#3
Borgboy, that's uncalled for. Anybody that has the balls to get out there under enemy fire and pull the trigger for the good guys deserves respect - These guys have earned it.
Never denigrate the bravery of the common soldier by tarring him with his leadership.
Officials say a shift in U.S. war strategy has begun to take place in Afghanistan, away from classic counterinsurgency (protecting the population, providing basic services, promoting good government) and toward the traditional business of killing and capturing bad guys.
Counterinsurgency (or COIN, as it's often called) is hardly dead. Many U.S. troops are still very much engaged in COIN operations. A surge of civilian officials and advisers, from several NATO countries, is well under way in Kabul's ministries in and several provincial districts. And COIN is seen as vital to Afghanistan's long-term stability.
#1
advisers now believe that our objectives in the Afghanistan war can no longer be accomplished in sufficiently short time through COIN alone or even through a COIN-dominant strategy.
#2
"...toward the traditional business of killing and capturing bad guys".
Hooyah!
It will be more effective than the kinder, gentler approach, and will likely result in less casualties to boot. Or not.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
10/14/2010 12:26 Comments ||
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#3
Kill the bad guys, win, go home.
What a novel concept.
The dronezaps are something they have no defense for.
That's why the bad guys hate them so much
Can't remembe who said it, but it is ever so true.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/14/2010 14:07 Comments ||
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#6
The other countries are engaged in the nation building stuff, so it's not like nothing will be done if the Yanks aren't doing it. And our guys will still do some -- they can't help themselves. Orphanages and school supplies and medical treatment will continue to flow wherever they are.
[Iran Press TV] A minister in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland, who was kidnapped by pirates, has been sprung.
Said Mohamed Rageh, the minister of fisheries and ports was kidnapped last Friday and held in the secluded pirate stronghold of Jariban, the state-run BBC reported.
The minister's release came about due to negotiations between the pirates and Somali elders. No ransom was paid, officials said.
The kidnapping has been particularly embarrassing to the Puntland administration as it has taken a hard line against piracy.
A pirate and a security guard were killed during the minister's kidnapping on Friday.
Roughly half of Puntland's prison population is made up of pirates.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Pirates
#1
For the cost of just one of the hundreds of warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden, Puntland's government could stop piracy totally.
They are doing the best they can and really locking up a lot of pirates.
But they are broke.
And nobody will fund them.
It's much more fun for the world to pay the "great power" game instead, jostling for naval supremacy, training their navies, learning to co-ordinate.
[Al Jazeera] The latest round of talks between north and south Sudan over the future of the oil-producing Abyei region has failed to reach an agreement.
The issue stands as a key hurdle ahead of referendums in the country, and according to the north's National Congress party (NCP) and the south's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), "serious efforts and many productive discussions, [the delegations] did not succeed in reaching agreement on the eligibility criteria for voters in the Abyei Area referendum".
The NCP and SPLM also said in a joint statement on Tuesday that both parties "will meet again in Ethiopia toward the end of October to continue their discussions. The parties continue to commit themselves to their mutual goal of avoiding a return to conflict".
Local residents in Abyei will vote on whether the region should join north or south Sudan in a plebiscite scheduled for early next year, which was promised as part of the 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war.
The vote is set to be held alongside south Sudan's referendum on independence from the north.
'Time is critical'
However, the head of the southern delegation warned the country could return to war if a deal is not reached.
"This round has failed," Pagan Amum, secretary-general of the SPLM, told reporters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa where the talks were held.
"We are left with 90 days. The time is very critical. If the parties fail to sort out these issues this could lead to an end of the peace process itself. And the peace may unravel in Sudan."
Delegates at the meeting also told the Reuters news agency that Ali Osman Taha, Sudan's second vice-president was flying to Juba on Tuesday to meet Salva Kiir, the south Sudan president, who is also a vice-president in Sudan's national power-sharing government, in an attempt to salvage the talks.
