Tag Archives: Taliban

News

Suspect in massive leak of military secrets is a gay rights activist

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Story from the UK Telegraph.

Excerpt:

Bradley Manning, the prime suspect in the leaking of the Afghan war files, raged against his US Army employers and “society at large” on his Facebook page in the days before he allegedly downloaded thousands of secret memos, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

The US Army intelligence analyst, who is half British and went to school in Wales, appeared to sink into depression after a relationship break-up, saying he didn’t “have anything left” and was “beyond frustrated”.

In an apparent swipe at the army, he also wrote: “Bradley Manning is not a piece of equipment,” and quoted a joke about “military intelligence” being an oxymoron.

Mr Manning, 22, who is currently awaiting court martial, is suspected of leaking more than 90,000 secret military documents to the Wikileaks website in a security breach which US officials claim has endangered the lives of serving soldiers and Afghan informers.

[…]Mr Manning, who is openly homosexual, began his gloomy postings on January 12, saying: “Bradley Manning didn’t want this fight. Too much to lose, too fast.”

[…]Pictures on Mr Manning’s Facebook page include photos of him on school trips during his time in Wales and at a gay rights rally, where he is holding up a placard demanding equality on “the battlefield”.

The story has quite a lot of details about his family history, and his troubled relationship with his father after his parents divorced.

Commentary

The Obama administration’s weak response to WikiLeaks

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From Investors Business Daily.

Excerpt:

The horror we feared would happen is here. Friday, the New York Times reports the Taliban is studying 75,000 classified U.S. documents posted on WikiLeaks for names of informants, potential defectors and others who cooperated with American and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

“We are studying the report,” a gleeful Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the Times. “If they are U.S. spies, then we know how to punish them.”

That means death for any Afghan who ever cooperated with us because those reports are loaded with names, identifying villages, parentages and potential defectors. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange threatens to publish more documents and publicly sneers at the prospect of deaths, mockingly saying the U.S. should launch criminal inquiries on U.S. soldiers instead.

[…]Last year, President Obama committed to the counterinsurgency plan of General Stanley McChrystal… [which] …requires soldiers to enter villages, develop informants and prioritize protecting civilians instead of wall themselves off in fortresses without intelligence. The WikiLeaks leak pretty well blows years of that hazardous and delicate work out of the water.

But the immediate problem is the death sentences ahead for Afghans who have cooperated with us — and any U.S. soldier who may die now that Afghans can no longer trust us.

And the White House response to Assange:

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen warns that Assange may “already have blood on his hands.” The White House response is to focus on begging Assange, who leaked the documents, to stop.

“Well, we can do nothing but implore the person that has those classified, top secret documents not to post anymore,” said spokesman Robert Gibbs on Friday.

The Democrats are imploring Assange to stop. Begging him to stop undermining the safety and security of our country. Begging him to stop exposing American forces to attacks. Is that strong leadership on national security?

Can you imagine that many people in the armed forces actually voted for Obama?

News

AC-130 gunships now mounting 105mm howitzer

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This is really cool. (H/T ECM)

This is the ‘Angel of Death’, the world’s biggest flying artillery gun – and the latest weapon being used by British and US Special Forces to defeat Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

[…]…the aircraft, which is rarely deployed in daylight, carries a powerful Howitzer 105mm field gun which can ‘vaporise’ targets at a range of 1,200 yards.

As the Hercules drops from 2,000ft to as low as 80ft above the battlefield, the Howitzer – normally used by ground troops – fires ten rounds a minute and has a back-up of three 25mm Gatling cannons spewing out 7,500 rounds every 60 seconds to produce the ultimate airborne gunship. Once a camera sited under the fuselage has fixed on the target, it sends the co-ordinates to an onboard computer – and the ‘Angel of Death’ is ready to unleash its deadly load.

[…]The high explosive 105mm shells, each packed with 5lb of TNT, rocket towards their target at 1,548ft per second.

On contact, the shells can destroy buildings and spread shrapnel over a ‘kill’ area of up to 1,500 yards.

Click through to see the photos – you have to see the photos! It’s awesome! This is why we need to develop weapons, and to keep funding defense research. The article has a lot more detail and even talks about how the thing has been used to produce results.