RIGHT OF A RESISTANCE AND DUTY TO RESIST: The Military Opposition Against Hitler and the Right of Resistance by Hermann Weinkauff Former President of the ...
www.biblio.com/browse_books/catalog/140844/101/17568.html |
New Evidence That Blackwater Guards Took No Fire ..... the official said, the casings were 51 millimeters long, the length used by NATO weapons, including the M-240 machine gun, a standard automatic weapon used by the America military and American security contractors, the official said. The soldiers also found empty 5.56-millimeter casings of the type used by the M-4 and M-16 rifles that American troops and contractors bear.
M-240 machine gun 'an "M240 Bravo" or even a "240 Bravo" verbally' M240 machine gun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The M240 has been used by the United States armed forces since the late 1970s. It is used extensively by infantry, as well as ground vehicles, watercraft, and aircraft. Despite not being the lightest medium machine gun in service, the M240 is highly regarded for reliability, and its standardization among NATO members is also seen as a major advantage. All variants of the M240 series are fed from disintegrating belts, and are capable of firing most types of 7.62 mm NATO ammunition. They all share the same basic internal parts, which are also interchangeable, for the most part, with other members of the FN MAG family. There are significant differences in weight and some features among some versions for which this does not apply. The M240 is manufactured by the American division of FN Herstal, a Belgian company with historically deep ties to U.S. arms procurement. History and design
Manufactured by Fabrique Nationale's subsidiary FN Manufacturing, Inc. Columbia, SC, the FN MAG derivative M240 was chosen by the U.S. military for different roles after large world-wide searches and competitions. It has mainly replaced the M60 in most roles, though it replaced some other machine guns in the co-axial position. M60s have remained in use, but they are being slowly phased out and replaced by the newer M240s as they wear out. The M240 is a belt-fed, gas-operated, air-cooled, crew-served, fixed Headspace weapon. It is compatible only with the M13 Link system, also used by many other western (especially NATO) machine gun designs. Its functionality is demonstrated by its ability to be mounted on the M122A1 tripod, a bipod, on vehicles, or on aircraft. The M60 is still used as a door gun on Army helicopters, however. It was first adopted in 1977 by the U.S. Army as a co-axial tank gun, and slowly adopted for more applications in 1980s and 1990s. The M240 and M240E1 were adopted for use on vehicles. This led to further adoption in more uses, especially for the Army and Marine infantry. While possessing many of the same basic characteristics as its predecessor, the durability of the M240 system results in superior reliability when compared to the M60. The M240 actually has a more complex gas system than M60s, but can function better with lower maintenance with higher reliabilty, though this comes at greater cost and weight. Compared to other machine guns, its rating of 26,000 Mean Rounds Between Failure (MRBF) is quite high for its weight- in the 1970s when it was first adopted it achieved about 7000 MRBF. It is not as reliable as some very heavy older designs, but it is for its mass. They are both (M60/M240) scheduled to be replaced by a lightweight machine gun (JSSAP/PMSW), which will also replace some of the M249 Squad Automatic Weapons. Among the likely candidates is another FN product, SOCOM's latest 7.62 mm machine gun — the M249-derived Mk 48 Mod 0 —, scheduled for fielding starting in 2006 with U.S. Navy special operations units in conjunction with whom it was developed. Early history: testing and adoption
A sailor of NMCB-74 (Naval Mobile Construction Battalion) fires an M240B mounted atop a Humvee in 2004
The adoption of the M240 has its origins in the late 1960s/early 1970s as a project to procure a new co-axially mounted 7.62 mm machine gun for tanks to replace the M73 and M219 machine guns then being used in this role. It would go on to be deployed in this role in the 1980s, but spawn its adoption for the infantry and other mountings as well. It would be deployed in this, and some other roles into the 1990s and 2000s. As mentioned, during the 1970s the Army was looking for new 7.62 mm machine guns for vehicle/AFV mounts. The 1950s-era M73 had been rather troubled, and the M73E1/M219 it was developed into was not much of an improvement. A number of designs of the period from various countries were considered, but it was narrowed down to the M60E2 and the FN MAG. They underwent a large testing, including the older M219 as well.
