Why Baltimore Bridge Collapsed From Ship Impact, Russia Tortures + Mutilates ISIS-K Terrorists Who Attacked Moscow, Trump & AOC Agree On This Issue (The Five for 03/26/24)
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter, but don’t always make the front page.
Let’s dive into the news.
[one]
Footage has surfaced of Russian forces torturing the members of ISIS-K (an extremist sect of radical Islam that has attacked The Taliban for being “too liberal”).
The New York Post reports:
Harrowing footage appears to show Russian forces torturing suspects in the Moscow concert hall terror attack — with one fed his own ear and another writhing in agony from electric shocks to his genitals.
Footage circulated online appears to show members of the security forces cutting off the ear of one of the suspects in the attack that killed more than 130 people — and then stuffing it in his mouth, according to the Guardian.
One of the suspects was later seen in court with a huge bandage covering his ear area.
Putin tried to blame Ukraine, which furiously denied any involvement — while many experts believe it may have been a false-flag operation ordered by the Russian leader to justify his own ongoing violence.
Other footage shows the men firing at concertgoers at point-blank range below the venue’s entrance sign as bloodied bodies lay motionless on the ground.
Russian media reports said the assailants threw explosives, triggering a massive blaze at the hall. Video later showed flames and black smoke light up the night sky as scores of ambulances, fire trucks and riot police flocked to the chaotic scene.
The suspects all came from Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and China.
Putin has been quick to tie this to Ukraine, but believe it or not, the attack may have not have about Russia, or even the Russia/Ukraine war at all…but designed to weaken relations between Russia and the Taliban.
The Islamic State affiliate that said it carried out the killings in Moscow's Crocus City concert hall has been escalating its attacks in other countries as part of its campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan, analysts say. The idea is to weaken the Taliban's relations with allies and to show that Afghanistan's government can't guarantee security, the New York Times reports. In the eyes of ISIS-K, the Taliban are ruling Afghanistan in an insufficiently hardline way—falling short of enforcing true Shariah law. ISIS-K "seeks to outperform rival jihadis by carrying out more audacious attacks to distinguish its jihadi brand and assert leadership of the global jihadi vanguard," said an expert at the United States Institute of Peace.
All around, this is simply horrific. At the time of this writing, the death toll stands at 137 dead, including men, women and children who simply attended a concert.
A couple of observations:
A) While I don’t follow the Israel/Hamas war hour-by-hour, I have no doubt that there are atrocities to be found left and right, including some carried out by Israel. There has never been a war without civilian deaths (which does not justify them). But, the corporate press is being pretty quiet here.
B) Has the U.S. tortured captured combatants in the past? Unfortunately, yes. However, the Abu Ghraib prison story was a scandal. Torturing terrorists at Guantanamo Bay was a scandal.
In Russia? Maiming and electrocution…is just called Tuesday.
Be very, very thankful you live in a country with a Bill of Rights to protect against these things. I’m not an expert on Russian law, but I’m not even sure this is illegal.
When the War on Terror broke out, you had some Conservatives defending torture, in the wake of 9/11. Now, you have liberal outlets that don’t seem to care…unless Israel is doing it. Both stances are ideological hypocrisy.
This is America…we don’t stoop to the level of ISIS-K or the Taliban. Period. And we should be calling it out when other countries engage in torture. Human rights still apply to the worst people on earth, which means everyone deserves a trial and not a car battery wired to their privates. While I have no issue with death sentences being carried out on these scumbags…it’s only ethical AFTER being found guilty by a jury of civilians.
But not chopping off body parts in a back alley and putting it on the internet for the world to gawk.
[two]
Well, this is getting interesting. On the rare issue that aligns Trump and AOC on the same position…the Biden Administration says they don’t want to ban TikTok…but may also sign a bill that does just that.
Vice President Kamala Harris vowed that the Biden administration does “not intend to ban TikTok,” though President Joe Biden has said he would sign legislation that could potentially lead to that result.
The House approved a bill earlier this month that would force TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the juggernaut social media app or face a practical ban in the U.S. Biden said he would sign the legislation if the bill makes it to his desk, though it’s facing delays in the Senate.
