Yesterday a reader/commenter queued up an article for the Burg. It consisted of a link to an unclassified but For Official Use Only (FOUO) DOD document.
Rantburg respects the importance of sensitive information. FOUO means what it says: for use by agencies/officials who need the info to execute their duties.
Please do not post such materials, or links to them. They will be deleted.
#1
me·a cul·pa [ mày ə kl p ]
1.expressing guilt or fault: used to express an admission of your own guilt
2.formal apology: a formal apology or acknowledgment of responsibility or guilt
Posted by: Au Auric ||
10/30/2012 0:31 Comments ||
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#2
So, avoiding the obvious risk of federal indightment...what was the content you thought germaine AA?
#7
Now, if we had personages of equal integrity to quit over using the classification system to hide stuff rather than deal with it, this would be a better world for it.
#8
No doubt P2K, but in the meanwhile, since I've worked with some of the dots which it truly would not be good to have connected, I take this seriously.
And .... let's not expose Fred to various complaints/charges, 'kay?
#9
I have no problem with the Rant handling of the issue. It's the boys [and girls] on the other side who abuse the system. There are real penalties for those who compromise the system. There are no real penalties for those who abuse the system.
#10
The document was a Field Manual (FM), outlining attack strategies employed in Afghanistan by the joint military operations against Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
The document is posted at an open website, which posts materials on military, security and intelligence.
I appreciate and accept the guidance of Rantburg's Editorial Staff and will not submit any material nor links to this type of material in the future.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
10/30/2012 9:39 Comments ||
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#11
Thank you for not posting FOUO or other material of that sort. Regardless of how out-in-the-open the material it is, folks with clearances have sworn to view such material only with a need to know. I'd imagine there are some folks here to whom that would apply.
#13
You would be amazed at how easy it is to find classified material on the net. An indictment of how sloppy the Obama Regime's handling or such material?
Or.
On purpose, since Hussein and his admin leans in favor of America's enemies.
#15
If people continue to post classified or FOUO material, I shall be forced to avoid this site.
An UNCLASSIIFED//FOUO document or portion is unclassified; It may have personally identifiable information like social security numbers, or it may have info about personnel decisions. In any case, if it is classified correctly, it has information you don't need to see and would not want others to see about you. If it is classified incorrectly, it isn't your job to disseminate it incorrectly. And public disclosure of a classified document does not declassify it.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
10/30/2012 19:42 Comments ||
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#16
I support the editorial policy here, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that the classification system is used wisely by our public servants. Read Senator Moynihan's book on the topic if you doubt me.
Also, read this article (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/lincolns-p-r-coup/) in the NY Times of all places, that describes how President Lincoln published the U.S. Government foreign correspondence during the Civil War.
Ofttimes the things we wish to keep secret are better off shared.
An Afghan policeman opened fire on Coalition soldiers operating in Helmand province earlier today, killing two British soldiers. Today's killing of Coalition forces marks the 40th green-on-blue, or insider attack, in Afghanistan that has been reported so far this year.
"An individual wearing the uniform of an Afghan policeman turned his weapon against International Security Assistance Force service members in southern Afghanistan today, killing two," the NATO command said in a press release. "The incident is currently under investigation."
Afghan officials said that the attack took place in Helmand province, and two British soldiers were killed, Pajhwok Afghan News reported. The Afghan policeman escaped after murdering the British soldiers.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
10/30/2012 10:48 ||
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#1
Another day and another reason to leave this shit hole and the swine who inhabit it.
[An Nahar] Tunisia's security forces union called on its members to wear red armbands for three days starting Monday, in protest against a suspected Islamist attack on a police officer.
Wissam Ben Slimane, the security chief of the Tunis suburb Manouba, told state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
he was attacked by a hatchet-wielding assailant overnight Saturday to Sunday.
Speaking from his hospital bed where he is recovering from a cut to the head, the officer said the attack took place as coppers tried to stop a fight between illegal alcohol sellers and a group of Salafist Islamists in Manouba.
"The attacker is still on the run and an investigation is underway to determine those responsible and arrest them," interior ministry front man Khaled Tarrouche told AFP.
"The interior ministry is determined to follow up the excesses committed by these groups who wish to take the place of the state," he added, alluding to the radical Islamist groups.
The national security forces union released a statement denouncing the attack on Slimane and called on the civil society ministry to "support the security forces and condemn acts of violence committed against security agents."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/30/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Dawn] At least ten suspected cut-throats were killed and six others injured Monday when Pak gunship helicopters pounded suspected bully boy hideouts in Bara Tehsil of Pakistains restive Khyber tribal region, officials said.
