Special Forces Units Ignore Bureaucrat Memo, and Save Lives
By signing a memo Oct. 29, 2007, James R. Clapper Jr. exposed U.S. military personnel to greater-than-necessary danger as they served their country in Afghanistan, Iraq and other hot spots around the world.
Then an Under Secretary of Defense and now our nation’s Director of National Intelligence, Clapper designated the polygraph and its hand-held cousin, the Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System, as the “only approved credibility assessment technologies” in DoD. At the same time, he sent a dangerous message to U.S. troops: “Stop using the Computer Voice Stress Analyzer.”
Fortunately, some of our nation’s bravest warriors sided with common sense and opted to ignore The Clapper Memo. One of those who did was, until recently, a member of the Army Special Forces whom I will call “Joe” (not his real name).
Trained in counterintelligence and as an interrogator, this former SF operator used CVSA to conduct nearly 500 interrogations of enemy combatants and third-country nationals — more than anyone in the U.S. military — while serving in Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq and regularly working 18-hour days from 2004 to 2009.
Joe agreed to speak with me on condition of anonymity about his firsthand experience with CVSA and why Department of Defense leaders are wrong to keep the technology now used by more than 1,800 U.S. law enforcement agencies out of the hands of people in uniform.
“I was still downrange when that memo came out,” said Joe, who spoke with me on condition of anonymity.
After learning of the memo, Joe said he went to his commander and asked one question: “You want me to stop?”
His commander replied, “Hell no, don’t stop! You’re just not using it anymore, right?”
Despite Pentagon orders to the contrary, Joe’s SF commanders wanted him to continue using CVSA for one primary reason: They knew it was far superior to PCASS when it came to dealing with various types of detainees, captured enemy combatants, third-country nationals and others who could pose threats to U.S. and allied troops in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar.
“The craziest thing about this whole deal was that it became such a controversy that, for us to continue to go up there and continue to fight — to say, ‘Hey, we need to use this,’” — “we were ordered to stand down and not even mention the words anymore,” Joe said.
Why the stand-down order? Because, according to Joe, someone in Army leadership was more willing to rely upon laboratory studies commissioned by officials and agencies with vested interests in the continued use of the polygraph instead of trusting operational research like that Joe conducted almost daily.
One of the often-cited studies that proves his point, “Assessing the Validity of Voice Stress Analysis Tools in a Jail Setting,” was conducted by University of Oklahoma Professor Kelly R. Damphousse using funds from a noncompetitive $ 232,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice, the research, development and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Justice.
For their participation in the 2007 study, inmates at the Oklahoma County Jail received candy bars as rewards but faced no real jeopardy, a factor that makes or breaks the validity of the test.
In places like Iraq, where CVSA worked so effectively for SF operators, Joe said, he could tell an interview subject, “Hey, you’re gonna be here for a really long time and convicted as a terrorist if I find out you’re lying to me.” Conversely, he could say, “You’re gonna go home tomorrow if you clear this chart.” In other words, jeopardy was clearly present. Not candy bars.
Not surprisingly, Joe isn’t the only soldier who shares Joe’s opinions about the polygraph and CVSA.
One “Anonymous Fort Bragg CVSA Examiner” sent me the message below soon after I published my first serious piece about the polygraph-CVSA controversy April 9, 2009. It appears unedited below:
“I was one of the first US Army soldiers trained on the CVSA system back in 2005. I have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and have used the CVSA in both theaters. Despite the unofficial “ban” on the system by the Army polygraph examiners, my commander and chain of command have supported and continue to support the CVSA.
“Over the past 4 years I have conducted over 200 CVSA exams, and kept records and logs of each exam as required by SOP. My CVSA exams have been accurate at least 94% of the time, because the information I developed from the CVSA was independently confirmed by other evidence we developed during our operations. And that is either Deceptive or Not Deceptive.
“Unlike the PCASS, there are no flashing lights, and no inconclusive results when you use a CVSA. The CVSA always lets you know whether a subject is Deceptive or Not Deceptive. Oh, did I mention some buddies from Fort Campbell who are also CVSA examiners went through PCASS training and they refuse to use it because it simply does not work. The whole PCASS concept is a joke, and when they went to PCASS training the instructors got pissed when they asked informed questions about the CVSA and polygraph.
“We will not risk our lives on a piece of junk that was put together by eggheads who don’t have a clue about the real world, and have probably never been to a combat zone. The CVSA is accurate, and has been instrumental in obtaining legal (by the book) confessions from the tests I have conducted. I have used it to get confessions from bombers , spies, infiltrators, killers, and other low life’s. They break down quickly once they know that you know the truth, and they confess.
“The CVSA has helped us round up more bad guys than I care to count. It is well regarded by Army SF and NSW, because it works. It has saved the lives of US personnel, ask any of the guys who have conducted the hundreds of CVSA exams in Iraq.
“I forgot to mention that the polygraph examiners go crazy when they find out we are using it. They will fly into our AO waving their regulations, and our chain of command boots them in the ass, and they leave with their tails between their legs. It is funny these clowns are more concerned about protecting their turf than they are about us and our mission. I am surprised the Army leadership puts up with the bullshit. They have ZERO successes to point to, only failures.”
