In September, NATO and the ISAF launched a campaign to remove the Taliban from Panjwayi and Zhari districts, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. You never heard about it.

For the ten days from September 2 to September 12, 2006, Afghan and allied forces moved in a pincer movement to reoccupy the region and open Highway 1 to traffic again. You never heard about it.

At least 517 Taliban and other terrorists were killed. You never heard about it.

It was called Operation Medusa. The Canadians ran it, losing 15. You never heard about it.

The opinions that pundits and politicians alike are voicing about Iraq these days concern me.

Iraq has little history with democracy. For the most of the last two generations it was governed by a criminal gang that deliberately played upon the fears and loyalties of the Iraqi people to stay in power.

Fourteen million or so Iraqis voted to form the present government. They have voted on provincial and local governments as well. They appear to be convinced that a popularly elected government will work in their country.

The country is largely peaceful, with the violence centered around Baghdad and its surrounding provinces. The terrorists engaged in the violence have demonstrated the ability to create large numbers of dead and horrific images for the media to capture.

To deal with this violence, and to generally maintain law and order, over 300,000 Iraqis have volunteered to join the military or the police. Thousands of them have given their lives for their country, having become a focal point for terrorist murderers.

The United States and its Coalition allies have been engaged in training these brave men and women. In addition, we have assisted the Iraqi people themselves by renovating and building schools, hospitals, electrical systems and water and sewer projects.

Iraq has been a democracy for just over three years. In that time, the Iraqi people have achieved all of the successes mentioned and are working to create more. It has not been easy, but progress has been made.

Some Americans believe we should leave Iraq as soon as possible. They cite the on-going violence as proof that Iraq cannot become democratic and peaceful as long as we are there. Their view of history is narrow and centered on what seems to be a desperate need to justify their lack of moral courage.

Democracy is something that grows over time. A long time. America was free of British rule three years after the peace treaty was signed, but was far less democratic than we are today. In those early years, we, too, had revolt and rebellion, and a mere 85 years after our Declaration of Independence we fought a massive civil war.

France became a democracy not long after we did. In the many years that followed, they established two empires and five republics. Their struggle to stay a democracy and to become more democratic has been long and difficult.

India, the pearl of th British Empire, fought for its independence and democracy. Since 1949, they too have suffered terrorism and revolt, and until recently this nation was known most for its grinding poverty. It has taken them three or four generations to grow into what we see today.

Abandoning the Iraqi people would be cowardly and short sighted. Their democracy will not resemble ours for generations, and violence will not vanish in that country overnight.

Other pundits have called for more manpower to be sent to Iraq. President Bush has always said that personnel requirements and numbers were up to the generals in the region. That is the correct view.

One of the things that seems to have shocked pundits about our military is how few combat troops we have. The reality is that there are seven to ten support troops for every combat soldier. These are the men and women that have been asked to patrol and convoy. They are soldiers but their expertise is in other areas than the infantry.

An even smaller number of troops, combat and support, have training skills and experience.

The notion that we can put more troops in Iraq ignores the realities of our force structure. We don’t have any unused combat troops, and we don’t have any unused trainers.

Our current posture is to patrol where the Iraqis need our help, and to train their military and police to take our place. Training takes time. We are building a police force and a military for a democracy, which is very different than just building a police force and a military.

Ralph Peters argues in the New York Post that we have one of two choices in Iraq, to enforce peace or promote democracy.

Meanwhile, those of us who care about our country’s security and who worry about the futility haunting the Middle East need to face a tougher issue than yo-mama name-calling: Iraq has deteriorated so badly it’s hard to imagine a positive outcome unless we’re willing to take radical, politically difficult measures.

The administration and Congress have to face a fundamental question: Which result is more important - preserving Iraq as a unified state with a facade of democratic government, or protecting our own national-security interests?

Stanly Kurtz at The Corner echoes Peters.

Politically, we may need to pretend that Iraq’s democracy is still functioning. Today’s NR editorial on Iraq strikes the right note on all the military questions, then says what has to be said about Iraq’s government. But the fact that we’ve got to go after Sadr militarily reveals that democracy as we’ve conceived it up to now has been flawed. By failing to disarm independent militias prior to elections, we’ve allowed elected governments to be taken over by independent and undemocratic forces. This has also made it impossible to even begin the long-term process of cultural change that is the real key to successful democracy. Both Peters and NR’s editorial are saying “security first.” Democracy cannot be used, as we have tried to use it, as a tool to bring about the political bargains necessary to security. Democracy can only flourish in an atmosphere where security has already been assured.

