Tip from Afghanistan...you will not believe what's really going on

Obama commissions Hollywood pic on OBL Raid
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - August 6, AD 2011 9:48 PM MST

Yep. Published this very day, written by uber-leftist Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. The Obama regime has commissioned a major motion picture about the fake Bin Laden raid. The film will be released . . . October 12, 2012.

Guys, we're into full-blown Leni Riefenstahl territory now.

Here's the link to the Dowd piece. I am linking to page 2 of 2 because that's where the stuff about the movie is, but do read the whole thing.

Read up.

Money quotes:

The White House clearly blessed the dramatic reconstruction of the mission by Nicholas Schmidle in The New Yorker — so vividly descriptive of the SEALS' looks, quotes and thoughts that Schmidle had to clarify after the piece was published that he had not actually talked to any of them.

(snip)

The White House is also counting on the Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal big-screen version of the killing of bin Laden to counter Obama's growing reputation as ineffectual.

The Sony film by the Oscar-winning pair who made "The Hurt Locker" will no doubt reflect the president's cool, gutsy decision against shaky odds. Just as Obamaland was hoping, the movie is scheduled to open on Oct. 12, 2012 — perfectly timed to give a home-stretch boost to a campaign that has grown tougher.

The moviemakers are getting top-level access to the most classified mission in history from an administration that has tried to throw more people in jail for leaking classified information than the Bush administration.

It was clear that the White House had outsourced the job of manning up the president's image to Hollywood when Boal got welcomed to the upper echelons of the White House and the Pentagon and showed up recently — to the surprise of some military officers — at a CIA ceremony celebrating the hero SEALs.

Is this why Matt Damon is currently sporting a buzzcut? Hmmmm.

Update: Bin Laden Raid Story Being Debunked
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - August 6, AD 2011 8:04 PM MST

Via BigPeace.com, the widely read cover story published in the New Yorker on August 1 by Nicholas Schmidle supposedly detailing the entire Bin Laden raid is being exposed as a fraud. And if you read the debunking piece linked below, you will see that the author C. Christine Fair is no conservative and even calls anti-sharia legislation in the U.S. "ludicrous and shameful." If you aren't familiar with the New Yorker magazine, it is an uber-liberal mouthpiece for the Obama regime.

Read up.

Tip from Afghanistan
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - August 7, AD 2011 6:57 AM MST

I received a tip from a soldier stationed with an aviation brigade out of Jalalabad overnight.

"Almost immediately, after news of the crash began to spread, we were placed in an internet and phone blackout. This means communication with family, friends and "others" back home, in real time, is prevented until further notice.

However, there are also chinook pilots, crews and mechanics assigned here who were privy to the details of the crash almost immediately. One of confirmed details they have been discussing is that the chinook shot down belonged to a National Guard unit. Which is causing people to whisper in astonishment, "why were some of the most elite of America's military, in such large numbers, tooling around on a National Guard aircraft?"

Also, those around me are wondering why such a large number(extremely unconventional for Seals, Green Berets, etc) of them riding in a single aircraft instead of being spread out into numerous aircraft.

Without question, I mean no disrespect to the pilots and crew of the National Guard aircraft, but the fact is that it's very "strange" that Seals would be conducting an actual mission, with such large numbers, in such a basic aircraft. Especially, given the fact, that there were special operation chinooks easily available, and sitting idle, when this tragedy took place."

I am not a journalist. I have no means of checking this. But SOMEONE needs to investigate if in fact the SEALS were on a National Guard helo, if there were SPECOPS Chinooks available and idle, and what the difference in armament is between Guard Chinooks and SPECOPS Chinooks. This potential difference in armament is HUGE and could account for the possibility of the Chinook being shot down by an RPG, if that is what happened.

Hello? Journalists? Anyone out there?

UPDATE: The SPECOPS Chinook is a very different beast that is heavily upgraded with enhanced survivability features. It is the Boeing MH-47E/G. Boeing's Homepage for the SPECOPS chinook here. The soldier quoted above contends that the SEALS were NOT in one of these units, but rather in a standard Chinook while these SPECOPS Chinooks were available and sitting idle. Again, a JOURNALIST needs to confirm this.

