Archive for the ‘World War 4’ Category
A U.S. Soldier, center, with the 101st Airborne Division, returns fire with a M249 light machine gun during combat operations in the valley of Barawala Kalet, Kunar province, Afghanistan March 29, 2011. (DoD photo by Pfc. Cameron Boyd, U.S. Army/Released)
Who’s the guy on the left?
For al-Qaida, Detroit was just the cheapest flight
When an admitted al-Qaida operative planned his itinerary for a Christmas 2009 airline bombing, he considered launching the strike in the skies above Houston or Chicago, The Associated Press has learned. But tickets were too expensive, so he refocused the mission on a cheaper destination: Detroit.
When I’ve said (in conversation) that my family is included in the list of legitimate targets kept by our enemies, I’ve been told that I have nothing to worry about because Murdoc doesn’t live near any real high-profile targets. Well, what if flights into Gerald R Ford International are discounted?
From December: Baltimore man accused of plotting to blow up military recruiting station in Md.
A man who recently became a Mennonite tried to blow up a military recruiting station in Maryland.
Hah hah. Just kidding (which you knew):
Antonio Martinez, 21, a U.S. citizen who recently converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Hussain, declared on his Facebook page that he hates “Any 1 who opposes Allah.”
[The] FBI learned of his radical leanings on Facebook, joined his plot and supplied him with a fake car bomb that he tried to detonate, federal officials said.
Also mentioned in the article:
Last month, undercover agents in Oregon helped a man who set out to kill thousands at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony prepare a bomb (which was fake), then arrested him after he tried to detonate it in a crowded public square. In October, federal agents posing as Islamic radicals met with a Northern Virginia man later accused of plotting to bomb Washington area Metro stations.
The guy in Oregon is a Baptist and the Virginia would-be metro bomber is a Catholic Tea Party member.
No they’re not.
Last week, MO pointed out a Military.com story about how the Army wants more XM25 grenade guns and that they’ve nick-named it the ‘Punisher.’
Kit Up! learned, however, that while the XM-25 is impressive, the weapon had been fired a few more than 50 times in less than 10 engagements and had chalked up only two suspected kills.
Though not a bad start, it’s certainly not a sample size large enough to guarantee success.
The XM-25 has fired 55 rounds in nine firefights between Dec. 3 and January 12, when the formal Forward Operational Assessment ended. Officials say the weapon “disrupted” two insurgent attacks against an observation post, destroying one PKM machine gun position in one of those attacks. That is where the ”usually our engagements last for 15-20 minutes. With the XM-25 they’re over in a few minutes” line came from.
The XM-25 also “destroyed” four ambush sites during engagements on foot patrols or movements to contact. In one instance, the 25mm HE round exploded on a PKM gunner and he was either wounded and fled or scared and fled, but dropped his machine gun, which Soldiers later recovered.
Though the details aren’t given, it sounds as if it could have been a “direct hit” and yet the target was able to flee. That certainly won’t do anything to convince those who wonder if the 25mm rounds are powerful enough. It could be a case where the explosions simply surprised and frightened the target into running off. If the lethality of the XM25 isn’t there, it won’t take long for the enemy to learn that its bark is a lot worse than its bite.
Of course, maybe it wasn’t anything like a “direct hit” and these concerns are not valid.
Wikileaks bastard thinks people who tattle deserve to die:
When pressed by journalists to redact the names of informants mentioned in Afghan war documents then about to be released by WikiLeaks, Assange initially refused.
“Well, they’re informants,” he said, according to the journalists’ account. “So, if they get killed, they’ve got it coming to them. They deserve it.”
So says a guy who’s made his life’s work tattling.
He later did redact the names.
“You are in a very beneficial position if you can be martyred without dying,” he told BBC 4.
Um, Julian, who said anything about not dying, now that you mention it?
Remember, we’ve been assured that the Mexican border has nothing to do with the war.
Radical Muslim Cleric Slips into U.S. Through Mexico
The Tunisian imam (Said Jaziri), who has an international criminal past, paid $5,000 to get smuggled across the border near San Diego, according to a local newspaper that says it all went down just a few weeks ago. Jaziri only got caught because firefighters in the area tipped off the U.S. Border Patrol after they saw him and a Mexican man get into a car trunk in a renowned smuggling pickup area.
If they’ve caught this one, how many got through? Is it 100-to-1? 1000-to-1?
Murdoc has trouble thinking of any issue facing America that requires more immediate attention and effort than the Mexican border.
Story on Military.com today: ‘Punisher’ Gives Enemy No Place to Hide
By all accounts, the futuristic XM-25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System has been quite a rude surprise for the bad guys.
“I don’t know what we’re eventually going to call this product, but it seems to be game changing,” said the commander of the Army’s Program Executive Office Soldier, Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, during a Feb. 2 briefing with reporters at the Pentagon. “You no longer can shoot at American forces and hide behind something. We’re going to reach out and touch you.”
After years of XM-25 development, last fall the 101st Airborne submitted an urgent request to field the weapon for troops on patrol in Afghanistan. In response the Army took the five weapons it had been testing at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md., added 1,000 hand-made explosive rounds and shipped them to the war zone in October of 2010.
The claim is that the five prototypes have had no maintenance issues but that one outstanding issue is the rechargeable battery power supply.
The ammo is currently running $1,000 per round (yes, you read that right) but claims are that it could drop to $35 per round if/when mass production starts. The Army wants to buy 36 more XM35s, but it’s uncertain whether they’ll get them and it will take up to a year to get them into the field.
If the thing really works as well as they’re claiming, they’d better find a way to speed that up.
A Soldier aims an XM25 weapon system at Aberdeen Test Center, Md.
Plot to blow up Dearborn mosque foiled by tip to police
Not a Tea Party disciple of Beck and Limbaugh and Palin.
He didn’t “just snap.” He’d been snapped for quite a while.
Don’t see a lot of photos of these guys:
French soldiers from the 7th Mountain Infantry Battalion (7eme Bataillon de Chasseurs Alpins) walk during a patrol near Tagab in Kapisa province on January 26, 2011.
Another below:
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Iraq’s Air Force Is unprepared to defend country
While Baghdad has made it clear it doesn’t want the U.S. to extend its troop presence in the country after 2011, Iraq’s Air Force won’t ready to maintain air sovereignty any time in the foreseeable future, experts said.
Last year, the government announced its intention of purchasing 18 F-16 Block 52 multi-role interceptors in an effort to fast track its way to an effective air defense, but delivery will only begin in 2013 and even this date is reportedly being pushed back, they said
“I don’t think the U.S. Air Force will be able to leave Iraq for at least five years, as there’s no way that the Iraqis alone will be able to deal with any kind of air threat for this period,” said Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Musa Qallab, an independent defense expert and former program manager for Gulf Cooperation Council Defense Issues Gulf Research Center in Dubai.
