Nonono! The CORPUS CHRISTI Naval Air Station... TODAY!

Seems like just yesterday [in fact it was day-before-yesterday. Ed.] that I drew your attention to the fact that the US government, in the person of Attorney General William Barr, conceded that the Saudi air force officer who shot up the Naval Air Station at Pensacola FL last June, killing three people and wounding another seven, was, in fact, an Islamic terrorist with links to AQAP (al-Qaeda in the Arabian Pensinsula).

Well, folks, it happened again. This morning. At the Naval Air Station at Corpus Christi TX. According to ABC News, the shooting unfolded at about 0615 CDT when a man sped through a gate, activating vehicle barriers which stopped the car. The driver then got out of the car and began shooting, wounding a security guard before being "neutralized" (military-speak for being shot dead).

A spokesthingy for the FBI tole the meeja, "We have determined that the incident this morning at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi is terrorism related. They are working diligently with local, state and federal partners on the investigation, which is fluid and evolving." Wonder how they figured out it was "terrorism related"? Did someone hear the shooter yell "Alahu akbar!"?

The authorities have the shooter's car, obviously, but have not yet identified him. Not for publication, anyway. The FBI sez a second "person of interest may be at large." "May"? If you live in the vicinity, Walt suggests you keep your doors and windows locked, and beware of men who look like... errr... terrorists.

Pensacola shooter was an Islamic terrorist! No kidding??!!

Nearly a year after "a man" opened fire inside a classroom at the US Naval Air Station at Pensacola FL, killing three people and wouding another seven, Attorney General William Barr told a presser yesterday that in the months leading up to the attack, "the man" (aka Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani) communicated with al-Qaeda operatives about planning and tactics. Imagine that!!!

Why do you think the authorities, who had at first refused to utter the words "terrorism" or "Islamic" (even though they knew Mr Alshamrani was a Saudi air force officer), were until now not able to make the connection which occurred to Walt that very day?

According to Mr Barr, it was Apple's fault, for failing to help the lawmen open the shooter's phones so they could access key evidence. When they did, they discovered contacts between the Mohammedan [aka Muslim. Ed.] and operatives of al-Qaeda. Again, imagine that!!!

Said Mr Barr, “We now have a clearer understanding of Alshamrani's associations and activities in the years, months and days leading up to his attack." The phones revealed contact between Mr Alshamrani and "dangerous" operatives from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Pensinsula, or AQAP, that continued until shortly before the shooting. They also revealed that he had been radicalized since at least 2015, before he arrived in the USA, and had meticulously planned the attack.

According to FBI Director Chris Wray, the attack was "the brutal culmination of years of planning and preparation." Mr Alshamrani created minicam videos as he cased a military school building, and saved on his phone a will that purported to explain himself. AQAP released that document soon after the shooting, when it claimed responsibility for it, but at that time, US officials said they were still "investigating".

Asked whether al-Qaeda had directed or inspired the attacks, Mr Wray said it was "certainly more than just inspired." Law enforcement officials had previously left no doubt that Alshamrani was motivated by jihadist ideology, saying he visited a New York City memorial to the attacks of 9/11 over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and posted anti-American and anti-Israeli messages on social media just hours before the shooting. Yet throughout the presser, neither Mr Barr nor Mr Wray actually used the words "Islamic" or "Islamist" or "Muslim". Strange, isn't it?

Further reading: "Obama Continues To Caution Against Labeling 9/11 Attacks 'Terrorism' Too Quickly", Babylon Bee, 20/9/16. [Just in case... you know that the Babylon Bee is satire... right? Ed.]

Not only "bad guys" shoot down commercial airliners

Agent 3 e-mail to chastise me for mentioning in my coda to yesterday's piece on the apparent shooting down of Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752 by an Iranian missile, only the downing of Korean Airlines KAL007 by Soviet air forces. Agent 3 reminds me of two even worse "incidents", and possibly a third.

How quickly we forget [YOU forgot! Ed.] the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which crashed in July of 2017 near the border of Russia and Ukraine. The B777 -- a bigger plane than the B737-800 -- was supposedly flying at 10,000 metres (33,000 feet), at which altitude it could only have been hit by a large and sophisticated surface-to-air missile, probably the same Russian-built Tor-M1 missile system used by the Iranian military. See "Russian Missile System Suspected of Bringing Down Ukraine Airliner: Short Range, Fast and Deadly", Moscow Times, 10/1/20.

Who did that? The government of Vladimir Putin is keeping shtum, but the prime suspects were and remain the Ukrainian rebels, backed by Russia, trying to separate the eastern Ukraine from the motherland. Whoever did the dirty deed must surely have made a horrible mistake, firing on a civilian airliner. Right?

