Stop calling the California incident "Domestic Terrorism"!

via Wikipedia.

Domestic terrorism in the United States consists of incidents confirmed as or suspected to be terrorist acts. These attacks are considered domestic because they were carried out by U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents.[1]

That is how its defined in the US by code of law.  This is how its defined in the rest of the world...again via Wiki...

Homegrown terrorism or domestic terrorism is commonly associated with violent acts committed by citizens or permanent residents of a state against their own people or property within that state without foreign influence in an effort to instill fear on a population or government as a tactic designed to advance political, religious, or ideological objectives.[1]

Its nuanced but the details make the difference.

The incident in California cannot be called domestic terrorism if it can be reasonably assumed that the terrorists were influenced by ISIS.

So FUCKINIG STOP calling this domestic terroristm.  ITS NOT.  This is plain and simple terrorism.  ISIS successfully hit us.  Deal with the reality and stop playing word games!!!

NOTE:  After thinking about this a bit more not only is this terrorism (without the caveat of being called "domestic") but it also bears all the hallmarks of "Insider Attacks" that our forces experienced in Iraq/Afghanistan.  So called naturalized or 2nd gen citizens that go on a rampage on behalf to ISIS?  Yeah.  A terroristic insider attack is a much better definition of this and the Boston Bombing.

14 dead, 14 wounded in Inland Empire, CA.

 I'm waiting to see on this one.  Of course we have the usual parade of officials on camera talking alot but saying nothing...

Three guys in military garb carrying rifles?

Yeah...I'm waiting for the next shoe to drop.

NOTE:  Don't jump to the conclusion that this is ISIS.  Sovereign Citizen Movement, White Supremacists, even Mexican Drug Cartels could be involved.  The only thing that throws this into the realm of an organized group is the fact that three guys wearing military type garb hit the community center.  With the rise of the internet, we could easily be seeing the first of a new type of mass murder scenario.  Guys get together that just want to go on a killing spree.

NOTE 1:  I hate to go here but I have to keep it real.  We're talking about a mass shooting.  We're talking about a man hunt.  We have no description of the dead shooters and no indication of the race of the guy they might be looking for.  Surely this info has to be in the hands of LEOs.  Why aren't they telling us anything on that?  Yeah.  I despise racial politics but in the case of identifying a threat to the public it only makes sense.

BREAKING! Kendall says production of the F-35 may be slowed to meet budget caps!

Thanks to CharleyA for the great news!

via Reuters.

Dec 2 The Pentagon's fiscal 2017 budget plan may slow production of key weapons programs, including Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet, in order to meet budget caps imposed by an agreement with Congress, the Pentagon's chief arms buyer said Wednesday.
Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, told reporters after a speech at an industry conference that the new radar-evading F-35 fighter was the Defense Department's "most cutting-edge capability," but other priorities needed funding as well.
"Dollar for dollar it probably gives us more combat capability than any other investment that we're making, but we've got a lot of other things that we need to do as well," he said. "It's not entirely fenced." Kendall gave no details on the likely scope of the expected cuts in production of the F-35 fighter jet, which is already cleared for combat use by the Marine Corps.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Absolutely fucking awesome.

U. S. Marine Corps Research Findings: Where is the Case for Co-Ed Ground Combat?

Many thanks to Stuart for sending me this link!

No commentary on this one.  Take the time to read it for yourself.  To say that it's eye opening is an understatement.  

  InterimCMRSpecialReport-PartII_122015

Is the F-35 as stealthy as we're being led to believe?

We talk about the F-35 alot on these pages because I believe its destroying the defense budget, hindering needed modernization of our ground forces and will fail to deliver what's being promised.

If you've monitored the conversations here, you'll notice that proponents no longer talk about the F-35 being able to fly as fast, as high or be as maneuverable as our current fighters.  They say that its not necessary because the F-35 is stealthy.  It will see the enemy first, shoot first and leave the area before its detected.  Lets assume that argument has merit.  The next question becomes...is the F-35 as stealthy as we're being led to believe?  Do an eyeball test.  Below are pics of the X-35....

This airplane has the look that we've come to associate with stealth aircraft.  To be quite honest in this form it actually does look like its stablemate, the  F-22 (pic below).

But look at what the F-35 has turned into now?  Does it meet the eye test?

I don't know what happened between the X-plane and the production version but to this aviation neophyte the plane has lost its stealth characteristics somewhere along the way...at the very least it doesn't appear to be as stealthy as the original design.

What say you?  Am I way off base and the eye test doesn't apply or could I actually be onto something?  Oh and consider this.  If the F-35 has seen even a modest reduction in its stealth profile then the argument that it will get first look, first shoot suddenly loses alot of steam.  Against a near peer foe, we will see radars that are equal to our own....and against a networked air defense complex these planes will be sitting ducks.

Carter Hits Gulf Allies for Prioritizing Air, Not Ground, Forces

via Defense News.

