Tuesday - April 07, 2009
EVERY HOMEOWNER’S NIGHTMARE. HOME INVASION BY VIOLENT GANG. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE FEAR.
As the saying goes, when seconds count the police are only minutes away. Maybe that should be ‘hours away’ in the UK?
I used to think A Clockwork Orange was a violent fantasy. Now it seems inevitable. The rule of law is nearly dead there.
A Comment left by Guido at BMEWS
The following article, written by the homeowner is a long one. As a rule with something this long I copy part of it and direct you to the rest if interested.
But this is one of a couple that will be posted and I am including all of it. It’s pretty scary and fortunately this family came out of it in one piece.
As I read this I could but think, as many of you will no doubt, it could have been over in seconds had the homeowner been armed.
Due to a rash of stabbings and home invasions and general mayhem, the laws here have finally conceded a person’s right to defend home and family.
I don’t know how far that “right” extends however.
Just to give you an idea of the mindset of this populace, while many over the last few weeks have written in favor of gun ownership, most still have their heads well buried in the sand. They say things like, “Oh please let us not go the route of America.” “No Guns” they cry ignoring the fact the thugs and brutes ARE armed themselves and care nothing for little things like, law and order. Worse yet is that the thugs enjoy hurting. They get off on it.
It is rare indeed to find a home robbery where even after the owner is tied up and helpless to stop a robbery, that the thieves leave without beating up the helpless owner. And heaven help the family with women involved and especially young girls. You get the picture.
PLEASE read every damn word of this. It isn’t often I ask that of BMEWS.
Every homeowner’s nightmare: A mother describes the terrifying night seven burglars tried to smash into her family home.Last updated at 3:32 PM on 07th April 2009
Just before 11pm on a perfectly ordinary Sunday night four weeks ago, I locked the front door, turned off the lights and went upstairs.
My husband, Laurence, was in bed, our eight-year-old daughter, Rosa, and five-year-old son, Louis, were fast asleep and our tree-lined road in a middle-class suburb of North London seemed as safe and quiet as it always did.
Three hours later, just before 2am, Laurence leapt out of bed and tore downstairs, roaring like an animal. Immediately awake and aware we were in danger, I followed him, to find two masked men standing in our hall. It was everybody’s nightmare.
Without a word, the men walked out of the front door - which they had smashed open - and my husband locked it behind them with the only bolt still working.
For a moment, we thought that was the end of an almost surreal experience. Seconds later, we realised it was just the start.
The men weren’t alone, and they were in no hurry to leave.
Outside our house was a gang of seven or eight hooded men, probably in their late teens, wearing balaclavas. Fired up to the point of frenzy, possibly on drugs, they began smashing through the glass panels of our front door with iron bars and bricks, egging each other on.
The locks were already broken from when they’d first gained entry and soon the one remaining bolt, which Laurence had just secured, was smashed off.
All that was holding the door was my husband, a kind and gentle solicitor of 5ft 8in.
I stood behind him, shouting at them to leave, as Laurence pushed against what was left of our door to keep them out.
Glass was shattering all around him as an iron bar smashed through the door panels, missing his head by inches each time it came through the door.
The gang were already making enough noise to wake up several neighbours, and it dawned on me that being caught by the police wasn’t an outcome they seemed frightened by.
My husband yelled at me to call the police, but I didn’t want to leave him alone to face the mass of bodies that were throwing themselves at our door. All I could see of their masked faces was the hatred in their eyes.
Being seen by their peers to be chased out of the house by a middle-aged man in pyjama bottoms must have been unthinkable, and they were clearly bent on revenge.
Shouting ‘We’re gonna get you, you bastard’, they started inflicting as much violence and terror as they could.
At that moment, I was convinced nothing could stop them getting into our hall - and I had no doubts that if and when they did, they would set about Laurence with those bars and bricks and smash his skull. He was fighting for our lives.
My next thought was that if he couldn’t keep them out, what would these men do if they found me and our children defenceless upstairs?
After a minute or so - which, believe me, feels like an hour when someone is smashing your front door in - I rushed upstairs to call 999, convinced that I needed to be between those men and our children as it could only be seconds before my husband would be battered to the ground in our hallway.
As I listened to the operator slowly spelling out my address for the second time, I remember noticing how calm my voice sounded when I said: ‘I can’t stay on the phone to you. They’re breaking the door down now and he can’t possibly hold them off much longer.’
I heard my eight-year-old daughter, her voice shaking with fear, calling ‘Mummy . . .’ from her bedroom.
Still sounding bizarrely calm, I tried to reassure her: ‘I’ll come to you as soon as I can, darling, I just need to finish speaking to the police.’
Then I started imagining what I’d do if they killed Laurence. Surely he couldn’t still be fending them off.
How was I going to get downstairs to see if he was still alive without our daughter following me down and seeing him or his body?
In the next minute or so, while I was still on the phone to the police, the men gave up their assault and ran off - I’m still not sure why, perhaps because they knew neighbours would have called 999 and it could only be a matter of seconds before the police turned up.
Moments later, I could hear Laurence talking to the neighbours who had come out to see if we were all right.
Within seven minutes of my 999 call, two young female police officers arrived - one turned out to be 23 and the other was little over five foot.
For a moment, I was almost thankful they’d turned up after the gang had left and not before. Would they have been safe to get out of their squad car?
Our neighbours certainly hadn’t dared to come out while the yobs were still there - and I don’t blame them for a second. Confronting a gang like that wasn’t a risk I’d advocate taking.
When the policewomen arrived, the two young WPCs looked at us apologetically and with embarrassment as they began to receive repeated requests via their radios to leave us to attend to other incidents. It was clear the police were woefully under-staffed that night.
