Here's some info on Al Qaeda members and their time at Guantanamo Bay

Al Qaeda Manual Drives Detainee Behavior at Guantanamo Bay
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2005 – If you're a Muslim extremist captured while fighting your holy war against "infidels," avoid revealing information at all costs, don't give your real name and claim that you were mistreated or tortured during your detention.
This instruction comes straight from the pages of an official al Qaeda training manual, and officials at the detention facility at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, say they see clear evidence that detainees are well-versed in its contents.

Police in Manchester, England, discovered the manual, which has come to be known as the "Manchester document," in 2000 while searching computer files found in the home of a known al Qaeda member. The contents were introduced as evidence into the 2001 trial of terrorists who bombed the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998.

The FBI translated the document into English, and it is posted on the Justice Department's Web site.

The 18-chapter manual provides a detailed window into al Qaeda's network and its procedures for waging jihad - from conducting surveillance operations to carrying out assassinations to working with forged documents.

The closing chapter teaches al Qaeda operatives how to operate in a prison or detention center. It directs detainees to "insist on proving that torture was inflicted" and to "complain of mistreatment while in prison."

Chapter 17 instructs them to "be careful not to give the enemy any vital information" during interrogations.

Another section of the manual directs commanders to teach their operatives what to say if they're captured, and to explain it "more than once to ensure that they have assimilated it." To reinforce the message, it tells commanders to have operatives "explain it back to the commander."

And at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, detainees take this instruction to heart. Many of the more than 500 detainees are "uncooperative" in providing intelligence, Army Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, told military analysts who traveled to the facility June 24 and reiterated today during a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee.

Some detainees have never uttered a single word during more than three years of interrogation. Others give false names or refuse to offer their real names.

This can prove challenging for interrogators at the facility, because many detainees "follow the al Qaeda SOP (standard operating procedures) to the T," according to Army Col. John Hadjis, chief of staff for Joint Task Force Guantanamo.

Officials say they see evidence of the al Qaeda-directed misinformation campaign in allegations of detainee abuse and mishandling of the Koran at Guantanamo Bay.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld expressed frustration over this effort during a June 21 interview on the "Tony Snow Show."

"These detainees are trained to lie, they're trained to say they were tortured, and the minute we release them or the minute they get a lawyer, very frequently they'll go out and they will announce that they've been tortured," Rumsfeld said.

The media jumps on these claims, reporting them as "another example of torture," the secretary said, "when in fact, (terrorists have) been trained to do that, and their training manual says so."

During a February 2004 Pentagon news conference, a DoD official said new information provided by detainees during questioning is analyzed to determine its reliability.

"Unfortunately, many detainees are deceptive and prefer to conceal their identifies and their actions," said Paul Butler, principal deputy assistant secretary for special operations and low-intensity conflict.

Butler said the Manchester document includes "a large section which teaches al Qaeda operatives counterinterrogation techniques: how to lie, how to minimize your role."
The document, he said, has surfaced in various locations, including Afghanistan.
The manual's preface offers a chilling reminder of the mentality that drives al Qaeda disciples and the lengths they will go to for their cause.

"The confrontation that we are calling for ... does not know Socratic debates, ... Platonic ideals ... nor Aristotelian diplomacy," its opening pages read. "But it knows the dialogue of bullets, the ideals of assassination, bombing and destruction, and the diplomacy of the cannon and machine gun."

What has happen to Americans?

that's what I want to know. I guess my eyes have ben opened by my time in Iraq and I am angered by what I am seeing right here at home. When exactly did people stop caring about others? All around me I see the "I've got mine" attitude and its pissing me off. Companies care more about the bottom line than customers or their workers, our political leaders don't listen to us anymore, the list goes on and on... I'm also sick and tired of hearing about (fill in the blank) Americans getting special treatment on this subject or that subject. I my self am an Icelandic/Swedish American and I want to know what we get! The last time I checked, when you became a citizen of the United States, you became an American! Honor your culture as I honor and practice mine but don't try and make the rest of us "enjoy" it. Another thing, LEARN THE LANGUAGE!!! My family worked in Swedish logging camps until they learned English, why should I have to learn a different language to order a hamburger? When I was stationed in Germany did I expect the Germans to speak English? NO, I was happy when they did but I learned German so I could travel and shop. Finally, for those of you here with ID from the black market....GO HOME!!!! I don't want my taxes to go to feeding your families. Nobody helped my family like that. If you want to be here then do it the right way and I'll say WELCOME to America, until then.......Patrol the border and send everybody back to their home country that doesn't belong.

