Archive for August, 2011

Feds Ask Supreme Court to Validate Stolen Valor Act

“The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to uphold a 2006 law making it a criminal offense to lie about being decorated for military service.

The Stolen Valor Act makes it unlawful to falsely represent, verbally or in writing “to have been awarded any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the Armed Forces of the United States, any of the service medals or badges awarded to the members of such forces, the ribbon, button, or rosette of any such badge, decoration, or medal, or any colorable imitation of such item.”

From: Wired

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PFC James Anderson Jr MOH Recipient

On this day in 1968 PFC Anderson was the awarded the Medal of Honor by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Citation:

The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR posthumously to

PRIVATE FIRST CLASS JAMES ANDERSON, JR.
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

For service as set forth in the following

CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a rifleman, Second Platoon, Company F, Second Battalion, Third Marines, Third Marine Division, in Vietnam on 28 February 1967. Company F was advancing in dense jungle northwest of Cam Lo in an effort to extract a heavily besieged reconnaissance patrol.

Private First Class Anderson’s platoon was the lead element and had advanced only about 200 meters when they were brought under extremely intense enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire. The platoon reacted swiftly, getting on line as best they could in the thick terrain, and began returning fire. Private First Class Anderson found himself tightly bunched together with the other members of the platoon only 20 meters from the enemy positions.

As the fire fight continued several of the men were wounded by the deadly enemy assault. Suddenly, an enemy grenade landed in the midst of the Marines and rolled along side Private First Class Anderson’s head. Unhesitatingly and with complete disregard for his own personal safety, he reached out, grasped the grenade, pulled it to his chest and curled around it as it went off. Although several Marines received shrapnel from the grenade, his body absorbed the major force of the explosion.

In this singularly heroic act, Private First Class Anderson saved his comrades from serious injury and possible death. His personal heroism, extraordinary valor, and inspirational supreme self-sacrifice reflected great credit upon himself and the Marine Corps and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

(signed) LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Visit the MSC Ship Namesakes page

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Captain Max Ferguson at Kandalay village in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar

Captain Max Ferguson plays with Afghan children during a joint patrol with Afghan National Army soldiers at Kandalay village in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar on Aug. 8, while US troops launched missile attacks on Taliban targets in nearby Kelawai village killing at least three and capturing two insurgents. US forces push their counterinsurgency efforts to battle for the hearts and minds of the local population. (Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images)

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Two reasons we love the military

“Two reasons we love the military:

1) Heroism, as I define it, is to make a great effort toward a good purpose, the greater the effort and better the purpose the more heroic. Soldiers in the field work round the clock at low pay and at considerable risk (a great effort) toward the purpose of protecting us (which if we like ourselves at all is a very good purpose). They are unquestionably heroic.

2) They are us, our relatives, our friends, we know them. Contrast all that, by the way, with other parts of the government and you’ll see why there is such a difference in perception.

– Jon Osborne

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Shura with villagers July 23 at US Marine Patrol Base Salaam Bazaar in Helmand province, Afghanistan

Now Zad District Governor Said Murad Sadtak hangs his head during a shura with villagers July 23 at US Marine Patrol Base Salaam Bazaar in Helmand province, Afghanistan. The Afghan government officially took control of security in the capital of Helmand last month, as Western influence wanes. (David Goldman/Associated Press)

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FBI’s new program, “Communities Against Terrorism” — would you be considered “suspicious”?

Recently, the FBI started sending copies of a letter to military surplus stores in Colorado under the premise of a new program called “Communities Against Terrorism.”

Their intent is to have Americans report on fellow law-abiding citizens if they suspect them of any terrorist activities.

But here’s the catch: Guess who they want to be viewed as “suspicious”?
People who “insist on paying in cash”;
People who buy “Meals Ready to Eat”;
People who buy “weatherproofed ammunition containers”;
People who buy “high capacity magazines”;
And even people who buy “night flashlights.”

The Feds are going after a group of Americans known as “preppers.”

Those who want to be prepared for emergencies and possible disasters.

People who don’t want to rely on the government for every possible need – the same type of people who I respect – and feel that they are their own “first responder.”

