CNN misleads with info from Haiti

Watching the updates of the earthquake and the support poring in on CNN just a few ago left me with some bitter tastes. I don’t believe the REAL story is getting out.

Just recently there was a report from the hospitals on supplies that were or were not there. The reporter, although a regular ‘medical reporter routinely on the network, had very little idea about the ‘information’ what she was trying to pass along. These guys, even those sitting right there where all this is happening, have so little idea about what they are telling us; it almost makes those that may even know just a little about how all this takes place want to scream.

Whether there is a US hospital set up yet or not is not the real story. It’s about the aid being provided. Why has the US not provided a hospital yet might be the question that needs to be asked by the stateside journalist? Just what is needed and where it is needed is the question to be asked by the journalist on the ground in Haiti.

Consider that the US is currently fighting two wars and another hospital is a bit harder to get to right now than it would be otherwise. The hospitals are there, you can bet on it. Where it is to come from is the question. Is it in the Army Reserves, the Air Force Reserves, or the War Reserves? The deeper they have to go to get to it, the longer it takes; obviously.

Before I forget this; the one thing we must all remember is that in a situation like this, it is the State Department that determines who goes in and where they go in. The exception to this is those US assets that are already under the direction of the United Nations. I spent many an hour on the tarmac at Fort Bragg, North Carolina while State made up their mind on just what the mission was to be and who//what would be the exact support package. I do not mean to cast dispersions here; it’s just a fact.


The supplies available addressed in the journalist’s piece were more disinformation than real information. She showed us a blood pressure cup supply that might be a real questionable piece as it seemed to be missing the cup; this is a small no matter of concern but not as major as what is actually there doing good. The open heart surgery kit was also displayed – OK. Maybe they aren’t doing open heart surgery there right now and may never do it; but these are all planned items that sometimes are appropriate and sometimes not. They are already in the pack and distributed as ‘guessed’. Nobody ahead of times knows exactly what is needed and to get the exact requirements takes far too long. A guess is made based on history and things start moving.

Besides the requirement to feed the hungry; the new requirement that comes along with a deployment of this nature is the need to feed the supporters: the US volunteers, the army, the navy, the air force, the foreigner volunteers, the PRESS CORPS, and the dignitaries just wanting to get face time in the area. All these need to be fed and nourished in order to continue to deliver the support they were sent there to provide.

The next wave of REAL requirements will probably be the on-site fuel situation. The distribution of Haitian fuel is most likely getting low and will soon have to be augmented. Dare say, the distribution of what fuel that is there is much hindered. The best of all situations is to resupply as much as possible out of the airfield assets. These assets will be heavily slanted to jet fuel and not ground fuel. I haven’t heard anything about the stationary assets at the airfield or anything about the remaining ability from the port area. But the ability to air-tanker (US Air Force) in fuel is always a real possibility and to store this fuel above ground in collapsible tanks (US Army) is quiet an easy task; State just has to levy the requirement. Again, the limiting factor may probably be the active assets available to do so. Then you go to Reserves and National Guard assets – takes a little longer, but not much – but this is why these support elements are in this status of readiness.

The PRESS CORPS plays us all for the newsworthy aspect and tends to depress us more than inform us. This is particularly true the longer the situation lasts. In this case, CNN has done us all a disservice. Take it from one who knows.

System Failure - not an Individual Failure

President Obama today directed that ALL leads be investigated and followed up on.

Consider this: you could relate this direction somewhat to the policies that President Reagan took in the 80s that forced the then USSR to spend itself into oblivion. Al Qaeda could take the same approach with the US by following the general principles used by Reagan. Let’s assume that if I were the operations officer for al Qaeda right now; I would begin taking the following actions. First, I would start leaking names, plots, actions, etc. to the filters of US intelligence agencies as fast as I could. Second, I would insure believability in these plots//actions by following through on just enough to lend credence to the overall. They obviously have the martyr wantabe-ers to do whatever it takes to blow up a plane, ship, embassy or other like asset whenever they want.

Where will this lead us in the future? Think of the $$s and the personnel commitment that this will take. Wait, I’m not saying that we do nothing – no way. We or any other country do not have the funds or the trained personnel to undertake an ‘ALL’ situation. There are literally thousands of flights coming into and going out of the US every day; yes, every day. Do we put an air marshal on every one? Where will we get them? Don’t even go near the port issue; we just sweep that one under the rug continually. At what cost to the local, state and wherever law enforcement agencies will this have? There has to be more thought put into this than the ‘ALL’ approach – just maybe this was just puff talk.

Additionally consider the volume of personnel increases that it will take for the Intelligence agencies to start analyzing the glut of information they get now and might have to begin looking at in the future under an ‘ALL’ approach to intelligence analysis. This is tantamount to a complete reversal of yesterday’s advancement program to graduate more engineers and scientist. This program would have to be scraped immediately and analysis agents start being trained both in the nation’s colleges and on the job.

