Tuesday, September 30, 2014

NZ Veterans nix new flag design

From ABC News (Aus)


(Photo credit:  Getty Images - Cameron Spencer)
New Zealand war veterans call for delay to flag referendum

23 September 2014

New Zealand's war veterans will ask prime minister John Key to delay a referendum on changing the nation's flag until after next year's ANZAC centenary commemorations.

Mr Key said he wanted a vote on the flag next year, a move which New Zealand's Returned Services Association (RSA) believed was unnecessary and insensitive.

The speed at which Mr Key wanted to move came as a shock to the association.

"If there's a mandate to have a referendum, then that's democracy," RSA vice-president BJ Clarke said.

"But given the significance of 2015, 100 years since our troops went to Gallipoli, then we have names such as Flanders and the Somme and Passchendaele which has all become part of our history ... it would be very unfortunate to have a referendum in that year of remembrance."...


Canadian WW1 Veterans' remains found in France identified

From DND:

Remains of Canadian First World War Soldiers Found in Hallu, France Identified
 Today Mr. James Bezan, Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of National Defence and Member of Parliament for Selkirk—Interlake, announced on behalf of the Minister of National Defence that the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) have succeeded in identifying the remains of four First World War soldiers found in Hallu, France, as those of Lieutenant Clifford Neelands, Lance Sergeant John Lindell, Private Lachlan McKinnon, and Private William Simms. 

 The announcement was made in Winnipeg in honour of the fact that the soldiers were with the Winnipeg Grenadiers when they died in the Somme region of France following the first attack of the Battle of Amiens in August 1918.



The DND and the CAF are working with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and in consultation with the soldiers’ relatives to plan for an internment ceremony to provide the soldiers with a final honoured and appropriate resting place.
[...]

“The identification of these First World War soldiers is a meaningful demonstration that the sacrifice they made for Canada will not be forgotten. In remembering these fallen soldiers who served such a valuable role in our history and in our wartime commitment, we reflect upon both the freedom they fought to preserve, and our appreciation for the present day sailors, soldiers, airmen and airwomen who are continuing this proud tradition.”
The Honourable Rob NicholsonMinister of National Defence
“It is fitting that during the centenary of the First World War, we have the opportunity to afford these young soldiers the honour and respect owed to their sacrifice. The years of diligent research and scientific efforts undertaken to recognise our fallen represent the legacy of admiration and regard due to these soldiers, and our responsibility to provide them with the dignity they deserve.”
James BezanParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence
“We will never forget the sacrifice of those who came before us. As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the First World War, it is extremely poignant to both reflect on this century of history and be able to identify and lay to rest these soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.”
Lieutenant-General Marquis HainseCommander Canadian Army 

Much more on the efforts to bring all our Fallen Heroes home here.


Pte. William Simms of Canada's 78th Battalion died in the Battle of Amiens in France on Aug. 11, 1918. (Rodger McLaughlin)
WWI Canadian soldiers' remains identified

Clifford Neelands, Lachlan McKinnon, William Simms and John Lindell died in the Battle of Amiens in 1918

Sep 27, 2014 10:31 PM ETDaniel Schwartz, CBC News

Nearly a century after they died in battle, the remains of unidentified Canadian soldiers who fought in the First World War are still being found in Europe.


Today the Department of National Defence released the names of four who died during the Battle of Amiens in August 1918.


Their resting place was discovered in 2006 by then 14-year-old Fabien Demeusere, while digging in his back garden in Hallu, France, 120 kilometres north of Paris.


Demeusere, a young First World War history buff, whose home was built on what had been a battlefield in 1918, had made an important discovery.


The remains of eight soldiers were eventually found, but so far only four have been identified.


They are:

  • Clifford Neelands
Neelands was born in Barrie, Ont., and moved with his family to Winnipeg. He worked as a real estate agent before joining the 78th Battalion. Lt. Neelands was one of six officers in the 78th who died in the Battle of Amiens.


  • Lachlan McKinnon
McKinnon grew up in Scotland, arriving in Canada in 1913. He had worked as a butcher. After he enlisted, he was back in the U.K. by 1915. Before going to fight on the continent, he married a woman from Glasgow. Pte. McKinnon was seriously wounded in his left leg while serving as a rifleman on the Somme front in 1916.



