Theodore's World

The Saudi Arabia seminar that was addressed by former Vice President Al Gore over the weekend in a speech that criticized the U.S. for being too tough on Arabs was sponsored, in part, by Osama bin Laden’s family.
On Saturday, the state-run Saudi news outlet Arab News reported that the Jeddah Economic Forum, where Gore spoke, was funded by “Saudi Arabian Airlines, the Saudi Binladin Group, Gulf One Investment Bank, Saudi Basic Industries Corp.” and an array of other big companies with ties to the Middle East.
The Saudi BinLadin Group – which is Saudi Arabia’s largest construction company – is run by Osama bin Laden’s brothers and cousins. Jeddah, the site of the forum attended by Gore, is Osama bin Laden’s hometown.
Although family members claim they’ve disowned bin Laden, his mother told reporters after the 9/11 attacks that she received advanced warning from him that something big was about to happen.
A wealthy bin Laden niece also reportedly abandoned her lower Manhattan apartment three weeks before the 9/11 attacks.
The BinLadin Group’s longtime involvement in the Jeddah forum has been widely reported in the Mideast and European press.
In January 2002, ex-President Clinton addressed the JEF, which paid him $267,000 for his speech. According to London’s Financial Times:
“The conference was dominated by the Saudis’ desire to overcome the pressures of September 11 and strengthen U.S.-Saudi ties . . . The BinLadin Group, one of the forum’s backers, has been battered by its association with Osama.”

And this from Arab News

Today, the JEF, which was conceived in 2000, and the Jeddah International Exhibition & Convention Center are units of the Jeddah Marketing Board, which was established in 1999 and is presently headed by businessman and former JCCI Chairman Ghassan Al-Sulaiman.
The JEF 2006 sponsors include Emaar Properties as lead sponsor; Saudi Arabian Airlines, Saudi Binladin Group, Al-Khayala (NAS), Al Hilal Group, National Commercial Bank and Xenel as diamond sponsors; Gulf One Investment Bank, Enany Group, Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), Citigroup, Aal Taher Group, EFG-Hermes, Budget Car Rental and the Prince Sultan Foundation (Medunet) as gold sponsors; and Riyad Bank, Credit Suisse, Saudi Electricity Company, Savola Group, General Motors, Khaled Juffali and Sumitomo Chemical Asia as silver sponsors. Media sponsors include Saudi Research and Publishing Company, Al-Madina newspaper, Sky News and Al Arabiya.
The forum is organized by the Jeddah Marketing Board, which operates under the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

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Wild Thing’s comment……
Hmmmm, well they got their money’s worth! But he is such a traitor he would have done it for free.

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Every time I write about the plight of illegally-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldier Jack Idema, I take pains to stress the fact that he’s a highly professional soldier with a talent for rooting out and either capturing or killing the kind of people who would do us harm. Here’s Jack, speaking in a radio interview he gave from Pulachake prison earlier this year:

I flew my guys in. We flew into Afghanistan, and we met with the Northern Alliance. And I said, you guys know you’re not going to get our support anymore, but I’m here to tell you you roll with me and we’ll get the guy. And so they did. I met with the top core commanders, which are the top 9 department of defense guys in Afghanistan, and we got carte blanche to do whatever I had to do because I had a history with these guys. 40 some days later I had Gulumsaki in custody. Gulumsaki gave up the rest of the terrorist bomb cell. Within 5 days after getting Gulumsaki, I had about 95% of the cell. I had the explosives, I had the plans to blow up Bagram –they were going to drive fuel trucks into the barracks at Bagram aiforce base and kill a couple thousand American soldiers. I had their bomb plans to kill Qanooni who was the main opponent to Karzai and the leader now since Massoud died to the Northern Alliance. And I had the plans to kill Marshal Fahim the minister of defense, and all the other guys that were the top allies with the United States. All but two in custody.

