Free Republic

Israeli security and the American Secret Service on Wednesday decided to cancel visiting US presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s scheduled visit to the Gaza border region for fear of Palestinian snipers.

Seven British soldiers were shot in Basra last year by the same sniper rifle, the Ministry of Defence has revealed. The troops were picked off one by one on the streets of the southern Iraqi city by a weapon firing high-velocity American-made bullets. Rifleman Aaron Lincoln, 18, Kingsman Danny Wilson, 28, Kingsman Alan Jones, 20, Corporal Rodney Wilson, 30, Rifleman Paul Donnachie, 18, and two others who have not yet been named, were all killed by bullets from the same weapon, said a spokesman for the MoD. But he could not verify that a single gunman was responsible. Rifleman Lincoln,...

On a mountain ridge in Afghanistan in June 2005, on a mission to capture or kill a Taliban commander, the four Navy SEALs were discussing ... the American media. Three shepherds, including a 14-year-old, had crossed their path, and the SEALs had to decide what to do: kill them, or let them go and risk exposure to Taliban forces. On elevated ground near Iskandariyah, Iraq, two years later, American snipers faced the same dilemma: kill or release two civilians who had discovered their hideout, Genei Nesir Khudair al-Janabi and his 17-year-old son, Mustafa.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- State police say a sniper wounded two people and hit at least four cars on Interstate 64 near Afton Mountain this morning. The injuries were not life-threatening and the victims were treated and released from Augusta Medical Center. More than 20 miles of I-64 was closed between Charlottesville and Waynesboro from shortly after midnight until about 6:20 a.m. State troopers, Charlottesville police and Albemarle County deputies are searching wooded areas along the interstate, but no suspect has been found.

BAGHDAD — As a military court prepares to try the last of three U.S. snipers on murder charges, the soldiers have accused their commanding officers of pushing to expand rules of engagement to produce more "kills" and then abandoning them when they were accused of murder.

October 9, 2007: The British Army is replacing most of its 3,000 7.62mm L96A1 sniper rifles with one modified to use the .338 (8.6mm) Lapua Magnum caliber round. The Accuracy International "Super Magnum" rifle is basically a L96A1 "Arctic Warfare" rifle modified to handle the larger, 8.6mm Lapua Magnum round. The new rifle (the L118A1) weighs 15 pounds (without a scope), is fifty inches long and has a 27 inch barrel and a five round magazine. Snipers in Iraq, and especially Afghanistan, have been calling for a longer range round, but find the 12.7mm (.50 caliber) weapons too heavy. The...

BAGHDAD -- Here they were, hardened combat soldiers, grounded on a military base far from the palm groves, canals and marshes where they once prowled. But at least for a moment this week, they were still the Painted Demons, the elite sniper unit that struck fear in the so-called triangle of death south of Baghdad. That couldn't be taken away: not by breaking them up, as the Army had done, and not even by the murder trials of three of their members at Camp Victory. snipInterviews and court transcripts portray a 13-man sniper unit that felt under pressure to produce...

BAGHDAD - A military panel on Saturday sentenced an Army sniper to five months in prison, a reduction in rank and forfeiture of pay for planting evidence in connection with the deaths of two Iraqi civilians.

BAGHDAD - A military panel Friday acquitted U.S. Army Spc. Jorge G. Sandoval on charges he killed two unarmed Iraqis, but it convicted him of planting evidence on one of the men in attempt to cover up the shooting. Sandoval, 22, of Laredo, Texas, had faced five charges in the April and May deaths of two unidentified men. He was found not guilty of the two murder charges, but the panel decided he had placed a detonation wire on one of the bodies to make it look as if the man was an insurgent.

Spec. Jorge Sandoval lay face down in the foot-high grass, staring through his sniper rifle scope at the Iraqi man holding a rusted sickle. The man had crouched down, only his head was visible. Sandoval's spotter, Staff. Sgt. Michael Hensley, relayed the order to kill. On April 27, in dangerous terrain south of Baghdad, Sandoval pulled the trigger to fire a bullet hundreds of yards into the man's skull, killing him instantly. Moments earlier, the man, according to testimony and court documents, had been fleeing an attack on U.S. soldiers and was holding the sickle to masquerade as a farmer....

