accords. That hasty bit of JIKIT backroom dealings gave a 50% stake in the Parcels to the PRV.India got 20% of something she had 0% in a month ago. The Khanate gained a 20% stake for their audacity and the ROC gained 10% because the other three would protect its share from the PRC. Something was better than nothing and the three legitimate powers agreed to the deal because in less than six months, the PRC would be back in the game.The Indians and Vietnamese wanted the Khanate to stay interested in the region and the Taiwanese wanted to forge closer ties to the Khanate. That treaty was a 'no-brainer'. Within one week, the Vietnamese were strutting like peacocks and internal political opposition to the Indian intervention into the South China Sea in the Indian parliament was silent.The Spratly Islands was a tougher deal to work out within the six month timetable. There were more players ~ the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand (who had a non-functional carrier). The JIKIT deal gave everyone but the Indians a 10% piece of the huge natural gas, oil and fisheries pie and the Indians got 20% once more.The Philippines and Malaysia were both very opposed to this treaty; they believed they deserved a far larger portion of those regional resources. Indonesia and Thailand also felt they could hold out for a bigger slice and weren't happy with India getting so much for basically having a double handful of ships (34 actually) sailing about.That 'handful of ships' was the point JIKIT was trying to make. If the PRC beat the Khanate next year, did any of the players think the PRC would give them anything, even if they promised them more right now? Really? When the PLAN had the biggest guns, they hadn't respected any other claims to the region. Why would that change in the future?The reality was this: India would only stick around if they had the economic incentive to remain. Vietnam, the Khanate and the ROC were watching the clock and realized this was the best deal they would get. Brunei and the Philippines were also coming to that understanding. Brunei was tiny (thus easy to defend), very rich already and a good ally of the British.The Philippines had a very weak navy and a non-existent naval air force. They couldn't even enforce their current claims versus Brunei, much less confront the PLAN, or any other nation's current military. The Philippines was, sadly, relatively big and very poor. Its big traditional ally was the United States, and the US was currently busy doing 'not much' about the South China Sea situation.The world's biggest navy was partially taking up its traditional (and treaty bound) role of interposing itself between the North Koreans, PLAN/PLAAF and Russians arrayed near Japan and South Korea, or busily not 'ratcheting up tensions' in the region by sending more forces into the front lines.President Obama was urging dialogue and 'stepping back from the brink' even though every country in Southeast Asia felt the brink had already dissipated the moment the PRC was forced to accept the cease-fire. In this context, the Philippines had good reason to be feeling lonely at the moment.Bizarrely, both New Delhi and Hanoi were singing the praises of US Secretary of State John Kerry and the Rt. Honorable Phillip Hammond, Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs for the UK, for their deft handling of the crisis, thank you, Riki Martin and Lady Yum-Yum.Riki wasn't expecting any thanks. She was certain she'd be fired and imprisoned for the rest of her life. Lady Fathom Worthington-Burke was sure she'd get two additional knighthoods out of the deal, which would look very nice engraved on her tombstone. Javiera had long ago decided to face the music and go down with the ship, so to speak.The CIA's Addison Stuart already had her exit strategy. She was going to go work for the Khanate, building up their clandestine service when this whole mad scheme collapsed into recriminations and 'extreme sanctions'. Mehmet, Air Force Sr. Master Sgt. Billings and Agent-86 had all decided to go with her. Katrina had their escape plane on standby. Mehmet's family was already 'vacationing' in Canada.Anyway, the Republic of India, the Khanate, the Republic of China, the People's Republic of Vietnam (the Vietnamese were happy to already be getting half of the Parcel Island windfall), the Sultanate Brunei (Lady Fathom 'knew' some people and the Sultan was an autocratic Muslim ruler, just like the Great Khan) and the Philippines (because they had no other true choice) were all coming around to signing the Spratly Accords.Indonesia and Thailand were kind of waiting for a better deal. Malaysia was downright hostile, having gravitated toward the PRC over the past decade and been assured by the PRC a better apportionment would be their reward for upsetting the treaty process.The Great Khan's answer was simple. He publically threatened the Malaysian Federation in general and both the King (Sultan Abdul Halim of Kedah) and Prime Minister of Malay (Dato' Sri Najib Tun Razak) in particular with military action if they kept dragging their feet.He even told them how he'd do it. He'd butcher or expel every living thing in the states of Perlis and Kedah (~ 2.1 million people) and give those empty lands to Thailand to settle along with the added sweetener of Malaysia's 10% of the Spratlys. He would also invade Eastern Malaysia, taking the island state of Labuan for himself while giving Sarawak to Indonesia and Sabah to the Philippines if those to states agreed to the split.He'd also decimate their navy & air force before devastating every port city, just like he'd done to China. He'd already killed more than two million Chinese. What was another two million Malays to him? Also, Indonesia wanted Sarawak and the Philippines had claims on Sabah. While they were openly and publically defying the Great Khan's plan, could Malaysia really take the chance?What would India and Thailand do while this was going on? Thailand stated that it would protect its territorial integrity, whatever that meant. India wasn't returning Malaysia's phone calls while showing their populace re-runs of Malaysian violence against their Hindu minority, the bastards!To the world, the Indian Navy proclaimed it would 'defend itself and its supply lines' which was a subtle hint that they would shepherd any Khanate invasion force to their destination. Why would the Indians be so insensitive? The Malaysians were screwing up their deal to get 20% of both the Parcel and Spratlys wealth, that's why.If the Khanate went down, there was no way India could defend their claims (which they'd won by doing nothing up until now). Oh yeah, Vietnam began gathering up warplanes, warships, transport ships and troops for the quick (710 km) jaunt across the Gulf of Thailand to north-eastern Malaysia to kill Malaysians because Vietnam needed the Khanate to ensure their own economic future as well.That military prospect had a cascade effect, especially among the Indonesian military. If the Indian Navy remained active, the vastly more populous Western Malaysia couldn't reinforce the state of Sarawak. Sure, the Philippines was unlikely to conquer Sabah on their own, but all the Indonesians needed was for Sabah to be kept pre-occupied while their army took their promised territory, fulfilling a fifty year old dream of conquest/unification.The United Nations blustered. It wasn't that they didn't care, they did. They also cared about the deteriorating situations in Libya, Nigeria, Syria and Ukraine. The situation was complicated by the unwillingness of