Target Centermass

Category: War on Terror

  • Zawahiri Apparently Lives

    When I blogged about Friday’s missile strike targeting chief al Queda lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri, I hedged that reports of his demise may be premature again. Indeed, that appears to be the case.

    Does that mean the strike was failure of intelligence or a bloody, tragic mistake? Not according to Bob Owens at Confederate Yankee, who points readers to a couple of stories saying the strike was based upon, of all things, a dinner invitation [emphasis in original].

    Terrorists were targeted at these locations by what appears to certainly be human intelligence working in conjunction with aerial surveillance and targeting. Only a human source (or communications monitoring—perhaps by NSA?) would be able to find out that al-Zawahiri was invited to dinner at this home, and it is reasonable for a circling drone or any operators on the ground to surmise that a small ground of armed men arriving at the specified location at the specified time might very well contain their target. This was not a case of an intelligence failure, but a case of one fewer terrorists showing up for dinner.

    There is, in every war, the tragic loss of innocents. At other times, those labeled as innocent sometimes are not as they appear.

  • U.S. Targeted al Qaeda No. 2 in Airstrike

    The hottest news tonight is apparent CIA missile attack aimed at a key al Queda figure.

    A U.S. airstrike in Pakistan targeted al Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, but it was unclear if he had been killed, U.S. sources knowledgeable about the strike said in Washington.

    CNN quoted sources as saying the CIA had ordered the airstrike on buildings after receiving intelligence that Zawahri was in a village near the border with Afghanistan.

    ABC News quoted Pakistani military sources as saying five of those killed were “high-level” al Qaeda figures.

    Pakistan was investigating the reports, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.

    “Our investigation is still going on … I cannot confirm anything,” Ahmed told Reuters.

    Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and the Egyptian-born Zawahri have eluded capture since U.S.-led forces toppled Afghanistan’s Taliban government in 2001 in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

    Since 9/11, tales of the demise of several key enemy figures have come and gone, usually proving premature or unsuccessful. Significant in this story is that the CIA felt their intelligence was solid enough to carry out an attack within Pakistan, an attack whose political fallout will be interesting to follow. Still, should Zawahiri be found to have been hurried along to the long dirtnap, it would not be without a trace of irony.

    In a video aired last Friday, Zawahri congratulated Muslims “on Islam’s victory in Iraq” and said the United States was being defeated there.

  • Are You Ready to Apocalyptically Rumble?!!

    The Iranian president apparently is.

    Read and despair.

    Cower. Pretend our enemies are simply better folk than the dreaded neocons fear.

    Or brace for what must be done. In this case, we’re not drawing the line in the sand; they are. Ace states the case briefly. I’ve left out his great dry-humor, entertainment-related portion, so just follow the link if you want that.

    We can’t let them have the bomb. If it means preemptive war– we canot let them have the bomb.

    Hat tip for all to the Jawa Report and its ominous accompanying graphic.

    A man, possibly mad but certainly driven by a religious belief that is fatalistic, is now within a finger’s grasp of nuclear weapons. A country dead-set on destroying Israel and, ultimately, the U.S., has toyed with European negotiators while hastening the globe into greater danger. Please do not think the U.N. will stem this tide; there will be flame. There will be explosions. For now, the location of those flames and explosions may be up to us. For now …

    The saddest thing about it all is that the Iranian populace probably thirsts more for a true democratic government than any other Islamic country. Perhaps there’s maneuver room yet …

  • Army Pledges to Equip GIs with Better Armor

    The body armor story. Yet again.

    The Army announced Wednesday that it plans to distribute 230,000 side-protecting armor inserts to troops in Iraq over the next year amid growing criticism that the Pentagon has delayed life-saving upgrades to body armor.

    Last year, the armed forces medical examiner found that 80 percent of the Marines who died of torso wounds from March 2003 to June 2005 in Iraq might have lived if their vests had contained additional protection for the sides, arms and neck.

    That report, leaked to news outlets last week, prompted Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) to summon Pentagon brass to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to explain delays and materials shortages that have plagued the armor programs of the Army and Marines.

