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U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

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Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#211

Post by jki275 »

ciarannolan wrote: post #104
subsubzero wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what another commentator said, they are not making much, 54,000 a year [1] I consider them almost on a level with pro athletes given that to do the job at a high level you are done by your early 40's, in addition the numbers able to reach this field are very small[2] (about 33k based on 2014 estimates) based on overall troop count - 1.3M [3] that means that the top 2.3% of soldiers qualify for special forces, a…

I'm totally ignorant on the details of this, but wouldn't someone who served in the US military for 20+ years have a great financial retirement and other benefits for life?

An E8 who retires at 23 years gets about 2400 bucks a month, reduced cost socialized medical until they hit 65, and that's about it.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#212

Post by kbenson »

piker wrote: post #62
kthxbye123 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in this case, it involved hiring mercenaries, arranging an elaborate heist involving traditional Lebanese musicians and bribing airport workers in at least three different countries. I think the ability to improvise is crucial.

Presumably this means "hiring one specialist in this area".

I think the more charitable view might be:

Willing and able to apply pressure on both private and public sector officials in different countries, and if that fails, willing to take extra-legal steps as long as that's what's required.

Even if that boils down to hiring one specialist to coordinate and do that, you'll have to sign off on various steps of the process, and make the decision if/when to pursue certain avenues, even if it's with recommendations from others.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#213

Post by NotSammyHagar »

brewdad wrote: post #178
samdamsamm wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should also acknowledge the desperate lengths to which the US government has gone to soil any honor accrued in any previous wars. On the recent anniversary of the fall of Auschwitz, The White House twitter account claimed it as a victory of ‘The United States and UK’. Supposedly the already-dishonest ‘Allied Troops’ is not cutting it anymore. (The Red Army liberated Auschwitz)

Not to defend Trump, I can't think of more than a handful of times I've ever agreed with him, but can you imagine the uproar had he praised Russia for their efforts at Auschwitz? Probably would have been best to praise the result without mentioning any specific parties involved in carrying it out. Then again, Trump isn't really known for thinking in nuance.

Why should that be an uproar? We've had these memorials of world war II for decades since the end of the war.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#214

Post by NotSammyHagar »

tomjen3 wrote: post #133
andyjohnson0 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't work forever. Name an honourable war conducted by the US military since 1946.

Korea. Afghanistan. Edit: And destroying Isis.

And then we shamed ourselves by giving up on the Kurds immediately, who did a lot of the fighting.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#215

Post by jki275 »

smcl wrote: post #30
jcampbell1 wrote: post #17

It will be interesting to follow if they have enough money to fight the extradition in court. The international press loves to make Japanese criminal courts sound like a 12th century madhouse at every opportunity.

I haven't read a great deal about them in the papers, but what I have read is that they have a frighteningly high conviction rate - meaning that either - the police are really good at finding the perpetrators of crimes - the state are really careful about only taking cases to trial they are extremely confident they can win - ... or that simply being tried in court sufficient for convince everyone judges and/or juries…

Their conviction rate is over 99% as I recall, and it's essentially all coerced confessions. Once they make an arrest, that person will be convicted.

A Japanese prisoner has zero rights in Japan. A Gaijin has even less.

Lived there for six years.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#216

Post by jki275 »

smcl wrote: post #184
amyjess wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also: - the police use highly unethical interrogation methods to extract confessions TBH, it's probably a combination of all four factors.

Maybe I should have been less careful with my last option - I wanted to put “The system finds a culprit and makes them guilty” but felt it was a bit accusatory.

It's exactly correct.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#217

Post by jki275 »

smcl wrote: post #209
pyuser583 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s number two.

Ahh I imagine that means a lot of crimes go unsolved then?

There isn't really a lot of crime in Japan. It's culturally very shameful to be a criminal or to have a criminal in the family in Japan, and the entire culture is based on maintaining the family honor.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#218

Post by NotSammyHagar »

brandall10 wrote: post #45
pm90 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This arrest makes it less likely (though not impossible) such expertise will be able to be procured for such purposes in the future. Eh, it would probably lead to them charging more for such things. How often have such people been arrested? What penalties will them ultimately face? (arrest is one thing, being found guilty and sentenced is another). The people who worry about wealth inequality do so for this reason.…

Right, at a certain price folks can coast out the rest of their lives in luxury... in places that don't have pesky things like extradition treaties to worry about. In this particular case these folks perhaps a bit too brazen, as extradition to Japan seems likely and they will certainly be imprisoned there.

