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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Days after the last U.S. troops left Iraq, a federal appeals court ended a lawsuit over an episode that produced one of the more disturbing images of the war: the grisly killings of four Blackwater security contractors and the hanging of a pair of their bodies from a bridge in Fallujah. Families of the victims reached a confidential settlement with the company's corporate successor, Arlington, Va.-based Academi, and the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the suit last week. The settlement was first reported Friday by The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va. The deal ends the...

FALLUJAH, Iraq — Hundreds of Iraqis set alight U.S. and Israeli flags on Wednesday as they celebrated the impending pullout of American forces from the country in the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah. Shouting slogans in support of the “resistance,” the demonstrators held up banners and placards inscribed with phrases like, “Now we are free” and “Fallujah is the flame of the resistance.” Surrounded by the Iraqi army, demonstrators carried posters bearing photos of apparent insurgents, faces covered and carrying weapons. They also held up pictures of U.S. soldiers killed and military vehicles destroyed in the two major offensives against...

The American PlatoonThe Battle of Fallujah and its impact on a group of young Marines Following your dream shouldn’t cost you your life. But for many of the members of First Platoon, that’s exactly what happened.This week marks the seventh anniversary of the Battle of Fallujah. During the battle, I was embedded as a combat historian with the Marine First Platoon, Lima Company, 3/1, as they fought house-to-house. First Platoon suffered some of the highest casualties in Fallujah: four killed in action — Lance Cpl. Nick Larson, Lance Cpl. Nathan Wood, Lance Cpl. Mike Hanks, and Lance Cpl. Benjamin Bryan...

AMZ Leaders Diminishing BAGHDAD, Iraq – Over the past several months, Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces have captured or killed more than 20 of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s trusted lieutenants and other high-ranking network members. Hundreds of other members of Zarqawi’s terror network have also been captured and killed as ISF and MNF-I forces continue to degrade his organization. Coalition forces also just missed capturing Zarqawi during a raid on Feb. 20. The raid occurred between Hit and Haditha near the Euphrates River. Zarqawi was able to escape capture as Coalition forces closed in on his vehicle. Zarqawi’s driver, Abu Usama,...

Six years ago, on Dec. 14, Camp Pendleton Marine Cpl. Mike Anderson Jr. lost his life during house-to-house combat in the city of Fallujah, a seminal battle in the Iraq war. Last week, his father became the first person in California to be issued a "Gold Star" license plate in recognition of his family's loss. For the senior Anderson, the presentation Thursday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger capped a five-year-long effort to get California to join 45 other states that have made the plates available to families of troops killed in action. "It's an acknowledgment of the sacrifice of families left...

Take a look at Boxer's poll numbers. Compare the last 5 polls to the previous 5. Her numbers are clearly going down. She is only getting about 45%, and in several of those polls they are over sampling Democrats. They are sampling Democrats at a higher rate than showed up at the polls in 2008, that will never happen. Plus Fiorina has avoided a lot of the mud that has surrounded Whitman. Boxer is gone.

Last week, American Thinker published evidence that Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-CA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made it possible in 2004 for Code Pink and other radical groups to deliver $600,000 in cash and supplies to enemy insurgents and their families in Fallujah. Two days later, Lt. Col. Robert "Buzz" Patterson posted the diplomatic letter Waxman wrote to assist Code Pink's mission. Waxman's Republican opponent, Korean War veteran and former Marine Chuck Wilkerson, calls the letter a "smoking gun." He adds, " ... to actively assist getting aid to people who killed and...

[excerpt] These would be the four Democrats [Sen. Barbara Boxer (D, CA); Rep. Henry Waxman (D, CA-30); Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D, OH-10); and Rep. Raul Grijavla (D, AZ-07)] who provided letters of introduction and support to the pro-terrorist groups Code Pink/Global Exchange in 2004.  Those groups used these letters to facilitate their delivery over a half a million dollars’ worth of aid to terrorists in Fallujah actively fighting American troops; which is, by the way, treason by any reasonable interpretation of the US Constitution.... [end excerpt]  

It should be noted that the so-called “peace activists” at the Code Pink organization are anything but peace activists. These anti-American radicals and Marxists supported the mass murderer Saddam Hussein who ran one of the most brutal regimes in the 20th century. Code Pink activists currently support the illegitimate Iranian regime, the Marxist Chavez regime in Venezuela and have even met with Taliban Islamists. “Code Pink Kills American Troops Giving Money to Terrorists” (Target of Opportunity photo) Today, as CODEPINK was busily preparing a year-end humanitarian mission to Iraq, we received an urgent message. It was from our dear friend...

