Homeland Security News. Why are they importing Ebola into the US? UPDATE!

via NBC News.

Emory University Hospital in Atlanta said Thursday it was preparing a special isolation unit to receive a patient with Ebola disease “within the next several days”.
“We do not know at this time when the patient will arrive,” Emory said in a statement. The university also did not say whether the patient was one of two Americans battling Ebola infection in Liberia – charity workers Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly.

Read the story at the link but I have one simple and perhaps even simplistic question.

Why would you knowingly transport an infected patient into one of the US' biggest cities to provide treatment that will most likely not succeed in saving their life?

The doctor and nurse (or aidworker, I'm not sure) were experienced in dealing with the Ebola virus and became infected.  I can easily see a repeat but this time on US soil.  Someone in the hospital flubbs containment procedures, takes it home, spreads it to his wife and kids....the kids take it to school and suddenly we're looking at "outbreak" in Atlanta.

I don't know all the facts but this seems like a really stupid idea.  Bless the sick but two people are not worth the risk of starting a pandemic.

UPDATE:  The President signed an amendment to an executive order just YESTERDAY that expands on his authority to quarantine Americans if they have respiratory problems .... check it out here, here and here.  Interesting isn't it.

F-35 News. Which is it? Ready for war or in development?

DoD Buzz has an article where the USAF Chief of Staff is saying that we shouldn't be "alarmist" over the engine fire that will probably result in one of the 100 F-35's delivered to be written off.  This comment from a reader caught my eye.

torquewrench· 17 hours ago"'It’s not unusual in a development program to have something like this happen,' she said."

The powers that be keep telling us on the one hand that the jet is nearly ready to go to war. As a reliable, available instrument of force projection.

Then when something like this happens -- a dangerous, costly Class A mishap which will probably result in the burnt airframe being written off -- and that merely from taxiing out for takeoff -- the powers that be promptly say, "Oh, it's still in _development_, silly, you can't expect stability or maturity from the platform yet."

Which is it? Ready, or unready?

Something is going on behind the scenes with this program.

The USAF Chief of Staff is out in full force defending the plane...the Air Force Sec is out saying that we need to be agile enough to modify plans and not get locked into an "all or nothing" mindset when it comes to procurement (ComNavOps has a must read on this...check it out here)...the Brits still haven't put down money to buy their first "tranche" of airplanes.....

Yeah.  Something is going on.

Lets talk civilian casualties in the Israeli vs. Hamas conflict.

You're a LCpl in the USMC.

You're on patrol in some Middle Eastern country.  You don't care about the politics or the controversy.  The only thing you care about is getting home alive (hopefully in one piece) and making sure all of your buddies do too.

Suddenly out of nowhere you start taking fire from one of the few Christian churches in the region.

Do you.....

A.  Return fire, assured in the fact that senior leadership will have your back because the enemy chose to make a place of worship a fortification and a legitamite target? Or....

B.  Sit there and do nothing while your buddies die all around you...because its a place of worship?

Expand that to a "nation state".  What do you do when the enemy has militarized every Mosque, hospital, school, UN facility, residence etc....

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HAMAS HAS DONE!

Check out the image above.  How do you target only military installations when the entire area they control has been converted into a military installation?  You accept the reality of the situation and act accordingly.  Hamas has chosen to place its people in harms way.

The Israeli's have accepted another cease fire.  That's unfortunate.  How do you lower civilian casualties in this war?  You finish the job as rapidly as possible.  The cease fire works against that.

Well that didn't last long.

Israel accepts a ceasefire (the same one I was railing against) and what does Hamas do?  They launch an ambush and kidnap/kill Israeli soldiers.  AMAZING!  How can they get so slack in their force protection measures?  This is not the Israeli military that I know!

TOS-1A in Iraq

Thanks to Dima for the article!

Article here.

Thermobaric rounds are nasty. The fact that they haven't been declared illegal for warfare is surprising to me.

Russian SU-27 Flanker pic via UK Ministry of Defence.

A Russian SU-27 Flanker aircraft photographed from a RAF Typhoon.

RAF Typhoons were scrambled on Tuesday 17 June 2014 to intercept multiple Russian aircraft as part of NATO’s ongoing mission to police Baltic airspace.

The Typhoon aircraft, from 3 (Fighter) Squadron, were launched after four separate groups of aircraft were detected by NATO air defences in international airspace near to the Baltic States.

