Image by The U.S. Army via Flickr

It was a terrible day for our country when one of their own opened fire and killed 13 soldiers and wounded 31 others . Many of them were returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Others were preparing to leave for these countries. Those soldiers returning from the war were probably experiencing the first feeling of safety they had felt for many months when they were taken by surprise and shot down in a flurry of bullets coming from two pistols held in the hands of one of their own personnel.

“A lot of people are angry because they feel this could have been prevented,” said Spc. Brian Hill, a 25 year old soldier from Nashville,Tennessee, who was injured in Iraq and walks with a cane. “Somebody should have been paying attention.” The finger pointing has already begun in Washington. The shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a military psychiatrist came to the attention of authorities long before last Thursday’s massacre at Fort Hood.

Communications have come to light that Hasan was in direct contact with an Imam who praised Hasan on Monday on his web site, saying the Army psychiatrist “did the right thing” in attacking soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan. Hasan’s outspoken views and declining stability have been noted but government officials said they gave no evidence he was likely to engage in violence. Officials said Hasan acted by himself, lashing out as a result of a combinations of factors, including his outspoken opposition to U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his deepening religious fervor as a Muslim. Hasan was shot down by military police and is at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. He is in critical but stable condition and is able to talk. Hasan’s family have hired a lawyer.

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Even as President Obama honored the dead at Fort Hood the investigation intensified in Washington. Questions are being asked about whether officials at several agencies had failed to coordinate as they tracked the suspects activities or to react to warning signs in the months before the attack. Hasan came to the attention of two joint Terrorism Task Forces in December as he corresponded by email as many as 20 times with radical imam Anwar al-Awlaqi, who has exhorted followers in the United States, Great Britain and elsewhere to pursue violent jihad.

President Obama called each fallen soldier by name and spoke of each soldier’s interests, his family and how the victim lived rather than how he died. He pledged to the crowd that the killer will be met with justice in this world and the next. The president spoke of the tranquility and liberty that we enjoy at home and and how the 13 gave their lives for it. After the ceremony the president and first lady walked along the row of boots and placed a commander-in-chief’s coin by each picture.

The saddest and most heartfelt moments were when the role was called and the silence that followed when each of the dead soldiers names were called.

http://socyberty.com/issues/military-suicide/

http://newsflavor/world/middle-east/soldiers-die-in-iraq-due-to-contractors-shoddy-work/

http://thrifter.com/usa-canada/illinois/kennesaw-mountains-unknown-soldier/

http://newsflvor.com/world/usa-canada/honoring-our-soldiers/

On Halloween morning, Shannon’s mother and her boyfriend told police that the girl had disappeared from their residence, though all three had been sleeping in the same room, a suspicious circumstance at best. The adults are purportedly cooperating with investigators, at least to some extent. Meanwhile, sheriff’s deputies from three counties and volunteer firefighters have been searching the town and its surroundings for clues.

The Town Left Behind

Chipley is a small backwater in Florida’s panhandle, about 80 miles northwest of Tallahassee, far removed in time and space from the opulent communities and tourist meccas to the south. It is a place whose dirt roads, beat up trailers and tin roof shacks reflect the quiet desperation of its residents. Neighbors keep largely to themselves amid ‘Beware of Dog’ signs, jacked-up clunkers and clotheslines sighing in the breeze.

Chipley is also an enclave from the encroaching terrain that encircles it, a desperate land of trees, tangled vines and swamps. It is an area straight out of an H. P. Lovecraft novel, difficult to search and capable of swallowing up secrets very quickly.

Bobby Haddock, Washington County Sheriff, is quarterbacking the investigation into Shannon Dedrick’s disappearance. He hasn’t released the names of the mother or her boyfriend, who have been interviewed. Sheriff Haddock has identified a ’person of interest,’ whom he hasn’t identified, either. He has issued a missing child alert, but that appears to be pro forma when analyzed in light of other things he has said and done.

First, Haddock spelled out the obvious point that Shannon could not have walked or crawled out of the room. Not only is she a mere seven months in age, but may be developmentally disabled. “This child cannot walk or crawl,” he said. “It did not leave the residence by itself.”

