January 09, 2008

Citi Merchant and First Data Corp's Backdoor Gun Control

Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp has decided to implement their own form of gun control, refusing to process credit card transactions between firearms retailers, distributors, and manufacturers, according to a press release issued by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms industry (h/t Hot Air).

CDNN Sports, Inc, a Texas-based firearms distributor, provided a copy of the notice of termination in which states in part:

We discussed with Mr. Crawford [of CDNN Sports Inc] said termination due to the sale of firearms in a non-face-to-face environment. Keep in mind that a violation of the Gun Control Act occurs when a gun offered online is sold to an individual in another State; the act prohibits selling a handgun to a resident of another state. Shipping across state lines is also banned, yet guns for sale online reach people across the country. We at Citi Merchant Services are unable to monitor or track adherence to these Gun Control laws.

A charitable explanation of this decision would be to state Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp lawyers are grossly incompetent. Online retailers do not sell firearms to individuals, and to suggest otherwise is ignorant, if not duplicitous.

Firearms "purchased" online are shipped from a distributor to a local Federal Firearms License (FFL) holder who has authority to sell firearms from the federal government. Once this FFL holder—typically retail establishments— receive the firearm, all individuals must complete a FBI NICS background check via Form 4473 and/or comply with state and local firearms regulations regarding retail firearms purchase. It is only after these background checks are satisfied that the local retail purchase actually occurs, face-to-face. There is never a direct sale from the online site to a non-FFL holding retail customer, as the termination notice incorrectly states, and does not in any way violate GCA '68.

At worst, this is an attempt at backdoor gun control, preventing manufacturers from shipping firearms to distributors, and from distributors to retailers. In doing so, Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp seem to assert that it is their responsibility to enforce laws, which is a patently absurd position. They are not the FBI nor the BATF, the two federal agencies tasked with enforcing these laws.

The firearms industry, of course, can easily voice their displeasure with their wallets by changing to other credit card transaction processing services that actually employ lawyers capable of understanding the applicable law.

I hope the company or companies that profit from this send Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp lawyers a nice gift basket.

Update: I'll send you over to SayUncle for a response from Citi Merchant Services and First Data, showing that they are, indeed, completely ignorant of the law and how firearms sales are conducted.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:48 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ron Paul: Just Go Away

Ron Paul needs to simply go away.

Long-simmering rumors about his ties to bigots of many stripes have lurked in the background for years, only explode yesterday with well-documented examples of racism, hatred towards gays, and murky associations with conspiracy theorists, neo-Nazis, and secessionists.

Some seem satisfied with Paul's weak claim that myriad examples of this inflammatory rhetoric went out under his name for over a decade without his knowledge or blessing. This requires a willing suspension of disbelief and an avoidance of reality only too typical of the paranoid fringe that have flocked to his campaign.

If he has any sense of decency, Paul should withdraw from the 2008 Presidential race, and should also consider vacating his Congressional seat. The voters of Texas' 22nd 14th District deserves better representation than this.

We all do.

Update: CNN gets in the action with a feature story called Ron Paul '90s newsletters rant against blacks, gays.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:15 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

January 08, 2008

Dear Network and Cable News Outlets

Not to point out the obvious to the oblivious, but at a time when newsrooms are loss-leaders at best, you might be financially better off in getting your wildly inaccurate pre-primary punditry from bloggers.

I'm pretty sure I could be every bit as wrong as Zogby, Rasmussen, etc for $50K-$100K less per state.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:38 PM | Comments (21) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Uh-oh

Curtains for Ron Paul?

...whoever actually wrote them, the newsletters I saw all had one thing in common: They were published under a banner containing Paul's name, and the articles (except for one special edition of a newsletter that contained the byline of another writer) seem designed to create the impression that they were written by him--and reflected his views. What they reveal are decades worth of obsession with conspiracies, sympathy for the right-wing militia movement, and deeply held bigotry against blacks, Jews, and gays. In short, they suggest that Ron Paul is not the plain-speaking antiwar activist his supporters believe they are backing--but rather a member in good standing of some of the oldest and ugliest traditions in American politics.

I doubt this is the last we'll see of this kind of article targeting the company Paul keeps, either.

Update: More on this via Daniel Koffler at Pajamas Media, starting with this (dis)taste of pull-quotes from "Ron Paul's Political Report" newsletter from the 1980s and early 1990s.

