A News Aggregator That Covers The World's Major Wars And Conflicts. Military, Political, And Intelligence News Are Also Covered. Occasionally We Will Have Our Own Opinions Or Observations To Make.
Soldiers have been told they should be able to continuing wearing their uniform "with pride"
Woolwich Attack: Troops Advised Not To Wear Uniform Outside Bases -- The Telegraph
Commanders have advised troops not to wear uniform travelling to and from work or outside bases following the brutal killing of a member of the military close to Woolwich barracks.
Defence sources said the order had been given that uniform should not be worn by those travelling alone, or on public transport as a "common sense precaution" immediately after the killing
A source stressed the order was temporary while investigations into the killing carried on and the decision would be reviewed in the next few days.
Col Richard Kemp, who commanded British forces in Afghanistan, said it would be a mistake to reinstate an earlier permanent bar on military personnel wearing uniforms in public. That ban was put in force because of an IRA campaign in the 1970s and 1980s to target personnel in Britain, Germany and Holland.
Blood On The Streets Of Woolwich -- Anthony Lane, The New Yorker
If you came across this footage as you were browsing the Web, you would not immediately know what you were watching. You might mistake it for a stunt, or a setup, or even a promotional clip for an upcoming film. Even when you discovered what it actually represented, you could be forgiven for finding it unreal.
The footage is British. It was Wednesday afternoon in Woolwich, a district of southeast London. The man addressing the camera has yet to be named, but he is not a figure easily forgotten. He wears jeans, a dark jacket with the hood back, and a black knit cap, but his hands are bright red all over. The right hand is free; the left carries a knife and a meat cleaver, also covered in blood. He gesticulates, using both hands to reinforce what he is saying. Some of his statement has been elided for legal reasons (in Britain, the media is not supposed to broadcast confessions), but this is a text of what can be heard in the clip:
Photo: Named: The MoD today revealed that the soldier slaughtered yesterday was Lee Rigby, who served with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
Pictured: Soldier, 25, Slaughtered In The Street By Muslim Fanatics Who Was A 'Loving Father To Two-Year-Old Son' -- Daily Mail
* Lee Rigby hit by a car on the pavement before being brutally murdered
* Drummer Rigby was 'a loving father' to his two-year-old son Jack
* He died just 200 yards away from the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich
* Two suspects with blood on their hands were shot by police and arrested
* One of the suspects is identified as Michael Adebolajo, 28
The murdered soldier who was executed close to a military barracks by two Islamist fanatics was today named as Lee Rigby.
Police were this afternoon guarding the 25-year-old serviceman's home in Middleton, Greater Manchester, who was described as a 'loving father' to his son Jack, two.
Drummer Lee Rigby was just starting his Army career and had recently fought in Afghanistan with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
But as he walked towards the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, south-east London yesterday afternoon, he was run down by a car on the pavement and hacked to death.
DR Congo: M23 Rebels Declare Truce For Ban Ki-Moon Visit -- BBC
M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have declared a ceasefire for UN chief Ban Ki-moon's visit to the conflict-hit area, a spokesman for the group says.
Mr Ban has arrived in the regional capital Goma, where one person was killed in a rocket attack on Wednesday.
He was deeply concerned by the renewed fighting, Mr Ban said.
Earlier, the World Bank unveiled a $1bn (£660m) aid package to help DR Congo and its neighbours.
World Bank head Jim Yong Kim, who is also visiting DR Congo, said the money would be used for health, education, cross-border trade and hydroelectricity projects.
At least 20 people have been killed since Monday in heavy fighting between government and M23 forces.
Islamists Kill 20 In Suicide Attacks In Niger -- Reuters
(Reuters) - Islamist suicide bombers struck a barracks and a French-run uranium mine in Niger on Thursday, officials said, killing 20 people and wounding dozens in attacks that showed armed unrest spreading across West Africa.
In Agadez, the largest town in northern Niger, at least 20 soldiers were killed and 16 injured when suicide bombers attacked a barracks at dawn, Defense Minister Mahamadou Karidjo told state radio. Three Islamists were also killed.
After a fierce gunbattle, security forces returned the town to calm but one attacker was still holding soldiers hostage, military sources and local officials said.
