DEFESA Global Blog shows some vehicles from LAAD...

Check the entire collection here....

anyone have any information on who makes this armor package and its capabilities/weight etc...

General you have some explaining to do.

via Washington Post.

After the attack, which resulted in the deaths of two Marines and the largest loss of allied materiel in the 11-year-long Afghan war, the top U.S. commander on the base did not order a formal investigation into the security lapses or sanction any personnel responsible for guarding the facility, the officials said.

In the days following the raid, some U.S. and NATO military leaders insisted that the Taliban got lucky by choosing to breach where they did. But several officials with direct knowledge of the assault said in recent interviews that staffing decisions by U.S. and British commanders weakened the base’s defenses, making it easier for the insurgents to reconnoiter the compound and enter without resistance. Once inside, 15 insurgents used grenades to destroy almost an entire squadron of Marine AV-8B Harrier jets, a loss estimated by military officials at about $200 million.

and this too...

A senior U.S. officer with direct knowledge of security on the bases said it was common for Bastion’s watchtowers to be unmanned. 

and this....

In December 2011, 325 Marines were assigned to patrol the area, according to the senior U.S. officer with knowledge of security measures. In the month before the attack, however, the number was cut back to about 100, the officer said.
“We reduced the force to patrol [the area around the base] to the point where it was an unacceptable risk,” the officer said.
The top U.S. commander at Leatherneck at the time, Marine Maj. Gen. Charles Gurganus, who approved of the reduction, said force levels for perimeter patrols were based on U.S. and NATO assessments of possible threats. At the time, other military officials said, Marine intelligence analysts did not issue any specific warnings of a frontal assault by the Taliban.
“You can’t defend everywhere every day,” Gurganus said in response to a question about the attack. “You base your security on the threat you’ve got.” He said the Taliban caught “a lucky break.”

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME.  Poor leadership.  Failure to accept responsibility.  Disgraceful.  And please spare me the enemy gets a vote bullshit...if you're in a fixed position and you have Marine attached to your name then you fucking make sure you have security out.

I don't give a fuck if you have stars on your collar or not.

Sidenote;  The chest thumping by the RAF Regiment becomes even more unseemly now.  Not blaming them, this is a leadership failure, but their behavior after the attack was most disgraceful.  

It was Martial Law.

I fell for the propaganda.

I bought into the lie that police politely went door to door asking to search people's houses.

That couldn't be further from the truth.  The video above is just one example of heavy handed tactics being used against the innocent.

Once we get further down the road, you're going to see a massive blowback against the police.  I hope they're enjoying the limelight now, because its going to be spotlights on their conduct during this emergency that will be in view in just a few short days.

A note about the Terrorist's civil rights...

A new and interesting debate is taking place.

Does this guy rate protection as a US citizen or does he now become an enemy combatant?

If he acted in support of a group which has declared war on the US then its obvious to me that he is an enemy combatant.  Its the same as renouncing his citizenship.  Many have done it for tax purposes so why do we get tied in knots when we catch a person acting on behalf of others who we're at war with.

We simply declare that his actions amount to treason, strip him of his citizenship and act accordingly.

No new laws.  No legal arguments, just simple declarations of facts which lead us to one undeniable conclusion.  He is not protected by the rights given to all American citizens.

Our Beautiful, Purely American Dilemma....

How wonderfully American.  We are caught in a strange, only in America, Dilemma of our own making...Consider the following photos...

Yep, the above photo illustrates the drum I've been beating on pretty hard...but then consider the photo below...

Yeah.

Wow.

What the fuck do we do?  Some in our society are CRYING out to be protected no matter what the costs to civil liberties and the other side is crying out that we've already paid too big a price for protection.

Go to BRM Blog for more on the debate.

FBI hunting a 12 man Terror Team.

I told ya this shit wasn't over.

via Mirror...

The FBI was last night hunting a 12-strong terrorist “sleeper cell” linked to the Boston marathon bomb brothers.
Police believe Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were specially trained to carry out the devastating attack.
More than 1,000 FBI operatives were last night working to track down the cell and arrested a man and two women 60 miles from Boston in the hours before Dzhokhar’s dramatic capture after a bloody shootout on Friday.
A source close to the investigation said: “We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google.
“They were too advanced. Someone gave the brothers the skills and it is now our job to find out just who they were. Agents think the sleeper cell has up to a dozen members and has been waiting several years for their day to come.”

The US authorities are trying to keep a lid on this to prevent the other cell members from getting spooked (my opinion) and to prevent mass hysteria among the sheep (my opinion).

