Showing posts with label Forever Preserved in Viral Email. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Forever Preserved in Viral Email. Show all posts

Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Suicide Bombings of 2005: Too Bad You Missed 'Em.

Oh, great.  Another "The Terrorists are Coming" message.

Let me sum this one up for you beforehand.
Bottom line?  I don't give this "expert" any more credence than any other chicken little.

But, if you still want to read?  Here you go.  But, personally, I think another viewing of "Outbreak" will teach you just as much.

And "Outbreak" was an awful movie.

A LITTLE LONG BUT BE WARNED IT WILL BE DIFFERENT

                Next Terrorist Attack will be different.....



 
Israel is realistic and US is foolish!
 
   
Advice from an Israeli Agent
 

 Juval Aviv was the Israeli Agent upon whom the movie ' Munich ' was based. He was Golda Meir's bodyguard, and she appointed him to track down and bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who took the Israeli athletes hostage and killed them during the Munich Olympic Games.

 In a lecture in New York City he shared information that EVERY American needs to know -- but that our government has not yet shared with us.

 He predicted the London subway bombing on the Bill O'Reilly show on Fox News stating publicly that it would happen within a week. At the time, O'Reilly laughed, and mocked him saying that in a week he wanted him back on the show. Unfortunately, within a week the terrorist attack had occurred.
 

Juval Aviv gave intelligence (via what he had gathered in Israel and the Middle East ) to the Bush Administration about 9/11, a month before it occurred. His report specifically said they would use planes as bombs and target high profile buildings and monuments. Congress has since hired him as a security consultant.
 

Now for his future predictions. He predicts the next terrorist attack on the U.S. Will occur within the next few months.
 

Forget hijacking airplanes, because he says terrorists will NEVER try and hijack a plane again as they know the people onboard will never go down quietly again.. Aviv believes our airport security is a joke -- that we have been reactionary rather than proactive in developing strategies that are truly effective.

 For example:

 1) Our airport technology is outdated. We look for metal, and the new explosives are made of plastic.

 2) He talked about how some idiot tried to light his shoe on fire. Because of that, now everyone has to take off their shoes. A group of idiots tried to bring aboard liquid explosives. Now we can't bring liquids on board. He says he's waiting for some suicidal maniac to pour liquid explosive on his underwear; at which point, security will have us all traveling naked!
 Every strategy we have is reactionary.

 3) We only focus on security when people are heading to the gates.

 Aviv says that if a terrorist attack targets airports in the future, they will target busy times on the front end of the airport when/where people are checking in. It would be easy for someone to take two suitcases of explosives, walk up to a busy check-in line, ask a person next to them to watch their bags for a minute while they run to the restroom or get a drink, and then detonate the bags BEFORE security even gets involved. InIsrael , security checks bags BEFORE people can even ENTER the airport.
 

Aviv says the next terrorist attack here in America is imminent and will involve suicide bombers and non-suicide bombers in places where large groups of people congregate. (I.e., Disneyland, Las Vegas casinos, big cities ( New York , San Francisco , Chicago , etc.) and that it will also include shopping malls, subways in rush hour, train stations, etc., as well as, rural America this time.. The interlands
 ( Wyoming , Montana , etc.).

 The attack will be characterized by simultaneous detonations around the country (terrorists like big impact), involving at least 5-8 cities, including rural areas.

 Aviv says terrorists won't need to use suicide bombers in many of the larger cities, because at places like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, they can simply valet park a car loaded with explosives and walk away.
 

Aviv says all of the above is well known in intelligence circles, but that our U. S.. Government does not want to 'alarm American citizens' with the facts. The world is quickly going to become 'a different place', and issues like 'global warming' and political correctness will become totally irrelevant.

 On an encouraging note, he says that Americans don't have to be concerned about being nuked. Aviv says the terrorists who want to destroyAmerica will not use sophisticated weapons. They like to use suicide as a front-line approach. It's cheap, it's easy, it's effective; and they have an infinite abundance of young militants more than willing to 'meet their destiny'.
 

He also says the next level of terrorists, over which America  should be most concerned, will not be coming from abroad.  But will be, instead, 'homegrown', having attended and been educated in our own schools and universities right here in the U.S. He says to look for 'students' who frequently travel back and forth to the   Middle East . These young terrorists will be most dangerous because they will know our language and will fully understand the habits of Americans; but that we Americans won't know/understand a thing about them.

 Aviv says that, as a people, Americans are unaware and uneducated about the terrorist threats we will inevitably face.  America still has only a handful of Arabic and Farsi speaking people in our intelligence networks, and Aviv says it is critical that we change that fact SOON.
 

So, what can America do to protect itself? From an intelligence perspective, Aviv says the U.S. needs to stop relying on satellites and technology for intelligence. We need to, instead, follow Israel 's, Ireland 's and England 's hands-on examples of human intelligence, both from an infiltration perspective as well as to pay attention to, and trust 'aware' citizens to help. We need to engage and educate ourselves as citizens; however, our U. S. government continues to treat us, its citizens, 'like babies'. Our government thinks we 'can't handle the truth' and are concerned that we'll panic if we understand the realities of terrorism. Aviv says this is a deadly mistake.