Days later, another confidential source provided me a copy of an After Action Report written by an “insider” at Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility following a 30-day test of the technology in 2003. It’s summary included the praise below:
“During the test period, it was obvious that CVSA would become an invaluable tool for focusing the efforts of intelligence collection. By virtue of utilizing the CVSA equipment and training, interrogations could be focused on areas where deception if indicated, versus wasting time and energy on avenues of exploitation that would have little to no value. The outcomes of the 30 day test period has shown outstanding results, and has generated a high degree of interest and satisfaction among the intelligence community.”
I also received a copy of a letter written by a high-ranking interrogation official (name withheld) who served at GITMO while CVSA was tested there. He listed seven distinct advantages of CVSA (shown unedited below) over the traditional polygraph system:
1. It is more portable.
2. It is less intrusive (microphone as opposed to galvanic, heart, blood pressure, and breathing monitors).
3. Less training required for the examiner.
4. The test is easier to explain to the subject before the test is administered.
5. The test results are easier to explain to the subject. (The charts for both control questions and relevant questions can be shown and explained. This makes post test questioning much easier.)
6. There are no inconclusive test results.
7. The examiner can identify the questions to which the subject’s answers appeared to show deception. This helps to focus additional questions and subsequent interrogations. (The polygraphers would not identify the questions to which the subject appeared to be deceptive when answering. They would only say the test showed “No deception indicated, deception indicated or inconclusive.”
That same GITMO interrogator included the paragraph below as his closing statement:
“My opinion based upon my observation is that CVSA is superior to the polygraph when used as a tool in the interrogation process. Consequently, I conclude that those who wish to remove CVSA from the “interrogator’s tool box” are more interested in protecting their turf than they are in gathering intelligence that protects the American people.”
The pro-CVSA opinions above stand in stark contrast to official answers I received in response to questions asked about the Army’s use of the portable lie detectors.
Appearing carefully-constructed and thoroughly-coordinated, they arrived in my inbox in early May 2009 — after 27 days and the exchange of dozens of e-mails — from U.S. Central Command. The person delivering the answers was Maj. John Redfield, an Air Force PAO assigned to CENTCOM.
Asked whether officials at the joint command considered PCASS effective after one year of use, CENTCOM responded as follows:
“The comments from forward commanders and their principal intelligence advisors regarding the value of PCASS have been very favorable. In Iraq and Afghanistan, PCASS has proven its value; aiding in the identification of individuals with inimical interests to the U.S. government and our allies has allowed commanders to take actions to reduce the risks these individuals posed.”
Asked if CENTCOM had plans to continue, expand or otherwise modify the use of PCASS devices in the field, they wrote:
“CENTCOM published guidance which authorizes the use of PCASS in our area of responsibility. The continued use and any expansion of use will be decided by commanders on the ground and those ready to deploy after consultation with their military service leadership. CENTCOM does not envision modifying the use of PCASS, as our current policy permits the use of the device as a screening tool in some very specific situations on specific individuals and under specific conditions. To expose those specifics would endanger the lives of American military personnel.”
Asked if PCASS has been credited with directly saving any American lives or thwarting any enemy operations, CENTCOM replied as follows:
“Unlike a bulletproof vest, PCASS is not a stand-alone tool which one can point to and give credit for saving lives. PCASS is an aid which complements other techniques and is a device which is complemented by other procedures. Together these tools have aided intelligence personnel in the identification of locally employed persons who were corresponding with violent extremist organizations, foreign intelligence and security services, and criminal elements. There is no way to measure how many lives were saved by taking positive action against individuals who would pass friendly information to persons who would then use that information to attack or attempt to disrupt U.S. and coalition military operations.”
In stark contrast to the official message coming from headquarters, Joe told me SF operators would “rather go back to the stubby pencil and taking an educated guess” than use PCASS.
One of the major flaws in the technology that cause Joe and others to discount PCASS can be found in polygraph training, Joe said.
“If you can trick yourself into thinking you’re a bomber,” Joe said, “then why can’t you trick yourself into thinking you’re not and trick that machine?”[Note: To see the training scenario Joe cited from the Defense Academy for Credibility Assessment (formerly the DoD Polygraph Institute) at Fort Jackson, S.C., click here.]
Joe added that he thinks rank-and-file polygraphers would embrace CVSA if given the opportunity.
“If you take PCASS operators and CVSA operators, cross-train ‘em and, at the end of that, give ‘em some time to work with the equipment in the field, I would say 95 to 96 percent of them guys — because, you know, some people just don’t like change if they were PCASS guys first — will tell you that the CVSA is a much better piece of equipment.
As for those who remain opposed to CVSA, Joe had this message: “Anybody looking out for the welfare of the soldier and really looking at this open-minded (would) see that the CVSA is the best tool for the job,” he said.
I asked Joe what he would say, if given the chance, to our nation’s leaders in Washington about the prohibition on the CVSA use by U.S. troops.
“I would testify in front of Congress that this piece of equipment is essential for HUMINT personnel on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. “If they want to save lives, they’ve got to put this piece of equipment back into that theater. Every unit should have this equipment.”
