Our last open thread is full. Here's a new one, all topics welcome.

President Obama has authorized 1,500 additional military personnel to go to Iraq and advise and train the Iraqi forces and Peshmerga in the fight against ISIS. He will ask Congress to approve for $5.6 billion in overseas contingency funds and $1.6 million to train Iraqi and Pershmerga forces.

Two groups will be going. The first will "advise and assist" Iraqi forces at the brigade level from command operations centers near Baghdad and Erbil. The second will do the military training. 9 Iraqi army and 3 Peshmerga brigades will be trained in northern, western and southern Iraq. Many of the new personnel will be deployed to the Anbar province.

Here is the Pentagon's statement. It confirms the personnel will act in a "non-combat role." It is an expansion of our "advise and assist mission" and the beginning of the training initiative. It doesn't mention Syria.

There's much more to the yesterday's story of the "Deep Web" (aka "Dark Web") takedown of Silk Road 2 and arrest of San Francisco programmer Blake Benthall. (The Complaint in Benthall's case is here.)

WIRED reports today Operation Onymous was global in scope. The FBI press release is here. From WIRED:

On Friday, the European police agency Europol along with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security announced that the operation has now arrested 17 people in as many countries and seized hundreds of Dark Web domains associated with well over a dozen black market websites.

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A few weeks ago I wrote about the DEA and FBI recently catching flak for some of its deceitful investigation techniques. One instance was the FBI's remote installation of spyware on the computer of a teen suspected of making bomb threats to his school in 2007. The purpose was to track the location of the teen and his computer. To pull it off, the FBI wrote a fake AP news article about the suspect and sent it to his my space account. When the teen clicked on it, the spyware was unleashed, allowing the FBI to locate his computer and get a search warrant for his house. The teen confessed and ultimately pleaded guilty. The matter came to light as the result of a reporter's FOIA Request.
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The feds shut down Silk Road 2 and arrest San Francisco programmer Blake Benthall.

“As alleged, Blake Benthall attempted to resurrect Silk Road, a secret website that law enforcement seized last year, by running Silk Road 2.0, a nearly identical criminal enterprise,” said Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a statement. “Let’s be clear–this Silk Road, in whatever form, is the road to prison.”

CENTCOM confirms airstrikes against the alleged Khorasan Group and there are reports that it killed the intended target, Frenchman David (Daood) Drugeon.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Has anyone been following ISIS yesterday and today?

Here's an open thread for all non-election related matters.

Via Andrew Romano:

Until last night. Gardner isn’t a moderate; he’s a pro-life Republican who ranked as the 10th most conservative House member in 2012. He has opposed Republican immigration reform efforts, voted to shut down the government unless Planned Parenthood was defunded and supported Cruz’s efforts to gut Obamacare.

Romano says Corey Gardner "repackaged" himself for yesterday's election: [More...]

Talk is already underway about the impact of the 2014 elections on 2016. Andrew Romano says Hillary Clinton is the real winner of yesterday's election.

Take a closer look at demography, geography and the road ahead for the parties, and it’s clear that the long-term winner of the 2014 midterms wasn’t the GOP at all. The long-term winner, in fact, wasn’t even on the ballot this year. Her name is Hillary Clinton.

Romano proceeds to crunch the numbers to support his theory.

Oregon and Alaska have become the third and fourth states to legalize the personal use of marijuana for recreational purposes. In the District of Columbia, residents will face no legal repercussions for growing marijuana for personal use.

On tap for 2016: Legalization initiatives are planned for California, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada and Arizona.

On the medical marijuana side, Guam approved it while Florida did not. Overall, legal marijuana advocates had a big night.

The headlines are all over the place on why Republicans made so many gains in yesterday's elections and what it means for Democrats. I'm going to keep it simple: We get the government we elect. If Democrats don't come out and vote, they won't win.

This is a thread for all election-related topics.

Guantanamo detainee Fawzi al-Odah has been transferred home to Kuwait.

Held for 13 years without charges, al-Odah's father says he was a teacher in Afghanistan who was kidnapped by bounty hunters and sold to the U.S. The Periodic Review Board found he received training but had no leadership position.

The board, however, determined that he had only a low level of training and did not have a leadership position in either group. He will be required to participate in a militant rehabilitation program in Kuwait.

148 detainees remain at Guantanamo.

Votes from Denver and Boulder pushed Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper over the top early this morning. He has been re-elected.

This race was too close for comfort. Bob Beauprez, as of this writing, has refused to concede defeat.

Congrats to Governor Hickenlooper.