WAR REPORT

Archives September 11, 2001 News to 9-11-2002

TRIBUTE TO 9/11

Courage
In a Perfect World
Slavery Reparations
Islam Has Proven to be Our Historical Enemy
The Serenity Prayer for Trauma Survivors
PUBLIC SERVICE 101
P.O.W. Pledge of Allegiance
I Will Not Forget
Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance
I AM the NATION---Updated for 2002
COL. JOHN FINN USMC, Ret. Humilated by United Airlines
CIA Operative 1st KIA
United States Marine
Tribute to Marines
Chronology
Military Action
What's Taking So Long
October 11th Update I
October 11th Update II
No Fear
Numerology
Pashtun
Can of Whoop Ass
Football Game
Patriotic Dog
I CORPS VIETNAM TAORS
I Corps VietNam Map

Shoot Bin Laden I
Bin Laden's Liquors Episode I
Bin Laden's Liquors Episode II

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Courage

Courage, said the Romans, is not the only virtue,
but it is the single virtue without which all the other
virtues are meaningless.
The hell with politics...the terroists must be
treated with extreme prejudice.
The only choice as I see it...is between a free society
based on law and compassion and a rampant
barbarism in the service of brute force and tyranny.
Confusion and vacillation facilitated the rise of terroism.
Clarity and courage will ensure it's defeat.
Today the terroists have the will to destroy us,
but not the power.
Today we have the power to destroy them.
Now we must summon the will.
There is nothing stronger than the will
of a free nation of people uniting to
protect it's life and it's liberty.
Semper fidelis
Squez

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Slavery Reparations

                      The following is a rather elegant essay, by Mr. Reed, regarding the failings
                      of a system and a culture. Please note that he elegantly describes the mood
                      of many white Americans and does so without predjudice.

                      Slavery Reparations ........by Fred Reed

                      On the Web I find that Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman of Afro-American
                      Studies at Harvard, is demanding that whites pay reparations to blacks. It's
                      because of slavery, see. He is joined in this endeavor by a gaggle of other
                      professional blacks.

                      I guess he'll send me a bill, huh? I feel like saying, Let me get this
                      straight, Hank. I'm slow. Be patient. You want free money because of
                      slavery, right?

                      I don't blame you. I'd like free money too. Tell you what. I believe in
                      justice. I'll give you a million dollars for every slave I own, and another
                      million for every year you were a slave. Fair enough?

                      But tell me, how many slaves do you suppose I have? In round numbers, I
                      mean. Say to the nearest dozen. And how long were you a slave?

                      Oh.

                      In other words, I owe you reparations for something that I didn't do and
                      didn't happen to you. That makes sense. Like lug nuts on a birthday cake.

                      Personally, I think you owe me reparations for things you didn't do and
                      never happened to me. I've never been coated in Dutch chocolate and thrown
                      from the Eiffel Tower. I'll bet you've never done it to anyone.

                      I want reparations.

                      Kinda silly, isn't it?

                      But if we're going to talk about reparations, that's a street that runs in
                      two directions. You want money from me for what some other whites did to
                      some other blacks in another century. How about you guys paying whites
                      reparations for current expenses caused by blacks? Not long ago blacks
                      burned down half of Los Angeles, a city in my country. Cities are expensive,
                      Hank. Build one sometime and you'll see what I mean. Whites had to pay taxes
                      to repair Los Angeles for you.

                      You can send me a check.

                      Now, yes, I know you burned LA because you didn't like the verdict in the
                      trial of those police officers. Well, I didn't like the verdict in the
                      Simpson trial. But I didn't burn my house and loot Korean grocers.

                      Over the years blacks have burned a lot of American cities: Newark, Detroit,
                      Watts, on and on. Now add in the fantastic cost over the years of welfare in
                      all its forms, of large police forces and jails and security systems in
                      department stores. I can't live in the capital city of my own country
                      because of crime committed by blacks. Toss in the cultural cost of lowering
                      standards in everything for the benefit of blacks.

                      See what I mean?

                      Now, I'd view things differently if you said, "Fred, blacks can't get
                      anywhere in a modern country without education. We know that. We need better
                      schools, smarter teachers, harder courses, books with smaller pictures and
                      bigger words. Can you help us?"

                      I'd say, "Hallelujah! Hoo-ahh! Not just yes, but hell yes. Let's sell an
                      aircraft carrier and get these folks some real schools and get them into the
                      economic mainstream." I'd say it partly because it would be the right thing
                      to do, and partly, because I'd like to add you guys to the tax base.

                      The current custodial state is expensive. I'd just love for blacks to study
                      and learn to compete and stop burning places.

                      But is it going to happen?

                      You may not believe it, but I, and most whites, don't like seeing blacks as
                      miserable and screwed up as they are. I spend a fair amount of time in the
                      projects. Those places are ugly. It's no fun watching perfectly good kids
                      turn into semi-literate dope dealers who barely speak English. It just plain
                      ain't right.  But, Hank, what am I supposed to do about it? I can't do your
                      children's homework. At some point, people have to do things for themselves,
                      or they don't get done.

                      Maybe it's time.

                      I'll tell you what I see out in the world, Hank. I think blacks are too
                      accustomed to getting anything they want by just demanding it. True, it has
                      worked for over half a century. Get a few hundred people in the street,
                      implicitly threaten to loot and burn, holler about slavery, and the Great
                      White Cash Spigot turns on.

                      Thing is, whites don't much buy it any longer. Most recognize that what once
                      was a civil-rights movement has become a shake-down game. Few people still
                      feel responsible for the failings and inadequacies of blacks. Political
                      correctness keeps the lid on -- but everyone knows the score.

                      Which scares me, Hank. On one hand, blacks hate whites and incline toward
                      looting and burning. (The whites you hate are the ones who marched in the
                      civil-rights movement. Ever think about that?)

                      On the other hand, whites quietly grow wearier and wearier of it.

                      Not good.

                      On the third hand (allow me three hands, for rhetorical convenience), blacks
                      keep demanding things.

                      As I write, you demand reparations for slavery. Blacks in Oklahoma (I think
                      it was) want money for some ancient race riot. Other blacks reject the
                      Declaration of Independence, blacks in New York hint broadly at burning and
                      looting over a trial, yet more demand the elimination of the Confederate
                      flag, and the federal equal opportunity apparatus, which means blacks, wants
                      to sue Silicon Valley for not hiring nonexistent black engineers.

                      That's a lot of demanding for one month, Hank. What happens if whites ever
                      say, "No"?

                      Now, how about you? You've got a cushy job up there at Harvard, and you can
                      hoot and holler about what swine and bandits whites are. I guess it's lots
                      of fun, and you get a salary for it. But don't you think you might do blacks
                      more good if you told them to complain less and study more?

                      For example, if you want blacks to work in Silicon Gulch, the best approach
                      might be to find some really smart black guys, and get them to study digital
                      design, not Black Studies.

                      That's how everybody else does it. It works. Then blacks wouldn't feel left
                      out, and racial tension would decline.

                      Sound like a plan?

                      Just out of curiosity, how many hours a week do professors of Afro-American
                      Studies spend in the projects, encouraging poor black kids to study real
                      subjects, Hank?

All,

I just received this from Colonel Wesley L. Fox, USMC, Retired (The only surviving Medal of Honor Recipient from the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines in Vietnam):

Greetings, I am both saddened and outraged to pass along the following:

Last week John Finn, at age 93 (he'll be 94 on July 24th) was returning from a reunion of the USS Hancock in New Orleans. His escorts were unable to continue with him beyond security, and were not aware until the following day that John was:

1) Accused of having a potential weapon in his pocket; a five pointed object with "sharp" edges ... security AGAIN could not differentiate between the Navy Medal Of Honor and a martial arts throwing "star" ...

2) Held in a security area and forced to remove his boots. John, despite his bad knees and advanced age, has trouble even getting his boots on or off, but in the style that is uniquely John's, he wears them everywhere he goes.

3) Denied any personal help, up to - and including - a wheel chair, and held despite a bad case of diarrhea until he was most sadly humiliated and had to change his clothing.

4) Told that his United Airlines ticket would not be honored unless he could produce the credit card that bought it. ("... For all we know, this ticket was purchased with a stolen credit card," he was told.) Since the ticket had been purchased by the president of the USS Hancock Association, John was unable to produce the demanded credit card, and therefore had to write a personal check in order to obtain another ticket to get back home.

FRANKLY, I am outraged, especially after the Joe Foss incident a few months ago and the coverage it received. Despite that, these airport employees STILL can't recognize our Nation's highest award for military heroism. For this to happen to John Finn, or any Medal Of Honor recipient for that matter, is an extreme tragedy and shame.
 
