Saddam-Era Chemical Weapons in ISIS's hands - Wait, wha?!

So the popular talking point among opponents of the invasion of Iraq in the US is that "there were no WMDs". Someone might want to tell ISIS, which just recently too control of a Saddam-era chemical weapons complex in Iraq. Soooooo... kind of wondering how long this myth is going to continue to persist in the American public.

The jihadist group bringing terror to Iraq overran a Saddam Hussein chemical weapons complex on Thursday, gaining access to disused stores of hundreds of tonnes of potentially deadly poisons including mustard gas and sarin.
Isis invaded the al-Muthanna mega-facility 60 miles north of Baghdad in a rapid takeover that the US government said was a matter of concern.
The facility was notorious in the 1980s and 1990s as the locus of Saddam’s industrial scale efforts to develop a chemical weapons development programme.
Isis has shown ambitions to seize and use chemical weapons in Syria leading experts to warn last night that the group could turn to improvised weapons to carry out a deadly attack in Iraq.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of Britain’s chemical weapons regiment, said that al-Muthanna has large stores of weaponized and bulk mustard gas and sarin, most of which has been put beyond ready use in concrete stores.

Saddam-Era Chemical Weapons in ISIS's hands - Wait, wha?!

So the popular talking point among opponents of the invasion of Iraq in the US is that "there were no WMDs". Someone might want to tell ISIS, which just recently too control of a Saddam-era chemical weapons complex in Iraq. Soooooo... kind of wondering how long this myth is going to continue to persist in the American public.

The jihadist group bringing terror to Iraq overran a Saddam Hussein chemical weapons complex on Thursday, gaining access to disused stores of hundreds of tonnes of potentially deadly poisons including mustard gas and sarin.
Isis invaded the al-Muthanna mega-facility 60 miles north of Baghdad in a rapid takeover that the US government said was a matter of concern.
The facility was notorious in the 1980s and 1990s as the locus of Saddam’s industrial scale efforts to develop a chemical weapons development programme.
Isis has shown ambitions to seize and use chemical weapons in Syria leading experts to warn last night that the group could turn to improvised weapons to carry out a deadly attack in Iraq.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of Britain’s chemical weapons regiment, said that al-Muthanna has large stores of weaponized and bulk mustard gas and sarin, most of which has been put beyond ready use in concrete stores.

Ukraine 6/16: No Gas For You!

Russia has cut off the flow of gas to Ukraine, and is threatening the flow to the EU.

Russia cut off gas to Ukraine on Monday in a dispute over unpaid bills that could disrupt supplies to the rest of Europe and set back hopes for peace in the former Soviet republic.

After weekend violence that included the loss of 49 troops in the downing of a Ukrainian plane, Russia said Kiev missed a deadline for a $1.95 billion debt payment and it would now only get gas paid for in advance. It insisted that Ukraine must also ensure that it lets Russian gas flow through its international pipelines to Moscow's clients in the European Union.

Kiev and Moscow blamed each other for the failure to agree overnight on the price of future gas deliveries and refused to abandon well established positions: Russia offering a discount and Ukraine rejecting that as a tool for political manipulation.

The talks are bound up with the worst crisis between Russia and Ukraine since the Soviet Union collapsed and rising tensions over Saturday's shooting down of the aircraft by pro-Russian separatists in the east, an attack on the Russian embassy in Kiev and Western charges that Russia is arming the rebels.

"Thanks to the unconstructive position of the Ukrainian government, today a prepayment system was introduced," Alexei Miller, the chief executive of Russian state exporter Gazprom, told Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev during a somber meeting at a government residence at Gorki, outside Moscow.

He said Ukraine had "adopted a position that can only be called blackmail", adding: "They wanted an ultra-low price."

Happy Birthday to the US Army

On this day in 1775, the US Army was founded. Been kicking ass ever since.

