Hostages

16 November 2009

When New York Times journalist David Rohde was kidnapped last year in Afghanistan, the company engaged in a painstaking effort to squash the story. They succeeded in persuading major media who learned of the kidnapping to keep quiet. The cover-up was so good that a New York Times reporter I spoke with in December 2008, while she and I joined Secretary Gates on a trip through Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq and back to the United States, had not heard about the David Rohde kidnapping.

The New York Times openly agrees that publishing such articles increases the peril to the lives of hostages, yet it published details about a British couple being held hostage in Somalia, and thus increased the value of the hostages to the kidnappers.

Some months after Mr. Rohde’s kidnapping started leaking, I published a generic blurb about the case, but made sure none of the information was new. (more…)

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Tags: Afghanistan, David Rohde, Huffington Post, Michael Yon, Michael Yon Dispatches
Posted Nov 16th 2009 at 4:32 pm in Michael Yon Dispatches, Military | 2635227 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/myon/2009/11/16/hostages/Hostages2009-11-17+00%3A32%3A14Michael+Yon

Ambush of the Common Sort

08 November 2009

Got a ping today about an attack on the road between Jalalabad and Kabul.  It’s a dangerous road and I don’t like to drive it.  The source has always been reliable, so I pinged Tim Lynch (who often is on that road), and Tim just sent these pics and a quick narrative.  (Unedited, and my post also coming via Blackberry.)  Tim writes:

The ambush happened around 0845 or so on the west side of the Duranta Tunnel.  Steve and I rolled out to look – the fuel convoy had security escorts from Compass security and they plus some ANP are who you see up in the ridges.  Three tankers were burning and three more were shot up and leaking fuel all over the place.  There was a section of OH-58’s up and after about 20 minutes of figuring out who was who on the ground they started in on the bad guys with rockets and mini gun.

There was still some fighting going on when we arrived and few rounds came our way but were very high and not to close.  The bad guys had one belt fed which opened up briefly – the Blue Compass/ANP guys clearly had the momentum and used damn good fire discipline – we only heard volleys when the Taliban exposed themselves and those volleys were not that long.The Army claims four KIA from the OH’s which is not doubt true given how low they were scouting about for targets – there is no cover out there just fingers and draws and the security guys were putting pressure on the Ambush team to keep moving which exposed them to the birds.

(more…)

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Tags: Afghanistan, Jalalabad, Kabul, Michael Yon, Military
Posted Nov 9th 2009 at 5:21 pm in Michael Yon Dispatches, Military | 2602789 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/myon/2009/11/09/ambush-of-the-common-sort/Ambush+of+the+Common+Sort2009-11-10+01%3A21%3A11Michael+Yon

Fort Hood: Wise Words From Michael Yon

Wise, wise words from Michael Yon: 

Now is not a time to psychoanalyze the attacker by using a media-supplied telescope that already said he was dead, and that there were multiple attackers.  Media: STOP, please.  There will be time to pursue answers and justice after Christmas.  We must remember that family members lost loved ones just before the holidays.  Justice and answers will come with time.

When stories of this kind break, the weatherman becomes the most accurate part of the newscast. We know nothing right now. We know less than nothing because too much of what we’re told is wrong.

All we know is that people are dead and wounded, and families and loved ones are suffering. That’s all that matters right now. The rest is noise.

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Tags: Fort Hood, media, Michael Yon, NRO, Tragedy
Posted Nov 5th 2009 at 9:38 pm in Featured Story, Military, News | 25905881 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/11/05/michael-yon-tragedy-at-fort-hood/Fort+Hood%3A+Wise+Words+From+Michael+Yon2009-11-06+05%3A38%3A23Big+Hollywood

Market Garden: A Remembrance During Time of War

Kandahar City, Afghanistan

Slowly, surely, the city is being strangled.  Signaling the depth of our commitment, security forces are thinner in Kandahar than the Himalayan air.  During the days and evenings, there were the sounds of occasional bombs—some caused by suicide attackers, and others by firefights.  The windows in my room had been blown out recently and now were replaced.  We came here to kill our enemies, but today we want to make a country from scratch.