 

The President of the United Statesin the name of The Congress
takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to
FINN, JOHN WILLIAM
 
 

Rank and organization: Lieutenant, U.S. Navy. Place and date: Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, Territory of Hawaii, 7 December 1941. Entered service at: California. Born: 23 July 1909, Los Angeles, Calif.

Citation:

For extraordinary heroism distinguished service,
and devotion above and beyond the call of duty.
During the first attack by Japanese airplanes on the Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, on 7 December 1941, Lt. Finn promptly secured and manned a .50-caliber machinegun mounted on an instruction stand in a completely exposed section of the parking ramp, which was under heavy enemy machinegun strafing fire. Although painfully wounded many times, he continued to man
this gun and to return the enemy's fire vigorously and with telling effect throughout the enemy strafing and bombing attacks and with complete disregard for his own personal safety.
It was only by specific orders that he was persuaded to leave
his post to seek medical attention. Following first aid treatment, although obviously suffering much pain and moving with great difficulty, he returned to the squadron area and actively
supervised the rearming of returning planes.
His extraordinary heroism and conduct in this action were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Rioting prisoners killed CIA officer Johnny ``Mike'' Spann at Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, the agency said Wednesday. He was the first American killed in action inside the country since U.S. bombing began seven weeks earlier.

Officials recovered his body from a prison compound only after northern alliance rebels backed by U.S. airstrikes and special forces quelled an uprising by Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners.

Spann, at the compound to interrogate prisoners, was caught inside when the riot began and had been missing since Sunday. The CIA provided few details of the circumstances of his death.

CIA Director George J. Tenet addressed agency employees Wednesday morning, saying Spann was an American hero and calling on fellow officers to``continue the mission that Mike Spann held sacred.''

``And so we will continue our battle against evil with renewed strength and spirit,'' Tenet said, according to a statement provided by the agency.

The flag outside CIA headquarters in McLean, Va., flew at half-staff.

Spann was a paramilitary trooper within the CIA's Directorate of Operations, the agency's spy service.

``Quiet, serious and absolutely unflappable, Mike's stoicism concealed a dry sense of humor and a heart of gold,'' Tenet said. ``His brand of leadership was founded not on words, but on deeds - deeds performed in conditions of hazard and hardship.''

Spann, 32, leaves a wife, two daughters and an infant son.

Originally from Winfield, Ala., he served in the Marine Corps as an artillery specialist, reaching the rank of captain before joining the CIA in June 1999.

``He wanted to be in the FBI or CIA. That's what he always wanted to do,'' said Billy Mack Spann, a distant relative in Alabama. ``He got in the service and went from there.''

``This week has really brought home the war to Winfield,'' said family friend Tracy Estes.

Four other Americans, all military personnel, have been killed in connection with the fighting in Afghanistan. All died in accidents outside the country, two in a helicopter crash in Pakistan.

The CIA has been running covert operations in Afghanistan alongside the more public military effort. CIA officers are believed to have been providing weapons, money and intelligence to rebel groups opposing the Taliban and al-Qaida, as well as interrogating prisoners captured during the fighting.

The prison riot began Sunday when hundreds of Arabs, Pakistanis and other non-Afghan prisoners captured after the fall of Kunduz, the Taliban's last stronghold in the north, stormed an armory for weapons.

Thousands of northern alliance fighters, aided by U.S. commandos and airstrikes, assaulted the compound, but the prisoners held out for days.

Five U.S. soldiers were seriously wounded Monday when a U.S. bomb went astray. They were evacuated to a U.S. military hospital in Germany, where one remained in intensive care and the other four were in good condition.

The alliance had recaptured most of the fortress prison by Wednesday. Hundreds of prisoners and dozens of alliance fighters were dead.

``This is a dangerous period of time,'' President Bush had said Monday. `America must be prepared for loss of life.''

The CIA often keeps the death of one of its own secret, usually to protect a clandestine operation or the identities of foreign agents working with the officer. Neither was the case with Spann's death.

Two CIA officers died in the line of duty in 1998. No information has been released about their identities or the circumstances.

Since the agency's creation, 78 CIA officers and employees have died or have been killed in the line of duty, agency spokesman Mark Mansfield said. Each has a star on the wall in the lobby of the agency's main building.

Slightly more than half of the stars include names. The identities of the rest are secret.

Some of the better-known include Robert Ames, who died in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, and William Buckley, who was killed in 1985 after being kidnapped the previous year in Lebanon.

8:45 a.m. (all times are EDT): A hijacked passenger jet, American Airlines Flight
11 out of Boston, Massachusetts, crashes into the north tower of the World Trade
Center, tearing a gaping hole in the building and setting it afire.

2nd Plane hits WTC.

9:03 a.m.: A second hijacked airliner, United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston,
crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center and explodes. Both
buildings are burning.

9:17 a.m.: The Federal Aviation Administration shuts down all New York City
area airports.

9:21 a.m.: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey orders all bridges
and tunnels in the New York area closed.

9:30 a.m.: President Bush, speaking in Sarasota, Florida, says the country has
suffered an "apparent terrorist attack."

9:40 a.m.: The FAA halts all flight operations at U.S. airports, the first time in
U.S. history that air traffic nationwide has been halted.

9:43 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon, sending up a
huge plume of smoke. Evacuation begins immediately.

9:45 a.m.: The White House evacuates.

9:57 a.m.: Bush departs from Florida.

10:05 a.m.: The south tower of the World Trade Center collapses, plummeting
into the streets below. A massive cloud of dust and debris forms and slowly
drifts away from the building.

Pentagon burns.

10:08 a.m.: Secret Service agents armed with automatic rifles are deployed into
Lafayette Park across from the White House.

10:10 a.m.: A portion of the Pentagon collapses.

10:10 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93, also hijacked, crashes in Somerset
County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh.

10:13 a.m.: The United Nations building evacuates, including 4,700 people from
the headquarters building and 7,000 total from UNICEF and U.N. development
programs.

10:22 a.m.: In Washington, the State and Justice departments are evacuated,
along with the World Bank.

10:24 a.m.: The FAA reports that all inbound transatlantic aircraft flying into
the United States are being diverted to Canada.

Pennsylvania crash scene

10:28 a.m.: The World Trade Center's north tower collapses from the top down
as if it were being peeled apart, releasing a tremendous cloud of debris and
smoke.

10:45 a.m.: All federal office buildings in Washington are evacuated.

10.46 a.m.: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell cuts short his trip to Latin
America to return to the United States.

First tower falls.

10.48 a.m.: Police confirm the plane crash in Pennsylvania.

10:53 a.m.: New York's primary elections, scheduled for Tuesday, are
postponed.

10:54 a.m.: Israel evacuates all diplomatic missions.

10:57 a.m.: New York Gov. George Pataki says all state government offices are
closed.

11:02 a.m.: New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani urges New Yorkers to stay
at home and orders an evacuation of the area south of Canal Street.

11:16 a.m.: CNN reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is
preparing emergency-response teams in a precautionary move.

11:18 a.m.: American Airlines reports it has lost two aircraft. American Flight
11, a Boeing 767 flying from Boston to Los Angeles, had 81 passengers and 11
crew aboard. Flight 77, a Boeing 757 en route from Washington's Dulles
International Airport to Los Angeles, had 58 passengers and six crew members
aboard. Flight 11 slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.

11:26 a.m.: United Airlines reports that United Flight 93, en route from
Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California, has crashed in Pennsylvania.
The airline also says that it is "deeply concerned" about United Flight 175.

11:59 a.m.: United Airlines confirms that Flight 175, from Boston to Los
Angeles, has crashed with 56 passengers and nine crew members aboard. It hit
the World Trade Center's south tower.

12:04 p.m.: Los Angeles International Airport, the destination of three of the
crashed airplanes, is evacuated.

12:15 p.m: San Francisco International Airport is evacuated and shut down.
The airport was the destination of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in
Pennsylvania.

Second tower falls.

12:15 p.m.: The Immigration and Naturalization Service says U.S. borders with
Canada and Mexico are on the highest state of alert, but no decision has been
made about closing borders.

12:30 p.m.: The FAA says 50 flights are in U.S. airspace, but none are reporting
any problems.

1:04 p.m.: Bush, speaking from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, says
that all appropriate security measures are being taken, including putting the
U.S. military on high alert worldwide. He asks for prayers for those killed or
wounded in the attacks and says, "Make no mistake, the United States will
hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts."

1:27 p.m.: A state of emergency is declared by the city of Washington.

1:44 p.m.: The Pentagon says five warships and two aircraft carriers will leave
the U.S. Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia, to protect the East Coast from
further attack and to reduce the number of ships in port. The two carriers, the
USS George Washington and the USS John F. Kennedy, are headed for the
New York coast. The other ships headed to sea are frigates and guided missile
destroyers capable of shooting down aircraft.

