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As ALL combat brigades left Iraq and moved into Kuwait this week, the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division stays in Iraq - with a newly named Brigade - now known as the Advise and Assist Brigade. Their mission: to conduct security force assistance.
Julian Assange, the Wikileaks editor-in-chief, says he has been warned by sources inside the U.S. government that he may be detained or arrested if he returns to the U.S. The Drudge Report headline saying the source is from the White House is taken from a Telegraph headline - but there is nothing in the Telegraph article claiming the White House is involved. PFC Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, is under arrest for funneling the classified information to Wikileaks. Assange also says the U.S. is trying to "hide" Manning from effective civil representation in a secret Kuwait jail which is "a second Guantanamo Bay."
The 39 year-old told journalists at the Frontline Club last night that US government insiders had informed him about discussions to charge him as a co-conspirator to espionage.An Australian, Julian Assange, takes classified intelligence documents from a disgruntled member of the U.S. Military and is warned by our own government that he should not enter the U.S. I have to ask what is happening to our Military? They can't keep a PFC in line? Why did a PFC have access to classified documents, or at least the ability to retrieve them? And what is the real story? Are White House sources in touch with Assange or the State Department...what's up the Telegraph's headline?
Magdi Khalil is an Eqyptian-American writer and Abdallah al-Hadlaq is a Kuwaiti journalist. On Al Jazeera TV Khalil blamed increased hostility toward Israel on Western anarchists and said Arab discourse has fueled "illusions and hatred." Abdallah al-Hadlaq, a Kuwaiti journalist writing in Al-Watan, supported Israel's stopping of the terror flotilla. Both men maintain that it was well-know the flotilla was not peaceful.
Magdi Khalil: Whenever there is an incident, Israel does 'damage control.' This is part of the Israeli defense tactics. These are successful people, not like Ahmadinejad, who said that Security Council Resolution 1929 should be thrown into the garbage bin. They deal with things seriously. These people know the meaning of world opinion.
Magdi Khalil: The Islamists, along with the leftist anarchists in the West and some neo-Nazis, have renewed the hostility towards Israel and the West.
Hadlaq explains that there is a "terrible silence, lack of consideration, and indifference that has overcome the world…with regard to more important and more valuable [issues] that merit attention far more than this murky piece of land called the Gaza Strip."Iran is specifically pointed out by Abdallah. Read the story at Investigative Project on Terrorism and The Elder of Ziyon.
However these allegations are to be rejected because the IDF has proved that its troops follow international law and obey orders despite the stress of battle. These testimonies lack sourcing or corroboration, thus preventing any conclusions from being drawn... Furthermore, it was the ostracized Hamas that caused much grief when it fired dozens of Qassam missiles at innocent civilians in the southern towns and villages of Israel. The IDF had no choice but to fight back causing the deaths of 1400 Palestinians, half of them civilians used as human shields by Hamas, in addition to the 5,000 wounded. Israel lost just 10 soldiers and 3 civilians.I find this very encouraging, and hope these two men can live their lives to a ripe old ages, but I can hear the fatwas now.
Colonel Allen B. West (R-FL) is running for a seat in the People's House from Florida's 22nd district which includes Palm Beach. West has announced that he has received the endorsement of former Governor Sarah Palin. See a video below.
FrontPage Magazine’s Man of the Year has shown true courage, compassion and heroism in the face of battle – and unlike the worthies named above, he has suffered for his good deeds rather than received commendation. He has been on the frontlines of the War on Terror in the heart of the Iraqi resistance. He undertook extraordinary measures to safeguard the lives of his men, to protect Americans under attack by bloodthirsty Islamist gangleaders. Yet instead of reward he has been tested by fire, having been dishonored by the very military he served so effectively for the last 20 years of his life. This irresponsible punishing of someone who should be awarded for his bravery and patriotism endangers the American people. For that reason, we seek to honor Col. Allen B. West.
Colonel West earned the disdain of leftist intellectuals and the rebuke of the United States armed forces for protecting the lives of his troops. West commanded the 4th Infantry Division, 2nd Battalion, 20th Field Artillery Regiment, near Tikrit. In the days following the toppling of Saddam’s regime and preceding the dictator’s capture in a filthy desert hole, West was responsible for the lives and safety of 700 men and women who had spent a cautious summer sweltering in the crosshairs of Sunni Triangle terrorists.As we near the elections, we are certain to hear the Left attack Col. West for protecting his own men in Iraq. What happened to the Colonel is unthinkable, yet it happened. This is the real story:
In late August, Colonel West received news that his men had been targeted by a group of thugs associated with an Iraqi policeman named Yahya Jhodri Hamoodi. Allied forces quickly apprehended Hamoodi in Saba al Boor, a tiny town near Tikrit. Four interrogation specialists worked late into the evening of August 20, desperately trying to pry the attack plans out of him. Growing frustrated, the interrogators resorted to physical force, punching Hamoodi – without success. (Hamoodi was not seriously injured at any point during the interrogation.) It was then that Col. Allen West intervened.
Seeing that even physical violence had proven ineffective, Colonel West took the next logical step: He took the intransigent suspect outside, shoved Hamoodi’s head into a sandbox and threatened to kill him. The Colonel then pulled out his sidearm and fired a warning shot into the sky. Then West carefully held Hamoodi’s head aside as he fired a shot over Hamoodi’s shoulder, into the warm Iraqi sand burying his visage.
That near-scrape with death did the trick. Hamoodi began singing, telling West the identities of two men planning the attacks and revealing their attack plans, including the site of the intended ambush. The two men were arrested, and Colonel West ordered his men away from the site as they continued to serve the liberated Iraqi people. Upon turning Hamoodi over, he admitted his unorthodox tactics. For protecting the 700 soldiers in his care and cracking Hamoodi where professional interrogators had failed, Colonel West was immediately stripped of his command and threatened with jail time.
In October, the armed forces offered Colonel West an ultimatum: resign the military and lose his pension and benefits, or face trial for violating standard interrogation procedure. If convicted, West could have received up to eight years in jail – for saving his men’s lives. On the other hand, West, who had just qualified to retire with 20 years service, needed his benefits to care for his wife, Angela, a cancer victim.
West chose to make his case to his military colleagues. Publicly choking back tears, West acknowledged his actions in interrogating Hamoodi; he merely denied that what he had done was criminal, knowing his troops had been targeted for extermination in the midst of a war. His great heart showed during his trial, as he said, "If it's about the lives of my men and their safety, I'd go through Hell with a gasoline can . . . There is not a person in this room I would not sacrifice my life for."
On December 11, West escaped court martial. Major General Raymond Odierno ordered West to pay a $5,000 fine and allowed him to retire as a Lieutenant Colonel. The ordeal caused by his desire to save his troops a violent death in a desert land had finally ended. He was free to return to Ft. Hood, Texas, to his wife Angela, with his reputation essentially cleared.I hope you will read the FrontPageMag article linked above. There is much about the Colonel that we need to know as the election nears.
This story will not open. The message "Server too Busy" keeps popping up. Run over to Atlas Shrugs to read the latest stunt by Achmadinejad. But come back and read about the beefing-up of Patriot missiles and warships in the Gulf and in Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE and Kuwait. It's happening now! Obama Iranian Diplomacy Fails: Missiles and Warships to Gulf.
