springfield xd shooting

by nutnfancy

"The AK is the rifle for the masses and the FAL is the rifle for the classes" -Jeff Cooper

Israeli officials say Syria gives Hezbollah Scuds

JERUSALEM – Israeli defense officials said Wednesday they believe Hezbollah has Scud missiles that could hit all of Israel, a day after Israel's president accused Syria of supplying the Lebanese guerrillas with the weapons for the first time.

Israeli officials say the introduction of Scuds could alter the strategic balance with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia that battled Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006.

President Shimon Peres, speaking in Paris, charged that Syria is playing a double game, talking about peace, while "it is delivering Scuds to Hezbollah to threaten Israel," according to a statement from his office.

The remarks by Peres, whose position is largely ceremonial, went beyond public assessments of senior Israeli defense figures. He gave no details.

In Washington, the Syrian Embassy dismissed the allegations and accused Israel of trying to divert attention from questions about Israel's nuclear program. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear arms, though it does not confirm or deny this.

"If we are to discuss armament in our region, we should begin with Israel's massive nuclear weapons arsenal and continuous arming with top-caliber U.S. weapons, which helps perpetuate its occupation of our territories," said embassy spokesman Ahmed Salkini. "The timing also indicates a sinister attempt to undermine any U.S.-Syrian rapprochement."

Some Scud missiles have a range of hundreds of miles (kilometers) and could reach any target in Israel if fired from Lebanon. They can carry an explosive warhead of up to 1 ton.

The defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a classified intelligence assessment, stopped short of stating unequivocally that Scuds are now deployed in Lebanon.

They said tensions have risen along Israel's border with Lebanon after media reports that Hezbollah was seeking the missiles, and they believed Hezbollah now has them.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak issued a statement urging the public to remain calm, but said "the introduction of systems that disturb the balance endanger stability and calm."

Israel charges that most of Hezbollah's weapons, including rockets, come through neighboring Syria, which is a main sponsor of Hezbollah, along with Iran. But Peres' statement was the first time Israel has publicly accused Damascus of providing Scuds.

At the U.N., deputy U.S. ambassador Alejandro Wolff alluded to the reported transfer of Scuds from Syria to Hezbollah. "We are increasingly concerned about the sophistication of the weaponry being transferred," he said.

President Barack Obama is interested in restoring U.S. relations with Syria, frozen after charges from the previous administration that Damascus was aiding anti-American forces in neighboring Iraq.

Some Republican senators have said they may hold up the confirmation of Robert Ford, the Obama administration's nominee to be the first U.S. ambassador to Syria in five years, over the concerns.

Hezbollah pelted Israel with nearly 4,000 unguided Katyusha rockets during the 2006 war, causing widespread damage and dozens of casualties in Israel's north. Scud missiles have several times the range and explosive firepower of Katyusha rockets and would pose a much more serious threat.

In 1991, Saddam Hussein's Iraq struck Israel with 39 Scud missiles as the U.S. and its allies invaded his country. Fourteen Israelis were killed during the conflict.

Israel has deployed an anti-missile system called Arrow, designed to intercept missiles from Iran and possibly Syria. It has successfully tested a system to stop shorter-range missiles and rockets like Scuds and Katyushas, as well as homemade rockets fired from Gaza, but it is not yet operational.

Boaz Ganor, an expert from Herzliya's Interdisciplinary Center, said Scud missiles in the hands of Hezbollah could be a game-changer, not only because of their potential for damage.

"In Syrian hands, it was rationally administered, and now it's not clear that in the hands of Hezbollah it will be administered rationally," he said.

keep a eye on the border

http://blueservo.net/about.php

The Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition (TBSC) has joined BlueServoSM in a public-private partnership to deploy the Virtual Community Watch, an innovative real-time surveillance program designed to empower the public to proactively participate in fighting border crime.

The TBSC BlueServoSM Virtual Community WatchSM is a FREE service consisting of a network of cameras and sensors along the Texas-Mexico border. This network feeds live streaming video FREE-OF-CHARGE to the user's computer, which they can access by creating a FREE account at www.BlueServo.net. Users will log in to the BlueServoSM website and directly monitor suspicious criminal activity along the border via this virtual fenceSM.

Citizens can sign up as Virtual Texas DeputiesSM to participate in border surveillance through this social network. Virtual Texas DeputiesSM from around the country will monitor the streaming video from these cameras 24/7 and report any suspicious activities directly to the Border Sheriffs via email. All emails regarding suspicious activity will be submitted anonymously.

The Public, acting as Virtual Texas DeputiesSM, is limited to reporting suspicious activities via email. Local county Sheriffs will respond to these reports, conduct all investigations, and take appropriate actions. This service will provide millions of dollars in benefits to local border Sheriffs, with the public acting as additional pairs of eyes for Deputies on the ground. This extra surveillance will allow the public to directly participate in reducing crime and improving their communities. It is a well-established fact that citizen involvement in community watch programs such as this one reduces crime.

Another facet of this program is the ability of the public to connect their own cameras to www.BlueServo.net to create local Virtual Neighborhood WatchesSM in order to protect their own homes, neighborhoods, and families from criminal acts. These Virtual Neighborhood WatchesSM can, in turn, be connected to form additional Virtual Community WatchesSM.

