Bush Plot To Bomb Arab Ally
--madness of a war memo--
by-Kevin Maguire and Andy Lines
the Mirror (UK)
22 November 2005
President Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret NO. 10 Memo Reveals."
But he was talked out of it at a White House Summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a world backlash.
The attack would have led to a massacre of Innocents on the territory of a key ally, enraged the Middle East and almost certainly have sparked bloody retaliation.
A source said last night: "the memo is explosive and hugely damaging to Bush."
"He made it clear he wanted to bomb al-Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere. Blair replied that he would cause a big problem.
A source declared: "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men."
Yesterday former labour Defense Minister Peter Kilfoyle challenged Downing Street to publish the five-page transcript of the two leaders' conversation.
He said: "Its frightening to think that such a powerful man as Bush can propose such cavalier actions."
"I hope the Prime Minister insists this memo be published. It gives an insight into the mindset of those who were the architects of war."
Bush disclosed his plan to target al-Jazeera, a civilian station with a huge Mide-East following, at a White House face-to-face with Mr. Blair on April 16 last year.
At the time, the US was launching an all-out assault in Insurgents in the Iraqi town of Fallujah. al-Jazeera infuriated Washington and London by reporting from behind rebel lines and broadcasting pictures of dead soldiers, private contractors and Iraqi victims.
Dozens of al-Jazeera staff at the HQ are not, as many believe, Islamic fanatics. Instead, most are respected and highly trained Technicians and Journalists.
To have wiped them out would have been equivalent to bombing the BBC in London and the most spectacular foreign policy disaster since the Iraq War itself.
The NO. 10 memo now raises fresh doubts over US claims that previous attacks against al-Jazeera staff were military errors.
In 2001 the station's Kabul office was knocked out by two "Smart" bombs.
In 2003, al-Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a US missile strike on the station's Baghdad centre.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_objectid=16397937&method=full&siteid=94762-name_page.htm
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Detroit 'Sleeper Cell'
prosecutor faces probe
-grand jury considering indictment for misconduct-
by-Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Detroit--Once trumpeted as one of the Justice Department's significant triumphs against terrorism, the case targeting the so-called "Detroit Sleeper Cell" began less than a week after the attack on the World Trade Center. It was only after a Jury convicted two men of supporting terrorism that the flimsiness of the gorvernment's case became clear.
As hidden evidence spilled out and the Justice Department abandoned the effort, Federal Investigators began to wonder whether the true conspiracy in the case was perpetrated by the prosecution. Now a Federal Grand Jury in Detroit is Investigating whether the lead prosecutor, Richard Convertino, or anyone else should be Indicted for unfairly tipping the scales.
It is a highly unusual case. No charges have been brought and many details remain secret, but Information in public documents and testimony in US Disctrict Court in Detroit suggest an effort by federal prosecutors and Important witnesses to mislead defense lawyers and deceive the Jury. US District Judge Gerald E. Rosen said The government acted "Outside the Constitution."
Rosen and Justice Department Investigators concluded last year that the prosecution stuck doggedly to its theory in defiance of plausible explanations and advice from other US government officials. Records suggest prosecutors withheld evidence that cast doubt on their conclusions, even when ordered by superiors to deliver documents to the defense.
The Case of the Sleeper Cell that Wasn't, began on Sept. 17, 2001, when federal agents searching for a suspect named Nabil Al-Marabh instead found three men in a Detroit apartment where Al-Marabh had once lived. Among their possessions were false Identity documents, Islamic fundamentalist cassette tapes and a videotape with footage of tourist sites.
Prosecutors charged four men--Karim Koubriti, Ahmed Hannan, Farouk Ali-Haimoud and Abdel-Illah Elmardoudi--with conspiring to help terrorists. Convertino and his principal chief government witness, FBI agent Paul George, believed they had cracked an "Operational Combat Cell" of Islamic terrorists.
Convertino told a Jury when the trial began in March 2003 that the men were a "Shadowy Group" that was "Planning, Seeking Direction, Awaiting the Call." The most Important piece of evidence was a day planner that Included a pair of sketches. To the prosecution, they were maps of a terrorist. The defense dismissed them as doodles.
Seeing that one drawing said "Queen Alia Jordan," Convertino and his team searched for a match in Jordan among an airport, hotel and military hospital that all bore the name of the former Queen. FBI agent Michael Thomas and State Department Security Officer Harry Raymond Smith testified to seeing striking similarities between the sketch and the hospital's surroundings. "Every time we turned," Smith testified, "It was getting more and more like this drawing."
There was much discussion during the trial about whether the prosecution had photographs that could settle the debate. When Convertino asked Smith under oath whether he had taken photographs, Smith replied that Diplomats "Never Take Pictures" of a Military Installation because "it could cause bigger political Implications."
But Justice Investigators said later that US officials had taken photographs and Convertino knew it. e-mails from State Department liason Ed Seitz reported that the photos had been forwarded to Detroit, where Convertino replied, "thanks Ed! we love ya."
Justice lawyers said the photographs and the e-mails should have been disclosed. They concluded, in remarks unusually critical of a fellow prosecutor, that "Misleading Testimony Was Elicited."