1:48 p.m.: Bush leaves Barksdale Air Force Base aboard Air Force One and
flies to an Air Force base in Nebraska.

Bush: "Attacks cowardly."

2 p.m.: Senior FBI sources tell CNN they are working on the assumption that
the four airplanes that crashed were hijacked as part of a terrorist attack.

2:30 p.m.: The FAA announces there will be no U.S. commercial air traffic until
noon EDT Wednesday at the earliest.

2:49 p.m.: At a news conference, Giuliani says that subway and bus service are
partially restored in New York City. Asked about the number of people killed,
Giuliani says, "I don't think we want to speculate about that -- more than any
of us can bear."

3:55 p.m.: Karen Hughes, a White House counselor, says the president is at an
undisclosed location, later revealed to be Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska,
and is conducting a National Security Council meeting by phone. Vice
President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice are in
a secure facility at the White House. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is at
the Pentagon.

3:55 p.m.: Giuliani now says the number of critically injured in New York City
is up to 200 with 2,100 total injuries reported.

4 p.m: CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor reports that U.S.
officials say there are "good indications" that Saudi militant Osama bin Laden,
suspected of coordinating the bombings of two U.S. embassies in 1998, is
involved in the attacks, based on "new and specific" information developed
since the attacks.

4:06 p.m.: California Gov. Gray Davis dispatches urban search-and-rescue
teams to New York.

4:10 p.m.: Building 7 of the World Trade Center complex is reported on fire.

New York Mayor Giuliani speaks to the Nation.

4:20 p.m.: U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Florida, chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, says he was "not surprised there was an attack (but)
was surprised at the specificity." He says he was "shocked at what actually
happened -- the extent of it."

4:25 p.m.: The American Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the New York Stock
Exchange say they will remain closed Wednesday.

4:30 p.m.: The president leaves Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska aboard Air
Force One to return to Washington.

Soot-covered man

5:15 p.m.: CNN Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre reports fires
are still burning in part of the Pentagon. No death figures have been released
yet.

5:20 p.m.: The 47-story Building 7 of the World Trade Center complex
collapses. The evacuated building is damaged when the twin towers across the
street collapse earlier in the day. Other nearby buildings in the area remain
ablaze.

5:30 p.m.: CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King reports that
U.S. officials say the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania could have been
headed for one of three possible targets: Camp David, the White House or the
U.S. Capitol building.

6 p.m.: Explosions are heard in Kabul, Afghanistan, hours after terrorist
attacks targeted financial and military centers in the United States. The attacks
occurred at 2:30 a.m. local time. Afghanistan is believed to be where bin Laden,
who U.S. officials say is possibly behind Tuesday's deadly attacks, is located.
U.S. officials say later that the United States had no involvement in the incident
whatsoever. The attack is credited to the Northern Alliance, a group fighting
the Taliban in the country's ongoing civil war.

6:10 p.m.:Giuliani urges New Yorkers to stay home Wednesday if they can.

Stunned onlookers

6:40 p.m.: Rumsfeld, the U.S. defense secretary, holds a news conference in the
Pentagon, noting the building is operational. "It will be in business tomorrow,"
he says.

6:54 p.m.: Bush arrives back at the White House aboard Marine One and is
scheduled to address the nation at 8:30 p.m. The president earlier landed at
Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland with a three-fighter jet escort. CNN's
King reports Laura Bush arrived earlier by motorcade from a "secure
location."

7:17 p.m.: U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft says the FBI is setting up a
Web site for tips on the attacks: www.ifccfbi.gov. He also says family and
friends of possible victims can leave contact information at 800-331-0075.

7:02 p.m.: CNN's Paula Zahn reports the Marriott Hotel near the World Trade
Center is on the verge of collapse and says some New York bridges are now
open to outbound traffic.

WTC devastation

7:45 p.m.: The New York Police Department says that at least 78 officers are
missing. The city also says that as many as half of the first 400 firefighters on
the scene were killed.

8:30 p.m.: President Bush addresses the nation, saying "thousands of lives were
suddenly ended by evil" and asks for prayers for the families and friends of
Tuesday's victims. "These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of
American resolve," he says. The president says the U.S. government will make
no distinction between the terrorists who committed the acts and those who
harbor them. He adds that government offices in Washington are reopening for
essential personnel Tuesday night and for all workers Wednesday.

9:22 p.m.: CNN's McIntyre reports the fire at the Pentagon is still burning and
is considered contained but not under control.

9:57 p.m.: Giuliani says New York City schools will be closed Wednesday and
no more volunteers are needed for Tuesday evening's rescue efforts. He says
there is hope that there are still people alive in rubble. He also says that power
is out on the westside of Manhattan and that health department tests show
there are no airborne chemical agents about which to worry.

10:49 p.m.: CNN Congressional Correspondent Jonathan Karl reports that
Attorney General Ashcroft told members of Congress that there were three to
five hijackers on each plane armed only with knives.

10:56 p.m: CNN's Zahn reports that New York City police believe there are
people alive in buildings near the World Trade Center.

11:54 p.m.: CNN Washington Bureau Chief Frank Sesno reports that a
government official told him there was an open microphone on one of the
hijacked planes and that sounds of discussion and "duress" were heard. Sesno
also reports a source says law enforcement has "credible" information and
leads and is confident about the investigation.

With U.S. warplanes now free to roam over Afghanistan, the stage is set for powerful satellites and reconnaissance aircraft to pursue Usama bin Laden in a high-tech manhunt from the skies.

Day four of the air campaign over Afghanistan has been met with more anti-aircraft fire. Taliban gunners have opened fire from at least three positions in Kabul but most of it appears to come from western areas where Usama bin Laden is believed to have training camps.

Senior defense officials said U.S. war planners are moving toward a new set of weaponry, including 5,000-pound laser-guided bombs to penetrate underground bunkers used by Taliban leaders.

The Afghan envoy to Pakistan is disputing U.S. claims that the airstrikes have destroyed the Taliban's defense capability. He said the U.S. planes are flying very high and are simply not in the range of the Afghan defense system.

The United States is preparing to use troop-carrying and army attack helicopters in Afghanistan to hunt down guerrillas allied with Saudi-born militant Usama bin Laden, U.S. defense officials said.

Pakistani officials said their soldiers fought a two-hour gun battle with about 30 Taliban fighters who tried to flee into Pakistan to escape U.S. bombing. The officials said it was the second time Taliban forces have tried to move into Pakistan since the bombing began Sunday.

Two American C-17 cargo jets returned to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany after dropping food aid in the north of Afghanistan, varying their destination in a third straight night of airdrops, an Air Force spokesman said.

International:

Afghan opposition leader Burhanuddin Rabbani, whose exiled government is recognized by the United Nations, said that all tribes should be represented in any post-Taliban government, as long as they have no blood on their hands.

Taliban rulers said they were still capable of defending the country despite attacks on their home city of Kandahar and U.S. claims of air supremacy.

Palestinian schools reopened in the Gaza Strip and foreign journalists were allowed back in as Palestinian police eased security measures two days after a violent protest against U.S. airstrikes.

Taliban leaders said they have lifted restrictions on Usama bid Laden. Now that the United States has begun air strikes on Afghanistan, he's free to wage holy war on America.

Germany has ruled out the possibility of shooting down hijacked passenger planes even if they appeared to threaten buildings with suicide attacks, the interior minister said on Wednesday.

Pakistan said any Afghan refugees in the country becoming involved in political agitation would be sent back home.

In a rare meeting, American envoys told Iraqi President Saddam Hussein not to conduct military campaigns in the region while air strikes against Afghanistan were under way or there would be a "heavy price to pay."

Much of the U.S. public and the international community has been waiting for almost a month for the Bush administration to strike back at Usama bin Laden, his Al Qaeda network and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that supports them both.  Yet we still haven't seen anything like the videos of sleek, exploding cruise missiles that became staples of military press briefings ever since the Persian Gulf War.

"That's what I call 'feel-good bombing,'" said Donald Snow, a political-science professor specializing in national security at the University of Alabama, in Tuscaloosa.  "It makes you feel good but it doesn't accomplish much of anything."  Snow is the author of the recently published book When America Fights, about potential U.S. military engagements at the beginning of the 21st century.  In fact, according to Stratfor.com global security expert Victor Gubareff, an  immediate strike, while viscerally satisfying to Americans, would probably do more harm to U.S. interests than good.

"You might get some the air defenses or military bases, but you're certainly not going to get Usama bin Laden or major military infrastructure," he said. He noted that other cruise-missile strikes against bin Laden, if anything, increased the alleged terrorist mastermind's stature in the world without even slowing him or his Al Qaeda network down.