  • William Simms
Simms was from a large farm family in Russell, Man. Pte. Simms took part in all the major Canadian offensives of 1917. One of his brothers also died in the war.


  • John Oscar Lindell
Lindell was born in Sweden in 1884, came to Canada when he was about 20 and ended up in Winnipeg. Lance Sgt. Lindell worked as a railroad foreman before he joined the 78th battalion in 1915....





Rest In Peace, gentlemen....

ALWAYS honoured.

Britain's Watchkeeper in the skies over AFG

From MoD:


Army's eye-in-the-sky takes flight in Afghanistan


30 September 2014
The British Army's next generation of unmanned air system (UAS), Watchkeeper, is now fully operational in Afghanistan.


This new capability is providing force protection for British troops as they prepare to draw down from Afghanistan by the end of this year.
Watchkeeper can carry out surveillance tasks and gains situational awareness via its cutting-edge cameras and radar capability.
[...]
Mr Fallon said:
Watchkeeper is the first unmanned air system developed and built in the UK to become operational and will be a significant surveillance and reconnaissance capability for the Army for years to come. There is no doubt that it will prove to be a battle-winning technology.
 
General Houghton said:
The enhanced real-time situational awareness Watchkeeper provides means that our local understanding is greater, our tactical decisions better informed, and that, ultimately, personnel on the ground are safer.
 
Watchkeeper pilot and payload operator, Sergeant Alex Buchanan, said:
It’s been a real privilege to be the first to fly the Army’s new Watchkeeper remotely-piloted air system on operations. It’s an amazing capability and has already provided important information to troops, enhancing the safety of everyone that lives and works at Bastion....

Monday, September 29, 2014

Bibi to school the UN (and Obama?) today



From Jerusalem Post: 

Netanyahu departs for US: I will tell truth about the IDF, the most moral army in the world
28 September 2014
Before boarding the plane to New York where he will address the UN General Assembly on Monday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in his speech to the forum, "he will deflect all the lies about us, and tell the truth about the heroic soldiers of the IDF, the most moral army in the world." [my emphasis]

Netanyahu's parting comments follow Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas's speech at the UN on Friday, in which he accused Israel of "committing genocide in Gaza" and “missing no opportunity to undermine the chance for peace,” while “seeking the continuation and entrenchment of the occupation.”

Netanyahu's visit to the United States looks to confront Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and Palestinian unilateralism. The prime minister will also meet with US President Barack Obama in Washington on Wednesday. ...


More here.  Stay tuned..


Mr President: The buck stops with YOU



Apparently MIC was on 60 Minutes  last night for another of his prime time 'let me be  clear' monologues.  No, I did not watch it, but a headline from this morning caught my eye:

From Homeland Security News Wire:

Obama: U.S. intelligence underestimated ISIS strength, overestimated Iraqi military's resilience

29 September 2014
President Barack Obama on Sunday said that the U.S.intelligence community had underestimated Islamic State (ISIS) strength and level of activity inside Syria, which has become “ground zero” for jihadist terrorists worldwide, while overestimating the ability of the Iraqi army to fight such militant groups. Obama’s admission that ISIS succeeded in setting up its bases in Syria and Iraq without being noticed by U.S. intelligence may embolden Republican hawks such Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) who have been complaining for months that the administration was being too passive in its approach to the Syrian civil war.


The president, who was interviewed on CBS 60 Minutes, spoke while additional U.S.-led airstrikes were carried out in Syria and Iraq, and at the same time that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called for a ground war against ISIS.

Obama cited comments made by James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, to the Washington Post earlier this month. Obama said U.S.intelligence underestimated what had been taking place in Syria after Islamic militants went underground when U.S. marines defeated al-Qaeda in Iraq with help from Iraqi tribes.

“But over the past couple of years, during the chaos of the Syrian civil war, where essentially you have huge swaths of the country that are completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos,” Obama said. “And so this became ground zero for jihadists around the world” (the president was referring to the defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2006-2007; the Syrian civil war erupted in early 2011)....


There is more to read here, as MIC continues his usual MO of not listening to any of his Military experts, and laying the blame for his foreign policy failures on everybody else, except where it belongs.


