From the blog 'In This Dimension':
[T]he laser designators used by SpecOps only work -- they only lase the target -- when synced with an attack asset overhead...
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/02/2012 21:08 ||
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#1
Is this true? 'cause I recently read... maybe an alternate view of this las discussion....
That --- the SEALs knew there was no help coming and "painted" the enemy to get them to move the mortar.... taking time to break it down, reset, etc... etc.... thus buying as much time as an hour for escape for all.
And that lasing cost them their lives... cause they got spotted... seemingly, the mortar was a "true" hit...
#2
Unless countermeasures are available, I am not aware that the very small IR signal from a Laser Target Designator can be seen or detected by anyone. Using one of these devices for anything other than it's intended purpose (actual kinetic targeting) expends valuable battery life.
My knowledge is very dated, so if anyone has additional updates or corrections, please jump in.
#4
I read that smartphone cameras lack certain filters, which the hard boyz in Afghanistan have learned to use to visualize IR and hence spot good guy positions (can't find the link now). I don't think IR and laser wavelengths are the same, but if LTDs also emit an IR signal . . . Maybe the mortar team had a spotter with a smartphone?
#5
If you are receiving machinegun fire from the top of a building, it automatically moves to the top of the list as a mortar or indirect fires target.
#6
Random and Bosoeker,
The Taliban's use of smartphone to detect IR is dicussed by Michael Yon. LTDs DO use an IR signal.
The other interesting part of the post is its discussion of how the approval process works when an ambassador is in danger:
1) An ambassador is considered the equivelent of a 4 star general. When he is in danger everyone stops what they're doing and proceeds to rescue him.
2) The POTUS does not order people to commence rescue operations. That happens automatically. The affected commands have their contingency plans and troops on call, and they go through their preplanned tasks.
3) If the POTUS says "go ahead" the troops proceed to rescue the personnel.
4) If the POTUS DOES NOTHING the troops proceed to rescue the personnel.
5) The only way the rescue attempt can be aborted is if the POTUS gives on actual order to stand down. Apparently this had to be done several times because the troops were so anxious to go in.
6) While the SOS is culpable for events leading up to the attack, she had no chain of command role in the events of 9/11.
7) While I originally thought that simply froze when the attack happened, it appears he was actively involved PREVENTING rescue attempts from succeeding.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/02/2012 11:58 Comments ||
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#7
Whatever frequency of light it may be, it is designed to be picked up by something. Dust/Particulates in the air would scatter that light, creating the ability to trace back.
We are also in an era where ultra high speed video recorders are not only available to the general public, but there is a TV series where people are filmed doing mundane tasks, such as playing the drums, and reviewed.
#8
Frozen Al: I concur. POTUS would have definately had to intervene to stop (stand down) the normal security and evacuation process. Proof of that may be found in the actions of loyal soldiers of the regime such as Panetta's (early on) gag order on DoD and the Generals. Add to that the Susan Rice now infamous road tour with the Allah video story. Rice's statements compliment by the Hildebeast and Champ's lame performance at Dover AFB, the House and Senate Permanent Select Committees on Intgelligence stale lunch and wave off by Intelligence community (IC), and lastly, the DNI, the Champ and Willard, all going silent.
Perhaps what we are seeing here is what many at the Burg and elsewhere have warned of for years. We have an out of control, unlimited budget organization, which answers to no one controlling the action.
#10
Yes Glen, there are bound to be "real reasons". Obfuscating, manipulation, and lying to the Congress and the American people are not the methods which should be used to avoid disclosure.
#12
Newc,
Your article is a discussion of the CIA's "Friday document dump". It does a pretty good job of absolving the CIA. However as the article says:
What is missing from this account? Any details at all about the military or White Houses situational awareness and decision-making.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/02/2012 16:43 Comments ||
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#13
Well, This is CIA. They left the door open on CINC. It is time for the Officers that have been appointed to do something about this CINC decision.
It's time during Command and Staff to hold utter silence until the Chief cracks, and he will crack.
Hell, Hillary and He watched their Friend die on live feed and she was quite torn up about it.
That article debunked some of my questions but am hoping that I no longer have to shake the tree on this.
