Blackwater Promised Immunity

It seems that Blackwater's luck is running strong as it is being reported that, the State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians. The immunity deal has delayed a criminal inquiry into the Sept. 16 killings and could undermine any effort to prosecute security contractors for their role in the incident that has infuriated the Iraqi government.

Blackwater USA, is the private security firm that has become controversial for its extensive role in the war in Iraq, allegedly opened fire on and killed several Iraqis seems to be the last straw for Iraqi tolerance of the company. Iraqi government officials have promised action, including but not limited to the suspension or outright revocation of the company's license to operate in Iraq.

Pulling Blackwater's license may be all the Iraqis can do, although as of this moment, Blackwater refuses to leave. Should any Iraqis ever seek redress for the deaths of the civilians in a criminal court, they will be out of luck. Because of an order promulgated by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the now-defunct American occupation government, there appears to be almost no chance that the contractors involved would be, or could be, successfully prosecuted in any court in Iraq. CPA Order 17 says private contractors working for the U.S. or coalition governments in Iraq are not subject to Iraqi law. Should any attempt be made to prosecute Blackwater in the United States, meanwhile, it's not clear what law, if any, applies.

Scott Horton, who chairs the International Law Committee at the New York City Bar Association, said "Blackwater and all these other contractors are beyond the reach of the justice process in Iraq. They can not be held to account, there is nothing the Iraqi government can do that gives them the right to punish someone for misbehaving or doing anything else."

This is outrageous, and it just shows how little Bush actually thinks of Iraq as A sovereign nation. There needs to be some accountability in regard to these killings, but it now seems likely that it will not occur! How sad for the victims and their families, and how sad for our country that we allow this to happen!


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Kidnapped Sheiks Released

On a day of tragedy as a suicide bomber killed 29 police recruits, there was some "good" news as kidnapped sheiks were released.

Police and relatives have identified the tribal leaders abducted in Baghdad as seven Shiites and three Sunnis aligned against al-Qaida who were on their way home to Diyala province, the same region where Monday's bombing took place, after attending a meeting with the Shiite-dominated government's adviser for tribal affairs to discuss coordinating efforts against the terror group.

There has been some good news on an almost daily basis coming from Iraq, and I haven't really written much about it, as it always seems like we are waiting for another "shoe to drop", and get "broadsided" with bad news, right after we write about the good news!


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Sarkozy Calls CBS Interview Stupid

I just saw this little story and had to post it, as I agree with anyone who calls any part of the news media "stupid".

France's president abruptly ended a "60 Minutes" interview aimed at introducing him to U.S. audiences, dubbing it "stupid" and a "big mistake" and refusing to answer questions about his wife.Before the CBS news show interview in Paris even began, Sarkozy called his press secretary "an imbecile" for arranging the session on a busy day.

Would it be possible to trade Presidents? I think we could do well with this man as our leader!?! Maybe a Trade?!



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Traditional Canon In D Major And Why

I seem to be in a very Canon In D Major Mood. For those who may not know it, Ronnie aka Princess Phoenix's, (on myspaces) father died during her visit to see him. It brought me back to my Father and Mother's deaths and this song has a very special connection between this world and the next. Thanks and I hope you do not mind this aside from the news of the world!!??!! Thanks!!


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Modern Version of Canon In D Major

here is a modern version of Johann Pachelbels Canon In D Major and I hope you enjoy it!!




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13 Creepiest Places On Earth

Below is a a list of the 13 Creepiest places on earth as complied by Ralph Martin of Conde Nast Traveler for a special issue for Halloween

Step away from that pumpkin! While we're more than happy to get into the swing of Halloween, we refuse to do a roundup of the trite and not-so-true haunted hotels around the world. Nonetheless, in our travels we've happened upon a number of places that are genuinely creepy, from a dive site among WWII wrecks in Micronesia to a tour through the eerie, abandoned town near Chernobyl in the Ukraine. You'd be wrong to dismiss these destinations as merely spooky stop-offs, too. Many have true historical significance (the Paris Catacombs and its links to the French Revolution), while others are destinations of great beauty (the Easter Islands in the Pacific Ocean). So in the spirit (sorry) of the season, here are 13 (sorry again) of the world's weirdest destinations. Sensitive souls should read on with caution.

If you have any creepy, spooky, or weird places, please send them to me and I shall put them in an update for readers to check out!! Thank You All!!


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Hawkeyes Beat Michigan State In Double OT

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE HAWKEYES FOR BEATING MICHIGAN STATE IN DOUBLE OVERTIME!!

It was a long scary week as the Michigan State game got closer and closer. There were letters to the editor of the Iowa Press-Citizen asking them to fire Pat Harty, for saying what many in Iowa City were muttering to themselves, since the last loss. I hope that with the fantastic win in double overtime, everyone can step back a little and see how much more can be done this season. The one thing that stands out loud and clear is that Coach Ferentz needs to explore more of the young talent he brought here. My boss said that his loyalty to players is his detriment, as he refuses to give other players who may be better, and only does so when it is necessary, as when someone is injured. He said that it is said that you need to hope someone is injured, just so a better player can be brought in. In particular, this is the case with our quarterback, Jake Christensen, probably one of the worst Hawkeye quarterbacks ever, according to what fans are saying. I don't really know that much about it, as I am a fan, but not a rabid fan. However, the fans I do hear talking are "psycho" Hawk fans, and that is their assessment. He is probably a nice guy, but if the nice guy can't produce the wins week after week, he needs to rest on the bench while someone gets a shot at winning. Now, they did win this week, but a lot of people are saying that they won in spite of Mr. Christensen, not because of him! We should see Mr. Arvell Nelson in the quarterback slot next week. Perhaps, he is not any better, but he cannot be much worse either, and he is going to need experience for next year, so give him a shot!

The story at the Bonita News says that, late in a season marred by injuries, it was only fitting that two third-stringers would lead Iowa to its first overtime win at Kinnick Stadium. Freshman Jevon Pugh from Naples High scored the go-ahead touchdown in double overtime and Drew Gardner, a seldom-used cornerback, stopped Michigan State's Devin Thomas on the ensuing fourth down to help Iowa beat the Spartans 34-27 on Saturday.

Anyway, next week is a road game at Northwestern, so best of luck in continuing to win. Try out some of the guys on the bench and let's have the BEST guys on the field no matter their grade or level of experience!!


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Lawyer Tries To Get Syrian Hoaxster Off

A Syrian man on trial for giving a false tip to a New York City anti-terrorism hotline never meant to cause public alarm and believed that his identity would be kept secret, his lawyer said on Friday. Sending him to prison could have a chilling effect on other New Yorkers who wish to report suspicious activity to law enforcement, lawyer Michael Soshnick told a 12-person jury during opening arguments at New York State Court.

As his lawyer is trying to make it sound, Mr. Alkitiri was doing a noble thing, which in "lawyerspeak", means "my client is guilty as hell, so I shall try and obfuscate the issues, and confuse the jury", until no one knows what this is about!! As the old joke goes, "What's 10,000 lawyers at the bottom of the sea? A Good Start!" Even in Shakespeare's Henry VI, they say "kill all the lawyers". Anyway, just a minor divergent rant against lawyers, as I think that even though there are some good lawyers, they are rare, and the rest are a cancer that eats away at the body of this nation, and subverts justice whenever possible! I guess one more strike against their "profession," is that most of the politicians seem to be lawyers, and look how bad they've messed this country up!

And please remember that around this time there were other tips and plots. Just days after Mr. Alkatri's "tip" there was another alleged plot: On July 7, authorities said they had thwarted a terrorist plot to flood lower Manhattan by attacking train tunnels under the Hudson River used by tens of thousands of commuters. Eight suspects, including an al-Qaeda loyalist arrested in Lebanon and two others in custody elsewhere, had hoped to pull off the attack in October or November, federal officials said.


So please remember that as we go to the crux of the story:
On May 30, 2006, ALKATRI, identifying himself as Jose Rodriguez of Israel, called the New York City SAFE Hotline and told a New York Police Department (NYPD) police officer that he knew that suicide bomb attacks on New York City trains were being planned for July 4th. Rodriguez told the officer that the plot involved five “Arab people,” all Syrians working in the jewelry business. He told the officer that the conspirators had obtained powder for the bomb attacks by hiding the explosives in hollowed-out jewelry and then importing the jewelry into the United States to a store owned by one of the so-called conspirators. ALKATRI identified the conspirators and also told the Hotline officer that he had overheard two of the alleged conspirators talking, and he told the officer that one had said to the other, “Everything ready. You have to, you know, be ready.” He also told the officer that the conspirators used the expression “Allah Akbar.”

There is every reason to convict this man, and yet he only faces 2 years, yes 2 years for all of the trouble that he caused law enforcement, his former business associates, and America in general. He should be found guilty, sentenced, then do his time, and then be deported. I only wish we could deport his lawyer with him! Sorry could not resist one more slam on lawyers!!


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Spot May Be Cosmic Defect

Here is a truly "cool" story as it has to do with space, and it is definitely cold out there. A cold spot in the oldest radiation in the universe could be the first sign of a cosmic glitch that might have originated shortly after the Big Bang, British and Spanish scientists said on Thursday. They think this spot, detected on satellite maps of microwave radiation, might be a cosmic defect or texture, a holdover from the universe's infancy. But they said their theory would need confirmation.

A quick synopsis of the Big Bang Theory:
The Big Bang Theory is the dominant scientific theory about the origin of the universe. According to the big bang, the universe was created sometime between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago from a cosmic explosion that hurled matter and in all directions.

In 1927, the Belgian priest Georges Lemaître was the first to propose that the universe began with the explosion of a primeval atom. His proposal came after observing the red shift in distant nebulas by astronomers to a model of the universe based on relativity. Years later, Edwin Hubble found experimental evidence to help justify Lemaître's theory. He found that distant galaxies in every direction are going away from us with speeds proportional to their distance.

