title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: One of the leaked Podesta emails from August 2014, addressed to John Podesta, identifies Saudi Arabia and Qatar as providing "clandestine," "financial and logistic" aid to ISIL and other "radical Sunni groups." The email outlines a plan of action against ISIL, and urges putting pressure on Saudi Arabia and Qatar to end their alleged support for the group. Whether the email was originally written by Hillary Clinton, her advisor Sidney Blumenthal, or another person is unclear.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Following the 2017 Tehran attacks, Iranian authorities such as members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Javad Zarif, have accused Saudi Arabia of being behind the attacks. In a Twitter post, Zarif wrote, "Terror-sponsoring despots threaten to bring the fight to our homeland. Proxies attack what their masters despise most: the seat of democracy". His statements referred to the Saudi deputy crown prince Mohammad bin Salman's threats against the country about a month earlier, in which bin Salman revealed their policy to drag the regional conflict into Iranian borders. Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, denied his country's involvement in the attacks and said Riyadh had no knowledge of who was responsible for them. He condemned terrorist attacks and killing of the innocent "anywhere it occurs".


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: In 2017 Bob Corker, then-chairman of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, stated that the Saudi support for terrorism "dwarfs what Qatar is doing"; the statement was made after Saudi Arabia cut ties with Qatar, citing alleged support of terrorism by the latter.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: According to "Newsweek", the United Kingdom government may decide to keep secret the results of an official inquiry into the supporters of the Islamist militant groups in the country. The findings are believed to have references to Saudi Arabia.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Following various accusations relating to sponsoring terrorism, Saudi Arabia became eager to join the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF). However, a review conducted by the FATF on Saudi’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing system, pointed that the kingdom has not been able to tackle the risk of terrorism financing by third-party and facilitators, as well as individuals financing international terrorist organizations.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: In 2019, Saudi Arabia has been granted a full membership of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) becoming the first Arab country awarded this full membership. This was following the group’s Annual General Meeting in Orlando. The group is responsible for designing and issuing standards and policies that face money laundering and terrorist financing.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: On 25 June 2019, the Arab Coalition has revealed that Saudi and Yemeni special forces had captured Abu Osama al-Muhajir, the leader (emir) of ISIS's network in Yemen. The ISIS's leader, as well as other members of ISIS, were arrested on 3 June 2019 in a house that was under surveillance.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: On 6 December 2019, a 21-year-old Royal Saudi Air Force second lieutenant, identified as Mohammed Alshamrani attacked the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida. Allegedly, the attack has been labeled as an act of terrorism while further investigations are being carried out to determine the same. According to a Twitter account linked to that of the shooter, posted a message that arose the possibility of it being an al-qaeda inspired attack.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Attorneys who defended Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 lawsuits, are reported to be representing crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in the alleged targeting and assassination of an ex-intelligence official from Saudi Arabia. The cases filed in August accused the prince of committing human rights violations, murder, and torture.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Sudan was considered a state sponsor of terrorism by the US government from 1993 to 2020, and was targeted by United Nations sanctions in 1996 for its role in sheltering suspects of an attempted assassination of Hosni Mubarak, president of Egypt. Sudan has been suspected of harboring members of the terrorist organizations Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Abu Nidal Organization, Jamaat al-Islamiyya, and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, as well as supporting insurgencies in Uganda, Tunisia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Voice of America News reported that Sudan is suspected by US officials of allowing the Lord's Resistance Army to operate within its borders.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: In December 1994, Eritrea broke diplomatic relations with Sudan after a long period of increasing tension between the two countries due to a series of cross-border incidents involving the Eritrean Islamic Jihad (EIJ). Although the attacks did not pose a threat to the stability of the Government of Eritrea (the infiltrators have generally been killed or captured by government forces), the Eritreans believe the National Islamic Front (NIF) in Khartoum supported, trained, and armed the insurgents. After many months of negotiations with the Sudanese to try to end the incursions, the Government of Eritrea concluded that the NIF did not intend to change its policy and broke relations. Subsequently, the Government of Eritrea hosted a conference of Sudanese opposition leaders in June 1995 in an effort to help the opposition unite and to provide a credible alternative to the present government in Khartoum. Eritrea resumed diplomatic relations with Sudan on December 10, 2005. Since then, Sudan has accused Eritrea, along with Chad, of supporting rebels. The undemarcated border with Sudan previously posed a problem for Eritrean external relations.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Sudan was accused of allowing members of Hamas to travel to and live in the country, as well as raise funds, though the presence of terrorists in Sudan has largely been a secondary concern in terms of Sudanese sponsorship of terror to the facilitation of material supplies to terrorist groups and the use of Sudan by Palestine-based terrorist organizations has declined in recent years. The Allied Democratic Forces, designated as a terrorist organization by Uganda, is said to be supported by Sudan and suspected of affiliation with widely designated terrorist group Al-Shabaab


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are said to have been formerly based in Sudan during the early 1990s. The US and Israel have conducted operations against Sudanese targets affiliated with terrorist groups as recently as 2012.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Following the fall of Omar Al Bashir as the president of Sudan and the visit of the newly appointed Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok to Washington, the United States agreed to exchange ambassadors and said it would consider dropping Sudan from its list of countries of state sponsored terrorism.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: On December 14, 2020, the United States officially removed Sudan from the list after it agreed to establish relations with Israel and pay $335m to US victims of terror attacks.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: The Syrian government itself has been accused of engaging in state sponsored terrorism by President George W. Bush and by the U.S. State Department from 1979 to today. The European Community met on 10 November 1986 to discuss the Hindawi affair, an attempt to bomb an El Al flight out of London, and the subsequent arrest and trial in the UK of Nizar Hindawi, who allegedly received Syrian government support after the bombing, and possibly beforehand. The European response was to impose sanctions against Syria and state that these measures were intended "to send Syria the clearest possible message that what has happened is absolutely unacceptable."