the permanent members of the Security Council, namely the PRC and Russia, to recognize the Khanate.In reverse, when those two tried to stick it to the Khanate, the UK stoically vetoed them. Why? Well, more on that later. Let's just say the Khanate was good for business in the European Union in general and the United Kingdom in particular because the Khanate was prepared to economically befriend the British. Ireland was being treated in a promising manner too. The United States,the United Nations?Let's just say that in the two months following the cease-fire, the Khanate bloodily and brutally solved the ISIS conundrum and the Donbass Crisis. When the smoke cleared, the Khanate had reintroduced the practice of impalement to the modern battlefield, driven the separatists from the Ukraine and was on the border with Israel and Jordan.Sure, the Ukrainians were stun-fucked by the Khanate's 'peace-keepers' going on a bloody rampage through the eastern rebellious regions, but they had delivered up peace by mid-September. Yes, the Russians were in an uproar about the impalements.As the Khanate spokesperson said, 'if they aren't your people, then it is not your problem' and 'there are no more Russians left alive in the Ukraine'. In fact, fewer than a thousand people, all armed insurgents, were executed in such a manner, but the terror created by the highly publicized killings had the effect of sending a hundred thousand people stampeding over the frontier into Russia proper.Next, the Khanate said it wanted to 'reexamine' the Crimean situation. There were Turcoman in that area and they weren't being treated well, or so it was claimed.Even as Russia and the Khanate were posturing in the Donbass, the Khanate struck in the Middle East. By the end of September, Syria and Lebanon had ceased to exist as organized entities. Most of those two countries as well as portions of western Iraq became Turkish provinces in the Khanate infrastructure. Northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq became the Khanate state of Kurdistan.It was a campaign reminiscent of the 13th century Mongol conquest, not a modern military struggle. Whole villages were eradicated. The entire Arab population of Mosul was exiled to the new territories in the East. The city was repopulated with Kurds from Turkey. Back in Turkey, those Kurds were replaced by Armenians from Azerbaijan, cauterizing another internal issue within the Khanate.Jordan was cautiously hopeful. Israel? "We don't seem to be having problems with Hezbollah anymore," with a shrug and "it could be worse." As for ISIS; there really was an Islamic State controlling more than half of Iraq and all of Syria now and it allowed no other pretenders to that distinction. By the time the world woke up to that reality though, the Great Hunt had happened and I was dealing with the consequences of that.A larger ideological and political matter was occurring in the United States, the United Kingdom (and to a limited extent Australia and Canada). The Ramshackle Empire (aka the Khanate) was just that ~ a Frankenstein nation fueled more by nationalistic pride and nostalgia for a Super-State (that only two living people had firsthand experience with) than an integrated armed forces and infrastructure.It may have been built upon more than a 13th century creation and two hundred years of real and imagined oppression. It did have long term planning and real genius driving it forward. Having throttled the PRC into giving them six precious months of peace to 'tidy up the backyard' (aka the Middle East and Russia) and forge a true nation, the Khanate was now hiring experts to aid them in the task.First and foremost, Temujin and the Earth & Sky had envisioned an armed state built upon military principles and discipline. Fate had delivered to them the means of their own salvation in the form of NATO's policy of disarmament and 'Reduction-In-Force' levels (RIFed).The US and UK had trained tens of thousands of male and female volunteers in their Armed Forces in infrastructure creation and management for the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns. From 2010, those militaries had informed those experts that their services were no longer required. Unlike the shrinking militaries of the 1990's, there was no private sector to 'soak up' the majority of those personnel.The Earth & Sky had been working on the problem of nation-building on a time table and they kept coming up short. They had to fight to create their state first, so the all-important after-battle had been something their leaders dreaded. Temujin had been understanding about not everything being 100% ready. Few wars were fought that way.Then a young male Amazon of mixed Magyar ancestry talked history with the Earth & Sky representative to a seemingly inconsequential personage's funeral. A few critical E&S leaders (a minority, to be sure) immediately sought ways to cultivate this man into what was a ten year plan to open doors to the Amazons. Then that man saved the Great Khan's life and everything changed.Before the E&S had even remotely considered directly approaching the Amazons for help, the Amazons came knocking on their door. The Seven Pillars of Heaven had tried to kidnap a camp full of Amazon children ~ an assault on their future. The two secret societies were bound by one unique, fortunate idiot and a mutual thirst for vengeance.They were also directed by two incredibly foresighted, ambitious and brilliant people. In Katrina of Epona, the E&S elders found someone who equaled their hope to see the Seven Pillars humbled and humbled immediately. Moreover, these were the Amazons they were dealing with. Amazons always sought both lightning decisions and long term solutions.From the moment Iskender left his third meeting with Cáel Nyilas, Katrina put the fruits of the First Directive (the Amazons efforts to recruit militant outsider women) into overdrive. Havenstone had the apparatus in place to screen potential inductees. All they had to do was add a "can you suggest any other people who might be interested in this line of work" box to their employment forms.That brought men into the process in surprising numbers. The market was flush with military veterans having trouble readjusting to the civilian community. The Khanate wasn't hiring killers. They wanted ex-military and civilian police officers to create a national police force.They also wanted engineers and builders, cadres for their cadet corps and a whole range of specialist in jobs most of the Western World took for granted. The money came from off-shore accounts funded by Havenstone International. The employment opportunities came from Earth & Sky front companies operating in the UK and the US (and Israel, but that was another matter).They had already started hiring scores of civilian English-speaking experts to help build their newborn nation's infrastructure before the first blow landed. English hadn't been chosen out of any cultural bias. Relying on Russian and Chinese sources wasn't feasible, the Khanate wasn't overly linguistically gifted where distant tongues were concerned and, as pointed out, the English-speaking world had a glut of applicants.Now to the problem, there were people in the US and UK who weren't happy with their citizenry going to the Khanate and helping them to survive and thrive. These power groups wanted the Mongol-Turkish Empire to keep the resources flowing to the West, without any reciprocal commitment on their part.Imagine their surprise when some wonks at the State Department and Foreign Ministries found bundles