Theodore's World

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This Category Bunker Notebook at Theodore’s World, 
will be about the things shared in emails from 
our troops and other Americans that are 
located in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Theodore’s World is very aware of how 
loose lips endanger our troops and other Americans 
working in the hot zones, so at all times great care will be 
taken in how much information is posted. 

Some notes will be directly from the troops 
and other notes from those such
as employees with Halliburton and others..

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Yes there is a curfew in Bagdad, I have received emails from a friend that is there. She is an employee with Haliburton in Baghdad.

“They’re really not worse…they’re better than they were in 2004. They’re coming to a head. Most of rest of Iraq is calm now. But there is a need for some changes in the leadership. I guess people learn lessons after a first-time election. I’ve heard so many Iraqis bemoan not having voted for Allawi’s party now.
The media has been very successful in distorting the war to the people back home. I’ve watched them do it for some time now and it disgusts me. They’ve even been able to influence events here. People just don’t realize what ramifications there are when they go spouting off about that. This is not a failure, we have not lost and pulling out now would be disastrous.”

And this is from an email from someone that is in the military in Iraq …Army Infantry Lieutenant…Platoon Leader in the first Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT)…..with his permission:

“As you know,Mosul, my personal playground, is more or less stable, but there is a strong insurgent presence here. We in the Stryker Brigade are able to contain them very well, but we’ve been unable to make a real dent in them personnel-wise. Logistically, we’ve been hammering them, and that’s almost as good. Intelligence (for us) is scattered but reliable. For them, well, there are a very large number of people who are happy to pass on tidbits of info b/c it seems like the good Iraqi/Muslim thing to do.
People like to talk about how it took 10 years in Germany and Japan after WWII, but they’re ignoring the basic fact that Arabs are NOT German nor are they Japanese. Completely different cultures with completely different mindsets. The current plan would work swimmingly if the Iraqi people gave half a damn about their (meager) existences. They don’t; they merely worry about which tribe or sect this or that person is with and whether he/she should be killed (either due simply to their affiliation or in retribution). The IA and IPs (except for the Kurds) follow the same pattern. We, as Americans, can’t change that perception. We can’t want it more for them than they want it for themselves. It is literally that simple. Americans see this in one way, but the Arab mentality is vastly different (and inferior) from ours. Unfortunately, since it’s their country and their region of the world, it’s their viewpoint and subsequent actions that matter.
With all the talk back home about having us pull out of Iraq sooner rather than later, I can say with a completely clear conscience that the U.S has not failed the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people have failed us and not lived up to our sacrifices. Democracy and the associated civic and personal responsibilities associated with it are incompatible with Islam, period.
We are still patrolling like 3 years ago. Day in, day out. Only recently have we taken a more “tactical overwatch” stance, but we’re still very active in the city. The good news is that the IA are, too. However, ours is a unique situation. IA in Mosul is over 95% Kurdish. They are dedicated and loyal. In the rest of the country, they are Arab, and are loyal to their religious sect and won’t hesitate to stab us in the back if it means they can kill some Sunnis/Shi’ites (or whichever other flavor that’s out there they don’t like). The Arabs are always shady, b/c you really never know where their loyalties lie. Even if some of the IA are substandard Soldiers (below US Army standards, that is), at least they’re loyal and motivated. You get no such guarantees from Arabs, ever.
You are right about your assessment of the dedication and professionalism of the military, of course, and you’re correct about the idiocy of the media’s presentation of the battlespace. We need to get serious with these terrorists/insurgents. This arresting and turning over to the Iraqis is absolute nonsense. Once caught, AIF need to be shot on sight. That will send a clear message that we aren’t playing around anymore, and it will make the jihad a lot less fun for these guys. IA over here just caught three guys with weapons and handcuffs at a checkpoint. They admitted to going around fishing for kidnapping victims (who invariably end up dead). Instead of being shot, they’re now hanging out in a detention facility getting three meals a day and being questioned (nicely). All AIF know that our ROE is pretty limited and they use our morality against us constantly. It needs to end. They need to be deathly afraid of us.
The bottom line here is that any withdrawal on our part is hardly indicative of a failure on the U.S.’s part but that of the failure of the Iraqi people. Voting for representatives doesn’t make you a democracy, it takes a lot of personal responsibility, and these people haven’t even figured out sewage and garbage treatment yet! Will Iraq ever be able to handle the responsibility of a democracy? Who knows? What getting out or talking about it does effect are insurgents, it gives them encouragement that they and we don’t need from them. And every time one of our Soldiers is killed up here, well it’s like this Chrissie, I drive around the city every day looking at these people and I know for a fact that none of ’em are worth the platoon sergeant from my company who was killed a few months back. Not a single one.
But I do want to complete what we were sent here to do. I want to do it for him, and for all the others we have lost, my brothers. I want to do it for all of you back there to be safe and keep these people from bringing it back home where all my loved ones are. As for myself we’re fighting them here rather than on U.S. soil.
Thanks for your support and letting me sound off to you when I can. Thank everyone at your blog too, we check it out over here when we can. It is appreciated!”

