High-res Data Sharing: Image of French High-Explosive Anti-Tank Submunition. This is an mage of the family of subs covered in this, which went with that, which detailed the discovery of French-made cluster munitions in the stockpiles of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya. A similar variant of this weapon had been transferred to North Africa by France, which later became… …a party to the international Convention on Cluster Munitions, and the nation that prodded the West into joining the war against Colonel Qaddafi. [The submunitions were]….formerly sold by Alkan SA, of Valenton, apparently with design or manufacturing assistance from Société E. Lacroix, (now part of the Etienne Lacroix Group), of Muret. The image above is of the anti-vehicular variant, which holds a shaped-charge.  The variant found in Libya was designed for what military euphemisms call an “anti-personnel” role, as below: Type 314 A AV submunitions are air-dropped cylinders containing a high-explosive fill around a metal fragmentation coil, which ruptures into shrapnel when the fill explodes, via a time fuze. They were designed to be dropped in bunches from large beehive-like canisters, also once manufactured by Alkan SA, that were mounted on the wings or fuselage of aircraft. Crew members could fire the bomblets electrically, releasing sheets of grenades from the canister’s honeycomb of slots as the aircraft approached a target, scattering the submunitions toward the ground, where they were intended to kill people and disable light vehicles. France was hardly alone in selling this class of weapons to the Qaddafi military; China, the Soviet Union and Spain sold cluster munitions to Libya, too.  The HEAT version above was reportedly found in Iraq after the 2003 American-led invasion. The anti-personnel variant, Type 314 A AVs, are rarely encountered, though many were kicked out of their storage bunkers in Libya’s Nafusa mountains when the bunkers were hit by NATO air strikes. Wouldn’t it be nice if NATO, or France, helped clean them up? ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH By the author. Today. At Jeff Osborne’s Bombitorium. (Thank you, Jeff.)

Data Sharing: Image of French High-Explosive Anti-Tank Submunition.

This is an mage of the family of subs covered in this, which went with that, which detailed the discovery of French-made cluster munitions in the stockpiles of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya.

A similar variant of this weapon had been transferred to North Africa by France, which later became…

…a party to the international Convention on Cluster Munitions, and the nation that prodded the West into joining the war against Colonel Qaddafi. [The submunitions were]….formerly sold by Alkan SA, of Valenton, apparently with design or manufacturing assistance from Société E. Lacroix, (now part of the Etienne Lacroix Group), of Muret.

The image above is of the anti-vehicular variant, which holds a shaped-charge.  The variant found in Libya was designed for what military euphemisms call an “anti-personnel” role, as below:

Type 314 A AV submunitions are air-dropped cylinders containing a high-explosive fill around a metal fragmentation coil, which ruptures into shrapnel when the fill explodes, via a time fuze. They were designed to be dropped in bunches from large beehive-like canisters, also once manufactured by Alkan SA, that were mounted on the wings or fuselage of aircraft. Crew members could fire the bomblets electrically, releasing sheets of grenades from the canister’s honeycomb of slots as the aircraft approached a target, scattering the submunitions toward the ground, where they were intended to kill people and disable light vehicles.

France was hardly alone in selling this class of weapons to the Qaddafi military; China, the Soviet Union and Spain sold cluster munitions to Libya, too.  The HEAT version above was reportedly found in Iraq after the 2003 American-led invasion.

The anti-personnel variant, Type 314 A AVs, are rarely encountered, though many were kicked out of their storage bunkers in Libya’s Nafusa mountains when the bunkers were hit by NATO air strikes. Wouldn’t it be nice if NATO, or France, helped clean them up?

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH

By the author. Today. At Jeff Osborne’s Bombitorium. (Thank you, Jeff.)