I disagree. Security and democracy are not mutually exclusive goals. If democracy flows from security, then why is the Louisiana National Guard still patrolling New Orleans? Why have hundreds of people been shot this year in Rochester New York, and tens of thousands in our cities nationwide?

It takes only one terrorist to produce violence. It takes a nation full of citizens to produce democracy. Violence can happen in an instant. Democracy takes decades. I would posit that there has never been a secure nation that was free of violence. All the citizens of such a nation did was trade the possibility of random violence for the certainty of state sponsored violence.

Three years after their Liberation, Iraqis have voted nationally three times. Each time even greater numbers of citizens turned out. The same was not true at this point in Germany or Japan. The Iraqi people have shown that they want democracy and that they are willing to do what is necessary to grow that concept in their country. What they need from us is patience.

America is the richest, most free nation on the planet. We are there after two hundred thirty years of work. In that time there were rebellions, invasions, our capital was conquered and burned, we fought a horrific civil war, and much later than we should have, women and minorities were given the rights they deserved under our system of governance.

Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham will be awarded the Medal of Honor. My posts about this extraordinary young man are here.

CNN

President Bush announced on Friday that the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration, will be awarded posthumously to Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham.

In April 2004, Dunham was leading a patrol in an Iraqi town near the Syrian border when the patrol stopped a convoy of cars leaving the scene of an attack on a Marine convoy, according to military and media accounts of the action.

An occupant of one of the cars attacked Dunham and the two fought hand to hand. As they fought, Dunham yelled to fellow Marines, “No, no watch his hand.” The attacker then dropped a grenade and Dunham hurled himself on top of it, using his helmet to try to blunt the force of the blast.

Still, Dunham was critically wounded in the explosion and died eight days later at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

“As long as we have Marines like Corporal Dunham, America will never fear for her liberty,” Bush said Friday as he announced that Dunham would receive the award. Bush spoke at the dedication of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Virginia.

“His was a selfless act of courage to save his fellow Marines,” Sgt. Maj. Daniel A. Huff of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, was quoted as saying in Marine Corps News that April.

“He knew what he was doing,” Lance Cpl. Jason A. Sanders, 21, of McAllester, Oklahoma, who was in Dunham’s company, was quoted as saying by Marine Corps News. “He wanted to save Marines’ lives from that grenade.”

In various media accounts, fellow Marines told how Dunham had extended his enlistment shortly before he died so he could help his comrades. “We told him he was crazy for coming out here,” Lance Cpl. Mark E. Dean, 22, from Owasso, Oklahoma, said in Marine Corps News. “He decided to come out here and fight with us. All he wanted was to make sure his boys made it back home.”

“He loved his country, believed in his mission, and wanted to stay with his fellow Marines and see the job through,” Vice President Dick Cheney said when speaking of Dunham’s heroism at a Disabled American Veterans conference in July 2004.

The Scio, New York, native would have been 25 years old on Friday.

In a letter urging Bush to honor Dunham with the Medal of Honor, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, called the Marine’s actions “an act of unbelievable bravery and selflessness.”

Dunham’s story was told in the book “The Gift of Valor,” written by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Phillips.

Dunham will be the second American to receive the Medal of Honor from service in Iraq. Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith was the other, honored for action near Baghdad International Airport in April 2003, in which he killed as many as 50 enemy combatants while helping wounded comrades to safety. Smith was the only U.S. soldier killed in the battle.

White House

Today, At The Dedication Of The National Museum Of The Marine Corps, President Bush Announced He Will Award The Medal Of Honor (Posthumous) To Corporal Jason Dunham.

• On April 14, 2004, Corporal Dunham Heroically Saved The Lives Of Two Of His Fellow Marines By Jumping On A Grenade During An Ambush In The Town Of Karabilah. When a nearby Marine convoy was ambushed, Corporal Dunham led his squad to the site of the attack, where he and his men stopped a convoy of cars trying to make an escape. As he moved to search one of the vehicles, an insurgent jumped out and grabbed the corporal by the throat. The corporal engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. At one point, he shouted to his fellow Marines, "No. No. No. Watch his hand." Moments later, an enemy grenade rolled out and Corporal Dunham jumped on the grenade to protect his fellow Marines, using his helmet and body to absorb the blast. Corporal Dunham succumbed to his wounds on April 22, 2004.

• Today Would Have Been Corporal Dunham’s 25th Birthday. Corporal Dunham was a native of Scio, New York.