I was still feeling detached as I hugged my daughter, who was shaking uncontrollably, and listened as one of the WPCs explained into her radio: ‘This is not an ordinary burglary. It’s aggravated burglary and the house is a crime scene. We cannot leave these people - they’re terrified.’
Disbelievingly, I stared at our hallway, strewn with broken glass and bricks, as she explained that there should have been 30 police officers on duty in our area that night, but they were down to 15 and there was no budget for overtime.
They asked my husband if he’d fallen out with anyone recently. ‘Those aren’t the sort of circles I mix in,’ he explained quietly. ‘If I fell out with someone, they wouldn’t invite us to their dinner parties for a while.’
After almost an hour, one of the WPCs left to attend another incident. With broken windows and the bare remnants of our front door, there was no way of securing the house so, because the gang had threatened to return, the younger WPC stayed with us.
Laurence, miraculously unharmed bar a few minor cuts, was in a trance-like state and asked if we’d mind if he went to bed. He was oblivious to the blood and glass fragments that covered his head, body and feet. I suggested he have a shower first.
Thankfully, our son had slept through the violence, so I was able to put our daughter to bed and managed to cuddle her back to sleep while I tried to make sense of what had happened.
Laurence’s motorbike and our estate car were parked in the drive, and it struck me that the gang must have wanted the keys.
But the level of violence was beyond belief. Our ordinary terrace four-bedroom house in a suburban street was neither rough nor grand. It seemed an unlikely location for an extraordinary act of random violence.
As I soothed my daughter to sleep, the magnitude of what Laurence had done to protect us began to dawn on me. He is no macho have-a-go hero, but when our lives depended on it, he turned out to be so very brave.
I also knew we had been lucky, and I was aware of how easily the ordeal might have ended differently.
I didn’t want to leave the young WPC downstairs on her own, so I went back down to sit with her.
In the darkest hours between Sunday night and Monday morning, I listened to the numerous incidents coming through on her radio. There were two stabbings and a rape in our borough alone.
Forensics were also under-staffed that night. Because our house was a crime scene, I couldn’t clear up until someone had checked for fingerprints and run DNA tests on the blood on our door, some of which might have belonged to the gang, but no one was available.
The routine seemed all too familiar to the WPC, as she negotiated for a neighbouring borough to send over someone.
At 6.30am, a man came to bolt metal sheets on to our windows and door, and the WPC and man from forensics left.
When my five-year-old son woke up at 7am and wanted breakfast, I carried him downstairs and explained that someone had tried to steal Daddy’s motorbike.
The hall was dark because of the metal hoardings, the floor was littered with glass fragments and an iron bar in a police evidence bag was sitting on the table.
While the children ate their cereal, Laurence removed the bricks that had been thrown through the windows. I told him that what he’d done that night was the bravest thing I’d ever seen, but he insisted bravery had nothing to do with it.
‘I had no choice,’ he said. ‘There was never a decision to make. All I knew was that I had to keep them on the other side of that door.
‘The alternative was far, far worse. Can you imagine what they could have done to us?’
My husband isn’t the sort of man who readily tells me how much he loves me or comes home with flowers but, as he held me tightly that morning, I doubt any woman has ever felt more loved.
Both still in a state of shock, we felt dazed and detached rather than relieved or traumatised.
Laurence went to work as usual and I took the children to school before I could clear up, organise new locks, emergency glass and an alarm system.
Later that day, I began to wonder if I was deluding myself that we’d all survived the ordeal. I had to stop myself from phoning Laurence’s office and the school to check I really did have a husband at work and two children at school.
That afternoon, Laurence returned from work as two detectives from CID arrived. But they asked very few questions and by the time they’d left, Laurence and I realised the chances of any of the gang being caught were slim. Four weeks later, there have been no arrests. The blood tests for DNA still aren’t back from forensics.
Meanwhile, we are still trying to piece together the information to make some sense of what happened that night.
Local police told me that the gang had been on a spree that night and there had been other incidents nearby. Some neighbours told us they’d seen seven figures, another had counted eight.
Two neighbours had heard men shout ‘Get back in there and get the keys off the f***er’, so it seems likely they wanted keys to our car parked outside.
We’ll never have all the answers, but we know we were horribly unlucky the gang happened to pass our house that night. And we were lucky that, ostensibly, we are all right. But the experience has changed us.
My daughter Rosa talked about what happened for the first couple of days.
She repeated the information that she had found comforting. ‘I knew from the breaking glass that people were trying to get in, so I cuddled my duvet really tightly,’ she told me.
‘To block out the horrible noises, I kept saying to myself “Mummy will come to me as soon as she can - Mummy will come to me as soon as she can.” ‘
In some ways, she seems to have moved on from what happened in the same way she would after reading a book or watching a film.
In fiction, bad things happen but if you do the right things, it’s all right in the end and everyone lives happily ever after. So too in life, she thinks. For the moment, at least.
Having not talked about it for a fortnight or so, last night in bed she asked me why ‘bad people want to hurt children, kill people and steal things’. I told her that was a very good question and I’d been thinking about it a lot, too.
I’m waiting for her to ask me whether the police have caught the men who came that night. I’m not sure how I’ll answer that question.
Louis is finding night-times difficult, too. He dreams of ‘angry monsters who cut through buildings and people’s necks with sharp things as high as the sky’ and wakes up soaked in sweat with his heart pounding.
I find the nights hard, and lie awake analysing every sound. Is it inside the house or outside? Is it familiar or not? Is my son having another nightmare?