Related:  Go over and read This Ain't HellObama: US misjudged Iraqi army, militants’ threat

Friday, September 26, 2014

Iraq: Samira Salih al-Nuaimi murdered by ISIS - western *feminists* silent

Do you know this woman?  She was murdered by the 'religion of peace' in Mosul this week.  Her crime?  According to Gulf Center for Human Rights, her slaughter"is solely motivated by her peaceful and legitimate human rights work, in particular defending the civil and human rights of her fellow citizens in Mosul."




From FOX News:

Female human rights activist killed by ISIS
September 25, 2014
BAGHDAD – Militants with the Islamic State group tortured and then publicly killed a human rights lawyer in the Iraqi city of Mosul after their self-proclaimed religious court ruled that she had abandoned Islam, the U.N. mission in Iraq said Thursday.
 Gunmen with the group's newly declared police force seized Samira Salih al-Nuaimi last week in a northeastern district of the Mosul while she was home with her husband and three children, two people with direct knowledge of the incident told The Associated Press on Thursday. Al-Nuaimi was taken to a secret location. After about five days, the family was called by the morgue to retrieve her corpse, which bore signs of torture, the two people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fears for their safety...

[...]

A statement by the U.N. on Thursday added that al-Nuaimi was tried in a so-called "Sharia court" for apostasy, after which she was tortured for five days before the militants sentenced her to "public execution."


[...]

Al-Nuaimi's death is the latest in a string of attacks by the militant group to silence female activists and politicians. In July in the nearby town of Sderat, militants broke into the house of a female candidate in the last provincial council elections, killed her and abducted her husband, the U.N. said.

 On the same day, another female politician was abducted from her home in eastern Mosul; she remains missing.

Hanaa Edwer, a prominent Iraqi human rights activist, said at least five female political activists have been killed in recent weeks by the Islamic State group in Mosul, including al-Nuaimi, who Edwer said was also running for a seat on the provincial council....


MUCH more here.



My question:  WHERE is the outrage?  Where are the msm raging headlines?  Where is Michelle Obama with her hashtag condemnation?  Most of all, WHERE are the public protests by Code Pink, National Organisation of (some) Women?

Only one other news outlet - yes, out of the UK - has even acknowledged this very real, deadly,  war on women.

Michelle Obama and her husband?  Not a word from either of them, or David Cameron for that matter.

I wish I could say I am surprised at the worldwide silence as women and children continue to be tortured, murdered by the cowardly thugs of ISIS, but I am not.

I am so not surprised, since over the years I have watched with growing disgust as the pampered women of the west choose to remain silent about the ongoing atrocities against women living in muslim countries.

Not surprised at all, but beyond disgusted, as I read - almost on a weekly basis - of yet another woman whose only crime is wanting to live in freedom, (exercising the rights that western women take for granted) as they raise their children, their girls, in peace, with no fear from the terrorists in their midst.

I do not have the answers on how to solve this outrage, BUT I do know that as long as the west remains silent, the deadly war on women around the world will continue.

I long for a day when free, western women around the world take to the streets and denounce what is happening every.single.day to innocent women like Samira Salih al-Nuaimi.  The list gets longer by the day of women and girls who are slaughtered by islamist murderers.

"Feminists"??????  I have another *f* word for them, and until, and unless, all so-called support groups for women speak out LOUDLY for their global sisters, they show themselves for what they, and their political 'leaders,' truly are:  hypocrites.





Iraqi girl - picture courtesy of Major Chris Galloway a few years back.. This picture, and many others like it, continue to haunt me. I often wonder if this girl is still alive.  I also think very often about all the little girls and women that our deployed Troops shared with me,  as our guys fought to ensure a real future for these girls...


When will the *feminists* and the politicians rise up from their safe, pampered lives and demand a stop to the war on  these girls and women?  Only then can women such as Samira truly rest in peace.


'First they came for the muslim women and girls..and I said nothing...'


UPDATE: Your important Mission: Shine a porch light for a Fallen Hero

Found this from Darren's mom on the FaceBook page:

So I just made Darren go to bed because if it was up to him he would stay up all night looking at the post that everyone is posting. I however need to share this moment with everyone. Since my husband has been killed Darren has not been to church but a few times because he is still upset about it and I choose as a mother to let him join on his own terms rather then forcing him and taking the chance of losing his faith forever. So with that being said since this remembrance porch light has started and going around for the first time in about 1 year tonight Darren ask as I was walking out the room" Mommy can we pray?" My heart melted and tears were about to come out. But I pulled it together and we prayed. As we prayed all i could do was thank God for answering my prays and helping Darren to start finding hisnlight agian. I just needed to share this joy that I am feeling inside. Thank you all for your support maybe this is what out family has needed.

