The Political Conundrum!

Originaly Published as "Mumbai Terror Investigation Leads to Pakistan’s “Epicenter of Terrorism” in Terrorism Focus (Jamestown Foundation), Vol. 5 (42), December 12, 2008.

………The probe so far has pointed to four LeT operatives. The “masterminds” are identified as Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, who was seized by Pakistani police after a raid on a LeT camp in Kashmir, and Yusuf Muzammil, whose current whereabouts are unknown. Based on the results of police interrogations, two individuals identified as Abu Hamza and Khafa have been named as trainers who provided maritime lessons and training in the handling of explosives and weapons (Times of India, December 6; Daily Times [Lahore], December 12). According to Rakesh Maria, the Joint Commissioner of Police and a lead investigator in the Mumbai attacks, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD, a charity and front organization for LeT) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was also involved with Lakhvi, Hamza and Kahfa in the Mumbai plot, from planning to execution (Press Trust of India, December 10). Earlier, government sources claimed that the investigators had “incontrovertible proof” of the names of the ISI handlers and trainers and the locations in Pakistan where the terrorist training was carried out. Police also claimed to have recovered some of terrorists’ communications through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) (The Hindu, December 5). With the help of foreign investigating agencies, especially the FBI, Mumbai police tracked the VoIP number brought from Orlando, Florida, which was used by the terrorists to talk to Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, who is currently under detention in Pakistan along with 20 other LeT and Jaysh-e-Mohammed operatives (Indian Express, December 10).

The fishing trawler in which the terrorists reached the Mumbai coast, the MV Kuber, had an inventory of items that established a Pakistani hand in the attacks, including wheat flour, dental gel and shaving cream all bearing “Made in Pakistan” tags. The Thuraya satellite phone recovered from the abandoned trawler contained records of a conversation between LeT chief Yusuf Muzammil, based in the Kashmiri city of Muzafarabad, and an individual known as Yahya, believed to be a point man for the LeT and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) in Bangladesh. Yahya reportedly arranged SIM (subscriber identity module) cards and fake ID cards, primarily from countries like Mauritius, the UK, the United States and Australia. The satellite phone also has records of calls traced to Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi in Jalalabad in Afghanistan (Times of India, November 30).

Interrogation of the lone surviving terrorist has revealed details of LeT training camps in Danna, Abdul-Bin-Masud, Mangla Dam, Akas, Um-Al-Qura, Badli and Muzafarabad in Pakistan-Administered Kashmir. Mumbai’s Crime Branch denied the involvement of more than ten terrorists in these multiple attacks, adding that the terrorists behind the Mumbai attacks were trained at four places inside Pakistan: Manshera, Muridke, Muzafarabad and Karachi (Daily News and Analysis [Mumbai], December 7).

For complete article, read here

A Russian navy squadron will visit Nicaragua, the navy said Thursday, a symbolic reward for an old ally as the Kremlin seeks to project its power into Latin America.

Belgian authorities on Friday charged six suspected al-Qaida-linked extremists with membership in a terrorist group, including a woman whose husband was involved in the assassination of Afghanistan's top anti-Taliban warlord shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

By the end of the April 6, 2008 battle deep within the Shok Valley, Capt. Kyle Walton would bear witness to heroics that today earned his team 10 Silver Stars, the most for a single battle in Afghaniston and possibly since the Vietnam War, although Army officials couldn't confirm that.

A former Army soldier charged with raping and killing an Iraqi teenager, then slaying her family, will rely on an insanity defense at trial, a defense attorney said Thursday.

There are lines that can be crossed. There are times when someone can go too far in their comments, even when they are trying to be funny. I understand satire and I love it….most of the time. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not one that is easily offended. In fact you can say whatever you want about me or to me; I really don’t care. What I will not stand for is you saying anything mean or hateful about someone that I care for or love that will hurt them or disrespect them. Like I said, about me…BRING IT! About someone I care about, don’t even go there.

I love my family and I love and care for my dearest friends. I care for soldiers, and when I say soldiers I use that as a general term referring to all service-members in any branch. I am a 1SG, which means looking after and caring for soldiers is my main priority in my military life.

I have had several of my own soldiers (that reported to me) wounded in combat and I was there in the hospital visiting with them and trying to lift their spirits (even kidnapping one out of the hospital and taking him to a gentleman’s club). I have seen my soldiers suffer, and I have seen the families of my soldiers worry and cry over their loved ones.

Last year I was privileged enough to visit Walker Reed Medical Center and The Fisher House while on The Sandbox book tour in Washington DC. Garry Trudeau, David Stanford, Owen Powell, his wife and I were lucky enough to meet some true warriors (who were mostly in wheel chairs and missing limbs), talk with them and have dinner with them and their families. These young men were very awe-inspiring to see them suffer the one wound that most soldiers fear more than anything else (losing a limb and being mangled for life, and still keeping a positive outlook on life. We also had the opportunity to tour the new Amputee center and see all of the ways that Walter Reed doctors and nurses are helping our wounded rehabilitate. In fact the still picture below in the video is in that Center and I have been in that exact room.

I walked away from the hospital grounds that night very humbled and damn proud to be a soldier.

I wrote all of that so you know where I am coming from, and so you would know why I am so pissed at The Onion. I like The Onion normally and I try to grab a copy whenever I can for me to read and for my son becuase he loves it. I can laugh at a lot of stuff, but there are limits.

What I am referring to is the video below:

In The Know: How Can We Make The Iraq War More Handicap Accessible?

Now if you are as upset as I am after watching that video, you may be asking yourself “What can I do about this Bouhammer?”  Well Bouhammer has the answer for you. Why not email the participating entities and let them know how disturbed you are with the disrespect and disgraceful way that they represented out wounded warriors.

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Also, Both Fosters and Burger King (yes the same Burger King that has restaurants on almost every military base in the US and most of the large bases overseas to include Iraq and Afghanistan) are advertisers, so they may also want to hear your feelings on this video.

I hope you join me and the rest of the Pitchfork Brigade who has voiced their opinion on this matter HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE to name a few.

Let show them what the Hammer really stands for in BouHammer.

The commander of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet expressed doubt Friday about the wisdom of launching attacks against Somali pirates on land - a proposal the U.S. is circulating to the U.N. Security Council.

An informal group of Vietnam veterans is raising money to support a Missouri couple that maintains a Web site for rooting out military frauds -- wannabes who claim wartime exploits, especially prisoner of war status.

An online collection of World War II documents, billed as the world's largest, debuted last week. Footnote.com, which archives historical documents on the Web, developed the collection with the National Archives and Records Administration.