Attack on the Nino Bixio

Today in history, 17 Aug.1942, 118 NZ prisoners of war died, when the Italian cargo ship MV Nino Bixio was torpedoed by a British submarine in the Mediterranean.

Their deaths, combined with 44 New Zealanders lost earlier aboard Jantzen in Dec.1941, amounted to nearly a third of NZ's POW fatalities during WWII...
Nino Bixio had left Benghazi in Libya for Brindisi, Italy, escorted by two destroyers and two torpedo boats. Crammed aboard were almost 3000 POWs captured in North Africa, including more than 160 Kiwis.
Two days out of Libya, the convoy was attacked by British submarine HMS Turbulent (N98). [This was one of the most successful Royal Navy submarines during its short career 1942-43. It sank a cruiser, a destroyer, a U-boat, 28 supply ships - some 100,000 tons in all - and destroyed three trains by gunfire. It was depth-charged on over 250 occasions by hunting forces.]

Nino Bixio was hit by two torpedoes from Turbulent: one exploded in the tightly-packed forward hold, killing 237 men and wounding another 60. In the ensuing panic and confusion, many men jumped overboard. Some drowned immediately; others reached makeshift rafts and drifted around the Mediterranean for weeks without food or water.
But, despite extensive damage, Nino Bixio did not sink. Survivors were pulled aboard, and the ship was towed by an escorting destroyer to Navarino in southern Greece, where 34 of the dead were buried (203 others are remembered on the memorial at El Alamein).
Nino Bixio was towed to the port of Pylos in Italian-occupied Greece, where it was beached. Later it was towed to Venice and sunk as a 'block ship' to protect the port.
In 1952 Nino Bixio was raised, re-fitted and returned to civilian service. In its peacetime career, it visited a number of NZ ports including Wellington where, on 25 Jan.1955, a wreath-laying ceremony was held aboard the foredeck. It continued in merchant service until 1970, and was scrapped at La Spezia in 1971.
Ironically its attacker did not fare so well. HMS Turbulent was lost with all hands off the coast of Sardinia in March 1943, after probably striking a mine...

US Army Sharpshooter Ain't Too Sharp!

Jas the hero?

OMG! This could only happen
(a) in America, and
(b) on their beloved 4th of July Weekend!
In Minnesota, US Army veteran Jason Galvin saw a bald eagle dangling upside down from a tree, its leg caught in a piece of rope around a tree branch 70ft.off the ground.
Police, Fire and Dept.of Environmental Conservation all said they couldn't do anything about it because of how high the bird was.

TV sensationalism, at its American best!

Galvin, who did two tours in Afghanistan (note this!), was asked by his wife to use his marksman skills (note this also!) to shoot the rope and branch the bird was hanging from...
So, after 1½ hours and 150 shots (take note!), the bird fell safely onto the branches below. The eagle, which Galvin named "Freedom", was taken away for treatment, and is expected to make a full recovery.
Wife Jackie (absolutely overawed by Jason's manliness) tweeted:
Best story of a lifetime! I knew with his sharpshooter skills that if anyone could save this eagle it was him! A neighbor (sic) borrowed (sic) Jason his .22 as it had a better scope than Jason's...an hour and a half later and 150 bullets, the eagle broke free from the branch and fell into the trees...
I can't even tell you how amazing this experience was and I knew of all people, my husband wouldn't let me down! What an amazing hero, my Army Veteran, saving an eagle on 4th of July

Weekend! I love you Jason and all that you are!
Well, there's nothing like some down-home adulation - but lady! PUH-LEEEZZZ!!!
Your Jas ain't The Ace!
A two-tour sharpshooter..with a 'scoped rifle, who could pick any firing position, was under no pressure of incoming bullets, and still had to expend 150 rounds to sever a rope no more than 100ft/30m away...needs to go back to Rifleman 101!
God bless America!
You surely need all the help you can get.

US Nuke Spanish Clean-up

The good ol' US of A has finally agreed to clean up its own mess... namely a nuclear spill!
The southern Spanish coastal resort of Palomares was the scene of the worst nuclear accident in US military history nearly 50 years ago.