Straight-Faced Shilling, and a Media Fail. A report by the Public Accountability Initiative unspools the connections of many voices that advocated military intervention in Syria to manufacturers that stood to benefit from arms sales or other contracts related to such military action. Along the way, it lays bare as well the defense-industry connections of many supposedly independent think tanks that inform public discourse on American military activities. Stephen Hadley, above, was lead example. Bold-face below added for emphasis of a key point. During the public debate around the question of whether to attack Syria, Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser to George W. Bush, made a series of high-profile media appearances. Hadley argued strenuously for military intervention in appearances on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and Bloomberg TV, and authored a Washington Post op-ed headlined “To stop Iran, Obama must enforce red lines with Assad.” In each case, Hadley’s audience was not informed that he serves as a director of Raytheon, the weapons manufacturer that makes the Tomahawk cruise missiles that were widely cited as a weapon of choice in a potential strike against Syria. Hadley earns $128,500 in annual cash compensation from the company and chairs its public affairs committee. He also owns 11,477 shares of Raytheon stock, which traded at all-time highs during the Syria debate ($77.65 on August 23, making Hadley’s share’s worth $891,189). Despite this financial stake, Hadley was presented to his audience as an experienced, independent national security expert. Though Hadley’s undisclosed conflict is particularly egregious, it is not unique. The following report documents the industry ties of Hadley, 21 other media commentators, and seven think tanks that participated in the media debate around Syria. Like Hadley, these individuals and organizations have strong ties to defense contractors and other defense- and foreign policy-focused firms with a vested interest in the Syria debate, but they were presented to their audiences with a veneer of expertise and independence, as former military officials, retired diplomats, and independent think tanks. Most anyone who examines weapons and their effects knows the Tomahawk is an overrated system (in part because it is a media darling, related to this kind of sales campaign), and that its use has been the source of enduring American government falsehoods (cf, Yemen, Dec. 2009).  A hat tip to PAI for pointing to the repeated appearance of a director of the Tomahawk manufacturer advocating, in essence, for more Tomahawk use. ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH From the WSJ.

Straight-Faced Shilling, and a Media Fail.

A report by the Public Accountability Initiative unspools the connections of many voices that advocated military intervention in Syria to manufacturers that stood to benefit from arms sales or other contracts related to such military action.

Along the way, it lays bare as well the defense-industry connections of many supposedly independent think tanks that inform public discourse on American military activities.

Stephen Hadley, above, was lead example. Bold-face below added for emphasis of a key point.

During the public debate around the question of whether to attack Syria, Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser to George W. Bush, made a series of high-profile media appearances. Hadley argued strenuously for military intervention in appearances on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and Bloomberg TV, and authored a Washington Post op-ed headlined “To stop Iran, Obama must enforce red lines with Assad.”

In each case, Hadley’s audience was not informed that he serves as a director of Raytheon, the weapons manufacturer that makes the Tomahawk cruise missiles that were widely cited as a weapon of choice in a potential strike against Syria. Hadley earns $128,500 in annual cash compensation from the company and chairs its public affairs committee. He also owns 11,477 shares of Raytheon stock, which traded at all-time highs during the Syria debate ($77.65 on August 23, making Hadley’s share’s worth $891,189). Despite this financial stake, Hadley was presented to his audience as an experienced, independent national security expert.

Though Hadley’s undisclosed conflict is particularly egregious, it is not unique. The following report documents the industry ties of Hadley, 21 other media commentators, and seven think tanks that participated in the media debate around Syria. Like Hadley, these individuals and organizations have strong ties to defense contractors and other defense- and foreign policy-focused firms with a vested interest in the Syria debate, but they were presented to their audiences with a veneer of expertise and independence, as former military officials, retired diplomats, and independent think tanks.

Most anyone who examines weapons and their effects knows the Tomahawk is an overrated system (in part because it is a media darling, related to this kind of sales campaign), and that its use has been the source of enduring American government falsehoods (cf, Yemen, Dec. 2009).  A hat tip to PAI for pointing to the repeated appearance of a director of the Tomahawk manufacturer advocating, in essence, for more Tomahawk use.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH

From the WSJ.

From The Department Of Just Not Sure What To Make Of This Tweet.

High-res More Signs of Black Marketeers’ Effort to Obscure Origins of Chinese MANPADS in Syria. Note the spray paint on missile tube. It’s consistent with similar markings previously observed on a missile tube provided, via the SNC, to Ahfad al-Rasul. Rebels and other sources say these Chinese-made FN-6 heat-seeking missile systems were shipped to rebels from Sudan, and the suppliers sought to cover up the trail in this crude way. If you search videos showing FN-6s in rebel possession you will see the spray-paint blotches in other shots, too. For the video from which the screen grab above was snatched, via Eliot Higgins (aka Brown Moses) go here.

