Gates Slams Air Force Dinosaurs--Invokes Name of John (OODA) Boyd

In an effort to kick the Air Force Higher out side its comfort zone, Gates got tough and not only invoked the wrath of Boyd but called upon the next gen Air Force officers to "reject convention and careerism". A hell of a read:

SEC. GATES: Thank you. Thank you, General Lorenz. It's great to be back at Maxwell. I last spoke here nearly 16 years ago, when I was director of CIA. The world was a very different place then, of course, but some things never change. For example, Washington, D.C., has always been a perilous assignment, one that has cut short more careers than anywhere else in the world. As General Lorenz has pointed out, the worst day at Maxwell is still far better than the best day at the Pentagon. (Laughter.)

Representatives from many NATO nations are here today, including dignitaries from Poland. As I look around, I see more than a hundred international students in the audience. To our international brothers in arms, I appreciate your nations’ partnerships, and I hope we can find new, creative ways to keep working together and way -- and in ways that capitalize on our respective areas of expertise.

As General Lorenz just mentioned, I was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force on January 4th, 1967. I was married in Seattle on January 7th, three days later, and a few days after that reported for duty at Whiteman Air Base in Missouri, then home to 150 Minutemen -- Minuteman ICBMs.

One of my duties at Whiteman was to brief the missile crews on international political and military developments.

I would have to tell you, their lack of interest was awe-inspiring. (Laughter.)

But because of my academic background and modest Russian language skills, I frequently briefed high-ranking officers on our wing's Minuteman targets in the Soviet Union. Translated, that means I was one of the few people in the entire wing and aerospace division who could actually pronounce the names of our targets.

One time I was explaining our target set to a lieutenant general, the commander of 8th Air Force at Westover, who I would describe as a cigar-chomping Curtis LeMay wanna-be. When I told him that 120 of our 150 missiles were aimed at Soviet ICBMs, he exploded and, with many expletives I will delete, said it was an outrage that we would be hitting only empty silos. He wanted to kill Russians. He demanded that I, Second Lieutenant Gates, rewrite the nuclear targeting plan. (Laughter.)

Reminds of another story about targeting. One Friday night we were called out of the Whiteman officers' club during happy hour because there was a problem with the war plans. SAC headquarters had decided that they had to change the launch sequencing for all of the missiles. So we worked all night to fix the strike-control documents. That meant wrestling with large, unwieldy sheets of lamination. This was an earlier age, technologically. This stuff was sticky as flypaper. The next morning, around 9:00, after the documents had been delivered to the launch control capsules by helicopter, we got a call from a major in one of the LCCs. He sounded puzzled as he examined his strike-execution checklist and identified what he thought was a piece of pepperoni under the lamination. (Laughter.) He had correctly identified the kind of pizza we had during the night. (Laughter.)

Maxwell has a special claim on history. In 1910 an Alabama businessman leased a cotton field to the Wright brothers. They set up the first flight school here at Maxwell, near base ops today. They conducted night flights over Montgomery and even set an altitude record, rising 2,500 feet, the second-highest ever achieved at that time. They could scarcely imagine today's machines.

In the invitation to speak here, General Lorenz asked me to talk about challenges that you, as Air Force officers, will face as you become senior leaders. The Air Force has been in the process of constant change for decades, with a steady drumbeat of expeditionary air operations. Perhaps uniquely among the services, the Air Force has been at war more or less constantly for 17 years, since the launch of Desert Storm.

Since September 11th, the Air Force has flown nearly a million missions in the war on terror, with an average of 300 sorties per day, ranging from lift to medevac to close air support.

The contributions of airmen have made a real difference for those fighting on the ground. Survival rates for those injured are up to 90 percent, in part due to aeromedical evacuation. During Desert Storm, it took about 10 days to medevac wounded to the United States. Now it takes about 3 days.

As Secretary Rice mentioned from this podium a week ago, the Air Force is doing some missions it would never have imagined in 2001, such as Air Force officers leading provincial reconstruction teams. In addition, there are about 14,200 airmen performing "in lieu of" tasks on the ground, where an Air Force civil engineer might replace an Army heavy construction engineer.

And then there's the example of Air Force Tech Sergeant Jeremy Sudlow of Pandora, Ohio, who logged more than 430,000 miles on Iraq's roads as the convoy commander of a medium truck detachment. And in one month alone, C-17s helped take nearly 5,000 trucks off dangerous roads in Iraq.

Some of you have seen continuous operations in a combat theater since the day you donned the blue uniform. All of you raised your right hand knowing that deployments were a fact of life, and as you well know, these activities have taken a toll on the Air Force's Cold War-era equipment. As you well know, the average age of a tanker is 47, 15 years older than the average age of the pilots flying them. I believe the Air Force procurement program that the president has approved and requested and that I have supported is an appropriate and responsible one that will allow the service to reset from current operations and prepare for future challenges.

Those challenges will be immense and they will be diverse. When I last spoke here in June 1992, the Soviet Union had dissolved just six months earlier. Four decades of nuclear standoff fizzled out as the Cold War came to a quiet end. There were no parades or peace treaties. President George H.W. Bush didn't dance on the Berlin wall or declare victory over the Soviet Union. Only the Pentagon could resurrect what I actually said back then in June 1992, and I said, "We must expect continuing radical change and upheaval around the world -- at times promising, at times frightening -- before the form and patterns of a new era settle into place." As this new era actually continues to unfold before us, the challenge that I pose to you today is to become a forward-thinking officer who helps the Air Force adapt to a constantly changing strategic environment characterized by persistent conflict.

Let me illustrate using a historical exemplar, the late Air Force Colonel John Boyd. As a 30-year-old Captain, he rewrote the manual for air-to-air combat. Boyd and the reformers he inspired would later go on to design and advocate for the F-16 and the A-10.

After retiring, he would develop the principles of maneuver warfare that were credited by a former Marine Corps commandant and a secretary of Defense for the lightning victory in the first Gulf War.

Boyd's contributions will resonate today. Many of you have studied the concept he developed called the OODA loop, and I understand there's an “OODA Loop” street here at Maxwell, near the B-52.

But in accomplishing all these things, Boyd, who was a brilliant, eccentric and stubborn character, had to overcome a large measure of bureaucratic resistance and institutional hostility.

He had some advice that he used to pass on to his colleagues and subordinates that is worth sharing with you. Boyd would say -- and I quote -- "One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises, and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club, and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way, and you can do something, something for your country and for your Air Force and for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted, and you may not get good assignments, and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors, but you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision: to be or to do."

For the kinds of challenges America faces and will face, the armed forces will need principled, creative, reform-minded leaders, men and women who, as Boyd put it, want to do something, not be somebody.

An unconventional era of warfare requires unconventional thinkers. That is because this era's range of security challenges, from global terrorism to ethnic conflicts, from rogue nations to rising powers, cannot be overcome by traditional military means alone. Conflict will be fundamentally political in nature and will require the integration of all elements of national power. Success, to a large extent, will depend less on imposing one's will on the enemy or putting bombs on targets, though we must never lose our ability or our will to unsheathe the sword when necessary. Instead, ultimate success or failure will increasingly depend more on shaping the behavior of others, friends and adversaries, and most importantly, the people in between.

