Belgium’s operations against ISIS, codenamed Operation Desert Falcon, began in late August 2014 with humanitarian supply missions flying from Melsbroek, Belgium to Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq. The aircraft, a Lockheed C-130 Hercules of the 15th Wing (Belgian Air Component), was loaded with flour, rice, sugar, pasta, clothing, and medicine, and flew from Melsbroek to an airport […]
Australia’s involvement in the war against ISIS started officially on 14 August 2014, when Lockheed C-130J-30 Super Hercules transports of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)’s No. 37 Squadron (part of No. 86 Wing) dropped nine tons of supplies to civilians trapped on Mt. Sinjar. A second delivery of bottled water, high-energy biscuits, and hygiene […]
When Joe Biden assumed the presidency on 20 January 2021, he took the reigns from an administration which had seemingly been doing all it could in its final days to provoke some sort of crisis with Iran, stopping short of provoking a war. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), better known as the Iran […]
On 4 April 2019, Fox News correspondent Lawrence B. Jones III gave a series of interviews from locations along the US-Mexico border, part of a series on Fox about how dangerous the border was (in part to justify President Trump’s border wall fetish). While Jones is mostly an irrelevant member of an ever-revolving cast of […]
By Spring 2020, the international terrorist organization known as the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL) has lost most of its territorial holdings globally. In Iraq and Syria, the group has been dealt an apparent fatal blow. But looks can be deceiving, and this is a group that has stood the test of time, remaining and […]
This is Part 2 in TFG’s coverage of DHS/CBP aircraft likely to be used within the context of the current United States administration’s crackdown on nationwide protests. The focus of Part 1 (click here) was fixed wing aircraft, while this edition will be on rotary-wing aircraft used for aerial patrol and surveillance. Part 3 will […]
Founded in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was originally declared to be focused solely on terrorist targets and protection of US borders. Since then, DHS and its component agencies, namely the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), Customs and Border Patrol […]
On 29 June 2020, the Washington Post announced that the Trump administration had been made aware some months earlier that the Russian Federation was aiding and abetting the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, including “putting bounties on the heads of American military personnel.” While we cannot decisively prove or disprove these claims, what we can do […]
Last updated 27 March 2020 In light of the increasingly dire situation in the United States pertaining to the ongoing out break of Coronavirus, we have decided it would be useful to have a single spot for official statements and information coming from state governments. We will update this post regularly with fresh and new […]
On 31 December 2019, members and supporters of the Iranian-directed Iraqi Shia militia Kata’ib Hezbollah besieged and attacked the US embassy in Baghdad. The attack comes after months of sustained protests by Iraqi citizens against Kata’ib Hezbollah and other Iran-directed militias that comprise part of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). The following is a rough […]
