Theodore's World

Nuestro Himno: Is It Really “Our Anthem?”
By Rahel B. Avraham of CustomerServant
The pro-illegal immigration folks now have their own campaign song. It’s called “Nuestro Himno,” (our anthem), and it’s peddlers say it’s just a re-interpretation of our national anthem, “The Star-spangled Banner.” Let’s see if that claim actually holds water.
First, an English translation of “Nuestro Himno.”

Verse 1
It’s sunrise. Do you see by the light of the dawn
What we proudly hailed last nightfall?
Its stars, its stripes
yesterday streamed
above fierce combat
a symbol of victory
the glory of battle, the march toward liberty.
Throughout the night, they proclaimed: “We will defend it!”
Chorus
Tell me! Does its starry beauty still wave
above the land of the free,
the sacred flag?
Chant:
It’s time to make a difference the kids, men and the women
Let’s stand for our beliefs, let’s stand for our vision/What about the children, los ninos ?
These kids have no parents, cause all of these mean laws.
See this can’t happen, not only about the Latins.
Asians, blacks and whites and all they do is adding
more and more, let’s not start a war
with all these hard workers,
they can’t help where they were born.
Verse 2
Its stars, its stripes,
Liberty, we are the same.
We are brothers in our anthem.
In fierce combat, a symbol of victory
the glory of battle,
(My people fight on)
the march toward liberty.
(The time has come to break the chains.)
Throughout the night they proclaimed: “We will defend it!”
Tell me! Does its starry beauty still wave
above the land of the free,
the sacred flag?

And now, to put things in perspective, the lyrics to “The Star-spangled Banner.”
The Defense of Fort McHenry
September 20, 1814
By Francis Scott Key
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
As you can see, there’s very little similarity between these two pieces, and that’s just scratching the surface. The fact is “Nuestro Himno” is not a simple translation of our national anthem into Spanish. It’s an attempt to take what is now a very familiar tune, which carries with it very vivid associations for some of us, and slap a pro-invader anthem on top of it.
The Star-spangled Banner was written in response, to a real life-or-death battle. If we had lost that part of the war of 1812, we’d be British subjects. On the other hand, this new cheap imitation that wants so desperately to be our national anthem is a plea for acceptance on behalf of those who have broken the laws of this country, and yet want to be forgiven for their trespass without paying any penalty.
“We know we’ve broken your laws, but can we have some of your hard-earned liberty anyway? After all, we’re brothers. And if you don’t give us some of your freedoms and rights, more than we already have, we say that your flag no longer flies over the land of the free and the home of the brave, because we’re in this land, and we’re not free, and though we were brave enough to cross through Central America and Mexico to sneak across the border, you don’t call us brave. But we are brave! We sneaked past your border guards, and we believe we can halt your economy in one day, and we don’t care if you give us free schooling, government subsidies for every baby born in this country. We’ll wave Mexican flags, and even cover your flag with ours, and we’ll even claim that your entire southwest region is ours and we’re going to take it back, but all the same, we want you to accept us as perfectly legal.”
This, at least, is how I interpret this anthem’s message.
And some record company’s CEO has ingeniously figured out how to cash in in a big way on the immigration fight going on in this country. By asking that “Nuestro Himno” be played simultaneously on Latino radio stations yesterday, and marketing it as simply a re-interpretation of the national anthem that will allow Hispanics who don’t speak English to understand what they’re singing, that CEO stands to make a huge amount of cash, and gain himself a lot of publicity.
If anyone is really interested in understanding what the national anthem’s lyrics mean, they could very easily have the lyrics translated in non-poetic form. But this is poetic license gone horribly wrong. And the national anthem isn’t copyrighted, so no one has to pay any royalties. No record producer could have missed that.
To conclude, I would answer the question I posed in this way. “Nuestro Himno” is a shining example of criminality and greed. Nothing more.

_________________________________

This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our Blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to euphoricrealitynet at gmail dot com.

