"I noted earlier an ABC interview with Chechen terrorist leader Shamil Besayev that has caused a bit of a diplomatic row between Washington and Moscow. What I didn't notice then, however, was this part.
The Chechen rebel leader who organized a deadly hostage-taking attack on a Russian school last year admitted he was a terrorist but said in an interview being broadcast Thursday that each Russian had to feel the impact of war before it would stop in Chechnya.
Despite the fact that Besayev admitted to being a terrorist, the Associated Press article continues the story calling him, and other Chechen terrorists, "rebels." The media doesn't like suing the t-word because it is a "loaded" and "emotional" term. But doesn't that pretty much become irrelevant when the "rebels," "guerillas," or "militants" call themselves terrorists?"
href="http://alendalux.blogspot.com/2005/07/more-on-besayev.html">Alenda Lux: More On Besayev
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Terrorist calls himself a Terrorist--AP calls him a "rebel" We call them THUGS: via Mudville Gazette
VIA:Winds of Change.NET: The ICE Phone Protocol - In Case of Emergency
A campaign encouraging people to enter a emergency contact number in their mobile phone's memory under the heading "ICE" (in Case of Emergency) is spreading rapidly as a particular consequence of terrorist attacks [Hat Tip: Deborah J. Martell]. But it's a good idea for other reasons, too.Almost everyone carries a mobile phone now, and with 'ICE' we’d know immediately who to contact and what number to ring. The person may even know their medical history."
Originally established as a nation wide campaign in the UK, "ICE" allows paramedics or police to be able to quickly contact a designated relative or next of kin in an emergency situation. The idea is the brainchild of East Anglian Ambulance Service Paramedic Bob Brotchie and was launched in May of this year. Bob has been a paramedic for 13 years, and said:
"I was reflecting on some of the calls I've attended at the roadside where I had to look through the mobile phone contacts struggling for information on a shocked or injured person."
Almost everyone carries a mobile phone now, and with 'ICE' we’d know immediately who to contact and what number to ring. The person may even know their medical history."
Winds of Change.NET: The ICE Phone Protocol - In Case of Emergency
Body Armor and pockets via:The Daily Journal of Kevin Kelly
" Everyone is starting to do this. When you have your body armor on you can’t reach any pockets. So people cut off the bottom pockets off of their uniforms and have them sewn at an angle on their sleeves so they can actually get use out of them. Should be able to get them back in a day or two. I’m sure it will help out a lot when trying to find a pen or a small notebook to write with."
The Daily Journal of Kevin Kelly
Saturday, July 30, 2005
VDH's Private Papers :: Reformation or Civil War?
Iraqi guardsmen are fighting al Qaedists as Afghans die in firefights with Taliban remnants. Note well that at the loci of American democratizing presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, there are few local Iraqis and Afghans — as there are few Turkish or Indian Muslims — who are eager for global jihad against the West. The killers instead flock from elsewhere to those new nations to stop the experiment before it spreads. Give dictatorial Pakistan or Egypt billions, and we get ever more terrorists; give the Iraqis and Afghans their freedom and their citizens are unlikely to show up in London and Madrid blowing up civilians, but rather busy at home killing jihadists.
In this Mexican standoff, the Islamists, dictators, and democratic reformers are waging a struggle for the hearts and minds of the Middle East. We have had our own similar three-way shootout in the West between fascists, Communists, and liberal republics. Backing Communists to stop fascists or helping autocrats fight Communists were stop-gap, wartime exigencies — never solutions in themselves.
The Middle East does not need a reformation in Islam as much as a war to eradicate a minority of religious fanatics who are empowered through their blackmail of dictatorships — and to do so in a way that leads to constitutional government rather than buttressing a police state. So far governments have chosen appeasement and bribery — if at times some torture when demands for investigations rise — and so time is running out for the entire region.
There are a million Muslims in Israel — the mother of all evils in the radical Islamic mind. Yet very few have turned themselves into global jihadists, and hundreds are not blowing themselves up daily in Tel Aviv, much less in London or New York. Why? Perhaps the twofold knowledge that they have rights in Israel not found in the Arab world that they don’t wish to forfeit, and they are surrounded by people who would not tolerate their terrorism.
