SOF

Russia Warns US Against Responding to Chemical Attack in Syria

The Russian envoy to the United Nations is urging the United States to avoid taking military action in response to the recent chemical attack in Syria.

“I would once again beseech you to refrain from the plans that you’re currently developing,” Moscow’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzia said on Tuesday.
He warned Washington that it will “bear responsibility” for any “illegal military adventure” it carries out.
But Western leaders say they have agreed to work together to target those responsible for the attack in Douma.
French President Emmanuel Macron said any strikes would target Syrian government chemical facilities.
US President Donald Trump has promised a “forceful” response, and he and his Defence Secretary, James Mattis, have cancelled travel plans this week.
Syrian opposition activists, rescue workers and medics say dozens of people died in a suspected chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Douma, in the Eastern Ghouta region.
President Bashar al-Assad’s government – which receives military backing from Russia – denies being behind any chemical attack.
The warning from Moscow came during a divided meeting of the UN Security Council which failed to pass any measures to set up an inquiry into the alleged attack.
As permanent members of the council, Russia and the US both have the power to veto. They both blocked each other’s proposals to set up independent investigations.
The US-drafted resolution would have allowed investigators to apportion blame for the suspected attack, while Russia’s version would have left that to the Security Council.
A team from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is due to deploy to Syria “shortly” to determine whether banned weapons were used in Douma.
But the OPCW will not seek to establish who was responsible for the attack.
US envoy Nikki Haley responded by calling the vote a “travesty”.
“Russia has trashed the credibility of the council,” she said.
“Whenever we propose anything meaningful on Syria, Russia vetoes it.”

President Trump canceled a planned trip to Latin America, giving rise to speculation that he’s planning a response with both France and the UK. A joint operation between the three nations could signal a response much larger in scope than previously anticipated.

To read the entire article from BBC, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Russians Jamming US GPS Signals for Drones in Syria

U.S. military surveillance drones operating in Syria are having their signals jammed by the Russian military, seriously affecting U.S. military operations, according to American officials.

The Russians began jamming some smaller U.S. drones several weeks ago, the officials said, after a series of suspected chemical weapons attacks on civilians in rebel-held eastern Ghouta. The Russian military was concerned the U.S. military would retaliate for the attacks and began jamming the GPS systems of drones operating in the area, the officials explained.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., reacted to the news of Russian scrambling Tuesday by saying “Russia wants to undermine our interests at every turn.”
“It is insane to think that Russia is anything but an adversary,” said Sasse.
Jamming, which means blocking or scrambling a drone’s reception of a signal from a GPS satellite, can be uncomplicated, according to Dr. Todd Humphreys, the director of the Radionavigation Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin.
“GPS receivers in most drones can be fairly easily jammed,” he said.
Humphreys, an expert on the spoofing and jamming of GPS, warns this could have a significant impact on U.S. drones, causing them to malfunction or even crash. “At the very least it could cause some serious confusion” for the drone operator on the ground if the drone reports an incorrect position or is lost, he said.
U.S. analysts first caught the Russian military jamming drones in eastern Ukraine four years ago, after the invasion of Crimea, according to Humphreys. He said the jammers were initially detected as faint signals from space, bouncing off the earth’s surface. The jammers “had a pretty significant impact” on the United Nations surveillance drones that were attempting to monitor the area, grounding the fleet for days and halting intelligence gathering from the air.

The U.S. won’t comment as to if the jamming has caused any drones to crash. However, the jamming appears to affect only the smaller reconnaissance drones and not the larger, armed MQ-1B Predator or Reaper drones.

To read the entire article from NBC News, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 3, Day 4

Shoulder work in the gym is the order of the day along with some speed work. The sprints will help with your overall cardio fitness, build explosion in your legs and will serve you well with your endurance. It is also a functional part of your job in Special Operations.

There will be plenty of times where you’ll have to sprint short distances with your gear on. It will test you in a different manner than a distance run. This is a system that some NFL teams use to increase their speed.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, behind the neck (go as heavy as possible)

3 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, front

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Front Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Shoulder Press

3 x 8 Shoulder Shrugs

40-Meter Sprint, walk back to the starting point

50-Meter Sprint, walk back to the starting point

60-Meter Sprint, walk back to the starting point

70-Meter Sprint, walk back to the starting point

80-Meter Sprint, walk back to the starting point

90-Meter Sprint, walk back to the starting point

100-Meter Sprint, walk back to the starting point

Stretch well after completion

It is Time For Strong Action Against Assad, And It Isn’t Just a US Issue

Opinion: Once again the Syrian forces of the dictator Assad have shown the world their true colors. The chemical attack on the civilians of Douma on April 7 wasn’t the first time that Assad has used chemical weapons on his own people, nor the second.