Glass etching hobbyist and webmaster son shocked to find that Islamic extremists had intruded on their website.
Michael Levenson / The Boston Globe
A plumber who loves glass etching, Andrew Roberge had crafts to sell. His son, Mike, knew Web design. Carriage House Glass is the marriage of their talents, an online catalog of sandblasted vases and goblets that “caters to those who love beautiful and unique gifts,” the site proclaims.
But the website, which they started four years ago, offered more than just beautiful baubles, specialists in terrorism say. The site contained hidden files filled with the radical writings of a top aide to Osama bin Laden, including “The International Islamic Resistance Call,” Abu Musab al-Suri’s 1,600-page manifesto advocating jihad.
The website was hacked a year ago by followers of Suri, a Syrian-born Al Qaeda leader, who turned the Roberge’s labor of love into an online reading room for aspiring mujahadeen, the specialists said. The revelation came as a shock to the Roberges, who said they had no idea that Islamic extremists had intruded on their website.

“We got hacked! Unbelievable!” exclaimed Mike Roberge, when told last week of the hidden content on his site.

His startled father added, “Believe me, I wouldn’t let this [expletive] get on my site. I don’t need that. I don’t need none of that. I’m a firm believer in minding my own business.”

The father and son from Lawrence, Mass., vowed to delete the postings and replace them with images of eagles and American flags, “something wicked patriotic,” Mike Roberge said.
A link to the hidden files on the website was circulated on bulletin boards frequented by Muslim extremists for a year, said Jarret Brachman, director of research at the Combating Terrorism Center at the US Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.
Regular visitors to www.carriagehouseglass.com could never see the hidden material, specialists said. Only visitors who knew the address of the pages inside could access the cache of downloadable Arabic writings, and see the flash animation featuring the Kaaba, the black stone cube that Muslims face when they pray in Mecca.
Brachman and other researchers had been aware of the files, but said the intrusion onto the site was not unusual in the burgeoning world of online Islamic extremism.

“This is a very tangential, very peripheral site that only those who are actively following this sort of literature would be accessing,” Brachman said.

“It doesn’t cause me alarm: these guys are pests in terms of this stuff,” he said. “This is standard procedure for these guys to post this kind of material.”

FBI spokeswoman Gail A. Marcinkiewicz declined to comment on whether the agency knew of the website or was monitoring it. She said the FBI would investigate a website only if it directly advocated violence. Specialists said Suri’s writings advocate violence, but Marcinkiewicz said, “unless …. there’s something very urgent in that paper, it’s not that we wouldn’t take a look at it, it’s just that we have to prioritize. There’s no quick and easy answer here.”

“Without knowing what it’s saying, it may go the bottom of the pile of all the 101 things we have to do over here,” she added.

Piggybacking on Carriage House Glass, which is password-protected, allowed extremists to avoid using a credit card or other traceable data needed to start a new website, said Rita Katz, director of the Search for International Terrorist Entities in New York.

“Of course, it’s a disturbing phenomenon, but we know that Al Qaeda and the jihadist online community is quite sophisticated, and they use our own techniques against us,” Katz said. “It’s disturbing because it could happen to anyone.”

As more terrorist training grounds shut down globally, more extremists are going online, said Steven R. Corman, an Arizona State University professor who has studied the shift.