 Aviv recently created/executed a security test for our Congress, by placing an empty briefcase in five well-traveled spots in five major cities. The results? Not one person called 911 or sought a policeman to check it out.. In fact, in Chicago , someone tried to steal the briefcase!
 

In comparison, Aviv says that citizens of Israel are so well 'trained' that an unattended bag or package would be reported in seconds by citizen(s) who know to publicly shout, 'Unattended Bag!' The area would be quickly & calmly cleared by the citizens themselves.
 

Unfortunately, America  hasn't been yet 'hurt enough' by terrorism for their government to fully understand the need to educate its citizens or for the government to understand that it's their citizens who are, inevitably, the best first-line of defense against terrorism.

Aviv also was concerned about the high number of children here in America who were in preschool and kindergarten after 9/11, who were 'lost' without parents being able to pick them up, and about our schools that had no plan in place to best care for the students until parents could get there. (In New York City , this was days, in some cases!)

He stresses the importance of having a plan, that's agreed upon within your family, of how to respond in the event of a terrorist emergency. He urges parents to contact their children's schools and demand that the schools too, develop plans of actions, just as they do in Israel .

 Does your family know what to do if you can't contact one another by phone? Where would you gather in an emergency? He says we should all have a plan that is easy enough for even our youngest children to remember and follow.

 Aviv says that the U. S. government has in force a plan, that in the event of another terrorist attack, EVERYONE's ability to use cell phones, blackberries, etc., will immediately be cut-off, as this is the preferred communication source used by terrorists and is often the way that their bombs are detonated.

 How will you communicate with your loved ones in the event you cannot speak to each other? You need to have a plan.

If you understand, and believe what you have just read, then you must feel compelled to send this to every concerned parent, guardian, grandparents, uncles, aunts, whomever. Don't stop there. In addition to sharing this via e-mail, contact and discuss this information with whomever it makes sense to. Make contingency plans with those you care about. Better that you have plans in place, and never have to use them, then to have no plans in place, and find you needed them.

If you choose not to share this, or not to have a plan in place, and nothing ever occurs -- good for you! However, in the event  something does happen, and even more so, if it directly affects your loved ones, then this e-mail will haunt you forever.

Telling yourself after the fact, "I should have sent this to so and so, but deleted it as so much trash from old Bill Ralph, plus, I just didn't believe it", will not change anything. You were alerted, had the chance to do something, and instead of erring on the side of caution, you chose to disregard, if nothing else, a sensible, valuable warning.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Soldiers' Death Benefits vs. 9/11 Victim Compensation?

And now, fresh from my inbox, here's another viral email:

Don’t like Limbaugh? No matter. You will be stunned by what he says….so….please read….you will learn the truth about the way we treat those who give up their all so we can be free.

Delete all names before forwarding to respect confidentiality


  Love him or hate him ...
~Limbaugh Nailed This One~


Love him or loathe him, he nailed this one right on the head..........

By Rush Limbaugh:

I think the vast differences in compensation between victims of the September 11 casualty and those who die serving our country in Uniform are profound. No one is really talking about it either, because you just don't criticize anything having to do with September 11. Well, I can't let the numbers pass by because it says something really disturbing about the entitlement mentality of this country. If you lost a family member in the September 11 attack, you're going to get an average of $1,185,000. The range is a minimum guarantee of $250,000, all the way up to $4.7 million..  If you are a surviving family member of an American soldier killed in action, the first check you get is a $6,000 direct death benefit, half of which is taxable.

Next, you get $1,750 for burial costs. If you are the surviving spouse, you get $833 a month until you remarry. And there's a payment of $211 per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those payments come to a screeching halt.

Keep in mind that some of the people who are getting an average of $1.185 million up to $4.7 million are complaining that it's not enough. Their deaths were tragic, but for most, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Soldiers put themselves in harms way FOR ALL OF US, and they and their families know the dangers.. (Actually, soldiers are put in harms way by politicians and commanding officers.)

We also learned over the weekend that some of the victims from the Oklahoma City bombing have started an organization asking for the same deal that the September 11 families are getting. In addition to that, some of the families of those bombed in the embassies are now asking for compensation as well.

You see where this is going, don't you? Folks, this is part and parcel of over 50 years of entitlement politics in this country. It's just really sad. Every time a pay raise comes up for the military, they usually receive next to nothing of a raise. Now the green machine is in combat in the Middle East while their families have to survive on food stamps and live in low-rent housing. Make sense?

However, our own US Congress voted themselves a raise. Many of you don't know that they only have to be in Congress one time to receive a pension that is more than $15,000 per month. And most are now equal to being millionaires plus. They do not receive Social Security on retirement because they didn't have to pay into the system. If some of the military people stay in for 20 years and get out as an E-7, they may receive a pension of $1,000 per month, and the very people who placed them in harm's way receives a pension of $15,000 per month.

I would like to see our elected officials pick up a weapon and join ranks before they start cutting out benefits and lowering pay for our sons and daughters who are now fighting.  "When do we finally do something about this?" If this doesn't seem fair to you, it is time to forward this to as many people as you can.

