Over 260 million people have been killed by and in the name of Islam, many of those in Africa. The 80 million murdered Indians are just a sample.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
WHITEWASHING KORAN-INSPIRED MURDERS IN CHICAGO
by Robert Spencer
Prosecutors in Cook County said Friday that James Larry, a Chicago Muslim, has confessed to brutally murdering his wife, his seven-month old son Jihad, and two of his nieces. According to the Chicago Tribune, Larry was a prison convert to Islam who had been arguing with his wife over her refusal to become a Muslim and wear Islamic clothing. His sister revealed that he had been clutching a copy of the Koran and telling relatives that “something in the book told him to kill someone.”
Were James Larry a Christian, his murders would be front-page headlines, and talking heads on all the networks would be discussing in hushed tones the dangers of Christian fundamentalism, complete with clips of Robert DeNiro as the Scripture-addled maniacal killer in Cape Fear, or any number of hundreds of other Hollywood fantasies about violent Christian fanatics.
But James Larry is a Muslim, and so true to form, outside of the Tribune and a handful of other sources, mainstream media coverage ignored the story altogether or, at very least, did not deem fit to print or mention all the inconvenient evidence that he was motivated to kill at least in part by such Koranic exhortations as “kill the polytheists wherever you find them” (9:5). The Associated Press story on the murders has none of that. According to AP, Larry was just “hearing voices.”
The whole process of news gathering and news reporting needs to be demystified, even in this Internet age, and news reports recognized not as objective, dispassionate accounts, but as the work of human beings with agendas. While it is possible that Kristen Schorsch, Annie Sweeney and Cynthia Dizikes, the authors of the Chicago Tribune story, are simply better, more thorough reporters than Don Babwin of AP, it is more likely that Babwin had access to exactly the same information that showed up in the Tribune report, but chose not to go with it.
He probably thought it would be “Islamophobic” to do so, or that to do so would fuel one of those fabled but nonexistent “backlashes” against innocent Muslims. So he appears to have decided that it was better to cover up key facts about this incident.
I do not mean to single out Don Babwin for criticism. He is no worse a journalist than thousands of others working today. He was just doing what they all do, in large and small ways, every day. And they do this because they’ve been told to: Pamela Geller of AtlasShrugs.com recently noted in an article at Andrew Breitbart’s Big Journalism.com that the Society of Professional Journalists issued guidelines shortly after 9/11 that direct reporters to avoid mentioning Islam and jihad in their stories, even when those stories have to do primarily with Islam and jihad. The guidelines tell reporters to “avoid using word combinations such as ‘Islamic terrorist’ or ‘Muslim extremist’ that are misleading because they link whole religions to criminal activity.”
This is hogwash, of course. The phrase “Islamic terrorist” no more links the whole religion of Islam to criminal activity than the phrase “Italian fascist” links all Italians to fascism. It is merely a description of a group whose existence is palpable and undeniable: Muslims who commit gratuitous violence, often against non-Muslim civilians, and justify their actions by reference to Islamic texts and teachings.
For such people, the term “Islamic terrorist” is altogether fitting and proper. The avoidance of such terms–which is by now almost universal, from Barack Obama’s State Department to Associated Press to virtually all other government and major media entities–has the effect only of hampering our ability to understand what exactly it is that we’re up against, and take appropriate actions to meet the Islamic jihad challenge and protect ourselves and our society.
Don Babwin of AP should not have mentioned the Islamic aspects of James Larry’s murders just to pick on Islam or Muslims, or to portray an entire religion and people in a bad light. He should have mentioned them in the interests of simple accuracy, and in the interests of aiding government and law-enforcement officials who have a duty to call upon the Muslim community in the U.S. to take genuine steps to teach Muslims that the Koran’s violent exhortations have no force or validity today. But that call has not and will not go out. No one even recognizes that it needs to.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)", "The Truth About Muhammad," "Stealth Jihad," and most recently "The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran" (all from Regnery -- a HUMAN EVENTS sister company).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prosecutors in Cook County said Friday that James Larry, a Chicago Muslim, has confessed to brutally murdering his wife, his seven-month old son Jihad, and two of his nieces. According to the Chicago Tribune, Larry was a prison convert to Islam who had been arguing with his wife over her refusal to become a Muslim and wear Islamic clothing. His sister revealed that he had been clutching a copy of the Koran and telling relatives that “something in the book told him to kill someone.”
Were James Larry a Christian, his murders would be front-page headlines, and talking heads on all the networks would be discussing in hushed tones the dangers of Christian fundamentalism, complete with clips of Robert DeNiro as the Scripture-addled maniacal killer in Cape Fear, or any number of hundreds of other Hollywood fantasies about violent Christian fanatics.
But James Larry is a Muslim, and so true to form, outside of the Tribune and a handful of other sources, mainstream media coverage ignored the story altogether or, at very least, did not deem fit to print or mention all the inconvenient evidence that he was motivated to kill at least in part by such Koranic exhortations as “kill the polytheists wherever you find them” (9:5). The Associated Press story on the murders has none of that. According to AP, Larry was just “hearing voices.”
The whole process of news gathering and news reporting needs to be demystified, even in this Internet age, and news reports recognized not as objective, dispassionate accounts, but as the work of human beings with agendas. While it is possible that Kristen Schorsch, Annie Sweeney and Cynthia Dizikes, the authors of the Chicago Tribune story, are simply better, more thorough reporters than Don Babwin of AP, it is more likely that Babwin had access to exactly the same information that showed up in the Tribune report, but chose not to go with it.
He probably thought it would be “Islamophobic” to do so, or that to do so would fuel one of those fabled but nonexistent “backlashes” against innocent Muslims. So he appears to have decided that it was better to cover up key facts about this incident.
I do not mean to single out Don Babwin for criticism. He is no worse a journalist than thousands of others working today. He was just doing what they all do, in large and small ways, every day. And they do this because they’ve been told to: Pamela Geller of AtlasShrugs.com recently noted in an article at Andrew Breitbart’s Big Journalism.com that the Society of Professional Journalists issued guidelines shortly after 9/11 that direct reporters to avoid mentioning Islam and jihad in their stories, even when those stories have to do primarily with Islam and jihad. The guidelines tell reporters to “avoid using word combinations such as ‘Islamic terrorist’ or ‘Muslim extremist’ that are misleading because they link whole religions to criminal activity.”
This is hogwash, of course. The phrase “Islamic terrorist” no more links the whole religion of Islam to criminal activity than the phrase “Italian fascist” links all Italians to fascism. It is merely a description of a group whose existence is palpable and undeniable: Muslims who commit gratuitous violence, often against non-Muslim civilians, and justify their actions by reference to Islamic texts and teachings.
For such people, the term “Islamic terrorist” is altogether fitting and proper. The avoidance of such terms–which is by now almost universal, from Barack Obama’s State Department to Associated Press to virtually all other government and major media entities–has the effect only of hampering our ability to understand what exactly it is that we’re up against, and take appropriate actions to meet the Islamic jihad challenge and protect ourselves and our society.
Don Babwin of AP should not have mentioned the Islamic aspects of James Larry’s murders just to pick on Islam or Muslims, or to portray an entire religion and people in a bad light. He should have mentioned them in the interests of simple accuracy, and in the interests of aiding government and law-enforcement officials who have a duty to call upon the Muslim community in the U.S. to take genuine steps to teach Muslims that the Koran’s violent exhortations have no force or validity today. But that call has not and will not go out. No one even recognizes that it needs to.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)", "The Truth About Muhammad," "Stealth Jihad," and most recently "The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran" (all from Regnery -- a HUMAN EVENTS sister company).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, April 25, 2010
OBA-HUSSEIN - OUR DOMESTIC TERRORIST
It's not our ex-military, our Glenn Becks, our Tea Partiers who are "domestic terrorists" as they are being accused but the RADICAL Obama administration which is terrorizing and ignoring our nation's people - "we the people"!
I really don’t think the Democrats realized how the American people would NOT be cheering them on for “delivering” healthcare to them. Most Americans are not THAT stupid and recognize a con when they see it and when the Dems are in their face nonstop for months talking about it... and then they realize
A) It does not offer immediate coverage for pre-existing conditions
B) They find out the bill does not GIVE them health coverage but says they have to PAY for it
C) If they DON’T pay for it, they will be fined
D) Their employer explains how they won’t be able to afford that raise in 2014 because they will either have to bump up their coverage or pay a fine
Anyway, the American people realized what a craphole of a plan this is right away.
"Their employer explains how they won’t be able to afford that raise in 2014 because they will either have to bump up their coverage or pay a fine."
Actually, from first hand knowledge of my companies contingency plans, it should read like this:
D) Their employer explains how they will be dropping health insurance coverage for all employees as the fine is less than 10% of the cost of providing health insurance.
A company comments:
It isn’t even close. Right now we provide full family coverage to our employees at no cost to them. this is a no-deductible, $10 co-pay, 100% coverage for almost everything (i.e. what the Dems call a Cadillac plan).
To do this we spend $1900 a MONTH per employee. We fully expect this to double due to ObamaScare.
The fine works out to around $300-400 a YEAR per employee. So $3800 a MONTH or $400 a YEAR — not a tough decision.
The disparity between the fine and the insurance premium is intended to force employers to choose the fine.
That many more employees will end up without insurance, allowing the feds to offer up the "public option" as a solution.
THAT IS DOMESTIC TERRORISM!
Much government policy is designed to create a problem, so that the government can solve it -- and gain power in the process.
The Democrat crusade to change our country has run it's course.
November is the time to remove all of them (and many Republican RINOs (Republican in Name Only) from office before they can do more damage.
I really don’t think the Democrats realized how the American people would NOT be cheering them on for “delivering” healthcare to them. Most Americans are not THAT stupid and recognize a con when they see it and when the Dems are in their face nonstop for months talking about it... and then they realize
A) It does not offer immediate coverage for pre-existing conditions
B) They find out the bill does not GIVE them health coverage but says they have to PAY for it
C) If they DON’T pay for it, they will be fined
D) Their employer explains how they won’t be able to afford that raise in 2014 because they will either have to bump up their coverage or pay a fine
Anyway, the American people realized what a craphole of a plan this is right away.
"Their employer explains how they won’t be able to afford that raise in 2014 because they will either have to bump up their coverage or pay a fine."
Actually, from first hand knowledge of my companies contingency plans, it should read like this:
D) Their employer explains how they will be dropping health insurance coverage for all employees as the fine is less than 10% of the cost of providing health insurance.
A company comments:
It isn’t even close. Right now we provide full family coverage to our employees at no cost to them. this is a no-deductible, $10 co-pay, 100% coverage for almost everything (i.e. what the Dems call a Cadillac plan).
To do this we spend $1900 a MONTH per employee. We fully expect this to double due to ObamaScare.
The fine works out to around $300-400 a YEAR per employee. So $3800 a MONTH or $400 a YEAR — not a tough decision.
The disparity between the fine and the insurance premium is intended to force employers to choose the fine.
That many more employees will end up without insurance, allowing the feds to offer up the "public option" as a solution.
THAT IS DOMESTIC TERRORISM!
Much government policy is designed to create a problem, so that the government can solve it -- and gain power in the process.
The Democrat crusade to change our country has run it's course.
November is the time to remove all of them (and many Republican RINOs (Republican in Name Only) from office before they can do more damage.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC PULSE DETAILS REVISITED
Found at: http://standeyo.com/News_Files/NBC/EMP.protection.html
There's no need for you to go back to the stone age if a nuclear war occurs. It is possible to avoid much of the EMP damage that could be done to electrical equipment—including the computer that brought this article to you—with just a few simple precautions.
First of all, it's necessary to get rid of a few erroneous facts, however.
One mistaken idea is that EMP is like a powerful bolt of lightning. While the two are alike in their end results—burning out electrical equipment with intense electronic surges—EMP is actually more akin to a super-powerful radio wave. Thus, strategies based on using lightning arrestors or lightning-rod grounding techniques are destined to failure in protecting equipment from EMP.
Another false concept is that EMP "out of the blue" will fry your brain and/or body the way lightning strikes do. In the levels created by a nuclear weapon, it would not pose a health hazard to plants, animals, or man PROVIDED it isn't concentrated.
EMP can be concentrated. That could happen if it were "pulled in" by a stretch of metal. If this happened, EMP would be dangerous to living things. It could become concentrated by metal girders, large stretches of wiring (including telephone lines), long antennas, or similar set ups. So—if a nuclear war were in the offing—you'd do well to avoid being very close to such concentrations. (A safe distance for nuclear-generated EMP would be at least 8 feet from such stretches of metal.)
This concentration of EMP by metal wiring is one reason that most electrical equipment and telephones would be destroyed by the electrical surge. It isn't that the equipment itself is really all that sensitive, but that the surge would be so concentrated that nothing working on low levels of electricity would survive.
Protecting electrical equipment is simple if it can be unplugged from AC outlets, phone systems, or long antennas. But that assumes that you won't be using it when the EMP strikes. That isn't all that practical and—if a nuclear war were drawn out or an attack occurred in waves spread over hours or days— you'd have to either risk damage to equipment or do without it until things had settled down for sure.
One simple solution is to use battery-operated equipment which has cords or antennas of only 30 inches or less in length. This short stretch of metal puts the device within the troughs of the nuclear-generated EMP wave and will keep the equipment from getting a damaging concentration of electrons. Provided the equipment isn't operated close to some other metal object (i.e., within 8 feet of a metal girder, telephone line, etc.), it should survive without any other precautions being taken with it.
If you don't want to buy a wealth of batteries for every appliance you own or use a radio set up with longer than 30-inch antenna, then you'll need to use equipment that is "hardened" against EMP.
The trick is that it must REALLY be hardened from the real thing, not just EMP-proof on paper. This isn't all that easy. The National Academy of Sciences recently stated that tailored hardening is "not only deceptively difficult, but also very poorly understood by the defense-electronics community." Even the US Military has equipment which might not survive a nuclear attack, even though it is designed to do just that.
That said, there are some methods which will help to protect circuits from EMP and give you an edge if you must operate ham radios or the like when a nuclear attack occurs. Design considerations include the use of tree formation circuits (rather than standard loop formations); the use of induction shielding around components; the use of self-contained battery packs; the use of loop antennas; and (with solid-state components) the use of Zener diodes. These design elements can eliminate the chance an EMP surge from power lines or long antennas damaging your equipment. Another useful strategy is to use grounding wires for each separate instrument which is coupled into a system so that EMP has more paths to take in grounding itself.