I would want to see good Officers tangled in this thing when it all meshes out. After all, we all swore the same Oath.
The matter is important both for the security of all staff serving overseas and contingency planning.
Sometimes with a Commander like him, it's better to just ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.
#14
Would not want to see Good Officers tangled up in this. I watched Petraus choke back and deliver the Administrations line about the video, and it was far from convincing. They set him up as fall guy, but it's going to backfire, and hard.
#16
Twitter is ever more valuable by the week too TW. I'm pimping out Rantburg there. Thanks for putting up with me. I may have lost my mind if not for this forum.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest daily newspaper, has some extremely harsh words for President Obama in a new editorial. The words come in response to President Obama's leadership in the past four years, but specifically in response to his handling of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi known to the Review-Journal as Obama's "blunder."
This administration is an embarrassment on foreign policy and incompetent at best on the economy - though a more careful analysis shows what can only be a perverse and willful attempt to destroy our prosperity. Back in January 2008, Barack Obama told the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle that under his cap-and-trade plan, "If somebody wants to build a coal-fired power plant, they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them." He added, "Under my plan ... electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket." It was also in 2008 that Mr. Obama's future Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, famously said it would be necessary to "figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe" - $9 a gallon.
Yet the president now claims he's in favor of oil development and pipelines, taking credit for increased oil production on private lands where he's powerless to block it, after he halted the Keystone XL Pipeline and oversaw a 50 percent reduction in oil leases on public lands.
These behaviors go far beyond "spin." They amount to a pack of lies. To return to office a narcissistic amateur who seeks to ride this nation's economy and international esteem to oblivion, like Slim Pickens riding the nuclear bomb to its target at the end of the movie "Dr. Strangelove," would be disastrous.
It seems only fitting that the country that created it has finally found a cure for it. The Pakistanis deserve a few Nobel Prizes all around and a tribute to the brilliant Islamic science that made it all possible.
After three months of sessions with psychologists, Islamic religious scholars and vocational counselors, Ahmed says hes cured.
I would never admire what I did 11 years ago, he said. It was a blunder on my part. I was immature, but it was my decision and I am still paying the price for it.
And the secret ingredient behind this amazing success story is money.
Participants were paid a three-month stipend of about $255. Upon graduation, they return to their hometowns and villages, where local counter-terrorism officers now check on them monthly.
The only setback so far, the official said, has been the failure to follow through on a promise of interest-free loans of about $320 to help start a small business. Provincial officials said they didnt have enough money.
The average annual income in Pakistan is $420.
The Jihadis, some of whom were paid mercenaries to begin with, made over half a years salary in three months by attending a bunch of classes for show. Some of them now have more engineering skills than they did before. All of them have more money than they did before.
And the United States diplomatic corps gets to celebrate the power of soft power when all they did was pay terrorists who were paid to be terrorists to stop being terrorists, even though theres nothing keeping the terrorists from becoming terrorists again.
Best of all, the money from the deradicalization courses was undoubtedly diverted by Pakistans intelligence and military apparatus to fund Islamic terrorism.
But lets not quibble. Money is a well-known cure for Islamic extremism. Weve been paying out money in exchange for peace in Iraq and Afghanistan for quite a while. But like most politicians, the Islamic extremists dont stay bought.
[Ynet] To Abbas, only important historical fact is 'grave injustice' inflicted by Jews
In 1948 Secretary General of the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... Azzam Pasha articulated the Arab recipe for long term success when he stated, "we have a secret weapon which we can use better than guns and machine guns, and this is time. As long as we do not make peace with the Zionists, the war is not over, and as long as the war is not over, there is neither a victor nor vanquished. As soon as we recognize the existence of the State of Israel, we recognize by this act that we are conquered."
Of all the Arabs, Arab-Paleostinians embraced Azzam Pasha's message and continue to follow it religiously today. Out waiting Israel is the Paleostinian strategy. It is no coincidence that the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... ' trial balloon to see if the UN would consider upgrading the status of the Paleostinian Authority to that of a state is set to be voted on November 29th 2012. Ironically, this will happen on the same date the partition of Paleostine was voted on 65 years ago. Partition was flatly rejected by Paleostinians and their Arab cousins.
