Target Centermass

Month: July 2005

  • Soaring Again

    Shuttle returns to space

    Discovery roared into orbit Tuesday in NASA’s first shuttle flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster, and afterward engineers began evaluating pictures of falling debris to determine the chances of another mishap.

    A new battery of cameras trained on the shuttle during launch showed a small piece of debris falling from the underside of the orbiter, which NASA officials say could have come from a tile near a door covering the nose landing gear.

    But NASA’s flight operations manager, John Shannon, said it was too soon to determine the source of the debris, how large any possible defect might be and whether it poses any safety threat for the spacecraft.

    “We did not come into this flight expecting to eliminate” all falling debris, he said at an evening news briefing at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. “But we knew that we had the tools available to us to characterize it.”

    Best wishes and best speed to the crew of Discovery.

    Blogs of War‘s John Little, a former NASA employee, has the best collection of links I’ve seen of the launch and the mission.

  • Poll: Fewer People Link Islam, Violence

    This little tidbit should not come as a surprise to anyone.

    The percentage of Americans who believe Islam is more likely than other religions to inspire violence has declined in the past two years, according to a poll taken after the London bombings.

    Just over a third, 36 percent, now say the Islamic religion is more likely to inspire violence, while 44 percent said that in July 2003, according to the poll conducted by the Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

    […]

    Just over half in the poll, 55 percent, said they have a positive view of Muslim-Americans. That’s roughly the same number who felt that way in July 2003 and higher than the number who said they have a positive view of Muslim-Americans in March 2001, before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

    About the same number in the poll, 57 percent, said they have a favorable view of evangelical Christians. Three-fourths had favorable views of Jews and Catholics.

    “The more people know about Islam, the less critical they are,” said Kohut.

    After all, we are talking about the religion of peace.

  • Today in the War against Islamist Terror

    I have to open with my favorite story of the day.

    Hanoi Jane takes on Iraq war with US bus tour

    Hollywood star and activist Jane Fonda is planning to take a bus tour across America to call for an end to US military operations in Iraq in a move that has already drawn sharp reactions from both the pro- and anti-war camps.

    Ms Fonda, who earned the nickname Hanoi Jane after she was photographed sitting on a north Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun at the height of the Vietnam war, said she would be joined by families of Iraq war veterans and her daughter on the tour.

    “I’ve decided I’m coming out,” she told a cheering audience during an appearance in New Mexico to promote her autobiography, explaining that Iraq veterans had encouraged her to break her silence.

    “I have not taken a stand on any war since Vietnam,” she added. “I carry a lot of baggage from that.”

    Ms Fonda said her anti-war tour in March would use a bus that runs on vegetable oil.

    “I can’t go into any detail except to say that it’s going to be pretty exciting,” she said.

    By exciting, I assume she’s talking about more than the vegetable oil. Look, there is enough to dislike about this woman without erroneous hyperbole, so check the facts of her history.

    It is my opinion that this woman cost lives, both American and our allies. It is apparently her intent to do so again by providing support to the hopes of our enemies. In my view, she has previously committed treason. She seems less intent to do so as blatantly today; I extend to her an invitation to fly over for a photo-op with the beheading terrorists. Perhaps she could feature them in a new exercise DVD. Otherwise, I wish her no success in this latest endeavor but would have no regret for any deserved emotional anguish she may have coming. I truly hope that she suffers no physical harm at the hands of private individuals, but I also don’t want her to enjoy a single welcome reception.

    Truce as French sign up for joint action

    Britain and France called a truce in their disputes over Europe’s future and its financing yesterday to announce fresh co-operation in the fight against terrorism, including sharing the names of “jihadists” living in their countries.

    After talks in Downing Street, Dominique de Villepin, the French Prime Minister, and Tony Blair played down recent disagreements and set out a four-point programme of joint action as a result of the London bombings.

    They agreed that France and Britain would exchange the names of persons in each country who had been trying to incite extremism. They would also retain communications data from telephone calls and e-mails for longer, exchange information about how to protect vulnerable targets and work together to combat the “radicalisation” of the Muslim community.

    Their meeting came as Mr Blair told Muslims in Britain that they had a duty to come forward with information about those involved in terrorist attacks. “My message to anybody who may know of any information about those responsible for last Thursday’s attack is to give that information to the police.

    “There will be people who know information about those that have participated in the attack. The photographs [of the suspects] are pretty strong, good quality has been given. There will be people who know something. It is part of our duty, in order to protect our country, that people come forward and give the police the information they can.”

