WHEN LEAD IS WORTH MORE THAN GOLD

On Wednesday, November 18, 2009, Federal Way’s Emergency Management Coordinator Ray Gross presented a seminar entitled at City Hall “LONG TERM DISASTER SURVIVAL; BEYOND THE FIRST 72 HOURS”. There are several varieties of catastrophic events that most us would never contemplate.

The governmental infrastructure, including police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel will be overwhelmed during catastrophic events. It could take a week for help to arrive- or much longer! Keep in mind that historically social breakdown is never far away.

Life will go on after a catastrophe. You will have to pay your mortgage. Attorneys, government officials and insurance companies will ask for copies of legal records. You will need doccumentation to claim your home and to work and keep your loved ones out of the government system. Stay in control of your family’s physical needs, including food, water, shelter and protection.

You can barter food and water. Ammunition will be in demand and outdoor clothing, tents, generators, firewood and seeds are goods that you and your neighbors will need. Make sure to have a tarp to seal any holes in your roof. The tarp will also work well for making a temporary shelter if you need to camp out.

You need a long term supply of food, water, medicine, clothing and tools and a kit kept ready in your vehicle in order to leave quickly. First-aid supplies will be important and you should anticipate the possibility that you will have bodies of loved ones about you without any normal means of dealing with the bodies.

Grief, injuries, aggressive animals and unemployment are all exacerbated when there is a lack of community. Many of us barely know our neighbors! How will your neighbors react if they see you eating well during a time when their larders are bare? The time to create a unified community is now and one place to start doing it is in the churches.

Pastors and church leaders in Federal Way should organize with other churches and emergency response officials for emergencies. Community-minded people (especially men and women of faith) will keep up morale better than those that only care for themselves. You should make plans to secure your home and neighborhood. During a time of social breakdown, you may choose not to fight and run from your home but may never be able to return.

Most government emergency materials contain lists of all the things you should have in an emergency- extra water, flashlights, batteries, water filters, whistles, bandages and aspirin, to name a few. Gross, a former Marine, asks whether you will know how to handle a weapon if you choose to exercise your Second Amendment rights.

You need to be realistic as to your capacity to react to violence with deadly force. You can only be a neighbor with arms outstretched to share light, food and warmth with your neighbors if you are also prepared to resist those that would take by force.

Think about issues like hygiene, garbage disposal and first-aid. Talk to your neighbors and assess their strengths and weaknesses. Encourage them to engage in planning now. Obtain a Concealed Pistol License, get some professional firearms training. Stock up on extra ammunition. You can never have enough bullets when lead is worth more than gold!

One Sunday in October, we met in Normandy Park to discuss ways to make the public aware of why Mayor Nickels is acting against the interests of the people of Seattle with his illegal edict against guns in parks and other public places. Rather than take the legislative route or seek an AGO opinion, many of those that have contacted me are conviced that legislative battles are hopeless and may just create legislative history that could backfire when we get into the courts.

After the meeting in October, SAF filed suit on behalf of several Plaintiffs impacted by the Mayor’s decree, a Kent attorney, Bob Warden, announced to the news media that he would appear armed at a Seattle community center in order to protest the ban. On Saturday at twelve noon, November 14th, Mr. Warden and another armed advocate arrived. The news cameras filmed Warden’s entry and an employee politely demanding that they leave, telling them they could return unarmed. The two men promptly left the premises.

Warden’s press release stating that he would be attempting to enter the community center dismayed some gun activists while others favored such action all along.

Mike Cheney, leader of the Seattle Second Amendment Group, and others from open-carry circles, had scheduled the October meeting in order for all us to seek consensus on how to proceed against Mayor Nickles’ illegal gun bans. Mike stated:

“I believe it is good to get together and discuss strategy and attack this thing as an informed and unified group. I have received very positive response to this concept and believe we can win this and further advance the rights along with the image of all gun owners.”

Everyone involved agrees with Cheney that this wasn’t just an Open Carry event “but impacts us all!” Two local television news broadcasters were there with cameras. And the owner of Dino’s welcomes gun owners. Open Carry or concealed carry is welcome at Dino’s. Great food and the media personnel certainly must have been impressed with the caliber of folks represented at the meeting, thirty or forty openly armed, well-dressed citizens at a very nice family restaurant.

The discussion was very pro-law enforcement and the consensus seemed to be that we should avoid anything that might put the Seattle Police Department in between honoring our Washington state firearms preemption law and obeying a chain of command that answers to the Mayor. Openly armed protests or parades in the streets are not feasible because the City will not issue a permit without language banning firearms. In the case of parades, such language may pass legal muster in view of the express provision in our Washington State Constitution that there is no right to maintain an armed body of men:

Section 24 - Right to Bear Arms

The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this Section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men.

We discussed legal action about to be filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and whether there would be a Temporary Restraining Order to keep Mayor Nickles from prohibiting citizens from exercising our rights and responsibilities under Section 24 above. Someone suggested an “empty holster” protest in order to provide grassroots support for the SAF’s imminent legal action. As folks that appreciate our friends within the Seattle Police Department (of which there are apparently many), the suggestion made sense that we set information tables and distribute information explaining why we carry weapons and how armed citizens help deter crime.

