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Oh yeah I forgot to post this. It's hilarious. https://twitter.com/yarotrof/status/942329507721117696
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Dec 20, 2017 10:18
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Volkerball posted:Oh yeah I forgot to post this. It's hilarious. Pro click. And "hilarious" is the exact right term to describe this.
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Dec 20, 2017 11:21
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Could they be smuggled overland through Oman? They've got a large border, I know Oman is relatively stable, but Imagine that border must be porous.
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Dec 20, 2017 11:41
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Volkerball posted:Oh yeah I forgot to post this. It's hilarious.
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Dec 20, 2017 12:23
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The KRSC is getting worried about the movements of Iraqi forces, claiming they're preparing for an attack to capture territory https://twitter.com/KRSCPress/status/943438816706224128
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Dec 20, 2017 12:32
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Volkerball posted:Oh yeah I forgot to post this. It's hilarious. Thread existence justified. I dare you to post this in GBS.
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Dec 20, 2017 12:53
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Volkerball posted:Oh yeah I forgot to post this. It's hilarious. Nice Battle Isle '94 let's play my man
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Dec 20, 2017 12:54
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Volkerball posted:Oh yeah I forgot to post this. It's hilarious. THE FRIGATE - BUILT FOR SPEED goes 14 knots
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Dec 20, 2017 12:58
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Brown Moses posted:The KRSC is getting worried about the movements of Iraqi forces, claiming they're preparing for an attack to capture territory I doubt these actions are entirely uncoordinated events, and as soon as putey washes his hands the kurds are going to have noisy visitors
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Dec 20, 2017 13:57
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Volkerball posted:Oh yeah I forgot to post this. It's hilarious. Did I just watch the Saudi army roll in with tanks through Tehran with cheering Iranians holding Saudi and Iranian flags together with portraits of MBS. How could anyone older than 14 make that video? FFS Also shouldn’t they all be slaughtered anyway since they are infidel sub-Jew taqiya scum?
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Dec 20, 2017 14:27
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According to the Arms Control Wonks, the missile showed signs of being crudely welded back together. They figured that it could have been smuggled into Yemen in parts. But doing that felt intuitively wrong to them because of the potential to screw things up.
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Dec 20, 2017 14:35
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Sinteres posted:The media have a habit of being really gullible when the US or its allies say their missile defense systems have worked. The US DOD has been mum on KSA intercepts last as far as I know. KSA crews also have a mix of less effective legacy patriot and newer stuff. Notably, the US doesn’t put it’s important stuff under allied Patriot protection. The US far prefers its own crews, tactics, and equipment. But that’s expensive, so getting partners up to snuff is a longer term goal.
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Dec 20, 2017 14:47
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mlmp08 posted:The US DOD has been mum on KSA intercepts last as far as I know. Yeah I didn't mean we were lying about this one, but we lied our asses off about the Patriot's effectiveness in the Gulf War. The media were even more gullible back then of course. I assume the system is better than it was in 1991, but W Bush people said it still sucked as they walked out the door, so who knows. My understanding is that there's a lot of skepticism about Israel's much praised Iron Dome too.
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Dec 20, 2017 15:22
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Sinteres posted:Yeah I didn't mean we were lying about this one, but we lied our asses off about the Patriot's effectiveness in the Gulf War. The media were even more gullible back then of course. I assume the system is better than it was in 1991, but W Bush people said it still sucked as they walked out the door, so who knows. In 2003 US Patriot made 9 out of 9 kinetic kill intercepts successfully. In the Gulf War, nope, pretty damned ineffective!
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Dec 20, 2017 15:24
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Saladman posted:Also shouldn’t they all be slaughtered anyway since they are infidel sub-Jew taqiya scum? Saudi would call them Rafidah and begin by demolishing every Shia masjid in Iran
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Dec 20, 2017 15:26
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mlmp08 posted:In 2003 US Patriot made 9 out of 9 kinetic kill intercepts successfully. In the Gulf War, nope, pretty damned ineffective! Oops, yeah it looks like I got it wrong. It was Clinton's Secretary of Defense who said it didn't work, not W Bush people.
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Dec 20, 2017 15:29
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They changed the way the Patriot works, (this was on John Dolan's show last week). It used to be an explosive warhead that was designed for shooting down fragile Soviet jets but mostly useless against a Scud. So they replaced the explosive warhead with a "kinetic warhead", which is actually just a chunk of heavy metal, and updated the guidance system to allow it to ram into Scuds, detonating their warhead or at least knocking them off course. It should, at least in theory, be a lot more effective.
