Saturday - September 03, 2011

Smooth Move

"Aw, he’s no threat, let him go!”

KABUL, Afghanistan – NATO and Afghan forces killed a former Guantanamo detainee who had become a key Al Qaeda affiliate after returning to Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.

Sabar Lal Melma, who was released from Guantanamo in 2007 after five years of detention, had been organizing attacks in eastern Kunar province and funding insurgent operations, NATO spokesman Capt. Justin Brockhoff said.

A NATO statement described Melma as a “key affiliate of the Al Qaeda network” who was in contact with senior Al Qaeda members in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Troops surrounded Melma’s house in Jalalabad city on Friday night and shot him dead when he emerged from the building holding an AK-47 assault rifle. Several other people were detained.

A guard at the house, Mohammad Gul, said a group of American soldiers scaled the walls of the compound around 11 p.m. and stormed the house, shooting Melma in the assault. Three others were detained, Gul said.

Melma had been detained for about five days in August, Gul said.

Melma is not the first former detainee to rejoin the insurgency. In 2009, the Pentagon said 61 detainees, or approximately 11 percent, released from Guantanamo had rejoined the fight.

He was captured in August 2002 while attending a meeting with U.S. military officials in Asadabad and transferred to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in October that same year. He was suspected of helping carry out rocket attacks against U.S. troops.

While imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. determined he was a “probable facilitator for Al Qaeda members” and was also thought to have links to Pakistan’s intelligence service.

He was sent back to Afghanistan in September 2007.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/03/2011 at 11:12 AM   
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   Friday - July 22, 2011

Terrorists Strike Norway

OSLO (Reuters)- A bomb ripped through Oslo’s central government district on Friday and a gunmen dressed as a policeman then opened fire at a youth camp on a nearby island, killing 17 people altogether, police said.

In the biggest such attack in western Europe since the London transport bombings in 2005, seven died when the bomb exploded on the Norwegian capital in mid-afternoon scattering glass, shattered masonry and twisted steel across the streets.

Shortly afterwards, a gunman opened fire at the youth camp of the ruling political party on Utoeya island, north-west of Oslo. Police said nine or 10 people were killed and they believed the two attacks were linked. The gunman was arrested.

The bomb, which shook the city center at around 3:30 p.m. (1330 GMT), blew out the windows of the Prime Minister’s building and damaged the finance and oil ministries.

“People ran in panic,” said bystander Kjersti Vedun.

With police advising people to evacuate central Oslo, apparently in fear of more attacks, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told Norwegian TV2 television in a phone call that the situation was “very serious.” He said that police had told him not to say where he was speaking from.

A Reuters witness saw soldiers taking up positions in Oslo.

The gunman, described by a police official as tall and blond, was reported by Norwegian media to have taken advantage of the confusion caused by the bombing to attack the summer camp of Stoltenberg’s Labour party youth section.
...
“This is a terror attack. It is the most violent event to strike Norway since World War Two,” said Geir Bekkevold, an opposition parliamentarian for the Christian Peoples Party.

NO CLUES YET FROM DETAINED MAN

Lilit Gevorgyan, analyst at IHS Global Insight, said the most likely suspects were al-Qaeda-linked or inspired groups, but added:

“As the news continues trickling in from Utoeya, however, right-wing extremist groups or even a lone perpetrator with army training or access to ammunition and weaponry could be behind the plot.”

Police have been on the alert for complex gun-and-bomb attacks on European cities since the assault by 10 gunmen on India’s financial capital Mumbai in November 2008 which killed 166 people. The Oslo attacks, though hitting two targets, were not simultaneous and the delay between them left open the possibility of a single perpetrator.
...
The Oslo district attacked is the very heart of power in Norway, with several other key administration buildings nearby. Nevertheless, security is not tight given the lack of violence in the past.

OSLO (Reuters) - A gunman killed nine or 10 people in a shooting at a meeting in Norway of the youth wing of the ruling Labor Party Friday, police said.

“The number is 10, possibly nine,” deputy Oslo police chief Sveining Sponheim told reporters when asked about the preliminary toll in a shooting on Utoeya island, north west of Oslo.

“That’s what we know so far,” he said. He said a man had been arrested and was being questioned by Oslo police, who believe he also has knowledge of a bomb blast in Oslo that killed seven people.

Although the source of the blast is unclear, Al-Jazeera TV notes that Norwegian prosecutors on Tuesday filed a terrorism charge against Mullah Krekar, founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam.

BBC news servers are being hammered with hits and are barely responding. It’s hard to get fresh info.

Some live reporting -
Key points

* A bomb has been detonated at government headquarters in Oslo
* Norwegian police say at least seven people have been killed and two are badly wounded
* Oslo police are advising residents to stay at home
* No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack
* At least nine people have been killed in a separate shooting at a Labour youth camp outside Oslo
* Unconfirmed reports say Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg had been due to attend the camp

a partial bottom-up timeline (GMT+1):

2145: The justice minister has just confirmed the suspect arrested today at the youth camp in Utoeya was Norwegian.
2143: “You will not destroy us. You will not destroy our democracy or our ideals for a better world,” Prime Minister Stolenberg adds.
2142: “No one will bomb us to silence. No one wil shoot us to silence. No one will ever scare us away from beign Norway,” Mr Stoltenberg says.
2124: A terrorism expert tells the BBC that Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or the Helpers of the Global Jihad, a terror group that claimed responsibility for the explosion in Oslo, was not behind the attack.
2056: The foreign minister has also confirmed that the man arrested following the shooting on the island is Caucasian.
1955: A doctor at Oslo University Hospital tells the BBC the facility has taken in 11 “heavily injured people” following the blast. He said hospital staff are treating injuries to people’s head, chest and abdomen.
1948: Eyewitness Andre Scheie told NRK: “There are very many dead by the shore… There are about 20-25 dead.” Mr Scheie also said he saw people dead in the water at the camp.
1811: Reuters reports state TV says one person has been arrested at the Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya.
2039: The New York Times is reporting that the terror group Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or the Helpers of the Global Jihad, is claiming responsibilty for the bombing in Oslo.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/22/2011 at 04:02 PM   
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   Thursday - June 23, 2011

Ship Of Fools, Again

Victoria resident Kevin Neish knows the risks of breaking Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip. Last year as a human-rights observer on a Turkish-owned vessel, the Mavi Marmara, he witnessed a bloodbath after Israeli commandos boarded the ship. Nine passengers were killed and 54 were wounded.