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Francis Ricciardone, United States Ambassador to Turkey from 2011 to 2014, claims that Turkey had directly supported and worked with al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham in the Syrian conflict for a period of time. Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Iran and Egypt have designated Ahrar al-Sham a terrorist organization but the U.S. has not. The United Nations Security Council and many countries including the US class al-Nusra as a terrorist organisation; it was the official Syrian branch of al-Qaeda until July 2016, when it ostensibly split.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Al-Monitor claimed in 2013 that Turkey was reconsidering its support for Nusra, and Turkey's designation of the Nusra Front as a terrorist group since June 2014 was seen as an indication of it giving up on the group.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia supported the Army of Conquest, a coalition of Salafist and Islamist Syrian rebel groups formed in March 2015 that included the al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, but that also included non-al-Qaeda-linked Islamist factions, such as the Sham Legion, that have received covert arms support from the United States. According to "The Independent", some Turkish officials admitted giving logistical and intelligence support to the command center of the coalition, but denied giving direct help to al-Nusra, while acknowledging that the group would be beneficiaries. It also reported that some rebels and officials claim that material support in the form of money and weapons was given to the coalition by Saudis with Turkey facilitating its passage.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: 2014 National Intelligence Organisation scandal in Turkey caused a major controversy in Turkey. The critiques of the government claimed that the Turkish government has been providing arms to ISIL, while the Turkish government has maintained that the trucks were bound for the Bayırbucak Turkmens, who are opposed to the Syrian government. According to later academic study the arms were bound for the Free Syrian Army and rebel Syrian Turkmen.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: In 2014, Sky News reported that the Turkish government had stamped passports of foreigners seeking to cross the border and join ISIL. However, it was also reported by Sky News that ISIL members use fake passports in order to get to Syria and Turkish officials can not easily identify the authenticity of these documents.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: YPG commander Meysa Abdo in an op-ed written for NY Times on October 28 claimed there is evidence that Turkish forces have allowed the Islamic State’s men and equipment to move back and forth across the border. On November 29, Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), reportedly said that ISIL started to attack them from all four sides for the first time. Turkey's hesitation to help YPG and PYD in the fight against ISIL was reportedly caused by their affiliation with the PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the UN, EU and many countries including US, but Turkey later gave support to the Kurdish Peshmerga from northern Iraq instead of the YPG, allowing 155 peshmerga to pass through Turkey with their arms who, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told, would initially be about 2000 but PYD was reluctant to accept. Ahmet Gerdi, a Peshmerga general, told the Turkish press that they appreciate Turkey's help in their fight against ISIL.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and President Vladimir Putin accused Turkish officials of helping the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the aftermath of shootdown of a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 on 25 November. These accusations were rejected by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In October 2015, the office of the Turkish Prime Minister had stated that while smuggling of oil between Turkey and Syria had taken place, the nation had been successful in effectively stopping it. In December 2015, the Russian ministry of defence claimed it had evidence regarding the Turkish president and his relatives being involved in oil trade with Islamic State. It also published pictures purporting to show trucks carrying oil travelling from oil installations under ISIL control into Turkey. Mark Toner, the deputy spokesperson for the United States Department of State, rejected these claims stating there was no proof to back up the claims of Turkish government being involved in oil trade with ISIL who was selling oil in Turkey through middlemen. Russia also accused Turkey of allowing weapons trade with ISIL. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest meanwhile stated they had intelligence that most of the terror group's oil was being sold to the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Several analysts meanwhile, have also claimed Russia's accusations of Turkey's cooperation as baseless, while also stating that a small amount of oil might end up in Turkey with cooperation from some middlemen and corrupt officials but much of it is actually sold in Syria. American officials meanwhile stated that the smuggling of oil by ISIL into Turkey was low. Adam Szubin, the acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, also stated that most of the oil was being sold in areas under Syrian government's control, with only some going towards Turkey. Israel's Minister of Defence Moshe Ya'alon also accused Turkey of purchasing oil from the terror group in January 2016. In December, WikiLeaks released 57,000 emails of Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak stolen by RedHack, a hacktivist group. 32 of them included him directing business affairs of Powertrans, which has been accused by Turkish media of transporting ISIL oil in past and whom Albayrak had denied having links with. "The Independent" however had stated in past that the reports of Powertrans smuggling ISIL oil had no concrete proof.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Some Arab and Syrian media agencies claimed that the village of Az-Zanbaqi (الزنبقي) in Jisr al-Shughur's countryside has become a base for a massive amount of Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party militants and their families in Syria, estimated at around 3,500. They further accused the Turkish intelligence of being involved in transporting these Uyghurs via Turkey to Syria, with the aim of using them first in Syria to help Jabhat Al-Nusra and gain combat experience fighting against the Syrian Army before sending them back to Xinjiang to fight against China if they manage to survive.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: In 2019, the Libyan National Army accused the Turkish authorities of supporting terrorist groups in Libya for many years. They added that the Turkish support has evolved from just logistic support to a direct interference using military aircraft to transport mercenaries, as well as ships carrying weapons, armored vehicles and ammunition to support terrorism in Libya.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: No official connection to state sponsored terrorism was found between the United Arab Emirates government to terrorists, however the UAE has been listed as a place used by investors to raise funds to support militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Taliban and their militant partners the Haqqani network has been reported to raise funds through UAE-based businesses.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: The United States Library of Congress Research Division in its 2007 report reported the UAE to be a major transit point for terrorists, stating that more than half of the 9/11 hijackers directly flew out of Dubai International Airport to the United States. The report also indicated that UAE based banks were utilized by the hijackers.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: The United Arab Emirates has been fighting alongside General Khalifa Haftar’s army in the Libya war. As mentioned in a December, 2019 International Peace Institute report, the army led by Haftar comprises militias. Meanwhile, according to another report, UAE has been accused by the United Nations of breaching its 1970 arms embargo imposed on Libya, in a 376-page report. Weapons obtained by the Haftar army, were Pantsir S-1 surface-to-air missile system, which is “a configuration only the United Arab Emirates uses”. In the airstrikes led by the United Arab Emirates, more than 100 civilians have been reportedly killed and injured, while 100,000 have been reported to be displaced.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: On 30 April 2020, Financial Action Task Force said that the UAE’s actions to combat terrorist financing and money laundering were not enough. The watchdog acclaimed that it will now put region’s financial centre Dubai under a year-long observation and monitor 10 of 11 missing pointers required to improve laundering along with the financing of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: The United Kingdom supported Ulster loyalist paramilitaries during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. During the 1970s, a group of loyalists known as the "Glenanne gang" carried out numerous shootings and bombings against Irish Catholics and Irish nationalists in an area of Northern Ireland known as the "murder triangle". It also carried out some cross-border attacks in the Republic of Ireland. The group included members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) paramilitary group as well as Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldiers and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) police officers. It was allegedly commanded by the Intelligence Corps and RUC Special Branch. Evidence suggests that the group was responsible for the deaths of about 120 civilians. The "Cassel Report" investigated 76 killings attributed to the group and found evidence that UDR soldiers and RUC policemen were involved in 74 of those. One former member, RUC officer John Weir, claimed his superiors knew of the group's activities but allowed it to continue. Attacks attributed to the group include the Dublin and Monaghan bombings (which killed 34 civilians), the Miami Showband killings and the Reavey and O'Dowd killings. The UK has also been accused of providing intelligence material, training, firearms, explosives and lists of people that members of the security forces wanted to have killed to Loyalist paramilitaries.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: The Stevens Inquiries concluded that the Force Research Unit (FRU), a covert unit of the Intelligence Corps, helped loyalists to kill people, including civilians. FRU commanders say their plan was to make loyalist groups "more professional" by helping them target IRA activists and prevent them killing civilians. The Stevens Inquiries found evidence only two lives were saved and that FRU was involved with at least 30 loyalist killings and many other attacks – many of the victims uninvolved civilians. One of the most prominent killings was that of the Republican solicitor Pat Finucane. A FRU double-agent also helped ship weapons to loyalists from South Africa. Stevens would later claim that members of the security forces attempted to obstruct his team's investigation.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: The UK has also been accused by Iran of supporting Arab separatist terrorism in the southern city of Ahvaz in 2006.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Starting in 1959, under the Eisenhower administration, the US government had the Central Intelligence Agency recruit operatives in Cuba to carry out terrorism and sabotage, kill civilians, and cause economic damage. Following the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs, the US massively escalated its sponsorship of terrorism against Cuba. In late 1961, using the military and the Central Intelligence Agency, the US government engaged in an extensive campaign of state-sponsored terrorism against civilian and military targets in Cuba. The terrorist attacks killed significant numbers of civilians. The US armed, trained, funded and directed the terrorists, most of whom were Cuban expatriates. Terrorist attacks were planned at the direction and with the participation of US government employees and launched from US territory. The terrorist attacks directed by the CIA continued through at least 1965, and the CIA was ordered to intensify the campaign in 1969. Andrew Bacevich, Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University, wrote of the campaign:


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: The United States had trained militant Cuban exiles Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch as part of this state-sponsored terrorism campaign. They are widely believed to be responsible for the Cubana 455 bombing, the deadliest instance of airline terrorism in the western hemisphere prior to the attacks of September 2001 in New York. The US Justice Department recorded Bosch as having participated in at least thirty terrorist attacks, and sought to deport him when he entered the US illegally. Bosch was released by the US Government at the instruction of George H. W. Bush without charges, and Bosch was granted residency in the country.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Starting in 1979, the US Government funded and armed the Mujahedeen under the Operation Cyclone as part of the Reagan Doctrine, which arguably contributed to the creation of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. However, scholars such as Jason Burke, Steve Coll, Peter Bergen, Christopher Andrew, and Vasily Mitrokhin have argued that Bin Laden was "outside of CIA eyesight" and that support from reliable sources are lacking for "the claim that the CIA funded bin Laden or any of the other Arab volunteers who came to support the mujahideen." However, "Le Figaro" said that Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at an American hospital two months before September 11, and was visited there by a local CIA agent, which were denied by the hospital and the CIA.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: The US has been accused of arming and training a political and fighting force of some Kurds in Syria, the People's Protection Units (YPG), which is a sister organization of Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK is listed in the US Department of State's Foreign Terrorist Organizations list, and described as "a US-designated terrorist organization" in the CIA's World Factbook, but the YPG is not.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Soviet secret services worked to establish a network of terrorist front organizations and had been described as the primary promoters of terrorism worldwide. According to defector Ion Mihai Pacepa, General Aleksandr Sakharovsky from the First Chief Directorate of the KGB once said: "In today’s world, when nuclear arms have made military force obsolete, terrorism should become our main weapon." Pacepa further claims Sakharovsky stated that "Airplane hijacking is my own invention" and that George Habash, who worked under the KGB's guidance, explained: "Killing one Jew far away from the field of battle is more effective than killing a hundred Jews on the field of battle, because it attracts more attention."


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Pacepa described an alleged operation "SIG" ("Zionist Governments") that was devised in 1972, to turn the whole Islamic world against Israel and the United States. KGB chairman Yury Andropov allegedly explained to Pacepa that "a billion adversaries could inflict far greater damage on America than could a few millions. We needed to instill a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel and its main supporter, the United States."


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: The following organizations have been allegedly established with assistance from Eastern Bloc security services: the PLO, the National Liberation Army of Bolivia (created in 1964 with help from Ernesto Che Guevara); the National Liberation Army of Colombia (created in 1965 with help from Cuba), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) in 1969, and the Armenian Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia in 1975.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: The leader of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, established close collaboration with the Romanian Securitate service and the Soviet KGB in the beginning of the 1970s. The secret training of PLO guerrillas was provided by the KGB. However, the main KGB activities and arms shipments were channeled through Wadie Haddad of the DFLP organization, who usually stayed in a KGB dacha BARVIKHA-1 during his visits to Russia. Led by Carlos the Jackal, a group of PFLP fighters accomplished a spectacular raid on OPEC headquarters in Vienna in 1975. Advance notice of this operation "was almost certainly" given to the KGB.


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: A number of notable operations have been conducted by the KGB to support international terrorists with weapons on the orders from the Soviet Communist Party, including:


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: Large-scale terrorist operations have been prepared by the KGB and GRU against the United States, Canada and Europe, according to the Mitrokhin Archive, GRU defectors Victor Suvorov and Stanislav Lunev, and former SVR officer Kouzminov. Among the planned operations were the following:


title: State-sponsored terrorism

text: In 2019, the National Assembly of Venezuela designated the colectivos (irregular, leftist Venezuelan community organizations that support Nicolás Maduro, the Bolivarian government and the Great Patriotic Pole) as terrorist groups due to their "violence, paramilitary actions, intimidation, murders and other crimes", declaring their acts as state-sponsored terrorism.


title: Lovense

text: Lovense is a Singapore-based sex tech company specializing in the development of remotely controlled sex toys and pleasure products, as well as accompanying software.


title: Lovense

text: Lovense was founded by Dan Liu in 2010. The company was inspired by teledildonics and long-distance relationships.


title: Lovense

text: In 2013, the first app-based sex toys, Max (male masturbator) and Nora (rabbit vibrator), were launched. In 2014, it integrated app controlling.


title: Lovense

text: In 2016, Lush vibrator was launched with the help of S$100,000 raised on the crowdfunding website IndieGogo, and an oscillating G-spot massager. In the same year, it also partnered up with VirtualRealPorn.


title: Lovense

text: In 2017, Lovense released 5 more devices, Hush, Ambi, Domi, Edge, and Osci. In 2018, it introduced USB Bluetooth Adapter to connect its device to an MS-Windows computer.