The Medal Of Honor Is America’s Highest Decoration For Valor. The Medal of Honor, established by Joint Resolution of Congress, is awarded in the name of Congress to a person who, while a member of the Armed Forces, distinguishes himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against any enemy of the United States, while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force, or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party. Corporal Dunham’s family will be presented the medal at an upcoming ceremony at the White House.

TERRORIST DEATH WATCH

Here’s a good way to determine which party governs each of the top 25 least safe cities in the United States. You might want to remember this in the voting booth.

Maryland Governor’s race - write-in Simmins / Hargadon

Simmins / Hargadon

The top ten sources of pollution of the bay will be ranked according to their impact on the environment and the cost of clean-up. The results will be presented to the voters of the State of Maryland who will vote on three sources of pollution to remedy. Each time a source of pollution has been eliminated, the process will continue. This way the voters of Maryland get to choose what is important to them on the environment and how much they are willing to pay to fix it.

Human embryos are human beings. “Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo” (CRF 4b).

Recent scientific advances show that medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells can often be developed by using adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus there is no valid medical argument in favor of using embryonic stem cells. And even if there were benefits to be had from such experiments, they would not justify destroying innocent embryonic humans.

Endorsed by Paul Buede

Maryland Governor’s race - write-in Simmins / Hargadon

At 52, Howard, who had gray hair and an infectious smile, became the oldest known American woman to die in combat.

The fact that she was even here, serving as a gunner on a Humvee, shows the drain that two wars have put on an all-volunteer military. She was the new face of the military’s civil affairs units, which do reconstruction and relief work. Constant deployments have tapped out the regular Army Reservists who most often filled those jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Howard never had been deployed before, not since joining the Reserves on a whim in 1988. After her medical unit was disbanded in 1996, she was assigned to the Individual Ready Reserves, for soldiers without a unit. She still went to monthly drills but mainly handled paperwork, biding her time, putting in her 20 years before earning retirement benefits.

But as a stopgap–and in a first for the U.S. military–provincial reconstruction teams in Afghanistan were being filled by a mix of Navy, Air Force, Army, National Guard and Reserve soldiers. And many in the Reserves were like Howard, in the Individual Ready Reserves, home also to retired soldiers who had recently left the Army. A few regular reservists, such as Paul, volunteered for civil affairs. The rest, such as Howard, were called up last December.

“We were a little surprised,” said Master Sgt. Robyn Fees, 50, who became a close friend of Howard’s after the two were called up. “We didn’t even know what `civil affairs’ was, to be honest with you.”

Howard was a no-frills woman, more comfortable pounding a hammer than wearing a dress, those who served with her said. In Afghanistan, she often visited the base area known as Home Depot, where the wood was stored, and built herself a rudimentary armoire and a side table. Her hammer still sits in her room on base. An unfinished picture frame, made from Afghan carved wood she bought at a local bazaar, waits on her desk.

She was used to challenges. Born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, Howard wanted to be a firefighter, but her hometown did not hire women. So in 1978 she joined the department in Bryan, Texas, as its first female firefighter. She later became a fire risk-management specialist with insurance companies, eventually helping set up a consulting company in California.

In 1991, Howard started dating Hugh Hvolboll, who made fireworks for a living. “You set them off, and I’ll decide how much damage they cause,” Howard would joke. In 2004 the couple moved to Waukesha for his job. They never felt the need to get married, not until she was called up in December. Slightly nervous, Howard wanted to make their relationship official.

“As a boyfriend, I would have no status with the Army,” Hvolboll said. “As a husband, I did.”

In late April, the nine members of Howard’s civil affairs team arrived at the Mehtarlam base in eastern Laghman province. They formed the core of the provincial reconstruction team. [snip]

Howard’s death makes her the oldest U.S. servicewoman known to have died in combat, said Judy Bellafaire, chief historian at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation near Arlington National Cemetery. A 52-year-old nurse died in Vietnam, but from a stroke, she said. Even so, there still was some uncertainty. Records for World War II and earlier conflicts often omit ages.

On missions in Afghanistan, Paul was the driver and Howard was the gunner, standing on the box to make up for her height, about 5-foot-4. For Afghans in this conservative tribal area, where most women wear burqas that cover everything, it must have been a bizarre sight: a gray-haired woman in a helmet on top of a Humvee.

