Infinite Unknown

Hundreds of soldiers from a leading infantry regiment are to be sent to the frontline in Afghanistan with just six weeks training

Hundreds of soldiers from a leading infantry regiment are to be sent to the frontline in Afghanistan with just six weeks’ specialised battlefield training - instead of the usual minimum of six months.

It is believed to be the first time the Army has allowed men to put their lives on the line with so little preparation for the tough fighting conditions against the Taliban.

The training cutback led to claims last night that soldiers’ lives could be put at risk as a result.

Officers in charge of the 400 soldiers from the 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment, are being recalled from leave early next week to prepare and plan for their men to deploy to Helmand province at the end of October.

But the main body of men –70 per cent of them young soldiers who have not been deployed to Afghanistan before - will not begin their battle training until the second week of September.

That leaves just six weeks for them to be fighting-fit and gain the specialised skills and knowledge required to take on a war that has resulted in the deaths of 206 British soldiers since 2001.

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Tags: Afghanistan, Military, Ministry of Defence, Politics, Soldiers, Taliban, War

The US government still holds the record:

- Donald Rumsfeld on CBS News one day before 9/11: Pentagon Cannot Account For 2,3 TRILLION Dollars
What a coincidence!

- Former Assistant Secretary of Housing Catherine Austin Fitts: Financial Coup d’Etat:
Sure enough, that fall, significant amounts of moneys started leaving the US, including illegally. Over $4 trillion went missing from the US government. No one seemed to notice. Misled into thinking we were in a boom economy by a fraudulent debt bubble engineered with force and intention from the highest levels of the financial system, Americans were engaging in an orgy of consumption that was liquidating the real financial equity we needed urgently to reposition ourselves for the times ahead.

Auditors have been unable to find 6.6 billion pounds ($13 billion) worth of British military equipment including vehicles, weapons and radios used by troops, a report said Thursday.

The government has ordered a shakeup at the Ministry of Defence after the auditors found holes in its record keeping, the Financial Times reported.

The findings raised concerns about whether critical resourcing decisions for Afghanistan have been taken by MoD officials without knowing where billions of pounds of equipment, including machine guns, night vision goggles as well as spare parts, is located, the newspaper said.

The National Audit Office has refused to sign off on MoD accounts because of an “inadequate level of evidence” that 6.6 billion pounds of its assets existed, the FT said.

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Tags: Global News, Government, Military, Ministry of Defence, Politics, U.K.

You have been lied to all of the time. Those soldiers are nothing more but cannon fodder in the eyes of those that rule your puppet politicians.

Listen to what a former SAS commander has to say about the “Snatch” Land Rover:

- Former SAS Comander: Afghan operation is ‘worthless’ (MUST-READ):

And, addressing the use of Snatch Land Rovers, which he deemed to be unsafe and prompted his decision to stand down, he said: “I had to resign.

“I had warned (the MoD) time and time again that there were going to be needless deaths if we were not given the right equipment, and they ignored this advice. There is blood on their hands.

“There was no other vehicle to use. The simple truth is that the protection on these vehicles is inadequate and this led to the unnecessary deaths.”

Having to peddle “government lies” about the safety of soldiers in Iraq led to a Ministry of Defence press officer suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, an employment tribunal will hear.

John Salisbury-Baker will claim that he suffered “intolerable stress” through having to “defend the morally indefensible” when responding to media inquiries about the ability of army vehicles such as the “Snatch” Land Rover to protect soldiers.

Mr Salisbury-Baker, 62, says he found it impossible to support the official line on deaths and injuries after seeing the suffering of soldiers’ families. After 11 years of service at Imphal Barracks near York, he could no longer keep working and is taking legal action against the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The case takes place amid accusations over the government’s attempts to claw back compensation from two injured soldiers, as well as a rising toll of casualties from improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan.

Mr Salisbury-Baker’s partner, Christine Brook, said: “John is an honest, sensitive and moral person, and having to peddle government lies that soldiers in vehicles such as the Snatch Land Rovers were safe from roadside bombs made him stressed.

“He was particularly plagued by the thought that some of the bereaved families he was visiting might have previously believed their loved ones were safe, because of what he himself had said to the media.

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Tags: Global News, Government, Iraq, Military, Ministry of Defence, Politics, Soldiers, U.K., War

Triple amputee Cpl Tom Neathway from Worcester who lost an arm and both legs while serving with The Parachute Regiment in Afganistan

MORE than 100 British soldiers have suffered amputations and other debilitating injuries in the past year in Afghanistan, according to previously suppressed Ministry of Defence (MoD) figures that reveal the true toll of the Taliban’s roadside bombing campaign.

The number of troops losing limbs or eyes, suffering serious burns or permanent brain damage has increased dramatically since August 2007 when the Taliban intensified their efforts.