title: Lovense

text: In 2019, the company upgraded three of its previous devices and relaunched them as Lush 2, Max 2, and Osci 2. In 2020, it launched Domi 2 and limited edition Mission.


title: Lovense

text: In January 2021, the company announced "digital orgies" feature, where up to 100 participants can join via the Lovense app. In early February 2021, Lovense partnered up with CamSoda to launch a vibrating cock ring, Diamo. The ring was also included in an Elden Ring mod. It also launched its small-sized panty vibrator, Ferri, in the same year.


title: Lovense

text: In late 2021, the company launched its "glans massager", called Gush. The massager is compatible with specific integrated games like WildLife Demo. Apart from Gush, 5 more devices were launched, Edge 2, Lush 3, Diamo, Dolce, and Hyphy.


title: Lovense

text: In early 2022, it partnered with SexLikeReal to launch its male vibrator called Calor. It also launched its Sex Machine.


title: Lovense

text: As of 2022, the company has officially released more than 18 devices and software, including Lovense Remote App, Connect App, Cam Extension, and Lovense API. The devices also support a voice assistant, Alexa. The company has integrated cam services to online streamers via its toys that react to tips the streamers receive.


title: Lovense

text: Lovense has widely integrated VR porn and also conducted a 24 hours Twitter Orgy where participants from across the world were able to experience the company's products uniformly.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee (October 1, 1807 – November 5, 1873) was an American writer and the last private owner of Arlington Estate. She was the daughter of George Washington Parke Custis who was the grandson of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington who was the wife of George Washington. She married U.S. Army officer Robert E. Lee at her parents' home, Arlington House in 1831. They lived there with her parents while Lee served in the U.S. Army. They had seven children. She was at home when Lee was offered command of the U.S. Army as the U.S. Civil War began. Instead, he decided to serve Virginia and commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. He survived the war, became the president of Washington College, and died three years before she did.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: Mary Anna Randolph Lee was descended from southern colonial families, including those of Parke Custis, Fitzhugh, Dandrige, Randolph, Rolfe, and Gerard. Through her paternal grandmother, Eleanor Calvert, she descended from Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, making her a descendant of Charles II of England and Scotland. Through her mother, Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis, she was a descendant of William Fitzhugh.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: Mary Anna Custis Lee was the only surviving child of George Washington Parke Custis and Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis, daughter of William Fitzhugh and Ann Bolling Randolph Fitzhugh. Her godmother, Mary Randolph, was the first person buried at Arlington Estate. She wrote a book on housekeeping and cooking. Mrs. Lee's birth year is usually shown as 1808, but it recorded as 1807 in the Custis family Bible, her mother's papers, and is referred to in a letter her mother wrote in the autumn of 1807. She was born at Annefield in Clarke County, Virginia when her mother's coach stopped there during a journey. She was well educated, having learned both Latin and Greek.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: She enjoyed discussing politics with her father, and later with her husband. She kept current with the new literature. After her father's death, she edited and published his writings as "Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, by his Adopted Son George Washington Parke Custis, with a Memoir of this Author by his Daughter" in 1859.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: Mrs. Lee was diminutive and vivacious. She had known her third cousin, Robert E. Lee from their childhood. Her mother and Robert Lee's mother were second cousins. Lee's father Henry Lee delivered the eulogy to a crowd of 4,000 at George Washington's 1799 funeral. Among Mary Anna's other suitors was Sam Houston.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee inherited Arlington House from her father when he died in 1857. The estate had been the couple's home during her husband's military career. She was a gracious hostess and enjoyed frequent visitors. She was a painter, like her father, and painted many landscapes, some of which are still on view at the house. She loved roses and grew many varieties of trees and flowers in the gardens there.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: Deeply religious, Lee attended Episcopal services when there was one near the army post. From Arlington, Virginia, the Lees attended Christ Church in Alexandria, which she and Robert had both attended in childhood.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: Lee taught her female slaves to read and write and was an advocate of eventual emancipation. She did not free her slaves in her lifetime. She suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which became increasingly debilitating with advancing age. By 1861, she was using a wheelchair.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: With the advent of the U.S. Civil War, Robert and their sons were called to service in Virginia. Mary Custis Lee delayed evacuating Arlington House until May 15, 1861. Early that month, Robert wrote to his wife saying:


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: War is inevitable, and there is no telling when it will burst around you ... You have to move and make arrangements to go to some point of safety which you must select. The Mount Vernon plate and pictures ought to be secured. Keep quiet while you remain, and in your preparations ... May God keep and preserve you and have mercy on all our people.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: Lee and her daughters initially moved among the several family plantations. In May 1862, she was caught at her son Rooney's White House plantation in New Kent County behind the Federal lines, as Union forces moved up the York and the Pamunkey rivers toward Richmond. The Union commander, George B. McClellan, allowed her passage through the lines in order to take up residence in Richmond—the city which was also McClellan's campaign goal.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: Lee and her daughters settled at 707 East Franklin Street in Richmond for a time. The family next moved to the plantation estate of the Cocke family at Bremo Bluff, where they sought refuge until after the end of the war in November 1865.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: After the war, the Lees lived in Powhatan County for a short time before moving to Lexington. Robert E. Lee became president of the Washington College, later renamed Washington and Lee University. Mary Anna Custis Lee visited her beloved Arlington House one last time in 1873, a few months before her death. She was unable to leave her horse carriage due to her debilitating rheumatoid arthritis, hardly recognizing the estate except for a few old oaks and some of the trees that she and Robert had planted.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: Mary Anna Custis Lee died at the age of 66, surviving her famous husband by three years. She is buried next to him in the Lee family crypt at University Chapel on the campus of Washington and Lee University.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: Mary and Robert were married at her parents' home, Arlington House, on June 30, 1831. They had three sons and four daughters together: George Washington Custis "Custis", William H. Fitzhugh "Rooney", Robert Edward Jr., Mary, Eleanor Agnes (called Agnes), Anne, and Mildred Lee. None of their daughters married.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: Mary Custis Lee is a major supporting character in "The Guns of the South", a 1992 science fiction novel by Harry Turtledove.


title: Mary Anna Custis Lee

text: Dorothy Love's 2016 novel, "Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray", is based on Lee's dependence upon and friendship with Selina Norris Gray, a Custis family slave who became Lee's housekeeper and confidante.


title: Striking Distance

text: Striking Distance is a 1993 American action thriller film starring Bruce Willis as Pittsburgh Police homicide detective Thomas Hardy. The film co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Dennis Farina, and Tom Sizemore. It was directed by Rowdy Herrington and written by Herrington and Marty Kaplan. The film was shot on location throughout Pittsburgh; its early title was "Three Rivers".


title: Striking Distance

text: Pittsburgh homicide detective Thomas Hardy turns in his partner and cousin, Jimmy Detillo, for using excessive force, which in turn causes him to become alienated by the majority of his fellow officers. Thomas and his father, Vincent, are en route to the Policemen's Ball when a call comes in indicating a serial killer, the Polish Hill Strangler, who Tommy believes is a police officer, has been spotted driving in downtown Pittsburgh. As Tom and Vince pursue the killer's car, the vehicles collide and both roll down an embankment. When Tom regains consciousness, he learns his father has been shot dead and the killer has escaped. Police arrest a criminal named Douglas Kesser as the Strangler. Later, Jimmy jumps off the 31st Street Bridge; his body is never found.


title: Striking Distance

text: Two years later, an alcoholic Tom has been reassigned to the River Rescue Squad. Called to the scene of a body dump, Tom finds the victim is an ex-girlfriend. He is assigned a new partner, Jo Christman, who learns from District Attorney Frank Morris that Tom had been demoted after telling a television reporter that he believed the Strangler was a policeman. After a nurse is abducted, Tom receives a phone call similar to the ones left by the Strangler. Detective Eddie Eiler, who hates Tom for turning in Jimmy, states on TV the murder was committed by a copycat. Tom is met with strong opposition by his uncle, Captain Nick Detillo, after suggesting the Strangler is back. Tom steals the Strangler file from the precinct in order to conduct an unauthorized investigation. Soon after, the body of another of Tom's ex-girlfriends is found.


title: Striking Distance

text: Tom is invited to the Policemen's Ball by Jo, as she is not familiar with any other officers and is developing romantic feelings for him. A brawl occurs there between Tom and the hostile officers in attendance, but Jo intervenes and takes him home. Later that same night, the two engage in a heated confrontation after Jo pours Tom's whiskey down the sink in an attempt to prevent him from drinking. Tom pleads for her to leave, but is shocked when Jo refuses and declares that she will spend the night. Though initially hesitant, Tom eventually succumbs to Jo and they have sex. At one point during the lovemaking, Jo gazes at Tom in amazement as he lies on top of her, both unaware that they are being watched by someone outside.


title: Striking Distance

text: The next morning, Tom arrives to river patrol a new man, staring adoringly at Jo as she directs their routes. His happiness is short-lived however, when they stumble upon someone dumping what appears to be a wrapped body off a bridge. Tom destroys the suspect's car with a flare gun, but the unidentified individual escapes on foot. Divers retrieve the bundle only to find it to be merely a bunch of rugs, which leads to Tom and Jo being humiliated by their peers. Later that night in bed, the lovers share their suspicions that the killer purposely dumped the rugs in the river to discredit them. As their discussion moves towards the future, Jo confesses to Tom that she was previously married and now has a four-year-old daughter. This news doesn't cause Tom to think any differently of their relationship, and they make love again.


title: Striking Distance

text: Meanwhile, Eiler informs Nick he suspects Tom of the murders. Nick discloses that Tom has been under scrutiny by Internal Affairs. During a court hearing to have Tom removed from the force, it is revealed that Jo's real name is Emily Harper, a Pennsylvania State Police investigator probing Tom for evidence of misconduct. Emily perjures herself and Tom goes free.


