Free Republic

They connect via online services — especially Twitter — and in everyday life. Their ages range from 15 to 47, and their roles range from cheering attacks to plotting violence. And curbing their growth is a dynamic challenge without a simple solution: There are currently 900 active investigations into ISIS sympathizers in every American state. Those are some of the findings of a new study that glimpses life "inside the bubble of American ISIS sympathizers, a diverse and diffuse scene that the FBI estimates include hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals." Titled "ISIS in America: From Retweets to Raqqa," the...

The U.S. came within seconds of launching a nuclear strike on Russia ,unleashing WW3 during the coldest period of the Cold War, according to secret documents revealed by a historian. Washington and Russia came extremely close to a massive nuclear war because of a faulty 46-cent component that caused a computer glitch, according to the documents. The secret documents were revealed and detailed in a book by American author Eric Schlosser titled Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety. The documents include over 1,000 accidents with nuclear weapons that occurred due to the negligence...

By the middle of this decade, a new command and control system will provide U.S. Army air defense forces with an extended view of the airspace over a battlefield. The capability will integrate the service’s sensors and weapons into a single network, allowing each platform to perform to its maximum abilities while minimizing operational weaknesses. Commanders will be able to access data quickly from any sensor on the network and order any weapon to engage a target. The Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS) program will connect Army forces with a network-centric architecture for air defense...

The calamity in the Gulf has the markings of the disaster that led to the demise of the Soviet Union. Our federal government led by our god-like president, an omnipotent structure in the starry eyes of many, shows itself to be an incompetent, uncoordinated monster, capable only of interfering with productive efforts to salvage our coastlines and livelihoods. The once-Olympian Obama is reduced to a sniveling nebbish bemoaning his inability to suck it all up with a straw. The whole spectacle is too familiar to anyone who's ever tried to develop a productive enterprise. Such people see the same bureaucratic...

The Israel Air Force has installed a command and control system to help respond to an enemy missile strike. Officials said the Air Force has installed the Magnet system in all bases. They said Magnet, which links to radar and sensors, facilitates the rapid transfer of data to military headquarters. "The new system can send a warning regarding missiles hitting any base through a message on the screen," Maj. Itzik Ben-Simon, an Air Force operations chief, said. "Until now, the alerts were relayed by phone from the control cell in Tel Aviv." Officials said Magnet has included a computerized operations...

Report of John Loftus WABC radio Batchelor Alexander Program 'Retired' Russian generals Atelov and Matsov have been in charge of Iraqi command and control. That is why no communications from Iraqi command and control have been intercepted since the start of the war. The Russians have been directing everything. The Russian convoy headed for Syria with the Russian ambassador was shot up (30 minute gunfight) because the secret communications equipment was being taken out. This equipment uses encryption that connects with the Russian equivalent of NSA. When asked whether US forces seized any equipment John Loftus said: "No comment". With...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Apr 19, 2003 (Knight Ridder Washington Bureau - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- Iraqi military commanders, certain they could never counter overwhelming American air power, thought they could defeat the United States by making a bloody stand for Baghdad that would so sicken the American public that the United States would withdraw its troops and go home. So Iraqi field commanders were surprised April 8, as they were preparing to battle American incursions into the capital, when they were ordered to withdraw and return to their bases north of the city, according to an Iraqi major...

THE commanding officer of the RAF’s Dambusters spoke yesterday of his pride when his pilots were given the honour of leading the aerial bombardment against Saddam Hussein - on the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Second World War bomber squadron. Wing Commander Dave Robertson and the crews of 617 Squadron fired Britain’s new super bomb, "Storm Shadow", in precision attacks on Iraqi command and control bunkers in and around Baghdad, marking the start of the "shock and awe" phase of the war. "It was absolutely incredible," he recalled yesterday after the first of the air crews from the...