“It was a free-fire zone,” Neish said during a recent interview at the Georgia Straight office. “There was blood dripping down the stairs—and I’ve got the photographs to prove it. So it was just a nightmare, a horrendous nightmare. People that I broke bread with and had tea with just the day before, I watched die in front of my eyes. It was unbelievable.”

Organizers of the ‘European campaign to lift the Gaza siege” announced that the second Gaza-bound flotilla will set sail as scheduled, next week. According to an organization activist, the sail will include “hundreds of activists form 40 countries.” The group did not specify when exactly the flotilla will set sail.

15 ships full, from what I hear. Every super-lefty who can save up some welfare checks and sell enough dope to afford the ticket price. Bill Ayers, Alice Walker, and a host of others.

The boat from the United States has been dubbed “The Audacity of Hope.” (Now where have we heard that title before?) On it are 36 passengers and four crew members, including some members of the Soros-funded Code Pink. Journalists from The Nation, CNN, NPR, CBS, The New York Times, Democracy Now, and the Palestinian News Agency Ma’an are “embedded” within the flotilla. “Embedded”? Isn’t that the word used to describe journalists who accompany troops in active battle?

For a partial list of this group of audacious activists and their bios, go here.  It reads like of Wannabe Who’s Who of Leftyville, from aging hippies to “social justice activists” to anti-war progressives to “a freelance cultural explorer” (translation: hippie free love slut). I would not want to be downwind when this ship passes by.

Around the world, only a little common sense has bubbled up: Germany has refused to allow it’s government members to take part. Right? Because having a bunch of Germans involved in a blatant act against the Jews ... might cause Mercedes Benz sales to drop amongst the doctors and lawyers on the Upper East Side. It’s a little too blatant.

BERLIN – The German Left Party earlier this month issued a resolution prohibiting its Bundestag deputies from participating in the Gaza Flotilla slated for late June and intended to break Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Billed as a resolution that would end the criticism that the Left Party is fundamentally anti-Israel and anti-Semitic, the resolution failed to impress the head of Germany’s Jewish community, Dr. Dieter Graumann, and media commentators who see an anti-Semitic agenda driving the Left Party’s domestic and foreign policy platforms.

But that’s about it. The crazy is in full swing everywhere else. And I mean crazy:

American Jews comprise more than 25 percent of the pro-Hamas flotilla that aims to challenge the IDF on the high seas and reach Hamas-backed Gaza, throwing cold water on the allegation of a unified pro-Israel “Jewish lobby” in the United States.

“It’s important that Jews are in this boat… The Jewish lobby in this country is so powerful,” New York Jewish labor attorney Richard Levy told media agencies.
...
Jewish activist Leslie Cogan told the French news agency AFP, the flotilla is “a cargo of friendship, a cargo of peace.”

Last week, Jewish anti-Zionists in London rallied in memory of the nine IHH members who were killed by Israeli Navy commandos last year after brutally attacking the soldiers, who reached the deck of the Mavi Mamara ship virtually unarmed except for paint guns and small revolvers.

After last year’s clash on the high seas, the leader of the German-Jewish organization Jewish Voice for Peace in the Middle East said the group actually wants to “preserve” Israel.

“Some see what we are doing as a betrayal. But the question is what do they really know about the whole thing. Some people don’t want to be educated,” Kate Katzenstein-Leiterer told the German news agency DPA.

In contrast to the American Jews’ efforts for the flotilla, pressure from French Jews prevented the departure of a ship to Gaza, according to the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman.

Meanwhile, over in Turkey ... our NATO ally Turkey ... that secular, peaceful nation ... flotilla supporters and peace activists have found a new banner to rally around:

“The protesters are not concerned about peace,” Gunaysu explained. “They are calling for more violence and more bloodshed. Because they—particularly Islamic protesters, at times backed by leftists groups as well—are not against a particular Israeli government and its particular policies, but against the existence of Israel itself.”

The best piece I’ve found written about the whole affair is Phyllis Chesler’s post, “Flotilla of Fools” at Front Page Magazine.

Spurred on by the anti-Potemkin Village images of Palestinian Arabs living in wretched refugee hovels, fenced in by an allegedly “apartheid” Israeli wall, oppressed by “Nazi” Israeli soldiers for “racist” reasons (and not because the Palestinian leadership practices both Islamic gender and religious apartheid as well as terrorism)–the Good People are sailing to the rescue.

She spends two delicious pages slicing, dicing, and pureeing this latest crop of floating idiots and their benighted quest. Read it and be wonderful.

So, what’s my opinion? Need you ask? Let me tell you ...