For the first time, Afghans and Iraqis have a stake in their own future — and know the United States is at last on the right side of history and intends to stay and win by their side.
So we press on.
VDH's Private Papers :: Reformation or Civil War?
Friday, July 29, 2005
This is a photo of Cheryl Ann Magner.
She has been missing since the beginning of June. She was last seen in Marin County, CA.
Please ,anyone who has seen this 17 year old girl please call the San Rafael police dept. @ 415-485-3000 or www.srpd.org
Any information or help would be greatly appreciated by the family.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Thug enabler Leftys help defend America via: Inside the Ring
"But why attack here," Gen. McInerney said in an interview, "when you have leftists in America who have aided and abetted the enemy more than Tokyo Rose did in World War II? They don't need to set off bombs. If they set off bombs, they would silence the shrill of leftists in the United States."
Left wing-blame America-first keeping us safe from the THUGS??? I mean "minutemen". Gee, Ya' think?
Inside the Ring�-�Nation/Politics�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Jihad Jane, Baghdad Barbarella, Queen of the Galaxy, Hanoi Jane, age 67 , makes another tour to break troop morale
Take your pick of names, the woman most likely to increase the sale of smokeless tobacco is getting on the bus that runs on vegetable oil to make an antiwar tour around the U S of A. I've decided I'm coming out," she said. "I have not taken a stand on any war since Vietnam," she said. "I carry a lot of baggage from that." Heh, heh. baggage. Heh.
Jane Fonda to Oppose Iraq War on Bus Tour - Yahoo! News
Kimberly Johnson freelance journalist w/ Marines Camp Hit
Meet Kimberly Johnson, freelance journalist embedded with our Marines in Iraq’s Al Anbar Province and based out of Camp Hit.. She is also blogging at Mother of all blogs
"In need of a break, I sat on a pile of weathered boards and pulled off my heavy helmet. I had never felt such exhaustion. Standing in the 130-degree heat wearing my armor and a Camelbak backpack filled with water was slowly wearing me down. I popped a few M&Ms that I had the good fortune of finding earlier in an MRE into my mouth to dissolve slowly, in hopes they would keep my blood sugar up. I tried not to gulp my water down so fast that I wouldn’t have enough for later. I dug my hand around in my pack until I found a baby wipe to counter the sweat pooling at my collarbone.
And that’s when I heard the shots. Small arms fire – probably an AK-47 -- rattled off in a quick burst, followed by five mortars in quick succession. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. I looked at my watch. It was 2 p.m."
Uninvited Pa. Lt. Gov. Apologizes to widow for anti war rant and business card
The lower than whale dukey, Lt. Gov. Knoll apologized to the widow of the U.S. Marine for gate crashing their funeral. The for-what-it's worth apology did nothing to assuage the anger of the entire family much less the widow. Everyone is still pissed. The Lt. Gov. called the funeral a "function"and passed out her business cards. As she was leaving, she didn't have time to meet with the rest of the family but once outside boy could she make time for the TV cameras. Yead, Buddy!!
OMG!! Sweet Judas Priest! Can't you just feel the love coming from a Democrat. Jay Bryant lays out three options for the gov.---you don't need to read past #1...resign immediately. The Gov. himself, already tasting voter ire pie, quickly apologized. What's he apologizing for...?? Well, he couldn't cut off her oxygen so he went CYA. Democrats. ALL SFB. Don't you just love their contempt for the military. Did I hear Baghdad Barbarella, Queen of the Galaxy, is making a comeback?
Pa. Gov. Says Apology Sent to Marine's Kin
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Marine's Funeral Hijacked by PA. LT.Gov Catherine Baker Knoll w/anti war MSG:'I want you to know our government is against this war,' " Goodrich said.
The funeral for Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, 32, was highjacked by LT Gov Knoll who decided to butt in while friends and family gathered to pay homage to the fallen Marine who had been a policeman in McKeesport and Indiana County. "Our family deserves an apology," Rhonda Goodrich said. "Here you have a soldier who was killed -- dying for his country -- in a church full of grieving family members and she shows up uninvited. It made a mockery of Joey's death."