of expedited passport requests to the (former) nations of Turkmenistan, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Mongolia (and later Afghanistan and Iraq). The Department of Defense  Ministry of Defense were discovering their former military personnel and civilian contractors with Security Clearances were heading the same way.Of all those destinations, only Mongolia and Kazakhstan were under any kind of 'Restricted Travel' advisories. Barring any coherent anti-Khanate strategy from their administrations, the bureaucracies were doing their jobs, with Havenstone exerting just enough influence to get the job done while flying beneath the radar.After JIKIT was created, the group had a US Senator greasing the wheels to get the requests expedited. In England, Lady Worthington-Burke shamelessly used the people at the other end of the O'Shea hotline to get the job done overseas. She did have to sell out a teammate, but that was what good boys were for ~ taking one for the team. (That would be me, if there was any misunderstanding.)When Cáel Nyilas was kidnapped under the watchful eye of the FBI (I wasn't sure how they got that bum-wrap), the whole situation exploded. The PRC didn't have me, yet promised they might produce me if certain concessions were made. According to Addison, I was worth 5,000 barrels a day of refined fuel oil and 50 tons of coal a month, and the Great Khan agreed to pay! Woot! I was loved by somebody who was a somebody.All that attention drove home some salient points. I was a noble scion of Ireland, Romania, Georgia and Armenia (in no particular order) and they all wanted to know why the US had let me be kidnapped. Didn't my president know I was a sacred national treasure? After JIKIT tracked down the bribes and clandestine activities to Chinese shell corporations, those powers wanted to know what sanctions would be applied.'But wait, wasn't I a private citizen?' my national leaders pleaded. Then the PRC made a case which boiled down to 'I had it coming for being a fiancé to Hana Sulkanen and a brother to the Great Khan', while ignoring me being snatched in the territorial US of A. Of course, they didn't claim to have actually done the kidnapping.Javiera was waiting on that one; 'What was their excuse for kidnapping a little US girl to force my compliance?' The furious Federal authorities even found two dead adult bodies and two digits from said child to add to the media frenzy. To prove I had migrated to fantasy land, the CNN journalist got it right ~ they had tortured the girl and I had killed two of them for it. Just ask the Romanian Army how lethal I could be.In a rare comment, Temujin informed the international press that he believed I was still alive. Why did he believe that? If I wasn't, they would have been able to spot the pile of dead enemy around me and my 'boon companion' (go Aya!) from orbit. Until they discovered this carnal pit from Hell, I was surely still alive.Just at the cusp of turning publically against the Mongol barbarians, the world suddenly got angry with their enemy, the PRC. The principal two Western regimes were paralyzed with indecision until my miraculous cry for help from the middle of the Pacific showed the world I was alive, had punished my enemies and rescued others from under the opponent's cruel thumb.Clearly if I started ranting against the People's Republic of China, my government would be rather peeved with me. I hadn't screwed a dozen poli-sci majors to miss out on that obvious situation. I behaved and hoped they wouldn't make me die from an embolism, or some other equally implausible cause.(DC is a marvel. 9 pm, Monday, August 18th. 21 days)I'd been dragged to DC, to honor promises made in Rome a week ago. I had another choice; I could have justifiably said I was still getting over my kidnapping ordeal. But that choice fucked over Javiera Castello, my boss at JIKIT (Joint International Khanate Interim Task force).That was how I ended up in a 'secret and secure' meeting with Tony Blinken, Deputy National Security Advisor (DNSA) and his experts. He was someone I didn't know. The rest, I'd had a verbal run-in with them after the Romanian bloodbath. I'd been cranky. I would hardly consider us to be on good terms now.All four experts were from the US State Department. They were foregoing their usual group of flunkies because this meeting wasn't really happening. All the participants were officially somewhere else, mostly not even in D.C. Had this soiree 'really happened', the Congressional sub-committees would have been able to request the minutes of Tony's meeting with members of JIKIT and:·         Victoria Nuland, Ass. Sec. of State for European & Eurasian Affairs (ASSEEA)·         Robert O. Blake Jr., Ass. Sec. of State for S & C Asian Affairs (ASSCAA)·         Daniel R. Russel, Ass. Sec. of State for E. Asian and Pacific Affairs (ASSEAP)·         Bill A. Miller, Director of the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) (aka Big Willy)We made stiff, formal introductions (which signaled the utter lack of trust in the room.) Javiera hadn't wanted to put me through an interrogation this soon after my near-death experience, considering my snarky nature when stressed. The White House was putting the squeeze on her. The main player was Tony, who talked with the Leader of the Free World on a weekly, if not daily, basis.The Diplomatic Security Service people had successfully peeled off Pamela and my SD Amazons only after they agreed I could keep Aya. They tolerated me keeping the nine-year old girl despite the obvious fact she had gone through worse hardships than I had endured and was still packing her Chinese QSW-06 suppressed pistol.I had already fabricated and submitted my report on how I'd overcome a plane-full of rogue delinquents from the Forumi i Rinis  Eurosocialiste t  Shqip ris  (Euro-socialist Youth Forum of Albania) bent on recruiting impressionable European socialites by accessing my Twitter account.That's right, the Albanians had it out for me. I reiterated that critical bit of data to the Department of Homeland Security when they questioned me on the veracity of my memories. The two ethnic Chinese I was found with? I thought they were from Taiwan, and they both appeared to be suffering from amnesia.I was already suffering repercussions from my pathological refusal to take life seriously. Javiera believed I was about to get a formal apology from Ferit Hoxha, Permanent Representative of Albania to the United Nations. Damn it! Now I had to do something nice for the Albanians. Maybe I'd offer them membership in the Khanate, full-statehood with an economic package to sweeten the deal.Yes, that was how Albania and Kosovo joined the Khanate, a product of my love for exaggeration and a little post-Ottoman solidarity over Tarator (cold soup made of yoghurt, garlic, parsley, cucumber, salt and olive oil with a side of fried squids), Tav  Kosi (lamb meatballs) and Flia & Kaymak (a dessert I highly recommend).We had toasted the Pillars of Kanun (Albanian oral law and tradition): ~ Nderi (honor), Mikpritja (hospitality), Sjellja (Right Conduct) and Fis (Kin Loyalty), ~ and he promised to tell his people that I had Besa which was an Albanian-ism for being a man who would honor his word of honor (despite us being brought together by my lie). The shit-ton of financial and military aid I asked the Great Khan to sweeten the pot with might have helped as well.Later, Lady Yum-Yum told me that the military leaders of NATO called it a 'master-stroke' in neutralizing Comrade Putin's Russian-backed 'Greek threat