More Signs of Black Marketeers’ Effort to Obscure Origins of Chinese MANPADS in Syria.

Note the spray paint on missile tube. It’s consistent with similar markings previously observed on a missile tube provided, via the SNC, to Ahfad al-Rasul. Rebels and other sources say these Chinese-made FN-6 heat-seeking missile systems were shipped to rebels from Sudan, and the suppliers sought to cover up the trail in this crude way. If you search videos showing FN-6s in rebel possession you will see the spray-paint blotches in other shots, too. For the video from which the screen grab above was snatched, via Eliot Higgins (aka Brown Moses) go here.

High-res The Lone (But Not Lonely) X. Engraving of First Lieutenant Augusto Maria Xavier, USMC, Killed in Action in Vietnam, 1966. On one of the many glass plates, arranged alphabetically and in a circle, around a fountain in Jacksonville, NC, USA, which right now glows in the late afternoon sun, as we interview another vet wounded in a more recent American war. (If you ever want a sense of how many American troops were killed in Vietnam, come here, ad expect to be rendered silent. And then remember: the toll of Vietnamese civilians was far higher. And then: think. Think a little on the sadness of it all.) Reflection of memorial fountain visible on plate. Lieutenant Xavier’s remains have yet to be recovered. (at Vietnam Veterans Memorial)

The Lone (But Not Lonely) X. Engraving of First Lieutenant Augusto Maria Xavier, USMC, Killed in Action in Vietnam, 1966. On one of the many glass plates, arranged alphabetically and in a circle, around a fountain in Jacksonville, NC, USA, which right now glows in the late afternoon sun, as we interview another vet wounded in a more recent American war. (If you ever want a sense of how many American troops were killed in Vietnam, come here, ad expect to be rendered silent. And then remember: the toll of Vietnamese civilians was far higher. And then: think. Think a little on the sadness of it all.) Reflection of memorial fountain visible on plate. Lieutenant Xavier’s remains have yet to be recovered. (at Vietnam Veterans Memorial)

Brown Moses Calls Out Russia Today.

In a post that went live a short while ago, Eliot Higgins, aka Brown Moses, distances himself from the references to his work by Russia Today, the state-run English-language station that broadcasts material that reliably appears calibrated to be friendly to Kremlin views in formats that resemble news.  The quarrel? In short, Russia Today misrepresented Mr. Higgins’ recent work to appear to make him and it appear to support the exact opposite of what his analysis said. And Mr. Higgins wishes to restate his position.

The sum of it all is this:

Early yesterday morning I received an email pointing me to three videos that had been posted on LiveLeak, claiming to show the Syrian opposition group launching the August 21st sarin attack.  I posted the videos on my blog, and highlighted the dubious nature of the videos.  Having spent the last two years examining videos from the Syria conflict on a daily basis, these videos appear suspicious for a number of reasons I detail on my blog post, and are totally unverifiable.  


This has not stopped Russia Today using the credibility of my blog to give credence to this videos.  This is a transcript of their 10am BST broadcast

Thabang Motsei - ……Meanwhile a prominent Syrian blogger known as Black Moses has posted footage allegedly showing chemical weapons being used by rebels. Let’s get the details from our correspondent Paul Scott here in the studio. “
Paul Scott - The blogger is a staunch critic of Damascus and a staunch critic of President Bashar al Assad’s regime and in the past he has monitored all sorts of news sources and claims and counter claims emerging from the Syrian Civil War to use it as a stick to beat the Assad Government with and implicate Assad in all sorts of atrocities. But it is interesting now that he has posted a video on this blog that suggests that it actually could be the Syrian Opposition that had been using these chemical weapons. It represent a slight shift in focus from what the narrative that the blog has been taking in recent weeks.
Thabang Motsei - So this Brown Moses that we were talking about what are experts saying where the rebels could have obtained these chemicals from. 

It is healthy to question and to argue, within the bounds of civility.  Twisting someone’s words into the opposite of what they say is something else.  Advantage, Brown Moses.