Inside the Ring, Bill Gertz’s column in the Washington Times with a chilling bit of information (or maybe dis-information?).
International radio operators picked up large numbers of coded Air Force communications being sent around the world on June 26 that indicated some type of military activity was about to take place.
A U.S. military official said the radio traffic was monitored from the Air Force Global High Frequency System (GHFS) that some observers regarded as "extraordinary" because of the unprecedented length of messages. They were sent to Air Force commanders at Andrews Air Force Base; Wideawake Airfield on Ascension Island; Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska; Andersen Air Force Base, Guam; Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii; Lajes Field in the Azores; Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska; Salinas Air Base, Puerto Rico; Thule Air Base, Greenland; and Yokota Air Base, Japan. All are sites of GHFS ground stations.
The messages appeared to be emergency action messages, coded communications sent by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to U.S. Air Force strategic nuclear forces.
The messages sent June 26 included 174 characters, much longer than normal 30-character messages, and amateur radio monitors say they have not seen the size of this message since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Air Force Maj. Tom Knowles, a U.S. Strategic Command spokesman, said there were no large-scale exercises going on that would account for what were likely "routine" messages.
"We routinely exercise that capability to make sure of the readiness of our forces," he said.
A retired Air Force general said the strategic nuclear forces also dispatch command action messages that are part of a nuclear command system that requires force commanders to respond within two minutes.
Admittedly, belated on both counts, but we’re on vacation, and after all, this blog is in its infancy.
In Britain, security forces stopped (with help from seemingly incompetent terrorists, it would seem) a series of car bombs designed to create chaos and kill a lot of people | Coverage of thwarted plot |. Britain’s seen its share of terrorist attacks, and will undoubtedly see more, while we in the U.S. still wait for our first Islamo-terrorist car/suicide bomb attack (though some claim the Oklahoma City attack was the work of Middle Eastern terrorists).
These would-be attacks in the UK are a bit of a mystery. How could an organization with the reputation of Al-Qaida be so incompetent? How could a group that can’t seem to blow up three cars in the West possibly import, assemble and detonate a nuclear weapon, as so many people fear? Or were the people responbible for these failed attacks simply amateur freelancers following some misguided sense of mission? Either way, they need to disappear in a deep, deep hole, never to be seen again.
Whatever the case, our enemies still plot, but their weapon seems to be more PR than explosive, at least here in the U.S. and another celebration of our nation’s independence passes with little to mar the festivities.
It’s always near. Seems so, anyway. Doomsday theories have been with us since language started. It seems that the first thing a proto-human said when he first learned to speak was "we’re all going to die."
Of course he was right.
But there’s something apparently hard-wired into our genes that makes some of us think that’s going to happen right now, or tomorrow at the very latest. Makes sense, I suppose -Â Survival instinct and all. But in our modern world, where our very existence isn’t threatened every day, if not every hour, that code, so important for evolution, has gone rogue. It sends warning messages constantly, and sometimes it’s hard to ignore. It’s why some of use experience road rage and all of us at least once in our life, turns into an asshole while driving. But the longer-termed result of this is the doomsday obsession.
In the late 70s, a publication appeared, authored by Robert White, called simply The Duck Book. Mr. White, who made a lot of money resurfacing airport runways, was a conservative who saw our way of life ending, thanks to the Communist threat. He published an issue every couple months, and offered a lifetime subscription (his life, not yours) for about US$30. He admitted to having terminal cancer, and was interested in building up a nest-egg for his wife and young child. Nice come-on. Apparently, it worked. Subscription checks flowed in and White made a lot of money. The terminal cancer thing turned out to be…well…not true.
The Duck Book was compelling stuff, modern John Birch Society stuff, and was for the most part, a reflection of the American return to conservative thought at the beginning of the Reagan 80s. White was murdered in Belize after giving an investment seminar there. It’s suspected his anti-communist stance and comments got him killed.
I remember reading an article by one of his associates, about touring Europe "one last time" before the big showdown with the Soviet Union and how it was only a matter of a couple years, if not a few months when the tanks would roll. I get those exact same feelings reading a lot of the "end is coming, better hunker down" stuff on the web, whether it’s George Ure’s excellent Urban Survival, or the kooky Surfing the Apocalypse. But is it all real? Sure it is. The web bot project Ure talks a lot about has had a number of interesting "hits," and his financial and investment sense is very sharp.
But doomsday?
What these guys will tell you (which your editor agrees with, by the way) is that the best kind of preparation is that which is never needed. As a computer geek from way back (my first website went up in 1994), I understand the power and limitations of our computer systems, and I was concerned about Y2K. I stocked up on basics, and brought in a lot of bottled water. I couldn’t have been happier to "liquidate" (sorry) that stock a year or two after bringing it in, because the peace of mind it bought me was more important than the money and effort involved. That didn’t stop extended family (who, by the way would have survived because of that water, had it been needed) from scoffing that they knew it was unnecessary. Wow, really? They KNEW it wouldn’t be needed? No experience whatsovever with data processing, as opposed to my 19 years of it (at that point)? They KNEW nothing would happen?
That’s why I’m not so quick to scoff. Take it all in, process it and prepare for what you can, in my mind is always a good choice.
So what’s the problem? Well, I’m all for warnings. Hell, that’s partly what this blog’s all about. It just bears thinking about balance when you’re looking for views of the future. Always focusing on the dark dangers can keep you from seeing the hope and optimistic attitudes that many have. We’re drawn these days to the distopian, rather than utopian outlook. The original Star Trek (and The Next Generation for that matter) were far more hopeful and light-filled than Battlestar Galactica, not that BSG isn’t a fantastic bit of sci-fi which I dearly love.