Fortunately, Joe told me that SF operators are skilled in knowing how to keep equipment “off the books.” One can only hope that some of the CVSA computers remain in use.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Stay tuned! The information in this and previous articles I’ve written and published about the polygraph-CVSA controversy represents only the “tip of the iceberg.” More will appear in my upcoming book about this controversy, “Turf War: Detecting Lies and Deception.”
SEE ALSO:
- To read true stories about the use of CVSA technology on the Arabian Peninsula during the past decade, click here.
- To read this author’s previous posts about the polygraph-CVSA controversy, click here.
Special operations forces deal blow to Taliban’s ranks
Coalition and Afghan special operations teams have hit hard at the Taliban and allied groups’ leadership and rank and file during more than 7,000 raids throughout Afghanistan over the past six months.
Approximately 7,100 special operations counterterrorism missions have been conducted between May 30 and Dec. 2 of this year, the International Security Assistance Forces told The Long War Journal. More than 600 insurgent leaders were killed or captured. In addition more than 2,000 enemy fighters have been killed, and over 4,100 fighters have been captured.
The enemy commanders and fighters killed and captured are from various jihadist groups, battling Coalition and Afghan forces, including the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, Hizb-i-Islami, al Qaeda, and the Islamic Jihad Group.
The number of insurgents killed and captured only includes those targeted in special operations raids, ISAF stated. These numbers do not include Taliban and allied fighters killed or captured during conventional counterinsurgency operations, or during massed Taliban assaults on Coalition and Afghan bases.
Within the same time frame, special operations troops also completed more than 2,500 humanitarian operations, including the provision of medical and educational assistance.
The intensity of the special operations raid over the past six months reflects a shift from counterinsurgency to counterterrorism operations.
In a speech at the National Press Club on Dec. 8, General James Cartwright, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, noted that such a shift has been taken place to adjust to the realities on the ground in Afghanistan. The Taliban’s ability to conduct raids from Pakistan’s tribal areas, then retreat across the border rest and recuperate, has forced ISAF to adjust its strategy and target the Taliban’s lines of communications into Pakistan.
“The COIN [counterinsurgency] strategy is balanced by a counterterrorism strategy,” Cartwright said. “When we started, we probably were more aligned with counterinsurgency. The emphasis is shifting.”
“We need to reduce those lines of communication and reduce that flow to the best of our abilities,” Cartwright continued. “So the balance of the force that was really weighted more toward counterinsurgency is starting to shift to have an element of counterterrorism larger than we thought we were going to need when we started.”
The US has also been conducting a covert air campaign using unmanned Predator and Reaper strike aircraft to attack al Qaeda and Taliban cells in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The Pakistani military has refused to move against the Taliban and the Haqqani Network in North Waziristan, despite the fact that these groups host al Qaeda leaders and cells, and sponsor attacks in Afghanistan.
Partial list of top level terrorist leaders killed and captured during raids over the past six months:
Mullah Aktar, a wanted Taliban commander with links to al Qaeda and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was killed during a raid on a al Qaeda training camp in Farah province on July 15.
Abu Baqir, who was described as “a dual-hatted Taliban sub-commander and al Qaeda group leader,” who also was a senior leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in Kunduz, was killed in an Aug. 14 raid.
Sayed Shah, a wanted commander in Jamaat ul Dawa al Quran, an al Qaeda linked Taliban sub-group, was killed on Aug. 19.
Mohammed Amin, the deputy shadow governor for Takhar province who also was a senior Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan commander, was killed in a Sept. 2 airstrike.
Abdallah Umar al Qurayshi, a Saudi al Qaeda commander in Kunar, was killed with several al Qaeda commanders and fighters in an airstrike on Sept. 25.
Qari Ziauddin, the shadow governor for Faryab province, was killed on Oct. 5.
Mullah Ismail, the Taliban’s shadow governor of Badghis province was killed during a raid on Oct. 6.
Gul Nabi, who was described by the US military as “a mid-level Taliban commander” and “an al Qaeda associate” in Kunar was killed on Oct. 17.
An unnamed Haqqani Network leader who facilitated the purchase and distribution of weapons and ammunition used in attacks on Coalition and Afghan forces was captured on Nov. 9 while on a plane to Saudi Arabia.
Mullah Hafiz Janan served as the Taliban’s shadow governor for the Bakwah district in Farah province, was killed during a raid on Nov. 20. He helped train and arm al Qaeda fighters entering the country from Iran.
An unnamed senior financier from the Mullah Dadullah Mahaz (Front), a wing of the Taliban in south, was captured in Kandahar on Dec. 3.
U.S.-backed forces in Indonesia target Christians
“It is shameful that the US has renewed its ties with Kopassus when they continue to target churchmen and civilians merely for speaking out about the suffering of their people.”
“US-backed elite Indonesian forces target church members and civilians,” from Ekklesia, December 6 (thanks to Twostellas):
A leading churchman in West Papua has called on President Obama to withdraw US cooperation with Indonesia’s elite ‘Kopassus’ forces, after finding himself on a military ‘enemies’ list. Kopassus soldiers murdered a previous ‘enemy’, Papuan leader Theys Eluay, in 2001.
The Rev Benny Giay, an outspoken defender of human rights in West Papua, has found himself on a list of ‘enemies’, which appears to have been leaked by Indonesia’s Kopassus forces. US assistance to Kopassus was renewed in July this year.
