This picture was taken by a lady returning on a cruise (July 28, 2001). It is a sunrise over lower Manhattan.

SHE Writes:  As I watched the beautiful skyline of New York City float past me I noticed the sun was about to line up just behind the twin towers. I was lucky enough to snap the picture at exactly the right  moment.

If you look at the sun rays it is almost prophetic. - a little  spooky.

When I show this picture to anyone they almost always ask for a copy. I just want to share it with all who want it.  Please take this  picture and share it with anyone and everyone who likes it.

If you have guessed that I am furious, you are right.

First,
For the attack by Muslim fanatics who have been whipped up into a suicidal frenzy by the likes of Usama bin Laden.

But also~~~

For the cowards, the peaceniks, the pacifiers, and the appeasers. Are you too young to remember Neville Chamberlain and the 55 million who perished in WWII because we didn't act until it was almost too late?

For those who say "'Someone' should do something about this ~~~ but not me". Is this an obscure way of expressing your cowardice?  My guess is, "yes".

For those who say we should try to "understand" these people and their motives. You are living in a fantasy world. Wake up! These people are lunatics and there is no way to understand them. They killed 3,000 innocent people here without remorse and will try to do it again. Try to understand THAT!

For the timid press and TV anchor men who don't want to take sides, who want to appear neutral and refuse to characterize these terrorists as such, and who will not let the American flag or patriotic ribbons or pins be shown in their news room or be worn on air. Well, what has your impartiality gotten you? Anthrax attacks? Good thing you haven't taken sides.

For the show-biz personalities who hogged all of the TV Channels to raise funds for the victims. Were my eyes deceiving me or was there not one American flag or any display of Red, White, and Blue during that broadcast? Help the victims but don't upset Bin Laden, right? And where is the money? Who is accountable for it?  And how much, if any of it has actually been distributed to the families of the victims?
You guys love a photo-op and there would have been one if you were handing out money ~~~~~~ but I didn't see it.

To the large charities who collected megabucks but distributed so much of it first to your many levels of your own bureaucracies that it didn't reach any of the families until Bill OReilly and other persistent TV folks shamed you into it. Don't knock at my door again for donations. The answer will be NO!!!

For the opportunists who are taking advantage of the situation to try to stop the Pledge of Allegiance, the singing of God Bless America and America the Beautiful and the display of "GOD BLESS AMERICA" on a school marquee because GOD is mentioned and they consider it "divisive".
You clowns are the ones being divisive. Put this atheist bull on the back burner until this crisis is over.

An Ex-Marine Sounds Off

I sat in a movie theater watching "Schindler's List," asked myself, "Why
didn't the Jews fight back?"

Now I know why.

I sat in a movie theater, watching "Pearl Harbor and asked myself, "Why
weren't we prepared?"

Now I know why.

Civilized people cannot fathom, much less predict, the actions of evil
people.

On September 11, dozens of capable airplane passengers allowed themselves to
be overpowered by a handful of poorly armed terrorists because they did not
comprehend the depth of hatred that motivated their captors.

On September 11, thousands of innocent people were murdered because too many
Americans naively reject the reality that some nations are dedicated to the
dominance of others. Many political pundits, pacifists and media personnel
want us to forget the carnage. They say we must focus on the bravery of the
rescuers and ignore the cowardice of the killers. They implore us to
understand the motivation of the perpetrators. Major television stations
have announced they will assist the healing process by not replaying
devastating footage of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers.

I will not be manipulated.

I will not pretend to understand.

I will not forget.

I will not forget the liberal media who abused freedom of the press to kick
our country when it was vulnerable and hurting.

I will not forget that CBS anchor Dan Rather preceded President Bush's
address to the nation with the snide remark, "No matter how you feel about
him, he is still our president."

I will not forget that ABC TV anchor Peter Jennings questioned President
Bush's motives for not returning immediately to Washington, DC and
commented, "We're all pretty skeptical and cynical about Washington."

And I will not forget that ABC's Mark Halperin warned if reporters weren't
informed of every little detail of this war, they aren't "likely - nor
should they be expected-to show deference."

I will not isolate myself from my fellow Americans by pretending an attack
on the USS Cole in Yemen was not an attack on the United States of America.

I will not forget the Clinton administration equipped Islamic terrorists and
their supporters with the world's most sophisticated telecommunications
equipment and encryption technology, thereby compromising America's ability
to trace terrorist radio, cell phone, land lines, faxes and modem
communications.

I will not be appeased with pointless, quick retaliatory strikes like those
perfected by the previous administration.

I will not be comforted by "feel-good, do nothing" regulations like the
silly "Have your bags been under your control?" question at the airport.

I will not be influenced by so called,"antiwar demonstrators" who exploit
the right of expression to chant anti-American obscenities.

I will not forget the moral victory handed the North Vietnamese by American
war protesters who reviled and spat upon the returning soldiers, airmen,
sailors and Marines.

I will not be softened by the wishful thinking of pacifists who chose
reassurance over reality.

I will embrace the wise words of Prime Minister Tony Blair who told Labor
Party conference, "They have no moral inhibition on the slaughter of the
innocent. If they could have murdered not 7,000 but 70,000, does anyone
doubt they would have done so and rejoiced in it?

There is no compromise possible with such people, no meeting of minds, no
point of understanding with such terror. Just a choice: defeat it or be
defeated by it. And defeat it we must!"

I will force myself to:
      -hear the weeping
      -feel the helplessness
      -imagine the terror
      -sense the panic
      -smell the burning flesh
      -experience the loss
      -remember the hatred.

I sat in a movie theater, watching "Private Ryan" and asked myself, "Where
did they find the courage?"

Now I know.

We have no choice. Living without liberty is not living.

MGySgt. Ed Evans  USMC (Ret.)
Not as lean,   Not as mean,   But still a Marine.   Semper Fi.
 
 

(The name of the cameraman is anonymous but I assume from the URL that he is a Mr.Camazotz. Whatever his name, he bicycled all over Brooklyn and Manhattan to get these pictures and his camera work is superb.)
 
 

  Bold and uncompromising words were spoken by American (and British) leaders
 in the immediate response to the Manhattan Massacre. But they may be  succeeded by creeping appeasement unless public opinion insists that these leaders stick to their initial resolve to destroy international terrorism  completely. One central reason why appeasement is so tempting to Western  governments is that attacking terrorism at its roots necessarily involves  conflict with the second-largest religious community in the world.

It is widely said that Islamic terrorists are wholly unorthodox in their belief that their religion sanctions what they do, and promises the  immediate reward of heaven to what we call "suicide bombers" but they insist are martyrs to the faith. This line is bolstered by the assertion that Islam is essentially a religion of peace and that the very word "Islam" means "peace." Alas, not so. Islam means "submission," a very different matter,  and one of the functions of Islam, in its more militant aspect, is to
obtain  that submission from all, if necessary by force.

  Islam is an imperialist religion, more so than Christianity has ever been, and in contrast to Judaism. The Koran, Sura 5, verse 85, describes the inevitable enmity between Moslems and non-Moslems: "Strongest among men in enmity to the Believers wilt thou find the Jews and Pagans." Sura 9, verse  5, adds: "Then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them. And seize them, beleaguer them and lie in wait for them, in every strategem [ofwar]." Then nations, however mighty, the Koran insists, must be fought "until they  embrace Islam."

  These canonical commands cannot be explained away or softened by modern  theological exegesis, because there is no such science in Islam. Unlike Christianity, which, since the Reformation and Counter Reformation, has continually updated itself and adapted to changed conditions, and unlike Judaism, which has experienced what is called the 18th-century Jewish enlightenment, Islam remains a religion of the Dark Ages. The 7th-century Koran is still taught as the immutable word of God, any teaching of which is literally true. In other words, mainstream Islam is essentially akin to the most extreme form of Biblical fundamentalism. It is true it contains many  sects and tendencies, quite apart from the broad division between Sunni Moslems, the majority, who are comparatively moderate and include most of  the ruling families of the Gulf, and Shia Moslems, far more extreme, who dominate Iran. But virtually all these tendencies are more militant and uncompromising than the orthodox, which is moderate only by comparison, and by our own standards is extreme. It believes, for instance, in a theocratic state, ruled by religious law, inflicting (as in Saudi Arabia) grotesquely cruel punishments, which were becoming obsolete in Western Europe in the early Middle Ages.