"[O]ur country is being destroyed by a group of actual and potential terrorists—and they can be identified by the color of their skin."

"I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city [Washington, D.C.] are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."

"We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, but it is hardly irrational."

"The riots, burning, looting, and murders are only a continuation of 30 years of racial politics."

"The criminals who terrorize our cities—in riots and on every non-riot day—are not exclusively young black males, but they largely are. As children, they are trained to hate whites, to believe that white oppression is responsible for all black ills, to "fight the power," and to steal and loot as much money from the white enemy as possible. Anything is justified against 'The Man.' And 'The Woman.'"

This looks bad for Paul...very bad. That hasn't kept his true believers from bombarding PJM's comment thread.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:28 PM | Comments (27) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Huckabee's Radical Immigration Shift

Break out the shovel:

Mike Huckabee wants to amend the Constitution to prevent children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens from automatically becoming American citizens, according to his top immigration surrogate — a radical step no other major presidential candidate has embraced.

Mr. Huckabee, who won last week's Republican Iowa caucuses, promised Minuteman Project founder James Gilchrist that he would force a test case to the Supreme Court to challenge birthright citizenship, and would push Congress to pass a 28th Amendment to the Constitution to remove any doubt.

This is a radical shift from an immigration position of just a little over a month ago as reported in the same newspaper, where his position as governor of Arkansas was labeled "an absolute disaster."

"Every time there was any enforcement in his state, he took the side of the illegal aliens."

As Mark Levin notes, this is a massive flip-flop from Huckabee, who supported making the children of illegal aliens eligible for college scholarships and called legislation to crack down on illegal immigration in Arkansas "inflammatory and race-baiting" while governor just two years ago, a fact he did not dispute in the GOP debate in New Hampshire on September 5, 2007.

Issues2000.org has much, much more on Huckabee's shifting positions.

Update: Hmmm... backing down on a previous pander? Perhaps his moral compass needs to be re-magnitized.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:19 AM | Comments (25) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Obama's Damaged Foreign Policy

Over at Hot Air, Bryan notes that Barack Obama's foreign policy plan doesn't exist.

I wish I could agree with him, but as I read the page now and click the "Read the Plan" link, that isn't true.

It isn't non-existent. Its just damaged and unreadable.

But then, we knew that, didn't we?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:01 AM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

The New Hampshire Primary Begins...

...with a route in the tiny hamlet of Dixville Notch, where Hillary Clinton didn't pick up a single vote among the 17 voters. Barack Obama got seven votes, John Edwards picked up two, and Bill Richardson picked up one. On the Republican side, John McCain picked up four vtoes, ?Mitt Romney two, and Rudy Giuliani picked up one.

As noted in the Fox News article, the small towns that opened door to voters at midnight are far too small to be seen as reflective of the state's trends.

Scott Elliott of Election Projection is predicting a very narrow 34% to 33% win for Republican candidate John McCain over Mitt Romney, and a significant 41% to 34% victory for Obama over Clinton, the once-favored Democratic candidate once seen by many as the inevitable Democratic winner.

Independent voters are the key to this primary, with the ability to vote in Democratic or Republicans. Mitt Romney's campaign is said to be hoping for enough independent voters to cast votes for Barack Obama and possibly siphon votes from John McCain to give him a victory. I think that is exactly what will happen.

My guesses are just that (guesses), but here they go.

I didn't include Duncan Hunter on the Republican side because I don't think he'll make even 1% after his hissy fit yesterday.

Update: So, how do we read the latest at Drudge that the New Hampshire Secretary of State is rushing to bring ballots to "Seacoast – Hampton, Portsmouth – and Southern Hillsborough – Pelham, Nashua" and other cities running low on Democratic ballots?

If you run with the theory that independents are choosing between Obama and McCain, we could be looking at the seeds of a mild McCain upset by Mitt Romney due to the independents crowding onto Democrat ballots.

This would seem to all but end John McCain's presidential aspirations.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:43 AM | Comments (36) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

January 07, 2008

I Wouldn't Get Too Excited...

...over news that Osma Bin Laden's security coordinator was captured in Lahore, Pakistan.

Not because it couldn't happen, but because the source is Pakistan's The Nation, the same news organization that reported the claim last week that Benazir Bhutto was killed by a laser.

