H&I* Fires 14 SEP 2007

September 14, 2007 | | Comments (6)

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.

You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...

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Some good news about terrorism and the internet--'hiding in plain sight' may not be all it is cracked up be. I wonder what Bruce Schneier thinks about this?
h/t to Haft of the Spear

And Alan thought blogging was dead? Silly Canandian, Trix are for kids!
--ry
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Blogging may be dead, but something's happening this morning that shows it's dying a slow death... -the Armorer

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No dead blogging, but, unfortunately, a dead freedom fighter. The real kind of freedom fighter who risked everything to keep his tribe, his people free from the oppression of Islamic extremist, Al Qaeda elements in Iraq. Most may have heard by now of the death of Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi. The first time I read about this man, during his meeting with American officers at the beginning of the awakening, he asked them for a carton of Marlboro's. At the time, I did not realize that Al Qaeda had killed or threatened to kill anyone they caught smoking or importing cigarettes. I thought he simply enjoyed American Cigarettes. Instead, it seems it was one more defiance in the face of tyranny.

This man was a true hero and martyr for his people. May they remember him as such and honor his sacrifice. -Kat

A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.

Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.

*Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*

The UAVs (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.

I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone"

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6 Comments

By fdcol63 on September 14, 2007 9:52 AM
RE: Terrorist websites and training videos Wouldn't it be cool if we had teams of hackers who would alter their training videos and documents, making very subtle and innocuous modifications that resulted in such things as: * premature bomb explosions * enhanced surveillance capabilities * subliminal messages that undermined their hatred of the West / America / Israel, and which caused them to either pursue peace or commit suicide, quietly, in their caves or mosques Surely we have the technology and the expertise, don't we?
 
By kat-missouri on September 14, 2007 10:56 AM
We could do these things with enough time as individuals with some very basic video editing equipment. We can download videos from you tube and other websites to edit. In fact, I was just playing with a video that I had downloaded from youtube. Maybe intersperse an AQ sniper video with the images of an insurgent being sniped out. Put naked women in the background. Maybe overlap some music like "kumbaya". Let's see what we can do.
 
By FbL on September 14, 2007 11:06 AM
Great ideas about the videos, guys! Regarding the Sheik, Cassandra has a typically beautiful post about him. Kat, you said "May they remember him and honor his sacrifice." They are. He's Sunni (of course), but the Shiite-led Iraqi government is already commissioning a memorial for him. That line about "the blood of patriots and tyrants" comes to mind... Perhaps he will be part of what will nourish the seedling of Iraqi freedom and democracy.
 
By kat-missouri on September 14, 2007 11:24 AM
You know what is really sad about the lack of reporting and this BS about pulling out of Iraq due to the "civil war", when I read about his death, it was the first time I heard the story about why the Sheiks of anbar rose up against AQ. They kidnapped the children of these men, cut their heads off and returned them in a cooler. It reminds that the first place I heard that AQ was killing men, women AND children in Fallujah before the '04 attack was on the blog of a Marine Captain (who was promoted to Major while in Iraq) who is now a colonel and has been in Iraq three times. He wrote about how the beheaded bodies of these people, showing signs of torture, were dumped outside of Fallujah and in the River. At that time, no media was reporting this fact. The only thing had shown was the murder of the contractors and their dead bodies hanging from the bridge. There were no stories of the dead and tortured Iraqis at the hands of terrorist scum. Reporters weren't there? Or, they refused to take the military reports and face value? Or, they were protecting somebody from the ugliness of war? No pictures, but also, not even a story. And this led, of course, to people all over the world believing that the US attacked the city and killed civilians for no reason other than "road bombs" and "dead contractors". These are the things that make you wonder whether the media is stupid, obtuse or down right evil propagandist for the enemy. I recently had a discussion with my brother about whether Iraqis really support Americans against other Iraqis because, as he put it, if a foreign occupying force was in the US, would I support them against American citizens. I replied, if that foreign force was in defense of my freedom and Americans were routinely, randomly murdering men, women and children in heinous ways, in order to enforce some fascistic ideology on other Americans, yes, I would support that foreign force.
 
By Alan on September 14, 2007 2:55 PM
Hey - who is trying to smoke me out. I've contended blogging is dead since it was born. And real men don't fisk. But I don't know what John means about the slow death this morning.
 
By John of Argghhh! on September 14, 2007 6:44 PM
Alan - a person who dies at 103, like my Grandmother, could be termed to have "died a slow death..."