Posted on 08/07/2006 3:43:15 PM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT
Tehran & Damascus Move to Lebanon Lebanon-born Walid Phares is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Author of the recent book Future Jihad, he was also one of the architects of 2004’s United Nations resolution 1559, which called for the disarming of Hezbollah. NRO editor Kathryn Lopez recently talked to Phares about what’s going on in the Mideast, what happened to the Cedar Revolution, and this war we’re all in.
Kathryn Jean Lopez: What is “Future Jihad”? Are we seeing it in the Mideast now?
Walid Phares: “Future Jihad,” which has already begun, refers to a new and potent form of Islamic terrorism, characterized by a Khumeinist-Baathist axis. These are the two trees of jihadism, so to speak — the Salafism and Wahabism embodied in al Qaeda and the sort of jihadism led by Iran and also including Syria, Hezbollah, and their allies in Lebanon.
The alliance has not been in entire agreement as to strategy. The al Qaeda branch began its “Future Jihad” in the 1990s; its efforts culminated on 9/11 and have continued explosively since then. The international “Salafists” aimed at the U.S. in the past decade in order to strengthen their jihads on various battlefields (Chechnya, India, Sudan, Algeria, Indonesia, Palestine, etc.). “Weaken the resolve of America,” their ideologues said, “and the jihadists would overwhelm all the regional battlefields.”
As I argue in Future Jihad, bin Laden and his colleagues miscalculated on the timing of the massive attack against the U.S. in 2001. While they wounded America, they didn’t kill its will to fight (as was the case, for instance, in the Madrid 3/11 attacks). I have heard many jihadi cadres online, and have seen al Jazeera commentators on television, offering hints of criticism about the timing. They were blaming al Qaeda for shooting its imagined “silver bullet” before insuring a strategic follow up. But bin Laden and Zawahiri believe 9/11 served them well, and has put a global mobilization into motion. Perhaps it has, but the U.S. counter strategy in the Middle East, chaotic as the region currently appears, has unleashed counter jihadi forces. The jury is still out as to the time factor: when these forces will begin to weaken the jihadists depends on our perseverance and the public understanding of the whole conflict.
The other “tree” of jihadism, with its roots in Iran, withheld fire after 9/11. They were content to watch the Salafists fight it out with the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention within the West, as terror cells were hunted down. Ahmedinejad, Assad, and Nasrallah were analyzing how far the US would go, and how far the Sunnis and Salafis would go as well.
The fall of the Taliban and of the Baath in Iraq, however, changed Iran and Syria’s patient plans. The political changes in the neighborhood, regardless of their immediate instability, were strongly felt in Tehran and Damascus (but unfortunately not in the U.S., judging from the political debate here), and pushed the Khumeinists and the Syrian Baathists to enter the dance, but carefully. Assad opened his borders to the jihadists in an attempt to crumble the U.S. role in Iraq, while Iran articulated al Sadr’s ideology for Iraq’s Shiia majority.
A U.S.-led response came swiftly in 2004 with the voting of UNSCR 1559, smashing Syria’s role in Lebanon and forcing Assad to withdraw his troops by April 2005. In response, the “axis” prepared for a counter attack on the Lebanese battlefield by assassinating a number of the Cedar Revolution leaders, including MP Jebran Tueni. In short, the attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah and the kidnappings of soldiers were the tip of an offensive aimed at drawing attention away from Iran’s nuclear weapons programs and Syria’s assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri. Hezbollah was awaiting its moment for revenge against the Cedar Revolution too.
What we see now is 1) a Syro-Iranian sponsored offensive aimed at all democracies in the region and fought in Lebanon; 2) Israel’s counter offensive (which it seems to have prepared earlier); and 3) an attempt by Hezbollah to take over or crumble the Lebanese government.
Lopez: So…did the Cedar Revolution fail?
Phares: Actually, it would be more accurate to say that the Cedar Revolution was failed. The masses in Lebanon responded courageously in March 2005 by putting 1.5 million people on the streets of Beirut. They did it without “no-fly-zones,” expeditionary forces, or any weapons at all, for that matter, and against the power of three regimes, Iran, Syria, and pro-Syrian Lebanon, in addition to Hezbollah terror. The “revolution” was for a time astoundingly successful; since then it has been horribly failed, and first of all by Lebanon’s politicians themselves. One of their leaders, General Michel Aoun, shifted his allegiances to Syria and signed a document with Hezbollah. Other politicians from the “March 14 Movement” then stopped the demonstrations, leaving them with the support of God knows what. They failed in removing the pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud and brought back a pro-Syrian politician to serve as a speaker of the house, Nabih Berri. Meanwhile, even as they were elected by the faithful Cedar Revolution masses, they engaged in a round table dialogue with Hezbollah, a clear trap set by Hassan Nasrallah: “Let’s talk about the future,” he said — with the implication, of course, that they forget about the Cedar Revolution and the militia’s disarming. While political leaders sat for months, enjoying the photo ops with Hassan Nasrallah, he was preparing his counter offensive, which he unleashed just a few days before the Security Council would discuss the future of Iran’s nuclear programs.
The Lebanese government of Prime Minister Seniora also abandoned the Cedar Revolution. His cabinet neither disarmed Hezbollah nor called on the U.N. to help in implementing UNSCR 1559. This omission is baffling. The government was given so much support by the international community and, more importantly, overwhelming popular support inside Lebanon: 80 percent of the people were hoping the Cedar Revolution-backed government would be the one to resume the liberation of the country. Now Hezbollah has an upper hand and the government is on the defensive.
The U.S. and its allies can be accused of certain shortcomings as well. While the speeches by the U.S. president, congressional leaders from both parties, Tony Blair, and Jacques Chirac were right on target regarding Lebanon, and while the U.S. and its counterparts on the Security Council were diligent in their follow up on the Hariri assassination and on implementing UNSCR 1559, there was no policy or plan to support the popular movement in Lebanon. Incredibly, while billions were spent on the war of ideas in the region, Lebanese NGOs that wanted to resume the struggle of the Cedar Revolution and fighting alone for this purpose were not taken seriously at various levels. Policy planners thought they were dealing with the “Cedar Revolution” when they were meeting Lebanon’s government and Lebanese politicians. The difference between the high level speeches on Lebanon and the laissez-faire approach from lower levels is amazing. Simply put, there was no policy on supporting the Cedar Revolution against the three regimes opposing it and the $400 million received by Hezbollah from Iran.
The Cedar Revolution was basically betrayed by its own politicians and is now essentially without a head. Nevertheless, as long as the international support remains, the Revolution will find its way and will face the dangers. The one and a half million ordinary citizens who braved all the dangers didn’t change their minds about Hezbollah’s terror. The resistance and counter-attack was to be expected. Unfortunately, thus far Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah have outmaneuvered the West and are at the throats of the Cedar Revolution. The international community must revise its plans, and, if it is strongly backed by the U.S. and its allies, including France, the situation can be salvaged. The good seeds are still inside the country.
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South Florida Intifada
By Joe Kaufman
FrontPageMagazine.com | August 22, 2006
American universities rank among the best in the world, but they also boast another, more dubious distinction: They are home to some of the world’s most radical academics.
Last month, one of these select individuals, UC Berkeley professor Hatem Bazian, brought his hate-filled show to two extremist Islamic Centers in South Florida. Both of these institutions are in the process of building large-scale mosques in their respective cities. And, given that their guest had previously called for attacks on the United States, the question naturally arose: Were these institutions looking to make friends in the community or to start a holy war?
Past evidence suggests that the latter possibility is more likely. From October of 1999 through July of 2001, the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR) contained material on its website calling Jews “people of treachery and betrayal” and discussing the murder of Jews. A founding director of ICBR, Syed Khawer Ahmad, who stayed on in his position till the middle of 2002, doubled as a webmaster for the official website of Hamas’s Islamic Association located in Gaza. In October of 2000, the Imam of ICBR, Ibrahim Dremali, amidst burning Israeli flags and shouts that “Zionist blood will wet the sand,” told a crowd not to be sad for “those who were martyred” (i.e., suicide bombers). Despite this history, the ICBR had no trouble securing a zoning permit for a proposed 9,000 square-foot mosque. No one -- not the police department, not the mayor’s office, not the zoning board -- raised an objection.
What transpired after the permit was given is a matter of record. A Hamas-related charity connected to ICBR, the Health Resource Center for Palestine, was shut down; a founding director of ICBR and associate of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Sami Al-Arian, Bassem Alhalabi, was charged by the U.S. government with illegally shipping a $13,000 piece of sensitive military equipment to Syria; the Imam that took the place of Dremali, Munir Arafat, admitted under oath that he himself was a member of PIJ; and a member of the center, Rafiq Sabir, was arrested by the FBI for being an Al-Qaeda operative, to which he is currently awaiting trial.
The Islamic Center of South Florida (ICOSF), located in Pompano Beach, Florida, not unlike ICBR, has had its own extremist behavioral problem. In the beginning of 2003, the Imam of ICOSF and past teacher at ICBR, Hassan Sabri, stated on a local radio program his wishes for Allah to rid Jerusalem of all its Jews. He also stated his belief in an Islamic prophesy announcing an impending extermination of Jews. Yet, this center, too, was recently given the go-ahead to construct its own mosque: a 29,000 square-foot superstructure situated right in the middle of Broward County.
One would think that, in view of these centers’ pasts, they would shun the spotlight. But the opposite is the case. If anything, they have become more brazen. Hence, last month, both ICBR and ICOSF invited Hatem Bazian to deliver a speech. If they wanted to avoid feeding their reputation for radicalism, it was altogether the wrong decision. Bazian is a senior lecturer in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. But he is better known for his unreserved contempt for the United States and Israel.
Nowhere did this hatred manifest itself more than at a rally held in San Francisco, on April 10, 2004, where Bazian was caught on videotape calling for an intifada or armed uprising against America. To raucous agreement from the crowd, Bazian asked, "Are you angry? Are you angry? Are you angry?" Inspired, he proceeded to call for an armed uprising against American corporations. "Well, we've been watching intifada in Palestine, we've been watching an uprising in Iraq, and the question is that what are we doing? How come we don't have an intifada in this country?... Chevron, Bechtel, Carlyle Group, Halliburton; every one of those lying, cheating, stealing, deceiving individuals are in our country and we're sitting here and watching the world pass by, people being bombed, and it's about time that we have an intifada in this country that change[s] fundamentally the political dynamics in here...They're gonna say some Palestinian being too radical--well, you haven't seen radicalism yet!”
