Free Republic

Former famed CIA director David Petraeus apologized last week for his blackmail-able extramarital affair with sycophant author Paula Broadwell that “caused such pain for [his] family, friends and supporters,” during an event honoring the military at the University of Southern California. While it must have been devastating for his wife Holly of 37 years to have to go to the family doctor to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases thanks to her husband’s infidelity and lies—something all spouses and partners need to do under such circumstances, that is between them. The truth is Petraeus is getting off easy. Sex has...

A joint expedition of scientists led by Chapurukha M. Kusimba of The Field Museum and Sloan R. Williams of the University of Illinois at Chicago has unearthed a 600-year-old Chinese coin on the Kenyan island of Manda that shows trade existed between China and east Africa decades before European explorers set sail and changed the map of the world. The coin, a small disk of copper and silver with a square hole in the center so it could be worn on a belt, is called "Yongle Tongbao" and was issued by Emperor Yongle who reigned from 1403-1425AD during the Ming...

An incredibly rare Roman coin discovered in Acle has been donated to Norwich Castle Museum. The coin -- only the second of its kind known in the world -- was unearthed by Dave Clarke during the Springfield archaeology dig last summer. Acle Parish Council has sent the ancient artefact to Norwich where it may go on display and will be used by experts to identify and date other coins. The coin dates from AD 312 when Emperor Constantine I ruled the Roman world. The only other example was found in the 18th Century and is on show in Lisbon. One...

RICHMOND, Va. A humble 5-cent coin with a storied past is headed to auction and bidding is expected to top $2 million a century after it was mysteriously minted. The 1913 Liberty Head nickel is one of only five known to exist, but it's the coin's back story that adds to its cachet: It was surreptitiously and illegally cast, discovered in a car wreck that killed its owner, declared a fake, forgotten in a closet for decades and then found to be the real deal. It all adds up to an expected sale of $2.5 million or more when it...

At long last, a stupid, as well as illegal idea dies on the vine. Bloomberg reports

If Barack Obama can "solve" the debt ceiling crisis by printing up some trillion dollar coins, then why does the federal government need our money? As another debt ceiling showdown approaches, many in the liberal media are suggesting that if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling that Obama should just have the U.S. Treasury create a trillion dollar platinum coin and use it to pay our bills. It sounds crazy, but many notable voices (including Paul Krugman of the New York Times) are supporting this idea. But if the federal government has had the power to create trillion...

What if the threat of a voluntary default by the United States could be erased by simply turning one tiny scrap of platinum into a coin? That's right. No debt ceiling problem. No bickering in Congress. No market jitters. The only thing needed is for the Treasury Department to mint a platinum coin with a face value of $1 trillion. Of course, this is not going to happen. Creating money out of thin air is hardly a solution. It could lead to even more concerns from those worried about inflation. Critics of the Federal Reserve's monetary easing programs would likely...

Welcome to Zimbabwe.  This is not a parody -- it is an actual report from the Washington Post:   Some economists and legal scholars have suggested that the “platinum coin option� is one way to defuse a crisis if Congress can’t or won’t lift the debt ceiling soon. At least in theory. The U.S. government is, after all, facing a real problem. The Treasury Department will hit its $16.4 trillion borrowing limit by next February at the latest. Unless Congress reaches an agreement to raise that borrowing limit, the government will no longer be able to borrow enough money...

This post is written in anger and frustration. Angry that we continue to follow the Republican Party’s elite ignorance. A party that continues to pull defeat from the jaws of victory characterized by pompous fools who fulfill the sterotype built by the left. Frustrated that the reality of politics is this: There will be no third party capable of competing with the coalition constructed by the dems. As a result, true conservatives MUST take steps to irradicate the ignorance of the Republican Party while still adhering to the core values of our forefathers (beliefs that I discovered are considered extreme...

