The Scotsman - Top Stories - Judges clear policeman convicted of rape on DNA evidence

On Evidence:

The Scotsman today has a story of a policemen, just released from prison after serving four years for rape. He was the first man convicted in Scotland on DNA evidence; the prosecution told the jury that the odds were 1 in 100,000 that he was the wrong man.

But he was the wrong man.

The overturn of his conviction is a step forward. However, there is a particularly sad note to this tale. In a nation in which violent felons are regularly paroled within the smallest fraction of their sentence, Mr. Kelly served four years of the six to which he was sentenced. The reason he was not paroled sooner? "[H]is release on parole was delayed because he continued to deny his guilt."

Another life lesson, like those in the Havamal:

A snapping bow, a burning flame,
A grinning wolf, a grunting boar,
A raucous crow, a rootless tree,
A breaking wave, a boiling kettle,

A flying arrow, an ebbing tide,
A coiled adder, the ice of a night,
A bride's bed talk, a broad sword,
A bear's play, a prince' s children,

A witch' s welcome, the wit of a servant,
A sick calf, a corpse still fresh,

A brother's killer encountered upon
The highway, a house half-burned,
A racing stallion who has wrenched a leg,
Are never safe: let no man trust them.

Neither trust the state, when it bases its claims on some innovation in science. Not that, nor the word of prosecutors, who are only another sort of politician. When called to jury, be wary of such things. Put your trust in hard facts, and the testimony of men you deem honorable.

How big Al Qaeda's footprint is in the US | csmonitor.com

Al Qaeda:

If victory is in sight, yet some dangers still remain. Al Qaeda's footprint in the US is of unknown size, as the Christian Science Monitor reports, and it is possible that they may succeed in carrying out spectacular assaults even in their death throes.

US officials have closed down several major fundraising operations believed to have terrorist ties. They've also worked successfully with intelligence agencies overseas in attacking Al Qaeda at its core. "We've had some major successes [overseas with Al Qaeda.] We've slain the dragon, but now we're dealing with room full of snakes," says Frank Cilluffo of George Washington University and a former security adviser to President Bush. "What you've seen now is the franchising of Al Qaeda. They're in England, Jordan, Spain, and there've been a number of arrests recently that bode well."

But the question remains, how many snakes are there in the US ... and can they be caught before they strike again.

:: Digital Marine ::

Afghan Front:

Our lad Digital Marine has an update on the 22nd MEU(SOC).

bloodletting.blog-city.com

What Victory Looks Like:

Are we winning? Doc Russia joins the chorus, which already includes me and the Belmont Club. That last voice looks at the trends not just for Iraq, al Qaeda and Islamism, but for the intifada as well.

The intifada has vented its suicidal wrath on Israelis, but in recent weeks criticism of the Palestinian Authority has ensconced itself in common parlance. "Not only was the intifada a failure, but we are a total failure. We achieved nothing in 50 years of struggle; we've achieved only our survival."

And as terrorist warfare slows to a gasping halt, Zubeidi sees the violence turning inward.

The handover in Iraq has been everything we hoped it would be. When, in April, we found our soldiers and Marines fighting al-Sadr's men, they faced outrage from the press and the protests here at home. When they fought them this week, there has been near silence about it. The only article on CNN's weekend edition focuses on Allawi's peace overtures, not on the slaughter of these hardened fighters by the far more deadly US Marines. We kept our promises. We put Iraq on the road to freedom, and we're helping to keep her there. Iraqis see it, know it, and even the press can't ignore it any more.

(An aside: CNN could use a better editor. That article includes this line:

Iraq has temporarily reinstated a limited version of its death penalty, the interim minister of state announced Sunday.

A limited version of the death penalty. Well, now, that is progress.)

This is what victory looks like. It's not over, and we continue to lose brave men to ambush and murder. We continue to see outrages in the press. But we are winning. It's a straight road to victory. We just need to carry on.

Op Sum Fun

Riot in Iraq, No Press Coverage:

Via the Mudville Gazette, this story about a riotous event in Iraq. Somehow, unlike long-ago riots, this one didn't get any press coverage except for one local paper. Greyhawk wonders if the casualty count was just too low to draw press interest. Still, he says, if this mob has anything to say about it, some GIs may never go home from Iraq.