The videos that have surfaced have clearly shown why the civilized world has banned them and made the use of a war crime. And that is exactly what Assad is, he is a war criminal and guilty of crimes against humanity. The Russians and President Putin are just as guilty as they’ve supported and enabled this murderous regime.

Condemnation from across the world was swift but with the usual trite, weak wording that is ignored by leaders such as Assad. They only understand force and that is exactly what they should get. And it shouldn’t be, which thankfully seems to be the case, of just the United States, stepping up to the plate.

President Trump, never one to miss an opportunity to take to social media, stated in his typical “understated” fashion but correctly so, that the attack was an atrocity. And he called out the Russians, Iranians and even he pal Putin for “backing Animal Assad.”

But the U.S. isn’t alone this time, the French have stepped up to the plate. French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to join the United States in coordinating “ a strong, joint response” to these chemical attacks. It was France a century ago that was the site for so many of the chemical attacks during the First World War. So they know better than anyone the

Macron said the U.S. and France will coordinate their efforts within the United Nations Security Council in the emergency meeting scheduled for tomorrow (Monday, April 9) that was called for by the United States, France, Britain, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands, Kuwait, Peru, and Ivory Coast.

Trump promised Syria that there would be a big price to pay for yet another chemical attack on his own people. Late Sunday night, a Syrian airbase T-4 was hit with a missile attack. Syria immediately blamed the United States but the Pentagon issued a denial.

A spokesman released a message stating”at this time, the Department of Defense is not conducting airstrikes in Syria.”

“However, we continue to closely watch the situation and support the ongoing diplomatic efforts to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable,” the message added.

Not much later, Syrians withdrew their accusation at the U.S. However, the Russians called out Israel for launching missiles at Syria from Lebanon airspace using F-15 fighters. Syria then claimed that its air defenses shot down eight of the missiles. The Israelis are under no illusion that if Assad and his Russian and especially his Iranian support are willing to abet his gassing of his own people, know that they’ll do the same to the Israeli population. They hit the airbase, which not coincidentally houses Iranian troops. Something the Israelis insist that they will not abide, having the Iranians establish bases so close to their border.

Last year around this time, the U.S. launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Shayrat airfield after learning that Syrian government aircraft had departed from the airfield loaded with sarin gas for a chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhun. The Syrians and Russian denied that any chemical attack took place on Khan Sheikhun and that the U.S. fabricated it. This is despite the fact that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had come to the same conclusion, that Syria had carried out the attacks.

The Russians showed their hand in their duplicity by declaring since early March that the United States was going to try to frame Assad for an impending chemical attack. So they knew a month ago that chemical attacks were planned. But again, the town of Douma is besieged by Russian, Syrian and Iranian forces.

But thus far, the Russians won’t allow independent chemical investigators into the town of Douma to inspect the site of where a reported 100 civilians were killed in a chlorine gas attack. The only issue which could set a new precedent is that chlorine isn’t banned from the Chemical Weapons Convention that Syria signed.

While the European Union declared that an international response is called for against Russia and Syria for these chemical attacks, they’ve done nothing else…yet. But the French are stepping to the forefront. The latest attack is the “red line” that the Assad regime has crossed. France has threatened to carry out military strikes.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that “the use of chemical weapons is a war crime,” and added that France will “do its duty” once the chemical attack on Douma is verified. So what does the rest of the European Union and other countries have to say about this? This shouldn’t be a unilateral U.S. response. Most of the rest of the countries of the west have gotten a free ride for the past 70 years while Uncle Sam played the bad cop every time a rogue nation steps out of line.

The time for action is now and the rest of the United Nations needs to be heard. Chemical weapons are forbidden now and haven’t been used in European battlefields since World War I. The U.S. classifies them as weapons of mass destruction.

This isn’t the first or even the second time the Assad regime has poison gassed the people of Syria. As much as President Trump can be over the top with his social media proclamations, he’s right about this. Anyone who will poison gas their own people is nothing more than an animal.