The letter from Colonel Harry Tunnell is making its rounds around the internet, but here are some choice and relevant excerpts. But first a shot bio of Tunnell. Tunnell had been gravely wounded in Iraq, where he led a battalion of paratroopers with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. (snip) SNIPBy the time Tunnell took over the brigade, every other infantry commander preparing to go to Iraq or Afghanistan was using Gen. Petraeus’ COIN manual as his lodestar. But not Tunnell. He told his soldiers that their approach to security operations would be drawn from an Army manual that outlined counterguerrilla operations,...

A $3 cold coin is expected to fetch $4 million when it goes up for auction next month. The 1870-S is one of just two ever made and is one of the rarest coins in US history. It was discovered in a San Francisco bookshop in 1997 by a European tourist, who found it glued to the inside pages of a souvenir book.

The Royal Canadian Mint just can't sit still. Like a hyperactive kid, it has revamped Canadian cash, first introducing plastic bills and then killing the penny. Now it wants people to play with glow-in-the-dark quarters. The mint's latest collectible coin features a dinosaur whose skeleton shines at night from beneath its scaly hide. It's actually two images on one face, which could be a world's first. The other side depicts Queen Elizabeth. Her Majesty does not glow in the dark. Made of cupronickel, the coin has a face value of 25 cents but is much larger than a regular Canuck...

Vice President Biden announced Tuesday that the U.S. Mint would discontinue production of presidential dollar coins. Stopping production of the coins is part of the Obama administration’s Campaign to Cut Waste. Biden’s announcement came at a Cabinet meeting focused on that campaign.

As Defense Secretary Leon Panetta prepares his recommendations for Pentagon budget cuts, he is likely to reduce the military's resources for future, large-scale counterinsurgency operations of the sort that were ballyhooed just a few years ago in Iraq and Afghanistan. The boom in "COIN," as these operations are known, has proved to be something of a bubble. Budget pressures have curbed the appetite for the ambitious, "protect-the-population" missions that were promoted with such enthusiasm by Gen. David Petraeus and Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The focus increasingly is on raids by the tighter, more kinetic Special Operations Forces, which are seen as...

Small Weapons for Light Fighters In the recent weapon test campaign AT-6 completed firing of 2.75” unguided rockets, conducted captive carry test with guided 2.75" rockets and dropped general purpose bombs, four GBU-12, and four GBU-58 laser guided bombs (LGB - above), all LGBs scored direct hits. Additional tests are planned with other weapon types including Raytheon Griffin 35-lb. GPS/laser-guided bomb and Hellfire guided missile from Lockheed martin.. Under the U.S. Air National Guard evaluation of a future Light Attack and Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) to be operated by the U.S. and Afghan air forces, the Air Force is seeking a...

South Africa's AHRLAC draws numerous potential buyers Craig Hoyle London 05:01 27 Sep 2011 South Africa's newly unveiled advanced high-performance reconnaissance light aircraft (AHRLAC) design has already attracted significant market interest, according to its main industrial backer. Paramount Group executive chairman Ivor Ichikowitz told Flightglobal that negotiations are already underway with several air forces in Africa, eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, with further interest also coming from other European nations. "The real interest is from the developed, first-world markets," he said. Early demand is being placed mostly on the proposed high-end, armed version of the aircraft, but...

South African arms company unveils first African-made military plane By: Gillian Gotora, The Associated Press PRETORIA, South Africa - The first military aircraft designed and built by African companies was unveiled Tuesday by a South African arms company which said it had already received orders for the lightweight plane. Ivor Ichikowitz, head of Johannesburg-based arms maker Paramount Group, called the plane a breakthrough, but experts said its simple design was similar to planes produced by other countries, and said it will have tough competition. Ichikowitz said the AHRLAC plane can be used for peacekeeping missions and reconnaissance and is armed...