Kopassus is notorious for human rights violations in West Papua and East Timor. Giay told the indigenous rights NGO, Survival, that by renewing ties with Kopassus, “The US is supporting the policy to oppress the Papuans, to wipe us out.”
The leaked documents show Indonesia’s special forces to be targeting church leaders and unarmed civilian activists in Papua, defining them as Kopassus’s main ‘enemy’. The Indonesian military has not denied the veracity of the documents….
Survival’s Director, Stephen Corry said, “It is shameful that the US has renewed its ties with Kopassus when they continue to target churchmen and civilians merely for speaking out about the suffering of their people.”
Yes.
US Special Forces teams deployed with Pakistani Army
Over the past year, US special operations forces teams have deployed with the Pakistani Army to serve in a combat support role.
Small teams from the US Special Operations Command have deployed with Pakistani Army headquarters units in the Taliban-controlled tribal agencies of Bajaur and North and South Waziristan “to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) support and general operational advice” for ongoing combat operations. The presence of three such teams have been detected over the past year.
The deployment of US special operations forces was disclosed in the US State Department cables leaked by WikiLeaks. The cable, which is dated Oct. 9, 2009, was written by Anne Patterson, then the US Ambassador to Pakistan.
The deployment of the first team was to the tribal agency of Bajaur, where the Pakistani military has twice declared victory against Taliban forces under the command of Faqir Mohammed. The Pakistani Army first claimed a total Taliban defeat in March 2008, and did so again in March 2009.
“The Pakistani Army has for just the second time approved deployment of U.S. special operation elements to support Pakistani military operations,” Patterson wrote. “The first deployment, with SOC(FWD)-PAK [Special Operations Command Forward, Pakistan] elements embedded with the Frontier Corps in Bajaur Agency, occurred in September.”
The deployment of a special operations team “provided ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] for an FC [Frontier Corps] operation. This support was highly successful, enabling the FC to execute a precise and effective artillery strike on an enemy location.”
In early October, the Pakistan Army General Headquarters again requested the deployment of teams to North and South Waziristan “in order to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) support and general operational advice” to 11 Corps. “SOC(FWD)-PAK support to 11 Corps would be at the [location redacted] and would include a live downlink of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) full motion video.”
The Pakistani request for US special operations teams occurred just two weeks before the Pakistani Army launched its military offensive against the Taliban under the command of al Qaeda allies Hakeemullah and Waliur Rahman Mehsud in the Mehsud tribal areas in the eastern region of South Waziristan. The Pakistani Army did not advance on al Qaeda and Taliban havens in the Wazir areas in South Waziristan and has continued to rebuff US pressure to move into North Waziristan, which is considered the headquarters of al Qaeda’s global operations.
Ambassador Patterson’s cable highlights the limited role the US military has played in Pakistan.
“U.S. special operation elements have been in Pakistan for more than a year, but were largely limited to a training role,” she wrote. “The Pakistani Army leadership previously adamantly opposed letting us embed U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) with their military forces to support their operations.”
The presence of US special operations forces in northwestern Pakistan was confirmed in February 2010 when three US soldiers were killed in a suicide attack in the settled district of Dir, just north of Bajaur. The US embassy in Islamabad insisted the three US soldiers were providing training and assistance to the Pakistan Frontier Corps.
The deployment of US military teams in support of military operations was cause for optimism, and “appears to represent a sea change in Pakistani thinking,” Patterson stated. “Patient relationship-building with the military is the key factor that has brought us to this point.”
But Patterson warned that disclosure of the deployment of US ground teams would jeopardize future cooperation.
“These deployments are highly politically sensitive because of widely-held concerns among the public about Pakistani sovereignty and opposition to allowing foreign military forces to operate in any fashion on Pakistani soil,” Patterson said. “Should these developments and/or related matters receive any coverage in the Pakistani or US media, the Pakistani military will likely stop making requests for such assistance.”
Obamacare Forces Union to Drop Insurance for 6,000 Children
-By Warner Todd Huston
Remember how Obama said that if you liked your healthcare plan you could keep it? Apparently someone forgot to tell the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in New York because they’ve announced that Obamacare is forcing them to drop coverage for the children of its 30,000 low-wage members.
The union will be dropping coverage for 6,000 children starting in the new year because new state and federal rules will drive up its costs 60% causing it to face a “dramatic shortfall” between what employers contribute and the premiums charged by the insurance provider.
The union is blaming both state and federal rules but had this to say about the new rules Obamacare is forcing upon it.
“In addition, new federal health-care reform legislation requires plans with dependent coverage to expand that coverage up to age 26,” Behroozi wrote in a letter to members Oct. 22. “Our limited resources are already stretched as far as possible, and meeting this new requirement would be financially impossible.”
And what is the solution to this, wonders the SEIU? Why more payoffs from government, of course.
“We hope the state of New York will do the right thing and provide the funding necessary for this most vulnerable population of direct caregivers,” the union said in a statement.
Unbelievable. Government makes laws forcing a union to drop coverage after telling everyone it would never do such and thing and the union wants even more government as a solution?
How does that saying go? “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again always expecting different results.”
