Mark Bossingham

Navy SEALs sue AP

I HAVE made no attempt to hide my disgust with The Associated Press. My association with this organization goes back a long way, having worked for subscriber newspapers from more than 15 years.
    Over the years the AP has, like a terminally ill cancer patient, rotted away from the inside. Today, nothing is left but a bitter cadre of anti-American "citizens-of-the-World," whose unreliable reports are no longer mitigated by experienced editors. The senior editors are now of my disappointing generation. Instead of growing and learning, a marvelous experience aging grants us, they are stuck in a "hippie" time warp. I was there once. I grew out of it. They haven't.
    More importantly, they are incompetent. By devoting most of their time to their "causes" they have little time to edit. Thusly, the gibberish they send out over the wires is essentially raw copy containing all the predictable prejudices of their local-hire writers. One very senior AP executive was recently quoted as saying most newspapers don't have the resources "to do the heavy lifting" required to rewrite their copy. No kidding.
    Months ago, an AP troll scoured the Internet searching private, if unprotected, personal photo albums. She may have peeked in yours. In the midst of her privacy attack, she hit the mother lode – pictures of Navy SEALs doing their job in Iraq posted by a Navy wife.
    In an unforgivable act, the AP dumped these photos on the wires with accompanying stories willfully misrepresenting the scenes depicted.
    The AP made no effort to obscure the SEALs' faces to protect them and their families. They clearly reveled in "outing" these members of our covert special forces. Predictably, these pictures have been repeatedly printed or broadcast by the Arab media.
    The AP is far from apologetic. They fairly ooze hatred for the individual SEALs whose lives they have endangered and the military in general. They claim they later ran a story stating that the Navy had determined the SEALs had used approved procedures. I didn't see it. They may have filed it, but if member papers don't run it, it's like the  tree falling in that empty forest we've all heard about.
    But I did see, within the last week, an article that demonstrated how the AP really works.
    After initially reporting that one of the SEALs pointed a handgun at the head of a terrorist detainee (he was using the flashlight on his weapon to illuminate the subject's face so his picture could be taken for military records. The weapon was on "safe"), the AP stretched their first misrepresentation even further, "reporting" the SEAL had pointed "an automatic weapon" at the detainee's head. An automatic weapon is a machine gun. This was a pure fabrication by the wire service and they knew it.
    In essence, for the AP, standing operating procedure is this: we got away with it, so let's keep stretching the truth until someone catches us. I'd say complain to Jack Stokes, the AP's Apologist in Chief, (jstokes@ap.org) but Jack's an ass and bounces back critical commentary. Don't waste your time.
    Here's a bit of the lawsuit story, as reported by, you guessed it, the defendant.
    LOS ANGELES - A federal lawsuit filed by several Navy SEALs and the wife of a special forces member claims The Associated Press violated copyright and privacy laws and endangered the servicemen's lives by publishing photographs of them with Iraqi prisoners.
    The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in San Diego, seeks unspecified damages. It also asks the court to bar the AP from further use of the photos and to require the news agency to protect the SEALs' identities.
    It replaces a lawsuit filed in state court in December to add the federal copyright infringement allegations, said plaintiffs' attorney James W. Huston.
    The AP later reported the Navy's preliminary findings showed most of the 15 photos transmitted by the agency were taken for legitimate intelligence-gathering purposes and showed commandos using approved procedures.
    "The publication of the photographs has endangered the lives of the Navy SEALs, some of whom are currently serving in Iraq and others who are expected to return there," the lawsuit contended.

News from the East

    Killer gets slap on wrist
      
    Today's ill wind blows to us from Japan Today, published March 30.

''TOKYO — The Tokyo High Court sentenced a 33-year-old man to death on Tuesday for abducting, raping and murdering a female college student by burning her alive in January 2002, overturning a lower court's life sentence.
    Presiding Judge Kenjiro Tao noted the heinous nature of the crime and said the defendant Junya Hattori "has a deep-rooted tendency for committing crimes and there is little room for rehabilitation."
    According to the ruling, Hattori abducted the student, Sachiko Yamane, 19, late at night from a street in Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Jan 22, 2002. He shut her in his car and raped her. Later, he poured kerosene over her and set her alight with a cigarette lighter.''