Officials have already warned against instant gratification by saying repeatedly this will be a very different type of military operation. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld indicated as much Thursday during his trip to the Middle East and Central Asia, when he said the coming battle may involve less use of military forces than is commonly assumed. "It undoubtedly will prove to be a lot more like a cold war than a hot war,'' Rumsfeld said in an interview from his Cairo hotel room. "In the Cold War it took 50 years, plus or minus. It did not involve major battles. "It involved continuous pressure."

Hitting back at bin Laden certainly won't take that long.  But setting up the forces that will be used will take weeks if not months, Rumsfeld and other officials have suggested. There are an estimated 30,000 troops in or on their way to the region, including three aircraft carrier battle groups, thousands of Marines, hundreds of aircraft and an unspecified number of special operations forces.

But the first and most pressing problem in any operation is to identify the target.  And that hasn't been easy in this case. U.S. military planners freely admit they don't know the location of their prime target “bin Laden himself" or any number of his hideaways.

The U.S. government's boasts about having identified some two dozen terrorist camps in the country are empty, Gubareff said.
"All these camps are surely abandoned," he said. "They're not going to stay around. They're not stupid."

In fact, Gubareff and Snow said, the U.S. has close to no intelligence in the country, meaning that any action it takes would be blind.

"Prior to Sept. 11, we probably had no contingency plans to attack anything in Afghanistan and could barely find it on a map," Snow said. "So now we have to start from zero.  Once the targets are identified, military planners will still have to decide where to base their operations, and how they would be staged and reinforced. That would be an easier question to answer in Europe or the Persian Gulf, where the United States could rely on NATO bases or modern facilities established during the Gulf War a decade ago. For this operation, the U.S. had to instead approach a host of semi-friendly countries that have offered less-than-ideal political and military climates for American forces.

Those countries included Pakistan, which was under sanctions by the West when the crisis began, and the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Pakistan, full of Taliban sympathizers, could be pushed over the edge into political chaos if American troops are stationed there and that's not a welcome prospect for anyone, because Pakistan has nuclear weapons.

And it's not clear exactly what leeway the U.S. military has in that other prime location for a ground assault, Uzbekistan.

Depending on what home base is chosen, operations will have to take into account factors like the fact that planes aren't allowed to fly over Iran, making a western approach exceedingly inconvenient.

Ideally, the U.S. would work with opposition groups inside Afghanistan as well. But Afghan Northern Alliance politics is a tangle of mixed loyalties, old grudges and constant betrayal.  The assassination of charismastic alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks may have set U.S. plans back even further.

And once the matter of allies and allied bases is settled, there's still the problem that has befuddled would-be attackers for centuries: Afghanistan is among the most daunting landscapes that soldiers have ever had to face.

"As history will demonstrate, there is no good place from which to attack Afghanistan," Snow said. "Everybody who's tried to conquer that place has found out. It's one of the most godforsaken places on the earth." Mountainous, barren and tortured by extremes of weather, the Central Asian crossroads nation could be a set from "Star Trek. "The terrain is so treacherous it can take a man a week to traverse 20 miles.  Some parts are completely inaccessible to motorized vehicles, as the Soviets discovered before shifting the focus of their operations to helicopter gunships.

But the Soviets then learned that even their modern helicopters were vulnerable to a single surefooted mujahideen with a shoulder-mounted Stinger missile.

The cave-riddled badlands might even prove to be impervious to the strategies favored by people like former defense secretary Casper Weinberger. He said that "when we have identified the targets … we have to destroy them," as the U.S. did with a 200-plane raid on Libya after the bombing of a Berlin discotheque.

"You could bomb them for months and you wouldn't get them," former British Special Air Services soldier and mujahideen trainer Tom Carew said on Fox News Channel. "You can't bomb them out of their caves. "The terrain is just about the toughest in the world in which to fight."

The American military simply may not be ready for such a battleground. The Taliban can draw on former mujahideen used to climbing and fighting on 10,000-foot heights bathed in blood since Alexander the Great invaded in 329 B.C.  The Army's only high-altitude unit, the 10th Mountain Division out of Ft. Drum, trains in the Catskill Mountains, an area known mostly as a summer resort for middle-class New Yorkers.

And then there's the murderous Afghan winter.  "I'm sure the Americans have looked at the calendar, but I hope they realize winter in Afghanistan is just a few weeks away," one retired Pakistani military officer said. "I don't know how well those special forces have trained, but they'd better be darn well prepared if they're going into those hills in December and January."

Military experts here noted the winters are sometimes even too tough for the Taliban and their enemies, the Northern Alliance.
Many forces on both sides of the conflict simply go home for the winter and resume their battle in the spring, the retired officer said.

To put it simply, Gubareff said, the United States may soon be in a fight in the most dangerous place in the world.

In the biggest attack so far against Kabul, U.S. jets pounded the Afghan capital Wednesday night and early Thursday, and explosions thundered around a Taliban military academy, artillery units and suspected terrorist training camps.

Meanwhile, U.S. personnel arrived in Pakistan as part of the ongoing confrontation over Osama bin Laden, Pakistani government officials said Thursday. Government spokesman Anwar Mehmood said the personnel, whose numbers he did not provide, were not combat forces.

A Pakistani official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the United States would be allowed to use Pakistani air bases including Jacobabad, about 300 miles northeast of Karachi, to carry out recovery operations.

With the United States claiming air supremacy in its campaign to root out bin Laden's terrorist network, American jets roamed the skies over Kabul for more than two hours Wednesday, seeking out targets on the fringes of this war-ruined city of 1 million.

U.S. aircraft returned to the skies over this city early Thursday pounding sites near the airport. In two sorties, jets fired at least 11 heavy-detonation projectiles. They lit up the night sky. Flames surged skyward. Taliban gunners returned fire with anti-aircraft weapons. Thick clouds of black smoke rose from the direction of the airport.

New airstrikes hit the southern city of Kandahar on Thursday morning, the Taliban said in Kabul. At the border with Pakistan, refugees reported the strikes on that Taliban stronghold city were escalating. Ekhtiar Mohammed, a brickworker who arrived in the border town of Chaman on Thursday, said he had seen at least 10 people killed and 30 injured in Kandahar over the past four days.

The private Afghan Islamic Press in Pakistan said U.S. jets and missiles attacked a Taliban military base at Shamshaad, about four miles from the Pakistani border.

A U.S. official in Washington, meanwhile, said two adult male relatives of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar were killed in bombing strikes Sunday on the leader's home in Kandahar in the south of the country. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also said a senior Taliban officer was reported killed in strikes near Mazar-e-Sharif in the north.

Before the latest bombardment began after sunset, the United Nations reported that Taliban loyalists have been beating up Afghans working with U.N.-affiliated aid agencies, apparently taking aim at one of the only Western symbols remaining in the country.

The barrage on Kabul on Wednesday night appeared to be the longest and biggest yet in the 4-day-old U.S.-led air campaign. Warplanes fired missiles in rapid succession while Taliban gunners unleashed furious, but futile barrages of anti-aircraft fire at the jets flying beyond their range. Taliban mobile air defense units cruised through the city, firing at the planes.

Powerful explosions could be heard around Kabul airport in the north of the city and to the west in the direction of Rishkore and Kargah - both areas where bin Laden is believed to have terrorist training camps.  Blinding flashes lit up the night sky toward the Taliban military academy and an area with artillery garrisons. Jets could be heard heading northward toward the front line between the Taliban and the opposition northern alliance.

Most of the attack took place after the 9 p.m. curfew, and it was impossible to determine the extent of damage. There were no reports from Taliban radio, which has been off the air for two days following attacks on communications towers.

Although there appeared to be no impacts in central Kabul, buildings shook and windows rattled in residential areas in the heart of the capital.

For many Afghans, the nightly air raids were becoming difficult to bear, even in a war-hardened country.

Sardar Mohammed, a Kabul diesel-and-gasoline merchant, said he and his family eat dinner early, then before nightfall move everyone into a room with only one window, which is blocked up with bedding.

''To stop the shrapnel,'' he said. ''We learned this during the civil war.''

Omar, the Taliban leader, appealed to Muslims worldwide to back Afghanistan's fight against the United States, according to reports carried Wednesday on Web sites of the British Broadcasting Corp. and the Voice of America.

''Every Muslim, having a strong faith, should resolutely act against the egoistic power,'' Omar said in a statement published on the BBC Web site. The VOA carried a similar report on its site but did not use the quotation.

Hours earlier, White House officials urged U.S. media networks to be cautious in broadcasting prerecorded communications from bin Laden and associates in case they contained coded instructions for fresh strikes.

In other developments Wednesday:

- In Washington, President Bush unveiled a list of the United States' 22 most-wanted terrorists, including bin Laden and several associates.