Death from above

On 17 Jan.1966, a B52 bomber with four nuclear bombs collided with a refuelling aircraft in mid-air. Three bombs fell near Palomares, failing to explode but contaminating the soil with radioactive material, and the 4th fell into the sea, lieing undiscovered for more than 2mths.
USA and Spain said last week they 'intended to...clean up the Palomares site and organise the storage of the contaminated soil at an appropriate site in the United States.' The contaminated soil is expected to be buried in a secure area in the Las Vegas desert in an 2yr.operation. A Spanish Govt spokesman said the agreement was a "...symbol of friendship between the two countries, who are allies and partners who trust one another and have lots of things to do together." What - even it takes 50 years???

The mayor of the nuked area claims he's not been told a damn thing about the deal: "I'm annoyed we haven't been officially informed. We're the victims, the ones who've suffered this for the last half-century and the ones who now have to suffer the clean-up." He said he'd continue to fight for proper compensation, and funding for a tourism campaign to protect its image while lorries carrying radioactive material warnings roll through the area.
The area where the bombs fell, in the province of Almeria, SE Spain, has been dubbed the Costa del Armageddon. In the aftermath of the crash, the US and Spanish tried to convince the world there was no danger. US Ambassador Biddie Duke even joined a Spanish minister for a swim off Palomares in front of cameras, saying: "If this is radioactivity, I love it!"
Environmentalists have accused the two govts of secrecy about residents' health checks. The Spanish govt claims only small levels of radiation have been detected, though in several cases plutonium has reportedly attached itself to bones.

Lord Clive To Be Recovered

A sunken English warship may see sunlight this year, after being submerged for 252 years.
The 50m privateer Lord Clive, sunk by the Spaniards in 1763, was discovered off the coast of Uruguay in 2004 by adventurer Ruben Collado. He now has permission from the Uruguay govt to bring up the remains.

Collado and model of Lord Clive

The 60-gun Lord Clive was sunk by coastal fire, as the British and Portuguese tried to bombard and take the city of Colonia del Sacramento from the Spanish during the Seven Years War.
The ship, equipped to wage war for 3-4yrs, may have been carrying extensive amounts of gold.
The muddy waters and fast currents of the River Plate will prove to be serious obstacles for the recovery team. As well, the Lord Clive is covered with tons of rocky material that crews must remove first. Recovery efforts for the remains of the six-story high ship should begin this August.
Background: The vessel was originally HMS Kingston, a 60-gun Royal Navy ship, launched on 13 March 1697. She had an eventful career, taking part in numerous battles.
The ship was sold to privateers linked to the East India Company on 14 January 1762, and renamed Lord Clive.
That same year (during the Spanish-Portuguese War of 1761-1763), these privateers, fighting for Portugal, planned to conquer Spanish territory in South America. They organised a raid on Buenos Aires, but the idea was soon abandoned as the Spanish were too well-prepared.
On January 6, 1763, they tried to capture Colonia del Sacramento (on the opposite bank of the River Plate). Lord Clive and several other ships started bombardment, but encountered strong resistance from the city gun battery.
After three hours, a fire broke out on Lord Clive: it rapidly spread and, when the magazine blew up, she sunk immediately - 272 were killed.

Isis In Name, Not Nature

Isis has been removed from the official list of future Pacific hurricane names.
As the name of an ancient Egyptian goddess, Isis had been on the UN's World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) list of names for hurricanes for 2016. ISIS is of course also synonymous with the Islamic State terror group, gradually spreading its terrorist tentacles around the world.

The Hurricane Committee removed the name Isis from the rotating list and replaced it with Ivette. Names are knocked off the list (which rotates every six years), if they’re considered inappropriate by virtue of causing too much damage or too much death.
This is however not the case with Isis – the connotations are just too great, and the WMO deemed it inappropriate.
Others too are making name changes away from Isis. An Auckland talent and event management company last year undertook a costly rebrand to save itself. Some of the talent listed with Issis Events said they no longer wanted to work with it because of the association with ISIS. And there're dozens of NZ businesses operating under the name Isis or Issis.
Despite the name, houses in the upper-middle class Isis Street in Earlsfield, South London, are still selling for £1million.
Wonder if the town fathers in Oamaru will be considering a name change for THEIR Isis Street?

Anzac Day 2015

This is not glorification of war.
Not salacious lapping at spilt blood.
Not false-sounding honorifics on monument walls.
This is unmeasurable gratitude, respect and thanks...a nation-wide desire to advance and be all we can be, as some way of making the sacrifices worthwhile.

As we live and breathe, you will never be forgotten...

