Update on U.S. Chinook Crash - No. 3

KABUL, Afghanistan - (AP) - The U.S. military confirmed Thursday that all 16 servicemembers aboard a special forces helicopter died when it crashed into a mountain ravine in eastern Afghanistan earlier this week, apparently after being shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade. [...]

The remains of those killed were being recovered at the site in Kunar province where the MH-47 chopper went down Tuesday, the military said in a statement. The helicopter crashed while ferrying reinforcements to a battle against insurgents near the Pakistan border.

The military reported earlier that 17 people were on board but revised that figure to 16 later Thursday.

"At this point, we have recovered all 16 bodies of those service men who were onboard the MH-47 helicopter that crashed on Tuesday," Lt. Gen. James Conway, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday.

Update on U.S. Chinook crash - No. 2

KABUL (Reuters) - Thirteen bodies have been recovered from the crash site of a U.S. military helicopter in eastern Afghanistan, but another seven U.S. soldiers are unaccounted for, the British Broadcasting Corp said on Thursday.

A report on the BBC Web Site quoted unnamed U.S. military officials on the recovery of the bodies from the site of Tuesday's crash in Kunar province, which borders Pakistan.

General Aminullah Patyani, the Afghan army commander for the east of the country, told Reuters "a few bodies" had been found at the site in the Dar-e-Paich area about 30 km (19 miles) northwest of Asadabad, but he did not know how many.

Patyani said the search operation was still going on but he did not have any information about any U.S. troops being captured by insurgents.

The BBC report said officials had said there was still hope that some of those unaccounted for were alive, but it also quoted correspondent Andrew North as saying that they may also have been captured by insurgents.

It said the BBC's North was at the U.S. military base at Asadabad, capital of Kunar. The aircraft crashed in the province after being hit by insurgent fire, the U.S. military said.

A U.S. military spokeswoman Kabul, Lieutenant Cindy Moore, said she could not confirm the BBC report.

"I don't know where they are getting that information," she said. I don't have what they are saying.

A U.S. official said in Washington Wednesday that all 17 U.S. troops aboard the helicopter, who included elite U.S. Navy Seals, were presumed to have died.

The U.S. military has yet to confirm any deaths.

"Iraq War Takes Toll on Army Marriages"

I rarely, if ever, post entire articles, but with fragile links, you either do or you lose the content forever.

The issue of strengthening and maintaining fragile military (not just Army) marriages is of utmost importance. These men and women sacrifice so much for us... be it life or limb... and the last thing they should return to is an empty home.

Please, dearest readers, when remembering our servicemen and women, please try to keep the stability and welfare of their marriages and families in your thoughts and prayers as well.

(AP) By DAVID CRARY

NEW YORK - While U.S. casualties steadily mount in Iraq, another toll is rising rapidly on the home front: The Army's divorce rate has soared in the past three years, most notably for officers, as longer and more frequent war zone deployments place extra strain on couples.

"We've seen nothing like this before," said Col. Glen Bloomstrom, a chaplain who oversees family-support programs. "It indicates the amount of stress on couples, on families, as the Army conducts the global war on terrorism."

Between 2001 and 2004, divorces among active-duty Army officers and enlisted personnel nearly doubled, from 5,658 to 10,477, even though total troop strength remained stable. In 2002, the divorce rate among married officers was 1.9 percent — 1,060 divorces out of 54,542 marriages; by 2004, the rate had tripled to 6 percent, with 3,325 divorces out of 55,550 marriages.

There's no comparable system for tracking the national divorce rate, though according to the Centers for Disease Control, 43 percent of all first marriages end in divorce within 10 years.

With divorce rates that have risen more sharply than other service branches, the Army has broadened its efforts to help — offering confidential counseling hot lines, support groups for spouses, weekend couples' retreats, even advice to single soldiers on how to pick partners wisely. Bloomstrom says he wants all 2,400 of the Army's chaplains to be available for marriage-support work.

Staff Sgt. Allen Owens, a 15-year Army veteran, and his wife, Linda, praised a recent marriage retreat that they and 20 other couples from Fort Campbell, Ky., participated in with their chaplain at a hotel in Nashville, Tenn.

Owens was part of a 101st Airborne Division unit that advanced into Baghdad in the early phases of the Iraq war, and he expects at least one more stint in Iraq. That would again leave his wife alone with their four children. The weekend retreat, he said, offered a chance to "decompress and do an in-depth study of your relationship and your personalities."

"Even if there's nothing going wrong," Linda Owens said, "it's a great way to learn about your spouse."

While some of the Army's programs aim to prepare couples for their first deployment-related separation, others try to help couples with the often-difficult adjustments when a spouse returns from combat-zone duty to a mate who has been shouldering extra responsibilities at home.

"Our hope is to change the culture," Bloomstrom said. "Initially there's a stigma about any program to do with relationships. We need to teach that there's nothing wrong with preventive maintenance for marriage."

Martha Rudd, an Army spokeswoman, attributed the recent surge in divorces to the stress and uncertainty caused by a stepped-up deployment cycle.

"An awful lot of people are going back to Iraq for a second tour — that must be hard to take," she said. "You can get through one tour, but then you think, 'Please, no more.'"

Bloomstrom said the high divorce rate among officers was no surprise because they bear the brunt of implementing major changes in Army operations, often working 18 or more hours a day.

"Every aspect of the Army is changing," he said. "We've got some very loyal, dedicated military professionals stepping up to the plate, sometimes to the detriment of their families."

Sylvia Kidd, director of family programs for the private Association of the U.S. Army, urges military couples to seek help when needed but fears many spouses are too isolated.

"So many of these couples are very young — they tend to get married just before deployment, and then the wife is here alone and doesn't know what to do with herself," Kidd said. "The people who need support the most are the least likely to go get it."

For those troops who do divorced, military breakups can pose unique legal and logistical challenges, especially when one spouse is deployed overseas.

Mark Sullivan, a former Army lawyer who now practices privately in Raleigh, N.C., says soldiers in often-deployed units may have trouble winning child custody and — when posted abroad — arranging visits from their children. In one recent case, Sullivan has represented a Tennessee father whose ex-wife is now seeking custody of their daughter because the man's National Guard unit was sent overseas.

Kidd said the divorce problem could get even worse, as long the campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere require frequent deployments.

"All kinds of couples have problems, but they don't necessarily break up," Kidd said. "When you add the additional stress of these separations, it's the straw that breaks the camel's back."

Update on US Chinook crash

God rest their souls: All 17 US troops in Afghan crash believed dead

KABUL (Reuters) - All 17 U.S. troops aboard an American helicopter that crashed after being hit by ground fire in an anti-militant operation in Afghanistan are believed to have died, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The casualties from Tuesday's crash would be the heaviest for U.S. forces in an incident linked to hostile fire in Afghanistan since they invaded to overthrow the Taliban in 2001.

"We presume that all were lost," said a U.S. official in Washington, who asked not to be identified, when asked if all those aboard -- including elite U.S. Seals Special Operations troops -- had been killed in the crash.

The official told Reuters the twin-rotor CH-47 Chinook was believed to have been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in mountainous terrain near the border with Pakistan, an attack claimed by Taliban guerrillas.

The U.S. military said the Chinook crashed in remote and mountainous Kunar province on Tuesday afternoon while bringing troops to reinforce soldiers in an anti-al Qaeda operation.

It was hit by ground fire as it approached its landing zone and crashed about 1-2 km (half to one mile) away, U.S. military spokesman Colonel Jim Yonts told a news briefing in Kabul.

He said fighting continued in the area on Wednesday involving a large force of U.S.-led troops and a "very determined enemy."

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the guerrillas shot down the aircraft in the village of Shorak using "a new type of weapon" he did not describe.

"This is a huge success for the Taliban," he said, adding that the guerrillas had video of the crash and would post photographs on their Web site (www.alemarah.com). It did not appear to have been updated on Wednesday.

CA imam fired for alleged ties to UBL

Let's hope this is an ongoing trend: Calif. imam fired for alleged bin Laden support

LODI, Calif. - A mosque has fired a religious leader accused of speaking out against the United States and supporting Osama bin Laden in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Shabbir Ahmed, 39, is one of two imams detained on immigration charges as part of an FBI investigation into alleged terror activities in the Islamic community in Lodi, a wine-growing region about 30 miles south of Sacramento.

The mosque’s board of directors unanimously voted to fire Ahmed in a special session Sunday night, said Mohammed Shoaib, president of Lodi Muslim Mosque.

“We don’t want that kind of person who has spoken against the United States,” Shoaib said. [read: "The Feds are riding us hard and we need to offer them someone to cool the heat..." --ed.]

At a hearing on Friday, Ahmed denied making any speeches against the United States.

Justice Department attorney Paul Nishiie said Ahmed was linked to a terrorist group in Pakistan and had preached about attacking Americans a few months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

New York City Invokes Eminent Domain to Acquire New Jersey

Oh, if it were only true!

"The Supreme Court decision makes it easier for us to justify this course of action in the name of economic development," said Bloomberg, "although actually we could easily have made the case that taking over New Jersey would be analogous to condemning a blighted property. I mean, come on. Have you been there lately?"

Priceless.