As a result, I'd consider their credibility just a wee bit suspect.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:13 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Iran Pushes Its Luck

Iranian Revolutionary Guard fast-attack boats came with 200 yards of American Navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz Saturday, almost provoking American forces to open fire:

Five Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route off the Iranian coast, over the weekend, CNN reported on Monday.

Citing unidentified U.S. officials, CNN said the Iranian vessels came within 200 yards (metres) of the U.S. ships in international waters in the strait on Saturday, and U.S. sailors came close to opening fire.

Oil prices rose about 30 cents to over $98 a barrel after the CNN report, with traders citing increased risk of disruptions to oil shipments along the key shipping route.

U.S. military officials told CNN the boats were "attack craft" that they believed were operated by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

The Iranian boats made threatening maneuvers against the U.S. warships and threatening radio transmissions, the officials told CNN.

The captain of one U.S. vessel was in the process of giving the order to shoot when the Iranian ships began turning away, CNN said.

A radio transmission from one of the Iranian ships said, "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes," CNN reported, citing a U.S. official.

After the threatening radio communication, U.S. sailors manned their ships' guns and were very close to opening fire, it said.

There was no immediate U.S. comment.

If this account is accurate, these Iranian craft were literally within seconds of being destroyed. The order to fire was on the lips of the U.S. Navy captain as the Iranian boats threatened a suicide attack as they came in, only to turn away at the last second.

Occurring on the eve of President Bush's trip to the region which hoped to spur on the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, the apparent attempt was to force American forces to defend themselves and trigger a new crisis between the United States and Iran.

As we look to tomorrow's primary in New Hampshire, I'm forced to consider how the various presidential candidate's would have responded if such a provocation had occurred on their watch.

I think it goes without saying that on the Democratic side the candidates are less than inspiring in this kind of crisis, with only Hillary giving me the slightest hope of anything less than a Carteresque response. I think the same holds true for Huckabee and Paul on the Republican side of the equation, and with his foreign policy "experience," I imagine Huckabee's first response would be to wonder why the Irish were mad at us in the first place, and reflexively issuing an executive order raising import taxes on Guinness in retaliation.

Romney may do okay in such a situation, but I know I'd rather have McCain or Thompson in office if it ever "hit the fan" with Iran, as indeed it may on the next President's watch.

We were apparently just seconds away from a shooting war this past Saturday.

Who would you want in office if when they try this again?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:19 AM | Comments (32) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Pajamas Media War on Terror Conversations

Claudia Rosett and Roger L. Simon braved the freezing New Hampshire temperatures last week to talk to Republican Presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani and John McCain about the War on Terror, in the latest of Pajamas Media's War on Terror Conversation series.

The Rudy Giuliani conversation is here.

The John McCain conversation is here.

An earlier conversation with Fred Thompson is here.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:10 AM | Comments (16) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

DaybyDay Fundraiser

Chris Muir of DaybyDay—one of the best online cartoon series going—is raising funds, and could certainly use your support.

Like most bloggers, Chris is not a full-time cartoonist, and DaybyDay takes up a tremendous amount of time to write, well, day by day.

Drop on over and toss him a couple of bucks, will you?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:01 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

January 04, 2008

A Blogger Dies at War

Blogger and soldier Andrew Olmsted, who often posted as G-Kar at Obsidian Wings, was killed in combat yesterday in Iraq. As far as you know, he was killed defending a village composed solely of innocent women and children from hundreds of insurgents.

Knowing the risks he took as a soldier, he composed a moving, reflective final post to be published in the event of his death.

In Major Olmstead's last paragraph he expressed doubts in an afterlife. I sincerely hope he finds himself today in Heaven, pleasantly surprised.

His writing is archived at http://www.andrewolmsted.com/

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:23 PM | Comments (31) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Harper's Horton Scandals Heat Up

Horton Hears a Boo: Journalistic Hijinks at Harper's Exposed is now up at Pajamas Media and has already been linked by both Instapundit and Powerline.

It turns out that Harper's writer Scott Horton, who has been a leading cheerleader for imprisoned Associated Press photographer and terrorism suspect Bilal Hussein, was a former investigator for Hussein's defense team, a disclosure that he has failed to make in his recent attacks against the U.S. military's handling of the Hussein case.

This particular bit of journalistic malpractice is unrelated to another budding scandal surrounding Horton's still unsupported August 24 claim that an unnamed "thuggish neocon" journalist fabricated a story while Horton was in Iraq.

