Islamic State uses MANPADS to shoot down Iraqi helicopter near Baiji – Threat Matrix.
Category Archives: General Interest
Islamic State uses MANPADS to shoot down Iraqi helicopter near Baiji – Threat Matrix
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics
Islamic State expanding?
Here’s a newsflash from Global Security, “Islamic State Militants First Seen in Derna, Eastern Libya: Reports”. President Obama’s other great air campaign left a gaping power vacuum in Libya, which Islamist crazies will fill. This latest report was sourced to Ria Novosti. Al Arabiya posted an article with a 3:46 length video of a “parade” yesterday in Derna by Islamists proclaiming allegiance to the Islamic State. There were lots of pick-up trucks that looked the same to me in the couple of minutes that I watched, leading me to wonder if they were just circling the block. Of course, professionals in our intelligence have already probably analyzed this video and made all the proper assessments on the size of the parade and other pertinent information. Came across another article,“Is Derna becoming an Islamist emirate?”, reporting a similar parade with pick-up trucks in Derna earlier this year. In that parade a group called, “Shura Council of Islamist Youth in Derna”, proclaimed Sharia law.
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Islam, Military, Politics
Another Ebola victim – Spain
AP reports an Ebola case in Spain, first case transmitted outside of Africa: “Spanish nurse in Madrid diagnosed with Ebola”
Filed under General Interest
Dallas Weekly Wins Most Poorly Timed Cover Of Year | Truth Revolt
Filed under General Interest, The Media
The impolite questions
Reader warning: This is going to be a politically incorrect post
So, here’s another Washington Post headline: “Family of former U.S. Army Ranger held hostage by Islamic State plead for his life”. Well, the first thing to jump out at me was the photo of Mom and Dad Kassig, parents of the former U.S. Army Ranger being held hostage by ISIS. Mom Kassig is wearing a head scarf in deference to her son’s captors’ religious, please God, don’t let me choke on this word, sensitivities. The article quotes the parents pleas to their son’s captors.
The headline highlights the American captive’s military service, yet, here I was wondering definitely cold-hearted things, like how in the hell did this “former U.S. Army Ranger” end up being a hostage. Well, just like in the Bowe Bergdahl situation, it’s best to avoid asking questions like this, “why in the hell was he in Syria?” Okay, here’s a small loose thread, which this story left hanging:
“Peter Kassig’s family said he was in the region doing humanitarian work when he disappeared a year ago near the city of Raqqah in eastern Syria.”
Sounds great, he was doing humanitarian work and the next question was with whom was he working, because humanitarian work sounds good, benign, non-political, right? Move on LB, don’t ask questions, just accept the feel-good story the press presented, be angry that an American patriot is being held captive by barbarians, because that’s the message the headline wanted you to get.
So, Kassig was near Raqqah doing good works when he was captured by ISIS a year ago, who along with the Free Syrian Army and the al-Nusrah front overran government forces in Raqqah. With whom was Kassig doing humanitarian works near Raqqah, that’s my question. Here’s one other elusive loose thread, which the reporter didn’t tug on, “The militant then threatened to kill Kassig, a Muslim convert, because of U.S. bombing of Islamic State targets in Syria.” Aha, Kassig was a Muslim convert, with U.S.Army Ranger training just trekking all the way to Syria to do humanitarian works with whom? Was he with some aid group? Or maybe he wanted to join the elusive Syrian moderates, perish the thought that he might have joined the jihad – that would be unthinkable….
Okay, let me add my question about the humanitarian works of Kassig – Sera, his relief organization he founded – it seems hokey to me, there you have it – just a weird female hunch thing. Lots of red flags – the web page seems amateur, very skimpy on details. Updated in 2014 that the organization’s operations are temporarily ceased. How many people work (volunteer) for this organization or was it a one man show? Maybe Kassig was like Bergdahl – angry at the US military actions in the Muslim world, yes, that question popped into my head. Enough politically-incorrect thoughts for one dayLB (yes, I am talking to myself, lol) – just accept the picture the media paints and move quietly along.
Sorry still googling and found this Time exposé from January 2013, “An Army Ranger Helps Syrian Refugees”, on Kassig’s Sera humanitarian relief organization – sounds like a one-man show effort. Here’s some tantalizing threads to consider from this Time piece:
“What have you been doing during your time in Lebanon?
