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Archive for May, 2010
Female Marines reaching out to Afghan women.
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News on 30/May/2010 13:10
“Three months ago, Corporal Amaya was one of 40 female Marines training at Camp Pendleton, Calif., in an edgy experiment: sending full-time “female engagement teams†to accompany all-male foot patrols in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan to win over the Afghan women who are culturally off limits to American men. ”
The U.N. gun grabber
Posted by Jack Sinclair in Opinion on 30/May/2010 12:52
“American gun owners might not feel besieged, but they should. This week, the Obama administration announced its support for the United Nations Small Arms Treaty. This international agreement poses real risks for freedom both in the United States and around the world by making it more difficult – if not outright illegal – for law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.
This U.N. treaty will lead to more gun control in America. “After the treaty is approved and it comes into force, you will find out that it has this implication or that implication and it requires the Congress to adopt some measure that restricts ownership of firearms,” former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John R. Bolton warns. “The [Obama] administration knows it cannot obtain this kind of legislation purely in a domestic context. … They will use an international agreement as an excuse to get domestically what they couldn’t otherwise.”
The U.N. Small Arms Treaty opens a back door for the Obama administration to force through gun control regulations. Threats to the Second Amendment are as real today as ever.â€
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/27/the-un-gun-grabber/
Vets protected us, let’s protect their Second Amendment rights
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News on 29/May/2010 00:53
“…combat veterans … defended this country and its constitution only to have one of the most important constitutional rights stripped away without any formal adjudication.
Gun prohibitionists – who are always eager to find one more loophole through which they can reach out and grab someone’s firearm civil rights – like it this way. That is why they are now opposing S. 669, the Veterans’ Second Amendment Protection Act, sponsored by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC).
I spoke with Burr recently at a function in North Carolina, and he seems like a stand-up guy who is standing up right now for war veterans who have earned the right – in my humble opinion – to own any damn gun they want, no questions asked. The legislation is supported by the National Rifle Association.” – Dave Workman, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner
Why Chicago shooting deflates anti-gun philosophy everywhere.
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News on 29/May/2010 00:48
by Dave Workman, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner
“The older man, a Korean War veteran, was robbed at gunpoint in his house last year of $150 by three thugs. In reaction, he bought a handgun and, according to his son, vowed he would not be a victim again.
“I’d have done the same thing. They say we’ve got to give up our guns, but that’s crazy.”—Audrey Williams, neighbor
In the aftermath, gun prohibitionist groups are silent. It appears clear the older man will not be charged for violating the city’s handgun ban, thanks to a 2004 Illinois statute that protects homeowners who use handguns to defend themselves, even if having the gun violates a local handgun ban ordinance.
Why does this case sound the death knell for the gun control movement? Public sympathy is decidedly supportive of the older man. Demagogues like Daley, and other anti-gunners … better pay attention.
Sadly, it takes incidents such as this to illustrate to the public why onerous gun control measures that disarm law-abiding citizens but not criminals are simply wrong. People are beginning to increasingly understand this.â€
Rape Trees on the Southern Border?
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 29/May/2010 00:31
From Latina.com
The violence in Mexico is out of control and undeniably headed north. From beheadings to kidnappings, there seems to be no limit to what the cartels are willing to do to assert their dominance. They deal not only in drugs, but also in humans. The majority of the coyotes who help illegal immigrants cross the border are affiliated with these Mexican cartels.
Although many politicians would like to believe that the violence will stay to the south of the border, the reality is that it has already begun to affect South Western states. The revelation that Phoenix is now the “kidnapping capital” of the United States only affirms what many residents already knew.
A new method of marking territory has crossed over into the United States. “Rape trees” are popping up in Southern Arizona and their significance is horrific and disgusting. These “rape trees” are places where cartel members and coyotes rape female border crossers and hang their clothes, specifically undergarments, to mark their conquest and territory.
Sen. Jonathan Paton (R-Tucson), recently invited officials to describe the problems being faced in his home state to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs. Paton said violence along the border has escalated dramatically in the past year, “We want to go after these crimes,” he insisted, “It’s an unbelievable situation, and we can’t allow that to go on in this country.”
Video
‘Gun free’ Chicago is bleeding out
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News on 29/May/2010 00:27
‘The blood bank showed us the eight units of O-negative blood that are left. Only three of the units are designated for trauma patients, though. Any more outbreaks of violence on the streets pose a threat here.’
“Tonight we may be in a very tough situation,” Dr. Dennis said. “Because we’re that short on O-negative blood.”
“There are, of course, many reasons that have nothing to do with violence that could contribute to a blood shortage. This being Chicago, though, we can mostly rule those out.”
‘Dr. Dennis says the reason for the shortage is the high numbers of victims of shootings and other violent crimes who come to Stroger Hospital for life-saving treatment.
“We see probably an average of between 10 and 15 people who get shot or stabbed every night,” Dr. Dennis said.’
Ten to fifteen shootings and stabbings every night, at one hospital? Baghdad might be safer than that.