Repeatedly pressed for comment and proof of the anonymous article Horton alludes to, Harper's Editor Roger D. Hodge, Managing Editor Ellen Rosenbush, Vice President of Public Relations Giulia Melucci and Horton have thus far refused to support or retract his claim. Hodge, Rosenbush, and Melucci were contacted as recently as December 30, but remain mute, apparently hoping to stonewall their way through this scandal.

In light of these developments, perhaps Andrew Sullivan may want to reconsider his statement that, "Scott Horton has as much integrity as anyone I know."

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:09 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

January 03, 2008

Stunning Iowa Prediction from Election Projection: Huckabee by 11%, Thompson within 1% of Romney

Specifically, Scott Elliott is predicting the Republican race in Iowa at Huckabee 30%, Romney 19%, Thompson 18%, Paul at 14%, and McCain at 13%.

On the Democratic side, he has Obama blowing away the rest of the field with 38%, Edwards picking up 29%, and Clinton finishing third with just 25%.

Coming from anyone else I'd not give these numbers a second look, but Elliott's track record speaks for itself when using his formulas.

He is however, using his intuition instead of a formula for this particular prediction, so keep that in consideration.

Update: Hmm...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:30 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Positive ID On Bhutto Assassination Gun

Abid Jan of dictatorshipwatch.com has posted a link to another image of the firearm used in the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in the comments of this earlier post that identified the weapon as a Steyr M.

Here is the new photo.

This is a much better photo the the grainy picture originally released by the Associated Press, and because of this, the sidearm's distinctive characteristics a a definitive match for the Steyr M-A1 variant, proving the earlier supposition by "karlJ" beyond a reasonable doubt.

Her is a Steyr M-A1 as pulled from the Steyr web site, with three distinguishing characteristics highlighted.

Here is a rotated and magnified version of the picture submitted by Abid Jan, with those same distinguishing characteristics highlighted.

Why would the assassin use a a Steyr M-A1?

Availability is typically a prime concern, as an assassin will use the weapon he has access to, but online research suggests that there is little indication that the M-A1 is normally exported to Pakistan in any numbers, suggesting that this was a purpose-specific acquisition.

The M-A1 is touted by Steyr for its relatively unique trapezoid sighting system, which the company touts as "a new and innovative stepping stone towards quicker target acquisition." The 111-degree grip angle is also said to put the shooter's hand more in-line with the bore of the pistol, reducing upward muzzle movement and enabling faster follow-up shots, and the guns relatively light weight (27oz. empty) theoretically enhances control, allowing faster follow-up shots.

Sadly, at the bottom of the Steyr site in red text are the words NO AUSTRIAN WEAPONS FOUND WITH TERRORISTS!, and a link to a story from last year, where an irresponsible British journalist claimed Steyr HS 50 sniper rifles purchased by Iran were being supplied to terrorists in Iraq, a claim I also debunked.

This time, through no obvious fault of the company, they cannot make that claim.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:25 AM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Does the M-A1 fire laser beams?

Posted by: C-C-G at January 03, 2008 09:43 AM (ojkss)

2 Only on the DU. And Kos, Huff Post, etc

Posted by: William Teach at January 03, 2008 12:03 PM (NaHh8)

3 Looks like a pretty solid match, but in the first photo it seems to have a more rounded trigger guard. Perhaps an earlier model?

Posted by: Uncle Pinky at January 03, 2008 01:38 PM (5mmSd)

4 I think from the trigger guard's shape it looks like the original M rather than the M-A1, a much newer model. Scroll down a bit to see the picture from the earlier post.

Even the newer model, however, shoots 9mm Parabellum, not laser beams.

Posted by: karlJ at January 03, 2008 06:20 PM (Kg2UJ)

5 I don't agree that the pistol's origin necessarily points to a purpose specific acquisition. It would be available to anyone willing to buy black market arms. Whether it was opium derived Taliban money, or came out of the ISI's budget is unknown, but she was wanted dead by lots of people with the means to get this sort of thing.

Last time I was in that general area, a quality pistol sold for about $1300. This is well within the budgets of any number of bad actors. With AK-47's going for about $150 in much of that part of the world (can't say for Pakistan specifically), pistols are a major status symbol, and European weapons doubly so.

The marketing talk about the sights is just that. I've used them, and while usable they are hardly a leap forward. Most serious users replace them with standard post and notch style.