WASHINGTON - Army snipers hunting insurgents in Iraq were under orders to "bait" their targets with suspicious materials, such as detonation cords, and then kill whoever picked up the items, according to the defense attorney for a soldier accused of planting evidence on an Iraqi he killed. Gary Myers, an attorney for Sgt. Evan Vela, said Monday his client had acted "pursuant to orders." "We believe that our client has done nothing more than he was instructed to do by superiors," Myers said in a telephone interview. Myers and Vela's father, Curtis Carnahan of Idaho Falls, Idaho, said in separate...

FORT BRAGG, N.C., Sept. 17 — From his position about 100 yards away, Master Sgt. Troy Anderson had a clear shot at the Afghan man standing outside a residential compound in a village near the Pakistan border last October. When Capt. Dave Staffel, the Special Forces officer in charge, gave the order to shoot, Sergeant Anderson fired a bullet into the man’s head, killing him. In June, Captain Staffel and Sergeant Anderson were charged with premeditated murder. On Tuesday, in a rare public examination of the rules that govern the actions of Special Operations troops in Afghanistan, a military hearing...

FORT COLLINS, Colo., Aug. 13, 2007 – Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Keil volunteered for his first tour in Iraq. Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Keil and his wife, Tracy, were the guests of honor at American Military Family's "Hoedown for Heroes" tribute event held at the Larimer (Colo.) County Fairgrounds on Aug. 11, 2007. While he was on a second tour in Iraq, Matt was hit by a sniper's bullet, which left him a quadriplegic. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. His decision had less to do with making sure he was in the thick...

Getting killed left and right by snipers all of the time. I get killed by them more than any other soldier on the battlefield. Not riflemen, not machine gunners, not bazookamen or tanks, but snipers. The scourge of the battlefield! And to make matters worse, I lost one of the best opponents I ever had on the battlefield because Microsoft had banned him from Microsoft Live for using a modified console.

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C., June 22, 2007 — A good friend will share the good times with you, but a great friend will share your bad ones. Lance Cpl. Juan A. Valdez, a Boston native and mortarman with Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, had what may be the greatest friend of his life at his side during one of his greatest times of need. A Purple Heart Medal ceremony was held here June 8, 2007, to decorate Valdez for wounds he suffered during actions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. While on a...

Read email before watching video These are some examples of the fight in Afghanistan.. These video shots are not made through the shooter's telescopic sight... they are made looking through the spotter's scope. The spotter lies right next to the sniper and helps the sniper to find and home in on the target. The sniper is using a 50 caliber rifle. A 50 cal. round is about 7-8 inches long and the casing is about an inch in diameter. The bullet itself is one-half inch in diameter and roughly one and one-half inches long. Pay close attention to the beginning...

THEY had been waiting since before dawn, dug into a makeshift hide, almost half a mile behind enemy lines. The four Royal Marine Commando snipers sat huddled in the dark, scouring a Taleban compound through the scopes on their L96A1 sniper rifles. They had been watching the target since before dawn. The order to fire came an hour after first light. They levelled their bolt-action, single-shot rifles at two Taleban sentries less than 250 metres away. Village dogs were barking but the insurgents never saw their killers. The marines counted down from five, in unison, and the crack of four...

U.S. intelligence agencies have built their own version of the famous Russian-designed AK-47 assault rifle for use by American snipers in Iraq. The snipers are firing at one form of deadly insurgent and terrorist attack, the so-called "spray and pray" method used by those who try to sow terror by emerging from hiding and firing a machine gun randomly into crowds. The special U.S. snipers have used .50-caliber long-range rifles for killing terrorists. Now, they are using the modified AK-47s to kill insurgents without a normal shot to the head. Instead, snipers are killing insurgents with shots to the heart,...