Bazian’s outburst was entirely in keeping with his extremist history. In an article titled "The Price of the PLO Surrender: Almost a State!," which he wrote as a Ph.D. student at Berkeley in March of 1994, Bazian denied Israel’s existence and unapologetically described Palestinian terrorism against Israel as a “struggle.” He wrote: “We, as Palestinians, have not reconciled our differences with Israel, and we do not offer any apologies to Israel for conducting our rightful struggle against a colonial Zionist occupation. In addition, we do not concur with Yasir Arafat's recognition of Israel as a sovereign country in the region."
Bazian, a Palestinian himself, went on to describe the violent intifada against Israel, led by such terror groups as Hamas and PIJ, as “the most effective weapon in the hands of the Palestinians against an oppressive Israeli occupation.” Two years later, in March of 1996, he reportedly served as the spokesperson for an event where participants dressed up as suicide bombers. Also, in June of 2004, he represented KindHearts, a charity that was shut down by the U.S. government for raising millions of dollars for Hamas, in a fundraising dinner held in honor of "Palestinians in Agony."
Bazian has labeled the PLO police force “enemies,” while commending the “militant activities” of young Palestinians who “have presented a continuous challenge to the Israeli army.” After repeatedly calling Saudi Arabia and Egypt “surrogates” for the United States, he has lamented, “As Palestinians, we were told to put down our guns and depend on the Arab leaders who were organizing for our eventual liberation. No one helps you liberate yourself by taking away your weapons.” Bazian further believes that the U.S. and Israel are conspiring against the Mid East. “We now are awakened to the reality that the leadership is asking us to recognize the right of the occupier to own our houses and land," he once said. "We are being asked to accept the Israeli and the American Middle East agenda.”
On February 6, 2004, during a speech he gave at McGill University on the "New American Empire," Bazian was quoted as saying, “The empire has to be resisted both internally and externally. The Iraqis resisted, and we must also resist, as it subjugates people around the world.” The “empire” that Bazian was referring to was, of course, the United States. His call for resistance meanwhile can reasonably be interpreted as a declaration of war against the United States and a call for violence against Americans.
Lending credence to this interpretation is Bazian’s labeling of terrorist organizations as “resistance” groups. During a March 2005 speech he gave, entitled "Empire’s Imbedded Intellectuals," he stated, “Hezbollah was born after Israel’s invasion, in 1985, as a result of Israel’s atrocities in Lebanon. When Israel invaded Lebanon, the Shiia were welcoming the Israeli troops… It was just a short time that that changed into a resistance that resulted in evicting the Israelis out of South Lebanon.” In that speech Bazian also said: “Three months ago, they [Syria] allowed an assassination to take place in the middle of Damascus. A major leader of the Islamic resistance was assassinated right in the middle of Damascus.” The “resistance” leader Bazian was most probably referring to was Hamas operative Izz Eldine Subhi Sheik Khalil, who was executed by Israel in September of 2004, when his car exploded.
During another speech Bazian gave, in February of 2005, titled "The New COINTELPRO Campaign Directed at Arabs, Muslims and Southeast Asians," he defended Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian, saying, “He has not committed any crime whatsoever.” Bazian then lauded what he referred to as “resistance” groups in Chicago, New York and Texas for their raising of $650,000 for Al-Arian. Al-Arian, of course, later admitted to raising funds for the PIJ and conspiring to hide the identities of other members of the terrorist group. In April of 2006, he plead guilty to conspiring to provide material support to PIJ.
In this same speech, Bazian spoke of his disgust at encountering an FBI booth while attending the 39th annual Islamic Society of North America national convention in August of 2002. Bazian argued that Muslims should not allow the FBI to participate in their events and called it a “miscalculation” on the part of Muslim groups to do so.
When the Islamic Center of Boca Raton and the Islamic Center of South Florida granted an invitation for Hatem Bazian to speak, one has to wonder if they considered the possible ramifications for doing so. However, considering that they were granted permits to build two large-scale mosques in their communities – even after having been exposed as extremist institutions – tells us two things. First, that the ramifications, if any, would be negligible. Second, that neither center cares. And why should they? After all, time and time again their defiance gets rewarded.
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The Coming Wars
By Caroline B. Glick
Jerusalem Post | August 22, 2006
Since the cease-fire was implemented in Lebanon, we have heard scattered reports indicating that a prisoner swap with the Palestinians may be in the works. In exchange for hundreds if not thousands of Palestinian terrorists now held in Israeli prisons, IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who has been held hostage by Palestinian terrorists for nearly two months, may be released from captivity.
These reports lend weight to the view that things are back to normal. Terrorists kidnap Israelis and hold them hostage and Israel releases terrorists in order to free them. It is a comforting thought for people like Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his colleagues and the members of Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz's General Staff who continue to believe that it will be possible for Israel to sign on a dotted line and achieve "a normal existence."
Unfortunately, the chance that Shalit will be released is almost as small as the chance that Israel will be able to achieve a “normal existence.” Palestinian sources explain that the decision of whether or not to release Shalit is firmly in the hands of the Iranians and Syrians, and they are not in any mood to horse trade with the Jews.
Today, the Palestinian Authority is nothing more than yet another Iranian proxy. During the past month of war in Lebanon, it was the supposedly moderate Fatah terror group and the supposedly moderate Fatah-led Palestinian security forces that organized mass rallies in the streets of Ramallah and Gaza cheering on Hizbullah and calling for Hassan Nasrallah to bomb Tel Aviv.
Now, in the aftermath of the cease-fire, which handed Hizbullah and its state sponsors Syria and Iran the greatest victory in their history, forces in the PA are actively preparing for a new round of war against Israel. As Hamas spokesmen have put it, Israel's defeat in Lebanon has convinced them that it is possible to adopt Hizbullah's methods to destroy the Jewish state. Amid false reports that he was planning to dissolve the Hamas government and replace it with a government of technocrats, Abbas went to Gaza on Monday morning and asked Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh if Fatah could join his government.
As instructed by his commanders in Teheran and Damascus, Haniyeh has not yet agreed to Abbas's offer. Rather he set humiliating conditions which Abbas must accept first. Abbas already agreed to Hamas's demand that he allow the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization to also join the government. He is similarly expected to agree to Hamas's demands that Fatah join the government as a junior partner and that it abandon its negotiations with Israel.
Throughout the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian areas of Judea and Samaria, the Palestinians are gearing up for their next round of jihad with Israel. As was the case six years ago, they are beginning with public executions of Palestinians accused of helping Israel combat terrorism. Just this week, a crowd of hundreds hooted and stomped their feet in ecstasy as unmasked murderers killed one such Palestinian "collaborator" in Jenin.
So while all eyes are glued on Lebanon, the Palestinians may well start the next war. And we know exactly how that war will look. They will use missiles, mortars and rockets that they will smuggle in from Egypt to kill Israelis in their homes in the South. They will infiltrate Israeli cities by digging tunnels under the security fence around Gaza, and from Egypt and from towns and cities in Judea and Samaria and murder us in ever growing numbers. They will receive money, weapons and combat instruction from Hizbullah and Iranian operatives in Gaza and abroad and they will attack us while protesting their everlasting dedication to jihad and their anger over Israel's "aggression."
Then there is Syria. Syrian President Bashar Assad's address Tuesday was a watershed event. After 14 years of beating around the bush, Syria finally came clean. Peace, Assad said, is dead. We hate Israel and we want to destroy it. If not us, then our children will destroy it. All the Arabs that want peace with Israel are traitors. Long live Hizbullah and we're going to war to conquer the Golan Heights as a first step towards destroying Israel.
So Syria is planning to attack us. Perhaps it will do so while Hizbullah is carrying out what Nasrallah called the “the building and reconstruction of jihad” where with Iranian funding Hizbullah will rebuild Lebanon for the Lebanese and so nail one more nail in the coffin of the Lebanese nation state and move 10 steps ahead in the Iranian colonization of Lebanon. Yes, while Hizbullah goes forward with Lebanese reconstruction, and with Iranian and Syrian assistance reequips and upgrades its arsenal of war and rebuilds its force structure, Syria will likely open a new front on the Golan Heights.
Like the Palestinians, the Syrians will be following the Hizbullah model. Assad knows that his antiquated conventional forces are incapable of conquering and holding the Golan Heights. But, if Israel fights Syria the same way it just fought Hizbullah, then that doesn't matter. Syria, with its arsenal of Scud missiles whose range covers the entire country and armed with its chemical and biological arsenals that can act in the best case as a deterrent force, will be able to kill thousands in not tens of thousands of Israeli civilians and soldiers in the coming battle and cause property and economic damage to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.
Syria believes that it will be able to cause sufficient damage to make Israel sue for a cease-fire as we just did with Hizbullah. So like Hizbullah, Syria expects to gain at the UN Security Council what it could never hope to achieve on the battlefield. Specifically, given the precedent of Resolution 1701, Syria no doubt believes that in exchange for its aggression, it will receive international recognition for its territorial demands against Israel; an international force on the Golan Heights that will make it difficult for Israel to respond to future attacks; a major upgrade in its international profile; and billions of dollars in international assistance to rebuild in the wake of any damage caused to Syrian infrastructures by IDF operations.
Behind the Palestinians and the Syrians lies Iran, the guiding light behind the present jihad. Iran, with its burgeoning nuclear weapons program, is the single greatest danger to international security. It is the single greatest danger to Israel's survival. To date, Iran has made do with fighting Israel through its proxies, to great advantage. But Iran has made it absolutely clear that it intends to join the fray directly - when it is good and ready. And of course it will be good and ready when it has nuclear weapons.
If Iran is allowed to attain nuclear weapons, there is no reason to doubt that it will use them. If Iran attacks Israel with nuclear weapons, then of course we are looking at a future war scenario involving not thousands of dead, but millions.
