April 23, 2004

Former NFL Player Killed in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) - Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan after walking away from a multimillion-dollar NFL contract to join the Army Rangers, U.S. officials said Friday.

Tillman, who served with the Army Rangers, was 27.

Although the military had not officially confirmed his death, the White House put out a statement of sympathy that praised Tillman as "an inspiration both on and off the football field."

Lt. Col. Matt Beevers, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Kabul, confirmed that a U.S. soldier was killed Thursday evening, but would not say whether it was Tillman. A military official at the Pentagon confirmed it was Tillman.

Beevers said the soldier died after a firefight with anti-coalition militia forces about 25 miles southwest of a U.S. military base at Khost, which has been the scene of frequent attacks.

Two other U.S. soldiers on the combat patrol were injured, and an Afghan soldier fighting alongside the Americans was killed.

Former Cardinals head coach Dave McGinnis said he felt both overwhelming sorrow and tremendous pride in Tillman, who "represented all that was good in sports."

"Pat knew his purpose in life," McGinnis said. "He proudly walked away from a career in football to a greater calling."

Several of Tillman's friends have said the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks influenced his decision to enlist.

"In sports we have a tendency to overuse terms like courage and bravery and heroes," said Cardinals vice president Michael Bidwill, son of the team's owner Bill Bidwill, "and then someone like Pat Tillman comes along and reminds us what those terms really mean."

Tillman is not the first NFL player to be killed in combat. Buffalo offensive lineman Bob Kalsu was killed by mortar fire during the Vietnam War in 1970.

A memorial was set up outside Cardinals' headquarters in Tempe, Ariz., with Tillman's No. 40 uniform in a glass frame alongside two teddy bears and two bouquets. A pen was left for people to write messages to Tillman's family.

Gov. Janet Napolitano ordered flags at Arizona State University, Tillman's alma mater, flown at half-staff.

"Pat Tillman personified all the best values of his country and the NFL," commissioner Paul Tagliabue said in a statement. "He was an achiever and leader on many levels who always put his team, his community, and his country ahead of his personal interests."

Former teammate Pete Kendall, the Cardinals' starting center, said Tillman's death was a jolt of the reality regarding the nation's fight in the Middle East.

"The loss of Pat brings it home," Kendall said. "Everyday there are countless families having to get the same news."

Kendall remembered going out with Tillman and his future wife, Marie.

"We had a meal and a couple of beers," Kendall said. "It was a nice night. I really looked forward to buying him another beer sometime down the road."

Arizona Sen. John McCain noted that Tillman declined to speak publicly about his decision to put his NFL career on hold.

"He viewed his decision as no more patriotic than that of his less fortunate, less renowned countrymen who loved our country enough to volunteer to defend her in a time of peril," McCain, a Republican, said in a statement.
[Amen, Sen. McCain!--Jen]

U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a formal announcement was expected later in the day.

Tillman played four seasons with the Cardinals before enlisting in the Army in May 2002. The safety turned down a three-year, $3.6 million deal from Arizona.

He made the decision after returning from his honeymoon with his wife.
[May God send Mrs. Tillman a comforter in her loss. Bless her--she barely had any time with him as his wife.--J.T.]

"He knew what was important to him, and he made his decision and stood by it," said quarterback Eli Manning, expected to be a top pick in Saturday's NFL draft.

Tillman's brother, Kevin, a former minor league baseball prospect in the Cleveland Indians' organization, also joined the Rangers and served in the Middle East. They committed to three-year stints in the Army.

Some 110 U.S. soldiers have died - 39 of them in combat - during Operation Enduring Freedom, which began in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Tillman's agent, Frank Bauer, has called him a deep and clear thinker who has never valued material things.

In 2001, Tillman turned down a $9 million, five-year offer sheet from the Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams out of loyalty to the Cardinals, and by joining the Army, he passed on millions more from the team.

Tillman turned aside interview requests after joining the Army. In December, during a trip home, he made a surprise visit to his Cardinal teammates.

"For all the respect and love that all of us have for Pat Tillman and his brother and Marie, for what they did and the sacrifices they made ... believe me, if you have a chance to sit down and talk with them, that respect and that love and admiration increase tenfold," McGinnis said at the time.

It was not immediately clear when he went to Afghanistan.

The 5-foot-11, 200-pound Tillman was distinguished by his intelligence and appetite for rugged play. As an undersized linebacker at Arizona State, he was the Pac-10's defensive player of the year in 1997.

He set a franchise record with 224 tackles in 2000 and warmed up for 2001's training camp by competing in a 70.2-mile triathlon in June.

Tillman carried a 3.84 grade point average through college and graduated with high honors in 3 1/2 academic years with a degree in marketing.

"You don't find guys that have that combination of being as bright and as tough as him," Phil Snow, who coached Tillman as Arizona State's defensive coordinator, said in 2002. "This guy could go live in a foxhole for a year by himself with no food."

Tillman and his brother Kevin last year won the Arthur Ashe Courage award at the 11th annual ESPY Awards.

