Free Republic

This was first reported at FreeRepublic on Sunday, September 9 at 6:55 PM Pacific Time (3:55 PM Eastern), with follow-up posts here, here, and here.The incident took place on or some time prior to Friday, September 7. The original Freeper report, with plentiful pictures, states that: ..... It looks like the person who did this walked along The Wall with some type of container, perhaps hidden at their side so that they could squirt the oily substance without being caught in the act...... It is unknown who did this to The Wall, and apparently the US Park Police did...

Still images from video of the damage to The Vietnam Memorial Wall, filmed on Monday morning, September 10, 2007. This was two days after the National Park Service Spokesman told reporters that they discovered the damage and had begun an immediate cleanup. The lone security camera is located in a corner of the grass, closer to the Brothers statue than The Wall... The Brothers statue appeared OK... But there were numerous oily drips along the walkway around the statue. Sticker bushes around the Brothers statue proved a good security device, apparently... And an oily trail along the cobblestone between the...

tgslTakoma was up late putting Vietnam Memorial Wall (DC) Defaced Sept 7-8, 2007: PART 2 on youtube and asked that this be posted. Part 3 will show the vandalism to the Nurses Statue and the Brothers Statue. tgslTakoma also noticed on East Wall Panel 15E that it had multiple deep, long, vertical scratches/gouges. That will also be in Part 3

Last Friday a “light, oily substance” was sprayed on 50 to 60 feet of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall panels and paving stones in an act of apparent vandalism. All this week, Washington was consumed with the Iraq reports by Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker. This weekend, ANSWER and a number of other anti-war groups are planning big demonstrations in Washington. Some veterans groups are planning to parallel the demostrations with lines of volunteers blocking access to the Vietnam Wall and other memorials they believe may be targeted for defacment. The assumption that Friday’s discovery was an act...

The only local monument to a heroic flight attendant from San Francisco killed in the Sept. 11 attacks six years ago is a North Beach mural that vandals have defaced almost beyond recognition. Betty Ong, 45, who grew up in Chinatown and North Beach, was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane hijacked by the terrorists. Just minutes before the plane smashed into the World Trade Center, she quietly contacted authorities and gave a detailed description of the hijackers. Ong is one of several Chinatown natives depicted in a 200-foot-long, 7-foot-tall mural dedicated to Chinese contributions...

Sometime during the evening hours of September 8th, 2007, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. was defaced with a petroleum based acid liquid. The liberal media barely mentioned this outrageous vandalism. Most avoided the news completely. Not one Senator or Congressman has stood-up and demanded better security for the memory of these 58,249 killed during the Democrat war in Vietnam. Could it be guilt over their deaths, or guilt that a left-wing Democrat group organized this despicable act at yet another time in history when Democrats consider United States Military personnel little more than "Nazi storm troopers"? (quote...

(CNSNews.com) - As cleanup efforts continue in the removal of an oily substance from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., authorities are investigating how the substance got on the wall, but warned it is "premature" to label it vandalism. The wall was defaced sometime over the weekend when an oily substance was sprayed along the base of the granite monument. The black material appeared to stain the dark grey wall and tainted some of the more than 58,000 names engraved on it. National Park Service preservation and maintenance personnel have been working since Saturday to remove the substance, and...

The U.S. Park Police are investigating suspected vandalism at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall. Volunteers and National Park Service rangers on Saturday discovered a "light, oily" substance on the memorial's wall panels and the paving stones in front of it, Bill Line, a Park Service spokesman, said yesterday. The substance, which has not been identified, was spread over an area of about 50 to 60 feet, mostly on the paving stones, Mr. Line said. Maintenance and preservation staff were working to remove the substance with no permanent damage to the memorial. Mr. Line could not predict when the...

I slowly went from one end of The Wall to the other, videotaping all the way. I wanted those who have loved ones named on The Wall to know whether "their" panels were damaged. I also wanted the full extent of the damage to be documented. This is Part 1, showing the damage to the east side of The Wall. It will take me several more hours to get the second video up. Stay tuned... Vietnam Memorial Wall (DC) Defaced Sept 7-8, 2007: Part 1

Mrs. Trooprally called me this evening to tell me that she and her husband, as well as Concretebob, saw damage along almost the entire length of the Vietnam Memorial Wall. They found this damage this morning, when they walked through the area before participating in the September 11th Freedom Walk. Concretebob was told by a National Park Service employee that the damage was done on Friday night. There was no police report taken or written about the vandalism, apparently. And the damage was still very much there today. Here are a few of the photos that Mrs. Trooprally took this...

