Halloween is here: Want to read something really scary?
THE ANCHORAGE DAILY PLANET
If you do not fear for the future of the United States, consider this: Polling found some 70 percent of millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, show frightening support for communism and socialism.
The survey, conducted by the Victims of Communism, found 70 percent of millennial respondents said they are likely to vote socialist – and that one in three perceive communism as “favorable,” the Daily Caller reported.
The survey, a part of the Victims of Communism’s report “U.S. Attitudes Toward Socialism, Communism, and Collectivism,” polled 2,100 people in the United States who were 16 or older, the news outlet reported. The poll’s margin of error is +/- 2.4 percent.
“The historical amnesia about the dangers of communism and socialism is on full display in this year’s report,” said Marion Smith, executive director of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is a Washington-based, non-profit educational and human rights organization.
The results are nothing less than shocking and an indictment of the American educational system. Our children apparently are not being taught that socialism and communism are anthema to freedom; that communist regimes have killed more than 100 million over the past century; that everybody but the elite few suffers under such systems.
One need only look to Venezuela to understand the dangers of socialism and the human toll it wreaks. The destitute country is the embodiment of Winston Churchill’s sage observation: “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.”
Our youth need to be better educated about the consequences and dangers of such systems. After all, as somebody once said, you can vote your way into socialism, but you will have to shoot your way out.
Unalaska City Council to discuss ’emergency’ declaration over travel
MEETING ON TUESDAY
A special meeting of the Unalaska City Council on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 6 pm will focus on the difficulty of travel to and from the remote Aleutian community, with no commercial flights currently servicing Unalaska and Dutch Harbor. The council meets at City Hall on Raven Way
Commercial service was temporarily suspended at the airport after a PenAir Flight crashed off the end of the runway on Oct. 17.
Since then, people have been stranded. Charter flights cost over $1,000 one way, and that’s only when the flight has enough passengers.
The council will consider making an emergency declaration, which would allow the municipality to temporarily get involved in contracting with air carriers, or finding some other innovative solution to getting medicine, fresh produce, and other necessities to Unalaska.
The Unalaska airport serves Dutch Harbor, America’s largest fishing port. Workers typically come and go by commercial carrier.
A Facebook group has launched to help travelers coordinate charter flights to and from the Unalaska/Dutch Harbor communities that are 900 air miles from Anchorage. Ravn Air is planning to start commercial flights the week of Nov. 4.
[Read: Regular flights to resume in November]
Homer council decides to seat new member whose residency was questioned
The Homer City Council reviewed and evidence and in the end voted 4-1 to seat Storm Hansen-Cavasos, who was elected to the council Oct. 1, but who faced a challenge as to her residency.
The argument on the side of allowing her to serve was that she had testified that she had moved into town, and so had her mother. Council members said they didn’t want to call her a liar, and that she apparently intended to move inside city limits.
But council member Heath Smith said the decision needed to be based on objective information, such as Hansen-Cavasos’ voter identification and the fact that she had signed leases in the borough — outside city limits — and was apparently living there during most of 2018 and 2019. To qualify for the ballot, a candidate must live inside Homer city limits for a year prior to the election.
Smith’s was the lone vote in dissent during the special council meeting held Monday afternoon to decide the matter, which came to light after the Oct. 1 election. A formal investigation had been authorized by the council on Oct. 14, at the same time Hansen-Cavasos was sworn in.
About a dozen people spoke after today’s council vote affirmed Hansen-Cavasos as the winner.
Tom Stroozas, former city council member who lost to Hansen-Cavasos and one other challenger, said the council had become lawless:
“I cited Alaska statute 15.05.020, which simply states the address on a person’s voter registration is presumptive of their residency. She [Hansen-Cavasos] didn’t change her voter registration until Aug, 2019,” said Stroozas. “In her testimony last week she made an excuse, saying she had just overlooked it.”
Judge says ranked voting ballot measure is OK
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Yvonne Lamoureux has ruled that Alaskans for Better Elections can have their ballot initiative.
But before they start collecting signatures on the ballot initiative petition, the State Department of Law is likely going to try to prevent those petition booklets from circulating while the State challenges the decision in the Supreme Court.
