MEDIATIONS ON THE CHINOOK CRASH

Ten years on and the people of America and her Allies simply cannot get their heads around what this war is about . . . its not about taking real estate, and even when we do take real estate is not secure . . . the enemy has no capital city, no flag, no uniform . . . there are no air clashes between mighty carrier armadas . . . no carpet bombing of cities, no tank columns battling it out on dusty plains . . . combat is largely symbolic; it's really a conflict between ideologies. Theirs embraces suicide, suffering and denial now as a ticket to Paradise, ours is the promise of freedom and a good life which the enemy somehow twists and perverts in the minds of their brainwashed followers.

How do you prevail over an enemy that numbers in the millions, most of them illiterate or if they can read they've only read one book in their entire lives and their frothing-at-the-mouth mad mullahs tell them what it means: that they should be more than willing to sacrifice their miserable lives to kill the Infidel? We slay a thousand, ten thousand of theirs and it doesn't matter - they all went to Paradise and who would miss them anyway? They're all loincloth-wearing mud hut dwellers with nothing better to do and all day to do it. They kill ten, twenty or thirty of ours and it's a major coup so body count math simply does not work. Symbolic victories is what it's all about, that and the hearts and minds of our home populations.

 This war could conceivably go on forever; at the very least until the Second Coming, and we could conduct it a lot more cost-effectively than how we are currently going about it.

One way is to say to Hell with Nation-building - haven't we done enough for these people? First of all we liberated them, then we put up with the bombs and bullets of the insurgents they support, we shed the precious blood of thousands of our best & brightest. We can't simply pull out because that's handing victory over to the savages who ran Afghanistan into the Stone Age - not that it was very much out of the Stone Age in the first place - but the current status quo is simply unsustainable. Besides if they get those natural gas and oil pipelines run from the 'Stans down to the Indian Ocean ports, they'll finally have some kind of worth to their land which is otherwise a inhospitable pile of rocks, only good for growing opium and xenophobic zealotry.

The concept would be to maintain some fortresses over there, manned by Special Operations Forces and defended by private military companies. Let these people decide what they want to do with their cities and real estate - the whole place is incurably tribal anyway - while we maintain a permanent state of siege from within our firebases, resupplied by helicopters and Ospreys, straining the enemy's resources while we come and go at will on operations to punch him in the nose and kick him in the ass.

At a recent dinner table conversation in DC, one distinguished dinner guest suggested America needs some kind of mercenary force to conduct these kind of operations. I disagreed; we are not France and a Foreign Legion is not in keeping with our Constitution. There is no shortage of brave individuals willing to come forward to serve their country, and if the Mainstream Media wasn't so adamantly hellbent on surrender at any cost, there'd be a whole helluva lot more.

A reader wrote about Aaron Vaughn and those guys, commented that they're his age, how it's sobering to think about the time and effort that goes into building a spec ops guy like a SEAL (on both sides, trainer and trainee) . And these guys had families, kids to boot.

I was once their age and I went downrange dressed to kill and I had a family at the time (still do of course), my kids were young when I was going in and out of the Bad Countries . . .

When I went through the Special Forces Q Course it was between six to eighteen months long (depending what MOS you went for). On top of that you had to already be a sergeant in the Regular Army - I had five years under my belt as a grunt in the 82d Airborne by the time I went into the Q Course - so you could say it averaged four to five years to make a Green Beret; about the same to make a SEAL.

I read something somewhere that it takes ten years to fully train a Special Operations soldier in anyone's army; when you consider training and schools intersected with operational time I'd say that's about right. To me a fully trained professional should have a specialty insertion technique (scuba or halo), have at least three MOS's (one in their regular forces and two Special Forces), speak at least one foreign language (I have French, Thai and Spanish), graduate advanced Special Operations training courses (combat pistol marksmanship, CQB, breaching and advanced demolitions, tradecraft, technical surveillance, etc), and have some useful civilian credentials as well such as locksmithing, mechanic, etc.

These guys were the highest of their profession, and when you crunch the numbers it is easy to say they are less than 1% of 1% of all the military - the true elite.

Others will step forward to fill their shoes, and the Big Wheel Keeps on Turning.

It was just announced: the Special Operations Warrior Foundation will offer full college scholarships to the children of all of the U. S. military personnel who perished in the recent CH-47 helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

For the past 31 years, the SOWF has supported the families of fallen Special Operations members by providing college educations to their surviving children. Today, the foundation’s board of directors has decided to provide its services to the families of all U. S. troops aboard the helicopter that was downed on Aug. 6.
"This was a tragic day for our military and their families. While the majority of the military personnel onboard the CH-47 were special operators, and they are automatically covered by the foundation, we wanted to offer our services to all who were on that fateful mission,” said retired Air Force Col. John T. Carney, Jr., SOWF President. "The least we can do for the grieving families is to honor the sacrifices of their loved ones and to offer a college education to the surviving children.”

