Tren de Aragua Gang leader Killed In US Airstrike, Trump Says

The New York Post reports that US forces yesterday killed the leader of the Venezuela-based gang Tren de Aragus in an airstrike, according to President Trump.  

“At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

Trump’s post included a dramatic video that showed a projectile hitting a building, which appeared to be in a remote area, and causing a massive, fiery explosion.

You can read the rest of the piece via the link below: 

Tren De Aragua leader Niño Guerrero killed in US airstrike, Trump says 

Gunman Who Believed He Was Jesus Christ Opened Fire On White House Checkpoint, Neutralized By Secret Service

The New York Post reports on the White House shooting incident:

A crazed gunman who believed he was Jesus Christ pulled out a revolver and opened fire outside the White House Saturday night, before he was quickly taken down by a barrage of shots from the Secret Service, sources said.

Nasire Best, 21, fired at a checkpoint at about 6:10 p.m. after being seen pacing in a strange manner up and down 17th St. Northwest, sources told The Post. He only got off a few shots before he was shot and killed in a hail of bullets from federal officers.

At least one bystander was hit and seriously wounded in the fusillade, the sources said.

While a motive for the attack hasn’t been confirmed, sources said Best is a mentally troubled individual who was well-known to the Secret Service for repeatedly loitering around various entry posts and who has violated a previous court order to stay away from the White House.

You can read the rest of the piece via the link below:

  White House on lockdown after dozens of shots fired 

Inside Operation Absolute Resolve: How US Forces Captured Venezuela’s Maduro — After Months Of Secret Planning

The US military unleashed a stunning overnight show of force to capture Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, deploying more than 150 aircrafts, elite ground troops and overwhelming airpower — a mission months in the making, the New York Post reported. 

Speaking shortly before noon Saturday from Mar-a-Lago, Trump said the raid on Caracas — dubbed Absolute Resolve — was ordered at 10:46 p.m. Friday after weather briefly cleared, setting off a tightly choreographed mission that unfolded over just more than two hours.

“At my direction, the United States Armed Forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela,” Trump said. 

“Overwhelming American military power, air, land and sea, was used to launch a spectacular assault, and it was an assault like people have not seen since World War II,” he added. 

… Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine said helicopters carrying the extraction force lifted off first, protected by the Marines, Navy, Air Force and Air National Guard as B-1 bombers loomed overhead. 

US warplanes dismantled Venezuelan air defenses — allowing helicopters to push into Caracas. 

“We arrived at Maduro’s compound at 1:01 a.m.,” Caine said, describing how an apprehension force “moved with speed, precision and discipline.” 

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, “gave up” and were “taken into custody by the Department of Justice,” he said. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the link below:

How US forces captured Venezuela’s Maduro in 'extraordinary' raid | New York Post

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Watch President Trump's 2025 Inaugural Addess

The New York Post offers a video of President Trump’s 2025 Inaugural Address. 

You can watch the video via the below link: 

Watch Now: President Donald Trump’s Full Inauguration Speech (Video) | New York Post 

Former CIA Spymaster Predicts Russian President Vladimir Putin Will Be Overthrown In ‘Black Swan’ Coup

The New York Post offers a piece on former CIA spymaster Jack Devine (seen in the below photo), who predicts that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will be overthrown.  

A veteran chief of American’s Central Intelligence Agency has declared Vladimir Putin’s days are numbered, predicting the Russian president will be overthrown in a ‘Black Swan’ palace coup.

And the ousting of one of modern history’s most divisive and ruthless leaders is only a matter of time.

Jack Devine served for three decades with the US spy agency and told The Sun newspaper in an exclusive interview that he wouldn’t be surprised if Putin “disappeared tomorrow”. 

Speculation about the future of Russia’s leadership has been festering for some time, with the country’s bruising performance in its war with Ukraine intensifying talk.

So too have endless reports about Putin’s ill health, with rumors emerging from inside the Kremlin that he has at various points been close to death.

... But Devine, 83, who led thousands of spies on covert and classified missions across the globe for 32 years, believes Putin’s demise will be at the hands of those closest to him.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Former CIA agent predicts Russian President Vladimir Putin is about to be toppled (nypost.com)

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine Q&A with Jack Levin via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: Good Hunting: My Q & A With Former CIA Official Jack Devine

Former Attorney General Bill Barr Likens Mexican Drug Cartels To ISIS, Demands Biden Send Military

 The New York Post reports that former Attorney General Bill Barr (seen in the above photo) called Thursday for a US crackdown on Mexican drug cartels, urging President Biden to use military force to respond to the poisoning of hundreds of thousands of Americans by fentanyl. 

