Friday, October 14, 2005

Found this on Wednsday on Michelle Malkin's site

Michelle Malkin: "Today is the fifth anniversary of the U.S.S. Cole bombing. Please take a moment to note the event on your blogs today if you have a chance. Stars and Stripes pays tribute to the 17 sailors killed in the terrorist attack, the dozens wounded, the survivors, and the families affected. Command Master Chief James Parlier will never forget the decision he was forced to make in leaving a mortally wounded sailor to die:

“That’s the first time in my Navy career that I had to let someone die, so I did,” Parlier said. “I made the call. I said last rites. I said a prayer and then we put him on the side somewhere so he wouldn’t be in a position where he was dying in front of the crew and demoralizing the crew.”

What did demoralize the crew was Yemenis celebrating the attack in view of Cole crewmembers for a couple of nights following the attack, Parlier said. They felt the Cole was their trophy, he said.

“Boy, that sticks [with me], seeing all these guys in white outfits jumping up and down, partying music blaring,” he said.

For the Cole’s sailors, it was tough not to retaliate, he said.

The Cole incident was one of a series of terrorist attacks in the 1990s that were not adequately answered by the United States, said Marc Genest, an associate professor of strategy and policy at the Naval War College.

“Measured responses against terrorist organizations are seen as a sign of weakness, not strength,” he said.

Genest said the overall lesson from the Cole is that not responding to terrorists’ attacks only emboldens them.

“The time to attack terrorists is at the very beginning of their strategy,” he
said."

Also:
Michelle Malkin: "The Democrat-run Washington D.C., government has been caught with its hand in the taxpayer-funded cookie jar. Jim McElhatton of the Washington Times reports:

The D.C. government employees tasked with providing care to the city's poor have taken home nearly half of the more than $1 million in bonus money awarded by the District during the first half of fiscal 2005.

Nearly 400 employees in the D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS) received approximately $479,000 in extra money in their paychecks from Oct. 1, 2004, to March 31, 2005, according to D.C. Office of Personnel records.

Citywide, the D.C. government awarded 565 bonus payments for $1.06 million.

D.C. City Council member Adrian M. Fenty, chairman of the council's Committee on Human Services, which oversees the Department of Human Services, yesterday said he's going to conduct an inquiry of the department's bonuses.

'The Department of Human Services is not one of our better-running agencies right now,' said Mr. Fenty, Ward 4 Democrat and mayoral candidate. 'We're going to do a full scrubbing of this.'"

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