Free Republic

AUSTRALIAN special forces operating deep inside Taliban heartland in southern Afghanistan have inflicted critical damage to the insurgent's senior leadership severely restricting their ability to launch offensive action, the army's head of special operations said today.

Daredevil SAS man-turned-explorer Bear Grylls was being airlifted to South Africa last night after being badly injured filming a TV documentary in Antarctica. The 34-year-old adventurer broke his shoulder in a life-threatening fall and was said to be in ‘shock and agony’ from a serious fracture which left the bone protruding from his body. The accident happened at 11pm British time on Friday, and Bear’s insurance company arranged for his evacuation by air ambulance for urgent medical treatment, at an estimated cost of £60,000. Daredevil: Bear Grylls broke his shoulder Bear was injured during the making of his latest daredevil...

Major Sebastian Morley is understood to be disgusted over the deaths of four his soldiers who were killed when their lightly armoured Snatch Land Rover hit a landmine in Helmand province earlier this year. Defence sources insisted that his departure was for "purely personal reasons". However, it is understood that he was unhappy at the continued use of the Snatch, despite its obvious vulnerability.

DESPITE being shot twice during an ambush in Afghanistan, an SAS soldier lashed himself to the front of his patrol vehicle so he wouldn't be left behind if he passed out from loss of blood and kept on fighting. The Digger is expected to be recommended for a high level bravery award. Suffering from serious upper body wounds, the soldier struggled on to the front of his SAS long range patrol vehicle (LRPV) and, under heavy fire, used a rope to attach himself firmly between the vehicle's bull bar and radiator.

More than 3,500 insurgents have been "taken off the streets of Baghdad" by the elite British force in a series of audacious "Black Ops" over the past two years. It is understood that while the majority of the terrorists were captured, several hundred, who were mainly members of the organisation known as "al-Qa'eda in Iraq" have been killed by the SAS. The SAS is part of a highly secretive unit called "Task Force Black" which also includes Delta Force, the US equivalent of the SAS. The prime targets have been those intent on joining the wave of suicide car bombers...

Hundreds of terrorists have been killed by the SAS waging a "secret war" against al-Qaeda in Iraq, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose. More than 3,500 insurgents have been "taken off the streets of Baghdad" by the elite British force in a series of audacious "Black Ops" over the past two years.

The secret work of SAS troops battling Al Qa'eda terrorists in Iraq has been exposed by the American commander in the country. British special forces had played an "immense" role in taking out terrorist bomb-making cells and insurgent leaders over the last five years, said Gen David Petraeus. In one incident the SAS blended into the heavy Baghdad traffic by hiring a pink pick-up truck and removing their military clothing to capture a terrorist, the general said.

A British soldier killed in Iraq was an SAS trooper fighting in Baghdad, Sky sources understand. The Ministry of Defence have confirmed a soldier died as a result of wounds sustained during an Iraq firefight, but have not confirmed the exact location.

Often enough I hear my pro-RKBA, libertarian, and conservative/patriot friends complaining that Hollywood doesn't make movies for us and that the movies they do make are hostile to our core values.Here's your chance to turn that tide by supporting some new movies made by friends who do share our values.First up is the new comedy Witless Protection, starring Larry the Cable Guy, Jenny McCarthy, and Yaphet Kotto, released this past weekend by LionsGate. (This is the same studio that is producing Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.) The writer/director of Witless Protection is Charles Carner, a friend I met through our...

Hundreds of Iraqis and Afghans captured by British and American special forces were rendered to prisons where they faced torture, a former SAS soldier said yesterday. Ben Griffin said individuals detained by SAS troops in a joint UK-US special forces taskforce had ended up in interrogation centres in Iraq, including the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, and in Afghanistan, as well as Guantánamo Bay. (BREAK) He said he had not himself witnessed torture or mistreatment. But he added: "I have no doubt in my mind that non-combatants I personally detained were handed over to the Americans and subsequently tortured."

A former SAS soldier claimed today that the British secret service had been operating in a covert joint squad with the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 and that UK operatives knew detainees were being tortured by the Americans. Ben Griffin, 29, who left the military at the beginning of last year, said British political leaders knew about what went on in the taskforce and were therefore complicit in the "illegal" tactics being used by US troops. He called for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to face trial for breaking international law.