P.S. While you're there, could you please erect the mother of all walls along the Jersey coast so we don't have to see (and in the event of a nuclear disaster--FEEL the effects of...) this?

"God isn't BLACK"

Unlike Jay at Wizbang! who often comments on funny and serious issues and news stories of interest in his home state of New Cowshire, I rarely do so.

However, this one hits a bit close to my back yard: Racist messages found on church, lawn

Vandals defaced St. Thomas AUMP Church, spray-painting racist and satanic graffiti on an outside wall.

The vandals drew satanic symbols and wrote "God isn't black" in black spray paint on the Glasgow-area church.

New Castle County police were also investigating a possible hate crime that occurred over the weekend on Benjamin Wright Drive in Lea Eara Farms East near Summit, where weed-killer or a similar liquid was used to spell out "KKK" in the lawn of a black family who have lived in the neighborhood for seven years.

New Castle County police spokesman Cpl. Trinidad Navarro said it is unlikely the crimes are related. "These two incidents appear completely isolated," he said.

April Munn, a member of the predominantly black, 179-year-old church, said the vandalism was discovered Sunday morning, as parishioners arrived for services.

"People did talk about it," Munn said. "They were upset. They're confused. They just don't know what it's all about."

I recommend clicking the story source link at the top to view a picture of the spraypainted message on the church building. I can't imagine what prompted this, I cannot recall the last time something like this happened in my county (unless I completely missed hearing it). Other than hearing rumors of the Klan's presence in the heavily (and I mean, probably 99%) white makeup of Rising Sun, MD, and those KKK parades that used to happen every so many years (again, never seen one, just heard of it) on Main St.---this kind of nonsense doesn't happen 'round here.

...or does it?

"Our mere existence offends people."

Just anoter sign of the times in "puritanical" America: MTV launches new gay cable TV channel:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The prospect of a television channel entirely devoted to gay programs for gay people may strike some as unnecessary and others as a sign of immoral times. Media giant Viacom thinks there's money in it. [Ya don't say? --ed.]

Logo, launching on Thursday under the MTV Networks umbrella, is not the first channel to target gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, but it is the most widely available, on cable boxes in 10 million homes.

[...]

Janice Crouse, a senior fellow at Concerned Women for America, which describes itself as a conservative Evangelical group of 500,000 members, said it was "a sad day for America."

She said MTV was in a powerful position to influence youth and it was "unconscionable" to present in a positive view of a promiscuous lifestyle that causes "illnesses and diseases."

"I see it as indoctrination of children to present the gay lifestyle as something that's normal, as something they don't have any choice over," Crouse said in an interview.

Logo General Manager Lisa Sherman cited studies saying there were some 15 million openly gay people in America, an attractive demographic for advertisers, considering that many will have no children, meaning more disposable income.

Logo's advertisers include travel company Orbitz, carmaker Subaru, mobile phone maker Motorola and Miller Lite beer.

Frank Olsen, founder and major shareholder of Q, a small satellite subscription gay channel, said the reason there were now three players was simple -- money.

"I don't think anybody has become more tolerant of gay people. The Christian right still says we're going to be condemned and we're going to be in hell," Olsen said. "But Ford needs to sell more cars and if they can sell them to gay people without offending straight people, they will." [Chrysler and GM have similiar practices. --ed.]

Q and Here! market themselves as just another of the many niche options out there, from golfing to gardening channels. [Golf is a sport (well, debatably so) and gardening is a hobby...so that would make homosexuality...what exactly? --ed.]

Colichman said more than 30 percent of his viewers were straight -- a figure he says includes feminists and liberals sick of the way women are portrayed in the mainstream media, and straight men who will watch anything about lesbians.

[...]

Despite that, Musto said Logo appeared to be treading cautiously.

"We live in a very puritanical culture that gets very queasy about sexuality issues of any kind and that may be why Logo is soft-pedaling the sexuality issue," Musto said. ["Puritanical"... right.... --ed.]

British traitor helped speed up Soviet nuclear development

British woman who gave Soviets nuclear secrets dies at 93 (link)
Melita Norwood, who passed on secrets to the Soviet Union believed to have helped them speed up development of the atomic bomb, died earlier this month at the age of 93, her daughter said.

Anita Ferguson said her mother died on June 2 but declined to comment further.

Described as the most important British female agent recruited by the KGB intelligence service, Norwood spied under the codename "Hola" and passed British nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union in the years after World War II.

Norwood's activities were finally exposed when KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin defected to Britain in 1992, bringing thousands of files he had meticulously copied.

The supporter of Soviet-style communism spied for almost 40 years while a secretary at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, handing over details of the project to build Britain's first atomic bomb.

She took top secret documents from the Tube Alloys project -- the cover name for the nuclear weapons programme -- copied them and passed them to her KGB handlers.

The information she passed to Stalin's government is said to have helped the Soviets build an atomic bomb two or three years earlier than they otherwise would.

Her security clearance was revoked in 1951 because of concerns that she might be a spy.

But after she was publicly unmasked in 1999 she said idealism, not money, had inspired her.

After she was exposed as a spy, Britain's Security Service MI5 was strongly criticized by the parliamentary committee overseeing the intelligence agencies over the failure to prosecute her.

It's not a matter of whether you win or lose...

...it's whether history retains the truth: Britain Marks Anniversary of Sea Victory

Two hundred years ago a daredevil naval hero by the name of Horatio Nelson led the British to a glorious victory over France and Spain. But that might not be clear from watching Tuesday's reenactment of the Battle of Trafalgar.

Wary of offending European neighbors who enjoy a close but sometimes testy friendship with Britain, organizers decided to dispense with details such as who won and who lost. Instead of depicting the battle as a contest between countries, they assigned the fleets colors — red and blue — and left it up to the spectators to figure out which was which.

Nelson's great, great, great granddaughter called it a "pretty stupid" idea.

"I am sure the French and Spanish are adult enough to appreciate we did win that battle," said Anna Tribe, 75 [Don't count on it... --ed.] "I am anti-political correctness. Very much against it. It makes fools of us."

The Battle of Trafalgar was one of the most spectacular naval successes of all times. Nelson routed Napoleon Bonaparte's larger French and Spanish fleet and ensured that Britain ruled the waves for more than a hundred years. Though the battle cost him his life, he didn't lose a single ship.

And guess who is still our closest ally?

And to Admiral Nelson, conqueror of French and Spanish alike-- jolly good show, ol' boy!

"Waiters say they were fired for being French"

hehehehehehehehehehe.

Okay. All better. (Le Source):

NEW YORK - Three former waiters at New York’s posh 21 Club, where a hamburger costs $30, have filed a $5 million discrimination lawsuit saying they were fired for being French.

In a civil suit made public on Monday at Manhattan Supreme Court, the three men, Rene Bordet, 68, Jean Claude Lesbre, 63 and Yves Thepault, 68, said the restaurant’s management falsely accused them of drinking wine on the job and “created and fostered an environment rife with anti-French sentiment.”

Both Bordet and Lesbre worked for 10 years as waiters and floor captains before being fired in 2004 after accusations of drinking on the job. Thepault, who worked for 14 years as a waiter, was fired in 2005 for gross insubordination after an argument with a chef over a hamburger, court papers said [probably because the chef used American cheese instead of ::shudder: brie... --ed.]

The suit accused 21 Club of engaging in “a concerted and egregious course of action to rid (the restaurant) of its older and long-term employees of French national origin.”

Bordet and Lesbre deny they were drinking alcohol and said when another employee was caught drinking on the job, on four occasions, he was only given a one-week suspension.

Checkpoint Charlie to be destroyed

From Charles (LGF) and orginally from David:

...not only is the Berlin city government preparing to demolish the Checkpoint Charlie memorial, dedicated to the brave people who died trying to cross the Berlin Wall, they're going to do it on the Fourth of July

History is vanishing before our very eyes, folks.

Female Marines ambushed (post 5 days late)

Five days old, but still important: Female U.S. Marines Ambushed in Iraq

A suicide car bomber and gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying female U.S. Marines in Fallujah, killing two Marines and leaving another four American troops presumed dead, the military said Friday. At least one woman was killed and 11 of 13 wounded were female.

The terror group al-Qaida in Iraq claimed it carried out the bombing, one of the single deadliest attacks against the Marines — and against women — in this country. The high number of female casualties spoke to the lack of any real front lines in Iraq, where U.S. troops are battling a raging insurgency and American women soldiers have taken part in more close-quarters combat than in any previous military conflict.

The women were part of a team of Marines who were assigned to various checkpoints around Fallujah. Female Marines are used at the checkpoints to search Muslim women "in order to be respectful of Iraqi cultural sensitivities," a military statement said. It is considered insulting for a male Marine to search a female Muslim.

Current Pentagon policy prohibits women from serving in front line combat roles — in the infantry, armor or artillery, for example.

"It's hard to stop suicide bombers, and it's hard to stop these people that in many cases are being smuggled into Iraq from outside Iraq," President Bush said at a joint White House news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

The Marines were returning to their base, Camp Fallujah, when the ambush took place Thursday night near the eastern entrance to the city, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

Fallujah is a former insurgents' fortress that was invaded by U.S. forces at great cost last November; it also the city where an Iraqi mob hung the mutilated bodies of two U.S. contractors from a bridge. On Nov. 2, 2003, two female Army soldiers were in a Chinook helicopter shot down over Fallujah.