  Moreover, Koranic teaching that the faith or "submission" can be, and in  suitable circumstances must be, imposed by force, has never been ignored. On  the contrary, the history of Islam has essentially been a history of conquest and reconquest. The 7th-century "breakout" of Islam from Arabia was followed by the rapid conquest of North Africa, the invasion and virtual conquest of Spain, and a thrust into France that carried the crescent to the gates of Paris. It took half a millennium of reconquest to expel the Moslems  from Western Europe. The Crusades, far from being an outrageous prototype of Western imperialism, as is taught in most of our schools, were a mere  episode in a struggle that has lasted 1,400 years, and were one of the few occasions when Christians took the offensive to regain the "occupied  territories" of the Holy Land.

  The Crusades, as it happened, fatally weakened the Greek Orthodox Byzantine  Empire, the main barrier to the spread of Islam into southeast and central  Europe. As a result of the fall of Constantinople to the ultramilitant Ottoman Sultans, Islam took over the entire Balkans, and was threatening to  capture Vienna and move into the heart of Europe as recently as the 1680s.

  This millennial struggle continues in a variety of ways. The recent conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo were a savage reaction by the Orthodox Christians of Serbia to the spread of Islam in their historic heartlands, chiefly by virtue of a higher birthrate. Indeed, in the West, the battle is  largely demographic, though it is likely to take a more militant turn at any moment. Moslems from the Balkans and North Africa are surging over  established frontiers on a huge scale, rather as the pressure of the eastern tribes brought about the collapse of the Roman Empire of the West in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. The number of Moslems penetrating and settling in Europe is now beyond computation because most of them are illegals. They are getting into Spain and Italy in such numbers that, should present trends continue, both these traditionally Catholic countries will become majority  Moslem during the 21st century.

  The West is not alone in being under threat from Islamic expansion. While the Ottomans moved into South-East Europe, the Moghul invasion of India destroyed much of Hindu and Buddhist civilization there. The recent destruction by Moslems in Afghanistan of colossal Buddhist statues is a reminder of what happened to temples and shrines, on an enormous scale, when Islam took over. The writer V. S. Naipaul has recently pointed out that the destructiveness of the Moslem Conquest is at the root of India's appalling poverty today. Indeed, looked at historically, the record shows that
Moslem  rule has tended both to promote and to perpetuate poverty. Meanwhile, the  religion of "submission" continues to advance, as a rule by force, in Africa  in part of Nigeria and Sudan, and in Asia, notably in Indonesia, where  non-Moslems are given the choice of conversion or death. And in all countries where Islamic law is applied, converts, whether compulsory or not, who  revert to their earlier faith, are punished by death.

  The survival and expansion of militant Islam in the 20th century came as a surprise. After the First World War, many believed that Turkey, where the Kemal Ataturk regime imposed secularization by force, would set the pattern  for the future, and that Islam would at last be reformed and modernized. Though secularism has - so far - survived in Turkey, in the rest of Islam  fundamentalism, or orthodoxy, as it is more properly called, has increased its grip on both the rulers and the masses. There are at present 18 predominantly Islamic states, some of them under Koranic law and all ruled  by groups that have good reason to fear extremists.

  Hence American policymakers, in planning to uproot Islamic terrorism once and for all, have to steer a narrow path. They have the military power to do what they want, but they need a broad-based global coalition to back their action, preferably with military contributions as well as words, and ideally including such states as Pakistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. To get this kind of support is not easy, for moderate Moslem rulers are far more frightened of the terrorists than of Americans, and fear for their lives and families. The danger is that they will insist on qualification of American  action that will amount, in effect, to appeasement, and that this in turn will divide and weaken both the administration and U.S. public opinion.

  It is vitally important that America stick to the essentials of its military response and carry it through relentlessly and thoroughly. Although only Britain can be guaranteed to back the White House in every contingency, it is better in the long run for America to act without many allies, or even alone, than to engage in a messy compromise  dictated by nervousness and  cowardice. That would be the worst of all solutions and would be certain to lead to more terrorism, in more places, and on an ever-increasing scale.

Now is the ideal moment for the United States to use all its physical capacity  to eliminate large-scale international terrorism. The cause is overwhelmingly just, the nation is united, the hopes of decent, law-abiding men and women everywhere go with American arms. Such a moment may never  recur.

  The great William Gladstone, in resisting terrorism, once used the phrase, "The resources of civilisation are not yet exhausted." That is true today.  Those resources are largely in American hands, and the nation - "the last,  best hope of mankind" - has an overwhelming duty to use them with purposeful justification and to the full, in the defense of the lives, property, and freedom of all of us. This is the central point to keep in mind when the weasel words of cowardice and surrender are pronounced.
 

Editorial From a Romanian Newspaper

Why are Americans so united? They don't resemble one another even if you
paint them! They speak all the languages of the world and form an
astonishing mixture of civilizations. Some of them are nearly extinct,
others are incompatible with one another, and in matters of religious
beliefs, not even God can count how many they are. Still, the American
tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart.
Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the army, the secret services that
they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts.
Nobody rushed on the streets nearby to gape about. The Americans volunteered
to donate blood and to give a helping hand. After the first moments of
panic, they raised the flag on the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps
and ties in the colours of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings
and cars as if in every place and on every car a minister or the president
was passing. On every occasion they started singing their traditional song:
"God Bless America!".

What you could hear was the heavy artillery of the American soul.

What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their
galloping history? Their economic power? Money? I tried for hours to find an
answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases which risk of sounding like
commonplaces. I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion.

Only freedom can work such miracles!

REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS

http://www.legacy.com/LegacyTribute/Tribute.asp

Below is a letter written by a retired USAF officer who is a Military Historian and was head of the History Dept at the USAF Academy.  It is not a pleasant read...in fact it is uncomfortable.  Agree with it or not...it will make you "inventory" your resolve, because YOU are the key to victory more then anything else.
 

Dear friends and fellow Americans             14 September, 2001

Like everyone else in this great country, I am reeling from last week's attack on our sovereignty. But unlike some, I am not reeling from surprise.

As a career soldier and a student and teacher of military history, I have a different perspective and I think you should hear it. This war will be won or lost by the American citizens, not diplomats, politicians or soldiers. Let me briefly explain.

In spite of what the media, and even our own government is telling us, this act was not committed by a group of mentally deranged fanatics. To dismiss them as such would be among the gravest of mistakes. This attack was committed by a ferocious, intelligent and dedicated adversary.

Don't take this the wrong way. I don't admire these men and I deplore their tactics, but I respect their capabilities. The many parallels that have been made with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor are apropos. Not only because it was a brilliant sneak attack against a complacent America, but also because we may well be pulling our new adversaries out of caves 30 years
after we think this war is over, just like my father's generation had to do with the formidable Japanese in the years following WW II.

These men hate the United States with all of their being, and we must not underestimate the power of their moral commitment. Napoleon, perhaps the world's greatest combination of soldier and statesman, stated "the moral is to the physical as three is to one." Patton thought the Frenchman underestimated its importance and said moral conviction was five times more
important in battle than physical strength. Our enemies are willing - better said anxious - to give their lives for their cause. How committed are we, America? And for how long?

In addition to demonstrating great moral conviction, the recent attack demonstrated a mastery of some of the basic fundamentals of warfare taught to most military officers worldwide, namely simplicity, security, and surprise. When I first heard rumors that some of these men may have been
trained at our own Air War College, it made perfect sense to me. This was not a random act of violence, and we can expect the same sort of military competence to be displayed in the battle to come.