This is the city with the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. All guns must be registered–and re-registered annually–with the Chicago Police Department … And yet the city is bleeding to death.”
Kurt Hofmann, St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner
Video here:
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/blood.shortage.stroger.2.1057069.html
Different Rules for Royalty?
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News on 29/May/2010 00:20
Mayor Daley: ‘Guns is not the answer’ – unless you’re an 80-year-old man fighting off a young, armed home invader
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News on 29/May/2010 00:13
Mayor Daley: “I understand the situation and I understand. What I’m saying is all of us have to understand that guns is not the answer to problems we see in homes and on the streets of America. It’s just has simple as that.”
The armed intruder, Anthony Nelson, had a 13-page rap sheet -- a number of drug and weapons convictions dating to 1998.
“For a guy who uses the word “understand” three times in two sentences, Daley seems to be the one whose understanding is a bit foggy.
Perhaps he was confused about the question, but when asked “with what can 80-year-old man who walks with a cane best protect himself and his family from a young, fit, armed home invader (and career criminal), who has already illustrated his ruthlessness by firing twice?” a gun most certainly is the answer.”
“Mayor Richard Daley refused to say today whether an 80-year-old Army veteran who shot and killed an intruder will be charged under the city’s handgun ban.”
“As an 80-year-old Army veteran, his wife and great-grandson slept in their Humboldt Park … [Anthony Nelson] busted a basement window … and made his way up winding stairs to an enclosed porch.
“…as the man got off a second round, the homeowner, who had a handgun of his own, fired a single shot, killing the intruder, a police source said. ‘He missed, (but) my daddy didn’t,’ said the 80-year-old’s son, Butch Gant.â€
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/05/would-be-burglar-shot-to-death-by-west-side-resident.html
The body of Anthony Nelson is taken away from a home in the 600 block of North Sawyer in Chicago this morning.
From Failed Bombings to Armed Jihadist Assaults
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 28/May/2010 15:37
This report is republished with permission of STRATFOR
By Scott Stewart
One of the things we like to do in our Global Security and Intelligence Report from time to time is examine the convergence of a number of separate and unrelated developments and then analyze that convergence and craft a forecast. In recent months we have seen such a convergence occur.
The most recent development is the interview with the American-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki that was released to jihadist Internet chat rooms May 23 by al-Malahim Media, the public relations arm of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). In the interview, al-Awlaki encouraged strikes against American civilians. He also has been tied to Maj. Nidal Hasan, who was charged in the November 2009 Fort Hood shooting, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the perpetrator of the failed Christmas Day 2009 airline bombing. And al-Awlaki reportedly helped inspire Faisal Shahzad, who was arrested in connection with the attempted Times Square attack in May.
The second link in our chain is the failed Christmas Day and Times Square bombings themselves. They are the latest in a long string of failed or foiled bombing attacks directed against the United States that date back to before the 9/11 attacks and include the thwarted 1997 suicide bomb plot against a subway in New York, the thwarted December 1999 Millennium Bomb plot and numerous post-9/11 attacks such as Richard Reid’s December 2001 shoe-bomb attempt, the August 2004 plot to bomb the New York subway system and the May 2009 plot to bomb two Jewish targets in the Bronx and shoot down a military aircraft. Indeed, jihadists have not conducted a successful bombing attack inside the United States since the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Getting a trained bombmaker into the United States has proved to be increasingly difficult for jihadist groups, and training a novice to make bombs has also been problematic as seen in the Shahzad and Najibullah Zazi cases.
The final link we’d like to consider are the calls in the past few months for jihadists to conduct simple attacks with readily available items. This call was first made by AQAP leader Nasir al-Wahayshi in October 2009 and then echoed by al Qaeda prime spokesman Adam Gadahn in March of 2010. In the Times Square case, Shahzad did use readily available items, but he lacked the ability to effectively fashion them into a viable explosive device.
When we look at all these links together, there is a very high probability that jihadists linked to, or inspired by, AQAP and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — and perhaps even al Shabaab — will attempt to conduct simple attacks with firearms in the near future. Read the rest of this entry »
Nationwide Simulated Emergency Communications Test
In late June every year in the United States, unbeknownst to most Americans, a nation-wide radio communications network is set up that links every major city and most of the geography of the country. This massive amount of technological infrastructure is set up from scratch within a few hours at locations that vary from State/Local Government Emergency Operations Centers to isolated areas without utilities of any kind. Every mode of radio communications is utilized including analog, digital, voice, data, simplex, duplex, satellites and even automated relay stations launched on aircraft and with weather balloons.  For 24 continuous hours this nation-wide radio communications network is exercised with the primary objective of proving the system’s readiness and capabilities. Then as quickly as it was set up the system is dismantled and stored in preparation for when it is needed. It is the most reliable back-up emergency communication system in the world. And it does not cost the U.S. tax payers one cent — not in equipment or human resources. The benefits of such a system to emergency relief operations should be obvious.  In fact the system has demonstrated its’ value time after time during earthquakes, hurricanes, forest fires, terrorist attacks and other disasters. And all of this capability is provided by volunteers who continuously hone their technical skills and acquire/build/maintain their own equipment. These skilled radio engineers and operators along with their equipment combine into a seriously important resource for emergency communications. And the annual event that tests their readiness is called “Amateur Radio Field Dayâ€.