"I'm going to be very candid with you: Many of the Gulf States weigh air capabilities, air forces and so forth over ground forces and special operations forces," Carter said.
"If they want to — as we would wish them to — wield more influence in the Middle East and do more to secure this part of the world in which they live, they're going to need to do more of that on the ground," he continued. "Buying our airplanes is fine, and we provide them, but when it comes to ground forces and special operations forces, there is no question they need to build those forces and wield them."
"They frequently complain to me, for example, about how capable the Iranians are, to which I say 'yes, and you're not in the same game, an effective game on the ground,'" he said.

WOW!

Mr Sec how about you fix your own house first before you complain about what others are doing!  The USMC is headed down the road of being aviation centric, the F-35 is raping the defense dept and even the US Army is buying more helicopters...all while we're shedding ground combat power.

Simply amazing.

Infantry Battle School Brecon @ The Fan.

The Fan Dance

The highest peak in the Brecon Beacons, just one of the tests soldiers endure on the section commanders' battle course.

So that's the "hill" the Royal Marines always talk about. I can't lie.  It looks like pain mixed with a big dose of more pain.  Seems like decent weather for these guys though.  I was always told of freezing rain being blown at almost hurricane like force and movements at night on it.  I guess they can tell tales too!

ISIS is a fully formed terrorist group supported by...everyone?

via MintPressNews.

The prime source of money feeding ISIS these days is sale of Iraqi oil from the Mosul region oilfields where they maintain a stronghold. The son of Erdogan it seems is the man who makes the export sales of ISIS-controlled oil possible.
Bilal Erdo?an owns several maritime companies. He has allegedly signed contracts with European operating companies to carry Iraqi stolen oil to different Asian countries. The Turkish government buys Iraqi plundered oil which is being produced from the Iraqi seized oil wells. Bilal Erdogan’s maritime companies own special wharfs in Beirut and Ceyhan ports that are transporting ISIS’ smuggled crude oil in Japan-bound oil tankers.
Gürsel Tekin vice-president of the Turkish Republican Peoples’ Party, CHP, declared in a recent Turkish media interview, “President Erdogan claims that according to international transportation conventions there is no legal infraction concerning Bilal’s illicit activities and his son is doing an ordinary business with the registered Japanese companies, but in fact Bilal Erdo?an is up to his neck in complicity with terrorism, but as long as his father holds office he will be immune from any judicial prosecution.” Tekin adds that Bilal’s maritime company doing the oil trades for ISIS, BMZ Ltd, is “a family business and president Erdogan’s close relatives hold shares in BMZ and they misused public funds and took illicit loans from Turkish banks.”

Wow.  The Russians are turning up the heat on Turkey and if you take the time to actually look at what's being said on the net...from other than mainstream news sites...we're looking at a monster of our own creation.

This is wild.  This is tinfoil hat-ish.  This is scary if true.

H/T to Ronald for this story.

Strike Update via Combine Joint Operation Inherent Resolve Facebook Page.

SOUTHWEST ASIA- On Nov. 30, coalition military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria and Iraq. In Syria, coalition military forces conducted one strike using remotely piloted aircraft. Separately in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 12 strikes coordinated with and in support of the Government of Iraq using bomber, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL targets. Coalition military forces conducted one strike in Iraq in support of Coalition operations using fighter aircraft.

The following is a summary of the strikes conducted against ISIL since the last press release:

Syria

• Near Al Hawl, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

Iraq

• Near Al Huwayjah, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.
• Near Habbaniyah, one strike destroyed an ISIL building.
• Near Makhmur, one strike denied ISIL access to terrain.
• Near Ramadi, five strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL command and control nodes, an ISIL staging area, and an ISIL weapons cache, damaged two ISIL command and control nodes, two ISIL buildings, and denied ISIL access to terrain.
• Near Sinjar, three strikes struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed seven ISIL fighting positions.
• Near Al Qaim, one strike struck an ISIL vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) facility.
• Near Sultan Abdallah, one strike struck inoperable Coalition equipment denying ISIL access in support of Coalition operations.

Strike assessments are based on initial reports. All aircraft returned to base safely.

A strike, as defined in the CJTF releases, means one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative effect for that location. So having a single aircraft deliver a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of buildings and vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making that facility (or facilities) harder or impossible to use. Accordingly, CJTF-OIR does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community.

The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct operations. Coalition nations which have conducted strikes in Iraq include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the United States. Coalition nations which have conducted strikes in Syria include Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the U.S.

They're freaking truck plinking.  We could save money and be more effective by deploying all of our AC-130's and keep the wear and tear on our fighters to a minimum.

Games are being played.  I don't know why but we're not fighting to win...and the Pentagon knows it.

Retired Lt Gen Vaught was right.

General Vaught during his active duty days...

Lets take a step down memory lane...via ABC News...

