Once upon a time in America – during the Cold War we took national security and America’s interest/survival seriously. In some ways, depending upon which political group one talks to, regard our intelligence and allied intelligence agencies a vital tool for knowledge of what the other side is doing. As a reader once commented, once we knew WHO the enemy actually was/is. The enemy military wore uniforms, swore allegiance to their national flag, et cetera. Today, the enemy could be a civilian mingled in the crowd with enough explosives wrapped around him (or her) to kill many people and do costly damage to a shopping mall, a public bus service, or whatever. The enemy speaks words of truce and negotiation, and then lobs mortars and hand-held missile-firing devices at a school bus full of children. And this same enemy’s leadership and propaganda cadre will cry out words like oppression and blame us and our allies for acts of self defense and counterattack operations are initiated and acted upon. The “soldiers” of this enemy actually believe that glory and honor await them after death for committing acts of atrocity and murder against fellow human beings in the name of their twisted idea of one of the major religions of the world – and in some parts of the world – fast growing in membership (overall statistic of the religion of Islam).
Now to the gist of the story – The New York Times did it again. Under the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt – these people would be arrested for treason; however, remember that this global war we and the UK, as well as other allies of the coalition against is like nothing we have fought before. It is not just one despotic tyrant, but several – some national leaders, others leaders of the largest organized terrorist groups the world has ever known. As I pointed out several times, the beginning of this mess was started by the former Soviet Union who actually had schools – universities – that taught subversion and terrorist tactics to people sent from communist-controlled or communist sympathizing countries during the Cold War mentioned above, thus creating a monster they no longer could control and at the same time providing them knowledge and training that they soon passed on in their own form of terrorist schools.
The matter with Israel has been going on when the Jews who had just escaped or released from concentration camps and hiding places in Europe decided that they had their fill of wandering the Earth and experiencing anti-Semitic people who at first welcomed them, and then committed physical, mental and social acts of violence and aggression against them. They wanted their ancient homeland back – the first thought being Palestine, and these people became known as Zionists.
In the New York Times, Scott Shave wrote: Inside a 9/11 Mastermind’s Interrogation …
In a makeshift prison in the north of Poland, Al Qaeda’s engineer of mass murder faced off against his Central Intelligence Agency interrogator. It was 18 months after the 9/11 attacks, and the invasion of Iraq was giving Muslim extremists new motives for havoc. If anyone knew about the next plot, it was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
The interrogator, [DM], a soft-spoken analyst who spoke no Arabic, had turned down a C.I.A. offer to be trained in waterboarding. He chose to leave the infliction of pain and panic to others, the gung-ho paramilitary types whom the more cerebral interrogators called “knuckledraggers.”
… came in after the rough stuff, the ultimate good cop with the classic skills: an unimposing presence, inexhaustible patience and a willingness to listen to the gripes and musings of a pitiless killer in rambling, imperfect English. He achieved a rapport with Mr. Mohammed that astonished his fellow C.I.A. officers. …
The story of Mr. [M’s] role in the C.I.A.’s interrogation program, including his contribution to the first capture of a major figure in Al Qaeda, provides the closest look to date beneath the blanket of secrecy that hides the program from terrorists and from critics who accuse the agency of torture. … A paramilitary team put on the pressure, using cold temperatures, sleeplessness, pain and fear to force a prisoner to talk. When the prisoner signaled assent, the tormenters stepped aside. After a break that could be a day or even longer, Mr. Martinez or another interrogator took up the questioning. Mr. [M’s] success at building a rapport with the most ruthless of terrorists goes to the heart of the interrogation debate. Did it suggest that traditional methods alone might have obtained the same information or more? Or did Mr. Mohammed talk so expansively because he feared more of the brutal treatment he had already endured? A definitive answer is unlikely under the Bush administration, which has insisted in court that not a single page of 7,000 documents on the program can be made public. The C.I.A. declined to provide information for this article, in part, a spokesman said, because the agency did not want to interfere with the military trials planned for Mr. Mohammed and four other Qaeda suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The two dozen current and former American and foreign intelligence officials interviewed for this article offered a tantalizing but incomplete description of the C.I.A. detention program. Most would speak of the highly classified program only on the condition of anonymity. …
The point here is not the fact that the New York Times investigated a possible wrong doing or violation of laws, which is perfectly acceptable if taken to the proper authorities – but they are always about sensationalism – not objective news or even the truth. This matter should have been taken to the security commission within Congress’s myriad of committees, this one in particular cleared for viewing classified documents. The article doesn’t mention why the documents were refused to be seen in public – it just implies the usual Bush hatred rhetoric that this media entity that calls itself a “news” paper. By law the people behind this, including the editor of this newspaper should be charged and tried for treason. We are at war, and just because the New York Times doesn’t take that seriously and other entities like it – doesn’t mean that this war is ongoing. It was requested by President GW Bush and approved by Congress – the procedures required by the Constitution.