Muslim Americans upset over new 9/11-related film
FREMONT — At the United Muslim American symposium in Newark, Muslim-American leaders discussed the rhetoric regarding Iran, the war in Iraq, and the image of the United States in Islamic countries. But some also expressed concern that “United 93,” a new film about the last moments of the last hijacked plane to crash on Sept. 11, 2001, could stir up anti-Islamic sentiments.
Safaa Ibrahim, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, took her staff of four women wearing a hijab, the traditional Muslim head scarves, to a Thursday matinee.
As a civil rights advocate, Ibrahim said, she wanted to see the movie after reports that several young Muslim-American women in Arizona were verbally assaulted by two people who said they had seen the movie recently.
Ibrahim said she knew the movie would stir up emotions, but she did not expect that all of the members in her group would walk out of the theater in tears.
“We thought it was important to see the movie to find out how it comes across,” Ibrahim said. “But it dredged up a lot of emotions. We were watching it — as Americans and as Muslims — and it hurts us to see our fellow Americans hurt, and see people hurt others, acting in the name of Islam.”
At the April 29 symposium, Suhail Khan, associate director for congressional affairs at the Department of Transportation and a former White House aide under President George W. Bush, recalled his experience working at the White House on Sept. 11, 2001.
Today, Khan said he still remembers that day “moment by moment,” adding that the movie touches a raw nerve. He said he had not made up his mind about whether it is too soon to produce such a film.
“Five short years after 9/11, we’re seeing a movie produced that purports to relive the horrific moments of 9/11 and Flight 93,” Khan said. “I haven’t made up my mind about that issue honestly. I do feel, obviously, that it will stir up anti-Muslim sentiments. But, I mean, it’s hard to make the situation worse.”
Ibrahim said the opening scene of the movie, where hijackers are reading the Quran, “sent chills up my spine.”
“It only reinforced my hatred and resentment toward Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and reminded me of how much they’ve hurt Muslims and scarred our faith,” Ibrahim said. “I have so much anger toward these guys. The movie only reinforced that. I understand why it makes others angry. It doesn’t feel good to watch what happened and see innocent families die. It’s senseless.”
But Ibrahim added that the movie also reinforced how much has changed since the events of Sept. 11.
“On 9/11, I was working at a high-tech firm and I wasn’t wearing a hijab,” Ibrahim said. “Now I’m wearing a hijab and dedicating myself to preventing people from trying to ruin the name of my faith. That day helped us grow and made us more civic-conscious.”
Khan agreed: “My sense is that the opportunity is still there to educate non-Muslims. Just as we had hate crimes after 9/11, we also had an outpouring of brotherhood and friendship with non-Muslims who stood by the Muslim community and stood by their neighbors and friends. … I think you need to look at the positives and educate friends about the realities of Islam.”
Wild Thing’s comment……
Time for you all to be a LOT less Muslim and a bit more AMERICAN! If reminding Americans of the truth stirs up anti-Islamic sentiments, so be it. Where were they right after 9/11? They weren’t upset then!
Khan agreed: “My sense is that the opportunity is still there to educate non-Muslims.
Tell that to the family of that muslim woman reporter who was tortured as she had her head sawed off. That will go a long way in educating the non-muslim masses to your true intent.

Ahmadinejad sees nuclear Iran as “unrivalled” power
Tehran, Iran, May 07 – Iran’s radical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that the Islamic Republic could fast become an “unrivalled world power” by obtaining nuclear capabilities.

“The Iranian nation has the potential to quickly become an unrivalled world power by obtaining modern technology”, Ahmadinejad told commanders of Iran’s paramilitary Bassij force in Tehran. His comments were reported by the official news agency.

“With only a short time having passed since the announcement that Iran had obtained nuclear technology, regional and global order have quickly changed”, he said, adding that the “enemies” feared a resurgence of “Islamic identity in the Islamic world”.

The Iranian president reiterated his previous comments that Iran would not heed demands by the United Nations Security Council to suspend its uranium enrichment activities.

“They must know that if they want to make unlawful decisions against Iran and issue statements or resolutions, the Iranian nation will thumb its nose at their unjust resolution”, he said, adding that if any limitations were placed on Iran then the countries that had taken such action would suffer “a hundred times worse”.

Ahmadinejad accused international organisations of being pawns in the hands of “several bullying big powers” and hinted that Tehran might withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the treaty became “discredited”.
He rejected the threat of sanctions on Iran as “meaningless”.

In threatening language, Ahmadinejad warned Iran’s enemies, “Do not make yourselves so hated among nations and do not do things that would bellow up the fire of hatred that the nations of the world harbour against you”.

