Browse > Home / Archive: November 2007

Iraq Progress: Mosul Terminal Ready For Passengers

November 30, 2007

Iraq progress means Surge Progress.

For the first time in years Iraqi citizens can now fly from the newly completed facilities at Mosul’s airport in order to participate in the hajj, which requires all able-bodied Muslims make a pilgrimage to Mecca once in their lives.

Please read this story of continued hope in Iraq.


Mosul Passenger Terminal Ready for Flights to Mecca

By LuAnne Fantasia
American Forces Press Service

MOSUL, Iraq, Nov. 30, 2007 – A long-awaited passenger terminal project here that had lagged behind schedule now is complete. Less than three months after Mustafa Yoldah left his company’s office in Turkey and came to Mosul with a new foreman and extra workers, the project was finished.

“He made it happen,” said Alda Ottley, project engineer for this facility. The terminal is now ready for the more than 2,800 Iraqis who hope to make their way to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in December. A tenet of Islam is that able-bodied Muslims make a pilgrimage to Mecca once in their lives.

“The hajj flights will be the first commercial flights since 1993,” Ottley said. The original airport was built in from 1992 to 1993, but commercial flights were available for less than a year before the Mosul air space became a no-fly zone.

The Mosul airport fell into disrepair over the years. It is currently located between two coalition bases: forward operating bases Diamondback and Marez. Recent renovations include a new air-traffic control tower in addition to the passenger terminal, both with program and construction management by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“It’s always good to see a project finished, considering the problems we encountered and how we overcame them,” Ottley said. “I learned from this project … from a construction and engineering standpoint.

“The government of Iraq has asked for a reduced presence of Americans around the airport when the flights start, but … we will still be working outside the terminal, asphalting the main roads and the parking lot,” she added.
She explained that passengers will be processed through security and baggage checks at another location and then transported directly to the entrance of the passenger terminal.

“A hajj committee agent will stay with his or her group of 76 people 24/7 through the entire trip until they return to Mosul,” R.C. Shackelford, the provincial program manager for the U.S. State Department’s of Iraq Transition Assistance Office in Mosul. “The Iraqi government hopes to have two commercial flights daily to Baghdad by spring, which would be a real boost to the economy.”

Although a couple of minor issues remain to be finalized inside the passenger terminal, Ottley said, it will be ready for the Muslim pilgrimage. “The baggage claim belts haven’t arrived yet, but should be here by the first of December.”

Ottley has been a project engineer in the Gulf Region North district more than two years. She deployed from her home district in St. Paul, Minn., to Sulaymaniyah in 2005 and worked there until she moved to the Mosul Area Office in February 2006. Currently, her other reconstruction projects include the Mosul Courthouse, which was extensively damaged in September by a truck bombing, and renovation of the Ibn Sena cardiac surgical wing, only the second one in Iraq.

(LuAnne Fantasia is the public affairs officer for the Gulf Region North district, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Iraq.)

Popularity: 17% [?]

Written by LibNOT_SR · Filed Under U.S News 

THOUSANDS IN SUDAN PROTEST, CALLING FOR ‘MUHAMMAD’ TEDDY BEAR TEACHER’S EXECUTION

November 30, 2007

Is there any doubt that the West is in trouble with radical Islamists throughout the world. The innocence with which this teacher and her seven year old students named a teddy bear “Muhammad” and the reaction of the radical Islamic element in Sudan is beyond comprehension.

UPDATE: Read the article here from Miss Beth’s Victory Dance blog regarding radical Islam and Gillian Gibbons, the victim in the “teddy bear crime.”

Popularity: 21% [?]

Written by LibNOT_SR · Filed Under U.S News, War On Terror 

“CIRCLE OF SIX” BY Ret. Det. Randy Jurgensen, 1972 Mosque Murder Of Patrolman Philip Cardillo

November 30, 2007

A MUST READ FOR ANY POLICE OFFICER OR CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES

“CIRCLE OF SIX” BY RET DETECTIVE RANDY JURGENSEN

Available at: WWW.RANDYJURGENSEN.COM or www.amazon.com.

