Feral Jundi

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Film: The Project, By Shawn Efran And Adam Ciralsky

Now this looks like a cool documentary and it will be interesting to see the reaction to this film? It definitely has an interesting cast of characters that were interviewed for the film or were actual participants. Specifically, the folks from SCS and the good work they did to train and stand up the PMPF. Here is a quote from below.

Cast: Roger Carstens, Erik Prince, Lafras Luitingh, Rudolph van Heerden, Michael Shanklin, Matthew Bryden

What will really be cool is if they were actually able to capture some of the hostage rescue missions that the PMPF performed, with the help of Roelf van Heerden and his men. –Matt

 

The Project

The scourge of Somali piracy has been devastating the Middle East and North African shipping industries for nearly a decade. As a country with no functioning central government for over twenty years and no military training permitted under UN sanctions, Somalia has been largely powerless to curb the increasingly bold and violent actions of the pirates. Enter the Puntland Maritime Police Force, a secret paramilitary group of mercenary pirate hunters. Initially so undertrained and malnourished that members broke their own legs during marching exercises, the PMPF grows its numbers and hones its tactics under the watchful eye of former U.S. Army Special Forces operative Roger Carstens. It ultimately faces mutiny, death and political infighting in a dangerous quest to pull off the impossible: waging an epic battle on the high seas to rescue dozens of innocent hostages.

Featuring interviews with controversial Blackwater founder Erik Prince and the UN’s arms embargo monitor Matt Bryden, along with shocking firsthand footage from filmmakers embedded within the PMPF, The Project is a gripping, real-life war thriller exposing an unknown, anything-goes battle for control of the seas in one of the most dangerous places on earth.
—Cara Cusumano
Film Information Collapse
2013 | 90 minutes | Documentary Feature
Directed by: Shawn Efran and Adam Ciralsky
Language: English

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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Massachusetts: The Boston Marathon Bombings

My heart goes out to the victims and dead, to the friends and family members of the victims and dead, and to the first responders and bystanders that stepped up to help.

I do not really have a lot of input on the attack. I think what is interesting though is that no one has claimed responsibility yet, which might indicate that we are dealing with an individual or a pair that put this together, and not an organization. If I had to speculate, my guess is that this is domestic terrorism, but you never know?

This attack is not particularly complex, and whomever the bomber was, could have easily put this attack together on their own. All of the components used in this IED would not really flag the individual prior too this attack. In the US, gunpowder or fertilizer is very easy to purchase (speculation). Pressure cookers can be bought anywhere, as can backpacks. There are plenty of videos and news broadcasts of attacks just like this one that came out of places like Iraq or Afghanistan, that a bomber could learn from and copy. The amount of information on such topics is all over the internet.

On that note, authorities are in the process of pouring over the thousands of images and film taken with cellphone cameras and other devices that people had taken at the time. Someone had to have seen the bomber place the backpacks into those trash cans. There is even a time period when the backpack was placed, based on the IED sweep done by authorities prior to and during the race. Here is the quote:

Officials swept the area for bombs twice before the explosions; one of the sweeps occurred an hour before the bombs went off. People were able to come and go freely, and carry items in and out of the area. More than 5,700 runners had yet to cross the finish line at the time of the explosions.

I hope they are able to catch them, and please, if you think you might have seen something of interest here, contact the FBI. –Matt

 

 

Boston Marathon bombings (from wikipedia)
Two bombs exploded at the 2013 Boston Marathon on the afternoon of April 15, 2013, injuring spectators, runners, and others near the finish line. The improvised explosive devices exploded about 12 seconds apart at 2:50 p.m. EDT (18:50 UTC) along Boylston Street west of Copley Square. The blasts killed 3 people and injured at least 183 others.
No suspects have been named, and there have been no arrests or claims of responsibility for the attack. President Barack Obama announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating the bombings as an act of terrorism.
Bombings
On Patriots’ Day, Monday, April 15, 2013, the annual Boston Marathon was held with no indications of an imminent attack. Officials swept the area for bombs twice before the explosions; one of the sweeps occurred an hour before the bombs went off. People were able to come and go freely, and carry items in and out of the area. More than 5,700 runners had yet to cross the finish line at the time of the explosions.

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Friday, April 5, 2013

Industry Talk: Equipment Drawdown From Afghanistan An ‘Enormous’ Undertaking

Filed under: Afghanistan,Logistics — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 10:13 PM

And contractors will be a very important part of that drawdown, much like they were in Iraq. The problem with Afghanistan though is how difficult it will be to actually get this stuff out of the country, just because it is a landlocked nation and the roads out of town are through some rough and dangerous country. At least Iraq had easier roads to navigate on and plenty of port access.

What is interesting with this deal is the decision making process to ship the item or leave it in Afghanistan for whomever– all because of cost. How much stuff they leave in this country is the question, and I imagine it will be quite a bit. –Matt

 

Equipment drawdown from Afghanistan an ‘enormous’ undertaking
By Hendrick Simoes
March 23, 2013
With the pace of NATO’s drawdown from Afghanistan accelerating, the international coalition is faced with the unprecedented task of removing tens of thousands of tons of equipment and vehicles from a country still very much at war.
For the U.S. military, moving 35,000 vehicles and 95,000 shipping containers full of cargo to various bases in America or overseas is easier said than done.
Maj. Gen. Kurt Stein, commander of the 1st Theater Sustainment Command, said during a visit to Kuwait last month that getting the supplies and equipment out of Afghanistan will be an “enormous” mission.
“It will be historic, it’s nothing like we have ever done in the history of our military.” The 1st TSC has a leading role in the equipment drawdown, or as they refer to it — “retrograde.”
Afghanistan is landlocked, and transit routes to the nearest seaport in Pakistan are long, politically tenuous and vulnerable to attack. The alliance’s northern supply route, snaking overland through Central Asia and Russia to Poland and the Baltics, also is difficult due to the logistics of coordinating truck and rail transport.
Stein, who also oversaw the pull-out of equipment from Iraq, said there could be no comparison between the complexity of the two operations.

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