n November and December of 2004, U.S. Marines were involved in the heaviest urban combat since the Vietnam War as they went house-to-house rooting out insurgents in the terror stronghold of Fallujah, Iraq. In all, fifty-one brave Americans would be killed and 560 wounded in the battle that would be the bloodiest of the Iraq War but one which would eventually turn the tide toward victory in Iraq and signal a significant defeat for America’s radical Islamic enemies. Shockingly and tragically, at the same time our servicemen were staring into the eyes of evil, Senator Barbara Boxer and Congressman Henry...

New information is emerging about efforts by major Democratic Party figures to undercut American war efforts in Iraq by providing aid to the insurgents.  Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson's article Treason in America details how a coalition of radical organizations, including US-based Code Pink, delivered some $600,000 in cash and supplies to insurgents and their families in Fallujah, just days after 51 American troops were killed there in some of the bloodiest action of the Iraq war.  An approving article published in Islam Online tipped off the connection between the anti-American Global Exchange coalition and the Democrats who made their venture...

Imagine this scenario: It is December 31, 1944. American and Allied Forces are in a fierce battle with German troops, who have just taken Antwerp. Allied forces are valiantly defending Bastogne. In this month 19,000 Allied forces are killed and 75,000 wounded in one of the worst battles of World War II. As Allied forces are regrouping for the next day’s bloody battle they get word that a sole American Senator has provided diplomatic safe passage for an American pacifist group to go behind Allied lines and bring medicine, blankets, food and unknown supplies to the very German troops that...

Two top California legislators are coming under fire after new evidence has emerged that they helped a group of radical antiwar activists cross the Iraqi-Jordanian border in order to deliver aid to families of enemy insurgents in the war-ridden Iraqi city of Fallujah. In December 2004, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D) each sent letters of diplomatic courtesy to the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, requesting assistance for members of the radical group Global Exchange and the antiwar group Palisadians for Peace. The letters, according to a January 4, 2005 article written by Islam Online correspondent Adam...

In the final days of her most difficult reelection bid, California Senator Barbara Boxer is emphasizing veterans issues to deflect criticism of her long history of undermining the US military, a cynical strategy that has garnered an endorsement from the increasingly leftist VFW.  At the recent opening of a new veterans' center in Pasadena, Boxer was overcome with emotion as Senator Inouye of Hawaii defended her record of support for veterans and veterans' issues. Let's review a few facts that Boxer and her handlers hope the voters won't recall.   In Congress during the Cold War, Boxer consistently worked to cut...

Declassified NCIS Report Raises More Questions Than It Answers The 82-page summary of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service inquiry into allegations of murder at Fallujah, Iraq offers an inside glimpse of frustrated investigators stymied by a green wall of silence that surrounded the infantrymen from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines after a few of their own cried murder. The investigation was triggered by discharged Marine Ryan Weemer during a Secret Service pre-employment polygraph examination in October, 2006. The former corporal told the examiners he had participated in the execution of four captured enemy combatants at Fallujah in response to a...

Six years ago, Sheikh Mohammed Naji led his tribe in Iraq’s greatest battle against the Americans. Now they are leaving, and he would much prefer that they were not. “I fought the Americans, and I consider that a matter of dignity,” he said. “They orphaned our children and turned our women into widows. “But yes, now we want them to stay.” That is the paradox of Fallujah, the city that saw the bitterest fighting of America’s seven years in Iraq. Its inhabitants regard the Americans with hatred, but say they represent their only insurance against the enemies by whom they...

In a story you won’t see on MSNBC, for the second time in 2 days, a Navy SEAL was acquitted of charges in the infamous terrorist-with-a-fat-lip case. After a day-long trial, a Navy judge took 2 hours to come back with a verdict of not guilty of dereliction of duty for Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe of Yorktown, Va. No word on what the judge did for the other hour and 58 minutes he spent in chambers after giving the evidence the consideration it deserved. The judge, a model of decorum, managed not to use the words “insane,” “bulls**t,”...