title: Striking Distance

text: Emily is kidnapped from her apartment just as Tom finds the body of another victim (this time a coworker from River Rescue) outside his houseboat. Thinking that Jimmy's brother Danny has been committing the murders out of revenge, Tom heads upriver to the Detillo family cabin. Just as Danny arrives, someone from behind tases Tom unconscious. Tom awakens to find himself, Danny, and Emily handcuffed to chairs. The killer turns out to be none other than Jimmy, who survived the fall into the river. Jimmy is about to kill Emily when Nick suddenly walks in and tells his son to turn himself in. Jimmy instead forces Nick to reveal that Nick arrived at the crash site and confronted the killer and was horrified to find it was Jimmy. Jimmy begged Nick to let him go, which he did. Vince pried himself out of the wreckage and took aim at the fleeing killer, unaware that it was Jimmy. Nick tried to stop him and, in the ensuing struggle, accidentally shot and killed Vince.


title: Striking Distance

text: Jimmy shoots Nick and fights with Danny, giving Tom a chance to free himself. As the police close in, Jimmy flees in Tom's motorboat with Tom in pursuit. The two get into a scuffle in which Tom kills Jimmy by tasering him in the mouth. The final scene shows Tom, who has been reinstated as a detective, visiting his father's grave with Emily and her daughter Sarah at his side.


title: Striking Distance

text: The film was cited as one of the many troubled projects during the time Sony Pictures was run by Jon Peters and Peter Guber. It took a huge amount of resources to merely break even.


title: Striking Distance

text: Filming took 13 weeks in the summer of 1992 in Pittsburgh. The working title was "Three Rivers", and it was scheduled for release on May 21, 1993. But after the original performed poorly with test audiences, extensive reshoots were done in Los Angeles, with story changes and removal of some plot points. Because of this, the release date was pushed from May to Sept. 17.


title: Striking Distance

text: According to articles and reports at the time, test audiences were unimpressed with the initial cut of the film largely allegedly because they found parts of it confusing. Those parts were added into director Rowdy Herrington's and Marty Kaplan's original script by star Willis. One source claimed the original cut was like ""Hudson Hawk" without the laughs."


title: Striking Distance

text: One of the veteran production members said that Willis "called the shots like he did on '(Hudson) Hawk' and like he used to do on 'Moonlighting'. He had scenes rewritten. He did what he wanted to do. We were working with Orson Willis."


title: Striking Distance

text: When news about reshoots were reported, Columbia's then-current chairman Mark Canton said in an interview that he "couldn't be more enthusiastic" about the film, predicting it would be a "beyond-sizable hit". But in order to do so, the movie had to make $30 million-plus profit at the box office. Canton was known for being heavily involved in several other films in earlier years that had very troubled productions and received negative receptions from audiences during test screenings. Those include Wes Craven's sci-fi horror film "Deadly Friend", one of Willis's earlier box office flops "The Bonfire of the Vanities", and John McTiernan's "Last Action Hero". Just as he did with "Striking Distance", Canton kept the news and rumors about problems on sets of those films and negative responses from test audiences from the public and demanded heavy changes on the films, which only ended up making matters worse.


title: Striking Distance

text: In "Striking Distance"s case, for example, all the love/intimate scenes between Hardy and Jo were re-shot to make them sexier. Several dialogue scenes, such as the scene in the bar between Willis and Sizemore, were also cut to make the film's pace quicker. The change in tone made Columbia change the title from "Three Rivers" to "Striking Distance", as it now focused more on the action/thriller elements. Although his interference in the script and huge ego during filming caused problems with the production and the original cut, Willis was still very angry because he had to return for re-shoots, so much so that he blamed Herrington for it, despite the fact that Herrington defended Willis in interviews regarding problems with the film. According to cast and crew, Willis treated Herrington very poorly during both initial filming and re-shoots.


title: Striking Distance

text: The theatrical trailer shows a lot of deleted, extended and alternate scenes, probably ones that were cut or changed when the original cut wasn’t well received by test audiences. There are also many promotional stills that show several other deleted scenes, such as Tom and Jo pulling a man out of the water while a group of people watch them and a deleted shot from the ending, showing Tom kneeling over Nick's body.


title: Striking Distance

text: "Striking Distance" opened at number one at the US box office with a gross of $8,705,808 but only went on to gross a total of $24 million. Internationally it did better, including a number one opening in France, grossing $53 million for a worldwide total of $77 million on a budget of $30 million.


title: Striking Distance

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 17% based on 24 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Weighed down by a rote story and passionless performances, "Striking Distance" represents one of the lesser '90s genre outings from action hero Bruce Willis." On Metacritic it has a score of 36% based on reviews from 25 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Striking Distance

text: Roger Ebert rated the film one and a half out of four stars, criticizing the film's cliches (even listing them individually) and stating: "The credits say "written by Rowdy Herrington and Martin Kaplan," but the right word would have been "anthologized."" Owen Gleiberman called the film a "flat, dankly lit, grindingly inept thriller about a serial killer whose victims all turn out to have been acquaintances of Willis' rumpled, alcoholic cop hero."