At least one of the dead Marines in Thursday's attack was a woman, as were 11 of the 13 wounded. The woman was killed when the car bomber attacked the vehicle in which she was traveling.

Yahoo! shuts down private chat rooms...

...over sexual exploitation concerns. And rightfully so: Yahoo shuts chat rooms amid child-sex fears

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo, the most-used Internet site, has shut down all its user-created Internet chat rooms amid concerns that adults were using the sites to try to have sex with minors.

The giant Internet media company closed down those chat rooms and the ability to create new ones “in the past week,” said Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako.

[...]

The user-created chat rooms in question, where Internet users converse in real time, had names including “Girls 13 And Under For Older Guys” and “Girls 13 And Up For Much Older Men” and were all listed under “education chat rooms,” Houston television station KPRC reported.

[...]

The concern over online safety for children using the Internet has surged with the number of people using the Internet, which allows for anonymous and sometimes hard-to-trace communication and content.

It’s also not the first time that Yahoo has faced the issue of users taking advantage of its free services to lure young children.

A minor and his parents in May filed a $10 million lawsuit against Yahoo and a man who once operated a Yahoo Groups site where members traded child pornography.

Many attorneys argue that the Communications Decency Act shields Web sites from responsibility for material posted by users.

But the lawsuit, filed on May 9 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, charged that Yahoo breached its duties by allowing co-defendant Mark Bates and others to share child pornography on a site, called Candyman, that Bates created and moderated via the Yahoo Groups service.

A child pornography investigation led by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and dubbed Operation Candyman targeted Yahoo Groups users and ultimately resulted in the arrest of more than 100 people in the United States.

U.S. Spy plane downed (Delayed post from June 22)

Haven't seen alot said about this on the Blogosphere, although a little heads up folks, this story is a week old, I'm just posting on this in case others missed this one: Pilot of U.S. Spy Plane Dies in Crash

An American U-2 spy plane crashed while returning to its base in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, killing the pilot after a mission in support of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The aircraft crashed in the Emirates while approaching the base to land, said a Pentagon official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation. Early reports gave no indication of any hostile fire, but it was too soon to be certain why it crashed, the official said.

The U-2 is a single-seat, single-engine reconnaissance plane that operates at an altitude of more than 70,000 feet and has been used in every major conflict the United States has fought since the aircraft went into service a half-century ago.

Flying beyond the range of most surface-to-air missiles — the pilot must wear a full pressure suit similar to those used by astronauts — the U-2 was famously shot down in 1960 over the Soviet Union.

With its bicycle-type landing gear and the challenges of handling the aircraft at low altitudes, the U-2 requires a high degree of precision during landing. Forward visibility is limited, partly because of the extended nose. A second pilot normally "chases" the U-2 while it lands, assisting the pilot by providing information on altitude and runway alignment.

The military did not immediately release the location or circumstances of the crash because it did not want to create problems for the nation where the plane went down. Officials also withheld the name of the pilot pending notification of relatives.

According to the military, the crash happened at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday EDT, which would be early Wednesday in the United Arab Emirates.

In Washington, Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said the plane had completed a mission related to Operation Enduring Freedom, the code name for American operations in Afghanistan.

"Welcome to the jungle..."

¡Bienvenidos, los Hezbollahistas!

Police in Ecuador say they have broken up an international drugs ring which was raising money for the Islamic militant group, Hezbollah.

The authorities have declined to give details of the gang's alleged links with the group, but say it was sending Hezbollah up to 70% of its profits. Ecuadorean officials say the drugs network was run by a Lebanese restaurant owner in the capital, Quito. ...

Along with the restaurant owner, identified as Rady Zaiter, who was arrested in Colombia last week, six other suspects were also detained in Ecuador. They are said to originate from Algeria, Ecuador, Lebanon, Nigeria and Turkey. The police investigation, codenamed Operation Damascus, led to the arrests of a further 19 people in Brazil and the United States.

Police say that the gang were obtaining cocaine from neighbouring Colombia and trafficking it to Europe, the Middle East and the rest of South America. The drugs were either hidden in suitcases with false bottoms or in the stomachs of couriers. The BBC's Elliot Gotkine says airport officials are said to have been bribed to turn a blind eye.

Ecuadorean police say that each drugs shipment was worth $1m and that up to 70% of the profits went to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah.

P.S. And "El-Qaeda" is not in Honduras either...nah...

The future of the EZLN...what's next?

Mexico's Zapatista rebels to weigh future (link)
By Tim Gaynor

Mexico's Zapatista rebel group is ready to take "a new step in the struggle" as it consults with members on the future of its 11-year-old fight for Indian rights, leader Subcomandante Marcos said on Tuesday.

But Marcos did not say what the rebels' new direction might be, only that members would be free to decide whether or not to follow the path chosen by the majority.

The group "is proposing to its sympathizers, who make up the supreme command of our movement, a new step in the struggle," Marcos said in a statement.

Last weekend he criticized the leftist frontrunner for presidential elections next year, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, for betraying the left, in a possible sign the Zapatistas might aspire to mainstream politics.

The Zapatistas, also known by their Spanish-language acronym EZLN, announced on Monday they were grouping fighters in bases, suspending their radio station and pulling political officers out of villages in the state of Chiapas.

Marcos, who became an anti-globalization icon in the mid-1990s hidden behind a ski mask, said the alert was a defensive move to protect the group from the military while it held internal consultations.

"All Zapatistas are now morally free to follow or not the EZLN in the next stage being considered, if it is approved by the majority," he said.

At the time unknown, the Zapatistas shocked Mexico and the world when they emerged shooting from the jungle on New Year's Day 1994 to fight for Indian rights.

There have been no clashes for years and the pipe-smoking Marcos has even begun a new part-time career as a crime author, co-writing the novel "Uncomfortable Deaths."

He said the guerrillas' new strategy move would be "a step that implies, among other things, risking the loss of the lot or the little that has been gained."

REBEL SETBACK

President Vicente Fox vowed during campaigning for elections in 2000 to negotiate an end the Zapatista conflict "in 15 minutes" but the issue fell off the radar screen.

The rebels suffered a serious setback in 2001 when Congress watered down an Indian-rights law that the Zapatista leadership had set as a condition for returning to peace talk.

On Monday, Marcos, said political officers who worked in Zapatista-run local administrations, known as "good-government councils," were going into hiding.

Local officials in San Cristobal de las Casas said the Zapatista stronghold village of Oventic some 25 miles away was almost abandoned.

They showed a video of the village deserted on Monday night after the alert.

"Closed Due To Red Alert" read a sign above a rebel headquarters there. Only a handful of the village's several hundred people remained.

Anonymous sexually exploited girl now living in safety...

The first of many posts I am catching up on that were intended to have been posted a week or two ago...

From the indispensable Laer: Girl Who Had No Name Finds Road to Healing:The world was looking to save the child seen in porn. But she was safe and rebuilding her life.

By Maggie Farley, LATimes Staff Writer

NEW YORK — Mea, 12, didn't know everyone was looking for her.

She wasn't aware that concerned police officers thought she was caught in a nightmare of abuse, reflected in hundreds of sexually explicit photos of her on the Internet.

And she didn't know that one particular team of Toronto police officers had been so haunted over the years by her image and fate that in February they asked the public to help find her.

But Mea already had been found.

She was safe and with her new adoptive mother. They didn't see the news show where the police broadcast sanitized versions of the Internet photos in February and asked for help identifying the background locations. One of the backgrounds turned out to be a hotel at Disney World, a detail that led many to refer to her as "the Disney World girl."

newsflash

things are a little hectic over here at WK?HQ so posts will sorta happen when they happen.

but if you dont check back minutely (no, not hourly, or daily, but MINUTELY) i will issue one fierce fatwa and you will have be sent to the 5-Star Hotel gulag that is Gitmo for a little vacation.

Hans Blix: Forever irrelevant

Still not back at full-blogging speed, but a quickie: Blix: Iran Years Away From Nuke Weapons

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Thursday it would take many years for Iran to achieve the capability to produce highly enriched uranium needed for an atomic bomb.

Blix also dismissed worries about a new nuclear reactor being built in Iran, saying it was not suitable to produce weapons-grade material.

"They have many years to go before they will be able to produce highly enriched uranium for a bomb and I believe there is plenty of room for negotiations," Blix said in an interview with Swedish Radio.

Who is this guy?

Earth to Hansie Blixie: YOU CANNOT NEGOTIATE WITH ISLAMOFASCISTS!

Let 'em burn...

Have several posts on the way when time permits (hopefully Thursday afternoon/evening) but here is one from LGF...Charles sums it up perfectly from a .... strategic point of view, I guess you would call it... For So Many Reasons.

As much as I respect my country and its symbols, I need to say that I’m not co-signing this: House Approves Move to Outlaw Flag Burning [link not included, the title says it all--ed.]

We all benefit when people who publicly burn the US flag reveal themselves and their agendae. In the age of the internet, this is more true than ever.

I don’t want to try to stop them, and force them underground. The key fact about these types: they’re schtoopid. They can’t help it.

Don’t get in their way.

More free speech, not less. Always the best policy, for so many reasons.

