Hostages Forced To Hide As Death Toll Rises To 68 In Terror Attack On Kenya Shopping Mall

Foxnews.com offers a piece on the terror attack in Kenya.

Dozens of hostages are holed up in an upscale shopping mall in Kenya's capital, forced to hide from gunmen following an attack by members of an Al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group on Saturday that left at least 68 dead and 175 injured.

The Kenyan military remained in a tense standoff with Islamic extremists in Nairobi on Sunday, as barrage of gunfire between both sides were heard inside the mall, Reuters reports.

Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, said in a national address that security forces had managed to isolate the “criminals” in one place inside the building, according to Reuters. Two helicopters were seen flying over the mall.

Associated Press reporters also said they heard a large explosion followed by silence.

There are between 50 to 200 hostages and most of them are hiding in various places inside the mall, Fox News confirms. They are not being held by the hostage-takers. There are between 10 to 15 militants currently inside the mall, with at least one being female.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/22/attack-on-nairobi-mall-kills-10-people/?intcmp=trending

U.S. Navy Commander, Navy Contractor and Navy Criminal Investigator Arrested In International Bribery Scheme

The Washington Times offers a piece on a bribery scheme.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Navy contractor, a naval commander and a Navy criminal investigator were arrested and charged with conspiracy in a bribery scheme to reap millions of dollars in port contracts worldwide, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Leonard Francis, the contractor, was arrested Monday in San Diego; Cmdr. Michael V. Misiewcz was arrested in Colorado; and John Beliveau II, a supervisory special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, was arrested in Virginia, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement. Each faces up to five years in prison if convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery.

An email seeking comment from an NCIS spokesman wasn’t immediately returned Tuesday evening.
Mr. Francis,  a Malaysian national who lives in Singapore, is the president and CEO of
Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia LTD., which has had “husbanding” contracts for Navy ships at ports worldwide for 25 years. 

The contracts — one of which was worth up to $125 million — involve providing services for ships and submarines in port, such as providing tugboats, security and transportation; paying customs fees; supplying food, fuel and water; and removing trash.

Prosecutors contend that Mr. Francis conspired to bribe the other men with luxury travel, prostitutes and gifts in exchange for information that allowed him to overcharge on port contracts by millions of dollars.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/18/3-arrested-international-navy-bribery-scheme/

Inside The Ring: Bill Gertz On Syria, Iraq And Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Bill Gertz (seen in the above photo), the veteran national security reporter for the Washington Times, offers a piece on chemical weapons in the Middle East..

The U.S.-Russia agreement to dismantle Syria's  chemical weapons is reigniting a controversy over the 2003 covert operation by Russian special operations forces to remove Iraqi weapons — including chemical arms — and move them to Syria and Lebanon prior to the Iraq War.

John A. Shaw, a former Pentagon official who first disclosed the Iraqi-Russian collaboration to The Washington Times, said the agreement brokered by Moscow could resolve unanswered questions about the arms transfers.

“The Russians were the principal — if not the sole — supplier of chemical weapons to both Iraq and Syria,” said Mr. Shaw, a former deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security who tracked Iraqi weapons for the  Pentagon.

Mr. Shaw noted that U.N. inspectors who surveyed the site of the Aug. 21 Syrian chemical weapons attack near Damascus found an intact rocket motor inscribed with Cyrillic writing, indicating the delivery system was Russian in origin.
 
Mr. Shaw said  Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons — about 1,000 tons of nerve and blister agents — is estimated to be 50 percent larger than it was in 2003.

You can read the rest of the piece via th below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/18/inside-the-ring-syria-iraq-and-weapons-of-mass-des/?page=all#pagebreak

The Real Navy Yard Scandal: Charles Krauthammer On Gun Control And Mental Illness

In a previous post, I linked to a Charles Krauthammer's column from December of 2012 that covered gun control and mental illness - http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/09/monsters-shall-always-be-with-us.html

In light of the Washington Navy Yard shooting, Charles Krauthammer followed up and wrote another column on gun control and mental illness, which appeared in National Review.  

In the liberal remake of Casablanca, the police captain comes upon the scene of the shooting and orders his men to “round up the usual weapons.”

It’s always the weapon and never the shooter. Twelve people are murdered in a rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, and before sundown Senator Dianne Feinstein has called for yet another debate on gun violence. Major opprobrium is heaped on the AR-15, the semiautomatic used in the Newtown massacre.

Turns out no AR-15 was used at the Navy Yard. And the shotgun that was used was obtained legally in Virginia after the buyer, Aaron Alexis, had passed both a state and federal background check.