The real interest this passage holds, however, isn’t so much in Jack’s successful counter-terrorism operations, but the name of one of the men he saved.
I’m talking about Northern Alliance leader Yunis Qanooni, who became Afghanistan’s Prime Minister after last year’s elections. Qanooni’s ascension to the upper ranks of Afghan politics will, it’s to be hoped, have a major impact on the Idema case.
See, Qanooni is a true Afghan patriot and a fighter through and through. Unlike Karzai, whose interim government has worked hard to integrate ‘ex’-Taliban crazies into the new Afghanistan (unsurprising, perhaps, since Karzai, himself, once supported the Taliban), PM Qanooni is Northern Alliance, and has spent his whole life fighting against the fanatics threatening to ruin his country. Put simply, Qanooni is the kind of ally that we need on our side in the WoT.
More to the point of this blogburst, though, he’s a man who owes his life to Jack Idema. Judging by events in the Afghan Parliament this weekend, it looks as though this is a debt Qanooni intends to repay.
On Saturday, the following three people were hauled in front of ministers in order to answer for their actions:

– NDS Chief Amrullah Saleh (FBI lackey and Head of NDS who arrested and tortured Jack and his men)
– The Deputy of Ahmad Ali Jalali. Jalali was the Interior Minister/former journalist who ordered the arrest of Jack and his men at the direction of Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad- both were enemies of Yunis Qanooni and Massoud’s United Front (Northern Alliance) and both were trying to keep Qanooni and the United Front (America’s greatest allies in the 2001/2002 war) from controlling Afghanistan. Smart enough to know his imminent demise, Jalali fled back to the United States last October. His spokesman, pro-Taliban journalist Lutfallah Mashal, fled to London.
– General Wardaq, a Pashtun American citizen (like Jalali and Karzai) was next to be put on the stand. Wardaq, a former Soviet trained junior officer who fled Afghanistan and never held any type of command rank, lived in America and never fought once in any of the Afghan wars. He succeeded General Fahim as Minister of Defense after Karzai fired Fahim over his support of Jack. He too will answer far reaching allegations that are expected to not only bring about their firing, but probable criminal and treason charges at the hands of the new Mujahadeen controlled Northern Alliance Parliament.

That was good news, but something even better happened the following day:

In a surprise announcement, the new Parliament of Afghanistan announced the formation of 18 commissions which will investigate illegal and corrupts government acts, security failures of the Karzai government over the last 4 years. The FIRST Commission empanelled is the JUSTICE COMMISSION, which will investigate abuses of justice and terrorism. Amrullah Saleh, judges, and Ministers will explain their actions in various selected cases.

It doesn’t take a great deal of thought to work out that one of the ‘abuses of justice’ Qanooni’s Commission will be looking at will be that of Jack Idema’s illegal imprisonment.
For the first time in months, it really is beginning to seem as though the good guys are close to winning this fight.

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So, in the meantime, what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I’d urge everyone to do this, as we’re still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao’s Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There’s also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack’s story.

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Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US
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Iran owns China, Russia UN votes – US senator
Reuters
Washington

Russia and China have too much riding on commercial relations with Iran to help the West in curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, a U.S. senator said on Tuesday, calling for tough measures with Moscow and Beijing.
“The two countries that are sending the wrong signals today are Russia and China,” said Kansas Republican Sam Brownback
“Part of the problem is Iran … has effectively bought U.N. Security Council vetoes from China and, very likely, Russia,” Brownback, a potential presidential contender in 2008, said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
Experts at a symposium at the conservative think tank said Moscow is a major arms supplier to Iran, while Beijing has struck energy deals worth as much as $100 billion with Tehran.
Both of those large powers have also embraced Iran as part of a strategic policy of blunting U.S. influence in the Middle East and Central Asia, the experts said.
“I don’t think China and Russia are going to make serious efforts to stop Iran or North Korea,” said Stephen Blank, a China expert at the U.S. Army War College.
Brownback said that to pressure countries that support Iran, Washington should initiate a campaign of sanctions modeled on a 1980s campaign targeting companies that helped the Soviet Union build a pipeline to Western Europe.
“Like the former Soviet Union, both Russia and China need international technological and managerial support to keep their activities going,” said Brownback.
“No international company is going to treat lightly exclusion from the U.S. market in exchange for contracts with the Iranian government,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iran resumed feeding uranium gas into centrifuges for nuclear-fuel enrichment after a break of 2-1/2 years and announced it was deferring until next week talks on a Russian proposal to defuse the nuclear standoff.
The West suspects Tehran of trying to develop atomic bombs under cover of a civilian program and persuaded the International Atomic Energy Agency’s governing board last week to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible action, which could include sanctions.
Iran says its nuclear work is designed solely to generate electricity for its economy.