I was just stunned with shock and sorrow when I read about Tillman's death.
I blogged about him back in July of 2002 being at training camp when I first started blogging and thought he was such a hero, even then.
Outstanding and exemplary don't begin to describe this superb young man, but he refused to grandstand about his service and wouldn't give interviews to the press after he joined up and make a big deal about what he was doing.
He just wanted to serve his country in the best way he knew how after we'd been attacked.
May God welcome him to Heaven with open arms, as I'm sure He did, and comfort his wife and the rest of his family and loved ones and may He protect Pat's brother Kevin, who is still serving our country in uniform, as far as I know.
I suppose we shouldn't make any more over Pat Tillman than we do any other of our fine men and women who have given their lives in the War on Terror, but he was a "celebrity" and a "football star" that we all "knew" and even in death, he puts a face on the war.
Above all, Tillman's death shows us in a brutal way that war means death and worse, the death of truly good and decent soldiers like him and all the others who've died.
Pat Tillman used his celebrity for the good, to be an example to others (and at a time when there are too many sports figures in trouble with the Law and with substance abuse), and to make a statement with his own life and work that there was some things higher than fame and making money.
I grieve his loss, as I'm sure you do, too.
Night Rangers don't quit and no-one exemplified this more than Pat Tillman.
"Greater love hath no man than this, than that he would lay down his life for his friends."
Thank you for making the ultimate sacrifice, Pat, and for living your values: Duty, Honor, Country.
We miss you already and are diminished by your death, but Heaven needed a Hero today.
Rest in peace, Pat, and because of the sacrifice and service of America's brave men and women like you, we can sit here and watch football games in a world that's a little more peaceful because of what you do and in a country that's a lot more secure and safe because of what you do.

Update: Australian News is now reporting that the train(s) was/were carrying explosives and not fuel.
Curiouser and curiouser... Where were these trains going loaded with blow-up supplies? And for what purpose?
North Korea is so creepy. I wish somebody would "regime change" them soon.
I'll bet this means our troops on the border between the Koreas are on High Alert; God bless and protect all of you fine young men and women.

Update #2: The BBC is now reporting that 2 trains, both filled with dynamite, were hit by a live wire.
Not only were people on the trains hurt or killed, but that there were many homes near the tracks that collapsed.

[...]A Red Cross team sent to the scene has reported that 1,850 homes have been flattened and 6,350 seriously damaged.

In the first independent account, the Red Cross said the train blast killed at least 54 people and injured 1,200.
[...]
But diplomatic sources in Pyongyang say the figure is much higher, as reports indicate the blast happened when two wagons of dynamite hit a live wire.

This is the strangest, most terrible story I've heard in a while...
Was this a Chinese "hit" on Kim or what?
If it turns out that Al Queda was behind it, I'll know that the whole world has truly gone through the looking glass!
(Kim was supposed to be working on the side of the IslamoNazis and he certainly doesn't have troops in Iraq.)

Thousands Hurt, Killed in N. Korea Train Blast

Up to 3,000 people may have been killed or injured Thursday in a horrific train collision and explosion at a station near the Chinese border, according to South Korean news media, just hours after North Korean President Kim Jong Il had passed through the same spot.
[I can't help but think that this was an attempt on Kim's life.--Jen]

The blast was so strong that debris flew into the air for 10 miles around the crash site. North Korea declared a state of emergency after the crash, but the country's secretive communist government cut international phone lines and stopped information from leaking out.

North Korea asked China for help Friday in the rescue effort, according to a Dandong city official quoted by Reuters, in the first acknowledgement of the occurrence of the disaster by the Pyongyang government. The North's official KCNA news agency still had not mentioned the disaster by Friday morning, more than 20 hours after the blast.

South Korean President Goh Kun also ordered officials to prepare aid, his office said.
[...]

A doctor in Dandong told Reuters on Friday his hospital had been told by Chinese authorities to prepare for thousands of dead and injured.
[...]
The Red Cross was holding an emergency meeting in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, officials said.
[...]
The British Broadcasting Corporation showed on its Web site what it claimed to be a black-and-white satellite photo taken 18 hours after reported explosion. The photo showed huge clouds of black smoke billowing from the alleged blast site.
[...]
"A passenger train that connects China and North Korea and was carrying many Chinese living in the North was stopped at the station when the accident happened," the newspaper said.

South Korea's Defense Ministry confirmed Friday that there was an explosion at Ryongchon, a town 12 miles from China, but could not provide further details. "All we know is that there was a large explosion," a ministry spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

Almost immediately following the crash of the two trains, one carrying oil and the other liquefied petroleum, rumors spread that it could have been a deliberate attempt on Kim’s life.
[...]
South Korean news organizations reported that the collision took place about 1 p.m. Thursday. On Friday, however, YTN cited government sources as saying that the blast was triggered by a train carrying LPG and there wasn't a crash. Because of the absence of official information, there was no immediate way to clarify the discrepancy.
[...]
The area around Ryongchon station has turned into ruins as if it were bombarded," Yonhap news agency quoted witnesses as saying. "Debris from the explosion soared high into the sky and drifted to Sinuju," a North Korean town on the border with China, the agency said.

About nine hours before the blast, Kim had reportedly passed through the station where the collision happened as he returned from a secret trip to China, South Korea's all-news cable channel, YTN, reported. Kim met with the country's leaders and discussed the standoff over the North's nuclear weapons program.
[...]
James Lilley, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and to China, said he saw a possibility that anti-Kim forces could have tried to carry out an assassination attempt like this.