The scenes from that night still replay in my mind like a horror movie and I can’t help but wonder what does have to happen to people to make them capable of such hatred and violence.
I wouldn’t have blamed Laurence if he’d given up or run up the stairs after me. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t love him any less, although I suppose you never really know. But I do know that what happened that night has made me love him more.
For a week or two, I was so pleased he was still alive that I didn’t mind his socks on the floor, the unfinished washing up or even the snoring. Now, as normality slowly resumes, he jokes that being a hero didn’t last long.
I still see him differently, though. I know that when I needed him, he did what all husbands and fathers hope they’ll do - but fear they won’t.
He used every ounce of himself to stop our children’s lives becoming a tragedy. And I will always be grateful for that.
Posted by peiper
on 04/07/2009 at 10:26 AM
Filed Under: • Crime • Daily Life • Self-Defense • UK •
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Permalink • Tuesday - March 31, 2009
Five-foot female fitness fanatic pins knife-wielding attacker to a wall. And she’s 50 too btw.
Man you do not wanna mess with this little lady. And 5’ is little.
There is a rather grainy photo online at the link shows her and the gremlin.
Good story and bravo her. Took some guts.
Five-foot female fitness fanatic pins knife-wielding attacker to a wall
By Jaya Narain
Last updated at 2:23 PM on 31st March 2009When she saw a knifeman repeatedly stab a man in the face and neck before leaving him for dead in the street, Georgina Harmer was appalled.
But without a thought for her own safety, the feisty 50-year-old gave chase and grabbed hold of the thug.
Then she got him in a headlock, pinned him against a wall and valiantly held on for 10 long minutes until police arrived and arrested him.
Georgina Harmer pinning knife-wielding attacker Wesley Ogden to a wall. The 50-year-old held him there for 10 minutes until police arrived
Yesterday she was praised for her bravery as knifeman Wesley Ogden, 28, was jailed for the horrific attack.
The incident happened last August when Miss Harmer, a customer service advisor for O2, was enjoying a night out with friends Alan Keown, 48, and his girlfriend Pamela Nabb, 40.
The group went outside The Clarence pub in Bury, Greater Manchester for a cigarette where they were confronted by Ogden who had been earlier thrown out of the pub causing trouble.
He made a sexual remark towards Miss Nabb, prompting a verbal dispute with her boyfriend that turned into a scuffle.
Ogden then produced a knife and started to repeatedly stab Mr Keown in the face and body in a frenzied assault.
Wesley OgdenWesley Ogden repeatedly stabbed Miss Harmer’s friend in the face and neck
As 6ft 2in Ogden ran off down the road, Miss Harmer - who is just 5ft 4in tall and weighs eight stone - gave chase and tackled him outside a bank before pinning him to the wall in a headlock.
CCTV pictures from cameras located at the HSBC bank dramatically capture the bravery of her citizen’s arrest.
As she desperately clung on to Ogden, a doorman from a nearby pub came over and helped her restrain him until police arrived.
Last night she said: ‘I think I was just running on adrenaline. It didn’t take me long to catch him. I pinned him against the wall, put him in a headlock.
‘It’s fair to say I applied pressure between his groin - that’s the polite way of putting it - and restrained him and he was wincing in agony.
‘He was denying that it was him that had done it, but I was saying “It’s you”. I struggled with him - but I wouldn’t let go of him until I knew the police had him.’
Miss Harmer, a former pub landlady from Radcliffe, said: ‘There wasn’t a lot going through my mind really, I just didn’t want him to get away - I wanted to go back and make sure Alan was alright. It was really serious, I think a few people thought it would be fatal - there was so much blood.
‘I do keep myself fit, I run an under-18s rounders team and I go power walking twice a week. I used to weight-lifting a long time ago, but I’m too old for that now. I’m very active although I don’t have a regime as such - but I think it did help.’
Mr Keown was rushed to hospital where he was treated for four serious wounds to his face and body, but his injuries were not life-threatening and he recovered.
Ogden of Oldham, was convicted of wounding with intent to cause grevious bodily harm and assault following a trial at Bolton Crown Court and was told he must serve at least three-and-a-half years behind bars.
Ogden, pleaded not guilty, despite the number of witnesses who saw the assault.
Detective Inspector Sarah Jackson, of Bury CID, said: ‘Ogden is an extremely violent and dangerous man who had the temerity to plead not guilty despite the numerous witnesses who saw this savage assault.
‘He belongs behind bars and I am glad that is where he will now be spending his foreseeable future.
‘While what the victim’s friends did was undoubtedly risky, I would like to praise their bravery. In particular, the woman who put her own safety at risk and chased Ogden through the town centre, detaining a very strong and dangerous man, was incredibly courageous and her selfless actions have helped put a violent man behind bars.’
Miss Harmer, who says a policewoman friend once gave her a few self defence tips, said: ‘I’m very pleased with the sentence - I hope this will be a deterrent to people carrying knives and give confidence to witness who have doubts about coming forward. They shouldn’t be scared.
‘If this guy wasn’t taken off the streets he probably would have done it again and it could have been a murder.’
Posted by peiper
on 03/31/2009 at 10:05 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - March 26, 2009
the UN Human Rights Council is simply a mouthpiece for the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
A headline on a site that features a roundup of European news caught my eye.
Actually one word stood out and grabbed my attention. That word was Eurabian.
So naturally I had to read the whole thing and I think you should too. Not that you don’t already know this stuff. But the way it’s presented and the facts lined up as they are make for some very interesting reading. Maybe pretty scary as well because Baron Bodissey, Gates of Vienna, seems to have covered all the bases and there isn’t anything to guess about. Of course he isn’t the only one writing about islam and the the threat to the West. But he strikes me as being right up there among the most articulate trying to raise the alarm. A modern day Paul Revere.
