Category: Terror War

I haven’t written anything about this upcoming deal with Iran over their nuclear program mostly because I haven’t had an opportunity to read it yet. However, there is something I do know – politicians. The Associated Press reports that the Obama Administration is confident that they’ll be able to keep track of the Iranians’ nuclear program;

The main reason, according to a classified joint intelligence assessment presented to Congress, is that the deal requires Iran to provide an unprecedented volume of information about nearly every aspect of its existing nuclear program, which Iran insists is peaceful. That data will make checking on compliance easier, officials say, because it will shrink Iran’s capacity to hide a covert weapons program.

“We will have far better insight (into) the industrial aspects of the Iranian nuclear program with this deal than what we have today,” James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told an audience last month at the Aspen Security Forum.

I have no doubt that they’ll recognize when Iran is cheating, but my concern is will they be willing to do anything about it? I mean, they’ve known for more than a decade that Iran was supplying terrorists with stuff to kill our troops in Iraq during that war and they’ve done nothing about that. For years, we’ve been redrawing the line in the sand in regards to the Iranian nuclear program. Why would the Iranians take any threat seriously to restore the sanctions against them? Look how long it took to institute the sanctions in the first place.

Part of the deal with North Vietnam was that we’d send troops back to South Vietnam in the event that the North invaded the South, well, we know how that turned out. Once politicians sign on to a deal, they forget all about it as if just signing it makes everything better. Like they actually accomplished something. Then it’s all for the next president to worry about.

On Friday, the Taliban launched large scale attacks in Kabul beginning with one in a heavily populated area of the city, followed by one on a police academy which killed or wounded 40 people, and then another on Camp Integrity, a base run by security contractors of Academi (formerly Blackwater) which wounded about 248 people and killed 15, including one American, according to reports. Reuters reports that more than 50 people were killed in the three attacks.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said the incident was the worst since it began recording civilian casualties in 2009, with 355 civilians killed or injured. The U.N. Special Representative, Nicholas Haysom, called it “extreme, irreversible and unjustifiable in any terms”.

On Saturday, NATO-led coalition forces confirmed that one international service member and eight Afghan contractors had been killed in the attack on Camp Integrity, a base used by U.S. special forces near the main airport.

The blast outside the base was powerful enough to flatten offices inside, wounding occupants who were airlifted by helicopter to military hospitals during the night.

The article says that US and Afghan military leaders had hoped that there would be a measure of disarray among the Taliban with the announcement of Mullah Omar’s death, but that was just wishful thinking, I guess. The dude has been dead for two years, they would have had time to adjust to the loss of the old useless fart by now, one would think.

As I said when this administration decided to leave 10,000 US troops in Afghanistan, their main problem would stem from the fact that US forces would need to rely on Afghans for security. The Afghans have trouble providing security for themselves let alone our troops. The fellow who bombed the Afghan police academy was wearing a police uniform.

Mike sends us the news that the Department of Defense has just released the name of the American soldier killed in these attacks;

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.

Master Sgt. Peter A. McKenna Jr., 35, of Bristol, Rhode Island, died Aug. 8, in Kabul, Afghanistan, of wounds when he was attacked by enemy small arms fire.

McKenna was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

There are seven people facing a trial in Minneapolis later this year and their defense attorneys have filed scads of motions trying to frame the case against their clients, according to the Star Tribune. One motion disputes the charges that they were supporting a terrorist organization.

“While the group has adopted partly violent and repressive tactics, and engages in military and insurgency attacks against the Syrian and Iraqi armies, it has also embarked on a systematic process of civilian governance over the eight to 10 million people with the territory it controls,” attorneys said.

Essentially, the lawyers claim that because ISIS builds roads and schools, it is a government, not a terrorist organization;

“Mere travel to Syria, or willingness to ‘join’ ISIL, cannot constitutionally be equated with material support. Accordingly, the material support statute is void,” the attorneys argued.

Also in dispute is the amount of security at the courthouse where the trial will be held. The lawyers claim that a large number of police officers, Homeland Security officers and a bomb sniffing dog will prejudice the jury against their clients.

“ … The security appears not to be designed to protect against potential danger posed by the accused but, rather, perceived danger from members of the Somali community who are not accused of any crime.”

Not as much as a terrorist attack on the courthouse will prejudice the jury, though, I’m guessing.