An observer at the talks, who declined to be identified, reported that Thabo Mbeki, the former South African president, had offered to mediate when talks resumed.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, had urged the government in Khartoum to come to the talks prepared to negotiate.
Delegates in Addis Ababa told Reuters one possible solution to the impasse was to forego the referendum on Abyei and divide its territory between the north and the south.
Mounting tensions
However, the teams were unable to agree on any possible border demarcation and what would qualify as Abyei citizenship.
The SPLM says the northern government is settling thousands of Missiriya, a tribe from central Sudan, in northern Abyei to influence the vote. The Khartoum government denies this.
In a sign of mounting tension, south Sudan's army told Reuters news agency that four northern soldiers walked into the centre of Abyei town on Monday evening and started shooting randomly in the air, slightly injuring a local resident.
Along with the Abyei plebiscite, there will also be a referendum on whether south Sudan should secede from the north.
That vote is widely expected to result in the creation of Africa's newest country, a development opposed by Khartoum.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
Suspected members of a radical Islamic sect set a police station on fire in northern Nigeria, wounding three officers in an attack similar to one that sparked rioting and a government crackdown that left 700 dead last year, officials said. Authorities already blame followers of the Boko Haram sect for a string of assassinations by motorcycle-riding gunmen and a massive prison break in September, worrying signs that the group is regaining its strength.
The attack started at 9:30pm on Monday, with suspected followers tossing makeshift bombs into the building, officials said. Three police officers were wounded, said Mohammed Hadi Zarewa, an assistant inspector-general of police in Maiduguri, near Nigeria's border with Chad.
Mr Zarewa and Borno state police commissioner Ibrahim Abdu said that they suspected Boko Haram followers were responsible for the attack on the building.
For a map, click here.
A total of four municipal police officers were shot in two separate shootouts in the cities of Torreon, Coahuila and in Gomez Palacio, Durango, say Mexican press accounts.
At 1900 hrs Tuesday evening a police patrol was shot at by armed suspects riding in a seven vehicle convoy in a western sector of Torreon known as Sector Alianza. Two agents were hit in the ambush near the corner of Calle Cepeda and Avenidas Morelos, and the official vehicle they were riding in was damaged. .45 caliber weapons were reportedly used in the attack.
An ambush in Gomez Palacio, Durango took place late Tuesday night leaving two municipal police officers wounded and a civilian wounded in the crossfire.
The attack took place at 2240 hrs. near the intersection of Bulevar Ejercito Mexicano and Avenida Miguel Lerdo de Tejada where armed suspects riding in a vehicle fired on officers. Several police elements were mobilized to the area but apparently the suspects escaped the area.
Seventeen individuals were murdered in northern Mexican states in drug and gang related violence that included a mass shooting of six prison guards in Chihuahua, Chihuahua. For a map, click here.
A woman was shot to death in Juarez Tuesday night, say Mexican news reports. The attack took place at a residence on calle Hacienda de Santiago in the Las Haciendas district where the victim of 32 was shot with an AK-47 assault rifle.
Six guards at a prison near Chihuahua were shot to death in an ambush in Chihuahua,. Chihuahua Wednesday morning, say Mexican news reports. The assault took place at about 0730 hrs at a traffic light near the intersection of calles Revolucion Cubana and Tecnologico north of Chihuahua. The guards, all part of the Centro de Readaptacion Social (CERESO) in Serdan Achilles, were riding aboard an official vehicle when armed suspects riding in a three vehicle convoy started shooting. Two of the guards were killed in the cab of the pickup truck while the other four died as they fled trying to avoid the assault. As they suspects fled the scene, they crashed into a bus.
An unidentified man was shot to death in the parking lot of a commercial establishment in Juarez Wednesday, say Mexican news accounts. The attack took place on the corner of Calle Plutarco and Avenida La Raza where the victim was shot by armed suspects riding in a Volkswagen Golf. Reports say handguns were used in the attack.
