Brief Morning Brief
- Al Qaeda issues warning to U.S.: stop looking for your captured troops “if you want your soldiers safety”. In other words, ’stop looking and we’ll give them back’. Interesting.
- Military cites “highly credible intelligence information” as verifying that an Al Qaeda group, the Islamic State of Iraq, does indeed have the captured U.S. soldiers.
- During the search, a half hour firefight broke out with suspected Sunni insurgents. Several insurgents were killed.
- Citing bandwidth and security issues, the Pentagon bans Youtube, Myspace, and several other video sharing websites. Given the fact that most of the Marines spent the bulk of their internet time on Myspace last time I was there, the boys are not going to be too happy. Not at all.
- Emboldened by the Democrat Party’s overall weakening of the U.S. position, Ahemdinejad issued calls for America to leave the Gulf entirely, in a fiery speech in Dubai yesterday. While the crowd cheered him, it must be noted that local media sources have indicated that his audience was mostly Iranian expats.
- The U.S. and Iran have agreed to meet, in Baghdad, to discuss stabilizing Iraq. This is the result of a long behind the scenes drama that the MSM has not been reporting on. More on that soon. In the meantime, Tony Snow speaks about the meeting.
- A bizarre report that a Pakistani soldier inexplicably stood up and shot NATO soldiers during a formal meeting this morning. One was killed and four were wounded.
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“Stop looking and we’ll give them back.”
I find that hard to believe. It seems to me like this is a ploy to keep US forces from going door to door. They’re probably sweating bullets, but I seriously doubt they would ever give our soldiers back. I can’t imagine being captured by a jihadi, I’ll be praying for our boys.
Bad news all around today, shutting down youtube and myspace may open DoD bandwidth, but it’s going to crush morale in the name of opsec. A little drastic if you ask me.
May 14th, 2007 at 9:24 amSounds like “stop looking or you will find where we’re hiding them and then we’ll have to kill them before we’re slaughtered by you.”
May 14th, 2007 at 9:38 amRe: the shooting at the NATO meeting. Seems the Afghans are blaming the Paks and vice versa. To me, it doesn’t matter. I don’t trust either one. Just bringing the war to a meeting…..
May 14th, 2007 at 9:41 amOne of the ways we communicate with our soldier is through myspace. He has NEVER and I repeat NEVER shared ANYTHING with us over the internet or telephone regarding his missions, where he’s been, what he’s done - NOTHING! The only time I know he’s been through some bad shit is when he calls home . . . I can hear it in his voice.
One of the ways I try to keep his morale up is by uploading pictures of friends and family from home to myspace so that he can feel “connected” with home. A picture’s worth a thousand words, right? It’s one of the things that helps him get through all the tragedies he faces ever day.
May 14th, 2007 at 9:42 amI’m more than a little pissed at the Pentagon’s decision to ban sites like MySpace and YouTube. Typical bureaucratic bullshit. How the fuck are the good stories, photos and videos supposed to get out? (I suppose that’s where Pat and others like him come in, but still…)
If the Pentagon wants to crush morale, they’re fucking doing a bang-up job. Are they *all* fucking idiots there?
Kinda odd that this al-Qaeda group is assuring safety as long as they stop looking for the missing troops. What is this? The “kindler, gentler” version of al-Qaeda now?
Either they’re scared of the repercussions or they’re getting close. In any case, something’s amiss. I will keep praying hard for their safety nonetheless.
May 14th, 2007 at 10:20 amChad, re this site w/o vid feeds, I get this site on my treo, using the palm based blazer software, and it has settings for ‘fast’ mode, I do not get the color backgrounds or the vid clips but get text and still pics and can post, in a perfect world is it possible to run this site stripping out the ‘multimedia’ features and have that available?
I am sure you can do anything and instantly too, also what about a reticle emoticon thingy?
