A few months ago there were quite a few stories about the German soldiers in Afghanistan getting pulled out of country after never performing one mission. The articles stated that for 8-9 months the German army, to include German Special Forces just sat on their FOB and never left.
Well the mystery is solved and now we know why, http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,590016,00.html. No wonder they never left, I would not be able to leave either.
I love the double-standard (NOT). Funny how our soldiers (who are the ones leading the fight) can’t even be near this stuff without losing rank and ruining careers.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has signed on to an Army Reserve program that allows the company and the Army to work together to recruit and train people interested in serving in the military and working for the giant retailer.
The Supreme Court lifted restrictions on the Navy's use of sonar in training exercises off the California coast, a defeat for environmental groups who say the sonar can harm whales. A lower courts in California had imposed restrictions on sonar use in submarine-hunting exercises.
Ten Iraqi insurgent groups have agreed to escalate attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces to derail the proposed U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, an Internet monitoring service said Tuesday.
An Iraqi Soldier opened fire on U.S. troops after a quarrel broke out Wednesday in northern Iraq, killing two American Soldiers and wounding six in a military compound before he was shot to death, officials said.
The U.S. military says an F-16 fighter jet was destroyed after it caught fire during takeoff. The military says the pilot pulled out of the planned takeoff early Wednesday morning and the fire was extinguished next to the runway at Balad Air Base north of Baghdad.
Iran has successfully test-fired a new, more accurate generation of its longest-range surface-to-surface missile that uses solid fuel, the defense minister said Wednesday.
Posted on 2008 under Blogs, CounterTerrorism, Terrorism |
12
Nov
For those of us who were covering the conflicts in Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s, there was no group more terrifying than Peru's Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) an Maoist organization intent on causing rivers of blood to flow in order to achieve the proletariat utopia.
After many years and countless dead, Sendero was largely dismantled and its chief ideologue , Abimael Guzman, who ran a horrific cult of personality, was jailed. The group was widely thought to have been put out of business permanently.
Now, as the Washington Post reports, Sendero, a designated terrorist entity, is coming back. Why?
The Shining Path, which has its bases in two coca-producing regions of central Peru, is now heavily involved in drug trafficking and is paying for new recruits.
Again, the terrorist/criminal nexus shows up, as it will more and more frequently.
The terrorists, using criminal proceeds, wear bullet proof vests, carry assault rifles and can pay salaries in isolated regions of the country where the state has little presence. Where they were once one of the most hated and reviled insurgencies on the continent, they are trying to come back in a softer, gentler form.
What makes the reemergence of Sendero even more dangerous is the regional situation. My full blog is here.