March 18 @ SCOTUS Building in Washington DC -- join Second Amendment Sisters in supporting Heller's right to keep and bear arms!

Second Amendment Sisters File Amicus Brief in Supreme Court Case 'Washington, D.C. v. Heller'Second Amendment Sisters, through Southeastern Legal Foundation, Inc. (http://www.southeasternlegal.org), has filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court hearing of Washington, D.C. v. Heller. "Advocating on behalf of women, the elderly and the physically disabled, the amici herein argue the actions of the District of Columbia have harmed the members of society most physically vulnerable to criminal attack." "When the government strips the individual right from these groups' members, evidence shows that they, more than others, are vulnerable to predators because they are perceived to be weak."...

To read the oversized graphic in a new window click here.For a printable copy in Adobe Acrobat click here.

FROM THE SECOND AMENDMENT SISTERS 900 R.R. 620 S Suite C101, Box 228 Lakeway, TX 78734 World Wide Web: http://www.2asisters.org ============================== FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11/20/07 ============================== For additional information contact: Genie Jennings, SAS Spokesperson Phone: 877-271-6216 E-mail: saspress@2asisters.org ============================== Lakeway, TX – SAS ANNOUNCES AMICUS BRIEF IN HELLERSecond Amendment Sisters is pleased and proud to announce that we are joining South East Legal Foundation in filing an amicus brief in the Supreme Court hearing of Washington, D.C. v. Heller. We are particularly interested in the benefits of firearms in self-defense for women, the elderly and the disabled. SAS has...

The intensity of combat in Afghanistan has been laid bare as one Army regiment revealed that it had fired one million rounds, killed 1,028 Taliban and lost nine men in a six-month tour of duty. At times, fighting saw 1Bn of the Royal Anglians having to "winkle out the Taliban at the point of a bayonet", said Lt Col Stuart Carver, the commanding officer, at the battalion's medal ceremony. At times the fighting was on a par with that experienced in the Second World War and the casualty rate was similar, with nine men killed and a further 135 wounded....

A LONE piper played Amazing Grace as SAS hero Sgt Matthew Locke was laid to rest in Perth yesterday. Hundreds of mourners joined Sgt Locke's wife Leigh and son Keegan to farewell the fallen Digger, killed by a sniper in Afghanistan last week. John Howard and Kevin Rudd suspended their election campaigns to attend the military funeral, the second time they have done so in the past three weeks. The service followed that of slain Light Horseman Trooper David Pearce in the first week of the campaign, who was also killed in Afghanistan. Sgt Locke's body was borne to Perth's...

BRITAIN'S SAS is poised to lead an attack on the underground fortress in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan where Osama Bin Laden is thought to be preparing for a last stand.The 60-strong SAS Sabre squadron that captured a cave complex near the southern city of Kandahar last month has been told to prepare for the even tougher mission of hunting down Bin Laden in his Tora Bora stronghold.A senior British defence source said yesterday that the SAS soldiers had "honed and developed unique skills and experience" during the raid, in which 18 Afghans were killed and four Britons injured. ...

WHAT makes the Special Air Service elite may not be what you expect, reports Mark Dodd. While the memory of his Vietnam homecoming is unlikely to fade, this week -- the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Australian SAS -- the commander of the Australian Defence Force's Special Operations Command, Major General Mike Hindmarsh, pays Barnby and his fellow Vietnam SAS veterans the ultimate tribute: they were the best in the world. "The SAS Regiment, in an incredibly difficult operating environment in Indochina, quickly stamped itself as probably the finest exponents of clandestine reconnaissance and harassment in the world...

N Ireland SAS hero looks back  The Falls Road then ... In the summer of 1969, a young soldier warily patrols the troubled area of Belfast - the start of the Army's 38-year operation     August 01, 2007       SAS hero Andy McNab learnt his Army trade on the streets of Northern Ireland. During the 1970s it was one of the most dangerous places in the world.Today British troops officially pull out of Northern Ireland after 38 years.Operation Banner was the longest-running continuous campaign in Army history, with 300,000 soldiers serving and 763 killed by paramilitary terrorists.Here, as...