“THAT’S WHY SGT. HOWARD LOVED THE TURRET,” SAID AIR FORCE SENIOR AIRMAN BRENDA PATTERSON, 26. “SHE WANTED TO GIVE LITTLE GIRLS DREAMS OF THEIR OWN.”

The supply run to Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, happened every month or two. On this trip, the soldiers picked up mail, ammunition, supplies and three new Humvees, with adjustable platforms for the gunner.

Bryan-College Station Eagle

Sgt. 1st Class Merideth Howard died as she had lived her life: serving others. From her time as a Bryan firefighter right out of college - Texas A&M University, of course - to her time with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, Howard lived to make life safer and better for the rest of us.

Hers also was a life of firsts: member of the first women’s tennis team at A&M and Bryan’s first female firefighter. She entered the record books for a much sadder reason on Friday, becoming the oldest female soldier killed in combat in the War on Terror. She was killed in Kabul when a suicide car bomber blew himself up next to the Humvee in which she was riding. She was 52.

The Corpus Christi native was actually the second woman to complete the rigorous and demanding eight-week firefighter recruit training session at A&M’s Brayton Fire School, but the first to join the Bryan department. She was tough - she had to be as the first woman in a traditionally all-male job - but she quickly won the respect and admiration of her peers. She worked with others in the department to develop a way to recharge the department’s respiration tanks on site. And, showing her compassion for others, Howard helped start a car wash to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association and “Jerry’s kids.”

Her eagerness to help others led Howard at the age of 34 to join the U.S. Army Reserve as a medical equipment repairer in 1988. Her unit was called to active duty last fall and was deployed to Afghanistan in April. There, Howard and her comrades helped rebuild roads and schools and other infrastructure needed to help that devastated nation move into the 21st century.

Houston Chronicle

“She joined the Army because she thought it was something she should do,” said David White, Howard’s instructor at the Brayton Fire School. “She was just one of those people who inspires you.”

Howard, a Corpus Christi native, graduated with a master’s in marine resource management from Texas A&M University in 1978. She joined the Bryan Fire Department that year, working at Fire Station 1 as an engine driver for about 3 1/2 years.

Initially, some were apprehensive about her. But she fit in within a short amount of time. She helped set up an onsite air system allowing the department to fill its own respiration tanks, said Bryan Fire Department Chief Mike Donoho.

“By doing a good job and gaining respect, it gave everyone else a better chance. They had an easier road ahead of them because of what she established,” Donoho told the Bryan-College Station Eagle.

Average Poverty Rate - First Five Years of an Administration:
Reagan: 14.5%
Clinton: 14.1%
Bush 43: 12.3%

The mean income for all Americans rose in 2005 for the first time since 2000. The median income for all Americans rose in 2005 for the first time since 1999.

In 1981, 29.8% of Americans earned under $25,000 per year. In 2005, that percentage was 24.8%. In 1981, 39.6% of Americans earned over $50,000 per year. In 2005, that increased to 49%.

The right-o-sphere has been agog about Oliver Stone’s new movie, World Trade Center. From all reports, it’s not a hatchet job.

There is a pair of Marines featured in a part of the movie. Their names are now known, though one had been a mystery. That’s nice. God bless them!

But I wrote about another military hero from Ground Zero on October 9, 2003.

U.S. Army

Chief of the Army Reserve Lt. Gen. James Helmly pinned Chovanes with the Soldier’s Medal for his deeds that fateful September day during a Pentagon ceremony Dec. 1.

“Once again, we see heroes rise to the occasion,” Helmly said, explaining the meaning of the medal to 22 family members who came to watch the ceremony. It’s the highest award a soldier can get for putting his life on the line to save someone else in a non-combat situation, he said.

“That’s what John did, he placed his life at risk to stay with his patient. I tell you, this speaks volumes of the courage and steadfastness of the Army Medical Corps,” Helmly said.

The rescued officer was John McLoughlin, played by Nicholas Cage in the movie.

Captain John Chovanes

Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, Chief, Army Reserve, will present the Soldier’s Medal, the highest peacetime award for heroism, to Captain John Chovanes, an Army Reservist with the Army Medical Corps. The ceremony will be held today, 1 December 2003, at the Pentagon in Room 2B548 at 2 pm.

In the aftermath of the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001, Captain Chovanes at risk to his own life, voluntarily rendered medical aid, and assisted in the rescue of a New York Port Authority officer. The officer was buried well below the surface of the collapsed buildings. Rescue efforts involved slowly digging free the buried officer due to debris being above and around the rescue site. Captain Chovanes administered lifesaving medical treatment throughout the night to the buried officer, under the constant risk that the overhead debris, including girders, and masonry, would collapse on him, the buried officer and the rescuers. The officer was freed on the morning of 12 September 2001.