Had the Arabs accepted partition in 1947 we would not be debating these very issues today; there would have been an Arab-Paleostinian state and no refugee problem. It was on November 29th 1947 that the United Nations ...When talk is your weapon it's hard to make yourself heard over the artillery... General Assembly Resolution 181 recommended the creation of separate Jewish and Arab states. A closer look at the General Assembly's final tally in 1947 underscores the same rejectionism: 33 countries voted for partition, 13 against and 10 abstained. It's no surprise that the countries that rejected co-existence and blocked Arab-Paleostinian statehood overwhelmingly came from the Arab/Mohammedan world: Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Leb, Pakistain, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... , Syria, Turkey and Yemen.
Today Abbas is working under the assumption that the world has a short term memory and that this history does not matter, that the only important fact from the past is the "grave injustice" that Jews have inflicted on the Paleostinian people. This is supposed to suffice for the UN to again support Paleostinian statehood.
In the process Abbas is diligently working to convince the world and Paleostinian society that he is the savior of the Paleostinian cause. He recently wrote to US President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... assuring him that the Paleostinians are committed to a two-state solution with Israel. A statement given by Abbas' political adviser Nimer Hammad stressed that the bid for statehood would "solidify the right of the Paleostinian people to their land, which is under occupation, and not disputed territories," and also argued that this move would not isolate the State of Israel.
While Paleostinian representative are using soft power to sell Paleostinian victim-hood through flotillas and social media outlets there is little said about the Paleostinian nation-state or actual state-building. In contrast, the Zionist movement worked to build a state from the 1880s when the first wave of Russian Jewish immigrants moved to Paleostine to re-build the ancient Promised Land until 1948.
Many Arabs of Paleostine had friendly ties with the early Jewish settlers and did not engage in state-building until there was a Jewish State. This development, the product of decades of hard work, was then pointed to in order to claim that Jews created a state not as a Jewish homeland but as a means to rid Paleostine of its Arabs. This zero-sum world view was galvanized by the Arab narrative that the Zionists viewed the Land of Israel as a "land without a people."
The late Paleostinian professor of English literature, Edward Said, took it one step further and shortened the phrase to "a land without people" to imply that Zionists actually believed there were essentially no people in Ottoman Paleostine. But mainstream Zionists from the beginning attempted to work with the Arab population and then favored an Arab state alongside Israel. Paleostinians and Arab countries rejected this completely on November 29th, 1947 and thereafter.
Since then Paleostinian identity has been rooted in three ideas. One is that resistance to Israel is permanent and sacrosanct. Another is that Paleostinians are, individually and communally, refugees, made so at the hands of Israel. The third is that the world, specifically the UN and Western countries, must support these refugees until they can return to a future Paleostine and to homes in what is now Israel. State-building does not figure into this.
While a functioning Paleostinian State remains desirable, the fact that Paleostinian leadership has refused to directly negotiate with Israel and uses bodies like the UN to endorse a "virtual" state that has no viable infrastructure is telling. Is the Paleostinian goal a state of their own, or just the erasure of Israel, to be followed by what? Insisting upon a Paleostinian state must go hand in hand with reviving the flat-lining Paleostinian political system and institutions that would support it. If not the odds of success are slim to none.
Asaf Romirowsky is an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Forum and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
#1
Not going to happen, but I'd love to see all the "Obama phones" turned off at noon on Inauguration Day, For a start...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/02/2012 9:34 Comments ||
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#2
And let's please remember that the usual squishy RINO suspects in the Senate will take a Romney win as a signal to "embrace bipartisanship with a new fervor..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/02/2012 9:36 Comments ||
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#3
Tut! I've seen bigger tits in the Rose Garden ;)
Merci, J'aime lire Francais, si je ne parle pas Francais bon.
I coudn't care less about RINOs, DINOS or blue dogs. What I car about is if my children will b e obliterated by a nuclear attack or if my daughters will have to wear burkha. Obama has done everything in his power for America losing the war against islamism. If I were American I would vote for Genghis Khan sooner than for him.
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.