Here are two quotes from men regarding Iraq:
First, Kurdish Regional Government Prime Minister Barzani:

“When I was in the United States recently and read the negative news in the Washington Post, New York Times and in the network TV broadcasts, I even wondered if things had gotten so bad since I had left that I shouldn’t return.”

Next, Gen. Abizaid:

“When I come to Washington, I feel despair. When I’m in Iraq with my commanders, when I talk to our soldiers, when I talk to the Iraqi leadership, they are not despairing.”

Democrats’ Secret Weapons
Investors.com
Intelligence: Senate Democrats are focusing their new powers on one thing above all else: wrenching as many national security secrets as possible from this White House and using them for political assassination.
Patrick Leahy of Vermont, soon to be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has made more than 65 requests for classified documents from the Bush administration. Among other secrets, he wants..

“all directives, memoranda and/or orders including any and all attachments to such documents regarding CIA interrogation methods or policies for the treatment of detainees.”

Giving Leahy and his staff secrets would, quite simply, be a security risk. Since the 1980s, Leahy’s nickname inside the Beltway has been “Leaky Leahy” because of his willingness to provide the press with juicy secrets to be used against Republican presidents.
In 1987, Leahy was forced to resign as vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee after leaking a draft report of the Iran-Contra affair to a reporter. In 1985, he was charged with revealing secrets in the Achille Lauro terrorist hijacking, a misdeed that may have cost an Egyptian anti-terrorist agent his life. And Leahy apparently blackmailed the Reagan administration’s CIA, threatening to expose a covert operation against the terrorist state of Libya.
The man about to become the new chairman of the panel from which Leahy was removed in 1987 is another big security risk. Incoming Senate Intelligence Committee head Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told National Public Radio last week how frustrated he is with the government’s restrictions on sharing secrets from intelligence briefings.

“You can’t discuss it with anybody on your staff,” he complained. “You can’t discuss anything that you’ve heard with anybody.

“It’s a stupid situation . . . and it’s one we have to get ourselves out of,” he insisted, “and the way you do that is to brief more members of the Senate and House — the intelligence committees — into the program so that they know exactly what’s going on.”

Rockefeller certainly knew exactly what was going on when, during a 2002 trip to the Middle East, he gave Bashar al-Assad, president of the terrorist state of Syria, advance warning of U.S plans to invade Iraq. Why should we take Rockefeller’s advice and spill secrets to other Democratic senators and congressmen? So they can fly to the Middle East and give their own freelance intelligence briefings to terrorists?
Carl Levin, who’ll head the Senate Armed Services Committee, will need lots of the classified documents Leahy and Rockefeller demand if he’s to follow through with his promised “thorough review” of the CIA’s interrogation and imprisonment program.

“I’m not comfortable with the system,” he has said. “I think that there’s been some significant abuses which have not made us more secure, but have made us less secure and have also, perhaps, cost us some real allies, as well as not producing useful information.”

In the five years after the 9/11 attacks, there has not been a single terrorist strike on the homeland. More than a dozen terrorist plots have been foiled, proof that tough interrogations have produced useful information — lots of it — making us much more secure.

“The American people,” Leahy wrote in a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, “deserve to have detailed and accurate information about the role of the Bush administration in developing the interrogation policies and practices that have engendered such deep criticism around the world.”

Wrong. What the American people deserve from our government is not kowtowing to foreign criticism, but protection from terrorism. That is something President Bush has done to perfection — and Democrats seem willing to sacrifice protection in their crusade to destroy this presidency.

Wild Thing’s comment……
The Administration should resist these congressional committees tooth-and-nail. They are not about the national interest, but the raw self-interest of the Democratic party. They are not legitimate legislators, but bullies and thugs who have no problem aiding the enemy, since the enemy they care about is the Republican party.

Most of you probably have read “Merry Christmas, My Friend” before, but have you heard it with the backdrop of Silent Night?
It was originally title “Merry Christmas, My Friend”, and was an instant success that reportedly brought tears to the eyes of the barrracks Commander who ordered it distributed to everyone he knew. It appeared in the barracks publication Pass in Review in December 1987 and Leatherneck Magazine in December 1991.
Written by former Marine Corporal James M. Schmidt, in 1987 when stationed in Washington D.C., it was pounded out on a typewriter while awaiting the commading officer’s Christmas holiday decoration inspection.
The poem was recorded as a tribute by Father Ted Berndt, a former Marine and Purple Heart recipient during World War II, currently residing in Dousman, Wisconsin for his daughter Ellen Stout, a Clear Channel radio personality.
Here is the link to the MP3 audio version of “Merry Christmas, My Friend”, titled “Soldier’s Silent Night” –

* Blackfive

U.S. Army NASCAR driver Joe Nemechek was presented a copy of A Million Thanks by Shauna Fleming, the 16-year-old founder of A Million Thanks, prior to Sunday’s (Feb. 26) Auto Club 500 Nextel Cup race in Fontana, Calif.