The question is, is anyone with decision making powers listening? I kind of doubt it and have come to the disagreeable conclusion that both the UK and Europe are Doomed.
Their “diversity” and their “multi-culturism” will not save them. In fact, it hastens their demise.
Maybe a bit off topic but .... how the hell do diplomats and lessor beings pronounce these wacky names? I mean, if one needs to communicate, how daydodat? Ihsanoglu?
What is Eurabian Culture?
Gates of Vienna 20 March 2009
By Baron BodisseyI’ve written so many times in this space about the OIC (the Organization of the Islamic Conference) that it sometimes feels like I do nothing but fisk Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.
The latest output from Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu shows the shape of things to come, and does not bode well for the future of Europe.
In other words: in order to honor its own stated principles of Multiculturalism, Europe must allow the establishment of sharia law in its Muslim enclaves.
It will have no other choice.
Watch for the worldwide version of all this to pop up at the UN in the near future. Europe is just the test market.
Wherever the minarets and the halal food appear, the genital mutilation and honor killings will also be found.
Islam is of a piece. You can’t have the headscarf and the muezzin without all the abominations as well.
Islam has no claim to any universality except in the sense that it has a knife at the throat of the universe.
This is just a taste of all he has to say. Please fall by the gates and read all the rest. It’s a long read but a very fast one.
Posted by peiper
on 03/26/2009 at 06:00 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - October 09, 2008
Tiny mouse turned the tables on a deadly snake and turned from hunted to hunter.
WELL GIVE THREE CHEERS AND THREE CHEERS MORE ..............
DANGER MOUSE
Pictured: The moment a tiny mouse turned the tables on a deadly snake and turned from hunted to hunterBy Eddie Wrenn
Last updated at 1:38 PM on 09th October 2008A plucky little mouse turned the tables on a venomous snake after it was served up as lunch and bit the reptile to death.
The rodent was thrown into the snake’s cage but proceeded to fight for its life.It went on the offensive and, after an epic half-hour scrap, got the upper hand with the serpent.
Face-off: The snake and mouse stare each other down as battle commences.
Open wide: The mouse served up as lunch makes a counter-attack on the viper, leading to a 30 minute fight to the death.The snake had been found in a home in Nantoun, Taiwan, and firefighters took it back to the station before deciding to serve it a light lunch. But they weren’t expecting the prey to become the killer.
A spokesman for the station said: ‘It attacked the snake continuously, biting and scratching it. Perhaps the snake used up all its venom.’
Posted by Drew458
on 10/09/2008 at 01:09 PM
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Permalink • Saturday - September 13, 2008
New toys!
My weekend off coincided with a local gun show. I have . . . had . . . a few hundred dollars on hand. I was also rudely awakened about 2:00 this morning by several shots being fired somewhere nearby. Near enough that I awoke from a dream thinking someone was pounding on my front door. Worried? Hell yeah!
Plus I’m registered for a concealed-carry course next month and have absolutely nothing to wear . . . er . . . conceal.
What did I get?
Anyone have any thoughts on that?
Posted by Christopher
on 09/13/2008 at 10:11 PM
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff • Guns and Gun Control • Self-Defense •
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Permalink • Monday - July 28, 2008
MOONBAT ALERT, HIGH PRIORTY. FROM CALIFORNIA THIS TIME. WHERE ELSE?
Good Morning BMEWS posters and lurkers and those passing thru.
This story was originally found in London’s Telegraph . Of course, the Telegraph being the Telegraph, I had to go to the source (USA) for this story. Which is why the link takes you to the Herald.
The thing is, I can see Brits reading this and saying, hold on a minute. And we’re crazy? Well no. But you might have an awful lot of Californians living here who call themselves Brits. Get confusing.
While this story is a few days old, it only just appeared here this morning. I think the whole idea is typically California STUPID. But ya know, Ca. isn’t the only place. These folks are surely delusional.
FAST DRAWS ATTENTION TO VIOLENCE
Salinas residents battle gang troubles in their own way
By CLAUDIA MELÉNDEZ SALINAS
Herald Salinas Bureau
Article Last Updated: 07/25/2008 09:35:16 AM PDTThey’ve preached to their congregations against gang violence. They’ve knocked on doors and described to school groups the grief of losing their children to the streets. They’ve lobbied politicians for more money for law enforcement and after-school programs.
And this week they’re fasting for peace. The weeklong, citywide fast started Sunday.
Heeding a call from Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue, hundreds — perhaps thousands — of Salinas residents are abstaining from food and praying in an effort to cure the city of one of its greatest ills. Many are community activists who have been long involved in the city’s fight against crime.
People are participating in different ways. Josie Camarena is giving up junk food and other snacks that she craves, but that are not healthful to eat. The Rev. Gary Dean Gallegos of Victory Mission is giving up food from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
In the latest effort to contain gang violence in Salinas, the faithful are facing the skepticism of people who don’t believe abstaining from earthly needs will prevent gang members from killing each other on the city’s streets.
But, for the most part, those committed to their weeklong fast remain unmoved.
“I had a lot of negative calls yesterday,” said Deborah Aguilar, a peace activist and advisory member of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention Program. “Some people just want to mock and laugh and see if I’ll defend our leaders, and I
don’t need to do that. That’s the purpose of our fast: to promote peace, to pray. There’s too much negativity already.”
