| Monday
May 9, 2011 Meet the MH-47G, capable of
going where no Blackhawk has gone before
Dr. P,
Blackhawks are not the real workhorses in Afghanistan,
the Chinooks are.
If you remember the SEAL who was killed during
Operation Anaconda a few years ago, the birds used in the extracting that
team (including the one shot down) were all Chinooks.
The MH-47 Chinook helicopter conducts overt and covert
infiltration, exfiltration, air assault, resupply, and sling-load operations
over a wide range of environmental conditions. The aircraft can perform a
variety of other missions including shipboard, platform, urban, water,
parachute, forward arming and refueling point, mass casualty, and combat
search and rescue operations. Using special mission equipment and night
vision devices, MH-47 aircrews can operate in hostile mission environments
over all types of terrain at low altitudes during periods of low visibility
and low ambient lighting conditions with pinpoint navigation accuracy.
http://www.soc.mil/160th/Chinook.html
For something more informative than the Nightstalkers’
official website, you might try:
http://www.chinook-helicopter.com/
model_comparison/MH-47E_specifications.html
http://www.chinook-helicopter.com/
history/MH-47G_Model_History.html
Regards, William Clardy
"There is always an easy solution to every human
problem - neat, plausible, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken
But we were told this was a covert operation, and
only two BlackHawks were used, and no one noticed as they wended their way
into Highland Falls and assaulted a house very near the Academy, and...
The point actually being that if you remove the
restriction that this has to be quick and completely covert, many options
emerge. Two assault BlackHawks, followed by a fleet of extraction
vehicles. Surely no one would notice a sky train like that moving in from
the Afghani border to Abbottabad.
==
Pakistan PM Warns of 'Full Force' Response to Future
U.S. Raids - FoxNews.com
Jerry,
How much is real and how much is bluster for domestic
politics?
If they hadn't crashed a helicopter, perhaps the US
would have exploited plausible deniability?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/
2011/05/09/pakistan-backlash-
mounts-does-opportunity-new-terror-targets/
Of course the big issue is sovereignty. Perhaps even
nations that have 200+ nukes are no longer considered sovereign by the US?
Perhaps the Pakistani government will use it's nukes to assert it's
sovereignty? If not, perhaps the government will be replaced with a military
theocracy that will. If this explains Obama's 16 hour hesitation, then he
has earned my respect.
Jim Crawford
What seems obvious to me is that Pakistan (1)
knew we we coming, (2) will never admit it, and (3) counted on plausible
deniability. We got in and got out. As you point out, the wreck of an
undeniable US helicopter wrecked some pretty good cover stories.
==
OBL
Here's a question I haven't seen asked, and it's a
simple one: why would you shoot Bin Laden in the head when inside that head
is the answer to just about every major question you'd have about his
organization, its sources, methods, and plans, starting with "Where's your
Number 2 man?" I can see it if he's shooting at you, but that doesn't seem
to have been the case. It just doesn't make sense, like taking a power drill
to his hard drive before you've sucked the data off of it. Certainly you
might want the world to believe he's dead, but a dead man tells no tales...
All the best--
Tim Loeb
I have heard many conspiracy theories about what
horrors bin Laden could relate and how damaging that would all be to the
secret masters of America. We know that the original Delta Team orders
when we first went to Tora Bora were KILL BIN LADEN. Those could be
changed by the President, but apparently they never have been. I have no
serious comment on the conspiracy theory. Such conspiracies are very hard
to keep quiet. Of course the bin Laden operation was extraordinarily
successful at preserving secrecy. Bin Laden was never warned. By anyone.
It would not have taken a lot of warning.
===========
Letter from England
The Archbishop of Canterbury is upset about the
shooting down of an unarmed Osama bin Laden <http://tinyurl.com/64b429m>.
This came up in a prayer meeting on Thursday--one of those in attendance was
concerned that the members of the Seal team would feel guilt about shooting
an unarmed man. I replied 'No, they won't', mentioned the long-standing,
unwritten American policy that we would relentlessly kill any leader who
ordered such an attack on us, and suggested that was one of the reasons the
Cold War never became hot. That put a real damper on the discussion.
