Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006 11:32 a.m. EST

Fourteen months after John Kerry narrowly carried Wisconsin in the 2004 presidential election amidst allegations of voter fraud, five campaign workers for the Kerry-Edwards campaign team are set for trial Tuesday in Milwaukee on felony charges of damage to property.

Read the rest at NewsMax

by Staff Sgt. Kevin L. Moses
January 11, 2006
Soldiers from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, search for weapons caches near the village of Shakaria, Iraq.

Source: Assyrian International News Agency

The mainstream U.S. media outlets have failed to report a major terrorist plot against the U.S. - because it would tend to support President Bush's use of NSA domestic surveillance, according to media watchdog groups.

News of a planned attack masterminded by three Algerians operating out of Italy was widely reported outside the U.S., but went virtually unreported in the American media.

Italian authorities recently announced that they had used wiretaps to uncover the conspiracy to conduct a series of major attacks inside the U.S.

Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the planned attacks would have targeted stadiums, ships and railway stations, and the terrorists' goal, he said, was to exceed the devastation caused by 9/11.
Italian authorities stepped up their internal surveillance programs after July's terrorist bombings in London. Their domestic wiretaps picked up phone conversations by Algerian Yamine Bouhrama that discussed terrorist attacks in Italy and abroad.

Italian authorities arrested Bouhrama on November 15 and he remains in prison. Authorities later arrested two other men, Achour Rabah and Tartaq Sami, who are believed to be Bouhrama's chief aides in planning the attacks.

The arrests were a major coup for Italian anti-terror forces, and the story was carried in most major newspapers from Europe to China.

"U.S. terror attacks foiled," read the headline in England's Sunday Times. In France, a headline from Agence France Presse proclaimed, "Three Algerians arrested in Italy over plot targeting U.S."

Curiously, what was deemed worthy of a worldwide media blitz abroad was virtually ignored by the U.S. media, and conservative media watchdog groups are saying that is no accident.

"My impression is that the major media want to use the NSA story to try and impeach the president," says Cliff Kincaid, editor of the Accuracy in Media Report published by the grassroots Accuracy in Media organization.
"If you remind people that terrorists actually are planning to kill us, that tends to support the case made by President Bush. They will ignore any issue that shows that this kind of [wiretapping] tactic can work in the war on terror."

"The mainstream media have framed the story as one of the nefarious President Bush 'spying on U.S. citizens,' where the average American is a victim not a beneficiary," commented Brent Baker, vice president of the Media Research Center, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to encouraging balanced news coverage, "so journalists have little interest in any evidence that the program has helped save lives by uncovering terrorist plans."

The Associated Press version of the story did not disclose that the men planned to target the U.S. Nor did it report that the evidence against the suspects was gathered via a wiretapping surveillance operation.

Furthermore, only one American newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, is known to have published the story that the AP distributed. It ran on page A-6 under the headline "Italy Charges 3 Algerians." The Inquirer report also made no mention of the plot to target the U.S. - although foreign publications included this information in the headlines and lead sentences of their stories. Nor did it advise readers that domestic wiretaps played a key role in nabbing the suspected terrorists.

One obvious question media critics are now raising: Did the American media intentionally ignore an important story because it didn't fit into their agenda of attacking President George Bush for using wiretapping to spy on potential terrorists in the U.S.?

"It's clear to me," says AIM's Kincaid, "that they're trying their best to make this NSA program to be an impeachable offense, saying it is directed at ordinary Americans. That's why they keep referring to this as a 'program of spying on Americans' - whereas the president keeps pointing out it's a program designed to uncover al-Qaida operations on American soil."

Check out One American's view...like it or not...

You'll find a pro-military, pro-victory blog with some great posts - the blogger is a Vet.

Some of the current posts:

General Pace responds to Murtha's comments, gotta love em

Troops dispute study on Body Armour.

CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, RAMADI, Iraq – Major John W. Harman, the material readiness officer for 2nd Marine Division, manages a team of Marines who ensure commanders and their Marines have what they need to accomplish the mission. Photo by: 2nd Lt. Shawn M. Mercer

Read Story Associated with this photo

For all of you Beatles' fans, here's a way to get a great memorabilia item, and help a very important cause at the same time:

"Sea of Holes", Sericel of The Beatles and Jeremy Hilary Boob lost in the Sea of Holes while traveling to Pepperland

From the Beatles' film Yellow Submarine, this sericel called "The Sea of Holes" is being auctioned now at eBay.

All proceeds are going to Soldiers' Angels Project Valour-IT

Edition Size: 2500
Size: 13 1/2" X 16 1/2"
Medium: Sericel
Condition: Excellent

Purchased, at auction, from Park West G.A.L.L.E.R.Y.

Comes with Certificate of Authenticity.

The auction is here.

More Project Valour-IT information here and at the Valour-IT Blog.

Project Valour-IT'>

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (Jan. 9, 2006) - The heavy lift vessel MV Blue Marlin enters Pearl Harbor, Hawaii with the Sea Based X-Band Radar (SBX) aboard after completing a 15,000-mile journey from Corpus Christi, Texas. SBX is a combination of the world’s largest phased array X-band radar carried aboard a mobile, ocean-going semi-submersible oil platform. It will provide the nation with highly advanced ballistic missile detection and will be able to discriminate a hostile warhead from decoys and countermeasures. SBX will undergo minor modifications, post-transit maintenance and routine inspections in Pearl Harbor before completing its voyage to its homeport of Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. U.S. Navy photo by Journalist 2nd Class Ryan C. McGinley

The Navy is searching for a twin-engine jet and four aviators who went missing when their training flight vanished en route from Tennessee 20 minutes after takeoff.

FULL STORY - from CNN.com

by Spc. Clydell KinchenJanuary 10, 2006
Sgt. 1st Class John Williamson, from 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, pulls security at Forward Operating Base Q-West, Iraq.

