***Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room - 28 MAY 03/Day 70 - LIVE THREAD***

Everywhere TexKat goes, or Ragtime Cowgirl transcribes... | 28 MAY 03 | null and void

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Operation Infinite Freedom

Link to the previous thread

Good Morning.

This is the Daily Thread of Operation Infinite Freedom, formerly Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - LIVE THREAD.

It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. In depth discussion of events should be left to individual threads - but links to the threads or other articles is highly encouraged. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information.

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Cheney: "The only way to deal with this threat is to destroy it...There's no treaty, no peace agreement....to deal with it." ...

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Ping!

[TexKat]

Thanks nully.

[Diver Dave]

Sure do enjoy being kept abreast with all the news you post on these threads. Thanks

[Robert A Cook PE]

We lost a couple good people today over there.

After the fighting ....

[null and void]

Yes. The french say the most dangerous moment is at the point of victory.

[TexKat]

Cambodia Charges 3 with Jemaah Islamiah Membership

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - An Egyptian and two Thai Muslims arrested overnight in Cambodia have been charged with being members of the Islamic extremist network Jemaah Islamiah, a court official said on Wednesday.

"The prosecutor of the Phnom Penh court has charged them under the International Terrorism Act, and J.I.," court official Thong Sithan told Reuters referring to their suspected membership of the Southeast Asian militant group linked by some Western and Asian governments to Osama bin Laden.

[TexKat]

Red Cross Urges Due Process in Guantanamo

GENEVA - The head of the International Red Cross urged the United States Tuesday to start legal proceedings for Afghan detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to improve law and order in Iraq.

Jakob Kellenberger, president of organization, made the appeal in meetings with Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice,an ICRC statement said.

[TexKat]

Rebels Declare Cease-Fire in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - Muslim rebels on Wednesday declared a cease-fire in the southern Philippines and gave the government 10 days to meet their demands or face renewed fighting.

The southern military chief, Maj. Gen. Roy Kyamko, rejected the truce as "a tactical move," and said only the surrender of guerrillas responsible for recent attacks would stop military operations.

[TexKat]

U.S. Hopes for Peaceful Solution on Iran

WASHINGTON - In some ways, Iran seems more of a menace in both terrorism and weapons than Iraq did. Still, administration officials are talking as though a military strike is the last thing on their minds.

Iran is closer to having a nuclear weapons capability than Iraq was under Saddam Hussein. And the administration believes al-Qaida operatives working out of Iran were behind the devastating terrorist bombing in Saudi Arabia on May 12. Eight Americans were among the 34 people who died.

[TexKat]

An Iraqi police officer makes his way past razor wire while a U.S. armoured vehicle stands guard outside the police station that was earlier attacked with RPG and grenades in Baghdad, Tuesday, May 27, 2003. Damage was minimal but according to a witness a few people were injured in the attack.

Morale Reportedly Flagging in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Ask any soldier in Iraq with a 3rd Infantry Division patch on the shoulder how it's going, and the reply will be some version of the following four words: "Ready to go home."

The thrill of victory that followed the division's capture of Baghdad in early April has faded. As Iraq's summer heat builds, so do soldiers' anxieties.

[TexKat]

Arab League Getting Increased Scrutiny

CAIRO, Egypt - Arabs split bitterly over the war on Iraq agree on one thing: the Arab League did everything wrong in the latest crisis.

Scrutiny of the 22-member league is part of a broader mood of self-examination after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, with democracy-starved Arabs asking how and when reform in their own autocratic states will begin.

[Grampa Dave]

A little humor to lighten up the night! Then off to bed!

(Washington, D.C.) -- In a little reported provision of the Patriot Act of 2003, former president Bill Clinton has been exiled to the island of Elba along with his wife, members of his cabinet, and George Stephanopoulos.

"Frankly, Clinton was just becoming a pain in the ass," said Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), a co-sponsor of the legislation. "Jesus, we're all sick and tired of hearing about the 'most ethical administration in US history.' I mean, you try to explain to your 90-year old grandmother what "hummer" means."

According to the provisions of the bill, the Clinton entourage will not be allowed any contact with the outside world except for weekly parachute drops of Moonpies, Mountain Dew, frozen White Castle hamburgers, and back issues of The Nation and Swank magazines.

A spokesman for the former president said that Mr. Clinton is "looking forward to this exciting new opportunity to serve the American people." George Stephanopoulos told this reporter that he is currently re-reading The Lord of the Flies.

William Grim, for Iconclast

[TexKat]

Iraq Survivors Recount Early Saddam Plot

DUJAIL, Iraq - They emerged from behind the palm groves with Kalashnikov rifles — 17 gunmen, Islamic militants all, opening fire on a passing convoy and killing several people. But the man they were aiming at escaped.

From that day forward, the target — Saddam Hussein — made sure this rich Shiite Muslim town paid dearly.

That was 21 years ago. Only now, with Saddam gone and his regime in ruins, are the people of Dujail beginning to talk about the day that changed their lives.

[TexKat]

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, left, welcomes Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), Abdelouahed Belkeziz, during their official meeting, one day before the OIC's Foreign Ministers meeting in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 27, 2003.

U.S. Says Iran Harbors al-Qaida Militants

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration accused Iran on Tuesday of harboring al-Qaida militants and said it was worth checking a claim by an Iranian opposition group that the Islamic government was secretly constructing two uranium enrichment plants.

"We are pressing the Iranians to end their support for terror, including the harboring of al-Qaida terrorists," said presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer

[TexKat]

Al-Jazeera Replaces General Manager

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The Al-Jazeera all-news satellite television station said Tuesday it will replace its general manager.