What began as a community school project for Shauna at Orange Lutheran High School in Orange, Calif., has turned out to be national in scope. Since she began the letter writing campaign two years ago, Shauna has received more than two million letters of thanks for the American men and women in uniform who are stationed overseas.
She presented the one millionth letter to President George W. Bush at the White House in November, 2004.

TomR mentioned in a comment about NASCAR’s Joe Nemechek’s US Army Chevy. I had not heard about it so I looked it up and found this totally cool story. Gosh I love things like this happening. Americans loving and appreciating our troops.
Thank you Tom

Soldiers in a Stryker vehicle stop for a muster of turkeys crossing the road in the outskirts of Mosul Nov. 3. The Soldiers are with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. (Sgt. Antonieta Rico, 5th Mobile Public Affairs Det.)

Washington Times
China obtained secret stealth technology used on B-2 bomber engines from a Hawaii-based spy ring in a compromise U.S. officials say will allow Beijing to copy or counter a key weapon in the Pentagon’s new strategy against China.

Details of the classified defense technology related to the B-2’s engine exhaust system and its ability to avoid detection by infrared sensors were sold to Chinese officials by former defense contractor Noshir S. Gowadia, an Indian-born citizen charged with spying in a federal indictment released by prosecutors in Hawaii.

Additionally, Mr. Gowadia provided extensive technical assistance to Chinese weapons designers in developing a cruise missile with an engine exhaust system that is hard to detect by radar, according to court papers made public recently.
He also helped the Chinese modify a cruise missile so that it can intercept U.S. air-to-air missiles, and helped Chinese weapons designers improve testing and measurement facilities, the court papers state.
Most of the indictment, handed up Nov. 8, outlines how the engineer helped China develop a radar-evading stealth exhaust nozzle for a cruise missile engine.
Additionally, the court papers indicated that Mr. Gowadia sent e-mails to Israel, Germany, and Switzerland in 2002 and 2004 that contained data labeled “secret” and “top secret” that was related to U.S. stealth technology intended for use in the TH-98 Eurocopter and for foreign commercial aircraft.
One computer file found in Mr. Gowadia’s Maui, Hawaii, home was a file containing the radar cross-sections of U.S. B-1 and F-15 jets and the Air Force’s air-launched cruise missile, information that would be useful to countering those systems by anti-aircraft missiles or other air defense weapons.
The case is the second major military technology espionage case involving China. Earlier this year, two Chinese-born brothers in Los Angeles were arrested as suspects in passing Navy warship and submarine weapons secrets to China.
In all, Mr. Gowadia is charged with making at least six secret visits to China from 2002 through 2005, and being paid at least $110,000 by Chinese officials for highly classified defense technology supplied through January, according to court papers. Investigators think he was paid as much as $2 million, some of which remains in foreign bank accounts.
The first known compromise was Mr. Gowadia’s lecture in a foreign country in 1999 that involved the disclosure of defense secrets. He offered classified defense information to as many as eight foreign nations, the court papers state.
Mr. Gowadia was first indicted in November 2005 in connection with passing information to several countries that were not identified. The new indictment states that Mr. Gowadia continued to be engaged in a conspiracy to sell classified technology through January 2006.
Mr. Gowadia worked for B-2 developer and manufacturer Northrop Aircraft Inc. from 1968 to 1989 as part of an ultrasecret special access program for the B-2, and later as a Northrop contractor involved in classified research on missiles and aircraft. He also worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1990s.

Wild Thing’s comment……
We develop it … The Chinese steal it from us.
It just never seems to stop, and we don’t seem to do anything about it. It’s way beyond sad. When you look at the Cold War and how we strove to protect our nation’s secrets and keep spies out, you see how truly outrageous our current policies are. Heck, we even let them into the White House and other top-level agencies during the Clinton fiasco.
The US is not severe enough with its traitors. I know it is too late now, but I have always felt we should start with the Clinton’s and Loral executives giving guidance technology and bring it all the way up to this. Punish to the max all involved. It makes me sick how the Clinton’s got away with what they did and now we have this jerk.

Team Rensi Motorsports Thanks the Marines for Six Years of Support
HOMESTEAD, FL —Saturday’s Ford 300 NASCAR Busch Series race will mark the conclusion of one of the most popular relationships in the series. The United States Marine Corps colors and logo will take one final ride as the primary marketing partner on the No. 25 Team Rensi Motorsports Ford. The association began in 2001 and amassed 205 races with five trips to victory lane.