    “We will complete the delivery of this particular equipment this year … 230,000 that will be done throughout this year,” Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson said of the side plates.

    Sorenson refused to provide details on production and distribution, which annoyed some Democrats who attended the closed-door meeting. “We wanted to know why the Army has had all these delays and he didn’t have a good answer,” said one Senate staffer.

    Marine commanders requested improvements to side armor last June, but few of the inserts have made it to those fighting. That has prompted criticism from Senate Democrats, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who said hundreds of soldiers may have died as a result of inadequate armor.

    The Army blamed delays on material shortages and pointed out that it has altered its armored vest design seven times to date.

    As Confederate Yankee shows us, the Army is constantly testing and evaluating armor concepts, including even one that may just satisfy Sen. Clinton and bring about the threat of entire units becoming heat casualties.

  • Body Armor: a Quick Look

    Over the weekend, a Pentagon study on troop body armor and its effect on casualties made big AP news.

    Most torso wounds that killed Marines in Iraq might have been prevented or minimized by improved body armor, a Pentagon study found.

    The unreleased study last summer by the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner looked at 93 fatal wounds from the start of the war in March 2003 through June 2005. It concluded that 74 were bullet or shrapnel wounds to shoulders or areas of the torso not protected by ceramic armor plating.

    […]

    According to a summary of the study obtained by The Associated Press, the 93 Marines who died from a primary lethal injury of the torso were among 401 Marines who died from combat injuries in Iraq between the start of the war and last June.

    Autopsy reports and photographic records were analyzed to help the military determine possible body armor redesign. A military advocacy group, Soldiers for Truth, posted an article about the study on its Web site this week. On Friday evening, The New York Times reported in its online edition that the study for the first time shows the cost in lives lost from inadequate armor.

    The study found that of 39 fatal torso wounds in which the bullet or shrapnel entered the Marine’s body outside of the ceramic armor plate that protects the chest and back, 31 were close to the plate’s edge.

    “Either a larger plate or superior protection around the plate would have had the potential to alter the final outcome,” the report concluded.

    Murdoc at Murdoc Online dissected the piece with a post where the title says it all about how increased armor could reduce casualties: So could carpet bombing and free-fire zones (hat tip to the Officer’s Club).

    There are limits. You need to be able to put your arms down. Otherwise laying there like a slug might be your only defense.

    Long-time readers of MO will know that I’ve been critical of the armor situation in the past. And I’ll continue to be critical in the future until absolute perfection is attained and US troops in combat zones are totally protected from every possible threat. But these stupid headlines and sensationalizing of a military study intended to improve our capability doesn’t help anyone.

    Well, let me correct myself right here. Sensationalizing this story, making it sound like negligence or inability to cope with enemy tactics is killing troops does help some. They’re called the “enemies of America”. And not all of them are not American. So many in the media seem so focused on the “good old days” of media glory that they appear unable to report on military matters in a meaningful way.

    Today, the military responded by pointing out that it is trying to find the proper armor that allows the best balance between troop safety and troop effectiveness.

    Protecting troops is a top priority, but weighting them down with so much body armor that they are practically unable to move is not the answer to the continued deaths and injuries among armor-wearing deployed forces, military officials said Wednesday.

    The Army and Marine Corps are rushing to buy and deploy improved body armor that provides more protection for the sides of the torso, which enemy sharpshooters have targeted as a weak point in U.S. troops’ body armor configurations.

    But military officials, called before the Senate Armed Services Committee to discuss the status of the improvements, said they have not yet found a perfect balance between fully protecting troops and weighing them down so heavily that they cannot accomplish their missions.

    Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the Armed Services Committee chairman, said he was satisfied the services had the money and authority to get the necessary gear and understood the limitations.

    “Everything that can be done is being done,” Warner said.

    Full body armor, with all the associated plates and extra protection, can weigh up to 125 pounds, a particularly heavy load in the extreme climates of Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.