Lt. gov. crashed Marine's funeral, kin say
Friday, July 22, 2005
Dolts of the Main Stream Media----the other war against the Fifth Column
Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | There are apologists amongst us
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Who is the thuggie's Best Friend in the World? Surprise! It's the MSM Dinosaurs!!
"...bombs like those used in London) are "perfect asymmetric warfare weapons" for 21st century terrorists. ("Asymmetric warfare" pits mismatched enemies. The weak side tries to avoid its own destruction, while targeting the strong side's political or military vulnerabilities.)
What makes the small and anonymous appear powerful and strong? In the 21st century, intense media coverage magnifies the terrorists' capabilities. This suggests winning the global war against Islamist terror ultimately requires denying terrorists weapons of mass destruction and curbing what is now al Qaeda's greatest strategic capability: media magnification and enhancement of its bombing campaigns and political theatrics".
Al Qaeda's information war�-�Commentary�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
MEMORANDUM: Readiness of the United States Army Reserve
Army Reservist News (How are you doing?)via:Watch Your Six
- Lie about your strength for years before 9/11. If your sodliers don't show up for drill, still count them as present. If your soldiers can't pass the PT test, pass the weigh-in, or qualify with their weapon, you still count them as 'combat ready.' In the larger sense, if you are a state national guard or reserve RRC, tell your boss (HRC, or NGB) that you are manned at 100% strength even when you know you couldn't field more than 60% of the people you are supposed to have.
- Early on in OEF, ask for volunteers to do the mission, instead of mobilizing whole units and 'inconveniencing' people. This will take 10-20% of the soldiers out of the rest of your units, further exacerbating the strength problem.
- Volunteer to send units to war that you know are broke. Do this so that your boss (HRC or NGB) doesn't know that you were lying all along about your personnel shortages.
- Take the units that are now at 40 to 50% deployable strength and involuntarily strip other soldiers from reserve units in your command to fill them up to 100%. Don't worry if the soldiers you piecemeal together into a unit don't have the right MOS (military occupational specialty) or the right rank. Send the newly cobbled-together unit through some barely-adequate post-moblization training and then it's 'off to war' for them."
Zarqawi has the football
zarqawi0705-3.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Monday, July 18, 2005
From one Muslim to another "Cut the Apologetics, a Muslima Advises CAIR" [Weblog] - Daniel Pipes
For an amusing example of the latter, see a letter on the subject of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, written by one Aeisha Muhammad, distributed today by the Anti-Zionist Coalition, and reproduced here in part (with errors left uncorrected)."
"Dear Staff of CAIR:
I dispense with the traditional greeting normally extended to Muslims as your behaviour over and over again demonstrates that you are NOT acting to the benefit of the Muslim community but rather as an arm of the American fascist/racist government. …
Instead of pushing the Zionist agenda on the Muslims via puppet imams at mosques, conferences, condemnation of the Islamic resistance and now a commercial which puts blame on the Muslims for defending their political and religious rights. What a wicked you do by negating the teachings of Islam regarding Jihad and fostering guilt in Muslims for abiding by the injunction of Quran and Sunnah to go to Jihad against the enemies of the Muslim nation and religion. …
Muslims have the obligation to go to Jihad and to retaliate upon their enemies and there is no guilt in doing what ALLAH has ordered. No Muslim should be misguided and made to believe that retaliation for the atrocities committed by the non-Muslims upon Muslims is to be tolerated. No Muslim should go against his brother/sister jihadi in order to appease the non-Muslim governments of the world. No Muslim owes any apologies to any non-Muslim nation and no Muslim needs to be feeling bad for the crimes that are carried out by the Bush and Blair bastards under the guise of the Mujahideen. …
ALLAH's curse is upon you for your treason against the Muslim religion and people. REPENT before it is too late !
STOP POISONING THE MINDS OF THE MUSLIMS WITH YOUR CORRUPTED VERSION OF ISLAM THAT ONLY SERVES THE INTERESTS OF ZIONISTS !"'
