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Thanks to everyone who has voted on my photo in The Boeing Store Photo Contest. Keep in mind - you can vote once every day - just by logging in with your Face Book account! Go to login and use the FB option. Thanks again! -Steve Douglass

 

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Ambien, bin Laden and downed drones - cover story for Geronimo raid

WIRED DANGER ROOM: Before SEAL Team 6 was sent into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden, the troops were given a cover story, in case the mission went south. They were supposed to say that they were deep in Pakistani territory, hunting for a lost drone.

It’s one of many fascinating details in No Easy Day, Navy SEAL Matt Bissonette’s firsthand account of the bin Laden raid.

“We all laughed,” Bissonette writes about the explanation. “The story was preposterous. We were allies with Pakistan on paper, so if we did lose a drone, the State Department would negotiate directly with the Pakistani government to get it back. The story didn’t wash and would be very difficult to stick to during hours of questioning…. The truth is, if we got to that point, no story we could come up with was going to cover up twenty-two SEALs packing sixty pounds of hi-tech gear on their backs.”

The night before the raid, some of the SEALs took Ambien, because they couldn’t sleep. They batted away CIA suggestions to take an extra sixty-pound box of cellphone-jamming equipment. Bissonette took along $200 in cash, “if I needed to buy a ride or bribe someone,” and a digital camera, which he later used to shoot photographs of bin Laden’s dead body and bloody face.

On the mission, Bissonette wore $65,000 four-tube night-vision goggles like these, to help him see more clearly and more widely in the night. He dozed on the ride to Abbottabad, then dangled his legs outside the stealth helicopter. When that chopper crashed, his fellow SEAL yanked in Bissonette just before the impact nearly crippled him. It all happened so quickly, neither the SEALs in the accompanying copter nor the administration officials watching the scene from the White House situation room realized the landing was anything but routine.

To confirm that the tall man on the third floor of the Abbottabad compound was really bin Laden, the SEALs took samples of bin Laden’s blood, saliva and bone marrow. Then they dragged the body onto a CH-47 Chinook helicopter. The aircraft had loitered above the compound for so long while the SEALs were gathering up bin Laden’s hard drives, it almost ran out of gas.

Despite the miscues, the raid was a success, of course. In part, that’s because it was so well rehearsed. Some of the most interesting moments of No Easy Day, written by Bissonette under a pseudonym and co-authored by the journalist Kevin Maurer, show just how well the American intelligence community had bin Laden’s compound under watch.  CIA analysts watched months of drone video of the man they believed to be bin Laden. They even briefed the SEALs on what kind of digital voice recorder bin Laden liked to use.

In the full-scale model of the compound in the North Carolina woods, “construction crews put in mounded dirt to simulate the potato fields that surrounded the compound.” An analyst from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency knew every detail of bin Laden’s hideout.

“Hey, are these doors on C1 inward or outward opening,” Bissonette asked her.

“Double metal doors,” she answered. “Opens outward.”

Before they left for Pakistan, the SEALs performed a mock raid on the compound, with the top brass of the special operations and intelligence communities watching through night vision goggles. After that, the SEALs’ mission was greenlit.

“Try not to shoot the motherfucker in the face,” one SEAL said, referring to bin Laden. “Everybody is going to want to see this picture.”

Ultimately, the White House decided not to disclose those photographs taken by Bissonette. They got his story of the raid instead.

Read more at WIRED 

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US drones flying from down under

Planespotters Have Uncovered A Series Of Secret US Spy Drone Missions From Australia

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A group of aviation historians detected at least 10 take-offs or landings of the $200 million RQ-4 Global Hawks in Edinburgh from 2001 to 2006. 

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) operates a fleet of 23 Global Hawks from a headquarters at Beale Air Base in California. The USAF also has a facility at Grand Forks, North Dakota, and forward operating bases at Al Dhafra in the United Arab Emirates, Sigonella U.S. Naval Air Station on Sicily and Andersen Air Force Base on Guam.

Aviation historians from the West Beach Aviation Group (WBAG) monitored aircraft radio frequencies and photographed the drones.

"Because of the type of call-sign and flight path used by the pilot, we knew it was Global Hawk coming in," WBAG spokesman Paul Daw told The Australian.

Australian defense officials demanded that they not publish any photos or information about the secret missions. WBAG members argued that there are no restrictions on photographing or monitoring U.S. aircraft in Australian skies and ended up publishing RQ-4 movements in their limited-circulation newsletter.

But most of the Australian public never found out as the USAF demanded that all Global Hawk operations remain 'codeword' top secret, or above top secret.

"Sometimes a Global Hawk would go out [from RAAF Edinburgh] on two or three flights. The aircraft would climb to 60,000 feet," Daw told ABC. "Who knows where they went ... they had enough fuel for 30 to 35 hours, and they'd return."

Global Hawk missions over the coastline of North Korea have been based out of Guam since 2010, and intelligence analyst Matthew Aid told ABC that "a forward operation location at Edinburgh would have been a perfect place" before 2010

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-spy-drones-flew-missions-from-australia-beginning-in-2001-2012-9#ixzz25YIifF4B

Sqyquakes rocking Sacramento - is "Aurora" flying out of Beal?

EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS13) – People from all over El Dorado County say they’re hearing loud booms several times a week, but there are many theories on what is causing them.

“I thought it was thunder,” said one person.

“It’s definitely not thunder; too consistent. I thought it was just mining,” said another person.

“I always considered them to be sonic booms from flying aircrafts for years,” said Loring Brunius, owner of Sierra Rock Diamond Quarry.

People who live near Pleasant Valley say their days have been interrupted by loud booms, shaking the floor beneath them.

“You can feel it in the ground, no question about it. But no one’s been able to figure out why,” said Pleasant Valley resident Peter O’Grady. “I tend to hear somewhere between four to six of these things during the weekdays usually between 11 p.m. and 2 p.m.

“Boom, boom, boom, boom just like that,” said Lorren Gonzales, who lives near Pleasant Valley.

And the rolling foothills of El Dorado County make it difficult for them to even tell where it’s coming from.

We asked the owner of Sierra Rock Diamond Quarry what he knew about it. He says they havent blasted since last year. And any miners or quarry owners would need government permission before they can set off any explosives.

“It’s a federally mandated system, and enforced,” said Brunius.

Some think the booms are from nearby wineries using propane cannons to scare away birds.

“We’ve never done it and I don’t know of any other winery that does,” said Carrie Bendick, a winemaker at Holly’s Hill Winery.

According to USGS, there aren’t enough seismic stations to pinpoint the exact location. Meanwhile, some say the booms have been around so long and happen so often they barely notice them anymore. Still, others want to solve the mystery.

“I would like to know what it is, yeah. And I’d like to know when it’s going to stop too,” said O’Grady.

CBS13 spoke to Fallon Naval Air Station that said any supersonic flight operations they do are only allowed over Dixie Valley, which is hundreds of miles away.

Some think illegal mining could be the source of the sounds, but Brunius doubts that theory. He said if that was the case, the culprit would have been caught by now.