So what will the U.N. do? Will they finally step up to the plate and do something worthy of its own name? Or will it revert to what it’s done for the last 70 years or so? And word some milquetoast proclamation that says little and does even less? I am not so sure but I’m guessing on the latter rather than the former.

Photo: Wikipedia

China Vows Military Action to Stop US Weapons Sale to Taiwan

Syria isn’t the only area of the world with escalating violence. In Asia, the Chinese have stated that they will use military action to stop any attempts to support of Taiwan, through U.S. weapons sales to the island nation.

The Chinese Ministry of Defense blasted the State Department’s recent decision to grant U.S. firms the marketing license to sell Taiwan technology necessary for building submarines. The move came at a tense time for U.S.-Chinese relations as President Donald Trump slapped new tariffs on his economic rival, prompting Beijing to do the same. Both sides warned of a potential trade war.
“China firmly opposes the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, this is clear-cut and consistent. Taiwan is a part of China. One-China principle serves as the political foundation for the China-U.S. ties,” ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Wu Qian said, according to the official China Military Online.
“China’s military has the ability and determination to defeat all attempts to separate our country, and will adopt all necessary measures to resolutely defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” he added.
As part of the One China Policy adopted by the U.S. in 1972, Washington only recognizes China’s mainland government. A civil war saw Communist fighters force the Nationalist Kuomintang leadership into exile in Taiwan, which China claims to be part of its republic. Trump has challenged this notion and controversially accepted a congratulatory call from the Taiwanese president shortly after winning the November 2016 election.
China’s Foreign Ministry urged the United States to avoid official contacts with Taiwan, end attempts to substantially improve relations and stop military contracts for arms sales “so that China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Straits will not be severely damaged,” spokesman Geng Shuang said Monday during a regular press conference.

Trump’s reversal of the existing policy and his decision to sell arms to Taiwan is a huge sticking point with the Chinese who are on the verge of major expansion. They recently set up their first military base outside their territory in Djibouti and now have plans for another in Vanuatu among others.

To read the entire article from Newsweek, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Trump: No Options Off the Table in Response to Syria Gas Attack

President Trump, minced no words on Monday as he said, the United States is pondering its options for a military strike against the rogue regime of President Assad in Syria. After Syrian forces gassed their own civilians in the city of Douma, Trump vowed that any country involved in the attack will “pay a price.”

As he began a Monday evening meeting with military leaders at the White House, Trump promised to “make a decision tonight or very shortly thereafter.” He said: “We have a lot of options militarily, and we’ll be letting you know pretty soon. Probably after the fact.”

The White House sharply rejected any suggestion that Trump’s own words about pulling U.S. troops out of Syria had opened the door for the attack, which killed more than 40 people, including children.
Trump, asked at midday whether Russian President Vladimir Putin bore any responsibility for the weekend attack, responded: “He may, yeah, he may. And if he does it’s going to be very tough, very tough.” He added: “Everybody’s gonna pay a price. He will. Everybody will.”
Then, during the meeting with top military leaders, he said the weekend assault “will be met and it will be met forcefully.” Those at the meeting included Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford.
Amid the tough talk at the White House, the U.S. military appeared to be in position to carry out any attack order. A Navy destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, was underway in the eastern Mediterranean after completing a port call in Cyprus. The guided missile destroyer is armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles, the weapon of choice in a U.S. attack one year ago on an airfield in Syria following an alleged sarin gas attack on civilians.

As the U.S. ponders its next move, tensions are getting higher between the U.S. and Russia, the highest since the days of the Cold War. President Trump reiterated that no stone will remain unturned. “If it’s Russia, if it’s Syria, if it’s Iran, if it’s all of them together, we’ll figure it out.”

To read the entire article from Chicago Examiner, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 3, Day 3

Continue to prep for the UBRR. Leg Day at the gym, our favorite with squats, the sled push, and some lunges. We’ll follow that with a three-mile run at a good pace, faster than the standard. Remember to stretch well before and after the run and to hydrate.

UBRR Training:

3 x Pullups 10 reps

3 x Squat 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x Goblet Squats 20-15-12 reps (lighter dumbbell)

3 x 10 Deadlifts

3 x 10 Sled push or Fireman’s Carry

3 x 10 reps Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 20 Sit-ups

3 x 25 Crunches

3-mile run (24 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

The Special Forces Branch is Created April 9, 1987

Today’s USSOCOM (United States Special Operations Command) operates in nearly 100 countries a day as Special Operations troops from all of the combined services do their part in defending U.S. interests abroad.

