Happy Memorial Day ...

Teach your children well. Teach them about the sacrifices brave American's made to keep our nation free. Sit down with them and talk to them about The Battle at Yorktown, Gettysburg and Mount Suribachi.

Impress on them how many lives were saved (and lost) fighting both World Wars and in the War Against Terror. Impress on them that War is a terrible thing but sometimes to preserve freedom have to be fought.

Remind them that the young men and women who gave their lives were not much older than them - but also celebrate the heroes such as Audie Murphy and Chris Kyle.

Educate them about the Tuskegee Airmen and Seal Team Six.

Show them that war is not something that needs to be glorified but something to be avoided at almost all costs - the exception being freedom.

Tell them we should always fight for freedom.

God wants us to be free. He endowed us with free agency and we should rail against those who try and take that away from us.

For those who are against freedom - for the exploitation of others - be it the enslavement of their hearts minds or bodies, be it the suppression of expression, be it in the name of a race, sex, country or religion are enemies of us all and enemies of God.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day and take time to thank HIM for the brave and the lost, for those who gave some and those who gave all

RAF intercepts aircraft after terroristic threats

BLOOMBERG: Royal Air Force fighters intercepted a U.K.-bound Pakistan International Airlines Corp. (PIAA)jet and diverted it to London Stansted, the country’s designated counter-terrorism airport, where two people were arrested.

Flight PK709 from Lahore was due to land in Manchester, northern England, at 1:30 p.m. local time with 297 people on board, Manchester Airports Group spokesman John Greenway said. PIA said air traffic controllers ordered a diversion after being contacted by the jet’s pilots when the men quarreled with crew.

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of endangerment of an aircraft,” police in Essex, where Stansted is located, said, adding that the incident is being dealt with as a “criminal offence.” The pair, British nationals aged 30 and 41, were removed under armed escort and will be interviewed by detectives, Superintendent Darrin Tomkins told reporters.

The episode comes with Britain on high alert, two days after a soldier died in an attack near an army base in London. Lee Rigby, a drummer in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was killed by two knife-wielding men yelling the Islamic incantation “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” according to the BBC. They were subsequently shot by police and arrested.

Two Eurofighter Typhoons were scrambled from RAF Coningsby in eastern England to intercept the airliner, a Boeing Co. (BA) 777, and escort it to Stansted, 35 miles north of London, where it touched down at 2:15 p.m. The warplanes then returned to base.

“The crew and the rest of the passengers are safe,” Pakistan International said in a statement in Karachi. The flight will proceed to Manchester once the plane, those on board and their baggage have undergone security checks, it added.

An initial search of the Boeing found no suspicious items, Tomkins said, and the plane will undergo a more detailed forensic examination. Passengers will be debriefed at the Stansted terminal, he said.

Attack in london now classified as terror attack.

THE GUARDIAN: Dramatic footage has emerged of the suspected terrorist attack near the London barracks that left one man dead, showing a suspect with blood-covered hands using jihadist rhetoric to justify the violence.

On Wednesday night the prime minister, David Cameron, vowed that Britain will "never buckle" in the face of terrorist incidents, and condemned the "absolutely sickening" killing in Woolwich.

As the government's emergency committee Cobra convened in central London to assess the implications of the incident, ITV News broadcast footage of one of the alleged attackers.

Brandishing a cleaver and a knife, and with the body of the victim lying yards away, the man said: "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day. This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

"We must fight them. I apologise that women had to witness this today.

Police at the scene in Woolwich, south London, where a man was killed and two others were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds following a 'serious incident'. BBC screengrab

It is believed the person died after suffering knife injuries, possibly around the head area.

Two people have been taken to hospital after they were shot by armed police.

There were reports that the man who was fatally attacked was wearing a Help for Heroes T-shirt.

The Woolwich and Greenwich MP, Nick Raynsford, said it was his understanding that one person, a serving soldier, was dead but there was no immediate confirmation of this from the Ministry of Defence.

The prime minister said: "Tonight, our thoughts should be with the victim, with their family, with their friends."

