Cpl. Matt Garst survives IED blast unscathed:
The men were four miles from Company L’s newly established observation post when they approached an abandoned compound close to where they needed to set up their checkpoint. It would serve well as an operating base — a place for the squad to set up communications and rotate Marines in and out of. But first, it had to be secured.
As they swept the area with a metal detector, the IED registered no warning on the device. The bomb was buried too deep and its metallic signature too weak. Two men walked over it without it detonating.
At six feet, two inches tall and 260 pounds with all his gear on, Garst is easily the largest man in his squad by 30 or 40 pounds — just enough extra weight to trigger the IED buried deep in hard-packed soil.
…“I can just barely remember the boom,” Garst said. “I remember the start of a loud noise and then I blacked out.”
Since Garst’s improbable run-in with the IED, his tale has spread through the rest of the battalion, and as often happens in combat units, the story mutates, the tale becoming more and more extraordinary about what happened next: He held onto his rifle the whole time … He actually landed on his feet … He remained unmoved, absorbing the impact like he was muffling a fart in a crowded elevator …
What really happened even eludes Garst. All went black after the earth uppercut him. When he came to, he was standing on his feet holding his weapon, turning to see the remnants of the blast and wondering why his squad had a look on their faces as if they’d seen a ghost.
…Not quite sure of what had just happened, Garst turned back toward the blast, now nothing but a column of dirt and smoke rising toward the sun.
“My first thought was, ‘Oh s—, I just hit an IED,’” he said. “Then I thought, ‘Well I’m standing. That’s good.’”
Garst’s squad stared at him in disbelief. The square-jawed Marine has a tendency to be short-tempered, and the realization that the blast was meant to kill him spiked his adrenaline and anger.
“It pissed me off,” he said.
He directed his men to establish a security perimeter while letting them know in his own way that he was OK.
“What the f— are you looking at?” he said. “Get on the cordon!”
Whether fighting statist government policy or Jihadists in Afghanistan, Garst’s are impervious to attacks that would fell mere mortals.
Shameless self-aggrandizement aside, hats off to Cpl. Garst.
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As catchy as the subject is serious:
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In addition to the Pakistani-American man already arrested, several people have now been detained in Pakistan as well:
Sources tell CBS News that multiple people have been taken into custody for questioning in Pakistan in connection with the Times Square bomb plot.
Authorities are not saying who the potential suspects are or where they are being held, but they say there were raids Monday night and Tuesday morning in different locations. It’s believed between four and eight people are being held, and there are reports that some of them may be related to the suspect arrested overnight in New York.
I’ve no doubt that those who frequently argue that the threat of terrorism is overblown and ought to be treated as a manageable threat will seize on this incident as proof of the incompetence of our enemies. They may have a point. But here’s what concerns me. If outside organizations are using American citizens as sleeper cells, it will quite dramatically negatively impact our ability to conduct counter-intelligence and prevent these plots ahead of time. If they ever get their act together and figure out how to really terrorize, things could get ugly.
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U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent:
Federal authorities arrested a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent Monday night at New York’s JFK International Airport in connection with Saturday’s attempted Times Square car bombing, officials told Fox News.
The man was identified as Shahzad Faisal, 30, of Connecticut, U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity. They said Faisal was attempting to flee the country at the time of his arrest.
Awaiting comment from the village idiot, Michael Bloomberg.
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South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have consistently produced some of the best social satire in the 14 years that the show has been on the air. In celebration of their 200th episode, they did a mash-up of many of the story lines they’ve dealt with over the years, including the use of Muhammed.
After the first half of the show aired, a Muslim website threatened the pair with violence for referencing Muhammed. In response, Comedy Central censored the second half of the show.
It’s rare that I find anything said by Andrew Sullivan to be quotable or worth discussing, but he summed it up well:
…It actually helped illuminate the unique intolerance of Sunni Islam among world religions today. SP has long had Jesus and Satan, they have ridiculed Mormonism, eviscerated Scientology, mocked Catholicism and showed the Buddha actually doing lines of coke. None of the adherents of these other faiths have threatened to kill Matt and Trey, but, of course, some Sunni Islamists did so.
So what does Comedy Central do? They wussed out even further. They bleeped even mentions of the name of Muhammed spoken by characters.
Matt and Trey responded to the censoring with this statement:
In the 14 years we’ve been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn’t stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn’t some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle’s customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn’t mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We’ll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we’ll see what happens to it.
The sadly ironic part has been bolded. Comedy Central ought to be ashamed for caving to such threats, thereby encouraging continued radical Islamist violence.
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And he has “diplomatic immunity:”
Federal air marshals subdued a man who authorities say attempted to “light his shoes on fire” on a United flight from Washington Reagan to Denver Wednesday night, federal law enforcement officials told ABC News.
