Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, US Navy Seals
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:30 AM
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Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, US Navy Seals
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:36 PM
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This video was filmed in February of 2012 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Billy Vaughn speculated in February that President Obama would, without shame, try and ride the backs of the Navy SEAL's to a second term in the Oval office.Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Jack W).
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Washington — Their name conjures up the most celebrated moment of America's post-Sept. 11 military campaigns. Now the Navy
SEALs belong to a grimmer chapter in history: the most deadly incident for U.S. forces in the 10-year Afghanistan war.
Three months after they killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan and cemented their place in military legend, the SEALs suffered a devastating loss when nearly two dozen of the elite troops were among 30 Americans who died when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan early Saturday.
Billy and Karen Vaugn's son Aaron was on that chopper. Aaron was a member of Seal Team 6, a devoted father to his children, and the proud son of Billy and Karen.
When the caskets of those who died were brought back to Dover Air Force Base the families collectively asked that President Obama NOT have cameras present. The families wanted to grieve and not be part of a political statement.
President Obama could not resist such an appealing Photo Opportunity and lied to the families of fallen war heroes. Now that you also know the story, President Obama lied to each and every American who respects the military.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Osama Bin Laden, US Navy Seals
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:20 AM
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The group, Special Operations for America, filed paperwork Monday with the Federal Election Commission. It is headed by retired Navy SEAL Commander Ryan Zinke. During his 23-year career, Zinke spent time in the Navy's elite SEAL Team 6, the same team that killed Osama bin Laden in a commando raid last year.Something tells me that they raised a lot more than that today.
Zinke said he and other members of the special operations community are outraged that SEAL Team 6 was identified as the commando unit that carried out the raid, saying it put its members and their families at risk. Zinke said he believes the president has politicized his role as commander in chief to win re-election.
"Who was it at risk?" he said. "Was it the president? Or was it the young SEAL with the wife and kid at home? That's the arrogance."
Zinke, a Republican state senator from Montana, said the group also objects to deep military cuts and increases in health care costs to veterans. While he agreed there's room for cuts in military spending, he said the $1.1 trillion in cuts over 10 years that could start at the end of the year are too deep.
Officials with the group claim membership is in the "hundreds" and growing, although there is no way to confirm the number. And while spokesman Scott Hommel said the group is in negotiations with donors and is aiming for a budget of $10 million, records indicate it currently has assets of only $60.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, campaign finance, Osama Bin Laden, US Navy Seals
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:42 PM
0 comments
This has nothing to do with Israel, but it is so despicable it simply has to be shared. Just when you thought he could not possibly sink any lower, America's photo-op surprises. The remains of the 30 Americans killed in the recent crash in AFPak returned to the US today, and that return was the occasion for a cynical photo-op that ignored the wishes of both the Pentagon and the fallen warrior's loved ones.Read the whole thing.
A White House photographer was allowed to take and widely distribute a photo from the ceremony Tuesday, showing President Obama saluting and other officials in attendance. An official White House photo of the saluting was widely distributed and published by the media. It also was posted on the White House website as the "Photo of the Day."
Doug Wilson, head of public affairs at the Pentagon, said the Department of Defense didn't even know the White House photographer was present and had no idea a photo of the event was being released until it became public. He said the photographers who normally travel with the defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were not allowed to go to the event...for the very good reason that under a Pentagon policy set in 2009, media coverage at the Dover, Delaware base that is the entry point for all US war dead is allowed only when family members approve. And according to the Pentagon, during initial notification of next of kin, 19 of the 30 families said they did not want media coverage.
Labels: Afghanistan, Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, US Navy Seals
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:41 PM
9 comments
I am going to guess that Israel played some roles in getting Bin Laden about which we do not know and may never know. But here's one role we do know about: The role of the IDF's 1976 Entebbe operation in shaping the strategic thinking of US Vice Admiral William McRaven, the commander of the Bin Laden operation. In the mid-1990s, William McRaven, then a U.S. Navy SEAL, wrote a book about commando operations. Entitled "Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice" (Presidio Press), the book featured six case studies. One chapter was devoted to Entebbe, beginning with the lessons learned in the Israel Defense Forces as a whole, and in the Sayeret Matkal special operations unit in particular, after the failure to save the lives of 25 hostages in Ma'alot two years earlier. It included a discussion of Israeli intelligence gathering, decision-making processes, creation of the command and control system, personnel conflicts and the actual rescue operation in Entebbe Airport in Uganda, on July 4, 1976.Read the whole thing.
One of the slides McRaven subsequently used in lectures was a drawing of the old terminal building there, a sort of elderly relative of the intricate mock-up that McRaven - who is now relinquishing control of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in order to be promoted - used for preparing for last week's targeted raid on Osama bin Laden.
...