Kap'yong Will Never Be Forgotten

+ WHY are NZ school children taught about 'The Anzacs' as if they only fought at Gallipoli...?
+ WHY did the Korean War gradually became "the Forgotten War"...?
+ WHY do so few people know about the Battle of Kap'yong, later described by a newspaper correspondent as "some of the bloodiest and fiercest fighting ever to take place in Anzac history"...?
+ WHY does the NZ Govt STILL not commemorate this battle...?

For the surviving warriors from the Korean War (and especially those who fought at Kap'yong shoulder-to-shoulder alongside my father), I humbly thank you, and hope that wherever you may be right now, someone is affording you the comfort, kindness and gratitude that you deserve.
Bless you.

Falklands War II?

Britain struck oil in the Falklands last week, a discovery likely to escalate already-heightened tensions with Argentina over the ownership of the islands.
After nine months of exploratory drilling, a group of British companies found oil and gas in a remote field north of the islands. The bonanza could be worth billions of pounds…and will likely increase fears of renewed conflict over the islands, just days after UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon warned of a 'very live threat' from Argentina.

Brit boots yomping, 1982

Coincidentally, the oil discovery comes exactly 33 years after Argentina invaded the islands it calls Malvinas…and it's a safe bet it'll be seriously interested in this latest development. Argentina invaded the Falklands in 1982 (at a cost of 260 British and 650 Argentine lives), and still claims territorial rights.
Britain has pledged to invest £180million over the next ten years to defend the islands, with a modernisation of existing defences, upgrading a surface-to-air missile system and deploying two Chinook helicopters. This commitment follows Russia's pledge to help re-arm Argentina: rabid Ruskie Prez Vlad The Putin is reportedly going to lease 12 Sukhoi Su-24 bombers to Argentina.
Experts also predict future Falklands oil finds could be even more significant. The tension over the sovereignty of the islands is set to intensify. Again.

Nuclear Energy Is Not Electricity

USS Haddo, unwelcome: Akld, Jan.1979

It was not electricity being protested in the 1970s...it was NUCLEAR energy!
Big Bully America was trying to force lil' ol' Noo Zuld to accept visits by nuclear-armed/nuclear-propelled warships as part of its ANZUS obligations. There were many kiwis who saw these vessels as symbols of possible nuclear annihilation, arguing that New Zealand should make a moral stand and ban such visits. They launched protest flotillas to 'greet' visiting nuclear warships and hinder their passage into port.
Various NZ towns and cities declared themselves 'nuclear-free zones', a token gesture in global terms but locally adding momentum to the government's eventual ban on nukes entering our

ports...which then lead to the US petulantly suspending its ANZUS security guarantee to NZ in 1985.
The photograph is an Auckland protest against the Thresher-class nuclear submarine USS Haddo in January 1979...which, as you can see, has been used by PowerShop as its latest ad.
But once again, PowerShop is off-target.
It has in the past proved itself either blind, stupid or insensitive to public feeling, using images of Saddam Hussein, Colonel Qaddafi and other globally-vilified tyrants in its ads. In the face of public backlash, PowerShop toned its campaigns down.
So this latest ad is curious. It has no shock value whatsoever, but it completely misses the point of the image it's used.
Sure, I understand the company is making a word-play on "people power" - consumers having the power to choose their own power company. But imposing the word 'Electricity' over a NUCLEAR submarine indicates the ad-man creating the storyboard and the media buyer approving it do not understand the difference between two completely different sources of submarine power: nuclear vs diesel-electric!
What level of education/social awareness do these people have?
Once again with PowerShop, it seems the answer is: very little.

Simpson And His Donkey - The REAL One

A classic painting of a famous Gallipoli character went under the hammer this week.

"Simpson and his Donkey" was painted by Horace Millichamp Moore-Jones in 1918. It depicts a medic evacuating a wounded soldier during the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of WWI.
Moore-Jones had thought the Anzac medic was John Simpson Kirkpatrick, an Englishman who (as John Simpson) enlisted with the Australian Imperial Forces when war broke out. And as time went on, most of Australia thought so too...
However, the medic was actually a New Zealander, Richard (Dick) Henderson, a Waihi-born man who was a teacher in Auckland when he enlisted in 1914.