We know now that the Chinook was a regular CH-47, not an MH- series Special Operations bird - I mistakenly posted that it was an MH-47 on the assumption that an outfit like SEAL Team 6 gets around in MH- series birds (the whole time I was in Special Forces I can count the times we flew regular birds on the fingers of one hand, and I was in SF for 20 years.) Suffice to say something went terribly wrong - they were possibly flying in on their contingency plan means of infil - in any case it is an act of class for the SOWF to include the non-Spec Ops personnel in their generous charity; they died on a Spec Ops mission, as far as I'm concerned they're Spec Ops now, they earned it the hard way.


"Only the Dead have seen the End of War." 

- SEAN LINNANE SENDS

"HE WAS A WARRIOR FOR CHRIST AND HE WAS A WARRIOR FOR OUR COUNTRY . . ."

Aaron Vaughn is one of the Navy SEALs who died in the Chinook helo ambush.













The widow of Navy SEAL Aaron Vaughn told CNN: "I want to tell the world that he was an amazing man, that he was a wonderful husband, and a fabulous father to two wonderful children. He was a warrior for Christ and he was a warrior for our country and he wouldn't want to leave this Earth any other way than how he did . . ."

American Morning let Kimberly Vaughn’s offensive reference to Christ in a tribute to her husband get by their censors once before political correctness took hold to cut it a mere five minutes later. In a moment reminiscent of NBC’s “regrettable” omission of “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance during it coverage of the U.S. Open two months ago, CNN cut “warrior for Christ” from Kimberly Vaughn’s tribute to her hero husband (one of twenty-two Navy SEALS and eight other servicemen killed in the Chinook helicopter during a mission in Afghanistan).


PERSONAL STORIES OF THE FALLEN FIGHTERS

They came from far-flung corners of the country - some of them motivated by the 9/11 attacks that bin Laden masterminded.

They were intensely patriotic and talented young men with a love of physical challenges and a passion for the high-risk job they chose.

Brian Bill, for example, had seemingly boundless ambitions, according to those who knew him as a high school student-athlete in Stamford, Conn. A skier, mountaineer, pilot and triathlete, he hoped to complete graduate school after his military service and then become an astronaut. "He loved life; he loved a challenge; and he was passionate about being a SEAL," his family said in a statement Monday.

Aaron Vaughn, a 30-year-old father of two from Virginia Beach, Va., met his wife, Kimberly, when she was a Washington Redskins cheerleader on a USO tour in Guam. Vaughn had aspired to a military career since childhood and told his parents after 9/11 that he wanted to become a SEAL. "He felt, and so did the other members of his team, that the very existence of our republic is at stake," his father, Billy Vaughn, told NBC's "Today." "Because of that, Aaron was willing to give his life."

Jason Workman, 32, of Blanding, Utah, also cited 9/11 as his motive for aspiring to join the special forces, childhood friend Tate Bennett told The Deseret News. He completed his Mormon mission to Brazil and Philadelphia, attended college, then joined the Navy with the specific goal of becoming a SEAL. "Not making it just wasn't an option," Bennett said of his friend, who leaves behind a wife and 21-month-old son.

Workman, Vaughn, Bill and 19 other SEALS were among 30 Americans and eight Afghans killed Saturday when a rocket-propelled grenade fired by a Taliban insurgent downed their Chinook helicopter en route to a combat mission. All but two of the SEALs were from SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed bin Laden, although military officials said none of the crash victims was on that mission in Pakistan against the al-Qaida leader.

The crash was a somber counterpoint to the national jubilation that greeted news of bin Laden's death. Yet families and friends of the SEALs killed aboard the Chinook spoke of the dedication and tight-knit camaraderie that tided them through all sorts of ups and downs.

Read more HERE

Today is SEAL Day at STORMBRINGER - they join the Heroes of our Nation in Valhalla, and we honor them.


SEAN LINNANE SENDS

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31 U.S. troops, 7 Afghans killed as insurgents down NATO chopper

KABUL, Afghanistan— ⁠Thirty-one American troops and seven Afghans died in the overnight downing of a U.S. helicopter, President Hamid Karzai's office said Saturday. The Taliban claimed to have shot down the craft.

The deaths represent the largest loss of military lives in a single incident in the course of the nearly 10-year-old war, and are a blow to Western efforts as the United States and its allies begin drawing down forces in Afghanistan in hopes of ending their combat role in the next three years.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, confirmed in a terse statement that a helicopter crash had occurred and acknowledged insurgent activity in the area at the time. A Western military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the twin-rotor Chinook helicopter had apparently been brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Karzai's statement identified the slain Americans as special operations forces. Sensitive to operational secrecy, special forces commanders as a rule are slower than other branches to publicly acknowledge combat casualties, which would account for the military's near-silence on the incident more than 12 hours after it occurred.

The helicopter went down after midnight in the Sayedabad district of Wardak province, west of the capital, Kabul, according to Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the provincial governor. He and other provincial officials said the crash followed a firefight that left eight insurgents dead.