Very truly yours,
Shayhka Maulani Aeisha Muhammad
"'Comment: However offensive this letter of the "shaykha," it does possess a certain logic. CAIR dissimulates about jihad, pretending that it is apple-pie wholesome, hiding that it really is warfare "against the enemies of the Muslim nation and religion." Aeisha Muhammad's call on CAIR to stand up and declare the truth about jihad makes sense to me. Like her, CAIR should cut out the apologetics and express its Islamist agenda in the raw. (July 14, 2005)'"
Cut the Apologetics, a Muslima Advises CAIR [Weblog] - Daniel Pipes
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Via Mudville Gazette Links and video to Army Medic who survivies sniper shot to chest
Mrs. Greyhawk's evaluates the missing or tepid response from the dinosaurs of the MSM to the great story of Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer who is shot in the chest by a sniper gets up and joins the hunt for sniper. "This story does not reflect Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer's professionalism or his heroism, no emphasis on the fact that as Tschiderer secured the terrorist with a pair of handcuffs, he gave medical aid to the wounded terrorist—the same one who’d tried to take his life."
Mudville Gazette
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Dallas Morning has the Cohones to call them what they are--TERRORISTS
Two words not uncommon to editorial pages are "resolve" and "sacrifice," especially as they relate to war.
Today, this editorial board resolves to sacrifice another word – "insurgent" – on the altar of precise language. No longer will we refer to suicide bombers or anyone else in Iraq who targets and kills children and other innocent civilians as "insurgents."
The notion that these murderers in any way are nobly rising up against a sitting government in a principled fight for freedom has become, on its face, absurd. If they ever held a moral high ground, they sacrificed it weeks ago, when they turned their focus from U.S. troops to Iraqi men, women and now children going about their daily lives.
They drove that point home with chilling clarity Wednesday in a poor Shiite neighborhood. As children crowded around U.S. soldiers handing out candy and toys in a gesture of good will, a bomb-laden SUV rolled up and exploded.
These children were not collateral damage. They were targets.
The SUV driver was no insurgent. He was a terrorist.
People who set off bombs on London trains are not insurgents. We would never think of calling them anything other than what they are – terrorists.
Train bombers in Madrid? Terrorists.
Chechen rebels who take over a Russian school and execute children? Terrorists.
Teenagers who strap bombs to their chests and detonate them in an Israeli cafe? Terrorists.
IRA killers? Basque separatist killers? Hotel bombers in Bali? Terrorists all.
Words have meanings. Whether too timid, sensitive or "open-minded," we've resisted drawing a direct line between homicidal bombers everywhere else in the world and the ones who blow up Iraqi civilians or behead aid workers.
No more. To call them "insurgents" insults every legitimate insurgency in modern history. They are terrorists.
DallasNews.com | News for Dallas, Texas | Opinion: Editorials
Friday, July 15, 2005
A Royal Marines Major is leading 2nd Marines and a problem no one wants to talk about
"They sometimes have difficulty understanding what I am saying on the radio because of my accent," said Major Maltby.
Oh, sucks, the major is too modest.
Working with Brits is pure hell.
In the late Paleolithic Wars, when M-14's were the God's choice of weapon, I had the great "good" fortune to work with an "Englishman" and I might add you (whispers) are not to refer to our cousins as (English) they might be BLOODY Welsh and then you will get an EARFUL for your troubles. Stick with using "Brit". Brits must be their generic term inclusive of the entire tribe. So, listen, even if you were to get pass understanding what the Major said over the net and even if you made it pass their calling for a meeting in the "rest room" instead of the ready room there is still one more insidious trap our faithful cousins lay for the unsuspecting Americans. I will be blunt. They steal accents. No! I hear you gasp. Yes, yes, it is true. It is true. They steal accents. Unbelievable but true. To this day, I have no idea why they steal accents much less what they do with them. Perhaps it is their devious plot to Take Back the Empire. I pity those poor American Marines in close proximity to the Major. As you read this those poor Marines have no idea how their accents are silently being replaced with a British accent. In my own case, I had a strong southwest Texas accent where the proper pronunciation of "pen" is "pin" ....you can imagine the horror...the horror of my discovery that my accent had been stolen and replaced with a "Brit" accent. Oh my god! Fortunately for me, at the last second I was saved by an unexpected visit by a high school chum who promptly fell to the ground laughing his ass off at hearing my speech. Oh, the embarrassment of it all still haunts me and is seared seared into my .... Oy! What all this then, ay. Give us a pint here... Ihaven't got all day now have I.