As all of Israel's leaders have been quick to point out over the years, the threat of a nuclear armed Iran is not just dangerous for Israel but for the entire world. Iran has its Persian Gulf neighbors in its gun sites. It has directly threatened the US and Europe.
Although this is true, the fact that Iran is a threat to the entire world does not give Israel the ability to shirk from its responsibility to contend directly with Iran. Doing so would be tantamount to signing the death warrant of the Jewish people.
In the not so distant future, we will find ourselves at war with Iran. Today, the choice of whether we fight that war in our own time, and before Iran gets nuclear weapons is in our hands. If we hesitate, if we and the rest of the free world waste precious time with worthless diplomatic wrangling with the ayatollahs, war will come to us, but on the enemy's terms. And we will have only ourselves to blame.
All of these future wars present us with a clear challenge as a country. We must prepare for war. This means, that technologically, we must engage in a crash program to find means to protect our cities from missile attack. We got off relatively easy this time. Hizbullah chose not to attack our industrial centers but showed it has the ability to do so through its missile attacks near Haifa's port and its attacks near Hadera's power plant.
Militarily, we must not relent in targeting our enemies. The IDF must target every Palestinian terrorist. It must reassert control over the international border between Gaza and Egypt. Israel must accept the reality that the PA is a terrorist organization, not a legitimate regime, and stop viewing Abbas and his associates in Fatah as potential peace partners. Obviously, Israel must give up the idea of transferring Judea and Samaria to Palestinian control and take all necessary measures to stabilize the situation on the ground in a manner that neutralizes the threat of Palestinian jihad.
Furthermore, the war in Lebanon exposed the results of years of neglect of the IDF reserve forces. These forces must be properly equipped, properly trained for war, and properly led. The talk of releasing men from reserve duty at 35 must be abandoned. The IDF has to accept that it is a fighting force in war. Commanders have to stop acting like yuppies in uniform and understand that they have a war to train for and fight and win.
Finally, Israel needs a political leadership that will be capable of telling the Israeli public the truth that has been ignored for the past decade and a half. We are not a “normal” nation and we are not going to get peace in the coming years. We are an abnormal nation in our neighborhood and in the world and will always remain so, as is our right. Our people must be ready to sacrifice for the survival of the state and the defense of our freedom to be abnormal. We need leadership that will tell the Israeli people that a struggle awaits us but that our democracy, our freedom, and our values give us the power of creative thought that will allow us to beat the dull forces of jihad that surround us.
In response to Assad's speech on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that Assad has to decide if he's on the side of peace or on the side of war. Defense Minister Amir Peretz outdid even that when he said that now that the war is over, it is time for Israel to get down to the real business of peace and to set the conditions for a renewal of the peace negotiations with Syria.
In so responding to Assad's unequivocal warmongering, our leaders again have shown us that they have learned nothing and are incapable of learning anything from the disaster into which they led us with Hizbullah in Lebanon. There is no missile that is capable of penetrating their walls of self-deception and delusion. They are blind and deaf to all evidence that their way of appeasement has failed.
With the Olmert government's stubborn insistence that Israel won the war it just lost, with the General Staff's absurd statements that the mission was successful, it is clear that both our political and military leadership must be replaced as quickly as possible. Our enemies give us no time for hesitation. They plan their next wars in broad daylight as our leaders squawk in the darkness of their ideological stupor.
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Big rig used in road rampage
By Monique Tamminga
Black Press
Aug 16 2006
A Surrey man with a lengthy criminal record is facing new charges after a wild road rampage that saw police pursue a stolen Peterbilt semi-trailer truck through Langley, Surrey and Delta on Saturday.
Murray William Buck, 29, was just recently released from jail and has a long history of violent criminal convictions, said police.
He is now back in custody, and is facing numerous charges including possession of stolen property, dangerous driving, causing a police pursuit and assault with a weapon.
In 2004, Buck had three arrest warrants and was accused of five counts of theft and one charge of break and enter.
His record includes multiple convictions for theft and possession of stolen property.
The stolen semi truck blew through stoplights, drove into oncoming traffic, tried to ram police cars and attempted to carjack a vehicle.
Around 2 a.m., a Langley RCMP officer attempted to pull over a semi-truck that had been driving erratically on 200 Street. The truck, a white 2003 Peterbilt which turned out to have been stolen earlier that day from Abbotsford, fled west on the Langley bypass. The officer started a pursuit but terminated it while police chopper Air 1 headed to Langley to offer assistance. As soon as the pursuit was terminated the driver doubled back and attempted to ram a police vehicle. The officer managed to avoid the charging truck, which turned around and headed into Surrey.
Police said the driver raced through Surrey at excessive speeds, ignoring stoplights and stop signs.
Air 1 updated ground units and a spike belt was deployed by Delta Police. It pierced the driver’s side front tire of the truck, but that didn’t slow the suspect, as he continued driving dangerously, forcing Delta officers to block off intersections for motorists’ safety.
The suspect ran through a red light, tried to hit police cars and continued his way back to Langley.
The truck’s front tire gave out as it sped along 40 Avenue in Langley, trailing a shower of sparks and flames. At one point, the truck’s driver passed two motorists, nearly running them off the road. He then stopped the semi in front of them and tried to carjack one of the vehicles, police said. The carjacking attempt was unsuccessful, so the suspect climbed back into the truck and continued on.
With one front wheel ground halfway through the rim, the suspect struck a low concrete road divider at the intersection of 240 Street and Fraser Highway. Seeing that the truck could no longer move, Air 1 informed unmarked police dog units who captured the suspect as he tried to run.
As officers approached the smoking truck they saw a large stuffed gorilla sitting on the passenger seat.
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Train leaves rails, knocks out power
JOHN MORROW Abbotsford News
Ten rail cars came off the tracks on Saturday afternoon as a 40-car train headed to New Westminster on the Southern Railway line derailed near Glenmore Road. The cause is still under investigation, but Southern Railway is looking into the possibility of a broken rail.
By CHERYL WIERDA
Abbotsford News
Aug 22 2006
More than 2,100 B.C. Hydro customers were affected by power outages on Saturday following a train derailment in Matsqui Prairie.
Shortly before 3 p.m., a 40-car train headed from Abbotsford to New Westminster derailed just before it approached the Glenmore Road crossing in Matsqui Prairie.
Southern Railway of B.C. superintendent Don McGregor said the 12th car came off the tracks, causing 10 of the cars to derail.
Six of the cars were empty, and four were loaded with grain.
The crash resulted in a high voltage power line being hit, cutting power to more than 2,100 B.C. Hydro customers in the area.
The derailment is the second in just over three months for Southern Railway in Abbotsford. On May 16, an 18-car train carrying grain and lumber derailed on the tracks near Whatcom and Vye roads in Sumas Prairie.
As a couple of cars rolled off the tracks, they took out two power transmission poles, and the downed wires arced on the train tracks.
That led to one of the power poles catching fire, as well as some of the surrounding brush.
The downing of the power lines caused a small power outage and prompted a larger outage as hydro crews repaired the lines. More than 10,000 B.C. Hydro customers lost power.
The cause of that derailment is not known.
Saturday’s derailment remains under investigation, but McGregor said they are looking at the possibility that a rail was broken.
“We’re starting to focus in on that,” he said.
Saturday’s derailment affected traffic in the area. Crews also spent Sunday clearing the tracks.
The tracks were expected to be back in service yesterday afternoon.
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Driver's return a surprise
By TRUDY BEYAK
Abbotsford News
Aug 19 2006
Terry Driver, the infamous Abbotsford Killer, is back in town despite the outrage of the victims' families.
The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) neglected to inform the victims' families that Driver was moving from Kent Institution to the Pacific Institution-Regional Treatment Centre on King Road to take programs.
CSC apologized for the "oversight" of not informing the families according to its victim notification policy.
The families are furious.
Gail Smith, mother of slain teenager Tanya Smith, said prison officials should immediately move the murderer out of Abbotsford.
And Abbotsford (Conservative) MP Ed Fast sent a letter on behalf of the families asking CSC prison administrators to transfer the inmate out as soon as possible.
Driver was described as a "monster" by Supreme Court Justice Wally Oppal when he convicted him on Oct. 16, 1997.
Driver abducted two girls - Misty Cockerill, then 15, and Tanya Smith, 16, - on Oct. 14, 1995, as the pair walked along Bevan Avenue in the early-morning hours.
He beat Smith to death and her body was found later that morning in the Vedder River. Cockerill survived the vicious baseball-bat attack.
Driver then terrorized the public, taunting Abbotsford Police with phone calls and notes following the attacks, vowing to kill again. He also desecrated Tanya's tombstone.
In a note he sent to police, Driver bragged about other murders, claiming he had killed females in B.C., Alberta and Washington State and raped other women.
"Hey guys, I'm bad. I will strike again one day . . . I will not move away from Abbotsford," the note said.
Tanya's mom is almost speechless that CSC sent Driver back here.
"I do not believe that someone who abducted and murdered a young girl, taunted the police and community that he would murder someone else, stole the victim's headstone from her grave and defaced it with vile gestures, and committed all these crimes within Abbotsford should ever be allowed within its boundaries again," Smith said.
Oppal sentenced Driver to life for murdering Tanya and attempting to murder Misty.
He is designated as a dangerous offender, but according to CSC, he is eligible to apply for parole on May 20, 2018.
Driver was being held in the protective-custody unit at the maximum-security Kent Institution.
Smith said she knows that CSC has a responsibility to serve the needs of prisoners, but why should Driver be allowed in Abbotsford?
"If they want to try and rehabilitate the person who killed my daughter so viciously and held this community hostage for eight months, do so as far away from Abbotsford as possible," Smith said.
"It is an insult to my family and the citizens of Abbotsford to have Driver here again."
Fast agreed that it is unacceptable, noting that the families of the victims live in this community and Misty is attending UCFV, down the street from the prison.
Fast is asking CSC to conduct a review.
Driver was transferred to Abbotsford about nine months ago, said Kent warden Alex Lubimiv.
He explained that someone new was handling the victim notification program and that's why the families weren't told.
"It was human error," Lubimiv said.
When he found out that the notification had slipped through the cracks, he said he apologized on behalf of CSC to Tanya's father.
"We're parents too. We're not insensitive to victims. I can only imagine how people feel about this," Lubimiv said.