It certainly seems like a story worthy of some interest.

Kim du Toit - View Original Post & Comments

Freedom, Police & the Military:

Kim du Toit has begun an excellent discussion on the topic of whether modern police agencies too much resemble the "standing armies" that worried the Founders. It's a long piece with many thoughtful replies (plus a reply from me, which I hope others will consider thoughtful). I won't try to reprise the discussion here -- I just refer you to it, for consideration.

For those of you not familiar with Kim's site, the original post is at the bottom.

The Scotsman - Top Stories - Al-Qaeda suspects on run

Get 'em, Boys:

Following the leads uncovered by US and Pakistani military intelligence, Scotland Yard goes after five Qaeda suspects. They apparently escaped raids earlier in the week, and a nationwide manhunt continues.

SteynOnScreen

Movie Review:

I haven't seen King Arthur, though I had wanted to and may yet if I can still find anywhere showing it. This review by the redoubtable Mark Steyn, however, is worth reading even if you never see the flick.

there's a complicating factor. A huge Saxon army has just hit the beach and they're also interested in the bigshot Romans, as potentially lucrative hostages. If you think there's too much Saxon violence in the movies these days, wait'll you see these guys. Their general, Sir Dick or, as I discovered in the closing credits, Cerdic, is a mountain of blond hair extensions. Perhaps some insensitive locals tittered at him as he waded ashore, but, for whatever reason, the Saxons slaughter everyone they come across in a frenzy of Woad rage. As Cerdic, Stellan Skarsgard hams up his dialogue with a throaty rumble that sounds like he came first in this year's Stockholm round of the Nick Nolte karaoke competition. When he hears about the Roman estate nearby, he dispatches a rape'n'pillage squad led by his son Cynric, because it takes his child to raze a village.

BLACKFIVE

Ambush!

Our lad (and new father! Congrats, and welcome Grace!) BlackFive has a video of a truck full of fellow contractors getting ambushed in Iraq, while part of an Army convoy. Short version: They punch the gas, and keep their position with the US Army Hummers they're convoying with.

It's worth watching to hear the voices. Once again, I feel justified in my pride at being a Southerner. The leader, and coolest head, has an accent I would place at the Northern Alabama/North Georgia border. Just the kind of fellow I'd want riding beside me, in a pinch.

Ambassador's CV

Singapore:

For reasons much too complicated to rehearse, I spent Tuesday night at the Embassy of Singapore in Washington, D.C. The occasion was the National Day of Singapore, which is their version of Independence Day. I got to meet Tom Ridge, who came to give a short speech praising Singapore's economic growth and stout alliance to the U.S. war on terror.

I also met Ambassador Chan Heng Chee. Singapore has three main ethnic groups: Chinese, Malay, and Indian. The Chinese, like Ambassador Chan, are the majority. In her nine years in D.C., she's learned Western manners completely, and manages to be sufficiently forthright to be charming. Forthrightness in women is not highly encouraged in Chinese culture, which prefers politeness and the maintenance of social harmony to truth-telling. She does all right, though.

It was a pretty hefty crowd who came out to celebrate Singapore's National Day. There were quite a few Defense contractors -- not DOD-exclusive contractors like me, but people who represented firms that hoped to do business with Singapore itself. There were also some State people, but what really caught my eye were the naval officers. Men in uniform were everywhere, but almost none of them were from branches of the service other than the navy. Almost every navy in the world was represented: I saw an Egyptian naval officer conversing with an Israeli, met an Aussie captain, and saw officers from every Scandinavian navy afloat.

After the speechmaking and dinner, I ended up hanging around with a US navy captain in the submarine service. I've written before about the quality of the sailors in the submarine service, which I've always found to be excellent. I spent a good portion of the evening comparing notes on hurricanes with the gentleman -- his favorite was one he rode out in the Atlantic, four-hundred feet down, which still caused the boat to roll. I'm not sure if mine was Floyd -- which was the size of Texas when she made landfall -- or Opal, which rode all the way up into the North Georgia mountains and rocked the Appalachians near Camp Frank D. Merrill. You can get out to Amicalola Falls State Park, if any of you are deployed at Camp Frank, and see where there are still a lot of trees down from Opal. I rode out Isabel last year, but she wasn't much. I have a couple of good stories about her, but really there was never any danger.

