Rescue 15 service decentralised

ISLAMABAD: The Rescue 15 police unit will be decentralised and its work force will be put at the disposal of operations police.

Personnel and vehicles of Rescue 15 will be reallocated under the direct command of respective Superintendents of Police (SP) in the city’s four zones.

They will continue to respond to emergencies and will have more authority to take action. The decision was taken in a meeting between SPs and Senior Superintendent of Police Tahir Alam Khan on Saturday.

“The helpline and other facilities previously associated with Rescue 15 will continue to function the same way,” said Altaf Aziz Khattak, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Security).

“The falcons, vehicles and personnel will be allocated to police stations according to their needs,” he added.

“The idea was to make up for the lack of force and resources. Now the dedicated vehicles of Rescue 15 police will also be available for regular operations like special checking, enhanced patrolling and checking crimes,” said a police official.

At present, Rescue 15 is a separate unit of police responding only to emergency calls. It has a separate officer in-charge holding the rank of SP.

However, they could not register cases or proceed against any suspect found responsible for creating an emergency. They had to rely on duty officers from the respective police stations for further action after providing emergency assistance.

“The process was time consuming and more force and vehicles of police were utilised in the previous procedure,” said Khattak.

“Now the same officer will have authority to take action and act as the officer on duty,” he added.

Police said the decentralization of Rescue 15 police will not only reduce the existing disconnect between the officers of the four zones of Islamabad Capital Territory but will also reduce the response time.

The emergency calls for help will be received in the same way as before but they will be directed to the police station of the area concerned, where the respective supervisor will inform and move the Rescue 15 falcons to reach at the trouble spot.

All fourteen police stations of the city would forward their requirements and needs to the Deputy Superintendent of Police Security’s office after which the Rescue 15 force will be deputed at the police stations as needed.

Taliban in Talks with Hamid Karzai Govt

The Taliban and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai have begun high-level talks over a negotiated end to the war in the country, the Washington Post said.

Citing unnamed Afghan and Arab sources, the paper said the talks are believed, for the first time, to involve representatives authorized by the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban group based in Pakistan, and Taliban leader Mohammad Omar.

“They are very, very serious about finding a way out,” a source close to the talks told the paper, referring to the Taliban.

Omar and other Taliban leaders on both sides of the border have insisted for years that no peace talks were possible before foreign fighters had left Afghanistan.

But sources said that the leadership knows “that they are going to be sidelined,” and was negotiating to ensure their positions were protected.

“They know that more radical elements are being promoted within their rank and file,” the source said.

“All these things are making them absolutely sure that, regardless of their success in the war, they are not in a winning position.”

The negotiations involve agreements to allow Taliban leaders positions in the Afghan government and the withdrawal of US and NATO forces, the newspaper said.

But the talks are believed to exclude representatives of the Haqqani group, which the Post said was the target of recently escalated US drone attacks.

US General David Petraeus, the commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, said last week that the Taliban was approaching the Afghan government and foreign forces with “overtures” about quitting the fight.