What happened between Italy, the ICC and Libya? Did Rome get it wrong? With Luigi Propseri and Margherita Capacci.

Russia is seeking to keep its naval bases in Syria, viewing them as a vital strategic asset. Syria's interim president, a hard nosed pragmatist, will likely strike working relations with the Kremlin while trying to defuse tensions with Israel and win over the United States, says the International Crisis Group's Jerome Drevon, who has met Sharaa numerous times.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episode 379 – A Cigar Hustlers PodcastThis week, we dive into the hottest trending topics: Libya's Education Minister is in hot water over book printing, March Madness brackets are ready, and Trump is calling out “auto pen” Biden pardons.In cigar news, El Septimo is patenting “calling cigars,” the PCA is packed with big announcements, and there are some major staffing shake-ups in the industry.And finally, Powstanie makes a Bear-able announcement you won't want to miss!Light up, tune in, and let's get into it! #CigarHustlersPodcast #Powstanie

A version of this essay was published by firstpost.com at https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/shadow-warrior-britains-outsized-malign-role-in-global-chaos-13872084.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialBeing a keen observer of the United Kingdom, I have lately noticed a few apparently unconnected events with dismay. If I were to connect the dots, it begins to appear that Britain has had an outsize influence on international affairs. Maybe the James Bond meme isn't the total fantasy I had assumed it was: a juvenile wet dream about nubile maidens and irresistible heroes bumping off sundry villains.The reality appears to be quite impressive. This tiny, rainy island off Northwest Asia has been running quite a number of worldwide schemes. Its administrative center, Whitehall, manages a global web of intrigue and narrative-building, and has created a number of ‘imperial fortresses', thus punching above its weight-classOne of their principal assets in gaslighting others is the BBC (not to mention their plummy accents that, for example, make Americans just melt). The BBC has a sterling reputation which does not seem well-deserved. There have been many instances of motivated bias (eg. in their Brexit or India coverage), lack of integrity (eg. sexual transgressions by senior staff) and so on. In reality, it is about as unabashed at pushing its agenda as Al Jazeera is about its own.Admittedly, Britain has made one major blunder along the way, though: Brexit, which left them in trisanku mode, sort of adrift mid-Atlantic. They were distancing themselves from the European Union, counting on their so-called ‘special relationship' with the US to sustain them, away from what they perceived, correctly, as a declining and disunited Europe. They also thought they could dominate their former colonies again (see the frantic pursuit of a Free Trade Agreement with India?) without onerous EU rules. Sadly, none of this quite worked out.The reason is a fundamental problem: there is not much of a market for British goods any more. Indians once coveted British products as status symbols, but today, with the possible exceptions of Rolls Royce cars and single-malt whiskey, there's very little anybody wants from them. They still do good R&D, make aircraft engines (India could use that technology), and their apparently for-hire journalism is well-known, but that's about it.On the other hand, they have managed to stay entrenched in the international financial system, starting with colonial loot, especially the $45 trillion they are believed to have taken from India. It is rumored that they used stolen Indian gold to buy distressed assets in the US after the Civil War. It is possible they had the same game plan for Ukraine: acquire rich agricultural land and mineral deposits at distressed prices. Some point to the port of Odessa as another targetUkraine: bad faith actor?It is remarkable how Boris Johnson, then PM of UK, is alleged to have single-handedly ruined the chance of a ceasefire in April 2022 during his visit to Kiev in the early days of the Ukraine war, when there was a chance of a negotiated cessation of hostilities with all parties adhering to the Minsk 1 and 2 agreements.In January, just before President Trump took office, UK PM Starmer signed a minerals agreement with Ukraine as part of a “100-Year Partnership” that appears to pre-emptively undercut Trump's proposed $500-billion US deal. That lends credence to allegations about the UK's coveting minerals, as well as its not being interested in ending the tragic war.Gold: is it all there?The UK does have a thing for tangible assets, including gold. A lot of the world's gold (5000 metric tons) is supposedly held in secure custody in London. But there are fears that this may not physically be there in the vaults of the Bank of England any more. They may have indulged in ‘gold leasing', where the actual gold ends up being replaced by paper promises after it is lent out to bullion banks, from where it may be moved around and be inaccessibleExtraordinary delays in gold deliveries in 2025 (on withdrawals to New York triggered by tariff fears) increase this concern. There is a lack of transparency in transactions in the metal in the UK. Spooked, many countries are taking their gold back. India repatriated 200+ tons of its own gold from London in 2024. Venezuela is fighting a court battle to get its gold back.Then there are concerns raised by the arguably unfair freezing of Russian assets held abroad as part of Ukraine-war sanctions: Starmer recently promised to give Ukraine $2 billion, basically the interest generated by those assets. This doesn't sound quite right, and has dented the image of London as a reliable financial hub. Brexit was a blow; the rise of Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai and Zurich all threaten the City of London, but it is second only to New York, still.Imperial Fortresses galoreAnother win for the British was the selection of Mark Carney, a former Bank of England governor, as the Prime Minister of Canada. The Anglosphere continues to be dominated by the UK, although the Commonwealth is a club that serves no particular purpose any more, except as a curious relic of the British empire.This highlights the concept of ‘imperial fortresses': far-flung outposts that have helped sustain British military power and diplomatic clout despite the loss of empire. Traditionally, these were naval bases/garrisons such as those in Malta, Gibraltar, Bermuda, etc. that allowed Britain to keep an eye on the ‘restless natives'. However, I contend that the entire Anglosphere has been treated as imperial fortresses by them.Canada, Australia and New Zealand still continue to have the British King as their Head of State, which is astonishing for supposedly sovereign nations. But it's far more interesting that, in effect, the US has been treated as another vassal by the Brits, pillow-talked into doing things that are generally only in the interests of Britain. All that pomp and circumstance has beguiled poor Americans. Whitehall, I assert, have been Svengalis to Foggy Bottom.Master Blaster blowback?The other metaphor is from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), where "Master Blaster" is a literal duo: Master, a cunning dwarf, and Blaster, his brawny, enforcer bodyguard. The Americans unwittingly have provided the muscle to the calculating dwarf's machinations, which generally end up mostly benefiting the latterBut there is yet another imperial fortress that we should consider: Pakistan. It was created expressly to be a geographically well-placed client state for the Brits to continue their 19th century Great Game from afar to checkmate Russia, and incidentally to contain India. From that point of view, Pakistan has been a successful imperial outpost, notwithstanding the fact that it, despite decades of US largesse, is a failing state (see the Baloch train hijack recently).This is part of the reason why Americans have a hard time explaining why they get involved in Pakistan and Afghanistan again and again to their ultimate regret, with painful exits. They have been induced to do this by the clever Brits, who, quite evidently, sided with Muslims against Hindus in the sub-continent, for instance in the British-led merger of Gilgit-Baltistan into Pakistan, contrary to the Instrument of Accession.There is considerable irony in all this, because one could argue that Pakistani-origin Brits have now done a ‘reverse master-blaster' to the Brits. That sounds eerily like the ‘reverse-Kissinger' that Trump is supposed to be doing. Or maybe it is a ‘recursive master-blaster', although the mind boggles at that.Consider the facts: UK rape-gangs are almost entirely of Pakistani origin; several current mayors (including Sadiq Khan in London) and past mayors are of that ethnicity, indicating a powerful vote-bank; they have at least 15 MPs and a large number of councillors.There's Pakistani-origin Sir Mufti Hamid Patel, the chair of the Office of Standards in Education; Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary; Humza Yusuf, the former First Minister of Scotland. This imperial fortress is fighting back, indeed, and winning. The UK may not have quite anticipated this outcome.The American vassal-state is also beginning to rebel. Trump was personally incensed by the fact that Starmer sent 50 Labor operatives to work against him in the 2024 US elections: their interactions have been a little frosty.Khalil, an embedded asset?Then there is the case of a current cause celebre in the US, Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian-born Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent. He has been accused of leading violent anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, and detained on that count. Interestingly, he had a security clearance from the UK, and was part of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, living in Beirut and leading a scholarship program for Syrians. Yes, Syria.And then Khalil suddenly showed up with a green card (not a student visa), got married to a US citizen named Noor Abdalla, finished his program at Columbia, and so on. To me, all this sounds like it was facilitated, and that he has certain powerful foreign friends. No prizes for guessing who they were.Iraq, Libya and Syria: Humanitarian crisesSpeaking of Syria, Whitehall spent at least 350 million pounds sterling between 2011 and 2024 in regime-change activities targeting the Assad government, according to Declassified UK.The UK's meddling in the Middle East, going back to the Sykes-Picot carving up of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, and mandates in Palestine and Iraq, and even earlier to the antics of T E Lawrence, was clearly intended to advance and sustain British interests in, and influence on, the region. Which is not unreasonable.The sad fact, though, is that it appears the British have actively fomented, or been deeply involved in, a lot of the military misadventures that have turned the region into a mess of human misery. To take relatively recent history, the invasions of Iraq, Libya, and now of Syria were arguably dreamt up or at least actively supported by Britain.The invasion of Iraq was certainly endorsed by Tony Blair's infamous September 2002 dossier about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD), which turned out to be imaginary, but then, lo! Saddam Hussein was overthrown and killed.The invasion of Libya saw Britain take on an even more active role. David Cameron and France's Nicolas Sarkozy in effect prodded a somewhat reluctant Barack Obama to invade, even co-drafting the UN Security Council Resolution 1973 in 2011 that was the formal permission for the war. The net result was the killing of Muammar Gaddafi.In the case of Syria, Britain began covert operations in 2012, with MI6 allegedly organizing arms shipments, training and coordination of groups opposed to the Assad regime. The sudden fall of Assad in December 2024, driven by groups like Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that Britain indirectly supported, underscores the successful outcomes of this policy.In all three cases, a secular dictatorship was overthrown and religious extremists took over. Earlier, civilians had reasonably prosperous lives; women were generally educated and present in the workforce. After the regime changes, all three are bombed-out hellholes, with no rights for women or religious minorities. In particular, the latter have been consistently subjected to massacres, as in the recent large-scale executions of Alawites in Syria.Even though Americans were the principal players in all these cases, the impression is that British Whitehall's gaslighting of their US counterparts in Foggy Bottom could well have tipped the scales and turned skirmishes into outright war and disaster.Thus it is clear that Britain is still a formidable player in the world of international relations, despite the loss of empire and relative decline. It is unfortunate, however, that the net result of its actions is to add to entropy and chaos and the loss of human lives and rights. Perfidious Albion it still is.1950 words, Mar 16, 2025AI-generated podcast from NotebookLM.google.com: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com/subscribe

Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, Djibouti's long-serving foreign minister, took office as the African Union Commission's chair yesterday, four weeks after defeating Raila Odinga, Kenya's former prime minister and perennial opposition leader, in the race for the job. He succeeds Chad's Moussa Faki, who leaves after serving two four-year terms. Youssouf's victory represents a diplomatic victory for one of the continent's smallest but diplomatically agile states. But it is being seen more as a setback for Kenya's ambitious foreign policy under President William Ruto. Though recently at odds with Odinga due to their domestic political differences, Ruto took the campaign for the commission chair personally, mobilizing the entire Kenyan government in an attempt to secure the post for his former rival. Ruto likely preferred the thought of Odinga occupied with work at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, as it would bolster his own re-election prospects. If so, his calculations recall those of former South African President Jacob Zuma, who ensured that Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma - his former wife and domestic political rival - was elected AU Commission chair in 2012. While the bloc's major donors - Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria and South Africa - have seldom held the top position, there has been a clear pattern of success for candidates backed by respected or influential heads of state. Dlamini-Zuma hailed from the continent's economic powerhouse, for instance, and at the time the outgoing Faki first won the post in 2017, he benefited from the influential support of then-Chadian President Idriss Deby, who had just held the more prominent position of AU Chair. One might have expected the same dynamic to play in Odinga's favor. However, Ruto did not anticipate the level of opposition the prospect of a Kenyan at the head of the commission would generate. Early in the race, Youssouf received the endorsement of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which includes 27 African members, in part because Ruto's portrayal of Kenya as a staunch Western ally alienated states that were more sympathetic to Palestine. There were also doubts about whether Odinga would be fully autonomous in his approach to the role or instead serve as a proxy for Nairobi. For all the headwinds Odinga faced, Youssouf also certainly benefited from his long experience in Djibouti, which despite its small size has an active diplomatic profile as part of its efforts to secure external investment in support of its stability. Djibouti hosts the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, the regional bloc comprising eight member states that oversees trade and diplomacy in the Horn of Africa. Unlike other groups on the continent, IGAD is supported by several non-African partner nations, including France, the U.K. and the U.S., highlighting the kind of multilateral networks of support Djibouti has been cultivating. Djibouti's approach serves as a model for leveraging great power competition for its own advantage, without aligning itself with one side or the other. The degree to which Djibouti has successfully leveraged its strategic location on the Horn of Africa is a further sign of its active diplomacy. It is home to at least eight foreign military bases from diverse and even rival countries. These include Camp Lemonnier, the U.S. military's sole permanent base in Africa, as well as a French military and naval base that is among France's largest overseas contingents. But Djibouti also houses China's first overseas military base, as well as bases for Italy, Japan and South Korea, all of which were established to combat piracy and defend vital economic interests in the Red Sea. This sizable foreign presence has contributed to ensuring Djibouti's stability by incentivizing global powers to keep it insulated from other conflicts in the Horn of Africa. These bases have also resulted in significant economic investments in the country, allowing it to boast a considerably higher GDP...

Trong 15 năm qua, Trung Đông đã bị tàn phá bởi chiến tranh, sự hủy diệt và làn sóng di cư ồ ạt. Hàng trăm nghìn người đã thiệt mạng khi các cuộc xung đột bùng nổ ở Gaza, Li-băng, Libya, Sudan, Syria và Yemen.Xem thêm.

For at least 14 years the US and its Western allies have been actively engaged in overthrowing Syria's Bashar al-Assad. Opponents of the "regime change" plotters warned that Syria would become another Libya, rocked with murderous sectarian violence, if they succeeded. In December Assad was finally overthrown by a former senior al-Qaeda leader, as western governments cheered. Sectarian violence commenced. Thousands of religious and ethnic minorities have been slaughtered. Geopolitical analyst Kevork Almassian joins today's Liberty Report to explain how we got to this point, who are the main players, and what we might expect. Get your tickets TODAY for the Ron Paul Institute Spring Conference: https://tinyurl.com/3t97tx8f

Fady Joudah is an esteemed Palestinian Poet/Activist. And we had a great long conversation with him about poetry and resistance, conditions in Gaza, the difficulty of describing the Palestinian struggle in English, the failure of the west to defend Gaza, and much more. And we finished with Fady reading and deconstructing some of his poetry for us. Bio// Fady Joudah is a Palestinian American physician, poet, and translator. He was born in Austin, Texas, and grew up in Libya and Saudi Arabia. He was educated at the University of Georgia, the Medical College of Georgia, and the University of Texas Health Sciences in Houston. In 2002 and 2005 he worked with Doctors Without Borders in Zambia and Sudan, respectively.Joudah's debut collection of poetry, The Earth in the Attic (2008), won the 2007 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, chosen by Louise Glück. Joudah followed his second book of poetry, Alight (2013) with Textu (2014), a collection of poems written on a cell phone wherein each piece is exactly 160 characters long. His fourth collection is Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance (2018). In 2014, Joudah was a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry. As critic Charles Bainbridge observed in a 2008 Guardian review of The Earth in the Attic, “Joudah's poetry thrives on dramatic shifts in perspective, on continually challenging received notions.”Joudah translated several collections of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish's work in The Butterfly's Burden (2006), which won the Banipal prize from the UK and was a finalist for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation; and in If I Were Another, which won a PEN USA award in 2010. His translation of Ghassan Zaqtan's Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me (2012) won the Griffin International Poetry Prize in 2013. His other translations include Amjad Nasser's Petra: The Concealed Rose and A Map of Signs and Scents.Joudah lives with his family in Houston, where he works as a physician of internal medicine.—————-Outro- "Green and Red Blues" by MoodyLinks//+ Fady Joudah: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/fady-joudahFollow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠⁠ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/vgKnY3sd)+Follow us on Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social)Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠⁠ Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Isaac.

