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“What’s the best way to remove a stranded C-130 [cargo plane] from a barren field in a hostile area North of Baghdad?” asks PointNiner. “Well, if you are the US Air Force, the answer to that question is simple: Blow it up.”
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pbtt wrote an interesting post today on
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According to reports by local Israeli media including The Jerusalem Post, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) has been training personnel and allegedly performing military exercises in Iraq.
On July 11, an unnamed Israeli Defense official told local news outlets in the country that the IAF was performing military exercises in Iraq and was using American military bases for places to land. The alleged exercise, claimed the official, was an exercise aimed at preparing an attack on Iran.
The official stated that Israeli planes would fly in from Jordan during the dead of night and land near the Iraqi city of Hadita reportedly at a U.S. landing strip. The official also stated that Israeli planes were also detected at other bases in Iraq and that those strips were being prepared as places to launch an attack on Iran.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry denied that any such exercise was taking place stating, “as the […]

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pbtt wrote an interesting post today on
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Britain’s secret spy agency, home to the very white and very male 007, is hunting for women and minorities to tackle global terrorism. More than 20,000 people have applied since MI6 began its open recruiting campaign about a year ago, in a drive that has all but replaced the famous shoulder tap used to recruit author Graham Greene and others in the Second World War.
MI6’s website encourages mothers to apply and assures women they won’t be used as “honey pots,” or seductresses. Disabled applicants are welcome. And a special search is directed at minorities who speak Mandarin, Arabic, Persian and the Afghan languages of Dari and Pashto.
Could the future James Bond be a woman or a dark-skinned Urdu speaker?
“The key challenge is the terrorist threat,” MI6’s head of human resources told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Government agencies have to show they’re making […]

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KABUL, July 13 (KUNA) — One soldier of the US-led coalition troops and 40 Taliban militants were killed in fresh incidents of violence in Afghanistan.
A statement from coalitin forces’ Bagram base said that one of the coalition service members was killed in Helmand province in an IED (improvised explosive device) attack on Sunday. The identity and nationality of the service member is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Earlier in the day, the NATO-led ISAF had also declared death of one of its soldiers in Afghanistan. In a separate statement, the coalition troops said they had killed at least 40 militants during an ongoing operation in Helmand province.
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BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (July 12, 2008) — A 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team Soldier earned a Silver Star for combat operations and was presented the medal in a ceremony here, today.
Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, Combined Joint Task Force 101 commander, presented Capt. William G. Cromie with a Silver Star, the third highest military decoration and praised him for his valor.
Cromie was recognized for his actions during an ambush on Nov. 16, 2007, while acting as platoon leader for 3rd Platoon, Alpha Company during a route-clearance operation along the Korengal Road in Konar province.
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Combat, bombings and sniper attacks in Iraq - along with U.S. casualties - have plummeted from the highest point of the war 13 months ago to a four-year low, new military statistics show.
Every category of violence has dramatically fallen to the lowest levels since March 2004.
Military officers in Baghdad offer cautious optimism that the insurgency’s violent grip is closer to being broken than ever.
“Violence is at its lowest level in more than four years and IED [improvised explosive device] incidents are at their lowest level since we first began recording them,” Navy Lt. David Russell, a spokesman for Multi-National Forces-Iraq, said last week.
The number of attacks has dropped like a rock since enemy violence peaked in June 2007, four months after the start of the surge, according to an internal military document.
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pbtt wrote an interesting post today on
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US presidential contender Barack Obama has repeatedly seized on statements attributed to Iraqi leaders to support his call for a troop withdrawal deadline.
The key statement cited by Mr Obama and others was made by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki last Monday in his address to Arab ambassadors in the United Arab Emirates.
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All over Baghdad and southern Iraq, supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shia cleric, are harassed, on the run or in jail. The black-shirted gunmen of his Mehdi Army militia no longer rule in Shia parts of Baghdad, Basra and Amara where once their control was total.
A great survivor of Iraqi politics, Mr Sadr is living in the Iranian holy city of Qom, where he is studying to elevate his position within the Shia religious hierarchy. It was from there, to the dismay of many followers, that he ordered his Mehdi Army fighters to go home and allow the Iraqi army to penetrate their strongholds.
“Muqtada has acute political instincts but he is a terrible organiser,” said an Iraqi secular politician who knows him well. “He is a complete anarchist,” he added, with a laugh. “But the government is not going to succeed in destroying his movement, though his prestige has […]

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pbtt wrote an interesting post today on
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LANGLEY, Va. — When the CIA’s gadget gurus need a new piece of technology these days to meet the demands of agents in Iraq, Afghanistan or some other outpost in the war on terror, they often walk into the past.
It’s all down the hall in the CIA Museum, where long-abandoned technological fantasies of the Cold War are taking on new relevance in the modern-day fight against terrorists and a whole new crop of hostile states.
A smaller option for remote surveillance? Maybe there’s a way to adapt that old “Insectothopter” — a true-to-life robotic dragonfly that was developed in the 1970s to fly tiny listening devices through open windows in heavily guarded buildings. Or perhaps there’s something to that tiny pigeon cam, built decades ago to be carried over hostile areas by trained birds.
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FRENCH-Colombian former hostage Ingrid Betancourt has been made a chevalier de la Legion D’Honneur, one of France’s highest honours.
President Nicolas Sarkozy will confer the honour on her tomorrow at a garden party in the grounds of the Elysee Palace organised to mark France’s national holiday Bastille Day after the traditional military parade down the Champs Elysees.
Ms Betancourt, 46, was flown to France after her rescue from six years of captivity in the Colombian jungle on July 2.
She had been seized by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels while campaigning for the Colombian presidency in February 2002.
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