Read more HERE: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-afghan-chopper-20110807,0,7157351.story

Photo shows close up of a U.S. Army Special Operations MH-47 Chinook helicopter with its distinctive refueling boom as a crewmember leans over one of the ship's two 7.62mm miniguns.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

400 ROUNDS, 17 GRENADES & 30 ENEMIES

Soldier Single-Handedly Beats Back Taliban Barrage.


Last summer, a single Gurkha soldier of the British forces single-handedly beat back a Taliban attack of 30 fighters in Afghanistan with just a chunk of metal and a sandbag after running out of ammunition. Sgt. Pun's extraordinary courage in Helmand province earned him the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross at a special ceremony in London:





Facing a surprise attack at a Afghanistan checkpoint, Sergeant Dipprasad Pun, 31, hoisted a 50lb machine gun off its mount to blast at the enemy.

When they kept coming, he launched 17 grenades and picked up an SA80 assault rifle, which jammed on him.

Then he threw the machine gun's metal tripod at his attackers, before fending them off with a sandbag while yelling in Nepali: "I will kill you!"

With nothing left to hand, the exhausted hero finally managed to fire off a Claymore mine, and the blast sent the enemy scattering.

Pun's medal citation said his actions saved the lives of three comrades and prevented the key military position he was guarding from being overrun.

"I was really scared but as soon as I opened fire that was gone. I knew I had to kill them.

"I thought they were going to kill me after a couple of minutes, definitely. Looking back at it, I realise I'm a very lucky guy, a survivor. It is great to get this award. I am very happy."

The sergeant in the Royal Gurkha Rifles told how he was on night-time sentry duty on September 17 last year when he discovered insurgents laying an improvised explosive device at the checkpoint.

He was surrounded and the enemy opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and AK47s.

As the 20-minute battle raged, Sgt Pun raced onto a wall to remove the .50 cal machine gun from its mount so he could lower it enough to aim at the attackers below.

At one point he turned to find a "huge" militant standing behind him ready to pounce and Sgt Pun fired a final machine gun round at him.

He also fired his SA80 assault rifle, but the weapon failed just as another Taliban crept up on him. He said: "I threw it away and grabbed a sandbag to hit him but all the sand poured away. I had nothing left. Suddenly I found the metal rod and hit him with it.

"I threw it at him yelling in Nepali 'I will kill you' and he fell down. They were very determined. They kept coming and coming. In the end I was nearly collapsed."

Sgt. Pun's actions saved the lives of three comrades and prevented the key military position he was guarding from being overrun.


The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross is just one level below the UK's top military honor, the Victoria Cross.









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FOG OF WAR

SENIOR TALIBAN MEMBERS DENY PEACE TALKS


Recent headlines have spoken of negotiations between the U.S.-backed
Afghanistan government and the Taliban, but senior Taliban commanders
tell The Daily Beast's Mushtaq Yusufzai that high-level peace talks are
not happening. "This is another ploy by the enemy to divide the
Taliban," says Maulvi Kabir, a member of the Taliban's Rahbari Shura, or
leading council. However, the secret nature of the talks and the
decentralized structure of the Taliban make it difficult to tell who
speaks for whom.

Read it HERE


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YOU MIGHT BE A TALIBAN

Some interesting observations on the Taliban by that great American philosopher, Jeff Foxworthy:


"YOU MIGHT BE A TALIBAN IF . . . "




1. You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to liquor.


2. You own a $3,000 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can't afford shoes.


3. You have more wives than teeth.


4. You wipe your butt with your bare hand, but consider bacon "unclean."




5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide.


6. You can't think of anyone you haven't declared Jihad against.


7. You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry explosives in your clothing.


8. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.




9. You have nothing against women and think every man should own at least four.


10. You've always had a crush on your neighbor's goat.


11. Your cousin is President of the United States.


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TALIBAN USING MERCENARY SNIPERS?

This is from the worthy site WEASEL ZIPPERS









(Telegraph)- A British soldier killed while manning a watchtower in Afghanistan may have been the latest victim of a hired Taliban sniper stalking the town of Sangin, it has been claimed.

Sapper Darren Foster of the Royal Engineers was shot as he passed a narrow slit in a bulletproof glass screen around a lookout post in the northern Helmand town.

US forces have disclosed that he is thought to have been one of three victims of a sniper at work in the area in just a week. One US marine was killed as he momentarily stepped out of an armoured vehicle to drop off a rubbish bag and another was injured on a bridge nearby.

The shootings raised fears that the Taliban may have hired a mercenary sniper to target Nato forces in the town which is now considered the most dangerous in Afghanistan.

There have been claims that at least three snipers trained in Iran or Pakistan are thought to be at work across Afghanistan.

Earlier this year it emerged that the SAS had been sent out to track a Taliban sniper operating around Sangin.