How many people CAN YOU send this to?

****************************
How many WILL YOU???
It's hard to tell what this email is proposing.  It's clearly had several authors.

One way to interpret this is : "The 9/11 bombings were tragic...  but victims' families don't deserve more than the people in the armed forces who put their lives in harm's way.  $1 million per family is just much too much to pay."

I'm somewhat sympathetic.  I'm saddened for the losses of families that have had their lives cut short after the 9/11 bombings.  I'd love to see the the perpetrators forced to pay restitution.

However, the perpetrators are all dead.  And the people who were peripherally involved are now "enemy combatants" who aren't likely to answer to American lawsuits.

The government, in it's reasoning, saw what was likely to happen - since many families were looking to sue someone, they'd probably clog the judicial system with lawsuits against the airline industry, the government, the buildings' owners, or their contractors.  And there are likely to be a few clever prosecutors who can exploit a potential jury's natural desire to help the 9/11 victims.

In short:  This is a settlement.  It has nothing to do with "worth".  It has to do with practicality.  I don't know how folks get together to decide "how much is it worth to settle this case."  A reasonable discussion of this subject would talk about how these numbers were derived.  Not just with "One million dollars is too much."

That's one way to interpret this email message.  The other is, "Why can't soldiers get a million dollars when they fall in combat?  Why is it so much less than the 9/11 victims?"

For one?  Soldiers give up their ability to seek compensation through the courts when they enlist.  It's part of the package.

Now, looking at these figures, it seems like a pretty bad deal for our servicemen.  If I was thinking about enlisting, and my family was depending on my future income, a $6000 lump-sum benefit on my death, $800/month in compensation to my wife and $211/month/child in survivor benefits would make me think more than twice about whether I should sign up.  Because my odds of dying are pretty high in wartime.  And this wouldn't be much to leave my family.

In fact, with those figures, it would be surprising that any military families could be successfully recruited in a time of war.  Something doesn't seem right here.

Turns out Snopes has a long history of this particular viral email.  Turns out that the origin of this email is in 2002.

Now, let's turn back the clock.

In 2002, there was no Iraq war.  The war in Afghanistan was in a lull - the US role at that time was to support the Northern Alliance and the new government, and long before a resurgent Taliban.

In short, the pay structure reflected what was necessary to recruit during a period of peace, when few potential soldiers thought it was likely they would face a significant insurgency.

Since the "real war" started, the military has had to sweeten the deal.

At this point, the death benefit for an active-duty serviceman in a combat zone is $100,000 and is non-taxableSurviving spouses recieve dependency and indemnity compensation of $1154/month, and surviving children recieve more than this email suggests.  (Look here to see how much.)  And if they leave behind a spouse or children who are unable to earn a living, they're eligible for even more.

Plus, if they've enrolled in SGLI (the military's life insurance plan) for $27/month, they're eligible for a death benefit of $400,000.

In short - the surviving family probably won't be living the high life - but, at least, with this financial package, they're off to a secure start.

Finally, it wouldn't be a right-wing email without comparing the lives of "victims" with the fictional congresspeople.

You know, the ones who don't pay social security.  (Sorry, they do.)

The ones who earn over $15,000/month for serving one year in congress.  (Here's their real package.  And it's not even close.)

Although, to give them credit?  When this was written, they probably did write themselves pay raises - like those most Americans recieved.  But for the last two years, they've kept their salaries the same.

So, all in all, this is, at best, an outdated rant piece.  With a little bit of out-and-out lying on the side.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Tribute to a fallen hero

My father sent me a nice article today.

I enjoyed it.  It's too bad that, according to Snopes.com, Ed Freeman passed away in August, 2008.  Long before some viral emailer tacked on health care reform and Tiger Woods as recent events.

Still, a good man.  Whose accomplishments are forever preserved in viral email format.

He deserves better - but this isn't too awful.

Courage.
     
You're a 19 year old kid.
You're critically wounded and dying in
the  jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands  of Viet Nam .

It's  November 11, 1967.  
LZ (landing zone) X-ray.
Your unit is  outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so  intense, from 100 yards away, that  your CO (commanding officer) has  ordered the MedEvac helicopters to stop coming  in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns  and you know you're not getting out.
Your family is half way around the world, 12,000  miles away, and you'll never see them again.
As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter.
You look  up to see a Huey coming in. But ... It doesn't  seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it.
Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.

He's not MedEvac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.


Even after the MedEvacs were ordered
not to come. He's coming anyway.

And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of you at a time on board.
Then he  flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety.

And, he kept coming back!! 13 more  times!!
Until all  the wounded were out. No one knew until the  mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm.

He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey.

Medal  of Honor Recipient, Captain  Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise, Idaho ..

May God Bless and Rest His Soul.

I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing,  but we've sure seen a whole bunch about Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods and the bickering of congress over Health Reform.

Medal of  Honor Winner Captain Ed Freeman

Shame on the American media !!!

Now ... YOU pass this along to YOUR
mailing list.  Honor this real American. 
Please.