Once airborne, the British jets identified the aircraft as a Russian Tupolev Tu22 ‘Backfire’ bomber, four Sukhoi Su27 ‘Flanker’ fighters, one Beriev A50 ‘Mainstay’ early warning aircraft and an Antonov An26 ‘Curl’ transport aircraft who appeared to be carrying out a variety of routine training. The Russian aircraft were monitored by the RAF Typhoons and escorted on their way.

The Typhoon pilots involved in the operation were Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) Mark Long of 29 (Reserve) Squadron (the Typhoon operational training unit) and a French Air Force exchange pilot Commandant Marc-antoine Gerrard who is currently attached to 1(Fighter) Squadron.

How many terrorists have we trained?

The above video is concerning.  The US military, the State Dept and the President are all fired up about providing training to various shady characters around the globe.

The latest are terrorists that are fighting in Syria and in Libya.

I wonder how many of those people were actually Hamas or ISIS?  I wonder how many of those same terrorists will soon be turning their weapons on US forces?  SOCOM, and the Pentagon need to do a serious gut check on the "partnership"/training mission mindset that has taken hold.

Israel is on the frontlines fighting the beast that is Hamas.  Soon he will turn up at our door....will he arrive with training we provided?

If this is true then the President of the US is no friend of Israel.

via Algeminer.com

The full transcript is below, translated from Hebrew, courtesy of The Times of Israel:

Barack Obama: I demand that Israel agrees to an immediate, unilateral ceasefire and halt all offensive activities, in particular airstrikes.
Benjamin Netanyahu: And what will Israel receive in exchange for a ceasefire?
BO: I believe that Hamas will cease its rocket fire — silence will be met with silence.
BN: Hamas broke all five previous ceasefires. It’s a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
BO: I repeat and expect Israel to stop all its military activities unilaterally. The pictures of destruction in Gaza distance the world from Israel’s position.
BN: Kerry’s proposal was completely unrealistic and gives Hamas military and diplomatic advantages.
BO: Within a week of the end of Israel’s military activities, Qatar and Turkey will begin negotiations with Hamas based on the 2012 understandings, including Israel’s commitment to removing the siege restrictions on Gaza.
BN: Qatar and Turkey are the biggest supporters of Hamas. It’s impossible to rely on them to be fair mediators.
BO: I trust Qatar and Turkey. Israel is not in the position that it can choose its mediators.
BN: I protest because Hamas can continue to launch rockets and use tunnels for terror attacks –
BO: (interrupting Netanyahu) The ball’s in Israel’s court, and it must end all its military activities.

Just plain wow.

"Israel is not in a position to choose its mediators"??????

Just fucking wow. 

Ukrainian troops lost 125 armored vehicles in eastern Ukraine in one day

via ITAR-TASS...

DONETSK, July 30. /ITAR-TASS/. Separatist militias in fighting with Ukrainian government troops near the city of Shakhtyorsk in the country’s east have put out of action 125 armored vehicles of the Ukrainian army, said Deputy Defense Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Fyodor Berezin.
“The enemy has lost a total of 125 armored vehicles in Shakhtyorsk yesterday, including tanks, infantry combat vehicles, armored personnel carriers,” the DPR official was quoted by the Novorossia news agency.
Representatives of the Ukrainian armed forces have not commented on these reports so far.

If this is true then DAMN!

I need the real story and less spin on events in Ukraine.  Something is brewing because we're seeing new sanctions by the US and EU....if the Ukraine govt forces were winning then I would think that it wouldn't matter if Russia was increasing aid to the rebels.

I think we'll see clarification and the real story on the results of recent fighting soon. 

ISIS creates the "killing fields" in the desert.

Thanks for the Mario Green pic via Twitter Dwi!

Definition via Wikipedia...

The Killing Fields (Khmer: វាលពិឃាត viel pi-kʰiet) are a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by thecommunist Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War (1970–1975).
Analysis of 20,000 mass grave sites by the DC-Cam Mapping Program and Yale University indicate at least 1,386,734 victims of execution.[1][2]Estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including disease and starvation, range from 1.7 to 2.5 million out of a 1975 population of roughly 8 million. In 1979, communist Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime.

My take on this?

Congratulations Sec of State Kerry, the Obama Administration, the EU, UN and fly by night social activists.

You've been exposed for the hypocrites you really are.  Lavish attention is paid to the Israeli vs. Hamas fight and we're seeing a second killing field being established in Iraq.

Additionally the Ebola threat from Africa is being ignored, the escalating fighting in Ukraine isn't on the lips of anyone in power except to talk about additional sanctions (pathetic) and we still have the issues in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, and an unchecked/not talked about quiet war going on in Pakistan against certain terrorists groups.

The world is screwed....all of us.

