Bodyguard I.

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Bodyguards!

Romans and Reds!

Both from the times of the ancient Romans and also during the modern era we find the phenomenon of the seniror military commander, a general officer, having at his disposal a personal bodyguard of handpicked troops. Protecting the personage of the general, his most important military assets, and also available to be used during battle at the most critical of moments.

1. Ancient Rome.


Cohors praetoria: "The term Praetorian derived from the tent of the commanding general or praetor of a Roman army in the field—the praetorium. They were an elite recruitment of Roman citizens. It was a habit of many Roman generals to choose from the ranks a private force of soldiers to act as guards of the tent or the person. They consisted of both infantry and cavalry. In time, this cohort came to be known as the cohors praetoria, and various notable figures possessed one, including Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Augustus (Octavian)."

[the cohors praetori guarding a military commander in the field and NOT to be confused with the Praetorian Guard!]


"The first credible example of bodyguard-type cohorts dates to 133 BCE, when Scipio Aemilianus organized 500 of his clients into a so-called 'troop of friends.'"

"The most prestigious of such troops raised by high ranking officers were the oath-bound bodyguards, the buccellarii, who were not part of the army at all. Far more they were seen as a general's personal bodyguard."

2. Soviet Red Army.

 According to Suvorov "Inside the Soviet Army""

Those Soviet and now Russian too [?] general officers having at their disposal a personal bodyguard consisting of the most carefully selected and manned tank units - - at divisional, army, front, and strategic direction:

Divisional: "An independent tank battalion - - the divisional commander's bodyguard, which protects divisional headquarters and the rocket battalion, and which can be used in battle when the divisional commander needs all his resources."

Army: "An independent tank battalion - - the Army Commander's personal guard. This defends the Army's control [command] post and the rocket brigade and is brought into action only in the most critical situations, when everything is at stake."

Front: "An independent tank brigade - - The Front Commander's personal guard, which defends his command post and the Front's rocket brigades. This brigade is only brought into action in the most critical situations."

Strategic Direction: "The commander of a Strategic Direction, too, has his personal tank guard . . . This guard consists of a single special independent tank division or, in some cases of a tank corps made up of two divisions."

Specially hand-picked troops in all cases, loyal to a fault almost, and again, deployed in a guard-like role for the most part - - but able to be used in combat at that most critical juncture of a battle, when an all-or-nothing effort is mandated and guading as well those rocket and missile units which present a battlefield nuclear capability

As with the Romans, so with the Reds!!

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Measures.

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Some comments on the killing of Osama bin Laden.

From what is understood and what has been released to the public, Osama living in that compound as he did was attempting to live in "plain sight" BUT certain of the measures he took rather than helping to conceal the man made it more apparent to intelligence analysts that SOMEONE of value, a high level operative[s] was living in that multi-family home. Measures taken to conceal to include:

* Burning of all trash within the compound.

* High walls with secure and sturdy gated entrances, those walls topped with barbed wire.

* A screened area within the compound for someone to walk outside but not be visible.

* Satellite reception but NO Internet or telephone connection.

* A bomb-proof room or structure. [adjacent to the structure or separate is not clear]

* Built [2005] only recently. [obviously built to specification?]

ALSO, that Osama was purportedly "addicted" to pornography, some have speculated that this is disinformation put out by the CIA to defame the man. From a Q & A with an authoritative source we have the comment suggesting otherwise:

Bert: Some have suggested that the stash of porn found with Osama is CIA disinformation. That such a stash exists is not unreasonable? The rich Arab, when exposed to the vices of the west, becomes hooked and indulges in an extreme manner?

Answer: Self-imprisoned in his house for years, living in squalor, Osama needed to be entertained by any means. If CIA wanted to plant disinformation as a means of discrediting the murderous bastard in the eyes of his misguided disciples, they could have done a much better job than porn.

