Once again I have written an article for my friends at Ace News room……people in the US are starting to sound like they did back in 1960’s….it is all about what Russia is up to as opposed to what the USSR was up to back in the day….
This world is becoming multi-polar….the US is no longer the dominate power in the world…..others are gaining and as they gain the same games played during the Cold War are returning to our foreign policy….
The Baltic nations illustrate this game perfectly…..
You know that I am highly critical of a lot of programs of the US government……and I know I am not alone….the difference is that I try to give an alternative to the paths that we pursue….and terrorism is no different.
The Paris attacks of last week have Americans as well as the rest of the world trying to re-think their security procedures.
The attacks last week has brought up a wealth of questions….like how did the terrorist stay in France or Belgium if he was a known terrorist on that list that gets passed around with the names of those that should be considered dangerous. How did this person come and go without knowledge of the authorities?
If you would like a better perspective of how the French approach counter-terrorism…..then read on…..
Source: The French Approach to Counterterrorism | Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
Personally, I think that the approach of the “home team” needs a new direction. These days it is about massive surveillance out on the street and the infiltration of possible groups that want to do harm…..the problem is that the government is spending massive amounts of cash to be able to film you peeing behind a dumpster on Main Street or infiltrating some group of mentally starved youths so they can be conned into wanting to buy C4…..
Maybe the government could spend more time on those at the top of the list and not worry about where I pee….just a thought.
The List? Yep, there is a list.
There is a Terror List…..and on that list there are 325,000 names of people of interests…..
The National Counterterrorism Center maintains a central repository of 325,000 names of international terrorism suspects or people who allegedly aid them, a number that has more than quadrupled since the fall of 2003, according to counterterrorism officials.
The list kept by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) — created in 2004 to be the primary U.S. terrorism intelligence agency — contains a far greater number of international terrorism suspects and associated names in a single government database than has previously been disclosed. Because the same person may appear under different spellings or aliases, the true number of people is estimated to be more than 200,000, according to NCTC officials.
……..central database is the hub of an elaborate network of terrorism-related databases throughout the federal bureaucracy. Terrorism-related names and other data are sent to the NCTC under standards set by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 6, signed by President Bush in September 2003, according to a senior NCTC official. The directive calls upon agencies to supply data only about people who are “known or appropriately suspected to be . . . engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism.”
You know because I person reads Arabic newspapers does not make them a “terrorist”…..but somehow that person is probably on this list…..
Washington has decided to act in the shadow of Paris……
I know that many are afraid of losing their 2nd amendment rights….usually it it the same people that would deny 1st amendment rights to some Americans……there is a bill coming up that many may not know about…..I can help…..
A significant gap in current federal law allows suspected or known terrorists in the United States to legally buy guns. Since 2001, lone-wolf terrorists have increasingly turned to high-powered guns as their weapon of choice. An investigation found that between Feb. 2004 and Dec. 2014, suspected terrorists attempted to purchase guns at least 2,233 times. In 2,043 of those cases, over 90 percent of the time, individuals on the consolidated terror watch list passed a background check and were legally able to purchase a firearm.
The Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act, or S. 551 / H.R. 1076, would close the terror gap and prevent suspected terrorists from easily buying guns.
Learn how the bill would keep guns out of the hands of terror suspects.
Okay….I await the attacks and the craziness……
Last Friday I wrote a post about the crowded skies over Syria and the possibility of something that could gone wrong…..in case you did not bother to read the post I offer it up here……
Source: The Crowded Skies Of Syria | In Saner Thought
I got some blow back on the post……nothing derogatory or insulting but since the post……. the news this morning was…..
Turkey shot down a Russian warplane Tuesday, claiming it had violated Turkish airspace and ignored repeated warnings. Russia denied that the plane crossed the Syrian border into Turkish skies. “We are looking into the circumstances of the crash of the Russian jet,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said. “The Ministry of Defense would like to stress that the plane was over the Syrian territory throughout the flight.” Russia said the Su-24 was downed by artillery fire, but Turkey claimed that its F-16s fired on the Russian plane after it ignored several warnings. The ministry said the pilots parachuted, but it added that Moscow had no further contact with them. More:
- Video footage of the incident showed a warplane on fire before crashing on a hill and two crew members apparently parachuting safely. According to Turkey’s Dogan news agency, a Russian helicopter flew low over the Bayirbucak Turkmen region in northern Syria, searching for the two pilots.
- A Turkish military statement said the plane entered Turkish airspace over the town of Yayladagi, in Hatay province. “Two F-16 planes on aerial patrol duty in the area intervened against the plane in question in accordance with the rules of engagement at 9:24am,” the statement said, adding that the plane had been warned 10 times in the space of five minutes.
- Russian authorities say the plane was one of dozens flying sorties as part of the country’s bombing campaign in Syria, reports the Washington Post, which notes that since Turkey is a NATO member, the downing of the jet is bound to increase friction between Moscow and the West.
- Reuters reports that activists say the plane crashed in a mountainous part of Syria’s Latakia province, where government forces have been fighting insurgents. A Syrian rebel group has sent Reuters video of what it says is the body of one of the Russian pilots.
(newser)
But what about the crew men of the plane shot down?
The two crew ejected from the stricken plane, the Russian defence ministry said, but the fate of the pilots was not known.
A leader of Turkmen forces in the north of Syria said his men had fired on the pilots as they parachuted, killing one.
Jahed Ahmad, of the Free Syrian Army’s 10th Brigade in the Coast, told the AP news agency that the pilots had attempted to land in a Syrian government-held area.
The group published graphic video showing gunmen standing around a bruised and bloodied pilot who appeared dead.
The Turkmens in northern Syria are allied with rebel groups seeking the overthrow of Syrian president and Russian ally Bashar al-Assad.
If true this incident could be problematic on its own……
This is an incident and I believe that more could come…..there are so many players doing the same thing……it will be interesting to see how the US government spins this incident…..
I closing……. the four most beautiful words in the English language……I TOLD YOU SO!
I seems like every week we creep closer and closer to yet another “war”…..I will admit that I am an anti-war person or as I was called back in the day a ‘peace-nik”…..when I returned from Vietnam I started down my path to try and get people to see that wars are not always what they are told…..that there were nefarious reasons for war…..and it had little to do with “God and country”….
I read this piece in the LA Progressive and thought that it was something that everyone should read….
Source: Some Veterans Figure It Out
My two tours of duty in Vietnam helped me to become an activist….war changes people sometimes for the better…..only someone that faced death in a war zone will understand what I am saying….it is not something that can be explained to someone who was not there….when I was sent to talk with a therapist I would ask one question…..”were you there”? If the answer was no then I would walk out…..opinions are like assholes….everybody has one but if you have no first hand knowledge then your opinion carries NO weight.
Okay, I’m off my soapbox…..any comments?
These are the words of…..well…..damn near everyone in the Western world…..every leader that hunts down the closest mic has made that statement in one form or the other……
Now ask yourself….what are the realistic chances that this will be accomplished?
I offer up a couple of perspectives on this subject for you to see what is being said out of the view of the TV cameras and the babbling of presidential candidates….there is more to the policies against ISIS than the lines muttered by people that cannot spell ISIS much less have an idea of what to do……
These two articles give an analysis of the situation that we are dealing with in our conflict with ISIS/AQ……
Source: Is defeating the Islamic State impossible? – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
Source: Confronting the Islamic State
Before I some moronic eye roll from d/bags that get their news from Right wing news outlets and bottom feeding bloggers……try reading the articles and use your brain for something other than sponge for idiocy…..