A senior officer disclosed that a single gunman was thought to be responsible for the deaths of up to seven soldiers from 3rd Battalion, the Rifles, stationed in Sangin.

Sapper Foster, 20, from Whitehaven, Cumbria, was on duty in a lookout post at Patrol Base Sangin Fulod on August 13.

The post is protected by thickened glass with only small gaps through which those on guard can point their weapons.

US forces, working alongside British troops at the base, disclosed that it is thought the gunman timed a single shot for the moment he walked past the opening.

“He hit a moving target in a space this big,” Captain Jim Nolan, a company commander serving with the US Seventh Marine Regiment told the Wall Street Journal, holding his hands about nine inches apart.


more . . .


(Daily Mail)- Four foreign snipers hired by the Taliban, thought to be responsible for the deaths of ten British soldiers, have been hunted down and killed.

The mercenaries were found by British special forces in Helmand province in Afghanistan after a tip-off from locals. They were put under close surveillance until their identities were confirmed, then air strikes were called in.

The operation ended a killing spree that lasted weeks and could have led to the deaths of up to ten British soldiers.

Recruited from Pakistan, Egypt and Chechnya, the snipers could kill from up to 650 yards away and were considered a serious threat by British commanders.

Their victims included Sapper Darren Foster, 20, from Whitehaven, Cumbria, who was killed by a single shot from 600 yards, which went through a 9in gap in a look-out post near Sangin.

When their identities were confirmed and their exact locations ascertained, pilots of U.S. F-16 jets were sent precise coordinates to ensure their high-explosive bombs killed the enemy without hurting innocent civilians.

In both cases, elite SAS and SBS troops, working with crack US and Afghan Special Forces, were involved.


.

TALIBAN RESPOND TO SECRET WIKILEAKS FILES

By Mushtaq Yusufzai


A high-ranking Taliban commander reacts to the release of classified
military documents, and denies any links with Pakistan's spy network.
Mushtaq Yusufzai reports.


Responding to WikiLeaks' release of tens of thousands of pages of
classified military documents about the war in Afghanistan, a
high-ranking Taliban commander rejected reports that the Taliban had any links
with Pakistan's spy agency.


"Look, we're at war and would like to get aid from anyone to fight
against the U.S. and its allies who invaded our homeland," Sirajuddin
Haqqani, a senior leader of the Haqqani network, told The Daily Beast on
Monday . . .


Read more HERE


.

SITREP

Engaged on all flanks . . .






. . . we're short on ammo . . . short on spare parts, fuel, medical supplies, food & water . . .




. . . short on everything except enemy . . .




YES Ladies and Gentlemen . . .


AUGUST IS SHAPING UP TO BE A PRETTY GOOD MONTH ! ! !




Things are going to Hell in a handbasket over here . . . Blog STORMBRINGER will suffer accordingly . . . posts will be sporadic and possibly few & far between while I sort this shi'ite out . . . bear with me and enjoy the madness . . .

STORMBRINGER SENDS


.

1 U.S. SERVICEMAN CAPTURED, 1 KILLED

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) - One American service member who was abducted in Afghanistan on Friday has been killed, provincial government officials said Sunday.

Den Mohammad Darwish, the spokesman for the governor of Logar province, said he learned from locals that the service member was killed.

A second service member who was also abducted at the same time is still missing; Afghan intelligence reports that the second soldier is wounded.

Three U.S. military officials told CNN the two service members are from the Navy.


More HERE



Pray for them.


.

MULLAH OMAR REPORTED CAPTURED

This story is over 8 hours old now. The source is no stranger to controversy (but he has 'street creds') and this kind of rumor has proven to be premature before, but if this is legit, then this is BIG:


MULLAH OMAR REPORTED CAPTURED


About source: Brad Thor


.

THE ETHOS OF CITIZENSHIP

Times Square Bomber Faisal Shahzad


“Why on earth did we allow Faisal Shahzad to become a U.S. citizen in the first place?”

Shahzad apparently obtained his citizenship through marriage, after several years of uncertain legality in this country. Authorities did not discern his radicalism; it is next to impossible to determine membership to a designated terrorist organization.

Background checks on immigrants are spotty and unreliable. How could it be otherwise? The U.S. citizenship system is overwhelmed by a flood of applicants and evaders.

When I became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1986, I had to sign a lot of papers. One of them asked if I was involved on an official level within the Nazi government of Germany from 1933-1945. Other questions involved if I had ever uttered statements advocating the violent overthrow of the United States government, or had membership of any groups that shared such sentiments. A check in the Yes block of any of those questions was grounds for rejection of my petition for U.S. citizenship.

I was an active-duty member of the U.S. military at that time. As I explored post-military career options, I became aware that certain activities could jeopardize my status as a U.S. citizen. That’s right – my citizenship is conditional. It was explained to me that this does not apply to native-born citizens, but if the U.S. government is ever not happy with my activities, as an immigrant I can have my citizenship pulled and be sent back to my native country.

