It's funny this article came up; I bought this when it came out to stands, and I liked the piece so much, to this day it is in my "reading material bin" in my bathroom.

Lauren,

July 30th should be June 30th.

Thanks for the WOD video. Did the HQ crew not do official WOD from yesterday? It's good to see even the ubermenschs struggling with the 135lb thrusters.
Great performance. I really can't do the DB between the feet, thank god for weight belts.

Dave,
Heavy Fran sucks unmentionables dude good job!

Alfie is says June 30th!

Pierre,

Not on the poster image but on the WOD page.

Just finished reading Ghost Wars by Steve Coll this last week...much more insightful (more than likely more accurate as well) than that article. Highly recommended.

Can't wait for those Crossfit Games. I probably won't get a chance to comment on the article tomorrow, but I will say that I am extremely skeptical of any attempt of the CIA at reform, and am also skeptical of its ability to replicate the accountability, relentless self-criticism, and pursuit of perfection of the military special operations community.

As tomorrow is my 20th birthday i will be attempting to do "with a continuously running clock do one pullup the first minute, 2 pullups teh second, 3 pullups the third.... comtinuing alona as able" I will be shooting for 20 rounds, which is 4 rounds more than last time. Also I have been doing crossfit for four months now and have seen phenomanl improvements even though I had believed my self to already be in very good physical condition. My score s have improved greatly while my 3 and 5 mile run times have stillmanaged to stay low (sub 19 for 3 and sub 32 for 5) even while I have been running for distance far far less than ever before

Having just finished yesterday's WOD, I feel his pain, though I do not share his strength!

Great vid.

Top Secret means they can screw up and nobody will know.

If you read this article, I highly recommend reading the book "Jawkbreaker", which was written by the "John" mentioned in this article (as I recall). While it's written by the guy on the ground and certainly tells his side of the story, it seems fairly apparent that this group was having some good success in-country until, as he reports it, the Army took over and failed to follow through on a couple of key issues.

It's an entertaining and informative book.

Also, anyone got a link for the Kettlebell Swing WOD video from the other day? I've been in Wyoming for the past 10 days and didn't get a chance to see it.

Tim

That's not a typo on the CrossFit games...it really lasts for 364 days!!!

m/32yrs/149pds, 5.2ft (yes I'm a short arse!!)
Did sunday's WOD today, church stuff kept me busy on Sun. Did the 135lbs thrusters and the 50lbs pull ups. HAd to rest for bout 2 mins between each 7 reps so I could do all 7 in each exercise with good form. Still managed to do 4 rounds in 20min. Hurting now, but feeln' good!

#13, Tim.
I often find good videos on youtube.com. Not all from CF HQ, but other places like CFNorth and diablocrossfit.com.

(A hilarious video where an anabolic monster does 800lbs. deadlift. Ronnie Coleman it is...Don't think he's satisfied with eating chicken and eggs...) LOL!

Joey,
When you stuff up top secret or not everone finds out, it's whether you're agency (or country) acknowledges you were undertaking the job for them.

I don't think Dave has ever met a WOD that took him over 12 min in quite a while. Great Job.

For a man who is clearly insane, that was some effort. Regular Fran is, and always will be, the most agonizing WOD that Crossfit puts up. That video made me want to vomit right from the start. Very well done

Another good read if you like this article is 'First In' by Gary Schoen, the team leader of Operation JAWBREAKER.

Now that is REAL music!Ronnie VanZant R.I.P.!!

Howdy,
Work
{Ring dipx7 (+25#'s), skip 540', Pull-upx8 (+40#'s), and skip 540'}x5.
Duration 20:30.
Bdw. 83.7kg...

Alfie - roger dat! My bad...

M/36/220

Did yesterday's WOD (scaled down) today. Never done thruster's before this morning and found that I was really just doing push presses by the third round.

