Free Republic

American armored vehicles took a real beating in Iraq, even if they were never hit by enemy fire. The heat, the sand, and the constant work wears these vehicles down. So the U.S. Army has come up with a $700,000 "reset" process that refurbishes and upgrades M-1 tanks to M-1A1SA models. What the crews particularly like about these SA (Situational Awareness) models is the new Blue Force Tracker (BFT) gear, which reliably shows them where all friendly (BFT equipped) vehicles are at all times, on a map display. Then there is the new and improved thermal sights, that provide better...

After overwhelming the Hizballah stronghold of Bin Jubeil in southern Lebanon Tuesday July 25, Israeli armed ground forces and tanks are preparing to sweep forward to sanitize the town’s satellites. Israel lost two tank personnel: 1st Lieutenant Lotan Slavin, 21 from Moshav Hatzeva, and 1st Sgt Kobi Smileg, 20, from Rehovot. Hizballah is reported by IDF sources to have lost 100-120 Hizballah fighters. Israel’s immediate military mission now is to capture or subdue Bin Jubeil’s five satellite villages, where 300 Hizballah fighters are sheltering: Ain Ebel, Hannine, Deble, Yaroun and Rmaich, the latter two very close to the Lebanese-Israeli border....

By the end of June, over 90 percent of the combat operations in Iraq (raids, cordon & search, quick reaction force run, etc) involved Iraqi forces. About a third of these operations were entirely Iraqi. However, there is a team of about a dozen American advisors attached to each Iraqi battalion, so most "all-Iraqi" operations have at least a few American advisors along. While the advisors are there to give advice, they are also there to observe, and report back the progress, or lack thereof, the Iraqis are making. The army is making more progress than the paramilitary police units....

Second Israeli incursion force pulls out of Gaza Saturday – first the armored units from the northern Beit Lahiya enclave, then the troops which pushed early morning into the Sejaya outskirts of Gaza City.Saturday, July 8, Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopters clashed with Palestinians on the outskirts of Shejaya, killing 4 gunmen, while avoiding the urban area as in the Beit Lahiya operation. They withdrew a few hours later. Another IDF force pulled out of al-Atatra outside Beit Lahiya early Saturday after 48 hours of combat, leaving a small team to hunt for tunnels and bomb traps around...

One of the more interesting types of stories exchanged by Iraq veterans is how their embedded reporters get screwed by their editors. The basic problem is that reporters tend to get close to the troops they are embedded with, and the troops form a good sense of what kind of story is being written. But then, when the story appears, it often has no connection with what actually happened, other than the names of the reporter and the soldiers or marines. The troops get curious about how this can be. Reporters have learned to dread inquiring emails from the troops...

Israel masses armored strength on its Gaza border Monday as Egypt seeks to broker recovery of Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas. Sunday night, Israel decided to hold off immediate military action in Gaza for fear of harm to kidnapped Israeli soldier since promoted to Sgt. Gideon Shalit, 19, from Mitzpe Hilo, is safe. The decision was reached at a special security cabinet consultation called by prime minister Ehud Olmert to deal with the IDF response to the Hamas-led pre-dawn raid from Gaza inside Israel, in which two Israeli soldiers were killed, a third was kidnapped and 6 were injured. DEBKAfile’s...

The U.S. Army and Navy are both experiencing a backlash against the expense of running their respective air forces. For example, the navy has some 3,800 aircraft making it, all by itself, one of the top ten air forces in the world. It's an expensive operation to run, with each aircraft costing about $1.1 million a year to operate. About half of the 352,000 personnel in the navy are devoted to running naval aviation. The rising price of oil and spare parts has increased the cost of operating aircraft. The principal carrier aircraft, the F-18, costs over $5,000 an hour...

DEBKAfile reports: First Israeli ground force incursion of Gaza Strip since 2005 pullout detains two brothers, Hamas activists and scions of major Palestinian arms smuggling clanDEBKAfile identifies them as Mustafa and Osama Muamar. After detaining the pair in the southern town of Rafah, the force crossed back into Israel with its two captives. Our sources reveal that the Muamar clan is in charge of moving the Grad 122mm rockets landed into Sudan from Iran and their delivery into Hamas hands in the Gaza Strip. Osama had only just returned home from meeting Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers in Khartoum and asking...

A controversy has erupted in Germany over the links between the former Social Democratic chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Russian energy giant Gazprom. In September of last year, just ten days before Germany’s general election, Schröder met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Berlin. The two men were witnesses to a $6 billion contract signed between representatives of the Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom and the German companies E.ON and BASF to build a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea linking Germany and Russia. It has now emerged that shortly before stepping down from office, Schröder proposed that the German government...

Israeli Maj.-Gen (Res.) Yitzhak Ben-Israel, a member of the prime minister’s Kadima party, said in a state radio interview on June 22: “This is not the finest hour of Israel’s national security leadership.” Pressed to elaborate on who in particular he meant, the general mentioned prime minister Ehud Olmert and defense minister Amir Peretz. He reminded listeners that the IDF, its commanders and men, do not function in a vacuum. In Israel, after putting forward their recommendations and arguments, army chiefs must defer to the orders of elected government and bound to carry out the tasks assigned them. Therefore, since...