Personally, I'm going to increase my carry to even restricted areas and add more ammo to my personal loadout.

If this independent cell in Boston was activated then when will the next one go operational?  If you live in a major city I would at the very least increase your personal alert level.

This is about to become EVEN more interesting.

We look like jackasses to Europe.

PIC REMOVED BECAUSE OF CLAIM.  ALL PICS USED ON THIS SITE ARE OPEN SOURCE.
Our buddies in Europe think we look like a bunch of damn fools.  Or more precisely like a bunch of jackasses.

Ordinarily I'd be quick to dismiss some of the observations and leave it to our rather conservative society being compared to more social leaning ones...but in this case, they're on to something.

Believe it or not, they're as surprised and shocked as I am at the widespread use of MRAPs on American streets.  The idea that our police is as militarized as it is, is shocking to people that come from what we could consider nanny states and socialist societies!  That should shock every American to its core.

Militarized police are the realm of Fascist or Communist societies.  That's what you would expect to see in the old USSR or Nazi Germany...yet we've adopted it without a public outcry.

Additionally they also make note that many law enforcement officers were seen sporting Combat Rifles (real combat rifles, not the AR's that hang out in my safe) and Submachine guns.  Question.  How often do they qualify?  Are they competent?  Do they get the required training?  Can they even hit what they're aiming for?  Are they trained to know the terminal ballistics of those weapons and when they're safe to use/or when it might be better to use a sidearm due to the area that the fight is taking place in?

Average cops using high speed weapons will eventually lead to unnecessary bloodshed in an urban area.

Last, the lockdown of Boston was essentially Martial Law without declaration.  I wish there was a person that defied the instruction and was arrested so that I could see the test case for this.  Was it legal?  Was an instruction by public officials the same as an order to the public?  Do they have that power?  We don't know, no one is asking but again, we're seeing the Imperial Mayor and Imperial Governor taking place without debate or controversy.

Enough of my words.  Go to THINK DEFENCE to see exactly what the Europeans are saying about us.

Battlefield Lasers. They're ready for limited action now.

Wired image.

How many of you remember the Boeing Laser Avenger anti-air/multi-purpose vehicle?  It was a proposal by Boeing to replace one of the missile pods with a laser weapon that was capable of knocking drones out of the sky and demonstrated the ability in tests.  Its use against manned aircraft should be obvious.

Boeing Defense image.

To take it one step further, Boeing also came up with a version for use aboard naval vessels.  It combined a 25mm gun with a laser pod.

Why these concepts never gained traction is unknown but the reality is clear.

The ability to at least introduce lasers for combat use has been with us since at least 2007.  While the technology continues to evolve and become more deadly and robust, it seems that the world's military forces

Boeing Defense image

continue to be somewhat hesitant to introduce them.  That will change when a first world force decides laser DO belong on the battlefield.  And when that happens we'll see the next revolution in military affairs.

Boeing Defense image

How many UAVs were over Boston during the incident...

I keep thinking about the incident and keep coming up with questions...

Like how many UAVs do you think were over Boston and which agency do you think flew them?

Did they use even more sophisticated surveillance aircraft?

We'll probably never know but it would probably shock us all.

Boston War Zone. Pics from that front.

A small collection of pics from the Boston War Zone.  Let's hope (I doubt it though) that we never see this type of thing again.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  LENCO is DOMINATING the domestic armored car market.  How they did it is beyond me but everyone is buying their gear for some reason.

I had to add the following pic I found.  I hope this person's view is legit but I seriously wonder.  SERIOUSLY WONDER.  Quite honestly I think its a self serving comment.  I also noticed that she failed to note that "Westboro" type Christians are few and far between, where as Muslim Extremist can be found practically everywhere.

Medic trying to save the life of the Boston bomber.

The bastard didn't deserve the effort....

Everyone is ignoring these people. This might not be over.

Did you know that the youngest brother tweeted that he would die young right before they killed the MIT police officer?

Did you hear about these people?

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. —Three people were detained by the FBI in New Bedford on Friday in connection with one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.

SWAT teams raided the Hidden Brook apartment complex and took three people into custody who are believed to be friends with 19-year-old bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the New Bedford Standard Times reported.
Officials said they were being questions about their "familiarization" with the man police have called Suspect No. 2. Their names were not released.
A resident at the complex told the newspaper he heard one of the men detained talking to an FBI agent.

"They said the kid got dropped off by the bomber at 4 p.m. (Thursday)," resident Joe St. Pierre said. "I saw the FBI agent come over and interrogate him."