This new set of realities and requirements have meant a wrenching set of changes for our military establishment that until recently was almost completely oriented toward winning the big battles and the big wars. Based on my experience at CIA, at Texas A&M and now the Department of Defense, it is clear to me that the culture of any large organization takes a long time to change, and the really tough part is preserving those elements of the culture that strengthen the institution and motivate the people in it, while shedding those elements of the culture that are barriers to progress and achieving the mission.

All of the services must examine their cultures critically if we are to have the capabilities relevant and necessary to overcome the most likely threats America will face in the years to come.

For example, the Army that went over the berm about five years ago was, in its basic organization and assumptions, essentially a smaller version of the Fulda Gap force that expelled Saddam Hussein from Kuwait a decade prior. As I've told Army gatherings, the lessons learned and capabilities built from Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns need to be institutionalized into the service's core doctrine, funding priorities and personnel policies. And that is taking place, although we must always guard against falling into past historical patterns where, if bureaucratic nature takes its course, these kinds of irregular capabilities tend to slide to the margins.

Like the Army, the Air Force has adopted some of the lessons of recent history. We see how deeply the expeditionary culture and mindset have taken root. The service has adapted capabilities to today's realities and come up with some ingenious responses on the battlefield, such as small-diameter munitions that can strike irreconcilable enemies with less chance of harming or alienating civilians. In an era when we are most likely to be challenged in asymmetric ways, I would ask you to think through how we can build the kinds of air capabilities most likely to be needed while continuing to offer a strategic hedge against rising powers.

Protecting the 21st century's global commons -- in particular, space and cyberspace -- has been identified and adopted as a key task. Building the capacity of partners is another, a topic that Secretary Rice and I addressed before the House Armed Services Committee just last week. What the last 25 years have shown is that the threats can emerge almost anywhere in the world, but our own forces and resources will remain finite. To fill this gap, we must help our allies and partners to confront extremists and other potential sources of global instability within their borders. I ask you to think through what more we might do through training and equipping programs or other initiatives to enhance the air capabilities of other nations and whether, for example, we should pursue a conceptual hundred-wing air force of allies and partners to complement the thousand-ship navy now being leveraged across maritime commons.

These new realities and missions should be reflected in our training and doctrine. The Air Force will be increasingly called upon to conduct civil-military or humanitarian operations with interagency and nongovernmental organizations and partners and deal directly with local populations. These missions will put a premium on foreign language and cultural expertise. As you know, Red Flag at Nellis Air Force base is a premier training exercise that began after the Vietnam War to improve air-to-air combat skills over the years.

The exercise scenarios have expanded to include allied nations, close air support and other elements of modern warfare, but it has not yet addressed that gray zone between war and peace. Specifically, the exercise could include civilians from NGOs and government organizations and be more closely integrated with land component training such as the Army's NTC in California.

Furthermore, the counterinsurgency manual issued by the Army and Marines is over 200 pages long and yet only four pages are dedicated to air, space and cyberspace. Not long ago, the Air Force published a doctrine document on irregular warfare, but as future leaders of air power, you should consider whether there is more the service might do to articulate and codify the unique role of air power in instability operations.

Other questions I would ask you to consider go to the heart of how the service is organized, manned and equipped. What new priorities should drive procurement and what new criteria should drive promotions? At Whiteman in the 1960s I recall missileers and non-rated officers questioning whether they would ever make flag rank because they were unrated, though I know a good deal has improved for the career prospects of non-aviators since then.

In addition, we need to be thinking about how we accomplish the missions of the future, from strike to surveillance, in the most affordable and sensible way. We must heed John Boyd's advice by asking if the ways we do business make sense.

UAVs offer a case in point. In the early 1990s I was director of CIA. After 27 years of experience as an intelligence professional, I had seen many agents place themselves in harm's way to collect information in some of the world's most dangerous and inaccessible environments. I'd stood by flag-draped coffins at Andrews Air Force Base, receiving those from CIA who had given their all serving the nation. The introduction of UAVs around this time meant far less risky and far more versatile means of gathering data, and other nations like Israel set about using them. In 1992, however, the Air Force would not co-fund with CIA a vehicle without a pilot.

Unmanned systems cost much less and offer greater loiter times than their manned counterparts, making them ideal for many of today's tasks. Today, we now have more than 5,000 UAVs, a 25-fold increase since 2001. But in my view, we can do and we should do more to meet the needs of men and women fighting in the current conflicts while their outcome may still be in doubt. My concern is that our services are still not moving aggressively in wartime to provide resources needed now on the battlefield. I've been wrestling for months to get more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets into the theater. Because people were stuck in old ways of doing business, it's been like pulling teeth.

While we've doubled this capability in recent months, it is still not good enough. And so last week I established a Department of Defense-wide task force, much like the MRAP Task Force, to work this problem in the weeks to come, to find more innovative and bold ways to help those whose lives are on the line. The deadlines for the task force's work are very short.

All this may require rethinking long-standing service assumptions and priorities about which missions require certified pilots and which do not. For those missions that still require manned missions, we need to think hard about whether we have the right platforms -- whether, for example, low-cost, low-tech alternatives exist to do basic reconnaissance and close air support in an environment where we have total control of the skies -- aircraft that our partners also can afford.

This morning I have raised some difficult questions, with perhaps difficult answers. I'm asking you to be part of the solution and part of the future. As up-and-coming Air Force leaders, I urge you to explore creative new ways airmen, writ large, can apply their skill and talent and weaponry as the forms and patterns of this new era still settle into place.

No doubt such changes will be difficult for an organization that has been so successful for six decades. The last time a U.S. ground force was attacked from the sky was more than half a century ago, and the last Air Force jet lost to aerial combat was in Vietnam.

Such success is attributable in part to the ways airmen have pushed technology to its outer limits, but it is also attributable to maverick thinkers like John Boyd.

As you graduate from your respective courses and leave Maxwell, you too will eventually face Boyd's proverbial fork in the road. And you will have to choose to do something or to be someone.

For the good of the Air Force, for the good of the armed services and for the good of our country, I urge you to reject convention and careerism, and to make decisions that will carry you closer toward rather than further from the officer you want to be and the thinker who advances airpower strategy and meeting the complex challenges to our national security.

Thank you. (Applause.)

MODERATOR: (U.S. Air Force, commander of Air University): Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for those thought-provoking remarks.

I believe our students and faculty have some questions to ask you.

Air University students and faculty, if you have a question for Secretary Gates, please make your way to one of the microphones along the sides of the auditorium. I will recognize you and ask that you please identify yourself and your college or school. Thank you.

SEC. GATES: I had an old rule when I was head of CIA and doing Q&A. I'd say, anybody in the audience can ask any question they want, and I'll answer any question I want. (Laughter.)

Here, you can ask any question you want, and I'll answer any question I can.

Q Good morning, sir. (Name inaudible) -- from Air Command and Staff College, Flight 10.