For decades now, the media has abused the precious right of freedom of speech and freedom of press, as well as the important Freedom of Information Act. If there is indeed discretion in these acts of interrogating, it is the responsibility of security clearance approved members of Congress to determine this – and then turning it over to the agency that arrests these people with charges and a trial set. It is not the responsibility or the business to be revealing names of an enemy that has infiltrated America and has operatives right here among us. In effect, this CIA person or persons who addressed this issue can very easily be put on a hit list – meaning their lives are in danger. Or, as the enemy has shown its resourcefulness in propaganda and matters such as this – they can use the New York Times to declare overall wrong doing of the United States of America – which is pathetic considering that members of their organizations have beheaded civilians, and in one case one of their own reporters from among the media. No outcry about those numerous atrocities and the daily murder and mayhem they create killing en masse’. No, what we read is about individuals in a massive organization of fact finding, security measures and important information that the President of the United States and the military require in order to determine strategy and action taken, if any needed, who are violating the rules of the Geneva Convention concerning prisoners of war. And that is another thing – the media and the political left, as well as those in the judiciary who do not go by Constitutional law and the matters at hand, but instead listen to foreign judiciaries or read about their procedures, as well as politically motivated associates in rendering their decisions.
Terrorists captured ARE prisoners of war – the Congress approved war that is against all Jihadists, terrorists, Islamic fascist organizations and the other names that folks have come up with for description. Instead, they expect them to be treated as common criminals and taken to a normal civilian court system, which we all know has the mind set that the prisoner of war has rights guaranteed for US citizens. These are prisoners of war, plain and simple, and if there are any charges to be brought concerning crimes against humanity, it requires a trial, like Saddam Hussein received. Otherwise, according to history and the rules of war – those “soldiers” are kept until: (a) the war ends or (b) there is arranged for prisoner exchange. Thus far there is no prisoner exchange in this war, because unlike the United States, the basic custom is to place them in a military confinement facility for an undetermined length of time. How long? That is up to the enemy. They started this in the 1990s, and the last straw occurred on September 11th, 2001 – which required the United States to declare war against all organization of terror and with reciprocation against those rogue nations who support or utilize these barbarians for their own twisted purposes.
Someone once said, and it wasn’t originally President Bush – “You’re either with us or against us.” Except for neutral nations, in war, individuals are either patriots or traitors.
New York Times, time and again over the past eight years has been no benefit in the goal of American foreign policy – their leftist political affiliation is more important than national security, as well as their greed for news that makes them money (which is why they are in business, but there are ethics in the field of journalism, believe it or not) and the New York Times has lost it a long time ago.
And in related news or rather a personal interest story that shows the difference between what is really happening (in the big picture snapshot which really matters when it comes to war) is something that Donald Farr, Friend of LPJ received from a friend’s son who is serving in Iraq – a sort of news from the front sort of report …
Hello Everybody,
Since returning from mid-tour leave in February, five (5) Iraqi Army
Infantry Brigade’s (2438 personnel/BDE) 11 Iraqi Army Infantry
Battalions (750 personnel/Battalion) and one (1) Engineering
Infrastructure Battalion (897-personnel) have completed force generation
(basic training, military schools, leadership courses and unit set
fielding) . Unit set fielding is the final step in the force generation
process. This is when the units are issued their equipment such as
trucks, trailers, weapons, ammunition and other equipment authorized by their table of organization and equipment structure and concludes force generation. Soldiers conduct individual weapons training, Close Quarters Combat (/CQC/ – procedures for safely entering and clearing a building of suspected insurgents), and Entry Control Point (/ECP/ – establish and conduct controlled entry into an area) training. Select soldiers receive additional training in operating a vehicle, equipment maintenance, using communications equipment and Combat Life Savers (/first aid/) training. At the conclusion of 21 training days, a senior government or military official presides over an elaborate graduation ceremony followed by the unit departing to occupy their assigned battle space or area of operations throughout Iraq.
