Plausible deniability posted by Richard Seymour

An airborne laser weapon dubbed the "long-range blowtorch" has the added benefit that the US could convincingly deny any involvement with the destruction it causes, say senior officials of the US Air Force (USAF).

Labels: US imperialism, weapons system

Back to Basics posted by Richard Seymour

Guest post by EasyWind:



Israel's weapons engineers have struck another coup in their long-term quest to produced the biggest and most phallic piece of anti-Palestinian ballistic equipment. Dashing the dreams of satire writers and comedians the world over, the Israeli weapons engineers have obtained one of the more suggestive poses in the history of rocketry.

The screen shot above was clipped of Israeli news portal YNET. The text says:

Exposed[1]: An Israeli Missile Against Hizbullah. First publication: this evening the Stunner missile being developed by the Defense System [2] against the Zilzal and Fajr - the Hizbulla's long-distance rockets - was revealed for the first time. The RAFAEL scientists today showed the Prime Minister the missile, as well as the Kipat Habarzel [3] [which is supposed to work] against the Qassem [missiles]. Olmert: Speed up the development.

Later versions of the story used this picture with the dignitaries clipped from the chest up ... Tomb-goers have the privilege of seeing the original version.

Linguistic note: one of the many Hebrew words for weapons is "kley zayin" or "phallic implements".

[1] OK, that *should* be translated "revealed". But the Hebrew word is the same for both, and I think what they're doing is more "exposing"...

[2] [sic]. This implies "government-financed corporations that were privatized and are now under the control of formerly-Russian arms dealers and American Neocons.

[3] This is both the Iron Dome and the Iron Yarmulka (ritual head covering identifying the Zionist-nationalist orthodox Jewish men from the ultra-orthodox men, who wear harder hats, and secular Jewish men, who wear no head covering, even if they are nationalist.)

EasyWind is a Hebrew translator, who watches the Israeli press and blogosphere for Lenin's Tomb.

Labels: arms industry, Israel, weapons system