Man the media does not care a whit about aiding the enemy.
The liberals have destroyed our intelligence services.
First, by gutting and slashing after the Church Committee.
Second, by leaks to the media that reveal the inner workings of an organization that could never stand up to public scrutiny. Those leaks have led to lawyers second-guessing every step.
Intelligence services are like hot dogs. Don't ask what's in it or how did it get there. Just accept it.
This is Gertz. He's hardly a liberal. He's the guy who exposed a lot of Clinton's dealings with China.
This is one of those times when you hope a totally bogus story fed to an Historically Left Wing rag, is believed.
Hope it causes a lot of confusion and fear among the diaper heads.
On the other hand if the terrorists can dress up in U S uniforms and drive official Chevy SUVs' into a secured area and murder seven of ours....I think it's perfectly acceptable to off them with their own "famous Russian-designed"
weapons.
WTH is wrong with them? Why on earth would they publish something like this? Are they taking their paychecks directly from Osama Bin Laden?
I skimmed through the story but it seems to me that it is unlikely that U.S. troops would use AK-47's for sniper rifles. These rifles are not accurate and are intermediate range. The U.S military bringing back the M14 for what I think are called "designated marksmen." An M14 can be quite accurate fired semi-auto and can be effective long range (600 yards or so). The author must be confused because the AK-47 uses a 7.62 x 39 mm round while the M14 uses the much more powerful 7.62 x 51 NATO round. The author must have heard "7.62" and made the wrong assumption. Do journalists do fact checking at all beyond reading the latest release from the DNC?
I'm not sure that the info Gertz has provided is going help insurgents. They don't read the Washing Times and, frankly, even if they know about this tactic, the tactic itself still works.
If you click the link to read the whole story I think the more important part of the article (which is really a series of small articles) concerns the ROE in Iraq. Here is an excerpt...
"Overlawyering:
When the history of the war on terrorism is written one day, historians no doubt will credit risk-averse lawyers with making the war longer.
Legal restrictions are hampering soldiers from defending themselves in the streets of Baghdad and are limiting the effectiveness of secret operations by special operations forces and intelligence personnel, defense officials say.
One Special Forces commando stated that the lawyers are risking lives in Iraq because of confusing written rules on when troops can fire weapons in "Escalation of Force" cases, that is, combat against insurgents and al Qaeda terrorists.
"Escalation of force is ridiculous over there," the commando said. "If an EOF occurs and a weapon is fired, it is to be reported so 'a 15-6 investigation' can be initiated."
An Army Regulation 15-6 investigation requires a commanding officer to gather evidence, interview witnesses and write a report every time a weapon is fired, a time-consuming and useless bureaucratic exercise in a war zone where numerous firefights take place almost every day."
THAT, in my mind, is a far more important issue and one the Pentagon needs to address.
They ought to be using the 416 Barrett round for sniping.
check it out:
http://airbornecombatengineer.typepad.com/airborne_combat_engineer/2006/02/barretts_propri.html
There has been some discussion about opening a season on liberals. Does anyone have the dates?
FEAR FIGHT!
U.S. intelligence agencies have built their own version of the famous Russian-designed AK-47 assault rifle for use by American snipers in Iraq.They'd have to, as the AK-47 ain't no sniper rifle. The beauty of the AK-47 is its reliability of firing even if dirty as hell and dropped in mud. All because the tolerances are so loose -- but therefore 'a tad' inaccurate.
The 7.62 mm round used by the AK-47 differs from the 7.62 mm sniper round used in normal U.S. sniper ammunition and creates a different wound.
Well sorry but .. DUH!
The AK in question fires a 7.62x39mm and a U.S. 'sniper round' is a 7.62x51mm (NATO), aka .308 Winchester (but its really not the same). But unless they're completely rebuilding this new super duper AK from the ground up (receiver, longer barrel, etc) I question the veracity of this.
To me a modified SKS makes more sense (we know how the MSM calls everything an AK-47). It still fires the 7.62x39, has a longer barrel (20" vs 16") and when you put a scope and new stock on it and wham - instant 'sniper rifle'. Though with the 7.62x39 still not much good past 200 yards (Remington Ballistics charts STOP at 200 for the 7.62x39)
"One Special Forces commando stated that the lawyers are risking lives in Iraq because of confusing written rules on when troops can fire weapons in "Escalation of Force" cases, that is, combat against insurgents and al Qaeda terrorists.
"Escalation of force is ridiculous over there," the commando said. "If an EOF occurs and a weapon is fired, it is to be reported so 'a 15-6 investigation' can be initiated."
An Army Regulation 15-6 investigation requires a commanding officer to gather evidence, interview witnesses and write a report every time a weapon is fired, a time-consuming and useless bureaucratic exercise in a war zone where numerous firefights take place almost every day"
This isn't a police department dealing with a high crime area. This is our military fighting in a war!
WHEN will the Beltway folks wake up to the reality that the only way to engage an enemy is the aggressive use of massively overpowering force designed to kill as many of the enemy as can be killed in the shortest time possible? Anything less and we are wasting our time,
The release of this information may actually prove beneficial. If it causes the ragheads to wonder about where the shot came from, knowing that this is not an unheard-of practice, then it accomplished exactly what it set out to do.
How can the same diameter bullet produce a different wound? Velocity, range, and the locations the bullets hit are going to vary wildly. I would seriously doubt that without a proper autopsy that they could tell the difference between any bullet in that size range. And they would definitely need the bullet,
The era that the author is referring to in the 1970's was the Jimmy Carter years, the head of the CIA at the time was Stansfield Turner. The 1990's brought us the Clinton's ... nothing more needs to be said.
Seems to me that this means our armorors have have accurized some AK-47s for this purpose. For urban use a 300 yard maximum range is plenty.
bump