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The war against Iranian supported, Shia tribesmen, in northern Yemen, continues. Many of the key rebels have retreated to their fortified villages in the mountains. The Yemeni air force is bombing these villages, and the Shia rebels are complaining about civilian casualties. That's usually a sign that they are losing, and striving to make their use of human shields as effective as possible. The Saudi Air Force is heavily patrolling, and bombing the Yemen border region, hitting rebels (and non-hostile smugglers) caught crossing the semi-desert frontier region. Yemen has had its differences with Saudi Arabia in the past, particularly over...

A video of the talk I gave at the Army Heritage Education Center in mid-March is now available online:Perspectives: March 18, 2009 “Why the Civil Rights Movement was an Insurgency, and Why it Matters” Mark S. Grimsley, Ph.D. Harold K. Johnson Visiting Professor of Military History, U.S. Army War College Most Americans fail to appreciate that the Civil Rights movement was about the overthrow of an entrenched political order in each of the Southern states, that the segregationists who controlled this order did not hesitate to employ violence (law enforcement, paramilitary, mob) to preserve it, and that for nearly a...

One night in August, the Taliban stormed a local police station in this once-peaceful province and shot dead the governor's younger brother. Since then, the governor has singled out a culprit: The German military, which he says refused to send a helicopter to rescue his brother as he bled to death. "I called them and they said that wasn't a mission they could do," said Gov. Mohammad Omar. "They don't like to go out at night." German officials said there was no way they could have saved his brother. They offered their condolences, and said the death is just one...

Communist Group's Founder Says Ranks of Guerrillas to Grow More than 40 years after founding the Communist Party of the Philippines, a former literature professor who has long stayed outside his homeland says the party's military wing plans to significantly increase its armed capabilities in the next three years. Jose Maria Sison, who was imprisoned in 1977 by then-President Ferdinand Marcos and freed in 1986 by Corazon Aquino shortly after "People Power" put her in power, says the insurgency he seeded with Maoist ideas intends to use sympathizers to recruit 3,000 to 5,000 new guerrillas in impoverished rural areas. He...

Among allies, USAF takes irregular warfare path alone By Stephen Trimble While most of its allies seek to refocus on conventional warfare, the US Air Force may soon spend hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire dozens of light fighters and airlifters uniquely dedicated to counter-insurgency roles. Having spent much of the past decade supporting US-led military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, the major air powers of Europe are looking to recalibrate their fiscal resources and activities more towards conventional operations, say several analysts. "We have invested far too much in [irregular warfare, or IW]. We now have to claw...

This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s start of the war on drugs, and it now appears that drugs have won.

On the Friday after he was inaugurated, Barack Obama held a full-scale National Security Council meeting about the most serious foreign policy crisis he is facing — the deteriorating war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "It was a pretty alarming meeting," said one senior Administration official. "The President was extremely cool and in control," said another participant. "But some people, especially political aides like Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod who hadn't been briefed on the situation, walked out of that meeting stunned." The general feeling was expressed by one person who said at the very end, "Holy s___."The situation in Afghanistan...

Sometimes a story just doesn't seem to be "all there." Cinnamon Stillwell suspected as much in a NewsBusters item on January 10: Call me overly suspicious, but the story of 16-year-old Farris Hassan traveling to Iraq on a whim strikes me as unbelievable. Hassan's interview with Rita Cosby of MSNBC, a Florida newspaper columnist's skepticism, and a January 18 posting by the Northeast Intelligence Network (NIN), which describes itself as "a small contingent of experienced investigators ..... founded by veteran private investigator Douglas J. Hagmann," all appear to confirm Stillwell's suspicions. What is known of Farris Hassan's saga at this...

Just a note on Election Eve to anyone who would threaten the Constitution......

We have been concerned with existential threats for so long that we have forgotten to watch our back door. While we defeated Communism in much of the rest of the world, it quietly crept into our schools and institutions, disguised as a more palatable communitarian “philosophy.” It is now poised to take America. It did so without violence, by subterfuge and stealth, but make no mistake, Presidential hopeful Barrack Obama is motivated by the same controlling impulses that inspired Castro and Chavez and Noriega, that same totalitarian tendency that animates all utopian ideologies. A man who was bred into socialism,...

