#5
Actually this is FLIR gun camera footage (Forward Looking InfraRed), these are showing up as white because of the heat radiation their body is emitting compared to the relatively cold background.
#1
General STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL (U.S. Commander, Afghanistan): ... I think when we err on the side of maturity and caution, there is a cost. And I know that we're asking an extraordinary amount from them to operate with such restraint and self-discipline, but I think it's how we win the war.
BOWMAN: So, that being said, there's still a widespread frustration among the troops, of feeling that their hands are tied in going after insurgents
Talk about a "fuster cluck"!! Obama and McChrystal are effectively making it impossible for us to do anything in Afghanistan except loose.
The problem for McChrystal is that every war has two fronts. The American people may well not pay the cost of "maturity and caution". Then he can write in his memories that it wasn't his fault that he chose to implement a program that lost the support of the people. It'll take just one debacle and serious casualties with the mother-may-I constraints that basically kills our soldiers or marines to lose it. He can keep it under the radar with small hits here and there, but one real big stupid fur ball and its basically over keeping the lid on.
#4
Afghanistan used to be half Buddhist and half Zoroastrian. I doubt the conversions were much more non-violent that any others.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2009 1:50 Comments ||
Top||
#5
If we ARCLIGHTed a few Afghan "cities", there wouldn't be any more problem. Karzai would have to change clothes three times a day, but what's wrong with that? We need to tell that bearded little SOB that we're going to win this F***ing war, one way or another. He can either cooperate or die. Of course, we'd need another Eisenhower as president for something like that to happen.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/12/2009 3:32 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Easy Fred, you are going to scare folks with big words -the Z whats? Actually you have apoint - except those guys came to take aver and stay. The AIM is to hand over to a stable peaceful western leaning govenment (or is it?)Targetting therefore has to be veeerrrrrryy careful rabbit -in order to do that
[Maghrebia] Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb demanded the release of jailed members in exchange for three Spanish aid workers kidnapped in Mauritania, Spanish press reported on Thursday (December 10th). In an audio tape released on Wednesday, the terrorist group said that the three hostages were in "good health" and had been taken to "security bases". Some security sources believe the aid workers are being held in Northern Mali. The three Spanish nationals, including one woman, were kidnapped on November 29th in Mauritania while travelling in a solidarity caravan along the Nouadhibou-Nouakchott road. On December 8th, al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[Iran Press TV Latest] Saudi Arabia has detained 1,805 refugees near its border with Yemen where it has deployed thousands of troops to help Sana'a clamp down on Shia Houthi fighters.
The Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat cited senior Saudi military sources as claiming that the detainees arrested in the last 10 days had "infiltrated the Saudi-Yemen border."
The paper also cited the military source as saying Saudi forces were continuing to bombard Houthi positions in the mountainous border region from both land and air.
Riyadh insists that all its military operations are being carried out on the Saudi side of the border, without crossing into Yemen. The Houthis however accuse the neighboring powerhouse of targeting civilians in villages which are kilometers away from the border with relentless airstrikes and heavy artillery fire.
In November, the Shia fighters called the international community to take action against the "atrocities" committed in the violence-stricken region, warning that the joint Saudi-Yemeni offensive has placed the civilian population on the verge of a humanitarian disaster.
Sana'a launched massive military action on August 11 in the northern province of Sa'ada to quell the Houthi fighters who accuse the government of discrimination and repression of Yemen's Shia minority.
The so-called Operation Scorched Earth has so far killed hundreds of people and forced tens of thousands of civilians out of their homes.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Yet another group of "Middle Eastern" men on a plane, acting strangely. False alarm, dry run, an unfunny "joke"?
The problem is that an MSM that seriously expected us to swallow the pre-traumatic stress disorder explanation for the Ft Hood massacre just can't be trusted to report the facts honestly.
Aim is to both test methods as well as desensitize people from Muslims Acting Strangely (at least to westerners) to the point where Airlines, Passengers, and Officals are no longer alarmed by their actions.