Of equal import is this finding: “There’s nothing to lead us to believe at this time that this was an abduction,” Haddock told the Panama City News Herald. This means two things. Haddock has rejected the significance of a mysterious grey van spotted on several occasions near the trailer where the child had lived. It also means that, by default, the boyfriend and/or mother are under suspicion. The interest in Shannon’s immediate family is heightened by Haddock’s belief that the child went missing no later than 8 AM October 31, 2009, encompassing a delay of at least three hours before the police were notified.

Haddock also said he is not concerned about the safety of anybody else in the community, further strengthening the perception that he is focused on the trailer’s adult occupants.

Shannon would be helpless if alone, and the places being searched could only yield her remains. Late Monday, Sheriff Haddock claimed: “We have searched every dumpster in the city limits of Chipley, we have turned over every garbage can.”

As to efforts in the outlying wilderness, the pattern of the search is telling. It began near the point of disappearance and is radiating outward in concentric circles. That would be the most efficient means of finding a girl alive if she were seven years old rather than seven months. It looks like a body search. It could be the investigators are looking for clues also, but if Shannon had been secreted to any safe place, the clues would not be in the woods or swamp.

Your writer would change these facts if he could, but can only keep you informed. Those who hope that Shannon will be found alive will need a miracle, so keep her in your prayers.

Update: Shannon Dedrick Found Alive in Babysitter’s Home

Just after this article went to press, baby Shannon was found, in a box under the bed of babysitter Susan Baker. County Sheriff Bobby Haddock is considering charges against the sitter and Shannon’s mother, Chrystina Lynn Mercer, probably for filing a false police report. Yet Shannon Dedrick lives, and that makes this writer’s morning.

Her father Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, who fled the scene, and was a subject of a manhunt, was finally arrested at Atlanta’s Airport last Thursday, after his attempt to flee to the United Kingdom was thwarted. It is reported that when he arrived in the UK, he was denied entry, and returned to the US where the police was there to welcome him. He was interviewed by the Peoria police, and transported back to Arizona to face charges.

According to the Associated Press (AP), the county prosecutor Stephanie Low told the judge that the father had admitted he had committed the crime. Low reportedly told the court “By his own admission, this was an intentional act and the reason was that his daughter had brought shame on him and his family” Low further said “This was an attempt at an honor killing”

It was reported that members of the family told the authorities that Almaleki attacked his daughter because he was upset that she had become too “Westernized” and her lifestyle was not in keeping with Iraqi values.

Almaleki, who had originally faced charges of aggravated assault, since his daughter’s death, he now faces upgraded charges, according to the Peoria police spokesman Mike Tellef, in an interview with the AP.

The Almalekis reportedly migrated to the US in the 1990’s, but the daughter had moved out and was living with her boyfriend’s mother, Amal Khallaf, who was also injured in the accident, and is expected to survive.  

It must have been evident to even the most casual of observers that Hines was dead and had been for some time. Investigators would later find 32 knife wounds and evidence of beating. Further, witnesses told police they thought Feliciano’s CPR efforts seemed half-hearted.

Feliciano also enjoyed a favorable reputation around the church, as a ‘second father’ to the kids. All that would change within a day.

Police found that Father Hines’ cell phone was still active, though it was no longer in the rectory. He had tried to use it to call 911 during the attack, but the killer said everything was fine, hung up, and the cops could not get a trace. The killer had taken the phone with him, police surmised. They were right, and on Saturday the traced it to Jose Feliciano’s home. There they found one cell phone, some bloody clothing, a distraught wife, and the church janitor.

Feliciano was arrested, Marandized, and gave a somewhat dissatisfying confession. He and Father Hines had had an argument Thursday night, and Feliciano had killed the priest.

If the police were told what the argument was about, they are giving no specifics as of yet, but they are pursuing the idea that there may have been some kind of relationship between them. The reasoning is blood simple. This was an extremely violent and passionate murder, not the type of thing that happens between people who merely work together.

So this argument would not be about something like whether the janitor emptied the trash often enough. To the janitor, at least, it was a basic rift in their relationship, and had there been no emotions in the relationship, one would not see them reflected so clearly in the murder. It is left for us now to wait until the full truth comes out.