Driver may be here to stay.
Lubimiv said he doesn't believe that CSC has the legal power to move Driver out of province, unless he requests the transfer or if CSC can't provide the necessary programs for him in the Pacific Region.
The Regional Treatment Centre is an appropriate facility because of the provision of a range of mental-health treatment programs, Lubimiv said.
Inmates have the right to be held in custody at an institution that provides an appropriate level of security, and where they can have access to family visits and to programs, Lubimiv said.
Driver had a wife and two children who lived in Abbotsford at the time of his conviction.
Lubimiv said that CSC must abide by the laws and policies of the federal government in terms of Driver's placement.
Smith said she heard that Driver has put in a request to stay here permanently.
"Well, it's a lot nicer here than in Kent, where it's a hell hole," Smith said, adding that hell is where Driver belongs.
Fast said the rights of the victims' families should be more important than the perpetrator's.
"The victims' families and their rights should trump the rights of the perpetrators of the crime," Fast said.
Driver was caught when his mother and brother recognized his voice in telephone calls police released to the media.
His lawyers argued that his medical condition, Tourette's Syndrome, should have factored more heavily in his trial.
-30-
© Copyright 2006 Abbotsford News
http://www.abbotsfordpolice.org/misc/druginfo.html
Tuesday, August 22, 2004 "Protecting with Pride" http://www.abbotsfordpolice.org
Crime Stoppers
A cash reward of up to $2,000.00 will be paid for any information which leads to an arrest and charge. If you have any information, please call Crime Stoppers at:
604-855-TIPS (8477)
604-669-TIPS or
1-800-222-TIPS
Crime Stoppers
Crime Stoppers Website
Internet Safety Tips
Internet Safety Tips
How to Spot Grow Operations and Clandestine Drug Labs
Grow Operations | Clandestine Lab Operations
While all Abbotsford Police members are responsible for enforcing Canadian drug laws, the Abbotsford Police Department has a section who works full time within our community. These plainclothes members work within the City of Abbotsford conducting drug related investigations. Information from citizens often assist the section in successful prosecutions.
General Drug Information
Drug offenses in Canada fall under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Food and Drugs Act and related sections of the Criminal Code.
The Abbotsford Police Department relies on public support to combat drug-related crime. In accordance with the law, the Abbotsford Police Department respects the privacy and confidentiality of persons who provide drug-related information.
Return to Top
Marijuana Indoor Cultivation Indicators
As a citizen of Abbotsford, YOU can assist the Abbotsford Police Drug Section.
If you, members of your family, friends or neighbours have suspicion regarding any of the following indicators, please contact the Abbotsford Police Department at 604-859-5225 or Crime Stoppers @ 604-855-TIPS. (604-855-8477)
*WARNING*Members of the general public are asked not to put themselves in any compromising position if you suspect a marijuana grow operation or other criminal activity in your neighbourhood.
How To Spot A “Grow Operation”
* Rental Accommodations: Almost all marijuana growers will utilize rental property, residence & commercial to avoid damage to their own properties. E.g. high humidity levels & alterations to accommodate the grow. *Important Note To Landlords*: Tenants may pay rent in cash and while having no known source of income, drive expensive cars and use cell phones & pagers.Tenants may be reluctant to allow landlords to inspect their rented property and/or make arrangements to meet landlords away from the property to pay rent and/or discuss problems.
* Discarded Equipment: Sometimes growers leave equipment lying around the yard such as nutrient containers, pots, wiring, soil, root balls, aluminum shrouds and PVC piping. On garbage day, a grow-op residence most likely will not put out any garbage due to the fact that grow houses are commonly used for the sole purpose of growing marijuana.
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* Unusual visitor behaviour: Inconsistencies in visitors to & from the residence, ranging from no visitors giving the appearance of seclusion, to frequent visitors for short time periods. Visitors will often leave one person waiting in the car while the other enters the premises.
* Covered windows: Covered with black plastic, heavy curtains pressed against the windows or blinds that are tightly shut & pressed against the windows.
* Condensation: Humidity inside a grow room is approximately 65% with temperatures ranging between 80 to 90 F. These conditions manifest themselves through condensation on windows.
* Smells & Odors: Skunk-like odor mixed with a sweet vegetative smell or the unique smell of rotting cabbage. Also, the odor of moth balls, chlorine, manure, soap and/or air freshener is frequently utilized ways of trying to mask the smell of the operation.
* Electrical humming, fans, trickling water: Some electrical components in an indoor operation create humming sounds similar to a transformer on a hydro pole.
* Bright lights: High intensity 1000 watt lamps are normally used and sometimes not completely disguised. These lights are the same as used in outdoor public swimming pools, school gyms, outdoor football & baseball parks.
* Localized power surges/browning: Neighbourhood residences experience unexplained power surges or power “browning” (decrease of power which dims lights & slows down appliance use) with the return of normal power flow approximately 12 hours later.
* “Beware of Dog” or “Guard Dog on Duty” signs: Used to deter trespassing, protect against theft and detection by police.
* History of premises: Residence and/or commercial premises have been used as marijuana grow operations in the past. Many of these rental properties are known among the criminal element as having been used for growing marijuana then repeatedly used again.
* Other indicators used as props to deflect any attention by neighbours and police: Outdoor and/or indoor lights, radio and/or TV on for 24 hours, flyers left in mailbox or on the front steps, children’s toys & bikes outside without children living or seen at the residence, realty signs posted on front lawn.
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Clandestine Lab Site Indicators (Methamphetamine, Speed, Ecstasy) These drugs are being produced in illegal laboratories hurriedly set up in basements, bathrooms, garages and many other places in and around a residence. They pose a danger to our neighbourhoods by being toxic chemicals with the potential for explosions and/or fires.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Drug dealers and manufacturers have common habits, which can easily be observed.
*WARNING* Members of the general public are asked not to put themselves in any compromising position if you suspect a clandestine lab operation or other criminal activity.
How To Spot A Clandestine Lab Site
* Windows blackened out or curtains always drawn.
* Unfriendly tenants appear secretive about their activities. Tenants display paranoid or odd behaviour; watch cars suspiciously when passing by their residence.
* Coming outside to smoke cigarettes.
* Frequent visitors, often driving expensive vehicles.
* Frequent late night activity.
* Unemployed tenants, yet they drive expensive cars, seem to have plenty of money and pay their bills with cash.
* Premises have been outfitted with expensive security.
* Chemical odor coming from the house, apartment, garage or detached building.
* Garbage frequently has numerous bottles and containers: Acetone, Toluene, Muriatic Acid, Red Phosphorus, Ephedrine, Pseudoephedrine, veterinarian products, methanol, Rubbing Alcohol, sodium hydroxide, Ether, paint thinner, ammonia, etc.
* Tenants setting out their garbage in another neighbour's collection area.
* Metal drums and boxes with labels removed or spray-painted over.
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/3595086.html
Wild Ride
KAKE News
Deb Farris & Theresa Freed
August 17 - A semi driver leads police on a wild chase Thursday morning. A Cherryvale trucking company called police because it hadn't heard from one of its drivers since midnight. Wichita Police found the semi at 9th and Grove. When officers approached it, the semi took off, nearly hitting the officers in the process. A second man in the semi bailed out as the chase began.
Along the way, the chase lead to an accident involving an officer's cruiser and a car driven by a pregnant woman. She was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Another woman's car was actually hit by the semi, knocking her rear view mirror off. She worries if she'd turned just an inch more things could have turned out much worse.
During the chase, three Wichita schools were put under lock down. The schools affected were Isley Elementary, Northeast Magnet High School and Little Early Childhood Education Center. The lock down lasted just 30 minutes. Students were sent home with a letter explaining what happened and that everyone was alright.
The chase finally came to an end when the semi hit a dirt road near Andover. The driver veered off the road and on to private property. The owner of the property quickly got her children in to the house until everything was clear. The semi eventually hit a tree. The driver bailed out, but officers quickly arrested him. He's been booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on charges for evading police and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. The trucker was apparently carrying a load of meat from southeast Kansas, but dumped it at Douglas and Madison. Police believe some of the meat was stolen.
Find this article at:
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/3595086.html
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/3709671.html
Train Derailment
KAKE News
Jennifer Bocchieri
Train Derailment
August 22 - A train traveling through Reno County jumped the tracks near Arlington Tuesday night. A connector between cars broke sending 10 of the cars off the track. Six of the cars landed on their side, four others jutted into the air. The train had been heading west from Kansas City to Los Angeles. The trip was cut short for 80 brand new Toyotas now left mangled. This isn't the first time a train has derailed at this location. Six years ago, a train dumped 48 cars off the tracks.
No one was hurt in Tuesday's derailment. It did shut down the highway overnight. Crews are loading up the wrecked trucks. They'll be taken to Kansas City to be crushed. It will take at least another day before the derailment is all cleaned up.
Links referenced within this article
Train Derailment
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/925479
Find this article at:
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/3709671.html
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/3712106.html
Local Merchant Selling Stolen Goods
Teresa Freed
Local Merchant Selling Stolen Goods
August 22 – Wichita police find thousands of dollars worth of ''stolen'' merchandise in a local store.
A tip to police led to the discount store bust, they delivered a search warrant to the store Tuesday.
Wichita police raiding a local business believe there is tens of thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise inside.
Much of the property was claimed by employees of a local dollar store.
Now, police are working to return the merchandise. No arrest has been made.
Links referenced within this article
Local Merchant Selling Stolen Goods
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/926030
Find this article at:
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/3712106.html
http://www.paulsvalleydailydemocrat.com/homepage/local_story_230095306.html?keyword=leadpicturestory
[Texas and Oklahoma]
Burglary ring keeps growing
By Barry Porterfield
Staff Writer
— New turns and twists have literally been developing each day since a Texas man was arrested last week for his connection in a Wynnewood area car dealership burglary.
The investigation into Justin Paul Anderson, 27, who currently faces double-digit criminal charges here in Garvin County, now appears to have led authorities to a large scale burglary ring that covers multiple counties and states.
Garvin County deputies said an ongoing closer look into Anderson and those associated with him continues to grow every day with burglaries and stolen equipment stretching from Stillwater to Sherman, Texas.