Special Operations troops are taking on the lion’s share of the fighting in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan as they are an integral part of the United States strategy for defeating our enemies there. But it wasn’t always that way. In fact, the command (SOCOM) is a relative newcomer to the U.S. military. The creation of the Special Forces branch for Army officers on April 9, 1987, was a big moment for SF and changed everything.

Special Forces was created in 1952 as former members of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) were assigned with paratroopers and Rangers from the Army to fill out the ranks of the 10th Special Forces Group headed by Colonel Aaron Bank.

OSS and SF were tasked with training, equipping and leading indigenous forces in the art of guerrilla warfare. The mission of the 10th according to Bank was to “to infiltrate by land, sea or air, deep into enemy-occupied territory and organize the resistance/guerrilla potential to conduct Special Forces operations, with emphasis on guerrilla warfare.”

Special Forces grew steadily and the new unit was heavily involved in Vietnam with Special Forces A-Teams spread all over the country and found themselves a tremendously loyal ally in the Montagnard people of the mountains in Southeast Asia. By the time the war was over, SF soldiers had earned (from SF Assn) 20 Medals of Honor, one Distinguished Service Medal, 90 Distinguished Service Crosses, 814 Silver Star Medals, 13,234 Bronze Star Medals, 235 Legions of Merit, 46 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 232 Soldier’s Medals, 4,891 Air Medals, 6,908 Army Commendation Medals and 2,658 Purple Hearts.

After the Vietnam war wound down, the military cut back on special operations forces and tried to build a large conventional force for a large European land battle with the Soviet Union. As a result, the Army lost numerous Special Forces groups, the 1st, 3rd, 6th and 8th Special Forces groups were deactivated. The 7th SFG narrowly escaped the ax as the Pentagon, never a fan of “specialized” or “elite” units tried to wipe the slate clean of them.

The Special Forces side of the house in the military was left with just three active duty groups. The 5th, 7th and the 10th. Ronald Reagan’s election and the debacle at Desert One in Iran would change all of that. During the attempted rescue of American hostages in Iran, an ad-hoc force of Delta Force commandos, Army Rangers and Air Force and Marine pilots failed because the pilots weren’t specifically trained for that type of mission.

The planning, training, and execution were set back because the services weren’t accustomed to working together and no unified command existed. The government finally learned that the U.S. military needed a dedicated Special Operations force that was capable of handling any issues that arose, complete with air assets dedicated to Special Operations missions.

The Pentagon and Congress learned what Special Operations troops had long known and later became one of the Command’s “truths” that they live by.

Competent Special Operations Forces cannot be created after emergencies occur.

The Army created a Career Management Branch for their enlisted soldiers (CMF 18) in 1984. Now Green Berets in Special Forces groups would no longer have to serve “command time” as senior NCOs in conventional assignments. The Special Forces tab, recognizing being a graduate of SF training was adopted in 1983.

But the officers who served in Special Forces were still in No-Man’s Land. Serving more than one tour in Special Forces for officers was considered career suicide. Staying in SF would result in achieving no more than a Colonel’s rank. And those were few and far between. Something had to be done.

One of the weak parts of a Special Forces A-Team was the XO or 2LT position. Too many of the LTs didn’t have enough of a conventional background or experience to be effective enough. Many of the LTs were former NCOs who had gone thru OCS but there weren’t enough.

So the Army created the Warrant Officer Program for Special Forces troops not long after the CMF 18 was created. The LT’s slot was cut from the A-Teams and the slots would be filled by senior Special Forces NCOs who went thru the Warrant Officer course, held at Ft. Rucker and Ft. Bragg.

Finally, on April 9, 1987, the Army created the Special Forces Branch for Commissioned Officers (18A). Once a Captain or 1LT promotable applied he could attend the Special Forces Qualification Course and upon successful completion would become part of the SF Branch.

The results were a much better, more capable and more experienced core of officers and enlisted men. Troops dedicated solely to Special Forces operations. No longer would officers stick around only long enough to “get their ticket punched” and be forced to move on to other assignments and career fields. During this time frame, both the 1st and the 3rd Special Forces Groups were reactivated and have served with distinction. The Special Forces Command has a group area oriented to every specific part of the world complete with language capability and culturally experienced troops that know their area of operations, the people, and many of the personalities involved.

The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria have put such a burden on the operational tempo (optempo) of the units that the Army authorized the 4th battalion for each of the Special Forces groups.