Membership on www.BlueServo.net site is free and open to anyone by signing up and obtaining a User Log-In. Because www.BlueServo.net is an internet social network, in the future, BlueServoSM anticipates that high volume of traffic to its website will generate advertising revenue to defray the operations cost of the Virtual Community WatchSM to the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition.

Israel tells its citizens to get out of Sinai now

JERUSALEM – Israel issued an "urgent" warning Tuesday to its citizens to leave Egypt's Sinai Peninsula immediately citing "concrete evidence of an expected terrorist attempt to kidnap Israelis in Sinai."

The statement from the Israeli prime minister's anti-terror office took the unusual step of calling on families of Israelis visiting the Sinai to establish contact with them.

Israel's anti-terror office has a standing travel advisory telling Israelis to stay out of the Sinai desert because of the threat of terror attacks. However, thousands of Israelis routinely ignore the warning and vacation in the desert and along its Red Sea coast.

Egyptian security officials said about 35,000 Israelis are in the Sinai now, and they expected thousands more to arrive later this month.

In the unusually strong statement, the Israeli anti-terror office called "on all Israelis residing in Sinai to leave immediately and return home. Families of Israelis residing in Sinai are asked to contact them and update them on the travel warning."

In 2004, suicide bombers attacked Egypt's Taba Hilton Hotel, just across the Israeli border, and several campsites where Israelis are known to vacation. Dozens of people were killed and hundreds wounded.

Israel controlled the Sinai from its capture in the 1967 war until returning it to Egypt in 1982 in the framework of a peace treaty between the two nations.

Ohio terrorist ties to al-Qaida operative revealed

story here

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100413/ap_on_re_us/us_overseas_terror_plot?bcmt=4024201#mwpphu-comment-4024201



GO,GO PATRIOT Act
GO,GO PATRIOT Act
GO,GO PATRIOT Act
GO,GO PATRIOT Act
GO,GO PATRIOT Act
GO,GO PATRIOT Act

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." ~United States Constitution

Air Force's Mystery X-37B Space Plane

The U.S. Air Force is on the verge of showcasing a new and long-sought after spaceflight capacity with its X-37B space plane, but it will do so on a space mission that's cloaked in secrecy.


What the X-37B mission truly portends is in the eye of the beholder, from a game-changing tool to hone military hardware to a provocative harbinger of things-to-come in terms of space warfare.


Now ready for an Atlas boost into Earth orbit from Florida on April 20, the reusable robotic X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) is a small space shuttle-like craft. The craft will wing its way into Earth orbit, remain aloft for an unspecified time, then high-tail its way back down to terra-firma – auto-piloting down to a landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, or at neighboring Edwards Air Force Base as back-up [more photos of the X-37B space plane].


The X37-B craft was built by Boeing's Phantom Works with the mission run under the wing of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. The reusable and diminutive OTV space plane is the first vehicle since the space shuttle orbiter able to return experiments to Earth for further inspection and analysis.


Its stats are modest: The vehicle tips the scales at 11,000 pounds (4,989 kg) and is just over 29 feet (8.8 meters) in length and stands slightly more than 9 1/2 feet (2.9 meters) in height. It sports a wingspan of a little over 14 feet (4.2 meters).


The designed maximum on-orbit duration for the X-37B is 270 days, said Angie Blair, an Air Force spokeswoman for the project, but that flight time will be driven more by success in achieving demonstration objectives.


"The X-37B is a risk reduction vehicle for space experimentation and to explore concepts of operation for a long duration, reusable space vehicle. The first flight will focus on vehicle checkout and test of subsystems such as thermal management, power control and distribution, and attitude control," Blair said.


Glass half-full, half-empty


Joan Johnson-Freese, Professor of National Security Studies at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island sees the upcoming flight as a glass half-full, half-empty enterprise.


If the glass is half-full, Johnson-Freese observed that the X-37B could be to spaceflight what Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites – which had no specific mission originally when developed by the military either -- has become to navigation. "It could push the hypersonic envelope and advance spaceflight in ways not seen since the 1960's, she said.


If the glass is half-empty, Johnson-Freese added, then the X-37B could be a project taken this far because the Air Force has always wanted a crewed space plane, and this was the closest they could get, and supporting it as innovative has helped the careers of those who have apparently pushed it through the halls of the Pentagon.


"In any case, it is likely that other countries will see it as another capability intended to assure the United States will be able to dominate access to and the use of space," Johnson-Freese concluded.


Three vital characteristics


A reusable space plane can offer a range of capabilities, said William Scott, coauthor of the acclaimed techno-novel, Counterspace: The Next Hours of World War III, and former Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief for Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine.


Scott observes that an X-37B-type, reusable space plane would be invaluable for reconstitution of limited on-orbit capabilities, such as signal intelligence, imaging, or missile warning. "It could deliver small satellites having specific, limited roles to bridge critical capabilities gaps," he said.