UPDATE 2 (From a reader):

Ann,
You are on to something here. I was in the 160th 1982- 1985 and I can tell you that the reason the aviation wing was created was so special ops would never again have to fly missions with anyone other than their own pilots and birds.

UPDATE 3 (From a reader):

Ann, I'm sure you're getting a lot of notes on the Chinook debacle. I'm retired USAF familiar with how the system works when it comes to the questions asked by your Jalalabad contact. First, look to the Command Authority. Dispersion protocols are almost never broken except on direct order up the chain high enough that nobody could question or refuse the order without jeopardizing their career. Second, 'who benefits'? Follow the trail of beneficiaries to the incident. Tactically, intell had to be passed to the shooters as to the timetable. I'm willing to bet that there were several RPG's (if not Stinger's - remember, we provided quite a few and never kept a record during the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan) involved. Then, once fired, the shooters had to egress unseen to fight another day. Many people I know, including some recently back from that area say this stinks to high Heaven, as you do.

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On U.S. Stinger Missles in Afghanistan
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - August 7, AD 2011 3:49 PM MST

No, the Chinook could not have been shot down with a 1980s-era Stinger supplied by the U.S. when the Soviets were in Afghanistan. It turns out that U.S. Stingers were designed to have an "expiration date" after which they became useless and inert. The seeker head of the U.S. Stinger contained a coolant that degraded over time. All U.S. Stingers in Afghanistan are long since inert. The risk today in Afghanistan are the Russian "Grail" and French "Mistral" MANPADS (Man Portable Air Defense Systems).

Following up on the RPG question, we have lost only one (that I can find) SPECOPS Chinook to RPG fire, and that incident saw the RPG shot go inside the cabin of the SPECOPS Chinook through an open hatch. It was a Golden BB shot. That tells us that the SPECOPS Chinooks are extremely resilient and have high combat survivability. The SPECOPS Chinooks are like a heavily armored Brinks truck. A standard National Guard Chinook would be analogous to a FedEx truck by comparison. You never pack 25 SEALs into one helo as a point of dispersion protocol, as stated by a reader below. I have been told that a MINIMUM of three helos would normally be used for a group of that size. And IF they were indeed in a standard National Guard Chinook and not a SPECOPS Chinook, that would be like rolling out in a FedEx truck with your extremely precious cargo.

(Every human being is infinitely precious, but we can all agree that from a battlefield standpoint, SEALs are "tactically precious.")

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Confirmed: It was A National Guard Chinook & Crew
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - August 7, AD 2011 6:17 PM MST

From the obituary of Sgt. Patrick Hamburger who served in the Nebraska National Guard as a Chinook Helicopter crewman and crew chief. The family was notified at 5:00pm CDT Saturday afternoon.

Link Here.

From the article:

Sources from the US military say the giant NATO chopper was called into action as backup. A team conducting a night raid on Taliban fighters was in trouble and the chopper went down as it arrived to help. . .

Requiescat in pace, Sgt. Hamburger, and all the fallen dead.

Sgt. Hamburger had JUST ARRIVED in Afghanistan a couple of days ago. Why was a green National Guard unit flying backup for DEVGRU SPECOPs??????? Where was the 160th SOAR backup??????

My God.

UPDATE: Additional confirmation that it was a CH-47 transport helo. Copy and paste this URL: www.1011now.com/home/headlines/Lincoln_Native_Killed_in_Afghanistan_Helicopter_Crash_127089778.html

What in the HELL was a CH-47 TRANSPORT helo doing in a DEVGRU combat theater???? FILLED WITH 25 SEALS??????? If the SEALs' MH-47G SPECOPS Chinook that they rode in on was taken out in the Tangi theater, where is the fallen MH-47G helo itself? Shouldn't there also be dead crew members from the 160th SOAR, which is an Army unit? This ain't right, people. I'm telling you. This is NOT RIGHT.