Telegraph | News | The major from Swindon leading US marines in Iraq
Today's Flight from Fact brought to you by LAV 25 War Pigs
Wds from the untethered to planet earth
"'As if to illustrate Orwell's point, a pacifist poet named D.S. Savage wrote a reply in which he explained why he "would never fight and kill for such a phantasm" as "Britain's 'democracy.' " Savage saw no difference between Britain and its enemies because under the demands of war both were imposing totalitarianism: "Germans call it National Socialism. We call it democracy. The result is the same."
Savage naively wondered, "Who is to say that a British victory will be less disastrous than a German one?" Savage thought the real problem was that Britain had lost "her meaning, her soul," but "the unloading of a billion tons of bombs on Germany won't help this forward an inch." "Personally," he added, with hilarious understatement, "I do not care for Hitler."
"Whereas the rest of the nation is content with calling down obloquy on Hitler's head, we regard this as superficial. Hitler requires, not condemnation, but understanding."'
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Number two thugmaster dude Captured
Pentagon says key Zarqawi operative caught in Iraq - Yahoo! News
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
From:The Australian: Crisis at heart of Islam (why thugmasters are pissed off at the West)
The geopolitical aims of the jihadists are vast: the overthrow of moderate Muslim governments, the liquidation of Israel, the removal of US influence from the Gulf and the Middle East and the strategic eclipse of the West. Bin Laden declared after September11 that the world was divided 'into two camps, the camp of the faithful and the camp of the infidels'. He says every Muslim has an obligation to take up arms.
Like all political madmen, it is the purity of bin Laden's extremism that attracts fresh recruits and disarms Western opinion because it finds such extremism so incomprehensible.
In March last year, al-Qa'ida released targeting advice, saying: 'We have to target Jews and Christians. We have to let anybody that fights God, his prophet or the believers know that we will be killing them. There should be no limits and no geographical borders. We have to turn the land of the infidels into hell as they have done to the lands of the Muslims.' Jews were named as the priority human targets followed by Christians. The Christian order of importance by country was American, British, Spanish, Australian, Canadian and Italian."
Monday, July 11, 2005
Blogging Dennis at Mudville Gazette
Sunday, July 10, 2005
What we've got here is FAILURE to communicate:What thugmasters want...apart from total world domination and your tuckus in the air at prayer
Amir Taheri says he was inundated with phone calls from the MSM w/requests for interviews w/one question: "what do they want." He said the whole thing reminded him of Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film-maker executed by a thug assassin, "Van Gogh begged for mercy and tried to reason with his assailant. Surely we can discuss this, he kept saying as the shots kept coming. Let us talk it over." What we've got here is failure to communicate. Yead, right. The MSM presumption here is that the thug that killed Van Gogh or the thug team that blew up the London buses "may have some reasonable demands which could be discussed a calm, democratic atmosphere." Yes, Virginia, there are still a lot of out-to-lunch MSM dinosaurs that didn't get the word. Yes, Virginia, these MSM types would rather believe that if Dubya had not pissed off the thuggies why none of this messy business would be necessary. Inquiring minds want to know. Ok, so once again we are going to repeat the word as interpreted by Amir Taheri, who says: forgetaboutit!
"... sorry, old chaps, you are dealing with an enemy that does not want anything specific, and cannot be talked back into reason through anger management or round-table discussions. Or, rather, this enemy does want something specific: to take full control of your lives, dictate every single move you make round the clock and, if you dare resist, he will feel it his divine duty to kill you.Why is that I hear you say...well it goes back in back in time right after the dinosaurs turned into oil and God gave us free will and us being a stiff-necked people were inconsiderate, of course, and God, being the ever lasting fountain of patience, sent dozens of prophets, including Moses and Jesus and all failed. So now God is sorely pissed off and decides its time to kick ass, take names and send in:
"Muhammad as the last of His prophets and the bearer of His ultimate message, Islam. With the advent of Islam all previous religions were “abrogated” (mansukh), and their followers regarded as “infidel” (kuffar). The aim of all good Muslims, therefore, is to convert humanity to Islam, which regulates Man’s spiritual, economic, political and social moves to the last detail."