Earlier, Tsarnaev's brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a shootout with officials in Watertown.

The brothers are suspected in two bombings at the finish line of the 26.2-mile race that killed three people and injured dozens more on Monday.

They are also accused in the death of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, 26, who was shot to death as he responded to a report of a disturbance during the search for the alleged bombers.

Call me tinfoil hat wearer number one, but there is alot more to this story.  And its sitting there for all to see but most would rather ignore it.

For some reason, news sites have scrubbed this story.  I found it six pages into a search for the third suspect.  I still haven't found a direct link to an earlier news account of police searching for a suspect at a university in the Boston area.  

Boston Bomber case proves our naturalization process is broken.

If the Congress was smart, they'd wait on the amnesty bill and instead fix our naturalization process.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but the bastards that paralyzed the Northeast region of the United States for practically a week just got naturalized on 9/11/2011.  Two years later he goes on a killing spree?  Using bombs and weapons to kill other US citizens?

And now Congress is telling us its ok to grant amnesty to 11 to 20 million other people that we have done no checks on?  That might contain 2, maybe 3000 other little terrorist?

I say no way.  Lets wait.  Lets be mature.  Lets fix the system before we ram more people through it.

After working hard to separate from the Corps now MARSOC wants to get tied at the hip.

I'm pissed and amazed.  Check this out...

With the Afghanistan mission winding down, members of MARSOC, the Corp’s elite special forces arm, are making a return to the sea.
The command is beginning to develop recommendations on where it could be postured in the Pacific, what level of collaboration it should have with Naval Special Warfare Command and conventional Marines in theater, and what capabilities it should offer top commanders in the region, said Maj. Jeff Landis, a MARSOC spokesman.
“We will maintain that persistent, agile capability in key theaters with fully enabled [Marine special operations companies], capable of both partner nation engagement and crisis response and provide SOF support to maritime and amphibious operations,” Landis said. “Those forces will be under operational control of the theater special operations commander and ready to conduct distributed engagements with partner nations aimed toward conflict prevention, with the capability to quickly aggregate for other actions as directed.”
This month, MARSOC officials will travel to U.S. Special Operations Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., for a war game that will shape MARSOC’s future work in amphibious operations and examine how special operators can work better with Marine air-ground task forces.
Landis said the command’s leaders routinely discuss the future of maritime operations with Rear Adm. Sean Pybus, head of NSWC, including developing special operations concepts involving new ships such as the littoral combat ship and the afloat forward staging base Ponce, designed to be a base of operations for everything from counterpiracy to mine clearing and disaster relief.

Read the whole thing here. 

The Marine Corps is being poorly served.  We have a Commandant that is airwing 110% and doesn't know, cannot possibly fathom how to defend the Corps and keep it from losing missions.

Working with Marine Corps MAGTF's?  That's a camel's nose underneath the Marine Corps tent.  First they work with, then they become the SUPPORTED element and then they take the mission away.

Because the Commandant comes from a part of the Marine Corps that is always a supporting element he doesn't have the knowledge to understand that he's being played.
Want further evidence of a Marine Corps without a plan?  Check this out....

The first MLP, the USNS Montford Point, was christened in March. The Navy plans to build three more in coming years, incorporating an unusual design that includes a ramp that will allow larger ships to transfer vehicles to the MLP directly. The ship will frequently be used as a transfer point to deliver vehicles to shore by smaller landing craft.
Amos, speaking April 8 at the Sea-Air-Space symposium outside Washington, D.C., said the MLP will allow the Corps to easily move tanks, 7-ton medium tactical vehicle replacement trucks and other vehicles through sea basing. He estimated the military is 10 percent of the way toward developing concepts for the ship, which is scheduled to begin operational usage in 2015.
“This will be the very first time that we’ve had the ability to really do at-sea, sea-based logistics in a combat environment,” Amos said. “We won’t need a port with this ship.”

The Marine Corps was used to acquire a ship for which it doesn't even have a concept of operation for?

How about this for a concept...the ship is going to go to SOCOM for use as a floating base ship.

Say it out loud.  We don't have a concept of operations, yet we still whine about needing more amphibious shipping?

The Marine Corps is in a dark place.  We needed Mattis and got Amos.  We're screwed.

UPDATE 2: No Miranda Rights for domestic/homegrown terrorist.

They have the 2nd suspect cornered.  If he's smart he'll kill himself because if he's captured alive, they'll give him the best medical care possible, get him back to full health, put him through living hell, let him rot in prison for a few years and then execute him.

