Theodore's World

Islamic terror suspects in Britain up 50 percent since last year: report
(AFP)
The number of Islamic extremist security suspects in Britain has increased by 50 percent since the deadly suicide bombings in London last year, The Observer newspaper said on Sunday.
A senior intelligence source at the country’s domestic spy agency MI5 was quoted as saying that they were targeting 800 such suspects before the bombings on July 7 last year, but that figure now stood at 1,200.
In September 2001, the number of people deemed a “risk to national security” was 250, the newspaper said.
The unnamed MI5 source did not give a reason for the apparent rise in radicalisation but described the threat as “current, relentless and increasing”.
The Observer said a radical Islamic cleric whose sermons were attended by one of the July 7 bombers is to be released from prison ”within weeks” after serving just over half of a nine-year sentence for inciting murder and racial hatred.
Jamaican-born Abdullah el-Faisal once preached at the Brixton, south London, mosque attended by “Shoebomber” Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man to be convicted in connection with the September 11, 2001 attacks.
He was convicted by a British jury in 2003 after his trial heard he had called for the murder of all non-Muslims and justified the use of nuclear and chemical weapons.
The newspaper said an order for his deportation was filed by the Home Office on March 30 but his lawyers have applied for his release on parole pending his removal.

Plane carrying Sen. Kennedy struck by lightning
BOSTON –A small jet carrying U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy from a commencement speech in western Massachusetts to his Cape Cod home on Saturday was struck by lightning and had to be diverted to New Haven, Conn., a Kennedy spokeswoman said.
The eight-seat Cessna Citation 550 lost all electrical power, including communications, and the pilot had to fly the plane manually, according to Melissa Wagoner, Kennedy’s press secretary. No one was hurt.
The Massachusetts Democrat had just delivered the commencement address at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams and was on his way from Pittsfield Municipal Airport to Hyannis to spend Mother’s Day with family when the plane was struck at about 4 p.m., she said.
The jet landed at New Haven at 4:11 p.m. without incident, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Murray. A report was filed with the agency, which will look into the incident, she said.
Kennedy planned to stay in Connecticut overnight because he is scheduled to deliver another commencement address at Springfield College on Sunday, Wagoner said
Wild Thing’s comment……
God is a Republican, you know.

“Oh, Ted, this is God. You’ve been flying off on tangents, and
going in the wrong direction for too long now.
This is my final warning.
Can you hear me now?”

Fort Carson soldiers re-enlist
The mass re-enlistment of 640 GIs of the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment is considered invaluable to the Army’s future.
Fort Carson – A year ago, as Iraqi fighters detonated a bomb that shattered his convoy, Army Sgt. Gene Braxton led survivors scrambling out of their Humvees in the hot dusty haze to hunt for the triggermen.



Five months later, a bigger roadside bomb rocked the armored vehicle Braxton was in. Reeling from a concussion, he dragged a wounded buddy to safety.
Back in Colorado, Braxton has re-enlisted and will undergo parachute jump training in preparation for a possible third stint of combat duty in Iraq.
The 26-year-old is among 640 Colorado-based 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment soldiers who, in an unusually large mass re-enlistment, have extended their military service. Hundreds participated in a re-enlistment ceremony Friday, standing bolt straight on the shiny wood floor in a Fort Carson gym, raising their right hands and swearing they’d do anything to support and defend the United States.
“Out of the Army? I’d never consider that,” said Braxton, who hopes his new jump training with the 82nd Airborne Division in Georgia will allow him to visit his daughter Jada, who lives with his ex-wife in Georgia.

For hundreds to re-enlist shows serious professionalism, said John Pike, director of the think tank Global Security. “It reflects well on the chain of command that people want to stick with it.”

At Army headquarters, Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, who monitors retention efforts, said “640 out of 5,000 soldiers is huge.”

The 3rd ACR commander, Col. H.R. McMaster, said “less tangible” factors such as knowing fellow soldiers “would die for you” drive re-enlistment. “Because of their combat experience,” he said, “these soldiers will be invaluable to our Army in the future.”
Not that soldiers decide easily.
“It’s not like I want to go back. But I enjoy what I do and the people I work with. You find work you enjoy, you stay with it,” said Staff Sgt. Dennis Busse, 29, who also served in Afghanistan with a wife and three kids back home.
“Money was the least of it” in deciding to stay with the 3rd ACR, which moves to Texas this year, said Busse, who worked previously as a cook at Italian and Mexican restaurants in his native Wisconsin.