The big bang was initially suggested because it explains why distant galaxies are traveling away from us at great speeds. The theory also predicts the existence of cosmic background radiation (the glow left over from the explosion itself). The Big Bang Theory received its strongest confirmation when this radiation was discovered in 1964 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who later won the Nobel Prize for this discovery. Although the Big Bang Theory is widely accepted, it probably will never be proved; consequentially, leaving a number of tough, unanswered questions.

The more questions that are answered, the more questions that arise. It is one of the best things about being a human. The eternal quest for knowledge and trying to understand our place in the Universe!





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Are Ghosts Real

Those things that go bump in the night? About one-third of people believe they could be ghosts. And nearly one out of four, 23 percent, say they've actually seen a ghost or felt its presence, finds a pre-Halloween poll by The Associated Press and Ipsos.

I found this story interesting as Halloween is right around the corner. I think this year my girlfriend and I, are going to finally sit in a cemetary with a tape recorder, and record to hear if their are any ghosts around the area, also called EVP's. Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) concerns unexpected voices found in recording media. It is a form of after death communication. ITC is a newer term that includes all of the ways these unexpected voices and images are collected through technology, including EVP. Of the many hypotheses designed to explain these phenomena, the Survival Hypothesis has been found to be most effective in answering the evidence. What is the Survival Hypothesis? The Survival Hypothesis holds that we are nonphysical entities who are able to exist in the physical aspect of reality because of our physical body, but that when our physical body dies, we as Self, change our point of view to nonphysical reality. In effect, we exist before and after our current lifetime.

If you remember, this was the premise of the Michael Keaton movie, "White Noise" from 2005.The plot is that the pregnant wife of the architect Jonathan Reeves (Michael Keaton) is missed after a car accident near a cliff, and the police do not know whether she is dead or abducted. Some weeks later, a mysterious man comes to Jonathan and tells him that his wife is dead and had communicated with him through Electronic Voice Phenomena. Sooner Jonathan is informed by the police that her body was found in the sea near a harbor, and the tormented grieving Jonathan decides to try to contact her using uncontrolled E.V.P and jeopardizing his own life. So if you want to watch a pretty good spooky film about ghosts this might be a good one for you.

Anyway, I'll let you know if we do it and what the results were. However, my only other fear of doing this, is the fact that most of those B movie plots start out with people going into a cemetary, and then a slasher or any number of monsters sets about killing them?! We'll hope for a better outcome!!


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Are You On Terrorist List

Have we gone totally overboard in respect to finding terrorists. The stoyr below would tend to show that we are nuts over terrorist suspects!!

The US terrorist watch list includes more than 755,000 names and continues to grow, the US Government Accountability Office said Wednesday. The list exploded from fewer than 20 entries before the September 11, 2001 attacks to more than 150,000 just a few months later, after the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) was created in December 2003 to keep tabs on terrorist suspects, according to the GAO, the non-partisan investigative arm of Congress. Including known pseudonyms of suspects, the list's 755,000 names as of May 2007 represents, in fact, around 300,000 people, according to TSC estimates.

Are you on the lists???


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White House Tampers With Expert

All I can say it "what else is new", the President and the White House tampered with the testimony of another government expert, with which they disagree.

Two chairmen of key committees in the House and Senate on Wednesday criticized the White House for editing testimony from a government expert about the health impacts of global warming and demanded documents involving the testimony he provided to Congress. "I am deeply concerned that important scientific and health information was removed from the ... testimony at the last minute," Sen. Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, wrote President Bush.

Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, demanded an explanation from the White House's chief science adviser, John Marburger, about the handing of the testimony earlier this week by Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She appeared Tuesday before Boxer's committee, which is crafting global warming legislation.

There needs to be a real wake up call for the President and his White House to stop tampering with testimony of any kind. Bush has made it very clear that he does not believe in Global Warming and therefore he will do everything he can to disprove it. This is the case with everything from Iraq to the budget, "he knows what he knows", and no amount of contrary data is going to convince him otherwise!!


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Blackwater Must Leave Iraq

There is a story indicating that the Iraqi government still wants Blackwater removed from their country.

The Iraqi government remains determined to expel the Blackwater USA security company and is searching for legal remedies to overturn an American-imposed decree that exempts all foreign bodyguards from prosecution under local laws, officials said Wednesday.Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government accepted the findings of an Iraqi investigative committee that determined Blackwater guards, without provocation, killed 17 Iraqis last month in Nisoor Square in western Baghdad. Iraqi investigators declared that Blackwater should be expelled and $8 million should be paid as compensation for each victim.

I mentioned before that if President Bush wants to show that he actually meant for Iraq to be a democracy, then he would abide by their request (demands) and get these mercenary butchers out of their country. If they refuse to leave by legal means, I believe the Iraqi government should take the obvious step that any sovereign nation would and use their brand new military to force them our of their country or kill all of them. That is my advice to al-Maliki. He has been more than respectful to our President and has gotten nothing but the middle finger for long enough on these mercenaries, and needs to force this issue with violence, as diplomacy has gotten him nowhere. Personally, I hope Blackwater puts up a fight, so they can put these creeps down for good, and we won't have these loose cannons back in this country shooting up neighbors and such!



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Cool People Are Extinct

In 1848 a strange skull was discovered on the military outpost of Gibraltar. It was undoubtedly human, but also had some of the heavy features of an ape... distinct brow ridges, and a forward projecting face. Just what was this ancient creature? And when had it lived? As more remains were discovered one thing became clear, this creature had once lived right across Europe. The remains were named Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal man) an ancient and primitive form of human.

There is a complete informational link at the bottom if you wish to know much more about neanderthals. The news this week is that these Neanderthals, may not have been the guys from the Geico commercial, but they still may have a the ability to "talk", thus giving us a whole new look at how they lived their lives and survived so long.


The story says that Neanderthals probably had the gift of gab, according to a study examining a key language gene in the extinct species. Until now, humans were thought to have a unique version of FOXP2, the only gene shown to play a role in language. People who are missing a copy have difficulty with speaking and language comprehension.

The version of the gene in chimpanzees — our closest living relatives — is different from that of humans in two places. But two Neanderthals who died 43,000 years ago had the same kind of FOXP2 as people alive today, researchers reported Friday in Current Biology.

So this is why, the Neanderthals are my cool "extinct" people of the week!!


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Navy Seal Receives Medal Of Honor

There is a story regarding Lt. Michael Murphy, who gave his life in Afghanistan, and the medal that was presented to his family today to honor him.


The first Medal of Honor awarded for combat in Afghanistan was presented Monday to the weeping parents of a Navy SEAL from Long Island, who gave his life to make a radio call for help for his team. President Bush presented the nation's highest military honor for valor to the family of Lt. Michael Murphy of Patchogue, N.Y., who died when his elite combat team was surrounded high in the mountains of Afghanistan.

This is one of the "choke a person up with emotion" stories, as most people can empathize with the family and their most personal loss. I know there will be some people who so oppose the war, that cannot allow even a modicum of respect for the sacrifice this young man made for all of us. That is alright, because I am writing this for the people who no matter what they think about the war, can undertsand and perhaps say a prayer in honor of this young man, and can feel for his parents and the pain that they must endure everyday!!

The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest military award for valor in action against an enemy force which can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the Armed Services of the United States. There will be an additional link for people wanting to know about the Congressional Medal of Honor as well!!


Daniel Murphy, Michael's Father, will accept the award on behalf of his son. Murphy will receive the award for his extraordinary, selfless heroism and steadfast courage while leading a four-man, special reconnaissance mission deep behind enemy lines east of Asadabad in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan June 27 to 28, 2005.

Murphy was the officer-in-charge of the SEAL element, which was tasked with locating a high- level Taliban militia leader to provide intelligence for a follow-on mission to capture or destroy the local leadership and disrupt enemy activity. However local Taliban sympathizers discovered the SEAL unit and immediately revealed their position to Taliban fighters. The element was besieged on a mountaintop by scores of enemy fighters. The firefight that ensued pushed the element farther into enemy territory and left all four SEALs wounded. The SEALs fought the enemy fearlessly despite being at a tactical disadvantage and outnumbered more than four to one. Understanding the gravity of the situation and his responsibility to his men, Murphy, already wounded, deliberately and unhesitatingly moved from cover into the open where he took and returned fire while transmitting a call for help for his beleaguered teammates. Shot through the back while radioing for help, Murphy completed his transmission while returning fire. The call ultimately led to the rescue of one severely wounded team member, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell, and the recovery of the remains of Murphy and Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny Dietz and Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew Axelson.


May this young man and his comrades rest in peace, We honor you for your sacrifice, thank you!!




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Rampant Sexual Misconduct In Schools UPDATE

In a follow up to the story about rampant sexual misconduct in the nations schools, there are stories of individuals, and how it has affected them. Below and through the link in the story of one such person.

They've learned to watch their older daughter for any sign that something's wrong. She cuts her long, blond hair and dyes it jet black. And they worry. Her father picks up a book she's been reading, "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, and skims it for clues.He notices a highlighted passage: "You forget some things, don't you," it reads. "Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget."

As we read yesterday, This story among others came after a seven-month Associated Press investigation found stories like these are all too common. AP reporters in every state and the District of Columbia identified 2,570 teachers who were punished for sexual misconduct from 2001 to 2005 alone, for actions that ranged from fondling to viewing child pornography to rape.

We also saw that this is just the tip of the iceberg, as many crimes do not get reported, so the true nature of this evil epidemic is unknown. There needs to be a top to bottom review of the entire school system in this country, as in many cases the schools not only did not report the crimes, but actively worked to keep them "from" being reported. That kind of behavior is not only unethical, but it is criminal, and anyone found to have helped hide these crimes should be prosecuted and punished.