Five individuals were found murdered in Tijuana, according to the Mexican Daily La Cronica. Ulises Castañeda Payan, 35, was found shot to death early Tuesday morning in a residence on Calle Linces in the Cañadas del Florido district, by a .45 caliber weapon. Jesús Roberto Perez Castro, 37, was found shot to death Monday night as he was leaving his home on Calle Sexta in the Libertad Parte Alta district. Reports say 9mm weapons were used in the murder. In the last case, three unidentified men were found Monday night shot to death in a grocery store in Tres de Octubre district. Report say 15 individuals have been murdered in Tijuana in the last 72 hours.
Two inmates at a Nuevo Leon prison were killed in a brawl that also left five others injured, say Mexican news accounts. The fight took place at the Centro de Readaptacio Social (CERESO) at Cadereyta, near Monterrey, Monday night, and until today news was not confirmed as to those hurt.
Two men were found shot to death and dumped on a highway in Nuevo Leon, according to Mexican news accounts. Carlos Jesus Sillas Torres and Jorge Alejandro Torres Carrillo were found in the China municipality (county) Monday. Both men had been tortured prior to being shot.
[Straits Times] THREE police were killed and one maimed Wednesday in a clash with snuffies in Russia's troubled Caucasus region of Dagestan, the Interfax news agency reported.
An official in the local interior ministry told the news agency that the clash happened close to the village of Agvali as the police were carrying out a search operation in a forest and encountered the cut-thoats.
'In the firefight three police were killed and one maimed. Search operations are underway for the cut-thoat group,' the official said.
The Kremlin has been fighting hard boyz in the Northern Caucasus since after the collapse of the Soviet Union, waging a war in 1994-1996 against separatist rebels in Chechnya.
However, The infamous However... after a second war broke out in Chechnya in 1999, the rebellion's inspiration moved towards Islam with the aim of imposing an Islamic state in the region.
Although the war ended in 2000, rebels have waged an increasingly deadly insurgency with unrest spreading into other areas of the Northern Caucasus such as Dagestan and Ingushetia.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2010 00:00 ||
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Pakistani police said they had thwarted a plot to assassinate the country's prime minister, foreign minister and other senior officials after arresting a gang of seven militants.
They were detained after a shoot-out near a village in central Pakistan, said Abdi Qadri, a senior police officer, and revealed their plans under interrogation.
The men, suspected members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a banned Sunni militant group linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda, told police officers they were devising a plot to attack the home of Yousuf Raza Gilan, the prime minister, in Multan.
"We have averted several high-profile attacks by arresting these terrorists," said Mr Qadri.
The men opened fire when police tried to stop their car for a routine check.
Two passengers managed to escape on foot.
Mr Qadri added that some of the suspects were believed to have taken part in last year's attack on the main Pakistani spy agency in the central city of Multan that killed 12 people.
They also had plans to attack a key dam, a bridge and military installations as well as Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the foreign ministe
[Pak Daily Times] A prominent separatist leader from the north-east Indian state of Manipur has been jugged in Bangladesh and handed over, senior Indian officials say.
Rajkumar Meghen, who leads the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), was held by Bangladeshi police earlier this month, the officials said. Mr Meghen, whose alias is Sanayaima, was flown out of Bangladesh recently in an Indian aircraft, the officials said.
The UNLF is the oldest separatist group in India's north-east. Formed in 1964 to fight for Manipur's liberation from India, the group is estimated to have 5,000 armed fighters. It is the only group which has managed to retain territory in some areas of Manipur's borders with Burma, despite repeated military offensives by the Indian army.
Bangladesh has handed over more than 50 top leaders and muscle of Indian separatist groups since a crackdown began in 2009. Many more have decamped Bangladesh to evade capture or been caught on the border by Indian guards. Indian officials said Mr Meghen had moved to the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, from his hideout in Burma's Sagaing Division to line up an arms deal.