title: Battle of Khafji

text: The Battle of Khafji was the first major ground engagement of the Persian Gulf War. It took place in and around the Saudi Arabian city of Khafji, from 29 January to 1 February 1991 and marked the culmination of the Coalition's air campaign over Kuwait and Iraq, which had begun on 17 January 1991.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who had already tried and failed to draw Coalition troops into costly ground engagements by shelling Saudi Arabian positions and oil storage tanks and firing Scud surface-to-surface missiles at Israel, ordered the invasion of Saudi Arabia from southern Kuwait. The 1st and 5th Mechanized Divisions and 3rd Armored Division were ordered to conduct a multi-pronged invasion toward Khafji, engaging Saudi Arabian, Kuwaiti, and U.S. forces along the coastline, with a supporting Iraqi commando force ordered to infiltrate further south by sea and harass the Coalition's rear.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: These three divisions, which had been heavily damaged by Coalition aircraft in the preceding days, attacked on 29 January. Most of their attacks were repulsed by U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army forces but one of the Iraqi columns occupied Khafji on the night of 29–30 January. Between 30 January and 1 February, two Saudi Arabian National Guard battalions and two Qatari tank companies attempted to retake control of the city, aided by Coalition aircraft and U.S. artillery. By 1 February, the city had been recaptured at the cost of 43 Coalition servicemen dead and 52 wounded. Iraqi Army fatalities numbered between 60 and 300, while an estimated 400 were captured as prisoners of war.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Although the invasion of Khafji was initially a propaganda victory for the Ba'athist Iraqi regime, it was swiftly recaptured by Coalition forces. The battle demonstrated the ability of air power to support ground forces.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: On 2 August 1990, the Iraqi Army invaded and occupied the neighboring state of Kuwait. The invasion, which followed the inconclusive Iran–Iraq War and three decades of political conflict with Kuwait, offered Saddam Hussein the opportunity to distract political dissent at home and add Kuwait's oil resources to Iraq's own, a boon in a time of declining petroleum prices.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: In response, the United Nations began to pass a series of resolutions demanding the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Afraid that Saudi Arabia would be invaded next, the Saudi Arabian government requested immediate military aid. As a result, the United States began marshalling forces from a variety of nations, styled the Coalition, on the Arabian peninsula. Initially, Saddam Hussein attempted to deter Coalition military action by threatening Kuwait's and Iraq's petroleum production and export. In December 1990, Iraq experimented with the use of explosives to destroy wellheads in the area of the Ahmadi loading complex, developing their capability to destroy Kuwait's petroleum infrastructure on a large scale. On 16 January, Iraqi artillery destroyed an oil storage tank in Khafji, Saudi Arabia, and on 19 January the pumps at the Ahmadi loading complex were opened, pouring crude oil into the Persian Gulf. The oil flowed into the sea at a rate of 200,000 barrels a day, becoming one of the worst ecological disasters to that date.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Despite these Iraqi threats, the Coalition launched a 38-day aerial campaign on 17 January 1991. Flying an estimated 2,000 sorties a day, Coalition aircraft rapidly crippled the Iraqi air defense systems and effectively destroyed the Iraqi Air Force, whose daily sortie rate plummeted from a prewar level of an estimated 200 per day to almost none by 17 January. On the third day of the campaign, many Iraqi pilots fled across the Iranian border in their aircraft rather than be destroyed. The air campaign also targeted command-and-control sites, bridges, railroads, and petroleum storage facilities.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Saddam Hussein, who is believed to have said, "The air force has never decided a war," nevertheless worried that the air campaign would erode Iraq's national morale. The Iraqi leader also believed that the United States would not be willing to lose many troops in action, and therefore sought to draw Coalition ground troops into a decisive battle. In an attempt to provoke a ground battle, he directed Iraqi forces to launch Scud missiles against Israel, while continuing to threaten the destruction of oilfields in Kuwait. These efforts were unsuccessful in provoking a large ground battle, so Saddam Hussein decided to launch a limited offensive into Saudi Arabia with the aim of inflicting heavy losses on the Coalition armies.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: As the air campaign continued, the Coalition's expectations of an Iraqi offensive decreased. As a result, the United States redeployed the XVIII Airborne Corps and the VII Corps 480 kilometers (300 mi) to the west. The Coalition's leadership believed that should an Iraqi force go on the offensive, it would be launched from the al-Wafra oil fields, in Southern Kuwait.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: The Iraqi Army had between 350,000 and 500,000 soldiers in theater, organized into 51 divisions, including eight Republican Guard divisions. Republican Guard units normally received the newest equipment; for example, most of the estimated 1,000 T-72 tanks in the Iraqi Army on the eve of the war were in Republican Guard divisions. The Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations (KTO) also included nine heavy divisions, composed mostly of professional soldiers, but with weapons of a generally lesser grade than those issued to the Republican Guard.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Most non-Republican Guard armored units had older tank designs, mainly the T-55 or its Chinese equivalents, the Type 59 and Type 69. The remaining 34 divisions were composed of poorly trained conscripts. These divisions were deployed to channel the Coalition's forces through a number of break points along the front, allowing the Iraqi Army's heavy divisions and the Republican Guard units to isolate them and counterattack. However, the Iraqis left their western flank open, failing to account for tactics made possible by the Global Positioning System and other new technologies.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: In Saudi Arabia, the Coalition originally deployed over 200,000 soldiers, 750 aircraft and 1,200 tanks. This quickly grew to 3,600 tanks and over 600,000 personnel, of whom over 500,000 were from the United States.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Earmarked for the offensive into Saudi Arabia was the Iraqi Third Corps, the 1st Mechanized Division from Fourth Corps and a number of commando units. Third Corps, commanded by Major General Salah Aboud Mahmoud (who would also command the overall offensive), had the 3rd Armored Division and 5th Mechanized Division, as well as a number of infantry divisions. Fourth Corps' commander was Major General Ayad Khalil Zaki. The 3rd Armored Division had a number of T-72 tanks, the only non-Republican Guard force to have them, while the other armored battalions had T-62s and T-55s, a few of which had an Iraqi appliqué armor similar to the Soviet bulging armor also known as "brow" laminate armor or BDD.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: During the battle of Khafji, these upgraded T-55s survived impacts from MILAN anti-tank missiles. These divisions also had armored personnel vehicles such as the BMP-1, scout vehicles such as the BRDM-2, and several types of artillery. Also deployed along this portion of the front, though not chosen to participate in the invasion, were five infantry divisions that were under orders to remain in their defensive positions along the border.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: U.S. Marine Corps reconnaissance estimated that the Iraqi Army had amassed around 60,000 troops across the border, near the Kuwaiti town of Wafra, in as many as 5 or 6 divisions. Infantry divisions normally consisted of three brigades with an attached commando unit, although some infantry divisions could have up to eight brigades–however most infantry divisions along the border were understrength, primarily due to desertion.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Armored and mechanized divisions normally made use of three brigades, with each brigade having up to four combat battalions; depending on the division type, these were generally a three to one mix, with either three mechanized battalions and one armored battalion, or vice versa. Given the size of the forces deployed across the border, it is thought that the Iraqi Army planned to continue the offensive, after the successful capture of Khafji, in order to seize the valuable oil fields at Dammam.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: The attack would consist of a four-prong offensive. The 1st Mechanized Division would pass through the 7th and 14th Infantry Divisions to protect the flank of the 3rd Armored Division, which would provide a blocking force west of Khafji while the 5th Mechanized Division took the town. The 1st Mechanized and 3rd Armored divisions would then retire to Kuwait, while the 5th Mechanized Division would wait until the Coalition launched a counteroffensive. The principal objectives were to inflict heavy casualties on the attacking Coalition soldiers and take prisoners of war, who Saddam Hussein theorized would be an excellent bargaining tool with the Coalition.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: As the units moved to the Saudi Arabian border, many were attacked by Coalition aircraft. Around the Al-Wafrah forest, about 1,000 Iraqi armored fighting vehicles were attacked by Harrier aircraft with Rockeye cluster bombs. Another Iraqi convoy of armored vehicles was hit by A-10s, which destroyed the first and last vehicles, before systematically attacking the stranded remainders. Such air raids prevented the majority of the Iraqi troops deployed for the offensive from taking part in it.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: During the buildup of forces, the U.S. had built observation posts along the Kuwaiti-Saudi Arabian border to gather intelligence on Iraqi forces. These were manned by U.S. Navy SEALs, U.S. Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance and Army Special Forces personnel. Observation post 8 was farthest to the east, on the coast, and another seven observation posts were positioned each until the end of the "heel", the geographic panhandle of southernmost Kuwait. Observation posts 8 and 7 overlooked the coastal highway that ran to Khafji, considered the most likely invasion route of the city. 1st Marine Division had three companies positioned at observation posts 4, 5 and 6 (Task Force Shepard), while the 2nd Marine Division's 2nd Light Armored Infantry Battalion set up a screen between observation post 1 and the Al-Wafrah oil fields. The U.S. Army's 2nd Armored Division provided its 1st Brigade to give the Marines some much needed armored support.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: The Saudi Arabians gave responsibility for the defense of Khafji to the 2nd Saudi Arabian National Guard Brigade, attached to Task Force Abu Bakr. The 5th Battalion of the 2nd Saudi Arabian National Guard Brigade set up a screen north and west of Khafji, under observation post 7. At the time, a Saudi Arabian National Guard Brigade could have up to four motorized battalions, each with three line companies. The brigade had a nominal strength of an estimated 5,000 soldiers. The Saudi Arabians also deployed the Tariq Task Force, composed of Saudi Arabian marines, a Moroccan mechanized infantry battalion, and two Senegalese infantry companies. Two further task forces, Othman and Omar Task Forces, consisted of two Mechanized Ministry of Defense and Aviation Brigades, providing screens about south of the border. The road south of Khafji was covered by one battalion of Saudi Arabian National Guard supported by one battalion of Qatari tanks. The country's main defenses were placed south of the screen.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: The majority of the Arab contingent was led by General Khaled bin Sultan. The forces around Khafji were organized into the Joint Forces Command-East, while Joint Forces Command-North defended the border between observation post 1 and the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: On 27 January 1991, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein met in Basra with the two Iraqi army corps commanders who were to lead the operation, and Major General Salah Mahmoud told him that Khafji would be his by 30 January. During his return trip to Baghdad, Saddam Hussein's convoy was attacked by Coalition aircraft; the Iraqi leader escaped unscathed.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Throughout 28 January, the Coalition received a number of warnings suggesting an impending Iraqi offensive. The Coalition was flying two brand-new E-8A Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft, which picked up the deployment and movement of Iraqi forces to the area opposite of Khafji. Observation posts 2, 7 and 8 also detected heavy Iraqi reconnoitering along the border, and their small teams of air-naval gunfire liaison Marines called in air and artillery strikes throughout the day. Lieutenant Colonel Richard Barry, commander of the forward headquarters of the 1st Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Intelligence Group, sent warnings about an impending attack to Central Command. CentCom leaders were too preoccupied with the air campaign to heed them however, and so the Iraqi operation came as a surprise.