I don’t think these guys have any real idea concerning the glut of information that is out there to be analyzed.

I don’t have the answers but I know a bad direction when I hear it!

New Truck Rider Safety Procedures Initiated

Due to the recent situations regarding rider security, I am forced to initiate several new rider safety procedures. These procedures will be placed into effect immediately. Passengers not complying with the rules will forfeit their rider-ship privileges immediately, Senior Truck Deputy Fife will consult with you and if found to be in non-compliance, deposited on the side of the road as soon as the situation allows.

I have gone to the trouble to consult with those guys at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Jethro Bodine. Each of the consultants has approved these new procedures as probably just as good an idea as I might have.

If I can not either read or pronounce at least one of your names on my first try, you can not ride in my truck.

If your first name sounds like your last name, you can not ride in my truck.

If your hat doesn’t meet gimme-cap standards, you can not ride in my truck.

If you are dressed in the same bed sheets that you slept in last night, you can not ride in my truck.

If you desire to wash your face during a scheduled trip; wash water (only at scheduled rest stops) will be provided from the bag truck management maintains hanging from the front bumper.

Every individual entering into the truck will be fully searched to any degree the driver sees fit to accomplish prior to entering my truck; no exceptions. I bought a new four cell flashlight, equipped with one of those nifty blue lenses for this purpose. Additionally, a big jug of bleach has been procured that will be used to test for any unsafe chemicals and stuff like that.

You are authorized a single carry on and it must fit where I put it or it will be left behind; no exceptions.

All luggage is subject to whatever inspection I deem fit to undertake; no exceptions.

You can look out the window on your side of my truck, but only once every fifteen minutes and not at all during the last hour of any scheduled trip.

You will remain in your seat at all times. There will no longer be free access to other areas of the passenger compartment.

Bathroom (or potty breaks, if you like) will be taken on a schedule established with in the first fifteen minutes of any scheduled trips. Passengers will not be allowed unscheduled bathroom breaks; twelve ounce Coke bottles will be provided upon request.

Galley operations or scheduled food breaks will be coordinated with the driver prior to departure.

There probably will not be any peanuts consumed during any trip in my truck.

Other rules, procedures and good ideas are still in the planning stage and will be implemented as soon as I think of them.

Where and what’s next?

First it was New York, DC and thousands. Now it has come to Detroit and three hundred. Where will it be next and how many targeted?

Here’s my view for whatever that’s worth.

I believe we have effectively cut the leadership of al Qaeda off from its followers. There have gone underground in Pakistan and can no longer show their head to be very effectual. This has lead to a lack of direction at the top of the individual cells causing planning to be accomplished at a much lower scale. This may be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on where your observation point is.

The conclusion that I draw from this and recent activity is that the individual cells of al Qaeda are freely planning and are now attempting their own plots. However these plots will be on a much smaller scale and could quite possibly take place anywhere. These guys in Yemen and Somalia are desperate to show their stuff and retaliate against the oppression they see as their enemy. They don’t play well with others and want to be King of the Hill and will stop at nothing to get to the top.

These guys in Yemen and Somali are up to the same old tasks as their former leadership: recruiting, training, funding and planning. Are we gonna wait like we did with the Afghanistan cadre and then realize that it’s now too late to close the barn door? We’ve all got to get smarter!

They think smaller and are satisfied with smaller scale destruction and carnage as their goals and achievements. They are willing to kill only hundreds, instead of thousands, to get their message out that they are now the ballgame. They are working through individuals instead of teams like the former leadership.

We need to be on the lookout for the guy and no longer the guys. They will come at us one at a time, just maybe never again in groups.

How do we as a people prepare for this wave of attacks? The answer is more than likely just like the passengers on the aircraft headed into Detroit did – on our own. Big brother can not be everywhere. I am not calling for the arming of America and the rest of the free world. But, it probably gonna be up to us and us alone. Big brother will fight the big ones and we must fight the little ones. We just might loose a few here and there; but together we can win the majority of them.

Umar Farouk Abdulmattalab #2

I don’t know what happened, but I owe everybody an apology. During the copy and paste to the blog site, I must have not paid strict attention and didn’t copy the entire entry over prior to posting to the blog. I’m sorry for the oversight.

H

Where do these guys get their names? What is an Umar Farouk Abdulmattalab and how could an Umar Farouk Abdulmattalab possibly come up with the cash required to fly back and forth across the Atlantic time and time again? It boggles my mind.

I think it is time to enact a law that prohibits anyone with a silly, stupid or un-pronounceable name from purchasing a ticket, airline or other, to enter the United States without first posting a Million Dollar tariff. This tariff would require transfer prior to the boarding of the transportation asset in question.