ABC News’ Rachel Scott asked Harris in an interview that aired Sunday why Biden’s reelection campaign has a TikTok account, even as the administration has expressed national security concerns over the app.
“We do not intend to ban TikTok. That is not at all the goal or the purpose of this conversation. We need to deal with the owner, and we have national security concerns about the owner of TikTok, but we have no intention to ban TikTok,” Harris told ABC’s “This Week.”
"It’s an income generator for many people, what it does in terms of allowing people to share information in a free way, in a way that allows people to have discourse. It’s very important,” Harris added.
To say the quiet part out loud…the Biden Administration also doesn’t want to anger the youth vote, especially when Trump is ahead in eight separate polls, as of Friday.
[three]
The homes of one of the biggest moguls in entertainment were raided yesterday…and evidence against the accused may have been flown out of the country on a private jet.
Sean “Diddy” Combs' private plane traveled from California to Antigua amid raids on his homes in Los Angeles and Miami by federal agents, according to flight trackers reviewed by PEOPLE.
On Sunday evening, around 5:30 p.m. local time, the 54-year-old rapper's private plane was tracked departing the Sacramento Executive Airport and then landed at Palm Springs International Airport about an hour later.
One hour after that, his plane took off from Palm Springs and landed at the Los Angeles-based Van Nuys Airport. The plane landed around 8 p.m. local time.
Then on Monday morning around 9 a.m., the plane departed the California airport and landed in Antigua.
Combs was confirmed not to be on the flight to Antigua after he was spotted walking around the Miami Opa-Locka Airport Monday afternoon.
Info is still coming out, but early reports state that Combs is being accused of Human Trafficking.
The rapper/producer/entertainment mogul burst onto the national scene in 1993 as the producer for Brooklyn based rapper The Notorious B.I.G. Combs has long been suspected by many to have played a hand in the murders of Biggie, rival rapper Tupac…or both.
[four]
It’s unclear how many are dead after a massive container ship took out a major bridge in Baltimore early this morning.
It’s unclear what caused the ship to crash. The ship was traveling toward the bridge at 8 knots (or about 9 mph) which Maryland Gov. Wes Moore called a “very rapid speed.” The ship’s crew notified authorities of a power issue through a mayday call before it struck the bridge.
Two people were rescued from the water with one person seriously injured. Multiple agencies are conducting search and rescue efforts by air and water, which are expected to last throughout the day, authorities said.
Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace said that sonar has detected vehicles in the water — which is about 50 feet deep — but the exact number cannot be confirmed. Initial reports early Tuesday were that “at least seven” vehicles fell into the water.
“This is a dire emergency,” Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore Fire Department, told The Associated Press. “Our focus right now is trying to rescue and recover these people.”
Cartwright called the collapse a “developing mass casualty event.”
I don’t want to jump to any conclusions here…but the fact that the ship does not appear to try to slow down points to some sort of complicating factor here.
A structural engineer has reacted to why the bridge went down so quickly, despite being up to code.
[five]
One of the rising issues facing residents in some states in 2024 is the issue of squatters moving into homes when the owners are away (even on brief vacations) and claiming occupancy (in some states, 30 days of occupancy means it requires a court order to remove the illegal residents).
A pair of teens in New York allegedly murdered a woman and took over her apartment.
Two teenagers wanted in connection to the killing of 52-year-old Nadia Vitels after she reportedly found them squatting in a New York apartment have been taken into custody.
Vitels and the two teens, Halley Tejada, 19, and Kensly Alston, 18, got into a confrontation earlier this month when Vitels went to her late mother’s apartment and found the pair occupying the home, according to ABC 7 New York.
The 52-year-old was later found stuffed in a duffle bag inside the apartment after Vitels’s son went to the apartment to check on her. A medical examiner determined Vitels died of blunt force trauma to the head. She reportedly had multiple facial fractures, a brain bleed, and broken ribs.
Much of the “squatter invasion” that’s happening may be fueled by videos on TikTok informing people how to capture another person’s residence and tie them up with red tape.
Until the next one,
-sth