With the widespread reporting of these stories, there should come a demand to address the situation, correct it, punish those involved, and make sure it is "easier" to report it when it happens, because that is the one certainty in all of this. The people who prey upon children will continue to prey as long as they are allowed access to them, whether in schools, camps, churches, anywhere they come in contact with them, unless and until, we put these perpetrators away--Permanently!!


UPDATE

Turkish Troops Ambushed

In a news story being reported today, Kurdish rebels ambushed a Turkish military convoy on Sunday less than three miles from the Iraqi border, killing 12 soldiers in the face of growing threats by Turkey to cross the rugged frontier and root out the guerrillas. Turkey shelled the border region in response to the attack, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, ordered the rebels to lay down their arms or leave Iraq. Turkey dismissed his call, saying the time had come for action.

As we all know there has been an approval of force in Iraq, by the Turkish parliment, so a crossing is expected, but the violent reaction to it, so quickly may have caught everyone off guard. Nothing good can come of this incursion and subsequent killing of the Turkish troops, and are mission in Iraq has just gotten so much more complicated. This would be a good time to slink away and let them have at it, without our troops in the middle of one more group against group butchery.

As should be expected Turkey expects the United States to act against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq but will take its own measures if it sees no results in the fight, the prime minister said on Saturday. What is wrong with our goverment? Do they not believe that Turkey will indeed invade, if there are no substantive results, and soon. If we had Canadians attacking across our northern border, we would have already moved to stop the attacks. I would have used the southern border, but we are already being attacked from there, but our President is on their side, so there will be no action taken there.

Back to Iraq and Turkey, it is very clear that we must find a resolution that both sides can agree too, or face a full scale attack that will take one of the most peaceful areas of Iraq and turn it into another center of killings and reprisal killings.

It was reiterated friday and saturday that Turkish officials expect us to do something to stop the rebels. In an interview with the private Kanal 24 TV channel late Friday,Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, "We have expectations mainly from the U.S. more than Iraq. We want the coalition forces - mainly the U.S.-to take a step here,our demands from them are known and we will see what happens in time, we will put into action our own road map if we do not get the results we want." Erdogan is supposed to meet with White House officials, including President Bush on November 5th, so perhaps the full scale assaults will wait until after those meetings.


Rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, operate from bases in the mountains of northern Iraq and periodically cross the border to stage attacks in their war for autonomy for Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast. More than 30,000 people have died in the conflict that began in 1984.

This attack by the rebels against Turkish troops and possible hostage taking is quickly going to get out of control if calmer heads on both sides of the border do not prevail!! The precarious position that we are in, is just one more area of "mission accomlished" that no one in Washington planned for, and that is the worst part of this whole Iraq mess. They thought it was going to be a "cake walk" and it has instead turned into a "food fight"!!






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Rampant Sexual Misconduct In Schools

There is a story I was just reading regarding serious sexual misconduct running rampant in the schools. Then again this story may not be at all surprising to you, as we consider the numerous stories that have reported in every facet of the news media. It should however, make you angry that so little is being done about it by the schools, and instead requires the due diligence of victims and their parents. This is about our children and should one area, where one strike, and you are out FOREVER!! No pyschological counseling, no forgiveness, just straight too the point victim's justice. Hell we cannot expect this from our justice system with regard to pedophiles and their crimes against children, so I suppose it isn't any wonder than the justice system is also letting us down, with the people that we trust to take care of, and teach our chidlren!! Justice and society is not only blind, but mostly stupid as well, and this is an excellent example of that stupidity!!

The young teacher hung his head, avoiding eye contact. Yes, he had touched a fifth-grader's breast during recess. "I guess it was just lust of the flesh," he told his boss.That got Gary C. Lindsey fired from his first teaching job in Oelwein, Iowa. But it didn't end his career. He taught for decades in Illinois and Iowa, fending off at least a half-dozen more abuse accusations. "Hung his head my butt", he should have been forever banned from any position of authority over children, and the school offcials and our countries rules and laws inadequately handling this epidemic. Personally, I would be for the use of any and all sanctions against these creeps. If the law authorities and the justice system are not up to the task, perhaps good "old western" citizen justice, would be in order.

The ACLU and their cohorts are forever sticking their noses in these types of cases and protecting the poor little sexual deviant teachers, and the poor little perverted pedophiles. Why couldn't they once be on the side of the angels, and assist an innocent child victim with getting justice. No, I guess that would be against their charter, to assist any Real victim. They are only allowed to defend criminals and perverts!! If you do not think the ACLU is on the perverts side, remember this story from 2000, and this is just one example: The American Civil Liberties Union has asked a judge to dismiss what it calls an "unconstitutional" lawsuit against a national pedophile organization being sued in a wrongful death case after two of the group's members brutally raped and murdered a 10-year-old boy. The $200 million civil lawsuit, which charges the North American Man-Boy Love Association with wrongful death, was originally filed in Massachusetts Federal District Court on May 16.


Anyway, we need to start holding all school officials personally liable civilly and ciminally for the actions of the teachers that they allow into a classroom after knowing that allegations of sexual misconduct have been made against a teacher. In addition, the communities need to be held liable. When it starts costing Big $'s cities will make sure that everyone is on the same page, and that is the page that protects the children of this country from these perverts!!





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Bhutto Vows To Remain

In the news moments ago, Pakistani police took three people in for questioning on Saturday over an attack on former premier Benazir Bhutto's homecoming procession that killed 139 people, an investigator said. The men were linked to a car from which an attacker threw a grenade in Karachi on Thursday night, seconds before a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people, he said.

It would seem that even though Mrs. Bhutto left Pakistan under a cloud of scandal and corruption,that For the thousands of singing and dancing supporters who flocked to this raucous Karachi street to greet her, the corruption charges against Ms. Bhutto or her willingness to ally herself with an unpopular president don't seem to matter.



Hours later, the celebratory atmosphere in Karachi was shattered when two bomb blasts killed at least 139 bystanders and wounded about 500 more.

In recent weeks, Bhutto has alienated many Pakistanis by her dealings with President Pervez Musharraf, which were seen as driven by Washington's desire to bolster a moderate South Asian government in its fight against Islamic extremism. They have also, at least for the moment, cleared her of charges that she stole millions from Pakistan in the 1990s. But Thursday's triumphant return is a reminder that much of Pakistani politics is personality and pageantry. And charisma alone might be enough for Bhutto. It is a calculus born of experience, banking on her ability to turn decades-old allegiances to her family name and home state into votes. But heading into the campaign season for January parliamentary elections, the strategy carries new risks, experts say: Pakistan is changing, becoming more politically sophisticated as a raft of news channels plays an increasingly important role in shaping public opinion.


Musharraf's precipitous decline in popularity is partly due to his close ties to Washington, which supports Musharraf as a crucial ally in the war against terrorism. The Bush administration has also come out in support of Musharraf's alliance with Bhutto as a hedge against the rising influence of Islamic extremism. Her arrival Thursday was Bhutto's attempt to change the momentum against her, and the event showcased her greatest strengths: her celebrity and the organizational capabilities of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Buses lined Karachi streets for miles, and festive street scenes made the decaying port city seem more like Rio than the Arabian Sea coast, with boomboxes blaring music from every region of Pakistan, and one motorcycle broadcasting old Bhutto speeches from its makeshift speakers.

She is brave, because she knew that coming here was going to bring death and destruction,and she chose to return anyway to assist her country and herself. She obviously, is similar to our own Clinton's in being Machievellian to attain their goals.

Most of the support for her is because of her father , who was hanged for political resons 28 years ago.The sentiment is widespread in the crowd, and it points to the feudal nature of politics here. As the daughter of Zulfikar, Benazir has inherited the devotion that he won from many of Pakistan's poor. And as a daughter of the state of Sindh, she can expect to sweep the rural parts of the state in elections. These are the two constituencies that experts expect her to woo in the coming months. There is a logic to the strategy of playing on her father's name and her Sindhi heritage. If she succeeds, the electoral math suggests she may be able to cobble together enough votes to be the leading partner in a coalition government – winning her the prime minister's seat.

There are many other obstacles to Mrs. Bhutto, besides the terrorist assassination threats and attempts. First is the Supreme Court, which still must rule on whether Musharraf was a legal candidate for the presidential elections he won more than a week ago. A decision is expected soon. If he is declared invalid retroactively, Pakistan's political establishment would be thrown into chaos, and any deals Bhutto struck with Musharraf would be useless. The Supreme Court could also have a say in this matter, too. It will look into whether the amnesty deal Bhutto made with Musharraf is illegal. If it rules against Bhutto, the decision would make her vulnerable to cases charging that she and her husband embezzled money from the government and put it in Swiss bank accounts. There is a report that in one case, a Swiss judge had finished his investigation into the money-laundering charges and would present his findings to a prosecutor next week.

There is also fear that even if Bhutto survives these challenges, her political maneuverings have antagonized those who created the conditions for her return: the middle class. The anti-Musharraf movement that has roiled Pakistan in recent months is largely a secular, liberal, middle-class phenomenon, a group which, in the past, often went along with Bhutto as the Western-educated, left-of-center candidate. But it has turned against her since she began to deal with Musharraf. The president is seen by many here as a US-backed puppet, making Bhutto's arrangement with him appear to be a cynical political gambit to secure her own political future.

In a telephone interview that is being played around the world the two leaders vowed to fight terrorism and extremism. President Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan People's Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto have expressed their resolve to fight extremism and terrorism, both leaders agreed that there is a need for the entire nation to unite to rid the country of these evil violent fanatics.