A new device which may soon be on the market holds promise in allowing electronic equipment to be EMP hardened. Called the "Ovonic threshold device", it has been created by Energy Conversion Devices of Troy, MI. The Ovonic threshold device is a solid-state switch capable of quickly opening a path to ground when a circuit receives a massive surge of EMP. Use of this or a similar device would assure survival of equipment during a massive surge of electricity.
Some electrical equipment is innately EMP-resistant. This includes large electric motors, vacuum tube equipment, electrical generators, transformers, relays, and the like. These might even survive a massive surge of EMP and would likely to survive if a few of the above precautions were taking in their design and deployment.
At the other end of the scale of EMP resistance are some really sensitive electrical parts. These include IC circuits, microwave transistors, and Field Effect Transistors (FET's). If you have electrical equipment with such components, it must be very well protected if it is to survive EMP.
One "survival system" for such sensitive equipment is the Faraday box.
A Faraday box is simply a metal box designed to divert and soak up the EMP. If the object placed in the box is insulated from the inside surface of the box, it will not be affected by the EMP travelling around the outside metal surface of the box. The Faraday box simple and cheap and often provides more protection to electrical components than "hardening" through circuit designs which can't be (or haven't been) adequately tested.
Many containers are suitable for make-shift Faraday boxes: cake boxes, ammunition containers, metal filing cabinets, etc., etc., can all be used. Despite what you may have read or heard, these boxes do NOT have to be airtight due to the long wave length of EMP; boxes can be made of wire screen or other porous metal.
The only two requirements for protection with a Faraday box are:
(1) the equipment inside the box does NOT touch the metal container (plastic, wadded paper, or cardboard can all be used to insulate it from the metal) and
(2) the metal shield is continuous without any gaps between pieces or extra-large holes in it.
Grounding a Faraday box is NOT necessary and in some cases actually may be less than ideal. While EMP and lightning aren't the "same animal", a good example of how lack of grounding is a plus can be seen with some types of lightning strikes. Take, for example, a lightning strike on a flying airplane. The strike doesn't fry the plane's occupants because the metal shell of the plane is a Faraday box of sorts. Even though the plane, high over the earth, isn't grounded it will sustain little damage.
In this case, much the same is true of small Faraday cages and EMP. Consequently, storage of equipment in Faraday boxes on wooden shelves or the like does NOT require that everything be grounded. (One note: theoretically non-grounded boxes might hold a slight charge of electricity; take some time and care before handling ungrounded boxes following a nuclear attack.)
The thickness of the metal shield around the Faraday box isn't of much concern, either. This makes it possible to build protection "on the cheap" by simply using the cardboard packing box that equipment comes in along with aluminum foil. Just wrap the box with the aluminum foil (other metal foil or metal screen will also work); tape the foil in place and you're done. Provided it is kept dry, the cardboard will insulate the gear inside it from the foil; placing the foil-wrapped box inside a larger cardboard box is also wise to be sure the foil isn't accidentally ripped anywhere. The result is an "instant" Faraday box with your equipment safely stored inside, ready for use following a nuclear war.
Copper or aluminium foil can help you insulate a whole room from EMP as well. Just paper the wall, ceiling and floor with metal foil. Ideally the floor is then covered with a false floor of wood or with heavy carpeting to insulate everything and everyone inside from the shield (and EMP). The only catch to this is that care must be taken NOT to allow electrical wiring connections to pierce the foil shield (i.e., no AC powered equipment or radio antennas can come into the room from outside). Care must also be taken that the door is covered with foil AND electrically connected to the shield with a wire and screws or some similar set up.
Many government civil defence shelters are now said to have gotten the Faraday box, "foil" treatment. These shelters are covered inside with metal foil and have metal screens which cover all air vents and are connected to the metal foil. Some of these shelters probably make use of new optical fibre systems—protected by plastic pipe—to "connect" communications gear inside the room to the "outside world" without creating a conduit for EMP energy to enter the shelter.
Another "myth" that seems to have grown up with information on EMP is that nearly all cars and trucks would be "knocked out" by EMP. This seems logical, but is one of those cases where "real world" experiments contradict theoretical answers and I'm afraid this is the case with cars and EMP. According to sources working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, cars have proven to be resistant to EMP in actual tests using nuclear weapons as well as during more recent tests (with newer cars) with the US Military's EMP simulators.
One reason for the ability of a car to resist EMP lies in the fact that its metal body is "insulated" by its rubber tires from the ground. This creates a Faraday cage of sorts. (Drawing on the analogy of EMP being similar to lightning, it is interesting to note that cases of lightning striking and damaging cars is almost non-existent; this apparently carries over to EMP effects on vehicles as well.)
Although Faraday boxes are generally made so that what is inside doesn't touch the box's outer metal shield (and this is especially important for the do-it-yourself since it is easy to inadvertently ground the Faraday box—say by putting the box on metal shelving sitting on a concrete floor), in the case of the car the "grounded" wiring is grounded only to the battery. In practice, the entire system is not grounded in the traditional electrical wiring sense of actually making contact to the earth at some point in its circuitry. Rather the car is sitting on insulators made of rubber.
It is important to note that cars are NOT 100 percent EMP proof; some cars will most certainly be affected, especially those with fibreglass bodies or located near large stretches of metal. (I suspect, too, that recent cars with a high percentage of IC circuitry might also be more susceptible to EMP effects.)
The bottom line is that all vehicles probably won't be knocked out by EMP. But the prudent survivalist should make a few contingency plans "just in case" his car (and other electrical equipment) does not survive the effects of EMP. Discovering that you have one of the few cars knocked out would not be a good way to start the onset of terrorist attack or nuclear war.
Most susceptible to EMP damage would be cars with a lot of IC circuits or other "computers" to control essential changes in the engine. The very prudent may wish to buy spare electronic ignition parts and keep them a car truck (perhaps inside a Faraday box). But it seems probable that many vehicles WILL be working following the start of a nuclear war even if no precautions have been taken with them.
One area of concern are explosives connected to electrical discharge wiring or designed to be set off by other electric devices. These might be set off by an EMP surge. While most citizens don't have access to such equipment, claymore mines and other explosives would be very dangerous to be around at the start of a nuclear box if they weren't carefully stored away in a Faraday box. Ammunition, mines, grenades and the like in large quantities might be prone to damage or explosion by EMP, but in general aren't all that sensitive to EMP.
A major area of concern when it comes to EMP is nuclear reactors located in the US. Unfortunately, a little-known Federal dictum prohibits the NRC from requiring power plants to withstand the effects of a nuclear war. This means that, in the event of a nuclear war, many nuclear reactors' control systems might will be damaged by an EMP surge. In such a case, the core-cooling controls might become inoperable and a core melt down and breaching of the containment vessel by radioactive materials into the surrounding area might well result. (If you were needing a reason not to live down wind from a nuclear reactor, this is it.)
Provided you're not next door to a nuclear power plant, most of the ill effects of EMP can be overcome. EMP, like nuclear blasts and fallout, can be survived if you have the know how and take a few precautions before hand.
And that would be worth a lot, wouldn't it?
There's no need for you to go back to the stone age if a nuclear war occurs. It is possible to avoid much of the EMP damage that could be done to electrical equipment—including the computer that brought this article to you—with just a few simple precautions.
First of all, it's necessary to get rid of a few erroneous facts, however.
One mistaken idea is that EMP is like a powerful bolt of lightning. While the two are alike in their end results—burning out electrical equipment with intense electronic surges—EMP is actually more akin to a super-powerful radio wave. Thus, strategies based on using lightning arrestors or lightning-rod grounding techniques are destined to failure in protecting equipment from EMP.
Another false concept is that EMP "out of the blue" will fry your brain and/or body the way lightning strikes do. In the levels created by a nuclear weapon, it would not pose a health hazard to plants, animals, or man PROVIDED it isn't concentrated.
EMP can be concentrated. That could happen if it were "pulled in" by a stretch of metal. If this happened, EMP would be dangerous to living things. It could become concentrated by metal girders, large stretches of wiring (including telephone lines), long antennas, or similar set ups. So—if a nuclear war were in the offing—you'd do well to avoid being very close to such concentrations. (A safe distance for nuclear-generated EMP would be at least 8 feet from such stretches of metal.)
This concentration of EMP by metal wiring is one reason that most electrical equipment and telephones would be destroyed by the electrical surge. It isn't that the equipment itself is really all that sensitive, but that the surge would be so concentrated that nothing working on low levels of electricity would survive.
Protecting electrical equipment is simple if it can be unplugged from AC outlets, phone systems, or long antennas. But that assumes that you won't be using it when the EMP strikes. That isn't all that practical and—if a nuclear war were drawn out or an attack occurred in waves spread over hours or days— you'd have to either risk damage to equipment or do without it until things had settled down for sure.
One simple solution is to use battery-operated equipment which has cords or antennas of only 30 inches or less in length. This short stretch of metal puts the device within the troughs of the nuclear-generated EMP wave and will keep the equipment from getting a damaging concentration of electrons. Provided the equipment isn't operated close to some other metal object (i.e., within 8 feet of a metal girder, telephone line, etc.), it should survive without any other precautions being taken with it.
If you don't want to buy a wealth of batteries for every appliance you own or use a radio set up with longer than 30-inch antenna, then you'll need to use equipment that is "hardened" against EMP.
The trick is that it must REALLY be hardened from the real thing, not just EMP-proof on paper. This isn't all that easy. The National Academy of Sciences recently stated that tailored hardening is "not only deceptively difficult, but also very poorly understood by the defense-electronics community." Even the US Military has equipment which might not survive a nuclear attack, even though it is designed to do just that.
That said, there are some methods which will help to protect circuits from EMP and give you an edge if you must operate ham radios or the like when a nuclear attack occurs. Design considerations include the use of tree formation circuits (rather than standard loop formations); the use of induction shielding around components; the use of self-contained battery packs; the use of loop antennas; and (with solid-state components) the use of Zener diodes. These design elements can eliminate the chance an EMP surge from power lines or long antennas damaging your equipment. Another useful strategy is to use grounding wires for each separate instrument which is coupled into a system so that EMP has more paths to take in grounding itself.
A new device which may soon be on the market holds promise in allowing electronic equipment to be EMP hardened. Called the "Ovonic threshold device", it has been created by Energy Conversion Devices of Troy, MI. The Ovonic threshold device is a solid-state switch capable of quickly opening a path to ground when a circuit receives a massive surge of EMP. Use of this or a similar device would assure survival of equipment during a massive surge of electricity.
Some electrical equipment is innately EMP-resistant. This includes large electric motors, vacuum tube equipment, electrical generators, transformers, relays, and the like. These might even survive a massive surge of EMP and would likely to survive if a few of the above precautions were taking in their design and deployment.
At the other end of the scale of EMP resistance are some really sensitive electrical parts. These include IC circuits, microwave transistors, and Field Effect Transistors (FET's). If you have electrical equipment with such components, it must be very well protected if it is to survive EMP.
One "survival system" for such sensitive equipment is the Faraday box.
A Faraday box is simply a metal box designed to divert and soak up the EMP. If the object placed in the box is insulated from the inside surface of the box, it will not be affected by the EMP travelling around the outside metal surface of the box. The Faraday box simple and cheap and often provides more protection to electrical components than "hardening" through circuit designs which can't be (or haven't been) adequately tested.
Many containers are suitable for make-shift Faraday boxes: cake boxes, ammunition containers, metal filing cabinets, etc., etc., can all be used. Despite what you may have read or heard, these boxes do NOT have to be airtight due to the long wave length of EMP; boxes can be made of wire screen or other porous metal.
The only two requirements for protection with a Faraday box are:
(1) the equipment inside the box does NOT touch the metal container (plastic, wadded paper, or cardboard can all be used to insulate it from the metal) and
(2) the metal shield is continuous without any gaps between pieces or extra-large holes in it.
Grounding a Faraday box is NOT necessary and in some cases actually may be less than ideal. While EMP and lightning aren't the "same animal", a good example of how lack of grounding is a plus can be seen with some types of lightning strikes. Take, for example, a lightning strike on a flying airplane. The strike doesn't fry the plane's occupants because the metal shell of the plane is a Faraday box of sorts. Even though the plane, high over the earth, isn't grounded it will sustain little damage.
In this case, much the same is true of small Faraday cages and EMP. Consequently, storage of equipment in Faraday boxes on wooden shelves or the like does NOT require that everything be grounded. (One note: theoretically non-grounded boxes might hold a slight charge of electricity; take some time and care before handling ungrounded boxes following a nuclear attack.)
The thickness of the metal shield around the Faraday box isn't of much concern, either. This makes it possible to build protection "on the cheap" by simply using the cardboard packing box that equipment comes in along with aluminum foil. Just wrap the box with the aluminum foil (other metal foil or metal screen will also work); tape the foil in place and you're done. Provided it is kept dry, the cardboard will insulate the gear inside it from the foil; placing the foil-wrapped box inside a larger cardboard box is also wise to be sure the foil isn't accidentally ripped anywhere. The result is an "instant" Faraday box with your equipment safely stored inside, ready for use following a nuclear war.
Copper or aluminium foil can help you insulate a whole room from EMP as well. Just paper the wall, ceiling and floor with metal foil. Ideally the floor is then covered with a false floor of wood or with heavy carpeting to insulate everything and everyone inside from the shield (and EMP). The only catch to this is that care must be taken NOT to allow electrical wiring connections to pierce the foil shield (i.e., no AC powered equipment or radio antennas can come into the room from outside). Care must also be taken that the door is covered with foil AND electrically connected to the shield with a wire and screws or some similar set up.
Many government civil defence shelters are now said to have gotten the Faraday box, "foil" treatment. These shelters are covered inside with metal foil and have metal screens which cover all air vents and are connected to the metal foil. Some of these shelters probably make use of new optical fibre systems—protected by plastic pipe—to "connect" communications gear inside the room to the "outside world" without creating a conduit for EMP energy to enter the shelter.
Another "myth" that seems to have grown up with information on EMP is that nearly all cars and trucks would be "knocked out" by EMP. This seems logical, but is one of those cases where "real world" experiments contradict theoretical answers and I'm afraid this is the case with cars and EMP. According to sources working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, cars have proven to be resistant to EMP in actual tests using nuclear weapons as well as during more recent tests (with newer cars) with the US Military's EMP simulators.
