Oh my God…more torture stories

MORE than 25 of the CIA’s war-on-terror prisoners were subjected to sleep deprivation during the administration of former President George W.Bush.
Citing memoranda made public by the Justice Department, The Los Angeles Times said today that at one point, the Central Intelligence Agency was allowed to keep prisoners awake for as long as 11 days.  However, the limit was later reduced to just over a week, the report said.
….and Western lives were saved.

Hamas needs to re-arm

Hamas has agreed to a ceasefire in the Gaza strip conflagration.
“Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire of offensive activities against Hamas. If Hamas does not attack Israel and does not provoke Israel, we will honour the ceasefire.”
Hamas most probably will not attack over the seven day truce as reports suggest they are short on rockets, have lost a lot of resupply tunnels and their command structure is damaged. But have no fear, as soon as Iran can resupply them they will be at their mindless best again.

Hamas set up massacre

The pro-terrorist/Jew hating leftie mob can hardly hide their glee. A massacre in Gaza at last..”now the world will see we are right and the Israelis are the real terrorists”. Not so. It is a tactic of the terrorist organizations to surround themselves with civilians, children if possible, and then force the western powers to retalliate by attacking them. In Gaza, Hamas fired mortars from a school and predictably, Israeli soldiers counter bombarded. The school was also laced with booby traps (only Hamas could explain why) and consequently the Israeli mortars detonated some of these as well. From the Jerusalum Post;
The school grounds were being used by terrorists to fire mortar shells at troops stationed nearby, and the soldiers responded by firing mortars back, the army said. According to the IDF, the dead included members of the Hamas rocket cell, including senior operatives Imad Abu Askhar and Hassan Abu Askhar.
The responsibility for deaths of the civilians, including the children, rests squarely on the shoulders of Hamas and before readers respond with “but the Jerusalem Post would say that”; keep in mind hiding behind civilians for shock media articles is a known tactic of the terrorists and has been employed in dozens of theatres for years The horrendous result is a phsy-ops coup for Hamas as the media rush to report “ISRAELI MASSACRE” but no one mentions who set the scene.

The Phospherous beat-up

ISRAEL is believed to have used controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday.
The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.
Which is what it is used for. Armies have plenty of ammo types to take the fight out of the enemy and have no logistical or tactical reason to use white phospherous (Willie Pete) as a weapon; but a journalist once discovered that if someone comes into contact with WP then it burns right though to the bone. Hence, every time a western power goes to war we have this phosperous beat-up. Signal flares would have the same effect but apparently flares are not as ideologically unsound. It always amuses me that while armies kill and dissect each others troops with high explosive artillery, the moment they use WP as a smokescreen it gets a whole article in the local press. Weird.

Traitor Hicks gets lucky

The only woman who could love a terrorist and traitor, a human rights advocate, stands by her man.
“David Hicks is someone’s brother, son and father,” Aloysia wrote. “He gets scared, bleeds and feels pain just like you or I … He is someone who deserves to be treated with dignity, respect and compassion no matter what he has done.”
Aloysia, you treat him with dignity, respect and compassion, the majority of us will treat him with contempt. The romance blossomed after Hicks moved from his home town of Adelaide to Sydney six months ago, where he found it easier to access rehabilitation services and settle back into the community. He most probably found it easier to ‘get some’ as well. I trust Australian women otherwise wouldn’t go near him.

Smile now, you bastard!

AMROZI, the smiling assassin, was not so brave when faced with his own death. I’m not a proponent of capital punishment because of the possibility of errors or miscarriage of justice but in this case I have no qualms. Passionate murder, even cold blooded murder is one thing and generally has a limited number of victims but in the Bali case there 220 odd victims. A crime most horrible in it’s concept; it beggars belief and there simply isn’t enough superlatives to aptly describe the event. I’m OK with it and feel no burning desire to defend or accuse the Indonesian government of revenge or state sponsored murder Further, I don’t demand Rudd raise the point with the Indonesians; he intends to mention it at the UN and that’s a pointless exercise so let’s leave it at that and move on. At the very least, these three will never slaughter innocents again. Now let’s get Abu Bakar Bashir.

Afghanistan

Aussie GunnerHaven’t been to Michael Yon’s site for a month or two but visited today and found great reading on Afghanistan He is with the Brit’s 2nd Para and writes of their day to day life fighting “Terry” Taliban (as the Brits call them). If you read on you will find some mention of us Aussies but only a passing reference. I would really like to see an Australian journalist submit reports on Australian operations with the personal detail Yon uses when reporting on the Brits and the Yanks. It has long been a complaint of mine that the Australian military Public Relations people are more reactive than proactive. I’m sure Australians would love to read of the daily struggles and successes of our troops in far off lands written in a positive style; to read of their sons and daughters lives as they play their part in the war. Surely it’s a strategy of war to keep the public at home informed and yet all I ever read is terse military media emails that read just like the reports I used to write – just the facts man, just the facts. Minister for Defence said in Canberra today…….Chief of Navy says recruiting up….Gen Gillespie reports troops involved in clash… boring…boring. Come on guys, give us something to hang on to. Whatever, go read how Michael Yon tells a story. It’s fascinating. Also read Where Eagles Dare – Yon’s account of a convoy moving a giant turbine up-country to a dam to provide more power for the locals. The photo of the Aussie gunner above comes from that operation courtesy of the British Minister of Defence (MOD) Update: Reader FM points to a YouTube video on the Gunners supporting the Turbine Operation.

Terror cell had its sights on John Howard

BenbrikaSECURITY was stepped up around former prime minister John Howard after he was named in bugged conversations between members of Australia’s home-grown terror cell. One of the most chilling conversations taped by police was between Benbrika terror network member Fadl Sayadi and an associate as they discussed destroying the West Gate Bridge.
They talked about having spoken to a person with knowledge of the bridge’s security. “Yeah, you go under and you come right to where the big, need-to-hold-it-up part . . .” the associate said. “You could bring down the West Gate.” Sayadi suggested it would be possible to snorkel or scuba dive under the bridge and plant “thingos underneath”.
big, need-to-hold-it-up part and plant thingos underneath seems to suggest a lack of engineering advice but still, the thought was there.

Blocked in Iran

I have just noticed a report at Upperhouse.info stating I am blocked 70% of the time by the Iranian government. I don’t know how the guy works it out but I am resolved to improve my standing to at least 90%. I hope I’m blocked in all the communist countries as well – after all I have reputation to maintain.

Defence red-herring

Defence has taken the unusual step of disclosing details of the measures it is taking to save soldiers’ lives after being criticised for shortcomings in its aerial medical evacuation capabilities in Afghanistan.
AUSTRALIAN special forces patrols in Afghanistan are being accompanied by soldiers with paramedic-level medical training to reduce the danger of troops dying in remote areas before rescue helicopters can arrive.
They always have been now back to the question – when are you going to provide dedicated Australian AME choppers for our troops?
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