Brandon Webb Interview on NewsMax

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KineticFury

1 Like

Haha He shifted the subject away from the President pretty darn quick! I wanted to hear more on that question. Great interview.

Brandon, I just found out you were in Dallas when I was - and I had my copy with me too. I follow you on twitter but I don't 'follow twitter' - maybe it's time I start keepin' up with it.

BrandonWebb moderator

@KineticFury Yes indeed!

ArcticWarrior

3 Like

"You can NOT engage if...." - Always the genesis of a misguided Op-Order

SleazyWeazel

6 Like

Very well rounded interview Brandon. One moment I will always remember, and that will haunt me for the rest of my days, was when I was walking to my truck one evening and I commented out loud to myself, "We are so vulnerable." You know when I said those exact words?...................September 10th, 2001. Then we all know what happened the next day. I agree on the assessment that maximum force and violence of action should have been the strategy from the get go by stepping on their necks and not allowing them to get back up........period. Many average citizens don't realize that there is pure evil in the world and it must be dealt with without restraint or to have operators with there hands tied behind their backs. A friend of mine asked me one time, "Do you think people are born evil?" I paused for a brief second and said, "Some fuckers just need a killing." May sound cold to some, but they have to realize that evil doesn't take a holiday, it is ALWAYS out there, and always is in search of how it can inflict pain towards others.

BrandonWebb moderator

@SleazyWeazel Thanks for the kind words.

SleazyWeazel

@BrandonWebb @SleazyWeazel

No problem Brandon. Keep up the good work. Ever forward.

LCpl X

1 Like

@SleazyWeazel

The first World Trade Center bombing was traumatic, so was the shooting right outside the CIA's back entrance, so were the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, so was the USS Cole bombing.

There are surgical and silent ways to handle these things, with CIA, FBI, DSS, DEA and SOCOM, use them.

First World Trade Center bombing and CIA back gate shooting, suspects found by simple police work, and bounty,

Kenya and Tanzania, response had more fanfare with missiles to Sudan, unnecessarily kicking up dust making it harder for more surgical guys to operate, but this is the beginning of int'l and domestic collaboration,

USS Cole, 9/11 over-reaction caught up, more dust kicked up, but bad guys still found.

What Brandon's talking about ROE being all fucked up, is mostly because of how the whole post 9/11 response developed, one big over-reaction after another.

If post 9/11 was handled more surgically, those law enforcement, intel, and military entities listed above could have had more freedom to do what they were designed to do. But, we over-reacted post 9/11, nation building, new unnecessary bureaucracies stood up, more BS, taking fuckin' 11 yrs to find UBL, slow and steady wins the race.

As for Good vs. Evil, this is largely where we fucked up in the first place, W. and his boys over simplified and over generalized the issues, confused it with other issues, and walla bureaucracies get over bloated.

The Pakistanis are a-holes, but they are right, we over-reacted with Al-Qaeda, making a bigger mess, those ROE's are symptoms of this mess, the problem is over-reaction, brought about by this Good-Evil simplistic understanding of int'l issues that should never be over-simplified, never.

HunterGuy

@LCpl X The fucked up ROE comes from America trying to fight a PR war. You cannot, CANNOT, fight a war and not expect innocents to be killed. Especially when these fuckers hide behind them when doing their various activities.

What we need to convey is, if you hang with terrorists expect to be shot at. Maybe, just maybe, they'll stop supporting or hanging around them.

ArcticWarrior

3 Like

@LCpl X @SleazyWeazel

It should have been over at Tora Bora, had the Regiment been sent as requested to cut off the escape of OBL and those goat paths mined it wouldnt have taken nearly 11 years. I mean seriously CNN people were talking with line of sight radios to AQ guys in the hills. Sr leadership for whatever reason decided the people on the ground in the white mountains just didnt know any better.

ArcticWarrior

1 Like

@Recon6

Odd thing is in Anaconda they seemed to use a lot of things that they should have used at TB, so either they learned or.....

Recon6

2 Like

@ArcticWarrior Arctic, wasn't it a political move? i.e. so called partner nations threatened to withdraw support if we mined the paths leading to Pak?

A strategy that would have eliminated UBL's escape? Just wondering...