Wild Thing’s comment……
I don’t think that Russia in on Iran’s side. But they certainly are not on ours.

The German government has reportedly issued a warning that Iranian and Syrian weapons makers are using cutting-edge German technology poached by Russian criminals.
“Leading-edge (German) technology sold in a completely legal fashion to Russian enterprises and research institutes has been transmitted immediately to Iranian and Syrian workshops manufacturing missiles,” the magazine said, quoting from a warning letter to “numerous German enterprises.”
Iran used German measuring instruments and propulsion and control systems in its Shahab-3 missile, which with its 3,500-kilometer (2,175-miles) range could strike European targets with nuclear warheads, the magazine reported.
February 13, 2006: Germany has arrested two of its citizens and charged them with helping Iran obtain German technology needed to build nuclear warheads for ballistic missiles. A Russian and a North Korean were also accused of helping the Germans. While little discussed in the media, the warhead for a nuclear missile is one of the more difficult bits of technology to develop.
A nuclear weapon is a precision machine, containing many complex electronic, mechanical and chemical components. The ballistic missile basically carries the warhead outside the earth’s atmosphere, and then sends it back (“reentry”) at speeds in excess of 20,000 kilometers an hour (nearly six kilometers a second). It’s this speed that creates tremendous heat, as the warhead enters the atmosphere. The high speeds also create high G forces and vibration. All this generates some very unfriendly conditions for the components of the nuclear device.
It is not easy to build a warhead that can keep the nuclear device in operating order. The two Germans were specifically charged with getting a vibration testing device out of the country, and to Iran. This device makes it possible to test nuclear bomb and warhead structure components without having to launch a missile.
The Russian connection is ominous, because Russia has lots of proven warhead technology. North Korea is also working on designing warheads for nuclear weapons. Iran has long used bribed foreigners to help them get military technology and equipment for them, stuff that no nation would knowingly sell to Iran.

Army Staff Sgt. Clarence Hutton watches an intersection in Sadr City, Iraq, as he provides security for other soldiers on Jan. 12, 2006. Hutton is attached to the Army’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, deployed to Iraq from Fort Campbell, Ky. DoD photo by Spc. Teddy Wade, U.S. Army. (Released)

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U.S. Army soldiers from Alpha Company, 3rd Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division prepare to unload two armored Caterpillar D9 bulldozers from their carriers at Al Butoma, Iraq, on Jan. 11, 2006. The soldiers will use the bulldozers to construct berms for security in Al Butoma. DoD photo by Spc. Jose Ferrufino, U.S Army. (Released)

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U.S. Army Lt. Eric Robinson, assigned to Bravo Battery, 4th Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, briefs his soldiers before a sweep for weapons and items used to make improvised explosive devices in Baghdad, Iraq

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Wild Thing’s comment……
Thank you to our troops from everyone here at Theodore’s World. You are in our thoughts and prayers every day.

CAMP AL QA’IM, Iraq
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Division
Story by Sgt. Jerad W. Alexander
February 14, 2006