"People across Britain, people in every community, I believe, will utterly condemn this attack.

"We have had these sorts of attacks before in our country and we never buckle in the face of them."

Cameron was speaking at a Paris press conference with French president Francois Hollande but confirmed he would cut short the visit to return to the UK tonight to chair a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency committee in the morning.

Chiefs at the Woolwich barracks were understood to be trying to account for military personnel, amid reports the dead person may have been connected to the military. The incident happened 300-400 metres from the perimeter of the barracks.

The barracks is home to the Princess of Wales regiment and the Kings Troop, which is a ceremonial unit, that relocated to Woolwich last year.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating the shooting by police, which is standard in cases where officers open fire.

In a statement the IPCC said it had "been made aware by Metropolitan Police Service of an incident in Woolwich, south London. IPCC investigators have been deployed to the scene and to the post-incident process. The IPCC has declared this as an independent investigation."

Earlier Raynsford said: "The incident occurred early afternoon. One individual is dead, two others are seriously injured and in hospital.

"We think a serving soldier was the victim. We don't know the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Gotta reads: "The Permit" - By Bill Scott

The best way to get the truth out is sometimes through thinly veiled fiction:

A Department of Homeland Security intelligence team has identified a new, incredibly dangerous terrorist cabal. It’s the most grave domestic threat to national security the U.S. has faced since nine-eleven. In the past decade, it has killed more Americans than al Qaeda murdered on nine-eleven.

These terrorists are deeply entrenched in our society. They look like us, talk like us, live in our neighborhoods and, for the most part, pass for respected citizens. But they are killing Americans throughout this great country—and becoming more powerful every day.
Their code name is INDIGO.

Checkmate, a covert counterterrorism squad, has the advanced-technology weapons and agents to neutralize INDIGO, but very little time to do so. If Checkmate fails, America will erupt in armed rebellion. 

"The Permit" is based on actual events associated with the murder of my son, Erik B. Scott, on July 10, 2010. A decorated Army officer and West Point graduate with an MBA from Duke University, Erik was the epitome of success. This video describes how Erik fell victim to a perfect storm of fear, arrogance and a trigger-happy fool. The subsequent cover-up of his murder defies belief—but it happened." 

click here to buy "The Permit" 

Was Bin Laden ever buried at sea? No photos exist.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Enemy No 1: Internal emails released by the Defense Department show that no U.S. sailors witnessed Osama bin Laden's burial at sea aboard USS Carl Vinson

Internal emails among U.S. military officers indicate that no American sailors watched Osama bin Laden's burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson, and traditional Islamic procedures were followed during the secret ceremony.

The emails, obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, are heavily blacked out, but are the first public disclosure of government information about the al-Qaida leader's death. The emails were released Wednesday by the Defense Department.

Bin Laden was killed on May 1, 2011, by a Navy SEAL team that assaulted his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

One email stamped secret and sent on May 2 by a senior Navy officer briefly describes how bin Laden's body was washed, wrapped in a white sheet, and then placed in a weighted bag.

According to another message from the Vinson's public affairs officer, only a small group of the ship's leadership was informed of the burial.

‘Traditional procedures for Islamic burial was followed,’ the May 2 email from Rear Adm. Charles Gaouette reads. ‘The deceased's body was washed (ablution) then placed in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag.

‘A military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. After the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat board, tipped up, whereupon the deceased's body slid into the sea.’

Final destination: Bin Laden's body was taken to an unknown location aboard USS Carl Vinson and dropped into the sea, but the Defense Department says that it cannot find any images showing the terrorist mastermind's remains on the ship

Fallen mastermind: In this undated file image from video seized from bin Laden's walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the al Qaeda leader watches TV

Stronghold: Members of the anti-terrorism squad are seen surrounding the compound where bin Laden was killed by Navy SEAL Team 6 in Abbottabad May 4, 2011

The email also included a cryptic reference to the intense secrecy surrounding the mission.

‘The paucity of documentary evidence in our possession is a reflection of the emphasis placed on operational security during the execution of this phase of the operation,’ Gaouette's message reads. 