Another idea was to conduct an information campaign in the Mayor’s neighborhood. Openly carrying in the Mayor’s neioghborhood could be construed as an attempt to intimidate the Mayor and could also send the wrong message to the media, the public and the judges. One Seattle area activist reminded us that judges talk among themselves and that anything that telegraphs the wrong message to the judges is not a good strategy.

There were several present that have ideas for how to include the SPD. Winning the support of LEOs is just as important as our image with judges. Thus, anything that looks we are daring law enforcement to disarm us is out of the question. Several of those at the meeting indicated that they will be following up with the police guild and others within law enforcement circles.

One idea that was particularly well received is to work with the Marines in their food and toy drives, Another suggestion that made some sense is to pick up trash on the freeway where passing motorists can get used to seeing our holstered weapons and appreciate our commitment to our communities.

The idea on which we settled is to go to a location such as Westlake Center and hand out informational brochures. Open-carry practices are well understood by the Seattle Police and it is unlikely that anyone will be stopped downtown. Even though Westlake contains a city park it is also an area traversed by the general public where leafleting is commonplace; the likelihood of any arrests for open-carry is very minimal.

Rather than protest or demonstrate, we will have signs that urge the public to “Ask Me Why I Am Carrying a Gun“. Thus, most of the communication will be one on one and there is no likelihood of anyone passing by feeling threatened in any manner.

I went to the meeting wondering what the open-carry folks would be like. I have previously only had the pleasure of meeting a few open-carry practitioners. I saw some very well crafted hardware (mostly in black Kydex holsters worn outside the belt) and came away with a very positive appreciation for everyone that attended and encourage anyone interested to get involved. Everyone was extremely professional. Many good things could result from the meeting on Sunday, including more groups like the Seattle Second Amendment Group. If anyone in the Federal Way area is interested let us know.

This week, Seattle got an up-close opportunity to study a unique breed of terrorist in the person of Christopher John Monfort. Monfort allegedly assassinated a Seattle police officer on Halloween night while conducting on-the-job training with another officer as the officers sat in a patrol car discussing a traffic stop that occurred right before the shooting.

A tip from the suspect’s neighbor led the Seattle police to stake-out a vehicle matching the suspect’s Datsun 210. When Monfort came out of his apartment, officers approached Monforth to question him and the suspect fled. Monfort allegedly pointed a pistol at pursuing officers but the pistol failed to fire. With officers still in pursuit, Monfort turned and pointed the pistol at them again and the officers shot him.

Almost immediately, Seattle Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel called Monfort a “domestic terrorist.” According to Pugel as reported in the Seattle Times, a search of Monfort’s apartment produced “bomb-making materials, improvised explosive devices and two rifles, including a “military-style assault rifle” similar to the type of weapon police believe was used to fire at Brenton, 39, and Sweeney, 33. Additional bomb-making materials were found inside a storage shed attached to his patio.”

Additional evidence includes:

Investigators have linked Monfort to a firebombing at a Seattle Police Department maintenance yard Oct. 22. A small American flag was left behind at the South Seattle facility and near Brenton and Sweeney’s police cruiser — an apparent calling card from the suspect, investigators said.

Inside Monfort’s apartment, detectives found news clippings about the maintenance-yard destruction. They also found a manifesto protesting police brutality and the videotaped jail-cell beating of a 15-year-old girl by a King County sheriff’s deputy last year in SeaTac. A one-page note was found at the maintenance yard, lambasting the SeaTac beating and threatening police deaths if the violence didn’t stop.

Monfort, who survived the confrontation with the Seattle PD, works with youth, sought a career in law enforcement and wrote a dissertation on jury nullification- i.e., he advocated educating jury pools to disregard judges’ instructions about the law and acquit defendants in cases where a defendant may be rectifying injustices (like police brutality) in the criminal justice system.

Monfort may be a “lone wolf” terrorist. According to Fred Burton and Scott Stewart, forecasters for Stratfor Global Intelligence, many people “in law enforcement and intelligence circles misuse (the term Lone Wolf) or use it imprecisely.” A lone wolf is a person who acts without a direct connection to a terrorist organization. The lack of a direct connection to a so-called “sleeper cell” or any other organization provides “superior operational security”.

For example, it also became apparent over the last week that Islamicist web sites helped to radicalize Major Hasan, the Palestinian-American soldier-psychiatrist that allegedly committed the premeditated murder of 13 fellow soldiers inside Fort Hood.

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra R-Mich, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN on Monday that U.S. intelligence agencies denied him the information he requested over the weekend pertaining to Major Hasan.

Nevertheless, the media is getting some of the same information denied to the Intelligence Committee! It appears, at any rate, like there is an aspect to the story about which the public is in the dark. Rep. Hoekstra also referenced the internet training sites which provide direction to individuals like Hasan that otherwise have no apparent affiliation with terror operations. So much contradictory information has come out rleated to the Fort Hood shootings that there seem to be aspects of the case that are being covered up.

Websites that provide information on how to conduct terrorist attacks include Al Qaeda affiliated magazines, such as Maaskar al-Battar (Al-Battar Training Camp). Produced by al Qaeda’s Saudi affiliate, the sites provide guidance and training on surveillance, selection of targets — and even how to operate weapons.