IN ADDITION, I think a lot of folks find it somewhat strange that Osama did not go down fighting with a group of his followers? That is what was to be expected? That coterie of bodyguards and acolytes in a suicidal fashion battling it to the death with the SEALS. There were only two persons in the compound that did exchange gunfire with the U.S. forces, those two being almost immediately killed!

From all account Osama seems to have been in a daze, a "fog", astounded as to what was happening to him? This too was not within normal expectations?

coolbert.

Cokes & Jarks.

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For those of you who thought the Easter Accords had settled the troubling situation in Northern Ireland once and for all, NOT SO FAST!

The Real Irish Republican Army [RIRA] still active and only recently during the trip to Ireland of Queen Elizabeth attempting to create some major mayhem. Those RIRA hardcore elements and even Ulster dissident loyalists under the renewed scrutiny of the British Special Reconnaissance Regiment [SRR].

Those persons members of the RIRA referred to as "cokes"! The real thing, Coke the beverage liking to call itself the "real" thing!

Thanks in to a variety of sources in this instance:

"Queen in Ireland: Real IRA may have planted bomb"  [the Telegraph]

"Catholic dissidents are thought to have planted the device found on a bus heading to Dublin, amid warnings from a security expert that it could mark the start of a series of devices designed to disrupt the Queen’s visit."

RIRA sending a message more than anything else, that pipe bomb was not intended to go off and do damage? This attempt was more for internal consumption of hard-core Republican elements and nothing more? So will be the thinking?

"Could this ‘police officer’ be a soldier?" [the Times]

Member of the SRR acting in a counter-terrorist capacity, undercover soldiers with authority to conduct surveillance and use deadly force and weaponry within England if in furtherance of actions against terrorists.

"The Det [SRR active in Northern Ireland] is made up of the army’s best urban surveillance operators using skills honed in Belfast against republican and loyalist terrorists. Its speciality has always been close target reconnaissance: undercover work among civilians, observing terrorists at close quarters, and carrying out covert searches of offices and houses for information and weapons."

A self-described regiment but consisting only of what seems to be about one hundred to three hundred troops, men and women both. NOT a full scale regiment as that term is generally understood but nonetheless having a high number of very capable and dedicated troops.

"The unit was very egalitarian when it operated in Northern Ireland. An operator’s rank was always regarded as less important than his or her capabilities; it was also the only UK special forces unit to use women."

"The Det [SSR] broke into homes to gather intelligence and plant listening devices or hidden cameras. Weapons were left where they were found but 'jarked' with tiny transmitters placed inside them that would provide warning should they be moved."

"N. Ireland Attacks Part of Broader Pattern" [Intel News from 2008]

"The recent dissident republican attacks in the North are reprehensible and severely reckless. But they are by themselves unlikely to destabilize the ongoing reconciliation process in Northern Ireland . . . groups such as the RIRA are not only 'tiny'; they also lack 'the capacity to maintain a serious and sustained campaign' . . . 'lack public support, they lack finance, they lack personnel and they lack munitions and equipment.'"

RIRA most worrisome to even Gerry Adams. Condemned as being a group that is not working toward peace in Northern Ireland. Splinter groups hard to control and not in step with reality but HAVING AN INFLUENCE FAR OUT OF PROPORTION TO THEIR NUMBERS!

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Expulsions.

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Here with a very good five-part Internet article from Der Spiegel - - the expulsion in the aftermath of the Second World War [WW2] of those ethnic Germans living is eastern Europe!

A movement of persons on a massive scale - - as many as fourteen million or fifteen million being told TO LEAVE!

A movement in part, persons fleeing the advance of the Red Army, ethnic Germans fearing with good reason the retribution of the Soviet! Post-war, the victorious powers seeking to create nation-states in eastern Europe devoid of ethnic Germans, creating to the greatest extent possible ethnically homogeneous societies.

