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The Duffel Brief · the free edition, Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Vol. 15 · No. 131 · Tuesday, 3 November 2026

Pentagon

Hegseth wears Eisenhower's globe as Halloween costume

Secretary says historic artifact looks better without America's allies

Spirit Halloween store to become pop-up ICE detention center

Army FRG unveils haunted house featuring spouses saying ‘I’m fine’

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Vol. 15 · No. 131 · Deployed worldwide

Tuesday

3 November 2026

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· Page 2

Syrian teen builds clock, beheaded for witchcraft

Filed · 1539

DAYR AL-ZAWR, Syria — Syrian teenager Sami Halaseh was beheaded for witchcraft yesterday after he built a clock and and brought it into his bomb-making school, according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The 9th grader at former Ali Ibrahim Mohammad Secondary Madrasa was accused and convicted of creating a digital clock from a U.S. Meal Ready to Eat (MRE) box at his English-speaking jihadi academy, sources said.

Witnesses — who did not wish to be identified — claimed that that it was a simple but unfortunate misunderstanding after the "jihadi prodigy" brought a revolutionary new IED to school — an invention he called a "time-bomb." Sources report that Halaseh had been working on it since the U.S. Air Force over-shot a Sinjar Mountain resupply drop by over 250 miles last year.

"They immediately reacted as if it were a clock," one source said. "He just kept saying: 'It's not a clock. It's a bomb!' But they didn't believe him."

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