- U.S. water system operators asked for $5 billion from Congress to protect drinking water and wastewater plants from terrorism.

The United States has claimed air supremacy in the campaign against the poorly equipped Taliban, the hard-line Islamic militia that rules most of Afghanistan. The Americans now plan to use 5,000-pound laser-guided bombs against the underground bunkers of Taliban leaders and bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.

U.S. officials said U.S. warplanes also would begin dropping cluster munitions - bombs that dispense smaller bomblets - for use against moving and stationary land targets such as armored vehicles and troop convoys.

Bush launched the bombing campaign after weeks of fruitless efforts to get the Taliban to hand over bin Laden, chief suspect in the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The United States has coupled the air assaults with a humanitarian effort, dropping packets of food aid into Afghanistan from planes. The Taliban announced Wednesday that angry Afghans were destroying the packets rather than eating the food.

Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, called the aid an attempt to ''dishonor'' the Afghan people by repaying their shed blood with offerings of food.

Zaeef also insisted that the Taliban militia was not defenseless.

''American planes are flying very high, and the defense system that we have, they are not in the range of what we have,'' said Zaeef. ''As we know, we do not have that sophisticated and modern defense system. But that they have destroyed our defense capability is not true.''

He said bin Laden was still alive, as was Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. Warplanes have repeatedly targeted Mullah Omar's compound outside Kandahar, though he is said to have fled it Sunday. Wednesday morning, the compound and Kandahar's airport again came under fire again.

The United Nations said assaults against its Afghan staffers have taken place in recent days in cities that have been prime targets for U.S. warplanes since the airstrikes began Sunday - Kabul, Kandahar and the eastern city of Jalalabad.

U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker said in Islamabad that U.N. vehicles, including ambulances and mine-clearing vehicles, have also been seized - part of what seemed to be a stepped-up campaign of harassment. ''It seems to be intensifying,'' she said.

The United Nations withdrew its international staff from Afghanistan two days after Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States because of security fears. Hundreds of Afghan employees remained behind, trying to continue delivering food and other humanitarian aid.

On Monday night, four security guards at a U.N.-affiliated mine-clearing operation were killed during an American air raid on Kabul. The building where they worked was only a few hundred yards from one of the night's targets, a transmission tower.

Along rugged stretches of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Pakistani troops have been fending off Taliban fighters apparently seeking to flee the bombing campaign.

Pakistani defense and intelligence officials said Wednesday that Pakistani soldiers fought a two-hour gunbattle a day earlier with about 30 Taliban soldiers who were trying to cross over - the second such incident in two days.

On Monday, Taliban pilots flew five helicopters across the border, where they were detained by Pakistani authorities, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, rebels in Afghanistan's north said the American-led air campaign was helping their cause. Waisaddin Salik, a spokesman for the northern opposition alliance contacted by telephone from Pakistan, said U.S. jets had bombed Taliban positions in the district of Shakardara on Tuesday night.

The district, 15 miles north of Kabul, is along the battle line where the alliance has been facing off against Taliban troops. It was the first reported bombing of such a front-line position by U.S. forces.

The Taliban, for their part, said they had repelled a rebel assault in northern Ghor province. Taliban spokesman Abdul Hanan Himat said 35 opposition fighters were killed.

The claims could not be independently verified.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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KABUL, Afghanistan (Oct. 11) - 2001

Heavy explosions rocked the Kabul airport Thursday afternoon in the first daylight raids on the capital,  and bursts of Taliban anti-aircraft fire rang out during the fifth day of U.S. airstrikes on Afghanistan.

In neighboring Pakistan, government officials acknowledged for the first time that U.S. personnel were on the ground, military planes were arriving and the Americans had been granted use of two key air bases.

In the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, raids earlier Thursday targeted a compound where followers of Osama bin Laden had lived. Also hit was a munitions dump, and the resulting huge explosions sent many of the city's residents racing for the Pakistani border.

''People ran without looking back,'' said Abdul Gharrar, arriving at the Chaman border crossing.

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia said at least 115 people had been killed nationwide in overnight strikes late Wednesday and early Thursday, including 100 who died around Jalalabad and another 15 who were killed when a missile struck a mosque in that northeastern city.

The claims could not be independently confirmed.

In London, the head of the British armed forces, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, said U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan could go on as long as until next summer, unless the Taliban surrenders bin Laden to face trial in connection with the terror attacks on the United States one month ago. If the Taliban hand over bin Laden and stop sheltering terror networks, the offensive could end quickly, he said.

''It could be a very short haul ... (or) we must expect to go through the winter and into next summer at the very least,'' Boyce said.

The Kabul strike Thursday afternoon caught many by surprise.  In the previous four nights of bombing, people had become accustomed to raids that began well after dark.

When the bombing began about 5:30 p.m., people were in the streets, going about their daily routines under a cloudless sky,
many of them shopping for their evening meal. Once the attack began, panicked civilians fled by any means of transport
they could find, some jumping onto the backs of bicycles of people riding away.

International aid workers in Afghanistan once again ran into trouble with the Taliban. The World Food Program said in Islamabad that a convoy of relief supplies from Pakistan to the western Afghan city Herat, near the Iranian border,
was stopped on the road by Taliban demanding a large ''road tax.''

''We refused,'' spokesman Francesco Luna said. The standoff remained unresolved Thursday afternoon.

A day earlier, the United Nations reported that some Afghan nationals working for U.N. agencies had been beaten up in recent days by Taliban loyalists in several cities.

Pakistani government officials said U.S. military personnel have arrived in the \country and the Americans have been granted use of several Pakistani air bases. More than 15 U.S. military aircraft, including C-130 transport planes, arrived over
the past two days at a base at Jacobabad, 300 miles northeast of the port city of Karachi and about 150 miles from the Afghan border.

Government spokesman Anwar Mehmood said the personnel were not combat forces and would not use Pakistani territory for launching any attack on Afghanistan. A Pakistani official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. forces would be allowed to use air bases - including Jacobabad and a base at Pasani, west of Karachi - to carry out recovery operations.

The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, when asked about the reports of arriving U.S. personnel, replied:
''When the Americans enter Afghanistan, here will start the real war - not now.  '' Zaeef reported the Taliban's latest casualty claims.

Meanwhile, the rebels fighting to topple the Taliban claimed Thursday they had taken the key central province of Gur after heavy fighting with Taliban forces during the night.

Mohammed Abil, a spokesman for the northern alliance of opposition groups, said by telephone from Pakistan that the province and its capital, Chaghcharan, fell shortly after midnight Thursday.  Heavy fighting continued into the morning in several areas, Abil said.

The claim could not be independently verified.  Gur borders four provinces that the opposition considers crucial to efforts to unseat the Taliban.

The morning attacks on Kandahar, the Taliban's home base, appeared to target the airport and its surrounding area, where a sprawling two-story housing complex was built in 1996 by bin Laden's followers.  However, it is believed that most of the people living there fled soon after the Sept. 11 assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Wednesday night saw the heaviest bombardment yet of Kabul. U.S. jets pounded the capital late Wednesday and early Thursday, and explosions thundered around a Taliban military academy, artillery units and suspected terrorist training camps.

At the border crossing into Pakistan closest to Kandahar, refugees reported the strikes were escalating.  Ekhtiar Mohammed, a brickworker who arrived in the border town of Chaman on Thursday, said he had seen at least 10 people killed and 30 injured in Kandahar over the past four days.

Another arriving refugee said some bombs in recent days had been hitting populated areas, despite U.S. promises that civilians wouldn't be targeted.

''It's not true that the Americans have only been bombing military targets. Many of the bombs are dropping on residential neighborhoods,'' said Naseebullah Khan, who works at a factory near Kandahar's airport, a repeated U.S. target.

British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon claimed that some Taliban supporters have deserted since the offensive began, but gave few details.  ''Some are clearly defecting,'' he told a press briefing in London, though he cautioned that there was not yet ''a clear indication of the collapse of the regime.''

Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban supreme leader, appealed to Muslims worldwide to back Afghanistan's fight against the United States, according to reports carried Wednesday on the Web sites of the British Broadcasting Corp. and the Voice of America.

''Every Muslim, having a strong faith, should resolutely act against the egoistic power,'' Omar said in a statement published on the BBC Web site.

Pentagon officials in Washington refused comment Thursday on the topic of U.S. personnel in Pakistan.  Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said earlier he was considering more airstrikes, use of special forces commando raids and coordinated missions with rebel forces already fighting the Taliban.

Pakistan's support to the United States is an extremely delicate issue politically for Pakistan's president.  In recent weeks, at least five people have died in anti-American, pro-Taliban protests in Pakistan.  Pakistan is providing logistical and intelligence help to the Americans, spokesman Mehmood said.