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Dec 20, 2017 15:40
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Thug Lessons posted:They changed the way the Patriot works, (this was on John Dolan's show last week). It used to be an explosive warhead that was designed for shooting down fragile Soviet jets but mostly useless against a Scud. So they replaced the explosive warhead with a "kinetic warhead", which is actually just a chunk of heavy metal, and updated the guidance system to allow it to ram into Scuds, detonating their warhead or at least knocking them off course. It should, at least in theory, be a lot more effective. Modern patriots are way, way more effective against ballistic missiles. The legacy missiles are faster and can reach out really far against stuff like air-breathing aircraft (has engine that breathes air, rather than rocket/missile going into high altitude or space). Legacy missiles have been upgraded in capability to be better against ballistic missiles than from the Gulf War, but they are still not as good against missiles as the new stuff. This video has absurd music and is all kinds of overproduced, but it has some good fidelity video of a kinetic intercept, which is a hell of a lot better than the old shotgun blast shrapnel method. In the video, you can also see the attitude control motors firing just before intercept to do last-instant micro corrections to achieve point of aim on target. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HvAuIi02AE mlmp08 fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Dec 20, 2017 |
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Dec 20, 2017 16:05
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Darkman Fanpage posted:Isn’t the US Navy helping with the blockade though? They're too busy colliding with fishing vessels, tankers, container ships, tugboats, and the shore to be allowed near a busy sea lane.
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Dec 20, 2017 16:15
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Cat Mattress posted:They're too busy colliding with fishing vessels, tankers, container ships, tugboats, and the shore to be allowed near a busy sea lane. Colliding with commercial ships would make for a pretty effective blockade. Until you ran out of navy ships, of course.
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Dec 20, 2017 18:34
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I don't know if anyone is following developments in the KRG, but things have been getting progressively worse and worse there over the last 4 days. A lot of civil servants haven't been paid in months, which sparked a wave of protests. The KRG responded with force, and the protests grew. Their scope broadened to include issues with the referendum, Kirkuk, the Talabani/Barzani clan system, and general repression by the KRG. The PUK and the KDP have both been hit with them, though the PUK have taken the brunt of it. Both have their peshmerga deployed in cities all over Kurdistan, creating more anger, and the situation in some places has become very ugly. Countrywide we're talking dozens of deaths and hundreds of wounded over the last few days. This could be a precursor to a lot of bad things. While this is pushing the PUK and the KDP together, the PUK is extremely factionalized and susceptible to infighting, and people are really pissed off. Gorran has also withdrawn from the government, creating more instability, so it's a really dangerous time. https://twitter.com/AramKrdstn/status/943083734101823488
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Dec 21, 2017 21:47
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Saladman posted:Did I just watch the Saudi army roll in with tanks through Tehran with cheering Iranians holding Saudi and Iranian flags together with portraits of MBS. How could anyone older than 14 make that video? FFS "We will be greeted as liberators!"
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Dec 22, 2017 06:27
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Meanwhile, in Egypt: https://twitter.com/Arn_Del/status/943970825996324869/video/1 quote:Video showing the #ISIS attack on al-Arish Airbase in North #Sinai. An UH-60 that has just landed is destroyed with a 9M133 Kornet ATGM. The pilot did not survive. This helicopter was carrying the Defense & Interior Ministers #Egypt Also the tweet says the helicopter was carrying two ministers, they had already gotten out so they haven't been killed by the attack. They returned home in another chopper (a Mi-17 this time).
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Dec 22, 2017 19:08
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https://twitter.com/meganconnelly48/status/944291908515491840
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Dec 22, 2017 20:43
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Barzani owned media is calling protesters terrorists, so yeah everything's going great in Iraqi Kurdistan. Turns out people are a lot less forgiving of you being a lovely dictator when you throw away their future with a stupid stunt, though admittedly the people went along with his bullshit since they overwhelmingly supported the referendum. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch says hundreds of prisoners held in Kirkuk while the Kurds administered it seem to have been disappeared. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/12/21/kurdistan-region-iraq-350-prisoners-disappeared
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Dec 22, 2017 20:56
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I suppose it's not at all surprising that iraqi kurdistan is struggling to pay wages and all that follows after they've lost their biggest source of income in Kirkuk
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Dec 22, 2017 21:22
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Surrounded on all sides by people who don't give a gently caress, along with no access to the sea. If the Kurdistan experiment ever truly gets off the ground, it could easily go the way of Bolivia a hundred years ago.
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Dec 23, 2017 03:57
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So on a scale one 1 to Anfal, how hosed are the Kurds?