“We have two in custody and are currently investigating five other individuals that are associates or accomplices and they’re all from the McClain County area,” said Garvin County Deputy Travis Crawford.
“Information is coming in daily that seems to open up further investigations,” he said.
Still, Anderson is described as the “primary” suspect as authorities work to recover about $1 million worth of stolen property from six Oklahoma counties.
Crawford and other officials believe Anderson and others involved in the burglary ring routinely stole high value items from one county and would then transport the property to other counties, where it would be sold or altered.
Anderson’s arrest on Aug. 8 at a Pauls Valley residence seemed to jump-start a burglary case that at the time appeared to be somewhat limited in scope.
His arrest was on the suspicion he stole a pickup truck, a 48-foot enclosed trailer, three motorcycles, computers and tools from a car dealership located west of Wynnewood. The burglary took place the previous weekend.
Evidence also tied Anderson to two others thefts as trucks and trailers were previously stolen from a site north of Paoli and a drilling company located in northern McClain County.
All of that has added up to 10 criminal charges being filed against Anderson in Garvin County alone with nine of the counts being burglary-related felonies.
The one other suspect currently in custody is Kevin Shawn Easley, 28.
Easley, a former Garvin County resident, was arrested earlier this week when Carter County authorities conducted a search of his large shop building near Springer described as being the size of a basketball gym.
“Stolen property recovered here, at one time or another, had been at this shop,” Crawford said.
Found at Easley’s shop were stolen items that authorities estimated to be valued at about $300,000.
The items included three semi-trucks, two of which were reportedly stolen from Payne County, and a John Deere tractor taken from Grady County. Also found at the site and believed to be stolen were four trailers.
Even more evidence was found when Grady County authorities searched a second large shop building, this one located west of Dibble.
This other building also is reported to belong to Anderson.
Found inside were tools stolen from here and McClain County and vehicle parts that seems to indicate the facility might have been used to store stolen items or alter them.
“There were parts there that lead us to believe it was a chop shop,” Crawford said.
Tools were also recovered that were taken from the Wynnewood car dealership, which means all the stolen items reported in Garvin County with a connection to Anderson have been recovered.
Computer related items stolen from Cleveland County were also found at the shop.
“All of this is based on the investigation that started here,” Crawford said.
“We started passing information onto these other agencies and things really started happening,” he said.
“It opens up those investigations into burglary cases that are still open. We have multiple suspects to begin investigating for those burglaries.”
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.
[True terror, hard to think of it happening over and over in America]
http://www.paulsvalleydailydemocrat.com/local/local_story_233102230.html?keyword=secondarystory
Four arrested in abduction case
By Barry Porterfield
Staff Writer
— The last of four suspects was taken into custody Friday afternoon after kidnapping and taking a Durant woman on a scary and potentially deadly ride that finally came to an end near Stratford.
The suspects, who are fellow Durant residents, are accused of turning on their friend by abducting her from Lake Texoma after the group had gone there to party and have a good time.
Just the opposite occurred as the 26-year-old woman was bound with duct tape, attacked with a tire tool and rocks and driven away in the trunk of her own car as the suspects were apparently on their way to Shawnee for an unknown reason.
That plan was interrupted in a big way Thursday morning when the partially clothed woman escaped from the trunk about a mile north of Stratford on U.S. 177.
With the assistance of two men working on some nearby property, the woman’s escape proved successful and allowed word to get out about the abduction.
“She was covered in blood,” Deputy Travis Crawford said as Garvin County authorities assisted at the scene.
“They immediately tended to her and gave her aid before contacting authorities,” he said about the two men.
Information about the incident began to piece together as deputies questioned the injured woman, who was among a group of five people arriving at Lake Texoma late Wednesday night.
“They were just down there partying and drinking and swimming,” Crawford said.
At some point an argument broke out between two women who would later assume the roles of victim and attacker.
It is believed drug use could have been involved in the dispute that led to the kidnapping.
According to the victim’s statement to deputies, she fell asleep at the lake before awaking to the others placing duct tape around most of her upper body, including wrists and arms to her side and complete coverage of her head area.
It was then she was allegedly beaten by the other woman using a tire tool.
“The next thing she knows is she’s in the trunk of a car. She doesn’t recall how she got in the trunk,” Crawford said.
After regaining consciousness, the woman realized she was in the trunk of her own car and began screaming for help.
On at least three occasions the car would stop and the female driver, whose name was unavailable, would open the trunk and threaten her before using a “huge rock” to strike the victim on the head.
She later got partially free from the duct tape and used a release button to open the trunk and get out. It was there she ran to the two nearby workers for help as the suspects drove away from the scene.
Authorities later learned a flat tire brought the vehicle to a stop in the Oil Center area of Pontotoc County
Although the female driver reportedly used a gun to threaten the other suspects, they all scattered before officials caught up with them.
Reports then came in of another woman being kidnapped at gunpoint and being forced to drive two of the suspects to Pauls Valley.
As it turned out the woman, who was eventually stopped by a state trooper, was not threatened in any way. She did, however, give Wesley Daniels, 27, and Stephanie Burch, 18, a ride to a convenience store on the west side of Pauls Valley, where they were quickly taken into custody and questioned.
“They confirmed the victim’s story,” Crawford said, adding the suspects claimed the only attacker was the woman earlier threatening them.
It was later learned the suspect had acquired a ride to Ada. She was later arrested at a convenience store there.
The fourth suspect, Gordon White, 22, was arrested near the Oil Center area.
The female victim was initially treated in Pauls Valley for lacerations to her head and bruising and swelling around her neck. She was later transferred to Norman.
The four suspects will be transported back to Bryan County, where they could face kidnapping, attempted murder and stolen vehicle charges.
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/15296908.htm
Posted on Thu, Aug. 17, 2006
Police capture runaway truck driver
BY TIM POTTER AND JON SCHUBIN
The Wichita Eagle
A truck driver led police on a 37-minute chase today that briefly shut down three schools and wound across northeast Wichita before ending in a pasture near the Butler County line.
No one was injured.
The chase started about 11:40 a.m. at Ninth and Grove after police were called to check on the welfare of the truck driver.
Wichita police Lt. Alan Prince said police found him sitting in the cab of the semi, minus its trailer. He refused to get out of the truck and gunned the engine, throwing two officers off the running boards as he sped off, Prince said.
The chase wound through neighborhoods near Wichita State University before heading east along 13th Street, with police in cars and a helicopter in pursuit. In the process, the truck hit tree, a fence and utility pole and clipped a Mustang.
Isely Elementary, Northeast Magnet High School and Little Early Childhood Center were locked down for about 20 minutes as a precaution because the truck passed nearby.
When the truck driver reached 143rd Street East, he headed north. In the 3100 block, he encountered a "bridge out" sign, veered around a farm house, rumbled through a pasture and got stuck near a creek, Prince said.
The man ran from the cab and tried to hide in a clump of trees, where officers arrested him without a struggle, Prince said.
The driver, age 34, was being held on a suspicion of a variety of felony charges, including aggravated assault on law enforcement officers and traffic violations. Prince said the man gave a Florida address, and there is an outstanding warrant for him in that state.
Contributing: Icess Fernandez of The Eagle
© 2006 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.kansas.com
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/15315796.htm
Posted on Sun, Aug. 20, 2006
Police helicopter makes emergency landing at school
The Wichita Police Department's helicopter made an emergency landing in a middle school parking lot Saturday night after it developed engine trouble while on routine patrol.
Sgt. Randy Reynolds said the aircraft was flying over west Wichita about 8 p.m. when the engine began to malfunction. The helicopter landed in a parking lot of Wilbur Middle School, 340 N. Tyler Road, without damage.
Reynolds said the pilot and an observer were unnerved by the sudden landing but were not hurt. He said the helicopter would be towed back to the department's heliport.
-- Hurst Laviana
One killed, one hurt in accident near Lindsborg
One Kansan was killed and another was injured Friday in a two-car accident just south of Lindsborg. The Kansas Highway Patrol said Todd A. Bridges, 41, of Salina was killed after his car went left of the center line and collided head-on with a car driven by Sanford L. Corey of Lindsborg.
The accident occurred at 3:22 p.m. Friday, the Highway Patrol said. Corey was in critical condition Saturday at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus.
-- Eagle staff
Baseball game, auction benefit police memorial
Wichita police officers and Wranglers office staff will square off in a charity baseball game Sept. 3.
The second annual match will benefit the Sedgwick County Law Enforcement Memorial Fund for a planned monument to officers who died in the line of duty.
The free match starts after the 2 p.m. Wrangler game finishes. Donations will be accepted.
A silent sports memorabilia auction will be held, with items signed by Troy Aikman, Nolan Ryan and many others.
Last year's game raised about $2,000 for hurricane victims. Wichita Officer Brian Mock said the department hopes to take in at least double that this year.
-- Jon Schubin
© 2006 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.kansas.com
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/15315790.htm
Posted on Sun, Aug. 20, 2006
Quilters sew for wounded veterans
BY KAREN SHIDELER
The Wichita Eagle
When our part of the country was being settled, Karen Funcheon says, men had land and women had quilts.
Much of the land has been eaten up by cities and corporate farming, but "those quilts are still around" and treasured.
And 100 years from now, Funcheon and other quilters hope the Quilts of Valor they were working on Saturday at Asbury United Methodist Church will be treasured heirlooms, too.
First, they'll be sent to military and veterans hospitals, to be wrapped around the shoulders or over the legs of men and women wounded in the war on terrorism.
The quilts are part of a national effort to provide each wounded service member with a quilt of his or her own. Most are in some variation of red, white and blue -- burgundy, cream and light blue, for example -- and each has a label that says who made it and where.
"This is like a group effort," Funcheon said, with one person donating fabric, another piecing together a quilt block, someone putting the blocks together into a quilt top and someone else doing the quilting. Everyone involved signs a label sewn to the back before the quilt is packed into a pillowcase, many of them embroidered by Janice Cryer of Wichita. The pillowcase serves as wrapping paper around these gifts.
The women almost never know who gets their quilts. They're presented by chaplains or hospital volunteers.
The quilts are made of sturdy cotton and quilted by machine, so they'll be durable enough for hospital laundry rooms. But those labels on the back put them in the future heirloom category, Funcheon said, because any signed quilt is more valuable.