Long-awaited news: U.S. President Barack Obama is pictured after announcing live on television the death of Osama bin Laden from the East Room of the White House in Washington May 1, 2011

Recipients of the email included Adm. Mike Mullen, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. James Mattis, the top officer at U.S. Central Command. Mullen retired from the military in September 2011.

Earlier, Gaouette, then the deputy commander of the Navy's Fifth Fleet, and another officer used code words to discuss whether the helicopters carrying the SEALs and bin Laden's body had arrived on the Vinson.

‘Any news on the package for us?’ he asked Rear Adm. Samuel Perez, commander of the carrier strike group that included the Vinson.

‘FEDEX delivered the package,’ Perez responded. ‘Both trucks are safely enroute home base.’

Although the Obama administration has pledged to be the most transparent in American history, it is keeping a tight hold on materials related to the bin Laden raid. 

In a response to separate requests from the AP for information about the mission, the Defense Department said in March that it could not locate any photographs or video taken during the raid or showing bin Laden's body. It also said it could not find any images of bin Laden's body on the Vinson.

The Pentagon also said it could not find any death certificate, autopsy report or results of DNA identification tests for bin Laden, or any pre-raid materials discussing how the government planned to dispose of bin Laden's body if he were killed.

Historic moment: In this May 1, 2011, image, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden receive an update on the bin Laden mission in the Situation Room

The Defense Department also refused to confirm or deny the existence of helicopter maintenance logs and reports about the performance of military gear used in the raid. 

One of the stealth helicopters that carried the SEALs to Abbottabad crashed during the mission and its wreckage was left behind. People who lived near bin Laden's compound took photos of the disabled chopper.

The CIA, which ran the bin Laden raid and has special legal authority to keep information from ever being made public, has not responded to AP's request for records about the mission.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2236617/Revealed-Military-emails-NO-U-S-sailors-witnessed-Osama-bin-Ladens-secret-burial-sea.html#ixzz2TMgjCbuv
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Turkish jet missing

CNN) -- The Turkish military said it lost communications Monday with one of its jets flying over southern Turkey.

Officials have "received information that the plane crashed" in the southern province of Osmaniye near Yarpuz, the Osmaniye governor said, according to the semi-official Turkish news agency Anadolu. Yarpuz is about 35 kilometers (22 miles) northwest of the Syrian border,

The pilot sent the message "I'm jumping" shortly before the military lost contact with the jet at about 2:15 p.m., the military said.

Search efforts were under way, the military said.

Space Oddity - sung from Space

STRATCOM commander strips missileers of their launch keys.

An Air Force commander has temporarily stripped 17 officers of their authority to control and launch nuclear-armed Minuteman III missiles after he found their performance lacking during a recent inspection. The unprecedented move highlights the Air Force’s continuing effort to make up for missteps involving its nuclear weapons arsenal that came to light in 2008.

In mid-April Lt. Col. Jay Folds, the deputy commander of the 91st Operations Group, based at Minot AFB in North Dakota, ordered that 17 of his officers be decertified from their responsibilities and undergo refresher training in the wake of their poor performance during a recent inspection.

One of the officers was investigated for potentially compromising nuclear launch codes, a decision on disciplinary action is pending. News of the decertification was first reported by the Associated Press.

The news comes five years after the Air Force refocused on attention to details for its nuclear mission following a series of missteps involving the handling of nuclear weapons under their care. In one case a B-52 bomber crew flew a mission over several Midwestern states while unknowing carrying nuclear-armed cruise missiles.

In response to those incidents Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the Air Force’s top two senior officials and the Air Force integrated control of its nuclear inventory under the newly created Global Strike Command.

The 17 officers sent to retraining work in underground launch control centers for Minuteman III missiles housed in silos dotting the North Dakota countryside. The Air Force maintains 450 of the missiles that can each carry multiple nuclear warheads.

Folds’ unit had recently passed a comprehensive inspection with a “satisfactory” rating, the mid-range of five levels with “unsatisfactory” being the lowest.