I, Ky

I feel like a fool.

Freshman year I was curious about Marxism and worked on the Gore campaign in Pennsylvania. Sophomore year consisted of dabbling briefly in (but never buying the illogical estrogenated nature of) Green politics. Jr. year began to shift right (despite having a rather left-leaning Colombian mentor) and finally, upon graduation, I grew up and came to grips with my conservative upbringing and changed my voter registration card so it would have a nice (R) for Republican.

Granted I went to a semi-public university teeming with liberal parasites draining my parent's money in exchange for a communist curriculum esteemed members of solid academia, but it never even occurred to me that the heroes of the Third World would be absolute total frauds.

I know the likes of Che and Chavez and Evo Morales are hardly the champions of los pobres that history and today's left make them out to be, but I never thought for a moment to think of Rigoberta Menchu as anything but a a human rights "icon", advocate for the indigenous and...yea.

Wiki even reflects this...

"Her defenders claim that any dishonesties are offset by the overarching importance of her tale of Guatemalan military suppression of the Mayan populace."

Kinda like, fake but accurate.

Seems to be in the air alot lately.

H/T for the enlightenment: Donnah

The first WK? Meme!

Passed along to me by RF over at the Steiner Aid.

1.) Total number of books I own.

On the shelves in my room and around-about you will find approximately 212 books of various subject matter (religious, academic, humor, political, historical, etc.) however Lord only knows the other books I have scattered around the house somewhere that are mine.

2.) Last book I bought.

This is a tough one...because Ash and I often times will stop in this music store downtown that has a huge selection of used (and rather old, and I mean 1800's hardback old) books for dirt cheap that we often pick up when we get sucked into the store. I'd have to guess the last book I purchased was... "Beyond Belief: What the Martyrs Said to God" a historical account of numerous Christian martyrs and their testimonies.

3.) Last book I read.

I have a problem. Due to the fact there are a ridiculous amount of books I would like to read and a complete lack of time/motivation to read often, I never get to finish the books I even remotely skim. For example, last book I can recall starting was either "Dutch" (an auth. bio of Ronald Reagan) or "Surprise, Security, and the American Experience" by John Lewis Gaddis---that was last June. Suffice to say, and much to my dismay, I am mostly an avid book collecter. :/

However, the last book I actually completed (at least I think I did) was Thomas S. Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" for Dr. Villamarin the last semester of my senior year (2004) for my independent study.

4.) Five books of notable influence on me.

I could not possibly say it better than Todd. If only I could discipline myself to read the Lord's word more often (and I mean daily) I'd be better off.

"If by notable influence, what are meant are books that have so profoundly impacted my thought as to change the way I interact with others and live my life for the better, I can only name one. The Holy Bible. Any other writing is simply the opinion of the author and meant to be pondered and considered; none of which I have yet found were of the necessary import to dictate the course of my affairs."

And there you have it---my first meme.

There's no "separation of church n' state" in España, amigos...

Catholic Church marches against marriage for gays (link)
Los Angeles Times

MADRID, Spain — Making an unusually forceful foray into Spanish politics, the Roman Catholic Church led an enormous march yesterday to protest new legislation that would legalize marriage for gay couples.

Priests, nuns, adults and children from all over the country converged on Madrid, waving placards declaring, "Marriage equals Man and Woman."

Right-wing politicians also joined the demonstration, which was organized by a coalition of groups called the Forum for the Family. It represented the most coordinated protest to date against the agenda of Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

The marriage measure is one of numerous social policies that have heightened tensions between the Catholic Church and the Zapatero government.

Zapatero plans to relax restrictions on abortion, divorce and stem-cell research. The Catholic Church receives public money in Spain, and Zapatero has proposed reducing the church's budget and extending financial benefits to additional religions.

[...] Some on the left bemoaned what they saw as a potential throwback to the days of the dictator Francisco Franco, who outlawed homosexuality. The conservative church was closely allied with him and was extremely powerful until his death in 1975.

The fascist comparisons used by the American left are creeping over to Europe (or...isn't that where they came from?)

NYT: Jesus, Santa, the Boogieman...same thing.

If it's any help, when my own daughter asked about her tooth money, I looked her in the eye, thought about her cognitive development and told her that I won it in a poker game with Spider-Man, a unicorn and Jesus. And I'm sure that with a few more years of therapy, she'll be just fine.
-- NYTimes ethicist Randy Cohen

Another well deserved tip-of-the-hat to Laer.

Military Tech: J.I.N. (Joint IED Neutralizer)

From Strategy Page:

June 16, 2005: After more than three years of development, an American firm (Ionatron) is shipping, to Iraq, ray guns, for detonating roadside bombs. The million dollar devices, called JIN (Joint IED Neutralizer) use “artificial lightning” to cause the detonators in enemy bombs, especially IEDs (roadside bombs), to go off. The JIN is mounted on a remotely controlled vehicle, as the range of JIN is not sufficient to have troops use it directly. The remotely controlled vehicle gets within JIN range, and then zaps the suspected IED. If it is an explosive device, JINs “directed electrical discharge” will cause the detonator, which is normally set off with an electrical signal, to go off, thus causing the explosives to, well, explode. The JIN and the robot it rides on are expected to survive most of these explosions with little or no damage.

Since IEDs come in a wide range of sizes, you never know how big it is until it goes off. JIN will be a big help to the combat engineers who take care of IEDs that are discovered. Most IEDs are found before they can be used. However, the engineers (either American, Iraqi, or foreign contractors) have to dispose of the device. IEDs are often controlled by wireless devices (cell phones, garage door openers, Etc.), but sometimes they are rigged with timers, or to an electrical wire (going back to someone who can set it off.) Until JIN came along, engineers had to use a robot to investigate suspected bombs. Often, if it was a bomb, the enemy would set it off to destroy the robot. Sometimes the terrorists would set the bomb off if they thought the investigating soldiers or police were close enough. Sometimes the bomb was detonated if curious civilians came across it and gathered around. Engineers had electronic jammers that could block detonation signals, at least long enough for the robot to place an explosive charge next to the bomb, so that the IED could be destroyed. With JIN, identifying and destroying IEDs will be a lot faster and safer. Each JIN costs about one million dollars. The official name, JIN, is a clever play on words, as it sounds like the Arabic word for “genie”, a legendary spirit creature with magical powers.

Steppin' in for dear ol' deployed dad -- Father's Day 2005

This is what it's all about... coming together for the well-being of the children and families of those serving our great nation: Mentors Help Kids Whose Fathers Are at War

[...] On this Father's Day, it should be noted that about 60 percent of military personnel — about 838,000 — are fathers, according to the Pentagon. More than 123,000 of these fathers are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. "The lives of their children," says Nancy Campbell, who works in Army family services, "are turned upside down."

[...] Untold numbers of men and women — relatives, neighbors, other servicemen and women — have marched to the aid of these children as temporary mentors. They play softball and board games, help with homework, and try to ease childhood's troubles with a sympathetic ear until the return of the deployed dads — or, sometimes, moms.

Some join programs like the one run by Big Brothers Big Sisters inside three public schools at Camp Pendleton, the city-sized base south of Los Angeles. Other mentors step forward informally to help brighten a dark time for a child.

[...]

Some mentors mean to pay a debt of sorts to the deployed fathers. "I just wanted to do something for the military, and I can't serve anymore, so I did this," said Rich Alan, 67, of Vista, Calif., a former seaman who has mentored two boys.

Gilstrap, the principal [of Mary Fay Pendleton School--.ed], said many Marine mentors are themselves veterans of the war in Iraq. They often feel as though they are returning a favor to the Marine replacing them by giving their time to yet another Marine's child.

Juvenile hatemongers fight fire with fire...by burning Qurans.

Two days late, but still important.

Burned Qurans Left at Va. Muslim Center (link)
Thu Jun 16, 7:35 PM ET

BLACKSBURG, Va. - A bag stuffed with burned Qurans was left in front of an Islamic center, shocking members when they arrived for prayers.

The torched copies of the Muslim holy book were inside a plastic shopping bag, members of the Islamic Center of Blacksburg said. They said the bag had been placed at the center's front door sometime before Saturday prayers.

"It is a shame that people are so ignorant," member Idris Adjerid said.

Kevin Foust, the agent in charge of the Roanoke FBI office, said Thursday his office is helping local police investigate. He declined to speculate whether the incident would be classified as a hate crime under state or federal law.

An incident can only be deemed a hate crime if it was meant to intimidate or harass, police said. Laila Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington, D.C., said the Quran burning fits that definition.

"If pages from the Bible were burned and put in a bag outside a church, I think the reaction of the police would be that it would be a hate crime," she said.

However, I in no way whatsoever condone such actions as were perpetrated against the members of the Islamic Center of Blacksburg.

I would like to think this kind of hateful nonsense would be beneath most rational Americans. Unfortunately, it seems like the Rusty Schackleford gang is gaining new recruits.

Serial Monster

Police: Man May Have Molested Thousands (link)
By RACHEL KONRAD, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jun 16, 6:31 PM ET

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A convicted child molester jailed in California may have committed sex crimes against thousands of victims, police said Thursday after finding computers, notebooks and meticulous, handwritten lists of boys' names and apparent codes for various sex acts.

