(June 25, 2022)
Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the Army’s 10th Special Forces Group, which before the war had been training Ukrainian commandos at a base in the country’s west, quietly established a coalition planning cell in Germany to coordinate military assistance to Ukrainian commandos and other Ukrainian troops. The cell has now grown to 20 nations.
Troops will be part of Operation Inherent Resolve, a U.S. military campaign against Daesh from Iraq and Libya to Syria. Last year alone, the U.S. sent more than 3,000 soldiers to Syria and Iraq for the campaign. The website Axios reported that U.S. military presence in the region reached about 45,400 as of October 2023 and most are stationed in Kuwait.
(14.01.2024)
Soldiers from New Jersey are joining the fight against an Islamic militant group in the Middle East. This will be the largest deployment of New Jersey Army National Guard soldiers since 2008.
Lt. Col. Omar Minott is among 1,500 New Jersey Army National Guard soldiers deploying to Iraq and Syria. This is his fifth deployment to the Middle East, he said.
His deployment is part of Operation Inherent Resolve, a military campaign to defeat ISIS.
(June 25, 2022)
Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the Army’s 10th Special Forces Group, which before the war had been training Ukrainian commandos at a base in the country’s west, quietly established a coalition planning cell in Germany to coordinate military assistance to Ukrainian commandos and other Ukrainian troops. The cell has now grown to 20 nations.
(June 28th 2022)
The extent of Western material support was perhaps best symbolised by Ukrainian special forces operating in the contested Donbas regions, which the Times highlighted had American flag patches on their equipment and carried new Western-supplied portable surface to air missiles and both Belgian and American assault rifles. Efforts on the ground in Ukraine were supplemented by considerable support provided to Ukrainian personnel in NATO member states themselves, an example being training for Ukrainian commandos in Germany provided by the U.S. Army’s 10th Special Forces Group. At Ramstein Air Base in Germany, U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard personnel simultaneously trained the Ukrainian Air Force.
(January 14, 2020)
Their tasks could include slowing the advancing units of an aggressor nation by destroying key transportation infrastructure such as bridges, attacking enemy forces at choke-points and potentially serving as forward observers for NATO aircraft responding with air strikes.
(October 8, 2019)
The State Partnership Program (SPP) is a National Guard Bureau initiative that links states and territories with partner countries around the world to foster mutual interests, establish long-term relations, enhance U.S. national security interests, and promote political stability. Through the SPP program, the Illinois National Guard is partnered with Poland and the Michigan National Guard is partnered with Latvia.
(July 3, 2019)
West Virginia Army National Guard (WVARNG) Special Forces Soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) recently completed the first irregular and unconventional warfare training iteration for members of the Polish Territorial Defense Forces and Latvian Zemmessardze as a part of the Ridge Runner program in West Virginia.
Ridge Runner is a WVARNG training program that provides various National Guard, active duty, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally nation armed forces training and experience to in irregular and asymmetrical warfare tactics and operations.
A member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard was arrested by the FBI on Thursday in connection with the leaking of classified documents that have been posted online, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday. (…)
The Joint Staff, which comprises the Defense Department’s most senior uniformed leadership that advises the president, began examining its distribution lists immediately after learning of the trove of leaked classified documents – many of which had markings indicating that they had been produced by the Joint Staff’s intelligence arm, known as the J2.
Die Nationalgarde war nach der Erstürmung des US-Kongresses am 6. Jänner einberufen worden, um die Sicherheitskräfte des Parlaments zu verstärken. Für kurze Zeit waren deswegen rund 20.000 Soldatinnen und Soldaten in der Hauptstadt Washington aktiv – deutlich mehr als die Truppenstärke des US-Militärs in Afghanistan und im Irak zusammengenommen zu diesem Zeitpunkt.
Die Sorge vor Attacken bei der Amtseinführung des neuen Präsidenten ist groß. Das US-Militär schließt Angriffe aus den eigenen Reihen nicht aus. Deshalb überprüft das FBI alle nach Washington verlegten Nationalgardisten.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has requested National Guard troops be deployed to clear and secure the Capitol, a senior Democratic aide said Wednesday.
„I want people to know we‘re serious,“ the governor said during a conference call with reporters. „You should not land if you do not have proof of a negative test upon landing,“Airlines, the NYPD and the Port Authority are assisting with the effort.
The man who claimed to have made the video, 22-year-old Raysean White, said that he saw Blake scuffling with three officers and heard them yell, “Drop the knife! Drop the knife!” before the gunfire erupted. He said he didn’t see a knife in Blake’s hands.
The governor said that he has seen no information to suggest Blake had a knife or other weapon, but that the case is still being investigated by the state Justice Department.
Powers like these have been deployed sparingly: A few days after the Sept. 11 attacks, a proclamation declaring a national emergency, followed by an executive order days later, invoked some presidential powers, including the use of National Guard and U.S. military forces.
What little we know about these secret powers comes from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School, but we believe they may include suspension of habeas corpus, surveillance, home intrusion, arrest without a judicial warrant, collective if not mass arrests and more; some could violate constitutional protections.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who flies RC-26s for the Wisconsin Air National Guard, has said that he flew a pair of night missions this month in Minneapolis in support of local law enforcement.
Former military officials have increasingly spoken out to rebuke Trump over his response to recent protests against the police-involved death of George Floyd and the president‘s threat to dispatch active-duty troops to cities to quell violence and looting that accompanied some of the demonstrations.
