Random News and Notes 17 September
We kick off this edition of RNN in Old Blighty. President Trump is there on an official state visit. It is his second. No other world leader has ever gotten more than one. He is expected to spend the day with the Royal Family.
Tomorrow he will meet with British PM Keir Starmer. Tariffs and tech barriers are supposed to be on the agenda.
The charges were announced for Charlie Kirk’s assassin yesterday. Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray, announced he is being charged with Aggravated Murder, Felony Discharge of a Firearm Causing Serious Bodily Injury, Obstruction of Justice (2 counts), Witness Tampering (2 counts) and Commission of a Violent Offense in the Presence of a Child. That last charge was because the shooting occurred in an area where children (students) were present and carries 5 years by itself. The prosecutors have announced that they will be seeking the death penalty for the Aggravated Murder charge.
There is something wrong with his affect here. I don’t mean in the insane way, though there is some of that. He is evil, pure and simple. You can see it in his eyes.
There is an unfolding story out of Pittsburgh. A man rammed his vehicle into the security gates of an FBI facility and ran off. The FBI has identified the suspect as Donald Henson. He apparently has a history of mental illness and recently filed a complaint with the local FBI office.
As of the time of writing, he is still on the loose. If you are in the Pittsburgh area and see this guy, call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, or make a report online at http://tips.fbi.gov.
Today is the 1 year anniversary of what I consider the GOATed clandestine operation of all time: the Nakbeep. 365 days ago today, Israel detonated thousands of modified pagers that had been delivered to Hezbollah operatives across Lebanon. The operation killed some 40 Hezb operatives and wounded as many as 2800 more. A follow-on operation the next day killed another 20-30 operatives and wounded 3-400 more.
For those unaware, Hezbollah had resorted to communicating by pager as nearly all other methods had been compromised by Mossad. Israeli agents had gotten word that Hezb was ordering a large number of the devices, intercepted them, modified them and added small amounts of explosives before shipping them on to Lebanon. On the 17th of September 2024 those devices were detonated. Voila!
Ten days later, Israel cut the head off the snake. In a tightly targeted airstrike they hit the underground bunker of Hassan Nasrallah, killing him and several of his key deputies.
And for those of you wondering, Nakbeep is a portmanteau of Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe and what the Arabs in Gaza, Judea and Samaria call the 1948 war of Arab aggression that displaced much of the Arab population and beeper.
On to the FAFO Olympics where nobody is a winner. We start in Texas, where in two separate incidents at two separate universities ghouls tried to disrupt memorials for Charlie Kirk. It ended – well, you’ll see:
And:
Ghouls. . .
On the Mil side, heads keep rolling. Today I bring you news of a relief, not just a suspension. Major Guillermo Muniz, commander of the 22nd mobile public affairs detachment at Ft Bragg has been relieved of command. Muniz posted that the Kirk assassination was “literally a FAFO situation.”
Well, major, your turn in the FAFO barrel.
I have been watching for updates on any of the suspensions I have reported on, but none have popped yet. When they do, I’ll update it in RNN.
