Inside Rebel-Held Uglegorsk

‘Boats Full of Terrorists’: New Documents Say Islamic State Aims to Use Libya as a ‘Strategic Gateway’ to Southern Europe

Via Joe

 

The Islamic State group may be planning to use Libya as a staging ground to send boatloads of jihadi militants posing as migrants to flood southern Europe, create “pandemonium” and close down shipping lines, according to a recruiting document circulating among the group’s fighters.

The document, titled “Libya: The Strategic Gateway for the Islamic State,” describes how important some members of the militant group believe Libya to be due to its proximity to Europe and its vast arsenal of weapons that could potentially be seized by the group.

The January document was translated this week by the U.K.-based Quilliam Foundation, which tracks extremist militant groups.

More @ The Blaze

Truth and Lies about South African History: Blacks Are Not “Indigenous” and Arrived at Same Time as Whites

Via Nancy

 Black tribal areas, secured, not defined, by the 1913 Land Act.

The recent uproar in South Africa over the claims by ANC president Jacob Zuma that the 1913 Land Act dispossessed blacks is a blatant lie, and forms part of four core lies about South African history, a New Observer correspondent Yochanan has written.

Submitted in the comment section of this newspaper, Yochanan’s remarks are so pertinent that they deserve greater publicity:

LIE NUMBER ONE:

More @ The New Observer

White house announces new Press Secretary

Via Michel

May well be annihilation

 

 Enlarged

“We let them out once, and now they’ve come back to fight with us again. We told them to surrender in Debaltseve, but they didn’t. Now we’re not going to let anyone out,” says Sergey, nicknamed “Kunduz,” the company commander from Uglegorsk who has been fighting from Slavyansk since May.

“As soon as our enemy started to run out of breath, suddenly it’s time for peace, we lay down our weapons? Did our comrades die for nothing?”

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 Horrific Images Capture The Sheer Brutality Of War In Ukraine

LOGVINOVE, Ukraine — When Russian-backed rebels went on the offensive in east Ukraine a month ago, the focal point of the clashes quickly switched to Debaltseve, a strategically key rail junction linking their two unsanctioned states. For weeks, Ukraine’s government denied rebel claims to have the town surrounded, even as artillery fire prompted most civilians to flee, killed hundreds, and destroyed the town beyond recognition.

On Tuesday, however, rebels seized most of the town and took several Ukrainian soldiers captive. A catastrophic defeat is now all but inevitable. In the days preceding their victory, photographer Max Avdeev embedded with the First Slavyansk Brigade of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in the nearby town of Logvinove. The rebels had just seized the town, cutting Debaltseve off from the last road leading to Ukrainian territory. The soldiers were mostly local volunteers, though their commanding officers were Russian — as were the men who delivered them tanks and artillery. As the deadline for a new cease-fire deal came and went overnight on Sunday, the rebels kept on shelling Debaltseve.

More @ Buzz Feed

Daughters

Via Daughter Virginia

"Our HQ has fled, we are facing annihilation"-- Junta battalion commander's frantic call on live TV

Via WRSA

 Immediate below posted Earlier.

Ukrainian Soldiers Ordered by High Command to Destroy Equipment, Evacuate Debaltseve

 

 

Map of the Debaltseve salient tells the tale of woe facing the Ukrainian military

 

(The rebel command has stated that any military movement on Kiev's part in the salient will be met by force, so we shall see if they are allowed to leave peacefully or not.)

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This is a report from Newsdaily.com.ua, which is a Kiev junta-supporting Ukrainian news outlet.  The magnitude of the Debaltsevo Debacle is becoming more obvious with every passing minute…

90% of Debaltsevo captured, we can’t communicate with our HQ”—Ukrainian fighter [video at the link]

“There is street fighting in Debaltsevo. The enemy is using Russian Federation [sic] special operations units and Kadyrovites [sic] to storm Debaltsevo. They control 90% of it. Our forces are defending strongpoints. The sector HQ and the sector commander have abandoned us, they do not control the situation, they don’t know where the troops are,”- said “Gross.”

He noted that his troops need immediate help. They tried to reach the General Staff several times, but there has been no reaction.

“Our troops are facing annihilation,” said the deputy battalion commander.

 

More @ Fort Russ

For Those Who Are Raising Boys To Become Men….......

Via Michael 

.......… Do you want your boy to grow up to be a competent man? Do you reject the notion that kids should not handle dangerous tools? Do you want to prepare your kids for difficult times where they might need to actually do something helpful – and to think for themselves?

This does not apply to only boys but mostly boys will embrace the ideas.

You might watch these.

The Teutoburg Forest Massacre: Germanic Fury

 

 An entire army sacrificed in a bog

One of the greatest historians of the Roman Empire, Tacitus (56 AD – 120 AD) described the aftermath of the Roman’s famous defeat in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD.

“In the middle of the plain, bones lay either spread out or heaped, depending on whether they had fled or resisted. Next to the bones lay bits of spears and horse limbs, and there were also human heads nailed to trees. In the nearby groves were barbarian altars in which they had sacrificed tribunes and centurions of the first rank,” Tacitus wrote in his Annals.

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 Part 3 of a series

Mike Scruggs

The Teutoburg Forest is in northwestern Germany along the border of the modern German states of North Rhineland-Westfalia and Lower Saxony. It is south of the North Sea bordering territories occupied by the Frisians, Angles, and Saxons in the Fifth Century.

At approximately 7:00 AM on the morning of September 8, in 9 AD, a Roman force of nearly 22,000 broke camp and departed from their planned route westward along the northern side of the Lippe River to their home base at Vetera (Xanten), west of the Rhine. Instead, the Romans were led northwest into the Teutoburg Forest by Arminius and his cavalry cohort lieutenants. Arminius quickly made the excuse to leave with most of his cavalry to protect the Roman right flank and gather allied tribal forces.