Armed with Bibles, “Fasting for Peace” buttons and an unflinching faith in their intentions, the activists believe theirs is a worthy cause and are encouraging each other in meetings.
Some say they have the power to touch the hearts of hardened criminals, people who would stop at nothing to eliminate a gang rival. Others are praying to keep their children out of harm’s way. Most are gathering strength to continue on their daily struggles without giving up.
“I’ve lived here all my life, and I’ve seen how (the violence) is affecting me personally,” Camarena said. “Even though we’re not involved in gangs, it affects us. If my children are playing in the front of the house, I don’t feel safe.”
With 17 homicides this year in Salinas, the city is on a record-breaking pace. The number is the highest in Salinas since 2004, when there were 20. The worst annual record was 24 slayings in 1994.
The latest homicide occurred July 13, when Maria De la Torre was killed by two police officers who believed she was threatening them with a sharp object.
City officials and community activists are trying every trick in the book to tackle the problem. Police presence doubled in the streets after a rash of shootings, community meetings erupted after a particularly bloody weekend, and the reinvigorated library system distributed library cards to all elementary school students, with the idea that literacy prevents crime.
But the street violence isn’t confined by city boundaries. Ray Torres lost his 20-year-old child to a stabbing in Castroville nearly two years ago, and now he and his wife make school presentations to tell their story.
“I really believe that, with prayer and fasting, the Lord will see how sincere we are, and he’s going to give these guys out there doing violence a second thought about it,” Torres said. “Prayer is very powerful, but you don’t hear people praying until something bad happens to them.”
The idea of a fast was born during a meeting of the Monterey County Pastors Prayer Partners, a religious group that preaches on the streets on Saturday nights, when gang warfare intensifies.
During Thursday’s meeting, the clergy called the fast successful and decided to extend it for another week.
“We can’t just let it die,” The Rev. Frank Gomez of the United Methodist Church told the group. “We can’t just say, ‘We did it,’ and that’s it. There has to be some tangible, and it has to be the bringing of the community together.”
Donohue, who visited the group, agreed to end the first week of fasting at 4 p.m. Sunday in front of the First United Methodist Church on Lincoln Avenue. He told the group he received calls from other communities interested in duplicating the fast. He will pitch the idea of a statewide fast to the California Cities Gang Prevention Network at the group’s meeting in August.
For all the naysayers, there are hundreds of others taking up the cause and fasting to strengthen their peace movement, participants said.
The publicity has shone a light on a problem that usually only gets attention when a shooting takes place.
“Clearly, the idea of fasting struck a chord,” Donohue said.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/28/2008 at 02:04 AM
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Permalink • Saturday - July 05, 2008
US Pentagon doubts Israeli intelligence over Iran’s nuclear programme
Looks like things might get very interesting before long.
Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 6:38PM BST 05/07/2008Pentagon chiefs fear that Israeli plans for an attack on Iran’s nuclear programme will fail to destroy the facilities because neither the CIA nor Mossad knows where every base is located
American commanders worry that Israel will feel compelled to act within the next 12 months with no guarantee that they can do more than slow Iran’s development of a weapon capable of destroying the Jewish state.
Gaps in the intelligence on the precise location and vulnerabilities of Iran’s facilities emerged during recent talks between Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Israeli generals, according to an official familiar with the discussions who has briefed Iran experts in Washington and London.
The assessment emerged as Iran in effect thumbed its nose at proposals by the West to freeze its uranium enrichment programme in exchange for easing economic sanctions. In its reply, sent to the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, Iran said it was prepared to negotiate but only from a position of equality – and made no reference to the specific proposals.
At the same time Gen Mohammed al-Jafari, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, warned that any attack on Iran would be “regarded as the beginning of war”.
A former head of Mossad, the agency whose main responsibility is overseas intelligence, told The Sunday Telegraph last week that Israel would have to act within a year to prevent Iran securing nuclear weapons.
Those familiar with the Israeli-American military talks believe that Israel is still determined to act before Iran has enough highly enriched uranium to build a bomb, and before Tehran has acquired the Russian SA-20 air defence system to protect its nuclear facilities. “The Israelis have a real sense of urgency,” the official said. “They are stepping up their preparations. But the Israelis and the Americans are worried about the other’s lack of intelligence.
“The Americans had spies in Iran until they were rounded up in 2003 and now they do not have much by way of humint [human intelligence] on the ground. The Israelis have better information. But the Americans went away from the meetings unconvinced that the Israelis have enough intelligence on where to strike, and with little confidence that they will be able to destroy the nuclear programme.”
The shortage of good intelligence could explain reports that President George W Bush has quietly sanctioned a dramatic increase in covert operations by American special forces inside Iran. These intelligence gaps lay behind Admiral Mullen’s decision to speak out on Wednesday against military action, saying it would be “extremely stressful” to “open a third front” in the war on terror. But the admiral is at odds with hawks in the Bush administration, led by Vice-President Dick Cheney.
A former CIA officer with three decades of Iranian experience said: “Their belief… is that the US would get the blame from Iran whether or not we play a major role in any attack, so we might as well do the job properly.”
Former defence and intelligence officers who advise the Pentagon have disclosed that the US military is looking into possible outcomes for military attacks featuring varying levels of American involvement.
The ex-CIA officer told The Sunday Telegraph that the planned attacks ranged from a full-blown assault on 2,000 targets inside Iran to logistics and intelligence support for Israel, if the Jewish state decided to go it alone.