Coalition and Afghan forces kill Taliban commander linked to Iran, al Qaeda
Coalition and Afghan special operations forces killed a senior Taliban commander in western Afghanistan who was linked to both al Qaeda and Iran’s Qods Force.
Mullah Hafiz Janan, who served as the Taliban’s shadow governor for the Bakwah district in Farah province, and an aide were killed during a shootout on Nov. 20 “after brandishing weapons and threatening the security force,” the International Security Assistance Force stated in a press release.
Janan was described as “a key leader involved in foreign-fighter facilitation and networking” who “maintained ties with other senior Taliban leaders and supplied weapons and training to foreign fighters.” ISAF uses the term “foreign fighters” to describe al Qaeda operatives and members of allied terror groups operating in Afghanistan.
Farah province is a known haven for al Qaeda and allied terror groups, and is a main transit point for foreign fighters and Iranian aid flowing into Afghanistan. The presence of al Qaeda cells has been detected in the districts of Bakwah, Balu Barak, Gulistan, and Pusht-e Rod; or four of Farah’s 11 districts, according to an investigation by The Long War Journal.
Bakwah has become a flashpoint for al Qaeda operatives based in Farah. Janan is the second al Qaeda-linked Taliban leader killed or captured this month. On Nov. 7, a special operations team captured another “Taliban foreign fighter facilitator” who also doubled as an IED expert during a raid in Bakwah. ISAF does not release the name of captured al Qaeda and Taliban leaders due to operational security issues.
Already this year, ISAF has reported on seven raids in Farah against al Qaeda-linked cells. An Aug. 5 raid in Pusht-e Rod district killed Sabayar Saheb, another “Taliban logistics and foreign fighter facilitator.” A July 16 raid on a training camp used by foreign fighters in the Balu Barak district killed Mullah Akhtar and several of his fighters. Akhtar had close ties with Taliban and al Qaeda senior leaders, was responsible for the training of foreign fighters from Iran, helped resolve disputes between terror groups, and was closely associated with Iran Qods Force.
Background on Iran’s covert support for the Taliban
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – Qods Force has tasked the Ansar Corps, a subcommand, with aiding the Taliban and other terror groups in Afghanistan. Based in Mashad in northeastern Iran, the Ansar Corps operates much like the Ramazan Corps, which supports and directs Shia terror groups in Iraq. [See LWJ report, Iran’s Ramazan Corps and the ratlines into Iraq.]
On Aug. 6, 2010, General Hossein Musavi, the commander of the Ansar Corps, was one of two Qods Force commanders added to the US Treasury’s list of specially designated global terrorists for directly providing support to the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda is known to facilitate travel for its operatives moving into Afghanistan from Mashad. Al Qaeda additionally uses the eastern cities of Tayyebat and Zahedan to move its operatives into Afghanistan. [See LWJ report, Return to Jihad.]
For years, ISAF has stated that Taliban fighters have conducted training inside Iran, with the aid of the Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. As recently as May 30, 2010, former ISAF commander General Stanley McChrystal said that Iran is training Taliban fighters and providing them with weapons.
“The training that we have seen occurs inside Iran with fighters moving inside Iran,” McChrystal said at a press conference. “The weapons that we have received come from Iran into Afghanistan.”
In March of 2010, General David Petraeus, then the CENTCOM commander and now the ISAF commander, discussed al Qaeda’s presence in Iran in written testimony delivered to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Al Qaeda “continues to use Iran as a key facilitation hub, where facilitators connect al Qaeda’s senior leadership to regional affiliates,” Petraeus explained. “And although Iranian authorities do periodically disrupt this network by detaining select al Qaeda facilitators and operational planners, Tehran’s policy in this regard is often unpredictable.”
Iran has recently released several top al Qaeda leaders from protective custody, including Saif al Adel, al Qaeda’s top military commander and strategist; Sa’ad bin Laden, Osama’s son; and Sulaiman Abu Gaith, a top al Qaeda spokesman. [See LWJ report, Osama bin Laden’s spokesman freed by Iran.]
In March 2010, a Taliban commander admitted that Iran has been training teams of Taliban fighters in small unit tactics. “Our religions and our histories are different, but our target is the same – we both want to kill Americans,” the commander told The Sunday Times, rebutting the common analysis that Shia Iran and Sunni al Qaeda could not cooperate due to ideological differences.
ISAF and Afghan forces have targeted several Taliban commanders with known links to Iran’s Qods Force – Ansar Corps. [See LWJ report, Taliban commander linked to Iran, al Qaeda targeted in western Afghanistan.]
County Commission forces sheriff to give pay raises
Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti made one last attempt recently to get Broward County commissioners to change their minds about forcing him to give pay raises to a few thousand employees. The sheriff showed up to the Nov. 9 meeting, and gave the speech you see above. It didn’t persuade them; they voted unanimously (Ilene Lieberman absent with the flu), to impose raises on 2,700 of the sheriff’s employees.
I say “impose” because the sheriff denied the raises, the employees appealed, and commissioners overruled him.
The employees agreed to spread the retroactive raise out over this year and next, to soften the blow to the county’s budget. Read more about that on the jump.
