Theodore's World

Department of Defense
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld poses with wounded troops participating in the Vail Veterans Program just before they begin their third and final day of skiing in the program at Vail, Colo. (Photo by Donna Miles)
Twenty-four servicemembers who lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan are here reaping the hospitality of a community first established by returning World War II veterans and to schuss down the slopes of this world-class ski resort.
The guests, all patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., along with their spouses or guests, are participating in the third annual Vail Veterans Program that kicked off March 1 and continues through March 5.
The all-expenses-paid program is hosted by Vail Mountain and the Vail community and gives wounded war veterans an opportunity to learn how to ski and snowboard, event organizer Cheryl Jensen said.

“For many of these veterans, the trip to Vail is their first adventure outside the hospital,” Jensen said. “This program is all about providing an inspirational experience that focuses on the abilities versus disabilities.”

Jensen said the experience is a huge confidence builder for young, athletic troops who are now learning to live with disabilities.
The event includes three all-day private ski and snowboard lessons through Vail’s Adaptive Ski Program. The program specializes in providing ski and snowboard classes for people with disabilities. Using specially modified ski equipment, including “outriggers” — poles with miniature skis attached to them for balance — the skiers are learning to maneuver through Vail’s slopes and trails.

“These servicemembers have been through a lot of trials and tribulations together, but this gives them the opportunity to experience something positive together as well,” Jensen said. “They’re a really wonderful group and have been tremendously supportive of each other.”

Countless volunteers and 25 local businesses and organizations are donating lodging, meals, lift tickets, ski equipment and personal time to make the grassroots effort a success. “Without the community, it just couldn’t happen,” Jensen said.
Participants arrived in Vail to a hero’s welcome from local elementary school children and are getting the red-carpet treatment during their stay. Tonight, guests will ride the gondola to the top of Vail Mountain for dinner at the Eagle’s Nest Restaurant, and tomorrow night, the Vail Fire Department will treat them to a homemade lasagna meal at the fire station.

“There is an unsaid promise to protect their families while they protect our freedom serving abroad,” said Craig Davis, president of the Vail Professional Firefighters Association. “Inviting the veterans to dinner at our home is the least we can do to pay tribute.”

Jensen introduced the Vail Veterans Program because she recognized the value it could bring to wounded veterans. “I knew what adaptive skiing can do for people with disabilities, especially people like these who are healthy and athletic,” she said. “Skiing can change their lives.”

One former participant told Jensen it had done just that for him. “That’s the inspiration for this program, to see that it can make a difference,” Jensen said.

Jensen called the program just one small way to show support for the troops. “They’ve all made tremendous sacrifices for us, and this is an opportunity to thank them,” she said.

Rumsfeld and his wife Joyce appeared unannounced last night, joining 24 servicemembers who lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan at the top of Vail Mountain for dinner at the Eagle’s Nest Restaurant. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived to cheer them on and congratulate them for their accomplishments.
He chatted one-on-one with the troops, posed for photos around the room and offered up encouragement and thanks to all.

“I’m having a blast!” said Army 1st Lt. Frank Washburn, a New York National Guardsman who lost the front half of his foot to an improvised explosive device near Samarra, Iraq, last May.

“This is the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been injured,” agreed Army Staff Sgt. Joe Kapacziewski. “It was awesome!” Kapacziewski received extensive leg and arm injuries in Northern Iraq while serving with the 3rd Ranger Battalion. While doctors were able to save his leg, 18 pins are holding it together as it heals.

“Completely exhilarating” was how Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Worley, a corpsman who lost most of his left leg in Fallujah, Iraq in September 2004 and has a fused right ankle, summed up his skiing experience through the program.

Army 1st Lt. Ryan Hollin, a below-the-knee amputee who was wounded in Balad, Iraq, agreed. “His coming here to support us physically shows that he appreciates our sacrifices,” he said. “It’s one thing to say you support the troops. But his actions show that he really means it.”

Wild Thing’s comment…….
I love it so much when things like this happen for your troops. They deserve to be thanked and appreciated so much.