Moore-Jones' most widely-recognised art work was not painted at the battlefront, but from a photo taken by Dunedin medic, James Jackson, who identified the subject as Richard Henderson.
Moore-Jones' depiction of the soldier and his donkey was done when the artist was touring his watercolours in Dunedin in 1918, three years after the Gallipoli landings. He altered the composition of the photo to make for a more dramatic painting.
This week, the art was bought by a private buyer and will remain in New Zealand. It's value was estimated at $150-200K but sold for $257,950.
The artist Moore-Jones died in a Hamilton fire in 1922, still believing he had painted Simpson.
While not wishing to denigrate John Simpson's work at Gallipoli, it should be recognised that his heroic exploits have been seriously inflated over the years.
The "Simpson" legend stemmed from an account in a 1916 book Glorious Deeds of Australasians in the Great War. This was a wartime propaganda effort, and its stories of Simpson, supposedly rescuing 300 men and making dashes into No Man's Land to carry wounded out on his back, are demonstrably untrue.
In fact, transporting that many men down to the beach in the three weeks that he was at Gallipoli would have been an impossibility, given the time the journey took. However, the stories in the book were widely accepted by many, including the authors of subsequent books on Simpson.
The few contemporary accounts of Simpson at Gallipoli do speak of his bravery in bringing wounded down from the heights above Anzac Cove through Shrapnel and Monash Gullies. However, his donkey service spared him the even more dangerous and arduous work of hauling seriously wounded men back from the front lines on a stretcher.
Simpson landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and was killed by machinegun fire on 19 May 1915.
There've been movies based on the Simpson legend, statues erected, and even calls for a posthumous Victoria Cross.

But the real man in the picture, NZ stretcher-bearer Richard (Dick) Henderson, served in Gallipoli and later on the Western Front. He was awarded a Military Medal for repeatedly rescuing wounded from the battlefield while under heavy fire at the Battle of the Somme. Seriously gassed at Passchendaele in Oct.1917, he spent several months convalescing in England before repatriation to NZ in Feb.1918.
Henderson did not recover from the effects of the gas. He went back to teaching, but became blind in 1934 and was obliged to stop working. He remained in poor health for the rest of his life, and died in Greenlane Hospital, Auckland, on 14 November 1958.
The real 'medic with donkey' rests in Akld's Waikumete Cemetery, Soldiers' Burial Row 11, Plot 111.
Perhaps the painting should hang as acknowledgement of all medics, stretcher-bearers, nurses and doctors in fields of conflict...

Kunlun Kan't Run Now

Two months after a pirate captain escaped the grasp of the NZ Navy, because of limp-dick bureaucrats, his luck's finally run out!
The Interpol-wanted, internationally-blacklisted poaching vessel Kunlun has been detained in Thailand on fisheries-related violations.
Back in Jan.2015, the vessel was caught illegally fishing in the Southern Ocean, but kiwi politicos wouldn't allow our navy to perform its righteous role and so Kunlun happily ran away. Then in Feb., it was intercepted by Sea Shepherd's Sam Simon in possession of banned fishing equipment in Australian waters.

Kunlun cuts across Sam Simon, Sthrn.Ocean, Feb.2015

Kunlun is one of six vessels known to still engage in Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated (IUU) fishing for Sthrn.Ocean toothfish. It has a long history of suspected fishing violations and is believed to have links to known Spanish crime sydnicate Vidal Armadores. Since 2008, the vessel has changed names at least ten times in order to avoid prosecution.
Kunlun is one of three IUU fishing vessels that've been intercepted by SS since the commencement of Operation Icefish in Dec.2014.
Another pirate ship, Nigerian-flagged Thunder, was also encountered by SS in Antarctica. SS ship Bob Barker has maintained a continuous pursuit of Thunder, which has led it to the coast of Namibia.
Operation Icefish is SS's first Southern Ocean Defence Campaign to target IUU fishing operators in the waters of Antarctica.

Call A Spade A Spade - It IS War!