These clowns are really good at blowing up trucks, but they steer clear of pitched battles with gunn’d up grunts anymore. They make the nightly news real messy, which is rather more effective than overrunning a FOB anyway. But what they do best is stick it to each other, loot the treasury and generally fuck up anything worthwhile that they touch. That’s why they’re known derisively in these parts as "The Mexicans of the Middle East" (which chaps their ass to no end). There are a handful of exceptions, but they’re few and far between.
Who Is Dave Gaubatz and Why is That So Important? That’s the question Whitley Streiber asks and himself answers in an intriguing blog post.
The scenario spelled out here is frightening, but plausible. It’s completely within the realm of possibility that Islamic terrorist regimes would use the kind of blackmail outlined in the post.
Well, it ended peacefully, with the British captives back home, signing book, television and (I’m sure) movie deals. And it’s quiet.
Too quiet?
The silence could mean one of two things. 1 – That the Iranians see it all as victory in which they did a naughty in front of the former colonial power, and then rubbed their noses in it.
Or 2 – That they made a huge mistake, and got involved in something they didn’t really understand or could control Who does THAT sound like?
I tend to believe the latter is the true nature of things. I think the current Iranian silence, broken by the announcement (which many western experts think is hogwash) that they are refining uranium at industrial levels. The world watched the whole hostage drama unfold with a collective expression similar to when one smells something bad or when the boss gets so enormously hammered at the office Christmas party that he starts really making a fool of himself. I really don’t see any way the Iranians won. When the British sailors and marines returned to the UK, they had stories of solitary confinement, rough interrogations and even the hint of mock executions. Their refutation of the charges were the diplomatic version of "did NOT."
And then the silence.
A big and still powerful nation like the United Kingdom won’t quickly forget the humiliation the Iranians tried to inflict on them. The Americans, with ties of heritage and an attitude toward the Iranians that is confirmed by something like this, will be more than ready to participate in payback.
I think it was a stupid, stupid error in judgement on the part of the Iranians to do this thing.
They have illegally captured 15 Brits. Iran continues to demonstrate that it is a rogue state. With the exception of wanting nuclear weapons, they insist on living a male-dominated and female-subjugated medieval lifestyle.
I can hear the drums of war, or at least the words of a good, but militant friend of mine: "Why not grant their wish and give them nuclear weapons? How about 8 of them, with airbursts over each of their cities of one million or more people? Heck, maybe 2 over Tehran. But not such big ones that anyone dies. Airbursts at the edge of space that just fry every bit of late 20th and 21st century electronics they have. The oil won’t be contaminated. No people will be hurt. They will simply be removed from the modern world. Isn’t that what their government wants?"
At this emotional point of the whole ordeal, it’s hard to argue with that.
And if the people in that country decide to string these fanatical old men who run Iran up, the western world will be happy to trade oil for the rebuilding of their country in such a way that it will be able to live peacefully with the rest of the world.
We tend to think of nukes as only good for blowing things up and spreading radioactive fallout (the dust stirred up by the explosion and dosed with radiation). The small airbursts that create an electromagnetic pulse that renders solid state circuits mostly inert don’t stir up fallout, and the radiation is mostly dispersed harmlessly.
Don’t be surprised if the Jericho episode "9:02" becomes another example of life imitating art.
We’re so worried about terrorists sneaking nukes into this country, then somehow arming, deploying and triggering them. All it takes for the U.S. Navy to deliver 8 warheads high over the biggest 8 cities in Iran is a phone call from the President to the Commander of one of the task forces on station in the area, or to a single B2 Stealth Bomber.
The Iranians need to think long and hard about that. They are struggling to develop the technology to build a nuclear weapon. We already have thousands, and not only know how to use them, our government HAS used them when it was important to do so to save lives.
I hope cooler heads prevail. I hope the Iranians wake up and realize they’re opening not a can of worms, but a can of whoop-ass with themselves as the "whoop-ee." Despite their rhetoric, they are out of their league on this one.
But, I don’t think cooler heads WILL prevail. For all we’ve been through, here we are almost 30 years later, and the Iranians are taking hostages again. I don’t think the game will go 444 days this time.
If you spend any time watching adventure drama television, you will have noticed a trend this season in man-made disaster television, and it’s getting noticed on some of the alternative/conspiracy boards. Both Jericho, a CBS series and 24, the successful Fox Network spy/terror thriller have detonated nuclear weapons this season, with horrific consequences.
Jericho is the story of how multiple nuclear detonations affect the residents of a small, remote town in Kansas. 24 so far this season examines how to stop an Arab terrorist who has already set off one bomb and has several more.
It seems like every year, we’re hammered with more and more jaw-dropping events depicted on television, which has the effect of desensitizing us and making it harder to shock viewers. I often wonder how that affects viewers outside the suspended disbelief in their real life. Watching Jericho, do they make it a point to keep more bottled water and first aid supplies on hand? After last week’s episode, where it’s revealed that in societies where survival isn’t assumed and guaranteed, salt is a valuable commodity, did local Safeways and Wal-Marts experience higher than normal sales volume in the stuff? My guess is no, but those courses wouldn’t be the dumbest to follow.
The interesting thing about both shows is that they both appear to be suggesting the events that form the center of the stories may well be “false flag” operations, in which our government are really behind them, but blame is put on terrorists. That’s a meme that’s growing every year on the alt-news sites, and one that bears watching.
Admittedly, belated on both counts, but we’re on vacation, and after all, this blog is in its infancy.
They have illegally captured 15 Brits. Iran continues to demonstrate that it is a rogue state. With the exception of wanting nuclear weapons, they insist on living a male-dominated and female-subjugated medieval lifestyle.