One reason for the ability of a car to resist EMP lies in the fact that its metal body is "insulated" by its rubber tires from the ground. This creates a Faraday cage of sorts. (Drawing on the analogy of EMP being similar to lightning, it is interesting to note that cases of lightning striking and damaging cars is almost non-existent; this apparently carries over to EMP effects on vehicles as well.)
Although Faraday boxes are generally made so that what is inside doesn't touch the box's outer metal shield (and this is especially important for the do-it-yourself since it is easy to inadvertently ground the Faraday box—say by putting the box on metal shelving sitting on a concrete floor), in the case of the car the "grounded" wiring is grounded only to the battery. In practice, the entire system is not grounded in the traditional electrical wiring sense of actually making contact to the earth at some point in its circuitry. Rather the car is sitting on insulators made of rubber.
It is important to note that cars are NOT 100 percent EMP proof; some cars will most certainly be affected, especially those with fibreglass bodies or located near large stretches of metal. (I suspect, too, that recent cars with a high percentage of IC circuitry might also be more susceptible to EMP effects.)
The bottom line is that all vehicles probably won't be knocked out by EMP. But the prudent survivalist should make a few contingency plans "just in case" his car (and other electrical equipment) does not survive the effects of EMP. Discovering that you have one of the few cars knocked out would not be a good way to start the onset of terrorist attack or nuclear war.
Most susceptible to EMP damage would be cars with a lot of IC circuits or other "computers" to control essential changes in the engine. The very prudent may wish to buy spare electronic ignition parts and keep them a car truck (perhaps inside a Faraday box). But it seems probable that many vehicles WILL be working following the start of a nuclear war even if no precautions have been taken with them.
One area of concern are explosives connected to electrical discharge wiring or designed to be set off by other electric devices. These might be set off by an EMP surge. While most citizens don't have access to such equipment, claymore mines and other explosives would be very dangerous to be around at the start of a nuclear box if they weren't carefully stored away in a Faraday box. Ammunition, mines, grenades and the like in large quantities might be prone to damage or explosion by EMP, but in general aren't all that sensitive to EMP.
A major area of concern when it comes to EMP is nuclear reactors located in the US. Unfortunately, a little-known Federal dictum prohibits the NRC from requiring power plants to withstand the effects of a nuclear war. This means that, in the event of a nuclear war, many nuclear reactors' control systems might will be damaged by an EMP surge. In such a case, the core-cooling controls might become inoperable and a core melt down and breaching of the containment vessel by radioactive materials into the surrounding area might well result. (If you were needing a reason not to live down wind from a nuclear reactor, this is it.)
Provided you're not next door to a nuclear power plant, most of the ill effects of EMP can be overcome. EMP, like nuclear blasts and fallout, can be survived if you have the know how and take a few precautions before hand.
And that would be worth a lot, wouldn't it?
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
SECURE VISA LEGISLATION TO HELP REDUCE TERRORIST ENTRY
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE AND ACTION ALERT!!
ACT! for America Adds
The Secure Visas Act of 2010
to Its List of “High Priority Legislative Proposals”
We want to stop future “Underwear Bombers”
from flying into the U.S.
By Lisa Piraneo, Director of Government Relations
After 9/11, and in response to the fact that several of the 9/11 terrorists had obtained U.S. visas, Congress created the Visa Security Program (VSP) to increase the security of the visa process at U.S. embassies and consulates.
Today, Visa Security Units (VSU) are operating in several foreign cities, such as Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Islamabad, Pakistan. At these posts, 100 percent of visa applicants receive additional screening.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration does not appear to see the importance of increased visa screeningeven though the “Underwear Bomber” had a U.S. visa. Incredibly, there is no visa security presence in high risk locations such as London, Yemen, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, or Nigeria.
How does all of this affect U.S. security? At posts without a Visa Security Unit less than 2% out of 5.8 million applications receive additional screening. That’s a lot of potential terrorists missed!
Representative Lamar Smith (TX-21) and Senator John Cornyn (TX) recently introduced legislation to improve the security of our nation’s visa issuing process. The Secure Visas Act of 2010 (H.R. 4758 in the House and S. 2944 in the Senate) mandates not only that the Department of Homeland Security maintain U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Visa Security Units (VSU) at the 14 consular posts that already have them, but that such units are created at the 16 other posts that have been designated by ICE as “highest risk.”
ACT! for America has added both of these important proposals to our list of “High Priority” legislationlegislative initiatives that we feel will help protect our nation and its citizens against the many threats of radical Islam.
We hope you will become familiar with the Secure Visas Act of 2010 CLICK HERE, as well as the other legislative proposals on the list, and do your part to protect our nation by taking the action noted below. Forming and maintaining relationships with your elected officials, and their staff, is critical to winning the fight against radical Islam and to protecting our nation for our children and grandchildren.
ACT! for America Adds
The Secure Visas Act of 2010
to Its List of “High Priority Legislative Proposals”
We want to stop future “Underwear Bombers”
from flying into the U.S.
By Lisa Piraneo, Director of Government Relations
After 9/11, and in response to the fact that several of the 9/11 terrorists had obtained U.S. visas, Congress created the Visa Security Program (VSP) to increase the security of the visa process at U.S. embassies and consulates.
Today, Visa Security Units (VSU) are operating in several foreign cities, such as Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Islamabad, Pakistan. At these posts, 100 percent of visa applicants receive additional screening.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration does not appear to see the importance of increased visa screeningeven though the “Underwear Bomber” had a U.S. visa. Incredibly, there is no visa security presence in high risk locations such as London, Yemen, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, or Nigeria.
How does all of this affect U.S. security? At posts without a Visa Security Unit less than 2% out of 5.8 million applications receive additional screening. That’s a lot of potential terrorists missed!
Representative Lamar Smith (TX-21) and Senator John Cornyn (TX) recently introduced legislation to improve the security of our nation’s visa issuing process. The Secure Visas Act of 2010 (H.R. 4758 in the House and S. 2944 in the Senate) mandates not only that the Department of Homeland Security maintain U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Visa Security Units (VSU) at the 14 consular posts that already have them, but that such units are created at the 16 other posts that have been designated by ICE as “highest risk.”
ACT! for America has added both of these important proposals to our list of “High Priority” legislationlegislative initiatives that we feel will help protect our nation and its citizens against the many threats of radical Islam.
We hope you will become familiar with the Secure Visas Act of 2010 CLICK HERE, as well as the other legislative proposals on the list, and do your part to protect our nation by taking the action noted below. Forming and maintaining relationships with your elected officials, and their staff, is critical to winning the fight against radical Islam and to protecting our nation for our children and grandchildren.
Monday, March 29, 2010
PALESTINIANS HONOR TERRORIST MURDERESS
PA Faked Cancellation, Named Square After Terrorist Murderess
by Hillel Fendel
While Israel was twisting in the wind because of an ill-timed announcement on progress in Jerusalem construction, the PA was “officially” canceling a ceremony honoring a terrorist – but conducting it anyway on the sly.
It occurred on March 11. Israel was in the midst of being hauled over the coals after a Jerusalem municipal committee announced a routine passage of a stage in the approval process of a housing project in Ramat Shlomo – right after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had arrived on a sensitive visit to Israel.
The PA apparently learned the lesson, and announced that its upcoming public square-naming ceremony in Ramallah for a woman who had murdered 37 Israelis was being “postponed for technical reasons.” Despite Israeli pressure to call off the ceremony altogether, the PA announced only its postponement.
The female terrorist in question is Dalal Mughrabi, who led the largest terrorist attack in Israeli history. Known as the Coastal Road Massacre, it involved the shooting of a nature photographer on the beach, commandeering a taxi and two buses, and firing wildly at passing cars and civilians who tried to escape. In the end, a total of 37 Israeli civilians were murdered, including 13 children, and 71 were wounded.
Despite the official postponement of the ceremony in Mughrabi's honor, however, it turned out that dozens of people showed up at the scheduled time and “dedicated” the square in Mughrabi’s memory. Among the participants were top members of the Palestinian Authority leadership such as Tawfiq Tirawi, Mustafa Abu Rabbi’a, a senior Fatah figure in Ramallah, and Jamal Hawil, a member of the Fatah faction in the Palestinian Legislative Council. A large banner/picture of Mughrabi was placed in the square.
Tirawi , a former PA General Intelligence Services director, has gone on record as stating, "We are all Dalal Mughrabi" and that "for us, she is not a terrorist.”
The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) reports that the official PA media covered the event, devoting a number of programs and newspaper columns to it and emphasizing Dalal Mughrabi’s importance. For instance, the official Palestinian TV station broadcast a memorial program in her honor. Her sister Rashida, currently an officer in the Palestinian Authority security forces, appeared on the program and said, “Today is a day of pride and victory for the Palestinian people and a day of pain for the Zionists.”
ITIC posted a photograph of a large banner honoring Mughrabi in Ramallah, with Tirawi one of those holding the banner.
by Hillel Fendel
While Israel was twisting in the wind because of an ill-timed announcement on progress in Jerusalem construction, the PA was “officially” canceling a ceremony honoring a terrorist – but conducting it anyway on the sly.
It occurred on March 11. Israel was in the midst of being hauled over the coals after a Jerusalem municipal committee announced a routine passage of a stage in the approval process of a housing project in Ramat Shlomo – right after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had arrived on a sensitive visit to Israel.
The PA apparently learned the lesson, and announced that its upcoming public square-naming ceremony in Ramallah for a woman who had murdered 37 Israelis was being “postponed for technical reasons.” Despite Israeli pressure to call off the ceremony altogether, the PA announced only its postponement.
The female terrorist in question is Dalal Mughrabi, who led the largest terrorist attack in Israeli history. Known as the Coastal Road Massacre, it involved the shooting of a nature photographer on the beach, commandeering a taxi and two buses, and firing wildly at passing cars and civilians who tried to escape. In the end, a total of 37 Israeli civilians were murdered, including 13 children, and 71 were wounded.
Despite the official postponement of the ceremony in Mughrabi's honor, however, it turned out that dozens of people showed up at the scheduled time and “dedicated” the square in Mughrabi’s memory. Among the participants were top members of the Palestinian Authority leadership such as Tawfiq Tirawi, Mustafa Abu Rabbi’a, a senior Fatah figure in Ramallah, and Jamal Hawil, a member of the Fatah faction in the Palestinian Legislative Council. A large banner/picture of Mughrabi was placed in the square.
Tirawi , a former PA General Intelligence Services director, has gone on record as stating, "We are all Dalal Mughrabi" and that "for us, she is not a terrorist.”
The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) reports that the official PA media covered the event, devoting a number of programs and newspaper columns to it and emphasizing Dalal Mughrabi’s importance. For instance, the official Palestinian TV station broadcast a memorial program in her honor. Her sister Rashida, currently an officer in the Palestinian Authority security forces, appeared on the program and said, “Today is a day of pride and victory for the Palestinian people and a day of pain for the Zionists.”
ITIC posted a photograph of a large banner honoring Mughrabi in Ramallah, with Tirawi one of those holding the banner.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
OBAHUSSEIN'S IDIOTIC, IGNORANCE, EVEN THUGGERY CONTINUES
BRITON IS DUPED INTO CARRYING TERROR CASH
Sunday March 28,2010
By David Jarvis
A PLOT by Al Qaeda to blow up a sports stadium was foiled when a British-based courier was arrested.
The man was held in Chicago as he prepared to board a flight for England carrying cash to buy explosives.
The money, ultimately bound for ¬Pakistan, was intercepted after an ¬elaborate sting by FBI agents who had penetrated the terror cell. Last week taxi driver Raja Lahrasib Khan, 56, a naturalised US citizen of Pakistani ¬origin, was charged with financing ¬terror.
He had handed the cash to his unwitting son, who lives in England, to take on a London-bound flight.
Khan originally intended to fly to England with the money himself before heading for Pakistan and handing it to terrorist leader Ilyas Kashmiri, who receives orders from Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden at his base in the tribal areas of western Pakistan.
But he never realised the $1,000 (£672) had been handed to him by an undercover FBI agent, who last week told a court how Khan had claimed he could blow up an unnamed sports arena.
FBI agents who arrested Khan’s son last Tuesday discovered he was carrying seven of the ten $100 bills the undercover agent had given to Khan.
Last Friday Khan was ordered to be held in custody after the US District Court in Chicago heard how he told the undercover agent that remote controlled bombs could be placed in a packed stadium and then: “Boom, boom, boom.” Khan’s son, who has not been named, was ¬unaware that he was being used as a terrorist courier and has not been detained.
Khan’s Pakistani contact Kashmiri has also been accused of helping organise an attack against a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed.
The attack was never carried out.
He is the leader of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, a group the US Justice Department said has trained terrorists and carried out attacks in the north Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
According to court papers Khan claims to have known Kashmiri for approximately 15 years and had unwittingly told agents about meeting him when they had discussed plans to train terrorists to carry out attacks in the US.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/165608/Briton-is-duped-into-carrying-terror-cash
Tape undoubted from Iran.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/03/osama_tape_has_intelligence_of.html
Osama tape has intelligence officials fuming
U.S. counterterrorism officials seemed to have a hard time making up their minds on how to respond to Osama bin Laden’s latest tape.
On the one hand, the Qaeda leader’s threat to kill American captives was “so ridiculous” that it hardly merited a response, one official said.
“They started doing that 10, 12, 15 years ago,” he virtually sputtered to CNN’s national security producer Pam Benson -- anonymously, of course.
On the other, another official told Reuters, bin Laden’s threat to retaliate if the 9/11 plot organizer Khalid Sheik Mohammed, now in Guantanamo, were executed, was so absurd it demanded a response.
"The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove of my nominees. But if, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis," he said in a written statement.
If Obama gave a sh*t about the American people at all, he would never have used Marxist tactics to crush the American people and ignore their concerns - he never would've pushed his Socialist agenda for medical care - and included a codicle to fine anyone and everyone who refused to accept incompetent medical care from government minions (for that's what doctor's will become) whose careers will be solely dictated by the criminals in Washington.
Not to forget the intolerable tax increases we're facing to pay for this theft of our freedoms in order to pay for medical coverage of 30 million additional people - more than half of whom are illegal immigrants who pay no taxes, and never have, but still get free medical and dental care on our dime while we will increasingly foot the bill for this scum.
