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POPS Afghanistan Syndrome Asad and Tahir would be the first ones to die. As the months dragged on, I grew to detest our captors. I saw the Haqqanis as a criminal gang masquerading as a pious religious movement. They described themselves as the true followers of Islam but displayed an astounding capacity for dishonesty and greed. Whole thing. I hope Obama, Emanuel, Axelrod, Biden, Reid, Levin, Pelosi, etal, are paying attention. You know, between Filkins and Rohde, I’m starting to warm up to the Times a little. At least until the next al-Qaeda early warning system alert goes up. What’s going on … when even the AP’s Kabul bureau seems to be starting to get it? * Though maybe not as far from Stockholm, New York, your town as some people would like to think. Yes, we’re still having this conversation in 2009.
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POPSRape ordeal of heiress She told how within hours of being abducted in June 2002, she was taken to a secluded mountain campsite and made his polygamous 'wife' in a quickie ceremony. 'After that he proceeded to rape me,' said Miss Smart. She said Mitchell, who already had a wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, showed her pornography and plied her with alcohol and drugs. Once, she tried to fight him off by biting him. Miss Smart said Mitchell would rape her three or four times a day, almost every day. There was some respite, usually when Barzee became upset, but it never lasted. Throughout her captivity, Miss Smart had to wear a white, anklelength robe, a head scarf and two veils across her face.
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POPS'Hello, this is Gilad' Addressing his parents and siblings, Gilad says: "I wish to send my well-wishes to my family and tell them that I love them and miss them greatly, and hope for the day I'll see them again. Dad, Yoel, and Hadas, do you remember the day you arrived at my base in the Golan Heights, on December 31, 2005? We toured around the base and you took a picture of me on a Merkava tank and on one of the old tanks at the entrance to the base. Later we went to a restaurant in one of the Druze villages and on the way we took pictures on the side of the road, against the backdrop of the snowy Hermon Mountain." "I want to tell you that I feel well in medical terms, and that the Mujahidin from the al-Qassam Brigades are treating me excellently. Thank you very much and goodbye," Gilad concludes. Gilad's parents, Noam and Aviva, watched the tape privately in their home earlier in the day, and later granted the Prime Minister's Office permission to publicize it.
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POPSFree Speech: Court Reverses $5 Million Ruling Against Gay, Jew, and Soldier-Hating Westboro Baptist 
They'll also target Jewish temples: "The bigots will protest on Saturday in front of Congregation Beth Elohim on Eighth Avenue in Park Slope at 9:45 am, at Union Temple on Eastern Parkway in Prospect Heights at 10 am and the Kane Street Synagogue in Cobble Hill at 12:30 pm on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. On Wednesday, church spokeswoman Shirley Phelps-Roper said the rallies were not anti-Jewish or anti-gay. 'How about we call it an ‘Obey your God’ rally?' she said. 'You Jews and gays have got to put away your false gods, your idols and your filthy way of life.' She added that 'God hates the disobedient.' ... 'We picked these weekends because these are the high holidays,' she said. 'You Jews broke the covenant with God. The beast is going to bring the nations to march upon Jerusalem. Your houses will be destroyed and your women ravaged. It’s going to make the Holocaust, the Babylonian captivity and the destruction of the Temple look like a tea party.
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POPS10 Deadliest Sea Creatures "Before we continue, a nod to venerable contenders that aren't on the list: killer whales (there are few confirmed attacks, accept by those in captivity), octopuses (yes, they've been known to attack), sea cucumbers (who'da thunk?) and piranhas (which actually live only in freshwater, and whose deadly attacks on people are pure myth)." Live Science
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POPSIsraeli President Calls Deal on Kidnapped Soldier 'Close' Asked about that decision, Peres told Fox News, “You’re right. It is a very difficult decision and it’s very painful. But, according to our set of values and to our way of life " the life of a single person is worth the whole world. We take care of every individual as though he would be the collective sum of many people.” Peres also said Sunday that Israel will "reply immediately" if attacked by Hamas " one day after after Israel Air Force planes bombed a tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip in response to a Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian militants into an Israeli town early Saturday. "They know immediately there will be retaliation," he said. "There is an unwritten game between us and them. They know if they won’t respect it, they will pay heavily.”