I started by travelling as much as possible throughout the country and focusing my efforts on volunteering on a small scale in a Palestinian refugee camp in South Beirut. I wanted to try and understand the full scope of the level of need and what role I could potentially have in meeting that need. I also volunteer in a hospital in Tripoli, Lebanon, offering my services as a trauma medic to Syrian refugees who have been wounded in the fighting in Syria. From these experiences I began the development of my NGO, SERA, which stands for Special Emergency Response and Assistance. I divide by time between my personal volunteer efforts, my organizations relief operations, which include the distribution of aid materials such as medical equipment and children’s clothing, as well as food and cooking materials in both Lebanon and Syria.”(my highlight)
Oh yes, nothing political in his humanitarian good works, humm.
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Islam, Military, Politics, The Media
The ebola experts’ crisis response – lots of plans/little action
Here’s a lengthy chronology of the ebola outbreak from the Washington Post, “Out of control: How the world’s health organizations failed to stop the Ebola disaster”.
Paragraph thirteen kind of sums up the systemic big issue:
“The epidemic has exposed a disconnect between the aspirations of global health officials and the reality of infectious disease control. Officials hold faraway strategy sessions about fighting emerging diseases and bioterrorism even as front-line doctors and nurses don’t have enough latex gloves, protective gowns, rehydrating fluid or workers to carry bodies to the morgue.”
The simple truth that emerges after reading these quotes from “experts” is that in third world areas local problems like civil strife, poverty, lack of sanitation, illiteracy, cultural superstitious belief systems, lack of functioning health systems stack the deck in favor of rampaging epidemics to win. Sure, the world has some brave do-gooders who expose themselves to grave risks to help, but finding enough to handle the scope of this growing crisis will be very difficult. And all these experts, with plans in hand, can’t change human nature – most folks, even medical professionals, will weigh in on the side of not rushing to the epicenter of a virus that causes viral hemorrhagic fever, has no known treatments, and has a very high mortality rate.
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics
Political potpourri
Just some news links:
Nightwatch’s “Turkey’s Half-Hearted Commitment to the Anti-ISIS Coalition“ offers interesting comments on Turkey joining the fight against ISIS and also on the Kurdish situation.
A virologist who has been studying ebola for 20 years weighs in on the honor system ebola screening process at the airport in Monrovia – “Top Ebola Virologist: Liberia’s Airport Checks ‘Useless’ and a ‘Disaster'”
John R. Schindler at the XX Committee blog wrote a very interesting post filled with details about the National Center for Medical Intelligence. Definitely check out his, “The Ebola Crisis and Medical Intelligence”.
News release from the US Africa Command on Operation United Assistance – skimpy on details.
Fort Bragg news release tosses out a few more crumbs of info:
“Prior to deployment, all Soldiers will be trained in personal health safety to preserve the health of our forces. All troops deploying to Liberia will receive specific medical training – developed in conjunction with U.S. Army Public Health Command – and use specialized personal protection equipment to ensure they are protected from exposure to Ebola.”
“Fort Bragg-based Soldiers will not treat Ebola victims but will provide infrastructure support to U.S. Agency for International Development, establish logistical centers to support the operation’s efforts through logistical and life sustaining support to military personnel for Operation United Assistance.”
Aha, on October 2nd I wrote, “They will find a way to co-mingle agendas and use the ebola outbreak as the perfect smokescreen to stealthily advance their agenda, a la Rahm Emmanuel’s don’t let a serious crisis go to waste.” and voilà on October 3rd, bam, here it is: “MSNBC: Ya know who’s really to blame for this ebola mess? The NRA”. It’s either great that I can predict the left’s lame-brained political posturing or pathetic that their propaganda is so predictable, lol. No crystal balls necessary.
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics
You can’t fool Mother Nature
Nature doesn’t play politics. Watch closely as politicians, dubious experts and sycophants in the media lead us on a semantical wild goose chase, while ebola follows its natural progression. “Containment” is the elusive goal in the three African countries with significant outbreaks. We started with one case and reported 18 other people exposed. That story shifted to possibly 100 people exposed in less than 24 hours, demonstrating clearly that statements of “fact” will change dramatically and all the White House narratives in the world will not be able to contain ebola – only stringent, prompt containment efforts can do that.