The United States is preparing ways to cope with retaliation from Iran, likely to include attempts to cut off oil supplies, block the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf and launch attacks on American naval ships there and on US bases in Bahrain. The US Navy has recently changed its rules of engagement for warships in the Gulf to make them better able to combat “swarming” attacks by large numbers of small boats, used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Iran could also attack Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility, or even oil production and processing facilities elsewhere in the Gulf, according to a report published last
week by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an influential think tank with close links to both the US and Israeli governments.
http://tinyurl.com/6pqhcc
Posted by Drew458
on 07/05/2008 at 01:36 PM
Filed Under: • Israel • Self-Defense •
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Permalink • Sunday - May 25, 2008
USCCA Video of the Week
Posted by Christopher
on 05/25/2008 at 12:25 PM
Filed Under: • Crime • Guns and Gun Control • Self-Defense •
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Permalink • Thursday - April 24, 2008
MAKE THREATS TO KILL, OFFER ARRIVING POLICE A CUP OF TEA. NOW THAT’S ENGLISH.
I know there’s far more serious stuff out there, but there was just no way to resist posting this.
Yeah I know it can be serious but I guess my sense of humor is a bit twisted because I think this is funny.
Oh BTW .... at the moment we are having one hell of a HAIL storm. Sheets of it. So, about global warming.
Oh yeah .. this post on another subject.
This is from The Hampshire Chronicle, which is a weekly paper.
Man cleared of threats to bank manager
A PARISH councillor threatened to blow his bank manager’s head off with a shotgun, a court heard.
Gerry Tull, 60, sent a fax to Lloyds TSB’s Winchester branch containing the warning after “being brought to the brink by bureaucratic incompetence”, Andover magistrates were told.
It led to armed police swooping on his home in Main Road, Owslebury, last November, and arresting him on suspicion of making threats to kill.
But yesterday (April 16) Mr Tull, a farmer, was cleared of lesser charges of sending an offensive letter or article and sending an offensive or menacing message after prosecutors asked for him to be acquitted.
The member of Owslebury Parish Council was bound over in the sum of £500 to keep the peace for two years and ordered not to issue threats to Lloyds TSB staff.
Mr Tull said after the hearing that the threat stemmed from a dispute, lasting nearly two years, between him and the bank.
He switched the account of his farming business to Lloyds TSB from HSBC in early 2006, but claimed he experienced a catalogue of errors after the move.For several months there was an impasse with his overdraft, he said, which forced him to use cash for all business dealings.
He added that Lloyds TSB mistakenly sent him somebody else’s account details, and when he told staff, they did not act.
To prove a point, Mr Tull used the details to create a bogus internet bank account, which he then cancelled.
He added that he exposed banking flaws a decade ago by applying for a credit card with another firm in the name of Rocky, his now-deceased Jack Russell.
It proved successful, and Mr Tull kept the dog’s card - which has a £4,000 limit - as a souvenir.
Last August, he reached a deal with managers to leave Lloyds TSB, having repaid his overdraft.
However, he needed a final statement for his accounts, but despite lengthy phone calls, he said it did not arrive for nearly three months, and when it did it was wrong.
Having lost patience, he faxed Lloyds TSB in Winchester saying he would blow the manager’s head off with a shotgun.
“This would have been a bit difficult, as I don’t have a gun,”
he added.However, the bank took it seriously, called police, and ten armed officers in four vehicles swooped on his home the next morning.
Mr Tull added: “I was making breakfast and then I heard a bang, bang’ at the door. They were saying come out with your hands up’, and I was saying come in and have a cup of tea’.”
Police marched him away in handcuffs and questioned him for several hours. He was released on bail and later charged.
Magistrates also ruled that Mr Tull could reclaim all legal costs, estimated to be about £4,000, incurred after an initial hearing in early April.
Lloyds TSB declined to comment.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/24/2008 at 08:05 AM
Filed Under: • Humor • Miscellaneous • Self-Defense •
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Permalink • Friday - April 04, 2008
Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership
Oleg Volk is an artist and activist. His photos on self-protection are deep and striking. So when a site called “Social Images” published a number of his posters in an attempt to demonize the “gun culture”, the grassroots have come to call a spade a spade.
Wander over and politely toss in your $.02.
Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership
Some of the first comments come from the left:
dorotha
January 7, 2008 6:35 AM
These are bizarre and terrifying, but I’m not sure how widely spread they are. I’m not sure it is right to attribute them to the “pro-gun lobby.” I’m not sure what the “pro-gun lobby” is in this case. The website these images come from seems to be the project of one individual. Are these images used by the NRA?
I just want to clarify where these come from. It seems relevant. They totally freak me out, don’t get me wrong, but I need a little more information before I make any judgements about the site they come from. Incidentally, they seem to come from this website originally. Not the t-shirt website.
Gwen
January 10, 2008 10:48 PM
The idea that the only way we think we can make a safer, better society is for everyone to carry a gun is incredibly sad. It’s also individualistic--the answer to racism, rape, and gay bashing is to carry a gun, not have any form of social organizing.
And I doubt that if women started shooting men who attempt to rape them that would be seen as “empowering” in our culture--particularly since most women are raped by people they know. We’re already suspicious of women who say they were raped by someone they were on a date with; what happens when women start shooting them? I’m doubtful this will be accepted as a positive change.Remember the reaction to Lorena Bobbitt? She didn’t exactly meet with social approval--and she didn’t kill him.
I grew up in rural Oklahoma, surrounded by guns. And I know what it’s like to have one family member using guns as a way to control another. I don’t think that my mom or us kids would have been “empowered"--or safer--if only she’d been willing to use a gun too.
Interrobang
March 12, 2008 10:14 PM
The Holocaust ones are particularly offensive. When the agents of the totalitarian state come for you, they always come in groups. What are you going to do, pull your gun and have three of them shoot you before you can shoot one of them? Either way, you’re just as dead.