I relate all this to convey a bit of the "diplomatic" work behind the GWOT. I don't often have anything to do with it myself, but these kinds of things go on every night, all around the world. Just like the intelligence work mentioned below -- which famously belongs to the CIA, but which the military does tirelessly and often better -- diplomacy isn't just the State Department. The men in uniform do a hero's share of that work too. If "diplomacy" isn't a dirty word, I expect it's their doing that keeps it clean. Honesty, integrity, and the pride of the service go a long way to enhancing the strength of a man's word.

Pity the fellow with that duty, though. It was a pleasant enough evening, but if I had to do it every night, I think I'd go nuts pretty quickly. It's no better duty than kitchen patrol -- a necessary, tiresome duty that someone has to perform.

Taliban flush with cash for attacks - War on Terror - www.theage.com.au

The Afghan Front:

There's a story out of the Age of Australia called "Taliban flush with cash for attacks." Bad news sells more papers, as they say, and the editors have chosen the bad news from the story for the headline and lead paragraphs. But there's some very good news inside:

General Khan's forces captured Mujahid, a former deputy defence minister, on July 6. They seized a satellite phone, a notebook of expenses and a diary of phone numbers, including that of a mobile phone used by the fugitive Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, a close ally of bin Laden. Mujahid is now being interrogated by the Americans at Bagram air base, near Kabul.

A US military official declined to say what else had been gleaned from Mujahid, but his arrest, along with the recent capture of several relatives and aides, has given US and Afghan intelligence officials a crucial insight into Taliban operations. The mobile number was traced to Quetta in Pakistan.

"Afghan agents made Mujahid ring Omar's number, but Omar put the phone down after Mujahid mentioned a code word that meant he had been captured," said General Khan. "It was just bad luck." The discovery that Omar is apparently directing operations from inside Pakistan has increased pressure on Islamabad to curb Taliban activities on its soil.

Grim's Hall noted the satellite phonecall to Mullah Omar when it was first reported. It looks like his residence in Quetta was why they didn't hit him with a guided missile. Today's report brings new detail about the level of intel that's being captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Two things worth noting -- the intelligence officers involved on our side are "US military officials." That underlines a point about the nature of the GWoT: the majority of intelligence victories we've seen are coming from military actions, not from the civilian intel agencies. This includes not only the captured files of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, or the surrender of the Libyan nuclear program by a dictator who didn't want to be next. It also includes all of these captured fighters, their documents, and so forth. Pakistan's ISI and our CIA are surely not idle, but the ones we see getting the job done are military men. That should settle the question of whether or not the GWoT is "primarily an intelligence and law enforcement" operation: even if it is that, the military does it better.

The second point to reflect on is how many captures there have been in Pakistan lately. That we know of, we've got Mujahid, a formerly high-placed official; the "High Value Target" Qaeda capture of last week; and the computer junkie who had all the pictures of financial centers. All of these captures were disclosed to us only some time after they were made -- "several weeks" in the case of our computer cowboy, allegedly "days" in the Qaeda case, and so forth.

The war is rolling along, and I see every reason to be cheerful about it. They've got millions; we've got billions. They can move in relative freedom, we hear, though we capture them now and then -- but when did you last hear of a US general officer being captured by the Taliban, or anyone else? It was actually tried in Ramadi, with the result that the US Marine Generals took up rifles and ran the enemy off. Staying the course, bold and brave, is the road to victory.

Marine Corps News> Lejeune battalion calls in air power to clear the road

Fire From Heaven:

What do you do when you've got a tanker truck blocking your road, and local HUMINT tells you that there's an IED placed inside of it? The headline tells the story: "Lejeune battalion calls in air power to clear the road."

JHD writes to draw attention to this part of the story: "Once the elements were on site, a cordon was set to block traffic and clear the area of civilians. Some members of the unit believed there were terrorists hiding in a nearby palm grove so the air controller arranged a surprise for them." Heh, heh.

lgf: coffee break's over. back on your heads.