Some quotes to think about.

If you expect a nation to be
ignorant and free, you expect
what never was and can never be.
Thomas Jefferson

"We, the people, are the rightful masters of both
Congress and the courts; not to overthrow the
Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert
the Constitution."

Abraham Lincoln

FREEDOM
IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE
SECURED IN ANY ONE
MOMENT OF TIME.
WE MUST STRUGGLE
TO PRESERVE IT EVERY DAY.
AND FREEDOM IS NEVER
MORE THAN ONE
GENERATION AWAY FROM
EXTINCTION.
RONALD REAGAN

A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.

George Washington

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

Thomas Jefferson

Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
Edward Abbey

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.
Thomas Jefferson

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
Theodore Roosevelt

Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

John Adams, letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lighlty upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

Samuel Adams

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.
Edmund Burke

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Thomas Jefferson

Changes that I have noticed in the government since comming home.

You know, I have never really been in to politics because most of what goes on never seemed to apply to me. I don't know if its the fact that I am now 30 and have a family or if being away from home has opened my eyes a little bit. Since I cane home I have learned that the vote I mailed in from Iraq for my states general election was not counted. Also, our gas tax has been raised by 33% and we already had the 2nd highest gas tax in the nation! The attempt to repeal this tax is being laughed at by the state leaders and frankly its pissing me off....Take the mass transit plan for Seattle, the additional taxes for that project were supposed to end in 2025 and now they are trying to extend that time out to 2053 for a grand total of $12,000.00 per inch of the 14 mile track!!! Now look at the crazyness back on the east coast with the Supreme Court aloowing the taking of private property so it can be given to a private company to build a factory. What is next???? I thought we were supposed to have a government of the people, by the people and that it was FOR the people. Our so called leaders are basically telling us that we are not entitled to own our own property if somebody richer wants it, or we are too stupid to vote on what taxes we are willing to pay. Check out the "No New Gas Tax" web site at also, look at this report on the supreme court ruling and what it can do for retailers. I don't mind being paid fair market value if you need to build a school or expand a road but taking people's land for the use and gain of a private company?!?!?!?! I think not! I know I wouldn't go without a fight... I think of my self as a good upstanding member of the community but if you try to take my lad for a Wal-Mart or Target then you'll see the next Ruby Ridge typ stand off. Where is it going to end? They laugh at our votes, if they even count them, and they go against our wishes because they can. What is this country comming to? I support my President 100% and I love my country with all of my heart but isn't it MY country or does it belong to "them"? I have and will continue to fight for my country when it asks but I want to know when the people are going to force the government to act in the spirit of the first continental congress or even try to live up to what our founding fathers had in mind? Thats enough for now as I am getting madder and madder all of the time. I sure don't need to say anything that could get me in to trouble now do I? ;-)

If you expect a nation to be
ignorant and free, you expect
what never was and can never be.
Thomas Jefferson

American Soldiers are being called Nazis!