    I don’t doubt the genuine concern of the French about Islamist terror, as they currently have a sufficient threat of it within their own borders. My continued disdain for the French is greatly stirred by their willingness to impair American efforts, meant for the betterment of survival for the U.S. and all of western culture, to squelch the Islamist movement, just for the sake of France’s own short-term geopolitical gain. President Jacques Chirac’s willingness to enable a continued global threat by opposing U.S. international policy, merely for the purpose of setting up a Franco-led European Union as an alternative global power, has been simply disgusting.

    Egyptians surround villages said to be harboring Sharm bombers

    Egyptian sources say that security forces surrounded two Bedouin villages next to Sharm El-Sheikh on Monday suspected of harboring terrorists responsible for the bombings that killed 88 people last Friday.

    The two suspects reportedly hiding in the villages of Al-Royasat and Hurum are said to be Pakistani nationals.

    According to earlier reports published in the Arab press, the Egyptian police are looking for nine Pakistani citizens that apparently disappeared after the attacks took place, leaving their passports and possessions in the hotel rooms they were staying in.

    The current leadership in Egypt has as much to fear from Islamist terror as does the West and other authoritarian Arab states. The difference is that the West is working to subvert a radical culture; the Arab states are looking to prolong despotic reigns. That is where Iraq provides the hub — a possibly democratic, econically and culturally free, alternative to the typical Arab state is a severe danger to the Islamist movement, but it is also a threat to the existing governments in the region. Is it any wonder that Arab support has been lukewarm at best, behind-the-scenes hostile at worst?

  • Survivors Gather to Mark WWII Tragedy

    Saturday will mark sixty years since the U.S.S. Indianapolis went under and the ordeal for the survivors began.

    Survivors of one of the final Naval tragedies of World War II gathered this weekend to honor hundreds of crewmates from the USS Indianapolis who were killed when their ship was torpedoed, leaving hundreds of sailors adrift on the Pacific Ocean amid circling sharks.

    Just days after delivering key components of the atomic bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima, the cruiser was struck by two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine in the Philippine Sea on July 30, 1945.

    More than four days later, barely a quarter of the crew of 1,197 came out of the water with enough strength to survive.

    Go read for the words of those survivors still living, still deserving our honor.

    Also, as to honor, this aspect of the story, tucked away at the end, cannot be stressed enough.

    Reports of the Indianapolis’ sinking were buried behind the news of the Japanese surrender.

    The commander of the Indianapolis, Capt. Charles McVay III, was court-martialed for not sailing a zigzag course to evade submarines. His men believe he was made a scapegoat. In 2000, 32 years after McVay committed suicide, Congress passed an act clearing his name.

    Be at peace, sir.

    Thanks to Hollywood, and justifiably for once, it is difficult to hear this story without thinking of a moment in a movie. Robert Shaw, speaking as the crusty Quint, captain of the fishing vessel Orca and in the role of a survivor of this historical ordeal, did the actual sailors much justice in the classic film Jaws with the following:

    Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We’d just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn’t see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin’ from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn’t know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin’ by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and sometimes that shark he go away… but sometimes he wouldn’t go away. Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn’t even seem to be livin’… ’til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin’ and your hollerin’ those sharks come in and… they rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don’t know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin’, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boson’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he’d been bitten in half below the waist. At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol’ fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

  • Absolutely Engrossing Dive Tale

    I’ll blog after I finish this fascinating story of a cave dive below 800 feet to recover a body. Hat tip to Florida Cracker, who appropriately calls it a “creepy tale.”

    UPDATE: Whoa! I just thought the story was creepy where I was at the time. Well … it got creepier.

  • Russia sees Global Jihad on Southern Flank

    Think it’s not a global war against an expansionist radical Islamist ideology? Russia disagrees.

    A powerful explosion ripped through a half-empty carriage of a commuter train near the Dagestani town of Khasavyurt Sunday, killing a young woman and wounding several people.

    Police announced the apparent terror bombing as an almost routine event, the latest of nearly 80 deadly attacks by Islamic extremists that have rocked the multiethnic mountain republic of Dagestan so far this year. The Kremlin insists the wave of attacks that threaten to unhinge Russia’s mainly-Muslim Caucasus region is being orchestrated by the same global jihad groups that have struck in London and Sharm-el-Sheikh in recent days.

    […]

    “Our forces have captured or killed citizens of 52 countries operating with the terrorists in the north Caucasus,” says Sergei Markov, a Kremlin adviser. “The enemy brings an ideology of radical Islam that seeks political power through terrorist methods.”

