Archive for the 'War' Category
RAND: A Stability Police Force for the United States
December 7th, 2009Via: RAND Corporation: Establishing security is the sine qua non of stability operations, since it is a prerequisite for reconstruction and development. Security requires a mix of military and police forces to deal with a range of threats from insurgents to criminal organizations. This research examines the creation of a high-end police force, which the […]
Is the “Wonga” Running Out for Africa’s Mercenaries?
December 7th, 2009Via: Reuters: Africa’s infamous “dogs of war” may still be going strong, but it seems the rewards of the mercenary life aren’t quite what they used to be. Only this month, Britain’s Simon Mann won a pardon for his part in a foiled 2004 coup attempt on Equatorial Guinea, an old-style adventure whose glittering prize […]
The Swiss and Guns
December 4th, 2009What to Do About Europe’s Secret Nukes
December 3rd, 2009Via: Time: Is Italy capable of delivering a thermonuclear strike? Could the Belgians and the Dutch drop hydrogen bombs on enemy targets? And what about Germany — a country where fear of atomkraft is so great that the last government opposed all civilian nuclear power? Germany’s air force couldn’t possibly be training to deliver bombs […]
Vanity Fair on Blackwater’s Erik Prince
December 3rd, 2009Blackwater is a CIA cutout that got so big that it just happened to become a household name. —Feds Investigating Blackwater USA for Selling Weapons to Iraqi Insurgency We get into the Coincidence? category because the article just happens to be written by a “former” CIA attorney. Via: Vanity Fair: The truth about Prince may […]
Kandahar’s Loch Ness Mystery Plane Returns
December 1st, 2009Via: Flight Global: Kandahar’s Loch Ness monster has been spotted again. This time an actual photo of the beast was published by French journalist Jean-Dominique Merchet, who writes for the Liberation newspaper, on his Secret Defense blog. We last saw the mystery Kandahar aircraft in a drawing by Shephard’s Unmanned Vehicles and a very grainy […]
Another Escalation: Obama to Send 30,000 More Troops to Afghanistan
December 1st, 2009Via: New York Times: President Obama issued orders to send about 30,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan as he prepared to address the nation Tuesday night to explain what may be one of the most defining decisions of his presidency. Mr. Obama conveyed his decision to military leaders late Sunday afternoon during a meeting in […]
New Bomb-Resistant Trucks Will Blast RPGs Before They Hit
November 30th, 2009Via: Wired: The U.S. military’s toughest trucks are getting a new layer of protection — against rocket-propelled grenades. The Army recently awarded an $8 million contract to equip MRAP (mine resistant ambush protected) armored trucks with Iron Curtain. It’s a protection system which blasts incoming rockets before they can hit the vehicle. If the system […]
Four Police Officers Shot Dead in Washington Coffee House
November 30th, 2009Via: Telegraph: Four police officers were “executed” in a day-time ambush in a coffee shop next to McChord Air Force Base in Washington. The officers, three men and a woman, were wearing bullet proof vests and did not even have time to return fire as the killer, armed with a handgun, unleashed a volley of […]
Senior Government Officials Killed in Russian Train Attack
November 29th, 2009Via: Guardian: Russia was tonight coming to terms with its most deadly terrorist attack in years after investigators confirmed that a powerful improvised bomb caused Friday’s devastating train crash in which at least 26 people, including several top government officials, were killed. The head of Russia’s FSB counter-terrorism agency, Alexander Bortnikov, said the bomb, hidden […]