TSA Forces Cancer Survivor To Show Prostestic Breast
Steven Taylor already mentioned this but it bears more scrutiny: Cathy Bossi, a U.S. Airways stewardess and cancer survivor, was forced to show her breast implants to TSA agents when her prosthetic implants triggered alarm during a pat-down.
MSNBC (“TSA forces cancer survivor to show prosthetic breast“)
Cathy Bossi, who works for U.S. Airways, said she received the pat-down after declining to do the full-body scan because of radiation concerns.
The TSA screener “put her full hand on my breast and said, ‘What is this?’ ” Bossi told the station. “And I said, ‘It’s my prosthesis because I’ve had breast cancer.’ And she said, ‘Well, you’ll need to show me that.’ ”
Bossi said she removed the prosthetic from her bra. She did not take the name of the agent, she said, “because it was just so horrific of an experience, I couldn’t believe someone had done that to me. I’m a flight attendant. I was just trying to get to work.”
For Americans who wear prosthetics — either because they are cancer survivors or have lost a limb — or who have undergone hip replacements or have a pacemaker, the humiliation of the TSA’s new security procedures — choosing between a body scan or body search — is even worse.
Musa Mayer has worn a breast prosthesis for 21 years since her mastectomy and is used to the alarms it sets off at airport security. But nothing prepared her for the “invasive and embarrassing” experience of being patted down, poked and examined recently while passing through airport security at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. “I asked the supervisor if she realized that there are 3 million women who have had breast cancer in the U.S., many of whom wear breast prostheses. Will each of us now have to undergo this humiliating, time-consuming routine every time we pass through one of these new body scanners?” she said in an e-mail to msnbc.com.
They recount several similar anecdotes. Charlotte’s WBTV (“Cancer surviving flight attendant forced to remove prosthetic breast during pat-down“) notes that Bossi’s experience took place in August. They also point to yet another story about children being groped.
Melissa McEwan expresses the fear and outrage many Americans feel over these incidents:
You know, my father is currently in remission from a type of skin cancer with a genetic link. If I go through a back-scatter X-ray, could it trigger that gene in me? Maybe. So my options are: Risk increasing my chances of cancer, or risk having my PTSD triggered in public and having a panic attack just as I’m about to get on a flight.
Yeah. I’m so not flying anywhere for the foreseeable future.
I suppose al Qaeda could start implanting explosives in prosthetics. Or in 6-year-olds. But this is a whole lot of humiliation and loss of liberty to protect against a theoretical and small threat.
Gay conservatives and tea party join forces
Tonight’s story, from Ben and me:
A gay conservative group and some Tea Party leaders are campaigning to keep social issues off the Republican agenda.
In a letter to be released Monday, the group GOProud and leaders from groups like the Tea Party Patriots and the New American Patriots, will urge Republicans in the House and Senate to keep their focus on shrinking the government.
[…] As of Sunday evening, the letter had 17 signatories. They include tea party organizers, conservative activists and media personalities from across the country, including radio host Tammy Bruce, bloggers Bruce Carroll, Dan Blatt and Doug Welch, and various local coordinators for the Tea Party Patriots and other tea party groups.
"When they were out in the Boston Harbor, they weren’t arguing about who was gay or who was having an abortion," said Ralph King, a letter signatory who is a Tea Party Patriots national leadership council member, as well as an Ohio co-coordinator.
King said he signed onto the letter because GOProud seemed to be genuine in pushing for fiscal conservatism and limited government.
"Am I going to be the best man at a same sex-marriage wedding? That’s not something I necessarily believe in," said King. "I look at myself as pretty socially conservative. But that’s not what we push through the Tea Party Patriots."
ISAF and Afghan forces capture al Qaeda-linked Taliban commander in west
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Map of Afghanistan’s provinces. Click map to view larger image. |
Coalition and Afghan forces captured a Taliban commander in western Afghanistan who helps “foreign fighters” enter the country from Iran.
The Taliban commander, who was not named, was captured during a raid in the Bakwah district on Sunday. “Intelligence tips helped the security force track the facilitator,” the International Security Assistance Force stated in a press release.
The Taliban commander was described by ISAF as a “foreign fighter facilitator and improvised explosive device expert operating in Farah province.” ISAF uses the term “foreign fighters” to describe al Qaeda operatives and members of allied terror groups operating in Afghanistan.
Farah province is a known haven for al Qaeda and allied terror groups, and is a main transit point for foreign fighters and Iranian aid flowing into Afghanistan. The presence of al Qaeda cells has been detected in the districts of Bakwah, Balu Barak, Gulistan, and Pusht-e Rod; or four of Farah’s 11 districts, according to an investigation by The Long War Journal.
ISAF has reported on six raids in Farah against al Qaeda-linked cells this year. An Aug. 5 raid in Pusht-e Rod killed Sabayar Saheb, another “Taliban logistics and foreign fighter facilitator.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – Qods Force has tasked the Ansar Corps with aiding the Taliban and other terror groups in Afghanistan. Based in Mashad in northeastern Iran, the Ansar Corps operates much like the Ramazan Corps, which supports and directs Shia terror groups in Iraq. [See LWJ report, Iran’s Ramazan Corps and the ratlines into Iraq.]