The Republican National Committee (RNC) published an update at its BarackBook.com website yesterday that accuses Barack Obama presidential campaign bundler Jodie Evans of supporting the insurgency in Iraq. http://www.barackbook.com/Profiles/JodieEvans.htm Evans is co-founder of the so-called antiwar group Code Pink. The RNC quoted a January 15, 2006 column by Robert Novak that said, "Code Pink, At A Mock War Crimes Tribunal In Istanbul June 27, Signed A Declaration That The Iraqi Insurgency 'Deserved The Support Of People Everywhere Who Care For Justice And Freedom.'" Evans represented Code Pink at the mock war crimes tribunal. In addition to expressing Code Pink's support...

ARLINGTON, Va. — Marines in Fallujah will transfer their headquarters to Ramadi in the next six months, said Marine Col. Lewis Craparotta, commander of Regimental Combat Team 1. The 412 Marines and sailors in the regimental combat team’s headquarters will make the move as part of an effort to reduce the U.S. presence in Fallujah, Craparotta told reporters Monday. Both Fallujah and Ramadi were once hotbeds for the insurgency, but since 2007, local Sunnis have allied with U.S. troops to drive out al-Qaida. On Monday, Craparotta said the enemy in his area has been "neutralized;" however, he noted a series...

USFK commander takes war cue from Iraq By Franklin Fisher, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Sunday, June 29, 2007 CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — The top U.S. military commander in South Korea plans steps to ensure U.S. forces are ready to counter any Iraq-style insurgency tactics that North Korea might try to use in a conflict on the peninsula. In a brief interview with Stars and Stripes on Friday, U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Walter Sharp said he thinks it’s likely North Korea has been keeping close watch on the tactics used by insurgents in Iraq and would no doubt...

The deeper problem here is the belief that the best way to deal with insurgents is to address the "root causes" of the grievance that purportedly prompted them to take up arms. But what most of these insurgencies seek isn't social or moral redress: It's absolute power. Like other "liberation movements" (the PLO comes to mind), the Tigers are notorious for killing other Tamils seen as less than hard line in their views of the conflict. The failure to defeat these insurgencies thus becomes the primary obstacle to achieving a reasonable political settlement acceptable to both sides. This isn't to...

Researchers at Harvard say that publicly voiced doubts about the U.S. occupation of Iraq have a "measureable effect" on insurgents there. Periods of intense news media coverage in the United States of criticism about the war, or of polling about public opinions on the conflict, are followed by a small but quantifiable increases in the number of attacks on civilians and U.S. forces in Iraq... The increase in attacks is more pronounced in areas of Iraq that have better access to international news media, the authors conclude in a report titled "Is There an 'Emboldenment' Effect? Evidence from the Insurgency...

....Overall, the results presented in this paper suggest several important facts. First, the findings suggest that there is an explicit and quantifiable cost to public debate during wartime in the form of increased attacks. Based on these results, it appears that Iraqi insurgent groups believe that when the U.S. political landscape is more uncertain, initiating a higher level of attacks increases the likelihood that the U.S. will reduce the scope of its engagement in the conflict. However, the magnitude of the response by Iraqi insurgent groups is relatively small. To the extent that U.S. political speech does affect insurgent incentives,...

**EXCERPT** BAGHDAD, Feb. 9 -- On Nov. 3, U.S. soldiers raided a safe house of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq near the northern city of Balad. Not a single combatant was captured, but inside the house they found something valuable: a diary and will written in neat Arabic script. "I am Abu Tariq, Emir of al-Layin and al-Mashadah Sector," it began. Over 16 pages, the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader detailed the organization's demise in his sector. He once had 600 men, but now his force was down to 20 or fewer, he wrote. They had lost weapons and allies....