BAGHDAD (AP) — A U.S. military judge on Friday cleared a Navy SEAL of any wrongdoing in the alleged beating of an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding the grisly 2004 killings of four American contractors. The Blackwater contractors' burned bodies were dragged through the streets and two were hanged from a bridge over the Euphrates river in the former insurgent hotbed of Fallujah in an attack that shocked Americans and galvanized U.S. support for the war. After a daylong trial and fewer than two hours considering the evidence, Navy Judge Cmdr. Tierny Carlos found Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe...

<p>Military Justice: The first of three Navy SEALs charged with abusing a captured jihadist has been cleared. Why has this administration taken the word of terrorists and let American heroes twist in the wind?</p> <p>The acquittal of Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas, 29, of Blue Island, Ill., by a six-member U.S. military jury in Baghdad on Thursday is good news and the correct verdict.</p>

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Military: Two U.S. congressmen take the lead in proclaiming the obvious — that those who attack this country should be punished and not those who risk their lives to defend it. The Navy SEALs are a special breed of patriot and warrior. This highly trained and select group — the best of the best — is a daily participant in the long twilight struggle against the enemies of freedom that President Kennedy warned us about. Kennedy formally created the SEAL (sea, air, land) outfit as an elite force capable of combat operations in any environment. It was a team of...

Two Republican lawmakers are seeking to have charges dropped against three Navy SEALs facing court-martial for accusations of abusing a terror suspect arrested for an ambush killing of U.S. contractors in Iraq. The SEALs -- Special Warfare Operators 2nd Class Matthew McCabe and Jonathan Keefe and Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Julio Huertas -- were part of a team that in September 2009 captured Ahmed Hashim Abed, the suspected plotter behind the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA contractors in Fallujah in 2004. ...Reps. Dan Burton, R-Ind. and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. held a news conference Thursday with McCabe and...

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The U.S. will appeal a court decision dismissing manslaughter charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security contractors involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday. Biden's announcement after a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani shows just how diplomatically sensitive the incident remains nearly three years later.

When a small team of Navy SEALs set out to capture one of Iraq's most-wanted terrorists in September, they never dreamed it would go so smoothly. After all, Ahmed Hashim Abed, the suspected mastermind of a 2004 atrocity against U.S. contractors in Fallujah, was holed up in a safe house in Anbar province. Intelligence reports, which identified his location, said he kept a revolver under his pillow.

Palm Beach—On Wednesday, January 6, 2010, all hell is expected to break loose at the Southern EIB Command Post in Palm Beach, Florida, as liberal suicide bombers prepare for Rush Limbaugh’s return to radio.

As his M1 Abrams tank, nicknamed Bonecrusher, rolled through Fallujah, Iraq, Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch thought about the trail of dead insurgents left in its wake: “Fight and you die. Run and you die. Hide and you die. Hey, this works for me.” Popaditch, or “Gunny Pop” as his Marines called him, commanded a tank platoon during the first Battle of Fallujah in April 2004. Fighting only a week after four American contractors from Blackwater USA were captured, killed and their bodies hung from a bridge, Bonecrusher and Popaditch’s other tank were working with Marine infantry in clearing insurgents out...

Law: American heroes are arraigned for allegedly punching a terrorist in wartime. What happens to Tiger Woods isn't vital to our country's future. What happens to Matthew McCabe, Julio Huertas and Jonathan Keefe is. People are more likely to recognize the names of Tiger's alleged bimbo eruptions than the names of these three Navy SEALs we sent into battle. They are not household names in a nation consumed with Climate Gate, the public option and the antics of billionaire athletes. An administration consumed with apologies has said the architect of 9/11's massacre, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, must be given all the...

RICHMOND, Va.—Two Navy SEALs are scheduled to be arraigned Monday in military court on charges that they mistreated an Iraqi suspect in the gory slayings of four U.S. contractors in Fallujah. One of the SEALs is accused of punching the detainee after his September arrest, while the other is accused of lying to investigators. A third SEAL also accused of lying to investigators about the episode will be arraigned later. All three men have men have received an outpouring of support from people who view them as heroes. A Facebook page created to support the SEALs had more than 45,000...

Justice: Once again, Americans asked to put their lives on the line go on trial. Their crime was doing the very job we asked them to do in Iraq. Will they now be sacrificed for an ungrateful Iraq?On Tuesday, five members of a tactical support team of Blackwater Worldwide security guards in Iraq made their first appearance in U.S. District Court on charges ranging from voluntary manslaughter to the use of automatic weapons. The "crime" was protecting State Department personnel under fire in a war zone and firing back. On Sept. 16, 2007, 18 members of the "Raven 23" team...

