New Pentagon manual declares journalists can be enemy combatants

The Pentagon’s new thick book of instructions for waging war the legal way says that terrorists also can be journalists.

The description appears in a 1,176-page, richly footnoted “Department of Defense Law of War Manual” that tells commanders the right and wrong way to kill the enemy. It says it’s OK to shoot, explode, bomb, stab or cut the enemy. Surprise attacks and killing retreating troops also are permitted. But a U.S. warrior may not use poison or asphyxiating gases.

Going back decades, this is the Pentagon’s first comprehensive, all-in-one legal guide for the four military branches, who over the years had issued their own law of war pamphlets for air, sea and ground warfare.

The manual pushes aside the George W. Bush-era label of “unlawful enemy combatant” for al Qaeda and the like. The new term of choice: “unprivileged belligerent.”

An eye-catching section deals with a definition of journalists and how they are expected to stay out of the fight.

The manual defines them this way: “In general, journalists are civilians. However, journalists may be members of the armed forces, persons authorized to accompany the armed forces, or unprivileged belligerents.”

Lumping terrorist writers with bona fide scribes prompted one officer to call the paragraph “odd.” A civilian lawyer who opines on war crime cases called the wording “an odd and provocative thing for them to write.”

Michael Rubin, a Middle East expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said the manual reflects today’s muddled world of journalism.

“It’s a realization that not everyone abides by the same standards we do,” said Mr. Rubin. “Just as Hamas uses United Nations schools as weapons depots and Iran uses charity workers for surveillance, many terrorist groups use journalists as cover.”

Mr. Rubin recalled that two al Qaeda terrorists posed as journalists to assassinate anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. Chechen Islamists went on missions with camera crews.

“Journalists are the new consultant. Anyone can claim to be one,” he said. “No American serviceman should ever be killed because a politician told them they had to take a foreign journalist at his or her word.”

Army Lt. Col. Joseph R. Sowers, a Pentagon spokesman, explained the reasoning behind the inclusion of “unprivileged belligerents” as journalists.

“We do not think that there is any legal significance to the manual listing unprivileged belligerents as sometimes being journalists because the manual does not, itself, create new law,” Col. Sowers said.

“That last sentence simply reflects that, in certain cases, persons who act as journalists may be members of the armed forces, persons authorized to accompany the armed forces or unprivileged belligerents rather than civilians. The fact that a person is a journalist does not prevent that person from becoming an unprivileged belligerent.”

Via: Washington Times

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[VIDEO] ‘Total Failure’: Obama Admin Reportedly Tried To Recruit Taliban 5 Members As Informants

The U.S. government tried to recruit members of the Taliban Five as assets, so they could gather intelligence and the U.S. could influence their future actions, Fox News has learned.

The effort to "flip" the five Taliban leaders into becoming informants, however, didn't work. A source familiar with the strategy described it as a "total failure." 

Other sources, who discussed the option on the condition of anonymity, backed up the account. 

The move was pursued to strengthen the Obama administration's ability to prevent the ex-Guantanamo prisoners -- traded more than a year ago for American Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl -- from returning to terrorism. The Taliban Five have been living in Qatar under a travel ban, which was set to expire earlier this week but was temporarily extended amid ongoing talks between the U.S. and Qatar. 

Asked about the strategy of flipping Taliban Five members, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest offered little information at Friday's press briefing. 

"Even as a general matter, this is an intelligence matter that I won't be able to discuss from here," Earnest said. 

The Taliban Five were held for 12 years at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, where military reviews concluded they were a likely security threat and had "high intelligence value." For those reasons, among others, seasoned military officers believe the Taliban Five were obvious recruitment targets. 

"We would definitely have tried to work that with these people because of who they are, and because of the relationships they have," Fox News military analyst and retired Gen. Jack Keane said. "These are people that had significant senior positions inside this organization." 

Via: Fox News

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Report: Soldiers Urged Not To Engage Taliban At Night So Sleeping Locals Are Not Disturbed

Reports indicate U.S. soldiers and British Royal Marines have been urged to show "courageous constraint" by not shooting Taliban members spotted planting IEDs.

The reason? Shooting them might disturb the locals.

This news comes out on the heels of an investigation into the death of Royal Marine Sergeant Peter Rayner, whom witnesses say watched the Taliban plant IEDs at night but was ordered not to engage them. Families of other soldiers and Royal Marines are telling stories of how their loved ones were not allowed to use mortars or night illumination when they came across Taliban members in an area full of IEDs. 

The reason given was that "the sound of shooting 'might wake up and upset the locals.'"

This is not "courageous restraint" -- this is appeasement.

Via: Breitbart

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Setbacks Piling Up in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) — The end game in Afghanistan is off to a shaky start.

Just as the last U.S. "surge" troops leave the country, trouble is breaking out in ways that go to the core of the strategy for winding down the U.S. and allied combat role and making Afghans responsible for their own security. At stake is the goal of ensuring that Afghanistan not revert to being a terrorist haven.

Nearly two years after President Barack Obama announced that he was sending another 33,000 troops to take on the Taliban, those reinforcements are completing their return to the United States this week. That leaves about 68,000 American troops, along with their NATO allies and Afghan partners, to carry out an ambitious plan to put the Afghans fully in the combat lead as early as next year.