Steve in NC
May 14th, 2007 at 10:50 amI for one can say that censoring our troops came as no surprise. Once the voice of truth surfaced from the troops as to what is really happening over there our MSM came under attack. Long overdue I might add. What I would like to see is for the Pentagon to put a stop to the MSM’s inaccurate, slanted, and in some cases totally fabricated reporting of the success that is really taking place in this war on terror. If they really wanted to step up to the plate they could do our troops a well deserved accurate accounting on MSM news casts of how the war is really being fought and won. Is it no surprise that those who deserve our vote of confidence most are the ones whose freedoms are put on bypass by censorship and the ones that oppose the freedom this war represents for a country that has been consumed by tyranny, hatred, and violence are free to defame the noble cause of this war on terror on a daily basis through the MSM all under the guise of “freedom of speech.” Rest assured brave warriors God will surely provide you with the means necessary to continue on your quest for the truth. God Bless You All!
May 14th, 2007 at 2:05 pmI’m thinking they are real close!!
Go get our boys, and fuck anything these fucknut juicyasswhipers say.
They wouldn’t be saying this unless the shit was already half-way down their leg.
As far as censoring our troops, I think something happened and they are doing it for good reason, the front on this war reaches to our borders and inside them in more ways than most realizel.
Fuck that Hockaloogyattheworldjihad Iranian piece of shit. I hope we do em right, our Navy alone IMO could end that problem in less than a day. A lack of resolve from weak minded activists in this Country is the only thing that piece of shit has and he knows it.
for everyone who stays informed.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:34 pmdidnt read anything in the list of banned sites about liveleak.com,good place to share vids(better than youtube,anyway)but to be able to post private stuff(like myspace)dont know of a replacement for that,could probly set up a familly websight,dont cost very much to register a web name.
May 14th, 2007 at 8:42 pmStop looking for our troops!!! I don’t think so Haji. The legal arguement of Past Practice rules on that plea thanks to your web sites showing the beheadings of defensless people.
May 15th, 2007 at 6:29 amI understand the security issues, but I have a couple buddies over there and it is a major way for them to communicate with their friends and loved ones alike. I have to say that while it is important to maintain security, it is also a moral issue. I guess we all will have to wait and see what the boys think.
Pat,
What do you think about the US having talks with Iran?
Fraser
May 15th, 2007 at 9:35 amI know many are frustrated with the new internet restrictions placed on our troops. I believe there are some legitimate security issues which everyone can understand. A second issue I heard cited had to due with the bandwidth available and the extra stress some computer activities placed on the system. My husband is a Senior NCO stationed in Ramadi and I know he and others have been complaining and fielding complaints about the internet system. It is unreliable at best. Sometimes he can send me an e-mail–sometimes it won’t go through. Sometimes we can even IM for a while–but we are always eventually disconnected.On a good day (a rare good day), we can even glimpse one another’s faces for a few minutes via a webcam. The concensus was that some extra-curricular activities were “tying” up the system ie. utube and myspace. They are trying to be fair to everyone–I know this will hamper some ways of communication that people have become accustomed to. However, EVERYONE can then be able to at least communicate with their closest friends and relatives by e-mail, personal websites, or blogs. It was a necessary step to make sure undo stress isn’t put on the system–watching videos and such is a luxury when there are husbands wanting to tell their wives they love them and sing one last song via webcam to their children before they go out on a mission—hoping that there will be another I love you and another song to sing tomorrow. Being able to post on myspace so everyone you ever knew from kindergarten on up can read about you is fine—but I think it is more important that a son can get online to read his father’s letter telling him how proud he is of him—and even though he doesn’t say it much—he loves him.
May 15th, 2007 at 9:32 pmI think it is simply a matter of security and of priorities.
I know the guys over there are looking for entertainment too—and try to download movies and videos to watch. My boys and I are constantly mailing packages to my husband and any service member we find out about that needs some TLC from home. We always include DVD’s with movies or TV shows on them. The guys can then trade them back and forth–they are a favorite care package item.
Heather, thank you for your post. I hope you don’t mind, but I copied and pasted it to another site, I felt could use a touch of good sense. Best wishes to you, your family and your Hero.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:30 pmHeather, I mean yOur Hero.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:31 pmHeather, I apologize for using your post on another site (A&E discussion board - The pentagon bans popular websites), without your permission. The moderator(s) there quickly deleted it. I truly feel your thought-provoking insights on the topic are worth posting there. I would very much like to talk to you about the possibility of re-posting it there, by you or myself. You can email me at: Best wishes, Jim
May 19th, 2007 at 1:46 pm