Sir, you mentioned counter-conventional thinking as part of your brief there. I'm part of a futures group here at ACSC called Blue Horizons. My particular research work was done in directed energy.

I polled a myriad of pretty high-level DOD thinkers in the direct-energy realm. In addition to telling me that they were underfunded, as most people do, I was really surprised at what they perceived as an institutional bias, against not only funded directed-energy pursuits but also employing them, like the current Active Denial System that was headed for Iraq and then was pulled.

I was wondering if you could kind of talk to us about that.

SEC. GATES: This was on the directed energy?

Q Yes, sir.

SEC. GATES: You know, we were just getting started on direct-energy programs when I unsuccessfully retired the first time. And the Congress just cut the missile defense directed energy, the laser plane.

I don't know about the tactical system that you were just describing. But let me see what I can find out, and get back to you with an answer.

Sometimes it's just, you know, for the mundane reasons of making choices on budget issues and so on. And I just don't know whether it was a technical problem or a budget issue or a bureaucratic issue.

Q Sir, (Name inaudible) -- from Air War College.

The -- actually sir, I'm over on this side.

SEC. GATES: Okay. (Laughter.)

Q And I said that with all due respect, sir. (Laughter.)

SEC. GATES: It’s not clear whether it was my eyes or my ears that weren't working. At my age, it's probably both. (Laughter.)

Q It was the substandard PA system. There was an echo. (Laughter.)

Sir, with your regards to maverick thinking -- sorry for the feedback.

But in your regards to maverick thinking, how do you feel that military PME can be improved to facilitate more thinking outside of the box, more creative thinking versus research?

SEC. GATES: Well, I'm not -- frankly, I'm not quite sure of the distinction between out-of-the-box thinking and research. Of course, it does bring to mind the definition that -- if you borrow an author, it's plagiarism; if you borrow from a bunch, it's research. (Laughter, applause.) Only a university president would know that. (Laughter.)

You know, I think -- I think out-of-the-box thinking is, in many cases -- I guess I'd break it into two pieces: out-of-the box thinking in terms of technology and capabilities, and out-of-box thinking in terms of processes and the bureaucracy, if you will. And it may be that research is better suited for the former than for the latter. Real-world experience and knowledge of what's not working, of where the obstacles are in getting something accomplished, is more related to out-of-the-box thinking in terms of process, it seems to me, and bureaucracy. So the distinction that I would make is that in both cases, the problem is that the institution -- and not just the Air Force, virtually every institution -- is organized in a way to stifle out-of-the-box thinking.

And -- so most successful executives, whether -- one of the things that I did before joining the Defense Department was serve as chairman of the independent trustees of the Fidelity Funds, the world's biggest mutual fund company. And the founder of that company, Ed -- Ned Johnson, basically always had a group of people around him who had no day-to-day responsibilities but that -- the whole company in terms of looking for new investment opportunities, looking for new ways of doing things, new innovations. And because of these out-of-the-box thinkers, in the early 1990s, Ned Johnson put a billion dollars of his own money into creating a back-office capability to handle 401(k)s, and I can't tell you how many billions Fidelity's made since then on it.

But the point is, you need to have some kind of -- and the intelligence community has wrestled with this over the years and, I would say, mostly unsuccessfully. And one example is the role of the national intelligence officer for warning. Now, this is supposed to be the out-of-the-box thinker who spots the threat coming down the road that nobody else can spot. But since most of the time, most threats don't materialize, eventually that person gets sidelined, and they don't play a constructive role. So figuring out how to integrate into a big organization and promote and protect a group of people that are trying to think outside the box, whether it's technology or process, I think, is one of the challenges for every senior leader.

But in that case, as I say, I don't draw a distinction between research and process. But it's -- the key is leaders who understand the value of people who do think out of the box, and the reality is, they mostly have to be protected.

And I would put in the same category -- I'm going to talk about more at West Point later today -- dissent. Dissent is a sign of health in an organization, and particularly if it's done in the right way and respectfully and so on. But people who dissent, who take a different view, who kind of are orthogonal to the conventional wisdom are always at risk in their careers, just like Boyd was. And so figuring out -- Boyd couldn't have done what he did unless senior officers, at least one or two, were looking out for him.

And so I would say, in a generic answer to your question, the biggest challenge for out-of-the-box thinking is the wisdom of the senior leader who sees the value of that kind of thinking and protects it and the people who do it.

Q Sir, Lieutenant Colonel (Name inaudible) from Air Command and Staff College. Sir, we appreciate you taking the time today and coming to speak to us.

Yesterday, the New York Times had an article that talked about the number of retired senior officers who are commentators but who also serve on boards for companies that are profiting from the war. Sir, what do you think about all these senior officers who are now retired influencing public opinion about the Department of Defense and the war effort? And I don't know if you had a chance to read the article, but what do you think about that, if you will, conflict of interest that they are involved in?

SEC. GATES: Well, I will tell you that this is actually -- the increasing engagement of retired officers in the political process and in the media is something that has really taken off -- (inaudible) -- in 1993. There were only one or two -- a handful of examples of it before 1993. And now it's kind of a cottage industry. I suppose in a flip sort of way I could say, the good-news side is there are now so many it doesn't really matter. If there were still just a handful out there they might actually have some real influence.

But when you've got scores of these guys either signing up for different candidates or as media experts and so on -- the worry that I have in this whole thing, whether they are signing up with candidates or whether they are acting as experts for the media, is the important -- when they are referred to by their title, the public doesn't know whether they are active-duty or retired, often, because those distinctions tend to get blurred, and they don't know whether they're speaking for the institution or for themselves.

And so if I had one request to all of them, it would be in whatever role they're playing that they make clear that they're not speaking for the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, or the Marines Corps, or the Department of Defense, but only speaking for themselves.

And I suppose that takes a little of the gloss over the -- off of their appeal, but I think that's the honest way to approach this.

My -- I did read the article, and frankly, I think it -- I couldn't quite tell how much of it was an implied political conflict of interest, an implied financial conflict of interest or what.

But -- so I would just limit myself to saying I think that the one service they owe everybody is making clear that they're speaking only for themselves.

MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we have time for one more question.

Sir?

Q Good morning, sir. (Inaudible name) from Air War College, from France. Sir, you mentioned this morning in your speech how important interoperability and working in coalition was for the U.S. Air Force. About a couple of months ago, the U.S. government decided that the future tanker will be provided by a consortium led by Grumman and Airbus. Since then, Boeing decided to challenge this decision. I would like to know -- and it will delay the overall process for the Air Force to procure this kind of aircraft. I would like to know what you think about this challenge and how -- (audio break).

SEC. GATES: Well, Boeing is using the legitimate processes that have been established to protest the award of a contract. As I understand it, the General (sic) Accountability Office will -- is evaluating the decision process and Boeing's process and Boeing's protest, and they will issue a decision in terms of whether they believe the protest was warranted.

All I can say is that I think it would be a real shame if the tanker were to get delayed yet again. We're long past due in terms of getting on with this program.

The law is very explicit. The law allows the Defense Department, in an acquisition like this, to consider only technology, capability and cost. All other considerations are explicitly prohibited by law. And so it seems to me that, based on everything I've seen, this was a fair process. But we'll wait and see what the GAO report says.

