#7
Got to see her perform in Gypsy as the lead's mother character in the summer of '72 before I had to leave at intermission to head back to training camp. Yowza, she still had those legs that were able to reach the floor.
The Central Intelligence Agency is using strikes against enemy targets to learn how the groups respond when attacked, the agency's director said Wednesday.
Speaking at the Air Force Association's annual conference, Michael Hayden said the clandestine agency is trying to "tickle" enemy groups to provoke a reaction, often with missile strikes targeting just an individual. "We use military operations to excite the enemy, prompting him to respond. In that response we learn so much," said Hayden, a retired Air Force general who has led the CIA since 2006.
Hayden said the CIA is working closely with the military in places such as Iraq's Anbar province, where American troops have fought Sunni insurgents. That experience helped CIA officers develop a strategy to engage Sunni tribal leaders, which Hayden said has contributed to a recent drop in violence in Iraq. The agency "picked up insights we would not have had" by working with American forces, Hayden said.
Hayden's speech came on the final day of the Air Force conference, an annual gathering of mostly Air Force officials and defense contractors that supply the service. Hayden retired in July from the Air Force, where he had been head of the service's intelligence office before leading the National Security Agency for a six-year run that ended in April 2005.
The CIA flies Predator drones, unmanned planes that can hover for hours and carry missiles for precision strikes. While not confirming those tactics, Hayden said that U.S. forces are now able to make pinpoint attacks against specific targets. "Our pilots are targeting not structures, but individuals," Hayden said.
Many of those strikes are now conducted along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where U.S. forces are hunting insurgents and terrorist groups that are believed to be using the loosely governed area as a base. For example, a suspected missile attack from a drone Wednesday in Pakistan killed at least six people.
Hayden said the CIA also was focusing more on sending agents to immerse themselves overseas in duty locations for longer periods of time. More than half of agency analysts have been hired since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
But the U.S. education system has not responded to the latest threats in the way that it focused on the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Hayden said the agency needs more experts in non-Western cultures and languages. "We have not seen the shift in academia for the current war that we saw for the previous war," he said.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/18/2008 10:32 ||
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#1
Goading the enemy into doing what you want them to do. Love it! Sun Tzu would be proud.
#4
There is a reason that the military has specialty schools. No one should count on colleges to provide knowledge as required by the military, CIA, ect. If instructors are needed, vet them and hire them & then stick them into the organizational education system as required.
#5
Outside of langauages (and even then), military schools set their curriculum based on what the military needs at the moment. And they are specialty schools. What an intel specialist may need about a Pakistani valley or tribal interactions, for examples, might be found in a 19th century account by a British surveyor or in the mind of an anthroplogy professor.
Thing is, that kind of needed information and knowledge is usually found only in academia, and is readily available (even the obscure material). For the CIA to replicate it would be staggering in time and money.
(AKI) - A roadside bomb killed four soldiers from the multinational coalition force and an Afghan national in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the US military said. The military did not identify the victims, but most foreign troops serving under coalition force in eastern Afghanistan are Americans.
It was the latest attack since the Taliban stepped up their campaign of suicide attacks and roadside bomb blasts against the government and foreign troops in recent weeks.
At least 194 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in 2008, the deadliest year for foreign forces since US-led troops removed the Taliban from power in 2001.
The number of attacks on American forces in eastern Afghanistan has risen by around 30 percent this year compared with 2007.
The coalition did not say where Wednesday's attack took place or provide any other details.
The deaths occurred as US Defense Secretary Robert Gates had meetings in Kabul with President Hamid Karzai and other officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) Being the second member of the contingent to be killed in the Somali capital in three days, a Ugandan peacekeeper was killed on Monday in a roadside bomb explosion in Mogadishu.
Monday's incident took place in the southern Mogadishu neighbourhood of Afisiyone and came a day after another Ugandan member of the African Union force was killed in an attack by suspected Islamist insurgents on Saturday. ''We have so far lost two soldiers and four others have been injured,'' Amisom Forces spokesman Maj. Barigye Ba-hoku said from Mogadishu last evening. ''Our soldiers went to an observation post outside our defence positions when an explosive device planted by the roadside went off, killing one of our soldiers and wounding two others.''
Witnesses said the AU peacekeepers' vehicle was destroyed by the roadside bomb and several of the soldiers retrieved from the wreckage, before the area was sealed off. The explosives were hidden in sand dunes. As is the practice in the military the identities of the dead cannot be released until their relatives have been notified.
