Anniversary: Beirut

It's been 30 years since the attack on the USMC in Beirut.

Beirut Memorial On Line

What lessons did we learn from this mission in Lebanon? Sound off below.

By: Brant

Anniversary: Beirut

Beirut Memorial On Line



Do you remember when it happened? Where were you and what do you remember? Tell us below.

By: Brant

CIA Ring in Lebanon Blown Up

Not good.

The CIA's operations in Lebanon have been badly damaged after Hezbollah identified and captured a number of U.S. spies recently, current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The intelligence debacle is particularly troubling because the CIA saw it coming.
Hezbollah's longtime leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, boasted on television in June that he had rooted out at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated the ranks of Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group closely allied with Iran. Though the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon officially denied the accusation, current and former officials concede that it happened and the damage has spread even further.
In recent months, CIA officials have secretly been scrambling to protect their remaining spies — foreign assets or agents working for the agency — before Hezbollah can find them.
To be sure, some deaths are to be expected in shadowy spy wars. It's an extremely risky business and people get killed. But the damage to the agency's spy network in Lebanon has been greater than usual, several former and current U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about security matters.

By: Brant

Anniversary: Beirut

Beirut Memorial On Line



Did you know anyone there? Share your stories below.

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

The Vice President is noting the seriousness of not ratifying the START treaty.

The Iranians are starting a series of air-defense exercises. Showing off their homemade "S300s"? Telling Israel to stay away?

Every time we hear about the Afghan handover from NATO, they're pushing the dates back, again.

There's an F22 missing from JB Richardson-Elmendorf in Alaska.

Haiti's president is asking the population to calm down after the anti-UN riots over the cholera outbreak.

The Israelis are pulling out of a disputed Lebanese border village.

Victor Bout has arrived in NY.

By: Brant

Anniversary: Beirut

Beirut Memorial On Line



By: Brant

BUB: Morning Headlines

On his border tour near Israel, Iran's Ahmadinnerjacket was cheered by local crowds who apparently don't realize that the radiation cloud from an Iranian nuke strike on Israel would drift right over them.

Those upcoming UK defence cuts aren't just worrying the Brits, but Secretary Clinton and other members of NATO, too.

And what actually goes on in North Korea on a day-to-day basis? No one has a clue, but this article shows you what the Norks tried to convince journalists was "normal".

Testimony in the hearing for the Ft Hood terrorist is entering its third day.

By: Brant

Morning Headlines: NutJob On Israeli Border, Afghan bomb attack

A bomb blast in Afghanistan has killed 3 NATO troops.

The Obama administration is implementing a waiver on military equipment being transported to China. No, don't start yelling about 15 years ago and get all "just like Clinton sold them missile technology" on us. They're allowing other nations to take specially-fitted C130s to help combat oil spills in the ocean.

In a move sure to make for itchy trigger fingers on snipers, Mahmoud Ahmadinnerjacket is going to tour the border with Israel while on his visit to Lebanon.

Finally, the Karzai government (hard to call them an "Afghan" gov't at this point, eh?) is claiming that some of the Taliban are reaching back as they try to start a peace process.

By: Brant

BUB: Israeli Happenings

This evening's BUB looks at recent news in Israel.

Did the blockade runners fire first when the Israelis raided the flotilla?

Israel's top general on Wednesday accused passengers on board a Gaza-bound aid ship of firing the first shots of a deadly confrontation which ended with the deaths of nine Turkish nationals.
Giving sworn testimony to a five-member Israeli commission of inquiry, Gabi Ashkenazi admitted the military establishment had failed to foresee the level of violence which would be directed at the navy commandos landing on the deck of the Mavi Marmara passenger ferry.
"The first shots fired on the Marmara were by the people on board and not by IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers," he told the panel, referring to the Turkish passenger ship leading a six-ship flotilla headed for the Palestinian territory.
"This is unequivocably clear," he said, pointing out that right from the outset, troops had faced live fire, with the second commando who tried to reach the deck being shot in the stomach.
"We had underestimated the intensity of the resistance we would encounter on board the ship," he said, adding that the shooting was "a by-product of (the passengers') decision to attack the soldiers."

+++

Whatever your opinions of Israeli raids into Gaza, the bottom line is this: rocket attacks are down dramatically this year.