“These narco-terrorist groups are more like ISIS than like the American mafia,” Barr, 72, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “Merely designating the cartels as terrorist groups will do nothing by itself. The real question is whether we are willing to go after them as we would a terrorist group.”

Barr, who served as America’s top law enforcement official under former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump, said Congress should pass a joint resolution authorizing “select military capabilities” to beat back drug traffickers in the provinces of Sinaloa and Jalisco.

“Optimally, the Mexican government will support and participate in this effort, and it is likely to do so once they understand that the US is committed to do whatever is necessary to cripple the cartels, whether or not the Mexican government participates,” Barr wrote. Former Attorney General Bill Barr on Friday called for a US crackdown on Mexican drug cartels.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Bill Barr likens Mexican drug cartels to ISIS (nypost.com) 

Italy Arrests Sicilian Mafia Boss Matteo Messina Denaro

The New York Post reports that Italy has captured their number one fugitive, convicted Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro (seen in the above photo). 

He was arrested on Monday at a private clinic in Palermo, Sicily, after 30 years on the run, according to the Italian paramilitary police. 

You can read the piece via the below link:

Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro arrested after 30 years on the run (nypost.com)

I'm Shocked, Shocked That Politicians Lie

In the classic 1942 film Casablanca, French Captain Renault, portrayed by Claude Rains, follows Nazi orders to shut down Rick’s. 

Rick, portrayed by Humphrey Bogart, confronts Renault.

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?

Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

Then a croupier hands Renault a pile of money.

Croupier: Your winnings, sir.

Renault: Oh, thank you very much.

Much like Captain Renault, I’m shocked, shocked that a politician has lied to get elected to office.

But, as Douglas Murray at the New York Post notes, Congressman-elect George Santos takes the cake.   

Why do they do it? Who needs to lie like this? I am thinking, of course, of Representative elect George Santos. But also of the whole lot of them. Of politicians as a species. Why do they feel the need to make stuff up?

It must be admitted that Santos is emerging as the undisputed top of his class of fibsters.

To date he claims to have attended a prestigious Bronx prep school which has no record of him ever being there. He claims to have graduated from Baruch College, despite never having enrolled there. He claims to have worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs but never did. When confronted with the fact that he´d never worked for either company he blamed a “poor choice of words.”

I can see the point. I often claim to have worked for the Dalai Lama, UN Secretary General and the Pope as their joint global emissary to solve all world conflicts. Whenever anyone points out that I haven’t left my apartment much lately I too just blame a “poor choice of words.”

Still, it is the sheer weirdness of Santos’ claims which keep striking me. It’s not just career embellishments — it is lies about pretty major things. For instance, so far the Republican has claimed that he is both Jewish and Catholic. When confronted by The New York Post about this he replied “I never claimed to be Jewish. I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was Jew-ish.” It turns out that his family are from Brazil.

Then yesterday we learned that as recently as last year he was claiming that his mother died as a result of 9/11. Then he said she died of cancer in 2016.

What is it with this guy? Why does he feel the need to any of this? Does he think that people vote out of pity? Or because of which school or college someone went to? And what the hell does he think of New Yorkers if he thinks we deeply want representatives who worked for Goldman Sachs?

Of course, he´s not the only one who does this. Our very own President is a master of the career-embellishing lie. President Biden has been caught in a few lies of his own since taking office. 

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

George Santos lies, but why does Joe Biden get a pass for his? (nypost.com)

British University Issues ‘Trigger Warning’ For Mark Twain’s ‘Huckleberry Finn’

Lee Brown at the New York Post reports on a Brit University placing a “Trigger Warning” On Mark Twain’s great novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

A British university has issued a “trigger warning” on Mark Twain’s literary classic “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” because of supposed “problematic” violence and language.

Exeter University warned students that the 1884 novel — widely deemed one of the great American novels — is “classic but contentious,” according to The Times of London.

Twain’s masterpiece “is problematic in a number of ways, not least because of Huck’s use of the N-word throughout the novel,” students in the American literature module were warned. 

“Please be aware that this novel also features scenes of murder, violence and child abuse,” the warning reportedly adds.

Exeter University warned that the 1884 novel “is problematic in a number of ways,” including its use of the N-word as well as “scenes of murder, violence and child abuse.”

Twain’s tale of 13-year-old Huck Finn’s travels down the Mississippi River with an escaped slave named Jim has for generations been taught as a condemnation of the racist values of the time.