“You’re always going to find difficulties. There are difficulties on the civilian side, too. The military seems to be closer. The difference is, the employers in the civilian world, some of the owners, they don’t want to do what they need to do. Here, anyone who’s above you has been where you are.”

A friend’s death
For Sgt. Heath Gadberry, re-upping was the last thing on his mind a year ago in Iraq. He remembers his 29th birthday there, when he was thinking: “What am I doing out here?”
A field medic, Gadberry had a college degree in outdoor recreation, was working online for a masters in health care administration, with a wife and three kids back home in Colorado.

“I was like: ‘What am I doing this for?’ ”

Then the next day, rolling through an insurgent hotbed south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb in an empty vehicle exploded as he passed, and everything went black. The blast killed his buddy, Spec. Robert Swaney, the gunner atop his Humvee.
It blew Gadberry 100 yards and with such force that the pavement he traveled over tore through his armor.
Once he was stitched and bandaged at base camp, Gadberry walked up to superiors and told them he wanted to re-enlist.

“Everybody looked at me like I was insane – ‘Of all people, you should know better,’ ” Gadberry said.

But Swaney’s death “motivated me,” he said. “How can I not do this? How could I pawn this off to somebody else?

“I’ve got other options. But I can’t imagine doing anything else right now. I’ve got to help get the job done.”

Britain misused power against Afghan hijackers’
LONDON: London’s High Court accused the British government on Wednesday of “an abuse of power” for refusing to allow nine Afghan asylum seekers who hijacked a plane to Britain to stay in the country as refugees.
In a fiercely critical ruling, judge Jeremy Sullivan overturned the government’s decision and said the conduct of the home office (interior ministry) deserved “the strongest mark of the court’s disapproval”.
“It is difficult to conceive of a clearer case of conspicuous unfairness amounting to an abuse of power by a public authority,” he said.
The nine Afghans, armed with knives and guns, hijacked a Boeing 727 plane in February 2000 after the aircraft left Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul on an internal flight. They ordered the pilot to fly to Stansted airport near London, where they told negotiators via radio they had fled the Taliban regime and would blow up the plane and kill everybody on board if they were not granted political asylum in Britain.
The High Court ranks third in Britain’s legal hierarchy below the Court of Appeal and House of Lords, which is the upper house of parliament and highest court in the country.
Sullivan criticised the then Home Secretary Jack Straw and his successors, David Blunkett and Charles Clarke, who had all failed to grant the Afghans discretionary leave to enter Britain and allowed them only temporary admission.
He said the government had “defied” judges and legal procedures and “deliberately delayed” implementing a June 2004 appeal panel decision that, under human rights law, the nine could not be sent home because their lives would be at risk.
Junior Home Office minister Tony McNulty said the government was “disappointed with the court’s judgment” and was “considering whether it is appropriate to appeal”.
“It is common sense that to deter hijacking and international terrorism, individuals should not be rewarded with leave to remain in the UK,” he said in a statement.
“The hijackers are not deemed to present a threat to the UK’s national security at present and it remains our intention to remove them as soon as it is possible to ensure that they can be returned in safety to Afghanistan.”
Sullivan noted that the Home Office had feared allowing the hijackers to live and work freely in Britain as it would amount to “a charter for future hijackers”. But he insisted this did not give the ministry a license to ignore the judiciary.
“The issue in this case is not whether the executive should take action to discourage hijacking, but whether the executive should be required to take such action within the law,” he said. He ordered the government to pay legal costs run up by the as hijackers on an “indemnity basis” – the highest level of costs that can be awarded.
Wild Thing’s comment…….
I guess I’m a heartless conservative and just don’t understand the nuances of why hijackers should be rewarded for their crimes. England can start the motto. “Do the crime pay no time.” Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssst…..Osama, here’s your ticket to England as a refugee fleeing from American Terrorists who invaded your refugee camp, and who are planning to kill you. The high court of England will grant asylum to you, and freedom of movement throughout the country.

 

Please click
the image above to see

the Video "Lazy  Ramadi"

Wild Thing’s comment……
The most dangerous part of Iraq is still the region west of Baghdad, especially the city of Ramadi. Ramadi is a hell zone and U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi forces are trying to shut down insurgent supply routes into the area.
Wouldn’t it be something if instead of it being 72 Virgins, it was ONE virgin at 72. heh heh Bye Bye Insurgents! But of course the Democrats and terrorists will be deeply saddened at any deaths of the insurgents and the success of our troops.
……* Mudville Gazette

Al-Qaeda video calls for “sea of blood” in revenge for Muhammad cartoons
News.com
A VIDEO by an al-Qaeda member posted on the Internet overnight calls on Muslims to attack Denmark, Norway and France for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
“Muslims avenge your Prophet …. We deeply desire that the small state of Denmark, Norway and France … are struck hard and destroyed,” said Libyan Mohammed Hassan, who escaped from US custody at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan last July.
“Destroy their buildings, make their ground shake and transform them into a sea of blood,” said Hassan, dressed in military fatigues and a black turban, and holding an assault rifle.
Hassan, also known as Sheikh Abu Yahia al-Libi, was one of four Arab terror suspects who broke out of the high-security detention facility at Bagram, the main US military base in Afghanistan.

