Theodore's World

This is remarkable film footage. It has been around for awhile, but it is so good.
This is a night vision movie from Iraq, showing live action against Iraqi insurgents. The pictures were taken from an AC-130 Specter gunship two and a half miles from the target. The guys in the picture are setting up a roadside bomb and planning to ambush an American convoy which followed a short while after the pictures were taken. They were setting up the ambush and were pacing off the distance from the bomb to where the convoy was to pass by.
Turn your sound up. The level of effort these Specter crews put forth to control the enemy’s antics is commendable, and their marksmanship with those electronically controlled 40mm cannons is astounding.
The Video is HERE

A Pakistani vendor hangs posters of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden at his road side book stall in Peshawar.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President George W. Bush renewed for one year an asset freeze on terrorist chief Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network as well as groups like Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
In a letter to key US lawmakers explaining the move, Bush cited “grave acts of violence committed by foreign terrorists that disrupt the Middle East peace process.”

“Terrorist groups continue to engage in activities that have the purpose or effect of threatening the Middle East peace process and that are hostile to United States interests in the region,” he said.
“Such actions constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” said the president.
“For these reasons, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared with respect to foreign terrorists who threaten to disrupt the Middle East peace process and to maintain in force the economic sanctions against them to respond to this threat,” said Bush.

Wild Thing’s comment……
This surprised me, why do we have to make sure this asset freeze is renewed regarding Osama? How odd, I would think since we are at war with Islam any terrorist group, leader, organization would not have to be renewed on any level about anything. Hmmmm strange.

Sgt Albert Cook runs out of a M109A6 Paladin, a Self-Propelled Howitzer, to retrieve canisters for indirect fire missions at Forward Operating Base Warhorse, in the Diyala Province of Iraq. The artillery Soldier is a member of A Battery, 2nd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.

Artillery Soldiers bring more than firepower to fight in new deployment
Wednesday, 17 January 2007
By Staff Sgt. Samantha M. Stryker
5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
BAQUBAH — If any one knows what it means to adjust fire, it is the Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. Instead of sending rounds down range, these Fort Hood Soldiers served as infantrymen, and even called for fire support during their previous deployment to Iraq.
Those missions included security escorts, presence patrols, and conducting raids aimed at capturing suspected insurgents and confiscating prohibited weapons and bomb-making material used against coalition forces.
This time around, the Soldiers are doing the job they know best; sending 155mm rounds down range in support of on-going operations in the Diyala Province for 3rd BCT.

“We have trained for years and finally we get the opportunity to fire. We are energized by that,” said 1st Lt. Sean O’Keefe, A Battery, 2nd platoon leader.

“We are here to support units with the type of mission needed, whether its illumination or high explosives, we will support them within minutes,” O’Keefe added.

Along with their mission to provide indirect fire support for the brigade and attached units, O’Keefe said the 2-82 FA also supports fire missions requested by Iraqi Security Forces working with Military Transition Teams.

“Some MiTT teams have the capability to talk to the battery,” he said.

Fire Support Officer, 2nd Lt. Jeremy Duplechin, B Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Combined Arms Battalion, stressed the importance of the experience by the 2-82 FA Soldiers and how it has made them better.
The young artillery officer is attached to an infantry company as an artillery advisor to coordinate artillery support during any type of mission.

“These artillery Soldiers have a new perspective on their mission and how forward operating units work in conjunction with indirect fire,” said Duplechin.

“I bet they have a better appreciation and understanding of how important their job is after they have been on the ground,” he added.

Knowing what the Soldiers who are forward in the fight see and experience when rounds strike their targets is valuable knowledge, but time and accuracy are even more crucial. This is how artillery Soldiers prove themselves in battle.

“We learned more about both sides and how each of them are needed and work together to accomplish any mission,” said Spc. Efren Ordaz, A Battery, 2-82 FA, referring back to their last deployment.

“When patrols need artillery support, we understand firsthand…how fast they need it,” he said.

This unit is divided between two bases in the Diyala province, with each battery providing indirect fire support for current and future operations.
Providing support for units forward in the battle is not the only mission for these artillerymen. They also provide protection for the Soldiers on those bases.

“The less we shoot, the more we get mortared,” said Sgt. 1st Class Eric Andersen, acting first sergeant for A Battery, 2-82 FA.

The battery’s top enlisted member, often called ‘Smoke,’ offers this explanation for the loud booming sounds of artillery leaving Forward Operating Base Warhorse, leaving trembling buildings in its wake.

“It is ‘piece of mind’ what service members hear as the roaring thunder of artillery rounds leave the gun tube of a howitzer,” Andersen said.