"They realize the system depends so much on him and the system is so bad and punitive that some people could have just taken the situation into their own hands," he told Fox News.

Lilley said an accident of this magnitude would make it impossible for the North Koreans to keep quiet.

"I'm sure this kind of thing happens quite frequently in North Korea," Lilley said. "Their infrastructure is deteriorating fast."

Analysts differed on whether the incident was planned.
[...]
North Korea is one of the world's most isolated countries and rarely allows visits by outside journalists. News events within its borders are difficult to confirm independently, and the state-controlled media is unlikely to provide quick confirmation of such an accident.

The communist country's infrastructure is dilapidated and accident-prone. Its passenger cars are usually packed with people, and defectors say trains are seldom punctual and frequently break down.

The trunk line on which Thursday's accident reportedly occurred, the main rail link between China and North Korea, was first laid during the Japanese occupation more than 60 years ago.

This is the strangest, most horrible story...
Was it an attempt on Kim Jung-Il's life?
More importantly, was it successful? (Keep your fingers crossed!)
Or more likely, was it just typically Communist poorly-maintained non-functional stuff?
I heard one sharp armchair pundit say that this may be North Korea's "Chernobyl"--a man-made disaster brought on by government neglect which causes the people to get truly fed up with the Communist system.
I live in hope.
No matter what happened, my prayers and sympathy go out to the victims and their families.

April 21, 2004

Deadly Blasts at Three Basra Police Stations

A series of explosions ripped through three police stations and a police academy in the southern Iraqi city of Basra Wednesday, killing at least 55 people, including some 10 schoolchildren, and injuring at least 238, officials said.

Three near simultaneous blasts targeted police stations at rush hour in Basra. At about the same time, a fourth explosion ripped through the police academy in the Basra suburb of Zubair. An hour later another blast targeted the same police academy.
[Clearly, the bad guys are trying to get at their "brother" Muslim Iraqi policemen whom they regard as "collaborators" with the "infidel occupiers."
They also know that once we hand over political sovreignity on June 30, the IP will be the "first responders" for the new government of the Free Iraq and this they cannot abide. Bastards.]

Forty-five people were killed in the police station blasts and 10 were killed in the police academy explosions, officials and witnesses said. The injured included two British soldiers at the police academy, Maj. Hisham al-Halawi, spokesman for British forces in Basra, told Al-Arabiya television.
[...]
At one station in the Saudia district of Basra, four vehicles were seen destroyed including two school vans that were passing that station at the time of the attack. One was carrying students from a girls' middle school and the other carried kindergarten students.
[Oh....the little ones.
This is almost too hard to blog, although after 3+ years of the Intifada in Israel, we should all be "used" to the idea of children killed by jihadi bombs.
But I'm not.
May God rest the souls of all the innocent babies whose lives have been cut short by terrorist murder and send a comforter to their families.
"Let the little children come unto me." Christ said and I know He's with them now.--Jen]

British forces who rushed to the scene were being hampered by angry protesters, said a Ministry of Defense spokeswoman in London, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The facade of the Saudia station was also heavily damaged and there was a hole 6-feet deep and 9-feet wide in front of the Saudia station.

More than 40 dead and 200 injured from the blast were brought to Basra's Educational Hospital, the city's largest, said Ali Hussein, an emergency physician at the facility.

Dozens of bodies could be seen in the morgue and in the hallways of Basra's Educational Hospital.

Another five dead and 36 injured were evacuated to a second hospital, Basra General Hospital, hospital officials said.
[...]
British military spokesman Squadron Leader Jonathan Arnold said the blasts were believed to have been caused by car bombs. Al-Muhammedawi said, however that the blast may have been caused by rocket attacks.

Also Wednesday, about 35 Iraqi insurgents attacked U.S. Marines in the besieged city of Fallujah with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, setting off a heavy gunbattle, the military said. No casualties were immediately reported.

Iraqi security forces, some wearing flak jackets and carrying weapons, moved back into Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad, on Tuesday, part of an agreement between U.S. officials and local leaders aimed at ending hostilities. The accord calls on insurgents to hand in weapons and allows civilians to return.

U.S. officials have warned that if guerrillas do not surrender their weapons, Marines are prepared to storm the city — likely sparking a new round of bloody fighting.

We shall see about the reality of an actual battle in Falluja; what strikes me about the bombings today in Basra is that the enemy isn't going to ever be equal to a real fight with the U.S. Marines in Falluja, so they hit "softer targets" in Basra to try out the mettle of British forces who are in charge there.
The IslamoNazis are still operating with the "Spanish paradigm" in mind and are probably hoping that with enough pressure, they can get Britain to go "wobbly" on having troops in Iraq.
(It should not escape your attention, even though it's across the Big Pond, that the British police just busted 10 Islamist terrorists in Manchester, England who were trying to set off a bomb at a football match this weekend.
The stadium they were targeting holds 67,000 fans during the hugely popular matches.
Were the jihadis able to blow up the venue with that many victims, it would make the Madrid bombings look like a warm-up act to this.
Thank God these evildoers were caught in time!--J.T.)

Also, get our your Iraq maps: Basra is much more accessible to Iran and the soldiers of Hezbollah than Falluja.