I can guarantee that there will be no criminal conduct or civil liability found in connection with these three men’s deaths. Ten days earlier, two women and one man suffered fatal injuries during a ‘Spiritual Warrior’ program at the Angel Valley Retreat Center in Sedona, Arizona. Like the men who fell at the half-marathon, these people were in good physical condition, had signed waivers acknowledging that what they were going to do could be dangerous, and died while participating in an ancient pursuit that had a relatively safe track record. Yet their deaths in a sweat lodge ceremony are being investigated by the county sheriff as ‘homicides,’ and one civil action for wrongful death is already being prepared. How can this dichotomy be resolved? The devil is in the details.

James Arthur Ray, harmonicwealthweekend.com

The man who conceived of and led the retreat is James Arthur Ray, a charismatic public speaker, author of self-help books, who appears to be selling the concept of material wealth through a combination of ‘new age’ spirituality, American Indian ritual, astrology and numerology. He has taken a page from the Scientologists in method, by holding free seminars to entice attendees to pay for pricier ones. These include the $4,000 ‘Quantum Leap’ workshop, the $5,300 weeklong ‘Practical Mysticism’ seminar, and the $9,000+ ‘Spiritual Warrior’ retreat, which was in progress when the fatal injuries occurred.

On October 8, 2009, Ray led between 50-60 followers into a sweat lodge. There were hot coals in the lodge and Ray, as facilitator, periodically poured water over them. Two hours later, Kirby Brown, 38 and James Shore, 40 were pulled unconscious from the lodge. The nurse was performing CPR on them as ambulances arrived, but they died soon after. Nineteen others required hospitalization; one of these, 49 year old Liz Neuman, was in critical condition, comatose, and would die of multiple organ damage. Autopsies are to be conducted on Brown and Shore.

The Yarepai County Sheriff Steve Waugh said the deaths were “not accidental.” He continued: “A combination of circumstances led to the deaths. Whether or not we can prove a criminal case, that has yet to be determined.” This statement does not bode well for Ray and his assistants in this homicide investigation. The word “homicide” simply means the killing of another human being. A finding that the deaths were accidental would be the best thing Ray could hope for as it would absolve him of any criminal guilt. Yet if Ray’s actions were negligent, grossly negligent, or willful and wanton misconduct, there is criminal exposure.

Waugh says investigators are looking at how the lodge was built, the fact that people have gotten sick at prior sweat ceremonies run by Ray, and the questionable level of on site medical care (one nurse for more than 50 people).

Both the police and the relatives of Kirby Brown have talked to people who attended the sweat lodge group. It was apparently almost pitch dark in the lodge, so it would be harder to notice that someone passed out. Kirby Brown’s cousin Tom Feeley, who believes the three people were “murdered,” painted a portrait of confusion in which people were passing out and coming to, and that a lot of people probably would have left had Ray not been stationed by the door.

This writer would expect civil suits to be filed in all three cases once the investigation and autopsies are finished. A lawyer for the estate of Liz Neuman is already getting revved up to file a suit for wrongful death.

So this is a different case from the Detroit Marathon. There are many people who would run long distances even if there were no sanctioned races, and anyone is free to drop out of a race if they feel ill. Deaths in distance races are rare events; the last death to occur in the Detroit race was in 1994. In Sedona we have people crammed into a sweat lodge of questionable design and led by a charismatic person whom they trusted. And that is a different story.

I’m not sure what was going through Brock’s mind on the morning of September 21, though logic did not appear to be a factor. Did she believe that if she laid low for awhile, the state would give up on their custody case, and the police would lose interest in prosecuting her for cocaine possession? Or did she think she could live her life as a fugitive indefinitely? Whatever the case, on that Monday morning she packed the kids into her SUV and, with the help of a friend, stashed the kids in a home in Leesburg. The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office was soon on Brock’s case, sending a warning to local police agencies.