CF WU x3 minus overhead squats

7 rounds
45# bar only 1st round
65# next 2 rounds
65# push press for remaining rounds
Still doing assisted/jumping PU's so no weight added there.

did 25 mins on the TM afterward, working on speeding up my mile from 15:21 to the goal time of 10:00 by the end of May. Today I did 13:57! Go me! hehe

Chris

I missed saturday's wod, so I practised the power snatch today. Did something like:

3 x 20 kg
3 x 20 kg
3 x 20 kg
3 x 20 kg
3 x 25 kg
3 x 20 kg
3 X 30 kg
10 x 20 kg

Didn't really get it right. Need to practise a lot more before adding real weight.

Post: 22 deadhang pullups (2 x 5, 2 x 4, 2 x 2) with as short a rest as possible (30 sec - 1 min).
20 x jumping pullups (2 x 10). Was really sore from yesterday's wod, but need to get better at pullups.

20 GHB situps

Black_Water 4 life!

Loved the article the first time I read it. Got a whole library on the subject now.

I've been quiet lately, and missed you all. Been training like a maniac @ CrossFit Ohio. Still getting wild strength gains!

Love CrossFit!

Made up Sunday's this morning - some serious scaling on all our parts (the strength certainly wasn't there for me on the thrusters).

EDWARD: 6 rounds w/95lb thrusters (switched to 85 after two sets) and 35lb pullups

KIMO: 7 rounds w/95lb thrusters and 50lb pullups

DREW: 5 rounds w/65lb thrusters and strict pullups

Drew's still coming along, now into his second week. Hoping to show him what crossfit can do in a month, so we keep ragging on him and making him come.

Caught up on Sunday's. It crushed me and I scaled back big time.

10 Rounds

Fine motor work tomorrow so no upper body work. Missed ystd WOD. Liked the jumping squats from the other day so:

"Jumping Nancy"
5 rounds for time
400M run
15 jumping squats (45# bar)

16:03

Glad I got something in today. Total effort somewhat uninspiring. Tiny, sick, sorry little "squatlets". Ready for tomorrow.

Hey Spider Chick, let us know what you're doing there at CF Ohio; maybe we'll steal some ideas!

It all looks like fun to me. Keep pushing to the max with great WODs!

#11, we also don't hear about the successes that would make James Bond look like Bean.

#11, we also don't hear about the successes that would make James Bond look like Bean.

Super Dave. That guy should have his own TV show.

This article brings to mind a recent book by Jeremy Skahil called "Blackwater". This book talks about another group of soldiers that the general public does not think about. There is nearlry a 1:1 ratio of privatized soldiers to U.S. military in Iraq. Though these services are needed for the most part, there are problems we should be aware of. First is lack of command and control. Second is lack of accountablity under any legal system. They do not fall under the UCMJ or the set of laws under the US constitution. We are a nation built on a constitution which provides checks and balances. This military privatization runs counter to that idea. The founders realized that people would just screw up a good thing so they built a system that would save us from ourselves. In the same way, we must incorporate the privatized military into our existing framework. The book "Blackwater" is a terrific book.

Rick M

yesterday's wod today-pre-cfwux3
5rounds+7 thrusters+4pullups
post-stretch
woooooww!
pu all single with kipping,
thrusters- 3,2,2 rounds 1,4,5,6 rounds 2&3 2,2,2,1
needed to push on rounds 2&3 more

M/33/5'9"/178#/CFT=830

Yesterday's WOD AS Rx'd. Thrusters unbroken, PUs very broken
5 rounds + 4 thrusters

Haven't finished the article yet, but there's no questioning the value of having boots on the ground CIA-SOG or others in hostile lands to gather intel, organize, sabatoge etc...

39/5'10"/180
7 full rounds plus 4 thrusters
rick M

Go, Major Spider Chick!
Welcome back.

Someone else said it but Stephen Coll's "Ghost Wars" is a great book. I have a friend who shows up in one of the others (anonymously), either Jawbreaker or First In, I forget. Someone mentioned no accountability as compared to US Mil - that's crap. A lot of these guys ARE former US Mil. What, they just dropped their ethics at the door? From what I can tell, it's dirty, dirty work and the potential consequences ain't great. Vilified by your own countrymen (who secretly want us to 'do more') and then second-guessed at every turn? And forget about Geneva Convention protection, although it wouldn't matter to the enemy anyway. And, oh yeah, maybe the U S of A claims you as their own, or maybe not?
I hope it pays well. I'm sure it's great on family life, too. Good luck, Warriors.

repost
This article makes me think of a book called Black Water by Jeremy Skahill. He points out a couple of problems with privatized military. ONe is lack of command and control. The second is lack of accountablilty as they do not fall under the UCMJ or the laws of our constitution. In my opinion, all military actions should be subject Laws. Ours system of government was erected with checks and balances.

