Photo for the Day - May 07, 2011

* Photo for the Day *

- Patiently Waiting -

On a sunny day at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, May 4^th, Space Shuttle Endeavour is protected by the rotating service structure on Launch Pad 39A.

Image credit: NASA/Troy Cryder

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UPDATE On Next Launch Date:

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Space Shuttle Endeavour to Launch No Earlier Than May 16th

Originally posted Friday, May 06, 2011

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NASA managers have retargeted Space Shuttle Endeavour's launch to no earlier than Monday, May 16th. After a meeting on Friday, they also extended the length of Endeavour's STS-134 mission to the International Space Station from 14 to 16 days. If Endeavour launches on May 16th, liftoff would be at 8:56 a.m. EDT.

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At 3 p.m. on Monday, May 9th, NASA Space Shuttle Program Launch Integration Manager Mike Moses and Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach will hold a news conference at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to discuss the progress of repairs since Endeavour's launch postponement on April 29th. The news conference will air live on NASA Television and online at www.nasa.gov/ntv.

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Kennedy technicians are continuing work to resolve an issue in a heater circuit associated with Endeavour's hydraulic system that resulted in the launch postponement. Technicians determined the failure was inside an aft load control assembly, which is a switchbox in the shuttle's aft compartment, and possibly its associated electrical wiring.

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Although the root cause of the failure in the switchbox has not been found, technicians are replacing hardware that could have caused the problem. The faulty box was changed Wednesday, and a test of nine shuttle systems powered by the new box is under way.

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This weekend, technicians will install and check out new wiring that bypasses the suspect electrical wiring connecting the switchbox to the heaters. They also will run the heaters for up to 30 minutes to verify they are working properly and complete retesting of the other systems powered by the switchbox.

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The shuttle has three Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) that provide hydraulic power to steer the vehicle during ascent and entry. The hydrazine fuel lines on each APU have two heater circuits that prevent the fuel from freezing while the shuttle is in space. NASA launch commit criteria and flight rules require all APUs and heater circuits to be operational for launch. On Endeavour's first launch attempt, one of two heaters for APU-1's fuel line did not work. Engineers confirmed the circuit in the original switchbox that directed power to the heaters was shorted out.

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Launch attempts are available through May 26th. May 21st is the only day a launch is not an option because it would lead to a May 23rd docking with the space station. May 23rd is when three of the space station's Expedition 27 crew members undock and return home in their Soyuz spacecraft. Managers reviewed the STS-134 mission timeline and determined the Endeavour crew can accomplish all objectives even with the departure of the three station crew members.

Above Info/Image taken from the NASA.gov website

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POST UPDATE:

LOOKS LIKE A GO!

* Endeavour's Launch Now Set for May 16^th *

Monday, May 09, 2011

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NASA managers have set the liftoff of Space Shuttle Endeavour for 7:56am CDT on Monday, May 16th. Space Shuttle Program Launch Integration Manager Mike Moses and Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach announced the date at a news briefing Monday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

All above Info/Images taken from the NASA.gov website
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Keep up with the

Latest News and Updates

On Endeavour’s Launch/Mission
at NASA.gov

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AubreyJ.........

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Killing of Osama Bin Laden - May 05, 2011

Killing of

* Osama Bin Laden *

Mission success culmination of years of complex, thorough, highly-advanced intelligence operations and analysis led by CIA with support from partners across Intelligence Community

Thursday, May 05, 2011

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READ MORE HERE - Image Credit: DoD

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The Operation that Killed Bin Ladin

Originally posted on CIA website May 4th, 2011

.Image credit: DoD Press Briefing 5/02/11 - Illustration of Bin Ladin’s Compound

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  In the early morning hours of May 2nd, a U.S. military raid of an al-Qa’ida compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, killed America’s most wanted terrorist, Usama Bin Ladin.

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  The mission’s success was the culmination of many years of complex, thorough, and highly-advanced intelligence operations and analysis led by the CIA with support from partners across the Intelligence Community. U.S. agencies had been collecting intelligence about the compound since it was discovered in August, 2010. Multiple streams of intelligence led to the assessment that Bin Ladin was hiding there, protected by two of his closest facilitators.

