MsUnderestimated » 2006 » October

“CSI: Baghdad” Premieres - By Navy Journalist 2nd Class John J. Pistone

October 16th, 2006 at 10:51 by MsUnderestimated

From the latest Multi-National Force Bulletin from Iraq. Don’t you just love it? From our top-of-the-line crack reporters on the front lines, Navy Journalist 2nd Class John J. Pistone.

From Pistone’s piece:

BAGHDAD — “There is no such thing as a perfect crime, as there are always clues left behind” is a phrase that is often echoed in police circles all around the world. Detectives and analysts say a good forensics investigation will always lead to the perpetrator.

By unveiling the National Forensics Academy in Baghdad Oct. 2, the Iraqi Police told the world the same rings true in Iraq and they are committed to training their crime scene investigators in forensics.

The ceremony featured a walk-through of the academy and showcased new crime scene investigation equipment. Iraqi Police Capt. Sabah, an 11-year forensics investigator and one of the academy’s instructors, said the new academy will train the police in many new methods to detect and investigate crime.

“In the former regime there was a block between Iraqis and the world. We had some very experienced investigators but we lacked the scientific knowledge and new equipment, which the other countries had,” Sabah said with the help of an interpreter. “But since the fall of Saddam, we have been able to get new equipment and technologies. Now that we have this academy, we can use these tools to train our future investigators,” he added.

The article goes on to say:

“Crime scene investigation is the backbone of an investigation, no matter how good the crime is, we are always gathering evidence to solve it,” Sabah said. “In our language we call it ‘the things which are behind the curtain’ because we are always working behind the scenes.”

Sabah said he is excited at the prospect of teaching investigative skills to many more police officers.

According to Mike Hallmark, a specialized police units coordinator with MNSTC-I’s Civilian Police Assistant Training Team, the Baghdad Police College currently conducts a 30- day crime scene investigators course that is run by Iraqi personnel from the Baghdad Crime Lab. He said this course will soon be taught at the new forensics academy.

“About 18 months ago we put together a train-the-trainer course where we trained a dozen investigators as instructors and to date they have trained 232 investigators all over the country,” Hallmark said. “Now, because of this facility, we can have the Iraqi instructors from the crime lab conduct basic courses and bring in guests to train in special courses. We anticipate bringing in guest instructors from all over the world to train students in such disciplines as ballistics, chemical lab, photography or any other discipline that they need,” he added.

Look out Grissom… you could be looking at your next CSI franchise! And all those naysayers out there who didn’t think they even had basic education there??? Puhlease! Our men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces are helping the Iraqis get back into the current century, and it seems their students are more than eager and willing to learn! Look out, Mahdi Army! CSI Baghdad’s coming to get you! And it’s also so they ‘don’t get fooled again’ by the likes of the foreign insurgents. They got their eyes (and microscopes, swabs, labs, test kits, finger-dusting kits, DNA testing, Luminol, etc.) focused right on YOU, bad guys!

Bad terrorists, bad terrorists… what’cha gonna do… what’cha gonna do when BCSI comes for you?

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“America Alone” - Mark Steyn on H&C (VIDEO)

October 16th, 2006 at 10:00 by MsUnderestimated

The EVER brilliant Mark Steyn was on Hannity & Colmes tonight; in fact, he’s been all over the radio dial and TV remote lately promoting his new book that came out today, “America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.” From everything I’ve heard him say about the book today, as well as the reviews, I’m going to go buy it tomorrow.

According to Amazon.com, the inside flap reads:

It’s the end of the world as we know it…

Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer from a muezzin. Europeans already are.

And liberals will still tell you that “diversity is our strength”—while Talibanic enforcers cruise Greenwich Village burning books and barber shops, the Supreme Court decides sharia law doesn’t violate the “separation of church and state,” and the Hollywood Left decides to give up on gay rights in favor of the much safer charms of polygamy.