Despite the headline, the US Government is not giving out frequent flyer miles to anyone with good credit. At least, not directly. The background: The United States government recently minted about $1 billion in gold coins. Each coin is worth a dollar, much like the well-known Sacagawea coin, and each one is printed with a different president. It was supposed to be part of a series of coins that would eventually feature every single president, but they’re only partway through the list. Unfortunately, they have been having trouble getting them into circulation, because no one really wants $1 coins all...

Politicians in Washington hardly let a few minutes go by without mentioning how broke the government is. So, it's a little surprising that they've created a stash of more than $1 billion that almost no one wants. Unused dollar coins have been quietly piling up in Federal Reserve vaults in breathtaking numbers, thanks to a government program that has required their production since 2007. And even though the neglected mountain of money recently grew past the $1 billion mark, the U.S. Mint will keep making more and more of the coins under a congressional mandate. The pile of idle...

In a better time, when the burdens of war were shared by an engaged nation and not shouldered exclusively by military families making up less than 1 percent of the population, the high farce that is the Afghanistan mission would have been obvious before President Obama uttered one word on Wednesday night. All you’d need to know is the story that came to light the day before. Turns out that the U.S. government has embraced a core tenet of sharia — that archaic corpus of Islamic law that Mitt Romney recently assured us would never gain traction in America. Patrick...

AT-6 Seen As Versatile Combat Aircraft By David Fulghum Washington The turboprop-powered T-6 Texan II began life as a trainer and then morphed into the AT-6 light attack aircraft for the Greek air force. Now, as the AT-6B/C, it is promising to become an inexpensive path to network-centric operations, precision strike and advanced surveillance for other air forces. Nor is there a foreseeable end to the development potential envisioned for the two-seater. It offers 1,600 shp, 5-6-hr. endurance and an A-10C cockpit—a combination that’s being created by the team of Hawker Beechcraft and Lockheed Martin. As for what a light...

Finders fail to become keepers as £100,000 worth of American money is returned to the family of its original owner The glass jar contained 80 American coins dating from 1854. Photograph: Hackney CouncilA hoard of gold coins found in Hackney by a local resident in 2007 does not qualify as treasure and should be returned to the descendent of the man who originally buried them, ruled an inquest last week (Monday 18 April).In 2007, Hackney resident Terence Castle was digging a frog pond with three others in a back garden in Stamford Hill when they struck suddenly struck gold, discovering...

U.S. Wants COIN Aircraft For Foreign Training By Graham Warwick, Bill Sweetman Washington, Washington For a time it looked as if the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan might spark demand for dedicated counterinsurgency (COIN) aircraft, the way Vietnam gave new life to the A-1 Skyraider and spurred development of the OV-10 Bronco. A little more than two years ago, the U.S. Air Force envisioned operating a fleet of 100 light-attack/armed reconnaissance aircraft as part of a specialized irregular-warfare wing, and the Navy was evaluating an organic light-attack platform for its special operations forces. Now it looks unlikely that U.S. forces...

Fifty thousand Roman coins found in a field in Somerset, England, in 2010 (including the artifacts above) amount to the largest hoard of coins discovered in a single vessel—and the second largest hoard of ancient coins ever found in Britain, according to British Museum experts. The coins, along with recently discovered Iron Age gold jewelry—both found by amateur treasure hunters—will be acquired by museums, thanks to a series of grants and donations, officials recently announced. The coins will go to England's Museum of Somerset, which will put them on display after it reopens this summer. The haul, most of which...

Link only, per FR posting rules

I first learned of John Bernard through Diana West (“ROE Are Merely Symptom of ‘Hearts and Minds’”) and the Stars and Stripes blog entry, “Photo of dying Marine forces a difficult decision.” Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan murdered Mr. Bernard’s son, Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard. Media outlets ignored his wishes and the wishes of the Department of Defense by running a photograph of his son as he lay dying from his wounds. This initially outraged me but because our nation bombards us with insult after insult, my outrage has subsided and now I simply keep this action in mind as the...

