- Israel's crack-shot snipers are to be equipped with "invisible"
nickel-tipped bullets.
-
- They have no give-away muzzle flash when fired - and
there is no recoil. The bullets are designed to be used in rifles CIA armourers
have developed. They have twice the range of ordinary sniper weapons and
a killing accuracy of a mile.
-
- The weapons were originally designed to be used by U.S.
Special Forces in Afghanistan.
-
- But preceding George Tenet's latest visit to Israel this
weekend, fifty of the state-of-the-art weapons and ten thousand rounds
of "invisible" bullets have been secretly flown to Israel. They
left Kennedy Airport, New York, on an El Al freighter to Tel Aviv.
-
- Israel's best army snipers - some of whom are women -
were sent to a secret base in the country's Negev Desert to familiarize
themselves with the weapons.
-
- Until now Israeli snipers have been unable to operate
at night - due to the risk of discovery from the give-away flash from their
rifle barrels. Using special night sights, also developed by the CIA, the
snipers will be able to pick out a target without any risk of detection
once they shoot.
-
- A team of snipers equipped with the weapons accompanied
the latest incursion into Hebron by Israeli tanks this week (Thursday).
The weapons were not used as no "suitable targets" were found,
says an IDG source.
-
- "Not only is it an effective killing weapon but
it is designed to create panic. A target can be sanding in the middle of
a crowd one moment. The next moment he keels over - dead," an Israeli
source told Globe-Intel.
-
- Prime Minister Sharon has also ordered Mossad's most
secret unit - its kidon assassination tams - to be ready to move into the
killing fields of Gaza and the West Bank in the event of renewed mass violence.
-
- Sharon insists any response he authorizes is "no
more than an attempt to show the Palestinians they must learn that they
will achieve nothing through violence and terror."
-
- Yasser Arafat has said the deployment of specially-equipped
snipers and the kidon teams "shows the world that Israel is ready
to use any methods to destroy us."
-
- The kidon unit normally operates overseas - killing terrorist
leaders who mastermind the suicide bombers from afar.
-
- The kidon unit consists of forty-two men and six women.
All are in their late twenties and are based in a restricted area of a
military base near the desert town of Beersheba. The area includes a mock-up
of an Arab village, a suburban street and a variety of buildings where
the kidon teams practice their deadly art.
-
- They practice with a wide range of hand-guns and knives
and learn how to administer a lethal injection in a crowd.
-
- They also study their failures. The most embarrassing
was the September 1997 failure of a kidon unit to kill Hamas leader Khalid
Meshal in the streets of Amman, Jordan.
-
- The team had been equipped with a deadly poison made
from the seeds of the castor-oil plant. It had worked before with spectacular
success on a London Street in September 1978. A Bulgarian defector, Georgi
Markov, was killed by one of his country's agents, who jabbed him in the
thigh with the tip of an umbrella smeared with the nerve agent.
-
- But the kidon team sent to Amman bungled their mission
- and were captured.
-
- It had needed an abject apology from Israel's then Prime
Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, to the late King Hussein of Jordan before
the luckless would-be assassins were freed.
-
- To avoid such a debacle again, the kidon have studied
the faces and habits of every potential target.
-
- These include the Hamas and Islamic leaders as well as
key members of Yasser Arafat's Force 17. The PLO commando unit has long
been Arafat's personal security force.
-
- But down the years kidon units have assassinated its
members - most notably those involved in the massacre of the Israeli athletes
at the Munich Olympics. Every member of the team that had killed the athletes
was cornered and killed by the kidon.
-
- Each kidon unit is a team of four. One is assigned to
do the actual killing, the others to provide back-up such as a getaway
car or planting obstructions for pursuers.
-
- Every three months a kidon member has a meeting with
a Mossad psychiatrist on handling stress and how to relax.
-
- Later they undergo aptitude tests to establish their
emotional stability and self-confidence. Each kidon is assessed to see
if he or she shows signs of becoming a "lone wolf." That could
be fatal in an operation where teamwork is essential.
-
- Part of each training day is given over to testing a
kidon's sheer physical stamina. There is a forced march in the fierce noonday
heat of the Negev Desert. Afterwards a kidon faces further psychological
tests.
-
- Sample questions: "An Arab girl spots you on an
important mission: do you kill her to preserve your mission? You are taken
prisoner: do you surrender or kill yourself? You come across a wounded
Israeli soldier hit in the Intifada. Do you stop to save him knowing he
will certainly die - though it means aborting your mission?"
-
- The questions are intended to see how a kidon reacts
under pressure. How long does he or she need to give an answer?
-
- GORDON THOMAS - read more of his amazing work - Seeds
of Fire: China And The Story Behind the Attack on America - Gideon's Spies
: Israel's Secret Warriors - The Jesus Conspiracy
-
- <http://www.gordonthomas.ie/113.html>http://www.gordonthomas.ie/113.html
-
-
-
- Comment
-
- From Ronnie
- Ronnielichti@aol.com
- 10-8-2
-
- Dear Jeff Rense,
-
- I wanted to add my 2 cents worth to the Gordon Thomas
article. As an amateur ballistics and firearms maven I have several MAJOR
problems with his article. Chief among them is the incredibly vague and
ambiguous references and sources cited.
-
- However, that aside there are several glaring problems
that frankly call into question the authenticity and accuracy of his entire
article. Indeed, if one did not know better, one would think the entire
story was invented without any real thought given to actually researching
the plausibility of it. Doubtless, it is all credited to some anonymous
'source'.