There is going to be more violence, before it gets better. The hope is that with her return, she can help put a loss of power by President Musharraf, who even with all of his faults, is one of the few leaders standing with us in this fight with radicalism and terrorism. If we lose Pakistan, we lose a country and that missiles and nuclear weapons, and we surely do not want those type of weapons in the hands of al-Qaeda or the Taliban!! We wouldn't have to worry about an improvised "dirty" bomb, as they would have access to the Real thing, and "All Hell Would Break Loose". We have seen how the rhetoric continues to rise against Iran by Bush, could you imagine what we would do if a nuclear country was going to fall into the "enemies" hands!! Can anyone say "Armaggedon"! Perhaps that would not be the case, but the likehood would surely increase exponentially!

Hopefully, the Pakistani's will bring the people behind this attack to a swift and sure justice, and I pray that the government had nothing to do with the attack! If it was al-Qaeda, it will help unite the people against them, and that would be a great outcome.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed and hope for an outcome that keeps Pakistan out of the loss column.




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Bill Maher Security Bouncer

I found this amusing little story, when I turned on my computer this morning and thought you might like a laugh with your coffee, or Diet Mt. Dew, my caffeine drug of choice!

It seems Bill Maher can add "security guard" to his job description alongside comedian and political commentator.Maher on Friday night helped security remove a rowdy protester from the studio during his weekly HBO show "Real Time with Bill Maher," and it was all captured on live television.


Bill Maher is a famous Bush basher, and I was a one-time fan back in the days before 9/11, when I thought it was an interesting concept show, with celebrities, etc., discussing current events and politics. I watch pretty much any show that discusses those subjects, from the old days of Crossfire to O'Reilly, and shades in between. I watch Hardball occasionally, but Chris Mathews is such a know-it-all punk that it is hard to listen to his whiney voice talking down to his "guests"!

Anyway back to Bill Maher, the "comedian" typically expresses hate to all things Bush/Cheney, and lost his original show on ABC, after saying how brave the terrorists were that flew into the Twin Towers on 9/11, because they were willing to die for their cause.

In this one issue, i.e. the conspiracy theories about 9/11, Maher says that he supports Bush, and states that there was no conspiracy by the government or anyone else, but the terrorists, to bring down the Towers. So enjoy the "little" story and have a Great Sunshiny Weekend!!


Oh, if you wish to know about Bill Maher and his beliefs, merely type in his name in your search area, and the first 10 places are excellent sources of information. They include a couple of official sites, wikipedia, etc. Take Care!


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Joe Torre Insulted By Offer

George Steinbrenner is a jerk, and has this Yankee fan Mad as Hell!! We have a manager that gets our team to the post season 12 times in a row, and 4 world series, and he insults him, with pay cut. All Good Yankee Fans should contact the team and let them know that this is Crap, and we sill not allow a winning manager to be treated like a loser!! This is a bit of news that is being broadcast on the web and in regular media outlets.

Joe Torre says he was insulted by the incentives attached to the New York Yankees contract offer he rejected this week, thereby ending his 12-year spell as manager. "The incentives I took as an insult," the 67-year-old told a packed news conference at a hotel near his New York home on Friday. He had been offered a one-year contract to stay, with a basic pay of $5 million and a $1 million bonus for each level of playoffs reached. Torre steered the Yankees to the playoffs in each of his 12 seasons at the helm. His teams won four World Series but had not claimed the championship since 2000.

Joe Torre thanked the Yankees for a wonderful 12 years, shook owner George Steinbrenner's hand, and assuredly shut the door on his tenure as Yankees manager by rejecting a one-year, incentive-laden contract that he felt was insulting, he told reporters on Friday. Torre addressed the media less than 24 hours after dropping yesterday's bombshell, turning down an offer of $5 million with postseason incentives to return to the team in 2008, a deal that many believed was the team's way to get rid of him diplomatically.


The beloved Yankees manager explained that terms of the contract and its presentation were the main reasons that he turned down their offer. "The fact that somebody is reducing your salary is telling me they're not satisfied with what you're doing. I think it was the way it was offered, not so much with the numbers involved," he said. "Incentives, to me, I took that as an insult." He made it clear that had the contract been guaranteed for two years and perhaps offered in a more timely manner, he might not be holding the news conference on Friday. "To me if somebody wants you to do a job, if it takes them two weeks to figure out that, 'Yeah, we wanna do this or we should do this,' you're a little suspicious. For me to say I was very surprised by the nature of the offer, I wasn't very surprised," he said. Still, despite saying he felt "discouraged" by the offer, Torre thanked the players, the organization, and owner George Steinbrenner "for giving me the opportunity and trusting me with his club for the last 12 years."


And as that 12-year reign comes to an end, the search begins for the team's next skipper who will slip on a pair of shoes that could at first be somewhat uncomfortable to knot up. Team executives are confident they'll find a worthy successor, however, and they'll have plenty of experienced hands waving in the air" [General Manager Brian] Cashman is hard at work doing the search for who will succeed Joe," Yankees President Randy Levine said Friday.

The most obvious choice and likely the favorite to move into Torre's office is former Yankee great Don Mattingly, who Torre named bench coach following the 2006 season. Don Mattingly on Friday morning was asked about the position, but he declined to comment in respect to Torre. Mattingly did release a statement regarding Torre's decision, however. "Joe Torre exhibits class, dignity and a winning attitude both on and off the field. Those of us who coached or played under Joe know he is someone very, very special," he said.

Joe Girardi, who was named Manager of the Year in 2006 after just one season with the Florida Marlins, is also a former Yankees bench coach and player, and should be Mattingly's main competition for the gig, which Girardi called "a great job." Girardi turned down an offer to manage the Baltimore Orioles earlier this season when Sam Perlozzo was fired, and it was widely speculated that he wanted to hold out for the Bronx.

As for other candidates, some insiders say Tony La Russa, who currently manages St. Louis Cardinals Manager and is a four-time Manager of the Year, could be considered. La Russa has twice managed in the American League, managing the Chicago White Sox and the Oakland Athletics in the 1980s and 1990s. He guided the Cardinals to the World Series title in 2006, and the A's to the championship in 1989. Even former Mets manager Bobby Valentine, who currently manages the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan's Pacific League, could be called back into the Big Apple for a bite of the big leagues.


"I think there are any number of good candidates. I think Don Mattingly is the favorite right now, I think Donny would do a good job. Joe Girardi is probably right after him, and I think Joe has proven that he can manage in the big leagues," Yankees broadcaster and 1050 ESPN Radio host Michael Kay said Friday. While the Yankees seem ready to move on, Kay isn't completely convinced that the doors have actually closed on the Joe Torre era. "I think what the Yankees will probably do is gauge the fans' reaction and if a lot of people are in favor of it, they'll leave it alone. But if a lot of people are against Joe Torre not coming back, they might revisit it so I wouldn't say it's 100 percent closed," Kay said.


Torre threw the chances of that happening out the window on Friday, however. "I don't anticipate it happening based on the fact that, to me, that if someone wanted me to manage here, I'd be managing here," he said. Of course, Torre could also soon opt to manage elsewhere, something he acknowledged might happen sooner than later. "That would depend on sitting with someone and discussing what it would be all about," he said. "Right now my contract runs until Dec. 1 here, but I think that's just the way it was written. I'm free to listen now."


Steinbrenner needs to rethink this ridiculous offer, change it and get our winning manager back, before we have a losing season next year!! George you are rich, and own the Team, but you're still a jerk and Torre is still a Winning Manager!!

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Mona Lisa Reveals Secrets

In an interesting story on Yahoo News, a scientist/engineer has created a camera that sheds new light on the image of the Mona Lisa, and Leonardo Da Vinci.


New images uncover 25 secrets about the Mona Lisa, including proof that Leonardo da Vinci gave her eyebrows, solving a long-held mystery. The images are part of an exhibition, "Mona Lisa Secrets Revealed," which will feature new research by French engineer Pascal Cotte and debut in the United States at the Metreon in San Francisco. The Mona Lisa showcase is part of a larger exhibition called "Da Vinci: An Exhibition of Genius."

Hope you enjoy the little bit of lite news, in the midst of so much death and destruction, which we'll get back to, with the next post!!



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Iraq Drawdown Begins

There is a tiny bit of brightness in the announcement that a drawdown of troops would begin when the 1st Cavalry returns to Fort Hood, Texas, and will not be replaced.


Commanders in Iraq have decided to begin the drawdown of U.S. forces in volatile Diyala province, marking a turning point in the U.S. military mission. Instead of replacing the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division, which is returning to its home base at Fort Hood, Texas, in December, soldiers from another brigade in Salahuddin province next door will expand into Diyala, thereby broadening its area of responsibility, several officials said Tuesday. In this way, the number of Army ground combat brigades in Iraq will fall from 20 to 19. This reflects President Bush's bid to begin reducing the American military force and shifting its role away from fighting the insurgency toward more support functions like training and advising Iraqi security forces.

The Iraq drawdown is to begin in December and be completed by July 2008 under a plan recommended by General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, which was announced in September.
In remarks at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Lieutenant-General Carter Ham, the chief of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the withdrawal pace "isn't mechanical" and will depend on the security situation.

However, there were other bad events in Iraq today and they include :

At least 11 people, including five of a family, have been killed in a fresh spate of violence in Iraq, sources said Monday. Shia guerrillas attacked a US military base in southern Iraq's Diwaniyah city killing six people and injuring 14, a police source said. Militiamen of the Mahdi Army, loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, fired some dozen mortar rounds on the US-run base and a nearby joint security centre, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The US troops in the base also traded mortar rounds with the attackers, said the source. Several houses and civilian cars were damaged. The US military had no immediate comment on the incident. Diwaniyah, the capital of the al-Qadsiyah province, has been a flashpoint for rival Shia factions battling for supremacy in the region. It has also seen heavy clashes between guerrillas and joint US and Iraqi security forces.

