R.I.P. Sean Taylor, Dead at 24 at the Hands of the Black KKK

Before he died, Ralph Wiley was one of my favorite sports columnists. He often wrote at espn.com, and his writings were often controversial, but not in the cheap, tabloid trash way that so much of American media is today. His writings were controversial because they challenged the status quo, the accepted dogma, and they actually made me think. Ralph also happened to be black, and like Bill Cosby, he had no qualms about calling out those even in his own race who were lazy, wrong, just plain stupid, or worse. It's just a tragedy I had to be reminded of Ralph reading this piece by Jason Whitlock about the tragic death of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor.

I didn't know Sean Taylor, but as a former college athlete myself, I not only knew his type, but I also knew the decisions that had to be made by the most talented ones. Athletes who aren't bound for the NFL or superstardom in another sport don't have to deal with leeches, moochers, gold diggers, yes-men, etc. the way the ultra-talented athletes do. Even so, with a little bit of wisdom and by surrounding himself with good people, a talented athlete can ward off without actually experiencing it most of the woe that comes with those demons. The game gets much harder though, when those people around you are shady, dangerous, bad influences, and even harder still when they are your homeboys you've known since you were little kids. Don't believe it? Just ask Michael Vick. He's doing time in federal prison because he couldn't and/or wouldn't escape his past, but at least he is alive. Sean Taylor is dead because he dared to throw off the gangster creed that kills and destroys the lives and souls of so many black men. For ever 50 Cent that got rich, there are thousands more black men that ended up in prison or died trying. It's funny how you never see the reality of those statistics alongside the bling that too often appears on the CD covers of rap artists.

I'm reminded of Chris Rock's statement that black people are more racist than white people because black people hate black people too. As abhorrent as crimes perpetrated against another human being because of race (i.e. the James Byrd truck dragging death), the black community really should take a long, hard look at itself and the drug-dealing, violent, gangster culture that purports to represent them before it goes blaming white people for all its ills. Similarly, before Muslims complain about perceived American imperialism or Jewish sins, perhaps they might want to do us a favor and rid the world of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda types who they claim are defaming a "peaceful" religion. I'm not saying that people on the outside of a cultural or ethnic-based problem can't help, because they certainly can, but these kinds of problems, as Whitlock says, this kind of dirt is best cleaned up from within one's own house.

Read Jason's whole article, pray that God will provide for the wife and daughter Sean Taylor leaves behind, and that He will comfort Taylor's family in this terrible hour of tragedy.

"Taylor's Death a Grim Reminder For Us All"
by Jason Whitlock

"There's a reason I call them the Black KKK. The pain, the fear and the destruction are all the same.

Someone who loved Sean Taylor is crying right now. The life they knew has been destroyed, an 18-month-old baby lost her father, and, if you're a black man living in America, you've been reminded once again that your life is in constant jeopardy of violent death.

The Black KKK claimed another victim, a high-profile professional football player with a checkered past this time.

No, we don't know for certain the circumstances surrounding Taylor's death. I could very well be proven wrong for engaging in this sort of aggressive speculation. But it's no different than if you saw a fat man fall to the ground clutching his chest. You'd assume a heart attack, and you'd know, no matter the cause, the man needed to lose weight.

Well, when shots are fired and a black man hits the pavement, there's every statistical reason to believe another black man pulled the trigger. That's not some negative, unfair stereotype. It's a reality we've been living with, tolerating and rationalizing for far too long.

When the traditional, white KKK lynched, terrorized and intimidated black folks at a slower rate than its modern-day dark-skinned replacement, at least we had the good sense to be outraged and in no mood to contemplate rationalizations or be fooled by distractions.

Our new millennium strategy is to pray the Black KKK goes away or ignores us. How's that working?

About as well as the attempt to shift attention away from this uniquely African-American crisis by focusing on an "injustice" the white media allegedly perpetrated against Sean Taylor.

Within hours of his death, there was a story circulating that members of the black press were complaining that news outlets were disrespecting Taylor's victimhood by reporting on his troubled past

No disrespect to Taylor, but he controlled the way he would be remembered by the way he lived. His immature, undisciplined behavior with his employer, his run-ins with law enforcement, which included allegedly threatening a man with a loaded gun, and the fact a vehicle he owned was once sprayed with bullets are all pertinent details when you've been murdered.

Marcellus Wiley, a former NFL player, made the radio circuit Wednesday, singing the tune that athletes are targets. That was his explanation for the murders of Taylor and Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams and the armed robberies of NBA players Antoine Walker and Eddy Curry.

Really?

Let's cut through the bull(manure) and deal with reality. Black men are targets of black men. Period. Go check the coroner's office and talk with a police detective. These bullets aren't checking W-2s.

Rather than whine about white folks' insensitivity or reserve a special place of sorrow for rich athletes, we'd be better served mustering the kind of outrage and courage it took in the 1950s and 1960s to stop the white KKK from hanging black men from trees.

But we don't want to deal with ourselves. We take great joy in prescribing medicine to cure the hate in other people's hearts. Meanwhile, our self-hatred, on full display for the world to see, remains untreated, undiagnosed and unrepentant.

Our self-hatred has been set to music and reinforced by a pervasive culture that promotes a crab-in-barrel mentality.

You're damn straight I blame hip hop for playing a role in the genocide of American black men. When your leading causes of death and dysfunction are murder, ignorance and incarceration, there's no reason to give a free pass to a culture that celebrates murder, ignorance and incarceration.

Of course there are other catalysts, but until we recapture the minds of black youth, convince them that it's not OK to "super man dat ho" and end any and every dispute by "cocking on your bitch," nothing will change.

Does a Soulja Boy want an education?

HBO did a fascinating documentary on Little Rock Central High School, the Arkansas school that required the National Guard so that nine black kids could attend in the 1950s. Fifty years later, the school is one of the nation's best in terms of funding and educational opportunities. It's 60 percent black and located in a poor black community.

Watch the documentary and ask yourself why nine poor kids in the '50s risked their lives to get a good education and a thousand poor black kids today ignore the opportunity that is served to them on a platter.

Blame drugs, blame Ronald Reagan, blame George Bush, blame it on the rain or whatever. There's only one group of people who can change the rotten, anti-education, pro-violence culture our kids have adopted. We have to do it.

According to reports, Sean Taylor had difficulty breaking free from the unsavory characters he associated with during his youth.

The "keepin' it real" mantra of hip hop is in direct defiance to evolution. There's always someone ready to tell you you're selling out if you move away from the immature and dangerous activities you used to do, you're selling out if you speak proper English, embrace education, dress like a grown man, do anything mainstream.

The Black KKK is enforcing the same crippling standards as its parent organization. It wants to keep black men in their place — uneducated, outside the mainstream and six feet deep.

In all likelihood, the Black Klan and its mentality buried Sean Taylor, and any black man or boy reading this could be next."

"Justice" for a Rape Victim in Shoddy Retardia

OK, so I guess the "Religion of Peace" nickname given to Islam by the dullards in the mainstream media ("MSM") a the mewling dhimmi cowards afraid to criticize Islam doesn't aplly to victims of violent crime. A young woman gets gang raped by several practitioners of the alleged "Religion of Peace", and then she, the victim, gets 200 lashes for her trouble and her lawyer gets punished for daring to publicize the verdict?! Yeah, those savages over there in Shoddy Retardia can screw off and die for all I care. I am fairly sure that if one of the political elite's precious demon spawn, er, I mean, offspring, were savagely raped, they'd be pressing for the victim to get lashes in that case too. And if you believe that, you are truly an idiot beyond help. Read the whole story, just don't have any throwable objects handy when you do.

Saudi Rape Victim Gets 200 Lashes
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 16, 2007

"(CBS/AP) A Saudi court sentenced a woman who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes - more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The decision by the Qatif General Court came in a case that had sparked rare debate about the kingdom's justice system when it surfaced more than a year ago.

In its decision Wednesday, the court also roughly doubled prison sentences for the seven men convicted of raping the 19-year-old woman, the Arab News reported on its English-language Web site.

According to Arab News, the court said the woman's punishment was increased because of "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media."

The New York Times reported that her lawyer, Abdulrahman al-Lahem, is a well-known human rights activist who angered the court by publicly criticizing the verdict. He said the verdict was too lenient for the rapists and unjust for the victim.

The victim had initially been sentenced to 90 lashes after being convicting her of violating Saudi's rigid laws on segregation of the sexes.

Under Saudi Arabia's interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, women are not allowed in public in the company of men other than their male relatives.

The court also banned her lawyer from defending her, confiscated his license to practice law and summoned him to a disciplinary hearing later this month.

The initial sentences for the men convicted of the gang rape ranged from 10 months to five years in prison. Their new sentences range from two to nine years, the paper said.

The attack took place in 2006. The woman has said that it occurred as she tried to retrieve her picture from a male high school student she used to know. While in the car with the student, two men got into the vehicle and drove them to a secluded area. She said she was raped there by seven men, three of whom also attacked her friend.

Reports of the story triggered debate about Saudi Arabia's legal system, in which judges have wide discretion in punishing a criminal, rules of evidence are shaky and sometimes no defense lawyers are present. The result, critics say, are sentences left to the whim of judges.

The judges, appointed by the king, have a wide discretion in handing down sentences, often said to depend on their whim. A rapist, for instance, could receive anywhere from a light or no sentence, to death.

The woman was identified in the media only as the Girl from Qatif. The case was referred back to the General Court by an appeals court last summer, after her lawyer went public with his criticism of the verdict."

UPDATE: Well how about that! A little international daylight shines in to the cess pool of Shoddy Retardia, and all of a sudden the rape victim gets pardoned by the Saudi king. It's definitely good news for the girl and her family, but it should never have come to this. Saudis may produce the oil that fuels economies worldwide, but they have light years to go to improve on human rights issues.

"Religion of Peace Advocates"...Lies?