But I think that some things unrelated to what the law says we can consider are being thrown into the mix, at least on Capitol Hill. And I -- and that's a concern. And I think our undersecretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, John Young, said something about this publicly in a hearing the other day.

Thank you all very much. (Applause.)

The Destroyermen: "COMPACFLT, CHINFO and DOD are aware and approve."

The Destroyermen
A Navy blog by Chris van Avery, Lt. Cmdr., U.S. N opened to rave reviews and less than a month later was shut for attracting too much attention from Higher and not for for opspec. The blog is about "life aboard the USS Russell DG59 through the eyes of her crew". The blog provided a minuscule relationship to the families left on shore and for those of us who have never left the sight of the shore, while out fishing at sea, a chance to read what life is like for those who do. Apparently, some one Higher heard the howls and gnashing of teeth over the shuttered blog and sent the following:

"COMPACFLT, CHINFO and DOD are aware and approve."

aka--The blog lamp is re-lit. check it out.

Marine's Partnership with the ISF equals 4,000 pounds of explosives and ammunition.

Story by Cpl. Chadwick deBree

SUBYHAT, Iraq (March 19, 2008) – March 13 started as a normal day for the Marines of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1. They were set to patrol the streets and talk to local Iraqi leaders, when the local Iraqi Police and Sons of Iraq stopped them.

“One of them pulled us aside and said, ‘Come over here, you need to check this out,” said Sgt. Nathan Aja, section leader, JUMP section, Company G, 2nd Bn., 3rd Marines. “They saw something that didn’t look right to them so they brought us over to it and we began to dig it up.”

What they found was surprising. The Marines and Iraqi Security Forces dug up approximately 4,000 pounds of explosives and ammunition.

The Marines began to dig with the ISF and first came across two artillery rounds that had been prepped with detonation wires.

“The artillery rounds we found were ready to go to be used,” said Aja, a 25-year-old native of Rocklin, Calif. “All they would have to do is drop them in a hiding place and detonate them. We’re not sure how long they have been there, but they were definitely staged there so someone could just come back and use it.”

The rounds were just the beginning of their find. After finding the artillery rounds along with approximately 370 anti-aircraft rounds, the Marines and ISF dug up 37 barrels of homemade explosive similar to TNT.

“We just kept digging and this stuff just kept popping up,” said Lance Cpl. Anthony Vincenty, vehicle commander, JUMP section, Co. G, 2nd Bn., 3rd Marines. “This was the biggest cache I have ever found. It was really surprising. Even the guys in EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) said they have never seen a find this big. I’m just glad that we got it off the street because now they (theORCS) can’t use it.”

For some of the Marines that are new to the unit, this was their first find and they were astounded by the unearthed cache.

“When we showed up, we first came across the arty round, then we kept digging and found all the barrels all within a 20-meter radius,” said Lance Cpl. Stephen Peters, a driver with the JUMP section, Co. G, 2nd Bn., 3rd Marines, and a 20-year-old native of Warwick, N.Y. “This was my first time finding a cache. It was very exciting to find it. After we found it I was talking to my seniors and they were amazed at how much we had dug up, and these are guys that found a lot of caches their last deployment, so it made it that much better to be a part of it.”

The key to the Marines finding this explosive cache was the partnership with the ISF in the area.

“I place a lot more trust in the Iraqis this deployment because they’re starting to take control of their country,” said Vincenty, a 23-year-old native of Stanton Island, N.Y. “They’re doing a lot better than last year. They are a lot more knowledgeable of what they’re doing but more importantly, they seem to take a lot more pride in what they are doing and in their country. There are a lot more Iraqi flags flying around and the security forces are wearing their uniforms with pride.”

Aja said that the Iraqis are hands on with what they are doing, standing post and taking care of situations by themselves, leaving the Marines in a position of supervision.

“Compared to last year, this is a different mission,” said Vincenty, who also deployed last year with the Island Warriors. “They’re doing their own checkpoints and conducting business on their own. We just check up on them and make sure they’re doing everything right.”

Whack Job on Riyad al Nouri, Sadr's brother in law and Senior Aide may be inside job--

New can of worms same as the old can of worms--- news from Roggio's The Long War Journal has the death of Riyad al Nouri as a inside whack job by Sadr's men. Does that surprise me--not really. I fully expect to find out that the so call insiders are on the payroll of the Orc King.

The recent assassination attempts may be retaliation for the murder of Riyad al Nouri, Sadr's brother-in-law and a senior aide in Najaf. The Sadrist movement maintained the US killed Nouri, then switched its story and said its political enemies had Nouri murdered. But some Sadrists believe Nouri's murder "may have been an inside job from within the Sadr ranks."

A US military officer serving in Iraq who wishes to remain anonymous told The Long War Journal that Nouri may indeed have been killed by rival members of his Sadrist movement. It is rumored Nouri was pushing for the Sadrist movement to disband the Mahdi Army lest the party be shut out from the political process.

AMERICAN FOREIGN LEGION AFL ---An idea from Fabius Maximus

Fabius Maximus has some ideas about starting an American Foreign Legion aka a Corps that will fight and only fight and kill and get rid of the be all you can be and Army of One bullshit. I like it. In 1965, fresh out of high school, it was the Corps I thought I was enlisting into instead of being surrounded by career lifers with chest sizes identical to their gut size with annual PT scores that beat mine---a three year cross country runner.

Another advantage: we’ll have a force enrolled expressly to fight. That would be an improvement, for recruiting is a form of deceit in our present scheme. Very much so for the Army. Extremely so for the Guard and Reserve. Not at all for the Marines. For many young men and women it is Russian Roulette, albeit with good odds that they will earn the money for an education without facing actual combat. Not all win. Jessica Lynch hoped to become a teacher. Her compatriot, Shoshana Johnson, joined the Army to be a cook. Prisoner of war for 22 days, she still suffers from her injuries (beaten and shot in both ankles).

Cpl. Gary P. Grant, a scout team leader with Delta Company, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, watches over a group of Iraqi civilians during a house search in western Anbar Province, . (Photo by Cpl. Ryan L. Tomlinson)

Poison The Water, Attack Gas and Oil Tanks,Electric Power and ahh get inside their decision cycle....Abu Safyan

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service---- Such tactics were fleshed out in a terrorist letter intended for Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the foreign-born leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. But the document never reached Masri. Instead, coalition forces lifted it from the body of a terrorist they killed last month during an operation 30 miles northwest of Baghdad.

The slain terrorist and author of the 11-page missive was Abu Safyan, from Diyala, Iraq, according to military officials who made available all but two pages deemed “not releasable” on the Multinational Force Iraq Web site.

Providing a glimpse into the proposed inner workings of al-Qaida in Iraq, the author discusses the need to split jihadists into three groups: snipers, assassination experts and martyrs. Each well-trained group should have an emir, or unit commander, at the lead. Through a series of coordinated surprise attacks, groups should work in unison to “bring down the city or the area,” he wrote.