“Here is a reality check,” he said with a grin, “The artillery guys shoot at and remove a positively identified target or threat that is either firing at us or some one innocent.”

Netherland’s: Internet a “Virtual Terrorist Training Camp” says Official

Amsterdam, 17 Jan. (AKI)
Radical Muslim organisations currently operate between 100 and 200 web sites offering, bomb-making manuals and step-by-step video instructions, and more, national counter-terrorism coordinator Tjibbe Joustra says in a new report, quoted by Radio Netherlands.
He is concerned that the Internet also enables radical groups to target their propaganda at receptive Dutch audiences and says it is looking increasingly like “a virtual terrorist training camp,” Radio Netherlands reports.

Wild Thing’s comment…..
We have heard this as well from our own government.They even use servers located here in our country. This is a new kind of war, one that is also fought on the internet.

At the US-Mexican border near San Diego

Illegal aliens near Naco, Arizona border.
Night vision photo by Henry Harvey.

Bush Slammed as Border Patrol Agents Begin Prison Terms
(CNSNews.com)
As two U.S. Border Patrol agents surrendered to federal marshals Wednesday afternoon to begin serving more than a decade in jail for shooting an illegal drug smuggler, a federal lawmaker and conservative advocacy group expressed outrage at President Bush for not pardoning the men.

“This is the worst betrayal of American defenders I have ever seen,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said of the president.

“It’s shameful this was done by someone who is in the Republican Party,” the California Republican added in comments coinciding with the jailing of agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.

Rohrabacher said Bush “obviously thinks more about his agreements with Mexico than the lives of American people and backing up his defenders.”

Ramos and Compean reportedly handed themselves over to the U.S. Marshal’s office in El Paso, Texas, early Wednesday afternoon, facing the prospect of 11- and 12-year prison terms, respectively, for a string of offenses including the use of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence.