Further north in Arlit, at least 14 civilians were injured and two Islamists killed in a car bomb attack at the Somair uranium mine operated by run by French nuclear group Areva, the minister said.
Drones, Guantanamo Part Of Broad Obama Counterterrorism Speech -- CBS
President Obama on Thursday will deliver a major speech on his counterterrorism policies, addressing everything from drone strikes and the status of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, to continuing efforts to fight al Qaeda and the legal framework for the continuing "war on terror."
In the substantive speech to be delivered at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., Mr. Obama will announce plans to restart transfers of Guantanamo Bay prisoners to third countries. Before their transfer, the prisoners would have to be cleared for release, and the U.S. would have to be satisfied that an oversight and monitoring program is in place. The president will lift the prohibition on potential transfers to Yemen, but Congress may attempt to block this move.
U.S. Marines conduct a combat logistics patrol to Forward Operating Base Shukvani in Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 19, 2013. The Marines, assigned to Rolling Thunder 2, Combat Logistics Regiment 2, conducted the logistics patrol to deliver supplies in support of Regimental Combat Team 7 and base realignment and closure operations. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Anthony L. Ortiz
Turncoats: How The Taliban Undermines And Infiltrates The Afghan Local Police -- David Axe, Danger Room
ZARI DISTRICT, Afghanistan — The sound of gunfire was the first sign that the Afghan cop’s loyalty was suspect.
It was February in Hadji Musa, a village in the poppy-growing Zari district of northern Kandahar province, traditionally one of the most violent regions in a violent country. 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 3-41 Infantry — part of the high-tech 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division — had received a tip from Toorjan, commander of the village local police unit, claiming that someone in Hadji Musa wanted to talk. Someone with direct knowledge of Taliban activities.
Beyond that, Toorjan had provided almost no information. All he could offer was an implied promise: Trust me.
IRS tea-party bloodbath continues in Congress, as evidence emerges that IRS's own internal probe ended in May 2012, six months before election, but was hidden from legislators.
The rubble from a strike by a United States drone in southeastern Yemen in February. Khaled Abdullah/Reuters
Obama, In A Shift, To Limit Targets Of Drone Strikes -- New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to open a new phase in the nation’s long struggle with terrorism on Thursday by restricting the use of unmanned drone strikes that have been at the heart of his national security strategy and shifting control of them away from the C.I.A. to the military.
In his first major speech on counterterrorism of his second term, Mr. Obama hopes to refocus the epic conflict that has defined American priorities since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and even foresees an unspecified day when the so-called war on terror might all but end, according to people briefed on White House plans.
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan (March 25, 2010) - Afghan National Civil Order Police/Afghan Gendarmerie Force Training Center graduates parade in formation honoring Mohammad Atta Noor, Governor of the Province of Balkh where 193 trainees graduated in the center's first enlisted graduation. (Photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jeff Nevison)
Afghanistan’s Rape Crisis: Villagers Fear U.S.-Backed Militias -- Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau, Daily Beast
Afghans fear the very militias America has set up to protect them—and allegations of sexual violence abound. Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau report.
Jumadin, a 45-year-old farmer from the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, returned to his modest mud-brick home late one evening last January to find the front door shattered. He rushed inside, calling and searching for his 19-year-old daughter, Monizha, who had been home alone while Jumadin’s wife and three other children visited relatives in Pakistan. He was panic-stricken. The small house had been ransacked, and Monizha was nowhere inside. He finally found her just in time: she was outside in the animal shed, trying to hang herself.
My Comment: The focus in the media is on the U.S. military's rape crisis among it's own troops .... but it appears that this problem is now spreading (if the above story is accurate) to foreign troops that are being trained by US forces abroad. And Afghanistan is not the only place where this is occurring ..... troops of the Congolese Army that were trained by a U.S. Special Forces team went on to commit mass rape and murder of women and children while fleeing rebel forces last year (according to a new United Nations report). And in Mali, the EU seeks to rebuild the Mali army after the U.S. faltered when the troops that they trained staged a coup that produced the mayhem that exists even today.