For Amateur Radio operators (Hams) Field Day is a big deal. In addition to exercising their ability to set up and operate a massive emergency communications network the event also has some fun aspects. Field Day is also a big contest where stations compete to make the most contacts on as many frequencies and modes as possible. And there is the social aspect that usually involves food and ancillary outdoor family activities. This is also the major Amateur Radio annual public awareness event. If you are interested in learning about Amateur Radio or more specific radio communications technologies and techniques then visiting your local Field Day site should net you the information you seek. You will find many knowledgeable people who will welcome you and be happy to answer your questions. You might even get invited to stay for lunch and/or dinner.
The annual Field Day event is coordinated by the national association for Amateur Radio; the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). Here are some links to more information about Field Day which is held on the last full weekend of June each year.
General Field Day Information:
http://www.arrl.org/field-day
Locate a Field Day site near you:
http://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator
Until next time, best wishes.
…Roy…
Why Carrying a Gun is a Civilized Act
Why The Gun Is Civilization
By Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force.
If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.
The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed.
People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don’t constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.
The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I’m looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don’t carry it because I’m afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn’t limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force.
It removes force from the equation…and that’s why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
Afghanistan – Royal Marines Storm IED Factory
Posted by Gary in News, Threat Watch on 26/May/2010 14:19
From: Royal Marines Online
Royal Marines smash bomb factory and seize explosives
A bomb-making factory at the heart of one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan has been smashed in a high-profile operation by West-based Royal Marines.
In their biggest find to date, members of 40 Commando stormed an insurgent compound in the Sangin district of Helmand province.
They seized 40kg of homemade explosive, along with numerous weapons, pressure plates and components for making improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The Taunton-based group’s operation manager, Major Duncan Forbes said they had severely hampered insurgents in their efforts to undermine security in the area.
He said a stark message had been sent to enemy forces that there are no longer any “no-go” areas in the difficult Sangin District.
“We will ruthlessly target those who seek to destabilise the region,” said Maj Forbes.
The isolated IED factory was targeted after Royal Marines were involved in a series of fire fights with people based in compounds on high ground near a frontline Forward Operating Base and Patrol Base.
As a result of their suspicions being raised, the Royal Marines and their Afghan partners watched the area closely in advance.
The Commandos then leapt into action during a covert overnight insertion of troops from two separate locations, which involved a mobile Quick Reaction Force Patrol primed to support the operation.
At first light, the patrol made their final approach towards the compound where weapons were visible through the open archways.
Using their well-rehearsed Counter-IED drills, Royal Marines isolated the compound and, on discovering the explosives cache which could have been turned into lethal landmines and rockets, called in their experts.
The operation was a complete success with no casualties and no collateral damage, said Maj Forbes. The bomb disposal team destroyed the explosives and recovered the remaining items for further examination.
“It was like finding a mini factory of IEDs,” he said.
“All the components and materials required to construct them were stored inside the compound.”
Sangin is an area of Afghanistan’s Helmand province which has long been regarded as a powder keg.
The Taunton-based commandos took over the watch last month, the second time they have deployed to Sangin.
A marine from 40 Commando was killed in an explosion in Helmand Province yesterday.
His next of kin have been informed and he will be named later today.
Article from http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk
Ruger Special Edition Pistol Honors Texas Governor
Posted by Brian in News, Ruger, Warrior Tools on 25/May/2010 16:21
The Coyote Special is a version of the Ruger .380 which the Governor used to kill a coyote while jogging with his dog.
DARPA Ultimate Scope
Posted by Brian in News, Optics, Warrior Tools on 25/May/2010 15:57
Wired’s Danger Room has a great article on a program to enhance the ability of US snipers. This is on the heels of a British soldier who took out the enemy at over 1.5 miles.
Darpa, the Pentagon’s way-out research arm, is hoping to use lasers and advanced optical systems to make other snipers Harrison-accurate, even when the winds are howling. The agency is looking for 15 ultraprecise sniper scopes to put in shooters’ hands by next year.
Canadian gun banners want to set US law
Posted by Jack Sinclair in Law, News on 25/May/2010 15:40
Coalition for Gun Control president Wendy Cukier
“One third of all guns in the world are in the U.S. And half the guns used to commit crimes in Canada come from south of the border. So yes, this country needs and wants an International Arms Treaty.†Coalition for Gun Control president Wendy Cukier
“James Sheptycki described what he termed “pistolization†to describe the social phenomenon of the gun as an everyday item.â€
http://womenmakenews.com/content/story/canadian-gun-control-needs-go-beyond-border