Do you know what a swashplate engine is? I didn’t either, but I learned today. A swashplate engine, also called a barrel engine, is an axial internal combustion engine that has no crankshaft. The pistons and cylinders are all parallel to the axle, just like the cylinders in a revolver are parallel to the central crane axle. As the pistons push away from the combustion chamber, rods and rollers on their nether end push against a wobbly plate called a swashplate in circumferential succession, which turns the axle. Think of a crowd in a stadium doing the wave, but in a circle. Give everyone in that circle an edge of a big blanket to hold, and put a ball on the blanket. Time things right and the ball will roll around and around as each step of the wave erupts behind it. Or think of a Gatling Gun in reverse: instead of the sinusoidal cam spinning the barrels and loading and firing the chambers, when reversed the recoil of the rounds going off cause the cam to rotate. Same principle. Another way to understand a swashplate is to envision a CD on an dowel axle. Position the CD at an angle and glue it in place. You now have a camshaft equivalent, that will make one sine curve motion (2Π radians) per revolution if you’re looking at a fixed spot edge on. [ shut up Drew, nobody finds this stuff interesting but you. I know, but I bet the engine is a two stroke, and I bet the first cylinder to fire on starting is the one halfway down the sine curve. That way it would not need to be cranked, and it would never start in reverse. ]

So, who cares? Well, a 500hp swashplate engine powers the Navy’s Mk-48 torpedo. The internal combustion engine runs on an evil liquid called Otto fuel 2, which is a mix of a combustable (gasoline, alcohol) with a very strong oxidizer (pure hydrogen peroxide). It’s almost like liquid gunpowder, and lets the engine run deep underwater with no bottled air. The Mk-48 carries a 650lb explosive warhead, can reach speeds of at least 63mph, and has a probable range of over 21 miles. It’s jet propulsion system, a ducted muffler, and various other silencing technologies allow to run very stealthily for very long distances.

It sure would suck if a few of those accidentally fell into the Med, wouldn’t it? Seriously: think of the environmental impact of several hundred sunken hippies dirtying up the water. I’m all for peaceful solutions, but sometimes accidents do happen.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/23/2011 at 02:53 PM   
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   Wednesday - June 22, 2011

wasted effort

As President Obama is expected to announce in a speech Tuesday that 30,000 U.S. “surge” forces will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh takes a look at one town in Afghanistan. A flag flies openly, the white banner of the Taliban. The message: we, the Taliban, are back in power here. Small Taliban fiefdoms are popping up while NATO’s surge is at full strength, leaving many wondering what they’ll do as NATO starts to leave?

Link to CNN video.

You can’t impose democracy and freedom on primitives. They don’t want it. These people have barely evolved to the point of tribalism. It will take another thousand years for them to grow into and then past the idea of theocracy and the divine right of kings. You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear in a land where pigs are illegal.

I think it’s past time to admit the truth of that. Bring them all home, Obama. And the next time we have trouble with this worthless corner of the world, nuke them into oblivion.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/22/2011 at 10:24 AM   
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   Thursday - June 16, 2011

Next Target

Al-Qaeda has named Ayman al-Zawahiri as its new chief.

Zawahiri has been al-Qaeda’s number two for years but was elevated today after the killing of long-time leader Osama bin Laden by US commandos in a May 2 raid in Pakistan.

“The general command of al-Qaeda announces, after consultations, the appointment of Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri as head of the group,” the jihadists said in a statement issued in the name of the general command and posted on an Islamist website.

The only hurdle was a vote of confidence among members of the “general command.”

That the approximately ten people believed to make up this exclusive body met in person to pass the baton on to Zawahiri is unlikely; they probably either voted over the Internet or let their messengers meet each other. Under bin Laden, the group’s role was much less evident and it was rarely heard from. In the past six weeks, though, it has confirmed bin Laden’s death and now appointed his successor, and the “general command” has made its central role within the network clear for all to see.

The development seems to hint that al-Qaida may be better organized than it often seems from the outside.
...
More interesting than the appointment itself is the question of how to interprete it. Is al-Qaida being reorganized under Ayman al-Zawahiri? And as the new “amir,” will he be afforded the same degree of obedience as his predecessor?

Al-Zawahiri enjoys a lot of respect within al-Qaida and the wider circle of volunteers and active supporters—above all simply because of how long he has been part of the jihadist camp. He was radicalized as a youth and became caught up in the pull of militant organizations who wanted to overthrow the Egyptian government. He is believed to have formed his first cell as a 16-year-old, and was imprisoned intermittently in Egypt.
...
But respect is one thing, veneration another: Zawahiri, known mostly as “Sheikh Dr. Ayman,” is a poor speaker, argumentative and a know-it-all, and unlike bin Laden, has only little charisma.

His first wife and family were killed, along with his brother, in jihad fighting at Tora Bora in 2001. It is said that he remarried two widows of other jihadis. His brother is once again under arrest in Egypt.

Cairo - Mohamed al-Zawahiri, brother of al-Qaeda’s second highest commander, was arrested two days after he released from custody in Egypt, a security source said Sunday.

Mohamed al-Zawahiri, who was re-arrested on Saturday, had spent more than 10 years in prison. An Egyptian court tried him in absentia in 1998 and sentenced him to death.

Mohamed al-Zawahiri is known to have been a military commander in the terrorist network Islamic Jihad, leading the group’s activities in Bosnia and Albania during the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

The brothers are believed to have led the Islamic Jihad movement in Egypt [ EIJ ].

Oh joy, a whole family of terrorist jihadis. Wonderful. And, no surprise here either, they come from the top of the fiscal / social pyramid in Egypt. Ayman Mohamed Rabi’ Ayman al-Zawahri has a master’s degree in surgery. His twin sister is an oncologist. Daddy was a pharmacology professor. One grandfather ran the biggest mosque in Sunni Islam, the other one was president of Cairo University and the Egyptian ambassador to several muslim nations. As leader of EIJ Ayman al-Z was likely the brains behind an attempted assassination of Hosni Mubarak. He has published a book that condemns Muslim Brotherhood as being too moderate. Golly! Ayman al-Zawahiri had been with bin Laden even before al-Qaeda was formed.  He was also the money man for EIJ, traveling around the world, even to the United States, to raise cash for that group. more background info here.