That tragedy was preceded, nine years earlier, by the shooting down of Iran Air flight IR655. On 3 July 1988 the Airbus A300 was en route from Tehran to Dubai when it was hit by an SM-2MR surface-to-air missile fired from... wait for it... USS Vincennes, a guided-missile cruiser of the United States Navy. The aircraft was destroyed and all 290 pax and crew were killed.

The large jet was hit while flying over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, along the flight's usual route, shortly after departing Bandar Abbas International Airport, the flight's stopover location. The Vincennes had entered Iranian territory after one of its helicopters drew warning fire from Iranian speedboats operating within Iranian territorial limits. According to the American government, the Vincennes crew mistook the Airbus for an F-14 Tomcat, an American-made jet fighter that had been part of the Iranian Air Force inventory since the 1970s. Rather a glaring error.

The US Navy claimed the Vincennes made ten attempts to contact the aircraft on both military and civilian radio frequencies, but received no response. The Iranian government said the cruiser negligently shot down the aircraft, which was transmitting IFF squawks in Mode III, a signal that identified it as a civilian aircraft, and not Mode II as used by Iranian military aircraft.

The event generated a great deal of criticism of the Paranoid States of America, and particularly Vincennes captain William C. Rogers III, for "overly aggressive behaviour in a tense and dangerous environment." Walt expects to hear phrases like that a lot, in the aftermath of this week's tragedy. In the days immediately following the incident, President Ronald Reagan issued a written diplomatic note to the Iranian government, expressing deep regret. Walt expects a similar note to be issued by the mad mullahs of the Iranian government, any minute now.

To round out this list, let's not forget Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, a B777 which vanished into thin air... or deep water... five years ago this coming March, with 239 souls aboard, now presumed dead. The Malaysian government declared the loss an accident, but no-one has yet been able to say for sure what happened to the large airliner. I continue to believe that the plane was shot down by either Indian or (more likely) American forces operating from the US military base on Diego Suarez. That would have been an accident... of course.

UPDATED: Pensacola shooter was Saudi airman! 6 others detained

Cazart!!!

The gunman who opened fire inside a classroom at the US Naval Air Station at Pensacola FL this morning, killing three people and injuring seven others, was reportedly a Saudi aviation student. The suspect has not yet been identified by authorities, nor will they admit that the mass murder was an act of Islamist terrorism. But according to the Clinton News Network (!), the shooter was a member of the Saudi military who was in the United States for training.

The suspect fired a handgun in the attack, which played out over two floors in a classroom building at a base whose main function is training. The FBI has taken over investigation into the shooting. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national attending training at the base as part of a long-standing Navy program open to US allies, of which the medieval Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one, apparently.

The motive for the violence was still under investigation. With his usual facility for ignoring the obvious, the Gov told the meeja, "There is obviously going to be a lot of questions about this individual being a foreign national, being a part of the Saudi Air Force and then to be here training on our soil. The government of Saudi Arabia needs to make things better for these victims. They are going to owe a debt here, given that this was one of their individuals."

Innocent question: Wasn't Pensacola "the cradle of aviation", where the 9/11 attackers (most of whom were Saudis) learned to fly planes into big buildings? Yet more of them are being allowed into the Paranoid States of America to learn the same things... for the same purpose??? Just askin'....

UPDATE ADDED 7/12/19: Late yesterday, Fox News reported that six (count `em, 6) Saudi nationals were detained for questioning Friday near the naval air station which was the site of the shootings. The FBI, which is leading the investigation into the shooting declined to reveal the identity of the shooter in the early stages of the investigation, but an unnamed US official told Fox News the gunman was an aviation student from Saudi Arabia named Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani. Ah yes, another "Mohammed" but of course his religion -- Muslims used to be called "Mohammedans" -- has nothing to do with his motives.

As the picture shows, the late Mohammed was a student in a US Navy training program for foreign military personnel. That program is aimed at "immersing international students in our US Navy training and culture" to help "build partnership capacity for both the present and for the years ahead," Commander Bill Gibson, the officer in charge, said in 2017. "These relationships are truly a win-win for everyone involved." Well, maybe not for those who were killed by Mohammed yesterday.

VIDEO: US Navy Blue Angels inside the cockpit - WILD

The Blue Angels are the precision aerobatic team of the United States Navy, often the featured attraction and always a big hit at airshows across the USA. Walt saw them for the first time, along with Agent 17, back in the 70s at Harlingen TX, at the terrific show put on by the Confederate Air Force.*

Here we have a video taken over Seattle, Lake Washington and Boeing Field. It takes training and ability to handle the extremely high emotional and physical stress levels incurred in this kind of flying. There's no room for errors or second-guessing.