If they and CAIR can silence people with fear of Lawfare so much the better.
#3
Aim is to both test methods as well as desensitize people from Muslims Acting Strangely (at least to westerners) to the point where Airlines, Passengers, and Officals are no longer alarmed by their actions.
Well, it isn't going to work with some of us. I usually carry a pair knee-high woolen socks, one inside the other, and a very hard bar of soap in my carry on dittybag. Any of these sh!tbags pull this crap on a flight I am on and I'm going psycho on them. Call it temporary insanity.
Posted by: Boss Sperong8928 ||
12/12/2009 3:38 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Seems like there is a lot of this going on lately.
[Geo News] US officials have claimed that Abu Yahya al Libi, a key leader of al Qaeda, has been killed in Tuesday's airstrike in South Waziristan.
Local Talibans and government officials have rejected the killing.
A US drone targeted a vehicle by launching two missiles in Sipalga area, 12 kilometers from Miranshah, North Waziristan. Three people including two foreigners had been killed in the attack.
The US officials have claimed that one of the dead is wanted leader of Al-Qaeda Abu Yahya al Libi. Libi had fled from a US detention facility in Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in 2005.
The US had put a bounty of one million dollars for his arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Update
Sources tell CBS News the al Qaeda operative believed killed in a drone strike in Pakistan this week is Saleh al-Somali, who was in charge of external operations for the group. He was considered one of a half dozen top Qaeda operatives.
Saleh al-Somali's position as al Qaeda's external operations boss means he was in charge of plotting against the U.S. and Europe, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.
Earlier, Pakistan media had incorrectly reported that the strike killed al Qaeda's number 3 in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi.
Previously, al-Somali had worked in tribal areas of Pakistan with newly arrived Westerners recruited by al Qaeda.
Intelligence officials have confirmed that the pace of attacks by armed unmanned aerial vehicles, conducted largely by the CIA, has increased during the Obama administration.
The strikes have fanned anti-American sentiment in Pakistan because they have caused many civilian deaths. Since Jan. 28, 2008, there have been at least 67 suspected U.S. missile strikes into Pakistan, killing more than 721 people. Intelligence officials believe that at least 56 were militants, according to Pakistani intelligence officials and witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press after each strike.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/12/2009 8:14 Comments ||
Top||
#3
the dreaded #3
You think you had some crappy jobs?
Scott Adams points to the best and worst jobs in the world.
Yet another third highest ranking al-Qaida leader has been killed, this time by a rocket attack from an unmanned drone. There are a lot of jobs that I wouldnt want, and third highest ranking al-Qaida leader is right at the top. But I can tell you for sure that if I ever got that job, the first thing Id do is narc out one of the top two guys so I could move up a notch. Apparently one of the perks of being in the top two is having a really, really good hiding place. The number 3 through 10 leadership guys are pretty much scurrying between mud huts and looking at the sky a lot.
. . .
Maybe its just a guy thing but the idea of blowing up a mud hut by remote controlled drone sounds like the most fun thing I can think of. And if the number 3 al-Qaida leader happens to be inside, thats a bonus. It certainly makes your story sound less nerdy afterwards.
I find it interesting that the guy with the best job in the world gets to blow up the guy with the worst job in the world. Thats really rubbing it in. But I guess its not so different from a CEO downsizing the auditing department. Its one of those recurring themes in life.
[Dawn] The Gujrat police have arrested 448 illegal Afghan immigrants and registered cases against 98 under the Foreign Act.
District police officer Tariq Abbas Quereshi said that the police launched a search operation on Wednesday to collect the details of the Afghan refugees residing illegally in the Gujrat district.
The police arrested 448 Afghan as they failed to show their identity or refugee cards.
The DPO said that the department has registered cases against 98 under the Foreign Act. The sources said that the police launched the search operation following the arrest of three suspected suicide bombers from Jehlum district last week.
