Having spoken to some SEAL pals here in Virginia Beach yesterday and asking why this thing dragged out for 4 days, I got the following:
1. BHO wouldnt authorize the DEVGRU/NSWC SEAL teams to the scene for 36 hours going against OSC (on scene commander) recommendation.
2. Once they arrived, BHO imposed restrictions on their ROE that they couldnt do anything unless the hostages life was in imminent danger
3. The first time the hostage jumped, the SEALS had the raggies all sighted in, but could not fire due to ROE restriction
4. When the navy RIB came under fire as it approached with supplies, no fire was returned due to ROE restrictions. As the raggies were shooting at the RIB, they were exposed and the SEALS had them all dialed in.
5. BHO specifically denied two rescue plans developed by the Bainbridge CPN and SEAL teams.
6. Bainbridge CPN and SEAL team CDR finally decide they have the OpArea and OSC authority to solely determine risk to hostage. 4 hours later, 3 dead raggies
7. BHO immediately claims credit for his daring and decisive behaviour. As usual with him, its BS.
#2
The authorization issue here is SOP and I'm rather thankfull DOD followed protocol. The NCA almost always formally orders DOD to follow FBI negotiators until the hostages life is in danger, then it's a judgement call made in the moment by the commander on the scene arround the FBI. This gives cover for the pres if it goes bad. Like him or not, we must always give our pres the ability to isolate himself from an event if it goes bad.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/18/2009 21:34 Comments ||
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Obama has found his soulmates in Chavez, Ortega and Castro.
Posted by: ed ||
04/18/2009 13:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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#1
The one comforting thing in all this is knowing Obama is mean as a snake and can't be trusted. Considering Chavez called Obama a fool a week or so ago and The Big Zero is a devout follower of the Chicago School (Politics, not Economics), I wouldn't turn my back if I were Huge Hugo.
CAN Israel still call the United States its best international friend? Apparently not, if you believe the tone of the local media.
Watching the drama unfold inside Israel, the increasingly tense dialogue between US President Barack Obama and new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking on all the trappings of a duel.
Almost every day brings news of another sore point between the two countries, a source of yet further inflammation of their once warm relations.
One could be forgiven for thinking that the more immediate threat to Israel's national security lay across the Atlantic rather than from closer to home.
It is bad enough that President Obama uses almost every opportunity he can to set the parameters of a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Now US officials are openly using Israeli anxiety over Iran's fledging nuclear program as a bargaining chip to force Israel's hand on giving up control of the West Bank Palestinian territory.
No less a figure than White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel whose father fought with the militant Zionist group the Irgun, and whose appointment had provided such reassurance to Israeli officials was quoted this week laying down the law to Israel.
If Israel wants US help to defuse the Iranian threat, Mr Emanuel was reported to have told Jewish leaders in Washington, then get ready to start evacuating settlements in the West Bank.
Talkback radio blazed with fury across the country the same day, as Israelis protested that no US official had the right to tell them where to live.
Then on Thursday came the news that Mr Netanyahu's planned first meeting with President Obama in Washington next month had been called off.
Mr Netanyahu had hoped to capitalise on his attendance at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington to visit the White House.
But Administration officials informed Mr Netanyahu's office that the President would not be "in town".
Washington sources added that the Obama Administration would not be continuing the tradition that had developed during the Bush years of hosting Israeli prime ministers whenever they showed up in town, sometimes with just a phone call's notice.
It might have been no more than coincidence, but yesterday Israeli defence officials told the liberal daily Haaretz that Israel's $US15 billion ($A21 billion) purchase of 75 US-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets was now under review due to "the unexpected high cost and disagreements with the manufacturer".
Contrary to initial expectations, President Obama has wasted no time becoming fully engaged in the Middle East peace process, despite the magnitude of his domestic political agenda. While Mr Netanyahu has refused to endorse a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict agreed to by his predecessor, President Obama has made it abundantly clear that the US will accept nothing less than Israel living side by side with a sovereign Palestinian state.
Mr Obama is also demanding a freeze on Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank, and has dropped the Bush administration's opposition to Hamas being part of a future Palestinian Authority government.
According to prominent Israeli political commentator Maya Bengal, who writes for the country's second-largest selling newspaper Maariv, the holiday is over.
"As Passover comes to an end, so comes to an end, it seems, the days of grace granted to the Netanyahu Government by the American Administration," says the commentator.
