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Showing posts with label Bin Laden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bin Laden. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Bin Laden Group to build world's tallest tower
From: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/
Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud shows a model of the Jeddah Tower on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding has hired Saudi Bin Laden Group to build the world's tallest skyscraper in Jeddah, Gulfnews.com reports.
Kingdom Holding is paying Bin Laden Group, one of the world's largest construction companies, about $1.2 billion to take on the five-year project, according to Financial Times.
Saudi Bin Laden Group was founded in 1931 by Muhammad Awad bin Laden, the billionaire father of terrorist Osama bin Laden. It built much of Saudi Arabia's highways and infrastructure, as well as entire districts and cities.
The company constructed additions to the Muslim nation's two holiest mosques in Mecca and Medina. It operates throughout the Middle East and was chosen in 1964 to reclad the golden Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem.
Over the years, Saudi Bin Laden Group has expanded into a conglomerate that includes engineering, manufacturing and telecommunications, according to business analysis site Hoovers.com.
Osama bin Laden, the 17th of 52 children, inherited part of his father's fortune, but his radical activities led the family to disown him in 1994.
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, a nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, announced the tower building contract Tuesday. He owns 95% of Kingdom Holding, according to Financial Times.
When completed, Jeddah Tower will easily surpass Dubai's 828-meter (2,717-foot) Burj Khalifa as the world's tallest building.
The Chicago firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture designed the project and will oversee its development, Gulfnews.com reported. Adrian Smith was one of Burj Khalifa's designers when he was with Skidmore Owings and Merrill.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Bin Laden Killing Team May Have Used Night Vision Contact Lenses
Christian at Military.com's Kit Up! has heard an interesting rumor on one of the technologies that Seal Team 6 used to kill Osama bin Laden: Night vision contact lenses! Holy pants, Batman.
I heard a rumor that the Team guys who busted bin Laden might have been wearing "cat vision" contact lenses that literally give the wearer night vision for a limited time without having to wear the bulky, heavy NVGs.
Night Vision Goggles technology has advanced quickly over the last decade. Right now, the most advanced setups are panoramic models that use four 16mm image intensifying tubes, which provide with a 100º horizontal by 40º vertical field of view. They are made by the same company that makes the F-35 demon helmet as well as other manufacturers.
These helmets are still limited, however, especially for special operation teams. While they are better than your standard NVGs, they are quite bulky and heavier and still don't provide with the natural field of view that would be ideal for field operations.
These rumored night vision contacts, however, are almost sci-fi material. People have been speculating about this technology for almost a decade, so perhaps they exist in some hidden Area 51 lab. If anyone has access to these, that would be the SEALs from Team 6. We already know that these guys have access to really advanced, completely unknown technology like their stealth transport helicopters. I wouldn't be surprised if they had other toys like these. [Kit Up]
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Could crows have caught Osama bin Laden?
From: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/blogs/could-crows-have-caught-osama-bin-laden
These smart birds may have been used in the hunt for the world's most famous terrorist.
Photo: LucinaM/Flickr A full week after Osama bin Laden was killed, it might be time to give some credit to crows and ravens. Yes, you read that right. Crows and ravens.
For a few years, the University of Washington has been training and studying crows and ravens to test their ability to recognize human faces. As it turns out, the birds are really good at it. A few experiments by professor John Marzluff and some folks on campus wearing caveman masks revealed that the birds could not only recognize the individual “cavemen,” but would also swarm them on the University of Washington campus.
This drew the attention of the military, which contacted Marzluff and then gave him some funding to find out if the birds could be used to track down bin Laden. “[Crows and ravens] have a long -term memory, very acute discrimination abilities, and if a group of crows knew bin Laden as an enemy, they would certainly indicate his presence when they next saw him,” said Marzluff in a recent interview.
As it turns out, crows are smart on several levels. Researchers in New Zealand discovered that the birds can use tools to get food, and that the birds can teach their children to use tools through “home schooling.”
We will never know if birds had anything to do with bin Laden’s death. Those details, like the pictures of bin Laden and the identity of the Navy Seals who killed him, are unlikely to become public. So next time you see a black bird, consider that it might be more heroic than you think. And if you have a guilty conscience, you might want to hide your face. After all, you wouldn’t want the bird to tip off the authorities.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Obama Team Watches Operation To Kill Bin Laden vs. PATROTS GAMES - Harrison Ford
From: https://mikecanex.wordpress.com/
By: mikecane01@gmail.com
Click = ENLARGE
I saw it last night in Flickr and was thinking about posting it.
What finally caused me to — despite the fact it’s all over the media now — is Rex Hammock’s post: Why the White House situation room photo is so powerfulHe touches upon many things I noticed too.
One thing he didn’t mention after the break.
I was reminded of the classic scene from the movie Patriot Games. Jack Ryan’s research leads to a raid of a terrorist training camp:
The reality was nothing like that. The banality of the Situation Room is remarkable. Especially when you see the end of the room they were looking at:
Click = ENLARGE
Nothing but a simple screen. No special technical operatives. Not even dimmed lighting. Everything is under fluorescents, as in any anonymous conference room.
According to a TV news report this afternoon, the SEALs wore helmet-mounted cameras. I don’t know if we can conclude there was live video being piped to that screen. Besides, since it was a night raid, everything would have had a greenish monochromatic Night Vision tint and it wouldn’t have been possible for viewers to distinguish any faces.
I doubt anyone was gauche enough to exclaim, as in the movie, “That is a kill.”
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Bin Laden Son Seeks Asylum in Spain
MADRID — One of Osama bin Laden’s sons, who made headlines last year when he married a British woman, is seeking asylum in Spain, the government said Tuesday.
The son, Omar Osama bin Laden, 27, arrived at Madrid’s Barajas International Airport on Monday on a flight from Cairo bound for Casablanca, Morocco, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said.
The spokeswoman said Mr. bin Laden was traveling on a Saudi passport and was being held at the airport in a special center for asylum seekers. Under Spanish law, the government has 72 hours to decide whether to allow him to stay, she said.
If he is granted provisional asylum, Mr. bin Laden may remain in Spain while his case is reviewed. If his petition is denied, he has one day to file an appeal.
It was not immediately clear on what grounds Mr. bin Laden, a self-declared pacifist who is the son of the founder of Al Qaeda and his first wife, Najwa Ghanem, was basing his claim.
Mr. bin Laden caused a media storm in Britain last year when he married Jane Felix-Browne, then 51, who took the Muslim name Zaina Mohamed al-Sabah.
She met Mr. bin Laden during a trip to Egypt in April last year and married him in September, according to news reports at the time.
Mr. bin Laden was refused a visa by the British Embassy in Cairo because of what the authorities perceived to be his loyalty to his father, which would “cause considerable public concern” in Britain, according to The Associated Press.
One of 19 children fathered by Osama bin Laden, Omar is the fourth-eldest son, according to several news reports. “I am proud of my name, but if you have a name like mine you will find people run away from you, are afraid of you,” he told CNN in January, urging his father to “find another way.”
Britons have been especially sensitive about Al Qaeda since four suicide bombers killed 52 people in London on July 7, 2005. In a video made beforehand, one bomber, Mohammad Sidique Khan, declared loyalty to “our beloved sheik, Osama bin Laden.”
Alan Cowell contributed reporting from Paris.
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