Militant Islamic political leaders have called for holy war on the United States and condemned President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for his support of the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism.

In other developments:

- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Thursday that Britain and the United States agree there are no immediate plans for a wider war outside of Afghanistan.

-An Air Force sergeant, Evander Earl Andrews, was killed in a heavy equipment accident in the northern Arabian Peninsula, becoming the first death in Operation Enduring Freedom, military officials said.  Also, an unidentified U.S. Army soldier stationed in Turkey suffered critical injuries after becoming trapped between two trucks.

- Officials said U.S. warplanes would begin dropping cluster munitions - anti-personnel bombs that dispense smaller bomblets - on mobile targets such as armored vehicles and troop convoys.

- The head of the Afghan government opposed to the Taliban said his small forces remain the key to defeating the Afghan rulers. Burhanuddin Rabbani, whom most foreign governments recognize as Afghanistan's legitimate president, said that U.S.-led airstrikes had not changed his forces' fundamental strategy in fighting the Taliban.

- Afghanistan's former king is pushing ahead with plans for a gathering of tribal leaders to select a new head of state and now wants to hold the meeting in a demilitarized Kabul, a senior aide said. No date has been set for the meeting, or loya jirga,
but former King Mohammad Zaher Shah is working to convene the assembly in the Afghan capital if a cease-fire is secured, Yusuf Nuristani said.

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QUANG NAI
Duc Pho
Mo Duc
Hai Mon
Nui Dang
Phu Thanh Valley
Qui Nhon
Hwy QL19 & QL1

Chu Lai
TAOR and AO

An Tan Bridge
Hwy 1 - Chu Lai
Ly Tin
Binh Son
Hill 43
 Hill 69
Chu Lai Binh An Noi
Chu Lai Phuoc Hoa
Chu Lai Long Phu
Chu Lai Nam Binh
Chu Lai Tien Dao
Ky Phu
My Lai Sontag Village Quang Ngai
Nui Tien An Buddah Hill  Quang Ngai

Tam Ky
Vinh Loc
Son Ha

Da Nang
TAOR and AO

Hill 10 FSB Dai Loc
Hill 22
Hill 25 Dineen Hill Dai Loc
Hill 34 Da Nang
Hill 37
Hill 41

Hill 51 LZ Ross Hiep Duc
Hill 52 FSB  Dai Loc
Hill 55 Dai Loc
Hill 63 LZ Baldy Hoi An
Hill 65 FSB Dai Loc
Hill 70
Hill 90
Hill 119
Hill 185 Nui Loc Son Observation Post Hiep Duc
Hill 190
Hill 190
Hill 214 FSB Thuong Duc
Hill 270
Hill 310

Hill 327 Freedom Hill 1st Mar. Div. HQ Da Nang
Hill 375 Ben Giang
Hill 381
Hill 425
Hill 435 FSB Ben Giang
Hill 445 FSB-LZ Hiep Duc
Hill 502 FSB Dai Loc
Hill 508 FSB Ben Giang
Hill 510
Hill 558 FSB Ben Giang
Hill 575 FSB Hiep Duc
Hill 579 FSB Hiep Duc
Hill 749 FSB Thuong Duc
Hill 845 LZ Vulture
Hill 875
Hill 1062
Hill 1235 Thuong Duc
An Hoa
Cam Le Bridge
Cobb Bridge
Dai Lai Pass
Dai Loc
Elephant Valley
FSB Ross
Fort Apache
Golden Gate Bridge
Hill 55 Dai Loc
Phong Le Bridge
Hai Van Pass
Hoi An
LZ Baldy
Liberty Bridge
Song Thu Bon Dai Loc
Nam O Bridge
Song Cu De - Hwy 1 Da Nang
Que Son
Thuong Duc

Hue - Phu Bai
TAOR and AO

Phu Loc
Thon Dong An
Thon Trung Kien
Truoi Bridge
North of Hue City
Phu Vang
Hue City
Hue
Phu Bai
A Shau Valley
North of A Shau
Ap Lai Bang
Northwest of A Shau
A Luoi
Hill 937 Hamburger Hill

North of Khe Sanh
Camp Carrol
Cam Lo
Con Tien
Nui Cay Tre Mutter Ridge
Thon Khe Rockpile
Hill 861
Huong Hua
Hill 881 N
Hill 881 S
Khe Sanh Combat Base
Khe Sanh Village
Lang Vei
Dai Do
Quang Tri
Dong Ha
Gio Linh

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NO FEAR

By now everyone has been hearing the death toll rise and reports of the destruction from the terrorist attacks on the US. These were deplorable acts that we will never forget.

But now is a time to look at the other side of the numbers coming out of New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.  The sad but somewhat uplifting side that the mainstream media has not reported yet - the SURVIVAL rates and some positive news about the attacks.

THE BUILDINGS

The World Trade Center The twin towers of the World Trade Center were places of employment for some 50,000 people.
With the missing list of just over 5,000 people, that means 90% of the people targeted survived the attack.

A 90% on a test is an "A"'.

THE PENTAGON

Some 23,000 people were the target of a third plane aimed at the Pentagon. The latest count shows that only 123 lost their lives. That is an amazing 99.5% survival rate.  In addition, the plane seems to have come in too low, too early to affect a large
portion of the building.

On top of that, the section that was hit was the first of five sections to undergo renovations that would help protect the Pentagon from terrorist attacks.

It had recently completed straightening and blast proofing, saving untold lives.  This attack was sad, but a statistical failure.

THE PLANES

American Airlines Flight 77

This Boeing 757 that was flown into the outside of the Pentagon could have carried up to 289 people, yet only 64 were aboard.  Luckily 78% of the seats were empty.

American Airlines Flight 11

This Boeing 767 could have had up to 351 people aboard, but only carried 92.  Thankfully 74% of the seats were unfilled.

United Airlines Flight 175

Another Boeing 767 that could have sat 351 people only had 65 people on board. Fortunately it was 81% empty.

United Airlines Flight 93

This Boeing 757 was one of the most uplifting stories yet. The smallest flight to be hijacked with only 45 people aboard out of a possible 289 had 84% of its capacity unused.

Yet these people stood up to the attackers and thwarted a fourth attempted destruction of a national landmark, saving untold numbers of lives in the process.

IN SUMMARY

Out of potentially 74,280 + Americans directly targeted by these inept cowards, 93% survived or avoided the attacks.

Don't fear these terrorists. The odds are against them.

Sf

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Numerology Revisited

The date of the attack: 9/11 - 9 + 1 + 1 = 11
September 11th is the 254th day of the
year: 2 + 5 + 4= 11
After September 11th there are 111 days left to the
end of the year.
119 is the area code to Iraq/Iran. 1 + 1 + 9 = 11
Twin Towers -
standing side by side, looks like the number 11
The first plane to hit the towers was Flight 11
State of New York - The 11th State added to the Union.
New York City - 11 Letters
Afghanistan - 11 Letters
The Pentagon - 11 Letters
Ramzi Yousef - 11 Letters
Flight 11 - 92 on board - 9 + 2 = 11
Flight 77 - 65 on board - 6 + 5 = 11
How worried should I be?
There are 11 letters in the name "Raul Vasquez."
HHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM..................
"YOU CAN'T HIDE" also has 11 letters!
What am I gonna do?
Help me!!!
The terrorists are after me!
ME!
I can't believe it!
Oh crap, there must be someplace on the
planet Earth I could hide!
But no... "PLANET EARTH" has 11 letters, too! Maybe Nostradamus can help
me.
But dare I trust him?
There are 11 letters in"NOSTRADAMUS."
I know, the Red Cross can help.
No, they can't... 11 letters in "THE RED CROSS."
I would rely on self defense, but "SELF DEFENSE" has 11 letters in it, too!
"SEND ME EMAIL" has 11 letters....
Will this never end?
I'm going insane! "GOIN INSANE???" Eleven letters!! Nooooooooooo!!!!!!
I guess I'll die alone,
even though "I'LL DIE ALONE" has 11 letters.
Oh my God, I just realized that America is doomed! Our Independence Day
isJuly 4th ... 7/4 ... 7+4=11
PS. "IT'S BULLSHIT" has 11 letters also.
Sf

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The Pashtun have their own tribal laws reaching back thousands of years to govern a people
who consider themselves Pashtun first and Pakistani or Afghan second. It is why the border
with Pakistan drawn by a British general a century ago is still considered just a line on paper,
and why Pashtun in Pakistan are enraged at the United States bombing.

To the Pashtun, the bombs might as well be falling on the old men who trail behind water
buffalo tending sugar cane outside Peshawar. This is a tribe that anthropologists consider one
of the oldest on earth, bound by a common language, but also by millenniums of marriage, and
by blood.