Leave it to columnists, bloggers, and free thinkers to do the work and report the news that neither the mainstream media ("MSM") nor their allies in the Dem-cong party would prefer that you read about Islam. One of the great things about America is that each person gets to choose his own faith. That said, as a judge in front of whom I once practiced law famously said, "Your rights end where my nose begins." As columnist Frank Salvato so eloquently points out in this article, Islam's "Holy Book" specifically advocates lying to infidels to gain their trust so that they may ultimately be converted or killed. Now, I'm no theology expert, but I know of none of the other major world religions that are so clearly rooted in violence, deception, misogyny, and general outright hatred of non-believers as Islam is. Useful idiots like former President Jimmy Carter (a raging anti-Semite and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Dem-Cong- CA, who thinks Syrian "President" Bashar Assad is just peachy) only serve to allow the camel's nose of Islamofascism into the tent of the U.S.. Not only are these idiots blissfully (for them, painfully for us...see 9/11) unaware of the full consequences of their actions, they have absolutely no clue as to the pure evil we are facing from radical Islam. Check out Mr. Salvato's article...as devious and decidedly unholy as it is to civilized religions, Islam's advocacy of the use of deception as a weapon could just as easily have appeared as a chapter in Sun Tzu's "Art of War".

Al Taqiyya: The Islamist Terrorist Weapon Of Deception
By Frank Salvato
November 16, 2007

"Western civilization's delinquent knowledge of the Islamic faith leaves us naïve to many of its tenets. Many among us would be hard pressed to explain the differences between the Sunni and the Shi'ite, let alone the reasons why they have remained in conflict for almost the entire existence of the Islamic faith. This delinquency in understanding Islamic culture and doctrine makes those they consider non-believers -- or kafirs -- vulnerable both individually and collectively. This is especially true when we examine the Islamic concept of taqiyya.

Taqiyya is defined literally as:

"Concealing or disguising one's beliefs, convictions, ideas, feelings, opinions, and/or strategies at a time of eminent danger, whether now or later in time, to save oneself from physical and/or mental injury."

In essence, taqiyya can be generally defined as the legitimization of deception in times of danger.

Taqiyya is alluded to in the following Quranic verse:

"Let not the believers take for friends or helpers unbelievers rather than believers: if any do that, (they) shall have no relation left with Allah except by way of precaution ("tat-taqooh"), that ye may guard yourselves ("tooqatan") from them..." [3:28]"

In his book, al-Durr al-Manthoor Fi al-Tafsir al-Ma'athor, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti conveys these words by one of Sunni Islam's most respected voices, Ibn Abbas:

"al-Taqiyya is with the tongue only; he who has been coerced into saying that which angers Allah (SWT), and his heart is comfortable (i.e., his true faith has not been shaken), then (saying that which he has been coerced to say) will not harm him (at all); (because) al-Taqiyya is with the tongue only, (not the heart)."

In most every reference to taqiyya in Islam it is held that there are only a very few times when it is permissible:

- To save one's life

- To effect a peace or reconciliation

- To persuade a woman

- On the occasion of a journey or expedition

- To save the life and honor of the innocent person from the highhandedness of tyrants and oppressors

In his book, Ihya 'Uloom al-Din, the influential Egyptian Islamic scholar Abu Hamed Mohammad ibn Mohammad al-Ghazzali stated:

"Safeguarding of a Muslim's life is a mandatory obligation that should be observed; and that lying [taqiyya] is permissible when the shedding of a Muslim's blood is at stake."

Those of the Wahhabi ideology acknowledge the fatwa:

"Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law."

Because Wahhabism is one of the predominant forms of Islam being disseminated in the mosques of the United States it must be surmised that Wahhabis are living among the "infidels." In order to achieve their existence without open confrontation they must, therefore, employ taqiyya.

So, it can be stated with a great deal of confidence that when a Muslim feels that his life, limb or property are in danger, in order to avoid or quell violent confrontation or to rescue himself or a fellow Muslim from the "oppression of tyranny" and death he can and should utilize taqiyya.

So why is this relevant?

As we continue to engage radical Islam in the war against Islamofascist aggression we need to be cognizant of our foe's use of taqiyya.

There has been a great deal of debate over interrogation techniques used by the United States and our coalition nation allies. While there are legitimate arguments on both sides of this debate each side has to be fully aware that those enemies who are caught on the field of battle -- unconventional that it is -- will most certainly employ taqiyya.

In addition, those who are faithful to the religious tenets of Islam must, as a religious duty, utilize taqiyya when interacting with government and law enforcement where giving damaging information on another Muslim is concerned.

Should the situation arise where a practicing Muslim, loyal to the faith, were to be questioned about a suspected terrorist operation or criminal activity being planed or perpetrated by a fellow Muslim -- whether here in the United States or anywhere in the world -- that Muslim must employ taqiyya. This makes the gathering of credible information from within the Islamic community, regarding the criminal Islamic community, virtually impossible.

Further, the recognized religious duty of faithful Muslims to practice taqiyya makes the actions, statements and testimony of those who operate organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the now defunct Holy Land Foundation and individual Islamic leaders such as Sami al-Arian (now deported for his relationship with Palestinian Islamic Jihad) both understandable and suspect. Understandable in there unwavering defense of almost every act committed by a Muslim regardless of its legality and suspect because of the fact that they would be violating taqiyya should they validate the "infidel" over another Muslim.

This also brings into relevance our government's predisposition toward skepticism when entering into diplomatic negotiations with leaders of predominantly Muslim countries and the assurances they provide.

A perfect case in point is the current nuclear proliferation issue with the Islamic Republic of Iran and its leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad, a most devote Shi'ite, who has indicated without reservation his blind faith to Islam, would be held to the Quranic tenet of taqiyya. This tenet, understood for its true meaning, it would make it impossible for any clear thinking human being to take Ahmadinejad's words of peace at face value, especially in light of his violent declarations toward Israel, the United States, Western civilization and the non-Muslim world.

If the West -- and especially the United States -- is to survive this very real conflict with Islamofascist aggression, we must educate ourselves on the intricacies of our enemy's beliefs and tactics. To not do so would be the epitome of neglect and a ostentatious display of stupidity."

While the MSM Plays Ostrich About the Good News in Iraq...

...history is happening right in front of their spoiled, pampered faces, if only they dared to look. The problem, you see, is that they don't want to see any good news, because that would conflict with their vision of George "Chimpy McHitler Satan" Bush and his "lies" about WMD. What I don't get is why the media still wants us to lose the war in Iraq. Between the incompetence of the GOP (out of control spending, ethics scandals, etc.), the Dem-Cong already took over both house of Congress. Actually, I think it is much more base than that. The MSM and the Dem-Cong gleefully reported when things were going badly in Iraq, and more or less sided with the terrorists as being co-partners invested in the failure of America's efforts in Iraq. Now that things are starting to look better, you'd think every major media network suffered a simultaneous power outage. Perhaps one of the most pernicious lies of the MSM is that the Iraqis are not fit for freedom, and that they can't overcome religious divisions to live together. All I can say is to look at the pictures of Muslims appearing on camera and pleading for their Christian Iraqi brethren who fled the country to avoid Saddam Hussein's butchery to come back home. Other than the United States, it is very rare to see members of two religions who are not exactly in harmony in terms of their beliefs even attempting to co-exist in peace...and that goes double for the rarity of Muslims reaching out in peace to anyone. Good news like this doesn't mean the problems between Christianity and Islam and between "moderate" Islam and "head-chopper" Islam will be resolved tomorrow, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

"LTC Stephen Michael at St. John’s. LTC Michael told me today that when al Qaeda came to Dora, they began harassing Christians first, charging them “rent.” It was the local Muslims, according to LTC Michael, who first came to him for help to protect the Christians in his area. That’s right. LTC Michael told me more than once that the Muslims reached out to him to protect the Christians from al Qaeda. Real Muslims here are quick to say that al Qaeda members are not true Muslims. From charging “rent,” al Qaeda’s harassment escalated to killing Christians, and also Muslims. Untold thousands of Christians and Muslims fled Baghdad in the wake of the darkness of civil war. Most of the Christians are gone now; having fled to Syria, Jordan or northern Iraq.

Today, Muslims mostly filled the front pews of St. John’s. Muslims who want their Christian friends and neighbors to come home. The Christians who might see these photos likely will recognize their friends here. The Muslims in this neighborhood worry that other people will take the homes of their Christian neighbors, and that the Christians will never come back. And so they came to St. John’s today in force, and they showed their faces, and they said, “Come back to Iraq. Come home.” They wanted the cameras to catch it. They wanted to spread the word: Come home. Muslims keep telling me to get it on the news. “Tell the Christians to come home to their country Iraq."...

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen any fighting. I can’t remember my last shootout: it’s been months. The nightmare is ending. Al Qaeda is being crushed. The Sunni tribes are awakening all across Iraq and forswearing violence for negotiation. Many of the Shia are ready to stop the fighting that undermines their ability to forge and manage a new government. This is a complex and still delicate denouement, and the war may not be over yet. But the Muslims are saying it’s time to come home. And the Christians are saying it’s time to come home. They are weary, and there is much work to be done."

The Weather Channel Founder Gut Kicks the Church of the Gore-Bot

As Emperor Misha said, I don't think I have a thing to add to this. I'm glad to hear this from someone with authority on, you know, actual weather, as opposed to the self-interested clowns predicting "Day After Tomorrow" scenarios that will not happen (at least until Revelation times anyway). Do read the whole thing, good stuff.

Intro by Joe D’Aleo, Icecap, CCM

I was privileged to work with John Coleman, the founder of The Weather Channel in the year before it became a reality and then for the first of the 6 years I was fortunate to be the Director of Meteorology. No one worked harder than John to make The Weather Channel a reality and to make sure the staffing, the information and technology was the very best possible at that time. John currently works with KUSI in San Diego. He posts regularly. I am very pleased to present his latest insightful post.

By John Coleman

"It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.

Environmental extremists, notable politicians among them, then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild “scientific” scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda. Now their ridiculous manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmentally conscientious citizens. Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minute documentary segment.

I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party. However, Global Warming, i.e. Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you “believe in.” It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a non-event, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won’t believe a me, a mere TV weatherman, challenging a Nobel Prize, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning former Vice President of United States. So be it.

I have read dozens of scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct. There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismissal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming.