Mind you, I’d probably have to be selling planeloads of explosives to Gaddafi, or committing treason, for something like this to occur – one would think training with the Taliban to set off a car bomb in Times Square would put a guy into this zone, but that’s just me thinking . . .

I think this Faisal Shahzad guy qualifies for the Sean Linnane treatment. Here’s what we do with this wasted piece of human flesh: A) we interrogate the hell out of him, tell him he’ll get lenient treatment for cooperating with us to get all the actionable intell out of him we can get, and then we use the intell his gives us to send a hundred drones into a hundred compounds, mud huts and caves to kill a hundred+ Taliban scum, then B) once that’s accomplished we say “APRIL FOOL!!!”, pull his citizenship and drop him in the middle of Durga-Durga-stan, AFTER we inform all his Taliban buddies exactly HOW MUCH he sang like a canary.

Of course Eric Holder’s office will be too busy busting the law books to find ways to ensure this worthless sack of excrement has every kind of civil right and legal defense imaginable; the thought of standing him in front of a firing squad is the last thing on their minds. I can see our enemies now; rolling around on the cave floor laughing at us every night . . .

. . . HUNG UP TO DRY

Sergeant Mark Leader, 18 years honorable service in the Royal Marine Commandos, says he acted in self-defense against a ‘dangerous and violent prisoner’.



A Court Martial heard how Sergeant Leader and his company commander Captain Wheelhouse burst into a tent where 48-year-old Ekhlas was being held and struck him around the head with a rubber boot, causing a cut lip, two loosened teeth and facial bruising.

The court rejected SGT Leader’s defense that he was trying to stop the man from escaping.

Sergeant Leader's character references speak of ‘calm maturity’ and described by colleagues as ‘a man of integrity’; his exemplary and unblemished record counted for nothing when set against a regrettable but relatively minor assault on an Afghan prisoner.

The Afghan was caught red-handed planting IEDs, and soon after the incident he was released by the Afghan police. A known terrorist is free to go back to what he’s doing - planting IED's and claiming the lives of NATO troops. Meanwhile, a good man's career of 18 years has come to an end.



Leader's own words:

"It was a split-second judgment call and the whole thing lasted about two or three seconds. I may have drawn the wrong conclusion but, given the same circumstances, seeing what I saw, I’d do the same again without hesitation."


Read the whole story here and judge for yourself.



.

FIREFIGHT AT COMBAT OUTPOST KEATING

A Reader Writes:

"I tried to post this article link on the post you wrote about the 5 military deaths but for some reason it is not working this morning."

( Linnane: He's talking about this story:

Report Faults Officers' Absence in Afghan Ambush that Killed 5 U.S. Troops )


"My kid was in this unit a few years ago and had nothing nice to say about the ethics or character of Col. Randy George, commander of the division's 4th Brigade Combat Team. Our boys were sitting ducks. What do you say to their parents?"


Meanwhile, a similar story:

Fault Found in Afghan Outpost's Fall


A U.S. military investigation into how the Taliban overran an outpost last fall in Afghanistan, killing eight soldiers and injuring 22, cited "inadequate measures taken by the Chain of Command."




The three-pronged Taliban attack on Combat Outpost Keating, in the Kamdesh district of Afghanistan's Nuristan province, on October 3 2009, has been trumpeted by the insurgents as a major achievement. Though the attack was repelled after several hours of combat, the U.S. military evacuated and destroyed the outpost, which housed some 60 U.S. troops, three days later. Coalition troops are no longer present in that area, and most of Nuristan has fallen under insurgent control.






The U.S. military had decided to close the outpost by July-August 2009, but delayed the move because of other military operations in a nearby district.

Such a "mindset of imminent closure" prevented the unit from improving the outpost's defenses even as intelligence reports warned of a planned strike by "a large enemy force," Friday's report said. These inadequate defenses, in turn, made Keating "an attractive target" for the Taliban, the report said.


Following the report's conclusion, a summary of which was released Friday, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has taken "appropriate action" against the officers involved, the U.S. military said. It didn't release the officers' names or specify the nature of the action.

FREEDOM FIGHTERS OR TERRORISTS - YOU DECIDE

From a remarkable BBC Interview:

BOMBS AND BEATINGS: LIFE AMONGST THE TALIBAN
5 February 2010

In Pakistan an account of life with the Taliban has emerged from a 13-year-old girl called Meena, who says her own family tried to turn her into a suicide bomber.


Meena fled the Taliban and is now in a secure location


My brother used to tell me that the place for a woman is either at home or in the grave. I was always restricted to home.

He said: "If you leave the house I'll cut off your head and put it on your chest."

My brother had been to the local school and beaten the girls and the teachers.

Taliban commanders used to come to our house. There was an underground bunker beside the house, with electricity.

It was concrete and very strong. Cars would drive on top but no-one would realize what was underneath. In that hideout they used to train suicide bombers.

Most were children of my age or younger than me. They were used for these activities because they were too young to know any better.