At issue is a ballot measure offered by a liberal Outside group that has used Jason Grenn, former House representative, as the measure’s local sponsor. Grenn’s attorney Scott Kendall argued the case before Judge Lamoureux last week, saying that the three parts of the ballot initiative all fall under the category of “election reform,” and therefore are not in violation of the “single subject rule.”
The judge agreed with Kendall in her ruling today.
[Read: Using Outside money, Better Elections files lawsuit]
Although the State will try to slow down the signature process while the matter works its way to the Supreme Court, Kendall’s argument is that nobody is hurt by collecting signatures. And if the Supreme Court sides with the State that the ballot measure is illegal, then the signature collecting stops.
[Read: Log-rolling at issue with election ballot measure]
The Department of Law issued a statement saying that a case known as Croft v. Parnell set up a new standard that should be used when evaluating whether an initiative bill violates the single-subject rule.
“That standard … takes into account that the purpose of the single-subject rule in the initiative context is to protect the voters’ ability to have their voices clearly heard on distinct proposals separately. Voters have no opportunity to deliberate or amend what they are voting on—it is all or nothing. We knew, because of the mixed legal precedent before Croft, that this issue would ultimately have to be decided by the Alaska Supreme Court. We are filing a request for stay pending appeal with the superior court to wait for distribution of booklets until the appeal is complete. We will also be filing our appeal in the next couple of days,” the department’s statement said.
But the judge said ballot measure laws need to be interpreted liberally and she wasn’t buying the argument that mixing campaign finance reform with actual voting reform in one ballot question is a problem.
The group is trying to establish prohibitions against independent expenditures in campaigns, which the group is calling “dark money.” But the Alaskans for Better Elections group is being backed by dark money that’s going primarily from a liberal group in Massachusetts. The ballot measure also would eliminate the ability of political parties to close their primary ballots to those registered with opposing parties. Finally, the candidates — from president on down to State House of Representatives, would be elected by a ranked system that sometimes yields a win for the second-place vote-getter.
Read the judge’s decision at this link:
Homer investigation into candidate’s residency done
COUNCIL MEETS MONDAY TO REVIEW EVIDENCE
It seems clear that, regardless of where she lived during recent years, Homer City Council member Storm Hansen-Cavasos identifies as a Homerite.
But the legal requirements to be a city council member would have required her to live inside city limits, not in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, for a full year leading up to the Oct. 1 election.
The investigation of the legal residency of Storm Hansen-Cavasos, who won a seat on the Homer City Council, is now complete. It’s up to the Homer City Council to decide if she skirted the law in running for City Council, or if she truly had been living within city limits during the past year.
The council will meet at 3 pm on Monday, Oct. 28, to consider the findings of the investigation.
Hansen-Cavasos was sworn in on Oct. 14, but her qualifications were simultaneously challenged due to questions about whether she actually lived inside city limits for the time required.
[Read: Homer City Council opens investigation]
Among the sworn testimony is that of Hansen-Cavasos’ mother, Bertha Hansen, who said in a written statement that her daughter had moved in with her in June of 2018. Bertha lives inside the city limits. She said in writing that her daughter then moved to another location inside the city limits in the summer of 2019.
That testimony was notarized and received by the City Clerk on Oct. 22, one day after the deadline for testimony. It is included in the evidence packet. Bertha did not appear in front of investigators to make an oral statement under oath.
However, Hansen-Cavasos’ landlord from outside the city limits said Hansen-Cavasos had leased a house from him on Rolling Meadows Drive at Fritz Creek in 2017, which Hansen-Cavasos renewed in March of 2018. After March of 2019, the arrangement went to a month-to-month lease through August, 2019.
Landlord Matt Hambrick said he had a text message from Hansen-Cavasos in August of 2019, which said she had not fully moved out. Hansen-Cavasos filed for office in August of 2019.
Listen to Hambrick testify about the lease for the house:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YwgjptROxt82SCCoAWOhdDKZAYkTqqFZ/view?usp=drivesdk
Cassie Lawver, a conservative activist who lives outside the city limits, said that the investigation is half-hearted and she described bullying tactics by a progressive community group known as CAN (Community Action Network).