Click image
below

to see Muhammad Cartoons

at my PC Free Zone Gazette page

 

Will U.S. Embassy in Iran become ‘Great Satan Park’?
Tourists and thrillseekers in Iran could have a new attraction in downtown Tehran: the former United States Embassy being converted into a “Great Satan Park.”
A top Iranian commander is calling for the creation of such a theme park at the one-time location U.S. facility, which has seen a troubled history dating back to the Carter administration of the 1970s.
“We would be able to nicely show off the American crimes to citizens strolling in the park,” General Mir-Faisal Bagherzadeh told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. “The former American Den of Spies should become the park of Great Satan.”
Bagherzadeh is in charge of the Sacred Defense Foundation, a propaganda organ originally created to commemorate the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
The property is perhaps best known from 1979 news footage, when in the wake of Iran’s Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah, the embassy was taken over by Islamist students, with 52 staffmembers taken hostage for 444 days.
The downtown location is now used for military training by Iran’s ideological army, the Revolutionary Guards, while the main building also serves as a museum to display the “documents of American espionage and crimes against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Wild Thing’s comment……
Yep keep pushing our buttons Iran. Poor little glow in the dark Ahmadinejad wanna be world ruler.
Here ya go……Click on image below turn up volume to hear Samuel Jackson quote Ezekiel 25:17 passage from movie Pulp Fiction

Mounted gunners seeing clearer thanks to new turrets
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 200651054548
Story by Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (May 9, 2006) — Duty in the turret of Regimental Combat Team 5’s seven-ton trucks just got clearer with new ballistic-glass and steel encased firing positions.
The new turrets, called Marine Corps Armored Turret Systems, are being installed on seven-ton trucks, the first in an upgrade to give gunners greater visibility and beefed-up protection for convoy operations.

“The advantage of these turrets is the protection it provides the gunner,” said Master Sgt. Adam Lyttle, the 42-year-old Motor Transport chief for the regiment. “The most noticeable change is the ballistic glass. They also have higher turrets and they traverse a lot easier.”

Ballistic shields replaced steel plates in front of the gunner’s position and side ballistic glass allows Marines to scan from side to side without having to expose themselves to fire. It’s an important feature. Until now, Marines had to crouch down behind their guns.

“The gunner can stay higher on the guns now,” Lyttle explained. “Their field of view is a whole lot better. The gunner plays a major part on all convoys.”

Higher blast protection and windows that will deflect gunfire and shrapnel now allows gunners to perform duties with a greater degree of confidence. Marines aren’t just gripping .50-caliber machine guns behind the ballistic shields. They’re on the lookout for improvised explosive devices – or roadside bombs.

“I feel a lot safer,” said Cpl. Jose M. Ramirez, a 22-year-old from Lemoore, Calif., assigned to RCT-5’s motor transport platoon. “Before I was afraid of standing up. Now, there’s no fear to get up and peek at something suspicious.”

Ramirez is one of the few gunners in the regiment’s motor transport platoon who has already conducted several missions riding in the new turret. He said it has a lot more room, space to keep his rifle and other tools handy and best of all, better protection.

“It’s a blessing from the gods to get these here,” Ramirez said. “They’re a lot better. This is a big improvement. Everybody likes these.”

Lyttle said the turrets are being added as fast as they arrive in theater, with help from 1st Marine Logistics Group’s, Combat Logistics Battalion-5. It’s not just the regimental headquarters getting the new turrets. Each battalion is getting outfitted as well.

“The hope is before the month is out, we’ll have new turrets on every truck,” Lyttle said.

Lance Cpl. Trevor A Chapman, a 20-year-old from Norwich, Conn., has also ridden a couple of missions in the new turret and said Marines have a lot in which to look forward.

“I figured it would be good with having the windows on each side,” said Chapman, assigned to RCT-5 Motor Transport Platoon. “I felt a lot safer. The armor goes all the way around.”