"Paying with Life and Limb for the Crimes of Nazi Germany"

"A Time of Retribution"

"It has been proven that at least 473,000 people died as they fled or were expelled"

[I  have seen figures that state anywhere from 1 million to 2 million persons perished during these vast movements of people. That near half-million is asserted as "proven"]

"the organized resettlement of Germans and ethnic Germans from Germany's former eastern areas and the Sudetenland began in January 1946. In all, some 14 million Germans lost their homes."

A movement and depopulation on a scale as not seen in Europe in over three hundred years!!

"reminiscent of accounts of the Thirty Years' War, the last in Europe that had seen depopulation on this scale"

When thinking of "war", always consider 1. What led up to the war. 2. The actual fighting of the war, the physical combat. AND 3. What occurred in the aftermath of the war.

It goes without saying [?] that if you win a war you expect the spoils, and if you lose you expect the worst. In this case, the German not only should have expected the worst, they got it!

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Soviet SIGINT II.

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Soviet SIGINT. [signals intelligence]

Conclusion.

Once again, from a Military Analysis blog entry from a long time ago:

"The question has been asked by some authorities, “to what extent during World War Two [WW2] were the Russians [Soviets] also able to “read” German Enigma encrypted radio traffic?"

Calvocoressi writes:

"They [Russians] must have captured Enigma machines and cypher books and must have supposed that we did so. They [Russians] were not lacking in mathematicians and chess-players capable of appreciating what was involved in the breaking of cyphers."

AND once more the question is answered by the book: "The sword and the shield: the Mitrokhin archive and the secret history of ... By Christopher Andrew, Vasili Mitrokhin" [thanks to Google books]

"Soviet cryptanalysts, however, were unable to match the success of the British wartime SIGINT agency at Bletchley Park in breaking the main high-grade ciphers used by the German armed forces. They failed to so part for technological reasons to include:

* "unable to construct the powerful electronic 'bombes',"

* "[unable] to replicate COLOSSUS, the world's first electronic computer"

AND an additional reason as to why the lack of Soviet success with ENIGMA:

* "[Also] a human as well as a technological explanation for the inferiority of Soviet to British SIGINT.  The Soviet system would never have tolerated the remarkable infusion of unconventional youthful talent on which much of Bletchley's success was built . . . those cryptanalysts who would  surely have been incapable of conforming to the political correctness demanded by the Stalinst system."

Undoubtedly the Red Army was able [?] to capture in enormous numbers working ENIGMA cipher machines, intact or in pieces, the key lists, and operators that knew the intimate working details of the machine. Messages were available for comparison with actual encrypted transmissions for comparison, etc.

Many messages were read [?], this we can assume, I guess you might ask in what quantity and in what time!

ALSO, there was not a focused degree of energy on the part of the Soviets as regarding the ENIGMA machine? Recall that the Soviets would have had two intelligence agencies working simultaneously on the same problem, the NKVD [secret police] and the GRU [military intelligence]. A lack of focused energy and resources hindering progress toward a real-time reading of ENIGMA on a massive basis.

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Soviet SIGINT I.

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Soviet SIGINT [signals intelligence].

From a Military Thoughts blog entry from way back when now:

 "Ciphering machines started to be used about this time: 'Enigma' (Germany) . . . 'Purple Code' (Japan) . . . now is a well-known fact: 'Enigma' had been broken by American and British specialists, the 'Purple Code'; – by American and Russian code-breakers in 1939 – 1940."

"That the Russian was able to “read” the Japanese Purple crypto machine was news to me. I have not seen this referenced anywhere else. My understanding was that the Americans and the British each independently arrived at a cryptanalytic solution to Purple, but NOT the Russian."

NOW thanks to Google books and: "The sword and the shield: the Mitrokhin archive and the secret history of ... By Christopher Andrew, Vasili Mitrokhin" we have the answer:

"In February 1941 the NKVD cryptanalysts had been integrated into a new and enlarged Fifth (Cipher) Directorate, with at its heart a research section responsible for the attack on foreign codes and ciphers . . . In the summer of 1941 a group . . . replicated the success of American codebreakers a year earlier in breaking the main Japanese diplomatic cipher, codenamed by the Americans and since known to Western historians as PURPLE."