Rick M

m/44/63"/140
yesterday's WOD today
95lb thrusters x7
pull ups +30 X7

8 rds 19:48

woof.

I was wondering if someone could tell me how to measure 70-80% effort on the Concept 2 rower? Is it based on Max heart rate or Max effort? And if Max effort how do you measure that? Is it based on the Max Wattage produced on 500 m? Any help is appreciated.

attempting Murph tonight, any tips on how I should best split it up?

#38 having dated a former intel officer who became a "security contractor" during a deployment, i can tell you that the strain is real and huge. and i can tell you that they sacrifice so much for our country. it saddens me that their losses are rarely counted among our patriots.

God Bless 'em all. and if any of you are reading this, thank you.

37/M/183

Power Snatch
40kg x 3
50kg x 3
60kg x 3
70kg x 3
80kg x 3
60kg x 3
70kg x 3
80kg x 3

A little rusty at 80kg. Sometimes I think I would rather do 60kg for high volume sets then heavier 1-3s.

#42

I would say break it up like "cindy" doing 5-10-15, I have also heard that, that is how Murph himself did it.

#39, Pentagon's fiscal year 2007 budget legislation amended Paragraph 10 of section 802(a) of title 10, Article 2(a) UCMJ by striking 'war and inserting 'declared war or a contingency operation'.

I have the article link somewhere. That's from an article by Noah Shachtman Jan.5, 2007 on DefenseTech.

#42 - thanks, was thinking about doing 10/20/30 for 10 sets, 5/10/15 might help me endure through the whole set a little better. i think i might do it 5/10/10 and add 5 135# thrusters in place of the last 5 squats since I missed the last WOD.

Here it is:
"Law Catches up to Private Militaries"
http://www.navyseals.com/community/articles/article.cfm?id=10418
Source is DefenseTech.

Man! Finally, between this WOD and Friday's--a few videos of the guys looking like I usually do doing these WOD's--namely bent over, sucking wind, and broken sets! Now that I know they're human, I feel much better about my times/efforts!!

Yeah, on top of Ghost Wars I'd add in there Gary Schroen's book as well: First In, and then Gary Berntsen's: Jawbreaker. Gary 1 worked his time in the Far East division of the DO and helped maintain the liaison with the people who became the Northern Alliance. He was also the one tapped to kick start the US presence in Afghanistan after 9/11 - ie - First In. Gary 2 was his "replacement" (Gary 1 was actually in the retirement process on 9/11, but they brought him back because of his knowledge and experience in the area). Both of their books are very very interesting, and I'd take what they say, along with Coll, over what they are saying in the Time article. Some of that stuff sounds very "Hollywood" to me.

Hmm, I gotta start reading some more fiction on my lunch breaks again...too much current events.

Oh, and Top Secret doesn't mean that people can screw up and no one finds out, at all...geesh.

Question?

Is it wrong to ever do thrusters behind the head? I am much stronger, have more drive and power pushing out of the back squat as opposed to the front. Why don't i ever see them done this way? Is it too dangerous for the neck or spine? I can control 225x10 back thrusters but have to bail after about five or six front thrusters at 225. Any insight?

Here is a good comment for you guys at crossfit,Take that article off your website.If people want to read that they can buy the time mag it was printed in.Being a former Special Forces operator, well i will leave it at that.

run 400
225 DL x 9
MU x 9
run 400
275 DL x 6
MU x 6
run 400
325 DL x 3
MU x 3

wich,

I would guess that, while you can generate more power doing thrusters from behind the neck, the power isn't as functional, meaning you can't transfer the power as easily to functional activities such as pushing forward from the hips.

