Recently in War Category

Iraq Sniper Attacks US Troops.

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Government agents posing as rebels tricked a gang of armed desperados into handing over 15 hostages during a rendezvous deep in Colombia's unforgiving jungle.
Gen. Mario Montoya leads freed hostages across the tarmac Wednesday at the Bogota, Colombia, airport.

The Colombian government's bloodless rescue of the hostages Wednesday was the product of a perfectly executed ruse that depended on old-school spy games rather than high-tech gadgetry.

Agents spent months worming their way into the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, an insurgent force that has waged war on the Colombian state for 40 years, Gen. Freddy Padilla de Leon told CNN.

The agents gained the rebels' trust and rose to the top of FARC's leadership council as well as a team assigned to guard the hostages.

Read more...

Rifle Shoots Down Tree - Watch more free videos

I've already said a prayer for the victims, heroes, & the unsung heroes who are suffering long-term effects from the dust at ground zero.

Please support our troops... Hate the war, not our soldiers.

The PHaSR was developed for providing a non-lethal method in crowd control and immobilizing attackers. It does this by shooting low-powered laser beams that induces a temporary blinding effect on targets - kinda like stepping out into the light after spending some time in the dark.

via: Gotta Have One ? Archives ? US Air Force PHaSR Weapon

View the rest of the series at Yahoo!

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two teams of government investigators using fake documents were able to enter the United States with enough radioactive sources to make two dirty bombs, according to a federal report made available Monday.

The investigators purchased a "small quantity" of radioactive materials from a commercial source, according to a Government Accountability Office report prepared for Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican.

The investigators posed as employees of a fictitious company and brought the materials into the United States through checkpoints on the northern and southern borders, the report stated.

A GAO report observes that, while the Department of Homeland Security has made progress in deploying radiation-detection equipment at U.S. ports -- which include 670 portal monitors and more than 19,000 pieces of hand-held radiation detection equipment as of last December -- the agency's program goals are "unrealistic" and its cost estimate is "uncertain."

GAO's analysis concluded that the program may exceed its budget by $342 million.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/27/radioactive.smuggling/index.html

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- There is a call to repeal a cell phone tax most people probably don't even know they are paying, NewsChannel5 partner ONN reported.

Anybody who has ever tried to decipher a cell phone bill knows how tough it can be. One of the charges is a 3 percent fee on every cell phone bill in America. The origin of the tax predates the invention of the cellular phone by nearly a century.

Annie Brinkman and her friend, Stacey Lemle, don't know it, but every time they use their cell phones, they are supporting the war effort -- the Spanish-American War.

The 1898 war involved Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders.

The fee began as a luxury tax on phones at the turn of the 19th Century. And we're all still paying for it today.

Phone bills don’t specify that the tax originates from the Spanish-American War. It is labeled as the federal excise tax, which amounts to 3 percent of every monthly bill.

Read more: NewsNet5.com - Money - 3 Percent Fee On Cell Phones Started 107 Years Ago

via: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog

The Veteran Services Office in St. Johns County, Fla., is trying to unravel a mystery involving tombstones of seven veterans that were discovered being used as a walkway.

Joseph McDermott, the chief veterans services officer, is trying to locate anyone who might know where the headstones came from. They were found outside an abandoned mobile home two years ago.

He would like to return them to the graves of the men.

Five of the granite stones are from World War II veterans, one is for a serviceman from the Korean War and one is undetermined.

McDermott said attempts to locate the families or anyone who knows about the headstones have been unsuccessful. He has contacted local funeral homes and veterans officals in Washington.

The following information appears on the headstones:

Allen J. Brown, Army private, World War II, 1922-1993
Steve Btewton (may be a typo), Army private, World War II, 3-19-1971 - 4-14-1984
Clarence Dixon, Army corporal, World War II, 9-11-1912 - 2-11-1984
Thomas Edison Hadley Jr., Army rank unknown, World War II, 10-7-1922 - 12-30-1980
Isaac Samford Howell, private first class, branch unknown, World War II, 1907-1994
J.C. Purifoy, Army corporal, Korea, 1930-1993
James Singletary, Army rank and war unknown, 1878-1981

Anyone with information on the headstones is asked to call McDermott at (904) 823-2463.

http://www.wftv.com/news/5302604/detail.html

IFILM - Viral Videos: A Drive Through Mosul

Raw footage from a drive through Mosul, where danger is found at every turn.

A car bomb explodes, detonated by U.S. troops after it was discovered at the scene of the double car bombing in Baghdad, Iraq Thursday, April 14, 2005. The initial attack killed 18 and wounded three dozen, but no one was injured in this controlled explosion. The sign at left reads 'Keep Your City Clean' in Arabic.(AP Photo/Samir Mizban)

via: Yahoo! News - World Photos - AP

By bomb No. 9, the former baseball minor league shortstop had become a good luck-bad luck icon and the awe of his 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment patrolling the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad.

With a couple of weeks remaining in his second tour of duty in Iraq, the 26-year-old might be counting the days a little more closely than most and has become a seasoned, battle-hardened veteran of the laws of physics.

"When you hear the explosion, that's actually good," Stevens said, pointing out that because sound travels relatively slowly, hearing the blast means you have survived it. "It means you're still in the game."

Read more...