This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Terror War

  • Not the Summer Camp that you are looking for.

    Ok, we have read many reports on the Taliban using kids and teens to be used in suicide bombings, but this one found a school that had the look of a Taliban Day Care. with art showing the “Heaven” that wound be waiting for those that would be willing to be a walking bomb. Complete with the teachings on why there is no point to continue living.

    When we got to this compound it was shocking for us,” Lt. Col. Yusuf tells us, standing in the middle of what the Pakistani military says was a brainwashing center — for children.

    Also the Taliban have taken into wanting to take advantage of the local populations by encoruging that they have nothing to live for and why bother waiting to go to Heaven.

    “I have never seen such elaborate paintings about so-called heaven,” Taliban expert Zahid Hussein says, looking at the images.

    He has seen similar tactics in the past and spoken extensively with would-be child suicide bombers in the custody of the authorities.

    “They [the militants] say life is a waste here and if you do a good thing you will go to heaven, immediately to heaven. For someone who does not have anything to look forward to, who does not have any opportunities and is living a wretched life, this sort of thing comes as a big incentive,” Hussein explains.

    He says the children end up believing that their life in this world is worthless, that life only starts in the hereafter. The Taliban is offering them a fast track option to paradise, a longed for escape from their daily reality surrounded by violence.

    But their use on the armed conflict in Afghanistan has been very visible on the web and the implications against those involved there.

    I understand the different views on us being there, but you really think that people like this will just stop despite telling us that we have no problem with America?

    Also thanks again for letting me post here.

  • Alexander says we’re as bad as the Khmer Rouge

    Our favorite Air Force interrogator, Matthew Alexander, is writing at Vote Vets again. This time he says he’s been to a Khmer Rouge prison in Cambodia – and of course it reminds him of Guantanamo and the way we treated the folks we detained there.

    It is estimated that nearly 3 million people were executed during the Khmer Rouge’s purge of Cambodian society. It’s hard not to walk through the Tuol Sleng prison and read about the atrocities and not think about the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Although Gitmo has never come close to the scale and depth of what happened at Tuol Sleng, there are disturbing similarities.

    One of those “disturbing similarities”;

    The entire operation at Tuol Sleng was tightly controlled by the Khmer Rouge high command (they eventually even executed the torturers, cycling in new ones, fearing that they were contaminated by their proximity to the prisoners). Duch, the infamous Tuol Sleng warden who is currently on trial in Cambodia for crimes against humanity, took his orders directly from Pol Pot.

    Yeah, I remember Cheney ordering the guards at Gitmo murdered. Don’t you? Another “similarity”;

    The second thing that strikes you about Tuol Sleng is that many of its victims were children. Judging from the photos of the victims on display, some of them couldn’t have been older than five. The Khmer Rouge exterminated offspring of opposition members like pests. They were concerned that subversive tendencies would be inherited. At the Guantanamo Bay prison, the U.S. continues to hold minors under the age of eighteen. It is a barbaric practice.

    Yeah, there’s no difference between 5 years old and eighteen. And if I’m not mistaken, there are no more eighteen-year-olds at Guantanamo. Matthews’ experience as an interrogator lasted four months, according to his records and the extent of his experience was as a team leader who conducted few, if any, of the actual interviews. Matthews never went to Guantanamo – all of his stories are secondhand rumors, but that doesn’t stop him from using those stories in his book, or on Vote Vets for that matter;

    There is a sign depicting the rules for prisoners, called the Security Regulations, and rule number six reads: “While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.” That reminded me of the infamous sign at the Baghdad airport prison, allegedly used by Special Forces, which read, “No Blood, No Foul.”

    (Emphasis mine) Allegedly? Really? That’s a faithful telling of the tale?

    I guess it’s no wonder that at the AFOSI convention a few weeks back, when his fellow OSIs found out who Matthew Alexander really was and that this particular major was working for George Soros and the ACLU, he was a bit of an outcast. I wonder who put the word out about him.

  • Whoever heard of such a thing?