Lawver included screen shots of Hansen-Cavasos’ social media, which shows her enjoying life at her home outside the city limits at her Rolling Meadows home in April:
The clerk’s report to the City Council can be found at this link:
Tom Stroozas, who brought the legal challenge of the certification of the election, asked the investigators to find out which precinct Hansen-Cavasos has voted in, when she last had water delivery on Rolling Meadows Road house, and utility bills.
Stroozas cited Alaska Statutes that say a where a person is registered to vote is presumptive of where that person lives. Hansen-Cavasos did not change her voter registration until August, 2019, he said.
Rep. Katie Hill resigns after nude Fairbanks pic surfaces
PHOTO IS ‘PERSONAL MOMENT’ WITH AIDE
California Congresswoman Katie Hill has resigned. The Democrat member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that is in the middle of impeachment investigations of President Trump wrote her resignation letter, after photographs surfaced that showed her in compromising positions, including a photograph purportedly showing her smoking a bong pipe, and another salacious photo with her and a young female aide that was purportedly taken while the two were in Fairbanks Alaska.
[Original story: Fairbanks, Alaska has cameo role in California reps’ gal-pal scandal]
Hill cast herself as a victim in her resignation letter, although she does not address her own apparent abuse of power over her female aide, which was demonstrated by the photo circulating that showed her brushing her aide’s hair, while sitting nude behind her in a hotel in Fairbanks. Instead, she calls that a “personal moment.”
Hill’s letter:
It is with a broken heart that today I announce my resignation from Congress. This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but I believe it is the best thing for my constituents, my community, and our country.
This is what needs to happen so that the good people who supported me will no longer be subjected to the pain inflicted by my abusive husband and the brutality of hateful political operatives who seem to happily provide a platform to a monster who is driving a smear campaign built upon cyber exploitation. Having private photos of personal moments weaponized against me has been an appalling invasion of my privacy. It’s also illegal and we are currently pursuing all our available legal options. However, I know that as long as I am in Congress we’ll live fearful of what might come next and howmuch it will hurt. That’s a feeling I know all too well. It’s the feeling I decided to leave when I left my marriage, and one I will not tolerate being forced upon others.
I can no longer allow my community, family, friends, staff, supporters, and especially the children who look up to me as a role model to suffer this unprecedented brand of cruelty.
For the mistakes made along the way and the people who have been hurt, I am so sorry and I am learning. I am not a perfect person, and never pretended to be. It’s one of the things that made my race so special. I hope it showed others that they do belong, that their voice does matter, and that they do have a place in this country. That is something I believe with all my heart. Those of you who know me personally know that I’m a fighter and it’s thanks to countless other fighters who supported me that we were able to stand up for the ideals we believe in. Now my fight is going to be to defeat this type of exploitation that so many women are victims to and which will keep countless women and girls from running for office and entering public life. Thank you for allowing me to turn my focus to this particular battle right now, and know that I stand with you as we continue to fight for the many important issues that brought me to Congress in the first place. I love this country, I love all of you, and I thank you for allowing me the great honor of serving you.
Hill has said that she is pursuing legal recourse against those who publish the photos. Must Read Alaska has cropped the “Fairbanks photo” to remove the faces of those who are in it. Hill has not denied it is her in any of the photos, but said that the photos were weaponized against her and an “exploitation” that will keep girls and women from running for office.
So far, there has been no word from the Democrats in leadership in the House about sanctions that may be made against Hill for violating the U.S. House’s code of conduct.
Politicos are comparing this to former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal, which also became a political liability for him. But those photos did not involve someone who reported directly to him.
Weiner, whose wife Huma Abedin is the aide to Hillary Clinton, resigned effective June 23, 2011 and went on to be busted for sending more explicit photos of himself to a minor.
Another famous Democrat who had improper relations to one of his direct reports was President Bill Clinton, who managed to survive impeachment after the infamous “blue dress” incident that involved Monica Lewinsky, an intern at the White House.
PETA spies, PETA lies
By MITCH SEAVEY
I rarely respond publicly to PETA and their allegations about me and my kennel. I figure if I live on the top floor, why worry about rats in the sewer? But this may be the right time. If the Iditarod Trail Committee is serious about dealing with them, then I have a tale to tell.
Last spring a so called “expose’” about us and another sled dog kennel was released by PETA. The part about us is almost entirely lies and distortions. A rerun of the same garbage came out again recently.