"It is difficult, if not Impossible," the lawyers wrote, "to compare the day planner sketches with the photos and see a correlation between the documents and the hospital site."
Thomas told Investigators after the trial that Jordanian Intelligence Officers believed the drawing more resembled the airport. But he testified differently, telling the Jury: "we presented this document to the Jordanians. They said, 'we believe this is the military hospital.'"
Convertino said a second day planner drawing portrayed Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. This time he Introduced photographs. Thomas testified that the match was "almost identical," while Air Force Lt. Col. Mary Peterson described the sketch as "Pre-Operational Surveillance."
What no one on the prosecution team revealed was that other military analysts thought the drawing was not a bomber's map of Incirlik, but a doodler's depiction of a map of the Middle East.
The Justice review team said Peterson had created te "strong Inference" that all air force personnel agreed that an object in the drawing was a hardened bunker that existed at Incirlik. But undisclosed documents in the air force file called the drawing unclear and described any conclusions as "essentially opinion."
A group of US terrorism specialists in Ramstein, Germany, also studied the drawing and concluded that it might be a Middle East map. That detail took on more Importance after the trial when an air force Investigator described a conversation with FBI agent Thomas.
According to the Investigator, Thomas reported that a Yemeni source named Nasser Ahmed told him his mentally unstable brother might have drawn a map of the Middle East while doodling in the day planner. Defense lawyers were never told of the potentially exculpatory evidence, as required by law.
Rosen was so troubled by another piece of hidden evidence that he conducted a December 2003 hearing to find out why the US Attorney's Office had failed to disclose it. The subject was a letter written by Milton "Butch" Jones, a Detroit drug gang leader awaiting sentencing on a federal murder charge.
Jones wrote to prosecutors that he had spoken in Jail with Youssef Hmimssa, the only witness to tie the Detroit defendants to a terrorist cell. He quoted Hmimssa as saying he had lied to the FBI and fooled the Secret Service. Jones offered to show prosecutors his notes and take a polygraph test.
Federal prosecutor Joseph Allen testified in a post-trial hearing that he showed the letter to Convertino more than a year before Hmimssa took the witness stand. When it became clear during the trial that the letter remained secret, Allen was so upset that he notified the head of the Detroit US Attorney's Office Criminal Division, Alan Gershel.
Gershel told Rosen how, with the letter in front of him, he instructed Convertino's co-cousel, Keith Corbett, during the trial to release it. Allen said Gershel told him later the same day that the matter had been taken care of.
But Convertino and Corbett did not release the letter. Questioned later by Rosen, Convertino said "it slipped through the cracks" and would not have helped the defense anyway. Corbett admitted a "mistake in judgment on our part," but added that he did not recall Gershel's order to surrender the letter.
Rosen ordered the Internal Justice Department Inquiry in December 2003, six months after the Jury convicted Koubriti and Elmardoudi of supporting terrorism. Those two and Hannan were also convicted of document fraud. Ali-Haimoud was acquitted.
The Justice Department took its own case apart, witness by witness, and delivered scores of pages of evidence to defense lawyers. Rosen also traveled to the CIA to review classified documents.
Beyond the evidence about the trial, the Justice Department review quoted witnesses as saying that Convertino Instructed an FBI agent not to fill out official reports on the lengthy Interviews of Hmimssa, the questionable witness. The FBI reports--standard procedure--would have been accessible to defense lawyers.
Defense lawyers, who had accused the prosecution of concealing evidence and knowingly using false testimony felt vindicated.
"This was, for lack of a better term, a conspiracy to present a fraudulent case to the court," said Detroit defense lawyer William Swor, who represented Elmardoudi. "They took what was a reasonable concern under the circumstances and turned it into a Witch Hunt."
Staff Writer Carol D. Leonnig in Washington Contributed in this Report.
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/19/AR2005111900952_pf.html
prosecutor faces probe
-grand jury considering indictment for misconduct-
by-Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Detroit--Once trumpeted as one of the Justice Department's significant triumphs against terrorism, the case targeting the so-called "Detroit Sleeper Cell" began less than a week after the attack on the World Trade Center. It was only after a Jury convicted two men of supporting terrorism that the flimsiness of the gorvernment's case became clear.
As hidden evidence spilled out and the Justice Department abandoned the effort, Federal Investigators began to wonder whether the true conspiracy in the case was perpetrated by the prosecution. Now a Federal Grand Jury in Detroit is Investigating whether the lead prosecutor, Richard Convertino, or anyone else should be Indicted for unfairly tipping the scales.
It is a highly unusual case. No charges have been brought and many details remain secret, but Information in public documents and testimony in US Disctrict Court in Detroit suggest an effort by federal prosecutors and Important witnesses to mislead defense lawyers and deceive the Jury. US District Judge Gerald E. Rosen said The government acted "Outside the Constitution."
Rosen and Justice Department Investigators concluded last year that the prosecution stuck doggedly to its theory in defiance of plausible explanations and advice from other US government officials. Records suggest prosecutors withheld evidence that cast doubt on their conclusions, even when ordered by superiors to deliver documents to the defense.