    Recent incidents, including a bath-house bombing that killed 10 Russian soldiers in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala two weeks ago, suggest the attackers have absorbed sophisticated tactics used by jihadis in Iraq and elsewhere. A report issued last week by Igor Dobayev, an expert with the official Academy of Sciences, found that as many as 2,000 Islamist insurgents, many belonging to the Al Qaeda-linked Sharia Jamaat, are behind the wave of roadside explosions, car bombings, and assassinations.

    I would argue that this is indeed World War IV, with the oft-feared World War III already having been survived with the end of the Cold War and its collection of multiple hot theaters. At stake this time around is no less than western civilization as we know it. Again.

    A secret report by the Kremlin’s special envoy to the north Caucasus, Dmitry Kozak, leaked to a Moscow newspaper earlier this month, warned of the emergence of “Islamic Sharia enclaves” amid the high Caucasus peaks.”Further ignoring the [social, economic, and political] problems and attempts to drive them deep down by force could lead to an uncontrolled chain of events whose logical result will be open social, interethnic, and religious conflict in Dagestan,” Mr. Kozak wrote.

    Sharia law. That is what our opponents want to enforce upon the future generations of the entire world. That is, on those that they allow to live at all.

    Even within this article, there is finger-pointing to Russia’s tactics in separatist Chechnya. Perhaps, at one time, there was some validity to this. That time, however, has passed.

    The first Chechnya war, 1994-96, was effectively won by the nationalist, independence-seeking rebels. But experts say that since rebel president Aslan Maskhadov was killed by Russian security forces earlier this year, the Chechen insurgency is led by Islamic radicals such as Shamil Basayev, architect of a mass hostage-taking in a Moscow theater two years ago and last September’s bloody school siege in Beslan. “We are no longer talking about Chechen secessionists challenging Moscow,” says Mr. Markov. “Now it’s radical religious ideologues who aim to destroy the unbelievers and establish an Islamic caliphate.“

    It seems that the United States is not the only one cursed with a blame-America-first, keep-wearing-blinders crowd. Russia certainly has its own equivalent.

    “In the [north Caucasus crisis] we can see the complete failure of Putin’s policies,” says Andrei Piontkovsky, director of the independent Center for Strategic Studies in Moscow. “It is a fairy tale to explain it as the work of outside factors, Islamic terrorists from the Middle East, or whatever. The truth is that internal problems are generating social unrest, which leads people to turn to Islamic ideas.”

    Internal problems are an issue, but trying to pass it all off as such is ludicrous. The fairy tale is ignoring outside factors with scumbags from at least 52 countries in the fray for the Islamists.

    Sooner or later, we will have to wake up to the fact that Russia is fighting the same opponent that has attacked us, attacked Europe, attacked the Asian Pacific, and attacked their own fellow Moslems in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

  • Police Concede Slain Suspect Not Bomber

    Tragic.

    London’s police commissioner expressed regret today for the slaying of a Brazilian electrician by officers who mistook him for a suspect in the recent terror bombings, but he defended a police shoot-to-kill policy as “the only way” to stop would-be suicide bombers.

    […]

    The man shot Friday at the Stockwell subway station was identified as Jean Charles de Menezes, 27. Witnesses said he was wearing a heavy, padded coat when plainclothes police chased him into a subway car, pinned him to the ground and shot him five times in the head and torso in front of horrified passengers.

    Blair initially said Menezes was “directly linked” to the investigation of Thursday’s attacks, but police then said Saturday he had no connection to the bomb attempts.

    “This is a tragedy,” Blair said today of the shooting. “The Metropolitan Police accepts full responsibility for this. To the family I can only express my deep regrets.”

    Here is a lengthy look at the slain man and his grief-stricken family: Man shot by police was in wrong place at wrong time.

    From that sad tale I would like to highlight the following:

    Within 20 minutes, the Brazilian whose interest in all things electrical was sparked at the age of eight by dismantling a broken transistor radio and making it work again, would be dead.

    Witnesses described how he vaulted the ticket barriers at Stockwell, then started running down the escalators before bursting into a carriage of a stationary northbound Northern Line train looking “petrified”.

    So, to wrong place and wrong time, let’s add wrong attire and wrong behavior. As a rule of thumb, I’d like to suggest not looking and acting like a threat in public places. At least not while Islamists are doing the same with the intent of killing.

    Tragic? Yes. A mistake. Certainly not. As I blogged my reaction to the initial reports, I wrote essentially the same, though I would like to withdraw a little now that more is known.