Tel Aviv barman Meir Avraham, 30, says he can feel on the street the tensions being played out between the US and Israel.
"This is one of the the main things that the people are talking about at the moment," says Mr Avraham, who recently returned to Israel after several months in Townsville.
All Israelis, says Mr Avraham, understand the vital nature of the relationship between Israel and the US. "If we lose America, then we are alone," he says. "So we must listen to what America wants. But really I think this is more about the little brother testing the limits of the big brother."
#1
Rest assured every, soon to be former, ally will get their turn on Obama's Marxist Smart Diplomacy machine.
Posted by: ed ||
04/18/2009 17:35 Comments ||
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#2
Israel has been on its own since our election. Zero not only believes Iran is "just a tiny country" with limited technology (thereby rendering them harmless or at the least not terribly dangerous), but I honestly think he considers them to be rational. I know they're batshit crazy, you know they're batshit crazy and the moron in the Whitehouse got himself a brand new puppy.
It just might be that Israel is better off without us.
EPA Finds Greenhouse Gases Pose Threat to Public Health, Welfare / Proposed Finding Comes in Response to 2007 Supreme Court Ruling Note: This is the original 'news' that the BBC completely butchered...
(Washington, D.C. -- April 17, 2009) After a thorough scientific review ordered in 2007 by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a proposed finding Friday that greenhouse gases contribute to air pollution that may endanger public health or welfare.
The proposed finding, which now moves to a public comment period, identified six greenhouse gases that pose a potential threat.
"This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations. Fortunately, it follows President Obama's call for a low carbon economy and strong leadership in Congress on clean energy and climate legislation," said Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "This pollution problem has a solution -- one that will create millions of green jobs and end our country's dependence on foreign oil."
As the proposed endangerment finding states, "In both magnitude and probability, climate change is an enormous problem. The greenhouse gases that are responsible for it endanger public health and welfare within the meaning of the Clean Air Act."
EPA's proposed endangerment finding is based on rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific analysis of six gases -- Yeah...uh-huh
carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride -- that have been the subject of intensive analysis by scientists around the world. The science clearly shows that concentrations of these gases are at unprecedented levels as a result of human emissions, and these high levels are very likely the cause of the increase in average temperatures and other changes in our climate.
The scientific analysis also confirms that climate change impacts human health in several ways. Isn't the term 'science' becoming a bit of a non sequitor like 'journalist'??? (Though not funny at all)
Findings from a recent EPA study titled "Assessment of the Impacts of Global Change on Regional U.S. Air Quality: A Synthesis of Climate Change Impacts on Ground-Level Ozone," for example, suggest that climate change may lead to higher concentrations of ground-level ozone, a harmful pollutant. Additional impacts of climate change include, but are not limited to:
increased drought;
more heavy downpours and flooding;
more frequent and intense heat waves and wildfires;
greater sea level rise;
more intense storms; and
harm to water resources, agriculture, wildlife and ecosystems.
In proposing the finding, Administrator Jackson also took into account the disproportionate impact climate change has on the health of certain segments of the population, such as the poor, the very young, the elderly, those already in poor health, the disabled, those living alone and/or indigenous populations dependent on one or a few resources.
In addition to threatening human health, the analysis finds that climate change also has serious national security implications. Consistent with this proposed finding, in 2007, 11 retired U.S. generals and admirals signed a report from the Center for a New American Security stating that climate change "presents significant national security challenges for the United States." Escalating violence in destabilized regions can be incited and fomented by an increasing scarcity of resources -- including water. This lack of resources, driven by climate change patterns, then drives massive migration to more stabilized regions of the world.
The proposed endangerment finding now enters the public comment period, which is the next step in the deliberative process EPA must undertake before issuing final findings. Today's proposed finding does not include any proposed regulations. Before taking any steps to reduce greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, EPA would conduct an appropriate process and consider stakeholder input. Notwithstanding this required regulatory process, both President Obama and Administrator Jackson have repeatedly indicated their preference for comprehensive legislation to address this issue and create the framework for a clean energy economy. We're all screwed.
Will everyone who has been exhaling sulfur hexafluoride please return to your home world before the EPA does anything stupider than issue press releases like this.
To take one example, the poor are at additional health risk because they are poor. Jacking up the cost of energy and implementing new regulatory restrictions on energy use will make them poorer. Hence at greater health risk.