One was arrested from Bilal Town area, which is some four kilometres away from the district government offices, while two from Tehsil Dina, some eight kilometres away from the Tehsil Jehlum.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] At least five people have been injured including a former MNA in a hand-grenade attack in Sarai Norang area of Lakki Marwat district on Friday.
According to some sources, an unidentified man riding on a bicycle hurled a hand-grenade near an under-construction petrol station. However, other sources said that the explosive device was planted on the bicycle.
The injured also include a former MNA Nasir Muhammad Khan and have been shifted to Civil Hospital Norang.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[Dawn] US intelligence shows militants linked to al Qaeda and other groups have been fleeing South Waziristan in the face of a Pakistani military offensive, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday.
'We see some evidence in the intelligence that they (Pakistani forces) are forcing al Qaeda and some of the other terrorists out of South Waziristan and they're fleeing, and some of them are talking about going back into Afghanistan,' Gates told US troops during a visit to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.
'They've kind of stirred up the nest there, and I think that's a good thing.'
Gates praised what he called 'significant military operations (by Pakistan) that have only increased in size and tempo' in recent months.
'The Paks, I think, are doing a good job of putting pressure on their side of the border and we're obviously going to do an even better job of putting pressure on the Afghan side the border,' Gates said, referring to US President Barack Obama's decision to deploy 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
The Pakistani army is battling militants linked to al Qaeda in South Waziristan. Militants have hit back with attacks in Pakistani cities.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
#1
According to BBC Pakwakiland just ended the South Waziristan op.
[Dawn] Pakistan's military on Friday killed 20 insurgents and destroyed hideouts in northwest regions where they are pressing an ambitious offensive against the Taliban, officials said.
Armed forces this year launched multiple operations across the northwest tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, the stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban and a haven for Al-Qaeda fighters and other militants.
In Orakzai district in the centre of the tribal belt, nine militants were killed and two hideouts destroyed in airstrikes on the villages of Ghiljo and Mamoonzai, paramilitary force spokesman major Fazalur Rehman told AFP.
The UN said Friday that more than 40,000 civilians had fled the military operation in Orakzai and were in need of humanitarian assistance.
In neighbouring Khyber district, which is on the main land route to Afghanistan, seven militants were killed in a shoot-out with Pakistani troops at Shalobar village, officials in the area said.
Separately, in northwestern Swat valley outside the tribal belt but also the focus of a military offensive, troops killed four militants.
They included a man named as a local militant commander, Bacha Akbar, military spokesman Major Mushtaq Khan told AFP.
The army claims to have cleared Swat valley of the militant threat in a spring offensive, although sporadic militant attacks and clashes continue.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[Ma'an] Egyptian authorities took over three smuggling tunnels on the border between Gaza and Egypt on Thursday.
Egyptian security sources told Ma'an that "one of the tunnels was seized inside an Egyptian smuggler's home in the Salah Ad-Din area on the border. No goods were seized."
Two other tunnels were discovered in an empty plot of land without finding any goods there, either. No one was arrested.
Meanwhile, an American military delegation visited the border area on Thursday, among them three military figures including Walid Naser, a Lebanese-American officer who during his monthly visit supervised the network of tunnel sensors.
Naser was accompanied by the naval and military attaches at the US Embassy in Cairo. The delegation checked the border area and followed up on the installation of sensors in the tunnels.
Egypt and Israel placed the Gaza Strip under a blockade in June 2007, slashing imports, banning exports, and prohibiting Palestinians in Gaza from leaving.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/12/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#2
Thor---the tunnels cannot keep up with the volume required by a Costco or Wal-Mart. That is why they are not established in Gaza yet. Also, the Hannah Montana clothing line is not halal.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/12/2009 1:03 Comments ||
Top||
THAI authorities have detained five people who landed in Bangkok in an east European cargo plane full of heavy weapons that originated in North Korea.