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: The Iraqi offensive began on the night of 29 January, when approximately 2,000 soldiers in several hundred armored fighting vehicles moved south. Post-war analysis by the US Air Force's Air University suggests Iraq planned to utilize the 3rd Armored Division and 5th Mechanized Division to make the actual attack on Khafji, with the 1st Mechanized Division assigned to protect the attacking force's western flank. The Iraqi incursion into Saudi Arabia consisted of three columns, mostly made up of T-62 tanks and armored personnel carriers (APCs). The Gulf War's first ground engagement was near observation post 4 (OP-4), built on the Al-Zabr police building. Elements of the Iraqi 6th Armored Brigade, ordered to take the heights above Al-Zabr, engaged Coalition units at Al-Zabr. At 20:00 hours, U.S. Marines at the observation post, who had noticed large groups of armored vehicles through their night vision devices, attempted to talk to battalion headquarters but received no response. Since contact earlier was no problem, there was a strong presumption that the reconnaissance platoon's radios were being jammed. Using runners, Lieutenant Ross alerted his platoon and continued trying to get through and inform higher headquarters and Company D of the oncoming Iraqi force. Contact was not established until 20:30 hours, which prompted Task Force Shepard to respond to the threat. Coalition soldiers at observation post 4 were lightly armed, and could only respond with TOW anti-tank missiles before calling in air support. Air support arrived by 21:30 and took the form of several F-15E, F-16C, four A-10 Tank Killers and three AC-130 gunships, which intervened in a heavy firefight between Iraqi and Coalition ground forces at OP-4. The reconnaissance platoon stationed at OP-4 was the first to come under attack, their withdrawal from the engagement was facilitated by another company providing cover fire. The attempt by the soldiers stationed at OP-4 to fend off or delay the Iraqi advance cost them several casualties, and in the face of a heavy Iraqi response they were forced to retire south, by order of its commanding officer.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: To cover the withdrawal, the company's platoon of LAV-25s and LAV-ATs (anti-tank variants) moved to engage the Iraqi force. After receiving permission, one of the anti-tank vehicles opened fire at what it believed was an Iraqi tank. Instead, the missile destroyed a friendly LAV-AT a few hundred meters in front of it. Despite this loss, the platoon continued forward and soon opened fire on the Iraqi tanks with the LAV-25s' autocannons. The fire could not penetrate the tanks' armor, but did damage their optics and prevented the tanks from fighting back effectively.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Soon thereafter, a number of A-10 ground-attack aircraft arrived but found it difficult to pinpoint enemy targets and began dropping flares to illuminate the zone. One of these flares landed on a friendly vehicle, and although the vehicle radioed in its position, it was hit by an AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missile that killed the entire crew except for the driver. Following the incident, the company was withdrawn and the remaining vehicles reorganized into another nearby company. With observation post 4 cleared, the Iraqi 6th Armored Brigade withdrew over the border to Al-Wafrah under heavy fire from Coalition aircraft. Coalition forces had lost 11 troops to friendly fire and none to enemy action.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: While the events at observation post 4 were unfolding, the Iraqi 5th Mechanized Division crossed the Saudi Arabian border near observation post 1. A Company of the 2nd Light Infantry Armored Battalion, which was screening the Iraqi unit, reported a column of 60–100 BMPs. The column was engaged by Coalition A-10s and Harrier jump jets. This was then followed by another column with an estimated 29 tanks. One of the column's T-62 tanks was engaged by an anti-tank missile and destroyed. Coalition air support, provided by A-10s and F-16s, engaged the Iraqi drive through observation post 1 and ultimately repulsed the attack back over the Kuwaiti border. Aircraft continued to engage the columns throughout the night, until the next morning. Another column of Iraqi tanks, approaching observation post 2, were engaged by aircraft and also repulsed that night.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: An additional Iraqi column crossed the Saudi Arabian border to the East, although still along the coast, towards the city of Khafji. These Iraqi tanks were screened by the 5th Mechanized Battalion of the 2nd Saudi Arabian National Guard Brigade. This battalion withdrew when it came under heavy fire, as it had been ordered to not engage the Iraqi column. Elements of the 8th and 10th Saudi Arabian National Guard Brigades also conducted similar screening operations. Due to the order to not engage, the road to Khafji was left open. At one point, Iraqi T-55s of another column rolled up to the Saudi Arabian border, signaling that they intended to surrender. As they were approached by Saudi Arabian troops, they reversed their turrets and opened fire. This prompted air support from a nearby AC-130, destroying 13 vehicles.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Nevertheless, the Iraqi advance towards Khafji continued on this sector, despite repeated attacks from an AC-130. Attempts by the Saudi Arabian commanders to call in additional air strikes on the advancing Iraqi column failed when the requested heavy air support never arrived. Khafji was occupied by approximately 00:30 on 30 January, trapping two six-man reconnaissance teams from the 1st Marine Division in the city. The teams occupied two apartment buildings in the southern sector of the city and called artillery fire on their position to persuade the Iraqis to call off a search of the area. Throughout the night, Coalition air support composed of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft continued to engage Iraqi tanks and artillery.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Distressed by the occupation of Khafji, Saudi Arabian commander General Khaled bin Sultan appealed to U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf for an immediate air campaign against Iraqi forces in and around the city. However this was turned down because the buildings would make it difficult for aircraft to spot targets without getting too close. It was instead decided that the city would be retaken by Arab ground forces. The task fell to the 2nd Saudi Arabian National Guard Brigade's 7th Battalion, composed of Saudi Arabian infantry with V-150 armored cars and two Qatari tank companies attached to the task force. These were supported by U.S. Army Special Forces and Marine Reconnaissance personnel.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: The force was put under the command of Saudi Arabian Lieutenant Colonel Matar, who moved out by 17:00 hours. The force met up with elements of the U.S. 3rd Marine Regiment, south of Khafji, and were ordered to directly attack the city. A platoon of Iraqi T-55s attacked south of the city, leading to the destruction of three T-55s by Qatari AMX-30s, and the capture of a fourth Iraqi tank. Lacking any coordinated artillery support, artillery fire was provided by the 10th Marine Regiment.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: An initial attack on the city was called off after the Iraqi occupants opened up with heavy fire, prompting the Saudi Arabians to reinforce the 7th Battalion with two more companies from adjacent Saudi Arabian units. The attempt to retake the city had been preceded by a 15-minute preparatory fire from U.S. Marine artillery. However Iraqi fire did manage to destroy one Saudi Arabian V-150.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Meanwhile, 2nd Saudi Arabian National Guard Brigade's 5th Battalion moved north of Khafji to block Iraqi reinforcements attempting to reach the city. This unit was further bolstered by the 8th Ministry of Defense and Aviation Brigade, and heavily aided by Coalition air support. Although fear of friendly fire forced the 8th Ministry of Defense and Aviation Brigade to pull back the following morning, Coalition aircraft successfully hindered Iraqi attempts to move more soldiers down to Khafji and caused large numbers of Iraqi troops to surrender to Saudi Arabian forces.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: That night, two U.S. Army heavy equipment transporters entered the city of Khafji, apparently lost, and were fired upon by Iraqi troops. Although one truck managed to turn around and escape, the two drivers of the second truck were wounded and captured. This led to a rescue mission organized by 3rd Battalion 3rd Marine Regiment, which sent a force of 30 men to extract the two wounded drivers. Although encountering no major opposition, they did not find the two drivers who had, by this time, been taken prisoner. The Marines did find a burnt out Qatari AMX-30, with its dead crew. In the early morning hours, despite significant risk to their safety, an AC-130 providing overwatch stayed beyond sunrise. It was shot down by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile (SAM), killing the aircraft's crew of 14.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: The interdiction on the part of Coalition aircraft and Saudi Arabian and Qatari ground forces was having an effect on the occupying Iraqi troops. Referring to Saddam Hussein's naming of the ground engagement as the "mother of all battles", Iraqi General Salah radioed in a request to withdraw, stating, "The mother was killing her children." Since the beginning of the battle, Coalition aircraft had flown at least 350 sorties against Iraqi units in the area and on the night of 30–31 January, Coalition air support also began to attack units of the Iraqi Third Corps assembled on the Saudi Arabian border.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: On 31 January, the effort to retake the city began anew. The attack was launched at 08:30 hours, and was met by heavy but mostly inaccurate Iraqi fire; however, three Saudi Arabian V-150 armored cars were knocked out by RPG-7s at close range. The 8th battalion of the Saudi Arabian brigade was ordered to deploy to the city by 10:00 hours, while 5th Battalion to the north engaged another column of Iraqi tanks attempting to reach the city. The latter engagement led to the destruction of around 13 Iraqi tanks and armored personnel carriers, and the capture of 6 more vehicles and 116 Iraqi soldiers, costing the Saudi Arabian battalion two dead and two wounded. The 8th Battalion engaged the city from the northeast, linking up with 7th Battalion. These units cleared the southern portion of the city, until 7th Battalion withdrew south to rest and rearm at 18:30 hours, while the 8th remained in Khafji. The two Qatari tank companies, with U.S. Marine artillery and air support, moved north of the city to block Iraqi reinforcements.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: The 8th continued clearing buildings and by the time the 7th had withdrawn to the south, the Saudi Arabians had lost approximately 18 dead and 50 wounded, as well as seven V-150 vehicles. Coalition aircraft continued to provide heavy support throughout the day and night. A veteran of the Iran-Iraq War later mentioned that Coalition airpower "imposed more damage on his brigade in half an hour than it had sustained in eight years of fighting against the Iranians." During the battle, an Iraqi amphibious force was sent to land on the coast and moved into Khafji. As the boats made their way through the Persian Gulf towards Khafji, U.S. and British aircraft caught the Iraqi boats in the open and destroyed over 90% of the Iraqi amphibious force.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: The Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti units renewed operations the following day. Two Iraqi companies, with about 20 armored vehicles, remained in the city and had not attempted to break out during the night. While the Saudi Arabian 8th Battalion continued operations in the southern portion of the city, the 7th Battalion began to clear the northern sector of the city. Iraqi resistance was sporadic and most Iraqi soldiers surrendered on sight; as a result, the city was recaptured on 1 February 1991.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: During the battle, Coalition forces incurred 43 fatalities and 52 injured casualties. This included 25 Americans killed, 11 of them by friendly fire along with 14 airmen killed when their AC-130 was shot down by Iraqi SAMs. The U.S. also had two soldiers wounded and another two soldiers were captured in Khafji.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Saudi Arabian casualties totaled 18 killed and 50 wounded. Two Saudi main battle tanks and ten lightly armored V-150s were knocked out. Most of the V150s were knocked out by RPG-7 fire in close-range fighting inside the town of Khafji. One of the two that was a catastrophic kill was hit by a 100mm main gun round from a T-55.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Iraq listed its casualties as 71 dead, 148 wounded and 702 missing. U.S. sources present at the battle claim that 300 Iraqis lost their lives, and at least 90 vehicles were destroyed. Another source suggests that 60 Iraqi soldiers were killed and at least 400 taken prisoner, while no less than 80 armored vehicles were knocked out; however these casualties are attributed to the fighting both inside and directly north of Khafji.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Whatever the exact casualties, the majority of three Iraqi mechanized/armored divisions had been destroyed.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: The Iraqi capture of Khafji was a major propaganda victory for Iraq: on 30 January Iraqi radio claimed that they had "expelled Americans from the Arab territory". For many in the Arab world, the battle of Khafji was seen as an Iraqi victory, and Hussein made every possible effort to turn the battle into a political victory. On the other side, confidence within the United States Armed Forces in the abilities of the Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti armies increased as the battle progressed. After Khafji, the Coalition's leadership began to sense that the Iraqi Army was a "hollow force" and it provided them with an impression of the degree of resistance they would face during the Coalition's ground offensive that would begin later that month. The battle was felt by the Saudi Arabian government to be a major propaganda victory, which had successfully defended its territory.


