U.S. Rushes Funding for Israel’s Iron Dome

By Brendan McGarry 

The U.S. government raced to approve more funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, which has been used extensively in recent weeks to shield Israel from rockets fired from Palestinian fighters in Gaza.

The Senate on Friday voted to authorize $225 million for Israel to replenish its stockpile of Iron Dome interceptor missiles as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic group that controls Gaza, collapsed amid ongoing clashes.

The House of Representatives was expected to take similar action later in the day before both chambers of Congress adjourned for August recess.

The funding would be in addition to the $351 million already slated for the system in fiscal 2015, bringing the total to $576 million—more than three times the Pentagon’s initial request of $176 million for the technology in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Iron Dome is made by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and funded largely by the U.S.

It’s designed to defend cities from short-range rockets and artillery fired from distances as far away as 43.5 miles (70 kilometers).

Each unit contains 20 Tamir interceptors, which are fired after an EL/M-2084 radar detects a threat and a control center calculates the projected point of impact.

The technology is credited with helping to shield cities in southern Israel, including Ashdod and Ashkelon, from recent rocket barrages.

During the first 10 days alone of Israel’s ground campaign into Gaza, known as Operation Protective Edge, the system blocked about 301 rockets, or 20 percent of the total during that period, according to Israel Defense Forces.

It’s not the only high-tech hardware Israel is deploying in its latest fight against Hamas.

The IDF has for the first time deployed an unmanned ground vehicle known as the Micro Tactical Ground Robot made by Tel Aviv-based Roboteam to scour underground tunnels for Hamas-controlled weapons caches and command posts.

The U.S. Defense Department is also rushing to resupply munitions to Israel at the request of the Israeli Defense Ministry, including 120mm tank rounds and 40mm illumination rounds.

The resupply comes even as the Pentagon on Friday issued a rare rebuke to the Israeli military.

“The civilian casualties in Gaza have been too high,” Defense Department spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters at the Pentagon.

“And it’s become clear that the Israelis need to do more to live up to their very high standards...for protecting civilian life.”

Israel has come under criticism for the lopsided death toll in the conflict.

While a few dozen Israelis have reportedly died, mostly soldiers, some 1,500 Palestinians have died, mostly civilians, according to press reports.

Tensions between the two sides escalated after a teenage Palestinian boy was killed following the abduction and killings in June of three Israelis teens.

Look, I like a good pastrami on rye as much as the next guy but I have two problems with this article. First, the United States doesn't have a window or a pot at the moment. Just listen to those Republican freaks. "Where are the off sets? Where are the off sets?" Cat got your tongues?

Second, having all this defense crap just encourages Israel to be the biggest bully on the block. Why not figure out how to play nice with others, Israel? It just might cut the paranoia.

Cleveland Cop Who Killed 12-Year-Old Had 'Dismal' Handgun Performance

AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana

By Ahiza Garcia

 

December 3, 2014--The Cleveland police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice on Nov. 22 had "dismal" handgun performance during training, the news website Cleveland.com reported on Wednesday.

 

During Officer Tim Loehmann's brief tenure with the Independence Police Department, he was characterized as "distracted" and "weepy" during firearms training, according to a Nov. 29, 2012 letter obtained by Cleveland.com.

The letter was written by the police department's Deputy Chief Jim Polak.

"He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal," Polak wrote.

The letter also recommended that the department disassociate with Loehmann, who eventually became an officer with the Cleveland Division of Police, Cleveland.com reported.

"I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct the deficiencies," Polak wrote, according to the website.

The Cleveland police department was investigating Loehmann's actions in the shooting of Rice, who was playing with a toy gun when he was fatally shot, according to the news site.

The Independence Police Department released Loehmann's personnel file on Wednesday, which showed he resigned after six months, the website reported.

During his time with the IPD, Loehmann reportedly suffered from personal problems, which were outlined in his file and affected his performance.

Loehmann was reportedly hired by Cleveland police in March.

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HANDS UP!  DON'T SHOOT!

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A riot is the language of the unheard.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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C.I.A. Drones Kill Civilians in Pakistan 

By Salman Alman, Salman Masood, PirZbair Shah                    

March 17, 2011--Islabad, Pakistan—Several missiles fired from American drone aircraft on Thursday struck a meeting of local people in northwest Pakistan who had gathered with Taliban mediators to settle a dispute over a chromite mine.

The attack, a Pakistani intelligence official said, killed 26 of 32 people present, some of them Taliban fighters, but the majority elders and local people not attached to the militants.