A retired general today assailed the commander of the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden for drawing too much media attention to operations that he argued should be kept under wraps.
Special Operations Commander Adm. Bill McRaven was confronted by retired Lt. Gen. James Vaught, who said he didn't understand why the recent raids by the Navy SEALs, such as the one to kill Osama bin Laden or to rescue U.S. hostage Jessica Buchanan, were all over the media.
"Since the time when your wonderful team went and drug bin Laden out and got rid of him, and more recently when you went down and rescued the group in Somalia, or wherever the hell they were, they've been splashing all of this all over the media," Vaught, 85, said. "I flat don't understand that.
"Now back when my special operators extracted Saddam [Hussein] from the hole, we didn't say one damn word about it," he continued. "We turned him over to the local commander and told him to claim that his forces drug him out of the hole, and he did so. And we just faded away and kept our mouth shut.
"Now I'm going to tell you, one of these days, if you keep publishing how you do this, the other guy's going to be there ready for you, and you're going to fly in and he's going to shoot down every damn helicopter and kill every one of your SEALs. Now, watch it happen. Mark my words. Get the hell out of the media," he concluded, as laughter broke out at a meeting of the National Defense Industrial Association in Washington, D.C.

Wow.  Just plain wow.  My first thought when I saw this awhile ago is that this guy, LTGen Vaught is spot on.  My second was that these so called defense journalist are fucking idiots.  Below is  the vid of the event...


ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

Why am I posting this?  Because Carter just announced that a "Specialized Expeditionary Targeting Force" would be deployed to Iraq.  I believe SOCOM is flying into trouble..

Think about it.  Iraq is hardly reliable.  Turkey has been shown (conclusively in my opinion) to be supporting ISIS and the same can be said of Saudi Arabia and the other GCC states..the Kurds are good to go,  but the other people that we could expect to get help from...the Russians  are listed as enemies.  So we're in a hurt locker before we even deploy these guys.  One slip in protocol when it comes to intelligence handling and an ambush can be setup.  Poor intel on a target can have our forces flying into a situation with ISIS having only two goals...to kill as many of our people as they can, with a secondary bonus of capturing one alive so that they can torture and kill him for broadcast on YouTube.  This is risky beyond belief.

Retired LTGen Vaught is right, but just like other elder warriors, his council is being ignored.  This crop of military leaders think they know better.  They're wrong.  

Specialized Expeditionary Targeting Force (SETF)? What the fuck is that?

via CNN

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced Tuesday that the U.S. military will send "a specialized expeditionary targeting force" aimed at conducting more raids in Iraq.
A U.S. official tells CNN that decision means that there will be additional U.S. Special Operation forces on the ground in Iraq to fight ISIS.
Carter made the remarks testifying before the House Armed Services Committee.
"Next, in full coordination with the Government of Iraq, we're deploying a specialized expeditionary targeting force to assist Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces and to put even more pressure on ISIL," Carter said. "These special operators will over time be able to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence, and capture ISIL leaders."

First.  FUCK!  Cut it out Pentagon!  You're not impressing with all this word sausage you're developing.  Stop with the bullshit please!

Second.  A specialized expeditionary targeting force, that will conduct raids, gather intel and capture ISIS leaders?  That could be any unit in SOCOM.

Last.  Am I the only one that is worried that these guys could get baited into a trap and suddenly we're seeing SOCOM personnel lined up on a beach getting their throats slit?

This is a bad idea and has hints of the Vietnam war.  If past is prologue then we're gonna see Marines deployed to support these operations...right before we start sending in Army divisions.  Yeah.  This is a terrible idea.

Turkish cooperation with ISIS is going mainstream..

via Jerusalem Online.

Hurriyet Daily News recently reported that Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Can Dundar was arrested after exposing that the Turkish government was sending supplies to ISIS. His arrest was appealed but the Daily Sabah noted that an Istanbul Court had rejected the appeal today. Dundar is being charged with providing documents regarding the security of the state, political and military espionage, releasing secret documents, and propaganda for a terrorist organization.

According to Hurriyet Daily News, Dundar denies the charges against him: “We are accused of spying. The President said our action was treason. We are not traitors, spies or heroes. We are journalists. What we have done here was an act of journalism. We have nothing to feel sorry about. These are badges of honor for us.” Dundar compares what he has uncovered in Turkey to the Watergate and Iran Contra Scandals in the US, stressing that his exposures helped to prevent Turkey from making a grave mistake: “A journalist should report the story if he sees the country is in danger.”

Wow.

People have been talking about Turkey and ISIS for months on these pages (the US too) and quite honestly I thought it was MAYBE a few rogue elements but this story makes me wonder.

How high up does the conspiracy go?  Will the US media dig now that we're seeing mainstream Turkish journalist going after this story?

Last but not least are we all sleepwalking thru one of the biggest scandals of the 20th century?