Please read this story in The NY Post: “Commish Reopens Probe in ‘72 Case”

“Jurgensen is the genuine article. He stands among some of the best detectives in the NYPD. The Mosque case of 1972 is one of the most famous cases in NYPD history and Circle of Six holds no punches.”
–Joe ‘Donnie Brasco’ Pistone, FBI Agent

“Randy Jurgensen’s and Robert Cea’s gripping account of the 1970s New York makes today’s city streets seem quaint by comparison.”
–Raymond W. Kelly, NYPD Police Commissioner

“Every NYPD member of the force and service that has ever worn, is wearing, or ever will wear the uniform should say thank you.”
Timmy Motto, Retired NYPD Patrolman

“Circle of Six takes us back to a time of despair in New York City that we would all like to forget but cannot because we have to understand the mistakes of that time so we don’t repeat them again.”
–William J. Bratton, LAPD Police Commissioner

“This is the Moby Dick of police stories… It makes me wish I was still producing movies.”
–Phil D’Antoni, Academy Award Winning Producer, The French Connection

“This fantastic book puts you right there in the teaming, riotous, Harlem streets, amidst the chaos, anger, fear, betrayal, violence and death. Every cop should read this. Every American should read it. You won’t believe what they did.”
–Ed Dee, Retired NYPD Lieutenant & author of The Con Man’s Daughter

Popularity: 19% [?]

Written by LibNOT_SR · Filed Under U.S News 

Video: K.T McFarland on today’s Slovak dirty bomb arrests

November 29, 2007

If you haven’t heard, there were 3 people arrested by the Slovaks for possesion of uranium today. They were trying to sell it to terrorists. There was enough uranium to make a dirty bomb. Scary stuff! The war on terror continues….

Video:

Popularity: 23% [?]

Written by LibNOT_jr · Filed Under Video, War On Terror 

Afghanistan: Important Taliban Leader Likely Killed In Air-Strike

November 29, 2007

The Taliban in Afghanistan are not what they once were, or what they are trying to project to the Western Press. As you’ll note in the text below from this UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND press release, the Taliban are trying the tactic of accusation - killing innocents, in this case construction workers. With a press corps that’s starved for news, the Taliban sometimes has a willing partner.

PRECISION AIR STRIKE TARGETS TALIBAN LEADER IN NURISTAN

KABUL, Afghanistan (Nov. 28) – Acting on credible intelligence from several sources, International Security Assistance Forces conducted an air strike using precision munitions killing a number of insurgents in the Nurgaram District of Nuristan Province on Nov. 26.

The intelligence indicated that an insurgent leader and his forces were preparing for attacks on Afghan National Security Forces and ISAF elements operating in the area.

Allegations have been made that construction workers were killed in the air strike. Afghan government officials, ANP and ISAF forces are conducting a joint investigation at this time.

“We take allegations of this kind very seriously and make every effort to minimize the possibility of civilian casualties,” said Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco, ISAF Spokesman.

ISAF commanders in Nuristan Province and the provincial governor spoke about the air strike early Tuesday morning.

Nuristan governor Tamim Nuristani informed the Provincial Reconstruction Team commander that Abdulla Jan, the Western Nuristan Taliban commander, may have been killed in the air strike.

Here’s an additional story from Cent Com: TWELVE DETAINED AS COALITION FORCES TARGET AL-QAEDA TERRORIST OPERATIONS

Popularity: 21% [?]

Written by LibNOT_SR · Filed Under U.S News, War On Terror 

Special Operations soldier in Afghanistan wants YOU to hear what he has to say

November 29, 2007

A special operations soldier that was interviewed by Bill O’Reilly last week in Afghanistan. In his own words, he describes how it’s going over there and what the mainstream media is NOT telling us about Afghanistan. There are many good things happening over there too. Just like in Iraq!