    Justified? Check the circumstances, check the attire, check the weather. Then ask the Israelis if they have any experience with unusual attire and things going kaboom. Justified? Oh hell yes. Unfortunate? Yes, as well. I’d much rather have this piece of trash in custody spilling his guts than in the Tube spilling his blood. Still, I’ll settle for the blood.

    The last two sentences were incorrect in this specific case. The rest stands.

    At least for the time being, this unfortunate incident will not change the Brits’ shoot-to-kill tactics.

    British police admitted today that a Brazilian electrician they shot dead in a crowded London Underground train had nothing to do with the terror bombings, but they will stick to a policy of shooting suspected suicide bombers in the head.

    […]

    London’s police chief Ian Blair conveyed the force’s “deep regrets” to the family of the dead man which has made angry protests, but he urged people to understand the context of the killing.

    He said police first had to deal with the danger of stopping suicide bombers.

    Blair also said the Brazilian was pursued because he had emerged from a block of apartments which police were watching as they hunted men who made a failed attempt to bomb subway trains and a bus last Thursday, he said.

    “It was not just a random event… It was firmly linked to the ongoing operation,” said Blair.

    Blair confirmed Press reports that British police were pursuing a “shoot-to-kill-in- order-to-protect policy” and could not guarantee that a similar mistake would not happen again.

    “There’s no point in shooting at somebody’s chest because that’s where the bomb is likely to be,” Blair said. “There’s no point in shooting anywhere else because if they fall down they detonate it.

    “It is drawn on the experience from other countries, including Sri Lanka.”

    Quite right. War is ugly and mistakes happen but it must be realized that this is not a knee-jerk response. Rather, it is a reasonable course forced upon us by the tactics of our enemy.

  • Quote of the Week, 24 JUL 05

    My right is driven in, my center is giving way, the situation is excellent, I attack.

    —Marshal Ferdinand Foch

  • Seventh Heaven

    Armstrong’s last ride ends with victory

    One last time, on the podium against the backdrop of the Arc de Triomphe, the cancer survivor who became the greatest cyclist in Tour de France history slipped into the leader’s yellow jersey Sunday. This time, it was the winner’s jersey, for an unprecedented seventh consecutive year in the world’s most grueling race.

    […]

    It was the end of Armstrong’s amazing career, and in retiring a winner he achieved a rare feat in sports — going out on top. He said his decision was final and that he walks away with no regrets.

    “I’m finished,” Armstrong told a motorcycle-borne TV reporter as he rode a victory lap of the Champs-Elysees, waving to the crowds and accompanied by another rider waving the Stars and Stripes.

    On Monday, he’ll be on a beach in the south of France, “with a beer, having a blast,” he said.

    Simply the best. I’ll wager that beer is going to be mighty tasty.

  • If WWII Was Fought Online…

    This amazing piece of hilarity is most definitely not a Target Centermass original, though I wish it was.

    I first found it on the TexAgs.com forums, where it was sourced to another forum, where yet a vague reference was made to another source. If anyone knows where this originated, please let me know as full credit is deserved for this masterpiece. This is certainly some of the funniest stuff this military history buff has read in a long, long time.