LCpl X

1 Like

@ArcticWarrior

http://www.justice.gov/archive/ag/speeches/2001/agcrisisremarks10_10.htm

"Rewards for Justice has a track record of gaining actionable intelligence with cash prizes. So far, it has paid out more than $100 million to 60 informants and been central to the capture of Odai and Qusai Hussein, Saddam's sons; Ramzi Yousef, convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and others [Mir Aimal Kansi, who brutally murdered two CIA employees in 1993. Thanks to a tip from a private citizen overseas we were able to locate and arrest Kansi].

Foggy Bottom likes publicizing the program and describing the criminals nabbed with tips from the public. But it remains otherwise tight-lipped: Almost all details about Rewards for Justice stay classified, and we do not know the recipients of any of the disbursed funds."

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2011/05/the_25_million_man.html

Good point, man, that would be an interesting study. The payday is one aspect, but I'm sure the affect of the bounty on the bad guy's behavior is also priceless. Greed exists whether you're in the city, country, live in a tribal society or metropolitan one.

Also it's not the only tool to consider, not everyone can be bought, many have other motivations. There's three things you don't fuck-up in the CIA, money, guns & walk-ins, so much of good info came from walk-ins (as oppose to recruitments) that it's become sacred.

But the point is, don't kick up dust and make it harder to find these guys. Slow and steady, gum shoe work, find, arrest or kill these guys, but don't go over board kicking up dust.

ArcticWarrior

2 Like

@LCpl X

Did any of the bounties work? Especially in A'stan. I know Saddam's sons were tip offs and a bunch of his staff also,but Iraq was a little different, your average mid level Afghani would probably end up in a ditch with a note announcing he probably shouldnt have told the local chief he saw someone he shouldnt have. Are there any stats open sourced as to the success of the whole program? not just 3 or 4 cases?

SleazyWeazel

3 Like

@ArcticWarrior @LCpl X

Tora Bora and the surrounding AO should have been TOP priority at the time. If the guys on the ground could have been allowed to push the objective we, more than likely, would not have the current scenario that we have today. Cause: 9-11 Effect: Find the bastard!! Apparently that means MUCH later as our government took our eye off the prize and shifted focus to Iraq. In my opinion, it took away much needed manpower and resources from the Afghanistan theater when it was CRITICALLY needed the most. I remember one of my favorite quotes from the author Tom Clancy: "The difference between writing fiction or reality.....Fiction has to make sense."

LCpl X

3 Like

"We make sure the wars are small ones, Mr. Palmi."

LCpl X

@ArcticWarrior

I'm thinking something more quieter with less fanfare like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewards_for_Justice_Program

or regular agent handling, whether CIA/DSS or FBI/local police.

I hope after Afghanistan, we'll keep a lower profile.

http://www.zimbio.com/watch/jTt4GAxdJ5N/Good+Shepherd+Scene+People+Make+Wars/The+Good+Shepherd

ArcticWarrior

2 Like

@SleazyWeazel

"Do you think people are born evil?"- Sometimse they just go bad.....

PaulaMiller

1 Like

@ArcticWarrior And the bad ones always find each other.

SleazyWeazel

2 Like

@ArcticWarrior Agreed.....and sometimes they go REALLY bad.

Old PH2

2 Like

Brandon you experienced the change in ROE, I'm sure you felt the pressure. Is the JAG Inquisition now permanently part of the command process? Every Bureaucrat is taught to CYA, has the DoD become nothing more than another Bureau?

ArcticWarrior

2 Like

@Old PH2

I think its always been there, even Geo Washington had a JAG he consulted with.

LCpl X

3 Like

Great interview, man.

I personally would like to see SOFREP flesh out it's stand against JAG finger fucking every mission, how the lawyers got involved (history lesson), how it is now, and how it can be changed or bettered, suggestions. This is definitely something SOFREP can lead on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh5yOZRUwgw

Old PH2

1 Like

Read the short Interview on the NEWSMAX site. Short and sweet. Have to wait until I get to a secure site to watch the video. I turned on to NewsMax about 3yrs ago. I've become quite a fan of their reporting.

Brandon Webb Interview on NewsMax

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