UK teeth are in bad shape: <http://tinyurl.com/6j3gaco>.
One of those areas where healthcare is rationed.
The Scottish National Party wins in Scotland and
Labour loses. <http://tinyurl.com/5sx5mq4>
The Tories might be open to Scotland becoming independent.
Volume crime is usually not investigated. I think this
case will be, though. <http://tinyurl.com/68jtxgc>
Recruiting students based on their ability to pay. <http://tinyurl.com/6ehbwnj>
It has been like that for foreign students for years, leading to problems
like this: <http://tinyurl.com/6b765l2>
About 30% of the foreign masters theses I read are written in 'business
english', which consists of English words written in some foreign grammar,
usually Chinese or Hindu. My head hurts.
Greek debt in trouble: <http://tinyurl.com/3qvyb6c>.
-- Harry Erwin, PhD "If you can't be a good example,
then you'll just have to be a horrible warning." (Catherine Aird)
See also the additional
letter below.
==============
Maunder Minimum 1740—replay in 2020?
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/36268
"Usually, there’s about a ten-year lag between sunspot
changes and their impact on earth’s temperatures. The sunspots began
predicting lower temperatures about 2000, for instance, and the cooling
trend began eight years later in 2007. Now the sunspot minimum that just
ended is predicting quite serious cold, perhaps about 2020."
Charles Brumbelow
It's sure cold out in Los Angeles. We usually
have a bright spring before June Gloom.
============
Firefox 4
Jerry, First my credentials. If you disassembled a
motor car that I had never seen to the last nut and bolt, I could reassemble
it. Where computers are concerned I am like the driver who only knows enough
to check the oil, water, and tyres. Anything else being left to a
professional mechanic. When I downloaded Firefox 4 it ate most of my
bookmarks. When I downloaded firefox 4.01 it ate everything except Google
search. It is horrible.. Stay with Firefox 3.6.17. If you are running
windows 7 do not go to a restore point. Firefox seems to be immune to being
restored and retaliated by crashing my computer Luckily the Firefox help
pages tell you how to revert to the old version. I am running an untweaked
version of Windows 7, so I suspect that this will be a common problem. I
know that a lot of your readership are computer experts who will smile at my
lack of skill but I issue this warning to those of us who regard the
computer as a tool and are indifferent to the niceties of coding. John
Edwards
I have nothing good to report about Firefox 4.
=========
“It was kind of cryptic. I’m not used to reading
cursive or writing it myself.”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/us/28cursive.html>
-- Roland Dobbins
===========
Spencer
Jerry,
Dr. Roy Spencer on the tornado outbreak in Huntsville.
www.drroyspencer.com
I particularly call your attention to his April 29
blog post:
MORE Tornadoes from Global Warming? That’s a Joke,
Right? <http://www.drroyspencer.com/
2011/04/more-tornadoes-from-global-warming-thats-a-joke-right/>
<snip>For example, the poster child for active tornado
seasons was the Superoutbreak of 1974, which was during globally cool
conditions. This year, we are seeing much cooler than normal conditions
through the corn belt, even delaying the planting schedule. Cool La Nina
years seem to favor more tornadoes, and we are now coming out of a
persistent La Nina.<snip>
More tornadoes due to “global warming”, if such a
thing happened, would be more tornadoes in Canada, where they don’t usually
occur. NOT in Alabama.
It is well known that strong to violent tornado
activity in the U.S. has decreased markedly since statistics began in the
1950s, which has also been a period of average warming. So, if anything,
global warming causes FEWER tornado outbreaks…not more. In other words, more
violent tornadoes would, if anything, be a sign of “global cooling”, not
“global warming”.
Anyone who claims more tornadoes are caused by global
warming is either misinformed, pandering, or delusional.<snip>
++
I note that the current outbreak is (a) later in the
month of April and (b) further south than the 1974 outbreak (which I also
lived through in Kentucky, though the nearest tornado then was somewhat
further away -- to the north -- from home than the 6.7 miles closest
approach of the North Alabama F5 tornado to my home in Huntsville). Also
bespeaks more cooling yielding higher temperature gradients.