In addition to outlining extremist combat methods, Safyan advocated waging economic and psychological warfare, and his roadmap for success hinged on “continuous conflict” between Iraq’s Shiite government, Sunni members of “Awakening Movements” and Kurdish nationalists.

“This will lessen the pressure against us and the Mujahidin brothers in all of Iraq when the enemies fight among themselves and weaken,” according to the handwritten Arabic letter, penned in blue ink on lined paper, that coalition forces captured in a remote farmhouse March 5 along with a suicide vest and computer equipment.

Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, today said the intercepted pages offer insight into the mind of a terrorist and provide further evidence about al-Qaida’s overarching strategy and tactics of violence.

“This document is just one man’s articulation, one terrorist’s views about instigating conflict and turning Iraqis against each other. But it is also quite consistent with the patterns of violence we see from AQI,” Bergner told reporters during a news conference in Baghdad, referring to al-Qaida in Iraq by the acronym AQI.

To strike at Iraq’s economy, the document proposes attacking the fields, wells and pipelines that make up the national oil infrastructure. The author recommends targeting oil tankers and ships, specifically those in Basra, Kirkuk and Baghdad.

“Attack all the targets that strengthen the enemy economically and militarily,” Safyan wrote. “Even the American Army will weaken since it depends on the Iraqi oil and gas wealth. The enemy will gradually drown step by step.”

The letter advises that a chemical offensive can inflict both physical and mental harm. Contaminating Iraqis’ water can produce “killing and dangerous illness,” and also convince the enemy “that we have a dangerous chemical weapon,” Safyan wrote. “But in fact,” he continues, “it’s a psychological war that places fear in the enemy.”

Page 8 of the document focuses on instigating fights between coalition forces and Iraqi groups, especially Sunnis who have rejected foreign extremism and terrorism in droves in what has been referred to as “Awakening Groups.” Safyan suggested infiltrating the Sunni cadres before planting and detonating mines “in their villages and streets.”

Bergner said the author’s call for violence against the Awakening movement typifies the kind of extremism many Iraqis have turned against. The confiscated document also reveals the threat such groups present to terrorists, he added.

“These writings are further examples of the corrupt ideology that Iraqis are broadly rejecting,” he said. “We have seen about 100,000 men choose a different path and join local volunteer groups like the Sons of Iraq instead.”

Later in the briefing, Bergner told reporters that coalition forces had captured or killed

53 al-Qaida in Iraq leaders since his most recent news conference early this month.

The 10 most significant targets, according to Bergner, were:

-- Abd-al-Rahman Ibrahim Jasim Thair, the military emir responsible for al-Qaida’s operations in Mosul. Thair is the former emir in Beiji, who moved to Mosul because of the city’s importance to al-Qaida.

-- Muhammad Fathi Hammad Husayn, an al-Qaida cell leader in Sharqat. Like Thair, he also moved from Beiji, where he was formerly the emir in charge of assassinations.

-- Jasim Najm Khalaf Muhammad, a leader in al-Qaida’s network in Khark who was attempting to reconstitute terrorist networks around Baghdad when coalition forces captured him in Tarmiyah.

-- Ali Mustashar Ali, a car bomb network operative in Baghdad. He and his associates moved explosives, vehicles and suicide bombers throughout the Iraqi capital.

-- Hamid Awayd Muhammad, a car- and truck-bomb attack operative in Baghdad. Once the al-Qaida emir responsible for Anbar province, he handled the logistics for vehicle-bomb attacks north of Baghdad at the time of his capture.

-- Ahmad Husayn Ghanim Ali, the security emir for eastern Mosul.

-- Abu Mansur, al-Qaida’s deputy emir for Mosul, who acted as a judge in the terror network’s illegal courts. The role of Mansur, who died March 8, was to “cloak their corrupt ideology with religious sanction.”

-- Tumah Khalaf Mutar Hassan, the leader of al-Qaida’s cell in Samarra, who worked closely with the area’s emir. Coalition forces captured him in Samarra in early March.

-- Muqdad Ibrahim Abbas Husayn, al-Qaida’s military emir for Jalam, located east of Baghdad. He coordinated terror operations with counterparts from Tikrit, Samarra and Mosul, and arranged al-Qaida leadership meetings in the Tigris River valley. Husayn also oversaw kidnappings for ransom that terrorists relied on for operational funding.

-- Mahmud Abd-al-Hamid Isa Aaywi, al-Qaida’s military emir for southern Karkh. His operations focused on trying to use car and truck bombs in Rashid, Karrada and Mansour.

“These terrorists are just one component of the mosaic of security threats that seek to destabilize Iraq and incite a cycle of violence the Iraqi people broadly reject,” Bergner said. He noted that recent violence against Iraqi citizens “highlights the need to keep going forward and the need to keep pursuing these terrorists.”

Related Sites:
Abu Safyan’s letter
Briefing Transcript

A confiscated letter written by an al-Qaida in Iraq operative to the organization's top commander outlines terrorist tactics and broad strategy for defeating coalition forces and their Iraqi allies. From a Multinational Force Iraq presentation released April 16, 2008. Download screen-resolution Download high-resolution

The IA's Are Going On Lake Qadisiyah With Riverine Patrols

For many of the IA, this was their first time on the water, let alone on Riverine Patrol Boats. The IA had to learn how to safely board the vessels and conduct missions while on board.

“This is the first time for many of my men to be on the water,” said IA Lt. Amjed Nahir, through an interpreter. “We hope to learn quickly and begin the transition process.”

“We’re giving the IA training classes on boat operation procedures, and they are very eager to learn,” said Cpl. Keith Hernandez, 24, a team leader with Company L in charge of training the IA. “They are demonstrating and applying what they have been taught on the operations.”

The experience level of the soldiers varies, but every soldier will learn the basics so that they will all be capable of handling water operations. Operations will range from searching other vessels to tracking insurgents.

“First, my soldiers must learn how to use the military boats, and secondly, we must learn this new terrain in and out,” said Nahir.

During the first patrol, the Riverines planned and executed a scenario to see how the IA would react.

“While on the lake, the sailors threw a curveball at the IA — they performed an emergency stop while going at full speed to see how the IA would respond,” said Hernandez, a native of Houston. “From what I saw, they responded well. They remained calm and followed their techniques, tactics and procedures.”

Although the IA’s mission was accomplished for the day, they looked to the future for more joint and independent missions.

“When the day’s mission was over, the soldiers were excited to return and conduct further operations,” said Hernandez. “These guys are great. They love their country and want to see it flourish.”

“I see my soldiers listening to the Coalition Forces for advice, and learning almost everything from them,” Nahir added while observing his men in action. “We are now trying to fully operate without the aid of the Coalition Forces.” Photos/story Cpl. S. Coolman

No More Ali Baba's, Orcs--Marines in Anbar To Reduce Forces

Marines To Cut Forces In Stable Anbar Province
(Mideast Stars and Stripes, April 15, 2008)
Apprently, the security situation in Anbar province is now so stable You gotta wear shades. Col. Patrick Malay, CO- RCT 5, says that the Marine regiment in charge of the area will reduce its force from five battalions to three. The two battalions that are leaving will finish their normal rotations and will not be replaced. In the meantime,on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Fox 4th LAR was"mobilized and placed on active duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom" for more yada, yada processing and training before Fox deploys to Al Anbar Province.

