Concerns are growing over the safety of a Pakistani doctor who might have played an unwitting yet heroic role in the U.S. take-down of Osama bin Laden. According to Fox News , Dr. Shikal Afridi may be in the custody of Pakistan’s clandestine Inter-Services Intelligence agency after it discovered the doctor’s participation in a fake Hepatitis B vaccination program that attempted to gain DNA samples from those within bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound — including several followers and their families. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta this week questioned the charges against the doctor. “I’m very concerned about what the Pakistanis did with this individual,” he told CBS News. “This was an individual who, in fact, helped provide intelligence on — that was very helpful with regards to this operation. And he was not in any way treasonous towards Pakistan. He was not in any way doing anything that would have undermined Pakistan.” Panetta reminded thst the U.S. and Pakistan “have a common cause here against terrorism.” “And for them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think it’s a real mistake on their part,” said Panetta. Fox reports that Panetta’s comments are the first to publicly acknowledge Afridi’s involvement in the operation. Fox provides some of the background: Afridi was arrested shortly after the raid and is thought to still be in custody despite not formally being charged with a crime. His detention has widened the rift between the U.S. and Pakistan, with Washington until now quietly pressing for his release so Afridi and his family can resettle in the U.S., according to The Guardian newspaper, which first reported on the doctor’s role in the operation last July. Reports suggest that Afridi rang the bell of the bin Laden compound during the vaccination drive, and the nurse who was with him was able to get inside but was ultimately unsuccessful in getting any DNA samples. Reports have also suggested that Afridi may not have even been aware that he was working for the CIA and instead may have been recruited by other Pakistanis to carry out the fake house-to-house vaccination program. Now, lawmakers are coming to Afridi’s aid. Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher introduced legislation to grant U.S. citizenship to Afridi as Pakistan’s Inquiry Commission on the Abbottabad Operation has recommended the doctor be tried for treason. If convicted, Afridi could be executed. An official press release from Rohrabacher’s office stated: “It is shameful and unforgivable that our supposed allies in Pakistan have charged Dr. Afridi, who contributed to the operation that killed Bin Laden, with treason,” said Rohrabacher. “The United States needs to stand with those who help us. We have not forgotten about Dr. Afridi.” “By granting him American citizenship we will send a direct and powerful message to those in the Pakistani government and military who protected the mastermind of 9/11 for all those years and who are now seeking retribution on those who helped to bring Bin Laden to justice,” Rohrabacher continued. “We must assume the obvious and conclude that Pakistan’s leaders have plotted for years to kill Americas.” Panetta also told CBS News that there was no actual evidence of Pakistani involvement in bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan, but suspicions must have been raised. “I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound,” Panetta said of Pakistan’s alleged involvement in harboring bin Laden. “Don’t forget, this compound had 18-foot walls around it — 12-foot walls in some areas, 18-foot walls elsewhere, a seven-foot wall on the third balcony of the house. It was the largest compound in the area,” he said. “So you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, ‘What the hell’s going on there?’
Scaly-foot snail found at the vent. (Photo: David Shale via The Telegraph)
Shrimps such as this one were found all around the vent. (Photo: David Shale via BBC)
The yeti crab researchers found could potentially be a new species. (Photo: David Shale via The Telegraph)
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Underwater Robot Captures Footage of Unexpected Aquatic Life at Deep Sea Vent
A severed human leg washed ashore in Florida Tuesday. (Image source: WTVT-TV)
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Canadian Tourists Find Severed Human Leg Outside Florida Rental Home
Well, that’s an Althouse-style title for the post, but that’s who first came to mind when reading this piece at Los Angeles Times , ” India has no shortage of aspiring hangmen .” The quote on the “neck snaps” was highlighted at the essay in the hard-copy version, and it still kind of sticks out as so matter-of-fact: Pawan Kumar is looking for a job. Not just any job; he wants to be India’s newest hangman. Kumar, 50, an apparel salesman from a family of executioners, says it’s in his DNA, demonstrating with well-callused hands how to slide a hood over a condemned person’s head, grease the noose and wrench the lever so the floor parts like a wave. He acknowledges that he’s never performed a hanging, India’s preferred execution method, but says he’s witnessed several and practiced using sandbags. “The important thing is to ensure the neck snaps and there’s a quick death,” he says. RTWT.