“It’s the best book we’ve had,” Ernest Hemingway once said of it. “All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before.”

It is also a pioneering work for Twain’s use of colloquial dialect, making it a timeless snapshot of the Antebellum South.

However, his reliance on the era’s racially charged language — including the N-word, which appears 219 times — has long sparked controversy. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

University gives 'trigger warning' for 'Huckleberry Finn' (nypost.com)

Rafael Caro Quintero, Fugitive Drug Lord Wanted In 1985 Murder Of DEA Agent, Captured By Mexico

The New York Post offers a piece on the capture of the Mexican drug lord believed to be responsible for the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985. 

A fugitive Mexican drug lord was busted Friday to face extradition in the notorious 1985 torture and murder of an undercover US Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

Rafael Caro Quintero, a founder of the once-powerful Guadalajara Cartel, was nabbed by Mexican authorities in the northern state of Chihuahua, law enforcement sources confirmed with The Post.

Caro Quintero, who’s believed to be between 59 and 69, served 28 years of a 40-year sentence in Mexico for the grisly killing of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena before being freed in 2013 on a technicality involving the jurisdiction of the court in which he was convicted.

The US — which has called Caro-Quintero the “mastermind” behind Camarena’s slaying — requested his extradition days after he was sprung from the “Puente Grande” prison in Guadalajara and put a bounty on his head that eventually reached $20 million. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link: 

Mexico captures fugitive drug lord wanted in 1985 DEA agent murder (nypost.com) 

Hey, Philly Mayor Jim Kenney, The Feeling’s Mutual: The Crime-Riddled City Wants You Out

Tom Hogan, a former prosecutor, offers a piece in the New York Post on Philadelphia Mayor Jim Keeney’s comments following the shooting of two Police officers at the Fouth of July celebration on the Ben Franklin Parkway. 

On the Fourth of July, along the Ben Franklin Parkway in the middle of Philadelphia during the Welcome America festivities, some criminal used the cover of fireworks to shoot two police officers. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney had two responses. First, he blamed the United States Constitution for the shooting. Then he announced to the world he’s tired of being Philadelphia mayor and can’t wait to be out of office.

Philadelphians can sense when a public figure wilts under pressure, so expect the well-earned booing to start now and last until they “throw the bum out” next year.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link: 

Hey, Philly mayor Jim Kenney, the feeling's mutual: The city wants you out (nypost.com) 

Texas School Shooting: What We Know About The Victims

The New York Post offers a piece on what we know so far about the victims of the horrific mass shooting at a Texas school.

A veteran teacher who was “just a sweetheart” and an 8-year-old boy were among those killed in the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, according to devastated loved ones.

At least 19 children and two teachers were killed when the alleged gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, opened fire Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a small, working-class town near the Mexico border.

All victims were killed inside a single classroom, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Wednesday.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Texas school shooting: What we know about the victims (nypost.com) 

How And Why Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano Turned On John Gotti

Brad Hamilton at the New York Post offer a piece on former federal prosecutor John Gleeson’s new book on John Gotti.

It was the biggest gamble of John Gleeson’s life.

In 1991, the federal prosecutor, gearing up for his second murder trial of John Gotti in four years, had gotten word that the Gambino crime boss’s underling and co-defendant, Sammy “the Bull” Gravano, wanted to meet — without his lawyer.

The only logical reason was that Gravano was ready to flip and testify against the “Dapper Don.” That, however, would be an epic betrayal of the Mafia’s code of silence and the most devastating blow ever delivered to organized crime, given that no one even close to Gravano’s level of power had ever cut a deal with prosecutors before. 

But deputy US Attorney Gleeson, the top mob buster in Brooklyn, was deeply concerned that if Gotti got wind of a meeting with his hitman underboss, Gravano would be targeted for death.

So the prosecutor arranged a secret pow-wow to see what Gravano had to say. They met privately in a jury room at the federal courthouse in downtown Brooklyn. After shaking hands, Gravano got right to the point:

“I want to jump from our government to your government,” he said.

“Why?” Gleeson asked.

“I think if we manage to beat the case, John will try to kill me when we hit the street,” Gravano replied. “So if we do win, I’d have to kill him or be killed by him. If I kill him, I’ll have to kill his brothers Gene and Pete. And his kid, probably some others too.

“It would get complicated.”

Once closely-connected mobsters, Sammy “the Bull” Gravano (left) turned on Gambino crime family chief John Gotti (right) to help prosecutors finally put the organized-crime boss behind bars.

