ISIS is in America.

photo by Marc Leibowitz

via Washington Free Beacon.

Police in Garwood, New Jersey, ordered that a militant flag associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) be removed from the front of a local home after hundreds of online activists expressed fear and revulsion.
Garwood Police Chief Bruce D. Underhill confirmed to theWashington Free Beacon that officers had been contacted and residents at the suburban home “voluntarily” agreed to remove the flag.
A photo of the home with the ISIL and Turkish flags was tweeted out Tuesday morning and quickly attracted hundreds of retweets and comments.
Underhill told the Free Beacon that the police are aware of the situation and are working to uphold the public safety.

If NSA is actually doing its job then these people would be monitored 24/7.  Additionally the FBI Counter Terrorism Task Force should be launching a full investigation into these clowns.  Immigration and Customs should be investigating their immigration status.

The problem?  I doubt any of that is happening.

My worry?  This is just the tip of the iceberg.  ISIS is here.  We've been told that sleeper cells exist.  Its only a matter of time before they attack. 

Has the Hannibal Protocol run its course?

Thanks for the link Maurice!

via Times of Israel.

Hamas operatives were waiting in ambush. Two soldiers, Major Benaya Sarel and Staff Sergeant Liel Gidoni, were killed, and a third, Lt. Hadar Goldin, was abducted.
Other members of their unit, Sayeret Givati, moved under fire to the fallen soldiers but did not at first realize that one of the three bodies was a fallen Hamas man, perhaps in IDF uniform, according to the Haaretz report. When it became clear that Goldin was missing, though, the officers in the field did not have to unfurl a long explanation over the army radio frequency. All they needed to do was utter a single word: Hannibal.
The Hannibal Protocol was drafted in the summer of 1986 – one year after the lopsided Jibril Agreement, in which Israel traded 1,150 security prisoners in exchange for three Israeli soldiers, and several months after the ensuing abduction of the soldiers Yosef Fink and Rafael Alsheikh. The idea was to establish a set procedure, known to all soldiers, to limit the success of any abduction operation.

Read the entire article but I marvel at some Israelis.  They have the wolf at the door and instead of girding themselves for battle...they equivocate.

I thought the left in the United States was loony.  The left in Israel is worse.

Not only is the Hannibal Directive necessary but it needs to be strengthened. Mark my words, Hamas or some other terrorist outfit will capture an Israeli Soldier or Civilian and they will be decapitated with the video posted on YouTube.  

Its just a matter of time.  The directive is tough medicine, but it just might prevent a larger war from occurring and national fear.  The liberals there just don't understand the reality of the world we live in.

Russian Ministry of Defense buys the GAZ-3344

Thanks for the link Jonathan!

All pics via http://nevskii-bastion.ru/

via Janes.

The Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) is to acquire a large batch of GAZ-3344 tracked articulated all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), the civil and military versions of which were demonstrated on 4-5 August at the Russian MoD's Innovation Days 2014 exhibition at the Alabino test range near Moscow.
News of the acquisition was revealed to IHS Jane's by Valentin Kopalkin, director-general of Zavolzhsky Caterpillar Tractor Manufacturing Plant (ZZGT), which will manufacture the vehicles.
The GAZ-3344 is conceptually a new vehicle type for Russia, although Western manufacturers such as Hägglunds and Sisu have produced tracked articulated ATVs for some time, the distinctive characteristic of which is their extremely high offroad mobility. Such vehicles comprise a forward drive module and rear mission module, the tracks of the latter also being powered by an articulated drive coupling.
While touring the Innovation Days exhibition, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu tested the GAZ-3344, after which he said the MoD would buy a large batch. Shoigu said the MoD was interested in procuring five GAZ-3344 variants: logistics vehicle, troops carrier, weapon carrier, ambulance, and firefighting vehicle.
The GAZ-3344 is due to complete trials by the end of this year and by February 2015 is scheduled to enter service with the Russian armed forces.
According to Kopalkin, the ZZGT plant will start producing 600 GAZ-3344s a year as early as January. The plant will manufacture the vehicle chassis and weapon carrier module, and will assemble the vehicle, ordering other modules and components on a co-operative basis.

Canada better watch out.  Russia isn't just talking about moving on the far north, they're acquiring vehicles to make it a reality.

Additionally, no matter what you say about the Russians, they obviously have one thing we don't.  Check out the vid below....



The Russians have a plan.  They're not wandering from crisis to crisis.  They're focused on a set of goals that might not seem clear at present but we can get inklings.  I've already talked about how they appear to be making real moves on the Arctic.  It appears that the issues in Crimea and Ukraine are aimed at creating a buffer against NATO.  They're making investments in Chechnya to quiet the rebellion there and they're solidifying alliances around the globe.

China is stumbling (economics is there Achilles heel....when the global recession is acknowledged they're in for a terrible time) and might be a long term threat at best...Russia is who we should really be watching in the short term.

Heavy wheel BMP "ATOM"

Thanks to info-infanterie for the link.  All pics via War Diary Igor Korochenko

NOTE:  I've got to get up to speed on Russian armor projects.  I thought this was called Boomerang.  Additionally I think (definitely not sure) that this is a joint French/Russian program.  Will the sanctions affect it?  Interesting vehicle though and that cannon will change the battlefield.  Instead of a two mile range you're talking about seven or eight. 

IDF used an unmanned M113 (APC) to deliver supplies in Gaza (first time in history)...

via Israel Hayom

During Operation Protective Edge, the Israel Defense Forces used a unmanned armored personnel carrier, a first in history. The vehicle was used to deliver supplies to soldiers on the battlefield.
"This is history," Lt. Avidav Goldstein, the head of the IDF's unmanned vehicle unit, said. "I feel we really broke ground in this realm. This is the first time in history, throughout the world, that such a thing has been done."
The IDF modified an old M113 APC (the type of APC in which seven Golani Brigade soldiers were killed by an anti-tank missile in Shujaiyya), giving it the ability to carry several tons of supplies to soldiers in the field without endangering lives.
The unmanned APC can travel 50 kilometers per hour (31 miles per hour) and hold around four tons of equipment. It is operated remotely by soldiers in a control vehicle, located inside Israel, which has a steering wheel, pedals and a screen.

The USMC and US Army have been pursuing this tech for years.  Its been ready to go but for some reason neither service has gone forward with it.

The IDF did.

I wonder where this will lead.  The obvious would be combat engineer vehicles operating unmanned in a route clearance role.  Eventually you might even see a platoon of unmanned tanks being controlled by a command staff in an accompanying APC/IFV.

However this develops it looks like armored vehicles are going to take a step forward into the unmanned field.

Wow! Saudi Arabia just said that there is no more Saudi-Israeli conflict....new concerns have emerged!

via Jerusalem Online.

An international Saudi newspaper, which is the mouthpiece of the royal family based in Riyadh, declared that there is no longer an Israeli-Arab conflict, but an Israeli-Turkish-Iranian conflict. The paper declares that if Israel wants to do a big deal with the Arabs, now is the time.
Under the headline “there is no more Israeli-Arab conflict,” the article indicates that the attacks on Israel come from Gaza, who carries out the mission of Iran with the assistance of the Muslim Brotherhood and their patrons, Turkey and Qatar.

Read the whole thing here.

Uh...WOW!

The immediate losers in this is Kerry and Obama.  The Israeli's don't trust them enough to be involved in the negotiations (if they eventually happen) and its certain that Saudi Arabia just doesn't respect us.

This bears watching...if this is an olive branch then it could lead to a complete realignment of the Middle East.

Old skool USMC FARP...