The kids had been missing for nearly a week when Brock, enlisting the help of her friend Stephanie Newberry, cooked up the scheme so half-witted that it would immediately  break the case wide open. They concluded that if the SUV were a different color it would lessen the possibility of its getting pulled over. So the pair drove to a Wal-Mart in Ocala where Brock bought some spray paint. Brock stayed inside the store while Newberry began to spray blue paint on the vehicle outside the back of the store. Neither evidently thought that a police patrolman behind the SUV might be intrigued by the sloppy paint job and run the license plate, which Brock could not change. As it happened, things never progressed that far.

Wall-Mart security men began to wonder why Newberry was giving the SUV a hasty spray paint job in their parking lot. One of them read the license plate, finding it listed on  a  copy of the warning notice sent to the Ocala police, who had distributed it to area businesses. The security guards then summoned the police. Brock could see the heat building up and fled from the store. Orlando Sentinel, 9/28/09.

Newberry spilled the beans, telling the police where the three kids were stashed. In view of her cooperation, the police did not charge her with anything. The children were recovered the same day.

Meanwhile, the Volusia County.Sheriff’s Department continues to search for Christina Brock, who now has a warrant for interference with child custody.

So the story has a bittersweet ending, because Brock’s three children face an uncertain future. But things could have turned out worse had it not been for the diligence of the Wal-Mart guards.

The tents are currently open to the public only on Tuesday morning with an expected patient clientele of approximately 300 per day. When questioned both the medical professionals and the staff admit that this is merely the tip of the iceberg. They warn that we are in for a very busy flu season this year.

The biggest problem and concern is the waiting time and it is hoped that the tents will cut this time drastically. In the past patients have had to wait for as many as four hours before being seen by a staff professional. Many of the patients come to the hospital because their normal doctor’s office is booked up and has no openings at all. You can barely get into the doors of the tents as there are so many people waiting. A glance around the facility reveals that many of the patients waiting to see the doctors all display similar symptoms. To most parents here the high fevers approaching 102 or 103 degrees causes’ great alarm and fears of the child having the H1N1 flu are widespread.

Often you see staff walking around the tents with surgical masks on in an effort not to spread or catch the illness which is an indication that we are still experiencing a degree of panic in most communities when confronted with this disease. The hospital has indicated that the tents will remain for as long as necessary since more then half the patients tested have resulted in positive results for H1N1 virus.

Although the government is expecting a vaccine to be available for H1N1 around the beginning of October there are conflicting comments regarding its safety. In fact it has been stated that children under 12 years of age will need two doses of the vaccine. All we can do now is sit and wait. In the meantime if you want to learn more about this disease and what you can do to protect yourself you should check out your favorite internet search engine.

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Phillip Garrido had been convicted of rape and released on parole from the Nevada State prison in 1989. His neighbors knew he was a registered sex offender. The kids on the block knew to keep their distance. Garrido wore an ankle bracelet and reported to his parole officer several times a month. Parole agents and law enforcement regularly visited his home searching for drugs and alcohol, nothing was ever found amiss. His wife and 88 year old mother lived in the home and paramedics often came in to check on the mother.

A neighbor called police in 2006 saying Garrido was a psychotic sex offender and had children living in his back yard. A policeman went out and talked to Garrido on his front porch and reported back that everything was OK. He didn’t bother to check the back yard where Jaycee and her children were held prisoners. The back yard was walled in where nobody could see inside. There were outbuildings in the back yard and one was sound proof. It could only be entered from the outside. Jaycee had been imprisoned there for 18 years with the children she had by Garrido. They had never seen a doctor or been in school. She had her first baby at age 14.and the other one at 18. The children are now 15 and 11.

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A security guard became suspicious when Garrido came on campus of the California University passing out religious literature. He was accompanied by his wife, Jaycee, and the two children. The security guard checked and found Garrido was a sex offender. He then reported it to the parole officer. When Garrido went to see the parole officer he took his wife, Jaycee and the children with him. It went down hill from there on in. Garrido admitted the kidnapping. Jaycee and her children were turned over to the police and she called her mother.

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When law officers went into the back yard they found sheds, tents,and outbuildings. The yard was walled in so no one could see inside. It was here that Jaycee had lived her life since she was taken away from her parents as an 11 year old child, and it was here she had given birth to her children imprisoned and alone.

