US analysts knew Afghan site was hospital

A few weeks ago, the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner bombed the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Seriously, as I wrote, US Airstrike Hits Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Afghanistan. It's still a controversy and I agree with Doctors Without Borders that an investigation by a third party is needed, as the US's story keeps changing.

Today, the AP reported US analysts knew Afghan site was hospital "American special operations analysts were gathering intelligence on an Afghan hospital days before it was destroyed by a U.S. military attack because they believed it was being used by a Pakistani operative to coordinate Taliban activity, The Associated Press has learned."

Combine this with todays reported leak on the drone program by The Intercept and things don't look good for Obama.

What Do We Really Know About Osama bin Laden’s Death?

The New York Times writes What Do We Really Know About Osama bin Laden’s Death?

When Seymour Hersh wrote his article in May there was much debate as to the validity and I figured I'd let things settle before diving in too much. This seems a reasonable attempt to followup and dive in on some of the details. As it says:

Where does the official bin Laden story stand now? For many, it exists in a kind of liminal state, floating somewhere between fact and mythology. The writing of history is a process, and this story still seems to have a long way to go before the government’s narrative can be accepted as true, or rejected as false.

It’s not that the truth about bin Laden’s death is unknowable; it’s that we don’t know it. And we can’t necessarily console ourselves with the hope that we will have more answers any time soon; to this day, the final volume of the C.I.A.’s official history of the Bay of Pigs remains classified. We don’t know what happened more than a half-century ago, much less in 2011.

The Drone Papers

The Intercept has a series of articles, The Drone Papers, describing the US Drone program. "The Intercept has obtained a cache of secret documents detailing the inner workings of the U.S. military’s assassination program in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. The documents, provided by a whistleblower, offer an unprecedented glimpse into Obama’s drone wars." I've just skimmed it so far but it's fascinating and damning.

US Airstrike Hits Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Afghanistan

The NY Times reports Airstrike Hits Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Afghanistan.

A United States airstrike appeared to have badly damaged a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in the Afghan city of Kunduz early Saturday, killing at least 16 people, including patients and staff members, and wounding dozens.

The United States military, in a statement, confirmed the 2:15 a.m. airstrike, saying that it had been targeting individuals ‘who were threatening the force’ and that ‘there may have been collateral damage to a nearby medical facility.’

Accounts differed as to whether there had been fighting around the hospital that might have precipitated the strike. Two hospital employees, an aide who was wounded in the bombing and a nurse who emerged unscathed, said that there had been no active fighting nearby and no Taliban fighters inside the hospital.

For a more harshly worded version of the story, see Glenn Greenwald's One Day After Warning Russia of Civilian Casualties, the U.S. Bombs a Hospital in Afghanistan.

Good thing the war is over.

NYT Claims U.S. Abides by Cluster Bomb Treaty: The Exact Opposite of Reality

Sometimes you have to appreciate Glenn Greenwald: NYT Claims U.S. Abides by Cluster Bomb Treaty: The Exact Opposite of Reality.

Now someone has to ask Obama about this, in detail, on camera.

2153 Nuclear Weapons Have Exploded On Earth

Kottke wrote: "2153! I had no idea there had been that much testing. According to Wikipedia, the number is 2119 tests, with most of those coming from the US (1032) and the USSR (727). The largest device ever detonated was Tsar Bomba, a 50-megaton hydrogen bomb set off in the atmosphere above an island in the Barents Sea in 1961. Tsar Bomba had more than three times the yield of the largest bomb tested by the US. The result was spectacular."

Orbital Mechanics made this:

War in Space May Be Closer Than Ever

Scientific American says War in Space May Be Closer Than Ever

"For Krepon, the debate over the definitions of space weapons and the saber-rattling between Russia, China and the U.S. is unhelpfully eclipsing the more pressing issue of debris. ‘Everyone is talking about purposeful, man-made objects dedicated to warfighting in space, and it’s like we are back in the Cold War,’ Krepon says. ‘Meanwhile, there are about 20,000 weapons already up there in the form of debris. They’re not purposeful—they’re unguided. They’re not seeking out enemy satellites. They’re just whizzing around, doing what they do.’

The space environment, he says, must be protected as a global commons, similar to the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere. Space junk is very easy to make and very hard to clean up, so international efforts should focus on preventing its creation. Beyond the threat of deliberate destruction, the risk of accidental collisions and debris strikes will continue to grow as more nations launch and operate more satellites without rigorous international accountability and oversight. And as the chance of accidents increases, so too does the possibility of their being misinterpreted as deliberate, hostile actions in the high-tension cloak-and-dagger military struggle in space."

John Hersey's Hiroshima

Kottke wrote about John Hersey's Hiroshima.

In August of 1946, the New Yorker dedicated an entire issue to a piece called Hiroshima by John Hersey.

For the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, the New Yorker has digitized Hersey's piece. The piece is quite long (30,000 words) so it can also be found in book form if that's easier to read.

The piece made quite an impression upon its release, which you can read about on Wikipedia.

Thrown into my Instapaper queue.