BANGKOK (AFP) - Brutal killings have reached unprecedented levels in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, experts say, as the region enters the fifth year of a separatist insurgency that is tearing communities apart. ADVERTISEMENT A government policy of reconciliation in the region has backfired, analysts told AFP, with rebels beheading, mutilating and even crucifying victims to try to spark a backlash and create divisions between Buddhists and Muslims. "They kill in such brutal ways: beheaded, hacked to death, set on fire ... the idea is to provoke a strong reaction of the Buddhist Thais against Muslims," said Sunai Phasuk, a Thailand consultant...

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Quotes from David Kilcullen - a reserve lieutenant colonel in the Australian army, doctorate in political anthropology and senior counter insurgency adviser to General David Petraeus. "... focusing the campaign on how to defeat one particular enemy is perhaps not the best way to approach ...the more we focus on the population and protecting them, the easier it is to deal with the enemy. The more we focus on the enemy, the harder it is to actually get anything done with the population. ... There has never been a successful counterinsurgency that took less than 10 years. ... It's evolution....

Below and attached is a Joint Staff DD-WOT unclassified analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood STRATEGIC GOALS FOR NORTH AMERICA MEMORANDUM that was placed into evidence in the Holy Land Foundation Trial a copy of which I sent to you last Friday [but attached again] bundled with other important jihad doctrine and strategy documents. This assessment makes the point that the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered a threat organization and the affiliated US domestic Muslim NGOs and associations identified in the strategy document should likewise be considered part of the Muslim Brotherhood network, that these are “front” functional organizations operating as...

Just as the rockets landing in the Green Zone are from a foreign source -- Iran -- the jihadis who destroy themselves in explosions aimed primarily at mass killings of Shia civilians are almost all foreigners. This is al Qaeda, not Iraq. Even more to the point: The Iraqis basically ignore the al Qaeda car bombs, mourn the dead and then go to work, to school, join and continue to serve in the military and police -- and life goes on. There is no terror if no one is terrorized. Let us, the American people, not be terrorized into retreating...

Earlier today, the Italian news service AKI reported that the presumed leader of the largest insurgency in Iraq will start cooperating with the Iraqi government. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, one of the highest-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's government, reportedly pledged to work with Iraqi and American forces to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq: The leader of Iraq's banned Baath party, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has decided to join efforts by the Iraqi authorities to fight al-Qaeda, one of the party's former top officials, Abu Wisam al-Jashaami, told pan-Arab daily Al Hayat. "AlDouri has decided to sever ties with al-Qaeda and sign up to...

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2007 – A new Iraq strategy that targets multiple terrorist outposts and capitalizes on Iraqis’ growing dislike of al Qaeda are combining to degrade insurgent operations in the country, a counter-insurgency expert said today in Baghdad. “The intention behind the counter-operations that we’re doing is to try to knock over several insurgent safe havens simultaneously,” David Kilcullen, the senior counter-insurgency adviser to Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, said during a conference call with military analysts. Operations Phantom Thunder, Arrowhead Ripper and other ongoing, surge-affiliated actions in Iraq are being conducted simultaneously across...

Terrorism's Newfangled Insurgent Advantage Terrorism's Newfangled Insurgent Advantage By David Brooks Published on 5/19/2007 in Home »Editorial »Perspective The war on terror has shredded the reputation of the Bush administration. It has destroyed the reputation of Tony Blair's government in Britain, Ehud Olmert's government in Israel and Nouri al-Maliki's government in Iraq. And here's a prediction: It will destroy future American administrations, and future Israeli, European and world governments as well. That's because setbacks in the war on terror don't only flow from the mistakes of individual leaders and generals. They're structural. Thanks to a series of organizational technological...

It’s Way Past Miller Time for the War in Iraq By J. Neil Schulman Sometimes I wonder if people even listen to themselves talk. The Bush administration tells us that the United States has not yet achieved its objectives in the War in Iraq so American troops have to stay there until a stable Iraqi democracy can fend for itself against an insurgency fueled by al Qaeda-fed Sunni Muslims and Iranian-fed Shia Muslims: that the Iraqi InSurgency has to be fought with an American Surgency The Democratic Party opposition tells us that, because of this InSurgency, the Bush administration...