0314 - St Militiades ends his reign as Catholic Pope
0532 - Nika-revolt against Justianus & Theodora in Hippodrome, Constantinople
0705 - John VI ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1158 - Vladislav II of Bohemia becomes king
1558 - Westmunster Church in Middelburg destroyed by heavy storm
1569 - 1st recorded lottery in England is drawn at St Paul's Cathedral
1571 - Emperor Maximilian II grants Austrian adel freedom of religion
1693 - Mt Etna erupts, Sicily
1753 - Ferdinand VI of Spain & Pope Benedictus XIV sign concord
1758 - Russian troops occupy Königsberg, East-Prussia
1759 - 1st American life insurance company incorporated, Philadelphia
1774 - Messier adds M51 (spiral galaxy in Canes Venatici) to his catalog
1775 - Francis Salvador becomes 1st Jew elected to office in America (SC)
1785 - Continental Congress convenes in New York City NY
1787 - Titania & Oberon, moons of Uranus, discovered by William Herschel
1790 - Statisten & Vonckisten unite as Belgium
1803 - Monroe & Livingston sail for Paris to buy New Orleans; they buy Louisiana
1805 - Michigan Territory is organized
1813 - 1st pineapples planted in Hawaii
1839 - Earthquake at Martinique destroys half of Port Royal-700 die
1861 - Alabama becomes 4th state to secede; Mexico City captured by Juárez (Liberal) in War of the Reform
1863 - Naval engagement near Galveston between CSS Alabama & USS Hatteras; Union forces capture Arkansas Post, or Fort Hindman, AR
1865 - Battle of Beverly, WV
1866 - Steamship London sinks in storm off Land's End, England, kills 220
1879 - Zulu war against British colonial rule in South Africa begins
1892 - William D. McCoy of Indiana appointed US minister to Liberia
1897 - M.H. Cannon becomes 1st woman state senator in US (Utah)
1904 - Herero people of South West Africa, now Namibia, begin uprising
1913 - 1st sedan-type car (Hudson) goes on display at 13th Auto Show (New York City, NY); Bread & Roses Strike begins
1916 - French troops capture/Serbian army flees to Corfu
1919 - 3 year old German communist party (Spartacus) crushed; Romania annexes Transylvania
1920 - French passenger ship Afrique sinks near La Rochelle; 553 die
1922 - Insulin 1st used to treat diabetes (Leonard Thompson, 14, of Canada)
1923 - French & Belgian troops occupy Ruhr to collect reparations
1925 - Franc B. Kellogg replaces Charles Hughes as US Secretary of State
1935 - Amelia Earhart flies non-stop from Honolulu, HI to Oakland, CA
1936 - Charles Anderson enters Kentucky House of Representatives
1938 - Frances Moulton elected 1st woman president of a US national bank
1942 - Japan conquers Kuala Lumpur, Malaya
1943 - US & Britain relinquish extraterritorial rights in China
1944 - Crakow-Plaszow Concentration Camp established
1946 - People's Republic of Albania established; Enver Hoxha declares People's Republic of Albania with himself dictator
1949 - Snowfall 1st recorded in Los Angeles
1960 - Chad declares independence from France
1962 - Nelson Mandela leaves South Africa, travels to Ethiopia, Algeria & England; Volcano Huascaran in Peru, erupts; 4,000 die
1963 - 1st discotheque opens, The Whiskey-a-go-go in Los Angeles CA
1964 - US Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous; Panamá ends diplomatic relations with US
1966 - 550 die in landslides in mountains behind Rio de Janeiro after rain
1968 - Explorer 36 (GEOS-B) launched into earth orbit (1080/1570 km)
1971 - 1st "Quickie" Divorce granted in UK
1972 - Abu Sayeed Chudhury becomes president & sheik Mujib ur-Rahman premier; East-Pakistan becomes independent state of Bangladesh
1973 - Trial of the Watergate burglars begins in Washington DC
1975 - Soyuz 17 carries 2 cosmonauts to space station Salyut 4
1976 - Military coup in Ecuador, President Guillermo Lara leaves
1977 - France releases Abu Daoud, a Palestinian suspected of involvement in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics
1978 - Soyuz 27 links with Salyut 6 & Soyuz 26 (1st time 3 spacecraft link)
1981 - British team led by Ranulph Fiennes completes longest & fastest crossing of Antarctica, reaching Scott base after 75 days (2,500 miles); Palau adopts constitution
1982 - Atlanta GA's temperature goes below zeroº F; Honduras adopts constitution
1984 - Supreme Court reinstated $10M award to Karen Silkwood's family
1986 - 1st black Lieutenant-Governor since reconstruction sworn in (Douglas Wilder of Virginia)
1989 - 140 nations agree to ban chemical weapons (poison gas, etc); Kindergarten student caught with loaded handgun at Bronx school
1990 - 200,000 demand return of Lithuania's independence
1991 - Congress empowers George H.W. Bush to order attack on Iraq; Soviets storm buildings in Vilnius to block Lithuania independence
1992 - Algeria's President Chadli announces his resignation
1993 - Independent presidential candidate Ross Perot publicly returns to politics
1994 - Irish government announces end of a 20-year broadcasting ban on IRA
1995 - DC-9 crashes near Maria La Baya, Colombia 51 die, 9 yr old girl lives
1996 - Space Shuttle STS 72 (Endeavour 10), launches into space
1997 - Telstar 401 Satellite Fails

Birthdays
1403 - Jan IV, Duke of Brabant/Limburg
1720 - Gijsbert John van Hardenbroeck, Utrechts regent
1757 - Alexander Hamilton, 1st US Secretary of Treasury ($10 face)
1807 - Alfred Eugene "Mudwall" Jackson, Confederate Brigadier General
1814 - James Paget English surgeon (disease of Paget); Richard Griffith, Confederate Brigadier General
1815 - Sir John A. MacDonald (C), 1st PM of Canada (1867-73)
1816 - Fitz-Henry Warren, Union Brevet Major General
1818 - John Reese Kenly, Union Brevet Major General
1831 - James Ronald Chalmers, Confederate Brigadier General
1852 - Konstantin Fehrenbach, German chancellor (1920-21)
1878 - Theodorus Pangalos, Greek General /dictator (1926)
1903 - Alan Paton, South African writer (Cry, the Beloved Country)
1904 - Frederick Boland, Irish diplomat/President (UN General Assembly)
1905 - Pierre Mendes-France, French Premier (1954-55)
1906 - Albert Hofmann, chemist (discovered LSD)
1910 - Trygve Martin Bratteli, Norwegian PM (Labour) (1971-72, 1973-76)
1912 - Roger Lewis, aviation exec (Lockheed, Curtiss Wright, Pan Am)
1916 - James H. (Jimmy) Quillen (Representative-TN, 1963-1997)
1922 - Neville Duke, English test pilot
1926 - Grant Tinker, broadcasting executive (NBC-TV); Lev Stepanovich Demin, cosmonaut (Soyuz 15)
1934 - Jean Chrétien, Canada PM (Liberal, 1993-2003)