Thank you ALL.....

The children also Serve..and Sacrifice.

From The Leaf Chronicle:

Community asked to shine a light for fallen soldier
Philip Grey, The Leaf-ChronicleSeptember 24, 2014

On the first anniversary of his soldier father's death in Afghanistan, 6 year-old Darren Baysore is asking area residents to turn their porch lights on so his dad can see he's remembered




The child of a fallen Fort Campbell soldier has a request for the community, and it requires no money or extraordinary effort.

On Friday night, Sept. 26, the one-year anniversary of his father's death in Afghanistan, Darren Baysore, 6, wants everyone who can to turn their porch light on in memory of his father, Staff Sgt. Thomas Allen Baysore Jr. of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team "Currahee," 101st Airborne Division.

He also wants people to post the pictures of their porchlights (or if they don't have one, a candlelight) and a note saying where they're posting from to a Facebook page called "Shining Love to Daddy Baysore," https://www.facebook.com/baysoreslight.

His mother, Jamie Baysore of Clarksville, explained the request.

"Tom and Darren used to look up at the night sky all the time, and his daddy would say, 'I love you to the moon and back.' He told him that again the night before he deployed.

"When we received the news that Tom had died in Afghanistan, Jamie turned the porch light on so his father could see it from the moon. That's where he believes his dad is. He wants Dad to know his son is sending his love."...


[H/T Maggie]

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Eric Holder to resign



Attorney General Eric Holder gestures while answering questions during a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Capitol Hill on November 8, 2011 in Washington, DC. The committee is hearing testimony from the Attorney General on the controversial “Fast and Furious” gun-running program. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)


From NY Post:


Attorney General Eric Holder to resign September 25, 2014 | 10:58am
Attorney General Eric Holder — a native New Yorker and the first African-American to hold the post — is resigning after heading the Obama administration’s Justice Department during a rocky six years in office. 


“Attorney General Holder has discussed his plans personally with the president on multiple occasions in recent months, and finalized those plans in an hour-long conversation with the president at the White House residence over Labor Day weekend,” a Justice Department official told ABC News.


“At a formal announcement later today, the attorney general plans to express his personal gratitude to the president for the opportunity to serve in his administration and to lead the Justice Department, which he will call the ‘greatest honor of my professional life,’” the source said.


But Holder’s tenure was marked by numerous controversies, including his much-maligned, unilateral decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 plotters in federal court in Manhattan....


Be sure to follow the first link - under Holder's picture - for just some historical perspective this divisive politician.

Stay tuned - and PAY ATTENTION!

ANA Officers graduate

From MoD:

One of the newly-graduated Afghan National Army officer cadets [Picture: Corporal Chantelle Cooke RAF, Crown copyright]
Defence Secretary salutes first Afghan officer cadets
24 September 2014

Michael Fallon has attended the passing out ceremony of cadets from the first intake of the Afghan National Army Officer Academy.

The Defence Secretary met with a number of the 243 graduates who were selected from an initial pool of 10,000 to attend the British-mentored officer academy.

The 42-week leadership course was inspired by the ethos of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst but tailored to Afghan experience.

Mr Fallon said:

I am proud to see these new, highly-trained officers prepare to take their place in the Afghan National Army.

Benefiting from UK-led mentoring, these leaders will strengthen Afghan forces as they continue to provide security for their people....

9/11 Remains Identified: Patrice Braut.

Thirteen years after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the city's Medical Examiner continues to identify more victims.



From NBC New York:

Sept. 11 Remains Identified as 31-Year-Old Man
Some 2,753 people died in the attacks on the trade center. The total number identified is now 1,639
 Wednesday, Sep 24, 2014
Another person who died in the 2001 World Trade Center attack has been identified.

The city medical examiner's office said Tuesday that retesting has led to the identification of remains of a 31-year-old Belgian national.

His name was Patrice Braut

 The Medical Examiner continues working to give names to the innocents we lost on that terrible day.
Go over here and read a profile of how Patrice lived that was compiled as part of the 2,996 Project.
Rest In Peace, Patrice.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

MUST WATCH video: MY ISIS strategy

Bring on the disproportional response..

