DISINFORMATION BASED ON TRUTH

READERS WRITE . . . and I answer all of their email - each and every one of them - which says more about how little email I actually get versus anything about viligence . . .


From: Parrothead Jeff
Subject: Disinformation? Yeah, but there's some fact behind that ;-)
To: Sean Linnane
Date: Thursday, November 26, 2009, 2:35 AM


Sean,

Great blog you have there! I saw your post today and wanted to let you know that the jet pictured may be fictional, but may well be based on a patent by Northrop.

Have a great Thanksgiving!!!

Jeff

PS - Anytime we can see that type of Page 3 girl I'm happy!





The Northrop "Switchblade" is a concept fighter jet which is a potential development of a utility patent filed by Grumman (U.S. Patent 5,984,231) in November of 1999.




United States Patent# 5,984,231 Gerhardt, et al November 16, 1999

Aircraft with Variable Forward-Sweep Wing

Abstract:
An aircraft with a variable forward-sweep wing and the method of configuring the wing in an optimal position for a desired flight regime. The variable forward-sweep wing is positionable from an essentially unswept position to a full-forward sweep position. In the unswept position the wing is approximately orthogonal to a fuselage centerline, while in the full-forward sweep position the wing has approximately a delta wing planform. Moreover, as the wing position changes from the unswept position to the full-forward sweep position the trailing edge becomes the leading edge. In addition, the aforementioned apparatus may be used in a method to configure the aircraft for flight in a desired flight regime. This method includes moving the wing to an optimal position for the desired flight regime.



Sean Linnane replies:


Thank you Parrothead -

Thanksgiving was great, thank you - deep fried two turkeys. Sunday I go back to what I do to pay the bills; I'll be "in the barrel" until 20 December.

Of course, all good disinformation is based on a kernel of truth. You just made STORMBRINGER, by the way =D

- S.L.



Note to Readers: please click over to Parrothead Jeff's excellent site Parrothead Jeff & Friends and hang out awhile - any site that features the mighty, mighty RF-4 Phantom on it's masthead is OK with me: I owe my life to that airplane. - S.L.


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From: LifeOfTheMind
Subject: War There and Here and the Blogroll
To: Sean Linnane
Date: Saturday, November 28, 2009, 3:14 AM

Sean,
Great Blog. You catch some nice stories. Theo attracts talent. The Rolex story is important because it provides context to the negative publicity that while justified has dominated much perception of Swiss conduct during the war. It is possible under some circumstances to be an honorable neutral.

Do you have any more info on the 3 SEAL petty officers facing charges in Seal Team Ten? Is there any word on the Navy 4 striper who ordered the initial Mast, that was refused, and who relieved the CO of Team Four? Is he OK or is it what we fear? Before we panic and assume the Admirals and Captains are colluding to destroy the SpecOps community it is unclear. He may be doing what is right but it sure looks bad.

Are you sure about keeping LGF on the blogroll? The last year what has happened there is disturbing.

LoTM


Sean Linnane replies:


Thanks for your support - I enjoy doing Blog STORMBRINGER because it provides me an outlet for this energy I have in my mind; the circumstances of my work demand I remain anonymous although in the electronic era it wouldn't be too hard to figure out my identity. Funniest thing happened about six months ago; the vice-president of the local Special Forces chapter called me up and said, "Hey, do you know who Sean Linnane is?" After I finished laughing my ass off, I told him it was me. Turns out an online Special Forces community bulletin board was trying to determine my bona fides.

I'll look into that SEAL thing; I don't follow what's going on with the SEALS on a regular basis - we Green Berets normally shun SEALS like the plague because they are magnets for the heat, but I have some sources. Let me get back to you on this.

One thing I CAN tell you is yes, the brass hates Spec Ops units and have been out to get us for decades. We can accomplish great things and we make them look redundant. That's not to say there isn't a time and place for conventional forces, but they see us as a threat to their raison d'etre.

For example: we could have taken Iraq in a week, and at a lot less strife & casualties than the way it played out. In the weeks leading up to the final invasion there were 17 Iraqi Division commanders ready to turn on Saddam - everybody in the country hated that monster & his sons. All it would have taken was seventeen Operational Detachments with a three or four million dollars each in suitcases and the country would have been handed over intact.

Instead what happened was the conventional military saw what we'd accomplished in Afghanistan and there was no way known they were going to let a thing like that ever happen again - it would have been the kiss of death for the armor branch, for one thing. When you think about it, in the era of terrorist guerrilla armies armed with shoulder-fired weapons, tanks are already obsolete; like, what kind of an anti-terrorist CQB tactic involves M1A1 Abrahms, right?

The conventionals had been lined up and planning for that war for 12 years; it was their war, they owned it, and there was no way on God's Green Earth they were going to let a bunch of Green Beanies and Squeals take it away from them. So they lined up all their tanks and toys and rolled into an undefended capital city using World War II tactics, and the rest is history.

Of course, to say so sounds like sour grapes, I suppose . . .

Re: The Blogroll - my work keeps me so busy I don't have the time to tend to my own blog the way I'd like to, never mind what the rest of the blogosphere is doing out there. I just blasted over to LGF and can't determine what's going on? Somebody fill me in - have they drifted over to the Dark Side?

Just remember I was the first guy who made the connection between the Climate scientists fudging their data, and Galileo's finger - last Saturday, 21 Nov 09, IRONY SENSED - Rush Limbaugh spent all day Monday honking on about it, and you read it here first.

S.L.


My name is STORMBRINGER