    Matthew Yglesias is throwing a hissy at his place because of some former Bush “officials” who won’t support Obama based on a New York Times article by Peter Baker who writes;

    A half-dozen former senior Bush officials involved in counterterrorism told me before the Christmas Day incident that for the most part, they were comfortable with Obama’s policies, although they were reluctant to say so on the record. Some worried they would draw the ire of Cheney’s circle if they did, while others calculated that calling attention to the similarities to Bush would only make it harder for Obama to stay the course. And they generally resent Obama’s anti-Bush rhetoric and are unwilling to give him political cover by defending him.

    Yglesias writes;

    It’s really staggering what this says about the ethical caliber of the people we’re talking about. These are the toughest issues out there. Obama is, they think, doing the right thing. But some of them don’t want to say he’s doing the right thing because that might make Dick Cheney mad and they’re timid, gutless careerists? And others don’t want to say he’s doing the right thing because their feelings are hurt that a Democrat said bad things about his grossly unpopular Republican predecessor? For this they’re going to undermine support for policies that they themselves believe are keeping the country safe?

    Staggering? Really? Six people who Baker calls “officials” (they could be Pentagon janitors for all we know) and that’s supposed to be staggering.

    What about the scores of “gutless careerists” that opposed the Bush policies for eight straight years on the public airwaves even though they knew in their tiny black hearts that what Bush was doing was an appropriate response?

    What about that list of Democrats who came out for attacking Iraq in 1998, voted for Saddam’s removal in 2002 and then spent six years crying crocodile tears over the Bush policy of preemption? What about those Senators who spent more than six years crying about the PATRIOT Act after they voted for it? Did those three congressmen who stood on the roof of Saddam’s palace really think Saddam was more trustworthy than Bush – or were they being gutless careerists?

    There are tons of things they can be crying over in regards to Republicans, but this is nit-picking.

  • Not soft on terror?

    In 1949, Mao Zedung (or however we’re supposed to spell it these days) successfully seized the reigns of the mainland Chinese government and US Republicans charged that the “Democrats lost China”. That’s what was in the back of Lyndon Johnson’s mind when he sent combat troops to Vietnam in reaction to the fuzzy details of the “Gulf of Tonkin incident” that filtered back to the White House – Johnson didn’t want to be known as the guy who lost Indochina.

    A decade later, Jimmy Carter lost Iran, Nicaragua and the Panama Canal and a decade later Bill Clinton lost Somalia – all of those have come back to bite us. Now, Barack Obama is in danger of losing the war against terror. So the Washington Post feels an urgent need to defend the young president;

    Words first. “Evil does exist in the world,” Mr. Obama said in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. “Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaeda’s leaders to lay down their arms.” In his weekly radio speech Saturday, he disposed of the war-vs.-law-enforcement canard, pointing out that in his inaugural address he made it clear that “0ur nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred and that we will do whatever it takes to defeat them and defend our country, even as we uphold the values that have always distinguished America among nations.” “

    But actions speak louder, and Mr. Obama’s actions — often at the cost of enraging his party’s liberal base — have also demonstrated tenacity and pragmatism blended with a necessary reassessment of the flawed policies of his predecessors and a recommitment to the rule of law. He wants to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, which is all to the good given its stain on the national character, but he has delayed that goal until acceptable alternatives can be found. He has brought criminal charges against some terrorists, but he has also sent others to be tried by military tribunals. He has invoked the authority of the executive to have lawsuits dismissed because they risk exposing state secrets. In addition to the new troop deployments, he has aggressively used predator drones to strike at terrorists, including outside Afghanistan. Even before the failed attack, his administration has been working aggressively with Yemeni authorities to deal with extremists there.

    See how brave he is – he enraged his party’s base. Like they’ll start suicide bombing the White House, or vote Republican in protest. Whew! How courageous. Don’t you wish he’d enrage our enemies instead?

