THE WAR BETWEEN SAUDI ARABIA AND IRAN IS ESCALATING

SEVEN US NAVY AIRCRAFT CARRIERS ARE NOW SIMULTANEOUSLY UNDERWAY:

Seven out of 11 U.S. nuclear aircraft carriers are underway simultaneously for the first time in several years, USNI News has learned.

Three are on operational deployments in the Western Pacific with full air wings and carrier strike groups — USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), USS Nimitz (CVN-68) and USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71).

Four more are out for short training missions as part of training operations or workups ahead of deployments. USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) and USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) are operating in the Eastern Pacific. USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) and the Navy’s newest carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) are operating in the Atlantic.

A Navy official confirmed the basic details of the carrier moves on Monday, to USNI News.

The Reagan, Nimitz and Roosevelt strike groups are all operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations. Reagan is operating in the Sea of Japan near the Korean peninsula while Nimitz is returning to its homeport at Naval Station Kitsap-Bremerton, Wash. after a deployment to the Persian Gulf to conduct air strike against ISIS targets. Roosevelt deployed from San Diego, Calif. on Oct. 7 set to replace Nimitz as part of the continued U.S. operation against ISIS.

The carriers in 7th Fleet could converge for the first simultaneous three-strike group training operations in a decade, defense officials have told USNI News.

“These three carriers are not there specifically targeting North Korea,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford said last week. “This is a routine demonstration of our commitment to the region.”

Routine, huh? GEN Dunford is soft-pedaling it. It’s a major show of force.

Here’s Carrier Strike Group 5 at sea (photo taken in June 2017). This one records a “dual aircraft carrier strike group operation” conducted in 2016. Navy carrier strike groups receive USAF support. Here are two examples. (1) A USAF E-3 Sentry AWACS operating with the USS Theodore Roosevelt. (2) A USAF B-1B strategic bomber in formation with a USN F/A-18E.

Read this post for background on the AWACS.

RELATED: Japan imposes new sanctions on North Korea.

JUST HEARD THE LIVE NEWS CONFERENCE ABOUT THE MASS MURDERS IN SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, TEXAS: The mass murders were another act of pure evil. According to a statement made during a live news conference introduced by Texas governor Greg Abbott, an armed citizen engaged the mass murderer outside the church. When fired upon, the evil murderer dropped his weapon and fled. Fascinating. Community defense by an armed citizenry. Let’s see how this information plays out in mainstream media. (bumped)

No link yet on press conference but I’m not sure that matters.

UPDATE: Range of age of murder victims runs from five to 72. Fox News now confirms 26 dead in the attack on the First Baptist Church of Sutherland, Texas. Fox News also confirms the murderer was a man named Devin Patrick Kelley. He shot two people outside the church before he entered the church sanctuary then shot and killed another 23 inside the church. The 26th person died of wounds. Police found Kelley dead in his vehicle after he fled his crime scene. At this moment authorities have not determined if Kelley died of a self-inflicted wound or died from shots fired by the armed citizen.

DEVELOPING MEME THAT CHALLENGES LEFTIST MAINSTREAM: The armed citizen who fired on the mass murderer is being described on Fox News as “a good Samaritan.” I agree. The as yet unnamed armed citizen was rendering aid to fellow human beings in life-threatening, life-taking circumstances. The armed citizen who engaged the murderer –engaged the murderer with bullets– was saving lives. Bullets saving lives. How will the mainstream media address this? Commenters, please, like the chorus you are, explain this evolving history. Will “An Armed Citizen’s Bullets That Are Protected By The Second Amendment Saved Lives” ever be a mainstream media headline?

UPDATE 2: How many people have to die before benighted Democrats like Barack Obama laud the Second Amendment?

UPDATE 3: The armed citizen is now being described as “a local resident.” OK, I buy it. This isn’t a Texas phenomenon. This is the physical display of an American civil right doing what it is intended to do. September 7, 1876 — the James-Younger gang attacks Northfield, Minnesota. Armed local residents defend their town against the thugs.

MY HOW MEDIA QUICKLY FORGET DEMOCRAT VIOLENCE AGAINST REPUBLICANS: I just scanned the two articles linked by Glenn and Stephen regarding the physical assault on Senator Rand Paul. It appears media need a reminder. Senator Rand Paul was on the baseball field the day Democrat terrorist James Hodgkinson launched his terror attack. That would be June 14, 2017. (bumped)

NBC News doesn’t mention the June 2017 attack and Senator Paul’s presence on the field. The Daily Caller article doesn’t mention it (Glenn’s post) nor does The Hill report (Stephen’s post).

Mentioning Hodgkinson strikes me as appropriate. Rand Paul was there and he survived the terror attack.

IT CONTINUES: The Washington Post mentions Steve Scalise but fails to mention that Paul was on the field when Scalise was wounded.

FINALLY: The UPI mentioned it.

Paul, Kentucky’s junior senator since 2011, was present at the congressional baseball practice shooting in June that seriously injured U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana.