Iran is asking for it big time



Iran Issues Warning Ahead of IAEA Meeting
VIENNA, Austria

Iran threatened on Sunday to embark on full-scale uranium enrichment if the U.N. nuclear agency presses for action over its atomic program, and a top U.S. diplomat warned the Islamic republic of possible “painful consequences.”
The comments came as the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board prepared to meet Monday to discuss referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council, but delegates said whatever step the council might take would stop far short of sanctions.
John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Sunday there was an urgent need to confront Iran’s “clear and unrelenting drive” for nuclear weapons.
Iran “must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences,” Bolton told the conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
But Iran’s government cautioned that putting the issue before the Security Council would hurt efforts to resolve the dispute diplomatically.
“If Iran’s nuclear dossier is referred to the U.N. Security Council, (large-scale) uranium enrichment will be resumed,” Iran’s top negotiator, Ali Larijani, told reporters in Tehran. “If they want to use force, we will pursue our own path.”
He said Iran had exhausted “all peaceful ways” and that if demands were made contrary to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the nation “will resist.”
Larijani said Iran will not abandon nuclear research, or back down from pursuing an atomic program that Tehran insists has the sole purpose of generating electricity with nuclear reactors.
IAEA delegates suggested the U.N. agency’s board will not push for confrontation with Iran and said any initial decisions by the Security Council based on the outcome of the meeting will be mild.
They said the most likely action from the council would be a statement urging Iran to resume its freeze on uranium enrichment — an activity that can make both reactor fuel and the core of nuclear warheads — and to increase cooperation with the IAEA’s probe of the Iranian program.
Even such a mild step could be weeks down the road.
Still, it would formally begin council involvement with Iran’s nuclear file, starting a process that could escalate and culminate with political and economic sanctions — although such action for now is opposed by Russia and China, which can veto Security Council actions.
Bolton said a failure by the Security Council to address Iran would “do lasting damage to the credibility of the council.”
“The longer we wait to confront the threat Iran poses,” Bolton said, “the harder and more intractable it will become to solve.”
Russia and China share the concerns of the United States, France and Britain — the three other permanent council members with veto power — that Iran could misuse enrichment for an arms program.
But both have economic and strategic ties with Tehran. While they voted with the majority of IAEA board members at a Feb. 4 meeting to alert the council to suspicions about Iran’s nuclear aims, they insisted the council do nothing until after this week’s IAEA meeting in Vienna.
Russia is unlikely to agree to strong action while it negotiates with Iran on a plan that would move Tehran’s enrichment program to Russian territory as a way of increasing international monitoring and reducing the chances for misuse in arms work.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due in Washington and New York this week to discuss the status of those talks with Bush administration officials and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Both Tehran and Moscow have said new talks are planned; diplomats in Vienna, who demanded anonymity in return for discussing the situation, said no dates had been set.

Algeria Frees Militants in Mass Pardon

ALGIERS, Algeria – Algeria freed a first group of Islamic militants Saturday after deciding to pardon or reduce sentences for more than 2,000 people detained during an insurgency in the 1990s.
Cries of joy rose up among families outside the two prisons on the outskirts of the capital, Algiers, when the prisoners were released.
As part of reconciliation efforts, the Justice Ministry announced this week that it would pardon or end legal proceedings for 2,100 convicted or suspected Islamic militants. Some 100 militants, convicted of more serious crimes, will have their sentences reduced.
The national reconciliation plan was overwhelmingly approved in a September referendum, an effort to turn the page on an insurgency that left 150,000 dead.
Critics say that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation seeks to whitewash years of agony and that releasing extremists and allowing them home from exile could plant the seeds for future violence.

Wild Thing’s comment……
Good grief! I just don’t get it, why on earth do something like this.

This is very dear to my heart. A wonderful friend of mine, Delftsman is not well at all. He is very sick and needs our prayers. From day one of my having a Blog he is one of the Bloggers that has been a true friend.
Read here of Delfts’ Situation

Please get well soon my very dear friend.

I am 5 months old as a blogger, and on the day of being 5 months old I received an email invitation from Beth at MVRWC. It was about the Cotillion (a group of women bloggers just loaded with smarts and fun)
Nothing against you wonderful hunkie male bloggers. You guys are the ones we love and adore, well most of you. A girl does have to be particular. Lots of applause there for sure!
She asked me if I would like to join their group. I was thrilled to say yes. Making friends online is always great and each person brings there own uniqueness. Thank you Beth.
I have been shopping and hope I am dressed for any non cut off jeans and T-shirt functions. (giggle)
Just say NO to the Oscars and everyone let’s meet at the Cotillion.