    His administration announced today that they won’t open a new front in Yemen despite the fact that three strikes in our own country have their origins in Yemen;

    The U.S. does not plan to open a new front in Yemen in the global fight against terrorism despite closing its embassy there in the face of Al Qaeda threats, President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser said Sunday.

    “We’re not talking about that at this point at all,” White House aide John Brennan told Fox News when asked whether U.S. troops would be sent to Yemen.

    “The Yemeni government has demonstrated their willingness to take the fight to Al Qaeda,” he said. “They’re willing to accept our support. We’re providing them everything that they’ve asked for.”

    Like they provided McChrystal with everything he asked for?

    See how much “smart power” worked against Iran – they won’t even let John Kerry get a visa;

    On Saturday, Iranian legislators stepped up the rhetoric against the news that Kerry was considering traveling to Tehran with the blessing of the White House.

    “The Islamic Republic of Iran has no plans to negotiate with any American official, unless the country (the U.S.) changes its policies,” member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Zohreh Elahian said, according to Fars News Agency.

    Yeah, the US has to change it’s policies, while Iran murders dissidents and locks up thousands more.

    But don’t let the Washington Post catch you calling him soft on terror.

  • Morons of the highest order

    David Brooks of the New York Times inspires Glenn Greenwald and Alan Colmes to call Americans names for demanding that our government do it’s best to keep us safe. Brooks first;

    History is not knowable or controllable. People should be grateful for whatever assistance that government can provide and had better do what they can to be responsible for their own fates.

    That mature attitude seems to have largely vanished. Now we seem to expect perfection from government and then throw temper tantrums when it is not achieved. We seem to be in the position of young adolescents — who believe mommy and daddy can take care of everything, and then grow angry and cynical when it becomes clear they can’t.

    Greenwald’s echo;

    …the national reaction has been to this latest terrorist episode, egged on — as usual — by the always-hysterical American media. The citizenry has been trained to expect that our Powerful Daddies and Mommies in government will — in that most cringe-inducing, child-like formulation — Keep Us Safe. Whenever the Government fails to do so, the reaction — just as we saw this week — is an ugly combination of petulant, adolescent rage and increasingly unhinged cries that More Be Done to ensure that nothing bad in the world ever happens.

    Colmes just nods like a good Leftist bobblehead.

    I’ll just remind the three morons that the Constitution charges the government to “provide for the common defense” – it doesn’t say to pass out food stamps or had out cash from one part of our society to another. It doesn’t tell the government to determine the minimum width of theater seats. It certainly doesn’t tell the government to tax the living shit out of people in California to pay for new guard rails in Maryland’s hinterlands. Nor does it mandate that the federal government stick it’s fingers in huge car companies and huge banks.

    How. Dare. You. Three. Retards. Call. Us. Names?

    When the government was warned no less than twice (once by the bomber’s own father…by name) that this shit stain was planning something, and the government couldn’t summon the testicular fortitude to actually stop him. When they were following Hasan’s trail to terror, when they were trailing Carlos Bledsoe and couldn’t stop him. This isn’t a case of one terrorist slipping through – it’s the latest in a series that have slipped through since January.

    Brooks, of course, thinks that Napolitano is innocent because it’s the system that’s flawed;

    There have been outraged calls for Secretary Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security to resign, as if changing the leader of the bureaucracy would fix the flaws inherent in the bureaucracy.

    Well, it’s a start. Napolitano’s demonstrated incompetency over the last year certainly doesn’t deserve one more penny from the tax payers.

  • The system worked in Houston

    Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano was able to protect us from another potential attacker when the potential attacker became violent and caused his sweetheart to call police. Arriving at the residence, the police found what looks like an AT-4 anti-tank rocket;

    They found an AT-4 shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. It can shoot a missile nearly 1,000 feet through buildings and tanks.

    “It gives infantrymen the advantage with an ultra-light weapon that can stop vehicles, armored vehicles as well as main battle tanks and fortifications,” said Oscar Saldivar of Top Brass Military and Tactical on the North Freeway.