As was the case in the Tucson shooting — instantly politicized into a gun-control and (fabricated) tea-party-climate-of-violence issue — the origin of this crime lies not in any politically expedient externality but in the nature of the shooter.

On August 7, that same Alexis had called police from a Newport, R.I., Marriott. He was hearing voices. Three people were following him, he told the cops. They were sending microwaves through walls, making his skin vibrate and preventing him from sleeping. He had already twice changed hotels to escape the men, the radiation, the voices.

Delusions, paranoid ideation, auditory (and somatic) hallucinations: the classic symptoms of schizophrenia.

So here is this panic-stricken soul, psychotic and in terrible distress. And what does modern policing do for him? The cops tell him to “stay away from the individuals that are following him.” Then they leave.

But the three “individuals” were imaginary, for God’s sake. This is how a civilized society deals with a man in such a state of terror?

Had this happened 35 years ago in Boston, Alexis would have been brought to me as the psychiatrist on duty at the ER of the Massachusetts General Hospital. Were he as agitated and distressed as in the police report, I probably would have administered an immediate dose of Haldol, the most powerful fast-acting antipsychotic of the time.

This would generally relieve the hallucinations and delusions, a blessing not only in itself, but also for the lucidity it brings on that would allow him to give us important diagnostic details — psychiatric history, family history, social history, medical history, etc. If I thought he could be sufficiently cared for by family or friends to help him receive regular oral medication, therapy, and follow-up, I would have discharged him. Otherwise, I’d have admitted him. And if he refused, I’d have ordered a 14-day involuntary commitment.

Sounds cruel? On the contrary. For many people living on park benches, commitment means a warm bed, shelter, and three hot meals a day. For Alexis, it would have meant the beginning of a treatment regimen designed to bring him back to himself before discharging him to a world heretofore madly radioactive.

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/359006/real-navy-yard-scandal-charles-krauthammer

Defense Secretary, Chairman Of The Joint Chiefs, Honor Missing, Captured Service Members, Families

 

Karen Parish at the American Forces Press Service offers the below piece:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20, 2013 - The Defense Department will never stop working to bring captured and missing service members home, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pledged at a Pentagon ceremony today.

That commitment extends to Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured by enemy forces in Afghanistan more than four years ago, Hagel said.

"Our hearts today are with the Bergdahl family. Using our military, intelligence, and diplomatic tools, the United States is continuing its strong efforts to secure Sergeant Bergdahl's safe release," he said.

DOD's commitment to leave no service member behind also extends to the more than 80,000 Americans who remain missing in action, the secretary said.

Hagel noted this year marked the 40th anniversary of Operation Homecoming, when hundreds of American prisoners of war returned to freedom from captivity in Vietnam. Retired Navy Rear Adm. Robert H. Shumaker, in the audience for today's ceremony, was one of those prisoners, the secretary said.

"He, along with hundreds of other service members and civilians, endured unspeakable cruelty, attempts at political exploitation, and years of confinement," Hagel said. "But through courage, resilience, and determination, they survived to return home to a grateful nation."

The secretary said he admires the inner strength that enabled prisoners of war to survive harsh physical and mental abuse at the hands of their captors.

"Americans in uniform today are inspired by the fierce resolve of generations of American POWs," Hagel said. "We also draw inspiration from the bonds of camaraderie, compassion, and love that prompted our POWs to care for each other, and sustain each other, through terrible, terrible months and years of hardship."

Such bonds are fundamental to the American military and underpin "who we are and everything we do," he said. "We protect each other. And we vow to never leave a fellow service member behind."

Every day, Hagel said, hundreds of DOD staffers, including forensic anthropologists, underwater archeologists and other experts, scour the globe and work in laboratories to identify the missing.

"Since this time last year we have been able to account for 61 service members from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam," the secretary noted. "Each case represents years of effort -- meticulous work piecing together evidence and clues from across many continents."

Hagel said he's deeply aware that many thousands of families are still waiting for a breakthrough.

"Words and promises cannot make the lingering uncertainty and heartache go away," he said. "But I hope it provides comfort to know that as long as members of our armed forces remain unaccounted for, the Department of Defense will do whatever we can to find them and bring them home."

Hagel said that as the black-and-white flag honoring America's prisoners of war and missing in action is raised in communities across America today, "We pledge to live by its creed, 'You are Not Forgotten.' We as a country are committed to our former POWs, our missing, and their families, ... just as we are committed to those who wear the uniform today."

The POW/MIA flag is a symbol and a call to action, Dempsey said.