Health State

Where were you on the morning of September 11, 2001? It’s a question people will ask each other over the years to come. Everyone remembers exactly where they were on days when history is made.

The morning of September 11, John Chovanes, DO, of Narberth, PA, was packing his car, getting ready to go on vacation, when a friend called to tell him a jetliner had crashed into the World Trade Center. Chovanes is a second-year resident in emergency medicine at UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine (SOM). He’s also a former paramedic. “Something told me to throw my rescue gear into the trunk, too,” he recalls.

On the road, he almost turned off at Allentown, PA, where one of his brothers lives. But on the car radio, he heard New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeal for medical personnel to come immediately to the site and help. Chovanes didn’t hesitate. “I wasn’t about to sit and watch CNN when there’s a disaster happening,” says the physician. He headed straight for New York City. [snip]

Here and there, amid the horror and destruction, are a few bright spots: the stories of a small number of survivors and the heroes who saved them. One of those heroes was John Chovanes. He arrived at the Holland Tunnel late that morning, so unfamiliar with the area that he’d had to buy a New York road map at a New Jersey rest stop. After identifying himself to police as a physician, he was waved through the tunnel and directed to an aid station near ground zero. Full-scale rescue efforts were underway, and the scene was chaos. Massive piles of rubble and twisted metal were everywhere, and the air was filled with smoke and fire.

Chovanes was not out of place at a disaster site. As a teenager, he’d lied about his age, claiming to be 16 when he was only 13 so he could join a volunteer ambulance company. He’d been an emergency room nurse and then head of a helicopter medical evacuation crew in northern Pennsylvania before going to medical school.

At first, there wasn’t much for him to do. True to his paramedic roots, he listened in on the conversations coming over the emergency workers’ radios. At 7:00 p.m., he heard that two Port Authority officers had been found alive, buried in the rubble. One had been freed, but the other would have to be dug out. Chovanes was asked if he could help. As he began assembling medical supplies, he realized he did not have enough morphine to treat a trauma patient.

“I saw a line of guys marching into the rubble like ants,” Chovanes says. “So I got in line with them, and we went into a huge crater.” A police officer pointed to the mouth of a tunnel where the officer was trapped. Looking at the piles of broken concrete underfoot, he suddenly spotted three boxes of morphine. “To find the one thing I desperately needed was incredible,” he says. “It was a good omen.”

Inside the tunnel, there was barely enough room to move. He and rescue workers crawled along a fallen girder to reach the officer, who was pinned face-down and buried up to his arms. All night long, Chovanes and a NYPD paramedic crawled in and out of the hole, administering intravenous fluids, anti-nausea and pain medication, and oxygen to the trapped officer, who had severe crushing injuries to both legs.

At one point, there seemed a very real chance that he would have to amputate the officer’s lower legs to get him out of the wreckage. “He said he had four kids, and begged me not to,” said Chovanes, who had even obtained a battery-powered saw, but hoped he wouldn’t have to use it.

At 7 a.m., nearly 12 hours later, the rescue efforts began to yield results. A cheer went up when diggers called for “spoons,” the smallest shovels used for rescues. A half hour later, the seriously wounded officer was pulled from the wreckage and transported to New York’s Bellevue Hospital.

Dr. Chovanes pictures from that day are here.

It’s not a Presidential election year, so the missed votes in Congress aren’t as bad as they might be. But the Washington Post has a nice database on our employees, the United States Congress, and among much information are the votes missed in this Congress.

Here are the ten worst, cheating you and me out of our hard earned money paid in taxes:

1. Lane Evans, IL-17, Dem, 38.7%
2. Jim Davis, FL-11, Dem, 23.2%
3. Ernest Istook, OK-5, Rep, 15.8%
4. Donald Payne, NJ-10, Dem, 15.3%
5. Ted Strickland, OH-6, Dem, 15.0%
6. Harold Ford, TN-9, Dem, 14.9%
7. Luis Gutiérrez, IL-4, Dem, 14.8%
8. John Sweeney, NY-20, Rep, 14.2%
9. Juanita Millender-McDonald, CA-37, Dem, 13.4%
10. Leonard Boswell, IA-3, Dem, 13.3%

This is a list of thieves, a Hall of Shame. These folks took your tax dollars and did not show up for work.

CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE have a scorecard for pork providers. Curious as to how these ten losers ranked as pork providers? The lower the number the bigger the porker.

1. Lane Evans, IL-17, Dem, 6%
2. Jim Davis, FL-11, Dem, 7%
3. Ernest Istook, OK-5, Rep, 81%
4. Donald Payne, NJ-10, Dem, 6%
5. Ted Strickland, OH-6, Dem, 9%
6. Harold Ford, TN-9, Dem, 15%
7. Luis Gutiérrez, IL-4, Dem, 9%
8. John Sweeney, NY-20, Rep, 71%
9. Juanita Millender-McDonald, CA-37, Dem, 10%
10. Leonard Boswell, IA-3, Dem, 8%

Curiously, of the ten Congressmen/women who missed the most votes in Congress, only two bothered to vote in favor of the taxpayers, their bosses, a majority of the time they bothered to vote. The other eight were among the lowest ranked members of Congress.

Layne Evans has been ill this year, dying of Parkinson’s Disease. He is supposed to be retiring at the end of this term. A court is appointing a guardian for him, which suggests that he should have retired long since.

Jim Davis is running for Governor of Florida, on the taxpayers’ dime. Instead of serving in Congress, he’s home, politicking for yet another taxpayer financed office. He should be turned down by the voters.

Istook is doing the same thing in his home state of Oklahoma. He’s running for Governor while being paid as a Congressman. Do the people of Oklahoma really want their pockets picked like this?

Ted Strickland is also running for Governor, in Ohio, while sucking down the gravy as a Congressman. Doing his job appears to be a low priority with him.

Harold Ford is running for the Senate in Tennessee, while serving poorly as one of its Congressmen. His relatives and their attraction to the wrong side of law enforcement combine with his poor work ethic to make him an unattractive choice for the Volunteer State.

Does it make you angry to see Congressmen dodging their duties, and when they make it to a vote, voting to hurt you, their boss? It makes me angry. How about reversing the norm, and sending a bunch of these losers home instead of re-electing them or sending them to another taxpayer funded office? If all ten of these folks were returned to private life, it would be a good start at cleaning up Congress.

Using the following biographies:
Fox News
B.E.R.G. Associates
No Quarter

1. 1976: B.S. degree in Sociology, graduating CumLaude and Phi Beta Kappa, University of Missouri
2. 1978: M.S. degree in Community Development, University of Missouri
3. 1979-1983: American University’s School of International Service, teaching and working towards a Ph.D. in political science
4. 1985 through September 1989: employed by Central Intelligence Agency, paramilitary training, served in both Directorates of Operations and Intelligence, in 1989 received two Exceptional Performance Awards
5. 1989 until October 1993: U.S. State Department - employed as Deputy Director - Office of Counter Terrorism
6. 1996: U.S. representative, OSCE Terrorism Conference in Vienna, Austria [A search of the OSCE site reveals 137 documents from 1996. None of them mention a conference on Terrorism in July in Vienna.}
7. Current: principal in B.E.R.G. Associates, helping businesses protect themselves against fraud, product counterfeiting, contraband, or criminal subversion. The other two principals are ex-DEA.

The Fox News bio contains this item:

Mr. Johnson also supervised the multi-million dollar U.S. Anti-Terrorism Assistance Training Program, which provided training to more than 15,000 security officials from over 70 nations.

The web site for the program suggests that he was but a clog in the wheel.

During the early 1980s following several serious terrorist incidents throughout the world, it became evident that in countries where such incidents had occurred, many local police and security forces lacked the necessary expertise and equipment to deter and respond in an effective manner. Therefore in 1983, the U.S. Congress authorized the establishment of a special program designed to enhance the antiterrorism skills of friendly countries by providing training and equipment necessary to deter and counter terrorist threats.

Congress established the Antiterrorism Assistance Program under an amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which provides its legislative mandate and assigns responsibility for its administration to the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS).

Perhaps Fox got the blurb incorrect? Because Larry didn’t work for Diplomatic Security. And the numbers quoted are over quite a period of time. The program’s web site currently states 25,000 trained, 2,741 in the year 2000. Unlikely that he was involved in training 15,000.

I cannot find any sign on the Net, other than from Larry, that OSCE had a terrorism conference in Vienna in July of 1996. It may just not be on the Net, though I will note that OSCE posts 137 documents from that year, including about a half dozen from July. His name does not appear in a Net search of the Department of State site, while even Joe Wilson does.

