Blackfive on the Times Square Bomb

Car bomb in Times Square by Pakistani Taliban?

Posted: 02 May 2010 10:34 AM PDT

Mr. Roggio at Long War Journal has some potentially very disturbing news if verified. He has sources in the Intel community that believe this was an attempt by elements of the Mehsud group to hit us at home.

A top Pakistani Taliban commander took credit for yesterday's failed car bomb attack in New York City.

Qari Hussain Mehsud, the top bomb maker for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, said he takes "fully responsibility for the recent attack in the USA." Qari Hussain made the claim on an audiotape accompanied by images that was released on a YouTube website that calls itself the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel.

The tape has yet to be verified, but US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal believe it is legitimate. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel on YouTube was created on April 30. Officials believe it was created to announce the Times Square attack, and Qari Hussain’s statement was pre-recorded.

The fact that the website and tape were prepared before the attempted bombing lends credence to the idea that the bastards claiming it are responsible. That is a particularly unwelcome development. The only upside is that the idiot making the claim is their top bomb maker and they can't even get a damn bomb to explode. I have made many types of improvised explosives including fertilizer bombs, briefcase bombs, shaped charges out of metal funnels and just about anything else we could think of. The tricky part is setting them off. It seems that the losers in the Taliban haven't managed to use their advanced civilization to generate much in the way of technology.

It is also telling that this attack may have come from the Taliban and not al Qaeda. If they have decided to move their fight out of the Hindu Kush it completely changes the calculus of our war against them. Those who argue we should simply ignore them, now have to contend with the fact that they have decided the battlefield extends to our front yard.

Since our PC government and officials here will do just about anything to avoid saying that our enemies are Muslim, it is left to the Telegraph in the UK to point out that the vehicle was parked in front of the offices of Viacom. Hmmm aren't those the same gutless weasels who failed to even show the likeness of Mohammed on South Park. Wouldn't that be ironic if even failure to do this resulted in a fatwa and a bomb?

May 20th is Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, don't forget.

Thunder Run From the Front

In today's From the Front: (Click on link to read stories highlighted below) This post is courtesy of The Thunder Run

Dispatches:
Katherine Tiedemann: Daily brief: Quetta hospital blast kills 12
Awful, Beautiful Life: You know the saying...
TIM HSIA: On Military Awards and Perceptions of Them
Charlie Simpson's War: Back in Kabul
IraqPundit: Troubling Picture
Bill Roggio: Effectiveness of US strikes in Pakistan "decreased 90 percent" since suicide strike on CIA
Dude in the Desert: 16 April 10
Rajiv Srinivasan: Bachibas
Rajiv Srinivasan: Putting the Seat Down
She Who Waits: Blah.
Joan D'Arc: The Big Bad Wolf
The Torch: Second verse, same as the first
Terry Glavin: The Forgotten Heroes From A Forgotten War
The Unknown Soldiers: Remembering laughter
Wings Over Iraq: On Clarity
Bruce R: On the latest allegations
The Captain's Journal: Withdrawal from Korengal
MAJ JF Sucher, MD: A Whisper
News from the Home Front:
IRS Grants Military Spouses Six-Month Extension to Pay 2009 Tax
Pentagon to adopt uniform rules on guns
Gates orders security fixes after Fort Hood case
VA claims backlog scrutinized
Attacks on Military Computers Cited
Marine Says He'll Continue to Post on Tea Party Facebook Page
AG: US to shut Guantanamo prison ‘as quickly as we can’

News from the Front
Iraq:
Guardsmen Perform Civic Duties in Iraq

Afghanistan:
IJC Operational Update, April 16
ANP, Coalition Medics Complete Phase I CLS Program
Up to six dead in attack targeting foreigners in Afghanistan
Afghan troops and foreigners killed in blast
Brits Feared Dead After Afghan Bomb Blast
3 foreigners, 3 Afghan soldiers killed in Kandahar bombings
US targets Pakistanis for funding Al Qaeda, Taliban
Hidden lair of the Taliban
Afghan officials accused of illegally detaining Italians over murder plot
Petraeus says raids on Afghan Taliban leaders on rise
20,000 US troops moved through Russia
Western countries ‘eyeing permanent bases’

The Thunder Run's From the Front is a daily series that highlights news and personal dispatched from the front and the home front.

'Collateral Murder' in Baghdad Anything But

'Collateral Murder' in Baghdad Anything But

Blackfive has more on this video and some insight.