The June 14 date is when Congress adopted "the American continental army" after reaching a consensus position in The Committee of the Whole. This procedure and the desire for secrecy account for the sparseness of the official journal entries for the day. The record indicates only that Congress undertook to raise ten companies of riflemen, approved an enlistment form for them, and appointed a committee (including Washington and Schuyler) to draft rules and regulations for the government of the army. The delegates' correspondence, diaries, and subsequent actions make it clear that they really did much more.

Looking back over 5 years of GrogNews, what's the US Army story that most sticks with you?

By: Brant

Remembering "Tear down this wall!"

Today is the anniversary of the President Reagan's famous Tear down this wall! speech in West Berlin in front of the Brandenburg Gate. The complete text can be found here.

There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

2-1/2 years later, the wall was down.


Even Pink Floyd got into the act.



By: Brant

Another Chinese Army Hacker Unit ID'ed

Looks like the US has ID'ed a 2nd Chinese Army "Unit" that exists primarily for hacking.

The email attachment looked like a brochure for a yoga studio in Toulouse, France, the center of the European aerospace industry. But once it was opened, it allowed hackers to sidestep their victim’s network security and steal closely guarded satellite technology.

The fake yoga brochure was one of many clever come-ons used by a stealth Chinese military unit for hacking, said researchers at CrowdStrike, an Irvine, Calif., security company. Their targets were the networks of European, American and Japanese government entities, military contractors and research companies in the space and satellite industry, systematically broken into for seven years.

Just weeks after the Justice Department indicted five members of the Chinese army, accusing them of online attacks on United States corporations, a new report from CrowdStrike, released on Monday, offers more evidence of the breadth and ambition of China’s campaign to steal trade and military secrets from foreign victims.

The report, parts of which The New York Times was able to corroborate independently, ties attacks against dozens of public and private sector organizations back to a group of Shanghai-based hackers whom CrowdStrike called Putter Panda because they often targeted golf-playing conference attendees. The National Security Agency and its partners have identified the hackers as Unit 61486, according to interviews with a half-dozen current and former American officials.

Sad Day in Afghanistan - 5 US Troops Dead in Fratricide Incident

Thoughts and prayers are with the families of 5 US troops killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.

Five Americans troops were killed in an apparent friendly fire incident in southern Afghanistan, a U.S. defense official said Tuesday, in one of the worst such incidents involving United States or coalition troops since the start of the nearly 14 year war.

The official insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly to journalists.

The U.S.-led international coalition said the service members were killed in an apparent friendly fire incident, which an Afghan official said took place in southern Zabul province. A statement said all five soldiers died on Monday but did not give further details on the attack or the nationality of the soldiers.

If confirmed, it would be one of the most serious cases involving coalition-on-coalition friendly fire during the war.

"The casualties occurred during a security operation when their unit came into contact with enemy forces. Tragically, there is the possibility that fratricide may have been involved. The incident is under investigation. Our thoughts are with the families of those killed during this difficult time," the coalition said in an announcement.

Anniversary: D-Day Heroes, 70 years later

The full story of Teesside D-Day hero Stan Hollis - Gazette Live

One of the first things Company Sergeant Major Stan Hollis recalled seeing on D-Day as he dashed onto Gold Beach on the Normandy coast was three tiny birds sitting on a roll of barbed wire.

The soldier next to him, looking up at the smoky, propeller-filled sky above, made a joke. ‘No bloody wonder they are there Sergeant Major, there’s no room in the air for them!’.

A few minutes later that same man was torn apart by an exploding mine. He was gone – the birds remained.

It is difficult to know what makes a hero. But the stark violence inflicted on an innocent man must have lit Stan’s touch paper and moments after that sight, Stan Hollis became one.

His heroic actions that day made him the only man among D Day’s 150,000-strong invasion to be awarded the Victoria Cross – the highest military medal given for valour in the face of enemy fire.

Twice he charged at the enemy single-handed, dodging bullets to save his men in what looked liked certain death missions.