Winning in Iraq

AN ARTICLE in the Washington Times by Rowan Scarborough makes it clear that we are beating back the terrorists. Things look pretty messy policitically, but on the security front, the end is in sight. Maybe The Associated Press can add "criminal" to their ever-expanding lexicon of creations used to describe the bad guys.
     In the privacy of their E-ring offices, senior Pentagon officials have begun to entertain thoughts that were unimaginable a year ago: Iraq is turning the corner.
    Military officials and analysts say the clearing out of enemy-infested Fallujah in November, the Jan. 30 elections and the increasing willingness of Iraqis to fight and die for a democratic country are contributing to the momentum.
    "This is still a tough fight. We don't want anyone to think that it is not," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, a military analyst who strongly supports Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "But the momentum is in our direction."A Pentagon official said the more that intelligence agencies analyze the insurgency, the clearer it becomes that a large part is criminal, not nationalistic.
    Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein released tens of thousands of hardened criminals, including murderers, before the March 2003 invasion, meaning that as the ex-convicts are recaptured, insurgent leaders might have an increasingly smaller pool from which to recruit attackers.
    "We have always realized there was a criminal element in the insurgency that wasn't driven by devotion to Saddam. The numbers may be higher than we first estimated," the official said.
    An analysis by Reuters shows that U.S. combat deaths in March so far have averaged barely one per day, the lowest figure since February 2004.

News from the East

A variation on a theme

    Today's perverse wind blows to us from the Mainichi Daily News Interactive, published March 28. And you thought I was kidding when I told you this kind of stuff was commonplace. The use of the umbrella is a new twist, though. Leave to a law enforcement officer to get creative.
    "MORIOKA -- A police officer has been arrested for using a video camera hidden in an umbrella to film up the skirt of a woman at a retail shop here over the weekend, police said.
    Masafumi Endo, 46, a sergeant at Iwate Prefectural Police, is accused of violating the prefectural ordinance prohibiting people from creating a nuisance.
    He admitted to the allegations during questioning. "I did it for the first time. I'm sorry," he was quoted as telling investigators.
    Endo approached a 28-year-old woman from behind at a general store in the Mitake district of Morioka Saturday afternoon, and used a video camera attached to the shaft of an umbrella to film up her skirt, local police said."

My bad - "These gals kick ass"

IN A previous post I linked to a story about a heavily outnumbered National Guard unit from Kentucky kicking major ass and killing at least 26 terrorists. I used a quote from the article "these guys kick ass" for my headline. Major mistake. One of the more prolific killers on the battlefield was Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester. You can read more about her and her unit Raven 42 at BLACKFIVE. And you thought we didn't allow women in combat.

Thai massage at AsiaS

I WENT to AsiaS in Aoyama for my first Thai-style massage. It was a great experience. I haven't been touched that much since I was a baby. I think people miss that and don't even realize it. My wife and opted for the 90-minute massage at ¥9,800 yen each. More than worth it
    The experience started off inauspiciously when Sachiko my masseuse pointed across the room and asked that I take a seat. I didn't notice the dark wood stool, fixing my eyes on what appeared to be a gray seat with a towel over it. I sat as instructed, only to plunge partially through the Styrofoam foot bath. I sort of broke it. It could have been worse. I didn't fall all the way through. This would have precipitated a disaster of biblical floodlike proportions.
    Shaking off my embarrassment, I sat on the proper stool and had a nice preliminary foot massage in warm water. Sachiko then directed me to the massage mat. This way, that way, she twisted me into a pretzel. A comfy content pretzel. I wasn't aware the human body could move in so many directions at once.
    The best part was trying to guess what she was going to come up with next and observing how she used her body for leverage. The climax was something of a shock but fun. Sachiko softly asked if I had any backaches. When I replied in the negative, I found myself suddenly in a distinct upside down U shape. What magic Sachiko had performed or even exactly where she was, I had no idea. But there I was, suspended like a pro wrestler on the losing end of the "Back Breaker."
    Any kinks in my back were quickly dekinked and I didn't hear anything break. They served us tea afterward and we sort of oozed out the door. I felt even better the next day. Click on the link and make a reservation. They are home with both English and Japanese.