Hi-ho, hi-ho. It's off to war we go!
Make no bones about it – however the politicos sugar-coat it (by saying NZ is NOT sending combat troops but rather weapons trainers), we ARE sending warriors into harm's way in Iraq.
But are we really needed there?
Honestly? No. We can't supply big bucks, or enormous equipment piles. But we're putting our limited resources where our mouths are. Why? Speaking bluntly, it really has NOTHING to do with standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the fight against ISIS. It's more like if we DON'T step up, then the crumbs we currently receive from the global intelligence community will dwindle to zip!
So what role will our troops play? Prime Munster John Key's gone to great pains to assure us this is DEFINITELY a non-combat mission. He naively states that if the shit goes down just a few blocks away, we'd actually stand back and let our "allies" sort it out themselves!!! REALLY??!! But you can bet your last brass that, if OUR team was hit, he'd be expecting allied help to extract our derrieres from the fire!!
What, getting HIT??? Ya mean, NZ troops will be at risk???
Of COURSE they will be. They're soldiers in a war zone with weapons at-hand. To think otherwise is extremely childish. But don't patronise these troops: they've volunteered for their jobs and they know the risks. You don't send soldiers into a war zone, and then tell them to run if something goes 'bang' nearby!!!
So, by sending troops, are we now more at risk back home? After all, ISIS has shown itself capable of and eager to extend its fight beyond its immediate battlefields. It's recently called for jihadists to attack shopping malls around the world.
The big question is: will its poison spread to New Zealand?

Barak's New Boeing

The US Air Force will be replacing its current fleet of two Air Force One presidential aircraft with Boeing's commercial 747-8 airliner.

Boeing 747-8: taxi for Da Prez!

US Air Force Secretary Deborah James: "The Boeing 747-8 is the only US-manufactured aircraft that, when fully missionised, meets the necessary capabilities established to execute the presidential support mission." "Missionised"…? Gotta LUV the American penchant for creating impossible words to fit particular situations eg: their houses don't get "burgled", they get "burglarised"…!!! LOL
But I digress…or should that be "digressify"?
Boeing's been building the Prez's planes for around 50 years, so naturally is rather pleased it's got the contract for the next one. Opps, make that the next TWO, coz the USAF operates two VC-25s, specially-tweeked Boeing 747-200Bs, with lotsa anti-missile and anti-detection systems (plus, if you believe the movies, a presidential escape pod too). However the exact details about the new contract, including cost, won't be released.
The Air Force decision was a no-brainer really: the only other suitable four-engine jet is the A380 built by Airbus in France…and with the US xenophobia, who'd eat French Fries when you can enjoy Freedom Fries instead!
The double-decker entered service in 1970, and had a major overhaul in 2012 with new engines and a longer fuselage. But last year, Boeing didn't get any 747 orders, despite a record 1,432 net orders for commercial aircraft. The 747-8 is the only four-engine commercial jet Boeing makes, providing an extra margin of flight safety over the more standard twin-engine planes.
It also has a hefty pricetag of US$370m (NZ$511m) each, and that's WITHOUT including all the presidential extras. But hey, when the US taxpayer's forking out for it, who cares, right?

Pirates Prove Politicos Are Pussies

Rough and dangerous conditions...? Riiiggghhhttt!!!

What do two of the three objects in this pic have in common?
If there's an answer, it's probably something like "they go wherever the winds blow them." It's certainly NOT that they abide by any global rules.
Here's the Royal New Zealand Navy - its offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington, armed and supposedly dangerous - chasing rusting old poaching ships in the Southern Ocean. But WTF? The captains of these pirates stop said naval vessel from boarding, and then manage to ESCAPE?!!!
Yeup, the navy was wanting to gather evidence to use in any future prosecution, after filming fishermen hauling their illegal toothfish catch aboard. But the captains of the Yongding, the Kunlun and the Songhua refused to let the crew board, and did a runner!
Our fumbling Foreign Munster Womble McCully explains that "...due to the conditions and the evasive tactics of the masters it was not possible to safely board these vessels. While disappointing, it's important that we keep the safety of the NZ crew as our paramount consideration."
Disappointing? It's downright embarrassing!
Asked how these DOGS of fishing boats managed to evade the military might of our navy, a defence spokesman passed the buck: "Ask MFAT [Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade]." And from MFAT: "It was an operational decision made for safety reasons." What crap! It reeks of politico gutlessness!
What's wrong with a couple of bursts of 25mm Bushmaster across their bows? In those circumstances, pirate suddenly understand the words "Heave to!" For crissake, when will back-room PC limpdicks step aside and let the military DO THEIR JOB!!!

Stupid Is As Stupid Does...Part Two

Rise up, brothers in blood-letting!
Come to sunny Hawke's Bay and learn how to behead people!
A Hawke's Bay Muslim is calling on "souljahs of Allah" to make their way to Hastings and join him in forming the "Islamic State of Aotearoa".