RAMADI, Iraq -- Spc. Brent Everson was just a few steps from safety. The 22-year-old from Florence, Mont., was climbing out of a tank, near the entrance to a U.S. outpost called Sword when a sniper's 7.62-millimeter bullet hit him just above his Kevlar vest, tearing into his shoulder and through his back. He fell back into the tank -- wounded but alive. On the roof of the outpost, Army gunners returned fire. But the sniper probably already was gone. "This guy knew what he was doing," said Staff Sgt. Jeremy Gann, who like Everson is assigned to Company C...

CNN's decision to air a video showing snipers targeting U.S. troops in Iraq provoked both rage and praise yesterday, with some calling it a brave move by the cable network and others labeling it a propaganda coup for terrorists. “This is nothing short of a terrorist snuff film,” said Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Carlsbad. “I think CNN should recognize it made a terrible mistake and pull it.” Bilbray, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asking him to yank any CNN reporters embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. “They don't deserve...

Homeland Security panel also says traffickers are forming ties with U.S.-based gangs The U.S. Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies at the U.S.-Mexico border are outgunned by increasingly ruthless and well-armed Mexican drug cartels, a new congressional report concludes. "The cartels use automatic assault weapons, bazookas, grenade launchers and improvised explosive devices," the House Homeland Security oversight subcommittee report said. "In contrast, U.S. Border Patrol agents are issued 40-caliber Beretta semiautomatic pistols." The report, scheduled to be released today by U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, said drug cartels are able to break the encryptions on Border Patrol and sheriffs'...

The new RedOwl “sniper detection and surveillance” robot is a remote, deployable sensor suite designed to provide early warning information, gunshot detection, intelligence, surveillance and targeting capabilities to military and government agencies. RedOwl is a program led by Boston University with iRobot, Insight Technology and BioMimetic Systems, a Boston U spinout company. The RedOwl equipped PackBot has been field-tested for the Army at a rifle and trapshooting range. The RedOwl robot also employs a suite of advanced optics including a thermal camera, 300X zoom daylight/infrared camera, infrared laser illuminators, a rangefinder, high intensity white driving light, and voice communication microphones...

"Approx. 1145 on 16 June, sniper section 4 observed black opal with tinted windows, sitting in front of storefront...."

Scout Snipers Break in New Rifles Ft. A.P. Hill, VA. - Scout Snipers from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Battalion Landing Team, 2nd Bn., 2nd Marine Regiment, fired their new rifles for the first time on a range here today. The BLT Marines will use the new MK-11 semi-automatic sniper rifle simultaneously alongside the bolt-action M40A3, a descendent of the Vietnam-era M40. The rifle resembles an M-16 on first glance, and Sgt. Gerald V. Gavin, Scout Sniper Platoon commander, said the resemblance can benefit operations on today's urban battlefields. Gavin said the distinct look of the M40A3 makes identifying a...

Former ‘Magnificent Bastards’ react to sniper rifle recovery June 21, 2006; Submitted on: 06/22/2006 03:34:58 AM ; Story ID#: 200662233458 By Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva, 1st Marine Division CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (June 21, 2006) -- Call it a little bit of justice. Marine snipers from 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment shot and killed an insurgent sniper and spotter preparing to shoot at passing Marines, June 16. And the insurgents were going to use a stolen Marine sniper rifle for the attack. That rifle – an M-40A1 – belonged to the “Magnificent Bastards” of 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, a battalion...

The sniper's plan: kill six whites a day for 30 days By Harry Mount in New York (Filed: 25/05/2006) One of the two snipers who murdered 10 people in a killing spree that terrorised Washington has revealed their plans to kill hundreds of children, policemen and rescue workers in an attempt to shut down cities across the country. John Allen Muhammad, 45, and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, 21, brought America's capital to a standstill in 2002 as they picked off white targets at petrol stations and shops in the city's prosperous suburbs. Muhammad: ‘a coward’ Malvo testified that Muhammad,...

Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company® “Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company ” Rated: TVPG Running Time: 120 Minutes Genre: Movies Closed Captions: Yes Upcoming Airings: Thursday, May 25 @ 9pm/8C Friday, May 26 @ 1am/12C Saturday, May 27 @ 8pm/7C Sunday, May 28 @ 12am/11C Sunday, May 28 @ 1pm/12C Monday, May 29 @ 8am/7C Monday, May 29 @ 2pm/1C Saturday, June 03 @ 11am/10C Search for other upcoming episodes Featuring candid interviews and never-before-seen video, we tell the story of the hardest hit combat unit of the Iraq war. Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, a...

McLEAN, Va. (AP) - A man accused of plotting to assassinate President Bush was indicted Thursday on additional charges that could bring life in prison, and prosecutors now say he also planned to establish an al-Qaida cell in the United States. Prosecutors say Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 24, of Falls Church joined al-Qaida in 2002 while studying in Saudi Arabia and that he discussed possible terrorist operations, including a plot to kill Bush either by shooting or by a suicide bombing.Prosecutors also allege Abu Ali discussed plans to assassinate members of Congress and to hijack aircraft and fly them into...

Israel, Palestinians Must Outlaw Children Toy GunsBy Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem----February 18.....Nothing can be more tragic than to witness a child die. Whether from cancer or a car accident, a young son or daughter should naturally live out their lives for many decades. But for children living in a war zone, death has become a way of live - and it shouldn't. For 12-year-old Mujahed Al Samadi, life ended quickly with a bullet to his chest from an Israel Defense Forces sniper who mistook his toy gun for the real thing. Was the IDF soldier wrong in pressing the...

Soldiers in first platoon "Choppin' Charlie" Company, captured a sniper near Samarra, Iraq, Monday. Some of the soldiers involved pictured left to right: Sgt Jimmy Sutton, Spc. Juan Villanueva, Cpl. Jason Kugler, Pvt. First Class Michael George, First Lt. Richard Hawkins, Pvt. First Class Jeffery Walker, Pvt. First Class Rick Monnig and Spc. Joseph Vanhook. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Cassandra Groce Soldiers Take Out Snipers in Salah Ad Din Rakkasan platoon kills one sniper and detains another while on patrol. By Pfc. Cassandra Groce 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment SAMARRA, Iraq, Jan. 18, 2006 — One sniper was...

Crack shots capable of hitting targets a kilometre away headed for Afghanistan CFB DUNDURN, Saskatchewan - A loud hiss bursts from the silencer of an oversized rifle. A visible ripple moves through the air at twice the speed of sound and there is a loud clang as a bullet strikes a metal target 1,150 metres away. In the gently rolling hills of central Saskatchewan, 14 young soldiers are learning how to be world-class killers. Anyone on the receiving end of one of these snipers' .50 calibre bullets would never know what hit him. No one else will know where the...

Early on a warm summer morning, a few hours before traffic began to fill the streets, a 16-man SAS patrol took up ambush positions around a Baghdad house, writes Sean Rayment. The soldiers had been told that the house was a being used as a base by insurgents - and up to three suicide bombers were expected to leave it later that morning. Dressed in explosive vests, they were fully equipped to hit a number of locations around the city. The bombers' targets were thought to be cafes and restaurants frequented by members of the Iraqi security forces. The intelligence...

In the Military Alphabet, AWR is Alpha Whiskey Romeo. In Iraq today, it’s a code term of American soldiers. Whenever they use “AWR” or “Alpha Whiskey Romeo” in their communications, everyone knows what it really stands for: Allah’s Waiting Room. That’s what our soldiers have turned Iraq into for the terrorists, and that’s why our soldiers know they are winning this war. That’s also why our soldiers have more contempt for MSM journalists and Democrat politicians than the Jihadi terrorists — for at least the terrorists are honest about being an enemy, instead of pretending they’re on your side while...