Frontpage

On February 17, 2005, Ramos and Compean were patrolling the border town of Fabens, Texas, when a Mexican illegal alien and drug smuggler, attempted to secret nearly 800 pounds of marijuana into the United States in his van. Agent Compean chased Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila by vehicle and on foot, ordering him to stop. Compean says Aldrete-Davila ignored him, pushed him down, and assaulted him, whereupon the agent called for backup, drawing seven additional units, including Ramos. When he arrived on the scene, he heard gunfire, saw Compean bleeding on the ground, and the fugitive – still refusing to stop as commanded – stealing furtive glances over his shoulder while holding something shiny he believed to be a handgun. Both state they felt threatened, and both fired rounds in the alien’s direction, Ramos striking him in the buttocks. The alien got away, but the two men had jeopardized their own well-being to keep his noxious contraband off our streets.
Returning to Mexico, Aldrete-Davila related his misfortunes to his mother, who contacted the mother-in-law of Border Patrol agent Rene Sanchez. Sanchez in turn tipped off a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who went to Mexico to offer immunity if Osbaldo would act as a state’s witness against Ramos and Compean: the feds wanted to prosecute the agents shooting the alien narcotics supplier.
To sweeten the immunity deal, the feds paid for Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila’s medical treatment of his ailing backside – a taxpayer-funded recuperation at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas. He showed his gratitude by breaking his immunity agreement in October 2005, when officers say he attempted to smuggle 1,000 pounds of marijuana into America. The prosecution further extended its immunity to this felony and sealed the indictment from jurors. Aldrete-Davila repaid this new shower of grace by suing the federal government for $5 million, alleging the shooting violated his civil rights. However, he agreed to help in their criminal prosecution, as well, and the feds are apparently happy to collaborate with the pusher as long as he helped put effective lawmen behind bars.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
These guys would have never been convicted if this Administration didn’t offer the Illegal Alien Drug Smuggler immunity to testify against them.
I will defend the BP agents more than I will a drug smuggler! An ILLEGAL alien drug smuggler at that!
These Border Agents did their job, when an AMERICAN says they defend a bum drug smuggler and NOT the law and those who upkeep the law it is a sad day in America!!
It reminds me of those that tried to convict our Military not to long ago when they were accused. We all supported and stood by our military and I would do it again just as I stand by the BORDER PATROL AGENTS!
Anyone can come over the OPEN border, terrorists with suitcase nuclear weapons and stinking drug smugglers! There is something very wrong with these guys going to prison and the drug dealer going free.
This wasn’t Anytown USA and those BP’s are in an undeclared war zone of which our leaders in Washington DC have turned a blind eye to. It is the Mexican Smugglers against the US BP it is the Mexican Army as well as Mexican Police against our BP. Then besides that they face the often-armed illegal’s with nothing to loose. Night after night day after day while our POTUS kisses up to the Mexican government BACKING the ones shooting at our BP’s for his beloved new trade union. That’s right, OUR Government BREAKING OUR LAWS everyday they kiss ass to Mexico encouraging the illegal’s to enter and give them rewards with our tax dollars for doing such.
What is worse the government thinks that their bad cutting a deal by pardoning a felon with 700 pounds of pot is a far less serious a crime as being shot in the butt? This man has had how many arrests by BP? The USAG’s office is ready to give him sainthood.
How many BP’s have been shot at and killed by Mexicans and what has been Mexico’s response? What have been the Whitehouse’s demands? It’s a war zone down there!
The record shows, for a fact, they acted legally and thought the perp had a gun at the time.
I will no more second guess them under their circumstances than our U.S. service members actions in Iraq.
Unarmed National Guards on the border that the BP as well must protect. Bush has helped create the very conditions that place our BP’s lives in danger to start with. In light of his gross mis-management concerning our borders yes he owes them a pardon and the rest of the BP and the NG’s he sent there unarmed an apology as well.
Rule of law” to Alberto Gonzales means:
1. 12 years in prison for shooting a drug smuggler in the ass, and lying about it
2. 100 hours community service for Sandy Berger for stealing and destroying top-secret government documents pertaining to acts of war, and lying about it.
Our government is sending the border agents a message: Don’t defend yourselves. Don’t secure the border. Otherwise, you go to jail. You’re there only for appearances.
Now let’s take this a step further ok? We have our awesome troops, locked and loaded to fight. Ready, aim, fire…. a go at the enemy. BUT wait……God forbid they take out a Muslim that reaches for a bomb, a gun, a weapon. God forbid the freaking smelly turbin headed Muslim turns to run and gets shot, in the gluts’, in the back, in the hamstring…whatever! Who gives a shit! I applaud the soldier and we have one less infidel hater on this earth. I call that a damn good day!
We are sending more troops to Iraq. OK good, but IF our leadership intends to repeat the hands tied behind the back rule, then screw it. Yes I am pissed, I am tired of this weak lawbreaking leadership that expects our troops, our soldiers and yes our BP agents to do their job when our leadership ignores our existing laws, takes the side of the damn Muslims and the illegal’s, then this world is upside down and we might as well just order more amo for our homes and keep going to the range. Because the open borders have already proven they are a way for terrorists to enter as well.
I am fierce about loyalty and I will give mine to our troops, to our Veterans and to our BP agents that WANT to defend this Nation. NOT to some two faced loyalty in our leadership that want to stay in some kind of sick comfort zone of aiding the enemy by caving in to their demands, their whines, their illegal activity and their deal making, lies and tax funded health care etc. to obtain the freedoms that our Veterans, and troops today fought for, got injured for and died for. And that includes our BP agents as well.

Military gear bound for Iran, China traced to Pentagon surplus sales
International Herald Tribune
Published: January 16, 2007
WASHINGTON: Fighter jet parts and other sensitive U.S. military gear seized from front companies for Iran and brokers for China have been traced in criminal cases to a surprising source: the U.S. Defense Department.
In one case, federal investigators said, contraband bought at auction from Defense surplus stocks was delivered to Iran, which President George W. Bush had in his “axis of evil” grouping. Just Tuesday, the State Department branded Iran as the world’s worst exporter of terror.
In the Iran case, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say those parts made it to Iran.
Sensitive military surplus items are supposed to be demilitarized, rendered useless for military purposes, or if auctioned, sold only to buyers who promise to obey U.S. arms embargoes, export controls and other laws.
Yet the surplus sales can operate like a supermarket for arms dealers.

“Right Item, Right Time, Right Place, Right Price, Every Time. Best Value Solutions for America’s Warfighters,” the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service says on its Web site, calling itself “the place to obtain original U.S. Government surplus property.”

Federal investigators are increasingly anxious that Iran is within easy reach of a top priority on its shopping list: parts for its precious fleet of F-14 “Tomcat” fighter jets the United States let Iran buy in the 1970s when it was an ally.
In one case, convicted middlemen for Iran bought Tomcat parts from the Defense Department’s surplus division. Customs agents confiscated them and returned them to the Pentagon, which sold them again, customs evidence tags still attached, to another buyer, a suspected broker for Iran.

“That would be evidence of a significant breakdown, in my view, in controls and processes,” said Greg Kutz, the Government Accountability Office’s head of special investigations. “It shouldn’t happen the first time, let alone the second time.”

This is a 3 page article, it you would like to read the entire thing, please go HERE. Thank you.