The unit received an excellent rating in 14 of 22 categories listed for inspection and a “satisfactory” in all but one of the others which was listed as “marginal,” one step above an unsatisfactory rating.

This ‘”marginal” rating for “crew operations” prompted Folds to decertify 17 of his officers. He announced his move in an unusually blunt internal email he sent to his airmen on April 12 entitled “Did You Know?” A copy of the e-mail was obtained by ABC News.

“Did you know that we, as an operations group, have fallen ” asked Folds, “and it is time to stand ourselves back up?” ”We are in fact in a crisis right now,” he added.

“We’re discovering such rot in the crew force that your behavior while on alert is accepting” of missteps in launch security protocols “all in the name of not inconveniencing yourselves.”

“We need to hit the reset button and restructure the crew force to take you out of your comfort zones (which are rotten comfort zones), and rebuild from the ground up,” wrote Folds. He urged his airmen to “get back to the basics and crush any rules violators.”

“You have yourselves to thank … if you’re a violator, you did this to us. If you’re a hater, you did this to us. If you actually follow the rules, but don’t challenge the violators and haters, you did this to us. We are breaking you down, and we will build from the ground up.

At a budget hearing on Capitol Hill, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told senators there “was nothing good about the incident” at Minot but said he did not believe “we have a nuclear surety risk” there.

“I believe we have commanders who are taking very aggressive action to ensure that never occurs. And in that respect, this is a good thing,” he said. “The idea that we have people not performing to the standard we expect will never be good, and we won’t tolerate it.”

Though he liked the way Minot commanders responded to the rating Welsh also wished “they’d used different language in the email they sent. The word ‘rot’ didn’t excite me, but it got my attention.”

Air Force Secretary Mike Donley said he was “confident in the Air Force’s ability to maintain a safe and secure nuclear deterrent.” He noted the Minot incident reflects the “stronger inspection process that has been put in place” following the 2008 mishaps.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE 

Solar Impulse aircraft begins slow flight to Washington

By Michael A. Fletcher, 

MOFFETT FEDERAL AIRFIELD, Calif. — The first plane that can fly day and night powered only by the sun on Friday began a transcontinental journey that will reach Washington by mid-June.


Solar Impulse, which lifted off from this World War II-era airfield shortly after 6 a.m. Pacific time, has room for only one person and an average cruising speed of about 43 miles per hour. But its Swiss developers say the technology suggests the possibilities of clean-energy flight.

The plane has an ultra-light carbon-fiber frame that allows it to weigh 3,500 pounds — about the same as a mid-size car. It has the wingspan of a 747 and a slender fuselage, giving it the look of a giant high-tech dragonfly.

The plane’s power is drawn from the sun by 12,000 photovoltaic cells that form the top of its wings. The juice is collected in a series of batteries arrayed behind the craft’s four electric engines. It routinely reaches altitudes of up to 28,000 feet, about a mile below the thin air traversed by big commercial airliners zipping around at close to 500 miles per hour. On-board instruments alert the pilot if the plane banks even a degree too far.

For all of its innovations, at this stage of development, Solar Impulse is no more practical for commercial flight than was the single-engine Spirit of St. Louis that Charles Lindbergh piloted across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.

The plane’s engines put out about 10 horsepower — roughly the same amount of power as the Wright brothers’ first planes. Solar Impulse cannot take off or land in windy conditions, nor can it fly through clouds. The lone pilot wears a parachute and is confined to an area the size of a “bad economy seat,” noted the project’s chief executive and co-founder Andre Borschberg, 60, an engineer and former fighter pilot.

The tiny cockpit is unheated and unpressurized, meaning the pilot must endure extreme heat and cold and wear an oxygen mask. On long flights, Borschberg practices meditation and advanced breathing techniques to stay energized. His co-founder and the plane’s other pilot,Bertrand Piccard, a psychiatrist, does self-hypnosis.

And as for bodily functions — the pilot relies on spent water bottles and eschews fibrous foods in the days before a flight to make sure that diapers do not have to be pressed into service.