The Case of the Sleeper Cell that Wasn't, began on Sept. 17, 2001, when federal agents searching for a suspect named Nabil Al-Marabh instead found three men in a Detroit apartment where Al-Marabh had once lived. Among their possessions were false Identity documents, Islamic fundamentalist cassette tapes and a videotape with footage of tourist sites.
Prosecutors charged four men--Karim Koubriti, Ahmed Hannan, Farouk Ali-Haimoud and Abdel-Illah Elmardoudi--with conspiring to help terrorists. Convertino and his principal chief government witness, FBI agent Paul George, believed they had cracked an "Operational Combat Cell" of Islamic terrorists.
Convertino told a Jury when the trial began in March 2003 that the men were a "Shadowy Group" that was "Planning, Seeking Direction, Awaiting the Call." The most Important piece of evidence was a day planner that Included a pair of sketches. To the prosecution, they were maps of a terrorist. The defense dismissed them as doodles.
Seeing that one drawing said "Queen Alia Jordan," Convertino and his team searched for a match in Jordan among an airport, hotel and military hospital that all bore the name of the former Queen. FBI agent Michael Thomas and State Department Security Officer Harry Raymond Smith testified to seeing striking similarities between the sketch and the hospital's surroundings. "Every time we turned," Smith testified, "It was getting more and more like this drawing."
There was much discussion during the trial about whether the prosecution had photographs that could settle the debate. When Convertino asked Smith under oath whether he had taken photographs, Smith replied that Diplomats "Never Take Pictures" of a Military Installation because "it could cause bigger political Implications."
But Justice Investigators said later that US officials had taken photographs and Convertino knew it. e-mails from State Department liason Ed Seitz reported that the photos had been forwarded to Detroit, where Convertino replied, "thanks Ed! we love ya."
Justice lawyers said the photographs and the e-mails should have been disclosed. They concluded, in remarks unusually critical of a fellow prosecutor, that "Misleading Testimony Was Elicited."
"It is difficult, if not Impossible," the lawyers wrote, "to compare the day planner sketches with the photos and see a correlation between the documents and the hospital site."
Thomas told Investigators after the trial that Jordanian Intelligence Officers believed the drawing more resembled the airport. But he testified differently, telling the Jury: "we presented this document to the Jordanians. They said, 'we believe this is the military hospital.'"
Convertino said a second day planner drawing portrayed Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. This time he Introduced photographs. Thomas testified that the match was "almost identical," while Air Force Lt. Col. Mary Peterson described the sketch as "Pre-Operational Surveillance."
What no one on the prosecution team revealed was that other military analysts thought the drawing was not a bomber's map of Incirlik, but a doodler's depiction of a map of the Middle East.
The Justice review team said Peterson had created te "strong Inference" that all air force personnel agreed that an object in the drawing was a hardened bunker that existed at Incirlik. But undisclosed documents in the air force file called the drawing unclear and described any conclusions as "essentially opinion."
A group of US terrorism specialists in Ramstein, Germany, also studied the drawing and concluded that it might be a Middle East map. That detail took on more Importance after the trial when an air force Investigator described a conversation with FBI agent Thomas.
According to the Investigator, Thomas reported that a Yemeni source named Nasser Ahmed told him his mentally unstable brother might have drawn a map of the Middle East while doodling in the day planner. Defense lawyers were never told of the potentially exculpatory evidence, as required by law.
Rosen was so troubled by another piece of hidden evidence that he conducted a December 2003 hearing to find out why the US Attorney's Office had failed to disclose it. The subject was a letter written by Milton "Butch" Jones, a Detroit drug gang leader awaiting sentencing on a federal murder charge.
Jones wrote to prosecutors that he had spoken in Jail with Youssef Hmimssa, the only witness to tie the Detroit defendants to a terrorist cell. He quoted Hmimssa as saying he had lied to the FBI and fooled the Secret Service. Jones offered to show prosecutors his notes and take a polygraph test.
Federal prosecutor Joseph Allen testified in a post-trial hearing that he showed the letter to Convertino more than a year before Hmimssa took the witness stand. When it became clear during the trial that the letter remained secret, Allen was so upset that he notified the head of the Detroit US Attorney's Office Criminal Division, Alan Gershel.
Gershel told Rosen how, with the letter in front of him, he instructed Convertino's co-cousel, Keith Corbett, during the trial to release it. Allen said Gershel told him later the same day that the matter had been taken care of.
But Convertino and Corbett did not release the letter. Questioned later by Rosen, Convertino said "it slipped through the cracks" and would not have helped the defense anyway. Corbett admitted a "mistake in judgment on our part," but added that he did not recall Gershel's order to surrender the letter.
Rosen ordered the Internal Justice Department Inquiry in December 2003, six months after the Jury convicted Koubriti and Elmardoudi of supporting terrorism. Those two and Hannan were also convicted of document fraud. Ali-Haimoud was acquitted.
The Justice Department took its own case apart, witness by witness, and delivered scores of pages of evidence to defense lawyers. Rosen also traveled to the CIA to review classified documents.