It was an article about this person’s experiences as a handler at these kennels under the authorship of “Guest Columnist.” Really? Not even the cojones to sign his name to his “work.” Well, I know who he is, and I know where he is. Though he probably didn’t actually write this article himself, he did whore himself out to PETA. He’s a liar, and his boss, PETA is dishonest. He lives out of country now, but until about a year ago, at age 37, his address was the same as his parents, here in the U.S. Let’s be charitable, shall we, and just call him “Spy-Ex.” (That’s short for “Spy-Expletive.”)
Spy-Ex responded to a job advertisement here last winter, pretending he wanted to learn to mush dogs. He got an acceptable review from the other kennel, so we took him on. (Of course, it turns out he had defrauded them too.) I even asked him about any affiliation with animal extremists or objections to the sport of mushing. Nope, he just wanted to learn to run dogs and maybe race someday.
We rented living accommodations for Spy-Ex in town, paid him a salary and taught him to run dogs. We spent hours with him and made him a part of the team. All the while, he was stabbing my crew, my family, and me in the back.
He was sneaking around our kennel with a hidden miniature video-recording device on his person and reporting back to PeTA the whole time, for three solid months. He mushed with us, attended races with us, was in our company meetings, in our off-the-record-bull-sessions. He stayed with us at our host house in Nome after the Iditarod and, like a trusted team member, was included for my bone-weary, barely coherent recollections and storytelling at the end of the 2019 Iditarod race.
Well, what did his investigation reveal? Here’s what he got that’s true:
1) Some Seavey dogs used plastic barrel dog houses at the racing kennel.
2) One dog had a collar rub, another a small cut on a foot.
3) Race dogs lose weight on the Iditarod.
This PeTA snake was in our kennel recording for three months. Secretly spying on us. And he came up with a collar rub and a sore foot. That’s like a triathlete with a blister and a scraped knee. And, like a triathlete, dogs are hungry after their big race.
Ok. “Sorry.” I guess? After all of their accusations over the years, this is actually a vindication.
Oh, they claim a bunch of other stuff; outright lies or tales so grossly exaggerated as to be unrecognizable from the vantage point of truth.
Here’s one example: They say my dog Pilot returned home during the 2019 race with the same hind leg injury he had last year and was then just tied up and neglected. Baloney. He was returned from the Rohn checkpoint on the race with a muscle cramp in his shoulder. By the time he was released to our people, the cramp was undetectable. Nevertheless, my man at the kennel instituted a normal protocol of liniment massages, essential oils, cold laser therapy and nights indoors. That didn’t stop Spy-Ex from reporting to the world that my dog Pilot was injured, neglected, abused, no care, blah, blah, blah.
Pilot also free-ran daily, and was in and out of the breeding pen, attending to business there. The shoulder cramp has never returned, and Pilot has been completely healthy ever since. He is now large and in-charge, training for another Iditarod Race.
Barrel houses? We have used plastic dog houses at the racing kennel — ingeniously made from recycled plastic barrels – because they have many advantages. They’re the right size, waterproof and windproof, durable, easy to clean, disease free, low maintenance, and safe for the dog because they can’t chew them up, and the bedding straw stays in them. Google “10 best outdoor dog houses.” They are all made out of plastic, and none offer half the durability and function of these barrel houses. Mushers, there’s nothing wrong with a plastic barrel doghouse except in the coldest climates — a handful of nutjobs chaining themselves to barrels at Chrysler headquarters in Detroit, notwithstanding.
Of course, PETA doesn’t portray them as ingenious dog houses made of recycled materials. No, just barrels. They deceptively compose their photos to hide the attached food pail and the door with straw inside. Just “Chained to a barrel!” they say.
I seriously wonder why anyone even cares what this extremist group has to say. 90% of the people I know think they are bat sh*t crazy. Still, like bad TV, people keep watching more episodes and talking about it. We could all do the animal community a favor and change the channel.
I think a lot of PETA people want to appear to care about animals a lot more than they actually do care about animals. In all of my interactions with them they are not caring people. They don’t have a nurturing spirit. They are angry and bitter, and their message is one of hate toward animal owners, and not much about love toward animals.
