Feral Jundi

Friday, September 18, 2009

Industry Talk: Interview With AGNA Whistleblower John Gorman and How Congress Did Nothing About This in 2007!

   This is crap.  How is it that all of these politicians, to include key politicians currently on the wartime commission, knew exactly what happened in Kabul with this contract, and are now showing shock and dismay about it–two years later! This little tidbit of info, made the hearings that were on CSPAN the other day seem like a joke now.

   That is great you guys are trying to get down to the bottom of it now, but where was your outrage when this was first going on? Are you saying that it took pictures of a frat-style party, to awaken your inner responsibilities as leaders? And what committee is going to put these politicians on a stand, and ask them why they didn’t do anything about this in 2007?  Especially Shays. (I am still shaking my head on that one, as I remember watching Shays go off on Samuel during the hearing)

    Here at FJ, we have put blame on AGNA and State, but when Congress knew about this as well and did nothing about it at the time, then they are just as bad in my book.  The buck stops in DC, and this is certainly a prime example of poor leadership.

   Also check out the story below this interview.  Samuel Brinkley, VP of Wackenhut and in charge of this contract, could be in some trouble.  He swore up and down during the hearings that he just found out about this stuff in August of this year, and according to Gorman, he knew about it in July of 2008.  Interesting.

    Semper Fi John and Marie Anne, and good job! –Matt

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Interview with ArmorGroup Whistleblower John Gorman

John Gorman — Marine, Patriot, Whistleblower

By Marie Anne St. Jean

John Gorman, retired U.S. Marine, was hired by ArmorGroup (AGNA) in 2007 to support security at the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Numerous reports of AGNA activities are available elsewhere in the media, as well as my own articles here and here. John has previously provided a written press release as well as televised interviews with major networks, as seen here. With this interview, I’m allowing John Gorman to tell his story, what he believes needs to be said.

John, you and I go back several years. I remember how excited you were when hired by ArmorGroup to be the Camp Commandant in Kabul, to have this opportunity to once again serve your country. We never really hang up our uniforms, do we?

When you first reported AGNA’s shortfalls in 2007, what was your expected outcome? What do you think should have happened that didn’t?

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Weapons: The Amerikansky RPG-7 and Pump-action 40mm Grenade Launcher by Airtronic USA

     Talk about some interesting weapon systems? If the company needs a tester to shoot these things, I am available. (lol) Seriously though, the concern I have with the grenade launcher, is if there are any primer detonation issues with being set up in this configuration.  If the 40 mm rounds were flat, like shotgun shells, then I could see this not being a problem. Is this a valid concern? I don’t know enough about the weapon systems or the round used to make a valid assessment, so maybe an Airtronics representative can explain how this works?- Matt

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The Airtronic 40mm pump-action grenade launcher.

Review at Defense Review here.

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The Airtronic ‘Amerikansky’ RPG-7 (made in America!-hee hee)

Review of weapon here at Defense Review.

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Airtronic USA, Inc. website here.

Military News: Natick Camo Study and a Review By Soldier Systems Blog

    Interesting news and we will see how this goes.  I have personally thought that UCP was a terrible pattern for the areas of operation we are in right now. It works great for sage brush country though, and I highly recommend it for coyote hunting here in Boise, Idaho. It is also great for hiding on sofas. lol  But for Iraq or Afghanistan, I just don’t see it.

     Overall, my favorite pattern is the Desert MARPAT uniform for desert stuff. It looks like that is one of the top uniforms according to the Natick study as well. I own a combat jacket that is Desert MARPAT and it is great for work.  Although I would probably suggest getting a jacket with the quick dry shirts built in the main body of the shirt.  Those work great for body armor, and it looks like there are some fire resistant models coming out that will make that uniform even more sensible. (check out the Propper story below this one at the SS blog)

   If I was to match a pattern to our AO’s, I would say Desert MARPAT for Iraq and maybe Multicam for Afghanistan. But having one pattern for the troops, for all environments we fight in is just stupid.  Bravo to the Marines for at least recognizing the need for regional camo patterns for their troops and that is taking care of your people.

   One thing I would be interested in, is if Natick studies patterns that have been washed out over time?  Soldiers and Marines wear their uniforms for awhile out there, and the color contrasts change and get lighter on the uniforms.  Combat and field use tends to do that to a uniform.  So a study on what uniform works best when aged would be very cool. I know UCP gets really light blue looking when it gets old.

    I highly suggest putting Soldier Systems blog on your RSS reader, or whatever you use to track blogs and websites.  They are definitely equipment mavens and thanks to Matt for giving me the heads up. –Matt

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Soldier Systems

From Soldier Systems Blog

    Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or failing to read Soldier Systems Daily, you know that in response to Congressional calls for a new camo pattern for operations in Afghanistan, the Army announced that they would test two patterns in October. The Army Times obtained a Natick test report for a camouflage study conducted from 2007 – 2009 of 18 different patterns. This report has now been released by the Army to the press and Soldier Systems Daily has extracted some of the major points from this test report. This is the first in a series of reports that attempt to make some sense of the report and cut through much of the conjecture and hyperbole found on the internet.

Check out the blog and story here.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Law Enforcement: Why Can’t the FBI Identify the .30-Caliber Bullets From the Nisour Square Incident?

The FBI lab reports, obtained by the Associated Press from someone not involved in the criminal case, allow for both possibilities.

Investigators recovered .30-caliber bullets from a survivor, a Blackwater truck, and around Baghdad’s Nisoor Square. Scientists could not determine whether those bullets came from .30-caliber Blackwater machine guns.

The AK-47 rifles favored by many Iraqi insurgents also fire .30-caliber bullets.

*****

    This story is a little old, but I wanted to bring it up again because I would like some clarity on the issue from any law enforcement folks or even the FBI.  How the hell does a FBI lab not know what kind of bullet was used?  Ballistics forensics is a science, and there are numerous ways to tell what kind of bullets these are, and what kind of rifle they came from. And it looks like they had plenty of sources for those bullets, so what gives?

   It is also important to note that DoS required that all weapons used by Blackwater,  were strictly regulated by DoS.  That means weapons used by BW fired either the 5.56 mm or the NATO 7.62 x 51 bullets.  Using weapons that fire the Russian 7.62 x 39 or 7.62 x 54 round was prohibited, and those are the rounds used in insurgent weapons like the AK-47, Dragunov sniper rifle or PKM machine gun.

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Maritime Security: Spanish Tuna Boats to Hire Private Security

     Excellent news, and my hats off to the government of Spain in recognizing the fact that security for it’s fishing vessels requires more than just bad language or hoses and deck chairs.

    The right to defend yourself in international waters is something I support. When up against pirates armed with RPG’s, AK 47’s and PKM’s, it is totally reasonable for a vessel to contract the services of armed men to defend against that.  I also support posting military details on these vessels, if that vessel’s government has the resources to do that.  In this case, Spain has turned to the security contracting industry to help, and we will do just that.

    The alternative is to do nothing, and that is just unacceptable in my book. –Matt

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Spanish tuna boats to hire mercenaries

September 17, 2009

by Alan Harten

The Spanish government has announced that it will allow its tuna fleet of fishing vessels operating near Somalia to hire mercenaries, or as they put it “Private Security” services, to defend the fishing fleet as it goes about its business in the notoriously pirate infested waters of the Indian Ocean.

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