Then, we have the Iraqi tribunal set up for Saddam, at long last:

The attacks came a day after Iraqi leaders named a tribunal of judges and prosecutors to try Saddam Hussein, placing a longtime opponent of the ousted dictator in the forefront of the case against him and his former Baathist inner circle.
[...]
On Tuesday, a senior member of Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress was appointed to head the all-Iraqi tribunal — a potentially controversial choice.

Chalabi, a longtime exile who returned to Iraq and was named to the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, is mistrusted as an outsider by many Iraqis who want to see Saddam prosecuted by Iraqis who were present under his brutal rule.

I have a feeling that those kind of Iraqis will be on the tribunal, too, or at least will be given the opportunity to testify and present evidence.
At last, we know what's to be done with Saddam and the other details will begin falling into place.
The sooner justice is done WRT him, the better, IMO, because you know that someday the enemy will grab some Western hostages or our soldiers and demand Saddam's freedom in return.
In fact, they did something very similar yesterday which, given that it was on the same day that the Saddam tribunal was announced, was peculiar:

Meanwhile, guerrillas fired a barrage of mortar rounds at Baghdad's largest prison, killing 22 prisoners in an attack a U.S. general said may have been an attempt to spark an inmate uprising against American guards. The slain prisoners were all security detainees, meaning they were suspected of belonging to the anti-U.S. insurgency or to Saddam's former regime.

Who knows what the bad guys were trying to "accomplish" with this attack?
Trying to free their buddies?
Kill them and keep them from telling us what they know?
Looking for Saddam?
Whatever it was, it doesn't sound as if the IslamoFascist "guerillas" gained much ground by doing this.
The strategy is called "being nibbled to death by ducks..." or peck, peck, peck.
An attack here, a firefight there, a car bomb or 3 over there.
We'd all better just grit our teeth and get used to the news of these attacks on our troops and our Iraqi friends until June 30 or hopefully sooner, if the terrorists get the message that they can't and won't win against the Coalition.
In the meantime, pray for our troops and send them your love, prayers, support, mail and packages.
Talk up victory here at home and tell the Dimocrats to shut up when they start their whining and carping!
The only way we can lose this war is if we let the naysayers in the press and in Washington win the day--you know who they are, too: Bob Woodward, Ted Kennedy, Dick Clarke, Jamie Gorelick, John F'n Kerry.
We will prevail, so let's be part of the victory and not bona fide members of the Sore-Loserman party and this time, it won't just be the Florida recount, as in 2000, but the whole GWOIT (Global War on Islamist Terror).
I don't intend to lose this war and I'll bet you don't either.
Let's roll.

April 20, 2004

Report: PA considering canceling PM position

The Palestinian Authority is considering canceling the position of Prime Minister, leaving the leadership entirely in the hands of the PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, the London-based al-Hayat newspaper reported Tuesdays.

Officials in the PA claim that the position on Prime Minister was imposed on the authority by the United States, in an effort to reduce the power that lies in the hands of Arafat.

The partner for negotiations is Arafat, the Palestinians say, as he is the Palestinians' elected president.

Whatta surprise. Not.
(As if these PMs were anything but Arafat's puppets in the first place!)
Time for the IDF and IAF to lock and reload!
If any terrorist deserves a fatal missile, it's Yasser, who taught OBL everything he knows about Islamist terror and murder.

Jordan Leader Delays Meeting With Bush

The king of Jordan, one of America's closest allies in the Middle East, postponed a White House meeting with President Bush this week, questioning the U.S. commitment to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
[What he really means is that Abdullah's doubting that Bush will end the conflict in his, Abdullah's, favor. Which he won't.--Jen]

The snub from King Abdullah II comes amid Arab anger at Bush for endorsing an Israeli proposal to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank but keep Jewish settlements on other West Bank land claimed by the Palestinians.

Abdullah is under pressure at home to demonstrate his U.S. ties can further Arab positions on the Israeli-Palestinian question as well as on the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
[Oh, yeah. If you can call a nearly successful chemical attack by Al Queda "pressure," which I would if I were he.]
[...]
Jordan is considered a key moderate ally of the United States and is one of only two of Israel's Arab neighbors to have a peace treaty with the Jewish state. [I take it that the other one is Egypt and Bush already squared it with Mubarrak as they met the day before the President met with Sharon.--J.T.] But some Jordanian citizens question their government's relationship with the United States, which they accuse of siding with Israel against the Palestinians.
[That would be correct.
Israel plays fair and is a democracy; the PA uses terror and is under the despotic rule of Arafat.]

Jordan is especially concerned that a final peace settlement would be at its expense if refugees were dumped into the kingdom, exhausting its meager resources and disturbing its demographic balance. Roughly half of Jordan's 5.1 million population is composed of Palestinian families who fled or were forced out of their homes in 1948 and 1967 Mideast wars.
[Notice how the AP forgets to tell us that most of the Paleostinians are and were Jordanians who were booted out of Jordan in 1970 by Abdullah's father, King Hussein.]

The rift between the Bush administration and its moderate Arab allies over Bush's statement on Israeli settlements is one of the worst to emerge in years - and has exacerbated the already tense relations between the United States and Arab countries over the war in Iraq.