Remember when Presidents actually were presidential, and believed in the honour of protecting American lives?  Yeah, me too.

Take a look at this video from what used to be one of my favourite tv shows, sent to me by one of my favourite people.

 THIS is what we need...NOW!!!


Wednesday Hero

 Spc. 4 Donald Sloat

Spc 4 Donald Sloat20 years old from Coweta, Oklahoma
3rd Platoon, Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division

February 1949 - January 17, 1970

U.S. Army

On September 15, Spc. 4 Donald Sloat was posthumously awarded the Medal Of Honor for his actions in 1970 in Vietnam:


Specialist Four Donald P. Sloat distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, while serving as a machine gunner with 3rd Platoon, Company D, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division, during combat operations against an armed enemy in the Republic of Vietnam, Jan. 17, 1970. D Company operated out of Fire Support Base Hawk Hill in an area of I Corps. They were located south and southwest of Danang providing security for local villages and conducting regular searches for NVA units. The territory they patrolled stretched from the coastal lowlands to the mountains and jungle. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong activity was common in the area, and D Company suffered regular casualties from snipers and booby traps. On the morning of Jan. 17, 1970, Sloat's squad was conducting a patrol, serving as a blocking element in support of tanks and armored personnel carriers from F Troop in the Que Son valley. As the squad moved through dense up a small hill in file formation, the lead Soldier tripped a wire attached to a hand grenade booby-trap set up by enemy forces. When the grenade rolled down the hill toward Sloat, he had a choice. He could hit the ground and seek cover, or pick up the grenade and throw it away from his fellow Soldiers. After initially attempting to throw the grenade, Sloat realized that detonation was imminent, and that two or three men near him would be killed or seriously injured if he couldn't shield them from the blast. In an instant, Sloat chose to draw the grenade to his body, shielding his squad members from the blast, and saving their lives. Sloat's actions define the ultimate sacrifice of laying down his own life in order to save the lives of his comrades. Specialist Four Donald P. Sloat's extraordinary heroism and selflessness are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service, and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
\






These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives just so that we may get to enjoy our freedom. For that I am proud to call them Hero.


Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.


Wednesday Hero Logo



ObL's son-in- law sentenced to life in US prison



From Reuters:

Bin Laden son-in-law sentenced to life in U.S. prison
BY JOSEPH AX
NEW YORK Tue Sep 23, 2014

(Reuters) - A seemingly unrepentant Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday in New York following his conviction on terrorism charges.

A Manhattan federal jury in March found the Kuwaiti-born 48-year-old guilty of conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to provide material support for terrorists and providing such support, after a trial that offered a rare glimpse of bin Laden in the hours following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan imposed the sentence minutes after Abu Ghaith made a statement in Arabic, quoting the Koran and declaring he would not ask for mercy from anyone but God.

"Today, and at the same moment where you are shackling my hands and intend to bury me alive, you are at the same time unleashing the hands of hundreds of Muslim youths," the former imam said through an interpreter. "And they will join the rally of the free men."...


Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Israel: Swift Justice for three murdered teens





Murdered (L to R): Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Sha'ar, Naftali Frenkel
courtesy of the families


From Israel National News:

Murderers of the Three Teens Eliminated

Marwan Kawasmeh and Amer Abu Eisha of Hevron located and killed in exchange of gunfire.
9/23/2014

Marwan Kawasmeh and Amer Abu Eisha of Hevron, who abducted and murdered three yeshiva boys Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Sha'ar, Naftali Frenkel in June, were located and killed in exchange of gunfire early Tuesday morning.

The operation was carried out by the Yamam, a special unit of the Border Police, and the IDF, in Hevron. An attempt was made to arrest the suspects but an exchange of fire developed in which they were killed.

The operation was made possible by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), which located the murderers' hideout. In the last few days, several Hamas suspects were arrested and questioned on the assumption that they were assisting the fugitives.

"We have been pursuing these two since the abduction,” said Judea and Samaria Division Commander Brig. Gen. Tamir Yadai. “Last night the investigation ripened as regards their location and we have been surrounding the place where they were hiding since 1:00 a.m. We killed them and there are arrests of several other collaborators.”...







Bergdahl Investigation continues - or not!