The Arab broadcaster did not give a reason for the removal of Mohammed Jassim Al-Ali, who has managed the station since its inception seven years ago.

[TexKat]

Saudi Gov't Fires Anti-Extremist Editor

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - An editor whose newspaper was in the forefront of a campaign against Muslim extremism was removed from his post Tuesday, managers at the paper said.

No reason was given for the dismissal of Jamal Khashoggi, who joined the Al-Watan newspaper in March, one manager said on condition of anonymity.

[TexKat]

Saudi Arrests Five Suspects in Riyadh Blasts-Source

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi authorities have arrested five men suspected of involvement in the deadly suicide bombings in the kingdom, a Saudi source said on Wednesday.

"Five people were arrested yesterday who are among suspects in the Riyadh bombings and we believe that one of them is a main mastermind of the blasts," the source told Reuters

[BulletBobCo]

I was shown this article today at work and thought is was a hoot. After reading the whole thing, I reflected on the qualities that go into being a fighter pilot. I posted it earlier today under misc but thought the regulars at this forum would like to read it.

On a Wing and a Prayer (Old, but humorous article)
Sports Illustrated ^ | September 14, 1999 | Rick Reilly


Now this message for America's most famous athletes: Someday you may be invited to fly in the backseat of one of your country's most powerful fighter jets. Many of you already have -- John Elway, John Stockton, Tiger Woods to name a few. If you get this opportunity, let me urge you, with the greatest sincerity....

Move to Guam. Change your name. Fake your own death. Whatever you do, do not go. I know. The U.S. Navy invited me to try it. I was thrilled. I was pumped. I was toast!

I should've known when they told me my pilot would be Chip (Biff) King of Fighter Squadron 213 at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach. Whatever you're thinking a Top Gun named Chip (Biff) King looks like, triple it. He's about six-foot, tan, ice-blue eyes, wavy surfer hair, finger-crippling handshake -- the kind of man who wrestles dyspeptic alligators in his leisure time. If you see this man, run the other way. Fast.

Biff King was born to fly. His father, Jack King, was for years the voice of NASA missions. ("T-minus 15 seconds and counting...." Remember?) Chip would charge neighborhood kids a quarter each to hear his dad. Jack would wake up from naps surrounded by nine-year-olds waiting for him to say, "We have a liftoff."

Biff was to fly me in an F-14D Tomcat, a ridiculously powerful $60 million weapon with nearly as much thrust as weight, not unlike Colin Montgomerie. I was worried about getting airsick, so the night before the flight I asked Biff if there was something I should eat the next morning.

"Bananas," he said.

"For the potassium?" I asked.

"No," Biff said, "because they taste about the same coming up as they do going down."

The next morning, out on the tarmac, I had on my flight suit with my name sewn over the left breast. (No call sign -- like Crash or Sticky or Leadfoot -- but, still, very cool.) I carried my helmet in the crook of my arm, as Biff had instructed. If ever in my life I had a chance to nail Nicole Kidman, that was it.

A fighter pilot named Psycho gave me a safety briefing and then fastened me into my ejection seat, which, when employed, would "egress" me out of the plane at such a velocity that I would be immediately knocked unconscious.

Jason Dooley/U.S. Navy Just as I was thinking about aborting the flight, the canopy closed over me, and Biff gave the ground crew a thumbs-up. In minutes we were firing nose up at 600 mph. We leveled out and then canopy-rolled over another F-14. Those 20 minutes were the rush of my life. Unfortunately, the ride lasted 80.

It was like being on the roller coaster at Six Flags Over Hell. Only without rails. We did barrel rolls, sap rolls, loops, yanks and banks. We dived, rose and dived again, sometimes with a vertical velocity of 10,000 feet per minute. We chased another F-14, and it chased us. We broke the speed of sound. Sea was sky and sky was sea. Flying at 200 feet we did 90-degree turns at 550 mph, creating a G force of 6.5, which is to say I felt as if 6.5 times my body weight was smashing against me, thereby approximating life as Mrs. Colin Montgomerie.

And I egressed the bananas. I egressed the pizza from the night before. And the lunch before that. I egressed a box of Milk Duds from the sixth grade. I made Linda Blair look polite. Because of the G's, I was egressing stuff that did not even want to be egressed. I went through not one airsick bag, but two. Biff said I passed out. Twice.

I was coated in sweat. At one point, as we were coming in upside down in a banked curve on a mock bombing target and the G's were flattening me like a tortilla and I was in and out of consciousness, I realized I was the first person in history to throw down.

I used to know cool. Cool was Elway throwing a touchdown pass, or Norman making a five-iron bite. But now I really know cool. Cool is guys like Biff, men with cast-iron stomachs and Freon nerves. I wouldn't go up there again for Derek Jeter's black book, but I'm glad Biff does every day, and for less a year than a rookie reliever makes in a home stand.

A week later, when the spins finally stopped, Biff called. He said he and the fighters had the perfect call sign for me. Said he'd send it on a patch for my flight suit.

What is it? I asked.

"Two Bags."

Don't you dare tell Nicole.

[TexKat]

Britain Probes TV Crew Missing in Iraq

LONDON - Britain began a military investigation Tuesday into the disappearance of two TV crew members after a shooting in Iraq more than two months ago when a colleague was slain, officials said.

Translator Hussein Osman and Fred Nerac, a French cameraman working for Britain's ITN news, have not been seen since the March 22 shooting in southern Iraq near Basra involving coalition and Iraqi forces. Veteran TV reporter Terry Lloyd was killed.