In time, a decade or two, the outrageous scam will be obvious. As the temperature rises, polar ice cap melting, coastal flooding and super storm pattern all fail to occur as predicted everyone will come to realize we have been duped. The sky is not falling. And, natural cycles and drifts in climate are as much if not more responsible for any climate changes underway. I strongly believe that the next twenty years are equally as likely to see a cooling trend as they are to see a warming trend. See John’s full blog story here.. See John’s forecast blog on the KUSI site here."

An Iraqi Mayor and an Iraqi General Who Understand Why We Fight

...and these men appreciate it. Even though the Washington Compost, the New York Slimes, and the rest of the MSM had these letters (or access to them) for some time, they dare not publish them, lest they displease their puppetmasters, the Dem-Cong. After all, if stuff like this gets out, then someone might think, heaven forfend, that the Iraq war is something other than "LOST, Lost I tell you!". Courtesy of the Mudville Gazette, read both letters, I can't possibly do them justice.

From the Mayor:

"In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful

To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life.

To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months.

To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.

Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed. Our streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the city. Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi’s followers after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas, where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and Avgani finally destroyed them.

I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.

The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and wisdom. Officers and soldiers alike bristle with the confidence and character of knights in a bygone era. The mission they have accomplished, by means of a unique military operation, stands among the finest military feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly deserves to be studied in military science. This military operation was clean, with little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the enemy. With the skill and precision of surgeons they dealt with the terrorist cancers in the city without causing unnecessary damage.

God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated these brave men and women. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the families. They have given us something we will never forget. To the families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their souls hovering around us every second of every minute. They will never be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life.

Finally, no matter how much I write or speak about this brave Regiment, I haven’t the words to describe the courage of its officers and soldiers. I pray to God to grant happiness and health to these legendary heroes and their brave families."

NAJIM ABDULLAH ABID AL-JIBOURI
Mayor of Tall ‘Afar, Ninewa, Iraq

From the General:

"To the Troopers and families of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment:
Bravery, strength, determination, good intentions, flexibility, knowledge, and impartiality: these were the characteristics that you displayed through partnership with the 3d Iraqi Army Division during combat operations in Western Ninewa Province. Each and every day your wise operational and successful leadership was the decisive factor in us achieving victory. Again, we recognize clearly the main reason for victory was your leadership. These necessary qualities are the same for any person, army, or nation that is looking for victory, and they were the reason why the Brave Rifles and faith in their goal along with their principles, high morals, and focus on their mission, coupled with perfect logistics support, impartiality, and sincere leadership made them the right unit for this mission. The Regiment’s ability to plan, conduct excellent coordination, supervise and choose the right decisive actions along with their great leadership helped us to develop individual Soldier skills and increase the capability of the division. It is said that piles of construction materials alone cannot build a house and a group of people cannot be considered an army. The Regiment’s leadership and devotion to duty helped us form an army. Its actions have resulted in strong friendships that will last a lifetime. The Troopers’ behavior is an example of wise leadership, which is the tree and the reputation they will leave behind is the shadow of this tree. So I offer my heartfelt thanks, appreciation, and respect to you for your sacrifices. The troopers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment will disappear from our eyes but remain in our hearts. We send our greetings to you and wish you a well deserved reunion with your families."

God Bless

MAJOR GEN. KHORSHEED SALEEM AL-DOSEKEY
3RD IA INFANTRY DIVISION COMMANDER

The Haditha Case is "Starting" to Unravel? More Like the Wheels are Flying Off...

I can't believe this stinker of a case got as far as it did in the first place, but it did. Thank God for good lawyers who are holding the military's feet to the fire and refusing to allow them to sacrifice the good names of honorable soldiers at the altar of the screeching hyenas in the MSM, who only think soldiers are baby killing thugs terrorizing those poor, innocent, misunderstood "insurgents". All I can say is that when the last charges are dismissed, I hope the defamation case against Rep. Jack Murtha (Dem-Cong-PA) succeeds in making his financial bankruptcy match his moral bankruptcy, and that if there's a military equivalent of a suit for malicious prosecution, that it gets thrown in for good measure. Read the whole thing.

Haditha Unraveled
In a report obtained by NEWSWEEK, the affair's investigator casts doubt on the prosecution's case.

By Dan Ephron
NEWSWEEK

"Lt. Col. Paul ware can be blunt. As the investigating officer in the Haditha affair, he has the job of assessing how strong a case the prosecution has against Marines suspected of killing 24 civilians after being ambushed two years ago in western Iraq. Haditha is the highest-profile atrocity case since the start of the war. For more than a year, prosecutors have assembled evidence against four shooters in Kilo Company, including Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, 26. But in a painstaking, 37-page report written earlier this month and obtained by NEWSWEEK, Ware tells the military lawyers their case is weak: "The evidence is contradictory, the forensic analysis is limited and almost all the witnesses have an obvious bias or prejudice."

The Haditha case seems to be unraveling. Already, all charges have been dropped against two of the shooters. Marine Gen. James Mattis announced last week that a third Marine, Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, would face a court-martial for involuntary manslaughter, far less than the original murder indictment. And Ware has recommended a similar reduction in charges against Wuterich. (In a separate proceeding, a lieutenant colonel will be court-martialed for failing to accurately report and investigate the killings.) Until not too long ago, the case had the aura of an unambiguous revenge massacre: after losing a buddy in an IED attack, the Marines killed five unarmed men who pulled over and stood outside their car. Then the Marines moved from one home to the next believing they were under fire, and killed men, women and children.

But the sinister reality of insurgents' hiding among civilians in Iraq has complicated the case. And even in conventional wars, battle-zone murder charges can be hard to prove. Investigators did not start gathering evidence until months later, when Time Magazine published an account of the killings. By then, forensic and ballistic evidence was scant and autopsies weren't feasible; Iraqi families refused to let the military exhume the victims' bodies. Prosecutors were left to rely largely on the statements of the Marines. Earlier this year they gave immunity to two of the shooters in exchange for their testimony. But Ware suggests in his report that prosecutors immunized the wrong guys. Both witnesses, he writes, "have very low credibility," and he believes their accounts will not hold up in a cross-examination.

One of them, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, told investigators under oath last year he opened fire on the five Iraqi men after the IED attack because they started fleeing. But he changed his story after getting immunity, testifying in a pretrial hearing in August that the men had not run and that Wuterich had done the shooting. Dela Cruz told the court he'd fired only at their dead bodies. Though Wuterich himself admitted to shooting the men in a "60 Minutes" interview earlier this year, conflicts in the sum total of testimony led Ware to recommend dropping the murder charge. As for Lance Cpl. Humberto Mendoza, the other witness, Ware describes his testimony as a "desperate attempt to cover up lies with more lies." (Ware declined to comment, but a lawyer close to the Haditha case confirmed his report's authenticity. Dela Cruz's lawyer declined to comment; Mendoza's attorney could not be reached.)

Why did Dela Cruz and Mendoza get immunity in the first place? A Marine spokesman refused to comment on the process. But a person close to the case, who did not want to be named so as not to prejudice its outcome, says it appeared investigators had marked Wuterich from the start as the instigator and the "guy to get." While still in Iraq, he alone among Kilo Company Marines refused to answer investigators' questions without a lawyer, a fact that might have heightened suspicion against him. Ware, more than a year later, predicts in his report that prosecutors will succeed in convicting Wuterich of nothing more than dereliction of duty. On the prospects of convicting Tatum on any of the charges, Ware says, "the evidentiary hurdles are too great."

Ware, described by colleagues as meticulous, shows sympathy for the Marines. He says Wuterich's suspicions regarding the five Iraqis standing outside their car were understandable: the Marines had been told by intelligence officers to watch for an IED attack followed immediately by a car bombing. Ware also says some training the Marines received conflicted with their rules of engagement and led them to believe that, if fired upon from a house, they could clear it with grenades and gunfire without determining whether civilians were inside. After the Haditha killings, the commandant of the Marine Corps himself clarified the discrepancies to his men. But by then, the sad legacy of Haditha had already been inscribed."

Immigration Policy Alone Will Keep Fred! in the Race

After reading this story from Emperor Misha, a Fred Thompson/Duncan Hunter ticket looks better than ever. Now, if only Thompson will at least act like he cares that he's running for President and stabilize his campaign staff...

"We’re sure that all the Guilianistas out there will immediately rush to Rudy “Sanctuary City”’s defense, pointing out how a head of lettuce will cost at least $700 three weeks after Fred! takes office:

Senator Fred Thompson today unveiled a comprehensive border security and immigration enforcement proposal that would make America safer by increasing security at our nation’s borders, enforcing our country’s existing laws to reduce the incentive for illegal immigration and streamlining the legal immigration process.

Increasing security at the border (as opposed to Rudy “Come One, Come All!” Giuliani’s “technological fence” which, translated into plain English, means “not much of a fence at all but it sure does sound nifty!”), enforcing existing laws (Oh HORROR!) and streamlining the legal immigration process???

Do go on. You’ve got our full attention.

Highlights of the proposal include:

• No Amnesty: Amnesty undermines U.S. law and policy, rewards bad behavior, and is unfair to the millions of immigrants who follow the law and are awaiting legal entry into the United States.

Cue Open Borders “conservatives”: “But it’s not AMNESTY!!! It’s, er, something ELSE that is exactly the same, but we’ve thought up a new name for it.”

And, as a legal immigrant who patiently (well, most of the time) awaited his turn and jumped through every last hoop that the INS put up before him, including the ones on fire and the ones where he had to sit on his hindlegs, bark for a biscuit and shake paws afterwards, allow us to point out that it’s a huge fucking insult to us personally to watch a bunch of criminal scofflaws get everything handed to them on a silver platter.

Not to mention that we don’t exactly have a current shortage of lazy fucks expecting to get everything for free in this country, so there’s little sense in importing more. After all, how much value can you possibly bring to a society if your first “contribution” is to take a piss on said society’s laws because you’re too bloody “inconvenienced” by having to fill in papers and wait in line with everybody else? Huh? Anybody? Bueller???