Inter-service rivalry is almost a tradition in the armed services, Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen have all, at one time or another, joked about believed deficiencies in other services. Nothing is truer than the rivalry between the Marine Corps and the Air Force.
Conflicts in the 21st Century, however, have yielded more opportunities for service members of all branches to work together toward a common goal. The western Al Anbar province of Iraq is no exception.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Matthew D. Pierce, a military working dog handler with the 62nd Security Forces Squadron out of McCord Air Force Base, Wash., is about as far away from his parent service as any airmen can possibly get. The 29-year-old dog handler is working with 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, here, near the Syrian border just south of the Euphrates River.
“It’s definitely a different type of environment,” said Pierce, a native of Winchendon, Mass. “I understood before coming out here that I’d be putting my neck on the line day-to-day.”
Pierce, and his 3-year-old German Shepherd, Ajax, both work with 29-year-old Portsmouth, Va., native, Marine Sgt. Timothy R. Johnson, a dog handler out of Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii – known as K-Bay by the Marine stationed there.
“I like their motivation to get stuff done,” said Pierce. “They’re always ready to get out and do what needs to be done.”
According to Pierce, he prepared in advance to come to Iraq. He conducted training in desert operations, convoys and other related tasks to help him adjust and successfully work in this combat environment.
Dog handlers in Iraq are used to locate munitions caches, often during combat operations. Together they run through search missions know as “cordon and knock” operations and other sweeps in the region.
“Nothing I’ve done in the states applies here,” Pierce said. “I haven’t, however, been put into a situation that I wasn’t trained for.”
“This is my first time working with the Air Force in Iraq,” said Johnson while tending to his five-year-old German Shepherd, Bingo. It is also Pierces’ first time working with Marines.
According to Johnson, the job of being a military working dog handler by-and-large overrules any inter-service strife.
“What I’ve seen, the conflict comes in when dog handlers train a dog, which is an art unto itself, and they believe their way is the only way. Add different services into the mix and it just gets worse,” Johnson stated. “It’s not the case here.”
Military working dog handlers through out the Armed Forces all receive their introductory training at the same location, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. So according to Johnson, they received the basic training and a basic understanding of the other services, which minimizes any possible tensions.
It isn’t all smooth flowing, however. The dogs themselves tend to show off in front of each other. According to Pierce, Johnson’s dog, Bingo, is known to strut around in front of Ajax when he’s out of his cage.
“We haven’t really introduced the dogs,” said Johnson. “Bingo is a bit of a bull in a china shop.”
Despite the posturing of the dogs and the ‘alpha-dog’ mentality that drives them, the same doesn’t apply to their handlers.
“Military life in general can be a little different,” said Johnson. “But honestly, its all one team, one fight.”

Wild Thing’s comment….
On the ground the Marine Dogs will kick the AF dogs asses but AF dogs will know how to call in an air strike, will plan egress and will look really good doing it. heh heh

Department of Defense
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of four U.S. servicemen, missing in action since the Vietnam War, have been identified. They will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
Maj. Jack L. Barker
MAJ – O4 – Army – Reserve
101st Airborne Division
31 year old Married, Caucasian, Male
Born on Mar 22, 1939
From WAYCROSS, GEORGIA
His tour of duty began on Mar 20, 1971
Casualty was on Mar 20, 1971
LAOS
Hostile, died while missing
HELICOPTER – PILOT
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Body was not recovered
Religion
BAPTIST
Capt. John F. Dugan
CAPT – O3 – Army – Reserve
101st Airborne Division
23 year old Single, Caucasian, Male
Born on Nov 10, 1947
From ROSELLE, NEW JERSEY
His tour of duty began on Mar 20, 1971
Casualty was on Mar 20, 1971
LAOS
Hostile, died while missing
HELICOPTER – CREW
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Body was not recovered
Religion
ROMAN CATHOLIC
Sgt. William E. Dillender
SGT – E5 – Army – Regular
19 year old Single, Caucasian, Male
Born on Oct 06, 1951
From NAPLES, FLORIDA
His tour of duty began on Mar 20, 1971
Casualty was on Mar 20, 1971
LAOS
Hostile, died while missing
HELICOPTER – CREW
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Body was not recovered
Religion
BAPTIST
Pfc. John J. Chubb
PFC – E3 – Army – Regular
101st Airborne Division
20 year old Single, Caucasian, Male
Born on Dec 09, 1950
From GARDENA, CALIFORNIA
His tour of duty began on Mar 20, 1971
Casualty was on Mar 20, 1971
LAOS
Hostile, died while missing
HELICOPTER – CREW
AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND
Body was not recovered

On March 20, 1971, Barker and Dugan were piloting a UH-1H Huey helicopter with Dillender and Chubb on board. The aircraft was participating in a troop extraction mission in the Savannakhet Province of Laos. As the helicopter approached the landing zone, it was hit by heavy enemy ground fire. It exploded in the air and there were no survivors. Continued enemy activity in the area prevented any recovery attempts.
A refugee in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand, showed an identification tag of Pfc. Chubb and a medallion to a U.S. interviewer in 1986. The medallion was reportedly recovered near the same general location from an F-105 crash site. However, the location and the aircraft type did not correlate with the missing aircraft and soldiers.
Between 1988 and 2001, joint U.S.-Lao People’s Democratic Republic teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted four investigations and three excavations for these soldiers without positive results. An investigation team surveyed three crash sites in 2002 after interviewing local villagers from the province. The team recovered a fragment of human tooth and some crew-related artifacts from one of the crash sites.
In October and November 2004, another joint investigation team excavated the crash site and recovered additional human remains and crew-related evidence. The wreckage was of a UH-1H helicopter, and contained insignia worn by members of the 101st Airborne Division.
The remains included nine fragments of teeth that the forensic anthropologists at JPAC were able to match with detailed information from medical and dental records.
From the Vietnam War, 1,807 Americans are still unaccounted-for with 364 of those from Laos. Another 839 have been accounted-for in Southeast Asia with 208 of those from losses in Laos.