Afghan Govt holding talks with Taliban: report

Afghan government has begun high-level talks with the Taliban over a negotiated end to the war in the country, the Washington Post said.
Citing unnamed Afghan and Arab sources, the Post said the talks are believed, for the first time, to involve representatives authorised by the so-called Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban group allegedly based in Pakistan, and Taliban leader Mohammad Omar.
They are very, very serious about finding a way out, a source close to the talks told the Post, referring to the Taliban. Omar and other Taliban leaders on both sides of the border have insisted for years that no peace talks were possible before foreign fighters had left Afghanistan. But sources told the Post that the leadership knows that they are going to be sidelined, and was negotiating to ensure their positions were protected.
They know that more radical elements are being promoted within their rank and file, the source said. All these things are making them absolutely sure that, regardless of their success in the war, they are not in a winning position. The negotiations involve agreements to allow Taliban leaders positions in the Afghan government and the withdrawal of US and Nato forces, the newspaper said.
But the talks are believed to exclude representatives of the Haqqani group, which the Post said was the target of recently escalated US drone attacks. US General David Petraeus, the commander of Nato troops in Afghanistan, said last week that the Taliban was approaching the Afghan government and foreign forces with overtures about quitting the fight. There have already been 20 or so overtures from small groups around the country, he told the reporters, referring to a program aimed at reintegrating mid-level Taliban commanders and grassroots fighters back into Afghan society. A Taliban spokesman dismissed Petraeus’s comments as completely baseless, however, saying the insurgents would not negotiate with foreign invaders or their puppet government. Petraeus also said Nato supported efforts by Karzai to open peace talks with the Taliban leadership, and in some cases had helped the process along.
President Karzai has established very clear red lines for it, and in this case we support what it is the Afghan government is doing, and in some occasions facilitated as well, Petraeus said in the interview with the Post. But European officials told the Post that US representatives had been lukewarm to the idea of negotiations until this summer, fearing the US domestic repercussions of talking to the Taliban. That changed this summer, European sources said, when escalated combat in Afghanistan produced disappointing results and US public opposition to the war ramped up.

Nation won’t tolerate any ultra-constitutional change: Kaira

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira on Thursday said that the network of terrorist organizations has been smashed in the country adding that we have to join hands to fight collectively against such elements.

Talking to media persons here at the Parliament House, he said that it is not a time to indulge in blame game but is a time to create unity among our rank and file and to fight the mindset which wants to destabilize the country. “The Punjab government should not be blamed for Lahore tragedy. No one is safe from them and the terrorists attack whenever they find any opportunity,” he observed.

The minister said the government operation against the terrorists in Swat, Malakand and tribal areas remained successful and the whole network of terrorist organizations has been broken. The whole nation including security forces, media and the civil society played key role in eradicating the menace of terrorism from Swat and Malakand division, he said.

The security forces remained successful in the operation against the terrorists in Malakand division and it was the results of consensus which was built against such elements, he added. The Minister said that some splinter elements belonging to smashed terrorists groups are acting in desperation but the government would not allow them to play with lives of innocent people.

Replying to a question, Kaira said that it was not made public that how many people were arrested in connection with terrorism on the basis of intelligence. “Wherever we deem necessary, we will take action and we need no dictation from any quarter,” he added.

In response to another question, he said that democracy has been restored after long struggle and the nation would not tolerate any ultra-constitutional change in the system.

The National Assembly session was convened to discuss relief and rehabilitation of flood victims but it has been adjourned for one day owing to the death of Minister for Local Government AbdulRazzaq Thahim and now the matter would be discussed on Friday.

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor latest updates :- PEARL HARBOR, —A noise awoke George Steckbeck on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, but he wasn’t sure what it was.

A private in the Army Air Corps, Steckbeck lay in his bunk at Hickam Field, which is adjacent to Pearl Harbor, on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu for a few moments.

He then noticed several guys looking out a window and smoke billowing in the background, so he got up to see what was going on. As he looked out the second-floor window that overlooked Pearl Harbor, he saw an oil tank burning, and then a battleship that was moored in the harbor blew up.

“I was just trying to figure out what was going on when this battleship blew up, and here comes a torpedo plane right in front of me,” said Steckbeck, a 1939 graduate of Lebanon High School. “In fact, the guy looked over and I don’t know what it was, but he either saluted or waved to me. I looked and, holy crimes, it had the rising sun on it, and when I saw that, I knew right away what it was.”

Realizing they were under attack, Steckbeck and his fellow airmen ran out of the barracks but were met with Japanese planes strafing them with machine-gun fire. He made his way to a hangar, where he tried to get machine guns from the armament shop to fire at the attacking Japanese planes.

He was able to get a pair of .45-caliber pistols and some bullets but no machine guns because they were locked up. While he was in the armament shop, a bomb hit nearby and knocked him into a wall, causing his nose to start bleeding.