San Jose Police Lt. Scott Cornfield described 63-year-old Dean Arthur Schwartzmiller as "one of the most active child molesters we've ever seen."

During a search of his bedroom in San Jose, police discovered binders full of child porn and numerous logs with lists of more than 36,000 children's names — mostly boys — and codes that appear to indicate how he abused them.

"If one-tenth of these numbers are accurate, we're looking at hundreds of victims in a number of states. The reason we want to tell the world about this is because we believe he's been involved in child molestations in a number of countries," Cornfield said.

[...]

Schwartzmiller apparently did not register as a sex offender, so his history did not appear in the "Megan's Law" databases in California or other states, authorities said. [Evidently, not. --ed.]

[...]

Although police said Schwartzmiller appears to have spent much of the past 30 years in California, he has been arrested on child molestation charges in New York, Arkansas and Washington. He also served prison time in Idaho for child molestation in the late 1970s, and is wanted in Oregon on sexual assault charges involving a minor.

In the 1980s, he lived in Brazil, and was extradited from there to Idaho again in the later part of the decade to serve more time, Cornfield said. Police believe he may have victims in Brazil and Mexico.

There is absolutely positively NO excuse for this...

Lungs of the Earth, eh?

Laer, one of my favorite bloggers at Cheat-Seeking Missiles posts this gem (a few weeks ago, at that): Stop Global Whining 2

...two of the world's top eco-scientists, Patrick Moore and Philip Stott, say the save-the-rainforest movement is wrong: at best, vastly misleading; at worst, a gigantic con.

"All these save-the-forests arguments are based on bad science," says Moore, a founding member of Greenpeace who recently returned from a fact-finding mission to the Amazon.

"They are quite simply wrong. We found that the Amazon rainforest is more than 90 percent intact. We flew over it and met all the environmental authorities. We studied satellite pictures of the entire area."

Read the rest.

9/11 aftermath...dramatized

Saw the 2001 episode of NBC's (unfortunately now cancelled) Third Watch this evening entitled, "After Time." It basically followed the lives of the NYPD/FDNY/EMTs of the fictitious 55th precinct in the weeks following 9/11.

Almost four years later, even a television drama can make me ache in the pit of my chest.

New Edition

(No, not Bobby Brown/BBD's old group)

(If you don't go visit his site, you will prolly get hurt---after all, he is a member of the greatest fighting force in the history of the universe.

bizay

Finally have all of my things moved out of my dirty old house at Blogspot... now I don't have to deal with that lousy landlord I had...

In the meantime, I'll be cleaning up some of the formatting irregularities that those darn Starving Student movers caused (hehe) in my archives...so far I'm up to December. So if blogging is slow today and/or tommorrow, it's cuz of that.

P.S. Jim and Pixy rule.

Looky what we found here!

Illegal terrorists immigrants crossing our borders?

Courtesy of the always...um...spirited B.C., Imperial Torturer™ of Rottweiler notoriety:

MEXICO CITY (AP) - A Mexican official said on Monday that police in the border state of Baja California had detained three Afghans, a Syrian and a Pakistani on suspicion of drugs and arms trafficking.

DOJ: Domestic Violence figures on the decline

Excellent news: Domestic Violence Drops by More Than Half

WASHINGTON (AP) - Specialists are crediting greater public attention to child abuse and other family related violence with helping cause a steep drop in reported domestic crimes.

Between 1993 and 2002, the rate of family violence fell from about 5.4 victims to 2.1 victims per 1,000 residents age 12 and older, according to a Justice Department report released Sunday.

Simple assault was the most frequent type of violent offense. Murder accounted for less than one-half of 1 percent of all family violence between 1998 and 2002 - the most recent years analyzed for the report.

The report looked back to 1993 - the year the survey was redesigned - for a long-term trend in family violence, but analyzed the most recent years to glean detailed information on patterns of crime.

Almost half of the 3.5 million victims of family violence between 1998 and 2002 were spouses. Fewer than one in 100 died as a result.

The study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that:

_73 percent of victims were female.

_75 percent of offenders were male.

_Most violence happened in or near the victim's home.

_74 percent of victims were white.

_Most victims were between ages 25 and 54.

_79 percent of offenders were white; most were at least 30 years old.

Esta Soler, president of the Family Violence Prevention Fund, said the report "offers a ray of hope that our nation is finally on the right track in addressing the violence that devastates so many families in this country."

"But our work is not nearly done. Domestic, dating and family violence are still taking a terrible toil," she said.

Beverly Balos, a University of Minnesota law professor and specialist in domestic violence issues, added:

"We should be celebrating the overall decline in domestic violence in terms of thinking about services that have been possible over the last 10 years in individual states. It's made a difference in keeping women and children safe."

Violent crimes are rape, robbery, aggravated assault and homicides including murder and manslaughter. Family violence includes all types of violent crime committed by someone related to the victim.

Balos noted the drop in family violence is part of an overall decrease in violent crime in past years.

According to the most recent Justice Department report, the violent crime rate remained at the lowest level recorded since 1973. The rate was 22.6 per 1,000 people. In 2002, it was 23.1 per 1,000.

Family violence is measured through the National Crime Victimization Survey, based on survey interviews with samples of the U.S. population. It is also measured through the FBI's National Incident Based Reporting System, based on statistics compiled by local police departments.

Figures from the survey show that family violence accounted for 11 percent of all violent crime between 1998 and 2002, both reported to police and unreported. Police statistics show that family violence makes up nearly 33 percent of all police-recorded violence.

The report said the discrepancy could result from the willingness of victims and others to report crime to police. Also, the police statistics are not directly comparable to the survey's in terms of geographical coverage. Police figures are based on data from agencies reporting in 18 states and the District of Columbia; the survey's cover the entire country.

WTC Firefighter finally laid to rest

Firefighter Mourned 4 Years After 9/11 (link)
Jun 12, 6:32 AM (ET)
By DAVID B. CARUSO

NEW YORK (AP) - A 30-year-old firefighter who rushed to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, was memorialized Saturday at a Manhattan church in one of the last funerals for the 343 firefighters killed that day.

Hundreds of uniformed firefighters stood under an unforgiving June sun as an engine draped in black and purple bunting carried Keithroy M. Maynard's remains to the Church of the Master. A pipe and drum corps played "Amazing Grace."

Like other relatives of Sept. 11 victims, Maynard's family held a memorial service two months after the attacks, but years more passed before his family felt that enough of his remains had been identified to hold a formal funeral, officials said.

The ceremony Saturday was the first funeral since 2003 for a firefighter killed at the World Trade Center.

It was prompted, in part, by a decision by city forensic investigators in February to end their efforts to identify remains collected from the Twin Towers rubble. More than 1,100 victims remain unidentified, but officials concluded they had exhausted all current DNA technology.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, attending the funeral on his daughter's wedding day, was among the mourners who honored Maynard as a hero whose final gift to the city hasn't faded with time.

"If there is any comfort to be taken," Bloomberg said to Maynard's mother, "perhaps it is that your son died doing what he loved."

Maynard had been a firefighter for two years. His late father, Reynold White, was a New York City fire captain. His twin brother, Kevin Maynard, became a firefighter in Houston after his brother's death. Another brother, Duane White, is a New York police officer.

"I carry his shield in my pocket," White said. "He was one of the best people this city has ever had."

Maynard is also survived by his mother, another brother, two sisters and a 10-year-old son, Keithroy Maynard II, who was 6 when his father died.

Maynard, a naturalized U.S. citizen, will be buried in Montserrat, a Caribbean island where he lived until he was 15.

Mysterious bomb derails Russian train, Sadullaev likely to shrug and say...

"...wasn't us!"

MOSCOW - An explosion believed caused by a terrorist bomb derailed a train traveling from Chechnya to Moscow during Sunday's national holiday, injuring at least 15 people, officials said.

Children of the Fallen

A day late, but with a story like this, better late than never.

NYPOST: GUARDIAN'S ANGEL
By JENNIFER FERMINO and STEVE DUNLEAVY

The wife of a city firefighter-turned-soldier who was killed last year in Iraq gave birth to the fallen hero's daughter this week — and named the girl in honor of a father she will never know.

"We named her Kristian, after her dad," said an exhausted, but ebullient Sharon Engeldrum, who brought the healthy newborn back to the family's Bronx home in Edgewater Park from Einstein Hospital yesterday. Kristian is the daughter of Christian Engeldrum, a 9/11 hero firefighter and member of Bronx Ladder Co. 61.

A National Guard veteran before 9/11, the firefighter re-enlisted after sifting through the rubble of Ground Zero in the post-attack recovery effort.

He became a member of the fabled Fighting 69th Infantry Regiment, and was killed in November when a roadside bomb exploded under his Humvee while battling insurgents. He was 39.

The blast occurred about 6 p.m. Iraq time when a small convoy was patrolling a mostly rural area near the soldiers' camp in Tajl, 20 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Army Spc. Wilfredo Urbina, 29, a volunteer firefighter from Baldwin, L.I., was also killed in the blast — which flipped the Humvee in the air.

The loss made Kristian's birth this week a bittersweet joy for Sharon.

"I'm happy she's here," she told The Post yesterday. "I'm relieved she's all right. I'm sad that her father can't see her, but I know he's looking down on her."