This is just one of the shocking revelations in Gleeson’s new book, “The Gotti Wars: Taking Down America’s Most Notorious Mobster.” Out Tuesday, it focuses on the five years, from 1987 to 1992, when the prosecutor twice indicted the Gambino boss in a relentless and often frustrating effort to put him behind bars.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Book reveals how Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano turned on John Gotti (nypost.com)

Snake Island Sailors Who Told Russian Ship ‘Go F–k Yourself’ Freed In Prisoner Swap

At the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russians told the handful of Ukrainian sailors defending Snake Island to surrender.

In response, one of the sailors told the Russians to go fuck themselves. Initial reports stated the Ukrainian sailors were killed, but later reports stated the sailors were taken prisoner.

Emily Crane at the New York Post reports that the sailors were released in a prisoner exchange.

You can read the piece via the below link:

Snake Island sailors who told Russian ship ‘go f--k yourself’ freed (nypost.com)

You can also read my post of the sailors via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: Bold Ukrainian Sailor Spoke For The Rest Of The World When He Told Russians To 'Go F**k Yourself' 

Leaked Video Shows Navy Fighter Jet Crashing On Carrier USS Carl Vinson

Having served on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk as a young sailor during the Vietnam War, I know just how dangerous air operations on a carrier can be. 

The New York Post offers a leaked video of an aircraft crashing on the deck of the Aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

Leaked video captured the harrowing moment a fighter jet crashed onto the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson before plunging into the South China Sea last month.

The pilot was recovered after ejecting from the F-35C Lightning II, which was seen bobbing in the water without its canopy. Seven sailors were wounded in the Jan. 24 incident.

“The ship has assessed that the video and photo covered in the media … were taken on board USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) during the crash,” US Navy 7th Fleet spokesperson Cmdr. Hayley Sims told Military.com in an email. 

You can read the rest of the piece and watch the video via the below link:

Video shows Navy fighter jet crashing on carrier USS Carl Vinson (nypost.com) 

TCM Offers A Look Back At Dean Martin, 'The King Of Cool'

I'm a huge fan of Dean Martin, known by all affectionately as "Dino."

He was a great singer, comedian and actor, but he was always so casual about it all, he was called “The King of Cool.”

TCM will air a documentary On Dino on Friday, November 19^th. 

Michael Starr at the New York Post offers a piece on Dino and the upcoming documentary.   

The life and times of Dean Martin were tinged with fame, fortune, worldwide celebrity and a late-in-life tragedy — and they’re concisely and lovingly documented in “Dean Martin: King of Cool,” premiering Friday (Nov. 19) at 8 p.m. on TCM.

The new documentary, directed by Tom Donahue, features a treasure trove of personal photos, home movies, archival television appearances and interviews with Martin’s friends and family, including his daughter, Deana Martin, talking about this performer who kept his inner feelings hidden behind a carefree public persona of a guy from working-class Ohio (Steubenville) who just wanted to play golf and watch television.

Martin’s image is the impetus that drives “King of Cool” as it digs deep into the arc of his childhood and teenage years as the son of Italian immigrants to discover his “Rosebud” (what made him tick) in tracking his rise to the heights of stardom with the comedy team of Martin & Lewis (Jerry Lewis is heard on audio recordings), the Sinatra Rat Pack years, “The Dean Martin Show,” etc. The answer? No one really knows. Martin died at the age of 77 in 1995 on Christmas Day — a broken man, ravaged by health problems who never recovered from the death of his son, Dean Paul Martin, a captain in the Air National Guard who was killed in 1987 piloting a plane during a routine mission.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Why Dean Martin was the 'King of Cool' (nypost.com)

You can listen to Dean Martin’s Italian songs via the below link: 

Just Say I Love Her (Dicitencello Vuie) - YouTube

And you can listen to Dean Martin’s Christmas Album via the below link: 

White Christmas - YouTube

And you can learn more about Dean Martin by reading Nick Tosches' biography of him, Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams, as well as his daughter's memoir, Memories Are Made of This. .  

Alleged Navy ‘spy’ Was Wannabe Medieval Swashbuckler

Ben Feuerherd at the New York Post offers a piece on the Navy civilian engineer accused of being a spy. 

The Navy nuclear engineer accused of trying to peddle US military secrets using a peanut-butter sandwich not only allegedly dreamed of being a spy - he saw himself as a Medieval swashbuckler, too.

Jonathan Toebbe, 42, of Annapolis, Md., allegedly began his espionage bid in April 2020 — while buying up Medieval sword-fighting gear and attending classes at a local “historic swordsmanship” outfit.