Afghanistan:

From LGF, we see what is really amazing news: 90% of Afghans are registered to vote. This is a UN figure, so it's probably a distortion of the truth... but still, even the UN can only distort so much.

The Green Side

A Letter from the Front:

The Green Side presents another letter from Fallujah, by a Major of Marines who signs his name simply as "Dave."

FreeSpeech.com

The Sudan:

Well, it finally happened. One of the conspiracy theorists has finally spouted off on the Sudan. It happened over at Del's FreeSpeech:

By the way...Soudan is everyday looking like another Rwanda....where are the good american- peace- reatoring-soldiers...???

Aahhhhh [expletive -- see how the bracket thing works? -Grim] ...I should have known better...THERE IS NO OIL IN SOUDAN !!!!

There actually is quite a bit of oil in the Sudan. In fact, control over the oil and its revenue is the main thing the Sudanese are fighting over.

The oilfields are in the South of Sudan, which is primarily Christian and animist by faith; but the export facilities are all in the north, which is under the control of the Muslim militants.

These last, it should be remembered, are not the legitimate government of Sudan -- they violently overthrew the legitimate government, and established control over the North by force. Now they are trying to do the same to the South, precisely because they can't afford secession by the region which has all the oil.

Both sides are trying to bill this as a contest between religions, and to some degree that's true -- but not to a very large degree. The agitation for the Sha'riah law in the North of Sudan, for example, comes mostly from the populace rather than from the militants who control the area. The populace, which by and large recognizes these militants for the thugs that they are, wants a Sha'riah system because it removes judicial control from the militants, and places it instead in the hands of local imams everyone knows and trusts.

The South is resisting the Sha'riah because they aren't Muslims, and want to be independent. The ethnic cleansing is an attempt to destroy the groups that want independence -- which happens to be the Christians and the animists. But the war in Sudan really is all about oil, or at least, the great majority of it is.

So my question to you: if the US is a Crusader power, that is runs its foreign policy based on oil, why aren't we already in Sudan? We could deal a defeat to a Muslim state, erect a Christian one in the South, and then build ourselves an oil pipeline that would give us sole control of the Sudanese oil fields -- a rather nicer deal for us than that mythical Afghanistan pipeline that we supposedly want, but somehow never get around to building. The UN might even applaud us for our actions in the Sudan.

So why aren't we?

Instapundit.com

Fun with Brackets:

Via Instapundit, the article on Kerry and the Marines. I was reading this over, and a thought struck me:

The Marines -- two in uniform and two off-duty -- were polite but curt while chatting with Kerry, answering most of his questions with a 'yes, sir' or 'no, sir.' . . .

'He imposed on us and I disagree with him coming over here shaking our hands,' one Marine said, adding, 'I'm 100 percent against [him].'

Usually brackets are used by editors to repair verb tenses when they're using a partial quote, or to change a pronoun to a [Kerry] so you'll know of whom they're speaking. I don't think I've seen brackets used to insert a pronoun in quite this way before.

Which leads to the question: Just what did they replace? I'll wager that it was something unprintable.

American Digest: What Lincoln Would Say Were He Speaking in Springfield Today

Lincoln Variations:

From the American Digest, via the good Doc.

Grim's Hall

Gun Show Notes:

Just got back from today's gun show at the Dulles Expo Center in Fairfax County, Virginia. A few notes from the day:

* This is the first gun show in Fairfax County in quite a long time. The county had instituted a waiting period for gun purchases, the effect of which was to make it impossible to hold a gun show -- the dealer wouldn't be around in thirty days to hand over the weapon you'd bought, and the cost of shipping it to you more than overrides the savings you'd get from attending the show.

* One of the state senators who worked hardest to override the law got on the PA system to congratulate all the folks -- many in the room -- who had worked to make the show possible. There was a resounding round of applause.

