We Salute All Veterans!!

Thank you for your service and sacrifice!

9-11-01 We Remember

In memory of all those who died.

(Prosecution Exhibit P200336, US vs. Zacarias Moussaoui, 01-445-A)

We remember our fellow Ohioans killed on 9/11.

	Wendy R. Faulkner	47	Aon Corp.	Mason	OH	World Trade Center
	William David Moskal	50	Marsh USA	Brecksville	OH	World Trade Center
	Lt. Col. David M. Scales	44	U.S. Army	Cleveland	OH	Pentagon

(CNN)


In honor of those who gave their last full measure of devotion to keep us safe and free.




We pray for those still standing watch and their families.


(DefendAmerica.mil)

Our 9-11-2007 Remembrance.

Remembering the Israeli Olympians murdered by Palestinian terrorists 36 years ago today

One of my earliest memories was the 1972 Olympic Games. American swimmer Mark Spitz’s Olympic record 7 gold medals in the games electrified the world — a feat only surpassed in recent days. But just days after Spitz’s amazing performance, the world was shocked again as the most horrific incident in the entire history of the Olympic games unfolded on September 5, 1972 in Munich.

In the early morning hours of that dreadful day, a band of Palestinian terrorists gained access to the 31 Connollystraße building housing the Israeli team in the Olympic village. Two Olympians were killed as the terrorists seized the hostages. Nine others were taken hostage. As the drama continued throughout the day and into the night, the Palestinian terrorists and their nine Israeli hostages were taken to the Fürstenfeldbruck airfield where two military helicopters awaited them. At 11pm that day, German police snipers opened fire before the helicopters could take off. The counterattack was unsuccessful, and the Palestinian terrorists shot and killed all of the Israeli hostages in one helicopter, and threw a hand grenade into the other, killing the rest of the hostages.

It was left to ABC newscaster Jim McKay to tell the world the awful news, who announced the deaths of the Israeli athletes at 3:24am German time on September 6:

“When I was a kid, my father used to say ‘Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized.’ Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They’ve now said that there were eleven hostages. Two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning, nine were killed at the airport tonight. They’re all gone."

These are the Israeli Olympic team victims of the Palestinian terrorist attack:

• Moshe Weinberg (wrestling coach)
• Yossef Romano (weightlifter)
• Ze’ev Friedman (weightlifter)
• David Berger (weightlifter)
• Yakov Springer (weightlifting judge)
• Eliezer Halfin (wrestler)
• Yossef Gutfreund (wrestling referee)
• Kehat Shorr (shooting coach)
• Mark Slavin (wrestler)
• Andre Spitzer (fencing coach)
• Amitzur Shapira (track coach)

One German police officer was killed in the firefight at the airport:

• Anton Fliegerbauer (German counter-terrorist police officer)

Here is a short ESPN video interviewing McKay and other ABC executives about that day:


A 2002 article by Los Angeles Times reporter Alan Abrahamson recounts the tragedy.

The frontpage of the New York Times, September 6, 1972:


A memorial plaque in front of the former Israeli Olympic team apartments in Munich, which reads in both German and Hebrew:

The team of the State of Israel stayed in this building during the 20th Olympic Summer Games from 21 August to 5 September 1972. On 5 September, [list of victims] died a violent death. Honor to their memory.

We will not forget.

Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world which He has created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days, and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may He create peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

Happy 232nd Birthday, America!

“. . . We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

We Remember and Honor — Memorial Day 2008

Today we remember and honor those men and women of our armed forces throughout our nation's history who have given their last full measure of devotion by laying down their lives to keep America safe and free. I would highly recommend taking the time today to read the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning article by the Rocky Mountain News, “Final Salute”, that we may understand the terrible cost for our freedom.

We honor as well all those veterans who served our country honorably and have now laid their burdens down and have gone to their eternal rest.

We also remember those brave souls currently serving in harm’s way all over the world to protect and defend this great nation and the families they have left behind. May God bless them all.



Photos courtesy of the US Air Force.