News from the East

''Teacher uses hidden shoe-cam to film up schoolgirl's skirt"
   
    Today's ill wind blows to us from the Mainichi Daily News Interactive, published March 25. Here in Japan this is really a "dog bites man" story, but overseas readers might find it amusing.
   
    "A TOKYO elementary school teacher has been dismissed for filming up the skirt of an elementary school girl on a train using a video camera concealed in one of his shoes, Tokyo education authorities said Friday.
    The 34-year-old teacher, whose name was not immediately disclosed, used the shoe-cam to film up the skirt of an elementary school girl standing in front of him on a train in Tokyo in February, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education said.
    The teacher used a remote control hidden in his pocket to operate the video camera, but another passenger noticed he was filming up the child's skirt. The passenger notified a station worker who in turn alerted police.
    The teacher was subsequently arrested for violating a Tokyo metropolitan ordinance prohibiting people from creating a public nuisance."

UPDATE

    HERE'S SOME statistics, also courtesy of the Mainichi Daily News Interactive, on train groppers. In more than 20 years in Japan, I've only ridden a major commute line during peak morning rush hour once. It was horrifying. I saw people with their faces jammed into windows; others moaning in pain after being twisted into pretzels. With the train running well in excess of 200 percent capacity, it is almost impossible to wiggle a little finger, let alone do any major groping. At any rate, I always try to keep my hands in plain sight.
    ''A RECORD 2,201 cases of women molested on trains were reported in Tokyo last year, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said.
    However, MPD officials said that they believe this is just the tip of iceberg, noting that numerous victims of such crimes choose not to file criminal complaints against their molesters.
    Among the 2,201 cases, the MPD arrested, or sent investigation reports to prosecutors, on 1,886 suspects aged 14 to 80. Those in their 30s, some 37 percent, accounted for the largest number of suspects. About 30 percent of the victims were high school girls.
    A total of 1,897 cases of fondling the bodies of women over their clothes were confirmed last year, about three times the figure in 1996.
    Moreover, criminal complaints on 304 cases of indecent assault, more serious than molestation, were filed with Tokyo police last year.
    By railway line, the JR Saikyo Line accounts for the largest number -- 217, followed by the JR Chuo Line (188), the JR Sobu Line and the Keio Railway Line (121 each) and the JR Yamanote Line (119).
    More than half of the cases, 54 percent, occurred during morning rush hours from 7 a.m. to 8:59 a.m.''

UPDATE – Kiki & Jiji

WELL, IT'S about time, but I have finally posted Chapter 11. I think it's great, but I always do. Jiji's in her "terrible twos" and is starting to ask questions.

Chely does the right thing

CHELY WRIGHT is a favorite with the troops for a lot of reasons. The most important is that she cares about them. Samantha L. Quigley
of the American Forces Press Service explains.
    WASHINGTON, March 24, 2005 – The line to have a compact disc autographed by Chely Wright had started to form well before she arrived at the Henderson Hall exchange here March 22.
    Arriving early for the 3:30 p.m. autograph session, Wright got right down to the business at hand. The CD she was signing includes a song that’s become a favorite of servicemembers wherever she performs it: “Bumper of My SUV,” inspired by an encounter with a woman who took offense to the Marine Corps sticker on Wright’s vehicle.
    But the song is not the only reason folks were lining up to have their CDs signed by the country music star. More importantly, they were there because she is an avid supporter of the troops, and the troops know that.
    Wright comes from a military family. Her brother is a Marine, and her grandfather and father served in the Army and Navy, respectively.

Teachers need to pack heat

THE NATIONAL Rifle Association advocates letting teachers carry guns to better protect themselves and their kids. I couldn't agree more. In fact I think they should carry "fully automatic assault weapons" (liberal nomenclature for a hunting rifle) if they wish.
PHOENIX (AP) - All options should be considered to prevent rampages like the Minnesota school shooting that took 10 lives - including making guns available to teachers, a top National Rifle Association leader said Friday.
    "I'm not saying that that means every teacher should have a gun or not, but what I am saying is we need to look at all the options at what will truly protect the students," the NRA's first vice president, Sandra S. Froman, told The Associated Press.
    Gun-control restrictions would not have prevented Jeff Weise, 16, from killing nine people and himself Monday at Red Lake High School near Bemidji, Minn., said Froman, an attorney expected next month to be elected president of the NRA, which claims 4 million members.