MichaelMoore.com : Official: Helicopter crash kills 26 in NW Pakistan

July 4th, 2009 8:48 am
Bush invite to event upsets dads

The fathers of two servicemen killed in Iraq say he shouldn't be Woodward's guest.

By Sara Plummer / Tulsa World

CHOCTAW — Oklahomans Warren Henthorn and John Scripsick are upset and disappointed that former President George W. Bush is considered an honored guest at Woodward's Independence Day celebration Saturday.

Both believe Bush and his administration shoulder some of the blame for their sons' deaths while serving for the U.S. military in Iraq.

Henthorn of Choctaw said his son, Army Spc. Jeffrey Henthorn, joined the Oklahoma Army National Guard when he was 17 and served six years. He enlisted in the Army in 2003 and was serving a second tour in Iraq when he died on Feb. 8, 2005, at the age of 25.

"I didn't much care for it. He had already done six years," Henthorn said. "He knew he was going to war. I did too."

Henthorn, who served during the Vietnam War, said he was "frozen" for about six months after his son's death.

"I never was for the war," he said. "The consensus now is that war wasn't necessary."

Scripsick's son, Marine Cpl. Bryan Scripsick, was deployed to Iraq in March 2007 to do house-to-house searches and investigate suspicious vehicles along roadsides. Six months after arriving, he was killed with three other Marines in a suicide bomb attack on Sept. 6, 2007. He was 22 years old.

Scripsick of Wayne said his son joined the Marines after talking with a recruiter at his high school.

"I was against it 100 percent," Scripsick said. "He kept saying 'The recruiter said more people die in car wrecks than in the military.' He kept talking about seeing the world."

Henthorn invited Scripsick to some peace demonstrations, and both attended a protest when Bush came to Oklahoma City in September 2008 to raise money for former Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

"We've both become political junkies," Scripsick said. "We're just trying to figure out why our sons were sent to Iraq."

Both oppose Bush's visit to Woodward.

Henthorn said he started laughing when he heard Bush would be visiting the Oklahoma town of 15,000 people.

"I'm not saying anything bad about Woodward. I was kind of shocked by it. I don't believe he should be invited," Henthorn said.

Woodward City Manager Alan Riffle said most residents are thrilled to have a former president visit. Bush will speak in the new stadium at Crystal Beach Park about patriotism, independence and his life as president, Riffle said.

"We're not talking about politics, but the office and Independence Day," he said.

Riffle said protesters will not be allowed at the event.

"There are people out there that do not favor his politics or his decisions as president," Riffle said. "That won't be allowed in the Crystal Beach area. The motorcade route, he may encounter that. He's accustomed to it."

Riffle said he believes Bush agreed to speak in Woodward because of its atmosphere.

"Woodward is very patriotic, a mom-and-apple-pie kind of place," he said. "He has been here previously campaigning for his father."

Scripsick and Henthorn don't believe Bush should be an honored guest.

"He took our military to a war of choice. In my mind, there's a lot of blood on his hands," Henthorn said.

Scripsick said he hopes to make a difference by voicing his anti-Bush opinions in demonstrations.

"I don't enjoy doing it, but I thought Bryan probably didn't enjoy doing house-to-house searches either," Scripsick said. "It's too late for us, but maybe it will help some other kids."

Henthorn said protesting the war and the leadership's decisions isn't the same as not supporting the troops.

"I have respect for the military. I served, my dad served, Jeffrey served. There's nothing wrong with being a soldier. The military shouldn't be sent to a war of choice," he said.

"The chain needs to be broken. My son was a third-generation Henthorn soldier, and I don't want a fourth-generation Henthorn soldier."

July 3rd, 2009 11:37 am
FACTBOX: U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan

(Reuters) - A U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's South Waziristan region killed 10 militants and wounded seven on Friday, Pakistani intelligence agency officials said.

The missiles were fired in an area controlled by Pakistani Taliban leader and al Qaeda ally Baitullah Mehsud, where Pakistani troops are gearing up for an offensive.

Here are some facts about the U.S. missile attacks, the controversy they have caused, and a list of some of the more prominent militants killed, according to Pakistani officials.

WHY DOES THE UNITED STATES ATTACK?

Many al Qaeda members and Taliban fled to northwestern Pakistan's ungoverned ethnic Pashtun belt after U.S.-led soldiers ousted Afghanistan's Taliban government in 2001. From their sanctuaries there the militants have orchestrated insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The United States and Afghanistan have pressed Pakistan to eliminate the sanctuaries. Apparently frustrated by Pakistan's inability to do so, the United States is hitting the militants itself.

HOW MANY ATTACKS?

The United States has carried out about 44 drone air strikes since the beginning of last year, most since September, killing about 410 people, including many foreign militants, according to a tally of reports from Pakistani intelligence agents, district government officials and residents.

SOME OF THE PEOPLE REPORTED KILLED

January 28, 2008 - A senior al Qaeda member, Abu Laith al-Libi, was killed in a strike in North Waziristan.

July 28 - An al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert, Abu Khabab al-Masri, was killed in South Waziristan.

November 22 - Rashid Rauf, a Briton with al Qaeda links and the suspected ringleader of a 2006 plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic, was killed in an attack in North Waziristan. An Egyptian named as Abu Zubair al-Masri was said to be among the dead in the same attack.

January 1, 2009 - A U.S. drone killed three foreign fighters in South Waziristan, Pakistani agents said. A week later, a U.S. counter-terrorism official said al Qaeda's operational chief Usama al-Kini and an aide had been killed in South Waziristan. The U.S. official declined to say how or when they died.

WHERE ARE THE DRONES LAUNCHED FROM?

A senior U.S. lawmaker, Senator Dianne Feinstein, told a U.S. Senate hearing in February that drones were being operated and flown from an air base inside Pakistan. Pakistan denied that, saying there was no permission for the strikes, nor had there ever been.

U.S. POSITION

The United States has shrugged off Pakistani protests. It says the missile strikes are carried out under an agreement with Islamabad which allows Pakistani leaders to decry the attacks in public.

U.S. officials said last month the United States had given Pakistan data on militants in the Afghan border area gathered by surveillance drones in Pakistani airspace under an agreement with Pakistan.

PAKISTAN'S POSITION

Pakistan says the drone strikes violate its sovereignty and undermine efforts to deal with militancy because they inflame public anger and bolster support for the militants. Pakistan has pressed the United States to provide it with drones to allow it to conduct its own anti-militant operations.

(Compiled by Islamabad Newsroom; Editing by Jason Subler and Sanjeev Miglani)

July 3rd, 2009 11:36 am
Official: Helicopter crash kills 26 in NW Pakistan

By Asif Shahzad

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A military official says 26 security personnel have been killed in a helicopter crash in northwestern Pakistan.

The official says the incident took place Friday and that a technical fault was to blame.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information to the media.

Earlier, Pakistan's army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said a helicopter had crashed in the northwest, but gave no details on casualties.

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