Since March 2007, a total of eight African Union peacekeepers have been killed in Somalia. A Ugandan soldier serving with the African Union in Somalia was on August 1 killed by a roadside bomb in Mogadishu.
The incident followed another similar attack in which three others were killed. ''Amisom once again condemns these acts of violence that undermine the efforts of attaining peace through dialogue,'' Maj. Ba-Hoku said. ''Amisom will not be deterred from fulfilling their mandate by these callous attacks.''
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Officials from the Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) on Wednesday said that the Japanese vessel MT Stolt Valor, that had been hijacked near the Gulf of Aden on Monday with 22 crew, including 18 Indians, on board, was safe.
Also, officials from the Mumbai-based recruitment agents, Ebony Ship Management, confirmed that contact with the missing vessel had been established. "The hijackers allowed 2-3 members of the crew to talk to the office of the managers and it has been confirmed that 22 seafarers are safe and the vessel is at present heading towards Somalia," Captain Sanjeev Dutt, from Andheri-based Ebony, told TOI. He also said the hijackers had made no demands as yet.
The Coast Guard's Mumbai-based Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre said 15 Somali pirates had boarded the vessel. Coast Guard spokesman Commandant Kulpreet Yadav too confirmed the safety of those on board.
This is the second time in recent months of a hijacking of a ship with Indians on board. In a letter a month ago to the defence ministry, the Navy had sought authorisation for Indian warships to go after pirates. The Navy said the decision to deploy warships for such missions should be left to the Navy chief. This would help prompt action by Indian warships if it was required, the Navy argued. But the defence ministry, despite being reminded by the Navy a couple of days ago, is yet to respond to the request, sources said.
The number of hijack attempts by pirates has been the rise in the area. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB)'s piracy reporting center had issued an advisory in August warning ships sailing through the area.
According to IMB, in September alone, more than six piracy attempts had been made on merchant ships. "Once the attack is successful and the vessel hijacked, the pirates sail towards the Somali coast and thereafter demand a ransom for the release," said the IMB report.
The Stolt Valor, with a crew that included one Bangladeshi, two Filipinos and one Russian, was reportedly hijacked about 38 nautical miles from the coast of Yemen on Monday.
Families of the Indian crew on board are mostly from Mumbai, Patna and Dehra-dun. Wadala resident Rosary Fernando, whose brother-in-law Pani Asaphlobo boarded the ill-fated MT Stolt Valor in February, says he heard the news
three days ago and then informed Pani's immediate family living in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu. "Since he would have to board vessels from Mumbai itself, he would spend a couple of days here before," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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At least 25 terrorists with suspected links to al-Qaida have been arrested in connection with the deadly attack on the US Embassy in the Yemeni capital, a senior security official said Thursday. The Yemeni official said the 25 have been rounded up from various parts of Yemen over the past 24 hours and were being questioned by Yemeni and US investigators.
Meanwhile, the US State Department on Thursday confirmed that a young American woman and her Yemeni husband were killed in the terrorist attack. A spokesman said officials had verified reports the family of Susan Elbaneh that the 18-year-old was among the victims of Wednesday's attack. Elbaneh, who was recently wed in Yemen in an arranged marriage, was outside the embassy with her husband apparently waiting to complete paperwork, according to her brother. Elbaneh, a high school senior, was among eight children in the family, which her brother described as "huge and close-knit." Ahmed Elbaneh said she planned to return to New York with her new husband, finish school and become a nurse. She had been in Yemen for a month for the marriage on Aug. 25.
Pakistani fighter jets have bombarded militants' hideouts in a tribal belt near the border with Afghanistan killing 19 insurgents.
The incident happened Wednesday in the rugged Bajaur region, where Pakistani army launched a major offensive against al-Qaeda and Taliban linked militants last month.
"Fighter jets bombarded militant hideouts Wednesday, killing 19 rebels and wounding 16 others," a security official said, adding that "helicopter gunships also shelled bunkers dug up by militants in Rashakai, Zarmandi, Kossar and Banda areas".
The operation has left more than 800 people dead, mostly militants, and also left 260,000 people displaced, local media reports say.
The killings also coincide with US Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen's unannounced trip to Islamabad amid tensions over US raids on tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
US and Afghan officials allege that militants use the mountainous region to launch cross-border attacks on US-led troops based in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's tribal regions have been wracked by violence since thousands of rebels sneaked into the country after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.
