BULLETIN BOARD

DON’T MISS NEXT ISSUE!!

Attention all SOF’ers… Be on the lookout for the September issue of SOF, which will hit the newsstands on July 29. This issue will contain the 2008/2009 Catalog Showcase featuring catalogs from the industry’s best manufacturers.  

Checking out the new catalogs is a great way to get a head start on the upcoming Christmas season.

HOLLER IF YOU CAN’T FIND SOF

If you cannot find SOF at your chosen local retail outlet, please contact SOF with the name and address of said outlet at editorsof@aol.com. Also, ask the manager why they are not stocking SOF.

PHONY SUPPORT FOR THE SECOND AMENDMENT

Alan Korwin notes in Page Nine, his e-mail newsletter, the following:

“The American Hunters and Shooters Association, a Brady-endorsed anti-gun-rights group pretending to be a pro-rights group, wants people to believe gun owners are leaning toward [Senator] Barack H. Obama. This is the man who, in a 1996 candidate questionnaire, declared his support for a complete ban on the manufacturing, sale and possession of handguns and undefined ‘assault weapons.’ In Pennsylvania recently he said, ‘I am not in favor of concealed weapons.’ AHSA believes that would be ‘reasonable, commonsense’ gun policy, just like D.C.’s supporters of a total ban on any working firearm in your own home.”

Sound like this bunch is more akin to Judas goats – leading law-abiding gun owners into giving up their rights. For the straight scoop on Second Amendment issues, join the NRA and keep reading us.

 

An A-10 Thunderbolt II from the 355th Fighter Squadron at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, fires a 30mm GAU-8 Avenger seven-barrel Gatling gun over the Pacific Alaska Range Complex. You don’t want to be in front of the business end of this Thunderbolt! (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Jonathan Snyder)

USS MICHAEL MURPHY

In what can only be described as a fitting tribute, Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter announced on 7 May that an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer will be named USS Michael Murphy in honor of the Medal of Honor recipient (see the April 2008 issue of SOF for more on Lieutenant Murphy).  

According to the Department of Defense, “Michael Murphy will be one of the U.S. Navy’s most advanced, state-of-the-art warships in the fleet. With the combination of Aegis, the vertical launching system, and advanced anti-submarine warfare system, advanced anti-aircraft missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles, the Arleigh Burke-class continues the revolution at sea. Utilizing a gas turbine propulsion system, Michael Murphy will be able to operate independently or as part of carrier strike groups, surface action groups, amphibious ready groups, and underway replenishment groups.”

Long may she sail.

 

U.S. Navy illustration of USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112), the sixty-second destroyer in the Arleigh Burke class. The vessel is currently under construction.

CHINA COLONIZING AFRICA?

The Financial Times reports that the ChiComs have been buying up land in Africa for food production. It appears they have been facing a potential food shortage, and have decided to buy land in Africa to address that threat.  

What’s next—colonies?

AMERICAN ON TRIAL IN VIETNAM!

If you want an idea about just how detached from reality the Vietnamese government is, consider the case of Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan, who is going to be facing a trial in a Vietnamese court. It seems that the Vietnamese government arrested him while he was planning to distribute flyers. For this, he could get seven years in a Vietnamese prison.

Thanks to Bill Laurie for bringing this to SOF’s attention. Death to tyrants. – RKB

V-22 RESULTS

Recently, the first V-22 squadron to see combat returned from Iraq. VMM-263, the “Thunder Chickens” (featured in the October and November 2007 issues of SOF) carried out a seven-month combat deployment, flew over 2500 sorties, hauled 1.4 million pounds of cargo, and proved the plane’s critics wrong. VMM-263 has been relieved in Iraq by another squadron with V-22s. Way to go, Marines!

 

A U.S. Navy sailor directs a V-22 Osprey aircraft during a landing on the flight deck of the USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) while underway in the Atlantic Ocean on 27 September, 2007. The V-22 concluded its first combat deployment, a seven-month tour in Iraq, in late April, 2008. DoD photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Amanda M. Williams, U.S. Navy.

BURMA’S JUNTA HITS A NEW LOW

It seems that the Burmese junta never stops hitting new lows. Last year, they were cracking down on Buddhist monks who protested for democracy. Earlier this year, they were cracking down on distribution of the movie Rambo. Now, in the wake of the devastating cyclone, they have been seizing emergency food shipments sent by the UN – and then taking the time to re-label them with the names of the junta’s leaders. Too bad we have a Global War on Terror to fight – these bastards need an ass-kicking.

DECAPITATING AL-QAEDA, GETTING NO CREDIT

James Dunnigan at Strategypage.com notes the following: “Between mid-March and mid-April, al Qaeda suffered major losses in Iraq. American and Iraqi troops killed or captured 53 al Qaeda leaders. These include men in charge of entire cities (or portions of large cities like Mosul or Baghdad), as well as men in charge of various aspects of terror operations (making bombs, placing them or minding the bombers). Most important, nine of the ten most senior men involved were captured and interrogated. This led to locating more al Qaeda staff and assets. Hundreds of weapons and explosives caches have been discovered this year as a result of interrogating captured terrorists.

The result has been a sharp fall in suicide bomber attacks, and the ones still carried out are against soft targets (civilians), including the recent funeral of two men earlier killed by terrorists. This was part of an al Qaeda campaign to force Sunni Arabs to switch sides again and support terrorism. But these attacks have the opposite effect, causing more hatred for al Qaeda. 

“All this is good news, meaning it’s not reported. Face it, any media outlet that puts out too much good news will go out of business. Bad news brings in the eyeballs and advertising revenue. Stories of desertion and desperation in Basra grab the headlines, while al Qaeda’s travails are relegated to the back pages, if at all.”

And you wonder why newspaper circulation has been dropping for the past few years. This could be part of the reason why. 

HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP HELPS TERRORISTS

If you ever wondered whether human rights groups tended to be pro-terrorist, take a look at the actions of one of these groups with regard to Peru. According to the Wall Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady, the European Parliament was successfully lobbied by a Peruvian human-rights group known as Aprodeh to take the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement off its list of terrorist organizations.

The Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement was best known for storming the Japanese embassy in December 1996, leading to a four-month standoff that was ended when Peruvian counter-terror forces stormed the embassy, making all of Tupac Amaru terrorists good terrorists. The embassy attack was the latest in a long track record of murder, kidnapping, and terrorism. Apparently, the Peruvian human rights group decided that the terrorist group’s human rights matter more than innocent civilians in Peru.