If he's smart he'll just do the deed himself.

But the other aspect of this whole thing is ... WHAT ABOUT THE 3RD GUY THAT GOES TO A LOCAL UNIVERSITY!

The news media is really pissing me off.  They're focused like a dog on a bone on only one issue at a time.  Disappointing.

UPDATE:  He got captured.

UPDATE 1:  This should be chilling for law enforcement.  I don't know what's causing it but encounters between Cops and citizens/and or terrorist are becoming MUCH MORE VIOLENT.  Consider this.  Timothy McViegh bombed the federal building and got pulled over by a State Trooper and was taken into custody without incident (despite twisted beliefs I think he had an honor code that would not allow him to kill a State Trooper in cold blood), then consider the incident in Los Angeles.  The guy killed cops without regret but never harmed a civilian.  Fast forward to today.  Yes they set off a bomb to kill many and wound even more but afterwards they only targeted police.  They had a chance to kill civilians..first the person they car jacked and then he hid in a boat instead of taking hostages.  But when the chance came he killed police without regret.

Something is going on.  I don't know what's changed but the police are facing more deadly encounters.  As long as they're militarized I don't think it will change.  The funny thing is this.  I would bet that because they've become more militarized they've made encounters more militaristic.

UPDATE 2:  This is freaking unbelievable.  The Obama Administration is going to use an exemption SO THEY DON'T HAVE TO READ HIM HIS RIGHTS!  Looks like EVIL BUSH was right again!

Citizens are gonna be the ones that catch this idiot...

I continue to be amazed at the miscalculations.

Its almost being unfair, but we are talking about some of the most storied agencies in this country...the FBI, Mass State Police, Boston PD....

What I noticed is that as soon as they lifted the ban on being outside, the public spooked this guy into running and they caught his trail again.

They made a power move over the public and it ended up hurting their efforts.

Also noteworthy is while watching the newscast I see the guys from the ATF are always camera savvy and make sure that the cameras are rolling when they put on their raid jackets (pathetic).

I need to buy some stock in Lenco Armored Vehicles because they are the vehicle of choice for America's SWAT/Law Enforcement Agencies.  If they don't put out a video bragging about how their vehicles helped protect "America's Protectors" then the marketing arm needs to be fired.

More later.

UPDATE:  I just saw FBI Agents wearing more armor than a Marine Corps Infantry Squad, they had P90's...AR-15's (not the average stuff...high end LaRue models)...Sig Pistols...and what looked like FN-45's!  This guy is dogmeat.  He will be a bloody pulp.

UPDATE 1:  I HATE THE NEWS MEDIA.  I never realized how stupid they really are.  They repeat standard lines as if they made them up and never come up with anything original.  Its as if everything they say has to go through an approval screen and then everyone remembers to say the exact same thing.

UPDATE 2:  I don't think the news media understands.  The public in Boston is cheering law enforcement. America is showing its fangs and AGAIN no one is noticing.  I can see it in the eyes of the guys and the approval on the faces of the women.  They wanted this guy dead.  They captured him alive but the end result is without a doubt.  The crowd is telling us this.  If taken to court, this guy will be found guilty.  He will be convicted and he will be killed at the behest of the State representing the people.  Even if they have to turn him over to the feds to get it done.

Boston under martial law.

I continue to be amazed at todays news coverage of the terrorist suicide bombers.

Boston and the surrounding cities are basically under martial law.  Wait there is no basically to it.  They are under martial law.  It might be gentle with police telling people to go back inside but it's there nonetheless.

Additionally, the news media seems to be unable to come to grips with the idea that a green card was given to a terrorist who's (it appears) sole purpose in gaining admission to our country was to kill as many Americans as possible.

This isn't the first and will not be the last.

I just hope they kill him and his buddies as soon as possible.

Just wondering...

Who still believes that the US could easily handle multiple terrorist attacks now?

Get rid of your normalcy bias or you will end up dogmeat!

Unbelievable heroism in Boston and Texas...idiocy in GA.

Un-fucking believable...

Who gets to do the assault? Delta? FBI HRT?

Still watching news coverage and no one is asking so I will.

Things have definitely taken a military turn.  Does this mean that DELTA is on scene?

Would the FBI HRT turn over responsibility to the bad boys from FT. Bragg?  Looks like it to me but we might never know...

One thing for sure.  They've found bombs.  They have the bastard cornered.  They're going to do an assault...unless a sniper gets a clear shot.