* MVRWC
* Cotillion

Air assault spearheads push to hurt insurgency in area south of Baghdad

MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq — Hundreds of soldiers poured out of helicopters before dawn Thursday morning and a large convoy kicked off Friday morning, spreading out troops into a patch of canal-laced farmland south of Baghdad that remains one of the last insurgent strongholds outside the capital city.
The air assault launched one of the largest operations in months and aims to secure a rural area where insurgents have operated for months, officials said. A steady string of roadside bombs and mortar attacks have inflicted casualties on U.S. troops in the restive region known as the “Triangle of Death.”
“This could be the final crushing blow for the anti-Iraqi forces in the Baghdad area,” said Lt. Col. Thomas Kunk, commander of the 101st Airborne’s 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment.
After a safe and secure landing, soldiers from the 1st Battalion came under repeated mortar fire Thursday in the blocking positions they set up around a large power plant on the Euphrates River, which insurgents have used as a base of operations.
Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion moved in early Friday and swept south toward the village of Sadr Yusufiyah, a cluster of ramshackle homes that U.S. troops also believe insurgents use to stage attacks on U.S troops and civilians in Baghdad, just 25 miles north.
Commanders opted for an air assault rather than sending vehicles through bomb-seeded roads avoided by U.S. forces in recent months.
One soldier from the 2nd Battalion was evacuated Friday after he was shot in the leg during a gunbattle. No other casualties were reported as of Friday afternoon.
Soldiers from 1st Battalion detained one man and also found a cache of a single mortar tube and several automatic rifles, U.S. troops said.
As U.S. soldiers came under fire, they responded with mortars and counter-battery artillery from nearby U.S. bases, said Maj. Fred Wintrich, the executive officer with 1st Battalion.
The operation in the rural areas marked a significant shift for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, which spent much of the past week focusing on security operations in the urban centers to stem potential sectarian violence in the wake of last week’s bombing of a large Shiite shrine in Samarra.
The 101st Airborne’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team has faced one of the toughest fights in Iraq. The Fort Campbell, Ky.-based unit has seen 31 soldiers killed since arriving here in November.
The targeted area is thick with a mix of Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters. A Saudi Arabian man and several Iraqis were arrested last week after an Iraqi army unit found them carrying an anti-aircraft gun in their pick-up truck, officials said.
In keeping with the clear-and- hold strategy employed by U.S. troops in recent months, soldiers from the 2nd Battalion plan to set up a permanent patrol base in the village of Sadr Yusufiyah, officials said.
The insurgents’ attacks have fallen particularly heavy on the 1st-502nd’s Company B, which has lost six men and sent several others home with serious injuries since its arrival. Capt. John Goodwin, Company B commander, hopes this week’s assault will ease the daily attacks on the patrol bases and traffic checkpoints.
“We’ve kicked the hornets nest a few times already, now we are going to take a baseball bat and give it a good whack,” Goodwin said.

Al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen admit training Iraq fighters
Yemen Observer
By Observer Staff
Mar 4, 2006

SANA’A – Two of 17 Al-Qaeda suspects on trial for planning attacks in Yemen admitted last week to having trained foreign fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan and that their war was with Americans not Yemenis.
The 14 Yemenis and three Saudis, who include veterans of the insurgency in Iraq, went on trial on February 22 on charges of planning attacks against US expatriates in Yemen and those who deal with them on the orders of Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
“Our war is with the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, not in Yemen,” Yemeni suspect Ali Abdullah Osyan, 28, told the judge during an appearance in a Sana’a court, AFP reported. He and the other suspects all wore blue prison jumpsuits and spoke from behind bars.
Prosecutor Saed al-Aqil exhibited in court as evidence weapons, explosives and remote detonation devices allegedly seized by authorities when the suspects were arrested in early 2005 in Sana’a and the southern port city of Aden, Saba news said.
“We used them for jihad (holy fight) in Iraq,” said another Yemeni, Ammar Abdullah Fadel, 28, sporting a long thick beard.
“I trained young fighters how to use them to resist Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The trial was adjourned until March 11. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, Yemen has worked with Washington to clamp down on suspected Al-Qaeda militants.
Al Qaeda operatives and sympathizers in the country are blamed for bombing the American destroyer USS Cole in 2000, killing 17 US sailors, and attacking the French oil tanker Limburg in 2002, killing one Bulgarian.
Yemen’s efforts were dealt a serious blow with the escape of 23 Al-Qaeda suspects from a jail in Sanaa in early February, prompting some US lawmakers to charge that Yemeni authorities may have even facilitated the jail break.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh said three of the escapees had surrendered, according to remarks published Sunday in the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat.

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SGT. Ricky Jones
Many of you have read about the “brave dissenters” who expressed their “support for our Troops” by vandalizing the home of Army SGT Rickey Jones.
The story about it is here……..Dead soldier’s home vandalized
He was killed in action Feb. 22 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during patrol operations in Hawijah, Iraq. These “patriots” have actually called SGT Jones’ family to tell them ‘I’m glad your son is dead.” If that wasn’t enough for SGT Jones’ family to deal with, Fred Phelps and his hatemongers will probably picket the funeral.

Army Sgt Rickey Jones, 21, Kokomo, Indiana
Died February 22, 2006 with three other soldiers when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad. Assigned to the 101st Airborne Division based in Fort Campbell, KY.
Ronnie Jones, the soldier’s grandfather, said his grandson was a loving person and the pride of his family. He said the family received few details of the soldier’s death.
The four soldiers assigned to the division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team were killed on patrol Wednesday near Hawijah, 150 miles north of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.
Jones, a 2002 graduate of Kokomo High School, was serving his second tour in Iraq and recently had been promoted to sergeant. He is survived by his mother, Tenia Rogers, and grandparents Ronnie and Margaret Jones, all of Kokomo.