Beyond the evidence about the trial, the Justice Department review quoted witnesses as saying that Convertino Instructed an FBI agent not to fill out official reports on the lengthy Interviews of Hmimssa, the questionable witness. The FBI reports--standard procedure--would have been accessible to defense lawyers.
Defense lawyers, who had accused the prosecution of concealing evidence and knowingly using false testimony felt vindicated.
"This was, for lack of a better term, a conspiracy to present a fraudulent case to the court," said Detroit defense lawyer William Swor, who represented Elmardoudi. "They took what was a reasonable concern under the circumstances and turned it into a Witch Hunt."
Staff Writer Carol D. Leonnig in Washington Contributed in this Report.
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/19/AR2005111900952_pf.html
Monday, November 21, 2005
'Hassan's Seranade'
by-James Elroy Flecker
(1915)
how splendid in the morning glows
the lily, with what grace he trows
his supplication to the rose:
do roses nod their head, yasmin?
but when the silver dove descends
I find the little flower of friends
whose very name that sweetly ends
I say when I have said, yasmin.
the morning light is clear and cold
I dare not in that light behold
a deeper light, a deeper gold
a glory too far shed, yasmin.
but when the deep red eye of day
is level with the lone highway
and some to Mecca turn to pray
and I toward thy bed, yasmin.
or when the wind beneath the moon
is dazzling like a soul aswoon
and harping planets talk love's tune.
with milky wings outspread, yasmin.
shine down thy love, o burning bright!
for one night or the other night
will come the gardner in white
and gather'd flowers are dead, yasmin!
by-James Elroy Flecker
(1915)
how splendid in the morning glows
the lily, with what grace he trows
his supplication to the rose:
do roses nod their head, yasmin?
but when the silver dove descends
I find the little flower of friends
whose very name that sweetly ends
I say when I have said, yasmin.
the morning light is clear and cold
I dare not in that light behold
a deeper light, a deeper gold
a glory too far shed, yasmin.
but when the deep red eye of day
is level with the lone highway
and some to Mecca turn to pray
and I toward thy bed, yasmin.
or when the wind beneath the moon
is dazzling like a soul aswoon
and harping planets talk love's tune.
with milky wings outspread, yasmin.
shine down thy love, o burning bright!
for one night or the other night
will come the gardner in white
and gather'd flowers are dead, yasmin!
Write On The Water
write on the water
send ripples through time
to sit and do nothing
Is life's only crime.
(Flyte-Write on the Water)
-------------------------------------
I walked a mile with pleasure
she chattered all the way
but there was nothing I could learn
from all she had to say...
I walked a mile with sorrow
and never a word said she
but, oh, all the things I learned
when sorrow walked with me...
(unknown author)
send ripples through time
to sit and do nothing
Is life's only crime.
(Flyte-Write on the Water)
-------------------------------------
I walked a mile with pleasure
she chattered all the way
but there was nothing I could learn
from all she had to say...
I walked a mile with sorrow
and never a word said she
but, oh, all the things I learned
when sorrow walked with me...
(unknown author)
Lie of the Day--US Air Force General.:
"Some Iraq Deaths Staged."
by-Laura Sukhtian
November 20 2005
Associated Press
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Nov. 20)--A Top US Air Force General said Sunday that reports of civilian casualties in Iraq as a result of american military action were exaggerated.
"I would tell you first off I don't believe most of it and I am very much aware that some of that has been staged," said Lt. Gen. Walter E. Buchanan III, Commander of the 9th US Air Force and US Central Command Air Forces.
There are no official figures on civilian casualties in Iraq. A US military spokesman told Associated Press last month that as many as 30,000 Iraqis may have died during the War, which began with the US Invasion in March 2003.
Buchanan also said that the United States had no evidence that Syria was Involved in the Infiltration of Insurgents in Iraq.
Buchanon also disputed reports that the US military was using White Phosphorous against civilians in Iraq.
"It is purely used as a marking round, not as a weapon. It marks the target so it becomes very clear," he said.
Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday that US troops used White Phosphorous as a weapon against Insurgent strongholds during the battle for Fallujah in 2004.
Asked if it was possible civilians had been killed by White Phosphorus, he replied:
"It would not be out of the realm of the possible." said Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Venable, a Pentagon Spokesman (Financial Times of London)
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051120135109990001
"Some Iraq Deaths Staged."
by-Laura Sukhtian
November 20 2005
Associated Press
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Nov. 20)--A Top US Air Force General said Sunday that reports of civilian casualties in Iraq as a result of american military action were exaggerated.
"I would tell you first off I don't believe most of it and I am very much aware that some of that has been staged," said Lt. Gen. Walter E. Buchanan III, Commander of the 9th US Air Force and US Central Command Air Forces.
There are no official figures on civilian casualties in Iraq. A US military spokesman told Associated Press last month that as many as 30,000 Iraqis may have died during the War, which began with the US Invasion in March 2003.
Buchanan also said that the United States had no evidence that Syria was Involved in the Infiltration of Insurgents in Iraq.
Buchanon also disputed reports that the US military was using White Phosphorous against civilians in Iraq.
"It is purely used as a marking round, not as a weapon. It marks the target so it becomes very clear," he said.
Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday that US troops used White Phosphorous as a weapon against Insurgent strongholds during the battle for Fallujah in 2004.
Asked if it was possible civilians had been killed by White Phosphorus, he replied:
"It would not be out of the realm of the possible." said Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Venable, a Pentagon Spokesman (Financial Times of London)
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051120135109990001
Sunday, November 20, 2005
More Than 80,000 Held By US Since 9/11 Attacks
*growing worries over treatment of prisoners
*fury in Europe over Secret CIA terror suspect flights
by-Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday November 18, 2005
the Guardian
The US has detained more than 80, 000 people in facilities from Afghanistan to Cuba since the attacks on the World Trade Center four years ago, the Pentagon said yesterday. The disclosure comes at a time of growing unease about Washington's treatment of prisoners in its "war on terror" and Europe's unknowing help in the CIA's Practice of Rendition.
At least 14,500 people are in US custody in connection with the war on terror, Pentagon officials in Washington and Baghdad said yesterday. Some 13, 814 people are being held in Iraq and there are approximately 500 at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
But it was an even less visible aspect of America's detention policy that was causing a furore in European Capitals yesterday: the CIA's Practice of Rendering terror suspects for Interrogation to Secret Prisons in Third Countries.
The CIA has repeatedly declined to comment on reports it has transported terror suspects through European countries. The practice has been widely condemned by Human Rights Organizations for operating outside the scrutiny of the courts and for transporting prisoners to Countries Known to Use Torture.
Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland are all reported to have served as stopovers for such flights.
The revelations have deepened disquiet about European collaboration with the more disturbing aspects of america's war on terror. This month it was reported that the CIA had situated two of its secret prisons in Romania and Poland.
The Council of Europe's Secretary General, which has named a Swiss Senator, Dick Marty, to Investigate the allegations, called for cooperation with the Inquiry yesterday.
"This issue goes to the very heart of the Council of Europe's Human Rights Mandate," Rene van der Linden, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly, said in a speech to the Council of Europe's Executive Body.
http://guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1645305,00.html
*growing worries over treatment of prisoners
*fury in Europe over Secret CIA terror suspect flights
by-Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday November 18, 2005
the Guardian
The US has detained more than 80, 000 people in facilities from Afghanistan to Cuba since the attacks on the World Trade Center four years ago, the Pentagon said yesterday. The disclosure comes at a time of growing unease about Washington's treatment of prisoners in its "war on terror" and Europe's unknowing help in the CIA's Practice of Rendition.
At least 14,500 people are in US custody in connection with the war on terror, Pentagon officials in Washington and Baghdad said yesterday. Some 13, 814 people are being held in Iraq and there are approximately 500 at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
But it was an even less visible aspect of America's detention policy that was causing a furore in European Capitals yesterday: the CIA's Practice of Rendering terror suspects for Interrogation to Secret Prisons in Third Countries.
The CIA has repeatedly declined to comment on reports it has transported terror suspects through European countries. The practice has been widely condemned by Human Rights Organizations for operating outside the scrutiny of the courts and for transporting prisoners to Countries Known to Use Torture.
Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland are all reported to have served as stopovers for such flights.
The revelations have deepened disquiet about European collaboration with the more disturbing aspects of america's war on terror. This month it was reported that the CIA had situated two of its secret prisons in Romania and Poland.
The Council of Europe's Secretary General, which has named a Swiss Senator, Dick Marty, to Investigate the allegations, called for cooperation with the Inquiry yesterday.
"This issue goes to the very heart of the Council of Europe's Human Rights Mandate," Rene van der Linden, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly, said in a speech to the Council of Europe's Executive Body.
http://guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1645305,00.html
Marines Quiet About Brutal New Weapon
by-David Hambling
November 14, 2005
Ammo and Munitions
Defense Tech.
War is hell. But it's worse when the Marines bring out their New Urban Combat Weapon, the SMAW-NE http://talleyds.com/Product%20PDF%20flyers/SMAW-D%20NE-InfoPaper-10-03.pdf. Which may be why they're not talking about it, much.
This is a version of the standard USMC Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/smaw.htm, but with a New Warhead.
Described as NE--"Novel Explosive"--it is a Thermobaric Mixture which Ignites the Air, Producing a Shockwave of Unparalleled Destructive Power, especially against buildings, http://wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,58094,00.html.
A post-action report from Iraq describes the effect of the New Weapon: "one unit disintegrated a large one-storey masonry type building with one round from 100 meters http://globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2003/oif_mcsc-field-report_apr2003.doc. They were extremely impressed." Elsewhere it is described by one Marine as "an awesome piece of ordinance."
It proved highly effective in the battle for Fallujah. This from the Marine Corps Gazette, http://mca-marines.org/Gazette July edition: "SMAW gunners became expert at determining which wall to shoot to cause the roof to collapse and crush the Insurgents fortified inside interior rooms."
The NE round is supposed to be capable of going through a brick wall, but in practice gunners had to fire through a window or make a hole with an anti-Tank Rocket. Again, from the Marine Gazette:
"Due to the lack of penetrating power of the NE round, we found that our assaultmen had to first fire a Dual-Purpose Rocket in order to create a hole in the wall or building. The blast was immediately followed by an NE round that would Incinerate the Target or literally level the structure."