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  The strike on the compound, authorized by the President on April 29th, was a surgical raid by a small team of special operations forces. The raid was designed to minimize collateral damage and to pose as little risk as possible to non-combatants on the compound or to Pakistani civilians in the neighborhood.

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* The Compound

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  The compound where Bin Ladin was hiding is in Abbottabad, a town in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province (formerly the Northwest Frontier Province), about 35 miles north of Islamabad. The compound and its main residence had extensive security features: high walls topped with barbed wire, double entry gates, opaque windows, no apparent Internet or telephone connection, and the residents burned their trash. It was valued at $1 million, but the two al-Qa’ida facilitators who owned it had no apparent source of wealth.

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* The Impact

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  The death of Usama Bin Ladin marks the single greatest victory in the U.S.-led campaign to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qa’ida. It is a major and essential step in bringing about the terrorist organization’s eventual dissolution.

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  Bin Ladin was al-Qa’ida’s founder and only amir, or commander, in its 22-year history. He was largely responsible for the organization’s mystique, its ability to raise money and attract new recruits, and its focus on the United States as a target for terrorist attacks. As the only al-Qa’ida leader whose authority was universally respected, he also maintained the group’s cohesion.

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  Although al-Qa’ida may not fragment immediately, the loss of Bin Ladin puts the deadly organization on a path of decline that will be difficult to reverse.

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- SITUATION ROOM -

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About photo: President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and members of the national security team, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, far right, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, standing, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. A classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured.

White House photo by Pete Souza

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Check out DoD’s Special Report at link below...

THE DEMISE OF OSAMA BIN LADEN

Lots of reports, videos, photos and more at above link

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gives remarks on the killing of Usama bin Ladin on May 2nd, 2011...

Read full transcript/watch video HERE

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* Fox News brings us this troubling report today and it goes in part like this... Pakistan is calling for cuts in the U.S. military personnel inside the country after U.S. Navy SEALs killed Usama bin Laden in his Pakistan compound -- without Pakistan's help or prior knowledge. ... In a statement Thursday, Pakistan's army fired back, saying U.S. military personnel inside the country would be reduced to the "minimum essential" levels to protest the American commando raid that killed bin Laden early Monday local time. The army also threatened to cut cooperation with Washington if it stages more unilateral raids on its territory...

Read this report in full at link below...

Pakistan to Cut U.S. Military Presence After Bin Laden Raid

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* The Guardian had the following photo gallery posted up on their website Wednesday... but I wouldn’t recommend viewing it if you’re one of those that are weak at heart. Click it out HERE...  (Warning though... Several gruesome photos within, with the first showing an unidentified VERY Bloody Body of a Dead Man after the US Navy Seal Commandos raid on Bin Laden’s compound)

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Navy SEALS Offer Some Insight Into Elite Group

About Video: Some fellow and former Navy SEALS talk about their training and what it takes to become part of the group that brought down Osama bin Laden.

This News Video posted on YouTube by AssociatedPress

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More to come...

AubreyJ.........

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Videos: Webcast by NASA on ‘Endeavour's Final Voyage’

* Endeavour's Final Voyage *

About above video: After nearly two decades of achievements in space, Space Shuttle Endeavour makes one last reach for the stars on its 25th and final mission, STS-134. This webcast examines the mission to come and explores the storied flying career for the youngest of NASA's shuttle orbiters.

This video and more can be found on the NASA.gov website

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Keep up with the

Latest News and Updates

On Endeavour’s Launch/Mission
at NASA.gov

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Be sure to watch the above webcast gang... It really is well worth the 9 ½ minutes of your time that it will take to kick back and watch it all, in full.

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With that said.... let me say this. I am SOOOOO HAPPY Endeavour didn’t go up last week with all that has gone down over the last few days with the killing of Osama bin Laden.

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The final mission of this great Ship deserves all our attention... the MSM’s attention too... So yes, I am now real happy it didn’t go up, though I was truly disappointed at the time when it didn’t.

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Yes, like everyone else, I too am truly happy with the killing of Osama and with the way our President manned up and took the actions he did. Good job Mr. President. Enjoy the success while you can for the American people have short memories on such things. VERY short...

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AubreyJ.........
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Special note: NASA space shuttle and International Space Station managers met Monday and determined that Tuesday, May 10th is the earliest Endeavour could be launched on the STS-134 mission. That date is success oriented based on preliminary schedules to replace a faulty Load Control Assembly (LCA) box in the orbiter's aft compartment. More to come...

