[CTRL] Shock Video: Who Shot The New 9/11 Tapes?
-Caveat Lector- http://www.antiwar.com/justin/justincol.html December 8, 2003 SHOCK VIDEO: WHO SHOT NEW 9/11 TAPES? Did Al Qaeda shoot recently released footage of 9/11 WTC attack â or was it someone else? I shivered, a little, as I watched Lisa Meyers' report on NBC the other night: "New and threatening messages have been received from Al Qaeda. There's a videotape aimed at American and Saudi Arabian rulers and another that includes what appears to be well-produced footage of the 9/11 attacks â raising still other questions." It's sinister to contemplate. Video believed to have been in U.S. government hands somehow pops up on a website alleged to be an Al Qaeda mouthpiece, and U.S. government officials hold it up as a reason to cower in fear before the threat of another major terrorist attack on American soil. Meanwhile, the President avers that Iraq is the central arena in his "war on terrorism," and his supporters claim that we're battling them in the streets of Baghdad so we don't have to fight them in the streets of Boise â or whatever alliterative cliche first comes to mind. This new 9/11 footage sure does raise a lot of other questions, first and foremost: who shot the video? It was posted on what is described as "a known Al-Qaeda website" last Wednesday, although it was taken down after a few days. Aside from the usual militaristic gymnastics by jihadi commandos, Meyers reports: "The tape also contains what U.S. counterterror experts say may be never-before-broadcast video of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York's World Trade Center shot from across the East River in Brooklyn. The FBI says it is familiar with the video, which was provided by a friendly bystander. But that raises the question â how did a tape that was not widely circulated end up on a known Al Qaeda site?" The idea that Al Qaeda had additional agents in the area, who knew the attack was coming, would certainly explain the unflinching steadiness of the camera's eye as it recorded the terror of that moment. But instead of inventing additional elements and players, it's always best to stick with what we already know. So who else just happened to be videotaping the World Trade Center attack that day? Hours after the terrorist struck, five people were arrested in New Jersey as they taped the WTC from their vantage point across the Hudson River in New Jersey. A witness identified only as "Maria" by ABC News said she saw: "Three young men kneeling on the roof of a white van in the parking lot of her apartment building. 'They seemed to be taking a movie,' Maria said. The men were taking video or photos of themselves with the World Trade Center burning in the background, she said. "What struck Maria were the expressions on the men's faces. 'They were like happy, you know â They didn't look shocked to me. I thought it was very strange,' she said." Even stranger â it turned out the five were Israelis. When law enforcement swooped down on this crew, they found them in possession of $4,700 in cash, box cutters, and multiple foreign passports. Police dogs reacted as if the presence of explosives was indicated, and, as the Bergen County Record reported: "Sources close to the investigation said they found other evidence linking the men to the bombing plot. 'There are maps of the city in the car with certain places highlighted,' the source said. 'It looked like they're hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park.'" These guys were held for three months, much of the time in solitary confinement, and extensively interrogated. One refused to take a lie detector test for weeks, and then failed it. All five had been in the employ of Urban Moving Systems, of Weehawken, New Jersey, the company name on their van's registration. Police raided the Urban Moving Systems warehouse 48 hours later, and carted away a lot of computer hard drives and other materials. The owner, one Dominik Suter, fled to Israel the next day. A few months later, Suter's name turned up on a list of terrorist suspects circulated by the FBI to European financial institutions. The apprehended Israelis claimed that they were merely "documenting" the day's events: police confiscated their photographic equipment, and whatever film they had taken. The new film shows the World Trade Center burning from the Brooklyn side of the East River, while the Urban Movers were filming from the vantage point of Liberty State Park, across the Hudson River in New Jersey. But whomever had foreknowledge of the attack on the World Trade Center could have taken that film â and Al Qaeda operatives are not the only possible suspects. I have written at length about the five arrested Israelis in my new book, The Terror Enigma: 9/11 and the Israeli Connection, and I commend the attention of my readers to this modest little volume if they want to know more. I bring this up, not merely to plug my book, but to point out that we can't
Re: [CTRL] Shock And Awe Not Only For Iraqis
-Caveat Lector- Yeah, I suppose, but I'd like to see socialized medicine just like Germany, France and Canada where medical bankruptcy just doesn't happen. Prudy www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ctrl To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
Re: [CTRL] Shock And Awe Not Only For Iraqis
