[Deb]

My heart is absolutely broken. I can't imagine what she must be going thru.

The stinking Philippine government wouldn't allow our guys to go them. Jerks.

[RIGHT IN SEATTLE]

How are things in Utah?

I want to put banana leaves on the kin of the moslem sort in the Phillipines!

[OldFriend]

Early radio news on WABC........simply stated that as a result of American CIA, Martin Burnham was killed and his wife wounded.

Sickening depiction.......not even mentioning that the wife was rescued and leaving the impression that our CIA shot them.

If ever we must remember NOT to react to our media's interpretation of events this is a reminder.

Pray for Gracia's recovery.

[Criminal Number 18F]

The stinking Philippine government wouldn't allow our guys to go them. Jerks.

Whoah, whoah,whoah, there.The Filipinos from the corporals and sergeants leading these patrols, through the generals, to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (Sure hope I spelled that right!)has asked the US Army Special Forces trainers and other ARSOF troops that are training and advising their military, to join in on and lead the patrols.

The SF advisors from 1st Special Forces Group in Ft. Lewis,WA are certainly eager to do this. The military brass up to the CINCPAC (Commander In Chief, Pacific) have supported the request (in fact a new CINCPAC just took over from the old one and renewed CINCPAC support for this.

Just the other day, SecDef Don Rumsfeld said he was sympathetic to the request but he needed more information to make a decision -- the stuff they have shown him so far hasn't been convincing. For the time being the American advisors are not allowed any closer to the action than the battalion level command posts, or FOBs (Forward Operating Bases).

This is hardly the fault of the Filipinos. They are 90% + Christian and most of the 5% that is Muslim (all in the southern islands) does not support these terrorists either.

And the whole point of having Special Forces is to train our allies (whether governments like Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo's or resistance movements like the Northern Alliance in Taliban-era Afghanistan) to take most of the responsibility for their own security. A good SF man works himself out of a job.

Secondly, we don't know a lot of facts at this time. For instance:

• is this report of one dead and one wounded accurate?
• If so, is Mrs. Burnham going to be OK? She's not a young woman and has been malnourished and mistreated while in captivity.
• What kind of losses did the Filipinos take?
• Did they get all the Abu Sayyaf (Father of the Sword) terrorists? Or did some get away? This may sound cold, but in the long term it is more important to kill the terrorists than it is to free the hostages.
• Was this a planned raid or an accidental encounter?
• Who actually shot the hostages? Rescuers, or terrorists?

Let's not be so quick on the trigger to say the Filipinos messed up. Hostage rescue is very hard. It is not like TV! It is probably the toughest mission you can get in special ops, except maybe to snatch a person who doesn't want to be snatched (but can't be harmed), or to snatch a nuclear weapon.

If this report is true, the Filipinos may have lost one hostage but they already have a better record than the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team.

I hope Gracia Burnham recovers. What she and Martin did was very courageous, but -- as you see -- very risky.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F