We recently replaced the barrel houses at the race kennel with wooden houses, for purely aesthetic reasons. The product review from the dogs? “Meh, whatever.” It cost about $20,000. Hey, since PETA is so concerned about my dog houses maybe they have grants — matching funds or something …. Yeah, probably not. (Btw, our tour kennel in Seward is completely tether free with barn-style group housing.)
This is not the first time my kennel has been infiltrated by a spy. There have been at least two others that I know of. So friends, please be wary of rumors from anyone claiming to be a “handler” or to have firsthand knowledge of a sled dog kennel. These “plants” have an agenda and often create the reported unacceptable situations themselves. “Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.”
If you naively think PETA actually cares about animals, bless your heart. They don’t. Maybe some of their members and donors do care. Shoot, if their accounts were true, and they were actually helping animals, I might even donate. But it isn’t true. And they don’t help animals. Their true mission is to raise money, over $60 million annually. Please Google it, friends. We’re not in the dark ages and it’s our responsibility to be informed. They aren’t an animal rescue organization. By some accounts, I rehomed more dogs in 2016 than PETA did. That would be seven.
This corporate espionage tactic is being widely used by PETA and they make no bones about it. They must think people are stupid. But people surely realize an organization which gains access by lying, will not then report truthfully.
I admit, I have been naïve. I take people at their word until they show they can’t be trusted. It has cost me, dearly at times, but I’m happy being open minded and trusting. The personal price of being bitter and cynical is greater than the loss of one’s possessions, and even one’s reputation. But there are limits, and lines have been crossed.
These spies have tell-tale signs, in retrospect. They aren’t really interested in being a musher after all. They talk a lot about dog care but don’t really care about doing it. They quiz you about things that aren’t really relevant or any of their business. They want to catch you in a contradiction or trip you up with your words. (Of course, you might be on video camera.) As a kennel owner you find yourself wondering “Why is this person even here?” Then it will be their section of the yard that suffers for dog care, either through their indifference, or as they attempt to create a situation to “report” to PETA.
Spy-Ex is a big ol’ boy, and because he was a complete novice and not particularly gifted athletically, I would only let him run a very small team of dogs. He kept asking for more dogs and I kept saying no, for safety reasons. I now revel in the thought of him jogging behind that sled, huffing and puffing up the hill we call “Everest” every day, with just 4 dogs, while the other trainers and teams waited for him. Ah, the glamour and intrigue of international espionage. Spy-Ex, your parents must be proud.
Mitch Seavey is a dog musher from Sterling, Alaska, who won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 2004, 2013 and 2017. At age 57, Seavey was the oldest person to win the Iditarod (2017).
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: Scholar or terrorist? Ask the Washington Post
WA-PO EDITORS, PELOSI COULDN’T GIVE TRUMP A WIN ON ‘MOST WANTED’ TERRORIST
“From the moment in July 2014 when he ascended the minbar (pulpit) in a mosque in Mosul, clad in black robes, to claim the title of caliph of the Muslim world, until his death on Sunday during a raid by US forces, Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri, better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was the most wanted and feared man on the planet,” wrote The Guardian.
But reporting on the same death, The Washington Post was conflicted. Was the man who blew himself and three of his children up on Saturday all that bad?
In its first attempt at an obituary, The Washington Post called the terrorist an “austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State.”
Under pressure, the editors went through a costume change and eventually settled on a more apt headline description “Islamic State leader leaves legacy of terror.” Check out this gallery of edits on that headline:
The ISIS merchant of death evidently blew himself up as U.S. forces closed in on him in a tunnel. He was the most notorious and savage terrorist in the Middle East.
“In less time than it had taken any terrorist leader before him, he and his organisation, Islamic State (ISIS), had successfully provoked upheaval across the Middle East and stirred trepidation around the globe. To many, Baghdadi was the sum of all fears, a man who had been transported straight from the savage early wars of Islamic history to the modern battlefields of the region nearly 1,500 years later,” – The Guardian
“As he delivered his sermon that day, Baghdadi deliberately invoked past caliphates, in particular the Abbasid era (AD750-1517), which is often referred to as the Islamic Golden Age. Baghdadi believed that he could trace his lineage back to the prophet Muhammad, and that his postgraduate Islamic studies had earned him a place among Islam’s historical figures.”