Iraq is a mess. Not so much in the sense of what Gen. David Petraeus is physically dealing with on the ground, but in the sense of what we have allowed the effort to morph into here at home and worldwide. We’re not losing the war — not by any true combat leader’s estimation — but we are struggling to get our arms around the conflict’s realities; and that in itself is undermining the effort. The biggest problems as I see it are the politicization of the war to include subtle attempts to micromanage ongoing “surge” operations; and not-so-subtle attempts...

On How to Treat the Populace of Iraq After Their Insurgency Niccolo Machiavelli - Paraphrased (The Pasadena Pundit - April 10, 2007) (Appearing before the Congress, Gen. David Patraeus spoke of) what should be done with the territories and cities of Iraq. These are the words he used, and the decision that the Congress reached, more or less verbatim, as (the resurrected ancient Roman historian) Livy reports them: "Congressmen! What needed to be done in Iraq with armies and wars has, by grace of god and the skill of our soldiers, been done. Slaughtered are the enemy armies of the...

Whatever dreams we may have had of winning a War on Terror in Baghdad or turning Iraq into a beacon of democracy in the Middle East are now long gone. What we have in Iraq is a series of American fortifications where soldiers live a life that reasonably mirrors conditions back home and then once a day or week put on "full battle rattle" and risk their lives by venturing into what is essentially hostile territory. Granted we have a lot of people on our side and a sizable portion of the population wants us to stay. "Allah Bless the...

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2007 – With straight unemployment running at 20 percent nationwide, there is no wonder that Iraqi men would be sympathetic to violence and insurgency, the Defense Department’s point man for Iraqi reconstruction said today. Paul Brinkley, deputy defense undersecretary for business transformation, acquisition, technology and logistics, said Iraqis want work, normalcy and security. He is working with the Iraqi government and coalition officials to open factories and create jobs for those unemployed and those underemployed, said during a Pentagon news conference today. Getting Iraqis back to work, he said, takes groups of people out of the...

The 36-year-old sheik is leading a growing movement of Sunni tribesmen who have turned against al-Qaida-linked insurgents in Anbar province. The dramatic shift in alliances may have done more in a few months to ease daily street battles and undercut the insurgency here than American forces have achieved in years with arms. Violence in some districts of Ramadi previously hit by daily street battles has dwindled to a degree so low that American soldiers can walk on the streets in some areas and hand out soccer balls without provoking a firefight — apparently a direct result of the sheik's influence.

It is best if an enemy nation comes and surrenders of its own accord. —Du You (735-812) To the student of counterinsurgency warfare, the war in Iraq has reached a critical but dismally familiar stage.On the one hand, events in that country have taken a more hopeful direction in recent months. Operations in the city of Najaf in January presaged a more effective burden-sharing between American and Iraqi troops than in the past. The opening moves of the so-called “surge� in Baghdad, involving increased American patrols and the steady addition of more than 21,000 ground troops, have begun to sweep...

AMMAN, Jordan - A prominent Iraqi Sunni leader said Friday that the insurgency in Iraq could end if the U.S. showed determination to stop the influence of pro-Iranian Shiite militias there. "The Americans must act seriously and abolish those militias, confiscate their weapons, arrest their criminals and at the same time stop the Iranian influence which is penetrating all of Iraq, including the government," said Sheik Majeed al-Gaood, a prominent tribal leader in Anbar province, the heartland of the Sunni insurgency. Al-Gaood is a leading member of a Sunni family that plays a major role in tribal politics in Anbar....

