Posted on 12/22/2005 3:23:29 AM PST by Straight Vermonter
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| Richard Orr of Littleton, N.H. holds his daughter, Kayla, 6, at the arrival of the first of 600 Vermont National Guard troops to return after a year's deployment in Iraq on Friday, Dec. 16, 2005, in South Burlington, Vt. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot) | Jami Miller of Castleton, Vt., right, hugs her father, Staff Sgt. Kurt Miller, at the arrival of the first of 600 Vermont National Guard troops to return after a year's deployment in Iraq on Friday, Dec. 16, 2005, in South Burlington, Vt. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot) |
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| Stephen and Tristan Lanfear of Rutland, Vt., kiss as the first of 600 Vermont National Guard troops return after a year's deployment in Iraq Friday, Dec. 16, 2005, in South Burlington, Vt. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot) | Crystal Duggins of South Hero, Vt., hugs her daughter, Julie, 4, at the arrival of the first of 600 Vermont National Guard troops, returning after a year's deployment, Friday, Dec. 16, 2005, in South Burlington, Vt. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot) |
Lawyers for John Walker Lindh, whose journey from an affluent San Francisco suburb to the battlefields of Afghanistan shocked and angered Americans, have asked the Bush administration to commute his 20-year sentence for fighting alongside the Taliban.
The renewed petition to the U.S. Department of Justice this week was based on the treatment of other captured Taliban fighters whose circumstances were similar to those of the 24-year-old man dubbed the "American Taliban," Lindh's lawyer James Brosnahan said on Wednesday.
The request marks the second time Lindh's lawyers have sought to have the sentence commuted of the California man captured fighting alongside the Taliban. They have argued the 20-year prison term was unduly harsh and reflected a climate of fear after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"We are not asking for a pardon but for a reduction in the sentence," Brosnahan said. "He was really in the wrong place at the wrong time."
(In the attached picture you can see that Lindh is wearing a Pakistani army sweater. These were provided to the Taliban by the Pakistan ISI. Only the hard core fighters in the Taliban wore these. It was a sign of prestige amongst the fighters. It would not be worn by someone who just happened to be in the "wrong place at the wrong time".
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| Israeli troops in the West Bank |
Southern Command information officer Major Gamal Hayudini said Aujan Marail, who was previously arrested but was able to escape from the Basilan jail, belonged to the group headed by Abu Sayyaf leader Hamsiraji Sali.The capture of a leader of a radical group of Muslim converts may have averted a wave of bombs in Manila over the Christmas holidays, Philippine intelligence officials said on Tuesday.
Pio de Vera, the alleged number two of the Rajah Solaiman Movement which has ties to Philippine rebel group Abu Sayyaf, was caught last week at a house in Zamboanga, one of the largest cities on the southern island of Mindanao, they said.
"We have pre-empted what we believe was a major terror plot by Muslim militants to bomb night spots in the capital during the Christmas holidays," a senior army intelligence official said.
"He's still undergoing debriefing. We may get more details on the militants' plot."
Philippine Muslim rebels with funding from the Southeast Asian network Jemaah Islamiah have planted bombs in Manila in the past, including attacks on a train and bus in December 2000 that killed 22 people.
Those attacks came a few days after coordinated Christmas Day bombings of Christian churches in Jakarta in 2000.
The Philippine intelligence officials said de Vera could have replaced Ahmad Islam Santos, the founder of the Rajah Solaiman Movement, after his arrest at a militant hideout in Zamboanga in October.
De Vera's group, in conjunction with Abu Sayyaf, is blamed for the sinking of a ferry near Manila in which more than 100 people died in February 2004, the worst terror attack in the mainly Roman Catholic country.
One of the self-confessed ferry bombers was a Muslim convert who belonged to the Rajah Solaiman Movement, which is named after the last Islamised ruler of Manila in the 16th century.
Members of the movement also helped carry out coordinated bombings in Manila and two southern cities on Valentine's Day in February in which a dozen people were killed and about 100 wounded, army intelligence officials said.
Army officials said most bomb attacks in the Philippines were believed to be planned by Abu Sayyaf, funded by Jemaah Islamiah and carried out by the Rajah Solaiman Movement.
At least nine Anti-Iraqi Forces were killed and 16 terror suspects were captured in two separate incidents in southern Baghdad Dec.19-20.
Two vehicles were observed fleeing the scene of a raid Dec. 19. One group pulled a bound hostage from the vehicle and killed him. A U.S. warplane flying in support of operations in the area engaged and killed the terrorists.
The warplane then switched targets, engaging the other vehicle which resulted in at least four AIF deaths and four detainees. Soldiers from 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment transported three of the detainees to a military internment facility for further questioning. One wounded detainee was evacuated to a military hospital.