During the past 18 months, 37 of the 71 British troops killed are known to have been the victims of roadside bombs or mines, but the number of troops disabled in the attacks has never been fully disclosed.

Figures obtained by The Sunday Times from medical sources show that 37 soldiers suffered “life-changing injuries” between April 2006, when they first deployed to southern Afghanistan, and the end of that year.

There were 55 such injuries during the whole of 2007. Last year the figures more than doubled to 114 and there have been 12 cases this year.

Campaigners claim the MoD is deliberately keeping the human cost of the war out of the public eye. They say the government must fund long-term care for maimed or mentally disabled soldiers instead of relying on charities such as Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion.

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Tags: Afghanistan, Government, Military, Ministry of Defence, Politics, Soldiers, Taliban

London, September 13 : A sexagenarian RAF expert claims that the Ministry of Defence in Britain asked him to keep quiet after he tracked a whole fleet of “spaceships” on military radar in 1971.

Sixty Wing Commander Alan Turner, 64, who was a chief operator of the RAF’s radar system for 29 years, said that all his colleagues were surprised to see 35 super-fast vessels appear on their screens.

Related article: Apollo 14 astronaut claims aliens HAVE made contact - but it has been covered up for 60 years

He said that the craft were equally spaced and shot from 3,000ft to 60,000ft at almost 300mph.

He revealed that every UFO would suddenly vanish from radar after a few seconds, and be replaced by an identical vessel moments later.

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Tags: Military, Ministry of Defence, U.K., UFO

The U.S. embassy in Kyrgyzstan has found itself embroiled in scandal after the country’s interior ministry announced that a hoard of U.S.-made weapons has been found in a house in Bishkek rented by U.S. citizens. The embassy hurriedly stated that the weapons were intended for antiterrorism exercises, but Kyrgyz enforcement agencies have not confirmed that. The news is the talk of Kyrgyzstan. The prosecutor general has begun an investigation.

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Tags: Kyrgyzstan, Military, Ministry of Defence, Politics, U.S., Weapons

BRITISH Defence chiefs have admitted servicemen were exposed to dangerous radiation levels during nuclear tests in Australia and the South Pacific in the 1950s.

The dramatic admission, made after years of denials, features in papers filed with the High Court in London by Ministry of Defence lawyers.

The Sunday Mirror newspaper said the court papers reveal that the Ministry of Defence now believes that nuclear tests were responsible for the deaths of some British servicemen.

However, the MoD insists that only 159 men were affected out of the 20,000 who were present.

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Tags: Australia, Cancer, dise, Fiji, Government, lawsuit, Ministry of Defence, New Zealand, nuclear, Radiation, U.K.

A village in south-west England will shortly be swarming with robots competing to show off their surveillance skills.

The event is the UK Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) answer to the US DARPA Grand Challenge that set robotic cars against one another to encourage advances in autonomous vehicles.

Enlarge image
This village, built for urban warfare training during the Cold War, will host teams of ground-based and aerial robots hunting for snipers, bombs, and other threats (Image: MoD)

The MoD Grand Challenge is instead designed to boost development of teams of small robots able to scout out hidden dangers in hostile urban areas.

Over 10 days in August, 11 teams of robots will compete to locate and identify four different threats hidden around a mock East German village used for urban warfare training, at Copehill Down, Wiltshire (see image, top right).

The robots must find snipers, armed vehicles, armed foot soldiers, and improvised explosive devices hidden around the village, and relay a real-time picture of what is happening back to a command post. Continue reading »

Tags: DARPA, Explosives, Ministry of Defence, Robots, Silicon Valley, snipers, Soldiers, Surveillance, UAVs, UGVs

Britain’s biggest teachers’ union has accused the Ministry of Defence of breaking the law over a lesson plan drawn up to teach pupils about the Iraq war. The National Union of Teachers claims it breaches the 1996 Education Act, which aims to ensure all political issues are treated in a balanced way.

Teachers will threaten to boycott military involvement in schools at the union’s annual conference next weekend, claiming the lesson plan is a “propaganda” exercise and makes no mention of any civilian casualties as a result of the war.

They believe the instructions, designed for use during classroom discussions in general studies or personal, social and health education (PSE) lessons, are arguably an attempt to rewrite the history of the Iraq invasion just as the world prepares to mark its fifth anniversary.

Steve Sinnott, the general secretary of the NUT, said: “This isn’t an attack on the military – nothing of the sort. I know they’ve done valuable work in establishing peace in some countries. It is an attack on practices that we cannot condone in schools. It is a question of whether you present fair and balanced views or put forward prejudice and propaganda to youngsters.” Continue reading »

Tags: History, Iraq, Ministry of Defence