    The guy (Nabilaye I. Yansane – a good Christian name) was storing the rocket with his sweetie along with “Jihadist writings”. Of course, his sweetie is more than willing to tell her story to the media;

    “This is my house,” the woman said. ” Get away from here. I don’t want to talk to nobody.”

    The double-negative indicates to me that she wants to talk to somebody.

    But Napolitano did a yeoman’s job of forcing that jihadist to piss off his girlfriend. We can all sleep better tonight knowing that Big Jan is on the job. More at Gateway Pundit.

  • TSA goes after bloggers

    Yeah, TSA is shown to be a bunch of incompetent boobs by a third world nincompoop so what’s the first thing they do? They target bloggers – read the story at Blackfive written by Laughing Wolf and at The Washington Times.

    So what does this have to do with us, besides the fact that we’re also bloggers? Well, the same thing happened to This Ain’t Hell early last month. While they should have been investigating the Fort Hood shooter, Army Criminal Investigation Division agents were flying around the country with a search warrant signed by a Federal judge trying to solve the mysterious and life threatening case of Major Hasan’s Officer Record Brief making it to the internet.

    Keep in mind that when we posted the ORB, Hasan was dead according to reports, and soon after we posted it and made it clear we weren’t taking it down, he was reanimated. Funny how that worked.

    The Army CID showed more interest in tracking down the electronic route of an unclassified document than tracking down Hasan’s connections with terrorism. One of us had all of his computers confiscated and the hard drive was copied by Army CID, just like the two bloggers in the TSA incident. He noticed that the screen names of the other two bloggers of TAH were on the search warrant – but neither was visited by CID.

    So, apparently, this government is more interested in bullying bloggers to keep our traps shut than they are in keeping us safe from terrorists.

    Expect more on this story in the future.

  • Cheney strikes a nerve

    With speculation about the culpability for the latest failed attempt by a terrorist, Dick Cheney spoke to Politico and charged that the current administration seems to be avoiding the fact that we’re at war with terrorists;

    “[W]e are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe,” Cheney said in a statement to POLITICO. “Why doesn’t he want to admit we’re at war? It doesn’t fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn’t fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency — social transformation — the restructuring of American society.”

    That certainly is the way it appears. Obama set aside the war to focus on his domestic agenda this year – an agenda that seems to be failing, by the way. Anyway, the Administration took the time out to post on their blog about Cheney’s comments;

    First, it’s important that the substantive context be clear: for seven years after 9/11, while our national security was overwhelmingly focused on Iraq – a country that had no al Qaeda presence before our invasion – Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda’s leadership was able to set up camp in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they continued to plot attacks against the United States. Meanwhile, al Qaeda also regenerated in places like Yemen and Somalia, establishing new safe-havens that have grown over a period of years. It was President Obama who finally implemented a strategy of winding down the war in Iraq, and actually focusing our resources on the war against al Qaeda – more than doubling our troops in Afghanistan, and building partnerships to target al Qaeda’s safe-havens in Yemen and Somalia. And in less than one year, we have already seen many al Qaeda leaders taken out, our alliances strengthened, and the pressure on al Qaeda increased worldwide.

    Yes, that’s the way it happened – if you ignore all of the facts. Thank goodness that Obama started winding down the war in Iraq – his opposition to the surge probably help speed that along. When the administration can’t muster enough hyperbole, they call in Eugene Robinson Pulitzer Prize-winning dunce at the Washington Post to make unbelievably naive statements

    …Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was given training — and probably the bomb itself, which involved plastic explosives sewn into his underwear — by al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen. It happens that at least two men who were released from Guantanamo appear to have gone on to play major roles as al-Qaeda lieutenants in Yemen. Who let these dangerous people out of our custody? They were set free by the administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

    Reminiscent of the Left blaming the first Bush Administration for not taking out Saddam Hussein and saddling the Clinton Administration with the problem. Robinson has been advocating for the release of Guantanamo detainees for half-a-decade – yet this bombing attempt was the Bush Administration’s fault. It’s as if they don’t realize that “Google” was invented.