After a week’s silence, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert had only this to say Tuesday night, June 20, about the plunging security crisis provoked by the unending Palestinian missile offensive against Israeli civilians: “There is no way in the near future of solving the missile problem,” he said, “And we (Israel) will reach all those committing terrorism against us.” As he spoke, a failed Israeli air force strike against a Fatah missile crew in Gaza City had two ill-fated consequences: Three Palestinian children were inadvertently killed and the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, whose team escaped unharmed, announced the resumption of...

Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), was recently described by CBS News’ Leslie Stahl as “a new breed of union boss” who is “known as a street fighter and will use hardball tactics against companies.” That is generally understood by the non-union world to mean whatever it takes - no matter how unfair, untruthful or underhanded. “Dirty pool” is the SEIU’s game of choice. Which is why it should come as no surprise that the SEIU is one of the leading advocates for an illegal alien amnesty program. As a top SEIU official once told the...

September 4, 2005: Late last year, the U.S. Army began issuing the new ACH (Advanced Combat Helmet) on a wide scale. At the same time, the marines began distributing a similar "Marine Corps Lightweight Helmet", which is actually 15 percent larger than the ACH (but still smaller and lighter than the older helmet). Since then, there has been a dispute over whether or not fabric padding should be inserted between the webbing like helmet liner, which rests on the wearers skull, and the top of the helmet. The army believes the padding provides additional protection from bomb blasts. The marines...

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal expels prime minister Ismail Haniya and other elected Hamas officials from party institutions This step pulls the rug out from under any deals Egypt may succeed in mediating between elected Hamas ministers and Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas for halting internecine Palestinian warfare and a lull in attacks on Israel. Any such accords, Meshaal has ruled, are non-binding on the Hamas military wing Ezz e-Din al Qassam and the rest of the movement. DEBKAfile reports: This decision creates a deep rift within Hamas, much like the situation in Fatah, where the many armed...

India has had to scrap $154 million worth of Indian made 125mm tank shells because of production defects. The AMK-340 was built with insufficient quality control. As a result, if the shells are exposed to a lot of heat, the propellant becomes unstable. The result is that the AMK-340 shells sometimes explode in the gun, instead of just moving the projectile out the barrel at high speed. When the shells are stored in the desert (where most Indian tank units are stationed) sun for a little while, the damage is done to some of the shells. Problem is, there's no...

An Israeli officer rescues an Israeli girl minutes after an attempted abduction by armed Palestinians. She was slightly injuredThree armed Palestinians from Jenin snatched two Israeli girls waiting for a lift at Rahelim junction east of Ariel on the West Bank. One wrestled with the kidnappers, got away and sounded the alarm. An officer at the scene gave chase, whereupon the second girl was dropped off as the Palestinian car sped towards Jerusalem. Their car was quickly intercepted by Israeli security forces outside Shiloh.

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Iraqi PM is preparing major announcement Thursday night of full amnesty to all Iraqi armed groups which lay down arms This offer was agreed in Nouri al-Mailiki’s talks with US President George W. Bush in Baghdad Tuesday, June 13. Some of the smaller guerrilla groups are already committed to the deal. DEBKAfile reports from Baghdad: Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie issued his assessment of al Qaeda’s fading prospects Thursday in order to persuade more insurgent groups to come forward and take up the government’s offer. Ansar al Sunna, the largest Iraqi group federated with al Qaeda, has...

One of the most effective intelligence tools used in combat today, predictive analysis, was invented a century ago with the development of junk mail. Who knew? For decades, the statistical tools used to determine who to send junk mail to (so the sender would make a profit) were not much use to the military. Then came cheaper, and more powerful computers, and the development of data mining and analysis tools. This made a big difference, because the more data you have to work with, the easier it is to predict things. This has been known for centuries. Now, with thousand...

Iraq: Three Years Later March 20, 2006 marked the third anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq. American forces quickly toppled Saddam's regime but, three years later, the war continues – as the U.S. faces a dire terrorist enemy that seeks to prevent democracy from coming to Iraq and to impose a tyrannical Sharia state on the Iraqi people. To mark the third anniversary of this center of conflict in our war on terror, we have assembled a distinguished panel to assess: how are we doing and where are we headewd? Our guests today are: Captain Chuck Nash,...

<p>It didn’t take long for the yackers and scribblers to start pooh-poohing the significance of the elimination of Zarqawi. The MSNBC/al-Reuters headline said it all: ‘Zarqawi more myth than Man.’ And of course, the hate-America crowd was hinting that the ‘timing’ was peculiar (Bush needed a boost in the polls), as if killing Zarqawi was just a matter of giving the order, rather than a difficult operation made possible by the great performance of our Special Forces and the active cooperation of Sunni tribal leaders in the Anbar Province, plus the Jordanians, plus the various party leaders in Baghdad.</p>