 
The New York Times

About four missiles were reportedly fired at a market in Datta Khel.

The civilian death toll appeared to be among the worst in the scores of strikes carried out recently in Pakistan’s tribal areas by the CIA, which runs the drones.

Local residents and media reports said as many as 40 people had been killed in all, though the intelligence official disputed that.

The Pakistani military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, issued an unusual and unusually strong condemnation of the attack.

“It is highly regrettable that a jirga* of peaceful citizens, including elders of the area, was carelessly and callously targeted with complete disregard to human life,” the statement said.

*jirga is a traditional assembly of leaders that make decisions by consensus and according to the teachings of Islam

But American officials on Thursday sharply disputed Pakistan’s account of the strikes and the civilian deaths, contending that all the people killed were insurgents. 

“These people weren’t gathering for a bake sale,” an American official said. 

“They were terrorists.”

About four missiles fired from one or more drones hit the meeting, known as a jirga, of two tribes and Taliban mediators who had gathered on open ground at a market in Datta Khel, in North Waziristan, according to two residents who live nearby in Miram Shah.

The intelligence official said that of the 32 people at the meeting, 13 were Taliban fighters, 11 of whom were killed.

The rest of the dead were elders and tribesmen.

“The Taliban will never gather in such a large number in broad daylight to be targeted by the drones,” according to a resident who did not want to be identified for fear of running afoul of the militants.

“It has been a big mistake to target the jirga, as it will have severe consequences.”

Recently discovered chromite mines are common in the area.

To keep the mines running profitably, the Taliban—as the reigning authorities in the area—often settle disputes between tribes with competing claims and levy taxes on exports and the mine operators.

The drone strikes on Thursday were the second such barrage in two days in Datta Khel, and the sixth in the tribal areas in the past week, according to The Long War Journal, a Web site that monitors the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

After a pause in drone attacks from Jan. 23 to Feb. 20, the pace of attacks has picked up again this month.

Some analysts attributed the lull to the CIA’s not wanting to upset negotiations to free Raymond A. Davis, the CIA security officer who was released on Wednesday.

But American intelligence officials denied that and attributed the pause in part to poor weather.

The region is under the sway of a local warlord and Taliban commander, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who made a truce with the government as the Pakistani military pushed into South Waziristan in 2009.

But Mr. Bahadur has accepted many Taliban fighters who fled the campaign into his area, and he continues to have close ties to the Haqqani network, a militant group allied with the government and the Taliban that uses North Waziristan as its main base to launch attacks against American forces in Afghanistan.

Attacks by the American drones are immensely unpopular in Pakistan and have been a rallying point for anti-American sentiment, though in recent years they have provoked less outrage in the tribal areas, as the strikes have focused increasingly on foreign fighters loyal to Al Qaeda who have infiltrated the area, and as fewer civilians have been killed by them.

The attack on Thursday, however, threatened to turn opinion in the region against the attacks once again.

One resident said that given the large Taliban presence, average people and the militants were difficult to distinguish in the area, but that to target a jirga would lead to a backlash.

“It will create resentment among the locals,” he said, “and everyone might turn into suicide bombers.”

Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, and Pir Zubair Shah from New York.

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HANDS UP!  DON'T SHOOT!

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Boy Shot to Death By Police Officer

By Ahiza Garcia

 

December 3, 2014--The Cleveland police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice on Nov. 22 had "dismal" handgun performance during training, the news website Cleveland.com reported on Wednesday.

 

During Officer Tim Loehmann's brief tenure with the Independence Police Department, he was characterized as "distracted" and "weepy" during firearms training, according to a Nov. 29, 2012 letter obtained by Cleveland.com.

The letter was written by the police department's Deputy Chief Jim Polak.

"He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal," Polak wrote.

The letter also recommended that the department disassociate with Loehmann, who eventually became an officer with the Cleveland Division of Police, Cleveland.com reported.

"I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct the deficiencies," Polak wrote, according to the website.

The Cleveland police department was investigating Loehmann's actions in the shooting of Rice, who was playing with a toy gun when he was fatally shot, according to the news site.

The Independence Police Department released Loehmann's personnel file on Wednesday, which showed he resigned after six months, the website reported.

During his time with the IPD, Loehmann reportedly suffered from personal problems, which were outlined in his file and affected his performance.

Loehmann was reportedly hired by Cleveland police in March.

Wayne! Wayne Lapierre! Are we killing innocent people fast enough for you?

Surely you're not surprised at the bloody mess we call America. Duck and Cover!

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Everything in life is somewhere else, and
you get there in a car.

E.B. White

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