-Caveat Lector- Well, if we get one payer insurance, I'll believe this theory. Prudy I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to endorse "one payer insurance" (presumably for a universal government program) because that one payer is likely to be Blue Cross/Blue Shield as it is now for Medicare and most of the Medicaid programs. JR - Original Message - From: Prudy L To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 8:01 AM Subject: Re: [CTRL] Shock And Awe Not Only For Iraqis -Caveat Lector- In a message dated 11/7/2003 12:12:48 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: At this point in history, we are the only developed country not tohave this form of taxation which means Bush is globalizing our tax laws. Inother words, he is harmonizing our tax laws and system to conform to what themajor European industrial countries have. In my opinion, this basically willset the platform for a global IRS Well, if we get one payer insurance, I'll believe this theory. Prudywww.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ctrl To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ctrl To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
Re: [CTRL] Shock And Awe Not Only For Iraqis
-Caveat Lector- In a message dated 11/7/2003 12:12:48 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: At this point in history, we are the only developed country not tohave this form of taxation which means Bush is globalizing our tax laws. Inother words, he is harmonizing our tax laws and system to conform to what themajor European industrial countries have. In my opinion, this basically willset the platform for a global IRS Well, if we get one payer insurance, I'll believe this theory. Prudy www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ctrl To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] Shock And Awe Not Only For Iraqis
-Caveat Lector- http://www.rense.com/general44/shockandawenotonly.htm Shock And Awe Not Only For Iraqis By Joan Veon WomensGroup.org 11-7-3 While Americans can't help but be fixated by America's "Revolutionary" military operation called "Shock and Awe," designed to render great physical and psychological damage to the enemy by raining down a huge number of devastating cruise missiles in a short period of time, most are not aware that Americans are about to receive their own economic "Shock and Awe." Many forget that while Rome burned, Nero was busy deflecting attention away from the real center of action. The front page of Saturday's Washington Post featured a huge picture showing the burning of Baghdad with all but five percent of the front page devoted to the war in Iraq. However, at the bottom was the "bunker buster" which will shatter our own field of dreams here in America. The Post reported that "a few hours before the Senate action, the House--meeting well past midnight on its version of the budget--voted 215 to 212 to approve Bush's full $726B tax cut request." Furthermore with the House and Senate controlled by the GOP, it is expected that by Wednesday, a final version of Bush's "growth and stimulus" bill will be ready. Unfortunately, our government has not really made clear what this tax law is all about. I consider this proposal to be the most heinous change as it will destroy the ability of the middle class to sustain their economic power while enhancing the upper classes. If enacted, this legislation which will deliver the final blow to the ability of "Joe and Jane Average" to get ahead. It should be pointed out that its title is a misnomer. This plan will not stimulate the economy but will cause much larger deficits, which will be borne by Americans as a result of the war, which is being waged. According to many key economists, the proposed legislation will change the ENTIRE TAX CODE OF AMERICA from a tax on income to a tax on consumption. At this point in history, we are the only developed country not to have this form of taxation which means Bush is globalizing our tax laws. In other words, he is harmonizing our tax laws and system to conform to what the major European industrial countries have. In my opinion, this basically will set the platform for a global IRS. Under this Value Added Tax-VAT, every time a purchase is made, there will be up to a possible 27% tax on it. This tax will replace the tax on income, making only consumption taxable while all forms of income are tax-free. For those who have enough savings to live off of their income, this is a windfall, but for those who have only debt with little or no savings, this will create a financial burden equal to the Israelites having to make bricks without straw. At the heart of this plan is the elimination of tax on corporate dividends. Again, if you obtain your living from stock dividends, this will be like going to heaven. No tax on INCOME--only a tax on what you buy. Let's look at three different sets of individuals. First we have Old Money Harry. He has never had to have a real job because he gets his living from the family trust. All of the family assets--the fabulous house, the cars, the summer homes, the yacht, the Mercedes and Rolls are held by the family trust, along with title to three large commercial pieces of real estate. Harry made several killings buying and selling real estate because the gains were tax-free since they were inside the family trust. The only downside is that the income from the trust is taxed. However, under the proposal to reduce tax brackets from 38% to 21%, it won't hurt as much. Harry will have 17% more to spend. Only what you buy--will be taxed, however, if you have it in a trust--NO TAX. Old Money Harry will achieve growth unsurpassed under the proposed tax stimulus plan, just like the Kennedy's the Rockefellers, the Mellon's and anyone else with this arrangement. Next are John and Jane Middleclass. Both