Today is a far cry from the lean years of the early-to-mid-1970s where Special Forces were on the brink of being eliminated by backward thinking officers. The troops today are overtasked as they’ve become a panacea by Washington to fix every problem that the country faces as they try to limit the amount of “boots on the ground” in the world’s hotspots.

But all of the SF troops come from the humble and austere beginnings of Aaron Bank and the original Special Forces troops formed on Smoke Bomb Hill in 1952.

Photo: US Army

TechVets Teaching Veterans About the Cyber Security Trade

For many veterans, the prospect of finding a good job is difficult when leaving the service as many of their skills don’t translate into the private sector.

Finally, something is being done about matching the skillsets of military veterans with technology and the skills shortage in cybersecurity.

In the past 12 months alone, there have been 15,000 service leavers adding up to a total 908,000 working age veterans in the UK of whom 220,000 are unemployed and inactive. Moreover, only 4% of veterans work in ICT, a figure that is 20% less than non-veterans.
This imbalance is matched by the drastic skills shortage in UK cybersecurity. According to a report by ESG and ISSA, 45% of organizations claim to have a problematic shortage of cybersecurity skills, 70% of cybersecurity professionals say the cybersecurity skills shortage has had an impact on their organization and 22% said their cybersecurity team was not large enough for the size of their organization.
A new social enterprise TechVets was recently launched in the UK with ths support of veteran influencers, investors and tech business leaders.
The not-for-profit initiative provides a bridge for veterans and service leavers into cyber security and technology to foster greater dialogue and creating connections between veterans and the technology and cyber security sectors, and to highlight the strong mutual benefits.
TechVets wants to support veterans and service leavers from Defence who would like to build on their transferable skills and develop new ones to operate and work in technology and cybersecurity sectors.
As well as providing free cyber-security training, TechVets is working with industry partners to secure employment for their cohort. TechVets will take no recruitment fees for this service.
TechVets will work closely with the UK government, the MOD’s the Career Transition Partnership, military charities, and industry champions to build the UK’s tech and cyber sectors with the unrealised human potential of the UK veteran community.
Those UK veterans and service leaders interested in joining the not-for-profits TechVets, can register at TechVets.co if they would like to join the first cohort for cyber training or get advice on how their experience and skillsets would be most valued.

This program in the UK relies on the veterans known qualities in leadership, problem-solving and crisis management that were forged in the military. U.S. companies should take note.

To read the entire article from Forbes, click here:

US Claims That It was Not Behind Missile Attack in Syria

Syrian state-run media has announced a missile attack early Monday morning on an airbase in Homs province. The Syrians pointed the finger at the U.S. for the attack on the T4 airbase where 14 people including Iranians were killed.

Russian officials claimed that the planes attacking the base were Israeli F-15s and that they shot down all of the missiles.

U.S. officials said the United States was not responsible for the strikes in Syria. The French news agency reports that France’s military has also denied responsibility for the strikes.
“However, we continue to closely watch the situation and support the ongoing diplomatic efforts to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable,” Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood said in a statement.
Syria has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons throughout the conflict that began in 2011, including the most recent suspected chemical attack Saturday in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus that killed at least 40 people.
Late Sunday, the White House said President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron strongly condemned chemical attacks in Syria and agreed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government “must be held accountable for its continued human rights abuses.”
“They agreed to exchange information on the nature of the attacks and coordinate a strong, joint response,” the White House said about a phone call between the two leaders.
Macron’s office added that the two sides “exchanged information and analysis confirming the use of chemical weapons.”
Trump further called for Syria to open the area of the alleged chemical attack to allow in verification and medical teams.
The Russian foreign ministry rejected claims of a chemical attack, saying, “The spread of bogus stories about the use of chlorine and other poisonous substances by (Syrian) government forces continues.
“We have warned several times recently against such dangerous provocations,” the Moscow statement said. “The aim of such deceitful speculation, lacking any kind of grounding, is to shield terrorists and to attempt to justify possible external uses of force.”

The attack in Ghouta where hundreds of families were gassed in their basements came hours after the Syrian government supposedly reached an agreement with the rebel forces there to exchange prisoners and leave the city.

Trump in a rare rebuke of Putin lashed out at him and Russia for the support of “the animal Assad” and vowed that there would be “a big price to pay” for the attack.

To read the entire article from Voice of America, click here:

Photo courtesy AP