A suicide car bomb struck a house of an Iraqi police officer in an area in Anbar province, killing him and four of his family members and wounding eight people, a provincial police source said. The bomber blew up his explosives-laden car near the house of a police major in the town of al-Baghdadi, 150 km (90 miles) west of Baghdad. The powerful blast also damaged five nearby houses, the source said, adding security forces immediately imposed curfew in the town for fear of more attacks. Insurgents frequently attack Iraqi security forces, accusing them of collaboration with the US troops.



So while there is some positive movement toward bringing our troops home, it is still likely to be a long, hit and miss, process.



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Conscientious Objector Gets OUT

There is a story of a conscientious objector, which is confusing me and perhaps it will you as well. First, I am confused because this soldier is a West Point graudate, and Second, because he has already served more than a year in Iraq. Also, as you can read below there is alternative service available, instead of the discharge, which he is receiving from the Army.


A U.S. soldier who said his Christian beliefs compelled him to love his enemies, not kill them, has been granted conscientious objector status and honorably discharged, a civil liberties group said on Tuesday. Capt. Peter Brown, who served in Iraq for more than a year and was a graduate of the elite U.S. military academy West Point, said in a statement issued by the New York Civil Liberties Union that he was relieved the Army had recognized his beliefs made it impossible for him to serve.

Capt. Peter Brown, a 2004 graduate and member of the 10th Mountain Division, said his religious convictions prevented him from carrying a loaded weapon or ordering his men to use lethal force.Brown was stationed in Baghdad for more than a year with 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, out of Fort Drum. His conversion to a pacifist interpretation of the Bible began after his commission into the Army when he attended a civilian religious center in the Netherlands in 2004, the lawsuit said.

While in Iraq, Brown applied for discharge from the Army as a conscientious objector. Though a chaplain appointed by the Army and an investigating officer both concluded that he was sincere and recommended an honorable discharge, the Army disagreed and denied his request. The ACLU and its New York chapter sued in July, asking a federal court to order the Army to reverse its decision. Before the court could act, the Army reconsidered and granted Brown’s request Aug. 28, NYCLU spokeswoman Jennifer Carnig said. The announcement was delayed until after Brown’s return from Iraq in September. ACLU lawyers filed a voluntary dismissal of Brown’s lawsuit on Tuesday, said Deborah Karpatkin, the ACLU attorney who represented Brown.


A conscientious objector is one who is opposed to serving in the armed forces and/or bearing arms on the grounds of moral or religious principles.

HOW TO APPLY
In general, once a man gets a notice that he has been found qualified for military service, he has the opportunity to make a claim for classification as a conscientious objector (CO). A registrant making a claim for Conscientious Objection is required to appear before his local board to explain his beliefs.
He may provide written documentation or include personal appearances by people he knows who can attest to his claims. His written statement might explain:
how he arrived at his beliefs; and
the influence his beliefs have had on how he lives his life.
The local board will decide whether to grant or deny a CO classification based on the evidence a registrant has presented.

A man may appeal a Local Board's decision to a Selective Service District Appeal Board. If the Appeal Board also denies his claim, but the vote is not unanimous, he may further appeal the decision to the National Appeal Board


.Classifications
Men are not classified now. Classification is the process of determining who is available for military service and who is deferred or exempted. Classifications are based on each individual registrant's circumstances and beliefs. A classification program would go into effect when Congress and the President decide to resume a draft. Then, men who are qualified for induction would have the opportunity to file a claim for exemptions, deferments, and postponements from military service. Here is a list of some, though not all, classifications and what they mean:
1-A - available immediately for military service.
1-O Conscientious Objector- conscientiously opposed to both types (combatant and non-combatant) of military training and service - fulfills his service obligation as a civilian alternative service worker.
1-A-O Conscientious Objector- conscientiously opposed to training and military service requiring the use of arms - fulfills his service obligation in a noncombatant position within the military.
2-D Ministerial Students - deferred from military service.
3-A Hardship Deferment - deferred from military service because service would cause hardship upon his family.
4-C Alien or Dual National - sometimes exempt from military service.
4-D Ministers of Religion - exempted from military service.

Student Postponements - a college student may have his induction postponed until he finishes the current semester or, if a senior, the end of the academic year. A high school student may have his induction postponed until he graduates or until he reaches age 20. Appealing a Classification - A man may appeal his classification to a Selective Service Appeal Board.

WHO QUALIFIES?
Beliefs which qualify a registrant for CO status may be religious in nature, but don't have to be. Beliefs may be moral or ethical; however, a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war must not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest. In general, the man's lifestyle prior to making his claim must reflect his current claims.

SERVICE AS A CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR
Two types of service are available to conscientious objectors, and the type assigned is determined by the individual's specific beliefs. The person who is opposed to any form of military service will be assigned to Alternative Service - described below. The person whose beliefs allow him to serve in the military but in a noncombatant capacity will serve in the Armed Forces but will not be assigned training or duties that include using weapons.

ALTERNATIVE SERVICE
Conscientious Objectors opposed to serving in the military will be placed in the Selective Service Alternative Service Program. This program attempts to match COs with local employers. Many types of jobs are available, however the job must be deemed to make a meaningful contribution to the maintenance of the national health, safety, and interest. Examples of Alternative Service are jobs in:
conservation
caring for the very young or very old
education
health care
Length of service in the program will equal the amount of time a man would have served in the military, usually 24 months.

So, is anybody out there as confused by this story and the strange outcome that is taking place?! I think that it is obvious what must be done to stop random acts of pacifiscm from sprouting up in Iraq. All Bibles, and other religious texts must be removed from the troops, and no further mention of Christ, or even Christ-like acts can be allowed to be manifested, on the part of anyone serving in the military. There should be a Presidential finding at once and put an end to the madness of peace, or "loving thy enemy" talk within the ranks. After all President Bush, communes daily with God, and God supports the war, otherwise President Bush would have ended it long ago!! God has the time to sort out the good, from bad, once we get them before him, so we don't have to be so darn cautious, and we can keep surging all over them!

I'm Just saying, what John Lennon would now say, "Give War A Chance!" Peace..OUT!!





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Cool Person Of The Week Is A Mercenary

I know that most people will not understand why I would choose this person as a "cool" person of the week, but there are reasons beyond testosterone! This man was one of the people who play "beyond" the rules for country and for self. They often have a romantic appeal, like Che Gueverra for the leftists! This was a man who fought the "demons" of this world to try and make it a better place. I must admit that i have changed alot from the person who was a "America Right or Wrong" person a few months ago, but I shall still revere "some" who fought the good fight to make it better for all of us; in particular during the BAD old days of the cold "hot" war in minor nations around the world. There was a time when the good guys and the bad guys could be told apart, and Bob Denard was one of the good guys!!

Bob Denard, a mercenary who staged coups, battled communism and fought for French interests and his own across Africa for more than three decades, has died, his sister said Sunday. He was 78. Denard died Saturday in the Paris area, said his sister, Georgette Garnier. She declined to say how he died, but he had suffered from Alzheimer's disease and cardiovascular problems. A fervent anti-communist who had worked for several dictators and monarchs, Denard was among a group of postcolonial French mercenaries known as "les affreux", the horrible ones. He claimed he had the backing of Paris, but was never given official support.

Bob Denard, 77, contributed to bloody conflicts across Africa for nearly 40 years, but the French mercenary is best known for his interventions in the Comoros Islands, one of which has led to his conviction in a French court. He once described himself as "a soldier never an assassin", and has claimed he was acting in the interests of France or other European powers, though he was once accused of plotting to assassinate a French prime minister.


He is sometimes portrayed as a pirate figure, and his career is certainly nothing if not colourful. In 1968 he and several hundred fighters tried to invade Katanga - now part of the Democratic Republic of Congo - by bicycle, and in 1995 he arrived with 30 men in inflatable boats for the coup attempt on the Comoros.