This war will escalate, with a good portion of it happening right here in the good ol' U.S. of A. These men will not go easily into the night. They do not fear us. We must not fear them.

In spite of our overwhelming conventional strength as the world's only "superpower" (a truly silly term), we are the underdog in this fight. As you listen to the carefully scripted rhetoric designed to prepare us for the march for war, please realize that America is not equipped or seriously trained for the battle ahead. To be certain, our soldiers are much better
than the enemy, and we have some excellent "counter-terrorist" organizations, but they are mostly trained for hostage rescues, airfield seizures, or the occasional "body snatch," (which may come in handy). We will be fighting a war of annihilation, because if their early efforts are any indication, our enemy is ready and willing to die to the last man.

Eradicating the enemy will be costly and time consuming. They have already deployed their forces in as many as 20 countries, and are likely living the lives of everyday citizens. Simply put, our soldiers will be tasked with a search and destroy mission on multiple foreign landscapes, and the public must be patient and supportive until the strategy and tactics can be worked out.

For the most part, our military is still in the process of redefining itself and presided over by men and women who grew up with - and were promoted because they excelled in - Cold War doctrine, strategy and tactics. This will not be linear warfare, there will be no clear "centers of gravity" to strike with high technology weapons.

Our vast technological edge will certainly be helpful, but it will not be decisive. Perhaps the perfect metaphor for the coming battle was introduced by the terrorists themselves aboard the hijacked aircraft - this will be a knife fight, and it will be won or lost by the ingenuity and will of citizens and soldiers, not by software or smart bombs. We must also be patient with our military leaders.

Unlike Americans who are eager to put this messy time behind us, our adversaries have time on their side, and they will use it. They plan to fight a battle of attrition, hoping to drag the battle out until the American public loses its will to fight. This might be difficult to believe in this euphoric time of flag waving and patriotism, but it is generally acknowledged that America lacks the stomach for a long fight. We need only look as far back as Vietnam, when North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap
(also a military history teacher) defeated the United States of America without ever winning a major tactical battle.

American soldiers who marched to war cheered on by flag waving Americans in 1965 were reviled and spat upon less than three years later when they returned. Although we hope that Usama Bin Laden is no Giap, he is certain to understand and employ the concept. We can expect not only large doses of
pain like the recent attacks, but also less audacious "sand in the gears" tactics, ranging from livestock infestations to attacks at water supplies and power distribution facilities.

These attacks are designed to hit us in our "comfort zone" forcing the average American to "pay more and play less" and eventually eroding our resolve. But it can only work if we let it.

It is clear to me that the will of the American citizenry - you and I - is the center of gravity the enemy has targeted. It will be the fulcrum upon which victory or defeat will turn. He believes us to be soft, impatient, and self-centered. He may be right, but if so, we must change.

The Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz, (the most often quoted and least read military theorist in history), says that there is a "remarkable trinity of war" that is composed of the (1) will of the people, (2) the political leadership of the government, and (3) the chance and probability that plays
out on the field of battle, in that order.

Every American citizen was in the crosshairs of last Tuesday's attack, not just those that were unfortunate enough to be in the World Trade Center or Pentagon. The will of the American people will decide this war. If we are to win, it will be because we have what it takes to persevere through a few more hits, learn from our! mistakes, improvise, and adapt. If we can do that, we will eventually prevail.

Everyone I've talked to In the past few days has shared a common frustration, saying in one form or another "I just wish I could do something!" You are already doing it. Just keep faith in America, and continue to support your President and military, and the outcome is certain.

If we fail to do so, the outcome is equally certain.

One Country under God

The only thing I don't understand is the fact that this terror, hate, and killing is based on respective religion~~~~  just the opposite of what both Jesus and Mohammed preached.
The USA will never be the same.

No Compulsion in Religion--As Long As You're a Muslim

"Islam, the true religion ...will defeat all other religions and it will be disseminated, by Allah's will, through the Muslim Jihad fighters."
-Palestinian textbook
 

Never before have so many had to learn so much in so short a time.  Islam, not exactly a household word in America, is now widely pronounced upon by journalists who know little.  Many assure us it is just another religion like, say, Lutheranism.

The six million Muslims who live in the United States enjoy the same absolute religious freedom as Baptists and Catholics, as well as people who worship trees, water spirits, or Satan.  In the wake of the act of war against the United States on September 11, major Islamic organizations have been busy
proclaiming that Islam is a religion of peace and justice.  In this
context, Muslim leaders frequently assure Americans that the Quran teaches that "there is no compulsion in religion." They neglect to mention that the verse speaks of compulsion by God, not Islamic states.

Tell the eight Christians in Afghanistan, on trial for having preached the Gospel, that "there is no compulsion in religion."  Tell that to Catholic Ayub Masih, sitting on death row in Pakistan for alleged blasphemy (he is said to have made a favorable comment on Salmun Rushdie, another alleged blasphemer
still under a death sentence from Iran).  Tell that to Jews, who have no existence, much less the right to worship, in any Arab country.

Tell that to the thousands of Christians circumcised with machetes, then forcibly converted or martyred, in Indonesia. Tell that to the thousands of Christians daily persecuted in Islamic countries and the two million people killed in the
Sudan for their religions by an Islamic state that practices forced conversion, kidnapping, slavery, and genocide. Tell that to Kuwaiti Robert Hussein, who,for daring to convert to Christianity, was deprived of his children,property,and citizenship.

Tell that to any Christian working in our ally Saudi Arabia, where
churches, rosaries, pictures, and even private worship at home are absolutely prohibited; where Bibles are sometimes seized at the airport and shredded; and where malefactors are tortured,imprisoned, and denied access to counsel.  During
Desert Storm, mobs attacked ambulances marked by the Red Cross.  Religious charities in Arabia often guarantee that donations will go only to the relief of non-Muslims.

One Saudi bristled when asked why his country had no religious
freedom.  "We are one hundred percent free to be Muslims!"

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (1948) spells out the basic protections which all nations should honor, but the fifty-five Islamic nations disagree.  For this reason, Islamic nations and organizations issue alternate documents on human rights, including the relatively new constitutions of countries like Oman. In many of these, the right to religious freedom is so
hedged that it can be revoked on any pretext--for example, "offensiveness" to Muslims.  In Oman, Christian ministers worked hard for months to hold the first ecumenical conference in Arabia, on the "Love of God." An hour before it began,
an Israeli Rabbi was, without explanation, denied a visa and the conference cancelled.

Other such constitutions and declarations state that all rights are to be interpreted according to the Sh'aria, or Islamic law.  Under this proviso, a person may be executed for converting or reconverting to Christianity.

Under many interpretations, any Muslim may simply assassinate the defector.

If you are a Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, Bahai, Shinto, or Ahmadi, you have no existence in Islamic countries because your religion was not recognized in the Q'uran.  In the so-called moderate Islamic countries, church buildings existbut crosses--Muhammed hated them--are not permitted, Bibles and church bulletins may not be disseminated, and congregations are segregated behind walls,
sometimes with a warning on the gate to Moslems that the compound is "haram" or forbidden.

Doubters may go to the State Department's Annual Report on International Religious Freedom (2000) and look at Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan,Pakistan, Indonesia, Kuwait, UAE, or Egypt. Compare the report on Israel.

President Bush is right to rally Americans to respect the persons of Muslims who live in this country and to demand that no violence be done to them.

He is on much boggier ground when he makes sweeping statements about the values and practices of Islam, a religion that fosters neither democracy, nor human rights, nor freedom of religion throughout most of its 55 nations.

In America, of course, many Muslims who fled here from tyranny sing a different tune.

Take all American women who are within five years of menopause - train us for a few weeks, outfit us with automatic weapons, grenades, gas masks, moisturizer with SPF15, Prozac, hormones, chocolate, and canned tuna - drop us (parachuted, preferably) across the landscape of Afghanistan, and let us do what comes naturally.

Think about it. Our anger quotient alone, even when doing standard stuff like grocery shopping and paying bills, is formidable enough to make even armed men inturbans tremble.