That's Kate Middleton? Critics Slam New Royal CoinCritics say Kate Middleton has a reason to be mad about her likeness. The Associated Press 12:05 p.m. EST, December 24, 2010 LONDON -- Britain's Royal Mint has released a commemorative coin featuring supposedly lifelike portraits of Prince William and his bride-to-be - but critics say Kate Middleton has a right to be horrified. Images of the couple on the memento bear little resemblance to either the prince or his 28-year-old betrothed. Middleton appears plump in the face and lips and has bags under her eyes. Some critics claim William looks like Al...

PICTURE: Air Tractor prangs precision strike demonstrator By John Croft A too-short landing at an Army reserve base in California caused substantial damage Air Tractor's AT-802U surveillance, precision strike and utility demonstrator aircraft on 21 October. According to a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report, a pilot and flight test engineer flying in the two-seat modified agricultural single at the time were testing maximum performance takeoffs and landings on the 1,829m (6,000ft) hard clay Schoonover runway at Fort Hunter Liggett California when the accident occurred. Neither was injured. ©NTSB "The pilot was attempting a short field landing and had full...

Complementing Air Support? Tanks In Afghanistan: Supplementing or Augmenting Air Power Via Direct Fire Support By Murielle Delaporte md@sldinfo.com Leopard 2 (www.forces.gc.ca) 12/09/2010 – M1A1 Abrams vs Leopard 2A6M? If the Canadians and the Danes regularly use their tanks in the Afghan theatre – respectively since 2006 and 2007 — the U.S. military leadership has always been reticent to imitate its allies out of fear to replay the scenario of the Soviet intervention in the eighties in the minds of the Afghan population. The Canadians were the very first ISAF members to deploy seventeen Leopards 1C2, which they had to...

Indonesia has reduced its original order of sixteen Brazilian EMB-314 Super Tucano aircraft, to eight. The Indonesian generals wanted sixteen, but the politicians, and budget realities, cut that in half. The Tucanos will replace twelve 1960s era American OV-10s. The two seat, 5.2 ton, single engine turbo prop Super Tucano will be used for COIN (Counter Insurgency) operations. It can fly low and slow, yet still has a 1,000 combat kilometer radius, five hour endurance, 600 kilometers per hour top speed, and a 35,000 foot ceiling. The Super Tucano armament consists of twin 12.7mm (.50 caliber) machine guns and nearly...

Indonesia orders Super Tucanos for light attack role By Greg Waldron Indonesia plans to buy eight Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano light attack turboprops, and could eventually double its order - the first for the Brazilian type in the Asia-Pacific region. "Air force headquarters has decided to replace our Rockwell OV-10 Broncos with as many as 16 Super Tucanos," says Indonesian air force operational commander Yushan Sayuti, according to a report by the country's official Antara news agency. The first Super Tucanos will arrive in 2012 under the initial order, which also includes ground-support stations and a logistics package. Several other...

Sales of precious metal coins during the festivals in India, the world's largest consumer of gold, are higher this year as compared to last year, the Times of India reports. Many jewelers ran out of low-denomination gold and silver coins on Wednesday evening, when Dhanteras kicked off the first five days of Diwali. The coins are typically gifted during the holidays. ''Most markets are witnessing a huge crowd," Praveen Khandelwal, president of Confederation of All India Traders, told the newspaper. "Business has been much better in comparison to the past two years." Indian demand for gold typically rises by 40...

#AUSA2010: OV-1D Mohawk revived as modern gunship A host of aircraft have been pitched for counter-insurgency. Revive the OV-10? Check. Convert the AirTractor cropduster into the AT-802U? Yep. Remake the T-6A into the AT-6? That too. Here's a new one: ATK has teamed up with Mohawk Technologies and Broadbay to revive the OV-1D Mohawk for the counter-insurgency market. The new version adds the ATK 30mm chain gun from the Boeing AH-64 Apache, plus a glass cockpit and integrated targeting system with electro-optical/infrared sensor turret. Mohawk owns six decommissioned OV-1Ds that are available for conversion, with dozens more of the aircraft...