Kristian was born two weeks early and weighs in at 5-pounds, 10-ounces, said her paternal grandmother, Lenora Engeldrum.

Kristian has two brothers, Sean and Royce, age 18 and 16.

She was born Monday, the 61st anniversary of D-Day — a date her grandmother thinks is fitting for the daughter of a soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice. [I'll second that. --ed.]

"She was born on D-Day," she said. "We think that's kind of apropos."

Lenora Engeldrum agreed that Kristian's birth would have been more joyous had her father been there to see it.

"It's very bittersweet," she said. "But we're excited and happy."

She also said that her daughter-in-law is doing well after the early delivery — which she was able to give through natural birth.

"She's feeling better now," Lenora said.

In January, Sharon Engeldrum, 39, attended President Bush's State of the Union Address as a guest of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

At the time, she said all of the honors and attention — such as a memorial service attended by Gov. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg — filled her with "a lot of pride [and] sadness. It's difficult."

The blast that killed Christian Engeldrum and Urbina also left firefighter Dan Swift, 24, of Ladder Co. 43 in East Harlem, suffering shrapnel wounds.

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.

Saudi couple enslaves Indonesian woman in Colorado

This is human trafficking:

Indictment: Saudi Pair in Colo. Kept Slave (link)
Jun 10, 10:27 PM (ET)
By MELISSA TRUJILLO

AURORA, Colo. (AP) - A Saudi Arabian couple was in custody Friday, accused of turning a young Indonesian woman into a virtual slave, forcing her to clean, cook and care for their children while she was threatened and sexually assaulted.

A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Homaidan Al-Turki, 36, and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, 35, on charges of forced labor, document servitude and harboring an illegal immigrant.

Al-Turki also faces state charges including kidnapping, false imprisonment and extortion, as well as 12 charges of sexual assault. His wife faces some of the same charges. The two could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

Phone messages left Friday for their individual lawyers were not immediately returned.

U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Jeff Dorschner said the Indonesian woman, who is in her 20s, came to the United States with the couple legally to perform domestic chores. But her U.S. visa was hidden from her by Al-Turki and Khonaizan, according to Thursday's indictment.

The woman was controlled by "a climate of fear and intimidation" that included sexual abuse and the belief that she would "suffer serious harm" if she did not perform her tasks, the indictment said.

The woman is believed to have lived with the couple from 2000 until November 2004, according to authorities. Dorschner said she is not in custody.

Authorities said the couple owed the woman nearly $93,000 in unpaid wages.

A neighbor, Vicki Lisman, said she believed the couple has four children - three young girls and a teenage boy. In the summer, the mother and children would go to Saudi Arabia while the father stayed in Colorado, she said.

Lisman said she had no idea another woman lived with the family.

"There was certainly a sense of normalcy with the house and the family," she said.

Al-Turki worked at Al-Basheer Publications and Translation in Denver. No one answered the company's phone Friday.

I shudder to think what the Saudi man would do to the poor Indonesian woman while his wife and children were away in Saudi Arabia for the summer.

I hate the the sound of that one charge "harboring an illegal immigrant".... while it is techinically true, it almost sounds like "harboring a known felon" or something dangerous of the sorts.

Unbeknownst to many, these types of threatening and abusive "employer-employee" relationships (read: "harboring forced immigrant labor" to ridiculously oversimplify it) happen much more often than people think...

A simple primer on methods of intimidation include: the threat of witholding or destroying a "worker"'s passport/legal papers/etc., the threat of sexual/and/or/physical abuse, reporting to the authorities, and harm to foreign relatives/friends are common means of manipulation utilized in modern day human enslavement. And of course, there's the classic unforgivable, ever-growing, debt that just appears out of nowhere usually.

UPDATE: It was brought to my attention by the beautiful Ashley that I misread the following line:

Authorities said the couple owed the woman nearly $93,000 in unpaid wages.

Pres. Bush on immigration: "I'm going to try to do better."

Bush to Try to Clarify Immigration Stance (link)
Jun 9, 10:36 AM (ET)
By SUZANNE GAMBOA

Take a breath. Rub the disbelief and sheer dumbfoundedness out of your eyes.

Okay, on with the show.

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a meeting with members of Congress, President Bush said he needs to do a better job explaining his position on immigration changes, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Wednesday.

What the heck does the POTUS have to lose now? It's not like he is depending on the Latino vote for reelection! What was it about his time as governor in the Great state of Texas (Texas rules, people) that makes immigration reform such a non-issue in a post-9/11 world? I mean, if he was governor of Maine where there are probably 23 Hispanics, that's one thing, but Texas?

"He admitted he hasn't done a very good job in being clear to the American people where he's coming from, and he's going to try to do better," said DeLay, who attended the White House session where the president discussed his legislative agenda.

In January 2004, Bush urged an overhaul of immigration policies and said he supported a temporary guest worker program. His proposal would include giving temporary legal status to undocumented immigrants already in the United States so they could work without fear of arrest or deportation.

Opponents of that idea say it amounts to amnesty for lawbreakers. Bush has said he does not support amnesty.

Asked about DeLay's comments, White House spokesman Taylor Gross said are no updates to Bush's immigration principles.

"I think the American people understand that the president is going to continue to make America a safer place," Gross said.

DeLay said immigration changes must be preceded by tougher border security and enforcement of U.S. laws.

DeLay has said people who are in the U.S. illegally should have to return to their native country before applying for a U.S. guest worker program.

Bush has proposed allowing illegal immigrants already in the country to pay a fee before participating in a guest worker program.

He has said those workers should be allowed to apply for permanent residency but should not have priority over other immigrants who have been waiting to enter the country legally.

A bill by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz. and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would allow undocumented immigrants in the country to pay a $2,000 fine before they can participate in a guest worker program.

And what's this bi-partisan garbage from McCain and Teddy K? Pay a mere $2Gs before they can "participate"???

How about repaying every single tax dollar spent on the health and social services as well as public education (among other things) that they so unlawfully enjoyed?

This is America. Unless you are a refugee or asylum-seeker, you gotta pay to play.

Mich. Chinese restaurants "employing" undocumented debt-laborers

17 Chinese Restaurants Raided in Mich. (link)
Jun 9, 5:35 PM (ET)
By JOHN FLESHER

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - Authorities raided 17 Chinese restaurants around Michigan that they suspect of ducking millions of dollars in taxes and importing undocumented workers as a "modern version of indentured servants."

Search warrants were also served at 21 homes of suspected undocumented Chinese workers. Dozens were involved in the scheme, State Police Lt. Curt Schram said.

"It cost them X number of dollars to come to this country and they're trying to work off that debt," Schram said.

Investigators believe one family or related families own the restaurants, which are mostly in the central and west-central areas of the Lower Peninsula, the statement said.

Nearly 20 workers were living in one house with "very spartan" furnishings in Grand Rapids, Schram said.

The owners are suspected of claiming only a third of their actual income and sending part of the proceeds out of the country, while shortchanging the state and federal governments of millions of dollars in sales, unemployment and use taxes, police said. About $400,000 in cash was seized.

Nine people were arrested at a Chinese buffet in Petoskey, and two people believed to be undocumented workers were charged with driver's license violations and jailed in Montcalm County. An additional 13 people were found to have deportation orders and were handed over to immigration authorities.

"It's some sort of modern version of indentured servants," Emmet County Prosecutor James Linderman said.

Belize--sentenced to death by economic strangulation?

While President Bush was giving a speech a few days ago touting the benefits of the CAFTA economic integration plan, one big (tiny) thing just nagged at me while I stared at the Central American map displayed on the TV screen... and I then read this article: Are the U.S., U.K, and Guatemala Plotting the Demise of Belize?

[...] what about Central American Integration? Aren’t we a part of this movement? Didn’t the Central American Countries express full support for the administration of Prime Minister Said Musa during the recent civil unrest? Aren’t we negotiating something called the Partial Scope Trade Agreement with Guatemala? So why is it that Belize is not part of the Central America Free Trade Association (CAFTA) that is being negotiated with the U.S.? Does the U.S. not recognize us? Hasn’t the U.S. committed to invest over $100 million for a new embassy and living quarters in Belize? Is it that the U.S. does not expect us to remain an independent country for much longer?

Moths: the new Drug War Soldja

Scientists: Insect Would Kill Coca Crops (link)
By DAN MOLINSKI, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 9, 2:11 PM ET

BOGOTA,Colombia - A group of Colombian scientists believe they've found a way to wipe out cocaine production: unleash an army of hungry moth caterpillars. But critics of the proposal say the chance for "ecological mischief" is high.

The plan envisions breeding thousands of beige-colored Eloria Noyesi moths in laboratories, packing them into boxes and releasing them into steamy coca-growing regions of Colombia, the world's main supplier of the drug. The moths, about twice the size of a fly, are native only to the Andean region of South America.

Colombian Environment Minister Sandra Suarez told The Associated Press that the government considers the proposal an "interesting alternative" to existing eradication methods.

Carlos Alberto Gomez, president of the privately funded National Network of Botanical Gardens, made the proposal last week. He said the moths would naturally make a beeline for the coca plants and lay their eggs on the leaves. About a week later, caterpillars would emerge and destroy the plants by devouring the leaves.

