HISTORIUM, a blog I read regularly and enjoy the usually short posts on a variety of mainly historical topics, has relocated. The site can now be found HERE, and is well worth a visit.
The BBC is reportingthat the No. 2 man in the terrorist organization in Iraq, believed to be the financier and director of suicide bombers, has been killed
Al-Qaeda's second in command in Iraq has been shot dead, reports say.
Iraqi and US officials said Abu Azzam, described as an aide to leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been shot dead in a joint operation on Sunday morning.
As I've said before, every time they get one of these big wheels, it's good news. Yes, there's another whacko ready to step up to the plate, but evry one of these guys who is either captured or killed disrupts the organization and inevitably leads to more information and more terrorists.
It's an unavoidable part of the job: these guys don't exactly have large staffs in constant personal contact with one another. They are secretive and limit their contacts. So while its easy to downplay the significance of individual events like this, the fact is the removal of these "high-ranking" individuals does have an impact.
A US military spokesman said Abu Azzam had been tracked for some time, and his death was a "significant development". Lt-Col Steve Boylan said troops located him in a high-rise block in the Iraqi capital after a tip-off from an Iraqi citizen.
It is not known whether he was alone when he was found.
There are a few interesting points contained in these few sparse details provided. First, the guy was fingered by an Iraqi citizen, and if you are paying attention we are seeing more and more of that: local Iraqis turning in the terrorists, especially the foreigners. This guy is supposed to be palestinian. Second, it's obvious they knew who this guy was and they were specifically looking for him. We see more and more indications that coalition and Iraqi officials have a pretty darn good picture of the organizational structure of the terrorists in Iraq. Probably at least partly a result of earlier captures of terrorists and their computers and papers and ongoing interrogations.
Yes sir, I've just stumbled across my ticket to an early retirement on Easy Street!
For the reasonable fee of $250 per person (I'm not greedy) plus expenses (round trip fare) I'm going to charter buses in Cleveland, Ohio, and run them down to Houston so my clients can collect their $2000 government hand-out debit cards. I'll collect my fees and expenses from my clients, in cash, at the first ATM we see on the return trip.
Got proof of residency? "Washed away in the flood."
Got identification? "Washed away in the flood."
Somebody thinks this is a good idea. How long do you figure it will be before somebody actually implements my "early retirement plan"? Wanna bet somebody is already operating some variation of my plan? Wanna bet they end up giving out more cards than the total adult population of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama combined?
I remember when disaster relief meant somebody set up some temporary shelters, and you got a place to sleep, a shower, toilet facilities, and something to eat. Probably hot dogs, beans and macaroni and cheese, washed down with water or powdered drink mix.
And people were grateful.
Now we have people stampeding (according to an ABC tv broadcast this morning) and all-but rioting because they aren't getting their $2000 cash card fast enough.
I guess that's disaster relief in the age of entitlements. They figure somebody owes them something, as opposed to being thankful that somebody reaches out to help.
And for the benefit of those morons who want to turn Katrina relief efforts into a racial issue, let me point out to you that across the midwest, every year, hundreds, and some years, thousands, of folks are left homeless and destitute by tornadoes. Nobody rushes in to give them $2000 cash cards less than two weeks after the disaster. And quite frankly, most of them are white.
Louisiana state officials blocked relief supplies, workers from reaching New Orleans
Fox News broke a story that Louisiana state authorities had prevented the Red Cross from delivering supplies and undertaking relief work in the City of New Orleans.
The MSM is largely ignoring the story because it doesn't fit into their predetermined "the federal government (Bush) let people die because they were black people" theme for the post-hurricane disaster in New Orleans.