• Enforce Existing Federal Laws: Enforce the laws Congress has already enacted to prevent illegal aliens from unlawfully benefiting from their presence in the country including:

Enforce existing laws rather than throwing up your hands and declaring defeat, thinking up new laws to make breaking the old ones legal? What a concept. WHAT. A. CONCEPT!

We’re sure that Mickey “I’ll Throw a Hissy if You Ask Me to Do My Actual Job” Jerkoff dropped his skull wax into the bathroom sink upon hearing THAT suggestion.

A. End Sanctuary Cities by cutting off discretionary federal grant funds as appropriate to any community that, by law, ordinance, executive order, or other formal policy directs its public officials not to comply with the provisions of 8 USC 1373 and 8 USC 1644, which prohibit any state or local government from restricting in any way communications with the Department of Homeland Security “regarding the immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of an alien in the United States.”

The so-called “You Can Piss on Federal Law if You Must, But You Won’t Be Doing it on the Federal Dime” Act of 2009. We like it. We really, really like it. Of course, that would’ve bankrupted Rudy “Sanctuary City” Giuliani back in the day, but we can’t really say that we give a good fuck.

B. Deny discretionary Federal education grants as appropriate to public universities that violate federal law by offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens without also offering identical benefits to United States citizens, regardless of whether or not they live in the state, as required by 8 USC 1623.

Not only is current practice obviously discriminatory, which used to be illegal, it’s also a kick in the teeth to legal residents who have to pay full price. You know, the legal resident schmucks who actually pay taxes, the taxes that pay for the Federal grants.

Also, somebody please explain to us how somebody who isn’t supposed to be here in the first fucking place can be “in-state?” They should be “in-jail, awaiting deportation”, not sucking up the taxpayer’s dime, getting education that many legal residents can’t afford because the illegals have sucked the kitty dry (and taken up all the slots).

C. Deny discretionary Federal grants as appropriate to states and local governments that violate federal law by offering public benefits to illegal aliens, as prohibited by 8 USC 1621(a).

Again: This should be a gimme. After all, knowingly handing out public bennies to people not eligible for them in the first place is every bit as illegal as forging documents in order to apply for them. Those local officials shouldn’t merely be denied Federal funding, they should be unceremoniously thrown in jail.

• Increased Border Security: Doubling Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents handling interior enforcement, increasing the Border Patrol to at least 25,000 agents, and increasing detention space to incarcerate illegal aliens we arrest rather than letting them go with a promise to show up later for legal proceedings against them.

Because we all know just how likely an illegal alien is to honor a promise to show up later so that he may be thrown out of the country, don’t we? That’s why those notices are called “Notice to Disappear”s.

• Attrition through Enforcement: Reduce the number of illegal aliens through increased enforcement against unauthorized alien workers and their employers. Without illegal employment opportunities available, fewer illegal aliens will attempt to enter the country, and many of those illegally in the country now likely will return home. This course of action offers a reasonable alternative to the false choices currently proposed to deal with the 12 million or more aliens already in the U.S. illegally: either arrest and deport them all, or give them all amnesty.

But, but… That’s all so logical! Not to mention that it doesn’t allow for juicy, histrionic RINO soundbites such as “anti-immigration haters!”, “you only want to gas all immigrants” and “Hitler! Hitler! HITLERRRRRRRRRRRR!” which, so far, is a perfect summation of the intellectual level that the RINOs have been capable of.

• Maximize Legal Immigration Program Efficiency: Reduce the backlogs and streamline the process for immigrants and employers who seek to follow the law. Also, simplify and expedite the application processes for temporary visas. Caps for any category of temporary work visa would be increased as appropriate, if it could be demonstrated that there are no Americans capable and willing to do the jobs.

Reinforcing good behavior by rewarding it? It’s a sad indictment of our society’s descent down the toilet bowl of life when somebody has to point this out in order for it to be mentioned at all, but there you have it.

• Modernize Immigration Law/Policy: Change the nature of our legal immigration system to welcome immigrants who can be economic contributors to our country and are willing to learn the English language and reduce the scope of chain migration by giving family preference in the allocation of lawful permanent resident status only to spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens, and no one else (no siblings, no parents, no adult children, etc.).

Showing preference for individuals who can actually contribute and putting an end to chain migration of 19th cousins, 14 times removed? Denying parents and adult children might be a bit overly harsh, but that gives us something to haggle about.

• English as Official Language: Make English the official language of the U.S. to promote assimilation and legal immigrants’ success, and require English proficiency in order for any foreign person to be granted lawful permanent resident status.

Just wait for the liberals to start arguing that the Founders weren’t actually English speakers, just as they’ve tried arguing that the country wasn’t founded on Christian values by posthumously making all of the Founders “deists”, atheists, wiccans and worshippers of Cthulhu. Not to mention that it’s fascist and destabilizing to insist on a common language. Multi-culti linguistic confusion is the way ahead. Just look how well it worked in the Balkans!

• Preference for American Military Service: Place those foreign persons who are lawfully present in the country and who serve honorably in the Armed Forces of the United States on a faster, surer track to U.S. citizenship.

Not disagreeing with the concept one little bit, after all they’ve earned it more than most, but it’s my impression that that’s already the case. Last I heard, we just naturalized a bunch of brave volunteers after a year or less of service, which is how it ought to be, but it’s also a damn sight faster than what a civilian immigrant has to look forward to.

Nice work, Fred!

Not to mention that, according to the polls taken during the Shamnesty of ‘07 debacle, you have about 70-80% of the American people behind you on all of it. But you’ll make the RINOs cry, that’s for sure."

Does the fate of King George III and Britain Ring a Bell?

You know, when Congress astounds a cynic like me with a bill that embodies the worst socialist, freedom-grabbing, oppressive features of communism, that's saying something. I can't believe this piece of crapola passed the House by 404-6. Let these egomaniacal jackals in D.C. keep it up, and they'll get a Revolutionary War style reminder as to why America is as free as it is...namely, because those who would intrude into every details of the lives of the citizenry get dealt with, HARSHLY. Try to fine me, take my blog from my cold dead fingers and the freedome of speech from my no longer breathing mouth, because that's the only way it's going to happen. And if it does, I can promise the oppressors they won't like the results and that they'll suffer from a severe shortage of manpower after they encounter me. That is all.

House Passes "Thought Crimes" Act

Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007

Bill Number: H.R. 1955

Sponsor: Representative Jane Harman (D-CA)
Number of Cosponsors: 14

Bill Summary:
According to supporters, the measure will play an important role in helping government and law enforcement officials understand and prevent domestic terrorism. In a speech on the House floor advocating passage of the bill, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) -- the coauthor and initial sponsor of the measure -- warned that the next time the U.S. faces a terrorist threat, "my assumption is that many who attack us will already be here, and some will be US citizens." To prevent that attack, she said, the new "legislation will help the nation develop a better understanding of the forces that lead to homegrown terrorism, and the steps we can take to stop it."

Critics of the measure allege that it is a thinly veiled and dangerous attempt to criminalize dissent. Such concern is based on the bill's vague and open-ended language that, critics say, could be used by the government to trample basic rights to free speech and assembly and turn legitimate dissent into thought crimes.

The legislation, for instance, defines "violent radicalization" as "the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change." The bill makes no attempt to define what an "extremist belief system" might be. Nor does it define the action of "facilitating ideologically based violence."

In its section .. findings related to homegrown terrorism, the measure gives lip-service to constitutional rights, but also singles out the Internet and its open market for the flow of ideas and information as part of the problem. According to the measure, "The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens."

The unspoken threat implied by that passage is that the government might have to clamp down on free speech online. "At base," wrote retired Col. Dan Smith in Counterpunch, "Harman's proposal seems to be a direct attack on First Amendment rights."

Bill Status:
H.R. 1955 passed the House by a landslide vote of 404-6 on October 23, 2007 (Roll Call Vote 993). The bill has been received by the Senate and was referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Our Position:
The John Birch Society opposes the passage of vaguely worded legislation that could lead federal agencies to arbitrarily define some modes of thought as one or more varieties of "extremist belief systems." In the 18th Century, the British government of King George III certainly believed as much about the manner of thought adopted by America's Founding Fathers. The John Birch Society believes the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act will have a substantial chilling effect on both free speech and thought and that the Senate should reject the measure.

RIP Lt. Michael Murphy...Redundance Personified: A Heroic Navy SEAL

This is a very long post, but I was afraid the link might one day not work, since this is a local story. From Newsday, we get the story of Lt. Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL who has been posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Bush. It is a wonderful story that makes us again ask the question, "Where do we get men such as these?", and then immediately thereafter thank God that we do have them for a time before He calls them home to His rest. Rest in peace soldier, and may God welcome you and comfort your family.

"On a June afternoon in 2005, Navy Lt. Michael P. Murphy lay in hiding on the side of a ridge in the lawless eastern mountains of Afghanistan.

He carried little with him in the thin alpine air near Pakistan's border. A rifle. Clips of ammunition. Sophisticated communications and surveillance equipment. Some high-energy food. And, sewn onto his uniform, a red shoulder patch honoring a New York City firehouse in East Harlem.

Three years, 9 months and 17 days had passed since Sept. 11, 2001. The region surrounding the mountain where Murphy and his men waited was the hiding place of those who masterminded the attacks. On this summer day, 29-year-old Murphy was far from the comfortable Patchogue home where he was raised to look out for others.

There were three U.S. commandos hiding with him on that mountain, all, like him, members of one of the most elite and secretive units in the U.S. military, the Navy SEALs. A tall Texan who was a karate expert, whose brother and father were SEALs. A scratch golfer from Northern California known as "a perfect sniper." And a communications expert from Colorado who was so determined to be a SEAL he enlisted three weeks out of high school.

They had only each other to rely on; help was miles away, if it could get there at all at elevations soaring to 10,000 feet.

The mission Murphy and his men were assigned was a daunting one. A high-ranking jihadist leader, identified by the Naval Special Warfare Command as Ahmad Shah, was thought to be in the area, guarded by scores of heavily armed Taliban fighters.

The mountain's deep, rocky ravines and steep, forested sides gave the terror leader perfect cover. Sending a noisy force of several hundred soldiers would be pointless. It would be too easy for the target to meld into the local population, or to disappear along any of dozens of unmapped trails that would take him back over the Pakistan border.