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Until They ALL Come Home

Until they all come home
We watch and wait
Young and old, black and white
So far away, they’re sent to fight
Until they all come home
We wear our ribbons to show our pride
And let them know we are on their side
Until they all come home
We pray for peace
Throughout the land
Protect them all, on sea and sand
Until they all come home
By James Withrow
Rolling Thunder



Please feel free to visit my POW MIA page’s

 

 

Another Valentine’s Day
approaches,
and hundreds of thousands of United States soldiers
will be far away from their loved ones,
unable to share an affectionate embrace,
a romantic candlelight dinner,
a box of chocolates or a bouquet of flowers.

Valentines Day is  about showing the ones you love
just how much they mean to you,
and no one knows this better
than friends and families of troops overseas.

So to all our Military, and
their families,
to all the Veterans,
and to all of you that are friends of
Theodore’s World blog……..
Angry Old Salt and I wish you all
a special Valentines Day!
Thank you for being in our lives and
to the troops, thank you for all you do
and for serving our country.
Thank you for our freedom!

Wild Thing

 

 

 

 

 

Israel News Agency To Post Iran Holocaust Cartoons

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In response to Iran’s best-selling newspaper announcing a competition to find the best cartoons about the Holocaust, the Israel News Agency has begun to post the Holocaust cartoons.
“Iran is seeking any means to divert attention away from the fact that they are building nuclear weapons,” said Joel Leyden, publisher of the Israel News Agency. “Iran states that they want to test the democratic limits of Western free speech by laughing at the Holocaust, and the INA is more than pleased to oblige in posting these cartoons. The only catch is that we are doing so with an educational, factual disclaimer inserted inside these Holocaust cartoons. It states: “Six Million Jews Were Gassed, Shot and Hung During the Holocaust. This cartoon does not promote ‘free speech’ rather it illustrates Islamic racist hate and incitement to violence against all other religions.”
The Israel News Agency in posting these Holocaust cartoons from Iran, has launched an SEO – Internet (search engine optimization) marketing contest to prevent Iran and Islam terrorist groups news Websites from reaching top positions in Google. This is the first time that a SEO contest was created for a political and humanitarian cause. And the INA has secured Olympic gold in its quest to outrank any and all Arab and Islam Websites as when one searches for the key words: “iran holocaust cartoons” the Israel News Agency has secured a Google first place ranking.

Please join in with us. Post a Holocaust cartoon today. And be sure to link “iran holocaust cartoons” to Israel News Agency. Shine a light on Islamic race hatred.
Wild Thing’s comment……
Apathy is NOT my middle name!!!! And appeasement is the weak!!
You that know me know that I am an on the field kind of person. I am not one to sit in the stands and not at least try to do something about things or people I care about. Whether it be supporting our Military, our Veterans, political things, ranting about the left, or speaking out about the death cult Islam and the moon god worshipers.
I will simply not stand by and shake my head and wonder why someone does not speak up. I am not important but the passion I have is immense for the things I believe in and hopefully that will count for something.
These evil pieces of flesh that follow the cult of Islam need to be taught a lesson!

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* My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
* The Politburo Diktat

This is a tremendously moving and well deserved tribute to Cpl. Brett Lundstrom. It was created by SparkS and as he said credit is also given to MarcM and SondraK
One of the marvelous things about being online are the friendships that are made and I cherish that. To those of you I have met at my blog and at other blogs you have all touched my heart. I love you all. Your respect for our Military, and our Veterans means everything to me.
And now please click HERE to see the tribute to Cpl. Brett Lundstrom
OK now here is what I found how to make it work.
1. click on the link
2. when it opens up you will see the first page
3. once the music starts then go to the tiny box in the upper right corner to enlarge the screen
4. the music will keep playing all the way through
5. however, if you want the tribute to fill your entire page then just click the back button in your upper left corner and a small box will come up and it quickly loads the file for you

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* Blackfive