The rise of the Islamic State will inspire other jihadist groups to claim their own caliphates and emirates. In the long run, the extremism of these contrived dominions and the competition among them will undermine the jihadist movement. However, before that happens, the world will witness much upheaval.
- Comms
- Law
- Medic
- News
- Opinion
- Threat Watch
- Training
- Warrior Tools
- Accessories
- Ammo
- Body Armor
- Books
- Clothing
- Commo
- Gear
- Handguns
- Holsters
- Knives
- Long Guns
- ACC
- Accuracy International
- Barrett
- Benelli
- Beretta
- Blaser
- Bushmaster
- Custom
- CZ
- Desert Tactical Arms
- DPMS
- FN
- Forums
- HK
- IWI
- Kel-Tec Long Guns
- LaRue
- LWRC
- McMillan
- Mosin Nagant
- Mossberg
- Para
- Remington
- Rock River Arms
- Ruger Long Guns
- Sabre Defense
- Sako
- SIG Sauer
- SKS
- Smith & Wesson Long Guns
- Springfield
- Styer
- Weatherby
- Wilson Combat
- Winchester
- Magazines
- Maintenance
- Navigation
- Optics
- Sights
- Tech
- Warriors
Archive for category Threat Watch
MQ-4C Triton in Flight Testing Over U.S.
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 22/Sep/2014 12:17
From ArsTechnica:
The drone is just the first piece in what the Navy calls Broad Area Maritime Surveillance, or BAMS. The MQ-4C Triton will be used to keep tabs on a wide area using “radar, infrared sensors and advanced cameras to provide full-motion video and photographs to the military,†according to The Washington Post. Eventually, a network of these drones could be deployed to fly around the world and provide 24-hour, 7-day-a-week coverage of a given area.
The Islamic Threat: Even Bill Maher Gets It
Posted by Brian in Opinion, Threat Watch on 21/Sep/2014 07:51
From Fox News:
NY Gun Store Forced To Give Sales Records To Police Under S.A.F.E. Act
Posted by Brian in Law, News, Threat Watch on 20/Sep/2014 07:39
From Townhall:
A SWAT team raided co-owner Joe Palumbo’s Albion Gun Shop without a warrant. They were acting on orders from the Narcotics Enforcement Unit, who asked the shop to hand over a customer list so they could determine how many people had purchased New York SAFE Act compliant rifles. The gun owner was forced to present approximately 170 sales records. Under the state’s anti-gun law, this intrusion was completely legal.
Critics claim that exchanges such as these prove that the SAFE Act is arbitrary and confusing:
“The New York S.A.F.E. Act is being enforced arbitrarily on a case by case basis,†Tresmond said. “That amounts to unconstitutional vagueness under the Supreme Court’s Morales standard, and the law should be enjoined for that reason alone.â€
Two Austrian Girls Join ISIS
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 19/Sep/2014 12:49
From IJR:
The girls’ parents are reportedly from Iraq. The Austrian Interior Minister confirmed that two more teenage girls have departed Austria to take up the cause of jihad in the Middle East. The Daily Mail reports that 130 such jihadist sympathizers have departed Austria to fight in the “holy war.â€
Illegal Kills 2, Escapes Prison and Deportation
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 18/Sep/2014 12:06
From Fox News:
Cynthia Garcia-Cisneros, an illegal immigrant, recently had her immigration case dismissed, despite the fact that she was convicted of two felonies for a hit-and-run that resulted in the tragic deaths of two young girls.
From Oregon Live:
KGW reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released the 19-year-old from custody on Aug. 14 after an immigration judge dismissed her case. The news station credited KXL radio as the first outlet to report on her release.
The Virtue of Subtlety: A U.S. Strategy Against the Islamic State
Posted by Brian in Opinion, Threat Watch on 18/Sep/2014 07:30
“The Virtue of Subtlety: A U.S. Strategy Against the Islamic State is republished with permission of Stratfor.”
By George Friedman
U.S. President Barack Obama said recently that he had no strategy as yet toward the Islamic State but that he would present a plan on Wednesday. It is important for a president to know when he has no strategy. It is not necessarily wise to announce it, as friends will be frightened and enemies delighted. A president must know what it is he does not know, and he should remain calm in pursuit of it, but there is no obligation to be honest about it.
This is particularly true because, in a certain sense, Obama has a strategy, though it is not necessarily one he likes. Strategy is something that emerges from reality, while tactics might be chosen. Given the situation, the United States has an unavoidable strategy. There are options and uncertainties for employing it. Let us consider some of the things that Obama does know.
The Formation of National Strategy
There are serious crises on the northern and southern edges of the Black Sea Basin. There is no crisis in the Black Sea itself, but it is surrounded by crises. The United States has been concerned about the status of Russia ever since U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese war in 1905. The United States has been concerned about the Middle East since U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower forced the British to retreat from Suez in 1956. As a result, the United States inherited — or seized — the British position. Read the rest of this entry »
Ukraine, Iraq and a Black Sea Strategy
Posted by Brian in Opinion, Threat Watch on 15/Sep/2014 12:42
“Ukraine, Iraq and a Black Sea Strategy is republished with permission of Stratfor.”