So now the race is on: can the US drop a drone bomb on his head before he can reorganize AQ? And if we can’t, does he have the moxi to keep AQ a coherent entity? It’s in our best interest to shatter AQ into little pieces that squabble with each other, and a bitter and grumpy old fart like Ayman Zawahiri might be just what the doctor ordered.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/16/2011 at 12:22 PM   
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   Saturday - June 11, 2011

Oh, But This One Is OK For Us To See?

Somali officials confirmed today that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, al Qaeda’s leader in East Africa and a senior Shabaab commander, was killed at a Somali military checkpoint in Mogadishu earlier this week. Fazul is one of the most wanted terrorists in East Africa for his role in attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as well as his role within Shabaab.

Somalia’s minister of information confirmed Fazul’s death, according to The Associated Press. “We’ve compared the pictures of the body to his old pictures,” he said. “They are the same. It is confirmed. He is the man and he is dead. The man who died is Fazul Abdullah.”

A US intelligence official who tracks al Qaeda in East Africa told The Long War Journal that Fazul was indeed killed.

“We’re certain we got him,” the intelligence official told The Long War Journal.

More details and a picture of the bloody corpse over at Bill Roggio’s Long War Journal.

NAIROBI, Kenya – The al-Qaida mastermind behind the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania was killed this week at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu by Somali forces who didn’t immediately realize they had killed the most wanted man in East Africa, officials said Saturday.

The death of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed — a man who topped the FBI’s most wanted list for nearly 13 years — is the third major strike in six weeks against the worldwide terror group that was headed by Osama bin Laden until his death last month.

Mohammed had a $5 million bounty on his head for allegedly planning the Aug. 7, 1998, embassy bombings. The blasts killed 224 people in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania combined. Most of the dead were Kenyans. Twelve Americans also died.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — who was on a visit to Tanzania on Saturday as Somali officials confirmed Mohammed’s death — called the killing a “significant blow to al-Qaida, its extremist allies, and its operations in East Africa.

“It is a just end for a terrorist who brought so much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and elsewhere — Tanzanians, Kenyans, Somalis, and our own embassy personnel,” Clinton said.

Mohammed was killed Tuesday but was carrying a South African passport, so Somali officials didn’t immediately realize who he was. The body was even buried. Officials later exhumed it.

Wait, won’t there be Worldwide Muslim Outrage™ over that grave desecration? No? Nobody gives a poop if it isn’t Americans doing it? Huh?

Mohammed’s death is the third major blow against al-Qaida in the last six weeks. Navy SEALs killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden on May 2 at his home in Pakistan. Just a month later, Ilyas Kashmiri, an al-Qaida leader sought in the 2008 Mumbai siege and rumored to be a longshot choice to succeed bin Laden, was reportedly killed in a U.S. drone attack in Pakistan.

The strike against Kashmiri was not the direct result of intelligence material seized from the bin Laden compound, U.S. and Pakistan officials say. If the account of the killing at the security checkpoint killing is confirmed, it would appear Mohammed’s death is also not the result of new intelligence.

Sooner or later this AQ hydra is going to run out of heads. Let’s hope the military can keep this streak going. One or two top leaders a month and pretty soon there won’t be anyone left at the top at all.

Speaking of dead terrorists ... remember what Odumbo said back at the end of March about why he was bombing Libya?

Of course, there is no question that Libya -– and the world –- would be better off with Qaddafi out of power. I, along with many other world leaders, have embraced that goal, and will actively pursue it through non-military means. But broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake.

The task that I assigned our forces -– to protect the Libyan people from immediate danger, and to establish a no-fly zone -– carries with it a U.N. mandate and international support. It’s also what the Libyan opposition asked us to do. If we tried to overthrow Qaddafi by force, our coalition would splinter.

Nobody believed that BS then either. Now NATO is stating the obvious: yes, they’re gunning for Qaddafi, and have been doing so all along. No kidding.

A U.N. resolution justifies the targeting of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, a senior NATO military official with operational knowledge of the Libya mission told CNN Thursday…

The resolution said forces could use “all necessary measures” to protect civilians.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday it is time to start planning for what to do in Libya after Gadhafi’s departure “because Gadhafi’s reign of terror is coming to an end.”

Read more at Hot Air. Why do our leaders feel they have to lie to us? If Obama had come right out on Day One and said he wanted to aid the Libyan revolutionaries and was going to use US forces to off old Uncle Mohmar, half the country would have been on his side. Of course, that would be the half that’s dead set against him in everything else, but he would have had their approval for at least a little while. And it would be a “gutsy” move. Instead we get this piddleshit dicking about.

Come on Obama, ramp it up. Get an actual declaration of war going. Then send in the B-52s and level Tripoli. Twice. As if we care about collateral damage. Not. Just make sure you install a compliant satrapy Government In A Box when the old government falls. And then spend the next 5 years teaching Libyans how to be happy Westerners and not backwards jihadis. Because we have plenty more bombs. It’s your big chance to start a modernization trend across Africa, peaceful democracy and moderate modernized Islam. Not willing to do that? Unable to modernize Islam? Then stop your ‘illegal war’ and pull our forces out of NATO’s mess and let the raggies bleed each other white. We don’t care. Just stop lying to us.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/11/2011 at 03:18 PM   
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   Thursday - June 09, 2011

I Count Four. Did I Miss One Or Two?

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration has intensified the covert U.S. war in Yemen, hitting militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets, The New York Times reported late Wednesday.

The accelerated campaign has occurred in recent weeks as violent conflict in Yemen has left the government in Sanaa struggling to cling to power, the Times said.

The report, posted on the newspaper’s website, said Yemeni troops that had been battling militants linked to Al Qaeda in the south have been pulled back to the capital. American officials hope the strikes will help prevent militants from consolidating power.