Approximately 140 Marines from Fox Company reported to Marine Corps Reserve Center Eastover April 21 for mobilization, processing, and training prior to the unit moving to Camp Pendleton, Calif., in early May for additional training before the unit deploys to the Al Anbar Province region of Iraq. The TandD

Lance Cpl. Moses Cardenas, First LAR, Silver Star

Lance Cpl. Moses Cardenas, and Sgt. Randy M. Roedema II, First LAR, during an awards ceremony at the parade deck at Las Flores March 28. Cardenas was presented a Silver Star Medal for actions that saved Roedema's life.

Cardenas and Sgt. Randy M. Roedema were on a routine early morning zone reconnaissance patrol with the quick reaction force last year in Western Anbar province in Iraq. They happened upon a vehicle which crossed their sector, so they moved in to check it out, according to Cardenas.

After repeated attempts to get the driver and passengers of the truck to submit to a search, three men burst from the top of the vehicle and opened fire. The Marines quickly attempted to bound back to their vehicles for cover, and to allow their turret gunners an open line-of-fire.

Three Marines were hit. Lance Cpl. Christian Vasquez was killed, and Cardenas was hit in the neck. After he hit the deck, he looked up and saw that Roedema was on the ground.

“I saw my sergeant laying down and I said, ‘Not today,’” Cardenas recounted after the ceremony.

Already injured, Cardenas began dragging Roedema to safety, but they had more than 50 meters to cover, so Cardenas alternated dragging Roedema with applying suppressive fire with his squad automatic weapon.

“’You’re going to see you’re daughter,’ that’s what he said when he was pulling me,” said Roedema, 25, from Denver, Colo. “He saved my life.”

Cardenas was again hit with a round from the insurgent’s weapons, but he continued pulling Roedema until they we both safely behind cover, and only later, after a corpsman arrived, did Cardenas receive attention for his wounds. USMC

Feel the love...."You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania......"

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them… And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Just the Kind of Pot Stirring For the Orc-King:Assassination of senior aide to Moqtada al-Sadr

While everyone from Petraeus is to Maliki is doing the We didn't do it and we condemn the act chant can we get real for a second here. This is the perfect hit job by the Orc King. Whack the aide to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf and OMG--what have we here....more chaos! Excellent. Considering the Orc King just got his snot locker bashed in for thinking upppity thoughts about taking over Basra. Ha! No wonder Maliki practically ran his ass off running to the battle. Now we are getting somewhere. Aide whacked. Everybody is pissed. Denials from all. Even Gates is getting into the ACT.

Gates Says US Not Likely To Arrest Moqtada al-Sadr

"He is a significant political figure. And clearly if he is willing to work within ... we want him to work within the political process in Iraq. He has a large following,"

Ok, he is an SPF, big deal, can we all get along blah blah we know that already, but he is also the trickster, the pot stirrer and now the Iranian Orc King has found his aide a useful sacrifice to the greater glory of the Orc Kingdom. Brilliant!

General Petraeus told a small group of reporters at the Pentagon that the killing of Sadr advisor Riyadh al-Nouri potentially threatens weeks of calm in Najaf.

The aide also quoted Sadr as blaming the killing on what he called "occupying forces" and those working with them.

The killing threatens to raise tensions between Sadr and the Iraqi government. NSS!

So we are supposed to watch the Sopranos to really understand what is going on in Iraq but at the first whack we are not to think ahead and see who is doing what to whom?

Kandahar bound Marines

The Two-Seven Marines on board a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft at Manas Air Base, Kyrgyz Republic, March 27, 2008, Kandahar bound. USMC photo by LCpl. Jason T. Guiliano

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani Confers Legitimacy Upon Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki government

Maliki's headlong rush to attack the Mahdi Army without proper back up may payoff dividends as now The Grand Ayatollah has come out in support of the government's demand that the Sadrist's surrender their weapons and stand down. This action will confer some badly needed legitimacy that Maliki has been either unwilling or unable to garner by himself. The weight of the Ayatollah carries a lot of muscle as he sent his representative out to make clear his position after Sadr declared that he would ask Sistani for direction. The Ayatollah smacked Sadr pretty good in his reply:“The top Shiite cleric had not been consulted in establishing al-Mahdi army, so it could not interfere in dissolving it,”

Al-Sistani asked al-Mahdi army to give in weapons to the government,” the Shiite official said.VOI

Private armies are the bane of any fledging government's struggle for power and legitimacy with citizens and this nutjob should have been cracked a long time ago. No matter. Apparently, Maliki now has Sadr on the ropes with legislation that will prevent political parties with private armies from participating in the election process. Color me duh.

"

We have opened the door for confrontation, a real confrontation with these gangs, and we will not stop until we are in full control of these areas," Maliki.

Ok Rocky, next we will have to see if Maliki has the moral courage of his convictions.

Jim Steiner,Former Green Beret, Is Running for the Second Congressional District Seat in New Hampshire

Jim Steiner is running for Congress in New Hampshire. If elected he promises to keep a pot of coffee hot in his office for all visiting vets. He needs money and support so if you have both or cash he could use your help. If elected Steiner will be the the first former special forces representative in Congress.

"During a decade of service on active duty for his country, Jim became a paratrooper, Ranger and Green Beret. He served with distinction with the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne). He worked alongside other elite units such as Danish Commandos, Marine Force Recon troops, Navy SEALs, British SAS, German Paratroopers and Israeli paratroopers. Hanging in his office are plaques from the German military and the Israeli Parachute Brigade. Ultimately, Jim spent 18 years on active duty or serving in the reserves of the United States military."

MA2 Michael A. Monsoor USN--Congressional Medal of Honor

Navy Pictorial Tribute

White House Ceremony Presents Medal of Honor to Navy Seal Michael Anthony Monsoor's Family.

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, and welcome.

The Medal of Honor is America’s highest decoration for military valor. Over the years, many who have received the medal have given their lives in the action that earned it. The name of Petty Officer Michael Anthony Monsoor will now be among them.

In September 2006, Michael laid down his life for his brothers in arms. Today, we remember the life of this faithful Navy SEAL. And on behalf of a grateful nation, we will present Michael Monsoor’s family with the Medal of Honor that he earned.

I welcome the Vice President. Secretary of Defense Gates, thank you for coming. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Peake; Secretary Don Winter of the Navy; Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and wife, Deborah; General James Conway, Commandant of the Marine Corps, and Annette; Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations, and wife, Ellen; Senator John McCain; Congressman Ed Royce; Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez.

Previous Medal of Honor recipients, thank you for joining us.

I appreciate Chaplain Burt; Navy SEALS — the finest warriors on the face of the Earth; the Monsoor family, and everybody else.

The Medal of Honor is awarded for an act of such courage that no one could rightly be expected to undertake it. Yet those who knew Michael Monsoor were not surprised when he did. This son of Orange County, California, grew up in a family where helping others was a way of life. Mike’s father was a Marine; his mother a social worker. Together, they raised their four children to understand the meaning of service and sacrifice.