So what if you don't want to come along and convert quietly like a good Kuffar that you have the potential to be. Thugmasters have a plan for the unwilling:
"..... Osama bin Laden, a disciple of al-Maudoodi, believe(s) that the Western-dominated world is too mired in corruption to hear any argument, and must be shocked into conversion through spectacular ghazavat (raids) of the kind we saw in New York and Washington in 2001, in Madrid last year, and now in London."....Bin Laden has consistently argued in favour of further ghazavat inside the West. He firmly believes that the West is too cowardly to fight back and, if terrorised in a big way, will do “what it must do”. (convert) That view was strengthened last year when al-Qaeda changed the Spanish Government with its deadly attack in Madrid. At the time bin Laden used his “Madrid victory” to call on other European countries to distance themselves from the United States or face similar “punishment”.
Ok, here are the strategic goals of the thugmasters dreams as outlined in this pretty good article:
- “Drive the Cross-worshippers” (Christian powers) out of the Muslim world
- wipe Israel off the map
- replace the governments of all Muslim countries with truly Islamic regimes like the one created by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran and by the Taleban in Afghanistan.
The Times Online guest contributors Opinion
Saturday, July 09, 2005
"We'll put a Boot up your Ass--It's the American Way": Marines from Bravo One Five Looking for Mr. Thuggie
Sgt. Joe Salinas
PFC. Alan J. Maria LCpl.Steven R. Seeley
Cpl. Nicholas L. Gentry
Major General William Webster Jr, commander of the Army's 3rd Division, said in Baghdad that thug operations are "mostly blunted".
I like that, heh, mostly blunted. He should have said: Thuggies are Sucking Hard Wind. Keep them thuggies rolling. Move them out. Roll them out. Head them out. Keep them thuggies moving--- the steam roller of Democracy is paving a new road right up your tuckas.
These are some of the men from from my old alma mater Bravo One Five that made Operation Lighting a huge success that had thugs scrambling for cover away from 2,500 check points, 500 midnight house raids, and netted 1700 "suspected" thuggies. Cpl. Gentry,w/Air Ground Task Force Like many so many Marines, Gentry is also one who believes it is his duty to shoulder the burden of military service at a point in his life when he was also ready to reap the benefits of life in a free and democratic society.
Photos by Cpl. Ruben D. Maestre, (Gentry) Photo by Cpl. Tom Sloan
Friday, July 08, 2005
Thugs in the wire/ London takes a Hit VIA:The Belmont Club
"The Al Qaeda have characterized the attack on London as 'punishment' for Britain's temerity to resist the inevitability of Islam. It is the kind of punishment these self-ordained masters of the universe are accustomed to meting out against harem women and insolent slaves. A few administered licks, and no doubt the cowardly kuffar will crawl back to his place.
The tragedy is that Al Qaeda's perception is perfectly correct when applied to the Left, for whom no position is too supine, no degradation too shameful to endure; but incorrect for the vast majority of humans, in whom the instinct for self-preservation has not yet been extinguished.
It will result in history's greatest case of mistaken identity; the mismatch that should never have happened. The enemy is even now dying at our feet, where we should kick him and kick him again."
Thursday, July 07, 2005
LTCOL M. P. CHENÉ: Farewell Letter to 4th LAR Marines, Sailors and Families
From: Commanding Officer
To: Marines, Sailors & Families of 4th LAR
Subj: CHANGE OF COMMAND
Marines, Sailors & Families of 4th LAR,
I wanted to take a brief opportunity to thank each and every one of you for the tremendous opportunity you have afforded me to be associated with this battalion for the past 11 years. Certainly the pinnacle of my career has been the last 19 months as your Battalion Commander, but each of my several billets with this battalion has been remarkable in the fact that I have worked with some of the most professional young men and women that I have ever been associated with in my 23 years in the Marine Corps. I’m as proud as I can be to claim 4th LAR as my home in the Marine Corps.
I would like to extend welcome to our newest brothers from E Co. in
F Co. in
I can’t depart without also paying particular homage to the Key Volunteer Network in the battalion. I have become intimately involved with literally hundreds of the family members of the Marines & Sailors of this battalion and hold you all in the highest regard. You will always have a special place in my thoughts. In particular, I must recognize the extraordinary efforts of Mrs. Jennifer Miner, my KVC, but more importantly, my confidant and very dear friend. I cannot define here how much Jennifer has meant to me personally, but I know that those of you who have known her and benefited from her remarkable generosity share my admiration and appreciation.
