From a member of the elite force, an inside look at the brutal training and secret work of the commandos who got Osama bin Laden.

By Lt. Cmdr. ERIC GREITENS

“At Camp Pendleton in California, where I did my initial weapons training, we must have fired thousands of rounds at practice-range targets printed with the likeness of Osama bin Laden. To take the real shot, the one that brought down bin Laden, was the dream of every Navy SEAL.

…Over time, the constant pressure degraded and destroyed al Qaeda’s ability to operate.

The terrorists knew that if they stayed in one place for long, they might be surprised in their sleep and find themselves being handcuffed by “men with green faces,” as they sometimes called our commandos, whose faces, backlit by their night-vision goggles, seemed to glow green with menace in the middle of the night.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703992704576307021339210488.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

“Just four days after the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden — and seized more than 100 discs, drives and computers from the al-Qaida hideout — the U.S. restarted its drone attacks on Pakistan. Then, mere hours earlier, drones hit Yemen for the first time in nearly nine years. Could this be the first result of intel taken from bin Laden’s thumb drives?

The Pakistani military loudly boasted in a statement that its spy agency ought to get credit for killing bin Laden, right as it warned the U.S. against any future unilateral ops — and, for good measure, that the U.S. military needed to pack up and leave Pakistan.

Shortly after the military brass issued that statement, U.S. drones hit a compound and a vehicle in North Waziristan, “killing eight militants.”

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/first-drone-strikes-since-bin-laden-raid-hit-pakistan-yemen/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

“Some members of Congress are now demanding that nearly $3 billion in annual aid for Pakistan, included in Obama’s 2012 budget, be blocked until the Zardari administration explains how bin Laden lived untouched just 30 miles outside Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

Pakistan has received over $20 billion in U.S. aid since the September 11, 2001, attacks.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110505/wl_nm/us_binladen_pakistan_lobbying

“The new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) “rule” would require gun stores to report to the federal government the names of people who purchase more than one rifle in a week.

This new reporting requirement is nothing less than firearm registration in all but name.

The new BATFE rule change has been in place since January. It was trumpeted as a supposed “solution” to the problem with Mexican gun runners on the Southern border, but common sense tells us otherwise.

The BATFE’s exact rule states that anyone who purchases more than one rifle that is semi-automatic, larger than .22 caliber, and capable of using detachable magazines within five business days of each other, must be reported.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Debra Burlingame, the sister of Charles “Chic” Burlingame (pilot of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon) told Fox News Thursday that President Barack Obama turned his back on her during the 9/11 memorial when she attempted to engage him on the prosecution of the men who interrogated Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Burlingame said she confronted Obama about Attorney General Eric Holder prosecuting the men, who likely produced intelligence leading us to bin Laden.

Burlingame describes the encounter with Obama: “As a former attorney I know you can’t tell the Attorney General what to do, he said, ‘No, I can’t.’ But I said ‘we — that shouldn’t stop you from giving your opinion. We wouldn’t be here today if they hadn’t done their jobs. Can’t you at least give them your opinion.’ And he said ‘no I won’t,’ and he turned around and walked away.”

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/obama-burlingame-fox-911/2011/05/05/id/395342?s=al&promo_code=C364-1

“Two more security firms have won contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to build the State Department a private army in Iraq. The department confirms to Danger Room that longtime Iraq contractor Triple Canopy and newcomer Global Strategies Group will contribute to State’s planned protection force of 5,500 contractors.

In September, the State Department announced that eight security firms would share in a $10 billion contract to guard diplomats.”

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/two-more-merc-firms-get-big-iraq-contracts/

“Military dogs are awe-inspiring creatures, especially when attached to elite troops like the Navy SEALs. All day, the media have been in a frenzy over the fact that a military dog accompanied SEAL Team 6 on its mission to wax Osama bin Laden.

But let’s kill a misleading meme before it spreads further: Navy SEAL dogs don’t have titanium teeth.

A piece in The Daily took a good, detailed sniff around the German shepherds and Belgian Malinois that accompany special operations forces on patrol. But overshadowing all the cool radios and cameras strapped to the dogs is the claim that their “razor-sharp teeth are made of titanium,” at a cost of $2,000 per chomper. Getting bit by them “is like being stabbed four times at once with a bone crusher,” one dog trainer told The Daily.”

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/no-navy-seal-dogs-dont-have-titanium-teeth/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

“Claude Choules, the only remaining male veteran of World War I and one of the last people to have served in both world wars, died May 5 at a nursing home near Perth in western Australia. He was 110, and no cause of death was reported.

The former seaman, who was underage when he signed up for duty, witnessed the surrender of the German Imperial Navy in 1918. He also watched as German sailors scuttled their own fleet at Scapa Flow, near Scotland, to avoid having the ships fall into British hands after the war.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/claude-choules-last-combat-veteran-of-world-war-i-dies-at-110/2011/05/05/AFxEdu0F_story.html

“One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread.

The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost.

The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water.”

– C.S. Lewis, Rehabilitations