Arab leaders have accused the administration of essentially taking away from the Palestinians their primary negotiating levers in any final peace deal - the disputes over whether Israel must remove all settlements from the West Bank, and whether Israel must allow back some Palestinian refugees.

Bush embraced Israeli rejection of any "right of return" for Palestinian refugees after his meeting with Sharon. Tensions also were inflamed in the Arab world by an Israeli helicopter strike that killed the Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
[What Schadenfreude I'm feeling for these jihadis! It makes me smile. God bless President Bush for talking turkey to the Paleos, if for nothing else. Bout time someone called these killers to task and quit rewarding them for murder!]
[...]
Last week, Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher said his government wants assurances that Washington is still committed to an Arab-Israeli settlement based on exchanging land-for-peace and creating a Palestinian state by next year in line with the U.S.-backed road map.
[Heads up to Jordan: Nope. Not if the Palestinians won't give up terror, which they don't show any signs of doing.
Otherwise, the whole "land for peace (Islamist murder)" concept was blown up by the Intifada and 9/11.]

Relations between the two countries also were close under Abdullah's late father, King Hussein. The United States is Jordan's largest Western aid donor, with contributions estimated at $456 million this year. The United States gave Jordan $1.1 billion last year to offset the kingdom's losses because of the war on Iraq.

I almost--almost--pity the poor, rich boy king!
One of these days very, very soon, he's going to have to decide which side of the WOT he's really on: ours or the Islamist terrorists.
No matter which side he chooses, he's going to get grief from the other.
But if he chooses wisely, he'll pick the side of the U.S. and her ally, Israel.
The "Palestinians" aren't looking good to win their fight with the Israelis.
Never have they been farther from pushing the Jews into the sea and wiping out the "Zionist entity."
And they are seemingly eternally wedded to jihadi murder as their sole tactic to gain a state of their own, which President Bush has told them time and again they will only have if they give up terror.
Abdullah's dad should have given more thought to his actions before he expelled Arafat and his people from Jordan as a way to deal with that problem, the whole "Black September" uprising.
We've all been told that if you don't deal with a problem, it will come back to haunt you.
Well, Abdullah may be about to find out the truth of that in spades;
when the Palis can't get their own state, they will come running back to their homes in Jordan.
It's home. It's where they belong.
President Bush has already turned a blind eye to King Abdullah's cosy relationship with Saddam and his sons before the war.
And if Bush can get even Mubarrak on board with his backing of Ariel Sharon's Gaza disengagement plan, who is King Abdullah to oppose its consequences for the Palestinian areas in the West Bank?
The worm is turning in the Middle East for the better.
Abdullah's playing hard to get, as evidenced by the postponement of his appointment at the White House, won't make that go away or make Bush change his mind.

High court leaves Texas seats intact

The Supreme Court refused yesterday to consider if Texas Republicans went too far last year in their strategy to enact new congressional boundaries.

The congressional map that could give Texas Republicans six more seats cleared the state Legislature after months of turmoil and two walkouts[More specifically, they were runouts. Remember the Texas Dims holed up in the motel in Albuquerque?!--Jen] by Democrats.

Yee-Haw!
The only bad news is that the Dims want their day in court a few more times:

The case is among multiple appeals at the Supreme Court over the Texas 32-district map, which has been cleared by the Justice Department and upheld by a three-judge federal panel.

Typical behavior for members of the Sore-Loserman Party!
They love their lawsuits.
But I expect we'll win those, too!
Don't mess with righteous Texas (Republicans)!

Report: China Urges Kim to Soften Stance Toward U.S.

China urged visiting North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il to soften his stance toward the United States to break an impasse over ending secretive Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, South Korean media said on Tuesday.

Kim slipped unannounced into Beijing on Monday for talks with Chinese President and Communist Party chief Hu Jintao, military chief Jiang Zemin and Premier Wen Jiabao on the crisis over the North's nuclear ambitions and its threadbare economy.

Things are looking up!
Looks as if Kim got a trip to the woodshed and the Chinese are just the ones who can give him the righteous spanking he's been asking for!
We should see him stop rattling those nukes right quick.

Check out the web page of Books For Soldiers - Care packages for the mind..
They're putting generous citizens here at home who are willing to send their paperback books, videos or DVDS (along with care packages of snacks, personal grooming items, etc.) together with names of our troops deployed overseas!
It's going to be a long hot summer for our men and women over there, especially those stationed in Iraq up until the June 30 handover, so help them stay in touch with home by filling their downtime reading a good American story by Stephen King or Tom Clancy in a paperback and maybe include some unscented bug spray, eye wipes for those sand storms, and a Calling Card so they can ring the family back home!
Let your imagination, heart and wallet be your guide.
The Books for Soldiers site has the entire 4-1-1 to get you started, but let's let them know how much we appreciate them fighting for freedom and preserving our security!

[If you're looking for yet another way to help out our troops, don't forget Operation Air Conditioner;
as it gets warmer here in the Homeland, don't forget it's getting really warm over there in Iraq!
And if you'd like to help the Marines help the Iraqis, check out the Spirit of America website. They're helping out schools and orphanages in Iraq and Afghanistan and even trying to get an alternate TV to Al-Jazeera going to get the truth out.]
We're doing a good thing over there in Iraq and it's being done by Good Guys, our men and women of the U.S. military.