He has got all sorts of different names. When he was in the Comoros, he took on an Arabic name and he converted to Islam." Denard was born Gilbert Bourgeaud in Bordeaux in 1929. After a spell with the French navy in Indochina, he joined the police in the French colony of Morocco where he was convicted of an assassination plot against Prime Minister Pierre Mendes-France. After serving 14 months in jail, he was cleared of any wrongdoing and released. After returning to France temporarily, he came back to Africa as a mercenary:
he fought for the secessionist government of Katanga in 1961-63; he would return a few years later to what is now DR Congo in order to fight against leftist rebels, then for secessionists again
he went to northern Yemen in 1963 to train royalist tribesmen fighting the government
from 1968 he was employed by the government of Gabon
in 1977 he played his role in the failed coup attempt in Benin
As for the Comoros, a small, impoverished state, he is said to have overthrown its government four times between 1975 and 1995, and lived there for a decade. In 1999, he was acquitted in France of killing Comoran President Ahmed Abdullah in 1989. "Everyone seems to agree that when he first successfully overthrew the government of the Comoros, he was almost certainly supported by the French government," says Adam Roberts. There was a rumour that he had sailed in a fishing boat all the way from France, all the way down the west coast of Africa, through the Atlantic and around the coast of South Africa and up to the Comoros. In fact it looks much more likely that he came in a fishing boat just from somewhere very close to the Comoros in the French-run part of the Indian Ocean. The French certainly didn't disapprove of what he was doing early on. His later trials came probably because they had stopped approving it."
In his book The Wonga Coup, Adam Roberts looks at other mercenaries who tried unsuccessfully to mount a coup in Equatorial Guinea in 2004. In his experience of investigating mercenaries, he says there are two main motivations: It is the adrenalin they are seeking as much as the money. Many mercenaries, who are usually ex-soldiers, do it because it's what they know and it's what they enjoy.
Whatever drove Denard, who is now said to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease, few in Africa are likely to remember him with fondness. Mercenaries have just intensified Africa's wars, says Adam Roberts. They have fought for all sides and they have made the wars ever worse - whether they were being paid their wages by governments or rebels.
Here is more of Denard: Bob Denard, the French mercenary notorious for his involvement in African coups since the 1970s, is to go on trial early next year for his attempt to overthrow the Comoros government 10 years ago, officials said Monday. Denard and 26 other defendants will be brought before a Paris court on charges of criminal association with intent to organise a crime over their sequestration of the Comoros' then president Said Mohamed Djohar during the failed coup bid that took place September 27-October 4, 1995. The veteran combatant, now 76, led 30 mercenaries on board four inflatable dinghies that landed on the shores of the archipelago.
Djohar was taken hostage and held in army barracks while Denard and his group declared a transitional government under the leadership of opposition figures.
But France, acting under a cooperation treaty with the Comoros, dispatched troops that quashed the coup, freed Djohar and arrested the mercenaries. Denard has emerged relatively unscathed from past brushes with the French law over his paramilitary activities -- sometimes because he acted with Paris's tacit approval. And in 1993 he received a suspended five-year prison term for an attempted overthrow in Benin in 1977.
In 1976 he backed a coup to depose Abdullah after Abdullah declared independence from France, and two years later he overthrew Ali Soilih whom he had helped install in his place. Soilih was killed "while trying to escape," he said. Denard then backed the restoration of Abdullah in 1978 and took up duties as the chief of the presidential guard. His last acknowledged coup attempt in the Comoros was in 1997.
Since winning independence from France in 1975, the Comoros have suffered through 20 coups or attempted putsches that have severely affected potential foreign investment, trade and business opportunities. Denard, who was married to a Comoran woman and who limps from an old leg wound, fought in African, Middle East and the Vietnam conflicts as a soldier before turning to his freelance ways, which have also taken him to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Biafra in Nigeria, and Angola. Born plain Gilbert Bourgeaud, he became the archtypical 'dog of war' for his escapades around Africa, several of which he claimed were carried out under contract from Belgium, France, Gabon and Morocco.

Just as John Wayne died and left several fo us depressed, this interesting "mercenary" has left this world, that he did so muc to change, and to change for what he thought was the "right" thing!!

Take care and I shall try and have a "cool" person of the week, who is not a Killer, next week!! Thanks for reading this, and I am sorry that many of us young kids wanted to BE "mercenaries" when we grew up, and people like this were "romantic" "knights of old" type people. We belived that One Person Could Make A Difference, just like Michael Knight and Knightrider of the 80's...I am so not politically correct on many areas!! Take Care!!




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HAWKS BEAT ILLINI

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA HAWKEYES ON THEIR WIN OVER ILLINOIS, SATURDAY, 10 TO 6!!! HOORAY!!!


Iowa's Brett Greenwood intercepted an Eddie McGee pass at the goal line with 1:12 left and the Hawkeyes upset No. 18 Illinois 10-6 on Saturday, snapping the Illini's five-game winning streak.
Jake Christensen threw for 182 yards and a touchdown and Albert Young added 99 yards rushing for the Hawkeyes (3-4, 1-3 Big Ten), who broke an eight-game losing streak in Big 10 play and knocked off a ranked opponent for the first time since 2005.

I don't know if this will turn into a second win next week against Purdue, but at least we can see that this team has the potential to win, if they can just keep it together like they did today. The score seemed like it should have been higher, but as one other Hawk fan said after the Hawks won, "A Win is a Win!"

Coach Ferentz has been taken a beating from a lot of us angry/upset fans, and the look on his face the last 40 seconds, was one of wanting to burst into tears. He kept his composure, but you could see the relief in his expression, as this game came to a close.

Good job guys! Now hold it together and work as hard this next week on beating Purdue, as you did on Illinois, and you'll do well next week!! Thanks for the win!!!


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Dems Will Attempt Veto Override On SCHIP

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana asked his colleagues on Saturday to override President Bush's veto of legislation that would expand a popular children's health insurance program. House Democrats have scheduled for this week a vote to override the president's veto of legislation that would increase spending for the State Children's Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over five years. Bush has called for a $5 billion increase.

President Bush employed a rare use of his veto pen to reject a bill that would have greatly expanded health-insurance coverage for poor U.S. children, on October 3rd. Bush exercised the veto at 10 a.m. ET before leaving the White House for a trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to discuss the federal budget and taxes. Bush vetoed the $35-billion expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), claiming the bill represented a step toward government-run health care. The bill has enough support in the U.S. Senate to support an override of the veto, but not in the House, where Minority Whip Roy Blunt said he was "absolutely confident" that he has the votes to defeat an override attempt.

Bush has vetoed just four pieces of legislation during his presidency. "The president is willing to look at (compromise) ideas with the focus on the original intent that the neediest children are taken care of first," said White House spokesperson Dana Perino. Bush has supported a $5-billion expansion of SCHIP. However, this amount would seriously underfund the SCHIP program, thus it amounts to a cut in the program. This at the same time Bush has asked for $200 billion more for his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Priorities a "little" skewed perhaps!
The measure also included an addiction and mental-health parity provision that would have required SCHIP programs to cover these conditions on par with other ailments.

Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah was among 18 Republicans who split from the president when the bill came up in the Senate.
"It's very difficult for me to be against a man I care so much for," he told his colleagues on the Senate floor before the vote. "It's unfortunate that the president has chosen to be on what, to me, is clearly the wrong side of this issue."

Our own Senator Charles Grassley, no liberal, big spender has supported the SCHIP bill and cannot understand what is wrong with Bush on this issue. During a speech on the floor of the Senate, Grassley reminded his Republican colleagues that the president promised the American people comprehensive healthcare coverage for children during a speech he gave after being nominated for re-election in 2004. "During the Republican National Convention in New York City, President Bush was very firm on this point. Here is what he said, and I quote: `America's children must also have a healthy start in life. In a new term, we will lead an aggressive effort to enroll millions of poor children who are eligible but not signed up for the government's health insurance programs. We will not allow a lack of attention or information to stand between these children and the health care they need,' " Grassley said. "The President was pretty clear in his convictions then." Grassley said. "Let me repeat his words because I think they are important. He said he would 'lead an aggressive effort to enroll millions of poor children . . . [in] the government's health insurance programs.'"
SCHIP was first proposed by a Republican-led Congress in 1997 and was designed to provide affordable health coverage for low-income children of working families who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but can't afford private insurance.


Please contact your Senators, or Representative, and tell them that children's health insurance is important enough to go against their President this one time. Then if they choose they can go lockstep over the cliff with him on the other important matters in this nation!!

Here is their contact information
Honorable Charles Grassley
United States Senator
135 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510......................... 202/224-3744
(Fax) 202/224-6020
Des Moines Office: 515/284-4890
http://grassley.senate.gov
Appointments..............................................................Leah Shimp
Leah_shimp@grassley.senate.gov
Chief of Staff ........................................................... David Young
Finance Committee Staff Director .............................Kolan Davis
Finance Committee Deputy Staff Director..................Mark Prater
Health Policy Director ...............................................Mark Hayes
Health Policy Advisor (hospital issues/Med Part A).......................Mike Park
(202/224-4515) michael_park@finance-rep.senate.gove
Health Policy Advisor (Part B) .................................... Susan Walden
Health Policy Advisor (Part C & D) ..........................Colette Desmarais
Health Policy Advisor (Welfare and SCHIP) ......................... Becky Shipp
Health Policy Advisor (Medicaid Issues) ......................Rodney Whitlock
Health Research Assistant.......................................Sean McGuire
The Honorable Tom Harkin
United States Senator
731 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510 ......................... 202/224-3254
(Fax) 202/224-9369
Des Moines Office: 515/284-4574
www.harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm
Appointments............................................................ Amy Murray
amy_murray@harkin.senate.gov
Chief of Staff ...........................................................Brian Ahlberg
Deputy.................................................................. Michael Kuhner
Health Legislative Asst ....................(202/224-5224) Mike Woody
Legislative Director ......................................................Pam Smith
REPRESENTATIVES
1ST DISTRICT
The Honorable Bruce Braley
1408 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515......................... 202/225-2911
(Fax) 202/225-9129
www.brucebraley.com
Appointments.................................................... Angela Ruslander
angela.ruslander@mail.house.gov
Chief of Staff ..........................................................Sarah Benzing
Legislative Director ..............................................Mike Goodman
Waterloo Office (P.O. Box 390, Waterloo, IA 50704) .......319/233-0861
Fax: 319/226-5380
2ND DISTRICT
The Honorable Dave Loebsack
1513 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515 .........................202/225-6576
(Fax) 202/226-1278
www.loebsack.house.gov
Appointments....................................................... Jessica Woolley
jessica.woolley@mail.house.gov
Chief of Staff ................................................................ Eric Witte
Iowa City Office (Plaza Center One, 125 South Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52240)
................................................................................. 319/351-0789
3RD DISTRICT
The Honorable Leonard Boswell
1427 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515......................... 202/225-3806
(Fax) 202/225-5608
http://www.house.gov/boswell
Appointments............................................................Sandy Carter
Sandy.carter@mail.house.gov
Administrative Assistant ......................................... Ned Michalek
Legislative Director .............................................. Susan McAvoy
Legislative Assistant ................................................Alexis Taylor
4TH DISTRICT
The Honorable Tom Latham
2447 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515 ......................... 202/225-5476
(Fax) 202/225-3301
tom.latham@mail.house.gov
Appointments.................................................Amanda McDonnell
Amanda.mcdonnell@mail.house.gov
Chief of Staff ........................................................Michael Gruber
Health Legislative Assistant....................................... Jacob Parker
5TH DISTRICT
The Honorable Steve King
1432 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515......................... 202/225-4426
(Fax) 202/225-3193
steve.king@mail.house.gov
Appointments/Chief of Staff ..................................Brenna Findley
Health Asst/Legislative Director...............................Paula Steiner
Healthcare Staffer ................................................. Bentley Graves
White House:
202/456-1414
Capitol Information:
202/225-3121


schip

Vatican Publishing Knights Templar Book

There is an interesting story at Yahoo News, concerning the order of the Knights Templar. About seven centuries ago, the Knight’s Templar was the most powerful military force in England. They protected Christian Pilgrims, from the Muslims, as they traveled to the Holy Land. This period is called the Crusades, and lasted hundreds of years. After years of Templar existence, the Pope ordered the group to disband. He arrested all the Templar members, decimating the Templar forever. However, there are still many Templars that still exist.