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Fake Bin Laden Video Is A Virus

* PCWorld.com brings us the following report and it starts off like this... The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation warned computer users Tuesday, [read the full FBI report HERE,] that messages claiming to include photos and videos of Osama bin Laden's death actually contain a virus that could steal personal information...

Read the rest of this report at link below...

FBI Warns That Fake Bin Laden Video Is a Virus

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AubreyJ.........

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Killing of Osama Bin Laden - May 02, 2011

Killing of

* Osama Bin Laden *

DNA Test Results Now In Saying 99.9% Chance It Was He

Monday, May 02, 2011

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.READ MORE HERE - Image Credit: FBI 5-02-11

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From the CIA.gov website

Message from the Director: Justice Done

Statement to Employees by Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon E. Panetta on the Death of Usama Bin Ladin

Monday, May 2, 2011

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Today, we have rid the world of the most infamous terrorist of our time.  A US strike team stormed a compound in Abottabad, Pakistan and killed Usama Bin Ladin.

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Thankfully, no Americans were lost, and every effort was taken to avoid civilian casualties.

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Nothing will ever compensate for the pain and suffering inflicted by this mass murderer and his henchmen.  But just as evil never rests, neither does good.  May the fact that Usama Bin Ladin no longer inhabits the earth be a source of comfort for the thousands of families, here in America and around the globe, who mourn the victims of al-Qa’ida’s barbarity.

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Within our Agency family, our thoughts turn to those who died fighting to make this day possible.  Our brothers and sisters who gave their lives in the war against al-Qa’ida—from Mike Spann to our heroes at Khowst—are with us, in memory and spirit, at this joyful moment.  In all that we do, they are our constant inspiration.

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My deepest thanks and congratulations go out to the officers of our Counterterrorism Center and Office of South Asia Analysis for their outstanding expertise, amazing creativity, and excellent tradecraft.  I also extend my profound appreciation and absolute respect to the strike team, whose great skill and courage brought our nation this historic triumph.

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The raid was the culmination of intense and tireless effort on the part of many dedicated Agency officers over many years.  Our men and women designed highly complex, innovative, and forward-leaning clandestine operations that led us to Bin Ladin.  One operation would yield intelligence that was carefully analyzed and then used to drive further operations.  Along with our partners at NGA, NSA, and ODNI, we applied the full range of our capabilities, collecting intelligence through both human and technical means and subjecting it to the most rigorous analysis by our government’s leading experts on Bin Ladin and his organization.

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Persistent hard work produced the results that the American people expect of their intelligence service:  We gave President Obama and his team accurate, relevant, timely intelligence-providing the information and insight they needed at key points as this mission developed.  I offered my personal thanks to the President for his willingness to make the courageous decision to proceed with the operation.

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Though Bin Ladin is dead, al-Qa’ida is not.  The terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge him, and we must-and will-remain vigilant and resolute.  But we have struck a heavy blow against the enemy.  The only leader they have ever known, whose hateful vision gave rise to their atrocities, is no more.  The supposedly uncatchable one has been caught and killed.  And we will not rest until every last one of them has been delivered to justice.

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Remember how you felt in the anxious hours after the attacks of September 11^th , and how our Agency vowed to run to ground a vicious foe.  Whether you were here at the time or were inspired to serve at CIA in the months and years that followed, take heart in knowing that our Agency is doing its essential job for the American people, and for all humanity.  A promise has been kept.  And a war will be won.

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God bless the United States of America.

Leon E. Panetta

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From the Navy.mil website

Bin Laden Buried at Sea

Story Number: NNS110502-22 - Release Date: 5/2/2011 4:01pm

Written by Jim Garamone - American Forces Press Service

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WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Osama bin Laden received a Muslim ceremony as he was buried at sea, a senior defense official said in Washington, D.C., May 2.

The religious rites were performed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in the North Arabian Sea and occurred within 24 hours of the terrorist leader's death, said the official.

"Preparations for at-sea [burial] began at 1:10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and were completed at 2 a.m.," said the official.

The burial followed traditional Muslim burial customs, and bin Laden's body was washed and placed in a white sheet, said the official.