As Islamic militants use religion as a rallying cry all around the Muslim world, here on the border
it is ethnicity as much as Islam that ties Pakistanis to their Afghan cousins — even those in the
Taliban.

A proud, almost arrogant people who fought Alexander the Great, they have fought among
themselves for centuries, as families do.

Their lighter skins hint at Aryan blood. "Handsome, well built, powerful and strong," intoned Raj
Wali Shah Khattak, a professor of Pashtun studies at Pashtun Academy in Peshawar and a
Pashtun himself. "They will rise as brothers against an outsider."

That code and kinship explain much of what is happening in this conflict, such as why the
Taliban are reluctant to evict their guest, Osama bin Laden, who has asked them for a
sanctuary they are honor-bound to give, and why even those Pakistanis who are not religious
militants have joined in heated protests.

"The first thing the male baby hears is that sound of a bullet," Mr. Khattak said. "The second
thing he hears is the name of God, from the mullah. And the third thing he hears is the voice of
his mother speaking as she gives him a lesson of humanity. She sings a song and recites the
deeds of his forefathers, and the values of his clan."

Among these values are certain iron-bound laws, called the Pashtu Wali, or Code of Life. One
is badal, which obligates members of a tribe to exact revenge for a wrongdoing — like the
American attack on other members of the tribe. Another is milmasthia, which binds tribe
members to serve a guest. That includes giving sanctuary to anyone who asks for it, even an
enemy.

That is why, say tribal elders, the Taliban cannot give in to demands to hand over Mr. bin Laden.

"We are very hospitable people," said Sufaid Gul, 65, as he worked in an irrigation ditch in a
wheat field in the village of Zakhi Charbagh.

But there is also a part of that code that gives the host leeway to evict a guest if he creates
trouble for the family while he is in the home a tenet of the tribal law that the Taliban has
apparently chosen to ignore, said elders here. Pashtun law, like many a law, has loopholes one
can drive a camel through.

Pashtun here seem to regard the Taliban as wayward cousins who racked by so much war
and suffering had nothing left but their religion.

Mr. Khattak said the Pashtun, historically, have not even included mullahs in tribal councils.
They are farmers, shepherds and warriors. "A pure life," Mr. Gul said.

The mullah is a hired preacher, paid from the largesse of the village, usually not even a
Pashtun.

But as Pashtun in Pakistan left their rural villages over the decades to find skilled work in a
variety of jobs, the Pashtun in Afghanistan had almost nothing except their history of endless
war. The mullahs, the older Pashtun say, filled that void with an oppressive religion that elevated
the fighter clans to holy warriors. With so much death, they made death glorious.

"They took power in the name of religion, not as Pashtuns," Mr. Taizi said.

The Pashtun in Pakistan — many of them, anyway — do not want oppressive government, do
not want to further subjugate their women, do not want Taliban-like lives. They love music —
musicians, like mullahs, are hired from outside the clan — and women can choose to go
unveiled. They dance. Their children run through the dusty fields outside the village, flying kites.

All that — the singing, dancing, even the kite-flying — has been banned by the Taliban.

But in the dusty fields and in the narrow alleys of brown-brick villages, Pashtun in Pakistan said
they condemn the United States. Some have said, like the Islamic militants have, that they will
honor the code of badal and fight.

They do not scream it, the way the militant Muslims often do. They do not see it as a holy war
so much as a simple duty. They ask not to be identified — young men, most of them —
because they have jobs they do not want to risk.

"You people in America say that human life is sacred," said Mr. Khattak. "Here, life is nothing
without honor."

Outsiders have, over the centuries, sometimes developed a lower opinion. The Pashtun have
been described by other tribes as fierce killers and as skilled and ruthless kidnappers. A British
officer once advised his superiors not to waste bullets on the Pashtun. Buy them, he said.

But the modern-day Pashtun are as diverse as other societies, a people of small mud huts and
city apartments, donkey carts and Suzukis, field hands and university professors. In Peshawar,
the guns are in closets.

In the wild tribal areas, near the border, every man carries an automatic rifle. These are the
Pashtun who will more likely answer the call for badal — as they did against the British and
Russians.

Others, too old, will watch from the sidelines. But even some of the most educated believe that
the United States is wrong to bomb an emaciated country. "Five billion dollars," Mr. Taizi
scoffed, "to bomb a $10 tent."

But even as some Pashtun have waited for the ground assault by Americans so they can carry
out their code of warfare, others have been planning for the post-war government.

The Pashtun demand that, in a post-Taliban Afghanistan, the new government should be
multiethnic — but one that gives a leading role to the Pashtun. "They have to be given fair
representation," Mr. Taizi said.

Some experts place the Pashtun at 40 percent of the population in Afghanistan, but the Pashtun
claim to be 60 percent or more of the 25 million people. In a country that has never had a
census, it is hard to tell who is right.

To the Pashtun, the Northern Alliance — which has fought the Taliban for years — represents
Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara and other minorities.

The Pashtun do not consider those groups as their equals, and they do not recognize Pashtun
members of the alliance, or even the fact that they are there.

If the Northern Alliance tries to rule, it will be only the beginning of another war for the Pashtun,
said elders and historians here.

And war is just one more tradition.

There is, in Pashtun law, an alternative to war. If one village or clan wrongs another by killing
one of its members, the village of the killer can offer to the wronged village a girl, to be take as a
wife by one of the villagers.

But the woman, Mr. Taizi said, is mistreated all her life. She is never regarded as an equal.
"She is persecuted," he said. It is tradition.

"We are trying to move on from that one," he said. 

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I AM the NATION---Updated for 2002

I was born July 4, 1776, and the Declaration
of Independence was my birth certificate.
The blood lines of the world run trough
my veins because I offered freedom to the oppressed.
I am many things to many people.
I am the nation, over 281 million living souls
and the ghosts of millions who lived and died
for me.
I am Nathan Hale and Paul Revere and Crispus Attucks.
I stood at Lexington and fired the shot heard 'round the world.
I am Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry.
I am John Paul Jones and Davy Crockett.
My adopted sons include Lafayette and Casmir Pulaski.
I am Lee, Grant and Abe Lincoln.
I remember the Alamo, the Maine, the Merrimac and Pearl Harbor.
When freedom called, I answered and stayed until it was over, over there.
I left my heroic dead on Flanders Field,
the rock of Corregidor, on the bleak slopes
of Korea and the steaming jungles of Vietnam and in the sands of Desert Storm and the war on terrorism.
I am big and sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with my arms reaching out to embrace Hawaii and Alaska.
I am forest and field and mountains and desert.
I am quiet villages and cities that never sleep.  You can look at me and see Benjamin Franklin on the streets of Pilidelphia with a loaf of bread under his arm.
And you can see Betsy Ross with her needle.  You can see the lights of Christmas and hear ' Auld Lang Syne' as the calendar turns.
I am Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Jack Dempsey and Ted Williams.
I am more than 30,000 churches, where my people worship as they think best.
I am a ballot dropped into a box, the roar of the crowd at the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals
and the World Series.
YES, I AM the NATION and these are the things I am.
I was conceived in liberty and, God willing,
in freedom I will spend the rest of my days to remain a citadel of freedom and a beacon of hope.
This is my wish on July 4, 2002, 226 years
after I was born.

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The Serenity Prayer for Trauma Survivors

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change:
the past, what happened to me,
that what happened was traumatic
no matter how effectively I have stuffed it.

Courage to change the things I can:
my attitude towards my symptoms -
help me to accept them as a normal response to trauma
and evidence that I need to take care of myself
by talking about this and getting help;

my actions -
I no longer have to drug or deny my symptoms.
I can just accept them.

My reactions -
instead of freaking out,
I can focus on the symptom, feel what I feel,
go through and deal with the pain and learn whatever it is that
my Higher Power wants me to know and share
about the effects of trauma on people.

Finally I can change how I see these symptoms -
as normal and helpful to me in my recovery
even if they are painful.
Eventually I will be able to help other people
who share a history of trauma.

And the wisdom to know the difference:
I can change my actions and reactions.
Help me to be willing, teachable and to learn
about myself and what I have survived,
even if it is frightening. 

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Islam Has Proven to be Our Historical Enemy
By Patrick Hayes

Nearly a year after we went to war against terrorism, leaders in the West appear still unwilling, if not afraid, to name the actual enemy that we face - much less refocus the war against that threat.

Many Westerners have called this conflict a new "cold war" against "radical Islam" reminiscent of our "long twilight struggle" against communism during the Cold War. Other observers argue and believe that the current war in this new age of Islamic terrorism is being fought solely in and against specific groups in limited geographical areas such as the ousted Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas in the Philippines, or the Muslim extremists in Chechnya.