Vice President Dick Cheney launched one of Washington’s sharpest attacks on President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ( May 4th,2006) , accusing Russia of backsliding on democracy and using its energy supplies to blackmail neighbors.
“Russia has a choice to make,” Cheney told Baltic and Black Sea leaders in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, calling on Moscow to return to democratic reforms at a time of increasingly chilly relations between the two former Cold War rivals.
“America and Europe want to see Russia in the category of healthy democracies, and yet opponents of democracy in Russia are seeking to reverse the progress of the past decade,” he said. “In many areas of civil society — from religion and the news media to advocacy groups and political parties — the Government has unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of the people.”
was addressing leaders of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Georgia — all former Warsaw Pact countries that are at varying stages of integration with the EU and Nato. He voiced particular support for Ukraine, criticising Russia for cutting off gas supplies to Kiev in January in what was widely seen in the West as punishment for the Orange Revolution of 2004.
Cheney criticized Moscow for playing power politics with its vast energy reserves at a time of record world prices and accused it of bullying neighboring countries, many of which were dominated by the Kremlin in the Soviet era.
“No legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail, either by supply manipulation or attempts to monopolise transportation,” he said. His comments reflect the growing tensions between the White House and the Kremlin. With his own ratings low, President Bush is under pressure to take a harder line with Mr Putin, who has reasserted central control over media, parliament, business and regional government since 2000. Some US politicians are even calling for Russia’s expulsion from the G8.
Russia drew international criticism earlier this year when it briefly turned off its gas taps to Ukraine in a pricing dispute that disrupted supplies to Europe.
Moscow has also warned Europe the Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom, the world’s top producer, could divert supplies to Asia if it is barred from the European market.
Update:
The White House on Friday backed Vice President Dick Cheney’s tough speech on Russia and said Russian President Vladimir Putin should move on democratic reforms before hosting a major international summit in July.
Bush and Putin had a strong relationship in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, but the ties have cooled in the last year or so and Washington has been disappointed at what it sees as backsliding on democracy in Russia.
“You have to be blind and obtuse not to understand that some of our hopes for the U.S.-Russian relationship in the beginning of the administration have not been realized,” said a second senior administration official.
The official said no formal review of U.S.-Russia relationship was under way but that the Bush administration was troubled by Russia’s “distrust of democracy and Russia’s unconstructive relations with many of its neighbors.”
Wild Thing’s comment…..
Cheney nailed it and I am proud of him! Cheney is right and it’s time we told the Russians that this is not going to be tolerated. Cheney is a favorite of mine.
Putin’s a dyed-in-the-wool commie. Always has and always will. The Clinton/Albright/Berger crew helped destroy any chances of a Western-friendly Russia, and gave us the America-phobic monstrosity that is Russia today.

Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing
Times Online
EVEN by the stupefying standards of Iraq’s unspeakable violence, the murder of Atwar Bahjat, one of the country’s top television journalists, was an act of exceptional cruelty.
Nobody but her killers knew just how much she had suffered until a film showing her death on February 22 at the hands of two musclebound men in military uniforms emerged last week. Her family’s worst fears of what might have happened have been far exceeded by the reality.
Bahjat was abducted after making three live broadcasts from the edge of her native city of Samarra on the day its golden-domed Shi’ite mosque was blown up, allegedly by Sunni terrorists.
Roadblocks prevented her from entering the city and her anxiety was obvious to everyone who saw her final report. Night was falling and tensions were high.
Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.
We now know that it was not that swift for Bahjat. First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but particularly so for a pious Muslim who concealed her hair, arms and legs from men other than her father and brother.
Then her arms were bound behind her back. A golden locket in the shape of Iraq that became her glittering trademark in front of the television cameras must have been removed at some point — it is nowhere to be seen in the grainy film, which was made by someone who pointed a mobile phone at her as she lay on a patch of earth in mortal terror.
By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.
It is stained with blood that trickles from a wound on the left side of her head. She is moaning, although whether from the pain of what has already been done to her or from the fear of what is about to be inflicted is unclear.
Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’s depravity after three years of war.
A large man dressed in military fatigues, boots and cap approaches from behind and covers her mouth with his left hand. In his right hand, he clutches a large knife with a black handle and an 8in blade. He proceeds to cut her throat from the middle, slicing from side to side.
Her cries — “Ah, ah, ah” — can be heard above the “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.
Even then, there is no quick release for Bahjat. Her executioner suddenly stands up, his job only half done. A second man in a dark T-shirt and camouflage trousers places his right khaki boot on her abdomen and pushes down hard eight times, forcing a rush of blood from her wounds as she moves her head from right to left.
Only now does the executioner return to finish the task. He hacks off her head and drops it to the ground, then picks it up again and perches it on her bare chest so that it faces the film-maker in a grotesque parody of one of her pieces to camera.
The voice of one of the Arab world’s most highly regarded and outspoken journalists has been silenced. She was 30.
As a friend of Bahjat who had worked with her on a variety of tough assignments, I found it hard enough to bear the news of her murder. When I saw it replayed, it was as if part of me had died with her. How much more gruelling it must have been for a close family friend who watched the film this weekend and cried when he heard her voice.
The friend, who cannot be identified, knew nothing of her beheading but had been guarding other horrifying details of Bahjat’s ordeal. She had nine drill holes in her right arm and 10 in her left, he said. The drill had also been applied to her legs, her navel and her right eye. One can only hope that these mutilations were made after her death.
There is a wider significance to the appalling footage and the accompanying details. The film appears to show for the first time an Iraqi death squad in action.
The death squads have proliferated in recent months, spreading terror on both sides of the sectarian divide. The clothes worn by Bahjat’s killers are bound to be scrutinised for clues to their identity.
Bahjat, with her professionalism and impartiality as a half-Shi’ite, half-Sunni, would have been the first to warn against any hasty conclusions, however. The uniforms seem to be those of the Iraqi National Guard but that does not mean she was murdered by guardsmen. The fatigues could have been stolen for disguise.
A source linked to the Sunni insurgency who supplied the film to The Sunday Times in London claimed it had come from a mobile phone found on the body of a Shi’ite Badr Brigade member killed during fighting in Baghdad.
But there is no evidence the Iranian-backed Badr militia was responsible. Indeed, there are conflicting indications. The drill is said to be a popular tool of torture with the Badr Brigade. But beheading is a hallmark of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by the Sunni Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
According to a report that was circulating after Bahjat’s murder, she had enraged the Shi’ite militias during her coverage of the bombing of the Samarra shrine by filming the interior minister, Bayan Jabr, ordering police to release two Iranians they had arrested.
There is no confirmation of this and the Badr Brigade, with which she maintained good relations, protected her family after her funeral came under attack in Baghdad from a bomber and then from a gunman. Three people died that day.
Bahjat’s reporting of terrorist attacks and denunciations of violence to a wide audience across the Middle East made her plenty of enemies among both Shi’ite and Sunni gunmen. Death threats from Sunnis drove her away to Qatar for a spell but she believed her place was in Iraq and she returned to frontline reporting despite the risks.
We may never know who killed Bahjat or why. But the manner of her death testifies to the breakdown of law, order and justice that she so bravely highlighted and illustrates the importance of a cause she espoused with passion.
Bahjat advocated the unity of Iraq and saw her golden locket as a symbol of her belief. She put it with her customary on-air eloquence on the last day of her life: “Whether you are a Sunni, a Shi’ite or a Kurd, there is no difference between Iraqis united in fear for this nation.”
Wild Thing’s comment…….
How anyone does not believe we are dealing with demons from hell itself when it comes to the terrorists is beyond me. They are minions of satan! The most horrifying thing about this is the knowledge that there are over one billion Muslims in the world who, if they read this account, will shout “Allahu akbar.”

Others discussing this:
* Michelle Malkin
* Mudville Gazette
* The Jawa Report

MULTI-NATIONAL DIVISION – NORTH
101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION
TIKRIT , IRAQ (FOB SPEICHER)
APO AE 09363
May 7, 2006
TIKRIT, Country – Two terrorists were killed May 6 near Tikrit when the improvised explosive device they were attempting to emplace detonated.
An explosive ordnance disposal team investigated the site of the explosion and determined that the two artillery shells that composed the bomb detonated while one of the men was placing it along the road, killing both men.
Evidence gathered by Iraqi police officers at the scene led them to the home of one of the bombers where the officers discovered equipment used to make the IED.
Wild Thing’s comment…….
Sounds like they were trained by Zarqawi. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha…….I love a happy ending.
“Now, hook up the red wire”
“The yellow wire?”
“No, the red one. No wait…..”