* Lots of political activity in the hall. People were talking about gun-control proposals from both the state and federal governments, and every official up for re-election must have had a table. And no wonder: I was standing by one poor fellow, a man in his late fifties, who learned while asking about parts for an old firearm of his that he was a felon. Some ATF official had, without benefit of legislation, ruled that a kind of firearm he'd owned for thirty years was illegal -- and didn't grandfather in existing ones. (See, this is one reason why people get irritated by gun-control laws. The ATF takes a guy who's never been in any sort of trouble his whole life, and turns him into a felon with a stroke of a pen.)

* There must have been several thousand people in the Expo center, with more coming and leaving by the minute. The show was obviously a great success.

* I haven't been to a gun show in probably ten years. Indeed, I only went to this one because the wife and wee one are out of town, and I had the day free with nothing else to do. I always forget several things about gun shows:

1) They are incredibly crowded events, no matter how big the hall is. This is the main reason I don't like them. I was raised in the Georgia mountains, and I hate crowds. For me, that's any room with more than about two people in it, although if it's a really big room I can endure a dozen.

2) The gun show really is an event for collectors. All those people who fret about these things being crime marts can quit worrying. I would estimate that fully 80% of the tables aren't selling anything that would be useful to a criminal. Most of them are selling antique long arms, or blackpowder revolvers from the 19th century, or other weapons so outdated that you'd really need to spend some time learning to operate them. Between the antiques and the collectibles, the books, the knife merchants, the people selling holsters and carrying cases, the people selling bumperstickers, and the people selling militaria (old uniforms, etc.) there's actually very little space devoted to anything "dangerous." I'm always surprised by how few people there are selling modern firearms. Maybe 10% of the tables have them for sale; maybe another 10% have knives. The rest is stuff no criminal would even want.

3) They had two separate areas for simulators, one of which looked top notch. It had a big screen which displayed real movies of potential tactical situations -- when I walked by there, it was a display of a college classroom where someone was taking hostages. The whole thing was linked to a lightgun, so that you could test yourself under realistic conditions and timing. It's intended for police training, and is similar in form to some of the things the Marines do for MOUT training. It should produce good results in improving tactical responses. I noted that, although it was developed for cops, it was portable and the sign said that they'd bring it out to your club if you wanted to hire them for a weekend.

4) The other simulator was simpler, but had one really nifty element. They'd rigged up some .45 frames with lasers, but also with a motor that would "kick" in the right way to simulate recoil. They then had targets that could tell where the laser was pointed when you pulled the trigger. You could therefore practice with realistic recoil, without ammo.

* I only bought one thing: a holster for my new revolver. It was pretty hard to find one. I don't care for cloth or formed-ballistic-nylon holsters, which is the great majority of what is available. I like gunleather, and in fact, I insist on it.

I spent nearly forever looking around, but found few dealers that had leather holsters, and none that had what I wanted. Then, in the very back of the hall, I found a place called "Backwoods Gunleather," which had some beautiful stuff. I looked it over and grabbed a single-loop holster.

I took it up to the guy, and asked if he had one in that make that would fit a K-Frame Smith & Wesson. He said no, that he only made this particular holster for single-actions, mostly for Cowboy Action re-enactors. I said I thought this one I had in my hand was the right size, but he insisted that it wouldn't fit. He gave me a long speech to talk me out of buying it, explaining several things I already knew about the technical differences between single and double action revolvers.

Finally, seeing that I was not deterred, he sighed and said that he didn't even have a K-frame "red gun" (a plastic mockup in the right size, used by police for training and holster-makers for construction of holsters). Or, at least, he thought he didn't. Well, he'd look. Hey, actually, he did. So he brought it over and slipped it into the holster...

...and it fit like a glove. I bought it and brought it home. It's like it was made for me, and just waiting on me to show up and buy it. It's even a crossdraw design, which I happen to prefer.

All in all, a good day. They're open tomorrow too, so if you're in the area, you might stop by.

Marine Corps News> 11th MEU Marine awarded Navy Cross for legendary day during OIF

Congratulations II:

Another set of congratulations are due. Let's hear it for Marine First Sergeant Justin D. Lehew, winner of the Navy Cross. It's taken more than a year to get the paperwork approved, but it was finally awarded on 24 July.

Article

A Gunslinger:

Congratulations to Marine Gunnery Sergeant Brian Zins.