Katy Vickers of Wichita made a dozen Quilts of Valor on her own before hooking up with Cassandra Carson, a machine quilter from Wichita.
"We decided we wanted to get a quilting bee up and going," Vickers said.
Saturday, the monthly bee was a combination of sewing, storytelling, and oohs and aahs at new contributions.
Funcheon, who lives in Bel Aire, has been quilting for 20 years and has a son headed to Iraq later this year. "I'm already panicking," she said.
Carson has a son serving in Baghdad, "so this is important to me."
Harriet Ratzlaff had told herself for years that she'd start quilting when she retired. "And I'm retired." She hooked up with the group at a quilt show.
But you don't have to know how to quilt to join, the women pointed out. In fact, you don't even have to know how to sew. They'll teach you, as they did with two women at last month's bee.
When a quilt top is finished, it's given to someone who has a quilting machine, then returned to the group for finishing touches before being packed and sent.
Nationwide, Quilts of Valor has delivered almost 6,000 quilts.
"We're going to keep going as long as there's a need," Vickers said. "There's still a lot more guys out there who could use some quilts."
Reach Karen Shideler at 316-268-6674 or kshideler@wichitaeagle.com.
© 2006 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.kansas.com
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2006/08/23/ap-state-wa/d8jlrug02.txt
Two airliners return to Sea-Tac Airport
Aug 22, 2006 - 07:51:44 pm PDT
SEATTLE - Engine trouble forced an American Airlines jetliner headed for Chicago to return to Seattle and make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff early Tuesday, the airline said.
In a second incident, a United Airlines plane bound for Tokyo also turned around and landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after the crew reported an odor aboard the Boeing 777.
Pilots of American Airlines Flight 526 turned around soon after the compressor in one of the MD-80's two engines stalled, said Tim Wagner, a spokesman for Fort Worth-based American.
The plane, which departed Sea-Tac around 11:26 p.m. Monday, landed safely back at the airport around 12:13 a.m. Tuesday, Wagner said.
Passengers were placed on another plane, which left Seattle at 1:52 a.m. and landed at Chicago's O'Hare Airport at 7:39 a.m., about two and a half hours later than the original flight had been scheduled to land, Wagner said.
The United incident involved Flight 875, which left for Narita Airport at 1:42 p.m. Tuesday with 252 passengers and 14 crew members, said airline spokeswoman Megan McCarthy in Chicago.
It turned around a short time later and landed safely at about 2:30 p.m., as emergency crews stood by. The passengers got off the plane normally, through the jetway at a gate.
The initial report was of smoke and fire aboard the plane, airport spokesman Bob Parker told KIRO-TV. McCarthy said she could not verify that _ only that an odor was reported. There was no fire, she said, and the source of the odor was not immediately known.
One flight attendant was checked by paramedics for some respiratory discomfort, but there were no other reports of injuries, McCarthy said.
The plane was taken out of service, and passengers were to be put on a replacement plane for the flight Wednesday morning, McCarthy said.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1670829/posts
Sniper shootings kill 1 on Ind. highway-(update multiple gun afire locations)
ap ^ | 7/23/06 | ap
Posted on 07/23/2006 7:48:29 AM PDT by Flavius
SEYMOUR, Ind. - Sniper shootings of two vehicles along Interstate 65 in southern Indiana early Sunday left one person dead and another injured, state police said. ADVERTISEMENT
A sniper shot at a southbound vehicle about 12:20 a.m., killing one of its three occupants, police said. About the same time, occupants of a second southbound vehicle called police to report a passenger had been shot.
The victim was hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.
Authorities closed a 14-mile stretch of the interstate in the area, about 40 miles south of Indianapolis.
A preliminary investigation showed the sniper fired from either the roadway or an overpass, state police said in a news release.
Meanwhile, police also were investigating two other shootings along the interstate about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis. Those shootings, which occurred about two hours after the first shooting, struck a semitrailer and a parked, unattended vehicle, state police at the Redkey post said. No one was hurt.
"At this time it is unknown whether the shootings in the Seymour and Redkey area are related," police said.
[a post for study and research]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/19/AR2006081900856_pf.html
A Covert Chapter Opens For Fort Hunt Veterans
As Files on Nazi POWs Are Declassified, Their Interrogators Break Their Silence.
By Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 20, 2006; A01
For more than 60 years, they kept their military secrets locked deep inside and lived quiet lives as account executives, college professors, business consultants and the like.
The brotherhood of P.O. Box 1142 enjoyed no homecoming parades, no VFW reunions, no embroidered ball caps and no regaling of wartime stories to grandchildren sitting on their knees.
Almost no one, not even their wives, in many cases, knew the place in history held by the men of Fort Hunt, alluded to during World War II only by a mailing address that was its code name.
But the declassification of thousands of military documents and the dogged persistence of Brandon Bies, a bookish park ranger determined to record this furtive piece of history, is bringing the men of P.O. Box 1142 out of the shadows.
One by one, some of the surviving 100 or so military intelligence interrogators who questioned Third Reich scientists, submariners and soldiers at one of the United States's most secretive prisoner camps are, in the twilight of their lives, spilling tales they had dared not whisper before.
"It's good. Very good to talk about all this, at last," Fred Michel said last week, steadying himself on his cane as he looked over the rolling, green land along the Potomac River in Fairfax County that once was home to prison cells and interrogation rooms embedded with hidden microphones.
Michel, 85, slowly lowered himself onto a picnic table bench next to his old friend, H. George Mandel, 82. Although they have lived just a few miles apart for most of six decades, they had not spoken since their discharge Dec. 13, 1945. So hush-hush was their work for P.O. Box 1142 that the men recruited for it were ordered to never mention it. To this day, some have refused to speak to the park ranger gathering their oral histories, believing that the oath they took more than 60 years ago can never be broken.
For others, the taboo has eroded as documents have been declassified in waves, starting in 1977 and continuing into the 1990s. Nevertheless, many of the activities of P.O. Box 1142 remain shrouded in mystery.
According to a history cobbled together by the National Park Service, the unit was conceived as an Army/Navy installation to gather information from prisoners who had been captured or surrendered and were brought to the United States for questioning. Germany had superior technology, particularly in rocketry and submarines, and the information that was gleaned from interrogations gave the United States an advantage going into the Cold War and the space age.
In the beginning, the prisoners were mostly U-boat crew members who had survived the sinking of their submarines in the Atlantic Ocean. As the war progressed, P.O. Box 1142 shifted its attention to some of the most prominent scientists in Germany, many of whom surrendered and gave up information willingly, hoping to be allowed to stay in the United States.
The prisoners stayed at Fort Hunt for as little as two or three weeks and as long as nine months. They were held incommunicado; when they had told everything they knew, they were transferred to regular POW camps elsewhere in the United States, and the Red Cross was then notified of their capture. After the war, some returned to Germany, and some stayed in the United States, slipping into the fabric of American life.
Michel and Mandel were German Jews who had immigrated to the United States before the war and were recruited to the unit. They and other interrogators said they obtained information about discoveries in microwaves, atomic and molecular studies, jets used in German planes and submarine technology, including a snorkel that allowed U-boats to stay underwater for long stretches. All they learned was put into top-secret reports that went straight to the Pentagon.
But at night, Michel and Mandel maintained an air of mystery with the dance-card girls, snapping back the reply of "P.O. Box 1142, ma'am" when asked where they were stationed, they recalled.
Further explanation was forbidden. The more than 3,400 prisoners who stayed there were off the books, too, partly because operations at Fort Hunt were "not exactly legal" according to the Geneva Conventions, the National Park Service said.
When it all ended, Michel and Mandel went their separate ways, kept apart by the code of silence. They raised families and had long careers, Mandel as a chemist in Bethesda, Michel as a mechanical engineer in Alexandria.
They met again last week at a Fort Hunt they barely recognized. A family reunion was underway nearby, and a moonbounce wiggled under the weight of children as Beach Boy tunes wafted in the air. It was a far cry from their recollections of roaring Jeeps, the German prisoners and high-ranking officers storming by.
They revisited the place of cloaked memories because Bies had found them.
Bies, 27, is a cultural resource specialist with the National Park Service, schooled in archaeology and obsessed with military history. The wide-brimmed Smokey Bear hat and crisp uniform of the park service suit him all right, but he is more comfortable in piles of documents in a National Archives research room than in the hills of Virginia.
He was working on a series of signs that the park service was planning to place throughout Fort Hunt. They would detail the fort's transformation from a picnic area in 1942 into a major military installation with more than 100 buildings, guard towers and a tangle of electric fences.
Bies hopes to create a full archive of oral histories recorded from the interrogators. He envisions a visitors center that would display the stories, declassified reports and photos he has found. He even imagines installing World War II-era speakers like the ones that were planted in prison cells, piping in German conversations that intelligence officers translated and picked apart.
Then, early this year, a woman on a guided tour of Fort Hunt told a park ranger she thought that her neighbor used to work at Fort Hunt, which today is a park managed by the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The ranger passed Michel's name on to Bies, jump-starting a race against time and old age to find the veterans and record their histories.
"A lot them, unfortunately, have passed away," Bies said. "They're very frail, and this is really the last chance that many of them get to tell their stories. One of them even died since we interviewed him."
He and other Park Service rangers have sifted through reams of documents in the National Archives and have come up with a few names. Almost all of the interrogators were Jewish immigrants from Germany; some lost entire families in the Holocaust. They were recruited to P.O. Box 1142 for their language skills and, in the cases of Michel and Mandel, their scientific background. But the full rosters were kept secret, and many of the declassified documents are missing.
Bies tracked down Michel in Kentucky, where he had moved from Alexandria to be near his family because of his failing health. The former interrogator, who had immigrated from Landau, Germany, before the war, was overjoyed to talk about his time at P.O. Box 1142.
They spent hours talking about Nazi scientists who told Michel about microwave technology, U-boat engineering and other marvels that the young mechanical engineer coaxed out of them.
Michel also told Bies about his bunkmate, Mandel. One quick Google search turned up Mandel's smiling face. "He was right there, near us all along, teaching at George Washington University," Bies said of Mandel, who had immigrated from Berlin in 1937.