The Next Gun Debate? Armed Drones Could Be Protected By the Second Amendment -- US News and World Report
Several YouTube videos show hobbyists who have allegedly created rudimentary armed drones.
In April 2012, Rand Paul's nightmare seemingly came true nearly a year before he'd even gotten the chance to dream it. Four people were having a dinner party and playing cards when all of a sudden, a robotic plane showed up outside their window and interrupted their game with a barrage of bullets.
For 13 hours on the Senate floor this March, Paul railed on the government's willingness to use armed drones on American civilians, even suggesting that the government could use an unmanned plane to kill an American eating dinner with his family. But he never mentioned the possibility that the person flying the drone could be a neighbor.
That idea sounds farfetched, but some legal scholars think that Second Amendment rights might extend to robotic arms, including drones outfitted with weapons.
My Comment: I know that the above video is computer generated .... and that the spokesman (Kyle Myers) is not even Russian. But it is still a revealing video of what is possible.
Military Not Created Equal Under Sequestration -- US News and World Report
U.S. prioritizes funding for China, North Korea threats despite growing dangers from Venezuela, Iran.
Not all military units are in the same boat under sequestration, as the across-the-board cuts target some missions more than others.
East Asia is the new focus of the White House, which means U.S. Pacific Command is a favored breadwinner among the regional commands. It enjoys money to address North Korea's nuclear missile program and some form of threat from China. Only one ship has been cut from deployment to that region, and the primary missions for ground troops are fully funded, a top officer says.
The same is not true for troops in America's backyard. The regional command for Central and South America has received only a fraction of its requested resources, despite what experts and military officials say is a growing and underreported threat from countries such as Venezuela.
My Comment: It is not easy to run an empire .... especially when you are running out of money. The U.S. military and their political masters must face facts (which I am sure that they are) .... if you do not provide the money to support your military .... they are not going to be able to fulfill your domestic/foreign policy objectives. Sequestration will mean some services are going to be cut more than others .... and funding will be prioritized according to what the White House believes is the priority .... not the military.
Military veterans demonstrated in Beijing on May 20; over 1000 ex-servicemen gathered before the General Political Department Bureau for Letters and Calls. Veterans from Chengdu, Lanzhou, Jinan, Beijing, Guangzhou Military Regions came to petition for their pensions and promised veterans'employment. (Human Rights Campaign in China)
Retired Military Officers, Broke and Desperate, Protest in Beijing -- Epoch Times
Around a thousand retired military officers from all over China gathered in Beijing’s heat on May 20, appealing to the regime for their pensions and veterans’ employment; they were soon rounded up and thrown into a makeshift “black jail,” which operates outside the law, for the night.
Protests by retired military officers are an embarrassment for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), so groups are monitored strictly in an effort to prevent mass petitions or demands for their rights. However, they continue to organize demonstrations despite official efforts to silence them.
Veteran officers from Chengdu, Lanzhou, Jinan, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenyang, protested in front of the Central Military Commission General Political Department, calling attention to the appalling living conditions caused by failed veterans’ policies.
Read more ....
My Comment: I am surprised by this report. These Chinese military officers would also be members of the Communist party .... and to be treated like this by their own government and Party is unprecedented. I guess China is changing even more quickly than I thought, and I am one who has been there at leas at 30 times since the mid 1980s .... including even living there in 1988-1989.
Musicians from the military bands of China's People's Liberation Army and the U.S. Army take photos during a rehearsal for their joint concert at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, in this October 29, 2012 file photo. REUTERS/China Daily/Files
Analysis: From Opera To Exercises, U.S. And China Deepen Military Ties -- Reuters
(Reuters) - Even as the United States accuses China of military espionage and worries about Beijing's more strident posture in the Asia-Pacific region, the ties between the armed forces of the two nations have been getting closer.
Direct contact between China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) and some of its potential adversaries has increased dramatically in the last two years.
The first major public sign of the thaw was a joint concert by the U.S. Army band and its Chinese counterpart in 2011 at Washington's Kennedy Center where a female U.S. sergeant and a well-known male Chinese singer in a PLA uniform belted out a duet in Italian from the opera La Traviata.