Wild Thing’s comment……
Where the hell did the Pentagon think this hardware would end up? Disneyland? WTF?
OK so let’s see, it could be the Pentagon is deliberately selling defective gear to Iran and China. ( ????) If not this is NOT good news.

Russian Tor-M1 missile system launcher vehicles are seen during military exercises somewhere in undisclosed location in Russia, in this July 28, 2005 file picture. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007, confirmed that Russia has sold Tor-M1 air defense missile systems to Iran. Ministry officials have previously said Moscow would supply 29 of the sophisticated missile systems to Iran under a US$700 million (euro615 million) contract signed in December

Russia stands firm in face of criticism over sale of anti-aircraft missiles to Tehran
RUSSIA said yesterday it had delivered new anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran and would consider further requests by Tehran for defensive weapons.
Washington and Israel, which accuse Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear arms and undermining security in the region, have criticised the sale of TOR-M1 missiles.

“We have supplied the modern short-range anti-aircraft systems TOR-M1 in accordance with our contracts,” the Russian defence minister, Sergei Ivanov, told reporters. We’re developing our military and technical co-operation with Iran in accordance with international law.

“If Iran wants to buy defensive, I underline defensive, equipment for its armed forces, then why not?”

Mr Ivanov, who is seen as a potential successor to the president, Vladimir Putin, did not say how many missile systems had been delivered or when the deliveries took place.
Russian arms sales and nuclear co-operation with Iran have strained relations with the United States, which suspects Tehran of using a nuclear power programme as cover for development of atomic weapons.
Russia, which is building Iran’s first nuclear power plant, says Tehran does not have the capability to make nuclear weapons. Iran says it has a right to develop its civilian nuclear sector and denies seeking nuclear arms.

Information about the Tor M1

Tor M1 air defense short range missile systemThe TOR-M1 surface-to-air missile system is a mobile, integrated air defense system, designed for operation at medium-, low- and very low –altitudes, against fixed/rotary wing aircraft, UAVs, guided missiles and precision weapon. The system is capable of operating in an intensive aerial jamming environment. The system is comprised of a number of missile Transporter Launcher Vehicle (TLV). A Russian air defense Tor battalion consists of 3 – 5 companies, each equipped with four TLVs. Each TLV is equipped with 8 ready to launch missiles, associating radars, fire control systems and a battery command post. The combat vehicle can operate autonomously, firing from stationary positions or on the move. Set-up time is rated at 3 minutes and typical reaction time, from target detection to missile launch is 5-8 seconds. Reaction time could range from 3.4 seconds for stationary positions to 10 seconds while on the move. Each fire unit can engage and launch missiles against two separate targets.
Tor M1 missile launched from the vertical container/launcher. The missile uses cold launch to exit and clear the launcher, and the rocket motor and thrusters are ignited at an altitude of 20 meters.Tor M1 can detect and track up to 48 targets (minimum radar cross section of 0.1 square meter) at a maximum range of 25 km, and engage two of them simultaneously, at a speed of up to 700 m/sec, and at a distance of 1 to 12 km. The system’s high lethality (aircraft kill probability of 0.92-0.95) is maintained at altitude of 10 – 6,000 m’. The vertically launched, single-stage solid rocket propelled missile is capable of maneuvering at loads up to 30gs. It is equipped with a 15kg high-explosive fragmentation warhead activated by a proximity fuse. The system is offered as fully integrated tracked combat vehicle, or as a modular combat unit (TOR-M1T) comprising a truck mounted mobile control module and launcher/antenna units, carried on a trailer. Other configuration include separated towed systems, as well as shelter-based systems, for the protection of fixed sites.
The missile is also effective against precision guided weapons and cruise missiles. In tests the missile demonstrated kill probability of such targets ranging from 0.6 to 0.9.

Wild Thing’s comment…..
So it seems without Russia’s help, Iran would be stuck in the 19th century. And imo there’s no way Russia will back down from backing Iran.

Tech. Sgt. Dan Robison, U.S. Air Force, loads 30mm ammunition into an A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft at Bradley Air National Guard Base, Conn., on Jan. 7, 2007. Robison is assigned to the Connecticut Air National Guard’s 103rd Maintenance Squadron. DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Soucy, U.S. Army. (Released)

Soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team fire an FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank guided missile while training at the Joint Multinational Training Center in Grafenwoehr, Germany. The unit is preparing for deployment.

A homeowner gestures that he has nothing to hide as a soldier from the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, searches the outside of his home during a predawn sweep of a neighborhood in southern Baghdad

A soldier from the 18th Explosive Ordinance Disposal Company, based at Fort Bragg, N.C., works Tuesday with an explosive ordnance disposal specialist from the 2nd Iraqi Army Division to identify and remove unexploded ordnance.