There are three vital characteristics of a reusable space plane, Scott said, whether it's piloted or unpiloted:



Launch-on-demand: Ideally, a small fleet of these space planes would be available for immediate launch, backed by a supply of specialized small satellites that could be pulled off the shelf and loaded into the space plane to perform critical missions. The ultimate would be having these vehicles in an "alert" status, similar to how fighters and bombers sat alert, during the Cold War, ready to deploy at-will.
Surprise factor: On the first orbit, a space plane could capture data, before the "target" knew it was coming. Not as predictable as a satellite's orbit - at least on the first pass.
Flexibility: A space plane could be launched into any orbit, at any inclination, providing prompt "eyes-on" of virtually any area of the world. Altitude could be varied, as well. A space plane might also be used in a sub-orbital "arc" flight profile, perform its duties, then be recovered at a remote air field half-way around the globe.

"Ultimately, weapons could be delivered from a space plane in low Earth orbit," Scott said, citing a "Rods from God" scenario. That idea is akin to a lawn-dart weapon idea that uses tungsten rods lobbed from space to hit a cross-haired target on the ground.

"I did a story about the rods concept in 1994 or 1995, based on concepts being discussed in the U.S. Air Force at the time," Scott said. "Fifteen years later, maybe they're ready for testing."

Tactical advantage

Viewing the X-37B as a fascinating project, and one that fuels speculation is Everett Dolman, Professor of Comparative Military Studies at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies at the Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.

"It is not possible to tell yet whether the program is an example of the output of bureaucratic inertia or the beginning of something much bigger, Dolman advised.

The value of a true space plane to military thinkers and planners has long been evident, Dolman suggested, from thoughts in the early 1900s to the original grand visions for the space shuttle. Fast forward to today, in the case of the X-37B, while none of the planned missions for the space plane are public as of yet, he continued, a few of the potential missions are easy to conjure up.

"Regardless of its original intent, the most obvious and formidable is in service as a space fighter - a remotely piloted craft capable of disabling multiple satellites in orbit on a single mission and staying on orbit for months to engage newly orbited platforms," Dolman said. That capability "would be a tremendous tactical advantage."

Furthermore, the small size of the X-37B, coupled with maneuverability on orbit would make it almost impossible for non U.S. space watchers to keep an eye on its whereabouts, Dolman said.

Test platform for what?

Even if it were not used to engage and disable satellites, Dolman said, it could be maneuvered up close and personal to inspect orbiting satellites at a level of detail currently unimaginable. "With the anticipated increase in networked-microsatellites in the next few years, such a platform might be the best – and only – means of collecting technical intelligence in space."

Dolman also sees another use for the automated X-37B. It could be pressed into service, he said, not only as a resupply vehicle for routine resupply or maintenance of space platforms, even for the International Space Station as a publicly visible mission.

"If a reasonably-priced, reliable transport for supply and maintenance becomes operational, a whole new set of on-orbit possibilities opens up," Dolman noted. "What the U.S. Air Force has not had is a dedicated, secure platform for weapons research and, potentially, testing."

Laser and directed energy testing – to include relaying beams – could be done on civilian platforms in small strengths for communications or power-generating applications. Still, the results needed for weapons research would be unsatisfactory and potentially compromised, Dolman said. "All of the information leaked about the X-37B suggests its primary function will be as a test platform, but a test platform for what?"

While there will be some who suggest the X-37B is a program that just limped along, "it seems there are at least a few U.S. Air Force planners who are looking to the future, as well as a few civilian supporters who see the value in a reusable space plane, Dolman observed. "The X-37B is a viable and important project whose time is past due."

Technology-fed arms race

Mark Gubrud is a physicist in the Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the University of Maryland in College Park, and a proponent of space arms control. As a robot shuttle, he senses that the X-37B would finally give the U.S. military flexible two-way access to space, as well as some in-plane maneuver capability in orbit.

The X-37B is a product, in part, of the maturing of robotics, space robotics, military robotics and the military's confidence in robotics, Gubrud suggested.

"We are seeing a partly technology-fed arms race. But the technology for space weapons is still quite exquisite and needs extensive development and testing," Gubrud said. "I don't see the X-37 itself as a space weapon, because it is probably too expensive to use it that way," he said, compared with the kind of alternatives – smaller, more specialized space weapons – that the X-37B could be utilized to test and develop.

Gubrud pointed out there is a realistic way to limit the threat posed by the X-37 or similar vehicles produced by any country. That is, to account for their numbers and demand that they be kept either in verifiable storage or in use for declared non-weapons purposes, and that the numbers be commensurate with their declared purposes.

To that end, "basic information about the payload mass and volume, burnout velocity, orbital maneuver capability and remotely observable characteristics, as well as the numbers of such vehicles, should be required to be reported," Gubrud suggested.

Russian special forces

excellent example of Russian hostage rescue capabilities.
First strafe the vehicle with heavy machine-gun fire from a BTR, then use a breaching charge big enough to knock down a building, then run across each other's fields of fire, and end it with celebratory gunfire in the air.

What's worse than being taken hostage by muslim extremists???? Being rescued by the Russian Special Forces

what a joke russia is

Bawidamann Hrund Custom Knife

by gearsbuyersguide on youtube