His movements were tracked by monitoring his communication with the arms dealers, they said. Analysts say India may be trying to influence the UNLF leader to start negotiations. But he has steadfastly refused to talk with India.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
That's not going to make China and/or Pakistan very happy.
Suspected US unmanned aircraft launched four missile strikes at a house and two vehicles in northwestern Pakistain near the Afghan border on Wednesday evening, killing 11 thugs, including three foreigners, said intelligence officials.
The attacks occurred within about an hour in the Dattakhel area of North Wazoo.
The first attack occurred at about 9pm and targeted a house in Lataka village, killing four thugs, said the intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Minutes later, a dronezaped a vehicle nearby, killing two foreign thugs, said the officials. A second vehicle was attacked about 15 minutes later, killing three thugs, including one foreigner, they said.
The final attack targeted Orcs and similar vermin collecting bodies from the house destroyed in the first strike, killing two of them, said the officials. The US carried out 21 such strikes in September, nearly double the previous monthly record.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
#1
Homeland Security will launch its suspicious activity report database to connect the dots. Citizens are encouraged to spy on and report suspicious activity of neighbors.
I think we should all report the rampant anti-american and outright RACIST activities at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington DC. over the past couple years.
The Nationwide SAR Initiative (NSI) states some of its successes such as, "The continued priority to safeguard the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties of our nations residents (including the assurances that not only is information shared appropriately with authorized personnel but that the information that is exchanged is quality information)." According to NSI overview (pdf), tips will go through a vetting process by a fusion center.
fusion center == new name for Acorn?
And who the hell would be 'Authorized Personal'? The new Black Panther's Party?
#4
Soon, harvesting organs from prisoners for use by the general populace.
What, already?
Okay then, harvesting organs from people in detention and who might soon be prisoners for use by a 'special subset' of the populace.
What, already being done? Really?
Okay then, harvesting organs from ... ah, never mind, I can't keep up.
Future Obamacare preview.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
10/14/2010 9:29 Comments ||
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#5
Can corrupt and surrealistic Washington nightmares be reported?
Posted by: Winston Smith ||
10/14/2010 13:32 Comments ||
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#8
Unfortunately, the American security apparat has become dominated by an unholy trinity of phobia - an intense fear of lack of control, along with extraordinary paranoia, and voyeurism.
Each of these three manifests itself in bizarre ways, but together they become intolerable. To understand the psychologies behind them, it helps to have a clear understanding of how they manifest in examples of their pathological extremes in individuals.
The phobic often becomes an agoraphobic, terrified of leaving his domicile, because he only has a sense of any control with "his stuff". Everything outside his door is threatening chaos. He feels threatened by the world.
This overlaps into the realm of the severe paranoid, whose emphasis is less on his ability to control, than that everyone is out to get him. He finds less solace in his home, because it forms no barrier to keep the menace out.
Finally, the voyeur figures in, because they obsessively try to keep track of everyone and everything around them. They have a sense of security in their recordings and records, dossiers, databases, etc., that they can control other people back.
Importantly, since each of these pathologies are open ended, they can only be stopped with a firm dose of unyielding realism--something they intensely oppose. In this case, someone will have to take charge of the American police and intelligence agencies, and set very strict limits on them.
From there, private organizations and corporations will also have to be restrained from this sort of thing as well--whatever their motivations.
#9
Fusion centers collect incident data from police agencies in a region (burglaries, robberies, traffic accidents, etc.). All this is (mostly) public information that appear in newspapers as daily "police reports" or "police blotters".
Suspicious incident is something like "Gasoline tanker truck stolen".
#12
Pappy, I learned years ago that you can justify anything by saying it is done for purposes of safety. At some point, the voice of reason has to intercede and point out that whatever it is, it is not working, so it should be discontinued.
A superb example of this are some of the Patriot Act waivers to the 4th Amendment. Since they were passed, well over 99.9% of the time, they have been used for "ordinary" purposes, not terrorism.
