Free Republic

Policing: The Dallas County Sheriff's Office gets an MRAP tactical military vehicle, used for counterinsurgency fighting in Iraq, as law enforcement becomes a collection of SWAT teams pursuing not-always-guilty Americans. In early August, a SWAT team broke through the gates of a 3.5-acre farm in Arlington, Texas, that promotes a sustainable lifestyle and did a 10-hour search of the property. Residents were handcuffed and held at gunpoint as police looked for nonexistent marijuana plants and various city code violations. As the owners watched, 10 tons of their private property was hauled off in trucks — dangerous items such as blackberry...

Federal Power: Homeland Security's procurement officer is grilled in Congress on why federal agents who rarely fire weapons need several times more bullets annually than an Army officer. Who or what are they shooting at? Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Thursday asked Nick Nayak, DHS' chief procurement officer, a question we and others have been asking: Why has the Department of Homeland Security been buying so much ammunition? Dismissed as a concern only of right-wing conspiracy theorists, the reported amounts as high as 2 billion rounds have varied and been explained not as a one-time purchase but a bulk buy...

The massive disposal effort, which U.S. military officials call unprecedented, has unfolded largely out of sight amid an ongoing debate inside the Pentagon about what to do with the heaps of equipment that won’t be returning home. Military planners have determined that more than $7 billion worth of equipment — about 20 percent of what the U.S. military has in Afghanistan — will not be shipped back, because it is no longer needed or would be too costly to send home. That has left the Pentagon in a quandary about what to do with the items. Bequeathing a large share...

The US is going to destroy about $7 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan because it would cost too much money to ship it home or because the gear wouldn't be of much use anymore, reports the Washington Post. That includes about 2,000 hulking MRAPs—mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles that cost $1 million apiece. The excess equipment is being turned into scrap metal.

A retired Army officer wrote to a U.S. senator Saturday about his concern that the Department of Homeland Security is preparing to arm itself against the people of the United States. Retired Capt. Terry Michael Hestilow posted his letter to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on his Facebook page, noting that Homeland Security has made a number of large ammunition, weapon and light-armored vehicle purchases recently and has refused to answer questions about them. Hestilow begins by noting the large ammunition, weapon and light armored vehicle purchases recently made by DHS, as well as that agency’s refusal to answer any questions...

In an effort to clear up “misconceptions” that the Fusion Centers of the Department of Homeland Security spy on Americans, Arkansas State Fusion Center Director Richard Davis denied that they do this, instead saying that they’re only spying on “anti-government” Americans ... As has been reported, the DHS has released documents listing Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, people who support gun rights, who oppose the Federal Reserve, oppose illegal immigration and oppose abortion as “domestic extremists” and terrorists. Over the last year, the DHS has purchased nearly 2 billion rounds of mostly hollow point ammunition, more than 2,700 MRAP vehicles designed...

Bullet Buys: Fifteen members of Congress have written a letter to the Department of Homeland Security demanding to know why the federal agency is buying so many rounds of ammunition. We'd like to know too. Fifteen members of Congress have sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security demanding to know why the federal agency is buying so many rounds of ammunition. We'd like to know too. Freshman California Republican Doug LaMalfa and 14 of his House colleagues, who signed on to his March 5 letter, are asking the Department of Homeland Security to explain why it is buying...

The sighting of a Department of Homeland Security Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) at a gas station near Ybor City, Fla. on Wednesday is raising questions, concerns and fears about what the federal government is foreseeing in terms of likely needs for such armed and armored transports.

Security: In addition to stockpiling over a billion bullets and thousands of semiautomatic weapons the feds would deny U.S. citizens, the vehicle of choice for fighting the counterinsurgency war in Iraq is appearing on U.S. streets. The sequestration question du jour is why the Department of Homeland Security, busy releasing hundreds, if not thousands, of deportable and detained illegal aliens due to budget constraints, is buying several thousand Mine Resistant Armored Protection (MRAP) vehicles? And just who are they intended to be used against? This acquisition comes on top of the recent news of the stockpiling by DHS of more...

The “Buildup” Continues: Dept. of Homeland Security Purchases 2,700 MRAPs (Mine Resistant Armor Protected Vehicles) For Domestic Use… Posted on March 4, 2013 by sundance Some may ignore – But we ask the same questions again, and again. Why do they need these? – This is beyond Creepy – Who is the DHS going to war against? The Federal Government ordered almost 2 billion rounds of ammunition. They ordered targets looking like average armed citizens. They are conducting military style exercises in urban areas. North Carolina police say they are practicing for martial law. Now this…… Via Modern Survival Blog...