A drone strike by U.S. special operations forces on May 5 targeted U.S.-born Al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, but a malfunction caused rockets to miss him by a matter of minutes, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

The recent operations come after a nearly yearlong pause in American airstrikes, which were halted amid concerns that poor intelligence had led to bungled missions and civilian deaths that were undercutting the goals of the secret campaign.
...
The U.S. campaign in Yemen is led by the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command and is closely coordinated with the CIA, the Times said.
...
[Yemeni President Ali Abdullah] Saleh authorized secret American missions in Yemen in 2009 but placed limits on their scope and has said publicly that all military operations have been conducted by his own troops.

So, let me see if I understand the big picture here. In Libya, we’re indirectly attacking a brutal dictator and supporting Al Qaeda aligned revolutionaries. And the dictator seems to be winning. But in Yemen, we’re supporting a brutal dictator and attacking Al Qaeda aligned revolutionaries. And the revolutionaries seem to be winning.

Did somebody let Obama make the picks for who we’re going to support? Because the guy utterly sucks when it comes to picking anything, from basketball teams, to Olympics hosting cities, to ... you name it. They guy is like Jimmy Carter: whatever he picks, take the opposite, and that will be the right one.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/09/2011 at 09:54 AM   
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   Wednesday - June 01, 2011

connect the dots

Al-Qaeda had warned of Pakistan strike
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

[May 22] ISLAMABAD - Al-Qaeda carried out the brazen attack on PNS Mehran naval air station in Karachi on May 22 after talks failed between the navy and al-Qaeda over the release of naval officials arrested on suspicion of al-Qaeda links, an Asia Times Online investigation reveals.

Pakistani security forces battled for 15 hours to clear the naval base after it had been stormed by a handful of well-armed militants.

At least 10 people were killed and two United States-made P3-C Orion surveillance and anti-submarine aircraft worth US$36 million each were destroyed before some of the attackers escaped through a cordon of thousands of armed forces.

An official statement placed the number of militants at six, with four killed and two escaping. Unofficial sources, though, claim there were 10 militants with six getting free. Asia Times Online contacts confirm that the attackers were from Ilyas Kashmiri’s 313 Brigade, the operational arm of al-Qaeda.

Several weeks ago, naval intelligence traced an al-Qaeda cell operating inside several navy bases in Karachi, the country’s largest city and key port.

“Islamic sentiments are common in the armed forces,” a senior navy official told Asia Times Online on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media.
...
Pakistan came into existence on the two-nation theory that Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations and therefore no one can separate Islam and Islamic sentiment from the armed forces of Pakistan,” the official said.

“Nonetheless, we observed an uneasy grouping on different naval bases in Karachi. While nobody can obstruct armed forces personnel for rendering religious rituals or studying Islam, the grouping [we observed] was against the discipline of the armed forces. That was the beginning of an intelligence operation in the navy to check for unscrupulous activities.”

The official explained the grouping was against the leadership of the armed forces and opposed to its nexus with the United States against Islamic militancy. When some messages were intercepted hinting at attacks on visiting American officials, intelligence had good reason to take action and after careful evaluation at least 10 people - mostly from the lower cadre - were arrested in a series of operations.
...
before proper interrogation could begin, the in-charge of the investigation received direct threats from militants who made it clear they knew where the men were being detained.

The detainees were promptly moved to a safer location, but the threats continued. Officials involved in the case believe the militants feared interrogation would lead to the arrest of more of their loyalists in the navy. The militants therefore made it clear that if those detained were not released, naval installations would be attacked.

It was clear the militants were receiving good inside information as they always knew where the suspects were being detained, indicating sizeable al-Qaeda infiltration within the navy’s ranks.

After Bin Laden was killed by American Navy Seals in Abbottabad, 60 kilometers north of Islamabad, militants decided the time was ripe for major action. Within a week, insiders at PNS Mehran provided maps, pictures of different exit and entry routes taken in daylight and at night, the location of hangers and details of likely reaction from external security forces.

As a result, the militants were able to enter the heavily guarded facility where one group targeted the aircraft, a second group took on the first strike force and a third finally escaped with the others providing covering fire.

Pretty damning article. Read the whole thing here at Asia Times Online.

Shahzad wrote that this was the first in a two part series; part 2 would cover how militants were recruited and trained, inside the Pakistani Navy. But before that article could be written, he disappeared. And a couple days later he broken and tortured body turned up. Somebody somewhere sure didn’t like what he was saying.

[yesterday] A Pakistani journalist who went missing two days ago from the capital Islamabad was found dead in eastern Pakistan, police said on Tuesday.
...
Police said there were signs of torture on the body of the reporter, Saleem Shahzad,
...
Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan representative for Human Rights Watch, said Shahzad had told him that he was under threat by Pakistan’s military intelligence agency.

Several Pakistani journalists have been found dead in similar circumstances, triggering protests by reporters and media organisations.

Journalists have also been killed by suspected militants in the tribal areas of the northwest, the epicentre of militancy in Pakistan.

So, he has been silenced. What if he was correct? What if their Navy is a hotbed of radical islamists and AQ subversives? What happens when, with the minor help of some crew transfers, one of Pakistan’s major military ships gets a crew that is nearly all AQ?

The report raises very serious questions, like how deep the penetration actually goes when it is clear that Al Qaeda has already broadly infiltrated the Pakistani Navy including apparently at high enough ranks of the Pakistani Navy to be aware of very sensitive, secret information like where specific highly sensitive prisoners are being held.

Is it possible that Al Qaeda could take control of a warship, like PNS Alamgir (ex-USS McInerney (FFG-8)) or other warships that frequently operate near warships of other navies? Keep in mind that even the old Perry’s being sold are armed well enough to cause considerable damage. The Pakistani Navy has consistently been a serious partner supporting various missions in the region like anti-piracy off Somalia, and Pakistan Navy ships can approach highly sensitive sea infrastructure throughout the Middle East much easier and without the same scrutiny of other vessels.