The assault followed an earlier clash in the Akakhel area of Bara Tehsil which had left one soldier dead and three injured, the officials added.
According to the officials, armed cut-throats ambushed a security convoy leading to a deadly clash between the cut-throats and security forces. The clash resulted in the death of a soldier while thee others were maimed.
Following the clash, security forces assisted by gunship helicopters targeted bully boy hideouts in Akakhel area, killing ten cut-throats and injuring six others, the official sources said.
Officials said security forces also destroyed four bully boy bases and claimed to have cooled for a few years Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! 15 suspects as the offensive continued.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Slats Chumbaloni was staring into a hole that was just .45 inch in diameter and was less than three feet from his face ... another soldier was also killed in a road side bomb kaboom in Tehsil Baras Shalobar area during a search operation, the officials added.
The reports could not be independently verified as journalists have limited access to Pakistains remote tribal areas.
Khyber is among Pakistains seven tribal districts near the Afghan border which are rife with homegrown Orcs and similar vermin and are alleged to be strongholds of Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/30/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: TTP
[An Nahar] Al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq grabbed credit on Monday for a series of shootings and bombings over the Eid al-Adha holiday that killed dozens of people nationwide.
The Islamic State of Iraq said the attacks over the four-day Moslem holiday from Friday were in response to the purported arrest of Sunni Arab women by Iraqi security forces in an effort to locate their wanted male relatives.
"The Islamic State alerted a part of its security forces in Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... and elsewhere to send a quick message to the apostate beasts and their government," said an ISI statement.
"They will pay dearly for what they have done, and they will not dream securely in the night or day, during Eid or not."
Attacks over the Eid al-Adha holiday have so far claimed 44 lives and left more than 150 people maimed, with the worst of the violence striking on Saturday when 31 people were killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/30/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
[An Nahar] Gazoo fighters on Monday fired 18 rockets at southern Israel, ending several days of calm, with the armed wing of the ruling Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement saying it was Dire Revenge™ after an air raid killed one of their men.
It was the second straight day in which fighters had fired rockets at Israel in a confrontation which began early on Sunday, and effectively ended three days of calm after an Egyptian-brokered truce went into force at midnight on Wednesday.
"At least 18 rockets were fired at Israeli territory, without causing injuries or damage," police front man Micky Rosenfeld told AFP, saying the count was from midnight.
Monday's barrage of rocket fire followed hot on the heels of two late-night Israeli air strikes which did not cause any injuries, Paleostinian security sources said.
Although the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades did not say how many rockets it had fired, it named at least five areas in southern Israel where it had targeted "military sites" -- Sufa, Kissufim, Beeri, Yad Mordechai and Nahal Oz.
And it posted a grainy video on their website which appeared to show fighters launching nine rockets in the early morning.
"This shelling was in response to the continuous Zionist bombing and terrorizing of peaceful citizens, which most recently killed Suleiman Kamel al-Qara, as well as in response to the repeated incursions and attacks carried out by the occupation," the group said referring to one of its own fighters.
The firing was the latest show of force from Hamas fighters who have traditionally respected a de facto truce on firing at Israel, but who have in recent weeks, claimed several rocket attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/30/2012 00:00 ||
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[11126 views]
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[Tolo News] Sectarian bloodshed has left at least 88 people dead in Myanmar this month, the authorities said Monday, with more than 26,000 others forced to flee a wave of rioting and arson.
Hundreds more homes were burned down over the weekend as security forces struggled to quell festivities between Buddhists and Mohammedans in western Rakhine state that have seen whole neighbourhoods razed.
Four more deaths were reported, although they were believed to be from earlier festivities.
"Altogether 49 men and 39 women have been killed," a government official told AFP, bringing the total corpse count since June to about 180. Rights groups fear the actual number of people killed could be much higher.
"About 300 houses were burnt down in Pauktaw town on Sunday but there were no casualties in that incident," said the official, who did not want to be named.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/30/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Bloody borders.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/30/2012 9:05 Comments ||
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#2
Christians in Nigeria and Buddhists in Thailand feel your pain. /sarc off
Iran's state media reports two Iranian warships have docked at a Sudanese port to convey a "message of peace," a week after Khartoum accused Israel of attacking a Sudanese weapons factory. According to IRNA, a destroyer and a helicopter carrier were sent to ensure the protection of shipping lanes. A Sudanese military spokesman cited in local media says the visit is also a chance for Sudan to learn about advanced weaponry on the Iranian ships.