.

Confident Democrats Lay Out Agenda Party Plans Probes Of Administration If It Wins the House
By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 7, 2006; A01
Democratic leaders, increasingly confident they will seize control of the House in November, are laying plans for a legislative blitz during their first week in power that would raise the minimum wage, roll back parts of the Republican prescription drug law, implement homeland security measures and reinstate lapsed budget deficit controls.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in an interview last week that a Democratic House would launch a series of investigations of the Bush administration, beginning with the White House’s first-term energy task force and probably including the use of intelligence in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Pelosi denied Republican allegations that a Democratic House would move quickly to impeach President Bush. But, she said of the planned investigations, “You never know where it leads to.”
Wild Thing’s comment……..
A few days ago I received an email from Ken Mehlmen and I replied to him a scathing email back telling him strongly how I felt about being let down as a Republcian, about what the heck has happened to We The People. But at no time would I consider not voting and let the Dems gain a hold again in power.
I hope those who want to punish the Republicans by voting third party, or by staying home, read this carefully and decide, whether they really want to stay away and not vote, and check out all that the Dems are planning and WILL do, if they get back into power. We have to vote out the weak kneed Republicans. No longer can we compromise. And if the current Republican leadership can’t get it done. We will find other Republicans and put them in leadership. At least this is what I wish for. We must never give up.

.

.

KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S.-led coalition military transport helicopter crashed while conducting combat operations in the remote mountains of eastern Afghanistan, killing all 10 American soldiers on board, a U.S. military spokeswoman said Saturday.
The CH-47 Chinook crashed late Friday while on a mission in support of Operation Mountain Lion, an offensive to root out Taliban and Al Qaeda militants near the border with Pakistan. The crash was not the result of hostile fire, said Lt. Tamara D. Lawrence, a coalition spokeswoman.
“The remains of all the 10 soldiers have been found and there are no survivors,” she told The Associated Press. “There is no indication that the helicopter came down due to some enemy action.”
The soldiers were part of a more than 20,000-strong coalition force, mostly operating in the volatile south and east of Afghanistan. About 18,000 of those forces are American.
The helicopter was conducting “operations on a mountaintop landing zone” when it crashed near Asadabad in Kunar province, about 150 miles east of Kabul, the capital, the military said in a statement. Rescue and recovery operations began at daybreak Saturday, Lawrence said. An investigation into the crash is under way.
(Story continues below at…….”continued”…….)

It is hard to post about injuries or death’s of our service men and women. It rips my heart out. Such hard and sad news to read. Heroes, every one of them and I’m humbled by their service and sacrifice. You will be missed. You will not be forgotten.
One of the guys I write to it is his 3rd deployment into Afghanistan and he’s in that region of ‘stan.
He’s been in this fight from the get go…he’s also had 2 tours in Iraq. He just had a birthday this past week. I pray he is ok and all of those here that have loved ones serving in Afghanistan and Iraq I pray every day several times a day they will always be ok too.

(more…)

Stars and Stripes – Mideast edition
This Mother’s Day, servicemembers at 191 phone and Internet cafes on bases throughout Iraq will have a chance to call home for free.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars’ “Operation Uplink” program — which normally provides phone cards to deployed troops — will provide free Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls for 24 hours on May 14. The program is designed for troops at “isolated” locations in Iraq.
“There are some locations overseas where phone cards do not work. Sponsoring free call events for the military-operated telephone service allows us to fill that gap and extend free calling time to any servicemember virtually anywhere U.S. forces deploy,” said Linda Ferguson, manager of the Operation Uplink program.
For the past seven years, the program has provided millions of free phone cards to deployed troops; but at many locations, the Morale, Welfare and Recreation phone banks do not run on that service. So, for one day, all those calls will be covered by the VFW.
“It’s the least we can do,” Ferguson said.
For more information on the program, visit their site HERE