So it was up to Murphy and the three other SEALS to secret themselves on the mountain, quietly identify their target, then capture or kill him. That was their mission. They counted on stealth and skill to protect them, knowing that numbers would not.

In war, the most highly trained soldiers often find themselves in impossible situations. Murphy's predicament was not unlike the one his father had found himself in decades earlier, when, as a young soldier, he fought and was wounded on a mountaintop in Vietnam.

For Murphy, the actions he took on the mountain have placed him in consideration, posthumously, for the Congressional Medal of Honor -- the United States' highest military award.

As he and his men watched and waited on the mountain, an Afghan shepherd trailing a herd of goats chanced across their path. No words were spoken as they stared at one another. Their cover blown, Murphy faced the hardest decision of his life.

What to do about the shepherd?
****************************************
The answer to that question might be found in Murphy's upbringing on Long Island.

A blue-eyed young man of Irish stock, Murphy's friends and relatives were public servants -- cops and lifeguards, firemen, teachers and criminal court officials. His hometown of Patchogue was a working- and middle-class community of third- and fourth-generation Irish, Italian and German immigrants. His father's father was as Irish as a man can be while still being an American -- he was born aboard a ship from Ireland as it steamed into New York harbor.

While he grew up, Murphy watched as those closest to him tried to right the world. One night when Murphy's father, Daniel -- then an assistant Suffolk County district attorney -- thought his 10-year-old son had gone off to bed, he began prepping for a murder case he was to prosecute the next morning.

Two defendants were charged with killing a man and dumping his body into a cesspool behind a Patchogue auto parts store. The senior Murphy laid gruesome crime scene photographs across the kitchen table.

Then Michael wandered in.

"He asked me what were the pictures of?" Daniel Murphy recalled. "And then he threw up."

A few weeks after Michael graduated from Patchogue-Medford High School in 1994, a sniper firing from outside a Commack diner killed a 50-year-old lawyer as he sat with his wife waiting for their dinner. Three days later he shot at a gasoline station attendant. Three weeks later, the sniper shot a 43-year-old waitress on the night shift at a fast food restaurant, wounding her in the lung.

With Long Island in a panic, police had nothing to go on but a few .35- caliber bullet fragments. One of Murphy's relatives, John J. McElhone, deputy chief of Suffolk's detective squad, ran the investigation. Four months and 1,600 interviews later, they caught and eventually convicted the sniper, who was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Michael watched the drama unfold.

"Our whole family is police, firemen, lawyers, people helping other people," said Michael's mother, Maureen Murphy, a cousin of McElhone's. "He realized that's just the way you grow up."

His father said even as a young child, Michael "never liked seeing people getting taken advantage of or getting picked on."

While Michael was a pupil at Patchogue's Saxton Middle School, he jumped into a fight to help defend a classmate who had been cornered behind the building. After that incident, Michael couldn't shake the nickname: "the protector."

"I think he liked the fact that there were people out there trying to protect other people and trying to solve the world's problems," Daniel Murphy said.

When he was in high school, Michael took a summer lifeguard job at the Brookhaven town beach in Lake Ronkonkoma -- a job he returned to each summer through his college years.

While there, Murphy began to demonstrate qualities that made people around him willing to follow his lead, say former lifeguards who worked with him. Friends from his high school and college years describe Murphy as someone who others naturally gravitated to -- who exuded loyalty and instilled loyalty in those around him.

When he was 16, his was the larger of the two bedrooms that he and his brother John occupied. But when an uncle fell on hard times and needed the Murphy family to help care for his three daughters, Murphy volunteered to take a smaller spare room, rather than ask his little brother to move.

That day on the Afghanistan mountain, Murphy wore a large red sleeve emblem in honor of a former lifeguard he worked with -- Owen O'Callaghan -- who later became a fireman at Spanish Harlem's Engine 53 Ladder 43.

O'Callaghan, now a Suffolk police officer, said when Murphy set his sights on joining the SEALs, he set up a chin-up bar at the beach, and prodded his fellow lifeguards to get stronger with him.

"I'd be, like, 'I don't want to do any more,' and he'd say, 'You can do it'," said O'Callaghan, 28, who credits Murphy with preparing him to meet the physical requirements to become a fireman.

"He wouldn't let you quit."
****************************************
Murphy met Heather Duggan through mutual friends in 1996, at a summer carnival on Long Island. Duggan, who grew up in Mount Sinai, graduated from high school that year. She told Murphy, then a college sophomore, that she planned to attend Penn State in the fall.

"I'm already at Penn State," said Murphy.

For the next several hours, he challenged her to go on the carnival rides her girlfriends rejected as too scary.

"To be honest, he rode my nerves the entire night," said Duggan "But he brought that competitive spirit out of me, so I was right there with him. I wouldn't back down."

Soon, they were inseparable friends, but nothing romantic. He called her the first day she arrived on campus, finding her number before she even had a chance to give it to him. He attended her gymnastic meets. She took him dancing in the popular bars along College Avenue. She shared details of her spats with boyfriends, with Murphy often taking the side of her beaus. One night, with her on the back of his motorcycle, he zoomed along a Patchogue main drag at more than 100 miles per hour. She never got on again.

Duggan said that Murphy enjoyed teasing her. A favorite joke was to pull up in front of her house and offer her a ride in his car. When she reached for the door handle, Murphy pulled away, stopping a few feet down the street.

"Sometime this would go on for half a block," she said. "He loved pushing my buttons."

But Murphy was also fiercely protective of her, more of a big brother than a potential suitor. Proof was the small scar near one eye from a time when they were dancing together at a Port Jefferson bar during a holiday break from college. A man approached Duggan, dancing closely and suggestively. Murphy asked the man to stop and when he didn't, pushed him away. Duggan recalled that several of the man's friends jumped in and rained blows on Murphy, but never managed to knock him down.

"My mom suggested while she was cleaning off the blood that he needed stitches," Duggan said. "He laughed and said he hadn't lost enough blood to need stitches."

At home during college breaks, Murphy and his father continued their habit of hanging out together. Years earlier, the father had coached the son through youth soccer and pee-wee football. Young Michael would vault into his father's car to ride shotgun on trips to the supermarket or hardware store.

As he grew up, Michael returned the affection. As a college student, he extended his weekend visits home as long as possible. It was 295 miles from the Murphy home in Patchogue to Penn State -- a five-hour drive when father and son could talk to one another without interruption.

Their habit was to climb into Daniel Murphy's green Buick an hour or two before midnight on a Sunday, point the car west toward Interstate 80 and drive to State College, Pa. After dropping off his son, Daniel Murphy turned around and drove toward the rising sun, arriving back in time to be at work Monday morning.

It was on one of those trips, in the darkness along the interstate, that Michael told his father he wanted to be a Navy SEAL. It wasn't something Daniel Murphy wanted to hear.
****************************************
Decades earlier, the father had also risked everything to serve his country and had come away with a permanent physical wound and a deep distaste for what soldiers are asked to do. But he let his son make his own decisions.

Daniel Murphy grew up in Elmont and enlisted in the Army in September 1968, while the U.S. was reeling from the Tet offensive throughout South Vietnam. The attacks by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong had deflated optimistic U.S. assessments of the war's progress and began to turn American public opinion against the war.

Daniel Murphy, who had just graduated from the University of Tennessee and had law school in his sights, enlisted anyway, believing it was his patriotic duty to volunteer.

By January 1970, Murphy was at war and on a mountaintop of his own, Nui Ba Den, a 3,235-foot dormant volcano that looms above a wide plane northwest of Saigon.

Throughout years of intense fighting, American troops held just a few acres at the mountain's peak, with the Viet Cong owning the rest. The two forces fought regular battles to try to drive the other away.

The mountain's caves were storehouses for insurgent supplies arriving from North Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia, 18 miles away. From the mountain, the Viet Cong could spot approaching American troops before they arrived and direct shelling onto the camp where Murphy was stationed in the nearby provincial capital of Tay Ninh City.

"They hit us so often we used to call it 'Rocket City,' " Murphy recalled.

On Jan. 4, 1970, as they had every few months since 1965, U.S. forces again hurled themselves at the mountain, hoping finally to take it. Shortly after dawn three days later, Murphy -- firing his rifle from behind a rock -- was lifted high into the air when a grenade exploded. It fractured his ankle and pierced his legs with shrapnel from his hips to his feet.

"I remember as clear as a bell floating down and saying, 'I'm dead. What are my parents going to think?' " recalled Murphy, who to this day is prevented by pain from carrying his briefcase in his left hand.

A month after he was injured, Murphy's best Army buddy -- a 20-year-old radio operator from Bay Shore named Tommy Wynne -- was killed in combat. Also killed was the medic who pulled Murphy to safety, whom everyone called "Gushy."

U.S. forces never took the mountain, and, in 1973, ground forces abandoned the country altogether. It was in that place and time, that Daniel Murphy's view of the soldiers' life was formed.

"It wasn't a matter of political belief, but Vietnam left a bad taste in my mouth that soldiers were used as cannon fodder," said Murphy, the National Judge Advocate for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, an advocacy group for wounded veterans.

The father had rarely spoken of Vietnam while Michael was growing up, not wanting to share the horror -- or plant a career idea -- with a young, impressionable son. So that night in the car, Murphy offered some words of caution.

"I said, 'Michael, you know my disenchantment with the military after being in Vietnam,' " Murphy recalled. " 'I thought you wanted to go to law school?' "
****************************************
Michael was not to be dissuaded. In 1998, he graduated with a pair of bachelor's degrees from Penn State -- in political science and psychology. And exactly as his father had done more than 30 years earlier, he put on hold his plans for law school.

If there was any consolation to the senior Murphy, it was knowing that the odds against his son being accepted as a SEAL were enormous. Of the nearly 1.4 million people serving in the U.S. military, only 2,270 men are SEALs. The SEAL training program was so rigorous that more than three in four who won admission to BUDS -- the Naval Special Warfare Command's Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL school -- quit before they finished.