Pakistan has suffered a wave of violence, and hundreds of civilians have lost their lives in suicide and bomb attacks across the country since former President Pervez Musharraf joined the US so-called 'war on terror' following the 9/11 attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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The Taliban on Wednesday vacated the Kooza Bandai area of Kabal tehsil after negotiations with local elders. Representatives of the peace jirga in Kanjoo had been holding talks with the Taliban for the last three days. Locals said they agreed to vacate the area after the jirga assured them that security forces would not enter it. Three teams of nine people each have been formed by the local elders and the security forces to comb the area for landmines and other arsenal. Meanwhile, three civilians were killed in the forces' shelling in Kabal. Security forces arrested four men from Kahwazakhela district during a search operation. Official sources said the men were suspected of having blown up a bridge.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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(AKI) - Suspected United States drones fired four missiles on Wednesday in a northwestern Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border killing seven people and injuring at least six, according to officials. "Four missiles were fired by suspected U.S. drones in the area of Baghar Cheena village in the restive South Waziristan on Wednesday evening," said a senior security official, quoted by Pakistan's Geo News TV channel.
The missiles were reported to have struck a militant training camp and a house occupied by militants. "There are a few militant training camps in the area and no civilian population around the site of strikes," another official said, cited by Geo News.
The attack was at least the fifth such strike inside Pakistan this month and came came hours after U.S. military chief Admiral Michael Mullen reiterated Washington's respect for the sovereignty of Pakistan. Mullen, who flew to Islamabad on an unannounced trip late onTuesday, met Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in a bid to calm anger over US raids on tribal areas bordering Afghanistan in so-called hot pursuit of militants.
The attack may be an indication that the Americans have told Pakistan there will be no more ground assaults, but that drone attacks are to continue. According to senior American officials, U.S. President George W. Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allowed American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
One hand isn't talking to the other: They didn't leave time to plant the bodies of women & children before the report.
#2
I don't know what they are complaining about. The drone was in Afghanistan when it launched the missiles........I mean its not OUR fault the missiles landed in Pak.
Posted by: James Carville ||
09/18/2008 10:27 Comments ||
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#4
Phakestan STILL needs to experience an ARCLIGHT strike. It might just give them enough of an insight to actually DO something about terrorists. Especially it it would somehow "leak" that one of the targets for further strikes is Rawalpindi/Islamabad.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/18/2008 16:51 Comments ||
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#5
[online poker has been pooplisted.]
Posted by: online poker ||
09/18/2008 20:08 Comments ||
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#6
Speaking of DRONE, WAFF > DEFENSETECH.org - ROBOT PLANE CAN CARRY TROOPS/FIRM BUILDING MAN-CARRYING VTOL DRONE [armed].
Also from WAFF > CHINA'S NAVAL AMBITIONS: A SECOND CHANCE AT COMMAND OF THE OCEANS [hence achieving DESIRED GLOBAL POWER/SUPERPOWER STATUS].
BAGHDAD -- An American Chinook helicopter made a "hard landing" early today in southern Iraq and five U.S. soldiers were killed, the military said.
A U.S. statement said the CH-47 Chinook was setting down shortly after midnight about 60 miles west of Basra when the incident occurred. The chopper was a part of an aerial convoy flying from Kuwait to the U.S. military base at Balad just north of Baghdad. The statement said the incident was under investigation but did not provide any more details.
Separately, a U.S. soldier died of noncombat-related causes on Wednesday, and an investigation into the cause of death was under way, the military said.
Second part of the news item, totally unrelated to the first:
On Wednesday, gunmen killed a Sunni assistant to the governor of one of Iraq's most volatile provinces, the latest in a series of attacks that have marred the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in Iraq. Shamil Younis, an engineer who handled technical affairs for Gov. Duraid Kashmola, was killed in a drive-by shooting as he was walking home after finishing prayers at a nearby mosque in Mosul, police said. The attack occurred after iftar, the meal that breaks the Ramadan fast.
The governor, also a Sunni, confirmed the slaying and promised an investigation. He called it "a brutal crime against this innocent, good man."
#5
Illustration was for the second part of the story (MSM loves to glue stories together like that). However, I've removed it. AoS.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/18/2008 13:22 Comments ||
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#6
This probably could have happened anywhere. The men and women in the military do dangerous work all the time, whether in combat or not. My condolences and prayers to their families and brothers in arms and my endless thanks for their brave service to our country.
