https://www.mei.edu/publications/irregular-warfare-case-study-cia-and-us-army-special-forces-operations-northern-iraq

In February 2002, the Northern Iraq Liaison Element (NILE) team13 entered Northern Iraq.14 A CIA published review of a book on the topic stated, “In Iraqi Kurdistan during 2002-2003, the U.S. Intelligence Community had the advantage of experienced hand picked teams of CIA and Special Forces personnel who knew the terrain, culture, language and people.”15 The NILE team’s mission was primarily to reestablish contact with the two main political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which at the time had been in an official state of war with each other since 1996. The attacks of September 11, 2001 had occurred a few months earlier and U.S. national security leaders were concerned that Iraq might become another theater in the War on Terror. The intent was to link up with both parties and work with them to prepare the north for a potential war with Saddam in coordination with the Turkish government.

The NDS of 2018 was the first in over a decade. As described by then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis, the strategy has three main parts: building a more lethal force, strengthening alliances and attracting new partners, and reforming the Department of Defense (DoD) for greater performance and affordability. Strengthening alliances and attracting new partners was considered crucial to the ability to shift resources to match our new priorities.26

The NDS prioritizes the great power competitors of China and Russia, the rogue state actors of North Korea and Iran, and then countering the threat of terrorism against the homeland and our interests, allies, and partners aboard. The belief was that after 20 years of warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq against mostly unconventional forces and terrorist organizations (with the exception of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard at the beginning of the war in Iraq in 2003), that the U.S. needed to focus on more significant threats to the nation

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/facebook-confirms-its-behind-800m-mesa-arizona-data-center/

Facebook has confirmed it is developing an $800 million data center in Mesa, Arizona, first revealed in May.

The company said that is about to break ground on the new facility, which project documents detail will span 970,000 sq ft (90,000 sq m) in its first phase. At full buildout, the full site could span 3 million square feet (278,700 sq m).

"Mesa stood out as a great location for a number of reasons. It has great access to infrastructure, opportunities for renewable energy development, strong talent for both construction and operations, and great community partners."

Facebook negotiated planning permission for the data center secretly, under the pseudonym Redale LLC

During the planning phase, before Facebook was revealed as the applicant, critics like Mesa Vice Mayor Jenn Duff pointed to the huge water use of the data enter, in a region with increasingly low supplies.

"As we form Mesa's climate action plan and embark upon the first phase of the seven-state drought contingency plan, making cutbacks to agriculture, I cannot in good conscience approve this mega data center using 1.7 million gallons per day at total build out, up to 3 million square feet on 396 acres," Duff said, as the only vote against the project

China

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zk-internationals-portfolio-company-maximbet-enters-partnership-with-white-mountain-apache-tribe-in-pursuit-of-online-sports-betting-license-in-arizona-301354237.html

WENZHOU, China, Aug. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ – ZK International Group Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: ZKIN) ("ZKIN", "ZK International" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that its portfolio company, MaximBet, the emerging online sports betting lifestyle brand, today announced plans to partner with the White Mountain Apache Tribe in the recently legalized Arizona sports betting market. This marks the fifth state where MaximBet, an affiliate of Maxim, the premiere men's lifestyle brand, operates or plans to launch.

"We are thrilled to partner with the White Mountain Apache Tribe to bring MaximBet and the renowned Maxim lifestyle experience to Arizona," said Daniel Graetzer, CEO of MaximBet. "With some of the best sporting teams in the country and a highly engaged sports community, we are confident Arizona will be drawn to our consumer-friendly app, world-class customer service, and the incredible live events we are planning for the State."

In Arizona, the White Mountain Apache Tribe and MaximBet have jointly applied to the Arizona Department of Gaming to secure licensure. If the tribe's license application is successful, MaximBet will launch quickly in Arizona. MaximBet is also launching in Colorado in September, followed by Iowa, Indiana and New Jersey, subject to regulatory approvals.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zk-internationals-portfolio-company-maximbet-enters-partnership-with-white-mountain-apache-tribe-in-pursuit-of-online-sports-betting-license-in-arizona-301354237.html

ZK International Group Co., Ltd. is a China-based engineering company building and investing in innovative technologies for the modern world. With a focus on designing and implementing next-generation solutions through industrial, environmental and software engineering, ZKIN owns 28 patents, 21 trademarks, 2 Technical Achievement Awards, and 10 National and Industry Standard Awards.

ZKIN's core business is to engineer and manufacture patented high-performance stainless steel and carbon steel pipe products that effectively deliver high quality, highly-sustainable and environmentally sound drinkable water to the Chinese, Asia and European markets. ZK International is Quality Management System Certified (ISO9001), Environmental Management System Certified (ISO1401), and a National Industrial Stainless Steel Production Licensee. It has supplied stainless steel pipelines for over 2,000 projects, which include the Beijing National Airport, the "Water Cube" and "Bird's Nest", which were venues for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. ZK International is preparing to capitalize on the $850 Billion commitment made by the Chinese Government to improve the quality of water, which has been stated to be 70% unfit for human contact.

In 2018, ZKIN established its wholly-owned xSigma Corporation to develop innovative software solutions that support its core operations while exploring new opportunities in smart contracts, distributed ledgers, supply chain management and blockchain architecture. The xSigma Labs team is made up of world-class developers and engineers formerly of Facebook, Google, Amazon, Ripple and 1inch, most recently launching its first DeFi project in the Fall of 2020.

https://itsblockchain.com/top-20-defi-crypto-projects/

What is DeFi?

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of years, you might be wondering what DeFi is. Well, DeFi is the short form for decentralized finance, a movement within the crypto world that aims to implement open source software and decentralized networks to turn traditional, centralized financial services and products into trustless and transparent systems that do not require any authority figure to watch over them.

As of 2021, the DeFi movement continues to grow stronger with every passing day, as DeFi crypto projects keep turning real world financial applications on their heads. At the beginning of April 2021, the total value locked in DeFi is already over $51 billion.

https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/meet-chesa-boudin-the-rogue-prosecutor-wreaking-havoc-san-francisco

This commentary is another in a series on rogue prosecutors around the country who have been backed by liberal billionaires such as George Soros and Cari Tuna, and the threat those prosecutors pose to crime victims and others alike.

In November 2019, after winning his race to serve as the district attorney of San Francisco, Chesa Boudin said, “The people of San Francisco have sent a powerful and clear message: It’s time for radical change to how we envision justice.”

Well, if radical change is what the voters of San Francisco wanted, they certainly got it, although many are now experiencing a severe case of buyer’s remorse.

That is why he—like fellow Soros-backed rogue prosecutor George Gascon, the Los Angeles district attorney—is facing a recall petition, and for good reason.

Boudin, 40, is one of several dozen rogue prosecutors elected to public office, thanks in most part to Soros (or his political action committees or wealthy liberal friends). Their goal, as we have written in a major research paper on the rogue prosecutor movement, is to fundamentally reverse-engineer the criminal justice system by replacing independent law-and-order prosecutors (Democrats and Republicans alike) with pro-criminal, anti-victim zealots who flout the rule of law, abuse their offices, and as a result, see crime explode in their cities.

Boudin was raised in Chicago by Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, co-founders of the Weather Underground, who organized a series of bombings of public buildings to protest U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and who lived underground as fugitives for many years.

Boudin’s mother was released from prison in 2003, while his father is still incarcerated.

While condemning his parents’ crime, Boudin initially embarked down a more predictable professional career path. Before attending law school, Boudin lived in Venezuela and served as a translator to then-President Hugo Chavez.