Each moth could lay eggs on more than a hundred plants in one month, said Gonzalo Andrade, a biology professor with Colombia's Universidad Nacional, who has been working with the botanical garden group. He called it a natural solution to eradication.

"It would be like fumigating the crops with moths," Andrade said.

But the idea has already drawn criticism.

Ricardo Vargas, director of the Colombian environmental group Andean Action, contended that while the moths may be native to this region, there's nothing natural about releasing thousands of them into small areas. The tropics have the world's most diverse plant life, he said, so the moths would likely threaten other plants as well.

"With a plan like this, the chance for ecological mischief is very high and very dangerous," Vargas said.

But hey, disrupting the natural ecological order and destroying the very lifeblood of the cocaleros...er...farmers in the region aside... just think of the billions of dollars we could devote to drug rehab facilities and meth-clinics here in the States instead of flushing it down the Andean drain.

Yea. Something like that.

Aussie Farmers struggle with drought, suicide

Drought casts suicide shadow over rural Australia (link)
By Michael Perry Mon Jun 6,12:08 PM ET

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The rate of rural suicide in Australia is among the highest in the world as farmers battle the stress of years of drought, failed crops, mounting debt and slowly decaying towns.

"Every day I look outside and I say to myself: 'I get so sick to death of blue sky'," wrote farmer Mick in a recent book, "Tough Times," in which 10 country men talk about their fight with depression and thoughts of suicide.

"I just want to see some clouds and some rain," said Mick, who has lived on a small farm all his life.

"The strain is just so constant and long and it's like someone grabbing at me by the throat and slowly choking you a bit more each day."

Cuba: Haven of freedom in an oppressive world

Cuban Brothers' Identity Switch Backfires (link)
By VANESSA ARRINGTON
Jun 7, 10:46 PM (ET)

HAVANA (AP) - Bernardo Heredia fled communist Cuba a decade ago, and this year loaned his lookalike younger brother his U.S. residency documents to help him do the same.

But what started in March as an act of familial love became a full-blown sacrifice when Cuban authorities got wise to the ploy and refused to let the elder Heredia leave the island, effectively switching the lives of two brothers.

Now, Heredia is living with his younger sibling's wife and child, plotting an ocean escape similar to the one he went through in 1994.

"This is a nightmare," Heredia, a U.S. resident who was born just 13 months earlier than his brother, said Tuesday outside his mother's small apartment in western Havana. "I feel as if I were in prison."

It began when Heredia, 42, found out his younger brother, Fidel, planned to leave Cuba by sea. Heredia vividly remembered his own hellish, seven-day journey across the Florida Straits and devised what he thought was a foolproof way to avoid it.

In Havana on a family visit, Bernardo Heredia persuaded his brother to use his U.S. residency card and Cuban passport to leave on a plane for Mexico. Fidel Heredia, who turns 41 in July, then used his own documents to cross the Mexico border into the United States as a regular Cuban migrant before working his way to his brother's home in Las Vegas.

[...]

With his own documents mailed back to him and no record of an arrival in Las Vegas, Bernardo Heredia imagined there'd be no problem flying back to the United States. But Cuban immigration officials stopped him at the Havana airport after realizing his passport had been used a few days prior.

Heredia spent 30 days in a detention center. When he was released, he said, he was told he wouldn't be leaving Cuba anytime soon.

"This is revenge," he said. "They know that to live in this country is so bad and depressing that that is the punishment. The immigration officials ... said to me: 'Your brother left, so you stay here.'"

• Filmmaker Steven Spielberg visited Cuba and met with Castro in November and dined with the dictator until the early morning hours. Spielberg announced that his dinner with Castro "was the eight most important hours of my life." ("Not the hours when he met his wife, not the birth of his children, it was the eight hours he spent with Fidel," [Michael] Medved said.)
• Jack Nicholson - "He [Castro] is a genius. We spoke about everything."
• Model Naomi Campbell declared that Castro was "a source of inspiration to the world."

  "I'm so nervous and flustered because I can't believe I have met him. He said that seeing us in person was very spiritual," Naomi Campbell recounted of her 1999 visit to Cuba with fellow model Kate Moss, according to the Toronto Star.

• Chevy Chase, at Earth Day 2000 in Washington D.C., "...socialism works" and "...Cuba might prove that. [...] I think it's conclusive that there have been areas where socialism has helped to keep people at least stabilized at a certain level."

Go ahead. ¡Te atrevo a hacerlo!

A hellish blizzard, even.

Spanish judge wants to question U.S. troops Iraq (link)
Jun 7, 2005 — By Daniel Trotta

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish judge wants to question three American soldiers as suspects in the death of a Spanish cameraman who was killed when a U.S. tank fired on a hotel housing foreign journalists during the 2003 assault on Baghdad.

The Pentagon has exonerated the U.S. soldiers from any blame, but High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz wants to question the three who were in the tank, a court official said on Tuesday.

"It would be a very, very cold day in hell before that would ever happen," said a State Department official, who asked not to be named. "I just cannot imagine how any U.S. soldier can be subject to some kind of foreign proceeding for criminal liability when he is in a tank in a war zone as part of an international coalition."

Let me repeat the wise State Department man's statement in case the world misread or possibly overlooked it:

"It would be a very, very cold day in hell before that would ever happen,"

Thank you.

That is all.

Pinochet: Wall Street Ace

Chile Court Strips Pinochet of Immunity (link)
By FEDERICO QUILODRAN, Associated Press Writer

SANTIAGO, Chile - A Chilean appeals court stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution Tuesday in a tax evasion case stemming from multimillion-dollar bank accounts the former dictator held in the United States.

The 21-4 vote to strip Pinochet of the legal immunity he enjoys as former president adds to the legal troubles of the 89-year-old general, who also faces court battles in lawsuits arising from human rights violations blamed on his 1973-1990 dictatorship.

The U.S. Senate committee report has prompted a judicial probe into the source of Pinochet's wealth. Several Pinochet spokesmen and associates have said the money is legal and the result of savings, donations and good investments.

China attempts to protect the purity of the soul...

China Orders All Web Sites to Register (link)
By ELAINE KURTENBACH, AP Business Writer

SHANGHAI, China - Authorities have ordered all China-based Web sites and blogs to register or be closed down, in the latest effort by the communist government to police the world of cyberspace.

Commercial publishers and advertisers can face fines of up to 1 million yuan ($120,000) for failing to register, according to documents posted on the Web site of the Ministry of Information Industry.

Private, noncommercial bloggers or Web sites must register the complete identity of the person responsible for the site, it said. The ministry, which has set a June 30 deadline for compliance, said 74 percent of all sites had already registered.

"The Internet has profited many people but it also has brought many problems, such as sex, violence and feudal superstitions and other harmful information that has seriously poisoned people's spirits," the MII Web site said in explaining the rules, which were quietly introduced in March.

All public media in China is controlled by the state, though limits on the Internet have tended to lag behind as advances in technology and the Web's rapid spread outstripped Beijing's ability to keep tabs on users and service providers.

[...]

The latest restrictions follow many others. Authorities have closed down thousands of Internet cafes — the main entry to the Web for many Chinese unable to afford a computer or Internet access.

They've also installed surveillance cameras and begun requiring visitors to Shanghai Internet cafes to register using their official identity cards — all in an effort to keep tabs on who's seeing and saying what online.

Communism GOOD! Ca-peet-a-lizm BAD! Ja?

Caution!

site is so ugly right now, that if ugly were a brick, my blog would be the Great Wall of China.

so backdaup, foolz.

Resignation of Lt. Pantano -- Battle stress or overzealous anger?

If you haven't heard the news on the MSM (and I doubt they coverd it), 2Lt Ilario Pantano has resigned.

Mustang 23 at Assumption of Command writes about LT. Pantano's resignation... and by George, I think he's right.

Head on over and read his two cents---I highly recommend it.

So much so, I just ended the previous sentence in a preposition (and subsequently, this one as well.)

D-DAY - Sixty-First Anniversary

May God bless each and everyone of these brave souls...

Honor our brave men, and our fallen British and Canadian brothers as well.

Though France and much of Europe may have forgotten the blood that was shed for their freedom, let us not do the same.

Remembering Ronnie - 1 Year On...

One year ago today, President Ronald Reagan went home to be with the Lord.

Remember his beloved wife and faithful companion, Nancy, in your prayers on this day.

Azerbaijan Demands Freedom

This picture says it all.

H/T: One of my new favorite bloggers, GatewayPundit.

State Department releases 2005 Human Trafficking Report

U.S.: 14 Nations Not Stopping Trafficking (link)
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON - The United States accused 14 nations Friday of failing to do enough to stop the modern-day slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers. The countries include Saudi Arabia, Washington's closest Arab ally in the war on terrorism.

Three other U.S. allies in the Middle East — Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — were newly listed this year as nations that are failing to adequately address trafficking problems. The State Department said the 14 countries could be subject to sanctions if they do not crack down.

As many as 800,000 people are bought and sold across national borders annually or lured to other countries with false promises of work or other benefits, the State Department said in its annual survey of international human trafficking. Most are women and children.

"Trafficking in human beings is nothing less than a modern form of slavery," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. "The United States has a particular duty to fight this scourge because trafficking in persons is an affront to the principles of human dignity and liberty upon which this nation was founded."