    *Hitler[AoE] has joined the game.*
    *Eisenhower has joined the game.*
    *paTTon has joined the game.*
    *Churchill has joined the game.*
    *benny-tow has joined the game.*
    *T0J0 has joined the game.*
    *Roosevelt has joined the game.*
    *Stalin has joined the game.*
    *deGaulle has joined the game.*
    Roosevelt: hey sup
    T0J0: y0
    Stalin: hi
    Churchill: hi
    Hitler[AoE]: cool, i start with panzer tanks!
    paTTon: lol more like panzy tanks
    T0JO: lol
    Roosevelt: o this fockin sucks i got a depression!
    benny-tow: haha america sux
    Stalin: hey hitler you dont fight me i dont fight u, cool?
    Hitler[AoE]; sure whatever
    Stalin: cool
    deGaulle: **** Hitler rushed some1 help
    Hitler[AoE]: lol byebye frenchy
    Roosevelt: i dont got crap to help, sry
    Churchill: wtf the luftwaffle is attacking me
    Roosevelt: get antiair guns
    Churchill: i cant afford them
    benny-tow: u n00bs know what team talk is?
    paTTon: stfu
    Roosevelt: o yah hit the navajo button guys
    deGaulle: eisenhower ur worthless come help me quick
    Eisenhower: i cant do **** til rosevelt gives me an army
    paTTon: yah hurry the fock up
    Churchill: d00d im gettin pounded
    deGaulle: this is fockin weak u guys suck
    *deGaulle has left the game.*
    Roosevelt: im gonna attack the axis k?
    benny-tow: with what? ur wheelchair?
    benny-tow: lol did u mess up ur legs AND ur head?
    Hitler[AoE]: ROFLMAO
    T0J0: lol o no america im comin 4 u
    Roosevelt: wtf! thats bull**** u ***s im gunna kick ur asses
    T0JO: not without ur harbors u wont! lol
    Roosevelt: u little biotch ill get u
    Hitler[AoE]: wtf
    Hitler[AoE]: america hax, u had depression and now u got a huge fockin army
    Hitler[AoE]: thats bull**** u hacker
    Churchill: lol no more france for u hitler
    Hitler[AoE]: tojo help me!
    T0J0: wtf u want me to do, im on the other side of the world retard
    Hitler[AoE]: fine ill clear you a path
    Stalin: u arsshoel! WE HAD A FoCKIN TRUCE
    Hitler[AoE]: i changed my mind lol
    benny-tow: haha
    benny-tow: hey ur losing ur guys in africa im gonna need help in italy soon sum1
    T0J0: o **** i cant help u i got my hands full
    Hitler[AoE]: im 2 busy 2 help
    Roosevelt: yah thats right biznitch im comin for ya
    Stalin: church help me
    Churchill: like u helped me before? sure ill just sit here
    Stalin: dont be an arss
    Churchill: dont be a commie. oops too late
    Eisenhower: LOL
    benny-tow: hahahh oh **** help
    Hitler: o man ur focked
    paTTon: oh what now biotch
    Roosevelt: whos the cripple now lol
    *benny-tow has been eliminated.*
    benny-tow: lame
    Roosevelt: gj patton
    paTTon: thnx
    Hitler[AoE]: eisenhower hax hes killing all my ****
    Hitler[AoE]: quit u hacker so u dont ruin my record
    Eisenhower: Nuts!
    benny~tow: wtf that mean?
    Eisenhower: meant to say nutsack lol finger slipped
    paTTon: coming to get u hitler u paper hanging hun ****socker
    Stalin: rofl
    T0J0: HAHAHHAA
    Hitler[AoE]: u guys are fockin gay
    Hitler[AoE]: ur never getting in my city
    *Hitler[AoE] has been eliminated.*
    benny~tow: OMG u noob you killed yourself
    Eisenhower: ROFLOLOLOL
    Stalin: OMG LMAO!
    Hitler[AoE]: i didnt click there omg this game blows
    *Hitler[AoE] has left the game*
    paTTon: hahahhah
    T0J0: my teammates are n00bs
    benny~tow: shut up noob
    Roosevelt: haha wut a moron
    paTTon: wtf am i gunna do now?
    Eisenhower: yah me too
    T0J0: why dont u attack me o thats right u dont got no ships lololol
    Eisenhower: fock u
    paTTon: lemme go thru ur base commie
    Stalin: go to hell lol
    paTTon: fock this **** im goin afk
    Eisenhower: yah this is gay
    *Roosevelt has left the game.*
    Hitler[AoE]: wtf?
    Eisenhower: **** now we need some1 to join
    *tru_m4n has joined the game.*
    tru_m4n: hi all
    T0J0: hey
    Stalin: sup
    Churchill: hi
    tru_m4n: OMG OMG OMG i got all his stuff!
    tru_m4n: NUKES! HOLY **** I GOT NUKES
    Stalin: d00d gimmie some plz
    tru_m4n: no way i only got like a couple
    Stalin: omg dont be gay gimmie nuculer secrets
    T0J0: wtf is nukes?
    T0J0: holy ****holy****hoylshti!!!111
    *T0J0 has been eliminated.*
    *The Allied team has won the game!*
    Eisenhower: awesome!
    Churchill: gg noobs no re
    T0J0: thats bull**** u fockin suck
    *T0J0 has left the game.*
    *Eisenhower has left the game.*
    Stalin: next game im not going to be on ur team, u guys didnt help me for ****
    Churchill: wutever, we didnt need ur help neway dumbarss
    tru_m4n: l8r all
    benny~tow: bye
    Churchill: l8r
    Stalin: fock u all
    tru_m4n: shut up commie lol
    *tru_m4n has left the game.*
    benny~tow: lololol u commie
    Churchill: ROFL
    Churchill: bye commie
    *Churchill has left the game.*
    *benny~tow has left the game.*
    Stalin: i hate u all ***s
    *Stalin has left the game.*
    paTTon: lol no1 is left
    paTTon: weeeee i got a jeep
    *paTTon has been eliminated.*
    paTTon: o ****!
    *paTTon has left the game.*