Week End Wrap-Up - Breaking Submarine and Other Events Interpreted ...

About Submariner Morale
This certainly helps: Lone South African Submarine "Defeats" NATO Fleet
A lone South African submarine has left the NATO Maritime Group red faced when it "won" against a fleet of NATO and South African ships in an exercise. The exercise between NATO and South Africa took place off the Cape Coast. source

Now the problem ... Who says such success is all that unusual? Ever wonder why?

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US NAVY AIP Submarine Pressure Growing source
Further complicating the matter is that fighting against a diesel-electric boat is significantly different from fighting against a nuclear boat. And the United States, by its lack of such combatants, hasn't been able to fully prepare for any such conflicts. In late years, we've had to "borrow" diesel-electric boats from our NATO allies to use as sparring partners -- and we haven't been as invincible as we'd like to think we are. ... the new Virginia-class boats are running on the high side of two billion dollars apiece -- we might not be able to carve out money for a modern diesel-electric boat. Currently, we're adding one new boat a year, with plans to double that production in 2012 -- but that's doubtful. In the meantime, we're retiring our older boats a smidgen faster than that.

and

The diesel submarine may be the leading "Cinderella weapon" of the 21st century. It gets no respect in the United States or Russia. But China, India, France, Germany and Israel are all betting on it big time. source

Finally,
AIP can be retrofitted into existing diesel submarine hulls by insertion of a new hull section. source

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Bin Laden Counterfeit
Latest Osama Bin Laden taped message is a cheap fraud probably authored by someone else (unless Osama moved to Oxnard, his current message lost the ring of his peculiar speech patterns and authenticity. The current transcript sounds more like that of (ex-Californian) American Muslim IRS fugitive Adam Gadahn. Notice the stark, secular differences:

Sep. 2007 from transcript obtained by ABCNews:
Bin Laden counterfeit: "To conclude," bin Laden says, "I invite you to embrace Islam." He goes on to say: "There are no taxes in Islam, but rather there is a limited Zakaat [alms] totaling 2.5 percent."

Jan. 2006 from Al-Jazeera via BBC News:
"Jihad is continuing, praise be to God, despite all the repressive measures the US army and its agents take to the point where there is no significant difference between these crimes and those of Saddam."

Nov. 2004 from Al-Jazeera transcript via CNN.com
Bin Laden: "We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said in the transcript.

Mar. 1997 from CNN's transcript of Peter Arnett interview:
We are confident, with the permission of God, Praise and Glory be to Him, that Muslims will be victorious in the Arabian peninsula and that God's religion, praise and glory be to Him, will prevail in this peninsula.

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Why did Steve Fossett commit suicide? Does his personal MD know?
The Waihopai Valley resident said this morning that he and other glider pilots think it's strange that Mr Fossett has been unable to call out on the channels used by airlines.
"It's something most of us have done when we've got into trouble and are out of cellphone range. It's surprising he hasn't been able to do that."

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Questions Remain Over Nuclear-Armed B-52 Over Midwest
..."there is a belief among many seasoned military experts that there is much more to this reported story than meets the eye." There is informed speculation that the movement of the nuclear weapons to Barksdale was leaked because the air force base is a staging area for deployment to the Middle East. The Pentagon recently drew up plans to hit 1200 targets inside Iran in a massive bombardment campaign aimed at destroying its military and overthrowing its government. The movement of the nuclear weapons may have been an alert to the public by disgruntled members of the military that such plans would include the pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons.

Really? No, the pre-emptive motivation is pure poppycock. The incident does send an unusual heads-up somewhere, however. Let's see, who can that be? Iran, Putin, ... the selection seems endless. We are not about to nuke Iran when their own nuclear accidents are about to do that for us. Putin, then? He says Russia's recent bomber flights were flown without nuke weapons onboard. Suppose our satellites detected otherwise? Gee, are they that sensitive? Why does the public have to know such?