Up until lately, few terrorist attacks have been perpetrated by lone-wolf operatives. The usual profile of an “active shooter” is not the politically motivated lone-wolf. Individuals like Hasan- acting out of demonstrated political motivation- are not easy to identify for a number of reasons. According to Burton and Stewart, “a lone wolf is a standalone operative who by his very nature is embedded in the targeted society and is capable of self-activation at any time.” The nature of the “lone wolf terrorist”, by definition, is that he does not receive instructions from others. Thus, when such terrorists conduct operations, the media and political authorities are reluctant to identify such activities as terrorism because of the lack of organizational ties.

Another important manner in which many terrorists have been hidden beneath the radar of public perception, is that the motivating factors for many of the perpetrators of such violence are either in harmony with the public policy goals of the “mainstream” academic, media and political world or recognizing the perpetrators of such crimes as terrorism offends the ongoing elitist diversity agenda. One example is that of the New Black Panthers that stood outside a polling place in Philadelphia.

Sgt. Asan Akbar, a Muslim American soldier with the 326th Engineer Battalion who threw hand grenades and aimed his M-4 automatic rifle into tents filled with sleeping commanding officers at the 101st Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade operations center in Kuwait.

On March 3, 2006 at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, an Iranian student named Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, 22, drove a sport utility vehicle into a crowded pedestrian zone. He struck nine people but, fortunately, none were severely injured. Daniel Pipes suggests that the just-graduated student’s post-arrest remarks offer some clues. He even told interviewers that his primary motive for obtaining a degree was to commit an act of jihad and demonstrate to the world that he was not mentally ill and that Muslims can obtain a prestigious education. Nevertheless, his lack of known organizational ties prevented the incident from receiving much attention outside of Chapel Hill and it was not reported as a terrorist event.

There is not enough space or time to cover all the instances of such lone wolf attacks but there was an attack on pedestrians (in which an SUV was also utilized) that ended at a Jewish community center in San Francisco:

-The man called himself a terrorist.

-He is a Muslim.

-The driver struck pedestrians at full speed in a dozen locations.

-The final location, with 2 victims, was a Jewish Community Center.

-Intercepted Jihad documents have stated the intent to kill US pedestrians with SUVs.

-The man had recently been in Afghanistan.

-Consistent with previous jihadi attacks, the driver was reportedly calm with an angry look during the attacks, made eye contact with his victims and was unruffled afterwards.

And in Seattle in 2006, an armed Islamic man attacked the headquarters of the Jewish Federation. He stated that he was upset about Israel’s incursion into Lebanon and he has alleged via his attorneys that he was mentally ill.

In most of the incidents discussed above, the media and governmental authorities either played down the terrorist aspect of the stories, virtually ignored the Islamic connection and/or virtually failed to report the story. Although much of the information reported above is difficult to find, it is nevertheless finally recognized that one cop-killer in Seattle, Montfort, is a domestic terrorist. Why not Major Hasan? The Islamic affiliation is the only discernible difference.

The Seattle Police Department and the local news media have done an excellent job in identifying Montfort for what he is. Such individuals would be wolves that are easy to see if it were not for the liberal forests in which such radicals are found hiding.

Based on information from an article in the ABA Journal by G. M. Filisko, a lawyer and freelance journalist in Chicago.

Online social networks are creating true believers. According to a recent ABA Journal article, lawyers are utilizing a number of these sites to generate new clients. But as you consider what is happening among professionals, keep in mind that political action groups as diverse as the NRA and the Obama campaign have moved up the network learning curve much faster than most legal professionals.

“MySpace was really the first. It’s for the younger crowd, but it’s OK,” says the associate at Bochetto & Lentz in Philadelphia. “Friendster is pretty much dead in the water. LinkedIn and Face­book are the two most popular, and Facebook is unbelievable. It has many of my attorney colleagues and high school and undergraduate friends. It’s an amazing way to connect with people from my past.”

According to the ABA article, some lawyers are constantly working the sites to build more contacts in the quest for new business. But be careful. Cyber-terrorists use these social mash-ups to identify valuable targets, including military and corporate personnel. That may be you and your family, Counselor. They also seem to be using networks like Twitter to surveil and plan events like the recent small arms attack on Mumbai.

“My LinkedIn connections are probably near 1,000,” one lawyer boasts in the article, “and I have about 965 friends on Facebook.”

“Are social networks worth it? How much time, effort and money must be spent to maximize their potential? And what is the reward? In the end, the answers vary de­­pending on what you do online, how you do it and why.”

According to the ABA’s annual Legal Technology Survey Report, only 15 percent of respondents say they’ve joined such a network.

“I have absolutely no interest in people I don’t know saying they want to be my friend,” jokes Gary Griffin, chief, General Law Bureau, Illinois Attorney General’s Office. “It’s not like I haven’t looked at these sites, but the fact that Kelly from Arkansas wants to be my friend —what do I care?”