The other countries listed as poor performers in stopping trafficking are: Bolivia, Cambodia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Togo and Venezuela.

[...]

Saudi Arabia has turned a blind eye to the problem of poor or low-skilled workers brought into the country and exploited or who go there voluntarily but find themselves in "involuntary servitude," the report said.

Saudi employers physically and sexually abuse migrants from South Asia, Africa and other places, withhold pay and travel documents or use migrant children as forced beggars, the report said. Some of the migrants work as domestics in the homes of wealthy Saudis.

"The government of Saudi Arabia does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so," the 2005 Trafficking in Persons report said.

The report said the Saudis apparently prosecuted only one employer during the period covered by the report, from March 2004 to March 2005.

"We have domestic workers being brought in from many countries into domestic servitude, child beggars, a lot of beatings, reports of beatings and rape," said John R. Miller, the special ambassador for human trafficking.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington had no immediate comment on the report.

The sad thing is, 8 new nations have been added to the State Dept.'s trafficking blacklist. Four nations are Arab allied nations---Pakistan has since been removed from the list since the last report. The removal of a nation from the list does not by any means indicate the practice of human trafficking has been eliminated, rather, it means the country of interest has made significant efforts to address the issue and/or much progress has been made thus far since the last report.

The State Department has released the 2005 (June) Trafficking in Persons Report. (Note: Report is a 258 pg. PDF File)

Later this month, the Justice Department is expected to release its own report.

New Chechen Resistance Leader: No more hostage takings

Russia: New Chechen Resistance Leader Vows No More Hostake Takings
By Liz Fuller

(RFE/RL) Abdul-Khalim Sadullaev, the successor to slain Chechen President and resistance leader Aslan Maskhadov, told RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service in a 3 June interview that he strongly condemns terrorism and said it is not part of the resistance's policy.

Sadullaev also said that while the resistance will continue to try to inflict the maximum damage on the Russian armed forces and military targets, they will not attack peaceful civilians, women, and children, and will not take them hostage. Sadullaev was answering questions submitted to him by RFE/RL.

Sadullaev was virtually unknown until he was named Chechen president three months ago following Maskhadov's death. It is therefore not possible to say with any certainty whether he played any role in the Moscow theater hostage taking in October 2002 or last September's hostage taking in Beslan. Russian officials blame both Maskhadov and radical field commander Shamil Basaev for those terrorist acts.

We'll, let's just say I take your word as seriously as "President" Mahmoud "The little jihad has ended. The big jihad now begins" Abbas.

"Dirty Little Secrets"

Isreal Leaks American Secrets to China
by James Dunnigan -- Strategy Page
May 29, 2005

The U.S. is cutting off financial and technical assistance for an increasing number of weapons development projects done in cooperation with Israeli companies. These include the F-35 aircraft, the Arrow 2 anti-ballistic missile and the Tactical High Energy Laser project. The United States is not happy with the degree to which Israel is selling American military technology to China. Israel has received hundreds of billions of dollars in military aid from the United States over the years, and a lot of that was in the form of military technology that Israel was allowed to use as a basis for developing additional weapons and equipment. But Israel had to agree to safeguard the underlying American technology secrets. Israel has not been doing this with China, which is notorious for stealing technology any way it can. Israel and China say that U.S. tech is not being shipped to China. American intelligence agencies and the Pentagon say the Israelis and Chinese are lying. The Israelis admit they need the sales to China, because in a post-Cold War world, there aren’t as many customers for military technology as there used to be. Jobs, and votes for Israeli politicians, are more important than the possibility of American troops getting killed by Chinese weapons using stolen (via Israel) American technology.

"Bosnia: Videotape Appears To Show Serb Murder Of Srebrenica Victims"

A smoking gun has come to light in the case of the 10-year-old Srebrenica massacre. Serbian authorities have obtained a videotape that shows, in graphic detail, Serbian paramilitary police torturing and killing Muslim men at Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina in July 1995. Serbian security forces killed more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in that massacre, which is said to be the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. But many Serbs deny the event took place, or claim that the perpetrators were Bosnian Serbs, not Serbian nationals. The videotape shows the faces of some of the killers, and Serbia's prime minister says that some already have been arrested.

Prague, 3 June 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Srebrenica: the eastern Bosnia town's name has festered like a sore for nearly 10 years.

It was the second week of July 1995. War raged in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bosnian Serb Army chief Ratko Mladic led a powerful Serbian advance. An estimated 30,000 terrified Muslims took welcome refuge in and around the enclave of Srebrenica, which the United Nations had declared a safe area. It was protected by Dutch troops wearing the blue helmets of UN peacekeepers.

But the peacekeepers, hopelessly outnumbered and without the mandate or means to resist, in the end did little to prevent the Serbs from taking away thousands of Muslim men and boys from outside the enclave.

On 11 July, Mladic's forces entered the enclave itself. They methodically sorted the Muslim men and boys from the rest and took them away. The world learned later that Mladic's forces had massacred up to 7,000 people in the incident.

Read the whole thing.

Ben Stein: Deep Throat and Genocide

Deep Throat and Genocide
By Ben Stein
Published 6/1/2005 12:22:42 AM (The American Spectator)
Re: The "news" that former FBI agent Mark Felt broke the law, broke his code of ethics, broke his oath and was the main source for Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's articles that helped depose Richard Nixon, a few thoughts.

Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POW's, ended the war in the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel's life, started the Environmental Protection Administration. Does anyone remember what he did that was bad?

Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied. How remarkable. He lied to protect his subordinates who were covering up a ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose. He lied so he could stay in office and keep his agenda of peace going. That was his crime. He was a peacemaker and he wanted to make a world where there was a generation of peace. And he succeeded.

That is his legacy. He was a peacemaker. He was a lying, conniving, covering up peacemaker. He was not a lying, conniving drug addict like JFK, a lying, conniving war starter like LBJ, a lying, conniving seducer like Clinton -- a lying, conniving peacemaker. That is Nixon's kharma.

Read it all.

UPDATE: Ben's just getting started...

Have you noticed how Mark Felt looks like one of those old Nazi war criminals they find in Bolivia or Paraguay? That same, haunted, hunted look combined with a glee at what he has managed to get away with so far?

"State governor upset U.S. anthem not played"

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (AP) - U.S. and international soccer officials are puzzled over the acting New Jersey governor's outrage that the American national anthem was not played before a friendly between England and Colombia.

Acting Governor Richard J. Codey, who attended Tuesday's match at Giants Stadium, was steamed when he realized that the "Star-Spangled Banner" would not be played along with the anthems of the countries in the match.

He said he immediately asked game organizers why it wasn't played and was told, "Governor, we're really very sorry. The British people don't want to hear it," The Star-Ledger of Newark reported in Thursday's newspapers.

The governor fired off letters to the chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which manages Giants Stadium, and to Britain's ambassador to the U.S.

"The failure to play our national anthem was disrespectful not only to us as a the host, it was disrespectful to our country, the teams, the sport and all involved. This shouldn't happen in New Jersey, and it shouldn't happen anywhere," Codey wrote.

George Zoffinger, chief executive of the sports authority, said not playing the U.S. anthem before an event at the complex is a violation of the authority's policy.

However, playing only the anthems of the two teams competing in a soccer match is standard for such international games, including the World Cup.

"Part of it (anthems) is for the introduction of those players in the match," said FIFA spokesman John Schumacher. "The match protocol is only the two teams."

Jim Moorhouse of Chicago-based U.S. Soccer, concurred.

"The normal international protocol would be (to play the anthems of) the two nations that are playing," Moorhouse said. "There are lots of international games played on neutral sites all over the world."

I don't care what the "internatioanl protocol" would be--it's disrespectful and not to mention a violation of the sports complex's policy.

It's a good thing I played football for 10 years and I'm not one of those soccer bashing ignoramuses because I'd sure have a few choice words to say about FIFA's "international protocol".

Wi-Fi Congregation

Prayers are answered for distracted congregation

LONDON (Reuters) - British telecoms operator BT Group Plc has wired up a church in Wales to allow the congregation to hook onto local high-speed Internet connections when they want a break from the sermon. Britain's largest fixed-line telecoms operator said on Tuesday it had installed a Wi-Fi wireless network access point, known as a hotspot, in Reverend Keith Kimber's St John's Rectory church in the city of Cardiff.

"The church has to move with the times and I wanted to make St John's a sanctuary for everyone, including business people with laptops and mobiles," Kimber said in a statement issued by BT. "I have no problem with people quietly sending an email or surfing the Internet in church, as long as they respect the church."

Absolutely disgraceful and I would not tolerate such activity in my church anymore than the Lord would!

Chechen Terrorist Trial Continues...

Plus,

GP has got it all covered today, and it's a good thing because I don't even want to touch this story---

I'm still sick about it from last year.

Murderous Chechen bastard Kulayev begins trial

The lone terrorist survivor took the stand at the Beslan School Massacre Trial in North Ossetia today. Kulayev is the only surviving terrorist from the bloody and violent conclusion of the grade school massacre in Russia. In his defense testimony, Nur-pashi Kulayev is attempting to put blame on the Russian authorities and the dead terrorists...

Gateway Pundit has extensive coverage.