Free Republic

Overlooking a refugee camp housing 15,000 people in northern Jordan, the secret outpost of Tower 22, on the border with Iraq and Syria, has long been strategically important to the US.Little is publicly known about the military base, but its location just 12 miles from the better-known Al-Tanf US garrison in south-eastern Syria suggests it provides logistical support – as well as border security for Jordan.Officially, the Jordanian government does not acknowledge Tower 22’s existence. Yet Al-Tanf has been a key US base in the fight against the remnants of Islamic State (IS) in the region and has been repeatedly...

Tower 22, which houses a small US logistics outpost, is located in Jordan’s northeast close to the borders with Iraq and Syria. Public information about the outpost is limited. However, according to media reports, Tower 22 serves as a supply hub for the nearby US garrison of al-Tanf located across the border in Syria. At least 350 US Army and Air Force soldiers are also stationed there. It is unclear what type of weapons are kept at the outpost and the nature of air defences used. Since the beginning of Syria’s war in 2011, Washington has spent hundreds of millions...

Geneva (ICRC) - An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) team that had been on its way to Mariupol on Friday to facilitate the safe passage of civilians had to return to Zaporizhzhia after arrangements and conditions made it impossible to proceed. The ICRC team, which consists of three vehicles and nine personnel, did not reach Mariupol or facilitate the safe passage of civilians today. They will try again on Saturday to facilitate the safe passage of civilians from Mariupol. For the operation to succeed, it is critical that the parties respect the agreements and provide the necessary conditions...

Lawmakers in Connecticut – still stunned from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting – are moving forward with legislation that could make public the names and addresses of 170,000 handgun permit holders in the state. The measure, introduced by state Rep. Stephen Dargan, is the latest effort to clamp down on guns in Connecticut. If passed, the bill would reverse a 20-year decision by state lawmakers to keep the personal information confidential. The legislation would make the information fair game under the state’s Freedom of Information Act. Dargan told FoxNews.com on Friday the measure was not intended to pit gun...

U.S. Marines defending the American embassy in Egypt were not permitted by the State Department to carry live ammunition, limiting their ability to respond to attacks like those this week on the U.S. consulate in Cairo. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson “did not permit U.S. Marine guards to carry live ammunition,” according to multiple reports on U.S. Marine Corps blogs spotted by Nightwatch. “She neutralized any U.S. military capability that was dedicated to preserve her life and protect the US Embassy.” If true, the reports indicate that Patterson shirked her obligation to protect U.S. interests, Nightwatch states.

Commanders have ordered a U.S. military unit in Afghanistan to patrol with unloaded weapons, according to a source in Afghanistan. American soldiers in at least one unit have been ordered to conduct patrols without a round chambered in their weapons, an anonymous source stationed at a forward operating base in Afghanistan said in an interview. The source was unsure where the order originated or how many other units were affected. When a weapon has a loaded magazine, but the safety is on and no round is chambered, the military refers to this condition as “amber status.” Weapons on “red status”...

Sea-Based Missile Defense System Works, but Will Congress Fund It? by Baker SpringPosted Jun 16, 2006In 1995, The Heritage Foundation’s Missile Defense Study Team proposed to Congress a comprehensive plan for developing and deploying an effective global defense against ballistic missiles. The panel was chaired by the former director of the Strategic Defense Initiative, Ambassador Henry F. Cooper, and among its recommendations was a proposal to evolve the existing AEGIS weapons systems onboard Navy surface ships for air defense into a missile defense system. Last month, the Navy demonstrated the wisdom of this approach by successfully testing modified versions of...

WASHINGTON — Murder charges may be brought against some Marines for what may be the worst atrocity committed by U.S. military personnel in Iraq, a senior Pentagon official said Friday.

The unpatched CreateTextRange vulnerability in Internet Explorer is already being used by at least one Web site to install spyware on users' machines, a security organization said Friday. "We just received a report that a particular site uses the vulnerability to install a spybot variant," the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center (ISC) warned Friday in an alert. "It is a minor site with insignificant visitor numbers according to Netcraft's 'Site rank.'" Disclosed only Wednesday, the flaw in IE 5.01, 6.0, and the January version of IE 7 Beta 2 Preview has security vendors worried because a patch isn't available from...

Ottawa says 'no' to missile defence CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA - Canada's announcement that it won't join the U.S. missile shield provoked an immediate warning that it has relinquished sovereignty over its airspace. From now on, the U.S. government will control any decision to fire at incoming missiles over Canadian territory, declared the top U.S. envoy to Canada. "We will deploy. We will defend North America," said Paul Cellucci, the U.S. ambassador to Canada. "We simply cannot understand why Canada would in effect give up its sovereignty - its seat at the table - to decide what to do about a...

<p>ANDOVER, Ohio — A man opened fire at an auto supplies (search) plant Tuesday, killing at least one person before he was killed, authorities said.</p> <p>The shootings happened about 8:20 a.m. at Andover Industries in the northeast Ohio village, according to news reports.</p>