“Team Rensi Motorsports would like to thank The United States Marine Corps Recruiting Command and all the Men and Women of the Marine Corps for allowing us to be a part of their recruiting efforts the last six years,” said Team Rensi Co-owner Gary Weisbaum. “It was an honor for us to represent The United States Marine Corps and to meet many outstanding active, reserve and retired Marines and their families over the years.”

Team Rensi Motorsports Co-owner Ed Rensi also sends out his appreciation.

“Team Rensi Motorsports will always be a friend of the Marine Corps and honor the Marine Corps into the future wherever possible. We intend to display the Eagle/Globe/Anchor logo on all of our race cars.”

Many memories have been shared together and the NASCAR community has become more familiar with the outstanding work of the United States Marine Corps over the years. The familiar site of Marines saluting the flag and surrounding the No. 25 Ford during the National Anthem will be missed.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Just a thank you to the Marine Corps for this and the many other things that have been involved with. It is always great to hear of others that appreciate all the things our military does and in all the various areas they are involved with. God Bless our troops.

Thank you and thank you to all our Troops and to all of you Veterans. And I would also like to thank those of you that have loved ones serving now, sons, daughters, husbands and wives. You are serving too in such a special way. You are all in my thoughts and prayers every single day.
Love
Wild Thing

Spokesman for 6 Muslim clerics barred from US Airways flight
Jihad Watch
Spokesman for 6 Muslim clerics barred from US Airways flight
One of six Muslim imams pulled from a US Airways flight in Minneapolis last night by federal authorities is affiliated with a Hamas-linked organization and acknowledged a connection to Osama bin Laden in the 1990s.
Omar Shahin, who served as a spokesman for the clerics, is a representative of the Kind Hearts Organization, which had its assets frozen by the U.S. Treasury pending an investigation, notes Islam scholar Robert Spencer on his weblog JihadWatch

Treasury spokesman Stuart Levey in February said KindHearts “is the progeny of Holy Land Foundation and Global Relief Foundation, which attempted to mask their support for terrorism behind the façade of charitable giving.”

The imams had attended a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation, said Shahin, who is president of the group.

“They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way,” Shahin said after the incident last night.

Today, Shahin called for Muslims and non-Muslims to boycott US Airways unless the company changes its policy.

“They know what they have to do, they have to be fair and just with everybody,” he said.

The Washington, D.C., based lobby group Council on American-Islamic Relations planned to file a complaint, said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.

“Because, unfortunately, this is a growing problem of singling out Muslims or people perceived to be Muslims at airports, and it’s one that we’ve been addressing for some time,” Hooper said.

CAIR, however, has its own ties to Hamas, having been identified by two former FBI counter-terrorism chiefs as a spinoff of a front group for the Palestinian terrorist organization.
A Sept. 28, 2001, story in the Arizona Republic that said Arizona appears to have been the home of an al-Qaida sleeper cell, named Shahin as one of three part-time Arizona residents who “fits the pattern” of the terrorist group.
Shahin, identifed as being with the Tucson Islamic Center, said members of his mosque may have helped bin Laden in the early 1990s when the al-Qaida leader was fighting against the Russians.
The CIA at that time, Shahin said, called bin Laden a “freedom fighter.”

“Then they tell us he is involved in terrorist acts, and they stopped supporting him, and we stopped,” he said.

In the story, Shahin expressed doubt that Muslims were responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks and said he “didn’t trust much of what the FBI has divulged – including the hijackers’ identities.”
As for Al-Qaida nests in America, Shahin said, “All of these, they make it up.”
Witnesses to the imam’s explusion last night said some of them made anti-American comments about the war in Iraq before boarding the flight, according to Minneapolis airport spokesman Patrick Hogan.
Also, some of the men asked for seat belt extensions even though a flight attendant thought they didn’t need them.

“There were a number of things that gave the flight crew pause,” Hogan said.

Shahin claimed three members of the group prayed in the terminal before the six boarded the plane. Last night, however, he said they had prayed on the plane.
The imams boarded the plane individually, Shahin said, except for a blind member who needed assistance. They didn’t sit together and “did nothing,” he contended.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Nothing better to sooth your soul before a flight like a group of Imams getting in the aisle of the airplane and begin praying! They are lucky the passengers didn’t hit them over the head with a metal fire extinguisher.
I could care less if they do boycott the airlines. I’d prefer the airline that throws imams off the plane personally.
CAIR must have their their fax machine on speed-dial so they can file complaints more rapidly.
Just thinking here but how about if US airlines would switch from peanuts and other crunchies to pork rinds.