A friend of mine was trans-bashed in Baltimore by a gang of six guys. A gun wouldn’t have helped him, and in fact might have gotten him shot with his own gun—you can really only point a handgun at one person at a time.
The solution to reducing crime isn’t more guns, it’s a better-functioning society.
Of course, Oleg got to answer the detractors
Oleg Volk
January 10, 2008 4:46 PM
As the author of the images, I am curious what makes them terrifying to you. The aim of my effort is to empower others.
What was their collective response? [cue crickets]
(Drew decided this needed a couple of Volk’s pics so he stuck them in.)
Posted by Drew458
on 04/04/2008 at 12:50 PM
Filed Under: • Art-Photography • Self-Defense •
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Permalink • Sunday - March 30, 2008
Sign o’ the Times, episode 4
Civil Engineers in Los Angeles and other cities have taken a step into the future by looking hundreds of years into the past. They have added a new requirement to their designs: the ability to deflect or defeat gunfire. This in itself is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in urban areas, but it makes good sense. If you can’t cut down on the violence, then try and make things safer for the people who have to live and work there.
Seniors in Steel Plaza’s retirement complex in Pico-Union sometimes like to take their morning walks in the building’s courtyard, protected by a black wrought-iron fence and perched 30 feet above the intersection of West 3rd Street and South Union Avenue.
“We’re quite safe here,” said Victor Gamad, 73, who has lived in the building since it opened a decade ago. “We never get frightened, except for when someone sets the fire alarm off.”
Steel Plaza, which opened in 1998, was designed to be “drive-by proof.” It is one of the early examples of what has become a growing movement in urban sections of Los Angeles to blend public safety with architecture.
“If you just build boxes and windows, you’re not going to help,” said City Councilman Ed Reyes, an urban planner who has adopted the safety-by-design strategy to deal with increasingly crowded neighborhoods.
...
“Every development is geared toward the people that have to live there on a day-to-day basis,” Reyes said. “When we look at the pragmatism of our neighborhoods, we have to ask questions: Where is the bullet going to come from? What projectile elevation should we adhere to in our development? Where should we situate the trees?”
...
Reyes said his goal is to reduce the effect of density. “We can either run away from it,” he said, “or we can ask how we can create relief so that we have our places of sanctuary.”
It looks to me like some folks are using their heads for once. Yes, it would be better if the crime and the shootings went away, but until that happens, it’s better to increase safety when you can. And if you can do it in a way that doesn’t make people feel like they’re living in armored boxes, so much the better.
Parks are being built with earth berms around them so that there is no direct line of flight from nearby streets; bullets fired there would either be stopped by the dirt, or pass way over the people using the place. I think I’d rather have my kids playing in such a place, if I had no other choice than to live in a drive-by kind of neighborhood.
One example of his office’s work is a 5-foot-high dirt hill built to shield visitors at Rio de Los Angeles State Park from drive-by shootings along San Fernando Road. The 40-acre tract, better known as Taylor Yard Park, opened last year.
The hill is fortified by a fence lined with bushes and trees on each side.
Anti-truck barriers are common everywhere these days, not just outside the US Embassy in DustBallistan. Some have even tried to make them attractive and to blend in with the overall architectural design. Naturally the NY Times worries a bit about how all this will impact our psyche, and sublty tries to blame it on Bush:
After 9/11, a craving for the solidity of walls reasserted itself. And the wars on terror, and fractious peaces, enforced it. The Green Zone in Baghdad, Jerusalem’s separation barrier, the concrete bollards that line corporate headquarters on Park Avenue — all are emblems of an unintended new mentality. Four years after the American invasion of Iraq, this state of siege is beginning to look more and more like a permanent reality, exhibited in an architectural style we might refer to as 21st-century medievalism.
I should note that New York City has very little in the way of drive-by shooting going on, especially in the posh areas like Park Avenue. But the Times did almost come up with a good name for this phenomenom, which I’ll call Modern Medievalism. No windows on the ground floor. All windows at least 3 feet off the floor. Double thick flooring. Thick walls that can stop bullets or at least really slow them down. Barriers that can stop charging vehicles. Strong fences, security cameras, living areas that face inwards like surrounded courtyards. If the world outside has turned evil, you do what you have to do to keep it out.
Casa Loma, a 110-unit residential facility for single parents about four blocks from Steel Plaza, was built in 1993 by the nonprofit group New Economics for Women, which worked closely with Reyes to design the building.
A year before construction, the nonprofit group asked local residents what they wanted in an apartment building. The result was one of the city’s first child-care centers in a public housing building, apartments built surrounding a large courtyard where parents could watch their children and laundry services on each floor. The apartments are above ground-level, and there are security cameras at all entrances.
“It’s done so the kids don’t have to sleep in the bathtub,” Reyes said. “I have parents telling me that they’re resorting to this because they don’t want their child to get hit by a bullet.”
Note: if you or your children are sleeping in the bathtub to hide from bullets, move. If you can’t - not won’t, but REALLY can’t move - then please make sure you have a cast iron tub. Plastic and fiberglass tubs won’t even slow the bullets down. Sandbags wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
While not actually intended to be bulletproof, many stores have found that they can reduce “smash ‘n grab” crimes by replacing their windows with laminated glass. Laminated glass has a layer or two of high strength plastic in between the sheets of glass, just like a car windshield. Hit it with a rock or a baseball bat and it will break, but into many little square pieces that tend to stay attached to the plastic. It takes more time to bust through, and the smash ‘n grabbers know that time is working against them.