-
- Muzzle flash is caused from the explosion (actually a
high speed burn) of the powder rocketing out of the end of the barrel and
it's reaction with the atmosphere. This 'rocket' like effect is partly
to blame for the weapons recoil, (the other part being the laws of inertia
and the weight of the bullet, blah, blah blah.) Point being, if one wishes
to eliminate muzzle flash, one can use what is called a 'flash hider' which
in effect dissipates and deflects the gas, though it does not truly hide
the flash. Besides, unless someone is staring right at the shooter when
the gun is fired there is no one to see the flash. Yes, it takes a certain
amount of care to hide it, just as it takes care to hide the 'dust burst'
when firing from ground level in day light. Regardless, this fact has not
stopped snipers from being extremely effective day and night for decades,
or more.
-
- Two, nickel plating is a relatively soft largely cosmetic
metallic material useful as an anti-corrosion material, though there are
far better ones. It's effect as a bullet jacket material would be useless
in having anything to do with range or power. It can be useful for preventing
brass cases from tarnishing.
-
- Third, for those involved with government/military/police
sniping, if the situation calls for it there are ample silenced weapons
including the 5.56 and 7.62 nato rounds as used by Israel. Though not as
quite as the 'hollywood' versions, this does solve muzzle blast and flash,
though unless subsonic rounds are used, it is still rather loud due to
supersonic bullet crack.
-
- Fourth, one can observe that any gunfire, even that with
rubber bullets, causes panic in a crowd, so certainly from a panicstandpoint
it is counterproductive to use a silenced weapon, though certainly there
are plausible tactical reasons for doing so if one wished a bad guy to
go away without the crowd noticing. But causing panic is not one of them.
Likely few would even notice the person fall and certainly would not link
gunfire to the reason without the telltale sound of it.
-
- Fifth, the probable kill range for a military sniper
is well in excess of 600 metres (1/2 mile) with normal shoulder fired rifles.The
.50 caliber specialty weapons are considerably more. Lethality is not the
issue - it is the trajectory that makes it difficult to impossible at extreme
range. Theoretically, if one could hit a target at 2 miles with an average
deer rifle it could easily kill a man. So, the 'lethal range' comment is
moot.
-
- Last, there are many variables in ballistics, but essentially,
one must either increase velocity OR projectile weight OR projectile aerodynamic
properties (or all three) without decreasing the other factors in order
to gain retained down range velocity, and thus power and accuracy. Without
moving to something exotic like a particle beam or laser, it is highly
problematic to increase velocity while eliminating recoil and flash.There
are exponential type forces at work when talking speed v. propellant so
to get twice the range would require much higher velocities and power.
-
- Bottom line, the entire premise is flawed to the max.
I say this to Mr. Thomas. If you want to spin fiction, research it first
so you are good at it like a Stephen Coonts or a Tom Clancy. Conversely,
if you wish to report 'facts' it would also be good to do some research...call
it due diligence. if you will.
-
- This is also true with the supposed training regimen
of the Jewish Special Forces group he alluded to. These 'training' measures
sound as if the 'source' was actually a very poorly researched Hollywood
movie.
-
- By the way, in keeping with the 'nit picking' essence
of this letter, the poison is called Ricin and is made from Castor beans.
Castor Oil is pressed from the beans in the similar ways as sunflower oil
might be made.
-
- This letter is overly long considering the importance
of Mr. Thomas's article. It could be effectively argued that ANY response
would be too long and a waste of time. But, I respect the Rense site immensely
and a great deal of the information there is very well done. Besides, I
am up late anyway. :)
-
- I may not agree with everyone's viewpoints, but I can
respect that view if it is at least thought out. To allow such irresponsible
and inaccurate 'journalism' only discredits the actual news. There are
ample 'conspiracies' that need no embellishing and to create poor quality
fiction merely undermines the entire fringe news system.
-
- Frankly, I believe one of the primary reasons so few
mainstream people give credence to stories such as NWO or UFO's etc are
because of all the inane stories that cloud the issues. Listening to the
breathless writings of some of these authors makes one wonder where their
'meds' are!
-
- To the Renses, Drudges and countless other journalists
who defy the party line and report the news professionally and ethically,
I say Bravo!
-
- To all those others, I can only pray you are either playing
a joke or have gotten professional help, because it would be scary if you
actually believed some of what you write...almost as scary as what the
talking heads pass off for news on the boob tube.
-
- Sincerely,
-
- Ronnie
-
- PS- I will certainly apologize publicly if Mr. Thomas
can come up with any corroborating material that is remotely scientific
or technical in nature.
-
-
-
- Comment
From: Christopher
10-7-2
-
- While I agree there is a lot wrong with the orginal article
I think your readers should know that silenced, flashless sniper bullets
do exist. Not only do the russians have them, but they have been posted
to the internet.
-
- See: http://www.world.guns.ru/ammo/sp-e.htm
-
- The short story is that these shells use the billard
principle and have the powder push a rod that then hits the bullet and
lodges itself in the casing. The result is that there is ZERO flash or
powder bang. You still have to use subsonic ammuniton to avoid the rifle
crack of the sound barrier being broken. This reduces the range conciderably
and makes accurate shooting hard.
-
- If the russians have such shells, I'm sure the CIA has
their own (or a stock of stolen Russian ones).
-
- --Christopher
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