Posted by: karlJ at January 03, 2008 06:37 PM (Kg2UJ)

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January 02, 2008

Late Thompson Surge in Iowa

According to Zogby. Adds Peter Robinson at NRO's The Corner:

Iowa Republicans, in other words, have wanted Thompson to do them the courtesy of actually campaigning—and now they’re beginning to realize that he has. First Thompson conducted a two-week bus tour of Iowa at which he campaigned in more than 50 towns and cities. Then he taped a 17-minute video in which he makes his case more calmly, deliberately, and and with incomparably greater respect for the issues than has any of his opponents. And? For a lot of Iowa Republicans, that’s all they needed.

Over at Hot Air, Allah is soliciting predictions of what percentage of the vote Thompson takes in Iowa.

I'm keeping my prediction to myself, but you're welcome to drop yours in the comments.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:10 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

PPP-Nuts: Dr. Evil Killed Bhutto...

...with a "la-ser."

Former prime minister and PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto was targeted with the latest laser beam technology, being used by the American forces in Iraq, PPP sources told TheNation Tuesday.

Baitullah Mahsud and Taliban don't have such technology. After bomb blasts in Karachi on Oct 18, Mahsud sent two messages to Benazir in which he said that they have neither any hostility against her, nor would make any attempt to kill her.

"When Benazir was admitted to Rawalpindi General Hospital, Dr M Musaddiq Khan told a PPP leader that he saw such a case for the first time in his life. These wounds were not of bullets, Dr said and added that she had expired before shifting to the hospital and a part of her brain and blood had spilled over from her head," the sources unveiled.

Believe it or not, quasi-respectable news agencies are also picking the story up, including The Australian. Even blogs, including The Moderate Voice, are running this at face value.

Truly, we have lost the War on Drugs.

There are indeed man-portable and vehicle mounted laser units in the world's militaries, but all of those smaller than a locomotive are "dazzler"-type non-lethal weapons, meant to blind people or sensors... they cannot kill someone.

Those military lasers powerful enough to kill missiles—or anything else—are so large that the have to be mounted on ships or multi-engine aircraft. One of the smallest versions ( and few actually close to production use; most others are still experimental) the MTHEL, or Mobile Tactical High-Energy Laser, is "mobile" is that it can be carried by three tractor-trailers before being assembled into a fixed weapons system.

The beam created by these huge and very expensive lasers is not small, either. The MRACL tested at White Sands New Mexico had a beam 5.5" square.

In that regard, A.J. Strata is wrong when he states:

But if a high powered laser were to be used it would leave just as much of a signature as a bullet. A nice clean, cauterized path would be clearly evident.

In actuality, locomotive-sized laser weapons would work on human beings the same way they work in shooting down missiles and artillery shells. It superheats them until they blow apart. As Bhutto's head did not burst like Jiffy-Pop, this stupid theory should quickly be put to rest. Unfortunately, as soon as some nutter figures out who owns such defense weapons systems the conspiracy theorizing is only likely to get worse.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:23 PM | Comments (25) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Too Little, Too Late: Scotland Yard to Probe Bhutto Assassination

For what little it is worth:

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Wednesday that British investigators are heading to Pakistan to help clear up the confusion surrounding Thursday's assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

"I am very thankful to [British] Prime Minister Gordon Brown that when I made this request he accepted that," Musharraf said in a nationally televised address.

The Scotland Yard team, he said, "will solve all the confusion" surrounding how Bhutto died last week.

Musharraf expressed his condolences about the killing of Bhutto, who he said "has been martyred by terrorists."

Frankly, I have my doubts on what good this investigation will do, and that is not meant as a slight against Scotland Yard, but instead against what little evidence they will have on hand.

The crime scene where Bhutto was apparently shot and a suicide bomber detonated had been cleared within hours; the debris, blood, and any remaining evidence washed away. Benazir Bhutto has been interred, as have the bodies of the victims of the suicide blast, and it remains to be seen if Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, will allow Scotland Yard to exume Bhutto's remains for an autopsy.