Hat tip to K-Lo at NRO's The Corner for the BFS link!

April 19, 2004

Bush Names Negroponte Ambassador to Iraq

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John D. Negroponte is the new U.S. ambassador-designate to Iraq, President Bush announced Monday.

"He has done a really good job of speaking for the United States to the world about our intentions to spend freedom and peace. John Negroponte is a man of enormous experience and skill," Bush said in the Oval Office with the diplomat by his side. "No doubt in my mind he can handle it, no doubt in my mind he will do a very good job, no doubt in my mind that Iraq will be free and peaceful."

Though currently an ambassador, Negroponte, 64, must be confirmed for the post by the Senate. Negroponte will also have to wait until a government is in place before he can present his credentials. Iraqis are set to take over their own sovereignty by July 1, even though the U.S.-led coalition will keep troops in place there for at least a year. At the time Iraqis gain self-rule, Coalition Provisional Authority Administrator L. Paul Bremer will depart, and Negroponte will be the top U.S. official there.

Negroponte, who led the effort to gain U.N. support for a mission into Iraq, is a career foreign service officer who started out in Vietnam. He served as an aide to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and was U.S. ambassador to Mexico and the Philippines.

He also served as ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985, at which time he assisted the Contras in Nicaragua in their war with the left-wing Sandinista government, which was aligned with Cuba and the Soviet Union.

He was working in the corporate world before being asked by Bush to go to the United Nations in September 2001. There, he helped win unanimous approval by the Security Council for a resolution that demanded Saddam Hussein's government comply with U.N. resolutions that it disarm.

What an excellent choice for this post!
I credit both President Bush in appointing a fine man like Negroponte and Negroponte in accepting.
It makes me excited about the future of the new Iraq--first Jerry Bremer, then Negroponte!
The "Land between the 2 Rivers" been in good hands since April 9, 2003 when we took Saddam's hands off!

Fallujah Leaders Seek Insurgents' Weapons

Direct talks between the United States and leaders of the besieged city of Fallujah produced their first concrete results: an appeal for insurgents to turn in their mortars, surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and other heavy weapons, U.S. officials announced Monday.

In return, the U.S. military said it does not intend to resume its offensive in the Sunni Muslim stronghold so long as militants are disarming.

But with Marines encircling Fallujah and holding their positions inside the city, commanders warned that if the deal falls through, they could launch an all-out assault, which would likely mean a resumption of bloody urban combat.

"There is also a very clear understanding ... that should this agreement not go through, Marines forces are more than prepared to carry through with military operations," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad.

He said the Marines were poised to take the city "in a very short order."
[Semper Fi!...and Hooah! Don't forget the Army's there, too!--Jen]
[...]
Najaf is part of an area in south-central Iraq patrolled by 9,500 peacekeepers from 23 countries including Spain.

On Monday, President Bush scolded Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for his decision to withdraw Madrid's 1,300 troops from Iraq, and told him to avoid actions that give "false comfort to terrorists or enemies of freedom in Iraq."
[President Bush is right: when the Spanish pull out from the front lines of Najaf which they threaten to do very soon, it will appear to the enemy there as if they are winning at a very strategic time. Get ready when that happens; we could see a new assault from the bad guys then.--Jen]

Kimmitt said there would be no power vacuum as Spanish troops pull out of Najaf. He said officials had been discussing how to replace the troops since Zapatero won Spanish parliamentary elections in March after terror attacks in Madrid.
[...]
But gunfire in the city [Falluja] has nearly ended since the two days of direct negotiations began Friday, and a curfew was pushed back to start at 9 p.m. rather than 7 p.m. Small numbers of armed and uniformed Iraqi police and civil defense members were seen on Fallujah's streets Monday for the first time since the Marine siege began on April 5.

Some residents emerged from their homes, and Americans blared loudspeakers on trucks urging food stores to open.

"There seems to be a serious attempt by the people of Fallujah to get their house in order," said Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, commander of the 1st Marine Battalion, 5th Regiment on the city's southern side.
[...]
The 2,500 U.S. soldiers who were deployed outside Najaf to capture or kill al-Sadr began a troop rotation that will reduce their numbers by about 500. Their commander, Pittard, said there were no plans for the time being to make a move against al-Sadr in the holy city - a move moderate Shiite clerics warn would spark an explosion of outrage.
[...]
The Fallujah statement was far from a lifting [of] the Marine siege, and U.S. officials did not lay out terms by which they would do so. Instead, the document read more like an outline of steps that must be taken to ward off a resumed U.S. assault. Even the U.S. commitment not to attack was phrased as an "intent" not a promise.

"Progress must be clearly demonstrated and the return to law and order observed. Time to settle this crisis peacefully remains extremely limited," the statement said.

It said joint U.S.-Iraq patrols must resume, police and Iraq security forces should resume their posts, and they must "move to eliminate remaining foreign fighters."
[...]
In the statement, the Americans agreed to allow better access to hospitals and graveyards and ease the movement of "official ambulances" throughout checkpoints. Marines have said gunmen have been using ambulances to move.
[This is IslamoNazi SOP now; the "Palestinian" terrorists have done this in the Intifada and Bin Laden used ambulances to move around in Afghanistan.--J.T.]