But comfort is not the project’s goal. “The point of this is to underscore how far we’ve come and how far we need to go to develop alternative sources of power, particularly solar energy,” said Bob van der Linden, chairman of the aeronautics department at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “This will help push the technology along.”

He said there are some possible applications raised by Solar Impulse’s innovations, including high- and long-flying unmanned planes that could be used for mapping purposes. But any broad commercial uses, he said, lie beyond the horizon.

None of this dims the enthusiasm of the project’s founders.

The idea to build the plane started with Piccard, 55, a hang-gliding pioneer, who earned international acclaim in 1999 when he and co-pilot Brian Jones won a competition to fly around the world non-stop in a hot air balloon. Although they won, Piccard was struck that while they started the trip with 8,200 pounds of propane, they had only 88 pounds remaining when the balloon landed.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE

KC-135 Tanker crashes in Kyrgyzstan

ISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- A U.S. military refueling tanker plane crashed Friday in Kyrgyzstan, the Central Asian nation's emergencies ministry said. There was no immediate word on any casualties.

Kyrgyzstan hosts a U.S. base that is used for flying troops into and out of Afghanistan and for KC-135 tanker planes that refuel warplanes in flight.

The plane crashed Friday afternoon near the village of Chaldovar, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of the Manas air base, the ministry said in a statement. It identified the plane as a Boeing 707, but that is a civilian airliner on which the KC-135 tanker is based.

The plane broke into three pieces when it crashed into an uninhabited area, the head of the region that includes Chaldovar, Kuralbek Khamaliyev, told The Associated Press by telephone.

The U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan, called the Transit Center at Manas, said it had no immediate information. The base, which is adjacent to the Manas International Airport outside the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, was established in late 2001 to support the international military campaign in Afghanistan.

The base has been the subject of a contentious dispute between the United States and its host nation. In 2009, the U.S. reached an agreement with the Kyrgyz government to use the base in return for $60 million a year.

But the lease runs out in June 2014 and the United States wants to keep the base beyond that point to aid in the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

BREAKING: Three more people taken in custody in connection with Boston Bombing

ABC NEWS: Three more people have been taken into custody in connection to the deadly bombing at the Boston Marathon, the Boston Police Department tweeted today. The brief statement said more details were forthcoming.

Authorities believe the bombing was carried out by two brothers of Chechen ethnicity, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police days after the attack and Dzhokhar was injured and later taken into custody. Three people were killed and another 170 were injured in the April 15 dual bombing near the finish line at the Boston marathon.

News of the additional suspects comes after the FBI said they had expanded their investigation and were interested in learning more about nearly a dozen persons of interest.

Late Tuesday, the Tsarnaev family was deciding what to do with Tamerlan's body.


UPDATE: Two college-aged friends of bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19-year-olds Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, will appear in court this afternoon in Boston for their first appearance for allegedly destroying or concealing a laptop computer and a backpack containing fireworks belonging to Dzhokhar, according to the Department of Justice.

The third new suspect, American 19-year-old Robel Phillipos, who will also appear in court, has been charged with lying to federal law enforcement officers.

Dzhokhar is in custody after being seriously injured in his flee from police. His brother and alleged co-conspirator Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police hours before Dzhokhar's capture. The pair is accused of setting off two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, killing three people and injuring 170 more.

According to court documents, all three new suspects went to Dzhokhar's dormitory room after they saw images released by the FBI of two suspects, one of which resembled their friend, but it wasn't until they noticed fireworks with missing powder in the room that Kadyrbayev "knew" Dzhokhar was involved with the deadly attack.


Kadyrbayev decided to take the backpack "to help his friend [Dzhokhar] avoid trouble" and took the laptop because he didn't want Dzhokhar's roommate to think he was behaving suspiciously. The documents assert that later Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov decided together to throw the backpack and fireworks in the trash.

Prosecutors said Phillipos initially told federal investigators he did not remember going to Dzhokhar's room and then said the three friends went there but did not go in. In his fourth interview with investigators, however, Phillipos "eventually confessed that he had lied to the agents," the court documents say.

Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov face up to five years in prison and Phillipos faces a maximum sentence of up to eight years if convicted, the DOJ said.