“Armed well enough”? Indeed:

The Pakistani warship, the PNS Alamgir, officially departed from Naval Station Mayport after several months of refurbishment and the training of its personnel on 21 March.  It is scheduled to arrive at its home port in Karachi, Pakistan 53 days from now.

The PNS Alamgir started its life as the USS McInerney (FFG-8), an Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate.  Pakistan acquired it from the U.S. under the Department of Defense Excess Defense Articles program because the U.S. Navy planned to decommission it after 31 years of service.
...
The frigate underwent dry docking and pier-side refurbishment at BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards from September 2010 to March 2011 using $58.7 million of Foreign Military Financing funds. The frigate is equipped with anti-ship missiles, a 76-mm naval gun, and torpedo launchers. It can also carry two SH-60 Seahawk multi-purpose helicopters.  There was an additional $6.5 million spent on specialized training on the ship�s engineering, navigation and combat systems for the crew of 240 Pakistani sailors during the overhaul.

So that’s your tax dollars at work again. Giving our wobbly allies a first class US frigate, fully refurbished and fully armed. And fully repaired. And capable of doing a great job finding and suppressing coastal narcotics smuggling; more than half the heroin that gets out of Afghanistan comes through Pakistan. Come to think of it, those expensive P3 Orion aircraft that got destroyed a couple weeks ago are also superb workers against smuggling. And hardly more than a dozen AQ ragheads were able to attack and take over an entire naval air station for 15 hours and destroy those aircraft. It’s all connected.

Remember when Bush said that the War On Terror was hand in glove with the War On Drugs, and how narco dollars fed the terrorists? And how the left and the media sneered at such moronic naivete?

I think the best thing our forces in Afghanistan could do would be to burn all the poppy fields and poison the ground. And maybe shoot the opium farmers. At least burn those fields and seize the seeds. Which would be so ironic, seeing as that’s exactly what the Taliban was doing before we invaded. Mostly. Back then. Now they (or their AQ cousins) seem to support it, haram or not. It’s a helluva money maker.

h/t to Information Dissemination where some comments also point out the China connection

Instant Update - now that Shazad has totally outed them, the Pakis are admitting that their naval base was overrun due to “security failure”.

they admitted there was a security lapse that led to loss of many precious lives and damages to the navy in the form of devastation of two Orion aircraft.

The committee was also informed that the delay in clearing the base was caused due to the transportation of many other aircraft and helicopters to safer places.

Navy officials also told the committee that at the time of the attack, there were eleven Chinese and six Americans at the base, but the terrorists did not make any attempt to take them hostage.

Oh sure, the Pakis had other aircraft at that base worth far more than the P3s. Save the helicopters and crop dusters first, then save the zillion dollar bits of super secret high tech. That never made sense to me; if the base was being attacked - by hardly more than a dozen splodeydopes - WTH didn’t someone just start the planes up and fly them away? Oh please, you know they were on active standby, ready to fly the next mission at a moment’s notice. Gassed up and ready to go, with pilots nearby.  What’s up with that?

Posted by Drew458     on 06/01/2011 at 10:09 AM   
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   Wednesday - May 18, 2011

A remake almost as good as the original

Watch it now before it disappears. The Israeli music group Fishman and the Pioneers recast their Yalla Ya Nasrallah tune from a couple of years ago. This time they did it for dear old Osama. The graphics aren’t quite as good as the first one, but it’s still a great tune. It’s a rush job, but timeliness matters more sometimes. The original Yalla Ya Nasrallah video was pulled from YouTube for “violations of terms of service” but can still be found on Google Video.

Stolen from Jewlicious, a decidedly pro-Israel blog, who aren’t quite wetting themselves with laughter over the news coming out about Osama’s porn stash, but they sure are having a good snicker. Goats Gone Wild!

In public, bin Laden is the pious, self-proclaimed vanguard of a violent Islamic uprising. Alone in his compound, he’s beating it like it owes him cash.

PS - that girl on the train at 1:42 looks familiar, doesn’t she?

Posted by Drew458     on 05/18/2011 at 10:33 AM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff • Music • War On Terror •  
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   Tuesday - May 10, 2011

Well Duh

( USA Today ) In a secret deal sealed 10 years ago, Pakistan agreed to allow the United States to conduct a unilateral operation against Osama bin Laden if he was ever found on Pakistani soil, with the understanding that Pakistan would protest vociferously afterward, The Guardian reports.

and to point out a) some people shoot their mouths off without ever reading the article, and b) just how stupid people can be, here’s one of the early comments, proving once again that reading comprehension sometimes doesn’t even extend to the first line past the headlines:

Update at 10:57 a.m. ET: Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf denies that his administration struck an agreement with the United States years ago to let U.S. special forces kill or capture Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan, The Associated Press reports.

Let’s drop in on the Guardian and see what the story actually says ...

The US and Pakistan struck a secret deal almost a decade ago permitting a US operation against Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil similar to last week’s raid that killed the al-Qaida leader, the Guardian has learned.

The deal was struck between the military leader General Pervez Musharraf and President George Bush after Bin Laden escaped US forces in the mountains of Tora Bora in late 2001, according to serving and retired Pakistani and US officials.

Under its terms, Pakistan would allow US forces to conduct a unilateral raid inside Pakistan in search of Bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the al-Qaida No3. Afterwards, both sides agreed, Pakistan would vociferously protest the incursion.
...
The deal was struck between Pervez Musharraf and George Bush in 2001 and renewed during the ‘transition to democracy’ – a six-month period from February 2008 when Musharraf was still president but a civilian government had been elected.

The deal puts a new complexion on the political storm triggered by Bin Laden’s death in Abbottabad, 35 miles north of Islamabad, where a team of US navy Seals assaulted his safe house in the early hours of 2 May.

Pakistani officials have insisted they knew nothing of the raid, with military and civilian leaders issuing a strong rebuke to the US. If the US conducts another such assault, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani warned parliament on Monday, “Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force.”