Watching the circus that passes for an “official government response” should assure you – they don’t know what the hell they’re doing. The Last Refuge blog posted updated reports with photos from around the web yesterday, so mosey on over there and scroll down through the posts. Geesh, here’s an excellent NY Times report with a photo of health officials leaving the unsanitized home of the four family members under quarantine – no protective clothing in sight, despite reports of vomit, etc. in the home from the ebola-striken man. Now, I work in a store and we’re supposed to don personal protective clothing for everything from spilled bleach to bodily fluid messes, yet health officials walked in unprotected. I’ll bet there were political discussions internally about not wanting to create a panic with showing up in protective clothing. Political posturing won’t protect us from a spread – ONLY stringent containment efforts will do that and they must be done quickly, because once the spread begins, all their political powwow medicine won’t matter one bit. Ebola doesn’t follow poll numbers or play politics – it’s an equal opportunity killer.
Aside from spreading, the other real concern, just like in flu outbreaks, lies in the fact that the more the virus spreads, the faster it mutates. This doesn’t require a doctorate in epidemiology to understand. If ebola goes airborne in transmission, we’ve got a monumental crisis quickly and the ditherer-in-chief will become irrelevant, as states will need to act quickly to protect lives. A huge part of being able to contain disasters is being willing to sit back and think about worst case scenarios and plan ways to avoid that from happening. This isn’t a partisan political gotcha game – it’s potentially millions of American lives at risk. That’s not fear-mongering – that’s fact.
Filed under General Interest, Politics, The Media, Uncategorized
Ebola walks in
Ebola arrived through the front door. That’s the fact our elected officials in Washington should be held to account on. Both political parties kicked this border security Pandora’s box down the road and now it’s busted wide open with an Ebola-striken man arriving in the United States. Reports of his medical care, with being initially sent back home after the first hospital visit should have alarm bells pealing in your head. The government’s first response in a crisis is self-preservation, not public safety. At all levels, the government will proclaim there’s no need to panic, if you just let them handle things and stay calm. Yes, yes, of course mass panic should be avoided, but government accountability for this border security failure must be addressed quickly. President Obama’s open borders policy set the tone, quelling any attempts to be proactive on banning travel from the African countries affected by ebola outbreaks. In keeping with his open border agenda, he allowed thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants to enter America and his administration, stealthily transported these ticking epidemiological time bombs. Not content to disregard immigration laws, the Obama administration deliberately dispersed these illegals to all 50 states, often without even notifying the state officials. Granted, ebola isn’t the threat from these supposed “innocent, poor children” (the democrat’s favorite canard), but to date the administration has avoided public disclosure of the true statistics on cases of TB and other communicable diseases brought into our country by the President’s illegal actions.
Let’s see how quickly the Obama administration, using a public health scare, moves to impose Draconian executive orders curtailing civil rights, targeting gun rights and the political right as a threat graver than ebola. They will find a way to co-mingle agendas and use the ebola outbreak as the perfect smokescreen to stealthily advance their agenda, a la Rahm Emmanuel’s don’t let a serious crisis go to waste. Being a cynic, I expect Obama’s power grab to extend way beyond The Constitution, faster and more furiously than Bush’s Patriot Act. Ebola strikes more fear in the hearts of people than quoting terrorist threats, so be very skeptical of government actions as this crisis spreads, escalates and deepens.
Worth reading:
http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2014/10/01/ebola-in-america/
http://dailycaller.com/2014/10/01/us-visas-held-by-13500-people-in-three-ebola-countries/
And if you’re interested in a good read about the world’s worst pandemic on record, try, “The Great Influenza, The Story of the World’s Deadliest Pandemic in History”, by John M. Barry. I read this book several years ago and it combines a very detailed history of modern-medicine’s birth in America, as the 1918 pandemic caught government and the medical community completely unprepared. Daring medical personnel and scientists rose to the challenge, developing medical training, reliance on scientific research and development for medical treatments, and a completely changed mind-set about public health. The statistics from that long ago pandemic provide a very sobering picture of what we could face as ebola spreads.
A final caution, let’s hope the cures our government devises aren’t worse than the disease.
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics, The Constitution
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