But the long odds didn't deter Murphy. While still a Penn State student, Murphy, who was slightly built at 5-10, began attending SEAL mentoring sessions at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point with the goal of getting himself ready for BUDS. Drew Bisset, a retired Navy captain and former SEAL, had designed the program after an admiral suggested lowering the strength requirements for SEAL candidates because so many were failing to make the grade.

To earn his recommendation to the SEAL school in San Diego, Bisset's charges had to far exceed the Navy's requirement to complete sets of at least 42 push-ups and 50 sit-ups -- each in two minutes -- plus six un-timed pull-ups. They also had to eclipse the Navy's requirement to swim a silent side stroke for 500 yards in under 12 minutes and 30 seconds, then run a mile and a half in just over 11 minutes -- while wearing long pants and combat boots.

Candidates in Bisset's program who failed in any one exercise had to wait a month before completing the entire regimen again. Bisset routinely fails applicants for splashing too loudly during the swim.

Murphy began testing under Bisset on Jan. 16, 1999, completing the swim in 9 minutes, the run in 9 minutes, 22 seconds and executing 90 push-ups, 58 sit-ups and 18 pull-ups in the allotted time .

"This is an intensely motivated individual who has the focus, determination and perseverance to carry him through the rigors of Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL (BUDS) training," Bisset wrote in his recommendation of Murphy. On a personal note, Bisset added, "I would be most eager to have this individual serve in my wardroom."

Murphy continued to participate in the monthly strength-testing meetings even after winning Bisset's recommendation. He posted his last strength test on Sept. 11, 1999, gutting out 102 push-ups, 87 sit-ups and 22 pull-ups. He had cut his swim time by 13 percent, to 7:47. He ran a mile and a half in boots in 8:55.

He was well above the Navy's minimum in all categories. But even with his improvement, he still fell short of Bisset's more rigorous prep regimen.

"We want to see 100 sit-ups in two minutes," Bisset said. "But because he was strong across the board, we recommended him."

With Bisset's recommendation virtually assuring him acceptance into SEAL training, Murphy enlisted in the Navy's Officer Candidate School at Pensacola, Fla., in September, 1999. He was commissioned as an ensign that December.

Now, only BUDS stood between Murphy and membership in the Navy's elite SEAL corps.

Before he left for SEAL school in San Diego, Murphy told Heather that he wanted her to move with him to California. His emotions had changed and he knew he wanted her in his life.

Her feelings had changed, too. At a party she organized to celebrate Murphy's acceptance into BUDS, she told him for the first time that she loved him.

Still, she wasn't ready to follow him. She had been accepted in a graduate program for school counseling at Long Island University.

"This will sound horrible, but I didn't want a military life," Duggan recalled. "I wanted to get my master's degree and wasn't prepared to live the kind of life he was asking me to live."

Murphy said goodbye to Duggan. In San Diego, Hell Week awaited him.
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Navy SEALs are involved in the most treacherous and secretive military operations. An assignment might require SEALs to surprise an enemy by swimming silently ashore from a submarine in darkness, or to rappel from a helicopter onto a mountain peak.

The yearlong training program in Coronado, Calif., outside San Diego is most intense during Hell Week, a cold, wet, gritty stretch of almost constant exertion that is designed to make candidates quit. The men are on the run around the clock, getting less than five total hours of sleep over the course of five and a half days.

The push-ups and sit-ups -- sometimes 500 of each per day -- are mere warm-up exercises. They swim and train for hours in bone-chilling surf, haul 300-pound logs and boats heavy with sand, and run obstacle courses under relentless prodding from drill instructors. The skin of their legs, feet, shoulders and groin is often worn raw from the constant motion and the chafing of military pants, boots or life jackets.

To steel himself for what awaited him, Murphy called home with a request. He needed his father to send him a 1970 photograph that showed Daniel Murphy recovering from his Vietnam wounds. "If you could make it through what you went through, I can make it through Hell Week," Michael Murphy told his father.

Midway through Hell Week, the highest-ranking trainee in Murphy's group, Lt. John Anthony Skop Jr., of Buffalo, died of a heart attack during a swimming pool training exercise. He was 29. Three years earlier, Navy airman Gordon Racine died during training in the same pool.

"You have the feeling that it's never going to end," said Navy Lt. Jim Quattromani, 29, a SEAL stationed in San Diego who went through Hell Week with Murphy. "I saw on numerous occasions him sort of pulling other guys along.

"He really exuded a confidence and a maturity," added Quattromani. "He was slightly older than some of the other guys because he had been out of school for a while. And physically, he was such a good athlete that it seemed to come easier for him.

"To me, of all the guys in the class, he was among the top few who it was obvious they were going to get through it," he said.

Becoming a SEAL isn't all brawn and endurance. SEAL candidates must score well on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a series of tests similar to the SATs, which gauge mathematical reasoning and verbal skills. SEALs must score as well as the Navy's nuclear propulsion candidates, who serve aboard submarines, a SEAL official explained.

Murphy successfully completed his SEAL training, which included a month of jumps at the army's parachute school at Ft. Benning, Ga. In July 2002, it was official. He was awarded the trident symbol of the Navy SEALs.

As Murphy emerged from SEAL training, war was under way in Afghanistan. U.S. bombers had struck Taliban and al-Qaida terrorist training camps near Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad beginning in the fall of 2001.

Knowing full well he would play a role somewhere, Murphy was assigned to SEAL Delivery Team One, based at Pearl Harbor.

For Murphy and Duggan, parting had been hard. Each of them had thrown themselves into careers they had worked hard to achieve. They paid an emotional price. They stopped corresponding.

"We both had a lot of growing up to do and there was a lot for each of us to experience," Duggan said. "We were young when we drifted apart. I was 22, he was 24."

But on Long Island, Duggan's mother learned from the Murphys that Michael had begun taking on missions overseas. He would eventually be deployed in Jordan and Qatar, but his parent's didn't know about it.

Once, when he called from the country of Djibouti, his mother figured out he must have been in Africa when he let slip that he had been chased by a pack of hyenas. Otherwise, his comings and goings were a mystery to the people he loved.

Duggan worried. She began writing him again.

"I was afraid that something would happen to him and I would never be able to tell him how I really felt about him," Duggan said. "I truly think Mike and I both knew we were a couple as soon as the first e-mail correspondence began."

In April 2003, Murphy flew Duggan to Hawaii and greeted her at the airport.

"It was a different hug, different from the hugs we gave each other as friends," she recalled.

"As soon as I walked toward him at the airport, I knew that I was going to have a hard time leaving. So I called my mom a few days later and said I was moving to Hawaii."

Murphy owned a house near Pearl Harbor. The couple talked of starting a family.

Heather dreamed of two children; Murphy, who organized street hockey games for youngsters in the neighborhood -- much like his father had coached his teams -- needled her about four or five.

On the day after Christmas, 2003, during a trip home to Long Island, Murphy walked Duggan through the holiday crowds to see the tree at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Though temperatures were in the 30s, Murphy's hands were sweating. For the first time since she had known him, this confident man was anything but.

Surrounded by tourists, Murphy dropped to a knee, dug a ring from his pocket and asked Duggan for her hand in marriage. She made him ask twice to tease him a little longer before saying yes.

Planning a wedding would be difficult while Murphy was on active duty as a SEAL. They picked a date anyway -- Nov. 19, 2005.

They planned to move back East when his Navy hitch ended. Thinking ahead, on a visit home in March of that year, Murphy visited an FBI office in New York to inquire about a career in counter terrorism.

But another mission shelved talk of settling down and having babies.

In April 2005, Murphy kissed Duggan goodbye. Nothing of his next destination was known to his family.

With war raging in Iraq -- 52 American soldiers were killed there that month -- his parents assumed that was where he would go.

Half of his Hawaii-based platoon was sent to western Iraq. But at the last minute, Murphy and the other half found themselves headed for the very region where Osama bin Laden was believed to be hiding.
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As a lieutenant who came through Officer's Training School, Murphy was the second-ranking member of his platoon, a unit of up to 44 men. But you'd never know it from the way he dealt with fellow SEALs.

He shared his home with several SEAL roommates in Hawaii, including one who recalled that Murphy would spend his free time alternating between pulling practical jokes on them and indulging reading tastes that ranged from the Greek historian Herodotus to Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and the political writings of Michael Moore.

His home was where others would drop by after work on Friday nights, before carpooling for beers and laughs at Duke's Waikiki, a popular bar.

Some of them were the same guys who were with Murphy now in the desolation of Afghanistan.

One was Petty Officer 1st Class Marcus Luttrell, 29, a karate expert from Texas, whose back is tattooed with the image of half a Navy SEAL trident. His twin, also a Navy SEAL, wears the other half.

Another was Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny P. Dietz, 25, a communications specialist. He had been married almost two years to a sailor stationed with him in Norfolk, Va. But conflicting deployments had kept him from her for most of that time.

The fourth man on the mountain, Petty Officer Matt Axelson, 29, a sniper from Cupertino, Calif., was known as quiet and cerebral. He once inscribed a photograph given to another SEAL with the words: "But within the willingness to die for family and home, something inside us longs for someone to die beside, someone to lock step with, another man with a heart like our own."

The four men were secreted on the side of Sawtalo Sar, a steep mountain that cradles the Shuraik Valley in Afghanistan's Kunar Province. The valley is home to Pashtun goat herders and woodcutters, who coax wheat from the rocky soil and who sometimes take money from warlords to shoot at and disclose the whereabouts of U.S. troops.

Axelson had trained as a sniper. Dietz was good with communications equipment. Luttrell was a fourth-degree black belt in karate.

Because of his rank, but also his warm personality, Murphy was the glue of the group. Other SEALs said his understated and unassuming nature made him accessible, but that when faced with a decision, he took in suggestions, then made it.

The valley floor stretches south from the Pech River and is 5,000 feet above sea level. The mountain above climbs almost a mile higher. At the place where Murphy and his men waited, the slopes are steeper than a stairwell and heavily forested.

The four men had been dropped in darkness the previous night by a helicopter from the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Overhead surveillance detected that a large group of heavily armed guerrilla fighters had slipped into Afghanistan from Pakistan through a pass in the Hindu Kush mountains. The numbers indicated to the U.S. military that someone important was being protected.

