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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 7h

This is a Tom Clancy joke. But they did just get snazzy new uniforms…

Swiss Guards, protectors of the pope, don new uniforms

The 135 Swiss Guards will don the new uniforms for the first time at a dinner the night before the Oct. 4 ceremony to swear in this year’s recruits.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 7h

Now this sounds like a job for the Swiss Guards! apnews.com/article/mide...

US is sending about 200 troops to Israel to help support and monitor the Gaza ceasefire deal

The United States is sending about 200 troops to Israel to help support and monitor the ceasefire deal in Gaza as part of a team that includes partner nations, nongovernmental organizations and privat...

apnews.com

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 7h

Yes, as the article describes, they’re going to work at a distribution/monitoring center in Israel. No one is talking about US troops playing a role as a peacekeeping or stabilization force, as far as I’ve heard (certainly not this deployment).

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 8h

Maybe…it’s my impression that the IDF has done a really good job over the past two years of isolating US personnel in Israel from relevant information, though, including stonewalling JSOC elements

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 8h

Disconcerting, but article suggests they will not enter Gaza, and the US already has troops in Israel on various missions (THAAD batteries, construction engineers, a JSOC advisory cell, the 3-star security coordinator and his staff in Jerusalem) so this would not be some crossing of a Rubicon

US sending about 200 troops to Israel to help support and monitor ceasefire deal in Gaza

The United States is sending about 200 troops to Israel to help support and monitor the ceasefire deal in Gaza as part of a team that includes partner nations, nongovernmental organizations and privat...

apnews.com

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 11h

Well she’s a pretty wild person to have as a senior Pentagon spokesperson (she was recently promoted out of the Navy job to work directly for Hegseth’s office, although that’s not reflected on her LinkedIn etc)

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Taken Sept 21, this image shows the full extent of the destruction of Beit Hanoun, a former city of 50,000 people that the IDF has methodically demolished.

The two clusters of remaining buildings in this 3.25-sq-mile area circled. Everything else has been razed by earthmovers and demo charges.

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Reposted by Wesley Morgan

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Some people might say of this ground beef Labubu, “I saw this, so now you have to too.”

I say of it, “I was privileged to see this, so now you get the chance to too.”

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 16h

He knows

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 16h

Posobiec at Trump’s antifa propaganda event: “Antifa has been around going back to the Weimar Republic”

Noem at the same event: “We’ve arrested the girlfriend of one of the founders of Antifa”

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 17h

Just saw about a squad’s worth of German soldiers hanging around on the sidewalk in the West End…has the international stabilization force arrived in DC?

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 17h

Interesting look at all those animations the IDF has produced suggesting it knows exactly what’s going on inside various high-profile buildings in Gaza etc. when it in fact does not.

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: Since October 2023, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has released dozens of 3D animations illustrating alleged Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian sites

The style is now unmistakable: satellite zoom-ins, black & white wireframes, and red-textured houses - a new visual language of war

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 18h

West Point graduate who eventually went Guard, did two Iraq deployments and Afghanistan deployment, and then a fourth Kuwait/Iraq/Syria one commanding the California Guard’s aviation brigade. Has also commanded the Oregon Guard’s main unit, the 40th Infantry BCT.

Isabel Santos @isabelsantos.bsky.social · 21h

Brig. Gen. Alan Gronewold stated that if the Oregon National Guard were deployed, they would protect protesters, not ICE, prioritizing citizens’ safety and civil liberties—a strong stance earning widespread approval.

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

No no it’s not like a flayed man at all, you’re misunderstanding it! It’s fun!

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Some people might say of this ground beef Labubu, “I saw this, so now you have to too.”

I say of it, “I was privileged to see this, so now you get the chance to too.”

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

*wear

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

I vaguely remember some kerfuffle in like 2008 where the 1st ID CAB was insisting that everyone in the brigade must where the 1st ID CAB combat patch and guys raised a stink with Army Times and the brigade backtracked. The power of the press!

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David Sterman @davidsterman.bsky.social · 1d

Few more details.

Somalia is at 81 confirmed strikes plus a ground raid.

Yemen may include an alleged but not confirmed strike on AQAP not just the anti-Houthi campaign.

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Yesterday's Syria strike puts US combat actions during the second Trump administration at:

—1,000+ air strikes in Yemen (March-April)
—75+ air strikes in Somalia
—7 air strikes and 3 JSOC ground raids in Syria
—4 air strikes in the Caribbean
—B-2 strikes on 3 sites in Iran
—1 air strike in Iraq

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Correction: besides the 75+ Somalia strikes (81 by @davidsterman.bsky.social's count), there has also been one Somalia "operation" on July 25 that AFRICOM didn't describe as an air strike, suggesting it was a JSOC ground raid

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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 1d

Notable not only as further lethal military action under the "President of Peace" but also because the executive branch has not previously announced (AFAIK) that Ansar al-Islam is covered by the 2001 AUMF.

(Full scope 2001 AUMF remains a secret.)

Query whether strike under the AUMF or Article II.

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Yesterday's Syria strike puts US combat actions during the second Trump administration at:

—1,000+ air strikes in Yemen (March-April)
—75+ air strikes in Somalia
—7 air strikes and 3 JSOC ground raids in Syria
—4 air strikes in the Caribbean
—B-2 strikes on 3 sites in Iran
—1 air strike in Iraq

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

...renamed Ansar al-Islam again in 2007 and started working in Syria in 2011 (and whose original Iraqi branch was subsumed by ISIS in 2014).

But I suspect what's going on is that they're trying to categorize former Hurras al-Din members who've remained active since HaD's Jan 2025 dissolution.

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

I'm not sure what Ansar al-Islam they're referring to, but it may be a descendant of the same Ansar al-Islam that Mullah Krekar founded in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2001 and whose survivors founded Ansar al-Sunna in 2003 to fight US troops in Iraq and was a fellow-traveler with AQI, which then was...

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Yesterday's Syria strike puts US combat actions during the second Trump administration at:

—1,000+ air strikes in Yemen (March-April)
—75+ air strikes in Somalia
—7 air strikes and 3 JSOC ground raids in Syria
—4 air strikes in the Caribbean
—B-2 strikes on 3 sites in Iran
—1 air strike in Iraq

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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 1d

Taken Sept 21, this image shows the full extent of the destruction of Beit Hanoun, a former city of 50,000 people that the IDF has methodically demolished.

The two clusters of remaining buildings in this 3.25-sq-mile area circled. Everything else has been razed by earthmovers and demo charges.

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Reposted by Wesley Morgan

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 2d

Good question from Senator Coons.

AG Bondi refuses to disclose what legal theory if any from DOJ justifies these premeditated killings in the Caribbean.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

COONS: How did you conclude that these strikes on boats in the open ocean are legal?

BONDI: I'm not going to discuss any legal advice that my department may or may not have issued

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