See my letter several months ago quoting Ringo from
"The Last Centurion" on Meteorology 101 (
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/mail/2010/Q2/mail621.html on
Tuesday).
++
Spencer hasn't yet posted April average temperatures,
I suspect because events have kept him from his office for the last week.
They should be out in the next couple of days.
Jim
I recall more tornadoes in Mississippi and
Alabama when I was quite young -- the 1930's -- than when I was in High
School -- 1940's. I had some interest in them in high school and they
didn't happen often or close by (we had a motorcycle and would have gone
down to have a look, not during one, but aftermath, but we never had a
chance to do that). I was gone from the South after 1950.
=========
Holder vs. Holder,
Jerry
Thought you’d find this interesting: “Why does the
Obama Justice Department seem to have trouble mounting a full-throated,
compelling legal defense of Osama bin Laden’s killing? The problem for Eric
Holder the attorney general could be Eric Holder the private attorney.
“In 2004, Mr. Holder chose to file an amicus brief on
behalf of Jose Padilla, the al-Qaeda terrorist sent to our country by bin
Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to carry out a post-9/11 second wave of
attacks. In the brief, Holder argued that a commander-in-chief lacks the
constitutional authority to do what his boss, the current
commander-in-chief, has just done: determine the parameters of the
battlefield. By Holder’s lights — at least when the president is not named
Obama — an al-Qaeda terrorist must be treated as a criminal defendant, not
an enemy combatant, unless he is encountered on a traditional battlefield:”
http://www.nationalreview.com/
articles/266657/holder-vs-holder-andrew-c-mccarthy
“It would be useful if staffers at congressional
oversight hearings passed around copies of Holder’s Padilla brief. It is a
comprehensive attack on Bush counterterrorism, an enthusiastic endorsement
of the law-enforcement approach in vogue during the Clinton era (when Holder
was deputy attorney general under Janet Reno, who also signed on to the
Padilla brief). This might explain why Holder sometimes has difficulty
answering seemingly easy questions. That’s what happened this week, when the
Senate Judiciary Committee quizzed the attorney general on the lawfulness of
the U.S. military’s targeted killing of bin Laden.” <snip>
“A few days after the 9/11 atrocities, Congress — by
huge bipartisan margins — enacted a sweeping authorization of the use of
military force (AUMF). The AUMF, which was promptly signed by President Bush
and has been reaffirmed repeatedly in congressional appropriations signed by
Presidents Bush and Obama, states in pertinent part:
The President is authorized to use all necessary and
appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he
determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks
that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or
persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism
against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons. <snip>
And so forth. The piece goes on to show how the
attorney general tries to wiggle out of this, but he clearly has difficulty
differentiating the justifiable acts of the virtuous current administration
from the unjustifiable acts of the previous evil administration. Typical.
Ed
=========
Just WHAT were our sailors forced to do for Osama's
funeral?
Osama bin Laden was buried at sea, supposedly with a
proper Muslim ceremony. Andrew Bostom reveals what all that entails. I am
very disgusted.
Did Naval Burial Ceremony for Bin Laden Curse Jews and
Christians, and Confer Pardon and Paradise on the Muslim Mass Murderer? "http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2011/05/07/
did-naval-burial-ceremony-for-bin-laden-curse-
jews-and-christians-and-confer-pardon-and-
paradise-on-the-muslim-mass-murderer/"
May bin Laden suffer the right and proper torments in
hell.
{^_^}
==
Osama photo, why not release it?
Why is the USA not releasing photos of Osmamas face
after they had him, simple, because when they had him, he did not have one.
The reports I have seen say that he was hit twice in
the face. They also say that even the SEALs there were not certain they had
the right guy after that, the damage to his face making him unrecognizable.
About all they knew was that he was 6 ft 4, and so one SEAL offered to lie
down next to him to see if he was, they not having any other way to measure
him.
Conclusion, releasing a picture of him would be no
help, since no one would recognize him from it. Some would say it was not
him, and start conspiracy theories. Others would agree it is him, but be
angered by the damage done to his face. Yet others would say "how can you
release such a gruesom photo"? Look like a lose lose situation to me.
Legatus
============
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