Ethnic Pashtun tribes are Sunni Muslims who control both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Fierce fighters who have stubbornly resisted outside domination for more than two millennia, they wore down and then ousted the Soviet Army in 1989. Out of their numbers came the Taliban, anti-modern, conservative interpreters of Islam, whose reign of terror turned Afghanistan into both a fundamentalist stronghold and a haven for al-Qaida. The Taliban remains so strong that local barbers balk at cutting mens' beards, afraid of being marked for death for offending the Muslim conservatives.

This region of Afghanistan lies close to the heart of the Islamic extremism that on Sept. 11, 2001 killed 2,997 people in Pennsylvania, New York City and Washington. Since the 1980s, Kunar's mountains have been a stronghold for Arab militants who, under Osama bin Laden, formed al-Qaida. Many analysts who monitor bin Laden say Kunar and its adjacent Afghan and Pakistani regions are likely hiding places for him even now.

The four SEALs were scouting Ahmad Shah – a man in his mid-30s who grew up in adjacent mountains just to the south. Under the assumed name Muhammad Ismail, Shah leads a guerrilla group known to locals as the "Mountain Tigers" that in recent years he has aligned by turns with the Taliban, Arabs and other militant groups that welcome having a secure toehold in mountains so strategically close to the Pakistani border.

Last September, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf told the Times of London that he believed bin Laden was hiding in Afghanistan's Kunar Province, near where the four Americans were dropped.

That June day, as the four men waited, they were spotted by a goat herder working his flock through the valley.
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Since a SEAL's strength is his ability to get in and out unseen, their cover was effectively blown and a decision had to be made.

What should they do about the goat herder? As the team leader, Murphy was forced to make a fateful decision.

If he were allowed to leave, the herder might tell insurgents in the area of their presence, putting their lives in jeopardy. Taking him prisoner would slow their movements and could bring others out to look for him. Aborting their mission would risk the lives of those who would have to come to extract them and possibly allow an important insurgent leader to go free.

Murphy made clear to the others that killing the shepherd, a noncombatant, to ensure his silence was not an option.

"You know what, we are not murderers," he told the three others SEALs. "We're not just going to kill someone."

They would spare the herder and take their chances.

While much of what transpired after the goat herder was allowed to go his way is not known, at about 2 p.m. the four SEALs found themselves all but surrounded by several dozen heavily armed Taliban fighters, whose familiarity with the rugged terrain allowed them to slip in unseen.

The Taliban knew the escape routes, and the paths the SEALs could use to flee the area. All they had to do was choke them off and pin the GIs down. The four Americans were trapped.

Trying to reach safety, the four men began fleeing down the mountain's steep sides, making leaps of 20 to 30 feet. Realizing they were trapped, Dietz, the communications guy, sought open air to place a distress call back to the base. But before he could, he was shot in the hand, the blast shattering his thumb.

Murphy, now desperate to make radio contact for help, then climbed out into the open, exposing himself to enemy gunfire. While making the call, he was hit, though not fatally, by at least one shot. But his words got through to Bagram Air Base.

"Hornets nest," Murphy yelled into the satellite phone.

Then he ran back down to help his three men.

An account written by a U.S. Marine captain and published by the on-line magazine DefenseWatch, said U.S. forces who received the distress call sent a Predator drone mounted with an infrared camera to locate the SEAL team. Images beamed back from the battlefield told commanders that the SEALs were now surrounded. Within minutes, an Army MH-47 helicopter carrying eight SEALs and eight Army commandos was aloft, flying toward the battle scene at 50 feet off the ground and upward of 150 miles per hour.

It was flanked by two attack helicopters, whose job it was to protect the chopper from ground fire. But the attack helicopters, burdened with the weight of armor and ammunition, and laboring in the thin air of the mountain altitudes, fell behind the troop carrier, making it vulnerable to enemy fire.

As the troop carrier approached where the SEALs were trapped, a rocket-propelled explosive fired from the ground slammed into the MH-47's side. It is not known how many of the SEALs saw their rescuers' chopper explode and crash, killing all 16 aboard -- including James Suh, 28, a SEAL from Florida who was Murphy's closest friend.

At some point, Luttrell found himself trapped, only to be saved when Murphy came to his rescue.

Luttrell has told the families of the other SEALs that an explosion blew him farther down the mountain and away from the fighting.

It was the last time he saw the others alive.

In the fighting, an official investigation found, Axelson, Dietz and Murphy suffered multiple gunshot wounds, plus blunt-force injuries incurred as they jumped and tumbled down the ravine. Dietz was hit 16 times, including gunshot wounds to both thighs and both shoulders, his chest, jaw and head. Axelson had been hit with gunfire at least 22 times, including one shot that struck the back of his head. Murphy was hit at least seven times: bullets pierced his arm, leg, abdomen, back and his face below his left eye.

As darkness fell, Luttrell, bleeding from several wounds and apparently unable to communicate with his command, hid from his pursuers. When the sun came up days later, an Afghan shepherd walked out of his mountain home after hearing a strange noise in the woods. He found Luttrell, wounded and scared, and after persuading him that he meant no harm, took him to his home to protect him from his pursuers.

Luttrell had now been saved twice. And, if it was the first herder who betrayed them, it was now a second herder who saved the sole survivor.

Armed gunmen, who videotaped themselves looting watches, weapons, boots and electronic equipment that they say were from the bodies of Axelson, Dietz and Murphy in a scene that was posted on YouTube -- came to the village to demand custody of Luttrell. But following their own local code of ethics and tradition, which require villagers to offer sanctuary to anyone who is in danger, whether friend or enemy or stranger, the villagers told the gunmen they'd have to kill all the men in the village before they'd turn the American over.

They later smuggled a note written by Luttrell to U.S. troops stationed at Asadabad across the mountain range.

The tall Texan was now safe.

Within a few days, a Navy chaplain phoned Maureen Murphy in Patchogue to say her son was missing in Afghanistan. The next day, a SEAL who had once been Michael Murphy's commanding officer flew from San Diego to Long Island to wait with the family. He moved into a nearby motel.

Every day he would spend from morning to midnight at the Patchogue house, calling back to San Diego each night to see if there was word. On July 4th, at about 11 p.m., the officer went outside to make his nightly call. This one was different -- it lasted much longer than his earlier calls. Inside, Daniel Murphy sensed something was very wrong.

"I saw him coming toward me and I said, 'Is everything okay?' " the father recalled. "He said, 'Mr. Murphy, I'm sorry.' "
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Murphy's mission, known as Operation Red Wing, resulted in the worst loss of life for the SEALs since the program's inception in 1962. In all, 11 Navy SEALs -- 8 in the helicopter, plus Axelson Deitz and Murphy -- were killed.

The area where Murphy and the others perished remains one of the most lawless in the world, even though 200 troops from the 10th Mountain Division have since been stationed nearby. "We still take fire from the enemy," said Army Capt. Jim McKnight, who said in a phone interview from his outpost in Afghanistan that they had been attacked by small-arms fire earlier that day.

The lone surviving SEAL, Luttrell, returned to active duty. By mid-May, he was no longer operational. In the SEAL community, he is now referred to as "The One." He declined comment for this story, but a book about his experiences, "Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10," which he wrote with military author Patrick Robinson, is due to be published in June by Little, Brown and Co.

Luttrell's family and Robinson also declined comment. He received the Navy Cross -- the Navy's highest honor -- at a private Washington ceremony.

Dietz and Axelson also received the Navy Cross, posthumously, at the ceremony.

Standing in for their son, Dan and Maureen Murphy attended. But Michael Murphy did not receive the Navy Cross. The military only awards individuals one honor per war episode. Murphy's actions that day have put him in consideration for the nation's most prestigious combat award -- the Medal of Honor. The medal is often bestowed on the two-year anniversary of an incident. For Lt. Michael Murphy of Patchogue, that day is June 28, 2007.

Two independent witness accounts of a deed are required before a candidate is considered for the Medal of Honor. Luttrell is a living witness. The radio contact Murphy made to call for help may well count as a second witness to his bravery. Consideration and deliberations are never discussed publicly by Pentagon officials who decide.

Dan and Maureen Murphy, who were divorced in 1999, remain such close friends that when Dan remarried last year, Maureen took care of his new bride's two children while they honeymooned in Hawaii. Their other son, John, 20, is attending the New York Institute of Technology, with hopes of pursuing a career in criminal justice.

"He's going to be the lawyer," Dan Murphy said.

Maureen Murphy visits Michael's grave site at Calverton Cemetery nearly every day, where she talks to him. Before her son was buried, she tucked into his casket a key to the front door of the family's Patchogue home where she still lives with John.

Heather Duggan lives near Wall Street in Lower Manhattan and counsels middle school students at IS-220 in Borough Park, Brooklyn. These days, she says she laughs more than she cries when she remembers Michael.

"He'll always be a part of me, but what I truly, truly miss the most -- and this might shock some people -- is definitely his friendship," Duggan said. "I think about him hanging out with me back in 1997-1998, with a backwards baseball hat on, out on the beach, cracking jokes and messing around. He was just such a great friend."

Several times a week, Dan Murphy drives to Lake Ronkonkoma where his son served as a lifeguard and where he practiced chin-ups to prepare for SEAL training. The memory that his son stood on this beach on hot summer days, looking out for swimmers in trouble, is reassuring to a father who desperately misses him.

He said, "It gives me a sense of peace walking on the same ground he walked."
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When Afghan shepherd Muhammad Gulab left this mountain home one morning in June 2005 to check on a strange noise his family had heard in the woods, he found a frightened and wounded American soldier pointing his rifle at him.

"His pants were torn almost off," his legs black with dirt, dried blood and bruises, Gulab recalled in an interview. "I saw from his eyes that he was almost collapsing.

"I lifted my shirt to show him that I had no weapon," Gulab said through an interpreter, "and I beckoned for him to come to me." The American lowered his weapon and limped forward. Gulab knew that in rescuing the American, Petty Officer 1st Class Marcus Luttrell, he was risking his own life. The day before, he had heard the gunfire and shouting of pro-Taliban guerrillas who had battled a team of U.S. Navy SEAL commandos. Killed in that battle were three Navy SEALs -- Matt Axelson, Danny Dietz and Michael Murphy. Luttrell was the sole American survivor of the fight.