[this Fifth Directorate is a combined effort of the NKVD [secret police] and the GRU [military intelligence]? This is not entirely clear but seems to be the case!]

There is rather considerable significance to this. Prior to - - during - - and at the very end of the Second World War [WW2], the Soviets WERE able to "read" the most secret messages of the Japanese diplomatic corps, quite often that traffic dealing with military matters, AND especially in the aftermath of German surrender, the secret machinations of the Japanese to use the Soviets to arrange for a NEGOTIATED SURRENDER TO THE ALLIED FORCES [British and American]!

Stalin feigning cooperation with the Japanese, all the while preparing for Soviet entry into the war on the side of the allies, against Japan, typical duplicity of the dictator, aided and abetted to a large degree by PURPLE intelligence of the highest order and importance.

The record now crystal clear, the question answered, the full significance understood! 

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Achtung Minen!

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Here are two examples of military forces using minefields while on the OFFENSIVE - - minefields acting as barriers intended to:

* Prevent enemy forces INSIDE of the barrier from escaping.

* Prevent enemy forces OUTSIDE of the barrier from launching a counter-attack.

Minefields of course not designed as an absolute barrier, an impediment to movement but not in totality . Designed to make your enemy:

* Slow down.

* Deploy.

* Cause casualties.

1. Operation Sea Lion - - the German invasion of England [1940].

"Seelöwe - German & British mining operations"

German naval forces protecting the invasion force by with a barrier on either side of the English channel, those barges carrying German troops protected from OUTSIDE attack in large measure by naval sea mines.

"For flank protection of the crossing routes there were planned laying tactical minefields. The average distance between mines within the various fields would be 30-55 meters. It was planned to integrate the French-British minefields in the area Dover-Calais and Dunkirk into the total German mine planning.

"Hitler's directive set four pre-conditions for the invasion to occur:  On 16 July 1940, Hitler issued Directive No. 16"

"The English Channel was to be swept of British mines at the crossing points, and the Straits of Dover must be blocked at both ends by German mines."

The German operational plan incorporating into this sea mine "field" allied naval sea mines laid some time previous by the British and French. Force the allies to attack through their own barrier to a degree.

The German NOT having the numbers and type of suitable mines to do the job properly, if and when the "go" signal had been given. NOR the numbers and types of ships or aircraft to "lay" the minefield! A pipe-dream existing ONLY on paper and not feasible.

2. The Second Battle of Grozny [1999-2000].

Several thousand Chechen irregular fighters, attempting an escape from INSIDE the embattled city of Grozny, stumbling into a Russian minefield, casualties enormous and horrific.

"Battle of Grozny (1999–2000)"

 "[a] column of some 2,000 fighters, several hundred non-combatants and 50 Russian prisoners of war, hit a minefield between the city and the village of Alkhan-Kala . . . The Chechens pushed on through the minefield, being not aware of it . . . Scores of rebel fighters were killed by the combination of artillery fire and the crossing of the minefield . . . The rebels said they lost about 400 fighters in the minefield at Alkhan-Kala, including 170 killed. About 200 of the wounded were maimed"

Those surviving the passage HAVING TO TRAMPLE ON THE BODIES OF THE DEAD!

"Chechens' Corpses Paved Path Across Minefield"

The Soviet/Russian has always been noted for their usage of mines while on the offensive. Even in the latter days of World War Two, even when attacking, the Soviet constructing layers of anti-tank defenses to consolidate territory gained, those defenses multitudes of anti-tank ditches and obstacles, anti-tank mines and pre-sited anti-tank gun firing positions!

The use of minefields as an offensive weapon was a NO in 1940, but a YES in 2000! A mirage for the German but definitely a "real" for the Chechen!

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