The same Beltway experts who declared Sen. John McCain of Arizona the GOP front-runner, even as he under-polled fellow presidential contender Rudolph Giuliani, now parrot equally dodgy concepts. When Republicans meet “the real Rudy,” they will abandon New York’s former mayor like cattle fleeing a burning barn. Then, the wobbly Washington wisdom continues, Giuliani’s three marriages, and his less-than-solidly-right-wing views on gays, guns and gametes will torpedo his buoyant presidential hopes. These seers now detect unhappiness with the GOP aspirants. They cite a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll in which 26 percent of Republican primary voters were dissatisfied with...

BAQOUBA, Iraq — Dozens of U.S. Stryker combat vehicles roared into Baqouba at sunrise. The enemy was ready. As the dawn call-to-prayer fell silent, the streets blazed with insurgent fire. Within minutes of the start of their first mission in Diyala province Wednesday a voice crackled across the radio: "Catastrophic kill, with casualties." Inside the rear of one Stryker, soldiers shushed one another and leaned closer to the radio. They all knew what it meant. A U.S. vehicle had been lost to hostile fire. Nearly 100 Strykers, armored troop carriers with 50-caliber machine guns, were called north from Baghdad into...

Title: MND-B COMMANDING GENERAL EXPLAINS SECURITY PLAN FOR BAGHDAD Release Date: 2/16/2007 Release Number: 07-01-03P Description: CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq – The goal of coalition forces new security strategy is to clear, control and retain Baghdad’s neighborhoods, said the Multi-National Division – Baghdad commanding general during a press conference here Feb. 16. Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, Jr., the MND-B commanding general, outlined the security strategy for his division in a live satellite press conference between Baghdad and reporters in the Pentagon press briefing room. The security plan includes an increase in Iraqi and coalition forces in Iraq’s capital, a push to...

General David Petraeus, Our Old New Man in Iraq Tom Bowman Proceedings, February 2007 Army Superstar Returns to the Middle East Stage U.S. ARMY (JOSHUA HUTCHESON) Then Major General David H. Petraeus, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division, listens to Lieutenant General William S. Wallace, V Corps commanding general, in March 2003. As Saddam Hussein's forces were collapsing in April 2003, Army Major General David Petraeus walked through an empty factory near Baghdad. "Now the hard part begins," he told writer Rick Atkinson, who was trailing the 101st Airborne Division through the vast deserts and teeming cities of Iraq....

Excerpt - SEVILLE, Spain - Serial numbers and markings on explosives used in Iraq provide "pretty good" evidence that Iranians are providing either weapons or technology for militants there, Defense Secretary Robert Gates asserted Friday. Offering some of the first public details of evidence the military has collected, Gates said, "I think there's some serial numbers, there may be some markings on some of the projectile fragments that we found," that point to Iran. At the same time, however, he said he was somewhat surprised that recent raids by coalition and Iraqi forces in Iraq swept up some Iranians. ~...

Terrified that sectarian Muslim bloodshed could soon engulf the region, U.S. allies and adversaries in the Middle East have stepped up joint efforts to head off a religious civil war. Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran have held intensive talks in recent days on ways to tamp down sectarian violence in Iraq and Lebanon. Over the weekend, Saudi King Abdullah issued an unusual public call for calm. Top Islamic clerics and scholars in Egypt, Qatar and Iraq also have issued statements urging Muslim unity, often blaming the United States and other outside actors of trying to divide the faithful....

When does a rebellion become a revolution? That’s easy — when it wins. When does an uprising attain the level of an insurgency and qualify as an insurrection? That’s harder to answer because the meanings of those synonyms flow into one another. And when do all of the preceding amount to a civil war? That term usually denotes the struggle of an armed group of citizens within a nation seeking forcibly to seize control of the government from those in power. But that does not reflect the complexity of the war in Iraq today, which makes it hardest of all...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 — Saudi Arabia has told the Bush administration that it might provide financial backing to Iraqi Sunnis in any war against Iraq’s Shiites if the United States pulls its troops out of Iraq, according to American and Arab diplomats.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- An arms smuggling gang was disbanded in Iran's southwestern province of Khuzestan. FNA dispatches said that four of the smugglers who pirated guns from Iraq were arrested during the operation, two of whom were hospitalized due to injuries. Also during the operation, the law enforcement and security forces discovered and confiscated 60 rifles and pistols, one Kalashnikov machinegun and a pile of bullets. The gang intended to smuggle the cargo to the provincial capital city of Ahwaz and Shadegan.

