We finally have a bunch of articles in the queue over on SOFREP, so I can give you a preview of the week ahead, even before it gets to copy editing. This is what I think we will publish this week. Some if it may be held back, and of course there will be more, and maybe some surprises.

What’s Been Camouflaged About Camouflaged Uniforms?

by Will Rodriguez

After four long years of testing the Army is soon to announce the next camo pattern. It’ll likely look like a bigger version of MARPAT but the decision is being kept close hold. Soldier Systems Daily is doing an excellent job keeping up on that news, but after the Army decision is announced I predict a new and vociferous round of “I told you sos”, bashing of the Army abortion known as ACUs and anything related. Before that starts, I’d like to equip SOFREP readers with some often overlooked facts in our “decade of deliriousness’” over camo so as you engage in conversation you can stand heads and tails above non SOFREP readers…

Sympathy for the Devil: From Boston to Beslan

by Laura Walker

A narrative has emerged in media accounts of the two Tsarnaev brothers, and it goes something like this:  Tamerlan Tsarnaev was vain, aggressive, sinister and recently radicalized.  His younger brother Dzhokhar is a friendly, likeable, good-natured kid who must have been brainwashed by his evil brother.  The evidence of Dzhokhar’s sweet and harmless nature is provided by friends, family and fangirls smitten by some of his more flattering photographs (Tiger Beat alert here:)  This is the fodder for defense attorneys.  It has no place in neutral journalism, but frankly, there isn’t much of that going around…

Vilayet Dagestan And The Continuing Intel Muddle About Boston

by Peter Nealen

What Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s affiliations were is still unknown, and being investigated.  While the MSM has trumpeted that the Tsarnaev brothers were Chechens, they were in fact originally from Dagestan, a region immediately to the north and east of Chechnya, and their family had since moved to Kyrgyzstan.  Of course, separating Dagestan and Chechnya in some ways is as artificial as separating Afghanistan and Pakistan; there is considerable ethnic spillover, and Chechen Islamist activity in Dagestan goes back quite a ways…

1,000 Posts Into the SOFREP Story

by Jack Murphy

Well folks, we just hit our 1,000th post the other day, specifically Brandon’s update from Poland about the documentary he is working on about GROM, which means that it is time for a mandatory orgy of self congratulations. Well, not really. But seriously, yes it is…

Don’t be a Soft Target

by Michael Golembesky

First things first here. I am not a profiling or anti-terrorism Guro and nor do I claim to be. But I will say, in my five deployments with the Marine Corps to many less than favorable places on this plant, I have learned a thing or two about self-protection, identifying and profiling shitheads with bad intent. With that being said I do not want this article to create some-kind-of “turn your communist neighbor into the government” hysteria echoing the Cold War era.  I have no issues with “practical profiling techniques” as I sit here, on my third cup of coffee, half empty bottle of Jameson and listening to Ziggy Stardust on vinyl record…

Why Does PETA Want to Kill Our Special Operators?

by Jack Murphy

The public has always been fascinated by the training that US Special Operations Forces receive. What goes in to making an elite warrior? What skill sets are cultivated and polished in these young men?

To sum it up, we train as we fight.

At places like the JFK Special Warfare Center and School, our Special Operations personnel train for the austere environments which they will face overseas. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of the training is not secretive in nature. However, there is one closely held training secret within the Special Operations community. That secret is out now, and activist groups and politicians are now trying to prevent our soldiers from receiving this life saving training.

It is called Live Tissue Training (LTT), or more often known as the “Goat Lab.”…

AQI Alive and Well, With a Series of Deadly Attacks Leading Up To Elections

by Peter Nealen

While Iraq has been off the media’s radar for some time, the coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings has eclipsed the current wave of sectarian violence that preceded last week’s provincial elections in Iraq. Although the elections -the first since the US withdrawal -went off with an estimated turnout of about 51 percent, resistance was stiff….

Mark Donald – SEAL Medic And Author Of Book Battle Ready

by Quin

(We’re pushing the SOFREP Radio episode that we had here a few weeks ago.)

(About the Featured Image: U.S. Army 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) Green Berets observe a CH-47 Chinook helicopter conduct hoisting operations during helocast training at Eglin Base Air Force Base, Fla., Feb. 6, 2013. The Green Berets were inserted into a maritime insertion point after deploying an inflatable zodiac boat to begin movement to a simulated objective. Helocasts are used to insert small units into a military area of operation by helicopter to carry out missions. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Steven K. Young/Released)