Remember this? In the aftermath of Obama holding a news conference on the Rose Lawn to herald the release of Bowe Bergdahl, the administration has continued to hold to the 'we will conduct a full investigation' as they have re-integrated Bergdahl back into active duty.

Sounds good,  yet amid all the "Welcome Home" hoopla - and despite Obama et al's attempts to portray Bergdahl as a naive innocent abroad -  others who were there have gone on the record sharing their memories of events, that led to the ultimate release of five GITMO detainees in exchange.  Their re-telling of what happened is very different from the picture of Bergdahl painted by the White House; the White House spokeswoman dismisses them as   "not reliable sources"





 And on it goes. Three months later, and this administration has moved on to their 'not at war' strategy with regard to an ever- bolder murderous terrorist threat.

However, not everybody has been prepared to delegate victim Bergdahl to the  dustbin of history - yet - and today the main question is still being asked.  From the New York Post::

Is Obama whitewashing a traitor?
 By Paul Sperry 
September 20, 2014 
 Three and a half months have come and gone and the Pentagon has offered no clarity on what happened to alleged Army deserter and Taliban collaborator Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Fellow soldiers and other critics fear the military’s now-delayed investigation is shaping up to be a whitewash.

 The case has become a political powder keg for President Obama.

Since he traded five imprisoned Taliban leaders for Bergdahl, the US Government Accountability Office has declared the swap illegal, and nearly two dozen House Democrats have joined Republicans in officially condemning the move for making “Americans less safe.”

In addition, the Taliban deal appears to have encouraged the Islamic State to put up American hostages as trade bait to free other terrorist detainees, namely “Lady al Qaeda” Aafia Siddiqui.

[...]

But a senior Army official told me court-martialing Bergdahl would “make the president look bad.” In spite of damning evidence against him, the official expects Pentagon brass to separate him from the military with a less-than-honorable discharge, sparing Obama total embarrassment.

 In a sign Bergdahl may indeed get off with a slap on the wrist, the Army has delayed its AR 15-6 investigation into his disappearance — a development that Bergdahl’s attorneys see as helpful to their client....



Really?  Read the rest here.

Obama may hope that the public will forget all about Bergdahl, as his admin continues to shape the latest issue du jour.   Not going to happen.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Muslim leaders ARE condemning ISIS: MSM doesn't think it newsworthy

( The Telegraph)

Over the last few years, as Islamist terrorists have rampaged and murdered innocents around the world, I have often asked "where are the muslim moderates?  Why are they not speaking out and condemning the atrocities?"


It seems that locally these leaders of the muslim communities have been speaking out, but the msm hasn't seen fit to report on this.

This may be about to change.  From the Guardian (UK):

British Muslim leaders issue fatwa against would-be jihadists


Imams reportedly tell Muslims to oppose the promotion of the ‘poisonous ideology’ of Islamic State

31 August 2014

Muslim leaders have issued a fatwa condemning British jihadists.

The fatwa prohibits would-be jihadists from joining the “oppressive and tyrannical” Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq and Syria, the Sunday Times reported. It said the imams had ordered Muslims to oppose the promotion of the “poisonous ideology” of Isis in the UK.

Six senior Islamic scholars have endorsed the fatwa, the first of its kind issued in the UK, describing Britons allied to Islamic State cells as “heretics”....


From the Independant:

Alan Henning: British Muslim leaders unite to urge Isis to release UK hostage‘We are not prepared to let these lunatics hijack our faith’ - read the letter and add your name to the #NotInMyName list

17 September 2014
More than 100 Muslim leaders today make an unprecedented joint appeal to the kidnappers of Alan Henning to release the aid worker unharmed or commit the “worst condemnable sin” against Islam.

The statement to The Independent has been signed by dozens of Imams from across the UK as well as community leaders and other prominent Muslims. It has been passed on to Mr Henning’s family.

It pleads with those holding the British hostage to accept that he was on a mission to Syria to help innocent civilians and to see the errors of their ways.

“In Islam, concern for fellow humans and the duty to help everyone is a religious obligation,” they write. “Anyone undertaking a humanitarian act is paving his or her way to receive help from heaven....


There is much more, including video, here.