You raise an interesting point. Even if someone gave me ten million dollars for rescuing a rich guy, why would I want to live in a little tiny country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the US? It would be miserable, boring, terrible. I want to live in a place where I do something useful and intellectual, giving me 10 million dollars to go live on a desert island doesn't have an appeal. Giving someone 10 million dollars and you can live in the US, that's different.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#219

Post by Balgair »

poof131 wrote: post #120
blantonl wrote: post #63

It's been extremely disturbing to see how much the culture of special operations military has changed in the past 20 years. Previously, Navy Seal and Green Berets operated in silent, keeping the sausage making of military special operations quiet and secret, just doing their duty. Now, it seems like every Navy SEAL now publically writes a book, sponsors a coffee line, or slaps their name, likeness and story all over…

The privatization of the military is one of the most corrupt and corrosive things our country has done in a while. I flew F-18s for the Navy and did a ground tour in Iraq with Special Forces. Look at the pay grades in 2020.[1] E3-E6 are making about $25-40k in salary. With some hazard pay and Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) and Subsistence (BAS), depending on where you live (if not in the barracks) maybe you are ma…

The Afghanistan Papers[0] was a bit unnoticed by many people. It is well worth a read, especially during this time. There are many, many very interesting things in there, but I want to highlight one: General Flynn's 'Lesson's Learned' Interview, 11/10/2015.

Keep that date in your head.[1]

That the interview is public at all is amazing. It is a very good overview of the man and the issues that the US dealt with in Afghanistan. Especially considering the current media tornado with Flynn, it offers an insanely unique look under the tent.

Flynn's attitude is really one of exhaustion. He's tired, after nearly 14 years fighting in Afghanistan, he's just done with it all. He's done with Congress, he's done with the White House, he's done with the military. What is especially interesting is his attitude towards the US voting public: He's done with them too. His faith is caput.

Sure enough, exactly one month and 30 minutes after the end of this interview, Flynn is shoulder to shoulder, sitting directly next to Putin in Moscow. 12/10/2015. [2] That dinner is wild by the way.

So, not only are the lower level contractors looking outside, the top line staff are as well.

Not to be too alarmist, but there is a whole whale of bad news here. There are uncomfortably large similarities to the lead up of the Social War of 91 BC afoot [3].

[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/...

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/...

[2] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/guess-who-came-dinner-fly...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_War_(91%E2%80%9388_BC)

If you don't really have the time to read through it, the Washington Post did a fairly good job of highlighting the interesting bits. If you have not looked at it and don't want to read the grainy .pdf, that's ok too. The audio is free to listen to. I cannot stress enough how crazy this is. That this document is out there at all, that they went through all the highlighting and editing, that the audio tape is out there, and then the cornucopia of other info too. It's amazing technical journalism, let alone the content.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#220

Post by unhomedcoder »

djdjrjfbfjd wrote: post #72
blantonl wrote: post #63

It's been extremely disturbing to see how much the culture of special operations military has changed in the past 20 years. Previously, Navy Seal and Green Berets operated in silent, keeping the sausage making of military special operations quiet and secret, just doing their duty. Now, it seems like every Navy SEAL now publically writes a book, sponsors a coffee line, or slaps their name, likeness and story all over…

I worked with seals on a few projects, back when Blackwater was a thing and also more recently, and I wonder what kind of job offers these guys are getting after they leave the military. Or, frighteningly, while they’re still in it. The number and variety of corporate and private mercenary forces is much higher than most people would suspect. The size of Special Operations Command in the active duty US military is al…

SOCOM is around 100,000 soldiers. only the top 20 countries have militaries with more than 200,000 soldiers. if SOCOM was its own military, it would be bigger than 90% of the militaries in the world.
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