This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Hondo

  • Holocaust Denial: Not Just for Iran Any More

    Remember when the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, caused an outcry by publicly denying the Holocaust a few years ago?  You know, when he claimed the Holocaust never happened?  And claimed to be proud of making that ridiculous statement?

    Well, Ahmadinejad now has some help in spouting this ridiculous BS.  And it’s high-level help, as in a senior member of another Islamic nation’s government.

    That company comes in the person of Fathi Shihab-Eddim, a senior official close to Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi.  Shibab-Eddim was recently quoted as saying that the Holocaust was a hoax perpetrated by US intelligence agencies.  He further claims the 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust simply moved to the US, and that the true number killed was about the same as the number who died in traffic accidents.

    Seriously.  That’s really what Shibab-Eddim claimed.

    Shihab-Eddim also happens to be the individual who appoints editors for Egypt’s state-run newspapers.  So I guess we won’t be seeing many accurate accounts of the Holocaust in Egyptian newspapers or media any time soon.

    This should be no surprise, though.  The Muslim Brotherhood – with which both Morsi and Shibab-Eddim are affiliated – and other Islamist organizations have a long history of anti-Semitism.  In 2010, Morsi opined that Jews were “the descendants of apes and pigs”.  (Though Morsi claims these words were “taken out of context”, research indicates he’d made numerous similar statements before coming to power in Egypt.)  It’s only a small step from there to outright Holocaust denial.

    And remember: these are the same folks to whom the current Administration is sending massive amounts of US aid – including 20 F16s and 200 M1 tanks.

    Yeah, supporting those Arab Spring uprisings is really starting to look like a great idea, isn’t it?

  • Farewell, Guardian – We Hardley Knew Ye

    Well, it appears the Navy has decided what it will do with the USS Guardian.  The plan is for the ship to be cut into sections and lifted off the Tubbataha Reef in pieces.

    After almost two weeks grounded, the ship is now so badly damaged that it apparently cannot be towed off the reef.  Plus, sectioning the ship and removing each segment individually will cause less environmental damage to the protected reef areas.

    Given the fact that the USS Guardian has a wood and fiberglass hull, I’d guess this is likely the end for her.

    If this proves accurate, I really would not want to be part of the leadership of that ship’s crew, or to have been on watch at the time of this incident.  Even though the charts in use were wrong, the Navy still takes great umbrage when someone causes the unnecessary loss of a ship.

    Just ask the ex-commander of the USS San Francisco how that goes.  The USS San Francisco, an attack sub, struck an uncharted undersea mountain several years ago; that sub wasn’t a permanent loss, either.  But the CO’s career was – along with the careers of six other members of the crew.

    Thanks to Mustang for the link.

  • Maybe There’s Hope After All

    You see so much stupid stuff going on every day.  It sometimes seems as if everything around us is going to hell in the proverbial hand basket – pronto.

    Then you see something like this.  And you realize that maybe – just maybe – there is still hope.

    If there’s a Mellow Mushroom Pizza in your area, it’s worth giving them some business.  They damn sure seem to have their heads screwed on straight.

    Hat tip to Rob at Ranger-Up for making these folks his Hero of the Week this week – I’d missed this story when it came out, but saw it there this afternoon.  I hope he doesn’t mind me helping him spread the word.

  • Another Anti-Gun Overreaction

    Seems a young man in Ohio was recently arrested for a photo posted on Facebook.

    The photo showed him holding his 1-year-old daughter and a “scary” gun at the same time.

    Allegedly, the baby’s grandmother got wind of the photo and alerted authorities.  The local police came and arrested the guy – for child endangerment.

    This appears to be the photo.  Note  that the “scary” gun is (1) not pointed at the child, (2) is pointed away from both child and father, and (3) there’s no finger on the trigger.  Frankly, I don’t see any evidence of  “endangerment” in the photo.  Stupidity, poor judgement, perhaps – but not endangerment.

    It gets even better.  It turns out the gun in question was a freaking BB-gun.