It's not the Holy Grail, but for fans of "The Da Vinci Code" and its tantalizing story line about the Knights Templar, it could be the next best thing. Ignored for centuries, documents about the heresy trial of the ancient Christian order discovered in the Vatican's secret archives are being published in a limited edition — with an $8,377 price tag.

I went to several sites as well as my handy encyclopedia Brittanica, and put this story together, to give a fuller view of who the Knight's Templars were, and how they ended up being destroyed by the very Church that they protected.

Following the victory of the First Crusade, a group of knights, led by Hugues de Payens, offered themselves to the Patriarch of Jerusalem as a military force. This proposed military force had the mandate of protecting Christian pilgrims who were en route to the Holy Land In the year 1118 AD King Baldwin II, granted the Templars, quarters on the Temple Mount.

For the first nine years of their existence, the order consisted of nine knights. Speculations of treasure hunting aside, one of the reasons for the limited number of members may have been the reluctance to take Templar vows. Chastity, poverty and obedience were hardly a lifestyle greatly sought after.

In the year 1127 the Cistercian abbot, Bernard of Clairvoux, wrote a rule of order for the Templars, that was based on his own Cistercian order's rule of conduct. Additionally, Bernard did a great deal to promote the Templars. Perhaps Bernard's greatest contribution to the order was a letter that he wrote to Hugues de Payens, entitled De laude novae militae. In Praise of the New Knighthood. This letter swept throughout Christendom with the result being that many men, of noble birth, joined the ranks of the Templar Order. Those who were unable to join often gifted the Templars, with land and other valuables.

While it is true that the Templars were not permitted, by their rule, to own much of anything personally, there was no such restriction on the order as a whole. As such the gifts of land were accepted and put to immediate use by the order. From humble beginnings of poverty in 1118, when the order relied on alms from traveling pilgrims, the Order quickly grew to have the backing of the Holy See and the collective European monarchies. In the process, the order became wealthy. Aside form the gifts showered upon them, they were experts in commerce and free from the taxation and tithes imposed on other orders.

However, in less than two centuries, the Templars, would meet their demise perhaps because of their wealth or fear of their seemingly limitless powers. It is generally agreed that Philip IV, was envious of the Templar's wealth and sought to secure it for himself. Regardless of the motivation, the order was taken down at the hands of Pope Clement V, and the King of France in 1307. On October 13, 1307 Philip had the Templars, arrested on grounds of heresy; since this was the only charge that would allow the seizing of their money and assets. The Templars were tortured and confessions were given. These confessions included:
Trampling and spitting on the cross
Homosexuality and Sodomy
Worshipping of an idol named Baphomet
Philip was successful in ridding the Templars, of their power and wealth and urged all fellow Christian leaders to do the same thing.

On March 19th, 1314 the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake. De Molay is said to have cursed King Philip and Pope Clement as he burned, asking both men to join him in death within a year. Whether the story is an apocryphal legend or a matter of historical fact depends largely on one's point of view. However, Pope Clement V died only one month later and Philip IV seven months after that.

There is a website for a current Knight's Templars USA, which shows their Most Eminent Grand Master, Sir Knight William H. Koon II from 2007-2009, and looks to be an arm of the Masonic Lodge, and it shows that do charitable works. The full title of their current organization is the Grand Encampement Of Knights Templar of the United States of America, and if you type that in it will take you to their website.

Have a Great Weekend!!








knights

Iraqis Demand Answers

in a story this evening the government of Iraq wants to know what the hell is going on, as two more innocent civilians are killed by "security" firms working in Iraq.

Iraqi officials demanded answers of an Australian-owned security company blamed in the killing of two Iraqi Christian women laid to rest Wednesday amid rising calls for a crackdown on private bodyguards used by the United States government. The scrutiny of Unity Resources Group began a day after its guards allegedly gunned down the two women in their car, and less than a month after 17 Iraqis died in a hail of bullets fired by Blackwater USA contractors at a busy Baghdad intersection.

There needs to be accountability for this senseless killing of innocents throughout this nation, and we need to be on the "right" side this time!!




killings

State Department May Rethink Blackwater Contract

In a story I was reading moments ago, it may be that our government is actually listening to the reasonable demands by the Iraqi government to force Blackwater out of their country.


The State Department may phase out or limit the use of private security guards in Iraq, which could mean canceling Blackwater USA's contract or awarding it to another company in line with an Iraqi government demand, The Associated Press has learned. Such steps would be difficult given U.S. reliance on Blackwater and other contractors, but they are among options being studied during a comprehensive review of security in Iraq, two senior officials said.



The shooting has enraged the Iraqi government, which is demanding millions in compensation for the victims and removal of Blackwater in six months. It also has focused attention on the nebulous rules governing private guards and added to the Bush administration's problems in managing the war in Iraq.

We should know more about how this is going to turn out later in the week, but surely as I wrote the other day. If we really are creating a sovereign, "democratic" country in Iraq, and not just use those words for effect, when Bush is making a speech, then when they tell us they want one of our companies out of their country, then there should be not an argument, or a refusal to comply, by the company, or our government!!

Blackwater really is the villain of this piece, and Bush's unwavering support for them is telling in itself, as to how much he respects a "sovereign" nation!!


blackwater

Armenian Genocide HISTORY

There is much information available and many links to find out what happened to the Armenians up through World War I, and I urge you to folloow the link to a site which goes into more details and includes photos and memorials, but here is the basic story of the Armenian Genocide:

The Armenian Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th Century, occurred when two million Armenians living in Turkey were eliminated from their historic homeland through forced deportations and massacres.

For three thousand years, a thriving Armenian community had existed inside the vast region of the Middle East bordered by the Black, Mediterranean and Caspian Seas. The area, known as Asia Minor, stands at the crossroads of three continents; Europe, Asia and Africa. Great powers rose and fell over the many centuries and the Armenian homeland was at various times ruled by Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and Mongols.

Despite the repeated invasions and occupations, Armenian pride and cultural identity never wavered. The snow-capped peak of Mount Ararat became its focal point and by 600 BC Armenia as a nation sprang into being. Following the advent of Christianity, Armenia became the very first nation to accept it as the state religion. A golden era of peace and prosperity followed which saw the invention of a distinct alphabet, a flourishing of literature, art, commerce, and a unique style of architecture. By the 10th century, Armenians had established a new capital at Ani, affectionately called the 'city of a thousand and one churches.'

In the eleventh century, the first Turkish invasion of the Armenian homeland occurred. Thus began several hundred years of rule by Muslim Turks. By the sixteenth century, Armenia had been absorbed into the vast and mighty Ottoman Empire. At its peak, this Turkish empire included much of Southeast Europe, North Africa, and almost all of the Middle East.

But by the 1800s the once powerful Ottoman Empire was in serious decline. For centuries, it had spurned technological and economic progress, while the nations of Europe had embraced innovation and became industrial giants. Turkish armies had once been virtually invincible. Now, they lost battle after battle to modern European armies.

As the empire gradually disintegrated, formerly subject peoples including the Greeks, Serbs and Romanians achieved their long-awaited independence. Only the Armenians and the Arabs of the Middle East remained stuck in the backward and nearly bankrupt empire, now under the autocratic rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid.

By the 1890s, young Armenians began to press for political reforms, calling for a constitutional government, the right to vote and an end to discriminatory practices such as special taxes levied solely against them because they were Christians. The despotic Sultan responded to their pleas with brutal persecutions. Between 1894 and 1896 over 100,000 inhabitants of Armenian villages were massacred during widespread pogroms conducted by the Sultan's special regiments.

But the Sultan's days were numbered. In July 1908, reform-minded Turkish nationalists known as "Young Turks" forced the Sultan to allow a constitutional government and guarantee basic rights. The Young Turks were ambitious junior officers in the Turkish Army who hoped to halt their country's steady decline.
Armenians in Turkey were delighted with this sudden turn of events and its prospects for a brighter future. Both Turks and Armenians held jubilant public rallies attended with banners held high calling for freedom, equality and justice.

However, their hopes were dashed when three of the Young Turks seized full control of the government via a coup in 1913. This triumvirate of Young Turks, consisting of Mehmed Talaat, Ismail Enver and Ahmed Djemal, came to wield dictatorial powers and concocted their own ambitious plans for the future of Turkey. They wanted to unite all of the Turkic peoples in the entire region while expanding the borders of Turkey eastward across the Caucasus all the way into Central Asia. This would create a new Turkish empire, a "great and eternal land" called Turan with one language and one religion.

But there was a big problem. The traditional historic homeland of Armenia lay right in the path of their plans to expand eastward. And on that land was a large population of Christian Armenians totaling some two million persons, making up about 10 percent of Turkey's overall population.