The number of rockets and mortars launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip has dramatically reduced after Operation Cast Lead from December 2008-January 2009, during which the IDF acted to prevent Hamas and other terrorist groups from firing rockets at Israel. In 2008 and during Operation Cast Lead, 3,684 projectiles were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip. That number was reduced to 302 for the entire year of 2009 following the Gaza operation. Despite this sharp reduction, rockets from the Gaza Strip continue to be fired at Israel.

Since the beginning of 2010 until the end of July, 120 projectiles were launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip. The months with the highest incidences of rocket fire this year were March and January, with 29 and 27 rockets and mortars launched at Israel, respectively. The IDF holds the Hamas terrorist organization, as the governing body of the Gaza Strip, solely responsible for these and future rocket attacks emanating from the region and will continue to act in self-defense to prevent future rocket attacks from being carried out.

+++

Was Israel lining up a counterattack into Lebanon following the tree-cutting incident?

French sources told Asharq Alawsat newspaper that the Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in a telephone conversation after the deadly clash in southern Lebanon, that Israel was "intending to carry out a major military operation to discipline the Lebanese army and to "retaliate for the killing of a senior Israeli officer."
According to these sources, these contacts were made at the highest levels, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
According to the sources in Paris, the fact that Hizbullah was not part of the confrontation prevented new war. The sources in France told the newspaper that Israel "has no interest in launching war against the Lebanese army" because its is the only side that can "solve the problem of southern Lebanon and impose the state authority in this area."

By: Brant

US To Withhold Aid from Lebanon?

Fearing that Lebanese 'security' forces may be harboring Hezbollah fighters in their ranks Congress may be holding up some aid money to Lebanon.

The US Congress should block roughly 100 million dollars in aid to Lebanon's military until it can be sure the country's armed forces are not working with Hezbollah, a top lawmaker said Monday.

Pointing to last week's deadly clash between Israeli and Lebanese troops along the countries' shared border, Representative Eric Cantor warned the lines between the Shiite movement and Lebanon's armed forces had become "blurred."

"The days of ignoring the LAF's (Lebanese Armed Forces') provocations against Israel and protection of Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon are over," said Cantor, the number two Republican in the House of Representatives.

"Lebanon cannot have it both ways. If it wants to align itself with Hezbollah against the forces of democracy, stability and moderation, there will be consequences," said Cantor, a fierce defender of Israel.

By: Brant

So Yeah, Apparently Lebanon Was At Fault After All

Looks like the disputed tree that caused yesterday's Israel-Lebanon shootout was actually in Israeli territory, at least, according to the UN.

U.N. peacekeepers said Wednesday a cypress tree an Israeli soldier was cutting down just before a border clash with Lebanese soldiers erupted was in Israeli territory, contradicting Lebanese claims that their frontier was breached.
The clash Tuesday left a senior Israeli officer, two Lebanese soldiers and a Lebanese journalist dead and was the most serious since Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah fought a brief war in 2006. It was a stark reminder of how volatile the border remains, even though both sides appeared to be trying to restore calm and prevent an escalation.
The Israeli soldier was cutting down the tree — something Israel does occasionally to improve its sight line into Lebanon — when Lebanese forces opened fire. The Lebanese army and a witness said U.N. peacekeepers intervened to ask the Israeli to stop cutting the tree, but Israel refused. UNIFIL, the peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, has not commented on that.
Both sides claimed the tree was in their territory.
Lebanon acknowledged Wednesday that the tree was south of an official, U.N.-drawn boundary known as the Blue Line separating the countries. The line was drawn in 2000 following the end of a two-decade Israeli occupation of south Lebanon that began with a war in 1982.
However Lebanese Information Minister Tarek Mitri said his country disputes the Blue Line demarcation in certain areas, including the village of Adeisseh where the clash took place, and saw Israel's act in as a clear provocation.

By: Brant

BUB: Conflict A-Go-Go

Today's morning BUB rounds up a lot of shooting from the past 24 hours. We're keeping the excerpts short to get them all in here. Go read the original articles...

We start in Pakistan, where 45 are dead in a series of riots and revenge killings triggered by a political assassination.

Gunmen killed at least 45 people in Pakistan's largest city after the assassination of a prominent lawmaker set off a cycle of revenge attacks, officials said Tuesday. Dozens of vehicles and shops were set ablaze as security forces struggled to regain control of Karachi.

+++

Israel and Lebanon(?!) have exchanged gunfire across their border.

A senior Lebanese army officer says Lebanese and Israeli troops have exchanged fire on the border and one Lebanese soldier has been lightly wounded.