Anniversary: D-Day, 70 years

(it helps when we change the post from "draft" to "publish")

Anniversary - Tiananmen Square, 25 Years Ago

(yes, we know this photo was actually from the next day, but it's the iconic one that everyone associates with Tiananmen Square, despite being the next day, and not actually in the square)

Reactions to the Bowe Bergdahl Release

Predictably, internal US politics have taken over every action by the government.

Several Republicans have spoken out against the deal, warning that it set a worrying precedent and amounted to negotiating with terrorists.

Mr McCain said the Taliban released were "possibly responsible for the deaths of thousands" and may have "the ability to re-enter the fight", in comments to CBS TV.

Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, Mike Rogers, told CNN that Washington had "now set a price" for al-Qaeda ransom threats.

Chuck Hagel: "No shots were fired - it went as well as it could have"
Questions were raised over the legality of the deal, after the Obama administration did not give Congress sufficient notice about the transfer of the Taliban detainees.

But US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, who is currently in Afghanistan, dismissed the criticism saying the military had to act quickly "to essentially save his life".

"We didn't negotiate with terrorists. Sergeant Bergdahl was a prisoner of war. That's a normal process in getting your prisoners back," he told NBC TV.

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Sgt Bergdahl's failing health had created an "acute urgency", making it "necessary and appropriate" not to adhere to the 30-day notification requirement.

The thing is, if they didn't make the deal, and it got out, you just know - I mean really know - that the republicans would've come out swinging at the administration for "abandoning" a soldier to the enemy.


Meanwhile, Whiny McBitchypants, AKA Hamid Karzai, is whining up a storm that he was cut out the dealmaking over the prisoner exchange, which likely contributed to its success.

The Afghan president is angry at being kept in the dark over a deal to free five Taliban leaders in exchange for a captured U.S. soldier, and accuses Washington of failing to back a peace plan for the war-torn country, a senior source said on Monday.

The five prisoners were flown to Qatar on Sunday as part of a secret agreement to release Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who left Afghanistan for Germany on the same day.

The only known U.S. prisoner of war in Afghanistan, Bergdahl had been held captive for five years.

"The president is now even more distrustful of U.S. intentions in the country," said the source at President Hamid Karzai's palace in Kabul, who declined to be identified.

"He is asking: How come the prisoner exchange worked out so well, when the Afghan peace process failed to make any significant progress?"

Maybe if he hadn't been an obstructionist asshole for 10 years, we'd be more willing to work with him.
Maybe if he hadn't torpedoed the peace process several times...
Maybe if he hadn't used NATO troops as his personal hit squad.
Maybe if he hadn't objected to the successful village defense forces program.
Perhaps if he hadn't stifled free political speech that was publicly encouraging him to do something he was going to do anyway.
Or if he hadn't bragged openly about how he "stuck it" to the US on a security deal.
Or was insulting us as we're trying to save his country.
It's not like he's got a great track record of not being a dick.

Welcome Home Bowe Bergdahl

Statement from Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on the return of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

A few hours ago, the family of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was informed by President Obama that their long wait for his return will soon be over. Sgt. Bergdahl is now under the care of the U.S. military after being handed over by his captors in Afghanistan. We will give him all the support he needs to help him recover from this ordeal, and we are grateful that he will soon be reunited with his family.

Also today, I informed Congress of the decision to transfer five detainees from Guantánamo Bay to Qatar. The United States has coordinated closely with Qatar to ensure that security measures are in place and the national security of the United States will not be compromised. I appreciate the efforts of the Emir of Qatar to put these measures in place, and I want to thank him for his instrumental role in facilitating the return of Sgt. Bergdahl.

Sgt. Bergdahl's return is a powerful reminder of the enduring, sacred commitment our nation makes to all those who serve in uniform. The United States government never forgot Sgt. Bergdahl, nor did we stop working to bring him back. I am grateful to all the military and civilian professionals ­ from DOD and our interagency partners ­ who helped make this moment possible, and to all those Americans who stood vigil with the Bergdahl family.