Who's Drone Is It?
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Saturday September 27, 2008
Word this past week of a Predator UAV crashing in a remote region of Pakistan didn’t really become news until no one at the geometrically-shaped building in Arlington County, Virginia took responsibility for the doomed aircraft’s existence.
As a article on Wired.com points out, Pentagon officials are usually quite forthcoming about the fate of any unmanned aircraft that don’t make it home in one piece. But in the case of this particular UAV that went down in South Waziristan last Tuesday night, that fact that no one is claiming the aircraft as one of their own may, ironically, turn out be more illustrative of the global economy than that of the progress in the war on terror.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., the company that manufactures the spy planes and proudly boasts that they are “Leading the Situational Awareness Revolution”, sells their units to Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Italy, but would not discuss additional “classified sales” to other nations or entities around the world. It goes without saying that “situational awareness” can apparently do a lot for a company’s bottom line.
A spokesperson with GA would not confirm or deny to whom the UAV was sold, but a video tape purported to show the wreckage that began airing last week showed components that were clearly branded with the General Atomics logo. And the plot thickened on Friday when Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, responded to a direct question about the aircraft’s country of origin by flatly stating “It wasn’t a U.S. UAV.”
This Leftwing Nutjob loves a mystery.
U.S. Denies Drone Down – Never Mind the Video (Updated)
New Twist in Downed Drone Mystery
The Forgotten War
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Tuesday September 23, 2008
Bush Administration officials are in the midst of conducting a top-down review of its Afghanistan policy, with a mandate by the president to produce a set of comprehensive recommendations within two weeks that he can begin to implement before his term his up. However, two warring sides have emerged within the West Wing; one has its eye on ensuring a positive Bush legacy with regards to Afghanistan at all costs and the other advocating the unpopular view that additional troops need be committed to the conflict and for a much longer period of time than the president has publicly advocated.
The chickens are coming home to roost for this president, as Afghanistan, the much maligned red-haired step child in his “War on Terror,” continues to fester in what can only be described as a quagmire, with violence up 30 percent over the past year and US military deaths outpacing those in Iraq for the first time in years.
And with General David McKeirnan, the top American commander in Afghanistan, calling for nearly twice the amount of troops to be deployed there next year than has been previously approved by the president, the Smirking POTUS won’t be able to get around the fact that US forces have effectively fought the Taliban in that country to a standstill. In addition,many consider the NATO effort in that country to foundering, with several nations who have troops in the field under the NATO umbrella opening questioning the usefulness of their presence in Afghanistan.
Still, there are those within the Pentagon and the White House who are hoping that the compressed timetable, combined with the vanity of attempting to preserve something of a legacy for this president, may help produce a focused mindset within the Administration about “getting it right” with regards to Afghanistan, even if it is at the 11th hour.
This Leftwing Nutjob isn’t holding his breath.
Source:
U.S. starts major review of Afghanistan policies — International Herald Tribune
Un-Gagged
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Monday April 7, 2008
David Hicks, the Australian national who was captured in Afghanistan for allegedly fighting alongside the Taliban in 2002, only to spend the next five years in limbo after being designated an enemy combatant at Guantanamo Bay prison, is now free to talk about his ordeal.
This past weekend the U.S. Military-imposed gag order that prevented Mr. Hicks from imparting his tale to anyone who might have asked expired, but according to the 33-year old’s father, the former U.S. prisoner of war doesn’t feel like talking — at least not yet.
Mr. Hicks remains under a curfew order imposed by the Federal Magistrates Court in Australia until this coming December, when he will effectively become a free man. And until such time that he decides to come clean, Mr. Hicks is living the quiet life, slowing easing himself back into society one day at a time.
Hicks ‘not ready to talk’ despite gag lift — The Age
Number Three With A Bullet
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Sunday April 6, 2008
U.S. intelligence officials are looking past the current al Qaeda dynamic duo of Usama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri and are labeling a young, charismatic Libyan as the man to watch for taking the Islamic terrorist organization into the future.
Thirty-something year-old Abu Yahya al-Libi, who escaped from a prison cell at Bagram Air Force base and into jihadist folklore just three short years ago, has risen to become what some analysts are calling bin Laden’s “heir apparent” and may be poised at assuming the role of mastermind if he continues his charmed existence.
Former CIA official are crediting al-Libi with giving the organization something that it was lacking — religious scholarship — and thereby increasing its credibility among some muslims; a distinct irony for an organization whose origins stem from a series of fatwas, or religious edics, that were authored by bin Laden against the United States in the late 1990s. Bin Laden based his reasons for declaring a holy war against the U.S. due to the American military’s continued presence in the land of the two holies — namely Saudi Arabia.
Time will only tell if al-Libi lives up to his billing but one thing is certain; U.S. Central Command undoubtedly has a cruise missile attached to a Predator UAV in the skies above Afghanistan with his name on it.
Is North African militant new face of al-Qaida? — MSNBC.com
Pervez the Great
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Sunday June 10, 2007
Struggling to maintain his hold on the country, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s operatives have been quietly arresting some 300 opposition political leaders across Pakistan, while signing a decree allowing his government to shutter any news outlet that doesn’t agree with his political views. ed. Musharraf lifted the ban on Sunday
This latest crackdown stems from last month’s suspension of chief justice Iftikar Muhammad Chaudhry, a outspoken critic of Mr. Musharraf, whose dismissal has turned the judge into a political lightning rod for change against the rule of the president.
Mr. Bush, who has been keen to criticize Vladimir Putin of Russia for his crackdown on independent Russian media as well as his efforts to consolidate power within that country, has been strangely quiet regarding the events in Pakistan. Perhaps the Smirking POTUS is wrought with jealousy over how his allies can easily eliminate dissention within their respective countries when things go so quickly down the toilet.
Pakistan ‘crackdown’ before rally — BBC News
Musharraf drops media crackdown — BBC News
Podcast #117
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Tuesday April 15, 2008
Leftwing Nutjob Podcast, Episode 117, for Sunday, April 13, 2008
Penn hits the bricks, Iran in the spotlight again, the Obama money machine, al Qaeda’s rising star and more!