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Pilot ejects as F-16 fighter jet crashes in California

admin - Latest News - December 4, 2025
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Pilot ejects as F-16 fighter jet crashes in California



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Dec. 4, 2025, 5:00 AM ESTBy Rich Schapiro and Dan De LuceIn the days and months after the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Thomas Kasza and some of his fellow Special Forces members focused their attention on the Afghans who had fought alongside them.These Afghans who risked their lives for the U.S. were prime targets of the Taliban. Remaining in their homeland was akin to a death sentence. “Given how they served exclusively alongside U.S. Green Berets, they were by default among those highest on Taliban target lists,” said Kasza, who was one of many military veterans who assisted their former Afghan counterparts in leaving the country and resettling in the U.S.After the shooting of two National Guard members near the White House last week, Kasza and other U.S. war veterans find themselves having to come to the defense of their former Afghan partners yet again. An Afghan who worked with a CIA-trained military unit has been charged in the attack, which killed Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and critically wounded Andrew Wolfe, 24. The Trump administration immediately moved to crack down on Afghans in the U.S., pausing asylum decisions and halting the issuing of visas. President Donald Trump said last week that many of the Afghans who came to this country “are criminals” who “shouldn’t be here.” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the suspect “and so many others should have never been allowed to come here.”National Guard shooting suspect pleads not guilty to murder charge02:31Those kinds of sentiments haven’t gone over well with Army Special Forces veterans, known as Green Berets, and others who worked closely with Afghans during the war. “It is definitely not fair to group all Afghans that helped us during our time in Afghanistan in that same basket as this individual,” said Ben Hoffman, a Green Beret with five deployments to Afghanistan.Another Green Beret, Dave Elliott, said many of the Afghans he is in touch with are now “terrified” over their fates in the U.S. “They’re fearful they’re going to be sent back to a country where we have had documented cases of our guys being killed in retribution attacks,” said Elliott, who started a nonprofit organization with Kasza called the 1208 Foundation, which supports Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the war.The Green Berets worked with a specially trained unit of Afghans who would go out in front of the Americans on missions to identify and disable improvised explosive devices, a highly dangerous job that resulted in dozens’ being killed. Other Afghans who came to this country after their government collapsed in 2021 worked with U.S. forces as interpreters and drivers and in other roles.“These guys didn’t want to leave Afghanistan,” Elliott said. “They left Afghanistan because the U.S. broke it and handed it back to the Taliban and they had no other choice.”The Green Berets and other war veterans interviewed by NBC News didn’t work directly with the shooting suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, but wanted to speak out in support of the Afghans who fled to this country after assisting U.S. forces.White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the Trump administration “has been taking every measure possible — in the face of unrelenting Democrat opposition — to get anyone who poses a threat to the American people out of our country and clean up the mess made by the Biden Administration.” Lakanwal has pleaded not guilty to murder charges and other offenses. Authorities haven’t released information about a potential motive. Lakanwal, who lived in Washington state with his wife and five children, had reportedly been struggling to feed his family and was suffering from mental health issues. Geeta Bakshi, a former CIA officer who served in Afghanistan, said that her former Afghan colleagues are distraught that one of their countrymen is accused of having attacked Americans and that the entire community of Afghan veterans could be tarnished by the shooter’s horrific actions.Bakshi said she and other Americans forged a special bond with their Afghan allies during the war, sharing the same dangers and working in common cause to track down Al Qaeda and other extremists.“They put their necks on the line to support us,” said Bakshi, who runs FAMIL, a nonprofit organization that assists Afghans who worked under CIA command in what were known as Zero Units. “We were going after hard terrorist targets, and these were the guys and gals that made it happen. We could not have achieved our many counterterrorism successes without them. People don’t realize these folks bore a huge risk by doing what they did.”Even before the shooting and the Trump administration actions, many Afghans who settled in this country were already struggling to find jobs while trapped in a legal limbo without work permits. Lakanwal and many others who worked directly with the U.S. forces or the government came into the country through a temporary program the Biden administration set up to manage the flow of Afghans fleeing Taliban rule. Many were still waiting for their visa applications to be approved or their asylum requests to be granted, enabling them to work legally. Both of those legal pathways have now been shut off. The moves are likely to increase the strain on the former U.S. military allies, according to Green Berets and other advocates for them. They noted that many of the Afghans experienced several years of war and are now living in an unfamiliar country where they don’t have access to the mental health resources afforded to U.S. military veterans. “A lot of these guys have a lot of the PTSD struggles that we do, and even way worse,” Hoffman said. “And there’s no way for them to get help except out of pocket, which is not easy for them when they’re just working to put food on the table and a roof over their kids’ heads.”The Afghans fighting with U.S. forces lost comrades and family members and suffered grievous wounds, both physical and emotional, according to Bakshi, the former CIA officer.“You have to consider invisible scars from the war and how that can affect people,” she said. “We know that. We’ve seen it. We’ve seen it with veterans. We’ve seen it with veteran suicides.”“Some of these guys were in combat 365 days a year, for five or 10 or 20 years,” she added. “They face many of the same difficulties as veterans do, and they don’t have the resources and the support that veterans do.”Kasza said he worries about how the treatment of Afghans in this country might affect future military operations overseas. “Green Berets are built to operate with and through a host-nation partner,” he said. “If the future partner of a Special Forces detachment sees America so willing to renege on promises made, how likely is it that they will be willing to put their lives on the line to aid in advancing the interest of another nation that will readily ignore their sacrifice?”Rich Schapiro Rich Schapiro is a reporter with the NBC News national security unit.Dan De LuceDan De Luce is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit. 