The implication is that there is a larger Islamic world indifferent or neutral to the West, with only a narrow, hostile faction composed of extremists who wish to oust all Western influences from their societies, or want to wage war on American soil in the name of jihad.

It is time to correct that misimpression. It is time to end that illusion. As scholar Samuel P. Huntington has written, the struggle is indeed taking place in a much wider context. Huntington has accurately called it a "clash of civilizations" rather than merely a war between the United States and its allies on one side, and a conspiracy of sub-national terrorist groups on the other. Other experts agree.

If we are indeed committed to victory against the al Qaeda terrorists and their sponsors, we need to heed experts such as Huntington who say it is misleading and mistaken to identify the threat as stemming only from the homicidal and suicidal tendencies of "radical Muslims."

In other words, we have to face up to the ugly prospect that the enemy is Islam and its inherent hatred of the West and all the West stands for.

"Some westerners, including President Bill Clinton, have argued that the West does not have a problem with Islam but only with violent Islamist extremists," Huntington wrote in The Clash of Civilizations - Remaking of World Order (Touchstone, New York, 1997). "Fourteen hundred years of history demonstrate otherwise," he added.

This is not only because the acts of Muslim terrorism are worldwide, as is the war itself, which includes the search for Muslim terrorist cells within the United States and over 50 other countries. It is also because the roots of the current conflict span nearly 10 centuries of human history.

The assumption that al Qaeda is our only foe and that Afghanistan is the sole target of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts fails to recognize the tension that has existed between the Muslim world (with its archaic, 12th-century beliefs and traditions), and the modern Western world (which Muslims abhor for its computer gaming, high fashion and education for women, and fast foods). That conflict existed long before Sept. 11, 2001.

The mutual animosities between Islam and the West go back before the time of the First Crusades, to 711 A.D., when Muslim hordes overran a good portion of Europe, beginning with Spain. In 732, the Muslim Arab and Berber armies were defeated at the Battle of Tours, France, by the Frankish (German tribe) King, Charles Martel - a defeat that effectively halted the Islamic advance into Europe.

In their march west, the Muslim armies spread Islam where they could. The non-Arabs were called mawali, Arabic for "clients." Although the mawali were converts to Islam, they were considered second-class to their Arab masters. Much as they do today with their imported workers, the Arabs used the mawali as their servants and, in some cases, soldiers.

By the 8th century, in addition to conquering Persia (Iran), Central Asia and much of Eastern Europe (which is why the West is currently dealing with the problem of Muslim terrorists in the Balkans), the Islamic armies had conquered North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean and much of Spain, and had even established bases in Italy. Islam, in effect, still posed a serious threat to the rest of Europe.

By the 11th century, the balance of power was shifting back to the West and trade flourished. The Church became stronger and more centralized, doing away with the practice of allowing kings to appoint regional church leaders. Therefore, the Popes were able to unify popular support. With increased wealth and power, and the need to expand trade, in 1095, Pope Urban II called for the raising of Christian armies to free the Holy City of Jerusalem and the Holy Land itself from the Muslims. The actual Crusades lasted from 1096 into the 13th century.

Over the years, tensions between the West and Islam have continued to ebb and flow, but have never been far from the surface. The 18th century again saw the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in opposition to what was then perceived by the Muslim extremists of the day as the decadence of the Ottoman (Muslim) Empire.

In the 19th century, when the Jews began to move back to what is now Israel, tensions again grew between Arabs and Jews - a conflict that continues to this day with no reasonable end in sight.

During World War I, the Muslim Ottoman Empire sided with Germany against the western powers. During World War II, many Muslims sided with the Nazis because of their mutual hatred for the Jews. The Muslims in Central Asia were quieted for a while during the reign of communism, when the Muslim region became part of the Soviet Empire. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, several of the former Soviet Republics, including Russia itself in Chechnya, are facing their own war against Muslim terrorists.

To say that the current war against Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism is not religious in nature - at least as perceived by Muslim fanatics themselves - is to miss the point of history as addressed by Huntington.

Islam is currently at war with the modern world as much as it was with the West and Christianity in the 8th century. The Saudi princes, who today publicly voice distain and concern about the murderous acts of Muslim terror, continue to provide financial support to the Muslim terrorists who perpetrate those acts.

In 1998, Osama bin Laden told his followers, "The call to wage war against America was made because America has spearheaded the crusade against the Islamic nation, sending tens of thousands of its troops to the land of the two holy mosques over and above its meddling in its affairs and its politics and its support of the oppressive, corrupt and tyrannical regime that is in control."

Ranting though his statements may be, there is no denying the message bin Laden is sending, not only to the al Qaeda and other Muslim terrorists, but to all Muslims worldwide. (Of course bin Laden, the Saudi princes and the mullahs in Iran discreetly ignore the facts, because facts may muddle the minds of Muslim fanatics and true believers.)

Besides its obvious support of Israel, the United States has also intervened around the globe and placed American lives at risk in defense of Muslims. These operations include going to war against Iraq after that country invaded Kuwait. In Somalia, the Bush I and Clinton administrations' mission was to help feed a hungry Muslim nation. That Clinton turned tail and ran at the first sight of American bloodshed obscured the fact that the intervention itself was aimed at saving Muslim lives. And American troops today remain in the Balkans, where Clinton twice intervened against the Christian Serbs on behalf of Muslims who faced ethnic cleansing and mass murder. However, American soldiers there must now deal with the threat of attack by Muslim terrorists.

But those facts carry little weight in a conflict defined by its radical organizers as a religious struggle. A recent article by Andrew Sullivan on the war against terrorism, which appeared in The New York Times Magazine noted, "The religious dimension to this conflict is central to its being." Sullivan added, "The words of Osama bin Laden are saturated with religious argument and theological language. Whatever else the Taliban regime is in Afghanistan, it is fanatically religious."

As bin Laden himself has said, the American "crusade" is not against the Arabs, per se, but "against the Islamic nation." This is a semantic distinction that few Americans appreciate: Those words were used to incite the involvement of every Muslim around the globe because there is, strictly speaking, no "Islamic nation." The message in bin Laden's own words, and the lesson the West needs to learn, is that the primary loyalty of any Muslim is to his religion and not to any one nation-state.

Given the official concern about Muslim terrorist cells within the United States, this issue of loyalty should cause those in Washington and around the country serious concern, given the number of Muslims of all races currently residing in the United States as well as the number of others still flowing into the country with visas of all types, or through the back doors of Mexico and Canada.

British author Salman Rushdie is another expert who fully understands what is at stake here. He is a Westerner who since 1989 has been living with a fatwah, or edict of death, on his head, decreed by the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran.

In a recent commentary in The New York Times, Rushdie wrote, "If this isn't about Islam, why the worldwide Muslim demonstrations in support of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda? Why did those 10,000 men armed with swords and axes mass on the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier, answering some mullah's call to jihad? Why are the war's first British casualties three Muslim men who died fighting on the Taliban side?

Why the routine anti-Semitism of the much-repeated Islamic slander that "the Jews" arranged the hits on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, with the oddly self-deprecating explanation offered by the Taliban leadership, among others, that Muslims could not have the technological know-how or organizational sophistication to pull off such a feat?"

Daniel Pipes, Director of the Middle East Forum, wrote in a New York Post article last Oct. 19, "To me, every fundamentalist Muslim, no matter how peaceable in his own behavior, is part of a murderous movement and is thus, in some fashion, a foot soldier in the war that bin Laden has launched against civilization.  By way of comparison, I would say precisely the same about Nazis and Leninists; however non-violently they might conduct their own lives, the fact that they back a barbaric force means they too are barbarians and must be treated as such."

Although many in the West clearly recognize the growing the threat of fundamentalist Muslim terror, a disturbing number of apologists in this country and in Europe continue to argue restraint in the war against Muslim terrorism. They argue that Islam is a "peaceful" religion, open and tolerant of all others.

Yet the Koran beseeches the faithful to kill the unbeliever: "And when the sacred months are passed, kill those who join other gods with God wherever ye shall find them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush."

As much as bin Laden and other Muslim fanatics argue to the contrary, the West in general and Christianity in particular have no reason to attack Islam. The simple fact is that most western countries, including the United States, tolerate Muslims and their mosques within their midst, even though, as an example, the Muslims in England in particular are becoming a serious threat to the stability of that country. (As Rushdie points out, it was British Muslims who were among the first volunteers to go fight with al Qaeda and the Taliban.)

History provides a stern warning: The United States and its allies have no choice but to take aggressive action against an enemy that shows no willingness to negotiate. And unless specific evidence to the contrary appears - a movement within Islam itself to disavow and condemn the acts of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations - we should abandon the false distinction between the terrorists and the global religion that by all intelligence continues to support them.

Patrick Hayes is a contributing editor to DefenseWatch. He can be reached at [email protected].

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