This alone would stop the kind of actions that happened this past week and provide for the transfer of dollars from those oil rich nations back into our offers. I further propose that the funds sit in an account managed by an institution such as the First National Bank of Bryan, Texas or it’s branch office over in Snook until such time as it gains a sufficient level of funds so as to make it possible to distribute those funds via check to each and every citizen of the United States.

If Nasir al-Wuhayshi and his cousins, Said ai-Shihri or Anwar al-Awlaki, want to find money lenders willing to finance the tariff requirement, I say let them come on down. We can then be waiting on them with a room at Guantánamo or even somewhere in Illinois.

We could also do away with the two lists currently maintained, the No-Fly and the Terrorist Identity Datamart Environment (TIDE), and just maintain one list; the We-Gonna-Lock-you-Up list. Cuts down the overhead, don’t you see?

I can see him now; my brother’s cousin’s cousin’s brother’s evil twin, sitting in his cube at the Department of Homeland Security developing this plan.

I heard some reporter over the weekend state that if “the next bomber just happens to be singing//humming praise to Ala when he//she tries to set off their device; the HLS will ban that on all airways. They just don’t get it at all! My best guess is that this will prevent the Vienna Boy’s Choir from touring on anything besides a bus for the near future; just maybe they will get one over-nighter every other year. They keep punishing only those of us that play by the rules and never affect any real security with their silly rules. Wait, I have to take off my shoes to go any further.

The TIDE list I mentioned earlier reportedly holds over 550, 000 names. That makes it ineffectual from the start. The no-fly list is a manageable size. Does anybody honestly think anybody on it is going to present themselves to an airport using their own name and looking like their own self and expect to be able to get on an airplane?

I also heard someone state that there should be a marshal on these flights. That individual has not a clue how many flights there are of this nature. We haven’t the personnel or training ability to marshal every flight that comes into the US; much less those moving around inside the US. Money is not the issue or Congress would have it printed long ago.

The Obama Administration has not taken us anywhere the Bush Administration ever did. We are not any safer than we were a year ago or three years ago for that matter. We need real improvements; not some guy sitting in a cube in the basement trying to think up another way to make the line longer.

THE Administration has lost sight of its primary objectives and allowed secondary objectives, health care for one, to dominate their time. They must get back to the big four: (1) security, (2) jobs, (3) jobs and (4) jobs; though not necessarily in that order.

Afghanistan - Looking to Get Out - 28 Oct 09

Is the Obama Administration trying to find a way out of Afghanistan, a sneaky way out?

Is this the reason that a story linking President Hamid Karzai’s brother Ahmed Wali Karzai, to the C.I.A.’s payroll was leaked to the press? Not a frontal attack of President Karzai himself; but an end run using his brother.

Is this why the administration is delaying their decision “currently under review” on troop strength augmentation increases? Have they been trying to come up with a ploy and are they giving the story time to fester and allow the righteous indignation of the public to seemingly make the decision for them?

Who knows at this point? Ask yourself if this trick will work on you?

Think about it!

Activity - 07 Oct 09

I haven’t been very active here lately. This fact doesn’t in any way or fashion mean that I haven’t bee active – it just hasn’t been here.

I spent some time in Wyoming as my last post relates to since then I have been consumed keeping up with the goings on around the world. I will fess up that I have NOT been anywhere engaged in the Health Scare debate. Until such time as they really have a bill that looks like it is seriously “the Bill”; I see no real reason to follow the discussion very closely.

I have been hotly engaged in writing the story “Roomin’ with Dutch”. This has consumed much of my days. But don’t fret; it is just about complete.

I do think we have been let down by our representation in Washington and fully recommend that we get rid of them all. We should replace every one of them: lock, stock and barrel. Vote them all out. I do understand that we just might get rid of a good’n here and there; but I think the price we would incur from that is nowhere near the message that needs very desperately to be sent to the representation – we have to get serious.

I encourage everyone who reads this to continually post on twitter or anywhere you feel worthwhile the following messages. They are exactly the appropriate length and send the exact message we need to get through to all concerned.

TURN OUT EVERY Member of Congress running for election in Nov 2010. They aren’t doing the job and should go. Vote ‘em out; send the message!

or

DO NOT RE-ELECT ANY CURRENT Member of Congress running in Nov 2010. They aren’t doing the job and should go. Vote ‘em out; send the message!

Wouldn’t it be great to check twitter and find “TURN OUT” or “DO NOT RE-ELECT” to be in the top ten trending posts every day?

The two most important happenings going on today, other than our economic recovery, are the situations in Iran and Afghanistan. These two areas will drive the real news for the next year quite possibly without some huge break in the status quos.