 We've had our children, we would gladly suffer or die to protect them and their future. We'd like to get away from our husbands, if they haven't left already. And for those of us who are single, the prospect of finding a good man with whom to share life is about as likely as being struck by lightning. We have nothing to lose.

 We've survived the water diet, the protein diet, the carbohydrate diet, and the grapefruit diet in gyms and saunas across America and never lost a pound. We can easily survive months in the hostile terrain of Afghanistan with no food at all! We've spent years tracking down our husbands or lovers in bars, ardware stores, or sporting events...finding bin Laden in some cave will be no problem.

Uniting all the warring tribes of Afghanistan in a new government? Oh, please ... we've planned the seating arrangements for in-laws and extended families at Thanksgiving dinners for years ... we understand tribal warfare.

 Between us, we've divorced enough husbands to know every trick there is for how they hide, launder, or cover up bank accounts and money sources. We know how to find that money and we know how to seize it... with or without the government's help!

 Let us go and fight. The Taliban hates women. Imagine their terror as we crawl like ants with hot-flashes over their godforsaken terrain.

I'm going to write my Congresswoman. You should, too!

Think it is funny to scare someone by sending them some harmless powder in the mail? A woman did it and she was caught but let go because they weren't quite sure what they could charge her with. What if she had yelled "FIRE" in a crowded theatre? Isn't this essentially the same thing? Lucky for her, she doesn't live in Florida or she could do BIG time in prison.

 Subject:
       GOVERNOR BUSH WARNS IT IS A CRIME IN FLORIDA TO CREATE A HOAX
       THREAT OF BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM
    To:
       <webmaster@pierce-evans.org>

--Florida Department of Law Enforcement offers up to $5000
reward for information regarding real or hoax threats of
weapons of mass destruction-

BOCA RATON-Governor Bush and Florida Department of Law
Enforcement (FDLE) Commissioner Tim Moore highlighted
severe penalties under Florida's tough new weapons of mass
destruction law, passed by the Legislature and signed by
the Governor in 2000.  Under the law (Florida Statute
790.166), it is a second degree felony punishable by up to
15 years in prison to manufacture, possess, sell, deliver,
display, use, threaten to use, attempt to use, conspire to
use, or make readily accessible a hoax weapon of mass
destruction with intent to deceive or mislead another to
believe the weapon is real.  The law encompasses delivery
of substances that are intended to mislead others into
believing they are Anthrax, other disease agents, a harmful
chemical, or are radioactive substances.  The Governor made
today's announcement during a visit to Boca Raton where
federal, state and local officials continue to work on the
ongoing Anthrax investigation.

"Unfortunately, there are people out there with hidden
agendas seeking to use the events of September 11th and
recent Anthrax scares to create fear or seek retribution
against other innocent Floridians," said Governor Bush. "To
the individual who thinks there is no penalty for sending
harmless substances to others in an attempt to cause fear
or panic, I say think again.  In Florida, it is a severe
crime.  It is a felony.  We will find you and when we do,
we will do all we can to send you to prison for 15 years."

In addition, the FDLE is offering up to a $5000 reward to
anyone with information leading to the successful arrest
and prosecution of a person regarding a real or hoax threat
of a weapon of mass destruction, including false Anthrax
activity.  Since the September 11th incidents, law
enforcement officials have received a rash of hoax weapons
of mass destruction threats. These threats have caused law
enforcement to spend valuable time and resources away from
their public safety mission, and they generate unnecessary
fear and alarm among our citizens.

"This kind of behavior is unacceptable!  We have zero
tolerance for anyone who utilizes a hoax device or object
that appears to contain Anthrax or any other dangerous
substance for whatever reason.  We will aggressively
investigate every threat - whether real or a hoax - to
ensure justice is brought to those responsible for such
acts," stated FDLE Commissioner Moore.

Further, Florida's weapons of mass destruction law provides
it is a first degree felony to make, use, attempt to use,
or even possess without lawful authority an actual weapon
of mass destruction, including infectious or biological
substances capable of causing disease or death.  If a death
occurs, the crime is a capital felony.

The Florida weapons of mass destruction law passed the
Florida Legislature in 2000 and was signed into law by
Governor Bush on June 5, 2000.  The law's sponsors were
Senator Tom Lee (R-Brandon) and Senator Howard Futch
(R-Indialantic) who at the time was a member of the Florida
House of Representatives.

"Florida has one of the toughest, if not the toughest law
in the nation when it comes to punishing those who create
false threats of biological terrorism," said Governor Bush.
 "I think it's important for the people who would commit
this crime and those who might have information about such
hoaxes to know this.  It should also help innocent
Floridians to know that we are going to do everything we
can to find and prosecute these criminals."

FDLE continues to encourage responsible citizens to notify
law enforcement of any suspicions or concerns by contacting
your local law enforcement agency or by calling FDLE at
1-800-342-0820.

During WW II if we had listened to the media alarmists.

The United States would have sent no ships to sea, as they might be torpedoed!

Killing Osama Bin Laden will only create a martyr.

Holding him prisoner will inspire his comrades to take hostages to demand his release.

Therefore, I suggest we do neither.

Let the Special Forces, Seals, or whoever, covertly capture him, fly him to an undisclosed hospital and have surgeons quickly perform a complete sex change operation.
Then we return 'her' to Afghanistan to live as a woman under the Taliban.

To: Osama & the Boys
From: An American Wife & Mother

Yo, Osama!
Well, the government finally named you as a suspect, so I guess it's
fair to talk about you now. Thought you had us, didn't you? What a laugh! You
did more to unify this country than George Washington.

See, we Americans had gotten sort of distracted. We worried about things
like lockboxes, taxes, and who was committing hanky panky with whom. We
were too stressed to reach out to one another, to sit down and talk with
our kids, to call our spouses at work and tell them we loved them. We
were MUCH too busy to even think about giving blood or going to the hardware
store to buy and hang an American flag.

You changed all that, Osama, you and your gang of creeps. I met my
neighbors in the park across the street tonight. We talked quietly while
everybody gathered. Then we lit our candles and just stood there
silently, holding them. Without anybody saying anything, we walked back to our
neighborhood and set them on our doorsteps. They are still burning. You
will never be able to put them out.

See, Osama? You think you get ticked off when someone messes with your
culture, your beliefs, your country? Just wait a minute you flea bitten
miserable excuse for human DNA! You haven't seen anything like the anger
of a MOTHER who's son has to go off to defend their homeland against your
cowardice and hatred. You haven't seen anything like the WIFE of a
fireman, policeman or EMT who clings to hope wondering if he'll ever return from
trying to help his fellowman in your moment of destruction.

You haven't seen anything like the WOMAN who will keep her family, and
her neighbors family, and her best friend's family, and country's family
going when hope and energy falls low. You haven't seen anything like the
good OLE GIRL who weeps tears of agony for family's she's never known or
never will meet, just because she cares.

You think the American MEN are bad? You just better thank your lucky
stars that you aren't dealing with one of us American WOMEN right now.
Trust me, the men are the ones showing restraint. I have heard the best
ideas of just how graphically you need to be disposed of lately in the
beauty shop, nail salon and the grocery store lines.

I've had more meaningful conversations with my teenager this week than
in the last couple of years combined. Tonight I was driving her to a
friend's house when the voice of Lee Greenwood came over the radio singing "I'm
Proud to Be an American." We were stuck in traffic, and normally we would
have been snapping at one another. She started singing along softly with
the radio. I joined in. By the second verse we were singing at the top of
our voices with the windows rolled down. People stuck in traffic on
either side of us joined in. By the time we were finally able to move a little,
perfect strangers were wiping their eyes, blowing their horns and
shouting good wishes to one another.

I hung an American flag on my house yesterday for the first time in my
life. I'd like to get another one, but there are no flags or anything
else red, white, or blue left in any store in this town. My daughter and I
did find some white and blue ribbon in the sewing box. Tomorrow we're going
to make a huge blue-and-white bow and fasten it to the front grille of the
car.