Days earlier, Musharraf, now running an opposition party from exile in London, emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the raid, terming it a “violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan”.

Yeah, this kind of makes sense. You have to put yourself in a Spy vs Spy mindset to see it, but it’s there. Pakistan is caught between Iraq and a hard place (hur hur, tho it’s really Iran). They have no choice other than to be a wobbly ally and a fair weather friend. So a smart President and a spy agency with a cunning plan ("as cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University”, to keep the Blackadder meme going) would make that work to their advantage. And they probably did. Just like this. It almost makes me wonder if that helicopter wasn’t trashed on purpose, to leave a calling card. With false cloaking technology that the Pakis could “capture” and then sell to China for millions, to screw with their heads. While we “demand” it’s return. Nyuk nyuk nyuk nyuk. And of course the Pakis are out there denying it all up and down. While collecting another billion in aide while looking the other way, playing both sides against the middle, as usual. And no one will believe this story, neither our side or the terrorist’s. Which is exactly the plan. Mwahahahahaa!

Yet no matter how many layers of “We know that they know that we know that they know” might be involved here, the 72 Versions business coming out of the White House every day is just too much. Unless it’s actually Joe Biden, not Dick Cheney or Darth Rove, who is the Machiavellian super genius. Um, no. Some things just can not be believed.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/10/2011 at 01:36 PM   
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   Saturday - May 07, 2011

Secret No Longer

Osama Raid Stealth Chopper Secret Tech Lost To China?

LOS ANGELES (KABC)—The last act of the Navy SEAL team before they left the Osama bin Laden compound was to blow up their damaged helicopter that had to be left behind.

Aviation analysts say the remnants of the aircraft reveal they were part of one of the U.S. military’s most closely-guarded secret: A stealth Black Hawk helicopter whose existence was only rumored. It had never been seen in public before.

“This is the first time we’ve seen an operation stealth helicopter,” said Bill Sweetman, editor in chief of Defense Technology International magazine.

Analysts say photos that emerged on the Internet reveal it was no ordinary helicopter.

“One of the things that really stands out is they have a little disk over the motors, which is meant to baffle the sound and deny radar signature,” said Daniel Goure of the think tank Lexington Institute.

Neighbors in the Abbottabad neighborhood where bin Laden’s compound was located told ABC News they did not hear the helicopters Sunday night until they were directly overhead.

“It would be a vague sound,” Goure said. “It might be the sound of a helicopter that was going in the opposite direction. This was designed so the time between hearing the helicopter and the SEALs dropping in on the compound was very short.”

Residents near the bin Laden compound told ABC News that just before the stealth helicopters arrived, all electricity and cellphone service was knocked out and then came back on right after the choppers left.

One key to the chopper’s stealth nature is a secret, heavily-coated, fabric-like material, which children in the neighborhood were seen collecting.

The Chinese military is known to have close relationships with the Pakistani military.

“There are probably people in the Pentagon tonight who are very concerned that pieces of the helicopter may be, even now, on their way to China, because we know that China is trying to make stealth aircraft,” said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke.

The remaining large pieces of the secret U.S. helicopter were trucked away by Pakistani officials Wednesday to an unknown destination.

One of the helicopters was blown apart during the assault, but photographs of the tail section that remained in Pakistan show modifications to quiet noise and reduce chances of radar detection.

The New York Times reports that people in the helicopter industry said the rear section looked nothing like the tail of a regular Black Hawk helicopter. They said it looked like the Black Hawk had added some of the features of the proposed stealth helicopter Comanche, which was canceled by the Pentagon in 2004.

Another reported that the downed helicopter had five or six blades in its tail rotor, as opposed to the usual four in a Black Hawk. That may have permitted operators to slow the rotor speed and reduce the familiar chop-chop sound made by most helicopters.

Daniel Goure, a defense specialist at the Lexington Institute think tank, said the helicopter crash may have been caused by the unusual aerodynamics which came from the aircraft’s modifications.

“It could be much more difficult to fly at slow speed and landing than you would expect from a typical Black Hawk,” Goure said

What is as intriguing as the stealth adaptations is how well they apparently worked. “The attack on bin Laden did not occur in some remote area outside Pakistani control, but in a compound in a city of some 100,000 and less than 100 mi. from a major Pakistani population center like Islamabad, and one occupied by a brigade from the Pakistani army’s second division and the location of the Army’s military academy,” notes analyst Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

The public photos show that the destroyed Black Hawk’s tail features stealth-configured shapes on the boom and the tail-rotor hub fairings, swept stabilizers and a “dishpan” cover over a five- or six-blade tail rotor. It has a silver-loaded infrared (IR) suppression finish similar to that seen on the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey.

Stealth enhancements for rotorcraft are not new and were applied extensively to the Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche, canceled in 2004. Compared with fixed-wing stealth, more emphasis is usually placed on noise and IR signatures.

Link to a drawing that shows the rotor better

We’ll never know what other modifications the main body of that helo had, because it got burned up. And while making a quieter helo is great, and cutting down it’s radar cross section is superb, the part I really like is that with the flip of a switch our guys can shut down their electric power and their phone system remotely. I’m pretty sure that isn’t exactly new; I think the IDF has been doing that for awhile now too, but it sure is neat.

a bit more info at Freep

Posted by Drew458     on 05/07/2011 at 09:07 AM   
Filed Under: • planes, trains, tanks, ships, big machinery, and automobiles • War On Terror •  
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   Monday - May 02, 2011

And on to the expected spin

I followed the Osama story all day long. I heard and read all the stories from everywhere. I noticed with slight wry amusement as the building that was identified late last night as his secret hideout on Google Maps changed to a different building not once, but twice, as the news reports changed from said hideout being right by the front gates of a military academy to 100 yards away, to 500 yards, to 1000 yards and currently to “less than a mile”. The present building, with it’s triangular property, matches up pretty well to the buildings we’re seeing on TV. It’s out past the edge of that Hey Abbot!-tabad town, near to a small neighborhood called Bilal. in the middle of some large acreage of farm fields. Yeah, whatever. For a “million dollar compound” it sure looks like a bare ass concrete dump, and the pictures of the inside that I’ve seen don’t show a standard of living much better than that of a typical semi-homeless college student.