Souljah Stupid

Te Amorangi Kireka-Whaanga heads the Aotearoa Maori Muslim Association: you'll recall I blogged about this pillick last month.
Last weekend he re-named his merry band the Islamic State of Aotearoa - and when you consider the Islamic State's violent reputation in the Middle East, this MUST ring warning bells.
Souljah Stupid has pledged support for IS on social media, saying it'll bring down Western civilisation. IS has been taking over cities in Syria and Iraq and conducting high-profile beheadings of hostages...all peace, love and mungbeans! But Souljah Stupid maintains he's "a peace advocate trying to achieve my goal of winning a Nobel peace prize". Riiiiigghhtt!
On Facebook, he urged "Muslim souljahs, warriors and followers of prophet Muhammad to make their way to Hastings and blow everyone away with the beauty and magic of love, truth, wisdom and divine blessings. Out with the old and in with the new, let's radiate the power of truth, the magic of it upon the starving souls of mankind."
A member of Hawke's Bay's sole mosque says Souljah Stupid's views do not reflect those of the wider Muslim community. Known as "Izhaq" to local Muslims, this idiot does not worship there regularly and members think he's gone a bit ga-ga.
No normal, law-abiding NZer accepts there's any time or place for this kind of behaviour. I'm confident SIS has Stupid under close watch. I just hope, if a moment arises when decisive action is needed, they do not hesitate...

The future of sunny Hawke's Bay...?

Maori Muslim Radical: Stupid Is As Stupid Does

The spectre of maori radicals has raised its ugly head again, with an influential NZ maori Muslim openly supporting the Islamic State

rabid radical

militancy.
Te Amorangi Kireka-Whaanga heads the Aotearoa Maori Muslim Assn. In 2010, he was named in the world's 500 most influential Muslims by a Jordanian group.
He says NZ fighters should not be stopped from joining IS. His Facebook page - adorned with IS images - has been repeatedly shut down by administrators.
Islamic State has been taking over towns in Syria and Iraq, killing and beheading hostages, as it tries to impose its rabid ultra-radical view of Islam.

Spoiling for a fight

Kireka-Whaanga says Muslims are being killed all over the world, the United Nations "doesn't care" and he understands IS's actions. Ahhhhh, so this is all about defending the Muslim faith, is it? Nothing to do with his own violent tendencies and Mongrel Mob gang connections?? Or that he may have a poor-little-hard-done-by maori-underdog axe to grind against the oppressive colonial white pigdog NZ govt.???
Federation of Islamic Associations (FIANZ) met last week with the govt.over public harassment concerns, while police asked community leaders to keep an eye out for changing behaviour among potential radicals.
Kireka-Whaanga says PM John Key should be worried, because IS was going to "bring down Western civilisation". He says his family wants to move to Syria but he expects his passport would be cancelled.
Key is due to make a speech tomorrow, outlining the govt's plans to combat foreign fighters.
Security Intelligence Service director Rebecca Kitteridge says IS urgings, that "every Muslim should find a crusader and kill him", brings the threat closer to home than NZers think: "There're people we're concerned about here..." She refused to discuss individuals, but these are not empty words. Any civil libertarian wanting to argue the toss need only recall Daryl Jones from Christchurch (aka Muslim bin John), killed by a drone in Yemen in November 2013.
One of the few recognised terrorist experts in this region - Dr Rohan Gunaratna, Head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research - said in 2005 that there were up to 10 potential cells here in NZ. That number is sure to have increased in light of current global events.
FIANZ vice-prez Jahved Khan says Kireka-Whaanga is well-known to them but he doesn't believe NZ has anything to fear: "We are concerned about his statements but we're not really concerned that he will do something vicious."
Ironically, on the same day this story broke, the headlines read:
IS Militants kill 322 Iraqis, including women and children, and dump their bodies down a well.
So we have nothing to fear from IS? Riiiiigghhtt!

Finding ANZAC Family Members

A website featuring the service records of every New Zealand and Australian soldier who served in World War I launches today.
In this, the 100th.year since the beginning of World War I, the joint

Kiwis in Gallipoli trenches, WWI

project of Archives New Zealand and the National Archives of Australia will feature digitised service dossiers, photographs and other records.
The Discovering Anzacs website will also feature records from the Boer War, and others behind the scenes including munition workers, internees and merchant sailors.
The website will be launched at a ceremony in Canberra.
You can access this treasure trove of ANZAC military history at: http://mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au.