“Laminated glass has gained such a reputation for security that, once the word is out in the criminal community that a store has installed laminated glass, the repeat occurrence of smash and grab attempts at that particular store drops dramatically!”
...
“Criminals will never dedicate more than two, or maximum three, minutes to a smash and grab attack since they know precisely the amount of time needed for the police to arrive from the first alarm bell”.
I do not know if laminated glass is available to the homeowner, but if I ever have to shop for replacement windows you can be sure it’s something I’ll be asking about.
What about the rest of us, who don’t live in urban areas subject to drive-by gang shootings, or in places where the likelihood of terrorist truck bombs is slight? A post over at Say Uncle the other day got me thinking about home defenses, so I dragged up these old “let’s see what happens” posts over at Box O’ Truth, where I was reminded that most house walls won’t do a thing to protect you from bullets. Similar results were found, in a more scientific way, by this physics guy. About the best you can hope for is a well built, well insulated home with good solid real bricks on the facing. in front of 3/4” plywood sheathing. That should stop pistol bullets pretty well. And be glad that almost no criminals or terrorists use real high powered rifles or buffalo guns. You need about a foot of sandbags to stop them, or a mile or two of distance.
The wall in the diagram is also very quiet too, which is another good thing for urban design. 4” - 6” of cast concrete would probably do a better job, but that might be better suited to an industrial or commercial wall design.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/30/2008 at 02:25 PM
Filed Under: • Crime • Self-Defense •
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Permalink • Monday - March 03, 2008
Why Do You Need A Gun…..at Wendy’s?
Witness: Wendy’s shooter was tall man in business suit
Five people were shot today during lunch time at the Wendy’s on North Military Trail and Cherry Road near West Palm Beach, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
Two people are dead, including the gunman, who killed himself, according to sheriff’s spokeswoman Teri Barbera. She said a total of five people were shot and three are in critical condition.
The shooting happened at 12:18 p.m.
The Trauma Hawk helicopter has left the scene. Cherry Road is blocked off and victims are being loaded from stretchers onto ambulances. There are dozens of emergency vehicles at the scene.
Witness Jerry Pritcherd, 20, of Fort Myers, said he heard a pop and didn’t realize it was gunshots. He said he was “scared” when he heard about 20 pops and ran out. He said he was 10 feet away from the shooter, who was a tall black man wearing a business suit.
A father and son, Richard and Richard Anon of Miami, were just leaving a John Smith Subs restaurant across Military Trail when they saw customers running out of the Wendy’s. “We thought there was a fight in the parking lot. Everyone was just running out,” said the elder Anon.
They saw two people run outside and collapse in the drive-thru lane. They said police arrived withing two minutes of the shooting and ordered everyone out of the restaurant with their hands up.
Witness Ashley Milton, of Riviera Beach, was just walking into the restaurant when the suspect opened fire. She said the restaurant was starting to get busy and that people started running out.
Asked if she got a good look at the gunman, she said, “No, I was just focused on the gun. I just saw the fire coming from the gun.” She said her ears were still ringing from the gunshots more than an hour after the shooting.
Southbound Military Trail is open, while Northbound Military Trail remains closed in the area between Okeechobee and Belvedere roads.
One man walking around the scene pointed to a tear in his jeans and bottom of a work boot, where a bullet grazed him.
“I was just sitting there eating a burger and the guy started shooting.”
Posted by Drew458
on 03/03/2008 at 03:15 PM
Filed Under: • Self-Defense •
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Permalink • Wednesday - February 06, 2008
Story starts in ‘05 and ends here in ‘08 with apology. From the one harassed!
Story starts in ‘05 and ends here in ‘08 with apology. From the one harassed!
Teacher fired airgun in gang row
By Nigel Bunyan
Last Updated: 1:32am GMT 04/02/2005
A teacher who fired an air pistol during an altercation with a gang of youths told police she had “had enough” of the law being on the side of criminals.Linda Walker, 47, claims she suffered weeks of abuse and vandalism at the hands of youngsters near her home in Urmston, Manchester.She finally snapped when she suspected they had vandalised her son’s car. Following an initial row, she ran back into the house and returned with a Walther air pistol and an air rifle.
She fired up to six shots into the pavement as she stood “nose to nose” with the convicted burglar she saw as her chief protagonist. She put both weapons down as armed police raced to the scene.
A jury at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, heard that Walker later told officers: “I know you do your best, but the law is on their side. That’s why I rang 999 and ran out like a mad woman possessed, because I’d had it up to here. Everybody gets to that point where they’ve had enough. I’ve got to that point.”
http://tinyurl.com/62276
Air gun teacher told she can work againLast Updated: 1:13am GMT 06/02/2008
A teacher who was jailed for confronting a group of youths with a pellet gun was told Tuesday that she could carry on teaching.
Linda Walker, 50, broke down in tears at a disciplinary hearing as she described how “ashamed” she was of her behaviour.
I’m a slow fellow. Someone will have to explain to me just why the victims should express remorse.
She said that she fired the weapon into the ground to deter the gang, which she believed had subjected her family to months of harassment.Following the incident in August 2004, Mrs Walker was jailed for six months for possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, and affray.
She spent a total of 38 days in custody but the appeal court later quashed her jail sentence, replacing it with a 12-month conditional discharge.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/06/2008 at 03:10 PM
Filed Under: • Oppression • Self-Defense •
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Permalink • Friday - January 11, 2008
Dial 911 and Wait
Found at Michael Bane’s Blog.
Powerful
Remember, when seconds count, police are only minutes away.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/11/2008 at 03:32 PM
Filed Under: • Self-Defense •
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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