Update from the
Heartland
No.722
12.10.15 – 18.10.15
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
The follow-up news items:
-- On Tuesday, the Onderzoeksraad Voor Veiligheid (OVV) ["Investigation Council for Safety"; AKA Dutch
Safety Board] issued its report titled: “Crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight
MH17” dated October 2015, offering the product of their analysis of the downing
of the hapless Malaysian Airlines over Eastern Ukraine on 17.July.2014 [657, 665]. The findings are
quite conclusive. The aircraft was
shot down by a Russian-made Buk Mk-1 {SA-11} Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM)
launched from Russian (oh wait, to be politically correct, I should say rebel
separatist) held territory of Eastern Ukraine that detonated above the left,
forward fuselage outside the pilot’s windscreen, instantly killed all three
flight deck crew members, and caused an in-flight break-up of the aircraft. The OVV produced an excellent
trajectory analysis and investigation, especially given the reality that the
wreckage was spread over a 25 square mile area in an active combat zone. The OVV report Figure 50 trajectory
analysis depiction is the most demonstrative I have seen in quite some
time. While we know definitively
what destroyed the aircraft and killed everyone onboard, we will not likely
ever know who pulled the trigger or more importantly who ordered the shoot down
of a scheduled commercial aircraft cruising at altitude.
For
those who may be interested in technical details of such events, the OVV
produced an excellent animation of their trajectory analysis. See URL:
As
an ancillary but related side note, the physical evidence provided in the OVV
report serves another independent purpose – it essentially disproves the U.S.
Navy SM-2 missile strike, friendly fire hypothesis on TWA800 [102 through 661]. The SA-11 and
SM-2 missiles are roughly equivalent in capability, size, warhead and
lethality. There was no (zero,
none, nada, niente) impact
damage on the TWA800 fuselage reconstruction even remotely comparable to the
damage seen on the MH17 forward fuselage – classic high-energy penetrations
from a modern SAM warhead.
-- In an interesting (and in my opinion, inappropriate)
twist, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has file suit against the two
principle psychologists who advised the U.S. Government’s Enhanced
Interrogation Techniques (EIT) program [457,
501 541, 678]. I do not know what contractual
arrangements the two advisors had with the government, but I expect the
government to vigorously defend the two men.
“ACLU files
lawsuit against psychologists behind CIA's interrogation program – James
Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, two psychologists from Washington state, are named
as defendants in the lawsuit.
by Doug G. Ware
United Press International
Published: Oct. 13, 2015 at 5:38 PM
-- This is really rich!
“Kremlin Says Russian ‘Volunteer’ Forces Will Fight in
Syria”
by Andrew E. Kramer, Helene Cooper and Ceylan Yeginsu
New York Times
Published: OCT. 5, 2015
Putin has tried this routine more than once – Crimea,
Eastern Ukraine. Since Putin has
not suffered sufficient consequences for his aggressive conduct, I suppose he
feels this ‘volunteer’ nonsense is working for him.
Tuesday
evening, the first debate for the Democratic Party presidential candidates
occurred. There were many elements
of interest, but only one that struck a nerve for me to comment upon at this
stage of the silly season.
This
group of hopefuls appears to be unanimously against free trade agreements,
arguing that such agreements allow jobs to go outside the country. They argue that jobs should be forced
to remain in the U.S. Not only do
they demand jobs be retained here, but they also argue that entry level and/or
low skill jobs should be paid substantially more money, i.e., raise the minimum
wage. From my perspective, this is
yet one more example of a knee-jerk, populist treatment of symptoms rather than
root cause(s). The rhetoric sounds
nice, but it is wrong. Such
insular policies may play well for those citizens who rely on low skill jobs,
but they are ultimately injurious to society and the economy. We will not progress by remaining in
the past and trying to make labor even more expensive than it already is in
this Grand Republic.
Well,
now that I think of it, one more opinion, if you will allow me. I understand the urge to tax the
wealthy and more importantly to plug certain tax loopholes that allow hedge
fund and investment bankers to avoid taxes while making obscene amounts of
money gambling with other people’s money.
We do not need to tax the wealthy into poverty or even into the middle class. Yes, they should pay the Treasury more
than they do today, but we must find a reasonable balance.
If
we lump all silly season nonsense into the ball of junk, I will add one last
observation from this week’s allotment.
The joint whiners-in-chief, AKA Trump and Carson, threw a hissy-fit and
pout-fest demanding they be allowed opening and closing statements before any
further debates, and that debates must be limited to two hours, or they would
boycott the next debate event. To
my shock and horror, CNBC, who will host the next Republican Party presidential
candidates debate, bowed to their demands. I am gobsmacked
to say the least. To me, this is a
blatant effort to command attention and squeeze out the other candidates and
avoid as long as possible any discussion of substance. Three hours was not long enough to hear
all the candidates; two hours will make it virtually impossible.
Comments and contributions from Update no.721:
“No doubt there is an information war, exercised by many countries
as to what is really going on in Syria. The two major players, America
and Russia can masterfully manage the perceptions to their audiences in their
respective countries.