Who is Larry C. Johnson and why should anyone believe him? He had a modest career in government, and little or no public record afterwards. He maintains he is an expert in terrorism, and in intelligence matters, without any proof but jobs two decades past.

One more little niggle: The State Department Office of Counter-Terrorism is headed by a coordinator, not a director.

The predecessor organization to S/CT was the Office for Combatting Terrorism, created in 1972 upon the recommendation of a special committee appointed by President Richard Nixon following the Munich Olympics terrorist attack. The committee determined that an office was needed within the Department of State to provide day-to-day counterterrorism coordination and to develop policy initiatives and responses for the U.S. Government. The Office for Combatting Terrorism became the Office of the Ambassador-at-Large for Counterterrorism in 1985, and the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism in 1989.

In 1994, Congress officially mandated the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism in Public Law 103-236 [H.R. 2333]. In 1998, Congress further defined the role of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism in Public Law 105-277 [H.R. 4328]:

There is within the office of the Secretary of State a Coordinator for Counterterrorism…who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate…. The principal duty of the coordinator shall be the overall supervision (including policy oversight of resources) of international counterterrorism activities. The Coordinator shall be the principal adviser to the Secretary of State on international counterterrorism matters. The coordinator shall be the principal counterterrorism official within the senior management of the Department of State and shall report directly to the Secretary of State…The Coordinator shall have the rank and status of Ambassador at Large.

The Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism (S/CT) is led by Ambassador-at-Large Henry A. Crumpton. He is supported by Frank Urbancic, Principal Deputy Coordinator, and four Deputy Coordinators, each of whom leads a functional directorate. The Deputy Coordinators and their directorates are: Susan Burk/Homeland Security; Gerald Feierstein/Programs, Plans, Press and Public Diplomacy; Thomas Hastings/Operations; and Virginia Palmer/Regional and Trans-Regional Affairs.

Notice? No Deputy Directors.

Larry C. Johnson, darling of the left and self-proclaimed expert on terrorism and intelligence matters testified before Congress a few years ago. You will be startled at what he said.

House of Representatives - March 11, 2003 [PDF]

Nonetheless some countries continue to bankroll terrorists—principally Iran, Syria, and Iraq. We think it is important to highlight the fact that Iraq continues to provide financial support, safe haven, training, or weapons and explosives to groups or individuals that carry out terrorist attacks. While the links to Al Qaeda may be tenuous, there is incontrovertible evidence of Iraqi support for Palestinian terrorist groups. From 1991 thru 2001 there were 4143 international terrorist attacks throughout the world. Saddam Hussein and his regime were implicated in at least 73 of these incidents, which accounted for fewer that two hundred fatalities. According to Central Intelligence Agency data, there is no credible evidence implicating Iraq directly in any mass casualty terrorist attacks since 1991. As reported in Patterns of Global Terrorism 2000, Saddam Hussein’s regime “has not attempted an anti-Western terrorist attack since its failed plot to assassinate former President Bush in 1993. However, Iraq continued to aggressively target and attack anti-regime opponents and UN personnel working in Iraq.”

Iraq has directed most of its support for terrorism to groups that have attacked Iran and Israel. The United States Government accuses Iraq of providing sanctuary and/or assistance to several groups which include:
• Arab Liberation Front
• Palestine Liberation Front (PLF & Abu Abbas)
• Abu Nidal (ANO)
• 15 May (Abu Ibrahim)

The Arab Liberation Front (ALF) is part of the PLO. The ALF, like the other factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization, left Lebanon in a US-brokered deal after Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Many ALF combatants ended up in Baghdad. The ALF continues to funnel money to Palestinians who carry out terrorist attacks against Israel.

The Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) split with the PFLP-GC in the mid-1970s. It subsequently split again, according to the U.S. State Department, into pro-PLO, pro-Syrian, and pro-Libyan factions. The pro-PLO faction, led by Muhammad Abbas (Abu Abbas), established a presence in Baghdad. Abbas’s group was responsible for the October 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship. The PLF also launched a failed 1990 seaborne raid against Israel. This group continues to focus its wrath on Israel. During 2002 Israel recovered documents and arrested PLF members who testified that had received military training for terrorist operations in Iraq.

Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) was one of the most active and deadly terrorist groups in the 1970s and 1980s. Its leader, Sabri Al-Banna masterminded attacks that included the December 1985 Rome and Vienna airport massacres, the September 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73, and the July 1988 assault on the City of Poros day-excursion ship. During the 1990s ANO dramatically scaled back its activities and was implicated in only two terrorist attacks, with the last one occurring in 1995. Al-Banna disappeared from public view after seeking refuge in Baghdad in 1998, but resurfaced in August 2002 with the news that he shot himself several times in a successful “suicide” attempt while resisting Iraqi agents who were trying to arrest him.