New Light Shed On US Government's Extraordinary Rendition Programme -- The Guardian
Online project uncovers details of way in which CIA carried out kidnaps and secret detentions following September 11 attacks
A groundbreaking research project has mapped the US government's global kidnap and secret detention programme, shedding unprecedented light on one of the most controversial secret operations of recent years.
The interactive online project – by two British universities and a legal charity – has uncovered new details of the way in which the so-called extraordinary rendition programme operated for years in the wake of the September 11 attacks, and the techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to avoid detection in the face of growing public concern.
The Rendition Project website is intended to serve as a research tool that not only collates all the publicly available data about the programme, but can continue to be updated as further information comes to light.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: The Rendition Project website is here.
U.S. soldiers secure a landing zone for an Afghan air force Mi-17 helicopter outside of Hesarak village in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, May 17, 2013. The soldiers are assigned to the 101st Airborne Division's Company A, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Vang Seng Thao
AP, AFP reporters trash Israel in secret Facebook group.
A “secret” Facebook group of foreign correspondents and human rights activists quickly devolved into an anti-Israel hate-fest on Tuesday following the release of a new Israeli government report that cleared the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of wrongdoing in the 2000 death of a Palestinian boy.
The Israeli government report contests the claim that the IDF killed a Palestinian boy, Muhammad al-Durrah, in a famous 2000 incident in Gaza that helped ignite the Second Intifada.
Journalists and activists mocked the report, attacked the IDF, and claimed pro-Israel lobbyists were influencing the media coverage, in a private Facebook group for foreign correspondents known as the “Vulture Club.”
Read more .... My Comment: Bias in the media .... nah ....
U.S. Probe Of Benghazi Attack Focused On More Than Five Suspects -- Reuters
(Reuters) - An investigation of the attacks on the American diplomatic mission and nearby annex in Benghazi, Libya, last year is looking at more than five potential suspects, a U.S. national security source said on Wednesday.
The source would not identify the suspects who have come to the attention of the FBI, which is investigating the September 11, 2012, attacks that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell declined to comment on specifics of the investigation, but said: "There's no one more than the State Department family that wants to see justice served for these heinous crimes."
A Justice Department spokesman would not comment because "our investigation is ongoing."
Vital role: An Afghan interpreter, his face masked for security purposes, pictured with Prince Harry in 2008. Up to 600 Afghans who have worked as interpreters are to be given the right to move to Britain
Up To 600 Afghan Interpreters Who Risked Their Lives To Help British Forces To Get Right To Live In The UK -- Daily Mail
* Interpreters will get visas for themselves and their ‘immediate dependents’
* They will get free travel to the UK and accommodation for first three months
* Those eligible will have had to serve for at least 12 months on the front line
Up to 600 Afghans who have risked their lives to act as interpreters for British troops and officials are to be handed the right to move to Britain.
Interpreters who have regularly served on the front line will get visas for themselves and their ‘immediate dependents’ to come to Britain for a period of five years.
Under a £40 million package being thrashed out in Whitehall, those who come to the UK they will get free travel to the UK and accommodation paid for their first three months.
The Freedom underway in Singapore on May 17. (MC1 Jay C. Pugh/US Navy)
LCS Suffers Engine Problem -- Defense News
WASHINGTON — The USS Freedom, first of the US Navy’s littoral combat ships, was forced to return to port in Singapore Tuesday after sediment was discovered in the ship’s lube oil system.
The incident took place days after the ship concluded a successful appearance at a major defense exhibition in Singapore, where the Freedom attracted significant interest.
According to Capt. Darryn James, a Navy spokesman for the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, the ship was only a few hours out of Singapore when the problem was discovered.
“After getting underway on the morning of May 21 (May 20 in Hawaii), USS Freedom returned to Changi Naval Base approximately 8 hours later after the crew detected sediment in the ship’s lube oil system,” James said in an emailed statement. The ship “returned to port under its own power and at no time was the crew in any danger.
Official: Dead Boston Bombings Suspect Involved In 2011 Slayings -- CNN
(CNN) -- Deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in a 2011 gruesome triple homicide outside Boston along with a Chechen killed early Wednesday during a confrontation with the FBI and Massachusetts State Police in Orlando, Florida, a federal law enforcement official told CNN.