Muslim Leaders Worldwide Condemn ISIS

August 23, 2014
Many Americans Want to Know Why Muslims Aren’t Condemning ISIS

ABC News’ Laura Ingraham, Fox News’ Sean HannityFox & Friends and other U.S. media commentators say that Muslims are silent and complicit in the barbarian crimes of ISIS.  Fox News hostAndrea Tantaros said that all Muslims are the same as ISIS, and implied that all Muslims should be met “with a bullet to the head”.

Why don’t we hear Muslims condemning the barbarian ISIS terrorists?

Turns out they are loudly condemning ISIS … but our press isn’t covering it.  [Emphasis mine]


Father Elias Mallon of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association explains:


Why aren’t Muslims speaking out against these atrocities?” The answer is: Muslims have been speaking out in the strongest terms, condemning the crimes against humanity committed by ISIS (or, as it is increasingly called, IS) and others in the name of Islam....

Operation Market Garden: 70 Years On

From MoD:




22 September 2014

Soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade and airborne troops from across the world gathered in Arnhem at the weekend to mark the 70th anniversary of Operation Market Garden. In September 1944 British and American troops landed behind German lines with the aim of capturing a string of Rhine river crossings, but met with strong resistance at the final bridge at Arnhem. Over 1,500 British soldiers were killed and nearly 6,500 captured. The picture shows paratroopers jumping onto the original British landing zone at Ede. [Picture: Corporal Andy Reddy RLC, Crown copyright]



[Related:  Heroes: Remembering the 70th anniversary of Operation Market Garden and the Battle of Arnhem [photos]


Arnhem Veteran Lance Corporal Smith's story

GITMO: Chief Prosecutor delaying retirement

From Miami Herald:

Due to retire, Guantánamo prosecutor gets 3 more years on job09/19/2014


The Pentagon has extended the career of the chief war crimes prosecutor into the first year of the next president of the United States, a move designed to instill stability and confidence in the on-again, off-again war crimes trials at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, 54, was due to retire from service in November. Instead, said Army Lt. Col. Myles B. Caggins III, the Department of the Army has delayed the general’s retirement “until November 2017 specifically for him to continue performing the duties of Chief Prosecutor, Office of Military Commissions, Washington, D.C., for an additional three years.”

The move is not a surprise. Martins, a career Army officer, has for more than a year been telling victims he wants to see the Sept. 11 and USS Cole death-penalty cases through....





Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article2170545.html#storylink=cpy

Friday, September 19, 2014

Video: Scotland says NO; Salmond to quit

With a wider margin than I had predicted, Scotland voted to stay as part of the United Kingdom.  With a final total of 55% -v- 45%, the mouthpiece of the Yes for Independence campaign, Alex Salmond, says he will step down.




From the Beeb:

19 September 2014
Scottish referendum: Salmond to go after Scotland No vote

Alex Salmond is to step down as first minister of Scotland after voters decisively rejected independence.
He will also resign as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) after the "No" side won Thursday's referendum by 2,001,926 to 1,617,989 for "Yes".
The national split of the vote was 55% for "No" to 45% for "Yes".
Mr Salmond said: "For me as leader my time is nearly over but for Scotland the campaign continues and the dream shall never die."
Speaking from Bute House in Edinburgh, the first minister's official residence, he told journalists: "I am immensely proud of the campaign that Yes Scotland fought and particularly of the 1.6m voters who rallied to that cause."...

There is much more on Mr Salmond and his political career and aspirations here.

POW/MIA Day



Thursday, September 18, 2014

Australia cracks down in the GWOT

For anybody who still clings to the notion that terrorism is local - 'over there' - and doesn't affect the global population, today comes this story out of Australia.

From Homeland Security NewsWire:

Two ISIS supporters arrested in Australia for planning a public beheading in Sydney
18 September 2014

Earlier this morning (Thursday), the Australian security services, conducting the largest counterterrorism raids in the Australia’s history, arrested fifteen ISIS supporters, charging two of them with planning to grab an Australian citizen and publicly behead him on a Sydney street – while filming the operation for posting on social media. The government says about 100 Australians are actively engaged in activities within Australia aiming to support extremist Islamist groups — recruiting fighters, grooming suicide bomber candidates, and providing funds and equipment.

Since 8 August, when the United States launched its air campaign againstISIS targets in Iraq while, at the same time, trying to put together an international coalition to fight and defeat the Islamist group, senior members of Islamic State have been urging the group’s supporters in the West to carry out attacks against citizens of states likely to join the U.S.-led coalition.