have reasonably good jobs with attractive incomes. They both have advanced degrees and live in the "executive home" to match their rising social status. They lease a Lexus and Jaguar and think nothing of packing up and going to Vale or to the Bahamas at a moments notice. They have re-financed the house several times to add a new wing, exceptional landscaping and a pool. While they know they are basically spending everything they are bringing in, they rationalize by thinking about the rising equity in their home and how much they will be able to cash out when they retire. Unfortunately their 401k's got zapped during the NASDAQ crash. Donnie and Susie Squeeze are twenty-five years old. Donnie served in the military and works as a mechanic for the local Honda dealer. They have three small children and Susie works part-time at the local grocery store. They are saving for a down payment on a home and hope to send their kids to college if they can afford it. Right now they are just barely mak
[CTRL] Shock Therapy & The Israeli Scenario
-Caveat Lector- http://www.counterpunch.org/nimmo10182003.html October 18 / 19, 2003 Total War in the Middle East? Shock Therapy and the Israeli Scenario By KURT NIMMO "Israel has been urging America to invade Syria, but America seems to be reluctant. So, in order to force the hands of America, Israel is going to invade Syria," Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told the official Bernama news agency recently. "When that happens, the Americans will have to support Israel due to domestic political reasons that make Jewish votes a major factor in its presidential election." It's hardly a secret that pro-Zionist financial contributions exact disproportionate influence on American politics and foreign policy. Israel "has become a veritable state of the United States," Mitchell Kaidy wrote in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs back in 1997. "Indeed, with media cooperation and assistance, Israel has ascended to the ranks of an affluent, belligerent yet untouchable super-state." It is precisely this inviolable status that allows Ariel Sharon and the Likudites to do almost anything they please. "No one in authority will admit a calamitous reality that is skillfully shielded from the American people but clearly recognized by most of the world: America suffered 11 September and its aftermath and may soon be at war with Iraq, mainly because US policy in the Middle East is made in Israel, not in Washington," wrote Paul Findley, a former congressional representative. "Israel is a scofflaw nation and should be treated as such. Instead of helping Sharon intensify Palestinian misery, our president should suspend all aid until Israel ends its occupation of Arab land Israel seized in 1967." Not likely. Bush and his fanatical core of pro-Zionist neocons will continue to work alongside Sharon and the racist Likudites. Greater Israel is their unalterable mission. It's their raison d'etre. Pat Buchanan was spot on when he said the Bush neocons "harbor a passionate attachment to a nation not our own that causes them to subordinate the interests of their own country and to act on an assumption that, somehow, what's good for Israel is good for America." Israel wants "total war" in the Middle East, as do the Bush neocons. So entangled are the connections between the Likudites in Israel, the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, the Center for Security Policy, the American Enterprise Institute, Project for the New American Century, so-called defense contractors, Christian Zionists with money to spend, and a handful of Zionists in and out of the Bush administration that it is nearly impossible to find the precise source of the toxin infecting United States foreign policy in the Middle East. Its most activist and wild-eyed proponents are tucked away in Beltway think tanks, the Bush White House, and burrowed deep within the Pentagon. From there they plot the sort of pandemonium and misery currently underway in Iraq. The next few items on the neocon "creative destruction" agenda: take out Syria and Iran, even tiny and insignificant Libya. If Gordon Thomas of the American Free Press is correct, Sharon called Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon and gave him the low-down on the Syrian attack. "We, and you, are fighting a war against terrorism," Rumsfeld reportedly told the Butcher of Sabra and Chatila (and Qibya and Qalqilya). No doubt such tidings warmed the cockles of Arik's cold-blooded heart. In other words, what Sharon was about to do -- brazenly attack a sovereign nation in direct violation of international law -- was akin to what the US did in Afghanistan and Iraq. Karl Rove apparently chimed in, admitting that Bush approved. "He saw it as a clear warning to terrorists that they can be reached anywhere," Rove briskly told reporters. "See it as necessary shock therapy." "Israel's Ariel Sharon is intent on exploiting the opportunity provided by US plans for war in the Middle East to press forward his aim of creating a Greater Israel," Jean Shaoul wrote last year. "For months he has sought to stoke up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and scupper any possibility for even the type of truncated Palestinian state promised under the Oslo Accords. Now he has significantly upped the ante, accusing Syria of supplying Hezbollah militants in south Lebanon with thousands of surface to air rockets capable of striking northern Israeli towns and cities and demanding Syria rein in the Islamic fundamentalist group." On the same day Mahathir Mohamad made his prediction about an Israeli invasion of Syria, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported that "Mossad has marked six Iranian nuclear facilities as targets for an Israeli Air Force preemptive strike." Sharon presumably told "Mossad chief Meir Dagani to devote 'utmost efforts' to gather information about Iran's growing nuclear capabilities... The Mossad's plan is now ready and has been delivered to the Israeli Air Force,