The Central Ohio connection to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing — 15 Years Ago Today

On February 26, 1993, a bomb exploded in the parking garage of the World Trade Center, announcing that war had come to America.

Seven people were murdered that day by Islamic extremists:

John DiGiovanni, 45 (Valley Stream, New York)
Robert Kirkpatrick, 61 (Suffern, New York)
Steven Knapp, 47 (Manhattan, New York City)
William Macko, 57 (Bayonne, New Jersey)
Wilfred Mercado, 37 (Brooklyn, New York City)
Monica Rodriguez Smith and her unborn child (Seaford, New York)

Memorial to the souls lost on 2/26/1993 (destroyed on 9/11)

Another 1,042 people were injured, some severely. The Islamic terrorists who committed this act had intended to kill tens of thousands, if not more.

This day should be important to us in Central Ohio, in that one of the unindicted co-conspirators in this terrorist act, Siraj Wahhaj, named as such by US Attorney Mary Jo White, is a regular speaker in our area. In just the past two years, Wahhaj has been the keynote speaker at fundraising events for Sunrise Academy, Masjid Abubakar Al Siddique, CAIR-Ohio, the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio, and most recently, the Noor Islamic Cultural Center.

On March 10, 2006, he was the keynote speaker at the Sunrise Academy (the area’s full-time Islamic school) sports complex fundraiser at the Makoy Center in Hilliard. I discussed the event in my article, “Hometown Jihad: The School Gym that Terror Built”. Here’s the announcement (click to enlarge):



Then on February 16, 2007, Wahhaj again appeared in Central Ohio for a fundraiser for Masjid Abubaker Al Siddique on Sullivant Ave held at Sunrise Academy. This mosque is part of the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (ISGC). Here is that announcement (click to enlarge):



On June 6, 2006, Siraj Wahhaj was back again in Columbus for a fundraiser for CAIR-OH. I wrote about this event previously, “CAIR’s Blood Money”. CAIR-OH later bragged how the Wahhaj fundraiser had netted them more than $100,000 in one evening to help spread their hate speech and terror apologies. Here is the CAIR press release following the event (click to enlarge):



This past September 9th, Wahhaj was the keynote speaker for the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio (IFCO), appearing on behalf of his friend Ahmad Al-Akhras, CAIR national vice chairman and president of IFCO. (See our post here, “Mayor Coleman advisor brings hate shiekh to town”, which discusses in detail Wahhaj’s virulent hate speech and violent rhetoric.)

And most recently, Wahhaj was the featured speaker at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Hilliard on December 19, 2007 for their Eid celebration.

Very few Muslims in our area agree with the extremist ideology of Siraj Wahhaj and his local allies. In fact, these events were attended by only a very tiny minority of supporters from the Muslim community. But these same supporters are not only very vocal, but are well-funded, control several of the prominent Islamic institutions in town, and have the ear of our local and state political establishment (as has been observed, Wahhaj’s 2006 CAIR-OH fundraiser was followed in 2007 by an appearance by Governor Strickland, “Not in our name, Gov. Strickland”). As we remember what happened on February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001, it would do us well to remember all those who have been murdered and vow to be vigilant in confronting the hate and extremism that is alive and well in Central Ohio.

Andrew McCarthy, the Assistant US Attorney in charge of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing prosecutions, published an article about the attacks today that is worth reading in its entirety. As you read the excerpt below and the rest of the article, remember that the violence at work on that day 15 years ago is still with us:

On the morning of February 26, 1993, Islamic militants steered a nondescript Ryder van through the winding darkness of the parking garage under the World Trade Center. They had spent years planning this moment in secret meetings at mosques and jailhouses, in rural outposts that served as paramilitary camps, and in safehouses where explosive compounds were mixed in makeshift labs.

Loaded into the van’s rear compartment was a 1,400-pound chemical bomb.

The explosive detonated at a few minutes after noon. The hyper-intensive shockwave bored a six-story canyon into the bowels of the complex. Seven people were killed (one of the six officially listed murder victims having been well along in her pregnancy), over a thousand were injured, and the structural damage would cost nearly a billion dollars to repair.