The Americans also will consider allowing families who fled the city to return, at a rate of 50 families a day starting Tuesday.

"An agreement has been reached," Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said. "Whether or not that agreement holds is the million dollar question."

Let's all pray for the best, that the situation will be resolved peacefully in the days ahead and with no more bloodshed in both Najaf and Falluja.
I am so proud of our military for the restraint they're showing and for the wisdom of the COs to choose this strategy.
It would be easy for our guys to rush in, guns blazing and shoot both places up, taking no prisoners--kind of the way the British put down a similar rebellion in Iraq in 1920--but it didn't do them much good as the administrators there and that's probably why we're trying to avoid that ruthlessly repressive option now.
We came to liberate Iraq and bring them democracy, not to establish a new overlord and nothing says this plainer than our military's peaceful response to their homegrown Islamist insurgency.

FEWER US TROOPS AT NAJAF

The US army is reducing the size of the force it has built up outside the Iraqi city of Najaf.

The Americans are said to be prepared to wait before moving against rebel cleric Moqtada al Sadr.

Colonel Dana Pittard, commander of the 2,500-strong 3rd Brigade Task Force outside Najaf, said the force would be withdrawn over coming days.

It would be replaced by about 2,000 soldiers from the 1st Armoured Division.

The US military had earlier said it planned to kill or capture Sadr, who is holed up in Najaf, and destroy his Mehdi Army militia.

But negotiations are under way through intermediaries to find a peaceful solution to the stand-off.

Iraqi clerics have warned that if US troops move into the holy city it could spark fury and cause a fresh eruption of unrest.

"Because of where negotiations are right now, we can wait," Col. Pittard said. "We still want Iraqis to solve the problem."

I hope the brass know what they're doing and I'm sure they do.
These guys are showing admirable restraint and composure and as unpopular as I've heard al-Sadr and his "army" are, the locals may well take care of the situation in Najaf without a firefight involving our fine young men and women in uniform... but then again, it may not.
Time will tell.

Portugal to Withdraw If Iraq Violence Worsens

Portugal will consider pulling its peacekeeping police out of Iraq if the fighting there worsens, the country's interior minister said Friday.

"If, speaking theoretically, the conflict deepens and the police cannot carry out their mission, they will have to withdraw," Antonio Figueiredo Lopes said in an interview with the public radio station Antena 1.

Portugal has 128 police officers on peacekeeping duty in Nasiriyah in southern Iraq.

I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't know that Portugal was part of our Coalition...
I must be listening to J. F'ing Kerry too much and his talk about our "unilateralism," to the point that I'm believing it myself.
Anyhoo, we appreciate Portugal's contribution and hope they'll keep their soldiers participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom!

April 18, 2004

The Marines are tightening up Iraq's border with Syria, which involved a firefight or 2 in al-Qaim that appears to have cost 5 or 6 of our fighting leathernecks their lives (R.I.P):
Marines battle influx from Syria

U.S. Marines have been fighting an aggressive battle along Syria's porous border in recent weeks to stop the flow of Muslim jihadists who come to Iraq to kill Americans and their allies.
    
Maj. Gen. John Sattler, chief of operations for the U.S. Central Command, yesterday disclosed the stepped-up operation that has escaped the limelight as larger battles were fought in Fallujah and Ramadi in western Iran.
[...]
The Bush administration realizes it must stop the influx of jihadists into Iraq if it is ever to achieve political stability.
[Then, will we have to go into Iran and Syria later to get them anyway?--Jen]
Military analysts say the fight-to-the death jihadists perform some of the most gruesome attacks, blowing themselves up to kill scores of allies and, more recently, kidnapping innocent foreigners who have come to Iraq to aid the rebuilding.
    
The State Department announced yesterday that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has upped the pressure on Syrian President Bashar al Assad to stop the deadly migration.
[...]
Some in the Pentagon believe Mr. Assad is allowing -- and possibly encouraging[I'd almost bank on it.--Jen] -- foreign jihadists to come to Syria and then enter Iraq. Before and during the war last year, Syria opened its borders to high-ranking Iraqis, including Saddam's two sons, who were later sent back into Iraq where they were killed by U.S. forces.
    
Gen. Sattler disclosed that the more aggressive border patrols included fierce fire fights between Marines and cells of foreigners in the desert town of al Qaim, a crossroads for incoming jihadists.
[...]
Gen. Sattler also seemed to back off an earlier Central Command vow to kill or capture renegade cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr. Sheik al-Sadr has been holed up in the Shi'ite "holy"[Quotes added by yours truly!] city of Najaf, after earlier this month unleashing his 3,000-man militia on coalition forces. More than 2,000 U.S. troops are on the city's outskirts, but have been warned by moderate Shi'ite clerics not to wage battle in Najaf.
   
 Gen. Sattler made a special point of saying the murder warrant outstanding for Sheik al-Sadr was issued by an Iraqi judge, not the U.S., a sign that the arrest of the cleric is an now an Iraqi decision.
    
"We know where he is," the general said. "But right now we're letting him continue to marginalize himself and we're not focusing any combat power or combat operations on Najaf."