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Dec 23, 2017 04:07
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MBS working on his next purchase. https://twitter.com/ShibleyTelhami/status/944365142103527426
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Dec 23, 2017 05:36
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CherryCola posted:So on a scale one 1 to Anfal, how hosed are the Kurds? The economic situation is exceptionally poor. The KRG would have been in a position of enormous economic difficulty even if it still had all the oil in Kirkuk. http://www.aei.org/publication/is-the-kurdish-spring-here/ quote:Actions have consequences. In the wake of the disputed referendum, Iraqi forces moved back into disputed areas. Before the Kirkuk crisis, the KRG was producing an average of 630,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil, and exporting 550,000 bpd through Turkey. After the Kirkuk crisis, that amount has been halved. A back-of-the-napkin calculation of export at $45/barrel suggests the KRG now receives $375 million monthly from oil exports. But, because of KRG prepayment and financing deals, many claimants can deduct from that. Glencore, for example, reportedly has a contract with the KRG that allows it to collect on average 100,000 bpd from Kurdish oil exported through the Turkish port of Ceyhan in exchange for advances totaling $800 million.
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Dec 23, 2017 07:42
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One of the guys detained at the Ritz Carlton allegedly died under torture. https://twitter.com/MiddleEastEye/status/944497839136178176
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Dec 23, 2017 10:27
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The Ritz Carlton Hotel company is probably delighted their brand is now named in the news as a place rich people died of torture. Is mbs an investor in Hilton Hotels?
Toplowtech fucked around with this message at 10:58 on Dec 23, 2017 |
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Dec 23, 2017 10:56
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Toplowtech posted:The Ritz Carlton Hotel company is probably delighted their brand is now named in the news as a place rich people died of torture. Is mbs an investor in Hilton Hotels? I was thinking this exact same thing. Like if this doesn't scare off foreign companies from Saudi Arabia then I don't know what will. Edit: by the way doesn't Saudi Arabia have tons of secret prisons they do all their torturing and executing in? Why did they take these guys to a swanky hotel?
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Dec 23, 2017 11:12
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Major internationals have proven very indulgent of 'domestic squabbles' so long as there's money in it.
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Dec 23, 2017 11:14
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Charliegrs posted:I was thinking this exact same thing. Like if this doesn't scare off foreign companies from Saudi Arabia then I don't know what will. I don't have much to base this on but my current theory is that it was to spread the idea that these guys were being treated to 5 star accommodations, and that their "imprisonment" would be considered a vacation by most. Make that the dominant belief when the news of the arrests broke, and then if the details came out later, a lot fewer people would be paying attention. This story about deaths under torture could be false, and maybe they are living the good life, but that doesn't jive with what I think about MBS thus far. And it's certainly not the best tactic to try and extract things from detainees. Volkerball fucked around with this message at 11:23 on Dec 23, 2017 |
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Dec 23, 2017 11:19
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Volkerball posted:it's certainly not the best tactic to try and extract things from detainees. I think that it's becoming abundantly clear that the Saudis aren't really good at much besides bribery, police state tactics, and Wahabi export.
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Dec 23, 2017 14:54
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Volkerball posted:I don't have much to base this on but my current theory is that it was to spread the idea that these guys were being treated to 5 star accommodations, and that their "imprisonment" would be considered a vacation by most. Make that the dominant belief when the news of the arrests broke, and then if the details came out later, a lot fewer people would be paying attention. This story about deaths under torture could be false, and maybe they are living the good life, but that doesn't jive with what I think about MBS thus far. And it's certainly not the best tactic to try and extract things from detainees. I don't know how much this kind of culture holds in Saudi...but in Europe in the old days of absolute monarchies, it was not acceptable to imprison anyone with noble or especially royal blood in squalid conditions. Perhaps he's following something of that taboo, but for those with House of Saud blood?
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Dec 23, 2017 14:59
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When you go all out on your rich opponents, you announce that their wealth and status couldn't protect them, which is the single biggest fear of all rich people. Putting them up in hotels gives a fig leaf that you still respect the authority of money and keeps your rich allies from becoming uncomfortable.
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Dec 23, 2017 19:06
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Charliegrs posted:I was thinking this exact same thing. Like if this doesn't scare off foreign companies from Saudi Arabia then I don't know what will. You can't torture a prince in any old building, it would be unseemly. You must torture them somewhere sufficiently posh and appropriate to their station. TheBalor posted:I don't know how much this kind of culture holds in Saudi...but in Europe in the old days of absolute monarchies, it was not acceptable to imprison anyone with noble or especially royal blood in squalid conditions. Perhaps he's following something of that taboo, but for those with House of Saud blood? Pretty much this.
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Dec 24, 2017 01:15
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New purge happening in Turkey: https://twitter.com/Joyce_Karam/status/944795408160698368
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Dec 24, 2017 06:04
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