Snipers have long had a major effect on the battlefield, often scoring kills from as far as a kilometer and forcing the enemy to be cautious and hesitant. Ortek, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, however, is making snipers even deadlier with a new piece of technology: A Sniper Coordination System. Snipers have often operated individually on the battlefield – lone wolves with a long reach, capable of decapitating larger units and demoralizing them. The Sniper Coordination System will allow a commander to coordinate the activities of as many as four sniper teams. The system is a lightweight image splitter used...

New Orleans Police Chief Edwin Compass said Friday that hurricane rescue efforts were hampered when relief workers came under attack by the city's criminal element, prompting conditions that resembled "urban warfare." "We have never had an urban warfare battle like this on any front in the history of our nation," Compass told NBC's "Dateline." "You're fighting in buildings that are pitch black with darkness. These individuals have root - the criminal element have looted all the gun shops and gun stores in this city, so they're armed, they're dangerous." Federal Emergency Management Agency Chief Michael Brown, under fire for his...

This comes from the California separatist group La Voz de Aztlan, which is clearly happy about the news. Given the source, it is likely that this report does not contain even an ounce of credibility; however, it is significant enough as a threat and attempt to intimidate the foes of Islamic terror into silence. And if Congressman Tancredo or anyone who has spoken honestly about the roots and causes of Islamic terror does indeed get shot in the coming months, I hope authorities will be soon thereafter speaking with Ernesto Cienfuegos of La Voz de Aztlan, who filed this report:...

From Xenophon's Milblog, some very good news at the end of some very mournful news.... I’ve spent all this last week attending the services and funerals of the six Marines killed in Iraq on August 1st. I knew two of them well, LCpl. Montgomery and LCpl. Deyarmin. The rest I did not know, but they are brothers just the same. The families seem to be holding up well considering the circumstances. I was in Weapons Company, 3/25 for five years before being commissioned, and I’m still very close with those Marines. The only point of light this week has been...

Snipers shoot dead Sri Lankan foreign minister (Filed: 13/08/2005) Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, was shot dead last night in an attack the police and military blamed on separatist rebels. Mr Kadirgamar, 73, a hardliner in dealing with the island's Tamil Tiger rebels, was hit by sniper fire as he climbed out of his swimming pool. He was rushed to the National Hospital in Colombo, which was sealed off as other ministers arrived to visit his bedside. The justice minister, John Senevirathne, said: "He worked tirelessly for peace throughout his career. It is a great loss." Heavily armed police...

UNDERCOVER police sniper squads are tracking as many as a dozen Al-Qaeda suspects because security services fear they could be planning more suicide attacks, writes David Leppard.The covert armed units are under orders to shoot to kill if surveillance suggests that a terror suspect is carrying a bomb and he refuses to surrender if challenged. The deployment of the teams in the past week signals the huge “intelligence gap” that has opened up since the London bombings. Police fear the suspects could be planning a further wave of attacks but do not have enough evidence to arrest them, or place...

Twenty years ago, "Marine Sniper" - the biography of Carlos Hathcock, the top gunner for the Marines in Vietnam - became one of those seminal military bestsellers that stays in print continuously. In fact, its tale of the sniper shooting a bullet through an enemy's rifle scope has not only become the stuff of legend, but it also has been copied in countless. Hathcock's book, however, was more than just fodder for buffs, as Gunnery Sgt. Jack Coughlin recounts in his new memoir, "Shooter." As Coughlin tells it, "Students (at Marine sniper school) can pick up an extra ten bonus...

Rockville -- Snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were indicted on murder charges Thursday for six deaths in Maryland during the 2002 killing spree. Muhammad, who was sentenced to death for a sniper killing in Virginia, also could be sentenced to death if convicted of the new charges in Montgomery County.