Obama Makes Labor Board Appointment During Recess Over GOP Objections
http://foxnews.com/
Despite intense Republican objections, President Obama on Saturday used recess appointments to fill some administration posts, including Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.
Despite intense Republican objections, President Obama on Saturday used recess appointments to fill 15 administration posts without Senate confirmation, including Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.
By filling the jobs while Congress is in recess, Obama gets around Senate confirmation. Obama justified the move by charging Republicans with playing politics with his administration nominees.
"The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove of my nominees. But if, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis," he said in a written statement.
All 41 Senate Republicans wrote Obama this week urging him not to use a recess appointment for Becker, a former top lawyer with Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO, whose nomination was rejected by the Senate last month, 52-43.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/features/the-sunday-et/dateline-india/Appeasing-Pakistan-likely-to-be-US-miscalculation/articleshow/5733492.cms
Appeasing Pakistan likely to be US miscalculation
28 Mar 2010, 0127 hrs IST, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: As part of the appeasement policy towards Pakistan, the Obama
administration, which hopes for action against the Taliban and al-Qaeda,
has pledged millions in aid, held out the promise of a civilian nuclear
deal, promised to facilitate the transfer of military hardware and assured
Pakistan that it is on par with India. There is no doubt that appeasing
Pakistan for results in Afghanistan is the top foreign policy priority of US
President Barack Obama, who finds little domestic acceptability for a
continued US presence in Afghanistan. In a recent Congressional testimony,
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the US has made a "strategic
priority" to strengthen its partnership with Pakistan and further noted that
the efforts towards Pakistan were important to US success in Afghanistan.
But many experts see this as a miscalculation on Washington's part. "The
American will is waning and obviously they are looking for a way to secure
an exit (from Afghanistan) and the only way they think they can do that -
which is a complete miscalculation - is by somehow trying to win Pakistan
over by concession - aid and weapons. It will only be like the past," said
counter-terrorism expert Ajai Sahni.
http://thedawn.com.pk/2010/03/27/us-once-again-thinks-hikmatyar-is-a-good-taliban/
US once again thinks Hikmatyar is a good Taliban
The US has changed its mind on Hikmatyar many times. During the 90s he was a good guy. Then he was a bad guy. Now he is a good guy again.
The Taliban claim they don’t care what Hekmatyar does. “His overall strength is equal to that of one of our smaller provincial commanders,” says a Taliban intelligence officer, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Now he’s presenting himself on a plate to the Americans for money.” They’ve never trusted him anyway, considering him an unprincipled opportunist who’s interested in nothing but personal power.
But while they won’t admit it, they’re worried. With an estimated 15 to 25 percent of the Afghan insurgency’s total armed strength, Hekmatyar’s fighters could pose serious problems for the Taliban in northeastern Afghanistan. Until recently the two armed groups coexisted relatively well, even staging occasional joint operations such as the Nuristan attacks and ambushes against French troops east of Kabul. Still, hostility is growing within the insurgent alliance: some 60 fighters died in open fighting between the two groups in Baghlan province this past February.
And something else may be driving Hekmatyar as well. “Everyone from Karzai to the Americans has been talking about talking to the Taliban,” says Rahimullah Yusufzai, a noted Pakistani journalist and expert on the insurgency. “I think Hekmatyar was feeling left out in the cold and desperate.” The warlord wanted to make himself relevant again. Former ISI chief Hamid Gul agrees. “He’s trying to create a political space for himself,” says Gul, who has known him well for many years. “So when Karzai and the Americans begin talking to the Taliban, he won’t be totally ignored.”
Nevertheless, Hekmatyar will have to step cautiously. “He has always presented himself as this great Afghan freedom fighter, struggling to drive foreign armies and foreign influence out of Afghanistan,” says Yusufzai. “This offer will damage him because he has been talking so big and for so long about the jihad.” That might keep a deal from happening at all. “I don’t see him cutting a separate peace,” says Gul. “He would be hugely discredited, and all his efforts over 30 years to build himself into an Afghan leader would be wasted.”
All the same, Hekmatyar has been known to make surprising moves when it suits his purposes, suddenly allying himself with old enemies he had sworn to kill. Whatever else people may say about him, he can always be trusted to do what he thinks is best for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
http://www.kbc.co.ke/story.asp?ID=63019
Escaped terror suspect still at large
Written By:Catherine Achienga , Posted: Fri, Mar 26, 2010
Hussein Hashi Farah a suspected terrorist who vanished while in Kenyan police custody 13 days ago is still at large.
The man of Australian origin who had been declared a persona non-grata by the Kenyan government was nabbed by immigration officials at the Busia border, and handed over to the police where he later disappeared in dubious circumstances.
It was alleged that he colluded with police to secure his freedom.
Immigration minister Otieno Kajwang' while applauding his officers for their vigilance however faulted the security lapse on the part of the police who let Farah, a man on the terrorist watch list walk free.
Farah is wanted on suspicion of his association with terrorist activities.
He was found in possession of an Australian passport and is linked to the Al Shabab terrorist group in Somalia.
Foreign affairs minister Moses Wetangula is now calling on the security agents to tighten the rope and nab the suspect.
"Our security agents should hunt down the suspected terrorist within and without our borders. The consequences of not arresting him could be very grave," Wetangula said.
Australian authorities are believed to be looking for Farah over his alleged role on a terrorist attempt in Sydney Australia and wants Kenya to surrender him once nabbed.
The disappearance of the suspect believed to have made his way into Uganda has left security agents on high alert with queries over his intended destination. Ugandan authorities have however denied that the suspect is in the country
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=171949
'Obama resigned to nuclear Iran'
By JPOST.COM STAFF
28/03/2010 05:31
Bolton says Washington pressuring Israel not to strike nuke facilities.
Talkbacks (58)
Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton expressed concern Sunday that Washington was coming to terms with a nuclear Iran.
“I very much worry the Obama administration is willing to accept a nuclear Iran, that's why there's this extraordinary pressure on Israel not to attack in Iran,” Bolton told Army Radio.
The former envoy claimed that this pressure was the focus of last week's meetings in Washington between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyhau and US officials, including President Barack Obama.
Bolton said that the Obama administration had embraced the view, prevalent in Europe, that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the key to the resolution of all other conflicts throughout the Middle East, including the Iranian conflict.
He added that the rift in US-Israel relations stemmed from a fundamental difference in the understanding of the Middle East and Israel's role in the Middle East, and is not really about east Jerusalem at all.
Bolton said that the treatment Netanyahu received during his visit "should tell the people of Israel how difficult it's going to be dealing with Washington for the next couple of years."
On Saturday, meanwhile, The New York Times reported that international inspectors and Western intelligence agencies suspect that Teheran is preparing to build more sites in defiance of United Nations demands.
According to the report, half a year after the revelation of a secret Iranian nuclear enrichment site northeast of Qom, the UN inspectors assigned to monitor Iran’s nuclear program are now searching for evidence of two additional sites, prompted by Israeli assessments as well as by recent comments by a top Iranian official that drew little attention in the West.
The paper said that the inspectors were looking into the mysterious whereabouts of recently manufactured uranium enrichment equipment.
In an interview with the Iranian Student News Agency, the official, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had ordered work to begin soon on two new plants. The plants, he said, “will be built inside mountains,” presumably to protect them from attacks.
“God willing,” Mr. Salehi was quoted as saying, “we may start the construction of two new enrichment sites” in the Iranian new year, which began March 21.
One European official noted to the Times that “while we have some evidence,” Iran’s heavy restrictions on where inspectors can travel and the existence of numerous tunneling projects were making the detection of any new enrichment plants especially difficult.
The paper went on to quote American officials as saying that Israel had "pressed the case" with their American counterparts that evidence points to what one senior administration official called “Qom lookalikes.”
The revelation that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, now believe that there may be two new sites comes at a crucial moment in the White House’s attempts to impose tough new sanctions against Iran, the Times report added
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7530725/British-forces-to-withdraw-from-Helmand-under-new-US-plan-for-Afghanistan.html
British forces to withdraw from Helmand under new US plan for Afghanistan
British forces are to be withdrawn from Helmand and replaced by United States Marines under controversial new plans being drawn up by American commanders.
By Toby Harnden in Kabul
Published: 2:00AM BST 28 Mar 2010
The proposal, which would have to be approved by a new British government, is facing stiff resistance. Whitehall officials fear that a pull-out from Helmand, where nearly 250 British troops have been killed since 2006, would be portrayed as an admission of defeat.
Under the plans, British forces would hand over their remaining bases in Helmand to the US Marines as early as this year.
Such a move could bring back unhappy memories of the 2007 withdrawal from Basra in southern Iraq, which provoked jibes about British forces being bailed out by the Americans.
The proposal is linked to a reorganisation of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces that will split the current Regional Command (South) in two after an American-led offensive against the Taliban in Kandahar this summer.
A senior American officer in ISAF said that "the Marines will be the primary force in Helmand and Nimruz" while "British forces will go to a combination of Kandahar and Uruzgan and Zabul".
British officials opposed to the move argue that the ground-level expertise and knowledge of local power brokers in Helmand, which they have built up over many years, would be squandered in apparent contradiction of the "know the people" counter-insurgency doctrine put in place by the Nato commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal.
But while acknowledging the political sensitivities, a senior British officer in ISAF said that a new role outside Helmand would be central to Gen McChrystal's campaign strategy, which is based on protecting the main Pashtun population centres.
"Through the microcosm of the UK media lens, a lot of people will say, 'We fought, we've spilt British blood in Helmand and now we're withdrawing'," the official said.
"Completely wrong. We're going to where the main effort is."
Under Gen McChrystal's plan, Helmand and Nimruz will come under a new Regional Command (South West) while Kandahar, Uruzgan and Kabul will constitute Regional Command (South East).
The US Marines have a strong tradition of independence and a determined preference for operating alone in a single area, as they did in Iraq's Anbar province. Nato has agreed that Major General Richard Mills of the US Marines – who for 18 months commanded ground forces in Iraq's Anbar province – will take command of the new south-western area of Afghanistan.
In a recent interview with The Daily Telegraph, Gen McChrystal stressed that Kandahar was of "tremendous moral importance" to the Taliban because it was their former capital and the birthplace of their leader the one-eyed Mullah Omar.
Asked whether British forces would move to Kandahar, he responded carefully: "There's a lot of politics involved in where forces go, so rather than start a political debate about where forces are what I'd rather do is just move on with where things are now and let things develop."
Canadian forces, 2,500 of which are currently based in Kandahar – where British forces won a decisive battle in 1880 that brought the Second Afghan War to an end – are due to withdraw from Afghanistan next year. Some 2,000 Dutch forces in Uruzgan are due to be pulled out by August.
British forces first deployed to Helmand in significant numbers in spring 2006, when 3,300 members of 16 Air Assault Brigade arrived. Their mission was to restore security so that reconsstruction could begin and the illegal opium trade be disrupted.
But they faced an immediate upsurge in Taliban activity and this has continued ever since, leading to regular calls for greater troop numbers. There are currently around 10,000 from the UK in the region, and 248 soldiers have been killed there.
This would leave a vacuum in south-eastern Afghanistan at a time when US Marines are pouring into Helmand as part of President Barack Obama's surge of 30,000 troops, which will soon bring American forces to a level of 100,000, double what they were a year ago. About 20,000 US Marines will be in Helmand by this summer, more than twice the number of British troops there.
Some senior American officers believe the British have become too attached to "Helmandshire" and have developed tunnel vision.
Although British troops have been praised for their valour, the consensus within the American military is that control of the province has slipped away because of inadequate numbers, poor equipment and thin logistical support.
Senior American officers also believe the British became distracted by defending bases in outlying areas like Musa Qala, Kajaki and Sangin when they should have concentrated on the more-populated central Helmand.
A Washington defence source said that, under the new plan, "Helmandshire will become Marine-istan."
The main British logistics base in Afghanistan is already at Kandahar airfield – a factor that makes a shift from Helmand more feasible. Nato forces in southern Afghanistan are currently commanded by Maj Gen Nick Carter from his Regional Command (South) headquarters at the airfield.
Mark Sedwill, formerly British ambassador in Afghanistan and now Nato's Senior Civilian Representative, acknowledged that withdrawal of British forces from Helmand would make "a lot of sense" when viewed from a "purely military perspective".
This was because "the challenges in Kandahar are very well suited to the resources we can bring and the capabilities" British troops have.
"Could we end up with the Brits in Kandahar?" he said. "I guess theoretically we could and certainly I wouldn't rule it out because from the ISAF perspective we need to look at what is the sensible force deployment as the Canadians draw down after 2011 and given how central Kandahar is to the entire campaign.
"But any shift of that kind is not just an ISAF decision, it would have to be agreed with the British government of the day. There would be enormous political sensitivities to manage just because of the amount of investment of blood and treasure that has gone into central Helmand."
Maj Gen Gordon Messenger, senior British military spokesman, said that there was "no thought at the moment of doing anything other" than "a job which is utterly, utterly needed as part of the coalition force in central Helmand".
He added: "How that function changes over time is clearly being looked at ... and there are any number of options. But it would be unwise to view moving and conducting ground-holding in Kandahar as one of them."
Sunday March 28,2010
By David Jarvis
A PLOT by Al Qaeda to blow up a sports stadium was foiled when a British-based courier was arrested.
The man was held in Chicago as he prepared to board a flight for England carrying cash to buy explosives.
The money, ultimately bound for ¬Pakistan, was intercepted after an ¬elaborate sting by FBI agents who had penetrated the terror cell. Last week taxi driver Raja Lahrasib Khan, 56, a naturalised US citizen of Pakistani ¬origin, was charged with financing ¬terror.
He had handed the cash to his unwitting son, who lives in England, to take on a London-bound flight.
Khan originally intended to fly to England with the money himself before heading for Pakistan and handing it to terrorist leader Ilyas Kashmiri, who receives orders from Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden at his base in the tribal areas of western Pakistan.
But he never realised the $1,000 (£672) had been handed to him by an undercover FBI agent, who last week told a court how Khan had claimed he could blow up an unnamed sports arena.
FBI agents who arrested Khan’s son last Tuesday discovered he was carrying seven of the ten $100 bills the undercover agent had given to Khan.
Last Friday Khan was ordered to be held in custody after the US District Court in Chicago heard how he told the undercover agent that remote controlled bombs could be placed in a packed stadium and then: “Boom, boom, boom.” Khan’s son, who has not been named, was ¬unaware that he was being used as a terrorist courier and has not been detained.