Irregular warfare offers new role for propeller driven aircraft By Stephen Trimble Bringing back the propeller-driven fighter in the age of counterinsurgency may seem to some a belated no-brainer or to others a wasteful diversion with potentially suicidal risk to the pilot. As late as early 2008, the leadership of the US Air Force sided firmly with the sceptics. Lt Gen Donald Hoffman, then the USAF's top-ranking acquisition official, implied to a group of reporters in April of that year that the idea of deploying propeller-driven aircraft in modern combat is too risky. "We can rebuild the [North American] P-51...

It is not much to look at - a small pitted brass coin with a square hole in the centre-but this relatively innocuous piece of metal is revolutionising our understanding of early East African history, and recasting China's more contemporary role in the region. A joint team of Kenyan and Chinese archaeologists found the 15th Century Chinese coin in Mambrui-a tiny, nondescript village just north of Malindi on Kenya's north coast. In barely distinguishable relief, the team leader Professor Qin Dashu from Peking University's archaeology department, read out the inscription: "Yongle Tongbao" - the name of the reign that minted...

USAF test center fuses old, new technology for light attack 07:03 GMT, October 15, 2010 DAVIS-MONTHAN AFB, Ariz. | Test pilots and engineers here are learning what happens when high-tech systems are combined with low-tech airframes for a new, cost effective, light-attack aircraft. Light attack, a revitalized concept in the Air Force, addresses the need for an airplane that offers surveillance as well as strike capabilities and walks the line between remotely piloted aircraft and high-performance fighters. In appearance, Hawker Beechcraft AT-6Cs resemble the fighters of yesteryear with single engine propellers and shark-face nose art. They are, in actuality, one...

FARNBOROUGH: Air Tractor sells anti-insurgent fighter to first customer By Stephen Trimble Texas-based Air Tractor has launched production of the AT-802U surveillance, precision strike and utility aircraft for an undisclosed foreign customer, chief designer Lee Jackson confirms. Details about the order's size and identity remain secret at the request of the customer, Jackson says. The converted cropduster parked on the static line also displayed a full array of weaponry, including an all-new precision glide bomb with 3m (10ft) circular error probable (CEP) accuracy in the 50kg (110lb)-class designed by Moog/FTS that is called the "border protection weapon" (BPW). The AT-802...

As Hillary Clinton heads to Kabul for an international conference on security, a civil war has erupted in the Republican Party over Afghanistan. In recent weeks, Republicans have fought among themselves over the war in Afghanistan. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele ignited the furor by disavowing the war as President Obama's folly. That comment was sharply attacked by Sen. John McCain and others, questioning Steele's ability to lead the party. William Kristol took Steele's remark as "an affront, both to the honor of the Republican Party, and to the commitment of the soldiers fighting to accomplish the mission they've...

While the obverse (heads) continues to bear the familiar Victor David Brenner likeness of President Lincoln that has appeared on the coin since 1909, the reverse features a union shield with a scroll draped across and the inscription ONE CENT. The 13 vertical stripes of the shield represent the states joined in one compact union to support the federal government, represented by the horizontal bar above.

He did discuss COIN principles, which begin with "securing and serving the people." Not the American people, mind you; but local populations within and of the Islamic world. It is the disastrous vacuousness of COIN doctrine that it ignores the existence of Islamic culture, Islamic law, as I've written many, many times, but it is the disastrous vacuousness of COIN doctrine that now, by the general's telling, influences all US military thinking. Worse than thinking, however, is how COIN doctrine manifests itself in unconscionable rules of engagement predicated on "courageous restraint" as a means, COIN theory goes, to make them...