“I've not been following Russia's military too closely over the
years, but the launch into Syria, seems to show their military is more advanced
than I was thinking. And as you mention, Putin's directive to his
military leaders, is impressive from the standpoint they have the resolve and
capacity, to strike what they call ISIS targets. Our own information
campaign whether from in GOV or out, seems to suggest Russia is hitting the
Assad opposition, which we have helped to train and arm, versus just targeting
ISIS.
“I read somewhere yesterday while out and about, that Russia has
established a direct line to Israel's military command, as to coordinating the
airstrikes on Syria by Russia. At least this is an overture at
deconflicting, what could be a bad incident between the multiple nation-states
playing a role in Syria (France just conducted some airstrikes this past
week).
“I understand Russian and USA airplanes in Syria have gone as
close as to have visuals amongst each other, though CBS News said no
provocative acts occurred.
“Being aware I send an abundance of material out each week, I did
already send this opinion piece by Henry Kissinger in the Wall Street Journal,
yesterday, but it can easily be missed in the bulk of emails, so I am linking
you to it here:
“Some folks might suggest I don't take anything from Dr. Kissinger
too serious as to de-escalation in war, à la mode Vietnam.
“The Op-Ed you sent in your last Update by Gates & Rice, is
interesting, but they too could be accused of helping to start/maintain this
whole mess that many would suggest started with Iraq in 2003.
“The geopolitics of what we see in that region of Syria, is a
MATRIX. I assume much of religion there is also being
manipulated/presented as to further what clearly are resource wars and billion
dollar contracts to weave pipelines through various countries.
“I might refer to the classic Donald Rumsfeld message:
"There
are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known
unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But
there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't
know."
“There was an interesting debate on the BBC a couple weeks back I
tuned while coming back from LAX. The round table was an interesting and
respectful panel discussing Russia's adventures in Syria. One of the
questions raised, was whether the economic sanction imposed on Russia from The
West, may have triggered Putin's moves on the grand chessboard, into
Syria. It seemed a few "experts" did think this was the correct
logic for the domino effect.
“On the recent college shooting in Oregon, I agree that through
intelligence and laws keeping mentally ill people from acquiring/possessing
guns, that if such efforts could actually reduce violence, it might be
something many could get on-board with. We know with software and machine
learning, we can use predictive analysis, similar to what we saw in a
masterfully done movie MINORITY REPORT. Of course the begging question is how is this accomplished
without breaching the 2nd Amendment and intruding on our rights to
privacy?
“As we now see developing in Israel/Palestine, daily knife
attacks. In China we've seen mass
knife attacks that killed more than 20 people. So how do we now attack
knives and keep them out of the hands of violent or insane people?
“I'm sure you and I will agree the focus should be on the actor
and not the tool of choice. Violent repeat felons with evil ambitions,
routinely and each day, acquire guns. There are tons of laws on the books
to keep them from doing that, but it happens.
“On the Colonel Pat Lang’s Blog you have in your current Update,
interesting reading below. I might add that with Islam, I am increasingly
a believer there is no "moderate" or "conservative" but as
to the Islamists fighting for their religion on a global scale or caliphate,
there are only RABID Muslims. And we know what we must do with rabid
dogs.”
“Addendum:
“Knew I was missing something important. On the recent mass
shootings--The most important item I forget to stress is that we need to be
examining the role that psychotropics, other drugs, violent video games
(shooting simulators), lack of God in our nation, destruction of the traditions
and family structures, and social insulation/isolation due to Internet, video
games, etc.. I would say these contributing factors are much more
important than our focus on guns. The hypocrisy of the politicians who
use these tragedies to further their own selfish agendas, should also be
examined.
“If Obama & his cartel (and their handlers), wanna talk gun
control, start with Chicago.”
My response:
Thank
you so much for your continuing support and for your observations, opinions and
contributions . . . always appreciated.
Putin
and the Russians may have numerous motives for their insertion into the Syrian
situation. I’m sure those motives
are a designated Essential Element of Information for the Intelligence
Community (IC).
Finding
the balance between a citizen’s fundamental right to privacy and government’s
proper intelligence collection requirement is an illusive objective, but it
must be resolved and reconciled.
Our system of justice hangs predominately upon punishing actions rather
than intentions, largely because of our emphasis on freedom of speech and
thought, which in turn makes intelligence collection an anathema in our society. I will be so bold to say that ALL of
these mass shooters should have triggered alarms in a properly alert and aware
society. The IC has worked very
hard to find and intercede with various terrorist threats with notable but not
complete success. We need the same
focus on potentially violent, mentally ill or unstable citizens to stop these
events, or at least some of them, before they happen, and any innocent citizen
is injured or even threatened. We
are a very long way from such an intelligence system.
I
do not share your ‘no moderate Muslims’ opinion and I will leave it there. Religion alone is not the problem, but
rather the intolerance of cleric interpretations that lead to extremism. The Islamofascists want us to make it a
religious war; they want us to validate their crusades accusations (1095-1291
AD); we must resist that temptation and erroneous path. This fight is about bad men intent upon
harming and oppressing free people.
My
very best wishes to all. Take care
of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
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