Garrido is charged with rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and sexual penetration. He and his wife pleaded not guilty to 29 counts, including forcible abduction, rape and false imprisonment.  There is also the question that he may be responsible for unsolved murders of several prostitutes who’s bodies were dumped near where Garrido worked in the 1990’s.

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FBI is still investigating the case and going through all the evidence. A lot of that evidence is in the backyard of the house in California County where Jaycee was held captive for 18 years along with her 2 children which were fathered by the abductor, Phillip Garrido. Police officers looked into Mr. Garrido’s background and found out that he was on federal parole overseen by the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. They found that Mr. Garrido was convicted of crimes in 1971, involving rape and kidnapping. California State police contacted Parole which resulted in Mr. Garrido having a follow up visit at the Parole office where he brought with him 2 children, his wife Nancy and a female named Allissa. The Agent in the Parole office had never seen Allissa and 2 young children during Mr. Garrido’s previous visits. The Agent found them suspicious and contacted the police department where the female named Allissa was identified as Jaycee Dugard. Further interviews with Jaycee and Garrido provided information that the abductor and kidnapper could only know.

The news shocked the whole world. Neighbours still can’t believe it and had no idea what was going on behind the close doors of Garrido’s house. Jaycee’s step father, Carl Probyn still can’t believe that why she didn’t try to escape from the house and thinks that Jaycee might have been brain washed. Carl told the media that he was treated as suspect in this case till now, and has millions of questions in his head, but on the other hand he is also delighted that Jaycee came home alive and reunited with her mother.

One of the most famous cases was that of Steven Stayner, abducted when he was 8 in Merced, CA. Six years later, he walked into a police station and announced his real identity. He explained he did it because his kidnapper had recently kidnapped another boy, and Stayner wanted the boy to be returned to his parents. Sadly, members of Stayner’s family have also been affected by other crimes, either as victims or criminals. Stayner had an uncle who was murdered, and his older brother, Carl, was convicted of being a serial killer and is currently on death row in California.

Jeremiah Treanor was 7 when he was kidnapped in Britain. Three years later, Scotland Yard found him alive when they broke up a child prostitution ring. His ordeal led to a major change in battling crimes in England, as Scotland Yard then instituted a child crimes unit.

Kidnappings happen all over the world, including in less crime-ridden countries, like Japan. In 1970, 9-year old Fusako Sano was kidnapped by a mentally ill man, who kept her in his apartment. Nine years later, the police came to his house, having been notified of some disturbance, and she confided to them who she was. Reunited with her family, she had suffered physically while in captivity, and still suffers emotionally; she lacks many social skills, has few friends, and has to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Another foreign kidnapping occurred in 1999, when leftist guerrillas hijacked a plane travelling from Columbia. They forced it to land in an obscure part of a jungle, where they kept all the passengers hostage. They released them after one year, and one of the victims, Lesli Kalli who endured the ordeal along with her father, wrote a book, Kidnapped: A Diary of My 373 days in Captivity. Unfortunately, she now has to live under the auspices of a U.N. witness protection program.

Even tiny babies who are kidnapped are sometimes discovered alive. Delimar Vera Cuevas was barely 10 days old when kidnapped. Her mother had always prayed for her return, and 6 years later, in 2003, her mother found her when both were attending a birthday party. DNA evidence later confirmed that the child was indeed the kidnapping victim.

An Austrian, Natascha Kampusch, was just 10 when she was abducted, and was confined to her captor’s basement. An unusual kidnapper, he brought her books so she could continue her education. She escaped 8 years later in 2006, and since then has led an unusually open public life. After she was hounded by the media, she became host of her own talk show in Vienna, In Conversation with . . . Natascha Kampusch. In addition, many observers have expressed that she exhibits characteristics of having Stockholm Syndrome, a pathology where a victim identifies with the feelings of her oppressor. Once she escaped, the kidnapper jumped in front of a train to his death. Kampusch’s reaction was to light a candle, expressing sadness for him, and spending countless hours crying over his death. Even more astonishing, when the captor’s house was being sold, she purchased it, explaining that she wanted to “protect” it from vagrants, and also didn’t want it torn down. She sometimes even goes to the house, the “prison” where she was once forced to live.