(AKI) - At least five people were killed and 20 others wounded on Wednesday in a car bomb attack in western Baghdad, according to the news agency, Voices of Iraq. "Two cars rigged with explosives went off near al-Jibji hospital in al-Harithiya region in western Baghdad, killing five persons and injuring 20," a police source told VOI.
It was one of two bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday. In an attack on the east side of the Iraqi capital, a policeman was killed and five others were injured when a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in Zaiyouna.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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(AKI) - Clashes between rival Christian factions in northern Lebanon on Wednesday left two people dead and injured three others. The clashes took place between the pro-Syrian Marada group and the anti-Syrian Lebanese Forces factions in the northern Lebanese village of Bsarma, 74 kilometres from Beirut. A member of each rival faction was killed, while a policeman and two members of the Lebanese Forces were injured. The clashes began after Marada tried to prevent the rival group from hanging a banner commemorating the Lebanese Forces.
Last week, a pro-Syrian politician was killed in a car bomb, while on Monday one person was killed after rival Palestinian factions clashed in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp in the south of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Amateur hour at Windows media encoding. Gadahn's definitely toes-up. These are dumb errors, made by people who don't understand what they're doing. It's like renovating a restaurant and only using finishing nails to hold everything together...only someone who didn't know any better would do it.
#3
I'm thinking of a blatant and supposedly silly PSYOP piece created by an "anonymous" Internet individual, certainly *not* the CIA, and spread virally.
Using medium grade makeup, dress up some actor to look like Osama bin Laden, who just coincidentally speaks Saudi with the correct accent. Then have him call for an end to violence, which he personally has renounced, prior to his conversion. He has become a Jew after renouncing Islam.
Ludicrous, except for its timetable. Because it is released *not for* the Internet, but for the ignorant masses that do not have the Internet. And this is where nonsense suddenly becomes deadly serious.
The timetable is critical. First it is announced, even before it is posted, as just a bin Laden message. This gets everyone's attention. Then immediately, in a screaming attack from (subverted) traditional Jihadist media, it is denounced as "Lies! And even if it is not a lie, it should be banned! And Osama should be deposed!" That is, shrieking, irrational and hysterical.
Then a very LQ version leaks out. It sort of looks like Osama, but his speaking is voice over in some other language at higher volume, along with very inaccurate subtitles in a third language.
At the same time rumors of several kinds are spread in Muslim countries. That the video is true, that it is not true, that Osama has been captured and brainwashed, that he has been assassinated or replaced by a double, etc.
Then release an old Osama video, which is completely voice over by someone else to "show" that Osama is still in charge. They say things as if he is saying them, but that don't match his lips.
Why go through this idiocy? To start with, their communications system is in disarray right now, so getting the word out is very hard. Second, Osama will have to denounce the tape as a lie, and quickly, which may give strong clues as to his whereabouts. Third, once the rumor mill gets going, it will get a life of its own, and create a lot of bad feeling among al-Qaeda and Muslims in general.
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.
The Central Intelligence Agency is using strikes against enemy targets to learn how the groups respond when attacked, the agency's director said Wednesday. 
Officials from the Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) on Wednesday said that the Japanese vessel MT Stolt Valor, that had been hijacked near the Gulf of Aden on Monday with 22 crew, including 18 Indians, on board, was safe. 
Pakistani fighter jets have bombarded militants' hideouts in a tribal belt near the border with Afghanistan killing 19 insurgents. 
(AKI) - Suspected United States drones fired four missiles on Wednesday in a northwestern Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border killing seven people and injuring at least six, according to officials. "Four missiles were fired by suspected U.S. drones in the area of Baghar Cheena village in the restive South Waziristan on Wednesday evening," said a senior security official, quoted by Pakistan's Geo News TV channel. 
(AKI) - Clashes between rival Christian factions in northern Lebanon on Wednesday left two people dead and injured three others. The clashes took place between the pro-Syrian Marada group and the anti-Syrian Lebanese Forces factions in the northern Lebanese village of Bsarma, 74 kilometres from Beirut. A member of each rival faction was killed, while a policeman and two members of the Lebanese Forces were injured. The clashes began after Marada tried to prevent the rival group from hanging a banner commemorating the Lebanese Forces.