If you think this can’t happen, you haven’t been paying attention, as the hilarious, provocative, and brilliant Mark Steyn—the most popular conservative columnist in the English-speaking world—shows to devastating effect in this, his first and eagerly awaited new book on American and global politics.

The future, as Steyn shows, belongs to the fecund and the confident. And the Islamists are both, while the West—wedded to a multiculturalism that undercuts its own confidence, a welfare state that nudges it toward sloth and self-indulgence, and a childlessness that consigns it to oblivion—is looking ever more like the ruins of a civilization.

Europe, laments Steyn, is almost certainly a goner. The future, if the West has one, belongs to America alone—with maybe its cousins in brave Australia. But America can survive, prosper, and defend its freedom only if it continues to believe in itself, in the sturdier virtues of self-reliance (not government), in the centrality of family, and in the conviction that our country really is the world’s last best hope.

Steyn argues that, contra the liberal cultural relativists, America should proclaim the obvious: we do have a better government, religion, and culture than our enemies, and we should spread America’s influence around the world—for our own sake as well as theirs.

Mark Steyn’s America Alone is laugh-out-loud funny—but it will also change the way you look at the world. It is sure to be the most talked-about book of the year.

This is going to be a must-read for all humanity. Mark Steyn is one of the most brilliant minds of our time, and we should all pay heed to what he says.

Watch Steyn on H&C here.

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The Jihad - An Historic Look by Oliver North (VIDEOS)

October 16th, 2006 at 08:41 by MsUnderestimated

Sorry but I’m just now getting around to editing these videos, but Oliver North’s “War Stories” this past Sunday was unbelievably fantastic! Ollie had a list of first-class luminaries and experts on Islam. They included:

• Imam Karim Abuzaid, Prince George’s (MD) Muslim Association
• Robert Baer, former CIA case officer and author of “Blow the House Down”
• Mark Bowden, investigative journalist and author of “Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America’s War with Militant Islam”
• Imam Faizul Khan, Islamic Society of the Washington, D.C., Area
• Bernard Lewis, Cleveland E. Dodge professor emeritus of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University
• Uri Lubrani, former ambassador and head of Israeli Mission to Tehran, Iran
• Oliver “Buck” Revell, former FBI deputy assistant director for Operations
• Michael Rowe, California neighbor of Adam Gadahn
• James Woolsey, former CIA director
• Sgt. Armando Ybarra, USMC (Ret.), U.S. Marine wounded in the 1983 barracks attack in Beirut, Lebanon

Dr. Wafa Sultan

According to the FoxNews website:

As you will see, the jihad being waged goes far beyond terrorists taking hostages, hijacking aircraft and the horror of suicide bombers. Its leaders proclaim independence of any state or government, but employ all of the elements of contemporary warfare: propaganda; financing; logistics; communications; covert operatives; and well-trained soldiers with modern weaponry.

You will learn about the homegrown face of terror: Adam Gadahn also known as Azzam the American. Just how did a California boy raised on a goat farm become a new face in Al Qaeda’s inner circle? Why was the Iranian revolution of 1979 the turning point in today’s modern day jihad?

In an exclusive interview, Vice President Dick Cheney tells North that the War on Terror, “is a war that we can win, but it’s a war that may take 25 or 50 years. It’s a war that we absolutely have to stay at. Only the United States can provide the leadership that the world requires to deal with this threat. If the U.S. doesn’t do it there really isn’t anybody else who can.”

You will also hear from Arthur Cummings, acting FBI deputy assistant director for counterterrorism. Walid Phares and Wafa Sultan spoke to “War Stories” as critics of terror in the name of Islam. Their comments have prompted death threats against them.

Folks, if you missed this special when it aired, be sure to check it out here. There are lessons to be learned here, and the history is laid out piece by piece. I’m also going to be posting the individual segments on YouTube, as well.

For now, you can view each here with part #1, part #2, part #3, part #4, part #5 and part #6.

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