Going to 'Paradise'

I used to see these children getting on a vehicle to go for their missions. They used loud Islamic CDs to motivate them.

And I would think, "My God, more Muslims are going to be buried". Then the news would come that more Muslims were wiped out.

My brother used to prepare bombs and my sister-in-law did too. He told me that he would teach me this. I told him no. I would not even look at what they were doing.

My father and brother told me to carry out a suicide attack. They were pressuring me to do this.

They told me: "If you do it you will go to paradise long before us." I replied: "Why don't you tell me I will go to hell long before you?"

Every day they used to tell me this. Every day. I was very young when they started telling me this. I said to them: "What about all the people I will kill? They are all Muslims."


Bomber's Medicine

They started beating me when I refused. They beat me non-stop. They made my life hell. I never had a single moment of happiness. They did everything other than kill me.

They said: "The bomb will be connected with a button, or something like the remote control of a TV. We will give you this kind of remote, and you will go to the place.

"We will also give you a mobile, and we will ring that phone, and press the remote, and you will be blown up with this bomb."

They told me they would use such a large amount of explosives that no-one would even know if it was a man or a woman.

They told me that I had to do it.

There was a kind of medicine they used to give to the bombers that made them go around smiling, in a trance.

They said they would give me that medicine, and then I would go running to die - with a smile. I was so scared I decided to prepare my own tea, and my own food.

I was afraid they would mix that medicine with my food.


Sister's Story

They attached a bomb to my sister Nahida. They tied rectangular pieces to both her arms, and a black strip was wrapped around both her legs.

Then they connected the whole thing. She told my brother the bomb was heavy and she could not walk.

He said she would be comfortable once she was sitting down in the car.

They gave her medicine. But she was crying very loud for my mother. She kept going to her and hugging her. When my sister looked down at the bomb, she shivered.

Then my brother and my father started beating my mother, and they were shouting: "Why you are distracting the girl from her mission?"

I heard my sister saying: "Where is Meena? I want to see her." But I didn't have the strength. My heart couldn't take it.

My mother fainted when they put her in the car. My brother said my sister's attack was in Afghanistan.

I always think about my sister. She was healthy and a very nice girl. She was younger than me, but she was wiser. My mother used to tell me that I was an idiot, but she was very wise.


A 'Lucky Goat'

My brother was involved in the Khyber Bazaar bombing (in the frontier city of Peshawar in October 2009, in which more than 50 people were killed). It was discussed in the house.

When someone was sent somewhere they would talk about the target.

They would say: "We are sending this group there."

After the bombings they would celebrate. They would garland each other with flowers as people do when they come back from the Haj.

When (former Pakistani Prime Minister) Benazir Bhutto died my brother started calling everybody. They started firing, and saying "Benazir has died, Benazir has died". Everybody started firing - they celebrated until it was very late.

My brother visited a friend's house after many years and was given a goat and a motorbike which he brought home.

They used to get animals as gifts because there were so many Taliban to be fed. He asked me to take care of the goat but she ran out of the gate. I went after her.

Our house was on a ridge. There was a stream down below. She went down to the stream and I followed her. A plane came making a lot of noise, and vibrations. (This was an attack by a helicopter gunship.)

When I looked back up to my place all I could see was a lot of smoke rising. My house was turned into rubble.

I didn't have a clue about how many of my family members were dead or alive. Since that place was full of arms and explosives I could hear big bangs.

Then I started walking and by the evening prayers I had reached a local town.

People say I have a strong heart. I've had to be strong. What can I do? God won't even let me die.

If my brother gets hold of me, I will poison him and myself.

The Taliban slaughter other people's children. They turn women into widows. They should be made to suffer too.

I want these Taliban to be burned alive.



There is no independent confirmation of her account but police say they believe she is telling the truth, and her information could be valuable.


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A common theme of the liberals in our country and repeated by the Left in the other developed countries, is that the war in Afghanistan - like the war in Iraq - is an "unnecessary war".

If for no other reason, we are there to free the oppressed from the kind of savagery Meena described above.

There is a segment of the liberal Left who would decry our actions, who claim that it is the West who has driven the Taliban to become who they are.

These people call themselves 'Progressives'.


S.L.

A TALE OF TWO HEROES

An incredible story of modern war, an amazing series of coincidences; UNLESS - like me - you don't believe in coincidences. - S.L.

PVT BRENNON ON PATROL THAT CAPTURES HVT RESPONSIBLE FOR MASTERMINING COUSIN'S DEATH



SGT Joshua Brennan, B Co 2-503, 173rd Airborne Brigade, KIA 26 Oct 07

Josh Brennan was critically wounded on 25 October 2007 in a Taliban ambush on patrol with his platoon in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. During the ambush the Taliban attempted to drag Josh away. SPC Hugo "Doc" Mendoza gave his life, and two others were severely wounded attempting to save Josh from the enemy. His platoon continued to fight the enemy and were successful in getting Josh back. One of those men has been nominated for the Medal of Honor for his actions that day.



