Updates, Tax Day style
Have a few updates for the TAH world.
Remember Zachary Young? He is the Navy vet who was excoriated on CNN for ‘running a black-market smuggling operation and gouging poor Afghan refugees’. That little bit of journalistic, shall we say impromptuism (okay, they bent the truth far past its breaking point), caused them to settle out of court for $5 mill barely ahead of what could have been a nine-figure punitive damage claim. He is now suing the AP for what his lawer describes as “an article that went even further than CNN’s falsehoods.”
In the court filing obtained by Fox News Digital, Young’s lawyer, Daniel Lustig, wrote that the “AP blatantly accused Mr. Young of engaging in criminal human smuggling.”
“Describing Mr. Young’s lifesaving evacuations as ‘smuggling’ is not only grossly misleading, it charges Mr. Young with a serious crime. Human smuggling is a grave felony under U.S. law and it is condemned as a serious crime under international law,” the suit continues. “By accusing Mr. Young of human smuggling, AP effectively branded him a criminal.”
The lawsuit claims that the AP has used the term “smuggling” in dozens of prior articles to “describe plainly criminal conduct such as human trafficking, drug operations, and transnational crime.” Fox News
I’m all over a media vulture getting tagged… but while the term smuggling is associated with some nefarious activities, in fairness if he is sneaking folks past the border guards, the common term IS smuggling. Wonder what a judge will think?
Second up – Alexander Smirnov is currently doing time, and the Department of Justice is trying to get him released.
Smirnov pleaded guilty in December to causing the creation of a false record after falsely telling his FBI handler years earlier that he had knowledge of bribes paid by executives at a Ukrainian energy company to Joe and Hunter Biden. He also admitted to tax evasion.
Smirnov’s claims, documented in an FBI record, briefly became the focus of a Republican-led impeachment investigation into Joe Biden that was later abandoned.
In seeking his release, prosecutors agreed that Smirnov was not likely to flee or pose a threat to public safety. His travel would be limited largely to Nevada, where he lived, according to the filing.
It is not clear how the Justice Department review could impact the case. Smirnov already struck a plea agreement with prosecutors.
His appeal has so far been limited to arguing that his time spent in pretrial detention should count toward his six-year sentence. Reuters
May be worth noting he has not denied the charges – he just wants to use his pre-sentencing confinement time as credit toward his overall sentence.
The newest frigate in the Navy is supposed to be a modification of an existing deign, changed to fit a more modern naval battlefield. Wait – that ain’t the one they are updating!
Nope, not that one either. We’ve actually had 5 of the same name… the second one of which, above, a ‘sloop-of-war’ IS still afloat and in Baltimore Harbor…well worth the visit. But the new Constellation, succeeding the Kitty-Hawk class carrier above (fourth in the line) was awarded 5 years ago, and started construction 2 years ago. Ready to come down the line and be christened? No.
The first Constellation class frigate for the U.S. Navy is just 10 percent complete more than two years after construction began and nearly five years after the award of the initial contract for the ship. The work is also continuing despite the continued absence of a firm functional design for the vessel, which is still weeks or even months away from being finalized and approved.
Lean, agile… huh? This is taking longer than WWII! And supposedly started at 85% the same as current production.
The Constellation class design has already grown significantly in physical size and total displacement over the baseline FREMM configuration, which has prompted concerns about expected performance. Substantial changes have also been made to the overall configuration, and there is understood to now only be some 15 percent commonality between the design for the Navy and its Franco-Italian parent. The original goal was 85 percent commonality. The War Zone
Ain’t nobody happy about this program right now, and both the President and SecNav are making statements which imply that the days of unlimited cost+ overruns, slipped schedules, etc. are waning. Supposedly we are buying 10 of these ships, delivery starting next year. I’m thinking if we ever see ONE (below), I will be shocked. Lots of added info in the article – read it.
Home boy shoulda just let the Afghan folks slide thru the border with all the ones that Joe and Co let in.
Looks like Mr. Smirnov was hitting on The Smirnov a little too hard.
Maybe we need to let Rosie The Riveter build our ships. She did a damn good job “back in the day”.
And looked good while doing it!
I’m with you David, by any definition of the word, what he did was smuggle: convey (someone or something) somewhere secretly and illicitly. Just because he doesn’t like the company of others who do the same thing doesn’t mean he gets another pay day for legitimate use of the word. Now if they somehow besmirched his image by the tone they set and other descriptions, then it is another story.
Heck Han Solo was a smuggler too, but he was the hero of the story!
“The work is also continuing despite the continued absence of a firm functional design for the vessel,”
Vert der furk? Someone get the crayons out and draw me a picture of how you build without a functional design.