Australia’s prime minister Tony Abbott, speaking earlier today (Thursday) after the largest counterterrorism raids in the Australia’s history, said that ISIS called on its supporters in Australia to grab citizens in Australia’s major cities and behead them in public.

The planned public attack would have been similar to the murder of Lee Rigby, a British soldiers who was attacked and killed in May 2013 by two Nigerian-born Muslim converts near the Royal Artillery Barracks in southeast London....



Much more here, but the raids were actually far wider-reaching than that column details.  Take a look here:   Horrific Terror Plot In Australia: Beheadings Of Random Members of Public Planned


Another ISIS related story, featuring a captured British journalist, demonstrates the globally insidious reach of these terrorist murdering thugs:  Third British hostage appears in shocking new ISIS propaganda video urging UK to negotiate with terror group 

Pay attention!  

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

TAPS Provides Comfort to Suicide Survivors

As the DoD releases the latest statistics on Military suicides in the first quarter of 2014, comes this reminder of the important work that TAPS does:

TAPS Provides Comfort to Suicide Survivors 
 By Shannon Collins
DoD News Specials and Features, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2014 – When family members of Defense Department service members lose their loved ones to suicide or other deaths, they have more than the support of family, friends and their community. They have the support of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors staff.

TAPS is a not-for-profit organization that meets its mission by providing peer-based emotional support, grief and trauma resources, casework assistance and connections to community-based care. It provides immediate and long-term emotional help, hope and healing to all who are grieving the death of a loved one in military service to America.

For Rebecca Morrison, TAPS suicide survivor communications liaison, it has a personal connection as well. Morrison’s husband, Army Capt. Ian Morrison, was a U.S. Military Academy graduate and Apache helicopter pilot. In 2011, he deployed to Iraq, and after 10 months, he returned with anxiety issues, depression and insomnia.

“Ian was a very active, happy, positive guy. He worked out all of the time and ate healthy,” she said. “In 2012, in the last two weeks of his life, he didn’t sleep. He hardly ate. He stopped going to the gym. He seemed very anxious most of the time. The main issue he talked about was sleep.”

Morrison had been teaching elementary school students at Fort Hood, Texas, and was working on her master’s degree when Ian started having trouble and lost his life to suicide. As his unit memorial approached, Morrison said, her college professor gave her the TAPS phone number.

“I had just had the funeral; I was just terrified basically, and I called TAPS really late, about the night before,” Morrison said. “I told Bonnie Carroll my story a little bit. She said, ‘Hold on, I’m going to connect you with someone whose story is similar to yours, and she’s going to call you and help you.’
I was like, ‘She’s never going to call.’”... 


 To read what happened next, and to find important links, go read more here.

GITMO 5 release now top ISIS commander

Who'd a thunk this?




From National Report:

Terrorist Exchanged For Bowe Bergdahl Now Top ISIS Commander 
16 September 2014

Mullah Mohammed Fazi, one of the five Guantanamo Bay detainees released by the Obama administration in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl, has been confirmed to be currently in Iraq. Fazi, the Taliban’s former Defense Minister, is serving in a leadership capacity within the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

Reports indicate that Fazi, classified by a 2008 Pentagon dossier as being considered a high risk to the United States if released, appears to be heavily engaged in the systematic murder of Iraqs non-Sunni population. Internal Pentagon assessments say the strategy of wholesale slaughter carried out in ISIS occupied territories very well could have originated with Fazi. Many of the same techniques were utilized by the Taliban in Afghanistan to consolidate and strengthen their position under Mohammed Fazi’s direction.

News of Fazi’s involvement in the ISIS caliphate comes shortly on the heels of a finding by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office that President Obama broke the law when he exchanged five Taliban leaders for Sgt Bowe Bergdahl. The White House has “strongly disagreed” with the GAO’s conclusions. White House spokesman Eric Schultz has said that,”We reject the implication that the administration acted unlawfully.”

The Obama administration is worried that news of Fazi’s emergence as a top commander in ISIS will worsen public perception of both the terrorist swap for Bergdahl and the GAO’s findings of illegal activity....


Read the rest here.


Just so much wrong with all of this, as many of us predicted at the time of Obama's rush to do this illegal, secret deal.



Mohammad Fazl is the Taliban's former Deputy Defense Minister