[CTRL] "Shock & Awe"- Bush's Occultic Act
-Caveat Lector- http://www.unknowncountry.com/mindframe/opinion/ 21-Mar-2003 SHOCK ‘n AWE (SHAK-IN-AH): WE WILL ROCK YOU by William Henry A battle between the ancient forces of light (TARA) and darkness (TERROR) rages on our planet. Emerging with it is the ancient idea of Shock ‘n Awe, called Shakina--Glory--by the Jewish Mystics. Shock ‘n Awe was known as the Divine Presence of God, a force of immense power that emanated from the Ark of the Covenant. Has it returned? On March 19, 2003 the U.S. military began the war to oust Saddam Hussein with “decapitation” strikes by precision missiles and bombs on targets in Baghdad believed to hold the Iraqi dictator, his sons or other top leaders. The first missiles came from aircraft carriers blaring the Queen song “We Will Rock You.” A few hours later, another Saddam crawled out of the bunker and appeared on state-run Iraqi television. One official said the case against the broadcast’s authenticity included that Hussein has several body doubles. This one had grey, jowley skin, and wore glasses uncharacteristic of the ones he normally wears. Technical analysts, who used digital enhancement techniques and triangulation measurements of facial proportions, assessed that the broadcast depicted the real Hussein (if there is such a thing). This master of many palaces was also a master of many heads, similar to Hydra, the nine-headed serpent slain by Hercules. When any one of its heads was cut off; it was replaced by two others. White House officials hoped that killing Saddam as the war began could shorten the conflict by convincing his military to surrender Baghdad to the allies, an official said. There was no immediate word on whether the strike killed top Iraqi leaders. Saddam Hussein is certainly dead. Even if he hasn’t inherited the wind. And with him passes a sigh of relief. How close to Hitler was he to inflicting a holocaust on America? How much of his ‘I’m the Muslim Messiah’ business did he buy? It has been over fifty years since Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker, yet our fascination with his life and sinister campaign of evil grows. Fifty years hence Saddam will still be a subject of mystery. The reason is because crucial parts of the story have been excised, sanitized and even occulted. The occult was a major factor behind the rise of Adolf Hitler. It was excised from history because Churchill sought to prevent imitators and because recognition of it carries with it a terror that is beyond proportion for most. Hitler thought he was the ‘Aryan Christ’. He believed in the emergence of the New Atlantis. He sought to build a Master Race. Like his death, the major factor behind the rise of Saddam Hussein is hidden. Exiled from Iraq in Luxor, Egypt, the young Saddam walked the mighty temples. He heard a voice that tempted him to power, real power. Saddam thought he was Nebuchadnezzar, the biblical King of Babylon who rebuilt Babylon, the ancient home of the Bab-Ili or ‘Gate of the Illi”, the Illumined ones. Known as the Gate to God in the Bible, this huge tower, called in Sumerian Etemenenanki (‘House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth’) stood upon the central temple-complex called Esagila or ‘House that Lifts Up the Head’ (of God). Saddam did not take the ancient stories of Nebuchadnezzar and the Head of God as mere mythology. Just as Joshua became Jesus in the Jewish tradition, and their feats were considered mutual, Saddam affixed his tyrannical actions to Nebuchadnezzar’s. To honor his previous incarnation, Saddam rebuilt Babylon. In 2002 he sought the return of the Ish-tara Gate from Berlin to Iraq, along with copies of thousands of ancient Sumerian tablets from the British Museum. He aimed to turn Babylon into a “Disneyland for the ancient gods” in the style of Nebuchadnezzar and his forerunner, Nimrod, who built the Tower of Babel. Like Saddam, Nimrod was a terrorist. He threatened and murdered innocents. Nimrod is the Egyptian Osiris, who was decapitated by his half brother, Set. A serpent hanging from a pillar symbolized this god’s head or ‘skull’. Osiris is the Egyptian equivalent of the serpent of Eden. Herein lies a key to the untold story of Saddam. Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, the British Museum’s curator of Egyptian antiquities at the turn of the twentieth century, was one of the first scholars to notice the relationship between Egyptian and Su-Merian mythology and to refer to its influence on Jewish and Gnostic symbolism. In 576 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar looted and leveled the Temple of Solomon and transported the Jews to Babylon. The Old Testament and Jewish mystic system known as Kaballism (‘to receive’) flourished during his reign when he merged the Jewish and Babylonian cultures. In addition, Nebuchadnezzar opened the ‘fiery furnace’ out of which the Son of God emerged. In the old times it was the Israelite god, Yahweh, who ordered the death of Nebuchadnezzar. This was in retaliation for his deliv
[CTRL] 'Shock and Awe': Jabbing A Stick into a Hornets' Nest ?