Along with the Young Turk's newfound "Turanism" there was a dramatic rise in Islamic fundamentalist agitation throughout Turkey. Christian Armenians were once again branded as infidels (non-believers in Islam). Young Islamic extremists, sometimes leading to violence, staged anti-Armenian demonstrations. During one such outbreak in 1909, two hundred villages were plundered and over 30,000 persons massacred in the Cilicia district on the Mediterranean coast. Throughout Turkey, sporadic local attacks against Armenians continued unchecked over the next several years.

There were also big cultural differences between Armenians and Turks. The Armenians had always been one of the best-educated communities within the old Turkish Empire. Armenians were the professionals in society, the businessmen, lawyers, doctors and skilled craftsmen. And they were more open to new scientific, political and social ideas from the West (Europe and America). Children of wealthy Armenians went to Paris, Geneva or even to America to complete their education.

By contrast, the majority of Turks were illiterate peasant farmers and small shopkeepers. Leaders of the Ottoman Empire had traditionally placed little value on education and not a single institute of higher learning could be found within their old empire. The various autocratic and despotic rulers throughout the empire's history had valued loyalty and blind obedience above all. Their uneducated subjects had never heard of democracy or liberalism and thus had no inclination toward political reform. But this was not the case with the better-educated Armenians who sought political and social reforms that would improve life for themselves and Turkey's other minorities.

The Young Turks decided to glorify the virtues of simple Turkish peasantry at the expense of the Armenians in order to capture peasant loyalty. They exploited the religious, cultural, economic and political differences between Turks and Armenians so that the average Turk came to regard Armenians as strangers among them.


When World War I broke out in 1914, leaders of the Young Turk regime sided with the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). The outbreak of war would provide the perfect opportunity to solve the "Armenian question" once and for all. The world's attention became fixed upon the battlegrounds of France and Belgium where the young men of Europe were soon falling dead by the hundreds of thousands. The Eastern Front eventually included the border between Turkey and Russia. With war at hand, unusual measures involving the civilian population would not seem too out of the ordinary.

As a prelude to the coming action, Turks disarmed the entire Armenian population under the pretext that the people were naturally sympathetic toward Christian Russia. Every last rifle and pistol was forcibly seized, with severe penalties for anyone who failed to turn in a weapon. Quite a few Armenian men actually purchased a weapon from local Turks or Kurds (nomadic Muslim tribesmen) at very high prices so they would have something to turn in.

At this time, about forty thousand Armenian men were serving in the Turkish Army. In the fall and winter of 1914, all of their weapons were confiscated and they were put into slave labor battalions building roads or were used as human pack animals. Under the brutal work conditions they suffered a very high death rate. Those who survived would soon be shot outright. For the time had come to move against the Armenians.

The decision to annihilate the entire population came directly from the ruling triumvirate of ultra-nationalist Young Turks. The actual extermination orders were transmitted in coded telegrams to all provincial governors throughout Turkey. Armed roundups began on the evening of April 24, 1915, as 300 Armenian political leaders, educators, writers, clergy and dignitaries in Constantinople (present day Istanbul) were taken from their homes, briefly jailed and tortured, then hanged or shot.

Next, there were mass arrests of Armenian men throughout the country by Turkish soldiers, police agents and bands of Turkish volunteers. The men were tied together with ropes in small groups then taken to the outskirts of their town and shot dead or bayoneted by death squads. Local Turks and Kurds armed with knives and sticks often joined in on the killing.

Then it was the turn of Armenian women, children, and the elderly. On very short notice, they were ordered to pack a few belongings and be ready to leave home, under the pretext that they were being relocated to a non-military zone for their own safety. They were actually being taken on death marches heading south toward the Syrian Desert.

Muslim Turks who assumed instant ownership of everything quickly occupied most of the homes and villages left behind by the rousted Armenians. In many cases, local Turks who took them from their families spared young Armenian children from deportation. The children were coerced into denouncing Christianity and becoming Muslims, and were then given new Turkish names. For Armenian boys the forced conversion meant they each had to endure painful circumcision as required by Islamic custom.

Turkish gendarmes escorted individual caravans consisting of thousands of deported Armenians. These guards allowed roving government units of hardened criminals known as the "Special Organization" to attack the defenseless people, killing anyone they pleased. They also encouraged Kurdish bandits to raid the caravans and steal anything they wanted. In addition, an extraordinary amount of sexual abuse and rape of girls and young women occurred at the hands of the Special Organization and Kurdish bandits. Most of the attractive young females were kidnapped for a life of involuntary servitude.

The death marches during the Armenian Genocide, involving over a million Armenians, covered hundreds of miles and lasted months. Indirect routes through mountains and wilderness areas were deliberately chosen in order to prolong the ordeal and to keep the caravans away from Turkish villages.

Food supplies being carried by the people quickly ran out and they were usually denied further food or water. Anyone stopping to rest or lagging behind the caravan was mercilessly beaten until they rejoined the march. If they couldn't continue they were shot. A common practice was to force all of the people in the caravan to remove every stitch of clothing and have them resume the march in the nude under the scorching sun until they dropped dead by the roadside from exhaustion and dehydration.

An estimated 75 percent of the Armenians on these marches perished, especially children and the elderly. Those who survived the ordeal were herded into the desert without a drop of water. Being thrown off cliffs, burned alive, or drowned in rivers.
During the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish countryside became littered with decomposing corpses. At one point, Mehmed Talaat responded to the problem by sending a coded message to all provincial leaders: "I have been advised that in certain areas unburied corpses are still to be seen. I ask you to issue the strictest instructions so that the corpses and their debris in your vilayet are buried."

But his instructions were generally ignored. Those involved in the mass murder showed little interest in stopping to dig graves. The roadside corpses and emaciated deportees were a shocking sight to foreigners working in Turkey. Eyewitnesses included German government liaisons, American missionaries, and U.S. diplomats stationed in the country.

During the Armenian Genocide, the Christian missionaries were often threatened with death and were unable to help the people. Diplomats from the still neutral United States communicated their blunt assessments of the ongoing government actions. U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, reported to Washington: "When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race..."

The Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia) responded to news of the massacres by issuing a warning to Turkey: "...the Allied governments announce publicly...that they will hold all the members of the Ottoman Government, as well as such of their agents as are implicated, personally responsible for such matters."

The warning had no effect. Newspapers in the West including the New York Times published reports of the continuing deportations with the headlines: Armenians Are Sent to Perish in the Desert - Turks Accused of Plan to Exterminate Whole Population (August 18, 1915) - Million Armenians Killed or in Exile - American Committee on Relief Says Victims of Turks Are Steadily Increasing - Policy of Extermination (December 15, 1915).

Temporary relief for some Armenians came as Russian troops attacked along the Eastern Front and made their way into central Turkey. But the troops withdrew in 1917 upon the Russian Revolution. Armenian survivors withdrew along with them and settled in among fellow Armenians already living in provinces of the former Russian Empire. There were in total about 500,000 Armenians gathered in this region.

In May 1918, Turkish armies attacked the area to achieve the goal of expanding Turkey eastward into the Caucasus and also to resume the annihilation of the Armenians. As many as 100,000 Armenians may have fallen victim to the advancing Turkish troops.

However, the Armenians managed to acquire weapons and they fought back, finally repelling the Turkish invasion at the battle of Sardarabad, thus saving the remaining population from total extermination with no help from the outside world. Following that victory, Armenian leaders declared the establishment of the independent Republic of Armenia.

World War I ended in November 1918 with a defeat for Germany and the Central Powers including Turkey. Shortly before the war had ended, the Young Turk triumvirate; Talaat, Enver and Djemal, abruptly resigned their government posts and fled to Germany where they had been offered asylum.

In the months that followed, repeated requests by Turkey’s new moderate government and the Allies were made asking Germany to send the Young Turks back home to stand trial. However all such requests were turned down. As a result, Armenian activists took matters into their own hands, located the Young Turks and assassinated them along with two other instigators of the mass murder.

Meanwhile, representatives from the fledgling Republic of Armenia attended the Paris Peace Conference in the hope that the victorious Allies would give them back their historic lands seized by Turkey. The European Allies responded to their request by asked the United States to assume guardianship of the new Republic. However, President Woodrow Wilson's attempt to make Armenia an official U.S. protectorate was rejected by the U.S. Congress in May 1920.

But Wilson did not give up on Armenia. As a result of his efforts, the Treaty of Sevres was signed on August 10, 1920 by the Allied Powers, the Republic of Armenia, and the new moderate leaders of Turkey. The treaty recognized an independent Armenian state in an area comprising much of the former historic homeland.

However, Turkish nationalism once again reared its head. The moderate Turkish leaders who signed the treaty were ousted in favor of a new nationalist leader, Mustafa Kemal, who simply refused to accept the treaty and even re-occupied the very lands in question then expelled any surviving Armenians, including thousands of orphans.

No Allied power came to the aid of the Armenian Republic and it collapsed. Only a tiny portion of the easternmost area of historic Armenia survived by being becoming part of the Soviet Union.

After the successful obliteration of the people of historic Armenia during the Armenian Genocide, the Turks demolished any remnants of Armenian cultural heritage including priceless masterpieces of ancient architecture, old libraries and archives. The Turks even leveled entire cities such as the once thriving Kharpert, Van and the ancient capital at Ani, to remove all traces of the three thousand year old civilization.

Refering to the Armenian Genocide, the young German politician Adolf Hitler duly noted the half-hearted reaction of the world’s great powers to the plight of the Armenians. After achieving total power in Germany, Hitler decided to conquer Poland in 1939 and told his generals: "Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my 'Death's Head Units' with the orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks nowadays about the Armenians?"

There is genocide occurring on a grand scale in many places in the world, and the words of Hitler are still ringing true today. "Who still talks nowadays about the Armenians?"



armenian genocide