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POPSKidnapping Case: Investigators Search for Evidence on Series of Unsolved Murders
Dugard's stepfather Carl Probyn told FOX News' Geraldo Rivera that his daughter, now 29, is fragile and said he did not think she had tried to escape the backyard compound during her captivity. Probyn told FOX News that Jaycee is "an extremely good mother" and that his grandchildren were homeschooled by Garrido. He said the children, now 11 and 15, just found out that Jaycee was kidnapped. "They thought he was their dad. They didn't know Jaycee was kidnapped. She told them two days ago." Probyn says he's unsure if his daughter loved Garrido, but she "definitely was bonded to him after 18 years." Police in Pittsburg, a Bay Area city near where the Garridos lived, have said they are investigating whether Phillip Garrido may be linked to several unsolved murders of prostitutes in the 1990s. Antioch police are also looking into unsolved cases but declined further details. “We will take a close look at if there are any links to open cases,” Lee said,
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POPSDolphin Murdered by thousands Animal cruelty is animal cruelty, just as cruelty to people is cruelty to people. Some would exclude banning or protesting certain human practices out of respect to cultural difference. My answer is although some sub-cultures still believe it is ok to enslave others, or that forcing sex on women and children or permissible - the global culture will no longer tolerate such practices. Killing, slaughtering dolphins just because you can and have done so is no longer acceptable global behavior!
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POPSWrist-slap and Tackle: Obama Goes Mild on CIA Torture http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/artic
Holder has announced a tepid probe into some of the possible "excesses" committed by a few CIA interrogators, while letting the true architects and perpetrators of an elaborate, deliberate, inherent system of torture get off scot-free. Glenn Greenwald has many of the details here and here, among them the telling – and damning – fact that Obama and Holder have apparently decided that the "torture memos" prepared at the White House's order should be considered "settled law;" that is, only those agents whose tortures might have gone a bit beyond the already heinous tortures "allowed" by the White House memos are to be investigated for possible prosecution. As long as you stayed within the gruesome "guidelines" of the White House torture memos, then your atrocities are now to be considered "legal." This is yet another open reinforcement of the long-established covert practice of what we might call Nixon's Law: "If the president orders it, it cannot be illegal."
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POPSRecovery of Gray Wolves Going Badly More: "Under the rule, any wolf that has killed three cows or calves in one year must be "removed" -- shot or placed in captivity indefinitely. Wolves killed 22 cows and calves in 2007, according to Fish and Wildlife. Policies such as these have created a revolving door that shuttles wolves from holding pens to the wild and back again, hampering adaptation, breeding and pack dynamics. Those results run counter to the intentions of a captive-breeding program, which ideally should leave wolves able to fend for themselves in the wild without human assistance."
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POPSZimbabwean girl speaks out about rape, in captivity. A child rights activist, who asked not to be named, says the scale of the rape and abuse in the last few months has taken aid workers by surprise. "We have been caught unaware by this political crisis where women and girls are being abused and raped in the areas the ruling party has sealed off," she says. "These abuses should leave politicians hanging their heads in shame for not assisting their own mothers and sisters as is the norm in African culture." As the country heads for a second round of a presidential election on 27 June, the MDC says Maidei's case is not unique. "Pungwes" are gatherings held in the open where people are forced to sing revolutionary songs to prove their loyalty to the ruling party. Many residents are made to attend, including girls as young as 16 where, if they catch a commander's eye, they are kept at the base until the militia leave.
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POPS Flag Day Dawn’s Early Light (Captivity In Print) Listening to the Star-Spangled Banner at the ROTC ceremony at Harvard last week, I reflected again on our nation’s choice of a description of armed struggle and resistance for its anthem. Vivid combat imagery, though understated as patriotic messages go. It was there at nightfall, we saw it during the night, by the light of explosions, is it still there? Over the brave, free men who are fighting for this country? That’s all there is to it, from the perspective of an emissary detained by the invading British when he went to seek a doctor’s release. Armed struggle and triumph may not be unique as anthem themes, but I’d guess a description of those events as viewed from captivity probably is. So what does our adoption of an anthem about armed struggle and captivity say about the American character? http://www.julescrittenden.com/2009/06/12/dawns-early-light-2/
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POPSThe beginning of the return of Justice to America? One innocent kidnappee in Guantinimo has been returned home, but only after having spent his teenage years the the hellish American gulag. He's never going to be the same; no one can recover those stolen years for him, and he now has a very real reason to hate America if he didn't before. Once again, America is creating its own enemies with their moronic foreign policy. Is this a sign that justice really has returned to America? Who can say? They still haven't made amends for the Canadian soldiers that two air force pilots murdered in Afghanistan earlier in the war. The only punishment those pilots were given for defying orders and murdering allied soldiers was the loss of 1 months pay, and a slap on the wrist. Does that sound like justice? It doesn't to me.
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