A world away from Afghanistan, over in Holland, was approaching the 65th anniversary of the allied liberation from Nazi occupation, and I had been invited to attend by James “Maggie” Megellas.  Maggie, who had fought his way through Holland and is today remembered there as a hero, is said to be the most decorated officer in the history of the 82nd Airborne Division.  Now 92, Maggie has recently spent about two months tooling around the battlefields of Afghanistan, and though it would be an honor to finally meet him, there was the matter of extracting myself from Kandahar City and getting through about forty minutes of dangerous territory to the military base at Kandahar Airfield. (more…)

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Tags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, General Petraeus, Kandahar City, Maggie Megellas
Posted Oct 12th 2009 at 5:38 pm in Michael Yon Dispatches, Military | 24515813 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/myon/2009/10/12/market-garden-a-remembrance-during-time-of-war/Market+Garden%3A++A+Remembrance+During+Time+of+War2009-10-13+00%3A38%3A38Michael+Yon

A Story From War

Published: 08 October 2009

“In April this year it became 2 Rifles’ dubious fortune to be sent to Sangin on a six-month tour. By mid-August their battle group, a composite force from various units built around a core of several hundred riflemen and fusiliers, had the worst casualties of any British brigade sent to Helmand, with just over 100 soldiers killed or wounded: a fifth of their total patrol troops. The trend suggested that by the time the battle group’s tour ends this month as many as one in four of these infantrymen will have been slain or injured, a figure that compares with British infantry casualty ratios in Europe during the later stages of the Second World War.” -Anthony Lloyd

(more…)

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Tags: Afghanistan, Anthony Lloyd, Apaches, British 2 Rifles, Helmand
Posted Oct 8th 2009 at 4:13 pm in Michael Yon Dispatches, Military | 24373813 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/myon/2009/10/08/a-story-from-war/A+Story+From+War+2009-10-08+23%3A13%3A56Michael+Yon

America in Danger: Important Courtroom Battles

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Tags: David Rivkin, Maqaleh v. Gates, Michael Yon
Posted Sep 24th 2009 at 4:18 pm in Law, Michael Yon Dispatches, Military | 23524617 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/myon/2009/09/24/america-in-danger-important-courtroom-battles/America+in+Danger%3A+Important+Courtroom+Battles2009-09-24+23%3A18%3A27Michael+Yon

Pedros

14 September 2009
Helmand Province, Afghanistan

With the war increasing, Air Force Pararescue has been crisscrossing the skies picking up casualties. (more…)

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Tags: Afghanistan, Air Force Pararescue, Bagram, Helmand Province, Kandahar Airfield
Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 9:51 am in Media Criticism, Michael Yon Dispatches | 224690No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/myon/2009/09/14/pedros/Pedros+2009-09-14+16%3A51%3A53Michael+Yon

Why You Should Read and Support Michael Yon

When I saw that Michael Yon had joined us here at Big Hollywood, I was overjoyed. This is a great opportunity to expand his audience and, frankly, everyone should read his stuff. Yon has been embedding with military units in combat for the better part of the last four years and has been bringing the ground-level truth to those that care to read it.

I can’t remember exactly when I first discovered his writings but it was at a point where he was disagreeing with the spin coming from the Bush White House regarding progress in Iraq. I was disturbed to have confirmation that things were not quite as we were being told but Yon’s critiques, while serious and undiluted, were constructive in nature. I could tell that he was supportive of the effort even though he sometimes railed against the execution of it. Michael Yon pulls no punches and I checked back often to see what else he had to say. Eventually, the network news would catch up and start reporting things that Yon had written about weeks, often months, earlier. This is a pattern that continues today. (more…)

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Tags: Afghanistan, Iraq, J.R. Head, Marines, Michael Yon
Posted Sep 9th 2009 at 5:03 am in Featured Story, Michael Yon Dispatches, Military | 21700627 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jrhead/2009/09/09/michael-yon/Why+You+Should+Read+and+Support+Michael+Yon+2009-09-09+12%3A03%3A55J.R.+Head

Movies We Like: ‘Zulu’

The members of the ruling class of the British Isles seem to be committed to demonstrating that they are nothing but hopeless neo-socialists busy sacrificing their green and pleasant land on the altar of nanny-state multiculturalism.  It seems that every day there is a report of some new Labor assault on free speech, a fresh disaster in the decaying single-payer health care system, or another craven surrender to domestic jihadism. The latest atrocity is Scotland’s politicians’ ”compassionate release” of Lockerbie mass-murderer Abdulbaset al-Megrahi, a shameful maneuver that managed to combine greed, cowardice and self-righteousness all into one gutless package. I used to emphasize that I was 25% Scot and not mention my 12.5% French ancestry.  Now?  Well, can you say, “Bonjour?”  At least the “frogs” leadership will take their own side in a fight.