title: Battle of Khafji

text: Despite the success of the engagements between 29 January and 1 February, the Coalition did not launch its main offensive into Kuwait and Iraq until the night of 24–25 February. The invasion of Iraq was completed about 48 hours later. The Battle of Khafji served as a modern example of the ability of air power to serve a supporting role to ground forces. It offered the Coalition an indication of the manner in which Operation Desert Storm would be fought, but also hinted at future friendly-fire casualties which accounted for nearly half of the U.S. dead.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: Pushpaka Vimanam is a 2021 Indian Telugu-language comedy thriller film written and directed by Damodara and produced by Govardhan Rao Devarakonda, Vijay Mattapally and Pradeep Errabelly under the banners of King of the Hill Entertainment and Tanga Productions. The film stars Anand Devarakonda, Geeth Saini and Saanve Megghana. The film was released on 12 November 2021.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: Chittilanka Sundar is a recently married teacher. After the marriage he is hopeful of a blissful life with his wife, but his expectations are shattered when she elopes with someone else.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: Feeling embarrassed he tries to hide this from his neighbours and colleagues and secretly searches for her. He questions her parents and friends to no avail.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: One day the colleagues of Sundar plans to visit his house to greet the newly married couple. So he hires an actor Rekha to pretend as his wife. They manage to pull it off though there are some hitches in the form of a noisy neighbour.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: The headmaster of the school where Sundar works one day sees Rekha smoking with her friends and informs this to him. He also arranges to buy a new HD TV on behalf of the staff so that he can use the opportunity to counsel Rekha.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: There while browsing channels Sundar witnesses the news of Meenakshi's death. Feeling shocked and fearing the worst he goes to the mortuary and identifies the body. He then meets S.I. Rangam who primarily suspects Sundar as the culprit.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: Rangam, in his investigation, finds blood stains in Sundar's house which are later revealed to be Meenakshi's. Sundar also fails to prove Meenakshi eloped due to his earlier lies. Rangam suspects Rekha to be Sundar's accomplice.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: Rangam thrashes Sundar in the guise of interrogation to obtain the truth. During the 'interrogation' Sundar reveals the actual reason Meenakshi left him.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: During their first night together Sundar asks Meenakshi about her virginity, angering her. He later apologises to her but she doesn't respond to him. Things escalate when he tries to hit Meenakshi after she insulted his father. So Meenakshi leaves to her former boyfriend's house.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: Her Post Mortem reveals the date of death to be tenth of the month and Sundar manages to provide partial alibi for the day prompting the police to release him.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: Sundar's neighbour, an aspiring musician, tries to console him. He claims that on the day of Meenakshi's death he has composed his career's best music and wasn't able to move from his chair.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: The Police then tries to arrest Sundar but he manages to escape. While on the run he finds out that Meenakshi stayed with her friend whom he had earlier visited.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: He rushes over to her house and learns that she planned to return to him on the day of her death. He investigates further and finds that his neighbour tried to assault her and by mistake killed her by pushing her.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: SI Rangam takes the credit for solving the case and the story ends on a positive note with Sundar trying to move on with his life.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: Background score of the film was composed by Mark K Robin. 2 songs ("Kalyanam" and "Silakaa") were composed by Ram Miriyala, 2 songs ("Aaha" and "Malli Rava") were composed by Sidharth Sadasivuni, 1 song ("Swamy Ra Ra (Krishna Shabdam)") was composed by Amit N Dasani and 1 song ("Chori Chori Dekho Rey") was composed by Mark K Robin.


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: The film received mixed reviews from critics. Neeshita Nyayapati of "The Times Of India" gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5 and wrote "Pushpaka Vimanam is by no means the perfect dark comedy it sets out to be, especially when films in a similar genre have already done better in Telugu. But watch it this weekend if you’re game for a quirky film with a pinch of comedy, spoon-full of twists and a stellar cast to back it all up". Gabbeta Ranjith Kumar of "The Indian Express" stated "Anand Deverakonda's performance adds value to this part-comedy, part-investigative drama".


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: "The New Indian Express"' Ram Venkat Srikar rated the film 3/5 felt it was an "enjoyable comedy that doubles up as a whodunit."


title: Pushpaka Vimanam

text: Reviewing the film for "The Hindu", Sangeetha Devi Dundoo concluded that "There are all interesting ideas, but the narrative doesn’t bring everything together in an engrossing manner. A better screenplay might have helped make "Pushpaka Vimanam" a quirky black comedy it intended to be. It’s not a bad film, it isn’t great either."


title: Thoth tarot deck

text: The Thoth Tarot is an esoteric tarot deck painted by Lady Frieda Harris according to instructions from Aleister Crowley. Crowley referred to this deck as The Book of Thoth, and also wrote a 1944 book of that title intended for use with the deck.


title: Thoth tarot deck

text: Crowley originally intended the Thoth deck to be a six-month project aimed at updating the traditional pictorial symbolism of the tarot. However, due to increased scope, the project eventually spanned five years, between 1938 and 1943.


title: Thoth tarot deck

text: The illustrations of the deck feature symbolism based upon Crowley's incorporation of imagery from many disparate disciplines, including science and philosophy and various occult systems (as described in detail in his "The Book of Thoth").


title: Thoth tarot deck

text: Crowley renamed several of the trumps compared to earlier arrangements, and also re-arranged the numerical, astrological and Hebrew alphabet correspondences of 4 trumps compared to the Rider–Waite tarot deck in accordance with the Tarot of Marseilles, his 1904 book "The Book of the Law" ("Liber AL vel Legis") and its "New Commentary." In the "New Commentary" and "The Book of Thoth", Crowley demonstrates that his trump arrangement forms a double loop in the zodiac-number and letter-number correspondences compared to the Rider–Waite, where there is no loop. There are interpretations as to why the Thoth Tarot deck does not follow Crowley's new arrangement having only a letter-number double loop and one of them is that it follows the same Golden Dawn arrangement as the Rider–Waite deck.


title: Thoth tarot deck

text: Crowley altered the names of all the court cards which can cause some confusion for people used to the more common decks. The typical corresponding names are as follows:


title: Thoth tarot deck

text: Harris' renditions of the tarot are on watercolor paper affixed to a thick backing; the acidity of the backing, according to a report from 2006, resulted in discoloration of borders, and to some extent, the paintings themselves. The paintings also required cleaning and the repair of small tears. A conservation plan called for the cleaning surfaces, the removal of backing (while retaining original inscriptions), reuse of the hand-painted window mats, and replacement of overlays with acid-free, museum-quality paper. The project was completed in 2011. The paintings are owned by the Warburg Institute; work was completed by the Institute's in-house specialist, Susan Campion.


title: Carbon sink

text: A carbon sink is anything, natural or otherwise, that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period and thereby removes carbon dioxide () from the atmosphere.


title: Carbon sink

text: Globally, the two most important carbon sinks are vegetation and the ocean. Public awareness of the significance of sinks has grown since passage of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which promotes their use as a form of carbon offset. There are also different strategies used to enhance this process. Soil is an important carbon storage medium. Much of the organic carbon retained in the soil of agricultural areas has been depleted due to intensive farming. "Blue carbon" designates carbon that is fixed via the ocean ecosystems. Mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses make up a majority of ocean plant life and store large quantities of carbon.


title: Carbon sink

text: Many efforts are being made to enhance natural sequestration in soils and the oceans. In addition, a range of artificial sequestration initiatives are underway such as changed building construction materials, carbon capture and storage and geological sequestration.


title: Carbon sink

text: Increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide means increase in global temperature. The amount of carbon dioxide varies naturally in a dynamic equilibrium with photosynthesis of land plants. The natural sinks are:


title: Carbon sink

text: While the creation of artificial sinks has been discussed, no major artificial systems remove carbon from the atmosphere on a material scale yet.


title: Carbon sink

text: Carbon sources include the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) by humans for energy and transportation.


title: Carbon sink

text: The Kyoto Protocol was an international agreement that aimed at reducing carbon dioxide () emissions and the presence of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. The essential tenet of the Kyoto Protocol was that industrialized nations needed to reduce their emissions.


title: Carbon sink

text: Because growing vegetation takes in carbon dioxide, the Kyoto Protocol allows Annex I countries with large areas of growing forests to issue Removal Units to recognize the sequestration of carbon. The additional units make it easier for them to achieve their target emission levels. It is estimated that forests absorb between each year, through photosynthetic conversion into starch, cellulose, lignin, and other components of wooden biomass. While this has been well documented for temperate forests and plantations, the fauna of the tropical forests place some limitations for such global estimates.


title: Carbon sink

text: Some countries seek to trade emission rights in carbon emission markets, purchasing the unused carbon emission allowances of other countries. If overall limits on greenhouse gas emission are put into place, cap and trade market mechanisms are purported to find cost-effective ways to reduce emissions. There is as yet no carbon audit regime for all such markets globally, and none is specified in the Kyoto Protocol. National carbon emissions are self-declared.


title: Carbon sink

text: In the Clean Development Mechanism, only afforestation and reforestation are eligible to produce certified emission reductions (CERs) in the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2008–2012). Forest conservation activities or activities avoiding deforestation, which would result in emission reduction through the conservation of existing carbon stocks, are not eligible at this time. Also, agricultural carbon sequestration is not possible yet.


title: Carbon sink

text: Soils represent a short to long-term carbon storage medium, and contain more carbon than all terrestrial vegetation and the atmosphere combined. Plant litter and other biomass including charcoal accumulates as organic matter in soils, and is degraded by chemical weathering and biological degradation. More recalcitrant organic carbon polymers such as cellulose, hemi-cellulose, lignin, aliphatic compounds, waxes and terpenoids are collectively retained as humus. Organic matter tends to accumulate in litter and soils of colder regions such as the boreal forests of North America and the Taiga of Russia. Leaf litter and humus are rapidly oxidized and poorly retained in sub-tropical and tropical climate conditions due to high temperatures and extensive leaching by rainfall. Areas where shifting cultivation or slash and burn agriculture are practiced are generally only fertile for two to three years before they are abandoned. These tropical jungles are similar to coral reefs in that they are highly efficient at conserving and circulating necessary nutrients, which explains their lushness in a nutrient desert. Much organic carbon retained in many agricultural areas worldwide has been severely depleted due to intensive farming practices.


title: Carbon sink

text: Grasslands contribute to soil organic matter, stored mainly in their extensive fibrous root mats. Due in part to the climatic conditions of these regions (e.g. cooler temperatures and semi-arid to arid conditions), these soils can accumulate significant quantities of organic matter. This can vary based on rainfall, the length of the winter season, and the frequency of naturally occurring lightning-induced grass-fires. While these fires release carbon dioxide, they improve the quality of the grasslands overall, in turn increasing the amount of carbon retained in the humic material. They also deposit carbon directly to the soil in the form of Biochar that does not significantly degrade back to carbon dioxide.