    Yes, that’s right:  the cops actually went to a guy’s house and arrested him over a picture of him holding his child and a toy at the same time.  Why?  Because that “toy” looked like one of those “scary” guns.  I wonder if they’d have arrested him if it had been a plastic sword or a hammer?  Both of those can be lethal to a small child.

    I don’t fault the cops for checking into this once it was reported.  And yeah – the guy should have probably put the BB pistol down for the picture.

    But an arrest for “child endangerment”?  Give me a freaking break.  A quick interview and a look at the “scary gun” involved – plus a dose of common sense – was what was called for here.  Not an arrest for what was obviously a non-crime.

    Normally, we talk about “stupid criminal tricks”.  Well, maybe we should file this one under “stupid cop tricks.”

    I wonder if any conservative lawyers in Ohio might have time for a bit of pro bono work.  Based on the photo and other facts reported so far, IMO it’s at least possible there might be a wrongful arrest suit in there somewhere.

     

    Correction:  the original version of this story indicated that the ex-wife was the individual who alerted authorities.  In fact, it appears she showed the picture to her mother – the baby’s grandmother – who is the one who actually alerted local authorities.

  • ND:tBF OKs Another Temper Tantrum

    Last week, Jonn wrote about North Korea’s apparent decision to hold another nuclear test in spite of near-universal international opposition.  They’re also planning to “target” the US with these nukes they’re developing.

    Well, looks like the test part is really gonna happen.  Their still-wet-behind-the-ears “fearless leader”, Kim Jong-Un – AKA ND:tBF here at TAH – has apparently approved it.  Today, North Korea’s state media reports that ND:tBF told senior security officials to take “substantial and high-profile important state measures.”

    They can’t adequately feed their own people, or even produce much electricity.  But boy – they sure do love to spend money on those rockets and “big bang-bang” toys, don’t they?

    I only hope that when this last vestige of Stalinism finally collapses under its own weight the result will be more like Germany than Yugoslavia.

  • Kiriakou Gets 30 Months

    John Kiriakou, ex-CIA employee, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.  His crime?  Violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA).  This act was passed in reaction to the outing of Athens CIA Station Chief Richard Welch in 1975 – and whose exposure is believed to have contributed to his murder later that year.

    Kiriakou was the first individual ever convicted for violating the IIPA.  Although allegations were made against various parties regarding the Plame non-outing, no one was convicted of an IIPA violation in that case.  (Libby’s conviction in conjunction with the Plame investigation was not for a violation of the IIPA or for the disclosure of any classified information.  Hell, it appears that if anyone “outed” Plame – who was working openly at CIA HQ at the time of her alleged “outing” – it was her own husband Joe Wilson.  While Wilson was writing op-eds and doing the talk show circuit to undercut the Bush administration and curry favor with the Kerry campaign in early and mid 2003, he was apparently also telling pretty much anyone who would listen that his wife worked for the CIA for weeks before that fact was publicized by Novak.)

    However, unlike the Plame case, someone working undercover actually was exposed by Kiriakou,  Or to be more accurate:  it appears a number of persons working covertly for the CIA were outed by Kiriakou.  He gave the identities of at least 2 CIA agents whose identities were protected under the IIPA to members of the press. Prosecutors say evidence collected during the case indicates Kiriakou likely divulged the identities of “dozens” of personnel working for the agency.

    The sentence of 30 months was agreed to in a plea bargain, in which Kiriakou admitted to identifying one CIA operative whose identity and covert employment by the CIA was covered under the IIPA.  Not all persons working for the CIA are covered by the IIPA, but at least some of those individuals exposed by Kiriakou were.

    Why haven’t we heard a great “hue and cry” from the media about Kiriakou, like we did virtually nonstop about the Plame non-outing years ago?  Well, I can’t say for sure – but I have my own opinion.  Kiriakou also made public the details of al Zubaida’s enhanced interrogation, including the fact that he’d been waterboarded.  When Kiriakou did that, the political left and media lapped it up like cats drinking milk – just like they did the bogus allegations that Plame was intentionally exposed by the Bush administration.