Good plan, because apparently that marginalization is working out pretty well; his fellow Najafites are getting pretty sick of him!:
Najaf's residents rip radical cleric

But three days spent inside Najaf — within a stone's throw of the golden-domed Imam Ali Mosque and Sheik al-Sadr's well-guarded headquarters — revealed almost no backing from residents for the 30-year-old cleric's armed confrontation with coalition forces.
[...]
But in the rest of the city, many expressed fears that Sheik al-Sadr was leading them not only into bloody and inevitably losing clashes with the U.S. forces, but also toward a Sunni-Shi'ite civil war or clashes between different armed Shi'ite factions.
[...]
Suid said funding for Sheik al-Sadr came partly from Iran and partly from money and gold that he had taken from the charity collections of pilgrims to the holy mosques. He said he would be willing to testify in court against the cleric.
[...]
He claimed to have been a witness when Sheik al-Sadr's supporters killed a local imam.
    
"Al-Sadr is a criminal. ... I want him out. We want peace and quiet. We don't deserve another Saddam," he said.
[...]
Rumors abound in the city, and many of them appeared aimed at discrediting Sheik al-Sadr. It was suggested that after his offices were closed in the teeming Shi'ite slums of Sadr City in Baghdad some weeks ago, the cleric headed for Iran and returned with orders to launch his anticoalition violence — and presumably with extra funds.
    
Najaf residents said most of the cleric's closest militia leaders and advisers are from Sadr City and not from either of the Shi'ite holy cities, Najaf and Karbala.
    
Many houses in Najaf, especially close to the central mosque area, have been inhabited by Iranians.
[Can you say "Hezbollah?" I knew that you could.--Jen] While busloads of Iranian pilgrims visit the holy cities frequently, there also has been a large flow of illegal entrants who gravitate to the holy Shi'ite cities.

After his father's death, Sheik al-Sadr was educated in the Iranian holy city of Qom by Ayatollah Kazem al-Husseini al-Hairi. But in recent days, the ayatollah distanced himself from his former protege, issuing a statement declaring that the national Iraqi police should retake control of all public buildings. Last Monday, the Mahdi's Army of the cleric pulled out of police stations and other public buildings they had occupied.

Reports from Qom quoting Ayatollah al-Hairi's spokesman say the Iranian disowned Sheik al-Sadr several months ago.

I almost feel sorry for al-Sadr: nobody really likes him much!
We've deployed 2,500 men around Najaf's city limits to capture or kill al-Sadr when we feel the moment is right.
Our forces had to close 2 highways into Baghdad, while Falluja reported its quietest day yet:
U.S. Closes Two Highways Into Baghdad

The U.S. military closed down two major highways into Baghdad on Saturday in the latest disruption caused by intensified attacks by anti-U.S. insurgents. U.S. and Iraqi negotiators reported progress in talks aimed at easing the fighting in Fallujah, while the besieged city saw its quietest day yet.

If Falluja's quiet now, it must be because the Marines quit regaling the IslamoNazis with AC/DC's Hell's Bells and Jimi Hendrix, as they did Thursday night!
You bad rocker boys, you!
Don't you know that strict Muslims hate music of any kind? Oh, you do?!

Here's the story in all its editorializing glory from Al-Reuters:
Israel Kills Top Hamas Leader in Missile Strike

Israel assassinated top Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, drawing a threat of 100 revenge attacks from the militant Palestinian group rocked by another major blow before a planned U.S.-backed pullout from Gaza.

The helicopter missile strike on Rantissi's car in Gaza City on Saturday stoked Palestinian anger already high over President Bush's statement this week that Israel could retain land Palestinians want for a state in any peace deal.
[And, before that, they were mad about the IDF killing Yassin and before that....ad infinitum.--Jen]

"The Palestinian cabinet considers this terrorist Israeli campaign is a direct result of American encouragement and the complete bias of the American administration toward the Israeli government," Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said.
[But, of course, Al-Reuters is more than happy to carry this quote, too!--j.t.]

The United States denied it gave Israel the green light to go after Rantissi but refrained from condemning the assassination, saying only it was "gravely concerned" for Middle East peace and stability.

Israel said it struck down a "mastermind of terrorism," hours after a suicide bomber blew up at the Erez border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, killing an Israeli soldier.
[...]
Many Palestinians viewed Rantissi as particularly hardline in a fundamentalist Islamic group that has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings.

"As long as the Palestinian Authority does not lift a finger and fight terrorism, Israel will continue to have to do so itself," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled.
[Israeli Minister Peled just said it all!]
[...]
"Israel has a right to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks, but actions of this type are not only unlawful, they are not conducive to lowering tension," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said such killings were "unlawful, unjustified and counter-productive."
[They they go again! These Paleo-loving EUroweenies like Solana and Jack Straw (whom I'll bet got a call from Cheri Blair in the States) keep babbling about "illegal wars" and another country's (particularly Israel's or the U.S.'s) "unlawful" actions when there is no such animal as "international law."]
[...]
Asked once in a television interview if he was afraid for his life, Rantissi said he could die of cancer or a heart attack as easily as from an Israeli Apache helicopter strike.

"I prefer the Apache," he said.

Isn't that nice? He got his last wish.
Now, if only the IDF could make that happen for Arafish soon, very soon...
[Here's a gross picture of the dying Rantisi which I've inserted as an embed because I want you to see the Islamic green jihadi headband they've put on his near-corpse. View image ]