Khan’s Pakistani contact Kashmiri has also been accused of helping organise an attack against a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed.
The attack was never carried out.
He is the leader of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, a group the US Justice Department said has trained terrorists and carried out attacks in the north Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
According to court papers Khan claims to have known Kashmiri for approximately 15 years and had unwittingly told agents about meeting him when they had discussed plans to train terrorists to carry out attacks in the US.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/165608/Briton-is-duped-into-carrying-terror-cash
Tape undoubted from Iran.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/03/osama_tape_has_intelligence_of.html
Osama tape has intelligence officials fuming
U.S. counterterrorism officials seemed to have a hard time making up their minds on how to respond to Osama bin Laden’s latest tape.
On the one hand, the Qaeda leader’s threat to kill American captives was “so ridiculous” that it hardly merited a response, one official said.
“They started doing that 10, 12, 15 years ago,” he virtually sputtered to CNN’s national security producer Pam Benson -- anonymously, of course.
On the other, another official told Reuters, bin Laden’s threat to retaliate if the 9/11 plot organizer Khalid Sheik Mohammed, now in Guantanamo, were executed, was so absurd it demanded a response.
"The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove of my nominees. But if, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis," he said in a written statement.
If Obama gave a sh*t about the American people at all, he would never have used Marxist tactics to crush the American people and ignore their concerns - he never would've pushed his Socialist agenda for medical care - and included a codicle to fine anyone and everyone who refused to accept incompetent medical care from government minions (for that's what doctor's will become) whose careers will be solely dictated by the criminals in Washington.
Not to forget the intolerable tax increases we're facing to pay for this theft of our freedoms in order to pay for medical coverage of 30 million additional people - more than half of whom are illegal immigrants who pay no taxes, and never have, but still get free medical and dental care on our dime while we will increasingly foot the bill for this scum.
Obama Makes Labor Board Appointment During Recess Over GOP Objections
http://foxnews.com/
Despite intense Republican objections, President Obama on Saturday used recess appointments to fill some administration posts, including Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.
Despite intense Republican objections, President Obama on Saturday used recess appointments to fill 15 administration posts without Senate confirmation, including Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.
By filling the jobs while Congress is in recess, Obama gets around Senate confirmation. Obama justified the move by charging Republicans with playing politics with his administration nominees.
"The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove of my nominees. But if, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis," he said in a written statement.
All 41 Senate Republicans wrote Obama this week urging him not to use a recess appointment for Becker, a former top lawyer with Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO, whose nomination was rejected by the Senate last month, 52-43.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/features/the-sunday-et/dateline-india/Appeasing-Pakistan-likely-to-be-US-miscalculation/articleshow/5733492.cms
Appeasing Pakistan likely to be US miscalculation
28 Mar 2010, 0127 hrs IST, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: As part of the appeasement policy towards Pakistan, the Obama
administration, which hopes for action against the Taliban and al-Qaeda,
has pledged millions in aid, held out the promise of a civilian nuclear
deal, promised to facilitate the transfer of military hardware and assured
Pakistan that it is on par with India. There is no doubt that appeasing
Pakistan for results in Afghanistan is the top foreign policy priority of US
President Barack Obama, who finds little domestic acceptability for a
continued US presence in Afghanistan. In a recent Congressional testimony,
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the US has made a "strategic
priority" to strengthen its partnership with Pakistan and further noted that
the efforts towards Pakistan were important to US success in Afghanistan.
But many experts see this as a miscalculation on Washington's part. "The
American will is waning and obviously they are looking for a way to secure
an exit (from Afghanistan) and the only way they think they can do that -
which is a complete miscalculation - is by somehow trying to win Pakistan
over by concession - aid and weapons. It will only be like the past," said
counter-terrorism expert Ajai Sahni.
http://thedawn.com.pk/2010/03/27/us-once-again-thinks-hikmatyar-is-a-good-taliban/
US once again thinks Hikmatyar is a good Taliban
The US has changed its mind on Hikmatyar many times. During the 90s he was a good guy. Then he was a bad guy. Now he is a good guy again.
The Taliban claim they don’t care what Hekmatyar does. “His overall strength is equal to that of one of our smaller provincial commanders,” says a Taliban intelligence officer, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Now he’s presenting himself on a plate to the Americans for money.” They’ve never trusted him anyway, considering him an unprincipled opportunist who’s interested in nothing but personal power.
But while they won’t admit it, they’re worried. With an estimated 15 to 25 percent of the Afghan insurgency’s total armed strength, Hekmatyar’s fighters could pose serious problems for the Taliban in northeastern Afghanistan. Until recently the two armed groups coexisted relatively well, even staging occasional joint operations such as the Nuristan attacks and ambushes against French troops east of Kabul. Still, hostility is growing within the insurgent alliance: some 60 fighters died in open fighting between the two groups in Baghlan province this past February.
And something else may be driving Hekmatyar as well. “Everyone from Karzai to the Americans has been talking about talking to the Taliban,” says Rahimullah Yusufzai, a noted Pakistani journalist and expert on the insurgency. “I think Hekmatyar was feeling left out in the cold and desperate.” The warlord wanted to make himself relevant again. Former ISI chief Hamid Gul agrees. “He’s trying to create a political space for himself,” says Gul, who has known him well for many years. “So when Karzai and the Americans begin talking to the Taliban, he won’t be totally ignored.”
Nevertheless, Hekmatyar will have to step cautiously. “He has always presented himself as this great Afghan freedom fighter, struggling to drive foreign armies and foreign influence out of Afghanistan,” says Yusufzai. “This offer will damage him because he has been talking so big and for so long about the jihad.” That might keep a deal from happening at all. “I don’t see him cutting a separate peace,” says Gul. “He would be hugely discredited, and all his efforts over 30 years to build himself into an Afghan leader would be wasted.”
All the same, Hekmatyar has been known to make surprising moves when it suits his purposes, suddenly allying himself with old enemies he had sworn to kill. Whatever else people may say about him, he can always be trusted to do what he thinks is best for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
http://www.kbc.co.ke/story.asp?ID=63019
Escaped terror suspect still at large
Written By:Catherine Achienga , Posted: Fri, Mar 26, 2010
Hussein Hashi Farah a suspected terrorist who vanished while in Kenyan police custody 13 days ago is still at large.
The man of Australian origin who had been declared a persona non-grata by the Kenyan government was nabbed by immigration officials at the Busia border, and handed over to the police where he later disappeared in dubious circumstances.
It was alleged that he colluded with police to secure his freedom.
Immigration minister Otieno Kajwang' while applauding his officers for their vigilance however faulted the security lapse on the part of the police who let Farah, a man on the terrorist watch list walk free.
Farah is wanted on suspicion of his association with terrorist activities.
He was found in possession of an Australian passport and is linked to the Al Shabab terrorist group in Somalia.
Foreign affairs minister Moses Wetangula is now calling on the security agents to tighten the rope and nab the suspect.
"Our security agents should hunt down the suspected terrorist within and without our borders. The consequences of not arresting him could be very grave," Wetangula said.
Australian authorities are believed to be looking for Farah over his alleged role on a terrorist attempt in Sydney Australia and wants Kenya to surrender him once nabbed.
The disappearance of the suspect believed to have made his way into Uganda has left security agents on high alert with queries over his intended destination. Ugandan authorities have however denied that the suspect is in the country
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=171949
'Obama resigned to nuclear Iran'
By JPOST.COM STAFF
28/03/2010 05:31
Bolton says Washington pressuring Israel not to strike nuke facilities.
Talkbacks (58)
Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton expressed concern Sunday that Washington was coming to terms with a nuclear Iran.
“I very much worry the Obama administration is willing to accept a nuclear Iran, that's why there's this extraordinary pressure on Israel not to attack in Iran,” Bolton told Army Radio.
The former envoy claimed that this pressure was the focus of last week's meetings in Washington between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyhau and US officials, including President Barack Obama.
Bolton said that the Obama administration had embraced the view, prevalent in Europe, that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the key to the resolution of all other conflicts throughout the Middle East, including the Iranian conflict.
He added that the rift in US-Israel relations stemmed from a fundamental difference in the understanding of the Middle East and Israel's role in the Middle East, and is not really about east Jerusalem at all.
Bolton said that the treatment Netanyahu received during his visit "should tell the people of Israel how difficult it's going to be dealing with Washington for the next couple of years."
On Saturday, meanwhile, The New York Times reported that international inspectors and Western intelligence agencies suspect that Teheran is preparing to build more sites in defiance of United Nations demands.
According to the report, half a year after the revelation of a secret Iranian nuclear enrichment site northeast of Qom, the UN inspectors assigned to monitor Iran’s nuclear program are now searching for evidence of two additional sites, prompted by Israeli assessments as well as by recent comments by a top Iranian official that drew little attention in the West.
The paper said that the inspectors were looking into the mysterious whereabouts of recently manufactured uranium enrichment equipment.
In an interview with the Iranian Student News Agency, the official, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had ordered work to begin soon on two new plants. The plants, he said, “will be built inside mountains,” presumably to protect them from attacks.
“God willing,” Mr. Salehi was quoted as saying, “we may start the construction of two new enrichment sites” in the Iranian new year, which began March 21.
One European official noted to the Times that “while we have some evidence,” Iran’s heavy restrictions on where inspectors can travel and the existence of numerous tunneling projects were making the detection of any new enrichment plants especially difficult.
The paper went on to quote American officials as saying that Israel had "pressed the case" with their American counterparts that evidence points to what one senior administration official called “Qom lookalikes.”
The revelation that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, now believe that there may be two new sites comes at a crucial moment in the White House’s attempts to impose tough new sanctions against Iran, the Times report added
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7530725/British-forces-to-withdraw-from-Helmand-under-new-US-plan-for-Afghanistan.html
British forces to withdraw from Helmand under new US plan for Afghanistan
British forces are to be withdrawn from Helmand and replaced by United States Marines under controversial new plans being drawn up by American commanders.
By Toby Harnden in Kabul
Published: 2:00AM BST 28 Mar 2010
The proposal, which would have to be approved by a new British government, is facing stiff resistance. Whitehall officials fear that a pull-out from Helmand, where nearly 250 British troops have been killed since 2006, would be portrayed as an admission of defeat.
Under the plans, British forces would hand over their remaining bases in Helmand to the US Marines as early as this year.
Such a move could bring back unhappy memories of the 2007 withdrawal from Basra in southern Iraq, which provoked jibes about British forces being bailed out by the Americans.
The proposal is linked to a reorganisation of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces that will split the current Regional Command (South) in two after an American-led offensive against the Taliban in Kandahar this summer.
A senior American officer in ISAF said that "the Marines will be the primary force in Helmand and Nimruz" while "British forces will go to a combination of Kandahar and Uruzgan and Zabul".
British officials opposed to the move argue that the ground-level expertise and knowledge of local power brokers in Helmand, which they have built up over many years, would be squandered in apparent contradiction of the "know the people" counter-insurgency doctrine put in place by the Nato commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal.
But while acknowledging the political sensitivities, a senior British officer in ISAF said that a new role outside Helmand would be central to Gen McChrystal's campaign strategy, which is based on protecting the main Pashtun population centres.
"Through the microcosm of the UK media lens, a lot of people will say, 'We fought, we've spilt British blood in Helmand and now we're withdrawing'," the official said.
"Completely wrong. We're going to where the main effort is."
Under Gen McChrystal's plan, Helmand and Nimruz will come under a new Regional Command (South West) while Kandahar, Uruzgan and Kabul will constitute Regional Command (South East).
The US Marines have a strong tradition of independence and a determined preference for operating alone in a single area, as they did in Iraq's Anbar province. Nato has agreed that Major General Richard Mills of the US Marines – who for 18 months commanded ground forces in Iraq's Anbar province – will take command of the new south-western area of Afghanistan.
In a recent interview with The Daily Telegraph, Gen McChrystal stressed that Kandahar was of "tremendous moral importance" to the Taliban because it was their former capital and the birthplace of their leader the one-eyed Mullah Omar.
Asked whether British forces would move to Kandahar, he responded carefully: "There's a lot of politics involved in where forces go, so rather than start a political debate about where forces are what I'd rather do is just move on with where things are now and let things develop."
Canadian forces, 2,500 of which are currently based in Kandahar – where British forces won a decisive battle in 1880 that brought the Second Afghan War to an end – are due to withdraw from Afghanistan next year. Some 2,000 Dutch forces in Uruzgan are due to be pulled out by August.
British forces first deployed to Helmand in significant numbers in spring 2006, when 3,300 members of 16 Air Assault Brigade arrived. Their mission was to restore security so that reconsstruction could begin and the illegal opium trade be disrupted.
But they faced an immediate upsurge in Taliban activity and this has continued ever since, leading to regular calls for greater troop numbers. There are currently around 10,000 from the UK in the region, and 248 soldiers have been killed there.
This would leave a vacuum in south-eastern Afghanistan at a time when US Marines are pouring into Helmand as part of President Barack Obama's surge of 30,000 troops, which will soon bring American forces to a level of 100,000, double what they were a year ago. About 20,000 US Marines will be in Helmand by this summer, more than twice the number of British troops there.
Some senior American officers believe the British have become too attached to "Helmandshire" and have developed tunnel vision.
Although British troops have been praised for their valour, the consensus within the American military is that control of the province has slipped away because of inadequate numbers, poor equipment and thin logistical support.
Senior American officers also believe the British became distracted by defending bases in outlying areas like Musa Qala, Kajaki and Sangin when they should have concentrated on the more-populated central Helmand.
A Washington defence source said that, under the new plan, "Helmandshire will become Marine-istan."
The main British logistics base in Afghanistan is already at Kandahar airfield – a factor that makes a shift from Helmand more feasible. Nato forces in southern Afghanistan are currently commanded by Maj Gen Nick Carter from his Regional Command (South) headquarters at the airfield.
Mark Sedwill, formerly British ambassador in Afghanistan and now Nato's Senior Civilian Representative, acknowledged that withdrawal of British forces from Helmand would make "a lot of sense" when viewed from a "purely military perspective".
This was because "the challenges in Kandahar are very well suited to the resources we can bring and the capabilities" British troops have.
"Could we end up with the Brits in Kandahar?" he said. "I guess theoretically we could and certainly I wouldn't rule it out because from the ISAF perspective we need to look at what is the sensible force deployment as the Canadians draw down after 2011 and given how central Kandahar is to the entire campaign.