And now, that kind of attitude is worthy of getting you put on a terrorist watch list.

http://paracom.paramountcommunication.com/hostedemail/email.htm?h=cf953c0b33b0bae390484593dd94a19d&CID=9622194623&ch=CF042A2C2629F68121C9A2EDD9C27E85

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Fort Hood anti-war coffee shop targeting U.S. military — cafe tied to prominent radicals

A slew of radicals are behind Under the Hood, a coffee shop near the Fort Hood, Texas, Army base that is a central site of anti-war activities targeting enlisted soldiers.

Under the Hood opened its doors in 2009. It hosts the Fort Hood chapter of the Iraq Veterans Against the War organization, or IVAW, one of the nation’s largest anti-war groups.

IVAW aided in the petition for conscientious objector status of Pfc. Naser Abdo, the Muslim soldier arrested earlier this month after reportedly admitting he planned a terror attack on Fort Hood soldiers.

Find out what’s planned for your neighborhood, in “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America”

More than a year after the Fort Hood shooting massacre by Muslim U.S. Army major Nidal Malik Hasan, Abdo was caught with a bomb in a backpack and weapons stashed in a motel room meant for another attack at the base.

Abdo was eventually granted conscientious objector status after he wrote in an application that he was conflicted about “whether going to war was the right thing to do Islamically.”

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=335233

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Transit Center in Manas, Kyrgyzstan

At the end of his deployment, Specialist Christopher Aust, 25, of Harrison, Ark., takes a picture of a rainbow at the Transit Center in Manas, Kyrgyzstan, while awaiting the next flight for his return to Fort Campbell, Ky. (David Goldman/Associated Press)

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The Buffer Between Mexican Cartels and the U.S. Government

The Buffer Between Mexican Cartels and the U.S. Government is republished with permission of STRATFOR.

By Scott Stewart

It is summer in Juarez, and again this year we find the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes organization (VCF), also known as the Juarez cartel, under pressure and making threats. At this time in 2010, La Linea, the VCF’s enforcer arm, detonated a small improvised explosive device (IED) inside a car in Juarez and killed two federal agents, one municipal police officer and an emergency medical technician and wounded nine other people. La Linea threatened to employ a far larger IED (100 kilograms) if the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) did not investigate the head of Chihuahua State Police intelligence, whom the VCF claimed was working for the Sinaloa Federation.

La Linea did attempt to employ another IED on Sept. 10, 2010, but this device, which failed to detonate, contained only 16 kilograms of explosives, far less than the 100 kilograms that the group had threatened to use.

Fast-forward a year, and we see the VCF still under unrelenting pressure from the Sinaloa Federation and still making threats. On July 15, the U.S. Consulate in Juarez released a message warning that, according to intelligence it had in hand, a cartel may be targeting the consulate or points of entry into the United States. On July 27, “narcomantas” — banners inscribed with messages from drug cartels — appeared in Juarez and Chihuahua signed by La Linea and including explicit threats against the DEA and employees of the U.S. Consulate in Juarez. Two days after the narcomantas appeared, Jose Antonio “El Diego” Acosta Hernandez, a senior La Linea leader whose name was mentioned in the messages, was arrested by Mexican authorities aided by intelligence from the U.S. government. Acosta is also believed to have been responsible for planning La Linea’s past IED attacks. Read the rest of this entry »

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$12 Billion in cash sent to Iraq on 21 Hercules cargo planes simply disappeared

“U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion, sent by the planeload in cash and intended for Iraq’s reconstruction after the start of the war.

After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born.

Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.

The cash was carried by tractor-trailer trucks from the fortress-like Federal Reserve currency repository in East Rutherford, N.J., to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, then flown to Baghdad. U.S. officials there stored the hoard in a basement vault at one of Hussein’s former palaces, and at U.S. military bases, and eventually distributed the money to Iraqi ministries and contractors.