    While at Texas A&M, I took a survey level course in American military history under the esteemed Dr. Joseph G. Dawson III. Many aspects and lessons of that class have stayed with me through the years, but one little piece of trivia stands out in my memory. Dr. Dawson pointed out that the average weight of arms and equipment carried by American troops into battle during the Revolutionary War was around sixty pounds. The average weight of the same carried by the typical American soldier in Viet Nam was … sixty pounds. I do hope that puts into a little perspective that 125-pound figure for full body armor. Oh yeah, don’t forget to add in weapons and ammunition. And rations and water. And needed communication devices. Yes, the troops could be encased in a cylinder of kevlar, but balance must be managed or the troops become worthless little knights, relatively safe from shrapnel and bullets but slow, ineffective and still prone to other dangers like RPGs.

  • Crisis as Iran Reopens Nuclear Research Plant

    Iran has taken the next step in its game of nuclear brinksmanship.

    Iran yesterday precipitated a fresh crisis over its nuclear programme by removing UN seals at a facility in the town of Natanz and announcing that it would begin research involving nuclear enrichment – which can produce weapons grade material.

    To counter, Russia has announced that it is “very disappointed” and “expressed deep concern” on the development. Great Britain, France and Germany, the Euro powers that have been in negotiation with Iran in hopes of halting the radical nation’s nuclear ambitions, announced that they “may meet on Thursday to discuss” the issue. The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency bravely rushed forth with a “predictably lame response” (for once not my phrasing for anything the agency has managed for years and years). Apparently, there was even a “global outcry” today, though I seemed to have missed it.

    With a tad bit more effort, the civilized world could have come across looking even more limp-wristed and weak … maybe.

    It is time, actually well past time, to admit that the Euro diplomacy path was a gambit doomed to fail. The U.S. was forced to allow it, as the Bush administration had been painted into a corner with all the false and politically-driven accusations of unilateral action and rush to war surrounding the Iraqi theater. From the beginning, there was a key fault with the negotiations — one side didn’t actually want them to succeed.

    Negotiation in the classic diplomatic sense assumes parties more anxious to agree than to disagree.

    —Dean Acheson

    The Euro-Iranian talks have been along the lines of the negotiations preceeding the Munich Agreement, as one side sought “peace in our time” while the other merely sought to buy time.

    The danger to the survival of Israel is evident, especially given the fanaticism of the current Iranian president and his backing hard-line religious leaders. What may be less evident but no less true is the danger the West would face by a nuke-capable and quite radical Iran stepping forth as leaders of the Islamist world.

    Unless science suddenly helps the European powers regrow a spine, the time has come for the only nations actually willing and capable of facing the threat to step up to the plate. I’m speaking specifically about the U.S. and Israel. Bloody action by one of the two may quickly be needed, though such wouldn’t be easy. Unfortunately, current global politics would prevent an overtly-combined action by the two. As the Islamist threat matures and becomes more evident, at least to those not completely and pathetically blinded, that sad political reality may change or become a less-pressing consideration when compared to the survival of our civilization.

  • Michael Yon: Call for Volunteers

    “Retired Military Persons Needed”

    Michael Yon is back from Iraq, but he wants the stories from the ground to continue.

    Now that I’m back in the United States for a time, trying wring every bit of information of the war out of the news, only to come up dry most days, it’s become clear that in just under a year, the media gap has morphed into a chasm. Before this thing becomes a black hole, it’s time for a few good men and women to put their military experience and expertise to use in an operation that can create an alternative channel that will allow frontline information to break through and be heard.

    This site gets much traffic from all around the world, from people searching for news from Iraq, making it an ideal place to host stories from deployed forces in harm’s way. Not comments, not those endlessly forwarded unattributed “true” stories that always seem airbrushed, but real stories about the ground situation. In my travels I’ve met many budding writers who are now wearing boots and carrying rifles, and I found their stories so compelling that I want the world to see.

    One antidote to the no news but bad news flu would be to let more of these voices be heard. A simple “call for stories,” would probably stuff the inbox with emailed submissions. Having already made my ongoing inability to read email well known on these pages, any information system predicated on my reading emails would clog before it launched. This is where the volunteers come in.

