[109578] in Cypherpunks
Re: Oh damn... NATO fucked up
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Frederick Burroughs)
Tue Mar 30 09:40:17 1999
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 09:20:00 -0500
From: Frederick Burroughs <riburr@shentel.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <cypherpunks@openpgp.net>
Reply-To: Frederick Burroughs <riburr@shentel.net>
Max Inux wrote:
> On Mon, 29 Mar 1999, Sunder wrote:
>
> >Any chance anyone recorded this and could post a transcript?
>
> CNN has a copy of it... www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/9903/27/bn.02.html
>
> as it says it is a rough script, they missed some stuff, but searching
> that document for "Satelite" will bring you to about where the
> interesting stuff begins.
Subsequent reports on other networks said an AWACS plane had photographed
the event and showed a thermal signature that was interpreted as a surface
missile launch immediately prior to the stealth downing. My guess is that
the AWACS was far removed from the action but was the source of a
recording of the event. The actual images being taken either by satellite
or reconnaissance drone and then sent to the AWACS for mission
coordination.
This suggests reasons for the burning of villages by Serbs in Kosovo other
than just ethnic cleansing. Flames and heated smoke offer excellent cover
from sensors used to identify targets. NATO and the Pentagon only release
photographs taken in crystal weather conditions and enhanced for clarity.
In a battle situation, in near real time (little or no image enhancement),
obscurants (fire, smoke, haze, etc.) are the prescribed defense from the
higher altitude "precision" air attacks used by NATO. So burning has very
real defensive rationale, all the more reason to burn the homes of your
enemy, valuable chaff.
Don't even ask about the US/NATO preoccupation with asset retention, i.e.
public opinion. Don't ask how preventing pilot and equipment loss by
concentrating on air defense targets allowed time for the Serbs to achieve
an advantage in Kosovo. Don't ask how NATO has provoked and supplied an
excuse for recent Serbian action in Kosovo.
NATO has mucked this up from the start. They stepped into a pile o' shit
and are now wiping it off all over Europe.