Mandel had kept his own family in the dark about his wartime exploits.
"I know my family wondered where the hell I was," he said. "I told them I was speaking to scientists, or something like that. They didn't know I was interrogating Nazis."
His past revisited him once, at a scientific conference in Paris. In passing, he locked eyes with another scientist, a man he had interrogated in a cramped cell years ago.
"He looked at me, and I heard him say to someone in German: 'That was my prison warden,' " Mandel said. The two men shook hands. The exchange was respectful and friendly, he said.
Not everyone at Fort Hunt was an interrogator. Some, such as Wayne Spivey, 86, of Marietta, Ga., were brought in to manage the massive flow of information that interrogators such as Michel and Mandel were getting.
"My mouth was always dropping open when we heard them talking and when we saw the information they got and the sketches of atoms and molecules and whatnot," Spivey said. "I was just one of three Southern boys there, walking around hearing German and Russian and Japanese."
So far, Bies has contacted about 15 veterans, and he tries to rush to their sides to capture their fading memories.
Bies hopes to stage a large reunion next year, with all of the veterans he can find. Then they can stand on the green fields of Fort Hunt, shake hands and embrace, as Michel and Mandel did last week and, at long last, talk.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
[there are other links to associated articles]
http://www.fpp.co.uk/Auschwitz/Dachau/BostonGlobe270601.html
BostonGlobe
Friday, June 29, 2001
[Photo and caption provided by this website]
Press Release
The Boston Globe's Series, 'Secret History of World War II' Reports On Holocaust Plans and a Dark Note to The US Liberation of Dachau
Two special reports to be published Sunday and Monday, July 1 and 2
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 29, 2001-- The Boston Globe's continuing year-long series, "The Secret History of World War II," resumes Sunday and Monday, July 1 and 2, with two significant reports, one about the Nazi's Holocaust plans and a second about a dark side to the American liberation of the Dachau death camp.
On Sunday, July 1, the Globe reports on a declassified document showing that the U.S. knew about Nazi plans for the Holocaust six months earlier than previously believed. A leading historian who discovered the November 1941 document independent of the Globe said the dispatch raises new questions about what the Allies could have done to prevent what became the central horror of the war.
The dispatch is among the three million pages of documents released by U.S. intelligence agencies under the 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act. The declassified records, unprecedented in their breadth and depth of detail, are the dossiers that the CIA had previously refused to open to public scrutiny because they contained the names of sources and described the precise way that missions were carried out.
Among the other revelations in The Boston Globe story, by staff reporter Mark Fritz, are details of a U.S. intelligence effort to block the creation of Israel.
US troops massacred German prisoners at Dachau
Felix Sparks's soldiers liberating Dachau. Surrendered German soldiers were stood against a wall and massacred.
continued/....................
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20221652-38196,00.html
China denies Hezbollah arms export
From correspondents in Beijing
August 22, 2006 09:35pm
CHINA has never exported arms to Hezbollah, a senior Chinese diplomat said today, although he did not rule out the possibility that weapons may have been transferred to the Lebanese group by a third party.
Sun Bigan, China's special envoy to the Middle East, was asked to respond to media reports which alleged Hezbollah used weapons from Iran, whose technology originally came from China.
“I think the information or the news is not accurate about the use of Chinese weapons in the Lebanon-Israel battlefield,” Mr Sun said in a briefing about his recent trip to the Middle East.
“I have taken note of these reports. The information itself is groundless.
“China does have some normal arms trade with some countries, however, the arms trade is with sovereign states. China does not provide weapons to any organizations, groups or (political) parties.”
Hezbollah fired a missile at an Israeli warship on July 14 and killed four sailors. The Israeli army said at the time it was a radar-guided C-802 anti-ship missile, developed by Iran using Chinese technology.
Mr Sun said he had not seen the missiles and was not a military expert but could offer a response based on China's policy.
“According to China's policy, it's impossible for us to sell missiles to Hezbollah,” he said.
But Mr Sun, could not rule out that the weapons may have been transferred by a third party.
He said that if weapons were transferred to another country, China would be “very concerned,” but as far as he knew, Beijing had not launched an investigation.
A ceasefire in the Hezbollah-Israel conflict took effect on August 14, bringing to an end 34 days of warfare that cost more than 1400 lives and devastated much of Lebanon.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the US and Israel had launched a diplomatic effort to prevent other countries from helping rearm Hezbollah.
Officials have been pressing world arms suppliers, notably Russia and China, not to allow their weaponry to find its way to the Lebanese group, the report said.
Iran, which has good relations with China, is considered a main backer of Hezbollah, though it had denied supplying the group with weapons. The United States is Israel's biggest military supplier.
http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=apr93cahn
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Team B: The trillion-dollar experiment
Two experts report on how a group of Cold War true believers were invited to second-guess the CIA. Did the "outside experts" of the 1970s contribute to the military buildup of the 1980s?
By Anne Hessing Cahn
April 1993 pp. 22, 24-27 (vol. 49, no. 03) © 1993 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
lection years have much in common. They produce a profusion of punditry, media attention, and politically expedient action, quickly forgotten, and with little lasting impact. But not always; sometimes events are set into motion that have long lifetimes. This was the case in 1976 when, as in 1992, an incumbent Republican president faced a strong challenge from the right wing of his own party. Then (as last year) sops were offered to placate the far right and, while it is too early to know which of the 1992 capers will endure, we now know a great deal about one of the most political events of 1976, and its remarkably long-lasting effects on U.S. policy.
Late last year, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released the 1976 "Team B" reports. Team B was an experiment in competitive threat assessments approved by then-Director of Central Intelligence George Bush. Teams of "outside experts" were to take independent looks at the highly classified data used by the intelligence community to assess Soviet strategic forces in the yearly National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs). NIEs are authoritative and are widely circulated within the government. U.S. national security policy on various issues as well as the defense budget are based on their general conclusions. Although NIEs represent the collective judgment of the entire intelligence community, the lead agency is the CIA.
There were three "B" teams. One studied Soviet low-altitude air defense capabilities, one examined Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) accuracy, and one investigated Soviet strategic policy and objectives. But it is the third team, chaired by Harvard professor Richard Pipes, that ultimately received considerable publicity and is commonly referred to as Team B.
The Team B experiment was concocted by conservative cold warriors determined to bury détente and the SALT process. Panel members were all hard-liners. The experiment was leaked to the press in an unsuccessful attempt at an "October surprise." But most important, the Team B reports became the intellectual foundation of "the window of vulnerability" and of the massive arms buildup that began toward the end of the Carter administration and accelerated under President Reagan.
How did the Team B notion come about? In 1974, Albert Wohlstetter, a professor at the University of Chicago, accused the CIA of systematically underestimating Soviet missile deployment, and conservatives began a concerted attack on the CIA's annual assessment of the Soviet threat. This assessment--the NIE--was an obvious target.
In the mid-1970s, the CIA was vulnerable on three counts. First, it was still reeling from the 1975 congressional hearings about covert assassination attempts on foreign leaders and other activities. Second, it was considered "payback time" by hard-liners, who were still smarting from the CIA's realistic assessments during the Vietnam war years--assessments that failed to see light at the end of the tunnel. And finally, between 1973 and 1976, there were four different directors of central intelligence, in contrast to the more stately progression of four directors in the preceding 20 years.
The vehicle chosen from within the administration to challenge the CIA was the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB). Formed as the Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Affairs by President Eisenhower in 1956, PFIAB was reconstituted by President Kennedy in 1961 after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Members are appointed by the president but hold no other government positions (except possibly on other advisory committees or panels). By 1975, PFIAB was a home for such conservatives as William Casey, John Connally, John Foster, Clare Booth Luce, and Edward Teller.
The PFIAB first raised the issue of competitive threat assessments in 1975, but Director of Central Intelligence William Colby was able to ward them off, partly on procedural grounds (an NIE was in progress). But Colby, a career CIA officer, also said, "It is hard for me to envisage how an ad hoc 'independent' group of government and non-government analysts could prepare a more thorough, comprehensive assessment of Soviet strategic capabilities--even in two specific areas--than the intelligence community can prepare." [1]
At a September 1975 meeting of CIA, National Security Council, and PFIAB staff, the deputy for National Intelligence Officers, George A. Carver, noted that since John Foster and Edward Teller, the principal PFIAB members pushing for the alternative assessment, disagreed with some of the judgments made by the intelligence community, "the PFIAB proposal could be construed as recommending the establishment of another organization which might reach conclusions more compatible with their thinking."
In 1976, when George Bush became the new director of central intelligence, the PFIAB lost no time in renewing its request for competitive threat assessments. Although his top analysts argued against such an undertaking, Bush checked with the White House, obtained an O.K., and by May 26 signed off on the experiment with the notation, "Let her fly!! O.K. G.B." [2] Why in the world did the Ford administration, gearing up for an election campaign, put prominent outside critics of the CIA on the agency's payroll, give them free access to the classified material, data, and files they requested, and not foresee how damaging the resulting study could be?
By spring 1976, President Ford was in deep political trouble. A January poll showed that his performance had a 46 percent disapproval rating. The president attributed much of the dissatisfaction to the increasing criticism of détente by a conservative coalition in both parties. Moreover, at the time the Soviet Union and Cuba were actively supporting the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, while the U.S. Senate had barred further covert American support to the other contenders.
Nevertheless, early in January 1976 President Ford defended the policy of détente he had inherited from Richard Nixon and said in an NBC News interview: "I think it would be very unwise for a President--me or anyone else--to abandon détente. I think détente is in the best interest of this country. It is in the best interest of world stability, world peace." [3]
But then came the February 24 New Hampshire primary, and President Ford nosed out challenger Ronald Reagan by only one percent-age point. Reagan began to step up his attacks on the "Ford-Kissinger" foreign policy, claiming that the United States had been permitted to slide into second place and that the Soviet Union was taking advantage of détente at the expense of American prestige and security.