Kendall says "cut the F-35 some slack"???!!!

via BizJournals.com

Sure, it may be years past schedule and billions over budget, but cut the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program some slack.
That was the message from Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, speaking July 24 at a roll-out ceremony for the first two F-35 training aircraft delivered to Australia. He pointed to millions of lines of code, an integrated design that brings together stealth, advanced sensors, radars, and infrared sensors, electronic warfare capability, and integration of weapons systems.
"You're talking about something that no one has ever done before, which will put us all a decade or more ahead of anybody else out there,” he said during a ceremony last week at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics assembly plant in Fort Worth, the Pentagon reported. “And [it will] keep us ahead for some time to come as we continue to upgrade the F-35.”

The reporter flubbed the lead.

The F-35 will need to be continuously upgraded to keep it competitive.

Quite honestly I can say that the plane is already behind its competitors (including supposedly 4th gen fighters) before its even entered service.  As far as cutting the plane slack?

Not on your fucking life.

Its late, its expensive, its a maintenance nightmare and its doesn't deliver what was promised.

I'm convinced more than ever that the plane is going to be cut due to cost alone...never mind effectiveness.  The death spiral will hit full bore next year because the Pentagon has nothing else to cut, the US Army has been evicerated, the US Navy is now shelving ships and there is a quiet rebellion in the Marine Corps over the cost of the wing.

Our allies better get ready for the predictable and long foreseen bad news. 

AAV launch....pics by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Dustin Knight

Note:  Why does the Navy include MOS in the rank of their junior Sailors?  I've always considered that strange....I guess thats pure Navy.  Weird but traditional.

Japanese Self Defense Force "J Spirits"..

No.

I have no idea what "J Spirits" mean/are.

The world is burning news. Don't forget about chaos in Africa.

While we've all been watching Israel hook and jab with Hamas, and Russia fight a proxy war with Ukraine via Separatists, we've all taken our eyes off Africa and the chaos that is hitting that continent.

Just to give you a small update check this out from the Guardian...

The wife of Cameroon's vice-prime minister was kidnapped and at least three people were killed in an attack by Boko Haram militants in the northern town of Kolofata on Sunday, Cameroon officials said.
A local religious leader, or lamido, named Seini Boukar Lamine, who is also the town's mayor, was kidnapped in a separate attack on his home.

Then we have this from the Telegraph...

Ebola has killed 672 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since it was first diagnosed in February and more than 1,000 others have been infected by the virus.
On Friday, a Liberian man who had travelled to the Nigerian capital Lagos died for the disease, heightening concerns international air travel could speed up its spread.
The Government’s Public Health England on Monday sent letters to British doctors telling them to watch for anyone with strange illnesses who have recently travelled in West Africa.

Lets tackle the kidnapping issue first.

A small terrorist group has been given fame by a misguided social media campaign that did nothing and only emboldened men who are not swayed by the short attention span of fly by night activists.

The second issue is much more important and disturbing.

Ebola....The real danger is the incubation period and globalization.  Two to Twenty One days is the incubation period.  Some Brit could travel to Nigeria, back to the UK and then on to the US before he realized he was sick.

Globalization and open borders has made the world much more dangerous.  A pandemic in the modern era could be in every nation of the world before it was detected.

Chaos reigns and we lack the leadership everywhere to properly deal with the troubles in the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

The IDF takes off the gloves and no one notices...

The above photo is from the "Unwanted Blog" and the graphic tells the story.

The IDF is shrinking the Gaza strip by 40% and not one major news organization is reporting on it.

THIS IS HUGE!

I asked the question earlier.  Why doesn't the IDF move the Palestinians to the West bank, reclaim the Gaza  and make it a beach resort (like it once was) and deal with a real (as real as can be found in that God forsaken region) peace partner in the West Bank?

Before you answer the above ponder this.  Why isn't Israel facing a two front war?  Why aren't the Palestinians in the West Bank rioting and going insane causing this war to flare even wider?

The world is in chaos. Only Israel seems to have a plan that is working.  The UN, US, EU are all powerless.  What we do see is a strange alliance.  Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE...even Syria and a few others are on one side.  On the other is Iran, Hamas, ISIS and the other terrorists.  Somehow, someway the US govt (which I separate from the American people on this issue...at least my circle anyway) is on the wrong side of this.

Textron Air Land. Bush league organization or do they just work with bitches?

Consider this a rant.

I got an e-mail from some clown named Pete Fletcher and this idiot had the audacity to claim that I was using his photos without permission.  Note.  I make a point of using only open source material.  That means photos from manufacturers or military organizations.