But the people of the British Isles – the English, the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish – are a proud, tough bunch ill-served by their shabby politicians.  And nowhere on screen can you see their heart and glory displayed better than in 1964’s war epic Zulu.

Understand that Zulu is a true story.  In January 1879, a column of about 1500 poorly-deployed British troops was overrun at Isandhlwana by the 20,000-man Zulu army of King Catshweyo. After that slaughter – the Zulus did not bother with niceties like taking prisoners – the Zulus turned their attention to the nearby mission station at Rourke’s Drift, defended by about 100 Welsh infantrymen and their English officers. The desperate battle against overwhelming odds that followed became a legend. (more…)

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Tags: 2 Rifles, Abdulbaset al-Megrahi, Gladiator, John Barry, michael caine
Posted Sep 2nd 2009 at 8:37 am in Film, Politics, Reviews | 213774117 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/09/02/movies-we-love-zulu/Movies+We+Like%3A+%27Zulu%272009-09-02+15%3A37%3A11Kurt+Schlichter

Michael Yon Dispatch: ‘Photos and Captions’

22 July 2009
Filed from Sangin, Afghanistan

(This dispatch is from Ghor Province, though I am now with British forces down south.)

Lithuanian soldier on Swedish C-130 from Kabul to Kandahar and finally to Chaghcharan. On his left are Filipino workers. Filipinos are like birds; the only place that an American has stepped that a Filipino hasn’t is the moon. Yesterday was a special anniversary for space travel: man first landed on the moon. I watched the launch from our family boat when I was five years-old. Apollo 11 was bright, and loud. Many people think that the Russians also walked on the moon, but this is untrue.

The Swedish C-130 landed at Chaghcharan “airport.” Landmines still wait in ambush in the fields around the airstrip, and in fact a legacy mine (previous war) was found just about three feet off the road—just a minute from the base—while I was there. The mine has been next to the base for about five years and apparently nobody stepped on it. When soldiers say to you, “Sir, please don’t step off the road,” they mean “DON’T STEP OFF THE ROAD!” The director of the local hospital told me that mines strike about one person per month in this area. (more…)

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Tags: Afghanistan, Apollo 11, Chaghcharan, Filipinos, Ghor Province
Posted Jul 22nd 2009 at 12:11 pm in Michael Yon Dispatches, Military | 18961425 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/myon/2009/07/22/michael-yon-dispatch-photos-and-captions/Michael+Yon+Dispatch%3A+%27Photos+and+Captions%272009-07-22+19%3A11%3A11Michael+Yon

One Iraq War Vet Declares War On Hollywood

Please go to this link first – click here – to understand what I’m about to rant about and why I’m so pissed.

Almost 90% of Americans believe the war in Iraq is and was a waste. The Hollywood media feeds the public wasteful, depressing, and horribly fabricated stories. When did the U.S. military become the bad-guys? We are stereotyped “Generation Kill.” I guess that is all we do. All we do is go to Iraq, hunt innocents and slaughter them. I guess that is what I did for eight months while I was there.

I guess I really didn’t save Iraqi families from being tortured by foreign jihadis. I didn’t set up the first ever Iraqi elections. Or see my brothers blown up, shot, maimed, and killed. Getting attacked from Mosques and hospitals–and you know what?  We just took it, day after day we took it and we kept going. An IED blowing up underneath me each day.  We couldn’t fight back; we were ordered not to. No matter how much vengeful, pent up aggression I felt, or how much I wanted to kill, I didn’t act on it. We have a code, Rules of Engagement. “RULES,” rules that are followed.

But according to then Senator and now President Obama, all I did was air-raid villages and kill innocent civilians.  This is a video I will never forget:

People like Pat Dollard and Micheal Yon tell the true stories.

Please watch these clips and tell me if you buy into what is portrayed. Honestly, tell me what you believe. (more…)

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Tags: "Redacted", 9/11, Barack Obama, Brian De Palma, Generation Kill
Posted Jan 29th 2009 at 4:00 am in Featured Story, Media Criticism, Video | 33666158 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sgtwelsh/2009/01/29/one-iraq-war-vet-declares-war-on-hollywood/One+Iraq+War+Vet+Declares+War+On+Hollywood2009-01-29+12%3A00%3A30Sgt.+Welsh