Amid the terror, the dark cloud that envelops us still 15 years later, was a silver lining. This time, the “battalion of Islam” — as the “blind sheikh,” Omar Abdel Rahman, liked to refer to the cells in his emerging jihad army — had failed.

It had been the intention of the World Trade Center bombers to annihilate tens of thousands of Americans, in addition to rendering the world’s most significant financial district uninhabitable. Detonation was consciously timed for maximum carnage: high noon on a Friday, when as many as 120,000 business professionals, laborers, diners, tourists, and area residents typically swarmed the Twin Towers and their immediate Wall Street environs.

More diabolically, not content with their sophisticated, powerfully combustible urea-nitrate mixture, the jihadists laced the compound with deadly sodium cyanide and attempted to boost the explosion with hydrogen tanks. The aim was a horror virtually unimaginable back then (though it is, today, an omnipresent fear): wide dispersal of a lethal, aerated chemical, killing the thousands too distant to be obliterated by the sheer force of the blast.

May God bless the souls of those lost that awful day. And may we never forget.

Christmas Greetings to all of those standing watch this Christmas season

To those military service members serving on duty at home and abroad this Christmas Season, especially those in harm's way, everyone at Central Ohioans Against Terrorism wishes each and every one of your a safe holiday. May you be able to return to your families soon. Thank you for your service and sacrifice.

God bless you all this Christmas. And God bless America.

A video tribute courtesy of Fred Thompson:

Remembering the Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing Victims

On December 21, 1988, 259 souls aboard Pan Am Flight 103 from 21 countries and 11 residents of the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, were killed when a bomb planted in the cargo hold of the plane exploded mid-air at 31,000 feet. One hundred eighty-nine of the victims were Americans, including 15 active-duty military service members, 10 military veterans, 35 students of Syracuse University, four from Brown University, and two from SUNY — all returning home to their families for Christmas. Some of the victims were conscious at the time of the crash, according to forensic experts, as some were clutching religious items when their bodies were found. At least two victims, one flight attendant and one male passenger, were still alive when discovered.

Eight Pan Am 103 victims were from Ohio:

• John David Akerstrom, 34, of Medina;


• Om Dixit, 54, and Shanti Dixit, 54, of Fairborn;


• Douglas Eugene Malicote, 22, and Wendy Gay Malicote, 21, of Lebanon (Douglas was an Army Specialist stationed at the US Army Base in Mannheim, Germany);


• Peter Raymond Peirce, 40, of Perrysburg;


• Michael Pescatore, 33, of Solon;


• and Peter Vulcu, 21, of Alliance.

The bombing was organized by Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal in coordination with the intelligence service of Libyan dictator Mummar Ghaddafi. After international indictments were served, Abu Nidal fled to Iraq, where he lived under the protection of Saddam Hussein.

A memorial cairn was erected in Section 1 of Arlington National Cemetery in honor of all 270 victims. Syracuse University built an on-campus memorial to the students murdered, and also maintains a website on the terrorist attack. Syracuse also hosts an annual memorial service and offers the prestigious Remembrance Scholars program.

Syracuse University Remembrance Wall (from VictimsofPanAmFlight103.org)

Arlington Lockerbie Cairn pictures by Ron Williams (from ArlingtonCemtery.net)

Today We Remember. . .

Today we remember that terrible day when we were attacked by our enemies. . .

Today we remember the innocent American victims of the global jihad murdered on 9/11 (photo from Zacharias Moussaoui trial exhibits). . .

Today we remember that on 9/11, uncommon bravery was a common virtue. . .

Today we remember those who have given their last full measure of devotion to take the battle to our enemies (photo Michel du Cille, Washington Post) . . .

Today we remember those families among us who have laid so costly a sacrifice on the altar of freedom (photo Michel du Cille, Washington Post) . . .

Today we remember the men and women of our armed services proudly and valiantly serving at home and abroad, many serving in harm's way, to keep us all safe and free (photo DefendAmerica.mil). . .

Today we remember and vow again to never forget (photo by Derek Jensen). . .

May God bless them all and God bless America.