Bagram opens new $68 million runway
Air Force Brig. Gen. Christopher Miller, 455th Air Expeditionary Wing commander, left, along with Abdul Taqwa, governor of Parwan Province and Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, Combined Joint Task Force-76 commander, cut the ribbon officially opening the new runway at Bagram Airfield.

Soldiers from the Connecticut National Guard patrol the vast, rugged terrain of Kabisa Province, Afghanistan

If Tehran Knew
asharq alawsat

In America, they lie for tactical reasons, stating over and over that military action against Iran is unlikely. However in Iran, out of ignorance, they reiterate that American military action against their country is impossible because the US is “unable” to do so!
We say and hope our analysis is wrong. A possible military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities is in the final stages. Unless a political miracle occurs that revives the halted dialog between Iran and the international community, Iran and its neighboring countries should not be surprised by a scenario that includes American military action.
There are a number of common illusions in the Arab and Muslim mind in general, illusions that on several occasions in the past have been tried and proven unsuccessful. It was proven that the Arabs confuse their hopes with reality, and between what the other wants and what we think they are planning for.
There is an illusion that Iran is a huge military state with decisive striking power. This would be true if Iran was to confront one of its neighbors, but the fact is that in any confrontation between America and Iran, Iran would be a tiny helpless state. It will suffer what the Arabs suffered in 1967 and what Iraq suffered when Saddam stubbornly rejected all peaceful solutions. America will be able to impose its conditions. This has nothing to do with love or hatred. Geographically and historically, Iran is closer to us than America, and the cultural and historical relations we have with Iran outweigh our ties with America. Rather it is the facts, reality that show that the balances of power tilt flagrantly in favor of the United States and the Western alliance, particularly the European one!
Another illusion is that America is “rolling in the Iraqi mud.” I wish that the Arab world would not believe such a statement; Iraq is not another Vietnam, and America is able to conduct more than one war because of its huge political and technological capabilities.
Tehran needs to reconsider its political discourse. The clamor of hollow threats has not succeeded once in modern history. No one ever succeeded without using one’s mind and knowing one’s capabilities and acting accordingly, pursuant to the rule “God favors those who know their self worth”.
Israel has a nuclear arsenal but no Israeli official dares to mention Israel’s possessions of nuclear weapons; they even deny the existence of these weapons. In Tehran, they are still in the early stages of enrichment; yet we hear a language of threats, menace and stubbornness.
If only the Iranian leadership thinks of the interests of its peoples, seeks to understand today’s complicated international political equations and realizes that big words do not change political facts and that seeking practical alternatives and solutions with the international community is more feasible and useful than the antiquated words that think that louder voices mean a stronger argument!

Wild Thing’s comment…….
I read Victor Davis Hanson often and sometimes save what he has written. This is excellent and I am going to put some of that he wrote here. I agree with what he said so I will leave it as my comment…………
The Dogs of War – Lessons of the 20th Century

“When the dogs of war slip loose, accurate prognosis is almost impossible; the surreal becomes the typical.”

“I would not wish to fight the United States – either militarily, politically, or culturally. For every threat, our history teaches us that Americans offer not just a rejoinder, but the specter of a devastating answer of a magnitude almost inconceivable to those now chanting and threatening in the streets of the Middle East. Do they have any idea of what sort of dangerous people we really are? Do they understand the history of the names of those ships now off their coasts, like the USS Peleliu or Enterprise, or the pedigree of the 82nd or 101st Airborne? “

“The Saudis’ princes tease us with polite lectures about our errant policies, more obliquely suggesting that our bombing may lose “friends” among the moderate states. Yet America, unlike Saudi Arabia, has not merely the veneer of modern civilization, but is its wellspring. In a real war, despite severe dislocation we can survive, as in the past, without Saudi oil. The royal family and the faux-culture of the Gulf cannot. Fifteen of their citizens helped to murder 6,000 unsuspecting Americans in a time of peace – a single wing of American fighters could end their entire regime in a few days of war. Such are the frightening and horrendous realities that lurk beneath the unspoken surface when the dogs of war are unleashed. Battle indeed is the ultimate nightmare because accustomed rhetoric recedes before the truth of abject military power; and so the more the United States is shrilly hectored, in still more stark contrast loom the silhouettes of aircraft carrier groups and B-52s.”

“Reviled by those in the Middle East, caricatured on campuses at home, and second-guessed by pundits of every persuasion, our military and its leadership – by any military standard of the past – have been rather brilliant in waging a war of unprecedented logistical challenges against an elusive enemy.”

Complete article is here………