Soon, the first wave of attacks was over, and after driving another soldier to the hospital, Steckbeck was standing around with some other soldiers when the second wave arrived. Steckbeck and the other soldiers jumped in a drainage ditch as the Japanese planes continued their attack on Pearl Harbor and Hickam.

“The whole gang of us ran out and jumped in this ditch, and that’s when they hit the barracks and the guardhouse,” he said. “We had no kind of shelter there at all.

“It didn’t last long,” he continued. “They were everywhere, coming from all directions. I was there shooting at them with a .45 pistol. Of course I didn’t hit anything, but at least I felt better shooting at them than just standing there watching.”

In all, six military sites on Oahu were attacked that day, and 2,390 Americans were killed. More than 320 aircraft were destroyed or damaged, and 21 vessels were sunk or damaged. On Hickam, 189 people were killed and 303 wounded.

It was feared that a Japanese ground invasion would follow, so that night Steckbeck was assigned to a .50 cal. machine gun along the base’s perimeter.

“That night, it got cold, and it was raining like a bugger,” he said. “I was half froze till they relieved me.”

The next day, he flew an air mission to bomb a Japanese submarine that had been spotted just off the east side of the island.

“We dropped two, and then we circled and we dropped two more,” he said. “We saw an oil slick, and then a Navy plane dropped some, and they must of hit it too, because then debris started to come up. It was officially listed as destroyed.”

Later in the war, Steckbeck participated in the Battle of Midway and the Guadalcanal Campaign. In all, he flew in 57 combat missions during the war.

Steckbeck was discharged from the Army in May 1945, but re-enlisted about a year later. In all, he served 12 years and was discharged with the rank of tech sergeant, after the Air Corps had become the Air Force.

After his military service, he worked as a printer for 23 years at Sowers Printing at 10th and Scull streets in Lebanon before retiring.

Steckbeck married his wife, Gloria, who was his next-door neighbor when he was a kid, in January 1944. She died in 2002. They had a daughter, who died in 2004, and four grandchildren.

Steckbeck, now 87, lives in an apartment at Bethel Point at Hill Farm Estate, a retirement community in North Annville Township.

Even today, 68 years later, he said he can remember the attack on Pearl Harbor like happened yesterday.

“I remember the attack real good,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like it was long ago at all.”  Courtesy  www.ldnews.com

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Pearl Harbor was first posted on December 7, 2009 at 11:14 am.

Lynndie England

Lynndie England, Public Face of the Abu Ghraib scandal, Lynndie England’s lecture cancelled at Library of Congress on Friday as staff’s safety was on the stake, after threats. Lynndie England was to discuss her biography as part of Veteran’s Forum on Capitol Hill.

It was David Moor, also a War Veteran (Vietnam) who had organized the event and invited the former Army Reservist Lynndie England. The German Acquisitions Specialist at the Library of Congress David Moor informed the library’s Inspector General as well as police that he received countless threat, violence and protest e-mails against the lecture. It is reported that members of the Library of Congress Professional Association, the employee group was informed by an e-mail from President Angela Kinney that said the lecture was cancelled on account of staff safety concerns. Overall, the decision of cancellation of the lecture was a good decision, most of the members said.

The book under review was by an author namely Gary S. Winkler and it is called “Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs That Shocked the World.” There have been various articles and mails all over the web and media, criticizing Lynndie, who served in Iraq under the rank of ‘Specialist’ and was found guilty of inflicting Sexual, Physical and Psychological abuse on helpless Iraqi prisoners.

The abuse included Torture, Rape, Sodomy, Homicide of Prisoners etc. This abuse and horrifying activities just rocked the world when leaked and worst of all the issues was the involvement of 372nd Military Police Company of the US Army. As reinforcement, they had the services of additional US Government Agencies as well at Abu Ghraib (Baghdad Correctional Facility).

Finally she was convicted in 2005 by the Army courts-martial along with 11 other military personnel. Now she is raising a young son in West Virginia.