Standoff in Passaic: Home stormed over code violations   Tuesday, July 20, 2004 PASSAIC - A crackdown on city housing violations escalated into a standoff Monday when a homeowner refused to cooperate, prompting authorities to call in a SWAT team, one that broke down a door and shot her with non-lethal weapons.Code enforcement officials arrived about noon, wanting to talk about, among other things, broken windows and a deteriorating porch - violations written three months ago, said Community Development Director Donald Van Rensalier.It just so happened that 109 Quincy St. was smack in the middle of an area targeted in...

"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord," or a zealous prosecutor. Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler, with his youthful looks and affable ways, makes no secret of being a passionate prosecutor. Hey, who wouldn't want an "eager beaver" in their jurisdiction with a zest for convicting the bad guys? But, is the gung-ho Gansler becoming overzealous, as he seeks to prosecute the convicted Washington-area snipers, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo? Mr. Gansler fervently states absolutely not; he's only doing his sworn duty. After all, six of the 10 sniper victims were killed in Montgomery County, which was...

SEATTLE (AP) - A man was indicted Wednesday for allegedly buying a rifle for the Washington, D.C.-area snipers - though not the weapon used in the 2002 random shooting spree. A federal grand jury indicted Earl L. Dancy Jr., 36, of Tacoma on one count of making a false statement in connection with the acquisition of a firearm. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. On a federal form when Dancy bought a .308-caliber Remington rifle from a Tacoma store, Dancy claimed he intended to use the weapon himself, the U.S. attorney's office said. During the November...

School Halts Adopt a Sniper Fund-Raiser CHICAGO (Reuters) - A U.S. university in Wisconsin has blocked an attempt by Republican students to raise money for a group called "Adopt a Sniper" that raises money for U.S. sharp-shooters in Iraq and Afghanistan. The students were selling bracelets bearing the motto "1 Shot 1 Kill No Remorse I Decide." "Clearly the rhetoric of that organization raised some questions and we had some strong objections as a Jesuit university," Marquette University school spokeswoman Brigid O'Brien said on Thursday. The students, representing a group called College Republicans, originally got permission to set up a...

LITTLE ROCK — Capt. John Stubbs of Searcy, commanding officer of Charlie Company of the 39th Infantry Brigade's 3rd Battalion, is proud of his snipers. He has some reason to be. In a 20-minute engagement Thursday, the company's snipers, with help from a backup platoon, killed seven insurgents mounting a mortar attack on a U.S. military encampment at Baghdad, Iraq, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Friday. "They fought very aggressively," Stubbs said of his soldiers, in an interview with reporter Michael Wood, embedded with the Arkansas National Guard troops in Iraq. "These guys did really, really, really great. I'm real...

JONESBORO, Ga. (AP) - On his first day on the job, the new sheriff called 27 employees into his office, stripped them of their badges, fired them, and had rooftop snipers stand guard as they were escorted out the door. The move Monday by Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill provoked an angry reaction and prompted a judge to order him to rehire the employees. "It appears ... that employees of the Sheriff were terminated without cause" and in violation of the county's civil service rules, Judge Stephen Boswell wrote in granting a 30-day restraining order. Hill, 39, defended the firings...

As American post-conflict combat deaths in Iraq overtook the wartime number, the administration counseled patience. "The war on terror is a test of our strength. It is a test of our perseverance, our patience, and our will," President Bush told an American Legion convention. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice embellished the message with what former White House speechwriters immediately recognize as a greatest-generation pander. "There is an understandable tendency to look back on America's experience in postwar Germany and see only the successes," she told the Veterans of Foreign Wars in San Antonio, Texas, on Aug. 25. "But as some...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Nov. 27, 2004) -- A U.S. Marine sniper waited patiently inside a one-story house deep within the city. Lying in the prone position for several hours, he scanned the area through his scope before he finally found the three insurgents responsible for two previous mortar attacks. Sgt. Memo M. Sandoval, a platoon sergeant with Scout Sniper Platoon, Headquarters and Service Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, needed to positively identify the insurgents before he could take his shot. Sandoval, 26, saw that one of the men was about to place a mortar in a mortar tube. He knew...