Chapman makes sure his M-2 .50-caliber machine gun is mounted correctly in the new Marine Corps Armored Turret System. The new turret offers gunners greater protection and visibility with ballistic glass shielding.
Chapman explained the old turrets had gaps that left him feeling exposed to hazards. Now, he’s completely encased in a turret system that allows him to see more and move quicker.

“It’s a lot easier to use,” Chapman explained. “You don’t have to swivel as far because of the windows. That makes the gunner’s job easier because he can react faster.”

Lance Cpl. Trevor A. Chapman, a 20-year-old from Norwich, Conn, and Lance Cpl. Antonio Mendoza, a 20-year-old from Los Angeles, mount a M-2 .50-caliber machine gun in the new Marine Corps Armored Turret System that Regimental Combat Team 5 is installing on their seven-ton trucks. The new armor increases protection and allows for greater visibility with ballistic glass.
Photo by: Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva
Lyttle witnessed the change the Marine Corps has made over the past several years with armoring. Initially, gunners were exposed with nothing protecting them but helmets and flak vests. Then barrel-style turrets were installed and now, the angular turret with ballistic glass has taken force protection to a new level.

“The Marines are pretty pleased,” he said. “They were excited about getting them. The Marines are eager to ride in anything, but you see these big improvements … it built their confidence up, big time.”

.

Cuba, Saudis, China on Rights Council
AP) Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia won seats on the new U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday despite their poor human rights records, but two rights abusers _ Iran and Venezuela _ were defeated.
Human rights groups said they were generally pleased with the 47 members elected to the council, which will replace the highly politicized Human Rights Commission. It was discredited in recent years because some countries with terrible rights records used their membership to protect one another from condemnation.

“The spoiler governments, the governments that have a history of trying to undermine the protection of human rights through their membership on the old commission are now a significantly reduced minority when it comes to the council,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “That doesn’t guarantee that the council will be a success, but it is a step in the right direction.”

Yvonne Terlingen, U.N. representative for Amnesty International, said it was “fairly pleased” that the countries elected would provide a good basis for a new “strong and effective human rights body.”

“Some countries have been elected with weak human rights records, but they also are now committed to uphold the highest human rights standards,” she said.

The United States opposed the establishment of the council, saying it did not go far enough to prevent rights abusers from winning seats, and the U.S. decided against being a candidate.
But U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kristen Silverberg said “on the whole, we think it is an improvement over the commission.”

“We are committed to engaging actively in the coming weeks with all of the elected members … to make sure that this body is effective,” she said. “We think think that the real test of this council will be whether it can take effective action in serious cases of human rights abuse like Darfur, … Burma, North Korea and other places.”

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., a critic of the U.N., said Cuba’s election showed the new council suffers from the same weakness as the commission and “is the perfect example of the U.N.’s failure to reform.”
Russia was a candidate in the most hotly contested regional group _ Eastern Europe _ which fielded 13 candidates for six seats. It was the only group where a second round of voting was needed. The other winners were Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Ukraine.
The 13 African winners were Algeria, Cameroon, Djibouti, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Zambia.
The 13 Asians elected to the council were Bangladesh, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka. The defeat of Iran in that category “just shows their lack of standing in the international community,” said Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
In Latin American and the Caribbean, the eight seats went to Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.
The seven countries elected from the Western bloc were Britain, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland.
Wild Thing’s comment…….
Unbelievable. That’s like having Charles Manson as a male nurse.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.
It must be fought for, protected,
and handed on for them to do the same,
or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children
what it was once like in the United States when men were free.”
— Ronald Reagan

Click to see VIDEO
Families swarm to greet former prisoners of war moments after they landed in the C-141 “Hanoi Taxi” on Friday, May 5, 2006, at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The “Hanoi Taxi” was the first aircraft to arrive in Hanoi in February 1973 to pick up POWs returning to the United States. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Larry A. Simmons)



Airman 1st Class Humberto Alcocer leads the honor guard during a ceremony recognizing the last mission of the C-141 “Hanoi Taxi” on Friday, May 5, 2006, at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Airman Alcocer is a member of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base honor guard, and is with the 88th Medical Operations Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Larry A. Simmons



While walking through it you see the equipment box that the POW’s signed as they flew back home.



Note in the corner the signature of Col. George “Bud” Day – Medal of Honor winner and outspoken critic of John Kerry He was a POW in North Vietnam, 1967-1973.

For more than five years, Col.Bud Day resisted the North Vietnamese guards who tortured him. On one occasion in 1971, when guards burst in with rifles as some of the American prisoners gathered for a forbidden religious service, Major Day stood up, looked down the muzzles of the guns, and began to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The other men, including James Stockdale, the ranking U.S. officer in the prison, joined him.