A Soldier’s Perspective, is trying to help organize a letter writing campaign to the family of SGT Rickey Jones.

If you are as disgusted as I am and would like to write a letter to have delivered to this family, please email Lauren (MyWay716@aol.com) for more information. The good people over at Operation Military Pride are helping facilitate the delivery of these letters.

Thank you

Jimma bin Kahta

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Condi Rice: Hello…hello…..Jimmy who?…..I’m sorry,we have a very bad connection.

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The New York Sun

Carter personally called Secretary of State Rice to try to convince her to reverse her U.N. ambassador’s position on changes to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, the former president recalled yesterday in a talk in which he also criticized President Bush’s Christian bona fides and misstated past American policies on Israel.
Mr. Carter said he made a personal promise to ambassadors from Egypt, Pakistan, and Cuba on the U.N. change issue that was undermined by America’s ambassador, John Bolton. “My hope is that when the vote is taken,” he told the Council on Foreign Relations, “the other members will outvote the United States.”
While other former presidents have tried to refrain from attacking the sitting chief executive, Mr. Carter’s attacks on President Bush have increased. The episode he recounted yesterday showed how he tried to undermine officials at lower levels in an effort to influence policy.
The story, as Mr. Carter recalled, began with a recent dinner for 17 he attended in New York, where the guests included the president of the U.N. General Assembly, Jan Eliasson; an unidentified American representative, and other U.N. ambassadors from “powerful” countries at Turtle Bay, of which he mentioned only three: Cuba, Egypt, and Pakistan. The topic was the ongoing negotiations on an attempt to replace the widely discredited Geneva-based Human Rights Commission with a more accountable Human Rights Council.
“One of the things I assured them of was that the United States was not going to dominate all the other nations of the world in the Human Rights Council,” Mr. Carter said. However, on the next day, Carter said, Mr. Bolton publicly “demanded” that the five permanent members of the Security Council will have permanent seats on the new council as well, “which subverted exactly what I have promised them,” Carter said.

Wild Thing’s comment……….
The day that twisted traitorous bastard drops dead I swear I will dance in the street.

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During Vietnam, gunships destroyed more than 10,000 trucks and were credited with many life-saving close air support missions. AC-130s suppressed enemy air defense systems and attacked ground forces during Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada. This enabled the successful assault of Point Salines airfield via airdrop and airland of friendly forces.
Spooky is, well, spooky. You call it in when you don’t give a fuck who’s offended by your presence anymore.

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Here is the article…………………….
AP: Armed airplanes used in Vietnam War secretly moved to Iraqi base

In a secretive operation, heavily armed gunship versions of C-130 transport planes like these at an airbase in southern Iraq, on Wednesday, are being shipped to Iraq.

AN AIR BASE IN IRAQ –

The U.S. Air Force has begun moving heavily armed AC-130 airplanes — the lethal “flying gunships” of the Vietnam War — to a base in Iraq as commanders search for new tools to counter the Iraqi resistance, The Associated Press has learned.
An AP reporter saw the first of the turboprop-driven aircraft after it landed at the airfield this week. Four are expected.
The Iraq-based special forces command controlling the AC-130s, the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, said it would have no comment on the deployment. But the plan’s general outline was confirmed by other Air Force officers, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Military officials warned that disclosing the location of the aircraft’s new base would violate security provisions of rules governing media access to U.S. installations.
The four-engine gunships, whose home base is Hurlburt Field in Florida, have operated over Iraq before, flying from airfields elsewhere in the region. In November 2004, air-to-ground fire from AC-130s supported the U.S. attack that took the western city of Fallujah from insurgents.
Basing the planes inside Iraq will cut hours off their transit time to reach suspected targets.
Planes heavily armed
The left-side ports of the AC-130s, 98-foot-long planes that can slowly circle over a target for long periods, bristle with a potent arsenal — 40 mm cannon that can fire 120 rounds per minute, and big 105 mm cannon, normally a field artillery weapon. The plane’s latest version, the AC-130U, known as “Spooky,” also carries Gatling gun-type 20 mm cannon.
“It’s got tons of guns, and it’s got all kinds of stuff on it that can be applied to the problems you have,” Brig. Gen. Frank Gorenc, who refused to discuss the current AC-130 deployment, said in an AP interview.
That “stuff” includes “the ability to take these high-tech pods and to use them to find guys planting (bombs) and to find other nefarious activity,” he said.

So what IS an AC-130U
AC-130U Spooky

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