In an extraordinary statement Thursday, the top U.S. general expressed regret for his involvement in Trump’s photo opportunity at St. John’s Episcopal Church earlier this month that followed an aggressive clearing of protesters.
Vice presidents and presidents are sometimes encouraged to not be in the same location at the same time.
(11.06.2020)
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley says he regrets his participation in President Trump’s photo opportunity outside St. John’s Church last week.
“I should not have been there,” Milley said during a recorded message aired at the graduation of the National Defense University on Thursday morning. “My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”
D.C Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) sent a letter to Trump Friday requesting he withdraw all “extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence,” noting that she had ended the state of emergency in the distinct related to the demonstrations.
On Monday night, both Mr. McCarthy and the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. James C. McConville, pressed Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, the commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard, to increase his forces’ presence in the city, according to a senior Defense Department official.
An Army official declined to comment, saying that the investigation was continuing.
A national pushback against police violence and law enforcement excess continued Friday, as Minneapolis voted to ban chokeholds, National Guardsmen deployed in the nation’s capital were ordered to disarm, and protests following the death of George Floyd stretched into an 11th day.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) ended nightly curfews for Minneapolis and St. Paul, the epicenter of the protests over the killing of George Floyd, which had been in place for a week. The decision follows similar moves in other places where curfews have ended, including Washington, L.A. County and pockets of Southern California, along with much of the Bay Area.
A coalition of civil rights groups including the ACLU of the District of Columbia is suing President Donald Trump, Attorney General William Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and other federal officials over the brutal police assault on peaceful demonstrators near the White House Monday that cleared the way for the president‘s photo-op at St. John‘s Episcopal Church.
n a federal lawsuit, the groups asserted that U.S. and military police officers’ use of horses, batons, shields and riot control agents — including pepper spray, smoke canisters and rubber or plastic projectiles — violated largely peaceful protesters’ constitutional rights of free speech and assembly 30 minutes before a citywide curfew took effect Monday.
The suit — which also names Attorney General William P. Barr as a defendant — was brought by the ACLU of the District of Columbia, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday demanded that President Trump provide a list of the agencies involved in deploying law enforcement officers around Washington, D.C., in response to the crowds of demonstrators protesting police brutality.
Some officers policing protests in the city in recent days have been seen without any identifying labels on their uniforms, raising questions about which law enforcement agencies they represent.
We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite.
Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.
(02.06.2020)
I remain confident in the professionalism of our men and women in uniform. They will serve with skill and with compassion. They will obey lawful orders. But I am less confident in the soundness of the orders they will be given by this commander in chief, and I am not convinced that the conditions on our streets, as bad as they are, have risen to the level that justifies a heavy reliance on military troops. Certainly, we have not crossed the threshold that would make it appropriate to invoke the provisions of the Insurrection Act.
Furthermore, I am deeply worried that as they execute their orders, the members of our military will be co-opted for political purposes.
They were dressed in mixed riot gear, with helmets and face masks, shields and guns loaded with crowd control agents.
„I‘ve always believed and continue to believe that the National Guard is best suited for performing domestic support to civil authorities in these situations in support of local law enforcement,“ Esper said at a news conference Wednesday.
„I say this not only as secretary of Defense, but also as a former soldier and a former member of the National Guard, the option to use active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations,“ he added. „We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.“
Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.
Governors in 28 states, as well as the District of Columbia, have activated their National Guards to help with crowd control, with the Guard Bureau saying Tuesday that 20,400 soldiers were responding to “civil unrest.”
Trump, though, is pushing for a fiercer response to quash the protests. In remarks Monday evening, he threatened to deploy troops across the country if governors do not “dominate” the protesters.
„Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, District of Columbia National Guard Commanding General, has directed an investigation into a June 1 low-flying maneuver conducted by one of our rotary aviation assets,“ D.C. National Guard spokeswoman Air Force Lt. Col. Brooke Davis told The Hill in a statement.
„Our highest priority is the safety of our Citizen Soldiers and Airmen who support civil authorities as they perform their duties,” the spokeswoman continued. “This is our home, and we are dedicated to the safety and security of our fellow citizens of the District and their right to safely and peacefully protest.“
As thousands across the US take to the streets for another day of protests demanding justice for George Floyd, more than 17,000 members of the National Guard are standing ready to support local law enforcement.
That represents approximately the same number of active duty troops deployed in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
As of Monday, nearly half of the US has activated guard members to respond to civil unrest.
(8 hours ago)
President Trump on Monday threatened to deploy federal troops if state and city leaders don’t act to quell acts of violence and looting amid the protests over the killing of George Floyd. Moments earlier, just outside the White House, federal authorities used rubber bullets, flash bangs and gas to clear peaceful protesters from the area. Then Trump, who walked across Lafayette Square to St. John’s Church, where a fire was set Sunday evening, held up a Bible and nodded to media cameras and posed for photos.
The president said he was an „ally of all peaceful protesters“ as police and the National Guard forced protesters away from the White House.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer on Monday announced there was no officer body camera video of the shooting that killed a popular owner of a barbecue restaurant early Monday morning.
The head of the MN National Guard, Lt. Gen. Jon Jensen, confirmed the move to CBS News after it was warned of a „specific threat against the guard“ by the FBI.