Islamic Terrorism

Bike Riders Complete 9/11 Honor Tour

In March, we wrote about Tom Heidenberger’s memorial bike ride to honor the memory of the 33 flight crew members that were killed on 9/11/2001. Tom and his riders have now completed their journey.

Bike riders travel 3,800 miles to honor 33 victims of 9-11

The cyclists made the pilgrimage from Los Angeles to the three crash sites to raise money and awareness of the Sept. 11 memorials.

Thomas Heidenberger ended his cross-country bike ride this month the same way he started: asking himself what the heck he was thinking.

He knew, of course. He had done it for his wife, Michele, a flight attendant killed aboard a hijacked airplane on Sept. 11, 2001. He had done it for all 33 airline crew members killed that day.

The ride had taken him and four other riders from Los Angeles to a wind-swept field in Pennsylvania, a gaping hole in Manhattan, the scarred Pentagon in Washington. They did it to raise money and awareness for Sept. 11 memorials, and they dedicated each day of their ride to one of the crew members.

Image: Cyclists complete journey arriving at Pentagon.

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The Airline Ride Across America was supposed to raise $300,000 for the Sept. 11 memorials in Pennsylvania, New York and Washington. It has raised about a third of that so far, and Heidenberger hopes to raise the rest with his Web site, www.airlineride.org.

He’s working on a book about the ride, and talks about dividing it into 33 chapters, each with a short biography of one of the crew members killed on Sept. 11. He thinks he may call it Why I Rode My Bicycle for 3,800 Miles.

“It’s a good story, a happy story,” he said. “It’s a story about life continuing on.”

This is a very touching story where each day the riders dedicated their ride for that day to one of the 33 crew member victims. The last day’s ride was dedicated to Tom’s wife, Michelle, Read the whole story.

Michael Yon – Why We Write

New post at Michael Yon : Online Magazine – Why We Write.

Michael tells about helicopters, the pilots and why he can’t publish his best photos of them.

As a former helicopter pilot, reading this article got the old juices flowing, almost wishing I could be back in it. Almost. However, I’m OK with my job of contributing to the technology that helps these great men and women win wars. That, in itself, is my satisfaction.

The Real Loser – Moussaoui

Thanks to K. J. Lopez in The Corner on National Review Online:

The sentencing Judge to Moussaoui:

“Mr. Moussaoui, when this proceeding is over, everyone else in this room will leave to see the sun … hear the birds … and they can associate with whomever they want,” she said.

Mugshot Mugshots.com

She went on: “You will spend the rest of your life in a supermax prison. It’s absolutely clear who won.”

And she said it was proper he will be kept away from outsiders, unable to speak publicly again.

“Mr. Moussaoui, you came here to be a martyr in a great big bang of glory,” she said, “but to paraphrase the poet T.S. Eliot, instead you will die with a whimper.”

At that point, Moussaoui tried again to interrupt her, but she raised her voice and spoke over him.

“You will never get a chance to speak again and that’s an appropriate ending.”

Brinkema sentenced Moussaoui to six life terms without the chance of parole.

She informed him of his right to appeal the sentence and said she would ask his court-appointed lawyers to file the required notice as a precaution before relieving them from the case. “I believe it would be an act of futility,” she said of an appeal, “but you do have a right.”

101st Fighting Keyboardists

This post tracks back to Captain Ed’s sign-up page for the 101st Fighting Keyboardists. We tried signing in through the TypePad thingy, but after a dozen times of trying to log in, I gave up being told that my sign-in attempt failed over and over. I even got the password mailed to me and still no soap. Oh well.

At any rate, we would like to join the brigade when things settle down — it’s been very well received over the past few days, and Captain Ed must be overwhelmed. I understand since I had to give up trying to keep track of all the sites displaying our Never Forget Tribute graphic.

You can see the sign-up page at Captain’s Quarters.

CENTCOM Releases Terrorist Transcript

US Central Command (CENTCOM) released information on their website regarding the recent video from terrorist Abu-Mus’ab al-Zarqawi and his mob. The CENTCOM article points out a number of key assumptions that can be made from this new video, including the desperation of the terrorists in their losing cause in Iraq.

Image: Abu-Mus’ab al-Zarqawi rants in terrorist propaganda video.

From CENTCOM:

On 25 April, The Global News Network posted a statement issued by The Mujahidin Shura Council in Iraq [Majlis Shura al-Mujahidin fial-Iraq] announcing a new message from Abu-Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, leader of the Al-Qa’ida Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers (I.E. Iraq), and provided links to a 34-minute 4-second video statement titled, “This is a Declaration to the People.” In it, al-Zarqawi rages against the democratically-elected Iraqi government, encouraging Iraqis and foreign fighters to wage war within the country.

[read more from CENTCOM]

In view of this nonsense and the rantings the other day from Usama bin-Laden, my observation is that terrorists rant and lie in their political infomercials almost as much as Democrats!

Sgt. Hook – No Tears in Heaven

First, read Sgt Hook’s No Tears in Heaven

The four Soldiers sat around an olive drab painted footlocker playing cards. Actually, the group was comprised of three Soldiers and one Marine, all wearing desert camouflage uniforms, their blouses removed exposing brown t-shirts, not because they were hot, rather it was just more comfortable to have them off.

[more]

Then watch this moving video he put together. Very well done and touching. Thank you Sgt. Hook.