The recent attack in Mumbai brought the citizen journalist to the forefront as people trapped during the mass executions sent reports to the outside world via Twitter. We are already asking via our powerful online shooter’s network how things might have developed differently if the one or two of the photographers that followed the Mumbai shooter teams had guns instead of the cameras with which they took pictures at various locations. At least one photographer followed a team closely:

“Sebastian D’Souza, a picture editor at the Mumbai Mirror, whose offices are just opposite the city’s Chhatrapati Shivaji station, heard the gunfire erupt and ran towards the terminus. “I ran into the first carriage of one of the trains on the platform to try and get a shot but couldn’t get a good angle, so I moved to the second carriage and waited for the gunmen to walk by,” he said. “They were shooting from waist height and fired at anything that moved. I briefly had time to take a couple of frames using a telephoto lens. I think they saw me taking photographs but they didn’t seem to care.”

The gunmen were terrifyingly professional, making sure at least one of them was able to fire their rifle while the other reloaded. By the time he managed to capture the killer on camera, Mr D’Souza had already seen two gunmen calmly stroll across the station concourse shooting both civilians and policemen, many of whom, he said, were armed but did not fire back. “I first saw the gunmen outside the station,” Mr D’Souza said. “With their rucksacks and Western clothes they looked like backpackers, not terrorists, but they were very heavily armed and clearly knew how to use their rifles.

“Towards the station entrance, there are a number of bookshops and one of the bookstore owners was trying to close his shop,” he recalled. “The gunmen opened fire and the shopkeeper fell down.”

But what angered Mr D’Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. “There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything,” he said. “At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, ‘Shoot them, they’re sitting ducks!’ but they just didn’t shoot back.”

As the gunmen fired at policemen taking cover across the street, Mr D’Souza realised a train was pulling into the station unaware of the horror within. “I couldn’t believe it. We rushed to the platform and told everyone to head towards the back of the station. Those who were older and couldn’t run, we told them to stay put.”

The militants returned inside the station and headed towards a rear exit towards Chowpatty Beach. Mr D’Souza added: “I told some policemen the gunmen had moved towards the rear of the station but they refused to follow them. What is the point if having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them? I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera.”

Remember how Corporal Alvin C. York used his .45 caliber pistol? He shot the last German in the line and with so much shooting and confusion going on the Germans in front never realized that one man was picking them off in a “turkey-shoot", of sorts:

“York used a hunting skill he learned when faced with a flock of turkeys. He knew that if the first soldier was shot, those behind would take cover. To prevent that, he fired his M1911 Colt .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, targeting the men from the back to the front. The last German he shot was Endriss, who fell to the ground screaming in agony. York later wrote in his diary that he had shot five German soldiers and an officer like wild turkeys with his pistol.”

See Sergeant C. Alvin York.

Many of our Firearms Lawyer viewers have been networking via LinkedIn which provides an opportunity to research the qualifications of professionals with whom you may already may be in contact via online forums and/or shooting activities.

The author of the ABA article points out, “Many attorneys and other professionals made the same arguments about e-mail and websites just 15 years ago. Technology experts say the naysayers are wrong again.”

“At this point, you’ll find a lot of the usual suspects on all the sites, but the sites haven’t come to the point of having widespread application. That time will come, however, because interest in them is growing.”

But you can create a powerful space in which to transform the social environment one contact at a time or by reaching out to great numbers of people with the same ease with which you send e-mail.

In conclusion, for those of you like us that are wondering whether this new online social technology is worth the time and energy, keep in mind that online spaces are where society is being transformed and where we will be organizing in the future. Our enemies, competitors, friends and people that want to be friends and customers are using Twitter while the military is preparing to utilize similar technology to keep track of developments on the battlefield.

Hernan Cortes was a Spaniard that earned his reputation as a merciless, greedy religious fanatic. He began his career as a Conquistador when In 1519, at the age of 34, he lead an expedition to Mexico. He had 11 ships, 100 sailors, 508 soldiers, and 16 horses. These plus a few muskets, crossbows, pikes, and swords were the instruments with which Cortes defeated thousands of native warriors. The tale of how he conquered the Mexican Empire is only equaled by the depths of cruelty practiced by the sophisticated and cosmopolitan Aztecs.

In 1519 Montezuma was the head of the vast empire and the chief priest. He oversaw and participated in the thousands of human sacrifices to Huitzilopochtli the chief deity of the Mexican people (the term Mexican now identifies a citizen of Mexico but the “Aztecs” were distinguished from hundreds of other tribes by the designation “Mexicas”. Montezuma lead a large, well organized army, the chief objective of which was to capture sacrificial victims in battle. The Aztecs also forced the subjugated nations under Aztec control to pay tribute in the form of humans for sacrifice.

“…the Aztecs claim to be descended from the Toltec nobility, and their gods- Huitzilopochtli in particular-are raised to the same level as the ancient creative gods Tezcadipoca, and Quetzalcoatl. But most important of all is the exalted praise given to what can only be called a mystical conception of warfare, dedicating the Aztec people, the “people of the sun,” to the conquest of all other nations. In part the motive was simply to extend the rule of Tenochtitlan, but the major purpose was to capture victims for sacrifice, because the source of all life, the sun, would die unless it were fed with human blood…”

The sacrifices included skinning children alive that had spent their whole life in cages being fattened for the tables of their captors. Every civilization has some cannibalism somewhere in its past but the extent to which the religious practice of human sacrifice was practiced in Tenochtitlan in 1519 (present day Mexico City) has never occurred before or since.

