Rum.

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From Harry at Sharkhunters and the tip from L.K we have this item:

"'RUM-RUNNING U-BOATS' - - Just when we think the Lame-stream Media can't be any further from sanity, they prove us wrong. We will  not go into the text of the story that ran in something called 'Atlas Obscura' but the headline tells it all"

"'Did German U-Boats Smuggle Alcohol into the U.S. During Prohibition?'"

"The article goes on to state that a certain photo proves that they did. They state that German U-Boats were running from the west coast of Canada to bring alcohol to Seattle and California ports. Does anyone really believe this lunacy?"

1. "Prohibition against alcohol in US ran from 1920 to 1933 - - two years after the war."

2. "All German U-Boats were destroyed or handed to victorious Allies at the end of WW1."

3. "There were NO German U-Boats off the west coast of the USA."

German submarine from the era of World War One. Space inside very limited. That capacity to carry additional cargo I also might think very limited.

My instantaneous thought regarding this matter was that even if such smuggling attempts using U-Boats were made, the value of the contraband would be greatly outweighed by the cost of the mission itself. It would not be profitable. The German always makes for a bad-guy!

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Trials.

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Submarine warfare inherently dangerous even in peace time.

Submersibles posing a danger to the crew EVEN DURING TRIALS AND NOT DURING ACTUAL OPERATION MISSIONS.

Submarines as straight from the shipyard before final acceptance must undergo a series of tests to determine combat worthiness. Worthiness sometimes found to be lacking.

Some instances of such disasters. to include but not necessarily limited to:

1. K Class. K-13. 

"K-13 was carrying out her final acceptance trials prior to the Admiralty officially taking her over from her Clydeside builders, Fairfields."

2. HMS Thetis (N25).

"HMS Thetis (N25) was a Group 1 T-class submarine of the Royal Navy which served under two names. Under her first identity, HMS Thetis, she commenced sea trials on 4 March 1939. She sank during trials on 1 June 1939 with the loss of 99 lives."

3. USS Thresher.

"The second USS Thresher (SSN-593) was the lead boat of her class of nuclear-powered attack submarines in the United States Navy."

"On 10 April 1963, Thresher sank during deep-diving tests about 220 miles (350 km) east of Boston, Massachusetts, killing all 129 crew and shipyard personnel aboard"

4. Russian submarine Nerpa (K-152).

"While K-152 Nerpa was undergoing sea trials in the Sea of Japan on 8 November 2008, a fire suppression system was accidentally initiated. The accident killed 20 civilian specialists and navy crew members and injured 21 others."

SUBMARINE DUTY UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES HAZARDOUS AND LIFE-THREATENING! THIS IS OBVIOUS TO EVEN THE MOST CASUAL OF OBSERVERS AND UNDERSTAND IT FULLY TO BE SO!

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Qalamoun.

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Hezbollah moves east?

Came across this quite by accident. From the DEBKAfile a new de facto border between Syria and Lebanon has been established.

This is what all the recent fighting in and around the Qalamoun mountains have been all about?

Read all recent blog entries the subject that combat as occurring the vicinity of the Qalamoun mountains:

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2017/09/liban.html

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2017/08/bekaa.html

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2017/08/beqaa.html

Courtesy of the DEBKAfile this map shows how in a de facto manner the border between Lebanon and Syria has moved [the red line the new border] apparently to the east of the Qalamoun mountains. Historically that area as controlled by Hezbollah [state within a state] as ceded to those allied with Assad. The noted blogger Spengler of the opinion that the DEBKAfile totally unreliable under all circumstances. I am not sure about that. Click on image to see an enlarged view.

NO where else in the main-stream-media will you find any of this covered or reported on. At that much we understand. Whatever the case thank you DEBKAfile.

coolbert.

Liban

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Further from the latest DEBKAfile newsletter that combat as occurring the Qalamoun mountains continues, that border area between Lebanon and Syria as contested by a variety of  adversaries.

"Ceasefire takes effect on Syrian-Lebanese border battles versus ISIS"

27 Aug.

"A ceasefire went into force early Sunday in two conjoined battles launched two weeks against ISIS - one fought by the Syrian army and Hizballah in the Qalamoun Mounts on the Syrian-Lebanese border, and the other by the Lebanese army against a large ISIS pocket inside its border near the northern town of Ras Baalbek . . . While the allied army managed to drive the Islamists out of large parts of the area they occupied, the Lebanese army did not get very far towards breaking up the ISIS and Nusra Front incursions."

"Hizballah reports ISIS fighters exiting Lebanese border"

28 Aug.

"According to Hizballah's TV, nearly two dozen buses and 11 ambulances Monday collected an undetermined number of ISIS fighters and their families and drove out of the mountainous area straddling the Syrian-Lebanese border. They headed for their stronghold of Abu Kamal in eastern Syria'near the Iraqi border."