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‘The important thing is to ensure the neck snaps and there’s a quick death…’
In what is being hailed a national disgrace, the Air Force has dumped the ashes of at least 274 service members into a Virginia landfill. Records produced by the Air Force and published in The Washington Post , showed that 976 fragments from 274 military personnel were cremated, incinerated and taken to the landfill between 2004 and 2008. If that were not heartrending enough, the Air Force confirmed 1,762 additional unidentified remains were collected from the battlefield and disposed of in the very same manner. According to the Post, those fragments had been too badly burned in explosions to undergo DNA testing, pushing the total number of cremated fragments dumped in the landfill above 2,700. Records reveal the extent of the dumping was far worse than what the military had previously acknowledged. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Darrell D. Jones , the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for personnel, said there was no intent to deceive. “Absolutely not,” he said. The Post adds: The Air Force said it first cremated the remains and then included those ashes in larger loads of mortuary medical waste that were burned in an incinerator and taken to a landfill. Incinerating medical waste is a common disposal practice but including cremated human ashes is not, according to funeral home directors, regulators and waste haulers. Air Force officials said they do not know when the landfill disposals began. They said their first record of it is Feb. 23, 2004. The mortuary database became operational in late 2003. The Air Force said mortuary leaders decided to end the practice in May 2008 because “there was a better way to do it,” Jones said. The military now cremates unclaimed and unidentified body parts and buries the ashes at sea. To further the indignity, separate federal investigation of the mortuary last month revealed “gross mismanagement” and documented how recovered body parts were stacked in the morgue’s coolers for months and even years before being identified and disposed of. The landfill dumping was hidden from fallen soldiers’ families who had authorized the military to dispose of their loved ones’ remains in a dignified manner, Air Force officials said. But The Post adds: Jones said the Air Force did not need to inform relatives of troops whose remains ended up in the landfill because they had already signed forms stipulating that they did not wish to be notified if additional remains were identified. The forms authorized the military to make “appropriate disposition” of those subsequent remains. Asked if the landfill was a dignified final resting place, Jones replied: “The way we’re doing it today is much better.” To read the full, disturbing report, please click here .
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Disturbing Report: US Air Force Dumped Ashes of at Least 274 Service Members Into Virginia Landfill
Leon de Magistris , the 69-year-old man who has styled Mitt Romney ‘s hair for more than two decades, has been advising the presidential candidate to “mess it up a little bit” for years. Romney won’t budge on his look. “He wants a look that is very controlled,” de Magistris told the New York Times. “He is a very controlled man. The hair goes with the man.” The Boston-based stylist shared some of juicy details about Romney’s do: 1. Romney’s cut, which he paid $70 for last week, goes by “The Mitt” among de Magistris’ clientele. 2. Though he has somewhat of a reputation for being phoney, Romney’s hair isn’t colored. Doing that kind of thing isn’t “in his DNA,” de Magistris said. 3. The shine and solid hold are natural. No product goes in Romney’s hair.
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Romney’s stylist reveals hair secrets
A University of California at Davis police officer uses pepper spray to try to break up a group of Occupy demonstrators on campus Friday. (Image source: Wayne Tilcock/Davis Enterprise)
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Officers Involved in UC-Davis Pepper Spray Incident Put on Leave
In an unforeseen development on par with Zachary Quinto ‘s coming out, the Washington Post reports Moammar Gadhafi was wearing a wig at the time he was killed. Those Shirley Temple curls weren’t his after all. The news came out when Libyan officials tested Qaddafi’s DNA to be sure that it was in fact him. They used his blood and saliva, but when they tried a hair, they saw it wasn’t his. A rude awakening. h/t Styleite
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Gadhafi wore a wig
WASHINGTON (The Blaze/AP) — Public disclosure of graphic photos and video taken of Osama bin Laden after he was killed in May by U.S. commandos would damage national security and lead to attacks on American property and personnel, the Obama administration contends in court documents. In a response late Monday to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group seeking the imagery, Justice Department attorneys said the CIA has located 52 photographs and video recordings. But they argued the images of the deceased bin Laden are classified and are being withheld from the public to avoid inciting violence against Americans overseas and compromising secret systems and techniques used by the CIA and the military. The Justice Department has asked the court to dismiss Judicial Watch’s lawsuit because the records the group wants are “wholly exempt from disclosure,” according to the filing. Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, accused the Obama administration of making a “political decision” to keep the bin Laden imagery secret. “We shouldn’t throw out our transparency laws because complying with them might offend terrorists,” Fitton said in a statement. “The historical record of Osama bin Laden’s death should be released to the American people as the law requires.” The Associated Press has filed Freedom of Information Act requests to review a range of materials, such as contingency plans for bin Laden’s capture, reports on the performance of equipment during the May 1 assault on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and copies of DNA tests confirming the al-Qaida leader’s identity. The AP also has asked for video and photographs taken from the mission, including photos made of bin Laden after he was killed. The Obama administration refused AP’s request to quickly consider its request for the records. AP appealed the decision, arguing that unnecessary bureaucratic delays harm the public interest and allow anonymous U.S. officials to selectively leak details of the mission. Without expedited processing, requests for sensitive materials can be delayed for months and even years. The AP submitted its request to the Pentagon less than one day after bin Laden’s death. In a declaration included in the documents, John Bennett, director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, said many of the photos and video recordings are “quite graphic, as they depict the fatal bullet wound to (bin Laden) and other similarly gruesome images of his corpse.” Images were taken of bin Laden’s body at the Abbottabad compound, where he was killed by a Navy SEAL team, and during his burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson, Bennett said. “The public release of the responsive records would provide terrorist groups and other entities hostile to the United States with information to create propaganda which, in turn, could be used to recruit, raise funds, inflame tensions, or rally support for causes and actions that reasonably could be expected to result in exceptionally grave damage to both the national defense and foreign relations of the United States,” Bennett wrote. Navy Adm. William McRaven, the top officer at U.S. Special Operations Command, said in a separate declaration that releasing the imagery could put the special operations team that carried out the assault on bin Laden’s compound at risk by making them “more readily identifiable in the future.” Before his current assignment, McRaven led the Joint Special Operations Command, the organization in charge of the military specialized counterterrorism units.
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Obama Administration Fights to Keep bin Laden Death Photos Secret
I went to bed last night upon hearing the news that the Supreme Court was granting an 11th hour review. I didn’t hear anything more until I was in my office this morning reading the Los Angeles Times , ” Georgia puts convict to death despite protest .” And then also at New York Times , ” In Death-Penalty Debate, Execution Offers Little Closure .” And see the very even-handed piece from Associated Press, which notes that all the second thoughts on witness testimony were presented to jurors at the time of the trial, ” Counting down, Ga. inmate nears execution in policeman’s killing despite pleas in US, Europe .” But the best piece on this is from Ann Coulter, ” COP-KILLER IS MEDIA’S LATEST BABY SEAL “: It’s nearly impossible to receive a death sentence these days — unless you do something completely crazy like shoot a cop in full view of dozens of witnesses in a Burger King parking lot, only a few hours after shooting at a passing car while exiting a party. That’s what Troy Davis did in August 1989. Davis is the media’s current baby seal of death row. After a two-week trial with 34 witnesses for the state and six witnesses for the defense, the jury of seven blacks and five whites took less than two hours to convict Davis of Officer Mark MacPhail’s murder, as well as various other crimes. Two days later, the jury sentenced Davis to death. Now, a brisk 22 years after Davis murdered Officer MacPhail, his sentence will finally be administered this week — barring any more of the legal shenanigans that have kept taxpayers on the hook for Davis’ room and board for the past two decades. (The average time on death row is 14 years. Then liberals turn around and triumphantly claim the death penalty doesn’t have any noticeable deterrent effect. As the kids say: Duh.) It has been claimed — in The New York Times and Time magazine, for example — that there was no “physical evidence” connecting Davis to the crimes that night. Davis pulled out a gun and shot two strangers in public. What “physical evidence” were they expecting? No houses were broken into, no cars stolen, no rapes or fistfights accompanied the shootings. Where exactly would you look for DNA? And to prove what? I suppose it would be nice if the shell casings from both shootings that night matched. Oh wait — they did. That’s “physical evidence.” It’s true that the bulk of the evidence against Davis was eyewitness testimony. That tends to happen when you shoot someone in a busy Burger King parking lot. Eyewitness testimony, like all evidence tending to show guilt, has gotten a bad name recently, but the “eyewitness” testimony in this case did not consist simply of strangers trying to distinguish one tall black man from another. For one thing, several of the eyewitnesses knew Davis personally. The bulk of the eyewitness testimony established the following… Continue . Of course, the progressive left latched onto this case as a way to bring an end to capital punishment in the United States. It’s just routine leftist conformity to be against the death penalty, even when the inmate’s the classic poster boy for it. Progressives are stupid that way. RELATED : At The Other McCain, ” The Death of a Cop-Killer .” And the reactions at Memeorandum .
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Georgia Executes Cop Killer Troy Davis: Progressive Heads Explode