"But any shift of that kind is not just an ISAF decision, it would have to be agreed with the British government of the day. There would be enormous political sensitivities to manage just because of the amount of investment of blood and treasure that has gone into central Helmand."
Maj Gen Gordon Messenger, senior British military spokesman, said that there was "no thought at the moment of doing anything other" than "a job which is utterly, utterly needed as part of the coalition force in central Helmand".
He added: "How that function changes over time is clearly being looked at ... and there are any number of options. But it would be unwise to view moving and conducting ground-holding in Kandahar as one of them."
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
PREPARE FOR SURVIVAL WHEN (NOT IF) TERRORISM STRIKES
With the threat of catastrophic terror attacks on US soil, below is a list of actions to take and supplies to have on hand to help us survive the next hit.
Also the looming economic disaster our nation faces, could well have "we the people" in the streets, as in Greece, and faced with Oba-Husssein's Million Person "Civilian Security Force", which he has already begun to set up, which will report to him NOT the Constitution.
He insists they be as well (and heavily) armed and funded as our regular military, thus providing him a private , personal one million army paid for with your tax dollars to throw at "we the people"!
Pre-Event Actions:
1. Learn about the natural disasters that could occur in your community from your local emergency management office or American Red Cross chapter. Learn whether hazardous materials are produced, stored or transported near your area. Learn about possible consequences of deliberate acts of terror. Ask how to prepare for each potential emergency and how to respond.
2. Talk with employers and school officials about their emergency response plans.
3. Talk with your household about potential emergencies and how to respond to each. Talk about what you would need to do in an evacuation. If someone in the family has a critical job, expect them to be gone.
4. Plan how your household would stay in contact if you were separated. Identify two meeting places: the first should be near your home—in case of fire, perhaps a tree or a telephone pole; the second should be away from your neighborhood in case you cannot return home.
5. Pick a friend or relative who lives out of the area for household members to call to say they are okay.
6. Draw a floor plan of your home. Mark two escape routes from each room.
7. Post emergency telephone numbers by telephones. Teach children how and when to call 911.
8. Make sure everyone in your household knows how and when to shut off water, gas, and electricity at the main switches. Consult with your local utilities if you have questions.
9. Take a first aid and CPR class. Local American Red Cross chapters can provide information. Official certification by the American Red Cross provides “good Samaritan” law protection for those giving first aid.
10. Reduce the economic impact of disaster on your property and your household’s health and financial well-being:
Review property insurance policies before disaster strikes – make sure policies are current and be certain they meet your needs (type of coverage, amount of coverage, and hazards covered – flood, earthquake, etc.)
Protect your household’s financial well-being before a disaster strikes— review life insurance policies and consider saving money in an “emergency” savings account that could be used in any crisis. It is advisable to keep a small amount of cash or traveler’s checks at home in a safe place where you can quickly gain access to it in case of an evacuation.
Be certain that health insurance policies are current and meet the needs of your household.
11. Consider ways to help neighbors who may need special assistance, such as the elderly or the disabled.
12. Make arrangements for pets. Pets are not allowed in public shelters. Service animals for those who depend on them are allowed.
13. Ensure all immunizations are up-to-date. If we are hit with true mass causality event, the bodies may lie around for days or weeks. Rotting corpses will cause disease outbreaks.
14. If you have a disability or special need, you may have to take additional steps to protect yourself and your household in an emergency. If you know of friends or neighbors with special needs, help them with these extra precautions. Hearing impaired may need to make special arrangements to receive warning. Mobility impaired may need assistance in getting to a shelter. Households with a single working parent may need help from others both in planning for disasters and during an emergency. People without vehicles may need to make arrangements for transportation. People with special dietary needs should have an adequate emergency food supply. Find out about special assistance that may be available in your community. Register with the office of emergency services or fire department for assistance, so needed help can be provided quickly in an emergency.
15. Create a network of neighbors, relatives, friends and co-workers to aid you in an emergency. Discuss your needs and make sure they know how to operate necessary equipment.
16. If you are mobility impaired and live or work in a high-rise building, have an escape chair. If you live in an apartment building, ask the management to mark accessible exits clearly and to make arrangements to help you evacuate the building. Keep extra wheelchair batteries, oxygen, catheters, medication, food for guide or hearing-ear dogs, or other items you might need. Also, keep a list of the type and serial numbers of medical devices you need.
17. Those who are not disabled should learn who in their neighborhood or building is disabled so that they may assist them during emergencies. If you are a care-giver for a person with special needs, make sure you have a plan to communicate if an emergency occurs.
Preparedness Overview:
You may need to survive on your own for three days or more. This means having your own water, food and emergency supplies. Try using backpacks or duffel bags to keep the supplies together. Assembling the supplies you might need following a disaster is an important part of your disaster plan. You should prepare emergency supplies for the following situations:
A disaster supply kit with essential food, water, and supplies for at least three days—this kit should be kept in a designated place and be ready to “grab and go” in case you have to leave your home quickly because of a disaster, such as a flash flood or major chemical emergency. Make sure all household members know where the kit is kept.
Consider having additional supplies for sheltering or home confinement for up to four weeks.
You should also have a disaster supply kit at work. This should be in one container, ready to “grab and go” in case you have to evacuate the building. Remember to have a comfortable pair of shoes in case you need to walk long distances.
A car kit of emergency supplies, including food and water, to keep stored in your car at all times. This kit would also include flares, jumper cables, and seasonal supplies.
Stockpiling Water Safely
Stocking water reserves should be a top priority. Drinking water in emergency situations should not be rationed. Therefore, it is critical to store adequate amounts of water for your household. Individual needs vary, depending on age, physical condition, activity, diet, and climate. A normally active person needs at least two quarts of water daily just for drinking. Children, nursing mothers, and ill people need more. Very hot temperatures can double the amount of water needed. Because you will also need water for sanitary purposes and, possibly, for cooking, you should store at least one gallon of water per person per day.
Store water in thoroughly washed plastic, fiberglass or enamel-lined metal containers. Don’t use containers that can break, such as glass bottles. Never use a container that has held toxic substances. Sound plastic containers, such as soft drink bottles, are best. You can also purchase food grade plastic buckets or drums. Containers for water should be rinsed with a diluted bleach solution (one part bleach to ten parts water) before use. Previously used bottles or other containers may be contaminated with microbes or chemicals. Do not rely on untested devices for decontaminating water.
If your water is treated commercially by a water utility, you do not need to treat water before storing it. Additional treatments of treated public water will not increase storage life. If you have a well or public water that has not been treated, follow the treatment instructions provided by your public health service or water provider. If you suspect that your well may be contaminated, contact your local or state health department or agriculture extension agent for specific advice.
Seal your water containers tightly, label them and store them in a cool, dark place. It is important to change stored water every six months.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART II
Food:
If activity is reduced, healthy people can survive on half their usual food intake for an extended period or without any food for many days. Food, unlike water, may be rationed safely, except for children and pregnant women.
You don’t need to go out and buy unfamiliar foods to prepare an emergency food supply. You can use the canned foods, dry mixes and other staples on your cupboard shelves. Canned foods do not require cooking, water or special preparation. Be sure to include a manual can opener.
Keep canned foods in a dry place where the temperature is fairly cool. To protect boxed foods from pests and to extend their shelf life, store the food in tightly closed plastic or metal containers.
Replace items in your food supply every six months. Throw out any canned good that becomes swollen, dented, or corroded. Use foods before they go bad, and replace them with fresh supplies. Date each food item with a marker. Place new items at the back of the storage area and older ones in front.
Food items that you might consider including in your disaster supply kit include: ready-to-eat meats, fruits, and vegetables; canned or boxed juices, milk, and soup; high-energy foods like peanut butter, jelly, low-sodium crackers, granola bars, and trail mix; vitamins; foods for infants or persons on special diets; cookies, hard candy; instant coffee, cereals, and powdered milk.
Buy a box of MRE entrée’s – 72 packages of main course MRE meals and keep them at home. They will fee a familty of four for about a week. It’s no frills eating.
You may need to survive on your own after a disaster. Local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster, but they cannot reach everyone immediately. You could get help in hours, or it may take days. Basic services, such as electricity, gas, water, sewage treatment and telephones, may be cut off for days, even a week or longer. Or you may have to evacuate at a moment’s notice and take essentials with you.
You probably won’t have the opportunity to shop or search for the supplies you’ll need. Your household will cope best by preparing for disaster before it strikes.
First aid:
Sterile adhesive bandages in assorted sizes
Assorted sizes of safety pins
Isopropyl alcohol
Hydrogen peroxide
Antibiotic ointment
Latex gloves (2 pairs)
Petroleum jelly
2-inch and 4-inch sterile gauze pads (4-6 each size)
Triangular bandages(3)
2-inch and 3-inch sterile rolled bandages (3 rolls each)
Cotton balls
Scissors
Tweezers
Needle
Moistened towelettes
Antiseptic
Thermometer
Tongue depressor blades (2)
Tube of petroleum jelly or other lubricant
Sunscreen
Aspirin
Anti-diarrhea medication
Antacid
Tagamet
Decongestant
Cough Suppressant
Space Blanket
Mole Skin & Foam
Epi-pin
Snake Bite Kit
Tools:
A portable, battery-powered radio and extra batteries
Flashlight(3), extra bulbs(6) & batteries(12)
Oil Lamps (Hurricane)
Signal flare(6)
Candles
Matches
Lighters
Waterproof Matches
Magnesium Fire Starter
Paraffin
Leather-man Tool(2)
All Purpose Knife(2)
Duct tape
Scissors
Plastic sheeting
Whistle
Small canister, A-B-C-type fire extinguisher(2)
Compass(2)
Work gloves (2)
Paper, pens, and pencils
Needles and thread (2)
Wrist Watch
Honing Stone & Oil
Hatchet
Shovel
Kitchen items:
Manual can opener
Mess kit
Fork & Spoon
Knife
Frying Pan
Pots
Plastic Forks, Spoons, Knives
Heavy Duty Paper Plates
PUR Drinking Water System
Extra filters for PUR Water Filter
Water Bottles
Propane Stove
Propane Grill
Extra Case(s) Propane
Heavy Duty Tin Foil
Trioxane Stove
Trioxane Fuel
Sterno Fuel
ZipLoc bags (Lg & Sm)
Cooler
Food:
Vitamins
Summer Sausage
Beef Jerky
Slim Jim
Peanut Butter
Hard Candy
Freeze Dried Dinners
Canned Veggies
Canned Meats
Canned Soups & Stews
Bulk Flour
Bulk Grains (Wheat, etc.)
Coffee
Tea
Sugar
Salt & Pepper
Water:
(1 gal. per person per day)
Sanitation and hygiene items:
Washcloth and towel
Towelettes
Soap
Hand sanitizer
Liquid detergent
Tooth paste and toothbrushes
Shampoo
Deodorant
Feminine Supplies
Razor
Shaving cream
Lip balm
Sunscreen
Insect repellent
Heavy-duty plastic garbage bags (to go potty in)
Toilet paper
Medium-sized plastic bucket with tight lid
Disinfectant
Chlorine bleach
Shovel (for a latrine)
Documents:
Personal identification
Cash
Emergency phone numbers
Maps of the area
Misc:
Extra pair of prescription glasses
Candles
Extra set of car & house keys
Reading material, books, etc.
Games for the kids
Clothing (no cotton):
Heavy, Waterproof Boots
Wool Socks
Rain gear
Hat w/ visor
Gloves
Sunglasses
Capelin Pants (4)
Wind pants
Polypro Shirt (2)(short sleeve)
Polortek Shirt (2)(Long sleeve)
Polartek Pants (2)
Polypro Boxers(5)
Gortex/Thinsulate Parka
Gortex/Thinsulate Bibs
Shelter:
Sleeping bag
Sleeping pad
Tent
Small Tarps
Large Tarp
Folding Chair
Nylon Cord
Weapons: (minimal needs)
City dwellers need sidearms and a Mossler or Remington pistol grip 12-guage pump shotgun, preferably with an extended under-barrel which holds seven cartridges rather than the standard five.
You can buy low-recoil, self-defense slug cartridges (one big single lead pellet), though for most uses buckshot cartridges with seven pellets (my option) would be better unless you are a good shot.
The best sidearm to have/buy is any .40 round weapon with the finest made the SigSauer. Bit pricey but with a well balanced/ weighted slide for a .40 bullet. This caliber has less stopping power than a .45 but allows more bullets in a magazine/clip. California has a 10-round limit but the larger, heavier .45 SigSauer only has an 8-round clip. Normal .40 caliber clips traditionally hold 12 rounds.
I would suggest you buy a Lasergrip for whichever brand you choose. Instead of having a laser tube at the end of your sidearm, a laser beam is built int othe handgrip of your weapon (manufactured specifically for each diferent type of handgun) and sends a beam out from above hour forefinger. (Specify left or right handed preference).
This allows for a both eyes open aiming. Point (learn how to grip and aim a sidearm), place the dot on target and do NOT try to steady it. As soon as it is about where you want it, double tap (shoot twice). It's not target practise, so if you are a two or three inches off, you will still kill the enemy. Then double tap again. Always fire two shots at a time, never single shots.
Unless, as an usual city dweller without combat experience, you are close to nearby forest or game haunts and can hunt for food, you will not need a rifle.
Nor an AK-47 or similar military type weapons unless you have experience with them or the civilian (not fully automatic) models. This is an offensive rather than defensive weapon and your neighbors with military backgrounds will probably have these to to use in a serious firefight for themselves and for you.
Hunters and countryside dwellers have their preferences on rifles, calibers and scopes and almost certainly already have weapons they use regularly, so need no advice.
Remember, firearms are just tools and tools in the wrong hands are more of a liability than an asset. If you choose to arm yourself (and I highly recommend you do), GET SOME TRAINING on the safe handling and use of them.
Hat tip FreeRepublic.com
Also the looming economic disaster our nation faces, could well have "we the people" in the streets, as in Greece, and faced with Oba-Husssein's Million Person "Civilian Security Force", which he has already begun to set up, which will report to him NOT the Constitution.
He insists they be as well (and heavily) armed and funded as our regular military, thus providing him a private , personal one million army paid for with your tax dollars to throw at "we the people"!
