Rockets Strike Near US base in Iraq, Killing 1, Wounding 8

BAGHDAD (AP) — Rockets struck outside Irbil international airport near where U.S. forces are based in northern Iraq late Monday, killing one U.S.-led coalition contractor and wounding at least eight people, Iraqi security and coalition officials reported, sparking fears of new hostilities.

At least three rockets hit areas between the civilian airport in the semi-autonomous Kurdish-run region and the nearby base hosting U.S. troops at 9:30 p.m. No one immediately claimed responsibility.

One civilian contractor with the coalition was killed and five others wounded, a coalition spokesman, Col. Wayne Marotto, said in a statement posted on social media. One U.S. service member was also injured, he said. He did not reveal the nationality of the dead contractor and said this was under investigation.

At least two civilians were also wounded and material damage was caused to cars and other property, security officials said, without providing more details. A statement from Kurdistan's interior ministry said “several people” had been injured based on a preliminary investigation. The rockets were launched from an area south of Irbil near the border with Kirkuk province and fell on some residential areas close to the airport.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Iraqi President Barham Saleh condemned the attack, saying in a statement posted online that it marked a “dangerous escalation.”

Kurdish authorities cautioning Irbil residents to stay away from areas that were targeted and remain in their homes, according to a statement from the interior ministry.

Attacks targeting Irbil airport are rare. Monday's attack was the first to strike the area in five months.

On Sept. 30, when six rockets hit near the airport. Kurdish authorities said they had been launched from a pickup truck in the nearby town of Bartella in Ninevah province, which falls under federal government control. Kurdish authorities had blamed Shiite militia groups.

Hoshiyar Zebari, a politburo member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, said security officials were investigating the source of the attack. “There will be consequences against the culprits. This aggression will not stand,” he tweeted.

Rocket attacks have frequently target the U.S. presence in Baghdad, including the U.S. Embassy, as well as convoys ferrying materials for the U.S.-led coalition.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/02/15/rockets-strike-near-us-base-iraq-killing-1-wounding-8.html

Cuomo Doubles Down, Claims New York Always Fully Reported Nursing Home Deaths

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that his state has always “fully reported” COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes following a report that his administration withheld the true figures out of fear from federal prosecutors.

While it’s true that New York did report the number of individuals who died while physically present at a nursing home between May 2020 and January 2021, the figures did not include residents who died after being transported to a hospital. Other states with large outbreaks of COVID-19 in nursing homes did not make such omissions from their reporting.

“To be clear, all the deaths in the nursing homes and in the hospitals were always fully, publicly and accurately reported,” Cuomo said. “The numbers were the numbers, always.”

The Cuomo administration revealed in January it had undercounted nursing home COVID-19 deaths by nearly 50%. At least 12,743 nursing home residents had died from the virus as of Jan. 19, which included some 4,238 deaths that weren’t included in the New York State Department of Health’s (NYSDOH) official tally because they died at hospitals.

New York’s nursing home fatalities from COVID-19 stand at 13,382 as of Feb. 4, the latest date data is available.

https://dailycaller.com/2021/02/15/cuomo-doubles-down-nursing-home-deaths/

Biden’s DHS Releasing Border Crossers into U.S. Without Coronavirus Tests

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is not requiring all border crossers to get tested for the Chinese coronavirus before releasing them into the United States, the agency confirmed to Breitbart News.

A DHS spokesperson responded to a question from Breitbart News about whether President Joe Biden supported mandatory coronavirus testing for border crossers released into the U.S. interior.

“As Customs and Border Protection always has, it adjusts resources as needed to meet the demand at the border and regularly screens individuals for signs of health issues when they are encountered, including COVID-19,” the spokesperson told Breitbart News. “Anyone who shows signs of illness receives the appropriate medical treatment.”

The response confirms that untested border crossers are continuing to be released into the U.S. interior as long as they are not exhibiting coronavirus symptoms.