The officer says Tuesday's rare clash occurred in the border town of Aadassi as Israeli troops tried to remove a tree from the Lebanese side of the border. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

+++

A bank heist in Afghanistan leaves 6 guards beheaded and a lot of coin gone missing.

Six Afghan private security guards were beheaded during a bank robbery in northern Afghanistan, police said Tuesday.

It appeared that the security guards were poisoned before they were beheaded, said Sherjan Durani, a police spokesman for Balkh province. He said someone apparently mixed a poison into the guards' food Monday night at a branch of Kabul Bank in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Durani says an unknown number of robbers beheaded the guards and took about $269,000 in U.S. and Afghan currency.

+++

Another Al Qaeda attack in Iraq, and another signature planting of the 'Al Qaeda' flag.

Suspected al-Qaida militants killed 5 Iraqi soldiers in a brazen dawn attack Tuesday at a western Baghdad checkpoint and planted the terror group's black banner before fleeing the scene, officials said.

The attackers arrived in three cars and used pistols fitted with silencers in the assault in the mainly Sunni Mansour district, police and hospital officials said. The assailants, according to the officials, then planted the al-Qaida banner on a pole next to the checkpoint.

It was the second time in a week that al-Qaida's flag has appeared at the scene of an attack. On Thursday, in Baghdad's Sunni Azamiyah district — a former al-Qaida stronghold — suspected al-Qaida militants stormed a checkpoint, killed 16 members of the security forces and briefly planted their banner nearby before fleeing.

+++

By: Brant

Charges to be Brought Against Hezbollah Members for Lebanon PM Assassination

A court with US support is expected to indict a bunch of Hezbollah's leadership over the assassination of Lebanon's PM back in '05.

The head of Hezbollah has said that some of its members will be among those charged with the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the militant Shia movement, said some of the group would be indicted by the UN-backed court within the coming months.

He has dismissed the move as part of a US and Israeli conspiracy.

Mr Hariri and 22 other people were killed in Beirut in a car bomb in 2005.

Mr Nasrallah said he had been told by current Prime Minister Saad Hariri - the son of Rafik Hariri - that those indicted would be regarded as "rogue elements" rather than representative of the group.

Speaking by video link for security reasons, he said it was part of a plan by the US and Israel to impose their will on the region.

By: Brant

Seeking Justice in Lebanon Through Courts

The Lebanese General who investigated Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination (let's admit it: by Syria) wants the court records released to show that he was improperly jailed and that the jailing was retribution for his investigation's conclusions.

A former Lebanese army general Tuesday asked an international court to release his secret case file in the 2005 assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to learn why he was jailed for nearly four years without charge.
The hearing by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is the first since Maj. Gen. Jamil al-Sayyed, the former chief of general security, and three other pro-Syrian army officers were freed from a Lebanese jail for lack of evidence in April 2009.
The hearing, the first to be attended by reporters, will revive attention to a case that has been languishing. No other suspects are in custody and prosecutors decline to say how their investigation is progressing.
The four officers were detained two months after Hariri and 22 others died in a massive truck bomb explosion in Beirut, and suspicion fell on Syria and its Lebanese allies. Hariri, a billionaire businessman credited with rebuilding Lebanon after its 15-year civil war, had been trying to limit Syria's domination of Lebanon in the months before his assassination.
Since the release, investigators have interviewed members of the Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah, possibly exploring any link to broader Middle East rivalries. Hariri, a Sunni, was close to Saudi Arabia.
Both Syria and Hezbollah have denied involvement.

By: Brant

A Syrian Wink & Nod?

Several reports are now emerging that indicate Syria may have given a wink and a nod to US forces that crossed over their border last week. There isn't a lot of clarity here, but there is some speculation that something is up. Normally these types of stories have a few tidbits, a detail or two about which one can speculate and that's that.

This raid, however, has my head spinning. The more I look, the more details seem to emerge. First, there are an increasing number of reports that indicate someone in Syria may have given a green light to the US for this raid. The Times Online reports that it was Syrian Intelligence that approved it. The Times Online article also makes it clear that the US and Syria have ongoing backchannel conversations via the Syrian Air Force.

More interesting is the insistence in all articles that the raid was "botched". There are reports of a mysterious RPG that was fired at the US helos which blew the cover on what is described as a secret raid. Yet further baffling is the fact that he raid took place in daylight. More interesting is the fact that although some seven or eight people were killed in Syria, and one or two possibly live bodies were taken back in the US copters, and no US casualties were reported - all reports are consistent that the raid was "botched".

