Friday, June 18, 2010

When Military Intelligence Is A Misnomer

Fox News is reporting that 17 Afghans are AWOL from Lackland AFB in Texas:

A nationwide alert has been issued for 17 members of the Afghan military who have gone AWOL from a Texas Air Force base where foreign military officers who are training to become pilots are taught English, FoxNews.com has learned.

The Afghan officers and enlisted men have security
badges that give them access to secure U.S. defense installations, according to the lookout bulletin, "Afghan Military Deserters in CONUS [Continental U.S.]," issued by Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Dallas, and obtained by FoxNews.com.


I cannot say this is surprising, knowing that the enemy is very good at probing out our weaknesses. But this is not the outrageous part of this story.

Let's read on (emphasis is mine):

The Afghans were attending the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The DLI program teaches English to military pilot candidates and other air force prospects from foreign countries allied with the U.S.

"I can confirm that 17 have gone missing from the Defense Language Institute," said Gary Emery, Chief of Public Affairs, 37th Training Wing, at Lackland AFB. "They disappeared over the course of the last two years, and none in the last three months."


That's just swell isn't it? Over the last two years, they have just slipped away and the public is just now being made aware of it.

Think of the damage that could have been done by now. Think of the damage that may be in the planning phase right now.


7 comments:

Z said...

I got this info sent to me via email yesterday...my first thought was "NOW THEY'RE TELLING US?" I like to THINK that the places they could infiltrate were told ...earlier?
And, we give them clearances like what they had ...WHY?
We are so so stupid that I'm getting seriously scared, LA.
I LOVE your new site look!

Anonymous said...

A few things occur to me: the first is that in the post-World War II era, someone with some brains understood that future conflicts would require allies whom we could trust and rely upon to do their share. It might have been a realization that in this post-war environment, the UK would not always be our staunch ally. This concept, having already led us to the United Nations also brought us to regional treaty organizations, such as NATO and SEATO. If we were to have foreign allies, should we not also have allies with sophisticated equipment and knew how to operate superior technology? Naturally, this led us to “standardization” and explains how the United States lost its .45 caliber M1911A1 pistol capable of killing a Cyclops in favor of the M11 9mm pistol, which only serves to piss off a determined enemy soldier.

Honestly, whether we line up for a 9mm pistol is not the problem. Well, it is a problem but not THE problem. THE problem is that once you transfer knowledge to foreign servicemen —such as how to fly a high-tech jet aircraft, how to fly air combat maneuvers, and how to drop tons of bombs on target, then you have potentially given a future enemy the knowledge to kill Americans. This happened in the case of Iran, and it was only quick thinking civilian contractual factory representatives who sabotaged lethal aircraft and kept them from being used by Iranian air forces. Even so, you can imagine that these aircraft found their way to Moscow, and that the Russians reverse engineered the F-14 (among others). Thanks to the Americans, Iran also had C-130 aircraft and ground-attack helicopters.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, twenty or so student pilots from the Middle East absented themselves from their training base at Randolph AFB Texas and disappeared. I don’t know where they went or if they were ever rediscovered. Apparently this didn’t set off any alarm bells, however. Judging from your article, we are still training Moslems to kill us in the finest traditions of “Thank you sir, may I have another?” Well, as my old granny used to say … “When you lay down with dogs, you stand a good chance of getting their fleas.” Maybe my granny should have been a high level official within the Department of Defense.

A.C. McCloud said...

Obama needs to kick some arse. That'll do it.

LASunsett said...

Z, I'd like to think they would notify everyone involved. But when you cannot even get an okay for some barges to start sucking up oil out of the gulf, 60 days into the damned thing, I don't have much confidence in much from the government anymore.

LA Sunset said...

Mustang,

I cannot understand why we cannot learn something from anything that happens. We trust everyone, because we want to see the best in everyone.

Well, there are people who hate our guts to no end. They claim it's because of our long history of oppression, our policies in the Middle East, and all other kinds of crap that has no bearing on anything except what is in their delusional minds.

LA Sunset said...

AC,

I can only imagine a meeting somewhere, some place, where they sit and mock the fearless leader because of his innate weakness.

Always On Watch said...

Gah! Our national security people seem bound and determined that we'll get hit.

About your new look here, LA....Very classy!