Episode 92.  Jews had lived in Libya since the third century BCE, but 1967 marked their final expulsion from the majority Muslim country. Raphael Luzon was a child at the time and fled with his family. Like many, they went to Italy. Overnight, his environment changed. Gone were his Jewish, Muslim and Catholic classmates. Gone was the exchange of holiday greetings with Muslim neighbors. But all was not lost. Those relationships had planted a seed, and that seed grew. Over the decades since university, Raphael has used his religious and cultural knowledge, along with his Arabic, Italian and English, to work in journalism, management, and interfaith dialogue. Within this latter sphere, he has brought high-level religious leaders like the Dalai Llama and Catholic cardinals together for constructive interfaith discussions. In this conversation, you'll hear stories of success, disappointment and perseverance. Especially in these trying times, it's good to be reminded that connection is possible and what it takes to reach that goal. Highlights: Upbringing as an Orthodox Jew in Libya.Instances of "gentleman hypocrisy" and the challenges of integrity in public.Overcoming challenges and finding common ground through religious literacy, sacred texts and mutual respect.The importance of timing and recognizing when constructive dialogue can occur.Participants must be a believer and open-minded, not seeing their religion as the ‘right' way. Trialogue interrupted by challenges.Ongoing initiatives like MENA 2050.Libyan unity and justice effort.Bio:  Raphael was born in Bengasi, Libya. Thrown out of Libya after a bloody pogrom during the “Six Day War”, in he moved 1967 to Rome, Italy, where he lived for 27 years. He then lived in Israel for 6 years.He completed a degree in Political Science at University of Romaat, then worked for 16 years in diplomacy dealing with: Organization, Press and Information, Commercial and Economics, and Administration. He was also a press correspondent in Italy, for Israeli newspapers and media, including Maariv and Hadashot and the Israeli Radio Galei Zahal. In Israel Raphael was active in journalism & management.Currently, Raphael resides in Europe as Manager of a company dealing with Judaica items, books, craft and silver gifts. Raphael's major interests include politics, movies, reading, opera, oriental music, travelling, computers and interfaith dialogue. Social Media links for Raphael: Website – https://rluzon.netTranscript on BuzzsproutSocial Media links for Méli:Website – the Talking with God ProjectMeli's emailLinkedIn – Meli SolomonFacebook – Meli SolomonFollow the podcast!The Living Our Beliefs podcast is part of the Talking with God Project.

The wave of sectarian violence that gripped Syria last week has marred the image of the country's new Islamist president, Ahmad al-Sharaa.Could the government have done more to prevent it? French academic Fabrice Balanche says it absolutely could have.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

South Sudan's unity government, led by President Salva Kiir with former rebel leader, Riek Machar as First Vice President, is facing mounting tensions, and clashes between forces allied to the president and first vice president are threatening a fragile power-sharing agreement. Could the young nation be heading towards a new civil war? For the first time in 17 years, Libya is calling on foreign companies to explore oil in its territory. But will investors be forthcoming? And why South Africa's apartheid reparations fund remains largely unspent, 30 years after it was set up to compensate victims of gross human rights violations.Presenter: Charles Gitonga Technical Producer: Craig Kingham Producers: Sunita Nahar in London. Frenny Jowi in Nairobi and Blessing Aderogba in Lagos Senior Journalist: Patricia Whitehorne Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

As the youngest Special Forces Captain in Vietnam, Bill 'Hawk' Albracht faced overwhelming odds at Firebase Kate, leading a daring escape after five brutal days under siege. His incredible leadership and courage in the jungle are legendary, and his story is immortalized in his memoir, "Abandoned in Hell: The Fight for Vietnam's Firebase Kate." After his time in combat, Bill served 25 years as a U.S. Secret Service Agent, protecting multiple U.S. Presidents and navigating the high-stakes world of national security. In this episode, we dive deep into the intense battle at Firebase Kate and the brutal realities of jungle warfare, Bill's transition from Green Beret to the Secret Service and first-hand stories of protecting U.S. Presidents. Don't miss this incredible conversation about survival, leadership, and service. Like + Subscribe to the Mike Drop Podcast to Support the Show & Guests at http://youtube.com/@MikeRitland?sub_confirmation=1 Subscribe to the Mike Drop Patreon Page to see Ad-Free Episodes Early + Bonus Content at https://www.patreon.com/mikedrop #VietnamWar #SpecialForces #FirebaseKate #SecretService #MilitaryHistory ---------- Support Captain Bill 'Hawk' Albracht - Get Your Copy of Bill's Book 'Abandoned in Hell: The Fight For Vietnam's Firebase Kate' at https://www.amazon.com/Abandoned-Hell-Fight-Vietnams-Firebase/dp/0451468090 Website - https://www.captain-hawk.com/ ---------- Sponsors: C. Crane When the internet goes dark, radio still works! Order Your C. Crane CC Skywave SSB 2 today when you call C. Crane's U.S. based Customer Service at 800-522-8863 or visit https://ccrane.com/drop and use code DROP at checkout for 10% off orders over $75! ---------- BUBS Naturals The BUBS namesake derives from Glen ‘BUB' Doherty, who was heroically killed in Benghazi, Libya in 2012. In addition to remembering Glen for the patriot he is, the BUBS ethos centers around the passionate and adventure seeking life that Glen lived. BUBS Naturals products are rooted in sustainably sourced ingredients and controlled consistency to provide our customers with the highest quality Collagen Protein & MCT Oil Powder that help you feel amazing and live a fuller life. Our mission is simple. FEEL GREAT. DO GOOD. 10% always goes back to charity, helping military men and women transition back into civilian life. Go to https://www.bubsnaturals.com/mike and use code MIKE for 20% off your order. ---------- TEAM DOG FOOD, TREATS & SUPPLEMENTS Be Your Dog's Hero: Veteran-owned by a former Navy SEAL and Special Operations K9 Trainer, Team Dog provides a complete diet of science-backed premium dog food, treats, and supplements to optimize your dog's health, forged from rigorous standards and real-world expertise. https://www.teamdog.shop TEAM DOG ONLINE TRAINING Mike Ritland – a former Navy SEAL & Special Operations K9 trainer – shares his simple and effective dog training program to build trust and control with your dog. Based on Mike's bestselling book “Team Dog, Train the Navy SEAL Way”, join tens of thousands of families that successfully trained their way to a better dog. https://www.teamdog.pet SHOP ALL THE MIKE RITLAND BRANDS Get all your Mike Ritland branded gear - Mike Drop | Trikos | Team Dog https://shop.mikeritland.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Lechner is a writer and researcher specializing in security issues in Central Africa, the Sahel, Turkey, Russia, and the former Soviet Union. Fluent in Russian and several other languages, he has spent years analyzing Russia's growing influence in Africa and its global military networks.In episode 46 of Tahrir Podcast, we discussed his book, "Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare," (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025) which explores Wagner's origins and its evolution into a key tool of Russian power projection. Lechner challenges the prevailing narrative that Wagner operates purely as a Kremlin proxy, offering a detailed analysis of its structure, motivations, and impact on global warfare. Through extensive fieldwork and exclusive interviews, he sheds light on the mercenary group's role in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, and Africa, revealing how it has shaped conflicts and influenced state-building efforts.The book also delves into the personal and political dynamics within Wagner, examining the group's financial incentives, ideological leanings, and its often-uneasy relationship with the Russian state. Lechner provides critical insights into the blurred lines between state and private military actors, the future of mercenary warfare, and what this means for global security.Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/J3pStvWHKTk John's book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/death-is-our-business-9781639733361/John's website: https://www.johnlechnerauthor.com/Streaming everywhere! https://linktr.ee/TahrirPodcast Reach out! TahrirPodcast@gmail.com Support us on Patreon for as low as $2 per month ($20 per year)! https://www.patreon.com/TahrirPodcast