On that day, Luttrell stepped forward to Gulab, put his arms around him and handed over his rifle, Gulab said. With that, Luttrell entrusted his life not only to the shepherd but also to the ancient and ironclad moral code of the Pashtun people. Their code of honor, called pashtunwali, is written in no constitution or legislation, but in the mountains and deserts of Pakistan and Afghanistan that are the Pashtuns' homeland. It carries the force of law.

Unflinching honor

Born out of centuries of Pashtun tribal wars and clan feuds, pashtunwali demands of a man both unflinching violence when his honor is thought to have been stained, and selfless humanitarianism when anyone -- stranger or enemy -- requests protection from a foe.

"He came to me for help. If I did not help a guest, it would have been a great shame for me," Gulab said -- a shame that might have led to his expulsion from his community.

As Gulab walked the wounded Luttrell to his home, he was spotted by the guerrillas who had fought the SEALs. "They called to me to give him to them," Gulab said. "But they know that I belong to a powerful clan, and they didn't dare to attack."

An attack on Gulab or the man he had taken under his care would have obligated Gulab's extended family -- a powerful clan called the Masaud -- to fight the guerrillas.

At his house, Gulab tried to make Luttrell comfortable. "I gave him some of my clothes, but he was too tall for them . . . We laid him in a bed and my brother cleaned his wounds. We cooked some goat for him, but at first he wouldn't eat."

As word spread that Gulab's family was now responsible for the safety of an American, "my brothers and nephews and cousins began arriving" with guns, Gulab said.

Other armed men came, too -- Shuraik valley residents with connections to the guerrillas, whose commander the SEALs had been tracking when they were ambushed. Over four days, the commander, Ahmed Shah, "sent a lot of intermediaries to tell me to hand over the soldier," Gulab said. "They said, 'We'll give you 5 million rupees [about $80,000] and any house you want in Peshawar,' " a city in neighboring Pakistan.

The promise of a home in Pakistan would have been the best attempt the guerrillas could make at getting Gulab to break his obligation, but it didn't work. Had he accepted the offer, Gulab might well have been expelled from the valley by the Masaud.

Protecting the SEAL

When the intermediaries came to deliver the guerrillas' demands, Gulab invited them into his house's main room, but sat protectively between them and the bed where Luttrell lay. Seeing the armed men, the SEAL "asked me, 'Taliban?' " Gulab recalled.

"I couldn't explain anything to him, so I just said, 'Yes, Taliban.' He was afraid."

The Masaud clan met to decide their response. "We told them we would not hand him over while even one of us remained alive," Gulab said.

The guerrillas' tone hardened. "They sent us a message saying, 'Prepare for war. We will attack your house tonight.' "

The family moved Gulab's wife and children to his father-in-law's home nearby. Then Gulab and some relatives walked Luttrell to a hiding place in the woods while others prepared to fight off an attack that never came.

That night, the American "was very afraid," Gulab said. "He thought maybe we were taking him up the mountain to kill him. I stayed with him that night, lying next to him. He patted my side."

Meanwhile, Gulab's family sent word to U.S. forces based across an 8,500-foot mountain from the Shuraik Valley, at Asadabad. "We got some paper and I told the soldier to write a note," Gulab said. "We sewed it inside the hem of my brother-in-law's shirt. I sent him to the Americans to tell them that we had their soldier and the Taliban were going to attack us."

Four days after Gulab found the American, U.S. troops arrived to rescue him. They loaded Luttrell and Gulab into a helicopter for a flight to an American base at Jalalabad.

Later, as the SEAL was being readied for medical evacuation to the United States, he summoned Gulab and a translator. "He said he knew the Taliban would kill me if I returned home," Gulab said, and offered to pay him $200,000 to re-start his life.

"I told him I didn't expect any money," Gulab said.

Little help for his trouble

Nearly two years later, Gulab's act of mercy has cost him the life he knew as a woodsman in his mountainside village of simple mud and timber homes. Gulab, 33, has fled his home in the village, Sabray, moving his wife and six children to the thin safety of the government-held town of Asadabad. Still, he says, the Islamic militant guerrillas pass on threats to kill him.

Gulab and others in Afghanistan's Kunar province say neither Luttrell nor the U.S. military has done much to help him. That, they say, may discourage other Afghans from following his example in defending U.S. soldiers.

Soon after the rescue of the seal, the U.S. military gave Gulab a construction laborer's job at its Asadabad base, paying him $280 a month. He moved his family to a rented house in the town.

Then, last April, American soldiers at the base arrested him. "They put handcuffs on me and a sack and earmuffs on my head," Gulab said. For five days, "they accused me of meeting Taliban and people from Pakistan. I felt ashamed. I couldn't eat anything. I haven't told any of my own people about this; it is a great shame to me."

Gulab's arrest followed a Newsweek story about his rescue of Luttrell and interrogators questioned him about his having met a Pakistan-based correspondent for the magazine, he said. U.S. forces released him without explanation, he said.

The arrest was acknowledged by the top U.S. officer at Asadabad, Navy Cmdr. Ryan Scholl, in response to queries from Newsday. The U.S. Special Operations Command in the Middle East said it was checking on the incident but had no immediate comment.

Far from supporting the Taliban, Gulab said, he is still threatened by them. "People come down [from the Shuraik Valley] and tell me that the Taliban have warned them that I will be killed whenever they get the chance," he said.

If he has kept his enemies, he feels he has lost his friends. "Before, I used to go to their [the Americans'] rooms freely and talk with them," Gulab said. But since the arrest, "they don't allow me on the base."

Every two weeks, Gulab is permitted to go to the base's gate to collect his salary for a job from which he said he is now barred. "Nowadays, my situation is very fragile," he said. "My security from the Taliban is not good . . . They can easily reach to Asadabad and find me."

If Gulab is mistrusted by the Americans, he is admired by many locals as a good Pashtun who did the right thing for his own honor, said Ruhollah Anwari, a prominent Afghan journalist in Asadabad.

"I am not sorry that I helped him," Gulab said of Luttrell. While he said he did not save the American with the expectation of a reward, he said he hopes the U.S. will help him out of his predicament. "If they help me, they will get the reputation that they help their friends," he said. "In general, I am very sad," adding that he has had no contact with the SEAL he saved. "I think he has forgotten me."
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Two years after his death in Afghanistan, Lt. Michael P. Murphy, who grew up in Patchogue and joined the elite Navy SEALs after college, has been awarded the nation's highest battlefield award, the Medal of Honor, for a valiant attempt to save the lives of comrades that cost him his own.

"This tells the country what we already know about Michael -- that he was a hero," his father, Daniel Murphy, said after receiving the news Thursday that the White House had made the announcement of the award shortly after noon Thursday.

The president will present the medal -- a star-shaped bronze emblem suspended from a sky-blue ribbon -- to Murphy's family on Oct. 22 at a ceremony in the White House's historic Blue Room.

Daniel Murphy, a law clerk in State Supreme Court in Riverhead, said he learned of the president's decision on Aug. 27, but had agreed to keep silent until an announcement was officially made.

"The family is absolutely thrilled by the president's announcement," Murphy said. "I think it is a public recognition of what we knew about Michael, of his intensity, his focus, his devout loyalty to home and family, his country and especially to his SEAL teammates and the SEAL community."

Murphy is credited with putting his life in danger in an effort to save the lives of three of his subordinates during a fierce firefight in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border in June 2005.

That month, Murphy and three other SEALs -- Petty Officer Matt Axelson, 29, and Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny Dietz, 25 -- were inserted by helicopter onto a remote mountaintop near the border. They were four men on a secret mission to track a high-ranking Taliban warlord, Newsday reported last May. But they were discovered first by an Afghan goat herder who stumbled upon their hiding place in a mountainside forest. Not long after, the four SEALs were surrounded by dozens of armed insurgents, and a fierce battle ensued.

The lone survivor of the incident, Petty Officer 1st Class Marcus Luttrell, 29, of Texas, has called Murphy, the team's leader, "an iron-souled warrior of colossal, almost unbelievable courage." According to Luttrell's account, as told to Navy superiors and in a recently published book, Murphy displayed "an extreme act of valor" when he ran into the open -- and suffered a bullet wound when he did -- in a last-ditch attempt to call for help and save his fellow SEALs.

That call brought tragedy instead, when a rescue helicopter sent to save them was shot down, killing all 16 U.S. troops aboard, including eight Navy SEALs.

Murphy, Axelson and Dietz were killed as they fled down the mountainside in an effort to elude their pursuers.

"Lt. Mike Murphy was a valued teammate, professional warrior, and fearless leader," said Rear Adm. Joe Kernan, chief of the Naval Special Warfare Command, in a prepared statement. "We are humbled by his courageous and selfless actions and this award is a testament to the man he was."

As one of fewer than 2,400 men serving in the closely-knit SEAL community, Murphy was a member of the most elite group in the military. To join the secretive, highly trained unit -- whose commandos are trained to arrive at targets by submarine, over land or via aircraft -- men must submit themselves to months of grueling training designed to weed out all but the most determined fighters.

The Medal of Honor is bestowed by the president upon military personnel who have distinguished themselves "conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in action against an enemy of the United States."

The act "must have been one of personal bravery or self-sacrifice so conspicuous as to clearly distinguish the individual above his or her comrades."

To date, 3,462 soldiers, sailors, Marines or airmen have received the Medal of Honor since it was initiated by Congress in 1863.

Interviewed at an afternoon news conference yesterday in Manhattan, Murphy's parents described their feelings as "bittersweet."

Murphy's mother, Maureen, said she is consoled by the fact that her son will be remembered by how he lived his final hours.

"It's almost like it's a snapshot of how he lived his life," said Maureen Murphy, of Patchogue. "We know how he lived his life, but now the nation knows."

Daniel Murphy, who said in the Newsday story last May that he did not want his son to follow his footsteps and enlist in the military, said he was proud of what his son had accomplished.

"I have no regrets," Daniel Murphy said, "except that we lost him."