Sudanese Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Mohamed Osman Rahamtalla would not confirm any Iranian warships had docked in Sudan. In an interview with VOA, he said Sudan and Iran are not involved in any new discussions regarding the alleged Israeli attack on a Sudanese weapons factory.
"Why should we do that? This is an internal matter in Sudan and we know the source of that attack and we have sent a very strong message against those who attacked us and Iran has nothing to do with this," Rahamtalla said.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
10/30/2012 10:43 ||
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#1
Glad they finally found the place. I hear they were looking for weeks. :-)
Opposition activists say Syrian warplanes struck a strategic, rebel-held town on the Damascus-Aleppo highway Tuesday, killing at least six civilians, including three young girls, following a widely ignored four-day truce between government forces and insurgents.
The air raids and fighting in Maarat al-Numan continued as ground troops attempted to recapture the Sunni Muslim area recently taken by rebels. Their presence has disrupted the government's ability to send supplies and reinforcements to Aleppo, where the two sides are bogged down in a bloody fight for control of the country's largest city.
Tuesday's airstrikes came a day after the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the fiercest air raid campaign in Damascus since the uprising began 19 months ago, targeting a number of rebel-held suburbs.
Also on Tuesday, Syrian state television reported that an air force general was killed in a Damascus suburb, the latest in attacks against senior members of President Bashar al-Assad's administration.
The report blamed terrorists for what it called the assassination of General Abdullah Mahmoud Al-Khalidi.
Meanwhile, activists also said the Syrian army and rebels are clashing in a Palestinian refugee camp in the capital.
Palestinians have largely stayed out of the war in Syria. The country is home to nearly 500,000 U.N.-registered Palestinian refugees.
The fighting in Syria has continued uninterrupted despite a truce called for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, which quickly broke down before ending Monday.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
10/30/2012 10:36 ||
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[An Nahar] Turkish artillery struck back on Monday after a shell fired from neighboring Syria ploughed into Turkish territory without causing any casualties, the state-run news agency ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... reported.
The shell struck near the village of Besaslan in southern Hatay province amid escalating festivities between Syrian loyalist troops and rebels in the Syrian town of Haram, just across the border, Anatolia said.
Turkey has systematically retaliated to every cross-border shelling since Syrian fire killed five Turks on October 3.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/30/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[An Nahar] Explosions shook Syria's capital on Monday as warplanes launched their heaviest air raids yet and two car booms struck, with the U.N.-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... peace envoy saying the conflict was going from bad to worse.
The air raid blasts, heard coming from several outlying districts, rattled windows in the city center and were among the most intense in Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... since the beginning of Syria's 19-month conflict, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent said.
They were followed by two car boomings in and around the capital.
The first struck the predominantly Christian and Druze area of Jaramana, just outside Damascus, killing 11 people, according to state news agency SANA.
The second hit several hours later in the southern al-Hajar al-Aswad district, which has seen heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or desultory fighting... , causing an unknown number of casualties, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.
The violence came as world powers looked to pick up the pieces of a failed effort for a Mohammedan holiday ceasefire, with envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in Moscow and due in China on Tuesday as he prepares to present new ideas to the U.N. Security Council.
"I have said and it bears repeating again and again that the Syrian crisis is very very dangerous, the situation is bad and getting worse," Brahimi said after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
On Monday, the final day of the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday, the Syrian military launched more than 60 air strikes around the country, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"These are the heaviest air strikes since warplanes were first deployed over the summer," the watchdog's director, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.
"The regime is looking to make real gains. There are battles in all of these areas being hit," he said.
Warplanes struck targets around Damascus, the Observatory said, with attacks focused on rebel positions in a northeastern belt where Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's regime has been battling to take opposition strongholds.
Dozens of soldiers were maimed and 11 killed in fighting in the area, it said.
The Observatory reported other air raids on villages and towns across the northwestern province of Idlib, where regime forces and rebels have been locked in fierce fighting over the Wadi Deif military base.
The army's general command in a statement blamed "terrorists" for violating the failed Eid truce.
"On the fourth and last day of the declared truce, armed terrorist groups continued to launch attacks on unarmed citizens, and targeted army and security checkpoints," it said.
The truce proposed by Brahimi for Eid, which started on Friday, fell apart amid festivities, shelling and car boomings only hours after it had been due to take effect.
More than 400 people have died since the start of Eid, according to the Observatory, including at least 80 on Monday.