The Navy Seals facing court martial for the alleged abuse of a terror suspect arrested for killing four Americans face up to a year in military confinement, discharge for bad conduct, and forfeiture of two-thirds of their pay for a year, if convicted, according to defense attorneys.

Abed the alleged mastermind of four mutilated and burned U.S. security guards in Fallujah in 2004. No that’s not the unbelievable moment the moment that is giving America a black eye is the fact that America is prosecuting three of the four U.S. SEALs because Abed a terrorist accused them of fattening his lip in the process of his capture and custody. (see story) (see 4:37min video) According to Reporter Rowan Scarborough; Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class (SO-2), is facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a...

The fact that this case has come this far shows an astonishing lack of perspective. While these three patriotic young men stand before a military judge to answer a terrorist complaint about an alleged thrown punch, CIA- and Air Force-operated drone aircraft rain hellfire missiles on terror suspects, killing them and anyone who happens to be nearby, whether or not they have the right target. Fighting a war is dirty business. As George Orwell is reputed to have said, "we sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would...

Dec 7 Navy SEALs Courts-Martial PROTEST - Norfolk Virginia SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! Type: Causes - Protest Network: Global Date: Monday, December 7, 2009 Time: 8:00am - 6:00pm Location: Naval Station Norfolk City/Town: Norfolk, VA Description As most of you already know, some of our military’s most elite, the Navy SEALs are under fire from the US Government for none other than bloodying the lip of one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq, the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. Matthew McCabe, Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe & Petty Officer...

War On Terror: As Khalid Sheikh Mohammed receives the benefits of U.S. justice, three Navy SEALs face court-martial for allegedly punching a captured terrorist who hanged Americans from a bridge in Fallujah. Apparently our efforts to impress the world about the marvels of our criminal justice system require us to give foreign terrorists such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the man who invented the manned cruise missiles that flew into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and plowed into a Pennsylvania field on its way to the Capitol Building, the full rights and protections of the American citizens he conspired...

The military is throwing the book at three terrorist-hunting Navy SEALs who captured one of the most wanted in Iraq. It seems one of the commandos may have punched Ahmed Hashim Abed, who intelligence reports said planned the bloody ambush of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah, Iraq, five years ago. Instead of plaudits, three SEALs face court-martial in January. And conservatives are expressing outrage to HUMAN EVENTS. Abed, whom the U.S. command designated "Objective Amber," was nabbed in darkness Sept. 3 by a platoon of commandos from SEAL Team 10, based in Norfolk. The next few hours proved...

The SEALs took down Ahmed Hasim Abed, the alleged mastermind of a ghastly 2004 incident in which four American contractors who worked security for Blackwater USA, were murdered in Fallujah and two of the bodies were hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River. But instead of being praised as heroes, the SEALs are all facing charges and have hired lawyers, FoxNews.com reported.

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

In yet another exercise in flaunting its “sensitivity”, the Navy is prosecuting three of our extraordinary Navy SEALS for slugging a terrorist. Not just any terrorist, mind you. Ahmed Hashim Abed was the mastermind of the annihilation and mutilation of four Blackwater security guards whose mission on that day was to transport supplies for a catering company. “The Fallujah atrocity came to symbolize the brutality of the enemy in Iraq,and the degree to which a homegrown insurgency was extending its grip over Iraq.” Little Abed was considered a high value target whose capture should be feted. Three of our elite...

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And for their trouble, three of the SEALs, members of the Navy's elite commando unit, are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com. The three have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral's mast — and requested a trial by court-martial. Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named "Objective Amber," told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it....

Decorated Marine veteran Nick Popaditch on Tuesday announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 51st Congressional District seat held by Democrat Bob Filner. Nicknamed “Gunny Pop,” Popaditch served two separate stints in the Marines. He was a tank commander during the Persian Gulf war and honorably discharged in 1992 after six years. Tiring of civilian life, he rejoined the Marines in 1995. A widely circulated photograph after the fall of Baghdad in 2003 shows the tank commander and platoon sergeant smoking a cigar in front of the statue of Saddam Hussein just before his unit helped tear it...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The government has dropped a murder charge against a Marine who pleaded guilty Tuesday to dereliction of duty for killing an unarmed Iraqi detainee during a battle to recapture the city of Fallujah. If convicted of murder, Sgt. Jermaine Nelson could have faced a maximum sentence of life in prison and a dishonorable discharge. Instead, he now faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a bad conduct discharge – one grade less than dishonorable. Defense attorney Joseph Low told reporters the plea agreement says Nelson will not serve any prison time and will...