But the setbacks are piling up: a spasm of deadly attacks on U.S. and NATO forces by Afghan soldiers and police, including three attacks in the last three days; an audacious Taliban assault on a coalition air base that killed two Marines and destroyed six fighter jets; and a NATO airstrike that inadvertently killed eight Afghan women and girls.

The Pentagon on Monday identified the two Marines killed at Camp Bastion on Friday as Lt. Col. Christopher K. Raible, 40, of Huntingdon, Pa., and Sgt. Bradley W. Atwell, 27, of Kokomo, Ind. Raible was commander of the Harrier squadron that had six of its planes destroyed in the assault.

Tensions over the anti-Islam movie produced in the U.S. that ridicules the Prophet Mohammad also spread to Kabul, where demonstrations turned violent Monday when protesters burned cars and threw rocks at a U.S. military base.

Those events help the Taliban's aim of driving a wedge between the Americans and their Afghan partners. They also show that the Taliban, while weakened, remains a force to be reckoned with, 11 years after the first U.S. troops arrived to drive the Taliban out.

The extra troops began moving into Afghanistan in early 2010, pushing the total U.S. force to a peak of 101,000 by mid-2011.

The U.S. troop surge was supposed to put so much military pressure on the Taliban that its leaders — most of whom are in Pakistan — would feel compelled to come to the peace table. That hasn't happened. Preliminary contacts began, but have been stymied.

Via: Town Hall

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NYT’s Maureen Dowd Compares Paul Ryan To The Taliban…

Assaults Paul Ryan in NYTimes as 'Fresh Face on a Taliban Creed'

For the third time in three columns, the New York Times's Maureen Dowd brutally assaults Paul Ryan, this time calling him "a fresh face on a Taliban creed" of He-Man Woman-Hating.

Other Republicans are trying to cover up their true identity to get elected. Even as party leaders attempted to lock the crazy uncle in the attic in Missouri, they were doing their own crazy thing down in Tampa, Fla., by reiterating language in their platform calling for a no-exceptions Constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, even in cases of rape, incest and threat to the life of the mother.

Paul Ryan, who teamed up with Akin in the House to sponsor harsh anti-abortion bills, may look young and hip and new generation, with his iPod full of heavy metal jams and his cute kids. But he’s just a fresh face on a Taliban creed -- the evermore antediluvian, anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-gay conservative core. Amiable in khakis and polo shirts, Ryan is the perfect modern leader to rally medieval Republicans who believe that Adam and Eve cavorted with dinosaurs.

Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal couldn't have been happier, posting to his Facebook subscribers:

OK, I'm not entirely neutral here, because she is a colleague and a friend, but I thiink you should Maureen Dowd's fantastic column on Todd Akin, Paul Ryan and Republican attitudes toward women in general. It's disturbing, but spot on.

Via: Newsbusters

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DEMOCRAT QUOTES 2011 – A YEAR IN REVIEW

It would not be another year gone by unless we gave you a humorous look at the quotes that have that have come out of the mouths of those that bring us laughs throughout the year.

·         “They have acted like Terrorists” – John Biden on Tea Party Republicans - August 2011

·         “You know, I can’t say with certitude. My system was hacked. Pictures can be manipulated; pictures can be dropped in and inserted.” - Anthony Weiner on Twitter pictures -June 2011

·         “Millionaire job creators are like unicorns. They’re impossible to find and don’t exist.” – Harry Reid on job creation - December 2011

·         “Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy: - Joe Biden - December 2011

·         "This past election was tough.  We must do a better job of clearly articulating our accomplishments to the American people.” - Debbie Wasserman Schultz – After 2010 Election.

·         We do not have time for this type of silliness”, I’ve got better things to do – Barack Obama on 60 minutes referring to the birther issue - April 2011

·         “You have the Republicans, who want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally – and very transparently – block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates than Republican candidates.” – Debbie Wasserman Shultz – June 2011

·          “I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president — with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln — just in terms of what we've gotten done in modern history”. – President Obama – December 2011

·         “Today is a big day in America; only 36,000 Americans lost their jobs.” – Harry Reid – Undated

·         “Our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable” – Hillary Clinton 18 days before Mubarak Stepped down – January 2011.

·         “One of  the bills before us six million seniors will be deprived of meals, homebound seniors will be deprived of meals” Nancy Pelosi – April 2011

·         Nancy Pelosi on the economy “Every month that we don’t pass a stimulus bill 500 million Americans will lose their jobs. - Undated.

·         Speaker Pelosi told the Washington Post as reinstated Speaker would be “doing for child care what she did for healthcare” – November 2011

·         Radio personality Ed Schultz on elections: "If I lived in Massachusetts, I'd try to vote ten times ... Yeah that's right, I'd cheat to keep these bastards out. I would. Because that's exactly what they are." – Undated

·         “The Tea Party can go straight to hell.” – Maxine Waters – August 2011

·         Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said Tuesday December 20, 2011 that President Obama “absolutely” should use his executive power to continue the unemployment benefits and payroll tax cut extension and said she hoped to discuss the option with the White House later in the day.

These are a few of the quotes from this year however it would not be a complete list if it did not include an all-time favorite from March 2010 when Nancy Pelosi said,

“But we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it away from the fog of the controversy” – When referring to ObamaCare and the passage of the bill. – March 2010

One can only wonder how some of these people keep on getting elected year after year.  If you thought that 2011 was a good year for quotes, one can only imagine what will come out their mouths in 2012.  Let us just wait and see.  May we all have a healthy and prosperous new year.