    If qualified and interested, go check out Yon’s call to arms … err, keyboards. Hat tip to the Fat Guy.

  • Downed U.S. Helicopter in Iraq Hit Bad Weather

    Though not conclusively declaring causation, the U.S. has stated that yesterday’s tragic helicopter crash in Iraq occurred in heavy weather.

    A U.S. military helicopter which came down in northern Iraq on Sunday killing all 12 aboard had been flying in bad weather, but the cause of the crash was still under investigation, the U.S. military said on Monday.

    It was one of the deadliest air crashes in Iraq since the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

    U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Johnson said all 12 aboard the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter were U.S. citizens. In a separate statement the military said the 12 included eight service personnel and four civilians.

    “The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but we know the weather was severe at the time,” Johnson told Reuters.

    The helicopter went down in a sparsely populated area 7.5 miles east of the town of Tal Afar shortly before midnight on Saturday. It had been flying between bases in northern Iraq when communications were lost.

    That the flight was in the area of Tal Afar, which has recently been the scene of hostile action, leaves open the possibility of other causes. However, weather is the likely culprit, as it can wreak havoc on military aviation on or away from the battlefield … even here at home in Texas.

    My best wishes for the families involved in yesterday’s loss.

  • Homeland Security Tweaks Local Grants

    It seems that Department of Homeland Security has finally decided to narrow the field in its financial gifts to local governments, cutting down the list of recipients to larger urban areas and key targets vital to actual security.

    In Washington, D.C., Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff outlined revisions to distributing $765 million this year under the Urban Area Security initiative, which funneled $855 million to 50 communities nationwide in 2005.

    […]

    Some congressional critics have complained that in the past, the program has given too much money to communities that seem to face smaller risks of attacks. Chertoff acknowledged that history.

    “The fact of the matter is, our security is much too important to be determined with funding decisions that are driven by arbitrary formulas or political formulas or a desire to give everybody a little bit of something,” he said.

    The program, he said, is “not a popularity contest, not party favors to be distributed as widely as possible, but a funding program that is dedicated to a risk-based set of priorities, where we’re going to focus on your ability to show highest risk and your ability to show you can put the money to good use.”

    […]

    Chertoff’s announcement reflected his efforts to give his department an all-hazards mission, even though it was created as a direct result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The revisions, outlined in documents sent to state and local officials, would address the kind of destruction and lack of preparedness seen with Hurricane Katrina.

    I expect a degree of localized hey-what-about-us opposition to this long-overdue narrowing of focus, but a single paragraph in the pending State of the Union address by President Bush could effectively nullify opposition to the policy change — not that I expect such a maneuver to occur. I’m just saying that it should, as the federal homeland security payouts to date have been awash with tales of silliness.

    While I honestly feel that the Islamist bastards will someday bring the war to our suburban malls (and I’ve repeatedly stated that I’m surprised they haven’t already), we must sincerely look at the fact that they still seem to still be focused on making the Big Headlines and prepare accordingly … though not exclusively.

  • By Request: More on Weapons Allowed on Flights

    Yeah, I know, internet petitions are, to steal from Dodgeball, the online equivalent of a “bunch of retards trying to hump a doorknob.”

    Still, I received an email today from the Association of Flight Attendants in response to my blogging against the recent Transportation Security Administration decision to once again allow small knives and sharp tools on airline flights [see here and here]. The association hoped I would publicize their drive against the decision.

    Despite the fact that I despise online petitions in general, and the concept that such spammable means could ever effect public policy in particular, I will link to the AFA’s site, Leave All Blades Behind.com, if only for the sake of hopefully spreading the word against what I feel is a tragic mistake. Fine, so Joe Schmoe gives up his handy pocket knife; the people running this probably-worthless petition are the ones in a position that all too recently faced boxcutters held by murderous bastards. I say again: while sharp objects may no longer be considered the major threat to our flights, they still must be considered a controllable threat.