Authorities say an explosive team is on the way to the airport, and that while the presence of explosives has not yet been confirmed, they believe it was an attempted “shoe bomb.”
The suspect was identified by authorities as a diplomat in the Qatar embassy in Washington, Mohammed al Modadi. The FBI said the man had full diplomat immunity as the 3rd secretary and vice-consul.
Diplomat terrorists! Boy if that isn’t a serious flaw in the left’s strategy to treat terrorism like a crime.
So, this guy named Mohammed al Modadi from Qatar apparently tried to light a shoe bomb. Good thing we know there is no such thing as Islamic extremism, or this might be concerning.
Update: From CNN via Ace:
According to CNN, another diplomat is saying that this is a misunderstanding. The story is that the man was smoking in the lavatory and when challenged by an air marshal, he mouthed off sarcastically “I was trying to light my shoes on fire.”
So they nabbed him and scrambled the jets.
This explanation is plausible. If true, the man is either an idiot or doing a test run to see how our security reacts.
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This is absurd even for the Obama regime:
President Barack Obama’s advisers will remove religious terms such as “Islamic extremism” from the central document outlining the U.S. national security strategy and will use the rewritten document to emphasize that the United States does not view Muslim nations through the lens of terror, counterterrorism officials said.
The change is a significant shift in the National Security Strategy, a document that previously outlined the Bush Doctrine of preventative war and currently states: “The struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century.”
…The revisions are part of a larger effort about which the White House talks openly, one that seeks to change not just how the United States talks to Muslim nations, but also what it talks to them about, from health care and science to business startups and education.
It’s one thing to disagree about the severity of the threat posed by radical Islamic Jihad or about the appropriate policy response. It’s another thing entirely to allow one’s silly PC ideology to overwhelm reality. You cannot effectively combat that which you refuse to admit exists. And radical Islamic Jihad most certainly exists.
Eagerly awaiting the chance to talk to Obama about health care
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Some actor named Matthew Modine said something dumb. I know, stop the press, right? But it’s worth addressing.
“Imagine if somebody were to really sit down with Osama Bin Ladin, and say, ‘listen man,what is it that you’re so angry at me about that you’re willing to have people strap bombs to themselves or get inside get inside of airplanes and fly them into buildings.’ That would be the miracle if we can get, sit down and talk to our enemies and find a way for them to hear us.”
Osama bin Laden has plenty of ways to hear us. The problem is he doesn’t like what he hears. Moreover, he’s already explained in significant detail why he’s mad at us.
Neville Chamberlain not only talked to his enemy, he got him to sign a piece of paper!
In 1996 bin Laden issued a fatwa called “Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places.” The land to which he refers, of the two holy places, is Saudi Arabia.
In the fatwa he relays a long list of grievances, many of them imagined, to justify his war on the United States. “It should not be hidden from you,” he wrote, “that the people of Islam had suffered from aggression, iniquity and injustice imposed on them by the Zionist-Crusaders alliance and their collaborators; to the extent that the Muslims blood became the cheapest and their wealth as loot in the hands of the enemies.”
Much of his complaints also focus on Saudi Arabia, where he essentially blames the US for any efforts toward modernity and reform made by the ruling family. He demands the strict application of Shari’ah law. Are you listening, Mr. Modine?
Sometimes it is worthwhile to talk with one’s enemies. When their grievances are based in reality, and their leadership rational, non-violent solutions to disputes may be possible. But when the heart of the issue is an inflexible subservience to doctrinaire intolerance and oppression, talking is rather futile. Whatever one thinks is the appropriate policy response, Osama bin Laden’s demands for the death of America are not a good starting point for compromise.
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The traitor remains at large:
Leave a commentNow, CBS News’ Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad writes that earlier reports the detained individual was Gadahn proved false. According to a Pakistan security official who spoke with CBS News on condition of anonymity, the arrested individual is in fact “a Taliban militant leader who is known as Abu Yahya.”
The official said evidence compiled from an interrogation of the suspect and information exchanged with U.S. officials verified the man’s identify.
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Legal Insurrection notes the silly response of some lefties to news of Adam Gadahn’s capture:
But wait for it: This proves Obama’s anti-terrorism strategy is better than Bush’s -
- What, you mean working with your allies as opposed to trying to run roughshod on them actually works? Who knew?
- It’s like the commander in chief is focused on fighting terrorism or something.
Because al-Qaeda terrorists never before have been captured in Pakistan (other than Khalid Sheikh Mohammend and other people we can’t figure where to put on trial).
Whatever it takes to get them cheering for America. A few years ago they would have been defending Gadahn.
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I am a libertarian-conservative blogger living in the DC area. I have a Master's degree in Political Science and work in public policy, but please don't hold that against me.