In March, three important events took place. During an interview, President Ford abruptly banished the word "détente" from his political vocabulary, much to the surprise of the White House staff. "We are going to forget the use of the word détente," the president said. "What happens in the negotiations . . . are the things that are of consequence." [4] Then, at a lunch at Washington D.C.'s Metropolitan Club, Richard Allen, Max Kampelman, Paul Nitze, Eugene Rostow, and Elmo Zumwalt, all well-known hawks opposed to détente, agreed to form the "Committee on the Present Danger" (CPD) to alert the public to the "growing Soviet threat." The first draft of the committee's initial statement was circulated to its members within a month. Finally, on March 23, Ronald Reagan won the North Carolina primary--only the third time in U.S. history that a challenger had defeated an incumbent president in a primary. He went on to win the Nebraska and Texas primaries as well.
By now, conservative critics in full swing kept up a steady cry of alarm. Paul Nitze, a CPD and Team B member, testified before the Joint Committee on Defense Production that the Soviet Union was conducting a massive civil defense program that would give it a bargaining edge in the then-deadlocked arms talks. Retired Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Daniel Graham, also a Team B member, wrote in the September 1976 Reader's Digest: "The Soviets have not built up their forces, as we have, merely to deter a nuclear war. They build their forces to fight a nuclear war and [they] see an enormous persuasive power accruing to a nation which can face the prospect of nuclear war with confidence in its survival."
A January 21, 1976, Library of Congress report, "The U.S./Soviet Military Balance, a Frame of Reference for Congress," identified a strong shift in the quantitative military balance toward the Soviet Union over the past 10 years. And the CIA itself revised its estimate of Soviet military spending to 10-15 percent of Soviet gross national product (GNP), as compared to 6-8 percent in previous NIEs. The revision was immediate news.
(This jump did not indicate any great increase in Soviet military spending nor did it change the Pentagon's estimates of actual Soviet troops, tanks, and missiles. Indeed, it reflected the judgment that the Soviet military sector was less efficient than previously believed and therefore the military's economic burden on the Soviet Union was greater than earlier estimates indicated. None of this meant a greater threat to the United States. However, such distinctions, usually made in the next to last paragraph of a long article, were lost on the public, and the message seemed to be that the Russians were spending more on defense and therefore we should too.)
In the summer of 1976, President Ford was rearranging priorities in much the same erratic way as George Bush did 16 years later in an effort to stave off conservative critics. Even the signing of the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty was delayed from May 12 to May 28 because of panic at Ford's loss to Ronald Reagan in the Nebraska primary.
In July 1976, Director of Central Intelligence George Bush let a PFIAB subcommittee suggest members of the three B teams; in August he wrote to the president that "morale at the CIA is improving." [5]
Each B team met in September and October and exchanged drafts with their CIA counterparts during October. The first press leak occurred two days after the first meeting of the CIA and Team B members who were examining Soviet strategic policy and objectives. William Beecher's story in the October 20 Boston Globe contained leaks by at least one Team B member who conveyed to the journalist only his recommendations, not those of his fellow panelists. According to Leo Cherne, then chairman of PFIAB, Director of Central Intelligence Bush was aghast at the leak and stormed into the Old Executive Building accusing members of PFIAB of being the leakers. Cherne assured Bush that this was not the case, and that "members of PFIAB were sufficiently smart to recognize that any publicity would invalidate what had been a serious effort." [6] The story was not picked up and seemed to fade from view.
However, after the Democrats won the election and President-elect Jimmy Carter had ignored Bush's hint that up to now, CIA directors had not changed with an incoming administration, George Bush, the foe of leaks, agreed to meet with David Binder of the New York Times. The same director who wrote to President Ford in August 1976, "I want to get the CIA off the front pages and at some point out of the papers altogether," now made sure that Team B would become front-page news. [7]
On Sunday, December 26, the lead New York Times story was about Team B. Bush appeared on Meet the Press, and three separate congressional committees vowed to hold hearings on the whole exercise. Although officials within the new Carter administration paid scant attention to the Team B reports, the spadework had been done. In particular, the Pipes panel's major conclusions had been publicly and repeatedly aired.
Meanwhile, back in November, nine days after the presidential election, the Committee on the Present Danger issued its founding statement, "Common Sense and the Common Danger." "The principal threat to our nation, to world peace and to the cause of human freedom is the Soviet drive for dominance based upon an unparalleled military buildup. . . . The Soviet Union has not altered its long held goal of a world dominated from a single center--Moscow." If this sounded similar to the conclusions of Richard Pipes's Team B panel, it was hardly surprising; panel members Paul Nitze, Richard Pipes, and William Van Cleave had leading roles in the committee.
Even before the Team B report was officially presented to PFIAB, Pipes was eager to publicize its findings. He opened a December 7 meeting by discussing the possibility of declassifying the report. After the CIA rejected declassification, Pipes said that "he would urge PFIAB to make the Team B report available to as large an audience as possible. If his appeal to PFIAB were rejected . . . he mentioned . . . the publication of articles on the general subject of the report without reference to classified information. . . . Pipes also raised the possibility of using the Freedom of Information Act to get the report into the public domain." [8]
It took 16 years before Pipes's hopes were fully realized and the documents published. In February 1989, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain Team B documents. After repeated letters, phone calls, and an interview by the chairman of the Intelligence Council produced only two items, I filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court in July 1992. By the first meeting before the judge in September 1992, counsel for the CIA promised that I would receive all the documents before the end of October. The CIA deposited the Team B report at the National Archive, and delivered to me most of the documents I had requested before the end of October 1992.
Today, the Team B reports recall the stridency and militancy of the conservatives in the 1970s. Team B accused the CIA of consistently underestimating the "intensity, scope, and implicit threat" posed by the Soviet Union by relying on technical or "hard" data rather than "contemplat[ing] Soviet strategic objectives in terms of the Soviet conception of 'strategy' as well as in light of Soviet history, the structure of Soviet society, and the pronouncements of Soviet leaders."
And when Team B looked at "hard" data, everywhere it saw the worst case. It reported, for instance, that the Backfire bomber "probably will be produced in substantial numbers, with perhaps 500 aircraft off the line by early 1984." (In fact, the Soviets had 235 in 1984.) Team B also regarded Soviet defenses with alarm. "Mobile ABM [anti-ballistic missiles] system components combined with the deployed SAM [surface-to-air missile] system could produce a significant ABM capability." But that never occurred.
Team B found the Soviet Union immune from Murphy's law. They examined ABM and directed energy research, and said, "Understanding that there are differing evaluations of the potentialities of laser and CPB [charged particle beam] for ABM, it is still clear that the Soviets have mounted ABM efforts in both areas of a magnitude that it is difficult to overestimate." (Emphasis in original.)
But overestimate they did. A facility at the Soviet Union's nuclear test range in Semipalatinsk was touted by Gen. George Keegan, Chief of Air Force Intelligence (and a Team B briefer), as a site for tests of Soviet nuclear-powered beam weapons. In fact, it was used to test nuclear-powered rocket engines. According to a Los Alamos physicist who recently toured Russian directed-energy facilities, "We had overestimated both their capability and their [technical] understanding."
Team B's failure to find a Soviet non-acoustic anti-submarine system was evidence that there could well be one. "The implication could be that the Soviets have, in fact, deployed some operational non-acoustic systems and will deploy more in the next few years." It wasn't a question of if the Russians were coming. They were here. (And probably working at the CIA!)
When Team B looked at the "soft" data concerning Soviet strategic concepts, they slanted the evidence to support their conclusions. In asserting that "Russian, and especially Soviet political and military theories are distinctly offensive in character," Team B claimed "their ideal is the 'science of conquest' (nauka pobezhdat) formulated by the eighteenth-century Russian commander, Field Marshal A.V. Suvorov in a treatise of the same name, which has been a standard text of Imperial as well as Soviet military science." Raymond Garthoff, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, has pointed out that the correct translation of nauka pobezhdat is "the science of winning" or the "science of victory." All military strategists strive for a winning strategy. Our own military writings are devoted to winning victories, but this is not commonly viewed as a policy of conquest.
Team B hurled another brickbat: the CIA consistently underestimated Soviet military expenditures. With the advantage of hindsight, we now know that Soviet military spending increases began to slow down precisely as Team B was writing about "an intense military buildup in nuclear as well as conventional forces of all sorts, not moderated either by the West's self-imposed restraints or by SALT." In 1983, then-deputy director of the CIA, Robert Gates, testified: "The rate of growth of overall defense costs is lower because procurement of military hardware--the largest category of defense spending--was almost flat in 1976-1981 . . . [and that trend] appears to have continued also in 1982 and 1983."
While Team B waxed eloquent about "conceptual failures," it was unable to grasp how the future might differ from the past. In 1976 mortality rates were rising for the entire Soviet population, and life expectancies, numbers of new labor entrants, and agricultural output were all declining. Yet Team B wrote confidently, "Within what is, after all, a large and expanding GNP . . . Soviet strategic forces have yet to reflect any constraining effect of civil economy competition, and are unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future." (Emphasis in original.) And When Ronald Reagan got elected, Team B became, in essence, the "A Team."
For more than a third of a century, perceptions about U.S. national security were colored by the view that the Soviet Union was on the road to military superiority over the United States. Neither Team B nor the multibillion dollar intelligence agencies could see that the Soviet Union was dissolving from within.
For more than a third of a century, assertions of Soviet superiority created calls for the United States to "rearm." In the 1980s, the call was heeded so thoroughly that the United States embarked on a trillion-dollar defense buildup. As a result, the country neglected its schools, cities, roads and bridges, and health care system. From the world's greatest creditor nation, the United States became the world's greatest debtor--in order to pay for arms to counter the threat of a nation that was collapsing.
1. William E. Colby to President Ford (Nov. 21, 1975), author collection. Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Anne H. Cahn.
2. George A. Carver, Jr., "Note for the Director," May 26, 1976.
3. Raymond Garthoff, Détente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations From Nixon to Reagan (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1985), p. 548.
4. Ibid.
5. Director of Central Intelligence George Bush to President Ford (August 3, 1976), author collection.
6. Leo Cherne, interviews with author May 23, 1990; August 2, 1990.
7. Leo Cherne, May 23, 1990.
8. Donald Suda, note to file (December 7, 1976), author collection.
Anne Hessing Cahn, a visiting scholar at the Center for International Studies at the University of Maryland in College Park, is a former official at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the Defense Department.
April 1993 pp. 22, 24-27 (vol. 49, no. 03) © 1993 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
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