This is getting a little creepy. According to one estimate, since last year the Department of Homeland Security has stockpiled more than 1.6 billion bullets, mainly .40 caliber and 9mm. DHS also purchased 2,700 Mine Resistant Armor Protected Vehicles (MRAP). (30-35,0000 drones are on order--being built in Starkville, Miss.) Modern Survival Blog reported: The Department of Homeland Security (through the U.S. Army Forces Command) recently retrofitted 2,717 of these ‘Mine Resistant Protected’ vehicles for service on the streets of the United States. Although I’ve seen and read several online blurbs about this vehicle of late, I decided to dig slightly...

The Defense Department recently rewarded the Raydon Corporation over $36 million dollars to develop eleven “Virtual” Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (MRAP). While these vehicles are critical to protecting troops from IED’s and other explosives in both Iraq and Afghanistan, $3.3 million per virtual MRAP is nearly three times the amount it takes to build an actual MRAP. From defense.gov: Raydon Corp., Daytona Beach, Fla., was awarded on July 9 a $36,355,550 firm-fixed-price contract. This contract is for 11 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle virtual trainers for the Army National Guard. Work is to be performed in Daytona Beach, Fla.,...

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Friday pledged surplus mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles along with expanded access to classified information to U.S. allies to help in combating the threat of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan. “The United States will now do whatever we can within the limits of U.S. law, and as soon as we can, to provide as many surplus MRAPs as possible to allies, especially to those operating in high-risk areas,” Gates said at a news conference here after meeting with the defense ministers of 44 International Security Assistance Force partner nations. Gates promised to sell, loan or donate...

The Humvee, which replaced the Jeep, will no longer be bought by the Army. While Arnold Schwarzengger certainly helped boost the Hunvee’s public profile, it has never achieved the legendary status of the Jeep and its vulnerability to land mines (aka IEDs) made it something of a anachronism until much heavier armored versions were deployed. While the service won’t buy any more Humvees, the Army is not getting rid of them. “The Army is not buying more Humvees but other people buy Humvees so the line is not terminated. We envision the Humvee to be an enduring part of the...

Middle Eastern hatreds poison left-wing political life 18.11.2003By CATHERINE FIELD Herald correspondent PARIS - Once they squabbled over who was pro-Soviet and who was not. Now, French leftwingers are split just as deeply by a new wedge: Islam. One of the biggest leftwing conferences in years, the European Social Forum (ESF), gathering tens of thousands of people, ended in bitter discord at the weekend over a speaking invitation to a leading Muslim intellectual accused by Jewish groups of anti-Semitism. Several political parties boycotted his appearance, which was loudly applauded by an audience of a thousand. Some political leaders attended reluctantly;...

Taliban -led insurgents in Afghanistan have devised ways to cripple and even destroy the expensive armored vehicles that offer U.S. forces the best protection against roadside bombs by using increasingly large explosive charges and rocket-propelled grenades, according to U.S. soldiers and defense officials. At least eight American troops have been killed this year in attacks on so-called Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, and 40 more have been wounded, said a senior U.S. military official who, like others interviewed on the issue, declined to be further identified because of the issue's sensitivity. The insurgents' success in attacking the hulking machines, which...

Click to watch on You TubeWASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2009 -- Embedded above is a b-roll video of the ATV MRAP in Afghanistan. Scenes include the vehicle driving through the base and interviews. (Courtesy Video, American Forces Network Afghanistan. Length: 00:01:38.)

WASHINGTON, April 29, 2009 – The Marines are working to build an Afghanistan-worthy mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle. With 8,000 Marines on their way there now, the Marine Corps wants an off-road version of the MRAP that is now fielded, said Marine Corps Commandant James T. Conway at a news conference here today. While the MRAPs work well to save lives, the bulky, 16-ton vehicle does not work so well where there are not improved roads. In Afghanistan, where there are few improved roads, the vehicles have been known to get bogged down. Conway said that instead of pursuing a new...

Ask any soldier who's been to both countries: Afghanistan is not Iraq. It's a different war against a different enemy in a different country with an entirely different terrain and altitude. One thing is the same, though. The Improvised Explosive Device — the deadly "IED" roadside bombs that blew up Humvees and the soldiers inside them along the dusty roads of Iraq — is an equally effective weapon in the rocky steeps of Afghanistan. When the Humvee proved unable to withstand IED attacks in Iraq, the U.S. military built a new vehicle — the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) —...