Let me see if I have this straight: the good guys kill some bad guys, make off with some possibly live captives, sustain no known casualties...and it's a failure? Can anyone help me with this one?

Somewhere in the middle of all of this is a declaration that General Petraeus is interested in expanding talks with - and even proposing a visit to - Syria as a possible means to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran.

There are yet further suggestions that Syria has approved this raid in a quid pro quo for being allowed to conduct cross-border raids into Lebanon (as if the Syrians have ever asked permission to play in that sandbox). (See the Times Online report link above for reference to that theory).

Of course we also have the original story that the US decided to act unilaterally. Uh huh. In daylight. Eight miles into the border. OK, whatever you say...

And just as quiet as a mouse is Israel in all of this. And remember the raid took place in an area just a few miles from where Israel supposedly might or might not have blown up what might or might not have been a North Korean nuke facility...

I dunno. Like I said. All of this has my head spinning just a bit.


Abu Kamal - supposed site of the raid
More info on the raid here


View Larger Map

By: GladiusMagnus

We Remember: Beirut.

25 Years ago today, the USMC suffered their worst single-day of casualties since WWII. They were the first casualties of what we are only now recognizing as a generation-long struggle against a religiously-motivated group of fanatics intent on targeting and ultimately destroying our way of life. The DoD has a memorial site at DefenseLink

President Reagan's Address to the Nation, 27 OCT 1983

My fellow Americans:
Some 2 months ago we were shocked by the brutal massacre of 269 men, women, and children, more than 60 of them Americans, in the shooting down of a Korean airliner. Now, in these past several days, violence has erupted again, in Lebanon and Grenada.

In Lebanon, we have some 1,600 marines, part of a multinational force that's trying to help the people of Lebanon restore order and stability to that troubled land. Our marines are assigned to the south of the city of Beirut, near the only airport operating in Lebanon. Just a mile or so to the north is the Italian contingent and not far from them, the French and a company of British soldiers.

This past Sunday, at 22 minutes after 6 Beirut time, with dawn just breaking, a truck, looking like a lot of other vehicles in the city, approached the airport on a busy, main road. There was nothing in its appearance to suggest it was any different than the trucks or cars that were normally seen on and around the airport. But this one was different. At the wheel was a young man on a suicide mission.

The truck carried some 2,000 pounds of explosives, but there was no way our marine guards could know this. Their first warning that something was wrong came when the truck crashed through a series of barriers, including a chain-link fence and barbed wire entanglements. The guards opened fire, but it was too late. The truck smashed through the doors of the headquarters building in which our marines were sleeping and instantly exploded. The four-story concrete building collapsed in a pile of rubble.

More than 200 of the sleeping men were killed in that one hideous, insane attack. Many others suffered injury and are hospitalized here or in Europe.

This was not the end of the horror. At almost the same instant, another vehicle on a suicide and murder mission crashed into the headquarters of the French peacekeeping force, an eight-story building, destroying it and killing more than 50 French soldiers.

Prior to this day of horror, there had been several tragedies for our men in the multinational force. Attacks by snipers and mortar fire had taken their toll.

I called bereaved parents and/or widows of the victims to express on behalf of all of us our sorrow and sympathy. Sometimes there were questions. And now many of you are asking: Why should our young men be dying in Lebanon? Why is Lebanon important to us?

read the rest at the link

By: Brant

Israeli Defence Conference Seeks to Rectify Errors for 2006 Lebanon War

The IDF is focusing an upcoming conference on "Land Dominance" as it seeks to learn from the lessons of their ground combat in 2006 in Lebanon:

The IDF intentionally refrained from large-scale ground maneuver operations during the 2006 Lebanon War. This was one of the causes of it's poor showing, which left the scene, for the first time in it's history, without clear and visible decision, both militarily and political. As the war was examined in depth by the so-called Winograd Commission, it became clear to decision-makers, that extensive ground operations, relying on large-scale, rapid maneuver warfare remain significant elements in any future warfighting, both high-intensive and asymmetric, in which the IDF will have to defend it's nation against looming threats, both at the frontline and especially in the vulnerable rear zone.
To regain it's capability to maneuver effectively in threat infected areas, the IDF is preparing its forces to achieve 'land dominance' throughout the battle area, during high intensity as well as asymmetric warfare operations. This topic was discussed in details at the '2nd Latrun Conference for Land Warfare, organized this month by 'Yad Lashiryon', Israel's Armor Association and Memorial Center.

By: Widow 6-7