Please watch below:

Popularity: 20% [?]

Written by LibNOT_jr · Filed Under Video, War On Terror 

CNN let Hillary Clinton backer to ask questions last night at Republican debate

November 29, 2007

But, there’s no media bias, right? Well, here’s just another example of CNN pandering to the left. They actually let a question from a known Hillary Clinton backer to ask a question last night on Youtube.

A CNN host acknowledged the participation of a retired Army colonel linked to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in a televised Republican debate Wednesday.

Keith Kerr of Santa Rosa, Calif., who revealed himself as gay, challenged the eight candidates via video message and on stage at the CNN/YouTube debate in Florida on the right of gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military.

The broadcast, however, failed to mention that Kerr, who served as a brigadier general in the reserves, is a member of a gay and lesbian steering committee for Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Could you imagine if a Rudy Guiliani backer snuck in and asked a question during the Democrat debate on Youtube? There would be an uproar! Right wing conspiracy, facsists controlling the media, blah blah blah.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Written by LibNOT_jr · Filed Under U.S News 

USMC: Lt. Col. Arraigned For Haditha “Massacre.” Cong. Murtha Must Be Dancin’

November 28, 2007

Good old Congressman Murtha must be dancing a jig at the “good news” that Marine Lt. Colonel Jeffrey Chessani was arraigned on charges of dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order for allegedly failing to investigate the conduct of four Marines under his command after a Nov. 19, 2005 house-to-house battle in Haditha. As a report in Newsweek outlines:

However, according to a 37-page military assessment recently obtained by Newsweek , the Haditha case is unraveling. The report, by investigator Lt. Col. Paul Ware, said, “The evidence is contradictory, the forensic analysis is limited, and almost all the witnesses have an obvious bias or prejudice.”

It appears that Jack Murtha requires appeasement….by the current administration! Why is the Bush administration patting this guy on the back and allowing this investigation and indictment to proceed.

And how about Charlie Rangle, Congressman from NY:

“The verdict is already in; and it is not in the U.S.’s favor. While Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assures us that 99.9 percent of our servicemen and women are behaving humanely, the majority of the Iraqis confess no surprise at learning about the war crimes of the U.S. soldiers.”

Lt. Colonel Chessani’s family must be so distraught over this nightmare and the Corps refusal to back this fine man to the hilt that it makes this writer sick.

Read on….

Marine Leader Charged Over Haditha Is Innocent, Legal Group Says
By Fred Lucas
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
November 28, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - High-ranking government officials in the United States pre-judged the criminal case against Marines involved in the 2005 Haditha incident in Iraq, said the Thomas More Law Center, which is co-defending the commanding officer charged in the case.

U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani was arraigned Nov. 17 at Camp Pendleton on charges of dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order for allegedly failing to investigate the conduct of four Marines under his command after a Nov. 19, 2005 house-to-house battle in Haditha.

In that battle, 24 Iraqis were killed, 15 of whom allegedly were noncombatant civilians. (See Haditha Investigation Timeline)

The Thomas More Law Center, a conservative group, is joining Chessani’s military legal defense team for his trial, which starts in April 2008. Chessani is the highest ranking official charged in the case.

The law center plans to make motions to dismiss the charges against Chessani on grounds of “unlawful command influence,” because high-ranking government officials pressed the case early before all the facts were in, said Brian Rooney, a spokesman for the group.

The center announced its involvement in the case as a leaked government report seemed to indicate weaknesses in the prosecution’s case.

Military prosecutors have tried to make the case that the soldiers - supposedly motivated by revenge - intended to kill the civilians after a roadside bomb killed one Marine and injured two others.