Some of his cavalry leaders undoubtedly remained to lead the Roman column along their planned route of piece by piece annihilation. The column was allowed to get far enough into the forest, where it was beyond the point of return. The narrow and winding column of Roman legions and their auxiliaries stretched to over nine miles. It was much slower and harder going than represented by Arminius. The Romans were exhausted by the rugged terrain and having to fell trees and remove obstacles.

Before leaving the Lippe, Varus had sent a small detachment of the 19th Legion under Prefect Lucius Caedicius on their originally planned route to prepare a campsite near the Roman outpost at Aliso (Haltern) just east of the Rhine. A Prefect was a field grade Roman officer in charge of setting up and managing legion campsites.

Once the legions, their attached cohorts and cavalry, and baggage train were beyond the point of no return, the Bructeri, who had been positioned along the ambush route planned by Arminius, began to launch hit and run attacks on the Roman column. The Roman route paralleled a ridge on its left flank. Most of the Bructeri attacks assaulted the Roman column from higher sloping ground on this left flank, using mostly spears, axes, and short swords, and quickly withdrawing before the stunned Romans could organize disciplined resistance.

The Bructeri sometimes managed a surprise attack from the right flank or both flanks. The nature of the terrain made traditional Roman responses to ambush extremely difficult. The Bructeri objective was to destroy supplies and inflict casualties, leaving the Romans to care for many wounded. Roman counter-attack into the forest would have been sure death.

In the late afternoon, torrential rains added to their already growing problems. The column trudged on, however, at a slower but exhausting rate. If it were not for the Pioneers (combat engineers), they could have made no progress at all. At last they reached a clearing and made camp, including a traditional stockade fitted to the terrain as best possible.

Varus and his key officers met for several hours that night. Although communication along the long column was poor, they believed (perhaps wrongly) that casualties had been comparatively light. The German objectives seemed primarily to throw them off balance, delay their progress, and wear them out. Varus and his officers were primarily concerned about how much the baggage wagons were slowing them down, and a few were growing anxious about the whereabouts of Arminius and his promised reinforcements.

On the morning of September 9, the rain continued, visibility in the forest was low, and the trail ahead was a sea of mud, shallow pools, and fallen trees. Varus decided not to march until the rain ended. They sent out two reconnaissance patrols, one south to find Arminius, and one north and west to explore the practicality of moving forward. The patrol to the south never returned. One source, connecting the dotted lines, speculates that Arminius and his cavalry were following close behind to close the rear end of their trap. That source speculates that the patrol was taken prisoner by Arminius, interrogated, and killed.

The larger northern patrol found that the path forward had large tracts of glutinous mud that would make passage by infantry, cavalry, and mules difficult but passable and impassable for wheeled transportation. A western deviation would have to cross a ridge, making it even more impractical.

On September 10, the Romans broke camp before daylight, leaving their wounded behind with medics and a small guard force. They decided to abandon and destroy the heavier wheeled wagons and load as much of their cargo as possible on mules. They marched on continuing to trudge through mud, removing downed trees and limbs as they went.

Meanwhile Arminius’s cavalry cohort came upon the civilian baggage train, the abandoned wreckage of Roman wagons, and the small force protecting the Roman wounded. The Roman soldiers including wounded were presumably killed.

Arminius immediately ordered the baggage train to be burned, but many of his Cheruscan cavalry cohort wanted to loot it. This turned into a leadership crisis for Arminius, who knew that stopping to loot the baggage would cause enough delay and distraction to endanger their mission to destroy the Roman legions. Heated words were spoken, but Arminius was able to convince them to stay on strategy. Some asked if they should kill the women and children, and he is reputed to have told them that “Germanic warriors do not make war against women and children.” They were not killed. Most were probably held as valuable hostages, ransomed, or enslaved. 

By dawn, the German ambushes continued but with astonishing and deadly fury. Roman casualties were heavy, especially their officers. By early afternoon, they veered northwest to a clearing that would make an ideal campsite. They encamped there and put up their usual stockade encirclement.

Varus’s afternoon staff meeting revealed that two legion commanders had been killed and that all but a remnant of the 19th Legion, marching as the rear guard, had been wiped out. As much as two-thirds of the foreign auxiliary cohorts had either deserted or joined the enemy. Less than 8,000 men were fit for combat. To be continued.  

Before The Drive-in’s There Were The Air Domes!

 

They’re all gone now. The Do. The Don. The Beach. And the Moonlight. For those of us who grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, those names conjure up memories of our Drivein theaters. How can you forget going to the submarine races or the passion pit? Remember the little green citronella coil?

You’d light one up to ward off those pesky summer mosquitos and then choke to death on the smoke!

Remember the cutesy intermission music and the cartoonish hotdogs and popcorn boxes that danced across the screen, tempting you to visit the refreshment counter? What about those chunky gray speakers, with dubious sound quality? Remember Fivedollar-a-carload-night, the car’s trunk usually full to the brim with additional teenagers?

Most, if not all, of the Coastal Drive-ins were gone by the late ‘70s, victims of changing tastes and times and the elements. Pass Christian’s Moonlight Drive-in, located on Hwy 90 where Walmart is now located, was destroyed in 1969 by Hurricane Camille. In a bit of irony, Gone With The Wind was its upcoming attraction.

But before Drive-in’s dotted the landscape, another form of entertainment tempted Coastal residents — the Air Dome. An April 3, 1909, Daily Herald article stated, “During all of last summer, a form of amusement enterprise known as the Air Dome became very popular in the cities, large and small, in the North and some parts of the South. Of course, an Air Dome means an outdoor theater, a theater the dome of which is the star-studded sky.”

More: Before The Drive-in’s There Were The Air Domes!