-Caveat Lector- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7837-2003Mar21.html washingtonpost.com 'Shock and Awe' Author Uneasy With New Fame Ullman Fears Thesis May Be Misconstrued By David Von Drehle Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, March 22, 2003; Page Z01 Two months ago, "shock and awe" was just a complex and slightly vague notion from the abstruse world of military eggheads. Now, the phrase is on tongues and TV screens around the world, serving as a virtual marquee for boom and blast in Baghdad. Along the way, a lot was lost in the translation -- to the chagrin of many American generals who say the phrase gives the wrong impression of what they are trying to do. Even Harlan Ullman, one of the principal authors of "Shock and Awe," a dense tome written in 1996, said Friday he is sorry to see what has become of his catchy phrase. True, he is all over television and the Internet, but not without reservations. "It will be bad public relations for the United States," he said. "Clearly, there will be people who want to take it out of context and say we are trying to terrorize the Iraqi people. That we are threatening to do to them what we did to the people of Hiroshima." If some people say that, it is because Ullman himself has made the comparison. "Theoretically," he and co-author James P. Wade wrote, "the magnitude of Shock and Awe . . . seeks to impose (in extreme cases) is the non-nuclear equivalent of the impact that atomic weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had on the Japanese." In another passage, the authors conjured up the image of glassy-eyed veterans of the World War I trenches. For this, Ullman is identified by some antiwar groups as the "Dr. Strangelove" of the Iraq war. The authors could not have known that they were coining a name for history's first made- for-TV war. The theory of "shock and awe" began as an attempt to answer a question that dominated defense intellectuals in the 1990s: how to maintain U.S. military strength in the post-Cold War era of declining military budgets? Working with a small grant from the National Defense University, Ullman and Wade gathered commanders from the 1991 Persian Gulf War to talk about how they might have achieved the same victory in less time and with fewer forces. Wade was a former undersecretary of defense. Ullman was a Naval Academy graduate and Vietnam War veteran whose students at the National War College had included a young Army colonel named Colin L. Powell. "Ullman," Powell once wrote, "was that rarity, a scholar in uniform . . . possessed of one of the best, most provocative minds I have ever encountered." As it turned out, the military principle dominating U.S. strategy in the mid-'90s was "the Powell Doctrine," which held that the United States should go to war only with overwhelming force. As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1990, Ullman's former student put his doctrine into practice in the Gulf War, marshalling a half-million troops to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. Ullman, Wade and their panelists envisioned a now-familiar world in which rogue states threatened U.S. security with weapons of mass destruction, and wondered if there might be a way to defeat them without the slow and expensive build-up of forces that Powell had applied in the Gulf War. What they came up with was "shock and awe" to achieve "rapid dominance." "The idea," Ullman said Friday from the back of a sedan on the way to his next interview, "is to crack the enemy's will as quickly as possible." This can be achieved in many ways -- in fact, it is probably best achieved by a blitz of activity. Some of the tactics are purely psychological, such as campaigns of deception, propaganda and disinformation. Some of the tactics work on the mind more violently. To borrow a phrase from the 1996 book: "very selective, utterly brutal and ruthless and rapid application of force to intimidate." In this sense, the strike against Hussein's bunker Thursday morning, Baghdad time, was "a classic example of shock and awe if it worked," Ullman said. The theory also contemplated overwhelming strikes to knock out electricity, water supplies and other necessities in an effort to break the will of civilians to resist. So far, U.S. planners have not taken such steps in Iraq. Successfully applied, Ullman said, shock and awe can save lives: "You get them to quit before they die." The phrase entered the consciousness of America's television news producers late in January, after CBS quoted an unnamed Pentagon source using "shock and awe" to describe the emerging plan for Iraq. One database of news reports from around the world reveals a few dozen uses of the phrase in January, a couple of hundred in February and early March, and more than 600 in the past week. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper recently dismissed the phrase in an interview, saying it had not been used in formulating the air campaign for Iraq. Some military analysts in Washin