On Aug. 6, 2010, General Hossein Musavi, the commander of the Ansar Corps, was one of two Qods Force commanders added to the US Treasury’s list of specially designated global terrorists for directly providing support to the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda is known to facilitate travel for its operatives moving into Afghanistan from Mashad. Al Qaeda additionally uses the eastern cities of Tayyebat and Zahedan to move its operatives into Afghanistan. [See LWJ report, Return to Jihad.]
Background on Iran’s covert support for the Taliban
For years, ISAF has stated that Taliban fighters have conducted training inside Iran, with the aid of the Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. As recently as May 30, 2010, former ISAF commander General Stanley McChrystal said that Iran is training Taliban fighters and providing them with weapons.
“The training that we have seen occurs inside Iran with fighters moving inside Iran,” McChrystal said at a press conference. “The weapons that we have received come from Iran into Afghanistan.”
In March of 2010, General David Petraeus, then the CENTCOM commander and now the ISAF commander, discussed al Qaeda’s presence in Iran in written testimony delivered to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Al Qaeda “continues to use Iran as a key facilitation hub, where facilitators connect al Qaeda’s senior leadership to regional affiliates,” Petraeus explained. “And although Iranian authorities do periodically disrupt this network by detaining select al Qaeda facilitators and operational planners, Tehran’s policy in this regard is often unpredictable.”
Iran has recently release several top al Qaeda leaders from protective custody, including Saif al Adel, al Qaeda’s top military commander and strategist; Sa’ad bin Laden, Osama’s son; and Sulaiman Abu Gaith, a top al Qaeda spokesman. [See LWJ report, Osama bin Laden’s spokesman freed by Iran]
In March 2010, a Taliban commander admitted that Iran has been training teams of Taliban fighters in small unit tactics. “Our religions and our histories are different, but our target is the same — we both want to kill Americans,” the commander told The Sunday Times, rebutting the common analysis that Shia Iran and Sunni al Qaeda could not cooperate due to ideological differences.
ISAF and Afghan forces have targeted several Taliban commanders with known links to Iran’s Qods Force – Ansar Corps. [See LWJ report, Taliban commander linked to Iran, al Qaeda targeted in western Afghanistan]
Special Forces Legend Finds the Man that Saved Him
It took 42 years for Colonel (ret) Henry Cook to find the man that saved his life in Viet Nam in 1968.
…”It was about ten o’clock that night,” Cook said. “We had suffered a heavy ground attack on a Special Forces headquarters.”
Henry Cook was to leave Vietnam for home the next day. But when the Viet Cong attacked, Cook grabbed his weapon and ran to the perimeter of the base…
Under heavy fire, (then Lieutenant) Cook was wounded.
…The leg was broken in five places, and the pain was excruciating. Cook couldn’t move, and he thought the ammunition he was on top of would explode. All the while, the attack from the enemy continued.
“Suddenly a hand grabbed me from the back of my collar, dragged me out of the fire, and then stood over me. And this guy started firing his weapon because we were being overrun,” Cook said…
That Soldier stayed with Cook, defending him until the next day when a medevac could be brought in for Cook.
Russian forces join ISAF in narcotics raid in eastern Afghanistan
Russian counter-narcotics police joined Coalition and Afghan forces in the first combined raid of its kind against drug labs in eastern Afghanistan.
The raid took place in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar and targeted and destroyed three heroin labs and a morphine lab. More than more than 2,000 pounds “of high quality heroin” and 344 pounds of opium was seized, according to RIA Novosti. The drugs had a street value of more than $ 250 million.
Seventy personnel from Afghanistan’s Counter-Narcotics Police, Russian’s Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN), the US’ Drug Enforcement Agency, and the International Security Assistance Force carried out early Thursday morning, according to a statement released by the US Embassy in Afghanistan. No casualties were reported during the counter-narcotics operation.
One of the drug labs that was targeted was in the district of Achin, a known location of an al Qaeda cell in eastern Afghanistan.
The raid was announced earlier today during a joint press conference held by Viktor Ivanov, the head of Russia’s Federal Anti-Narcotics Committee, and Eric Rubin, the Deputy Head of Mission for the US Embassy in Russia. The officials said the operation was planned for more than three months in advance.
Ivanov indicated that further raids with Russian police in participation are in the works.
“We have made a request to send more Federal Drug Control Service staff to investigate the situation on the ground,” Ivanov told reporters.
The counternarcotics raid took place just three days after NATO announced it was exploring ways to increase Russian assistance in Afghanistan, to “include the contribution of Russian helicopters and crews to train Afghan pilots, possible Russian assistance in training Afghan national security forces, increased co-operation on counter-narcotics and border security, and improved transit and supply routes for Nato forces,” according to a report in The Guardian.
The US has increased its focus on counter-narcotics operations in Afghanistan over the past year as a large portion of the Taliban’s funding is estimated to come through the drug trade. Of the 367 people placed on “kill or capture” list from 2009, 50 of them were top-level drug traffickers.
ISAF “had expanded authorities to go after counternarcotics targets that directly support the insurgency, the so-called narco-terrorism network nexus, where they fund or otherwise support the Taliban insurgency,” a defense US official told reporters in June 2009.
Drug smuggling has been linked to top Afghan officials, including the brothers of President Hamid Karzai.