title: Carbon sink

text: Forest fires release absorbed carbon back into the atmosphere, as does deforestation due to rapidly increased oxidation of soil organic matter.


title: Carbon sink

text: Organic matter in peat bogs undergoes slow anaerobic decomposition below the surface. This process is slow enough that in many cases the bog grows rapidly and fixes more carbon from the atmosphere than is released. Over time, the peat grows deeper. Peat bogs hold approximately one-quarter of the carbon stored in land plants and soils.


title: Carbon sink

text: Under some conditions, forests and peat bogs may become sources of , such as when a forest is flooded by the construction of a hydroelectric dam. Unless the forests and peat are harvested before flooding, the rotting vegetation is a source of and methane comparable in magnitude to the amount of carbon released by a fossil-fuel powered plant of equivalent power.


title: Carbon sink

text: Current agricultural practices lead to carbon loss from soils. It has been suggested that improved farming practices could improve the capacity of the soil carbon sponge to hold carbon and water. Present worldwide practises of overgrazing are substantially reducing many grasslands' performance as soil carbon sponges. The Rodale Institute says that regenerative agriculture, if practiced on the planet's tillable land of , could sequester up to 40% of current emissions. They claim that agricultural carbon sequestration has the potential to mitigate global warming. When using biologically based regenerative practices, this dramatic benefit can be accomplished with no decrease in yields or farmer profits. Organically managed soils can convert carbon dioxide from a greenhouse gas into a food-producing asset.


title: Carbon sink

text: In 2006, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, largely from fossil fuel combustion, were estimated at nearly . If a per year sequestration rate was achieved on all of cropland in the United States, nearly of carbon dioxide would be sequestered per year, mitigating close to one quarter of the country's total fossil fuel emissions.


title: Carbon sink

text: Terrestrial and marine ecosystems are chiefly connected through riverine transport, which acts as the main channel through which erosive terrestrially derived substances enter into oceanic systems. Material and energy exchanges between the terrestrial biosphere and the lithosphere as well as organic carbon fixation and oxidation processes together regulate ecosystem carbon and dioxygen (O) pools.


title: Carbon sink

text: Riverine transport, being the main connective channel of these pools, will act to transport net primary productivity (primarily in the form of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC)) from terrestrial to oceanic systems. During transport, part of DOC will rapidly return to the atmosphere through redox reactions, causing "carbon degassing" to occur between land-atmosphere storage layers. The remaining DOC and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) are also exported to the ocean. Currently (2015) inorganic and organic carbon export fluxes from global rivers to the ocean amount to 0.50–0.70 Pg C y and 0.15–0.35 Pg C y respectively. On the other hand, POC can remain buried in sediment over an extensive period, and the annual global terrestrial to oceanic POC flux has been estimated at 0.20 Gg C y.


title: Carbon sink

text: Forests can be carbon stores, and they are carbon dioxide sinks when they are increasing in density or area. In Canada's boreal forests as much as 80% of the total carbon is stored in the soils as dead organic matter. A 40-year study of African, Asian, and South American tropical forests by the University of Leeds showed that tropical forests absorb about 18% of all carbon dioxide added by fossil fuels. For the last three decades, the amount of carbon absorbed by the world's intact tropical forests has fallen, according to a study published in 2020 in the journal Nature.


title: Carbon sink

text: The total carbon stock in forests decreased from 668 gigatonnes in 1990 to 662 gigatonnes in 2020. However, another study finds that the leaf area index has increased globally since 1981, which was responsible for 12.4% of the accumulated terrestrial carbon sink from 1981 to 2016. The CO fertilization effect, on the other hand, was responsible for 47% of the sink, while climate change reduced the sink by 28.6%.


title: Carbon sink

text: In 2019 they took up a third less carbon than they did in the 1990s, due to higher temperatures, droughts and deforestation. The typical tropical forest may become a carbon source by the 2060s. Truly mature tropical forests, by definition, grow rapidly, with each tree producing at least 10 new trees each year. Based on studies by FAO and UNEP, it has been estimated that Asian forests absorb about 5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hectare each year. The global cooling effect of carbon sequestration by forests is partially counterbalanced in that reforestation can decrease the reflection of sunlight (albedo). Mid-to-high-latitude forests have a much lower albedo during snow seasons than flat ground, thus contributing to warming. Modeling that compares the effects of albedo differences between forests and grasslands suggests that expanding the land area of forests in temperate zones offers only a temporary cooling benefit.


title: Carbon sink

text: In the United States in 2004 (the most recent year for which EPA statistics are available), forests sequestered 10.6% (637 megatonnes) of the carbon dioxide released in the United States by the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas; 5,657 megatonnes). Urban trees sequestered another 1.5% (88 megatonnes). To further reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions by 7%, as stipulated by the Kyoto Protocol, would require the planting of "an area the size of Texas [8% of the area of Brazil] every 30 years". Carbon offset programs are planting millions of fast-growing trees per year to reforest tropical lands, for as little as $0.10 per tree; over their typical 40-year lifetime, one million of these trees will fix 1 a million tons of carbon dioxide. In Canada, reducing timber harvesting would have very little impact on carbon dioxide emissions because of the combination of harvest and stored carbon in manufactured wood products along with the regrowth of the harvested forests. Additionally, the amount of carbon released from harvesting is small compared to the amount of carbon lost each year to forest fires and other natural disturbances.


title: Carbon sink

text: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that "a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber fibre or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit". Sustainable management practices keep forests growing at a higher rate over a potentially longer period of time, thus providing net sequestration benefits in addition to those of unmanaged forests.


title: Carbon sink

text: Life expectancy of forests varies throughout the world, influenced by tree species, site conditions and natural disturbance patterns. In some forests, carbon may be stored for centuries, while in other forests, carbon is released with frequent stand replacing fires. Forests that are harvested prior to stand replacing events allow for the retention of carbon in manufactured forest products such as lumber. However, only a portion of the carbon removed from logged forests ends up as durable goods and buildings. The remainder ends up as sawmill by-products such as pulp, paper and pallets, which often end with incineration (resulting in carbon release into the atmosphere) at the end of their lifecycle. For instance, of the 1,692 megatonnes of carbon harvested from forests in Oregon and Washington from 1900 to 1992, only 23% is in long-term storage in forest products.


title: Carbon sink

text: One way to increase the carbon sequestration efficiency of the oceans is to add micrometre-sized iron particles in the form of either hematite (iron oxide) or melanterite (iron sulfate) to certain regions of the ocean. This has the effect of stimulating growth of plankton. Iron is an important nutrient for phytoplankton, usually made available via upwelling along the continental shelves, inflows from rivers and streams, as well as deposition of dust suspended in the atmosphere. Natural sources of ocean iron have been declining in recent decades, contributing to an overall decline in ocean productivity. Yet in the presence of iron nutrients plankton populations quickly grow, or 'bloom', expanding the base of biomass productivity throughout the region and removing significant quantities of from the atmosphere via photosynthesis. A test in 2002 in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica suggests that between 10,000 and 100,000 carbon atoms are sunk for each iron atom added to the water. Application of iron nutrients in select parts of the oceans, at appropriate scales, could have the combined effect of restoring ocean productivity while at the same time mitigating the effects of human caused emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.


title: Carbon sink

text: Because the effect of periodic small scale phytoplankton blooms on ocean ecosystems is unclear, more studies would be helpful. Phytoplankton have a complex effect on cloud formation via the release of substances such as dimethyl sulfide (DMS) that are converted to sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere, providing cloud condensation nuclei, or CCN.


title: Carbon sink

text: Other nutrients such as nitrates, phosphates, and silica as well as iron may cause ocean fertilization. There has been some speculation that using pulses of fertilization (around 20 days in length) may be more effective at getting carbon to ocean floor than sustained fertilization.


title: Carbon sink

text: There is some controversy over seeding the oceans with iron however, due to the potential for increased toxic phytoplankton growth (e.g. "red tide"), declining water quality due to overgrowth, and increasing anoxia in areas harming other sea-life such as zooplankton, fish, coral, etc.


title: Carbon sink

text: Since the 1850s, a large proportion of the world's grasslands have been tilled and converted to croplands, allowing the rapid oxidation of large quantities of soil organic carbon. However, in the United States in 2004 (the most recent year for which EPA statistics are available), agricultural soils including pasture land sequestered 0.8% (46 megatonne) as much carbon as was released in the United States by the combustion of fossil fuels (5,988 megatonne). The annual amount of this sequestration has been gradually increasing since 1998.


title: Carbon sink

text: Methods that significantly enhance carbon sequestration in soil include no-till farming, residue mulching, cover cropping, and crop rotation, all of which are more widely used in organic farming than in conventional farming. Because only 5% of US farmland currently uses no-till and residue mulching, there is a large potential for carbon sequestration. Conversion to pastureland, particularly with good management of grazing, can sequester even more carbon in the soil.


title: Carbon sink

text: Terra preta, an anthropogenic, high-carbon soil, is also being investigated as a sequestration mechanism.


title: Carbon sink

text: By pyrolysing biomass, about half of its carbon can be reduced to charcoal, which can persist in the soil for centuries, and makes a useful soil amendment, especially in tropical soils ("biochar" or "agrichar").<ref name='abc.net.au/catalyst/s2012892'></ref>


title: Carbon sink

text: "For most of human history, permafrost has been Earth's largest terrestrial carbon sink, trapping plant and animal material in its frozen layers for centuries. It currently stores about 1,600 billion tonnes of carbon—more than twice the amount in the atmosphere today. But thanks to rising temperatures, permafrost is fracturing and disappearing". Sergey Zimov has proposed to restore and protect this major carbon sequestration mechanism via restoration of grassland and large arctic mammalian herbivores.