SGT Josh Brennan on the day of his last mission: Operation Rock Avalanche


Inspired by his cousin's footsteps, Joseph Brennan enlisted in the US Army, went Airborne (that's Joe Brennan being pinned with his cousin's wings at Fort Benning), and shipped out to Vicenza, Italy to join the same outfit his cousin had served in.

Two years to the day after Josh was killed in action, Private Joseph Brennan entered the same platoon that Josh had served in and met several of Josh's friends. Their outfit - 2d Battalion of the 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment - deployed to Afghanistan just before Christmas, 2009. Joseph's platoon was sent to Camp Joyce, in Kunar province where his cousin Josh was ambushed and killed.

Joseph has already been out on several missions since Christmas. Then his family got the word; his platoon CAPTURED THE GUY WHO PLANNED THE AMBUSH THAT KILLED JOSH BRENNAN AND HUGO MENDOZA.

The entire incredible story is over at tankerbabelc's blog FROM COW PASTURES TO KOSOVO

Some of the facts:

* SGT Brennan was wounded in combat on 25 October 2007 and died of his wounds the next day, 26 October 2007.

* PVT Brennan left the US for his overseas duty station in Vicenza, Italy on 26 October 2009 (the second anniversary of his cousin's death)

* PVT Brennan was assigned to the same unit his cousin SGT Brennan had served in: B Company, 2nd Battalion of the 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade.

* PVT Brennan's platoon went on patrol that captured the High Value Target who masterminded the ambush that killed his cousin SGT Joshua Brennan.



PVT Joseph Brennan, graduating from Airborne school and being pinned with his cousin Josh's wings.

Four Taliban were captured that day in this unbelievable chain of events, including the HVT known to have planned the ambush where Josh Brennan and Doc Mendoza were killed. His family got the word immediately afterward, from Joe Brennan himself.




173D AIRBORNE BRIGADE - "SKY SOLDIERS"

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". . . WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER !"

Of the maxims of the Philosophy of STORMBRINGER:


'When you find yourself in a fight, the stupidest thing to do is ANYTHING BUT try to win, by whatever means possible.




When you and your team become involved in battle, you MUST have the mindset that there is NOTHING ELSE BUT to win, for the alternative is unacceptable.




When a nation finds itself in a war, to do ANYTHING BUT whatever it takes to win is beyond criminal; it is unconscionable.'


The United States of America is the greatest nation in the entire history of the World. We are a Beacon of Hope and Freedom to untold millions, billions. We have the support of our honorable Allies, throughout the family of civilized, free nations. To date, we are the single nation capable of planting its flag on another Heavenly body.






Are we to believe that we cannot prevail against a movement of illiterates, led by a nihilist, inspired by a creed straight out of the Dark Ages?





We can win, we will win, because we MUST win - the alternative is UNTHINKABLE.


"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender . . . "

- Winston Churchill, 4 June 1940


My series of posts on paramilitary security contractors uncovered another supporter out there; STORMBRINGER welcomes Donald Douglas to the fold of Victory-minded individuals.

" . . . a pro-victory Associate Professor of Political Science teaching in Southern California. I love my country, and I fully support current U.S. military operations around the world. I despise the hard-left radical agenda and discourse. I also abhor irrationalism in argumentation. I welcome comments and debate, and I'll defend my positions vigorously. Yet in friendship, you'll find no one more trustworthy nor loyal; in battle you'll find an umatched competitor whose tactical elan would make Machiavelli proud . . ."






Check out his Worthy Site AMERICAN POWER







I told Donald that when I retired from active duty, I considered going into education. But it occurred to me that a conservative, ex-Green Beret would survive MAYBE a semester or two in that liberal environment . . . I respect Donald for holding his own in the rarified atmosphere of modern American academia. - S.L.

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ONE PROFESSIONAL's OPINION

A friend writes:



I worked with "Hank" back in 2001/2002 as a member of TF DAGGER.... not sure I agree the same strategy would work in Pakistan, but thought you (and possibly the StormBringer crowd) would enjoy the news article.

I'll work on a sanitized Advisor article for you this week. It's been a bit crazy over here during the Ashura. We've been conducting multiple operations (mainly warrants and ambushes), and unfortunately, my partner, Federal Police LTC _____ is still in critical but stable condition.

Will update later.

Take care brotha . . . .



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Ex-CIA operative Henry Crumpton describes using local might to oust al Qaeda and their Taliban hosts in 2001, a strategy he says is needed in Pakistan, where terrorist are hiding. Lara Logan reports.


I hate it when the journalists throw the "spy" word around. To be a spy, one must betray from within. To be a 'clandestine operator' is not spying; it is closer to being a scout - S.L.

INSURGENTS DID NOT "HACK" ANYTHING

I've been busier than a one-armed paper hanger with an itch - closing out the month - and haven't had time to tend to Blog STORMBRINGER . . .