Two main criteria analyzed were "Mean Rounds Between Stoppages" (MRBS, jams that can be cleared within minutes) and "Mean Rounds Between Failures" (MRBF, such as a parts breaking). The results for the evaluated machine guns were the following:
| Type |
Round Fired |
MRBS |
MRBF |
| FN MAG 58 |
50,000 |
2,962 |
6,442 |
| M60E2 |
50,000 |
846 |
1,669 |
| M219 |
19,000 |
215 |
1,090 |
| Minimum specified |
|
850 |
2,675 |
| Minimum desired |
|
1,750 |
5,500 |
The test applies only to the 70s-era versions tested. The M240 itself underwent some improvements and the M60E2 was a specialized co-axial variant that differed from some of the other types. The qualities of the M60 variants vary considerably, such as between the M60E4 and the M60C. That aside, for these types the clear winner was the MAG, which was designated as the M240 in 1977 after the Army competition. It went on to replace many older types for the vehicle/co-axial role in the 1980s. The M240 proved popular enough that it would be adapted by the infantry later on, spawning the M240B and M240G. It was adopted for this role in 1991 by the USMC, replacing the rather worn M60s used by infantry, but also the M60E3 that the Marines had started using in the 1980s. The M240 would be adopted in the late 1990s by the Army for infantry, beating out the M60E4, which though lighter and cheaper did not offer commonality with the vehicle borne M240, other NATO FN MAG users such as Britain, or the USMC.
The various versions of the M240 never entirely replaced all the M60 versions, though it did for most main applications and roles.
Variants
Marine performs maintenance on an M240 coax machine gun, mounted on a LAV during an exercise, 1998.
The NATO version of the M240 is known as the MAG 58, in the UK it is known as the L7 General Purpose Machine Gun. The U.S.-made M240 family is produced under the same specifications as the MAG 58, enabling all M240 variants to have interchangeable/interoperable components with foreign-produced NATO equivalent weapons. This has significant advantages in training, logistics support, tactical versatility, and joint operations. For example, an M240B's buttstock and bipod may be carried in a vehicle to enable the crew to convert the coaxial weapon to an infantry model in the event that they are forced to withdraw from an inoperable vehicle. This is referred to as an "egress kit" by the manufacturer. M240
This was adopted in 1977 by the Army to replace the M73 and M219 7.62 mm machine guns, and the M85 .50 cal. In the 1980s, the Marines adopted the M240 and M240E1 for use on vehicles like the LAV-25. M240E4/M240B
The M240B is the standard infantry medium Machine gun of the U.S. Army and is the version in use by the U.S. Air Force. It comes configured for ground combat. It is almost always referred to as an "M240 Bravo" or even a "240 Bravo" verbally, but always written as M240B. The M60E4 (Mk 43 as designated by the U.S. Navy) was pitted against the (then called) M240E4 in Army trials during the 1990s for a new infantry medium machine gun, in a competition to replace the decades-old M60s. The M240E4 won, and was then classified as the M240B. This led to 1000 existing M240 being sent to FN for an overhaul and a special kit that modified them for use on ground (such as a stock, a rail, etc). This led to procurement contracts in the late 1990s for all-new M240B. However, a new feature was added, a hydraulic buffer system to reduce the felt recoil as incorporated in the M60. While the M240B had been more reliable in the tests, it was a few pounds heavier than the M60E4, and there is program underway for a new lightweight medium machine gun in the early 2000s. The Army M240 converted to the M240B configuration should not be confused with the large numbers of M240/E1 converted to the M240G configuration for the Marine Corps. M240C
The M240C is a variation on the original co-axial M240, but with a right-handed feed.
M240E1 and M240D
The M240D has two possible configurations: aircraft and egress (ground). The aircraft configured M240D has a front and rear sight and a trigger group which accommodates the spade grip device. The ground configuration involves the installation of an Egress Package or "infantry modification kit" which is designed to provide downed aircrew personnel with increased fire power. The M240D is an upgrade of the M240E1, primarily in the addition of an optical rail on the receiver cover. The M240E1 had also fitted with spade grips for flexible use.
M240G
A similar version of the M240, the M240G (referred to as the "240 Golf"), is the standard U.S. Marine Corps medium machine gun. The Marine Corps has replaced the M60E3 with the M240G. The M240 allows for commonality throughout the Marine Corps whether the weapon is used in an infantry, vehicular, or airborne role. The M240G is the ground version of the original M240 or M240E1, 7.62 mm medium class weapon designed as a coaxial/ pintle mounted machine gun for Tanks and LAVs. The M240G can be modified for ground use by the installation of an "infantry modification kit," (a flash suppressor, front sight, carrying handle for the barrel, a buttstock, infantry length pistol grip, bipod, and rear sight assembly). The 240G lacks a front heat guard, and is few pounds lighter at 25.6 pounds, than the M240B. M240E5/M240H
An improvement of the M240D, the M240H (sometimes referred to as the "240 Hotel") features a rail equipped feed cover, an improved flash suppressor, and has been configured so that it can be more quickly converted to infantry standard using an Egress Kit. M240E6
The M240E6, currently in testing, is a lighter-weight model that features a titanium receiver block.