Senator Dick Durbin has been calling the American Soldiers Nazis and says that our prison facilities are no better than the Soviet gulags. The last time I checked, neither of those groups cared about prayer time, special meals or any other human rights that we as Americans hold dear. Sure, interrogation isn't a pretty sight but we are not harming or killing our prisoners like they are doing in Iraq! You'd never see any of our soldiers chopping the head off of a prisoner or anything like what they are doing to our people. I am sick and tired of our own so called "leaders" running down our hard working soldiers while they sit in their fancy office and live with no risk to their lives or property. These people have no idea what it is like on the battle field and are only making comments like that to gain political points with the portion of the country that is against this war. If people want to comment on conditions for prisoners, they should live like the militants are making our people live for awhile and see who has the better deal. Any of the things that we have done to the detainees that might seem foul to the American people is more like a joke on a frat member than the treatment they could expect from the enemy. Has everybody forgotten that we were attacked by middle eastern people? Have they forgotten that they kill their own people by the truck load? Have they forgotten that we are helping improve the lives of millions of people by giving them the freedom to control their own lives? War is not pretty so stop trying to make it a game. People get hurt, rules are broken but at the end of the day we can hold our heads high and know that we acted with honor and like soldiers. Every one who thinks otherwise be damned!

I REALLY want to hear your comments on this one. Please let me know how you feel!

Thoughts on the news coverage of Iraq

I've been watching the news lately and I am getting pretty upset at what I am seeing. All that the major news stations talk about are the bombings, soldiers getting killed, and every other bad thing that they can pick up. I want to hear about some of the other things that are happening like the school and the medical clinic that I took part in opening as well as the park and city sewer and the power distribution center that we helped get going. I want to hear about the evil people that we helped capture and the kids that we brought shoes and toys to. I am very upset with how little the people that I talk to actually know about the good things that are happening over in Iraq. All most know is that the death toll of American service members is about 1700. They have no idea that about 1/3 of those are heart attacks, vehicle accidents, deaths from falling, and other every day mishaps. I don't care why we are there, all I know is that if we leave now all we are doing is causing more people to suffer and that will cause hate, and it will be a hate that we earned. All you see on CNN, ABC, CBS and the others is Abu Garab and the supposed flushing of a Koran in Cuba. Show the photos of the executions, beheadings, gassings and every other thing that has been done to these people over the years. We have a long way to go and I say we stick it out! Don't let people that can't see past their own BMW's hood emblem sway us away from this good cause. Show your support and if you don't know what is actually going on, try asking a soldier that has served over there how he feels about the kids that are on their patrol route or the people that are so poor they make our homeless look like kings.

Let me know how you feel about this....I can't be the only one!

Resource links added

I have added a couple of links at the bottom of the main page to places like Army Knowledge On-Line, National Archives, and the V.A. I will add more resource links as I get them so check back often. Let me know what info you might be looking for and I will track down the site and post it here.

Problems relating to friends and family

Over the last 2 months of being home I have gone through a roller coaster of feelings. I've been happy to be with everybody, sad that I haven't been able to do all of the things that I had thought about doing when I got home, frustrated that people I talk to have no idea of what is gong on in Iraq and what we all have been through. I have always been a respectable soldier, in fact I have been called "RoboSoldier" by some of my friends because I am a point and shoot type of guy. If I am given an order I carry it out, plain and simple....now I find that I look at the people I currently work for (in a temp. staff position) and I have a hard time believing that what they want me to do is important. After all, finishing paper work or drafting a report isn't exactly the same as my normal job as a gunner on an M1A1 or my job in Iraq running a gun truck and its crew. I know that as a professional soldier I don't have a choice but it still gets to me. I know I'm not the only one that is going through this, I'd love to hear from some of you out there that have just gotten home. Let me know how you are dealing with the family members that don't understand what changes have taken place in your life or the co-workers that haven't been there and done that. Do you ever feel like you'd rather just go back to Iraq so you can be apart of something important or are you happy to have it behind you? Let me know!

Handing out goodies to the Iraqi Family Villiage
This took place last summer in the villiage out side Camp Victory. We were located part way between Baghdad's downtown area and the international airport.

Big BOOM!

On convoy duty someplace between Baghdad and Balad

Some photos from Iraq

I only have a minute since the Army is keeping me very busy at the moment, but I wanted to post a couple of pictures from my stay in Iraq. There will be more posts as well as more photos to follow but for now......duty calls!