Earlier this week, the US designated two Afghan narcotics traffickers who operate in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand as Specially Designated Global Terrorists “for providing financial and logistical support to the Taliban,” according to a statement released by the US Treasury Department. “Haji Agha Jan Alizai, who has managed one of the largest drug trafficking networks in Helmand, and Saleh Mohammad Kakar, a narcotics trafficker who has run an organized smuggling network in Kandahar and Helmand Provinces, were both designated today pursuant to Executive Order 13224.”
Also, on Oct. 24, ISAF forces killed a Taliban commander named Faruk “during an operation to interdict narcotic smuggling in Reg-e Khan Neshin district, Helmand province.”
“With the close proximity to Pakistan, and his close ties to Taliban leaders there, he was able to facilitate weapons and explosives into the area from Pakistan using narcotics as payment,” ISAF stated.
Breaking: New Wikileaks docs reveal Iraqi security forces have been torturing detainees
Oof.
Supposedly it’s the biggest leak of U.S. intel in history. Normally I’d wait to blog it until I’ve had a chance to read all the articles, but we’re talking about a dozen or more stories here; instead of waiting, follow these links to the NYT, the Guardian, and Al Jazeera, all of whom have been […]
ObamaCare forces Boeing to reduce coverage for employees
Cadillac tax.
The news yesterday from Boeing that it would cut back its health-care insurance plans and require greater employee contributions got plenty of play as an unintended consequence of ObamaCare, but that’s actually not true. This is a feature of the Democrats’ health-care overhaul plan, not a bug. And while it certainly won’t play well with […]
The Forces The Palin Cult Attracts
This is a fascinating story, reported in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman. The gist of it is that a young man who was obsessed with Sarah Palin and many other public figures made a serious threat against her. Her response was, in my view, completely appropriate and understandable, as the Frontiersman's editorial recently explained:
On Tuesday morning, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman received a tip that two local women filed for and were granted 20-day protective orders against a Pennsylvania man they said had been threatening them for a year. One of those women was Sarah Palin. The other was her friend, Kristan Cole. Palin testified the 18-year-old man, Shawn Christy, threatened to track her down at her book signings in the Lower 48, told Palin “that she better watch her back,” said he was buying a one-way ticket to Alaska and sent a gun-purchase receipt.
Christy, an obviously disturbed young man, has a record of such threats:
The U.S. Capitol Police launched an investigation because Christy made more than 20 threats against President Barack Obama, more than 40 threats against 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain and another 40 against Palin. The Secret Service did its own investigation. Agents have visited Christy’s home and spent hours talking to him on more than one occasion. They did not arrest him. They did not charge him. Neither did the FBI in Anchorage and Allentown, Pa., who also investigated.
There has been no criminal charge filed against him, after all these investigations. Christy, a home-schooled rural evangelical started out as a passionate Palinite: "He donated to her political action committee. He spent his savings buying a $ 200 ticket to an Aug. 27 Pennsylvania event where she spoke." Again, I can completely understand why Palin sought a civil restraining order, and sympathize with her. But it is also clear she understands he is a nutter (not that nutters cannot be dangerous):
Palin testified that Christy is delusional in his statements that he has had direct communication or contact with her or her daughter. “Petitioner also testified that respondent has falsly claimed to have had a sexual relationship with petitioner,” the filing stated. “Mr. Van Flein provided evidence that the secret service investigated respondent alleging that he had threatened or said he wanted to sexually assault Gov. Palin. Mr. Van Flein testified that respondent has signed letters to the petitioner ‘your magic enemy.’”
But what's remarkable is not Palin's legitimate concern but the reaction to the Frontiersman's story – remarkable enough that the newspaper itself was shocked:
The story went up on the newspaper’s website. Minutes later, dozens of Sarah Palin-related sites had linked to the story. On Monday, our website had about 4,300 hits. After the story broke Tuesday, that number climbed to 8,700. Wednesday hits spiked to 75,000 and by Thursday afternoon we’d had more than 200,000 hits, mostly from new visitors.
Even after we broke the story that Christy is not in Alaska and has never been to Alaska, threats against him continued on our website and Facebook page. Many comments were not approved because they suggested hunting Christy and killing him. Folks asked us to post a picture of the young man so “decent” people could hunt him down and kill him. And that is exactly why we won’t publish a photo that could identify him.We were shocked at the number of people from across the U.S. calling for his death and offering to pull the trigger on a .45 loaded with “liberal lead.”
This 18-year-old admits he was in the wrong and he absolutely was. But he is now under siege and in fear of his life:
Based on his public trial and suggested execution, his hometown police department has brought in patrols from neighboring towns to help protect his family.
Palin bears no direct responsibility for this, in my view, and has done nothing wrong. But this story does reveal some of the virulence and anger and violence that lies beneath what has become a political cult. And her public statements that someone like Joe McGinnis may be a sexual threat to her children or is a "freak" and her constant invocation of victimhood are not helpful in this kind of incendiary context.
This woman commands forces out there that are truly terrifying and violent. If you want to know why so much about her is still unknown, you do not understand the fear her followers and acolytes command in her native Alaska. That fear is real; and it is not without reason.
Sarah Palin – United States – Pennsylvania – Alaska – John McCain