Operation
Loading the weapon is performed by pulling the charging handle which locks the bolt to the rear. The weapon is placed on safe and the charging handle is pushed forward (this is spring loaded on the tank mounted version). The feed tray cover is then lifted and rounds are laid inside the feed tray. The feed tray cover is then closed and the weapon is ready for operation.
Clearing the weapon is performed by ensuring the bolt is locked to the rear and the weapon is on safe. The feed tray cover is then lifted, the remaining belt (if any) is swept out of the feed tray, the feed tray is lifted to visually inspect the rear of the barrel and the face of the bolt. Any links or brass casings are removed. The weapon is now clear. In the unlikely event that a live round is on the bolt face, it is knocked loose with a cleaning rod or another rigid object. If there is a live round lodged in the barrel, the operator must immediately decide if the barrel is hot enough that there is a chance of it cooking off. If there is, he will immediately move his face away from the opening of the weapon. He should then wait for the barrel to cool off before attempting to remove it. In many cases, attempting to remove the barrel will cause the round to detonate as soon as the barrel is unlocked from the receiver. He can also attempt to extract the round by taking the weapon off of safe, pulling the trigger and pulling back on the charging handle. This has a fair chance of causing the weapon to fire, so care should be made in ensuring that the weapon is pointed in a safe direction first.
M240D machine gun is fired from a SH-60F Sea Hawk assigned to the "Eightballers" of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Eight ( HS-8) during a training exercise. 2003
The rate of fire may be controlled by three different settings. The first setting allows the weapon to cycle at 750 round/min. The two remaining settings increase the rate of fire by 100 round/min per setting — second setting being 850 round/min and third setting, 950 round/min). These settings are changed by dismounting the barrel, removing the gas regulator collar and turning the gas regulator to allow more or less gas to move through the weapon system. It is generally performed before missions, as changing the setting is distracting at best under field or combat conditions.
The barrels can be exchanged rapidly, thanks to a barrel release button located on the left side of the weapon. The weapon is cleared first and then the button is held down, while the barrel's carrying handle is moved from the right side of the weapon to the center, unlocking it from the receiver. At this point, the button is released and the barrel is then pulled free of the receiver and placed to the side. The new barrel is inserted into the receiver and then the carrying handle is shifted to the right, locking it into place.
During prolonged firing, care must be taken to not allow exposed skin to come in contact with the weapon. The barrels can become hot enough to inflict second degree burns instantly without becoming visibly different. However, such barrels glow brightly to anyone using any sort of optics sensitive to infrared radiation, such as night vision devices.
Soldier Feedback
- 17% reported engaging the enemy with their M240B;
- 42% reported problems getting spare parts in Afghanistan (barrels, springs, small roll pins, T&E pin, heat shields, sear pins, spare barrel bag, cleaning materials);
- 1 soldier reported a double feed in combat;
- 50% reported that they need better ways to carry ammunition (ammo bag, etc);
- 100% were confident in their weapon;
- 82% felt that their M240B was reliable;
- Suggestions: improved sling, lighter, more durable tripod, more durable heat shield.
A May 2006 presentation by the US Army Infantry Center reported these conclusions on the M240B:
- Soldier ratings consistently highly positive
- Great rate of fire and target effects
- Good durability
The comments were based on a survey of 3300 soldiers from eight divisions of the US Army (Active, Guard and Reserve soldiers)
See also
A soldier pulls security on top of a roof using an M240B during a surveillance of neighborhoods in Baghdad, Feb. 6, 2007. Note ACU pattern cloth ammo pouch, M145 scope, and AN/PEQ-2 laser sight on the weapon.
External links
October 13, 2007
New Evidence That Blackwater Guards Took No Fire
By JAMES GLANZ
This article was reported by James Glanz, Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Michael Kamber and written by Mr. Glanz.
BAGHDAD, Oct. 12 — Fresh accounts of the Blackwater shooting last month, given by three rooftop witnesses and by American soldiers who arrived shortly after the gunfire ended, cast new doubt Friday on statements by Blackwater guards that they were responding to armed insurgents when Iraqi investigators say 17 Iraqis were killed at a Baghdad intersection. The three witnesses, Kurds on a rooftop overlooking the scene, said they had observed no gunfire that could have provoked the shooting by Blackwater guards. American soldiers who arrived minutes later found shell casings from guns used normally by American contractors, as well as by the American military.