He began practicing ophthalmology in 1993 in Bowling Green, Kentucky,

Paul, 54, was a presidential candidate in 2016.

THE TRULY BURIED HEADLINE: “Republican 2016 Presidential Candidate Who Survived Assassination Attempt By Bernie Sanders Supporter Is Physically Assaulted By Angry Kentucky Democrat.”

(Bumped, by Glenn).

SHOW OF FORCE IN SOUTH KOREA: The USS Michigan surfaces in Busan — for the cameras. The sub carries Tomahawk land attack missiles.

STRIKE EAGLE MOON: Fine photo.

NORTH KOREA’S CRIMINAL SOVEREIGNTY

In 2010, the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute aptly described North Korea’s peculiar situation as “criminal sovereignty” unique in the world’s “national security arena.” The Kim regime “uses state sovereignty to protect itself from external interference in its domestic affairs while dedicating a portion of its government to carrying out illicit international activities in defiance of international law and the domestic laws of numerous other nations.”

Check it out.

TRUMP HEADS TO SOUTH KOREA: “Amid heightened tensions” VOA says. (bumped)

President Donald Trump is heading to Asia for a 12-day, five-nation tour with heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula and recent polls showing Americans consider North Korea to be the most immediate threat to the United States.

Trump is scheduled to visit South Korea (Nov. 7-8), the North’s rival, for the second stop of the trip.

MORE:

“Our goal is not war, but rather the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, last Friday.

That’s good cop. Darn fine good cop. Yes. Peace, brother. Let there be peace. Come, let us reason together.

MORE:

Around the time of the president’s presence on the peninsula, three U.S. aircraft carriers are expected to engage in their first combined exercise in a decade, displaying to Pyongyang the deterrence power of the world’s largest Navy.

There is increasing anxiety on both sides of the Pacific about what Trump views as necessary to achieve his administration’s vow to eliminate the threat to the United States posed by Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction.

Three carriers, which means three U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike groups. (Here’s an aircraft carrier strike group.) What a backdrop for a bad cop with his finger on the trigger.

HOUSTON ASTROS WIN WORLD SERIES: 5-1 over the Dodgers in Game 7. The ‘Stros are a truly great team. George Springer hit five home runs in the Series and set a Series record for total bases. He also hit .379.

UPDATE: The box score.

NORTH KOREA ACCUSES NATO SECRETARY GENERAL OF “APING TRUMP”: How racist. How politically incorrect. From a hereditary Communist no less. Will Chuck Schumer and Black Lives Matter and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and The New York Times and who-the-heck-ever in the Left Establishment demand an immediate retraction from Pyongyang? Of course not. So what is this? This is another indication that Trump has rattled Rocket Man.

IRAN, IRAQ AND THE KURDS: Be my bitch and I’ll make you rich.

The Iraqi Kurds thought they were safe because if there is one thing the Kurds and Iraqi Arabs can agree on one was that Iran was out to gain more control over whoever was running Iraq. Iran did have a plan and it was the old “be my bitch and I’ll make you rich” divide and conquer strategy that had worked for Iranians over thousands of years of empire building (or rebuilding). In this case the Iranians already has a large minority of Iraqi Arab Shia in favor of the Iranian style religious dictatorship. In the north one of the main Kurds factions, the PUK was suspected of being a little too willing with work with Iran.

REPLACING FRANCE’S STATE OF EMERGENCY:

The government wants to make some emergency measures permanent.

France’s state of emergency went into force overnight from November 13-14, 2015, following the deadliest terror attacks on French soil in modern history, when a series of coordinated shooting and bomb attacks left 130 people dead in and around Paris. Since then it has been extended a total of six times, making it France’s longest state of emergency since the measure was established in 1955.

On November 1, France is set to replace the state of emergency with a tough new anti-terror law that will permanently grant law enforcement agencies extended powers to search homes, close religious sites viewed as promoting radical ideas and restrict the movements of suspected jihadist sympathisers.

MORE:

In the two years since the state of emergency went into force, the interior ministry says it has prevented 32 terror attacks in France, 13 of them in 2017 alone.

Nevertheless, some plots have gone undetected. In all, 239 people have been killed in Islamist-related terror attacks in France over the past two years. According to the Paris-based Center for the Analysis of Terrorism, France is considered the No. 1 Western target for the Islamic State (IS) group and accounts for as much as 30 percent of the group’s foiled and successful attacks.

In all, more than 4,600 warrantless raids have been carried out, and which have been largely based on unconfirmed intelligence reports and anonymous tips. Some 80 percent of these searches – or about 3,600 – took place in the first six months following the November 13 attacks. In comparison, just 58 searches were recorded between July and November of this year.

AFP wrote the report.

OFF THE COAST OF WAKE ISLAND: It’s a Navy public relations photo with an explicit World War 2 link. (Attacking Wake Island proved to be a mistake.) The photo also shows three F-18 variants in formation: an F/A-18F, and F/A-18E and an EA-18G electronic attack plane.