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We find out how Sylvan Goldman's invention of the shopping trolley in 1930s America turned him into a multi-millionaire.Our expert is Rachel Bowlby, Professor of Comparative Literature at University College London, who is also the author of two books on the history of shopping.We hear about Toyota's military pick-up trucks that transformed the 1987 north African conflict between Chad and Libya.The 2015 migrant crisis in Europe which led to thousands of people setting-up camp in the French port of Calais.Next, how US forces invaded the Central American state of Panama in 1989 to depose General Manuel Noriega.And finally in 1965 at the height of the USA's civil rights struggle, the landmark legislation that was brought in to guarantee the rights of African Americans to vote.This programme contains outdated language which some people might find offensive.Contributors: Charles Kuralt – a journalist for CBS News Sylvan Goldman – inventor of the shopping trolley Rachel Bowlby - Professor of Comparative Literature at University College London Mahamat Saleh Bani - former officer in the Chadian Armed Forces Enrique Jelenszky – lawyer Jean-Marc Puissesseau - former President and Chairman of the Port of Calais C T Vivian – US minister George Wallace – former Governor of Alabama Lyndon B Johnson – former President of the United States(Photo: A woman pushing a shopping cart, 1949. Credit: Bettman via Getty Images)

In 1987, a decades-long war in Chad reached a dramatic turning point in what would come to be known as the Great Toyota War. Named after the rugged pick-up trucks that transformed modern desert warfare, this campaign saw the lightly armed Chadian forces out manoeuvre Libya's heavily fortified military. They achieved a string of astonishing victories, including the capture of the Libyan airbase at Ouadi Dum. Former Chadian officer Mahamat Saleh Bani recalls the speed, ingenuity, and bravery that defined this extraordinary chapter of African history. He speaks to Pearse Lynch. An African Digital Audio production.Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic' and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy's Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they've had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America's occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.(Photo: Great Toyota War. Credit: AFP)

Alan's Soaps https://www.AlansArtisanSoaps.comUse coupon code TODD to save an additional 10% off the bundle price.Bioptimizers https://Bioptimizers.com/toddEnter promo code TODD to get 10% off any order.Bonefrog https://BonefrogCoffee.com/todd Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with an Irish Bag of coffee and a “Lucky” gift box from BoneFrog Coffee.  Use code TODD at checkout to receive 10% off your first purchase and 15% on subscriptions.Bulwark Capital Bulwark Capital Management (bulwarkcapitalmgmt.com) Don't miss the next live Webinar Thursday March 20th at 3:30pm pacific.  Sign up today by calling 866-779-RISK or go to KnowYourRiskRadio.com.Renue Healthcare https://Renue.Healthcare/ToddYour journey to a better life starts at Renue Healthcare. Visit Renue.Healthcare/Todd.Episode Links:Federal worker starts crying about losing her job, says she could get a job in the private sector but she just cares too much about her country.Federal worker suggests she didn't get much done last week because she was “distracted” before whining about how distracting it was to explain in 5 bullet points what she did last week.Federal worker says she has "cried every day" since getting fired during emotional interview. The entitlement from these federal workers is insane. Women have marched from office to office this week, requesting interviews with Senators. "I have cried every day. I think that that's normal. I have a 15-month-old at home and I'm looking at him and thinking, 'well what's this country that we're now living in.'"Private investigation team believes would-be Trump assassin wasn't acting alone THE 21:”A short film honoring the 21 Coptic martyrs killed by ISIS in Libya in 2015. The film is animated in the style of Coptic iconography and was produced in collaboration with the global Coptic community and a team of more than 70 artists from more than 24 countries.”

The Bulletin welcomes Mariam Wahba for a conversation with Mike Cosper about Coptic Christian martyrdom in the modern world. Find us on YouTube. Mike Cosper sits down with Mariam Wahba, research analyst and Coptic Christian, at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies for a sobering, sacred conversation about the 21 Christians martyred on a beach in Libya in 2015 and how their memory can shape both global politics and our everyday lives. GO DEEPER WITH THE BULLETIN: Join the conversation at our Substack. Find us on YouTube. Rate and review the show in your podcast app of choice. ABOUT THE GUEST:  Mariam Wahba is a research analyst at Foundation for Defence of Democracies (FDD) focused on Egypt and minorities in the Middle East. Previously, she served with FDD's communications team, where she booked experts and helped establish FDD's Arabic X and Instagram accounts. Born and raised in Egypt, she is a Coptic Christian and an advocate for the persecuted church. Mariam is also the cofounder of American-ish, a digital platform aimed at highlighting ethnoreligious minorities of the Middle East and promoting American values.  ABOUT THE BULLETIN: The Bulletin is a weekly (and sometimes more!) current events show from Christianity Today hosted and moderated by Clarissa Moll, with senior commentary from Russell Moore (Christianity Today's editor in chief) and Mike Cosper (director, CT Media). Each week, the show explores current events and breaking news and shares a Christian perspective on issues that are shaping our world. We also offer special one-on-one conversations with writers, artists, and thought leaders whose impact on the world brings important significance to a Christian worldview, like Bono, Sharon McMahon, Harrison Scott Key, Frank Bruni, and more. The Bulletin listeners get 25% off CT. Go to https://orderct.com/THEBULLETIN to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The media is working hard to spin Volodymyr's embarrassing attempt to set up President Trump by making himself look silly and losing out of a pre-worked rare earths/security deal between our two nations. Dr. Jerome Corsi looks beyond the surface and what people saw on Corsi Nation, formerly The Truth Central. Dr. Corsi also looks at the EU's subsequent tough talk against Russia while consoling Zelenskyy the actor. Visit The Corsi Nation website: https://www.corsination.com If you like what we are doing, please support our Sponsors:Get RX Meds Now: https://www.getrxmedsnow.comMyVitalC https://www.thetruthcentral.com/myvitalc-ess60-in-organic-olive-oil/Swiss America: https://www.swissamerica.com/offer/CorsiRMP.phpGet Dr. Corsi's new book, The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: The Final Analysis: Forensic Analysis of the JFK Autopsy X-Rays Proves Two Headshots from the Right Front and One from the Rear, here: https://www.amazon.com/Assassination-President-John-Kennedy-Headshots/dp/B0CXLN1PX1/ref=sr_1_1?crid=20W8UDU55IGJJ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ymVX8y9V--_ztRoswluApKEN-WlqxoqrowcQP34CE3HdXRudvQJnTLmYKMMfv0gMYwaTTk_Ne3ssid8YroEAFg.e8i1TLonh9QRzDTIJSmDqJHrmMTVKBhCL7iTARroSzQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=jerome+r.+corsi+%2B+jfk&qid=1710126183&sprefix=%2Caps%2C275&sr=8-1Join Dr. Jerome Corsi on Substack: https://jeromecorsiphd.substack.com/Visit The Truth Central website: https://www.thetruthcentral.comGet your FREE copy of Dr. Corsi's new book with Swiss America CEO Dean Heskin, How the Coming Global Crash Will Create a Historic Gold Rush by calling: 800-519-6268Follow Dr. Jerome Corsi on X: @corsijerome1Our link to where to get the Marco Polo 650-Page Book on the Hunter Biden laptop & Biden family crimes free online:https://www.thetruthcentral.com/marco-polo-publishes-650-page-book-on-hunter-biden-laptop-biden-family-crimes-Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/corsi-nation--5810661/support.