However, according to a 37-page military assessment recently obtained by Newsweek , the Haditha case is unraveling. The report, by investigator Lt. Col. Paul Ware, said, “The evidence is contradictory, the forensic analysis is limited, and almost all the witnesses have an obvious bias or prejudice.”

While civilians were killed in Haditha, insurgent fighters in Iraq have frequently hidden among civilians and used them as shields, which makes the case for a revenge killing difficult to prove.

Meanwhile, all charges have been dropped against two of the Marines in the case, while a third faces court martial for involuntary manslaughter, a drop from the original murder indictment against him. Ware reportedly suggested a similar reduction in the charges against the fourth shooter.

Chessani was charged for dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order. Specifically, prosecutors accuse him of failure to report or investigate the killings of Iraqi civilians, which would be a violation of war by Marines under his command. He faces up to 30 months in prison and dishonorable discharge from the Marines, if convicted.

In a sworn statement in August 2006, Chessani said the killing of civilians was unfortunate but he did not consider the shooting incident to be out of the ordinary or beyond routine combat.

It is a military order that commanders report to their superiors any time their subordinates violate the laws of war.

Chessani reported the incident on the day it happened, but prosecutors claim he did not report it to officials high enough in the chain of command, Rooney said. Further, it happened during combat and thus was not a violation of war, said Rooney.

Further, Rooney said, Chessani did a preliminary investigation by going to the scene and interviewing the soldiers about what happened. This should have met the legal requirements, Rooney said, but he again blames the media and politicians for making this a “political prosecution.”

The Thomas More Law Center contends that previous reports by Army Gen. Eldon Bargewell and Army Col. Gregory Watt from last year back up the conclusion of the 37-page report leaked to Newsweek.

“A U.S. Army colonel and an Army general conducted two separate investigations and came to the same conclusion: There was no ‘massacre’ and no ‘cover-up,’” said the law center’s president, Richard Thompson, in a statement.

“Yet the government still pursued a multi-million dollar investigation in order to appease an anti-war politician and the blame-America-first media. Now we have the absurd situation of Lt. Col. Chessani being charged with failing to report and investigate a crime that never occurred,” Thompson added.

The “anti-war politician” referred to by Thompson is Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.), a retired Marine colonel who became a vocal critic of the Iraq war in 2005.

In May 2006, Murtha said at a Capitol Hill press conference: “There was no firefight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.”

As chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on Defense, Murtha wields power over defense spending and that power potentially could influence the investigation and case against Ware, according to the law center.

In addition to Murtha, the law center’s legal motions name other officials who supposedly biased the case, including Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) who, in 2006, was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and vowed to hold hearings on the matter; Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who compared Haditha to the My Lai massacre of Vietnam; and U.S. Navy Secretary Donald Winter, who also made comments that potentially could pre-judge the case, said Rooney.

“They all showed a bias that these men were guilty before an investigation was complete,” Rooney told Cybercast News Service .

“It’s frustrating to me, as a former Marine, that a lot of reporters, media types, and politicians have the worldview from the 1960s that never changed. They wanted to make this the new My Lai because they have tried from the beginning to make this the new Vietnam,” he said.

In a speech given on the House floor last June, Rangel repeated Murtha’s view that the soldiers might have snapped under pressure, “committing atrocities they would never have otherwise committed.”

Rangel also said: “The verdict is already in; and it is not in the U.S.’s favor. While Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assures us that 99.9 percent of our servicemen and women are behaving humanely, the majority of the Iraqis confess no surprise at learning about the war crimes of the U.S. soldiers.”

Rangel was also referring to Time magazine, which broke the story of the Haditha incident and referred to it as “massacring innocent civilians.”

A spokesman from Murtha’s office could not be reached for comment on this story, nor could a spokesman from Warner’s office.

It was the Time story that prompted the investigation in mid-2006. By that point, the forensic and ballistic evidence was scant and autopsies weren’t obtainable, according to the military report in Newsweek. Prosecutors relied on the word of two other Marines who got an immunity deal, but Ware writes in the report that these men have “low credibility.”