The remaining evidence seems to include:

• part of the head of the suicide bomber
• forensic evidence in the two vehicles that transported Bhutto
• the assassin's pistol, tentatively identified as a Steyr M
• several video tapes of the attack
• still photos
• eyewitness accounts
• X-rays
• doctor's notes

The documentary evidence will presumably add little to the investigation. The media-provided X-rays seem to show little, and a formal autopsy was never performed. Both pundits and professionals have examined the video, and it would be surprising if they hold much in the way of substantial new information, outside of audio recorded on the videotapes which may prove or disprove the theory of additional gunshots being fired. The eyewitness accounts are very conflicted, and as a rule, are typically unreliable.

If positively identified, the suicide bomber may provide some clues as to his associations, but that is far from a certainty.

Then there are the two vehicles in the attack, if they have not been compromised.

The first was the vehicle that Bhutto was riding in at the time of the attack, and it could presumably tell us quite a bit about the blast itself, and may account for any bullets fired low that hit the vehicle. An examination of the right rear sunroof lever may be able to account for the blood on the lever, and if bent or stressed, may give some insight into how hard Bhutto hit the lever, if at all. Bhutto's supporters transferred the former prime minster to a second vehicle on the way to the hospital as the first had suffered significant damage as a result of the blast, but I would expect it to have less useful forensic evidence.

The pistol's serial number should give investigators an idea of the firearm's origins, and if bullets or shell casings are recovered from the crime scene or the vehicle (or less likely, Bhutto) that match those cartridges presumably still in the recovered pistol's magazine, it could verify that the weapon was that used in the assassination attempt.

Scotland Yard's entry will provide the appearance of something being done, but it comes long after the most useful evidence has been literally washed away.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:13 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

There They Go Again

Stop me if you've heard this before, but the Associated Press has run yet another exaggerated massacre story in Iraq based upon questionable sources they claim are Iraqi police officers.

On Monday, AP ran the claim:

A suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint manned by a group fighting against al-Qaida in Iraq, killing 12 people in one of a series of strikes Monday against the largely Sunni movement singled out by Osama bin Laden as a "disgrace and shame."

[snip]

In the most serious attack against one of the groups Monday, a suicide bomber drove a minibus rigged with explosives into a checkpoint in Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of Baghdad, police and a member of the local awakening council said.

The explosion killed 12 people, said Adil al-Mishhadani, a member of the council. The council commander, who gave his name only as Abu Arkan for security reasons, said later that the dead included three children on their way to school and nine council members.

Three people were missing, Abu Arkan said.

Not so fast. MNC-I states that only two civilians (not 12) were killed in the attack, two were injured, and two civilians (not three) were missing.

Once again in this article, the Associated Press used anonymous Iraqi Police officers of dubious credibility to make up the bulk of their sourcing, with journalists apparently being nowhere near the scene.

As a result, the number of false reports of massacres and exaggerated reports of attacks in Iraq by the media seems to be on the rise.

Perhaps we should consider this trend the media's "surge?"

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:07 AM | Comments (18) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

December 31, 2007

Bhutto Assassination Weapon ID'd?

On December 27, Pakistani police recovered a pistol from the scene of Benazir Bhutto's assassination in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

I tweaked the low-res version in PhotoShop, rotated it 90 degrees, and played with the color balance to provide better contrast. Here is the modified, rotated photo, inset into the original.

I emailed that "green" photo this morning to Confederate Yankee commenter "karlJ," who has worked in the region as a contract medic, who thinks it could be a Steyr M 9mm pistol.

Based upon the shape and angle of the grip and the angled rear of the slide (which makes it distinct from similar polymer-framed Glock, Springfield XD and M&P pistols), I think that "karlJ" is probably correct.

Barack Obama has yet to link the pistol to Hillary Clinton's vote on the Iraq War.

Update:

Photo editor William G.S. Smith, seems to think that the ID of the assassination weapon as a Steyr M is positive, and sends along this comparison.

01/02 Update: Hey, Nuts. The truthers at whatreallyhappened.com have linked to this post to float the theory that the shooter was Pakistani special forces:

Now guess who uses the Steyr M 9X19mm handgun exclusively - the Pakistani army - special forces division.

An interesting theory... and completely divorced from reality.

I can find zero evidence that the Steyr M has been purchased by any branch of the Pakistani military in an online search... not so much as a single pistol. Pakistani police units bought a limited number of the old Steyr GB pistol in years past, but there is no confusing the two handguns, and the folks at whatreallyhappened.com apparently just decided just to make up a story about the M being "exclusive" Pakistani Army SF issue to float a witless conspiracy theory... shocking, I know.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:45 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

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