But according to The Washington Post, he was merely a ruthless military leader:
“When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took the reins of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2010, few had heard of the organization or its new leader, an austere religious scholar with wire-frame glasses and no known aptitude for fighting and killing.” – The Washington Post
“But just four years later, Mr. Baghdadi had helped transform his failing movement into one of the most notorious and successful terrorist groups of modern times. Under his guidance it would burst into the public consciousness as the Islamic State, an organization that would seize control of entire cities in Iraq and Syria and become a byword for shocking brutality,” The Washington Post wrote.
President Donald Trump wrote more bluntly: “Baghdadi was vicious and violent, and he died in a vicious and violent way — as a coward, running and crying.”
US intelligence services had been tracking Baghdadi, and a couple of raids on his location were called of a the last minute because Baghdadi would change his plans “on a dime.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed outrage that the president had not notified House Democrats in advance of the raid.
“The House must be briefed on this raid, which the Russians but not top Congressional Leadership were notified of in advance,” Pelosi said to reporters.
“We notified some, others are being notified now as I speak,” Trump said in his own press briefing. “We were going to notify them last night but we decided not to do that because Washington leaks like nothing I’ve ever seen before. There has no country in the world that leaks like we do. Washington is a leaking machine.”
OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
Last night, the United States brought the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead. He was the founder and leader of ISIS, the most ruthless and violent terror organization in the World. The United States has been searching for Baghdadi for many years. Capturing or killing Baghdadi has been the top national security priority of my Administration. U.S. Special Operations forces executed a dangerous and daring nighttime raid into Northwestern Syria to accomplish this mission.
No U.S. personnel were lost in the operation, while a large number of Baghdadi’s fighters and companions were killed with him. He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming. The compound had been cleared by this time, with people either surrendering or being shot and killed. Eleven young children were moved out of the house un-injured. The only ones remaining were Baghdadi in the tunnel, who had dragged three children with him to certain death. He reached the end of the tunnel, as our dogs chased him down. He ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children. His body was mutilated by the blast, but test results gave certain and positive identification.
The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, panic and dread – terrified of the American Forces bearing down.
We were in the compound for approximately 2 hours, and after the mission was accomplished we took highly sensitive material and information from the raid.
Baghdadi’s demise demonstrates America’s relentless pursuit of terrorist leaders, and our commitment to the enduring and total defeat of ISIS!
The reach of America is long. As you know, last month we announced that we recently killed Hamza Bin Laden, the very violent son of Osama Bin Laden, who was saying very bad things.
He was the heir apparent to Al Qaeda. Terrorists who oppress and murder innocent people should never sleep soundly, knowing that we will completely destroy them. These savage monsters will not escape their fate – and they will not escape the final judgement of God.
Baghdadi has been on the run for many years, long before I took office. At my direction, as Commander-in-Chief, the United States obliterated his ‘caliphate’ in March of this year. Today’s events are another reminder that we will continue to pursue the remaining ISIS terrorists to their brutal end.
Baghdadi and the losers who worked with him – in some cases people who had no idea what they were getting into and how dangerous and unglamorous it was – killed many people. Their murder of innocent Americans Jim Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller were especially heinous. The shocking publicized murder of a Jordanian pilot who was burned alive in a cage for all to see, and the execution of Christians in Libya and Egypt, as well as the genocidal mass murder of Yazidis, rank ISIS among the most depraved organizations in history.
The forced religious conversions, the orange suits prior to many beheadings, all of which were openly displayed for the world – this was all Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s work. He was vicious and violent, and he died in a vicious and violent way, as a coward, running and crying. This raid was impeccable, and could only have taken place with the acknowledgement and help of certain other nations and people.
I want to thank the nations of Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iraq, and I also want to thank the Syrian Kurds for certain support they were able to give us. Thank you as well to the great intelligence professionals who helped make this very successful journey possible.
I want to thank the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines involved in last night’s operation. You are the very best there is anywhere in the world. I want to thank General Mark Milley and our Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I also want to thank our professionals who work in other agencies of the United States government and were critical to the mission’s success.
Last night was a great night for the United States and for the World. A brutal killer, one who has caused so much hardship and death, was violently eliminated – he will never again harm another innocent man, woman or child. He died like a dog. He died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place.
God bless the United States of America!