North Korea test-launches “Polaris-1” ballistic missile from submarine

Ars Technica reports North Korea test-launches “Polaris-1” ballistic missile from submarine "On May 9, a Korean People's Army Naval Force submarine test-launched a ballistic missile off the eastern coast of North Korea. The test launch, reported by North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper, only traveled about 150 meters, according to South Korean defense officials. But it demonstrated that North Korea had developed the capability of performing submerged launches of missiles well ahead of previous intelligence estimates. Based on the launch, South Korean officials now believe that North Korea could have a limited submarine-launched missile capability deployed to its fleet of submarines within the next five years."

Berlin in July 1945 in Color

Amazing color footage of Berlin just after the war. It ends with a stunning aerial shot.

11 Secret Weapons Developed By Japan During World War 2

io9 describes 11 Secret Weapons Developed By Japan During World War 2. I'm impressed, with both the Japanese and the post. I'd only heard of the Purple encrypting machine.

US Navy approves first laser weapon for operation aboard Persian Gulf ship

Are Technica reports US Navy approves first laser weapon for operation aboard Persian Gulf ship "In speaking to USNI News, ONR Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder said that ‘The captain of [the USS Ponce] has all of the authorities necessary if there was a threat inbound to that ship to protect our sailors and Marines [and] we would defend that ship with that laser system.’ Klunder added that the laser weapon system would be used against drones, helicopters, or patrol craft.

Although the laser weapon system is not as powerful as other weapons aboard the Ponce, Christopher Harmer, senior naval analyst with the Institute for the Study of War told The Wall Street Journal that the directed energy of the laser aimed at a target would ‘cause a chemical and physical disruption in the structural integrity of that target.’ Harmer added that the advantage of the laser weapon system is that it can disable many oncoming targets without needing to reload ammunition: ‘as long as you've got adequate power supply and adequate cooling supply.’

The laser shot doesn't look like the photon torpedoes of Star Trek—in fact it looks like nothing at all. The energy beam is invisible (and costs the Navy $0.59 per shot, according to the WSJ). A press release from ONR stated that the laser weapon system was able to hit targets out of the sky and at sea in high winds, heat, and humidity without fail."

General Dan Bolger says what the US does not want to hear: Why We Lost

General Dan Bolger says what the US does not want to hear: Why We Lost "On Tuesday, Bolger will publish his 500-page attempt to make sense of both the wars in which he served. Its blunt title pre-emptively maneuvers conversation over the book on to Bolger’s terrain: Why We Lost."

John Oliver on Translators

John Oliver last night was great. Here's a long segment on our failure to help those that helped us. "Translators who have aided the U.S. Military in Afghanistan and Iraq are in great danger in their home countries, but red tape is making it impossible for many of them to leave."

As a bonus, he covered the tired issue of the US Supreme Court not allowing cameras in a hilarious way.

John Oliver on Drones

I'm back and catching up. HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is my favorite of the comedy news shows. By being weekly he's not playing catch up with the news of the day and tends to cover a topic in some depth and often one that doesn't get a lot of coverage. Here's a perfect example.

Khorasan, explained: why the US is bombing an al-Qaeda group you’ve never heard of

Vox provides Khorasan, explained: why the US is bombing an al-Qaeda group you’ve never heard of

'Space bubbles' may have led to deadly battle in Afghanistan

'Space bubbles' may have led to deadly battle in Afghanistan "Their research, published online this month in Space Weather, suggests that turbulent pockets of ionized gas may have deflected the military satellite radio signals enough to cause temporary communications blackouts in the region."

"Although it’s impossible to conclude that the plasma bubble definitely caused the radio blackout, Kelly’s research has confirmed that the bubble was there at just the right time, Makela says. ‘I think this paper does a good job of showing that [plasma bubbles] can have impacts on operations.’"

Bombing People Isn't Like Casual Sex

The Intercept says Bombing People Isn't Like Casual Sex

"In the Obama administration’s first air attack in Yemen, for example, nearly a half dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles packed with cluster munitions and launched from a U.S. war ship slammed into a Bedouin village. While a Yemeni government inquiry determined that 14 suspected al Qaeda members died in the attack, 41 innocent people were also killed, including nine women and 21 children. The highest levels of the U.S. and Yemeni governments then collaborated to keep the details of the strike from the public by lying and saying the strike was carried out by Yemeni forces. Since that time, the Obama administration has launched more than 60 strikes in Yemen and killed dozens more civilians. The most recent attack came Thursday, just hours after the White House announced its new war on ISIS."

Surviving an ISIS Massacre

The NY Times has a fascinating story Video Feature: Surviving an ISIS Massacre. They warn about graphic images, I warn about auto-playing video.

With transplanted arms and Army grit, a quadruple amputee soldiers on

The Washington Post tells this amazing story, With transplanted arms and Army grit, a quadruple amputee soldiers on.

"It has been 18 months since Marrocco, 27, of Staten Island, underwent a rare double arm transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He had lost both legs and parts of both arms to a makeshift bomb in Iraq on Easter 2009. At the time of his injury, he was the first service member from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to survive the loss of four limbs. He then became the first service member to receive a double arm transplant and still is one of only seven people in the United States who have successfully undergone the procedure."