MQ-9 Reaper armed with GBU-12 Paveway II laser guided munitions and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles


The headlines read:

Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones
$26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected



When I heard this story on Thursday I thought right away, 'this isn't such a big deal.' If for no other reason that live video isn't encrypted.

Text and voice signal can be encrypted, but video is such a LARGE bundle of one's and zero's that it's hard to send live in the first place. Trying to encrypt and send live video - well, I won't say it's impossible, but it'd be damn hard to achieve.

Live video eats up so much signal and bandwidth on the electromagnetic spectrum, that it's hard for ground pounders to even get a frequency to use vid, never mind the power source necessary to send the stuff.

But I'm just a lowly knuckledragging Neanderthal, what do I know? SO . . . I ran it past the team techie - our "Q" - and he confirmed what I already suspected: video can't be encrypted (as far as he knows, and he knows a LOT). Ergo this is NOT hacking, this is eavesdropping:


This from the AP:

Dale Meyerrose, former chief information officer for the U.S. intelligence community, compared the problem to street criminals listening to police scanners.

"This was just one of the signals, a broadcast signal, and there was no hacking. It is the interception of a broadcast signal," said Meyerrose, who worked to field the unmanned systems in the 1990s, when he was a senior Air Force officer.

The problem, he said, is that when the drones were first being developed they were using commercial equipment, which as time goes on could become vulnerable to intercepts.


There is a tendency to de-humanize your enemies, and to underestimate them - especially if they are Asians or Africans.



The Taliban have displayed some ingenuity here, granted, but this does not put them in the same category as the SpyKids.

TRAITORS

American has had traitors in every war we've been in - this one is no different. - S.L.


The Americans being held in Pakistan on possible terrorism-related charges were arrested in a house linked to militants in an eastern Pakistani city; Sargodha is home to a major air force base and is a known pocket of militant insurgency. Pakistani police reports suggest they intended to get terrorist training there and join with the Taliban to fight against American troops in Afghanistan.



American Muslims arrested by Sargodha Police Department on Friday, Dec. 11, 2009. From left to right: Waqar Hussain Khan, Ramy Zamzam, Umar Farooq, Ahmad Minni, Aman Yemer. (AP Photo/Sargodha Police Department)

Waqar Hussain Khan, 22, was born in Virginia.

Ramy Zamzam, 22, was studying at Howard University to be a dentist — he maintained a 4.0 grade-point average.

Umar Farooq, an accounting student at George Mason University, was born in Sargodha.

Ahmed Minni, 20, was born in Virginia.

Aman Yemer, at 18 the youngest of the five, was born in California.


The young men grew up in Alexandria, Virginia. They had been friends for years. Some were in college now. Some had jobs. Some had Facebook pages filled with friends.


I know this town well. You couldn't find a more all-American city; Alexandria is closely related to the founding of our country. I have many friends throughout Fairfax County who I often visit during military-related business trips to the DC area. They are loyal readers and often contribute to STORMBRINGER -S.L.


Their families insist they never revealed a hint of extremism. Families and friends portray them as innocent, decent citizens. Neighbors used terms like "good guy" and "friendly" to describe the young men.


Facebook page disappeared from the Web:

Zamzam's bewildered Facebook friends set up a special page asking for help finding the missing students and praying for their safe return. Postings on the page earlier in the week said the Facebook friends were trying to raise awareness about the five men who "have been missing for some time now." By Friday 11 December, that Facebook page disappeared from the Web after the students turned up arrested in Pakistan on possible terrorist-related charges.


Not Trusted by the Taliban:

The group appeared to communicate online, and Pakistani investigators say they visited web sites that showed attacks against the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Those internet connections may have led them to Pakistan, where they reportedly met with representatives from the al-Qaida-linked Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group in the southeastern city of Hyderabad and from a related group, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, in Lahore. Pakistani officials say the men were also in contact with a Taliban recruiter.

But their efforts to join the jihadi fight were rebuffed, because they were not trusted.


Shock and Disbelief at Alexandria Mosque:




In northern Virginia, family friends, including fellow worshippers at the Islamic Circle of North America's small chapter mosque — a converted single-family home tucked into their residential neighborhood — can't believe what they're hearing about the students.

"They had jobs, they were in school. They were normal kids," said the families' lawyer, Nina Ginsberg.


Friends in Shock, Plead for Families' Privacy:

"I know they're very sad," said Dr. Essam Tellawi, a volunteer at the mosque who fills in sometimes as the imam. "It's very hard to hear about your son is missing."


Analysis: We Are Under Attack.

We're seeing it over and over again; there's a common thread going on here: young men of Middle-Eastern origin, above average intelligence, born and/or raised in the West of immigrant families; in a case of confused loyalties decide to go to war against their own country:

Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan.

The 7/7 London Bombings of 2005

Glasgow Airport Terror Attack, June 2007.

This is a part of the phenomenon I have coined Self-Induced Jihad Syndrome.

- Sean Linnane

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