The Iraqi Army continues to train soldiers at an incredible rate,
graduating approximately 14,000 soldiers from basic combat training
every seven (7) weeks. Some are assigned to the units in force
generation, others are assigned as replenishment personnel to divisions
throughout Iraq and yet others attend a Military Occupations School
Qualification (/MOSQ/) (clerk, supply, armorer, mechanic, cook,
icemaker, or other specialty course) before being assigned to a unit.
Soldiers attend Basic Combat Training and MOSQ at one of eight possible
training centers scattered in Iraq from north to south. Basic Combat
Training and MOSQ training are each five weeks in duration.
Recently, I had an opportunity to lead a delegation of six (6) Officers
and Non-commissioned officers to Kurdistan to meet with civilian and
military leadership from the Peshmergan Army. We also toured military
schools and training sites, to determine the potential to increase
capacity, review curriculum, develop training areas with small arms
ranges and establish logistic bases throughout Kurdistan region. You may
recall it was the Kurdish people and this region of Iraq, which was
persecuted by Saddam’s regime using military force and chemical warfare.
Evidence is still visible by the signs and markers outlining minefields
still emplaced waiting to be cleared. I found the Kurdish people very
appreciative of their newfound freedom from Saddam’s tyranny. Our group was welcomed and thanked many, many times by the people we met. During an evening tour in Sulaymaniah, our escort officer took us to a park in the downtown area where we observed people enjoying picnics, children playing, a soccer match being played and people dancing. This same park was the spot of a notorious infamous military base in which many people were buried alive. [Tell me again that we shouldn't have toppled Saddam and invade to free the Iraq people] In 1963, the Baath regime imposed a curfew on the city and arrested a number of people and executed many of them and placed them in a mass grave at this site.
In April, many of the soldiers I had been working with since arriving in
July rotated back to the U.S. These “Great Americans” finished their
yearlong deployment and returned back to their families and civilian
lives. Most were serving in the United States Army Reserves from
California, Washington and Oregon. All of them deserve a big thank-you
for what they did to set the conditions for the current great things
happening in Iraq today. These “Great Americans” were replaced by more
“Great Americans” serving in United States Army Reserve units from the
Midwest and South East. Everyone conducted a left seat/right seat ride
with their predecessor and is now doing the job without missing a beat.
An amazing feat – difficult in a peacetime office environment but an
extraordinary accomplishment in combat at the operational tempo we
experience day-to-day.
In just the past few months, Iraqi Security Forces have conducted
successful military operations in Basra, Sadr City and Mosul. All these
cities and surrounding areas were overrun and controlled by insurgents.
Today, residents of these cities are able to go to markets to buy fresh
produce, children attend school and although life is not exactly trouble
free, their quality of life is a great deal better. It was not uncommon
to learn rockets that were launched into the International Zone,
originated in Sadr City with a population of over 2.5 million people.
The insurgents would launch their rockets or mortars and scurry to hide
in a Mosque, school or hospital. The Iraqi Army is now discovering
stockpiles of caches hidden in Mosques, schools and hospital, because
the insurgents knew, these areas were free from attack by Coalition Forces.
The Iraqi Army is demonstrating their ability to engage and to
decisively defeat the insurgents and the soldiers are gaining confidence
in their own ability to plan and conduct combat operations. The “Troop
Surge” provided the time required to train and equip an effective Iraqi
Army force.
In closing, I will re-deploy to Fort Benning, GA sometime in mid to late
June, departing Baghdad on 16 June. Depending on the speed for which the
Army will release me, I expect to return back to Illinois around early
to mid July. Thank you all for your continued prayers for my family and
all of us serving.
Dan
Phoenix Base
Baghdad, Iraq
No further words, the letter speaks for itself – and here at LP Journal, we pray that the mission will succeed soon and the troops can be back home safely – and thanks for all that you and your fellow troops do to make this possible. Hang in there – the New York Times and all the media that represents them or like them – are not what America feels about your dedication in winning against the Jihadists and helping the Iraqi achieve a better, more free life.
Thanks, Don for your valued input and information.
KAL
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