"For wherever our missing lie, wherever a prisoner waits, we will remain committed to freeing them," he said.

More families deserve closure, the chairman said. "More of those who've worn our nation's cloth deserve to come home," he added.

Dempsey said the department will not rest or "call our mission complete, until our family is whole again."

Note: In the above DoD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel greets former POWs following the ceremony on September 20, 2013.

More from The Anti-Che, Freedom Fighter And Patriot Felix Rodriguez,

Jay Nordlinger at National Review offers a follow-up to his piece on Cuban-American Felix Rodriguez, the CIA agent who helped hunt down Communist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

A couple of months ago, I went to visit Felix Rodriguez in his Miami home. In the August 5 issue of National Review, we published a piece: “The Anti-Che: Felix Rodriguez, freedom fighter and patriot.” (A blunt and true title.) We also published the piece online at https://www.nationalreview.com/nrd/articles/353799/anti-che

I would like to give you a few more notes about Rodriguez, supplementary to the piece. I think you’ll find them worth your while.

But first, I should answer a question that some will have: Who is Felix Rodriguez?

He is a Cuban-born American. Former CIA agent. Was infiltrated into Cuba before the Bay of Pigs. Got out some months after that disaster. Was assigned to Bolivia, to help that country’s forces hunt down Che Guevara. Got him. Rodriguez was the last person to talk to him, really. And an interesting conversation they had.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/358877/more-anti-che-jay-nordlinger?splash=

You can also read my Washington Times review of Hunting Che via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/6/book-review-hunting-che/?page=all 

Note: The above with Felix Rodriguez (on the left) and Che Guevara was provided by Felix Rodriguez.

Monsters Shall Always Be With Us: Charles Krauthammer On Guns, Mass Murderers, Mental Illness And Culture

  

After every tragic mass murder incident like the Washington Navy Yard shooting, the knee-jerk reaction of some politicians is to call for greater gun control. But they ignore the mental illness issue.

 

The problem is not the gun, but rather the madman who fires the gun. 

 

We need stronger civil commitment laws, in my view, not stronger gun control laws.  

 

Charles Krauthammer, who is a psychiatrist as well as an insightful and intelligent syndicated columnist, wrote a column in December of 2012 on guns, mass murderers and mental illness that bears reading again. 

 

WASHINGTON - Every mass shooting has three elements: the killer, the weapon and the cultural climate. As soon as the shooting stops, partisans immediately pick their preferred root cause with corresponding pet panacea. Names are hurled, scapegoats paraded, prejudices vented. The argument goes nowhere.

 

Let's be serious.

The weapon: Within hours of last week's Newtown, Conn., massacre, the focus was the weapon and the demand was for new gun laws.

I have no problem in principle with gun control. Congress enacted (and I supported) an assault weapons ban in 1994. The problem was: It didn't work. (So concluded a University of Pennsylvania study commissioned by the Justice Department.) The reason is simple. Unless you are prepared to confiscate all existing firearms, disarm the citizenry and repeal the Second Amendment, it's almost impossible to craft a law that will be effective.

A new assault weapons ban proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for example, would exempt 900 weapons. And that's the least of the loopholes. Even the guns that are banned can be made legal with simple, minor modifications.

Most fatal, however, is the grandfathering of existing weapons and magazines. That's one of the reasons the '94 law failed. At the time, there were 1.5 million assault weapons in circulation and 25 million large-capacity (i.e., more than 10 bullets) magazines. A reservoir that immense can take 100 years to draw down. 

The killer: Monsters shall always be with us, but in earlier days they did not roam free.

As a psychiatrist in Massachusetts in the 1970s, I committed people -- often right out of the emergency room -- as a danger to themselves or to others. I never did so lightly, but I labored under none of the bureaucratic and legal constraints that make involuntary commitment infinitely more difficult today.

Why do you think we have so many homeless? Poverty has declined since the 1950s. The majority of those sleeping on grates are mentally ill. In the name of civil liberties, we let them die with their rights on.

A tiny percentage of the mentally ill become mass killers. Just about everyone around Tucson shooter Jared Loughner sensed he was mentally ill and dangerous. But in effect, he had to kill before he could be put away -- and (forcibly) treated.

Random mass killings were three times more common in the 2000s than in the 1980s, when gun laws were actually weaker. Yet a 2011 University of California at Berkeley study found that states with strong civil commitment laws have about a one-third lower homicide rate.

You can read the rest of the column via the link to the Portland Press Herald  below:

http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/guns-mental-illness-and-culture-all-must-be-addressed_2012-12-21.html