But U.S. officials often didn’t have time or staff to keep strict financial controls. Millions of dollars were stuffed in gunnysacks and hauled on pickups to Iraqi agencies or contractors, officials have testified.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/13/world/la-fg-missing-billions-20110613

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How the Ultimate Sniper Rifle Was Made

“The Portsmouth company, Accuracy International (AI), equips the British Special Boat Service and Special Air Service with sniper rifles. In 2008, it signed a 3.7 million-pound contract to supply almost 600 sniper weapons to the UK Ministry of Defence. What came out of the SEALs’ approach to AI was a new gun.

“The fact that such a small company can be a world-beater in the manufacture of quality weapon systems in a market dominated by huge American and European companies is a huge achievement,” says Color Sergeant Lee Chevenix, a British Army sniping-team instructor. “I know from first-hand experience how revered the AI product is, even in the States, where traditionally U.S. producers are favored.”

AI’s weapons are now part of long-range sniping lore. Craig Harrison, a British Army sniper from the Household Cavalry, hit two Taliban machine-gunners with two consecutive shots at a range of 2,475 meters in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in 2009. Inadvertently he had taken the world sniping record using an L115A3, the 0.338-inch caliber military sniper-rifle system made by AI that is now standard issue for the British Army.”

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/ultimate-sniper-rifle/

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Iran Plans For A World Without America

From: Investor’s Business Daily

Tehran’s navy deploys ships to the Atlantic capable of launching long-range missiles. This is not a joke. This is a dress rehearsal for the day an EMP attack ends our way of life.

‘Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?” Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at “The World Without Zionism” Tehran conference in 2005. “But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved.” He added that Iran had a “war preparation plan” for, as he put it, “the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization.”

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Charles P. Murray Jr., Medal of Honor Recipient, Dies at 89

Charles P. Murray Jr

Charles P. Murray Jr

Charles P. Murray Jr., who received the Medal of Honor for single-handedly preventing 200 German soldiers from attacking an American battalion while leading a scouting mission in France during World War II, died Friday at his home in Columbia, S.C. He was 89. (New York Times)

First Lieutenant Murray’s official Medal of Honor citation reads:

For commanding Company C, 30th Infantry, displaying supreme courage and heroic initiative near Kaysersberg, France, on 16 December 1944, while leading a reinforced platoon into enemy territory. Descending into a valley beneath hilltop positions held by our troops, he observed a force of 200 Germans pouring deadly mortar, bazooka, machinegun, and small arms fire into an American battalion occupying the crest of the ridge.

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Stolen Colt 1911 Returned to MOH Recipient after 30 Years

From: Mail Tribune

A historic Colt .45-caliber, semi-automatic pistol stolen more than 30 years ago from a Medal of Honor winner in South Carolina has been returned to its rightful owner. The gun and owner were reunited after a history buff in Medford, who bought the old handgun in an online auction last month, tracked down the retired Marine whose name is engraved on it. “I knew if I found him and it was his gun, I couldn’t keep it,” said George Berry, 71, who knew little about the history of the gun when he purchased it from an auction house in Pennsylvania.

The story begins when Berry, a retired Navy warrant officer who also served in the Marine Corps, decided this summer to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning one of the historic handguns. “I’ve always wanted to own a Colt Model 1911 .45 automatic — always wanted one,” he says. “John Wayne had one in every World War II movie I’ve ever seen him in.”

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Mossberg Introduces 500 Thunder Ranch Shotgun

From: Mossberg
Mossberg® Introduces 500® Thunder Ranch® Shotgun
Designed In Conjunction with Renowned Personal Defense Instructor, Clint Smith

North Haven, CT – For decades, the legendary Mossberg 500 pump-action shotgun has been selected by the military, law enforcement agencies and civilians worldwide for its rock-solid durability and superior reliability; simply known as a tool that you can count on. A similar tenet is expressed by Marine Corps veteran and former SWAT team member, Clint Smith, who serves as President and Director of Thunder Ranch training facility in Lakeview, Oregon. When discussing the school’s doctrines, Smith emphasized, “We provide our students with functional and logical defensive tools that they can confidently use.”  The newly-introduced, well-designed 500 Thunder Ranch shotgun is the culmination of Smith’s life experiences and Mossberg’s dedication to build dependable and innovative firearms.
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