A Marine sergeant pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to two counts of dereliction of duty in connection with the shooting death of an unarmed detainee during the opening hours of the November 2004 battle for the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) - A military judge has dismissed a murder charge against a Marine accused of killing an unarmed detainee in Iraq. The charge against Sgt. Jermaine Nelson was dismissed Tuesday at Camp Pendleton after he agreed to plead guilty to dereliction of duty. His attorney Joseph Low says the plea agreement calls for no prison time and an honorable discharge. The 28-year-old Nelson could have faced up to life in prison if convicted of murder. Nelson was among three Marines accused of killing detainees in 2004 during house-to-house fighting to recapture Fallujah.

CAMP PENDLETON ---- The murder and dereliction of duty trial for the last of three defendants charged with killing an unarmed detainee during a 2004 battle for what was then the insurgent-held Iraqi city of Fallujah gets under way Tuesday in a base courtroom. Sgt. Jermaine Nelson is accused of killing an unnamed detainee he and members of his Camp Pendleton squad captured in the opening hours of the battle that began on Nov. 9, 2004. Two co-defendants, former Marine sergeants Ryan Weemer and Jose L. Nazario Jr., were acquitted in separate trials for the same alleged offense. (snip) Nazario,...

I posted the following message on the CBS message board yesterday and also sent the same message to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly. If you agree with my message, I would appreciate it if you would forward this e-mail to others in your address book. I believe this is very important and a "grass roots" effort may be the only way to force Dan Rather, CBS, and others to accept the responsibility of their careless and destructive actions: "I think all American citizens should be outraged at CBS for making the "abuse" pictures public. CBS has done serious damage to the...

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2009 – A retired Army captain who survived third-degree burns over 30 percent of his body while stationed in Iraq believes that through family, faith and a lot of hard work, anything can be overcome. Retired Army Capt. Alvin Eugene Shell Jr. survived third-degree burns over 30 percent of his body while stationed in Iraq. He credits his family, faith and hard work for his recovery. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Capt. Alvin Eugene Shell Jr., who served with the 16th Military Police Brigade, credits his wife, Danielle, his three sons, his mother...

A group of retired Marines is rallying behind Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, the last of three Marines to face trial in the killing of unarmed prisoners during a battle in Fallouja, Iraq, in November 2004. Two other defendants have been found innocent: former Sgt. Jose Nazario in federal court in August, and Sgt. Ryan Weemer in a court-martial at Camp Pendleton in April. Nelson's case is set for a pretrial hearing Monday at Camp Pendleton. He stands accused of unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty. Calls for the charges to be dropped have come from retired Col. G.I. Wilson; William McNulty...

Hot&sunny, ops 24/7, bad guys regrouping. The brawl will begin again...probably tonight. bad guys redistributing ammo&moving for new cover. We're on the edge of town&hear the imam's rail against us...morale extremely high...extra intensity, friends on the line. senior nco's and officers here, feel the pull. They've trained everyone on the line...Today at the Div. Chaplain office. He waded into Ar Ramadi during the firefight three days ago...to provide ministry at the aid station...where he was needed. Second, coordinating Holy Week Services. A)worry about large numbers in one place. B)organists in short supply and no organ.C)We are going to worship..we need...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- Despite having failed to win convictions of two co-defendants, the Marine Corps announced Friday it will prosecute Sgt. Jermaine Nelson for killing an unarmed Iraqi prisoner of war. Lt. Col. David Griesmer said a plea from Nelson's attorney to drop the murder charge has been rejected. The attorney, Joseph Low, said Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland believes the case should be decided by a jury. "Sometimes, a single person does not want to be the decision-maker," Low said of Helland, who has the authority to order the charges against Nelson withdrawn. "The general decided he would rather see...

Murder charges against a Marine sergeant at Camp Pendleton in the death of a prisoner in Fallujah, Iraq, will not be dropped, despite the acquittal of two Marines in the same case. Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, has decided that the case against Sgt. Jermaine Nelson should proceed to a court-martial.