From a very early age, Mike showed the strength of his own convictions. Apparently going to kindergarten wasn’t one of them. Mike had no complaints after the first week of school — until someone broke the news to him that he had to go back the next week. (Laughter.) Many mornings, Mike refused to put on the nice clothes for school. Instead, he insisted on wearing mismatched outfits. Mike’s mother soon discovered there was no stopping the determined young boy from mixing plaids and stripes. And years later, there would be no stopping an even more determined young man from donning a uniform of Navy Blue.

In some ways, Mike was an unlikely candidate for the Navy. He suffered from terrible asthma as a child. On some nights, his coughing fits would land him in the hospital. But Mike would not lie low for long. He strengthened his lungs by racing his siblings in the swimming pool. He worked to wean himself off his inhaler. He built himself into a superb athlete — excelling from sports like football to snowboarding.

After enlisting in the Navy, he began preparing for the ultimate test of physical endurance: SEAL training. Less than a third of those who begin this training become SEALs. But Mike would not be denied a spot. In September 2004, he earned the right to wear the Navy SEAL trident.

The newly minted frogman became a beloved member of the SEAL team community. His teammates liked to laugh about the way his shiny Corvette would leave everybody in the dust. But deep down, they always knew Mike would never leave anybody behind when it counted. He earned their confidence with his attention to detail and quiet work ethic. One of Mike’s officers remembers an instructor once asking after an intense training session, “What’s the deal with the Monsoor guy? He just says, ‘Roger that,’ to everything.”

When Mike deployed with his team to Ramadi in the spring of 2006, he brought that attitude with him. Because he served as both a heavy machine gunner and a communications operator, he often had a double load of equipment — sometimes more than a hundred pounds worth. But under the glare of the hot desert sun, he never lost his cool.

At the time, Ramadi was in the clutches of al Qaeda terrorists and insurgents. Together, the SEALs and the Army 1st Battalion of the 506 Infantry Regiment took the offense against the enemy. The SEALs carried out a broad range of special operations — including providing sniper cover in tough urban conditions, and conducting raids against terrorists and insurgents. Overall, Mike’s platoon came under enemy attack during 75% of their missions. And in most of these engagements, Mike was out front defending his brothers.

In May 2006, Mike and another SEAL ran into the line of fire to save a wounded teammate. With bullets flying all around them, Mike returned fire with one hand while helping pull the injured man to safety with the other. In a dream about the incident months later, the wounded SEAL envisioned Mike coming to the rescue with wings on his shoulders.

On Saint Michael’s Day — September 29, 2006 — Michael Monsoor would make the ultimate sacrifice. Mike and two teammates had taken position on the outcropping of a rooftop when an insurgent grenade bounced off Mike’s chest and landed on the roof. Mike had a clear chance to escape, but he realized that the other two SEALs did not. In that terrible moment, he had two options — to save himself, or to save his friends. For Mike, this was no choice at all. He threw himself onto the grenade, and absorbed the blast with his body. One of the survivors puts it this way: “Mikey looked death in the face that day and said, ‘You cannot take my brothers. I will go in their stead.’”

Perhaps the greatest tribute to Mike’s life is the way different service members all across the world responded to his death. Army soldiers in Ramadi hosted a memorial service for the valiant man who had fought beside them. Iraqi Army scouts — whom Mike helped train — lowered their flag, and sent it to his parents. Nearly every SEAL on the West Coast turned out for Mike’s funeral in California. As the SEALs filed past the casket, they removed their golden tridents from their uniforms, pressed them onto the walls of the coffin. The procession went on nearly half an hour. And when it was all over, the simple wooden coffin had become a gold-plated memorial to a hero who will never be forgotten.

For his valor, Michael Monsoor becomes the fourth Medal of Honor recipient in the war on terror. Like the three men who came before him, Mike left us far too early. But time will not diminish his legacy. We see his legacy in the SEALs whose lives he saved. We see his legacy in the city of Ramadi, which has gone from one of the most dangerous places in Iraq to one of the most safest. We see his legacy in the family that stands before us filled with grief, but also with everlasting pride.

Mr. and Mrs. Monsoor: America owes you a debt that can never be repaid. This nation will always cherish the memory of your son. We will not let his life go in vain. And this nation will always honor the sacrifice he made. May God comfort you. May God bless America.

Come on up. And now George and Sally Monsoor will be here — a Military Aide will read the citation.

The citation is read:

The President of the United States, in the name of the Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor, posthumously, to Master At Arms Second Class, Sea, Air and Land, Michael A. Monsoor, United States Navy. For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Automatic Weapons Gunner for Naval Special Warfare Task Group Arabian Peninsula, in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM on 29 September 2006.

As a member of a combined SEAL and Iraqi Army sniper overwatch element, tasked with providing early warning and stand-off protection from a rooftop in an insurgent-held sector of Ar Ramadi, Iraq, Petty Officer Monsoor distinguished himself by his exceptional bravery in the face of grave danger. In the early morning, insurgents prepared to execute a coordinated attack by reconnoitering the area around the element’s position. Element snipers thwarted the enemy’s initial attempt by eliminating two insurgents. The enemy continued to assault the element, engaging them with a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire. As enemy activity increased, Petty Officer Monsoor took position with his machine gun between two teammates on an outcropping of the roof. While the SEALs vigilantly watched for enemy activity, an insurgent threw a hand grenade from an unseen location, which bounced off Petty Officer Monsoor’s chest and landed in front of him. Although only he could have escaped the blast, Petty Officer Monsoor chose instead to protect his teammates. Instantly and without regard for his own safety, he threw himself onto the grenade to absorb the force of the explosion with his body, saving the lives of his two teammates. By his undaunted courage, fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of certain death, Petty Officer Monsoor gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

The M 109 is still earning a paycheck

An M109A6 Paladin fires its 155mm Howitzer from Badoush prison, just outside Mosul, Iraq, in support of ground forces in Mosul, Iraq, on March 29. The Howitzer, belonging to Howitzer Battery, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment from Fort Hood, Texas, is firing illumination rounds to expose enemy movement in Mosul. Photo by Spc. John Crosby.

Legitimacy--It's A Bugger for Infor-Orcs

A New study, The Al-Qaeda Media Nexus: The Virtual Network Behind the Global Message, is out at IRG and one of the key finding leaps out at JB:

Jihadist media are attempting to mimic a “traditional” structure in order to boost
credibility and facilitate message control. While conventional wisdom holds that
jihadist media have been quick to exploit technological innovations to advance their
cause, they are moving toward a more structured approach based on consistent
branding and quasi-oficial media entities. Their reasons for doing so appear to be a
desire to boost the credibility of their products and ensure message control.