    Predictably, Kiriakou sought to portray himself as a “whistleblower” exposing government wrongdoing.  While reluctantly accepting the plea bargain, the judge emphatically rejected Kiriakou’s claim to be any kind of whistleblower.  Instead, the judge said:  “This is a case of a man who betrayed a solemn trust” and added later that she felt the 30-month sentence in the plea bargain was “way too light”.

    Why would Kiriakou sell out his brothers and sisters still working at the CIA?  Like the prosecution, my guess would be cold hard cash.  Specifically:  he did it to get publicity and increase his chances of getting consulting work.  The consulting work would put money in his pocket; both consulting and publicity would help sell the book he was writing about his 14 years with the CIA (1990-2004).  Money talks – so Kiriakou did, too.

    In a perfect world, Kiriakou’s cellmate will be about 6’4”, weigh about 230 lbs, and will have lost a buddy on 9/11 or to the Taliban.  IMO the judge was right – this asshole deserves way more than 30 months.

    Hope you enjoy your stay at the crossbar hotel, Johnny-boy.

  • Memory Lane: R&R Fun With MAC and SATO

    One of the “bennies” you get while deployed to an existing, established theater  is something called “R&R Leave”.   Vietnam had it; so did today’s GWOT.  Formally, it’s “Rest and Recuperation Leave”.  I’ll spare everyone the older, very politically-incorrect “informal” names.  (smile)

    Today’s rules may be a bit different than the Vietnam era.  So for the benefit of those who’re unfamiliar with today’s policies and rules I thought I’d write this to describe those policies, circa late 2007.  I’m pretty sure the policies and procedures are pretty much the same today.

    And they’re indeed a sterling example military bureaucracy at its finest.  (smile)

    The bennies associated with R&R in 2007 – and, presumably, today – were twofold.  It wasn’t a complete “freebie”; you did have to use accrued (or advanced) leave.  However, the US Government paid for your round-trip transportation to your R&R leave destination.  You could go to Australia or Spain if you wanted to (I know folks who went to each location on R&R).  But Uncle Sam only paid for your ticket; if others joined you there, that was on your nickel. (My spouse and I met in Munich and spent my R&R at the Eidelweiss AFRC in Garmish.)

    The second bennie was that only the time spent at your R&R location was counted as leave.  Travel time to/from that destination was not.  The net result is that you got to spend all of your leave time at your R&R destination.

    Of course, some would say that the simple fact that you’re allowed to spend some time outside of a combat zone is a third bennie in its own right.  To some extent they have a point – but that’s not entirely an unalloyed good thing.  Some folks found coming back in-theater rougher than deploying in the first place.

    Did I mention that this is all governed by numerous rules, regulations, policies and the like?  Leave it to military bureaucracy to make something like going on R&R just “oh so much fun”, and damn near more trouble than it was worth.

    (more…)

  • A Small Victory

    Chalk up another small victory in the GWOT.  The #2 guy for al-Qaeda in Yemen, Saeed al-Shihri, has apparently died of wounds received in a US missile attack in Yemen in October 2012.  He had been in a coma since.  The precise date of his death was not given.

    al-Shihri was a Saudi native.  He spent 6 years at GITMO.  He was released back to Saudi authorities and processed through the Saudi government’s “rehabilitation” program.  Shortly afterward completing that program, he went to Yemen and rejoined al-Qaeda.  He became the al-Qaeda deputy there.

    Obviously the “rehabilitation” program didn’t “take”.  Surprise, surprise.

    al-Shihri had previously erroneously been reported dead as the result of a September 2012 missile attack (later DNA testing on the body recovered proved it was not al-Shihri).  al-Shihri afterwards taunted Yemeni authorities over that misidentification.  In an audio message posted by jihadi websites on October 22, 2012, he castigated Yemeni authorities for falsely announcing the “rumor about my death … as though the killing of the mujahideen (holy warriors) by America is a victory to Islam and Muslims.”

    The strike that led to his death happened six days later.   Maybe he should have kept his mouth shut.

    May Shaytan take him, and may all his 72 virgins look thusly.