The Rationale For The Approach Was Straightforward:
"Marines could employ blast weapons prior to entering houses that had become pillboxes, not homes. The economic cost of house replacement is not comparable to american lives...all battalions adopted blast techniques appropriate to entering a bunker, assuming you did not know if the bunker was manned."
The Manufacturers, Talley, make bold use of its track record, with a brochure headlined Thermobaric Urban Destruction http://talleyds.com/Product%20PDF%20flyers/smaw_ne_flyer.pdf .
The SMAW-NE has only been procured by the USMC, though there are reports that some were 'borrowed' by other units. However, there are also proposals on the table that thousands of obsolete M-72 Laws http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m72.htm,
could be retrofitted with Thermobaric Warheads http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2004guns/thurs/rockets/johnson.pdf, making them into effective urban combat tools.
But in an era of precision bombs, where collateral damage is expected to be kept to a minimum, such Massively Brutal Weapons have become highly controversial. These days, every civilian casualty means a few more "hearts and minds" are lost.
Thermobaric Weapons http://defensetech.org/archives/000747.html almost Invariably lead to civilian deaths.
The Soviet Union was heavily criticized for using Thermobaric Weapons in Afghanistan because they were held to constitute "Disproportionate Force," and similar criticisms were made when Thermobaric Weapons were used in the Chechen Conflict.
According to Human Rights Watch, Thermobaric Weapons "Kill and Injure in a Particularly Brutal Manner Over a Wide Area http://hrw.org/press/2000/02/chech0215b.htm.
"In Urban settings it is very difficult to limit the effect of this Weapon to Combatants, and the nature of FAE explosions makes it Virtually Impossible for Civilians to take shelter from their destructive effect."
So its understandable that the Marines have made so little noise about the use of the SMAW-NE in Fallujah.
Courtesy Of: http://defensetech.org/archives/001944.html
by-David Hambling
November 14, 2005
Ammo and Munitions
Defense Tech.
War is hell. But it's worse when the Marines bring out their New Urban Combat Weapon, the SMAW-NE http://talleyds.com/Product%20PDF%20flyers/SMAW-D%20NE-InfoPaper-10-03.pdf. Which may be why they're not talking about it, much.
This is a version of the standard USMC Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/smaw.htm, but with a New Warhead.
Described as NE--"Novel Explosive"--it is a Thermobaric Mixture which Ignites the Air, Producing a Shockwave of Unparalleled Destructive Power, especially against buildings, http://wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,58094,00.html.
A post-action report from Iraq describes the effect of the New Weapon: "one unit disintegrated a large one-storey masonry type building with one round from 100 meters http://globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2003/oif_mcsc-field-report_apr2003.doc. They were extremely impressed." Elsewhere it is described by one Marine as "an awesome piece of ordinance."
It proved highly effective in the battle for Fallujah. This from the Marine Corps Gazette, http://mca-marines.org/Gazette July edition: "SMAW gunners became expert at determining which wall to shoot to cause the roof to collapse and crush the Insurgents fortified inside interior rooms."
The NE round is supposed to be capable of going through a brick wall, but in practice gunners had to fire through a window or make a hole with an anti-Tank Rocket. Again, from the Marine Gazette:
"Due to the lack of penetrating power of the NE round, we found that our assaultmen had to first fire a Dual-Purpose Rocket in order to create a hole in the wall or building. The blast was immediately followed by an NE round that would Incinerate the Target or literally level the structure."
The Rationale For The Approach Was Straightforward:
"Marines could employ blast weapons prior to entering houses that had become pillboxes, not homes. The economic cost of house replacement is not comparable to american lives...all battalions adopted blast techniques appropriate to entering a bunker, assuming you did not know if the bunker was manned."
The Manufacturers, Talley, make bold use of its track record, with a brochure headlined Thermobaric Urban Destruction http://talleyds.com/Product%20PDF%20flyers/smaw_ne_flyer.pdf .
The SMAW-NE has only been procured by the USMC, though there are reports that some were 'borrowed' by other units. However, there are also proposals on the table that thousands of obsolete M-72 Laws http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m72.htm,
could be retrofitted with Thermobaric Warheads http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2004guns/thurs/rockets/johnson.pdf, making them into effective urban combat tools.
But in an era of precision bombs, where collateral damage is expected to be kept to a minimum, such Massively Brutal Weapons have become highly controversial. These days, every civilian casualty means a few more "hearts and minds" are lost.
Thermobaric Weapons http://defensetech.org/archives/000747.html almost Invariably lead to civilian deaths.
The Soviet Union was heavily criticized for using Thermobaric Weapons in Afghanistan because they were held to constitute "Disproportionate Force," and similar criticisms were made when Thermobaric Weapons were used in the Chechen Conflict.
According to Human Rights Watch, Thermobaric Weapons "Kill and Injure in a Particularly Brutal Manner Over a Wide Area http://hrw.org/press/2000/02/chech0215b.htm.