The Orcs have Legitimacy problems just like any new upstart in the neighborhood and they are trying to overcome their lack of Legitmacy doing the monkey-see-monkey-do cha-cha. IRG

All Real Military Flix All The Time Website

A new website, Real Military Flix, devoted to 24/7 flixs is up and running here. John Corry, former combat camera man for the AF was serendipity's chosen one for rescuing a lot of film thrown away by the transfer of film between the military and the U.S. Archives Dept. Corry started his own archives with that trash stash and most is on display, along with a lot of other recent film acquisition. Today's feature is a three round mortar launch by a masked Orc who vaporizes in a blast after the final round. Those Iwo Jima flix's you saw in boot camp are there as well as some other rock'em sock'em astonishing stuff. You have to go check it out. If you are fed up, as I am, with the hunt and peck, oh hell, where is it now, system at UDasTube trying to find combat flixs--check it out.
UP DATE: latest find:THE SMALL BOAT NAVY in VIETNAM - Narrated by Raymond Burr--Operation Game Warden

YES! Buy buy the damn Prop Planes...no brainer....

At Small Wars Journal Jack Burton finds a post that links to an Air Force mag that leads with a revelation that maybe the AF should buy propeller aircraft that made his Friday pint of Guinness go down the wrong pipe and start a cacophony of unprintable noises. Jack Burton was once comforted by a little Vietnamese prop plane as it made tiny u-turns above the battle space like a angry mother hen smacking everything in range and was then was greatly disappointed when a monster sized phantom jet shooed the tiny bug plane away to drop one measly bomb and then take a humongous 360 turn that practically took it to the New-York-City limits. I want that little bug plane back was the only thought Jack Burton had as he nose-dived into the mud away from the returning NVA fire raking Jack's hillside. For godsake, man, that was what....40 something years ago...Damn. A bug plane with the WWII propellers was a good idea then and a great idea now. Does nothing ever really change in the DOD?

Inside the Air Force published a piece in their latest newsletter that makes sense - at the very least as a matter for serious study - Light-Attack Plane Could Save USAF Billions in O&M, Preserve Fighters (subscription required) by Marcus Weisgerber.

April 4, 2008 -- The Air Force could save billions in operations and maintenance costs if it shifts away from using gas-guzzling fighter jets in Iraq and Afghanistan and invests instead in a light-attack, propeller-driven aircraft, one theater-based commander says.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) AKA Bridge Builders (not)

The Investigative Project On Terrorism defines CAIR and the secret mission to undermine the foundations of the U.S.

It offers a benign mission statement - "to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding." But a closer look at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) raises a host of troubling questions about its history and purpose.

Borne of an effort to scuttle hopes for a negotiated Middle East peace, CAIR was listed among organizations tied to the Muslim Brotherhood's American network. Its founders emerged from a separate Islamic organization that two courts have found played a supporting role for the terrorist group Hamas.

The Washington, D.C.-based organization purports to be a "leading advocate for justice and mutual understanding" and claims to speak for the majority of American Muslims. However, after a careful review of the history, activities, statements, and causes of and by CAIR, it seems that its primary goals are to silence and de-legitimize its critics and redefine what it means to be a moderate Muslim. And when it comes to U.S. efforts to crack down on terrorists and their financiers, CAIR takes an almost visceral stand in opposition. This has the effect of undermining the legitimate security-related concerns and campaigns of the United States and its allies. These conclusions and the summary immediately below are based upon the evidence and examples that follow in this report; beginning with CAIR's very founding.

For Part 1 on CAIR's origins:

Summary: http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/621

Full installment: http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/109.pdf

In The Bag again...Eh..Third Times A Charm....

Orc Commander Mullah Naqibullah, in Afghanistan, has been captured for the third time.

Naquibullah, who has taken advantage of Af's government catch and release bribery program, has escaped twice from prison.

Orc Commander Mullah Naqibullah, who obviously failed Beginning Ambush 101, led a incompetent raid on a police convoy that resulted in three of his minions dead and his capture on Monday in an area north of the Helmand province capital of Lashkar Gah. Naqibullah was arrested after the firefight left three Orcs KIA and two policemen WIA.

This will be the third time the slippery Naquibullah has been afforded the prison hospitality of Afghan prisons. A couple of months ago, old Naq busted out of a prison run by the Afghan intell team. His previous breakout was from a prison in Kabul.

Free The Haditha Eight Marines NOW! --- Evidence against the Haditha Marines is flimsy-exculpatory evidence abundant--why were they charged!??

I couldn't have said it any better than the IBD:

Friday's development in the Haditha case — the dismissal of charges related to the deaths of innocent civilians in that Iraqi town in 2005 against Marine Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum — makes it five of the eight Marines charged in those deaths who have had all charges dropped. Tatum is the third Marine charged with murder at Haditha to be cleared.

Charges had already been reduced against Tatum from murder to involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault. Four Marines were charged with murder during a firefight following an insurgent ambush in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005. Four officers were charged with covering up the incident.

On that November day, a Marine convoy of the Camp Pendleton-based Kilo Company, Third Battalion, First Marine Regiment, was passing through the town of Haditha in the hotly contested Iraqi province. A roadside improvised explosive device (IED) went off, killing Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 20, of El Paso, Texas, who was on his second tour of duty.

With the evidence against the Haditha Marines so flimsy and exculpatory evidence so abundant, the question is why charges were ever brought.

"The hysteria and firestorm over Abu Ghraib and the Pat Tillman investigations led to fear of a similar media reaction to the Haditha incident, causing the military's civilian bosses to set up this shadow oversight body," says Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center.

The anti-war left wingers thought they had their Iraqi My Lai, and the Defense Department wanted to give it to them.

The "shadow body" Thompson speaks of is Legal Team Charlie, set up by the Pentagon and composed of military lawyers reassigned from other units, and reserve officers reactivated for the sole purpose of prosecuting this case.

In addition, the director of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service admitted that more than 65 investigators were assigned to the case, which in his opinion was the largest investigative effort in NCIS history.

Thompson, whose firm represents Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, whose case we have commented on, called these actions "highly unusual." Chessani is one of the three whose cases remain open. He is charged with "dereliction of duty" and "orders" violations for allegedly failing to properly report and investigate the incident.

Among the key defense weapons was an eight-hour taped deposition given by Lt. Jeffrey Dinsmore, the battalion intelligence officer. His evidence included a PowerPoint after-action report supported by photographic evidence, logs of all the day's radio transmissions and an almost minute-by-minute narrative of the day's events.

The military prosecutors tried to block the testimony of Dinsmore, who monitored the day's events via radio transmissions and an overhead video surveillance drone. His evidence and testimony confirmed the Marines' account that they did take hostile fire from buildings in Haditha and that civilians killed had been used as human shields.

Interestingly, the charges against the Haditha Marines weren't filed until Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., publicly accused the Marines of killing the 15 civilians who died that day not in a firefight, but in "cold blood."

As we have noted, military judge Stephen Folsom, a Marine colonel, has denied a defense motion requesting that Murtha be deposed, in effect denying Chessani and the other Marines the cherished right to confront one of their more famous accusers.

The government's case is slowly and mercifully unraveling as the truth about Haditha comes out. But many in the mainstream media and on the left can't handle the truth.

The evidence clearly confirms the Marines' story that they were merely doing what they were trained to do — responding to a perceived threat with overwhelming force. Semper fi.

Pat Condell On The Fuss Over Fitna And Our Return to 7th Century "values"