Pre-Event Actions:
1. Learn about the natural disasters that could occur in your community from your local emergency management office or American Red Cross chapter. Learn whether hazardous materials are produced, stored or transported near your area. Learn about possible consequences of deliberate acts of terror. Ask how to prepare for each potential emergency and how to respond.
2. Talk with employers and school officials about their emergency response plans.
3. Talk with your household about potential emergencies and how to respond to each. Talk about what you would need to do in an evacuation. If someone in the family has a critical job, expect them to be gone.
4. Plan how your household would stay in contact if you were separated. Identify two meeting places: the first should be near your home—in case of fire, perhaps a tree or a telephone pole; the second should be away from your neighborhood in case you cannot return home.
5. Pick a friend or relative who lives out of the area for household members to call to say they are okay.
6. Draw a floor plan of your home. Mark two escape routes from each room.
7. Post emergency telephone numbers by telephones. Teach children how and when to call 911.
8. Make sure everyone in your household knows how and when to shut off water, gas, and electricity at the main switches. Consult with your local utilities if you have questions.
9. Take a first aid and CPR class. Local American Red Cross chapters can provide information. Official certification by the American Red Cross provides “good Samaritan” law protection for those giving first aid.
10. Reduce the economic impact of disaster on your property and your household’s health and financial well-being:
Review property insurance policies before disaster strikes – make sure policies are current and be certain they meet your needs (type of coverage, amount of coverage, and hazards covered – flood, earthquake, etc.)
Protect your household’s financial well-being before a disaster strikes— review life insurance policies and consider saving money in an “emergency” savings account that could be used in any crisis. It is advisable to keep a small amount of cash or traveler’s checks at home in a safe place where you can quickly gain access to it in case of an evacuation.
Be certain that health insurance policies are current and meet the needs of your household.
11. Consider ways to help neighbors who may need special assistance, such as the elderly or the disabled.
12. Make arrangements for pets. Pets are not allowed in public shelters. Service animals for those who depend on them are allowed.
13. Ensure all immunizations are up-to-date. If we are hit with true mass causality event, the bodies may lie around for days or weeks. Rotting corpses will cause disease outbreaks.
14. If you have a disability or special need, you may have to take additional steps to protect yourself and your household in an emergency. If you know of friends or neighbors with special needs, help them with these extra precautions. Hearing impaired may need to make special arrangements to receive warning. Mobility impaired may need assistance in getting to a shelter. Households with a single working parent may need help from others both in planning for disasters and during an emergency. People without vehicles may need to make arrangements for transportation. People with special dietary needs should have an adequate emergency food supply. Find out about special assistance that may be available in your community. Register with the office of emergency services or fire department for assistance, so needed help can be provided quickly in an emergency.
15. Create a network of neighbors, relatives, friends and co-workers to aid you in an emergency. Discuss your needs and make sure they know how to operate necessary equipment.
16. If you are mobility impaired and live or work in a high-rise building, have an escape chair. If you live in an apartment building, ask the management to mark accessible exits clearly and to make arrangements to help you evacuate the building. Keep extra wheelchair batteries, oxygen, catheters, medication, food for guide or hearing-ear dogs, or other items you might need. Also, keep a list of the type and serial numbers of medical devices you need.
17. Those who are not disabled should learn who in their neighborhood or building is disabled so that they may assist them during emergencies. If you are a care-giver for a person with special needs, make sure you have a plan to communicate if an emergency occurs.
Preparedness Overview:
You may need to survive on your own for three days or more. This means having your own water, food and emergency supplies. Try using backpacks or duffel bags to keep the supplies together. Assembling the supplies you might need following a disaster is an important part of your disaster plan. You should prepare emergency supplies for the following situations:
A disaster supply kit with essential food, water, and supplies for at least three days—this kit should be kept in a designated place and be ready to “grab and go” in case you have to leave your home quickly because of a disaster, such as a flash flood or major chemical emergency. Make sure all household members know where the kit is kept.
Consider having additional supplies for sheltering or home confinement for up to four weeks.
You should also have a disaster supply kit at work. This should be in one container, ready to “grab and go” in case you have to evacuate the building. Remember to have a comfortable pair of shoes in case you need to walk long distances.
A car kit of emergency supplies, including food and water, to keep stored in your car at all times. This kit would also include flares, jumper cables, and seasonal supplies.
Stockpiling Water Safely
Stocking water reserves should be a top priority. Drinking water in emergency situations should not be rationed. Therefore, it is critical to store adequate amounts of water for your household. Individual needs vary, depending on age, physical condition, activity, diet, and climate. A normally active person needs at least two quarts of water daily just for drinking. Children, nursing mothers, and ill people need more. Very hot temperatures can double the amount of water needed. Because you will also need water for sanitary purposes and, possibly, for cooking, you should store at least one gallon of water per person per day.
Store water in thoroughly washed plastic, fiberglass or enamel-lined metal containers. Don’t use containers that can break, such as glass bottles. Never use a container that has held toxic substances. Sound plastic containers, such as soft drink bottles, are best. You can also purchase food grade plastic buckets or drums. Containers for water should be rinsed with a diluted bleach solution (one part bleach to ten parts water) before use. Previously used bottles or other containers may be contaminated with microbes or chemicals. Do not rely on untested devices for decontaminating water.
If your water is treated commercially by a water utility, you do not need to treat water before storing it. Additional treatments of treated public water will not increase storage life. If you have a well or public water that has not been treated, follow the treatment instructions provided by your public health service or water provider. If you suspect that your well may be contaminated, contact your local or state health department or agriculture extension agent for specific advice.
Seal your water containers tightly, label them and store them in a cool, dark place. It is important to change stored water every six months.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART II
Food:
If activity is reduced, healthy people can survive on half their usual food intake for an extended period or without any food for many days. Food, unlike water, may be rationed safely, except for children and pregnant women.
You don’t need to go out and buy unfamiliar foods to prepare an emergency food supply. You can use the canned foods, dry mixes and other staples on your cupboard shelves. Canned foods do not require cooking, water or special preparation. Be sure to include a manual can opener.
Keep canned foods in a dry place where the temperature is fairly cool. To protect boxed foods from pests and to extend their shelf life, store the food in tightly closed plastic or metal containers.
Replace items in your food supply every six months. Throw out any canned good that becomes swollen, dented, or corroded. Use foods before they go bad, and replace them with fresh supplies. Date each food item with a marker. Place new items at the back of the storage area and older ones in front.
Food items that you might consider including in your disaster supply kit include: ready-to-eat meats, fruits, and vegetables; canned or boxed juices, milk, and soup; high-energy foods like peanut butter, jelly, low-sodium crackers, granola bars, and trail mix; vitamins; foods for infants or persons on special diets; cookies, hard candy; instant coffee, cereals, and powdered milk.
Buy a box of MRE entrée’s – 72 packages of main course MRE meals and keep them at home. They will fee a familty of four for about a week. It’s no frills eating.
You may need to survive on your own after a disaster. Local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster, but they cannot reach everyone immediately. You could get help in hours, or it may take days. Basic services, such as electricity, gas, water, sewage treatment and telephones, may be cut off for days, even a week or longer. Or you may have to evacuate at a moment’s notice and take essentials with you.
You probably won’t have the opportunity to shop or search for the supplies you’ll need. Your household will cope best by preparing for disaster before it strikes.
First aid:
Sterile adhesive bandages in assorted sizes
Assorted sizes of safety pins
Isopropyl alcohol
Hydrogen peroxide
Antibiotic ointment
Latex gloves (2 pairs)
Petroleum jelly
2-inch and 4-inch sterile gauze pads (4-6 each size)
Triangular bandages(3)
2-inch and 3-inch sterile rolled bandages (3 rolls each)
Cotton balls
Scissors
Tweezers
Needle
Moistened towelettes
Antiseptic
Thermometer
Tongue depressor blades (2)
Tube of petroleum jelly or other lubricant
Sunscreen
Aspirin
Anti-diarrhea medication
Antacid
Tagamet
Decongestant
Cough Suppressant
Space Blanket
Mole Skin & Foam
Epi-pin
Snake Bite Kit
Tools:
A portable, battery-powered radio and extra batteries
Flashlight(3), extra bulbs(6) & batteries(12)
Oil Lamps (Hurricane)
Signal flare(6)
Candles
Matches
Lighters
Waterproof Matches
Magnesium Fire Starter
Paraffin
Leather-man Tool(2)
All Purpose Knife(2)
Duct tape
Scissors
Plastic sheeting
Whistle
Small canister, A-B-C-type fire extinguisher(2)
Compass(2)
Work gloves (2)
Paper, pens, and pencils
Needles and thread (2)
Wrist Watch
Honing Stone & Oil
Hatchet
Shovel
Kitchen items:
Manual can opener
Mess kit
Fork & Spoon
Knife
Frying Pan
Pots
Plastic Forks, Spoons, Knives
Heavy Duty Paper Plates
PUR Drinking Water System
Extra filters for PUR Water Filter
Water Bottles
Propane Stove
Propane Grill
Extra Case(s) Propane
Heavy Duty Tin Foil
Trioxane Stove
Trioxane Fuel
Sterno Fuel
ZipLoc bags (Lg & Sm)
Cooler
Food:
Vitamins
Summer Sausage
Beef Jerky
Slim Jim
Peanut Butter
Hard Candy
Freeze Dried Dinners
Canned Veggies
Canned Meats
Canned Soups & Stews
Bulk Flour
Bulk Grains (Wheat, etc.)
Coffee
Tea
Sugar
Salt & Pepper
Water:
(1 gal. per person per day)
Sanitation and hygiene items:
Washcloth and towel
Towelettes
Soap
Hand sanitizer
Liquid detergent
Tooth paste and toothbrushes
Shampoo
Deodorant
Feminine Supplies
Razor
Shaving cream
Lip balm
Sunscreen
Insect repellent
Heavy-duty plastic garbage bags (to go potty in)
Toilet paper
Medium-sized plastic bucket with tight lid
Disinfectant
Chlorine bleach
Shovel (for a latrine)
Documents:
Personal identification
Cash
Emergency phone numbers
Maps of the area
Misc:
Extra pair of prescription glasses
Candles
Extra set of car & house keys
Reading material, books, etc.
Games for the kids
Clothing (no cotton):
Heavy, Waterproof Boots
Wool Socks
Rain gear
Hat w/ visor
Gloves
Sunglasses
Capelin Pants (4)
Wind pants
Polypro Shirt (2)(short sleeve)
Polortek Shirt (2)(Long sleeve)
Polartek Pants (2)
Polypro Boxers(5)
Gortex/Thinsulate Parka
Gortex/Thinsulate Bibs
Shelter:
Sleeping bag
Sleeping pad
Tent
Small Tarps
Large Tarp
Folding Chair
Nylon Cord
Weapons: (minimal needs)
City dwellers need sidearms and a Mossler or Remington pistol grip 12-guage pump shotgun, preferably with an extended under-barrel which holds seven cartridges rather than the standard five.
You can buy low-recoil, self-defense slug cartridges (one big single lead pellet), though for most uses buckshot cartridges with seven pellets (my option) would be better unless you are a good shot.
The best sidearm to have/buy is any .40 round weapon with the finest made the SigSauer. Bit pricey but with a well balanced/ weighted slide for a .40 bullet. This caliber has less stopping power than a .45 but allows more bullets in a magazine/clip. California has a 10-round limit but the larger, heavier .45 SigSauer only has an 8-round clip. Normal .40 caliber clips traditionally hold 12 rounds.
I would suggest you buy a Lasergrip for whichever brand you choose. Instead of having a laser tube at the end of your sidearm, a laser beam is built int othe handgrip of your weapon (manufactured specifically for each diferent type of handgun) and sends a beam out from above hour forefinger. (Specify left or right handed preference).
This allows for a both eyes open aiming. Point (learn how to grip and aim a sidearm), place the dot on target and do NOT try to steady it. As soon as it is about where you want it, double tap (shoot twice). It's not target practise, so if you are a two or three inches off, you will still kill the enemy. Then double tap again. Always fire two shots at a time, never single shots.
Unless, as an usual city dweller without combat experience, you are close to nearby forest or game haunts and can hunt for food, you will not need a rifle.
Nor an AK-47 or similar military type weapons unless you have experience with them or the civilian (not fully automatic) models. This is an offensive rather than defensive weapon and your neighbors with military backgrounds will probably have these to to use in a serious firefight for themselves and for you.
Hunters and countryside dwellers have their preferences on rifles, calibers and scopes and almost certainly already have weapons they use regularly, so need no advice.
Remember, firearms are just tools and tools in the wrong hands are more of a liability than an asset. If you choose to arm yourself (and I highly recommend you do), GET SOME TRAINING on the safe handling and use of them.
Hat tip FreeRepublic.com
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
OBA-HUSSEIN FACILITATING MOSLEM BROTHERHOOD GRAND JIHAD IN USA
How the Obama administration is facilitating the Muslim Brotherhood's plan of the "grand jihad."...
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Andrew C. McCarthy, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute and a columnist for National Review. His book Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad (Encounter Books, 2008), has just been released in paperback with a new preface. Check out a description from Encounter Books.
FP: Andy McCarthy, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview.
The Obama administration has now named a CAIR-trained supporter of convicted terrorist Sami al-Arian to be its envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. What gives here?
McCarthy: Jamie, as always it’s a great pleasure to be here.
It’s not such a great pleasure, however, to talk about what is happening to our country. What we are seeing is the domestic version of the Obama administration’s dangerously loopy “engagement” strategy. Basically, if you’re a friend of the United States, say Israel or Poland, prepare to be screwed; if you despise America as, say, Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood do, prepare to be wooed. What’s happening here is wrong on so many levels it’s hard to unwind.
The OIC is an insidious organization dedicated to the imposition of Sharia (i.e., the evisceration of liberty) and the destruction of Israel. Yet, as Claudia Rosett’s recent brilliant column in Forbes observes, we are subsidizing its activities and giving it a propaganda victory every time we repeat its claim to be a “57-nation bloc” (one of those “nations” is the Palestinian territories, which do not constitute a nation). We shouldn’t have an envoy for it at all. We can thank the Bush administration’s pandering for that, but the Obama administration takes every Bush misstep and increases it geometrically. So now we will have an envoy whose credibility with the OIC will lie in the fact that he shares its disdain for the American government’s national defense measures against Islamic terrorists.