But that's just a guess. :)

-Luke

Awesome video on the heavy Fran! Incredible strength. Regular Fran is hard enough as it is!

Steve
CrossFit Ocean City

Our internet has been down for 2 days, so couldn't post.
Was ready to do the Saturday work-out after work with Jer, but he got call-back at work, so I was on my own, and I couldn't watch any videos of the work-out, so I just did the CFWU x 3 and rode the stationary bike for 30 minutes.

Yesterday was my rest day.

It was a beautiful morning, so we went for a 12.5 mile bike, then went to the gym, and I swam 400 meters, then did the CFWU x 3, and worked on unassisted pull-ups.....it's great when Jer helps me, because he know at what point I need that push, or boost to get my chin up to the bar.

As I kind of indicated on the last Rest Day, in my opinion it's kind of hard to know how good we are at this stuff, since if prevention works we don't know about it, and if we find out something secret, we don't release it.

I can see why some could say that since the CIA guys (and likely gals) are doing what amounts to SF type of work, why not let the military do it, but I think the answer to that is that what the CIA does is designed to be deniable, and SF stuff is clearly us. I'm sure the lines get a bit blurred, but the deniability would seem to me to be important. This means the CIA can do stuff the regular military can't. And, as stated, obviously it's essentially the same guys in both cases.

Although it's encouraging that an effort has been made to rebuild our covert ops capabilities--which I'm sure Bush has given pretty open operational guidelines--it will be interesting to see what the Democrats do to their funding in committee meetings which are classified.

Given that their leading candidate is now in effect trying to convince Congress collectively to say "oops, we goofed" to ratchet up the pressure on the President, and keep the Communist wing of her party happy, I can't believe good things are flowing out of those meetings today. And this, to me, is the principle weakness of our intelligence operations, as they exist today, in my unsupportable--because I lack the information--opinion.

To do spywork well, you need time, patience, skill, freedom to take calculated risks, funding, and above all continuity. You can't change paths every five minutes. It takes years and years to build up good networks, I would think, and not long at all, I would imagine, to destroy them.

It seems likely to me we start a lot of good, promising activities, and wind up abandoning them for what don't amount to good reasons. Reasons such as are being offered for abandoning our effort in Iraq. Reasons like "it's hard, and we're tired of it".

It also seems likely to me we have good men and women, who want to do the right thing, who have to do the math and ask themselves how much risk they want to put their men in, knowing that the rug may get pulled out from under them. That has likely happened less under Bush than almost any President since the founding of the CIA, but he still has to deal with Congressional oversight.

We have plenty of dedicated, brilliant people, but we have a dysfunctional system, in my view, and the left wing of the Democratic Party is the principle problem.

CrossFit, posting the article is a great idea. Time Mag generally isn't worth buying, particularly, as of late. Well, you know who I am and why I think this way, I will leave it at that.

The CIA has all kinds of issues, many derive simply from the Department of State. Being an "action" oriented organization under a "talking" oriented department has a lot of challenges. In a sense these guys can be like Texas Rangers on an international level. The amount of autonomy they are, at times, allowed to exercise is staggering. Truly movers and shakers...which sometimes does not workout as planned. All to often the CIA and its operatives are fall-guys or scapegoats for flimsy policy implementation. Tough job.

Contractors are in a tough boat. Unfortunately for the actions of some, all are under the microscope. Their employment (use) is going to be scrutinized more and more.

Warn me when heavy Fran is going to be the WOD, so I can be out of town and away from a computer when it comes up!

Chad Caden
Elmendorf AFB, AK

took AF PT test

84 PU's in 1 min
72 SU's in 1 min

7:52 1.5 mile run

I am a little behind here. I did the thruster/pullup combo but I did an 87lb version of Fran (I was at the park and took the weights I had). It was great and the family got in on the action as well. My time was 5:12. (This was on Sunday). I did the 7 sets of 3 on the power snatch w/o. All sets were at 89lbs. My technique is improving so I feel good about using more weight. This was on Monday.

nice Chad

Still feeling Painstorm so:

7 rounds:
5 Bench Press, 190#
5 Ring Dips, 25#
5 Pull ups, 50#
3 min. between rounds

6 rounds
250 M row
10 GHD sit ups
10 Ab Mats

Yesterday was so beautiful, we went for a long bicycle ride.. so no CrossFit wod. Therefore we didn't feel like we could rest today.