In a separate incident in Northern Babil, 12 suspected terrorists were detained and an unknown number of weapons and medical supplies were confiscated at a building during an early morning raid Dec. 20.
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| Nearly twenty-thousand tons of munitions were destroyed in Area Echo. The removal of these munitions was a significant task that added to the safety of Coalition Forces and the Iraqi people. Explosive ordnance disposal technicians detonated the last seven, one thousand pound bombs in Taji, Dec. 16. (U.S Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Kevin Bromley, 3/1 AD PAO) |
"Fire in the hole....Fire in the Hole," shouted Sgt. 1st Class Neil Morrison right before he detonated seven one thousand pound bombs nearly simultaneously Dec. 16.
The resulting explosion and shockwave shattered the afternoon's post-rain silence and signaled the end of a year-long project to rid an old Saddam regime ammunition dump of its deadly stores.
The ammunition dump, known as Area Echo, located north of Baghdad housed tons of ordnance stockpiled by Saddam Hussein's military. The area contained everything from small caliber ammunition, mortars, and artillery shells to larger weapons such as one thousand pound bombs, and surface to air missiles.
Sgt. 1st Class Neil Morrison, and Spc. Joshua Peltz, of the 710th Ordnance Company busied themselves in the early morning preparing the last of the munitions for destruction.
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| Racks of one thousand pound were bombs housed in the Taji Ammunition Dump known as Area Echo. Nearly twenty-thousand tons of munitions were destroyed in Area Echo and the removal of these munitions was a significant task that added to the safety of Coalition Forces and the Iraqi people. Explosive ordnance disposal technicians detonated the last seven, one thousand pound bombs, Dec. 16. (U.S Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Kevin Bromley, 3/1 AD PAO) |
"Each of the bombs contains almost 450 pounds of explosive material," said Morrison. "We don't usually get to detonate aircraft bombs...we don’t get to blow up this much material very often."
Morrison and Peltz, prepared the bombs by placing plastic explosives and blasting caps in each one.
"We use three to four times the amount of explosives normally used in the fuses to detonate these bombs," said Morrison. "We want to make sure it functions."
3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division was tasked with management of Area Echo and diligently worked with contractors and explosive ordnance disposal teams to clear the compound of all munitions.
"Coalition Forces started clearing Taji around May 2003," said Capt. Eric Swenson, Assistant Brigade Engineer.
Once the munitions are deactivated, the empty casings are de-milled by a contracting company. The de-milling operation gives jobs to local workers and infuses much needed revenue back into the local economy.
"We have a contractor that cuts the empty casings up and sells the scrap metal," said Swenson. "The sale of scrap pays for the contractor's operation and the salaries of the local citizens they employ."
Swenson estimated that nearly twenty-thousand tons of munitions had been destroyed in Area Echo and the removal these munitions was a significant task that added to the safety of Coalition Forces and the Iraqi people.
"It means that insurgents can't use the materials for building bombs and the Iraqi government can re-use the land for other purposes."
Pakistan's security forces said on Tuesday they had arrested a senior member of a banned militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, believed to be linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Islamic militant, Usman Choto, is wanted in connection with various attacks including a 1997 killing of a senior police officer in the Pakistani province of Punjab. The Pakistani interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao however has not confirmed the report, and says he has no knowledge of the arrest.
Lashkar-Jhangvi is a Sunni Muslim group which has been involved in a series of attacks on Pakistan's minority Shiite community. Both the government of Pakistan and the US government have designated it a terrorist organisation. The group has been implicated in two assassination attempts on Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf and in the death of American reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.
Usman Choto is the third prominent leader of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to have been arrested since September.
These include Asif Choto, who was credited with reorganising the militant group after its top leaders were either arrested or killed between 2001 and 2003.
Ping
We need to hear from more straight Vermonters.
I love the look of jubilation on the faces of the returning service men and women and their families! What a hoot! Go ahead -- admit it -- it makes you feel good! It makes me feel good, and that's an actual fact!
As to Lindh. They ought to find him a nice, deep bug-hole and warehouse him for quite a few more years, until he looks even more like the Sasquatch than he does already. Preferably until he's too old to crap without medical assistance. What a disloyal creep!
Fantastic homecoming photos, SV! The ones with reunited parents and kids never fail to choke me up. (Yeah, I'm an old softy.)
Bump!
Thanks for the time that you have put into the scorecard.
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
'American Taliban' Lindh seeks reduced sentence
To: John Lindh #4529227
From: George Bush
Subject: Reduction of sentence
Rest assured that I and my staff will give your request all the consideration and study it deserves.
PS: If you'd like I'll see if I can arrange a transfer to another facility in Afghanistan. Let me know if this would work for you.
Seven killed in gunbattle in Pakistani border region
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1545349/posts
Thank you SV for all you do! The first pictures had me watery so I couldn't see the rest.
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