"Lebanon recovers remains of soldiers kidnapped by ISIS"

28 Aug.

"The Lebanese army recovered the remains of six bodies believed to be members of a large group of soldiers and police kidnapped by ISIS and the Nusra Front three years ago, when they overran the Lebanese border town of Arsal. A ceasefire went into force Sunday on the two conjoined fronts against ISIS on both sides of the Syrian-Lebanese border in exchange for information about where the bodies were buried."

"US freezes military aid to Lebanon when Hizballah frees ISIS fighter[s]"

30 Aug.
    
"A furious Trump administration halted military assistance to the Lebanese army Wednesday, Aug. 30, when a Hizballah-brokered deal allowed some 300 ISIS fighters to safely leave the Lebanese border battlefield under a truce. Fifty tanks and armored vehicles which the US recently airlifted to Lebanon for battling jihadi forces occupying the northern Beqaa will be taken back. Their acquisition was funded by Saudi Arabia."

A fluidic and chaotic situation indeed! Abu Kamal too a considerable distance from the Qalamoun mountains. Abu Kamal the control of which vital to establishing a land-link between Iran and Syria!

P.S.: ISIL combatants as is the latest report headed to safe sanctuary [?] at Deir er-Zor and NOT Abu Kamal!

coolbert.

Pricked.

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Counter-offensive Islamic State style!!

Don't count the bad guys out yet!

From the latest edition of the DEBKAfile newsletter:

"An ISIS counterattack in Raqqa kills more than 100 Syrian troops"

25 Aug.

"A large ISIS tank force is conducting a major counterattack on the Syrian government forces fighting to wrest Raqqa from Islamist occupation. In a surprise strike, the jihadists Friday recovered a road and several villages southeast of the town and some Syrian army camps. They left at least 100 government troops dead. Hundreds more were wounded and seen fleeing the scene . . . ISIS by its successful counter-offensive has retained control of the main routes running through the desert to its Mayhadin and Abu Kamal strongholds near the Iraqi border. The jihadists have also stopped short the Syrian army's advance towards the Euphrates Valley."

"ISIS launches counteroffensives in Syria and Europe"

26 Aug.

"ISIS is simultaneously promoting a successful counteroffensive in E. Syria, killing 100 Syrian troops, and a terrorist campaign Europe, following the Barcelona outrage. Its summer offensive is in full spate on three fronts - two in Syria and a third in European cities - thus pricking the prevailing view of Western experts on Islamic terror that the caliphate's territorial shrinkage in Syria and Iraq heralds its approaching demise. A surprise assault gave the jihadists the chance to snatch several villages southeast of Raqqa as well as main roads to its Mayadin and Abu Kemal strongholds on the Iraqi border. Around 100 Syrian troops were left dead."

"Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated" - - Mark Twain.

And for the Islamic State too?

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Torpedoes.

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Submarines sunk by their own torpedo? Seems strange? NOT such an uncommon occurrence however. During a time of war and peace both.

Thanks to the Daily Mail this article describing the phenomenon as has existed ever since the earliest days of submarine warfare.

"Mystery of how H.L. Hunley's crew died is solved after 150 years: Men on board the American Civil War submarine were killed by the pressure blast of their OWN torpedo"

    * "The HL Hunley submarine fought for the confederacy and was sunk in 1864"
    * "It was raised from the bottom of the ocean in 2000 with its eight members of crew still aboard"
    * "Experts studying the submarine believe a condition called 'blast lung' was responsible for their deaths"
    * "The force of the torpedo's explosion would have traveled through soft tissue in their bodies"
    * "They calculate the chance of fatal lung trauma to be at least 85 per cent"

Again, submarines sunk by their own torpedoes not such an absolutely rare event. Historical instances to include but probably not limited to:

1. American USS Tang  [WW2].
2. Russian APL Kursk.
3. German U-972. U-377 [WW2]

Quite possibly also but never confirmed:

4. American USS Scorpion.

See in addition an Internet web site listing those instances during the Second World War of American submarines nearly sunk by their own "circular-running" torpedoes.

P.S.: Further two more submarines as sunk by their own torpedoes. 1. USS Tullibee. 2. HMS Sidon.

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Focused.

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1967 deja vu all over again?

From the Professor Victor Davis Hanson Internet web site some speculations regarding the issue of preemptive war in Korea.

American surgical strike against North Korean missile and nuclear capability or even beyond that!!

Get the bad guy before he can get you!

1. "Preemptive Strike Or Preventive War?" by Williamson Murray // Strategika

2. "Preemptive Strikes and Preventive Wars: A Historian’s Perspective" by Barry Strauss // Strategika

3. "Calculating The Risk Of Preventive War" by Max Boot via // Strategika

1967 of course referring to the Israeli Operation Focus preemptive air strike on the Egyptian air force. That threat as perceived by the Israeli at that exact moment considered to be so great no other option available!

And the rest was history as they say!! Within the Korea context U.S. policy and decision makers must consider not only the threat as it applies to the United States but also as to Japan and South Korea [ROK]!

Remember too the North Korean NOT Arabs. Expect a much tougher, resilient and determined opponent.

And thank you Professor!

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