I called my husband at work today just to tell him I loved him. I hadn't
done that for a while - too busy, I guess. It felt wonderful. We are
going to send some money to a fund to help the victims. Tonight at the dinner
table we talked about the various charities and tried to decide which
one was best. Normally we just eat and run. It was the best dinner table
conversation we've had in a long time. We finally decided on a fund
that's been set up for the children of the rescue workers who were killed in
New York City. We'd never given much thought to appreciating all they do for
us before now.

My husband and I are on a waiting list to give blood. It'll be awhile
before our names come up; there are over 500 people ahead of us. There's
been a shortage of blood in this area. I wouldn't be surprised if the
blood donated all across this country eventually saves more people than you
killed. That would be a fitting memorial to those who died.

We're sticking together. Our politicians are rising to the occasion.
Rudy Giuliani and George W. Bush never looked half as statesmanlike as they
have this week. Partisan bickering? What's that? Half the Congress stood on
the steps of the Capitol the other night and sang "God Bless America."

See, Osama, you underestimated us. And maybe for too long we've been
underestimating ourselves. This is the greatest, strongest, richest, most
beautiful country in the world. Our firefighters, policemen, EMTs, and
people like the ones on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania have
reminded us that we're also the bravest and most determined.

You can't destroy us, and you can't stop us. Because we're coming,
Osama.

Just thought you oughta know. And, just to show you how good hearted we
Americans are, I will end by saying THANK YOU. Not for the lives taken,
for which we now mourn, nor for the destruction, but for instilling back
into the hearts of every American, young and old, black, white, red, or
yellow, what we always knew deep down. We are strong. We are brave. We are ONE
NATION, UNITED UNDER GOD. We will overcome this as we have always
overcome those moments that tested our very being.

And, Osama, I say this, all the while asking God to forgive ME, for I do
not feel any compassion or have any mercy on your soul, but...may you
and all your cowardly friends soon sit happily in those front row seats you
have reserved in Hell.

author unknown

The following letter was published in the Gazette,
Hyattsville, MD, October 11, 2001,
on the Community Forum page.

You worry me.  I wish you didn't.

I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country.  But you don't blend
anymore. I notice you, and it worries me.

I notice you because I can't help it anymore. People from your homelands, and professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now.  I don't fully understand their grievances and hate but I know nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.

On Sept. 11, nineteen Arab-Muslims hijacked four jetliners in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those
planes and crashed them into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants and
children's mothers.

So I notice you now.

I don't want to be worried. I don't want to be consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists. But I need your help.

As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must know how to differentiate between you. How do I differentiate between the true Arab-Muslim-Americans and the Arab-Muslims in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying our parks,  while they plot the next attack that will slaughter those very same
good neighbors and children?

The answer to my own questions that it is past the time for me to try to determine this.  The events of Sept. 11th changed the answer.  It is time for every Arab-Muslim in this country to determine it for me.

I want to know, I demand to know, if you love America.  Do you pledge allegiance to its flag? Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation, that He will protect and prosper it?  Are you thankful for the freedom that only this nation affords?  A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of patriots? Are you willing to preserve this freedom with the spilling of your own blood? Do you love America? and if this is your commitment, then I need you to start letting me know about it.

Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions you are taking as a community and religion to protect the
United States of America. Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the "innocent" (I worry who you regard as "innocent") and condemnation of "unprovoked" attacks (I worry what is "unprovoked" to you.)  I am not interested in anymore sympathy, I am interested only in action. What will you do for America-- the country -- at this time of crisis, at this time of
war?

I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the flag in the streets.  I want to hear you chanting "Allah Bless America." I want to see Arab-Muslim young men enlisting in the military. I want to see
a commitment of money and time and emotion to the victims of this butchering and to this nation as a whole.

The FBI has a list of over 400 people they want to talk to regarding the WTC attack.  Many of these people live and socialize in Muslim communities.You know them. You know
where they are. Deliver them up, now.

But I have seen little even approaching this sort of action.

Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive community close even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets. You have posted armed security guards at your facilities.
You have threatened lawsuits. You have screamed for protection from reprisal.

The few Arab-Muslim representatives that have appeared on the media are defensive and equivocating.  They seem more concerned with making sure the U.S. prove who is responsible
before they act, and protecting their own people from anyviolence directed toward them, here in the U.S. and abroad.

If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and love for all people, then I want chapter and verse from the Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up.

Because even if the teachings in the Koran are good and pure and true, it matters little if large numbers of current Islamic practitioners interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and adhere to a degenerative form of the religion.

I want to know where every Arab-Muslim in this country stands and I think it is within my right and the right of every true citizen of this country to demand it. A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my brothers and sisters.

I am pleading with you to let me know.  I want you here; as my brother, my  neighbor, my friend, as a fellow American.  But there can be no "gray" areas or ambivalence regarding your allegiance and it is up to you to show me where you stand.

Until then...you worry me.

(signed)  Kevin Daly, Beltsville

We're coming, Osama.

We're gonna find you and the rest of your murderous thugs, and when we do, we're gonna kick your butts all over the face of the earth.  You are gonna REGRET the day you messed with AMERICA!

Just thought you oughta know.

YEAH RIGHT!!!
I get down on my knees every day and thank God that neither Clinton nor his clone, Gore, is in the White House right now.

Did you know?

After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six and injured 1,000, President Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 1995 bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed five U.S. military personnel, Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted downand punished.

After the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 and injured 200 U.S. military personnel, Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa, which killed 224 and injured 5,000, Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 and injured 39U.S. sailors, Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

Maybe if Clinton had kept his promise, an estimated 7,000 people would be Alive today.

 But Wait, there's more.
 

In case you didn't know ...

Terrorist pilot Mohammed Atta blew up a bus in Israel in 1986.

he Israelis captured, tried and imprisoned him.

As part of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in
1993, Israel had to agree to release so-called "political
prisoners."

However, the Israelis would not release any with "blood on
their hands."

The American President at the time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher,"insisted" that all prisoners be released.

Thus Mohammed Atta was freed and eventually "thanked the US" by flying an airplane into Tower One of the World Trade Center.

This was reported by many of the American TV networks at the time that the terrorists were first identified.

And Bill & Hillary wonder why they were booed when they appeared before the police and firefighters in NYC.

Clinton White House axed terror-fund probe

Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Published 4/2/2002
 
 

     The Clinton administration shut down a 1995 investigation of Islamic charities, concerned that a public probe would expose Saudi Arabia's suspected ties to a global money-laundering operation that raised millions for anti-Israel terrorists, federal officials told The Washington Times.
     Law enforcement authorities and others close to the aborted investigation said the State Department pressed federal officials to pull agents off the previously undisclosed probe after the charities were targeted in the diversion of cash to groups that fund terrorism.
     Former federal prosecutor John J. Loftus said four interrelated Islamic foundations, institutes and charities in Virginia with more than a billion dollars in assets donated by or through the Saudi Arabian government were allowed to continue under "a veil of secrecy."
     "If federal agents had been allowed to conduct the investigation they wanted in 1995, they would have made the connection between the Saudi government and those charities," said Mr. Loftus, now a St. Petersburg, Fla., lawyer who filed a lawsuit last week accusing a Florida charity of fraud.
     "Had the charities been shut down, they would have been unable to raise the millions that since have been used by terrorists in hundreds of suicide attacks," he said.
 
 

An interesting question:

This question was raised on a Philly radio call-in show. Without casting
stones, it is a legitimate question.

There are two men, both extremely wealthy. One develops relatively cheap
software and gives hundreds of millions of dollars to charity. The other
sponsors terrorism.

That being the case, why is it that the US government has spent more
money chasing down Bill Gates over the past ten years than Osama bin Laden?
 