"The body was placed in a weighted bag. A military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker," the official added.

Afterward, bin Laden's body was placed onto a flat board, which was then elevated upward on one side and the body slid off into the sea.

The deceased terrorist was buried at sea because no country would accept bin Laden's remains, a senior defense official said.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Defense Department officials are sure it was the body of bin Laden. CIA specialists compared photos of the body with known photos of bin Laden and said with 95-percent certainty it was the terrorist leader, a senior intelligence official said.

In addition, bin Laden's wife identified the al-Qaida leader by name while the strike team was still in the compound, said the intelligence official.

CIA and other specialists in the intelligence community "performed the initial DNA analysis matching a virtually 100-percent DNA match of the body against the DNA of several of bin Laden's family members," the official added.

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 * CBS News brings us LOTs of info, links, photos and more...

Click it all out at link below...

Osama bin Laden killed in U.S. raid in Pakistan – After 10 years of hunting, team of CIA officers, Navy SEALs kill bin Laden in firefight near Pakistani capital

Also on the CBS News website today...

Special Report: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden

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More to come...

AubreyJ.........

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Photo for the Day - May 02, 2011

* Photo for the Day *

- NYC Celebrates Bin Laden's Death -

Marine veterans Mike Demo, center, and Bill Cortese, right, drove 30 minutes to New York's Ground Zero to celebrate the news that Osama Bin Laden is dead. Two of Cortese's cousins were killed in the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. The Freedom Tower, the skyscraper being built where the World Trade Center towers once stood, is now 60 stories tall and was lit up and visible from the street. Eventually the Freedom Tower will be the tallest building in the country.

Photo by DVIDS/Marine Corps Public Affairs Office New York - Taken by Sgt. Randall Clinton

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Osama Bin Laden Killed by US In Mansion Outside Islamabad

* Osama Bin Laden DEAD *

Killed by US ground operation in Mansion outside Islamabad - U.S. officials say Bin Laden himself did fire his weapon during firefight
Sunday, May 01, 2011

Photo courtesy of Rewards for Justice
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Osama Bin Laden is Dead

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“I can report to the American People and to the World, the United States has conducted an operation that has killed Osama bin Laden.” ~President Barack Obama.

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Just months before the 10th anniversary of the single most deadly terrorist attack on American soil on September 11th, 2001, the self-proclaimed mastermind of those attacks was killed by U.S. forces.

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President Barack Obama announced Sunday, May 1st, 2011 at 11:34pm EST that the infamous terrorist Osama Bin Laden is dead. He was killed in a compound outside of a city in Pakistan along with members of his family.

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He was killed by U.S. military forces on May 1st, 2011 in a firefight, and those forces took possession of the body. No civilians were harmed in this attack.

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“The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our fight against al Qaeda…his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.” The President said in his official announcement. “Tonight we are once again reminded that America can do anything we set our mind to.”

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The President said in his official address to the nation that this is a historic day for America, and a victory in the war against terrorism.

Taken from an article by DoD

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Obama: Osama bin Laden Dead - Full Video

About video: President Obama announces that Osama bin Laden has been killed by US special operation forces.

This Video posted on YouTube by UpTakeVideo

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Read the full Transcript HERE.

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Osama Bin Laden was killed not by a drone strike, but up close during a firefight with U.S. troops. [LOVE IT!!!] He was not living in a cave when he died, but in a million-dollar mansion with seven-foot walls just 40 miles from the Pakistani capital, where U.S. forces killed him Sunday...

Read the rest of this GREAT read by ABC News at link below....

Osama Bin Laden Killed By Navy Seals in Firefight

 

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News of bin Laden's death cheered outside Bush residence in Dallas

About this News Video: DALLAS - A small crowd gathered near the North Dallas residence of former President George W. Bush Sunday night to cheer the news of the death of Osama bin Laden.

This video posted on the web WFAA.com

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From Facebook:

STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

by George W. Bush on Sunday, May 1, 2011 at 10:55pm

May 1, 2011

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Earlier this evening, President Obama called to inform me that American forces killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al Qaeda network that attacked America on September 11, 2001. I congratulated him and the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this mission. They have our everlasting gratitude. This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done.

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More to come...

AubreyJ.........

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