Keep in mind that Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities in the world (as many as 25 million people, according to some estimates) and one of the most developed cities in the western world, comparable to Constantinople in size and cultural achievements. Sacrifices accompanied by cannibalistic feasts and psychedelic drugs occurred almost every minute for weeks on end during certain religious seasons.

Cortes started with five hundred men, commandeered about 500 more and also had allies from neighboring tribes that wished to throw off the yoke of Aztec bondage. He landed at Cozumel Island off the coast of present day Yucatan, then continued North up the coast and made allies of Indian peoples who hated the Aztecs. Upon reaching present day Vera Cruz, he burned his ships so his men would not think about turning back and buried some of the timbers.

After reaching present day Mexico City and being given the keys to the city by the indecisive and vacillating Montezuma, Cortes kidnapped Montezuma and threatened to kill him if he did not follow Cortes’ wishes.

Montezuma was killed either by his own people or the Spanish. The Spanish were trapped in the island city after they had killed the upper echelon of the Aztec military during an Aztec display of dancing. It is difficult to know whether the Spanish killed the warriors because they sensed an attack was imminent or whether they were surrounded by warriors after the massacre of the Aztec soldiers:

” They ran in among the dancers, forcing their way to the place where the drums were played. They attacked the man who was drumming and cut off his arms. Then they cut off his head, and it rolled across the floor.

They attacked all the celebrants, stabbing them, spearing them, striking them with their swords. They attacked some of them from behind, and these fell instantly to the ground with their entrails hanging out. Others they beheaded: they cut off their heads, or split their heads to pieces.

They struck others in the shoulders, and their arms were torn from their bodies. They wounded some in the thigh and some in the calf. They slashed others in the abdomen, and their entrails all spilled to the ground. Some attempted to run away, but their intestines dragged as they ran; they seemed to tangle their feet in their own entrails. No matter how they tried to save themselves, they could find no escape.”

Cortes, absent to recruit more fighting men, fought his way back into the city while his men within the city fought to save their own lives. After reaching his men and helping to defend them within the city, Cortes and his men tried to sneak across the Tlacopan causeway at night. They were spotted and Aztecs in boats converged on the Spanish from across the water.

“La Noche Triste” or the Night of Tears is still celebrated in Mexico. When Cortes finally reached Tlaxcala five days after fleeing Tenochtitlan by way of the Tlacopan causeway, he had lost over 860 Spanish soldiers. Other sources estimate that nearly half of the Spanish and almost all of this native allies were killed or wounded. His eyes teared up but the first person about whom he inquired was the ship builder, Lopez. Already he was planning the next step in his plan to subjugate the Aztec civilization!

Cortez, however kept the core of his army intact and pushed on to achieve an amazing military victory that ranks along with the conquests of Alexander. The Aztecs army which may have numbered 300,000 failed because holding prisoners took up the Aztec force’s manpower and when they took Spanish prisoners the incurably religious Aztecs could not say “no” to a barbeque accompanied by the buzz from strong psychedelic mushrooms and the screams of their victims.

Thus, the superstitious Aztecs never followed up their victories, while Cortez never waivered from his purpose. It is difficult to say whether Cortes was motivated most by the revulsion he felt when witnessing the depravity of the Aztec’s perverted religious system or by his lust for power and gold. He was highly motivated to extract the beating heart of the Aztec culture.

Cortes and his men traveled about eight hundred miles back to Vera Cruz with sick and wounded men across volcanic plateaus and up to elevations near glacial peaks, then down to steaming rain forests. After hundreds of miles of difficult mountain travel, Cortez reached Vera Cruz and instructed the ship builder, who had survived the Night of Tears, to build thirteen ships from indigenous timeber and remnants of the ships that Cortez saved when he burned the fleet. Some pf the new ships were forty feet long. The armada was built, disassembled and then portaged back across the mountain passes to the shores of Lake Texcoco.

Now the urban combat was to begin in earnest as Cortes’ men launched a naval invasion across the lake, went into the city and fought street by street and house to house.

He had already engineered a system of alliances with surrounding tribes, many of which had been previously dominated by the Aztecs. The cadre of Spanish and their native allies soon subjugated and controlled the whole area, helping themselves to its wealth and enslaving the people. But within twenty years, the Spanish authorities responded to calls for reform from the church and the worst aspects of Spanish rule were ameliorated.

Why do many of us condemn the holocaust but feel sentimental romanticism for lost Aztec culture?

It is common to bemoan the lack of cultural sensitivity exhibited by Conquistadors like Cortes. It is problematic, however, to cast the Aztec civilization in the mantle of victimhood when beholding the image of a fattened child raised in an Aztec cage. Like the pagan civilizations destroyed by the ancient Israelites, practices such as slowly peeling off the skin of a living victim and then removing the beating heart before the victim’s eyes cried out to be stopped. Cortes and his men were an instrument that stopped the Aztec cultural stronghold from spreading its foul grip.