I’ve even heard and read some of the spin that’s already starting on the left. Obama the fearless war hero, doncha know. How this “un-Carters” him and gives him a lock on the 2012 election. As if. It’s all crap, so I’m not going to write about it.

But one image has surfaced a little, a small bit of history from back in the day (February 2009) when he was winning Nobel Prizes and all sorts of worldwide acclaim for the things he was going to do. Expect to see this one more and more. I’ll put the image under the fold, because some might feel the need for eye bleach after seeing it and want to avoid the pain. Prophetic artwork, but as of today it’s come true in a way.

Oy, this is gonna be one tough 18 months until Election Day.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/02/2011 at 08:43 PM   
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Left Wrong As Usual

When Bush was President, we heard an almost daily barrage against the enhanced interrogation practices that he had authorized. Oh, they’re terrible! Oh, it’s awful! And of course, the ever popular Everybody Knows They Don’t Work.

As soon as Obama got in the White House he closed the several secret prisons the US had in other less moral countries where that kind of interrogation took place. It was all an evil Bushism, and had to go!

Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, the story is coming out about the first lead about the courier and his brother, the guys whose trail ultimately allowed our spooks to find that walled compound. That lead came from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and that information was extracted in an enhanced manner in one of those prisons in Romania. Other sources are saying that some of that information came out of Gitmo, another prison that candidate Obama pledged to close and then reneged on. Another guest of Guantanamo Bay, Abu Farag al Liby, is also being named as a source of information; Fox News is saying that it took years of questioning - 5 years?? - to get the information and put the facts together.

Gee, I guess those methods don’t really work after all, huh? We’ll never know exactly when the CIA first got the nicknames of that courier, but in his late night speech last night Obama said that we had been aware of the compound in Pakistan since last August.

Double Gee, what might have happened if Obama had kept that campaign promise and shut the place down right away, well before last August?

The Left: wrong again, as usual.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/02/2011 at 12:07 PM   
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   Sunday - May 01, 2011

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead

10:40pm Eastern Time

Osama Bin Laden is dead, US has the body, proof is in. Where? Pakistan?

Story breaking.

Obama to speak momentarily.

Oh hell yeah.

Michelle Malkin -

News breaking all over the place tonight that Osama bin Laden was killed and that his body is in US possession.

Latest reports via Fox News live right now are that he was killed over a week ago by a US missile.

President Obama to speak any minute. Stand by. 

God bless our military.

Fox News -

Usama bin Laden is dead, multiple sources confirm to Fox News.

President Obama is expected to deliver a statement from the White House Sunday night to discuss the major development.

Sources said bin Laden was killed by a U.S. bomb a week ago. The U.S. had been waiting for the results of a DNA test to confirm his identity.

The announcement comes nearly a decade after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks which started a tireless hunt for the terrorist mastermind and Al Qaeda leader.

A drone attack in Pakistan? Living in a mansion outside of Islamabad Pakistan?

Islamabad is NOT in the “unregulated tribal border area”. It’s the freakin capital.  Which implicates the living heck out of the Pakis, don’t it?

(CNN)—Osama bin Laden is dead, sources told CNN Sunday night.

A senior U.S. official tells CNN that Osama bin Laden was killed by the U.S. forces in a mansion outside the Pakistani capital of Islamabad along with other family members.

Congressional and administration sources say U.S. officials have the body of bin Laden. Further details around his death were not immediately available.

U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to address the nation shortly.

Report coming across Fox News: Pakistan confirms he was killed in Pakistan. Gee, and today Al Qaeda announced their new Spring Offensive.

via Australia -

THE United States is expected to announce that Osama Bin Laden is dead. Rumours of bin Laden’s death were reported on Twitter before the official statement.

Keith Urbahn, Chief of Staff for the Office of Donald Rumsfeld, tweeted: “So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn.”

Minutes later a CBS news reporter tweeted: “House Intelligence committee aide confirms that Osama Bin Laden is dead. US has the body.”

via the Daily Telegraph in London, who, no matter what, stops for a moment to actually write a few decent paragraphs -

By Toby Harden in Washington 4:10AM BST 02 May 2011

Mr Obama was due to address the United States and people across the globe shortly after 11pm local time on Sunday night from the East Room of the White House.

He was expected to say that the Saudi-born Islamist had been killed by an American “asset” and that his body was in US custody in Afghanistan.

Military sources said that bin Laden was killed in a mansion outside Islamabad along with other family members after “actionable intelligence” about his whereabouts was received.

Bin Laden was widely assumed to have been hiding in the remote tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The fact that he was killed close to the Pakistani capital will fuel fears that Pakistan has been giving sanctuary to al-Qaeda leaders.

In the days after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush said that bin Laden was wanted “dead or alive” while Vice President Dick Cheney said he would willingly accept the al-Qaeda leader’s head “on a platter”.

UPDATE: 11:40pm: Obama speaks - “LAST AUGUST WE HAD A LEAD HE WAS IN ISLAMABAD” “Last night we took action” [or did he say last week? I’m sure he meant to] “The United States is not at war with Islam”. Obama is saying that US troops-forces-assets went in, on the ground, shot their way in to the mansion through a firefight, took out bin Laden, and killed or captured others, then took the body. “Justice has been done.”

... and he closes with “One nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. God bless America.” Horry clap. Well, it is a soundbyte for the history books.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/01/2011 at 09:54 PM   
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