The Kurdish witnesses are important because they had the advantage of an unobstructed view and because, collectively, they observed the shooting at Nisour Square from start to finish, free from the terror and confusion that might have clouded accounts of witnesses at street level. Moreover, because they are pro-American, their accounts have a credibility not always extended to Iraqi Arabs, who have been more hostile to the American presence.
Their statements, made in interviews with The New York Times, appeared to challenge a State Department account that a Blackwater vehicle had been disabled in the shooting and had to be towed away. Since those initial accounts, Blackwater and the State Department have consistently refused to comment on the substance of the case.
The Kurdish witnesses said that they saw no one firing at the guards at any time during the event, an observation corroborated by the forensic evidence of the shell casings. Two of the witnesses also said all the Blackwater vehicles involved in the shooting drove away under their own power.
The Kurds, who work for a political party whose building looks directly down on the square, said they had looked for any evidence that the American security guards were responding to an attack, but found none.
“I call it a massacre,” said Omar H. Waso, one of the witnesses and a senior official at the party, which is called the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. “It is illegal. They used the law of the jungle.”
Many of the American soldiers were similarly appalled. While Blackwater has said its guards were attacked by automatic gunfire, the soldiers did not find any casings from the sort of guns typically used by insurgents or by Iraqi security forces, according to an American military official briefed on the findings of the unit that arrived at the scene about 20 minutes after the Blackwater convoy left. That analysis of forensic evidence at the scene was first reported Friday by The Washington Post.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter, added that soldiers had found clear evidence that the Blackwater guards were not been threatened and also opened fire on civilians who had tried to flee. “The cartridges and casings we found were all associated with coalition forces and contractors,” the official said. “The only brass we found where somebody fired weapons were ones from contractors.”
The case has angered many in the military who believe that the conduct of the security guards makes the troops’ jobs harder. “If our people had done this,” another American military official said, “they would be court-martialed.”
The shooting, on Sept. 16, and the deaths of two Iraqi women in a shooting by a different security company on Tuesday, have provoked anger at politically potent levels of Iraqi society. In the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, officials affiliated with Iraq’s most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called for sanctions against the companies. In Karbala, a spokesman for the ayatollah inveighed against “the cheapening of Iraqi blood” and called for Parliament to take action. In a legacy of orders handed down during post-invasion American rule here, Western contractors essentially have immunity to Iraqi law.
None of the roughly two dozen witnesses previously interviewed by Iraqi investigators said that they saw or heard anyone but the Blackwater guards fire during the shooting, which Iraq says killed 17 and wounded 27. Still, because nearly all of those witnesses were in the field of fire, their accounts could conceivably have been skewed by the terror and confusion of the moment.
The Kurdish witnesses on the rooftop said they had not been interviewed by Iraqi investigators. They said they had been visited by American investigators, but had not been fully interviewed.
After the shootings, American soldiers found plenty of empty bullet casings 7.62 millimeters in diameter. Had the 7.62-millimeter casings been from an AK-47 rifle, a common insurgent and Iraqi police weapon, they would have been 39 millimeters long. Had they been from a PKC machine gun, another common Iraqi weapon, they would have been 54 millimeters long. The soldiers did not find any of those, the military official said.
Instead, the official said, the casings were 51 millimeters long, the length used by NATO weapons, including the M-240 machine gun, a standard automatic weapon used by the America military and American security contractors, the official said. The soldiers also found empty 5.56-millimeter casings of the type used by the M-4 and M-16 rifles that American troops and contractors bear. The F.B.I. has been interviewing soldiers from the unit that responded to the scene, the Third Battalion of the 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, which is part of the Second Brigade of the First Cavalry Division, to collect information in its investigation of the shooting, the official said. Only one of the Kurdish witnesses, a guard who would give his name only as Sabah, saw the first shots fired by the Blackwater guards into a white sedan, killing a man and his mother and setting the events in motion.
Two others, Mr. Waso and his driver, Sirwan Ali, went to the roof after the shooting started and observed long enough to see the Blackwater vehicles leave the square. Eventually both went down to help the victims, they said. All three men have military backgrounds.
When asked if anything had occurred to provoke the initial shots from Blackwater, Sabah said: “Nothing at all. No mortars. No shooting.”
All he saw, Sabah said, was that the white sedan “moved a little bit and they started shooting.”
As events unfolded and the Blackwater guards unleashed a storm of gunfire into the crowded square, Mr. Waso and Mr. Ali both said, they could neither hear nor see any return fire. “It was one-sided shooting from one direction,” Mr. Waso said. “There wasn’t any return fire.”