56/M/195 the 100 Pushups Workout from ringtraining .com
10 x 10 reps each of: Archer pu's (5/arm), Jackknife pu's, Ring Flyes (these were pretty shallow), Tricept pu's, Wide Grip pu's, Pseudo-Planche pu's, Dive Bombers, Conventional, Single Leg (5/leg), and elevated pu's. This was hard! I think I'll practice this a few times before I give it a go for time.

46/F/125 3x30 pushups, 3x75 situps, 3x25 wallballs, 5 min. row for 1087m, 2x Burgener Warmup (1x w/ skick and 1x w/ 22lb. bar).

I came down with the flu today, so no training for me for a cople af days.
Enjoy, have fun, Johan

today I did 3 rounds of shoulderpress 45#

4 rounds of deadlift 110#

haha thanks for the vid tony!

Absent the screaming, we seem to be engaging the material perhaps a bit less intensively. Frankly, I like arguing, sometimes, but some of my best arguments are with myself. I go hang out by the bus station when I get into a good one. I haven’t won yet, though, thankfully.

I wanted to dilate a bit on this quote: “All of which could make for a more agile, effective intelligence agency. Or it could also mean a CIA that once again steps beyond the realm of collecting secrets to intervening forcibly in the affairs of foreign states. In that area, the agency's history has often been one of blunders and worse, from Iran and Guatemala in the 1950s through the Bay of Pigs fiasco under John F. Kennedy to the Nicaraguan war that led to the Iran-contra debacle in the '80s.”

Admittedly, this is Time Magazine, but their history is a bit shaky. I read a book, “Bitter Fruit”, about the Agency’s role in Guatamala, and have scanned a fair amount about Iran. In both cases, I think the assessments made were reasonably accurate about Hugo Chavez type people coming to power. People who curtail civil rights drastically, eliminate substantially all rights to private property, and who come quickly into the sphere of Soviet influence, or, in the case of Venezuela, Cuba.

The Bay of Pigs, of course, was in fact a fiasco, but that was no reason to give up the basic objective of regime change. Had Kennedy not stood Kruschev down when the logical and predicable military component entered our awareness (with the CIA or DIA playing a crucial role in verifying the presence of the weapons, as described in the book “First Seal”) our world might very well be very different. We should have been supporting contra type rebels in Cuba from then through now.

Which brings us to Nicaragua. In my view, our policy there worked. The Communist regime there never really took, and that was because of constant pressure. I think that is a success story, and an example of doing things right. That Ortega is still in politics doesn’t matter, as the dynamics and context, now, are quite different. Thus, it wasn’t a debacle at all, strategically—at least on the Nicaraguan side (except that in my view the way to have dealt with the Iranians when they were occupying American soil in Tehran was by recognizing publicly that was in fact a legal act of war—and well recognized as such under international codes of law--and acting accordingly.)

All of which brings up the interesting question: when do wars begin? Is it at the moment of final diplomatic failure? When the troops move? When the first shot is fired?

If we look at World War I, we can see that all sides were strongly nationalistic, and willing to defend at great cost notions of honor. This war happened, at least in part, because of systemic constraints imposed by rigid codes of thinking and behavior, coupled with modern technology, the full destructiveness of which only became clear after the trenches were in place. It was almost like a machine was set in motion in Sarajevo, and all the gears could not but hold their place, move their cogs and carry motion to regions yet more distant.

The conclusion drawn afterwards was that strong beliefs were inherently conducive to conflict, with the correllary that being limp-wristed and letting people spank you was preferable to holding your ground, because only bad would come from considering notions like honor in your calculations, and that “there never was a good war, or a bad peace.”