 

Dear Friends,
The following was sent to me by my friend Tamim Ansary. Tamim is an Afghani-American writer.  He is also one of the most brilliant people I know in this life.  When he writes, I read.  When he talks, I listen.
Here is his take on Afghanistan and the whole mess we are in.
-Gary T. Dear Gary and whoever else is on this email thread:
I've been hearing a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan back to the
Stone Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed that this would mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this atrocity, but "we're at war, we have to accept collateral damage. What else can we do?"  Minutes later I heard some TV pundit discussing whether we "have the belly to do what must be done."
And I thought about the issues being raised especially hard because I am from Afghanistan, and even though I've lived here for 35 years I've
never lost track of what's going on there. So I want to tell anyone who will listen how it all looks from where I'm standing.
I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in New York.
I agree that something must be done about those monsters. But the
Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan.  They're not even the government of Afghanistan.  The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a plan.
When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler.
And when you think "the people of Afghanistan" think "the Jews in the
concentration camps."   It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity.
They were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would exult if
someone would come in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rats nest of international thugs holed up in their country.
Some say, why don't the Afghans rise up and overthrow the Taliban? The answer is, they're starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated, suffering. A few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000 disabled orphans in Afghanistan--a country with no economy, no food.
There are millions of widows.  And the Taliban has been burying these widows alive in mass graves.  The soil is littered with land mines, the
farms were all destroyed by the Soviets.  These are a few of the reasons why the Afghan people have not overthrown the Taliban.
We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age.
Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care of it already. Make
the Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses? Done.
Turn their schools into piles of rubble?
Done.
Eradicate their hospitals?
Done.
Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off from medicine and health
care?
Too late. Someone already did all that.
New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs.  Would they at least get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around.  They'd slip away and hide.
Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they don't move too fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn't really be a strike against the criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it would only be making common cause with the Taliban--by raping once again the people they've been raping all this time.
So what else is there? What can be done, then? Let me now speak with
true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there with ground troops. When people speak of "having the belly to do what needs to be done" they're thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many as needed.  Having the belly to overcome any moral qualms about killing innocent people. Let's pull our heads out of the sand. What's actually on the table is Americans dying. And not just because some Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout.
It's much bigger than that folks. Because to get any troops to
Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan. Would they let us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first. Will other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going. We're flirting with a world war between Islam and the West.
And guess what: that's Bin Laden's program. That's exactly what he
wants.
That's why he did this.  Read his speeches and statements. It's all
right there.  He really believes Islam would beat the west. It might seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam and the West, he's got a billion soldiers. If the west wreaks a holocaust in those lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to lose, that's even better from Bin Laden's point of view.  He's probably wrong, in the end the west would win, whatever that would mean, but the war would last for years and millions would die, not just theirs but ours. Who has the belly for that? Bin Laden does. Anyone else?
 Tamim Ansary

First Annual Kabul Air Show Scheduled
 (AP) Kabul, Afghanistan
 17:52GMT - Sept. 19, 2001

 Citizens of Afghanistan are reportedly looking forward with great
 anticipation to reports of an international air show to be held in the
 skies over their nation.

 An unnamed official informed us that "Now the rest of the world will ook  upon our beloved city with great honor just as they do Farnborough, England  and Paris, France", referring to the sites of two other famous international air shows.

 The exact date and time of the upcoming Kabul International Air Show has not yet been announced. It is believed that event organizers feel that such an announcement would detract from the fun of the celebration by, "spoiling  the surprise".

 Unlike most air shows the Kabul Air Show will feature almost no static ground displays but will have an unusually high number of aerial  demonstrations and fly-bys. "We are most pleased by this feature of our air show. Instead of a lot of different kinds of airplanes just sitting around on the tarmac, the aircraft attending our show will actually be up in the air demonstrating what they do best!" we were told.

 Participation will probably be heaviest by aircraft of the United States  Air Force and Marine Corps. Including appearances by F-15's, F-16's, A-10's, B-52's and Apache helicopters. It is rumored that opening ceremonies will feature a tomahawk-cruise fireworks display. A few B-2's, and F-117A's may also help out in some unseen capacity.

 Several other counties have expressed an interest in sending
 representatives. These include all nineteen nations in the NATO alliance as well as Australia. The excitement generated for this gala event has even prompted the Israeli Air Force to apply for participation.

 Of course, no one is more excited than the Afghan people themselves.
Great numbers of them are in the streets of Kabul looking constantly
heavenward in gratitude for the historic event, which will soon take place in their skies. It has been observed that some are so concerned about missing the show that even as they bow to the East they keep snatching worried glances towards the West. Thousands, in fact, have been seen leaving the city and fleeing to the mountains carrying food and blankets, obviously anxious to get a good vantage point for the air show, and to make a picnic of it.

 (Here is a photo of one of the USAF Entries.)

Kabul, Afghanistan--September 17, 2001 --

A shocking development took place today as the ruling members of the Taliban held a press
conference threatening the United States if its territory is invaded.

Immigration Czar Mohammed Ali Momaluke stated that the Afghan
authorities "would not hesitate for a moment" to cut off the US supply of convenience store
managers!

I have a moral question for you.   This is an imaginary situation, but I
  think it is fun to decide what one would do.

  The situation:

  You are in the Middle East, and there is a huge flood in progress.  Many
  homes have been lost, water supplies compromised and structures destroyed.

  You are a photographer getting still photos for the CNN news service and
are  traveling alone, looking for particularly poignant scenes.

  You come across Osama bin Laden, who has been swept away by the flood
  waters.  He is barely hanging on to a tree limb and is about to go under.

  You can either put down your camera and save him, or take a Pulitzer Prize
  winning photograph of him as he loses his grip on the limb.

  So, here's the question  ...  and think carefully before you answer the
  question below:
 
 
 

  Which lens would you use?

From: The White House
 To: Albert Gore
Dear Al:
We found some more votes.   You won.   When do you want to take over?
 Sincerely,

WE NEED MORE OF THIS

This is from a jet driver and POW in Viet Nam, AJ Myers.

***********************************************************

I arrived in Moscow, Idaho (Home of Idaho University one block from Best Western) and went to dinner at Best Western.  About 85-100 people were in the restaurant.  I'm at a table for about 5 minutes when this "Group" comes in (20 people).  They have Anti-War Picket signs with them.  It appears that two of these demonstrators are Professors.  They all sit at a large round table behind me and begin to talk very loudly about US atrocities in Afghanistan.

One of the "Professors" stands up and gives a brief talk about how the "US is famous for atrocities" and Afghanistan will be no different. One of the students asked a question about Viet Nam POW's.  The "Professor" makes a comment about how that was only US propaganda about poor treatment of POW's.

OK - I'm really mad now and I jump up and go over to their table.  (In retrospect - Over the entrance to the Restaurant is a huge American Flag. On each table is an American Flag and a small hand painted sign "United We Stand") I excuse myself and ask the Professor if I can ask him a question.

He says, "Yes".

I said that he appears to be of age to have served in Viet Nam, and asked him if he had served.

His answer was, "NO - I defended this campus and told the truth to the students."

I then asked if he remembered what he was doing on February 16, 1969.

When he answered, "Of course not - that was too long ago."

I responded, "Really.  I remember what I was doing.  That was the second day of my capture and I had been standing in a bamboo cage for 24 hours with water up to my chest".  I then said "Sir, your comments about how POW's in Nam were treated are a lie and I personally say to you, you are a******* liar, as you never were there.  I was a POW and they did not treat our POW's humanely.  The only other person I have ever heard make statements like you have is Jane Fonda.  Is she telling the truth and not me?"

He stood up and after about 10 seconds said, "Jane is a great patriot and I cannot visualize her lying."

With that, I reached over and grabbed the small American Flag and United WeStand sign and said, "I'm taking this back to my table where it can be appreciated."

No one said a word to me as I started to walk back.  However, after a few seconds, people started standing up and applauding all around the restaurant.  Two men got up from a table across the room and walked over to me.  The first identified himself as former US Marine Lieutenant Flynn and the other man was former Gunnery Sergeant Graboski.  In a loud voice after introducing themselves, Lt.  Flynn said they were former Marine Guards at a US Embassy.  He then said, "We are over at this table to defend the US Flag from all foes, both foreign and domestic." They then sat down and asked their waitress to bring their meals over to my table.