This is the challenge that President-elect Obama now faces. He has a war in Afghanistan on his hands that he has promised to prosecute and the battle space has already spread into Pakistan and Mumbai. Pakistan is teetering between elements in its government that are affiliated with Al Qaeda and the official Pakistani policy of working with the United States. During his campaign, Mr. Obama raised the issue of invading Pakistan, but it seems evident that there is no viable strategy by which a city or cities can be invaded and subjugated in a manner that destroys enthusiasm for jihad.

Destroying the morale of the extremists, of course was the Neo-Conservative rationale behind invading Iraq. The theory was that sufficient humiliation within the seat of the ancient Caliphate would make way for Democracy to replace Islamic totalitarianism.

This is a gun blog and not a blog for foreign policy wonks. Nevertheless, our U.S. intelligence and foreign agencies will investigate whether Pakistan intelligence really had a hand in the attack on Mumbai, as the Indian authorities are alleging. Then the new Secretary of State should submit the evidence with a list of names of the guilty Pakistani officials, if any. And demand that they be hung by their necks in front of the world- or we will come and get them.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

“For Pakistan’s fledgling civilian government, however, the more immediate concern may be its own uneasy dealings with the ISI, over which it has been trying to assert greater control. Until 2001, the spy agency was the chief patron of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a now-banned militant group created in the 1980s to foment unrest in Kashmir. Some analysts have said the carefully choreographed Mumbai attacks bore some of the group’s hallmarks, though no conclusive evidence has emerged.

“It’s very likely this group has an involvement at some level, but it’s difficult to characterize because of the murky nature of how they operate,” said Kamran Bokhari, an analyst at Stratfor, a private intelligence company.

In another break from the past, the Mumbai attacks generated a near-constant stream of high-level communication between the two countries. On Friday, Zardari reminded Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of his own wife’s assassination by suspected Islamic militants, appealing to the Indian leader not to let insurgents set the regional agenda.

“We should not fall into the militants’ trap,” he said.”

If the jihadists come to our public places with AK-47s, we the people will kill them. We will not let them gun down our children and wives. Our police officers will not go against them alone. We will not spend critical minutes waiting for a SWAT team to deploy.

We prefer the culture of gentle Christian warriors to a culture that buries young women alive as a form of “honor” killing and throws acid in their faces because they choose to get educated. This is not the time to wring our hands and discuss moral quandaries. Mumbai will be the future for America if we are indecisive as a nation. The Lone Wolf attack at Fort Hood is a harbinger of things to come.

Americans are strong and smart and ready to deal with our enemies ruthlessly. Our compassion and tolerance should not be mistaken for weakness.

See Heritage of Marksmanship.

Whatever you political persuasion or feelings about the occupations of the two nations of Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush demonstrated that it is a mistake to threaten and terrorize the people of the United States. History demonstrates the futility of attempting to occupy the Arabic homeland. But,ironically, the President-elect may have to become more like Cortes than President Bush to untie the knot that appears to exist in the government of Pakistan.

Does President-elect Obama have the iron resolve and singleness of purpose to face down America’s enemies, enemies that have set their faces to accomplish nothing less than to subjugate the West? If you think extremists are unrealistic fanatics, stop and read your history books again. The story of Cortes’ exploits should convince you that a few men can quickly accomplish the impossible if they are set in their purposes. Look at the American Revolution in which ragged colonists challenged the mightiest army and navy on earth.

In conclusion, though he may be tempted to try, Mr. Obama, cannot solve the problem of terrorism by restricting our ability to defend ourselves with armed force against such attacks. The face of Islamic extremism is the modern equivalent of Aztec bloodletting; i.e., the Face of Evil.

See video of testimony from Senate hearing related to mass shooting in Texas.

Sgt. Kimberly Denise Munley is a Killeen police officer who was close to Fort Hood on Thursday when she heard the police radio reporting the attack at the SRP. Sergeant Munley, 34, is also member of Killeen’s SWAT team. Although the City of Killeen contracts to provide police services on the base, she was following a procedure that has now become the accepted approach for officers arriving at an “active shooter” crime scene before the SWAT team; i.e., a crime-scene where a gunman is at large, killing as many people as he can. Munley deployed active shooter protocol.

Sgt. Kimberly Denise Munley drove directly to the scene of the carnage and identified the active shooter within three minutes after Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s first shots were reported. Hasan was chasing a wounded soldier. She walked up and engaged him because her training taught her that “if you act aggressively to take out a shooter you will have less fatalities.”

It often takes SWAT crews 30 minutes or more to arrive at a crime scene. In other shootings like the school shooting at Columbine, active shooters continued killing victims while patrol officers, trained to wait for SWAT, had to stand by out of the line of fire. At Columbine, a few officers that were on the scene at the outset returned fire with pistols. They probably saved some lives but were ineffective without the rifles that have since become almost standard for many patrol officers. With an average time of one victim shot every fifteen seconds, first-responders like the patrol officer that stopped an active shooter in a South Carolina nursing home are critical.

As she headed towards the shooter, Hasan charged towards Munley firing and striking her more than once as she went into a crouched or kneeling position. Her partner may have struck Hasan with gunfire but that remains unclear at this time.