Popularity: 20% [?]

Written by LibNOT_SR · Filed Under U.S News 

USAF Afghanistan: Neurosurgeon Lt. Col. (Dr.) Randall McCafferty Saves Child’s Life

November 27, 2007

Every time someone in the world protests about how bad we Americans are, including many here at home, you read a story about someone like Dr. McCafferty. I guess when we have leftists like Sunsara Taylor that hate this country with an unrivaled passion - no wonder that so many hate us when we do so much good throughout the world.

Air Force Neurosurgeon Saves Afghan Child’s Life

American Forces Press Service

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Nov. 27, 2007 – An Air Force neurosurgeon assigned to Craig Joint Theater Hospital here saved the life of an 8-month-old Afghan girl earlier this month.

The child, from Parwan province, was originally taken by her parents to El Salem Egyptian Field Hospital with symptoms including excessive head growth, eye abnormalities and irritability.

After Egyptian physicians referred her to the U.S. hospital, Air Force neurosurgeon Lt. Col. (Dr.) Randall McCafferty diagnosed a congenital brain abnormality called an “arachnoid cyst” at the base of the young girl’s brain.

“The cyst had caused blockage of the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, thus causing hydrocephalus (commonly known as ‘water on the brain’),” McCafferty said. “Left untreated, the condition could have eventually been fatal.”

Thanks to the recent deployment of neurosurgical assets to Afghanistan, McCafferty was able to operate on the child Nov. 12 and again Nov. 20, removing the cyst and leaving the girl in good condition.

“I was happy that I could bring specialized training to this region that did not previously exist and that with those skills I was able to provide an opportunity at a future life for both the child and her family that likely would not otherwise exist,” McCafferty said.

The doctor also said he felt fortunate to have the support of his command, colleagues and the intensive care unit staff at Craig Joint Theater Hospital.

(From a Combined Joint Task Force 82 news release.)

Popularity: 20% [?]

Written by LibNOT_SR · Filed Under War On Terror 

War on Christmas - Fort Collins Colorado

November 27, 2007

As our friends over at Stop the ACLU, the ACLU have tried, once again, to squash any kinds of decorations for Christmas, this time in Fort Collins, Colorado.

This year in Fort Collins, Colorado, the city council decided to revise their policies to honor appropriately the holiday that almost ninety percent of America celebrates as Christmas. A task force was drawn up, given their task, and put to work.

Like most task forces set up by governing bodies, the result is only as good as the people you put in charge. In this case, the head of the ACLU in Fort Collins was tasked with running the committee. The result was obviously predictable.

The task force recommended no Christmas lights, no recognition of Christmas, no use of the colors red and green, no Christmas trees, and to otherwise squelch anything even remotely connected to Christmas. Instead, they suggested decorations of icicles and prominent use of the color brown. In short, they suggested returning Christmas to its millennia old pagan roots.

At the city council meeting to vote on the proposal, hundreds of people showed up to voice their concern (instead of the 10-15 people who usually show up) and the proposal was shot down 6-1. The lone dissenting voice protested saying that residents would feel left out and alienated by the city recognizing that the overwhelming majority of citizens are celebrating Christmas.

It’s an interesting argument. Tolerance requires that people practice their faith in such a way that never leaves anyone out. Even if you took this argument at face value; that would effectively mean that no one could practice religion because the moment you identify with a group, you tacitly isolate those who are not part of that group. The idea that the First Amendment, designed to protect citizens from government, requires a destruction of all uniqueness is odd indeed.

This is another example of progressive government trying to sneak something under the noses of the citizens. Obviously, the people did not want this. So, my questions is this: Why was this ridiculous proposal even considered? Something is very wrong when government needs to tell us, or tries to tell us, how we should celebrate our traditional American holidays.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Written by LibNOT_jr · Filed Under Politics 

Next Page »