During my time here, we have been called Light Armored Infantry, Light Armored Vehicle, & finally 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Bn. We have been referred to as Ironhorse Marines, Task Force Scorpion and even recently, some of us as part of 8th Tank Bn., but always as Marines. You have earned your title as Marines in both war and peace and have distinguished yourselves within the most elite fighting force in the world.
Our continued Global War on Terrorism will not end soon and I anticipate that the participation of this battalion will continue to distinguish the Marines and Sailors of 4th LAR as a professional and lethal force multiplier within the Marine Corps and our nations military.
As I hand over the reins of the battalion to the XO, Maj. Greg Hallinan, I ask only for the same dedication, professionalism & devotion to duty that you have shown me. I have had the distinct pleasure to work with a remarkably adept and professional Inspector-Instructor staff and appreciate with great admiration their continued support and tremendous dedication to our overall success. Without them, we would certainly not be able to attain the level of proficiency that we now enjoy. Thank you again and as I prepare for deployment, I’ll continue to praise the Marines & Sailors of 4th LAR around the Marine Corps. Best of luck and continued success to all of you.
Semper Fidelis,
M. P. CHENÉ
LTCOL USMCWednesday, July 06, 2005
Thuggies paint anti-coalition signs on their hideout ---US Troops check it out
A full search of the house yielded the following items: one U.S. body armor vest, two load-bearing vests for AK-47 rifles, eight rocket-propelled grenade triggers, one RPG pouch, one detonator, four AK-47s, two improvised RPG/rocket launchers, two 82mm mortars, two 82mm mortar tripods, 20 rocket primers, 11 RPG propellants, three RPGs, 17 grenade fuses, 12 AK-47 magazines, four AK-47 stocks, an expended 1,000-round RPK belt, more than 1,000 RPK rounds (both expended and live), 300 rounds of 9mm ammunition, a large amount of propaganda materials, various improvised explosive device-making materials, welding supplies, two 60mm mortars, one 60mm mortar tripod, 10 grenades, one modified ammo box, three new Iraqi Police uniforms, three bullet-proof windows and one rifle scope.news - IRAQ: TASK FORCE BAGHDAD FINDS LARGE WEAPONS CACHE
Monday, July 04, 2005
Our Declaration of Independence
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
War Pigs Kick Alien Butt in "War Of The Worlds" Film with Tom Cruise
Photos Staff Sgt.Bobbie Bryant USMC
From the "he-doesn't-get-out-very-often" Dept. This was the first I heard that First LAR was involved in the shooting of "War of the Worlds". Awesome. The flick came out last week. Look for Dale Dye's wooden acting somewhere in there doing the "damn the torpedoes" schtick. Don't you wish Thuggies could catch cold too. Heh. LINK
The reenlistment blues are green
Chicago Tribune news : Nation/World
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Effective July 1st DOD increase in Death Gratuity and SGLI
"The Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror and Tsunami Relief Act 2005 (Public Law 109-13) increases this immediate cash payment from $12,420 to $100,000 for survivors of those whose death is as a result of hostile actions and occurred in a designated combat operation or combat zone or while training for combat or performing hazardous duty.
The supplemental also increases the maximum amount of SGLI coverage from $250,000 to $400,000 for all service members effective Sept. 1, 2005 and provides that the department will pay or reimburse the premiums to service members, who are deployed in a designated combat zone for $150,000 of SGLI coverage.
Until the effective date for the SGLI increase, the supplemental provides for a special death gratuity of $150,000, retroactive to October 7, 2001, for survivors of those whose death is in a designated combat operation or combat zone or occurred while training for combat or performing hazardous duty."
Friday, July 01, 2005
Turbin Durbin's Nazi-Like U.S. Marine and an Iraqi Child
"A beanie-baby given to an Iraqi kid during an anti-insurgency sweep by the U.S. Marines. Yep, here's another example of the brutal character of the U.S. militray that Senator Durbin told you about. It reminds you of the SS troops greeting the Jewish kids as they step off the train at Auschwitz, doesn't it, Senator? "