A few more minutes went by with loud comments from the "Anti-War" table. All of a sudden, "Gunny" Sergeant Graboski stood up and in a loud voice said, "All of you heard what the President said the other night. You are either with the United States or you are with the terrorists." He then said, "Please stand and join me in God Bless America." As he started singing, people all around the restaurant stood up and joined in.  Several of the students at the "Anti-War" table also stood up half way through the song and
joined in.

Both Professors and the majority of the students remained seated and refused to sing.  At the end there was a great ovation.

The Manager came up to my table.  (He and his staff came out from the kitchen and sang).  He thanked me for what I started and then went over to the Anti-War table and asked them to leave.  "I will pay for what you have had so far but I cannot in good conscience serve you - get out now!!"

One of the Professors then made a remark, "Well, we are not going to pay one dime for how shabbily we have been treated."

As they were leaving, one customer stood up and said, "Manager, here is $5 towards their bill, anyone else willing to chip in to get this scum out of here?" All over the restaurant, people stood up reaching for their wallets and saying, "I'll chip in."

The Manager, in tears, said,  "My family is from Poland, I am now a citizen and am so proud of what I see tonight." He started crying and a couple of the waitresses helped him into the kitchen.

The two Marines and I were there for about another 20 minutes and finished our meal.  The Hostess came up and showed us more than $100 dollars that all the other tables had told their waitresses to give towards our bill.

I thanked her but said I could not take the money.  Lt Flynn suggested donating it in the restaurant's name to the New York Relief Fund, so I guess that's what will happen.  I just can't believe how Americans are coming together now.  Just thought you would like to hear how the rest of the country is reacting to what happened!!!

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, school official remove “God Bless America” signs from schools in fear that someone might be offended....

Channel 12 News in  New York, orders flags removed from the newsroom and red, white,
and blue ribbons removed from the lapels of reporters. WHY? Management did not want to appear biased and felt that our nation’s flag might give the appearance that “they lean one way or another.”

Berkeley, California, bans U.S. flags from being displayed on city fire trucks because they didn’t want to offend anyone in the community.

In an “act of tolerance” the head of the public library at Florida Gulf Coast University ordered all
“PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN” signs removed so as to not offend international students.

I, for one, am quite disturbed by these actions of so-called American citizens; and I am tired of this nation worrying about whether or not we are offending some individual or their culture.

In the past month there has been a surge in patriotism by the majority of Americans. However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled in New York and Washington, D.C., when the “politically correct” crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others.

I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to America.

In fact, our country’s population is almost entirely comprised of descendants of immigrants.

HOWEVER, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, need to
understand.

First of all,

It is not our responsibility to continually try not to offend you in any way. This idea of America being a multi-cultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity.

As Americans, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language, and our own lifestyle.

This culture, called the “American Way” has been developed over centuries of struggles, trials, and
victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom.

Our forefathers fought, bled, and died at places such as Bunker Hill, Antietam, San Juan, Iwo Jima, Normandy, Korea, Vietnam.

We speak English not Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society--learn our language.

“IN GOD WE TRUST” is our national motto.

This is not some off-the-wall, Christian, Right Wing, political slogan; it is our national motto.

It is engraved in stone in the House of Representatives in our Capitol and it is printed on our currency.

We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation; and this is clearly documented throughout our history.

If it is appropriate for our motto to be inscribed in the halls of our highest level of Government, then it is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools.

God is in our pledge, our National Anthem, nearly every patriotic song, and in our founding documents.

We turn to God in prayer in times of crisis.

If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture and we are proud to have Him.

We are proud of our heritage and those who have so honorably defended our freedoms. We celebrate Independence Day, Memorial Day, Veterans’ Day, and Flag Day.

We have parades, picnics and barbecues where we proudly wave our flag.

As an American, I have the right to wave my flag, sing my national anthem, quote my national motto, and cite my pledge whenever and wherever I choose.

If the Stars and Stripes offend you, or you don’t like Uncle Sam, then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet, for they are part of our culture.

The American culture is our way of life, our heritage, and we are proud of it. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don’t care how you did things where you came from.

If it was so superior, go home.

We are Americans, like it or not. This is our country, our land, and our lifestyle.

Our First Amendment gives every citizen the right to express his opinion about our government, culture, or society, and we will allow you every opportunity to do so.

But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about our flag, our pledge, our national motto or our way of life, I highly encourage you to take advantage of one other great American freedom.

THE RIGHT TO LEAVE.

If you agree, pass this on to other Americans!!

It is time to take a stand!!

MAY GOD BLESS AMERICA

LAND THAT WE LOVE!!!!

And what about Hillary?

What is SHE doing? At last count, she had attended exactly NONE of the funerals of any of the heroes of the WTC atrocity. What a compassionate honey she is.
 
 

Subject: Forgive?

       "It is Allah's job to forgive Osama bin Laden.
       It is our job to arrange a face to face meeting."

               - An American Serviceman
 
 

 Subject: 01/02/02 Message from a recon Marine in Afghanistan just outside of Ab Gach, in the northwest panhandle of Afghanistan between Tajikistan and Pakistan.

It's freezing here.  I'm sitting on hard, cold dirt between rocks and shrubs
at the base of the Hindu Kush mountains along the Dar 'yoi Pomir River
watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave.  Stake out, my
friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles.  I also glance at
the area around me every ten to fifteen seconds to avoid another scorpion
sting.
I've actually given up battling the chiggers and sand fleas, but the
scorpions give a jolt like a cattle prod. The antidote tastes like
transmission fluid but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of
it in my pack.

The one truth the Taliban cannot escape is that, believe it or not, they
are human beings, which means they have to eat food and drink water.  That
requires couriers and that's where an old bounty hunter like me comes in
handy. I track the couriers, locate the tunnel entrances and storage facilities, type the info into the handheld, shoot the coordinates up to  the
satellite link that tells the air commanders where to drop the hardware.
We bash some heads for a while then I track and record the new movement.
It's all about intelligence.

We haven't even brought in the snipers yet.  These scurrying rats have
no idea what they're in for.  We are but days away from cutting off supply
lines and allowing the eradication to begin.  I dream of Bin Laden
waking up to find me standing over him with my boot on his throat as I spit a
bloody ear into his face and plunge my nickel plated Bowie knife through his
frontal lobe.  But you know me. I'm a romantic.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  This country is worthless.
It's not even a country.  There are no roads, there's no infrastructure,
there's no government.  This is an inhospitable, rockpit ruled by eleventh
century warring tribes.  There are no jobs here like we know jobs.  Afghanistan offers two ways for a man to support his family: join the opium trade or join the army.  That's it.  Those are your options.  Oh, I forgot, you
can also live in a refugee camp and eat plum-sweetened, crushed beetle paste
and squirt mud like a goose with stomach flu if that's your idea of a party.
But the smell alone of those "tent cities of the walking dead" is enough to
hurl you into the poppy fields to cheerfully scrape bulbs for eighteen
hours a day.

And let me tell you something else.  I've been living with these Tajiks
and Uzbeks and Turkmen and even a couple of Pushtins for over a month and a half now and this much I can say for sure: These guys, all of em, are Huns.
Actual, living Huns.  They LIVE to fight.  Its what they do.  Its ALL they do.  They have no respect for anything, not for their families or for each other or for themselves.  They claw at one another as a way of life.
They play polo with dead calves and force their five-year-old sons into human
cockfights to defend the family honor.  Huns, roaming packs of savage,
heartless beasts who feed on each other's barbarism.  Idiot cavemen with
AK 47's.