Jim Lamar (left) talks to Tech. Sgt. Rick Sforza on Saturday, May 6, 2006, about an aerial photograph of the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner of war camp where he was held captive in Vietnam. The two men were flying on the final mission of the C-141 “Hanoi Taxi” over Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Sergeant Sforza is a Reserve photographer with the 4th Combat Camera Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Larry A. Simmons)

Col. Doug Moe looks out the window while flying on one of the the last missions of the C-141 “Hanoi Taxi” on Friday, May 5, 2006 over Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The “Hanoi Taxi” was the first aircraft to arrive in Hanoi in February 1973 to pick up prisoners of war returning to the United States. The C-141 landed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force where it will be on display this summer. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Larry A. Simmons)
DAYTON, Ohio (AFPN) — The first aircraft to return Vietnam prisoners of war to the United States arrived at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at 9:30 a.m. May 6.
The C-141 “Hanoi Taxi” was the first aircraft to arrive in Hanoi in February 1973 to pick up POWs returning to the United States. The “Hanoi Taxi” was one of several aircraft involved in repatriating more than 500 American POWs held by the North Vietnamese.
The Hanoi Taxi — the last C-141 Starlifter still serving in the Air Force — made two of its final three flights May 5. Former POWs gathered for a reunion and to take part in a weekend of activities created by the Air Force Reserve Command’s 445th Airlift Wing here that included retirement of the famed aircraft.
The aircraft made several passes before its final landing on the runway behind the museum May 6. Crewmembers from the 445th AW flew the aircraft from nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to the museum.
A ceremony was held following the aircraft’s arrival at the museum. Speakers included Gen. Duncan J. McNabb, commander of Air Mobility Command; Lt. Gen. John A. Bradley, commander of Air Force Reserve Command; and retired Maj. Gen. Charles D. Metcalf, museum director. Former Vietnam POWs and past crewmembers were in attendance to witness the event.
During the ceremony, Lockheed Martin presented the museum with a painting of the Hanoi Taxi flying over the museum. The painting is titled “The Airlift Legend: Celebrating the 43-Year Career of the C-141 Starlifter.”
Herv Stockman – flew more than 50 combat missions during WWII piloting a P51. Flew the first U-2 mission over the Soviet Union. Watched Migs scramble in futility, two colliding, and follow helplessly, far below.
Speaking before the public about his Hanoi captivity:

The last of the morning’s speakers was Hervey Stockman, a fighter pilot who saw action in all our hot and cold wars: World War II, Korea, the first U2 flight over the Soviet Union, and Vietnam, where his plane crashed and he spent six years in a sevenbysevenfoot prison cell in Hanoi. He had been reluctant to talk about that ordeal as a prisoner of war, but the class officers asked him to try, feeling that in his character and his generous heart he represented the best of what the class set out so long ago to be.
“Preparing these words was much like visiting an old, untended graveyard,” Hervey Stockman said, looking out at us from the lectern, a trim man with a warm smile. He began by describing the brutal treatment he received in the early months of his imprisonment — “I was a foul, decrepit wreck of a man” — and then recalled the slow process by which at last “my mind was awakened and reunited to my body and I had the will to live and regain my strength.” He spoke slowly, barely controlling his emotions, but without selfpity, and when he walked back to his seat, his slightly stiff gait betraying his long captivity, the class rose in an ovation that had no relation to the applause usually heard at the end of a speech: mere handclapping. It had tremendous solemnity — it was emotional without being sentimental — and it rumbled through the auditorium.

Robert Lewis Stirm

I was shot down over Hanoi 27 October 1967 while leading a flight of F-105Ds on Canal Des Rapides Bridge. They captured me immediately on landing and I was displayed in Hanoi that night. I was detained in various cells of five different POW camps and was in solitary confinement a total of 281 days. They turned me over to US control on 14 March 1973.
I never once lost faith in our government, our President, or my family.

The museum plans for the Hanoi Taxi to be on public display this summer.
Wild Thing’s comment…………
If our government would have done what John F’n Kerry recommended when he came back from Paris after consorting with the enemy, everyone of those names would have belonged to a dead man! Kerry said we should immediately abandon South East Asia, and pay whatever damages North Vietnam decided we owed them.
my POW MIA page
my Vietnam page

My other post announcing C-141 “Hanoi Taxi” is Retiring
In that post there are also comments of one that flew this plane and others that shared their experiences.

* Argghhh
* Mudville Gazette