Military.com has an article as well

Posted using ShareThis

Back At the House

The last three days were, to put it mildly, EFFFFING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is entirely too much to cram into just one post, so we'll be updating and posting for the next three, six, eight, 14 days...maybe. Cargosquid wil have a better post up shortly. He's actually turning into quite the little reporter and managed to embarass me only once all weekend. I however, tried to emabarass him at every turn. (its a Navy/Marine thing)

First, because I am a responsible conservative and have many many many many non-responsible liberals who need their mortgages paid, I had to work Thursday and Friday, so I missed the best Marine ever, Major Pain, who had to make a last minute trip back to where ever he had to make a last minute trip back to. (you really didn't think I was going to tell you did you? Some things are still sacred). He was on his way back Saturday night from where ever it was he went Friday, and my BFF, Mrs Diva, and I had a blast texting him while he was driving back and we were consuming Coronas and Bailey's. Anyway, I missed the one person I REALLY needed to talk to. Oh well, everything happens for a reason.

Friday night, I get to Arlington in time to see Bouhammer's lastest project, "At War".
Guys, let me tell you something: this film ROCKS THE HOUSE!!!!!!!! I can't wait to get my grubby little fingers on the DVD, which will be out sometime around the end of the summer. This movie has some great music, and features some kick-ass MLDK (Major League Door Kicker) Canucks who will forever be heroes in my mind. These guys are fearless. It also has some NG (National Guard) units from Utah, Oregon, and Washington state who are no slackers either. If you want to see the ground truth from Asscrackistan, this is the film to see. This blog will keep everyone updated on the release of the DVD.

After the movie, my LLNWL was glowing a steady red, so I schlepped outside to the balcony and my other favorite Marine and documentary film-maker JD Johannes was doing the same thing. (Ya'll remember Outside the Wire 07 which I blogged about after the 2007 CPAC.) JD has another one ready for ya. "Baghdad Happens". I have my copy. Its mine. NO ONE WILL GET THIS COPY. (I still can't find my copy of Outside the Wire...it's out on loan and making a circuit. It'll be home soon.)

So after JD and I re-acquaint ourselves, we grab some chow and I bout dropped my beer. Standing against the wall, looking very menacing, is none other than Bill Roggio. Holy Crap!!!!
THE MAN!!! (I actually met Bill at CPAC 2007 as well, and he remembered me. That always astounds me.) Bill and I start talking and I'm telling him about our rally in June, and he's onboard, and MAY, MAY be able to make it. So he asks about my background and I'm explaining how I got started with rallies and the Walter Reed/Code Oink incident and I say the words "Protest Warrior" and his eyes light up, he gets really animated and tells me how much he loves PW. (Bill is a Jersey boy, he's serious, he's Italian, and he was absolutely beside himself when code oink started their BS at WRAMC). He had heard about my exploits, and told me how much he appreciated what I did. How cool would it be to hear Bill Roggio tell stories about Iraq?

OK. I need some sleep. CS will have some more, including our little trip to Prince William County Sunday morning where, thanks to JP from milblogging.com, yours truly got to drive an APC and my A#1 USOGirl Jamie didn't. (neener neener)

More on the Wanat Ambush

Jeff Emanuel has a bit of insight you should check out.
The title link will take you to my post on the lazy media, the Tankerbabe link will take you to the article.

HUGE H/T to my buddy Tankerbabe for posting this.

"A multi-pronged militant assault on a small, remote U.S. base killed nine American soldiers Sunday in one of the deadliest attacks on U.S. troops since the 2001 invasion," crowed the Associated Press. "Militants fired machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from homes and a mosque in the village of Wanat in the northeastern province of Kunar, a mountainous region that borders Pakistan."

Three days before the attack, 45 U.S. paratroopers from the 173d Airborne, accompanied by 25 Afghan soldiers, made their way to Kunar Province, a remote area in the northeastern Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, and established the beginnings of a small Combat Outpost (COP). Their movement into the area was noticed, and their tiny numbers and incomplete fortifications were quickly taken advantage of.

A combined force of up to 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters quickly moved into the nearby village of Wanat and prepared for their assault by evicting unallied residents and according to an anonymous senior Afghan defense ministry official, "us[ing] their houses to attack us."Extremist activity is clearly thriving in Kunar, as Sunday morning's assault on the tiny, unfinished Combat Outpost demonstrated.

Perhaps the most important takeaway from that encounter, though, is the one that the mainstream media couldn't be bothered to pay attention long enough to learn: that, not for the first time, a contingent of American soldiers that was outnumbered by up to a twenty-to-one ratio soundly and completely repulsed a complex, pre-planned assault by those dedicated enough to their cause to kill themselves in its
pursuit.

That kind of heroism and against-all-odds success is and has been a hallmark of America's fighting men and women, and it is one that is worthy of all attention we can possibly give it.