News Ticker ...More Headlines »         E-Mail This Page  Print SITE Publications “The Code of Silence” - An English Documentary from al-Rashideen Army By SITE Institute September 6, 2006 Al-Rashideen Army, one of the major insurgency groups operating in Iraq besides the Mujahideen Shura Council, Ansar al-Sunnah, Islamic Army in Iraq et al, recently issued a fifty-three minute video produced as a documentary titled: “The Code of Silence�. The presentation is directed to communicate with the “Western mentality,� and features cues and styles similar to popular films, and English-language narration and text. The main speaker is that same...

Excerpt - BAGHDAD, Nov. 25 — The insurgency in Iraq is now self-sustaining financially, raising tens of millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, corrupt charities and other crimes that the Iraqi government and its American patrons have been largely unable to prevent, a classified United States government report has concluded. ~ snip ~

Massacre of Drogheda under Oliver Cromwell. the Staff or associates of Christian History Institute. After the massacre, Oliver Cromwell declared to the English Parliament, "I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches, who have imbued their hands in so much innocent blood and that it will tend to prevent the effusion [shedding] of blood for the future, which are satisfactory grounds for such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret." Oliver Cromwell, responsible for a massacre. Just what happened at Drogheda, Ireland on this day, September 11, 1649 is hard to...

What a surprise, the Iraq war's course is scaring the hell out of Republicans, given the Democrats something to drool over, and causing despair to people like me who supported the effort for a long time. The only solution left to the U.S. is an all-out, no-holds-barred assault on Iraq's "militants" and anyone related to them -- something akin to how the Allies finished off Hitler and Hirohito in WWII, or Julius Caeser's defeat of Versongeterix's Gallic army, or Alexander's defeat of Persian King Darius at Gaugamela, or the Lithuanian/Polish defeat of the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald. But history has...

Top News Story Western military buildup underway in the Middle East. Global Research published a major report on the military build-up of conventional, ground, air, naval, and nuclear forces in and around the Middle East and Central Asia. The probability of another war in the Middle East is high. Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post reported that the clouds of the coming war are converging upon Israel. But our political and military leaders refuse to look up at the darkening sky.   US confident Russia and China will join in sanctions on Iran. The Washington Times reported that the United...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad to shake up his cabinet. Iran Press News reported that a source close to Ahmadinejad's cabinet said that in the coming days vast changes will be taking place within the administration. The first to leave will be the oil minister; Vaziri Hamaneh is expected to be dismissed from the cabinet.   Ahmadinejad fails to deliver his economic miracle. Inter Press Service reported that Iranian citizens are wondering if Ahmadinejad will ever make good on an election promise to crack down on the corrupt and distribute Iran's vast oil revenues more equitably.BBC News reported that Iran's...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad plans huge increase in uranium enrichment. ABC News reported that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said they want to install up to 100,000 centrifuges to process uranium gas for enrichment in order to produce nuclear fuel. Bush pleased with the Iran Freedom and Support Act The White House, Office of the Press Secretary reported that President Bush said "I applaud Congress for demonstrating its bipartisan commitment to confronting the Iranian regime's repressive and destabilizing activities by passing the Iran Freedom Support Act." Here are a few other news items you may have missed. The International Herald Tribune reported...

Top News Story Bush signs Iran Freedom and Support Act! The Washington Post reported that President Bush on Saturday signed legislation that would impose mandatory sanctions on entities that provide goods or services for Iran's weapons programs.The Associated Press reported that the US Senate finally passed the Iran Freedom and Support Act.The Library of Congress published the full text of the Iran Freedom and Support Act.   But does Condi support a change of regime in Iran? The Wall Street Journal reexamined their recent interview with Condi Rice in which he concludes: Her primary method for dealing with the...