The plane's pilot asked to land at Bangkok's domestic Don Mueang airport on Saturday morning, and on inspecting the aircraft Thai officials found the cache, government spokesman Panitan Wattanayakorn said.
"An eastern European airline asked to land this morning at Don Mueang airport to refuel its tank. When Thai authorities examined the aircraft they found a lot of weapons and detained up to five people," Panitan said.
He later said the weapons had been transferred to Takhli Air Force base in the central Thai province of Nakhon Sawan.
Lieutenant General Thangai Prasajaksattru, commander of Thailand's Central Investigation Bureau, confirmed that five men from eastern Europe had been detained, but he did not yet know their nationalities.
"There were a lot of weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), missiles and other war weapons," he said.
National television channels reported that four of the detained men are from Kazakhstan and one is from Belarus, and said that US officials had tipped off Thai authorities before they found the cache.
But a spokesman for the US Embassy in Bangkok, Michael Turner, said he was unaware of the incident.
Air Force spokesman Captain Montol Suchookorn and special branch police said the chartered cargo plane originated in North Korea's capital Pyongyang.
"According to my information, the flight originated from North Korea. It was a cargo flight that requested to land at the civilian side of the airport," Montol said, adding that the Air Force was continuing to guard the aircraft.
AOT, Thailand's aviation authority, said Don Mueang airport remained open to passengers.
#3
Not so much interested in where it was going as to why it took off without enough fuel to get to its destination. The pilot requested emergency refueling in Bangkok.
That airport is 2300 nautical miles from Pyongyang. Maximum range of an Il-76 is 1970 nautical miles with full payload. 40 tons of arms is about half payload. So this looks like either a "planned emergency" or they couldn't make it to their planned refuel stop. Speculation is the destination of the plane was Sri Lanka or Pakistan. The plane would not have been able to make it non-stop to either destination from Pyongyang. So they either had a refueling planned for somewhere else and couldn't make it for some reason, they planned all along to have an "emergency" in Bangkok, they were shorted on their fuel load in Pyongyang, or the pilot intentionally dumped some fuel to create an emergency.
My guess is they planned all along to have an "emergency". Rather than file required paperwork and plan for a stop in Bangkok and possibly have to answer inconvenient questions about the nature of their flight, they might have decided to have an "emergency" refueling making a bet the airport there would simply top them off and allow them on their way without asking a lot of questions.
#4
"they might have decided to have an "emergency" refueling making a bet the airport there would simply top them off and allow them on their way without asking a lot of questions"
Oops. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/12/2009 10:06 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Crosspatch - very thoughtful, but why not Burma? I thought the Nkors were in cahoots in some ways with Burma, and certainly the burmese are more approachable?
Also, why Sri Lanka has the destination? Are they still under embargo, and having own their war couldn't they simply wait a bit for resupply - OR, would this have been a LTTE order?
Good to see the embassy is out of the loop for now.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Maghrebia] Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb demanded the release of jailed members in exchange for three Spanish aid workers kidnapped in Mauritania, Spanish press reported on Thursday (December 10th). In an audio tape released on Wednesday, the terrorist group said that the three hostages were in "good health" and had been taken to "security bases". Some security sources believe the aid workers are being held in Northern Mali. The three Spanish nationals, including one woman, were kidnapped on November 29th in Mauritania while travelling in a solidarity caravan along the Nouadhibou-Nouakchott road. On December 8th, al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Saudi Arabia has detained 1,805 refugees near its border with Yemen where it has deployed thousands of troops to help Sana'a clamp down on Shia Houthi fighters. 
[Geo News] US officials have claimed that Abu Yahya al Libi, a key leader of al Qaeda, has been killed in Tuesday's airstrike in South Waziristan. 
[Dawn] Pakistan's military on Friday killed 20 insurgents and destroyed hideouts in northwest regions where they are pressing an ambitious offensive against the Taliban, officials said.