FP: What’s with Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano and her cozy relationship with Muslim Brotherhood’s U.S. affiliates?
McCarthy: This is a continuation of what President Obama started in Cairo, when the Muslim Brotherhood was invited to attend his ballyhooed speech. There are many people on the Left who have argued for years that we should be engaging the Brotherhood — that they are the “good” Islamists who are willing to work through a political process rather than resort to terror. Putting aside that they actually do support terrorism (against U.S. forces in Muslim countries and against Israel, at the least), shouldn’t we be concerned about what these “moderates” want to achieve through the political process? They are dedicated to the installation of Sharia law, the necessary precondition, in Islamist ideology, to the Islamization of society.
Many of the groups for which Napolitiano has rolled out the red carpet — the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim American Society, for instances, are Muslim Brotherhood tentacles. Like CAIR, they were shown in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial to be part of what the Brotherhood described as ”grand jihad” to “sabotage” America from within. When you know that, the idea would be to keep them out. We’re inviting them in. I strongly recommend that people check out Richard Pollock’s report at Pajamas Media about Napolitano’s meeting with these groups.
FP: Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan has come out with some curious comments on the recidivism rates of released Gitmo detainees. Tell us about those comments and other aspects of this story that need more attention.
McCarthy: Well, the recidivism comment is just staggering. First of all, to say the rate at which former Gitmo detainees recidivate (i.e., go back to the jihad) is ”20 percent,” as Brennan said, is preposterous. We don’t know if someone is a recidivist unless we either encounter him on the battlefield or get reliable intelligence that he has rejoined the terrorist groups. That is, we can’t account for people we haven’t encountered on the battlefield or otherwise gotten good intelligence about.
This is not a criminal trial such that you have to suspend common sense and give those unaccounted for jihadists the benefit of the doubt. The only safe assumption is that the real recidivism rate is higher — no doubt much higher — than 20 percent. Moreover, even if it were lower, we are talking about people who go back to mass-murder, not shop-lifting. For Brennan to say 20 percent is fine because it compares favorably to the recidivism rate for ordinary criminals utterly misconstrues the difference between a national security challenge (which must be defeated) and a mere criminal justice problem (which has to be managed by good policing but can never really be eliminated). That would be a stupid remark for a cop or an analyst to make; for a high national security official to make it is inexcusable.
Beyond that, why is Brennan going to NYU to pander to Islamist activists like Omar Shahin? Michelle Malkin has an excellent piece on this unnoticed aspect of Brennan’s performance. Shahin was the ring-leader of the Flying Imams. He was also the leader at one of the most notorious Islamist mosques in the United States, the Islamic Center of Tucson. His predecessor there was Wael Hamza Julaidan, an al Qaeda founder designated by the Treasury Department as an international terrorist. Shahin gave fiery anti-Semitic “sermons” while at the mosque, the worshippers at which included 9/11 suicide bomber Hani Hanjour, bin Laden’s secretary Wadi el-Hage (since convicted in the embassy bombing case), and two young Saudis (Hamdan al-Shalawi and Muhammad al-Qudhaieen) who just happen to have been implicated in a 1999 “dry run” for the 9/11 attacks — engaging in the same sort of antics Shahin and the other Flying Imams engaged in. Shahin was the Arizona coordinator for the Holy Land Foundation (a charity later shuttered for supporting Hamas) and later became a representative of “Kind Hearts,” another Hamas charitable front. Yet, here is a top presidential adviser not only giving this guy the time of day but seemingly agreeing with him that our post-9/11 counterterrorism has been too aggressive. It’s shameful.
FP: What is happening in all of these developments and what threat does it pose?
McCarthy: The Muslim Brotherhood’s “grand jihad” — as it describes the plan in a 1991 memo — is to “sabotage” the United States from within. These developments show we’re not only failing to defend ourselves. We’re helping them along.
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Andrew C. McCarthy, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute and a columnist for National Review. His book Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad (Encounter Books, 2008), has just been released in paperback with a new preface. Check out a description from Encounter Books.
FP: Andy McCarthy, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview.
The Obama administration has now named a CAIR-trained supporter of convicted terrorist Sami al-Arian to be its envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. What gives here?
McCarthy: Jamie, as always it’s a great pleasure to be here.
It’s not such a great pleasure, however, to talk about what is happening to our country. What we are seeing is the domestic version of the Obama administration’s dangerously loopy “engagement” strategy. Basically, if you’re a friend of the United States, say Israel or Poland, prepare to be screwed; if you despise America as, say, Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood do, prepare to be wooed. What’s happening here is wrong on so many levels it’s hard to unwind.
The OIC is an insidious organization dedicated to the imposition of Sharia (i.e., the evisceration of liberty) and the destruction of Israel. Yet, as Claudia Rosett’s recent brilliant column in Forbes observes, we are subsidizing its activities and giving it a propaganda victory every time we repeat its claim to be a “57-nation bloc” (one of those “nations” is the Palestinian territories, which do not constitute a nation). We shouldn’t have an envoy for it at all. We can thank the Bush administration’s pandering for that, but the Obama administration takes every Bush misstep and increases it geometrically. So now we will have an envoy whose credibility with the OIC will lie in the fact that he shares its disdain for the American government’s national defense measures against Islamic terrorists.
FP: What’s with Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano and her cozy relationship with Muslim Brotherhood’s U.S. affiliates?
McCarthy: This is a continuation of what President Obama started in Cairo, when the Muslim Brotherhood was invited to attend his ballyhooed speech. There are many people on the Left who have argued for years that we should be engaging the Brotherhood — that they are the “good” Islamists who are willing to work through a political process rather than resort to terror. Putting aside that they actually do support terrorism (against U.S. forces in Muslim countries and against Israel, at the least), shouldn’t we be concerned about what these “moderates” want to achieve through the political process? They are dedicated to the installation of Sharia law, the necessary precondition, in Islamist ideology, to the Islamization of society.
Many of the groups for which Napolitiano has rolled out the red carpet — the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim American Society, for instances, are Muslim Brotherhood tentacles. Like CAIR, they were shown in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial to be part of what the Brotherhood described as ”grand jihad” to “sabotage” America from within. When you know that, the idea would be to keep them out. We’re inviting them in. I strongly recommend that people check out Richard Pollock’s report at Pajamas Media about Napolitano’s meeting with these groups.
FP: Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan has come out with some curious comments on the recidivism rates of released Gitmo detainees. Tell us about those comments and other aspects of this story that need more attention.
McCarthy: Well, the recidivism comment is just staggering. First of all, to say the rate at which former Gitmo detainees recidivate (i.e., go back to the jihad) is ”20 percent,” as Brennan said, is preposterous. We don’t know if someone is a recidivist unless we either encounter him on the battlefield or get reliable intelligence that he has rejoined the terrorist groups. That is, we can’t account for people we haven’t encountered on the battlefield or otherwise gotten good intelligence about.
This is not a criminal trial such that you have to suspend common sense and give those unaccounted for jihadists the benefit of the doubt. The only safe assumption is that the real recidivism rate is higher — no doubt much higher — than 20 percent. Moreover, even if it were lower, we are talking about people who go back to mass-murder, not shop-lifting. For Brennan to say 20 percent is fine because it compares favorably to the recidivism rate for ordinary criminals utterly misconstrues the difference between a national security challenge (which must be defeated) and a mere criminal justice problem (which has to be managed by good policing but can never really be eliminated). That would be a stupid remark for a cop or an analyst to make; for a high national security official to make it is inexcusable.
Beyond that, why is Brennan going to NYU to pander to Islamist activists like Omar Shahin? Michelle Malkin has an excellent piece on this unnoticed aspect of Brennan’s performance. Shahin was the ring-leader of the Flying Imams. He was also the leader at one of the most notorious Islamist mosques in the United States, the Islamic Center of Tucson. His predecessor there was Wael Hamza Julaidan, an al Qaeda founder designated by the Treasury Department as an international terrorist. Shahin gave fiery anti-Semitic “sermons” while at the mosque, the worshippers at which included 9/11 suicide bomber Hani Hanjour, bin Laden’s secretary Wadi el-Hage (since convicted in the embassy bombing case), and two young Saudis (Hamdan al-Shalawi and Muhammad al-Qudhaieen) who just happen to have been implicated in a 1999 “dry run” for the 9/11 attacks — engaging in the same sort of antics Shahin and the other Flying Imams engaged in. Shahin was the Arizona coordinator for the Holy Land Foundation (a charity later shuttered for supporting Hamas) and later became a representative of “Kind Hearts,” another Hamas charitable front. Yet, here is a top presidential adviser not only giving this guy the time of day but seemingly agreeing with him that our post-9/11 counterterrorism has been too aggressive. It’s shameful.
FP: What is happening in all of these developments and what threat does it pose?
McCarthy: The Muslim Brotherhood’s “grand jihad” — as it describes the plan in a 1991 memo — is to “sabotage” the United States from within. These developments show we’re not only failing to defend ourselves. We’re helping them along.
Monday, February 15, 2010
THEY COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES
I really really wonder if these two attend the Dar el-Eman Islamic Center in Arlington. You know, the one Jamal Qaddura is president of? That Jamal Qaddura who's running for Justice of the Peace . . .
Arlington woman, teen had explosives in pickup, police say
By DOMINGO RAMIREZ JR.
ramirez@star-telegram.com
An Arlington woman and a teenager had explosives in their pickup Saturday evening during a road-rage incident with another motorist that started in Arlington and ended on Southeast Loop 820 in Fort Worth, authorities said Sunday.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman Tom Crowley declined to make any additional comments other than to say that they had explosives.
Kimberly Al-Homsi, 45, and Yasinul Ansari, 18, also of Arlington, are scheduled to go before a federal judge in Fort Worth on Tuesday to face federal explosives charges, Crowley said Sunday. Federal offices are closed today for Presidents Day.
"Once the complaint is filed, there will be more information," Crowley said.
Al-Homsi remained in custody Sunday in the Arlington Jail in lieu of $210,000 bail. Ansari was in the Arlington Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail, accused of possession of a prohibited weapon.
Al-Homsi is accused of evading arrest with injury to an officer, possession of a prohibited weapon and two counts of making a terrorist threat -- all state charges.
Fort Worth police closed the highway Saturday evening for more than five hours at East Rosedale Street after what appeared to be an incident of road rage in Arlington turned into a bomb squad investigation in Fort Worth.
By 11:15 p.m. Saturday, members of the Fort Worth bomb squad had detonated four charges as they examined a vehicle containing what authorities called a suspicious device.
Authorities said Arlington police received a telephone call about 5 p.m. from a driver who reported that someone in another vehicle had pointed a weapon at him as they both traveled on Texas 360 between Pioneer Parkway and East Abram Street.
Arlington police saw a pickup matching the description and tried to stop it. The driver continued, and officers began pursuit, Arlington police said.
After about a 20-minute chase, the pickup hit a patch of ice, spun out of control and came to a stop on Rosedale beneath Loop 820 in Fort Worth.
After talking to Ansari and Al-Homsi, Arlington police asked that the Fort Worth bomb squad be called in.
Al-Homsi has a criminal history involving a fake grenade and possessing prohibited weapons, according to Tarrant County criminal court records.
In July 2007, Al-Homsi was arrested on suspicion of prohibited weapons after her roommate held Arlington police at bay during a six-hour standoff in their southeast Arlington home.
Four suspicious packages and a weapon were confiscated from the house after Al-Homsi's roommate, Aisha Abdul-Rahman Hamad, surrendered to police. Authorities never released details of what was in the packages.
Tarrant County criminal court records show that Al-Homsi was sentenced to 110 days in jail.
Court records also show that Al-Homsi waved a fake hand grenade at a motorist in 2005. She was put on probation for nine months for making a terroristic threat.
This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.
DOMINGO RAMIREZ, 817-390-7763
Arlington woman, teen had explosives in pickup, police say
By DOMINGO RAMIREZ JR.
ramirez@star-telegram.com
An Arlington woman and a teenager had explosives in their pickup Saturday evening during a road-rage incident with another motorist that started in Arlington and ended on Southeast Loop 820 in Fort Worth, authorities said Sunday.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman Tom Crowley declined to make any additional comments other than to say that they had explosives.
Kimberly Al-Homsi, 45, and Yasinul Ansari, 18, also of Arlington, are scheduled to go before a federal judge in Fort Worth on Tuesday to face federal explosives charges, Crowley said Sunday. Federal offices are closed today for Presidents Day.
"Once the complaint is filed, there will be more information," Crowley said.
Al-Homsi remained in custody Sunday in the Arlington Jail in lieu of $210,000 bail. Ansari was in the Arlington Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail, accused of possession of a prohibited weapon.
Al-Homsi is accused of evading arrest with injury to an officer, possession of a prohibited weapon and two counts of making a terrorist threat -- all state charges.
Fort Worth police closed the highway Saturday evening for more than five hours at East Rosedale Street after what appeared to be an incident of road rage in Arlington turned into a bomb squad investigation in Fort Worth.
By 11:15 p.m. Saturday, members of the Fort Worth bomb squad had detonated four charges as they examined a vehicle containing what authorities called a suspicious device.
Authorities said Arlington police received a telephone call about 5 p.m. from a driver who reported that someone in another vehicle had pointed a weapon at him as they both traveled on Texas 360 between Pioneer Parkway and East Abram Street.
Arlington police saw a pickup matching the description and tried to stop it. The driver continued, and officers began pursuit, Arlington police said.
After about a 20-minute chase, the pickup hit a patch of ice, spun out of control and came to a stop on Rosedale beneath Loop 820 in Fort Worth.
After talking to Ansari and Al-Homsi, Arlington police asked that the Fort Worth bomb squad be called in.
Al-Homsi has a criminal history involving a fake grenade and possessing prohibited weapons, according to Tarrant County criminal court records.
In July 2007, Al-Homsi was arrested on suspicion of prohibited weapons after her roommate held Arlington police at bay during a six-hour standoff in their southeast Arlington home.
Four suspicious packages and a weapon were confiscated from the house after Al-Homsi's roommate, Aisha Abdul-Rahman Hamad, surrendered to police. Authorities never released details of what was in the packages.
Tarrant County criminal court records show that Al-Homsi was sentenced to 110 days in jail.
Court records also show that Al-Homsi waved a fake hand grenade at a motorist in 2005. She was put on probation for nine months for making a terroristic threat.
This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.
DOMINGO RAMIREZ, 817-390-7763
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