What is clear is that Munley shot at Major Hasan while he returned fire. She ran or walked rapidly toward him, continuing to fire; both she and Hasan went down, each with multiple bullet wounds.

The original 911 call came in at 1:23 p.m., and five minutes later Sergeant Munley had already shot the gunman. According to the New York Times:

Sergeant Munley began her career as a police officer in the beachside town of Wrightsville, N.C., after graduating from high school in nearby Wilmington. She quickly earned a reputation for fearlessness, despite her stature….

Sergeant Munley was wounded in both thighs and her right wrist. Sergeant Munley has two children. She joined the police force in January 2008 after a career in the Army much of which she spent at Fort Hood. Her husband is Matthew Munley, a member of the Special Forces. Munley is an advanced firearms instructor for the civilian force that assists military police on the base. She developed a love of shooting and hunting when she was young.
The information herein is pieced together from articles in the Washington Post and New York Times.

There is little information so-far about Munley’s partner. At least one police officer was killed in the firefight. But Munley’s partner, Sgt. Mark Todd, apparently survived the shootout. Todd told CNN:

Todd, who had become separated from Munley, saw that she (Sgt. Munley) had been shot. Hasan was 15 yards from him, Todd told CNN, “standing there hiding behind a telephone pole waving his weapon, firing it at people.” Todd said Hasan saw him, calmly pointed and shot. Todd couldn’t see a weapon – only a muzzle flash –and fired back. Hasan, who by then had allegedly shot 100 rounds, fell.

This officer’s bravery amazes all of us. Nevertheless, most of us that are not police officers could have done what she did- if you and I have the right training and the equipment.

Thirteen are dead, 30 wounded after a shooting Thursday at a soldier-processing center at Fort Hood, Texas. Did the shooter target individuals that he knew? The shooter reportedly cried, “Allahu Akbar” as he commenced shooting.

It has been reported that he previously declared that Islamic people should rise up against those that are oppressing them in Iraq and Afghanistan. The shooter posted the following:

“There was a grenade thrown among a group of American soldiers. One of the soldiers, feeling that it was to late for everyone to flee jumped on the grave with the intention of saving his comrades. Indeed he saved them. He inentionally took his life (suicide) for a noble cause i.e. saving the lives of his soldier. To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause. Scholars have paralled this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers. If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory. Their intention is not to die because of some despair. The same can be said for the Kamikazees in Japan. They died (via crashing their planes into ships) to kill the enemies for the homeland. You can call them crazy i you want but their act was not one of suicide that is despised by Islam. So the scholars main point is that “IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOUR INTENTION IS THE MAIN ISSUE” and Allah (SWT) knows best.”

He apparently posted the comments above on the internet stating that suicide bombers are equivalent to soldiers that throw themselves on a hand grenade to shield their brothers in arms; i.e., heroic defenders of the peaceful Islamic way of life. Not surprisingly, he allegedly received a negative evaluation regarding his work at Walter Reed Hospital.

The terrorist killed and wounded more than forty people- the worst shooting on a U.S. Army base in U.S. history- and now it turns out that he is alive. Why is PTSD an issue when he was never close to combat until Thursday. He only opposed warfare because of his commitment to jihad? He wanted to get out of the military at one point but could not do so without repaying the U.S. taxpayers for his medical training.

The gunman is an officer in the U.S. Army and an Army psychiatrist. Despite reports that he converted to Islam, the shooter has always been Islamic, according to his cousin, a Jordanian-American who was interviewed on the news. Immediately after Maj. Malik Nidal Hasan’s name was announced to the world, experts began to ask the inevitable questions about whether the attacks were Lone Wolf terrorism, Mumbai-style tactical attacks or further evidence of so-called Sudden Jihad Syndrome. The fact that there were reports of more than one shooter at first raised questions about whether other attacks may have been about to materialize in places like Seattle or Fort Lewis. It has now been solidly determined by ballistic evidence that the shooter acted alone. There is no evidence that he was a member of an organized terror cell.

Army spokesman Lt. Gen. Bob Cone stated that two other soldiers were detained as suspects but have been released. The authorities are no doubt following up every rumor or thread of evidence.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was stopped by gunfire from a local police officer after he opened fire at about 1:30 p.m. CST at the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center. Soldiers get medical check-ups and have their wills drafted at the SRP before leaving for and arriving from overseas deployments.

Why was a local police officer the first one to effectively respond and why there is not more armed security on base? It turns out that the City of Killeen, Texas contracts with the Department of Defense to provide police protection on base and a female officer made the shot that stopped the killer. We should hear more about her- she deserves maximum kudos for heroic service to her country! The New York Times deserves a favorable mention for its story on Sgt. Kimberly Denise Munley. Incidentally, Killeen is the city in which 24 were killed by a shooter in Luby’s Cafeteria in 1991.

The shooter killed one civilian police officer, according to Cone.

Hasan was a psychiatrist who previously worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He recently was a psychiatrist at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, according to professional records. He was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan and was apparently upset about the deployment. He may have gotten into arguments with other personnel as a result of his outspoken support for Islamic extremism.

