Aviation Security, War on Terror

Prosecutors in U.K. air terror case show ‘martyr’ video

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ABC News reports:

Allah “loves us to die and kill in his path” says a man who is accused of plotting to blow up passenger jets as part of an al Qaeda plot. The martyrdom video was shown to jurors in the United Kingdom today in the conspiracy trial of eight alleged plotters who hoped to use liquid explosives to blow up airplanes in the summer of 2006. The 19-minute video features 29-year-old Umar Islam speaking in English with a British accent as he praises Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar. A shorter four-minute version was released to the public by British authorities, while jurors watched the full-length video.

Islam said no British citizen would be safe so long as the country is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Most of you are too busy, you know, watching “Home and Away” and “Eastenders,” complaining about the World Cup, drinking your alcohol, to even care about anything,” Islam says. [Watch video.] The video was played on about a dozen large monitors throughout the courtoom. A BBC News reporter who was in the court when the video was played said the jurors and others in court appeared transfixed by the videos. At one point, Islam is asked by someone off-camera if he is brainwashed. His answer, yes: “I would. Yes, my brain has been washed, and it has been washed by the clean and cleansing water of Islam,” he says.

Here is ABC’s online report, complete with related article.

Iraq, Support our troops, War on Terror

5th anniversary of the fall of Baghdad

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Regardless of what anyone believes of the need to invade Iraq, the reality is we did invade and removed Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. Five years ago today, Baghdad fell. Families United writes of remembering:

April 9, 2008 marks the 5th Anniversary of the Fall of Baghdad. Please, join the Host Committee, comprising the Adjutant General of the United States, as Americans commemorate the sacrifice of our Fallen, and as we celebrate our Armed Forces, our troops our veterans, our military families. The families of our Iraq and Afghanistan fallen heroes, who lay at rest at Arlington National Cemetery, are especially warmly invited to this observance, as we pay special tribute to them.

In celebrating the hope given to the Iraqi people because of the courageous actions of the Armed Forces of the United States and Multinational Forces, we honor those, who have made this possible, especially those, who have given their lives for freedom.

Freedom for our families in the United States and Freedom for the families in Iraq, our women, men and, above all, our children – America’s future, Iraq’s future. Our shared future. As H.E. Mr. Abdul al Qadir al Mufriji, the Iraqi Defense Minister stated, upon presenting the Iraqi Defense Ministry Plaque to America’s Iraq Fallen in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, 6 March 2008: “As Iraqis, we are eternally grateful to America’s fighting sons and daughters for restoring to us the dignity of a free people. America’s fallen heroes, along with their fallen Iraqi comrades, may have been robbed of their future, but in laying down their lives they have handed us ours. We shall remember them, their names forever inked in the history books of the new and democratic Iraq.”

A Joint U.S.-Iraqi wreath-laying shall mark the highlight of the National Remembrance, with H. E. Mr. Samir Sumaida’ie, the Ambassador of Iraq to the United States, confirmed as principal celebrant. States Ambassador Sumaida: “There is no ceremony capable of adequately conveying the gratitude of the Iraqi people for the American men and women who have sacrificed their lives for the people and freedom of Iraq. Iraqis will be eternally grateful. These heroes shall never be forgotten.”

Americans are called upon to join in a MOMENT OF NATIONAL REFLECTION on 9 April 2008, 5PM, EASTERN DAYLIGHT SAVINGS. As the sun sets across the National Remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery, the Dutch Carillion striking the hour, Americans are called upon TO HONK THEIR CAR HORNS in celebration, honor, and recognition of freedom and all those who have made it possible! We encourage you to have your local churches ring their church bells, LET FREEDOM RING!

I will honk my car horn, listen for the bells, and remember all who remain on that battlefield, friend and foe.