VLOG March 3 Eric Adams docket, amici want special prosecutor, Dem Reps want probe, Sovereign District? book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXGMKN49US v Javice, JPMC / Dimon echoes https://matthewrussellleeicp.substack.com/p/extra-in-charlie-javice-trial-jpmUN scoops while banned, on South Sudan: https://www.innercitypress.com/ungate11southsudanunmissicp030225.html

Hi Friends, Black history is a global legacy of innovation, resilience, and belonging that continues to shape the world. In this episode, I share my perspective on how our impact as African- Americans extends far beyond DEI initiatives, from ancient African civilizations and Black biblical figures to modern-day pioneers whose contributions are woven into history, society, and culture. I also share my journey of discovering Black identity while living in Libya and Nigeria, and how that sense of belonging still resonates today. Join me as we explore the global influence of Black history, the power of faith, and the resilience that defines us. Plus, I'll leave you with a thought-provoking question and a word of encouragement to carry forward.  Ready to live your healthiest life by eliminating toxic risk factors affecting the way you feel? Learn more here: Start Living Sustainable now! Don't forget to book your coaching session so you can start feeling the difference with proven results in my Home & Body Audit Session—because honoring history starts with honoring ourselves and protecting our families. Let's celebrate Black history, beyond DEI and beyond limits! xoxo, Cynthia  

It's Friday, February 21st, A.D. 2025. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 125 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark 10th anniversary of Muslim beheading of 21 Libyan Christians Saturday was the 10th anniversary of when 21 Christians died for their faith in Libya. Islamic State militants beheaded them on February 15, 2015 for refusing to deny Christ. Most of the believers were Egyptian Coptic Christians. Vicky Hartzler with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said, “Today, we remember the 21 young men who were brutally murdered by ISIS solely for being Christian. The U.S. government must continue to be an unrelenting voice against violence that targets religious communities, including Coptic Christians.”  In memory of the 21 Christian martyrs, More Productions released a short, 13-minute animated film last year called “The 21.” You can watch it through a special link in our transcript today at TheWorldview.com.  Libya has been in turmoil since 2011 and the overthrow of its then-leader, Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Since then, numerous other militia groups have battled for control. According to Open Doors, Libya is the fourth most dangerous country worldwide in which to be a Christian. 74-year-old pro-life woman arrested for praying outside abortion mill Authorities in Scotland arrested a 74-year-old pro-life woman recently for standing silently outside an abortion mill in Glasgow. Rose Docherty was holding a sign that read, “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” Officials charged her with violating a new “buffer zone” law that limits activities around abortion mills. It's the first arrest under the law.  The arrest comes days after U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance called out European leaders for violating the religious freedom of pro-lifers.  Kash Patel confirmed as FBI Director In the United States, the U.S. Senate confirmed Kash Patel as FBI Director on February 20th, reports The Epoch Times. PRESIDING OFFICER: “The Yeas are 51; the Nays are 49. The confirmation is confirmed.” Senators voted 51–49 to confirm Patel who gained prominence for exposing alleged FBI and Justice Department malfeasance during the Crossfire Hurricane probe into the Trump campaign. Crossfire Hurricane was the code name for the counterintelligence investigation undertaken by the FBI from July 2016 to May 2017, into links between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. Republican Senators  Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine crossed the aisle to join Democrats in voting against Patel's nomination. Surprisingly, GOP Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky supported Trump's nominee. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, age 91, serves as the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Before the vote was cast, he made this last-minute appeal. GRASSLEY: “Mr. Patel has spent his whole career fighting for righteous causes. He's been a public defender, representing the accused against the power of the state. He's been a congressional staffer, investigating the partisan weaponization of our legal system. And he served in key national security roles, protecting Americans from foreign enemies. He's received support from former FBI agents, former federal and state prosecutors, and organizations representing more than 680,000 law enforcement officers. “But Mr. Patel's resume, his accomplishments, aren't why he's the best person for this job. Mr. Patel should be considered our next FBI director because the FBI has been infected by political bias and weaponized against the American people. Mr. Patel knows it. Mr. Patel exposed it. I've got plenty of examples to show what's wrong with the FBI.” Kash Patel wrote the 2024 book entitled, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy. Military chaplain fired for citing Romans 1 in sermon A Veterans Affairs chaplain is fighting for his religious freedom.  Rusty Trubey served as a chaplain at the Coatesville Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Pennsylvania. However, Veterans Affairs removed him from his duties for preaching a sermon from Romans 1. The sermon was entitled, “When a Culture Excludes God,” and included homosexuality as an example.  First Liberty Institute and the Independence Law Center are representing Trubey. Last week, they sent a letter to Douglas Collins, the U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The letter noted, “This is a systemic problem. We know that you will do the right thing to correct not only the unconstitutional policies at the Coatesville Facility, but also throughout our [Veterans Affairs] system.” 2 Timothy 4:2 says, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” U.S. poll: Only 40% believe in God of Bible; 4% have Biblical worldview Dr. George Barna released his latest American Worldview Inventory report. The study found that 46% of Americans agree that there is only one Supreme Spiritual Being who created and rules everything in existence. That number rose to 60% among self-identified Christians.  Dr. Barna noted many have a mix-and-match approach to faith: “The latest research finds that while two-thirds of Americans identify as Christian, only 4% hold a Biblical worldview. Even more alarming, just 40% believe in the God of the Bible, down from 73% three decades ago. Instead, Syncretism—blending elements from multiple worldviews—has become the dominant perspective.” Joshua 24:15 says, “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Meta plans to build 30,000-mile-long sub-sea cable And finally, Meta announced last week it is building the world's largest sub-sea cable. The tech giant is known for its social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.  Under its new plan called Project Waterworth, it will bring industry-leading connectivity around the world. The cable will connect five major continents and measure over 30,000 miles. That's more than the earth's entire circumference! Close And that's The Worldview on this Friday, February 21st, in the year of our Lord 2025. Subscribe by Amazon Music or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. And now to close the newscast is my youngest child, Valor Tyndale McManus, who is turning 10 today. He's finally hit the double digits! Seize the day for Jesus Christ. (Adam@TheWorldview.com).