In this video, you'll see the "slot man" in the diamond formation -- toughest flying due to wingtip vortices, etc. Notice the rest of the formation in the pilot's reflective goggles. When he "smiles", he is pulling some serious "G" forces. The grimace is part of tensing his body to stop blood pooling and having a grey- or blackout -- even with a G-suit!

Towards the end, the pilot holds both hands in the air. He must have had the aircraft very well trimmed, and/or be just a tad reckless. Do you really want to do this in a formation?!

This may be one of the best "in the cockpit" videos currently on YouTube. Go full screen, but you might want to turn OFF the sound.



Thanks and a thumbs up to a friend of Agent 17, and the US Navy and Blue Angels.

And... in case you missed it... here's the link to "Two minutes of aviation majesty".

* Footnote: Need I tell you that the Confederate Air Force was renamed the "Commemorative Air Force" -- another casualty of political correctness. They're still flying though! If you're a warplanes buff and want to join, you'll find a link on their website.

"We don't know who did it, or why..."

The words of President Barack Hussein Obama in response to the Boston Marathon bombings, which the White House is calling "an act of terror". But why would "they" do that... to Americans??!! Walt will tell you why.

Let's assume that the bomber is not just one deranged Unabomber wannabe. There were two bombs, suggesting at least two terrorists acting in concert. And let's assume, from the somewhat lame and amateurish quality of the attacks, that they were amateurs, not professionals. Walt believe what we have, then, is an act of domestic terrorism with an international connection.

Putting it another way, if the identities of the bombers are ever learned, they'll likely turn out to be local Muslims acting in sympathy with their co-religionists in the Middle East and Africa. Lifetime pct .980.

Most of the ROTW (Rest Of The World) hates Americans, but none more so than the Muslims of Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Iran [That's enough. Ed.] Why? It's not just envy of America's riches. Other countries -- Norway for instance -- enjoy larger per capita incomes and better standards of living. But you don't see the Islamic extremists targetting Norwegians.

Walt suggests that the main reason why Muslims -- especially the Islamic fundamentalists -- hate Americans is because the government of the USA keeps trying to impose its versions of democracy, justice, "culture" and the other blessings of the American way of life on the Islamic society which rejects those ideals.

Worse, America keeps trying to extend its economic and cultural empire by force of arms. The USA keeps on bullying and attacking smaller and weaker countries -- every country other than Russia and China -- whose politics or social systems it disagrees with: Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Libya [That's enough. Ed.], yet Americans wonder why they are hated. 

Three Americans were killed yesterday, and the Prez promises those responsible will be brought to "justice". But just over a year, an American soldier decided to shoot up an Afghan village, for target practice or just for the hell of it. 16 Afghans, including women and children, were killed. Has he been brought to justice yet?

It seems to the ROTW that Americans regard non-Americans as some lesser form of life. If Americans kill unarmed civilians -- men, women and children -- in large numbers, it really doesn't matter, as long as they're foreigners, like "gooks" (Vietnam) or "towel-heads" (the Middle East).

Just one (particularly egregious) example of American disregard for others. This is taken from the chapter headed "Friend or Foe" in Christopher Dickey's recommendable book Expats: Travels in Arabia from Tripoli to Teheran (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990).

Iran Air Flight 655 was a civilian airliner, an A300B2, flying from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai on 3 July 1988. That's a 140-mile, 35-minute milk run. Conditions in the Gulf were such, at the time, that civilian aircraft were restricted to a 20-mile-wide commercial air corridor, within Iranian airspace. Flight 655 was flying right down the middle of that airway, at the correct height and in the approved manner, when it was shot down by a guided missile fired from the US Navy cruiser Vincennes.

All 290 on board including 66 children perished -- the highest death toll of any aviation incident in the Indian Ocean, and the ninth-deadliest disasters in aviation history. The ensuing enquiry determined that the crew of the Vincennes somehow mistook the jumbo jet, which was climbing, for a much smaller F14 Tomcat fighter diving to attack them.

The commander of the Vincennes was exonerated. American investigators -- Iranians had no say in the matter -- recommended that one junior officer receive a "nonpunitive letter of censure", the mildest reprimand in the US military. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the US Secretary of Defense rejected that recommendation. Officially, no-one was to blame.

Dickey quotes Iranian Brigadier General Mansour Satary (who was trained in the USA) as saying that he didn't think the Americans actually intended to shoot down an unarmed civilian aircraft. They just didn't care enough to be careful enough not to do it.

It is that attitude -- that nothing matters except the security and prosperity of America -- that rankles the ROTW. It makes the ROTW feel threatened and insecure. In Walt's opinion, the goal of the terrorists is to make Americans feel equally threatened and insecure. As well they might.