This attitude, of course, led directly to World War 2, by causing France and England, particularly, to ignore entirely the fact that Hitler generated a plan in the early 1920’s, and never deviated from it at all, and that that plan was inevitably and obviously going to cause another war. Every possible indicator was there, for anyone to see. But nobody wanted to see, what with WWI having been so awful. So, in the effort to avoid war, war was created, killing many tens of millions.

Which brings me to the CIA. In our modern world, with the enormity of what might be termed our informational infrastructure, ideas and perceptions spread literally at the speed of light, and they spread whether they are good, bad, or somewhere in the middle.

Ideas are the basic food of war. Soldiers in democracies, especially, fight because they choose to. They choose to because they believe in what they are doing. They believe in the ideals of Western Civilization as embodied in the liberal democracies of Western Europe and North America. If our soldiers stop believing in what they are doing, only discipline will cause them to continue. If our population stops believing in what they are doing, then the end is coming.

This leads to the obvious conclusion that the most effective means for attacking a liberal democracy is through ideas. Communist regimes understand this well, and I would bet a year’s salary that a multitude of foreign nations are pumping money into propaganda in our nation. Moveon.org is probably literally capable of cashing checks written against Chinese banks, and unfortunately both parties are likely receiving money, depending on the candidate—from foreign powers, through anonymous donations.

This is a matter for the FBI, but for my money, I would like to see the CIA returning the favor, around the world. We need to be in the business of undermining regimes we don’t like, if the basis for disliking them is fomenting regional violence, suppressing dissent, and violating the right to private property, itself the sine qua non of personal freedom. We need to be on the pushing end too.

Which likely raises issues for many. What makes us so special, I can hear people saying, that we can make decisions like that? What gives us the right?

My answer to that is that wars begin small. If we had stood by the Shah, in my view we would not be in Iraq, and the Israeli conflict would be substantially over. Nobody would be funding the Palestinians. Saddam never would have invaded Kuwait, never would have invaded Iran, and if he had developed nukes, he would have been much more like Pakistan.

But we didn’t stand by the Shah. Why? Because he was “repressive”. Because if anybody is not abiding by ACLU standards, the nation can only go up if he is replaced. But the nation didn’t go up with the Revolutionaries. They are more repressive than he was, less prone to change, substantially prone to interfering with other nations, almost certainly capable of using WMD’s, and currently bankrupting themselves in classic Communist style, despite their potential wealth as a result of their tremendous natural resources.

Which leads me to say: if we can’t interfere with other nations, why not? If the answer is because we don’t know what is right, then how do we decide what is right? If we can’t decide what is right, then how can anyone say this is wrong? Answer: they can’t.

This is why we need to quit apologizing for trying to favor one slightly less bad regime over a slightly more bad regime. We need to stop apologizing for trying to protect both our interests and our values.

A nation willing to surrender its’ identity for peace will know neither freedom from war, nor the peace of self respect. Its’ sleep will be restless, and its’ borders constantly under threat.

That may be a bit rambling—I had intended slightly more coherence—but I think the basic elements of the rant are there.

I have a long post in quarantine (if for whatever reason it's not going to make it out, please let me know why), but thought I'm pass along this fun little bit on the use of Disney characters to blow up women and children:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070508/ap_on_re_mi_ea/palestinians_hamas_mickey_mouse

Ran a Brand X mile (I believe it is 1920m) in 11:21 - PR by about a minute. I don't have accurate records on Brand X mile times.

Did some sprinting in CrossPit warmup then did a CrossPit workout that was FGB style but only 2 5 minute rounds.

Workout:
2 rounds FGB style
One minute of each exercise
one minute rest between rounds
on second round, A's and B's switch

A. Punch bag /B. Pull Partner w/Belt
Pull ups (both partners)
A.Mount and attack dummy-bag/B. Push Press 25-45 #
Clench with partner and drive forward(each person tring to drive their partner back)
A.Take down/B.Defend Take Down

Solid post Barry.

Just saw the Fat Fran video - very impressive work!!

Definitely recommend "First In" by Gary Schroen, the team leader of "Jawbreaker". Good read. And "Killer Elite" by Michael Smith" does a good job of pointing out the CIA's shortfalls and how the Army mae up for it if you're interested.