Investigators are looking into why he was recently promoted to the rank of major- despite complaints about anti-American, pro-Islamicist statements and religious proselytizing of his PTSD patients. Questions are being raised already in connection with how he previously lectured his colleagues regarding beheading of infidels and harangued co-workers about similar religious subjects.

On Sunday, Sen. Lieberman, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, called for Senate investigations into these reports and other disturbing allegations (such as that Hasan was sending messages to jihadist websites) and as to why the Army missed so many obvious signs that Hasan has been a radical Islamicist for some time.

The reports that he may have felt he was being discriminated against by his colleagues and received legal advice related to getting out of the Army a few years back raise the issue of why the Army did not just let him resign instead of recently promoting Hasan to the rank of major.

Ten of the deceased were soldiers and another was a civilian police officer who was working as a contractor on the base, Cone said.

The shooter had two handguns, commenced with the obligatory jihadi cry of “God is great!” in Arabic and fired as many as 45-50 rounds. Despite the many conflicting reports, the casualties began at 1:30 PM Central Time at the SRP.

“The local police response forces were there relatively quickly and killed the confirmed shooter,” Cone said (later it turned out Hasan is alive). Multiple reports persisted of shooting that occurred at more than one location within Fort Hood and the facility was still locked down at 5:00 PM Thursday.

One pistol was semi-automatic and the other a .357 revolver. It may take a few days, but I see an upcoming CNN story on the dangers of semi-automatic weapons. Have you ever seen how quickly some folks shoot and reload revolvers?

It is unfortunate that a few more military personnel with weapons (semi-automatic or otherwise) could not have been close-by to stop the massacre within Fort Hood. Fort Hood’s garrison commander explained that the base is reviewing its security procedures. An equally important concern expressed by General Casey, is to avoid a backlash against loyal Islamic soldiers. One theme coming through in some of the commentary is that Fort Hood is the Army’s home; of course soldiers would not be armed in their home. Interesting point of view!

Why do so many of the folks on television seem to have received the same talking points! Unfortunately the alleged shooter, like several other jihadists” that were planning to do the same thing at Fort Dix and various other military installations, didn’t get the memo about Fort Hood as a gun-free home in which for soldiers to rest secure- presumably off-limits for terrorists to attack?

When will the U.S. Government realize that we are in a war where every area is a danger zone? There have been many plans interrupted already in which military bases were targeted for tactical attacks by teams of shooters. Every soldier should be encouraged to obtain a Concealed Pistol License in the state where he lives (the federal government should again consider issuance of a universal concealed-carry permit- good in all states) and carry a weapon all the time- on and off base. It seems unlikely, however, that Congress or the Army will take such measures. Our prayers go out to the surviving victims and families of all service personnel, especially thise that are directly impacted.

See More Personnel Identified as Jihad Risks at Fort Hood.

http://markknapp.multiply.com/journal/item/419/More_Personnel_at_Fort_Hood_At-Risk_for_Jihad_Activities

If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength! Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it.

Proverbs 24:10-12

Clint Smith, the Director of Thunder Ranch, a firearms school in Oregon, says, “You have the rest of your life to solve your problems. How long you live depends on how well you do it.” Of course, not all problems are life-threatening; most problems that pose threats to life or property will never be solved with combat shooting skills. The question of whether you think you need such skills is akin to the question of whether you would have helped Noah build the ark- it all depends on your perception as to whether the water is likely to get as deep as Noah said it would.

I have had the good fortune to meet many armed citizens, local people that are just as well trained as the most proficient military and police professionals- but without arrest powers. Many lawyers and other professionals participate in competitions and other shooting events. In fact, folks from all walks of life are going to schools like the Firearms Academy of Seattle (near Centralia, Washington).

High quality triggernometry schools now exist in most regions of the United States. Providing classes on the legalities of armed self-defense and basic pistol skills, many of the schools offer a curriculum that includes tactics on par with SWAT training. If you doubt the need for such skills, you are likely to conclude that developing proficiency with any kind of weapon will constitute an expensive and time-consuming ego trip.

On the other hand, if you are an investigative journalist writing stories about organized crime, a judge sentencing dangerous felons to years in prison, or a soccer mom that drives the kids to practices, you may have reason to anticipate how dangerous the world can suddenly become. Once you invest the time and money into being prepared for the possibility of violence (many of us have a hard time even thinking about dealing with such a possibility), your outlook will gradually shift from a sheepish mentality toward the attitude of the sheepdogs; i.e., police and other security personnel.

Friends- even family- will call you paranoid, paradoxically suggesting that a perpetrator will “take the gun away and use it against you”! But training will give you the confidence to handle many situations like a professional.

The predators that are still on the loose after assassinating a police officer in Seattle this week will think nothing of killing you or your family. You don’t want to cross paths with any predators at the wrong time. The wrong time could be during the aftermath of a flood in the Green River area or another situation where law enforcement is too busy to respond.

If predatory violence becomes an imminent problem, how much time will you and your loved ones have to prepare? It does not normally take five minutes for the police to arrive in a city like Federal Way, Auburn or Kent. But you should not plan to obtain your training when seconds count and the police are just minutes away. How does the weather look lately?