Ten years ago, Colombia faced a security crisis in many ways worse than the one currently facing Afghanistan. On December 1, President Barack Obama laid out his new strategy for Afghanistan.1 After adding 30,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines to the fight in 2010, Obama intends to begin withdrawing U.S. forces in July 2011 and turning responsibility for security over to Afghanistan’s forces. Obama’s plan calls for Afghanistan’s army to be ready to begin taking on this responsibility in 18 months. Yet in spite of years of effort, Afghanistan’s security forces are not ready to take on the Taliban.

Legends of Vietnam: Bronco's Tale One of the most versatile aircraft of the Vietnam War appears on the verge of a comeback. * By William E. Burrows * Air & Space Magazine, March 01, 2010 The U.S. military has been here before:fighting an enemy who wears no uniform, one who hits and runs then disappears, blending in with local villagers. It has pursued before, with overwhelming technological superiority, guerrilla fighters who improvise weapons and use the terrain to hide. The rugged mountains along the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier, where the Taliban and al Qaeda hide, are as effective at concealment as the...

Afghan Border Police Company Commander Tagh Ali, passes out FM/AM radios to locals in the village of Shabow Khel during a joint humanitarian aid mission in Khost Province, Afghanistan on Jan. 25. (Photo by U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Chlosta, ISAF HQ PAO)   Story by Army SFC Matthew Chlosta, ISAF HQ PAO Task Force Steel employs COIN successfully in Khost Province Counter insurgency strategy, protecting and interacting with the local population, has been mandated in Afghanistan since Gen. Stanley McChrystal arrived in June 2009. The Soldiers from 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division have been implementing COIN successfully since...

The government announced that it will begin implementing a new series of social programs in Ciudad Juarez (Chihuahua state) that will help the police and army battle narcotics cartels. If it sounds a bit like a classic Counter-insurgency (COIN) “political and social warfare” (where social and economic programs integrate with security operations), well, it is. One of the programs will be directed at impoverished Juarez teenagers. The narcotics gangs throw around money and have bought support in several neighborhoods. Some of the kids eventually “move up” and join the gang. The government intends to attack this “recruitment” process. There will...

You know, maybe it’s because I’m just a dumb old small town Texan, but having listened to Sarah Palin speak for a couple of years now, on everything from geopolitics, to energy independence, to eating at Dairy Queen, I’ve never had a problem understanding a single word she has ever said.

It is stunning to read and hear about this “coin controversy.” At a recent speech in Milwaukee I discussed the troubling fact that we too often move God to the side in our public life, and gave as an example the shift of the words “In God We Trust” to the edge of the dollar coin. My comments were not about this President or this Congress – this change predated them. I was merely making a point about a disturbing trend in our country, after which I moved on to discuss some encouraging trends. People who try to read more...

One fundamental tenet of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's controversial Afghanistan strategy aims at avoiding precisely the kinds of attacks that killed eight American soldiers Sunday. In what is being described as one of the boldest attacks of the Afghan insurgency, an estimated 300 militants sustained a day-long siege against a coalition outpost in Nuristan Province – a place where the rule of law is so tenuous and the terrain so forbidding that it is seen as one of the likeliest hiding places for Osama bin Laden. It is also has fewer people than Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Beyond the request for more...

Top Egyptian Daily: Joseph’s Era Coins Found in Egypt (IsraelNN.com) "...discovered many charms from various eras before and after the period of Joseph, including one that bore his effigy as the minister of the treasury in the Egyptian pharaoh's court…" An Egyptian paper claims that archaeologists have discovered ancient Egyptian coins bearing the name and image of the Biblical Joseph.

Have you ever flipped a coin as a way of deciding something with another person? The answer is probably yes. And you probably did so assuming you were getting a fair deal, because, as everybody knows, a coin is equally likely to show heads or tails after a single flip—unless it's been shaved or weighted or has a week-old smear of coffee on its underbelly. So when your friend places a coin on his thumb and says "call it in the air", you realize that it doesn't really matter whether you pick heads or tails. Every person has a preference, of course—heads...