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Oct. 20, 2025, 7:35 PM EDTBy Doha Madani and Jennifer O’NeilVirginia Roberts Giuffre, an outspoken accuser of Jeffrey Epstein, alleged that her own father had abused her and suggested that he took hush money from Epstein in a posthumous memoir releasing Tuesday.Giuffre, 41, had been working on the book with a co-author before she died by suicide in April. In the memoir, she alleges that other men had abused her before she was groomed by Epstein at age 16.She alleges that her experience with abuse began as early as 7 by her father. Her father denied the allegation, insisting that he never abused his daughter. And in a statement in the memoir, her father said he “never knew what was going on with Epstein” until he saw the news online.Giuffre’s brother Sky Roberts Jr. told NBC News’ Hallie Jackson that he confronted his father over the abuse allegation. “I just, I said — we know,” he recalled, choking up. “I mean, you were Dad. You sexually abused your daughter. It’s absolutely heinous what he did.”Virginia Giuffre leaves federal court in 2019.Jeenah Moon / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileGiuffre recounts in the memoir, “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice,” that Epstein showed her a photo of her younger brother, then in middle school, and told her to keep quiet about “what goes on in this house.” She also suggested in her book that her father may have taken money from Epstein after he began abusing her. Her brother recalled that their father would buy “decently nice things” at points in their life, including a boat. “If there was a payment wired to him, like it would, would be disgusting, be disgusting that he accepted money,” Roberts said. The final years of Giuffre’s life were marked by her repeatedly calling for criminal charges against Epstein and his associates. Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019 shortly after he was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a person under 18 for prostitution. He served 13 months of an 18-month jail sentence. Federal prosecutors in New York brought new charges against him in 2019, and he died while awaiting trial. Giuffre provided federal authorities with information that led to the arrest and conviction of his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Giuffre said she was getting her life back on track after a troubled childhood when she met Maxwell, who steered her into Epstein’s path. She alleged that the two groomed her into becoming a sex slave for Epstein and that Epstein trafficked her to other prominent men in his circle. Maxwell, a former British socialite, was convicted on five counts of sex trafficking in 2021 for her role in recruiting young girls to be abused by Epstein.Other survivors have credited Giuffre’s bravery for giving them the strength to come forward with their own allegations. When she died in April, Giuffre’s attorney described her as “an incredible champion for other victims.”If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.Doha MadaniDoha Madani is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News. Pronouns: she/her.Jennifer O’NeilJennifer O’Neil is a producer for NBC News
October 22, 2025
Oct. 21, 2025, 5:29 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 21, 2025, 7:18 PM EDTBy Julie Tsirkin, Monica Alba, Frank Thorp V and Raquel Coronell UribePaul Ingrassia, President Donald Trump’s pick for a top watchdog position, announced Tuesday that he was withdrawing from consideration because he did not have enough Republican support to be confirmed.”I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time,” he said, referring to the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which would review his nomination.Trump nominated Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency that protects federal employees from prohibited personnel practices, such as retaliation for whistleblowing.Ingrassia had come under scrutiny in recent weeks after Politico reported that he a colleague had accused him of sexual harassment, citing three unnamed administration officials. In a new article Monday, Politico reported on a text chat in which Ingrassia allegedly sent messages saying that he had a “Nazi streak” and that Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be “tossed in the seventh circle of hell.”Ingrassia’s lawyer Monday night pointed to a previous statement denying Ingrassia had “harassed any coworkers — female or otherwise, sexually or otherwise — in connection with any employment.” The lawyer, Edward Paltzik, suggested the text messages reported Monday may not be authentic and added that “even if the texts are authentic, they clearly read as self-deprecating and satirical humor.”Ingrassia had faced growing backlash from Senate Republicans. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Monday that Ingrassia’s nomination was “not going to pass” and that he thought the White House should pull it.Asked by NBC News on Tuesday whether he thought the White House would pull the nomination, Thune said: “I think they’ll have something official to say about that, but you know, you know what we’ve said, and you’ll probably hear from them soon.”Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla.; James Lankford, R-Okla.; and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., all told reporters they intended to vote against Ingrassia.The possibility of Ingrassia’s withdrawal was also discussed during Trump’s lunch with Republican senators in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, according to two officials familiar with the discussion.Lankford, in telling reporters Tuesday morning that he was a “no” on the nomination, said, “I think it’d be very difficult for a lot of federal employees to be able to say he’s impartial when he says things like ‘Never trust an Indian,’ the comments he’s made about Jews.”“They ought to withdraw him,” Johnson said Tuesday morning.Another Republican senator on the Homeland Security Committee, Joni Ernst of Iowa, declined to say how she would vote but, she said Monday that Ingrassia would have “an uphill battle.”Ingrassia, a former podcaster, had a history of inflammatory comments even before he was nominated. He came under fire for saying Jan. 6, 2021 — when rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election — should be declared a national holiday, calling it “a peaceful protest against a great injustice.” He had also called Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel a “psyop.”Julie TsirkinJulie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.Monica AlbaMonica Alba is a White House correspondent for NBC News.Frank Thorp VFrank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.Raquel Coronell UribeRaquel Coronell Uribe is a breaking news reporter. 
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