Passings
0705 - John VI, Catholic Pope (701-05)
1055 - Constantine IX Monomachos, emperor of Byzantium
1775 - Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachev, Cossack rebel, executed by tsarist Russia
1797 - Francis Lightfoot Lee, US farmer (signer Declaration of Independence), dies at 62
1843 - Francis Scott Key, composer (Star Spangled Banner), dies at 63
1891 - Georges-Eugène Haussmann, French senator/baron, dies at 81
1893 - Benjamin F. Butler, US General /presidential candidate (anti-monopoly), dies at 74
1914 - Ambrose Bierce, writer, dies at 71
1923 - Constantine I, King of Greece (1913-17, 20-22), dies at 54
1929 - Julio Antonio Mella, Cuban revolutionary, murdered at about 28
1943 - Carlo Tresca, NY's Italian newspaper editor/anti-fascist, murdered
1944 - Galeazzo, Count of Cortellazzo Ciano, Italian politician
1952 - Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, General (North-Africa/Indo-China), dies at 61
1953 - Ernst H. Ridder Rappard, Dutch Nazi founder (NSNAP), dies at 53; Noach Zjordanija, Georgian Premier (1918-21), dies at 84
1955 - Rodolfo Graziani, Italian East-Africa Minister of Defense, dies at 72
1959 - Dr Mohammed Zakaria Ghoneinl discoverer of 6,000 year old pyramid
1966 - Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indian premier (1964-66), dies at 61
1983 - Nikolaj V. Podgorny, president USSR, dies at 79
1988 - Gregory (Pappy) Boyington, ace WWII pilot, dies at 75 of cancer; Isidor Isaac Rabi, nuclear physicist (Nobel Prize-1944), dies at 89
1995 - Adrian J. "Ad" Kaland, Dutch MP (CDA 1977-93), dies at 72

Reported Missing in Action
1966
Godfrey, Johnny Howard, USAF (AZ); A1H shot down, KIA, body not recovered

1968
The following USN personnel reported MIA when their OP2E crashed; all determined KIA, body not recovered:
Anderson, Denis L. (KS)

Buck, Arthur C. (OH)

Mancini, Richard M. (NY)

Olson, Delbert A. (ND); pilot

Roberts, Michael L. (MS)

Siow, Gale R. (CA)

Stevens, Phillip P. (MI)

Thoresen, Donald N. (MI)

Widon, Kenneth H. (MI)

1970
Chorlins, Richard David, USAF (MO); A1H shot down, KIA, body not recovered

C-17 record breaking flight
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AFPN) -- A formation of 17 C-17 Globemaster IIIs fly over the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia during low-level tactical training. The C-17s, assigned to the 437th and 315th Airlift Wings here, were part of the largest formation in history from a single base and demonstrated the strategic airdrop capability of the Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jacob Bailey)

For any of you that are having trouble viewing Cliff's site to check out music or order "Letters to Baghdad" CD's, the problem is likely that you need to update your flash player.

You can download the latest version of the Flash Player here.

And if you're a member of Soldiers' Angels, don't forget to email me for details on a special offer from Cliff.

PROGRESS UPDATE — President George W. Bush steps on stage to address members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars about achieving victory in Iraq and progress in the war on terror, in Washington, D.C., Jan. 10, 2006. White House photo by Paul Morse