Ibragim Todashev, who died during the interview with authorities, not only confessed to his direct role in slashing the throats of three people in Waltham, Massachusetts, but also fingered Tsarnaev in the deaths, the official said Wednesday.
Todashev was being questioned about the slayings and his acquaintance with Tsarnaev.
The SEAL Sniper Killing, Revisited -- Mark Thompson, Battleland/Time
The shocking and bizarre death of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle – at the hands of a fellow combat vet – in Texas last February was one of the saddest tales to come out of the post-9/11 wars on the homefront. Battleland was able to write it up for Time the next week, but there’s only so much reporting that can be done under the pressure of a weekly deadline.
That’s why it’s good news that Anthony Swofford, the Marine author of Jarhead, has helped flesh out the tragedy in Death of an American Sniper. It’s a 15,000-word e-short into the killing of one of the deadliest snipers — with 160 claimed kills — in U.S. military history. Battleland conducted this email chat with him over the weekend:
Video: Navy’s Triton UAS Achieves First Flight -- Defense Tech
The U.S. Navy successfully conducted a first test-flight of its MQ-4C Triton aircraft, a wide-spanning 47-foot long surveillance drone equipped with high-tech, next-generation sensors able to conduct surveillance, reconnaissance and communications-relay missions over thousands of miles ocean, service officials said.
During the 80-minute flight in restricted airspace in Palmdale, Calif., the MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft, controlled by ground-based Navy and Northrop Grumman personnel, reached 20,000 feet, according to a Navy statement.
Air Force Chief Warns Of ‘Surprise War’ With Syria -- Times of Israel
Amir Eshel says Assad’s ‘immense arsenal’ could be turned on Israel at any moment, accompanied by rockets from Gaza and Lebanon.
The commander of the Israeli Air Force, which has reportedly bombarded targets in Syria several times in recent months, warned Wednesday that war could break out on Israel’s northern border at any moment, demanding the full engagement of the IAF’s resources.
“If tomorrow Syria collapses, and I am not saying that will happen, we could find ourselves in the thick of it very fast and in great number,” IAF commander Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel said, illustrating how the nature of surprise wars had changed for Israel since the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
Secretary of State John Kerry met Tuesday with Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, Oman’s ruler, at the royal palace in Muscat. Pool photo by Jim Young
John Kerry’s Silly Play -- Lee Smith, The Tablet
The secretary of state prattles about imaginary treaties while the Arab world is engulfed by a Sunni-Shia civil war
Secretary of State John Kerry says that’s it’s now or never for Israelis and Palestinians to reach agreement on a two-state solution. Interestingly, neither Israeli nor Palestinian officials have any idea what Kerry is talking about. With the Arab Spring uprisings tilting the Middle East status quo on behalf of Israel’s enemies, Jerusalem is not about to give up the West Bank—nor is the Palestinian Authority in any position to defend it. Little wonder then that an Israeli official recently told Haaretz, that Kerry “looks like a naive and ham-handed diplomat.”
But of course, Kerry’s public statements have little connection to workable diplomacy. Rather, the secretary of state is the leading man in a theatrical production about American Middle East policy whose only audience members, at this point, are Beltway pundits.
My Comment: A brutal assessment on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The 'money quote' is the following ....
.... Having exited Iraq, packed up our gear in Afghanistan, abandoned our “red lines” about Iran’s nuclear program and Syria’s use of chemical weapons, America has gone from player to kibitzer.
Ouch.
In short .... from President Obama's Cairo speech in 2009 to today's mayhem on the Arab street .... the U.S. has lost it's credibility. And while it is easy to heap disappointment (and blame) on this U.S. administration .... events are spiraling out of control on the ground .... events that no one can really control. Lee Smith in the above commentary is correct when he states that what we are now witnessing in the Middle East is a growing Sunni - Shiite sectarian conflict that is slowly metastasizing into all-out war .... a war that no one can really stop .... but what is unfortunate is that in this environment we have a U.S. that is completely unprepared to face this new reality, and instead is pursuing policies that are (probably) decades out of date.
I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.