[CTRL] Shock and Awe (Chapter 2)
-Caveat Lector- http://www.dodccrp.org/shockch2.html Shock and Awe The basis for Rapid Dominance rests in the ability to affect the will, perception, and understanding of the adversary through imposing sufficient Shock and Awe to achieve the necessary political, strategic, and operational goals of the conflict or crisis that led to the use of force. War, of course, in the broadest sense has been characterized by Clausewitz to include substantial elements of "fog, friction, and fear." In the Clausewitzian view, "shock and awe" were necessary effects arising from application of military power and were aimed at destroying the will of an adversary to resist. Earlier and similar observations had been made by the great Chinese military writer Sun Tzu around 500 B.C. Sun Tzu observed that disarming an adversary before battle was joined was the most effective outcome a commander could achieve. Sun Tzu was well aware of the crucial importance of achieving Shock and Awe prior to, during, and in ending battle. He also observed that "war is deception," implying that Shock and Awe were greatly leveraged through clever, if not brilliant, employment of force. In Rapid Dominance, the aim of affecting the adversary's will, understanding, and perception through achieving Shock and Awe is multifaceted. To identify and present these facets, we need first to examine the different aspects of and mechanisms by which Shock and Awe affect an adversary. One recalls from old photographs and movie or television screens, the comatose and glazed expressions of survivors of the great bombardments of World War I and the attendant horrors and death of trench warfare. These images and expressions of shock transcend race, culture, and history. Indeed, TV coverage of Desert Storm vividly portrayed Iraqi soldiers registering these effects of battlefield Shock and Awe. In our excursion, we seek to determine whether and how Shock and Awe can become sufficiently intimidating and compelling factors to force or otherwise convince an adversary to accept our will in the Clausewitzian sense, such that the strategic aims and military objectives of the campaign will achieve a political end. Then, Shock and Awe are linked to the four core characteristics that define Rapid Dominance: knowledge, rapidity, brilliance, and control. The first step in this process is to establish a hierarchy of different types, models, and examples of Shock and Awe in order to identify the principal mechanisms, aims, and aspects that differentiate each model as unique or important. At this stage, historical examples are offered. However, in subsequent stages, a task will be to identify current and future examples to show the effects of Shock and Awe. From this identification, the next step in this methodology is to develop alternative mission capability packages consisting of a concept of operations doctrine, tactics, force structure, organizations, and systems to analyze and determine how best each form or variant of Shock and Awe might be achieved. To repeat, intimidation and compliance are the outputs we seek to obtain by the threat of use or by the actual application of our alternative force package. Then the mission capability package is examined in conditions of both MRCs and OOTW. For discussion purposes, nine examples representing differing historical types, variants, and characteristics of Shock and Awe have been derived. These examples are not exclusive categories and overlap exists between and among them. The first example is "Overwhelming Force," the doctrine and concept shaping today's American force structure. The aims of this doctrine are to apply massive or overwhelming force as quickly as possible on an adversary in order to disarm, incapacitate, or render the enemy militarily impotent with as few casualties and losses to ourselves and to non-combatants as possible. The superiority of American forces, technically and operationally, is crucial to successful application. There are several major criticisms and potential weaknesses of this approach. The first is its obvious reliance on large numbers of highly capable (and expensive) platforms such as the M-1 tank, F-14,15, and 18 aircraft and CVN/DDG-51/SSN-688 ships designed principally to be used jointly or individually to destroy and attrite other forces and supporting capability. In other words, this example has principally been derived from force-on-forces attrition relationships even though command and control, logistical, and supporting forces cannot be disaggregated from this doctrine. The other major shortcoming of a force-on-force or a platform-on-platform attrition basis is that with declining numbers of worthy and well enough equipped adversaries against whom to apply this doctrine, justifying it to a questioning Congress and public will prove more difficult. While it is clear that "system of systems" and other alternative military concepts are under consideration, for the time being,
[CTRL] Shock
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