I got the photos he's referring to from the Textron Air Land Facebook page.  That means one of two things to me.  Either Textron Air Land is a bush league organization that isn't using proper controls over the images of their products OR they're allowing silly little bitches to enter their space and sully their reputation.

Either way it sucks.

I'm done with Textron until they clarify image use across all their domains. 

Tragedy of war in Gaza.

IDF Press Release...

A short while ago, terrorists in Gaza fired rockets at Israel. One of them hit Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. The other hit Al-Shati refugee camp. Hamas fires from civilian areas – and hits its own people.

This is interesting.

While a tragic occurrence it also plays nicely with an Israeli theme that they have been beating the drum on.  Hamas is the root of the suffering in Gaza. MSNBC led with the story that the IDF hit the hospital.  Now?  They're saying nothing.

This public relations/human suffering story will bear watching.

This could be one of those quiet turning points if properly managed. 

Israeli Armored Personnel Carriers near Gaza...pics via Tank-net Forums

Note:  Tank-net is one of those places on the internet that is a resource for those interested in armored vehicles.  Check out their forums under the current Israeli operation and you'll find a ton of pics.  Make sure you do it daily.  Hot linking is not allowed and most pic hosting sites impose limits so the pics are being posted and then deleted frequently.

Sidenote:  I'm seeing reports that IEDs have shown up in this conflict.  I've received pictures of destroyed Merkava's but want to nail down details before I post them.  Suffice it to say that if the pictures are real then even the mighty Merkava is vulnerable.  I'm waiting to see if the Namer is adequately protected against the threat.

The IDF's 401st Armored Brigade operating near Gaza (pics)...

Note:  The Trophy vehicle protection system is displayed to good effect in these pics...additionally you can see the Achzarit Heavy APC can be seen in the background.  While the M113 has come under fire for being too lightly armored to operate in urban areas, we haven't heard the same about the Achzarit.  I expect to see tank to APC modification become the norm worldwide due to that vehicles performance.

The US Navy's version of the F-35 is costing us $337 million dollars each....

Check out the insanity which is the cost of the F-35 here, at War is Boring Blog...I won't even spoil it with a tidbit.  This is a must read.

Israel reveals its Sayeret Maglan is operational in Gaza...

The Maglan special forces unit found explosives two steps away from a baby's bed

The simple caption on this photo on the IDF Flickr site caught my attention.  What the fuck is the Maglan Special Forces Unit?  IDF has tons of special ops outfits but I had never heard of these guys.  A quick trip to Google, which led to Wikipedia revealed this...

Maglan (Hebrew: מגלן. Also known as Unit 212 or Sayeret Maglan) is an Israeli Special Forces unit which specializes in operating behind enemy lines and deep in enemy territory using advanced technologies and weaponry.
The unit's name is derived from the Ibis bird (In Hebrew: Maglan).
The IDF keeps the unit's designated missions a secret and gives no information about it or the operations in which the unit takes part. Maglan has existed since 1986 but became publicly known only in 2006. Very little is known about the unit, only that the force performs top secret operations behind enemy lines, deep within hostile territory. Like Sayeret Matkal, although the operators in the unit wear a red beret and brown combat boots and conduct basic training at one of the paratroopers' bases, they are not part of the Paratroop Brigade. Maglan has a 20 months training program (6 months basic training and 14 months specialized combat education), and many of the candidates drop out due to the harsh nature of the program. The training program is known to be one of the toughest in the IDF. Similarly to Sayeret Matkal, Maglan answers to the IDF's General Staff and not to one of its regional commands.
Maglan is a relatively new unit. It is rumored that it was deployed on covert SCUD hunting missions in Iraq during the First Gulf War in 1991.
During the Second Lebanon War, the unit took part in many operations and achieved great success. During Operation Beach-Boys, the unit operated along the western coastal strip ofLebanon and destroyed 150 targets, among them 40 rocket launchers.

Either the IDF censors are slipping or Hamas is being sent a message.

The IDF has a unit running around Gaza undetected and getting the job done.  What has me scratching my head is how these guys are avoiding being engaged in endless firefights.

Are they another one of those units that dress up as Hamas and wander around without being observed?  I've heard that they have units that are filled with Arab looking and speaking Israelis that specialize in just that sort of thing but I always imagined it was bluster.  Now?  I'm not so sure.

Even more interesting is that this unit reports directly to the General Staff and not a regional command.  That makes it a truly special unit (I'm seriously beginning to wonder how the Israeli's designate special ops units...the Golani Brigade are fighting like world champs but they're considered an elite but not special ops outfit).  I'll be watching for more news on the Sayeret Maglan.