The 15 May Organization, led by Muhammad al-Umari (aka Abu Ibrahim), was formed in 1979 and disbanded in the mid-1980s. 15 May was implicated in the 1981 bombings of El Al’s Rome and Istanbul, the August 1982 bombing of a Pan Am flight from Tokyo to Honolulu, and attacks against the Israeli Embassies in Athens and Vienna. It has not been linked to terrorist attacks since 1984. Abu Ibrahim reportedly still lives in Iraq.

Israel has been the major target of Iraqi sponsored terrorism. Iraq’s funding and training of members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -General Command (PFLP-GC) and the PLF now is beyond dispute. Documents seized by Israel in raids against Palestinian Authority offices in the West Bank during 2002 detail Iraq’s funding of Palestinian terrorism. Israeli officials provided CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Leslie Stahl documents in September showing that Saddam’s closest deputy, Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan, personally signed checks made out to Palestinian terrorist leaders who had organized suicide-bombing attacks. The captured documents included ledgers of “martyrs” who carried out suicide operations against Israel, showing how much and when each was paid and the number of the check. It included internal memoranda, computer disks, hard drives, videotapes and bank statements.

Oh, and he suggested that financial transactions be monitored by the Federal government.

Indeed, the PATRIOT ACT, enacted just a few months later modified the law (section 1960 of Title 18 US Code) making it a more important and effective tool for use in the prosecution of “unlicensed money remitters”. We would like to applaud the actions of the committee in moving that legislative amendment forward and making the law a more effective tool to combat international organized crime and terrorism. Likewise, we would like to applaud the efforts of the various federal law enforcement agencies, which have aggressively investigated and penetrated these “hawalas” and “black market financial systems” over the past 18 months. You should know that our work as a government contractor brings us into close personal contact with federal investigations from a variety of federal agencies and we can personally assure the committee that good use is being made of Title III of the PATRIOT ACT. Important investigations are being conducted and significant advances in the war against organized crime and international terrorism are being made using the recommendations made within these chambers on section 1960 of Title 18 US Code.

RECOMMENDATION:
The federal government should immediately conduct a review of the “cash letter” money laundering connection in money center banks and large correspondent banks and propose rules that would require those correspondent banks to monitor cash letter transactions for suspicious activity.

A vigorous monitoring program would identify and stop payment on suspicious instruments, thereby taking the profit out of the activity and making it difficult for suspect money to move through the system. Additionally, it would identify those overseas banks who are the most egregious offenders and put them on notice that they need to cease and desist their activities. If necessary and warranted, repeat offenders could be fined, sanctioned or lose their ability to bank through the United States.

Yet again, the media and the Democrats are using an “apples and oranges” argument to advance their false thesis that job growth is weak under President Bush.

BLS

The number of Americans with jobs rose in June from 143,976,000 to 144,363,000, an increase of 387,000 people. The number of people unemployed fell by 58,000 and the number of people not in the labor force fell by 87,000. That hardly appears weak or sluggish.

I’ve seen comparisons with the Clinton “robust” jobs growth. The graph below illustrates the growth for both Clinton and Bush for each of the years of their Presidency.

Note that Bush year six is only half over. We can reasonably expect a final number much higher than that displayed. Bush year one is, of course, the Clinton recession and the effects of the murders on September 11.

Note that Clinton did not add employment in any manner that could be described as robust, at least if your definition of “robust” includes steady growth or even maintaining existing growth. Bush has exceeded Clinton’s job growth two of the first five years of their administrations and is poised to do so for this year as well.

Let’s compare unemployment rates. Here is a graph showing the comparative averages for both Presidents, term year by year.

Would the term “virtually identical” be appropriate?

The facts are that job growth and unemployment have been at least as good under George Bush as they were under Bill Clinton. Job growth has trended upward for all six years of the Bush administration but it was not the case under Clinton. In fact, the trend was the opposite.

And… let us not forget that Bill Clinton was our first “black” President. Here is the term over term comparison for average yearly black unemployment.

It looks like the Bush record is “virtually identical” to the Clinton record.

The only way the media and the Democrats can spin these facts is by distorting them. The Bush economy is every bit as healthy as the Clinton economy, if not more so.