Northern Michigan's 9&10news.com (CBS TV affiliate) has the story: "Its the idea that somebody vandalizing something that means so much to so many, I have trouble understanding," an anguished Linda Fabian said while viewing a memorial to a fallen Marine from Mt. Pleasant, MI, that had been vandalized. When Lance Corporal Justin Ellsworth died in Iraq on November 13, 2004, Fabian got to work making sure Ellsworth and all the troops who put their lives on the line would not be forgotten. Fabian's own son served two tours in Iraq. "It wasn't about how big it was, it wasn't about...

BRUSSELS (EJP)--- The Brussels Jewish Memorial for Holocaust victims has been vandalized, in an attack described as "devastating" by the head of a Belgian Jewish association.

Three young men who found themselves at the centre of a national controversy after being photographed urinating on the National War Memorial on Canada Day have apologized to "veterans and all Canadians" for their actions that night. One of the men, a youth from Ottawa who cannot be identified by law, wrote in a letter that he did not realize he was violating a national monument and that he was "ignorant" in doing so. In the letter, obtained by the Citizen, the youth wrote in French, "I am sorry for my actions and their repercussions, and if I had known...

Vandals hit Gettysburg National Military Park overnight, damaging three Civil War monuments and stealing a 120-year-old sword. Park spokeswoman Katie Lawhon said the intruders pulled the top stone and sculpture off the 11th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Monument, which was dedicated on Oct. 8, 1885. They also stole a sword from that monument. Ms. Lawhon said this morning that the sword was taken from a sculpted arm attached to the monument. Park rangers hope the theft will help them solve the case. A healthy market exists for Civil War-era weapons, particularly from Gettysburg. Many collectors, though, are on the lookout for...

Police consider Muslim link to cemetery attack By Colin Randall in Paris (Filed: 03/08/2005) The headstones of 42 British soldiers who fell in combat in the First World War have been desecrated in what police in northern France believe may have been the work of Islamist attackers. Police and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission initially believed that the damage to the Albuera cemetery last Saturday in Bailleul-sir-Berthoult, near Arras, was caused by local vandals after a drunken night out. No slogans admitting responsibility or proclaiming any cause were found. ‘But the scale and nature of the attack are such that...

LILLE, France (AFP) - A cemetery in northern France holding the remains of British soldiers killed in World War I has been desecrated, with 42 headstones broken and one scorched by a Molotov cocktail, French police said. ADVERTISEMENT The vandalism occurred late last week in the Albuera cemetery in Bailleul-Sir-Berthoult, near Lille. The graveyard's visitors' book was also torched, police said Tuesday. No inscriptions were found. "Two or three broken headstones, that unfortunately happens sometimes. But 42 -- that's never occurred. Everybody is shocked," said a spokesman for Britain's Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Christopher Farrell. The military cemetery, which contains...

Vandals damaged the city's monument to Confederate soldiers by spraying black paint over the faces of statues representing four white rebel fighters. The damage was discovered during the weekend at the memorial, which consists of a 56-foot-tall granite pillar surrounded by four metal figures representing the navy, cavalry, infantry and artillery branches of the Confederate military. All are white. "I think the Civil War is still sensitive to a segment of the South," Nancy Perry, the city's museum director, said Tuesday. Police had made no arrests. A metal conservator could begin work to clean up the statues this weekend. The...

Police are investigating a racist attack on a Jewish cemetery in which 87 graves were desecrated. It is the 117th attack on the West Ham Jewish cemetery in east London in 15 years. Some of the graves had stood for 150 years but were pushed over or broken over the last 10 days. Others were daubed with graffiti, or sprayed with swastikas. The doors to a mausoleum building in the centre of the cemetery had been forced open and more swastikas sprayed on the outside. The damage was discovered by the caretaker of the cemetery in Buckingham Road, east London....

Ukraine apologizes to Russia for vandal destruction of Pushkin monument 23:08 KIEV, June 9 (RIA Novosti) - Advisor to the Ukrainian Culture and Tourism Minister Igor Pristavksky condemned the vandal destruction of the monument to the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin in Lvov (Western Ukraine). Unidentified vandals broke the monument made by local sculptor Kassel and unveiled in front of the Russian Cultural Center in Lvov on June 8. "I apologize to the great Russian nation for this vandalism," Pristavsky said adding that Pushkin was highly popular in Ukraine. "I am sorry to say this because I was born in...

METZ, France, May 11 (AFP) - Scores of tombstones were overturned in a Jewish cemetery at Sarreguemines in eastern France, local police said Wednesday. The profanation, in which about 65 of the 500 graves in the cemetery were knocked down and piled on top of one another, occurred between Sunday and Tuesday and was discovered by a municipal employee. The cover was lifted entirely off one of the graves. Police chief Alfred Bickel said a forensic unit was seeking fingerprints and other evidence at the scene. In addition, a swastika was carved at the entrance to a Christian cemetery nearby....