NORTH KOREAN ASSASSINS ARRESTED IN CHINA: (bumped)

North Korean agents who attempted to assassinate Kim Han Sol were arrested in Beijing, according to a South Korean newspaper.

The JoongAng Daily reported Monday Chinese authorities have detained a group of North Koreans connected to a plot to kill Kim following the assassination of Kim’s father, Kim Jong Nam, at an airport in Malaysia.

RELATED: North Korea could engage in provocations when Trump visits China. And here’s what I say to that.

MORE: South Korea and China “mending fences” over THAAD anti-ballistic missile system deployment. That’s a good sign for South Korea, Japan and the U.S. A bad sign for Rocket Man.

U.S. CAPTURES KEY ISLAMIST MILITANT INVOLVED IN BENGHAZI ATTACK: (bumped)

American special operations forces captured a militant Sunday who was allegedly involved in the attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, two US officials confirmed to Fox News.

US official identified the suspect as Mustafa al-Imam.

The attack resulted in the death of the American ambassador and three other Americans.

The White House is expected to release more details shortly.

The officials say U.S. commandos captured the unidentified man in Libya and are transporting him back to the U.S. The officials say the mission was approved by PresidentTrump and carried out in coordination with Libya’s internationally recognized government.

Remember, the Obama Administration lied about Benghazi. For about three weeks Obama’s minions insisted it wasn’t a planned attack. A crowd of demonstrators was “triggered” — probably by an on-line anti-Muslim video. Here’s what I wrote about it in September 2012.

UPDATE: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praises the arrest:

I am deeply grateful to the U.S. military, law enforcement, and intelligence community for their efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya. The Department of State family continues to mourn the loss of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Glen Doherty, Sean Smith, and Tyrone Woods, and we will spare no effort to ensure that justice is served for these dedicated Americans and public servants. I spoke with some of their family members to underscore the U.S. government’s unwavering support.

Yes, terrorist attacks.

GOOD RESPONSE: Realizing it faces a long-term threat from Iranian rockets based in Lebanon and Syria, Israel has permanently stationed a battalion of its Iron Dome anti-rocket systems in northern Israel.

RELATED: Background on Iron Dome.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE JIM MATTIS: North Korea’s nuclear threat is accelerating.

In remarks in Seoul with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo at his side, Mattis accused the North of illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear programs — and vowed to defeat any attack.

Mattis said North Korea engages in “outlaw” behavior and that the U.S. will never accept a nuclear North.

He added that regardless of what the North might try, it is overmatched by the firepower and cohesiveness of the decades-old U.S.-South Korean alliance.

“North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbors and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear weapons programs,” he said, adding that U.S.-South Korean military and diplomatic collaboration thus has taken on “a new urgency.”

Here’s some of the firepower SecDef Mattis mentioned. In the air: a B-52 over Guam preparing to exercise with Asian allies. On the ground: a multiple launch rocket system conducting a live fire exercise on a South Korean range. The Trump Administration also employs other forms of threat diplomacy.

AN A-10 PREPARING FOR ACTION: The plane is banking so you can see its ordnance.

NIGER AND THE WEST AFRICAN WAR ON TERROR

B-1B OVER SEOUL: A USAF B-1B strategic bomber flies in formation with two South Korean F-15K strike fighters. The photo was snapped October 21. Is it threat theater? It’s part of an information operation backed by credible military power.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN KOREA: The military shows of force continue — and the information war also continues. USAF B-1Bs appear on radar screens throughout East Asia and in very cool photos with Japanese fighters and South Korean strike aircraft. There are lots of photos of U.S. and South Korean rocket artillery units that can suppress North Korean anti-aircraft systems, artillery pieces and missile sites (the ATACMs has the range to do it — scroll down to read the info). Missile subs show up in Busan — and show up so the NorKs can see them. Suddenly the press runs articles on South Korea’s “Frankenmissile.” Man, that oughtta scare North Korean Stalinist Commies ’cause it echoes the GMO “frankenfoods” that scare American and European Stalinist lefties. What’s a show of force? This’ll explain the operation.

ROCKET VALLEY, SOUTH KOREA: Yet another show of force.

RELATED: Another rocket live fire training exercise “providing South Korean and U.S. forces the ability to launch rockets from mobile locations and strike targets with minimal notice.”

REHEARSING: U.S. Army soldiers training with a South Korean air defense unit.

Yes, the goal is to continue to rattle Rocket Man.

B-1BS HEADING FOR A RENDEZVOUS OVER THE SEA OF JAPAN: The B-1Bs were preparing to takeoff from Guam. The photo was taken October 10. The mission sounds a lot like the described in this article written in September describing a show of force over the Sea of Japan (east of North Korea).

WAGING THE KOREAN INFORMATION WAR: The Trump Administration’s information warfare operation has strategic traction. Even The Washington Post has noticed. (bumped)