According to social-media posts by Toebbe, about two months after the would-be Benedict Arnold sent a package of restricted Navy documents and other materials to a purported contact in a foreign country, he boasted about a new sword to fellow members of the “Mid-Atlantic Society for Historic Swordsmanship.” 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Navy 'spy' was wannabe Medieval swashbuckler (nypost.com)

You can also read my earlier post on the accused spy via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: Maryland Nuclear Engineer And Spouse Arrested On Espionage-Related Charges 

Kash Patel: I ran Team Trump’s Afghan Withdrawal — Biden’s Attempt To Blame Us Is Just Sad

Kash Patel, a Pentagon official in the Trump administration, offers a piece in the New York Post that debunks President Biden’s claim that he inherited Trump’s plan for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. 

President Joe Biden has sought to place blame for the shocking dénouement in Afghanistan on the situation he “inherited” from the Trump administration. What a sad-sack attempt at blame-shifting. Team Trump’s withdrawal plan was sound. What proved catastrophic were Biden’s changes to that plan.

I’m intimately familiar with former President Donald Trump’s Afghanistan strategy. In November 2020, I was named chief of staff at the Pentagon, where one of my primary responsibilities was to wind down the forever war in Afghanistan.

Trump instructed me to arrange a conditions-based, methodical exit plan that would preserve the national interest. The plan ended up being fairly simple: The Afghan government and the Taliban were both told they would face the full force of the US military if they caused any harm to Americans or American interests in Afghanistan.

Next, both parties would negotiate to create an interim-joint government, and both sides had to repudiate al Qaeda. Lastly, a small special-operations force would be stationed in the country to take direct action against any terrorist threats that arose. When all those conditions were met — along with other cascading conditions — then a withdrawal could, and did, begin.

We successfully executed this plan until Jan. 20, 2021. During this interval — when there were no US casualties in Afghanistan — President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban conducted multiple rounds of negotiations, and al Qaeda was sidelined. The result was a successful drawdown of US forces in Afghanistan to 2,500, the lowest count since the dawn of the War on Terror. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

I ran Trump's Afghan withdrawal — Biden's attempt to blame us is sad (nypost.com) 

Biden Is Badly Fumbling The US Pullout From Afghanistan

Rich Lowry offers his take on Biden’s pullout of Afghanistan in his column at the New York Post.

Barely a day passes without news of more Taliban gains in Afghanistan. Perhaps the Afghan government and its forces will prove more resilient than many expect, but if the country continues its slide toward chaos or, worse, the Taliban rapidly take Kabul, President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw a residual US force will look like an amateurish, unforced error by a man who prides himself on his foreign-policy experience and acumen.

With his top military leadership opposed and credible warnings that Kabul could fall within months after a withdrawal, Biden went ahead with it anyway, on the basis of what an aide has called “his gut.”

So far, indications are that the president would have been better off heeding his military advisers than his viscera.

The Afghan war has, of course, stretched on for two decades and become a holding action satisfying to no one. But the cost to the United States of sustaining 3,500 troops in the country without losing anyone in combat for more than a year hasn’t been high compared with the entirely plausible downside of Islamist extremists allied with al Qaeda sweeping to power again in ­Afghanistan.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Biden is badly fumbling the US pullout from Afghanistan (nypost.com) 

Just When We Need Public Safety, Dem Elites Have Alienated Cops Nationwide

 Rich Lowry at the New York Post offers his take on cops and crime:

WANTED: Trained security professionals to deal with ­elevated levels of crime and mayhem at risk to their own life and limb, while getting called racist oppressors and potentially thrown under the bus by elected ­officials.

This has become the de facto employment notice for police around the country, and, unsurprisingly, cops and potential cops don’t find it particularly enticing. Why would they?

America’s cities are feeling the effects of a year’s long experiment in what would happen if political and media elites celebrated a movement based on the idea that police are racist goons, excused rioting and explaining away spiraling crime and made it clear to cops that if they make a mistake, they will, at the very least, ­become instantly infamous.

The experiment hasn’t gone well.

Portland, Ore., has been a veritable research lab for this experiment. The latest blow to the city is the mass resignation of the Portland Police Bureau’s Rapid Response Team, which is responsible for policing protests in the city — a challenging, endless and literally thankless job.

Rioting has become part of the fabric of urban life in Portland, where demonstrators have been doing battle with cops nearly ­every other night since the death of George Floyd.

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

Just when we need public safety, Dem elites have alienated cops (nypost.com)