And the millions of green jobs is an out and out lie. A recent study from Spain showed one green job required a half million dollars in subsidies.
2 million green jobs would require a trillion dollars in subsidies paid from taxes which would destroy far more jobs.
#7
Let's see: increased drought would be offset by more heavy downpours and flooding;
then more frequent and intense heat waves and wildfires would be put out by greater sea level rise;
wait adamminit! Are they picking and choosing out of Revelations? Where's the earthquakes and hail hellfire? Wotta buncha maroons!
#8
clearly the accumulation of greenhouse gases attracts life-killing asteroids like flies to poop. It's Consensusy!. It's Science!1!!
Deny and you won't like the Re-education Camps, Comrades
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2009 9:51 Comments ||
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#9
Your comments truly phrase the reality of this report, that was literally filtered in press 'rewrites'. It's ridiculous from every perspective, seemingly written by a staff assistant rather than ANYONE of intelligent cloth (scientist or otherwise).
We've all heard about the THOUSANDS of scientists that object to these sort of findings...
Let's hope that the manipulation of the press by releasing this report late on a Friday while everyone was still talking about the tea parties & the DHS report (even Drudge isn't carrying this) doesn't dampen the public's reaction.
Smoke & mirrors. Everytime Zero's got an agenda, they do something to distract and pull something like this off to the side. We should all be more aware of this tactic.
#11
The proposed endangerment finding now enters the public comment period, which is the next step in the deliberative process EPA must undertake before issuing final findings.
So where can I comment?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/18/2009 14:17 Comments ||
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#12
As an actual scientist ('Chemist' isn't just my posting name, I actually am one - B.Sc. and Ph.D.), I am utterly horrified by what 'experts' try to pass off as 'science'.
More Vikings are going to roam the seas due to global warming
Posted by: European Conservative ||
04/18/2009 14:47 Comments ||
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#14
and to add to Chemist...As one with advanced degrees in physics and meteorology (and computer science for that matter), I totally reject AGW "theory"...as do a large number of my colleagues. In 3 to 5 years this whole discussion will be moot. The Arctic ice pack will become well above the 30 year average, global temperatures will continue the general downtrend, and mother nature will have the last laugh at the AGW crowd's expense.
#17
Ima gonna invest in Angel Flight slacks, Man-purses, and platform shoe companies. You'll be seeing me on Easy Street, driving a tricked out Delorean, babies!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/18/2009 20:44 Comments ||
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#18
Unload the trunk over here in Phoenix, Frank. It'll pay for the car.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/18/2009 20:52 Comments ||
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#19
Disco wasn't so bad except for the music, the dancing, the clothes and the hair.. umm what was I saying?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
04/18/2009 21:08 Comments ||
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#20
Remember that a cardinal rule of MMGW is that it has *no* negative case. That is, nothing exists or can exist that is evidence that MMGW isn't happening.
Therefore, if the Earth is warming up, it is because of MMGW; but if the Earth is cooling down, it is because of MMGW. I actually mean this literally. What they call "climate" is so divorced from reality that it only exists in their models.
And they feel free to adjust their models as needed to verify their "science" proves MMGW.
In other words, MMGW is indistinguishable from magic.
#22
It should be quite entertaining when the world cools enough to interfere with the growing period at the edges of arable lands. Just a day or two should be enough for crops to start failing, or at least yield less than normal.
Wonder how these clowns will blame Bush for that?
And how much they'll raise our taxes in response to worldwide food shortages?
Pitchfork. Tar. Feathers. Some assembly required. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/18/2009 22:22 Comments ||
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#23
#11 Bobby:
"Got something to say about the EPAs finding that greenhouse gases are a threat to public health and welfare? Youve got 60 days to speak, or forever hold your peace.
Heres how to submit written comments:
Email: GHG-Endangerment-Docket@epa.gov
Fax: 202.566.1741
Snail mail:
Environmental Protection Agency
EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC)
Mailcode 6102T
Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0171
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC, 20460
In person:
EPA Docket Centers Public Reading Room
EPA West Building, Room 3334
1301 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20004
There will also be two public hearings on the finding next month, one on each coast:
May 18 in Arlington, Va., at the EPAs Potomac Yard Conference Center
May 21 in Seattle, Wash., at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center"
It's from a source I don't know, but it looks right.
Have at it.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/18/2009 22:26 Comments ||
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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.