On the other hand, DHS officials have said that migrants enrolled in the now-defunct Remain in Mexico program, set to be released into the U.S. interior this month, will have to undergo coronavirus testing. Internal communications reviewed by Breitbart News, though, show no mentions of this requirement.

“Individuals processed through this program will be tested for COVID-19 before entering the United States,” the administration confirmed.

Most border crossers apprehended and released at the southern border also appear to enjoy a less stringent testing standard that even foreign travelers to the U.S. experience.

Shortly after he was inaugurated, President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring foreign travelers to the U.S. “to the extent feasible” to produce a negative test for the coronavirus prior to entry and to either isolate or quarantine themselves for several days after they arrive.

This week, Breitbart News reported that 25,600 migrants enrolled in the Remain in Mexico program are to be released into communities in El Paso and Brownsville, Texas, and San Diego, California. The mass release effort comes after Biden ended the program despite its effectiveness in drastically reducing asylum fraud.

Data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University (TRAC) has previously revealed that about 85 percent of asylum cases by Central Americans are rejected and a total of nearly 70,000 migrants were returned to their native countries after not meeting asylum requirements since the program was created.

The TRAC data found that tens of thousands of migrants actually gave up on their asylum cases while they waited in Mexico because they were aware that their claims were not valid. By December 2020, more than 31,000 migrants had left Mexico and returned to their native countries without having their cases heard.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki claimed last week that the U.S.-Mexico border was “not open” during an exchange with Breitbart News even as at least 2,000 border crossers have been released into the U.S. interior between February 1 to 10. Tens of thousands more are expected to be released in the coming months.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/02/15/bidens-dhs-releasing-border-crossers-into-u-s-without-coronavirus-tests/

Democrats slam ‘lying’ Cuomo over COVID-19 nursing home ‘cover-up’

Fellow Democratic legislators in New York weren’t buying Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s explanation Monday as to why he refused for months to release a true accounting of nursing home residents who died from the coronavirus.

Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens), whose uncle died from COVID-19, bluntly said, “all of it is BS” and a cover-up.

“They could have given us the information back in May and June of last year. They chose not to,” Kim said, when hearing Cuomo was blaming the DOJ probe for delays in releasing the accurate coronavirus death tally of nursing home residents.

Cuomo cited an exclusive Aug.26, 2020 story in The Post that broke the news about the Department of Justice inquiry into his administration’s nursing home admission policy and the undercounting of deaths, claiming Albany legislators should have known about the probe based on that report.

Kim said lawmakers could have passed laws to tighten up accountability and liability in nursing homes to save lives if they had the information sooner.

Kim also said Cuomo’s comments Monday don’t square with what top aide Melissa DeRosa told him and other legislators during a private meeting last week, when she said former President Donald Trump made the issue a “political football” and claimed that as an excuse for withholding the nursing home data. The Post first reported on her explosive remarks after obtaining an audio recording of the meeting.

“And basically, we froze,” DeRosa said.

“She talked about the potential that the information would be weaponized against them. DeRosa needs to be accountable for what she said,” Kim insisted.

“She implicated all of us in the cover-up.”

DeRosa on Friday issued a statement, mirroring what the governor said Monday that the administration was dealing with federal probers before it would release more detailed nursing home data to state legislators and the public data.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi (D-Bronx) challenged Cuomo’s assertion that his team informed lawmakers that it would delay release of nursing home fatality data because of the federal probe.

“No, @NYGovCuomo , you did not tell the `entire’ Senate or Assembly that there was a DOJ investigation, as the reason why you didn’t share the nursing home numbers,” Biaggi said in a tweet.

“I found out about a DOJ investigation with the rest of NY’ers in the @nypost story Thursday night,” she said.

State Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Brooklyn) claimed Cuomo was lying.

https://nypost.com/2021/02/15/democrats-slam-cuomo-over-covid-19-nursing-home-cover-up/