In recent years there has hardly been an Israeli chief of staff, branch commander or senior officer who has visited the Special Forces bases in North Carolina and Florida who has not engaged with McRaven and his brothers-in-arms. American officials have come here as well, among them CIA chief Leon Panetta, who visited Israel about three months ago, was hosted by Mossad head Tamir Pardo, and participated in a farewell meeting with outgoing Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi.
A few weeks ago McRaven was about to complete his tour of duty and prepare for his promotion to four-star head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, where he will preside over JSOC, the army, navy, Marines, air force and Special Forces. McRaven will be the second consecutive naval commando man in this position, following the current SOCOM chief, Adm. Eric Olson. From the reports on McRaven's involvement in the final stages of the bin Laden operation, it appears that the changeover was delayed until the mission was accomplished.
Olson, McRaven and the fighters who pulled the trigger at Abbottabad are all Navy SEALs, even though the only "naval" part of the operation was at the end: the burial at sea.
Labels: Entebbe, Osama Bin Laden, US Navy Seals
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:22 PM
1 comments
Yes, that's a Google map of Bin Laden's hideout location.Labels: Abbottabad, Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan, Sohaib Athar, US Navy Seals
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:38 PM
2 comments
CH-47 Chinook helicopters carry humvees into mission zones. The SEALs use specially outfitted Chinooks, so there would be nothing odd here. I understood it was a 4-helo assault group, with one suffering a mechanical breakdown.Hmmm.
Labels: Abbottabad, Barack Obama, Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan, US Navy Seals
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:37 AM
10 comments
The most amazing thing about this story is that Bin Laden was (more or less) right under the noses of US troops for some period of time, and they didn't even realize it (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). The U.S. had been monitoring the compound in Abbottabad for months after receiving a tip in August that Bin Laden might be seeking shelter there. He had long been said to be in the mountainous region along the Afghanistan, Pakistan border, hiding in a cave as the U.S. sought to kill him with drone strikes from above. Instead, he was in a house eight times larger than its neighbors, with walls more than 12 feet tall and valued at $1 million. The house had no phone or television and the residents burned their trash. The house had high windows and few points of access, and U.S. officials concluded it had been built to hide someone.What a pity that they didn't bury him in pigskin instead.
According to U.S. officials, two U.S. helicopters flew in low from Afghanistan and swept into the compound at 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Twenty to 25 U.S. Navy Seals under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command in cooperation with the CIA stormed the compound and engaged Bin Laden and his men in a firefight, killed Bin Laden and all those with him.
Two Bin Laden couriers were killed, as was one of Osama Bin Laden's son, as was a woman reportedly used as a shield by one of the men. Other women and children were present in the compound, according to Pakistani officials, but were not harmed. U.S. officials said that Bin Laden himself fired his weapon during the fight, and that he was asked to surrender but did not.
One of the U.S. helicopters, a CH47 Chinook, was damaged but not destroyed during the operation, and U.S. forces elected to destroy it themselves with explosives. The operation took 40 minutes, much of it spent searching the residence for intelligence.
The Americans took Bin Laden's body into custody after the firefight, taking it back to Afghanistan by helicopter, and confirmed his identity. A U.S. official said he was buried at sea at 2 a.m., Washington D.C. time, in accordance with Islamic practice.
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And here's a more detailed description of the compound (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).In 2009, "we identified areas in Pakistan where the courier and his brother operated. They were very careful, reinforcing belief we were on the right track."Continue reading here.
In August 2010, "we found their home in Abbottabad," not in a cave, not right along the Afghanistan border, but in an affluent suburb less than 40 miles from the capital.
"When we saw the compound, we were shocked by what we saw: an extraordinarily unique compound."
The plot of land was roughly eight times larger than the other homes in the area. It was built in 2005 on the outskirts of town, but now some other homes are nearby.
"Physical security is extraordinary: 12 to 18 foot walls, walled areas, restricted access by two security gates." The residents burn their trash, unlike their neighbors. There are no windows facing the road. One part of the compound has its own seven-foot privacy wall.
And unusual for a multi-million-dollar home: It has no telephone or Internet service.
This home, U.S. intelligence analysts concluded, was "custom built to hide someone of significance."
Besides the two brothers, the U.S. "soon learned that a third family lived there, whose size and makeup of family we believed to match those we believed would be with bin Laden. Our best information was that bin Laden was there with his youngest wife."
There was no proof, but everything seemed to fit: the security, the background of the couriers, the design of the compound.
"Our analysts looked at this from every angle. No other candidate fit the bill as well as bin Laden did," an official said.
"The bottom line of our collection and analysis was that we had high confidence that the compound held a high-value terrorist target. There was a strong probability that it was bin Laden."
That conclusion was reached in mid-February, officials said. Beginning in mid-March, the president led five National Security Council meetings on the plans for an operation.
On Friday, the president gave the order.
This information was shared "with no other country," an official said. "Only a very small group of people inside our own government knew of this operation in advance."
Labels: 9/11, Barack Obama, Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan, US Navy Seals
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:44 AM
4 comments
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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