Mr. Waso said that what he saw was not only disturbing, but also in some cases incomprehensible. He said that the guards kept firing long after it was clear that there was no resistance. People were shot while trying to flee, he said. One man ran from a Volkswagen and the guards shot him in the head from behind, Mr. Waso said.
Finally there was a pause of a few seconds in the shooting as the Blackwater convoy prepared to leave, he said. Then, Mr. Waso said with a look of disbelief on his face, at least one Blackwater guard began firing again, this time at a red bus full of people on the western rim of the square.
“The glass was all broken,” Mr. Waso said, struggling to describe the bus after the firing resumed. “Women and children, all of them were shouting and crying.”
Some of the people who survived in the bus were tended to later at the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan building, he said.
After that last burst of gunfire in the square, Mr. Waso said, all four of the Blackwater vehicles left. As far as he could see, they drove away under their own power, he said.
In the end, Mr. Waso said, he went down and asked Iraqi national guard soldiers to chase the Blackwater team.
“Leave them and try to follow that company before they get away,” Mr. Waso said he told a soldier. “They killed innocent people for no reason.”
Reporting was contributed by Wisam A. Habib, Ahmad Fadam, Qais Mizher and Alissa J. Rubin.
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times
Sri Chinmoy, who used his strength to inspire others, in 2004.
October 13, 2007
Sri Chinmoy, Athletic Spiritual Leader, Dies at 76
Sri Chinmoy, the genial Indian-born spiritual leader who used strenuous exercise and art to spread his message of world harmony and inner peace, died Thursday at his home in Jamaica, Queens, where he ran a meditation center. He was 76.
The cause was a heart attack, said representatives of his organization, the Sri Chinmoy Center.
Mr. Chinmoy spread his philosophy through his own way of life, exercising and creating art and music. He drew attention by power-lifting pickup trucks and public figures like Muhammad Ali and Sting. He said he had drawn 16 million “peace birds.”
He slept only 90 minutes a day, he said, and when he was not traveling to perform in concerts and spread his message, spent the rest of the time meditating, playing music, exercising and making art.
His followers said he had written 1,500 books, 115,000 poems and 20,000 songs, created 200,000 paintings and had given almost 800 peace concerts.
Drawing upon Hindu principles, Mr. Chinmoy advocated a spiritual path to God through prayer and meditation. He emphasized "love, devotion and surrender" and recommended that his disciples nurture their spirituality by taking on seemingly impossible physical challenges.
“His life was all about challenging yourself and being the best you can be,” said Carl Lewis, the Olympic sprinter, a friend of Mr. Chinmoy’s. “He told his disciples to go out and meet a challenge you don’t think you can do.” “He’s the reason I plan on running the New York marathon when I’m 50,” Mr. Lewis said in a telephone interview yesterday.
In the 1970’s, Mr. Chinmoy was a guru to several prominent musicians, including the guitarist John McLaughlin, who for a time ran the Mahavishnu Orchestra, a name given it by Mr. Chinmoy, as well as the bandleader Carlos Santana, the singer Roberta Flack and the saxophonist Clarence Clemons.
Mr. Chinmoy gathered with his disciples at a private clay tennis court off 164th Street that doubled as a verdant meditation site known as Aspiration Ground. He built a worldwide network of meditation centers and had more than 7,000 disciples.
Yesterday at the compound, Mr. Chinmoy’s followers — dressed in their traditional white attire — lined up at an altar where he lay in an open coffin. Memorial services are planned throughout the weekend.
Sri Chinmoy Kumar Ghose was born a Hindu in 1931 in what is now Bangladesh. From the age of 12, he lived in an ashram. He said he idolized the track star Jesse Owens.
Mr. Chinmoy immigrated to New York in 1964 to work as a clerk at the Indian Consulate. He opened a meditation center in Queens with a philosophy of celibacy, vegetarianism and meditation and attracted hundreds of followers, many settling near his two-story home on 149th Street.
To achieve spiritual enlightenment, he advocated extreme physical activity, including weight lifting, distance running and swimming.
Disciples put his philosophy of self-transcendence into practice by undertaking challenges like swimming the English Channel or running ultra-marathons, including an annual 3,100-mile race run every year over a two-month period in Queens.
After a knee injury ended his own running, in his 60s, Mr. Chinmoy began lifting weights and within several years could shoulder-press more than 7,000 pounds on a special lifting apparatus. He publicly lifted heavy objects including airplanes, schoolhouses and pickup trucks, to help increase awareness of the need for humanitarian aid.
|