Now since they both violate the 4th Amendment, and diminish our liberties, *and* they do nothing for their anti-terrorism purpose, reason suggests they should be scrubbed. They do not protect us, they oppress us.
Now, the two big arguments for retaining them are first, that sometime they *might* be useful against terrorism; and since they are being used against ordinary crime and potential crime, that we should keep them anyway.
Sorry, the loss of liberty is far too great, just so that policemen don't have to follow the rules. The damage done to our society is worse, in the long term, than most anything terrorists might have done.
In truth, since about the time of prohibition, the erosion of our civil liberties has been frightening. Remember it was not too long ago that anybody could fly in a plane, anonymously. Wiretapping could only be done with a warrant. The police couldn't seize your property just because of some unrelated alleged crime.
We surrendered a hell of a lot of liberties during prohibition, during the war on drugs, and during the War on Terror. And once gone, it's likely that we will never get them back, so long as the government stands.
And yet they demand more. Always more. Because unless they are in control, absolute, total control, they say the chaos of the world will destroy us.
Terrorists Suspected Islamic separatists have killed four people and wounded another three, including a teenage girl, in a series of shootings in southern Thailand.
A former district leader was gunned down in a drive-by attack as he was on his way to a local mosque in Narathiwat on Wednesday evening. He died on route to the hospital.
In a separate incident on the same night, a 40-year-old man was fatally injured when terrorists suspected militants opened fire as he sat in front of his house in Pattani. A 14-year-old girl was among three people injured in that attack.
Also on Wednesday evening, two civilian defence volunteers were gunned down as they were on their way home in Yala.
(Xinhua) -- The Philippines' largest rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, on Wednesday confirmed the issuance of a shoot-to-kill order by the group against the abductors of a Chinese-Filipino woman who was seized in southern Philippines early this month.
But the order could be implemented only as the last recourse after all other means to free trader Conchita Tan become exhausted, Von al-Haq, MILF spokesperson, told a local radio.
Al-Haq said their operations to help locate and free the 73-year old Tan, wife of a hardware store owner in Cotabato city continue and the group's forces are in constant alert to prevent mis-encounter with government soldiers and police who have also launched a separate manhunt against the kidnappers.
"We have not coordinated with the military that's why we're extra careful (to avoid confrontations). We are ready to inform and share with the military whatever lead we get as to the whereabouts of the suspects and the victim," Al-Haq said.
Philippine authorities blamed the Saudi Kasan group, a local kidnap gang, as behind Tan's abduction on Friday in which the victim's driver and a security escort were also killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2010 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Police in Thailand said on Wednesday that they had jugged 15 Pak nationals involved in suspicious fundraising activity and were investigating possible links to a terrorist organisation. A bank in the southern province of Yala alerted authorities after one of the suspects tried to transfer money to a person in Pakistain on a blacklist "related to a terrorist group", said Police Colonel Piyawat Chalermsri. "We haven't found any link or evidence related to terrorism yet but as this area is very sensitive we will investigate further," said Piyawat. The detainees, who had been charged with working illegally, said they came to Thailand in September to raise funds to help the flood victims in Pakistain. They were being held at a cop shoppe in Yala in Thailand, where a raging insurgency has left more than 4,300 people dead in six years.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2010 00:00 ||
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A bomb exploded at dawn Wednesday under the car of a pro-Hizbullah Sunni holy man in the northern city of Tripoli, just hours ahead of Iran's diminutive PresidentMahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad's visit, security sources said. No casualties were reported.
They said the kaboom targeted the car of Sheikh Mustafa Malas, Imam of Minyeh Mosque.
The Volvo, parked outside his home in Minyeh near Tripoli, was in flames.
Windows of Malas' home were also damaged.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/14/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
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.
Suspected US unmanned aircraft launched four missile strikes at a house and two vehicles in northwestern Pakistain near the Afghan border on Wednesday evening, killing 11
[Pak Daily Times] Police in Thailand said on Wednesday that they had 
