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Iraq

Washington affirms Sadr still in Iran, refuses to mark him as wanted

2007-03-15

(KUNA) -- US forces were keeping tracking Muqtada Al-Sadr and believed he was in Iran, a US general said on Wednesday, yet he declined to state whether the Shiite cleric was a wanted man. As for the previous 24 hours, Sadr was not in Iraq, as all indications affirm that he was still in Iran, Major General William Caldwell, chief spokesman for US forces in Iraq, said today. Caldwell said recent US and Iraqi military operations on the Mahdi stronghold of Sadr City in northeast Baghdad were enjoying good cooperation from the local mayor and residents.

At the same news conference, US Embassy Charge d'Affaires Daniel Speckhard was also hesitant to interpret Sadr's status. Asked about US State Department policy in the light of Iraqi government comments Sadr was not wanted, Speckhard said Iraqis were leading the way in all political negotiations.

Washington was pleased with some of the statements in recent months about the desire for that organization to no longer be a militia, which the leadership said that they called for constructive engagement, an end to military or militant roles for those that were in the organization, Speckhard added.

Members of Sadr's political group had earlier denied reports by the Pentagon that he left Iraq before Iraqi and US-led coalition forces began the new security plan in Baghdad last month. The plan was codenamed "law enforcement". Washington is trying to create a delicate balance between cracking down on Mahdi militants responsible for sectarian killings and attacks on US forces, while backing Premier Maliki's efforts at reconciliation and reintegrating militias into the political process.

Posted by:Fred

#7 "refuses to mark him as wanted"

Already marked as chicken...

Posted by: Danking70 2007-03-15 22:56

#6 Rantburg U rules! Thank you, Professor Zenster. :-)

Posted by: trailing wife 2007-03-15 21:58

#5 ... refuses to mark him as wanted

Which pretty much sums up our current lack of progress in quashing terrorism.

... military issue micro-gyrochips ...

They are most likely referring to solid state laser gyroscopes. Optical gyroscopes were first postulated by French physicist G. Sagnac in the early 1900s. However, it was not until the advent of commercially feasible lasers in the 1960s that non-mechanical gyroscopes became practicable.

Some of my earliest work in IC fabrication involved failure analysis of control and measurement circuits used in prototype models of these devices. They were partly responsible for Americas crucial military superiority over Soviet forces in terms of both ballistic and cruise missile guidance plus such advanced kinetic weapon applications as the SDIs brilliant pebbles. Ultra accurate compact mechanical gyroscopes of that era had very short lifetimes due to their reliance upon extremely high rotational speeds needed to resolve and correct minute variations in vehicle course. Periodic ICBM readiness tests required spin up of these delicate instruments and contributed to bearing wear that resulting in eventual deterioration and replacement of these units. Shifting to solid state alternatives meant greater accuracy with less servicing plus the added advantage of exceptionally high resolution and compact reliable low weight guidance packages for our new generation of cruise missiles.

The original versions used a densely wound spool of low-diameter hair-fine optical cable. A spool could hold on the order of one kilometer's worth of fiber. Both ends of the spools coil were brought forward, parallel to each other, then joined side-by-side and polished to an identical plane of flatness. Using a half-silvered beam splitter, a single pulse of laser light would then be injected into both ends of this gigantic loop. While there are several methods of achieving motion-induced signals from such an arrangement (e.g., Kerr or Brillouin Effect), the easiest to understand is Doppler shift as used in ordinary radar. Depending upon the orthogonal plane of motion the coil of optical fiber is aligned with, motion in that plane will affect the phase of re-arriving pulses. The pulse traveling in the direction of motion will be subjected to blue shift, the other to red shift. This will create a measurable differential in arrival times back at the polished fiber interface. This timing differential directly corresponds to the vehicles motion.

Subsequent generations of this design now use increasingly sensitive detectors and ultra-stable diode lasers in a simple triangular mirror configuration (see linked article), to achieve the same results with improved accuracy. Simple interferometry has replaced the Doppler methods and fiber spools with further increases in resolution.

Its fairly safe to say that the loons in question have made extremely inductive leaps between aviation gyros, auto-gyros, autopilots and laser gyros to arrive at their ill conceived notions. Fortunately, all of this can be cured by a few bursts of high intensity laser light. In which direction, Ill let you guess.

Posted by: Zenster 2007-03-15 20:22

#4 BatBoy and the Hildebeast have, reportedly, been genetically integrated/entwined to the extent that neither is morphologically or genetically distinguishable from the other.

In addition, it is reported that the Hildebeasts' screech has taken on qualities that raise it above the human capability to detect in decibels and into the realms of bat-like sonar detection.

It is, unfortunately, no less irritating to normal human ears.

Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-03-15 20:01

#3 CtC w/George Noory or Art Bell

The Weekly World News of the airwaves. Any word on BatBoy's recent whereabouts?

Posted by: xbalanke 2007-03-15 18:22

#2 Maybe he can get onboard one of those Iranian transport planes - you know the ones that must have explosives controlled by US microchips built into their doors and sidewalls...

(from a CtC w/George Noory or Art Bell show a week or so back - some loonie coupla' moonbats were claiming that 757s/767s had explosives built into not just the explosive bolts in the doors (to allow emergency entrance/exit of the planes), but also into the bukheads/sidewalls for, obviously, conspiratorial reasons (along with (gasp!) military issue micro-gyrochips (whatever those are) to allow remote control of the aircraft); yeah, this same couple also claimed that 9/11 was an inside job).

:-) This is, of course, how rumors get started...

Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-03-15 18:14

#1 That guy needs to have an "accident".

Posted by: bigjim-ky 2007-03-15 08:56

00:01