Then again, maybe I'm just cranky.  I'm freezing on this hill because my
lap warmer is running out of juice and I can't recharge it until the sun
comes up in a few hours.  Oh yeah!  You like to write letters, right?  Do me a
favor.  Write a letter to CNN and tell Judy and Bernie and that awful,
sneering, pompous Aaron Brown to stop calling the Taliban "smart."  They
are not smart.  I suggest CNN invest in a dictionary because the word they
are looking for is "cunning."  The Taliban are cunning, like jackals and
hyenas and wolverines.  They are sneaky and ruthless and, when confronted,
cowardly.  They are hateful, malevolent parasites who create nothing and
destroy everything else.  Smart.  Pfft.  Yeah, they're real smart.
They've spent their entire lives reading only one book (and not a very good one, as books go) and consider hygiene and indoor plumbing to be products of the devil. They're still figuring out how to work a Bic lighter.  Talking to
a Taliban warrior about improving his quality of life is like trying to teach
an ape how to hold a pen; eventually he just gets frustrated and sticks
you in the eye with it. OK, enough.

The sun will be up soon so I have to get back to my hole.  Covering my
tracks in the snow takes a lot of practice but I'm getting good at it.
Please tell my fellow Americans to turn off their TV sets and move on
with their lives.  The story line you are getting from CNN is utter nonsense
and designed not to deliver truth but rather to keep you glued to the screen
through the commercials.  We've got this one under control.  The worst
thing you guys can do right now is sit around analyzing what we're doing over
here because you have no idea what we're doing and, really, you don't want to
know.  We are your military and we are doing what you sent us here to
do.

You wanna help? Buy some stocks, America.

Saucy Jack

Aw geez. Where do I start on this one?

We've got a gazillion dollar airline industry whose job it is to convey people from one place to another in airplanes. It does (and has done) this with a safety record that's truly remarkable.
Recent events, however, have shown us that the world harbors some seriously deranged people who are willing to climb aboard airplanes and do really nasty things with them.

Because of this, we've had to give airport security a hard look.

This turned up several problems. One was that, under harsh scrutiny, "Did you pack your own bag today?" didn't turn out to be the hardnosed deterrent it was meant to be. A much more
serious problem, however, was  the finding that airport screeners were not well trained, had a horrendous turnover rate, and were often paid less than janitors working at the same airport.

Enter Congress - a group renowned for the fact that rational thought seldom ripples the serene surface of its collective mind. After looking into the situation, they said we had to improve airport security.

(A good start.)

They said we had to improve the quality of airport screeners, reduce turnover, and increase their pay.

(I was still with them.)

They said that pork, politics, and partisanship would be put aside for the good of the country.
Airline safety was going to be the bottom line.

(I had tears in my eyes, my hand over my heart, and was humming " America the Beautiful.")

They said, "We're going to turn airline security over to the federal government."

(Do what??)

The federal government, do consider, which is home to: The Helium Reserve (in case our fleet of battle blimps ever runs low on helium); Federal Housing (now, in many places, being
dynamited into oblivion); The War on Poverty (motto: "Trillions down the drain and we ain't plugged it yet."); and the Honey Subsidy (those bees are still suffering) - to name but a few.

So, Congress federalized airport screeners. Then, in a move guaranteed to make us feel safer, the Transportation Security Administration announced that (I couldn't make this up if I wanted to) airport screeners will not be required to have high school diplomas.

I wonder what the recruiting posters are going to say? "Didn't finish 9th grade? Have we got a job for you!"

What about entrance exams? Are they going to have something to do with Legos© and finger-painting?

But wait. There's more.

To ensure we never offend anyone - particularly fanatics intent on killing us - airport screeners will not be allowed to profile people.

They will continue random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, Secret Service agents who are members of the President's security detail and 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips.

Pause a moment and take the following test.

In 1979, the U.S. embassy in Iran was taken over by:
(a) Norwegians from Ballard;
(b) Elvis;
(c) A tour bus full of 80-year-old women; or
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
(a) A pizza  delivery boy;
(b) Crazed feminists screeching that being able to throw a  grenade beyond its own burst radius
was an unfair and sexist requirement in basic training;
(c) Geraldo Rivera making up for a slow news day; or
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
(a) Luca Brazzi, for not being  given a part in "Godfather 2;"
(b) The Tooth Fairy;
(c) Butch and Sundance who had a few sticks of dynamite left over from the train thing; or
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

In 1998, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
(a)Mr. Rogers;
(b) Hillary, to distract attention from Wee Willie's women problems;
(c) the WWF, to promote its next villain: "Mustapha the Merciless;" or
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked and destroyed by:
(a) Bugs Bunny,
(b) the Supreme Court of Florida trying to outdo their attempted  hijacking of the 2000
Presidential election;
(c) Mr. Bean; or
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

How'd you do? Did you detect a pattern that would indicate we'd better take a close look at a certain type of individual who might be boarding an airplane with something on his mind other
than "What's the in-flight movie?"  You think so? Horrors! You're nothing more than a closet racist who could never be hired as an official federal airport screener. You probably molest goats too - but that's another column.

So, as it now stands, we have the Transportation Security Administration (letterhead: "No way WE'RE flying.") trying to improve the professionalism of airport screeners by lowering standards and forbidding the use of common sense in screening people. Makes sense, right? Right.

Pardon me while I go bang my head against the wall. Maybe that'll help me understand.

But the photo of firefighters raising a flag over the
wreckage of the World Trade Center is a picture of four "white guys" raising the flag.  To cut off their heads and replace them with politically correct African, Hispanic, and Asian faces is an unacceptible bastardardization of this picture and an insult to the men in the photo.

Let the sculptor design an appropriate monument, but not one based on this picture. If he is not creative enough to do this, he should not get the job.

Next thing we know, these PC loonies will want to
chop the heads off all of the figures depicted in the Iwo Jima flag raising statue and replace them
with a PC ethnic mix.
 
 

Little David comes home from first grade and tells his father that they learned about the history of Valentine's Day.

"Since Valentine's day is for a Christian saint and we're Jewish," he asks, "will God get mad at me for giving someone a valentine?"

David's father thinks a bit, then says "No, I don't think God would get mad.

Who do you want to give a valentine to?"

"Osama Bin Laden," David says.

"Why Osama Bin Laden," his father asks in shock.

"Well," David says, "I thought that if a little American Jewish boy could have enough love to give Osama a valentine, he might start to think that maybe we're not all bad, and maybe start loving people a little bit.
And if other kids saw what I did and sent valentines to Osama, he'd love everyone a lot.  And then he'd start going all over the place to tell everyone how much he loved them and how he didn't hate anyone
anymore."

His father's heart swells and he looks at his boy with newfound pride.
"David, that's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard."

"I know," David says, "and once that gets him out in the open, the Marines could blow the s--- out of him."

Dear Mom,

What can I say? War is hell, but Guantanamo is fab. Temps are hovering in the low 70s, finally got rid of that rat's nest the T'bans called a beard, and am eating better than we ever did at Osama's. I've already put on 10 pounds.

When I get out of here, I'll bring you a box of Froot Loops.

When do I get out of here -- now there's the question of the millennium.

But, hey, who's in a hurry? Like I said, they feed us, let us shower, pray, write home. They even gave us a mattress, prayer mats and a copy of the Koran. What a bunch of twits.

Speaking of which, have you been following the news about our maltreatment here? It's a hoot. Amnesty International and a bunch of other bleeding-heart organizations have been giving the Americans hell for being hard on us.

They said that shaving our heads and beards was a human-rights violation because it humiliated us. I'm telling you, who needs Comedy Central? Me?
I'm just happy to be rid of the lice, but don't tell anybody. Ha, ha.

Our self-anointed protectors also say that making us live in these open-air pens is cruel. Obviously, they've never lived in a cave. We've got a roof -- remember those? -- and plenty of shade. The soldiers watching over us are sweating like pigs in their tents while their guys still in Afghanistan would probably trade their baby sisters for a weekend in my "cell."

Anyway, all us guys are loving the attention, as well as the distraction.
We're just waiting for the right moment when we can get back to business.

All that training wasn't for nothing. Hannibal Lector, eat your own heart
out. One chance, that's all I need, and a Marine's aortic val