Archive for October, 2012

Massad Ayoob on Gas Station Awareness

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FBI: 2011 Crime Stats

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U.S. Presidential Elections in Perspective

U.S. Presidential Elections in Perspective is republished with permission of Stratfor.”

By George Friedman

The U.S. presidential election will be held a week from today, and if the polls are correct, the outcome will be extraordinarily close. Many say that the country has never been as deeply divided. In discussing the debates last week, I noted how this year’s campaign is far from the most bitter and vitriolic. It might therefore be useful also to consider that while the electorate at the moment appears evenly and deeply divided, unlike what many say, that does not reveal deep divisions in our society — unless our society has always been deeply divided.

Since 1820, the last year an uncontested election was held, most presidential elections have been extremely close. Lyndon B. Johnson received the largest percentage of votes any president has ever had in 1964, taking 61.5 percent of the vote. Three other presidents broke the 60 percent mark: Warren G. Harding in 1920, Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 and Richard Nixon in 1972.

Nine elections saw a candidate win between 55 and 60 percent of the vote: Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. Only Eisenhower broke 55 percent twice. Candidates who received less than 50 percent of the vote won 18 presidential elections. These included Lincoln in his first election, Woodrow Wilson in both elections, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Nixon in his first election and Bill Clinton in both his elections.  Read the rest of this entry »

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PIG Tactical Gloves

Review via The Loadout Room:

I went through a lot of gloves before I found the PIG Full Dexterity Tactical gloves. When I first started, I right away rejected any gloves that included special plastic or kevlar molded knuckle guards. I figured that while shooting in competition or training, or even in use on the street, having a hunk of plastic banging around and adding to the thickness of my hand would hinder more than help.  Stick to the basics. Very few of the gloves I tried out below the $50 price point did the basics well.

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How to Fill Out Paperwork for an NFA Firearm

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GORUCK Backpacks

GORUCK bags are made in the United States by a former Special Forces member.

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Pocket Litter: The Evidence That Criminals Carry

Pocket Litter: The Evidence That Criminals Carry is republished with permission of Stratfor.”

By Scott Stewart

On Oct. 12, a pregnant medical doctor from Guadalajara, Mexico, attempted to enter the United States through the San Ysidro border crossing. The woman reportedly wanted to give birth in the United States so that her child would be a U.S. citizen. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested the woman, who has since been charged with visa fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

Ordinarily, the arrest of a Mexican national for document fraud at a border crossing would hardly be newsworthy. However, this case may be anything but ordinary: Authorities have identified the woman as Alejandrina Gisselle Guzman Salazar, who reportedly is the daughter of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, one of the world’s most wanted men.

If Guzman is indeed the daughter of El Chapo, the arrest could provide much-needed intelligence to those pursuing the fugitive drug lord. Aside from the intelligence gathered during her interrogation, investigators could also learn much from the information she may have been inadvertently carrying on her person. In law enforcement and intelligence circles, the items of miscellaneous information an individual carries are called “pocket litter” and are carefully reviewed for intelligence value. But the concept of combing through pocket litter for critical information also carries with it some important implications for people who are not criminals. Read the rest of this entry »

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Prototype Tools to Support Local Disaster Preparedness Planning and Collaboration

From RAND Corporation:

Against a backdrop of terrorist threats, natural disasters, and heightened concern about pandemic influenza, national security policy is now based on an all-hazards approach to disaster preparedness planning. Effective local planning is critical to disaster preparedness. Military installations and their civilian counterparts — local government and local health-care providers — can strengthen local-level disaster preparedness planning. This is the second report of a larger study aiming to develop planning support tools for local military and civilian planners. It describes a prototype tool that focuses on risk-informed, capabilities-based planning to determine (and address gaps in) the capabilities and resources a locality will likely require in the event of a disaster, with the prototype demonstration focusing on earthquakes, hurricanes, and pandemic influenza. The report also describes two social networking tools for local coordination of disaster preparedness and sharing of resources.

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Military Dog to Get Equivalent of Victoria Cross

From ITV:

An Army sniffer dog who died of a seizure shortly after his handler was killed in Afghanistan will posthumously receive the highest Military Honour available to animals today.

 

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Faxon Firearms ARAK Upper for ARs

Faxon Firearms has designed an AK-type uppper for the AR platform that alleviates the need for a buffer tube. The gas system is designed like the one on the FAL.

Faxon Facebook Page

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One Less “Thug” in the World

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FBI: Tawain National Sentenced for Sending Technology to Iran

Taiwanese Citizen Sentenced to Prison for Illegally Exporting Military-Sensitive Items from the United States to Iran

Oct. 24, 2012

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CIA Operators Were Denied Help During Attack on Lybian Consulate

From: Fox News (Exclusive)

Watch “Special Report Investigates: Benghazi — New Revelations” on Fox News at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, 3 p.m. on Sunday and 10 p.m. on Sunday.

Former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods was part of a small team who was at the CIA annex about a mile from the U.S. consulate where Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team came under attack. When he and others heard the shots fired, they informed their higher-ups at the annex to tell them what they were hearing and requested permission to go to the consulate and help out. They were told to “stand down,” according to sources familiar with the exchange. Soon after, they were again told to “stand down.”

Woods and at least two others ignored those orders and made their way to the consulate which at that point was on fire. Shots were exchanged. The rescue team from the CIA annex evacuated those who remained at the consulate and Sean Smith, who had been killed in the initial attack. They could not find the ambassador and returned to the CIA annex at about midnight.

At that point, they called again for military support and help because they were taking fire at the CIA safe house, or annex. The request was denied. There were no communications problems at the annex, according those present at the compound. The team was in constant radio contact with their headquarters. In fact, at least one member of the team was on the roof of the annex manning a heavy machine gun when mortars were fired at the CIA compound. The security officer had a laser on the target that was firing and repeatedly requested back-up support from a Spectre gunship, which is commonly used by U.S. Special Operations forces to provide support to Special Operations teams on the ground involved in intense firefights. The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than four hours — enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, among them Delta Force operators.

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B-17 with MIA Found in Mediterranean

From Battleland:

Navy divers assigned to Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2, Company 4, and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, stand Oct. 19 with the American flag, and the POW/MIA flag, on the wreckage of a B-17 bomber that was shot down and sank during World War II. The team is deployed alongside JPAC aboard the USNS Grapple (T-ARS 53) as part of a 30-day underwater recovery mission for an unaccounted-for service member who went missing during the crash into the Mediterranean Sea.

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Massad Ayoob on Answering the Door

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