By George Friedman
The United States is, at the moment, off balance. It faces challenges in the Syria-Iraq theater as well as challenges in Ukraine. It does not have a clear response to either. It does not know what success in either theater would look like, what resources it is prepared to devote to either, nor whether the consequences of defeat would be manageable.
A dilemma of this sort is not unusual for a global power. Its very breadth of interests and the extent of power create opportunities for unexpected events, and these events, particularly simultaneous challenges in different areas, create uncertainty and confusion. U.S. geography and power permit a degree of uncertainty without leading to disaster, but generating a coherent and integrated strategy is necessary, even if that strategy is simply to walk away and let events run their course. I am not suggesting the latter strategy but arguing that at a certain point, confusion must run its course and clear intentions must emerge. When they do, the result will be the coherence of a new strategic map that encompasses both conflicts. Read the rest of this entry »
Australia Raises Threat Level
Posted by Brian in Threat Watch on 14/Sep/2014 16:00
From Aljazeera:
Australia has raised its terror threat level to “high” from “medium”, saying there is an increased likelihood of an attack at home, despite stressing it has no knowledge of a specific plan.
Australia has repeatedly raised the alarm about the number of its citizens believed to be fighting with armed groups in the Middle East, including a suicide bomber who killed three people in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in July and two men shown in images on social media holding the severed heads of Syrian soldiers.
This comes on the heels of Britain raising the their threat level, but the US has not done the same.
Brother Rachid on The President’s Speech
Posted by Brian in Opinion, Threat Watch on 14/Sep/2014 15:39
As Caliphates Compete, Radical Islam Will Eventually Weaken
Posted by Brian in Opinion, Threat Watch on 12/Sep/2014 12:48
“As Caliphates Compete, Radical Islam Will Eventually Weaken is republished with permission of Stratfor.”
Summary
Analysis
In a 52-minute video that surfaced in late August, Abubakar Shekau, the head of Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram, spoke of an Islamic State in northeastern Nigeria. The statement came two months after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the chief of the transnational jihadist movement in Syria and Iraq, declared the re-establishment of the caliphate, renaming the group the Islamic State. Though likely inspired by the Islamic State, Boko Haram is not simply mimicking its more powerful Syrian-Iraqi counterpart; it is taking its cue from the Nigeria-based Sokoto Caliphate, which was established in the early 1800s and existed for almost a century until Britain gained control of the region.
The Caliphate’s Role in History
According to classical Muslim political theorists, there can be only one caliphate for the entire Muslim global community, or ummah. In practice, though, there have been rival claimants to authority and even competing caliphates throughout the history of Islam. In our July 1 analysis on the subject, Stratfor explained not only how multiple emirates and sultanates emerged independently of the caliphate but also that there were rival caliphates — for example, the Abbasid in Baghdad (749-1258), Umayyad in the Iberian Peninsula (929-1031) and Fatimid in Cairo (909-1171).
Read the rest of this entry »
Border Patrol Shoots at Militia
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 9/Sep/2014 12:49
From the AP:
Border Patrol spokesman Omar Zamora said agents had been chasing a group of immigrants east of Brownsville Friday afternoon when an agent saw a man holding a gun near the Rio Grande. The agent fired four shots, but did not hit the man. The man then dropped his gun and identified himself as a member of a militia. Zamora said no other details were immediately available.
Libyan Airliners Missing
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 8/Sep/2014 15:47
From Washington Free Beacon:
Intelligence reports of the stolen jetliners were distributed within the U.S. government over the past two weeks and included a warning that one or more of the aircraft could be used in an attack later this month on the date marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, said U.S. officials familiar with the reports.
Iraq and Syria Follow Lebanon’s Precedent
Posted by Brian in Opinion, Threat Watch on 3/Sep/2014 07:09
“Iraq and Syria Follow Lebanon’s Precedent is republished with permission of Stratfor.”
By George Friedman
Lebanon was created out of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This agreement between Britain and France reshaped the collapsed Ottoman Empire south of Turkey into the states we know today — Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and to some extent the Arabian Peninsula as well. For nearly 100 years, Sykes-Picot defined the region. A strong case can be made that the nation-states Sykes-Picot created are now defunct, and that what is occurring in Syria and Iraq represents the emergence of post-British/French maps that will replace those the United States has been trying to maintain since the collapse of Franco-British power. Read the rest of this entry »
Primer for Protesters and “Anti-Government Extremists”
Posted by Brian in Comms, Law, News, Threat Watch on 31/Aug/2014 12:14
From EFF:
Cell Phone Guide For US Protesters, Updated 2014 Edition
With major protests in the news again, we decided it’s time to update our cell phone guide for protestors. A lot has changed since we last published this report in 2011, for better and for worse. On the one hand, we’ve learned more about the massive volume of law enforcement requests for cell phone—ranging from location information to actual content—and widespread use of dedicated cell phone surveillance technologies. On the other hand, strong Supreme Court opinions have eliminated any ambiguity about the unconstitutionality of warrantless searches of phones incident to arrest, and a growing national consensus says location data, too, is private.
Protesters want to be able to communicate, to document the protests, and to share photos and video with the world. So they’ll be carrying phones, and they’ll face a complex set of considerations about the privacy of the data those phones hold. We hope this guide can help answer some questions about how to best protect that data, and what rights protesters have in the face of police demands. Read the rest of this entry »