"In Urban settings it is very difficult to limit the effect of this Weapon to Combatants, and the nature of FAE explosions makes it Virtually Impossible for Civilians to take shelter from their destructive effect."
So its understandable that the Marines have made so little noise about the use of the SMAW-NE in Fallujah.
Courtesy Of: http://defensetech.org/archives/001944.html
Saturday, November 19, 2005
US Seeks To Secure Sahara Desert
by- Jason Motlagh
the Washington Times
November 17, 2005
Abidjan, Ivory Coast--The US government will spend $500 million over five years on an expanded program to secure a vast new front in its global war on terrorism: the Sahara Desert.
Critics say the region is not a terrorist zone as some senior US military officers assert. They add that heavy-handed military and financial support that reinforces authoritarian regimes in North and West Africa could fuel radicalism where it scarcely existed.
The Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI) was begun in June to provide military expertise, equipment and development aid to nine Saharan countries where lawless swaths of desert are considered fertile ground for militant muslim groups involved in smuggling and combat training.
"It's the wild west all over again," said Maj. Holly Silkman, a public affairs officer at US Special Operations Command Europe, which presides over US security and peacekeeping operations in Europe, former Soviet bloc countries and most of Africa.
Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Morocco, Nigeria and Tunisia take part in the TSCTI. During the first phase of the program, dubbed Operation Flintlock, US Special Forces led 3,000 ill-equipped Saharan troops in tactical exercises designed to better coordinate security along porous borders and beef up patrols in ungoverned territories.
The head of Special Operations Command Europe, Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Csnko, said he was concerned that the terrorist network Al Qaeda is assessing African groups for "franchising opportunities," notably the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (the Algerian-based GSPC), cited on the US State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.
US ROLE MAY MISFIRE:
Some observers say terrorism in the Sahara is little more than a mirage and that a higher-profile US involvement could destabilize the region.
"If anything, the [TSCTI]...will generate terrorism, by which I mean resistance to the overall US presence and strategy," said Jeremy Keenan, a Sahara specialist at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.
A report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based Think Tank, said that although the Sahara is "not a terrorist hot bed," repressive governments in the region are using the Bush administrations "war on terror" to tap US largesse and deny civil freedoms.
The report said the regime of Mauritanian President Maaouiya Ould Sid' Ahmed Taya--a US ally in West Africa deposed August 3 in a bloodless coup--used the threat of terrorism to legitimize denial of human rights. The dictator jailed and harassed dozens of opposition politicians under the pretext that they were connected to the GSPC.
This has made the TSCTI unpopular among some Mauritanians, said Princeton Lyman, director of African Policy Studies at the Council of Foreign Relations. In June, hundreds of Mauritanians filled the streets of Nouackchott, the Capital, to protest the start of the TSCTI.
ALGERIA REPORTS DOUBTED:
Mr. Keenan said the government of Algeria--saddled with a history of state terrorism and disinformation campaigns--is an even worse offender, misleading Washington about the GSPC threat to acquire modern weapons and shed its pariah status.
He added that US Intelligence about the Saharan region is sparse, and that officials and Western reporters have been gullible in their near-wholesale acceptance of dubious Algerian claims about GSPC activities, rendering suspect Washington's main justification for the TSCTI.
OIL MAY BE A FACTOR:
US and Algerian authorities have failed to present "Indisputable Verification of a single act of alleged terrorism in the Sahara," Mr. Keenan said.
"Without the GSPC, the US has no legitimacy for its presence in the region," he added, noting that an escalating American strategic dependency on African Oil requires that the United States bolster its presence in the region.
A report by the National Energy Policy Development Group anticipates that by 2015, West Africa will provide a quarter of the Oil imported by the United States.
The Bush administration has called African Oil a "National Strategic Interest." Nigeria is the fifth-largest source of US imported Oil; Algeria's 9 billion barrel reserves has been revised upwards, and Mauritania has begun offshore pumping that could make it Africa's no. 4 Oil supplier by 2007.
http://washingtontimes.com/world/20051116-105812-2434r.htm
by- Jason Motlagh
the Washington Times
November 17, 2005
Abidjan, Ivory Coast--The US government will spend $500 million over five years on an expanded program to secure a vast new front in its global war on terrorism: the Sahara Desert.
Critics say the region is not a terrorist zone as some senior US military officers assert. They add that heavy-handed military and financial support that reinforces authoritarian regimes in North and West Africa could fuel radicalism where it scarcely existed.
The Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI) was begun in June to provide military expertise, equipment and development aid to nine Saharan countries where lawless swaths of desert are considered fertile ground for militant muslim groups involved in smuggling and combat training.
"It's the wild west all over again," said Maj. Holly Silkman, a public affairs officer at US Special Operations Command Europe, which presides over US security and peacekeeping operations in Europe, former Soviet bloc countries and most of Africa.
Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Morocco, Nigeria and Tunisia take part in the TSCTI. During the first phase of the program, dubbed Operation Flintlock, US Special Forces led 3,000 ill-equipped Saharan troops in tactical exercises designed to better coordinate security along porous borders and beef up patrols in ungoverned territories.
The head of Special Operations Command Europe, Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Csnko, said he was concerned that the terrorist network Al Qaeda is assessing African groups for "franchising opportunities," notably the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (the Algerian-based GSPC), cited on the US State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.