The Britannia-based group relies on a countrywide network of activists, lawyers and medics in civilian and military hospitals, and says its tolls take into account civilian, military and rebel casualties.
U.N. Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said on Monday he was "deeply disappointed" by the collapse of the truce and urged all sides "to live up to their obligations and promote a ceasefire."
U.N. diplomats say Brahimi was realistic about the ceasefire's chances and is now looking ahead to new efforts to tackle the crisis.
Diplomats told AFP that he will go back to the Security Council with fresh proposals in November after the visits to Russia and China -- which have repeatedly vetoed resolutions threatening action against Assad's regime.
In a statement Monday, Syria's foreign ministry partly blamed the Security Council for the ceasefire's failure, saying it should have condemned a car boom in Damascus Friday that killed at least eight people and maimed more than 30.
"The Council's inability to condemn this attack encouraged the beturbanned goons to continue their crimes," it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/30/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[An Nahar] Ammar al-Dadikhi, aka Abou Ibrahim, the infamous abductor of the Lebanese pilgrims in Syria's Aazaz, has been killed during an attempt to storm a town in Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... 's countryside, the Beirut-based, pan-Arab television al-Mayadeen reported on Monday.
Kurdish popular committees killed Abou Ibrahim and four members of his group as they were trying to storm the town of Qastal Jindo in Aleppo's countryside, al-Mayadeen said.
Abou Ibrahim, the head of the so-called Northern Storm Brigade, shot to notoriety in mid-summer when his group grabbed credit for kidnapping a group of Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in Aazaz.
Anti-regime activists in Aazaz and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have denounced Abou Ibrahim as a criminal.
The man was reportedly maimed in a Syrian Arclight airstrike on Aazaz on August 16.
Eleven Lebanese pilgrims were kidnapped by rebels in Aazaz on May 22 as they were returning home from a pilgrimage in Iran.
One abductee was released in August in what his captors said was a goodwill gesture and another was released in September.
The kidnappers had repeatedly linked the release of the Lebanese captives to Hizbullah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... , a close ally of the Syrian regime, apologizing over his stances on the Syrian revolt.
On Saturday, the Northern Storm Brigade said it had enjugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! Lebanese journalist Fidaa Itani.
Itani has reassured that he is in good health in a YouTube video, clarifying that he is under house arrest.
In a statement published on its website, the Aazaz Northern Storm Brigade said that Itani was in its custody due to security reasons.
The statement pointed out that Itani was not incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! because of his nationality or political affiliation and that he will be asked to leave Syrian territory after a few days.
Itani, who works for LBCI television and other news channels, was enjugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! because his work is incompatible with the path of the Syrian revolution and rebels, the rebels posted on their page.
They pointed out that reports and videos have not proven yet Itani's involvement with any party that works against the revolution, but his presence as a journalist no longer receives approval in areas controlled by the rebels.
When contacted by LBCI, Abou Ibrahim confirmed that Itani is in the custody of Aazaz rebels, and that he was enjugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! while accompanying a group of fighters in Aleppo.
Itani was taking photos of a lot of military operations which made us suspicious and therefore we took him to Aazaz, Abou Ibrahim said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Slats Chumbaloni was staring into a hole that was just .45 inch in diameter and was less than three feet from his face ... al-Jadeed television quoted sources informed on the negotiations to free Itani as saying that al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... bloc MP Oqab Saqr is exerting "strenuous efforts" to free him.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/30/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
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.
An Afghan policeman opened fire on Coalition soldiers operating in Helmand province earlier today, killing two British soldiers. Today's killing of Coalition forces marks the 40th green-on-blue, or insider attack, in Afghanistan that has been reported so far this year.
[An Nahar] Tunisia's security forces union called on its members to wear red armbands for three days starting Monday, in protest against a suspected Islamist attack on a police officer.
[An Nahar] Al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq 
Iran's state media reports two Iranian warships have docked at a Sudanese port to convey a "message of peace," a week after Khartoum accused Israel of attacking a Sudanese weapons factory. According to IRNA, a destroyer and a helicopter carrier were sent to ensure the protection of shipping lanes. A Sudanese military spokesman cited in local media says the visit is also a chance for Sudan to learn about advanced weaponry on the Iranian ships.
[An Nahar] Explosions shook Syria's capital on Monday as warplanes launched their heaviest air raids yet and two 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
[An Nahar] Ammar al-Dadikhi, aka Abou Ibrahim, the infamous abductor of the Lebanese pilgrims in Syria's Aazaz, has been killed during an attempt to storm a town in 