Denmark Breaks EU Rules In Faroe Islands

Fourteen Sea Shepherd activists have been detained, while trying to stop a whale hunt on the Faroes island of Sandoy.

Prisoners of WAR???

They were held last Saturday when attempting to save a pod of 33 pilot whales, as the mammals were driven to shore to be killed by waiting hunting parties.
The detainees included six SS shore crew, and eight who were on three small boats near the island (one who'd been violently assaulted in the Faroes just days before).
A Danish Navy vessel ordered the three boats back and later seized them. Despite being a member of the EU and subject to laws prohibiting the slaughter of cetaceans, Denmark has officially shown its support of — and now direct collaboration with — the Faroese whalers, by sending the Danish Navy to defend the whale slaughter alongside Faroese police. Danish Armed Forces' Arctic Command says it's standard procedure for the Danish Navy to assist the Faroese police in its work. Faroese police would not comment.

"Off with their heads!"

After the arrests, the hunt went ahead and all 33 pilot whales were killed...
...just two days prior, five bottlenose whales stranded on the island of Suduroy, on the killing beach of Hvalba. The population of these rather rare Northern bottlenose whales is believed to be no more than 10,000. In most places around the world, cetaceans stranded in shallow waters are helped by compassionate humans and ushered back to sea. However, rather than attempting to rescue them, Faroese butchered the stranded whales while SS volunteers were blocked from approaching (Faroese regulations allow for the killing of beached bottlenose whales ONLY if they can't be rescued).

Fins from babies ripped from womb

A possible cause of the stranding is seismic testing. Currently, extensive testing is ongoing between the Shetland and Faroe Islands. Many species of marine mammals are vulnerable to the effects of such testing - beaked whales, of which the Northern bottlenose whale is one, are particularly susceptible.
Update: All fourteen SS crew have now been released from custody, with some court appearances due this week. The boat team will have their court day on 25 Sept. This later date allows the police to hold the three SS boats until the end of September.

Back In The Public Eye

Holiday snap: Kabul, 2010

Willie Apiata has stepped back from helping at-risk youth, and will soon be in the public spotlight again.
You'll recall New Zealand's only living Victoria Cross recipient left the Green Machine in July 2012, for a role at Papakura's 'High Wire' Charitable Trust (the trust has links with the armed forces, running an academy to help youth towards military careers).
Now Willie is being managed by experienced rugby player agent Warren Alcock of 'Essentially Group'. The international sport and entertainment marketing company's clients include All Blacks Richie McCaw and Dan Carter, and cricketer Dan Vettori.

Willie, honoured

An "Essential Speakers" section on it's website is launching this month... no info about Apiata yet.
Willie, as an SAS corporal, received the VC in 2007 for bravery under fire in Afghanistan. When he left the army, there were questions over why the military had not retained him as their recruitment "poster boy", given his high visibility.
He's made several public appearances recently, one being at Anzac Day commemorations at Auckland's War Memorial Museum. The same day, he addressed the Melbourne Storm before their clash with the Warriors (the NRL club is owned by a syndicate headed by a director of 'Essentially Group').
Let's hope Willie's looked after better than how the army did...

Extreme Uzbek Broadcasting!

All Uzbekistan's tv and radio stations have been ordered to rig their facilities to be blown up!
Broadcasters in the landlocked Central Asian country must place "self-destruct devices" on transmitter gear by 14 May so, if the station falls into hostile hands, all broadcasts

can be cut instantly.
You'll recall the recent captures of broadcasting stations in Ukraine by pro-Russian forces: this is perhaps the Uzbek way of pre-empting similar events.
Uzbekistan's National Security Service (SNB) is overseeing this last resort in censorship. It's also checking ventilation ducts in broadcast buildings: ducts and shafts leading toward studios must not be big enough for anyone to crawl through.
No more live programming either, not even news. At least two men from the Interior Ministry must be part of every station's staff. And only a handful of people would have access to a station's detonation device... hopefully no-one who's pissed off with the boss!
Journalists must submit in advance all questions they intend to ask at a press conference, for approval, and they can't travel abroad without SNB approval.
It's standard Uzbek practice that everyone entering a station is checked and their documents scrutinised, sometimes more than once. There's also a list of topics, some going back years, that are not to be mentioned, and guests are reminded of these taboo subjects continually from the time they enter the station until their programme starts.
All this to safeguard the Uzbek version of "freedom of the press"!