US ROLE MAY MISFIRE:
Some observers say terrorism in the Sahara is little more than a mirage and that a higher-profile US involvement could destabilize the region.
"If anything, the [TSCTI]...will generate terrorism, by which I mean resistance to the overall US presence and strategy," said Jeremy Keenan, a Sahara specialist at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.
A report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based Think Tank, said that although the Sahara is "not a terrorist hot bed," repressive governments in the region are using the Bush administrations "war on terror" to tap US largesse and deny civil freedoms.
The report said the regime of Mauritanian President Maaouiya Ould Sid' Ahmed Taya--a US ally in West Africa deposed August 3 in a bloodless coup--used the threat of terrorism to legitimize denial of human rights. The dictator jailed and harassed dozens of opposition politicians under the pretext that they were connected to the GSPC.
This has made the TSCTI unpopular among some Mauritanians, said Princeton Lyman, director of African Policy Studies at the Council of Foreign Relations. In June, hundreds of Mauritanians filled the streets of Nouackchott, the Capital, to protest the start of the TSCTI.
ALGERIA REPORTS DOUBTED:
Mr. Keenan said the government of Algeria--saddled with a history of state terrorism and disinformation campaigns--is an even worse offender, misleading Washington about the GSPC threat to acquire modern weapons and shed its pariah status.
He added that US Intelligence about the Saharan region is sparse, and that officials and Western reporters have been gullible in their near-wholesale acceptance of dubious Algerian claims about GSPC activities, rendering suspect Washington's main justification for the TSCTI.
OIL MAY BE A FACTOR:
US and Algerian authorities have failed to present "Indisputable Verification of a single act of alleged terrorism in the Sahara," Mr. Keenan said.
"Without the GSPC, the US has no legitimacy for its presence in the region," he added, noting that an escalating American strategic dependency on African Oil requires that the United States bolster its presence in the region.
A report by the National Energy Policy Development Group anticipates that by 2015, West Africa will provide a quarter of the Oil imported by the United States.
The Bush administration has called African Oil a "National Strategic Interest." Nigeria is the fifth-largest source of US imported Oil; Algeria's 9 billion barrel reserves has been revised upwards, and Mauritania has begun offshore pumping that could make it Africa's no. 4 Oil supplier by 2007.
http://washingtontimes.com/world/20051116-105812-2434r.htm
'Vicissitudes Of The Heart'
If the ethereal moon waxes and wanes,
Oceanic tides ebb and flow,
Autumn leaves,
Fall and grow...
Then what of this poor heart?
If mountainous heights erupt in ashes,
The stable earth quakes and shivers,
Sun-kissed skies turn to gloom,
How can this faltering soul remain in bloom?
When the meadows lose their luscious sheen,
And firey hues replace brilliant greens,
When everything we touch is not all it seems
And nothing remains of its former gleam.
How can I still this tumult within?
As the desert blazes in noon's heat
Dunes shifting and sliding
To the winds beat,
I yearn for remembrances,
Of eternal peace.
But if the selfsame sky can be both bright and bleak,
And starry nights yield lightning streaks,
If empty shells of distant memories still weep,
Can this fickle vessel be blamed
For a single tranquil moment it can't seem To keep?
Against this pulsating universe,
I can't compete!
I simply can't compete.
(by-Maliha)
http://jannah.org
Oceanic tides ebb and flow,
Autumn leaves,
Fall and grow...
Then what of this poor heart?
If mountainous heights erupt in ashes,
The stable earth quakes and shivers,
Sun-kissed skies turn to gloom,
How can this faltering soul remain in bloom?
When the meadows lose their luscious sheen,
And firey hues replace brilliant greens,
When everything we touch is not all it seems
And nothing remains of its former gleam.
How can I still this tumult within?
As the desert blazes in noon's heat
Dunes shifting and sliding
To the winds beat,
I yearn for remembrances,
Of eternal peace.
But if the selfsame sky can be both bright and bleak,
And starry nights yield lightning streaks,
If empty shells of distant memories still weep,
Can this fickle vessel be blamed
For a single tranquil moment it can't seem To keep?
Against this pulsating universe,
I can't compete!
I simply can't compete.
(by-Maliha)
http://jannah.org
The Day Begins
cold hearted orb that rules the night
removes the colours from our sight
red is grey, and yellow white
but we decide which is right
and which is an illusion.
pinprick holes in a colourless sky
let incipient figures of light pass by
the mighty light of ten thousand suns
challenges infinity and is soon gone.
night time, to some, a brief interlude
to others, the fear of solitude
brave helios, wake up your steeds
bring us the warmth the country side needs.
(Moody Blues--the day begins)
removes the colours from our sight
red is grey, and yellow white
but we decide which is right
and which is an illusion.
pinprick holes in a colourless sky
let incipient figures of light pass by
the mighty light of ten thousand suns
challenges infinity and is soon gone.
night time, to some, a brief interlude
to others, the fear of solitude
brave helios, wake up your steeds
bring us the warmth the country side needs.
(Moody Blues--the day begins)
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